Twilight and all her friends were sitting on a blanket in the park having a picnic and enjoying each other's company. Normally, they would see each other on an almost daily basis, but current events had them all extremely busy. Today, however, they had decided to take a break and do something together.

"It's nice to see you guys for a change," Twilight said, while pulling sandwiches out of the picnic basket and distributing them. “It feels like it's been AGES since I've seen you guys. I've just been so busy with this project Princess Celestia gave me that I haven't had any time to get out of the library."

Applejack was the first to respond, "It's nice to see ya too, Twi. Ah know how ya feel, what with th’ harvest comin' an all. It's nice to just relax for a change, ya know?"

The girls went around telling each other about what they had been up to the past couple of days. Applejack was getting ready for the apple harvest by clearing out the barn and making sure that all the bushel baskets were stacked and ready to be filled with apples. Rarity had received a massive order from Canterlot that had to be filled by the end of the week, so she had worked day and night with little to no sleep in order to get it completed on time. Pinkie Pie had been helping the Cakes get ready for a baking competition that was being held in Manehattan. Rainbow Dash was putting her weather team through a rigorous training regimen in preparation for a large storm that had been scheduled for Ponyville. Fluttershy had stumbled across a bird's nest that had fallen out of a tree, injuring the baby birds in the fall, so she had been nursing them back to health.

"So, Twilight, what kind of project has the Princess given you this time? I-If you don't mind me asking, that is." Fluttershy asked sheepishly while admiring a butterfly that had landed on the blanket next to her.

"Well, as you all know, some very strange things have been appearing all over the place, so the Princess has asked me to look into the matter. From what I can tell, these objects aren't from this world. In fact, they aren't even from this dimension." This brought out a gasp from all the ponies. "Also, when I was investigating the area around where one of the objects appeared, I noticed that there was a massive amount of residual magic. However, when I was examining the magic to try and figure out where it came from, it kept altering itself and I couldn't get a good reading from it. It- it almost seemed... alive. I've never seen or heard about something like this before."

"But Twi, you're Ponyville's resident egghead. You're supposed to know about this kind of stuff. After all, magic IS your special talent. How could you not know about something like this?"

"I don't know, Rainbow. I just-"

KRA-BOOOOM!!!!

All the ponies jumped at the deafening noise. "What was THAT!?" exclaimed Rainbow, "That sounded a lot like a sonic rainboom, except that I'm the ONLY pony in Equestria that can pull one off!" She was now scanning the skies to try and spot the pony that could have caused the boom.

Twilight had uncovered her ears and was looking rather concerned, "I don't know, but it sounded like it came from Sweet Apple Acres." Upon hearing this, Applejack stomped her hoof and put on a scowl.

"If Applebloom blew up th’ barn again, Ahm gonna KILL her!" She then started sprinting in the direction of the farm, closely followed by the rest of her friends, with Fluttershy bringing up the rear.

John slowly regained consciousness. The first thing he noticed was that his entire body hurt like hell and he was having a hard time breathing. The second thing he noticed was that he was no longer flying, and he was in the middle of what looked like an... apple orchard? He remembered that he was investigating a contact on his radar, that apparently only he could see, when he had passed out. The only problem was that he was flying over the ocean when it happened. So, how, in all things holy, did he end up here?

Wincing through the pain, he pushed up his helmet's visor so that he could get a better look at his surroundings. He was indeed in the middle of an apple orchard, but something seemed... different. The colors seemed too vibrant, almost to the point where nothing looked real.

It was getting very hard for him to breathe now, and the cockpit was becoming stuffy, so John reached over, grunting from the increasing amounts of pain, and flipped the switch that raised the canopy. He heard the telltale whirring sound and saw the canopy start lifting. He was surprised that it still worked after the crash, but he would dwell on that later. The cool air helped him gather his thoughts, but it also caused him to cough slightly, which propelled a small mist of blood into the air. That couldn't possibly be good.

That small cough quickly turned into a long string of much larger coughs that soon covered the instrument panel in front of John with blood. Every time he coughed, he could feel his entire body throb with pain and it was becoming increasingly harder to breathe. His vision was becoming fuzzy and he could feel his consciousness start to fade. It was at this point that he noticed six colorful blobs walking towards the crash site. As they got closer, he unclasped his restraints, which caused him to slump forward, further cutting off his air supply. As his vision began to fade, he reached his arm out to the blobs.

"...Help.. *cough*..Me."

His arm went limp and the world went black.

They had gotten a few worried glances as they were sprinting through town, but Applejack didn’t care. She just wanted to get to her farm as fast as she could.

“Ah hope that everything’s alright.”

“I hope so too, AJ. I just hope the Crusaders didn’t have anything to do with it…”

This caused everyone to run even faster, fearing the worst. The last time the Cutie Mark Crusaders were involved with something like this, Town Hall almost burned down when they were trying to get their cutie marks in garbage incineration.

The girls were running down the dirt road just outside the farm when Applejack looked up and saw a large cloud of dust rising from the edge of one of the fields.

“What in tarnation!? RAINBOW! Ah want you to fly me to th’ farmhouse, NOW!”

“You want me to WHAT!?”

“JUS’ DO IT!!” AJ yelled, accompanied by a horn from a fire truck.

“Y-yes ma’am .”

Rainbow used her front hooves to pick Applejack up and rocketed to the farmhouse, placing her on the front porch. As soon as Applejack’s hooves touched the wood, she bolted over to the door, bucked it off its hinges, and yelled… “APPLEBLOOOOOM!!!”

Applebloom walked into the room, holding a hoof over one of her ears. “Jeez, sis. Why’d ya have ta be so loud?”

Applejack ran over to her sister and crushed her in a bear hug. “Oh thank Celestia, yer alright! Were you th’ one that caused that explosion?

“…S-sis… can’t… breathe…”

“Oops, sorry” Applejack put her sister down and took a step back.

“Ta, answer yer question, no. Ah don’t know what that was. Me an’ th’ Crusaders were jus’ about ta go check it out.”

“Y’all will do no such thing! Now, ah want ya to stay here until ah get back.” Applejack turned and headed toward the door, stepping over the splinters of wood that used to be a door

“But, sis?” Applebloom put on one of her puppy dog faces and looked up at her sister.

Applejack turned and gave her a scowl, “No buts! Now, stay here.”

Applebloom sat on her haunches and crossed her front hooves, “Ugh, fine.”

Applejack walked outside just as the rest of her friends arrived at the house, and they all started toward the dissipating dust cloud, albeit at a slower pace. As they neared the source of the cloud, Twilight gasped at what she saw. “GIRLS! This looks like another one of those objects, but this one is a LOT bigger than all the others!”

They slowly approached the strange grey object, now noticing that it was sitting in a large rut between rows of trees with smaller bits and pieces scattered all around. Fluttershy let out a small ‘eep’ and hid behind a tree when she noticed that the object had large pointed white teeth and mean looking eyes on the front of it. After a minute, she realized that the strange object wasn’t alive. “Oh my. It looks very scary.” It was at this point that she noticed another strange object… but this one was moving. “G-girls? Wh-what is t-that?”

Twilight looked at Fluttershy with a confused face, “I don’t know what this thing is, Fluttershy.”

“N-no, not that, the thing sitting underneath that bubble.” She pointed a hoof at the moving object and all her friends gasped.

Twilight took a few steps forward to get a better look. “Sweet Celestia, what is THAT!?”

Twilight decided to get a closer look at the thing and started slowly walking up to the large grey object, her friends following closely behind. As she neared it, she saw the creature turn and look at her, reaching out with what looked like an… arm? She stopped dead in her tracks. What in Equestria is this thing?

"...Help.. *cough*..Me."

Twilight quickly backpedaled, almost running into Fluttershy. “Did it just talk?” She watched as the creature slumped forward and stopped moving.

Everyone’s jaw hit the ground as Fluttershy shot forward, running up to the strange contraption, making sure to stay away from the large teeth in the front. “Oh, you poor thing. Hurry, Girls! We need to help him!” Fluttershy let out an ‘eep’ when she spotted the blood inside of the strange object. Twilight ran up, gasping at the blood as well.

“Applejack! Go get a cart! We need to get him to the hospital, and he’s too big to carry!” Applejack ran off towards the barn.

Fluttershy had propped the creature up, keeping its head upright and its back pressed against the strange chair it was sitting in. “Twilight, I need you to levitate him out of here so I can help him!”

Twilight was shocked, she rarely saw Fluttershy act like this. It was almost as if she was replaced by a completely different pony. Regardless, she flared her magic and began to lift the creature out of the chair, setting it down on the ground next to the metal contraption. Fluttershy then began to poke and prod the creature, gasping every time she found an injury, and there were a lot.

“Oh dear, I hope Applejack gets here soon.” As if on cue, Applejack returned, leading a confused Big Mac pulling a large wagon.

Big Mac looked at the battered and bloody thing on the ground in front of him. “Uhhh… Wh-“

“There’s no time! He needs to get to the hospital!” Fluttershy interrupted as Twilight levitated the creature into the wagon. Fluttershy and Twilight climbed into the wagon as well, and Fluttershy began to set some of the broken bones she found.

As Big Mac raced toward town, wagon following closely, Twilight began to examine the creature that Fluttershy was slaving over. She thought it looked very strange. It had a large, grey head with a pale face, which confused her because the rest of its skin was a foresty green color except for the parts stained red from blood. It also had big black ‘L’ shaped feet, and small green appendages sprouting from the base of each arm. The strangest part, she thought, was that it was wearing an odd looking vest-like thing that had various pockets, straps, and metal clips all over it. She was so engrossed in the creature that she didn’t even notice when the wagon stopped in front of the hospital.

“Twilight! Please hurry! We need to get him inside!” Twilight was shaken from her stupor, quite literally, by Fluttershy. Twilight shook her head to clear her thoughts, then levitated the creature out of the wagon and through the hospital doors.

When the receptionist saw what came through the door in front of her, she almost fell out of her chair. “If I may ask, what is THAT!?”

Fluttershy ran up to the receptionist, “Oh thank goodness! He needs help, right away!” The receptionist looked over at the creature again and noticed all the blood, as well as a few splints that Fluttershy had expertly put in place. The gravity of the situation hit her like a ton of bricks and she slammed her hoof down on a large red button on her desk. Immediately, a loud buzzing noise was heard from another room and a door burst open as hospital staff started spilling into the room.

In a matter of seconds, the creature was put onto a hospital bed, hooked up to various medical equipment, and whisked away, leaving a stunned group of ponies standing, mouths agape, in the hospital foyer. Twilight quickly turned around and started to head towards the door.

“Where are you going, Twilight? I-if you don’t mind me asking.” Fluttershy asked, having reverted to her normal self. Twilight was confused by this; she would have to ask her about it later.

“I need to write a letter to the princess”

… Beep…… Beep…… Beep…… Beep……

John was awoken by a slightly familiar beeping noise. This wasn’t the first time he had woken up in the hospital. However, he was confused by the fact that he was still wearing his flight suit, boots, gloves, and helmet. What was stranger still, was that he had bandages and casts over top of his flight suit. That, and his arms and legs were restrained.

“… What the fuck?” He looked around the room, spotting his survival vest and G-suit neatly stacked on a chair. This was just getting weird. If his equipment had been removed, then why was he still wearing his clothes and helmet? He continued looking around the room, but his eyes latched onto a figure by the door to his room. He blinked his eyes a few times, to make sure the image was real. Was he hallucinating? He took a moment to stare at the figure, which looked a lot like a…

“Oh… My... God…”

It was then that the figure, with an obvious scowl on his face, reached over and hit his leg against the door, creating a solid ‘thunk’. After a moment, the door opened and three more figures walked in.

“What the hell is going on!?” John frantically yelled, all color had drained from his face and his eyes were darting between the now four figures that were in his room. He was gripping the sides of the bed with white knuckles, oblivious to any pain that his injuries were causing.

It had been years since John had watched the show, because it reminded him too much of his daughter. In fact, the last time he had seen it was with Amy, the day before they left to go to the airport. He had since boxed up all the DVDs and shut the door to Amy’s room. The only thing that he kept as a reminder was the small Rainbow Dash figurine that he had put into a pocket on his vest the day after the… incident… that tore his family apart.

Yet, as if it was some sick joke, here he was, tied to a hospital bed, in the same room as four ponies. One of them was wearing a white lab coat with a stethoscope draped around its neck, busy scribbling something on a clip board. Another, as well as the one by the door, was wearing shiny silver armor. Both had scowls on their faces and were watching him intently. The fourth, however, caught John’s attention the most.

It was a lot taller than the others , was wearing a golden crown and necklace-like thing, and was frowning at him. John’s blood went cold when he recognized the Sun Goddess standing in front of him. She slowly walked toward the bed, closely followed by her guard, and looked down at him.

“You have a lot of explaining to do.”

Author's Note

Ok, rewrite done. Felt good about this one.

As always, GIMME TEH FEEDBACKS!!