Error 404 - Pony Not Found

by Suke

Rating: teen
Tags: Comedy, Tragedy, Adventure, Human, Sweetie Belle, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Berry Punch, Dark, Alternate Universe, Changelings, Original Character
Length: 31178

So Pinkie turned out to be a robot, and now, Fluttershy has revealed herself to be a changeling... what's next? Cliff's a human who keeps coming back from the dead? No, but there sure are strange things afo- ahoof.

Image is sourced, just click on it for origin.

With Glitchie Pi finally captured and restored to... 'normal'... Fluttershy has decided to reveal that she too is not the original pony she has claimed to be for so long. With a changeling stood in Sugar Cube Corner, what will happen next? When and how did she replace the Fluttershy we know and love? Who was that Earth Pony spying on them? Are there more secrets to be shared by the Mane 6? AND WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARMEN SANDIEGO!?

All this, and more, if you only read on...

Published 2013-11-25 18:00:01 UTC
Last updated 2014-01-31 20:12:32 UTC

Part 1B - DASH! Saviour of the Universe!

Part 1B: DASH! Saviour of the Universe!

And so, they partied into the day! Much different from the usual time of day one parties into, but fun nonetheless. Vinyl had been pulled from nowhere to supply some music. Twilight danced her terrible dance moves, Berry and Cliff were drunkenly making out, Pinkie and Fluttershy were giggling about one thing or another. Poor Rarity had gone too far and was snoring on a couch, Spike keeping a watchful eye on her as he danced with Twilight. Last but not least, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were having an unofficial drinking contest.

Simply put, if one finished a drink, the other would down the rest of theirs. Being an Earth Pony, AJ could handle such an activity. Rainbow Dash on the other hand...

“Ya know!? At firft, Ah di’n’ believe it... bu’ now... I wea’ise... I wou’n’t efen KNOW! Ah on’y jus’ awwifed in Eq’estia baaaaack then too!” (You know!? At first, I didn’t believe it... but now... I realise... I wouldn’t even KNOW! I only just arrived in Equestria back then too!)

Even with the music, which was admittedly not that loud, every ear in the room swivelled in RD’s direction. The music screeched to a stop.

“WHAT!?” Dash yelled, “Wha’ are ya lugin’ ah!?” (What are you looking at!?)

AJ put a hoof on Dash’s back. “They can’t help it sugarcube... not after what you just said.”

The drunk mare tried to remember what it was, and just barely scraped it together in her mind. Upon realising what she’d done, Dash sobered quite quickly.

“Aw fuck!”

“Don’t you mean ‘buck’, Rainbow?” Twilight asked, pedantic as always, even with curse words.

“No, I really do mean ‘fuck’,” she sighed, “You may have already guessed, but... like with Glitchie Pie and Flutterling, I am not the real Rainbow Dash. Well, I am her. It’s just... ugh!”

Not-RD produced a photograph, and all the others grouped up around it to get a good look; except Vinyl, who just stood at her DJ set. The picture was of a strange, tanned, mostly hairless (assumed, what with it wearing clothes) bipedal creature. Its mane was similar to that of Rainbow Dash’s, but you could just make out that it was a wig and some brown was sticking out from under it.

In the creature’s arms was a little filly Rainbow Dash, looking happy as ever. The two were sat on a large bed, posters with a language they didn’t understand covered the wall behind them, and the floor was covered in clothes. Whatever this creature was, it sure was a messy one.

Cliff was the first to ask, “What is that thing holding you?”

“That’s actually me... My real name is, or was,” Not-RD took a deep breath, “Lorraine Bowem Gordon.”

“That still doesn’t answer my question.”

“Oh, yes, you’re right. I was a Human, or Homosapien if you want to get fancy. That photo was taken on the Human world of Earth.”

Twilight scratched her chin.

“You do bear a similarity to Diamond Dogs, though considerably less hairy... what about the smell?”

“Some men do smell like them when they forget their deodorant, but in general, we smell nice enough.”

After that, nopony made a sound, looking awkwardly between ‘Lorraine’ and the photo.

Eventually, Flutterling spoke up, “Erm... would you mind telling us what happened to the real Rainbow Dash?...”

It all started in my Senior Year at college. I’d drop names of places and the like, but they mean nothing to you guys, so all you need to know is that the country was called the United States of America. Over there, it was illegal to drink alcohol before the age of 21. Handily, I had in fact recently turned 21, and was on my way to the best Off-License in town, literally known as ‘The Beer Shop’.

It was a quaint little store where the gal at the counter was always high on something or other, or so I was told. I’d only been there once before, and there had been a VERY sober fellow giving my ID the third degree. If he’d told me it was fake, I was gonna-

Cliff sighed.

“As much as I don’t like keeping to the cliche of comically interrupting flashbacks, please get on with it.”

Fluttershy concurred. “Yes, get on with it... please.”

Glitchie gasped, anticipating something... that never came.

“Awwww.”

“Alright, alright, sorry. I didn’t exactly look twenty one or over. It didn’t help my chest wasn’t that big either...”

The weather was quite glorious, cloudless and sunny. I should probably add that Earth weather does its own thing, without help from Pegasi. Also, there are no Unicorns nor Pegasi, and Ponies aren’t as intelligent, incapable of speech, and lack the bright colours.

Oddly enough, there was a rainbow in the sky, one end landing right behind the Beer Shop, but no rain to make it. The reason behind it would be found inside.

I stepped inside, instantly greeted by the smell of marijuana. It was almost like a solid wall of poisonous fumes. The source was stood at the counter looking so out of it I was surprised she was standing at all. Her name badge read ‘Cerman Sendiago’. An odd name for a chick, but before I could voice that thought, a loud crash was heard in the back room.

I looked to see how Cerman would react, but she just carried on staring into the store, not focused on anything in particular. How she caught the frequent wannabe shoplifters I’ll never know.

I moved towards the door that lead into the back, pointing to it and saying, “I’ll er... just go check on that, shall I?”

I took her lack of reply as agreement and cautiously opened the door. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary at first, except for the knocked over crates of various alcohols, their contents conveniently kept contained.

I gave the area one last glance over, talking to myself, “Booze, booze, booze, hoof, booze, boo- wait, what?”

A drugged up slur came from the store area, “Oh great. Now people are going to complain about the horsemeat here too.”

“What are you on abo-” The hoof twitched, “Holy crap it’s still alive!”

I dived forward and lifted the crates atop the hoof as fast as I could. Connected to the hoof I found a little filly; Rainbow Dash. At the time though, I didn’t know who she was, or really understand WHAT she was. All I saw was a nameless, hurt, scared little foal.... that just so happened to have wings, multi-coloured hair, and a bright cerulean blue coat... all three of these additional facts differing greatly from the Equine norm that I had grown to know.

“Hey there little... girl... I think?” I wasn’t exactly specialised in identifying the genders of animals without checking the... ‘biological cheat sheet’, and I refused to go looking there.

The filly squeaked, and tried to shuffle backwards, but the crates behind her blocked the way. It began speaking in some language I’d never heard before. This was a surprise as I was studying Linguistics.

I decided to use charades while I spoke, in an attempt to convey some of my words’ meanings, “Don’t be frightened… I’m not gonna hurt ya…” I sat down. “I want to help you…”

Little Dashie seemed to calm down enough to stop trying to get away, but she still look scared.

“My name… is Lorraine… Luh… Rain…”

The filly cottoned on fast, repeating my name as best she could, “Luhrain… ”

“Good… what’s yours?”

“Rainbow Dash…”

I found it odd that for a language completely foreign to me, the name was clearly english. However, that wasn’t important at the time.

“Ok Rainbow Dash… Nice to meet you…”

Slowly, I reached out a hand to shake. Rainbow stared at it curiously at first, but eventually held up an adorable little hoof. I took the hoof gently and gave it a light shake. Dash smiled, recognising the action as a greeting. A smile spread on my face too.

“Now, Rainbow Dash, I think we should take you somewhere a little more comfortable and private, don’t you?”

It was clear Dash didn’t understand me, but she didn’t complain when I picked her up and and held her like a pet.

“It’s only a short walk, but the sights may be strange to you… I’ll be with you all the way though. Now,” I held in front of me, so she could see me briefly hold my breath. “Hold your breath now.”

Rainbow mimicked me and held her breath. I quickly carried her out of the store room, through the fumey store and out the front door. It wasn’t hard to tell RD to breath again. After that, we strolled briskly back to my apartment.

“I don’t mean to rush you sugarcube, and your story telling is good and all, but half of us are already kinda tired… could you cut to how you came to replace Rainbow, Miss Lorraine?”

Lorraine only had to glance around the room to see what AJ was talking about, with Spike now curled up next to Rarity, and Fluttershy’s eyelids were drooping. Cliff and Berry weren’t too far off from sleeping either.

“I guess the whole bonding thing is kind of unnecessary.”

Pinkie frowned, “Ooooooo, the readers aren’t gonna like that.”

Well, all I shall say is that we did indeed bond. I used my Linguistics knowledge to learn enough Equestrian to get by, having easier conversations with Rainbow Dash. That photo was after I randomly spotted the wig in a shop window. It made us both laugh. After a couple of weeks though, it became apparent that Rainbow couldn’t live in my stuffy, messy apartment. She was a Pegasus after all.

We started looking into getting her back home. It didn’t take too long, as that mysterious rainbow from the day we met kept appearing in the same place at the same time on a daily basis. Not only that, but the government were now looking into the phenomenon. For some reason, they hadn’t closed down The Beer Shop, but that would just make it easier to get inside.

I had Rainbow climb into my rucksack and pretend to be a plushie, and headed straight for the store. It was going well, walking past all the government agents snooping around. We were only a few steps from the door when Dash gave off a cute sneeze. This would have been fine at first, as the nearest agents all blessed me. Then they saw little Dashie wiping her nose.

“STOP RIGHT THERE!” they all shouted, guns pointed at us.

I put my hands behind my head, and Rainbow followed suit as I commented, “Well that escalated quickly.”

A few of the guards chuckled at my quote, and I used that brief lapse in attention to run for the door. Bullets were fired, but none hit me. I made it inside and made a beeline for the store room. As soon as I entered, a bright rainbow coloured portal appeared.

“Well, here’s you ride Dash,” I said in Equestrian.

While taking the bag off of my shoulders, I noticed Rainbow was coughing a lot. Upon seeing her, I knew the problem. There was a hole in my bag, and Dash was coughing up blood. Quickly yet carefully I pulled her out of the rucksack. The wound was right in the chest.

“Oh Shit. Shit, shit, shit… What do I do? What do I do!?”

I put Dash down and she tried to stand, only to collapse.

“Oh Celestia! You need help!”

“Just *cough* throw me *cough cough* through.”

“But you said you were flying when it happened… you’ll fall!”

Just then, a cannister smashed through the window, spewing some kind of smoke, most likely tear gas. Cerman screamed. The woman had stayed camped out in the store ever since the first agent showed up. I had no idea why she was against them seeing her.

“Fuuuuuuuuck…”

I looked back and forth, between cannister, filly and portal. Rainbow’s coughs got worse.

“Oh, DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!”

Grabbing Rainbow, I leaped through the portal.

Everything was a blur. There was pain, there was ecstasy, there was numbness. Next thing I knew, I was flying through the air as Rainbow Dash, Sonic Rainboom exploding behind me. I could feel her consciousness mixed in with mine, but it soon faded, leaving me alone with her body, my own nowhere to be seen.

“And there you have it… I managed to learn the Equestrian language pretty quick from there...”

Twilight looked grim, but the smiled when she realised something, “So, like Flutterling and Glitchie Pie, the Rainbow Dash we’ve all come to know was always you? Lorraine you, I mean.”

“Well, yeah, but still, I’ve been lying to you all this time.”

Applejack hugged her friend, “Rainbow, I’m the Element of Honesty, so I know my lies, and that wasn’t really a lie. You ARE Rainbow Dash. At the same time, you’re also Lorraine Bowem Gordon.”

“You’re Dash Gordon!” Glitchie shouted, waking up the sleepers. “And you saved everyone of us!”

Dash smirked, “I guess I did in the end… Awesome.”

Fluttershy yawn, followed by Cliff and Berry, and then by Rarity and Spike.

By the DJ set, another Rarity commented on the tired harmony, “I think it’s time we all went home, don’t you darlings?”

Silence fell over the dead party. Head turned to Pinkie.

“Don’t look at me; I didn’t do it.”

All of a sudden, the Library door was swung open and an exhausted, panting Sweetie Belle wobbled inside. She closed the door and held up a hoof to stop anypony from talking while she caught her breath.

With one last pant, Sweetie look over her audience, raised a hoof as if to hold up a finger, and said, “I can explain.”

Author's Note

What now eh? Any guesses?

Part 1C - The Fabulosity has been DOUBLED!

Part 1C: The Fabulosity has been DOUBLED!

Having already found out that half the Element Bearers of Harmony were in fact fake all along, or at least they weren’t the original ponies, not everyone present acted surprised. Pinkie did her over exaggerated gasp, the formerly sleeping Rarity fainted upon seeing her twin, and Spike seemed unable to decide whether he should be over the moon with happiness, or just plain confounded, so he fainted too.

The others, however, just waited for Sweetie Belle to begin her tale, suspecting that there would a strong level of woe. The filly in question glanced around to see the reactions to everything.

“You know… I’m not sure I like how well some of you are taking this,” she explained.

Twilight sighed, “Sweetie Belle, yesterday we found out Pinkie Pie is actually robot built by the Cakes, who are from a desolate future. Then, after having to catch her so she can be repaired, Fluttershy reveals herself to have been a Changeling from a different and more desolate future. Last but not least, we had just finished listening to Rainbow Dash tell the story of how she was once a human from another world… We’re sorry for not all being absolutely shocked at there being two Raritys.”

Applejack commented, “But don’t worry sugarcube. We’ll listen to ya.”

“Um… I’d like to know why the other Rarity is still conscious,” Cliff wondered aloud. “I mean, she is still Rarity, right?”

The conscious Rarity was actually distracted by Vinyl Scratch. The disc jockey had remained perfectly still since even before the music went quiet for Rainbow Dash. It looked completely unnatural. She didn’t even fidget with Rarity staring strongly at her. Eventually, she poked ‘Vinyl’, and the cardboard cutout fell over. Rarity screamed and joined her twin in unconsciousness.

Cliff blinked, “Oh, well, I guess that solves that.”

“Whoopsie daisy,” Pinkie exclaimed, tending to the toppled DJ. “Forgot about that. Sorry guys, but I could only book Vinyl for so long. I didn’t want the party to end so soon.”

There was a short silence while Pinkie put Vinyl’s stuff away. Everypony looked between them selves, a couple of coughs being heard.

“ALL DONE!”

All heads returned to stare at Sweetie Belle.

“... Right… well… I, er… I’ll start with how I came to live in this time period...”

I was born, or rather created, in a horribly corrupt future. Mankind and Equestria were at war. I have no memories of how it looked, as I spent most of my life in captivity as a human experiment. I was artificially cloned from pony DNA in a laboratory. My purpose was to infiltrate Equestria for the humans and help bring them down from the inside. What I do know was given to me by my creators.

Equestria’s conflict with Nightmare Moon had not been going well. Fluttershy, being a female Changeling, managed to overthrow Chrysalis and become the new Queen, recruiting her kind join the fight. Not only that, but she managed to befriend Discord. One would think this was enough to fend off eternal night, but somehow, the enemy was always one step ahead.

In a last ditch effort to change the tides, Rainbow Dash managed to pull off another interdimensional Sonic Rainboom and contact humankind. A few years later, she returned with a whole new army. The humans had managed to hold open a stable portal between the worlds. The war finally began to come to an end.

During the final battle, the combined armies managed to reach Nightmare Moon’s throne room, but she was nowhere to be seen. All that was left was Luna crying over Celestia’s corpse. The Nightmare had left. From going so long without any nourishment, Celestia had died during her imprisoning. It was not the best victory, but at least day could return to Equestria.

Peace was short lived, however. Humankind started becoming reclusive, most returning to their own world. Those that remained were cut off from their own kind. Eventually, they came, and they were now hell bent on invading Equestria. The humans that had still been in Equestria originally fought alongside the Equestrians, but they were slowly killed or turned.

This new war went on for centuries. Most of the iconic heroes of the New Nocturne War had passed on. Applejack died during the Era of Peace Fluttershy was assassinated by one of her own, and Rainbow Dash was killed in the humans’ initial attack. For some reason, Twilight Sparkle was still alive. Somepony had donned the guise of Mare Do Well, though it was believed to be several ponies. Pinkie Pie was still around, but along with Discord, had gone into hiding. humans were so chaotic, Discord had no influence over them.

And so, the Humans and Equestrians were at a stalemate. The threat posed by the humans had united the entire world, but the enemy was an adaptive foe, learning from its mistakes. This is where I would come in. I-

Rainbow Dash interrupted, “What about Rarity?”

“I was getting to that.”

I am a clone of Rarity. Not a perfect one though, clearly. The human scientists didn’t want an exact replica, in case somepony were to recognise me. They didn’t know who they had cloned either. They just happened upon Rarity’s ancient remains.

You see, I found out later that she was the missing link. She had been crushed by a splitting rock when Rainbow Dash pulled off her first Sonic Rainboom. Without her, there was no Generosity.

Over the years, I was developed steadily, being trained to blend in with ponies. I had been bestowed with a greater intelligence than average, as well as a talent for singing so I could become popular and be accepted faster. Entertainment was important for morale. All that was left was the brainwashing procedure. Without it, I would ‘sympathise with the enemy’.

They were right to worry, as I already disliked my creators. They were wrong to think I could be kept contained. Using my genius, I broke out. Not only that, but I found and hacked the self destruct mechanism for the base. Escaping was harder than originally planned, and I got lost, stumbling across another lab. There were all sorts of devices, ancient looking yet clearly not pony made. From my knowledge of humankind, I knew these things were not of their making.

One such device looked like a sort of portable shelter, so I entered it and began pressing buttons. In a flash, I found myself still in the machine, but outside the machine was an Equestria untouched by war or man. As it turned out, I had accidentally operated a time machine.

Upon exiting the machine, it sparked and exploded. At the same time, a rainboom passed overhead, accompanied by a scream and a crunch. Such a rush of things happening all at once was disorientating, but I managed to force myself to investigate the scream. The sight that fell upon my eyes was a disturbing one. Before me stood a gem filled rock, split in half. One half lay on the ground, a white leg sticking out, twitching.

Applejack grimaced, while Twilight tried to keep herself from throwing up.

Sweetie Belle continued, “So that’s how I came to live here in Equestria. I soon discovered that the location was identical to where my DNA had been retrieved, deducing the poor pony was in fact my sister. I quickly got to work on a small cloning facility, and Rarity was reborn. The universe was adamant she remain dead, so Rarity #2 didn’t live long. I upgraded my facility to adapt to the situation. Over the years, through trial and error, I perfected the system.

“All memories are saved in real time, so when one clone dies, another is produced with all memories, except for the death. Admittedly, it’s not entirely perfect, because it was fooled by the Pinkie Pie incident yesterday. For the last few hours, there’s been two Raritys in Ponyville.”

AJ trotted over to the second Rarity and looked down at her, speaking grimly, “So does that mean y’all are gonna hafta put one of ‘em down?”

The filly genius nodded.

Fluttershy was on the verge of tears, stuttering, “C-can’t you j-just send her off to C-C-Canterlot or something?”

Nods turned to shakes.

“She would just die out there anyway,” Twilight said plainly. “The universe would continue trying to correct itself.”

“You know what I wonder?” Cliff asked rhetorically. “We’ve had four Element Bearers turn out to be fake, or at least not what we believed…” The mare looked between Applejack and Twilight Sparkle, continuing, “So what about you two, huh? Either of you secretly from the past?”

She chuckled at herself; the whole room laughed alongside her, some more sounding awkward.

Twilight, who was laughing the most, commented, “I don’t know about me, but Applejack bears the Element of Honesty. If anything about her wasn’t real, we would never have stopped Nightmare Moon. Isn’t that right AJ?”

AJ opened her mouth to speak but a loud thunk sound came from the front door. Everypony looked expectantly towards it. There was a loud beep and the door blew inwards, blasted to pieces. Everypony screamed. Sweetie Bell managed to dive out of the way of the shards. Dust and smoke filled the Library.

Amongst all the consequential coughing, Rainbow Dash managed to speak up, “Everypony OK?!”

Confirmations were shouted back. Then hoofsteps seemed to echo from the hole in the building. Too infrequent for four legs. Some of the dust and smoke cleared, revealing a mare stood steadily on her hind legs. She wore a thick black sweater bearing the her cutie mark. Not only that, but she carried two holstered revolvers on her front, and some form of assault rifle on her back. Of course, not everypony there knew what they were.

Befuddlement spread over the room as they recognised the cutie mark; a bunch of grapes and a strawberry. They all watched this new Berry Punch chug a bottle of Applejack Daniels. She finished, wiped her mouth on her sleeve and threw the bottle behind her. The shattering glass went ignored.

The mare met eyes with AJ, and snarled, “Prepare to die, bitch.”

Hooves were a blur. Guns were drawn. AJ reflexively picked up the Rarity clone at her hooves, using her as a shield. The revolvers were fired, the gunshots deafening. The force of the first few bullets entering Rarity knocked Applejack off balance, and an opening showed it self. Berry smirked as she finally made her mark. The farm mare took nine hits, and then fell to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Discarding her six barrels, Berry ran over to her prey, slipping a small pistol out from under a sweater sleeve. Aiming precisely, two more shots were fired into AJ’s head. That seemed to satisfy the killer, turning to face her horrified audience.

Twilight absolutely lost it, mane and tale catching fire, coat going white and eyes going red. While the Unicorn rapidly charged her magic, Berry held the pistol up against her head. The magical blast Twilight then fired struck Berry, causing a massive flame to engulf the Earth Pony. It dissipated as quickly as it ignited, leaving behind a large scorch mark on the floor.

Returning to her normal state, Twilight Sparkle panted heavily, tears gushing from her eyes. The rest of her friends joined in with the crying.

“... AJ…” Rainbow whispered, staring at the body.

Fluttershy, angry and upset, turned to where Cliff and the original Berry Punch were sat, shrieking, “How could yo-”

The pair were gone.

Author's Note

And so we end Part 1!

Part 2A - We have to go Back!

Part 2A: We have to go Back!

A short catch up on the missing Earth Ponies:

Cliff Jumper is an Earth Pony mare who’s lived in Ponyville most of her life. Her talent is climbing, and she’s often seen departing to, or arriving from, adventures. Her life was inspired by the Daring Do novels, and she’s always held the belief that somewhere out there is the real deal. She earns her way by being an action adventure guide and sometimes sell photography of hard to reach sights.

Berry Punch showed up in Ponyville during the last Winter Wrap Up before Twilight Sparkle’s first appearance there. Due to her timing, she was quickly welcomed into the Town, having been very willing to help with the Wrap Up. She doesn’t seem to have a job, but her hobby is tending to a private vineyard.

The two mares first met on the night of Nightmare Moon’s short return. Cliff had only just got back from her recent adventure, and had no idea about the new resident. They hit it off pretty well, and months later, Cliff plucked up the courage to ask Berry out. Yesterday, during the events of Glitchie Pie’s malfunction, they had been having that first date.

After Rarity’s ear piercing shriek, Berry had excused herself, feeling sickening disorientation. With the date seemingly ruined, Cliff had decided to stalk the ponies to blame, leading up to current events. Unbeknownst to Cliff Jumper, Berry Punch had also followed the Element Bearers, albeit with a lot more stealth.

And now on with the story:

It took a while for Cliff Jumper to realise she was sat on Berry Punch’s back as they galloped away from the Library. The bright flickering light of a fire was seen briefly through the hole in the tree.

Cliff recalled what had just happened. A second Berry Punch blew a hole in the Library, drank some booze, pulled out some weapons and proceeded to attack AJ. The first Berry had yanked Cliff out when the shooting had started.

“Berry… what were you doing in two places at once? Are you a clone, like Rarity?”

Berry somehow laughed heartily while continuing to run.

“Soooo you’re not?”

Managing to calm down a little, Berry answered, “No, Cliff, I’m not a clone. There’s only one Berry Punch.”

This didn’t help unconfuse Cliff at all, “B- But that was definitely you!”

The pair skidded to a halt outside Berry’s house, and Cliff flew over head, crashing into the door. The poor drunk mare just lay there, upside down, against the door.

“We were both the real me, ok? It’s a little hard to explain,” said Berry.

She reached over her friend and unlocked the house, causing Cliff to fall a little more, into the house. Next, Berry stepped completely over Cliff and ran into the house, beginning a desperate search.

“Ok,” Cliff went on, looking at the ceiling. “What are we doing back at your place? I mean, it’s great how we’re pushing this relationship way ahead of itself, but won’t this make us look suspicious to the others?”

Berry shouted back from inside the house, “Don’t you think a second me blowing a hole in the library and killing two ponies is enough of a cause for suspicion? And for Luna’s sake, Cliff, get inside and close the door!”

Cliff sloppily rolled backwards onto all fours and closed the door. She made sure it was locked too. Once that was done, the mare went looking for Berry.

It wasn’t difficult after Berry shouted, “Aha! Found it!”

In the bedroom, Berry could be seen looking over some kind of ankle accessory. The thing was electronic, with a display screen, flashing lights and beeping. Also, on the bed lay an identical outfit to the one worn by the other Berry Punch from earlier, complete with identical weapons.

“Berry, what… what are you doing?”

“Look, Cliff, I really like you and all, but I ca-”

“BERRY PUNCH, GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW!”

That was Rainbow’s voice.

“Oh shi-”

“IF NEITHER YOU OR CLIFF COME OUT, I’M COMING IN TO GET YOU!”

Cliff stared into nothing while she enquired, “Anypony else having their life flash before their eyes? It’s pretty sweet considering how awesome my life is, but this is never a good sign, right?”

“Dammit!” Berry cursed as she hurriedly slipped into her gear. “Cliff, get over here!”

Without wasting a second, Cliff rushed to Berry’s side.

“Now wha-”

Berry reached a leg up and over Cliff’s neck and kissed her.

“Wait, was that a goodbye k-”

The mulberry maned mare pushed back the sleeve of the reached over leg, gaining access to the device from earlier. A crash was heard at the front of the house, Rainbow clearly having grown impatient.

“TIME’S UP BITCHES!”

Berry looked Cliff in the eyes, speaking gently, “Just focus on me, ok? First times can be disorientating.”

“What the hay is goi-”

Berry tapped the device’s screen one last time and the world around the pair of Earth Ponies swirled and wibbled and wobbled. Colours mixed, and nothing made sense beyond Berry Punch and Cliff Jumper. This was most certainly not something a drunkard should be experiencing.

Sure enough, upon their arrival in an unknown location in the middle of the night, Cliff Jumper galloped to the nearest bush and vomited. This fortunately had the added effect of sobering the mare that last little bit.

When that was all done, Cliff trotted back to where Berry stood, wiping away any residue. Berry Punch was frowning at her transportation device, tapping away furiously. Cliff took a moment to try and take in the surroundings, but the Moon was blocked out by a large mountain, making Berry’s machine the only current source of light. It produced an eerie green glow.

“Erm… We not where you wanted to be?”

Berry roared in frustration, “No, we’re not! Nor are we when I wanted us to be! I thought I worked the blasted glitches out of this thing ages ago!”

“Woah woah woah. Say that again?”

Berry looked up from the device, staring oddly at Cliff.

“I thought-”

“One sentence back.”

“Nor are we when I wanted us to be.”

“... ‘when’... what did you mean by that?”

“Oh… I guess now that I’ve brought you along for this… Cliff…”

Cliff leaned in close.

“Yes?”

“We’re in the future.”

Cliff was frozen on the spot.

Berry continued, “That Berry Punch from the Library was more than likely my future self.”

Still frozen, the leaning from earlier starting to cause an imbalance.

Finishing off, Berry added, “Oh, and I’m from the time of Nightmare Moon’s first rising.”

Cliff’s still stiffened body fell forward, her face getting buried in the dirt.

Author's Note

BACK TO THE FUTURE!

Part 2B - Doctor What?

Part 2B: Doctor What?

With everything else she’d tried failing, Berry Punch dragged Cliff Jumper to a nearby stream. Without hesitation, she dunked Cliff’s face in. The unconscious mare came back to life, legs flailing in every direction. Berry yanked her back up.

Gasping for breath, Cliff wheezed, “Sweet… Pony… Jesus… Are you trying to kill me!?”

“Sorry, Cliff,” Berry apologised. “But you left me no other option.”

Cliff sighed, thumping her chest and squirting out the last of the water she choked on. Berry smiled. One of the things she liked about Cliff was her ability to make even the most serious situations a bit more light-hearted, yet, at the same time, would understand the true seriousness.

Clearing her throat, Cliff spoke again, “Right then… I’m just gonna say it: I am not hurt by the fact you kept your true origins secret. To be perfectly honest, I may have been deterred had you told me straight off the bat. That said, I think now’s a good time to tell the full story, or something like it.”

“Really? You want another wordy backstory?”

Cliff held out her hooves in front of herself and Berry, explaining, “Imagine, if you will, two time travelling mares, one all experienced and the like, and another who just got brought along for the ride. Now, things will happen on this adventure, and the experienced mare will have no trouble coping and understanding. The other one, however, will always be at a loss, and slow everything down with question after question after question after question aft-”

“Alright! I get it!” Berry pulled rolled up her sleeve once more, and a couple of taps on her device brought up a hologram. “Gather round kiddies, it’s story time, this time with visual aids.”

“Ooooooo...”

A long time ago in the land of Equestria, two royal Alicorns had a dispute. It ended with one of them being sent to the Moon. The remaining Alicorn knew that the spell would not last forever, and did not want another war like the one she had just won.

In this time, we ponies were in fact far more technologically advanced than today. We had engines running on fossil fuels, carts that pulled themselves and buildings touching the sky. There were televisions, computers and phones. None of this will mean anything to you, and all you need to know is that all of these things made the lives of our kind easier.

Sadly, with the other races on the planet, we were forced to advance ourselves in weaponry also, leading to the invention of the projectile weapons known as guns. They possess a far greater threat than the average magical blast attack, as they are capable of breaching magical shields.

With the rise of Nightmare Moon came a bloody slaughter. A civil war that left us vulnerable to the rest of the world. Celestia had one last course of action available to ensure the safety of ponykind. Using the Elements of Harmony, she performed a worldwide memory alteration spell. It set everypony and everything back massively in technology, wiping our greatest feats of engineering of the face of Equis.

That is where I come in. With Celestia still concerned about Nightmare Moon, she summoned me, one of her greatest soldiers. During the war, I was sent on confidential missions of assassination, infiltration and sabotage, against both the Lunar Republic and the other races that posed a threat. It was thanks to me we weren’t invaded immediately after Luna’s banishment.

Unbeknownst to anypony but Celestia and those she had working on it, a device capable of time travel was developed. They called it the Harkness. With a built-in TARDIS (Time and Relative Dimensions in Space) Anomaly Detector, it finds any anomalies within any era of time I tell it to, and takes me to it.

“So, I was sent to Ponyville shortly before Nightmare Moon’s return. It turns out that the thing that possessed Luna, The Nightmare, is somehow an anomaly. I’ve kept a watchful eye over the Element Bearers ever since. Not even Celestia knows about this; not after casting the memory spell.”

“So… Celestia reset the world? And you travelling through time spared you?”

“That is correct.”

“Basically, you’re, like, the greatest hero ever?”

“I wouldn’t exactly sa-”

“You wouldn’t believe how hot that is to me.”

“...”

“...”

The two mares remained silent. Neither of them were to blame when the silence broke. From further upstream there came hurried hoofsteps, and panting filled with desperation. The sounds grew louder as they came closer and closer. Berry drew one of her revolvers.

“Get behind me Cliff,” she said, leveling the revolver, pointing it towards the approaching noise.

Cliff scoffed, “Pfft, I’m an adventurer. I’ve encountered many a beast and black hearted pony. I can handle myself, thank you. Besides… that sounds like fleeing to me.”

Sure enough, two terrified ponies wearing black, hooded cloaks came into view, skidding to a halt upon seeing Berry’s gun.

“See? Harmle- HOLY BUCKING TARTARUS WHAT IS THAT!?”

Cliff pointed a hoof into the sky. Berry followed it to see a winged beast diving towards them. It glittered in the night; some kind of giant bat. The trained soldier did not hesitate, re-aligning her shot, and firing a single bullet. The creature managed to avoid a fatal hit, but was still struck in the wing. It must have severely damaged the muscles, because said wing went limp and the monster lost flight control.

The giant bat crashed beside Cliff. Before anypony could relax, it went straight for the mare, fangs bared.

“CLIFF!”

Cliff Jumper bounced into the air, allowing the bat’s head to pass under. Next, she landed as heavily as possible on the neck. The combined force and mass broke the bone, and with a loud snap, the beast was slain.

Dusting herself off, Cliff said, “‘Get behind me Cliff!’ I ain’t no filly, mare.”

“Th- th- thank you strangers,” said one of the two ponies, evidently a mare, judging by the voice.

“Oh, it was n-” Cliff began before she noticed something. “Hang on! I know that voice.”

Before Berry could stop her, Cliff had her hooves on the mare’s hood. A swift tug brought it down, revealing one Cup Cake.

“Missus Cake?” Berry exclaimed in surprise.

Cup pulled herself free of Cliff’s hold while other pony took their hood down. Carrot looked confused as his features were lit up by the moonlight.

“How do you know her?” He asked. “We’ve never seen you before.”

Looks were shared between the temporally out of place mares. They huddled together to whisper to each other.

Cliff was completely out of her element. “What do we do?”

“We tell them the truth,” Berry replied, matter-of-factly.

“Are you serious? I mean… they never let on about us before, and Carrot was clearly terrible at hiding things once things went south.”

“Hmmm, you’re right… then I have a plan.”

“Really? What is it?”

Berry pulled away from the huddle and turned back to the Cakes.

“We’re from the past, when Celestia still reigned. We’ve travelled here, to the future, to help you in your endeavors against the New Lunar Republic.”

This time, looks were shared between the other two ponies.

They nodded and spoke simultaneously, “Ok.”

Carrot continued, “We were just on our way to the resistance headquarters. It’s this way.”

Carrot and Cup walked past the monster corpse, and Berry made to follow. However, she noticed Cliff just staring at the others, flabberghasted.

“What’s the matter, Cliff?”

“They just took your word for it… they didn’t even blink.” Shaking her head, Cliff began to move in the same direction, adding, “I don’t like this.”

She didn’t say so, but Berry was also concerned about the initial response. Sadly, there was nothing more they could do but accept it for the time being. The Harkness Device wouldn’t be taking them anywhen else until the anomaly in that time and space was smoothed out.

So, the party of four journeyed in silence. Complete silence. Not a single whisper was heard from anypony. Berry and Cliff thought best to follow their guides’ example, assuming that noise was what attracted the bat monster prior to their meeting.

Eventually, the foursome halted by a decrepit statue of Tom the Rock. They could tell it was a statue and not just Tom the Rock because it didn’t have that air of knowing the real Tom had about him. Cliff, clearly not a mare of subtlety, gawked at it.

Cup answered the unspoken question, “This is a statue made by Rarity, one of the more well known resistance fighters. Originally just a civilian tasked with resource gathering, she was captured by Diamond Dog mercenaries. Now, Rarity claimed an oracle of Celestia came to her in the form of a spectral rock by the name of Tom. After this visitation, the mare reportedly escaped and slaughtered her captors. She then went on to become one of our symbols of hope, focusing her efforts on freeing enslaved ponies.

“It did not end well for her though. Rarity was one of the first mares to be subjected to Nightmare Moon’s corruption magic. In fact, we believe she may actually be the most responsible for the magic coming into use. What little remains of our resistance does have a couple ponies who resent Rarity for that. But… at least we have her to thank for this statue.

“Upon discovery of the corruption, Rarity fled the resistance. With what little control she had remaining, she carved this thing out. We found it atop her remains. She had committed suicide, allowing her creation to crush the life out of her.”

Meanwhile, during Cup’s speech and Cliff’s sage nods of understanding, Berry watched Carrot scout the immediate area around the statue. Around the same time of his wife’s speech coming to an end, Carrot returned to the group and knocked on the rock. The thing turned out to be hollow.

All four ponies were suddenly swallowed in magical light. When the light was gone, they found themselves inside a room consisting entirely of metal. The only light came from the metal walls, which magically glowed a recognisable shade of purple.

“Isn’t that-”

Somehow, a siren blared into the room with no source. This was accompanied by the magic glow switching to orange, pulsating in time with said siren. Before anypony could react, more purple magic flashed in front of them, leaving behind a grey haired Twilight Sparkle.

“So you’ve come at last,” she said. “A pity you’re too late…”

“Too late?” Repeated everypony else, including the Cakes.

Twilight hung her head. “Later than we originally believed, even.”

“You can’t mean…” Cup started before going silent, hanging her own head.

Berry stepped forward. “Would somepony mind telling us what it is my friend and I are too late for?”

“Oh, of course,” Twilight replied, her horn beginning to glow. “My apologies.”

Yet another flash of purple magic took the ponies into a narrow corridor. Various sized pipes ran alongside the stone walling with the odd light in the distance flickering on the ceiling. Everything seemed damp.

“Could you get any more depressing?” Cliff remarked.

Ignoring her companion, Berry stared at Twilight expectantly.

“First off, I’m Twilight Sparkle, leader of the Solar Empire Resistance.”

“We’ve met before… sort of. I’m Berry Punch and my friend is Cliff Jumper.” The mare casually saluted upon hearing her name. “We’ve come from the past to provide assistance.”

“Hmm… that explains the residue of Celestial particles and the other anomalous energy about you. It does bring up more questions though, like why are you here? Normally, ponies go back in time to change the future. And there’s also the question of how, because the only method of time travel I know of is a spell that-”

Berry interrupted the Unicorn, “I’ll explain everything, Miss Sparkle. It might be easier if I had a chalkboard though.”

“Mind if I go to the restroom?” Cliff said.

Cup turned to her, smiling, “Of course, honey. I’ll show you where it is and give you a tour too.”

“A tour? Of a resistance base? You kidding me?”

Cup’s smile didn’t falter. “Not at all.”

“Awesome!”

While Twilight took Berry to a meeting room with Carrot in tow, Cup escorted Cliff to the little filly’s room.

Author's Note

If you can think of a better parody title for the chapter, I don't mind hearing it. My thanks to my new proof reader TheSheepMaster, who is also a little editorial on the side. Oh, and said editing will be post publishing, because I'm tired and I wanna get this out for you to read NAO!

Part 2C - I, Pony

Part 2C: I, Pony

The Solar Empire Resistance’s underground headquarters was about the size of Ponyville, with around half the population, which made for a rather empty looking base. Most of Cup Cakes tour consisted of empty meeting rooms, dingy corridors, a couple mess halls, the odd lounge here and there and more restrooms.

Cliff Jumper was reminded of a museum tour where the guide is clearly trying and failing to make the place more exciting than it was. It made one pity said guide, seeing as they had a better chance at making a sentient robot that defied the laws of physics. Cup Cake noticed her audience losing interest and hurried her along to the pièce de résistance; the Relic Room.

Upon entering the Relic Room, Cliff’s eyes lit up. Podium after podium held up items and artifacts holding sentimental value to the resistance. The first thing to catch Cliff’s attention was Rarity’s battle equipment, labelled ‘Generous Goddess of War’. The attire was minimalistic, and the blades were permanently stained with blood. It was a pity they didn’t have any pictures.

Cup just smiled as Cliff went between all the podiums with childish excitement. Other things amongst the collection were Fluttershy’s gear from her time as a guerrilla fighter. She had lost all hope for ponykind and dedicated herself to protecting her animals in the Everfree Forest. In return, those animals treated her like their own royalty, coining her the name of ‘Beast Princess’.

In the end, Angel Bunny betrayed her, having been lead to believe that Luna would treat her well. Instead, Fluttershy was almost killed, and the Everfree forest was wiped off the map. Now she lay old and crippled in the base’s living quarters. She was not a happy bunny.

There was nothing else worth mentioning, with the rest being loot or armour from certain battles. The ponies connected to them were unknown to Cliff. After a little longer, she was finished and the tour came to its conclusion in the living quarters. Nothing to see but some ponies sleeping, and Fluttershy looking at the wall as if there was a window there to look out of longingly. With the tour now over, the pair went in search of the others.

Berry Punch had successfully explained that she and Cliff were from a Ponyville when Nightmare Moon had been defeated. Twilight then went on to explain the fates of the Element Bearers. They’d never heard of Pinkie Pie, Rarity was dead, Fluttershy crippled, Applejack and her family went AWOL and Rainbow Dash hadn’t returned from going out to bring them back.

It turns out that, back when this timeline’s Twilight tried to take on Nightmare Moon, she had still realised the connection between the elements and her friends, except nopony was there for laughter. The elements did indeed appear, but the balloon shaped gem had no recipient. And thus, the New Lunar Republic came into power.

Just before the arrival of the time travelers, Twilight had tested the last pony with a balloon in their cutie mark. There had been no reaction. It was at this point that Cliff and Cup showed up.

“So, this robot getting built or what?” Cliff asked, still a bit shaken from seeing Fluttershy.

Berry smiled at her friend’s return. “I was just getting to that.”

“I’m sorry… robot?” Twilight repeated, skeptically.

Berry explained the events of Glitchie Pi’s malfunction.

Carrot hesitantly spoke up, “Erm… I don’t mean to burst your bubble… but…”

“We don’t know the first thing about building or maintaining robots… nopony does,” Cup finished.

“Then how on Equis-”

Berry put a hoof to Cliff’s lips, evidently thinking hard on the conundrum.

“Perhaps… I can teach you… As long as you’re willing to learn…”

“O-Of course!” Agreed the Cakes.

“If only Pinkie were here now,” Cliff commented. “She’d do something like, I dunno… announce ‘IT’S MONTAGE TIME!’”

Over some undefined period of time, Berry Punch taught the Cakes all she knew about robotic engineering. Cliff Jumper just lazed around the base, getting to know the resistance fighters, eventually getting recruited on their missions. Most went by uneventfully. Then, one perma-night, they were ambushed.

Nearly all of the group, out on a reconnaissance mission, were killed. Cliff Jumper managed to escape undetected, having been ordered to run by the captain. Said captain reappeared near the statue entrance, heavily injured.

“Everypony else is dead,” he said. “But they fought to their last breaths. I managed to slay the last of our enemies and make it here.”

Having galloped most of the way back, Cliff was too exhausted to wonder how a heavily injured stallion could reach the base at the same time as herself. They were swallowed up by magic. But, instead of the usual room where they’d be checked for corruption, Cliff and the captain found found themselves in Twilight Sparkle’s office. The mare in question sat at her desk, head lying over her papers, blood seeping from her neck. With one last gasp, Twilight died before their eyes. A pony, wrapped in shimmering darkness not unlike Luna’s mane, fled through the door.

“Sweet Po-”

“Cliff, you check on the Cakes and Miss Punch! I’ll gather up the troops to search for the culprit!”

Before Cliff could respond, the captain was also out the door. She took a moment to close Twilight’s eyes, wishing the Unicorn the best in the afterlife, and then left too. Minutes later, the Cakes and Berry Punch were met with a panting Cliff Jumper.

“She’s what!?” Carrot exclaimed, comforting his already distraught wife.

“Dead. A slit throat. The one who did it kinda looked like Luna’s mane in pony form.”

Berry was already checking her weapons. “What’s being done about it?”

“Plot went to rally the others for a search.” Cliff frowned, “Come to think of it, he moved kinda fast for somep-”

Another pony rushed into the meeting room, almost earning herself a bullet in the head.

“We’ve got a problem! A corrupted pony got in! Half the base is either dead or turned!”

“Who was it?” Berry asked.

“Captain Device, Ma’am.”

“Dammit, Plot!” Cliff screamed, punching a wall.

“We need to get you ponies to safety!”

The pony made to turn around, but then suddenly collapsed, a knife sticking out of her head.Behind her stood the pony shaped shimmering darkness. Where the face would be was the mask Fluttershy had worn during her guerilla days. The knife also belonged to Fluttershy.

Cliff Jumper attempted to tackle the assassin with full force, only to get redirected into a wall. Berry Punch fired off a few shots, the enemy managing to dodge all bar one. Where the single bullet hit in the leg, darkness dispersed, revealing a little hint of familiar yellow fur. Upon seeing the looks of realisation on her quarry, Fluttershy dropped the cloak of darkness completely.

“By the Gates of Tartarus,” Carrot muttered.

Cup just huddled up behind her husband, frightened beyond belief. Taking advantage of the pause, Fluttershy freed her knife from her last victim’s skull. More bullets came her way, and with the help of her knife, all were evaded or blocked. The revolvers were emptied. Fluttershy lunged forward, knife aimed for Berry’s eyes.

Unlucky for the corrupted Pegasus, Berry swung the assault rifle from her back and unleashed hell. Fully automatic death pierced Fluttershy, shattering the mask she wore as lead filled every inch of her. The four ponies stared at the dead mares. There was no time to rest, however, as the sound of battle could be heard down the corridors, growing louder as it came closer.

Berry spun on the spot, facing the Cakes with determination. “Carrot. Cup. We’re gonna have to leave earlier than planned. You got those pills?”

The pair nodded and pulled the mentioned pills out, swallowing one each. Cliff watched this while lifting herself from the ground, rubbing her head. Before anything could be said on the subject, Berry Punch had her guns back in their respective places and was pulling Cliff closer. The Cakes gathered up some blueprints and stepped up to the time travellers.

“We all ready?” Berry enquired, hoof hovering over the Harkness.

Hooves were placed on Berry, their owners nodding. With a simple beep, they vanished. The timeline continued on without them. Although the past would be changed, this version of events would never cease to exist. The base was overrun. Night reigned eternal.

It turns out that one grows used to time travel quite fast, as Cliff was only slightly disorientated. The first thing she saw was Berry tending to an unconscious pair of bakers.

“What happened to them? Are they alright?”

Berry stood up, searching her pockets for something.

“They’re fine. Those pills they took are taking effect is all. They’ll wake up in a state of suggestibility and find…” The mare pulled out a rolled up note. “This!” She placed it by the sleeping ponies.

“I don’t-”

“Understand? I gave them the pills, claiming they were for one’s first time travel experience. Then I had Carrot write a note for our past selves, dictating it ‘word for word’. When they awake, they’ll never know we were here.”

“Oh… wow… damn you’re smart. By that I mean super smart, ‘cause I already knew you were smart but this is like smart on a whole new level. I wish I could be even one tenth of how smart you are. Seriously, the surprise is in the extreme level of smartne-”

Cliff stopped when a hoof was gently held to her lips. The ‘super smart’ mare giggled and smiled.

“Cliff, honey… you’re smarter than you think. Why else would I drag you along?”

“For comedic effect?”

Another giggle, and a hoof was replaced with a second pair of lips. The kiss was brief, but wonderful all the same. Cliff Jumper just stood there, eyes closed, smiling to herself. Berry went to work making sure nopony bothered the two suggestible ponies still snoozing away. When Cliff finally came back her senses, her favourite mare in the whole world was finishing up.

“So, we off to save a dear little changeling…” Cliff had to pause, wondering what one called a young changeling. “-ling?”

“Not straight away. I want to visit a certain rock farm while we’re here.”

“You mean the Pies’? Why?”

Berry was already making her way up a grass slope near where they’d arrived.

“To investigate.”

“Can’t argue with that, I guess,” Cliff said to herself. “Isn’t like we’re limited on time.”

So the two mares made there way up the slope. At the top, the ground fell away onto a rock farm. Partying could be heard from the silo, and with nopony in sight, they jumped down and headed for it.

“You know, I never understood rock farms. It’s like they were invented for the sole reason of having a zero in a one to ten scale of boredom. We already have mining qua-”

All of a sudden, screams pierced their eardrums, once more coming from the silo. Berry and Cliff began to gallop. Upon entering, the first noticeable thing was everypony gathered around a single spot, everypony being an old-ish looking couple and two fillies. Looking over the fillies, a third could be seen convulsing on the floor, pastry and cream littering her face; Pinkie Pie was choking. Immediately jumping into action, Berry commenced performing the heimlich maneuver.

A minute or so went by and Pinkie couldn’t be saved. The father took off his hat, struggling to hold back the tears. The other three Pies cried openly, Cliff comforting the best she could. Berry lowered the filly to the ground. Close by, a mashed pie lay discarded, Pinkie’s facial imprint being the last recorded smile of a great pony to be.

There was something off about the pie. Like a flash, Miss Punch was at the pie, examining its contents. She scooped out a hoofful, and proceeded to lick it. A moment later, a dark blue ball burst out of the pie. The size of the average apple, the sphere was squidgy like foam.

Berry whispered, “Chapple Seeds… but how?” The mare spun around to point a hoof at Mister Pie, shouting, “You there! Describe the moment the pie was thrown!”

For a stallion in a such a situation, he remembered the scene surprisingly clearly.He provided everypony’s locations; all six of them. But, when Berry pointed out the fact there were only five present, Mister Pie didn’t seem to understand. None of the Pies were able to notice the problem. They agreed there was only five of them, yet would then agree there was a sixth without realising how it didn’t add up.

Eventually, the time travellers gave up and gave their condolences, exiting the silo. While they walked away, Berry stared at the ball from earlier.

Cliff had never seen such a thing. “What is that?” She wondered aloud.

“A Chapple Seed,” Berry answered, matter of factly. Noticing her companion’s blank look, she explained, “An ancient breed of apple seed. They’d been banned back in my time for the hazard they posed. Basically, Chapples are a kind of apple that are almost identical to plain apples. The difference was in the seeds and, if you concentrate hard on it, the flavour. The seeds, when exposed to saliva, expand into what you see before you. Many a soul lost their life, choking on these things. They were supposed to be extinct , but rumour had it that Luna preserved some, using them like one used poison during the war.”

“But then… wouldn’t that mean… that sixth pony...?”

“Yes… the pony who murdered Pinkie Pie… is in some way connected to the Old Lunar Republic… maybe even from that time, like myself…”

“Sweet Pony Jesus…”

Author's Note

Next stop, Flutterling. Likely to be a simple mini-part, like a prequel to the next segment, because it's not really gonna end up having 3 chapters like the others.I should add that the 3 chapter-ness so far has been coincidental.

Part 2.5 - Gravity, thou art a Heartless Bitch

Part 2.5: Gravity, thou art a Heartless Bitch

Even in a world chock full of magic, all ponies must abide by the rules of physics. Sure magic can defy them, but even that has rules to follow, and besides… our two heroines are Earth Ponies. They don’t even have wings, which is another downer, considering a specific factor of physics: Gravity. You may have heard this before, but Gravity is kind of a bitch.

Berry Punch and Cliff Jumper burst into existence in a dark and now twisted future. One did not have to look far to see Discord’s effect on the world. However, there was no time to take in the sights. As soon as the pair finished materialising, Gravity saw that somepony wasn’t on the ground and yanked them down. Berry Punch was left alone on the edge of a chasm as Cliff Jumper plummeted.

“Oh buck!” Cliff yelped.

Berry dived to catch a hoof, but missed. She watched helplessly as Cliff fell. Thankfully, countless roots stuck out the chasm’s wall, and the lucky mare managed to grab a couple.

Berry sighed with relief, “Phew. Hang on, Cliff! I’ll get you out of this!”

Cliff Jumper, being an adventurer with a talent for climbing, was fine on her own now that she had things to grip. As such, she was already carefully making her way back up.

“Don’t worry yourself, Berry!” she called back. “I’ll sort myself out!”

Berry, busy searching for a long, strong vine, wasn’t listening.

“Seriously, Berry! This is my kinda thing! You need to keep an eye out for the little Changeling!”

As if on cue, a strange little sound reached Cliff’s ears. Not unlike a filly screaming. Very much like a filly screaming. The climbing mare halted her upward effort and looked around for the poor girl.

Upon spotting her, Cliff yelled as loud as she could, “BERRY!”

“What!?” Berry snapped back, popping her head over the side.

Cliff pointed at the Changeling. “Save her!”

“But what about you?” The stubborn ‘saviour’ questioned, seemingly oblivious to how Cliff was a third of the way up now.

“I’ll be fine! She won’t!”

Berry was taking too long to make the easy choice, so Cliff just huffed and jumped off.

“CLIFF!”

It was clear to the soldier that her special somepony was on course to intercept the falling Flutterling, but she couldn’t understand why. Cliff had no means of stopping their fall after catching her. Only Berry, with her Harkness, could save them now. With that in mind, she took a few steps back before running up and swan diving.

Cliff had already reached Flutterling, the filly now unconscious. Now, she was doing everything in her power to cause air resistance. From all points of view, they were cutting it close. Berry got to work on the Harkness coordinates, still catching up. The unforgiving ground grew closer and closer. Cliff’s primary concern was the Changeling. She positioned herself below the little creature and pushed away. Berry got a hold of Flutterling, and kept going, reaching a hoof out to Cliff.

The mare was mere inches away. She put on a smile and shook her head. Tears from Cliff sprinkled Berry above. Something was said, but the wind in their ears was too loud for speech of any volume to be heard.

Nevertheless, Berry read Cliff’s lips, “Just go!”

The ground, ever present, open its arms to the ponies. Berry kept reaching out with one fore hoof, while the other moved to the Harkness. Cliff recognised the screen display from the first time. Only one more thing needed pushing before traversing time. The hoof didn’t touch any buttons though. Instead, it loosened the strap, allowing the device to slip down.

The strap was caught just before it came off completely, and the monitor was within reach of Cliff. A light tap from her and all three of them vanished, leaving the previously welcoming ground all alone. Forever Alone. No wonder it was so unforgiving.

For the second time, it is the day of the legendary Sonic Rainboom that led to the Element Bearers earning their cutie marks. As it turns out, it also the day that most of those very fillies die. A happy and dark thought all at once.

Our intrepid travellers of time and space, plus one, crashed through forest foliage. Berry shielded their charge. With a final thump, the three of them ended up in a heap in a small clearing. Slowly and painfully, Cliff crawled out of said heap and tried to stand. She ached all over from the beating the branches had just given her, but at least she was alive.

Looking up, Cloudsdale could be seen in all its glory. Further along, Cliff could make out a gathering of foals, a certain filly with a rainbow mane sticking out like a sore thumb. The race had yet to start, so the Earth Pony rushed into the bushes to try and get under the starting line. It was difficult to keep an eye on the clouds with all the trees, but Cliff managed well enough. That is, until a mare stopped her.

“Cliff Jumper, what do you think you’re doing?” Berry demanded from behind.

Cliff spun on the spot to face her. “Trying to save Fluttershy. What else?”

Blankly, Berry responded, “You can’t.”

“And why not?”

“Because we can’t alter the time loop. If you save her, the future does just fine, so there’s no Flutterling, which means we don’t come here to save her. If she lives, we cause a paradox that tears the fabric of time.”

Cliff roared in frustration. “Then how did this precious time loop of yours start, huh? Tell me that! If it weren’t for us, there’d be no Glitchie Pi OR Flutterling, but we’re here because of them!”

Berry facehooved. “No, we’re here because of my future self killing Applejack. If it weren’t for that, I never would have realised we needed to get involved.”

“THAT DOESN’T CHANGE ANYTHING!”

“Nopony knows how a loop starts, ok? There are infinite timelines, and you only need one to created a time loop. The odds of being the initiator are so minimal, you’re more likely to be born with a defect allowing you to manipulate all of reality without consequence on yourself!”

“That was… oddly specific…”

“It doesn’t matter!”

“You’re right. What does matter is that even in the full knowledge that I risk destroying all of time and space as we know it, I will be DAMNED if I don’t try to save her life. If I didn’t, what kind of mare would I be?”

The determination radiating from Cliff stunned Berry. An answer did come to mind. She’d be heartless is what she’d be. Like Gravity; like herself. The defeated mare opened her mouth to tell Cliff to go and do what’s right, but she was interrupted before she could begin. A strangely quiet scream came from the sky. Hearing screams was becoming common place for these two, but it didn’t stop them from reacting as if this was the first they’d heard.

They knew who this scream belonged to and immediately galloped the way Cliff had already been heading. It was falling too fast, and unfortunately, it stopped with a horrible, crunching thud a few metres ahead of the mares. Breaking out into the clearing, the first thing Cliff saw Fluttershy’s crippled form. It reminded her of the Fluttershy who had been betrayed by her closest animal friend.

Berry’s attention, on the other hand, was caught by suspicious rustling on the other side of the clearing. She was off like a shot, darting after the sound. This left Cliff to rush to Fluttershy’s side. The poor girl was still alive. Cliff couldn’t bring herself to put the filly out of her misery, so instead she went to work making her as not uncomfortable as possible.

“I’m so sorry, Fluttershy.” Tears trickled down both their faces. “I… I wish I could… do something… ANYTHING… to save you… but even if I was allowed… I can’t…”

Fluttershy tried to speak, her eyes so fearful.

“Don’t talk. It’ll just hurt more. I promise you though… You’ll meet friends in the afterlife… I know it… new and old…”

While Fluttershy’s breath slowed to nothing, Cliff looked away. To watch life leave another’s eyes was too much torture to bare. Consequentially, this action caused Cliff to notice peculiar bruising around the base of the wings. It looked as if something had restrained them; a rope perhaps.

With Fluttershy finally passing on, Berry returned, her annoyed expression allowing Cliff to guess that whatever she’d been after had got away. Before anything else could be said, more rustling came from where they’d first arrived, implying Flutterling was about to appear. Without a second thought, Berry grabbed Cliff and the pair of them vanished once again.

Part 3A - That's No Cloud City!

Part 3A: That’s No Cloud City!

Disclaimer:

All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, may have been intentional, and could quite possibly reflect on them; I don’t really care.

Two heroines were frozen on the spot, looks of awe smothering their faces. The ache in their necks from staring upwards went completely ignored. If Cliff hadn’t been distracted by the sight before them, she would have thought how unusual it was for Berry to be awestruck. It was indeed quite the sight to behold, but we are kind of getting ahead of ourselves.

After barely avoiding being seen by Flutterling, Berry Punch and Cliff Jumper rematerialised in their third desolate future. It was night time, and all was quiet in whatever hellhole of Equestria they’d arrived in. Nothing seemed Discorded, so that was a plus, but knowing Sweetie Belle’s description of her timeline, there was far more worse things at work.

“Right,” Berry began. “First things first, we need to make contact with the ponies of this time.”

Cliff nodded, her thoughts hanging back on the bruising she’d seen on Fluttershy. Perhaps she should tell Berry Punch. This was considered up until she recalled their previous conversation, as well as something even earlier which she missed.

The soldier continued, “I think I can make out a Cloud City off in the distance. There’s normally civilisation nearby on the ground, so we’ll go that way. Come on.”

“Berry?”

“Yes, Cliff? What is it?”

“You told me I couldn’t save Fluttershy, but you went and tried to save Pinkie Pie… What the hay was with that, huh?”

“Well, it’s like you said-”

Cliff stomped a hoof in protest.

“Don’t use my own words to defend yourself! You’re just a hypocrite!”

“No, I… I’m not I just…”

“You just what, huh? You’ve got noth-”

“I was pretending!” Berry shouted desperately. “You happy now? I was pretending.”

Cliff looked appalled when she asked, “Why… on Equis… would you PRETEND… to save a dying filly… in front of her WHOLE FAMILY?!”

“I-I-I had to. I had to act the part…”

Now Cliff was completely confused.

“What?”

With a gasp of realisation, Berry turned and trotted away, the silhouette of the Cloud City off in the distance.

“Don’t you run away from me, mare!” Cliff shrieked, chasing after her partner. “What was that about acting the part?”

“It’s nothing, really. You wouldn’t understand.”

An angry hoof grabbed Berry’s Sweater and pulled her backwards before forcing her to sit, spinning her round to face Cliff.

“What happened to me being smart, eh?”

At first, Berry tried to avert her eyes from Cliff’s.

“So you lied about that too? I am just here for comedic effect?”

“NO! You are smart… but…” Berry sighed. “It was better if you didn’t know.”

“Well, too late for that, missy.”

“You’re right. The truth is, I slipped a device around your neck without your noticing. It’s called a Cloakling Device.”

“Don’t you mean Cloaking?” Cliff corrected as she felt around her neck. “And there’s nothing here.”

The guilty mare reached over and lifted something Cliff couldn’t see, then suddenly she could. It was like a simple ID card and clicker pen attached to a chain around Cliff’s neck. It had her picture, as well as her name, age, race and date of birth. Along the bottom were three circles labelled ‘Off’, ‘Auto’ and ‘Custom’. The Auto circle was shaded in.

“I meant Cloakling. The information shown on the front is the identity of your current disguise. Shading in another circle clears the previous one. For additional information, look at the back and it’ll show you whatever you need to know. The Auto setting scans your surroundings and decides your disguise appropriately. It made us seem like passing medical professionals when with the Pies, so I had to act like one. It is possible to check the Device without others noticing. Lastly, the Custom setting will make you what you desire, and fill in any blanks for vague requests.”

“It does all that? Why don’t you use these more often?”

“They use an ancient form of Changeling magic, which attracts their kind. Normally not an issue until there are unicorns nearby, their horns amplifying the signal. I should also point out that Auto struggles in larger groups, having to find a good middle ground to avoid any suspicion.”

“Huh…”

Berry got back up and returned to facing the Cloud City, halting instantly upon noticing it had grown closer.

“By the way, don’t go thinking you’re all forgiven by telling me all this. I’m still pissed that you couldn’t seem to trust me. You listening Berry? Oi, Little Miss Secrets!”

“Shut up Cliff and look, will you?”

Cliff followed Berry’s line of sight.

“At what? The Cloud City? What about it?”

“Doesn’t it look closer than before?”

“I wouldn’t know. This is the first time I looked at it.”

“Look closer. I think… I think it’s moving.”

“So? Cloud Cities have been known to move.”

“Not this much in the course of maybe an hour. Even when Pegasi intentionally move them, they do it in the day.”

Cliff Jumper shrugged.

“Maybe it’s eternal night here, too?”

In response, Berry pointed Cliff in the direction of a building light on the horizon.

“I guess not then. I’m just stumped now. That rumbling is getting annoying too.”

“What rumb-”

Then she heard it too: a faint rumbling, growing ever so slightly louder with every passing second. With a little more concentration, Berry matched the increase in volume with movement of the Cloud City. The Sun poked over the horizon and sleepily climbed into the sky, its light crawling away from the horizon. Eventually, it reached the two mares, as well as the silhouette.

What they saw was not a Cloud City, but a flying chunk of metal. More precisely, a purposefully shaped chunk of metal. Jets of flaming propulsion fired downwards, assisted by massive propellers sticking out the sides. Lights flashed here and there on surfaces and corners. Smaller metal objects hovered or flew around it.

“Sweet. Pony. Jesus,” whispered Cliff. “If that’s a Cloud City, then I’m Diamond Dog’s uncle.”

“I agree,” Berry concurred.

“What IS it?”

“Some kind of flying fortress… I spotted some cannons… I think these are the humans Sweetie Belle mentioned.”

“Would’ve been nice if she’d warned us about this!”

“It’s possible she didn’t know about it.”

“True…”

They watched as the fortress flew directly above them and stopped. The Earth Ponies could just make out a couple openings appearing in the bottom of the monstrosity. Next, they dived into the bushes when they saw little figures jumping out of the openings. From the safety of the nearby plant life, Cliff and Berry observed a dozen bipedal figures crash into the ground, completely unharmed.

The figures all wore black, strangely metallic yet malleable clothing all over their bodies. They did not clink or clang as they moved about. The helmets they wore had darkened, full face visors. From head movements, they seemed to be communicating with one another. The squad search the area around them.

In the process of moving back with Berry Punch, Cliff Jumper saw a muddy hand in place of a forehoof and tripped, the consequential noise the action produced attracting the attention of one of the soldiers. In the brief moment between tripping and being discovered, Cliff looked down to see herself as a human female. There were strange lumps on her chest, tattered clothes covering her body, both flesh and artificial material smothered in dirt and sap.

“What the bu-”

The soldier saw Cliff’s distraught face and offered a hand.

Their visor turned seethrough as they softly cooed, “It’s alright, miss. I’m not gonna hurt ya.”

The voice was male, and the young looking face smiled welcomingly. Knowing what these things were capable of, Cliff remained cautious, but she had to keep up appearances, looking human herself. Taking the hand, she was helped up by the nameless soldier.

“There we go now. Sir,” he called out to the apparent commanding officer. “I found one of them.”

The only soldier not doing any searching replied, “Ok, Stiggerz. Does she know where the other one is?”

Berry Punch, in a similar state to Cliff, stepped out of the bushes, hands held high.

“Well, I guess that makes things easier,” commented the officer. “You others had any luck finding the source of the energy signature.”

A chorus of ‘No Sir’s was the response. The officer checked something on the inside of his visor and grunted.

“It appears it has dispersed. O’Neil to Command, we have the lifesigns, but no luck on the energy signature. Permission to return?” Silence. “Acknowledged. On our way.”

Without a word, the young soldier wrapped his arms around Cliff, another soldier doing the same for Berry.

“Hold on tight,” said the humans.

The fake humans did as they were told. The squad abruptly took flight, thrusters powering out of their feet. Within in moments they were inside the airborne command base. Most of the soldiers immediately went about their own business, disappearing through one of two exits. The officer and two soldier that had carried Cliff and Berry guided their charges through the other exit.

The interior was just as much a sight to behold as the exterior. Long, clean and carpeted corridors, wide enough for four or five ponies, and tall enough to fit Celestia. It was so warm and welcoming for something so very grey. many other humans were passed. Some in military uniforms, others in labcoats, many in plain clothing with attached IDs. It was all very utilitarian.

Stiggerz spoke up quietly, “So what are your names?”

Cliff saw Berry check her Cloakling Device, and followed suit.

Berry answered, “Rebecca.”

Cliff added, “A-and mine’s S-S-Sophie.”

“Well, everyone round here calls me Stiggerz,” Stiggerz said with another gentle smile.

Silence returned. After a good few minutes of twists, turns and stairs, the group finally ceased movement. They stood within a simple room. Clearly living quarters, there were two army style beds, one above the other, cupboards and drawers, and ensuite bathroom with shower and sink. Fresh changes of clothing were laid out one of two empty desks lining the walls.

“This will be your room,” explained the officer. “Should you need anything, just ask aloud and someone will respond. Stiggerz will take first shift at your door, and you are not to even attempt to leave unless someone invites you to. Are we clear?”

The women nodded.

“Alright then.”

The officer turned to leave.

Berry squeaked, “Uhm, what’s your name?... Sir?”

Without turning back, the officer replied, “I am Colonel Michael O’Neil, with one L.”

And then he left, his two soldiers in tow. Aware that people could hear their every word, Cliff and Berry limited their conversation to what they hoped would be safe and expected of two women who’d got lost in the wild. Without much else to do, they took turns getting cleaned up and reclothed.

Cliff figured there must be more to the Cloakling Devices than an optical illusion… it was weird to touch and painful to try to understand. How did she know how to walk bipedally? If they have to keep things quiet from eavesdroppers, she may never know.

Out of the blue, Berry said, “So we need to somehow find a way to locate Sweetie Belle.”

The only response Cliff could give was a horrified stare.

“Oh, the microphones? After a short time, Devices can hack microphones and cameras.”

“You could have started with that.”

“Sorry for wanting to get the job done.”

“... So, what do we do? You’re the smart one.”

“You’re still sore about that?” Berry shook her head. “No, not the time for this. We’re in enemy territory. Hmmm…”

A knock came on the door, and in walked Colonel O’Neil, followed by a man clearly his superior. This man wore an all white suit with many badges and on his shoulders rested two silver stars that just screamed leadership. His face was showing signs of aging, with a greying brown chin beard connecting to a thin moustache, forming a circle around the mouth. His head hair was almost short, the little fringe sweeping up and to the side. His stare was an analytical one.

The Colonel had ditched his battle gear for simple military uniform, a silver bird on his shoulders. Unlike the greying man, Michael had a full beard, and long hair, also brown, tied back in a rivian ponytail. His yellow, greenish eyes seemed worn out, assumedly having seen things they wished to unsee.

“So you’re Rebecca,” the man nodded to Berry. “And Sophie,” then to Cliff. “Welcome aboard Pride Rock, humanity’s aerial base of operations in the fight against Equestrian scum. I am the commanding officer, Major General Francis Ham. Do you have any questions?”

“Well… erm…” Berry started, trying to plan her words carefully. “Are there any ponies on board?”

Ham chuckled heartily, “Why of course not, dear. We shoot on sight in most situations, and the other kind of situations hardly arise.”

“O-oh… what kind of plans do you have in beating them once and for all?”

“Why, aren’t you a curious one. Well, we have many plans in the making! You see…”

The General babbled on about this and that, none of it helpful for the two spies. He had the full attention of ‘Rebecca’, the girl eating up every syllable with her eardrums. The Colonel had heard it all before and started to stare at ‘Sophie’, who stared right back. This went on for a while. A long while. One hell of a while. At some point, ‘Sophie’ flickered green, brown and blue. Michael blinked. It happened again. He subtly rubbed his eyes. And again she flickered. One more flicker later and she remained altered.

Cliff tilted her head slightly, confused as to why the Colonel was acting out. She didn’t know he was seeing a humanoid version of her pony self; an anthropomorphic pony. Two things were stopping him from saying anything to his superior officer: One, never before had anyone ever seen an anthro pony during this war, and two, this was the first pony who hadn’t stared daggers at him. There was no hatred, or ill intent. She just looked, for lack of a better word, innocent.

The only problem now was how could he communicate with the pony woman without attracting unwanted attention? The answer was that he couldn’t, because right at that point, an impatient Berry Punch perform a bit of a faux pas.

“Do you, or do you not, have, in this gigantic monstrosity of a flying machine, an artificially created filly Unicorn?!”

The rest of the room was struck speechless. No one knew how to react. Thankfully for the Major General, Stiggerz had been listening from outside, and consequentially charged in, tackling Berry Punch. Not wanting to seem idiotic, Colonel O’Neil quickly got a hold of Cliff Jumper.

“To the brigs, sir?” he queried.

Francis was almost too stunned to concur, “Y-y-yes.”

Stiggerz lead the way, muttering to his Colonel, “A bit slow there, sir.”

Having his hands full with a struggling woman, Michael couldn’t hit Stiggerz for his insubordination. He’d have to give it later.

To help himself and calm Cliff down, he whispered into her ear, “I can see your true form. Do not worry. I will not allow the deaths of innocents.”

As the words left his lips, he felt a twang of pain in his head. Choosing to ignore it, Colonel Michael O’Neil escorted a less resilient Cliff Jumper down to the brigs.

Part 3B - Saving Private Sweetie

Part 3B: Saving Private Sweetie

It didn’t take long for the humans to discover the Cloakling Devices. They already had technology for detecting Changeling magic, and with a little modification, increasing the sensitivity, the alarms went off. Not wanting to be killed, Berry and Cliff kindly handed over their Devices, as well as Berry’s weaponry and Harkness. She convinced them it was an advanced PDA.

The originally sweet and friendly Stiggerz did a complete personality U Turn and treated them like scum. He hit them whenever he could, enjoying every moment he got to cause them pain. After about a day, the interrogations started. Almost all the different people who spoke to them blurred into one.

One that stuck out, however, was Doctor Alex Smith. Behind a pair of slim rimmed glasses were two manic, green eyes. His hair was the same as the Colonel’s, except mildly greasy. The generic lab coat he wore was too big for him at the shoulders. He always wore an expression of over enthusiastic delight.

This man was the head honcho of the Science Division of Pride Rock. The mares knew this because Doctor Smith made a point of telling them this, as if to impress, or maybe threaten them. He had a habit letting his mouth run. One of the interrogations with Berry Punch went a little bit like this:

“Hello again, Miss Punch.” Alex strolled briskly into the room, his upper class accent wondering, “How ARE you today?”

“That Stiggerz boy beat my friend in front of me… again.”

The Doctor slid a doggie bowl of water over to Berry while going on to say, “Ah, well, yes, he’ll do that,won’t he? Can’t say I blame him. Your kind brought this upon itself.”

“So you keep saying.”

“So says the facts of history, dear Berry. But, we both know all about that, and it is of course NOT what we’re here to discuss.”

“Fire away, professor.”

“First, thank you on your insight into your equipment. We had no idea your kind had advanced so much. Guns equally as deadly as our own yet so primitive looking… it is amazing what magic enhancements do… and yet we’ve never seen such a magic before. Some kind of forbidden art,perhaps? It doesn’t matter. As soon as we have permission from High Command, my colleagues and I will get to truly open those beauties up. Same goes for those disguises. Surely there is some kind of reality bending magic around them to hide their true size and contents…

“Today, however, I would like to discuss something you mentioned the day you turned up: Our secret little filly.”

“I’ve been asked about this before, and I’ve told you everything.”

“Oh, so I’ve heard, but I want to hear it from the horse’s mouth. Care to… elaborate once more?”

Berry sighed quite audibly before explaining, “Our spies discovered the remains of a long dead mare, and detected traces of former human presence. After examining the remains, they theorised that you had taken samples of DNA. The most logical reasoning behind your actions was cloning.”

“Very good. Word for word. Now here’s my response: Bull. Shit.”

“I’m sorry if you don’t like what you he-”

“Shut the fuck up and listen to ME, bitch! The others may hear the word ‘spies’ and think that’s a feasible excuse behind your knowledge, but I have a different theory. The technology we’ve confiscated over the years does not match up with yours. We are winning this war by a landslide. A slow landslide, but a landslide nevertheless. I find it hard to believe that everything we’ve seen before you came along was all a ruse.

“You, my dear, sweet, little Earth Pony… you are so unlike those savages we have been slaughtering over the years. Your eyes betray you. They do not house the utter disgust shared by the rest of your kind. You have not stopped lying to us. Now, call me crazy- you wouldn’t be the first- but I think your precious PDA does a lot more than you let on. Judging from everything I’ve learned up to this point… I would hazard a guess at… a Time Machine?”

The mare blinked.

“AHA! I knew it!”

And with that, Doctor Smith ran out of the room, ending the interrogation. Berry nervously drank her water.

Cliff Jumper was having a slightly different interrogation experience. It seemed the Colonel had developed an interest in her. Even though she now looked like an ordinary Earth Pony, it hadn’t stopped Michael from taking on the role of head interrogator for the mare. When Cliff came in, heavily bruised from her latest beating, the man called in a Medical Doctor to tend to her while they spoke.

“Do not worry about him, Cliff. He’s one of those rare doctors that takes his oath to heart, treating every living being as best he can. Of course, in our culture, a vet might be better suited, but we have had no need for them in this war.”

As usual, Cliff remained silent. She had hardly spoken in any of her interviews.

“Come now, Cliff Jumper. It’s been a week. Surely I’ve proven myself trustworthy. Isn’t there anything I can do to earn your trust once and for all?”

“Leave Equestria.”

This was one of the few things she was known to actually say.

“I don’t have any say in that matter, as I’ve told you before. Look, I can tell from your eyes that you’re not part of this war. Please, let me help you. Maybe I can find a way to send you back to wherever it is you came from. Lord knows it must be untouched by humanity.”

Cliff snorted lightly.

“Made you laugh, did I? See? No other pony I’ve encountered could laugh like that in this situation. Tell me about where you come from; what it’s like to live in peace.”

Colonel O’Neil scanned Cliff for a reaction, and saw… something. Thinking quickly, he signalled to the people watching through surveillance. Even though it was known that humans beat their captives, they could have no recorded proof of it, so as to have some plausible deniability. The Doctor left.

“No one can see or hear us now.”

Cliff whimpered.

“So feel free to speak up.”

The officer did not move from his seat. He just looked at the mare expectantly. Admittedly, Cliff had been wanting to trust this man since before now, but she kept telling herself it was all lies. She couldn’t keep to herself any longer, though.

“I-I… I come from a little town… called Ponyville.”

“Are you sure?”

“Y-yes… I realise it was probably a key target in your war… but my Ponyville… was long before that…”

She told of her life in Ponyville and Equestria. The adventures, the friends, the enemies, the mare she loved, even if that mare could be so ignorant and hurtful. She then told the tale of Rarity and Sweetie Belle. Michael believed every detail. He told Cliff about the experiment going on in the labs. The filly matched Sweetie Belle’s description.

Eventually, the Colonel left. The Doctor returned to continue tending to Cliff, and that was that. Cliff didn’t wince anymore from the Doctor’s touch, thinking on the Colonel’s last words:

“I don’t know how yet, but I’m getting you, your friend and Sweetie Belle out of here. You can count on it.

The next day, Berry and Cliff were sitting silently in their cells. They hadn’t talked to each other for a few days now. Berry was too ashamed and Cliff was normally either sleeping or being beaten. There was no clear reason why she was the only one being physically hurt, except maybe they knew they need not bother with Berry. Having to watch, unable to help, was punishment enough.

Speaking of Stiggerz, the man showed up with that demented grin. It was his shift to guard them, and that meant time for another round of pain. He unlocked the cell holding Cliff, who shuffled into a corner.

“Oh, don’t be like that, you piece of shit. I know you look forward to this. You deserve this. Take it like a man!”

One foot entered the cell, and then his entire body went sideways, spinning, blood spurting from his shoulder. Colonel Michael O’Neil stepped into view, some form of advanced rifle in his hands, held up to his face to aim. Berry recognised a silencer on the end, but was still stunned by the absolute silence with which the bullet had produced.

Stiggerz tried to get up, a hand on his wound, but his own officer fired two more shots, one in the leg and one in the chest. The young soldier fell back and started coughing up blood.

“Per- *cough* Permission to… *cough cough* speak, Sir?”

“Granted.”

“Fuck *cough* Fuck *cough*... Fuck you…”

A fourth bullet penetrated Stiggerz’ skull.

“Insubordinate prick.”

Another shot was fired and Berry’s cell opened up. The Colonel reached up to his chest and yanked something downwards. All of a sudden, he was in full combat gear with two large bags on his back, and a Cloakling Device in his hand.

Tossing the Device to Berry, he commented, “Real handy gear you got there, Miss Punch.”

“Thank you,” said the mare as she donned it and became human again.

“You’re welcome. I managed to get all your stuff, as well as some Combat Armour for the two of you. Seeing as I just got away with picking everything up in plain sight, I’m going to assume those disguises can make your weaponry look human?”

“Yes.”

Cliff found the other Device, became human, then joined Berry in rummaging through the bags. While they changed, O’Neil kept a gun levelled on the exit.

“I should add that someone caught on to my plans and informed the General. They’re searching for me right now. Without your disguise, they’ll detect me. That and Stiggerz won’t stay dead for long.”

“What?” Both ponies exclaimed.

“The cloning technology Sweetie Belle will use to keep Rarity alive already exists as a means to reduce fatalities in battle. It’s slow and can malfunction, but it’s better than just letting soldiers die. I managed to disable Pride Rock’s cloning facility, but there are backups all over Equestria in our other bases.”

“Well buck,” Cliff said while she examined a human hand gun. “Also, if you don’t mind, I’ll refrain from shooting people.”

Michael started to complain, “But you need to defe-”

Berry cut in, “She doesn’t have to if she doesn’t want to. She’ll just have to go in the middle. I’ll cover our backs.”

“Fine, have it your way. I have a friend who’s on the bridge. He’ll try to give us warnings of enemy movement. You two ready?”

Helmets were donned, visors blacking over. The women nodded.

“Alright. We might be able to pass as troops helping with the search, but be prepared for anything. Move out!”

Three soldiers inconspicuously marched out of the brig and proceeded to head through corridor after corridor, down stairwell after stairwell, single file. It almost seemed like they might reach their next destination without trouble.

“Incoming! Both sides!” a new voice shouted through the helmets’ speakers.

Ten soldiers, five in front, five behind, arrived and aimed their rifles at the traitors.

“Sir,” said one of them. “Please, hand yourself in. We don’t want to shoot you, sir.”

“Ah, they sent my own men to stop me.” The Colonel sighed, “Berry, open fire.”

The mare pulled the trigger on her own rifle, all the while Michael’s rifle’s silencer split in four, slid backwards and the rifle went loud, gunning down his own people.

When the last of them fell, Michael muttered, “I thought I told them never to hesitate.”

The trio continued, this time having to pause frequently, coming under fire at every twist and turn. The two soldiers of the small party received the odd nick on their armour, but nothing serious. The first couple of confrontations made Cliff put hands to her helmet in an attempt to block the noise. So much gunfire. But, after some time, she grew used to it, and would instead keep a watchful eye on the other two, prepared in case one were to fall.

It took a lot of time and effort, but the three of them made it to the labs. Most of the scientists hid away, the soldiers left to defend them taken down in an instant. Doctor Alex Smith, however, stood in the way of the coded lock for Sweetie Belle’s big glass box home. The filly sat, lazily watching the scene unravel before her.

Colonel O’Neil ordered, “Move it, poindexter!”

“Allow me,” offered Berry, spinning a revolver in her hand.

With one hard swing, she hit Alex under the chin with the butt of her revolver, breaking his jaw and sending him tumbling to the side. The man couldn’t speak from the injury, and instead babbled painfully.

“You wanted to see the inside workings of my guns, right?”

The second revolver was drawn, and Berry stood over the scientist, lowering herself so as to rest the ends of the barrels on his eyes, keeping his eyelids from closing. Her own eyes were filled with such coldness..

“Ask and you shall receive.”

Cliff turned away just before the guns went off. To distract herself, she helped the Colonel with Sweetie. The man cursed.

“They already started the brainwashing. She’s in a highly suggestive state. Cliff, find the files on her, see if you can’t find out what the trigger word is to get her out of it.”

While she did that, Berry suggested, “Don’t use it straight away. She had no recollection of anyone’s involvement when she told of her escape.”

“You’re the boss.”

“Found it!”

The file, titled Private Sweetie Belle, was tucked away. Michael broke the box open and picked up the filly, handing her to Cliff. They turned to go, only to find Major General Francis Ham and a dozen soldiers blocking their way. A guilty looking man stood with the General, one of the soldiers pointing a rifle into his side.

This man had short, dark brown hair (an apparently common trait amongst humans), gelled up a little at the front, and hazel eyes. His five o’clock shadow gave a slight scruffy look to him. The clothes, standard monochromatic shirt,trousers and belt, looked a tad baggy. There was a tear where his ID badge would have been.

“Your friend here messed with our vessel’s shields, blocking our respawn signals. We have our best working to fix the problem, but it is quite the pain in the backside.”

“I’m sorry, Mike.”

“It’s alright, Bruce. You did good.”

Berry and Michael placed their weapons on the ground and kicked them away. Francis smiled.

“Oh good. Was wondering if I’d have to tell you to do that. You’re not complete idiots after all.”

“That’s always good, isn’t it, sir?”

“Oh, my poor Mikey, how you have fallen. You were so close to another promotion. Isn’t it just horrible how you sabotaged yourself twice in one day?”

“What on Earth are you talking about?”

“Of course, you don’t know about it do you? You were very good at hiding your plans, you know. No one suspected a thing. Not a soul.”

“Someone must have beca-”

“Not a SINGLE soul… except... you.”

“What!?”

The General shook his head in pity, tutting. He strode forward and placed a hand on the Colonel’s shoulder.

“You were going to be a General, my friend. As such, we had to make sure you were one hundred percent with us.”

The other hand flashed into view, jabbing a needle in the Colonel’s arm, penetrating the armour.

“Lucky for you, this procedure is so successful, we won’t need to kill you. Soon you’ll understand your mistake and be the very person who silences these insolent beasts.”

The needle was discarded, and a pistol was placed in Colonel O’Neil’s hands.

“Do your species proud.”

With a hand on each shoulder, Francis moved Michael to his side and directed him towards the ponies. Michael’s arm shook and lifted the pistol slowly. The man grunted in pain as something malicious swirled around his mind, corrupting him.

“Yes, that’s the spirit!”

An evil cackling filled the Colonel’s ears, deafening him to the General. There was little of his true self still left. The arm stopped shaking, trained on Cliff. Her visor had cleared up. Their eyes met. There was no fear. There was no confusion. There was only trust.

“Night will reign eternal.”

In one smooth, unhesitant movement, Colonel Michael O’Neil put the gun to his own head and fired.

Part 4A - The Punch Identity

Part 4A: The Punch Identity

Please note:

To protect the real identities of those involved in the following events, all names and places have either been changed or completely ignored. However, it should be clarified that the following events are, in fact, completely fictional, albeit not entirely original. As such, pay no attention to the original statement.

It had already been a hectic day for the human at the wheel. One of her friends had just suffered a horrendous break up, having just moved into a new house with this significant other that decided that that was a good time to bugger off and ditch her with the rent. Not only that, but the place was some secluded bungalow in the middle of nowhere. What kind of student lives somewhere so out of touch with courses to attend?

Now, adding to the problems, it’s that part of winter where everything is just wet, making the dirt road to and from the friend’s house ridiculously impossible to drive over. Mud was splattering all over her precious purple peugeot. She’d almost hit a tree at least twice, maybe three times.

Thankfully, it was almost over. Two more turns before a lovely, firm and grippy tarmac road back into town.

“Damn, this mud makes it hard to decelerate!” The woman muttered as she turned the second to last corner. “Holy crap what are people doing in the middle of the road!?”

Brakes were slammed down, but they had little effect. The peugeot slammed into the military looking man. He went sliding across the mud. There was a pause. The man didn’t move. The dazed looking woman in the grass sat up and looked for her friend. The driver, horrified with what she’s just done, stumbled out of the car and slipped over to her accidental victim. He was still breathing.

“Oh thank goodness!”

The driver dug around her pockets, searching for her mobile phone. Realising it was probably in the car, she made her way back and continued the search. Meanwhile, the man’s friend slowly walked over to him.

“Cliff?” she asked. She fell to her knees, placing her hands on the man endearingly. “Cliff… are you there? Say something… please.”

The driver found her phone and dialed 999.

“Wait, no, not in England anymore.”

She cancelled the failing call and dialed 911 instead.

“Come on, come on,” she said to the phone.

“911, what’s your emergency?”

“I just hit a guy with my car! He’s breathing but it’s kind of weak and raspy.”

The woman at Cliff’s side began to weep, moaning, “I’m sorry… Please don’t leave me! You can get through this! I need you!”

Cliff managed to lift a finger to Berry’s lips.

“Sh-... Shut up… Berry… and listen…”

The woman nodded, sniffling, with tears streaming down her cheeks.

“You’re a soldier… you need to act like one… so stop crying…” She made a weak attempt at wiping the tears away for Berry. “You’re a wonderful mare, Berry… I’m sure you’ll find another pony… Just promise that you’ll finish what we started… alright?”

“I promise… cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. Now, you have to promise to survive this!”

“You know I can’t… Pinkie Pie would have my head in the afterlife…”

Cliff burst into a coughing fit. There was blood.

“Please… no…”

“Before I go… need to tell you… about Fluttershy… her wings… bruised… rope…”

“What?”

“Love… you…”

“Cliff? Cliff!?”

Realising Cliff was gone, Berry lost what little control she had left. Taking Cliff’s lifeless body into a deep embrace, the woman wailed at the sky. The driver lowered the phone from her ear upon hearing this, guilt coursing through her. A pair of paramedics came around the last corner, running along the grass verge.

Berry tried to resist their taking the body, but they convinced her that they might still be able to save Cliff. They wouldn’t let her ride with Cliff because they needed room to work. The driver offered Berry a lift instead. The awkwardness of sitting in the very thing that killed her special somepony made for an almost silent journey.

As they entered the town, the driver finally spoke, “My name’s Alexus, by the way.” Silence. “What’s yours?” More silence. “Look, I’m really sorry about Cliff. I mean it. I wanted to stop, I really did… the mud was just so slippy… if there’s anything I can do, please tell me. Absolutely any-”

“My name is Berry Punch, and I’d like it if you would stop talking.”

“Oh… ok… sorry…”

Berry kept holding a hand to her head with a pained look on her face. They reached the hospital, and Alexus drove right up to the front to drop Berry off. She steered away to park the car. When she finally got around to walking into the hospital herself, a nurse caught her attention.

“Uhm, Miss?” he called over. “Were you the one who drove the muddy woman here?”

“Yes, why, what’s wrong?”

“She collapsed. They’re having a look at her now, but we think it’s a concussion.”

“Oh christ… what about Cliff? Hit by a car.”

“Cliff? Erm… the military man? He’s dead. I’m sorry.”

“It’s… it’s alright… I didn’t really know him…”

“Ok then. If you’ll take a seat in the waiting room, we’ll keep you informed on the woman’s condition.”

“Her name’s Berry, and thank you.”

Seating herself in the indicated waiting area, Alexus put her head in her hands. She couldn’t believe she’d killed someone. How could she live with herself? She’d definitely have to make it up to Berry, but the question remained: how? An hour later the same nurse returned with a smile.

“The doctors say it’s okay to visit Berry now. She’s making a very speedy recovery. I’ll take you to her.”

Alexus followed the nurse to Berry’s room, where she was found sat up in bed, staring out the window. The guilty party knocked lightly on the open door and walked in.

“Hello… again.”

“Why are you here, Alexus? I’m sure they told you about Cliff.”

“Yes. Yes they did. I came to repeat my offer to make it up to you in some way.”

Berry sighed.

“Alexus, I believe you when you say it was purely unintentional. That said, there is still a part of me that wants revenge. I ask that you leave me, and hope we never meet again, because I am still emotionally unstable. I may end up hurting you. So, for both our sakes, just go home or wherever you need to be.”

Defeated, Alexus walked away, head hung low. Walking down corridors and stairs, she eventually stepped outside. Locating her car, the woman still felt the crushing guilt of her actions. It was as she inserted key in lock that the sound of smashing glass came to her attention. It didn’t take long to spot the source.

A hospital chair was falling from a window two floors up. Out the very same window leapt Berry Punch. The woman grabbed a nearby tree branch and swung down to ground level safely. Two suited men watched her from the window then disappeared from view. Spotting Alexus, Berry, wearing nothing but a hospital gown, ran between cars to get to her.

“You still want to make it up to me, right?” she shouted, getting closer.

Alexus had to think about this for a second. What would she be getting herself into? It must be dangerous if Berry just had to jump out a window from two floors up. But, then again, she was responsible for the death of this woman’s close friend; possibly her lover. The decision was made.

“Get in!” she ordered, unlocking the boot.

Without missing a beat, Berry dived into the boot. Alexus then closed the boot and returned to the driver’s door. Suits appeared at the hospital main entrance. As calmly and casually as she could, Alexus opened the door, slipped in and started the engine. Reversing out, a quick glance told her the suits suspected nothing. She and Berry left the hospital car park without a hitch.

A little over fifteen minutes later, the car was parked once more, this time outside an apartment block. Berry was let out of the boot when the coast was clear, and they went undetected all the way up to the apartment Alexus called her home away from home.

“Are you sure you’re okay, Berry?,” she asked for the umpteenth time since helping Berry out of the car.

“I heal quickly, and those doctors did a good job. See?”

To prove her point, Berry lightly tapped her head, and didn’t wince.

“I guess they did… would you like a drink or something?”

“Got any beer or whiskey?”

“I’m sorry, I don’t drink.”

“Pity. A water will do fine then.”

As Alexus poured a glass of water, it occurred to her that there was a virtually naked stranger in her apartment. Sure, she was quite possibly in too deep already, but there was still that nagging urge to drop everything and run. She ignored it.

Handing the glass over, Alexus finally got around to asking, “What happened up there?”

“Ah yes, the suited men. They’re apparently from your government, or some secretive division of it. They detected our arrival before…” The incident flashed before Berry’s eyes. “Before Cliff died… And, well, what little I know of government here is not good. So, when they reinforced my doubts with attempted violence, I fended them off long enough to get away as you saw.”

“Hang on! Detected your arrival? MY government? We’re nowhere near any borders. What are you talking about?”

“Cliff and I… we’re, for lack of a better word, aliens.”

“You mean, like… extraterrestrials?”

“Pretty much. You see…”

And so Berry told her long winded tale of adventure. Alexus was sceptical at best. An alternate reality of multicoloured, magical, talking ponies? A physics defying robot? Changelings? It all sounded like a drugged up hallucination to her. She was right about one thing though.

Lorraine Bowem Gordon was a Senior at the same college. Daughter to the college’s sporting legend ‘Flash’ Gordon, she too had a bit of a sporting reputation, nicknamed ‘Dash’ Gordon. Like father, like daughter, really.

Then there were the suits. She couldn’t deny that they were after Berry. And Berry clearly had some skills, considering the precision of her escape from window to earth. To prove it all was simple enough.

“This Cloakling Device. Can you deactivate it for me?”

“Of course.”

Where once there sat a human female there now sat brightly coloured Earth Pony mare. Alexus couldn’t help but jump at the sudden change.

“What? How?”

“Like I said, it’s mentally connected. I just told it that you knew who I was and the Auto didn’t see any need to disguise me.”

Berry Punch still wore the hospital gown, but even that had changed to fit the equine body, and underneath were the clothes Berry had donned back at the beginning of the adventure. Carefully, Alexus reached an arm over, the hand stroking the very real and soft coat on one of Berry’s hindlegs.

“I can’t believe it… You’re really a pony… And you have such advanced technology… with no digits… It doesn’t make any sense!”

“Yes, I’m a pony, and I don’t have to make sense. I’ve got a mission to complete. It would be much appreciated if you could help me, Alexus.”

“Of course I’ll help! And call me Ash.”

“But you said-”

“My full name is Alexus Ashling Lomain. Ash is what my friends call me.”

“You would call me a friend after such a short time?”

Ash leaned in close and stretched an arm over Berry’s equine shoulders.

“Friends trust one another, and you just trusted me with probably the biggest secret I’ve ever heard. And it’s like they say: ‘A friend in need's a friend indeed.’”

“Thank you, Al- Ash.”

“It’s no problem… hopefully. Now, what’s the plan?”

The unlikely duo talked into the night. Berry switched her disguise to manual, humanising herself as simply as possible. As such, her mane stayed the same. The Device gave her new clothes that Ash agreed would not look out of place. They would have to be change every day or so to avoid any suspicion. Berry’s pony clothes were put to one side to be washed.

Lorraine’s big birthday bash was in less than month’s time, and from then on they’d have to keep a vigil eye on the Beer Shop. They also had to be wary of any more interference from the government. Things could end up going pear shaped, especially during the week Rainbow Dash would be around.

Eventually, the need for sleep grew too strong and Ash set Berry up on the couch with some spare bedding. Left alone in the living room, the lonely mare looked towards the closed blinds blocking out the street lights.

“I won’t let you down Cliff…”

Part 4B - Berry Punch VS. The World

Part 4B: Berry Punch VS. The World

In terms of the mission, that first month before Lorraine’s birthday party passed by uneventfully. Ash spent the time familiarising Berry Punch with the town and the cultures of humanity. At the start, Berry was reluctant, not wanting distractions, but it was pointed out to her that if she wished to complete this mission of hers to the best of her abilities, it would be wise to learn how to blend in. As such, she needed to know what it was she was blending in with.

Ash wasn’t exactly the most stereotypical female of her species. She was not a shopaholic, nor was she into chatting about ‘boys’. The closest thing she had to a sense of fashion was knowing what clothes she liked, and which clothes wouldn’t get the local mall fauna pointing and laughing. Ash was a woman who preferred not to catch too much attention. This suited Berry Punch just fine.

It turns out they both had similar ideas of what counted as a good time, at least during the day. Exercise was like a hobby for the unlikely duo, as well as enjoying a good meal without the restrictions of fancy diets. In the evenings, Berry made do without the alcohol she had grown used to drinking on nights off. In its place came new fangled human activities, namely TV, gaming and the internet.

Over the course of two weeks from her arrival on Earth, Berry developed a knack for gaming, using her fake thumbs with a skill one wouldn’t expect from a species used to no digits at all. The internet mainly came into play when Ash had to leave for lectures and other activities to do with her engineering course. With her strong self control, she managed to avoid being drawn in by the many online distractions and focus on studying humanity.

Eventually, as the midway point of the wait rolled by, Ash slowly began introducing Berry to her college buddies. They were small in number, but the care the woman had taken in choosing them proved to be effective, as each and every one of them were a quirky little gem in their own right. By the time the full months wait came to an end, no one would think Berry, or ‘Rebecca Punchini’ (pronounce pooncheeny) was in fact a visitor from an alternate reality.

Winter was coming to an end, and as usual, the snow was only just deciding to arrive. Wrapped up warm under many layers, Ash and Berry pushed through snow reach just above their knees, or at least Ash’s knees. She was slightly shorter than average, at 5’5’’, while Berry was nearer to 6 foot. The party was being held in a student house belonging to a friend of both Lorraine and Ash, so getting an invite was easy.

They were soon in the warm embrace of the party, which had already been under way for a good couple of hours.

“Why is it we’ve come to this party, again?” Berry asked

She frowned slightly at a bunch of men she’d learn to identify as jocks. Two of them seemed to be re-enacting the sport of American Football by one on one scrumming, with those around cheering away. Were they fighting or just ‘being lads’?

Ash smiled, answering, “I got the impression you’re fond of a good drink. This seemed like the best thing to do, seeing as drinking in company is better than alone, right?”

“That’s very considerate of you, but are you sure? Even back home it’s a common fact that being the only sober person isn’t exactly fun.”

“Just go get yourself some punch or something, will you? Before I change my mind!”

Berry smirked and vanished into the crowd. A short while later she returned with a plastic cup of punch and a bottle of beer. Ash looked at the drinks questioningly.

“I’m no expert, but I don’t think those two mix well.”

The cup was held out to Ash.

“This one’s for you, silly.”

“I said I don’t drink.”

“You should try it some time. What happens if you try it another time when you haven’t got someone like me around, eh? It takes a lot to put me out of commission. And besides, you look a tad uncomfortable around so many ‘not-friends’.”

“...”

A voice called out over the crowd, “Hey, Piston Face!”

Ash put a hand to her face, whispering, “Oh, please, don’t be him.”

A man dressed as what Berry believed to be a ‘Hipster’ appeared through the sea of drunk students. Everything about him screamed ‘I think I’m super trendy’, especially his thatch fedora.

“How’s our little sleepy head?” he asked, reaching an invasive arm around Ash’s shoulders, shaking her in an attempt to seem chummy. “Oh, look, a new friend! They call me Thatcher.” He stuck out a hand, which Berry shook. “‘Cause of the hat.”

Berry gasped in mock surprise.

“No, really? I thought it was because you looked like Maggie Thatcher.”

“Oooooo, sharp wit you got there! Hey, want to hear a funny story?”

“Sure. Does it have to do with ‘Piston Face’?”

“That it does!”

Ash snatched the punch from Berry’s hand and gulped it down.

“See, Alexus here stayed up aaaaaaaall night to study for an exam the next morning. We had a lecture the afternoon of the same day, and she fell a sleep. Near the end of this lecture, her seat broke, startling her awake. Thing is, she’d slept on her notes, with the ink still damp, and on her cheek was a diagram of a piston engine. Thing didn’t come off until a couple days later! Funny, huh? Poor Piston Face.”

Berry saw Ash grimace at the repetition of her unfortunate nickname.

“You know, Thatcher… the hipster look really doesn’t suit you… as douchey as it looks, I think you need to go further. Maybe get one of those dunce caps with the big D on it. Tell people it stands for douche. Or dick; dick works too. Hay, maybe just go with the whole Dunce thing.”

This made Ash giggle. Thatcher look offended.

“How-”

“-dare I? Simple, really. You talk, I hear, an opinion of you is made and I express that opinion.”

With that, Thatcher stormed off.

“You know he has loads of friends here, right? He’s president of the Student Union. Others will come.”

“Good for them. More punch?”

“I dunno…”

Another male voice made itself heard over the crowd, “Oi, you! With the funny looking hair!”

“To the punch!”

The rest of the night followed like this:

Ash made a beeline for the main drinks table, leaving Berry to be confronted by two men along with Thatcher. The three men went on to explain that she had insulted the Student Body President. Berry replied with a comment on how this felt like a generic American plotline where new kid is harassed by stuck up popular person. The three men began to harass Berry, who remained unphased. Eventually, she offered they have a drinking competition. Her against all three of them. They could share the drinks amongst themselves; spread out the load. They were unaware of Berry’s legendary liver.

A couple of hours later, and the three men were put in their place. During the contest, Ash had grown bored of punch and gone around trying the other forms of booze present at the party. So, as Thatcher and company went outside to void their stomachs with camera phones recording every second, Berry escorted Ash home. Lorraine was kind enough to call them a cab. The birthday girl was quite appreciative of Thatcher’s trouncing.

Back at the apartment, Ash refused to go to bed and jumped onto the sofa. Berry, drunk but still in moderate control of herself, poured them both some water and humoured her host, switching on the PlayStation3. They then ruined their hard earned kill ratios on Call of Duty.

Between games, Ash lazily slurred, “You know, Berry… I think you’re awesome.”

“You’re not too bad yourself, Ash,” Berry complimented back.

“But you’re like… super fucking awesome…”

To exaggerate her meaning, Ash waved her arms in the air, losing her balance and sliding onto Berry. Her head rested on Berry’s lap. They stared at one another.

“... Hi,” Ash said.

“Hey…”

Ash started to lift herself back up, but snuck a hand behind Berry’s head, bringing her closer, and their lips met. Alarm bells sounded in Berry’s mind and she pulled back. A look of confusion showed on Ash’s face.

“I think it’s time we went to bed.”

Before Ash could do anything, Berry had carried her to bed and tucked her in and then returned to the couch. They fell asleep quickly, thanks to the amount of alcohol they’d both consumed. The next morning, Ash had forgotten the events that had transpired after about halfway through the drinking contest. Berry thought it best to keep it that way while she held Ash’s hair back by the toilet. Turns out mixing punch, beer and then some was indeed an unwise decision.

“Never again,” she said, over and over.

With the party come and gone, the time had come for staking out the Beer Store. Luckily, Lorraine had really meant ‘recently’ in her tale at the Library. Three days after turning twenty one, the unnatural rainbow appeared, and along came Rainbow Dash. Unluckily, the suits from before were quick to return.

At first, it seemed they were at a loss as to where the new visitor had gone. But, during Day 3, Berry learned what had them confused. The suits had gadgets that could detect whatever it was about the filly that allowed her to travel between universes. These gadgets seemed to be blocked off by something in the walls of Lorraine’s student accommodation. When Lorraine decided to take little Dashie out and about for the first time, the suits went on the move.

The first day out took place in the town park. A simple enough plan. There were enough secluded spots around for Rainbow to stretch her wings without being seen by the public. The secret government agency sent only two men, hoping to avoid a scene. That would have been fine if not for the two guardian angels.

Berry knocked one of them out from behind while he hid in a bush. What Ash did with the second target was far more ingenious. She hid behind a tree, breathing deeply, preparing herself. She wasn’t a fan of strangers, let alone shadowy, gun carrying men. In one hand she held a map of the area she’d procured from a friend. With one last intake of air, Ash walked right up to the man, putting on her best posh, British accent accent.

“Excuse me, sir, but I appear to be a little bit lost. Would you mind directing me to the museum?”

The man was surprisingly willing to help and began to direct her. She feigned confusion and misunderstanding. The man altered between using the map and trying to describe mental imagery. Ash would have none of it, playing the perfect, infuriatingly ignorant tourist. When out of the corner of her eye she saw Lorraine head out of the park, she kept the act up for another minute or so before suddenly understanding the directions and wandering off. The man audibly sighed with relief.

She met back up with Berry outside her apartment block.

“What was all that about with the suit?”

The two women entered the building, climbing the stairs.

“I pretended to be a stereotypical tourist.”

“Strange tactics.”

“It worked, didn’t it?”

“I just knocked mine out.”

“You what!? Now they’ll know someone’s onto them! They’ll probably figure out what I did! He saw my face!”

“Nothing else came to mind, I’m sorry!”

The apartment door was opened rather aggressively.

“You seemed to be fine without violence back at the party!”

“People would have seen me! He kinda pissed me off and that usually helps with ad libbing!”

Ash paused at her bedroom door, about to slam it shut behind her. She let out a slow breath and turned around calmly.

“I'm sorry. It... I'm... I just broke the fucking law for some creatures from a different Universe or whatever, and I don't know how bad punishments are where you come from, but here… It-it's basically a chance of ending my life before it actually started for me.”

“... You’ve got college stuff tomorrow, right?”

“Yeah, but-”

“I’ll be fine on my own. It’s like you said, he saw your face. Wouldn’t want to confirm any suspicions they have, would you?”

“... Thanks.”

They went to bed early.

Day 4 passed by without a hitch. Lorraine did go outside, but only to fetch some things for home based activities. Day 5, Lorraine went to lectures, and judging by the entourage of badly disguised stalkers, she took her furry friend with her. Being in big, public places, it was too risky to approach her. There was a lavatory visit, but Berry took a leaf out of Ash’s book and used more subtle, inconspicuous methods of obstruction.

With a little cash, a cleaner was paid off to clean outside the specific toilets Lorraine went into. Then, on the woman’s return to the lecture hall, Berry pretended to be a hurried student and rammed into a couple of men about to pounce. She strongly hoped they wouldn’t see the lack of bag or papers as suspicious.

Now, Day 6 was the day everything almost went to hell in a handbasket. Berry followed Lorraine to the college’s indoor track, where many college athletes were practising. Ash was there too. She didn’t normally get so involved in sports, but it seemed like a good way to help. It was apparently customary for people to just come and watch as they pleased, so the government agents annoyingly blended in with the crowds. The crowds made Ash a little more uncomfortable than she already was with the other practising students.

Seeing no better option, Berry joined the rest of the audience. This ended up being a bad idea, as she soon got engrossed in the athletes, especially Ash. Being around humans so much, acting as one of them, it had altered her perception of them. There was definitely a physical attraction.

Thankfully, Ash had been paying more attention, and saw when someone took Lorraine’s bag. Nobody seemed to be bothered when she left the track. Berry obviously noticed her leave and followed suit. Ash easily caught up with the thief, as the bag’s contents had made it harder to carry, trying to escape.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Ash asked.

Before the man could respond, Ash had kicked him in the face. It was helpful he’d been bent over the bag. Having made contact with the chin, the result was a one hit knock out. With no one holding the bag shut anymore, Rainbow Dash jumped out and flew away.

“Bugger!”

Berry appeared around the corner, having to duck as the filly zoomed past. Ash made to chase after her, but Berry held up a hand.

“I’ve got this. You take the bag back and don’t let Lorraine realise she’s gone.”

Doing as told, Ash grabbed the bag and jogged back to the track. Thinking to search the unconscious agent before pursuing Dash, Berry found a radio.

A whispering voice spoke from it, “The alien is airborne inside the building. I repeat, the alien is airborne. There’s also two new female suspects. One is examining agen- wait… she’s gone. I don’t think she saw m-”

Berry swung open the janitor’s closet, revealing the spy.

“She’s found me! Need bac-”

A swift punch silenced the man, his body slumping backwards over the cleaning trolley behind him. Berry was tempted to say something witty over the radio, but then they’d know she had one, if they didn’t suspect it already. Finally, Berry joined the search for Rainbow Dash. Since arrival, she’d used her Cloakling Device to speak the local language. Now, to lure out her fellow pony, she took on her original form and spoke Equestrian.

“Dashie? Where are you, honey? If you can hear me, you know that there’s only one human who can speak like you, and I’m not her.”

She kept saying the same or similar things over and over as she roamed the maze-like college. Her voice was soft and soothing. Once or twice she almost bumped into an agent, and they heard her speaking but she never let them see her. After some time, it occurred to Berry that a Pegasus would likely seek a high up place. When she found one, the mare checked a map for any places with possibly higher points. Other than the track, the only other possibly high place seemed to be in the theatre, to which Berry headed immediately.

Finding her way in via the main stage, Berry examined the surroundings. Spotting a hint of rainbow coloured hair, Berry sighed with relief.

“Rainbow Dash, can you hear me?”

Indeed hearing her, the filly poked her head from the rafter she was curled up on.

“Another pony? Have you come to rescue me?” she asked as she eagerly glided down to Berry.

Berry hugged the Pegasus foal.

“Not exactly, little one. I am hear to keep you safe before Lorraine gets you home.”

“You know Lorraine?”

“Of course I do. She’s your little human, after all. I have one myself. Her name is Ash. I’d let you meet her, but we need to get you back into Lorraine’s bag before she notices you’re gone.”

“Oh… ok… Erm… Do you have any Ponyville apples? I haven’t had one since the day I got here.”

“I’m sorry, Dash, but I’m all out. Now, I’m going to use a little Earth Pony magic, ok? It’ll make me seem human so that I can sneak you back.”

Rainbow nodded her understanding. Once human again, Berry picked up the filly and hurried out of the theatre, checking every turning before moving forward. It appeared the agents weren’t as intuitive as Berry, and were doing a thorough sweep of every room. Mare and filly reached the track, undetected, and RD was safely returned to the confines of Lorraine’s bag.

Later, when practise finished, Berry escorted an exhausted Ash to her car, with which the human drove them home.

“You know, I thought you were against violence. That kick looked awful violent to me.”

“Pointless violence. I couldn’t risk being seen again. Sometimes, your way is the best way.” There was a pause, and then, more quietly, “And damn did it feel really fucking good.”

Berry nodded knowingly. Minutes later the two were relaxing on the couch. Ash was just finishing up explaining her avoidance of sport.

“And that’s why I don’t do more than just casual exercise. I’m not up for the competitive side of things.”

“I thought you were good. Well, you were good whenever I got a chance to watch.”

“Thanks, I guess.”

Berry’s thoughts wandered back to those moments she did get to see Ash. With the imagery came the feelings. So small, but most certainly present. Which then reminded her of that incident after the party. It didn’t feel right letting Ash go without knowing what happened.

“Ash, about the party…”

“Yeah? What about it?”

“When… When we got back, you tried to kiss me.”

This earned an awkward silence. It could be seen in Ash’s eyes that she was suddenly remembering everything that happened that night, the fog having dissipated.

“Oh. Oh God, I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. It’s been over a month since… since I lost her… And it’s not unheard of for people or ponies to move on quickly enough to find love so soon after. It probably helps that my urge for revenge has been redirected.”

“Redirected?”

“Yes. The fault for everything falls on whoever has been getting these poor fillies killed. I can’t believe it took me this long to realise this. It happened while carrying Rainbow Dash. I had to lie to her. I know she’s going to die.” Tears began to form in Berry’s eyes. “It was hard, acting like everything was going to be fine. I may have already done something that started a chain of events leading to her death. Tomorrow… for all I know, I may have changed things so that she won’t get shot… and have to be the one to hit her.”

Ash moved closer to Berry on the sofa and side hugged her.

Now openly crying, Berry continued, “I thought I could handle myself. I had to pretend to try and save Pinkie Pie… It hurt… and so I decided to completely ignore her, making me look heartless in front of Cliff. Now this predicament! Luna knows my heart’ll just stop if I have to watch Rarity die!”

At this point, Berry just dug her face into Ash’s shoulder. The recipient patted Berry’s back assuredly.

“It’s okay, Berry. I’ll be there to help you through it.”

“And there’s another thing! Tomorrow is my last chance back to Equestria, and I have to get back. We won’t see each other again and… I really do like you.”

An idea struck Ash hard. At first she thought it was ridiculous, but something inside her told her it was worth a try.

“... what if… what if I came with you?”

“You can’t. I show up at the Library alone.”

“Maybe I’m just waiting round the corner? You do your thing, then you run, find me and we go to another time. Maybe even see if we can’t find a way back here?”

“... You’re right, but… We may never find a way back to the human world. You said before how you had things going for you here. Why the change of mind?”

“I still want to do that. But… I don’t know. The possibility of travelling to another reality, where everything is bright, colourful and happy. Living with nary a care in the world. And that time machine of yours! Time travel! It sounds too good to pass up!”

Berry had stopped crying, beaming at the woman’s excitement. Ash stared into Berry’s eyes, who stared back, and they leant in to one another. In the last millisecond before lips made contact, the sound of several cars skidding to a halt was heard from outside.

“What on Ea-”

Ash was cut short by a gas canister smashing a hole in her apartment window. It immediately began to eject its contents.

Instantly alert, Berry grabbed Ash’s hand and pulled her out of the apartment. Footsteps could be heard rushing up the stairs, so the soldier instinctively took her human up to the roof. Once outside, she found there was nowhere to go except down off the edge.

Suited men and women surrounded the building on the road and car park sides. The third side was blocked off by a much higher building with no way of climbing up it. The final side had an alleyway, unguarded, containing an open dumpster. Berry made to jump for it, but Ash held her back.

“Berry, they’re just going to keep chasing until we tire ourselves out. We’ll have no way of getting to the Beer Store with them on our tail!”

“Then what do we do?! Let them take us in? That’s even worse!”

“No! Just me!”

“I’m the one they want, though!”

“I know.”

The next few seconds went so slowly for Berry. Having revealed the Cloakling Device to her before, Ash could see and interact with it. She yanked it from Berry’s neck and pushed the suddenly apparent pony off the edge of the building, sending her down towards the dumpster. Descending through the air, Berry watched as the human donned the Device, taking on Berry’s human form.

The dumpster, as expected, being filled to the brim with rubbish, cushioned the Earth Pony’s fall. Berry didn’t feel the horrible touch of grimy refuse, nor did she smell its horrendous odour. The only sense she paid any attention to was her hearing.

She heard Ash’s capture. She heard her escorted to a car. She heard the fleet of human transports drive away. Then she heard nothing. Berry did not cry; she had cried enough. Accepting this latest loss as a sign that fate wanted her to remain alone, Berry Punch crawled out of the dumpster and its grungy contents.

She checked her weapons. Rifle ammunition was low. Revolvers were fine; she’d barely used them. That was that. Brushing herself off, Berry noticed a tiny piece of metal with a flashing light in it fall off of her sleeve. It was too late to wonder how that had found its way onto her sweater. A simple stomp crushed it to nothingness.

Night had fallen before the suits had come. This was a mild convenience. With no attempt to hide her presence to any passers by, Berry Punch walked emotionlessly through the town. That evening was bitter cold, but Berry didn’t notice. She was already cold inside.

Author's Note

My thanks to PandOracle for her cameo role as Ash.
Also, thanks Decaf and Drgnwolf for proofreading/editing.

One more chapter to go! Sadly, it won't be that long. Either way, it's been a fun ride.

Part 4C - Closing the Loop

Part 4C: Closing the Loop

Day 7 began late, as per usual at that time of year. Berry had not slept.Instead, she had explored the area around the Beer Store. It hadn’t been hard avoiding the night shift agents keeping an eye on the store. At one point she’d even managed to enter the shop through a vent on the roof. This had lead to an encounter with this ‘Cerman Sendiago’ Berry had heard about.

The woman, drugged out of her mind, had assumed Berry was a hallucination and started talking to the supposed figment of imagination. The one sided conversation turned into a confession. Apparently, this woman was once a world renowned thief, but had retired after one too many close calls. Cerman didn’t look old enough, but what did Berry care? She’d spent the entire time taking in the shop’s dimensions.

Once satisfied with what she’d found, Berry left Cerman alone and retreated to a shadowy alleyway. Sat there, she eavesdropped on the agents. The morning shift had started, the newly arrived suits sipping on cups of coffee.

“You heard about the chick who’s all scared about us?”

“The thief? Heh, yeah.”

“If she only knew we’ve always known where she was.”

The two agents began to laugh amongst themselves.

An hour or so later, they were talking about something unimportant, Berry having phased them out. Lorraine showed up, her nerves getting the better of her, ruining her attempts to seem casual. It didn’t seem to matter though, as the agents just glanced over her and went back to their chat. Berry presumed the suits had not actually known who’s bag they’d taken yesterday.

Then came the sneeze. Berry drew her rifle. The filly wiped her nose. The agents took aim. Berry unloaded her rifle into the air, causing their aims to go askew out of shock. Only one enemy bullet made their mark. Satisfied with this end result, the spent rifle was swung over the pony’s back. Upon seeing the gas canister be launched into the shop, Berry took off.

Charging forward, she knocked over a woman who tried to block the way. Inside, she saw Lorraine step through to the other side. Cerman was going crazy, screaming for help as the tear gas approached. Sighing, Berry grabbed the poor woman.

“Come on, Screwy!”

The portal flickered, collapsing after receiving its creator. Just before it was gone for good, Berry dragged a gibbering Cerman through it.

The next thing Berry and Cerman knew, they were sent flying away from RD’s first ever Sonic Rainboom. Crashing through trees and bushes, they came to a forced stop when they gently collided with a faulty human teleportation device.

Without missing a beat, Berry jumped to her hooves and checked the machine’s insides. There was Sweetie Belle, dazed as ever in her mentally suggestive state. Berry retrieved the Harkness from the filly’s leg. While doing that, something else caught her eye. Tucked away beside the filly was the file Cliff had found. This made Berry genuinely smile.

“Definitely a clever mare.”

Opening it up, she found the code word for wiping what had already been said during her time in this state.

“Bish.”

Next came the ‘listen to me’ word.

“Bash.”

Berry told Sweetie what she was to believe happened when she escaped. Before saying the final code word that would bring Sweetie back to her senses, Berry hefted the newly ponified Cerman onto her back. Then she went and messed with the teleporter controls.

Preparing to run, Berry finally said, “Bosh.”

She galloped away. The teleporter exploded. Then came the loud crush and scream of Rarity. Arriving on the scene, there was a flash of orange in the corner of Berry’s eye. She wanted to pursue, but Cerman was heavy, and had started barking like a dog. With Sweetie Belle likely to spot them leaving, thanks to a lack of natural cover around the gem filled rock, there was no other choice but to use the Harkness.

Berry and ‘Screwy’ (with the barking, the sane one had decided the name fitted) came back into existence in Ponyville. The date entry had been rushed, and it turned out they’d arrived about a half year before Berry had moved in.

It was hard for the mare to think with the crazy mare on her back, so the first thing she did was ditch the load outside the hospital with a note:

‘Hello, my name is Screwy. I like to play fetch and eat grass. Please give me a good home.’

Free of that burden, Berry felt exhaustion sweeping over her. She dragged herself to Sugarcube Corner.

“Oooooooo, a new pony!” Glitchie Pi exclaimed. “Hey I’m Pi- No, wait, you already know me, don’t you? But nopony else would know so. What do I do?”

“Get me an Irish Coffee.”

“That’s a great idea! All that hard work deserves a pick me up!”

Berry just let herself snooze at a random table. Moments later, Glitchie returned with the order. The soldier downed it, feeling the effects immediately.

“Ah, caffeine and dutch courage rolled into one. Always hits the spot.”

Another pony entered the store. A mare with a familiar voice.

“Hey, Pinkster! I need my usual starter pack!”

Cliff couldn’t see Berry staring at her with such longing. The mare had a large set of saddlebags, as well as a traveller’s rucksack. Today must have been the day Cliff left on her last trip before meeting Berry. Eventually, she left with a large box of assorted sweets. Glitchie returned to Berry’s side, thrusting a bottle at her.

“Here! I know how much you miss Cliff Jumper! This should help you!”

With that, the vibrant robot pony vanished, the bottle wobbling on the table. Berry examined the label; ‘Applejack Daniels’. The mare thought about what she was probably going to have to do next. She tried to get motivated for it, but everything just seemed pointless.

“Y’know, I’m surprised you haven’t figured it out yet,” said a familiar drawling voice.

Looking around the store, Berry couldn’t find the source.

“Down here, you great lummox!”

The Applejack on the bottle label waved. Upon getting Berry’s attention, the miniature, black and white version of AJ climbed out of the label and hopped down to the table.

“No way have I drunk enough to be hallucinating.”

Mini AJ shrugged, suggesting, “At a guess, Pinkie put a considerably stronger substance in your coffee than whiskey.”

“Oh…”

“I’m sure you’ll be fine, sugarcube. Now, back on the subject of killing me.”

“You’re awfully determined on dying, aren’t you?”

“I’m just a drug induced hallucination. I’m not exactly alive to begin with.”

While Berry came to terms with this, Mini AJ began absentmindedly trick roping.

“So, we clear on who I really mean when I say ‘kill me’?”

“I think so.”

“Right! Back on track! Let’s go over some of the things you’ve learned!”

The hallucination pulled out a little Chapple seed which suddenly grew to the size of a real apple.

“The Chapple Seed!” Berry exclaimed. “... What does it have to do with killing you?”

‘AJ’ took the hat off of her head a pulled on it with her teeth. After having expressed her frustration, the hat went back on her head.

“Oh my Celestia! Apples, consarnit! APPLES!”

“... oooooooohhhhhhhh.”

“Alrighty then! Next!”

Berry watched as AJ made a big thing of spinning her little lasso around. She began to bounce and point excitedly.

“Oo oo oo!”

“Yes?”

“Rope! Fluttershy!”

“Now we’re getting somewhere!”

Without any more actions from Mini AJ, Berry continued, “Rainbow mentioned eating an apple before the race! Ponyvillian! And I saw something orange near Rarity!”

Having done her job, the hallucination jumped back into her place on the label. With one last wink, she froze in the usual pose. Berry responded to this by blacking out. When she eventually came to, somepony had moved her to a secluded spot elsewhere in town. Taking the hint, Berry tapped in her next destination.

And so, Berry appeared in her deserted house. As she took in the familiar scent of home, the Harkness flashed red. A message displayed itself:

‘Warning! Low Power! Recharge required for next use.’

To Berry, that translated as:

‘End of the Road’

This didn’t stop her though. From a secret compartment, Berry fetched a breaching charge and an ankle pistol, then marched out of the house on her hind legs. Ponies stopped and stared at the mare. She didn’t care. ‘Let them stare,’ she thought, drinking a the odd bit of her whiskey now and then.

The Library came closer and closer. Images flitted through the mind’s eye; ghosts walking with her. Cliff Jumper, who, when they first met, had been so nervous introducing herself. The other mares had told her that it was unusual for Cliff to act like that around new ponies. Then came Ash, the poor woman who just ended up being in the wrong place at the wrong time.

After Ash were the others she’d met on her journey through alternate futures. The true Cakes, the Twilight that lead a doomed resistance, Colonel Michael O’Neil, Bruce; Even the less welcome humans, who’d hurt her in some way, showed up.

Lastly, there were the four fillies she hadn’t been allowed to save. They looked at her with such heart rending disappointment. Berry tried to ignore them as she stepped up to the Library door. She failed.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “But I can’t change what has and will happen. And besides-” Berry slammed the explosive in place and slid to the side, readying the detonator. “You never even met her.”

The door was blown, another swig was taken, and Berry stomped in. Thus, the loop was closed.

Author's Note

That's all folks!

My thanks to Rainbow87dash for his assistance with Berry's last line.

Part 1A - The Fluttershy Effect

Error 404 - Pony Not Found

Part 1A: The Fluttershy Effect

Twilight Sparkle finally tore her eyes away from the changeling that used to be Fluttershy to watch Pinkie Pie drag a mare inside by the tail. She had a forest green coat and a blue and brown mix mane and tail. Her cutie mark was that of a cliff top.

“Wait, Pinkie? Shouldn’t you be-”

“It’s alright,” interrupted Carrot Cake, “I set it to start upon finishing. Everything’s done.” He grinned at the nervous mare. “And I think she caught an eavesdropper. That outburst a moment ago was you, wasn’t it?”

“…Maybe,” replied the defeated pony.

“Well, it’s only right that you hear everything else then, isn’t it?” The mare blinked, confused. “Be a bit silly to keep you out of the loop now right?”

“Yay! A new party member!” Pinkie declared. “Welcome to the herd, Cliffy!”

‘Cliffy’ picked herself up and sat on another chair amongst the other ponies, all distracted from Fluttershy’s big reveal by the new arrival. The green Earth Pony smiled awkwardly around her.

Rarity asked, “I’m sorry, but who are you?”

“My name’s Cliff Jumper, the local explorer. I commissioned some special hoof wear from you for my climbing some time ago.”

“Oh, of course. How could I forget such a unique order?”

“But, er… should we maybe listen to what Fluttershy has to say?” Cliff Jumper urged.

“That’s not Fluttershy!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, preparing to charge her former friend.

“Now hold on sugarcube,” Applejack cut in, standing between RD and ‘Fluttershy’. “Let’s hear her out first.”

Surprisingly, Rainbow took AJ’s advice straight away and sat back down. Everypony looked expectantly in the changeling’s direction.

“Oh, er, well, you see…”

It all started when I was a cute little changeling filly, the last of a dying species. The eternal night of Nightmare Moon, combined with Discord’s Chaos-

Cliff Jumper spoke up, “Hold on a mo’! Nightmare Moon? Discord? You already sound unbelievable.”

“I was going to get to that, but I should probably tell you that I am also from the future.”

“But there was only Nightmare Moon when Cup and I left,” Carrot pointed out.

“I…I think it was a different future. The Elements still failed, but you must still have succeeded in making this Robot Pinkie-”

“Glitchie.”

“I’m sorry, Cliff; What?”

“Glitchie. ‘Robot Pinkie’ is too long as are Carrot’s technical names.”

Everypony stared once again at the newcomer; all except for Pinkie, who beamed at the mare and said exuberantly, “I love it!”

“Okay then…”

Glitchie existed in this future. But, being several decades since Nightmare’s second rising, the Cakes were long gone, and so there was nopony to maintain her technical issues. It was theorised by my grandfather in the hive that Glitchie’s broken presence served as a strong source of Chaos for Discord.

The combination of the eternal Night and the tormenting Chaos kept life alive in a tortured state of near death. With only the light of the stars and moon, colour was greatly amiss. Thanks to the Chaos, things still lived… barely. It pleased Nightmare to have living subjects. Thankfully, the Ponies kept the full attention of both of Equestria’s oppressors.

Our kind had regressed over time, and our magic had become weaker, as well as our wings. As such, when I went out to find a fruit that had been discorded to supply the love we feed on, and encountered a large crevice behind a bush, I could not support my weight for very long nor protect myself. In the end, I needed neither as I was saved by a pony.

Their name or what they looked like, I cannot tell you, because, shortly after being caught mid fall, I blacked out. When I opened my eyes, instead of a bleak, perpetually dark, half dead land of despair, I saw sunlight; Pure, real beams of sunlight. I could see the colours of everything around me. Trees had all their leaves and grass had a shining sheet of dew. At the time though, I didn’t know many of these things. I can say it now because the memory has remained vivid in my mind as I learned of the true Equestria.

But, as I started to attune my eyes to the flood of light and colour, I saw a figure falling from a city made of clouds. I was weak, and sadly couldn’t get to where she was to fall before it was too late. I found the crumpled mess that remained shortly after I heard the collision with the ground. It was a horrible image that still haunts me to this day.

The next thing I did, I don’t know why I did it. It was just a subconscious thing I suppose. I knelt down next to the Pegasus filly’s body and placed my horn upon her forehead. All her memories flashed before my eyes, and I fainted. When I came to, I had taken on young Fluttershy’s image.

“You already know what happened after. I developed a caring for animals and somehow earned a cutie mark.”

“How come the other changelings never did that?” Applejack asked.

“Erm... well... at a guess, I would say it’s a long forgotten Changeling ability.... that, or, erm... it’s something only a future changeling like myself, further down the chain of evolution, can do?”

“Hmm,” Carrot thought aloud, “Seems possible...”

Rainbow Dash balked, “How can we trust anything she says!?”

“She has helped us on more than one occasion, including the fending off of her own race,” said Twilight, “Of course the switch could have happened during or after that very event.”

Cliff made a clicking sound with her hoof. “Why don’t we just ask her something only the real Fluttershy would know?... Something from not long after the Cutie Mark Rainboom. Or, hay, something from before the Rainboom.”

Everypony looked to Rainbow Dash, the only one present who had known Fluttershy since they were fillies, and, as Cliff has mentioned, before the Sonic Rainboom that brought upon all the Element Bearers’ cutie marks. No one questioned how Cliff knew about it. Word did travel around Ponyville fast, even if no word was initially spoken.

Rainbow Dash, however, did not look too pleased with what was suggested. In fact, she looked a tad bit scared. Almost as if-

“I think we need a PARTY!” Glitchie Pie screamed, confetti flying everywhere.

The uniform blinking could be heard by Cup in the kitchen.

“Wha- Bu-” Rainbow tried to talk, completely forgetting she didn’t want to talk.

All the while, Glitchie continued without pause, “While Flutterling- That’s my nickname for our changeling friend- was telling us her story, I got to thinking: ‘This is awesome! We have a new best friend, Cliffy, Fluttershy has secret shapeshifting powers AND I feel better now!’ Of course it wasn’t in that order, but WHO CARES!? If we don’t party now, I might just explode!”

A unanimous thought was shared amongst the other ponies in Sugar Cube Corner: ‘What if she really does explode?’

With that in mind, and an excuse to avoid questioning, Rainbow Dash flew out the store shouting, “I’ll get the booze!”

Twilight added, “I’ll get Spike to help prepare the Library,” and galloped away.

Close behind her was Rarity. “Let me help too.”

Applejack was already halfway to Sweet Apple Acres, presumably fetching her own booze and some apple based snacks. Flutterling returned to her ‘Shy’ form and quietly left for Twilight’s Library too. All that were left were Carrot Cake and Cliff Jumper, watching Glitchie bounce on the spot.

Cup popped her head out of the kitchen and rightfully asked, “If you’re going to have a party, shouldn’t you be in here, making your trademark cupcakes?”

Glitchie was in the kitchen, cooking away in an instant.

“And then there were two,” said Cliff, absentmindedly.

Carrot shook his head. “There’s still some cleaning up to be done downstairs.”

Seconds later, Cliff was all alone in Sugar Cube Corner. It was getting light out, almost twenty four hours having passed since the Glitchie shenanigans had started.

“I love that word,” Glitchie shouted from the kitchen. “SHENANIGANS!”

Cliff chuckled, not knowing what brought on that outburst. She got up from her seat and made her way for the door. As she reached for the handle, there was a hoof tap on her shoulder. Glitchie was behind her.

“Yes?”

“Feel free to bring Berry along!”

“Thanks.”

Cliff smiled and left.

Part 3C - Rainboom X-treme!

Part 3C: Rainboom X-treme!

The bullet that entered Colonel Michael O’Neil’s cranium continued out the other side and penetrated Major General Francis Ham’s skull, as was the Colonel’s intention. The two commanding officers’ bodies fell canonically. The soldiers who had accompanied the General did not know how to react. The man responsible for killing their leader had committed suicide. There was no one to enact their vengeance upon. No one, that is, except for the two fake women before them.

Unluckily for the real humans, it took too long to come to this conclusion. It was at the moment of this idea coming to mind that the last of their group was gunned down. The short period of time, between the COs hitting the ground and the last soldier following suit, went a little bit like this:

Bruce nimbly disarmed the soldier who had held him at gunpoint. Once the rifle was his to use, he dived away. Berry saw this as the cue to open fire. Rolling out of the dive, Bruce managed to turn around in time to get a kill or two of his own. Still determined not to fire a single bullet, Cliff simply watched while shielding Sweetie Belle’s eyes.

Reloading her gun, Berry spoke to the human, “Nice work… Bruce, was it?”

She didn’t get a reply. Once he saw there was no more opposition, Bruce ran over to his friend’s corpse. A hand was brushed over the dead face, closing the eyelids. Without a second's pause, Bruce moved on to the General, first repeating the act of respect, then searching the pockets. Whatever he was looking for was found. Pulling the item out, he stood up and spat on the General’s face.

“Tosser,” he muttered, before turning his attention to the electronic device he now held.

Cliff, whose thumb was currently being sucked by Sweetie Belle, asked, “What’s he doing?”

“I have no idea… Bruce?”

“Yes my name is Bruce!” the man snapped. “Now hurry up and gather up all the ammunition! We’ll need everything if we’re gonna get off this blasted vessel!”

“Oh, erm, ok?”

Berry went to work searching the soldiers.

“Speaking of blasted, I’m setting this place to blow in fifteen minutes.”

Loud speakers all over the carrier announced self destruct protocols being activated.

“Wait, what?! Are you crazy?! What if we can’t get off in that amount in time?” screamed Berry.

“Nah. I’m just pissed off. In addition, I made it an counter infection protocol… no one can get out.”

This time, it was Cliff that screamed, “Then how the buck are we supposed to escape?”

“I remember Mike telling me about an invention he was ordered to test out. Meant to cut through magic barriers. It failed, but it could definitely cut through any normal material. They have a failure room to store it and others while on the move.”

Cliff instantly calmed down.

“Oh, well then… Lead the way.”

“I’m not done gathering this ammo,” said Berry.

“I’m sure we’ve got enough. To be perfectly honest, most of the people on board will be panicking by now, too self absorbed to care about prisoners who they think are going to die with them anyway. Just thought we might want to be on the safe side.”

Picking up O’Neil’s pistol, Bruce made his way to the exit. Cliff and Berry followed him.

“You know,” whispered Cliff. “If you look past the lack of love for his own kind, he’s an alright guy.”

“Oh, shut up.”

The filly sitter smirked at her disgruntled companion as they left the labs. Ten minutes later, and without a single bit of opposition. Sure, they’d encountered others, but they either ran away or were too busy losing their minds in various ways. After the door behind them slid shut, Bruce shot keypad that operated the door.

“So, which one do we need?” Berry enquired.

Bruce paused, before answering, “I don’t exactly know… Mike didn’t really describe how it looked.”

“Oh, brilliant! Great plan, madman!”

“Stop bitching and help me find it. It was called the Barrier Buster.”

While those two began their search, Cliff spotted what looked like a portable shelter. She ran over to it, examining its contents.

“I think this is where you leave us, little Sweetie.”

Sweetie looked up at the sound of her name, smiling goofily. Cliff couldn’t help but smile back the same way.

“You know, you’re cute when in a suggestive state.”

“Suggestive… Cute…”

“Oh, whoops… here’s hoping after everything that’s been said since we got you out can be ‘deleted’.”

Putting the filly down, Cliff pulled out the file from earlier and read it some more.

“Ah, yes, here it is…”

“What are you doing over there, Cliff?” Berry shouted across the room.

“I think I found the machine Sweetie uses to go back in time!”

Bruce cut in, “That’s a teleporter!”

“Oh, so you know what one of those looks like?!” Berry screeched angrily.

“They tested it up on the deck! It vapourised the-” Bruce suddenly went quiet. Swallowing, he continued, “It vapourised the test pony.”

“But then-” Cliff started to wonder.

Berry cursed, “Celestia dammit!”

The woman paused her search and rushed over to Sweetie Belle, removing the Harkness from her arm in the process. She wrapped the straps around the filly’s body and tapped away at the interface.

Cliff, realising what the other was doing, asked, “Berry… how are we going to get back?”

“I don’t know how, but I know I get it back because I was wearing it in the Library. Besides, we need to get to the human world. I just know we’ll be needed there too.”

“But we still need to go back in time even in the human world to help Lorraine.”

The time traveller stopped, only just now realising that flaw in the plan. It was then that Bruce threw in his two cents.

“The Portal!” This earned a couple of blank stares, so he explained, “The portal between Equis and Earth! It has to be shut down at times to prevent travel. I heard a guy travelled to the future by accident. The scientists worked out it had something to do with Solar Flares from Earth’s Sun and now they have to close off travel at certain times to avoid similar incidents.”

“Brilliant!” Berry exclaimed, returning to the Harkness interface.

Cliff, however, questioned, “But we want to go back in time.”

“I’m sure your friend can figure it out when we get there. Mike told me she taught a couple how to build a robot that defies physics.”

“I dunno…”

“It’ll be fine Cliff! I’ll work things out; trust me!”

With one last tap on the Harkness, Berry Punch stepped away from Sweetie Belle as the filly and the teleporter went wibbly wobbly.

“Now be a good girl and stay put until I come for you, ok?” Berry told the blissfully ignorant foal.

The pony and machine vanished.

“So that’s what we look like before we go, huh?”

“Pretty much. The wibbly wobbly delay was the Harkness acquiring the teleporter.”

“Found it!” exclaimed an exuberant Bruce.

A loud noise followed, like an industrial sized cheese grater having a crack at grating the moon. There was a yelp. It all happened so fast, all the two women saw when they turned around was a large hole. The helicarrier self destruct countdown reached ten seconds. Cliff grabbed something that resembled a hand glider, then got a hold of Berry, and leapt down through the hole, head first.

As luck would have it, Cliff had been spot on in her judgement, and it was indeed a hand glider. While they fell, the experienced adventurer fiddled with the straps, fastening herself and her companion together. Berry saw no reason to resist. The helicarrier exploded, and Cliff steered the glider to avoid as much debris as possible.

Down below, Bruce had managed to use the blast cutting power of the Barrier Buster like thrusters, slowing his descent. When he felt he was close enough, he switched the machine off, causing it to suddenly drop the last six or so feet.

“Ugh… any landing I can walk away from is a good landing, right?”

He looked up and watched his partners in crime glide away to safety. With a brisk jog, he followed their shadow. Eventually, the three of them met up on safe ground, having avoided all debris. They stood together as they witnessed the remains of one of humanity’s greatest feats of engineering crash into the earth.

Berry muttered, “Talk about pride coming before a fall…”

With that, the party of three wandered off into the Equestrian wilderness, headed for the Human base housing the portal between Earth and Equis. Some time later, during their trek, Berry broke the thick silence that had fallen over them.

“Thanks for the save back there, Cliff.”

Cliff shrugged.

“It was nothing. I’d done a bit of gliding here and there on a couple of adventures before we met.”

“I should have reacted faster.”

“That would have been hard, seeing as I reacted instantly.”

“True… Cliff… I’m sorry… for everything… I dragged you along with me, put your life in danger… and then I went and treated you like some foal, unable to think for yourself. You’d told me about your adventures, and the hay you’d get yourself messed up in, yet I just acted like that stuff never happened.”

“It’s alright now, Berry. As long as you’re sorry, I’m happy.”

Cliff went to hug Berry, but she was pushed away.

“It’s not alright! I’m really worried I’ve gone and put things in motion towards your death!”

Cliff stopped in her tracks. Berry saw this and stopped too. Bruce, the silent third party, also stopped, but kept to himself.

“My what?!”

“You remember when my future self came into the library? She was alone. And her face… I know myself well enough to know when I’ve lost somepony… and still I went and brought you with me… I’m such an idiot!”

Berry Punch broke into tears. Her special somepony held her in a strong embrace.

“That’s not gonna happen, you hear me? You would never let me die, that much I’m sure about. To be honest, I don’t think I’d let myself go either. You’ll just be mad because… erm…”

“You’re terrible at this,” Bruce observed. The man held Berry’s chin and forced her to look into his eyes as he said, “Listen up, crybaby. Thanks to you two, my best friend is dead. I ain’t gonna tip toe around that shit. I am most certainly not a happy bunny. But, you see, he believed in you. He and I have always felt things were wrong. It’s what drew us together as mates. So, here’s what’s gonna happen:

“You are going to wipe those pitiful tears from your eyes. Next, you’ll give your wonderful girlfriend here a heartfelt kiss. No tongue, mind you, because we ain’t got time for that. Once all that crap’s out the way, we get back on course to the Portal. That’ll take us a couple of days. After that, we go in like ninjas, stealth our way to the control room. You use your fancy mathematics to work out how we time travel. None of us die, we jump on through, and Bob’s your uncle, we all have a cuppa in some cafe in ye olde London; my treat.”

Berry sniffled, “You’re right… need to pull myself together.”

“Damn straight,” said Bruce, turning away. “Now get the lovey dovey stuff out the way already, will you?”

With shared smiles, the two women looked at one another, and kissed. Humouring the human, they kept it short.

As the pair of them broke their embrace, Cliff commented, “You know, we didn’t say anything about letting you tag along.”

Michael restarted the trek, explaining, “I’m a fugitive with my own people, your kind sure as hell won’t take me in, and I am nowhere near trained enough to survive on my own as an enemy of both sides. Way I see it, you two are the only chance I have. Besides, apart from Mike, my life was kinda shit. It is for most of us lackies.”

“Bruce, it’s fine. We would never leave you behind. Cliff was just joking about your presumptions.”

“... I knew that.”

Bruce, Cliff and Berry continued on their journey over the war torn Equestria for the next two days. There were times when they had to hide. It was decided that there would be less trouble if they hid from both sides. Humans and Ponies alike were avoided at all costs. There were barely any opportunities to talk, and even then they spoke very little.

As the Sun rose over War Torn Equestria for the third time since Berry and Cliff arrived, Bruce pointed down into a valley. The two ponies posing as humans recognised the valley for what it used to be home to; Ponyville. The valley was now scarred and lifeless, and in the town’s place sat a smooth, matte grey dome. A large fence circled the dome, and between dome and fence were countless tents and troops.

Cliff whistled in awe.

“We’re going to have a hard time ‘stealthing’ into there.”

“Hmmm…” Berry thought aloud. “Bruce, before they discovered you, did you hear what sorts of things were broadcast from the carrier?”

“Erm… prisoner escape… losing men fast… and then probably the pre recorded ‘Mayday! Mayday! Mass infection! Locked down! Self destruct imminent!’”

“So, if a few survivors were to appear, how would they react?”

Bruce smiled as he saw the plan being formed.

“They’d check us for any contagion. They’d find nothing of course. We might be questioned as to the events leading to the apparent infection.”

“Maybe we could bend the truth a little and say the prisoners found Sweetie Belle and used her to hack the systems!” Cliff exclaimed.

The trio carried on talking away, plotting their way into the dome. It was simple:

Cliff changed her Cloakling Device to the ‘Manual’ setting and had herself look like Colonel Michael O’Neil. Bruce said they’d need a superior officer to seem more believable and trustworthy, and they’d need to pull him off seamlessly. Cliff had so many interviews with him, so she was the best choice.

That evening, they would limp into the encampment. During the decontamination, they would keep saying how pointless it was. Once cleared, they would explain the false scenario of the ponies getting their hooves on the secret weapon, how they managed to kill the ponies, escape and make it all the way to Portal Base. The problem was, there was one thing they didn’t count on.

They snuck up as close as possible to the base, preparing to act out the first phase of their cleverly devised infiltration. A couple of guards were chatting within ear shot.

“Did you hear about that kid who respawned the other day?”

“From Pride Rock? Sure, everyone has. Claims his squad’s CO betrayed him for the ponies they had on board.”

“Yeah, well, they just confirmed that Pride Rock was destroyed. Generals are taking him seriously now.”

The plan was already pointless now. It was clear the ‘kid’ was Stiggerz. He was the only one to die before Bruce messed with the shielding. Luckily, they had a back up plan, which was why they approached at night. The fact they’d got so close was proof enough that it would be possible. A simple glance past the fence revealed many dark spots without lighting. How lax the Humans had become in their confidence.

Half an hour later, and Bruce was leading the way through air ducts within the dome. Another five minutes and Bruce and Cliff had secured the Portal room. The Portal itself was a large stone ring, about 5 metres in diameter, with symbols on it. Cliff recognised them as the cutie marks of the Element Bearers, as well as Luna and Celestia’s. The control room in which Berry sat in was a couple metres higher up than the Portal room. Berry was looking over the report from the time travel incident.

Over the speakerphone from the control room, Berry announced, “I figured it out. A solar flare of the exact strength required will be occurring in… less than five minutes.”

There was a crashing sound inside the control room and a new voice spoke, “I’m sorry, but your flight’s been cancelled.”

The alarm sounded all over the base.

Bruce roared, “God Dammit! Cliff, hold the Portal room while I help Berry!” No response. “Cliff?!”

Cliff had already left the room. Bruce watched helplessly through the bulletproof glass that separated control room from Portal room. Stiggerz pointed a rifle down at a concussed Berry Punch slumped over the control board. Before he could pull the trigger, Cliff tackled him.

“I guess I’ll hold the room.”

A bullet barely missed his shoulder. He’d forgotten there were two entrances to the Portal room. Thinking quickly, he fired upon the safety breaker holding one of the doors open. It slammed shut, and Bruce positioned himself behind cover to defend the last way in or out.

Back in the control room, Cliff was kicked away. Stiggerz got back to his feet and aimed once more at the defenceless Berry Punch. This time, the trigger got pulled, but not before Cliff Jumper had a hold of his arm, causing a flurry of bullets to strike the glass. Eventually, the rifle was emptied.

Stiggerz managed to throw Cliff off of his arm and discarded the rifle, drawing his pistol. Before him stood Cliff, still looking like the traitorous Colonel. He managed to graze the charging woman across the cheek, but then the weapon was knocked from his hands.

“Fight like a real stallion!” Cliff screamed, jumping out of the way of a stray fist. “Hoof to hoof!”

It dawned on Sitggerz that he wasn’t fighting Colonel O’neil.

“If that’s what you want, bitch, then so be it.”

The two of them stood in combat ready positions, like two boxers, only one was a military trained man, and the other a self taught pony posing as a human female.

“How about we make this a little more… level pegging?” Stiggerz suggested.

“Sure you want to give yourself a handicap?” Cliff grunted back.

“It won’t limit my ability to kill you with my bare hands… I just thought you’d rather not have any interruptions.” He flicked a switch on the control board, and the room sealed itself off from the rest of the base. “Now, no one can get in, or out… I can’t even respawn.”

“How thoughtful.”

Like lightning, Stiggerz unleashed a flurry of jabs, forcing Cliff to block. Next, he slipped to the ground swept a leg under her, sending her toppling onto the concrete. Without pause, Stiggerz was back on his feet and going in to stomp down on Cliff’s gut. She rolled away and up, returning with a couple powered swings. They were evaded with ease.

Cliff left herself open, and Stiggerz went in for a few punches in the stomach, before pulling back enough to smack her right in the face. Once more, Cliff was floored. Unrelenting, Stiggerz was down on her, one hand holding the shirt collar, the other going for the face. The target head moved to the side and his fist collided with the solid ground. The man roared in pain.

Berry Punch was slowly coming to. Down below, through the cracked glass, she could make out a single man doing his best to keep the opposition at bay. He was fighting a losing battle, as his ammunition was running low. A glance at the time told Berry there wasn’t much time left. Her head was throbbing. She reached over to the mic.

“A minute and a half.”

Amongst the sound of bullets, Bruce heard himself say, “Time flies when you’re having fun!”

Cliff pushed Stiggerz away and stumbled back upright. She was breathing heavily. Stiggerz was too, glaring at her while massaging his hand.

“That all you got, Human? I’ve fought kittens that put up a better fight than you.”

She wasn’t lying, but Stiggerz didn’t know that. He charged angrily, rage clouding his judgement. This was what Cliff needed. Grabbing the outstretched fist aimed for her face, she twisted, causing Stiggerz more pain and redirecting him a little before smashing her spare fist into his cheek. He went sideways into a wall. Grabbing him by his shirt, Cliff flung him across the room.

“Get up, ‘bitch’. We’re not done here.”

“No,” Stiggerz agreed, wiping blood from his mouth. “We’re not.”

He lunged forward, a knife wielding handing thrusting ahead. Cliff caught it by the wrist.

“Now that’s just cheating.”

The knife dropped, the other hand catching it, going for a second attempt. This, too, was caught by the wrist.

“Tut tut. You should know, cheaters never prosper.”

Stiggerz arms were moved out of way so Cliff could knee him in the gut. She released him as he let go of his knife, all the air knocked out of him. He attempted to ready his guard, but it was too late. Cliff unleashed a right and a left into his face, and then his chest. Stiggerz wobbled on the spot. Cliff circled him, and then pushed him. He stumbled backwards until he found the control board behind him.

“What’s the matter, soldier? I thought you were a trained killer? Where’d all that bravado go, huh? You’re just a colt!”

Slowly, Stiggerz lifted his hands back up into a boxer’s pose. He took one step forward. Cliff spun on the spot, on one leg, and fired the lifted leg like a cannon, knocking her defeated opponent flying over the control board, straight through the weakened bullet proof glass.

“Berry, how are we on time?”

To answer Cliff’s question, Berry pushed a button and the Portal burst to life, a shimmering rainbow coloured water filling the centre of the ring. Bruce, seeing the broken window, wasted his last bullets on the second safety breaker, sealing off the Portal room completely.

“Just need to set it to close when we go through.”

One of the doors into the control room blew inwards, smoke flooding the room.

“No time!”

Cliff picked Berry up and jumped through the opening Stiggerz had made. She rolled upon landing. Behind her, Stiggerz was failing to lift himself off the ground, glass piercing his body all over from rolling about.

“They’ll… just… follow… you… through… beast…”

Bruce ran up to Cliff to assist with the weakened Berry.

“He’s right you know. They’ll save the input settings while we jump through. We need to destroy the Portal!”

“But how?”

“... I’ll do it! Go on through! I got this!”

Smoke in the control room started to dissipate. The soldiers inside started appearing.

“But you’re coming with us!”

“Just. GO!”

Bruce shoved Berry through the Portal, ripples spreading from her entry point. Cliff had no choice but to follow her. The soldiers in the control room found the off switch too late, closing it after the two women got through. Bruce went behind the gate.

“Cease your actions immediately! This is high treason you are committing!”

“Bit late for that, fuckers! This beauty’s gonna be going boom!”

“That will destroy the entire planet!”

“Oh good, better than I’d hoped!”

“You’re mad!”

“Just as sane as any human! By the way, quick question! If I cut these cables and rearrange them in any other way, that’ll do it, right?”

“Don’t- I mean, ha, no. You’ll just cut the power!”

“I ask because I’m like… 99.9% sure, and just thought you might give me that last 0.1! Gonna do it anyway! Toodle Pip!”

“Sto-”

In an instant, all of Equis was swallowed in a bright rainbow light. Bruce, ramming random cable ends together while looking away. Stiggerz, lying lifeless amongst glass shards. The invading Human army. The planet’s natural residents. Everything. And then it all came in on itself, forming a singularity; a black hole. One that would eventually suck in and devour the entire Universe.

The first words that came to Cliff’s mind were ‘Bright’ and ‘Colourful’. This didn’t actually mean much, as anything could be described as such when compared to the last place she’d been. Her thoughts drifted to Bruce, and whatever fate befell him. They then returned to the more urgent problem, that being Berry Punch.

The woman in question lay a within arms reach, staring up at the unfamiliar sky. Clouds lazed across the wide open blue. Exceedingly tall trees poked at them, not even getting close to touching the white puffs of gaseous water. While Berry continued to stare upwards, Cliff focused more on the ground.

They lay in a muddied track in some forest. The marks resembled ones she’d seen in the human ground base. So, there were definitely humans around. That was good. Or at least she hoped it was. If Berry got everything right, this version of humanity would be less… for lack of a better word, evil.

Something roared in the distance. It was too mechanical sounding for an animal. It took a moment, but Cliff finally realised that she and her companion were in the middle of a human road. Quick as a flash, she was slipping away in the mud in a desperate attempt to get to her feet. It would have been much easier as a pony, but she still had her human disguise, and there was no time to shed it.

The roar grew closer as Cliff managed to get a hold of Berry, who was totally out of it from the concussion Stiggerz had given her. It took far too much effort than she had the energy for, but Cliff lifted Berry onto her feet. A metal contraption skidded into view, turning the corner, coming right at them. It squealed. It seemed to be trying to stop. The driver could be seen, her face horror struck.

“Come on Berry! MOVE!”

Cliff pushed with all her might, feet slipping in the mud. Berry gave way, falling off of the road, onto the grass. She seemed uninterested as she looked at her saviour. Cliff just sighed with relief. Then the car hit her.

Author's Note

Please don't hate me...

On a sidenote, my thanks to the following for their assistance as 'cameos':
Eagle Heart - Colonel Michael O'Neil
ScootaEu - General Francis Ham
Yukito - Doctor Alex Smith
TornadoFIM - Bruce
Stiggerzz(involuntarily) - Stiggerzz (not himself... well, I don't think so... if that is him, then er... CALLED IT!)

Epilogue

Epilogue

Fluttershy, angry and upset, turned to where Cliff and the original Berry Punch were sat, shrieking, “How could yo-”

The pair were gone. Nopony knew what to think from this. Nopony except Rainbow Dash.

“Those rat BASTARDS!” she yelled, taking off out of the library.

Spike came to, and looked around at the crying mares.

“What’s wrong?” he asked.

Twilight rushed over to him and hugged him.

“Oh, Spike… AJ… Applejack’s dead…”

“What!?”

The dragon tried to look over Twilight’s shoulder, but she wouldn’t let him see the body. He gave up shortly, and just joined in with the mourning. But then, all of a sudden, he burped, and a scroll with the royal seal fell to the floor. Maintaining the embrace, Twilight magically lifted the message and opened it up.

‘To My Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle.

‘If I am correct, I have just sensed you barbecuing Berry Punch after she killed your dear friend Applejack. I am sorry to say that I knew this day was coming. I shall be with you momentarily, and all will be explained.

‘Princess Celestia’

“Th-The P-P-Princess knew?” Fluttershy sobbed.

A flash of light and Celestia’s glow filled the Library.

“I am afraid I did, Fluttershy.”

Rainbow Dash returned, still furious.

“They just vanished right in fr- Princess?!”

“Hello, Rainbow Dash. It appears Cliff and Berry have begun their adventure. Would someone kindly wake Rarity? I must tell you all another tale not unlike the ones you have been recounting lately.”

While Spike and Fluttershy slowly brought Rarity back to consciousness, Twilight cautiously approached her teacher.

“What’s going on? How could all this have happened?”

“I’m afraid the only ones who could have told us everything were Applejack and Berry Punch.”

“And they’re both dead…”

Twilight hung her head, upset over Applejack, and guilt ridden after her actions against Berry. Celestia rested a hoof on Twilight’s back.

“Ah, but that is where you are wrong, Twilight Sparkle. You did not kill Berry Punch.”

“I didn’t!?”

“She is very much alive.”

“As am I,” said Applejack.

Much to the chagrin of Spike and Fluttershy, Rarity gasped and fainted. Again.