Equestria in Conflict - Discovering Home

Wesley woke up to the sight of sun streaming out of his window. He grunted and rolled over, his face instantly meeting his book, with the book winning the encounter.

“Gah!”

After getting sorted out and putting the book he had read away, he practically crawled out of bed, opening his duffle bag and taking out some of his civvies. He quickly changed clothes and walked out of his home. On the train ride over, he and the rest of the group had agreed to meet in front of their houses the next morning so they could decide that to do as a group.

Wesley was unsurprised to see John already out there, along with Twilight. He walked up to their small group, the sun just beginning to rise in the background.

“Hey Twilight, hi John.” Wesley said.

John turned around and smiled. “Hey Wesley!”

“Where’s Anton?” Wesley inquired.

John slowly shook his head. “He and Rainbow Dash are already out running somewhere.”

Right on cue, the sound of running could be heard down the street. Wesley turned to see Rainbow Dash racing Anton down the street on foot - or hoof, depending on species. What was more surprising s that Anton was winning. They both slowed to a stop in front of the group, breathing heavily.

“How… Do you do that… Anton?” Rainbow Dash said between breaths.

Anton smiled. “Did you think… Us pilots… Get no physical activity?” He said.

“Uh… Hello?” John said. “We need to get the briefing from Twilight now, and decide on our plans. We’re going to a hill outside of town for that.”

Twilight set out immediately, the rest of the group following her. While they were walking, Rainbow Dash trotted up beside Twilight.

“Hey, Twi.” She said.

“Yes, Rainbow Dash?” Twilight replied.

“I was wondering… What are we going to be talking about?”

“The short version is: Basic events, population, and our plans to introduce them formally to the town. Celestia’s letter calmed them to the idea - and their arrival two hours later - but they needed to nip any future fears at the bud, and give them a chance to interact with the town.”

Rainbow blinked. “That’s quite a mouthful.”

“That’s that she said!” They heard Wesley say, followed by quiet laughing from the group.

Twilight turned her head towards them and gave a mock scowl. “Grow up, guys!” She said.

John gave a shocked look. “Oh, the horror! I don’t want to grow up!” He complained.

“Well, too bad.” Rainbow said, joining in. “You’re going to grow a pair and get outside more, or am I going to have to blow your house up?”

John blinked. “Did you actually bring any of the C4, Dash?”

“Mayyyyybeeeee.”

“Would you really use it?” Anton asked.

“Mayyyyybeeeee.”

“You know, Rainbow.” Wesley said. “If you did, I would tell on you.”

Rainbow gave a fake gasp. “You wouldn’t!”

“Mayyyyybeeeee.”

“Hey, that’s my line!” Rainbow protested.

“No, now it’s mineeeee!” Wesley said, giving his best evil laugh.

“Did I ever mention that the entire town is watching us?” Twilight interrupted.

“No, you didn’t sa- Wait what?”

Wesley and the others looked around, seeing Twilight was right. Virtually everyone they had seen in town yesterday was looking at them from doorsteps and across the street.

John blinked. “Since when did all of Ponyville get up? Before we started talking, nobody was out here. And how come nobody noticed it until Twilight pointed it out?”

Twilight sighed. “For the same reason you haven’t noticed that you have Lyra stalking you.”

“Lyra who?” John asked, and turned around to see a mint green unicorn staring at him from ten feet away.

“Yet again,” Wesley said, “Nobody noticed it until Twilight pointed it out.”

Anton turned towards Twilight. “Twilight Sparkle, I would like to file a formal complaint against the physics of this world. Half of the events I have seen just don’t seem physically possible.”

“Your world is the one that is weird here, Anton.” Twilight countered.

“That depends on your definition of weird. You’re the strange one to us.”

As Twilight and Anton entered a mock argument over their worlds, John turned to Rainbow Dash.

“They do realize the entire town is watching, right?” He said.

She gave a short nod. “Yep.”

John sighed. “We might as well talk to the town now. Hey, Twilight!”

She turned to him. “Yes, John?”

“Mind us starting n our introductions now? The entire town is out here watching you and Anton emberess yourselves.”

Twilight finally turned her attention to the crowd and noticed that, yes, the entire town was indeed out here.

“Uh… Hi?” She finally said.

Twilight cleared her throat and spoke up. “Ponyville, as you know from yesterday’s announcement, we have several visitors from a different world here. We are officially taking questions now, so feel free to ask them.”

Several dozen hooves shot up, and Twilight pointed to one of them. “Roseluck.”

A white pony with a dark purple mane walked forward. “Do you really come from a different world? And what is your species called?”

Wesley stepped forward to answer the questions. After being picked by John on the train, he was considered the most knowledgeable about almost any subject that would come up.

“Yes, we came from another world entirely. I’ll give you the backstory: Seven months ago, Twilight Sparkle, Celestia, Luna, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Fluttershy appeared in our world. When they returned, along with us, we found that only four hours had passed here.” There were a few small gasps. “Our species is called Humans, and the more scientific name is Homo Sapiens. Next question?”

The light green unicorn previously identified at Lyra shot out of the crowd. “Pick me! Pick me! Pick meeeee!”

John facepalmed and Wesley reluctantly nodded in agreement. “Ok, you.”

The unicorn instantly screamed with glee. “Tell me all about yourselves and your species!”

Wesley blinked. “You’re going to have to be more specific. I’d be here for several months if I just started talking about us.”

Several of the townsfolk chuckled lightly.

“Ok, tell me, what’s your cutie mark?”

Wesley sighed. “Humans don’t have cutie marks. Twilight explained the concept to me, so I know how to answer this. The reason we don’t have cutie marks is because Humans don’t have magic. Of any kind.” A small gasp went up at this.

“But how do you do anything?!” Someone - or, more accurately, somepony - shouted from the crowd.

“We have technology several hundred years in advance of yours, which allows us to do quite a bit. Moving on to my next point, us Humans don’t have anything to tell us what our special talent may be. Mostly, Humans can do pretty much anything, if we set our minds to it. Next question.”

A   raised her hand next. Wesley pointed to her. “Yes, miss…?”

“Amethyst Star.” The  said. “What did your group do in your world?”

“We were soldiers.” Wesley said.

“What kind?”

“The kind that fought in a war.”

A few small gasps came from the crowd.

“W- Wa- War?” Amethyst stuttered.

Wesley nodded. “Yes, a war. Before you ask, we were in a war to defend our country and our homes. Anton was on the other side of the war.”

Several ponies turned towards him.

“My leaders attacked their alliance without warning or cause,” Anton explained. “Which is why I am with them now. I was captured, and became friends with miss Rainbow Dash over there.”

“Why would you even fight a war? That’s barbaric!” One of the townsfolk shouted.

Twilight interrupted next. “They were in a war with a country led by evil humans. It was not their fault that they had to defend themselves, just like we defended ourselves against the Changelings. Over the months I have known them, their country has seemed to me to be full of kind, wonderful people, many of whom I fought alongside and saw die in their struggles to defend their homes.”

A dark grey Pegasus turned towards Twilight. “You fought in their war? That’s even worse!”

“I didn’t have a choice!” Twilight snapped. “The day after I met John, Wesley, and a friend of theirs who was killed, we were attacked! We had to defend ourselves, and our friends, and innocent beings around us! If you can fault me for that, then I have nothing to say to you.”

A light blue Pegasus spoke to the grey one. “Thunderlane, stop it. Twilight is making sense. They did fight to defend their homes, just like we did with the Change-”

“Shut up, Cloudchaser.” The grey one, obviously Thunderlane, said. Fortunately, the rest of the town seemed to side with Twilight and their group, at least in Wesley’s view.

“Are here any more questions?” Wesley asked.

A light grey Pegasus with blond hair was the only one who raised their hoof, so Wesley pointed to her.

“Excuse me, but what will you do now that you’re here?”

Wesley smiled. “We plan to be away from war for the rest of our lives. We are content to relax here, maybe occasionally going to talk to Celestia or someone, but mostly settle down.”

That seemed to relax the rest of the crowd. Ten minutes later, Wesley found himself talking to two Pegasus mares.

“-And that was when Andy, our friend, decided it would be an awesome idea to play a prank on our C.O.: Our Commanding Officer.” He had the small group’s complete attention  “So, he grabbed a bit of C4 - that’s a powerful explosive we use - and laid it outside of the showers. So, when the C.O. decided to get a shower, Andy triggered the detonator and the C4 exploded, causing the Captain to rush out of his shower half-naked, as if his ass was on fire. The C.O. never did find out who pulled that.” He finished.

“And all this happened when?” One of them asked.

“Don’t be rude, Sky!” The other one said.

The first one, a blue Pegasus, sighed. “I told you a dozen times, Cloud Runner, to call me Sky Spectrum!” She complained.

“I can still answer the question.” Wesley said.

“Please do.” Sky Spectrum replied.

“This all happened in the spring of 1989, right before the war broke out. Relations were fine then, so the C.O. was a bit more laid-back than he was several months later.”

“Sounds like this ‘National Guard’ was fun.” Cloud runner said.

Wesley shook his head. “When you weren’t fighting a war, then yeah, it was fun.”

Suddenly, John walked over.

“Wesley.” He said, “Twilight still needs to brief us on the situation.”

“What situation?” Wesley retorted. “I have everything under control!”

John grinned. “What’s the male-to-female ratio is Equestria?”

Wesley blinked. “Why would I need to know that?”

“And that’s why we’re having the meeting!”

Sky Spectrum interrupted. “What’s the ratio on your world?”

“About one-to-one. Why, is it different here?” Wesley asked. Two speechless mares stood in front of him. John thought they might be going into shock for a moment, so he decided now was the time to take off.

“Wesley, haul ass to the meeting location NOW!” John said.

Wesley sighed and got up, jogging through the crowd towards the distant hilltop Twilight had mentioned. John ran past him, silently taunting him to run faster. He shook his head and picked up the pace.

Anton looked at the retreating forms of John and Wesley, leaving him to the mercy of the crowd.

“Ponies!” He shouted, gaining their attention. “It has come to my attention that I need to rejoin my friends. I must leave now.” With that, Anton quickly ran off towards the hilltop.

-=-=-

Amethyst Star walked over to  her house, closing the door and locking it. Seconds later, green fire flowed over her as she transformed back into her Changeling form. She could have relayed information through the Hive Mind while she was still in the town square, but she - and other Changelings - felt much more comfortable doing it in their natural forms away from prying eyes. It didn’t matter anyway for her. She had been in cover for many, many years, and had become her personality. No imitation would ever come close to hers, because she wasn’t an imitation. She WAS Amethyst Star, and she could provide any - or all - of her ‘background’ details to prove it.

Because of this, she had made many lasting friendships with ponies, and it was their love that easily sustained her, and the limited amount of Changelings she could provide shelter for.

She requested a personal connection with Chrysalis through the Hive Mind, and got it moments later.

“[Yes, my child?]”

‘[The ‘Humans’ are in town, and have been introduced to it.]’

“[What have you found out about them?]”

‘[They are rather tall bipedal being, similar to apes. They don’t seem to have much stregnth, and have no magic.]’

“[Are you sure, my child?]”

‘[Absolutly. They should be a pushover if  you decide to preemptively strike them.]’

“[I shall keep that in mind. Farewell, Amethyst Star]”

With that, her Queen broke the connection. Amethyst hummed to herself in delight. No matter what happened, she would be at the center of it. And that, after all these years, was just what she wanted.

-=-=-

Anton finally crested the summit of the hill overlooking Ponyville. Ahead of him, Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Wesley, ad John were waiting for him on a checkered blanket. Anton walked up to it and sat down.

“I am here.” He simply stated.

John nodded. “OK, everyone. Twilight’s going to give us a small speech about some things we should know. Specifically about holidays, beliefs, and some biology, to give us a perspective. Any questions?”

There were none, so Twilight went on with her speech. She quickly presented all the major holidays, as well as their earth counterparts, and what they were about.

“-And that is he basic overview of Hearts and Hooves day.” She finished.

“Okay, who is not asleep after that?” John asked.

Two hands shot up, leaving one hoof absent. John looked town to see a snoring Rainbow Dash lying against Anton. At this point, the sight didn’t even faze him.

“Any questions?” John inquired.

Wesley’s hand shot up, and John pointed to him.

“John, what about what you said earlier, about male-to-female ratios. Is there something I should know?” He asked.

John sighed. “Wesley, on Earth we may have a nearly one-to-one ratio, but here it is much higher. In Equestria, there are approximately eight mares to every stallion. That may seem like every man’s dream, but believe me, I asked Twilight. Apparently, competition is pretty damn stiff, and so you’ll probably have girls chasing after ou day and night, even if you’re a different species.”

An awkward ten seconds passed before Wesley gave a low whistle. “Daaaamn. And I thought half of them were just desperate.”

“Well, Anton is already taken.” Twilight quipped, causing the Russian’s face to turn a light shade of red.

“It is not like that!” He half-protested.

“Really.” John deadpanned, earning a glare from the Russian.

“Also,” Twilight said. “You might want to go missing a month from now, for about a week.”

The Humans looked around  confusion.

“Why?” John asked.

Twilight shook her head. “Just trust me.”

Wesley raised his eyebrows, finally understanding. “John, I agree with Twilight. At that time, it would be very convenient to disappear. For safety, you know.”

Anton nodded his head slowly. Although he did not know what his was about, he knew that both Twilight and Wesley were even bigger intellectuals than he had been (and still was), and that he should take it under advisement.

“So,” John started, turning to another topic. “What will we do now that we are here?”

Wesley shrugged his shoulders. “Celestia has pressed us into the Equestrian military, so we should generally not have much to do unless something attacks - which, thinking of the Changelings, they might. Or griffons. From what I’ve heard, neither of them like Equestria much at the moment, albeit for different reasons. We have housing, and enough of a steady income to give us a comfortable lifestyle, and nearly no responsibilities. To my knowledge, we should just go along with our lives, except without the killing. Unless, you know, some Changeling decides to become the dumbass of the day and attacks us.”

“In which case,” John continued. “We have our rifles. Anton, did anyone back home give you anything?”

“Possibly.” The Russian said cryptically before gesturing towards the town. “One of your officers gave me something before I left. Seeing as I was ‘trusted’, at least as much as a former POW and close friend of Rainbow’s could be, they gave me what you call a vs. 61, or nickname the ‘Scorpion’.”

John stared at him for a moment, and then quietly spoke. “Anton, I do not know how you did it, but you’re goddamn lucky as hell. Fuck, I wish they had given ME a good submachine pistol. How do you manage to do that?”

Anton smiled at him. “My friend, all you need to do is know how to talk to the right people. Your ‘Colonel Sawyer’ was very helpful, seeing as he seemed to know everything about me: Probably started learning the moment he found out about Rainbow’s visit.”

“That’s creepy.” Wesley simply stated. “Then again, he did tell me, before we left, that we all were one hell of a security risk.”

John shrugged. “I don’t see why they would bother keeping the ponies a secret. About a million people, give or take, saw them. What the hell would give them any ideas that they could suppress that? Maybe, instead of suppressing the event, they will simply try to downplay any knowledge on them. Makes sense. What do you think, Twi?”

“Hmmm” She said, momentarily pausing. “I don’t know. Needless to say, I don’t think it matters much now.”

“Twilight is correct.” Anton said. “It does not matter, so long as we are here.”

John looked at the sun, noting how it wasn’t even noon yet.

“Well everyone, we’ve got time to kill.” Wesley said. “How about we do something fun, walk around, and stuff?”

John gave a small yawn. “Sounds fine to me.”

With that, the group of friends got up, Anton gently waking Rainbow Dash up. Together, they headed back to Ponyville.