Uncharted: Equestriaby RayvinneChaptersProlouge: Another Desert?Drake's DisharmonyIn MemoryProlouge: Another Desert?As usual, I don't own the Uncharted game series or any of it's characters. I also do not own MLP. Kinda wish I did though. I apologize if anyone is offended by Victor's use of language. I would prefer not to use it, but it's apart of his character."Here's the thing, kid, we don't get to choose how we start in this life, real greatness is what you do with the hand you're delt." -Victor SullivanUncharted: EquestriaAnother Desert? Nathan Drake, Elena Fisher, and Victor Sullivan walked towards the dirty old plane that rested on the tarmac, bathed in an orange sunset. They were finally done with what they thought to be their final adventure of any great magnitude. They had found the lost city Iram of the Pillars, and only briefly got to behold it's beauty before it sank into the sands of time, taking it's secrets with it. "It's not as good as the one you two wrecked four years ago, but...it'll do." Sully joked, recalling their first adventure that brought the unlikely trio together, when they ended up finding the remains of the famed explorer Sir Francis Drake, along with a horde of Nazi zombie things. Pleasant, right? "Now let's see if I can remember how to fly the goddamn thing..." he finished, hefting his luggage. "Hey, this has parachutes, right?" Elena asked, recalling the very same event with their previous plane. "Oh...yeah." Victor responded, blowing off the question. "Three...right?" added Nathan, his arm draped around his wife. "More or less." Victor teased, as they climbed in and got situated. They taxied the ancient plane to the runway, revved the engines, and took off into the fading sunset. Nathan awoke with a start. He thought he heard a noise coming from the plane, and not a good one. He was drifting back off to sleep when he heard Sully's irritated muttering. Deciding he probably find out what was wrong, before they all exploded and were sent to their deaths, Nate pulled himself out of the chair he had slept in, making sure to not wake the still snoozing Elena. Nathan made his way up to the cockpit, rubbing his eyes. "Sully, what's wrong?" Nathan whispered, sitting in the co-pilot's seat. "I dunno, kid! The plane's just going haywire, and we're losing altitude, fast!" Victor answered, panic started to creep into his voice. "We're gunna have to bail, unless you wanna end up pancaked in the middle of the desert!" "Get the parachutes out, I'll wake Elena!" Nate commanded, before heading back to wake his slumbering wife. "Elena, wake up, we gotta go." he gently prodded her, causing her to stir from her dream. "Wai...whah?" she asked, confused. Victor tossed them each a parachute, and handed them each a bottle of water. "If ya get lost, find the highest point ya can see, and we'll all find a way to meet up, okay?" he more of commanded then asked, but nobody questioned him. After making sure all their parachutes were secure, Victor threw open the hatch and jumped, followed by Elena, and lastly, Nate. "Whoohoo!" Nate shouted into the night sky. Last time he jumped out of a plane, well, got sucked out of a plane, he didn't have a parachute, and it was a stroke of luck that he was still alive. He counted the seconds after he had bailed from the plane, and when he reached ten, he yanked the parachute's deployment cord. Nothing happened, and the string tangled uselessly in his hand. Nathan heard a wumph as Victor and Elena deployed their chutes, and his own screams as he plummeted down to the cold, sandy Earth that was quickly rushing to greet him. Victor's and Elena's calls drew quieter as he slowly lost consciousnesses. His world faded to black as he impacted the ground, but his body was absorbed in a great flash of light. When Victor and Elena made it to where he landed, not a trace of his body was to be found, and all that remained was the parachute's ripcord, torn from the rest of the pack.. Elena quietly wept into Victor's shoulder at the loss of her husband. A man who fought and won over violent zombies, ancient curses and power-hungry madmen, had just been defeated by a faulty piece of string. Had they been watching, they would have noticed that they too were being consumed in a flash of light, leaving the lone piece of string to fall to the ground. Nathan awoke covered in sand. He was really, really starting to hate sand. He looked about in all directions. Just more sand. But wait. Very faintly, way off in the distance, he could see what appeared to be a structure. "Might as well get to walking." He thought, a rush of memories from his deplorable stay in the Rub' al Khali desert. He began his trudge to the structure, unable to make it out. He started to walk...and walk...and walk. The sun didn't ever set, but his internal clock told him it had been roughly three days, based on his lack of sleep. The structure, he figured out, was a grand castle. Or at least, it used to be a castle. He couldn't make out the design or markings that decorated it's deteriorated exterior from the distance he was at. It actually wasn't that far, not distance wise at least. The only problem was the castle was located atop a colossal sand dune, and there seemed to be a mountain that broke the dune's peak and towered over the castle on one side. And he would have to climb the scorching sand dune to reach what he hoped would be a refuge from the sun and heat. The top. Summit of the tallest damn mount of sand in wherever the hell he was. The castle was surrounded by a deserted, sandy city. Canals of sand crisscrossed the grounds, he could only assume they used to flow with water. The castle itself stood above the sand covered city, towering into the cloudless sky. A pair of great wooden doors blocked the entrance to it's hopefully shaded interior. One door had the carved out symbol of the sun, and the other the moon. With a great effort, he pushed one of the doors open far enough for him to squeeze in. Shade. Shade, shade, and more shade. It was at least thirty degrees cooler in the shade of the stone castle, albeit a bit musky. Drake heaved the great door shut again, and turned to wander the castle, searching for a source of water. It wasn't until he felt something sharp and long jab his back, and a deep, gruff voice spoke out to him. "Halt, intruder, put your arms up and turn around slowly." the mystery voice commanded. Nate followed the instructions, and couldn't help himself but gape and stutter in shock. He pointed a finger back and fourth between his two captors, and they promptly knocked him out with a long, metal pole. His captors were ponies. Two dark grey ponies, clad in a deep purplish armor, with menacing bat wings and sharp, vampire like teeth. And they did not look happy. Drake's DisharmonyDon't find fault, find a remedy. -Henry Ford Uncharted: EquestriaDrake's Disharmony Nathan awoke to find himself laying on a cold stone floor, and too a rather large rat sniffing his face. "Guruuaaghh!" Nate screamed, smacking the rat away. He sat up and took in his surroundings. He wasn't locked up, thankfully. He was laying in what appeared to be a disused waiting room, presumably for an office of some sort. Nathan picked himself up, and used a nearby wooden chair to keep him from keeling over. After the bloodrush had left his head and the dots left his weary eyes, he became aware of shouting. Particularly, the shouting of a woman. A very angry woman. "We said bring him to us, not knock him cold, Stalwart!" The voice bellowed from a nearby room, it's incredible volume reverberating in the castle's stone walls. "We want thou to check on the being and make sure that he is not harmed, and if he is, you shall be disciplined!" Nathan shuddered a little at the commanding voice that still bounced around in his ears as the sound of hoofs...yes, hoofs, came closer. A partitally rotten wooden door on the far side of the room creaked open, and one of the ponies that had knocked him out however long ago walked in, still wearing his deep purple armor. It noticed that Nathan was awake, and nodded towards him. "Come." it instructed, gesturing for the door and room beyond. Nathan obeyed the gruff pony, grumbling to himself. The room that the door led too was, matter of fact, an office. Inside sat several duty shelves, discarded mounds of paper, and a massive wooden desk. Behind said desk, sat another pony. Except this one was female, and decorated with various pieces of jewelry and regalia. Nathan assumed this was the one that had been shouting her head off only moments ago. Despite the aforementioned screaming, she looked at him with calm, hollow eyes. The mare had both a horn and wings, and her size made the massive stallion that had taken him in look like a child's toy. It's not that she was fat, no, she was far from it, but she was nearly twice as tall as the other. And while the male had what appeared to be a mane made of a bat wing, the mare's didn't even appear to be real, it looked as sort of a dark mist that flowed out of her head, gently waving in a non-existent wind that reflected the night sky. The human and regal pony examined eachother, the former in a semi-shocked state, the the latter with mild curiosity. The mare spoke first. "Thou are a very tough being, mister. Thou was in the desert for four days, would thou care for a drink of water?" she asked, and Nathan was suddenly aware of how deteriorated his condition was. He remembered the water bottle that Victor had given him and fished it out. Bone dry. This was even worse than after his stay in the Rub' al Khali, and he slowly nodded towards the regal pony. A pounding headache and a severe sunburn decided that this would be the time they make themselves known, and he massaged his temples. The mare instructed her reluctant companion to fetch a pitcher of water. The stallion gave Nathan a look that said Move one inch and I'll end you before heading out. "Please forgive Stalwart, he is one of the last two of our personal guards that remain, and he refuses to leave his post." Her voice sounded tired and hollow, lacking the brief vibrance it held when she was scolding Stalwart. "We will explain to thee as much as possible, and when thou is in better health, we shall expect the same in return." The guard pony returned with a pitcher of lukewarm water and two mugs, which Nathan eagerly accepted. "We used to be called Princess Luna, but you may address us simply as 'Luna' for now. Come with me, I shall give you a brief history of the land you now occupy." Luna and her Stalwart led Nathan through a series of dank hallways, in an attempt to find the long forgotten Hall Of History. Upon their arrival to the ancient hall, Luna began to tell the history of Equestria, meanwhile Nathan, who was becoming sharper and more focused, thanks to a supply of water, was getting more and more skeptical that he really was talking to ponies. "With all due respect, how do I know you're real, and that I'm not dead or hallucinating or something? I've seen some pretty damn weird things, but this is one of the weirdest." He watched Luna nod to the guard, who promptly gave him a good buck in the gut. "Oh shi...uummphh...why...the hell...did you....do that? Nate groaned, doubling over. "Because if you were dead, you wouldn't feel it, and if this was a hallucination, you wouldn't feel it." the guard smirked at him and turned back to Luna, smiling. "Thy didn't have to buck him that hard, Stalwart..." she told him, getting a groan in agreement from Nathan. Luna ignored his grumbling and began to tell him the history of the once great land. "The land you are in used to be known as the kingdom of Equestria, ruled under my sister and myself. Obviously, it is no longer." she told him, sorrow and despair penetrated deep into her voice, and her whole body seemed to become dull and lifeless as she spoke. She told him the stories of Nightmare Moon, and Discord, and the six brave mares who defeated them. She spoke about the Changelings, then the insane mare who had ruined it all. "...nopony figured out who it was, that blue mare, but she rampaged through Ponyville, killing or wounding many. My sister, at the time, was visiting her student in Ponyville, and they were returning from a walk in the nearby woods. Celestia decided to intervene, but the mare...she attacked my sister, and her ever faithful student jumped in to help defend her town without hesitation." Luna paused to wipe a tear from her cheek, then continued. "The attacker wielded immeasurable power, and both sides were straining to overpower the other. Celestia and Twilight joined together to use the same spell, a stone casting spell, to lock away the mare, while the mare herself charged a very different spell. An annihilation spell, the kind that had been banished my me and my sister centuries ago. Both sides fired at the same time, and the spells matched dead center. Then they backfired. My sister and Twilight cast themselves in stone, and the mare was incinerated into a small pile of ashes." By now, Luna's head was hanging low, and tears flowed freely down her face. "As I explained earlier, my sister raises the sun, and I control the moon and stars. Without my sister, the sun could not be lowered, I tried and tried, but I couldn't budge the sun, only Celestia has the power to do so, I may move billions of them, but ours is special, and only Celly's..." she droned off, weeping openly onto the floor. Nate sat on the dusty floor and waited, pondering why Luna constantly mixed the third and first person when she spoke. In the background, the faint sound of hoof steps could be heard. "Luna, The Doctor said he made a breakthrough and wishes to..." the owner of the voice rounded a corner to see Luna weeping silently on the floor, with Stalwart Hide and some kind of creature greedily drinking from a near empty pitcher of water. "Luna, what's wrong?" the owner of the voice asked. It...er...he looked like one of the ponies that had captured him earlier that day. Or the day before, since nights didn't really exist anymore. The armored stallion rushed towards the weeping Luna and began to comfort her, running his hoof through her mane. It wasn't the first time this had happened. "It's my fault..." she sobbed "It's my fault that everypony is dead! My incompetence killed us all!" the stallion gently held the weeping mare, trying to help her calm down. After what seemed like hours, Luna had calmed enough to continue her story, but the stallion, who was named Aegis Shield, stayed to comfort her, and Stalwart left to attend to other matters. "Eventually, Equestria started to dry up. Ponies started to wither away with the land, starvation and dehydration started to kill them all off. We tried everything we could to break the stone spell, but nothing prevailed. The Elements of Harmony may have been able to do it, but the blue mare's rampage had left two of them confirmed dead, and Twilight set in stone." the tears had started to come again, and Luna was doing everything she could to keep herself together. "Rumors had gone around that two of them had made it away from the mare's violent rampage, and had hid in the Everfree Forest, which for reasons unknown, remains untouched by the desert heat and sand. I managed to get one of them here, along with a few other ponies from around the Kingdom, but we don't have many emergency supplies in the castle, so we couldn't save many. A few ponies fled to other lands, beyond the reaches of the desert, and other creatures who had little power before have taken over parts of Equestria, such as Diamond Dogs, Dragons, and even the Buffalo have claimed parts of the desert for themselves." Luna instructed Aegis to bring Nate to the rest of the ponies and get him situated with a bunk, so she could have time to collect herself. Nate lay on a pallet that had been assembled on the floor, as the pony bunks were way too small for his human body. Not that he was complaining, he'd slept in far worse conditions. The ponies reception to him had been fairly warm, considering the conditions. Total, there were of them in the castle. They'd shared names and stories over some kind of vegetable stew. As far as he could recall, their names were Lyra, who was absolutely ecstatic to meet him. Her partner, Bon Bon, wasn't as overjoyed as Lyra was, but she held no hostilities. Next was Braeburn, the best Nathan could match this cowboy style pony was to some lawman from an old western flick. His country charm worked on just about everyone...er...everypony around. After Braeburn was Rainbow Dash, one of the Elements of Harmony, and the only one who was known to still be alive, for the most part, Rainbow stayed to herself. She didn't talk to anypony, didn't go about boasting, in fact, she hardly even gave Nate a second glance. The next three ponies were much more optimistic with their situation, despite how much they had lost. They acted as a family, enduring the rest of their lives together. Doctor Whooves, Dinky Doo, who was affectionately nicknamed 'Derpy', and their daughter, Dinky. There was something about Doctor Whooves that reminded him of home, but he couldn't quiet put his tongue on it. After the Whooves family, the only two left, aside from Luna and her guards, was another wing-plus-horn pony and her husband, who just had a horn. Their names were something along the lines of Cadence and Shining Armor. Oh yeah, how could he forget! There was one more, a plain grey pony, who had a treble cleft on her bum. She was very formal and calm when she introduced herself, but anyone with a brain could see in her eyes that she had long ago given up on living, as if the one thing she cared about most had been ripped away. Nathan could see her sitting on a stool in the corner of the room he was in, softly playing on a Cello, then making notes on some old, disused parchment. He drifted off into a restless sleep listening to her music. Octavia's music. Muffins. That's the smell Nate awoke too. Blueberry muffins. And they smelled delicious. He wrangled himself out of his blankets that he had somehow twisted onto himself during the 'night'. How they kept the time, he would never know. The sun didn't move. Nathan made his way to where the ponies had gathered for muffins. Victor and Elena probably thought he was dead. To them, he went splat on some dirt in the middle of nowhere. Luna and her guard were present, although they lacked their armor. They looked like two normal ponies-with-wings. Or Pegasai, as he had been told. The only thing that distinguished them from the others was their medallions that hung around their necks. Luna, on the other hand, was still wearing all her royal garments. She had calmed down considerably, but her puffy red eyes showed that she had spent the majority of her 'night' crying, and Aegis comforted her quietly as they ate. Or Stalwart, he couldn't tell who was who. Luna ended up the first to break the silence that blanketed the gathering area. "Mister human, I do believe thou promised us to tell about thyself." she took a bite from her muffin. "So please, tell us about yourself." Nathan hesitated for a moment, finished his muffin, then looked directly at her. "Okay, well, my name is Nathan. Nathan Drake. I'm a human, and on my planet I was a treasure hunter..." he related the stories of his adventures to the group of ponies, who were all eager to listen, however exaggerated they were. He ended with his waking up in the desert, which left a somewhat dismal mood hanging on the crowd, especially after the heroic ending of Iram of the Pillars. Heroic for him, at least. "I think he is perfect, Luna." said a specific brown earth pony, who had a hourglass tattoo thing on his bum. Doctor Whooves, was it? "It was a stroke of luck that we brought him when he was about the die, on both of our parts at least." Luna nodded in agreement. "Yes, Doctor, I believe you are right." "Doctor Whooves...Doctor Whooves...Doctor...Whooovvess....that's it! Doctor Who! My god, it's a pony Doctor Who! Uncanny resembelence, too bad Cutter isn't here, I'm sure he'd love that. thought Nate, who had zoned out somewhat during his internal revelation. "Pony to Nate? Hellooo, mister human, you in there?" The Doctor waved his hoof in front of Nathan's face, which startled him out of his trance. "Huh?" he said, confused, getting snickers from several of the other ponies. "Nathan Drake, we have an assignment for thou, if thy is willing to accept." spoke Luna, who had adopted a very formal posture. "Eh, why not?" The trace of a faint smile graced Luna's lips for the briefest of moments before she turned. "Good. Doctor, Rainbow Dash, and Stalwart, follow us." she quipped, leading them out of the living quarters for the ponies and back towards the Hall of History. "The Doctor has done some research, Mister Drake, and has uncovered something of great interest. Long ago, my sister and myself created a sort of time traveling device, dubbed the Orb of Time, for simplicity's sake. We had thought it lost when I was lost to Nightmare Moon and banished, but the Doctor has evidence otherwise. According to some dusty old book, the Orb was stowed in a vast cavern beneath the old castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, deep in the Everfree forest." she stopped at a brick wall. A plain brick wall. Plain, at least, until she lowered her head and slid her horn into a barely noticeable slot in the masonry. There was a loud bang, followed by a repeated clink clink clink sound as an ancient lock, long forgotten came to life. The section of wall itself began to slide into the floor, revealing the vast room beyond. "What few ponies know, is that humans have been to Equestria before, and we have recorded what they all have said. From what we can gather, you are a violent, warring race, competing for your wavering planet's resources. The last humans that visited came about seventy five years ago, fighting what they called World War Two, according to the texts that were written about them. Three claimed to be with a group called the 'Americans and Allied Forces' and two others with the 'Nazi Regime'." She walked into the musky room, lighting candles with magic as she went. "We kept their stuff, as they seemed inclined to hurt eachother." she gestured to the now lit storage room, which was loaded with artifacts from all periods of Earth's history. Armor and Lances from the dark ages, all the way up to a Willy's Jeep and two M1 Garands from World War Two. But it went further than that! There were a few ancient frag grenades, a German Luger P08, and even a single Bazooka! "We were hoping that thy would be willing to help us find it...we would give anything to return to our old lives, to see our loved ones again." The tears had started again, but she hadn't had a total breakdown just yet. "Thy would not go alone, The Doctor, Rainbow, and Stalwart shall accompany you." Nathan thought deeply for a moment, before smiling to the weeping mare. He had nothing to loose, right? "I'll do it, as long as I don't have to deal with time thingymajigs." he made funny handmotions to emphasize his point. "Deal." she smiled and wept more, but this time, with joy. Nathan found himself in an ancient, yet well kept Willies jeep, thundering across a vast desert. The Jeep was loaded with supplies and ponies. Behind them was the remnants of the Castle. Ahead loomed a forest. The Everfree forest. Wow. Three thousand words. I over-wrote a bit there. Oh well, the more the merrier, right?! Anyhow, I would like to thank Aegis Shield for allowing me to use his OC guard ponies Aegis Shield and Stalwart Hide in my story, and I highly suggest you read his stories, if you haven't already. Please point out grammar and typing mistakes, so I can get them fixed ASAP! In Memory"Forget thy troubles, gorge thyself with cake." -Princess Celestia Uncharted: EquestriaIn Memory The desert. An endless expanse of dust and grit, highlighted by nothing. Water was nonexistent, and thus, no life was to be found. No life, that is, except an ancient Willies Jeep that was hurtling itself across the dunes, loaded with human and ponies alike. The infamous explorer, Nathan Drake, took a rare moment to reflect upon the odd events that had transpired across the past few days. Nate whistled as he wandered through the massive vault of human items. The assortment of weapons, vehicles, random bits of scrap, and even cans of food were strewn about. Luna’s speaking snapped him out of his amazement. “We do not know if any items in this chamber are of any use, our most esteemed scientists made most of it out to be junk.” The other ponies nodded in agreement, lost in amazement over the items. Doctor Whooves took advantage of the moment to speak. “Why one would make a metal cylinder with pictures of food on the outside, I could never understand, but, if the records are right, we came up with several inventions based on items that we have seen here. Perhaps, Mister Drake, you could shed some light on these oddities?” Now all the ponies who had been distracted and Nate looked about the items. Apparently, when Luna said there had not been humans in Equestria for ages, she didn’t include objects. Looking deeper into the piles, Nate found more modern items. Cellular phones, pocket knives, a dead laptop, and a large pile of canned goods. He chuckled and smiled as he grabbed a coca-cola from the top of the stack, then he held it up for others to see. “This, back on our planet, is called a soft drink, and this particular one is called Coca-Cola. Luna, do you have two cups to spare, preferably with ice? I think you may enjoy this.” Luna eyed the can, unsure of why anypony would drink a metal cylinder, but complied, and summoned two fancy glasses with her magic, making sure they were filled with ice. The dark alicorn’s eyes grew in amazement as he pulled a tab on the top of the cylinder, which then let out a brief hiss. A dark bubbly liquid poured from the can, filling each glass about half way. “Cheers.” Nate held out his glass, and they tapped them together with a clink. Stalwart rushed to Luna’s side as she started giggling uncontrollably. “Princess?!” Stalwart gave Nate a brief evil look, then brought his attention back to his ruler. “Luna, are you okay?!” Her response was to force his mouth open and pour the liquid down his throat, and soon he was giggling too. By the time Luna recovered, the other ponies were wanting to try some of this magic laughing liquid. “What is that substance again, Drake, it tickled my throat as it went down!” Luna giggled as she tried to lick the remaining droplets of the Coke from her glass. “It’s called soda, and it tickled because my race had found a way to infuse gas into the liquid, it tastes great, and makes for fantastic pranks.” Luna’s eyes narrowed mischievously, being a prankster at heart. “Would there happen to be more of this ‘soda’ left? And how exactly does one prank with this substance?” Nate whispered how exactly one would prank with a can of soda, and she whispered back a plan. Both of them putting on a faux innocent smile, they set about gathering items. Luna summoned a few more glasses, for the other ponies, and Nathan struck it rich as he found a two liter bottle of Sprite, and a normal can of Dr. Pepper. Nate returned to the rest of the group, who all had taken up seats on various pieces of humanity. He poured each of them some of the Sprite after handing the Dr. Pepper to a giddy Luna, who shook it vigorously. Stalwart, who had been skipped with the Sprite asked about this, Nathan replied that he had found another soda that me might enjoy better. Luna levitated the can-under-pressure to Stalwart, who, with instruction from Nate managed to get the tab with his hoof and open the can. The can, which had been shaken beyond belief, sprayed a very impressive cloud of soda into the air, covering a very shocked guard in a layer of wet stickiness. The irate guard stomped off to get cleaned, and everypony, plus human, burst out laughing. Rainbow Dash even chuckled at the sight. Over the next hour, Nathan collected all the stuff he thought he might need, and loaded into the only working vehicle present, the Jeep. Tools, extra gasoline, an old film camera, and a large stack of non-perishable food items, along with fresh foods from the survivor’s stocks loaded down any extra space in the vehicle. Despite the constant questions about human objects, Nathan had some time to explore the stacks of artifacts before they set off. One of the most fascinating things he found was an old American space probe, with the word Viking III marked on the side. ‘That’s one mystery solved, I suppose.’ He thought to himself. On the way back to the stacks, one more thing caught his eye. A large wooden chest sat under the charred remains of a Toyota Prius. After some amount of effort, he got the chest out of the pile, sending the horrid hybrid’s skeleton crashing to the ground. Nathan’s eyes went wide as he rubbed the dirt off the rusted brass nameplate, which had the word ‘Blackbeard’ etched into it. ‘Make that two mysteries.’ Shaking his head, he went and joined the ponies, who were probably ready to leave by then. They had been on a steady decline the whole trip, and now there were buildings starting to poke up through the dunes, and the forest could be seen in the distance. The jeep slowed as it rolled onto what used to be a street, the sand level to the second story windows of the windblown buildings. The sand dropped sharply as they reached the town’s square, and in the middle sat a large stone monument. Doctor Whooves shouted to Nate to stop, straining to be heard over the rumbling engine of the jeep. The jeep rolled gently to a stop, and Nathan cut the engine. The occupants clambered out and stretched their sore bodies. Willies Jeeps weren’t exactly made for comfort. Nathan, being used to riding in uncomfortable vehicles in awkward positions, made his way directly to the monument, out of curiosity. The stone depicted a large alicorn, much larger than Luna, accompanied by an average sized unicorn. Both were in attack stances, which enraged looks forever etched into their faces. The base of the monument had what appeared to be names etched into it. Here stands Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkle, who became trapped in stone by an unknown attacker. This is a monument to everypony killed in the event, as they were known by their friends and family He rubbed some grit off the stone, and read down the list of names. Caramel Apple Berry Punch Colgate Aloe Lotus Thunderlane Cherilee Big Macintosh Filthy Rich Granny Smith Twist Mrs. Cake Silver Spoon Cloud Kicker Rarity Sweetie Bell Apple Bloom Apple Fritter Cotton Cloudy Pipsqueak Snips Snails Pinkie Pie Vinyl Scratch The list went on. Ponies who attempted to stop the mare, and those killed by collapsing houses or trying to save others. Below the names was a description of what happened that day. Nathan read over the names. He didn’t know any of them, but they didn’t deserve to die. No pony needed to die like that. He wasn’t one of them, but being killed by a cold, calculated killer wasn’t right on any world. He knew, he’d been pretty close to it happening to him several times. The group eventually got back together, having mourned their lost friends and family members. The Jeep sputtered, then roared to life, and they cruised into the forest, leaving their friends to rest in peace. Once in the forest, the group had to slow dramatically, less they break their spines from the rough ride. According to the Doctor, is was about time to get some sleep, and by a stroke of luck, they came across an old shack, which Rainbow identified as belonging to a zebra named Zecora. They started unloading a few items to make a meal out of, then a voice shouted out from the bushes. “Hey, who’re you?!” It shouted, rough, but defiantly female. Rainbow Dash had thought it sounded familiar, and when she turned around, she was tackled by an orange and purple blur. “RAINBOW DASH OMYGOSH YOU’RE ALIVE!” Rainbow let out a genuine smile as she hugged the newcomer. “Heya Scoots, how’ve ya been? OKAYPLEASEDONTKILLMEILOVEALLTHOSECHARACTERSTHATWEREKILLED!!!!!!!!!!!! But anyways, I’ve gotten an editor, and I’ll have him start working on the chapters ASAP. This one wasn’t edited, as I wanted to get it out, but beyond this chapter or the next, they will be edited by my super perfectionist cousin. (No offense bro) Please leave your feedback on this chapter! I tried to use the soda bit to balance out the fact that half my favorite characters being labeled as ‘dead’. (Again, don’t kill me, but just in case, I’m sleeping with a knife under my pillow for the next few weeks)
Prolouge: Another Desert?As usual, I don't own the Uncharted game series or any of it's characters. I also do not own MLP. Kinda wish I did though. I apologize if anyone is offended by Victor's use of language. I would prefer not to use it, but it's apart of his character."Here's the thing, kid, we don't get to choose how we start in this life, real greatness is what you do with the hand you're delt." -Victor SullivanUncharted: EquestriaAnother Desert? Nathan Drake, Elena Fisher, and Victor Sullivan walked towards the dirty old plane that rested on the tarmac, bathed in an orange sunset. They were finally done with what they thought to be their final adventure of any great magnitude. They had found the lost city Iram of the Pillars, and only briefly got to behold it's beauty before it sank into the sands of time, taking it's secrets with it. "It's not as good as the one you two wrecked four years ago, but...it'll do." Sully joked, recalling their first adventure that brought the unlikely trio together, when they ended up finding the remains of the famed explorer Sir Francis Drake, along with a horde of Nazi zombie things. Pleasant, right? "Now let's see if I can remember how to fly the goddamn thing..." he finished, hefting his luggage. "Hey, this has parachutes, right?" Elena asked, recalling the very same event with their previous plane. "Oh...yeah." Victor responded, blowing off the question. "Three...right?" added Nathan, his arm draped around his wife. "More or less." Victor teased, as they climbed in and got situated. They taxied the ancient plane to the runway, revved the engines, and took off into the fading sunset. Nathan awoke with a start. He thought he heard a noise coming from the plane, and not a good one. He was drifting back off to sleep when he heard Sully's irritated muttering. Deciding he probably find out what was wrong, before they all exploded and were sent to their deaths, Nate pulled himself out of the chair he had slept in, making sure to not wake the still snoozing Elena. Nathan made his way up to the cockpit, rubbing his eyes. "Sully, what's wrong?" Nathan whispered, sitting in the co-pilot's seat. "I dunno, kid! The plane's just going haywire, and we're losing altitude, fast!" Victor answered, panic started to creep into his voice. "We're gunna have to bail, unless you wanna end up pancaked in the middle of the desert!" "Get the parachutes out, I'll wake Elena!" Nate commanded, before heading back to wake his slumbering wife. "Elena, wake up, we gotta go." he gently prodded her, causing her to stir from her dream. "Wai...whah?" she asked, confused. Victor tossed them each a parachute, and handed them each a bottle of water. "If ya get lost, find the highest point ya can see, and we'll all find a way to meet up, okay?" he more of commanded then asked, but nobody questioned him. After making sure all their parachutes were secure, Victor threw open the hatch and jumped, followed by Elena, and lastly, Nate. "Whoohoo!" Nate shouted into the night sky. Last time he jumped out of a plane, well, got sucked out of a plane, he didn't have a parachute, and it was a stroke of luck that he was still alive. He counted the seconds after he had bailed from the plane, and when he reached ten, he yanked the parachute's deployment cord. Nothing happened, and the string tangled uselessly in his hand. Nathan heard a wumph as Victor and Elena deployed their chutes, and his own screams as he plummeted down to the cold, sandy Earth that was quickly rushing to greet him. Victor's and Elena's calls drew quieter as he slowly lost consciousnesses. His world faded to black as he impacted the ground, but his body was absorbed in a great flash of light. When Victor and Elena made it to where he landed, not a trace of his body was to be found, and all that remained was the parachute's ripcord, torn from the rest of the pack.. Elena quietly wept into Victor's shoulder at the loss of her husband. A man who fought and won over violent zombies, ancient curses and power-hungry madmen, had just been defeated by a faulty piece of string. Had they been watching, they would have noticed that they too were being consumed in a flash of light, leaving the lone piece of string to fall to the ground. Nathan awoke covered in sand. He was really, really starting to hate sand. He looked about in all directions. Just more sand. But wait. Very faintly, way off in the distance, he could see what appeared to be a structure. "Might as well get to walking." He thought, a rush of memories from his deplorable stay in the Rub' al Khali desert. He began his trudge to the structure, unable to make it out. He started to walk...and walk...and walk. The sun didn't ever set, but his internal clock told him it had been roughly three days, based on his lack of sleep. The structure, he figured out, was a grand castle. Or at least, it used to be a castle. He couldn't make out the design or markings that decorated it's deteriorated exterior from the distance he was at. It actually wasn't that far, not distance wise at least. The only problem was the castle was located atop a colossal sand dune, and there seemed to be a mountain that broke the dune's peak and towered over the castle on one side. And he would have to climb the scorching sand dune to reach what he hoped would be a refuge from the sun and heat. The top. Summit of the tallest damn mount of sand in wherever the hell he was. The castle was surrounded by a deserted, sandy city. Canals of sand crisscrossed the grounds, he could only assume they used to flow with water. The castle itself stood above the sand covered city, towering into the cloudless sky. A pair of great wooden doors blocked the entrance to it's hopefully shaded interior. One door had the carved out symbol of the sun, and the other the moon. With a great effort, he pushed one of the doors open far enough for him to squeeze in. Shade. Shade, shade, and more shade. It was at least thirty degrees cooler in the shade of the stone castle, albeit a bit musky. Drake heaved the great door shut again, and turned to wander the castle, searching for a source of water. It wasn't until he felt something sharp and long jab his back, and a deep, gruff voice spoke out to him. "Halt, intruder, put your arms up and turn around slowly." the mystery voice commanded. Nate followed the instructions, and couldn't help himself but gape and stutter in shock. He pointed a finger back and fourth between his two captors, and they promptly knocked him out with a long, metal pole. His captors were ponies. Two dark grey ponies, clad in a deep purplish armor, with menacing bat wings and sharp, vampire like teeth. And they did not look happy.
Drake's DisharmonyDon't find fault, find a remedy. -Henry Ford Uncharted: EquestriaDrake's Disharmony Nathan awoke to find himself laying on a cold stone floor, and too a rather large rat sniffing his face. "Guruuaaghh!" Nate screamed, smacking the rat away. He sat up and took in his surroundings. He wasn't locked up, thankfully. He was laying in what appeared to be a disused waiting room, presumably for an office of some sort. Nathan picked himself up, and used a nearby wooden chair to keep him from keeling over. After the bloodrush had left his head and the dots left his weary eyes, he became aware of shouting. Particularly, the shouting of a woman. A very angry woman. "We said bring him to us, not knock him cold, Stalwart!" The voice bellowed from a nearby room, it's incredible volume reverberating in the castle's stone walls. "We want thou to check on the being and make sure that he is not harmed, and if he is, you shall be disciplined!" Nathan shuddered a little at the commanding voice that still bounced around in his ears as the sound of hoofs...yes, hoofs, came closer. A partitally rotten wooden door on the far side of the room creaked open, and one of the ponies that had knocked him out however long ago walked in, still wearing his deep purple armor. It noticed that Nathan was awake, and nodded towards him. "Come." it instructed, gesturing for the door and room beyond. Nathan obeyed the gruff pony, grumbling to himself. The room that the door led too was, matter of fact, an office. Inside sat several duty shelves, discarded mounds of paper, and a massive wooden desk. Behind said desk, sat another pony. Except this one was female, and decorated with various pieces of jewelry and regalia. Nathan assumed this was the one that had been shouting her head off only moments ago. Despite the aforementioned screaming, she looked at him with calm, hollow eyes. The mare had both a horn and wings, and her size made the massive stallion that had taken him in look like a child's toy. It's not that she was fat, no, she was far from it, but she was nearly twice as tall as the other. And while the male had what appeared to be a mane made of a bat wing, the mare's didn't even appear to be real, it looked as sort of a dark mist that flowed out of her head, gently waving in a non-existent wind that reflected the night sky. The human and regal pony examined eachother, the former in a semi-shocked state, the the latter with mild curiosity. The mare spoke first. "Thou are a very tough being, mister. Thou was in the desert for four days, would thou care for a drink of water?" she asked, and Nathan was suddenly aware of how deteriorated his condition was. He remembered the water bottle that Victor had given him and fished it out. Bone dry. This was even worse than after his stay in the Rub' al Khali, and he slowly nodded towards the regal pony. A pounding headache and a severe sunburn decided that this would be the time they make themselves known, and he massaged his temples. The mare instructed her reluctant companion to fetch a pitcher of water. The stallion gave Nathan a look that said Move one inch and I'll end you before heading out. "Please forgive Stalwart, he is one of the last two of our personal guards that remain, and he refuses to leave his post." Her voice sounded tired and hollow, lacking the brief vibrance it held when she was scolding Stalwart. "We will explain to thee as much as possible, and when thou is in better health, we shall expect the same in return." The guard pony returned with a pitcher of lukewarm water and two mugs, which Nathan eagerly accepted. "We used to be called Princess Luna, but you may address us simply as 'Luna' for now. Come with me, I shall give you a brief history of the land you now occupy." Luna and her Stalwart led Nathan through a series of dank hallways, in an attempt to find the long forgotten Hall Of History. Upon their arrival to the ancient hall, Luna began to tell the history of Equestria, meanwhile Nathan, who was becoming sharper and more focused, thanks to a supply of water, was getting more and more skeptical that he really was talking to ponies. "With all due respect, how do I know you're real, and that I'm not dead or hallucinating or something? I've seen some pretty damn weird things, but this is one of the weirdest." He watched Luna nod to the guard, who promptly gave him a good buck in the gut. "Oh shi...uummphh...why...the hell...did you....do that? Nate groaned, doubling over. "Because if you were dead, you wouldn't feel it, and if this was a hallucination, you wouldn't feel it." the guard smirked at him and turned back to Luna, smiling. "Thy didn't have to buck him that hard, Stalwart..." she told him, getting a groan in agreement from Nathan. Luna ignored his grumbling and began to tell him the history of the once great land. "The land you are in used to be known as the kingdom of Equestria, ruled under my sister and myself. Obviously, it is no longer." she told him, sorrow and despair penetrated deep into her voice, and her whole body seemed to become dull and lifeless as she spoke. She told him the stories of Nightmare Moon, and Discord, and the six brave mares who defeated them. She spoke about the Changelings, then the insane mare who had ruined it all. "...nopony figured out who it was, that blue mare, but she rampaged through Ponyville, killing or wounding many. My sister, at the time, was visiting her student in Ponyville, and they were returning from a walk in the nearby woods. Celestia decided to intervene, but the mare...she attacked my sister, and her ever faithful student jumped in to help defend her town without hesitation." Luna paused to wipe a tear from her cheek, then continued. "The attacker wielded immeasurable power, and both sides were straining to overpower the other. Celestia and Twilight joined together to use the same spell, a stone casting spell, to lock away the mare, while the mare herself charged a very different spell. An annihilation spell, the kind that had been banished my me and my sister centuries ago. Both sides fired at the same time, and the spells matched dead center. Then they backfired. My sister and Twilight cast themselves in stone, and the mare was incinerated into a small pile of ashes." By now, Luna's head was hanging low, and tears flowed freely down her face. "As I explained earlier, my sister raises the sun, and I control the moon and stars. Without my sister, the sun could not be lowered, I tried and tried, but I couldn't budge the sun, only Celestia has the power to do so, I may move billions of them, but ours is special, and only Celly's..." she droned off, weeping openly onto the floor. Nate sat on the dusty floor and waited, pondering why Luna constantly mixed the third and first person when she spoke. In the background, the faint sound of hoof steps could be heard. "Luna, The Doctor said he made a breakthrough and wishes to..." the owner of the voice rounded a corner to see Luna weeping silently on the floor, with Stalwart Hide and some kind of creature greedily drinking from a near empty pitcher of water. "Luna, what's wrong?" the owner of the voice asked. It...er...he looked like one of the ponies that had captured him earlier that day. Or the day before, since nights didn't really exist anymore. The armored stallion rushed towards the weeping Luna and began to comfort her, running his hoof through her mane. It wasn't the first time this had happened. "It's my fault..." she sobbed "It's my fault that everypony is dead! My incompetence killed us all!" the stallion gently held the weeping mare, trying to help her calm down. After what seemed like hours, Luna had calmed enough to continue her story, but the stallion, who was named Aegis Shield, stayed to comfort her, and Stalwart left to attend to other matters. "Eventually, Equestria started to dry up. Ponies started to wither away with the land, starvation and dehydration started to kill them all off. We tried everything we could to break the stone spell, but nothing prevailed. The Elements of Harmony may have been able to do it, but the blue mare's rampage had left two of them confirmed dead, and Twilight set in stone." the tears had started to come again, and Luna was doing everything she could to keep herself together. "Rumors had gone around that two of them had made it away from the mare's violent rampage, and had hid in the Everfree Forest, which for reasons unknown, remains untouched by the desert heat and sand. I managed to get one of them here, along with a few other ponies from around the Kingdom, but we don't have many emergency supplies in the castle, so we couldn't save many. A few ponies fled to other lands, beyond the reaches of the desert, and other creatures who had little power before have taken over parts of Equestria, such as Diamond Dogs, Dragons, and even the Buffalo have claimed parts of the desert for themselves." Luna instructed Aegis to bring Nate to the rest of the ponies and get him situated with a bunk, so she could have time to collect herself. Nate lay on a pallet that had been assembled on the floor, as the pony bunks were way too small for his human body. Not that he was complaining, he'd slept in far worse conditions. The ponies reception to him had been fairly warm, considering the conditions. Total, there were of them in the castle. They'd shared names and stories over some kind of vegetable stew. As far as he could recall, their names were Lyra, who was absolutely ecstatic to meet him. Her partner, Bon Bon, wasn't as overjoyed as Lyra was, but she held no hostilities. Next was Braeburn, the best Nathan could match this cowboy style pony was to some lawman from an old western flick. His country charm worked on just about everyone...er...everypony around. After Braeburn was Rainbow Dash, one of the Elements of Harmony, and the only one who was known to still be alive, for the most part, Rainbow stayed to herself. She didn't talk to anypony, didn't go about boasting, in fact, she hardly even gave Nate a second glance. The next three ponies were much more optimistic with their situation, despite how much they had lost. They acted as a family, enduring the rest of their lives together. Doctor Whooves, Dinky Doo, who was affectionately nicknamed 'Derpy', and their daughter, Dinky. There was something about Doctor Whooves that reminded him of home, but he couldn't quiet put his tongue on it. After the Whooves family, the only two left, aside from Luna and her guards, was another wing-plus-horn pony and her husband, who just had a horn. Their names were something along the lines of Cadence and Shining Armor. Oh yeah, how could he forget! There was one more, a plain grey pony, who had a treble cleft on her bum. She was very formal and calm when she introduced herself, but anyone with a brain could see in her eyes that she had long ago given up on living, as if the one thing she cared about most had been ripped away. Nathan could see her sitting on a stool in the corner of the room he was in, softly playing on a Cello, then making notes on some old, disused parchment. He drifted off into a restless sleep listening to her music. Octavia's music. Muffins. That's the smell Nate awoke too. Blueberry muffins. And they smelled delicious. He wrangled himself out of his blankets that he had somehow twisted onto himself during the 'night'. How they kept the time, he would never know. The sun didn't move. Nathan made his way to where the ponies had gathered for muffins. Victor and Elena probably thought he was dead. To them, he went splat on some dirt in the middle of nowhere. Luna and her guard were present, although they lacked their armor. They looked like two normal ponies-with-wings. Or Pegasai, as he had been told. The only thing that distinguished them from the others was their medallions that hung around their necks. Luna, on the other hand, was still wearing all her royal garments. She had calmed down considerably, but her puffy red eyes showed that she had spent the majority of her 'night' crying, and Aegis comforted her quietly as they ate. Or Stalwart, he couldn't tell who was who. Luna ended up the first to break the silence that blanketed the gathering area. "Mister human, I do believe thou promised us to tell about thyself." she took a bite from her muffin. "So please, tell us about yourself." Nathan hesitated for a moment, finished his muffin, then looked directly at her. "Okay, well, my name is Nathan. Nathan Drake. I'm a human, and on my planet I was a treasure hunter..." he related the stories of his adventures to the group of ponies, who were all eager to listen, however exaggerated they were. He ended with his waking up in the desert, which left a somewhat dismal mood hanging on the crowd, especially after the heroic ending of Iram of the Pillars. Heroic for him, at least. "I think he is perfect, Luna." said a specific brown earth pony, who had a hourglass tattoo thing on his bum. Doctor Whooves, was it? "It was a stroke of luck that we brought him when he was about the die, on both of our parts at least." Luna nodded in agreement. "Yes, Doctor, I believe you are right." "Doctor Whooves...Doctor Whooves...Doctor...Whooovvess....that's it! Doctor Who! My god, it's a pony Doctor Who! Uncanny resembelence, too bad Cutter isn't here, I'm sure he'd love that. thought Nate, who had zoned out somewhat during his internal revelation. "Pony to Nate? Hellooo, mister human, you in there?" The Doctor waved his hoof in front of Nathan's face, which startled him out of his trance. "Huh?" he said, confused, getting snickers from several of the other ponies. "Nathan Drake, we have an assignment for thou, if thy is willing to accept." spoke Luna, who had adopted a very formal posture. "Eh, why not?" The trace of a faint smile graced Luna's lips for the briefest of moments before she turned. "Good. Doctor, Rainbow Dash, and Stalwart, follow us." she quipped, leading them out of the living quarters for the ponies and back towards the Hall of History. "The Doctor has done some research, Mister Drake, and has uncovered something of great interest. Long ago, my sister and myself created a sort of time traveling device, dubbed the Orb of Time, for simplicity's sake. We had thought it lost when I was lost to Nightmare Moon and banished, but the Doctor has evidence otherwise. According to some dusty old book, the Orb was stowed in a vast cavern beneath the old castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, deep in the Everfree forest." she stopped at a brick wall. A plain brick wall. Plain, at least, until she lowered her head and slid her horn into a barely noticeable slot in the masonry. There was a loud bang, followed by a repeated clink clink clink sound as an ancient lock, long forgotten came to life. The section of wall itself began to slide into the floor, revealing the vast room beyond. "What few ponies know, is that humans have been to Equestria before, and we have recorded what they all have said. From what we can gather, you are a violent, warring race, competing for your wavering planet's resources. The last humans that visited came about seventy five years ago, fighting what they called World War Two, according to the texts that were written about them. Three claimed to be with a group called the 'Americans and Allied Forces' and two others with the 'Nazi Regime'." She walked into the musky room, lighting candles with magic as she went. "We kept their stuff, as they seemed inclined to hurt eachother." she gestured to the now lit storage room, which was loaded with artifacts from all periods of Earth's history. Armor and Lances from the dark ages, all the way up to a Willy's Jeep and two M1 Garands from World War Two. But it went further than that! There were a few ancient frag grenades, a German Luger P08, and even a single Bazooka! "We were hoping that thy would be willing to help us find it...we would give anything to return to our old lives, to see our loved ones again." The tears had started again, but she hadn't had a total breakdown just yet. "Thy would not go alone, The Doctor, Rainbow, and Stalwart shall accompany you." Nathan thought deeply for a moment, before smiling to the weeping mare. He had nothing to loose, right? "I'll do it, as long as I don't have to deal with time thingymajigs." he made funny handmotions to emphasize his point. "Deal." she smiled and wept more, but this time, with joy. Nathan found himself in an ancient, yet well kept Willies jeep, thundering across a vast desert. The Jeep was loaded with supplies and ponies. Behind them was the remnants of the Castle. Ahead loomed a forest. The Everfree forest. Wow. Three thousand words. I over-wrote a bit there. Oh well, the more the merrier, right?! Anyhow, I would like to thank Aegis Shield for allowing me to use his OC guard ponies Aegis Shield and Stalwart Hide in my story, and I highly suggest you read his stories, if you haven't already. Please point out grammar and typing mistakes, so I can get them fixed ASAP!
In Memory"Forget thy troubles, gorge thyself with cake." -Princess Celestia Uncharted: EquestriaIn Memory The desert. An endless expanse of dust and grit, highlighted by nothing. Water was nonexistent, and thus, no life was to be found. No life, that is, except an ancient Willies Jeep that was hurtling itself across the dunes, loaded with human and ponies alike. The infamous explorer, Nathan Drake, took a rare moment to reflect upon the odd events that had transpired across the past few days. Nate whistled as he wandered through the massive vault of human items. The assortment of weapons, vehicles, random bits of scrap, and even cans of food were strewn about. Luna’s speaking snapped him out of his amazement. “We do not know if any items in this chamber are of any use, our most esteemed scientists made most of it out to be junk.” The other ponies nodded in agreement, lost in amazement over the items. Doctor Whooves took advantage of the moment to speak. “Why one would make a metal cylinder with pictures of food on the outside, I could never understand, but, if the records are right, we came up with several inventions based on items that we have seen here. Perhaps, Mister Drake, you could shed some light on these oddities?” Now all the ponies who had been distracted and Nate looked about the items. Apparently, when Luna said there had not been humans in Equestria for ages, she didn’t include objects. Looking deeper into the piles, Nate found more modern items. Cellular phones, pocket knives, a dead laptop, and a large pile of canned goods. He chuckled and smiled as he grabbed a coca-cola from the top of the stack, then he held it up for others to see. “This, back on our planet, is called a soft drink, and this particular one is called Coca-Cola. Luna, do you have two cups to spare, preferably with ice? I think you may enjoy this.” Luna eyed the can, unsure of why anypony would drink a metal cylinder, but complied, and summoned two fancy glasses with her magic, making sure they were filled with ice. The dark alicorn’s eyes grew in amazement as he pulled a tab on the top of the cylinder, which then let out a brief hiss. A dark bubbly liquid poured from the can, filling each glass about half way. “Cheers.” Nate held out his glass, and they tapped them together with a clink. Stalwart rushed to Luna’s side as she started giggling uncontrollably. “Princess?!” Stalwart gave Nate a brief evil look, then brought his attention back to his ruler. “Luna, are you okay?!” Her response was to force his mouth open and pour the liquid down his throat, and soon he was giggling too. By the time Luna recovered, the other ponies were wanting to try some of this magic laughing liquid. “What is that substance again, Drake, it tickled my throat as it went down!” Luna giggled as she tried to lick the remaining droplets of the Coke from her glass. “It’s called soda, and it tickled because my race had found a way to infuse gas into the liquid, it tastes great, and makes for fantastic pranks.” Luna’s eyes narrowed mischievously, being a prankster at heart. “Would there happen to be more of this ‘soda’ left? And how exactly does one prank with this substance?” Nate whispered how exactly one would prank with a can of soda, and she whispered back a plan. Both of them putting on a faux innocent smile, they set about gathering items. Luna summoned a few more glasses, for the other ponies, and Nathan struck it rich as he found a two liter bottle of Sprite, and a normal can of Dr. Pepper. Nate returned to the rest of the group, who all had taken up seats on various pieces of humanity. He poured each of them some of the Sprite after handing the Dr. Pepper to a giddy Luna, who shook it vigorously. Stalwart, who had been skipped with the Sprite asked about this, Nathan replied that he had found another soda that me might enjoy better. Luna levitated the can-under-pressure to Stalwart, who, with instruction from Nate managed to get the tab with his hoof and open the can. The can, which had been shaken beyond belief, sprayed a very impressive cloud of soda into the air, covering a very shocked guard in a layer of wet stickiness. The irate guard stomped off to get cleaned, and everypony, plus human, burst out laughing. Rainbow Dash even chuckled at the sight. Over the next hour, Nathan collected all the stuff he thought he might need, and loaded into the only working vehicle present, the Jeep. Tools, extra gasoline, an old film camera, and a large stack of non-perishable food items, along with fresh foods from the survivor’s stocks loaded down any extra space in the vehicle. Despite the constant questions about human objects, Nathan had some time to explore the stacks of artifacts before they set off. One of the most fascinating things he found was an old American space probe, with the word Viking III marked on the side. ‘That’s one mystery solved, I suppose.’ He thought to himself. On the way back to the stacks, one more thing caught his eye. A large wooden chest sat under the charred remains of a Toyota Prius. After some amount of effort, he got the chest out of the pile, sending the horrid hybrid’s skeleton crashing to the ground. Nathan’s eyes went wide as he rubbed the dirt off the rusted brass nameplate, which had the word ‘Blackbeard’ etched into it. ‘Make that two mysteries.’ Shaking his head, he went and joined the ponies, who were probably ready to leave by then. They had been on a steady decline the whole trip, and now there were buildings starting to poke up through the dunes, and the forest could be seen in the distance. The jeep slowed as it rolled onto what used to be a street, the sand level to the second story windows of the windblown buildings. The sand dropped sharply as they reached the town’s square, and in the middle sat a large stone monument. Doctor Whooves shouted to Nate to stop, straining to be heard over the rumbling engine of the jeep. The jeep rolled gently to a stop, and Nathan cut the engine. The occupants clambered out and stretched their sore bodies. Willies Jeeps weren’t exactly made for comfort. Nathan, being used to riding in uncomfortable vehicles in awkward positions, made his way directly to the monument, out of curiosity. The stone depicted a large alicorn, much larger than Luna, accompanied by an average sized unicorn. Both were in attack stances, which enraged looks forever etched into their faces. The base of the monument had what appeared to be names etched into it. Here stands Princess Celestia and Twilight Sparkle, who became trapped in stone by an unknown attacker. This is a monument to everypony killed in the event, as they were known by their friends and family He rubbed some grit off the stone, and read down the list of names. Caramel Apple Berry Punch Colgate Aloe Lotus Thunderlane Cherilee Big Macintosh Filthy Rich Granny Smith Twist Mrs. Cake Silver Spoon Cloud Kicker Rarity Sweetie Bell Apple Bloom Apple Fritter Cotton Cloudy Pipsqueak Snips Snails Pinkie Pie Vinyl Scratch The list went on. Ponies who attempted to stop the mare, and those killed by collapsing houses or trying to save others. Below the names was a description of what happened that day. Nathan read over the names. He didn’t know any of them, but they didn’t deserve to die. No pony needed to die like that. He wasn’t one of them, but being killed by a cold, calculated killer wasn’t right on any world. He knew, he’d been pretty close to it happening to him several times. The group eventually got back together, having mourned their lost friends and family members. The Jeep sputtered, then roared to life, and they cruised into the forest, leaving their friends to rest in peace. Once in the forest, the group had to slow dramatically, less they break their spines from the rough ride. According to the Doctor, is was about time to get some sleep, and by a stroke of luck, they came across an old shack, which Rainbow identified as belonging to a zebra named Zecora. They started unloading a few items to make a meal out of, then a voice shouted out from the bushes. “Hey, who’re you?!” It shouted, rough, but defiantly female. Rainbow Dash had thought it sounded familiar, and when she turned around, she was tackled by an orange and purple blur. “RAINBOW DASH OMYGOSH YOU’RE ALIVE!” Rainbow let out a genuine smile as she hugged the newcomer. “Heya Scoots, how’ve ya been? OKAYPLEASEDONTKILLMEILOVEALLTHOSECHARACTERSTHATWEREKILLED!!!!!!!!!!!! But anyways, I’ve gotten an editor, and I’ll have him start working on the chapters ASAP. This one wasn’t edited, as I wanted to get it out, but beyond this chapter or the next, they will be edited by my super perfectionist cousin. (No offense bro) Please leave your feedback on this chapter! I tried to use the soda bit to balance out the fact that half my favorite characters being labeled as ‘dead’. (Again, don’t kill me, but just in case, I’m sleeping with a knife under my pillow for the next few weeks)
