Broken Dawn trotted out of the post office in the little town of Chapel just outside of the huge walled off city of Hoofington. As she slipped the 9mm pistol she just bought from the filly store clerk Charity for almost all of her remaining bottle caps she found the strange purple alicorn she had meet only the other day sitting on the ground watching as the other Crusader and what few adults called the town home gave her a wide berth, some glancing at the alicorn with fear, other sneered with clear anger.

The fear was because of the fact alicorns dragged off unicorns to parts unknown to make them part of their Unity, though this alicorn claimed to have no idea what that was, nor who the alicorn’s Goddess was. The sneers were because the alicorn claimed to be Twilight Sparkle and she indeed looked just like her if you looked past the wings, scars and cybernetics.

It wasn’t hard to see why some were angry, while some looked at the Ministry Mares with awe; other looked upon them with contempt and blame for the state of the world. Even this alicorn claimed she wished she could meet Ministry Mare Twilight Sparkle and beat the ever living crap out of her.

That was something else odd about this alicorn, she claimed to be from an alternate Equestria where though in some aspects they were less advanced then this one was, they were far more stable and not engaged in a war that would lead to the end of the world. Dawn didn’t know what to believe honestly, all she knew was that the alicorn was weird and nothing like the alicorns she had heard about, the Ministry Mare or the Princess she claimed to be as well.

While she had to admit the strange vehicle the alicorn called a Humvee that the filly had woken up in definitely wasn’t like anything she had seen, the alicorn claimed it got pulled into the vortex that opened up in what she called a motor pool while she was inspecting it.

At first the filly had thought the alicorn was a unicorn as she hadn’t seen her wings till arriving in Chapel, even thought she was from a Stable do to her seeming to have no idea what was going on and was just so damn friendly.

“Helllllllloooooo, you awake Kid?”

Dawn blinked as she realized the alicorn was standing before her waving a hoof in front of her face to get her attention. “Huh? Yes I’m awake.” Dawn said as she pushed the hoof out of her face with some annoyance.

“Ok, well you’ve been staring at me for about five minutes and it’s kind of weird.” The alicorn said.

Dawn huffed and spoke. “I can stare at whatever I want.” The little filly said firmly, this only seemed to amuse the larger alicorn as she chuckled and shook her head.

‘Right that may be true but I would thank you kindly to not stare at me.” She said and all amusement left her face as she too on a blank expression. “I don’t like when people just stare at me.” Dawn opened her mouth to say something back but the alicorns expression snapped back to normal, or at least what Dawn thought was normal, she question if it was normal for alicorn to smirk most of the time and seem to be laughing at some joke only they knew.

“Yeah way it’s not every day you meet a baby alicorn.” Dawn said.

The alicorn facehoofed. “For the last time I am almost seventy years old, I am far from a baby.”

“Maybe to a normal pony but you said you are extremely young compared to other alicorns” Dawn shot back earing a scowl from the alicorn who opened her mouth to say something once more but was interrupted as the white unicorn who lived in the old house up on the hill came galloping into town with her friend hot on her heels.

The Alicorn quickly left Dawn and made her way to the unicorn as she looked around franticly, Dawn couldn’t help noticing all of them were armed. “Blackjack what’s going on?”

“Trouble.” Blackjack said. “Lacunae saw a large dust cloud in the distance and she went to check, it’s a large group of raider heading this way.” She said.

The alicorn didn’t flinch and just nodded. “Alright if these Raider are as bad as I have heard it would be best if we temporarily evacuate the town so no one gets caught in the crossfire.”

Blackjack looked at her. “I was thinking we head out there and kick their butts before they reach the town.” She said tilting her head in a manner similar to the alicorn she was speaking to seemed to at time.

The Alicorn shook her head. “No, beet to let them come to us and fight out our terms rather than on theirs, plus the town will provide a lot better cover then the open ground.” The alicorn said as she eyed the buildings. Looking from the building to the tall unicorn in the funeral garb the alicorn spoke. “How long do we have till they get here?”

The tall alicorn opened her mouth to speak but was interrupted by another voice. “Oh about ten minutes and then this fucking town will be nothing but cinders.”

Everyone who had come out to see what the fuss was about eye snapped to three ponies dressed in patchwork armor, an earth pony stallion and a unicorn mare were armed with carbines while another unicorn mare had a pistol aimed towards the sky. Blackjack and their friends all raised their weapons but the unicorn mare with the pistol raised a hoof. “No need for that, we will leave this shanty town alone if you hand over whoever the fuck it was that killed everyone at one of our small outposts.” She said. “We know they came here as we’ve been following the tracks here so we know they are here.”

Dawn’s eye shrunk to pinpricks as she realized these raiders were here because of the alicorn killing the raider who had captured her.

“And what do you plan to do with them if we do hand them over?” The alicorn asked from behind Blackjack.

The unicorn mare sneered. “Just plan to repay her for what she did to them, we still aren’t even sure which parts go with which pony and we really want to show her why no one fucks with us.”

The alicorn suddenly stood on her hind legs and pressed her wings tightly to her back so they weren’t easily seen and walked around Blackjacks group who blinked at her. Once she was standing before the group she put her hands behind her back as the three Raider stared at her, the two in back had wide eyes while the one speaking seem unimpressed as she looked up at the alicorn.

“Tell you what.” She said pulling out a bit from the pocket of the uniform she was wearing. “Let’s leave it up t chance shall we? Heads I go with you tails you leave. Deal?”

The unicorn rolled her yes. “Yeah sure whatever.” She said and Dawn opened her mouth to tell the alicorn not to take their word but before she could the bipedal pony flicked the coin into the air. Both Blackjacks group and the Raider looked up. Dawn didn’t have to from where she stood so she saw as the alicorn drew the pistol on her flank and in quick succession shot the three Raiders in the head before they could react. By the time the stallions body hit the ground the alicorn caught the coin.

“You know I should have probably warned them that I cheat.” She said as she glanced at the coin and snorted. “Heh, heads I lose.” She said before tucking the coin back in her pocket. “Anyways we don’t have much time before their friends get here. If they were telling the truth there is no time to evac the town.” She said and looked back at all of the ponies of the town. “Glad I know you lot are all so trigger happy. Just greet them the same way you greeted me and you should be able to take them all out in like three seconds.”

Some of the ponies in the crowd couldn’t help chuckling as they remembered that they had all tried to kill the alicorn when they realized what she was only yesterday. Dawn was amazed the alicorn could joke about that as if it was nothing, granted her shield easily stopped all the shots and she did disarm the entire town with a single levitation spell so that was probably why.

As Blackjack and the alicorn discussed how they should set up the town to repel the coming Raider army a breeze began the blow. Dawn would have ignored it as she watched the gathered ponies, most of the town had now joined it, but something about the breeze was odd. For one it was quickly growing, and two her horn felt odd, there was a slight pressure to it that she had never felt before and she noticed some of the other unicorn fillies rubbing their horns as well.

As the breeze quickly became a wind the adult finally noticed it and when the wind grew strong enough to pick up dirt and small rocks Dawn could see the wind was coming from all direction and that the alicorn smiled and spoke loud enough for everyone to hear. “Or we could get some reinforcements to help in the coming fight.” She said.

Blackjacked looked at her confused. “What…” She was cut off as the air in the middle of town tore open and bathed them all in light that was brighter than the daylight around them, some of the ponies had to shield their eyes.

As everyone stared at the tear in confusion, all except the alicorn who smirked, there was a bright flash and a black ponyshape with a tank came from the rift, followed by another, then another and another. The black pony shapes quickly moved out of the way as more flashes came from the rift and with each flash another pony shape appeared landing on their hooves. Dawn blinked, except for the first four pony shapes all of these ponies were dressed in dark green armor and some of their fur was black and shiny.

Dawn’s eyes widened as a much larger pony shape came out of the rift and landed on hooves that were full of holes. The figure looked around before the alicorn stepped from the crowd of Chapel ponies, some of which had raised weapons but hadn’t taken aim yet. “Ah Major, it’s good to see you, I was wondering when you’d all get here.” She said with a smile.

The large pony looked at her and sighed in relief. “Well at least this wasn’t like the last time, it’s always nice to land near you Commander.” The pony said in a strange voice that sounded like two different ponies were talking at the same time.

“Yeah….but damn fighting a dragon king on a snowy mountain top alongside a magic wielding human destined to defeat the dragon was a lot of fun.” The alicorn said with a chuckle then looked behind the larger shiny pony. “So where’s… ah there they are.”

The alicorn said this as more ponies leapt from the tear in the air, these ones wore dark gold armor similar to the first wave of ponies but in the center of their helmets was the old insignia of Equestria of the two alicorns chasing the sun and the moon. However it was the pony that came just behind them that everyone was looking at, most with jaw’s dropped.

The pony had dark blue fur and wore dark silver armor over her body. Her dark mane and tail blew in an unfelt wing and seemed to twinkle with small lights. It wasn’t hard to recognize the pony who stood there surveying them all as everyone knew her.

“Luna there you are, here I thought you weren’t coming to save me.” The purple alicorn said with a chuckle as she approached the dark alicorn with a smile, the black shinny pony staying close to her.

Princess Luna looked at the purple alicorn and smiled. “Surely you jest Twilight Sparkle to think I would not come to help rescue thee from this other reality.” The alicorn said with a smile. “It is good to see you well.”

“Please, you think a little something like all of this would be enough to take me down?” The alicorn said gesturing to the surrounding town.

Princess Lune chuckled. “Nay, the thought had never crossed my mind for you could walk into Tartarus and return unharmed Twilight Sparkle.”

“Damn straight.” The alicorn…no….the Princess said. Dawns eyes became as big as saucers as she realized the alicorn had been telling the truth. She was actually a Princess, a real Princess who ruled alongside the Goddesses. The filly had been talking with a real princess! Her excitement quickly died as her eyes shrug to pinpricks as she realized she punched a Princess in the muzzle when she woke up and found her only a few inches from her face! The princess was going to banish her, or smite her, or banished her and then smite her!

“Kid you ok?”

Dawn jumped as she found the Princess and Luna as well as the shiny pony standing before looking down at her, the Princess was flanked by two hovering spears that had jewels imbedded in them and Gatling guns hanging under them.

“Ah…uh…please don’t smite me!” The filly squeaked.

The Princess blinked and tilted her head to the side. “Now why the hell would I do that?”

“B-Because ….Because I….I punched….you in the nose…”The filly said trying to make herself as small as possible, she was vaguely aware of the rest of Chapel staring at her.

The princess righted her head and laughed. “Relax Kid, I’m not in the business of killing foals and you only did that because I surprised you, it’s a good reflex to have.” She said with a smile.

Dawn huddles there staring up at what she thought was an angry Princess but slowly her words sunk in and she felt a wave of relief washed over the filly and she launched herself at the Princess hooves, wrapping her fore legs around one of them. “Oh thank you, thank you for showing mercy.” She said and kissed the metal hoof, ignoring the metal taste.

“Hey quit that.” The Princess said lifting her hoof, Dawn going with it as her hooves were still around it. “Let go!” The Princess said shaking her hoof in an effort to dislodge the dark blue unicorn filly.

While all of this was going on Luna watched on trying to hid her small laugh behind a hoof as the Princess kept trying to shake the small filly lose, several of the armored ponies looked on with either smiles of amusement or laughed openly.

As Dawn clung to the Princess’ metal hoof Blackjack and her friends slowly approached the little gathering of ponies and came to a dead stop as several of the dark green and dark gold armored ponies stepped between the two groups and took aim with the weapons in a clear threat not to take another step.

“Relax lads, they are friends, you can let them through.” The Princess said as she looked over her shoulder at the ponies that nodded their heads and stepped to the side allowing the other group through. When Blackjack and the other got to the two alicorns and the shiny pony the Princess finally managed to shake dawn free of her hoof and quickly back peddled to prevent the small filly from latching one once more.

“Is…is that really Princess Luna?” Blackjack asked with a bit of awe. It was then the Princess noticed the crowd of Chapel ponies all staring in disbelief as the two alicorns and only being kept back by the soldiers standing between the crowd and their leadership.

The princess looked back at the white unicorn mare. “Yeah it’s her; I told you I’m a blasted Princess who studied under Celestia.” Twilight said.

“But she died and became a Goddess in the sky.” Blackjack said pointing a hoof at the dark alicorn who blinked.

“”Pray tell us Twilight what does this mare mean?” Luna asked looking at the purple alicorn.

Twilight sighed. “Long story short, our counterparts in this reality royally screwed up and it resulted in a war that ended with an M.E.E and now Equestria is a wasteland with scatterings of survivors all over the place and your counterpart was killed at the end of the war.” Twilight explained.

The Dark alicorn bristled. “Well if not for the fact she is already dead I would challenge her to a dual of honor for failing to protect her subjects and allowing this to happen.” Luna said with a frown.

Twilight nodded. “Pretty much what I said concerning this world’s Twilight Sparkle who is also dead.” She said then looked back at the group of ponies from the town. “Anyways introduction time, you already know me. This is Princess Luna of the Night “She said pointing at the dark alicorn then pointed at the tall shiny pony. “And this is Major Chrysalis, my second in command and Queen of the Changeling Hive.”

Blackjack blinked and looked back at her friends. “Changeling Hive?”

Twilight sighed. “Let me guess you have no clue what they are do you?” She asked and the mare nodded. “So another difference.” She said and looked at the queen beside her. “Show them.” She said.

The Queen nodded and her helmet was wrapped in dark green magic and lifted off her head reveling a face that cause the Chapel ponies to recoil as a few other soldiers removed the helmet to revel solid blue eyes and insect like features. The queen frowned at this. “Why is it everyone does that?”

“Because they aren’t used to you and you know how easily frightened ponies are of the unknown.” Twilight said as the soldier replaced their helmets.

“Doesn’t mean I have to be ok with it.” The Changeling Queen said.

“Relax Queeny I think you look great.” Twilight said with a smile and Dawn was sure the Queen’s cheeks turned a darker color.

The Small filly was watching the exchange in awe. This Princess was friends with the Goddesses as well as a queen of strange bug like ponies, was there anything else that this Princess was? The small fillies mind raced with all the possibilities of what this princess could do and was as said Princess switched to being a biped and a rifle dropped into her outstretched hands.

Aiming the weapon towards the sky whiling holding just the gripper, her finger hovering near the trigger she spoke loudly to the soldier who all turned to listen. “Listen up lads I’m glad you are here.” Her voice echoed over the town with the ease of someone used to addressing large crowds. “As we speak a large group of what is known as raider is heading this way. I’ve seen what these ponies due for fun and have no doubt they will kill everyone in this town or worse before burning it to the ground.” She said as she looked at the soldier who listed with rapt attention.

“Now these townspeople have been decent to me and I would even call a few of them friends.” She said gesturing to Blackjack and her group of friends beside her. “So then I am going to be fighting to defend this town and the people in it as we don’t have any more time to evac them to safety.” She said and smirked. “I’d like some volunteers to help me defend the town.” She said and a hoof shot in the air from every single gathered soldier. “That’s what I thought.” She said as she chuckled in a manner that said she knew this would happen.

“So then who is ready to show some sick bastards what happens to those who fuck with friends of the EDF?” She asked and the town was filled with the voices of soldier all shouting that they were ready as they lifted their weapons into the air.

Twilight smiled. “Then dig in lads and prepare for a fight!” She yelled.

The soldier quickly dispersed and began to head swarm through the town, some of the ponies turned out to be pegasi much to the surprise of many of the townspeople who flew onto the roofs of the buildings while some of them carrying long rifles flew onto the roof of the church for which the town was named.

The crowd of ponies all jumped back as two large tanks appeared in the street and changelings and ponies climbed onto them and quickly disappeared down the hatch. While the tank’s started up as a vehicle that looked somewhat like a vertbuck appeared and two earth ponies climbed into the cockpit.

As the soldier prepared for a fight Twilight looked at Blackjack who was staring at the soldiers as they set up defenses rapidly/ “If you want to help out I’d suggest you get ready, I’m sure the town would feel a lot better knowing Security was part of this fight.”

Blackjack blinked. “How did…”

Twilight pointed at her ears. “I listen, from what little I’ve heard you’ve done good Blackjack and definitely know your way around a fight; I’d be honored if a hero of the waste fought alongside us.” Twilight said with a smirk.

“Well…not like I was going to let a bunch of Raiders attack Chapel.” Security said with determination.

Twilight nodded and looked back at Dawn who was still watching from where she sat on the ground after having been shaken lose from Twilight’s hoof. “Dawn I need you to gather up the foals and get them all into one of the buildings.” She said.

Dawn and several others nearby foals glared at this. “We can fight!” one of them said.

Twilight looked at the small foal who spoke up. “I have no doubt about that but what about the ones too small to fight?” She asked in the same tone she used when speaking to the soldier. “Someone needs to keep them safe and calm and so I’m giving that task to all of you.” She said gesturing to the older fillies and colts. “Can you do that?”

The older foals looked around at themselves and the other foals who were much younger and smaller before looking back at the purple alicorn and nodding with determination. “Good now start to get everyone into a building.” She said.

Some of the foals imitated the salute some of the other soldiers we using before they started to herd the younger foals towards the post officer, Dawn being the last go, looking back at the princess who watched them go before she went in and the door was closed and locked.

“You can’t honestly expect foals to Fight can you Twilight?” Luna asked leaning over once the door was shut.

“They’ve been surviving in a wasteland for who knows how long, they know how to take care of themselves.” Twilight said. “But still have the Royal Guard post up to defend the building.”

Luna nodded and ordered the guard to do just that. The gold armored ponies saluted before the unicorns removed their ballistic shields from the back and the six ponies moved to defend the Post Office.

Twilight looked overt eh town and saw the soldiers had finished setting up defenses and many of the adult in the town were also set up with random assortments of firearms. The town was as ready as it could be and Twilight could see the first of the raider army as it crested the hill not too far outside of town. She smiled and looked at the dark alicorn beside her. “So our usual wager?”

The Princess of the Moon nodded as she drew her two short swords.

“I’ll leave direct defense of the town to you Queen, don’t let me down.” She said with a smile to the changeling queen who replaced her helmet and nodded. With that the two blades shot from the ends of twilight’s hooves and she smirked at the alicorn. “Lowest kill count buys drinks for the platoon!” She said and the two alicorns teleported away to flank the enemy.

Author's Note

And we have out first interlude that will be follow Broken Dawn in her time before ending up in the Equestria that this story takes place in.