Waking up from the night's beautiful embrace I open my eyes to realize it's still dark. "Huh, I wonder what time it is?" I get up and go over to the clock and it says 7am. "Up here must have longer nights than The Compound because this is weird."

"I ain't scared of no ghost! Show yourself!" says a mare I have no idea who it is.

"Hey, Boxer, Wake up we got company", I say kicking my sleeping friend.

"5 more minutes, I'm tired", he replies yawning.

"Well get your ass up or I'll dump river water on your head."

"Fine, fine. why did you want me up?"

"Someone is here. I heard them say something about ghosts. Go get a gun for you and me."

"Alright man, but this better not be a prank."

As he heads off I hear "WOOHOO! Sign me up. Just let me tie this bridge real quick and we have a deal", says the same mare.

"Who is she talking to? Hey Boxer, hurry up we need to be ready for whoever it is. I think she has friends by the sounds of it."

"Yeah, yeah man I hear ya. Here's your gun."

"How do you want to handle this? Since my last plan didn't exactly go well", I say sheepishly.

"Didn't go well? Dude, we're lucky to have gotten out of there alive."

"Hey now, those were some extenuating circumstances. You couldn't have planned for that."

"Can't change the past, anyway I say we hang out here. Find some place to hide ourselves and have our rifles pointing towards the center to catch them in cross fire if they come in here."

"See that's why you should plan stuff more often, it's simple to follow and easy to execute", I reply moving off to what I assume is the east side. I place my rifle on some rubble and lay down behind it, giving me just enough cover to stay hidden. My silver coat and silver and black wings doing what they can to hide me since I'm covered in bandages at this point. Boxer takes up cover on the opposite wall from behind a half fallen pillar. He places the gun barrel at the top most portion of the pillar which is only shoulder high for him. He isn't more visible than me but the shadows coupled with his black coat and dark gray skin color make him harder to see. His bandages are harder to see since there is less of them but he is more bruised. I look over to my left and see all of our gear still sitting out. "Shit! Dude get the gear hidden." I start moving for it when the doors burst open. I quickly retreat to my hiding spot.

"WOAH", all 6 mares in unison.

"OOOH, what's this stuff?" The overly cheerful and pink one says.

"It looks like someone has been living here, Pinkie", the purple one says.

"Kill me now", I mumbled incoherently to myself. 'Her name had to be Pinkie.'

"Come on Twilight, isn't this what you've been looking for?"

On my wrist communicator I ask Boxer, "Now?"

"Now!" He yells popping out from behind the cover. I just stand up Holding the rifle with my wings spread to keep me balanced.

"What in tarnation?" They all turn to face us.

Pinkie is the first to speak up, "Wow! Great surprise guys. We're definitely surprised, though your delivery could have been better. Like if you turned on lights as well and yelled 'SURPRISE!' really loudly-"

"I don't think they're here to throw us a surprise party, sugar cube", the orange one says with a hoof in Pinkie's mouth.

"She's right, you know. We're not. Now why are you here?" I ask with a little trouble staying upright.

"We're here for the Elements of Harmony!" Twilight exclaims loudly.

"If you are not here for us, Why are you in such a dreary place? And what ghastly contraptions are you wielding?" The white one asks with an air of class to her voice.

"That's none of your concern. Our business is our own. These", Boxer says holding his gun up a little for emphasis, "are guns."

"What are guns? ... I mean ... if you don't mind telling ..." the yellow one says so softly I almost missed it.

"They're weapons." They shrink back a little at that exclamation. "Any other stupid questions?" I reply starting to get a little angry.

"Well if you're not here for us and we're not here for you, can you lower your weapons, please?" Twilight asks.

"We can't trust you not to kill us with our guard down. Sorry missy, you're not getting this weapon down so easily", I reply.

"K-Kill you?" Twilight stutters. "We aren't going to kill you. We don't even want to hurt you."

"HAHA, they don't look so tough. Look at them they're covered in bandages. I bet I could take them With one hoof tied behind my back", the blue one boasts

"Keep talking rainbow-butt, but you'd die before you even reach half-way", Boxer boasts back.

Then, with speed unseen before in our lives, she is in front of him and says, "Prove it."

We both stare in disbelief as she was over 50 lengths away not 1 second earlier. She starts laughing "Oh man, you should've seen your faces." She starts flying back to her friends much slower than before.

"Enough!", a new voice yells.

We all turn to see, standing on top of the pillar is none other than Nightmare Moon.

"N-Nightmare Moon, you can't win. We have the elements", Twilight exclaims more than a little shakily.

"I only see 5 here. You need 6 for it to work. Where's the sixth element?" Nightmare asks already thinking she won.

"OOOH yeah, right the elements. Dude you know those stupid tales we were always told?" I ask Boxer.

"Yeah? What about them?" he replies more than a little confused.

"Well they're apparently real."

"So that means that Celestia actually did it?" he asks incredulously.

"That would be most logical since creationist magic is very obscure. Very few ponies even know about its existence."

"NOOOOO!" Nightmare Moon yells.

"We should probably be paying attention more", Boxer says.

We both turn to see Nightmare Moon being struck by a rainbow beam for a solid 10 seconds flat. When it is over I lower my gun just a bit as I move towards the center of the event. Boxer, along with Jules, who hopped up on the wall to still have high ground in case this went bad, start moving towards the epi-center.

"What happened?" I ask to no one in particular.

"It would seem that Twilight Sparkle found and used the Elements on my sister. Reverting to the pony she was before she lost herself to jealousy", Princess Celestia says right beside me causing me to jump. To which she chuckled merrily.

Everyone turned around at the sound of her voice and I respond with "Where the fuck did you come from?"

"Language gryphon. To answer your question, I was freed when Nightmare Moon was defeated."

Twilight rushes to her mentor and nuzzles her. "Princess Celestia!"

"It's good to see you too Twilight", Celestia says. "Now who are these two?"

"Ummm... We don't know. They were here when we got here and we haven't done introductions", Twilight responds.

"Well, let's start there", Celestia replies. "I am Princess Celestia, this is my most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle and her friends." She motions for them to introduce themselves.

"Ah'm Applejack", says the orange one.

"I'm Pinkie Pie", she says while bouncing around, showing no signs of stopping.

"Rarity, pleasure to meet you", the white one says.

"I'm Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria", The blue one says.

'Wow, she's humble.' I thought.

"I-I'm F-Fluttershy...", the yellow one says way too quietly for her own good.

Celestia addresses us "And you are...?"

Boxer speaks up first, "My name's Boxer and his name is Mongoose."

Jules jumps down from her perch seeing as how things are not hostile and says "I'm Skippy."

"Aaah!", The mares gasp.

Pinkie yells out "RUN!" She starts running off but before any of them can get far, Celestia laughs causing the ponies to stop and turn around.

"Everyone she is just a zebra, haven't you seen a zebra before?" I ask.

"The only zebra we've ever seen is the one that comes to town. She's SPOOOKY", Pinkie responds.

"I assure you, she won't harm you."

"UNNNH", A voice sounding a lot like Nightmare Moon mumbled.

Celestia rushes over to her. "Sister, are you ok?" She asks to a rather sleepy looking alicorn.

"Sister??!", the mares asks.

"Yes, didn't you hear me earlier explain it to Mongoose?"

"No, sorry", they replied.

"I am fine, sister. Art thou going to banish us again?"

"Oh shit, she banished her sister and here I thought my family had problems", I whisper to Boxer. That earns a chuckle out of him.

"No sister, we aren't going to banish you ever again", Celestia says with finality.

"Oh thank thee, joyous day", Luna says while running up to hug Celestia.

"Hey guys, let's grab our gear and get out of here. This is the perfect time to leave", Boxer reading my mind and already grabbing some gear, Skippy and I head off to get the rest of it.

"Hey Where did the others go?" Pinkie asks to the remaining ponies.

"Oh no they don't!" Rainbow shouts rushing to catch us.

Luckily we had enough time to reach our cars, unfortunately we haven't started the engines yet.

"And just where do you think you're going, huh?" Rainbow Dash asks.

"Well I was thinking we would allow you girls time to get reacquainted. Besides we really should be going. We have stayed far too long it seems", I reply.

Celestia walks out and says, "Nonsense, we have all the time in the world to catch up with friends, yet time is precious when making new ones."

"No Offense to you, but we weren't being around long enough to really become friends."

"Really? Where ever are you going?" Rarity asked.

"Away. Far away", Boxer replies.

"We can go with you", Twilight speaks up.

"OOH, What are these things? They look like modified carriages. Are they fancy carriages? huh?huh?huh?", Pinkie Pie says almost indecipherably.

"Alright, listen we're gonna go West. If you're going west, you're more than welcome to follow along otherwise please move out of the way", With that I started the Off Roader(4x4) and revved the engine. Boxer followed suit and started up the Truck as well. Everyone not in a vehicle immediately stepped back from the loud noise of our vehicles.

"What are these things?" Twilight asked.

"Your friend is right. These are fancy carriages, motorized, climate control, sound system, all the luxuries. Now please we must be going", Boxer says

"We're going with you. Ponyville is that way", Twilight said.

"Oh yippee, this will be so much fun", I say with the utmost sarcasm.

Author's Note

This wasn't actually supposed to be the first chapter but submission rules.
What I had planned for the first chapter will probably be released as ~~ch 4~~ probably ch 7 with some minor modifications to fit this new story time line.