Equestria in Conflict - Discovering Home

John felt himself fall to the floor, the cold marble pressing against his face. He opened his eyes, blinking at the sudden brightness before looking around. He was laying in an extremely detailed hallway, gold trim decorating the ceilings. Exactly the way Canterlot Castle had been described to him.

He was home.

Around him lay the prone forms of the six ponies, plus Wesley and the Changeling. First up, Wesley let out a low groan, and sat up, holding his head.

“What even happened? Are we there yet?” He said in a slow voice, mocking the trip in his own way.

John grinned at his friend as the rest of the ponies stirred. One by one, they got onto their hooves, looking around. Twilight was the last one up.

“We’re home!” She suddenly shouted, causing Celestia to give off a low smile. Her student had gone through much to get to this point, and she hoped they could resume their lives with little fuss. Celestia was worried, though. What had happened in the six months they were gone would continue to effect them, even if they didn't realize it.

John looked around for the Russian – Anton, he remembered Rainbow calling him. Finally, he spotted the Russian sitting against a wall, grumbling to himself. Slowly, he got up and joined the crowd, standing next to Rainbow Dash.

Anton looked down at his pegasus friend, searching for the words to convey a question. At last, he found them. “Did we make it, Rainbow?” He asked, his calm momentarily lapsing and revealing his slight accent.

She nodded. “I think so.” Suddenly, a rumbling sound could be heard echoing around the hallway, coming from their left. As one, they turned towards the coming noise.

Up ahead of them, six guards sped around the corner, headed towards the noise they had heard. What they saw was unbelievable.

The four Elements of Harmony, along with the two Princesses, stood side-by-side with three large, unknown creatures. What’s more, was that there was a tied-up Changeling in the corner.

Suddenly, a white unicorn with a blue mane burst through the crowd.

“Twiley!” He shouted, gaining her attention.

Twilight turned around and ran up to her brother, embracing him. “Shining! I’ve missed you so much!”

Her brother backed away for a second, ending the embrace. “Twilight, you and the Princesses have been gone for four hours. Where have you been?” He asked.

Celestia stepped forward, looking right at Shining Armor. “For you it was four hours, but for us it was six months. We were went to an entirely different world, and had many experiences, some of them unspeakable. By the way, the three humans with us are our friends. Don’t overreact.”

Shining just now noticed the three tall creatures in back. He flinched for a moment, before turning to them.

“And just who are you? Did you hurt my sister?” Shining demanded.

“Whoa now, Shining.” Wesley said, using the name he remembered Twilight called him when she talked about him. “We’re friends of Twilights. You might want to wait for the full story later.” Shining nodded his consent, and turned to the Changeling.

“What’s its story?” He asked.

John stepped forward next. “It followed Celestia and the others into the portal they opened up, depositing them near us. They formed up with our enemies, the Soviets, and fought for them. There were three of them, but two died in the fighting. This is the one we captured.”

Shining did a double-take. “Did you say ‘fighting’? As in ‘war’?” Wesley nodded, and Shining continued. “I think I want to hear the full story now.”

Celestia nodded, pointing down the hall. “Guards, lead the Elements and our friends, John, Anton, and Wesley, to the relaxation room. I will summon and then teleport the other Elements here, and then we can begin. Also, take the Changeling to the dungeon.”

The guards nodded, and started walking down the hallway, with the ponies and the three humans following. A few grabbed the Changeling and started to float it down another hallway, where they soon lost sight of it.

Wesley shifted the weight of his pack and rifle to the left, settling it into a more comfortable position. One of th guards, however, took interest.

“What are you carrying, ‘human’?” He asked, trying out the name of the creature for himself and satisfying his curiosity.

Wesley looked at him. “First off, my name is Wesley Brown, not ‘Human’. Human is the name for our species, and just as I doubt you want to be called ‘pony’, I don’t want to be called ‘Human’. Second, it’s my duffle bag and my rifle. My duffle bag carries my stuff, and my rifle is… Well, ask Twilight about it.” Wesley finished, shifting the burden to Twilight to explain it when the time came.

They quickly reached what looked like a lounge, filled with several comfortable-looking couches and cushions. The ponies and humans sat down, sighing with relief, while the guards stood outside the door, waiting. Shining looked up at a large clock built into the side of the wall, which stated the time as being two o’ clock at night. He rubbed his eyes with his hoof. It was too early for him to be playing ambassador to a bunch of strange creatures and protect his sister at the same time.

Ten minutes later, as soon as everyone had finally relaxed, the door opened, and in stepped Celestia, followed by two other ponies John remembered from Twilight’s talks as the two remaining Elements, Rarity and Pinkie Pie.

Rarity was speaking to Celestia. “- What I can’t understand is why we are here. You were gone for four hours! What is so important that…” Her talking died down as soon as she saw the Humans.

Pinkie Pie literally bounced in, stopping midair in the center of the group. As Wesley felt his head hurt from the laws of physics being tossed aside, a hyperactive voice began to talk at sonic speeds.

“Who are you all? Are you Twilight’s friends? Why do you have those metal things? Oh, I can’t wait to make my ‘Welcome-an-alien-to-Ponyville’ party!

Twilight held out her hoof, signaling for the pink pony to stop.

“Calm down, Pinkie. We have quite a story to tell.” Twilight said.

“And just what story would that be!” Rarity demanded. “Did the spell even work, or did it summon these... BRUTES here?”

“Don’t insult my friends like that…” Rainbow said in a low voice, causing everyone in the room to pause.

Celestia held out her hoof, silently telling everyone to stop arguing. “We will let Twilight Sparkle tell the story. Twilight, you may start.”

Twilight cleared her throat, causing everyone in the room, including her brother, to lean in.

“When we activated the spell, we were all swallowed by some sort of teleportation sphere. It didn’t bring us to Fillydelphia, though. Instead, it teleported us to Earth.” She looked around to find everyone staring with rapt attention.

“Earth is the planet that John, Wesley, and Anton are from. They are the only intelligent species on the planet.” This brought a low gasp from a certain white unicorn. “They have almost two hundred nations on the planet, although only a dozen are big enough to count as major nations, and only two were big enough to be called superpowers, like Equestria or the Griffin Empire.

“These two nations were at war when we arrived. One of the nations was called the United States of America, and the other was called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or the Soviet Union for short. The Soviet Union is also called Russia sometimes, and the citizens are called Russians.  The United States, or the US as it is often called, is what is called a Democracy. Citizens in it are called Americans. Every citizen there gets to vote for the leader, a President, who is voted on every four years.

“The Soviet Union is what was called a ‘Communist’ nation. The system is supposed to create what I have heard called a ‘worker’s paradise’, but in this situation, and all others as far as I have seen, has created a dictatorship ruled by a small group of people, who rule over their subjects by fear. John and Wesley are citizens of the United States, and Anton is a citizen of the Soviet Union.” Twilight said, pausing for a moment. “John, am I doing good on the summery so far?”

John nodded. “You have everything correct so far.”

Twilight turned to Anton. “What about you, Anton? Is my summery of your former country correct?”

Anton gave a cold nod. “In every respect.” To the ponies, he said, “I have no love for my former country anymore. The system itself is a failure, and has caused too much pain and suffering already, including the war.”

Twilight nodded at his contribution. “Any questions so far?”

Rarity raised her hoof. “Darling, I understand that you have new friends, but how could this happen in four hours?”

Twilight shook her head. “It was six months for us, Rarity. Six months we spent there, involved in the war. I don’t want to talk about it now.”

Seeing no more questions, she continued on with her lecture. “Earth is a planet with no magic whatsoever.” Another loud gasp, with Shining Armor interrupting this time.

“No magic? That’s impossible! Who regulates the weather? Who raises the sun and moon? A world without magic is out of the realm of possibility.”

Celestia gave him a stare, and motioned for Wesley to explain.

“Well, nobody regulates the weather. At all. It does its own thing with the seasons.” One could literally hear a pin drop in the room. Rarity was taken aback, trying to imagine how things would be with no weather control. “Second, the sun and moon are not raised. The Earth orbits around the sun, and the moon orbits around the Earth. They raise themselves, in other words. Also, there is no magic on our planet. None. The reason Twilight was able to cast so many combat spells, she told me, was because some ‘leylines’ or something had never been tapped.”

“Combat spells?” Shining asked.

Twilight stared at him. “I have done more fighting than you can imagine, brother. For six months, we were engaged in combat with the Soviets, with hardly a day in between with no fighting. I have killed more poni- err, people, than I care to count. At a certain point, it ceases to matter. Rainbow Dash over there took down nearly a hundred – or more – jets and helicopters. To clarify, jets and helicopters are human flying machines, designed for warfare. More on that later.”

Shining looked at his little sister, horrified. He looked over at John, shocked.

“Did YOU do this to her?” Shining demanded.

“It wasn’t about choice!” John said. “We were engaged in combat, without warning, eight hours after the ponies arrived. They would have been safe, away from it all, if the Russians had not attacked. We were forced into it, and so was your sister! Don’t blame us for it, because it isn’t anybody’s fault.”

Luna stepped in this time. “CEACE YOUR FIGHTING. Shining, treat our friends with respect. They saved our lives many times, and without them, we would have been killed. Everypony else, either calm down or we will remove thee from this room.”

After a few moments of silence, Twilight added, “Can I continue now?”

“Of course, Twilight.” Celestia said.

Twilight looked around for a moment before continuing. “In any case, the Soviet Union had invaded the Europe a few months before we arrived. Europe is a continent, which contains two sides: NATO and the Warsaw Pact. The Soviet Union was the leader of the Warsaw Pact, and the United States was the leader of NATO. The USSR, as the Soviet Union is sometimes referred to as, had attack the NATO countries without warning.

“When we arrived, the war had already been raging. We landed in Seattle, a city in America. America itself was not able to be attacked directly, as an ocean sat between it and the Soviet Union, so we believed it to be safe. On the morning after our arrival, however, several massive cargo ships had arrived outside Seattle. They were nearly unmarked, so we could not guess what would happen next. We were by the waterfront when we watched it happen before our eyes: The Soviet arrived.

“Within a day, we had fought to the edge of Seattle, rescuing several hundred civilians inside of a sports field as we went. The next day, we were ordered to hold a bridge. This was our first real taste of fighting. We held it down, but not after many losses on our side. We – well, I – sort of had an emotional breakdown after the battle, but I was helped through it by my friends, John, Wesley, and Andy. Before you ask, Andy was with us before he died, shortly before we went back.”

She paused for a moment to take a sip of water out of a glass next to her, and then looked around, the ponies and humans watching intently. Pinkie’s hair had deflated, and was now a dull pink color, while Rarity was in a permanent stage of shock. Her brother didn’t look any better. Shaking her head, she continued.

“Over three months, we fought several battles, until we could retreat no more. We drew the line at a town called Cascade Falls. Before I continue, I should describe a certain human weapon.

“Nuclear weapons are a human invention. They split the atom of an unstable particle, releasing several types of radiation as well as a massive amount of energy, which is converted into thermal energy. In short, they explode really, really violently.

“The smallest ones can still destroy everything within several miles, and the largest, apparently, can destroy entire regions hundreds of square miles in area.”

Shining’s eyes bugged out. “Tha- That’s impossible!” He sputtered.

“Oh, it is very possible.” Anton said with a small smirk.

Twilight spoke up next. “Moving on, we defended the town for several hours, Rainbow and I following John’s group around as we protected the perimeter. Through a series of brilliant strategic moves by Colonel Sawyer, the leader of the Human combat group, we destroyed nearly one Russian division with one damaged battalion. However, two more Russian divisions moved up, so we were forced to retreat back. Before we left, a human commander, named Bannon, gave his life so that we could escape. A nuclear weapon was launched into the center of town, killing Bannon and two whole Russian divisions. It also apparently gave me a small magical overload, but that’s beside the point.”

Pinkie Pie spoke up next, in a soft voice, far from her normal personality.

“Rainbow Dash?” She said softly, “Are you going to be OK?”

The blue pegasus in mention nodded slowly, before shifting closer to Anton.

Twilight continued after a moment. “We ran from the explosion, where we lost Applejack.” She gave a nod to the mare in question, who slowly gave a small nod as well. “She was captured by the Russians, which we discovered shortly after we fought our way out of the area. After a few months had passed, we were forced to make a final push on Seattle. A country called China, with a population of 1.2 billion, had allied with Russia, and had send a massive armada of reinforcements to the American coast. If we didn’t take back Seattle, a nuclear bomb would be dropped on the city, forcing the Chinese to call off their invasion either way. We pushed forward, taking town after town, in one of which we lost Andy. We eventually reached the outskirts of Seattle. Before I continue, though, I’ll put Applejack up to tell you how the Changelings came in.”

Applejack stepped forward, rising shakily to her feet. She walked to the center, and turned to face the groups.

“This will be how ah remember it, so don’t go saying that ah am wrong. This is what those Changelings told me while ah was being held by them. They got teleported with us while Twilight did her fancy spell. They wanted to kill Celestia and Luna, but we Elements were targets as well. They were allied with those Russians about from the time that they met, and all three of them had formed their little Hive Mind in the city, and survived off the love in the air or sumthin like that. Anyway, back to Twilight.”

Applejack sat down, content with her story, and Twilight stepped up to continue hers.

“We attacked Seattle at midday, two days after we started out counterattack. After pushing through the highways and outskirts of the city, we eventually reached the center, where the Soviet Headquarters was located. We took back the Space Needle, a large human structure stretching hundreds of feet into the air, and found a Changeling in it. We killed the Changeling, and I destroyed two Chinese warships before we moved on.

“We found the next Changeling when it attacked us, nearly killing our entire group in an ambush before John killed it. After plenty of fighting, we finally attack the Soviet Headquarters, quickly taking it in a lightning strike. While the US forces inside of it held off a Soviet assault, we burst into the prison, finding Applejack guarded by the remaining Changeling – the one we brought with us. He, for it is a he, is named Silent Thought. After a very tiny battle, we collapsed part of the building on him, thinking him dead.

“After the battle, the Soviet forces were done for. With no leadership, they simply collapsed, leading us to a victory. The Chinese force turned back, and the remaining Soviet forces were quickly rounded up. A week later, we gathered together for a final time, where we asked our friends if they wanted to come.” She gestured towards the three humans. “They agreed, and, two hours later, we used the spell, teleporting here. You know the rest.”

Twilight finally sat down, exhausted. It had been half an hour since she started her talk, and her throat felt like sandpaper. She took another large sip out of her glass of water, and sat down, sighing in relief.

Shining shakily got up. “I am going to leave you to digest this. Princesses Celestia and Luna, can you inform Cadence?” Luna nodded, so he continued, “In that case, I am going to sleep. It is nearly 4 o’ clock in the morning here, and I need time to sleep to digest this all. Good day.” He walked out, shivering slightly as he remembered key parts of the talk, but more specifically the parts about his sister. He worried for her, and her mental state, especially after what she had gone through.

After Shining left, the others began a slow procession out. Celestia and Luna excused themselves, and then Fluttershy went with Rarity and Pinkie Pie, followed by John, Wesley, and Twilight walking out as a group.

Rainbow stared at Anton for a moment, lost in thought.

“Hey Anton?”

“Yes Rainbow?”

She grinned, leaning forward to embrace him. “Welcome home.”