Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Equestria, star pupil of Celestia and one of the most gorgeous looking women in all of Equestria, was utterly and totally lost for words. The woman wore her usual attire, a purple skirt, a purple sweater vest over a white long sleeve shirt, and long knee high socks, and not to forget her glasses. Her pale skin was suddenly covered in goosebumps as it was hit by the chilly air of her surroundings. Things had started simply enough, she had been reading old spells in the royal archives, looking for a challenging ancient spell to study in her spare time. She had found one such ancient spell in the form of an old long range teleportation spell. Most of the original scroll was damaged or lost, leaving only the basic arcane components. So, she had started out by simply running through a test casting of the spell. She had intended to simply teleport twenty feet, but something had gone horribly horribly wrong.

She was standing in the archives, what was left of them at least. The book cases were splintered, scrolls were burned, and the roof had caved in. The clouds above were dark and grey, foreboding in the way they swirled like cauldrons of hate and anger. Twilight knew that she could not have been the cause of the destruction, and yet… There it was. What was more, the air was laden heavily with Arcane Radiation. She could feel the tell tale tingle of it in her bones as she stood there among the ruined knowledge.

She started her trek for survival by casting an air bubble around her, it would temporarily shield her from the radiation. With her safety somewhat secured, Twilight took a chance to look around the ruined archives. There were skeletons strewn about, people and other strange creatures alike, the Equestrian flags had been replaced by purplish blue banners depicting silver diamonds and three crossed swords. What was more, the signs on the wall were in griffish and thestralese, as well as some strange language Twilight hadn’t ever seen before.

Slowly Twilight began walking through the ruins towards the doors to the outside, passing by more skeletons. Some wore tattered clothes, others wore uniforms of some kind. Had wherever Twilight was been destroyed in a war? She let out a yelp as her vision was suddenly flooded with what this place had looked like in the past, the mare looked down and saw she had stepped on some sort of Crystal Image Recorder clutched tightly by one of the skeletons on the floor. Twilight kicked it away and stepped back against a wall, only for one of the skeletons to shift and get stuck grabbing her leg.

The young woman shrieked and kicked the skeleton’s hand, shattering the brittle bone. Twilight panted heavily while she looked around, half expecting something to jump out of the shadows and get her. To her relief, nothing happened, the only sound she could hear was beating of her heart and her own ragged, frantic breaths. Twilight made her way to the doors as quickly as she could, not wanting to spend more time in the mass grave. Unfortunately, the outside wasn’t any better than the inside. Buildings were collapsed, skeletons were spread about, most of them were people or odd quadrupeds. Many of the strange military vehicles in the street were covered in rust and dirt, but Twilight could still make out the writing on the of them.

“Wonder what ODF stands for…” Twilight asked herself as she passed by the strange large metal vehicles, cringing slightly when she saw one of the skeletons trapped beneath a metal hatch. The woman continued walking, passing by several store fronts. Some had old looking toys, some had strange technology, and even a few had interesting pieces of tattered clothing on melted mannequins. The mare stopped near one of the windows and looked at a gown that seemed to be designed for pegasi. Even in ruins, it had a haunting beauty to it. It was protected by one of the few still intact windows. Twilight could see her reflection in the glass, but there something else behind her.. It looked like an alicorn in height, but lacked the horn and wings.. What was worrying though was the figure seated atop the back, staring at her.

Twilight whirled around and found herself staring up at a human figure, it wore a thick long black leather coat and rugged looking clothes that matched the uniforms Twilight had seen on some of the skeletons. Its face was hidden by a fear inducing gas mask that wheezed as glowing red eye lenses stared at her coldly. A black hood hid the rest of the figure’s head, and it sat upon the back of what looked like a massive draft horse. The horse had more expressive eyes than normal horses, its muzzle and mane were black while the rest of it was a golden tannish color.

“Um… Hello?” Twilight said nervously, but the figure simply continued to stare at her. “Um… C-Can you understand me?” The figure nodded slowly, hauntingly slowly in its movements. “Can you help me? I don’t know where I am…” The figure slowly extended a gloved hand and pointed with a single finger at a sign. “The Onorussian Archives? What does that mean? What happened to Equestria?” The figure silently gestured around them at the ruins. “But… How? I… I don’t understand? Can’t you talk?” The figure simply stared at her, seconds later they flicked the reins on the large horse and began slowly riding away. “Please! I can’t stay here forever!”

All the figure did was shrug as it got further away, Twilight grunted and began rushing along to catch up to her only possible help in this strange world. The figure seemed to ignore her as it rode along, as if it deemed the princess unimportant. Just as suddenly as it had started riding away, the figure paused and held a hand to the side of its head. In the distance Twilight could hear the sound of explosions and gunfire, the figure suddenly snapped the reins and began riding off towards the noise. Twilight yelled, but the figure didn’t stop, so the woman had no choice but to give chase. She grunted and yelped as she rushed past destroyed buildings and vehicles in pursuit of the figure on horseback.

Twilight stopped when she heard the gunfire become louder and louder, she passed by a bookstore she remembered, only it had been bombed out and burned. Ahead of her was Canterlot Central Park, but the normally green grass was replaced by mud. There were trenches dug in the earth facing each other as bullets flew forward from both sides. One side had a flag raised, the same flag that Twilight had seen in the ruins of the archives. The other side had their own flag, an Equestrian one. Twilight hid behind a concrete barrier as she watched bullets and arcane bolts fly past in both direction.

The rumble of engines echoed through the city as rusted tanks charged each other, rolling over the trenches towards the Equestrian side. Twilight gasped as she saw several dozen figures on horseback riding along with the tanks, wielding swords as they charged against machine guns. The woman watched as the lead rider slashed an Equestrian soldier’s chest open. The Equestrians seemed to be mixes of horses and people, they wore different uniforms and gas masks. The lead figure wore a mask like those of the Equestrians, though it was clear he was human, the mask had white teeth sketched on its front.

He wore a heavy black jacket, and Twilight could make out a serpent tattoo on his right forearm. She knew that to mean he was a follower of Discord, right beside him was the figure that Twilight had first seen when she arrived. The figure rode as close as possible, waving its own sword as the Equestrians began to fall back from their trench. Twilight gasped as the tanks opened fire with their own machine guns, cutting down the retreating forces as they scrambled out of their trench. Twilight watched as one of the wounded began crawling towards the bookstore, groaning in pain as he tried to get away from the charge. The lead rider broke away as he saw the wounded soldier, riding up next to the man and hopping off the back of his horse as screams from the other retreating troops began to die off.

“Voyna zakanchivayetsya tvoyey smert'yu!” The rider shouted harshly as he drew a revolver from his jacket and leveled it at the Equestrian’s head. The wounded soldier rolled onto his back and put his hands up, Twilight could see fear in his eyes.

“Please! Please no! I have a family!” The soldier pleaded.

“We all had families before your King started this war! You will pay the price for his arrogance!” The man roared with a heavily accented voice before he pulled the trigger, Twilight screamed as the wounded soldier’s head exploded into a cloud of red mist and gore. Her scream caught the attention of the killer, and the man leveled his revolver in her direction. Before anything could happen though, Twilight saw the figure from earlier hop off their horse and rush over. They grabbed the man’s arm and forced him to point the gun at the ground.

“Pozhaluysta, Al'tair ... Voyna zakonchilas', nakonets ... Vam ne nuzhno yeye ubivat'.” A woman’s voice rasped from behind the mask of the second figure, Twilight watched the killer slowly slip his weapon back into his holster. She and the second figure looked at one another before the second figure reached up and pushed her hood back, then she removed her gasmask. Twilight found herself staring at a Zebra woman, her chocolate brown skin and dark hair made it clear she was of Zebrican descent. The zebra woman held her hands out, her palms showing. “My ne khotim, chtoby ty vredilsya ... Idi syuda.” She said in a quiet voice while the Killer rider stood behind her with his arms crossed. It dawned on Twilight that they were speaking Griffish, or some sort of dialect, as she was fluent in Griffish… She couldn’t make out words she normally could.

“Ne obizhay menya ... Ya boyus'.” Twilight replied nervously, hoping they would understand her. “Mozhete li vy govorit' na obshchem yazyke?” The two looked a little surprised that she knew parts of their language.

“Yes… A little.” The Zebrican woman replied. “Not remember much… Otherwise... Would have said more, when first meet.” Twilight sighed quietly, she was compartmentalizing the fact that someone had just had their head blown off in front of her, replacing that stress with a sense of accomplishment. She was alive, and she was finally getting to talk to someone. “I called Cassidy, this tribe mate Altair.” The man was about to say something, but stopped and held a hand to his ear before he climbed back onto his horse and began galloping away. “Come closer…” Twilight nervously moved closer, as she had nowhere else to go, she stepped far around the dead body and other skeletons on the ground. “War… Finally over…” Cassidy said as she looked down at the dead soldier.

“How long…?” Twilight asked, wondering just how long this world had been at war.

“Thousand years…” Cassidy replied quietly “Since youngling… When world still green…” Twilight looked floored by the statement, making Cassidy notice just how clean her clothes looked and just how odd she appeared. “You… Look like green worldling…”

“I’m not from here!” Twilight said in a bit of a frantic voice. “This isn’t my world, I was just experimenting with an old spell and ended up here!” Cassidy hummed softly and put a hand on Twilight’s shoulder, it was a comforting hand… It reminded Twilight of how Celestia would make her feel when she was still young… “Can... Can you help me get home?”

“We will see… Tribe must celebrate… War is finally over… Ancestors can rest.” Cassidy said as she squeezed Twilight’s shoulder. “You… Come with Cassidy.” The woman pulled her mask back on and flipped her hood into position. It was at this point that Twilight realized just how tall Cassidy was, she was nearly seven and a half feet tall, with large muscles… Down right amazonian. “Soon you learn our language… Common difficult… Has not been spoken in thousand years, save for by my mate…”

“A-Alright…” Twilight said shakily as the massive woman lead the scared girl to her horse, Cassidy lifted the woman like she weighed nothing onto the back of the horse. The horse whinnied as Cassidy climbed on as well and gave the reins a slight tug. They began riding along through the wreckage of the final battle, Twilight could tell that this war had been intensely destructive, but what shocked her more was that the final battle had been so… Small. It was practically a skirmish, and yet, somehow it signified the end of a thousand year conflict. “Y-You said you were here when this started, how…?”

“Same reason we so big.” Cassidy replied as she gestured to the other men and women on the battlefield, all of the women seemed taller than the men, but that didn’t mean the men were weaklings. They all had muscles like boulders and scarred exteriors. “Our species not native… Magic has this effect on us… make us live long time... and this is effect on natives…” Twilight saw the woman pat the horse on the neck. “Thousand years radiation… Native race reduced to this… We care for them, because we know… What used to be.”

“So… Will you tell me what caused all this?” Twilight asked, Cassidy simply nodded as they continued riding through the ruins of the city. There were destroyed cars and trucks in every street, there had been a great panic before the city had been hit, meaning that all these people had known the end was coming. As they got closer to the ruins of Canterlot Castle it became clear that this war had been more than destructive, it had been down right brutal. The castle proper was gone, all that remained were a couple walls around the courtyard. The gates were decorated with tattered blue flags, and two old tanks were parked outside. The sound of drums and horns inside the gates caught Twilight’s attention, but only after she noticed a line of Equestrian skulls that had been mounted on the top of the gate.

The holes in the walls were filled in with the remains of cars and other bits of salvage, they were lit by lanterns and strings of tea candles. The smell of a large fire wafted over the walls, as well as cooking meat and what smelled like Coyote… A hallucinogenic drug that diamond dogs in Twilight’s world often smoked.

“My mate has already returned with news of victory…” Cassidy said as the gates were pulled open for her and her passenger. Twilight saw that many of the women beyond the gate were topless, showing off both their muscles and other assets. “You will come, celebrate, and then we help you best we can…”

“Very well…” Twilight said as she blushed at the sight of so many topless women, she noticed that many of the men were watching them closely as well. “May I ask… Why are they topless…?”

“Some of their mates die in battle… They seek new ones.” Cassidy replied, she noticed Twilight’s odd expression. “We take more than one mate… When one die, we remember them by filling their place in the herd.” Cassidy smiled as she watched two men begin fighting for the affection of a particularly tall woman. “I can have only one mate in my clan, chieftess is only allowed one mate, but many children.”

“Chieftess? So… You’re in charge?” Twilight asked, Cassidy shrugged as they rode up to an semi trailer that had been decorated with grafitti and shining pieces of metal. It was well guarded, and sat at the center of the courtyard, the other parts of the area had smaller shacks and houses. “And you have children?”

“Yes, all grown now… Or dead.” Cassidy seemed to say both statements with pride. “They die well, fight with honor.” The massive woman slipped off her horse and lowered Twilight down to the ground. “With war over, we focus on rebuild and hunt… Need many help. Prove self worthy, may be allowed to take mate.” Cassidy said in a joking tone, at least, Twilight hoped it was joking. “Now… I stop baby you, no more common… You learn our tongue.” Twilgiht was about to protest, but something told her that would be a bad idea… Perhaps it was the two men with guns. As much as Cassidy had helped her so far, these were still people she had seen brutally killing less than an hour before. “Prikhodite i yedite s nami, delites' trofeyami voyny!” Twilight was able to actually understand a little of that, the basic gist at least… Cassidy wanted her to join in a meal of some kind, her stomach growled as the smell of cooking meat wafted into the woman’s nose.

“Khorosho?” Twilight replied questioningly, which she hoped meant ‘Okay?’. Cassidy laughed before she patted the woman on the shoulder and gestured for her to approach the massive bonfire at the center of the tribal compound. A manticore of all things was being roasted on a spit, turned over the flames by five strong men and two strong women. Twilight walked towards them with a bit of apprehension, thinking about how different this world seemed from her own. For one, humans weren’t the native inhabitants, ponies were, and even they didn’t seem like the only ones. The ponies had been turned to horses by the radiation, and yet the humans had become… superhuman.

Twilight was pulled from her thoughts as one of the men offered her a slab of meat on a crude plate, the woman took it with a smile and a nod, which the man returned before going back to cooking the meat. Twilight took her meat back over to where Cassidy was, the chieftess was now sitting with her mate, cuddled up against him. Both looked like they had seen some wear and tear, and with his mask now removed, Cassidy’s mate had a clearly deformed cheek from bullet wound… As if he had shot himself and missed. To be honest, despite the fact that she was far from home and had witnessed such horrendous things in such a short time… Twilight was fascinated. She was getting a glimpse of what society might look like after a cataclysm, or even what early society looked like, even going so far as getting to know the power players.

The woman sat near Cassidy and her mate, Altair if Twilight recalled correctly, though they seemed far more interested in one another than the strange offworlder they had taken into their compound. She took mental notes as she saw the tribal rituals that seemed to go on among these superhumans, the dancing, the singing, the various nuances to attracting mates, and how they all seemed to mourn their dead. Twilight was particularly drawn in by a large statue made of rusted metal, depicting a crude warrior. Many topless women were kneeling near it, as if in some sort of prayer, though Twilight could tell they were chanting something over and over again…

“Occisor! Occisor! Occisor! Occisor!” They seemed to say over and over again, it was something that Twilight had never heard before, she wasn’t even sure it was the same language she was being forced to learn. Twilight let her plate rest on a nearby table as she stood up, letting the others have their moments as she made her way through the compound towards a more industrial looking portion of the area. Those that were in this area seemed less interested in the celebration, they were large men wearing ragged clothes and leather aprons. Twilight stopped outside one of the shacks, watching inside as a man hammered a piece of glowing hot metal.

Twilight was struck by the realization that this was a civilization still using both guns and swords, even after so many centuries they somehow kept themselves supplied. The woman could see dozens of more swords lining the walls of the shack, all of them very much similar in size and construction. Twilight looked around and saw that many of the others were producers or armor, chain and plate male, barding, helmets, all in the style of the ancient crusades, all bearing a moon emblem of some sort. The woman continued to examine the area, occasionally getting odd looks from the locals, most likely due to her clothes and lack of dirt.

Eventually she found her way back to the main area where things were starting to heat up with the locals, Twilight made her way back towards Chieftess Cassidy to see what was going on, as more men seemed to be fighting while more women watched closely. The chieftess and her husband had ceased their own kissing fest to watch what was happening, Cassidy waved Twilight over and gestured for her to sit down next to her.

“What’s going on?” Twilight asked, Cassidy gave her a flat look. “Um… Uh…” Twilight did her best to remember her Griffish, and then hoped that her dialect was correct. “Chto tam proiskhodit?”

“Eto vrem-ating time.” Cassidy replied, Twilight felt a jolt of satisfaction go through her as she managed to understand the chieftess with a bit more ease. Wait… Had the woman just said ‘Mating time’? Judging by what was going on, Twilight was pretty sure that was the case “Posle kazhdogo our tribe replenishes our Chisla s periodom mating.” From what Twilight was able to make out, this was how they celebrated the end of a battle, by mating to replenish their numbers, which made sense for a tribal society such as there’s… Twilight had to stop herself and remember that they hadn’t always been as such, in fact the chieftess and her husband were some of the remnants of a world that had once been civilized. “ Dobro pozhalovat' to join in!”

Twilight blushed faintly, now noticing that a couple of the men in the group were looking at her, of course she was going to turn them down… Then again, it wasn’t like anyone was interested in her back home, there were suitors sure, but they were more interested in her position than anything else. Twilight could see that these men were primal, they were interested in her for simple reasons, reasons that fascinated Twilight… Still, she told herself not to give in. She hadn’t even been here a day, she wasn’t ready to give in to the way these people lived quite yet.

“Perhaps another time…” Twilight said politely, Chieftess Cassidy nodded understandingly before she stood up and threw her arms out to the side. She spoke in a commanding voice towards the sky, which was clear of clouds and allowed Twilight to see hundreds of stars as the sunlight finally disappeared from view. “My obrashchayemsya k bogine Marii! Make our bodies fertile, so that our tribe may grow!”

“Occisor! Occisor! Occisor!” The rest of the group chanted back.

“Pust' nachinayetsya sparivaniye!” Cassidy shouted, Twilight blushed as the fighting came to a stop. Suddenly each man had a woman or two approaching him, and not in a casual way. Twilight felt weak in the knees and sat down beside Cassidy and her husband, who were also watching the scene unfold. The woman quickly turned her attention to the city around them, not wanting to focus on the orgy taking place right in front of her. Canterlot was certainly in ruins, but the tribal compound had made use of those ruins somehow. From the looks of things, it had started out as an actual military facility, but over the course of centuries, it had devolved into a simple tribal village.

Twilight forced herself to stand up, as she couldn’t ignore what was happening any further. She looked at Cassidy and her husband, both of whom seemed to be enjoying the show. The woman patted the Chieftess on the shoulder and gestured to the semi trailer shack, the amazonian nodded with a slight smile before going back to the show. Twilight let out a pent up sigh and rushed into the shack, thankfully shutting out noise from outside and sparing her from watching. Twilight made her way to a table low to the ground, it seemed someone had brought her food in from outside and set it there for her. She looked for forks or knives, but didn’t find any, which in hindsight would’ve been a surprise. Twilight opted to eating her meat with her hands, the taste was a little off, but nothing that couldn’t be overcome.

It was here that Twilight’s situation dawned fully on her, she realized that she was in an entirely different world with no way of getting home, living among violent tribals that had sex en mass after going on killing sprees and prayed to some unknown fertility goddess that Twilight thought was named ‘Maria’, at least she hoped she had translated that correctly. The woman dropped her food and just sat there, letting thoughts of what had happened so far rattle around her head. She had seen a violent battle, then seen a post-apocalyptic society, followed by an orgy… It had been a long, tiring day… All she knew was that the solution to getting back to her world had to be somewhere, and perhaps she could rely on her new ‘friends’ to help her. That said, she was a princess, she would need to keep her cool until she found a way home… She would need to blend in, immerse herself in an entirely alien culture. She just hoped she could avoid getting roped into one of their post battle celebrations.

Twilight wolfed down the rest of her meal, no use in her going hungry after all. With her belly full, the woman stood up from her table and made her way to one of two beds she saw in the shack. One looked fancy and cushy, she assumed that belonged to the Chieftess and her husband, so Twilight decided to take the larger but simpler looking bed. The woman removed the glasses that had been perched on her nose and adjusted her clothes, her palms glowed softly as she refreshed the bubble of air around her, protecting herself once again from the arcane radiation that permeated the Canterlot ruins. Twilight sighed and laid down in the bed, pulling the blankets up over her while she closed her eyes and listened to the quiet noises that filled the shack, she just hoped that the next day would bring a better future.

Author's Note

Well, here it is, my attempt to get back in the saddle again. I wanted to do something different, but still wanted to use the old Lore and even characters from my previous stories, and this idea hit me while I was half asleep. I was planning on scrapping it, but then the story just sort of continued to write itself, and before I knew it I had over 4K words... Which is enough to tell me there's something to me. I hope you folks enjoy it, as this has really made me start to enjoy writing again.

Here's the song that kind of helped inspire this chapter. It has inspired chapters in the past, but I felt like this one really belonged here.