Stargate SG1: Equestrian Arc

Chapter 2:

Awakening

Jack pulled himself out of the water and onto the dock. He turned around and sat with his feet dangling in the water pondering how he got there in the first place. He didn’t remember jumping into the pond only that he found himself surfacing next to the dock. He kicked his feet a few times splashing the water and watching it ripple across its surface then he lay back, resting on his arms for a moment feeling comfortable as the coolness of the water slowly evaporated from his skin. Above him, the bright summer sun beamed down upon him, and it warned him almost to the point where he didn’t need the towel that lay at the edge of the dock. As he looked out over the water, the trees gave a gentle sway as a soft breeze blew in and brought with it the scents of the flowers and grasses of forest that surrounded his property. His place was always warm and welcoming even on the coldest winter days.

Jack grabbed hold of the towel, dried his face, then tossed it over his shoulder as he stood up and walked around to the front door to the cabin when he spied the beer sitting on a small table at the far end of the front porch where he must have left it before he went swimming. He walked over to it, grabbed the bottle, and popped the top taking a long drink of its contents. It was warm, flat, and tasteless as if it had been there a long time he made a sour face as he put the bottle down, walked back over to the front door of the cabin, and stood there where he strangely found himself studying the trim work around the door. He had stepped through this door many times before but for some reason, this felt odd and out of place. He wasn’t sure, but it was as if he were looking at a stranger. Unlike the summer sun that surrounded the cabin, it felt cold and deceptive as if waiting to torment him should he pass through. But this was his home, one that he had known for many years, and he wasn’t about to let that stop him and so he shrugged it off and reached the handle when he heard the activation of the staff weapon breaking the serenity of the silence within him.

The blast exploded against the wall next to him and Jack dove for cover. As Jack lay prone upon the ground, he spied the nine-millimeter lying in front of him. With deft swiftness, he grabbed the weapon and brought it around to fire upon his assailant. More blasts hit the wall where he stood moments ago and in return, he fired several shots but could not see who it was that was shooting at him and missed his target. In his haste, he quickly ran out of ammunition but he knew he had more weapons inside the house and he got up with a barrage of staff weapon energy bolts erupting all around him. He reached for the door handle and opened the door but stopped in his tracks coming within inches of the wormhole event horizon that lay upon the other side of his cabin doorway.

Confusion gripped Jack as he stood there staring at the shimmering light that belonged to the Stargate in front of him. The unprovoked attack seemed to stop as quickly as it started, as Jack stood there mesmerized by the portals opening. Jack took his hand, placed his palm against the event horizon, and watched it ripple out like the waves on a pond. It was warm and welcoming much like his cabin, much like the touch of an old friend. And for the first time in a long time, Jack felt at peace, when the portal erupted in front of him as the form of the giant Goa’uld worm broke through the portal, screeched and attacked.

…..

“I think he’s finally wakening up,” Daniel said.

Jack pulled his arm from beneath the blanket and rubbed his head with his hand, trying to drown out the ringing in his ears when his shoulder popped, and he realized just how much he hurt. Jacked looked around the room. It was a light blue colored room with three beds. Teal’c lay in one of them the other he guessed belonged to Daniel. A long white curtain flapped next to an open window that let in what felt like a warm summer breeze. And there was a small lamp sitting next to a vase on a tiny round table with some small pink and yellow flowers in it that looked freshly picked this morning. Probably all the things that made up his dream he thought.

“Easy,” Daniel said. “You have a few bruised ribs and a dislocated shoulder but the, um… doctor, here said you’ll be somewhat fine in a few days.”

“So this is what it feels like to be, ‘flushed.” Jack said as he rotated his shoulder a few times trying to work out the kinks. Looking down at his chest, he found that his ribcage wrapped in a bandage. “Are Teal’c and Sam okay?” he asked.

“Yes, Teal’c is in his usual state of Kel’no’reem and Sam is down the hall, I talked to her a little bit ago. We were picked up by the um… locals after we were washed out through some underground passageways and into a large canyon of sorts. I was told a few of them were, ‘flying,’ by when they spotted us.” Daniel said trying to mask the tension in his voice.

Jack paused the rubbing of his eyes with the palm of his hand over his nose and shot him his usual perplexed look. “Flying,” he quoted raising one eyebrow. Jack sat up and gave him a stern look, clasping his hands together, “So now we have little ‘flying’ aliens,” he emphasized. “Are they at least green this time?”

Daniel just gave a steady sigh trying to break the news as gently as possible. “Yes, some are green, but mostly, multicolored. But at least they speak English and their friendly enough, once you get used to the fact that they’re…” he paused.

Jack knew something was amiss; they had been to many countless worlds and encountered aliens of all kinds before. “Go on,” he said. Anymore, strange was all part of the job. Meeting the ‘out of the ordinary’ and ‘unusual things’ has practically become routine, so Jack sat back, crossed his arms and waited for the preverbal punch line. “This won’t faze me. As they say, I’ve seen it all,” and was prepared for anything…

There came a knock at the door, and the door slowly opened a small, light brown horse creature with a horn on its head, surrounded by a short but well-kept chocolate colored mane. It was also wearing what looked to be a stethoscope around its neck over top a doctor’s lab coat that hung over its tail of the same color of its mane. It stood about the size of a welsh pony only it’s hooves were much larger around than any standard horse he’s ever known, but what really got Jack’s attention was that it had two of the biggest eyes he had ever seen. They took up nearly the entire head, which was also unusually large for such a small creature, and except for the small nose muzzle and large ears, it gave it a very human like aspect.

Jack sat in awe and silence staring at it as it walked over to him and spoke. “Ah, I we’re finally awake. My name is Doctor Farrier, and I wanted to step in here and check on you. To make sure, your bandages are in place.”

By the sound of it, voice Jack surmised that this ‘Doctor’ was female but he wasn’t about to go searching for confirmation on that.

The creature’s horn began to glow a soft tan colored aura and Jack felt a tightening of the bandages around his ribcage. “I also wanted to inform you that the word of your arrival has been brought to the attention of Princess Celestia and she is on her way here to meet with you personally. You’ll find your belonging over there in the closet, or at least as much as we could find.”

Jack and Daniel watched in silence as the unicorn doctor levitated a clipboard and pen in front of them and jotted down some notes then levitated them back into the pockets of her lab coat. “The princess should be here shortly, I assume you will want to make yourselves presentable for her. Good day to you.” And with that, she turned and walked out of the room.

“… Anything except that,” Jack thought as he looked up at Daniel at a complete loss for words.

Daniel put a hand to his mouth and cleared his throat, “Mythological creatures.”

“Mythological creatures,” said Jack now questioning his sanity and the possibility that he might actually be dead or hooked up to yet another alien machine to drive him mad.

“Yes,” Daniel said. “The main denizens of this planet seem to be Unicorns, Pegasus, and other equines. But they seem to use the general term “Pony” when talking about themselves. They call this land Equestria, but I am not sure if that is a local or planetary name and we are in a hospital that in the village of Ponyville. The majority of these ‘Ponies’ are female and judging by the fact that there’s a Princess on her way; I’m guessing this is a matriarchal society. They do not seem to be at odds with bipedal creatures, but I do not get the impression that they have ever seen a human before either. But with the fact that there was a Stargate here, and by some of the things that I have seen so far, I suspect that there was some kind of human influence some time in their past. Quite possibly the Ancients, but I have yet to prove that theory.

Jack shook his head and threw up his hands, stopping him in mid babble. “Just how long have you been awake?”

“Oh. About a half hour or so” Daniel said trying not to sound too uncanny. “Well, it goes to say that until recently, Egyptology and Norse mythology were but mere myths and it turned out that had their root beginnings with the Stargate on earth. So, is it so farfetched an idea that Mythological creatures such as Unicorns and Pegasus also started with the Stargate, as well. Who knows, we might even see a dragon or two here,” Daniel said, failing to hide his enthusiasm.

Jack put a hand on his face “Multi colored talking horses,” Jack said, “We have officially seen it all.”

“Funny, that’s what Teal’c said,” said Daniel.

…..

A short while later both Jack and Teal’c were up and about finishing up a checklist of items that were recovered by these ‘ponies,’ including all their weapons, the p-90’s, Zats, and Teal’c staff weapon. Either, they didn’t know what weapons were, or they felt secure enough to let us keep them, Jack wasn’t sure which, but ‘he’ felt safer with them in their hands. They had also recovered the backpack items and rations along with the GDO. Nothing here seemed the worse for wear despite being through the spin cycle of a wormhole. They had even gone as far as to wash and fold all their clothing and had them neatly tucked away in the closet “Tidy little things,” Jack said to himself as he passed Teal’c’s staff weapon over to him. It was nice and warm here, so they decided to forgo the overcoats they wore in the cold Atlantic sea, fatigues always suited him better anyway.

They gathered their things and headed for the door; Carter and Daniel were outside and had already started talking with some of the locals. They had been trying to find out if any of them knew if they had seen any others like them in recent days but so far, no luck but he was sure that, without the gate, the Goa’uld would soon have to make their move.

This of course was a problem for them as well, According to Carter the gate lie buried under a mountain of rubble. This was by far the biggest problem because they were going to have to find it first, and hope it still works. That will have to be the first priority, Jack said to himself as he donned his hat and sunglasses walked outside.

He stood outside with Teal’c at the front doors to the hospital, surveyed the area, and was a bit surprised on its size of the village for such small inhabits. Ponyville, he guessed, was approximately about a mile and half or so around give or take. Many of their homes were well crafted and covered in a thick layer of flowers or vines making it a quaint little village that kind of reminded him of an old English town, right down to the thatched roof design, nestled between rolling hills.

There were scattered tents with wares for sale, and the air held a sweet smell of baked goods like fresh bread from the oven, nothing like what he was expecting. The pathways were neat and clean; there were wagonloads filled with fresh piles of hay, and straw probably harvested not that long ago. Birds sang from many of the trees, and the clear skies were a wonderful bright blue with the warm glow of the sun beaming its warm radiance across the land.

This could be just like any place back home… except for the thousand pairs of large eyeballed horses staring at him.

There were ponies everywhere of all colors of the rainbow. Some wore clothing; many did not. There were ponies on the balconies and windows of the homes in town, and even a few of the ones with wings were flying or hovering nearby and all of them watching them.

“Curious bunch,” Jack said.

“Indeed,” Teal’c said in his usual monotone voice.

“Hello,” Jack said waving a hand in the air. “I’m Colonel Jack O Neill and this is Teal’c” pointing to Teal’c, who bowed in greetings.

Jack had that awkward feeling wash over him like a flood. You would think that after talking to both Sam and Daniel that these ponies’ reactions would have been more receptive but he got nothing more than whispers and talk amongst their selves until one of them bravely stepped forward through the crowd.

Judging by what he saw with the doctor, and the fact that Daniel said they were mostly female, he easily guessed she was a she. There were only slight differences between the mares and the stallions but once you learned it, you could clearly distinguish the two.

The one that walked forward was a light colored purple pony with short curly pink striped main and tail. She didn’t have wings or a horn, nor did she were the clothing like some of the others. But what stood out most, was the fact that she had these three little yellow flower marks on her, um, butt. “Probably some sort of ritual markings,” Jack thought. He couldn’t see it on the doctor because of the outfit she was wearing, but now that he noticed, he noticed that they all had some sort of markings on their collective rumps.

“Greetings" she said; "My name is Miss Cheerilee. Don’t mind the others, their skittish at first until they get to know you. When Mister Jackson and Miss Carter came out, most of them ran away except for Twilight and her friends, but they are starting to feel more comfortable around you."

“I’m honored,” Jack said trying to hold back the cynicism. “I don’t suppose you know where, um, ‘Mister Jackson’ and ‘Miss Carter’ went to?”

“I believe that they went with Twilight and her friends to the library. I can take you there if you like,” she said.

“Lead on,” Jack said painting a smile on his face as best he could.

…..

The sounds of chains rattling in conjunction with pick axes, shovels, and the scraping of bare claws upon the rock, stone, and mud echoed throughout the caverns as three dog like figures, pushed along a cart full of dirt and muck towards the dumping point. Each one, chained at the neck and ankles to the cart, labored as hard as they could trying to push the heavy load up the rocky path, all under the watchful eyes of the creatures in silver armor who stood there with the fire and lightning sticks in their claws.

The ceiling had collapsed when water that sprang from the large metal ring flooded the caves and now their new masters forced them to dig new tunnels. No dog rested, and when a dog fell, punishment came with pain from the smaller lightning stick until he began to move again.

Many dogs were hurt and tried to escape at first, but they failed and were captured then quickly bowed down to their new masters. They began by making them dig for all the gems and crystals that their caverns held, but even the dirt and mud held a special interest to the silver creatures left nothing to waste.

As the three pushed the cart onto the dumping point, three of the silver creatures walked up to them, two of the guards pointing their fire sticks at them and the three dogs cowered in fear. None of them spoke as the third guard unlocked one of them and dragged him off down the corridor with his friends looking on with terror in their eyes knowing there was nothing they could do about it.

He walked between them; his body slumped over with his ears drawn low. He was frightened of the silver armored ones. He was once the leader of the Diamond Dogs until the silvered ones ripped his shirt off and placed him in chains like the others.

He let out a small whimper as they led him down deeper into the mines. He knew where he was going. They were taking him to see the one in gold armor that showed up before the flood. One that he quickly learned to fear even more than the silvered ones; the one called Ra.

Author's Note

12/7/13 Errors and corrections made