Shifted

The Portal

*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*.*

Luna was enjoying a good fly around the castle, stretching her wings after a long night of resting on her lunar throne and hosting royal court.

Since she’d returned a month before much had happened, yet nothing at the same time. The world was at peace, war was forgotten, no classes were taught on it, and no guards trained for it.. Even her sister, as strong as she once was, had become weak in body and combative spirit.

She let her mind wander as the sun rose, her job for the night was done and she could bask in the warmth of the glowing orb as it rose above the horizon.

“Mayhaps Celestia would teach me more of modern Equestria?” she mused as she angled herself and with a strong flap accelerated to nearly the speed of sound, “she certainly has time lately with nothing but nobles striking her door and flooding her streets looking for the blood of commerce.”

She smirked to herself and banked sharply. The stress on her wings was thrilling as pain shot into her back and the memory of breaking a wing ages ago doing the same maneuver. The crash was spectacular and the attention she received was thrilling. It outshone her sister’s glory of the age, if only for a blink of time.

“Nay, Luna. Think not of the past in such a way,” she scolded herself as she leveled out, “simply live for the future. In this age of peace there is no need for warring with thy sister.”

A spike of magical energy caught her attention from the far side of Canterlot mountain raising an eyebrow. “Few have such power,” she whispered as she turned and aimed to the source.

She neared what appeared to be a black and brown tear in space itself. Breaking quickly she observed it for a moment before flying to the other side to see the same thing with a slight blue shimmer on that side. “Curious. It appears to be a tear of sorts, yet I can sense only magic within.”

She flew to the other side and noted how the tear was a few paces from the edge of the mountain. She chuckled. “Shouldst a creature come thr-” she blinked as a biped walked through and began to fall. It shone like once polished silver, yet was covered with dents, dirt, and filth. Her horn flared and stopped its descent, raising it to the tear and preparing to send it back.

“Away with thee, and be more cautious of where thou tread through the megaverse,” she scolded as she guided it gently back through. “What is this?!” she gasped as her magic began to be tugged by the tear. She couldn’t stop her spell and felt her heart breaking as she knew she’d be taken to whatever world the creature had come from.

The porthole was pulling at the magic within her at the deepest level of her being. She tried to fight the pull to no avail and closed her wings to her body as pain began to throb in her head from resisting. “I can nary feel my very soul being tugged,” she groaned as she passed through the event horizon.

A small path of blue shimmering light was all she saw before she landed on her side with a heavy thud. Several clicking sounds and a whirring sound was all she heard as her eyes adjusted to the dark room she was in.

“A unicorn?! You were there for an hour and all you brought back was a fucking horse?!” a mare’s voice shouted.

“I was there for a few seconds before that thing saved me,” a stallion replied to her.

“Hey, temporal differential. Time is irrelevant between dimensions. We’re lucky he even made it back alive. John, what’d you see?”

“The ground rushing at me,” he snarked, more clicking noises.

Luna groaned. “Mayhaps thou could tell Us where We are?”

“Holy shit, it talks,” the mare said in surprise. Luna opened her wings to help balance herself as she stood up. “And it’s a unicorn with wings? What the hell did Phil bring us?”

“I told you-”

“We have returned thy companion, please allow Us to return to our home world,” Luna asked as she stood tall and left her wings open slightly. She took in the sight of humans in full body armor, some seemingly enclosed within, not ponies or other creatures from her world. “Humans?”

“Yeah, Horny Wing, we don’t have the power to open the portal again. We need a new mage since the last one just ditched us.”

“What’re you talking about,” John asked looking around in his closed helmeted body.

“After the second minute, Shaneen jumped through a portal she made and it closed. Our shifter is gone, so we’re all stuck here. C’mon, grab the mirror and let’s book it before the computer comes back online.”

“Halt! We demand thou return us to Our home, post haste.

The humans pointed obvious weapons at Luna. “Shout like that again and I’ll put you down, Horny Wing.”

Luna sneered as she flared her wings. “Thy shant refer to Us in such an impudent manner, knave.”

“Yeah, stun her,” the female said to another from behind Luna. Before she could turn she grunted in pain as electricity corsed through her body, sending her to her front left knee.

“Th-thy have made thy final mistake,” Luna sneered as her horn flared to life and she vanished.

“Where’d Horny go?” the woman asked as she and the others took their weapons to the ready and scanned the large warehouse.

The woman barely gasped as she felt herself being bucked in the back by Luna, denting her full body metal armor into her body. Luna cast a barrier that easily deflected the weapons fire and single grenade that rolled towards her to the objection of the other humans.

“Thy hath incurred the wrath of Princess Luna, diarch of the moon and protector of the night! Bow before me and I may spare thee,” she bellowed. One of the humans took a knee and bowed as two others opened fire for three more shots each.

The female was groaning on the floor, reaching to her back and the dents that were no doubt pressing into her fragile frame.

Klaxon alarms began to blare, startling Luna and the humans that were around her. “What is the meaning of this?”

“Shut it, Princess,” a male shouted over the noise and to her as he rushed past her, his weapon hummed to life.

Luna cocked her head to the side and watched as the humans ignored her suddenly all taking to a large closed garage door. “They’re coming, I can sense it. I’ll cast the spells,” a male shouted. Luna counted five, minus the female on the ground.

“Dave, you run medic and distraction. Rosie’s out thanks to Horny over there,” Luna frowned, her horn still charging a the shield, “so that leaves Raul. You need to be the heavy since she’s down.”

“Got it,” the others chimed in taking their weapons and pointing them at the door that was inset within the garage door.

With a loud crash a metal spider with the body of a human skull crashed through the whole door sending the humans sprawling. Dave pulled the trigger on his weapon and shot a futile round into the main body of the robot while Luna smirked and flapped, taking to the air.

“Our years have been but a blink in time and thou shall long be dust before We age a day… This shall be, as Twilight calls it, ‘fun’!”