Wormholers

Braeburn liked the desert. He was surrounded by it the majority of the time, so it’s quite natural.

The uninhabited sections of the desert were his favourite. Appleloosa had its charm, but there was nothing that Braeburn loved more than places like this, nothing but the soft wailing of the wind and the great clouds of dusty red powder that drifted across the land. Most dust clouds dissipated before they reached Appleloosa, which was a shame, as they were actually quite pretty.

Braeburn sighed as he remembered why he was actually out here. Not to take in the majesty of nature, but to recover large, heavy boxes, one of the less loved parts of living out in a desert. Things had to be transported ridiculous distances from all over Equestria to maintain the town and pony’s needs. There was so much that could go wrong during the transportation it could simply boggle the mind. Ponies often had to go for a merry stroll through the desert looking for missing items lost during shipping. Braeburn vowed he’d be having words with the ponies who “secured” the crates onto the train.

“Well it looks like we’re done with all this business.” He thought as the wooden box came into full view, nestled in between two of the large red rock boulders. How it had gotten there was a mystery.

It probably had a very uninteresting explanation, but Braeburn didn’t really care at this point. All he cared about was getting the damned thing back to the cart.

“Time to get this stuck ol’ crate un-stuck…” Breaburn sighed as he saw the awkward angle it was jammed in the rocks.

He placed both his forehooves onto the crate’s flat surface and pushed with his powerful hinds.

Despite Braeburn having legs like industrial pistons, the crate went nowhere fast.

“What’s the matter now…” Braeburn thought as he frustrated examined the crate.

The rocks that the crate was jammed in between got narrower the way he was pushing them.

Braeburn sighed heavily. Even though he was use to this kind of work, he really didn’t like doing this. It didn’t really accomplish anything. He was simply doing an entire day’s work that he shouldn’t be doing. The crates should never have been here in the first place.

“The other side then…” He groaned.

Titus’ eyes shot wide open at those words.

“Uh-oh” He thought.

This was like a repeat of the last world they’d been on. Materialise, instantly found by population.

Well, there wasn’t much that could be done. Logar was out, in the open and would surely be found by the horse creature. Titus didn’t have anything to say; or rather he couldn’t say anything now, as the horse may hear.

He simply did what he could: looked to Grimock and Keyla and softly tapped his rifle. After years of practice, the team had gotten to grips with how to talk without actually talking. If Titus tapped his gun, he was asking if the targets were armed with any visible weapons.

Grimock shook his head.

Titus then proceeded to flick his safety on, which his comrades repeated on their own weapons. If the target wasn’t armed, the sight of a weapon would be enough to subdue them. Having the safety on helped prevent accidental discharge of the weapon. The worst thing you can have happen is for your weapon to decide for you whether the person you’re aiming at needs a bullet in them.

Now that that had been addressed they could find out the next piece of crucial information.

How many of them? Grimock had said “Horses” after all.

Titus simply cycled through different numbers of fingers being held up and tilted his head in question.

Grimock gave the perfect answer, and held one finger back up at Titus.

One unarmed horse, as crazy as that sounded to Titus: having to ask if a horse was armed.

This was good. If they’re seen, they can deal with the horse quietly and cause no damage to the horse and if they’re not seen, even better.

The sound of hooves clopping in the dust began circling around the rocks.

Braeburn began trotting around the jagged looking boulders. He didn’t think he’d be able to safely climb over them, and didn’t really want to try. Better to just walk around and find a break in the rocks to get through.

It looked like there was a relatively clear area behind the boulders, so there wouldn’t be much trouble afterwards.

If there was an afterwards, there didn’t seem to be any opportunities arising. The layer of rock was beginning to curb round, and pretty soon he’d be back where he started.

“This will have to do.” Braeburn settled as he saw a relatively smooth area of rock which he could possibly climb over.

He carefully clambered over the rocks, almost cutting his legs as he did. He watched his hooves every step of the way. He didn’t want to break a leg and have to stumble all the way back to Appleloosa. That would be a painful journey…

As he carefully stepped down into the large circle of rocks, he began to survey the surroundings for the crate. He’d become a little disoriented circling the rocks.

The first thing he saw when he looked up was an odd looking grey clump on the ground, slowly being covered by the dust in the air. Braeburn didn’t pay it much attention initially, too focused on the goal of the crate. When he twisted his view to his left, he wished he had paid it more attention.

There were three… things crouching behind the rocks, looking at him. They were all holding very strange looking metal devices in even stranger looking limbs. They looked like the hands Applejack’s dragon friend possessed. Braeburn had no idea what the devices did, and hadn’t seen anything like them anywhere in Equestria. What he did recognise however was the tell-tale glimmer of metal in the sun. In one of what Braeburn guessed was a hand, one of the creatures in blackened fabric held what was most definitely a knife.

“Uh…” Braeburn confusedly blurted as he looked from the three creatures back to the one on the ground, and then back to them. He didn’t know what to say. He didn’t know what these things were or what they wanted, but one had a knife drawn, so that means trouble. For more than a few moments, everyone just hung there and looked at each other.

He began slowly backing away from them and back the way he came.

“Stay where you are, please.” One of the creatures said as they stepped up and forward. It sounded like a male; it had a typical stallion’s voice. It, possibly he, wore some green set of clothes.

Very odd: the creature walked on two legs and uses the other two hands to hold things. These things weren’t ponies; that much Braeburn could tell. Braeburn really didn’t want to find out what their deal was, as they stood much taller than he. In reality, Braeburn reached up to the thing’s mid-section, but in all the gear they looked a lot more imposing.

Still backing away…

The thing who’d spoken didn’t speak a second time, he simply flicked what Braeburn assumed was its head in the direction of the black clad one.

Now, Braeburn expected the knife to come flying his way. Things with weapons usually had an itch to use them. What actually happened was quite a surprise to him. The thing actually put the weapon away.

“Erm…” Braeburn awkwardly said with a half-smile half-terrified frown, still backing away.

“That’s a bad idea, horse.” The metal one warned.

Braeburn was… Scared, plain and simple.

He knew that it was stupid, but there wasn’t much else he could do, so he turned and started galloping back the way he came.

“God damn it…” Titus sighed. “Get after it Keyla!” Titus angrily ordered.

“Yessir.” Keyla promptly responded as she set of doing what she did best: running people, or in this case horses, down.

Braeburn was a strong pony, with incredibly powerful legs that could propel him at high speed, but strength and speed are relative. Braeburn was strong relative to other ponies, but compared to the creature chasing him? It was as if he was a crippled filly. He got about ten metres before a heavy mass of black cloth slammed into him. His legs buckled and he fell to the floor. His chaser, not so shaken by the impact, was already up going to grab him. He tried to move, but he’d be killed before his legs straightened, so he settled for a scream, but even that was snatched from him by the gloved hand across his mouth. All that came was a muffled grumble.

He wasn’t killed instantly, that was a good thing Braeburn supposed.

But he wasn’t overly fond of what was happening, that being the creature dragging him back towards where he’d been unfortunate enough to discover the four creatures originally.

A look of sheer terror was set on his face in stone.

The creature noticed this. The creature stared down at him with its bright blue eyes, and again, much to Braeburn’s surprise, loosened its grip a little.

All of this fear and confusion was ripping Braeburn’s mind apart. He only hoped that Applejack wouldn’t have to suffer this. As bad as it sounded, he hoped she went straight back to town and sent for her friends to help find him. All of those ponies would know what to do.

“Grimock. Continue to keep an eye on the other side of those rocks. I don’t want anything else from this world sneaking up on us while we talk.” Titus quietly ordered his friends.

Grimock nodded and rose from leaning against the rocks to survey the wastes on the other side for targets.

“Logar, I have a simple task for you: rest.”

Logar made an uncomfortable grunting noise and went back to leaning on the rocks.

Logar hadn’t been too damaged by the warp accident, thankfully, but he was missing a hand and a substantial amount of cockiness. Losing the hand, almost dying and having to be forcibly rescued had knocked a lot out of him.

“Now, perhaps you’re in the mood for talking now?” Titus asked as he sat in front of Braeburn.

The horse hadn’t been very forthcoming, which was quite understandable.

Titus understood now how Dane must’ve felt interrogating him and his friends.

“Hrmh…” Was all Titus ever got.

Hell, he only knew its name when it babbled “Braeburn, you were so stupid to come out into this desert” when Grimock has started stomping his heavy boots around.

“Alright then, let’s not talk. Something simple: nod if the answer is yes; shake your head if the answer’s no.” Titus tried to say in a calm and soothing voice. He just wanted to have some sort of heading, and perhaps this “Braeburn” could send them in it.

“We’re not going to hurt you, if that wasn’t apparent. We just want some help see.” Keyla added as she sat with Titus.

Braeburn looked a little relieved to hear that.

“Indeed, just some questions my friend.” Titus smiled.

Braeburn nodded. Titus assumed he wanted them to proceed.

“Okay: we’ll start off easy. This world is called Equestria?”

Braeburn nodded.

“And it is inhabited by horses?”

Braeburn shook his head.

“You’re not a horse?” Keyla asked for Titus.

Braeburn shook his head and said nervously: “Pony.”

“Okay, this world is inhabited by ponies?” Titus continued.

A nod in response.

“Capable of speech?”

Again, a nod.

“Interesting… Does this world have a ruler or leader?”

A very confused nod followed.

“Why did you want to know that..?” Braeburn slowly and confusedly asked.

Titus rubbed his chin with leather gloved hand.

“It may have escaped your attention, but we’re not from around here.” Titus slightly laughed.

Braeburn pouted in annoyance.

“I can see that. That’s why I ran from ya’ll!”

“I meant no offence pony.” Titus calmed.

“Then what did ya’ll mean?”

“We’re not from your world, and I’ll spare you the how and why and skip to it. We’re not in the best of shape, and need rest and medical attention for my friend over there,” Titus said as he gestured to Logar over by the rocks.

“The chief authority of your world will be the one most capable of helping us, so we’re looking for them.”

That was all Titus and his group ever seemed to do on their travels. Go to a person of power, ask for help, be denied and be allowed to go in peace or stay and rest, be denied and treated as hostile, like on their previous world, or be accepted and receive help. The latter of which had yet to happen.

“Well… I’m not sure if I should be helpin’ ya’ll… Ya’ll don’t exactly look friendly…” Braeburn said as he nervously eyes Keyla’s knife.

“Help is all we want creature, nothing more and certainly no trouble. Point us in the right direction and we’ll be on our way.” Grimock added from afar.

“How do I know ya’ll aren’t lying?”

“I give you our word. We have nothing else to offer.” Titus promised.

He awkwardly held out his hand, just now remembering he wasn’t dealing with a creature with hands.

Breaburn placed his hoof just as awkwardly into the hand’s grasp, and shook.

“Guess that’ll have to do… I can’t believe I’m doing this…” Braeburn sighed as he shook his head. What else could he do? Either this or die out here in this God’s forsaken desert. “The place you’re lookin’ for is called Canterlot. The power of this world lives there. Big fancy tower, can’t miss it.”

Braeburn pointed a hoof roughly north-east, drawing direction from the sun, which was going down now in roughly the west. A lot of approximation, but it had never done Braeburn wrong.

Titus looked at where Braeburn was pointing, and then put his hand to his head and looked to the sun and then down to Keyla, who was doing the same.

“What say you, Keyla?”

“Probably an hour until it’s totally dark if the day-night cycle is anything like Earth Standard, and a mere twenty minutes until dusk.” Keyla grinned collecting herself and standing.

Titus copied, followed swiftly by a confused Braeburn. Odd how someone, or rather somepony can go from total and paralyzing fear to slightly inconveniencing confusion.

“We can move in the dying light.” Titus and Keyla said simultaneously.

“Grimock, check your coms are working.” Titus ordered as he peered over the rocks in the direction Braeuburn had pointed. He didn’t want to travel too close to the tracks, a train could come and cause panic in the populace. That’s something the group wanted to avoid: causing panic on a world they only intended to make a pit stop on. Although, Titus didn’t know how many times his watch could carry two people. It wasn’t what it was designed for, anyway.

The direction Braeburn had pointed unfortunately ran dangerously close to the track.

They’d have to follow it as close as possible, but still with some distance. They had no idea how far this journey would be, and being a few metres off course could mean miles at distance.

“Grimock take point, thirty metres between us. If you see anything buzz me.” Titus said as he tapped one of his various pockets on his chest containing a communication device.

“We’ll follow behind with the pony.” He finished.

“Beg your pardon?” Braeburn disheartendly sighed. He almost thought they’d let him go.

“Sorry pony, we don’t need you running off and causing panic.” Keyla flatly said.

“Urg… What a day…” Braeburn sighed as he stretched his achy legs out.

“Logar, do you think you can run?” Titus asked.

“My chest is in ruin sir, that’s as plain as I can put it…” Logar sighed. It hurt him beyond the physical having to say that. He wasn’t a fearless hero, but he was by no means a coward. He always wanted to perform to his optimum, and when he couldn’t, he felt dead.

Titus groaned. Speed was essential when running ops in an unknown location.  They had to take advantage of every second of darkness at their disposal. Logar was going to slow them down. Could Titus blame him for having lost his watch and causing this? Not really. Titus was glad that he couldn’t. He hated having to place blame.

“I’m sorry Titus; I’ll try to keep up…”

“If you fall behind, I guess I’ll have to carry you.” Titus half laughed, half seriously said.

“Twenty minutes people, twenty minutes until it’s dark. Get ready to run. You too pony.”

“Braeburn?”

Applejack was quite shocked when she found the cart that she’d left Braeburn at eerily abandoned.

She’d been unusually foolish, running off like that. She’d be paying for that if Braeburn had just got up and left her. Hauling the full cart with two ponies was bad enough as it was. She deserved as much. The whole day had been a stressful hunt for blending boxes and had taxed Braeburn especially, and Applejack had probably pushed it ignoring him and running off. However… Braeburn wasn’t the type to go wandering off for no good reason. He’d normally be more than content waiting, being the patient pony he was. So... Where was he, Applejack thought.

She wandered up to the cart slowly, half expecting Braeburn to jump out and scare her, and half brushing the thought off as silly.

“Ahem.” Applejack cautiously coughed.

She became all the more worried when nothing but the howling wind answered her.

It was getting rather late, and the sun was almost down, the sky being a deep orange. Applejack didn’t want to risk walking through the desert alone at the best of times, let alone night. While Equestria was relatively peaceful, the weather can be unforgiving in these areas, and Applejack didn’t know if any storms were scheduled.

“Braeburn? Where are ya’ll hiding?” Applejack said in a raised voice. She was slightly scared and losing her patients.

Again, no reply what so ever.

She sighed and sank her head to the ground at the thought of where he’d gone. Was he in danger, or had he just wandered off?

Looking at the dusty desert ground, Applejack concluded that it was probably the latter, seeing hoofprints in the ground leading away from the cart.

“Braeburn…” Applejack angrily sighed. Why had he left? He shouldn’t have abandoned the cart or her. Then again, she couldn’t blame him, because hadn’t she just done the exact same thing?

It was getting darker now, and the sky around Applejack was a deep dark blue. Applejack set off after the footprints before they were lost to the dark. She decided she’d only follow a little way, and then turn back. No sense in getting lost.

Applejack thought she’d be heading back empyhooved, as all she could see was the black silhouette of a collection of boulders against the darkening sky: nothing out of the ordinary there. Maybe Braeburn had gotten himself lost, Applejack thought.

“Huh?” Applejack exclaimed to herself.

She could’ve sworn… There it was again! Was the rock’s silhouette… moving? There was a small lump on the outside of the rock that hadn’t been there before.

All of a sudden, the lump receded back into rest of the rock.

“What’s going on…” Applejack thought.

Then all of a sudden, a new black silhouette sprang from out of the rock, and set of running across the horizon. It wasn’t… a pony; that was for sure. Or, if it was, it had some odd structure.

Hundreds of odd possibilities shot around in Applejack’s head, but two made themselves very prominent: this wasn’t Braeburn playing a joke, and the only thing Applejack knew that had anything even resembling the creature’s build was a Diamond dog. Alarm bells instantly rang in Applejacks head. Diamond dogs: not very pleasant creatures.

“Oh Braeburn no…” Applejack groaned a few seconds later as another four more silhouettes emerged from the rock, three like the first and one that was definitely a pony. The pony shape and what could be a Diamond dog was trailing behind the other two who’d emerged with them. The Diamond dog was hunched over a little and slightly limping. Maybe Braeburn put up a fight, Applejack reasoned. No time for thinking about that though, now was the time for action.

As far as Applejack was concerned, there were two options: run head long at them and attack the trailing dog and then run with Braeburn, or call for the assistance of her friends or the Royal Guard.

As stupid as the first option seemed, it was really the only one she had. How long would it take to run back to town and get help? Far too long Applejack thought. Braeburn would be long gone with the Diamond dogs, for whatever reason. No, she had to do something a little bit stupid and attack, as uncomfortable as that idea made her. She didn’t like fighting. Who in Equestria in the right mind would?

She had no idea if she could win, but she had to try, and so she ran. Urg… This was a foolish idea…

“See anything Grimock?” Titus whispered.

“It’s too dark to say for definite, but I’m confident it’s clear.” Grimock whispered back, ducking his head back into the rocks.

“And I can’t check with thermal scope either, the desert ground is still radiating too much heat.”

Titus silently swore.

“Bah, it’ll have to do. Let’s just hope if anyone does see us they pass it off for a cloud of dust.”

Titus wasn’t pleased, not pleased at all.  Running after a heated engagement, with wounded, and a civilian, at night and with no idea what might be out there.

“A tactical nightmare!” Titus quietly seethed. If Titus were employed by any military force in any universe you’d care to mention, he’d lose his stripes for even considering something like it.

“Keep low and move quickly” Keyla added. “I doubt many people will be in a desert at this time of night, or any time for that matter.”

“You’re right, not many ponies wander this far astray from the town. Ya’ll should be ok.” Braeburn whispered to the group. If he were going to be prisoner, at least he could be a helpful one and not aggravate his captors.. And who knows, maybe Applejack will throw her gaze over this direction and get help? Braeburn could hope.

“Thank you pony.”

Titus realised just how much he’d been referring to Braeburn as “Pony”. While it was what he was, it was rather rude to keep calling him that instead of his name, like some abomination. Titus didn’t actually think this creature was that bad, albeit very odd in his eyes. The idea of an animal he wasn’t used to talking suddenly joining conversation was throwing him off. Maybe they’d be able to get along with the inhabitants of this planet.

“Sorry, I mean Braeburn. Grimock, go when you’re ready.”

Grimock was ready the moment Titus gave the order, and set off running in the direction Braeburn had dictated. Pressing his heavy rifle to his shoulder and scanning the world in front of him. After the decided thirty metres had approximately passed, the rest of the group set off after Grimock.

Applejack sprinted like she’d never sprinted before. Rarely did she find herself in a position of danger alone. Normally she had the comfort and support of her friends, but not now. But Applejack had always been strong and independent, and while she’d rather have her friend’s help, she could do this just as well alone. She supposed she’d have to.

Luckily for her, the creatures ahead of her hadn’t noticed her yet. Whether it be the background to her rear masking her, or simply that they weren’t looking, it was a good thing.

She was closing distance quickly, and she was certain she would be seen soon. When she was, she had no idea what she’d do. This was a badly thought out plan, she thought. She’d let her worry for Braeburn and the desire to do something right that moment get the better of her.

She regretted it now, as one of the group, the one with what she thought was Braeburn slowed down. She’d been spotted! There was still a good fifty metres between them.

“Oh well… Here goes nothing…” Applejack groaned, quickly slapping her hat firmly down on her head.

The things before her certainly weren’t Diamond dogs. Well, Applejack thought they weren’t. They didn’t have the bulk up close of a Diamond dog. One, the one at the front, was pretty close.

The one with Braeburn yelled something Applejack didn’t hear, and instantly the other three people turned around.

“Maybe I won’t have to fight anyone…” Applejack happily said to herself.

The happiness dissolved instantly when she caught sight of a large piece of sharp metal hanging on the mid-section of the one near Braeburn, who now appeared to have hold of him. Applejack was sort of thankful that the moon was rising now, as the moonlight reflecting off of the blade had alerted her to this new threat.

“Dang it!” Applejack silently cursed. Why didn’t she think of that? The moon must’ve provided just enough light for her to be seen, or if it were behind her, she would’ve been an obvious blip against the moon.

Twenty metres left. Applejack had to make a quick decision: attack or not. The thing had what Applekack thought was a weapon, could be a Diamond dog but probably not, had hold of Braeburn and was possibly hostile. A lot of “probably” there. But Applejack couldn’t take the chance. She hated the fact that violence was her solution, but it was the only solution available that made sense right now.

The thing began to lower one of its… limbs, Applejack guessed, down towards where the metallic object was. That was all Applejack needed now. She had to do this. Less ten metres. The thing had a confused look on what Applejack could see was its face, and took a step backwards on its odd limbs.

Five metres.

It turned its head to its right and looked at the other two creatures ahead of it, who were simply looking on.

Zero metres.

Applejack, with a hint of regret, leapt into the air, twisted her body, and delivered a kick to the thing’s chest with her hind legs.

If one wanted a metaphor for the manoeuvre, Applejack’s legs were the hammer, and the creature’s chest the anvil.

“What just happened?” Grimock slowly gasped as he jogged over to where Titus and the rest of the group were stood.

Keyla was still silently laughing to herself, a huge grin set on her unmasked face.

Titus was the one who answered instead, having recovered from his very brief chuckle.

“Logar was attacked.” Titus said, unable to mask the small amount of humour in the response.

“By what?” Grimock said, aghast. How had something like that happened? The world was inhabited by ponies for God’s sake, how could ponies be such a bother to the group?

“Something we failed to spot just broke most of Logar’s ribs.” Titus responded as he pointed to Logar, who was sitting on the floor lightly rubbing his chest.

“Good god man, what did that to you?” Grimock half chuckled. Broken ribs aren’t the most serious injury in the world, and they can be treated with simple rest and pain killers. Grimock felt ok to chuckle about that.

“I’m sorry.” A voice whimpered. A voice that had the same unmistakable accent as Braeburn.

“The… Pony broke Logar’s ribs? Good God, how strong are you creatures?” Grimock said, the amusement gone.