The Last Humans

by AggroViking

Rating: teen
Tags: Adventure, Slice of Life, Human
Length: 13415

a small group of humans get flung into the magical land of Equestria

"i'm not sure why we got sent here. but i do know that we are going to try our best to get home"

WWIII has occurred. you, along with a group of others are in an secret underground facility.
a simple experiment is disrupted by a nuclear warhead, causing your entire group to be teleported across the universe.
now you have to fight to protect some foreign land as well as yourselves, all the while trying to figure out a way to get home.

"buckle up. we're in for one hell of a ride!"

set up in the MLP universe, also during the events of World War Three.

all rights to Hasbro and the creators of MLP

please give critisism (how else am i supposed to improve?)

Published 1970-01-01 00:00:00 UTC
Last updated 2012-07-28 11:27:08 UTC

The Last War

another Fic I came up with... seems legit, no one else has made one like this

and a quick warning; I copied this directly from my word document (yes i use word, not Google docs)

Chapter 1: The Last War

There were only three words for it, World War Three. WWIII. the last war.

If someone were to compare Earth to any other planet, they would say it’s messed up. Even a child can see that Earth has lost its former glory. There were once green fields, now there is a blackened charred ground. Once bustling cities, are now echoes, ash gathering on the streets, gathering in the piles that covers the once clear streets, buildings have long since burned to the ground, charred shells that haunt the ground on which they still stand. Sky scrapers or what’s left of them, are jutting out of the ground occasionally, haunting the skies, with a sick, twisted beauty.

Rainforests are completely demolished, the trees long since, chopped down to make way for new homes and then used to build the empires on which they stand. The sky is forever clouded, the sun cannot shine through, and it kills what little plant life is left. From space, you can see large circles all over the planet, these circles are what remained of the empires that once stood there, before they were obliterated, destroyed into oblivion, by the weapons they use to defend themselves.

We created weapons of mass destruction to defend ourselves from other nations, who also had nukes capable of wiping every country clean of its inhabitants. Through reckless actions the human race launched all of its missiles, every country aiming for the next, hoping to get rid of whatever threat there was before it could fully become dangerous. The entire world wept as the entire destruction of the human race came, slowly descended from the skies.

Some were lucky enough to have prepared for such an event. Governments built underground hidden locations to keep top scientific minds safe from the planets inevitable destruction. One laboratory was lucky enough to get the funding for its own bunker. It was just north of the Scottish boarder.

Several families were taken away, if they were related to an important figure, they were kept away for safekeeping. This one bunker was different however. It was just visible in the air. If you knew where it was, you would find it easily.

Somewhere in the distance of this bunker, a large nuclear bomb went off. Shaking the ground with such violence, cracks formed in the immediate area. The facility wasn’t meant to hold against such an impact.

Shortly after the bomb went off, a purple aurora glowed around the facility, growing with intensity. After a moment of pure whiteness, the aurora quickly vanished along with the facility. Leaving a destroyed bunker, open to the elements and absolutely no signs of life.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Twilight sparkle is about to perform one of the biggest experiments she has ever done since the Pinkie Pie incident. She has been through months of hard studying and a few days of tests. She feels like the entire world was waiting for her to begin.

“Spike, stand back, I’m not sure of the exact effects of long range teleportation. It would be safer if you left the library and stayed with Rarity for a while, are you sure that you would rather stay here?”

A small purple dragon popped up from behind an overturned wooden table, a makeshift shield in case the spell went wrong. “Absolutely, you need someone to be her in case you spell goes wrong. Besides it’s not like you can write and do ridiculously dangerous experiments at the same time.”

Twilight sighed, Spike is right. If the spell did go wrong he would be the only dragon capable of getting help. She sighed and took a deep breath.

She moved into the middle of the room and stood in front of the object she would be teleporting. It is a large multi-coloured spoon, Spike came up with that idea, and he said it would be easier for her to spot when she got Pinkie Pies balloon up and running.

She took another deep breath to calm her nerves.

She concentrated her mind on the spoon. Gathering all the magical energy she could muster. Her horn began to glow with a purple aurora, this usually happened whenever twilight was performing or was about to perform magic.

The purple light grew in intensity as magic gathered around the tip. The entire room by now had become engulfed in the light so intense it was blinding, twilight, had gotten used to this light, as well as spike. She took a wider stance, her body trembling with amount of energy stored inside her. Her fur became static with energy, arcing across her legs and back. Sweat poured off of her lavender fur, boiling into nothingness when they touched the floor. She began to tremble; the amount of magical stress she was putting her body through was unimaginable.

She lowered her head and directed her horn straight at the wooden spoon.

The build-up of energy is all too visible, people from outside the library walked by, only glancing at the library before moving on, not wanting to stick around for too long.

Eventually she began to direct her magic towards the spoon, focusing her entire being on the wooden spoon alone.

Her concentration is disturbed slightly by a slight pull at the back of her mind. ‘Possibly a side effect’ she made a mental note of this and began to unleash the magic upon the spoon

She first let the magic go a little bit, then a lot, then she let it all go, she completely relaxed. The magic inside her would not do as she wanted.

Suddenly her head jerked upwards, her horn pointing directly upwards. The magic she wanted to release burst from her horn, as if an invisible dam had been broken. She tries to move her head down but her head doesn’t respond. She tries to move any other part of her body and they resist her will to move. She felt all her magic drain very quickly.

An ugly though suddenly appeared in her mind. ‘If my magic is being used at this rate I’ll never be able to stop It.’ a second part of her sub-conscious though ‘don’t worry, everything will be okay. The spiritual barrier I put up beforehand should prevent the spell from taking way too much, magic from me’

Her thoughts are violently disturbed when a noise like a crack and shattering glass erupts in her mind. The only comparison is similar to a grenade to the mind.

Her breathing became rapid. She could feel her life force being drained away, instantly her limbs started to become numb and her vision stared to blur. Somehow, whatever was now controlling her body made her stand stock still, she is stuck in a permanent flinch.

She fought to keep her consciousness as her body felt weaker and weaker, her eyelids becoming heavier and heavier. She remembered what a book said about this. ‘When the spiritual barrier is breached, all the magic has been used up, so the only way to break the spell is to complete it. As the spell only source of fuel is used up, the users own life force is used to finish the rest. However, if the user is casting too strong a spell, the ponies’ life force can be fully drained. When this happens he or she is now no longer alive. The body becomes a shell and the body falls into a deep coma.’

Twilights mind shudders at the thought.

Twilight can no longer feel anything, her vision has almost blurred completely and there are purple dots on the edges of her vision.

Suddenly the spell disappeared and her body dropped heavily to the floor. Her muzzle took full force of the impact, chipping a tooth and causing twilight to bite her tongue.

Twilight’s vision was fading in and out of focus. She thought she heard a door open and loud voices yelling at Somepony. Their voices are muffled so she couldn’t hear what they were saying, nor figure out who was saying them. She saw the ground move and she was hauled onto an orange ponies back. The ground was a blur as she slowly closed her eyes, she could no longer keep them open and she grew evermore tired.

Her eyelids closed, hearing more voices that became background noises. Soon all she could see was the blackness of sleep.

She was scared like a filly, yet somehow, twilight found it blissful. Soon she was carried off into a much deserved sleep.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tuitio Jacobs (pronounced Too-ee-tea-oh) found himself rudely awakened by the science labs annoying alarm clock. It went early today so that everyone could get ready for their families arrival. It was reunion day at the bunker. That meant that everyone would get to see their families again, or… what was left of them.

He hated his first name, he preferred the short version to the long one, he hated the fact that it sounded Japanese, not that he had anything against them, but during WWIII the Japanese didn’t seem too friendly.

He was completely British, but his mother was a Latin teacher. He told everyone that his name was Tio (tea-oh). Only people that he knew since his childhood knew his full name, and most of them are either dead, or locked away in another secret facility.

Tio got out of bed, he wearily put on his casual clothes for the day, being related to a commander in the army is not something to take lightly, his uncle took him in when he was seven, his mother died in a car crash when he was three and his father became an obsessive drunk, he didn’t see much of his father. He only saw his drunken side.

One day his father went out for his drink as usual; instead of coming back, he didn’t come home at all.

The teachers at his school realized this when a bailiff came into school with me alongside him. He told the teachers what had happened, Tio remembered when the Headmistress called him to her office, pulling him out of his maths class.

He can still remember her face, it was sympathy and regret. Even as a child I could guess what she was about to say, my father hadn’t come back for a little over a week. All the food in the house has almost completely run out, and what little money I could find around the house I spent on bread and ham.

I sat down in a chair opposite her, not wanting to look at her again, I stared at the floor. The headmistress looked at me, clearly not liking what she was about to say. After a few minutes silence she spoke up “Tio look at me please, I know this may be hard for you but you need to look at me”

I slowly tilted my head upwards, moving my gaze around the room, trying to look anywhere but her face. Eventually my gaze rested upon her, I looked into her eyes. I knew what she was about to say before she spoke “Tio, this is about your father”

“He is coming back” I blurted out, I refused to let her say it, my father couldn’t leave me, not now.

“No Tio, he’s not coming back” she couldn’t hold her gaze she briefly looked down, before forcing herself to look at me.

“No, he IS coming back, he probably just got into another fight and he’s just forgot where we live that’s all!”

I practically screamed at her, she was wilting underneath my glare, I could see she was fighting back her tears. She shook her head “No Tio, he’s not coming back”

I was crying my eyes out at this point, I knew exactly what she meant, she tried her best to comfort me, hugging me close, I couldn’t feel her warmth, I couldn’t feel anything. “Miss, I feel so alone... and cold... Why do I feel so cold Miss?”

She hugged me even tighter, my tears had stopped and I couldn’t feel anything. My mind was blank, nothing made any sense. A door opened and the bailiff took me away from her, he put me in his car, strapping me into the seat. I looked out the window.

In the distance was a magnificent rainbow, in all its glory, shining down upon the earth, the full spectrum, from red all the way through to violet. I hated it, it was mocking me. I felt powerless, I was now completely alone.

My uncle took me in not after a few days, I lived in his house until I was fifteen. He taught me how to fight, and trained me to become a soldier; however, I didn’t want to become part of the army.

When I was fifteen, WWIII had started. I was sent to an underground facility, with my uncle. He didn’t have much to do, so we spent a lot more time together, he trained me hard, pushing me to my limits. The rewards were great though. He would take me out for movies on some nights, or we would just sit and chat, reminiscing about the old days, or rather he would talk and I would listen.

My uncle was a commander in the army, he trained hard to get where he was today, I don’t know what he did but I knew it was probably unpleasant.

When I reached eighteen I went to a collage and they trained me to become an officer. I passed all the exams with flying colours, beating everyone else in my class. However when the course finished I was offered a choice, I could leave now and I could find a job elsewhere, or I could continue with the army.

I delayed my answer as long as I could. However, on the day of my decision, I finally met Dr Phoenix. He gave me an offer I couldn’t refuse. I accepted and went with him, I told my uncle the news, he didn’t like it much but he congratulated me nonetheless.

So, here I am. Waiting to become a test subject, another experiment, I will be looked after and treated well.

The experiment was scheduled for 12 O’clock midday, when all the visitors were around to watch.

I completed the morning ritual of vigorous exercise consisting of a mile run, and several core muscle exercises. I showered, got dressed, ate breakfast and brushed my teeth. This was my daily routine; I took different route in the underground complex, getting lost and exploring, then finding my way back.

Eventually after my routine I walked towards the entrance. Climbing several staircases to get to the bunker entrance, I found the only three scientists in the entire bunker already waiting there. Obviously eager to meet their family, my uncle told me that he couldn’t make it, he had business elsewhere.

I met up with Miss Simpson first, she greeted me with a large welcome hug, almost crushing me. Miss Simpson was a small lady, but what she lacked in height she gained in muscles. She was 5 foot 8 and she had so much muscle it looked like she was on steroids. She also had ginger hair.

Next I met Dr Phoenix, he gave me a quick handshake, obviously not wanting to get too attached to me, considering the experiment they were about to perform with me.

And last but not least, my favourite guy; john, he’s my favourite because he always has a smile and he always makes everyone else smile. He somehow produces happiness wherever he goes. He also cheers me up whenever I’m down; I like him because he has a childlike mind.

When we met he put out a rather large party, even though there weren’t many people there he put one on anyways. He was likable from the beginning; although he wasn’t very clever, he was able to come up with genius ideas. I guessed that was why he was still here.

Although he was mainly here because of his sixth sense; john is capable of sensing if something good or bad is about to happen, before anyone else knows if it’s about to happen. This has led to some heated discussions between Miss Simpson and Dr Phoenix.

If john feels giddy it means something good is about to happen and if he feels chills going down his spine something bad is going to happen, sometimes if he gets both he calls them vibes.

I hug him saying hello and got a cupcake shoved into my mouth. I choke on the cupcake trying to chew on it but end up spilling it all over the floor.

Miss Simpson laughs and Dr Phoenix rolls his eyes. John drops onto the floor laughing till he can no longer breathe properly. An automated cleaning bot appears and cleans up the floor, I have no idea where they come from but they seem to do their job well.

The five guards are already at the door, commander stone face on the inside giving orders to captain winters on the opposite side of the door; Lieutenant ‘Leroy’ Jenkins and Lieutenant Blake on the outside with captain winters.

The Rookie was sleeping on the inside sitting down with his back against a wall, the commander paid him no attention; he had long ago given up trying to get him to stay awake. Although the Rookie woke up whenever someone arrived or there was something important going on.

Eventually the relatives arrived; First a nun of some sorts who moved over to Miss Simpson and hugged her. The second person to arrive is a tall gawky guy, calling himself Oscar; he says he is here to inspect the place. The scientists glare at him; he nods his head towards them “perhaps you can show me this ‘Grand Experiment’ you’re working on”

Commander Stone face walks up to him “Mr Oscar, if I were you I would stay quiet and stand aside, the rest of the relatives have arrived on the next bus”

Oscar bows his head towards him and walks quietly to one side of the room.

Soon I hear someone behind me.

‘Finally I wondered when she would show up’ I think to myself.

Dr Halsey arrives with her giant medical ‘man bag’. Although she is female, I can’t help but tease her with it, she sees the funny side in it usually saying something witty. Today she just grunted at me and pushed me aside, obviously not in the mood for harmless banter.

The other guests filed in. first there was a large bloke, wearing a tartan skirt? I read about these in one of the occasional books I read, they are called kilts, worn by traditional Scottish people and their families. He had a massive ginger beard, his beard is amazing and the only way to describe it is to say that it is a triple platted beard.

here is what his beard looks like

(^ I will love you if you recognise this guy)

He is wearing some sort of pouch, dangling on a string around his waist. He strides up to Dr Halsey giving her a massive bear hug “good tae see ya sis! How’s this lot been treatin yez eh?”

I think this guy basically defines the Scottish nation as a whole.

The next is a small family; a husband and wife, carrying a small baby; no more than 5 months and a teenage boy of the age of roughly sixteen. Following the boy is a smaller girl, possibly the same age, judging by her closeness to him, I guess she was his girlfriend. She also seems to be very timid, not wanting to look up at her surroundings, hiding herself away in her long hair.

The family is greeted joyfully by John who pulls a large table in front of him bearing gifts and miscellaneous food-stuffs. A miniature party ensues.

Les walks up to me and takes my arm away from my side and shakes it vigorously “ach! You must be Tio. Me names Les, but you can call me Les. Charlene here wrote a lot about yez in her letters, sayin that yez were gonna be the guinea pig, Yer either one brave lad or a fool, good luck tae yez!”

I stood there unable to respond, had he just called Miss Simpson Charlene? I glance at her and she responds by face-palming.

“Um… nice to meet you too Les”

He releases his vice grip on my hand and wonders off to find another victim.

I take another glance at Miss Charlene who returns and apologetic look before hastily following her brother. To be fair they did have the same features. Only her brother was taller than me and was full of muscles. His leather shoulder strap exposes his abdominals. His muscles on his belly are unbelievable, the amount of muscles on his stomach alone were enough to put a six-pack to shame.

this guy is what he roughly looks like, although imagine him with a kilt and a the ginger hair from the other picture

The next people I met were the Kidd family, obviously related to John. I said my hellos and they responded with their own, they were being ever so polite, not extremely polite to almost be posh, but the modest and humble kind of polite. After they introduce themselves I saw the boys’ girlfriend hiding behind her hair again. I bent over a little and lowered myself to her height “what’s your name Miss?”

She whispered so quietly the entire room seemed to silence itself “I’m sorry I didn’t hear you. Could you say it again?”

With the entire room quiet I could just manage to hear her say her name “S-Sarah Nancy-Drew”

Everyone starts to talk again, odd that everyone seemed to silence themselves when she spoke, but I didn’t bother thinking on it too much.

The last person I met was Sister Catherine “good morning mister Jacobs, it’s a pleasure to meet you, are you sure you really want to go through with this?”

I nod my head, she looks saddened but her smile quickly returns “then may God watch over you”

I nod my head again, showing that I appreciate the offer.

I don’t believe in God, but right now I don’t want to make him angry if he is real, especially when my life is in his hands… figuratively speaking of course.

We all hear the door open and an elderly man, escorted by captain winters, followed by corporal Blake and corporal ‘Leroy’ Jenkins. Dr Phoenix walks up to him and shakes him by the hand. The old man wore three quarter length combat trousers, and a veteran jacket. To everyone’s discomfort, the old man’s trousers show a thin metal prosthetic leg. He was a stereotypical veteran, his voice is gruff, he’s always grumpy and he is an anti-social old git.

The party was kept short and we were escorted by commander stone face and the rest of the squad to the test chamber. Dr Phoenix pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and stopped in front of everyone. He cleared his throat and put his reading glasses.

“This is the High Energy Molecular Dematerialisation Relocation and Re-materialisation or HEMDRAR for short. Today we are going to prove that safe teleportation of our people is a very real possibility. HEMDRAR is going to teleport Mr Jacobs over here into a separate test chamber where he will be decontaminated and then checked for any abnormalities. I would like to go into greater detail but I think we have been holding this off for quite some time now. But first I would like you to see the area in which he will be relocated from, this way.”

He motions for us to follow and goes through a doorway; we follow him through into a large laboratory. There is a large glass container, large enough to fit a small battalion inside. He steps over towards a console and turns around “first as a demonstration I will show you the dematerialisation and re-materialisation of this metal spoon.”

He walks inside the glass room and places the spoon directly in the centre. He then walks out and closes the door behind him, creating a loud hiss as the room is locked creating an air-tight seal. He then shuffles over to a small console to his right and enters several codes and opens a safety cap, he pushes a small red button inside. The machine above whirrs to life spinning a small blue ball of energy. It looks like an evil death ray, except it’s directly above the glass room. A female voice speaks overhead “beam firing in Five... Four… Three… Two… One... Activate”

On ‘Activate’ a blue beam fires at the metal spoon and it immediately evaporates. The laser ceases and Dr Phoenix walks over to a large TV screen, he stares at it “watch” he says to no one in particular.

We all watch the screen for a few minutes, at first nothing happens but then the spoon slowly begins to re-materialise, first it is just a mist, then it is a blurred object, then its form completely takes shape.

Everyone stands aghast; I was a little scared about what was about to happen to me, being zapped into oblivion and then being reconstructed again. Well, it’s still something to put on my CV.

Dr Phoenix looks at a console to his left “Ah wonderful, it’s still at full power. Okay now I will show you the machine that makes it possible, follow me”

Dr Phoenix opens the door to the glass room and enters, I follow first, and everyone else follows me. Even commander stone face doesn’t like this area.

John nudges me in the side and mentions his vibe feeling, I immediately begin to worry. Dr Phoenix stands directly underneath the machine and points up at it “you see, this blue orb of energy is actually an orb of matter traveling at a very high velocity; half the speed of light to be precise, and when we add an atom shell or 10 electrons orbiting one proton, it creates a rupture. This rapture is contained within the electromagnetic field we have put up around it, and directed through the end if this nozzle, which explains the laser effect; however it still effects a large area, hence the size of this room. Now if I were to-“

Dr Phoenixes’ explanation was cut short when a large boom echoed across the facility. The boom was then followed by a tremendous earthquake. The door that was open shuddered violently and swung shut, creating an airtight seal. A metal shelf fell over onto a computer screen, creating a ton of sparks. The woman’s voice can be heard over the amount of noise generated by the earthquake.

Five… commander stone face jumps up and wobbles over to the door. He pulls a fist back and mashes the glass…

Four…

Three… he pulls his fist back again, standing tall despite the grounds tremors.

Two…

One… he hits the glass door again.

Activate…

On Stranger Ground

another chapter! I steam rolled through this one... I will alternate between stories now. so I might be posting once every other week or so.

also the colours are either there to show thoughts of a certain character... except for the part in Ponyville hospital where I use the colours to make it easier to figure out who is speaking (I'm fairly sure you can figure out who is who with the colour configuration

The Last Humans

Chapter 2: on stranger ground

I wake up slowly, all my energy is drained and I feel weak. I can feel my arms and legs but my chest is sore and my breathing is laboured, my head feels like someone has hit it with a brick. I slowly open my eyes, but there is little to no light and everything is blurred.

I close my eyes, trying to blink away the blurriness so I can see properly. Eventually my vision clears and I can see the sky, its night time and there are stars in the sky. There is no black ash cloud, or any other signs of nuclear fallout.

I will myself to sit up, my body’s muscles screaming in protest. After a bout of dizziness I look around, finding all the others lying scattered about. I look over my shoulder and find commander Stone Face, with his helmet off and coughing up blood.

I panic, I half crawl/half drag my aching body over to him. I pull myself alongside him and look at him; he is awake and looks straight into my eyes. I see how much pain he is in and immediately try and call for Dr Halsey.

He brings his hand up and silences me, wincing in pain as he does so. He coughs violently again and coughs up even more blood. I look over him and find that his right arm is deflated and the underside is oozing blood, I lay there absolutely helpless as Stone Face bleeds out.

He coughs again, spitting out more blood, his voice croaks as he speaks “I’m done for, don’t bother getting the doc. My right arm is spliced, reduced to mush. It *gnnhh* hurts like hell. I think one of my lungs is punctured as well.”

He breaths rapidly, he winces in pain as he breaths “your uncle *cough cough cough*” more blood sprays from his mouth “told me that you were a good team leader, we were good friends me and him. He told me to keep an eye out for you, looks like I can’t keep my promise after all *cough cough cough*” he turns his head to one side and spits out a load of blood, his lungs are filling up with blood. “he gave me your profile as well, looks like you’re going to have to lead this group… promise me this… when I die, will you take my place and keep this group safe, guard them with your life” he coughs again loudly and throws up a lot of blood “promise me!”

I look at him in utter disbelief, I shake my head “no you’re gonna make it. Hold on... Maybe doc can-“

“NO! She can’t, I’ve lost too much blood…” he wheezes “please… promise…”

I hesitate, tears flowing freely down my face “I… I promise”

Stone Face coughs again and leans forward, his face shows pure agony. He reaches his hand up to my shoulder and rests his hand on it, he smiles “thank you… take care… and good luck” he practically whispers the last part.

Suddenly, he starts coughing uncontrollably, spitting out blood and throwing up. He falls back down and starts breathing rapidly, he goes into cardiac arrest, his eyes open wide and he looks off into the distance. His breaths shorten and he contracts his muscles. As unexpectedly as he contracts, his body slumps, he breathes out a long breath and his irises dilate. It was over in seconds.

I start to sob quietly, I lost a friend and I couldn’t do anything about it. He died slowly suffering a long and agonising death. I felt a liquid trickle past my fingers; I lift my hand up and see a red liquid trickle down my arm. I wept for what felt like hours, but must have been a few minutes. My tear ducts started drying up so I had to settle for just lying there staring up at the night sky.

Eventually I gathered enough strength to stand up, I was a little dizzy at first but I managed to stay upright, I looked over at the others to see if any of them had suffered the same fate as Stone Face. Luckily none had been injured. I left the group and searched for firewood, so we wouldn’t freeze.

It must have been hours before the others started waking up, meanwhile I had gotten firewood and had started a fire using an old fire making trick I learnt whilst I was at collage. I used Stone Faces knife to make a hole in two thick sticks and use the threads of my shirt to make s string thick enough to tie to two ends of another stick, I place a straight thin stick in the two holes and put the makeshift bow, looped around the centre stick and pulled back and forth until smoke came forth. I got some dry straw that I found lying around, and use that to begin the fire.

(a demostration by some guy doing the same thing as my character)

Les was the first to wake up; I help him to stand and brought him next to the fire. The next was Dr Halsey who I brought to the body of Stone face; she shook her head, walked up to him, leaned over and closed his eyes. She then got up and started helping everyone else wake up and then bringing them to the camp fire. The Rookie was the first to be woken up by Halsey, but he soon fell asleep again next to the camp fire.

The last to be woken up was captain winters. She took off her helmet and wept over commander Stone Faces body for a while; eventually she got up and sat down by the fire. I sat next to her for a while before I eventually got up and started looking for more firewood; the wood pile had degraded since I last went out. I managed to wake up the Rookie and got him to follow me, seeing as how Blake and Leroy are practically inseparable. After a while I got enough wood to last us another couple of hours, the sun should be rising soon anyways.

Me and Rookie got back without being mauled be whatever strange creatures in the forest that were making the weird noises. I placed the wood in a pile next to the fire and sat down again, captain winters got up and stormed over to me. I shrank under her glare “what did you do to him? You were the first awake! Why didn’t you help him? ... Answer me!”

I gathered my posture as much as I dared and leaned forwards, resting my head on my hands. “Well?! ...”

I sighed “he… he stopped me from getting Dr Halsey… he made me promise him I’d look after everyone… he died in front of me and I laid there and did nothing… I could have saved him but he made me promise… he made me promise…” I fought back another wave of tears and failed.

Everyone looked visibly shocked, even the old veteran scrunched his face up more than usual. Blake and Leroy stopped arguing to listen to me and the Kidd’s baby started to cry. I stood up and walked over to the commanders’ body. I bent over and picked up his helmet, I stared into its visor. I walked a little further away from the group and sat down staring deeply into the helmets visor, trying to see something that isn't there.

I became lost in thought as I tried to think about what we will do next. I didn’t notice the movement going on behind me. As the sun came up, I got up as well. I turned around to find the commander completely stripped of his armour. Someone had given up a jumper to cover up the remains of his right arm; he was wearing a pair of boxer shorts as well, to the relief of everyone else.

I looked around and found that his armour and weaponry have been placed in a neat pile, cleaned as well considering the amount of blood that was covering it. Captain Winters and Dr Phoenix were busy tinkering with a long thin metal back-brace of some sorts. I walk over to them “what are you guys doing?” my interest spiking.

They turn around and Captain Winters glares at me, although not entirely angry like she was before and Dr Phoenix shows delight. I look at the brace and see that it has several needles on it and the back plates are flat, I realise that it must have been the commanders and look away to my right.

Winters gets up and motions stands directly in front of me “The Commander made you promise to protect us all right?” I nodded “then take your jacket, shirt, trousers, socks and shoes off. He wants you to take his position as commander” I take a step back, flabbergasted and disbelieving “since you promised, you agreed to take his place… there isn’t any backing out now. I don’t like this any more than you, but trust me on this… the commander better not be wrong about you, because if he is, I will take you down”

I start getting undressed, my self-consciousness being overridden by fear of not complying. After I strip down captain winters motions for the others to come over, they stand not far off. I look down at the brace and wince as the plates move back and the needles retract “lie down on the floor with your arms by your sides and your legs slightly apart”

I do exactly as she says; I see Dr Phoenix’s face as he lifts up the brace and carries it over to me, he smiles that smile you never want to see on someone who is walking up to you with something in their hands. I feel pressure on my legs and arms as they hold me down, my head is place firmly in the dirt facing forwards.

I don’t wait long as I feel the cold metal being place on my spinal column. I shiver a little and the pressure on my body is increased. I hear Dr Halsey speak up “this is for the pain”

I grimace as she injects me with a drug and backs away, soon I feel slightly more relaxed almost feel comfortable. Unfortunately the moment lasts a little shorter than I wanted.

The brace activates and the needles are pushed in, tapping into my nervous system. I scream out in pain but my voice is muffled when a rag is placed into my mouth, I bite down on it, trying to push through the pain. I try to thrash around, but I am held firmly in place, after a moment I give up and focus on controlling my breathing and trying to calm down, I hear the spinal braces back plates close and overlap.

Even though the procedure has been completed I feel as though several trucks have been running into my back.

After what felt like hours, the pressure on my arms, legs and head is released and I can finally get up. I can still feel the spinal brace but it doesn’t hinder my movements like I expected it would. I roll my shoulder blades expecting a flood of pain but it never comes. I jump around a bit, trying to provoke any more pain, but whatever I do I can’t seem to get any.

Eventually I run out of breath and I sit down, I had completely forgotten that I was half naked, and I suddenly become self-aware. I grab my jacket bring it round my waist. Les begins to laugh and the old veteran gives me the grump.

I look around and find Captain Winters smirking. I get up and walk up to her “well now what?”

She stops smirking and hands me a clean grey one-piece suit “now… you suit up”

Reluctantly I climb into the grey suit, pulling my legs through the holes and then my arms through theirs. I attempt reaching round and clipping on the back, but in the end, Leroy does it for me, Blake sniggering in the background. The suit so far was grey Kevlar weave, body armour, with padded hands and weird socks with an even weirder underside. however the inside was nano-cotton, a type of cotton used by anyone going into a harsher climate than usual. the nano-cotton felt lumpy however, as if someone had put lumps of material inside the two layers.

nano-cotton is a special type of cotton that has small Nanobots in-between the fibers. these Nanobots have special abilities that can heat up or cool down the area around it. and because there are so many of them in the cotton fibers they can heat up or cool down a human body, effectively acting as temperature control, as they are tuned to keep a specific heat.

The next part was gearing up. First the shoes went on, by miracle I was almost exactly the same size as the commander, albeit a little smaller. Next I put on the shin-guards with the knee pads, thigh guards and lower body piece (or as Leroy and Blake put it, knickers). The next part was the connector where the chest piece connects to the ‘knickers’. After that was slid on and connected, the chest piece was donned and locked in place. Next were the shoulder guards, the elbow guards, arm guards and the hand and finger protectors.

I was given all the armour, weapons and ammo of the deceased commander Stone Face. I took a look at myself and then at the body of commander Stone Face. ‘I have a large pair of boots to fill’ I think to myself.

The final part of the armour to be put on was the helmet. I put it on and couldn’t see anything, I tried calling out for anyone but I couldn’t hear anything outside the helmet, I was about to take it off when someone hit my head, the inside lights came up and the visor re-adjusted itself, I could see everyone clearly and slightly outlined in green. I looked to my right and saw the sun just above the horizon, I heard a radio crackle inside my helmet and heard Captain Winters “beautiful isn’t it”

I nodded my head. After seeing the sun rise for a few moments I realised that this stuff should be making me collapse, I lift my arm up and I feel the weight of my arm and nothing else. I decide to put my new suit to good use, using the helmets built in radio “how come this suit feels so natural? And why aren't I being crushed under the weight of this thing?”

Blake crackled in first “because the Kevlar under-suit acts as an exo-skeleton, it also has something that makes lifting this armour easier… an artificial muscle thingy of some sorts”

Leroy interrupts Blake “the artificial muscle stuff is underneath the Kevlar weave outer layer, so to them it just looks like we’re strong bad-asses”

Blake responds shouting “hell yeah!” they high five each other.

Captain winters shouts down the radio “guys shut the hell up! Commander Jacobs-“

I interrupt her, I hate that name as well, it sounds nerdy “please… call me Tio, not Jacobs…”

I hear Captain Winters breathe down the microphone before she answers “fine… commander Tio… what are we going to do now?”

I think for a moment before opening my microphone to the outside “first things first, we bury the body of the deceased commander Stone Face. Then we trek out and get to higher ground so we can find any sort of civilisation seeing as how, we aren’t on our own planet anymore”

Everyone looks at me as if I’m mad; to prevent myself from thinking that as well I give them simple reasoning “look, if we were on Earth the sky wouldn’t be visible. Plus, whilst I was sitting down thinking, I noticed that the sky didn’t have any recognisable, constellations... So either: A; we’re on another planet. B; we’ve been sent millions of years into the future, or past. Or option C; we’re in a parallel universe.”

The group give this some consideration, before slowly agreeing with my logical explanation. I am also impressed by my own reasoning and I begin to lead them out of our temporary camp site. I walk in the direction of the mountain range, the others follow sluggishly.

/meanwhile, at Ponyville hospital/

“Sister! How is thy… your student?”

“She is fine. She will need rest; she used a lot of magic and even used part of her life force to finish the spell. She will recover in time; however she might be a little... different for the next few days”

“Oh thank goodness, I do hope that she will get better soon, we were all extremely worried that some bad happen to our dear twilight”

“Ooh! Ooh! That means I can throw a get well soon party!” there is a gush of air and the voices owner disappears

“Thank goodness! Ah honestly thought something really bad had happened to Twilight”

“I hope she gets better soon, that ‘egghead’ should really stop doing those dangerous experiments of hers” There is an eerie silence “ehehe… I think I may have left a few clouds flying around… gottagobye!”

Another whoosh of air and the voices owner disappears

“I’m so worried. I hope she’s okay. I could look after her… if you don’t mind that is…”

“I’m sure Twilight will love the company Fluttershy, when she wakes up, I will have to have a word with her about these ‘experiments’ of hers. Come sister you need to rest, and I need to begin today's business”

The sound of a door opening and wings beating can be heard, which soon fade away into background noise.

“ah need to get back to mah farm, apple bucking season is just round the corner and me and Big-Macintosh need to get prepared, I see ya’ll later”

“Same here darling, I need to get back to my boutique before Sweetie Bell cooks breakfast again”

“Okay, I’m sure we’ll meet again sometime later today. Don’t worry I have everything under control here, Twilight will be all better under my care”

“I don’t doubt that darling, good with animals good with ponies’ right?”

I light giggle can be heard “I’m sure it’s something like that Rarity”

“Oh and don’t forget our spa treatment later today”

“Oh I haven’t forgotten at all. Don’t worry I’ll be there”

“See you again soon”

“Bye”

The sound of hoof steps can be heard fading away into the distance; a quiet sigh can be heard from the rooms’ last remaining occupant.

/somewhere in the everfree forest/

“There! I see an orchard and a town not far from it; we’ll get there just after sundown if we hurry”

“Good job Blake. Now get back down here so we can get moving again before any of the forests inhabitants decide to make a quick snack of us”

I stand back up, and lift up Joseph.

Each soldier and les is carrying someone: les is carrying Sister Catherine and Mrs Kidd (who is still carrying her baby). Leroy is carrying Sara. Captain winters is carrying Dr Halsey and Blake gets to carry Dr Phoenix (after a heated discussion between OSCAR and Dr Phoenix). And the Rookie gets to carry OSCAR because MR Kidd refused to be carried. Miss Simpson said she was fine, and offered to carry anyone else if they needed rest.  John was either in front of us or in the middle, cheering up anyone that seemed down, as well as Mr Kidd who brought out pictures of his baby daughter and shoved them in peoples faces until they escaped his onslaught.

The rest get up and gather together. We wait for Blake to return and pick up Dr Phoenix before he leads the way out of the forest.

After several hours walking, we finally reach it to the outskirts of the apple orchard. We can tell we get there because there is a white fence obstructing our path and there are apples adorning the trees. We try to climb over the fence, but Leroy ends up just charging through it screaming his annoyingly stupid phrase “leeeerrroooyyyyyyyy!!!   Jenkinssss!!!!” (Hence his given name)

After a severe scalding from Captain Winters, we all walk through the gap in the fence, placing the broken wooden planks in a pile and walk through the orchard, eating a couple of the apples along the way. The sun has gone down and there are no signs of inhabitants.

/at the apple acres barn house Applejack's POV (point of view)/

Applejack tossed and turned restlessly, she couldn’t shake the feeling that the barn was in some sort of danger. She flipped her pillow over trying to cool down. She opened the shutters and let cool air flow into her bedroom, but that only made her feel cold. After a few minutes of restless sleep she got up and went downstairs grabbing her hat off of her beds corner post.

She went into the kitchen turned the light on and poured herself a glass of water, she then proceeded into the dining room. She sat down and relaxed, her worries had now passed and she drank the cool liquid. ‘It’s probably just stress Applejack’ she kept thinking. She finished her drink and was about to go and refill it when she heard a knock at the door.

Curious, she trotted into the hallway and up to the door. ‘It’s probably RJ again, most likely going to be complaining about her bed being uncomfortable again... how can a bed of pillows be uncomfortable, especially since she sleeps in trees most the time she's meant to be helping me with the weather’ she sighs and reaches her hoof out to open the door.

She opened it up and stared up at a giant metal being, standing on two legs. She looked up slowly and saw that it was covered, head to toe in metal and a strange substance. She looked back up and got another look at his head, she saw her reflection on its face.

Two thoughts arrived in her head at the same time. Thought number one: ‘It’s a changeling trying to mimic my appearance’

Thought number two: ‘It can’t be a changeling, it’s standing on two legs. Is it a diamond dog? No they’re broader and slouch more. Plus their arms are much longer and their legs are shorter, plus they have tails. No definitely not a diamond dog, but nor is it a changeling either. What is it?'

A third thought appeared in her mind: ‘It's scary’

The monster moved forwards slightly, she slammed the door shut. She ran upstairs to wake up Applebloom, Big-Macintosh and Granny Smith. She heard another knocking at the door. She got into Appleblooms’ room and picked her up, she complained, but Applejack was in a rush to wake everyone up. She failed to notice that Applebloom had slipped off of her back and had gone downstairs to open the front door.

Applejack ran up to Granny Smith first and tried to shake her awake, her attempts failed miserably “Granny Smith wake up the barns in danger!”

The old mare got up with a start “Danger! Sound the alarms, run for the hills!”

She rocked herself out of bed and slowly made her way to the back door, Applejack couldn’t wait for her so she ran into the last bedroom, bucking her way in. the large red earth pony got up with a start, he was about to lecture Applejack but she interrupted him before he could speak “Big-Mac there’s no time, there’s a... thing outside the front door and it looks MIGHTY scary”

“APPLEJACK!”

Both ponies jumped in fright, Big-Mac jumps out of bed and barges past her sister. She follows in hot pursuit.

She isn’t as fast as Big-Mac though, so she ends up being held back by a slow-moving Granny Smith.

Seconds later she hears a crash and a voice shrieks in pain, a moment later she hears big-Macs booming voice “STAY AWAY FROM MAH LITTLE SISTER!”

/moments before from Tio’s POV/

We were walking as the moon started rising in the orchard, everyone was fatigued from walking for so long. We eventually saw a light appear in the distance, everyone’s interest peaked and our pace quickened. Even the ever pessimistic old fart gave a grunt, although we’re not quite sure what this means exactly.

The light turns out to be a small barn-house. I put down Joseph and tell everyone to wait a fair distance away from it, in-case it was a trap. I knocked on the door to the barn, although I didn’t bend over, the door was still slightly smaller than I expected. I waited for a moment before the door opened; inside I saw a small horse (probably a pony) with an orange coat, a yellow mane and tail. Both mane and tail had a red band around the ends. The pony also wore a brown Stetson hat.

The effect was as if someone had a bucket of dye and went mad with the pony, tidied it up a bit and shoved a Stetson hat on top. The only unnerving thing about it was that there was no owner to make sure that it didn’t run off. I looked around trying to see if anyone was home but couldn’t see anyone.

When I tried to move forward however, the pony reached round and slammed the door in my face. I was too surprised and stunned by this miraculous feat that I just stood there dumbly. I knock on the door again and wait.

I hear a mumbling voice from behind the door and the door reopens. This time a small yellow pony with a pink mane and a bright pink ribbon on top appears. She stares in shock at me, whilst I stare with a bemused look on my face, which unfortunately for me, is hidden behind my helmet.

It turns its head to one side, and I hear a voice as it opens its mouth in synchronisation “Applejack!”

I see a flicker of movement to my left and I see Joseph sprint past me into the doorway. Joseph then does the most random thing yet. He squeal’s like a little girl and rushes the small pony and grabs it. He then walks forward beaming as if he had just caught a super rare Pokémon “WOW it’s Applebloom" he states. However as he steps forward a red blur smashes into him. He immediately lets go of the little pony and is sent flying into a wall, where he hits it with a solid thump, he yells in pain and falls to the floor.

I rush in, keeping low to avoid hitting the ceiling. I rush over to Joseph and check up on him, he is still breathing but he looks pretty shaken up and badly hurt. I turn around to see a large red pony with a determined look on his face “STAY AWAY FROM MAH LITTLE SISTER!” he yells.

The red pony is almost the size of a horse and he has a light ginger mane and freckles. He snorts and pushes the little pony (presumably his little sister) behind him. I stand just as protectively in front of joseph; he holds his shoulder and starts crying. I look back to the large pony that starts to back away slowly, keeping himself between me and his sister. I pick up Joseph and hold him in both arms; unfortunately the large red stallion is between me and the door.

I hear Captain Winters over the Radio “is everything going all right? We heard a large thump and some yelling. It sounded as if someone was hurt, Joseph has gone missing as well, his family and girlfriend are worried sick. Can you see him in there; we think he may have snuck up behind the house and entered through the front.”

I speak down the radio “Joseph is with me and I’m in a little bit of a situation here. There is a large pony blocking my only exit, problem is that Joseph just got hurt by it when he went inside. Send over Dr Halsey immediately but don’t let anyone else go with her, not even you. Keep the channel silent, if I need backup… I’ll call for it; I don’t want to aggravate the situation any more than it is. You got that?”

“Yes sir. Sending her over now”

I decide to lay Joseph back down on the floor. I get him into a more comfortable position and return my attention to the door. I wait for the doctor to arrive, the stallion still glaring at me, if things couldn’t get any worse the little pony starts to speak “H-how did he know my name?”

The stallion looks down at his little sister with a puzzled look before snapping his attention back on me. I glance back at Joseph and then towards the door. The entire room tensed and I finally saw the doctors white cloak flapping behind her.

She eventually arrived breathing heavily. She looked through the door to see a large red pony and a smaller yellow one. She looked at them confused. I spoke up “we’re over her Dr Halsey”

The red pony jumped as I spoke and the small yellow one stepped back slightly. Dr Halsey cautious;y sidestepped around the ponies and edged her way towards us. She stepped over Joseph so she wouldn’t have the ponies behind her. She took one look at Joseph before opening up her ‘man’ bag.

She took out a needle and a jar, she removed the safety cap and stuck the end into the bottle and she pulled back the syringe and then pulled it back out of the bottle. She jabbed it into Josephs arm and injected the liquid into him, he groaned a little bit but then he relaxed slightly. Dr Halsey then got out a small hand-held device, she turned it on, hovered it over his body, and she ran it up and down his chest and shoulder. Dr Halsey then brought out a small screen, no bigger than an I-phone and looked at it.

She shook her head and mumbles a bit while she rummaged around in her ‘man’ bag. She eventually brought out a bandage and a sling. She got up stood on the other side and knelt down again.

She knelt there motionless with two hands around his shoulder. She suddenly moved and a faint popping noise could be heard, Joseph yelled out again, but he soon relaxed a lot more. His shoulder wouldn’t hurt as much now. All the while she was doing this; I was standing between her and the large red pony. He winced when she popped his shoulder back in place, he clearly didn’t like what she was doing, but he held his ground.

Dr Halsey had just started to remove his jacket and shirt when the orange coated pony came back; she ran into the hall and caught up to big red pony. She looked down and muzzled the small yellow pony and then stood side by side to the other pony. She then finally noticed us and dropped into a more defensive stance. Doctor Halsey bandaged Josephs chest with some difficulty and then stood him up, draping his good arm around her neck.

Suddenly we all heard a loud crash and my radio crackled to life “we got a lot of ponies in armour out her and on giant one that looks female and has horns and wings, possibly the leader of the group. All I can say is that big momma is angry… how’s Joseph on your end and what are your orders for us sir?”

“Joseph is fine; Dr Halsey patched him up. Stand down; these creatures seem to act in self-defence, lower your weapons but still protect everyone, fight with hand-to-hand combat and don’t use knives. The last thing you want to do is piss off ’big momma’ even more. What was that loud crash anyways?”

“Leroy Jenkins sir, he shouted Leroy Jenkins again and charged, he just got surrounded by a dark blue mist and then he got flung into the barn. I think he’s going to think twice next time he just charges something, although knowing him, he probably won’t”

“Leroy you hear me? Stand down and stay out of sight”

“Dammit! Fine, Blake’s going to tease the hell out of me for this”

There was silence for a moment before Blake’s voice could be heard “hehehe…”

After I heard Blake laugh I gave a single command down the radio “Retain radio silence; notify me when something big is happening”

With that said I returned my attention to Dr Halsey, I shook my head and she placed him back on the floor. Now I could think straight I sat down and analysed the situation, after a moments thinking I spoke down the radio again “Captain Winters, how do I take this helmet off?”

There was silence for a moment before I heard winters reply “there’s a small release lever and a protective cap on the right lower side of your helmet and a similar one on the left. Pull them and then just take the helmet off”

“Thanks”

I reached up and after a few moments I found the covers and opened them. I pulled both release levers and then put my hands on both sides of the helmet. I pulled upwards and removed my helmet.

Dr Halsey was far too interested in Joseph to notice the reactions on the three ponies’ faces. They jumped back in surprise as I removed my helmet, the small yellow one looked as if I just pulled the most amazing trick ever.

I decided to reason with them, I noticed first hand that they can speak and that they’re sentient, however I yet to discover if they are intelligent “hello, I am commander Tio Jacobs. What is your name?” I mouth each word carefully

They jumped back in surprise but the orange one just got angry “ah ain’t stupid, just because I work on a farm, doesn’t mean I can’t understand other ponies talkin’”

Good now they begin to reason nicely “sorry, as you can see, we’re not experts on meeting alien races”

On my words the small yellow filly zooms up to me “oh cool an ALIEN, scoots is gonna be sooo jealous”

The orange pony rushes forward and restrains the yellow filly “Applebloom get back here, you don’t know what this thing will do”

I roll my eyes “I’m not a thing, I’m a who and as I said, my name is Tio. May I be so bold as to ask ‘who are you?’?”

The orange pony looks a little flustered for a moment before she mumbles something and shakes her head “sorry about this, ah panicked and made this a whole lot worse than it was. Let’s start again from the start shall we? Mah name’s Applejack, proud owner of sweet apple acres, one of two large apple orchards in all of Equestria. This here is Big-Macintosh; he co-owns the place and helps harvest the apples with me. I’m sure he’s mighty sorry for hurting your friend over there”

The big red stallion going by the name of Big-Macintosh (no jokes with the name, he's huge!) nods his head “Eeyup!” he doesn’t have a large booming voice like last time but his voice is still firm.

“And this here is mah little sister Applebloom”

Applebloom blushes but then she looks slightly confused “hey! You still didn’t answer mah question! How did ya know mah name? Ah haven’t seen 'im before”

I shrug my shoulders “I don’t know either, by the way this here is Joseph and this is Doctor Halsey”

Doctor Halsey makes a barely audible grunt and Joseph waves his uninjured arms’ hand. He smiles a little before his face scrunches up, whether it’s in thought or agony I can’t tell. Eventually his smile returns “well from where we’re from there is something called a TV, it shows moving pictures. Anyways on one of the many moving pictures there was a particular show called “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic” it basically showed me images of this world, although it suddenly stopped after season six. Anyways, it was all imaginary and everyone knew it was meant to be imaginary. But now we're actually here and it’s so awesome”

At this point his voices pitch got higher and he brought his hands to his cheeks, pursing his lips as well.

All of us except Halsey were surprised to see him act so strangely. Applejack looked as if she thought he was insane and Big-Macintosh looked just as confused as Applebloom. I shook my head and tried to simplify it for them “I think I know what he means. Basically, we can see what is going on in in different worlds, but back home we think this is all made up, a fantasy basically. Now that we’re here and see that it’s real, for him it’s like a dream come true”

I look back at Joseph for confirmation and he nods his head. Big-Macintosh seems to understand and gives the same look as Applejack, Applebloom however show an entirely different expression. Applebloom looks at us as if we’re mad at first but then her expression changes to pure ecstasy.

She jumps around Big-Macintosh saying “this is so cool, seeing into other worlds and then you actually going to them sounds so awesome. Ah can’t wait to see the looks on Sweetie Bells and Scootaloo’s faces when ah tell them this. They’re gonna be so jealous.”

Big-Macintosh stops her in her tracks and pushes her slightly to one side. She looks saddened by her brother putting her down like that. I was about to tell them that there are more of us and that we needed a place to rest, when two large stallions entered the house, they were both black and wore silver armour, what intrigued me the most were the bat wings that sprouted from their sides. One of the black ones (he he racist) was first to speak up “are you okay, there are strange creatures about and we have surrounded a group outside your house and…”

He turns his head and notices me, Joseph and Dr Halsey. It looks stunned for a moment before jumping into a defensive stance, along with his buddy. I roll my eyes in annoyance, they always seem to do that, it’s not as if it’s hard to notice a giant person in metal armour.

Unfortunately the only way out is completely blocked and I have little option but to put my helmet back on. I slip it on my head, push down the two levers and their safety covers. I get up into a crouch from my sitting position if their only the minions for the ‘big momma’ then maybe I can ease the situation between the two groups “I wish to speak to whoever is in charge. Please take me to her, also I wish that these two are escorted back to our little troop SAFELY” The two ponies tense up “look I’m in charge of my group, and I tell them what to do, which is why they have not used lethal force... yet. Please I wish to resolve the situation as quickly as possible to prevent any casualties.”

The armoured ponies look at each other a nod their heads; I turn back to Dr Halsey “is he okay to move?”

She nods her head and lifts Joseph up, slinging his arm around her neck. he groans in pain. She half carries him out of the room, escorted by a single guard, I then follow the other one, before I leave I say thank you and say my goodbyes to the three barn ponies.

Soon we reach my group who are desperately trying to defend themselves from the armoured ponies. Les is fighting off two at the same time, trying to protect Sister Catherine and Sarah. The rookie is fending five ponies from OSCAR and  Miss Simpson. Blake is fending off two ponies from Dr Phoenix.

And Captain Winters is fighting five different ponies from Mrs Kidd and her baby, as well as Mr Kidd.

There are several ponies standing off to the side protecting a slightly larger dark blue pony, there are five other ponies of different colours being guarded by several armoured ponies, which are also blocking their view. One cyan coloured pony is flying around, making punching motions and generally encouraging the fight. To my extreme aggravation she had a rainbow coloured mane.

John had managed to get a water gun and was merrily spraying a pony with water.

I arrive just in time as the large dark blue Pegasus/unicorn/pony yells “ENOUGH!”

Everyone stops fighting; I arrive in time to make a snide remark “I fully agree. Fighting is no way to solve a problem”

the large Alicorn turns her head “AH ANOTHER ONE OF THOU CREATURES, TELL US, WHY ARE THOUST HERE?”

Her volume is extremely loud, Joseph covers one of his ears and Dr Halsey winces.

I don’t think that lying will help the situation so I decide to answer her given the circumstances “we got here by accident and chance, we were doing a simple experiment when there was a massive nuclear explosion outside our facility. The bunker isn’t designed to take such an impact; fortunately we were all inside the test chamber when this happened. The machine was called HEMDRAR, that’s High Energy Molecular Dematerialisation Relocation And Re-materialisation. The explosion caused massive tremors in the facility knocking over an unsecure shelf onto the machine, activating it. That was when we were teleported here. Now were here because we want shelter, food and a safe place to stay. I can see that we’re not wanted here, c’mon everyone we’re leaving. LEROY YOU CAN COME OUT NOW!”

I yell the last part, so that he understands that it’s partially an order. He steps out from behind a pile of destroyed barn wood and walks up to us, obviously unhappy with missing the action. The other ponies jump as he walks up to the group, they must’ve thought he was out for the count.

We are all about to leave when a pink pony jumps up and hug john shouting “Johnny bun buns!”

John is tackled to the ground by the pink pony and he laughs “Pinkamena! Is it really you?”

They kiss for a brief moment, everyone shocked to see them kissing so passionately. I was speechless, I’m pretty sure that I’ve never seen any one of these ponies before in my life, yet John was acting very… native.

They break up from their passionate kiss and Pinkamena helps John get back up. John blushes and his face turns scarlet, he opens his mouth to talk but he is interrupted by the pink mare “LETS HAVE A PARTY!”

She pulls out blue cannon out of nowhere and fires it, confetti flies everywhere, covering everyone in streamers and all sorts of paper stuff. Very soon everyone forgets their differences as we all eat the delicious items that John and Pinkamena set up and just enjoy the music and the party. Well nearly everyone, the grumpy old fart just got a chair and sat down on it. The rookie had lain down next to a tree. OSCAR was nowhere to be seen and Les is too busy showing off his muscles.

I had taken off my helmet and was in a conversation between the apparent Princess Luna and her sisters’ student Twilight Sparkle “it is physically impossible, the sun is millions of times bigger than the planet!”

“No it’s not the sun is, by Starswirl the Beardeds calculations, thirteen times smaller than our planet!”

I look at her as if she had just gone mad, but I refuse to give up “the moon is still just as large, and how could the Alicorn raise and lower them at the same time for thousands of years? She would have to be extremely powerful if you say this is true”

“She is that powerful! The only thing that’s just as powerful as that is love”

“And thy elements of harmony” Princess Luna adds

“I still don’t believe it, beside magic doesn’t exist, that’s only illusions and trickery from where we’re from, the closest thing to magic is illusion”

Twilight sparkles’ horn glows and she levitates an apple in front of her, she raises an eyebrow

“Telekinesis” I state firmly, she huffs and rolls her eyes. She looks at the apple and scrunches her face in concentration. The apple flashes white for a split second and in its place is a chunk of cheese. I stare at the sight before me, to emphasise her point she takes a bit out of it.

“What… how did you… I don’t even…”

She grins wickedly at me “magic”

I throw my arms up in the air “fine whatever I believe you, although I might as well add: when your princess lowers the sun, you can be reassured to know... that it’s not there”

Twilight looks as if I had told her that the moon wasn’t real “yes it is because we can see it”

“Nope! Not there... mirage!”

Twilight starts to grin a wild grin and begins to twitch her mane become slightly frazzled and her eyes become pin-pricks, for a brief moment i thought i could see smoke rising from her mane. Luna looks at me and whispers “I think you just broke her”

Luna had mostly just been sitting back and enjoying watching the heated discussion, she only broke into the conversation when she wanted to add to my humiliation.

I hastily add “because the lower densities in atmosphere cause light to bend, kind of like a rainbow or, for example, in the desert where you think you can see water, but when you get there it’s no longer there. The same principal applies to when the sun sets and when it rises; I can show you later if you like”

She returns to normal slightly, she seems to understand my simple explanation “I think I get what you mean, although it’s a little weird. But yes I would like for you to tell me how it works later. I expect a full explanation when you meet me at my library.”

I nod my head, as I did so a movement next to me catches my eye; I look up and catch a cream Pie with my face. John laughs and Pinkamena licks the contents off of my face, adding to my humiliation and to his greater enjoyment. I wipe the saliva off of my face with my hand and wipe it on Twilight who then proceeds to exclaim in disgust, however she then fires off a quick magical beam, which I dodge. It then hits the buffet table causing most of the food to turn to cheese.

“Is that the only thing you can think about? Cheese”

“That’s not the only thing I’m thinking about” she licks her lip and an evil smile grows on her face,

Luna interrupts again “Twilight not in front of our guests, please, what would our… my sister say?”

Twilights head droops “Sorry Luna”

Luna then turns her head to me “I apologise for Twilights behaviour, she hasn’t quite been herself since her... experiment”

This peaks my curiosity “when and what was this experiment?”

Luna interrupts Twilight before she could speak “two days ago and she was experimenting on long-distance teleportation, why dost thou ask?”

“Because that’s exactly when we arrived here, two days ago. I believe that her experiment was at the exact time of our little… mishap”

This sudden discovery interests Luna even further “if thou and twilights experiments were at exactly the same time, then that would answer how thee got here, but why, we will have to figure out” I nodded.

Eventually the party died down, the princess recalled all but two of her guards. Applejack had offered for us to stay in the barn, I gladly accepted. Pinkie and john had volunteered to clean up the mess, we didn’t argue. We woke up the rookie, found OSCAR, managed to get the grumpy old fart to get up and convinced les that he should rest his muscles so that they can refresh themselves overnight. Applejack led everyone to the barn and got us settled in; the Rookie was the first to fall asleep. Pinkamena had shown up out of nowhere with a bright yellow marker pen, obviously trying to doodle on his helmet. The Rookie grabbed the pen as it neared his face and put its lid back on, this made Pinkamena giggle and pout slightly.

Everyone else settled down slightly and the Kidd’s family were given the most comfortable spot. Sarah, Dr Halsey and Sister Catherine were given a separate spot, as well as Miss Simpson. Les, OSCAR, Dr Phoenix and the grumpy old fart were given their separate area. Blake and Leroy were first on guard, after midnight it was captain and the Rookies shift. In the early hours of the morning it was mine.

The guards were less than talkative though so I couldn’t get much conversation out of them. I eventually settled for inspecting my weapons that I inherited.

My primary weapon was the Bullpup FN-F2000 with thermal and holographic sight (2.5X optical zoom and the thermal optics can be switched off), front heavy barrel (to reduce barrel lift when firing), grip, tactical light (with infra-red laser on left hand side) and extended mag. I have at least twelve extra magazines of 38 bullets

My secondary was the mass 12-gauge shotgun with holographic sight. I have at least nine magazines of 6 buckshot rounds

My side arm was the infamous Beretta desert eagle with thirteen magazines of 13 .50 caliber bullets

I put my guns back in their respective places and put all the magazines in separate pouches.

I sit there pondering over the events of the last few days, especially the party. How did everything get there? How did john know Pinkamena? How come everyone forgot that they were fighting? But the most prominent question in his mind was: how are we going to get back home?

I pondered on these thoughts for a little while longer, dismissing any to do with Pinkamena and John. I see a slight shuffle of movement and Captain Winters comes out through the barn entrance, I notice she has taken her helmet off and is holding it by her side “morning winters, sleep well?” She groans, mumbling something about cake and stomach. I laugh at little at her discomfort and she glares at me. She walks over to me and sits down, hitting me lightly on the shoulder. “OW, Careful now, you don’t want to strike a superior officer” I caution half-heartedly. It didn't really hurt me, but i was up for a little friendly banter.

“Oh shut up” she groans and slumps back against the wall

“So what brings you out here?” I ask

“Firstly, I couldn’t stand Leroy’s snoring. Secondly, I wanted to see the sun rise, it’s one of my favourite pass times. Even though you can’t see the sun back on our Earth anymore”

I nod my head glumly, the cloud above was so thick on Earth you couldn’t see anything above it. So here it is just like before the war.

We both sit in silence, watching the sun slowly rise above the horizon, it was beautiful, the sunrise I mean, the way it radiates an invisible light that lightens up everything surrounding it. Giving everything colour and just generally being stunning.

The sun eventually raised enough to fill the inside of the barn with an orange glow. Everyone started shifting uncomfortably, apart from the Rookie and Les who were sleeping peacefully.

In the words of a wise man “yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.”