Chapters "Control to Warhorse 1, what's your status?"
"Warhorse 1 to control, everything is running smoothly up here, over."
"Copy that, you have permission to test how you see fit."
"Control, you don't know how long I've been waiting to hear that."
The F-40 Vertical Take Off and Landing jet is the newest VTOL technology created by the military. It is designed to be as maneuverable as any F-22 but able to reach speeds no other jet can. All of this integrated into the VTOL system. Captain Garrick has flown many jets during his life, so his experience and reputation led to him being chosen to pilot the aircraft. However, the F-40 requires two pilots. Garrick was given a list of new recruits to take with him, and he chose 1st Sgt. Marshall. He chose him both from his statistics, and the basis that he managed to beat Garrick's own records.
"Are you ready to see what this girls got under the hood? Sgt.Garrick yelled to Pvt.Marshall.
"Uh yea, sure..."Marshall hesitated.
"What's wrong, you sound nervous. Don't tell me you have a fear of heights or something!?"Garrick joked.
"Its not that, its just that the word 'experimental' just doesn't sit with me too well, ya know?"Marshall responded.
"Well that's what we're here for, we are the experiment." Garrick smirked. He pushed the throttle further ahead increasing the jets speed."Now just relax and keep feeding me the readings."
Marshall sighed, he looked over all of the readings several times."Looks good back here."
"Roger, time to see what we can do in this thing."Garrick proceeded to push the throttle further increasing the speed and began to perform different maneuvers. Garrick tried every test and maneuver he had learned through his life, and the metal beast refused to disappoint.
"Well hell, this girl isn't half bad." Garrick spoke again,"Only one last test to put her through, hope you're ready for this one Marshall, you're going to hate me after this."
Still concentrating on the readings, Marshall barely heard what Garrick had just said. "Wait, what..." He got cut off as he was pushed back into his seat from the vertical climb. "What the hell are you doing!?" Marshall choked out. He looked down at the altitude seeing it climb rapidly. "We're going to stall!"
"I know, just trust me." Garrick responded. They managed to reach their maximum height, the jets engines cut out from lack of oxygen.
"Well, what's your bright idea?" Marshall questioned.
"Just watch." Garrick smiled, he found Marshall's fear comedic.
After a few seconds, the F-40's nose was pointing straight down, a few seconds later, the engines fired to life yet again. At that moment, Garrick pushed the throttle as far as he could, forcing the engine to its limits. Both pilots were thrown back into their seats from the force pressed onto them. It was more than Garrick had expected, but he was determined not to get either of them killed. He went to pull back the throttle, but found it nearly impossible to move his arm. He wanted to apologize to the Sgt who he was about to kill, but he could barely breath as it was.
He looked out of the cock-pit and notice the cone forming around the jet. No matter how many times he has broken the speed of sound, the cone has never ceased to amaze him. however, this seemed different, he was almost certain they had broken the speed of sound already. Just as the jet was about to strike the ground, the jet broke through the cone.
Both pilots looked in shock as the world appeared to have turned upside down. Both were sure that they were seconds from hitting the hard rock they called earth. Garrick was pulled out of his shock as he realized the pressure that was holding his arm had disappeared now that they had slowed down from their vertical ascent. He seized the opportunity and pulled back on the throttle and pushed forward on the controls to bring the jet into a steady hover.
Marshall was the first to break the silence. "What the fuck is wrong with you!? I agree to fly with you and you almost kill me!?"
"Uh yea, sorry about that. Never had that much force before while flying. We're still alive aren't we? So I don't see what your problem is." Garrick spit back.
"You know what, to hell with it. I think we should contact control and see if we can head back." Marshall suggested, still angry.
Garrick sighed, as much as he wished to remind Marshall who the ranking officer was, Garrick just wanted to get back to base as well. "This is Warhorse 1 to control, do you read me?" No answer. "Warhorse 1 to control, do you copy?" Still no answer. "No response, probably just a dead zone, lets head back anyway and see if we can pick them up along the way."
Pushing the throttle forward, Garrick began to fly back towards base based off of the coordinates given to him by Marshall.
"You've got to admit, that got the adrenaline pumping." Garrick tried to lighten the mood.
"Yea, and almost killed us too." Marshall responded.
"Yea well..."Garrick stopped after a double take out the side of the cock-pit.
"Hey, you ok up there?" Marshall asked noticing Garrick's sudden silence.
"What the fuck is that!? A flying horse!?" Was the only response that Marshall received. He followed Garrick's gaze out the side of the F-40 to see a cyan colored Pony with a Rainbow colored tail and mane flying besides them. The pony turned its head just noticing the object beside it, its jaw dropping as the pilots and the Pegasus stared at each other.
Rainbow Dash was enjoying the cool morning air rushing through her feathers and coat as she sped around the clouds. She hadn't gotten the chance to get out and practice flying in a long time, what with Discord and all that. Rebuilding Ponyville took forever.
All that's done now, so all Rainbow Dash wants to do is enjoy life her way. In other words, completely blowing off work and practicing her moves for the Wonderbolts. As she sped around the cumulus cloud obstacle course she set up, an unnaturally loud explosion occurred.
Rainbow Dash was thrown back into a cloud by a burst of extreme wind pressure. She squinted as hard as she could to see if she could find the source of the noise. Rainbow Dash spotted something in the distance, it looked like a bird but was just sitting there. It then suddenly starting heading in her direction. Never seeing anything like it, and after the noise it made, all Rainbow Dash could think to do is fly, fly as fast as she could.
"What is that thing!?" She thought to herself as she sped back in the direction of Ponyville. "I've got to tell Twilight, maybe the Princess knows what it is..."Rainbow Dash's thoughts trailed off as she notice something moving up beside her. She turned her head to see a huge creature almost 7 times her size moving up alongside her.
"That's impossible, nothing in Equestria can keep up with me..." Rainbow Dash thought, her jaw dropping as she notice that there were two creatures inside of the beast. She pushed her wings harder attempting to outrun the monstrosity, but it would constantly match her speed.
"What the hay!?" Rainbow dash yelled. She glanced back towards the beast, then complete darkness.
"Ok, seriously," Garrick said in shock, "Is that a fucking horse...flying!?"
"The hell if I know, but it sure looks that way to me!" Marshall replied.
The cyan pegasi began to move ahead of the F-40. Garrick continued to gawk in disbelief, not only was it a flying horse, but it was outrunning their damn jet.
"I can't explain any of this, but I'll be damned if I'm gonna let a flying horse outrun me!" Garrick said, seeing this match up as a challenge. He pushed the throttle forward matching the speed of the pegasi.
"We don't know what the hell that thing is, yet you intend to race it!? Ok, I'm convinced your fucking insane." Marshall yelled up to Garrick.
"You can't tell me that you aren't interested in this thing." Garrick replied.
"That may be true, but you already nearly killed me once today, I'd rather just get back down to earth where I can't end up a flaming wreck." Marshall said.
"Well I'm the one flying here so you can just wai...Oh fuck it just hit that mountain!" Garrick yelled in surprise pulling back on the throttle forcing the jet into a hover. "I know you're already pissed at as it is, but imagine the look on everybody's face if we come back with a damn flying horse."
Although Marshall completely hated Garrick right now, the thought of his peers faces at the sight of this thing amused him.
"Fuck it, lets get the damn thing." Marshall said up to Garrick laughing.
"Finally, you agree with me." Garrick joked. He moved the aircraft back towards the point that the horse hit the mountain. They both looked around for the cyan creature, Marshall finally noticed it at the base of the mountain.
"Ok, hold on we're landing." Garrick told Marshall. He reduced the speed of the turbines bringing the F-40 into a slow descent finally landing in a small clearing near the mountainside. "Lets go grab us a flying horse."
Rainbow dash woke up with a splitting headache. She's hit a lot of objects in the past, but not at those speeds.She was about to stand when she heard voices nearby. Her headache was making it difficult to understand what they were saying, but she could make out two figures standing above her. She didn't know what to do, they were so close to her.
"Just saying, that doesn't look like any horse I've ever seen, and i just don't mean the wings." Marshall said standing over the cyan horse.
"Hmm, I see what you mean, it's also pretty damn small for a horse too."Garrick replied,"Hey look, its opening its eyes."
"Holy shit Garrick, I felt that one." Marshall said laughing. The horse turned to him and he backed away a little. Instead of going after him the cyan creature began to unfurl its wings Well attempt to anyway, only one of its wings would unfurl. he could tell by the look on the creatures face that it was in pain.
"Hey, hold up a second. I'm not gonna hurt you." Marshall said as reassuringly as he could. To his disbelief the creature did something that surprised him even further, it spoke.
"Don't touch me." The horse said, glaring at the pilot. Marshall's jaw dropped, now he had truly seen everything.
"Don't touch me." Rainbow Dash said to the creature towering over her. Her confidence was boosted after taking out the other monster with only one swift kick. She was only able to keep it up for a few more seconds however, the pain from her wing was unbearable. She closed her eyes from the pain.
"I promise you I'm not gonna hurt you, but now that i know you can talk, mind telling me what the hell you are?" The monster asked Rainbow Dash. She opened her eyes again as the pain subsided.
"And why exactly do you think I should tell you that!? I don't even know what you are or how you can speak my language." Rainbow Dash replied.
"Well I honestly feel you owe me and my friend here some explanation after you just destroyed any hope he had of children." The man demanded.
Rainbow Dash felt her face heat up as she began to blush.The mans words made her realize exactly why she took the monster out so easily.
"Ok, so you're telling me that we are in a world completely inhabited by...Ponies?" Marshall asked in disbelief.
"Well, not only Ponies, there are Zebras like Zecora living in the forest. I'm sure there are others out there too." Rainbow Dash replied.
"Well that just makes plenty of sense," Garrick butted in sarcastically, "and you don't know what a human is?"
"Uh, no never heard of them. You do look a lot like the monkeys I've seen in Fluttershy's garden though, but with less hair." Rainbow Dash recalled.
"Excuse me, but who is this Fluttershy person, uh, I mean pony?" Marshall asked curiously. He noticed that Garrick was growing more restless by the minute.
"Oh, Fluttershy is one of my friends from Ponyville, she's a Pegasus, like me." Rainbow Dash responded, unfurling her good wing for emphasis. "She's very shy though, which can get annoying sometimes. There is also Twilight and Rarity, they're both unicorns. Applejack and Pinkie Pie are both Earth ponies, but have stamina to match even me. I've known Twilight for the shortest, however she is Celestia's pupil and basically our leader as the Elements of Harmony. Rarity is a fashion designer, Applejack runs sweet apple acres, and Pinkie is, well, Pinkie."
Both Rainbow Dash and Marshall looked over towards Garrick as he began to laugh manically.
"What's so funny Garrick?" Marshall asked, slightly confused by the Sgt's sudden outburst.
"Ha, don't you see Marshall! Talking "Ponies", pegasi, fucking unicorns. Equestria and no Humans!? We never did make it out of that fall. We hit the earth and are being buried as we speak. We're dead, D-E-A-D. I should of known it was too good to be true. This is all just my heaven, or god knows Hell. Your not real, these damn ponies aren't real. That's what's so damn funny." Garrick replied hysterically.
"Well now whose the one freaking out!?" Marshall yelled towards Garrick. "If we were dead, would I be able to do this?" Marshall stepped towards Garrick planting a fist straight into the side of his jaw. The force of the impact sent the Sgt reeling back into a tree. "That was for earlier as well, stupid asshole."
Garrick reached up to the spot where the Sgt had just struck him. Instead of becoming angry, he began to laugh again. Except this time he was laughing because he really did find this funny. Not so long ago he was mocking Marshall for his frightened behavior. Now here he is being punched out of his hysteria by this same person.
"Oh great, am I going to have to plant another one into your ugly mug?" Marshall asked, still a little nervous about his ranking officers behavior.
"No, it should be fine Marshall, I needed that, I really did. Thanks man, I owe ya one." Garrick replied.
Rainbow Dash just sat back both confused and amused by the spectacle before her. The human whom she had planted a hoof into was freaking out. The other human then used his hoof, or whatever that thing was, to strike the other human. the most confusing part of it is that the human who was struck didn't hit the other human back. He actually thanked the human who struck him.
"These humans are crazy..." Rainbow Dash thought to herself.
"By the way, you still haven't told me anything about yourselves, even after everything I've told you." Rainbow Dash interrupted.
"Oh that's right, got so caught up in your stories that i completely forgot." Marshall replied, "So what do you want to know?"
"Well, I'd like to know what your names are to start with." Rainbow Dash said.
"Well, I'm 1st Sgt. Marshall, and this guy here is my ranking officer Captain Garrick." Marshall introduced the two of them.
"That's right, i never did introduce myself did I? Although it is kind of tough saying hello when your balls are forced up to your throat." Garrick joked, rainbow Dash felt her face grow red again.
"Uh, yea sorry about that..."Rainbow Dash apologized rubbing her neck.
"No problem, I didn't want kids anyway." Garrick mused.
She shrunk back a little in embarrassment, but another question hit her.
"Oh, that's right, you said commanding officer, what exactly is that?" Rainbow Dash continued to question.
"Well, we're in the US military, and its our ranking sys..." Marshall was interrupted by Rainbow Dash, "Uh, sorry but what exactly is a military?"
"You seriously don't know what a military is?" Marshall asked, Rainbow Dash shook her head. "Hmm, well where we come from there are humans that cause problems for the rest of the world. So each country has a large group of people dedicated to defending their people from this man and the group he has aiding him."
"So, its like the Elements of Harmony then?"Rainbow Dash interrupted again.
"Wait, you did mention something about that earlier with your friend Twilight, right? What exactly are these Elements of Harmony?" Garrick butted in out of curiosity.
"Oh, well there are sometimes certain creatures in our world that cause problems for our people as well. so there are chosen ponies who each wield an Element of Harmony. My friends and i just happen to be these elements." Rainbow Dash boasted, "Applejack is honesty, Pinkie Pie is laughter, Fluttershy is kindness, Rarity is generosity, I'm the element of loyalty, and Twilight ties all of us together with the element of magic. When we combine our powers we are able to defeat any enemy with the magic of friendship."
She looked over at Garrick and Marshall expecting a look of awe, instead she was met with laughter, from both humans.
"Hey, whats so funny!?"Rainbow Dash asked, her pride slightly hurt.
"I'm sorry, its just that what you just said sounds like something out of some dumb cartoon." Garrick responded, "where we come from, the only way to stop the enemy is through force, not kindness."
"Man, do i wish it was that easy for us. You see, we need more than just six people, it takes a whole force of people to take down this one enemy. This could take years too, not just getting together and killing them with kindness." Marshall added in, starting to calm down with his laughter.
"That may be true where you come from, but its a big deal for us here, not many ponies cause problems here, but when they do we're there to take care of it. If it takes you years to take care of one person, then I guess we just do it better!" Rainbow Dash snapped back, becoming more irritated by the contempt the two humans were showing towards her and her friends.
"We didn't mean any insult by laughing, its just that this kind of stuff is only dreamed about in our world." Garrick said, attempting to calm the pegasus down. "This place is like a paradise to us humans, with exception of the pony race anyway, that wasn't usually in our fantasies. Not that that's a bad thing or anything!"
Rainbow Dash began to calm down, the scene Garrick was putting on made her laugh. "Its fine, I just can't believe you lived in such a place, it seems so horrible." Then she remembered the giant bird they were inside of, she wanted to hit herself. How could she forget the one question she wanted answered. "That reminds me, what was that thing you two were inside of, and how exactly did you end up here in Equestria?
"Well now we're hitting the hard points aren't we." Garrick said, finally over the amusement he got from the whole "Friendship is Magic" idea. "That "thing" you saw us in is a new military technology. We humans aren't like you ponies, we don't have magic and none of us have wings. So we use our brains and create our own ways to fly. What you saw us in was an F-40 Vertical Take Off and Landing Fighter Jet. It can outrun the F-22 and outmanuver any other Jet created."
Marshall held back a smirk as he notice just how much this pegasus and Garrick were alike. Neither of them could help but boast about anything.
"I'm sure you're wondering what exactly a fighter jet is too,. Basically we use the sky to our advantage. We can attack enemies in both he air and on the ground with these machines. Two guys like us could change the entire tide of a battle."Garrick explained further.
"As for how we got here, we're about as lost on that one as you are. We were attempting one final maneuver which resulted in us hitting such a fast speed that we sort of just ended up here. Last thing I remember on Earth was breaking through our Mach cone." Garrick looked over towards Marshall, "Want to now the weirdest part about it? I'm certain we had broken the speed of sound minutes before we ended up here."
Marshall raised his eyebrows as Garrick said this. "So you mean that we somehow hit such a quick speed that we broke some other kind of barrier?"
"The hell if I know, I just fly the damn jet, I couldn't tell you what we did. All i know is that we are here now." Garrick replied.
Rainbow Dash was listening closely to the whole story, although she didn't understand what half of the stuff Garrick said were, the last few comments she could recognize.
"That sounds almost like a Sonic Rainboom." Rainbow Dash cut in.
"Excuse me, but a Sonic what now?" Garrick inquired.
"A Sonic Rainboom. It occurs when a pegasus reaches fast enough speeds. A cone forms around us and then as we break through a Rainbow shock wave spreads out, almost like an explosion. May i add in that I'm the only pony to ever complete such a feat!" Rainbow Dash boasted again.
"That fits perfectly with a Sonic Boom, except ours lacks any rainbows. No, what we experienced was completely different. We hit a speed almost 7x as fast, the force was nearly unbearable." Marshall said, recalling the readings he notice before they broke free.
"Well, I can't really explain any of that stuff, I just fly and keep the sky clear."Rainbow Dash said with a shrug.
"Rainbow Dash!?"A voice called in the distance, followed by others echoing her name.
"You know, I may not be able to tell you what happened, but I think I know somepony who might have some idea." Rainbow Dash said with a smile before yelling out, "I'm over here!"
Authors Note: I may have gotten a little overzealous while writing out Garrick's story at the end of this. That's only because it was based off of myself and how I became a Brony. Sorry if it seems boring or unnecessary, but after typing it in I wanted to leave it for multiple reasons. One being it's a little about myself, and the other being that it adds more depth to Garrick in my opinion.
"Rainbow Dash!? Where could she be?" Twilight Sparkle asked out loud to the group around her.
"Ah' got no clue. But she did say she was gonna be practicing flying out here above tha' Everfree Forest didn't she?" Applejack asked.
"I don't know, but why did she have to pick such a humid day to go missing? I can feel my mane frizzing up already." Rarity pouted.
"Girls, I know its getting late, and everything, but we've got to find Rainbow Dash. For all we know she might have actually hurt herself this time." Twilight reminded the others. She then looked up into the sky. "Fluttershy, can you see Rainbow from up there?"
"I don't see her anywhere, I'm sorry." Fluttershy apologized.
"Ya' know, she does this every apple picking time she goes out. Rainbow dash doesn't return and we go out a'lookin for her." Applejack recounted, "Sooner or later she's got ta' stop this."
"No matter how much I agree with you Applejack, Rainbow Dash is just not the kind of pony to give up on her dreams." Rarity reminded Applejack.
"Girls, now's not the time, we've got to find Rainbow Dash before we discuss what to say to her." Twilight interjected, "Now help me call for her."
"Rainbow Dash!?" All three ponies yelled in unison as Fluttershy continued to search from the sky."Rainbow Dash, where are you!?"
"I'm over here!" Rainbow Dash called out, surprising all three ponies.
"Uh, are you sure its a good idea to call them over here, you know with us sitting here and all?" Garrick questioned the cyan pegasi.
"Yea, my friends are some of the nicest ponies you'll meet. Nothing to worry about, I promise." Rainbow Dash said smiling. Just as she said this Twilight, Applejack and Rarity came bursting through the bushes. Landing behind them was Fluttershy.
"Rainbow Dash, thank Celestia we found you we had no ide..."Twilight trailed off glancing between the injured pegasus in front of her and the strange creatures sitting nearby. All three Earth bound Ponies sprang into action with thoughts of protecting their injured friend running through their heads. Twilight Sparkle's horn began to glow as Rarity and Applejack sped off towards the two men. Applejack turned around a few feet in front of Garrick, raising her haunches.
"STOP!" Rainbow Dash yelled with as much force as she could muster. Twilight's horn dulled back to its usual purple color as Applejack brought her hooves back to the ground. Rarity stood there, now looking at the man in front of her with curiosity.
"Thank god." Marshall said, looking over at Garrick who was currently cuffing his hands over a spot Marshall was sure was still tender with his eyes clamped shut. He slowly opened them after realizing he wasn't on the ground in pain.
"Uh, sugarcube, mind explaining what the hay is goin' on?" Applejack asked, now puzzled by the way Rainbow Dash yelled.
"I was going to, but you didn't exactly give me any time before you stormed off at these two." Rainbow Dash replied, slightly irritated.
"Well darling, what do you expect us to do seeing you like that with two monsters behind you?" Rarity questioned.
"I thought they were monsters at first too, but they're just lost. Besides, you didn't see what I have yet." Rainbow Dash said exhausted.
"Whatever could you mean?" Rarity asked.
"I think maybe I should let these two explain. I'm about ready to collapse. By the way, where's Pinkie Pie?" Rainbow Dash asked through a yawn.
"I have no idea what is going on right now, but if you say its safe Rainbow, then i trust you." Twilight Sparkle said, "Before we talk to these two...creatures, Fluttershy, its ok to come out now."
"Are...are you sure?" A voice squeaked from behind the bushes.
"Rainbow Dash said there is nothing to worry about." Twilight responded. As she said this, the pink maned pegasi trudged out of the bushes next to her. However, she remained silent. Twilight just smiled as she looked back to the two creatures standing before her and her friends.
"Ok, now I want an explanation. Who and what are you?"
"I've got this one Marshall, "Garrick looked towards his co-pilot, "I'm Captain Garrick and this is Sgt. Marshall, you might want to sit down because this might take awhile."
"So basically we have no idea how we got here, or how to get back." Garrick concluded.
"Gotta say Garrick, you did a better job or recounting everything than I would of." Marshall said.
"So, Garrick is it?" The man Twilight was looking at shook his head, "This thing that you were testing, would you mind showing it to us?"
"I see no reason not to," Garrick replied standing up, "just follow me and Marshall here."
The two men led the ponies through the trees out into a nearby clearing. The ponies stared mouths agape, with exception of Rainbow Dash, when the contraption came into site.
"Its huge!" The four Ponies said in unison.
"You said you fly in this thing?" Twilight asked, "that's amazing."
"But its so...plain." Rarity complained.
"Uh Rarity, from what these two men told us, Ah' really doubt they were too worried about how it looks." Applejack said rolling her eyes.
"Well actually, we pilots do like to customize our Jets after having them for awhile. Personalizing and all that, you know." Garrick interjected.
"But...you said that you use these to hurt other people. Why would you create something just for that?" Fluttershy asked quietly, still nervous around these two people.
"As it may be true that it was the main goal, these kind of things often lead to other advancements meant for the betterment of our people, not destruction." Marshall replied.
"Like we told you, we live in a world where you have to fight for everything." Garrick added, "We hate to do it, but sometimes it's necessary."
"Did your people ever try to just settle things peacefully? I mean why do you feel the need to hurt each other instead of just helping each other?" Twilight asked, very confused by the current situation.
"Now that right there is something we can't even answer." Garrick sad sadly. The ponies and humans stood there in silence for minutes soaking in all of the information they had all just taken in during the span of a few hours. Applejack looked up towards the setting sun.
"Hate to do this, but Ah' don't think tha' Princess is gonna hold the sun for us." Applejack pointed out.
"I completely lost track of the time!" Twilight Sparkle yelled as she snapped back to reality. "We need to get back to Ponyville before it gets dark, everypony will worry!"
"But we can't just leave these guys here." Rainbow Dash said, unwilling to abandon her new friends.
"I hate to leave them here too Rainbow, but we can't exactly expect everypony to stay calm, you remember how they react to poni..erm, creatures they don't recognize." Rarity reminded Rainbow Dash.
"They'll have to live with it, we've got to get back and as Princess Celestia's student I cannot allow anything like this go. These two are coming back with us. As long as its fine with them anyway." Twilight said.
"Fine by me, but I don't feel comfortable leaving our Jet in the Everfree Forest." Garrick replied. He looked around realizing that everypony and Marshall were staring at him. "What?"
"Did you just say Everfree Forest?" Marshall asked.
Garrick laughed nervously, "Yea, isn't that where we are?"
"It is, but we never told you that." Twilight added. Garrick stopped as he thought back through their conversations, he realized that they never had said it.
"Wait, are you sure, I'm almost cert..." Garrick was interrupted by Rainbow Dash, "Are you a spy!?"
"No! I just..." Garrick was interrupted by Marshall this time, "You want to explain this one Garrick?"
"But...I...." Garrick stammered, "Ok fine, I'll explain everything to you. But first, didn't you say we needed to get back to Ponyville?"
"That can wait, besides I'm not bringing you anywhere near our town until you explain to me how you knew something we didn't tell you." Twilight said angrily.
Garrick looked about in defeat, "Ok, I'll explain it to you. You have to promise not to interrupt me with any questions though, because I'm sure you'll have a lot with what I'm going to tell you."
All of the ponies agreed to fight the urge to interrupt him.
"Ok, back when I was in High School, I hated life. Everything I did seemed to cause me problems. I hated people, I hated school, and I even hated me. I would wake up every day and wish that I could just stay in bed, I didn't want to do anything. People would make fun of me, and the people who I was friends with still found ways to make fun of me, even if it wasn't intentional. It was getting harder for me to do anything, just for the fact that i was so depressed that nothing had any real meaning to me. My family was worried about me, even if they didn't say it directly I could tell they knew something was wrong. However, I never told them, so they could never help me."
Garrick paused to get his thoughts straight.
"Then i was about to begin my Junior year of High School. I had been spending a large majority of my summer on the internet. A friend of mine loved something called memes. even though I didn't find much interest in them myself, one he sent me had a link that caught my eye. On the side was a picture of a little pony yelling. So I clicked on the link and it directed me to an entire page dedicated to this pony. The pony was you, Fluttershy."
All of the ponies gasped and look over at the pony who now had a look shock on her face. "M...Me?"
"I know this is very shocking, but yes, you." Garrick replied.
The ponies were about to bombard him with questions, but then remembered their promise.
Garrick continued. "After finding the picture, i found myself interested. I hadn't watched any cartoons in years, so why had this one gotten me so interested. My curiosity led me through several sites and videos revealing to me a large community dedicated to the love of these ponies and the cartoon they came from. I kept wondering, 'Why are these people, guys in fact, so obsessed with this show and these ponies.' I told myself I would not go to such lengths as these people."
"Over time however, I began to lose the ability to fight the urge to find out more. I began to look up the episodes, then I started to find many community created images, music and videos. The further I got, the more I started to share this love for the show and, well, for you ponies. I eventually allowed myself to become a part of this loving and welcoming community, I allowed myself to become what we called, Bronies. No matter how odd it may sound, being a Brony allowed me to break out of my shell and begin enjoying life. i was much happier, and I was able to make a lot more friends than I could of hoped for."
"Anyway, that is how i know about this place. This whole place is directly out of a cartoon from over 20 years ago. This is why I know about you ponies, and this is why I was certain we had died Marshall, it was too good to be true. I'm kind of embarrassed to tell you about all of this; and its also probably a lot for you ponies, and even you Marshall, to take in. So if you have any questions, you can ask now."
Garrick looked around at the Ponies who were staring at him with eyes bigger than he thought were possible. "Uh, no questions?" Garrick asked. Still in shock, every single one of the ponies passed out. Garrick looked over towards Marshall who was giving him a very confused look.
"What?"
"Wha...What happened?" Rainbow dash thought slowly coming to. She could hear the two people talking nearby.
"You know, I honestly couldn't figure out why, but something about these ponies had seemed familiar." She could hear Marshall speak.
"I had honestly forgotten about it when we first saw Rainbow Dash flying beside us. After taking that buck to...well you know," Garrick said, "It all came back to me. In all honesty, I'm not too unhappy about this. I mean, its a hell of alot better than being dead, right?"
"I can't argue with you there, besides I kind of like these, uh ponies. They're kind of cute." Marshall added, both him and Garrick broke out into laughter.
Rainbow Dash started to sit up, finally getting her thoughts straight. Her wing was throbbing, but it there was less pain than earlier. As she opened her eyes, she noticed that the sun was down, and her and the others were laying around a fire with Garrick and Marshall sitting across from them talking to each other. Garrick noticed her movement out of the corner of his eye.
"Well look whose waking up," he said, although his speech was a little slurred.
"Uh, yea sorry about that, I guess what you told us sort of caught us off guard." Rainbow Dash apologized.
"S'no problem, even I was taken back by Mr.Toughguy's story here." Marshall laughed, he also seemed strange.
"Um, are you two ok?" Rainbow Dash asked confused.
"Haha, well now that you ask, we might be just a tad bit drunk." Garrick responded followed by a hiccup.
"Drunk?" Rainbow Dash looked at the two men quizzically.
"Yea, ya know, when you've had just a little too much to drink?" Marshall added, putting emphasis on "little."
The first thing that popped into Rainbow Dash's mind was Berry Punch, that pony was always running into stuff around Ponyville.
"You've got to be bucking kidding me..." Rainbow Dash facehoofed in disbelief.
"What? You've never gotten tipsy before?" Garrick asked, becoming unbalanced.
"Mind telling me where you two got alcohol from?" Rainbow Dash demanded.
"We pilots always carry some of tha' stuff with us, sorta like a tradition in our base." Marshall replied.
Rainbow dash heard some noise next to her, it look like the others were beginning to come to. 'Perfect timing,' she thought to herself, she could use all the help she could get at this point.
"What's going on, where are we...oh yea that's right, the humans." Twilight exclaimed as she sat up.
"How long was ah' out for?" Applejack asked to no one in particular.
"About five hours to be exact." Garrick replied drunkenly.
"What the buck is wrong with them?" Applejack asked again to no pony in particular.
"Uh, from what they told me, they're drunk." Rainbow Dash answered nervously.
"Well, this isn't good." Twilight added, also becoming worried.
"Wha' do you guys sound so worried for?" Marshall asked very loudly.
"Uh, nothing in particular dear, just don't mind us," Rarity butted in, turning to the other ponies around her. "Uh, girls, I think we need to do something."
"I agree Rarity, but what can we do, we have no idea what they are capable of." Twilight said.
"Ah' say we knock em out until the stuffs gone from their systems." Applejack suggested.
"I hate to say it, but I agree with AJ, these guys may seem nice, but we all know how Berry Punch can get when she's like that." Rainbow Dash added. All four ponies swallowed in nervousness thinking back to the many times Berry Punch had gotten out of control, the alcohol made her harder to take down than usual. No telling what these two giants would be like.
"So it's agreed then, we knock them out for now, then take them back to Ponyville and into my Treehouse until they wake up!" Twilight said, formulating a plan as she went. All five ponies, including Fluttershy who stayed quiet the whole time, shook their heads in agreement. "Alright, let's do this."
The ponies turned around ready to get to work. However, to their surprise, and honestly relief, the two men were out cold laying on the ground.
"I guess they just passed out." Fluttershy said, relieved that they didn't have to resort to violence.
"Well, that definitely made things a lot easier." Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. "now, just to carry them all the way back to Ponyville...at night...through the Everfree forest..." Twilight Sparkle froze as she said this.
"Uh, all for staying next to the fire, raise a hoof!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed raising her hoof into the air. Four more hooves followed suit. The ponies took up positions around the fire after moving the two humans side by side next to the fire. They sat there in silence for what seemed like an hour, staring into the fire and occasionally feeding the flames.
"Ok, guess i'll be the one to ask," Rarity broke the silence, "any idea of what to make of this man, uh Garricks, explanation?"
None of the ponies spoke again, trying to pull together their thoughts. Twilight was the first to respond.
"Well, Celestia used to tell me about a pony a very long time ago that had the idea that there could be multiple universes that coexisted with each other. Each of these universe's were connected in some way or another, but it was nearly impossible to break through the dimensional wall. If this is all true, then these two humans must have found a way."
"How about helping us simpler Ponyville ponies out with that science mumbo-jumbo." Rainbow Dash said, slightly confused.
"Well, to put it simply, Garrick and Marshall are from a different universe entirely." Twilight replied, she was responded with a collective gasp from her friends.
"But that doesn't explain how their universe knew about ours!" Rarity interjected.
"True, but remember what I said, all of the universe are connected somehow. This means that either someone in their dimension found a way into ours a long time ago, or more likely our universe is a creation that came about from theirs." Twilight said, still trying to make sense of all of this herself.
"Wouldn't that mean that we aren't real?" Applejack inquired.
"Not at all, it would only mean that we exist because of the universe that these two came from." Twilight added in more convincingly.
"I don't understand though, how could a world so peaceful like ours, come from a world as terrible as theirs?" Fluttershy questioned, "Oh my, that sounded mean, I'm sorry..."
"I feel like that part of their world is only caused by a small amount of their people. In other words, I'm guessing that for the most part their population is really peaceful and friendly deep down." Twilight continued to sort things out in her mind.
"Well, if most of them are like these two guys seem to be, then I can believe it!" Rainbow dash exclaimed confidently.
The five ponies continued to talk through the night. As Celestia began to raise the sun, the two humans began to stir themselves awake, aided by the rays of sunlight breaking through the trees.
"God damn, my head is pounding." Garrick said rubbing his temples.
"What the hell happened?" Marshall asked. Both humans sat their rubbing their heads until the pain became a dull throbbing. They looked up to see five ponies holding back laughter.
"What?" Marshall asked completely confused.
The five ponies burst out into laughter as he asked this question. Both Marshall and Garrick looked at each other quizzically, then back at the ponies.
"Mind telling us what's so damn funny?" Marshall asked, attempting to hold back his own laughter.
Applejack was the first to catch her breath and reply. "Ya'll should see what ya' look like right now!"
Both the men looked at each other again, only this time noticing the state of their hair and noticed that while they were asleep, the ponies decided to play a prank on them. Garrick had a full facial beard drawn on in what Marshall assumed was marker. As his eyes focused, Garrick noticed that Marshall had black drawn around his eyes with a curly french style mustache drawn onto his upper lip. Neither pilot could hold back, they both fell onto their backs in laughter. Rainbow Dash sat up onto her haunches finally able to breath again.
"That's what you get for being drunk and leaving your stuff in your pockets!" She said pointing a hoof at the marker lying next to the two men.
"Just so you know," Garrick began to wipe the marker off his face using water from a nearby puddle, "Where we come from, there is something we like to call payback. We will get ours, don't you worry your little pony heads."
The five ponies looked at each other after he said this, they began to laugh hysterically again. The two humans looked at each other again, and caved in to the infectious behavior. The seven creatures continued to laugh for minutes on end until they had no choice but to breath.
"Well, now that's over with," Twilight forced out between suppressed giggles,"we've got the matter of Ponyville to discuss."
"What do you mean?" Marshall asked Twilight.
"Well, as I had said yesterday, you guys need to come back to Ponyville with us. We have no idea how long you two will be here, and we can't leave you here in the Everfree forest." Twilight Sparkle responded.
"Well, that's easy, we just leave the same way we got here." Garrick butted in.
"Now its my turn to ask what you mean by that." Twilight said, cocking her head in confusion.
"Well, we got here using the F-40, and that's how we'll leave. All we need to do is start her up and do the same manuver as last time, simple." Garrick replied confidently. He began to walk in the direction of their jet. Marshall and the five ponies followed him. As they arrived at the jet, Garrick walked over to it and opened up a panel on the side of the cockpit. Inside was a small lever which he pulled down. A panel opened up along side the aircraft allowing a small ladder to unfold out leading up to the cockpit.
"This girl was designed for just about any situation." Garrick boasted. He climbed up into the cockpit and sat down. "See, now we just start her up and we'll be able to go home." He attempted to switch the jet on, but nothing would happen. He continued to try to start it up, but to no avail.
"Hold on, I'm coming up." Marshall yelled climbing up the ladder. He climbed into the rear seat and began to check the gauges. He looked over everything, unable to find the problem. "Everything seems to be working fine, I don't know what's wrong."
Garrick facepalmed as he realized it, "Hey Marshall, check the fuel gauges."
Marshall almost hit himself realizing he had overlooked those gauges. He found them, and saw that the gauge read empty. "Well, looks like we found our problem."
Garrick dropped his head against his dashboard. Of course they would run out of gas, after all that maneuvering and flying they were doing.
The five ponies looked up in suspense waiting for any kind of news. Rainbow Dash became inpatient and flew up to the side of the cockpit.
"Hey, what's going on? I don't remember this thing being this quiet when you had it next to me!"
"That's because it was working when were flying it, but we seem to have run out of gas." Garrick replied pulling his head up. "Seems like we're not going anywhere. That is unless you happen to have some Jet Fuel lying around?" Rainbow Dash just gave Garrick a confused look. "Yea, I thought so..."
The two men climbed out of the aircraft to again meet the ponies.
"Well, here's the situation." Garrick began, "Our Jet is out of fuel which is what it needs to run. Seeing as I doubt you ponies have any top grade Jet Fuel lying around, my co-pilot and I don't seem to be going anywhere anytime soon. So with that said, I guess we're going to accompany you ponies back to Ponyville after all."
Twilight was the first to speak up, "I'm sorry you can't return home anytime soon, but we'll gladly have you join us back at our town."
"Yea, Twi's right, if ya'll need anywhere to stay, we've also got plenty a' space over at Sweet apple Acres." Applejack added in.
"As do I at my Boutique. I would gladly have company stay with me." Rarity offered.
"Um, if you need to, I have spare rooms as well," Fluttershy added, "If you want to that is."
"Well, I can say I've never had a warmer welcome." Garrick laughed.
"Thanks for the offers, but I honestly couldn't impose on any of you." Marshall added modestly.
"It really is no problem, I would gladly have a gentlecolt, er gentleman, such as yourself stay under my roof." She said smiling at Marshall, as well as throwing a glare in the still laughing Garrick's direction.
"Same here!" Applejack added.
"Um, me too." Fluttershy said quietly.
"Its settled then, you two will come back and stay with us in Ponyville until we have everything figured out. Until then, I'll put an enchantment around your, um Jet, to keep it safe from everything in this forest." Twilight concluded, her horn turning purple as well as the Aircraft. As she finished, Twilight turned back to the two people and her four friends. "Well, we should probably get going before the sun sets again, I'm sure everypony's already worried about us as is."
"Right!" The four ponies replied in unison. The seven friends then set off in the direction of Ponyville.
_______________________________________
Author's note: Ok, so I couldn't reach my desired length for this chapter, but I felt this was a nice point to wrap this chapter up. Hope you guys enjoyed this one. Until next chapter...
-RespersSprint
"Man I'll tell you, my friend and I vowed to never try something like THAT again." Garrick finished with a laugh.
All of the ponies and Marshall broke out in laughter as well. The two humans appeared to have assimilated rather well to the group during their short time in the Everfree Forest.
"I've got to say Garrick, you really do surprise me some times. You had a pretty interesting childhood." Marshall chuckled.
"No matter what though, the best years of my childhood were spent being a brony." Garrick said with a weak smile.
"Ah' got to say, that's still got me baffled." Applejack jumped in. "Ah' mean, the idea that all a' us existed in another Universe, it just leaves me...ah' don't know, speechless."
"I know what you mean darling," Rarity interjected, "However, the thought of somebody watching me...all of the time...kind of creeps me out too." The white unicorn shivered.
"It wasn't like that," Garrick explained,"it was a kid's show, so the episodes always consisted of you ponies on some sort of adventure learning one lesson or another."
"What kind of adventures, I love adventures!" Rainbow Dash forced her way into the conversation.
"Stuff like fighting Nightmare Moon and Discord, those were the big ones anyway." Garrick replied, "There were other things too, like visiting Appleloosa and fighting a Dragon."
"That's odd, we just beat Discord not too long ago." Twilight said, "But you say that this show ran several years ag-" she was cut off by a pink blur. All of the ponies had somehow been tackled at once and were now part of a bone crushing hug. The pink pony inhaled deeply before letting loose with a seemingly impossible string of words.
"OhmygodwherehaveyouguysbeenImissedyousomucheveryponywassoworriedandspikewantedtosendalettertotheprincessbutIsaidyouguys shouldbefineandthenwhenyouweren'thereinthemorning-Pinkie Pie Pinkie Pie! PINKIE PIE!!! ," PinkiePie blinked as the ringing began to fade from her ears, "Yes Twilight?"
"Please, save it for later. We need to get back to Ponyville with our fri-" Twilight was cut off by the pink pony, "Oh my gosh, what are these things, they look like monkeys, but are so much bigger. Where'd you find them?"
"Well, they sort of found us, or Rainbow Dash I should say." Twilight glanced in Rainbow Dash's direction,"Anyway if you'll just be patient, we can explain it to you back at the Library, ok?"
"I promise not to ask anymore questions, cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." Pinkie Pie grinned.
Marshall blinked at the scene unfolding before him. He turned to Garrick and simply asked him, "Uh, any idea what's going on?"
"That's Pinkie Pie, we used to have a habit of seeing her as, well, the craziest of the ponies." Garrick laughed, "In reality, she's just a really happy pony though."
"I'll go with crazy," Marshall looked over just as the Pink pony sealed her promise with a hoof to the eye, "Yea, definitely crazy."
"Since pinkie Pie seemed to have found us so easily, we should be close to Ponyville by no-" Twilight was cut off by a Manticore breaking through the brush. Choosing the two most threatening targets, the monster slammed into the two humans throwing them to the ground.
The group of ponies jumped in surprise at the large creature. In an attempt to help the men, the group rushed the giant creature, minus one Fluttershy. The Manticore however remained unfazed and warded off the ponies with a swing of its tail. As the ponies had the creature distracted, the two men were working something out between each other while under the weight of the Manticore's paws.
"Ok," Garrick managed to wheeze out, "You wouldn't happen to be able to reach my knife, would you?"
"I can give it a shot," Marshall slowly move his arm towards Garricks thigh. As soon as he could feel the sheath of the knife, he unbuckled the holster and pulled out the weapon. Using as much strength as he could muster, Marshall brought the knife hard up into the leg of the Manticore. The strike sent pain shooting up the leg of the beast, it pulled all of its weight off of the two men and retreated into the forest with a painful roar.
"Still not as threatening as my drill instructor." Marshall joked. He handed the knife back to Garrick who re-holstered the weapon. The looked at the ponies who were now giving them mixed expressions. Applejack and Rainbow Dash shared looks of awe as Twilight and Rarity appeared to be preoccupied, Twilight staring in the direction of the Manticore and Rarity trying to fix her mane. Fluttershy looked horrified as Pinkie just looked confused.
"That was so awesome!" Rainbow Dash cried out, "I've never seen anypony send a Manticore running so easily!"
"Ah' got to say partner, that was pretty impressive." Applejack added.
"Very resourceful, but I do need to ask why you are carrying that...weapon...with you?" Twilight brought herself back to reality.
"Well, these are pretty standard issue for us." Garrick replied, Since we fly we don't really need any kind of large weapons, so we usually carry a combat knife as well as a 9mm pistol."
The ponies gasped as Garrick mentioned his firearm,
"Don't worry though, we left those back in our F-40." Garrick quickly added in an attempt to calm the ponies. It didn't work as well as the pilot had hoped, they were still standing in a tense atmosphere.
"So uh, should we keep going before something else decides to give me a bear hug?"
"Uh...right, this way." Twilight Sparkle snapped to attention. Her five friends followed immediately, still slightly nervous knowing the men had weapons with them. They walked in silence, everypony afraid to look towards the two humans. The tension was beginning to grind on Garricks nerves.
"Ok look, if you don't feel comfortable with us having these, just take them. I can't stand this silence, its fucking killing me!"
Applejack was the first to respond, "Its not that, its just, well, ah' think its safe to say we're still a little shocked that ya'll fought tha' manticore off all by yer selves."
"Well, you guys did have it distracted, and besides we didn't have much of a choice, that thing was pretty damn heavy." Garrick was exasperated.
"That's what makes it so impressive, the only one to ever stop a Manticore that easy was Fluttershy, and she just sweet talked the poor dear." Rarity added making the men feel ashamed at hurting the creature.
Marshall and Garrick both sighed in defeat, "Ok, either way, could we just get back to how we were before," Marshall pleaded, "You know, laughing and just having a good time?"
Hearing talk of laughter, Pinkie Pie's ears perked up in excitement. The pink pony was about to burst out in another string of sentences when she remembered her promise. The party pony then began to hop around in impatience, they all watched as she bounced about.
"For Pete's sake Pinkie, you only promised not to ask questions, Twi never said you couldn't talk." Rainbow Dash facehoofed.
"Oh yea." Pinkie Pie stopped hopping in circles, "I know a game we could play!" The grin on her face stretched from one end of the Everfree Forest to the other. "My sisters and I used to play it all the time back home since there wasn't much else to do on a rock farm and all!" 'How do you farm rocks? ' Marshall questioned out loud, but the pink party pony overpowered him.
"The idea is that every rock you see is different, so we look for the funniest rocks as we walk!" Pinkie Pie explained.
"Ugh, that sounds soooo boring..." Rainbow Dash complained.
"You never know until you try it!" Pinkie Pie sang.
Twilight sighed, "Ok, we'll try your game Pinkie."
The pink pony beamed with excitement. The group walked further down the path trying their best to find some fun in Pinkie's game. Nopony, or person, could find anything worth pointing out. When they were all about to give up hope, Pinkie Pie spotted a large boulder.
"Hey, this looks kind of like Rainbow doesn't it?" The pink pony asked eyeing up the rock.
"Yea it kind of does!" Garrick laughed leaning in next to Pinkie Pie.
"What!? Let me see!" Rainbow Dash pushed the two out of the way. She eyed the face of the boulder closely. "Hey, there's a hole in this thing-AHHHHHH!" The cyan pegasus yelled in surprise as a snake popped its head out of the opening. The startled mare jumped backwards slipping on the edge of a hill. She grabbed for the nearest object grabbing hold of a purple colored tail.
"What are you-WAHHHH!" Rarity yelled in surprise attempting to find leverage, however she only managed to grab the nearest pony in the same fashion as Rainbow Dash. The chain reaction continued until the entire group ended up rolling down the hill. They continued to roll until finally breaking through the treeline into a clearing.
"We're here!" Twilight yelled in excitement seeing the hay covered roofs ahead.
Both Garrick and Marshall stared in awe at the candy colored homes. "Its been so long since I've seen this place, looks exactly like it did on the show." Garrick forced out through his surprise.
"Yup, this is it, our home sweet home, Ponyville," Applejack stated proudly, "An' over there is Sweet Apple Acres. Speaking of which Ah've got to go and tell everypony Ah'm back, they must be worried sick." She hurried off in the direction of the orchards while yelling back, "Ah'll be back before sundown!"
"I need to go check on my boutique and make sure Sweetie Belle hasn't tried to, 'help', again." Rarity added shook in fright running off into town.
"I need to make sure all of my friends are ok back home, Angel must be furious at me, I'm so sorry but I'll be back to." Fluttershy apologized flying off towards her cottage.
"Well, I've got nothing to do, can't exactly fly with my wing and all, so I'm still here." Rainbow Dash smiled.
"Me too!" Pinkie Pie yelled bouncing again.
"Well then, shall we continue to my library?" Twilight asked the remainders of the group.
"Yea sure," Garrick said, Marshall replied with "Sounds good to me." Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash both nodded their heads.
"This way then." Twilight led the group towards her treehouse.Several minutes of walking past the surprised stares of Ponyville residents, the five friends finally reached the purple unicorn's home. "Well, here it is!" Twilight beamed.
"You live in a tree?" Marshall questioned, mouth agape.
"Yes, why is that odd?" Twilight perked her eyebrow quizzically.
"No...no, not at all..." Marshall sighed in defeat, This place is nuts.
Twilight's hron glowed as she opened the door using her magic. A voice could be heard from inside as the door swung open.
"Twilight! I was so worried!" Spike jumped up clinging to the unicorn's neck, tears streaming down his cheeks. "I thought something happened to you..."
"Spike, its ok I'm fine, so you don't need to cry. I'd like you to meet some friends of ours." Twilight smiled. Spike looked up at the two creatures towering over the ponies.
"I wasn't crying, I was just cutting onions is all..."Spike replied defensively, "What are these things anyway?"
"We 'things' are called humans, I'm Garrick and this is Marshall." Garrick rolled his eyes, getting tired of having to introduce himself.
Spike blinked in confusion, "They can talk?"
"Yes they can talk, its a long story. How about you cook us something to eat and we can all sit around and straighten things out, I'm starving." Twilight laughed. The two humans and Rainbow Dash's stomachs growled at hearing the word food.
Pinkie Pie giggled, "Yea I'll say your hungry!" The pink pony began snorting with laughter as the growling started again.
"Yea, I'm so hungry i could eat a pony, especially pink ones I heard they taste pretty good." Marshall joked, cringing at the pain from his hunger.
Pinkie pie stopped laughing immediately, "So uh Spike, I'll help you cook...in the kitchen...located on the other side of the library!" She picked up the baby dragon and ran off towards the back room.
The remaining four watched as she rushed off bursting into laughter, only stopping as another wave of hunger pains hit them.
Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and Spike all sat across the table eating their meals. They hardly noticed the two men across the table from them prodding the dishes set before them. Garrick was inspecting each dish carefully, putting down each one quicker than the last. Marshall stared at the sandwich in front of him, unsure of what to make of it. Never before had he seen flowers shoved between two slices of bread, and he really wasn't planning on giving it a try either. Marshall's pupils shrank as his stomach growled in protest of his refusal to eat anything. The noise caught the attention of their pony hosts.
"Uh, is something wrong with the food?" Twilight cocked her head to the side in confusion.
"Well, its not exactly...appetizing..." Garrick put down yet another dish. "Not to sound rude or anything, its just that we don't usually eat flowers and grass. Our stomach's don't exactly agree with that kind of... foliage."
"Did you ever try it!?" Pinkie Pie shouted through a mouth full of daffodil sandwich.
"Can't exactly say I have, bu-" Pinkie Pie interrupted Marshall, "Well, how can you say you don't like something until you try it silly filly!?"
"It's just sort of common knowledge back home, and I'd rather not put it to the test..." Marshall mumbled the last part of his sentence.
Rainbow Dash couldn't hold back her laughter, "Here i thought you two were some big scary monsters. But you're afraid of a little sandwich, man I had it all wrong!" The cyan mare's laughter soon caught onto the other ponies, and dragon. Their faces growing hot with embarrassment from the ponies' laughter, Garrick and Marshall looked at each other then back at the food.Putting aside their better judgement, the two men swallowed hard and chose the most appetizing dish each could find. It was the most difficult decision either man ever had to make.
"Well, bottoms up..." Garrick forced his jaw open, bringing the daffodil sandwich closer to his mouth. Marshall swallowed again and did the same with the handful of Hay Fries he chose. The ponies were now leaning over the table staring at the two men in anticipation. They watched as the distance between the food and each man's taste buds grew smaller. Garrick and Marshall each brought their teeth together at the same time. the ponies held their breath...
Both men stood up and ran into the kitchen at a speed rivaling Rainbow Dash. The ponies sighed in defeat as the sounds of war arose from the kitchen. The ponies, and Spike, looked at each other in confusion before rushing into the kitchen. Garrick had his mouth attached to the sink's faucet while Marshall was tearing through the librarians cupboards.
"What in the hay do you two think you're doing!?" Twilight yelled both in confusion and irritation at having her kitchen torn apart.
"I need something to get this taste out of my mouth!" Marshall continued to rip the many contents out of their homes, "don't you have anything edible in here!?"
"What are you talking about? Everything I have is edible." Twilight furrowed her eyebrows in frustration. Marshall reached the last cupboard muttering what sounded like a prayer under his breath. He ripped the doors open nearly pulling them from their hinges. The starving monster's eyes lit up in excitement.
"Garrick! Look, APPLES!!" Marshall's eyes teared up.
Garrick pulled his face out of the sink and looked in the direction that his co-pilots voice reverberated from. He rushed over to his friend nearly shoving him out of the way, he reached up and grabbed one of the ripe red fruits. Without hesitation he sank his teeth into the succulent flesh of the apple.
"This is the best damn thing I have tasted in a long time!" Garrick grabbed another apple and tossed it to Marshall. The co-pilot then dug his own teeth into the fruit.
"This IS really is good!" He forced out through bites.
Meanwhile, the group of ponies stood in the doorway both shock and in awe. Not even Rainbow Dash could manage to create a mess of this caliber so quickly. Picking her jaw up off the floor and finally finding her voice, Twilight Sparkle's eyes glowed in anger.
"I invite you two into my house and you nearly destroy my kitchen!" The lavender ponies horn began to glow as a purple haze surrounded the two men. They dropped their new found snacks as they were forcibly dragged across the kitchen floor towards the group of friends. "Mind explaining to me what that was all about!?" Twilight yelled in anger.
"Uh, well frankly your food sucks..." Garrick replied bluntly.
Marshall's pupils dilated at his, now loosely called, superiors comment. "What he means is, we really can't eat the same stuff as you ponies, like we had thought. Sorry about the mess, we just REALLY needed to get rid of that taste." Marshall smile sheepishly.
Twilight glared at both men when the sound of muffled giggles arose behind her. The purple mare turned her attention behind to the pink pony who had tears building up in her eyes as she covered her mouth with her hooves.
"What exactly is so funny!?" Twilight was becoming more irritated now.
"Your...your face....I've never seen you so angry before!" Pinkie Pie burst into laughter, followed by Spike and Rainbow Dash. Twilight couldn't stop the corners of her mouth from pulling back into a smile as she noticed just how funny her situation was, soon she was laughing as well. Both men looked at the ponies feeling themselves give in to the contagious behavior.
The laughter was interrupted by the returning sound of frustrated stomachs. Both Garrick and Marshall clutched their guts in pain.
"Yea, so it turns out we're still a tad bit hungry." Garrick winced at another surge of hunger.
Twilight sighed looking towards her war torn kitchen. "Well, you two sort of destroyed everything I have left, and I need to survive off of the remaining apples for the next few days."
"We could always head up to Sweet apple Acres and see if AJ has everything settled again, and maybe get some more apples for these two. They seem to be able to stomach them." Rainbow Dash suggested. Twilight Sparkle smiled at her friends thoughts.
"Very smart, why didn't I think of that? Ok, I guess we have no choice. Come on you two, just follow us." Twilight walked out of her tree house with her friends in tail. A certain baby dragon also followed suit. Twilight stuck her hoof in his way.
"Oh no you don't, there's a mess in there that needs to be cleaned up." The purple pony pointed her hoof towards the kitchen.
"But...but...I didn't do that!" Spike protested, "Why do I have to clean up after their mess!?"
"Because it's your job. Besides Rarity and Fluttershy might stop by and someone needs to be here to tell them where we are." The purple dragon perked up at hearing the fashion pony's name.
"Fine, but it doesn't mean I'm going to enjoy it..."Spike mumbled under his breath as he stormed off towards the kitchen.
After he was sure the dragon was out of ear shot, Marshall commented on the treatment, "Shit, that was kind of harsh."
"Yes, well he is a baby dragon and I really do need someone to stay behind. He'll get it over it when I bring him some sapphires back. So now that that's done, let's get going...again!"
_---_----_----_----_
"Yea...so these ponies are starting to make me feel kind of uncomfortable." Garrick whispered nervously.
"You are kind of...you know different." Twilight rolled her eyes. "I'd say its kind of natural for them to look at you odd."
"I understand that, but it's still awkward though." Garrick sighed in defeat. The group had just gotten through the center of town, ponies either backed away or stared at the two men as they walked past. It truly was a strange site, frightening to some, to be seen by the residents of Ponyville. There were a few every now and then that ventured forth with curiosity in the two creatures. They WERE walking with 3 of the 6 elements of harmony, so they must not be dangerous, right? While moving through the market, the group spotted a familiar Zebra with golden rings adorning her multiple appendages.
"Hey, its Zecora! HI ZECORA!!" Pinkie Pie called out. Their striped friend turned her head at the sound of her name.
"Ah, it is 3 of the 6 elements Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. I would like to ask who these two are, if it does not sound too rash." She turned her head in curiosity making her way over to the two pilots.
"Oh, well this is Garrick and Marshall, its kind of a long story but it seems like they may be from someplace else...far far away." Twilight Sparkle paraphrased.
"Someplace else indeed, these two are not of this world, that I can agree." The zebra lifted up one of Garrick's arms with her hooves, gently placing it back down after inspecting the appendage. "This build is not common you see, it is however not new to a creature from the Everfree." Garrick's eyes grew wide as the curious Zebra nudged his backside.
"Hey, don't start touching me in such odd places!" Garrick's face burned bright red.
"I apologize for my intrusion, its just not everyday one gets to see a human." Zecora blinked in confusion as the three ponies gasped collectively.
"Wait, how do you know what they are!?" Rainbow Dash cried out in surprise.
"I said it is not a rare site to see, many humans in the past have been visitors to the Everfree. Strange things happen deep inside, this is the reason every single one of you ponies run and hide. We Zebras have never lived in fear, this is why our knowledge is so revered." The Zebra concluded, again showing her vast and unrivaled knowledge.
"If we've known about these people for so long, how come I haven't heard about them before?" Twilight asked still stunned.
"I already explained this my purple pony, equestrians run and hide much like before you got to know me ." Zecora reminded Twilight Sparkle.
The three ponies blushed slightly at this memory, "Oh, right...But that means that you have information about these guys! So now I can find out more about them!" The purple mare's face lit up with excitement.
"You could always just ask..."Marshall and Garrick said in unison.
"Why, so you two can destroy my kitchen again?" Twilight glared at the two humans. Garricks face twisted in shock.
"Hey, we did tell you ponies we couldn't eat that shit, but no you convinced us to try anyway! That reminds me, I'm still fucking hungry!" The angry human's voice reverberated enough that the ponies throughout the marketplace stared at him with a mixture of fear and confusion.
Twilight facehoofed remembering where they were supposed to be heading to. "Zecora, would you mind walking with us? I completely forgot about these two, we need to get them some food and so far apples seem to be all they can eat around here."
"Damn right you do." Garrick added, rather rudely.
"I thought you were supposed to love these ponies Garrick." Marshall joked, somewhat enjoying the torture Garrick appeared to be going through.
"Don't get me wrong I do, but when I'm hungry I get pretty pissed. Not even a pony is safe from that."
Marshall chuckled to himself, "So it would seem."
The group had continued their trek to Sweet Apple Acres with the addition of a Zebra who was soaking in the information from the past day and night.
_---_---_---_---_
The group soon found themselves between towering orchards of Apple Trees. There was a large workhorse in the distance pulling a cart full of Apples. The red stallion paused from his work noticing the group that was approaching, he waved a hoof in greeting.
"Hey Big Mac, is AppleJack still here!?" Rainbow Dash called out.
"Eeyup!" Big Macintosh replied pointing towards the barn.
"Thanks!" The cyan pegasus called back. Big Macintosh just nodded and turned his focus back towards his work. "That pony, I swear he does nothing but work all day everyday. Guy needs to take a break."
The group broke out into laughter at Rainbow Dash's "concern". After calming down, they picked up their pace as nearing the large farmhouse. Twilight reached her hoof out and knocked on the front door. A voice called from inside the barn, "Hold up, Ah'm a comin!"
The orange work pony made her way to the door and looked out in curiosity. "What are ya'll doing here, I said I'd meet ya' at the library."
"We know, but it seems like Garrick and Marshall can't really eat the same stuff as us for the most part. Apples seem to be an exception to that." Twilight hinted.
The orange mare nodded in understanding, "Hmm, ah' was actually putting some thought into this but couldn't think of a reason to ask.. Applebuckin' season is hittin' its climax, and me an' big Mac are behind on our bucking. Ah' was gonna see if you guy's were willing to help out, but these two might actually be pretty useful on account of their height and all. I'd be willing ta' feed em if they're willing to work for it." Applejack offered.
Garrick and Marshall looked towards each other silently coming to an agreement.
"Hell, I'm game." Garrick shrugged, "As long as I get something to eat I'll do anything."
"Same here, besides it would probably get pretty boring around here otherwise." Marshall added.
"That's good to hear, help yourselves to some a' them apples over there, then we've got some work to do." Applejack wiped some sweat from her forehead, it was time to see exactly how strong these two actually were.
*This will be replaced when I upload the new chapter*
I'm really feeling like an asshole now, especially with how long it has been. I need to update everyone though. As of now I do not have a computer to work with, this isn't on a computer believe it or not. My laptop that I was using has sadly burnt out after 5 years, so I am in the middle of trying to buy/build a new computer, be it Desktop or Laptop. Having to fix my car after the accident didn't help money wise either, good thing it was only the tie-rod, fender, and turn signal. Anyway, once I'm all set up again and whatnot I will try my best to bring my brain back together and pull a few chapters out for you guys. You deserve that much at least. Sorry again.
-ReapersSprint
