Cold Steel Rising

by Kuairu

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Crossover, Dark, Alternate Universe, Human, Tragedy
Length: 5729

Celestia arrives in a dimension of fear and despair, a world controlled by National Socialists, yet the group she joins may bring new hope to the land, if only she can overcome her own demons.

"So, what was it?" a man asked. The man, wearing dark armor, a gas mask, and holding a rifle, was talking to another man, who was in a grey monotone plaid jacket, with a cap on his head that had a black rim and a red stripe around the edges of the cap. They were stationed at the outskirts of a forest, with smoke rising in the distance.

"It is the strangest thing, Hanz. We expected a meteor, or perhaps even one or our satellites. But instead, it was someone."

"Someone, sir?"

"A woman, of brilliant Aryan skin, but with a very strange hair color. Or rather, hair colors…"

A My Little Pony/Wolfenstein: The New Order crossover. Enjoy.

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2015-05-31 04:40:01 UTC

Prologue: Escape

She opened her eyes and saw nothing. She tried to speak, but found her words unspoken. She tried to move, yet she did not go anywhere. Chains held her limbs. Darkness was the only thing she knew.

She stayed there, unaware of what was happening save the passage of time. She could hear, but what she heard she didn’t want to hear. They only pained her more; time and sound. The only two things she had now, and they constantly betrayed her.

A bright light blinded her view. She felt something being removed from her face, and something was now holding it up to the light source.

She winced and strained, and could faintly tell a face from the corner of her recovering vision. Her face was now left hanging, no longer supported by something. After a short time, her eyesight gradually recovered and she looked up.

She first noticed the room. White tile floor and wall, with brownish stains covering the tiles near her. She then noticed the figure in the room. Bipedal, tall, slender, and was dressed in a white coat. A lab coat, she realized.

“Wie heißen Sie?” the figure said.

“What?” she replied. She did not understand what the figure had said, as if the words just passed through her ears. The language was entirely unknown to her.

The figure sighed to itself, before coughing once. “Name? What name?” the figure asked.

“My...my name?” she replied.

“Ja. Name.”

“I...I am Celest… AHEM...” she composed herself, despite being chained, “I am Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria. I demand to know-”

“Sie müssen nicht zu verlangen! Ich verlange!” The figure slapped Celestia across her face, enough to rattle the chains that held her in place. “Where are you from?!”

“E-Equestria…” Celestia coughed. The hit had caught her off-guard, and she caught a sight of her limbs. They were not the limbs she had before. She now had feet, covered with fading brown boots, and she had hands. This only meant that she was in a different world, although the last time she went through the mirror it certainly didn’t look like this.

She looked back up to her captor, who scribbled in his notepad. Of what, Celestia felt she did not want to know.

“Hanz! Dieter!” the figure called. Two other figures, wearing strange masks and strange suits of what Celestia assumed to be armor came out of the door that Celestia had missed seeing. She assumed they were soldiers. They walked up to the figure in the lab coat, and saluted by outstretching their right hands up to forehead level.

“Nehmen sie in B-Block, Zelle 17,” the figure told the soldiers. The two walked up to where Celestia hung and unhooked the bottom chains on the floor. They then grabbed a pole that she had not seen before, and shoved it against the back of her neck. She realized the pole was what held the chains that cuffed her...hands, so she couldn’t strike back. The two shoved her down the room, and she exited the door, teetering back and worth all the while as she tried to make her new limbs workThey shoved her up a staircase that spiraled around an immensely large and circular room. Every couple of steps there would be a catwalk that connected to doors with a small window, but Celestia couldn’t peek in even if she had wanted too. Sometimes they passed a catwalk that would lead straight to the center of the room, where there was a large structure that often had the same doors where the side catwalks would connect to, although Celestia couldn’t peek in those windows either.

Celestia now heard more of the screams that she heard from the room. They were deafening, and she wondered why there was so much pain in this place.

After walking across a catwalk, the soldiers unhooked the chains tying Celestia to the pole, before opening the door to the side. They shoved her in using the pole, and closed the door behind her.

Celestia landed hard on the floor of the cell, her knees throbbing with pain.

“Eh? Who’s the girl?” she heard a voice say.

“Girl?” another voice said, “Thought this was a males-only prison.”

“Maybe she wanted to be a man and they threw her here in spite?”

“Don’t be absurd. The reason why this is a males’ only prison ‘s because they use up the woman. Most of the girls at the brothel down my street were really prisoners.”

“Well, she’s pretty enough to be a, a, ah, prostitute.”

“It’s not just cuz she’s pretty. Look at her hair.” Celestia finally looked up to see five faces staring right at her. She yelped in surprise and scrambled to the door, away from the figures. They were alarmed at the speed she moved back from them.

“Ya see? Freaky hair, strangely colored eyes like Zayn, and really quick. I’m guessing she’s an escaped experiment,” she heard one of the figures say. She took a look around the room for an escape.

The room was much like the room she was previously in, except instead of medical equipment she saw four sets of bunk beds. The sheets to each of the beds sat in heaps and piles and in one case had been uprooted altogether, all except one. Celestia spied something or someone was making use of it.

The figures in front of her looked strange. They each wore an orange suit that encompassed their entire body. All of them had various shades of white skin, except for the one on the bed, who seemed to be noticeably more tan, with dark hair.

"Hey, hey, hey! We ain't going tae hurt ya," spoke a figure with a very light skin, a big bushy beard and bright red hair.

"Well, Zayn might. You know what he did to James," stated a second figure with a slightly tanner skin than the first figure, with dark brown hair.

"I can hear you," replied the figure on the bed.

"Don't listen to them. Bunch a' boys, they are," the first figure assured.

"Did ya even check to see if she speaks English? If she's an experiment, than she'd probably only knows German," a third figure, looking much like the second figure except for their lighter hazel eyes compared to the second figure, spoke up to the first figure.

"No, but first of all, how do you "check" if they speak a language? Look under their clothes for the bloody union jack?" Another figure spoke. This one had light skin too, yet it had bright blond hair and dim blue eyes, which were helped by the addition of golden eyeglasses.

"Wha, well it's just an expression! What, you never heard of checking for something in your Nazi college?!" the third figure asked accusingly.

"It's a stupid expression, American, and I do advise you hold your tongue about my profession, coal miner!" the one with the glasses threatened.

"Well whoop de doo! Sorry for not being a fricking German and having access to good ol' education back home. Instead, that's blown up like everything else!" yelled the ‘American’.

"At least you had a home. I've got nowhere!" the figure from the bed spoke up.

"Really, Zayn? The first thing you say when the lady is here and you have to make yourself the most victimized? We're all criminals here. Whether by real charges or not we're here. Now, let us please have the lady introduce herself," the figure with the glasses stated.

"She doesn't even speak our language, Doc,” the ‘American’ said.

"Yes, I do," she said before she stood up. Celestia’s jumpsuit, orange like theirs but one size too big on her, sagged behind as she climbed to her full height. Her hair, now free to move as it pleased, now waved through the air in a dance of pink, sea green, and sky blue, as if blown by some nonexistent wind.

"And thus, the lady rises. What might be your name, miss?" a fifth figure now spoke up. It looked like the figure with the glasses, but with brighter blue eyes. There was a small scar across his right cheek, above his jaw line.

"Celestia. I am Princess Celestia of the land of Equestria. It seems my student's experiments may have proven more damaging then thought. It must have altered the human dimension along with transporting me to be captured by, um, those soldiers. Where am I, exactly? I thought I heard you mention this was a prison?"

The five all looked at her with unreadable expressions, before bursting into laughter.

"Ahhahaha! I have never seen a more deranged case than a few students' crazier theories back in my work!" laughed ‘Doc’.

"A princess! A princess is whut 'ey sent us!" the bearded one laughed.

"Hey, James, if we shag her, think we'd become princes!?" the figure who had antagonized ‘Zayn’ asked while laughing.

"A princess? Think you can get us out with your diplomatic powers then? Or is that what brought you here in the first place!?" the figure with the scar taunted.

"Ah ha ha! Ah ha! Ah hahahaha! Ooooh man” the American coughed. “Hey Zayn, whatcha doin'? Zayn? Zayn-"

The black-haired one jumped out of his bed and shoved Celestia onto the wall, holding her there. She tried to push back before she looked at Zayn's eyes and froze.

They were violet. Just like hers.

“I believe her,” Zayn stated.

The rest of the group had various faces of shock, with the one who had mocked him becoming slack-jawed. The one called ‘Doc’ had his eyes twitch rather violently, while the rest held furrowed eyebrows.

“You’re...you’re kidding me, right? Zayn, this is a special prison for ‘terrorists and undesirables’. This is meant to house dangerous criminals and, uh, ‘mentally challenged’ people,” the American said.

“I. Believe. Her,” Zayn said, staring hard at each of the group, before letting go of Celestia. He walked back to his bed, where he stared at the wall with his legs crossed, not even looking anywhere else, nor even at Celestia.

“Zayn, buddy, come on. She's right insane. Plus, the jury's still out on whether or not she's an escaped experiment. Freaky hair, weird eyes like yours, she's probably not even fully human!" the American tried to reason with Zayn.

"Settle down, James. I've been with Zayn longer than you four, and if he believes her...well, I suppose I don't question his judgment," Doc replied for Zayn.

"C'mon Doc, you can't be serious! How the hay is this girl a princess from, uh, whatever she's from, if you and I both know the Nazis have the entire world in their hands!?" the American retorted.

"I can answer that, Doctor," the one with the scar stepped up.

"Aw no, professor, not you too!" the American cried.

"James? John? The real question is not about if she is right. The real question is why Zayn, whom I've considered the most unpredictable yet wisest man, or boy really, in our group, believes her," the professor asked.

Both men looked incredulous at 'Doc' and 'Professor' before the fifth in the group stepped up.

"Well,” the fifth man began, "if th’ freaky eye boy believes th’ freaky ‘air girl, than I doon ‘ave a reason to not trust ‘im."

The seven cellmates heard a noise. A light but firm rapping sound echoed around the room.

"Now what could Ajeera be knocking about?" the one who had mocked Zayn, called John by the professor, asked. He walked towards one pair of bunk beds and dragged it away from the walls. A large hole revealed itself next to the wall, where it had been hidden by the bed.

"Friends, I believe I find way out!" A man poked his head out of the hole, with more tanned skin than all of the seven outside the hole.

"What?! What do ya mean AJ?" James the American asked.

“I stumbled upon chute that leads to trash compactor room. It has man-hole leadin’ into sewers. Doctor knows sewers, yes?” AJ asked.

“Well, um, yes. There was a resistance group that had abandoned their little ‘base’, so to speak, with maps leading to the harbor from the sewers. If I can get those maps we can get to the boats to sail out of here!”

Excitement filled the air as the seven talked in haste about plans and backup plans in case of failures. Celestia looked on in silence, contemplating her situation. The seven would not believe her story yet, but as they do not seem to like their captors as well as she did, following them to escape may as well help her, and she might as well go find some answers on the other side too. There was still the mystery of whether or not her magic worked in this realm, as she could not feel anything if she tried to summon her magic. She feared that her magic was completely taken from her as if a force like Tirek had helped these ‘Nazis’, but since she did not feel weakened from lack of magic (besides the other suffering she had endured) that thought was ruled out. So far her questions were: “Where am I? Who are these creatures, seeming human but not like the humans I knew? Why did the world seem so cruel to these men, labeling them criminals even though they seemed non-threatening? What has happened to my magic?”

AJ looked up and noticed her, and raised an eyebrow. “Eh? Who is girl?” he asked.

“She’s some whackjob who thinks she’s royalty or something,” James replied “Zayn somehow believes her.”

“Well, it is my pleasure, amiirad.” AJ held out his hand from the hole for Celestia to shake, but all 8 were suddenly spooked by the lights shutting down.

“Lichter sind jetzt aus,” a woman’s voice said through a speaker hidden somewhere that echoed throughout the room. "Sie werden jetzt Ihre zugewiesene Zeit zum Schlafen gegeben. Jede Störung, und Beispiele gemacht werden.”

Celestia frowned. That announcement must have reached the rest of the prisoners in the facility as well.

“What did she say? I have never heard of that language in my life,” Celestia asked.

The seven looked at her in shock. “Okay, yeah,” James said, “she definitely has to be an escaped or failed experiment. No way she could be that sheltered!”

“James, shut it. Ajeera, now would be the time to utilize your escape plan. We will have to follow you until we get into the sewers, where I will lead. In the cover of the night, we should get by undetected. Let’s hope we get lucky with whatever boat we can stow away on,” Doc said.

“Very well. Follow me,” AJ said, ducking back through the hole. “John, pull bed when you go down.”

“You got it.” The seven all went down the small hole one by one, with John in the back to pull the bed back into place, hopefully staving off any search parties.

Celestia found the journey through the hole to be cramped. The scraped cement dragged against her as she crawled. She heard something loud and metallic smashing against something as hard as metal repeatedly. It smelled musty and mildew but somehow it was familiar. Judging from how AJ and the Doctor fared, they knew the smell too.

Her hands moved through something soft and organic. “Mold? How is there mold in here? How long were you all trapped up there?” she asked.

“Not enough for regular mold to form,” the Doctor replied. It was hard to hear him even though Celestia was crouched beside him, because of the screeching and pounding. “A lot of the cement the Nazis made have this effect of mold growing into the component integrity. They think one of the main factories has a subtle but huge technical flaw in its manufacturing.”

“If there is mold, then we best be going. Don’t want to be stuck here getting mold in my lungs. Once we get to the Metro, professor, I’m taking you to a doctor, a REAL one, since Doc here isn’t good at even looking at blood,” John said.

“Well excuse me that I wanted to get my doctorate. It’s not like I had planned on getting myself imprisoned for being near the men who are the real murderers!”

“Hey! The soldiers we’ve killed have murdered and hurt more than me and James have ever killed, you two-faced Kraut!”

“SHUT IT YOU TWO! Listen!” AJ stopped the group behind him and held his right hand up. While John and the Doctor gave each other the stink eye, they both noticed along with the rest of the group some miscellaneous chatter in the vent in front of them.

The first soldier spoke in the unknown language from before. There were two soldiers in the room, with an open-windowed door behind them. The room was a compacting room, but instead of trash as AJ thought, it was a metal compacting room, flattening any and all kinds of metals in its machines. The group had been lucky the machines had caused enough noise so the soldiers didn’t hear the bickering between John and the Doctor.

“What are they saying?” Celestia sneaked closer to the vent to see better, and bumped into John.

John scoffed. “Some shit about alien girls falling from the sky, from ‘Schwarz-vald’, the Black Forest. Never been there, and don’t want to, if the stories about that place are true,” he said, almost to her face. He leaned past, “James?”

“On three. I got right.” James sneaked up on the right of John, opposite of Celestia. He held up a hand to John and counted from one to three.

Celestia narrowed her eyes. “What are you two do—”

“Three!” James and John burst out of the vent. The duo rushed to the guards, who scrambled to their defenses. The two made sure to clip the safety on the guns as if they were trained. A fist fight quickly ensued, the guards trying to reach the alarm but always pulled out of reach.

James ducked under a swing from one guard, before throwing his weight into his enemy. John and his adversary had each other in choke-holds, trying to outlast each other before they could succumb to the lack of oxygen.

James managed to swing his right fist into his enemy’s lower chest, and grabbed the knife on the guard’s left while he reeled from the punch. An awkward swing meant to stab cut the guard’s throat, spurting some blood onto James. The guard grabbed his throat in an attempt to keep it all in, but he fell to his knees and then on the ground, where the flat elevation kept the blood inside his throat, and he drowned in his blood.

“James…help…” John was starting to lose the choke-hold, and the guard inched closer to the alarm.

Celestia looked on in horror, as did the Doctor and the professor, while Zayn watched with a neutral expression, and Ajeera even had a small smile. The smile wasn’t twisted either, which worried Celestia. She looked back to see James running towards John and his guard.

"Get off him you blue-eyed beast!" James threw his weight again and shoved the guard away from John. The guard stumbled back dazed, laying his upper body flat on a conveyor belt. He looked up to see he was on one of the compacting machines.

Right underneath a press.

SPLAT!

John coughed and wheezed as he struggled to breathe again, using James as a hand hold. James stood still, mesmerized by the aftermath of the incident he just caused.

"H-how much blood is there in a man?..." James muttered.

"Enough for him to go on without a good portion, but I don't think he's getting up from that..." John answered. He used James to pull himself up, but he kept his upper body down as he tried to regain his breathing and stamina from the fight. James kept making quick glances to the accident, but soon turned his head away, swallowing some phlegm in his throat. John didn’t even dare to look back at his guard. He leaned on the wall next to the vent, saying, "Hey, you six can come out now. Don't look over here."

"Too late," the Doctor said. He was the first to come out, with little liquid stains coming out of his mouth. The rest if the group crawled out of the vent, with AJ coming out last. James went to unlock the door with one of the keys from the guards, trying each one to see which one works.

AJ walked to John and grabbed his collar, pulling him up.

"Next time, tell Doctor plan," AJ said. He dropped John, and walked to the door, leaving John wondering what was the stench that came from the vent.

"I got it!" James found the right key and unlocked the door, pointing to an alley close by. Outside, it was cloudy, with brown and tan leaves being blown across the ground. AJ shivered.

"Head down that alley. I remember seeing a manhole in the middle of the street. Stay there until we come down," James ordered. The five nodded their heads and walked quickly to the alley.

Wait, five? James looked back to see Celestia standing near the incident, staring at it with a weird concentration. She shuddered and looked away, dry-heaving once. She had never seen this much gore in such a long time, and even then she thought she had seen it all of what the worst kinds of magic could do to her ponies. But to these creatures, the two men who had fought didn’t react with the same horror she did, or at least they did not show it.

"Celestia? We have to go," John slightly nudged her, but she didn't move.

"Was what you said true? They've committed more atrocities than you?" she asked cryptically. She held her head down with her eyes closed, and John could swear he saw a tear.

"Well, uh, yeah. Nazis have done some horrible stuff," John replied. He didn’t have much of a response as he was mystified to Celestia’s behavior. People die, sometimes in gruesome ways, what didn’t this girl understand about that, and why did she act like she did not agree that the Nazis were horrible?

"And what did they do?" she asked. She turned and looked at John straight in the eyes, while still keeping her head down. John remarked to himself that she looked menacing this way. He shook his head and furrowed his eyebrows in anger.

"They blew up my home. They took my parents away, they killed my little brother right in front of me!" John felt as if he raised several inches above Celestia, but she didn't look fearful at all.

"Those two did them?" Celestia pointed to the two guards. John felt like he was shrinking under her gaze.

"Well, no, but-"

"So why should they die if they have not wronged you?" Celestia finally asked the question she had on her mind. She could not see any reason why the two guards had to be killed, no, murdered, because of another’s action. Nothing like that had ever happened in Equestria, or at least someone blaming someone else for a third party doing wrong to the first party was never done when she ruled.

"Because they supported them! You don't just put on the swastika as something you just have, you put it on in support! Look at their arms!"

Celestia looked at the guard whose throat had been cut, and saw the red band and symbol she assumed John had mentioned.

"Even if they wear the band, did these specific two did anything to you?..." Celestia asked again.

"...No. They didn't. But I see what you're getting at, 'princess', and I'm telling you there ain't room for personal morals anymore," John grabbed the rifle off the the guard who had drowned in his blood. James followed by grabbing the rifle off the unfortunate guard who had his head smashed.

John now all but shoved Celestia out of the room, with James closing the door after them.

"We can discuss this later, Celestia. Right now we need to leave before other guards show up," John urged.

They walked to the alley where James had pointed the others, and found the manhole they remembered was there. With a quick rap on the cover, it opened. Quickly they jumped down the hole, as quickly but silently as they could, not wanting to get captured before they had a chance to escape.

"Dear heavens it reeks here!" the professor uttered. Now that the manhole was shut, the lack of clean oxygen quickly arose as a problem for the eight.

"There's a reason why..." the Doctor pointed to a figure on the ground. James kneeled down to the figure, but quickly scuttled away, pinching his nose.

"Ugh! That guy hasn't been alive,” he paused to cough, “in a while..."

"There's a good reason why that resistance group I mentioned earlier had hid here. The normal time it takes for a routine patrol to come down here would kill them because of the lack of good oxygen. This man essentially suffocated," the Doctor stated. There were murmurs of worry in the group, before he got to speak again. "I know the way. Follow me, and keep your breathing as slow and conserved as you can, until I say so. Keep your tongues to save your oxygen."

The Doctor trotted quickly down a corridor with the group following suit, not too fast as to make them use more oxygen, but not too slow so they could save precious time, which might be the difference between freedom and death now. They escaped a Nazi prison, something that was hardly ever done, and the Doctor still couldn’t believe they did it. He still didn’t believe they could.

But he would try his damndest to escape.

There was a crossroad at the end of the corridor, and the group stopped. The Doctor walked to one of the pipes that lined the corridors around the crossroad.

"Look at this," the Doctor pointed to a little symbol on one of the pipes. The group barely saw it, as there was very little light flowing down from the top drains that periodically lined the corridors. The symbol somewhat reminded Celestia of the symbols the guards wore on their arms.

"Is that a cross?" James asked.

"Tau cross. It's a symbol of the Franciscans. This means the base is down this corridor," the Doctor replied, gesturing with his index finger down the mentioned corridor

"Franciscans?" John began as they walked down the corridor. "I thought the Church was abolished after the War?"

"You'd think that th' Church can be quenched by th' might o' Men alone? Many priests, monks, and nuns took up arms tae defend whatev’r ‘ey could from th' German basterds," the bearded one of the group said.

"And what do you know of the Church, Oliver? I thought priests and nuns were only kindred spirits back in their time," the Doctor asked.

Oliver stopped. The group looked behind them to see him take out a necklace underneath his clothes. Upon closer inspection, it was another Tau cross, same as the one etched onto the pipe.

"Times change, Doctor. I doon doubt tha’ God kenned of the world, but I do doubt th’ that ‘e's left us tae die. Migh’ be th’ time of the ‘pocalypse, but if this our sufferin’, the innocent woulda’ been spared. I fight t’en, so I’d rebuild my Church, just as Saint Francis ‘ad rebuilt ‘is in ‘is own time," Oliver held the cross, rubbing it between his fingers, as if he was trying to find support on the cross.

“Well now. I didn’t know you were a Franciscan, Oliver. I knew you were a religious man since you prayed your little “sign of the cross” or whatever you call that gesture you made when a prisoner was carted off. Where did you fight, if I may ask?” the Doctor asked.

“My home. Ire’and. Nazis caugh’ my group tryin’ tae smuggle some food tae a ‘ungry fam’ly. Spies, t’ey ‘ere. I ended up wit’ you all, but ay doon ken ‘ere my friends are.”

“Oh! We’re here!” the Doctor suddenly exclaimed, looking at the same Tau cross symbol on a pipe. “Ah, it must be inside this pipe. Hmm… we all should be able to get through one at a time. I’ll go first, Celestia, you go last to make sure the door closes.”

The Doctor was starting to feel lightheaded, and he knew the group didn’t have much time nor oxygen left. He hoped the base was at least filtered enough to breathe in.

One by one, the group shuffled single file into the file, getting down on their hands and knees in order to crawl through. The Doctor could hear others starting to breath in loudly, as well as he was breathing in more, and tried to rush. Each second they crawled, their breathing became more erratic and unsteady.

“Oof!” Zayn fell over, now feint and out of literal breath. The group behind him panicked.

“Zayn!” the professor wheezed. He breathed in as much as he could and tried to push Zayn forwards, but slipped and crumpled over his body.

“Professor…” Oliver wheezed before fainting over too. Celestia looked forward as she choked too, seeing a bright light now at the end of the pipe. She fell over the mass of the bodies, but still conscious to see the light.

She faintly heard voices. The lack of oxygen was too painful for her to hear what they said. She stared at the light as it grew closer. She wondered if it was the light that her subjects had talked about with their near-death experiences.

With what little conscious thought she had left, she thought of her sister, and how she would now be left alone in Equestria, left alone to rule both the day and the night. If she could cry, she would have done so then and there. The light embraced her, and she felt warm all over, with a slight pressure on her stomach.

Slowly, the pressure on her stomach felt harder and harder, each application a little more forceful. Details streamed back into her eyes, although the light was still blinding. She glanced up into someone’s eyes, and for a moment she was overjoyed.

“Da?” she muttered. The details on the eyes grew, and she saw the rest of the face. She blinked as she breathed in the biggest breaths of her life.

“She’s okay!” John exclaimed. Celestia blinked rapidly as she raised herself on her elbows. She saw the room was illuminated slightly by the lights that were hanging on the ceiling. She saw three figures on the floor in the same position as her, and there were two other figures standing, but bending over as they breathed in hard but slow. It was James and the Doctor, she realized as she blinked, and figures on the ground was Zayn, Oliver, and the professor. John stood over Celestia as the final one of the group, and she breathed a sigh of relief.

“What happened in there?” she spoke between breaths.

“You all started to hyperventilate when Zayn fell over, and you started to suffocate. Thank God Hanz grabbed James and me and pulled us forward to the end of the pipe. Once he pushed the door, fresh air started to pour in, and we managed to grab you guys and pull you out,” James replied.

James slid down a wall, yawning as he was sliding, and looked towards the Doctor. “Hey, Hanz, could we just sleep here a little bit? I think we need to rest some before we go exploring this little base of yours.”

“Doctor, James, I prefer to be called Doctor.”

“Well, can we sleep, Doc?”

“Sigh, it would be better if we rest, yes. You all may rest, I’m going to enter the door and see if there is still any food left,” the Doctor replied. With a collective sigh, the group laid themselves on any open patch on the floor or on any wall they could find. Celestia was content with where she laid, and closed her eyes, being self-conscious about her breathing, and making sure to take deep, slow breaths.

It must have been a minute of relative silence when she felt something prod her shoulder. She opened her eyes to see Zayn on her right. She was still mesmerized by those purple eyes. As far as the others in the group said, it seems his eyes were a rare oddity in this world.

He looked really young too, as relative as young could be in this world. He certainly looked a couple ages under James and John, and she assumed they were at the beginning of their prime. This meant that either the duo have seen enough to be advanced in age, as she had seen sometimes in her own ponies, or Zayn wasn’t even an adult. She hoped it would be the former.

“Princess Celestia? Do you remember me?” Zayn asked. Celestia was caught off guard by the question. He had used her title to address her, and somehow he thought Celestia knew him, even though she had never been to this world. She looked at him with shocked confusion.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. Princess Solar di Celestia, do you remember me?” Now Celestia was somewhat scared. She hadn’t heard that name in over a millennia. How did this boy whom she didn’t even remember know about a name lost in Equestria’s history books?

“How do you know my full name?” she asked. She knew questions asked in her head would not provide the same answers as questions spoken out loud.

“You…you don’t remember me? I was one of the legionnaires on your personal chariot, at the battle of Canterlot mountain, against the griffins?”

Celestia froze. The battle, she remembered. She always remembers those battles, back when Equestria was nothing more than a disparaged and brutal wasteland, as tribes and species fought over resources.

That was ten millennia ago.