Leaving Home

It was a quick ride back to the motel, mainly because of the fact that the bus was buzzing with excitement the entire way back. Kind of like an amusement park ride station. Except more canned... Literally? I don't even know what this bus is made out of, and I was the one who summoned it. There's Equestrian logic for yah.

I knew that Discord's intentions for this were good, but I still think there were a few of us still suspicious of him. The way he controlled everything with a little too much ease probably creeped out some of us. I mean, in two days, he got us all to follow his lead instead of our own. I dunno. Just a thought.

Although the ride back to our 'base' was short, I still managed to fit in a decent conversation with Discord about what we were doing. I sat down next to him while Francine took off with the bus.

"Yo."

"Hello. What can I help you with?"

"A question."

"Okay, throw it at me. I'll see if I can answer it."

I chuckled at the way he said that. "Heh. I wanted to know: You got a group of fifteen people, all of which were ponies yesterday, to follow your lead into this plan of yours. Are you sure you really know what you're doing? Because I don't want a disaster happening in two dimensions."

"I see where your point is coming from, but I'm certain  I know what to do here."

"I know, sort of, but really. Do you know what will happen after we fix the problem on Earth? You said time works differently here, so I'll bet that years have already passed by in Equestria. Everybody here has a home, you know."

"I don't. And to be perfectly honest, being around a population of annoying equestrians really had gotten on my nerves. I never developed feelings for anypony... I've lived my life, and I just want to make things right here before something... happens."

"Something? Happens? Really? You're making me ask more questions than you'll answer."

"Sorry. Since I am the original link between Equestria and Earth, I'm unstable in the fourth dimension. I'm a time jumper, and that means that... Wait a minute. Have you ever heard of Schrodinger's Cat?"

"The quantum physics experiment for the cat that's locked in a potentially lethal box is neither dead nor alive until the box is opened?"

"Yes. I am sort of like Schrodinger's cat in the sense that I have no idea how old I am until I die, so I'm unstable in the fourth dimension. I really have no idea how long I have left on Earth... Could be anywhere from a thousand years to a day... So in answer to your question of why I appear to be acting 'bossy', it's because I need to be hasty about solving this problem, and I'm the only person I can trust."

"Well, if I want to complicate the way I think about the universe any further, I'll just ask you."

"You're welcome to it." He said sarcastically.

After the bus stopped and parked back at the motel, it was a very busy two hours before everybody (Everypony, maybe? Damn.) would even try to sleep, and then another hour before everyone actually went to sleep. Essentially, it seemed as though we treated it like a sixth-grade overnight field trip. Not that I had a problem with it, or anything. Especially because I was in a room with Francine, Stephanie, and Dashie. The check in to the place was kind of hilarious, because of what Discord did to get us in here.

When we first stepped into the puny office for the place (All sixteen of us, like a boss), we were greeted by a short Hindu-looking guy. "Hollo and walcum to de Starright Motel. How mey I asseest you?"

Discord (naturally.) was the one to talk for us. "Thank you. How many rooms do you have available?"

"Well, how meny does you need?"

"Four. Adjacent if possible."

"You are een luck. There are fuur at the buttum rieght hand cornehr of de complex. Each room cawsts therty nien a night, so four of those meens you are going to pay...." He pulled out a small calculator from underneath the desk he was sitting at and punched in some numbers. "One hahndered and feefty nien dollors."

"Thank you." He put his right hand behind his back and summoned a billfold. That sneaky bastard. "Is it okay to be in cash?"

"Yes. Dat would be fine." Discord pulled out the billfold into clear view and counted out the money, then handed it to the man behind the counter, who in return handed us a set of four keys. "Thenk you. Your rooms are numbers eleven through fourteen."

We filed out of the office and into the rooms. It was a slow process getting to bed, mainly because Steph and I had to summon everything for the other two and ourselves. It was also a silent process getting into bed, and that was for the fact that everyone had a little bit too much time to converse with each other on the bus. I just ended up whipping out my laptop and playing Roller Coaster Tycoon 2 while the others found a rerun of Applebuck Season on the Hub. Dashie was a little stubborn to believe that it actually happened until she got to the ending where AJ apologized to her. It was hopeless by that point, especially by the way she let her comments loose. I'll just not go into the details.

By the time everyone was both tired and bored from arguing with Dash, it was about half past ten, and we all figured that we had stayed up a little late for the circumstances. However, the sleeping situation was far more awkward than anticipated. Because nobody really knew each other, nobody was willing to sleep in the same bed together. Even Dashie, whose only comment on the subject was "Eew". And so it ended up that Steph and I wound up on the floor with Francine and RD's extra sheets. Phfft. Unicorn humility FTW.

{log status = idle}

[recording = false]

Location: Sacramento, California, USA

Date: June 17, 2012

Time: 12:05 AM

{log status = begun}

[recording = active]

It was a relatively nice rest, but only for half of it. For the first half of the night, I vividly recall having the exact same dream the night before. Remember the Psycho style Twilight? Yeah, that's the one. Although I still had no idea how this correlated to my real life, I still had a feeling that this would, indeed, become a reoccurring nightmare. After waking up in a sweaty, sleep deprived state, I staggered to my feet on the cold carpet (F***ing motels... How do they work?) and made my way to the sink in the bathroom. The problem was, by now I was wide awake. And if anybody knows me, they would know that I pretty much have no chance of going back to sleep after waking up. I checked my watch as I got myself a glass of water. Only midnight. Damn it. This could be a long night. And that it was. I ended up laying in my makeshift bed for around two hours before I guess I just dozed off back to sleep.

{log status = idle}

[recording = false]

Location: Unknown

Date: June 17, 2012

Time: 2:36 AM

{log status = begun}

[recording = active]

Have you ever had one of those dreams that seems like you can control, to the point where it seems real? You don't come across those very often, but when you do, it seems like they last for eternity. Until you wake up, which I guess is the part where you try to recall what the hell just happened and end up realizing that it was just a dream. One of those happened that night. Well, sort of...

I awoke. As my eyes adjusted to the newfound light of the room, I could get a rather good glimpse of where I was. Doing that resulted in a hardcore double take on my part, because I found myself in Twilight's treehouse.

"Again?" I asked myself. At this point, because I was aware that I was actually in what appeared to be a dream, I could figure that this was either a very elaborate dream or another reality. I hoisted myself off the wooden floor that I was laying down on. To find myself fall on my sad purple nose again. F***, I was a pony again.

But to be honest, I didn't know if that was a bad thing or not, so I tried calling out for somepony to help. I rolled over into a standing position to get a clearer view of the house. Nopony home...

"Twilight? Spike? You guys home...?" No response. Yeah, that was probably a bad sign. I found the door leading into the basement and opened it, taking another look. Still no Twilight. I walked out of the house to see if I could find anypony willing to help. And much to my dismay, I saw no pastel cartoon characters wandering the streets. Well, thanks! That helps a s***load. Remembering the first appearance of Zecora on the show, I could guess that there was at least a few ponies in this town... So I went to Sugarcube Corner. To be truthful, I was panicking. Mainly because I strictly remember being in Northern California literally what felt like minutes ago.

It wasn't really hard to find, mainly because I was blocking all other thoughts out of my head. My head was cloudy, just like the sky. And although it may not have seemed like it before, I was freaking out. I mean, it's one thing to be a pony again, but seriously. At this point I think life was just screwing with me. Especially when I saw a pink head pop up from the window in front of me. It was a quick sight, but the pony responsible was clearly evident: Pinkie Pie. Although she gave me a startled look when she first saw me, her look switched to somewhat joy when she saw me... I guess she remembers me. She also made a 'Come here!' gesture to me, proving that not only something was wrong, but that I was a crucial key in solving the problem.

I bolted over to the giant gingerbread-looking house before realizing what I could have done to get here: Teleportation. Derp. Well, now I remember that. And now I don't blame Twilight for walking pretty much everywhere. It's kind of hard to remember those kind of things, believe it or not. I still opened the door to get in, which I can only assume was only unlocked for me to get in, while at the exact same time being greeted by fifteen familiar faces.

The first one to regain speech and talk to me was Applejack. "Yer' late. A'hm assumin' you didn't get to sleep until about two in the mornin' then?"

"Bingo. You know, this situation is only going to get more and more awkward until someponies point is made, and therefore I have to ask you: What the hell is exactly going on here?" I asked through uneven breathing and wheezing.

"Well, we're back in Equestria, for starters." Alex said.

"Besides the obvious, Alex." Celestia objected, who (thankfully) had her wings and horn back.

"Either we're in the Machine's joke of the Matrix, or we're switching between realities. I honestly didn't believe that this wasn't a dream either until-" Francine started to say before I cut her off.

"Look! I know what's happening with us, but what's happening out there?" I swung a hoof at the window to emphasize my point. "I mean, who knows how much time has passed since we were last here? It could be years!"

I got my point across, but nopony seemed to have an answer to my question. So with that, everyone scattered around the building to find evidence that could prove the date. Within about five minutes, Applejack's faint voice came from upstairs, instantly hinting that something was probably very wrong. "Good hay... It's only been two days... Discord! What could that mean?"

The look on Discord's chaotic little face could have been considered 'priceless' if it weren't for the thing that he said afterwards. "Oh God... The two universes... Ours and yours... Are merging."

There was a long time that nopony would talk until Alex tried to brighten the conversation. "Why would that be a bad thing?" My guess is that he regretted saying that directly after it came out of his sorry purple mouth.

"Why wouldn't that be a bad thing? Look, only about one out of every thousand on Earth knows what MLP is, and half of those people are trolls. If ponies started coming to Earth, or we started coming here, hardly anybody would know what to do with each other, probably involving in conflict. Major conflict, too. And that's only in the case that just the ponies and humans collide. What about the worlds themselves? It would be pure chaos. And not even the kind Discord could handle." Jackie said before getting interrupted by an angered Discord.

"Listen, young mare. There's no kind of chaos I can't han-"

"Guys! Arguing does NOT help right now!" I intruded.

"Then what does?" They both yelled at me in unison.

I gave them my 'Seriously?' face to get them to shut up. "Well, first of all, finding out where everypony went, and why they went there..."

Everyone cut me off with those annoying parting words (Examples: 'On it!' 'Gotcha!') and stormed out the door, obviously not wanting to hear the rest of the bickering between Discord and Jackie.

I left with the majority of them to see what was up, but I stopped dead in my tracks and headed upstairs, realizing that Applejack hadn't come back down after she started this. I went down the short hallway and into the only open door. Inside, she was sitting wide-eyed on a bed, looking out the window that pointed north in the room.

"AJ? You okay?" I asked her.

"No." She pointed at the window slowly. I peered over her shoulder to see what was up.

"Holy s***..."

There were no words to describe how we were feeling, but there were several to describe what we saw. Outside the window, clearly visible from the bedroom, was Canterlot. That wouldn't be too shocking if it weren't the fact that it was in flames. Smoke was also billowing above the castle, forming a cloud of smog similar to the one generated by the dragon in episode eight of the first season.

"Well, now what?" AJ finally said.

"We get the others. GUYS!!! COME QUICK!!!" I yelled. There was a quick response from the others, which came in the form of a stampeding herd of ponies and a dragon. Discord and Twilight screwed the thought of walking, and just teleported up here instead.

The look on everyone's face was just plain depressing when they looked out the window. It was even worse when Walter tried to get an answer out of this mess. "So now what the hell do we do?"

"I have no f***ing clue." Alex said a moment later.

"Should we go there?" Celestia asked.

"I guess we have no other choice. Discord? How good are you with teleporting multiple things?" I replied.

"Pretty good. See for yourself." And before any of us could realize what he was doing, he did it. Nearly instantaneously, all fifteen of us were directly in front of the Canterlot Palace. The normally bright and cheerful palace grounds were now gloomy and dark. A frightened pegasus bolted from the door and started flying away from the front gates, only to be stopped by Discord, who hoped to collect some answers from him.

"Just where do you think you're going?" Discord inquired.

"Oh, come on! Do I really have to explain this again?" He didn't seem to be too shaken up by the fact that he was talking to the former enemy of Equestria. This couldn't mean anything good at this point.

"To us, yes." Celestia said.

"Celestia? Where were you?!?"

"It's a very long story that I do not have the time for. First, you tell us."

"Okay, fine. Ever since you left, Luna assumed the role that you did while she was on the moon, raising both the sun and the moon. Basically a queen. But that's not all. Ponies have been waking up who think that they're something called a human."

I couldn't help but cut him off there. "DAMMIT!!! WE'RE TOO LATE!!!"

"LET ME FINISH! Anyway, several of them don't remember who they were, but a few actually recognize this place. Those are the ones who are peaceful. Can you explain this?"

"Yes. Where the humans come from, there's this fanbase..." We all pitched in to explain what was going on, but it took about ten minutes. Too long.

"So you're telling me that they're all from a different universe?!?" He yelled.

"Basically. Watch out for the others; they may be very aggressive."

"We already knew that. Some of the 'Anti-Bronies' you mentioned earlier are the ones responsible for this." He swung a hoof at the cloud of smoke coming from the fire in the castle.

"Oh my God. You're kidding me..." Bill said, staring wide-eyed at the pillar of smoke.

"I wouldn't. I have no reason to kid at a hectic time like this."

"One last question," Celestia piped in, "How long was I gone?"

"Couldn't have been more than two days. Why?"

"This is worse than I thought... The two universes are literally colliding within the fourth dimension..." Discord said.

"Thanks for the help." I said as I turned back towards the rest of my group. "Any more ideas?"

Discord's answer alarmed me, even though it sounded legitimate. "Find Luna, then get back to the barn."

It didn't take long for Celestia to find Luna. She ended up cowering in her bedroom, in her bed, at the end of the left staircase, just as she predicted. It was quite a sight to see the indigo princess of Equestria on the verge of tears.

"Holy bit! Are you okay?" Francine blurted out.

"N-n-no... The Humans are t-taking over. And there's n-nothing we can do..." Luna's voice was shaky.

"Sister, please. Come with us. We need your help." Celestia pleaded.

"W-what for? There's n-no use..."

"We can explain. Just come with us."

"I c-can't let my citizens j-just go like this."

"There's nothing else you can do here. Follow us."

"To where?"

"Earth. It's our only hope."

Luna reluctantly agreed to it as Discord teleported us all back to Ponyville. Luna was alarmed by the fact that Ponyville was completely abandoned.

"So, to the barn then?" I suggested. The rest agreed, and soon we were all on our way to save Equestria. And probably Earth, too. It was a rather grueling walk to the barn, mainly because of how friggin' scary Ponyville looked with nopony there.

When we found ourselves in front of the barn, nothing seemed unusual. We all knew it was too good to be true. A brave Applejack bucked open the door to see what was inside and was shocked (as all of us were) at what was in front of us. Replacing the usual hay and straw on the ground, was Bill's living room. It was almost as if we just all walked out of Bill's kitchen and never went to Cali in the first place... I stepped forward into the room. After a split second of complete disorientation, I found myself to be a human on all fours again. Whoa. I turned around and got to my feet.

"You guys coming?" I found that everypony was looking up at me, which was a little awkward, given that I was six feet tall and they were only around three. "Oh, sorry."

The rest walked into the room, revealing the human version of themselves. Two new faces were revealed this time, in which Pinkie Pie was a artsy-looking, poofy-haired teenager, while Luna was a tall, thin, dark skinned woman. After they were used to their newfound universe, we could get back to what we were trying to do: Get back to California.

"Any ideas for what to do next?" Francine asked.

{log status = idle}

[recording = false]

Location: Silverton, Colorado, USA

Date: June 17, 2012

Time: 8:39 AM

{log status = begun}

[recording = active]

We started at each other for a good fifteen seconds with dumb looks on our faces, resulting in one answer coming out of Jackie's mouth: "Nope. I'm out." I could tell that everyone was a little shocked by whatever the hell just happened, so the silence continued long after Jackie's response.

Naturally, Discord and I were the first ones to make a legitimate comment.

"Discord. Do you think you can do that mass teleportation thing again?"

"I doubt it, but it's well worth a shot..." He went into a trance-like state before we all were given a feeling that was not only disorienting, but oddly ticking at the same time. I had no time to dwell on the thought, mainly because we were back at the motel parking lot in a flash. Literally. Bazinga.

"Please don't ever ask me to do that on Earth ever again..." Discord said after being seemingly shaken up from what had happened.

After Luna had time to recover from what certainly appeared to be her first teleportation stunt on Earth (which is much more intense, btw), we all regathered in the middle of the parking lot at what appeared to be sunrise. I could only pray that it was the same week.

"Well, that was interesting. Shall we head over to where we should have been in the first place?" Everyone knew what Bill was talking about, so we clamored into the bus. Several of us wanted to sit next to Luna, but Celestia had the last say in that, and sat next to her before any of us had a chance to. Not that I'm complaining; I'm sure that Celestia explained everything to her a lot better than we could have. You know, being her sister and all.

{log status = idle}

[recording = false]

Location: Sacramento, California, USA

Date: June 17, 2012

Time: 8:42 AM

{log status = begun}

[recording = active]

It was a long and awkward drive sitting next to Spike.  You think that us being only a couple years apart in age would make up for some good times together, but nope.  That probably made it worse. Somehow.

"Hi." I tried. That was as good as I could do, though.

"Um, hello."

The rest of the bus ride consisted of complete silence between us. And even though that time was only about five minutes, it felt like way longer.

The bus finally stopped in a large, mostly vacant parking lot, which lined a large array of studio warehouses. And in the middle of it all was a tower that closely resembled the one from Half-life 2: dark, metal, and sinister. Sadly, not as tall. That would be pretty boss.

We all climbed off of the bus and formed a small circle in the parking lot in an attempt to collaborate ideas.

"Alrighty then, I have a basic plan, but feel free to jump in and add suggestions as I go along. Basic plan is this: Because this is a high security area, the pegasi take the rooftops, while the earth ponies scout forward on the ground, backed up by the unicorns. Spike, Celestia, Luna and I can alternate or back up the unicorns. Wait... Luna, do you have wings?" Discord asked.

Neither Celestia nor Luna knew if they had magic or wings, so they had to check while the rest of them wondered why nobody asked that in the first place. To make an awkward story less so, they both had their abilities back. Thank God for that, because that probably would end up in much frustration if not.

At this point, we almost thought that seventeen of us was overkill, but we didn't know that yet, so we had to go along with it.

"So, remember. Get in, destroy the generator, and get out. Do as little damage elsewhere as possible." Discord finished.

Fluttershy sheepishly raised a hand. "What if we bump into someone?"

"It depends. If they appear to be friendly, act casual and let them be on their way. If they do not appear to be friendly, knock them out."

Fluttershy gave Discord a look similar to a Fluttercry IRL.

"Okay. Any other questions? If not, we enter through the front gates in ten."

There was a quiet murmuring from the circle of people before everyone broke up to try and prepare themselves. I wasn't too concerned with getting ready, mainly because I couldn't take my mind off of what could happen after this was all over. I had no idea what was about to happen, but what I know happened happened a little too fast for my liking. Let me put you in my shoes: You wake up away from home as a friggin' cartoon character with amnesia, find the star of your favorite TV show. The next day, meet her friends, meet the enemy of the show, meet more humans, get both groups together, go to Earth, discover magic, meet Celestia. The next day... You know what, you get the point that all this s*** happened in three and a half days.

Most of us were rather hungry, so I tried summoning food. Twilight said earlier that it was worthless, but I knew I had to give it a shot because we had no breakfast. So with that, a large box of energy bars and a couple bunches of bananas were soon in front of us.

{log status = idle}

[recording = false]

Location: Sacramento, California, USA

Date: June 17, 2012

Time: 8:55 AM

{log status = begun}

[recording = active]

A while after, when everyone was supposedly ready, we started making our way towards the front gate of the fenced in studio. It was fairly dramatic, but for some reason, was just downright weird. Well, I had never done anything intentionally illegal before this, so that could contribute to that feeling. I ignored it and kept walking.

Before I knew it, I was at the edge of the fence. There was a small white control booth at the right side of it with nobody inside.

"Tyler. Get in there and see what you can do to open this thing." Discord asked.

I had no problem getting inside the booth with teleportation, but when I was inside, I was shocked at the fact that there was nothing inside to open the gate. Was this a trap? The entire concrete ground shifted, then slid down a couple of inches. S***!!! It was!!! I teleported as fast as I could out of the booth to find that the gate had actually opened, but a loud alarm had gone off throughout the studio.

"LISTEN!!! People are probably going to try and kill us VERY soon, so remember the plan Discord told us! PEGASI!! TAKE THE ROOFTOPS!! EARTH PONIES!! SCOUT THE GROUND!! THE REST OF US WILL BACK YOU UP!!! GO!!!" I tried to rally up the rest, and it actually seemed to work. The Pegasi were surprisingly prepared for this, for they had cut holes in the back of their shirts for their wings. They unfurled them and took off, all of six of them (even Woona) veering sharply to the left like a fighter wing, landing all of them on the curved roof of a studio directly to the left. The rest of us charged forward, blindly barreling towards an entrance to the tower. I heard a shouting voice above me as I was running.

"WATCH YOUR LEFT!!!" It was Dashie, supposedly warning us of a group beside us. We were almost at an intersection, and I had a perfect plan for getting past them. Well, at least a good plan for some of us. Run like Hell. The guards, who were in full black riot gear, about six of them, lowered Plexiglas shields and pulled rifles out right in front of us.

It all happened like a slow-motion, professionally choreographed dance. In one fluid motion, my entire lower half exploded in a fury of lightning again, sending me soaring over the line of guards as they opened fire on us. Meanwhile, below me, Applejack jumped about a foot in the air while turning around backwards and bucking the middle one in the face, sending him straight into the ground and his gun spinning. Walter, not being one to be fancy, simply tackled another to the ground as Walter did a parkour roll over him, probably breaking a couple of the guard's ribs, but definitely sending Walter back into sprinting across the concrete. I'm not sure what happened to the rest of them, but I know for sure a couple of them escaped unscathed, because the intimidating sound of rapid gunfire echoed the street behind us. I did hear a couple short bursts of flame, though, hinting that Spike may have had a part in the group's escape. My spark trick launched me ahead of the group, but that didn't mean that I didn't care about the rest of them. I looked back up at the rooftops to our left just in time to see the small group of six jump and glide diagonally across the street, landing with a "BOOM" on top of the studio to our right.

"How are you guys doing up there?" I asked them.

"Other than exhausted and horrified, absolutely fine." Celestia smartassed me. Huh. There's a concept. I made no response.

Back on the ground, all of us were still sprinting for our lives. We saw the tower come closer to us, but that raised few hopes, especially after Jackie spoke up. "GUARDS!!! SIX-O-CLOCK!!!"

We all looked behind us to find that a larger group of about ten was trailing us, and they were gaining. Luckily for us on the ground, the pegasi had a plan. Just as the guards had their guns out and were about to open fire on us, the pegasi jumped off of the roofs to our right, turned hard left, dived, and whooshed past us going in the opposite direction, plowing over several of the guards and stunning the rest, buying all of us time.

We kept running. It was hard for all of us to keep up with the pace the pegasi had set for us, but luckily, ponies must have had much more endurance than us humans, and we picked that up somehow in Equestria. I checked my heart rate to find it alarmingly slow for the amount of distance we were putting behind us. I impulsively wanted to shout "I'm not even winded!" in a Brooklyn accent, but that lead me to a much better idea from thinking of Team Fortress Two. The gun. I had seen one sliding across the ground when Applejack bucked one of the guards in the face at the first intersection. Location. The gun was flashy, automatic, and black. Object. I concentrated, and for one brief moment, everything in front of me went white.

After what seemed like minutes but couldn't have been longer than a second, the white faded and I was left with an assault rifle in my hands. Words cannot describe to you how badass I felt just then.

The tower was getting closer and closer by the second. By now it was fairly close, but I really couldn't tell how much longer it would be. It certainly wouldn't be short, though. We didn't even know where the entrance was...

"ON YOUR RIGHT!!!" A loud Jackie derailed my train of thought and sent it screeching to a halt, catapulting my mind into IRL awareness. Thank goodness for that, or I don't think I would have noticed the pack of intimidating guards charging at us from our right. Thankfully, I was still fired up (literally) and at the front of the group. The pack of enemies stopped in the middle of the intersection and ducked down into a defensive position. I loaded the gun I was holding and opened fire. I had good aim with haywire guns, with the practice gained through Nerf wars and paintball with geeky friends of mine. I managed to puncture the upper halves of several shields, giving the guards an unexpected retaliation and knocking a couple to the ground. Yes, I was trying to do that.

"Where the hell did you get that?" I heard a voice behind me say. I turned around to find that it was Alex and smirked at him.

"Found it." I replied.

Just because I had stunned a few of them didn't mean safety on my part, because that just gave the rest of them a green light to fire back. Thank god I wasn't the only one prepared for this wave. Twilight had some tricks up her own sleeves, and was already working on something else. I could only tell this by the over-determined look on her face and the sound of magic coming from her. Since I had a gun and a plan to run like hell, I had no interest in dealing with the rest of the guards, so my legs were sparked up once again.

I was about to perform another daring leap over the wave of baddies before I had actually noticed what Twi had did. As the guards pulled out their guns and were about to fire away, I saw the guns themselves. Twilight had summoned metal plugs directly into the barrels of the guns. And with a careless trigger pull on their part, the entire line of men in front of us had small explosions  directly in front of them, followed by smoke, fire, and several destroyed guns and riot shields. Damn... Twilight just did something badass. I am proud.

"Nice work Twi!" I shouted behind me.

With their guns out of the way, they were easier to get past. I simply launched myself past them, while the rest of the group dealt with them in ways that I didn't see, mainly because I was still so far ahead.

We were close to the tower by now, and in the shadow of all its creepy steel evilness. There appeared to be a set of double-doors on the front, so we kept running towards it. The pegasi finally leapt off the roof and caught up to us again, looking just as exhausted as everyone else was. We all slid to a stop in front of the doors. Well, everyone except for me. I knew they weren't going to open easily because I saw an electronic lock on it just seconds before.

I sprinted towards the door. I got several looks from my fellow partners as I jumped about two feet in the air,   braced for impact by putting my arms in blocking positions, and completely obliterating the doorframe in front of me. There was an explosion of glass and metal shrapnel in front of me as I barreled through. After I rolled out of my sprint, slid to a stop at the other side of the linoleum lobby, and the loud sound of glass scattering around the room stopped, I looked up to find that the entire rest of the group was gawking at me.

After a solid ten seconds of gloriously awkward silence, a voice finally spoke up. "Whatever happened to trying to keep the damage too a minimum? Besides, there was probably about infinity other ways that you could have opened that door." It was Bill.

"Yeah, but none of them were nearly as fast or badass." I replied through uneven breathing.

Bill rolled his eyes at me and looked backwards to find that although there wasn't as much commotion as before, the guards who weren't injured were coming at us. Fast.

"S***!!! Quick! Find the stairwell!!" Bill shouted at the rest of us.

I stammered back up and quickly surveyed the room for a way up. As I looked around the square lobby, I noticed a desk to my right and a waiting room to my right, and behind that was a small white door that read in small letters, Stairs.

I alerted the others about it and opened the door with magic, and soon we were in a grey and white, poorly lit stairwell.

"Remember, it was on the eighth floor!" I reminded everyone as we started our ascent. It was only after a single flight of stairs that the rest of the guards got into the shaft with us.

"S***!!! GO!!! GO!!! GO!!!" I screamed at the rest of the group. It may have been too late. The guards were much faster at climbing stairs than we were, and within seconds they were directly behind us. The group clamored in chaos as the men took out guns and loaded them. And what seemed like several seconds of pure panic later, the first shot was fired. It was emotionally sickening to watch as Rainbow Dash, who was behind the entire group at the time, get struck in the shoulder by a devastating shot. The entire thing seemed to happen in slow motion, although seemed might have been a lie because I had no proof against the theory that I was witnessing it slowly; blood exploded out from behind her as it splattered on the wall behind her and she tumbled to the ground in pain.

Little did I know that I was next. I didn't realize how far behind the group I was at the time, and I suppose I just let the thought slip.

A second shot was fired. I heard it whizzing by me, just barely skimming my ear but drawing lots of blood.

A third shot was fired. This one drove straight into my gut, wrenching intense pain throughout my entire body rather than just my ear, making the first one feel like a warning shot. I suddenly couldn't breathe. I grabbed where I felt the shot to find warm blood seeping out of the wound. And I almost fell at the feeling of my own pain.

A fourth and final shot was fired. The target this time had it worse: Rarity... The other one at the back of the group. I almost felt time stop this time, but it wouldn't have made any difference this time. The shot screamed through the air and made its mark directly in the middle of Rarity's chest, hitting her heart and causing her to slump to the ground dead before she even had a chance to survive, leaving a crude stain of death on the wall behind her as I witnessed the last few moments of her life.

I did the first thing that came to mind. It was out of pure rage, but it bought us loads of time. The first thing I remember was pure hatred, followed by me screaming "YOU SON OF A BITCH!!!" and me suddenly going into a deep state of mental concentration, despite the intense emotional and physical pain I was going through at the moment. I remembered seeing a small car today. Object. It was in the parking lot of the motel. Place. And then thought. A massive crash echoed throughout the entire building as a car was summoned from nowhere and crushed the group of guards following us, plus the two sets of stairs beneath them as the car crumbled the concrete below them and landed with a few bursts of tortured screams and a deafening 'BOOM' below us.

I was shaking with pure rage at what had just happened. I wanted to collapse then and there, but there was still much to do. I did the first thing that came to mind from there. I turned backwards towards Dashie and dove at her. I flew down a half of a flight of stairs and parkour rolled out of it, which landed me next to her.  I had no time to tell the rest of the group what I was about to do, so I did it. I embraced Dashie and teleported the f*** out of there.

We found ourselves in the motel again seconds later, on the bed in our room, with me beside her.

"What happened?" she cried out through trembling lips and a wobbly voice.

"Calm down and let me get you a bandage for this." I replied as I ran into the bathroom, got a towel, and ran back out to her. I wrapped her shoulder in the makeshift bandage after checking if the bullet was still in her. Luckily, it wasn't, but that meant that the wound went straight through to both sides.

"T-thanks..."

"No problem. Stay here."

I ran back to the bathroom in a desperate scramble to try and get the bullet out of me, which I knew for a fact was still in there. I quickly took my shirt off, noticing how bad the wound was already. I didn't know how to heal using magic, but I had to do something with what I already knew. Levitation.

It started with a stabbing pain as I tried to move the bullet out of me. I screamed and clenched the sink rim with a white-knuckled grip. I moved it another centimeter. It twisted the invisible knife, only worsening the pain and making some of my own blood to flow into the sink, making me gag with disgust and pain. I moved it further, just barely getting enough courage to take it out all at once. With one searing moment of pure hell, I ripped it out of me with full force as I nearly broke the ceramic sink out of intense pain.

It took me at least another half-minute to regain a proper breathing pattern and realize what I needed to do next: Patch my self up and get back to the rest of the group. I flung a towel behind me and tied it up in front of me, making a makeshift bandage in about ten seconds flat.

I teleported back to the stairwell to find that my group had risen four flights in the time it took me to patch up Rainbow Dash and myself. I met up with the rest of the group to see what was happening. They were walking, as it turned out. And everyone was fearing the news of Dashie and I, along with being completely traumatized about what happened to Rarity.

Francine noticed me behind the group and looked back with a frightened appearance. "What happened to Dash? Are you okay?"

"She's patched up and healing as we speak. I'm in a lot of pain, but hopefully I can push past that. We need to keep going for the moment though." I replied. There was an awkward moment of agreement on the group's part as we slowly continued up the stairwell.

Once the eighth floor was finally reached, we pushed open the door to find two things: One, we were now in a long, curved to the left hallway, and two, the hall was densely lined with guards.

"DAMN IT!!!" I shouted as I realized what I was looking at. My heart raced again. This time faster than ever, and I could tell that I would need it.

Pony instincts got the better of me in this situation. I had still yet to find out what those actually were, but for the moment, they were pretty damn useful. Almost unwillingly, although I had no problem with it what-so-ever, I used the mass levitation trick that Twilight had taught me to raise the guns of the twenty or so guards straight out of their hands and into the air above them. They were shocked by what had just happened, but that didn't stop them from trying to kill me. They knew for sure at this point what we were up to.

It started as one but quickly went to all of them. The man closest to the front of our group got up and charged at us, obviously ready for some good old-fashioned hand to hand combat. You'd better believe I was ready too, because before I knew it, I was at the front of the group and fighting. He swung his fist at me from my right; but I appeared to be faster than that to him after ducking and returning with a jabbing kick to the knee. He buckled down slightly, but that didn't mean that he had given up. By now, the rest of the guards were charging, and the group was flowing in beside me to counter them. However, I had no time to think of my friends, because I was dealing with my own problems. The guard in front of me stood back up and went into a blocking stance. I decided to screw with him a little by teleporting behind him and knocking him out. I watched him slump down to the ground. That wasn't very much of a challenge, but I didn't care; I was here to shut down the generator, and nothing else.

The hall was crowded with brawl, and there probably wasn't a square foot of the place that wasn't covered by a fight. Even the more timid characters got in the act, including Fluttershy and Twilight. Both of which, I might add, were kicking flank.

I had to find a way through. Teleportation was almost out of the question because I couldn't see an open spot in the hallway, so I tried something a little fancier. If you wanted to call it that, at least. Parkour. The densely populated neighborhood I was in provided several opportunities for freerunning, and I took full advantage of them. The thought of what to do next was a weird one, mainly because I didn't really have one. I had noticed that over thinking some things leads to self-doubt, and jumping into it usually just doesn't give you time to worry about your confidence.

I ran. It was only an area of about five feet that I had to use to accelerate, but it appeared to work, because I had some pretty good speed going before I jumped.

I jumped. It wasn't very high up or intense, but it gave me a good landing point directly on the helmet of the guard that Jackie was fighting, sending him tumbling to the ground.

I jumped again. This time I angled myself towards the right wall and ran alongside it, using the left curve of it to help me with running on the wall.

I ran again. This time my feet were conformed to the angle of the vertical wall, so it wasn't as painful as I anticipated. I careened over the heads of several people, eventually landing at the other end of the hallway with a thumping sound and the quick slap of feet running. I still had to find out where the room to the generator was, so I started frantically checking doors. And after what seemed like minutes of hectic searching while a full-out brawl was going on behind me, I finally found it through the door second to last on the right.

I kicked it open to find the room was set up like a control room, with some chairs and complicated electrical wires and equipment to the right, and the entire left side of the room was occupied with a dark, metal machine. The generator.

Still standing in the doorway, I turned around and called out to the others. "YO!!! IN HERE!!!" I had to scream at them just to get their attention. But soon enough, everyone had finished their fights and were in the room with me. Even Flootershai, who was quivering in fear at what she had just done to one of the guards.

I had apparently done a good job of rallying them, because in less than ten minutes, we had all badly injured a total of about thirty people and killed about ten. Not that I'm bragging or anything. But we did just kick some ass.

Discord had an idea to present to me. "Tyler. I trust you recall the EMP incident?"

"Yeah, why?"

"Try that again. But this time, think of disabling machines, not creatures."

"I can try..."

I focused as hard as I could at just destroying the generator. What happened next was quick, almost to the point that I couldn't perceive it. Just a split-second after I realized I was about to explode in a shock of lightning again, I heard the sound of a helicopter above the rooftops. I knew for sure I would have to hurry at this point, but that was no matter, because I already had my hands pressed against the machine and had lighting arcing through it.

It happened. First the air blast that directly followed the initial shock sent everything and everyone in the room away from me. Second was the machine rumbling completely out of my control. Third was the sight and the sound of a helicopter spiraling past our window and crashing to the ground a hundred feet below. Fourthly, and finally, the explosion that followed all of that.

I can safely say that I had never been blown up before. Because if I had, I would have certainly remembered it. First your hair slaps the back of your neck from the unrelenting and unexpected thermal wind coming from the fire. Then the sensation of speeding wind hitting your face with full power. Then the acceleration you feel from being catapulted backwards, directly followed by a burning feeling I can safely say that nobody wants to go through. All of this is followed by the unforgivably intense pain of feeling everything behind you being broken by your back as you are shot directly away from the explosion. And it hurt like a bitch.

The excruciating pain was also accompanied by the sight of you falling. And falling. And falling. Oh yeah, and blacking out. After, of course, landing.

It was an odd sight seeing your own point of view tell you that you were just shot out of a building. Even weirder was seeing all of my group mates join me in destroying walls with our bare backs, causing them to fly out of their own separate holes in the tower caused by their paths of destruction.

And the most bizarre thing I saw in the last few seconds I thought I was going to be alive? Watching the building that I was just in erupt in flames as the entire top three floors were obliterated with fire.

And THEN I blacked out.

{log status = idle}

[recording = false]

Location: Sacramento, California, USA

Date: June 18, 2012

Time: Unknown

{log status = begun}

[recording = active]

Several hours must have passed since I was knocked out by the intense jolt of landing on your back from eight stories up. I knew this because I was back on the bus once again. My eyes slowly crawled into a state of awareness as I found myself next to Pinkie Pie.

"Holy s***. What the hell just happened?" I absentmindedly asked her.

"OMIGOSH!! HE'S UP!!!" she replied.

Before I could comprehend what was going on, the entire bus erupted in applause and cheer. Smiling and shy as can be, I slumped back into my seat. And for the first time in an entire week of insanity, right in the middle of the bus, I celebrated. Because we were alive.

I laughed and turned to Pinkie again.

"What happened after we landed?"

"It's a really weird story. The top of the building was blown up and we all fell from the tower, so some of us blacked out but all of us were hurt. You the worst, though. You were the last one to wake up, which is what just happened. But guess what!"

"What."

"Rainbow Dash is okay!... But Rarity isn't... I'll miss her." A tear rolled down her cheek.

I hugged her. "I will too."

"I guess it will be okay... But especially now because the humans invited us to stay with them in that cool valley town in the mountains!"

"Silverton? Really?"

"Yeah! Isn't that great?"

"It sure is."

{log status = idle}

[recording = false]

The Aftermath

{log status = begun}

[recording = active]

It's been a month since the adventure ended, but that doesn't mean anything. The collision between worlds may have been stopped from doing any real damage, but what was done could not be undone. And in this case, it was a lot. A ton, actually. You see, the entire race of Equestrians woke up as humans, and the entire race of humans woke up in Equestria. It's obvious how we know the first one, but about the second...

All seventeen of us are living in Silverton. I personally live in Bill's house, which to this day, still has the portal to the barn in Sweet Apple Acres. Cool part is, we seem to be the only ones to see it, let alone be able to use it. Which is nice, but I'd like to spread the peace of mind. Which I can't.

Thank God we can still use magic and fly. I never knew how I lived before it. Everything appears to be much easier now, although the problem is, we might not have been able to survive without it. The disappearance of humans on Earth led to a shortage in electricity and water, making us live off of the town stream. It's also nice to know that ponies can handle these kind of situations well.

Back in Equestria, the humans have brought on much of the heavy-duty Discord-grade chaos. No real government has been formed, leading everything to insanity. Luckily, they are surviving. And soon, (i hope, at least) a sense of order will appear.

{log status = idle}

[recording = false]

{log status = begun}

[recording = active]

It has been an entire year since 'the incident' happened, as it later became to be known as. The ponies have already established a few governments, but that also means that a lot of cities and towns worldwide are abandoned.

However, back in Equestria, that meant overpopulation. Ponies have been dying frequently, and although I'm not for it, I think it is doing good. I say this because a democracy has been established in Canterlot!

{log status = idle}

[recording = false]

{log status = begun}

[recording = active]

Two years have passed. The governments have helped tremendously in both Equestria and Earth, meaning that it's safe to roam between the two. I still choose Earth. Equestria has been kind of messed up lately. Some brony found Twilight's house and turned it into an internet shrine, but that went downhill fast after Twilight found the person who started it.

In other news, Princesses Celestia and Luna are finally taking over again, finally bringing total order to Earth again. Equestria has some catching up to do...

{log status = idle}

[recording = false]

{log status = begun}

[recording = active]

Three years have gone by quickly. The governments have grown strong in both worlds, but especially Earth's. Electricity was rediscovered, and with that, the power plants and water treatment plants were reopened.

I recently had an awkward reunion with my parents in Equestria. The order has increased there, letting more and more citizens get to know each other. The day that ponies were required to wear nametags was the day I found my mom. And there was much rejoicing.

With electricity in Earth also came more sophisticated forms of entertainment. TV and radio stations slowly started coming up from there.

{log status = idle}

[recording = false]

{log status = begun}

[recording = active]

Four years. The rediscovery of amusement parks led to Dashie riding her first coaster at Cedar Pointy. The name? Corkscrew. Happened to be my first inverting coaster. That was soon followed by Mantis, then Wicked Twister, then Magnum XL-200, and finally, Millennium Force. So it's official; I made a coaster enthusiast. /)*3*(\

Equestrians tried out their hooves at electricity and skyrocketed their expansion rates of the cities in their world. And speaking of electricity, parts of the internet have started going up recently. Again, /)*3*(.

I still visit my parents in Equestria almost daily, but it's become hard to detain them from where I've been going when I'm not in Equestria.

{log status = idle}

[recording = false]

{log status = begun}

[recording = active]

Five years. It's been one hell of a ride to get here, but it happened. The economies of Earth as well as Equestria have been mostly restored, letting each race work out every aspect of the other's culture, religions, and trades. Through this, we found out that ponies were spread out entirely throughout the world, as well as humans throughout the MLP planet. Equestria was just one country out of the hundreds, like the U.S. is too the world. And even though that my life is barely over, I still feel as though I have probably had enough adventure for a lifetime.

{log status = off}

[recording = disabled]

Signing;

_o_u_t_

.

.

.