Chapter 1View OnlineTCB: Parallel UniversesChapter 1A/N All my thanks goes to Robert C., who, although he is not a brony, was kind enough to edit this chapter. It had been eight years since emergence. Eight years ago, the smooze had been devouring the home planet of Equestria, Equis. The two princesses had held it off best they could, but as options ran out, they decided to fall back to their last resort. They jumped worlds. With the combined power of the Elements of Harmony, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, the entire nation had been moved onto another planet. They had hoped that the world was not inhabited. Although their hopes had proved futile, luckily for them, the “humans” proved to be (more or less) welcoming, and Equestria, having emerged in the North Atlantic ocean, was now an OECD member nation, a member of the United Nations, active participant of NATO, and petitioning to join the G20. Tourism boomed both ways, and ponies everywhere settled in and enjoyed their new technology and friends. In another place, with another earth and another emergence and another Equestria, the transition was not as smooth, or peaceful, as it was on our world. “Living room looks clear, sir,” Gerard said, peering through the windows. “I don’t like this.” I frowned. “I don’t like this either. Knock on the door; see if they’ll come.” “HLF! Open the door!” Reynolds yelled, banging on the door. The only reply was silence. Now I really didn’t like this. About an hour ago, Zero Base had received a desperate emergency transmission from a family who said they were barricaded in a house in the D.C. area. Although they couldn’t see any ponies outside, they were afraid to move without some kind of escort. Command could only spare a few men, and my unit had drawn the short straw. Stealthily navigating our way through downtown D.C., we had arrived at the house, only to find that the entire street was deadly quiet. “Let’s do what we came here to do, guys. No frags; there might be civilians in here. Knock the door down, let’s move and clear!” “Fun time!” Fields responded, moving up. Applying a breaching charge to the door, he put his finger over the detonator and counted down. Three. Two. One. The door came down with a resounding ‘BOOM’ and the team flooded in, their weapons up. “Clear, sir,” Jackson said, “continuing on!” The squad cleared the rooms on the ground and top floor one by one, finding absolutely nothing. It looked as though no one had lived in the house in years. “This is the right house, right, boss?” Fields asked, confused. I nodded, wondering what on earth was going on. “Basement!” cried Reynolds downstairs. Joining him, I saw a staircase descending into oppressive darkness. Clicking the flashlight on my MP5 on, I ordered the team to move in. Quickly but carefully we descended down the steps. Suddenly, Jackson, who was on point, stopped at the bottom of the stairs. “Boss... looks like a pony hoofprint,” Jackson said, pointing down. Moving to him, I knelt down and examined the indent in the dust. It was indeed a hoofprint, and it looked fresh. “It doesn’t continue down...” I muttered, “and there are no prints leading up to it... just this one print...” I looked up at him, confused. “There’s no way that print could have gotten there... unless...” The realisation shocked me like a lightning bolt. “They flew! PEGASUS!” I screamed, pointing my weapon up at the ceiling. Although the pony had lost the element of surprise, it still had the flying advantage. Weaving in between our lines of fire, it dropped a vial of that magical purple potion. “GIRARD!” Reynolds screamed. But it was already too late. Splash! It scored a direct hit. In almost slow motion, he was consumed by wisps of purple, slowly warping his body from primate to equine.in a matter of seconds, he had gone from a young, handsome man to a light green unicorn. “Boss... I understand now. Us... we’re wrong! We need to become ponies! You need to become-” BANG. BANG. BANG. Fields shot him multiple times, killing it instantly. Reynolds finally got a bead on the pegasus as well. “Boss, we gotta move!” he said desperately. I nodded, and the now four man team moved up the staircase. “It was a fucking trap!” Fields shouted, panicked, as we found ourselves surrounded by dozens of ponies. “No fucking shit, Sherlock!” I yelled back. Putting my weapon on full auto, I started mowing down the crowd, clearing the path to the door. We ran out the door guns blazing, and were surprised to see the street was clear. “Ya varmit!” I heard behind me from the doorway. Turning, I saw an orange earth pony, wearing a stetson hat, charging at us. In one quick motion, she knocked Reynolds to the ground. “You killed some of mah best friends with that thin’,” she said, furious, pointing to the gun he held, “Ah don’t know why you’re fighting us so hard! We’re trying to cure your cold, heartless minds! We’re fixin’ yah!” And with that, she uncorked a vial and poured the contents down his throat. BANG. As the pony collapsed, I ran over to the fallen man. “Reynolds... you okay, man?” It was rhetorical, of course. I could clearly see that he was not. He was already starting to change. “Kill me,” he whispered, tears building in his eyes, “kill me before I change.” I was reluctant, but I knew that if I was in that position, I would probably want the same thing. “Reynolds... I’m so sorry...” Trembling now, I raised my submachine gun up at him, and took the life of my best friend. My best friend... we had gone to the police academy together, and spent three years in a patrol car with him. After that, he had transferred to ETF, our departments equivalent of SWAT, but we had still seen each other regularly. After the war started, we had stuck together, never leaving each other’s side, until that very moment. The sound of more gunfire snapped me back to the real world. “Boss, we gotta go!” Jackson yelled, suppressing the ponies trying to exit the doorway of the house. Somehow, they weren’t in the street yet, but it wouldn’t be long before they found a way out. “Coming!” I yelled back, running over to him. As a squad, we made our way back down the street as ponies poured out of the house we had just escaped. Jackson and Fields ran about ten meters in front of me. As I struggled to catch up, I didn’t look where I was going, and didn’t even notice an alleyway that I was passing. All of a sudden, I found myself being levitated in the air, surrounded by a purple aura. The two men ahead of me looked back at me and stopped. “Go!” I yelled. After hesitating for a second, they kept running, leaving me alone. At the same time, I was whirling around, raising my MP5 at the lavender unicorn that had trapped me, and before she realised what was happening, pulled the trigger. CLICK. That was a sound that I had never wanted to hear during combat, the sound of my weapon being empty. Shit, I swore to myself, Why the hell didn’t I count my shots? Panicking now, I dropped the submachine gun and reached for the Glock 22 on my hip. The unicorn realised what I was doing this time, though, and removed the pistol before I could reach it. That gun had been my issued patrol weapon when I was a cop. Strangely, the first thought that popped into my head was that Staff Sergeant Grant would give me a lot of shit for losing that. If only that were my biggest problem... The unicorn had a lavender coat, violet eyes, and a purple mane and tail with a pink stripe running through it. Her cutie mark was a large star surrounded by five smaller ones. “Hello,” she said, “My name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess Celestia’s personal student. I’ll make this quick, although you don’t really deserve that after killing all those ponies.” She threw me to the ground, pinning me so that I couldn’t move. “This will all be over very soon. Just sit still, and soon you’ll be redeemed,” she said in an almost lecturing tone, smiling. “You... are evil! You killed my best friend!” I said, anger seeping out through my voice. “Actually... you killed him,” she replied, shaking her head sadly, “We were saving him, giving him a better life! But you thought that death was a better alternative, and you shot him.” She actually had tears in her eyes now. “You killed him! A newly redeemed newfoal!” “I didn’t kill Reynolds,” I said, dead calm now, “I killed a pony. Reynolds died when he was converted.” “Well, soon, you’ll know better,” she said, calming herself down and smiling again, “Soon you’ll be redeemed!” As she floated a vial of purple potion over to me, I knew that this was probably it. Closing my eyes, I hoped that Jackson and Fields had made it back safely, and that my wife would be okay. Suddenly, there was a loud whooshing sound, like a strong wind had started up, but I couldn’t feel anything. Opening my eyes, I saw that the air around me had started shimmering, glowing an electric blue. All of a sudden, I felt the pony’s magic weaken and let go of me. “What the hell is going on?” I yelled, as I felt myself being sucked through something. Then I blacked out. I regained consciousness to the sun shining down on my eyelids. Groggily, I slowly opened my eyes, and was greeted by the sight of a beautiful, blue, cloudless sky. The sun was bright, and I covered it with my hand. Forcing myself to sit up, I saw that I was in a small clearing in a forest. I wasn’t exactly sure how I had gotten here, or where this even was, but I knew for sure it wasn’t Washington D.C. Hell, for all I knew, I might not even be in the same country. Standing up heavily, completely tired out for some reason, I looked around to get my bearings. A black object about two meters away caught my eye, and walking over to it, I found that it was my Glock 22. My submachine gun, however, was nowhere in sight. Holding my breath, I checked the magazine and chamber. Fully loaded. I tried to holster it, but my holster wasn’t on my hip for some reason. Instead, I put the gun on the ground and looked around. The forest floor was covered with grass and pine needles, a small log sat near the treeline, and I could hear birds chirping. The forest was a thin one, and I saw something that resembled a path leading out of the clearing. For the first time in years, I found myself relaxing in this completely peaceful environment. “Come on, Pinkie! I told you, it’s just ahead!” I snapped my head around just in time to see two very familiar ponies enter the clearing. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. I knew them quite well as the ponies that had killed my son. In a different part of the same forest, Twilight Sparkle approached the town of Ponyville. Stopping short of the treeline, she stared in shock and surprise at the sight of a half human, half pony construction crew working together to lay a foundation. A small buzzing noise got her attention, and her head snapped up to see a small propeller aircraft landing at an airfield that she had never seen before. “No... this can’t be right...” she said to herself, “Those humans need to be purified!” “Suddenly, one of the mares supervising the operation caught her eye. She was lavender, with a purple mane with a pink stripe running through it. She was her, Twilight Sparkle. It took a second for the implications to sink in. Once they did, however, a smirk appeared on the face of the Twilight in the forest. The smirk spread into an evil, diabolical grin.
Chapter 2View OnlineTCB: Parallel UniversesChapter 2A/N Again, thanks to Robert C. for editing. If there are any spelling/grammar errors, it's his fault! August 23rd, 2004 My police Crown Vic raced down the street while I pushed the pedal to the floor. Overhead lights flashing, I reached down to the ELS controls and turned the siren on. Making a right turn onto my street, I turned the siren off and braked hard in front of my house. Leaving the lights flashing, I got out of my car and drew my gun. I ran up to the front door, only to find that it had been smashed open already. Following the training I had received in the police academy, I entered stealthily, quickly but carefully clearing the rooms one by one. A sudden scream from upstairs caused me to throw caution to the wind and run to the source. Nearing my wife’s bedroom, I could hear voices talking. “Please... he’s only two years old... let him go... please!” My wife was saying. “Don’t worry! We’re here to help you. Once he’s a pony, you two can stay together. You’ll live your lives without corruption!” I entered the room just as a rainbow coloured pegasus opened a vial of fluid and poured it down my son's throat. “Brandon!” I screamed. The pony looked over at me and smiled. “Hey, I’m Rainbow Dash! That’s Pinkie Pie! Just hold still, we’ll be done in ten seconds flat!” I pointed my gun at them. “Get out.” Rainbow looked down at my firearm, and shrugged. “Your loss!” She flew out the window, taking Pinkie with her. My wife was on the floor now, sobbing. Walking over to her, I put my hand on her shoulder. “Natalie... we need to go...” My wife looked up, tears streaming down her face. “What about our son?” SPLASH. We both looked over at the source. It was our recently converted son. He had taken a vial the pony had dropped and thrown it at us. Since he was only a baby, it fell far short. “He’s gone, Natalie. Let’s go.” Present Day As I looked at those two mares again, I considered my options. My weapon was on the ground behind me, and I couldn’t reach it. We stared at each other for about two seconds, before an apologetic grin appeared on the Rainbow mare’s face. “Heh, we didn’t think anyp- anyone else would be out here!” What? I was backing up now, trying to get my gun in reach. “So... what’re you doing out here?” she asked, oblivious. “Don’t you recognise me?” I asked quietly. Rainbow put her hoof to her chin, thinking. At that moment, I reached down and grabbed my Glock off the floor. “Where the fuck am I?” I barked, pointing it at them. Rainbow and Pinkie, surprised, were taken aback. “Wh... what?” Pinkie uttered. “Where the FUCK am I?” I yelled angrily. “You’re in Whitetail Woods, in Equestria!” Rainbow said, equally angry, “What’s your problem? What’s with the gun? What’d we do to you?” “What did you do to me?” I asked, furious, “WHAT DID YOU DO? YOU KILLED MY SON!” She looked shocked. “I... I killed your son? No way! I would never do that!” “Yeah! Dashie’s one of the best mares I know!” Pinkie added. “You ponies think that you’re ‘helping’ us, but here’s a newsflash. When you convert someone, you’re actually killing them!” “I got no idea what you’re talking about!” She replied, “We didn’t kill anypony! And what the hay do you mean, ‘convert’? Look, just put the gun down!” I paused for a moment. Starting to cool down now, letting the adrenaline exit my system, I took a good look at the two mares before me. Neither of the ponies were wearing the dreaded saddlebags that held ponification vials, and there would be no point in killing them. Very slowly, I lowered the sights of my weapon. “Okay,” Rainbow said, uncertainly, “Now, why don’t you tell us what you mean by ‘convert’ and ‘ponification’?” “Yeah, like you don’t know!” “Well, I don’t, so just tell me!” I glared at her. “Fine, I’ll humor you. Eight years ago, Equestria appears in the ocean. We trust you, let your peop- ponies into our society. Two months later, we get attacked. Ponies with vials of ‘ponification’ potion are everywhere, turning humans into evil, brainwashed ponies. My partner; he got ponified, and when I went over to help him, he attacked me! We’ve been fighting for years... we’re down to four hundred and fifty humans now. You killed them all! All seven billion!” Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie looked shocked. “Wh... What’re you talking about?” Rainbow exclaimed, “We’ve never done anything like that! Why would we... I have human friends! And I’m pretty sure there’s no such thing as ‘ponification’! I’m not sure if that’s even possible!” “Don’t deny it!” I yelled, “You broke into my house... you were the one who ponified my two year old son! In front of my wife, too,” I added, “Two years old, and we had to leave him because he was trying to kill us!” Pinkie Pie stepped forward, causing me to raise my gun again. She stopped in her tracks. “Hey,” she said, “calm down.” She took another step. I kept the gun pointed at her, trembling now with a combination of fear and fury. Shoot her, damn it, shoot her! I yelled at myself. But I just couldn’t bring myself to do it. She reached me and slowly lowered my arm, the one that was holding the gun. It’s over, I thought, I’m dead now, all because I couldn’t pull the trigger! I shut my eyes tightly, waiting for that vial potion to be forced down my throat. When nothing happened, I opened them again slowly, and I found myself staring into Pinkie’s eyes. “We’re not gonna hurt you, silly!” She said softly, “Or ponify, or convert, or that other word you used!” I looked down at her, uncomprehending. “What?” “Hey, don't worry!” Pinkie said, smiling. Suddenly, she gasped. “Oh, I have to throw you a party! Come on, let’s go back to Ponyville! You can meet Twilight there, she’s a real smarty pants, I bet she’ll know what’s going on!” I froze at that familiar name. “Twilight? Twilight... Sparkle?” “Yeah, her,” Rainbow replied. “You know her?” “She was about to kill me right before I landed here!” I exclaimed. Rainbow looked annoyed, while Pinkie looked disturbed. “I don’t believe you, you know,” Rainbow said to me, “There’s no way ponies would do anything like that!” “Dashie...” Pinkie said, “Calm down.” “Pinkie,” Dash said indignantly, “He was pointing a gun at you!” “Because he was scared, Dash!” Pinkie exclaimed. She sighed. “Dash, we should bring him to Twilight. Let’s see what she thinks.” Dash sighed as well. “Alright, fine.” I frowned. “Wait, what makes me think I’ll go with you? You don’t have any potion on you, so you could be leading me back to where you can take me without a fight!” There was silence for a couple of moments. Then, Dash spoke up. “I really shouldn't care whether you come with us or not, you know. But if we leave you out here, you won’t survive long, and I’m never going to let someone get themselves killed because they’ve got some kind of mental sickness.” She had a valid point. There was no way I was going to last out here for an extended period of time. Additionally, they would no doubt contact the authorities the moment they got back to town, and if I had to hide, there was even less chance of survival. Other than killing these two, I really didn’t have a choice, and killing them just seemed... wrong. The door to the library swung open, revealing the lavender mare I had been fighting less than an hour ago. She looked over at Rainbow and Pinkie Pie and smiled widely. “Rainbow! Pinkie!” She cried, seeming very happy to see them. “Jeez, Twi, calm down! We just saw each other a few hours ago!” Rainbow said, “Can we come in?” “Absolutely!” she replied, smiling, “Make yourselves at home!” Walking through the door, I made eye contact with the unicorn, glaring suspiciously. “Where did you find him?” She asked curiously. “Middle of Whitetail Woods,” Rainbow replied, “He was just standing there. He has this whole crazy story, too.” “Oh, really?” Twilight asked, “Sit down; let’s hear it.” I sat down, gripping my Glock tightly and watching the purple unicorn carefully. Hesitantly, I started my story. As I told it, my mind flashed back to one memory that had been seared into my head. August 23rd, 2004 “I’m a cop and I’m okay! I sleep all night, I work all day!” My partner, Jonathan Edwards, sang. I slammed my forehead on the dashboard. “Johnny?” I groaned, “Shut the hell up. Or at least sing a good song.” My partner smirked. “I put on a gun and ba-adge! And handcuff crim-in-als!” Before I could reply, the radio interrupted us. “Fifty-two twelve, respond to CIBC bank, 205 Queen Street West, fight in progress. Branch manager reports two men in a scuffle outside.” “Mark 5212 responding,” I said, picking up the radio. Edwards turned on the lights and sirens, and we made a hard U-turn. Arriving on scene, we found two men beating the hell out of each other. We rushed over and separated them. “Hey hey hey!” I yelled, “Calm it down!” We started talking to them, trying to figure out what had happened. Apparently, one of the men had just been caught in bed with the other’s wife, or something to that effect. While I was taking the guy’s statement, something caught the corner of my eye. A green earth pony was standing perfectly still on the corner of Simcoe St., when suddenly he spasmed and collapsed. My partner took notice as well. “Hey, buddy, you okay? Do you need help?” He asked, walking over. The pony looked up. “Oh, I’m fine, thank you,” the pony said, smiling. He stood up. “Actually, I’m here to help you.” Jonathan looked down at him, confused. “What?” He asked. The pony reached into his saddlebag and drew out a vial full of purple fluid. “Just drink this and you’ll be redeemed!” He said enthusiastically. My partner took a step back. “Okay, sir, I’m gonna need you to put that down.” Suddenly, the earth pony pounced on top of my partner. I reacted instantly, running forward just as the pony poured the liquid down his throat. “Police!” I screamed, grabbing the pony off of Jonathan and throwing him to the sidewalk. We scuffled for a couple of moments until I finally managed to draw my baton and whack him with it. “What the hell was the liquid?” I yelled into his face. The pony was still smiling. “Redemption,” he said simply. Before I could comprehend the meaning of that, I was grabbed from behind and tossed away. I landed hard on my back, and found myself face to face with my attacker. It was a silvery grey pegasus, but what shocked me were the remains of a black-blue police uniform. A kevlar vest was caught on his wing, a duty belt was slipping off his hind legs, and a cap was falling off of his head. Someone screamed. Rotating my head, I saw a unicorn forcing a vial of liquid down a woman’s throat. She started morphing, changing colours, and in seconds she became a brilliant magenta pony. “Hey, Sean,” my partner - former partner - said. It was the pegasus moving his lips, but his voice was Edwards’. “Just take the potion, and everything will be okay. You’ll be redeemed.” All around me, I could see ponies attacking people, turning them into ponies, those ponies attacking more people. I looked at my former friend. “I don’t know whether you’re brainwashed, or if you’ve been replaced. But I know one thing for certain; you’re not Jonathan.” The pegasus was still smiling that creepy smile plastered on all of the pony’s faces. “But I am! And soon, you’ll see too!” BANG. BANG. Two shots rang out, but it wasn’t me who fired them. I looked past the falling pegasus to see two men in the grey tactical body armor of the Emergency Task Force standing next to an ETF SUV. One of them was holding a smoking Glock 17, and I recognized him immediately as Reynolds. Shots continued to ring out as the two officers engaged the other ponies in the street. As the firing finally ceased, Reynolds ran up to me and helped me up. “Hey,” he said, “They just declared a citywide Code 0. Lethal force has been authorized; these ponies aren’t just attacking here, they’ve attacked every single US city, they hit Parliament, the Prime Minister’s office, not a single Canadian Forces base is responding to calls, dispatch stopped answering about three minutes ago... the city’s in chaos!” Putting my hand to my chest, I realised that it was wet. Sitting up, I looked down at my kevlar vest, which was now stained with a red liquid. With a start, I realised it was Jonathan’s blood. I also noticed a little red light blinking on my duty belt, and realised that it was my phone. Reaching down, I grabbed it and read the incoming message. “What is it?” Reynolds asked, “Listen, we’ve been directed to secure the airport ASAP. We need to go.” I looked up at him. “Go,” I said, “I’ll meet you there.” Getting up, I ran to the police car that I had arrived in. “Where the hell are you going?” Reynolds shouted after me. “I’ll meet you at the airport!” I shouted back. In the car, I slammed my foot down on the accelerator and looked down at my phone again. 2:14 PM From: Natalie Parnell theres someone breaking into the house My police Crown Vic raced down the street while I pushed the pedal to the floor. Overhead lights flashing, I reached down to the ELS controls and turned the siren on... Present Day “So, yeah,” I said, “That’s what happened.” Everyone in the room was silent. Then, Twilight spoke up. “Well, that’s an... interesting story, to say the least,” she said, “Do you have any proof?” I was silent for a moment. “No,” I finally said, “I don’t have any proof. But I’m not lying!” “Right,” Twilight said, “Rainbow, I think you should get a police pony. He’s obviously crazy. Delusional at the very least.” “I don’t know, Twi...” Rainbow Dash said thoughtfully, “Weren’t you blabbering about paragram universes the other day? Like, how every time a decision is made, it splits into multiple universes, or something like that? I didn’t get half the stuff you said, but I do remember you saying that every scenario anyone's ever thought of actually happened in a universe somewhere...” “Parallel universes, Dash, and while that’s true, what he’s saying is just... impossible! He’s crazy!” Twilight replied. “Why are you so against this?” I asked suspiciously, “When I came in, your first question was ‘Where did you find him?’ How did you know I was found?” The library doors opened suddenly, and everyone’s heads turned to it. Instantly, all our jaws dropped. Standing in the doorway was a second Twilight Sparkle. Anyone who guesses the city this is based in gets a cookie.
Chapter 3View OnlineTCB: Parallel UniversesChapter 3One Hour Earlier “Unbelievable...” Twilight Sparkle muttered, reading a report hovering in front of her, “Just unbelievable!” For the last week or so, cell phone, television, and radio signals within about a fifty kilometer radius of the general Ponyville area had experienced massive interference from an unknown source at least a dozen times, lasting anywhere from ten seconds to a full hour. Computers had been destroyed, radios jammed, aircraft navigational systems screwed. The newly formed Equestrian Science and Magic Administration, as well as a few scientists from NASA and an advisor from the United States Geological Survey, had put together a team to investigate. It was being led by Dr. Robert Frost from NASA, a renowned particle physicist, as well as Twilight Sparkle from ESMA, a new but promising addition to the field of Magical Studies. The team had immediately set up a small sensory array near the edge of the Everfree forest, and the results that they received revealed that something in the area was giving off large amounts of electromagnetic radiation. While that certainly explained the interference they had been experiencing, the event had only lasted two seconds, so the most information they could gather was that the source was in the general direction of the Everfree forest. As the scientists had been setting up their advanced instrumentation, another event had occurred. It had only lasted a nanosecond, but it had emitted an electromagnetic pulse so powerful that all of the instruments the scientists had been setting up were fried instantly, satellites in space detected gamma rays consistent with that of a small nuclear explosion, and billions of dollars of computers were destroyed in an instant. “What they hay could be causing these?” Twilight asked as she looked up. The man kneeling next to her, Dr. Frost, shrugged. “I’m at a blank here,” he said, “All of our scientific instruments are beyond repair. We’re gonna have to take an inventory, but we’re looking at millions of dollars of damage at the least. We’re not gonna get new instruments for weeks, so we’ll have to make do with what we have. In the morning, we’ll deploy EMF detectors throughout the Everfree, try and narrow down a location, hope that there isn’t another event as devastating as this one.” Twilight nodded and sighed. “It’s too bad the computers recording the data were destroyed as well. We’ll have to start from scratch.” “Can’t start from scratch when you had nothing to begin with.” Frost joked. Twilight looked at him with an unamused expression. “Go home, Twilight,” he said, “There’s nothing to do here. Get a good nights sleep for the last time in weeks.” Twilight sighed. “I guess you’re right.” She said, “I’ll see you tomorrow.” As she walked back to her tree library, doubts started ringing through her head. Why did ESMA put me in charge? I don’t have any experience! Millions of ponies are counting on me! What if I can’t figure it out? I’ll never get to work in the scientific field again! Calming herself down, she took a look around. It was painfully obvious the damage that had been caused. The entire town was powerless, and although it wasn’t as pronounced in the daytime, it would be sunset soon, and ponies would have to resort back to candles, lanterns and flashlights. Approaching her front door, she thought she could hear voices from inside. Pausing for a moment, she made entry, and was shocked to find herself face to face with Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, a man with a gun, and herself. I reacted instantaneously, bringing the gun up and instinctively pointing it at the newcomer. Before It occurred to me that I was pointing it at the wrong pony, I was struck by a powerful beam of magic that sent me flying. Crying out in pain, I hit the ground hard, my weapon flying out of my hand. I heard another beam of magic being fired off, followed by the sound of somepony crying out. “Wha...?” I heard Twilight say. I could see my gun lying directly in front of me, but as I reached out, trying to grab it, it was seized by the glow of bright, lavender magic. The weapon was floated up and far out of my reach. “Nuh uh! You know, It’s too bad I don’t actually have any potion on me right now,” Twilight said as I turned onto my back to look her in the face, “Too bad I can’t just cast a spell to do the same thing. Oh wait! I can!” I started to push myself off of the ground, trying to think of a plan, a distraction, anything, when Rainbow Dash spoke up. “So it’s true!” She exclaimed, “I thought he was crazy, or making stuff up, but it’s actually true!” Rainbow glared at her. “You’re murdering an entire species!” “Murder?” Twilight exclaimed, “It wasn’t murder! We were redeeming their species! Those humans, they’re so, so... violent, so... cruel, so... smelly!” As glad as I was for the distraction, I still wasn’t sure exactly what I could do. I could tackle the unicorn, but she would easily be able to toss me off. “So are ponies!” Rainbow replied hotly, ignoring me, “Everything the humans do, we do! We just don’t see it because it’s us doing it!” “That’s not the same-” “Not the same thing? Why isn’t it the same thing? Just because it’s us that’s doing it, it becomes right?” Rainbow finished. The two mares stared at each other for a moment or two. Then, she smirked. “Nice try. Thing is, I know that they’re evil, and I know Rainbow Dash would know that too. You’re not Rainbow,” she said, “You’re just like them.” Twilight fired another bolt of magic, this one hitting Rainbow Dash squarely in the chest. “Agh!” she cried, flying backwards. Rainbow hit the bookshelf behind her, and was knocked out in an instant. “How dare you.” Twilight Sparkle’s voice echoed through the room, but it was the other Twilight Sparkle who was speaking. She was standing up, her horn was glowing, and she looked downright furious. “What are you, a changeling? How dare you come into my library, pretending to be me? How dare you attack my friends?” she demanded. In a sudden burst of power, she attacked her counterpart. The other quickly cast a block spell, deflecting the spell harmlessly into the ceiling. She threw a bolt in return, which was blocked yet again. The two dueled quite fiercely in a ferocious display of power, but it was painfully obvious that they were both evenly matched, and neither was going to win anytime soon. I could at least try to give “Good” Twilight an advantage. I started to sit up, wincing as a hard object dug into my probably sprained right ankle. Wait a second. Hard object. What could- I would have facepalmed if I had the time. Reaching down, I grabbed the Beretta 92FS 9mm pistol from the holster on my right ankle and turned off the safety. Getting up onto one knee, I pointed it at ‘evil’ Twilight, and I pulled the trigger. With a loud SNAP, the bullet flew out of the barrel and hit her in the shoulder. With a yelp, she fell back. Twilight looked at me fearfully, but decided to take the advantage and pinned Twilight to the ground with her magic. “Who are you? What are you? A changeling?” She demanded. The other Twilight grimaced. “Nope,” she said simply, obviously in pain. With a pop, she teleported away. For a moment, no one moved. I kept my gun pointed at the spot where she had been lying, the spot where there was now a splatter of blood. The only thing I could think was, Why didn’t I fire a second shot? Twilight spoke up. “What just happened?” She asked, shock and fear making its way into her voice as the adrenaline in her system faded. “Why do you have a... a gun? Why did you just shoot her? Was she a... changeling?” “No, she was not,” I replied, turning my safety back on, “I honestly have no idea what just happened. I was getting more and more sure that these ponies were, in fact, not evil. I was clueless as to what was going on, though. Twilight was not the only one confused. “What’s going on?” Twilight asked again. I sighed. “Sit down.” “Who are you? What are you? A changeling?” Twilight demanded. The other Twilight tried to move, but grimaced as a sharp pain stabbed its way into her right shoulder. “Nope,” she managed to reply before forcing herself to teleport. The unicorn rematerialized in a strange environment. She was surrounded by trees, but they were not the friendly, calming trees of the Whitetail Woods. Rather, these trees were thick, dark and oppressive. She recognized the location almost instantly as the Everfree forest. Perfect, she thought to herself, Just perfect. She tried to get up, but as she stood, the sharp, stabbing pain rippled through her body once again. Crying out, she collapsed to the ground. Twilight looked down to examine the hole in her shoulder. It was definitely not clean. There was no exit wound, which meant the bullet was still in her shoulder. Obviously, the optimal thing to do would be to bandage up the wound best she could, then get to a hospital, but that was out of the question. Although they would probably treat her, there was no telling how far humans had managed to infiltrate pony society. Twilight was racking her brains to figure out why Rainbow, Pinkie, and probably all of the other ponies on this world were siding with the human. There was the possibility that the ponies in this world were just as evil as the humans, judging by what Rainbow had said. There was also the equally likely possibility that the humans had fooled, or possibly brainwashed, all the ponies on the planet. First things first, though. She had to take care of her shoulder. She would have to remove the bullet, then bandage the hole. Although she was not that proficient with medical spells, this wasn’t the first time she had to treat a bullet wound in the field. Picking up a stick, she placed it in between her teeth and conjured a magical dagger. Slowly, she drove it into her wound. As the pain built up, she bit down hard on the stick, muffling the piercing scream. After about a minute of agonizing pain, a bloody, metal lump dropped to the forest floor. Panting with pain, Twilight started to regain her senses. This was the second time she had to dig a bullet out of herself, so she was a bit more prepared for the pain than last time. It would probably have been a far cleaner job if somepony else had dug the bullet out, but since she was alone, she had caused quite a bit of unnecessary damage. Casting a small but effective disinfectant spell, she grabbed her empty saddlebag with her magic, and started tearing it into strips. A snap echoed from the forest. Twilight stopped in her tracks and looked about. The Everfree was dangerous in the best of scenarios, but it was getting to sunset, and she was injured. The snap could have been a falling tree branch, but it could also have been a small creature, a monster, or even a pony, either lost or looking for her. She prepared a spell to attack with. Something burst out of a nearby bush behind her, and Twilight instinctively whirled around and hurled a bolt of deadly purple magic at it. She heard a squeal, followed by the soft thump of a small critter falling to the ground, then silence. Twilight peered at the ground, and was surprised to see a small white shape lying on the ground. Walking over to it, she identified it as a bunny rabbit. Oops. Well, nothing to be done, she thought to herself. She was starting to walk away when she heard more squealing from behind her. Oh, she thought to herself, he’s not dead. Walking back over to him, she knelt down and frowned. “Aww, you’re in pain. Here,” she said, firing another bolt of magic. “There you go.” It was the kindest thing to do, she thought to herself. She finished ripping her saddlebag to strips, and then proceeded to bandage her wound. Author's Note Um... Merry Christmas? I am really, truly sorry about how long this took, and even more sorry about the fact that this is a standard length chapter for three weeks of wait. I had this done a week ago, but my editor decided to go on vacation for the holidays, then I went on vacation for the holidays, and at the end of the day, this was not edited by Robert C. Bright side is, chapter updates will be weekly from now on. Also, cover art? Anyone? No? :pinkiesad: EDIT: Huh... no such thing as pinkiesad... guess that makes sense.