The Pioneers were still looking for their missing comrades while also blindly exploring the now known ‘pony planet’. They’d been doing this for hours. The strain has started to get to all of them.

Aidan was practically stumbling, until he actually stumbled over a rock.

“I swear. I can’t….. t-training didn’t help me enough on this..” panted Aidan.

“Sir, we’ve gotten nowhere for more than half an hour, can we settle down for once?”

“Negative,” Waynes said, walking with his rifle slung.

“What do you mean, ‘negative?’ You’re pushing us to our focking’ limit cap! The focking’ limit!” He puts his arms up to show more feeling.

The sounds of gravel shifting gravel became louder and louder as Aidan slowly fazed in and out of his surroundings. His legs began to shake and shift. Every step felt like one closer to collapsing. And it seemed the same could be said for the others. Except for the fully trained soldiers, that was.

The other’s stayed quiet during the talking. But it was clear that the toll of walking for hours has gotten to them as well. It was only then when Waynes paused, holding a hand up as to signify stopping to the group.

“Oh focking’ finally,” groaned James, “alright mates, let’s settle dow-“

“Shh, shh, shut up…” hissed Waynes as he shoved an arm at Jame’s shoulder. “Anyone hear that?” asked Waynes, still ordering everyone to cease what they’re doing.

“Hear what?” Whispered Ania, arms bent in front of her.

“Anyone hear me this is Corporal Gentilini, I’m with…. uhh…. Major Liam, First Lieutenant Semenov, two privates, one Chinese, the other American, an American conscript, a Russian one, and a French one. If any other pioneer hears this, please respond. Over.”

After a pause of silence Waynes broke it.

“James, get your radio,”

“Okay, sir.” he said before dismounting his pack onto the path.
James unzipped his backpack to get the buzzing walkie-talkie. He rummaged around his military pack when he found the walkie-talkie. He gave the device to Waynes.

Waynes pushed the speak button on the device.

“This is Waynes from the Pioneers. We copy, over.”

“I’ll be damned, I can’t believe you guys are alive! Over!”

“Alive? Why wouldn’t we be? Over.” he said, taking off his helmet and scratching his messy hair.

“There are... things.. in the forest... over.”

“What things? Things like creatures? Aliens? Over.”

He mounted his helmet back on again.

“Yes. But there is no time to explain. Over.”

Waynes pursed his lips.

He then held the button.

“Where are you and the group? We can finally meet up and do something official. Over.”

“Let’s see... it’s just forest out here. Over.”

“Any path? Over.”

“Yes, there is a path, it’s a gravel path, we’ve been walking over it for an hour. Over.”

“Maybe if you keep going forward we can bump into each other? Over.”

“Or just make us keep going the same direction and we never find each other. Over.”

“Hold— just a moment. Over.” he spoke, lowering the walkie talkie and talked to James.

“Hey, James, be a good sir and get that flare pistol you brought with you?”

James looked at Waynes with brief confusion before sparking with understanding. He again, dismounted his pack and scrummaged through his pack until he found the big red pistol with the word ‘FLARE’ engraved in the sides. After loading a big shell into the chamber, he motions to Waynes that it’s ready.

“Corporal Gentilini, one of us has a flare, we’ll shoot it in the sky then you come here. Over.”

James had taken the big flare shell from his pack and slid it into the chamber of the gun.

“Copy. Hold.”

James aimed his right arm towards the sky, then pulled the trigger. The bright red flare shimmered in the clear blue sky. It seemed to have worked.

“Corporal Gentilini, have you recieved the flare? Over.”

“I sure have. Let’s finally damn meet up. Over and out.”

. . .

Applejack gave a sigh of satisfaction. She had done all she needed to do for today and now she can finally relax.
Today had been exhausting. She and her five other friends had helped Luna cleanup a dangerous facility.
She leaned on the fence looking at the sky. It was only 4:30 yet it felt like it was 8:00. The sky was starting to darken but the clouds were still blue and clear as glass. She stared for a while. Feeling relieved, when suddenly she saw a burning red flare in the sky, slowly sinking lower and lower. Something was in the Everfree forest, and it seemed to be begging for her to investigate. But first, she had to tell Twilight and her friends...

. . .

Still focusing on her task at hoof, Twilight was furiously writing down her notes and research to make the spell fit for the job.
Satisfied with her work, Twilight powered up her spell and blasted it at the ruined machine. Nothing happened.

“Buck,” Twilight swore to herself.

She went back to her papers and began to redo her spell.

. . .

“Let’s go, don’t slack off we’re almost there to meet them.” ordered Liam.

Then it was just silence accompanied with panting and heavy breathing. The second group had experienced a similar amount of fatigue exploring the forest. Being attacked by a timberwolf, which ultimately exploded after swallowing Liam’s grenade.

The flare’s red flash was on the verge of disappearance and they had to move fast enough to meet the rest of the group.

“So, let me get this straight. You were born from both China’s?” asked Sabine.

“Yes. My mom was born in ROC and my dad was born in the PRC.” said Cui.

“Interesting..”

“Okay, strain is-start-to-get-on-Semenov as well. Are you sure-this-plane-work?” asked the Russian major.

“As long as the other group follows their own flare we should meet up soon.” said Liam.

“Shit… y’know, mah’ uncle, he was a bit of a crazy man, he used to walk with me down the grass fields back in Georgia. Would scold me for complainin’ about shit cus’ his father did it to him and he was runnin’ away from the Civil War goin’ on at the time.”

“Shut up, Porter, this is why you got demoted.”

“You shut up you fucking hard balled douchebag.”
said Porter, sticking up a flick finger to him.

“You say that again, and I will have you court marshaled.”

“Shut up, you’re just a butthurt little fuck from Minnesota, aren’t ya’?” he challenged, giving the double middle fingers.

“You come here you bitch!”
Liam scrambled to the Georgian with his hands in front of him, shoving him to the ground while Porter grabbed on to him and brought him down too.

“You two idiots stop!” intervened Gentilini, “what you’re doing is not something you were asked to do on the job description. So don’t do it.”

“Job description, JOB DESCRIPTION? You listen here you little sh-“

“Shut up. Shut up! I heard something…” said Semenov.

”There are a bunch of crazy animals in the Land Down Under. When I was young, I used to think these pests were everywhere. Turns out I was wrong. And I was just another unlucky soul to be born in Satan’s backyard.”

“Oh come on, don’t be such a sour-puss. Australians are awesome. They have cool accents, they’re like cowboys but upside down, they—

“You hear that talking?” asked Sabine.

“It’s the group!” shouted Porter, stumbling to the floor again before scrambling up to the noise. The rest of the group followed him.

“Hello! Fellow humans!” said Porter.

“Wow, I haven’t seen anything bipedal for hours!” shouted James.

“What about us?” asked Jia.

“You guys don’t count.”

“Jesus christ Sabine, I vas’ vorried’ out of my ass for you,” Wilbert sighed.

“Truly was a hell ride,” said Sabine, embracing Wilbert into a hug.

“Zina, my god I was terrified, you could’ve died!” Ania shouted in Russian, shaking Zina back and forth before giving her a huge hug.

“So, Gentilini, I don’t suppose we’ve formally met. So, good day sir,” he bows his beret in respect.

Gentilini does the same in response. The two shook hands and shared a lighter.

“Alright everyone listen up. Here’s our task at hand in full description: as you know, we have been at war with an alien race known as ‘ponies’. They hold a greater understanding of something we can’t even identify. We call it ‘MG(V)IC’, or Manipulative Gravitational (values of) Ionic Concentration, or MaGIC. If Earth falls, we are the scouting force for humanity. You guys may have figured out that we had unintentionally travelled to the land of Equis, but we can still carry out our task at hand. But, first things first, we have to obtain more Artifact-R before anything. I’ve no idea what it’s for, but if the higher ups were so crazy about that shit, it must be important. Maybe, we can use it to take back Earth somehow. But until then, we just do our jobs. I don’t want any questioning of morales or basic respect, I want everyone here to do their goddamn job and thats it. Nobody gives a fu-”

“Okay, okay, they get it. Everyone, please, try your best to do-job, that’s-order. You got that?”

“Yes sir.” replied everyone.

“Who do you think you are interrupting a higher up?”

“I’m captain, and you’re captain. We possess the same amount of respect.”

“You know what? I don’t have time to argue with you, Russian. Go with the others.”

“What a fucking asshole.”

“Just stop talking, you’ll get us both shot.”

. . .

It was night on Earth. Twilight had finished it. She had finished the spell. The exasperated alicorn turned to the spell and powered it up. If this worked, she could see how they travelled to her world, and see what’s happening to them currently.
Her horn flashed brightly and then suddenly, everything flashed to white. After a second it had faded, and Twilight could see a panoramic view of Equestria. She did it. The exhaustion in her circuits were immediately wiped from thought as she looked around for any signs of the humans. There was nothing. She looked desperately for anything, any lead of the human’s whereabouts. This had lasted for several minutes, she was about to give up, when she saw it. A bright red flash streaking across the sky.

“Jackpot,” Twilight snickered with an evil grin.

. . .

“It’s concerning how slow you conscripts walk,” mentioned Liam. The 7 soldiers had an easier time walking longer distances than the conscript volunteers for obvious reasons, making it appear that the group had split.

“Are we ever gonna sit down?” asked Aidan, his voice nearly a groan.

“Once we find some kind of abandoned shelter,” responded Liam.

“And when will that be?” asked Zina.

“Well, from how long we’ve been walking and still haven’t found any abandoned shelter, or any shelter at all, I’d say we’d best get ready to walk for... 15-30 minutes,” said Gentilini.

All the conscripts along with Private Porter and LC James made a childish groan.

“If you keep whining like little shits we’ll get nowhere and we’ll be wasting even more time. Time that we NEED.” responded Liam, his frustrated attitude silencing everyone.

The silent walking and the sluggish pace of the conscripts compared to the soldiers continued once more. And after 7 minutes of silence Private Porter, talked.

“Sir, Ah’ think Ah’ see something on the fah’ right,” said he, with his southern accent.

“Building?” Liam simply asked.

“Hold up,” he said, taking a pair of binoculars from his side and viewing through them.

“Was it a building?” Liam repeated.

“Yeah, yeah I thaynk’ so,”

“You are to respond to me with affirmative and negative, do you understand, private?”

“Affirmative sir,”

“Does it have lights?”

“Negative,”

“You see anyone?”

“That’s a negative,”

“Well then let’s go everybody we’re headed to the abandoned structure. — Chop chop everybody this isn’t vacation.”

Another collective groan from most of the group.

The sun was on the brink of setting. The orange streaks shot across the sky along with the blue. The Pioneers had come across an abandoned castle in the middle of the forest, to their luck, and even more than the lights still work, and the fact that it’s isolated from the pony world made this the number one choice for a campout by unknown alien invaders.

“Dayum,” muttered Porter, “look at dem’ banners.”
He points at the two banners displaying an alicorn flying around in circles. One was blueish-purple, the other was white with pink hair. The group suddenly stopped and realized what this could mean.

“Ya’ reckon we jus’ found ah’selves da’ castle of Princess Celestia and Luna?” inquired Porter.

“With Jesus as my witness we may have just,” responded Gentilini.

“Oh this is great. This is all just great. We jus’ trespassed an angreh’ bitch goddess’s castle! We are so focked’!

“How would-sun-princess know if we did? Princess-castle is looking like-textbook-definition of abandoned! Can’t we just go in?” said Semenov.

Semenov and a few others already began walking in.

“Hold your horses big Ivan. It’s a trap,” Waynes deadpanned.

But by then the door was already opened, Ivan and some others entered the castle, disregarding any discretion of the enemy.

“Fucking idiots,” scowled Liam, “retards like them are gonna get us all KILLED!” he hissed.

It didn’t matter how much he tried, everybody made their mind to go into the castle.

“God we are so fucked!....” groaned Liam before stomping in.

. . .

Northbrook, Illinois, United States

Sherwin watched as Harvey slowly began to open his eyes.

“Holy shit, Harvey, you’re alive...” enthusiastically whispered Sherwin.

“What happened. What the fuck happened after I was knocked out?” groaned Harvey.

“I dragged you through the vents, and I found this corner that we can see through but stay hidden,” explained Sherwin.

“How are we gonna survive out here? With no food... no water... N-NO LIGHT... STUCK HERE WHERE NOBODY CAN FIND US…” Harvey slowly stuttered.

“We’ll think of something... I-I’ll think of something don’t worry about that Harvey. Worry about yourself right now,”

“I don’t think I’m gonna make it...” groaned Harvey.

“You only collided your forehead on the vent wall, shut up.”

“oh..”

. . .

Discord had been with Celestia the whole day.

“So you’re sure the facility cleanup had left nopony injured?” asked Celestia.

“Yes little celly, nothing happened to anypony involved,” answered Discord.

“Thank you Discord, you can go now,”

“Alright, Celestia. Ta Ta!”

Discord could feel a strange new presence of creatures in the Castle of the Two Sisters. He decided it was best to investigate alone. Suddenly snapping and reappearing in the Castle, hidden from sight of these “creatures”. He then identified them as humans. All Discord could think of was what they were doing here, and how were they here.

He listened carefully.

“Jesus christ. You guys can’t keep making noise! Somebody might hear you!”

Cui walked towards Ella.

“Not much of a talker either?” he asked.

“Yeah. Sometimes I like to keep to myself,” responds Ella.

“Me too...”

The two sat alone, talking to each other amongst the quiet chaos of everyone talking.

This was pretty dang important information, Discord had to tell the others. And in an instant, he vanishes instantly.

. . .

The CMCs have been looking forward to this day, they were gonna help a filly get her cutiemark in Adventuring.
But before then, they had to scout out for safe areas to do the activity.

“Alright, you girls ready?” asked Scootaloo.

Both Applebloom and Sweetiebelle nodded in excitement.

“Cutiemark Crusader’s brave adventurers!” all three of them cheered. They had already gotten their cutiemarks, but it was still fun to do. And they loved to help others, specifically other filly’s who don’t have cutiemarks.

While they were still scouting out the area they were gonna explore, they had some familiarity with this part of the Everfree forest, as they’ve gotten caught many times trying to get their cutiemarks. The three best friends continued to drive down the path, no worries about anything.

. . .

“Your majesty, I’ve found the humans,” Twilight reported.

“Excellent Twilight Sparkle. Have you found a way to get to them?” asked Luna.

“Yes, but it will take some time, as the portals to Earth are recharging. We will have to wait until then, but only some 2 days or so.”

“That is acceptable, as long as we know where they are it doesn’t seem like much of a problem.”

. . .

James got up from his spot he was sitting on and went to go outside. He wanted to grab some fresh air alone. Had the Unity War never happened, he wouldn’t normally do this. At a near age of 19 his silly personality still stuck with him even during the war. People were right when they say somethings really change about you but some you can only wish could.
He didn’t even look 19 at this point. His eyes had more rings than it ever would in a normal life, he had scars all over his body, and the dirt stained on him help amplify his mature appearance when he was still a naturally silly kid.
He had gone deeper and deeper into the woods, but he still knew where the base was. The castle stuck out like a sore thumb even at a decent range.

”Cutie Mark Crusaders adventurers! Yay!”

James could hear it from the back of his ear. It sounded like kids. Way younger than anyone in the group. He jumped into a bush near him, hearing the children draw nearer.

“Woah! Look! A castle!” said one with a rough voice.

“Smallscout is totally gonna get his cutiemark here!” another one with a southern accent said.

“I know right?” said a different one, that one had a more high pitched voice.

From the angle the CMCs were looking at, from a distance, the castle that was being used as a base could be seen. But if those three discover that 14 bipedal alien creatures with no hair were living there, the secrecy of this operation would be completely compromised. Suddenly, James could hear a quiet rustling in the bushes, it didn’t seem like the three pony girls were aware as they kept on babbling about bullshit. Then suddenly, a wolf shaped animal made out of wood leapt out of the bushes. The girls screamed in terror as they fled from the scooter one of them rode on. The wolf thing was faster than them, he could only watch as the wolf outran the three little ponies. He couldn’t bare not helping. Rising from the bushes, James fired a round into the wood-wolf creature. It howled in pain, he shot another one, this time in its glowing yellow eyes, then a final one went straight through its mouth. The wolf collapsed into many pieces of log. The three ponies girls huddled up together stood in silence.

“That...”
“Was...”
“THE COOLEST THING I’VE EVER SEEN!”

The orange pegasus filly shouted. The three ponies approached James in excitement, blabbering so much words he couldn’t understand once what they were saying.

It was approaching night, and James had to get back to base for obvious reasons.

“Look, I appreciate your thankfulness for me, but I really need to go back to the base,” said James.

“Take us with you!” Pleaded the yellow one. “We’re too scared to go back at night!”
The three ponies gave pleading faces.

“Fine, but if you come you won’t be going back to where you came from for some time until we finish our mission.

He instantly regretted what he said.

“Oooh! What mission! Can we hear?” they shouted.

“No.” He began walking back towards the home base, the three fillies following behind, asking too many questions on the way.

“Shhh!” hissed James.

The three fillies stopped talking instantly.

He peeked through the castle doors.

“Hey! Porter! Waynes!” he whispered, “get the hell over here!”

Porter listened and ran to where he was. So did Waynes. Aidan followed out of curiosity.

“The hell you doing?” demanded the Aussie.

“I uh... was curious..” responded Aidan.

Porter’s eyes went wide in terror looking at the ponies.

“Seriously!? Ya’ gave away our position?! Oh fuck!”

“Nah, they wanted to come with me.” he said, moving his left leg to make space for the three ponies.

“I couldn’t stop myself... they were attacked by a monster and they were only kids...” he continued.

“Oh you gotta be fu-“

Waynes shoved Porter with his shoulder, he motioned his head towards the kids.

“Oh you gotta be goddamn kidding me!” he said, changing what he was originally gonna say.

Waynes put his hand to his face.

“So what do you propose we do about these three little fillies?” asked Waynes.

“I guess we’ll have to have two of us watch them in case they try to escape. Somewhere isolated from most of the group but easy to run back to if anything goes wrong,” proposed Aidan.

“Well then, it’s settled. You and James are going upstairs to the balcony. There’s a clear path from there to the main entrance.”

“What?! Why me?!” argued James.

“Because you brought them here ya’ bloody dumbass.”

“The fuck ya’ talking about? I didn’t bring them here! They followed me here. And, what, I’m just supposed to leave them all alone to get lost?!”

“Simply put, you don’t know them.” deadpanned Waynes.

. . .

The two men sat on the balcony of the castle, the three fillies sitting beside them, talking nonstop.

“Shut up ya’ cunts…” groaned the Australian.

“What’s a cunt?” the white one asked.

“It’s a slang for something you’ll possibly learn later.”

“What’s a slang?” asked the orange one.

“It’s sorta like an informal way of saying something,” answered James.

“What’s informal?” asked the yellow one.

“It means not in a serious or mature way,” responded James.

Author's Note

Hope I’m pacing the story well enough. I really want to get this right.