Author's Note

This is a cross-post from my AO3 account.

Just a for-warning of other themes for this story. This follows the section of the movie, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, where Spirit takes refuge at Little Creeks village. There are a few changes to the story with the MLP ponies being there, but a lot of the main plot points are still there.

So that means that the invasion/war still happens. Much of the village gets burned down, as well as a few lives being lost. Though most of those happen of screen. It also alludes to slavary, and mistreatment of animals. Also Rain still gets shot at by the Colonel and is injured from the fall into the river. The story also goes into a little bit of them having to rebuild after the fight.

Chapter 1

Once they had gathered their bearings their previous fight had all but been forgotten. Although it may have been the reason for them being here in the first place, they now had bigger problems to deal with.

It had all come to ahead when Applejack had pushed Rainbow Dash, who then happened to fall through the portal that Twilight used to get to and from her world. Twilight light had then tried to catch her friend, but in doing so also fell through the portal after her. She was then followed by all of her other human friends who, in turn, had attempted to catch each other in unison.

Twilight wasn't sure how it was possible, as she thought only those from her world could access this magical portal, but here they were. In that very moment Twilight began to panic, thinking of how she was going to explain all this to Celestia. But more so, she was worried about how much trouble she was going to be in.

"As pretty as this place is, I assumed it would be a little more - majestic." Rarity retorted.

This snapped Twilight out of her panicked state, and take a good look at her surroundings. This was not certainly not the Equestria she knew. Unless the portal's position changed? But , as far as she knew, they could only create it in the castle. It was pretty clear that they were outside, with the various trees surrounding them.

In whatever place they were it was clearly autumn as all the leaves were various shades or red, orange and brown. This world was clearly occupied by horses, like in Twilight's, as the rest of her human friends had been turned into their horse counterparts. Although they looked strangely different to the horse-kind of Equestria.

"No this isn't Equestria. At least, not the one I'm from." Twilight said to no one in particular.

"Didn't you say that that portal led back to your world?" Rainbow Dash questioned. "So if it isn't then where are we?"

She certainly posed a good question. As far as Twilight knew the Crystal Mirror was a two way trip from her world to theirs. So it shouldn't have been possible to turn up anywhere else. Yet here they were, in a completely different world. More importantly, how were they to get back?

It looked as though the portal was using the reflection of the lake beside which they now sat to create the portal. But try as Twilight might she couldn't find the entrance to the portal. No matter where she placed her hoof all it would do was disturb the water.

But she would have to think, and panic, about that later as she heard rustling in the brushes nearby. And it certainly wasn't any of her friends, as they were all accounted for. They had barely moved from their spots as they continued to try standing on their new four legs, and spectacularly failing.

Next thing they knew a mare and a folly come out into view. The mare was a simple golden brown with a dark muzzle, while his black mane and tail were gently swaying in the wind. The folly, on the other hand, was a darker brown with white patches along her body, face and legs. Meanwhile her blonde mane and tail were also swaying in the breeze. Something strange to note was the fact that a rope was joining the two, as if somepony was preventing them from separating.

Upon seeing the herd of horses the mare tilted his head in curiosity. The girls certainly stood out like a sore thumb, their colourful coats standing out within the clearing. Their cutie marks were also something that these other two ponies strangely lacked. Twilight was worried for a moment, as the ponies stood there in continued silence, that they may be so different that they might not be able to communicate with one another. But it was still worth a shot.

"I'm Twilight." Saying this slowly so they could understand her, she proceeded to point at herself. Then she pointed to each of her friends and attempted to introduce them.

The two horses shared a glance before the mare let out a laugh. The folly gave him a quick nudge, as if to say to him to stop being rude. Stepping forward she finally spoke.

"Apologies for my friends little outburst. I'm Rain and the country boy behind be is Spirit."

Twilight sighed in relief. At least something was going right for them. Realising that these two were friend, and not foe, the others all relaxed.

"I've never seen wild horses like you lot before." Spirit said lightly as he trotted forward. But something seemed to dawn on him as his face saddened. "You weren't one of the Colonel's horses, were you?"

"No, I don't think we've ever met this Colonel fellow." Applejack stated.

Spirit sighed in before asking out of curiosity. "Where are you all from? I've never seen such interesting coats before. The village Rain is from doesn't do nearly anything as complicated with their painting."

Twilight quickly glanced around, stuttering as she did so, before quickly coming up with an idea. "We're...from a different village! Yeah, that's it! One that's really far away from here, and totally one you've never heard of before."

She laughed awkwardly, feeling a bead of sweat run down her forehead. But they, thankfully, seemed to buy it and didn't ask any further questions about it.

"We've never been so far away from our home before. It seems we're a little lost." Fluttershy added.

"Well, you're more than welcome to stay at our village until you can find your way back." Rain offered.

They contemplated whether or not to accept when Pinkie's stomach began to rumble. It sent her into a giggling fit, which set off a chain reaction of all the others beginning to laugh. Hopefully there would be enough food for all of them back at Rain's village. There was no point in figuring out what happened on an empty stomach.

Following Rain and Spirit back to their place, they were told that it wasn't too far away. Twilight hoped this was true as the rest of her friends looked like foals learning to walk for the first time.