Yarost'

New Manehatten Suburbs, 56 West Lockerman Street, July 14.

Sunlight poured from between the blinds that covered the single window. On the bed laid Timeless, snoring slightly as he slept. Under his head, one of the two pillows was folded in half, while its' counterpart was being cuddled by Timeless as if it were a lover. His Engineer suit laid in a small pile of cloth and armor on a reading chair, leaving Timeless in only his undershirt and boxers. Sleep had eluded Timeless for the longest time when he first laid down on the bed, managing to finally fall asleep around three in the morning.

A light knocking came from the door.

"Hey Timeless?" called Rainbow Dash from the opposite site. Timeless grunted as he jerked awake, rolling to face the door.

"Mmmmwhat...?" he asked tiredly.

"I'm going out for a run. I'll be back later. You still have some take-out if you want that for breakfast." Dash replied. Timeless gave a yawn and rolled back over, mumbling something along the lines of "Have fun." Timeless could hear Dash's hoofsteps walking away from the guest room and down a small set of stairs as she went out the door. After her departure, Timeless laid there, trying to be embraced by sleep once again.

But this time, the Sand Man denied him the Hug of Sleep.

Groaning, Timeless let go of the pillow he was cuddling with and let it fall to the floor with a soft thump. Sitting up and popping his back, Timeless allowed his wings to extend out and shake themselves of tension. With a hiss of hydraulics and compressing air, the wings slowly retracted to their closed form and huddled close to Timeless' back. After unfolding the pillow and reuniting it with its' friend, Timeless made the bed (sloppily, but he knew Dash wouldn't care) and left the guest room.

Rainbow Dash lived in a single story town house, complete with a single car garage and small pool in the back. The walls of the main hall inside the house were adorned with countless pictures of Rainbow Dash herself, both as a pony and in her Anthro form. The pictures ranged from ones of Dash when she was a filly, to being on the Wonderbolts, to her in the hospital after the Anthro procedure. Some pictures showed her in a USAF Pilot jumpsuit, wearing a complicated flight rig that allowed her to retain her ability of flight in her new form. As he approached the kitchen, the final picture was of Rainbow Dash with her friends, all grouped together in front of a large barn, smiling happily.

"Must've been before The Event..." Timeless mumbled, looking at the six smiling mares. As he entered the kitchen and approached the fridge, he grabbed his cold leftovers and put them in the microwave for about a minute. Once the microwaved signaled that his food was ready, Timeless grabbed it and sat down at the small breakfast bar, taking in the scent of his leftovers. "Nothing beats second-day Chinese..." he said to himself happily as he began to eat. After a couple minutes, he grabbed a small TV remote and turned on the small TV that sat on the breakfast bar.

"...and today, someone has finally laid claim to the New Manehatten bombings. The group responsible for this attack has called themselves the 'Uni', claiming that there are impurities within Humanity itself, and that these impurities need to be eradicated before Humanity can join Convergence..."

Timeless' fork dropped from his grasp at the word 'Convergence', his jaw stopping mid-chew as he watched the newscast.

"...Earlier today, Uni has posted this video on the social network site Facebook , talking about their views."

-The TV changes to the image of a weird, spiraling red tower of some kind. This turned out to be a background as a shadowed figure with a deep voice stepped into view. The figure seemed to be giving off an unsettling aura about them as they stood there, stretching out their arms wide.-

"Hello. I am called The Shepard. My goal in life is to help guide Humanity on the path to Convergence, where each and everyone of us shall become one with a higher power. We are not a violent organization normally, in fact, we are part of the Church. However, we can no longer accept the scum that has intertwined itself within our race, polluting Humanity's image with *hooves and other disgusting features. If the Anthro population and connections to Equus are not cut, and Humanity is left alone, more attacks like the one in New Manehatten will occur until our wishes are granted. Only then, will Humanity be ready for Convergence."*

-The screen changes back to the news anchor.-

"I don't know about you, but that creeped me out to extremes. Here now with us is Alliance Head of Security..."

Timeless sat in silence, drowning out the continuing newscast on the TV. His mind was a blizzard of questions like 'What is Convergence!?' and 'Part of the Church? What Church?'. Looking down at his food, he suddenly lost his appetite and pushed the plate away as something began to dawn on him:

There are going to be those who agree with the Uni's views.

And that he himself was now a target, along with thousands of other Anthros on Earth.

Paranoia began to dwell in the back of Timeless' mind as he sat there, unaware of the fact that Rainbow Dash had just come home from her morning run.

"Hey Timeless, good to see you're awake!" Dash said as she passed him, going to the sink and refilling her water bottle. After taking a long chug of water, she gave a satisfied sigh and looked at the engineer, concern coming across her face. "You okay dude?" she asked.

"We're in danger..." Timeless muttered quietly.

"What? Yeah right." Dash said, dismissing Timeless' claim with a wave of her hand. "In danger from what?" she continued. Timeless simply rewinded the news feed and pointed at the screen. Dash watched with a skeptical look on her face, which slowly fell as she watched the shadowed figure on the screen. After the video, Timeless shut off the TV and stared at Dash. "W-well...that's different..." she said quietly, looking back at him. "What are we going to do?" she asked.

"I don't know. I really don't know." Timeless said in a slightly defeated tone.

"W-Well we gotta do something! I know for a fact that a good portion of the humans are racist against Equestrians and Anthros! They're going to be forming lynch mobs and hunting us down, one by one. So think of something Timeless, because I'm not ready to die." Dash said, placing her light blue hands on the counter top as she stared at Timeless.

"Believe me, I know how racist some humans can be again us. We could probably seek refuge on Equus. Take a shuttle and get off Earth as soon as possible. Think you can contact your friends?" he asked.

"It's been a while, but I can try and contact them." Dash replied with a nod, going over to a communications' panel built into the wall.

"I gotta get to Station Gypsy and warn the guys there. I know for a fact that nothing's going to happen there; the humans I work with love Bolts, Me, and Blitz like family." Timeless said, standing up from his seat. Dash watched him as she went through her contacts list, selecting on the first one that came up: Applejack.

"I'll make the calls, you get changed and ready to go once I can secure a place for us." Dash said. Timeless nodded and went to the guest room. Once he was in, Timeless immediately went to the window, took an investigative look outside, then went to his Engineer armor. After getting it on and putting his wings through the back openings, Timeless powered up the suit and left the guest room. He re-entered the kitchen in the middle of Dash's call.

"Thanks Pinkie. I owe you for this." Dash said, ending the call. "I got us a place in Ponyville. Pinkie Pie said she can let us crash at Sugar Cube Corner after we stop by your work. You all set?" she asked.

Timeless nodded in response. "What about you?" he asked her.

"I always have a bag packed in case I need to go somewhere on short notice. I'll go grab it and we're gone." Dash said, running down a small hall and to her bedroom. A couple minutes later, she reemerged, a duffel bag in her right hand.

And two sidearms in her left hand.

She tossed the bag on her small dining table and handed Timeless a Plasma Glock.

"Take it." she said. "Things are going to be heating up here right quick, and we need to be able to defend ourselves." she said. Timeless sighed, hoping that they wouldn't need to use the pistols, but a confrontation is inevitable. Taking the weapon, he also took a holster Dash was handing to him and strapped it to his upper chest, the holster under his left arm pit. After she strapped her weapon on and concealed it under her shirt, Dash gave Timeless a nod and grabbed her bag from the table. "Let's go." she simply said.

The two departed Dash's house and stopped in their tracks, gasping at what they were witnessing.

Smoke was rising a couple of streets over, the sounds of pandemonium filling the skies, seeming to grow louder and closer. Police cruisers raced past Dash's house, hopping the curb as they took a right to the street where the smoke was coming from. After the cruisers turned the corner, a couple of Anthros and ponies could be seen running from the opposite direction. Dash and Timeless ran over to the panicking neighbors.

"Hey Grass, what's going on?" Dash called to a light green pony. The stallion skidded to a halt, panting as he tried to speak.

"O-one of the ne-neighbors went insane! He slaughtered h-his own family and set fire to his h-home! Then he started breaking into his neighbors h-houses and started killing everypony!  He kept screaming something about 'i-impurities' and 'Convergence." Grass said, finally catching his breath.

Timeless and Dash looked at each other with worry.

"Okay, this is not some random accident. Uni is behind this." Timeless said.

"Thanks Grass. Get to safety. If you can get the money, get off Earth and get to Equus." Dash said.

"I-I will Dash. Good luck." said Grass as he passed them and resumed his running. Timeless and Dash turned and began walking at a brisk pace to Dash's Camaro.

"This is going to get out of hand really quickly." Timeless said as he entered the passenger seat of the car. Dash sat down in the driver seat and tossed her bag to the back of the car, starting the engine.

"I know. Things are going to hell and it's only been a few hours since Uni laid claim to the attack. This was planned." Dash said as she pulled out the drive way and began driving away from her house.

"Sleeper agents?" Timeless suggested.

"Only thing I can think of. Maybe there was something in that video that set off the agents and caused them to attack." she responded.

"We can only hope that there's sympathizers within the human correspondents of the Alliance that can try and stop all this." Timeless said as he watched the neighborhood begin the thin out as they turned onto the main road, heading for the highway.

"Once we get to Equus, we can contact the Princesses and try and figure all this out." Dash said as she drove.

"Sounds like a good idea. In the mean time, let's just get to the shuttle station alive." Timeless said. Dash nodded, her grip tightening around the steering wheel. As they emerged on Highway 95, New Manehatten sat in the distance, smoke rising from points in the surrounding area. Overhead, National Guard helicopters flew over, heading towards the city. Timeless could see combat ready troops sitting on the edge of the passenger bays, ready to fight.

"This is getting insane..." Dash mumbled as she pulled over, watching a convoy of IFV's and troop trucks drive by. On the horizon, a fireball emerged from the suburb-scape, most likely a gas station being destroyed in a smaller town. "Timeless, I'm getting scared..." Dash said quietly as they approached a highway interchange.

Just as Timeless was about to respond, his world went from driving on the highway, to flying through the air. Timeless caught a glimpse of the pavement before his world went black.