Earth.
The Blue Planet, 3rd in it's solar System.
Home of the Human Race, a Sentient Species numbering over 7 billion.
They existed on a planet of many colors: Green and yellow, white and blue. However, a new color now stained the planet's surface.
A green, gaseous color, like clouds but low to the earth, hung over a portion of one of the planet's continents.
Slowly but surely expanding, within it's cover lay the entirety of the state of South Carolina, spilling out into nearby regions of it's bordering states, as well as the sea beyond: though it seemed to stop a few miles from shore somewhat oddly.
Within this cloud, Mankind withered and died, as if by a horrible sickness before dissolving away, while his machines failed and broke down. No one knew why this was, where it came from, or why it was spreading.
Not even those who dwelled on the island off the state's coastline, where the cloud had first formed.
.....
A town, desolate and quiet.
Machines with wheels lay forever idle, clocks frozen at the last moment they chimed.
The only sounds playing alongside the melody of nature were the creaks of abandoned structures, and the odd ringing of bells from several odd looking buildings throughout town decorated with crosses.
And among this dead town, whose name they knew not of as they could not read their script, walked six equines whose colors were alien to this world.
They were also rather small for horses, truth by told.
Three even had wings, and two horns.
"......So, what, are these things carriages or something?" A blue horse with a rainbow mane asked as she flew up and stood on top of one abandoned machines, where a pair of fuzzy dice oddly hung from within.
"Hmm....." A purple one, noted for possessing both a horn and a pair of wings, eyed the machine with interest "That does seem to be what they were meant to do....but I can't figure out how they moved? Are they some sort of advanced form of train instead?"
"We saw one of their trains a while back, I don't think this is quite the case darling. Maybe they are a kind of train, carriage hybrid device?" a white horned mare offered in a fancy tone of voice.
"Oh, oh!" a bouncy pink one offered "I know, I know, maybe they are some kind of turtle!"
The winged one eyed the thing she was standing on with no amusement "Yeah, no Pinkie. This ain't no Turtle, or a Tortoise for that matter" she added before a yellow winged horse could point out the flaw in her statement.
A orange horse lacking any additional growths had walked to the back of the vehicle, as if drawn by a smell. With a few deep wiffs, she promptly recoiled away from it.
"Gah! Rainbow Dash, get off that thing! It smells like death! Who knows what sort of foul creatures made this buckin' thing!" the hat wearing horse then tilted her head guiltily as she noticed the yellow one recoil at her harsh tone, while the others looked at her with confusion "Ah shucks....didn't mean to snap so hard. I was just...." she looked pensive at her outburst "Ya know, I don' even know where that came from".
"....Come to think of it, everyone's been a little......more prone to mood swings since we got here" the white horse mused as the identified Rainbow Dash rose an horsey eyebrow.
"Yeah, people tend to get cranky when their entire country suddenly crash lands on a new planet"
"Sure.....probably just that. Me n' Big Mac having ta raise another barn probably just frayed my nerves" the orange one concluded, though she still seemed a little bothered.
"If it makes you feel better Applejack, everyone's been on edge recently. Even Princess Celestia and Princess Luna" the purple horse reassured the now named orange one "Then again, I'd be cranky if I had to figure out how we even managed to get pulled all the way to a new planet, the magic required....."
The purple horse wasn't able to complete her train of thought however, when a white rabbit poked his head out of the yellow winged horse's mane, and suddenly darted off as if possessed.
"Angel!" the yellow one shouted worringly as the six horses ran after the rabbit, and out of the abandoned settlement they had been investigating.
....
On top a fallen tree in the middle of the forest, stood a man, alive and unaffected by the gas in the forest.
A human male, unlike the horses he seemed like he belonged in this world, his colors not so alien and bright. His head was covered in brown hair, his body by brown garments with an additional blue garment on top of them.
All around him, animals gathered. Sitting before him in peace and harmony were foxes both red and silver, deer, bobcat, rabbit, and armadillo. In the trees dwelt squirrel and bat, jay and finch, hawk and owl. Among many others who continued to come to him.
Not in pairs of course. That would be horribly irresponsible of him to only take two of each.
Behind him, sitting patiently with rows and rows of various, safe looking cages of various sizes, laid several large reptiles. With large winds, horned heads, and pointed tails the beast resembled that of a legendary creature of human myth: the Dragon.
That was of course because these were in fact Dragons, or at least domestic ones. Draft Dragons to be specific. The man's own steed, a beast with the front of a hawk and the back of a horse, stood at the edge of the forest: a Hippogriff.
The man opened his closed eyes, as he heard the call he was waiting for to arrive. At that call, a dozen small woodpecker of black and white flew to his outstretched arm.
"Excellent: the Red Cockaded Woodpeckers" He stated "Now to begin" With his unladened arm he pointed to one of the cages on the dragons "Fly to cage 19B and remain calm until we arrive at the Zoo".
The birds promptly flew off the arm and into a cage, which caused the man whom had calmed all the beasts who heeded his call to looked somewhat irrated.
"No...that's cage 14B, for the Loggerhead Shrikes. Go to cage 19B" the woodpeckers complied, causing the man to relax "Very good. Remain there without complaint. Now, Bobcats to cage 7A please".
As the animals began to move docily to their designated spots along the cage wearing dragons, the man's thoughts turned to why he was here in the first place.
.....
In an office carved from fine wood, lay stain glass windows depicting the conflict of man and beast. Yet, with a twist.
In the windows, nature was the holy warriors slaying the demonic forces of man.
In the windows, Japanese men were killed by whales, while the Chinese were impaled by Elephants. The ranchers of the Great Plains had their throats bitten by wolves, while the loggers of the Amazon were being eaten alive by ants.
While the windows were in immensely questionable taste, one could not say they were biased against any one kind of man. They were all being slain in equal opportunity.
The man found himself in a meeting with a younger looking man, a 20 ish year old to his 40 or so, dark skinned and casually dressed.
"So......how far is that cloud going to go?" the man asked the visitor, who shook his head.
"Theoretically, the entire planet. All attempts to disrupt the gas with conventional methods have failed, and the U.N is on their 20th idea now. So far nukes have remained off the plate, after all the cloud is radioactive. This isn't diplomacy, you can't fight a giant radioactive cloud from space with nukes".
"Tell that to Putin if that thing landed in his country" the man snarked "So, it's radioactive?"
"Well, yes, though not in the conventional sense. It damages cells, which leads to body shutdown. However, it's much faster than regular radiation......however" the young man looked concerned "It does not do anything to cells from a non-baseline human. Animals, Incarnates.....us.....we aren't affected".
"Really?" The older man stated in surprise.
"It was reported by a Merman scout off the coast of Charleston" the younger man noted the epicenter of the disaster "This data also, thankfully, did provide us a manner of, worst case scenario, limiting the damage".
"You mean Project: Lockdown Dixie?" the man of nature stated in surprise. The younger nodded, before noting a map of the United States on the wall, in between an image of a Thylacine killing an Australian (a species the surprisingly old man had saved from Extinction early in his career under his first of now 4 aliases) and a Madagascan being mauled by an Aye-Aye, grimacing at the man's odd taste in glass imagery.
"Correct. While it was originally created in case of a Nuclear or Zombie outbreak, the Northeast managed to modify it to block the gas. It's active now, and it's keeping the gas bottled up on the coast and away from the oceans." The older man could see it with his mind's eye: a line of discrete enchanted stones, creating an intangible field of energy that repelled a specific factor, be it radiation or flesh affected by undeath. Starting at the end of the Potomac, it traced the borders above the states of Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky, before following the Mississippi River north to the southern border of Minnesota, where it went across and up until it reached the Canadian border. From there it went until it hit the Montana border, where it once again went south along the edges of Montana and Wyoming until it reached Colorado, where it then skirted protecting the mountainous state by tracing the borders with Utah and New Mexico, before descending south along New Mexico's border with Oklahoma and Texas, before finally lining the Texas-Mexico border and then tracing a bit into the Gulf of Mexico as it went back to the start of the Potomac.
This line was meant to save the world, by sacrificing three regions of the United States ruled by the half of the American Incarnate political divide who was opposed to the Northeast, as had been the case even before the Civil War.
"....I take it the President would prefer we don't just let half the country die, and that there is something else in mind?" the older man questioned as the younger one nodded vigorously, clearly not among the part of the Northeast that would be fine with letting the former Confederacy be poisoned to oblivion.
"Thankfully yes. We can expand the energy field into more land by laying more stones, Salem thankfully has a sizeable amount of them that can be re-purposed from air freshening and pollen blocking, and can make more easily. It's even safer for us, as it creates redundancy layers in case someone destroys a stone, as hard as that would be to do. Thanks to the ongoing civil war going on that's dragging the Southeast, Plains, and Texas divisions into conflict with each other, the Angels, and a few dozen radical militias, we should be able to discretely move into their territories to protect the people from the cloud without reigniting the Civil War at the worst possible time; though to avoid their attention we won't be able to do anything in Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, Eastern Texas and Oklahoma, and Louisiana where the fighting is ongoing. The Northeast plans to start moving into Virginia, West Virginia, and Kentucky from the north, while a rapid construction core is forming in the Puerto Rico field office in coordination with the Bahamas to save Florida, hopefully at least far enough that I can still go to Disneyworld next year".
The younger man blushed "Um, well...in other news the Southwest and Mexico will focus on Southern and Eastern Texas, while the Northwest will work on Colorado with Sasquatch aide. The Canadians are willing to move into North Dakota. Given we don't want to leave holes though, and the unstable nature of the gas's speed....we have no idea how much we can save, given that the Northeast doesn't have enough resources, even with Salem and the Vampire Confederation's full support, to make any meaningful moves into Iowa until the Florida force hits cloud.
"I see....." the older man nodded.
"However, we still have no idea what's going on in the covered landmasses: the Southeast doesn't have a large enough non-human popular to reach and the Satellites can't see through the cloud. Given the Northeast is aware of your current Southeastern expansion at your Zoo, we were hoping you'd be able to sneak down into the Carolina Cloud and report back what's going on in there".
....
After that, it was just a matter of choosing the dragons and convincing his wife he would not come back a mutant.
Anyway, his memory gazing had passed enough time that all the gathered species were inside transport cages and instructed to remain calm all the way back to Connecticut.
None of the animals had seemed affected by any noticeable mutations, though further observations would be taken before they would be acclimated to the exhibit. Northeastern tests had already determined decontamination would oddly enough be unnecessary, so it would simply be a manner of leaving now.
Then he heard the sounds of a darting Lagomorph, as a oddly colored rabbit darted over to him.
The man kneeled down to pick up the creature, examining it curiously.
"You're an oddly colored rabbit" the man questioned "Are you a Incarnate Rabbit perhaps, or perhaps one mutated by this gas cloud somehow?"
The rabbit promptly muttered something, causing the man to scowl.
"How rude. Well, might as well take you with me: your a curiosity at least....."
"Angel!" a voice rang out as the clearing was entered by six Horses of unusual color and small size.
Two regular horses: one pink and the other orange with a cowgirl hat.
A white Unicorn.
A purple Unicorn and Pegasus? Odd, normally any hybrid of the two was one or the other.
And a Blue Pegasus, followed by a yellow one who had spoken just now, asking for an Angel.
The man lifted the rabbit up, before pointing at it.
The yellow Pegasus nodded.
He put the bunny back, who darted back to his owner (?), likely unintentionally called to him.
They stared at each other for a few moments, in his background one of his dragons yawned while his Hippogriff looked ready to leave.
"Okay, what the heck are you supposed to be" The blue Pegasus spoke first, sounding female like the first one. Come to think of it, they all looked like mares.
"A Human. Homo Sapiens Sapiens. The dominant species of the planet Earth" the man explained diplomatically.
"Sapiens, Sapiens?" The orange horse tilted her head in confusion
"Yeah, sometimes repetition is the simplest way of getting a point across. Tell me, what are you then?"
"Oh, right, this must be like one of those alien movies, but instead of us being invaded by aliens, we're the aliens! We landed on your planet in a big crash, and a boom, and a thump, and a owie because I landed on Rarity!" the pink one spoke, bouncing like she was the happiest thing ever.
"And that hurt darling, that hurt...." the white one he now mentally named Rarity muttered.
Alien horses. Wonderful.
He dealt with animals, not aliens, not even alien horses. Aliens were his cousin's line of work.
Where was that damn Billy Terran when you needed him? Oh right, in the Desert.....
"So, I take it the tsunamis, the earthquakes, and the giant toxic gas cloud is your doing then?" He questioned as the blue Pegasus snapped.
"Hey! That is not our fault, you freakin' ape!"
The now tense atmosphere was quiet for a resulting few seconds, beyond a warning hiss from a Dragon sounding like a crocodile.
"....Rainbow, what in tarnation is an Ape anyway?" the orange horse broke the silence.
"I....I don't know but this guy just makes me freakin' angry just by looking at him! Must have just made some word up or something....."
"A human is a member of the Primate Order, which includes Apes like Humans" The man offered informatively, catching the odd moodswing that even caught the Pegasus off guard.
Bi-Polar Alien Horses? Sounded like a B-Movie.
"Your sudden vocabulary aside Rainbow...." the hybrid horse started, sounding somewhat calculative "This human, as he calls himself, seems to know something about this planet. He'll be coming with us back to Canterlot to tell us all about it".
"Sorry, but this human has a dinner with his wife and son to get back too" 'this human' would rather not do the whole hostage thing.
"That was not a request" the horse stated harshly, before she blinked, as if herself confused where the harshness came from, but continued with her determined stare declaring that he'd be coming back with them. It was almost regal looking.
"Well, I'm afraid there are two other things that are keeping me from going to this Canterlot of yours bar my family" the man frowned, really deciding he probably should get out of here and report this to the Northeast and the rest of the Incarnate World (maybe the regular world after they figured out a way to not get laughed off the idea of invading Bi-Color and Bi-Polar Ponies). "First off, Johnathan Thompson Terran the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th at once, does not go quietly. I've been captured by everyone from Tribesmen to Soviets to even P.E.T.A. I know how this goes, and I'd rather not be killed like some poor Eritrean journalist. And second off....the Solenopis Invicta are going to occupy you as I return to my zoo, my wife and son, and the world at large".
"And what exactly are Soviets, P.E.T.A, or solenopsis Invic...." the just aggressive horned Pegasus questioned, before a sudden rush of pain flooded hers and her allies eyes. (WHAT THE, OW!)
"Fire Ants" Johnathan Terran stated with a frown as he reached his escape Hippogriff, escaping with his latest zoological specimens as Equestria had it's first conflict with Fire Ants.
But with this meeting, a different conflict had only just begun.
Author's Note
Some notes
1: Yes, I'm using something other than the human military. I like doing things different on occasion, and it lets me test out these characters as I work on the original work on my end. That way, if I create some horrible scrappy unintentionally, you can tell me.
2: Yes, I'm using a cloud instead of a barrier. I think it's more ominous that way.
3: This takes place sometime during Season 5 probably, but before the final.
