New Beginnings

Emerald woke up the next morning to the dulcet sounds of the Flower Trio as they were known locally, panicking. Again.

“That is the third time this week!” Emerald growled out.

“Huh? What’s wrong?” A bleary eyed Twilight asked.

“The Flower Trio is going off again.” Emerald said.

“Oh. Should we at least check it out?” Twilight inquired, snuggling deeper into her marefriend’s embrace.

“Probably should. But I am comfortable. I’m sure Spike will come in and tell us if it is serious or not.” Emerald replied as she sent more healing magic into Twilight, repairing the last of the damage from Discord’s spell. She grimaced internally. Twilight would have to see a counselor before they started the training they had planned. Too much had happened too quickly for her to be on a decent mental footing.

Just then, Spike charged into the upstairs bedroom.

“Twilight! Emerald!” He gasped out. “Aliens! In the market!”

Emerald and Twilight quickly rose up into a sitting position.

“Care to repeat that Spike?” Emerald asked.

Catching his breath, the young drake began again.

“There are aliens in the market. They walked into town. They didn’t even get to say anything before the Flower Trio set off a panic. No one is hurt as far as I could tell, but they are just sitting out there looking around.” He said finally.

“What do they look like Spike?” Twilight asked.

“There are five of them. Four of them look like hairless monkeys. One of them has some kind of gold symbol on his forehead.” Spike said. “The last one, well he looks like Emerald did yesterday when she took out Discord.”

Emerald and Twilight’s eyes widened before they rushed to get cleaned up and changed into fresh clothes.

Outside, in the Ponyville Market

“So that was interesting.” Colonel Jack O’Neill said as he drummed his fingers on his P-90.

“Indeed Colonel O’Neill. This race seems very skittish.” Teal’c replied as he looked around.

“Colonel! You should come take a look at this!” Major Samantha Carter said.

“What cha got Carter?” Jack said as he approached the crater his remaining three team members had moved to investigate. “Whoa! That is ugly. Any ideas on what it is?”

“Some kind of chimera type creature. I count half a dozen different species making up its body.” Dr. Daniel Jackson replied.

“Whatever it is, it or someone else was throwing around a whole hell of a lot of Chaos energy. This planet has a very high amount of ambient magic so I can’t get much on my scans.” Major Miles Prower said as he waved his wand over the site, running every possible scan he could think of. “Wait a minute. Someone used Fiendfyre here.” He said as he finally got a return.

“Isn’t that the cursed, sentient fire that only a handful can cast and less can control it?” Jack asked his resident magic expert.

Miles nodded. “Yeah. Not something that you want to dick around with Colonel. I can cast it and control it, but I wouldn’t chance using it anywhere there were civilians.” He said as he climbed out of the crater. As he did so, he spotted two of the locals walking towards the team.

“Heads up. We got two locals that are approaching. Looks like an anthro pegasus and unicorn.” He said bewildered at the sight.

The team turned as the pair approached.

“How’s it going? Sorry about the earlier greeting. This is the third time this week those three have set off a panic.” The pegasus said. “Name’s Emerald Gear and this is Twilight Sparkle.” The now identified Emerald said as she introduced the pair before looking into the crater. “They left his body here? I am going to have words with Celestia.” She growled out before flicking her wrist and producing a wand.

“Stand back.” She said. Once everyone had moved back, she turned to the crater, and once more hissed out, “Fiendfyre.”

The body was quickly immolated to nothingness before the mare quashed the flames.

“You can cast Fiendfyre?” Miles asked, eyes wide with shock.

“Yes I can my interdimensional counterpart.” Emerald said with a smirk, causing everyone’s heads to whip around and look at her.

“Uhhh… I’m gonna call bullshit on that.” Miles replied, fingering his sidearms.

Emerald smirked. “Now Miles, unless you missed out on the whole Mammoth Mogul thing that the Zone Cops asked us to deal with, then you know I am right.” She said with a grin.

“Not buying it. Why would there be two of us in the same reality?” Miles asked.

“Follow us to the library and I will explain.” Emerald said as she turned and walked away, wrapping an arm around Twilight’s shoulders as she walked.

Soon the group reached the library.

“Is that a tree?” Sam asked.

“Yes. Been here something like three hundred years. The library was opened about a century ago.” Twilight said, speaking up for the first time as they entered the tree-building.

Once they were in, SG-1 saw a cozy library that was seemingly larger than the size of the ancient tree.

“Space expansion spells?” Miles asked.

Twilight nodded. “It allows this to be the public library, my house, and my lab.” She said before calling out. “Spike! Where are you?”

“In the kitchen. I figured you would want some breakfast. Especially how late you two slept.” Came a young male voice.

“Once you get done, I need you to send a letter to Princess Celestia.” Twilight replied.

“Okay, be there in a minute!” The drake called out.

“So, I can imagine that you have questions.” Emerald said as she sat down in one of the chairs around the table in the living quarters section of the library.

“That would be a reasonable assumption. Though if you have the ear of the ruler of the area, we should wait until they get here.” Jack said as Spike brought out breakfast. “Woah! Is that a dragon?”

Emerald looked over her shoulder. “Yes he is a dragon and his name is Spike.” She said curtly. “Now as far as your questions go. I am going to lay out a few things that I know about four of you. Also, Miles, as I am sure you have noticed, I have not made eye contact with any of you.” She said, getting a nod from the kitsune.

Emerald sighed before pointing to Jack. “Colonel Jonathan ‘Jack’ O’Neill. US Air Force Special Operations. Conducted numerous missions behind the Iron Curtain before retiring. Had a good home life with your wife and son. Your son Charlie accidentally shot and killed himself with your personal weapon causing you to sink into depression. When you were recalled for the initial mission to Abydos, you were planning to use the mission as a suicide run. However upon meeting Skara and the other Abydosians, you found a will to live. You deliberately falsified your report of the mission to protect them, and left Daniel Jackson at his request. You then became the leader of SG-1 when recalled from retirement again when Apophis infiltrated the base killing four airmen and kidnapping a fifth.” She said making Jack scowl before she pointed to Carter, not giving him a chance to retort.

“Major Samantha Carter. Daughter of Lieutenant General Jacob Carter. Mother was killed in an auto accident that you and your brother Mark blame your father for due to his military career. You were a combat pilot in Desert Storm before being assigned to the SGC due to your paper on wormhole theory.” She said before pointing to Daniel.

“Dr Daniel Jackson. Son of respected Egyptologists who were unfortunately killed in an accident when the exhibit they were preparing collapsed, which you unfortunately witnessed around the age of four or five. You became an Egyptologist, but your theory about the pyramids being landing pads for alien ships caused you to become a joke amongst your peers. This theory was what brought Catherine Langford to your door and become involved with the SGC. On Abydos, your were betrothed to Sharae. When Apophis came through the now uncovered Gate sometime after SG-1 and SG-2 arrived, she and Skara were captured. Both became hosts to Goa’uld symbiotes.” She said before pointing to Teal’c.

“Teal’c. A Jaffa warrior and the former First Prime of Apophis. Student of Bra’tac and father of Ry’ack. You gave up everything you held dear to fight against the false gods.” Emerald said.

“How do you know all this?” Jack asked, anger in his tone.

Emerald smiled, and pulling on her magic, shifted to her original form.

“When I was in this form, I was known as General Kerra Prower, SPARTAN-048. I was a member of SG-1 for a number of years before I retired. After doing so, I wound up adopting a young witch named Artemis Potter. About ten years after that, and after helping bring the British wizarding world into the 21st century, we were able to locate my home world Mobius. However, due to my ties to Chaos Energy, I became immortal. After humanity wiped itself out, I attempted to commit suicide using a NOVA warhead. Instead, the local Chaos avatar Discord, the ugly bastard I immolated, brought me here. I have been slowly bringing about a technological revolution by innovating aviation. A couple of months ago I performed a test flight of a replica of a P-47 Thunderbolt to great success. However, despite the fact that I am slowly working to elevate this world’s technology, I have not forgone planetary defenses. I currently have two complete Orbital Defense Clusters with three platforms each and two more being built with several more planned. I am also constructing a Mobius-class heavy cruiser to give me some more offensive options.” Emerald explained before shifting back to her pegasus form. “I hope to be able to live a reasonably quiet life, but I have planned for an exciting one. I currently have a new version of my MJOLNIR armor being fabricated to accommodate my new physiology. I am also planning to start a new SPARTAN Corps. Training was supposed to start under a localized time dilation field next week. However, the senior of the ruling Diarchs has caused a delay in that I have to ensure that one of the candidates is of a sound mind prior to training her.” Emerald said as she reached over and squeezed Twilight’s hand.

The group sat stunned.

“Wow. That is impressive.” Jack replied. “Would you be willing to come back to Earth with us for a time and meet with our commander, General Hammond?” He inquired.

“With his permission, yes.” Emerald said before turning to Spike who had gone and retrieved parchment and a quill.

“Spike, take a letter please.” She said.

“Sure thing.” Spike replied, readying his implements.

“Celestia, I have found myself in the presence of visitors from another world. They have my explicit trust, unlike yourself. I require the presence of both yourself and your sister Princess Luna. I want you here yesterday. Emerald Gear, Chaos Avatar.” Emerald dictated.

Spike wrote the letter with wide eyes while Twilight’s mouth hung open in shock.

“Emerald, I know you are upset with her, but she won’t take this well.” Twilight said after a moment.

“Twilight, I know you grew up venerating Celestia, but to me she is nothing but a child that throws her toys out of the pram when her plans are upset. She has so far engineered half of what has happened in the last couple of years. She holds too much information close to her chest and only lets out tidbits of it. Prime example was the Crystal Empire. She basically said ‘I have this problem, here is what I want you to know, now go fix it.’ I can’t abide it.” Emerald said gently.

Miles scoffed. “Sounds like fucking Dumbledore.”

Emerald nodded. “Only she is what old Dumbles wishes he could have been. She is at least two thousand years old and has been running Equestria by herself for a thousand of that. She is very skilled at the long game.” She replied. “I myself hate chessmasters like her and that old goat.”

Miles chuckled. “Trust me Harry and I are the same way.” He said.

“Harry?” Emerald asked, cocking her head.

“Oh, my adopted son, Harry Potter.” The other vulpine replied.

Emerald blinked, sighed, whipped out her wand, and cast a silent Patronus messenger spell. The ethereal fox phased through the wall and took off.

Carter opened her mouth but Miles stopped her.

“Magic Sam. She doesn’t have to explain a thing.” He said with a smile, getting a grumble from the blonde.

Emerald smiled.

A moment later a soft pop came from across the room.

“Hey Mum. What’s up?” Holly said as she approached.

Emerald merely gestured to the off worlders.

Holly stared at them.

“Damn. Talk about a blast from the past. Really weird seeing Daniel with long hair.” Holly said looking over the group. She turned to Emerald and smirked. “You are hot as a dude.”

Emerald looked at Holly with a flat expression. “Please tell me you are just yanking my chain.” She said.

“Of course I am. You should know I lean towards women anyways.” Artemis said. “Remind me to tell you about the time I hooked up with Celestia.”

“WHAT?”

“Yup. It was about twelve hundred years ago. Didn’t know it was her because she had a very powerful yet subtle glamour on.” Holly said. “Imagine my surprise to wake up the next morning and having an alicorn in my bed when I distinctly remember going to bed with a unicorn. First time I had to fake my death to get away from an awkward moment.”

The group looked at the mare in disbelief.

Miles turned to Emerald. “Ummm, not to be rude, but how is she still alive? I know mages live a lot longer than normal humans, but over a thousand years?” He asked.

“The Hallows. Turns out they really were made by Death in our original reality. She wound up becoming Death’s Hand. Also, it is over eleven thousand for the both of us.” Emerald replied.

“How is that possible?” Sam inquired.

“Tied myself to a primal force and it didn't want me to go away.” Emerald said with a shrug.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Spike went to answer it and returned with Celestia and Luna. Upon seeing SG-1, Celestia’s gaze hardened.

“Lanteans.” She growled.