Through Hell's Gate

Twilight Sparkle’s head pounded. Underneath her she felt dirt and dirt. All at once her memory came flooding back, she’d been preparing to enter the human world when something had gone seriously wrong with the equipment monitoring the mirror portal, pulling her and Spike through in the process. Her eyes snapped open and she was greeted by the sight of a deserted road surrounded by barren desert. Immediately her mind went back to the wasteland she visited that was caused by Starlight trying to change history and she gasped in shock

“Twilight?” she heard spike ask. Glancing over she saw Spike sat in the middle of the road a few feet away “where are we?” Twilight glanced around trying to determine the location. But came up empty.

“I…I’m not sure…” she said, glancing around with a mixture of shock and amazement. Twilight went to stand up, only for feel a sudden bout of dizziness, causing her to topple over. All at once she felt a splitting headache that signified magical exhaustion, something she hadn’t felt since she became an alicorn, causing her to let out a quiet hiss of pain “note to self, don’t use magic for a few days” her voice was quiet, almost weak sounding.

“Are you alright?” Spike asked, rushing over.

“I’ll be fine…” she faltered, starting to feel drowsy “I just need to…rest for a while”
Suddenly out of nowhere a droning growl cut through the air and what resembled a car from the human world appeared over a ridge in the road driving towards them at some speed. As a loud horn cut through the air Twilight found just enough strength to jump out of the way of the swerving vehicle before she collapsed on the side of the road. The last thing Twilight saw before she slipped into unconsciousness was a human stepping out of the vehicle holding something long and tubular in its hand and walking towards them, saying something that she couldn’t understand.

I’m Luke, one of the lucky few who survived the end of the world. It happened about 15 years ago, last time I did the maths that put us somewhere past the year 2030, though I’m not sure of the specific year.

Originally I was born and raised in the old UK, in “ye olde England”. Over the years following the end myself and a few other people from the UK found ourselves traveling east until eventually we found ourselves on American soil, but that’s a story for another time. these days we’re aligned with a local tribe that does odd jobs as well as provide escort with a number of ally tribes, and helping them in fending off rival tribes.
Which brings me to today.

I’d finished up a scouting run and I was less than a day away from the city and I had enough fuel left to be able to put my foot down. My vehicle of choice? An old Vauxhall estate car that I’ve used since we were still in the UK. Oh sure it might not be the first choice for most drivers in the post apocalypse, but it has its own charm. Over the years it’s been modified more and more until it’s become a rally-camper hybrid of sorts. Tough and nimble enough to handle off-road, but I removed the rear seats and converted the back of it into a home away from home, add some raised suspension, improvised top-box and off-road headlights and it’s everything I need out in these god forsaken wastes. Well what about when the going get’s tough? I hear you ask, well it’ll do 150+ on the flat and when I’m not running for my life it’ll do more than 30 miles to the gallon…when the engine’s wiring isn’t on the blink. you see, this isn’t some tough car from the 70s or 80s, it’s a product of the early 2000s, it needs an ECU to keep the timing right, which thankfully my step-dad has managed to keep going, though it has started suffering from…gremlins, usually a drop in fuel consumption or the cruise control playing up.

Anyway, getting swiftly back on track. barren desert streaked past me as I raced along the old highway. I was just approaching an undulating section of road when what looked like a rip in the very air seemed to appear out of nowhere about a ¼ mile away. I let off the throttle and prepared to stop, only to crest a hill and nearly run over what looked like two animals. Acting reflexively, I yanked a chain in the ceiling blowing a loud air horn, and swerved to avoid them as they jumped out of the way. The tires squealed as the car slid to a stop a short distance away. Looking out the passenger side window I could see that one of them appeared to be hurt or unconscious or something, whilst the other was stood by it in apparent distress.

Grabbing my shotgun, I got out of the car and cautiously made my way over. Even with them seemingly off their guard I could never be too careful. As I got closer I could make out what they were better. They were both purple, but that was where the similarities ended. The smaller and more alert of the two had green fins, and appeared to be a reptile of some kind, but that was like comparing a lizard to a snake. The larger, and unconscious one, was, I kid you not, a tiny horse with wings and a horn. Regardless, something that stood out was the fact that the reptile had a definite intelligence in his eyes.

“What the hell are you?” I asked, pointing the shotgun at the lizard. In response the lizard spoke, though it was no language I knew or had heard before.

“Plase, ton knochte vetzeh wur!” it said in a pleading manner, in an accent that somewhat approached German. I stopped and looked at the two of them curiously. The lizard at least was intelligent enough to talk, though in no way I understood, I at least understood the pleading in it’s voice, plus it sounded young. I holstered the shot gun in my belt before cautiously making my way over.

“I’m not going to hurt you” I said calmly, hoping my tone of voice more than anything would convey what I was trying to get across. I knew enough to know that the horse-thing was injured or hurt in some manner. I made to crouch down to examine it but the lizard exclaimed defensively. I held my hands up hoping to convey that I wasn’t a threat before continuing to crouch down, slower this time. Everything about the condition of these two just screamed ‘out of place’ not just their physical appearance, they wasn’t a single trace of dirt on them like you’d expect, hell, the horses hair seemed to be actually maintained in some manner.

Once crouched down I began to quickly examine the horse, using what basic medical knowledge I had to try and ascertain what was wrong with it. Ignoring whatever the lizard said. The horse didn’t seem to be physically injured and it was still breathing. Carefully I stood up and power walked back to my car, before opening the rear door up to reveal the austere living space. Walking back I crouched down once more and, ignoring the lizards vehement protests, picked up the horse and began to carry it to the car. Once it was laid on my bed I turned to the lizard.

“The choice is yours” I said, despite the fact I knew it couldn’t understand me “you can either stay out here on your own and starve to death. Or you can come with me and at least have a chance at surviving” I put extra emphasis on my tone of voice and I gestured to the car, followed by the endless wastes behind us. He hesitated for a moment before walking in my direction. It glanced warily up at me as it attempted to climb into the back, before I sighed and in one swift motion picked it up and deposited it in the back before shutting the door. I glanced at the setting sun. deciding it would be better to set up a camp nearby sooner rather than later before getting into the car and driving off, I knew of a location I could use not far from here.