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.
Turns Out The Forest Is Evil
While trying to maintain speed and safety while scrambling through the killer brambles of the less than idealistic forest, the three friends fought against nature in an attempt to find the source of the screaming person in distress. The thorns tugged at their coats, threatening to tear into them and do some damage. The lighting wasn't helping either, what with the sun slowly disappearing over the horizon and the fact that this forest was denser than an iron cannonball. The Professor regretted ever bad-mouthing it's blessed light. While they tried their best to conquer the ever more difficult terrain, the Professor reflected on how he had gotten to this bizarre place, how he had become a pony and certainly how he was completely naked running through a spiky forest.
1 day prior to the Ponification Incident
Location: Earth, Europe, England 14:32 GMT
"Are you sure this will work?"
Lilly stared up at the gargantuan machine that towered over her and Jake in the Professor's garage. It had been designed like a giant circular doorway, but really it looked like an unfortunate science project that had gone horribly wrong. Bits of metal and cogs sprung out of odd areas and wires and piping dangled down from the ceiling like old cobwebs. The Professor whirled his long leather trench coat behind him and fiddled with a large panel full to the brim with buttons, levers and switches. After he mashed at the controls, lights began to flash and alarms began to sound, signalling the coming of something any of them could comprehend.
"Most assuredly, my dear Lilly! This machine will most certainly work!" The Professor hollered.
"Just like your last one?" Jake queried.
"This will be my greatest success!"
Laughing maniacally, the Professor opened a slot on the console, and pulled a single red gem from his pocket and placed it inside the machine. As he did this, the gem lit up with a fiery light hat threatened to blind anyone within a 2 mile radius. Great cogs began to turn and the wheezing of machinery was almost deafening. Slowly and with great strikes of artificial lightning, a large deep purple orb opened in the makeshift doorway. Suddenly, without warning, the orb began sucking in all matter, whether that have been the Professor's desk, pens or his best friends.
Lilly had little time to scream as she was enveloped by the swirling purple madness. Jake followed soon after, along with the Professor's favourite leather chair that he had been clinging onto for dear life. Eyes wide and mouth agape, the Professor began attempting to reverse his attempts at making an artificial sun for use for his brother's 11th birthday party. While he battled with the controls, trying his best to force them to obey him, it did not last as soon the whole room was being absorbed by the mass of the sphere.
The orb's immense power dragged the Professor over his guard railing, threatening to pull it's maker into oblivion. As his hat flew off his head and into the void, the Professor made a mental note to always have a kill switch or a self destruct of some description if any of his countless failed inventions would stop working, turn against him or in this case, threaten to drag him into a black hole. Wires sparked and light's flashed as the crazed inventor slowly slid along the cracked tiled floor towards his inevitable doom. Many of his previous inventions were sucked in as the Professor himself screamed defiantly as his life was torn away from him.
"No! Godammit!" He yelled as he was consumed by the portal.
Present Day Equestria
The Everfree Forest
The white rabbit bounded into a clearing and pointed at a rather large looking Venus fly-trap. The trio stopped abruptly below it, staring up at it's bloated, dripping form. It smelled of sickening honey, it's stench as thick as fog. It's wrinkled mass had large, protruding thorns that stuck out at odd angles and were as red as the blood that had been spilt during the frantic scramble through the thorns and the brambles. It hadn't any eyes, but that didn't mean that it couldn't see. It moved it's head away from something unseen towards the Professor. It licked it's lips loudly, saliva dripping freely from it's mouth.
The rabbit bounded over to a small pink cloud on the ground with a slight yellow banana sticking out of it while the monster shot a tentacle out from the undergrowth straight at Jake. He was knocked from his feet, sending him several feet backwards into a nearby tree. The plant rose to it's full height and began to speak:
"Do. Not. INTERFERE!"
As it bellowed those words, it sprang forward, attempting to throttle both the Professor and Lilly with it's slender and slimy creepers. While the Professor was able to dive out of the way, Lilly wasn't fast enough, being caught all to easily by the monstrosity. As Lilly screamed for help, Jake had got back to his feet and had begun throwing rocks, sticks and pebbles at the plant, hoping to divert it's attention from what could become it's next meal. In retaliation, the plant grabbed Jake around the waist and yanked him up high into the air, trying to wind all the air out of his body.
The Professor tried Jake's tactic, throwing an all manner of rocks and debris at the plant, hoping that it would simply let his friends go. Instead, the plant, who was getting rather annoyed at this point, used a third stem-like grasper to tear the Professor from the undergrowth and up into the dark evening air to join his friends. Jake gulped loudly and Lilly began screaming again as the abomination opened it's terribly jaws wide, revealing hundreds of tiny, sharp fangs.
Granted when he had accidentally made a portal to... Where ever they were, it had not been the Professor's intention that they would be eaten alive by a giant venus flytrap. Still, trying to salvage the situation, he shouted for everyone to keep calm. While this didn't work, it did result in Lilly's screams reaching a whole new demitone. All three screamed as they slowly descended into the belly of the beast.
"How dare you!?"
The Plant stopped itself before looking down at the authorative voice that had appeared out of nowhere. The Professor and his friends all turned towards the sound, which sounded very similar to the cries of distress that they had heard earlier. The voice appeared to be coming from another cartoonishly styled pony, this being of the light yellow variety with similar pink wispy hair to Lilly's. While from this height, it was difficult to see what gender the pony was, the face of rage and dissapointment was unmistakable.
"You should be ashamed of yourself! Trying to eat these poor, lost ponies, whatever would your mother say!?"
Jake choked back a laugh. Really? She was going to lecture a 15 foot killer plant? Fine, but it's her funeral.
The plant, amazingly, put the trio back down on solid earth, dropping them with a thump. Scratching his head, the Professor turned to watch the scene unfolding before him. This rather young looking female, he could now see, was taking on this plant in a psychological battle of words, guilt tripping him into submission. Besides, who wouldn't? She was rather cute with her delicate little wings and brave demeanour. Had this really been the pony in distress earlier? It seemed way too unlikely.
The Plant began to skulk off into the deep, unkept forest, leaving behind no trace of it's existance. While the premise that a plant had actually just up sticks and moved elsewhere baffled the sceptical Professor, he had more pressing matters to attend to, namingly this young girl who had just saved their lives from almost certain destruction.
As the trio approached her, she seemed to undergo a complete personality change, hiding her face beneath her silky pink hair and shuffling uncomfortably.
"Hey there! Thanks for rescuing us, we'd have been toast if you hadn't have showed up."
No reply.
"Hey... Are you alright?"
A tiny, almost inaudiable squeak left her lips.
The Professor rolled his eyes and looked at Jake, motioning for him to give him a hand. Jake replied with a "What do you expect me to do?" look. Lilly, tired of the boys antics, pushed them both out of the way and kneeled down next to the shy girl.
"Hey there, nice to meet you. My name's Lilly, what's you name?"
Finally a responce, the pony looked up at Lilly and whispered a single word.
"Fluttershy..."