Our Technology, Our Cultureby ScriptureChaptersCh.1- Concern and RegretCh.2- McCarren and RichardsCh.3- Plans and ObstaclesCh.1- Concern and Regret“...Didja hear about it?” “About what? Wait…Oh, you mean that weird thing that popped up-“ “Yeah! Right outside Ponyville! Can you believe that?” “Well, of course! Weird stuff always happens here… ya know?” “Yeah... that’s true…” “But…” “But what?” “I don’t know Bon Bon… but this thing that’s popped up seems very… important. Life changing honestly… I mean… Twilight got knocked out right after it appeared and is with the Princess now... you know?” Bon Bon giggled a bit and hugged her best friend beside her. “Yeah, that’s true, but she is an able mare! She’ll be fine!” She giggled childishly again. “You are such a silly filly sometimes Lyra!” Lyra blushed a bit but managed to chuckle slightly at her friends antics. “Y-yeah, I suppose so, hehe…” The candy-maker pony smiled broadly and strode on ahead of her minty green friend. “Yeah! So long as we are together, nothing can go wrong, right?” The musician smiled back and nodded. “Mhm! Whatever may happen, we always have each other!” They merrily laughed as they trotted about town, letting the sun bask upon them. ================ It was as normal a day in Ponyville as it could have been. The pegasi had made today extra sunny with minimal cloud coverage to allow Celestia’s sun to beam down upon her good citizens. The market was in full steam, everypony trying to sell their wares for the highest possible price they could try for. Ponies went in and out of shops steadily, trying to gather their daily supplies for their usual activities. It was as normal as day in Ponyville as it could have been, yet in a peace-loving town, the strangest things always happened. Twilight was the first to discover it. She had her face stuck in a book while traveling through the park when it happened. The air, invigorating. The grass, lush and green. And all around her were ponies laughing, playing, and generally having a good time. Twilight took a moment from her book to breathe the fresh air, exhaling through her mouth explosively. “Ahhhhhh! Today turned out to be lovely! The suns out, the sky is clear, and everypony is really hap-“ Suddenly, as if from nowhere, her head was assaulted by an enormous headache, making her wince from the sharp pain pounding in her skull. “Ugh… what… what the- AH!” This time, she fell to the ground, the pain doubling in force. Her sudden shout out caught the attention of several ponies around her and they were immediately curious about the pained mare. Twilight, however, didn’t even register the ponies beginning to gather around her, the pain intensifying in waves. “GAH! What… What the heck is- ARGH!” Writhing around on the ground now, she barely was conscious about the ponies starting to gather around her, murmuring a bit as someone went to fetch a doctor for her. Nopony wanted to get too close to her. Nopony knew what was wrong with her after all… she could have been diseased! “Please… the pain… its- URGH!” Several shocked gasps came from the small crowd around her as her horn suddenly lit up, spewing out a few sparks from its tip. The ponies around her took a few steps back in wonderment at her horn, which began to glow stronger and brighter. Twilight, at this point, didn’t know what was happening to her, only registering the fact that she was in incredible pain right now, as if her horn was going to split open. The pain suddenly spiked again and the poor purple mare shrieked in agony, barely hearing the shouts of alarm erupting from the others. A thin beam of light suddenly shot up from her horn, reaching about 10 feet up in the air above Twilight. As soon as the beam hit its apex, it severed its connection with the unicorn, leaving her there on the ground writing in pain, breathing raggedly. A brave stallion immediately went to her aid, looking her over to check for any kind of physical injuries. Eventually, others began to slowly surround her. Everyone in town knew about Twilight. How couldn’t they? She had averted disaster in both Equestria and Ponyville several times, saving many ponies lives in the process. The mare was both a hero and a legend throughout the land… But now, now she was reduced to a shivering mess of purple in the middle of a confused crowd. It was then that the stallion who had originally come to Twilight’s aid shouted out in horror. Everypony looked up from Twilight to figure out what had shocked the stallion. Was there some injury on the fallen mare? Had some weird transformation happened to her? Magical backfire? Yet, as they laid their eyes on him, he was not focused on Twilight at all. His eyes were wide in shock at the beam of light, which had begun to open up slowly, like a maw ready to devour all that surrounded it. Panic immediately ensued throughout the crowd of onlookers, everypony colliding and racing against each other while screaming their heads off. Twilight, by some miracle, had begun to get up slowly as the pain began to recede from her body. “Ugh... where… where is everypony going…?” The purple unicorn still felt a bit shaken up, but she began to truly register everything around her. Ponies shouting out in shock. Grass and sod being kicked up by hooves. Many of them heading for their houses, locking the doors and shutting their windows in a cacophony of slams. The unicorn blinked a few times, trying to make sense of it all. She knew something was up, but she could feel the edges of her mind getting black and unresponsive. No… Can’t… black out here… got to… resist… However, try as she might, nothing seemed to impede or stop the flow of her consciousness leaving her. It slowly slipped further and further from her body like a gentle release from the outside world. Not so much however, as to not feel something grab onto her coat sharply and immediately pull her backwards… Backwards, into the gaping maw. =============== “Thank you, Shining Armor, but please… you know as well as I do that this situation should not be taken lightly!” “But Princess, I-“ “I know she is your sister, but we have to think about all of Equestria first. If we tell everypony that your sister was abducted by this… this… well, whatever it is, then hysteria will take over and they will panic all over again!” The white stallion sighed and hung his head a bit, defeated. “Yes. I… I suppose you’re right Princess Celestia…” He brought his head back up however, his eyes full of confusion, anguish, and frustration. “But we have to do something about it!” He bowed his head again, his mind full of regret. “I haven’t seen her in so long and the one time I even mentioned to see her again was my wedding… What kind of brother am I if I can’t even see my family anymore?” He sighed longingly, but shook his head, looking back up at the Princess. “Either way, I don’t think everypony is gonna believe your story for too long…” Another sigh, but this one from a large alicorn with a flowing colorful mane. She was looking out of her balcony window, studying the sun, when she slowly turned around to face the male unicorn, both of them looking at each other with worried eyes. “Shining… I know how you feel… I have known Twilight through a good portion of her life and we both know she is an amazingly smart and talented pony. She… she will return. We both know it…” Slowly, she began to descend the steps from her small balcony and approached the unicorn, who honestly wasn’t caring so much in presentation at the moment for the princess. Shockingly for Shining, she wrapped a motherly wing around him and held him closely. Shining didn’t know what to do at first, but eventually he could see the slight watering in her eyes, slightly gleaming at him. It was then he knew that she truly was worried about his sister, and with all the stuff that had happened in Equestria for the past year, this seemed like a tipping point for her. I suppose... I suppose even gods have their limits sometimes… Unconsciously, he warmed up to her, knowing that she needed the comfort as much as he did. Sniffing a few times, she finally let go of the embrace and stepped away from Shining, who now had a more formal stance to himself and a new determination in his eyes. There was a long silence between the two of them, both letting their thoughts fester and boil in their brains. They both knew there had to be a plan of action against this… thing that popped up in Ponyville. They couldn’t just leave it there and- “Halt, you two! We are a part of this as well!” Both the ponies snapped out of their thought processes as a dark blue alicorn suddenly flew in from the window, landing lightly on the ground near them. Shining Armor watched as she stoically trotted between them with a slight smile on her face. Celestia, however, cocked an eyebrow up in curiosity at the interruption by her sister. “Oh? Luna? Do you have a plan?” Luna smirk spread a bit wider and she nodded. “Yes, we do have one, dear sister!” Her smile faltered a bit suddenly and she hung her head a bit. “I… I need to do something about this myself sister… I failed to protect a great friend of mine, not only when the Changelings attacked, but now when she was taken up by that… thing…” She looked up at her sister with a bit of fire in her eyes. “We do NOT want to live with the regret for having not been a part in the saving of thine student!” The lunar princess shuffled a bit in place and toned herself down a notch. “So please, even though what I will say is a bit… irrational, I think it could work out pretty well if we do it right… ok?” Celestia was silent for a moment, making Luna a bit uneasy at her prolonged and thoughtful stare. Shining was also a bit unnerved by the Princesses but was equally intrigued and curious about Luna’s plan. Just what could the Princess have come up with, and on such short notice? “Fine. I will hear you out and trust you with what you have to say…” Celestia grinned slightly, although touched with a bit of sadness to it. “I hate to say it, but you should repay Equestria with something of your own after all these years away from us… this would be a perfect opportunity after all. Saving a land-known hero from whatever troubles have befallen her… The Court will definitely be having a field day with this…” Shining was shocked that the Princess was even thinking this way about the situation. The sudden turn entirely baffled him! “Puh-Politics?!” Both the Princess’s looked at Shining with an uneasy expression, as if they knew they sudden outburst was going to happen. The unicorn stamped his foot and shook his head, entirely shocked by the situation. “Princess! This is a rescue mission, not some political propaganda material! This is Twilight Sparkle! My sister! Your student! I… You…” Celestia suddenly put up a hoof to quiet the hysterical unicorn and interrupted him with a calming voice. “Shining, yes, this is a rescue mission in all aspects, but unfortunately for us, Equestria has not had conflict in a very long time. Now, I say unfortunate for a very specific reason. Without conflict and disagreement, things become static and still. There is no pressure to advance and everypony only wants to try and live a glorified in peace times. Politicians basically get bored with this life and will try to do their best to take advantage of this system. They will seize it, control it, and warp it to their desires since basically nopony wants to create conflict. Years before, when Discord had been around, we made some of the greatest advancements of our times in technology, culture, and knowledge. But this was only because we needed to and everything we did create was used in the most harmful of ways… ways nopony should ever have to deal with. Now, we don’t have to advance as quickly and politics rule over what we say and do instead. Princess Luna and I are always in the hot-seat with other countries who constantly try to find some reason to better themselves over us or pick a fight over meaningless things. Right now, that spotlight is being placed on Luna, due to her ineptness of being the Goddess of the Moon the past 1000 years. Nopony of this generation truly understands her and many think she shouldn’t even hold herself in the court system anymore. However, I have kept her with me in the system despite others complaining about it. She is my sister and the Lunar Monarch and she has my respect even if the others in the Court don’t. If I can try to put her in the good light of other Ponies, I will try to if only to keep Harmony throughout the land. If we lose this Harmony again and begin to advance like we did in the Discordian Era… well… I can only fear the worse…" Celestia let the words sink in for a moment before finalizing her small lecture. She looked down upon him as a teacher would a disruptive student and cast her gaze on him pointedly. "Do you understand now, Shining?” Numbly, yet angrily, Shining stiffly nodded his head, trying his absolute best to hide his emotions from the Princesses. Somehow he was able to keep his voice even as he addressed her, spilling out a “Yes, Ma’am.” Celestia immediately shifted moods and smiled, nodding at Luna, who had looked to the ground awkwardly throughout the whole tirade. “Ok dear sister… would you please tell us your plan?” Luna nodded and immediately started to belt out every part of her plan, making Celestia cock her eyebrows a few times at the ideas and was particularly shocked at one point. The white unicorn however, was seething inside of his mind however, as the Princess’s words rang throughout his head. This isn’t a rescue anymore… this is just politics to bring Luna in the spotlight! I don’t like how this is headed… I have to save my sister. I have to. I owe her that much. He stared at Luna, then Celestia, who were bouncing ideas and error-proofing the plan as much as they could, and he ground his teeth slightly. I know I am her Captain of the Guard… but… …If she gets in the way between me and my sister, I will not hesitate to do whatever I can save her… A/N- Firstly, thank you Anoobus once again for helping me out with the editing and advice~ :3 Besides that, yes, this is a challenge accepted piece mostly due to a whole huge debacle in another story of mine. Eventually, after a situation diffused, we started talking about tech in Equestria and then how no HiE story has human technology or superior culture. Well, I was a bit with and against the whole idea, but then i thought "Why not try to make it as accurate to how it would TRULY be?" So, now you have this piece of work~ ENJOY! :D Ch.2- McCarren and Richards“McCarren! What the… what the hell did you just pull out of The Gate?!” “I… it’s… it’s a purple unicorn!” “A… What?!” “Yeah, it’s a real life small unicorn… I think it could be very young but… Well, I’m not the hippologist around here! I wonder why they don’t look at hippos though… Hmmm…” “…McCarren, focus! Can you please contain the specimen before it wakes up?! We have no clue if it’s dangerous or not!” “Huh? Oh, oh yeah! Good idea!” His arms, filled with the soft purple mane of Twilight, gently picked her up and laid her atop of a metal stretcher, barely what some would call comfortable. Eagerly, McCarren rushed Twilight and himself away from the dozens of prying eyes and quiet, yet ecstatic, conversations. “Well… this is going to make my life a lot more complicated…” McCarren sighed, and pushed on through the double doors, hearing only the tail ends of now incredibly ignited conversations inside the room he was previously in. The U.S. Government had stumbled upon something glorious. =============== “Hurn… what… hmmm? Ugh… OW!” Twilight had been groggy, but after experimentally tapping her horn, she realized it was rather sore still, making her feel a bit nauseous. It was similar to being punched in the stomach, where all you wanted to do was upchuck your lunch, but luckily for Twilight, she didn’t eat too much that day. What happened that day though, was what she was mostly curious about. Finally getting her bearing straight, she experimentally opened an eyelid and was blinded by a very bright light. “Ow! Am I still… outside?” She blinked a few times, but let her eyes adjust to her new surroundings. “Wait… no… it’s just a light… But jeez, it’s a bright one!” Slowly getting up, she observed her spartan surroundings, noting how shiny and metallic everything was. “Where… am I?” she murmured to herself. Curiosity growing, she took a few steps around her white walled room. The first thing she noticed, after the light, was that there wasn’t a door in the room, making her highly curious as to how she got in there. Right afterwards, she almost slipped on her bed… which was crudely made of a pile of wood shavings. “What the heck?! What kind of pony would want to sleep on THAT?! It disgustingly gets all caught up in your coat!” Quickly she brushed herself off and searched around the room again. She was soon surprised at a water bucket hanging off the wall at an angle. Cocking an eyebrow, she tapped it, her initial irritation replaced by scientific curiosity. Right next to it, she noticed a small bucket, filled to the brim, with small brownish pellets. Experimentally, she picked one up with her magic and examined it closely. It looked like hamster feed to her… Hamster feed… Hamsters… “Does somepony think I’m some kind of stupid pet?!” She shouted out in frustration. Normally she would have kept her cool about the scenario, but her killer headache was seriously draining all the sanity from her mind. Being in an enclosed room too, which certainly did not suit her needs as a proper pony, wasn’t helping much either. Honestly, do… whoever is keeping me here, think that wood shavings would be adequate bedding for me?! My back is KILLING me right now! The mare sighed, trying to get her brain back to proper functioning, although her touchy horn wasn’t making it any easier. Alright, ALRIGHT… let's think about this for a moment… You are in a room, metal for the flooring and the walls. There is a bucket of water and pellet… things. You have some wood shavings… I wonder who or what has me trapped in here… Oh, I hope it’s not enemies of the Equestria! We are already in enough of a political pickle as it is! Sitting on her haunches, she pondered about her enclosure for a little bit, bouncing various ideas through her head while tapping a hoof on her chin. After a bit of contemplating, she decided that whoever had her here obviously wasn’t letting her out right now. There was one thing, however, they failed to incorporate when they constructed her prison… Magic, duh. With a quick zap of her magic, she immediately teleported outside the confines of her cell, materializing into a white hallways which had a similar décor to her room. It looked all nice in Twilight’s opinion, all nice, orderly, and clean, except there was a tiny problem with everything… The panicked cries of about ten of the weirdest looking creatures she had ever seen! “Well… Uhm… this is a bit awkward…” she began, but before the purple pony could do much more, the creatures started shouting at each other in some kind of language Twilight couldn’t understand. She tried to make sense of what they were talking about, but she couldn’t make heads or tails about what they were saying. All she knew was that they looked scared, which meant that this was very good, or very very bad. Maybe if I show them no harm…? She smiled a bit, grinning wide, which eased up a few of the beings in front of her, but not enough to make them stop cowering in the corner. “Uhm… hi there?” she tried, which made some of the creatures in front of her cock their eyes in curiosity and hastily scribble on top of weird looking clipboards. Still, none of them made a move towards her. The end of the hallway was behind them and the only pair of doors was beyond her. Nobody dared to inch closer to the absolutely terrifying and extremely dangerous pony. The unicorn sighed and her face fell a bit. Well this is getting us nowhere… “Hey, uh, so, can you speak Equestrian at all…? No? Well, maybe this should help us a bit…” Good thing I learned this last week… Her horn briefly lit up again and after a bit of concentration, she was able to tune her magic just enough to start hearing legible words babbling out of the being’s mouths. “I still don’t understand how the hell it got loose! That cage is supposed to withstand three rhinos worth of force and it got out without even a scratch inside!” “It’s a unicorn you idiot! We don’t know what it can do in the slightest!” “I just hope it doesn’t bite…” “Bite? I hope it’s not poisonous! Or radioactive!” “Very true… we have no clue where The Gate opened up to. For all we know, this… thing, could be even smarter than us!” “Fellow scientists…It’s eyes… they are looking at me… It’s like it understands us…” “Well of course I do! And did you say… scientists?! Oh wow! I can’t be- OW!” A sharp pain suddenly stung her rump and she turned around to see a feathery dart injected through her skin. Shock was her first response… and her only response as her world suddenly turned very swirly and blurry all around her. “Hey! You! I… whoa… Lights… And colors… … and… … …Swirllllllllll~” Ka-dumph! The unicorn of legend had fallen down once again. ============= “Good shot McCarren! I didn’t know you had it in ya!” McCarren sighed and gave the tranquilizer dart gun to the guard who had finally arrived in the third layer of the chamber, the viewing area right outside the unicorn’s containment cube. A few pats on the back from the other scientists, were given and he plainly looked at the scientist who praised him, chuckling at his comment. “Heh… Well, I used to shoot all the time with my father when we went hunting… So it was natural I suppose…” “I… see… Well, anyways, we should get the specimen in its containment area before it wakes up. Uhm…” The scientist looked at the others around him, who still were a bit shaken by the creature lain before them. “Uh…Guys? Help…?” A sigh and ten seconds later, McCarren walked over to unicorn, much to the displeasure of several shouting scientists, and plopped her on top of the metal trolley he had put her on before. Without ceremony, he opened the wall to the cube wide open and placed her back on top of the wood shavings like he had done earlier. Exiting the cube and slamming the door shut, he clapped his hands together and smiled widely. “That wasn’t so hard… was it?” The scientist who had praised him moments before, now looked at him with scorn and immediately piped his shrill voice up. “You… you… you idiot! What kinds of scientist are you?! Do you know that thing could have been toxic? Or radioactive?! It could have illnesses and diseases all over you and infecting you right-“ An open palm interrupted the scientist and McCarren sighed a bit. “Alright, first of all, I am not like one you ‘scientists’. My specialties are in the abnormal, paranormal, and things of a cryptozoologic nature. So I may be labeled as a ‘scientist’, but I am not like you. I do things because I have to. Second, if it was radioactive, we would have picked it up by now. We attempted and succeeded alternate dimensional transportation, if only for a short time. For a fact, I know we have scanners for any radiation spikes in the machinery and anything from the Gate. Nothing was picked up. Lastly, if it was toxic, then you all would also be infected at the moment. I touched her earlier today to get her in the cube after all, and you all just touched me. So yeah, nothing has happened to me…” Evilly, he grinned at the nervously shuffling scientists. “Well, nothing yet.” The guard beside him snorted out loud as most of the scientist’s faces blanched, truly thinking something would happen to them at any moments, like paralysis, multiple limbs randomly sprouting from their bodies. You know… the usual stuff! McCarren, after a good laugh, looked at one of the monitors by the scientists and strode over to it, the scientists giving him a wide berth now. They all grimaced as he touched a few keys and the screen a few times, eventually filling it up with a live feed of Twilight. He stared hard at the screen, contemplating on an thought he had since he shot the purple mare. “It was odd, though,” he stated aloud, enough for the others to hear. “That the unicorn was speaking in a bunch of neigh-like noises, then, all of a sudden, it starts speaking perfect English! It even knew what were saying… at least, for a time...” He then rewound the feed to when the unicorn escaped and pointed at her suddenly vanishing out of the cube in a small array of light. “And this! What does it think it is? Houdini or something?!” McCarren rubbed his head and put his hand to his chin. “Hm… very interesting…” “Yes, yes it is indeed Professor McCarren. Exactly the reason we need someone like you around here... The only reason we need you around here” McCarren brought his face up to see a tall man entering the third layer and passing by the guard. Immediately, the professor stood up straight and smiled slightly. “Ah… old man Professor Richards! I was wondering when you would get here!” His smiled faltered for a moment as he reached out to shake the other Professor’s hand. “Witty humor, as always…” Richards didn’t say anything and simply looked at the monitor, which replayed the five seconds of Twilight’s teleportation over and over again in an infinite loop. It also played a recording of the short bit of perfect English she had spoken to the scientists, who all were now slowly calming down and exiting the area, one by one. Eventually, even the guard left, and all that were left were McCarren and Richards. Twilight, still softly sleeping in the cube, muttered something about Starswhirl the Bearded and rolled onto her side, oblivious to the intense staredown between the two professors. Eventually McCarren broke the silence and pointed to the monitor they both were now looking at. “So… what’s your take on all of this? I don’t think we are dealing with some ‘dumb animal’ here at all…” “No, indeed not…” He jabbed at the screen, brushing his fingers in a circle around the video of Twilight. “According to this video, the unicorn was trying to communicate with us for awhile in some tongue we don’t understand. That makes sense, yet-“ “Yet somehow, this creature from another realm, galaxy, universe, or whatever just ups and starts speaking in perfect English? That doesn’t make sense…” McCarren finished. Richards, slightly irritated at being interrupted, stiffly nodded. The younger of the two sighed and rubbed his forehead. “So… what do you think we should do?” Richards smirked slightly and looked at McCarren. “Why, I think it’s time we had a chat with our newest friend…” He cocked his head slightly. “Don’t you think?” A/N- Ok, took a bit longer than expected, but here it is! Second chapter of my challenge story and bringing about the next main character in the short series (i hope) this will be! Basically, i am thinking about just switching back and forth for writing with my other stories, but at the moment, I'm just gonna pump out whatever i can with these! Catch you in the comments/ next chapter! :) AND THANKS TO ANOOBUS93 WHO IS AN AWESOME EDITOR! :D Ch.3- Plans and Obstacles“THIS was your big plan?!” Luna stamped a hoof on the grass, which muffled its strike substantially. “Well… we have not strategized in over one thousand years! Doth you really expect us to be on the top of our game?” “Princess Luna… you don’t need to speak like that anymore… we aren’t around your sister or anypony important…” “Hehe… sorry, old habits.” Shining Armor sighed and sat back down on the grass in the middle of the field. They happened to be in Ponyville, on the very field that the… whatever it was, swallowed Twilight up. In fact, he was looking at it at that very moment. The thing was only a sliver of pink-purple, looking as if somepony had cracked open the air in this small spot. A small breeze constantly flew by it, but not inside of the crack, much to Shining Armor’s relief. He didn’t want any other ponies to worry about. “So, do I look fine or not?” Shining Armor jumped a bit at the question, wondering if the Princess was trying to hit on him. It was a few seconds later, after looking back at her, that he thankfully realized why she asked. Instead of the tall imposing Princess, there was a simple purple unicorn standing where she had been only a few moments ago. Her darker purple mane with a pink stripe was nicely brushed and her cutie mark of a pointed star was finely done. The purple eyes of the pony shown, looking for approval with her big smile The captain whistled low, getting up and circling around the replica of his sister, and nodded. “Yeah Luna… this is spot on! You even have the right length of hair!” He shook his head and chuckled a bit. “Transformation was hard for me in school, but thankfully I passed!” The Princess blushed from the compliment but stood up straight at the mention of transformation. “Well, I AM the Princess of the Night! I invented most of the transformation magic you know of today!” “Yeah, I know… Morphing the Body was quite hard to read you know…” “Oh… that book… holy horsefeathers that was hundreds of years ago…” “Yeah. Mine fell apart while I tried to read it!” Luna-turned-Twilight put a hoof to her lips, giggling a little bit, making Shining only roll his eyes. The field they were in was empty as both nopony wanted to be around the strange crack nevermind the fact that everypony was probably asleep. Part of Luna’s plan had been to go under the cover of darkness so as not to startle any ponies. The other part was disguising herself as Twilight Sparkle just in case somepony happened to come by in the middle of night. It was extra precaution, but it was a safety procedure that was needed. If somepony happened to walk by and talk to them, all they would simply do was- “YAY TWILIGHT! YOU’RE BACK!” “GYACK!” Shining only had to blink once for Twilight-Luna to be there in front of him, then be barreling across the field along with a ball of pink. Surprised at the sudden entrance of an excitable pink pony, he looked over to his left and groaned mentally as he saw four other mares. Specifically, the other Elements of Harmony. Luna coughed a bit from the sudden impact , her anger flashing up but extinguishing just as fast when Pinkie started nuzzling her. “Oh Twi! We heard about everything and checked to see if you were home today, but other ponies said that you were at the castle and we were SO worried! We were all gonna see if you got home tonight but now you’re here and I’m so excited and relieved you’re back home and- mmmm mmm mm mmmmm mmm!“ “Pinkie, please be quiet and get off of me.” Luna said, smiling a bit as she held a hoof over her mouth. “Mmmm mmm!” Slowly she let go of her mouth and got up, dusting herself off with a sigh. As soon as she looked back up though, she yelped in surprise as the other mares group hugged her, all of them talking at once. “Oh my stars darling! Are you-“ “Sugarcube… what in the hay happened to-“ “Uhm… ohhhh Twilight, please don’t scare us like-“ “Yo! Why didn’t anyone tell us that you were-“ “Hey! Why can’t I talk? That’s not very fa-“ “Luna, I think we should-“ “SILENCE!” Everypony jumped as Twilight-Luna spoke in the Royal Canterlot voice to dispel the ponies around her, her eyes and horn glowing bright now. The mares looked at each other, confused at the sudden transformation of their beloved Twilight. Except for Fluttershy, who was hiding behind Applejack, shivering a little bit from the shock and loudness of Luna’s voice. Shining was sweating now, watching as the mission was already unraveling before them. He knew that Luna could be temperamental at times, but now was NOT the time for her to be having a hissy fit from a bunch worried friends! Stepping between the mares and Luna, he looked sternly at the Princess in disguise and nodded at the others. “Luna!” he hissed through his teeth, hopefully low enough so they couldn’t hear. “I think they should know what’s happening! The plan’s already falling apart!” The Princess looked at each pony, backing herself up a bit as she shook her head. “N-no! This is MY plan! I need to do this!” Her horn began to glow brighter. “I-I have an idea! I’ll just put them all to sleep and teleport them home for now!” Applejack stepped forward now, standing besides Shining and cocked an eyebrow. “Now hold your horses there Twi… what’s goin’ on ‘round here?” The others all nodded in agreement and followed suit, asking the Princess similar questions. Luna kept on backing away though, watching as her plan fell apart before her, and her horn glowing more menacingly. Shining Armor’s mind was reeling, trying to find a better solution to the problem. Even if they were put to sleep, they would still remember what would happen afterwards and start asking questions about their best friend! No. Luna wasn’t going to ruin her sister’s life in Ponyville. He was not going to let that happen! His horn now glowing, he charged after Luna, who was thoroughly surprised by the sudden aggression by the Captain of the Royal Guard. Shining didn’t want it to come to this, but he needed to knock out the Princess for now so that they could regroup and figure out a plan later. He would rather Twilight’s friends be mad at him than at Twilight. “YEAAAAAAAAAGH!” “Sh-Shining, what are you- WHA!” It was then that Shining realized where they were now in the field and what was between him and Luna. The Crack. He watched it now as it suddenly opened up, spreading wide apart. A small breeze wafted inside of it, tugging at everypony there invitingly. They were all looking inside of it, noting one thing that made all of them shudder. It was black. Pure black. Shining stared in its abyss, his horn diffusing its glow as he smiled. This was one of the steps of the plans coming into action and it happened a lot faster than he thought it would. They knew whatever it was would open up some way. Now that it had, they could go through! Yet, Luna didn’t seem to want to budge at all, her eyes aglow and her horn still producing a huge amount of magic. Panic started to fill Shining. He was NOT going to miss his chance to go and get his sister because of this one mare! He didn’t care if she was an alicorn or Princess! The stallion needed to save his sister and she wasn’t going to stop him! With a burst of magical energy, he scooped Luna-Twilight up in his magic and threw her into void, much to everypony’s surprise there. She only got out a single yelp before she was fully encase in the void and with a pop, she was gone from view. Looking behind him, he shook his head and murmured at the mares. “I’m sorry…” Without waiting for an answer, he launched himself into the portal as well, ready for whatever may come his way. The Elements of Harmony were in complete shock at the events unfolded before them. It was AJ and Rainbow Dash that recovered first, both of them nodding at each other as they ran towards the Crack, which was now slowly closing up. They jumped on in, not waiting for the others. “Yeeeeeeehaw!” “Hurry up slowpokes!” Within a second, they both disappeared into the darkness. Pinkie Pie was close behind them, a set look of determination on her face and her nostrils flared out. “Twilight Pinkie Promised me that she will always be around for me! AND HER POOPYHEAD BROTHER BROKE THAT NOW!” With that, she launched herself into the Crack as well, popping out of existence. Fluttershy and Rarity were falling behind, Fluttershy fearful of the black gate before them and Rarity because she was trying to coax her to hurry. Finally, with the gate nearly closed, the white unicorn enveloped the scared stiff pegasus in her magic, running towards the gate to throw her in. With an unhappy “Eeep!”, Fluttershy found herself sucked into the void as well. Rarity, the last one, jumped towards the portal with a fevered leap, her horn glowing still. As she passed into the void though, she noticed that the Crack had stopped closing. The observation slipped through her brain for only a second before she was consumed as well. Silently, the Crack sealed up like before, leaving the field barren once more. A/N- Welp... haven't posted... ANYTHING for awhile now and of course i have a ton of excuses. Will i care to name them off? Hell no. Anyways, sorry it took so long to write something and sorry for those who were eager for the other story chapters i had wanted to do... With finals and less than decent grades, i've been having a hard time trying to keep up my social life, school life, Brony life, and personal life in balance. ANYWHOWAYS, hoped you enjoyed the chapter~ :) Comment if you like and the drill is the usual~ :) AND THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO EDITED THIS CHAPTER~ OH GOD I LOVE MY EDITORS~ :D
Ch.1- Concern and Regret“...Didja hear about it?” “About what? Wait…Oh, you mean that weird thing that popped up-“ “Yeah! Right outside Ponyville! Can you believe that?” “Well, of course! Weird stuff always happens here… ya know?” “Yeah... that’s true…” “But…” “But what?” “I don’t know Bon Bon… but this thing that’s popped up seems very… important. Life changing honestly… I mean… Twilight got knocked out right after it appeared and is with the Princess now... you know?” Bon Bon giggled a bit and hugged her best friend beside her. “Yeah, that’s true, but she is an able mare! She’ll be fine!” She giggled childishly again. “You are such a silly filly sometimes Lyra!” Lyra blushed a bit but managed to chuckle slightly at her friends antics. “Y-yeah, I suppose so, hehe…” The candy-maker pony smiled broadly and strode on ahead of her minty green friend. “Yeah! So long as we are together, nothing can go wrong, right?” The musician smiled back and nodded. “Mhm! Whatever may happen, we always have each other!” They merrily laughed as they trotted about town, letting the sun bask upon them. ================ It was as normal a day in Ponyville as it could have been. The pegasi had made today extra sunny with minimal cloud coverage to allow Celestia’s sun to beam down upon her good citizens. The market was in full steam, everypony trying to sell their wares for the highest possible price they could try for. Ponies went in and out of shops steadily, trying to gather their daily supplies for their usual activities. It was as normal as day in Ponyville as it could have been, yet in a peace-loving town, the strangest things always happened. Twilight was the first to discover it. She had her face stuck in a book while traveling through the park when it happened. The air, invigorating. The grass, lush and green. And all around her were ponies laughing, playing, and generally having a good time. Twilight took a moment from her book to breathe the fresh air, exhaling through her mouth explosively. “Ahhhhhh! Today turned out to be lovely! The suns out, the sky is clear, and everypony is really hap-“ Suddenly, as if from nowhere, her head was assaulted by an enormous headache, making her wince from the sharp pain pounding in her skull. “Ugh… what… what the- AH!” This time, she fell to the ground, the pain doubling in force. Her sudden shout out caught the attention of several ponies around her and they were immediately curious about the pained mare. Twilight, however, didn’t even register the ponies beginning to gather around her, the pain intensifying in waves. “GAH! What… What the heck is- ARGH!” Writhing around on the ground now, she barely was conscious about the ponies starting to gather around her, murmuring a bit as someone went to fetch a doctor for her. Nopony wanted to get too close to her. Nopony knew what was wrong with her after all… she could have been diseased! “Please… the pain… its- URGH!” Several shocked gasps came from the small crowd around her as her horn suddenly lit up, spewing out a few sparks from its tip. The ponies around her took a few steps back in wonderment at her horn, which began to glow stronger and brighter. Twilight, at this point, didn’t know what was happening to her, only registering the fact that she was in incredible pain right now, as if her horn was going to split open. The pain suddenly spiked again and the poor purple mare shrieked in agony, barely hearing the shouts of alarm erupting from the others. A thin beam of light suddenly shot up from her horn, reaching about 10 feet up in the air above Twilight. As soon as the beam hit its apex, it severed its connection with the unicorn, leaving her there on the ground writing in pain, breathing raggedly. A brave stallion immediately went to her aid, looking her over to check for any kind of physical injuries. Eventually, others began to slowly surround her. Everyone in town knew about Twilight. How couldn’t they? She had averted disaster in both Equestria and Ponyville several times, saving many ponies lives in the process. The mare was both a hero and a legend throughout the land… But now, now she was reduced to a shivering mess of purple in the middle of a confused crowd. It was then that the stallion who had originally come to Twilight’s aid shouted out in horror. Everypony looked up from Twilight to figure out what had shocked the stallion. Was there some injury on the fallen mare? Had some weird transformation happened to her? Magical backfire? Yet, as they laid their eyes on him, he was not focused on Twilight at all. His eyes were wide in shock at the beam of light, which had begun to open up slowly, like a maw ready to devour all that surrounded it. Panic immediately ensued throughout the crowd of onlookers, everypony colliding and racing against each other while screaming their heads off. Twilight, by some miracle, had begun to get up slowly as the pain began to recede from her body. “Ugh... where… where is everypony going…?” The purple unicorn still felt a bit shaken up, but she began to truly register everything around her. Ponies shouting out in shock. Grass and sod being kicked up by hooves. Many of them heading for their houses, locking the doors and shutting their windows in a cacophony of slams. The unicorn blinked a few times, trying to make sense of it all. She knew something was up, but she could feel the edges of her mind getting black and unresponsive. No… Can’t… black out here… got to… resist… However, try as she might, nothing seemed to impede or stop the flow of her consciousness leaving her. It slowly slipped further and further from her body like a gentle release from the outside world. Not so much however, as to not feel something grab onto her coat sharply and immediately pull her backwards… Backwards, into the gaping maw. =============== “Thank you, Shining Armor, but please… you know as well as I do that this situation should not be taken lightly!” “But Princess, I-“ “I know she is your sister, but we have to think about all of Equestria first. If we tell everypony that your sister was abducted by this… this… well, whatever it is, then hysteria will take over and they will panic all over again!” The white stallion sighed and hung his head a bit, defeated. “Yes. I… I suppose you’re right Princess Celestia…” He brought his head back up however, his eyes full of confusion, anguish, and frustration. “But we have to do something about it!” He bowed his head again, his mind full of regret. “I haven’t seen her in so long and the one time I even mentioned to see her again was my wedding… What kind of brother am I if I can’t even see my family anymore?” He sighed longingly, but shook his head, looking back up at the Princess. “Either way, I don’t think everypony is gonna believe your story for too long…” Another sigh, but this one from a large alicorn with a flowing colorful mane. She was looking out of her balcony window, studying the sun, when she slowly turned around to face the male unicorn, both of them looking at each other with worried eyes. “Shining… I know how you feel… I have known Twilight through a good portion of her life and we both know she is an amazingly smart and talented pony. She… she will return. We both know it…” Slowly, she began to descend the steps from her small balcony and approached the unicorn, who honestly wasn’t caring so much in presentation at the moment for the princess. Shockingly for Shining, she wrapped a motherly wing around him and held him closely. Shining didn’t know what to do at first, but eventually he could see the slight watering in her eyes, slightly gleaming at him. It was then he knew that she truly was worried about his sister, and with all the stuff that had happened in Equestria for the past year, this seemed like a tipping point for her. I suppose... I suppose even gods have their limits sometimes… Unconsciously, he warmed up to her, knowing that she needed the comfort as much as he did. Sniffing a few times, she finally let go of the embrace and stepped away from Shining, who now had a more formal stance to himself and a new determination in his eyes. There was a long silence between the two of them, both letting their thoughts fester and boil in their brains. They both knew there had to be a plan of action against this… thing that popped up in Ponyville. They couldn’t just leave it there and- “Halt, you two! We are a part of this as well!” Both the ponies snapped out of their thought processes as a dark blue alicorn suddenly flew in from the window, landing lightly on the ground near them. Shining Armor watched as she stoically trotted between them with a slight smile on her face. Celestia, however, cocked an eyebrow up in curiosity at the interruption by her sister. “Oh? Luna? Do you have a plan?” Luna smirk spread a bit wider and she nodded. “Yes, we do have one, dear sister!” Her smile faltered a bit suddenly and she hung her head a bit. “I… I need to do something about this myself sister… I failed to protect a great friend of mine, not only when the Changelings attacked, but now when she was taken up by that… thing…” She looked up at her sister with a bit of fire in her eyes. “We do NOT want to live with the regret for having not been a part in the saving of thine student!” The lunar princess shuffled a bit in place and toned herself down a notch. “So please, even though what I will say is a bit… irrational, I think it could work out pretty well if we do it right… ok?” Celestia was silent for a moment, making Luna a bit uneasy at her prolonged and thoughtful stare. Shining was also a bit unnerved by the Princesses but was equally intrigued and curious about Luna’s plan. Just what could the Princess have come up with, and on such short notice? “Fine. I will hear you out and trust you with what you have to say…” Celestia grinned slightly, although touched with a bit of sadness to it. “I hate to say it, but you should repay Equestria with something of your own after all these years away from us… this would be a perfect opportunity after all. Saving a land-known hero from whatever troubles have befallen her… The Court will definitely be having a field day with this…” Shining was shocked that the Princess was even thinking this way about the situation. The sudden turn entirely baffled him! “Puh-Politics?!” Both the Princess’s looked at Shining with an uneasy expression, as if they knew they sudden outburst was going to happen. The unicorn stamped his foot and shook his head, entirely shocked by the situation. “Princess! This is a rescue mission, not some political propaganda material! This is Twilight Sparkle! My sister! Your student! I… You…” Celestia suddenly put up a hoof to quiet the hysterical unicorn and interrupted him with a calming voice. “Shining, yes, this is a rescue mission in all aspects, but unfortunately for us, Equestria has not had conflict in a very long time. Now, I say unfortunate for a very specific reason. Without conflict and disagreement, things become static and still. There is no pressure to advance and everypony only wants to try and live a glorified in peace times. Politicians basically get bored with this life and will try to do their best to take advantage of this system. They will seize it, control it, and warp it to their desires since basically nopony wants to create conflict. Years before, when Discord had been around, we made some of the greatest advancements of our times in technology, culture, and knowledge. But this was only because we needed to and everything we did create was used in the most harmful of ways… ways nopony should ever have to deal with. Now, we don’t have to advance as quickly and politics rule over what we say and do instead. Princess Luna and I are always in the hot-seat with other countries who constantly try to find some reason to better themselves over us or pick a fight over meaningless things. Right now, that spotlight is being placed on Luna, due to her ineptness of being the Goddess of the Moon the past 1000 years. Nopony of this generation truly understands her and many think she shouldn’t even hold herself in the court system anymore. However, I have kept her with me in the system despite others complaining about it. She is my sister and the Lunar Monarch and she has my respect even if the others in the Court don’t. If I can try to put her in the good light of other Ponies, I will try to if only to keep Harmony throughout the land. If we lose this Harmony again and begin to advance like we did in the Discordian Era… well… I can only fear the worse…" Celestia let the words sink in for a moment before finalizing her small lecture. She looked down upon him as a teacher would a disruptive student and cast her gaze on him pointedly. "Do you understand now, Shining?” Numbly, yet angrily, Shining stiffly nodded his head, trying his absolute best to hide his emotions from the Princesses. Somehow he was able to keep his voice even as he addressed her, spilling out a “Yes, Ma’am.” Celestia immediately shifted moods and smiled, nodding at Luna, who had looked to the ground awkwardly throughout the whole tirade. “Ok dear sister… would you please tell us your plan?” Luna nodded and immediately started to belt out every part of her plan, making Celestia cock her eyebrows a few times at the ideas and was particularly shocked at one point. The white unicorn however, was seething inside of his mind however, as the Princess’s words rang throughout his head. This isn’t a rescue anymore… this is just politics to bring Luna in the spotlight! I don’t like how this is headed… I have to save my sister. I have to. I owe her that much. He stared at Luna, then Celestia, who were bouncing ideas and error-proofing the plan as much as they could, and he ground his teeth slightly. I know I am her Captain of the Guard… but… …If she gets in the way between me and my sister, I will not hesitate to do whatever I can save her… A/N- Firstly, thank you Anoobus once again for helping me out with the editing and advice~ :3 Besides that, yes, this is a challenge accepted piece mostly due to a whole huge debacle in another story of mine. Eventually, after a situation diffused, we started talking about tech in Equestria and then how no HiE story has human technology or superior culture. Well, I was a bit with and against the whole idea, but then i thought "Why not try to make it as accurate to how it would TRULY be?" So, now you have this piece of work~ ENJOY! :D
Ch.2- McCarren and Richards“McCarren! What the… what the hell did you just pull out of The Gate?!” “I… it’s… it’s a purple unicorn!” “A… What?!” “Yeah, it’s a real life small unicorn… I think it could be very young but… Well, I’m not the hippologist around here! I wonder why they don’t look at hippos though… Hmmm…” “…McCarren, focus! Can you please contain the specimen before it wakes up?! We have no clue if it’s dangerous or not!” “Huh? Oh, oh yeah! Good idea!” His arms, filled with the soft purple mane of Twilight, gently picked her up and laid her atop of a metal stretcher, barely what some would call comfortable. Eagerly, McCarren rushed Twilight and himself away from the dozens of prying eyes and quiet, yet ecstatic, conversations. “Well… this is going to make my life a lot more complicated…” McCarren sighed, and pushed on through the double doors, hearing only the tail ends of now incredibly ignited conversations inside the room he was previously in. The U.S. Government had stumbled upon something glorious. =============== “Hurn… what… hmmm? Ugh… OW!” Twilight had been groggy, but after experimentally tapping her horn, she realized it was rather sore still, making her feel a bit nauseous. It was similar to being punched in the stomach, where all you wanted to do was upchuck your lunch, but luckily for Twilight, she didn’t eat too much that day. What happened that day though, was what she was mostly curious about. Finally getting her bearing straight, she experimentally opened an eyelid and was blinded by a very bright light. “Ow! Am I still… outside?” She blinked a few times, but let her eyes adjust to her new surroundings. “Wait… no… it’s just a light… But jeez, it’s a bright one!” Slowly getting up, she observed her spartan surroundings, noting how shiny and metallic everything was. “Where… am I?” she murmured to herself. Curiosity growing, she took a few steps around her white walled room. The first thing she noticed, after the light, was that there wasn’t a door in the room, making her highly curious as to how she got in there. Right afterwards, she almost slipped on her bed… which was crudely made of a pile of wood shavings. “What the heck?! What kind of pony would want to sleep on THAT?! It disgustingly gets all caught up in your coat!” Quickly she brushed herself off and searched around the room again. She was soon surprised at a water bucket hanging off the wall at an angle. Cocking an eyebrow, she tapped it, her initial irritation replaced by scientific curiosity. Right next to it, she noticed a small bucket, filled to the brim, with small brownish pellets. Experimentally, she picked one up with her magic and examined it closely. It looked like hamster feed to her… Hamster feed… Hamsters… “Does somepony think I’m some kind of stupid pet?!” She shouted out in frustration. Normally she would have kept her cool about the scenario, but her killer headache was seriously draining all the sanity from her mind. Being in an enclosed room too, which certainly did not suit her needs as a proper pony, wasn’t helping much either. Honestly, do… whoever is keeping me here, think that wood shavings would be adequate bedding for me?! My back is KILLING me right now! The mare sighed, trying to get her brain back to proper functioning, although her touchy horn wasn’t making it any easier. Alright, ALRIGHT… let's think about this for a moment… You are in a room, metal for the flooring and the walls. There is a bucket of water and pellet… things. You have some wood shavings… I wonder who or what has me trapped in here… Oh, I hope it’s not enemies of the Equestria! We are already in enough of a political pickle as it is! Sitting on her haunches, she pondered about her enclosure for a little bit, bouncing various ideas through her head while tapping a hoof on her chin. After a bit of contemplating, she decided that whoever had her here obviously wasn’t letting her out right now. There was one thing, however, they failed to incorporate when they constructed her prison… Magic, duh. With a quick zap of her magic, she immediately teleported outside the confines of her cell, materializing into a white hallways which had a similar décor to her room. It looked all nice in Twilight’s opinion, all nice, orderly, and clean, except there was a tiny problem with everything… The panicked cries of about ten of the weirdest looking creatures she had ever seen! “Well… Uhm… this is a bit awkward…” she began, but before the purple pony could do much more, the creatures started shouting at each other in some kind of language Twilight couldn’t understand. She tried to make sense of what they were talking about, but she couldn’t make heads or tails about what they were saying. All she knew was that they looked scared, which meant that this was very good, or very very bad. Maybe if I show them no harm…? She smiled a bit, grinning wide, which eased up a few of the beings in front of her, but not enough to make them stop cowering in the corner. “Uhm… hi there?” she tried, which made some of the creatures in front of her cock their eyes in curiosity and hastily scribble on top of weird looking clipboards. Still, none of them made a move towards her. The end of the hallway was behind them and the only pair of doors was beyond her. Nobody dared to inch closer to the absolutely terrifying and extremely dangerous pony. The unicorn sighed and her face fell a bit. Well this is getting us nowhere… “Hey, uh, so, can you speak Equestrian at all…? No? Well, maybe this should help us a bit…” Good thing I learned this last week… Her horn briefly lit up again and after a bit of concentration, she was able to tune her magic just enough to start hearing legible words babbling out of the being’s mouths. “I still don’t understand how the hell it got loose! That cage is supposed to withstand three rhinos worth of force and it got out without even a scratch inside!” “It’s a unicorn you idiot! We don’t know what it can do in the slightest!” “I just hope it doesn’t bite…” “Bite? I hope it’s not poisonous! Or radioactive!” “Very true… we have no clue where The Gate opened up to. For all we know, this… thing, could be even smarter than us!” “Fellow scientists…It’s eyes… they are looking at me… It’s like it understands us…” “Well of course I do! And did you say… scientists?! Oh wow! I can’t be- OW!” A sharp pain suddenly stung her rump and she turned around to see a feathery dart injected through her skin. Shock was her first response… and her only response as her world suddenly turned very swirly and blurry all around her. “Hey! You! I… whoa… Lights… And colors… … and… … …Swirllllllllll~” Ka-dumph! The unicorn of legend had fallen down once again. ============= “Good shot McCarren! I didn’t know you had it in ya!” McCarren sighed and gave the tranquilizer dart gun to the guard who had finally arrived in the third layer of the chamber, the viewing area right outside the unicorn’s containment cube. A few pats on the back from the other scientists, were given and he plainly looked at the scientist who praised him, chuckling at his comment. “Heh… Well, I used to shoot all the time with my father when we went hunting… So it was natural I suppose…” “I… see… Well, anyways, we should get the specimen in its containment area before it wakes up. Uhm…” The scientist looked at the others around him, who still were a bit shaken by the creature lain before them. “Uh…Guys? Help…?” A sigh and ten seconds later, McCarren walked over to unicorn, much to the displeasure of several shouting scientists, and plopped her on top of the metal trolley he had put her on before. Without ceremony, he opened the wall to the cube wide open and placed her back on top of the wood shavings like he had done earlier. Exiting the cube and slamming the door shut, he clapped his hands together and smiled widely. “That wasn’t so hard… was it?” The scientist who had praised him moments before, now looked at him with scorn and immediately piped his shrill voice up. “You… you… you idiot! What kinds of scientist are you?! Do you know that thing could have been toxic? Or radioactive?! It could have illnesses and diseases all over you and infecting you right-“ An open palm interrupted the scientist and McCarren sighed a bit. “Alright, first of all, I am not like one you ‘scientists’. My specialties are in the abnormal, paranormal, and things of a cryptozoologic nature. So I may be labeled as a ‘scientist’, but I am not like you. I do things because I have to. Second, if it was radioactive, we would have picked it up by now. We attempted and succeeded alternate dimensional transportation, if only for a short time. For a fact, I know we have scanners for any radiation spikes in the machinery and anything from the Gate. Nothing was picked up. Lastly, if it was toxic, then you all would also be infected at the moment. I touched her earlier today to get her in the cube after all, and you all just touched me. So yeah, nothing has happened to me…” Evilly, he grinned at the nervously shuffling scientists. “Well, nothing yet.” The guard beside him snorted out loud as most of the scientist’s faces blanched, truly thinking something would happen to them at any moments, like paralysis, multiple limbs randomly sprouting from their bodies. You know… the usual stuff! McCarren, after a good laugh, looked at one of the monitors by the scientists and strode over to it, the scientists giving him a wide berth now. They all grimaced as he touched a few keys and the screen a few times, eventually filling it up with a live feed of Twilight. He stared hard at the screen, contemplating on an thought he had since he shot the purple mare. “It was odd, though,” he stated aloud, enough for the others to hear. “That the unicorn was speaking in a bunch of neigh-like noises, then, all of a sudden, it starts speaking perfect English! It even knew what were saying… at least, for a time...” He then rewound the feed to when the unicorn escaped and pointed at her suddenly vanishing out of the cube in a small array of light. “And this! What does it think it is? Houdini or something?!” McCarren rubbed his head and put his hand to his chin. “Hm… very interesting…” “Yes, yes it is indeed Professor McCarren. Exactly the reason we need someone like you around here... The only reason we need you around here” McCarren brought his face up to see a tall man entering the third layer and passing by the guard. Immediately, the professor stood up straight and smiled slightly. “Ah… old man Professor Richards! I was wondering when you would get here!” His smiled faltered for a moment as he reached out to shake the other Professor’s hand. “Witty humor, as always…” Richards didn’t say anything and simply looked at the monitor, which replayed the five seconds of Twilight’s teleportation over and over again in an infinite loop. It also played a recording of the short bit of perfect English she had spoken to the scientists, who all were now slowly calming down and exiting the area, one by one. Eventually, even the guard left, and all that were left were McCarren and Richards. Twilight, still softly sleeping in the cube, muttered something about Starswhirl the Bearded and rolled onto her side, oblivious to the intense staredown between the two professors. Eventually McCarren broke the silence and pointed to the monitor they both were now looking at. “So… what’s your take on all of this? I don’t think we are dealing with some ‘dumb animal’ here at all…” “No, indeed not…” He jabbed at the screen, brushing his fingers in a circle around the video of Twilight. “According to this video, the unicorn was trying to communicate with us for awhile in some tongue we don’t understand. That makes sense, yet-“ “Yet somehow, this creature from another realm, galaxy, universe, or whatever just ups and starts speaking in perfect English? That doesn’t make sense…” McCarren finished. Richards, slightly irritated at being interrupted, stiffly nodded. The younger of the two sighed and rubbed his forehead. “So… what do you think we should do?” Richards smirked slightly and looked at McCarren. “Why, I think it’s time we had a chat with our newest friend…” He cocked his head slightly. “Don’t you think?” A/N- Ok, took a bit longer than expected, but here it is! Second chapter of my challenge story and bringing about the next main character in the short series (i hope) this will be! Basically, i am thinking about just switching back and forth for writing with my other stories, but at the moment, I'm just gonna pump out whatever i can with these! Catch you in the comments/ next chapter! :) AND THANKS TO ANOOBUS93 WHO IS AN AWESOME EDITOR! :D
Ch.3- Plans and Obstacles“THIS was your big plan?!” Luna stamped a hoof on the grass, which muffled its strike substantially. “Well… we have not strategized in over one thousand years! Doth you really expect us to be on the top of our game?” “Princess Luna… you don’t need to speak like that anymore… we aren’t around your sister or anypony important…” “Hehe… sorry, old habits.” Shining Armor sighed and sat back down on the grass in the middle of the field. They happened to be in Ponyville, on the very field that the… whatever it was, swallowed Twilight up. In fact, he was looking at it at that very moment. The thing was only a sliver of pink-purple, looking as if somepony had cracked open the air in this small spot. A small breeze constantly flew by it, but not inside of the crack, much to Shining Armor’s relief. He didn’t want any other ponies to worry about. “So, do I look fine or not?” Shining Armor jumped a bit at the question, wondering if the Princess was trying to hit on him. It was a few seconds later, after looking back at her, that he thankfully realized why she asked. Instead of the tall imposing Princess, there was a simple purple unicorn standing where she had been only a few moments ago. Her darker purple mane with a pink stripe was nicely brushed and her cutie mark of a pointed star was finely done. The purple eyes of the pony shown, looking for approval with her big smile The captain whistled low, getting up and circling around the replica of his sister, and nodded. “Yeah Luna… this is spot on! You even have the right length of hair!” He shook his head and chuckled a bit. “Transformation was hard for me in school, but thankfully I passed!” The Princess blushed from the compliment but stood up straight at the mention of transformation. “Well, I AM the Princess of the Night! I invented most of the transformation magic you know of today!” “Yeah, I know… Morphing the Body was quite hard to read you know…” “Oh… that book… holy horsefeathers that was hundreds of years ago…” “Yeah. Mine fell apart while I tried to read it!” Luna-turned-Twilight put a hoof to her lips, giggling a little bit, making Shining only roll his eyes. The field they were in was empty as both nopony wanted to be around the strange crack nevermind the fact that everypony was probably asleep. Part of Luna’s plan had been to go under the cover of darkness so as not to startle any ponies. The other part was disguising herself as Twilight Sparkle just in case somepony happened to come by in the middle of night. It was extra precaution, but it was a safety procedure that was needed. If somepony happened to walk by and talk to them, all they would simply do was- “YAY TWILIGHT! YOU’RE BACK!” “GYACK!” Shining only had to blink once for Twilight-Luna to be there in front of him, then be barreling across the field along with a ball of pink. Surprised at the sudden entrance of an excitable pink pony, he looked over to his left and groaned mentally as he saw four other mares. Specifically, the other Elements of Harmony. Luna coughed a bit from the sudden impact , her anger flashing up but extinguishing just as fast when Pinkie started nuzzling her. “Oh Twi! We heard about everything and checked to see if you were home today, but other ponies said that you were at the castle and we were SO worried! We were all gonna see if you got home tonight but now you’re here and I’m so excited and relieved you’re back home and- mmmm mmm mm mmmmm mmm!“ “Pinkie, please be quiet and get off of me.” Luna said, smiling a bit as she held a hoof over her mouth. “Mmmm mmm!” Slowly she let go of her mouth and got up, dusting herself off with a sigh. As soon as she looked back up though, she yelped in surprise as the other mares group hugged her, all of them talking at once. “Oh my stars darling! Are you-“ “Sugarcube… what in the hay happened to-“ “Uhm… ohhhh Twilight, please don’t scare us like-“ “Yo! Why didn’t anyone tell us that you were-“ “Hey! Why can’t I talk? That’s not very fa-“ “Luna, I think we should-“ “SILENCE!” Everypony jumped as Twilight-Luna spoke in the Royal Canterlot voice to dispel the ponies around her, her eyes and horn glowing bright now. The mares looked at each other, confused at the sudden transformation of their beloved Twilight. Except for Fluttershy, who was hiding behind Applejack, shivering a little bit from the shock and loudness of Luna’s voice. Shining was sweating now, watching as the mission was already unraveling before them. He knew that Luna could be temperamental at times, but now was NOT the time for her to be having a hissy fit from a bunch worried friends! Stepping between the mares and Luna, he looked sternly at the Princess in disguise and nodded at the others. “Luna!” he hissed through his teeth, hopefully low enough so they couldn’t hear. “I think they should know what’s happening! The plan’s already falling apart!” The Princess looked at each pony, backing herself up a bit as she shook her head. “N-no! This is MY plan! I need to do this!” Her horn began to glow brighter. “I-I have an idea! I’ll just put them all to sleep and teleport them home for now!” Applejack stepped forward now, standing besides Shining and cocked an eyebrow. “Now hold your horses there Twi… what’s goin’ on ‘round here?” The others all nodded in agreement and followed suit, asking the Princess similar questions. Luna kept on backing away though, watching as her plan fell apart before her, and her horn glowing more menacingly. Shining Armor’s mind was reeling, trying to find a better solution to the problem. Even if they were put to sleep, they would still remember what would happen afterwards and start asking questions about their best friend! No. Luna wasn’t going to ruin her sister’s life in Ponyville. He was not going to let that happen! His horn now glowing, he charged after Luna, who was thoroughly surprised by the sudden aggression by the Captain of the Royal Guard. Shining didn’t want it to come to this, but he needed to knock out the Princess for now so that they could regroup and figure out a plan later. He would rather Twilight’s friends be mad at him than at Twilight. “YEAAAAAAAAAGH!” “Sh-Shining, what are you- WHA!” It was then that Shining realized where they were now in the field and what was between him and Luna. The Crack. He watched it now as it suddenly opened up, spreading wide apart. A small breeze wafted inside of it, tugging at everypony there invitingly. They were all looking inside of it, noting one thing that made all of them shudder. It was black. Pure black. Shining stared in its abyss, his horn diffusing its glow as he smiled. This was one of the steps of the plans coming into action and it happened a lot faster than he thought it would. They knew whatever it was would open up some way. Now that it had, they could go through! Yet, Luna didn’t seem to want to budge at all, her eyes aglow and her horn still producing a huge amount of magic. Panic started to fill Shining. He was NOT going to miss his chance to go and get his sister because of this one mare! He didn’t care if she was an alicorn or Princess! The stallion needed to save his sister and she wasn’t going to stop him! With a burst of magical energy, he scooped Luna-Twilight up in his magic and threw her into void, much to everypony’s surprise there. She only got out a single yelp before she was fully encase in the void and with a pop, she was gone from view. Looking behind him, he shook his head and murmured at the mares. “I’m sorry…” Without waiting for an answer, he launched himself into the portal as well, ready for whatever may come his way. The Elements of Harmony were in complete shock at the events unfolded before them. It was AJ and Rainbow Dash that recovered first, both of them nodding at each other as they ran towards the Crack, which was now slowly closing up. They jumped on in, not waiting for the others. “Yeeeeeeehaw!” “Hurry up slowpokes!” Within a second, they both disappeared into the darkness. Pinkie Pie was close behind them, a set look of determination on her face and her nostrils flared out. “Twilight Pinkie Promised me that she will always be around for me! AND HER POOPYHEAD BROTHER BROKE THAT NOW!” With that, she launched herself into the Crack as well, popping out of existence. Fluttershy and Rarity were falling behind, Fluttershy fearful of the black gate before them and Rarity because she was trying to coax her to hurry. Finally, with the gate nearly closed, the white unicorn enveloped the scared stiff pegasus in her magic, running towards the gate to throw her in. With an unhappy “Eeep!”, Fluttershy found herself sucked into the void as well. Rarity, the last one, jumped towards the portal with a fevered leap, her horn glowing still. As she passed into the void though, she noticed that the Crack had stopped closing. The observation slipped through her brain for only a second before she was consumed as well. Silently, the Crack sealed up like before, leaving the field barren once more. A/N- Welp... haven't posted... ANYTHING for awhile now and of course i have a ton of excuses. Will i care to name them off? Hell no. Anyways, sorry it took so long to write something and sorry for those who were eager for the other story chapters i had wanted to do... With finals and less than decent grades, i've been having a hard time trying to keep up my social life, school life, Brony life, and personal life in balance. ANYWHOWAYS, hoped you enjoyed the chapter~ :) Comment if you like and the drill is the usual~ :) AND THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO EDITED THIS CHAPTER~ OH GOD I LOVE MY EDITORS~ :D
