All across Equestria, screens lit up before eager faces; the beloved social media icon and royal celebrity Pipp Petals was on air, and nopony wanted to miss a second!

Pipp sat up in her chair, gazing into her phone screen as she grinned and exclaimed "Goood evening, Pippsqueaks!" - before raising a hoof and tilting her head a little, her wings fluffing up for a moment "And I hope you had good day! Well, I mean, as good as a day can be when the morning had tentacles of FIRE burst out of the together trees throughout Equestria..."

The musician-princess chuckled "But all of that's behind us now! And as far as i'm aware, nopony was seriously hurt! As EVERYPONY was expecting... Opaline's gone! Our singing gave the together trees some kind of... Boost... That let them kick her flank! So, I guess for now... Equestria's found peace. The monster that caused all those conflicts we heard about in history class is gone, and we have a bright future ahead of us! Equestria is finally safe."

The chat rolled by with exclamations of cheer and congratulations, along with relief - as Pipp inhaled, before smiling "Speaking of whiiich... There's a twist! when Opaline was defeated, this portal opened up, and basically... We got in contact with another land! Heh, I know, shocking right? Anyway, a stallion from there's come back to look at ours, and meet up! And that's not alll~ When we returned, it looks like the portal accidentally sucked in a stallion from some other world - some kind of... hairless ape - so not only can we enjoy our victory, but we can also celebrate first contact too! Fillies and gentlecolts, put your hooves together for our first alien contact... Anon!"

Anon blinked, glancing away from Zipp as he saw Pipp eagerly gesturing for him to join, as he gave the detective-princess a small smile, stating "Wish I could talk more, but... Yeah, it's just as weird to me. Who knows, maybe i'm not the first one to travel from one world to the other? A lot of our myths match Equestria's reality." before he walked over to Pipp - Zipp glancing down with a thoughtful expression, bringing a hoof to her chin before moving to join her sister as well, while stormclouds began to rapidly gather outside.

On the outskirts of Maretime Bay, Allura and Twitch slwoly prowled over a hill - the feline humming as she sniffed a few times, before she narrowed her eyes in irritation and growled "...Bah, the scent leads into town... If we're going to get information, we'll need to sneak in, and do this the old fashioned way. Mind control a pony or three to tell me where exactly those seven went... I'd rather not leave an obvious trail though, so ideally we'll catch a pony isolated and alone, who we can interrogate... Time for you to do some scouting, Twitch."

Twitch nodded with a grin and rubbed his paws together, before blinking and tensing as black clouds rolled into the area unnaturally quickly, crackling angrily high up in the sky. Allura blinked, glancing up as she muttered "...Sudden. We know there's strange magic afoot... Be careful, Twitch. Something... Isn't right."

Twitch nodded, saluting at his friend before moving to bounce ahead and toward the town. "Right. Simple mission. Find a pony alone, and guide Allura to them. Rinse and repeat until we get the information we need. Shouldn't be too hard, outside of whatever that weird magic is." he thought with a small smirk, bouncing ahead as he began to move around the perimeter of the town.

(1d20 roll: 5. Moderate Fail.)
As Twitch explored a grassy hill on the outskirts of town, he soon enough saw Pipp's assistants - Jazz and Rocky Riff - resting together on a bench just outside of town, talking to each other with smiles. They were completely alone. "Two... That'll be isolated enough for Allura's needs." Twitch thought, starting to hop away with a grin, taking a small glance back at them... before his eyes widened, giving a small gasp of fear as he froze up.

Both Jazz and Rocky had stood - their eyes locked on him, open wide as their irises glowed a vibrant purple, their expressions unnaturally neutral as their entire bodies relaxed. Unnerved, Twitch made a small hop back... To which one stepped forwards.

Twitch gave a sound close to a scream as he turned and began to sprint back to Allura, even as glowing vines burst from the ground beneath him and grabbed at him, Jazz's hooves glowing a faint green. One grasped his right leg, as (Twitch's PoV: 13+5. Success.) the rabbit lowered and bit through the vine, before racing away faster - the two ponies trying to walk after him, but stumbling almost immediately and collapsing to the ground, the glow in their eyes fading for just a moment as they blinked in momentary confusion - before again relaxing as the purple overtook their eyes again and they stood.

Soon after, as Allura had drawn another set of runes, looking at a projection thoughtfully, Twitch rushed back to her - screeching. Allura blinked and tensed, rushing over to him, as she exclaimed "Twitch!? What's wrong!?"

The animal gave a series of noises - but was interrupted as Allura tensed and grabbed him with a fearful expression. Behind him, most of the pegasi of the town had assembled - their eyes glowing a similar purple, as their wings were outstretched, not flapping... But still somehow flying, their wings glowing vibrantly

"...Something gives me the feeling we aren't welcome here..." Allura stated shakily, inhaling before her eyes glowed as her wings extended - an unnatural chill extending over the area "Perhaps another plan is needed..." she growled, stepping back as pegasi began to dive.

(Allura's PoV: 12+8. Success.)
Allura stomped the ground firmly a few times, pillars of snow bursting up from the ground - drawing the liquid from deep beneath the soil to use as raw material - and thumping into the pegasi that came too close, sending them hurtling down to the ground. They were many, but they were uncoordinated and clumsy - as, after dealing with the first attackers, Allura glared at the rest - extending a wing and exclaiming "Twitch! My back! NOW!" - the bunny nodding and hopping onto her, hugging the back of her neck with a worried expression, before she turned and ran - flapping her wings hard as she took to the air quickly, shivering in worry.

The possessed ponies stared after her for a moment, a few trying to give chase - but they were slow, and in the end, she flew past the horizon. After a short while the storm dispersed and they all returned to town, heading to their normal places before their eyes ceased glowing, none the wiser of what had happened in the last few minutes... Other than a few feeling weirdly sore for some reason.

Sunny blinked, glancing up at the stormclouds through her window, as she continued to prepare a meal - her mind playing back the memories of the events that had taken place a few months earlier, with Posey almost getting swallowed up by a void in a similar storm. The mare muttered "Huh... Weird. Magic doesn't seem to be on the blink though... I'm sure it's nothing to worry about." to herself softly

Meanwhile, throughout Equestria, ponies (other than those embroiled in the conflict with Allura) watched the stream in fascination as a strange biped walked into view of the camera, before he moved to sit by Pipp's side with a smile. The chat rushed by at max speed - it being impossible to make out anything but a flood of surprise emojis, along with grins.

Anon smiled, looking into the camera as he stated "Hello everypony... Yeah, I..."

He exhaled, looking down as he crossed his arms "Honestly, I still haven't fully processed everything that happened. one day I was in my home, the next, I was hurtling through a portal onto an unfamiliar bridge. The local doctor says i'm fine, so there's that, but... Everything was so sudden. I don't know, it's... Amazing to be able to visit another world, but..."

He rolled a hand, as Pipp nodded with a sympathetic smile "you don't know what comes next. I get it, it must be pretty scary. But all we can really do is look on the bright side~ We'll all make sure everything ends up okay, and... Who knows? You being here could be the start of something more wonderful when our lands get into full contact... But I don't think chat wants to see us talking philosophy!"

Anon gave a small chuckle, cracking a grin as Zipp nodded with a smile, walking over "Yeah! There's... So many questions." she stated, resting her hooves atop the back of the sofa "It's hard to really say where to start! But, uh, I think there's a BURNING one on everypony's minds. What do your kind know about magic?"

From afar, Sunny blinked and looked over, leaning a little closer in interest, as Pipp glanced over - even Misty and Izzy leaning in, as Hitch smiled, a hoof resting on Sparky's shoulder as he looked over - before each of them blinked as Anon gave a drawn out sigh "That's... Kinda the main problem. We're REALLY advanced technologically - but we know next to nothing about magic. Honestly, it's thought of as fictional."

Izzy giggled nearby, moving her head into view of the camera, behind the sofa with Zipp "So kinda like we were until recently! Wow! We speak the same language AND we lost magic! We're so alike!"

Anon blushed, stating "I don't know if we even had it in the first place, honestly..." he commented, before exhaling "But yeah. I think my main question for you is, what do we do to start getting me home?"

The Camera turned to Sunny as she called over "I wish I knew, Anon. As we were saying before, most magical knowledge has been lost, ever since Equestria fell apart. Nopony really understands how we cast the spells we do today, or how the unicorns of old made new spells... It just kinda... Happens. Only one pony really understands magic, and she's gone... And really, REALLY evil."

Anon nodded with a frown, stating "You're... Talking about Opaline, right? You were talking about her earlier...", even as he thought "Gotta keep up appearances. I supposedly don't know anything about this world, best that they explain it all to me before I slip up."

Zipp nodded with a frown "Yeah... She was a nasty piece of work. Obsessed with stealing magic. Tore apart this entire land to get it a long time ago. The history books are filled with specist propaganda at this point, but... We know for sure that there was some kind of great disaster, which led to a LOT of death and destruction."

Izzy nodded, exclaiming "The unicorns thought the pegasi were behind it!", as Pipp inhaled "And the pegasi thought it was the unicorns. Both thought the earth ponies helped the other... When we now know it was... Probably Opaline. The exact details were lost, a looot of old documents from those times were lost in fires over the years..."

Zipp hummed "Documents about the fire alicorn lost in fire... Makes you think..." she commented, raising a hoof to her chin

Pipp nodded, replying "Maybe~ But let's not get all conspiracy-theorist here~" - giggling a little, as Zipp nodded and Pipp continued "Anyway, after the pony tribes blamed each other, there was this biiig three way war over the last scraps of magic..."

Zipp nodded with a frown "It lasted for a long time. Tens, maybe hundreds of millions died. Equestria... It was reduced to a tiny fraction of its initial population. Like, single-digit percent or lower. Eventually the three sides retreated, each telling themselves that they won. But most settlements were destroyed, each tribe of pony had split into their own nation-state, and the population levels still haven't recovered..."

Anon blinked, paling a little at the explanation - having figured it had been bad, but not THAT bad - as he exhaled slowly, his eyes wide with shock "So we're in some kind of... Post-apocalypse, after a gigantic war..."

Pipp chuckled "Well, I mean, I think we've rebuilt kinda well, but... Yeeeah, it's no secret that life was way way WAAAY better before everything collapsed. There's still tech from the old days laying in ruins in the wild, sometimes somepony finds something and fixes it up, but even that is kind of a lost art."

Izzy nodded with a grin, leaning in "A few ponies have old schematics which you can use to understand motors and stuff. But they're expensive, and hard to come by. I was able to read a few back in Bridlewood, but it was a BIG deal that I could even look at them!"

Anon nodded with a grimace - glancing down "So really, as far as getting me back home... We're lost." he stated weakly, before his thoughts ventured back to what he knew of G4 "If they're right... My god. The show was the precursor to... Probably the greatest tragedy in history. Everypony i'd come to know and love from the show... Gone, and not even peacefully...".

Tears came to his eyes, as Sunny inhaled and walked over - stating "We don't know that. It's still... Very earlydays since magic came back. Who knows, there could be some big breakthroughs just around the corner." she stated - causing Anon to blink and look up to her, wiping his eyes as she finished "Just... Take it day by day. We'll try to make the best of this. Best-case scenario, it will be a great thing that you came here... Because we can finally meet YOUR species." with a hopeful smile.

Anon sighed, smiling as he stated "...Thanks, Sunny. I'll... Try to look on the bright side. It's just... A lot to take in. Being here, meeting an alien species for the first time, hearing about... What happened in your history..."

Pipp smiled and nodded "That's what you've gotta do, Anon." she stated sympathetically, before inhaling and placing a hoof on his hand "You just take all the time you need to adjust, and we'll be there for you." she concluded - offering him a smile, which he returned.

Author's Note

There we go! So, Allura's learnt a bit more about the world she came to, and Anon... Well, now Anon knows what became of G4 Equestria.

Question is, what happens now? Is there anything else Anon should ask on-stream, or perhaps there's something else he should discuss more in private? I'll give the comments an opportunity to make suggestions at this point!

Ponies make such effective vessels for my will. A shame they're so uncomfortably hard to control! Ugh, now I know how [REDACTED] felt. I really thought I could have killed Allura there, but... Those pegasi really didn't operate as they should have. I need more practice...

Sounding kinda evil there, [REDACTED]

Do you want to be next on my list?

I mean, I like you a lot!

That's what I thought.