15 Years of Change

Date : 2030, 24th of August

Location : ???

Time : 1300 hours

• "And that's how you measure the distance between you and the object on the map!" Twilight said.

Earlier today, Twilight called her friends to help her with a project. Unfortunately, they had to learn some methods in order to complete their tasks. It was too much for anypony, but Twilight took it pretty well, since she wanted to learn something new.

• "Boooooooring... I'm going out. See you guys later." Rainbow Dash answered and right when she was at the doorstep, something strange occured.

*BOOM*

Main 6 jumped. That was the loudest explosion they've ever heard. It came from none other direction than the Everfree forest. There were anomalies and phenomena like that, but this one felt too real. The ground shook violently, causing things to drop around them.

• "Oh m-my... W-What was t-that?" Fluttershy whispered.

• "It was an explosion! It came from the forest!" Twilight exclaimed.

• "Maybe somepony shot a very big party cannon! Oh, oops, I'm the only one who owns a party cannon!" Pinkie Pie laughed.

• "Enough dilly dally, this is serious. We gotta find out what caused the explosion." Applejack commanded.

Chapter 1 : Just a Bad Start

Time : 1315 hours

Vedran heard birds singing and whistling of the wind around him. He slowly started to open his eyes. Everything was blurred out and felt like he was crushed by a wall of bricks. Last thing he remembers is that he got sucked in by a portal. He felt tired, but powerful enough to get back up on his legs.

The gunner looked around. It was a forest, no different from those back on Earth. Nothing out of the ordinary. His team was forced more than a single time to spend several weeks in a forest. He found out that he was standing in a minor crater, where his knocked out friends were, laying next to the tank.

Both them slowly started to wake up. He ran next to them and helped them up.

• "Uuugh... What happened?"Jesse asked.

• "Oh, I totally don't know." After he ended the sentence, he shot a icy look towrads Robin.

No one actually knew what happened, they though the teleporter was a HOAX, a scam from the American military. It turns out it was working fine, but maybe it was the reason the base was abandoned?

• "What? We couldn't do nothing! Besides, we all knew what was going to happen." The driver explained.

• "Yeah, yeah... Whatever. Where are we"? Jesse wondered.

• "I don't know, this place is unlike I have ever seen. It just feels... Weird."

• "I know what you mean, but we have to prepare oursleves. Robin, find us a place to settle in, also find any tools we can build a camp with."

It was getting very dark, every minute seemed like an hour, though, they have been through so much since the start of the mission. They needed a rest, but to do that, they needed to push themselves to the limit.

• "I have a toolbox and a big military tent in the tank. Don't ask why. I always come prepared." Vedran said seriously.

• "You're creeping me out... But okay, that's good. Vedran, you try to figure out if the tank is in a good condition. I'm going away to scout the area." Jesse said while picking up his M1911 and M14 DMR. They felt lighter since the last time he carried them. The upgrades Vedran mentioned are still operational.

• "Meet you here in 30 minutes."

• "Oh, by the way, take this with you." Vedran handed him his headset and radio.

All of their radios were making static when they tried to turn them on. But Vedran figured out it wasn't a problem about hardware, more likely the software.

• "What for? It's not working."

• "It is, only that we don't have a com-channel set up. I'l try to contact you if I'm able to fix it." Vedran explained.

• "Thanks."

Time : 1325

Twilight was doing the usual after the explosion, thinking it was nothing. She was basically reading the whole day... And organising her bookshelves, again. She was interrupted by Spike burping. He was in the kitchen.

• "Spike! Are you eating the cookies again?" Twilight called.

• "What? No! I recieved a letter from princess Celestia!" Spike shot back.

• "Really? Come up here!"

Spike stopped his work and walked upstairs. It was more than a horrifying sight to see Twilight concerned.

• "What does it say?"

• "Ahem,

My most faithful student,

It has come to my attention that a strange anomaly came from the Everfree forest. It was disturbing and I felt a great amout of energy and magic near it. I have to ask you and the rest of of Main 6 to find out what's behid of all this.

I hope you reply soon,

Princess Celestia

• "It's time to get going then!"

Both of them packed their things and went outside to find the remaining carriers of Elements of Harmony. They didn't know what awaited them, but it was their duty to find out. Something was happening and they didn't know what or why.

Time : 1340

Jesse was making his way through the dense parts of the Everfree. He has been walking and searching for any kind of civilisation for some time now. That left him with only one thing to think about : Why does this place feel so strange?

'Vedran was right. This place is also creepy.' He looked around. There was nothing but trees and bushes. A little lake here and there... It seemed like a jungle. It was like a neverending maze of green. He began to think he was lost.

Very lost.

Thats when he heard some static coming from his headset connected to his radio.

• "...llo? ....an...ou.. hea...me? Ove..." It was starting to get a little more clear.

• "Hello? Vedran is that you?" Jesse replied.

• ".....eah! It's me! Is it better now?" Vedran said excited as static dissapeared.

• "How on Earth did you manage to fix it?" The commander asked, confused.

• "Well, since we didn't have a com-channel I needed to make one. I raised the tank's antenna and rewoked and altered the communication settings for the tanks radio. That was the easy part, but our radios needed a major overhaul in finding the right frequency and coding. With a little luck I found your frequency!"

• "You're a magician! Great, I will report if I found anything along the way. Out."

• "Copy that. Also, the tank only suffered turret drive and engine damage! As for the cloak, it's fully operational. Out."

• "Rog'. Over."

'Okay, I should be going...' He continued his journey through the massive forest.

Time : 1510

• "Girls, I don't think I can continue anymore... My hooves hurt!" Rarity whined. "And are dirty! Gah!"

• "She's right Twi. We can't continue like this! We have been walkin' foh hours..." Applejack joined.

It's true that they have been walking for hours. There were no clues what so ever. The Main 6 continued a little bit more then stopped. After it seemed all hope is lost, they started heading home. They were exhausted, and out of supplies. They chit chatted along the way.

• "Well this was dissapointing..." Rainbow Dash stated.

• "Yes, a waste of time." Rarity exclaimed.

• "To bad nothing showed up! I even brought cupcakes!" Pinkie Pie frowned.

*Crack*

• "Did you hear that? It came somewhere from there!" Applejack pointed at a bush with her hoof.

• "Yeah... It does feel funny. It's radiating magic and energy from there." Twilight said.

• "I'm gonna check it out." Rainbow flew to the spot.

She expected nothing at first, but was soon surprised and confused. She never saw a creature like that.

• "What the hay?"

Five minutes earlier

'Man, I'm getting sick of this place.' Jesse though as he was cutting his way through the harsh forest with his knife.

Nothing important happened along the way. Vedran sometimes called to check up on him. He was getting positive news all the time. Everything was going according to plan. Robin and Vedran found an abandoned, medium sized cave near their site. It was large enough to fit all three of them, including the tank.

But his trail of though was cut short.

• "I couldn't believe we trind to find something out here."

'What the hell? I swear I'm starting to hear things. Man if Vedran drugged me...' He was on high alert now, unsure of who was talking.

After a minute of following the voices, he came across of a group of colored ponies. He couldn't believe it. Jesse ran for cover behind a line of bushes, trying to figure out what just happened. They were speaking perfect English! How could a bunch of animals do that? Those ponies surely weren't ordinary. They even had some strange markings on their flanks.

'I am SO going to visit a doctor after this is all over.'

He continued observing them. They kept on talking about their failure to find something that caused the explosion.

'I think those ponies were looking for us...' Jesse though.

• "Dude, how's it going there? Over." His radio shot a little bit of chatter. He soon lowered the volume and continued the coversation.

• "Vedran, holy shit, you almost gave away my position!" Jesse hissed.

• "From who?"

• "I think I'm seeing things... I am currently watching a group of four... six ponies. Coloured ones too! They also have strange marks on their flanks." The commander tried not to make a sound, so he shifted himself in a more comfortable position.

• "I don't have a reason not to believe you. There was some strange shit around here too. Anyways, good hunting. Over."

After five minutes he figured out their names by following their conversation. The purple one was Twilight, orange was Applejack, pink was...Pinkie, white was Rarity, and the cyan one was Rainbow. He couldn't figure out the yellow one's name though. Some of them had wings, some horns, which indicates the presence of pegasi and unicorns. Some had...nothing, they were regular ponies.

All of them were now facing the other direction and Jesse took his chance.

He slowly proceeded to move to the onother bush, to get a better look at the situation. It soon proved to be a fatal mistake.

*Crack*

He immediately crouched to get a lower profile.

• "Did you hear that? It came somewhere from there!"

• "Yeah... It does feel funny. It's radiating magic and energy from there."

'YOU HAVE GOT TO BE FUCKING KIDDING ME!' Jesse screamed in his head.

• "I'm gonna check it out."

'Fuck.' He started to back away. As the cyan pegasus slowly approached he fastened his pace until he was completely visible.

• "What the hay?"

Jesse started sprinting towards the way he came from. He could hear the voices behind him.

• "Rainbow, after it!"

He looked behind and saw that the pegasus was gaining on him, fast. Jesse kept on running, dodging the obstacles in front of him.

• "Come back here!" The cyan pegasus yelled.

'No way.' He fastened his pace. Jesse was getting more tired by the second. He needed a way to bail himself from this mess.

Looking for an opportunity, he soon saw a tree with a hole in it. He knew exactly what to do. He ran to it full speed and climbed it using his momentum to do a back flip.

The pony shot right underneath him and got stuck.

She started to hopelessly struggle her way out, but the resistance was futile.

She was trapped.

• "Not cool."

• "Life never is, my little pony." Jesse replied slyly.

• "You can talk?!"

But as soon she asked the question, he was gone. Nowhere to be found, or tracked.

'I can't wait to tell Vedran what happened! He is going to go nuts.' Jesse thought as he ran to their camp.