Pony & Blade: Warparty

Chapter 1: Discovery

It was a spring day in the Swadian wilderness near Dhirim. Stevius, a legendary mercenary in the employ of the Kingdom of Swadia was sent to investigate a strange phenomenon that had been happening all over Calradia. Strange objects were crashing down from the sky, leaving nothing but a small crater and a colored equine. At first some of the kingdoms thought it was some new seige weapon developed by the others to crush castle defences, but once they discovered the ponies, truth had soon dawned upon those lords & their kings. They were under invasion from an unknown force, most seemingly unhostile, but a few of them dearly confused had ended up making themselves enemies of certain kingdoms. This arrival of strangers had all but shattered the fragile peace that had currently taken hold of the war-torn land. Now Stevius had been told to go find another of these creatures resting in the crater, but found something different entirely. He found another human.

The man was weak and tired, occasionally turning and groaning. Obviously drained from his experience, He was laying in the center of the crater his crash created. He was dressed strangely, with a coat of some sort, held together down the middle with some seemingly iron bands. He wore shoes with laces and a strange fabric, and leggings of the sort that you would see few commoners with. Stevius approached the man and pulled him up to his feet, staring into his face to get a feel for his personality. Stevius was good at that, he possesed such charisma and charm that no one could do him wrong without feeling guilt afterwards, and he led his men into battle with great bravery. Stevius then proceeded to ask him a simple question, hoping they spoke the same language, "Who are you, and where are you from?" The man retorted by falling to his knees and vomiting in the dirt. Stevius understood his situation, he had been captured before, suffering terrible conditions. He waited patiently, stroking his jet-black beard. The man responded by saying
"My name is Gavin, I am from the United States, and I live in California." then wretching on the ground some more. Stevius was confused. The other reports had suggested that the others had come from "Equestria" and all had strange names, while this one seemed to be from a foreign land, but a relatively normal name, even if he had never heard of these, "United States", they sounded nice enough. Stevius asked another question,
"Do you know where you are?"
"No," He responded.
"Good that I found you first instead of some bandits then, eh?" Stevius chuckled, then his face turned back to his original serious demeanor. "You are on the land of the Kingdom of Swadia, near the City of Dhirim." Gavin soon responded with a look of shock on his face and replied.
"What?"
"You are near the city of Dhirim, in Swadian territory." He then seemed to speak to himself, half mumbling & half yelling.
"This can't be... How the hell... What's happening..." Stevius had lead him out of the crater by this time asking minor questions, not bringing up the fact that these craters had been made all over Calradia. He was walking Gavin towards a horse when they heard one of Stevius' troops calling out.
"Sir! That's one of 'em!" One of his soldiers that had seen that equine before yelled and pointed at a lavender colored unicorn creature that had been spying on them as it gasped and began to flee.
"Hurry and try to corner it, don't harm it though," Stevius responded, "I must see if I can persuade it to come with us to Praven." He then helped Gavin on to one of his spare war horses and the chase began, the party's new companion lagging slightly behind. As the pony fled it noticed that the Swadian knights in Stevius' party were beginning to overtake her. She stopped for a second and her horn began to glow, as she did so she threw one of the knights into a charging sergeant, knocking him to the ground. Pleased with her performance but still being chased, the pony started to see her route of escape narrowing, as they began to reach a forest, she knew she was cornered. As she began to use her magic a sudden voice yelled, asking her to stop."Wait! I've heard tales of your kind, but never had been able to see one up close seeing as my contract restricts me from straying too far," Stevius chuckled again, remembering that he had about 3 days left on his contract. "And before you ask, I have been told from said stories that all of you can speak our language, so don't try to fake it." The pony then asked two questions,
"What do you want with me, and who is that?" she then scowled at Gavin while her horn glowed, who returned a suprised and confused glance. Gavin then put his hands over his face and looked to the sky, screaming.
"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!" Stevius then replied with a clever answer,
"I'd like to ask you two the same thing," The pony then regained everyones attention and announced herself once again as she had done once before, after almost being captured by bandits in the middle of the kingdom.
"I am Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia, and resident of Ponyville in the land of Equestria." She began, "I don't know why I am here, but I'm sure another one of your kind has the answers." Twilight finished, scowling at Gavin once more.
"Leave me alone, I don't know what's going on here so much as you do, but I know more about this place than you do."
"Oh really?" She asked still scowling, when Stevius interrupted.
"Stop, I entreat you both to travel with me to the city of Praven, neither of you have made yourself an enemy of Swadia yet, so count yourself lucky.'
"Fine." They both replied in unison. This was going to be an interesting few days for all of Calradia.