Author's Note

Ok, warning: the start might have a bit of darkfic in it, it depends on how much you can stomach. I'm not going to add dark or anything like that to the tags just because of one scene.

Time does fly when you're trapped in an alternate world!

It's been around a week since I first found myself in this world of pastel ponies. Yes, they're called ponies, despite the fact that in the short amount of time I've spent here I've met several "ponies" who could dwarf most normal horses, and no I, unfortunately, wasn't one of them. But the odd thing about me was that when Twilight measured my newly acquired wings, she said that they were the biggest recorded wings for a regular pony in Equestria, nearly twice the size of what the average pegasi's wings span. The only wings bigger than mine belonged to Equestria's ruler, Princess Celestia.

From the moment we were *ahem* "officially" introduced, Applejack couldn't stop apologizing for what she did to me. She went on for hours and hours in her southern accent how she was sorry and how she would make it up to me. She insisted that she help me learn to walk and despite my request to have medically trained professionals handle it, Twilight explained that it would be more efficient for Applejack to care so they could "care for two birds in one nest" , but I'm getting off topic! Since Applejack was now my new sorta caretaker, she had to make sure that I could get around town and do normal tasks. How might you ask? By strapping me to her back with her rope! I was...well...needlessly embarrassed to the point that my face was redder than my mane.

Right now I was in Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack's home, laying on her couch sleeping. I was having...nice dreams

There I was, standing in the middle of a war-torn city, abominations of all shapes and sizes fighting purifiers from all over Terran. My fully plated black Terran combat armor shined against the crimson red moon over the city, giving my armor a dark red highlight to it.Behind me stood my old squad, Squad Berconsits, or Squad Revelation when translated into English. Good old Alexia Vare "Diamond Breaker", Samuel Vare "Wall Breacher", Willson Deene "Keen Deadeye", and Johnathan Tark "Frostbite". In hindsight I never understood why we got such weird codenames from command, I mean mine was "Tamer" and Veronica's was "Heart Breaker", but that didn't matter now.

As I looked around the town, I realized that this was the town where I was sent as leader of Squad Revelation. Its Terran name is unpronounceable, but it would roughly translate into "Haven Oasis" in English. It was a fairly average town from what I remember, only memorable for its many dazzling caverns. Unfortunately, it turned out that these caves were home to a type of abomination called a siren, whose voice could hypnotize any nearby victims into a death-like sleep, where it would then drain the vital fluids from it like some kind of spider out of hell. We were sent in to exterminate these creatures, and we almost succeeded, almost killing all the sirens, only to have them use some kind of never before seen ability where they summoned a horde of abominations who mercilessly sacked the town, killing anyone in sight. This also revealed that there were dozens of more sirens than we thought were there, driving them into the town. Our only comfort was that we managed to build beacons that would counteract the sirens voices, allowing us to engage in open combat with them.

The sounds of bloodcurdling screams from those unfortunate enough to not evacuate the town yet were just as vivid in my mind as if no time had passed at all. I remember wanting to turn on the noise blockers on my helmet, but I needed to be able to hear my team, so I had to bear through the screams. The only thing I could listen to as to ignore the screams were the unnatural, terrifying roars of the abominations, which were just as vivid as the screams.

"Tamer, come on! We need to evacuate!" Johnathan yelled while pulling his arm back like he was about to punch someone, summoning his esper, a wolf made of lightning. Yes, we were all painfully aware that Johnathan's codename was ironic, probably some dumb joke some of the higher-ups thought would be funny. His wolf, named Varis, shot out of his wrist, quickly forming into a massive Terran wolf, massive lion-like mane and all, and propelled itself against a siren. It's three four-eyed heads screamed in pain until they all exploded into piles of black blood along with the rest of its body. "WE DON'T HAVE ANY MORE TIME TORE DAMMIT!".

"I JUST NEED A LITTLE MORE TIME!" I screamed back, "WE'VE ALMOST BEATEN THEM ALL!".

"UGHH!" John groaned, grabbing me by the shoulder. "DON'T BE STUPID! THIS TOWN WAS LOST THE MOMENT THOSE SIRENS SET UP SHOP IN THE CAVES! IM NOT GOING TO LET YOU PLAY SUPERHERO AND GET YOURSELF KILLED BECAUSE OF IT DAMMIT!".

I curled my hand into a fist, taking all of my mental strength to not beat his face to a pulp. "WILL YOU STOP AND THINK ABOUT SOMEONE OTHER THAN YOURSELF JOHN? OR DO YOU JUST NOT GIVE A TORE ABOUT THESE TOWNSFOLK?" I screamed, pushing him away with both of my hands.

"DAMMIT COLE! STOP LIVING IN YOUR FANTASY WORLD AND WAKE UP!" He screamed, "WAKE UP!!"

"WAKE UP SIGNAL"! he screamed again, his voices growing more high pitched and started to gain a western accent.

I looked around in confusion until I saw the sun above me. It had gone from a dark shade of red to a bright yellowish color, with giant bright orange eyes and a muzzle.

"C'MON SIGNAL WAKE UP!" the sun yelled, terrifying me. I tried to back up but fell on my back, my hands now hooves.

"WAKE UP!!! WAKE UP!!!"

"WAKE UP!!!" The tiny filly named Apple Bloom yelled, pulling off the blankets that covered me.

"ugh...Apple Bloom.... five more minutes..." I groaned, stretching my front legs towards my now fallen blankets in vain.

"Well ok then!" the filly responded, "A'h guess this'll be a good time to see if my special talent is a makeup artist!"

The filly dashed off for a moment, only to come back carrying some lipgloss in her mouth, a devilish look on her face.My eyes shot wide open in surprise, my body shooting upright. "GAH!!!! I'M AWAKE!!!" I But at that moment, my wings spread apart, the left wing pushing against the couch, propelling me off of the couch. I fell to the ground with a painful thud, much to the filly's amusement.

"hehe, don't worry Signal. Me and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders already tried something like that once, didn't work out so well!" Apple Bloom explained, trotting over to my head. She showed her flank to me, revealing that she, thank tore, had no such mark on it. "But A'h thought I should let ya know that AppleJacks looking for yah. Wants to start training early today!"

I loudly groaned, turning over on my stomach. Apple Bloom was the youngest one in the Apple Family here at Sweet Apple Acres and was the last one in her family at the moment to not have her Cutie Mark. Cutie Marks... it's been a week since I got here and yet nopony has explained to me what the Tore they are! And it doesn't help that I already have one! I noticed it after spending my first night here in Equestria. It was a classic Y shaped barbute helmet, my favorite kind of helmet back on Earth. Heck when I created my armor design, I made my helmet that exact kind of style! I even made little patches of the helmet that I would stitch into my clothing! So it was at least a little bit comforting to see that I had it on my new body, but that was a fleeting moment as I don't know why my cutie mark is that. I swear the longer I stay here I get more questions and fewer answers!

"Say, Apple Bloom, don't you ever worry that you'll never find your cutie mark?" I asked, changing Apple Bloom's cheerful face into one of worry and sadness. But that moment was fleeting as she immediately shook her head in denial, her smile quick to grow on her face.

"Nope! A'h know that someday I'll find mine! Everypony eventually gets one!" She explained, trotting over to my flank. "But still... it must be nice to have one.". I felt her hoof touch my flank, quickly turning my head over to her. She was touching my cutie mark, I could tell she was a little envious of me. "Say what does you cutie mark mea-" She asked, only to be interrupted by the front door slamming open to show AppleJack.

"Apple Bloom! Have you waken Signal up ye-" She started to ask, stopping when she saw me on the floor. "A'h see you have. Well, good morning Signal!". She trotted past me and into the kitchen, the sweet smell of pie filling the room. Now normally I would be ecstatic to smell a delicacy such as pie, but just after a week of living here, I had grown accustomed to that smell.

"Apple Pie?" I rhetorically asked, Applejack's head popping over the counter, giving me a pleasant nod. "You ponies sure do love apples don't you?" I asked, awkwardly climbing back onto the couch.

"We sure do! We do almost everything with apples! You could even say 🎵we're apple's to the core🎵" Apple Bloom hummed, climbing up beside me.

I gave a half-hearted smile as Applejack walked into the room, carrying a pie in her mouth, thankfully by a handle connected to the plate. The pie was perfectly divided into 6 pieces, one of each of us and three extra for their brother Big Mac, their grandmother Granny Smith, and their dog Winona. After the three of us, each had a slice of pie, Applejack got up and stretched out all for of her legs. Apple Bloom, on the other hoof, was cleaning up the plates and taking the extra pieces of pie back to the kitchen.

"Well, I reckon it's time now Signal. C'mon, let's go." She stated, walking over to the door, "it's time for your daily training!"

"Actually Applejack, I think I'll just skip training today and-" I tried to explain, but she wasn't having any of that. Before I could even finish my sentence, I was already lassoed by Applejack, who gave me a smug look before walking outside, dragging me along much to my dismay. She dragged me outside in front of the house, apple trees as far as the eye can see. I felt the lasso around my body loosen and fall off me, quickly massaging the area where I was lassoed.

"Ok, now Signal, let's start out with the basics," she said, "you want to do the one-two hoof or filly steps?".

"I think I'll go with one-two hoof today, my flank is still slightly sore from doing filly steps yesterday," I said back, "still don't understand how fillies learn by that.". I then got up quickly, I don't have much trouble standing anymore since getting here, but actually walking around was a different story.

Applejack gave me a simple nod and walked right in front of me. She then began to walk away, making deep imprints of her hoofs onto the dirt. Once she was around ten feet away from me, she turned around and motioned her head to me. I felt my face tense up as I focused on my legs.

"Front left, back right, front left, back right" I repeated to myself as I started to move my front left leg and back right leg, using all my mental focus to move my front left leg first, then my back right. For the past week, I'd been trying to walk, only to always fall on my face.

I could feel the sweat sliding down my face as I started moving forward, careful to land my hooves in Applejack's imprints. So far so good, I'd barely gotten past moving my front hooves at all before now! I looked at Applejack with glee, her face filled with the same glee I had.

"Well, I'll be! That's the farthest you've gotten so far!" She cheered, "Now let's see if you can go farther!".

"Ha! Watch me!" I said in my hubris, raising my head high into the sky.

Now I'm not normally the boastful or arrogant type, but when something finally goes my way, it can kinda go to my head. I tried to lift my right front leg, and to my surprise, it did move, but only for my right back leg to move with it. I could already feel my body starting to tilt to the side, and before I could think of trying to rebalance myself I was already back on the ground, creating a tiny dust storm around me.

I let out a loud grunt, followed by a low groan. I rolled onto my back, spreading all four of my legs out as I looked at the bright blue sky. I was given wings when I entered this world, and I honestly wanted nothing more than to fly across the land, the wind blowing against my skin, it was my childhood dream after all! But here I am, stuck on the ground, not even able to walk for Tore's sake! I knew that I would have to find my way back home as soon as possible, but at the same time that didn't mean, I couldn't fulfill my dreams right? I was brought out of my daze by the by the now familiar laughter of Applejack, who was practically on top of me when I noticed her.

She wasn't even trying to hold back her laughter, making me slightly blush in embarrassment. "Well Mr.lookatme, ah think y'ah still need some practice." she chuckled, "But don't worry! A sapling doesn't become a mighty apple tree overnight! We'll get yah back in shape in no time!".

I hope she was right. I know that in my world, just getting a prosthetic leg can take months if not years of training and practice to just do basic things, so how long until I get used to my new body? But all of this training would be pointless unless I could figure a way back home. And it doesn't help that the one place that might hold the answers is the castle of THE GODDESS OF THE SUN!!! I mean where would I even start even if I had access to the castle? The castle is huge, and I wasn't exactly paying attention to where in the massive castle I was in when being chased by the castle guards. Ugh! One thing at a time Cole! All this worry would also be for nothing if I couldn't even walk.

I looked back at Applejack, rolling back onto my stomach. "I know you're right, but still... it's frustrating not being to walk! How long until I don't have to rely on you for travel?" I asked, getting off of the floor.

"I don't know, but that doesn't mean you can rush through this like it's winter wrap up." Applejack explained Don't worry anyhow! I reckon that you'll be walking around like any ol' pony any day now!". She gave me a playful shove, giving me a slight smile on my face. "Now, how about we try that again? Just don't let it get to your head again ok?".

I nodded my head, getting back up to reattempt walking. "Any day now" I thought, my smile growing much bigger.

Any day now...any day now...days turned into weeks, then weeks turned into months. But hey, at least I wasn't bored when passing the time.

It had been quite some time since that day, and in that time I had grown accustomed to my new equestrian body. It took more time than I thought, but I eventually managed to walk mostly perfectly on my own. I couldn't exactly gallop or even walk fast, but I nevertheless I could still walk. After that, my next course of action was finding a home to stay in. Unsurprisingly, the entire mane six (as I prefer to call them because it's easier than saying the six bearers of the elements of harmony) offered to let me stay in their respective homes, but I declined their offers in the most humble and polite way possible.

"So what do you say? None of us would mind. At least until you got a job and made enough bits to buy your own house."Twilight asked. I was in her treehouse/library home, where I stood in front of the mane six. I had just mastered the complex art of walking on four hooves and Pinkie wanted to throw where to throw her "Signal just learned how to walk" party at.

"umm...." I mumbled, looking around frantically for anything to help me get out of this situation. I was married after all and had no intention of letting a pony harem ruin that bond we made.

I then looked at a nearby window an idea immediately sparking in my mind. With the speed of a Wonderbolt, I jumped out of the window. The mane six could only look with horror and shock as history repeated itself and I was outside, running, or more like walking kinda fast, as fast as I could before I heard the door to Twilight's treehouse slam open.

hehe... they did eventually catch me, but only after tearing up half of Ponyville to find me. I decided to crash with Fluttershy because at least with her I wouldn't have to worry about any of the *ahem* quirks the others had. But despite my brilliant plan, Angel Bunny made sure to remind me that pain takes many forms, and takes no prisoners...

ANYHOW!!! I did manage to get some odd jobs around Ponyville for a while, like walking pets or volunteering to be part of Twilights experiments. I have to say, growing extra limbs or being shrunken into the size of an ant was totally worth all those bits she gave me, guess being the prized pupil of the ruler of a nation has more advantages than I thought. I did eventually find a full-time job to help pay the bills. I was to help the Cake family at Sugarcube corner run the business alongside Pinkie Pie, much to my...joy actually. Pinkie Pie honestly grew on me since our first meeting, and while I couldn't exactly speak for human Pinkie, pony Pinkie and I got together quite well together, her being the most fun I had ever had since my wedding party with Veronica.

Right now I was preparing the display cakes when Pinkie came literally bouncing down. She had the same massive smile on her face as always, her light blue eyes beaming with energy.

"Morning Pinkie." I said, my smile already growing, Pinkie had that effect on me along with almost anypony she met. I swear that girl could get the entire town to burst into a musical number if she wanted to.

"GOOD MORNING SIGNAL!" She exclaimed, "Are you working on the display cakes?".

I finished putting up the last cake on its stand, backing up to admire my handiwork. I had organized them from biggest to smallest, creating an eye-catching experience for any pony who would walk past this shop. As I turned around to talk to Pinkie, I found that the pink pony was already right next to me, our muzzles practically bumping into each other. My eyes widened in shock...only to calm back down once I realized who it was. One can only be scared so many times by the Pinkie before adapting to her hijinks.

"Why yes, I am! I just finished in fact. What do you think?" I asked, stepping to the side to let Pinkie inspect it.

She examined the sweets, her face practically pressing against it. She was almost like a mother wolf, carefully examining her cubs for any signs of injury, scrutinizing each sweet. This went on for what felt like forever until she finally backed up, her head held high up.

"You did good Signal, but you missed just one tinny tiny little thing!" She explained, but before I could ask she already went to work.

She was like a pink bolt of lightning, rushing around the display case faster than I could see, spinning around the display case like a tornado. After several seconds she stopped, somehow while standing on two legs, and pointed at the display. It was...It was...

"The exact same way as before," I said deadpanned, my head lowered to the ground.

"No, it's not silly! look!" Pinkie exclaimed, somehow grabbing my head using her hooves, dragging me over to the display. It looked exactly the same, that was until at the very bottom, I noticed that two cupcakes were switched around. Strangely enough, they were rainbow colored, and I don't know why, but that gave me chills down my spine.

Quietly sighing, I managed to get out her grasp, slightly chuckling as the Pinke bounced over to the door and opened it.

"You going somewhere? Got some party to start somewhere?" I asked, slowly walking behind the counter, careful not to fall.

"Yah!. I heard Twilight scream something about a test and thought I should go over to check up on her." She explained, "Didn't you hear the high pitched screams?".

"Who didn't? I think she woke up half of Equestria with that one scream." I joked. Earlier that day I remember being woken up by the familiar high pitched screams of a certain unicorn, she was screaming something about a test if I recall.

"Are you sure you'll be able to handle the shop without me? You've only been here for a few months." Pinkie asked, looking at me nervously.

As if I was asking the gods of this world to curse me, I said the one thing YOU NEVER SAY EVER!!!

"Phftt! I got this!" I said boastfully, not realizing the fatal mistake I made by saying that.

Pinkie's nervous face turned back into a carefree one as she bounced away, saying goodbye to me in the distance. I got behind the counter, putting on the cap Mr.Cake gave me when I started working here. A couple of hours went by uneventfully, the most exciting thing to happen to be Lyra coming in and ordering her custom-made "hand cake". If only she knew... But later that day we got one more customer.

It was around noon when we got a new customer. I was about to fall asleep from boredom when the I heard the door open. At the door was a pony...obviously, but this one was wearing a completely grey cloak and hood, like something straight out of the start of a cliche sci-fi movie. It was hard to tell what kind of pony it was, much less it's gender, but all I could barely make out were a pair of ocean blue eyes.

"Welcome to Sugar Cube Corner, we got sweets, treats, and every delicacy you could seek. What can I do for you today?" I asked, only for the pony to tilt its head to the side in confusion. "hehe... it's a work in progress. Anything catch your eye?".

The pony shook its head, causing its hood to slightly come off, revealing a long brown mane that went down to its neck. "I'm here for a custom order I requested the Cakes made me" she explained, her voice somehow...familiar.

"Umm... Ok, under what name did you put this order?" I asked. I swore I knew this pony from somewhere, but I couldn't put my hoof on it.

The unicorn, yes unicorn, took off her hood to reveal a bright blue fur. She wore a whole assortment of clothes from a dark redshirt that covered her entire body, slightly dark blue boots and straps on her legs, a long cape covering her lower body, and a dark red hat similar to Applejacks. She had a serious expression on her face, an all too familiar serious face if you asked me. But her voice is what made me realize something about her.

"Yes, it should be under the name "Heart Breaker", I ordered a custom cake for my friend’s “welcome home party”." She explained, her voice word for word the same as my wife's voice, Veronica Marksen. She even had the same name as her code name, "Heart Breaker".

My jaw dropped to the floor, I couldn't wrap my head around this situation. Did she find a way here? Was I dreaming? Did I mishear her?

"Um...excuse me?" She asked, waving her front hoof in front of my face, "You ok?".

What is going on here?

In the human world at Canterlot High, three little girls were running down the halls in glee. The three in question were Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, and Sweetie Belle, and they were on a mission. The three girls for months were collecting info on the school's resident bully, Sunset Shimmer, trying to gather as much dirt on her to bring to Principle Celestia. And after months of searching, digging, and spying, they finally had more than enough to get her expelled from CHS.

"C'mon girls! We got to hurry!" exclaimed Apple Bloom, dodging and weaving through the busy halls of Canterlot High.

"We're running as fast as we can!" cried Scootaloo, who was holding the folder that held all of the info they had gathered. They had come so far and had no intentions of letting anything slow them down.

The three just turned a corner when out of nowhere a rouge foot stretched out, tripping the poor girls to the ground. The folder went flying out of Scootaloo's hands and fell to the floor, landing right in front of a familiar pair of shoes.

"Well well, what do we have here?" Asked Sunset Shimmer, who grabbed the folder before the girls could get it back, "you know running down the halls is against the rules right?".

She opened the folder and grabbed some random pictures the girls had taken. Some showed her sabotaging lockers with firecrackers, others showed her blatantly cheating on tests. One even showed her graffitiing on school grounds. This info alone could have gotten her in serious trouble with the school, clearly, these girls went through quite some trouble to find all this.

"HEY! Give it back!" barked Scootaloo, who was jumping at Sunset, trying to get the folder out of her hands.

"Now why would I give up such juicy information?" Sunset asked, pushing Scootaloo away with her free hand. "But if you ask me, this info is a little undercooked.". Sunset then put the pictures back in the folder and proceeded to raise the folder up to the ceiling.

The three girls looked at Sunset confused as Sunset closed her eyes, her arm starting to glow red. Before the three knew what happened, the folder had caught fire and quickly turned into a pile of ashes. Sunset then proceeded to pour the ashes on top of poor Sweetie Belle, who could only look in horror as all their hard work was ruined in one swift motion.

"oops, your info looks a little burnt." Sunset laughed, the three girls started to back away in fear, "Now run along before I make three well-done brats!".

The three girls ran away in terror, screaming as Sunset laughed at their misfortune. Ever since the incident with the strange man and getting this odd dragon tattoo thing, she had slowly learned how to control the creature. It was odd at first, but she quickly got the hang of using it, most likely because using it was like using magic back at Equestria. She never knew what this thing truly was, but she didn't really care now. This thing allowed her to do so much more than she could imagine, and it also gave her company! She even named it, deciding on "Scales". The only negative of Scales was that she couldn't risk showing him around in public, it was already a big risk revealing her new abilities today to those girls, but she couldn't even imagine what would happen if she summoned him out in the open. Starting to walk off she noticed a nearby poster, showing that in a couple of months the Fall formal would start. She let out a deep sigh as she walked away, going over her plan on how to get her revenge on Celestia.

"So close Sunset...just a little bit longer," She thought to herself as she kept on walking, soon her plans would come to fruition, and she would get the power she deserved. She just needed to wait a little while longer.