The Planet of Eden

"Life support system is normal. ETA to Eden, 1 day."

"Good. Are we in range to take a good look at Eden?"

"Yes, sir. Calibrating zoom..." Poseidon paused mid-sentence to tap a few buttons. "... And there we go."

Everyone crowded together to get a look at the visual which appeared where the cockpit window used to be. It was essentially Earth with brighter forests, brighter oceans... brighter everything. The zoom was enough to see colossal land features, but that was about it.

"I can't see anyone."

"That's what you wanna see? Sorry 'bout that Hermes. I guess I'm equally curious to see if they're anything like... her..."

None of them wished to utter Nightmare Moon's name. If first impressions mean anything at all, it's a terrible idea to mess with her.

"All right, that should do it."

Hades chuckled and went back to his initial seat.

"Damn. That's a shit-load of horses right there." Poseidon and Hermes slowly nodded in agreement with Zeus. However, none of them appeared to be completely surprised.

The projection over the cockpit showed a town full of horses colored from red to violet and everything in between. Unicorns, pegasi, and those with neither horn nor wings were equally represented.

The roads they were traveling on were dirt roads, and the architecture seemed to be a mix of colonial and modern style. All of it was nearly blinding with its bright colors.

"Of all the possible places we could've come across, we get a little girl's dream world."

Hades relatively loudly turned towards the wall closest to him. "Hades? What's up?"

"...Shut up."

"Aaalways a pleasure. Anyways, let's run a scan on the geography. It'll take a while before we can upload it to our nanocomputers."

The rest of the crew returned to the places they were sitting or standing before Poseidon's interruption. Hades sat on the ground in a corner and Zeus sat in a rather comfortable chair, considering he was in an escape pod. Poseidon was at the computer with Hermes looking over his shoulder.

"So," Poseidon decided to initiate another chat. "What do we do once we get down there?"

"We find out what kind of government those freaky things could've come up with. If we don't like it, we can take it down and replace it with a proper republic."

Hermes appeared appalled by his statement. "Zeus... why bother? We could leave them alone and explore the planet instead."

"And here I was thinking you were too passive to argue."

Zeus flicked a lighter and lit a cigar.

"It's simple. Most governments back on Earth probably wouldn't be extremely friendly to otherworldly beings. They'd run tests on the aliens. Hundreds of them. But we'll fight back. If this government treats us poorly..."

The cigar was spit into Zeus's hand.

"We crush them."

His still-new cigar was transformed into a pile of black dust in his grip of steel.

At that moment, an alarm began torturing the escape pod's crew.

"Shhhhhit! How many damn alarms can you hear within a day!"

Hades instantly charged towards the controls for the pod's defense system. Poseidon furiously typed away at the main computer to find the source of the alarm. Hermes found the alarm override and forced the button down. Zeus was left with nothing to do but watch. Poseidon found the info he was looking for a few minutes after the alarm's shutdown.

"I have bad news and good news, everyone. The bad news is that the other escape pod exploded. The good news is that we've seen the last of that scary bitch from earlier."

All of them breathed a sigh of relief.

"All right, now let's get busy and look for a good landing site."

Escape Pod #2, 30 minutes prior

Apollo recollected his thoughts as he sat in a small, cylindrical pod.

"Damn, what was that thing? It seemed to be capable of breathing without oxygen... I should research it if I get the chance."

His face became twisted in confusion as he looked through the 5-inch-thick glass window at Eden

"At least I had my oxygen mask on. If I was completely exposed, I would be dead. Come to think of it, I almost died anyways..."

The Eagle: 15 minutes prior

"Wh... what do you want from me?"

"I want to practice my magic on you just before I depart this wretched rock of a moon. However..."

Nightmare Moon grinned with an evil and slightly eager smile.

"...I mostly want to have fun."

At this, her horn was engulfed by a dark blue glow for the second time since arriving in The Eagle, but with one difference. The glow steadily rose in intensity. Its blinding light was spectacular to the eye as it grew brighter and brighter. Just as Apollo thought that it couldn't get any more amazing, it did. This thought went through his head again and again and again until he noticed a thin veil surrounding him.

"Shit."

Apollo then felt as if his entire body, inside and out, was being shredded to pieces. He floated into the air and nearly lost consciousness, but willed himself to stay awake. At this point, he began to shrug off the excruciating pain.

All I need is an opportunity to run... I only need about two seconds to run to the escape pods. How will I distract her...?

Apollo's question was never answered. Nightmare Moon suddenly started gasping for air from the sheer amount of energy she expended to cast her spell.

Yes! She couldn't finish it!

Even as his mind raced, Apollo was running. His heart thundered against his chest while Apollo almost broke the launch button. Even 10 minutes later, his heart would beg for freedom from Apollo's rib cage.

Back at the ship, Nightmare Moon was laughing.

"That fool thinks he's outsmarted me. He'll learn how wrong he is very soon..."

Nightmare Moon galloped out of The Eagle and flew towards Equestria.

Escape Pod #2

Apollo was brought back to reality by one of the most deafening noises he could think of.

"Warning: trajectory incorrect. Pod exterior overheating."

"Shut up! I need to focus!"

"Warning: Temperature leak inside pod."

"SHUT UP!"

The rising heat of the pod didn't help Apollo's mediocre piloting skills as he found himself dive bombing towards the planet. The immense pressure from multiple Gs made it even worse. Apollo pulled back on the throttle to disengage the engines.

Hopefully that will keep me from speeding up... wait a sec! The eject button!

Apollo bashed the eject button even harder than he had for the launch button. A gap appeared in the top of the spacecraft, then the chair was sent flying out of the escape pod. A moment later, the pod ignited on the exterior. The fire engulfed the interior within seconds, then it exploded into thousands of tiny shards. One of them singed Apollo's hair as it flew by above his left ear.

Good, I'm safe. Now the last thing to do is to activate the parachute.

Instead of finding the parachute, he found a pair of bright green hooves where his hands used to be.

This was Apollo's last realization before blacking out.

Over the next few days, he strayed along the line between consciousness and unconsciousness. At some times Apollo was more awake than other times. With every time he regained consciousness, he became more aware of his surroundings. Eventually, Apollo recognized that he was lying on a soft bed. He bolted up as soon as he realized this.

Apollo awoke in a plain room with about 10 beds, including the one he was laying on. After a few moments, he deduced that he was in an infirmary.

Yeah... a fall like that can leave you injured for a long while. Speaking of that fall...

He looked at where his hands used to be.

This has got to be either some sick, cruel joke or a dream. It's the only possible explanation for what happened on The Eagle and the events after.

After giving his new hooves a long, hard look, Apollo abruptly ceased to be fascinated with them. Instead, he turned his head backwards to see if he had wings. Apollo saw his new neon green body with a thick tail with two shades of navy green. He saw no wings, so he poked the top of his head to check for a horn. He winced when his hoof met his head earlier than expected.

I guess that makes me some kind of unicorn. What the hell would make me dream of unicorns? A Wrinkle in Time or something? Hah. What happens now, IT comes to make me its mind slave?

Apollo attempted to get out of bed, only to discover that one of his hind legs was in a cast.

"Ugh, great. Now I can't do anything."

"Hm? Oh, you're awake!"

A white mare with a pink mane stepped away from her medicine storage. She was about half the size of Nightmare Moon, unless Apollo's sense of size was distorted from his transformation.

"You fell from very high. Somepony used their magic to try to catch you, but as you can see they weren't completely successful." She pointed towards Apollo's cast.

"Yeah, I noticed." He decided to play along. After all, it had been a while since Apollo had had a dream.

"Anyways, I don't think I know your name."

"Oh, sorry. It's Nurse Redheart. I must be getting tired... long day."

Apollo nodded slowly. He had been in that situation far too often. Then he pondered for a few moments on which name to use before deciding.

"My name's Apollo."

"Mhmm."

"Do you know when I'll be back on my feet?"

"What? Oh, from three to six weeks, depending on if you can get help from a unicorn doctor. We called for one from Canterlot, but we don't know if he'll have the time to come."

Nurse Redheart sighed and gave up looking for something. "Oh well, I guess I'll go to bed now. You'd be best to do so as well. You have a long way to recovery."

"Thanks."

"No problem at all."

Apollo understandably had a very difficult time falling to sleep.

All right... so I won't be moving very much for at least three weeks. That should probably account for my entire dream. Unless... it isn't a dream? Come to think of it, how could I be so injured in a dream? In a dream as vivid as this, I should be able to do anything...

"FUCK!" Apollo crashed his front hooves on the bed in rage.

Even though nobody else was in the building, Apollo instantly regretted yelling. Either way, he was furious at Nightmare Moon.

Why the hell would she care, anyways? She could've done something, anything else to practice her magic.

He shook his head gently.

No... I can't think about this while I need sleep. I'll save it for tomorrow...

Apollo closed his eyes and eventually slept.

Escape Pod #1

The pod arrived at its destination in the middle of the night. It had a significantly better landing than the second pod, especially since Zeus was a considerably better pilot than Apollo.

Oddly enough, the sky seemed to have a dark purple tint to it, as if it were sundown. The moon was obscured by the forest full of evergreen trees that they had landed near. Their landing site itself was in a forest lightly populated with birch trees. They were atop a tiny hill with a few flowers here and there.

Scattered dirt patches served as a natural border between the evergreen forest and the other parts of the world. Those areas didn't seem to receive enough sunlight to grow grass, but didn't have enough decaying organisms for fungi. It also had too much sunlight for the dark navy green grass of the forest which was adapted to much lower amounts of light

"Don't forget your weapons. We don't know if all of these creatures are hostile or not yet."

Hades didn't need a reminder to bring along his heavy machine gun. Zeus carried a knife in a belt sheath, two grenades, and an M18A4 assault rifle. Poseidon brought along another M18A4, except without any other weapons. It took a long time to force Hermes to carry Apollo's Glock. Half of the reason for avoiding it was the fact that the last person to carry it died. The other half was Hermes' reluctance to fight. The group also brought out a sniper rifle for good measure, as per Hades's recommendation.

"Now let's set up a forward base. Poseidon, Hades, you put up some tents. Hermes, man up and help them. I'll start a fire. We want to conserve our flashlights as long as possible."

Within thirty minutes, they had four tents pitched and a fire with enough firewood nearby to last into the day. There were no horses in sight, since they were far away from the nearest road.

"I think they're called ponies, general. After all... she... said 'somepony'." Hermes spoke up in response to Zeus talking to himself.

"That's marshal, sergeant."

"Pfft, self-appointed marshal."

"Piss off, Poseidon. If one of us had to be a marshal, it'd be me."

There was a sufficient amount of truth in Zeus's words. Poseidon wasn't experienced enough, and Hades was too quiet. That didn't explain why Hermes was a sergeant, though.

"Whaaatever. What's your rank, Hades?"

"He's a captain. I was the one who suggested him for that promotion." Zeus answered quickly in Hades' stead.

"Hey, let Hades talk next time. He can't fight if he doesn't communicate."

"Trust me, he won't talk . Hades only talks when he needs to. That means during battle."

Poseidon looked around for Hades. He found Hades looking for the sniper rifle in the tents.

"...We better get some sleep before Hades shoots someone." Poseidon said nervously.

"Good idea."

"What about recon?" Hermes spoke more eagerly than usual.

"Wait for tomorrow. That's an order."

Nobody talked after Zeus's command.

Everyone at the forward base plus Apollo had similar dreams that night. Though none of them would remember their dreams at all in the morning, the experience would impact them for a long time.

All of them were haunted by Nightmare Moon's frozen cold heart and fear of a highly uncertain future.

Hermes and Poseidon were terrified by Nightmare Moon as well as the increasing odds of a very bloody first contact.

Apollo was nearly driven to insanity over the idea of leaving humanity. He had finally discovered the reality of his situation just before falling asleep, and his nightmare reflected his grief like a mirror.

Zeus had his death-ridden past thrown into the mix in his dream. He saw his entire dead family, just to see them depart again. It was if they only wished to torture Zeus further.

As for Hades, he was left helpless without a gun, the object he had relied on to obliterate all of his threats.

Hades was the first of any of them to escape from his terrors. He instantly flew up out of bed to retrieve his weapon. He basked in the comfort it gave him for about a minute, then left the tent.

The sun had not quite risen, but it would rise soon according to the brightening pink glow on the horizon opposite of the forest. Hades sat down next to the fire to watch the sky just before sunrise. The fire had disappeared, but its light would be replaced by the yellow-orange light of the sun.

"Can't sleep?" Zeus had apparently awoken as well.

Hades twisted his head to see the newcomer. Once he discovered the source of the voice, he turned back towards the east .

"Thinkin' about... Nightmare Moon?" Zeus summoned all of his courage to utter the frightening pony's name.

"No... about how we got in this mess and how Apollo is gone... stuff like that."

"Hm."

The two of them remained still for a while thinking about it. Hades broke the silence.

"Ya know, Apollo actually inspired me. His enthusiasm got me enthusiastic, and his sadness got me sad for the first time in a long time."

Zeus nodded and started a reply. "I know what you mean. We were... lucky to have a comrade like him."

Hades pointed towards the east as the first rays of light breached the dark night sky.

"Look. Sunrise."

At first, there were a few purple-pink-colored puffy clouds to the far east. The color of these clouds spread at a snail's pace towards the clouds closest to them. As this occurred, purple-pink turned into hot pink, sending shock-waves of brightness again. Now the open sky took on a brighter color as well. Pink became brighter, sending more waves. Brighter pink became faint yellow which became yellow, then the tip of the sun peered into the exhausted land. After about a quarter of the sun was visible, Hades couldn't look at its blinding gaze any longer.

"Anyways, we had a rough night, but we'll survive." Zeus attempted to bring Hades into a slightly better mood.

"I hope we can say the same about the first horse we encounter." Poseidon joined the chat in a worried voice.

"They're ponies, I deduced it yesterday."

Now it was both Zeus' and Hades' time to turn around and look at the newcomers. Hades stood up and prepared for another conversation.

"Horse, pony, doesn't matter." Zeus spoke in an annoyed voice.

"It matters to them." Hermes retorted.

"All right then," Poseidon gave in and corrected himself. "The first pony we encounter. Either way, don't shoot 'em until we talk to them... If all of them can speak, that is. Poker?"

All of the other soldiers shook their heads.

"No time for games."

"We have work to do."

"C'mon, we have nothing else to do."

"Do I need to use more orders?" Zeus' nanocomputer vibrated in his pocket, indicating the presence of another large life form nearby.

He conjured his nanocomputer, a notebook much like Apollo's journal, and opened it, folding the front cover onto the back.

"Looks like someone strayed off the road. Move out and capture the creature with a surround."

"Yes, sir!" Even Hades added his voice to the affirmative.

Hades and Hermes took the long route around to the corners of an imaginary square around the moving target. There was no underbrush, but the trees obscured enough vision to make the task easy. Zeus and Poseidon split to complete the square, then Zeus gave the command to close. He communicated via a mic and speaker built into everyone's armor. Once the target became visible, they saw a yellow pony with a symbol of three butterflies on her flank.

Hades was the first to notice that the mare seemed to be searching for something.

Have we been spotted? Too late for her anyways...

He leaped out of a bush and tackled the stunned pony. Her hooves refused to let her flee. Before she knew it, the pony was on the ground looking down the barrel of a gun.

"Do you understand me?"

No answer.

"Do you understand me!"

Hades noticed a slow nod. He then waved for the others to cease hiding and help with the interrogation. Poseidon took over.

"First things first... where are we? What the hell is going on?"

"I... I... eep!" She spoke softly in a manner that clearly revealed her fear.

Judging from the four men's face-palms and sighs, they could tell they weren't getting anywhere anytime soon.

"All right then, let me rephrase that. What... ah..." Poseidon paused and moved his eyes up to think of a universal word for country. "What civilization are we in? I'm assuming you have one?"

"C-civilization? You mean Equestria?"

Zeus snorted and commented on it sarcastically. "Equestria. What a fitting name. Can't wait for more horse-related words and names."

"Um, I-I'm a p-pony... not a horse..."

"Horse, pony, no difference! Now, what the hell is going on?"

The mare's sky blue eyes grew and turned away from Zeus.

"You dare..." Zeus was cut off by Hermes.

"Wait, I'll take care of it." Hermes stepped forward and kneeled to get eye contact. "What's your name?"

She mumbled. Hermes rotated his head with his ear facing the pony in response.

"I... I'm Fluttershy..." Although Fluttershy's words were hardly audible, Hermes deciphered it.

"All right, tell us about Equestria. Fluttershy." He added her name to encourage an illusion of peace, even with someone's weapon aimed at Fluttershy at all times.

"Oh, um, I don't know that much... except that Princess Celestia raises the Sun and-"

"HAH! Bullshit! It's just your average absolute monarchy. The citizens treat their leader like a god." Zeus slowly lowered his gun without realizing it as he spoke.

Fluttershy finally broke down and ran off. Zeus was stunned for a second from Fluttershy's sudden surge of courage. Hades started looking around to find out who had carried the sniper rifle, since Fluttershy was already too far away for an average weapon.

"Hades, don't bother. The sniper rifle is back at the forward base. There's no way we can kill her now. We just need to hope God's on our side today." Zues took a cigar from one of his many hidden pockets.

Poseidon bore a fearful expression on his face. He had fully realized what could happen if the word spread about them.

"All right team, back to base."

"Yes sir!"