Joel/Krieg’s POV:

I let out a long yawn as I began to awaken from my sleep, finding myself lying face down with my head buried in the pillow of Twilight’s guest bed. I rolled over to lay on my back but found that the pillow followed my movement and rolled with me. I gave a groan as I reached up and pulled it off of my head carefully, not wanting to rip it with the buzz axe in my head. Sure enough though I had torn a huge hole in the center of the pillow and feathers were now falling out onto my face. With a sigh I sat up in the bed and looked around the room, finding that both Twilight and Spike were not in their beds. I looked at the bed sheets and found that the upper half of them were torn and cut from me tossing around during the night. I climbed out of the bed and grabbed my gear that I had set down next to bed the previous night. After I had put it on I heard someone come in through the door and was greeted by a male voice.

“Oh you’re already awake.” The voice said nervously as I turned to look at the source, finding the small dragon spike standing in the door with a tray of some food in his hands. “Twilight told me to wake you up and give you this to eat.” He said as he walked over to me and handed me the tray of food. It appeared to be oatmeal and some apple juice to drink which I was okay with as compared to grass or something. “You do eat oatmeal right?”

“Yeah I can eat it.” I said as I took the tray from his hands. “Thanks.” I said as I put the tray down and reached up to take off my make but my hand froze mid reach.

‘NONONONONO!’ Krieg blared in my head as he held our arm in place when I tried to remove our mask, I guess he didn’t want me to take it off.

‘Fine, then how do we eat food then?’ I thought back at him as he slowly moved our hand to the nozzle on our mask that covered our mouth. He pushed a small button on the outside of where it connected to the actual mask and turned it to the left. With a small burst of air the nozzle came off, leaving a small hole where our mouth was. After that was done he gave me back control of my arm again and I gave a sigh before picking up the bowl of oatmeal and a spoon.

“Um, is that normal for you?” Spike asked as I managed to get the spoon through the rather small hole in the mask.

“Not for me no. But it is for Krieg apparently. He doesn’t want me to take of our mask off, don’t know why and nor do I really want to know.” I said as I took another bite of the oatmeal before reaching for the apple juice and realized I couldn’t drink it like this. “You have any straws?”

“Uh sure I’ll go grab one for you.” He said before going off down the stairs rather quickly, if I didn’t know any better, I’d say he was afraid of me. But then again who wouldn’t be in this world, I must look like some kind of monster to them. With a sigh I finished off the oatmeal by the time spike came back with a straw in his hand. “Here you go.” He said as he hand it to me.

“Thanks, is twilight downstairs?” I asked as bent the straw to fit through the hole in my mask and drank the apple juice.

“Actually she left about ten minutes ago, she received a letter from the princess this morning that requested her in canterlot as soon as possible so she’s not here right now. But she left me in charge of you so no funny business got it?” He said firmly and I was surprised to hear that twilight was being called to canterlot. Maybe it had something to do with Luna visiting our dreams last night. At hearing that spike was put in charge of me I chuckled as I reattached the nozzle to my mask and felt a rush of air flow into my mouth from whatever the thing on our mask was.

“Alright spike, no funny business. Cross my heart hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” I said chuckling to myself as I gave the official pinkie promise, hand motion and everything. After I had finished Pinkie opened the bedroom window from the outside and looked me dead in the eye with a serious face that sent shivers down my spine. “Um, isn’t this bedroom on the second floor?”

“It is.” Spike said as if this wasn’t anything new or surprising. “It’s best not to question it.” He whispered in my ear as pinkie pie made a motion with her hoof that said she had her eye on me.

“Pinkie! How did you get up there?!” I heard Jack call from outside as Pinkie pie’s serious face was replaced by her usual smile before she began spouting off stuff I couldn't really make out as I gave a sigh and looked at spike.

“Could you please go let my friend in through the front door like a normal person please?” I asked and he nodded before heading downstairs to let Jack in.

“So how was your meeting with Princess Luna last night Joel? What did she say?” Pinkie suddenly asked which caught me by surprise as she climbed in through the window and sat down in front of me. I wanted to ask her how she knew about our meeting with Luna last night but then I remembered, Pinkie Pie. Don’t ask questions.

“It went well, least I don’t have to write out everything Krieg can do anymore.” I said smiling as I laid back down on the bed as Spike brought Jack up into the room. “So how was your night at sugarcube comer last night?” Asked with a light chuckled and Jack gave me a cold glare.

“The night was fine, it was this morning that was a pain. I woke up to the sound of babies crying and smell of a diaper needing to be changed.” He grumbled as he walked over to me and hit me in the shoulder as chuckled. “It would have been better if you had warned me they had kids.”

“Hehehe sorry, it skipped my mind.” I said chuckling as I rubbed where he hit my shoulder. “Anyways, Twilights not here right now and we don’t exactly have anything we should be doing right now. So I suggest we gather what info we know about us being here.” I suggested and Jack seemed to nod in agreement.

“Well what else can you guys find out without researching into anything because I doubt any of you can read equestrian.” Spike interjected.

“No, but what we can do is gather what we already know and try to figure something out. For example we were all playing video games when a freak storm caused a power outage back in our world. Next we all saw a blinding light that knocked us, after that we woke up here as the video game characters we were playing. Another thing is that I’m the only one with that characters voice in his head.” I explained and spike and pinkie took a seat in front of me as I lectured.

“I was actually wondering about that, why isn’t Riku in my head like Krieg is in yours?” Jack asked and I looked over to him.

“To be completely honest I’ve got nothing solid to go on for that. My best guess would be that whatever caused us to turn into our characters didn’t full convert Krieg into me. But now I’ve got a question for you Jack. When I first woke up here I found an echo device in the pit where I landed. When I picked it up it gave me all of my equipment just like when you play through borderlands a second time and claptrap give you the thing he loots from the frozen corpse you know?”

“Yeah I know, but what’s this have to do with me?” He asked

“I’m getting there. Well I have my flaming infinity pistol on me so I did a little experiment. I shot a hay bale and I caught fire just like Krieg would in the game. Which means all of the abilities and skills our characters had in the game have carried over to us.” I said and Jack seemed to catch on to where I was going with this.

“I get it, so do you think I can do flow motion like in my game or call out dream eaters?” He asked, almost sounding excited.

“It’s very likely you can but I haven’t got a clue how. The same would apply for Selene and being able to use bionic powers from mass effect. Speaking of which we should probably go get her, she should be hear this too.” I said as I realized Selene still wasn’t here, which meant she was probably waiting for us at sweet apple Acers.

“Oh I can take you there! I know the fastest way there and back!” Pinkie exclaimed as she bounced up from her seat.

“Well so long as you guys have somepony watching you I don’t mind you leaving so go ahead and leave with pinkie I’ll join up with you later. I got some chores to do.” Spike said as he took the try he brought up for me back down stairs and pinkie lead us out of the library and through the town.

To our surprise not many ponies stared at us as we passed them in town, while there were some not a lot of them bothered to take a long lasting look at us. But for now that didn’t really matter as we followed the bouncing pink pony out to the outskirts of the town and to sweet apple Acers. After we passed through the front gate we saw Selene in her N7 armor carrying a large basket of apples to the red barn that was the apple family home.

“Hey Selene!” I called out and she instantly looked over to us and smiled.

“Hey guys! What took you so long?” She called out to us before we got close enough where we didn’t have to shout.

“Well you know me, I’m a late sleeper.” I said chuckling as she set the basket of apples she had down and wiped some sweet off her forehead with her arm. “So what were you doing?”

“Well you know I hate imposing on others and not give something in return, so I decided I could at least help around here to kind of pay the rent for me being able to stay here you know?” She said smiling and I chuckled.

“Yeah I suppose so. Which reminds me I have to go help out Fluttershy after lunch time.” I said as I remembered that I promised to fix her front yard after I kind of destroyed it. “Anyways, until then we were pulling together all the facts we had about us being here and why and such.” I said but before I could go on I heard a voice call from the barn.

“Hey Selene does your world have apple pies?!” The voice of Applebloom called out as she stepped out the front door and stopped dead in her tracks when she saw us.

“It’s okay Applebloom, these are my friends Joel and Jack, I told you about them remember?” Selene said and Applebloom seemed to let out a sigh of relief before scampering over to us.

“Wow he is bigger than you!” She said as she looked up at me and I chuckled.

“Nice to meet you too. I’m Joel and he’s Jack.” I said smiling as Jack gave a nod and smile to the little pony. “I hate to ask but we’re gonna have to borrow Selene for a little while could you tell your sister that we’re going to Twilights library if she needs us?”

“Aww but I want to talk to Selene some more…” She whined and gave us a pouty face.

“Tell you what Applebloom, if you make a list of things you want to ask me and I’ll answer all of them when I get back ok?” Selene said smiling as she leaned down and petted Applebloom.

“Okay I guess that’s fair enough. I’ll go ahead and tell Applejack you’re going with your friends to the library.” Applebloom said as she smiled and moved her head into Selene’s head as she pet her.

“Thank Bloom, I’ll see you later.” Selene said smiling as she got back up and waved Applebloom goodbye as she scampered off into the barn to tell AJ we were leaving. As we made our way back to the library we filled Selene in on what me and Jack already discussed before we came to get her.

“Do you really think I can use powers like in the game?” She questioned me and I chuckled.

“Well I set myself on fire just like in the game, it’s a good bet that you guys can use your powers from the game too.” I said as we made it back to the library to find two guards standing at the door which made all of us worry. When they saw us they quickly gave us a salute which I’m pretty sure threw all of us through a loop.

“You are Joel, Selene, and Jack are you three not?” One asked and we nodded our heads. “The Princesses are waiting for you all inside.” He said as he opened the front door for us and we exchanged a look of confusion between ourselves before we made our way inside.

“Ah there they are.” Celestia said as she rose from her seat and setting a book down with her magic. Next to her was Luna and Twilight each of them also enjoying a book while Spike brought out some tea cups on a tray.

“You were waiting for us?” Jack asked and Celestia smiled at him warmly like she would to anyone.

“Don’t worry we didn’t wait long.” She said with a light chuckle as she looked us over. “I believe an introduction is in order for you two. I am Princess Celestia I am one of the four princesses that rule this land.” She said smiling and giving a slight bow. “My sister spoke to me about you both, you are Jack and Selene, some of Joel’s friends from his world correct?”

“Yes ma’am.” Selene said and Jack gave a simple nod.

“Well then we can move on to the matter at hand then, but first…” She said as she looked over to Pinkie Pie who came in with us. “…Pinkie, would you please return to sugarcube corner and help the Cakes prepare a banquet for tonight?” She asked and Pinkie nodded.

“You can count on me Princess Celestia!” Pinkie said smiling before she bound out of the library and leaving me and my friends alone with the princesses and Spike.

“Apologize but we wish to keep this discussion between those currently present and no others.” Luna said as she moved the seat cushion she was sitting on next to her sister and moved herself to sit next to her sister as she grabbed a cup of tea with her magic.

“I see. Well if you don’t mind me asking, what exactly will we be discussing?” I asked as I found myself a seat cushion and sat down across from the princesses, Jack and Selene doing the same.

“Well for starters it is about what the three of you are capable of.” Twilight said as she soon sat herself down on the other side of Celestia. “We know that you possess the ability of your characters that you had in these video games. But what we want to know is about the abilities you didn’t have in the video game but they were still an option.”

“I’m afraid I don’t follow.” Jack said as I gave a sigh.

“Let’s use me for an example Jack. For my Psycho class I didn’t take the skill bloodsplosion but I could still earn it if I put skill points in it.” I said as Jack seemed to catch on before I looked back at the princesses. “So I’m guessing you want to know whether or not we can use those skills since we’re not in a game right?”

“Precisely.” Twilight said as she took a sip of her tea.

“Well I hate to be the bearer of bad news but just because we know about our characters powers, that doesn’t exactly mean we know how to use them…” Selene said with a frown and Celestia smiled at her.

“We assumed as much so we have a plan to help you figure that out.” She said as she looked at her sister and Twilight and both gave her a nod as if they were agreeing to something. “With your permission we can put you three in a magic simulator.” She said and we all looked at her confused.

“What’s a magic simulator?” I asked and she smiled.

“It a spell that we shall cast on the three of you, the spell will put you in a training realm where you can practice your abilities freely without risking harm to anypony around you. This is the same spell we use when we train soldiers for the royal guard, however yours shall be a little different from theirs.” She said as she took a sip of her tea.

“With the information I gathered from you all the previous night I can generate a similar environment for you all to train in.” Luna said as her horn glowed and a large picture formed in front of each of us. Mine seemed to be just a simple little spot in the middle of nowhere with three houses that enemies would spawn out of from borderlands. Selene’s area appeared to be some type of facility out of Mass Effect. Jack’s seemed to almost be a perfect recreation of traverse town from kingdom hearts. “I take it these places seem at least somewhat familiar to thou?” Luna said and we nodded.

“Another thing you should know about this spell is that while whatever hits you may cause you pain in the simulation it does not mean you are in any actual danger.” Celestia said smiling which kind of put me at ease.

“So let’s see if I got this straight. You’re going to send us in this simulator, pit us against a bunch of enemies and hope we can learn how to control our powers from it?” Jack said in a bit of a ticked off voice.

“Neigh, we do not expect thou to do this by thou’s self. One of us shall accompany each of the in your simulation.” Luna said. “When one casts this spell the caster is also put in the simulation but appears only as a phantom, we can do nothing except give you advise and control when the enemies will come for the.”

“So basically you’re going to train us?” Selene asked and Celestia chuckled.

“No, to train you would mean we would have to know what it is we are teaching you. We can only be there to give you advice on how to use your powers.” She said smiling as she set her now empty tea cup down. “But as we said this is entirely up to you three if we should proceed with this idea.”

“I’m in.”

“Same.”

“I don’t see why not.”

“Excellent.” Luna said smiling as she rose from her seat and walked over to us along with Celestia and Twilight. “We assume that ye three will always be fighting together so we wish to know if thou would like to watch thou’s comrades fight one at a time.” She said and I gave her a puzzled look.

“I’m sorry but what does us fighting together have to do with watching each other fight? More importantly how would we be able to watch them fight?” I asked and she smirked.

“Tis simple, by watching thou’s friends train and fight you may find ways to improve thou’s own training way and learn how to fight alongside them better.” She said and I kind of got what she was going for. “And as for watching, we can create a one way viewing glass that shall let everypony else here watch without getting in thou’s way of training.” I would have further questioned how this one way looking glass worked but I wasn’t gonna bother since we were talking about magic and I’m sure it had its own laws of logic it followed.

“I see… Well in that case I’m going first.” I said smirking as I got up from my seat and Celestia came up to me.

“Actually Joel there is something we must discuss about your training.” She said and paused until she had my full attention. “I don’t want you to let Krieg do the fighting for you here.” She said and I was almost immediately hit with headaches as Krieg raged in my head, making me cringe and hold my head in slight pain. “I take it he doesn’t like that idea?” She asked with a frown.

“No, not at all.” I said as Krieg continued to yell out loud in my head.

“Well then how about this then, after your training is complete I will make a simulation just for him to run rampant in for his delight.” She said and Krieg’s voice in my head went silent and I gave a sigh of relief.

“I think he likes that idea.” I said with a slight smile and she returned it.

“Alright then, for your training I shall assist you in helping you figure out how your abilities work.” She said as her horn began to glow and I closed my eyes and allowed her to cast her spell. At first all I could feel was the wind blowing against me, it was dry and had some sand in it. Next came the massive wave of heat that one would expect from a desert like the one Luna showed us. The smell however was what stood out the most, the place reeked of something foul but I couldn’t put my finger on it, until Krieg took the opportunity to say something.

“SMELLS LIKE HOME!!!”

Author's Note

It's done! This chapter took me WAAAAAY too long to write compared to my last ones and hopefully those to come.

I've been having to put up with midterm exams and all the "lovely" things that come with school life so yeah, if I'm not updating very quickly blame school cuz priorities and stuff.

Anyways hope you enjoyed this chapter and are getting hiped for the next one because i know I'm hiped up to write it ^^

fair warning though the next chapter is going to be pretty gory but I'm gonna try and keep it on the low side since it is kind of important to read it for character developments on joel's part.