Brave New World: Revival

You know, it's been a while since the heroes of A Brave New World saw out their old adventures and defeated their old enemies. Perhaps they died, or perhaps they gave up adventuring and became architects. No-one will ever know, except for the writer of course. But what if those heroes were born anew, in a new story, updated to fit with current canon? What if there are multiple heroes in different Equestrias? Well, let us see, my children, what would happen if a slightly crazy Professor, a ditzy female and a mentally insane man all restarted their adventure in Equestria? Well, shall we find out? Personally, I have laundry to do and my cat's exploded but, you know, who isn't up for a good story!?

Present Day Equestria

"Ow... my head..."

There was a small crater denting the otherwise beautiful scenery surrounding a quaint pastely town. The grass, once a dew-dripping deep green colour had been scorched into a dark and gnarled grey colour, littered with the embers of the impact. Dirt and rocks were strewn across the landscape like an un-vaccumed carpet. The sky, which would have been a perfect light blue, dotted with puffy white clouds, had been streaked with dark billowing smoke, spewing out of the scar in the utopian grassland.

Slowly, and rather painfully, a beige coated unicorn with messy chocolate brown hair clawed his way out of the dirty hole that he had found himself residing in. His eyes were bloodshot, unseeing and he was pretty sure that he had broken a few bones. His muzzle might as well have been... wait, muzzle?

Attempting to regain his sight, the temporarily crippled stallion looked up to see a burningly bright sun, boring down upon him, it's fire and grace all but melting his injured eyeballs and allowing the juices to seep from their sockets. Quickly wishing that he had done anything other than look at the biggest source of light in the area, he rolled back into the crater and rested his head on the dusty gravel.

While his sight wasn't up to speed, his other senses were gradually returning to normal working capacity. He could feel the gritty dirt beneath his feet and taste it too as it clung to his teeth, threatening to clamp them together. He could hear groaning from a few metres away, not entirely sure which direction, but neither did he care at that particular point in time. All that mattered to him was himself, and the very dirty hole that he was lying in.

He opened his right eye gently, trying to ensure that he wouldn't get any more of that blasted sunlight in it. Moving his head slightly, he looked down at what he thought would be two familiar appendages accompanied by lots of little ones, useful for wiping dirt out of ones eyes. What instead faced him were two very different looking appendages, complete with hooves and a fine coat of fur. Instead of panicking, like any other sane person, he simply shrugged it off as side effect to... whatever had happened to him.

"Hey, Professor? You alive in there?"

The Professor turned his head again, this time trying to follow the sound of his name. At least he could remember that. He'd read all the stories, people involved in these kinds of accidents always have some form of amnesia; he thanked the heavens that it hadn't happened to him. In front of him stood a rather tall, dark blue horse with wings and bright orange hair. It took him a few minutes to realise that this... animal was seemingly talking to him, and in a very familiar voice might I add. The Professor cocked his head in confusion, being careful not to get too much sunlight in his eyes. Thankfully, that horse was blocking most of the light that was daring to stream it's little beams into his crater.

"Hello? You ok? You look really dead, man."

The horse had addressed him again.

"Typical." he thought. "There's a blue equine talking to me. I must have hit my head pretty hard. Either that, or I've done some serious drugs recently."

Finally, his eyesight had entirely refocused, allowing him to see what kind of bizarre hell he had arrived in. Truly, the dark and sandy hole that he was laying in was as gravelly as it had tasted. The Professor coughed loudly, removing most of the mud in his mouth as well as most of the dust that had collected there.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"It's me! Jake! Remember?"

"Jake?"

Jake had been a good friend of the Professor's, but he had never seen his partner in crime look so... cartoon-like. Never mind that, he was pretty sure that his best friend wasn't some 3 foot talking horse with wings. The horse in question flapped his wings delicately, as if it was unsure on how to use them properly.

"I know man, these things are weird! You reckon I could fly with them?"

The Professor realised that he had been staring at his wings for longer than was socially accepted and staring any longer was sure to creep Jake out, if this even was Jake. Standing up and reaching forward with his left hoof... hoof. It dawned on him. He was also some weird technicolour horse. Granted his colour was slightly more reserved and natural compared to his friend's more wild and vivid coat, it still freaked him out a little that he had gone from a perfectly normal, if a little short, human male to becoming an equine in a hole in the ground. At this point, the Professor started to lose his mind a little, mumbling incoherently at what he assumed must be his best friend.

"Yeah..." Jake said. "It takes a little getting used to, I mean have you tried to walk on four legs? Weird! Listen man, you might want to get up, if you can. You will not believe where we've ended up!"

A little stunned and concerned at his words, the Professor slowly rose to his new four feet. He reached out with his forehoof and grabbed a hold of Jake's. He was gently tugged out of the filthy hole, hoping to never see it's griminess again. Taking a look at his picturesque surrounding, he whistled in admiration at the sight that lay before him.

Around the crater and the scorched earth lay acres of lush, tall, green grass, dotted with little flowers of every colour and variety. A little stream bubbled and trickled it's way through the landscape like an endless tear streaming down an infant's face. There was a dense forest in the distance to the east with a tiny cottage and a large peaked mountain range in the north. The mountain appeared to have some form of civilisation spouting out of it, as building of varied shapes were grasping onto the mountainside. To the west of the dense and rather scary looking forest lay more buildings, these ones much less exquisite than those atop the mountain range. These houses appeared to be made of bricks, wood and stone and not the more elaborate marble the mountain town seemed to be created out of. The birds were singing, and the smell of freshly burnt grass filled the Professor's nostrils.

"Pretty sure we've died and gone to heaven, Jake."

Jake, for his part, wasn't the least bit bothered by the duo's new-found surroundings. He motioned towards their new bodies and gave an expectant cough.

"Yeah, I don't know why we're horses either. Perhaps the Bible was about donkeys this whole time?"

Jake laughed. "Yup, I knew being a donkey in our primary school Nativity had some deeper, religious meaning."

Chuckling along with his friend, now certain that he was in fact Jake, the Professor looked down to see two more smoking holes, desecrating the sky with their smoke. Jake followed the Professor's gaze and tapped him on the shoulder before pointing at one of the other craters.

"We gotta help her out. Hers was a little deeper."

"Her?" The Professor questioned.

Before he could be given a straight answer, a low grumbling noise could be heard from the pit closest to the duo. Both of them ran up to it and peered into the blackened hole.

A small pony with a pure white body and light pink wispy hair was giving them both a flat, unamused look. The Professor and Jake exchanged glances before they both reached in to pull the newcomer out of their hole. She spluttered a little as she left the darkness and stepped into the bright sunlight outdoors. Her eyes adjusted automatically, a small groan escaping her lips. Clearly, the Professor wasn't the only one annoyed with the sun.

"Fucking sun..." she sighed, blinking a little.

Her eyes opened wide as she saw the two horses standing in front of her. They narrowed again in thought before she cautiously pointed at the more realistic looking one of the bunch.

"Professor?"

"Hey Lilly, had a nice nap?" The Professor teased gently.

He'd recognised her voice and simply put two and two together. Lilly immediately perked up upon realising who she was actually talking to.

"Prof? Jake? Wow, your experiment really did a number on us!"

She twirled around, gazing over her new body and then the new world in which they had arrived.

"Woah, it really DID do a number on us! It worked so well, that it killed us three and sent us to pony heaven!" she giggled.

Rolling his eyes, the Professor looked up at the bane of his current existence, the one thing that gave him hope and pissed him off all at the same time. The sun was setting now, slowing beginning its decent so that the moon could take it's rightful place in the night sky.

"Right." He stated, drawing the attention of the two other ponies. "We need a plan of action. We need to figure out where we are. If we are in heaven, great! We don't need food, water and all those other mundane human needs. If we somehow ended up elsewhere... Well, we'll need food, water and shelter."

Both his friends nodded in agreement. It was decided that they would head for the forest as it seemed the most secure place. After all, they didn't want to chance the idea that the village might be occupied with less than pleasant angels. Besides, the forest was much closer than the medieval village. As they travelled ever closer to their target, they began to hear the dull buzz of the evening wildlife begin to stir and rise, nocturnal creatures beginning their day as others began their rest. The dusk brought with it a glorious violet sky, dashed with stars and constellations very unfamiliar to the friends and the low hum of fireflies as they fluttered around in the air, lighting up the otherwise steadily darkening field. At the edge of the forest, there was a tiny white rabbit nibbling on a carrot anxiously and on seeing the three approach, he began to hop up and down fervently and began pointing deep into the forest.

Jake was the first to walk up to the strange little fellow, picking him up by the scruff of his neck and prodding him incessantly. He only stopped after the Professor made a very bad joke about the rabbit being late for a very important date and was simply hitch-hiking a ride. As the three laughed at the poor joke, the forest's silence was broken by the sound of a shrill scream coming from deeper in the woods.

The rabbit bounded urgently towards the noise at full pelt, causing the three friends to follow him at some speed.

"Best follow that scream, and that rabbit, they might have food!" Jake yelled happily.

"Focus! Whoever it is might be in trouble, priorities Jake." The Professor countered.

"I hope they're alright." Lilly panted.

And so the trio scrambled deeper into the forest, following the mysterious rabbit and the even more mysterious screaming. What they found next, not even the Professor could have predicted.