Marcus groaned as he woke up, sitting in a well lit compartment, screens in front of him, the chair having armrests with buttons at the end. He wore a dark blue jumpsuit under dull, blue armor, the chest having an icon depicting a rhombus, with five, smaller rhombuses under it, two on each side and one directly under the bottom point. His hand came to his forehead, and he grimaced as one eye opened, squinting the other one shut. He looked around, wondering what exactly he was in, as well as where said compartment was before a robotic voice spoke up.

“Pilot has awoken. Deactivating standby mode,” the voice said, startling Marcus.

“The hell?” he muttered, looking around rapidly. “Who’s there?”

“ACU onboard intelligence,” the voice said. “Current designation is Siri.”

Marcus opened his mouth to speak, but stopped as he registered what was said. “I’m in an ACU?” his whispered.

“Affirmative,” the intelligence replied. “Reading two other ACU signatures, matching Cybran Nation and Aeon Illuminate, both a significant distance away. Alert, Cybran Commander is constructing a base. Recommend constructing defenses. Alert: incoming transmission.”

Marcus only looked surprised, and stuttered out, “A-accept.”

“Confirmed. Putting on middle screen.” The designated screen-which up until now showed a forward view of the terrain, revealing a desert environment- changed to show a red lit interior with a man with brown hair and red lines resembling circuitry on the left side of his head looking at the screen.

“Jacob?” Marcus asked, looking at him in confusion.

“Yep,” Jacob replied. “So, I’m guessing you’re still processing what’s happened?” At Marcus’ nod, Jacob sighed. “Well, that’s not surprising,” he muttered. “Look, I’m getting a base online, and already have an air factory going. Once I can, I’ll send a Dragonfly to pick you up. I’ve got moles doing recon, and it’s just confirmed my suspicions. Sierra’s awake, and already doing what she can to make her way here on land.”

“Jacob, slow down,” Marcus said. “The fuck happened to us? The fucking hell happened to you? You look like an actual Cybran.

“Why thank you, I take as a compliment,” Jacob said, a small, smug smile on his face. It then melted into a hard expression. “In all seriousness, we’re Displaced.”

“Those damned brony stories you kept talking about?”

“Exactly the ones,” was the reply. “My guess is before the actual show, no idea about specifics, going by the buildings I’ve seen through the Mole cameras.”

“You’ve already got scouts?”

“First thing I did,” Jacob said. “Well, other than power and mass, but those are a given. And the factories needed to build them,” he said. “You get the point. I just sent out air scouts to confirm your position.”

“Uh, question-”

“How do I have a map of Equestria, or some other way to know standard geography?” Jacob said. “Simple; I asked the two fuckheads that sent us here for that.”

“I doubt that,” Marcus said, his tone going that of someone bored out of habit of dealing with Jacob sometimes. “I saw you punch them.”

“Eh, we worked something out,” Jacob said before his eyes darted to another location in his control center,and his eyes narrowed. “I’ll talk to you later, Marcus, I got something on radar.” With that, the screen went back to the original display.

“Connection terminated.”

“No shit,” Marcus muttered. “Do you have his location?”

“Yes.”

Marcus sighed. “Can you mark it? And how in the hell do I move this thing?”

“Keep them in the Flying Eyes’ view range, and have Interceptor group Alpha stay at a distance but close enough to shoot them if anything is tried,” Jacob said to his ACU’s onboard AI.

“You got it, Jacob. Bringing the feed from the nearest one on the left corner monitor.”

Jacob looked at the designated screen, and saw it activate, showing a night blue organism flying towards his base, the glint off the organism showing it was either wearing armor or had reflective scales. Behind it were three others with grey skin with a similar glint. “Can you zoom in for detail?”

“On it.” The feed magnification increased, and Jacob was now able to more easily see the glint came from armor on all four of them. One had bird like wings, while the other three had bat like wings.

“Do a fly over, and have that Scout transmit an image to the left middle screen,” Jacob said. “I think I know who this is, but I want to make sure.”

“You sure?” was the reply. “They might see that as an act of aggression.”

“If so, it’s not like any country can deal with the sheer numbers that can be produced by the factories,” Jacob said. “If worst comes to worst, we can just zerg rush ‘em.”

“All right, but let the record show I warned you.”

Jacob scoffed. “I’ll keep that in mind, Monika.” As he said that, one of the air scouts flew towards the group of four, and turned upside down so as to get a picture of them. As the scout neared, it lowered its altitude slightly so as to avoid hitting the organics. When it passed underneath, Jacob’s AI took a frame from the recording camera, cleaned it up, and put it on one of the monitors in the ACU cockpit.

“Well, that doesn’t help narrow it much,” Jacob muttered, looking at the image of a night blue alicorn wearing full body plate armor, and three thestrals behind her, also wearing plate armor. “ETA on them getting here?”

“I’d say ten minutes.”

Jacob sighed. “May as well reduce that a little,” he said, and directed his ACU to move on an intercept course for the four, intending to meet them away from the base. “Have AA guns ready just in case.”

“Already pointing to the sky.”

“Woo.”

After exiting the perimeter of the small base, protected by AA towers and Point defenses with wall segments in front to protect from direct fire, Jacob turned his ACU west, toward the alicorn and her entourage. “Sooo, this is Luna, right?”

“Yep,” Jacob said. “Of course, that doesn’t help in terms of identifying when we are. Only that it cuts off the thousand years before the actual show, and it doesn’t exactly say how old the two are.”

“Maybe how she speaks?”

“Probably our best bet, yeah.”

Four minutes later, Jacob had his ACU stop in a hilled area, the base being only barely visible without anyway to enhance sight, the ground being covered by grass, and small patches of flowers, with Luna and the three thestrals now in visual range. “There a hatch I can use to get on top of the head?” Jacob asked.

After a second of silence, Monika replied with, “Yeah. Want me to open it it?”

“Why else would I ask? It might help defuse things if they think I’m evil.”

“. . .You do realize they haven’t met you yet?”

“You do realize that this is a variation on a television show meant originally for little girls, and I’m in a nine story, bipedal machine colored black with spikes, right? If that doesn’t scream villain to something like that, I don’t know what does.”

“Touche. Opening the hatch now.”

With that, a hiss was heard, and a sliver of light appeared in the cockpit from above. Jacob unbuckled from his seat, and a small ladder came down from behind, curved to fit with the cockpit, and straightening as it came down. Jacob went behind his seat, and climbed up the ladder, using his right hand to push the hatch open, closing his eyes so as to not be blinded by natural light. Even then, when he climbed out, her brought his left arm in front of his face, and squinted his left eye shut.

Slowly, he climbed out, keeping his left eye shut the entire time. Once he was on top of his ACU’s head, he knelt down and closed the hatch. Once that was done, he looked toward where Luna and the three thestrals were coming from. He gave himself a once-over, making sure his armor-moderately protective in terms of bulk, with a bodysuit underneath, and red lights on the torso and thigh armor- and trenchcoat were presentable as much as possible, and nodded. As he did, his eye moved up, and saw a strand of hair. Pouting in annoyance, he pushed it up to the right, and nodded again. When that was done, he moved both arms behind his back, and stood patiently for the four, tapping his foot and humming a tune to keep busy.

three minutes later, the four fliers came to a stop in front of Jacob, and Luna spoke up. “Who is't art thee, and what is this goodyear thee standeth on?”(1)

“Uhh,” Jacob said, not entirely sure what she said, and deciding to go with what he did understand. “My name is Jacob your Majesty.”

“What tongue doth thee speaketh in?” the night blue alicorn asked, right hand going to the sheathed sword on the left of her hip.

“Oh, Shakespearean. Hold on, I’ll get a translation program going,” Monika said, some excitement in her voice.

“Hurry up on that, would ya?” Jacob muttered.

If Luna didn’t have a helmet on, Jacob would have sworn she glared at him. What tongue doth thee speaketh in, I hath said!”

Jacob took a step back just as Monika spoke up again. “Got it. Just think of what you say, and I’ll tranaslate it. Same for what you hear from her.”

Oh joy, Jacob thought, and a line of text saying that appeared in his sight. He then closed his eyes, and breathed. My name is Jacob, your Majesty. As he opened his eyes, Jacob saw a line of text appear in his vision. He then repeated it aloud. “Mine own nameth is Jacob, thy majesty,” he said. I wish to negotiate with you. “I wisheth to negotiateth with thee.”

Sierra shivered in her ACU, not because of the cold, but nervousness, uncertain if Jacob was really here, or if she had simply imagined it. If so, this wasn’t the first time she hallucinated him when he wasn’t there, and she doubted it would be the last. She looked at the environment to try and get her mind off if this, but saw only what she had already seen: a flat expanse of snow, mountains in the distance, and a small snow storm raging. “Replay the message,” she said, her voice cracking.

A few seconds passed, and Jacob’s voice came on over the speakers. “Hey, Sierra. Good to see your in Comm range. Look, I know you’re confused. I’ll explain everything later,” he had said. “I’m already building a base, and I’ll send a Dragonfly your way as soon as I can. You’re north of where I am. No idea where Marcus is. See ya later, Si.” That was an hour ago.

The cockpit of the ACU was silent with exception of the sounds of the ACU’s feet hitting the ground. “Anything in range?” she asked.

“No,” was the curt reply, causing Sierra to close her eyes as tears formed.

“Damn it,” she muttered. She clenched her right hand, feeling the hilt of the Storm Rifle she had bought. Opening her eyes, Sierra looked at it. Should I? she thought before shaking her head. No. There’s still a chance he’s actually here.

“Alert: unknown crystal formations in range.” Sierra looked up at the main screen in surprise.

“What?” she muttered. “P-put it on the main screen.”

“Affirmative.” With that, a rather poor quality image appeared on the main screen. “Radar scans at this range do not allow for high quality, Commander.”

“Get closer, then,” Sierra said. Might be able to take my mind off things for a while, she thought to herself before sitting straight, closing her eyes, and taking a deep breath. He wouldn’t want you to panic just because he isn’t here. You can do this. She opened her eyes as her ACU made its’ way to the crystal formations, kicking up massive patches of snow as it walked toward the destination.

Author's Note

1: Here's the translation: Who are you, and what is this demon you stand on?
Also, for the rest of arc one, and it's plot or character relevant, or Jacob is involved in talking, it'll be automatically translated so as to avoid making chapters longer than they should.