The New World.

As Michelle stumbled through the treeline, she thought of what she could've missed, and questioned how she was even alive. The calendar could also have been broken.

I saw it with my own eyes. The dropship was decayed, destroyed! It couldn't... It can't be correct, though! I couldn't survive a thousand years if I was perfectly healthy, the most physically fit person! I'd still die... I think. Michelle shook her head and wiped sweat from her forehead with her sleeve. Although the uniform was meant to keep heat out or in, depending on weather patterns, the systems that seemed to manage that seemed to have failed. Michelle sighed.

"I can't keep going on like this... gotta find some shelter. Get some food, a reliable source of water, maybe. Start a fire..." There you go, Chell... Maybe our brain isn't fried after all. She joked to herself, laughing silently at the morbidity of her situation.

She was truly alone.

Cadets who wanted to go through advanced training, normally to become Freelancers, had to go through survival courses with no confirmed chance of success, but they at least pulled you out when death was approaching. Now? She truly had to work for it, if she wanted to live. Michelle crouched down, using her heightened senses and the barely working night vision setting on her helmet to look for any source of food. She unholstered her sidearm and took aim at a deer that grazed not a hundred meters away. She quickly looked up at the sound of wings flapping and nearly dropped her gun.

A small, pastel colored horse with wings, was carrying a paper bag of what appeared to be groceries. She had a yellowish coat, with a peach-colored mane. Michelle could tell it was female by the body build, but what caught her completely off-guard, was that it was... singing. Not only that, but the birds that flew around, not only flew around her, but sang along with her.

"Okay, my brain might be fried after all." she muttered, looking back to the deer.

Dammit. The deer was gone, though the horse was still in Chell's line of sight.

"Okay, maybe this wouldn't have been completely useless..." Michelle crouched down low to the ground, quickly following behind the... pegasus? Michelle chuckled quietly.

Glad I took the class on mythological creatures... I think... Michelle thought to herself as she slithered forward.

The horse seemed to jump at every. Little. Thing that scared her even remotely. It was slightly agitating, and, were the horse not providing her with food, she would've shot her then and there. That's when she saw it.

Down past a path that the horse went down, was the husk of a VDF cruiser, the pony's little animal shelter-like home was built on top of a VDF shuttle. It had the normal steel-gray coloration, with one of the wings bent out of proportions, acting as a bridge, with wood built over it to make a bridge up to the small pony's home on the hill that was the entire ship... She had built her house over a relic.

A VDF D-617 TDE "Hornet". It had a long body, a bit taller than ten feet, with a large storage/troop bay, where soldiers would hold onto rails built into the ceiling, similar to a twenty-first century metro train. It had two twin guns built onto the nose and wings, which lowered down toward the ground, and folded into the body of the ship. It's cockpit was built in the front, close to the nose of the ship, at the top of the body, below two large guns that sat above the place where the wings connected with the body. It was overgrown with grass and earth, the wing, and one of the large twin cannons mounted on the wings the only thing visible.

In a way, it was... beautiful. To watch nature overcome small obstacles, like humanity's creations, to create something much prettier than the ugly war machines that humanity used to kill each other with.

In another world, Michelle might've tried to dig it out and get the ship working....

But this isn't another world. She doesn't have all the tools to fix it, nor did she want to ruin the balance of life that grew over the VDF gunship.

"You miss home, don't you?" Michelle quickly spun around and fired three rounds in quick succession at the voice, missing as some mismatched child's artwork literally dodged each of the 12.7x40mm rounds that she fired. Birds cawed and flew off, the entire forest before her becoming dormant at the noise.

"Motherfucker." Michelle looked around for the creature, only to find it gone. She quickly holstered her pistol and dashed into the wood in hopes to avoid any pursuers. She slowed to a halt after putting a good few hundred meters in between her and the house. She placed her hands on her knees and panted, attempting to catch her breath. A low growl to her left pulled Michelle out of her trance. She drew her saber and got into combat position, poised to kill.

Three creatures made of, what appeared to be wood, slithered out to meet her, growling. They represented wolves, with glowing yellow eyes and sap dripping from their maws. Michelle got a look at her backside, quickly spinning off to the left, delivering a slash to the underbelly of a "Timber Wolf". She spun the blade around in her hands, grasping it within, then drove it through the side of the timber wolf's head, ending it's pitiful existence. The dead wood that made up it's body collapsed to the ground, a yellow mist rising up from the remains. Michelle drew her knife in her left hand and got ready to fight off the wolves, only to find the three others had disappeared.

They're intelligent enough to stay away when they know they can't win... Michelle snickered to herself as she slid her bladed weapons into their places on her person. She huffed and crumpled onto her back, breathing heavily. She felt as if she hadn't drank or eaten anything in days. Michelle pulled a small pack off her waist and popped open the clips that held it's flap down, rummaging through it, her expression changing from annoyed to enraged.

A few personal effects, some water, and a molded roll. The water was green, and there was barely any in the transparent canteen. Michelle pulled the roll out and lobbed it, then dumped out all the water from the canteen, looking it over.

It wasn't of use, so she chucked it into the distance, biting her lip to keep herself from screaming at the top of her lungs to the heavens. Michelle sighed and calmed down enough to begin walking off into the distance, hoping for better luck by simply scrounging. She walked forward a good meter, before she felt inclined to draw her blade and spin around...

"Hey, you!"

Dammit.

Twilight, when she first heard she was going to Ponyville, thought it was just a ploy by Princess Celestia to get out and make friends, though, when she got there, she found a lot more than just friends.

Ponyville was a historical site. According to local legend, a great battle was fought in the sky, and the chariots that delivered fire to the lands were sent to the ground, forever waiting for their masters to take up the reigns. It happened the night Princess Luna turned to Nightmare Moon.

Currently, Twilight was walking around a large metal husk that laid under the Town Hall, most of the husk being covered in grass and earth, buried in the ground and, somehow, mostly un-rusted.. Twilight was somewhat scared at first when she found the husk, then began to realize how harmless it was once she got a chance to peek around inside.

The halls were covered in moss, (minimal) rust, and grass, with a large, open room, an atrium of sorts that consisted as the entrance.

Twilight summoned a lighting spell, readjusting the hardhat she was given. Rainbow Dash, Apple Jack, Rarity and Pinkie were with her. Spike had gone to get Fluttershy earlier.

Twilight looked around the room, trotting over to a table with a bunch of clipboards and manila folders, coated in dust and decay. Twilight levitated one of the papers in front of her face and hummed. It's surface was a sickly yellow, and it was aged, meaning after she put it down, the littlest gust of wind, or pound of rain could damage it. Twilight read over the text, humming softly as she did so, reading the individual words with interest.

My sweetest Evelyne,

We're all going to try and get to that castle upon the mountainside. Hopefully, not all our 'Hogs have been destroyed. We lost Matthews and Mikaelys yesterday. Some sort of creature -one that looked a helluvalot like a manticore- killed Mikaelys, then stung Matthews. He succumbed to the venom late last night.

Everything is falling apart. VDF Comms are dead quiet, even with the makeshift radio equipment, and the surviving radio equipment, and you know what? I'm genuinely scared. If the VDF go, that would mean the worst things for humanity. All that information we had that would've gotten our patrons and citizens killed will get released, all the data we've collected will be used for the wrong cause...

Your dearest,

Lorenzo Di Petrilli.

Twilight hummed in acknowledgement, carefully putting the paper down. Somehow, nopony had thought of investigating any of the metal husks that dotted Ponyville's landscape.

They were relics at this point, and apparently ponies had tried to explore them in previous years, specifically, shortly after they had appeared a little over a thousand years ago. They were stopped by some... creatures they called "Guardians". The Guardians had denied them entry and huddled up inside, all of them now long dead, their bones still encased in the armor that protected their bodies, somewhere.

Ever since those few attempts, nopony really cared. Any threat the Guardians may have posed, was immediately gone once they had all keeled over. Nopony dared to leave the bodies where they laid, worrying that their souls may come back and damn them for their ill-will. The mass grave's location has long been forgotten. Twilight looked back at her "Raiding Party".

Rarity was musing over what appeared to be the personal effects and clothes of the Guardians that inhabited this ship. Applejack was looking over some notes on fruits and foods, and Rainbow Dash was spinning around on a wheeled chair aimlessly.

"Find anything?" Twilight trotted over to Applejack.

"These creatures definitely were somethin'. They grew all sorta plants and foods that Ah haven't even heard of before- Oh!" Applejack grabbed a few sheets of paper and slid them over to Twilight.

"Ah found these. It's a buncha scribbles and nonsense. Maybe ya can figure out what they mean." Applejack went back to looking over the various plants that had grown out of their storage units and threatened to overcome everything.

Twilight sat down on one of the seats and leafed through the papers Applejack had given her. There was a set of numbers stamped to the farthest left, a name, another number, an animal name, then an X. All of them, except one at the bottom, had exes on that checkbox, then it hit Twilight.

This is a logbook of when and who died. Twilight read through each one thorough. It appeared, by the winter of "59", at least a third of the people, soldiers, (according to the rank that was before their name) had died. Mostly from Manticore venom, or other creatures, mostly ones from the Everfree... or suicide.

Twilight shuddered and put the papers down, wanting to get as far away from there as equinely possible-

BOOM, BOOM, BOOM. Twilight's head turned to the sound, and the alicorn princess quickly flew out of the husk, to see birds flying away from Fluttershy's cottage.

"Come on, girls! I think Fluttershy may be in trouble." Twilight helped her friends out, one-by-one, with Rarity being the most difficult, as she was carrying a large backpack full of Guardian clothing, which seemed a lot heavier than it appeared.

Pinkie jumped out on her own, galloping toward the noise with the others, Rarity dropping the backpack off on the way.

They arrived at the cottage, where Discord was sitting on a lawn chair with an ice-pack on his head, whining and moaning and groaning, a bandage on his hip.

"Discord! What happened?! And where is Spike!?" Twilight trotted over to the troublesome draconequus, an angry expression on her face.

"Calm down, and quiet down! I have a headache." Discord sipped from a fountain drink and sat upright.

"Some weirdo had some... thing that hit me with a little pellet, and it hurt a lot. Your little dragon went off to chase it after he heard the noise." Twilight nearly snapped.

"You let him run off!?!" Twilight yelled accusingly and angrily. Discord rolled his eyes behind his shades and levitated up overhead.

"He went over there. He couldn't have gotten far." Discord replied, slinking down into his seat, massaging his temples. Twilight quickly galloped toward the Everfree in hopes to catch the baby dragon before the thing that attacked Discord attacked him...

Michelle stared down at a midget purple and green dragon, a hand to her saber, the other to her pistol. She lowered to the ground, the dragon peering up at her. Michelle scanned it's vitals and found it to be quite terrified and excited at the moment.

"What is it that you want?" Michelle asked, hand clasped around the handle of her long-bladed weapon. The dragon growled.

"You hurt Discord!" he yelled in response, taking a few steps back.

"He surprised me." Michelle casually answered, backing away slowly. She retrieved a smoke grenade from her belt and threw it to the ground, along with a shock grenade, quickly sprinting off.

"Hey! Stop!" a female voice, adult this time. Michelle groaned and took a hard left, setting a route for the D-77, when she heard both of her pursuers scream in terror.

Don't do it, Chell. They were just chasing to capture (and probably kill) you... don't do it... Michelle groaned and spun on her heel, running toward the scream.

She stopped and leaped forward, then rolled, facing the attacker.

It had a good few feet on her, with a large lion-like body, bat wings, long, pointed ears, and a scorpion tail. A manticore.

Michelle whistled and caught it's attention, and stopped in her tracks.

A helmet was crushed into one of the creature's teeth. Not just any helmet. A MJOLNIR helmet, one that went with Argus body armor.

Rage filled Michelle, and she quickly rushed forward, pistol drawn in her right hand, saber in her left. She fired the five rounds in the Army M6G, quickly replacing the magazine with a fresh one. The manticore caught her with it's tail, curling around her ankle, only for it to immediately retreat to avoid being chopped off. The creature roared and charged, claws ripping and tearing at Michelle, only for her to dodge each attack with unmatched speed, returning each attack with a 12.7x40mm round, or a slash from her blade.

The manticore took a round to it's eye, splattering the blood across Michelle's already cracked helmet visor. It screamed as Michelle rushed forward and drove her blade through the manticore's throat, ending it's life.

She watched it collapse to the ground, then quickly removed her sword from the beast and sheathed it. Michelle turned to the ponies, only to find them staring at her abdomen. Michelle hesitantly looked down to find a wound from the Manticore's stinger.

"Well... damn." The venom hit her hard, everything began spinning, and Michelle collapsed.