Between Magic and Science

Chapters

By Chance
The Element of Surprise
The Name Game
Coincidences
Disturbances
Hard Science
Dashing
All is fair in War and Potatoes
Distant
A Scratch and a Dash
Suit Up
Rally Cry
3 Days Left: Game Plan
2 Days Left: Weapons Check
1 Day Left: Change of Plans
The Cards are Stacked in Our Favour
Unyielding
Luna's Heroes
Escape Plan
Prologue

By Chance

So this machine, Nexus hoped, was going to open a portal to another world. Pretty crazy, but it was the result of research in science. The power source was the portable generator that powered all of his crazy experiments, now in an unpowered state. Nexus lifted his hand in the direction of said generator, focusing his mind on his synthetic implants, and of electricity. Almost instantly, a thunderbolt had jumped from his outstretched hand to the generator with a loud crack, causing it to spark to life and start pushing electricity in the the portal projector. His implants pulsed for a moment, returning the energy they had used to his body.

This would work, it had to. Nexus took in the surroundings of his lab for the billionth time. Grey cement walls, cold and damp, were covered in blueprints and wires that stretched across the floor. Different workbenches and tables were in various areas, some against the wall, some out in the open, but all overflowing with materials and papers. An operating table was in the furthest corner, and his current project, the projector, sat in the center of the room,

The projector itself wasn't like the ones in movies or books, with a large ring shape to walk through or such, but it was more of a node, just a small orb on the end of a rod that stuck up from the main projector unit. The main projector unit actually generated the portal, using power from the generator, so on and so forth. Nexus was getting caught up in his overly descriptive thoughts. He needed to turn it on!

Nexus turned to the control mechanism. If he was correct, it shouldn't be so difficult as piloting a helicopter, which he had only done once before. The settings were set to open a portal on Delta Earth, which he was certain was the name of the world he had came from. Taking a deep breath, he turned the projector on, and a purple vortex enveloped the machine, giving sight to what appeared to be space on the other end of the portal.

Must’ve set the coordinates too high... He thought to himself.

As he looked over the controls, another device began to go off; his spacial distortion scanner, a device that measured the amount of matter in a wide area, and reported any large changes in it. This one was set to scan from the Razorback Mountains, just outside of Tanktown’s west border, to Beaver Creek, a small body of water in the Ashfall Forest. It had been expected to change a little bit, but it had suddenly spiked, and Nexus knew it could only mean one thing.

He had brought something else into this world.

He’d have to find it, there’s no telling where it would end up, hopefully it wasn't sentient, or at least intelligent enough to be upset with what he had done. He’d have an easy time finding it if it was some sort of animal, like a deer or something, cause there weren't many around TankTown at this time of year. Misplaced furniture was another common one. Shame he had to send it back, some of it was nice.

Nexus turned off the portal projector, and the generator that powered it, and took a look at the scanner, which now read “+81.6 Kg” under the displacement section. He swore under his breath and covered his face with his hands. That was the mass of an average human being, so unless he somehow warped a life sized replica of someone, then he definitely warped someone, and that meant they wouldn't be too happy.

Out of all the things that could have gone wrong, he had to bring another person out of their world? The irony of the situation was burning at him, but the fact that another being was pulled from whatever world they came from, and into this world, just like he had... He needed to talk to his friends, see if they could help him out. But he couldn't go and bother all of them, and he didn't want to cause panic. Who would he talk to?

Peaceful Pride was good at listening, but he’d probably be busy working at his armour shop. Whirlwind would probably be out on an aerial mission, or sleeping off a hangover, and Trax Dash was training for the next Arena tournament. Buttercrust was going through one of those random phases, and Burning Star, she would flip out, no doubt. Nova Burst was probably harvesting his potatoes by now, and Powerjack... He could talk to Powerjack, actually. Powerjack was the overseer of Tanktown’s militia, and was usually never busy. He was calm most of the time, if not a bit shy.

This was kind of an urgent matter, and he didn't want to waste time. There was a tank in the garage, which was the normal method of transit for the people of Iron Core, but it wasn't exactly fast. He needed something quicker, like a motorcycle. Burning Star had one, but she never used it much. Nexus came out of the sealed airlock in his lab, and walked up the stairs to the house. Having a lab in the basement was kind of ghetto, but Burning Star, being his roommate, wanted the place to look somewhat presentable. Which, he had no clue why she was still living here after have helped him save the world several times over.

“Hey, Burning Star, you mind if I borrow your motorcycle?” Nexus said, entering the garage. Burning Star was laying back a skateboard, working on something underneath their armoured vehicle.

“Yeah, sure, the tank’s not ready to go anyway. Where you headed?” She replied, still working on whatever it was she was doing.

“I’m going to see if Powerjack is doing anything...”

Later, he had been sitting with Powerjack in his office, watching him sort through papers. The mirror in his office allowed Nexus to see himself for the first time in what seemed like forever, for he hadn't had a mirror in the bathroom in his lab. His dirty blonde hair fell short of his ears, and was spiked up in some places for an unexplained reason. Bright blue eyes looked at him through the mirror, observing his every detail. A face of youth, but stained with hard work, and undeniable experiences. A plain orange jacket, his blue jeans, and the purple marks running along his arms and body. That’s what gave him his power. Then there was the tattoo on his lower left arm, which marked his specialty in his combat unit. He and his friends had originally gotten them to identify and remember what they did for the group. Nexus had a sword, symbolizing him as a leader. Others had just thought it was a cool look, and some had gotten their own.

Powerjack looked over at him, ready for him to say something.

His quiet voice said, “What did you want to talk about, Nexus?”

His voice didn't fit his physical appearance at all. Powerjack was a huge person, and could easily lift over thrice his weight. He was at least a whole head taller than Nexus, and appeared very menacing at a glance, but Powerjack was gentle, he almost never hurt anyone, unless they hurt him -or someone important to him- first. He wore a simple brown t-shirt and blue jeans, obviously patched together from other jeans to fit him. His implants were green, which meant he could manipulate virtual data and machines, and upon his lower left arm was a shield.

Nexus sighed. “We’ve got a problem.”

The Element of Surprise

Twilight Sparkle awoke to the sound of voices. She was on her back, somewhere in a wooded area. Perhaps the Everfree forest? It didn't seem very dark or scary, though. The trees were more spaced out and allowed for light to stream in on her face. Instinctively, she lifted a hand to her face. Then she realized that she had hands. She remembered one of her friends saying something about them, but she wasn't really listening... She also realized that she wasn't a pony anymore. Whatever had happened to her, there was strong magic behind it. She examined her body. She was wearing a purple jacket, with pink stripes along the side, that matched her hair. She still had it, but it only covered her head. Beneath the jacket she had on a simple white t-shirt, and pants made of some strange grey material. No tail. Strange.

She was certain she wasn't in Equestria. From what little she knew from researching dimensional travel, which she had done one time on a trip to Manehattan, She knew that her form might be altered to match what is normal, however-

Her thoughts were cut off as she suddenly became weak, and passed out on the ground again. She just accepted that all this apparently was normal...

When Twilight awoke again, she could hardly move, barely even open her eyes. What she saw when she did, though, frightened her. Another being, the same kind as herself, stood over her, with a shiny object, a knife of some kind. His other hand was to his lips, and he was making a shushing noise. At least, she assumed he was male, he seemed to be quite strong and carried a weapon, a hunter maybe? He wore nothing over his chest, and torn pants made of a similar material that hers were.

Then she realized what the shiny object he was holding was. It was a syringe, and the handle was pressed in. An orange liquid had dripped from it, and she could tell it he had just recently pulled it out of something. It clicked in her mind. She was paralyzed, because he injected her with... something.

“Shh... it’s alright, just relax...” She heard a raspy, low voice say, followed by a bit of laughter. Sounded a bit maniacal.

The creature motioned to another much like himself, except this one carried a metallic object that sort of resembled a cannon. Her heart began to beat faster when she realized what it might be.

“Hey, you hear that?” The other one said, turning and raising what Twilight had assumed to be some sort of hand cannon.

“What? No. You’re crazy, calm down, let me get this one secured, and we’ll get-” The first one was cut off by a loud roar, and she caught sight a monstrous beast, not like a Manticore, but it was a large lizard, almost like a dragon...

“Basilisk!” one of them shouted, she couldn't determine which one, as they were both running away as fast as they could. The large creature, called a Basilisk, looked around, not noticing Twilight, and then just walked off. Probably a territorial creature. She still couldn't move, her body felt numb, and all she could do was think.

Nexus rode by the small viewport underneath the cannon in Powerjack’s tank. It was mainly used to line up shots, but since it had a wider field of view than the driver’s peep hole Nexus helped Powerjack out. It had taken a lot of convincing to get Powerjack to go with him, but he managed. Going into the Ashfall Forest wasn't exactly welcoming. For one, there were monsters lurking about, two, it was easy to get lost if you went past Beaver Creek, and three, in every cliche horror movie, something always goes down in the forest.

Powerjack’s voice barely made it through the loud roaring of the tank’s engine. “Are you sure the scanner wasn't, you know, wrong, or something?

“The scanner hasn't been wrong before, and it’s pointing towards Ashfall.” The bulky, black box with a screen on it sat in his lap.

“Am I good?”

“Yeah, keep going straight.”

There was a roar in the distance. Powerjack jumped back in his seat, but quickly regained control of the vehicle.

“Sounded like it came from the Ashfall,” Nexus grimly stated.

Powerjack said nothing, but he was truly frightened on the inside.

They reached Beaver Creek, and had to stop the tank there. The trees were too thick to drive through on the other side, and there wasn't a bridge to the other side anyway. Beaver Creek was peaceful, with trees and sunlight, but was also the site of many a bloody battle. Nexus opened the tank’s top hatch and climbed out, and Powerjack did the same.

Nexus looked over to Powerjack and said, “Hey, did you get our guns?”

Powerjack nodded, and passed him his rifle. Semi-automatic, 10 bullets. Nothing fancy, but he probably wouldn't need it. Couldn't be too careful, with Raiders running about. Powerjack had a similar rifle, smooth brown finish, iron sights. Nexus looked at his scanner, which beeped idly, indicating a specific direction.

“Let get moving, then.” He said.

Some time later, Twilight had heard footsteps and voices.

“It’s coming from over here,” one said. They weren't the same voices as before, they seemed younger, and somewhat nicer. There was the sound of bushes rustling, and then footsteps running towards her.

“There’s someone here! A girl?” A voice exclaimed, the same as before.

“What, really?” Another, quieter voice had replied.

“Yeah, she’s the one. Scanner just went dark.” The other voice said.

She felt something on her left arm, like something was checking it for something. She felt a sharp pain when she felt a hole in her new skin.

“Raiders got to her first. Don’t know why they didn't just take her. They did get her with stun poison though, she’ll need to get that looked at.”

“Is she awake?”

“I don’t know, let me check.”

Twilight’s view of the sky was suddenly blocked by a figure, seeming to be kneeling over her. She had noticed these creatures walked on two legs, instead of four. Her eyes darted upwards, seeing a pair of bright blue eyes looking back.

“You awake? Blink three times if you are, that’s about all you can do.”

She did as she was told. One, two, three.

“Alright... sorry for yanking you out of whatever world you were in before, but we gotta get you checked out. That stuff they injected you with will last a while otherwise. Powerjack, would you carry this fine young lady back to the tank?”

Twilight blinked. A tank? Not exactly the first thing that came to mind. Perhaps these were soldiers? Those Raiders didn't seem like a friendly group, so maybe everyone here had a tank. She had to keep an open mind. She felt herself being lifted, and her body was limp in the arms of the one called Powerjack.

“So, umm... Nexus, what do you think she was doing? Before she was well... you know.” The soft, calm voice came from the large brute of a creature carrying her. Reminded her of a certain somepony she knew back home... Except without the muscle mass.

The one called Nexus turned to look at her, stopping to look at her.

“Idunno. Maybe she was like... I really don’t know. I want to ask her questions, but I also want to get her home. I did bring this upon her.”

Twilight took comfort in the fact that this ‘Nexus’ wanted to help her, opposed to what the Raiders had wanted, which she couldn't even begin to imagine. The same deafening roar from before had sounded off, raising alert. Powerjack nearly dropped the girl he was carrying, obviously frightened by the noise. There was a rustle in the bushes, and a shadow among the trees. Nexus looked over to Powerjack.

“Take her, and get her back to Tanktown. Peaceful Pride will know what to do to treat that poison that’s paralyzing her.”

“What about you, Nexus, I’m not going to just leave you here.” Powerjack’s voice trembled,

“Get Burning Star and the others as soon as you can and tell them to meet me at Beaver Creek!”

Twilight saw Nexus make a gesture for Powerjack to go, just as the huge lizard, like a dragon without wings, jumped out and nearly crushed Nexus. A Basilisk, the Raiders had called it. She heard running water, and then splashing, and then her hair became wet. The last thing she saw of Nexus was him reaching out, and somehow creating a bolt of lightning between him and the beast. Was it what she thought it was?

Powerjack had arrived at the tank, it was still at Beaver Creek. He lowered the girl in first, keeping in mind that she was still conscious. He heard her body hit the seat.

“Oh, I’m so sorry... Please forgive me..” He said, as he climbed in himself, placing the limp body in the gunner seat behind him, and strapped her in. They would be to Tanktown soon, where they could get this mysterious girl some real help. He hoped Nexus was alright, though.

The Name Game

Twilight heard the sound of something thumping, then she was being lifted up out of the seat of the armoured vehicle. She still couldn’t move anything, save her eyes. She saw a group of buildings, like she was in a village, but the buildings were closer together, like they were in Canterlot. What she was being carried toward appeared to be called ‘The Forge’, by looking at the sign mounted to the roof. As they went through the glass doors, she saw several suits of armour on display, as well as some items she recognized, like swords, and others that resembled the hand cannons she saw the Raiders with earlier. She didn’t even know what some of them were, but assumed them to be weapons. This made her very uncomfortable.

Powerjack opened the door to The Forge and looked around. A small bell rang out.

“Hello?” He said, in a weak, but audible voice?

“Is someone there?” Another called back.

“Peaceful Pride, are you there?” Powerjack asked.

“Yes, I’m in the back room. Come on back.”

He entered the back room where Pride’s office was located. He was at his desk, looking very surprised to see Powerjack walk in with what appeared to be a dead girl. Twilight just shut her eyes and listened. His voice... it sounded like somepony she knew from her world... Rarity...

“Powerjack... eh... Why are you carrying a dead body?” Pride was confused.

“She’s not dead, she’s... paralyzed. The Raiders did it to her, Nexus said it was a paralysis poison or something.” He almost whispered those last words.

“Oh, I should be able to treat that, put her there on my workbench.” Pride pointed to metal bench that looked big enough to hold Powerjack. He laid the girl down on it as instructed. Pride was now over her, with a small bottle of something she didn’t recognize.

“Where was she injected?” He asked.

“Right there.” Powerjack touched the small tear in her skin, sending pain throughout her body, but she could do nothing about it.

“Now, dear, this may hurt a little. Please excuse me for this,” Pride said before pouring the solution in the bottle over the spot where she had been cut and injected.

Twilight’s arm felt as if it was on fire. She hadn’t had this new body very long, and she knew this feeling wasn’t normal. The solution settled in, and the pain spread to beneath her skin, it spread to her bones, the pain intensifying with every moment. She had to get out of this, she had to...

The girl on the table writhed in pain for a moment, then let out a scream that rivaled that of the Basilisk. She grabbed her arm, feeling the pain leave her with each heavy breath she took. Sitting up, she realized she could move her body, and that it was no longer on fire. The ones called Powerjack and Peaceful Pride stood in front of her, watching her reaction. Her breathing slowed, and she put her hands to her chest. Her heart slowed from its elevated pulse as well.

After a long silence, Pride spoke up. She got a good look at him, too. He had chocolate brown hair, with sky blue highlights, and it was slicked up out of his face. He had green eyes, with small circular glasses over them, and wore a suave looking tuxedo complete with a bow tie, and black dress pants. On his wrist was a cross, with a snake slithering around it. She noticed that he had glowing lines along his arms and neck, as well as noticing them on Powerjack.

“How do you feel, dear?”

“I can... I’m okay... I think... I have so many questions...” Twilight spoke her first words, and found it exactly the same as the Equestrian language.

“Yes, of course, but hold on, you mentioned Nexus was with you? Where is he?”

Nexus was becoming tired, he had spent an hour fighting this Basilisk, and it wasn’t even phased. He rolled to the side, just narrowly avoiding it’s claw swiping out at him. It took a step backwards, splashing in the shallow water of Beaver Creek. Nexus had an idea, he just needed it to take another step backwards. Before he could make another move, it hit him. Not an idea, but the claw of the beast. It sent him flying backwards into a tree, knocking the last of the fight out of him.

Legend said that the Basilisk could kill just by looking at something, but that was obviously not true. What was true, is that it could kill anything it looked at, and Nexus thought that his time was up. He knew, though, that every time he thought he was about to die, something would happen. That seemed to be something that heroes did, being able to cheat death with good timing. The Basilisk walked towards him, closing in for the kill. Everything about it seemed to make it the perfect predator. It’s scales deflected most bullets, it’s claws could rip metal to shreds, and it looked completely fearsome.

His internal analysis of the beast was interrupted by a loud boom, almost like thunder, and the Basilisk stumbling backwards, right into Beaver Creek. he sighed with relief.

Powerjack and Peaceful Pride had driven a tank, Powerjack’s tank, into the Ashfall forest, looking for Nexus near Beaver Creek. This new girl, Twilight Sparkle, she said her name was, had came with them, and didn’t seem to understand what the tank was. She seemed fascinated with it, though. The tank suddenly stopped, and Twilight turned to ask Powerjack, the driver, why, when Peaceful Pride handed her and Powerjack earplugs. She put them in, noticing that her ears were different as well, she hadn’t even noticed until now. Amazing how-

There was a rumbling and a boom, like thunder that came from inside the tank, and Twilight and Powerjack both jumped.

“Was... Was the the cannon?” Twilight asked, shaking a little.

“What’s that? I can’t hear you.” Peaceful Pride removed his ear plugs, and Twilight removed hers as well. Her ears were ringing from the loud noise.

“Was that the cannon?” She was still trembling.

“Oh, yes it was. Impressive piece of work.”

“Why did you fire it?” She asked, a bit hesitantly.

“I saw a monster attacking my friend Nexus, you see, and I didn’t want it to kill him, obviously because he’s my friend, and now the monster is-”

Pride was cut off by a loud noise, as if someone was hitting the tank’s hatch.

“Hey!” Came a muffled voice from the other side, “Let me in!”

Pride leaned over, looking at Powerjack, who was still facing front, with his earplugs in. Pride tapped on his shoulder, and he took the plugs out.

“Could you get the hatch for Nexus?”

The ride back wasn’t eventful, even though Twilight and Nexus had many questions for each other. Nexus glanced over at her, and decided to start small talk.

“What’s your name?” He asked.

“I’m... I’m Twilight Sparkle.” She replied, trying to be polite, “You’re Nexus, right?”

“Right... So, Twilight, I... I... uhh, kinda pulled you out of your world by accident, and that’s how you ended up here. I’ll do my best to get you back home.”

“Thank you, I guess... Where am I now?” Twilight wanted to at least know where she was going to be for the moment.

“Right now, you’re in the country of Iron Core, city of Tanktown.”

“Tanktown...” She repeated looking down at her feet, which had nothing on them. She looked back up at Nexus, “What species am I?”

Nexus wasn’t expecting the question, “Well, from what I can tell, you’re a human.”

Human... The word reverberated in her mind. She knew somepony back home who spoke of humans, but they had been long since extinct.

“What, do they not have humans in your world?”

Twilight was surprised by the lack of ‘you’re crazy’ in his voice, “Well, no, where I’m from, ponies are the dominant species.”

Ponies... The word echoed in Nexus’s head. It was so familiar to him, but he couldn’t place a finger on where it had came from.

“May I ask about those... lines on your body?” she pointed to the purple glow beneath Nexus’s skin.

“These are my implants. They allow me to bend the world to my will, well... To a certain point,” he said.

“Bend the world...” Twilight was thinking about that phrase, “Oh, like magic!”

Nexus chuckled a bit, “Yeah, I guess it’s kinda like magic. I can make fire and lightning, as well as move things with my mind.”

She felt better knowing that there was magic in this world. It was something she could relate to.

“I can move objects with my mind, too, see?” She focused on the small black box that Nexus had used to find her, and it was enveloped in a purple glow. It began to rise, and it landed in Nexus’s lap.

“How do you do that, without implants?” Nexus was amazed at her ability.

“Well, where I’m from, everypony can do it. Well, Unicorn ponies, at least.” Twilight felt her forehead, realizing she had no horn. She knew her wings were gone, because she would’ve felt them when she was on the ground, but her horn... she was channeling her magic elsewhere.

“Heh, everypony, eh? That what they say back in...” Nexus hadn’t caught the name of her world.

“Equestria, and yes, that’s the term we use, although I don’t think it would be used here... Because you’re obviously not ponies.”

“We just say ‘everybody’, or ‘everyone’.” Nexus looked up at Pride, who was still in the gunner’s seat and said, “How far are we, Pride?”

“Just a few minutes more, and we’ll be back at the Forge.”

Twilight had another question for Nexus, “What’s with your names in this world?”

“I could ask you the same thing. Names here are given based on what we do. I’m not from this world, believe it or not, but my name is still... fitting,” He knew what he was talking about, but wasn’t about to open up his ultimate power story to a random girl she just met.

“Well... What about the others?”

“Peaceful Pride is... well, rather obvious. He rather calm, and usually shows a general respect for himself. Powerjack was a miner, and he’s super strong.”

“Oh, well what about that cutie mark on your arm?”

“My... what... oh, you mean my combat tatoo? I got it after I formed a combat unit with my friends. The sword is a symbol of leadership.”

“So... they tell you what you do?”

“Yep. Pride’s got a cross, because he’s a Medic. Powerjack’s a Vanguard, nothing stops him when he’s determined. I guess I should introduce you to the rest of my friends...”

“About that... the friends of yours I’ve met so far seem... very similar to my friends back in Equestria.”

“What do you mean?”

In the driver seat, Powerjack looked back at Peaceful Pride. He noticed.

“What’s on your mind, PJ?”

“What are they talking about?”

“Oh, Twilight’s a magical unicorn from another world where ponies are dominant and she has magic powers. Now she’s talking about how we’re like her friends in her world.”

“Oh...”

Coincidences

Being in a completely different universe didn’t seem that odd to Twilight, but she still had so many questions to ask. Nexus explained to her how their country was split into eight separate regions, and how Tanktown was at the center of all of them. When Twilight asked about the tank, Nexus told her about the Raiders, and how day-to-day life was dangerous without protection.

“So... You have to... hurt... other people, don’t you?’ She asked, looking a bit depressed by what she had said.

“They dedicated themselves to destruction and war, what else can we do?” Nexus knew what she was about to say next, he could tell by the look on her face.

“But, that makes you no better than they are, you take their lives, too.”

“I wish we could just all be friends, but it just doesn’t work that way,” Nexus noticed the upset expression on Twilight’s face had turned to one of concern, “Look, I don’t know how things are back in your world, but we’re just trying to get by. I know it can be a bit shocking if things are peaceful in your world, but you’ll have to accept it.”

Twilight didn’t know what to say. Conflict wasn't something she had agreed with, but yet she had never been exposed to them too much in Equestria. Sure, there was war, but Princess Celestia had kept peace for so long. Nopony ever lost their lives there...

“I just...” Twilight began, looking down, “Your world is so different than mine... There’s hardly ever war like this there... There hasn't been for thousands of years...”

“I want to get you back there, too,” Nexus replied, coming closer to her and pushing her chin up. He looked her in the eyes, her... purple eyes? That was odd, but he did have a friend with golden eyes, so he guess it was normal where she was from, “It’s just, I don’t know how to yet. You’re probably going to be here for a while, and I don’t want Raiders or something else hurting you.”

Pride and Powerjack were just listening. They were in Pride’s office in the Forge with Twilight and Nexus, and business was slow today.

“I... don’t know how to feel about that,” Twilight hesitantly replied.

“It’s okay, you should take some time to think about it. Are there any other questions about this world that I could answer?”

“Yes, but I think I should tell you a bit about where I’m from first...” Twilight began after Nexus nodded, and sat down on Pride’s workbench, and motioned for him to join her. Twilight took the gesture and laid down on the bench, much like a pony would. She was met with blank expressions from all of them. Nexus smirked.

“That’s how ponies sit in your world, isn’t it?”

The rest of that evening, Twilight had told Nexus what Equestria was like, the Princesses, and day to day life. She also mentioned that she had recently became a Princess herself, at which Nexus seemed to be confused. He let her continue on anyway, though. He had to believe what he was hearing, because he had no knowledge of the universes outside his original one, and this one. Twilight talked about her best friends, daring Rainbow Dash, gentle Fluttershy, fun-loving Pinkie Pie, hard working Applejack and fashionista Rarity. She also mentioned a dragon, Spike.

“Wait,” Nexus said, holding up a hand, “You live with a dragon?”

“Well, he’s a baby dragon, but still, yes.”

“Isn’t he going to grow into an adult dragon someday?”

“I guess so, but dragon years are different than pony years. They take much longer to mature.”

Nexus accepted this and let her continue. She said more things about the other species after that, things like other dragons, griffins, that all lived separately from ponies. Earth ponies, as he would soon learn them to be called, did live with other types of ponies, which were unicorns and pegasi. Apparently, in Twilight’s world, the sun and moon were controlled by the Princesses Luna and Celestia, and the weather controlled by pegasi.

“What about your technology?” Nexus asked, “Have you discovered electricity?”

“Well, yes... but it’s impractical for most ponies, since we’ve had magic for so long. Is that what all of your technology is based off of?”

“Yes, mostly. However, I won’t lie, there is magic in this world, it’s just not controllable like it is in your world.”

“There is some magic in my world that isn’t completely understood, like the Elements of Harmony.”

Nexus stared at her for a moment. Elements of.... Harmony? That couldn’t be a coinsidence.

“Harmony?” He asked. Powerjack and Peaceful Pride had left already, probably tending to customers in the shop.

“Yes, the Elements of Harmony are powerful artifacts in my world that have saved Equestria several times over. I am the bearer of one of them, Magic.”

“Umm...” She sounded like she wasn’t lying. That sounded way too much like the Elements of Heroism, powerful artifacts that he had used to save his world.

“Are you okay?”

“That’s... wow... I can’t believe...” Nexus couldn’t form any words. He was trying to say something. Twilight just watched him stuttering. Nexus realized what he was doing, and stopped himself.

Nexus sighed, “In my world, there’s something similar to what you described. They’re called the Elements of Heroism, and I’ve saved this world with them as well. It can’t be a coincidence, can it?”

“Heroism? I guess it makes sense that every world would have powerful items in it to protect it...”

“But the thing is,” Nexus continued, “Is that they’re not actual artifacts, they’re... my friends.”

“What do you mean?”

“There are eight Elements of Heroism in this world. Each one is represented by my eight best friends. Honour, Courage, Strength, Trust, Justice, Ability, Support, and Generosity,” Nexus explained, “We all had to use them to defeat an evil spirit called Nightmare, and his brainwashed minion Anarchy, who now goes by his original name, Orbital Order.”

“Generosity is one of the Elements of Harmony as well, this isn’t a coincidence. The evil spirit, Nightmare, was that all it’s name was?” Twilight wanted to know just how similar the events that took place in this world were to hers.

“Yeah, I think so. Just Nightmare. Why do you ask?”

“I originally used the Elements of Harmony with my friends to defeat Nightmare Moon, who was really Princess Luna. There wasn’t a Conduit needed, it just happened. She was driven by rage and fear, and lost all control of her body. Harmony restored her control.”

“Right, you said she was banished to the moon for that?”

Twilight nodded. How Luna had even survived on the moon, Nexus didn’t know, but he guessed that an immortal goddess wouldn’t have to breathe.

“Right. Hold on, you said there was only eight elements? Where do you fit in?”

“I’m the Conduit. I’d supposed you have a Conduit in your world, right?”

This confused Twilight. “A... what?”

“Let me explain,” Nexus began, “The Elements of Heroism needs a Conduit, or someone to manipulate it’s energy. I’m apparently that Conduit.” She went on to tell him about the space station Waypoint, and how Anarchy wanted to use the technology on it to lock the moon’s rotation around the planet, making that one night that Nightmare could come through in his physical form last forever. He then told her how he and his friends fought Anarchy, and how Anarchy had killed Nexus.

“Wait... He killed you? How are you...”

“The energy from my friends weren’t enough to beat Anarchy and Nightmare separately. All of their energy got transferred into my dead body, bringing me back to life. Once I had defeated Nightmare, Anarchy had helped us escape, no longer being under Nightmare’s control. My friends... they didn’t survive the destruction of the space station, but I was able to revive them by giving them back the the energy from their respective Element.”

I took a moment for this to sink in with Twilight.

“Wow, that’s quite the story,” she said, “Where’s Anarchy now?”

“He’s working as the Queen of Raingear’s personal assistant. Repaying the world he had tried to destroy, I guess. We call him Orbital Order, though, because he’s not really Anarchy now that Nightmare is gone.”

“I know what you mean,” Twilight recalled the events with Princess Luna one particular Nightmare Night.

“We’ve talked enough for tonight. Let me take you to my place, you can stay there with us for a while,” Nexus said.

“Really? You would... wait, who else is there?”

“My roommate, Burning Star, and my friend Trax Dash, but he’s out of town right now.”

“Well, thank you.”

Nexus opened the door to the office and found Peaceful Pride sitting on a chair behind the glass counter, polishing a handgun. He smiled when he saw Nexus and Twilight.

“Hello, you two were chatting for quite some time,” Pride set the gun down, “Powerjack mentioned that were supposed to get the others to come and pick you up... very sorry about that, but I got worried and insisted we come right away.”

“It’s fine,” Nexus assured him, he was just glad that he got a ride out of there, “Where is Powerjack, anyway?”

“He went home, he also brought Burning Star’s bike back to her. I could give you a ride, if you like,” Pride stood up, gesturing to his tank parked in the street outside.

“Thanks, I think I’d like that. What about you, Twi?”

Twi. It was a nickname her friends called her back home.... but only her friends. Did these people really consider her a friend? Even though it was different, this world was almost identical to hers on the friendliness level. Sure, not everyone in this world was so friendly like Nexus and his group, but it was nice to have friends.

“Yes, thank you.”

Disturbances

Twilight had gotten herself settled in Nexus’s guest bedroom, and had met his roommate, Burning Star. She seemed nice enough, her fiery orange hair and yellow highlights stood out, but it matched her red sleeveless top and the blue pants made of the same material Nexus and her own were made of. Her eyes were a blue color, and seemed to contrast her overall orange tone. She noted the implants she had were red, and ran along her arms. Upon her lower left arm was an orange and yellow flame. She also noted that she smelled of the vehicle they rode in.

“So, Twilight,” Burning Star said, “you’re from another world too, eh?”

“Yeah...” Although she was welcomed, she felt bad for being a burden, “I’m not going to be a problem, am I?”

“Hey, don’t worry about it, you’re welcome here. Nexus hasn’t found a way to his own world, but I’m sure he can get you back.”

Twilight said nothing.

“Well, I guess I better head to bed, g'night,” Burning Star began to walk down the hall to her room.

“Goodnight...”

Twilight had just now thought of what things might be like back in Equestria, back in Canterlot. Did they even know she was gone? Did time even pass the same way in this world? It had been a long day, and she supposed she should get some rest. She’d have to take things day by day, as she didn’t know what to expect.

The bed and the stand next to it was about all the room had in it, but there was space for more. On the bed was a single thick blanket, with the night sky printed upon it. There was even a moon in the top right. Although the moon rose by itself in this world, it still made her feel a little more comfortable, with memories of the Princess Luna.

She looked at the clock on the stand. It was indeed more advanced than the clocks she was used to, but it served the same purpose. It’s green display read 11:17, a late time in her world, and obviously this one as well, but she just didn’t feel tired for some reason. Perhaps it was all of the questions she had about this world still. Her conversation with Nexus had cleared up a lot of history, but they only briefly had delved into this topic of electricity that Nexus briefly mentioned, and then there was the weapons. As much as she disliked war, she had to admit, she was curious about what they were and how they worked.

She heard a loud clanging noise from below her.

In the throne room of a castle, at the heart of a land called Equestria, a pure white alicorn princess had gathered two earth ponies, two pegasi, and two unicorns before her. The princess’s wings portrayed peacefulness, folded in at her sides, and her crown rested just below her horn. Upon her flank was a orange sun, signifying her raising of said celestial object. She spoke.

“You all know why you were called here?”

An orange earth pony, wearing a cowpony hat, looked up. Her voice had a southern accent to it.

“Umm, ya’ll said Twilight was missing, right?”

The princess of the sun nodded.

A white unicorn with a curled purple mane spoke next, her voice reflecting a bit of an upper class descent.

“Princess Celestia! You didn’t tell me that she was gone! Whatever had happened the dear?”

A cyan pegasus with a rainbow coloured mane rose above the other two.

“Twilight’s missing? What happened?”

A blonde yellow pegasus just had behind her pink mane, which fell over her face quite well.

Celestia looked over to the other, off-white unicorn, whose eyes were concealed by purple sunglasses. Her lighting blue mane hung down past her muzzle, but the sunglasses kept it out of her face. Celestia spoke again.

“Miss Scratch-”

“Princess, excuse me, but please,” the unicorn in question took her sunglasses off in respect, “Just call me Vinyl.”

Celestia nodded, and continued.

“Vinyl had witnessed the disappearance of Princess Twilight Sparkle yesterday. Would you describe what happened?”

“Of course,” she said, “I was on my way back from a DJ gig near the edge of the Everfree forest, was an outside party, see?” she realized that she was getting off track, “Anyway, after everypony else had left, I was packing up my stuff, and was about to go home, but then I saw the Princess approaching me. I hadn’t known she was at the party, but she seemed to like my choice of music. She didn’t seem to mind me asking what somepony like her was doing out on the edge of the Everfree forest, and she said she was just taking a walk when she heard the music and came to see what it was all about.”

The white unicorn listening to her spoke up.

“Didn’t anypony realize that she was the Princess?”

“Well,” Vinyl hesitantly replied, “They were all kinda drunk, but she didn’t seem to mind. She seemed real talkative with me. When she turned to leave, I saw a light in the sky, and had looked up at it. I was going to ask her what it was, but when I looked back down, she was gone. I thought it was some sort of joke, and she had just teleported away, but I don’t think she would’ve left her crown behind.”

There was a pink earth pony, who had just been quiet the whole time. She seemed rather down for some reason.

Princess Celestia noticed the pink pony’s expression, and addressed her.

“Pinkie Pie, what has you down? You’d normally be much more energetic than you are right now.”

The orange pony spoke for her.

“Pinkie’s been a bit... sad ever since Twilight disappeared.”

“She’s gone... Applejack, she’s gone...” Pinkie muttered to her.

As Applejack tried to comfort her, the rainbow maned pegasus looked to her Princess.

“We’re going to have to help you find her, right? That’s why you called us all here?”

“Yes, Rainbow Dash. I’ll tell you the details momentarily, as soon as my sister arrives.”

Celestia noticed the yellow mare standing behind the two white unicorns, as if trying to hide from her. She addressed her, in attempt to relieve her tension.

“Is something on your mind, Fluttershy?”

The pegasus called Fluttershy spoke quietly, but everypony in the room was able to hear her.

“I... I’m worried about Twilight... What if she’s... what if she’s in d-danger?” Fluttershy’s voice quaked.

“Don’t worry,” the Princess’s tone was gentle, but at the same time, stern, “I’m sure she can handle herself, wherever she is.”

“She’s right, dear,” the white unicorn told her, “Princess Twilight is a Princess, after all.”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash added, “What Rarity said, she’s a Princess, and what Princess Celestia said, she can handle herself. And we’re going to be the ones to help her.”

“So, Princess Celestia,” Rarity asked, “When will Princess Luna arrive?”

“I’m not sure, she was supposed to be here now, but... I suppose I must carry on without her,” Celestia rose from her throne, “Princess Twilight is missing, and I’m going to task the six of you with finding her.”

Applejack quizzically tilted her head, “How in Equestria are we going to do that?”

“You see, Applejack, where she happens to be right now is not Equestria.”

The ponies before her all looked in shock and confusion, except for Fluttershy, who still hid behind her mane. Celestia even had Pinkie’s attention.

“Upon speaking with my sister, I learned that she had noticed a flash in the sky while watching her stars that night. When she had arrived at where the flash happened, she collected Twilight’s crown, and had brought it to our research division to study it.” Celestia paused, taking a moment for this to settle with her audience, before she delivered the point straight to them. “It appears that she has been brought to another universe entirely.”

“Another... universe?” Rarity said, utterly speechless. They all were, even Rainbow had settled on the floor of the throne room.

“Yes, another universe, one that I have no knowledge of. And I’m sending you 6 to it, in hopes that you can find her and bring her back.”

“How are we supposed to do that? We don’t know anything about this other world either!” Rainbow Dash raised her voice, obviously getting frustrated.

“Settle down, Rainbow,” Applejack put a hoof on her friend’s shoulder, “No need to get all riled up with the Princess here. With all due respect, though,” she turned to the Princess, “What is your plan for us?”

“I can send you to this universe, using what traces we could get off of her crown, but there’s no telling that you’ll be able to get back if you don’t find her. She’s the only one powerful enough to perform a teleportation spell of such a grand distance, and you need to make sure that she’s fit to perform it.”

Pinkie had perked up a little bit. “We’re going to find Twilight? That sounds... fun...” She said that last word like she meant it, but was still troubled.

“That’s the spirit, Pinkie, just like you!” Rainbow Dash said with a grin.

Celestia spoke once more. “I can send you whenever you’re ready.”

All of this time, Vinyl was silent. She wasn’t used to talking to the Princess like they were. She didn’t know what to say.

Pinkie seemed to cheer up quickly, “I’m ready! Let’s go!” She said with a small bounce.

“I guess we ain’t got nothin’ better to do. I’m ready.” Applejack said.

“Yeah! I’m psyched now! Ready to go!” Rainbow Dash pumped a hoof through the air and flapped her wings.

“I suppose now is better than later, so yes, let us go!” Rarity turned to Fluttershy, “What about you?”

“I... I want to find Twilight,” Fluttershy squeaked, “So I guess I’m ready.”

“That’s good to hear,” Celestia said. She then turned her eyes to Vinyl Scratch, who hadn’t said a word since she was asked to

Vinyl noticed the Princess’s gaze upon her, and knew that the others were waiting intently for her response. She didn’t know what to say. This whole separate universe was kinda weird, but it didn’t bother her much, she was sure it wasn’t that different from this one. She just slipped on her signature purple sunglasses.

“Let’s roll.”

Hard Science

“Do keep in mind,” Celestia said, “That this world may be very different than ours, and your form may change if ponies aren’t the dominant species there. Rarity, Vinyl, you should still be able to use your magic, but Rainbow Dash, I’m not so sure about your or Fluttershy’s wings.”

Rainbow looked a bit upset, but hoped that she was going somewhere where her form wouldn’t change.

“What about us Earth Ponies?”

“Well... you may change form to fit whatever the normal is. Earth ponies are the basis of the other types of ponies... Just...” Celestia paused.

“Just, what?” Applejack looked at her expectantly.

“You may want to... Hold on to your hat.” With that, she began to cast the spell. Her horn glowed, illuminating the room with a bright gold light.

“Stay safe, I trust you all with this task...”

Her voice echoed in their heads, and then suddenly Celestia was alone in the throne room.

It was just then that a midnight blue alicorn wearing a similar royal attire as Celestia entered the room.

“I’m here! What is it you needed me for?”

Her older sister sighed, “Luna, you’re late.”

Nexus worked diligently in the lab in his basement. There was something about the projector’s ability to transport matter was wrong. He had indeed opened up the portal to this ‘Equestria’, but it was much too high, like it was in space. How did he manage to pull in Twilight? It could’ve just created a cylinder shape, extending infinitely upwards and downwards, but that would’ve surely caught something else. Also, he noticed that there was no vacuum at all, so he wasn’t really connected to the other world like he thought he was.

No, what he had was simply a window. But if that was the case, then how did it pull in Twilight? Perhaps there was something else that he wasn’t considering. Maybe it wasn’t space he was in, maybe it was just the night sky. His view would obviously not have been the same as what was on the other side. Maybe it was facing upwards, towards the sky. That made sense... but he still could only pull things one way, as he didn’t feel any gravitational anomalies or suction between in the opening.

That lead to another question, why did it drop Twilight off in the middle of the Ashfall Forest, when his projector was right in front of him? Things simply could have just not worked that way, he supposed. It was all a mystery to him, even though he had been studying it as much as he could during his time here. He had to figure out what was wrong with the projector.

Picking up is power drill, he began to unfasten the projector’s metal casing, which stood about 3 feet high. The rod itself was about 4 feet, making for 7 feet altogether. He felt that the casing was warm, and by the time he had removed the front panel, his hands suddenly began to burn as a cloud of smoke escaped the machine. He fell backwards, coughing and dropping the panel to the floor with a loud clang. Hopefully that didn’t wake anyone above him.

He assessed the situation in front of him. Nexus had built the machine himself, and the inside had proper venting. It generated quite a lot of heat, so the proper releases had been set in place. The problem wasn’t that there had been a heat build up, it’s that there was a smoldering piece inside the machine. It must’ve caught fire when he turned it on. It appeared to be the power junction, where the power split into the reserve and main power cells.

There were several reasons that a power junction would break. He was sure it was wired properly, but the levels might have been a problem. Perhaps the generator hadn’t been putting out enough power to hold both cells, causing the junction to pull in power at a faster rate. It also could have been that the generator had put out too much power, and it overloaded. There was no reasonable way to prove either, but they were both equally as valid.

He carefully removed the smoldering part and placed it on the workbench he used for handling electronics. Wasn’t as large as the one in Pride’s office, but he could fit several more in, which he used for different types of materials. There was a knock on the airlock.

“Umm, hello?” Twilight’s voice.

“Hold on a moment, I’ll let you in.” Nexus walked to the door and pulled a lever on one side of it. The large locking mechanism in the center of the door rotated, and the door slid apart into two pieces. A rush of air followed, blowing both their hair in towards the inside of the room.

“Nexus, what is this place?”

“Oh, this is my lab. I do research and science stuff down here.”

“I heard a noise, what was it? And is something burning? Are you okay? You seem okay.”

“I’m flattered by your concern,” he said, getting an odd reaction from her, to his amusement, “but everything is fine. I was just...” he glanced over at the still smoldering piece of equipment, and Twilight caught the object as well. “...Yeah...” he finished.

“If you don’t mind me saying, but this is amazing! I have a lab of sorts in my basement but it’s nothing compared to this! What does it all do?” Nexus was pleased to see her excited.

“Well,” Nexus pushed the lever back into it’s up position, and the metal door closed shut and locked with a hiss, startling Twilight. “That’s the airlock. It makes sure that, in the event that I do something incredibly unsafe and/or unreasonable, nothing gets out of this lab via the air.”

“The air? What do you mean?”

“Well, if I accidentally make some sort of illness, or lots of smoke, it has nowhere else to go but the air filters, making sure that it doesn’t get out.”

Twilight concluded that these ‘air filters’ removed toxic materials from the air somehow.

“Over there are my workbenches, I work with different things on each one. Keeps them organized.” Twilight knew the feeling. Nexus continued, “That’s my generator, that powers all of my crazy projects,” he pointed to the large cylindrical object, almost twice as big as he was, that was in the corner of the room. A cord extended from it and connected to another device, that was like a box, with a rod and ball on top of it.

“What’s that?”

“That’s... the device that brought you here, it kinda broke, and that piece on my workbench is busted. Those are the controls, over there.” Nexus pointed to the array of panel and levers off to the side of the machine. Twilight also noted a piece of metal laying near an exposed section of the machine’s boxlike body.

“Did you build it yourself? What do you call it?” She asked.

“I did build it myself, and I haven’t really thought of a name for it yet.” He suddenly wondered what she was doing down here. “Were you asleep? I’m sorry, did I wake you up?”

“No, I was already awake when I heard the noise.”

“Oh, can’t sleep, can ya?”

“I’m still not used to things here.. or this body. It feels so strange, walking on two legs. And wearing clothes all the time- wait, why do you wear clothes all the time?” Twilight hadn’t noticed before, but she found the clothes normal.

“Well, humans have no fur to keep us warm like other animals, so we created our own way of keeping warm.”

She recalled that those two Raiders had been shirtless. “Why didn’t those Raiders wear shirts?”

“Well, they probably can’t get them. They’re openly hostile towards everyone but themselves- even themselves sometimes- so they’re probably denied proper clothing. It’s their loss.”

Twilight sighed, “Yeah,” She still didn’t understand what drove them to such violence, but it was a good thing that these other people didn’t tolerate it well.

“I suppose it is...”

Then suddenly, there was a loud beeping sound; a device had went off in the lab somewhere.

“Stay safe, I trust you all with this task...”

That was all Rarity heard in her head. She opened her eyes, and pushed her curled purple hair away from her face with her hands. Her hands... odd. She was facedown in the grass, rather unladylike for someone like herself, so she pushed herself to her feet. Feet. Didn’t have those before either. She didn’t recall standing on two legs so normally either.

She looked down at herself. Instead of her normally luxurious white coat, she had only pale, soft, flesh. She wore a white skirt lined with purple, and a white button-up blouse. Additionally, a nice white scarf was loose around her shoulders. Rather stylish, whatever had given her these clothes had good taste. She had claw like appendages at the end of her arms, but they seemed to not have claws on them. Feeling her forehead, she had no horn either. What was she? It didn’t matter what she was, all that mattered is that she and the others... Wait, where were the others? They were right next to her last time she checked, now they were gone. The spell must not have put them all in the same place. Or.. No. She didn't think about alternatives.

She observed her surroundings. A field, it appeared, had stretched out for quite a ways to her left, right, and front, and a treeline of what seemed to be a forested area was behind her. In the distance, she could make out some buildings, although not of a structure she recognized. Perhaps someone would be there. She began to walk, but she thought she saw something moving towards behind the treeline.

She turned around, facing fully towards the trees. Something rustled the bushes, and then a loud roar was heard, stumbling her backwards onto the ground. A large lizard, much like a dragon, but without wings had emerged from the treeline, slowly approaching her. It’s posture, seemed to resemble that of her cat, Opalescence, when she was about to... pounce on something. Her eyes widened with fear, and the monster sprung into the air. She thought that she would be crushed, but a large explosion had knocked it off course and sent it barreling off into the ground at her feet. She pushed away from it, scooting back several feet before she heard another voice through the ringing in her ears. It sounded similar to her own, but male.

“Leave that fair maiden alone!” Another creature, much like her new self, stood a long ways away, holding a smoking tube-like object over his shoulder, with a small glowing glass screen that flipped over his face extending over the side of it. She couldn’t seem him very well from a distance, but she knew that he had just saved her life.

Pride had received a call from Nexus that someone else had arrived into their world from another world, probably someone looking for Twilight, and had asked him to make sure that whoever it was made it back to Tanktown in one piece. He had also mentioned it was near the Ashfall forest, so he came prepared.

He had just fired a high velocity ballistic explosive at about quarter a kilometer away, at a moving target that was right next to the equivalent of a high priority objective, and nailed his target.

Peaceful Pride shook his head. He was thinking in technical terms way too much. Doing heroic stuff like this made him think like that though. He had just shot a rocket at a Basilisk that was in the middle of pouncing on a beautiful young woman. What was he thinking! He could’ve hurt her, or worse, killed her! Throwing the empty rocket launcher aside, he ran as fast as he could to the girl, who was still trying to take in what had just happened.

“Are you with Twilight Sparkle?”

That was the last thing that she had expected her saviour to ask.

“Y-yes I am, I’m here looking for her, where is she?”

“Yeah, she’s in Tanktown back there.” He pointed to the buildings in the distance. The Basilisk stirred, obviously only temporarily down. It rose to it’s feet, eyeing Peaceful Pride menacingly. Pride looked up at it, and noticed a large cluster of it’s scales were missing, as if something had blasted them off... It was the same Basilisk from before, the one that had attacked Nexus. It must’ve been drawn to the dimensional rifts that this girl had made.

“Run,” he told her, moving his arm to push her back.

“Wha- what is that? Why are it’s scales all...”

“I’ve kinda... fought this one before. I did that to him in our last battle...” Pride drew the sword he carried in on his back, and the pistol he had brought on his belt.

“You what? What are you-”

“Look, my friend told me to come and make sure you got to that town in one piece, and I’m going to make bloody sure that you get there! Now run!” Pride was shouting at this point, getting ready to dodge the Basilisk’s next move.

This was going to end now. It swiped at him, and he charged towards it, jamming his sword into it’s face. The Basilisk reclined in pain, roaring, and then swatted him aside, doing it’s best to yank the metal blade out. It did, and roared in pain once more. The sword hit the ground with a thud, and Pride scooped it up. It was covered in the beast’s blood, and it was starting to slink back into the Ashfall.

“You’re not getting away this time...” Pride muttered under his breath as he jumped on it’s back, bringing the sword down through it’s scaly surface. Another roar told him it was working, but an unexpected return sent him flying off across plain, landing on his back some distance away from where he had once been a moment ago.

Rarity saw something fly past her as she ran towards the cluster of buildings, that were slowly growing closer as time went by. It might’ve been a nice walk, but she had to hurry. As she ran, she noticed that the one who had protected her earlier was now on his back. She didn’t really get that good of a look at him before, but now she saw he wore a suit of armor, made of what seemed to be steel. It was more form-fitting than the ones back home, but it was still armor, nonetheless.

“You poor thing! Are you okay?” She asked.

“Yeah... I’ll... yeah...” He seemed dizzy, and she noticed that there was a red substance leaking from a smashed portion of his armor, on his right arm.

“You’re bleeding, darling... Where can we get you treated?”

“My... My friend Nexus has supplies at his house... I could fix it... but...” His head was spinning, “I’ll show you...” he tried to get up, but lost his balance and hit the ground with a thud, his armor clanging. She knelt down and looked him over. He had chocolate brown hair, with blue highlights. Somewhat tacky, but she liked it. He had no helmet, which was odd, but she could see several bruises on his face.

“Let me take that armour over your wound there off...” She said, motioning to his bleeding side. She wasn’t used to dealing with blood, but she had to. He could die if she didn’t do something, but what could she do?

“Okay... just... press in that clamp on my wrist... no... there you go, that’s it, now just slide it off...” Pride talked her through, and she looked horrified at what she saw. Pride looked at it, and only saw a rather deep cut, where the Basilisk had got him, “Not used to dealing with wounds like this?”

“No, I’m not fond of the sight... Excuse me.” She looked over what he had on him. A belt, with a few strange objects, but nothing that looked like she could stop the bleeding with. She looked at herself, and that nice scarf that she had with her. It looked like it was made of silk, too. Not the best material for stopping blood, but it would have to do.

“What are you...” Pride had began. She was using a rather expensive looking scarf to wrap his cut in.

“I have to wrap it with something, dear, so you don’t bleed all over town,” She tried to give him a smile, “Plus, it could get all dirty...”

“Thank you...” His wound was wrapped now, the white scarf stained red from his blood, “I might be able to get you a new scarf...”

“It’s quite alright... Red is in, anyway.”

Dashing

Trax Dash stood in across from his sparring partner, Ripper Rush. They were in both in Trax Dash’s hotel, which he had bought with the money from his consecutive first place Coliseum winnings. The top two floors were reserved for him, when he was participating in said Coliseum. Through the window, Trax Dash could see the endless sand that made up the Arenus region, past the small cluster of buildings that Skyfall city was.

The sparring room was nothing fancy, just a cleared room with padding on the floor, a punching bag in the corner, and a rack of wooden weapons for practice. He brush a strand of his long, pure white hair away from his face, and looked at his opponent. Ripper Rush was one of his closest friends out in the Arenus region, who was once a childhood bully. He stood about as tall a Trax Dash, and wore a green bandana over his short, dusty brown hair. His tank-top was a navy green, and his shorts were black. Upon his fists were two navy green covers.

Trax Dash wore a similar outfit, consisting of a white tank-top and and cyan shorts, with similar cyan pads over his fists. He could see his green implants flowing through them, and his combat tattoo, a boot, with wings sprouting from behind it. It reminded him of the times he had with Nexus.

Upon his back was a device that had been surgically attached to his nervous system after a terrible accident: a jetpack. Lucky for him, he had cybernetic implants, allowing the surgeons to link them through to the jetpack, saving his entire body from permanent paralysis. Burning Star had since modified the jetpack to run off of the energy his body stored in fat cells, making him able to run it indefinitely, as long as he had the energy to.

There was, however, drawbacks. Although it allowed him to fly anywhere he pleased, he had feeling in the metal device, like it was a part of him, and it reacted to certain stimuli in the same way any other part of his body might...

Ripper Rush wiped sweat off of his forehead. His skin was slightly darker than Trax Dash’s pale white skin.

“You ready?” Rush said.

“Yeah,” Trax Dash had only just said the words when Rush’s arm had shot out, nearly catching him in the cheek, had Trax Dash not raised his arm to block. Neither of them were particularly buff, but Trax Dash used his slim frame and quick reflexes to his advantage when participating in fighting tournaments like the upcoming one. Trax Dash pivoted back, throwing a punch into Rush’s stomach. He followed up with one to the chest, but Rush grabbed his arm and pushed it away, leaving Trax Dash exposed. Rush knocked him back with a hit to the face, and Trax Dash spun and face his partner again.

As the sparring went on, a flash of light had appeared in the sky off in the distance. Trax Dash caught sight of the light, and motioned for his sparring partner to stop.

“Did ya see that?” Trax Dash’s city-boy voice had always struck Ripper Rush as odd. He was the only person in Skyline city that spoke with that accent.

“No, I didn’t. What was it?” Rush looked out the window, trying to see what his friend was seeing.

“It looked like a flash of light in the sky... We should go check it out,” Trax Dash said.

“Do we really have to go and investigate everything out of the ordinary? The tournament is in 3 days, we need to train!” Ripper Rush had a hint of annoyance in his voice, but also was concerned. Trax Dash always love adventure, but it sometimes distracted him from what was important.

“I’m going to go check it out, you can wait here if you want,” Trax Dash said, walking down the hallway and to the staircase. He was going to go up one floor, so he could take off from the balcony there and fly over to the site.

Rush followed him up, “Wait! What if you get hurt? What if you can’t compete?”

Dash laughed at the thought, “Can’t compete? Me? Do you even know who you’re talking to here?”

“Yeah, but...” Rush sighed, unable to convince his friend otherwise, “I guess I’ll come with you, then.”

“I’m taking off from the balcony, you can take the jeep I have in the garage. Keys are on the table in the kitchen,” he said before opening the sliding glass door to the balcony, and stepping out. The wings on his pack slid out, spanning at least a foot past his shoulders on either side, and the propulsion system rumbled as it lifted Dash into the air. He took off, leveling his body parallel to the ground, leaving a trail of smoke behind him.

The army green vehicle that Ripper Rush operated was an uncommon sight for those in the city. Lightly armoured automobiles were normally used by official military, for they were much fast and much more maneuverable in combat. He drove after the speeding figure soaring through the sky, through the endless desert surrounding Skyline city. Hopefully no Raiders would show up.

Trax Dash landed, and Rush pulled up behind him, getting out of the jeep to see what it was he was standing over. He was looking at the collapsed body of a girl. She wore a cyan hoodie, similar to Trax Dash’s Foxtrot Charlie hoodie, but without the print on it, with a plain white t-shirt underneath, and dark blue jean shorts. Her hair was polychromatic, which caught Rush and Dash off guard, but it wasn’t the weirdest thing they’d ever seen. Her skin wasn’t as dark as Ripper Rush’s, but wasn’t as pale as Trax Dash’s either.

“What’s she doing out here?” Rush turned to Trax Dash, who was checking for a pulse.

“I don’t know, but she’s alive,” Dash stood up, “We should get her back to Skyline city before she fries out here.”

“Hold on, she’s moving...” Rush said, and the girl was indeed moving. Her eyes opened, revealing a bright magenta colour. She stared at the two figures standing over her.

“What... where am I?” She looked down at herself, “What am I? Where are the others? Who are you? What’s-”

“Calm down. Get in the jeep here, and we’ll get you caught up. Can you stand?”

She noticed that the others stood on two legs, and when she attempted to, she found it easy. Much easier than when she was a pony. Walking on two legs was easy too, and she easily walked over to the strange green vehicle. Automobiles weren’t exactly common back in Equestria, but they weren’t unheard of. This, however, was unlike anything she had seen before. She sat down, much like she would as a pony, in the back of the vehicle. A figure that looked like her sat across from her, with white hair on his head, and an eye colour of gold.

“So,” he said, a strange accent to his voice, but still understandable, “What were you doing out there in the desert?”

“I... I don’t know...”

“What do you remember happening?”

“I...” she wasn’t sure if she should tell this creature she had just met everything.

“Don’t want to talk? That’s fine. Do you have any questions for me?”

She nodded, “This may sound a bit strange, but what am I?”

He seemed unphased by the unusual question and replied, “You’re a human.”

“A... human..." She repeated.

“Not from this world, are you?”

“What? No, I-”

He raised a claw, or what she thought was a claw, “It’s fine, I have a friend who’s not from this world either. That’s really the only reason I could think you didn’t know what species you were.”

“Yeah... about that...”

“You seem to not as confused as he was, though. Let me start by introducing myself,” he extended the claw, in a friendly gesture, “I’m Trax Dash. Most just call me Dash, though.”

The name was similar to her own. She looked at the claw, wondering if she was supposed to do something like a hoofshake.

“It’s a hand. You shake it,” He said, and she did.

“My name’s Rainbow. Rainbow Dash,” She said, taking the other’s hand. It seemed so natural, like she had used her hands all of her life.

He chuckled, “Never thought I’d hear that someone had that name. Though I’m sure someone else has ‘Dash’ in their name out there. Why don’t I just call you Rainbow, so we don’t get confused.”

“Umm. Okay...” She had friends who only addressed her by her first name.

“Any other questions?”

Nexus was surprised to find that Pride had arrived half-conscious at his door so late, even more so surprised to see who he was with. The young woman who had his arm around her shoulder voiced her concerns rather dramatically, despite being out of breath from carrying him,

“Set him down in the kitchen,” Nexus said.

“Yes... and his armour... is VERY heavy...” she said, laying him down in a room that she had assumed was the kitchen. The architecture of the building was impressive, and beyond what ponies could do, but the concept of a house was similar.

Nexus had returned momentarily with a box that had a red cross on it. A first aid kit, Rarity assumed. Kneeling down, Nexus removed the armour from his friend carefully, revealing nothing more than a few cuts and scratches in the white t-shirt he had on under it. Nothing was broken, that was good. He then brought his attention to the deep cut on his right arm, first removing the scarf wrapped around it.

“This is yours, isn’t it?” Nexus said, holding the scarf and got a nod from her, “That’s very generous of you.”

Rarity tried not to watch, but she couldn’t take her eyes off of him, and Nexus poured something over the cut, which began to foam around the wound. He then wiped the blood around the wound with another cloth, and wrapped it in a thick tan strip that stretched around his arm several times before he secured it. She recognized it as gause.

“Nexus... Thanks...” Pride said, before falling unconscious. Rarity noticed for the first time, that he had red lines running along his arms, as well as what seemed to be a cross cutie mark on his right arm, below the cut, much like Nurse Redheart’s.

“What are those lines on him?” Rarity asked, “Is he okay?”

“Yeah, those are his implants. They’re normal for some of us.”

“He’s so... courageous. I didn’t even get his name...” Rarity looked down on his still body, slowly rising and falling as he breathed.

“His name is Peaceful Prude. I’m Nexus,”

“My name is Rarity, it’s nice to meet you. I do wish it was under... better circumstances, though. He did save my life, though.”

“Right, you said you were attacked by a monster? Could you describe it?”

“It looked almost like a dragon, fearsome and scaly and outright disgusting! It didn’t have wings, though. It had a tremendous fin on it’s head and a patch of scales was missing from it’s body, that brave soul said that he’d battled with the same one before, and it’s smell-” Rarity was about to continue, but Nexus had raised a hand.

“That was the Basilisk, the same one that attacked Twilight...”

Rarity gasped, “You know Twilight? Twilight Sparkle?”

“Yeah, she arrived here yesterday, the same way you did. She was further in the forest, though.”

Twilight had entered the room, hearing voices, and her name. The first thing she noticed was Pride’s unconscious body.

“I heard voices, is there- Oh my goodness! Is he okay? What happened?” She ran over to his body, not even noticing Rarity standing there.

Rarity saw her. She was one of these humans, but it was undeniably her. “He saved me, Twilight.”

Twilight recognized the voice, and knew instantly who it was.

“Rarity? Is that you? What are you-”

“Princess Celestia sent me and the others to find you here, and bring you back! And that brave soul rescued me from the claws of a ferocious... what did you call it? A Basilisk!” RArity seemed a little bit excited, but Twilight had to admit that it did seem like something out of a storybook that she would have read as a filly.

“Well, it’s good to see you, I guess. This world is surprisingly similar to ours, but...” Twilight thought about the constant conflict, “it’s much different in a way...”

“Princess Celestia said that you were the only one who knew how to do a teleportation spell back to Canterlot from here.”

“I don’t have my alicorn power here... But Nexus is working on a way to get me back.”

“That I am, you’re welcome to stay here with us.” he stopped, thinking for a moment,

“Wait, what do you mean by others?”

All is fair in War and Potatoes

“FLUTTERSHY, REPORT! How are those men holding?” A man with his brown hair in a buzz cut shouted. His red uniform reflected a high rank, and he addressed her quite angrily. His dark brown eyes fell upon her. The vehicle, a truck, it was called, carried several soldiers who had been injured in battle, the same soldiers that saved her from a group of vicious people called Raiders.

“I’m... They’re going to be... okay... I think...” The pink haired girl squeaked, startled by the other human’s shouting, and covering her face with her hair. She had only been a human herself for about an hour, and she had already treated the whole group of 5 soldiers. Their leader, whose uniform read ‘Commander Killjoy’, barked at her again.

“You think? You said you could treat wounds! Our other medic is too hurt to treat the others, and you’re telling me that you think they’re going to be okay? These are my men!”

“I’m so sorry...” she was shaking, on her knees in the truck’s back, “They said they felt better, but I’ve... I’ve never had to treat those kind of injuries before... I’m so sorry... Please forgive me!”

Killjoy sighed, she was new, and obviously fragile. She had mentioned something about another universe, and he had a friend back in Tanktown who was from another universe as well. Maybe he’d know what to do, but for now, he had to get the wounded soldiers back to Fort Switchback, where the his Onterran military unit was stationed. They were out on patrol when they were attacked by Raiders, who had been chasing after a young girl. She was obviously frightened, said her name was Fluttershy, and was taken in by Killjoy’s men as they fled the area.

She was wearing a yellow dress for some reason, and said she knew how to treat injuries. To Killjoy’s amazement, she was able to remove the bullets from the wounds, clean them, and stitch them together. The words “I’m sorry” came out of her mouth every time they winced or cried out in pain.

“You said you were from another world?” He inquired, being a bit gentler this time.

“Ye-y-yes, Commander!” She said.

“No need for formalities, just call me Killjoy.”

“Umm... Okay..” It was such an odd name, combining two words that seemed to oppose each other, “I’m from a place called Equestria, normally, I’m a pegasus pony, but I came here with my friends looking for my friend Twilight...”

This made a few of the conscious soldiers chuckle, but they suddenly stopped when Killoy turned his eyes to them.

“Don’t mind them, I’ve seen so much, I don’t really find it odd that there’s somewhere else out there.”

Fluttershy looked at the soldiers, in their tattered olive green uniforms, and their similarly coloured helmets. They all looked identical behind the red lenses. She began to shake again. If this was the world that Twilight was in, she couldn’t assure herself that she was safe. She sat back against the truck’s inner wall and began to cry, but felt a hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry, I’ll take care of you.”

“Sorry... you what?” The infamous toast salesman known only as Buttercrust was confused. It didn’t happen very often, until he heard the story of the strange, pink-haired girl that seemed to bounce up and down in front of him. From what he could see of her, she wore only a pink shirt and tan jeans, and they were in the middle of the Crystalline icelands. He thought he’d investigate the large flash of light that he saw while doing his daily sales pitch in the nearby town, and this is what he found.

So many words came forth from her mouth, about another world, and ponies, and magic, and finding someone named Twilight Sparkle. He knew that Nexus was from another world, he saw the rift open himself.

“... andthenthePrincessteleportedmehere!” she finished, out of breath.

“Did you say that you had friends with you?”

“Yes, but they’re obviously not here. Have you seen them?” the strange girl asked.

“No, I just saw you here. I’ll have to see if my friend Nexus knows anything about your friend. He’s probably the only one I know that studies other universes.” Buttercrust straightened out his black fedora over his slicked back blonde hair, which had been almost blown off of his head by the sheer amount of air coming out of the girl’s mouth. He closed his trench coat around him to keep himself warm.

“Aren’t you cold?” He asked.

“Well, yeah, I am. I had a coat of fur when I was a pony, and now it’s all on my head for some reason!” She said with a silly grin on her face.

“If you’re from another world, you’re probably going to need a way to go back, aren’t you?”

“The Princess said that Twilight could do it.”

“That’s odd, don’t you think that she would’ve done it before you were sent to find her?”

“Yeah... that is a bit strange...” She put a hand on her chin, and then curiously inspected the fingers.

“Well, I guess you don’t have anywhere else to go, so... you can come with me. Hop in my tank.” He gestured to the large land vehicle, that she had somehow missed before. Was it even there a few seconds ago?

“Oooh, that looks like fun! Let’s go!”

He climbed up on the top of the vehicle, and opened the hatch inside. The girl watched him climb in and get in the driver’s seat, and got in herself, in the gunners seat. He started up the tank, and began to make his way back to the city.

“So...” Buttercrust glanced back at the odd girl, who was sitting patiently in the seat behind him, “What’s your name?”

She got all excited again, “My name's Pinkie Pie! What's your's?”

“Hmm. I'm Buttercrust: Toast Salesman, although I sell a large sel-”

“Are you going to throw me a party? I love parties! I always throw a party every time I meet somepony new! Or... whatever we are, we’re obviously not ponies.”

Buttercrust chuckled a little. Maybe this is what the world needed; a little more fun.

“No, I’m sorry. We don’t do that too much around here... And we’re humans. We use the term ‘somebody’.”

“Well, okay! I’ve got some many questions to ask you! Like this thing here, what is it? And why do we walk on two legs instead of four? Do you have cupcakes in this world? I love cupcakes!”

He liked this weird, crazy girl already, but he could tell that his was going to be a long ride.

Rarity put a hand to her head. This was all too much for her. Apparently conflict was a commonplace here. Sure there were the monsters that lurked in this ‘Ashfall Forest’, but there were other groups of humans that fought each other? She understood why Nexus’s people fought back, but it was still so much. She was sitting on the couch in their living room, across from a large flat screen.

Nexus walked in the room. It was early in the morning, and Twilight had tried to go to sleep again. Peaceful Pride had gotten up, and then fell asleep 5 minutes later on another couch next to the one Rarity sat on. She sighed.

“I know this can be a lot. Twilight had the same problem, but I’ll tell her what I told you. This isn’t about fighting because they have something we want, it’s because they’re forcing us to fight back. I’m going to keep you and Twilight safe until we can get you back to your world.” Nexus offered her the glass of water in his hand.

“Yes, thank you,” She levitated the glass with her magic, a blue glow surrounding it as she took a sip without touching the glass. She went to set it down, but could only put it in her own hands.

“You can do that too?” Nexus looked a bit surprised.

“Excuse me, I’m not used to using these... hands.”

“You seemed to wrap Pride’s wound fine earlier.”

“Yes...” she started, “I didn’t think though, I just did it.”

“You’ll adjust. Twilight already has,” Nexus looked out the window that let the moonlight stream in.

“Who controls the sun and moon in this world?”

“Hmm? Oh, no one, they move on their own. Well, actually, it’s the planet that’s moving around the sun, and the moon that’s moving around the planet.” He could see Rarity was puzzled with this answer, so he continued, “I didn’t make the rules, that’s just how it works here.”

“Twilight told me that this world was similar to our own. So far, the only thing I’ve seen that’s the same is your hospitality.”

“I think that’s what she meant, actually,” Nexus recalled their conversation in the tank, “She also said that my group of friends were similar to hers. What do you think?”

“Well, this... what’s the word you use? Gentleman?” Nexus nodded, and she continued, “Well this fine gentleman is clearly shown courage I’ve only seen from a few ponies I know back home. He jumped in front of that beast, to save somep- somebody he didn’t even know!”

Nexus smiled, “Yeah, he’s saved me before as well. That’s what friends do, you know? Help you out when you need it the most.”

Rarity looked as if she was deep in thought.

“At least there is friendship in this world.”

In the southernmost region of Winterra, a potato farmer by the name of Nova Burst worked on one of his latest projects with his younger brother, Nova Blast. Nova Burst had his signature red bandana over his mouth, like he always did. His messy blonde hair fell over his eyes sometimes, but he just brushed it aside. He wore a white t-shirt, and worn out blue jeans that had patches of duct tape holding them together in some places. His 12 year old brother stood beside him, and looked almost exactly the same, except with younger features. Nova Blast’s hair wasn’t as long, nor did his clothes fit the same way his brother’s did, but he didn’t mind. On his head was the cowboy hat that his brother had given to him when he was little, and it still didn’t fit him.

The project in question was a device that Nova Burst had called a ‘Sentry’, an device that protected wherever it was put down. Some would call it a turret, but he had always said a turret didn’t know what it was shooting at, and this sentry did. It had a smart targeting system that assessed the target before deciding if it should fire or not. He had the panel open, and wired a few things here, and drilled a few things there.

“Duct tape,” he said, in his unmistakable southern accent, and his brother passed him a roll of duct tape, which he used to fasten the firing mechanism to the actual gun. He set the tape aside.

“Drill,” his brother gave him a drill, with which he drilled the ammunition box to the side of body.

“Duct tape,” he used the tape again to tape the gun assembly to the main body.

“Wrench,” when his brother handed him the wrench, he slammed the tool down on the side of the turret assembly. He slammed it down again, and then the turret made a beeping noise.

“Is it done, Nova Burst?” his little brother said, with the same accent as the brother he had lived with his whole life.

“I’d reckon so, little brother of mine,” he said with a smile, but it wasn’t visible under his bandana.

In the cellar, Nova Burst flipped the light on and put his sentry down.

“Placing the sentry!” he said, turning the dial to the ‘Shoot first, ask questions later’ setting.

“How are we going to make sure it works?” Nova Blast asked him.

“Watch,” His older brother casually stepped in front of the sentry, and a beeping noise was heard, followed by a series of clicking noises. He walked back, the sentry’s barrel following him until it couldn’t turn any more, and then turned the dial to the ‘Think before shooting’ setting. He walked out in front of it again, and nothing happened. He pretended to make a gun with his fingers, and pointed them at the sentry. Nothing. He drew the revolver he kept tucked in his boots and pointed it directly at the sentry’s motion sensor. Nothing. Not until he fired would it try to fire back, but he wouldn’t do that with his little brother in the room.

“It works! You finally got it to work!” Nova Burst cheered, as his older brother picked the sentry up and carried it back upstairs.

He placed the sentry on his porch, and took a seat on the ground, looking out over his field. It was just him and his brother out here, ever since his Grandma-pa Shaq passed away during the zombie attack. It was hard for the little one to take, but he wasn’t so little anymore, and seemed to understand that she had put an end to the whole zombie situation. They hadn’t known their parents much, Nova Burst was told they died during the first space station catastrophe. He had only told Nova Blast at the time that their Grandma-pa had passed.

“When’re we gonna go see big sister Starburst again? Or Uncle Buckshot and cousin Redeye?” Nova Blast had sat down next to Nova Burst.

“I dunno, guess we could try and head out to see Uncle Buckshot, not sure 'bout big sis though. It'd have to wait 'til after we get all these ‘tatoes harvested and replanted.”

The potatoes in question stretched for a few acres in front of the house, and a few out behind the house. It wasn’t the biggest plantation he’d ever seen, but he still considered it a plantation, and he and Nova Burst had to harvest them all. The Harvester had broken down, and he didn’t have enough money or duct tape to fix it, so they were on their own, doing things the old fashioned way.

“When’re we gonna have to start?”

“A few days now... They don’t look quite ready yet. You think you’re up for it?”

“Yeah, I know I can do it!” Nova Burst smiled under his bandanna. His little brother was a hard worker, just like him.

A flash of light appeared in the sky near their home, and the two brothers looked up to see what it was.

“Is that an alien?” Nova Blast asked.

“I’m not sure, stay here, I’m going to go get our guns.” Nova Burst went back inside and fetched his 12 gauge shotgun, double barrelled and sawn-off, out from under the kitchen sink. He loaded it, and got Nova Blast’s .45 handgun from the gun case by their refrigerator. He didn't know if it was an alien or not, but it was better to be safe then sorry.

When he came back out, he handed his brother his gun, and two magazines.

“Don’t use it unless you don’t have to, ya hear?”

“Okay,” Nova Blast said with a serious expression on his face. He loaded the weapon, and put the spare magazine underneath his oversized hat. He knew how to use a gun, Nova Burst taught him how to when he was 10, and he had plenty of experience using them since the zombie attack.

They both moved out into the potato field, closer to where the flash had came from. They couldn’t find anything at first, but Nova Blast had tripped over something on the ground.

“Oof!” He coughed, as he hit ground with a thud. His hat fell off, as well as the magazine under it.

Nova Burst looked back, helping his brother up, “You okay, cowboy?”

“Yeah, but I tripped over somethin’...” he recovered his hat and ammunition.

“What the...” Nova Burst had seen what it was that he’d tripped over. He was speechless, but he heard his brother say something.

“Now why’d aliens go and drop a dead girl in our potato field?”

Distant

The next few days were awfully awkward for Nexus, with Twilight Sparkle and Rarity about. They were slowly adjusting, learning more about Nexus’s personal history, as well as the country’s. They kept coming back to the topic of neural implants, which they both found fascinating. Where they were from, abilities like that came naturally, and only to certain people. Nexus had all three implants at once, a rare occurrence. The only other people known to undergo the mental strain, and surgery were the Queen of the region of Raingear, and the Patriarch of the Onterra region.

Of course, the only person he knew who didn’t have implants and still had powers was Orbital Order, who obtained the knowledge when he was under Nightmare’s control. So technically, the evil spawned that great technology.

“War,” he began solemnly, “War stimulates technology.”

Rarity had a perplexed look on her face, “What do you mean?”

“If you’re fighting another country, you’re going to look for more ways to beat them. New things are discovered, invented, implemented. By the time the war is over, those inventions used to wage war are repurposed into more civilized uses.”

“That would make sense,” Twilight said, nodding her head, “But I would rather have lasting peace with less technology.”

“You do have magic in your world, I guess. That kinda makes up for it, doesn’t it?”

“You could say that.” Twilight thought of the situation from the opposite perspective, where the technology here made up for the lack of magic. Perspectives, what an interesting concept it was.

A sharp noise rang out. Nexus reached into his pocket, and produced what was called a ‘cell phone’, which allowed for communication at a distance. He flipped the phone open.

“Hello?” He said, listening to whomever was speaking to him.

“Nexus, we need to get the others together right now!” Nexus heard the voice of his good friend Killjoy, the Onterran tank commander.

“Why? What’s wrong?”

“I’ve found someone, she said that she was from another world. We were out on patrol a few days ago and we ran into some Raiders chasing her. I picked her up and we just reached Fort Switchback this morning.”

“Another world?”

“Yes, she said she was looking for a Twilight Sparkle. You’re the expert on interdimensional travel and all that, so you were the first person I’d call.”

“Why do we need to get the others together?”

“Because, when we arrived at Fort Switchback, one of the guards out front had attempted to attack the girl. When I hit him, he turned into this... thing. Fluttershy called it a ‘Changeling’. I took it down, and we’re interrogating him as we speak, but this thing was from Fluttershy’s world.” Killjoy’s voice started to grow impatient.

“Fluttershy...” Nexus knew the name from Twilight’s stories, as well as what the Changelings were. They were a hive-minded entity that fed on the affections of others, using their ability to shapeshift into anything to trick others into loving them. Twilight and Rarity looked at him expectantly when they heard the name.

“Yes, that’s her-” Killjoy started to talk, but Nexus interjected.

“Get down here as soon as you can. Where are you?”

“I’m at Fort Switchback, it’s in Onterra. It’ll take awhile to get there, but I’ll head out ASAP.”

“Alright, thanks.” Nexus said, flipping the phone closed. He looked at the two girls, who were waiting for him to say something.

“Well?” Rarity asked.

“My friend Killjoy found your friend Fluttershy.” They seemed to be relieved by this news. ”Fluttershy was also attacked by a changeling. In this world.” Their relief turned into worry.

“A changeling? Like the ones that attacked Canterlot?” Rarity seemed to suddenly become extremely serious about this.

“Yeah, from what you told me, they’ve infiltrated the Onterran military, or at least, that particular Fort. I’m guessing Killjoy’s got all of his soldiers lined up, and he’s knocking them out, one by one. I’m going to gather all of my friends here, and we’ll figure out what to do then.”

“How did the changelings even get here?” Twilight let out a frustrated sigh.

“I said that there was a connection between our worlds. Maybe they were able to find it.”

“Why would they even come here?”

“Twilight, you were the one that told me they fed on affection and love. Don’t you think that your world has proper measures in place to identify them? This is a fresh world, where they can deceive people who don’t even know about them.”

“What are we going to do?” Twilight buried her face in her hands.

“Yes, we must do something about this Changeling situation! We need to find our friends as well. Nexus, did you say that your friend was in the army?”

Twilight looked up, surprised by her friend’s focus. “Do you have something in mind, Rarity?” She asked.

“I believe I do.”

“Yeah, Killjoy’s the commander of a tank battalion.”

“If he could organize some way of defending against them, then you could focus on getting us back to our world and we deal with the Changeling Queen there.”

“That’s... actually a great plan, Rarity.” Twilight was surprised that she hadn’t thought of that herself. “If we dealt with the Queen then we could get her to call off the coming invasion of this world.”

Nexus looked at her for a moment, confused. “Get her to... call it off? Twilight, I know that you’re not big on destructive measures, but from what you told me, they’re a hive mind that has no other goals but to feed off of it’s food source and grow. Why would she call off the attack when she could just kill you and then invade?”

“There are other ways to stop this than violence!” Twilight protested, but she knew he was right. The Changelings as a whole had little reasoning ability. They would only develop more complex thought processes when they were separated from the hive mind for an extensive period of time.

“I’m going into your world with you. We have the technology here to safely destroy them without harming anyone else,” Nexus told her flatly.

“But-”

“This is a matter that affects my world too! It doesn’t matter how far I have to go, I’ll protect it with my life!” Nexus had risen from his seat now, his frustration breached, and was staring Twilight in the eyes.

“Twilight,” Rarity put hand on Twilight’s shoulder, and she looked over at her, “Nexus is only thinking for the best of his people and our people, both. Although I personally don’t like the idea of completely destroying them, I don’t see anything else that would work.”

Nexus’s cell phone began to ring again, and he picked it up.

“Hello?” he said, sighing.

“Hey Nexus, we have a problem. Nightmare’s back.” It was his friend Whirlwind, he could tell by the accent, one that indicated that his ancestors had enjoyed many a glass of alcohol.

Nexus nearly dropped the phone, “Wh-what?”

“Aye, I saw it with me own eyes. I was patrolling in my jet around the Raingear-Onterra border when I saw the same black clouds that we saw over Tanktown when it was first attacked by that devil. A few things dropped out of them, looked like bug-people.” He heard Nexus’s silent reaction, and continued, “I don’t know, I could’ve just had a wee bit too much to drink last night.”

“You need to get here, right now.” Nexus’s tone was serious. So serious, Whirlwind had hung up that instant and ran off to the airfield he was stationed at to get his jet, and fly off.

“Oh man...” Nexus put the phone down and had resumed sitting. He couldn't believe what he'd just heard.

“What is it? Is something wrong?” Nexus heard someone say, but he was so focused on what he had just heard he didn’t care which one of them said it.

“Nightmare is back... He’s working with the Changelings.”

Nova Burst dug another potato out of the ground. It’s leafy top had just began to die, like all the others he had pulled that day. That girl he’d found had a strange story, but it reminded him of his friend Nexus’s story. She was from another world, one ruled by ponies, though, and had came to this world to find her friend. It was almost time to harvest the potatoes, so he had to get that done before he could help her.

She had long blonde hair, tied a ponytail of sorts at the end with an elastic band of sorts. She had green eyes, like emeralds, and freckles below them. Her skin looked sun tanned, which made since for the kind of work she did. She wore a short denim jacket, that only came down to her ribs, and an orange shirt of the same length, with three red apples printed along the bottom. Her blue jean pants looked like they’d been worn out, although she had just arrived here.

“It’s mighty kind of y’all to let me stay here, but I ain’t givin’ to watch others do work while I just sit back, especially when I can work.” Her accent was very similar to his own. Apparently where she was from, she worked an apple orchard, and was used to the work that growing crops came with.

“You’ve got a hat like mine!” Nova Blast said, looking up at Applejack’s hat. He wasn’t sure what to think of her, but being able to relate to her helped.

“I guess I do,” she said, unable to not smile. He reminded her so much of her own little sister.

“Hey Nova Burst! You got a full bucket yet?”

The sound of his brother’s voice snapped him out of his flashback. He looked back his bucket, which wasn’t quite full yet. He put the potato in and continued on with the next one. Applejack had volunteered to help, which made the work go by much faster. They had already cleared half of the front of their house with her help, and it was only midday.

“Not yet, I don’t.” He continued the process, digging out a potato, removing it from the roots of the top, and placing it in the bucket he had. He hadn’t even noticed Applejack was working in the row next to his until she said something to him.

“How is it y’all walk like this all the time? Don’t it start to hurt?”

“No, I guess it’s normal for us humans.”

“What about these?” She made the ‘jazz hands’ gesture. “Don’t these bother ya?”

“Hands? They’re normal, too. I’m not sayin’ I didn’t believe ya before, but you really are from another world, ain’t ya?”

Applejack nodded, and looked at his bandanna, “What about that there thing on your mouth?”

“This?” Nova Burst put a hand to his mouth, and remembered exactly why he wore it so much. His parents’ death, he couldn’t let little Nova Blast know how much that had hurt him... so he covered his mouth, and his brother would never see the expression on his face when his parents were mentioned. He had to be strong, for him.

“Yeah, I wouldn’t reckon it’s normal for some of you to wear those, would it? I mean, you wear these fancy clothes all the time.”

“It’s...” he paused, “I don’t want you to tell my brother this, but I don’t want him to know about how much the death of my parents hurt me...”

Applejack was shocked. He hadn’t mentioned his parents dying, “Your... your parents are... dead?”

“Yeah...” Nova Burst looked away, but Applejack could see through the bandana anyway, “They died on our first mission to space, on the space station called Waypoint. There was a supply failure... and they eventually lost life support up there.”

She knew a little bit about space, like the fact that there was no air to breathe, and it was far too cold to live in. The life support obviously was technology that countered that, providing air to breathe and a suitable temperature. Then, Applejack thought about what it would be like to suddenly have those things ripped away...

“Nova Blast doesn’t know the details, he just knows that no one on the station made it.”

“So you’re hiding how you feel, for your brother?” Now that she thought about it, Applejack would do the same for her sister. She couldn’t imagine little Apple Bloom as devastated as she was.

He just nodded. “Do you have any other questions?”

“Yeah, I do, what’s that on your arm?” she pointed to the grey wrench tattooed on his lower left arm.

He didn’t really notice it much anymore, but it was the reminder of what he brought to the table when it came to fighting. Telling the story of his friends was something that excited him.

“It’s my combat tattoo. Me and my buddy Nexus once fought some monsters and Raiders and stuff, and he had me and all of our friends get these tattoos on our arms, right? Well, each one kinda explains how we fight, like my wrench here, see? I build lots of gadgets and stuff, like that there sentry on the porch, and this really cool robot suit that could go underwater and stuff, it was really cool, but you had to be there to see it. Anyway, I guess you could say that I solve problems with it. But like, not those theoretical problems, like “What is beauty?”, but more practical problems...”

“Oh...” Applejack had known there was conflict in this world, from what Nova Burst had told her, but she didn’t know that it had went as far as new things being created to fight. It made sense, but she didn’t agree with the idea of fighting in general.

“Somethin’ wrong?”

“Well, I’m just not used to fightin’ so much, where I’m from. My family ain’t backin’ down from any fights, but we ain’t gonna start any either.”

“Well that’s just fine,” Nova Burst gave her a friendly smile, “If you’re not so fond of fightin’ that’s completely fine. Thing is, them Raider folk don’t really get what the word ‘peace’ means, so I ain’t got a choice.”

There was a silence, as the two just stood there in the half-harvested potato field. Nova Burst looked over to the next potato plant, and began to dig it up, and Applejack did the same.

In the house, the phone’s ring reached Nova Burst’s ears.

A Scratch and a Dash

“You want me to what?” Trax Dash said, into his cell phone. He had just received a call from Nexus, saying that he needed to go to Tanktown with this random chick he just picked up a few days ago. This was the day of the tournament, and Trax Dash was the returning champion! He’d prepared for weeks, and now he’d have to quit right before it started? Nexus had hung up, assuming Trax Dash would come.

“What’d he say?” Rainbow sat at the table across from him, and beside Ripper Rush.

“We gotta go meet Nexus, he says that Nightmare’s returned, and he’s getting his friends together to fight him. I gotta compete today, though!"

Rush looked to his friend, “You should go. Nexus doesn’t usually screw around about things like this.”

“Yeah, but...”

“I’ll fill in for you, don’t worry,” Rush reassured him, “I’ll tell them all that you couldn’t make it, they’ll understand.”

“You know, they’re your friends, right?” Rainbow asked, but it seemed more like she was telling him.

“Yeah, my very best friends.”

“Don’t you think that you should stick with them when they need you?” Rainbow obviously knew a thing or two about friendship, from what Trax Dash could tell from the stories of her adventures. He had told her his own, but they were wildly exaggerated to made him look as cool as possible, and it was obvious.

“I guess...”

“We should go to them, then. It’s what I would do. Plus, he said he needs me too, right?” Rainbow had to force these next words out, “And who’s better show me how to get there then someone as... awesome... as you?”

“You really mean that?” Trax Dash looked very excited that someone had acknowledged just how grand his epicness level was.

“No, but it made you feel better for a few seconds!”

The toast dealer looked at his haul as the sun dipped out of sight. Selling random stuff actually paid off, when he did the math. Also, that Pinkie Pie character seemed to know how to talk to people. He followed her down the empty sidewalk, bouncing about as he strode through whatever city he happened to be in. Snow coated the streetlights, but it melted as it hit the ground. They came to a stop in the light of a streetlight, and he showed her a handful of strange golden objects, hexagonal in shape, and with a hole in the middle.

“What’s that?” she asked, inspecting the objects with interest.

“It’s our currency in this world. They’re called ‘bolts’. Golden ones are worth 10 bronze bolts, and silver ones are worth 8 bronze bolts,” he explained.

“How much are the bronze ones worth?”

“Umm. They’re worth one bronze one.”

“Oh, that makes sense! I can be so silly sometimes.”

“Right... well this is for all your help in these past few days. You’re good at talking to people, you know?”

“Oh, thank you!” She took the 7 or so golden bolts and put them in the pocket of her sweatpants, which he had gotten her along with the pink winter jacket she was wearing, “I’m really good at making ponies laugh! Or... people laugh!”

“Are you still okay after... well, after what happened?” He was talking about the small gunfight that had occurred a day ago, over an antique silver lined toilet. He didn’t question how he kept it in his trench coat, nor did he question any of the other merchandise he sold besides toast. One guy had offered to buy it for 120 bolts, and then this other guy had raised the price to 150, they’d started arguing, and then had pulled their guns out. They were about to shoot each other, but Buttercrust had shot them both in the knees, accepting the price at 150 bolts. This had horrified Pinkie, but she seemed to get over it as the day went on.

It could’ve been worse, he could’ve just killed them. He then had to explain how this world worked to her, and that seemed to make things even worse. Her normally curly, poofy hair had seemed to droop down a little, until he had mentioned how it was friendship that got them through it. It perked right back up again and she was back to her normal self.

“It’s fine, really! They were being meanies anyway!”

“Well, I’ll probably have to teach you how to defend yourself out here. Now that I think about it-”

“I can defend myself perfectly fine! I’ve got my party cannon!” She was suddenly standing over a large, blue cannon that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

“Your, umm... what?” He was puzzled.

“My party cannon of course!” she pulled back the firing mechanism, and streamers and balloons suddenly shot out of it.

“How can you defend yourself with that?” Was this some sort of joke? Suddenly, he was knocked back by some invisible force as balloons and streamers exited the cannon. He landed on his back, somehow bouncing on the concrete several times before coming to a rest. “I stand corrected.”

There was a ringing coming from inside his trench coat. Standing up, he reached his arm inside, and removed an expensive looking vase. Not what he was looking for, he tossed it aside. It landed with a smash. He reached in again, pulling out a highly explosive missile. Nope. He tossed it aside, and it landed with an explosion. One last time, he reached in and found his cell phone. He flipped it open.

“Hello?” He casually greeted whoever was on the other side.

It was Nexus. “Buttercrust, we need you to get back to Tanktown as soon as you can.”

“I’m on it! I got this strange girl with me who says her name is Pinkie Pie. She also says-”

“Yeah, yeah, she’s from another world, I know, where are you at?”

“Somewhere in Crystalline. I’ll be there in a jiffy, friend of mine!”

“Good, good.” Nexus hung up the phone.

Five minutes later, there was a knock at his door. Nexus opened it to find Buttercrust and the one he knew as Pinkie Pie at his door.

“How’d you get here so quickly? You said you were out in Crystalline...”

“Yes, and you said you needed me to get here as soon as I could! So what’s up?”

Being a pony DJ was not so different from being a human one. It was Vinyl Scratch’s third day here, and she was already having a good time. They both had similar music, and similar ways of mixing it. She was living in the company of a somewhat famous DJ named Record Wrex, and his roommate Cee Flat. She was getting along well with them, since they were all musicians, and they even gave her a small set up to perform DJ battles alongside Wrex.

For a famous DJ, he still lived in an apartment. Cee had said that Wrex had other things to spend his money on. Cee himself played a hybrid of a keytar and a bass guitar. The strange instrument had the shape and strings of a regular bass guitar, but along it’s neck also were several keys, and they worked the same way a keytar would.

“So,” Cee Flat said, taking a seat on the large, comfy looking chair across from the couch, which Vinyl laid upon. Not only was it a couch, it doubled as her bed for the duration of her stay, “You said that you were from another dimension, huh? It’s not a big surprise, this guy who was said to save the world came from another dimension. Lucky we found you out in the street, you might have gotten ran over by a tank.”

Vinyl remembered the fearsome green vehicle the residents of this world drove. They also were all heavily armed, as if expecting an invasion from something.

“Do you know him? Like, personally, I mean.” The room was dark, she assumed that it was night, but she wasn’t quite sure. What she was sure of, is that these creatures knew how to throw a party.

“Yeah, he’s a nice guy, I guess. He lives here in town, too. I could take you to him tomorrow, when it’s morning.” He said. So it was nighttime.

“Okay. Could I ask you something?”

“Sure, go ahead.” He leaned forward in his seat, the moonlight illuminating his features. He had shoulder length dusty brown hair, that wasn’t very well kept. He had green eyes that seemed to almost glow like neon lights under the moon. Of course, all of this was tinted purple under her sunglasses.

“Why’d you take me in?”

“Well, I don’t think I could’ve let you stay out there, you were unconscious. I don’t think Wrex would’ve let me leave you there either.”

She looked down at her own body, which was covered only with a white t-shirt and blue jean pants. Her hair was still electric blue, with streaks of a brighter blue among them. Being clothed like this felt normal to her, like she had worn clothes like this her entire life. She didn’t even know where they came from, they were just suddenly there.

“Well, thanks.”

“Could I ask you something?”

“Well, sure, go ahead,” he hadn’t seemed to have many questions, after they had gotten each other caught up with the world.

“Why do you wear those sunglasses all the time? I know that Wrex wears his because he likes the way they look, but what about you?”

“Well...” Vinyl began, thinking of how she would tell him the reason, “You can tell alot about someone by their eyes,” she paused, as Cee Flat just nodded, “You can even see what they’re going to do, or what they’re thinking.”

“So you wear them to hide your eyes?”

“Yeah, I guess so...”

Cee Flat had wanted to know what colour her eyes were, but didn’t wish to make her feel uncomfortable. He said nothing.

“I’ve been enjoying myself, hanging out with you guys, but how are we going to find Twilight?”

“I’ll take you to Nexus in the morning. Hopefully he’s not busy. For now, you should get some sleep. You sure do know how to party.”

“Alright, I’ve found the location of the rest of your friends, they’re on their way,” Nexus said, pacing back in forth in front of the two couches in his living room. On one sat Buttercrust, Peaceful Pride, and Powerjack, and on the other sat Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Twilight Sparkle.

“You did?” Rarity said, excited, “That’s simply wonderful!”

Twilight nodded. “We still have the whole Changelings situation to worry about, though.”

Peaceful Pride looked over to Nexus and said, “You mentioned what they were, but how are we going to stop them?”

“We’re going to have to get the Queen and the Patriarch to help us on this one. I’d get the other regions’ support, but they haven’t had enough time to form a powerful enough military.” Nexus thought of the plan for a moment, thinking of how they might have to alter it. “Nightmare’s obviously letting them though to this world, so we need to stop them in Equestria.”

“And... how are we going to do that?” Pride asked, not convinced that it was a solid plan.

“We’ll... I don’t know yet, I need more time to think of a plan. For now, we need to get ready. Burning Star’s already working on our tank. Powerjack, do you still have that Neuroshock exosuit?”

Powerjack nodded, “It’s at my house.”

“Get that ready. Talk to Killjoy and Nova Burst when they get here about upgrades and weapon attachments. Pride, I need you to make a suit of power armour and a set of equipment specially designed for each of us, including the girls.”

Twilight was shocked, “You don’t expect us to.... fight, do you?”

“No, but you’ll have to help us. We can’t do this alone, and you know the most about the Changelings.”

“They’re meanies that only want to... be mean!” Pinkie shouted, jumping out of her seat “I’ll fight ‘em! I’ve got my party cannon!”

Nexus was confused, “Your... what?”

“My party cannon! I never leave home without it!” There was suddenly a large cannon in front of her, with a shiny blue finish, and a flower near the base of it.

“I’m not even going to ask...”

Suit Up

“Y’all sure you’re gonna be okay here, brother?” Nova Burst said, as he climbed the side of his tank, to the hatch.

“Yeah, I can finish up the harvest! Nexus said you had to go, right?” His little brother had wanted very badly to go with him, but knew that the potatoes were important too. He had volunteered to stay behind while Nova Burst went off on his adventure.

“That’s right. Now, if anything happens you call Uncle Buckshot, he’ll be down here faster than a mob boss with the cops at his door.”

“Okay! Have fun!”

Nova Burst had climbed in the tank, taking a seat next to Applejack. The tank had no cannon, like traditional tanks would, instead, the area where it would be was flat, making the tank move a bit faster. For weapons, Nova Burst had taped several rifles to the tank and hotwired them to be fired from the drivers seat. The drivers seat itself had a cup holder installed, and a passenger seat next to it. Where the gunner’s seat would be, there was a mini-fridge running off the tank’s battery.

Nexus needed the both of them in Tanktown so they could stop Nightmare again, so he took off down the dirt path that headed north as soon as he was in. Neither of them said a word for several miles.

“So,” Applejack broke the awkward silence, “What do you do with all them spuds after harvestin’ them?”

“Well, we make different food out of ‘em, potato chips, potato fries, different kinds of soup, stuff like that. We sell most of them.”

“What about the ones you can’t sell?”

“Well,” Nova Burst smiled, “I make ‘em into different gadgets. Notice the lighting in the house? That’s powered by potatoes. This tank is running on a potato battery, too.”

Applejack stared at him in surprise. “You can’t be serious, powered with potatoes?”

“Yup, they don’t have very much of a charge, so you need a whole bunch of them. And that’s just what I got.”

“Well, that sure is mighty resourceful of ya.”

“You hungry? I’ve got some snacks here.”

“I could use a bite to eat.”

“Want some potato chips?” He offered her a bag, which he had produced from behind the seat.

“Sure, thanks.” She found that opening the bag required ripping it at the top. Putting one in her mouth, she took note of the taste. A bit saltier than the ones back home.

“I’ve also got some beef jerky here if you want some,” he reached into another bag and took a bite out of the dehydrated cow meat.

“Some uhh... what?”

“It’s dried... beef... I just realized that you probably don’t eat meat as a pony.”

Peaceful Pride entered the office of his armoury. Business was slow today, and he had just received a rather large request. Flipping a switch near his door had opened a concealed door on the wall opposite him. Two portions of it slid back in the center, revealing a long room that held very powerful looking equipment. 20 or so suits of power armour were on racks on the walls, and countless weapons were on racks next to them.

His storage room usually held most of the materials he needed to craft armour on his own, though he had been getting shipments lately, but the secret room held only the greatest and most powerful equipment he had. He entered, and the doors slid shut behind him. He already had the power armour, and the weapons, but the tricky part was tuning them to fit each of the wearer’s abilities.

He approached his heating bench, a wide table that was used to heat large pieces of metal for molding in a nontraditional way. His implants glowed, creating a small fire in the fire pit beneath. It burned yellow, and then quickly intensified into a bright white as it consumed the coal inside. As his implants died down, the colour settled on orange. This was good, he could still control the temperature of the flame.

He picked up one of the suits of power armour, placed it over the heating bench, and began to work.

Powerjack lifted his garage door open. There was a large, tan tank inside, with a short barreled cannon and two sets of machine guns on its front. This wasn’t what he had came for, though. Off beside it, hanging on the wall, he saw a large suit of metal, and a helmet that resembled a diver’s helmet next to it. There were two oxygen tanks on the ground below it, as well as big steel boots. This suit, which he had been dubbed the “Neuroshock Exosuit” was the suit that saved his life when the strange virus that only affected those with implants had torn the town apart. In this suit, he was safe from the infected outside air, and was able to deliver the cure to the town.

The only problem with it was that it was powered by his cybernetic implants, which weren’t something that Powerjack had liked to use. Being cybernetic meant that he could control virtual data and different types of electronics, meaning that he could control things that he probably shouldn’t be controlling. When the suit connected with his implants, he had to use them constantly, which made him uncomfortable.

He couldn’t be bothered with that now, the fate of two worlds was at stake. Closing the garage door, he pulled the metal bodysuit off the rack, pulling the separate pieces that made it up apart. There was a torso piece, which he put on first. It included two slots on the back that held oxygen tanks that he easily switch off between by securing the connection to the helmet on either side. Next, he stepped into the leggings, feeling them connect with the torso piece. Powerjack felt a prick at the base of his neck as the suit connected with his implants.

The shoulder pieces came next, securing either arm and covering all the way to his hands. He felt the armour moving with him as he put on each one. The boots were the simplest part, just locking in place on each heel, requiring very little neural connection. Lastly, he picked up the helmet, seeing his reflection in it’s shiny, domed surface, and put it over his head.

All the pieces of armour were secured, and he connected a large oxygen tank to the slot on his back, holding the spare in the other one. As he put the tube that extended from his helmet into the valve of the oxygen tank, he heard a loud hissing noise as the armour had sealed itself. It was done, Powerjack had put on the suit. It added an impressive 2 feet to his height, making him stand somewhere around 8 or 9 feet tall.

There was one other item on the ground near the rack that he’d overlooked. It was a glove of sorts, and it had a large, cone shaped object on one end. It was the icon of the suit, it’s pinnacle, it’s greatest weapon, but Powerjack had hated using it. The drill was a fearsome weapon indeed, it’s tip inspiring fear in all who saw it pointed their way. The first time Powerjack had used it, it was to break a cluster of rocks to get to his friends, but he had soon used it to... No, the thought of him weaponizing it almost made him throw up.

Sighing, he picked it up and placed it on his waist, where the small clamp on the drill’s grip let it hang from a small indent in his armour without falling. He walked through his garage, shaking the ground with a thunder-like rumble with each step, and lifted up his garage door. The suit did most of the work, lifting the large piece of metal with ease.

Time to return to Nexus, and he’d have to go on foot. His armour was too bulky to fit in the tank.

The jeep sped across the desert, Trax Dash at the wheel, with his foot slammed on the gas pedal. Rainbow Dash sat next to him in the passenger seat, thrilled to the core by the speed at which they were going. The ride was bumpy, and it wasn’t as fast as she could go herself, but she didn’t care. At least she didn’t have to strain herself.

She thought back to the small discussion they had earlier, when she had convinced him to go. He seemed frustrated then, but after she had made that joke about his awesomeness he had seemed to be venting on her, making comments here and there, and criticizing her every action.

“So, uh, how long until we get there?” Rainbow asked, impatiently. It grew boring quickly.

Trax Dash gritted his teeth in frustration, and replied in the least angry tone he could manage. “Well, unless you want to get out and push, we’ll be there in about an hour. As long as we don’t get arrested for speeding.”

Rainbow Dash hated his sarcasm, but she was no stranger to using it herself.

“You know, if there’s something bothering you, you can tell me.” She told him.

There was something bothering him. He had just been told by someone that he couldn’t compete in the fighting tournament he had trained so long to win, and he had to go 150 miles per hour through a desert to get to said someone. He said nothing.

“We’re friends, right?” She asked, with a hopeful smile on her face. The car had slowed down a little, then suddenly screeched to a halt, sending them both forward in their seats.

“What?” he replied, looking over at her in disbelief.

“We’re friends, right? You helped me when I first got here, and now you’re helping me find my friends. If you came into my world so suddenly like that, I probably would’ve called you crazy.”

Trax Dash was silent for a moment, in thought. She was actually being serious. “I’ve seen a lot of crazy things. I don’t know if we’re friends or not. It’s not really just a matter of saying yes or no.”

“Huh? What do you mean?”

“Anyone can say, ‘Oh yeah, we’re friends,’ but it doesn’t really mean anything until you do something for the other person.”

“But you’ve done everything for me! I didn’t know where I was, what I was supposed to do...”

“I’m a nice guy, I would have done it for anyone.”

“So... that would make you friends with a lot of people then. As for me, just let me know if there’s something you need.” Her smile had gone from nervous, to rather friendly, as if she could tell that his view had been changed.

“That’s a good point... I’ll have to think about that...”

“Let’s get going then,” She casually put her feet up on the dashboard, and leaned back in her seat, hands behind her head.

Trax Dash slammed on the gas. He didn’t feel any better at the moment, but at least he knew she cared.

Rally Cry

The large truck was driven by a soldier, who had offered to give Killjoy and his high priority asset- a young girl with pink hair, a ride to Tanktown. They sat in the back of the truck. It looked almost the same as the one they had carried the wounded soldiers in, except there was no roof covering them, and a large gun was fixed in the back with them. Killjoy was completely silent, staring off into space. Fluttershy was also silent, but was only too nervous to talk. Even though she had gotten used to the hardened commander and his job, she was still uncomfortable around him.

They drove along a dirt path in a forest, which seemed peaceful enough. The place called Tanktown was only about an hour away, but at the speed they were going, Fluttershy wondered how far it actually was.

Killjoy looked up, checking the area behind the truck. There was nothing. Then, he heard it. Over the engine of the truck, he could hear the whine of a smaller vehicle approaching them, fast. Several, actually, Killjoy saw several motorcycles approaching them from behind, with Raiders at their controls.

There were three of them, all carrying a rifle of some sort in one hand, while steering with the other. Killjoy tapped on the window separating him from the driver, and it was opened promptly.

“We’ve got three bikes on our 6 o’clock. Speed up, and try to lose them.” Killjoy ordered in a calm tone.

“Sir, this vehicle can’t go faster than-”

“I SAID STEP ON IT, SOLDIER!” He barked, making Fluttershy almost jump out of the vehicle.

“Sir, this truck will stall if I go over 70 miles an hour, it’s getting old, and I didn’t think-”

Killjoy sighed. “Just drive, then. I’ll handle them.”

Killjoy approached the forward facing machine gun, and spun it 180 degrees. There was enough room for him to fire it in either direction, and he could aim it side to side with ease. He positioned himself behind the gun, leaning in and aiming down the sight. He noticed the frightened look on Fluttershy’s face, and he motioned her for her to cover her ears.

The first bike had closed in on them the Raider on the bike taking aim. Before he could fire, Killjoy squeezed the butterfly handles of the gun together. The explosion of sound still reached Fluttershy’s ears, even though she had them covered. She huddled in the corner of the truck bed, close to Killjoy’s boot, cowering in fear. He noticed her and adjusted his footing as to not step on her. The bullets missed the bike, and the Raider driving had fired back, putting a crack in the window behind him. It had stopped the bullet that had hit it, but it wouldn’t hold up if any more came it’s way.

Killjoy adjusted his aim and fired back, remembering to fire in front of his target, for they were moving. The other two were close behind as the first biker had fallen off of his vehicle, the bike spinning out in the dirt. Killjoy aimed at the next bike, and opened fire. He couldn’t hit it as it swerved side to side, actively dodging his fire. The other biker had shot, and completely missed them. The mounted gun turned to meet the bad shooter, and ripped his bike to pieces, sending it spiraling out of control as it’s rider had abandoned the vehicle. Two down, one two go.

The last one was lined up, and Killjoy squeezed the handles together.

A metallic clicking noise was all that was heard.

“Son of a-” was all he had time to say before a wave of pain and lead coursed through his body, almost knocking him off of the vehicle. The glass behind him shattered, and Fluttershy wanted to scream, but she was too scared to use her voice properly.

He hit his back on the cold metal truck bed, and lost consciousness.

“What the hell? Is everything okay back there?” The driver glanced back through the shattered window, after the windshield had been riddled with bullets. Good thing they made those bulletproof.

“He...” Fluttershy was on her knees, looking over the Commander’s limp body. He was still breathing, that was good. She beyond words, beyond fear. How could they do this to their own kind? It scared her, it frustrated her, it saddened her, but most of all, it made her mad.

And nobody, not in any universe, would make her this angry, this upset, and live to tell the tale.

“YOU BIG STUPID JERK!” She screeched angrily, almost forgetting she was in a moving vehicle. She had taken one of the round, green, objects that had fallen off of Killjoy’s uniform when he fell. She knew what she was going to do. It was heavy, but she was too angry to care. As her face twisted with rage, she threw the green object off of the back of the truck with all of her might, straight at the Raider.

The Raider was surprised, and had raised his weapon to gun this pink haired girl down, but he was hit in the face by a hand grenade before he could, sending him tumbling off of his bike and landing on his back. He coughed, and looked at the grenade that had made a mark on his cheek. She hadn’t even pulled the pin on it.

Fluttershy took several angry breaths to try and compose herself. She had just hurt something, a living creature. Normally, she would have felt terrible and wouldn’t been able to have forgiven herself, but seeing the man who risked his life to save her, her only friend she had from this world, in the state he was in now had awoken something inside of her. That stupid Raider deserved it for what he did. Still, a part of her hoped that he wasn’t hurt too bad.

“He’s hurt, he needs to get somewhere where I can get those... oh, what are they called... bullets out of him!” She began to say to the driver, who was still trying his best to control the shot up vehicle.

“Right behind my seat there’s a first aid kit, should have everything you need,” the driver said in a monotone voice. All he could do was drive, “We’re almost to Tanktown, I’ve got orders to bring him to Nexus, so you’ll have to figure out what to do with him.

She retrieved the kit, a large red box with a white cross on it. Inside, she retrieved what she remembered using when treating the other soldier's wounds. Killjoy had taken five bullets, two in the chest, one in his left arm, and two in the stomach. His blood was beginning to pool beneath him, and his bright red uniform was stained a deep crimson. It made her sick to her stomach. Pulling off the red jacket and white shirt, she began to extract the bullet in his arm. She noticed a mark on his arm, closer to his hand.

It was of a human hand, grasping what seemed to be a sword. The sword’s angle seemed to say ‘Charge!’, and there was what looked like some sort of explosion behind it. Was it a cutie mark? Was his special talent fighting? Or did it mean something else?

The thought came and went as she removed the bullet with the tweezers, inspecting the wound. It wasn’t very deep. She cleaned it, and then wrapped it in the bandage she had taken from the first aid kit. Next came the bullets in his chest. She wasn’t an expert on anatomy, especially human anatomy, but she knew that those bullets had came dangerously close to his heart. All she could do was wrap them, for she wasn’t sure she had anything that could get through the bone to pull them out.

The ones in his stomach were tricky. One was in deep, almost passing right through his body. The other had hit him up higher, and had broken one of his ribs. Fluttershy had to cut open the skin and flesh where the bone had been pushing through, and remove it with shaky hands. The bullet was easily removed, but closing it was out of the question. She cleaned the opening as best as she could, and wrapped it up, the bandage wrapping around his entire body. The last one was the hardest for her to do, as she became aware of her makeshift surgery patient beginning to stir.

“Fluttershy...” he croaked, trying to figure out what had happened. His head was spinning, his ears were ringing, and he felt like he had been ran over by a Mac truck.

“Please... I’m sorry, this is going to hurt... a lot...,” she whimpered, with a look of depression on her face.

“What... what are you-” he noticed Fluttershy putting the tweezers into his wound, and then something being tugged on inside of him. He screamed out in pain, as Fluttershy removed the bullet that had somehow not hit any of his internals. Fluttershy put a hand on his shoulder and muttered something, but he couldn’t hear it. All he could hear was the pain. All he could see was the pain, and all he could feel was the pain. This wasn’t the first time he’d had a bullet removed from him, but he never had gotten used to it. No one did.

“I’m so sorry, but I had to get that out of you...”

“It’s...” he gasped for breath, and felt something irregular in his chest as he did so, “It’s fine... I...” his breathing interrupted his speech once more, “You had to... had to do that... Don’t blame yourself.” Out of breath, he rolled on his side, and looked down at his body. His arm had been bandaged, as well as a few spots on his chest. His red jacket was next to him, and his white t-shirt was in three, ripped up pieces, probably Fluttershy trying to get it off of him, and it was stained red. It still hurt. He passed out from the pain again.

“Killjoy, are you okay?” Fluttershy hadn’t even noticed they’d arrived at a house in what seemed to be a small town. A young man with dirty blonde hair was looking over the edge of the truck’s bed.

“What happened?” more voices.

“Get him inside, quick!”

Fluttershy fainted as the adrenaline of the situation subsided.

Killjoy awoke laying down on a table, and he looked at the stone gray ceiling. He couldn’t help but notice he felt a bit better.

“Hey, you’re up.” It was Nexus.

Killjoy blinked, trying to sit up.

“Woah, take it easy there. You’re lucky you made it out of that, from what Fluttershy told me.” Nexus had helped Killjoy sit up. He took in his surroundings. He was sitting on a makeshift medical table in Nexus’s underground lab. Not a big surprise, knowing Nexus. There was a table of surgical equipment on a stand next to him, and what appeared to be a fractured piece of bone.

“Now, what’s your name?” Nexus asked, a small smile forming on his face.

“Seriously?” Killjoy asked, picking up on the joke. A smile crossed his face for a few moments before he felt a stinging pain in his chest.

“It’s good to see your sense of humor is intact- hey, I wasn’t joking when I said take it easy. I pulled out two bullets that were near your heart. It may not be comfortable for a few days...” Nexus seemed disappointed when he said that last part.

“What... is that one of my bones?” He pointed to the fractured bone, on the stand.

“Yeah, that’s one of your ribs,” Nexus casually told him, “I had to replace two of them with titanium ones. Hope they don’t slow you down any. And don’t worry, I didn’t let Burning Star cauterize that nasty hole in near your rib cage there.”

“Good,” he said, half-jokingly. That pyromaniac probably would’ve scorched half his body, in all seriousness.

“You’ll have to take it easy for a few days, but you’ll have to help us out when the time comes. Twilight said that healing spell would take a few days until you were 100% again...”

“Wait, healing spell? Oh right, she’s the magical unicorn princess, right?” He recalled a few of the stories Fluttershy had told him.

“Yeah. I must say, for only being human for three days, Fluttershy patched you up pretty good,” Nexus said, as Killjoy inspected his body. There were no longer bandages on it, instead there was fresh skin that had regrown as if by magic. It probably was magic, too.

“So, what’s going on?”

Nexus sighed, “It’s not good. Nightmare is back, and he’s working with the Changelings.” Killjoy knew all about them. “They were probably planning to sneak in undetected, but didn’t realize how much attention the swirling black clouds gathered. Right now, we have all of Twilight’s friends gathered upstairs, as well as all of our combat unit.

“Oh boy, it’s like a family reunion.”

Upstairs, the others were all getting to know each other while Nexus treated Killjoy’s wounds like the not-doctor he was. Burning Star and Twilight had talked more about how the tank worked, and Peaceful Pride had entertained Rarity with several stories about his adventures. In the kitchen, Trax Dash was arm wrestling with Applejack, who was surprisingly strong for someone her size. Rainbow and Nova Burst watched intently, as one of them were going to challenge the winner. Pinkie Pie had also shown Buttercrust how to make several types of sweets that he could sell, like cupcakes, cookies, and other things she had made from ingredients that Nexus never had.

Back in the living room, Fluttershy was startled as the giant metal robot guy who called himself Powerjack was suddenly next to her.

“H-h-hello...” She said, frightened by his huge posture and appearance. She was shaking uncontrollably on the couch. An eerie yellow light shined through the helmet he was wearing, concealing his face.

“Hi...” came the voice from inside the suit, it seemed very quiet, like it was afraid of something, “I heard you like to take care of animals...”

“It’s... It’s my special talent...”

“Could you... um... tell me more about it? If that wouldn't be a problem...”

She was surprised by the question, assuming whatever was inside that suit to be hard and cold as the suit itself, but as she talked to it, she warmed up to it- him. She started to understand that inside the menacing suit there was a warm, kind, and friendly heart.

All of the discussion and noise was silenced by a knock on the door. Peaceful Pride stood up and opened it. It revealed a black haired young man who wore a green flight suit, with markings of the Raingear Royal Air Force. Baggy black fight pants covered his legs, and tan leather boots were upon his feet.

“Oh, hello Whirlwind, we must’ve forgot you in our headcount...” Pride allowed the pilot to enter.

“It’s fine, Nexus always misses someone. Last time it was you,” He chuckled, and then fell silent when he saw everyone in the living room. He turned to Pride.

“Oi! Nexus having a house party or something?”

3 Days Left: Game Plan

Nexus had everyone gathered. All of his friends; Powerjack, Whirlwind, Burning Star, Trax Dash, Peaceful Pride, Nova Burst, Buttercrust, and a still hurting Killjoy, all of Twilight Sparkle and her friends; Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie all sat somewhere in the crowded living room, be it on one of the two couches or on the floor. They all waited patiently for Nexus to begin.

“Okay, as you may all know-” He began, but was interrupted by a knock on the door. A girl wearing a white t-shirt and blue jeans stood behind it, her purple tinted sunglasses and electric blue hair catching Nexus’s eye. With her were two other guys, Nexus recognized as Record Wrex and Cee Flat. Wrex’s long, straight hair seemed to counter the girl’s shorter, slightly curled hair, even though they were a similar tone; his a dull sapphire blue, and hers a bright electric blue. Even their sunglasses were different colours, one orange, and the other purple.

“Hey Nexus,” Cee began, “We got this Vinyl Scratch girl from another universe and-”

“Come on in, all three of you,” he gestured to the newcomers, knowing that they’d be important to his mission. Twilight recognized the girl immediately.

“Vinyl Scratch? You’re here too?” Twilight didn’t seem to expect her, of all ponies, to come here.

“I’m so terribly sorry,” Rarity began, “I must have forgotten about you, Vinyl.”

“It’s cool, so... Whoa, what’s going on in here? We having cookies or something?”

Nexus looked in the living room, there was literally nowhere for them to sit without violating the last shred of personal space everyone had left. He gave them the rundown.

“Our world’s in danger, and so is yours. We’re going to need your help in Equestria to stop an evil spirit working with the changelings... I don’t know what they’re trying to do. Anyway, I’ve gathered my group of friends, whom I’ve saved the world with several times, and Twilight here has gathered hers, whom she’s saved her world with several times. I’m going over our game plan right now. So you’ll have to catch the details later.”

Vinyl seemed cool with this information. “Alright. I guess I’ll just stand here in the doorway.”

Cee Flat tried to form intelligent thought, but failed, just as he failed to process what Nexus had just said on the first time through. Wrex had just stood there, his orange shades concealing his eyes, and a grimace upon his lips that told everyone that he was just going to accept it and get on with life.

“I’m sorry too,” Applejack said, “I didn’t think I’d forget about you coming with us, but... it happened so quickly.” The others started to apologize as well, but she raised a hand.

“Don’t sweat it, guys,” She said with a smile, “It’s cool.”

“If I could get started on the plan here, that’d be nice,” Nexus said, standing in front of the group he had gathered.

“Oh, sorry,” Vinyl said, “Yeah, do that...”

Off in some dimension of darkness, two figures stood, facing each other. One had the figure of a pony, and the other, a human.

“Is this world aware of our presence?” Queen Chrysalis, the queen of the changeling hive mind, had stepped forward, some unworldly light illuminating her features. Long strands of a sickly blue mane hung over her green eyes. Her body was as dark as the realm she was in, but under light one would see her transparent blue wings, and the holes in her legs, the holes in which stemmed from her body craving the affections of sentient life. They were holes that would never be filled, a quest that would never become more than an endless mission.

“Yes. You didn’t specify you wanted a silent entrance. Did you secure the prisoner I asked?” Nightmare’s voice was a low, terrifying growl.

Another figure stepped forth from the shadows, into the light that casted from nowhere in particular. He had a young body, his hair was a perfect blonde colour, and his face seemed almost too perfect. Crystal blue eyes, and a perfect nose, not too long, not too large, and placed evenly between his eyes. His lips were perfectly sized as well, one not being larger than the other. He had a strong body, but wasn’t too tall. He wore something similar to a medieval knight’s armour, without the helmet. Some would think him to be nobility, others just born with good looks, but none would believe his true story.

“For half a century I waited to see you again, Nightmare,” his voice was like a beacon of calmness, soothing, but at the same time, commanding.

The other figure stepped forwards, being nothing but a shadow, with glowing red orbs where eyes should be.

“The wait has been mutual, Dimensia.” Nightmare replied. Dimensia was a being of time and space. He had spent countless centuries perfecting his body, after he discovered the secret of bending time and space to his will. He worked with Nightmare once, but they were defeated by Nexus and the Elements of Heroism. He hoped that he would not fail whatever he was involved with this time.

“Why have you brought me here, from my holding cell?” Dimensia asked, recalling the decades sent in that infernal prison that negated his powers. Not that he minded the freedom, but he generally owed something of whoever bothered to release him.

“I need you to lead my attack on Iron Core.”

“Again? What makes you think that you can take them a second time?”

“Because,” Nightmare looked over to Chrysalis, “We have her swarm at our disposal.”

“Yes,” Chrysalis replied, “The hive mind in my world should serve as a suitable force for your takeover, given that our terms our met.”

“Terms?” Dimensia didn’t like terms, “What do you mean, terms?”

“Chrysalis is a changeling,” he explained, somewhat annoyed, “She has agreed to let me command the swarm under her control in return for the love and affection of those in Iron Core, which her kind feeds on.”

“That means we won’t be able to rule it, will it?” Dimensia scowled, disappointed.

“Not directly, no, but I have... other plans.”

“We’ll need more than my swarm to take an entire world,” Chrysalis said, “We are powerful, true, but we only gather our strength from numbers.”

“I’ve got that under control,” Nightmare said, raising his shadow hand dismissively, “As we speak, several of Iron Core’s outcasts, known as Raiders, are moving in to attack the country’s capital, Tanktown. Based on the information given to them by your Changeling informants.”

“Tanktown is the capital?” Dimensia asked in disbelief, then burst out into laughter. He’d been there, and it was no more than a simple town.

“The other region’s leaderships gather there in the state of crisis, much like what will be ensuring shortly...”

“So, what do we do as of now?” Chrysalis asked.

“The few changelings I’ve sent in already have drawn attention, so wait until the fighting has started before you have me open a portal. Dimensia, you’ll be in charge of leading both the Raiders and the changelings when they arrive. No doubt Nexus and his friends will be there, so if you see them, let your minions do the work before you take them on yourself.”

“Yes, yes, basic villain strategy, blah, blah, blah. I’ll be good for you,” he said, shooting the shadow a hateful glare.

“Would it be a problem if I returned to Equestria to prepare?” Chrysalis asked.

“It would not. Go ahead.” Nightmare opened a portal to the changeling hive, which Chrysalis walked through.

Dimensia smirked. “She was boring, don’t you think?”

Nightmare didn’t respond to this, he just opened another portal.

“Go,” he commanded.

Dimensia huffed and entered the portal.

“Okay,” Nexus began, “In order to stop the changeling invasion we need launch a two-pronged attack. The first one will be here, in Iron Core, and the other will be in Equestria. Once I fix the flaw in my portal projector, which I think I’ve identified, we’ll have a working portal.” Nexus looked to Peaceful Pride, “Pride, is the armour I requested ready?”

“No, I was going to wait until you told us each what we’re going to do, so I could optimize the efficiency of the equipment I made. You did say it had to be custom built.”

“True. After I’m done explaining you an get to work.” Nexus said.

“I do,” Pride continued, “Have several basic suits ready for enhancements, however, I wasn’t sure of the measurements of the girls, so-”

“I can help you with that,” Rarity told him, “I make dresses for them all the time, but Vinyl...”

“I’ll just come with you,” the DJ in question said.

“Good,” Nexus continued with his plan, “Whirlwind, you’ll lead strike team Alpha into Equestria. Twilight, you’ll be guiding him to the changeling hive, you know where it’s at, right?”

“I believe so,” Twilight said, “But I haven’t been there myself.”

“That’ll have to do. Trax Dash, Rainbow Dash, you two will escort him to his objective.”

The two Dashes nodded and spoke in unison, “Got it.”

“Burning Star will be transporting the weapon that should destroy the changeling hive mind. Based on what you’ve told me, they’re insectoid in nature, so they should respond quite violently to a sonic pulse.” Nexus looked at Burning Star expectantly.

“The sonic pulse emitter is ready, but... it’s rather bulky. We’ll have to carry it on a tank,” she explained, “I’ve also installed a failsafe, in case the pulse fails.”

“What do you mean?” Nexus could only imagine what kind of failsafe his fire loving friend could’ve installed.

“Maybe... a nuclear warhead with enough power to level a city...” she replied sheepishly.

Nexus sighed, “It’ll have to do,” he said, turning to Peaceful Pride, “Pride, you’ll be leading the backup Equestrian team, Bravo. Bravo will consist of Peaceful Pride and Pinkie Pie, who will provide tactical support for Alpha.

Pinkie Pie seemed excited, much to Pride’s annoyance.

“Now, we have the Iron Core team. I’ll be leading Charlie, who will be going in to secure the first cloud picked up on radar. Whirlwind, you did get in touch with the Queen of Raingear, right?”

He nodded, “Aye, she’ll send her boys as soon as ye give the word. She’ll also tell you if anything odd pops up under her watch.”

“Right. What about the Onterran Patriarch?”

Killjoy spoke up, still hurting from being shot, “They’re having some trouble in their government right now, they won’t be able to send support...”

“Alright. Raingear’s all we have, then,” Nexus cleared his throat, and continued, “Charlie team will consist of Powerjack, Fluttershy, Vinyl Scratch, Record Wrex, Cee Flat, and of course myself. Fluttershy, you’ll need to heal the wounded. You’ll stay out of direct combat. Powerjack, you make sure Fluttershy stays safe. Vinyl, Wrex, Cee, I hope you don’t mind combat, ‘cause you’ll be our fighting force.”

“Alright, I guess I should learn how to fight,” Vinyl said, looking to see Cee Flat’s response.

“Yeah, I got you covered. Wrex?”

The mute musician gave a thumbs up.

“Excellent,” Nexus moved on to Killjoy, “Killjoy, you’ll be leading Delta team. Delta is tasked with coutering the inevitable attack on Tanktown. You’ll be taking Buttercrust, Nova Burst, Rarity and Applejack. Buttercrust, you’ll need to supply the rest of us with whatever you have in stock for equipment before we go. Nova Burst, you still have your sentry, right?”

“That I do,” He replied, “I’ll set ‘er up in a place where she can get shootin’ right away.”

“That’d be appreciated. Put it in the center of town, or wherever you think would have a tactical advantage. Now, Rarity, I hope you don’t mind fighting...”

“I’m not fit for action, and you know that Nexus,” she said sternly, “I’ll provide support through your communication network here in Iron Core.”

“Alright, I can accept that, what about you, Applejack?”

“I’m about as ready as I’ll ever be. Get me geared up, and I’ll send ‘em runnin,” the apple farmer said.

“That’s the plan, you’ll all have three days to prepare. I suggest talking with Powerjack about the firing range, or Killjoy about the operation of vehicles if you need more training. If you have any questions for me, I’ll be in my lab preparing the portal.”

He looked over the group, one last time.

“You are dismissed!”

2 Days Left: Weapons Check

Peaceful Pride, Rarity and Vinyl Scratch had all entered the secret room of his shop, and Rarity was still gawking over the ‘elegance’ and the ‘style’ that she said his armour had. While Vinyl thought it looked cool too, she was more amazed by his ability to make it all in the first place.

“You crafted this yourself?” Vinyl asked him. “It looks pretty cool.”

“Yeah,” he said, “Is it that good?”

“It’s more than good, it’s amazing!” Rarity declared, “This one here, it’s trimmed and perfectly shaped, not like that bulky armour they wear back home...”

“I need to fix the armour I prepared to fit your friends. I didn’t know how many suits I’d need, so I prepped all of them,” Pride said as walked over to one of the suits, which was hanging upon a rack of many more like it.

“I’m not sure how similar dresses are to armour, but I’ll certainly try to help in any way I can.”

Peaceful Pride nodded as he started up the heating bench with his synthetics. Rarity told him different measurements she had recalled from making dresses from her friends, as well as certain aesthetic details that they might appreciate. Pride sighed and did as she asked, and before long, he had five suits of shiny power armour, all of which were tailored to fit each of Rarity’s five friends.

For the next one, he looked Vinyl over.

“Huh? Oh, you’ll probably need to wrap some measuring tapes around me, right?” Vinyl recalled the way Rarity had gathered her dress measurements.

“No, nothing like that,” Pride explained, “I can gauge things like your shoulder width and waist diameter at a glance.”

Rarity seemed impressed, “You truly are one of your craft, aren’t you?”

“Well, yeah,” Pride blushed from the praise, “I try...”

“Well, you must tell me more about your work when we’re through here.”

He continued heating the armour under the flames until it turned red, and then molding it’s shape with a hammer. There were other, more modern ways of molding metal, but he had great precision with each strike. Soon, he had another suit ready, fit to Vinyl Scratch’s body. Now, for the upgrades.

“Come on... pick up, Pride...” Nexus held his cell phone to his ear, and awaited a response from his friend.

“Hello?” His voice came.

“Pride, we’ve got a change of plans.”

“What? I just got the armour ready, what do-”

“It’s nothing like that, but do you still have those experimental jetpack models that we had Trax Dash test out?”

“Yes, why?”

“I’ll need you to make an adjustment to the armour...”

The Equestrian girls were just as busy preparing for the battle as Nexus’s crew was, familiarizing themselves with different weapons, learning to fire them, and going over combat basics. In Powerjack’s training facility, they had all stood in the firing range. Twilight was a fast learner, but was hesitant to use her weapon. She had chosen a older weapon, a double-barreled, sawed-off shotgun.

“I’d prefer something with sufficient stopping power, at a closer distance,” she had told them, and Nova Burst had just grinned as he selected the weapon for her, and showed her how to use it. It disturbed her that he was excited, but such was the way things were.

Rainbow Dash had the most enthusiasm about firing a weapon than any of the others, using an automatic rifle that Whirlwind had chosen for her.

“Remember,” Whirlwind instructed, “fire in short, controlled bursts.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow pulled the trigger, and laced her target with holes.

“You’re using too many bullets, Rainbow, be careful.”

Pinkie Pie was very confused about what to use, so Whirlwind had just handed her a long range rifle.

“What’s this thing on the top of it?” She asked him, inspecting the cylindrical object, that seemed to have some sort of lense inside of it.

“That’s the scope. You’ll need it if you’re going to be supporting Alpha. You use it to get a better look at your target.”

“Okie dokie lokie!” She grinned, and looked into her scope, focusing on the body-shaped target set up at the end of the range. She pulled the trigger, and landed a shot in the target’s chest. “Yay! I did it!” She grinned, and Twilight shot her a worried look.

Fluttershy had been unable to fire a weapon, being too afraid of the noises it made, so she went over the human body, and different types of injuries with Powerjack. The two had grown very close in the past day, and he was suddenly very protective of her.

“The Raingear army sent us morphine,” Powerjack said, handing Fluttershy a glass vial, “It’s used to relieve pain, so you’ll be able to work without hurting your patient too much.”

“Okay...” Fluttershy had gotten herself up to speed with what kind of injuries they may be taking. Depending on what the changelings had for weapons, Fluttershy concluded they could possibly get broken bones, infected cuts, internal organ damage, and a large, much scarier version of a bee sting. She still went over bullet and blade wounds, as well as how to... amputate a limb. Fluttershy still didn’t understand how removing a part of the body could help, but Powerjack insisted that she know.

Her main tool that she used was her injector, a device that had a handle like a gun, but a needle protruding from it’s front. It was used to inject her patients with an anesthetic, which she connected a vial to top of the handle. In this case, she was using morphine, and Powerjack had made himself very clear when he told her only to give one person a single dose, indicated by the marking on the vial.

“Morphine is strong stuff, but too much can be lethal.”

“Okay...” Fluttershy kept that in mind. If she accidentally killed someone who needed her help, she didn’t know what she’d do.

Nexus was in his lab, and Burning Star stood behind him as he finished the final touches of the portal.

“Are you sure that you’ll be able to make it work?” She asked.

“Yeah, the portal should be fine. I corrected my past mistake.”

“Not that,” she rolled her eyes, “the small change you made to your plan.”

“Oh,” Nexus thought back to what he had told Pride, that they were going to be carrying the pulse bomb via Whirlwind’s jet. Of course, this meant they would be flying the jet through the portal and into Equestria, without knowing whether it would affect anything or not.

“That’s assuming that you can even open it up,” she crossed her arms, as Nexus flipped a switch. His implants glowed, and a thunderbolt had shot out of his arm and into the generator. With a whir, the portal powered on, creating a spatial tear in front of them.

Nexus smiled at Burning Star, who only smirked in response.

The Princess of the Sun was surprised to see an odd ripple in the universe appear right in front of her throne. Sure, she felt ripples in the universe all the time, but seeing one right before her very eyes was a rare occurrence.

What surprised her even more was the purple alicorn princess that emerged from this tear, and the unfamiliar tan earth pony who followed her.

“Twilight Sparkle, is that you?” Celestia rose to her throne to approach her protege.

“Yes, Princess Celestia, I’ve returned here bearing urgent news.”

She explained the situation with the Changelings, and how their power in Equestria would grow if they were to conquer Iron Core.

Celestia was shocked, for the first time in ages something this big had slipped past her. Changelings were planning to take over another world, and she hadn’t known anything about it. She didn't let this shock show, however.

“You seem like you have a plan, Twilight,” she said.

The tan earth pony who had entered behind her was trying to adjust to his surroundings. Nexus’s clothes were gone, and he had transformed into a pony, with tan coat and a dirty blonde mane and tail. There was a sword on his flank, identical to the one he had on his arm as a human.

“Nexus,” Twilight turned to the tan stallion, “Could you explain the situation to Princess Celestia here?”

“Hmm? Oh, right. Umm, your majesty,” Nexus gave the standard royalty greeting, “Both your universe and mine are in danger. An evil spirit known as Nightmare has been sighted opening portals into my world, allowing changelings to come through. There have only been a few confirmed in the several militaries, but we fear they may be planning an invasion.”

“Nightmare...” Celestia repeated. She knew about other universes, each one had a mirror dimension, in which, in some cases, entire histories would be counter parted with one another. She could only assume that this Nightmare was the counterpart of Nightmare Moon.

“Yes, he possessed an individual named Orbital Order for a short time.”

“How did you get here?” The white alicorn had approached the tear, it’s swirling purple vortex captivating her attention. “This doesn’t seem like magic...”

“Nexus built a device that allows for travel through other universes.”

“Oh? He must have used something other than magic, I assume,” Celestia figured that his world was probably not as centered around magic as hers.

“We’re a technology based civilization. Magic in our world is beyond our control,” Nexus explained.

“That’s not the point, though,” Twilight said, “Nexus has a strategy that will defeat the changelings.”

“Go on,” she nodded in his direction.

“Yes, there is a weapon our world, it creates a sonic pulse. Based on what I know about the changelings, they’re an insectoid species. If we strike the hive with this sonic pulse, it should destroy the changeling hive mind without any collateral damage.”

“What if it’s not successful?” Celestia asked.

“Then there is a fail-safe, an explosive charge with enough force to level a city.”

Celestia stared at him, surprised at the amount of power he had just described. For not having magic, the inhabitants of his word were powerful.

“I cannot allow that to be detonated in my world. It would cause too much panic.”

“With all due respect, Princess, I’m only going to use it if all else fails. I have my world to look after, too. And that means that I’m going to do what’s necessary.”

Celestia sighed. She never liked war, but it was as real as the sun she moved through the sky. “I will aid you. What do you need?”

Twilight stepped up, “We need somepony with enough magical power to hold a rift to his world open for an extended period of time. Also, some way to provide any layout of the area would be nice...”

“I can do both of those. Now, Nexus,” she turned to the tan pony, who was looking at the stained-glass windows that held the prophecies of different events.

“Yes, your majesty?”

“I’ll need you to take this.” She produced a crystal, one that had a pink glow to it.

“What is it?”

“It is a method of storing information via magic. It contains connections to lookout posts all over Equestria. I’m not sure how well it will work when you’re in your world, but it is yours while you’re here. Ask Twilight to help you with it.”

“Thank you,” he said, taking the crystal in a hoof. He had no idea how he could hold something without fingers, but he didn’t question it.

“As for you, Twilight, I think I know who would be able to do that. Come with me.”

The three walked through the hallways of Canterlot Palace. Nexus was surprised at how different the architecture was in this world.

“As you may have learned, Twilight, there are a multitude of different universes. Each one is different, but they all relate to each other somehow. Some do more than others, like the one that Nexus is from,” Celestia dismissed a few guards that stood in front of a large set of double doors. “I’m led to believe that his world is very similar to ours.”

“Yes, that’s correct,” Nexus said, “There is an odd similarity between the events of our two universes.”

“Let me ask you something,” they had stopped in front of the doors now, “Is there a counterpart to the Elements of Harmony in your world?”

“Yes, there is. My friends and I used them to stop Nightmare and free Orbital Order, who had corrupted his mind.”

“Your friends?” Celestia gave Twilight a knowing look, and Twilight nodded to confirm her suspicions.

“Yes, there are eight Elements of Heroism; Courage, Honor, Justice, Ability, Support, Strength, Trust, and Generosity. Each of my eight best friends is the physical embodiment of one.”

“You mentioned that you used them, how did you do that, exactly?” Celestia thought there may be a ninth element, but Nexus clarified.

“In order for the Element’s power to be fully manipulated, they need someone to control them, a Conduit. I’m the Conduit of the Elements of Heroism.”

Celestia nodded. “At least your world is safe.”

“Princess, why have you brought us to the Royal Library?” Twilight asked, recognizing where they were.

“The someone we’re looking for resides in here,” she said, opening one of the giant doors.

Beyond the door, there was a strange creature, a draconequus, sitting at a table, deeply absorbed in a book.

1 Day Left: Change of Plans

Nexus gripped the bright pink virtual storage disk in his hands. Like everything that crossed the portal, the bright pink crystal had changed form to fit in the new universe. He approached the door to his lab, accessing the doors systems with his implants. Inside was Rarity, who stood over an array of consoles and screens. She was going to be in charge of directing and guiding all four teams from here.

Nexus had secured a connection between the two worlds, using the strange powers of the draconequus Discord. Discord had opened a portal above the Canterlot castle, and above Tanktown. The plan now was to fly through one of Nightmare’s portals, and deliver the bomb into the Changeling hive that way. The plan was the same, except Rainbow Dash and Twilight had their armour outfitted with jet-packs, the same kind that Trax Dash had. Whirlwind and Burning Star would be in Whirlwind’s jet, carrying the payload, and Bravo team would trail behind in a support helicopter, in case something went wrong.

“Take this, Rarity,” he passed her the VSD, and she put it into a slot on the computer, “It should give you a live radar of the area surrounding Canterlot.”

“How exactly... nevermind. Thank you, Nexus.”

“Is something on your mind, Rarity?

“I’m just not used to working in somewhere so damp and cold...”

“Don’t worry, it’ll all be over soon,” Nexus said, exiting his lab. Powerjack and Fluttershy were playing what appeared to be patty-cake in the living room. It was odd, Powerjack’s armour had made his hands easily twice the size of Fluttershy’s. On the couch, Applejack could be seen asleep, her head lazily hanging over it’s arm. It was their last day before they executed the mission, and they had all trained hard. He hoped that they would be ready enough, three days was a short time frame.

There was a knock at the door. Nexus was expecting Peaceful Pride to come by with news on the armour, but it was someone else. Someone he had not wanted to see for a long time. His voice dripped of those who played roulette with revolvers.

“Hello, Nexus,” the young man said, a devious grin on his face. They were about the same age, but the other had stood a few inches taller than him. He had short cut brown hair, that appeared to be well combed. His sneering eyes were a strange orange, and he wore simple leather duster, and dress pants beneath it. Slung across his back was a sniper rifle.

“Deadshot?” Nexus nearly hissed the name. “What do you want?”

“I believe that you have the right to know that a large force of Raiders are approaching this town.”

Nexus laughed. Deadshot was sly, but he wouldn’t get him to believe something as crazy as Raiders attacking Tanktown.

“Yeah, right. Why should I believe anything you say after that stunt you pulled at the Coliseum? You nearly killed everyone!” Nexus recalled the shooting tournament, and Deadshot’s infuriating arrogance.

“Nexus, you must believe me, I have come to you for help,” Deadshot’s tone changed from silly to serious, and he continued, “I’ve thought about our last meeting, and am sincerely sorry for my... reckless actions.”

“What?” Nexus hadn’t expected Deadshot to apologize to him.

“I may not have shown it then, but I was in over my head. You, my friend, bested me.”

Nexus was silent, realizing that Deadshot was serious. Before this change of heart, he would have shot himself in the head before those words crossed his lips to anyone. This also meant that he needed to change his plans.

“How do you know this?”

“As I was practicing my sharpshooting, I couldn’t help but notice a tank off in the distance, Through my scope I could make out the vehicles, and a few figures. They seem to be resting now, preparing for an order to attack. I don’t know how far off they were, I couldn’t tell from my lookout tower.”

Nexus put a hand to his head.

“Do you still have any connections to the Tanktown mafia?”

“Only a few, who are you looking for?”

“Call up the Wrong Bros.”

“Okay, we got a change of plans, people!” Nexus had gathered his crew in the same room they had been briefed three days ago. He was in a hurry, and spoke loudly so no one missed what he had to say.

“I’m almost done with the armour, it won’t affect that, will it?”

“No, but I’ve gotten a report that said Raiders were gathering on the outskirts of town, and Raingear scans have confirmed the report. That means that Charlie team will be pushing through the Raiders and the changelings. Once the Raider’s line is broken, Raingear will send in their army via aircraft once we’ve secured a location behind enemy lines. Delta team, I got you some extra support.”

“Support?” Killjoy asked. He had made an almost complete recovery, and was ready for action.

“Yes, you remember Deadshot, right?”

“That no good arrogant jerk who almost got us all killed?” Killjoy was infuriated by the name.

“He’s changed his ways, Killoy, he told us about the Raider attack.”

“How do you know that he’s not working with them?” Killjoy shouted back.

“He flat out told me that I had bested him back at the Shooting Tournament, for one.”

“Oh, he did?”

“Yeah.”

“Well then... sorry. Carry on.”

Nexus cleared his throat, “Anyway, he’s managed to get in touch with the Wrong brothers, the pizza makers who worked with the mafia for a short time. They’ve agreed to support Delta team in the defense of Tanktown, sending in what agents they can. As for Alpha and Bravo, plan is the same, you’re going in via air. You’ll have a connection to Rarity, who’ll keep be keeping you updated throughout the mission. Any questions or concerns?”

Nobody spoke up.

“Good. Now, everyone meet at Powerjack’s training facility and we’ll brief you on your equipment. Pride?”

“Yes, everything is ready to go, I suppose...”

Everyone had gathered in the armoury of Powerjack’s facility. Peaceful Pride stood in front of a row of manikins, all wearing the suits of power armour.

“Each of these suits are custom tailored to compliment each and every one of your combat capabilities, save Fluttershy and Powerjack,” Pride looked up at Powerjack, who was standing at the back of the crowd, with Fluttershy hoisted up onto his back. She smiled and waved to him, like she was having a good time.

Waving back, Pride continued his speech. “Each one has a heads-up-display built into the helmet, that will give you information on your vitals, the mission objectives, the location of friendly units, and ammunition reserves. Each one also has a personal energy field, which will nullify incoming damage until it is broken. It takes some time to recharge, so make sure you can get to cover. On top of all this, these suits will increase your endurance and strength, making it easier for you to take action in combat.”

They were silent, waiting for him to continue. “You may now retrieve each of your suits.”

They had all donned their armour, and were now waiting for Pride’s overview. Each one looked almost identical, it’s smooth silver surface fitted to each of their bodies. Upon the chestplate of each was a mark, signifying who it belongs to. Rainbow Dash had recognized them as their cutie marks, and suddenly felt energized as she put hers on. She held her helmet at her side, like all of the others.

“Rainbow Dash,” she heard Pride speak to her, “Your armour, along with Twilight’s is outfitted with a jetpack unit. It will allow you to fly with Whirlwind’s jet. It’s designed to be light, so it’s not as protected as the others. Use that to your advantage, though. Trax Dash is in the same boat. Getting there is your top priority.”

“Got it,” she said.

Pride approached Whirlwind and Burning Star, who would be piloting the jet.

“Your armour is built to withstand heavy impact, in case you need to abandon your jet. Nothing too fancy on it. Vinyl Scratch, upon your request, I put...” he trailed off as he turned to face the DJ, who was grinning expectantly, “... a sound system into your armour. There’s a selection of songs I thought you might like that you can choose from via your HUD, which will play through your helmet.”

“Alright!” She jumped into the air, and noticed she could propel herself higher than usual.

“There’s also,” Pride sighed, he couldn’t believe he had actually met her requests, “A sub woofer and stereo, if you wish to play it externally.”

“Thanks!”

“Killjoy, your armour has a built in force field projector. You put up a large force field, similar to the ones Nexus can put up with kinetics, but it’ll drain your shields while you’re using it.”

Killjoy nodded.

“Applejack, your armour has 50 yards of steel cable and a tow hook that you can fire out of it, as requested.”

“Buttercrust, your armour has extra supply reserves in it. Nova, your armour has a sentry uplink that lets you take control of it as needed. Pinkie, you’re armour is built like Whirlwind’s, impact resistant, since we’ll be in the helicopter.”

Cee Flat had approached him. “What about me and Record Wrex?”

“I built both of yours to have digital display interfaces, they’ll let you bypass electronic lock systems.”

“Alright, cool. So, how do I use it?”

“It should be as simple as activating it in your HUD and touching the panel.”

“Activating it?” Cee was puzzled.

“You’ll know what I mean when the systems are brought online.”

Cee Flat rolled his eyes as Pride approached Nexus.

“Your armour was the most difficult for me to do. It has an energy transmission field that should use the excess energy from the Elements of Heroism to power up your suit, but hopefully it won’t come to that.”

“Hopefully not,” he agreed. That was everyone, they all put their helmets on as Pride gave the word.

Rainbow Dash saw nothing for a moment at the helmet slid over her head, then she could see the world around her, the running of the of the others to retrieve weapons from the racks on the walls. The moment she touched one, an icon of the gun appeared in the top right corner of her HUD, displaying the number of bullets in the current magazine, and the number of magazines she had in her suit storage.

“Rarity, open up com relays,” Pride said, and she suddenly heard Rarity’s voice.

“It’s good to see you’re all ready to get this done,” she heard her friend say, “I’ll be keeping an eye on all of your progress via the the devices in your helmets that allow me to see through your eyes. I’ll activate the rest of your HUD systems now.”

Suddenly, a bar appeared in her HUD, stretching across the top. An icon next to it indicated it was her shields, and she saw the blue energy field begin to charge around her. There was an icon of a human body, with all body parts showing up in green.

“Okay people, lock and load. Grab your gear, and meet your respective teams,” she heard Nexus say over the radio. Rainbow made her way out to the small runway behind the facility, where Burning Star was securing the bomb to the bottom of the jet. Above her head was an arrow, one that displayed her vitals, as well as the name STAR. She looked up at her.

“Ready to go, Rainbow?” She asked, and Rainbow looked up into the night sky. The portal had been blocked by some clouds, but they’d be going in a different way anyway. She secured her weapon, an assault rifle, to her back, where the magnetic locks held it in place. Below that, two wings had shot out of the jetpack unit, indicating she was ready to fly. Trax Dash and Twilight had stepped into her field of view, with the names TRAX and TWI over their heads.

“Ready as I’ll ever be.”

The helicopter took a while to start up, so he took the time to tell Pinkie Pie how to operate the main weapons. There were two seats in the cockpit, although there was room for an eight-man squad in the back.

“The stick in front of you controls the aim of the weapons. The main gun is pretty powerful, so you don’t have to shoot very much to take your target down.”

Pinkie sat on a seat behind Pride, that was also above raised above him. Through her helmet she looked over the controls she had. Looked simple enough. This fired this, that fired that, this raised altitude, this lowered it, it all became clear to her.

“Okay!” Her cheerful tone was replaced with one of extreme seriousness. “Let’s do this!”

On the other side of the complex, Killjoy was preparing his vehicle to defend the town. Nova Burst, Applejack, and Buttercrust would commandeer the tank with him, and when the battle started Nova Burst would secure an area with his sentry. Applejack sat nervously on the ground as Killjoy looked over his preparation list one last time.

“We’re ready,” he said.

“Let’s get this over with,” she said. As great as all of this was, she had to remember to not get too excited. It was time for fighting.

She could see Nexus in a truck, driving off with his team. He heard his voice in her helmet.

“Killjoy, we’re heading out. I’ll see you on the other side, man,” he said.

“Yeah, I’ll off in a minute,” Killjoy replied, turning to Applejack.

“Hop in.”

“You ready Fluttershy?” Nexus’s voice had awoken her from her sleep on Powerjack’s back. She had her arms wrapped around his helmet.

“Yeah, I guess so.”

“Let’s get it kickin’!: Vinyl cheered, and Record Wrex pumped his fist in the air.

“Just like you, Vinyl,” Cee said, watching from the passenger seat, “What’s the time, Nexus?”

“I got 11:50. We’re just leaving Tanktown now,” Nexus put hand to his helmet, speaking into the radio. “Whirlwind, what’s your status?”

“We’re ready to take off, waiting for Rarity’s signal.” Whirlwind looked back at Burning Star to say, “Please excuse me if I’m flying a bit crooked, I may have had the smallest sip of ale tonight and-”

“I don’t want to hear it,” she said.

On the runway, Twilight Sparkle looked over at Rainbow Dash.

“I’ve noticed that you’ve been kinda tense with Trax Dash lately,” the princess said.

“Yeah, he’s kind of a jerk,” Rainbow replied.

“This may be the last chance you have to talk with him, you know.”

There was something Rainbow had wanted to tell him. “I kinda wanted to-”

“You know,” Trax Dash’s voice came over the squad’s radio, “You really shouldn’t say too much on an open channel.”

She heard him laughing, as well as Whirlwind and Burning Star.

“Forget it.”

The Cards are Stacked in Our Favour

Rarity flipped a switch on the board, causing one of the two dull, round bulbs above it to join the other in bright green light. The last few days had been spent in preparation for what was to come. A microphone sat in front of her on the desk.

“Alpha team, this is Overwatch Base, come in.” She said, remembering the code names that had been assigned, “Charlie team is approaching their objective, standby for takeoff.”

“This is Alpha 1... copy... copy that,” Whirlwind’s voice was slurred.

“Whirlwind, are you intoxicated?”

“Don’t sound so concerned about it...” his voice trailed off, “I always have a drink before a big battle. Burning Star hates when I... take a drink break in the middle of one.”

Rarity facepalmed. “Just fly safe, okay?”

“Mhm... Copy that, and stuff...”

Rarity flipped the switch back down, going to the one next to it. Each one controlled the radio connection between each of the teams, and the two lights indicated the connection, and whether she was broadcasting on said connection or not. She was going to have to keep an eye on the first two, to make sure she had a connection with Alpha and Bravo.

Her finger flicked the next switch on. “Bravo team, Charlie team is nearing their objective. Standby for takeoff, over.”

“We’re on standby. Bravo 1-2, out.” Peaceful Pride’s voice returned.

She toggled over to Charlie.

“Charlie team, you’re nearing the objective,” she glanced over at the several radars that were relaying from their suits, “There’s also a large cluster of entities moving in several directions behind you, over.”

Gunfire was heard over the radio, then Nexus’s voice. “Yeah!” he shouted, “We’ve been spotted and engaged by enemy targets, Raiders. I can also see a group headed toward Tanktown!”

“Copy,” she replied, “Continue to the landing zone for the Raingear Army. Overwatch Base, out.”

Now for Delta. They probably already knew the problem, but she had to be sure.

“Delta team,” she said. A long silence followed. “Delta team, this is Overwatch Base, come in, over.”

The silence was broken by the sound of a large explosion, then Killjoy’s voice. “This is Delta team, reading you loud and clear, go ahead.”

“Delta, keep me updated on your ability to hold the town. I need to know when it’s slipping, over.”

“Copy, Overwatch Base, we’ve got a good grip on the town right now, not too long until they give- ” Killjoy gasped, and there was no further reply from him.

Rarity waited a moment, then leaned closer into the microphone. “Say again, Delta team.”

“We’ve got new contacts, lots of ‘em, and... they’re not Raiders!” he shouted, his voice displaying a mixture of frustration and fear.

“Wait out, Delta,” Rarity said, glancing at the radar displaying Delta team’s surroundings. The black screen displayed a large quantity of dots, representing hostiles, moving in from above the crosses, that represented friendlies. They were in large clusters, as Nexus said they normally moved. She did notice that there were several dots moving faster than others, but that could easily have been accounted for by their individual running speed, right?

Those assurances died when she flipped the helmet cams. She flipped on the monitor, one that read ‘DELTA 1’ in the lower left corner, and revealed the sky to be filled several large clusters of black creatures, all with bulging blue eyes, and taking a bipedal stature with wings and a horn. One group landed in front of Delta 1, who raised his weapon to fire.

Rarity was already at the mic, shouting, “Delta team, you’ve encountered Changelings. Hold the town, don’t let them establish a hive!”

“Copy Overwatch, holding position. Delta one, out. GRRRA-” The radio cut out, and Rarity turned to watch the helmet cam. She stood in horror as a Changeling stood over Delta 1- Killjoy, and clawed at his chest, not being able to penetrate the armour. His hands came into view, only able to reach out in desperation as the beast slammed him into the ground.

Snapping back to reality, she turned and flipped her broadcast to Alpha.

“Alpha 1, come in!” She said, sounding a bit more worried than she’d meant to.

“Alpha 1 here, mmgo ‘head,” came Whirlwind’s slurred response.

“Your squad is clear for takeoff. Get moving, there are aerial contacts inbound. Overwatch Base, out,” Rarity quickly turned to Bravo’s channel. “Bravo team, you’re clear for takeoff. Your mission is to take out any hostiles that Alpha leaves behind. Keep them covered, and clean up after we defeat this villain, over.”

“Bravo 1-2 is taking off. If we don’t get contact on the other side, I wanted to tell you something, over,” Pride said.

“Don’t worry, dear, Celestia has ensured radio connection between our world and this one. Just no heroics. Overwatch Base, out.”

The wings of his jetpack shot out of the slits in his armour. Trax Dash’s armour was specifically built to accommodate the device on his back, so he could use it without damaging the armour itself. He slipped his gun onto the magnetic locks on his back, crossing it with his sword.

“Showtime,” he whispered to himself, and saw Twilight and Rainbow readying themselves as well. Twilight put her weapon, a sawn-off shotgun, on her hip, and Rainbow’s rifle was across her back.

The jet’s engines roared to life, and whirred as they propelled the craft forward and off the ground. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see the helicopter lifting off as well.

“Come on lads,” a drunken Whirlwind called, as his jet lifted off, “We gotta... We gotta delivery to make...”

Trax Dash sprinted forward, allowing his jetpack to rocket him upwards and fall in behind the dark blue jet. Rainbow Dash had approached him on one side, and Twilight on the other.

“Alpha team...” Whirlwind called out over the radio, and his jet started to nosedive. They were barely 2000 feet up, and he already had to correct himself.

“Alpha team, sound off!” Burning Star’s voice said, “Whirlwind, just concentrate on flying, please...”

“Alpha 3, reporting!” Trax Dash called out.

“Alpha 4, here,” Rainbow added.

“Alpha 5, falling in,” Twilight said, trying to steady herself with the others.

“We’ve got this,” Burning Star assured them, “Focus on escorting us and you’ll be fine.”

“We’ve got some bad guys up ahead!” Rainbow called out, readying her weapon.

“Let me handle this, Rainbow,” Trax Dash glared at her, but she couldn’t see it through the tint of his helmet.

“No way! I’ve got this covered.”

“Just let me-”

“That’s enough you two!” Twilight shouted, “Listen to Burning Star, escort them!”

Trax Dash sped up and passed the jet as they ascended, and the first swarm of changelings passed them. Rainbow had sped up as well, but was soon caught up in avoiding the incoming enemies that she couldn’t keep her speed.

“What’s the matter? Can’t keep up?” Trax Dash taunted, firing at a few incoming changelings.

Twilight looked over at him. “You’re acting like a school filly!”

“No, I’m just saving my strength!” Rainbow retorted, completely ignoring Twilight. She lined up a few of the changelings and shot them down.

In the cockpit of the jet, Whirlwind had lazily fired his jet’s machine guns, missing all but a few targets. Burning Star had reached down and put a hand on his shoulder, and pointed at the dark, swirling cloud that the changelings were coming from.

“That’s our target, we have to go through there!” She said.

“Alright, what do you think-” Whirlwind was cut off by a large thud, followed by clawing on his windshield. He glanced up, and a pair of changelings had landed on the cockpit’s cover, and were clawing at it’s glass surface. They looked like humans, but were completely pitch black, and had holes in their arms and legs. Their blue eyes gazed down on him with hatred as they clawed at the glass with their arms, legs, claws, and the crooked horn jutting from their forehead.

Twilight looked up and saw this, but the two competing Dashes in front of her had been completely oblivious. Landing on the top of the plane as best as she could, Twilight removed her weapon. It felt odd, aiming down it’s sleek wooden finish, and even worse pulling the trigger to remove the two threats. Twilight almost lost her footing at the sight of the changeling’s green blood splattering on the windshield like a bug would, and the two bodies falling off into the darkness below.

“You can be my wingman, anytime!” she heard Whirlwind call to her, giving her a thumbs up as she flew above him. She nervously returned the thumbs up.

“We’re approaching the cloud !” She heard Burning Star say, “Get ready to pull up!”

It was true they were almost directly below the swirling grey vortex now, and changelings were still pouring out of it. Twilight was ready, but Trax Dash and Rainbow Dash were still caught up in trying to best each other.

“You ain’t got nothin’ on me!” Trax Dash said, bumping Rainbow aside a bit.

“Oh yeah? Let’s see what you’ve got!” She bumped him back, harder, and sent him into the jet, almost knocking the bomb loose. He recovered, and was ready to shove back but a sharp pull on the neck of his armour caused him to suddenly pull up, and he found himself face-to-face with a swirling black cloud.

“Alpha team, you have reached your objective,” he heard Rarity say, “Good luck on the other side.”

Looking back, he saw Twilight Sparkle pulling him up with one hand, the other on a flailing Rainbow Dash, who had stopped flying to yell whoever was pulling on her.

“Hey!” she shouted, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Did you not just hear Rarity? We’re flying through here!” Twilight said, “It would be nice if I didn’t have to carry you!”

“Heh, sorry,” she said, with a sheepish grin on her face. She extended her wings and zoomed up towards the portal.

The jet, however, was having more trouble. Small bodies could easily resist gravity, but a large entity such as a fight jet had to push against gravity quite a bit to go straight up. Whirlwind was steady, but Burning Star was near a heart attack.

“Are you crazy? We should’ve raised altitude earlier!” She called.

“No, I’m drunk... not crazy...” he replied.

“The engines are not gonna hold!” she told him.

“They’ll hold,” he said casually.

The jet climbed higher, and the portal closer. Burning Star saw that they were gradually beginning to slow, as the three escorts climber higher and higher away from them.

“We’re not gonna make it!” she cried.

“We’ll make it...” he replied.

“Speed up, speed up!” She commanded. It was dangerous to push the engines, but it was the only thing they could do to make it. She watched in horror as Whirlwind gently pulled back on the throttle controls, and they slowed even more. Just as the jet was about to come to a stop, she screamed.

In the land of Equestria, two changelings were walking the perimeter of the changeling hive, as their brothers and sisters went into combat through the portal in the distance. One looked over at the other.

“I can’t believe we got stuck out here on patrol,” he complained.

“Yeah,” his friend replied, obviously annoyed by the other’s complaining, “me neither.”

“I mean, I’m glad we ain’t goin’ into the fight ourselves, don’t get me wrong, but-”

“I hear ya.”

“But you know what really bugs me?”

The other one had stopped walking to look over at his friend. “What?”

“Jenkins.”

“What about him?”

“He’s probably sleeping right now, in his cocoon, with his big frickin’ melon head.”

“Yeah, so what?”

“He’s back inside on his lazy flank, but we get stuck out here on patrol!”

“Well yeah, somepony’s gotta do it.”

“But why us? I mean we could be running a equipment check, or rationing the love supplies, but no, we’re out here, walking around the hive, waiting for something to happen that probably won’t ever happen!”

During his rant, he hadn’t even noticed the four shapes that had emerged from the portal, off in the distance. His friend had extended a hoof over his shoulder.

“Uhh, is anypony cleared to be coming back through the portal?”

“What? I don’t think so.” the impatient one had looked behind him, and saw the four specks in the distance. “It’s probably Sarge. He and his team are a bunch of lazy-”

“No, they had orders not to return until the job was done, I heard the Queen say so. If you don’t know anypony who’s cleared to come back, I’m gonna go get her!” the more patient of the two sped off, buzzing his wings frantically as he went to warn his Queen.

“Murphy! Come on it’s just...” he sighed in defeat, taking off after him, “Murph! Wait for me!”

Twilight, Trax Dash, and Rainbow Dash had all been hovering near the other side of the portal, waiting for Whirlwind to come through.

“Did they make it?” Rainbow looked up, curiously.

“I don’t know...” Trax Dash also looked up.

“We have to go back for them!” Twilight exclaimed, after they had not emerged for a few moments.

“Don’t worry, Twilight, they probably-” Rainbow had looked down at her friend to put a hoof on her shoulder, and noticed that she had the shape of a pony again. “Twilight, you’re a pony again!” She said, looking down at herself, “I’m a pony again too!”

Trax Dash had just looked down and noticed himself a pony too. Strangely enough, their armour had changed form to fit their new bodies. Nexus had said something about that, but he wasn’t really paying attention.

“Great,” he deadpanned, “We’re all ponies now. What are we going to-”

He was cut off by a large object barreling past him. Whirlwind had slowed down just in time as he entered the portal. If he had not, they would’ve ended up slamming into the ground at half the speed of sound. Steadying himself, he pulled back up to level himself with the ground.

“You did that on purpose,” Burning Star said, calming her nerves. She looked down at herself, now a pony in the same armour she was in before, riding in the same plane she was in before. She looked at Whirlwind, who had been transformed as well, and was somehow grasping the flight stick in both hooves. Her helmet’s radio crackled to life.

“Alpha team, this is Overwatch Base,” she heard Rarity’s voice, “Have you arrived in Equestria?”

“Affirmative, Overwatch, moving to deliver the payload now,” She replied.

Trax Dash had caught up to them, his body a pony’s too. She saw that the winged boot icon once imprinted on his chest plate was now imprinted on his rear end, where a white tail emerged from his metal suit. Twilight and Rainbow had appeared on the other side, the rainbow thundercloud and six pointed star were now on their flanks as well.

They flew over what they had assumed to be the hive, a large structure of curved black thorns, all coming up from the ground and forming a dome of sorts over the dead, sandy landscape around it. She figured that the hive fed off of the ground around it. There were several holes in the structure, where the curved thorns didn’t quite cover all the way. They were mainly in the top, but some were along the sides. It covered quite a large area, but she couldn’t tell exactly how large is was from the elevation they were at.

“Where...” Whirlwind began, then looked down at his hooves, “What in the F-”

“Whirlwind, focus! The hive is there!” Burning Star pointed a hoof at the black structure below them.

“Oh, right...” he said, adjusting his flight angle to go above the hive, “Beginning my run...” he said.

Rainbow’s voice was heard over the radio. “You guys, we’ve attracted some attention!” A small group of Changelings had emerged from one of the openings in the hive, heading towards the jet.

“Hold them off while we deliver the payload!”

“I dropped my gun when Twilight yanked me up here!” she panicked.

“Oh, you mean this gun?” Trax Dash handed her the rifle she dropped in her struggle.

“Yeah...” she leered at him in frustration.

“You can thank me later, let’s deal with those-” he was cut off as he was slammed into by a changeling, who had the shape of a pony in this world. Several more came after him, and Rainbow rushed in to help. Twilight looked between the jet, and the falling Trax Dash,

“Whirlwind, I’m pulling off to help-”

“Just do it!” Burning Star yelled.

Twilight turned and soared down to assist her friends, who were now in freefall. A changeling had latched on to Rainbow’s back, weighing her down as she tried to slow her descent with her pack. Trax Dash was in a similar situation, but the changeling on him was going to drive him into the ground. Twilight swooped down and took aim with her shotgun once more. She had no idea how she could hold it with her hooves, but she didn’t question it. The trigger pulled, and there was a loud boom as the hapless creature fell off of Trax Dash, and he regained control.

Twilight turned to fire at the changeling on Rainbow Dash, but her weapon clicked as she pulled the trigger. It could only fire twice before it had to be reloaded, she remembered. Rainbow wrestled with the beast on her back, and managed to throw it off of her. She rocketed back into the air, and the others followed.

The jet was practically covered in the things, so much that Whirlwind couldn’t see where he was going. He could hear Rarity’s voice.

“Alpha 1, you are approaching your target,” she said.

“Aye... but I can’t exactly... see where I’m going...” He said.

“Oh my, you shouldn’t have drank as much as you did!”

Burning Star facehoofed, “He means we’re covered in changelings!”

“Oh, well, that’s different...”

“Trax Dash,” the drunken pilot called, “We could use your help over here, lad!”

“Yeah, yeah, I’m going as fast as I can!” He was approaching the jet, and had began to fire at the creatures covering it. Bullets were heard bouncing off of the jet from inside.

“Oi! Don’t put any holes in us, lad!” Whirlwind watched as the changelings fell away from the cockpit, one by one, until Whirlwind had view of the Hive. He was headed straight towards it. “Burning Star, drop the bomb now!” He shouted, pulling up.

“Bomb deployed,” she reported, as she flipped the release switch.

The device fell from the jet, the velocity it had from the plane propelling it forward, and punching through the top of the structure with a loud snap. It cruised through several layers of the hive, falling into the heart of the structure.

In the jet, Whirlwind heard Burning Star pull the trigger on her detonator. Several seconds passed, and he looked out the window to see if anything had happened. Nothing. The jet was loud, but surely the sonic pulse would shake the jet a little bit. Burning Star pulled the trigger again. Nothing.

“What’s the problem?” she heard Trax Dash’s voice over the radio.

“It’s... it’s not working.”

Whirlwind nearly lost control of the jet, the sudden shock sobering him. “What do you mean it’s not working?”

“Something must’ve hit the bomb, shook the wireless receiver out of place...” Burning Star switched her radio to broadcast to Overwatch. “Overwatch Base, this is Alpha 2, the bomb could not be activated, over.”

“Say again?” Rarity nearly screamed in panic.

“It’s not responding to the remote detonation control, we’ll have to send in a team to manually detonate it. We’re going to land.” Burning Star began to search for a suitable landing zone.

“Negative, Alpha team, return through the portal.”

“Wait,” Twilight said, “What if the escort team went in?”

“What?” Rainbow and Trax Dash both looked at her in confusion.

“Hmm, I suppose a team could enter on foot...” Rarity paused a moment, contemplating the risks, then continued, “Alpha 3, 4, 5, you are now designated Alpha Strike. Alpha 1, return through the portal and provide support for the rest of us here. Alpha Strike, recover the bomb, and detonate it. Overwatch Base, out.”

Unyielding

The truck sped along the hillside overlooking Tanktown, which was just barely visible through the horde of Raiders and the swarms of Changelings attacking the city. Nexus was at the wheel, doing his best to avoid the gunfire and missiles being thrown his way. Several Raider vehicles had taken chase to his own, and were slowly closing the distance. A fighter jet flew overhead, the roar of it’s engines distorted by the speed it was traveling at.

“There’s Whirlwind!” Cee Flat pointed at the jet and it’s escorts above, heading towards the same dark cloud that they were.

“They’re doing their job,” Nexus told him, “You gotta keep an eye out for anything else coming our way!”

In the truck bed, Powerjack had taken a defensive position in front of Fluttershy, bullets harmlessly bouncing off of his hardened metal armour. It had no communication link to the others, so they had given him a radio that strapped to his back, near his oxygen tanks. It was long range and durable, but it was only one way, meaning he couldn’t reply to anyone talking to him.

Vinyl Scratch had been using Powerjack for cover, firing her handgun over his shoulder.

“Hey, they’re throwing everything they got at us back here!” She called to Record Wrex, who was busy firing his own weapon, a Machine Pistol, off at incoming Changelings in the sky.

“Missile incoming!” Powerjack shouted, watching a Raider stick his torso out the window of the truck, and aiming a launcher at them. Vinyl took a shot, but she missed and hit the side mirror. The warhead flew towards them, giving Powerjack only a few seconds to grab Fluttershy and jump off of the truck. A loud explosion flipped their vehicle, and as the ringing in his ear subsided, Powerjack heard screaming, and then some gunfire. He was on his back, tightly holding the small, petrified Fluttershy close to him. His focus was shaken, his thoughts hazy and unclear, and all he could do was protect her.

As the impact shook the vehicle, Nexus shifted his weight onto his shoulder and rolled on the ground, successfully landing on his knees. He looked back as the Raider vehicle responsible for shooting them down had not considered that they would driving in front of a smoldering heap of metal, and plowed right into the wreckage. He spotted Vinyl Scratch, laying under a piece of the truck, what seemed to be part of the engine. Her shields flickered as it burned above her. She attempted to push herself off the ground, but was weighed down.

“Vinyl!” Nexus ran to her side, pushing the engine off of her. She was unharmed, her shields had absorbed the impact as well as the crushing weight of the burning metal.

“That was... ugh...” She shook her head clear, and sprung to her feet.

“Are you okay?” Nexus put a hand on her shoulder.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine, just need to walk it off,” She looked around, “Where are the others?”

“I’m not sure, but we better find them before more of them show up.” He looked up as spoke, noticing the Changeling swarms had lost interest in them. They flew on towards Tanktown. Nexus heard Rarity’s voice.

“Charlie team, report! Are you okay?” she asked.

“Charlie 1, reporting. Vinyl and I made it, but I’m not sure about the others...”

“I have all of their signals, save Powerjack, and they are all still alive.”

“Why don’t you have Powerjack’s signal?”

“It’s his suit, dear, don’t you remember?”

“Oh, right.” Nexus remembered that Powerjack’s suit was not linked to the communication network like the rest of theirs were. He saw movement on his motion tracker. Glancing to the left, he saw a figure in the distance. He was on the other side of the wreckage, and moving towards them.

“Wrex, that you?” Nexus waved a hand, and the figure waved back, running over to meet him.

Nexus could see him better now, it was Record Wrex. His helmet had fallen off, probably after crash, but his chestplate still had the emblem of the cracked CD. His dull sapphire hair had just came down to his orange shades, like they normally did. Vinyl seemed to find something off, and she approached him.

“Hey, Wrex, didn’t you leave your shades back at the armoury? I thought we had both taken ours off to put our armour on...” She inquired, causing the other DJ to look around nervously. Nexus heard a deafening crack, as he saw the front part of Wrex’s face explode into a shower of lucid, green blood. His body suddenly changed into that of a Changeling as it fell to the ground, twitching.

Behind them stood another man, in the same power armour, with the same cracked CD on the chestplate. In his extended arms was a revolver, it’s barrel smoking. His helmet was on, but that only meant Nexus could see the marker above him identifying him as ‘WREX’.

“I was fooled there for a minute,” Nexus said, still trying to get the ringing out of his ears. “Don’t shoot that thing so close to me next time.”

Wrex shrugged, holstering the revolver at his hip.

“Where’s Cee?” Vinyl asked, “Or Powerjack and Fluttershy?”

Wrex only shrugged again, waving a thumb in the direction he came from.

“Oh yeah, you can’t talk,” Vinyl mumbled, “Sorry.”

Wrex waved it off, and was about to make a gesture, when he heard Rarity speaking to them.

“Charlie team, you have multiple hostiles moving in on you from the east. I’d recommend heading towards your target now,” she said, then suddenly realized the position they were in.

“Yeah, Overwatch?” Nexus said, “We’ve got a bit of a problem.”

“I’ll see what I can do for you, sit tight, Charlie.”

Peaceful Pride had slowly made his way towards the portal, calling out targets for Pinkie Pie to shoot down. She was surprisingly serious, and adept, at her task, firing with precision and focus. There were too many Changelings in the way to actually keep up with the jets- not that their helicopter could keep up with them- but it was also their job to clean up what they had left behind.

Rarity’s voice had came in over the radio. “Bravo 1-2, this is Overwatch Base, come in, over.”

Pinkie answered before Pride could. “This is Bravo 1-2, Overwatch base, go ahead!” Her cheery voice sounded strange using such standardized terminology.

“You two aren’t near the portal yet, are you?”

“Negative, but we’re making progress, over.”

“I’ll need you to move in to assist Charlie team. Get them to their objective, over.”

“Copy, Overwatch base, awaiting coordinates, over.”

Killjoy ran towards the edge of the rooftop, his shields flaring as gunfire struck his body. They were taking the majority of the city, but it wasn’t over until every last man had fell. Killjoy looked down at his squadmates, fighting in the city streets. Nova Burst had taken cover in an alleyway, firing his shotgun around the corner from time to time, but he let his sentry gun do most of the work. Buttercrust was with him, supplying him with materials needed to repair it. Before long, the Raiders realized that they would need to think of a plan that was better than running in front of the gun.

That was the reason that Killjoy had ran to the rooftop. He’d use his rocket launcher to take out anyone who was using the alleys to bypass the sentry’s range, and deal with anyone who thought they’d use the roofs as well.

When the Changelings arrived, things had changed quite a bit. The sentry was too busy firing at the Raiders, so Applejack had to keep them busy. Killjoy could see her standing behind the sentry, firing her handgun into the swarms above. A glint of light caught his eye, and he looked up to find a Raider on the building across from him, aiming a scoped rifle in his direction. Two other Raiders were below him, rushing to take out the sentry while it was distracted with Changelings.

Killjoy took aim at the sniper, but heard yet another noise behind him. He quickly glanced back to see that three Changelings had landed, and without thinking, he jumped from the roof.

Nova Burst turned the corner to fire, but only saw Killjoy, falling a few feet above the Raider’s heads, his rocket launcher pointed at the ground below him. With an burst of smoke and flames, Killjoy was sent soaring back up into the air, propelled by the force of his weapon. During mid-flight, he turned around and fired another rocket at the Changelings he left behind, who were stunned at the feat he had just performed. Turning around again, Killjoy’s feet buried themselves into the sniper’s chest, and crushed him into the roof of the building.

“Hate to spoil your moment of badassery, Commander,” Nova Burst said, “But we’re losin’ this fight. We need some backup, is there anyone else you can call?”

“Hold on,” he said, changing his channel to that of Overwatch. “Overwatch Base, this is Delta team, come in.”

“I read you, Delta, go ahead,” Rarity said.

“We’re losing this battle, we need backup! Is there anyone else you can send?”

“Charlie’s been delayed, and Bravo is moving to assist them. I’m afraid you’re on your own... unless...” Rarity paused, in thought, “Standby Delta.”

“Sorry, Nova. We’re on our own for now.”

“Hey, Killjoy?” Applejack’s voice reached his radio, “Where’s that Deadshot fella you were talkin’ ‘bout? We could sure use a hand right about now.”

“He’s at the shopping district with the Wrong Brothers, holding off the Raiders there.”

Applejack reached out and fired her tow cable, effectively turning it into a lasso. She roped several Changelings out of the air as Buttercrust shot them down with his handgun. A small group of men, dressed in tattered blazers and ripped up jeans, turned the corner, wielding various handguns and rifles. Applejack and Nova Burst raised their weapons to fire, but Killjoy raised his hand to stop them.

“What are you doing down here?” He called from the rooftop.

“The Wrong Bros. sent us down here to tell you that we’ve lost the shopping district, and are falling back to Town Square,” one of the men reported.

“Alright. We’re losing our hold of the streets here as well, come on with us.” Killjoy was about to jump from the rooftop again, but was kicked in the back by a Changeling landing, and the Commander tumbled from the rooftop. He hit the ground hard, his visor cracking. The shields had broken after the kick, so he had nothing to break his fall but the cold, hard street.

Killjoy heard the thump of the Changeling hitting the ground next to him, but after that, everything was silent. His vision faded for a split second, and when he opened his eyes again, all he saw was the Heads Up Display of his helmet. Everything else was dark. The vitals showed red on the left arm and leg, and were yellow on the rest of the body. His head, however, had gone dark, which was not a good sign. His visor had been cracked, an annoying fracture impeding his left side. He saw an image of Rarity in the corner.

“Delta 1, respond!” There was urgency in her voice. “Killjoy! Are you okay! Talk to me!”

“Ugh... I’m okay...” He said, flipping the night vision setting of his helmet on. He had no problems with his vision, the problem was that his immediate area was pitch black. The green shade of his night vision had revealed he was in some sort of dark cavern, hanging upside down from the ceiling.

“I lost contact with you for a few hours, Killjoy. The others said that you had been captured by the Changelings...”

“I... what?”

“I did manage to get the town support, though. Where are you?”

“I’m in some sort of cavern... there is this weird stuff on the walls here, like some sort of sap or something. Myself, I’m stuck in what appears to be a hardened form of this sap...”

“They’ve set up a hive...” Rarity mumbled, “You’re still human, right?”

“Yeah, why, do I turn into one of them eventually?”

“No, it’s just... they’ve set up a hive here, in this world. They’re using you to give them energy to build.”

“How do I get out of here?”

“Well, you haven’t been completely covered in that icky substance yet, right?”

“Right.”

“Follow my every instruction, and I’ll get you out.”

Tanktown had been overrun. Nova Burst had set his gun down in Town Square, as the others regrouped.

A figure holding a sniper rifle stood, waiting.

“Took you long enough,” he said.

“Deadshot?” Applejack approached him. Deadshot noticed the icon on her chest plate.

“Yeah, that’s me. You’re that apple girl, right?”

“Name’s Applejack.”

He looked back at two men behind him, nodding for them to help out Applejack. The shorter of the two looked up at his taller companion.

“You ready, Dexter?” he said, his accent reflecting his many years in the mafia.

“Let’s a-go!”

“Applejack, meet the Wrong Brothers. That’s Dexter, that’s Deft.” Deadshot pointed to each, in order.

“Howdy,” she said, nodding her head.

“Pleased to meet ya,” Deft, the shorter of the two replied.

“The Wrong Brothers are at your service! Just tell us where you need the a-fightin’ done!”

“Applejack,” Rarity said, “You’ve got reinforcements on route to your location.”

“What? Where'er they coming from?”

A loud crash signaled the arrival of the Raider tank that had just barrelled through the gate that led to Town Square.

“Aww crap,” Deft Wrong looked as the tank was passed by several Raiders on foot. “That’s the reason we lost the shoppin’ district!”

“Come, comrade,” Deadshot said, “They only have but a single tank.” Deadshot ran off towards the battle with his men, and the two brothers followed with their own men.

“How’re we gonna stop that thing?” Applejack followed after them, noticing Nova Burst and Buttercrust hastily repairing the sentry.

“Well...” Dexter started, “We don’t a-have enough firepower to break a-the armour...”

“Hey!” Nova Burst waved to them as gunfire broke out, “Wouldn’t reckon y'all'd like to give me a hand over here!”

Buttercrust rolled to cover behind a building out of sight from the battle, and motioned for Nova Burst to follow.

“Thanks, Butters, didn’t see that spot ove-” Nova Burst was cut off as the one he had believed to be Buttercrust brought a knife down on his chest. He fell over, a trying to remove the knife in his chest armour. It was one of Buttercrust’s knives, designed to penetrate heavy armour, but he knew that his friend wouldn’t just suddenly betray him. Wincing as the knife came out, her rolled onto his stomach to see that the masquerader was strapping a device to his sentry. It crackled with electricity, then the Sentry suddenly stopped firing.

He coughed, trying to form words. “Sappin’... my Sentry!” He whispered into the radio.

Applejack heard him, and looked over to see him in the act. She charged over to the Buttercrust impersonator, throwing her body weight into his. It fell to the ground, returning to it’s normal state; a Changeling. It rose to it’s feet, and tackled Applejack, tearing off her helmet and touching the tip of the horn on his head into her neck. There was a green glow, and Applejack suddenly felt still. She couldn’t get her body to move. Her eyelids felt heavy, she wanted to sleep. Yes, sleeping would-

BANG!

The Changeling fell off of her, dead.

BANG! BANG!

Two more fell over in the corner of her eyes, obviously ready to take her down if she tried to get up. She felt someone pull her up, and feeling returned to her body. Buttercrust, the real Buttercrust, stood before her, her helmet in hand. She thanked him and put it on.

“Over... over here...” Nova Burst called to them.

They ran over to him, and flipped him over on his back again.

“I’ll be fine... my sentry...” He pushed himself to his feet the best he could and slowly stumbled to his beloved gun, clutching his chest in pain. The device was still on it, so he just slammed his fist into it. As it fell off, the sentry whirred back to life and began shooting at the nearest target.

“Heh, sorry about that,” Buttercrust said, “They took my electro-sapper.”

“Rarity said that we’d be getting ourselves some backup here, so we just gotta hold out.” Applejack said.

“I heard, but where do you think they’d be coming from?”

“I’m afraid I can’t say...” She said.

Luna's Heroes

The wreckage of the two trucks burned brightly as the three power armour clad warriors watched the group of Raiders approach them. Rarity had just told them that Bravo was on their way, so they only had to hold the off the inevitable attack. Luckily, the main swarm of Changelings had passed, and only a few had still remained buzzing about in the sky.

There was no sign of Powerjack, Cee Flat, or Fluttershy. Vinyl looked over to Nexus, and asked him something.

“How long do we have to wait?”

“I don’t know...”

The Raiders were closer now, breaking off from the main attack group to come after them. Rarity contacted him again.

“Charlie team, I’m tracking more Raiders moving in, I’d recommend establishing a perimeter.”

“There’s no time, we’re going to be knee deep in these guys in a few minutes now... If we don’t make it out of this, let Burning Star know that I was the one who stole her identity to cover for my purchases of extra lab equipement.”

“What...”

“Charlie team, out.”

Nexus stepped forward, watching the horde approach. He held his weapon in his hands, a pump-action shotgun, and waited. Wrex readied his revolver, and Vinyl her handgun.

“Hey, Nexus,” Vinyl said.

“Yeah?” He replied without looking back at her.

“Mind if I play a song?”

He smiled a bit, and suppressed a chuckle. “Go ahead.”

Vinyl activated the speakers on her armour, and selected a song, one that made Nexus remember his friends, and why he was out here in the first place.... The instrumental beginning seemed rather emotional, not quite fitting for a battle, but as he listened to the piece, he realized why Vinyl had chosen it when the first verse began.

“See me take my bows

And I’m heading for the exits,

I can’t stick around.

This life’s been hard,

And I can’t see the sense in fighting it anymore

Can’t you let me go?

Won’t you show me the door?”

The song continued as Nexus waited, watching the Raiders advance. The music had gotten the attention of several Changelings in the distance, but he didn’t care, the fighting would’ve drawn them anyway. He let out a deep breath, closing his eyes for a moment. Wrex and Vinyl seemed to close their eyes in thought as well, but he couldn’t exactly tell.

“There can be no redemption, for a sinner such as I,

Won’t you wish me to the cornfield now?

Won’t you help me stop living a lie?”

The words reached deep into Nexus’s heart. Was the world’s security truly justifying the blood on his hands? Yes, they were. He had to shed blood to ensure peace, for that was how the world behaved. As incredibly ironic as it was, Nexus just had to accept it.

The first shot rang out, and Nexus took aim as the horde charged. Firing once, twice, three times had brought several to their knees, but they still came at them, firing wildly, only stopping once they could no longer move. The ones in front held swords, clubs, and other crudely made melee weapons. One got within swinging distance, and knocked Nexus onto his back. Vinyl had turned to help him, but was caught up in the fight alongside Wrex. A Raider towered over him, his face painted a ghostly white colour, his club raised high above his head. It came down on him, the his shield blocking the impacts of the first few hits. The ground began to shake, and Nexus heard the chorus of the song.

“Save me from fear, and pain

And love will rain on me

Save me today

Before tomorrow will find me at rest.”

The wreckage suddenly flipped over and a rather angry looking Powerjack charged through the flames toward his friend. Powerjack’s metal fist came down upon the Raider’s head, crushing it like a melon. Nexus picked himself up, and ran back into the fight. Vinyl shot a Raider, leaping over his corpse and firing at the next one. Wrex uppercutted one, and fired his revolver into his chest. Powerjack was pummeling them all with his metal fists, bullets only bouncing off of his armour. He heard Fluttershy scream out as she cowered behind the wreckage.

He charged through the Raiders, clearing a path to Fluttershy

“You’re okay!” he said, breathing heavily.

“I was hiding in what was left of the truck... and I heard music, then I heard fighting, and then I just got really scared!” She quivered and quaked, but Powerjack just ran a finger through her hair. It was comforting, until a loud metallic clang had indicated someone was shooting him.

“Stay here.” He told her.

“Okay...”

The fight raged on. Nexus was out of spare shotgun shells, and he had lost sight of his friends. A Raider with a glass bottle for a weapon came at him, but his weapon shattered on the ground as Nexus shot him. Two shots left... One jumped at him from the side. One shot left... He looked around, and caught sight of Vinyl Scratch, who seemed to be weaponless. She was going toe to toe with five others, one armed with a gun. The first one went down, but Nexus saw that one was preparing to fire. Taking aim, he pulled the trigger, not noticing the Changeling standing right in front of him...

Wrex watched the Changeling beat Nexus into the ground. His weapon was empty as well, but he saw something behind the wreckage, above the fighting. A figure, someone leaping off of the highest bit of the ruined truck, carrying a katana sword. He came down on an enemy, driving the blade through his chest. It was Cee Flat. There was something in his other hand, a gun. The same gun Wrex had dropped when the truck flipped. He wasn’t firing it, but he was looking at Wrex as he charged into battle.

Wrex ran after him, casting his empty weapon aside and reaching out. Cee tossed him the gun, and he ran into the fray after Nexus. He knocked the Changeling off of Nexus with the butt of his new machine pistol, just in time to fire at other Raiders behind Nexus. Vinyl had recovered a Raider machine gun and had her finger on the trigger as they still charged. Powerjack had also taken a shotgun, and was still knocking away Raiders, and flicking Changelings out of the sky. He heard Fluttershy scream again.

A Raider had thrown her out of her hiding spot, and was standing over her. His gun was pointed directly at her head. Powerjack was there in an instant, ready to beat the foolish Raider into a pulp, but he realized too late that the Raider had shoved an energy blade, a rare weapon that could slice through about any metal, straight through his chest armour. Powerjack just stood there, unable to move, as he heard the agonizing scream of the one that he was bound to protect... He reached into his belt, removing the weapon he had stored there.

The glove fit his giant hand, and he grabbed the ignition inside. The drill it was connected to spun to life, and Powerjack ruthlessly thrust it into the Raider, lifting him up off of the ground as the hard iron pierced his soft flesh, and turned his insides to mush. The dead body was cast aside, and Powerjack looked down at Fluttershy, who seemed to retract as he reached for her.

“I’m sorry...” he whispered to the horrified Fluttershy. He fell to his knees, and then over on the ground.

Nexus looked up. His team was here, and just in time for the escort. Vinyl had taken quite the beating, and she cast her weapon aside and ran as soon as she saw the helicopter overhead. Wrex pointed at Fluttershy, who was kneeling over the body of Powerjack.

“Charlie team, this is Bravo 1-2, we’re coming in to pick you up.” Pinkie said.

“We’ve got wounded, Bravo!” Nexus said, running to Powerjack. He saw the blade in him, and deactivated it.

“Is... is he dead?” Fluttershy asked, between sobs.

“No, but he will be if we don’t get him out of here!”

The helicopter fired its main gun at the Raiders below, successfully disrupting them as they made a landing. Vinyl hopped into the back, where the door slid open to reveal enough seats for an eight-man team. Record Wrex and Cee Flat approached shortly after, firing back at the oncoming enemies.

“Wait,” Vinyl said, “Where’s Nexus?”

Cee looked at her. “He back helping Fluttershy with Powerjack.”

“What happened to PJ?”

They then saw a large figure, Powerjack, carrying another, who seemed to be wounded. On Powerjack’s back was Fluttershy, who held tight to her metal guardian. Powerjack ran like he was wounded as well, but made it to the helicopter regardless, with enemies close behind. He laid Nexus’s limp body on the floor of the helicopter, and then gently placed Fluttershy with him as well.

“What happened to Nexus?” Vinyl asked, looking at Powerjack, who said nothing. He only climbed into the helicopter himself.

“That everyone?” Pride asked, checking his sides as he raised altitude.

“Affirmative, Bravo 1-2,” Cee said.

Powerjack looked out the side of the flying metal beast he rode in, and saw something that he had learned to fear. A missile was headed straight for them. The impact shook the helicopter, but it hadn’t been able to do much damage with Powerjack’s armoured body blocking most of the explosion. He had braced himself, leaning outside the window to absorb as much of it as he could, but the hit made him stumble forward, out, down, and away.

Something had caught his hand, though. He looked up, and saw two hands grasping around his, pulling up with all of their might. More hands joined in, and Powerjack was soon lifted back up to the safety by his friends.

“Let’s just hope they only had one missile left.” Cee said, closing the door of the helicopter as they flew off.

Fluttershy reached out, and put her hand on his. Despite what they had just gone through, she smiled.

“I’m... I’m glad you’re okay...”

Princess Luna looked over to her sister, who paced in front of her.

“Luna, are you sure you want to do this?” She asked.

“Yes, we are ready.” She replied.

Nova Burst almost missed the sound of thunder above him. Looking up into the swirling vortex that connected this world to the other world, he noticed that there were no clouds in the sky, or at least none that he could see. There was nothing they could do at this point, but every man, and woman, in Applejack’s case, fought to their dying breath. Nova Burst was running out of materials to fix his sentry with, and Buttercrust had no more tricks in his metaphorical hat. Killjoy would’ve known what to do for sure, but he was long gone.

In the courtyard of Town Hall, Deadshot stood with the Wrong Brothers and a few of their remaining men, and fired at the incoming Raiders. The large army had died down to several groups running about the streets. The tank had parked itself right outside the square, not being able to enter without someone jumping on it and throwing a grenade down the barrel or something. The last person to try that was laying in a dozen pieces on the other side of town, but the next few who tried might have more luck.

Nova Burst heard thunder again. Applejack looked up, and so did Buttercrust.

“You see that?” Buttercrust pointed to something in the vortex.

“What?” Nova squinted, hoping it would help him see.

“Right there! It looks like something’s coming through the portal!”

“Oh no,” Applejack started, “More Changelings! They must’ve taken Canterlot!”

“No, wait... it’s... someone else!”

“I see your reinforcements have arrived,” Rarity chimed in over the radio.

The figures descended, taking a more human shape as they neared the ground. Many watched as they descended, and struck the ground, kicking up debris and dirt. The dust settled, and Nova Burst could see a the figure of a woman. Her hair was dark blue like the night sky, and Nova Burst saw her green eyes flash as she turned to face them. She wore a suit of black armour, with a crescent moon on the chest piece. In one hand, she held a sword, and in the other, a shield.

There were more that landed with her, who wore helmets and had similar armour. She looked over the three soldiers before her, and looked at the three apple symbol on Applejack’s armour. She spoke, her voice reflecting her curiosity.

“Thou are... Applejack?” She asked.

“Yes... Princess,” Applejack removed her helmet, letting her blonde hair touch the ground as she knelt.

Buttercrust and Nova Burst looked at each other, “Princess?”

“I suddenly feel bad about a thought I just had...” Buttercrust said, removing his helmet and kneeling.

“Shut up...” Nova Burst removed his helmet and knelt as well.

“We assume these are, soldiers?”

“Yes...”

“Good. We have arrived in the correct location. Based on thy armour, we would also assume that thou has been trained by thee soldiers.”

“Yes,” Nova Burst spoke, “She is a part of our unit, Princess...”

“We are Luna, Princess of the Night and all who dwell beneath it. We were sent to assist said soldiers in battle.” She motioned to the two other soldiers behind her, who were actively searching for signs of danger.

“Is that all?” Nova asked.

“No, there are others that deployed with us, but we were scattered entering the portal.”

A loud crash followed by the grinding of tank treads were heard as the tank rounded the corner, crushing the gates to the town square. Luna turned in time to see the cannon fire, and but the shell became suspended in midair as Luna crossed her arms. She flicked her wrists and the shell was soon embedded in the tank’s hull, striking the fuel tank and causing it to catch fire.

“Whoa, what was that?” Buttercrust had stood up and was watching in amazement.

“Our magic is not as powerful in this realm. we performed a simple telekinesis spell, and returned the projectile at double the velocity...” she took a deep breath, as she was obviously winded, “It has... taken more energy than expected...”

More gunfire and explosions echoed throughout the town.

“We will aid thou, but first, tell us your names...” Luna looked to the two others.

“My name is Buttercrust, your highness...” Buttercrust said, kneeling before her as she turned to him.

“Does thou have a hindleg issue?” She asked, hints of frustration on her words. He looked up in confusion. “Thy kind stands on two legs, so stand on them, relinquish thy formalities and address us as ‘Luna’.”

He quickly stood up and gave a sharp salute. “Yes, Luna.”

Her expression softened and turned to Nova Burst.

“I’m Nova Burst, and this here’s my sentry Belle.” The weapon’s head turned to the Princess, and it seemed to beep happily as it acknowledged her as friendly. A stray Raider ran at them from the wreckage of the tank, and the sentry shot him down.

“Wait,” Applejack turned to him, “You named that thing?”

“Hey! Don’t talk ‘bout her like that!”

Luna nodded to the sentry, then to it’s owner.

“Where are we needed?” She asked.

“Where are we headed?” Cee Sharp asked the pilot.

“We’re going back to Tanktown, we’re going to have to regroup,” Pride said.

“What about the Raingear Army?”

“They’ve been infiltrated. Prince Apollo says that he’s not going to be able to send any soldiers who may be a Changeling.”

Cee looked down at the rest of the team. Nexus sat unconscious next to Fluttershy, who had tended to his many wounds. Powerjack said he had taken a nasty hit to the face, but wouldn’t talk about the subject any further. Fluttershy seemed nervous around Powerjack all of a sudden, but it was probably because of what she had just seen him do, right? Vinyl was asleep in her seat, falling into slumber to soft tunes of smooth jazz being deployed through her armour. Wrex watched her as she slept, as if he couldn’t make up his mind about her.

“Hold on, we’re getting reports of friendly support arriving in Tanktown.” Pride looked down upon the city as he approached, seeing more battles going on within.

“Bravo 1-2, come in,” He heard Overwatch’s signal.

“Go ahead, Overwatch,” he replied.

“Alpha Strike’s signal has gone dark.”

“What? Say again, Overwatch!”

“Alpha 3, 4, and 5 have all gone dark, Bravo.”

“What do you mean, all gone dark? Rarity, they couldn’t-”

“Pride, they were captured by the Changelings.”

Escape Plan

Rainbow Dash landed before an opening in the hive, her metal armour clanging together as she landed from her descent on all fours. It was a strange feeling, having her wings tucked beneath the armour, but still being able to fly. Twilight Sparkle landed behind her. Her helmet had adjusted to accommodate her horn, the purple extremity covered by the silvery metal of the helmet. A few seconds later, Rainbow heard the thud and the crash of Trax Dash coming to land next to them.

His hindlegs were aimed toward the ground, and his back hooves landed with a thud. Trying his best to steady himself on his back legs was futile, and he almost instantly fell on his face the moment he landed.

“Having a little trouble there?” Rainbow teased.

“Shut up...” he moaned, picking himself up on all fours, “I forgot you ponies don’t walk on two legs...” He stumbled forward, unable to walk properly in his new body. After a few minutes of falling on his face, growling in frustration, and Rainbow Dash barely suppressing laughter, he finally figured out the trick. Instead of moving both legs on the same side in the same direction at the same time, he had to move his legs in a certain order; front left, back right, front right, back left.

“We don’t have time for this,” Twilight said after a few minutes of watching him struggle, “We need to do whatever it is that we’re going to do about the Changelings.”

Twilight peered into the opening that she stood before. It was dark, tall, and ominous, but she was determined. They entered the hive, the silence nerve wrecking. There was expected to be some sort of resistance, but as the surface they walked upon began to tilt downward, they were sure that there were probably the only souls there.

Even with his night vision on, Trax Dash could barely see the walls to his sides. Something was off about whatever material that the hive’s entrance was made out of. It gave off it’s own heat, making thermal vision useless. It also was apparently hollow, making sonic optics useless as well. What baffled him even further was how the material somehow was able to absorb light waves, and make the standard night vision less effective.

As the trio cantered on, they had come across a round chamber, one that had obviously been cut out of the earth and then sloppily supported with the strange material these Changelings used. In the center of this chamber, there was a hole. It took up the majority of center of the room, but there was enough room around the edges for one pony to walk around. Upon looking down into the gap, the three found a long descent, with more holes and tunnels dug out into the walls of the drop. The bottom was nowhere in sight. The only other exit was across the chasm, a much smaller tunnel leading downwards.

“How far down do you think this goes?” Twilight asked, her voice barely a whisper over the local com channel.

“I don’t know,” Trax Dash replied, “But I’m not jumping in to find out. I don’t think my pack could carry me all the way back up.”

Rainbow Dash simply lifted a hoof and knocked a small rock in, and watched it plummet into the darkness. Several moments passed. Nothing was heard. After a full minute, Trax Dash had began to walk around the hole, moving towards the other opening. Having heard nothing, the two girls followed him. The tunnels inside of the hive were much smaller, and much more cramped than the large opening to the outside. Although it was obvious that the hive extended further underground that it covered above ground, all of the dirt had been sealed off by the mysterious Changeling material.

Twilight had kept a careful eye on her motion tracker, but had completely forgotten to keep in touch with Rarity.

“Overwatch base, this is Alpha Strike, we’re deep in the hive, over,” she said.

A staticy voice of Rarity replied, “Copy... Signal is bad... but I have your signa... least...”

“Do you have our location and vitals?”

“...rmative, but your... ediate area is... unclear.”

“Okay. Alpha Strike, out.”

Twilight sighed. They were on their own.

“Rainbow, Trax Dash, we need to stick together.”

“Yeah, way ahead of you,” Rainbow said, moving a bit closer to Twilight.

“Screw that, I’m going to go scout ahead!” He said, beginning to gallop away from the others.

Twilight stepped forward, “Wait!” She bent her head forward, aiming her covered horn at the uneasy stallion. She concentrated on a telekinesis spell, but nothing happened. She immediately realized that the armour she wore was blocking her magic, but in that same instant she saw Rainbow Dash taking off after him.

“I’ll go get him, Twi!”

“Rainbow Dash, wait!” Twilight began, only to realize they were both almost out of sight. She sighed and took off after them, shouting, “We need to stick together!”

Through the hollow but sturdy tunnel walls, a Changeling had been stirred from his slumber, only to hear the intruders. He looked around, noticing that all of the other stasis cocoons used for postmaturity rest had been empty. It was almost as if something had happened that had scared the rest of his brothers and sisters away, and he himself had slept through it.

The at the heart of the hive, the Changelings were in complete disarray. Queen Chrysalis had just left the hive to discuss things with this ‘Nightmare’ character, and then somepony had gone and dropped what was assumedly a bomb directly into the heart of the hive. The winged black creatures scattered and panicked, trying to find a way to contact the Queen, or disarm the bomb, or just plain have a nervous breakdown, but one Changeling in particular was thinking. Just thinking, as much as his little hive-minded brain could think, about what exactly it meant to lose what his home was.

Most of them realized that the bomb was probably going to go off at any moment, and kill all of them, leaving their entire system of complex tunnels and layers upon layers of Durachitin nothing but a hole in the ground. Durachitin, it was what the Queen had called the substance that made up the protective walls of the hive. It was extremely strong, resistant to nearly everything Equestria could dish out. When bolstered with magic, it was nigh indestructible. But something had just smashed right through it, as if it were a cardboard box to a boulder, meaning that if it was indeed a bomb...

He shuddered. This was his life, his home, all he had ever known, and it was about to go up in smoke. He had to do something, but he didn’t know how much time he had left. After a moment of thought, he had devised a rather pathetic plan. Picking himself up off of the floor of the junction corridor, he began to fly upward, out of the main junction connecting all of the major chambers deep within the hive together.

The device itself had hit the Queen’s throne chamber, so he’d have a slim chance of getting there. That wasn’t where he had intended to go, however. Pushing past the majority of his comrades that were still swarming to see what had happened, or repair something, or whatever they were doing, he made his way to storage.

There was little chance that anypony else would be there, but he heard a name called out to him as he entered the chilled room.

“Durandal?” he heard a rough, scratchy voice, one that might have been unwelcoming to others, but it was a familiar one. Upon hearing his own name, he instinctively turned to see who had wanted his attention. Behind him, in the entrance to the storage chamber, a larger Changeling much like himself stood. It was Rio, one of the warrior Changelings that he had became acquainted with over their time in Upbringing. Rio was bulky, but still had that undernourished look that all Changelings had due to not having an excess of emotion to feed upon. The spines along his back were much larger and sharper than Durandal’s own, but that’s how warriors were designed. They were built to fight and do battle, unlike most other Changelings that were built for stealth and deception.

“Rio, what are you doing here?” Durandal’s own voice sounded higher pitched and feebler than his friend’s, making him seem weak, even to himself.

“That’s a better question to ask yourself,” Rio grinned, his long fangs suddenly becoming less menacing and much more friendly than usual. A more serious tone overtook him as he continued, “Seriously, you’re in Cold Storage, of all places?”

“Yeah, I need a few things. I have a plan to deal with this bomb, or whatever it is.”

“Really? I don’t suppose you’ve ran it by the Queen or her informants?”

“The Queen’s not in, and her informants won’t take me seriously. I’m a worker drone.”

Durandal turned to the chamber that held all of the Changeling’s scavenged equipment. Most of it had came from Equestria, from numerous guard posts scattered on the edge of the Uncharted.

“You’re not fooling around, are you?” Rio said, looking over his friend’s shoulder.

“No,” Durandal breathed, his voice cutting the frigid air like a sword. I know for a fact that those eggheads in Pony-Research won’t do anything but sit and stare at the thing, so I need to do something before it goes off!” Durandal was looking in what the ponies called ‘hooflockers’, large black boxes with a locking mechanism on the front. Inside was a metal knife, a common tool found on most Royal Guard, a pair of night vision goggles, and a magic dampener. It was one of the many counter-Changeling kits that were stacked on the floor of the chamber.

“What’s all that?” Rio peered in the box over Durandal’s shoulder, using his height to get a better view.

“Magic dampener, because if that is a bomb, it’s most likely powered by magical residue.”

“What’s your plan?”

“I’m going to disarm it myself, I’ve read enough Pony-paper to know how it’s done,” Durandal wasn’t lying either, he could remember most of the diagrams and instructions described on the bound collection paper that the Ponies used.

“Then why the knife? And those goggles?”

“Chances are I’m going to be setting off that magic suppressor right next to myself. I don’t know if you know, but that magic suppressor will affect our natural magic too,” the worker drone explained, placing the goggles on his head, resting them under his horn. “These things will help me see in the dark in case my own natural vision goes out.”

“Okay... That still doesn’t explain the knife.”

Durandal sighed. He looked at the metallic blade, second-guessing his plan. “Let’s just say... I might not be welcomed by HiveSec.”

Rio took a step back, a hoof raising to his mouth. “You aren’t going rogue, are you?”

Durandal shook his head, turning to face his friend, “It’s not going rogue when the safety of the hive is at stake.”

Durandal looked at the wall opposite of the one he was closest to, noticing the small vest that was hanging on what Ponies called a ‘rack’. There were many more like it. Rio stepped aside as he watched his friend slip is forelegs into the vest, and secure it across his chest. The vest had many pockets and straps to put various items in.

“I’m coming with you,” Rio said.

“What?” Durandal did a double take as he was walking back to the hooflocker that he had opened.

“I want to come with you,” Rio repeated, “If you’re going to get sent to exile, or recycled, I want to go with you. We’re close, you and me.”

Durandal slipped the knife in one of the straps on the vest, and secured the magic dampener in a pocket on his chest. The small orb fit nicely, as if it was intended to go there. “We used to cause trouble all the time when we were little, but this is different.”

“Maybe, but I have a plan, one that’s probably better than yours.”

“That’s a first, what is it?” Durandal replied sarcastically. Rio always had came up with the elaborate schemes.

Rio smiled, “We feign a break in. I’ll pose as an infiltrator going to check on the bomb, because it hasn’t gone off yet. We mock a fight, like we always used to, and then you get me to ‘disarm’ the bomb. Someone’s bound to accuse me of setting it off, and you take a crack at disarming it yourself.”

“Wow. You’re a genius... How do I explain the gear?”

“Say that you took matters into your own hooves, like usual.”

They both laughed at that. Durandal had always been one to act before thinking, and the wardens had always said that it was unfortunate that he was born a worker, because he would’ve made an excellent warrior or guard.

“Alright, let’s do it.”

Trax Dash was the first to hear it. He raised a hoof, and Rainbow Dash and Twilight had came to a stop behind him. It was a faint buzzing, like some sort of bug was flying near. The tunnel they had been walking in was very small, and had very little light. They had been walking for what seemed like hours, but their armours’ automated joints kept them from fatiguing, automatically moving their hooves along.

“What is it?” He heard Rainbow whisper.

“I don’t know...” Trax Dash took another step forward, and then suddenly was blinded. His low light vision automatically shut off, letting him see the crack in the ground beneath him, faintly illuminating the tunnel. “Low light off!” he violently whispered, blinking to get his eyes to stop burning.

The two mares behind him did as instructed, and peered into the crack in the floor. They could only make out the pale golden tint of light, saturating their light deprived eyes. Trax Dash scraped a hoof at the crack.

“I wish I still had my hands...”

“Think we could shoot it open?” Twilight suggested, yielding the same look from both Dashes.

“Yeah, sure, if we wanted every Changeling from here to Cloudsdale coming down on us,” Rainbow said, putting a hoof to her head.

“Twilight, aren’t you an Princess with powerful magic and stuff?” Trax Dash asked, “Do something to get us down there.”

“Well, it looks like there’s just a room down there... so I could try a teleportation spell. I’ll need to take off my helmet though,” Twilight said, removing the metal case that was over her head. It clicked, and with a hiss, came off of the rest of the armour.

Trax Dash saw Twilight’s pony body for the first time. Purple fur, a darker purple mane, highlighted with a cute pink stripe.

“Get ready...” she said, and lowered her head in thought. The three of them flashed in her mind, and then the space below them. The open Changeling corridor, just waiting for them to-

In a flash of purple light, the three armour clad ponies disappeared from the Changeling access tunnel, above the main HiveSec office.

Prologue

As an idea comes to life, so does a universe, a universe just like the one imagined, with things just as real.

Ch. ProA- It had been so long

Maxim Nexus had came so far. Thinking back, he could remember his first moments in this strange, new world. Iron Core, they called it.

It had been so long since he had been sucked through the portal from his world, in the United States, working for the megacorporation Full Circle, into this, the small city of Tanktown, where would be a hero, a legend, but he still had no way back. It had been so long since he had defeated the evil spirit Nightmare and saved his minion Anarchy, once known as Orbital Order. It had been so long since he received his kinetic implants, allowing him to telekinetically move objects, and use them to stop a civil war, so long since he met himself from the future and went on that adventure with him, so long since he stopped Miss Fortune at the wedding of Apollo Archangel, and the battle that took place there.

And to think, he eventually made friends with that crazy One Armed Bandit lady.

And Dimensia, he was a handful. Nexus had to pull his friends together to fight him, they were all in disarray and chaos. Then came the extra implants he had to receive to defeat Dimensia. Even that seemed so long ago, when he had to master his new synthetic and cybernetic powers, on top of his existing kinetic powers.

He looked down at his palm, where he could see the purple marks from his implants glowing through his skin. That was all the past. Right now, there was peace, and right now, he needed to work on a portal to his own world.

But at that, the peace could only be attained through conflict.

Chapter ProB- It had been so long

Twilight Sparkle had came so far. Thinking back, she could remember her first moments upon arriving in Ponyville.

She had been so concerned with the Nightmare Moon incident that she was forgetting what her mentor had said. It had been so long since she defeated Nightmare Moon and saved her victim, Princess Luna, so long since she had first began to study friendship, and it's lasting effect of ponies everywhere, so long since the Ursa Minor incident, so long since she was worried about what she from the future had told her, so long since she stopped Queen Chrysalis at the wedding of her brother, Shining Armour. So long since Discord was released.

And to think, she was friends with that crazy whateverhewas.

And then there was King Sombre, who almost had defeated her. Twilight had to do what she had to in order to save the Crystal Empire. And there there was that spell that mixed up her friends' destinies altogether. She had to put them on the right path. Then there was becoming a Princess, an alicorn. Even that seemed long ago. So much responsibility had been given to her.

She looked back at her wings. They were still so new, so fresh. Right now, there was peace, and right now, she needed to work to assure that peace.

And peace would only assured with friendship.