A small town located fifty miles east of Apploosa. It is a simple little town that served as the headquarters and living space for border patrol officers and their families. In a little rundown shack sat Golden Banner an earth pony mare with a golden coat, golden brown eyes and a sandy blond mane, sitting at a table playing poker with her colleagues. The little run-down shack rang with the voices of the ponies within. Among those at the table, Banner knew who was winning this hand. As the game went on, they bantered lightly.
"An ACE? Aww..." A large white earth pony stallion said as he looked at the cards he was dealt.
"My move; I know what I'm doing here..." A small dark blue unicorn mare stated quietly
Banner knew as well. "All in," she smiled.
"Fold!" The white stallion huffed as he threw his cards onto the table. Banner looked about the rest of them, then laid down her cards.
"Read 'em and weep, losers!"
A teal pegasus mare tossed her cards at Banner in frustration. "Again? Royal Flush, my flank!"
The white stallion laughed. "THAT'S why I folded!" Looking to Banner, he stated, "Of course, we're not actually gambling... right?"
She gave a blank look for a moment, before she huffed, "Well, yeah... I mean, DUH! Of course not!"
***
In the desert 50 yards away from the small town, a grey earth pony mare with a white mane with a red stripe was lying asleep on the burning sand. The baking sun's heat woke her up, opening her deep purple eyes she was instantly blinded by the sun taking a few moments to let her eyes adjust to the sudden brightness. Once her eyes adjusted she looked around at her surroundings to determine her location. Now where am I? The pony thought to herself. She then spotted what she believed was a town up ahead, maybe I can determine where I am from there, she thought as she started to walk toward the town. The grey mare noticed a pegasus fly overhead, this peaked her interest as she hasn't seen another pony for so long, she began to speed walk toward the small outpost.
***Back at the outpost***
"How about we play another hand?" Banner asked with smile the others were about to answer but they were interrupted by the door being forcefully opened.
"A mare is approaching from the desert!" A small pegasus mare yelled before running off to inform other patrol officers. Banner got an excited expression on her face.
“Finally something worth doing around here.” Banner said with an excited smile.
"Banner you know you are not allowed to talk to her first due to your 'issues'." The teal pegasus snickered.Nothing says i can't talk to her second, Banner thought with a wicked smile.
The grey mare stopped when a bunch of guards approached her when she was about fifteen yards away from the outpost. The guards quickly surrounded her and led her toward the rundown shack in the middle of the outpost. They quickly led her into a small room to interrogate her.
Once outside she saw a grey earth pony with a white mane with a red stripe and Scars across her right eye, but what really caught her eye was the weird tattoos around the mare’s eyes. Why does she look like that? Banner asked mentally as she followed the mare as she was led to the interrogation room. Banner approached the closed door pressing her ear to the door she listened to what was being said in the room.
She saw the mare staring at the guard with an agitated look in her eye. the guard cleared his throat then began the interrogation. “Who are you?" He asked.
"My name is Scare Effect." Scare Answered coldly while looking him in the eye.
"Why are you here?"
"I got lost and would like to know like to know where I am." Scare answered getting more agitated.
"Why do you have that stuff on you?" The guard asked clearly ignoring her question.
"What do you mean by stuff on me I have nothing on me." Scare was starting to get a bit angry by the guard ignoring her question. “Who are you? and Where am I?"
"I am Captain Lightning Strike and you are at the Equestria border patrol base." Lightning Strike answered calmly.
"D...Did you j…just say E…Equestria?" Scare stuttered as she got a look of disbelief. "but that is impossible! no pony in Equestria survived." Outside the interrogation room, Banner was shocked to hear what Scare said about no pony in Equestria survived. What does she mean by no pony survived? Banner thought she then returned to her eavesdropping.
"Yes this is Equestria and I don't know whether to mark your statement as you being insane, a vision, or some magic force which can happen here." Lightning Strike says thinking about what Scare said "If it is a vision or something tell me all you know about it so that this won't happen to this world" He says in a little less calm voice.
Scare sighed then looked at Lightning then she began. "Okay, the Equestria I know fell victim to a dark and powerful beings greed, I was only a filly when it happened, so forgive me if I don't have all the details. Anyway, this dark Being swept the nation into a state of panic. Celestia and the other princesses tried to stop it but the Being was too strong for them to stop it. Eventually it killed every pony in Equestria, I was the only one to survive the dark force's power." Scare answered in a sad tone looking at the Stallion in front of her.
Captain Lightning ponders what was just said then responds. "I will send this report out now. thank you for your cooperation, but we need you to stay here so we can question you further if need be. we will make somewhere for you to sleep and give you food to eat, while you stay for a while. Do what you wish around here until new information has been gained which may take a while" The Captain says as he heads out the door causing Banner to fall face first into room "Again? Banner how many times have I told you not to eavesdrop when I am interrogating some pony?"
"I dunno lost count after 50." Banner says with a grin. The Captain just puts a hoof to his forehead and sighed as he walked away from Banner. Scare slowly walked out of the interrogation room, and noticed Banner looking at her smiling. Scare recognized her as one of the Guard ponies that escorted her into the house. Walking toward Banner, Scare decided to introduce herself to the mare.
"Hello there my name is Scare Effect. What's your name?" Scare introduced herself to Banner.
"My name is Golden Banner but you can just call me Banner every pony does and I am here to give you a tour of the town" Banner says in a surprisingly happy voice but catches herself and turns stern again "I also want to know more about you and what's going on I hate to be uninformed about what's going on around alright?"
"Feel free to ask me anything." Scare replied with a smile full of oddly pointed teeth that looked like they belonged to a dragon.
Banner instantly saw the pointed teeth. "Well first question what are you? You don't seem to be a pure pony from how you look and those pointed teeth are freaky." She pointed out in a mean manner about to reach into her bag in pull her knife out "tell me now, or else" She says thinking about what her adopted dad used to say to her all the time about these kinds of beings being highly dangerous.
"Ah I knew that question was bound to come up, I am fully pony my teeth are a side effect of my encounter with the dark being when i was a filly, so there is no cause for alarm." Scare answered the question still grinning. "Also in the future can you please refrain from threatening me, I do not wish to get violent and hurt some pony."
Scare's ears perked up when she heard an oddly familiar rumbling sound looking outside and saw something that caused her blood to boil. Outside was a hulking metal machine coming toward the town at Mach speeds across the desert. Banner followed Scare's gaze and she froze from the shock of seeing this unknown machine. the machine had Six huge tires and appeared to have a shell like that of a turtle but where the turtle's head should be an eight-foot cannon stood aimed at the town. The machine was closing in on the town in the machine's path was an awestruck colt who was frozen with fear. Banner felt a sudden wave of air behind her turning around she saw that Scare had vanished. Banner then heard a loud bang from outside causing Banner to jump and quickly turn toward the sound and was meet with a face full of sand. What the hell happened? Banner thought to herself she was given her answer when the sand cleared and what she saw shocked her even more. The machine look like it stopped but when Banner took a closer look she saw that Scare was standing on her hind legs with her front hooves on the machine, then it click it Banner's head Scare was keeping the machine from hitting the colt but how was she able to stop something that big with only her hooves. Scare turned her head toward the colt and yelled "RUN!" before she pushed the machine over twenty feet her eyes dilated with adrenaline, "I will not let you hurt any innocent ponies you got that."
