"Twiiiiiiliiiiiiiight," moaned Rarity's ethreal Protoss voice for the hundredth time.

"WHAT?" Twilight grunted back. The two Protoss unicorn ponies were traveling through a moderately-densed and moderately-lush forest that stood between the Protoss camp and the Xel'Naga artifact. "We still have a long way to go, and we have to keep up the pace if we want to meet... whatever else is going to be there."

"How much further? I'm getting very tired, can we take another break?" Rarity complained, her form slouching behind Twilight. But before Twilight could respond, Rarity paused for a moment as a realization came to her. "Can you carry me?"

"No! I'm sure you're tired enough as it is but - "

"Please?"

"I can't just - "

"Pleeaase?"

"B-but - "

"Please, please, please, pleeaase!" Rarity begged, her form lying on the ground upside down and her eyes looking up at the very annoyed form of Twilight.

"I..."

Rarity pouted her lips.

"...Fine."

A few moments later, the regal-dressed Rarity was lying on the armoured-clad Twilight's back. Rarity was laying her head on Twilight's mane with her forehooves dangling off each side of Twilight's neck.

-----

"My little ponee~, my little pony," Pinkie Pie sang as she bounced beside her fully-armoured earth pony friend.

"Pinkie Pie, Ah appreciate your good will to singing but for the love of cinnamon swirls, please stop," said Applejack who was galloping as fast as her armoured hooves and body could take her. Despite the weight of the armour and her equipment, Applejack still kept a fairly quick pace which Pinkie Pie surprisingly could keep up with from her hopping.

"Oh lighten up, cowpony! I always like travelling, as it's the best time to indulge in some musical jams to keep you distracted from the fact that you're travelling long distances," the overly-pink mare said, still with a slight sing-song attribute to her voice.

"Can you sing without words, then?" Applejack said hopefully, still galloping at full speed.

"All the time! LA LALA, LALALA~" Pinkie Pie sang with an even louder voice than when she sung with lyrics.

"Ah was thinking more along the lines of, you know, quiet humming!" Applejack yelled, hopefully to get through the whipping winds and Pinkie Pie's excessive volume.

"Okie dokey lokey, HMM HMMM MMHMMMHMMM~" Pinkie Pie hummed, seemingly not any lower in volume than her previous try at lyric-less singing.

"Ah said QUIET humming, Pinks!"

"You're no fun," Pinkie Pie glared, quickly resuming her hums in a much quieter tone with her eyes closed in (seemingly endless) Pinkie-Pie enduced happiness. Despite the fact that her eyes were closed, she somehow kept up to pace with Applejack who began her ascent up a steepening hill.

"Ah think we're gittin' close, Pinkie Pie," Applejack noted, not caring if Pinkie Pie was listening or not.

After galloping (and hopping) for a few moments, the very top of the other-worldly Xel'Naga pillar came into view for the two mares as they cleared the last stretch of forest. The hill they were now ascending was the only clear space from forest for several miles in each direction; the Xel'Naga artifact sat on the very top which overlooked the whole valley. Eventually, on their ascent up the hill, the ground beneath their hooves steepend close to vertical, which forced Applejack to begin to actually climb instead of gallop. And to her surprise, Pinkie Pie still bounced beside her as if the steep hillside were still horizontal.

Finally, after a few moments of climbing (and, still, hopping), the two found themselves on even ground at the top of the hill, staring at the towering pillar of the Xel'Naga artifact. The main pillar seemed to stretch up to approximately thirty feet high, while large chunks of its "arms" levitated slowly around the pillar two-thirds its length up. Glowing runic carvings were on every surface including the floating fragments, giving off a very forboding hum that seemed to travel through the earth ponies. The structure was so strange, even Pinkie Pie stared with a gaping mouth.

"H-how do we activate it?" Applejack asked, hoping Pinkie Pie somehow broke the rules of logical sense and knew how to operate it.

"I dunno, maybe we should get a closer look?" the pink mare shrugged.

"Ehm, maybe you should go first - since you're Admiral, and all," Applejack remarked.

"Hey! I'm supposed to be ordering YOU around!" Pinkie Pie giggled. But before either mare could give another thought, they began to hear a scratching sound nearby. And, panting?

-----

"C'mon, Dash, we're almost there!" said Rainbow, climbing up the steep hillside beside her clone Zergling.

"Hey, I'M the faster one!" shot Dash, sticking one of her back-protruding mandibles into the dirt as she began to lift her other one.

"What- HEY! I'M the fastest flyer in all of Equestria!"

"We're not IN Equestria. Hah-hah."

"Well... I'm the fastest... Zergling? In all of, uh, whatever this... planet, is called!" The two cyan Zergling clones finally reached the top of the hill, climbing over the edge of the hillside as they continued to argue.

"HAH, I won!" said Dash.

"No, I won!" said Rainbow.

"No, I won!" said Pinkie Pie who was riding on Rainbow's back.

"What the?"

"Weeee! Ohmygosh, are you two Zerglings? You're a lot bigger than I thought you'd be - you look so tiny on the computer screen. Wait, why do you have rainbow coloured manes and why do you have the faces of Rainbow Dash? Ooh, why do you sound like Rainbow Dash? Why are there two of you!" Pinkie Pie babbled, now hugging the back of Rainbow.

"Pinkie Pie! Oh my, how glad are we to see you," said Dash, quickly realizing that Pinkie Pie was not a Zerg and was dressed in what looked like an Admiral's attire. To the side, Dash could see the armoured form of Applejack who had a look of confusion and disgust in her face.

"Rainbow Dash?" asked Applejack, furrowing her eyebrows. "Uh... Rainbow Dash's?"

"Uh... Applejack?" Dash asked back while Rainbow began trying to kick the air to get Pinkie Pie off her, who was desparately clinging to the neck of Dash.

"Oh mah..." Applejack stiffled a laugh, realizing what Rainbow Dash had become.

"Yeah, yeah, let it all out," Dash flat-panned, rolling her eyes.

"PFFAHAHAH, oh my goodness, RAINBOW DASH! Y...Yer jokin'! Oh mah, Ah never expected this to happen! A Zergling! Those little things with the ugly teeth and all that!" she squealed. "Bahahahah!"

"Very funny. You do know I have these razer sharp claws and everything, right?" Dash spoke in a monotonious and annoyed voice. "And just call me as 'Dash'."

"Let me guess, the other one's 'Rainbow'?" Applejack asked, trying to keep in her laughs. Dash nodded. "AHAH! OH MAH!"

"Okay! So we've found each other. What happens now?" Dash asked through the laughter. Rainbow approached the two, seemingly to have given up getting Pinkie Pie off her back.

"Oh geez, Ah haven't laughed that hard since... Since the last time Ah laughed at you, really," Applejack said, wiping away a tear. "Wait. If you two are Zergs, where did'ya come from?"

"We came from a Zerg base, where we woke up as... larvae," said Rainbow, shifting uncomfortably under Pinkie Pie.

"Eeeew, so you... went through the transformations and things?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Yeah, it was all very slimey."

"You don't feel very slimey," Pinkie Pie looked down at her Zergling steed.

"Oh yeah, Fluttershy's still at the base, too!" Dash spoke up.

"Fluttershy! Is she alright?" Applejack asked, her eyes widening at the prospect of her other friends. "An' what about Twilight and Rarity?"

"It was only me and Fluttershy at the Zerg base. She was still a larvae when me and Rainbow left."

"That's weird! You're referring to your other self as another whole pony. Er, Zergling," Pinkie Pie remarked.

"Wait, why'd ya leave Fluttershy behind?" Applejack began to grow concerned. "With... the other Zergs."

"Don't worry, she'll be fine. In fact, she kinda likes the Zerg creatures..." Dash shuddered. "Besides, we came out here to find this artifact to help us find you guys." The three-and-a-half ponies present all looked to the artifact before them while it gave off its dim blue light and hums.

"So we know where Fluttershy is, that means we gotta find Twilight and Rarity," Applejack said to herself quietly, captured in awe in the strange structure once again.

Next Chapter: Chapter 5 Estimated time remaining: 7 Minutes