Rise

by somedude726

Chapters

Chapter 1: Of Two Worlds
Chapter 2: Questions
Chapter 3: Day On The Town
Chapter 4: The Calm Before The Storm
Chapter 5: Meeting The Night
Chapter 6: Not Alone
Chapter 7: From Darkness
Chapter 8: A Last Stand
Chapter 9: The Roads of Canterlot
Chapter 10: The Will To Destroy
Chapter 11: The Fight Begins
Chapter 12: Detour
Chapter 13: He Holds The Key To Redemption
Chapter 14: Dark Secrets
Chapter 15: Project Air
Chapter 16: The Phantoms
Chapter 17: Escape
Chapter 18: Semper Paratus
Begin Act 1
Begin Act 2

Chapter 1: Of Two Worlds

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 1: Of Two Worlds

"J.. Ja--he.. are you.. o--"

"Mother. Mother, can you hear me? You're breaking up."

"Wh.. as.. tha? C-Can-- beeeep. Call dropped."

"Dammit.."

I slumped back in my couch, and put my phone back on the near coffee table, letting my cold feet up. Thankfully, I had been wearing my shoes. My mother has been trying to call me for the past few weeks, but we can never get a straight call through without it being heavily distorted, or just dropping within the first minute. This was the third time it happened today, too. It was October 14th 2044, and it's been like.. seven months since the start of the shitstorms. I lived in the town of Vancouver, and it's been around three months since they came to Canada. These damned storms hadn't let up or stopped at all, and there's no signs that it will. I'd like to say that news reporters are saying the rain and lightning will stop soon, but.. I've been out of internet, and my cable wasn't working, both since the day it all happened so I wasn't able to get the news. Thankfully, I still got the packages from police, though, so at least I could actually eat. Too bad they didn't come with newspapers. I chalked that up to none being made, which made sense. No way would I like to be writing articles while the world's going through hell!

I stood up from the couch finally, after sitting there for about thirty minutes to an hour attempting to talk to my mother, and walked over to my kitchen. I lived in a small apartment, much smaller than I'd like, but it worked. To the immediate right of the front door, you'd see my little living room. Two maroon, awesomely comfortable couches cornered a flat screen forty-five inch TV, with a coffee table in front of it. It's a tiny area, but it works for watching movies or whatever. Speaking of movies, in the shelves of the stand that holds my TV, all of the movies I own are there. Just open the glass doors to the shelves, and suddenly, crap-ton of DVD movies. I kinda like movies. To the left of the living room, was the kitchen. It had a bar with a marble counter-top, with three bar-stools at it. Behind the bar, was the actual kitchen itself. Empty drawers, fridge, and next to no food other than the lone package on the counter. Tiny damn thing. To the left of the entrance was yet another door, leading to the bathroom. The thing with the toilet and all that. And, finally, straight ahead was a short hallway leading to my bedroom. Where I sleep and stuff.

So, I sat on one of the stools, and took today's care package. I was hoping on eating the sandwich that came inside it. Except, I didn't really get to do that just yet. You know why? Because, to my surprise, the sound of static came to my ears. My eyes widened, and I quickly turned to see the TV. And, well, static. As usual. But why'd that happen? I remember specifically turning the TV off a few weeks ago, and I'm pretty sure I hadn't turned it back on. Considering there hasn't been any electricity and all. Putting the package back on the bar, I walked over to the TV. Sure enough, it was off. But the static, it was still there. Raising an eyebrow at this, I turned the TV around a bit, and yanked the plug out from the wall. Yet the static didn't disappear. What the hell? I stepped back and looked at the TV. Nothing changed. Still plain static. Until..

"Boo."

"AH!"

I jumped back and tripped on the coffee table, falling face first into the couch. Did.. did I hear that? I swear to god I heard a voice come from the TV. Is it working?

"HAHA! You should see the look on your face. Oh dear. Well anyway good sir, I've come to ask you something. Well, not really ask, but.. oh, you'll see what I mean."

I got up from the couch and looked around. No, no one's in here. That's coming from the television. It was a condescending

voice, it spoke in what was certainly a superior tone. Seemed male, too. And apparently, they can see me through the TV. It needs to ask me something.. what? Have I gone insane? Maybe this no electricity thing is getting to me.

"So, obviously you know about what has been going on to your dear friends and family. A living... hell, you'd say, right? Right. Oh, these storms, it was so much fun to see how your kind would survive. What you would do. Where you would go. And when... you... would... die."

Uhh, what. That was the only thing on my mind. I was drawing a blank here, I couldn't think correctly. My mind was just a cluster of questions. Who are you? What are you? Why is my TV talking to me!? and the like. I really was going insane, wasn't I? Yep. TV is talking to me. Haha. No, I don't like this.

"It was great! What has it been, a year almost? Maybe for you just a few months. But it did start all on that faithful day, right? Yes, yes. Seven months. Now, it was fun... but I have a task for you, my friend. There's a place, you probably don't know about it, but basically it's... hm... the representation of harmony. Love, happiness, all that. It's all really stupid, and childish. The inhabitants have no common sense, and oh, they get scared so easy. Using this, I want you to help me with something. Just one thing..."

"Her name..."

"Is Princess Celestia. Remember that. It will be the most valuable thing you will have other than the clothes on your back and the shoes on your feet. Goodbye."

***

It was a beautiful autumn afternoon in Ponyville, and the ponies were happily going on with their day. Whether that would be working their jobs, a trip to the spa, talking with friends, everypony seemed to be enjoying themselves. Except for one certain lavender unicorn, who of which lives in a tree.

"Come on... no.. no.. no!"

She was pacing back and forth within her home, checking multiple books at a time, looking for clues that may answer something. She didn't know what she was looking for, but she sensed it... something was wrong. Of all the books in her studies, she couldn't find anything that would be at least a tiny bit related. But, related to what? There must be something--

"Twilight! Why don't you just ask the princess? If you.. felt this thing, she probably did too. She might just have the answer, y'know."

The unicorn stopped in her tracks, and dropped the books she was carrying with her levitation. Her baby dragon assistant had brought up quite the suggestion, just now. Ask the princess? It was worth a shot, she decided. She nodded, and her assistant went to grab a quill and paper. After making sure the quill had a nice amount of ink, the assistant was ready.

"Go ahead, Twi," the dragon said, confirming he was ready to take a letter.

"Ahem. Dear Princess Celestia... I am sorry to have to trouble you with something as trivial as this, but I believe there is a problem. Early today, I'd say about.. three hours ago, I had sensed something that I don't think I ever have before. I just felt like something was wrong, or out of place. At first I thought it was something in the library, but, I just cleaned and went through every book four times, and nothing was out of the ordinary. I'm also thinking it might be in Ponyville, now. So, I wanted to know if you know anything about this, or if you're thinking the same thing. Get back to me when you can. Sincerely, Twilight Sparkle. Okay.. alright, end it there, Spike." Twilight responded.

Spike sent off the letter as she spoke those words. I have a bad feeling about this... Twilight thought.

Chapter 2: Questions

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 2: Questions

"O-Oh my."

"..Where's its fur?"

"Hey! I wonder if he likes parties! Then we can throw him a 'Welcome-to-Ponyville-Alien-Thing' party!"

"We probably shouldn't just go and throw him a party as soon as he ends up here, Pinkie Pie. Honestly, what if he's from the Everfree?"

"Eep!"

I slowly felt consciousness finding it's way through me. After taking a moment to get my system ready, I opened my eyes, with a bit of struggle. SHITNEVERMIND. So, it turned out there was a light right in front me. And I might've just blinded myself. Lights... did they finally get the generator up here? I don't remember leaving the light switch on, or getting any sort of notice. In fact, I remember pretty much nothing beforehand. As I closed my eyes again, I heard an amount of gasps around me suddenly. So I'm not alone. After opening my eyes a bit more slowly this time, I found, well, a light again. I decided to not close my eyes and cowardly make my way out from the damned light this time. I blinked quickly, and rubbed my poor aching head. It burned with the power of a thousand knives or something. Jeez, did I fall off my bed again? Or, wait. If I'm in my bed, then... who else is in my house?

I squinted my eyes, and lifted my head up slowly. And with that, I almost passed out and died.

"Uhm. Hello, sugarcube."

"What the fuck!?"

I backed right the hell back up to the wall, because.. because there is currently six multicolored small horses, yes, I am quite sure that they are horses, in front of me. One, with an orange coat and blonde mane, also wearing a stetson hat for some odd reason, just talked to me. Greeted me. Called me 'sugarcube'. Horses don't talk. Each one looked puzzled at the sight of me, and probably because I just woke up in someone's bed and cursed at them. Hell if I'm gonna apologize, I mean, how much do you end up somewhere that definitely isn't anything remotely familiar and see talking horses in front of you? Dunno about you but not very often for me. They didn't seem hostile, though. They seemed somewhat friendly, in fact. I took a deep breath, and looked at each one of them.

One on the farthest left of the group had a deep purple coat, with a darker violet mane with a magenta stripe in it. This one, this one had a horn on its head. Okay. I then just realized, their giant-ass eyes. Oh god, their eyes. They're huge! But, rather than finding that weird and disgusting, as I usually would, I found it oddly cute. Why did I think it was cute. Anyway. So that one was purple and had a horn. Kay. Next. The one standing next to her was.. WHAT THE SHIT THAT ONE HAD WINGS! It had a light blue coat and a freakin rainbow mane! This one is definitely best pony. Wings. And a rainbow hairdo. Okay well. The next one standing next to her, at least I assume it was a her, was the orange one that called me 'sugarcube'. She didn't have a horn or wings. But does she call everyone that? I hope so. After that was a white one, again with a horn, and a styled purple mane. I may not know much about horses, but it.. looked nice. Not better than the rainbow one though. Badass shit right there. Next to her.. or, more, behind her, was a yellow one with wings again. A pink mane, on this one. She seemed shy to say the least. And finally, after all of those, was a pink one, with a big bouncy pink mane. Without a horn, or wings. Looks like this one and Orangey got the short end of the stick. This pink one seemed happy, though.

"Hellllllooooooo, alien! I'm not sure what that word you just said means, but hi! You were sleeping all day in this bed according to Applejack, you must've been soooo tired!" As she said this, she literally started bouncing around the room, defying all laws of physics and gravity. I got all dizzy trying to follow where she was going. Whatever.

"Right. So. I take it I'm not in Kansas anymore." I said to them, hoping they'd tell me where I am.

"Kansas? Oh, is that the name of where you come from?" the purple one responded, taking a notebook and quill out of nowhere and writing something down.

"No, it's uh, it's an expression, basically, where am I?" I replied to her, as she wrote something else down.

"Hmm.. got it. Kan- OH! Right, uh.." she attempted to answer. She failed.

"You're in our lil' town Ponyville. Ah woke up this mornin' ta see you on the ground outside mah barn. By the way, mah name's Applejack." Orangey answered my question for her. I'm still gonna call her Orangey, it has a nice ring to it.

Wait, hold the fuck up. Ponyville. PONYVILLE. That's, that's what they named their town!? These things have no imagination!

"My name is Twilight Sparkle. Sorry about that.."

"My name is Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in all of Equestria! I bet you've already heard of me, though."

"Greetings, darling. My name is Rarity, I design dresses and such at my shop, the Carousel Boutique."

"Meep!"

"Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie! I like parties! Oh yeah I wanted to ask you do you like parties?"

And with that, everyone told me their names. Except for the yellow one. She just kinda.. meep'd. These horses, or, well, maybe I should call them ponies, have some odd names. I nodded, and responded with my name.

"Nice to meet you all, I guess. My name is Jason. And I have no idea where the hell I am." I replied. It was then I finally noticed, where is here? Where is Ponyville? What's this Equestria the rainbow one mentioned? Neither rung a bell. I must be on some crazy shit right now, though, I mean, talking TV without power, now I'm in a house with a bunch of talking hor-- ponies, damn, wish I remember what I took. Or got forced into me, whatever happened.

"Well, the princess should be coming soon. Maybe she'll have an idea of how to get you back. But... in the meantime.. we kinda have some questions," Twilight said to me, putting her notebook thing away. Not sure where 'away' was, but she put it somewhere. Well.. I guess I should answer their questions.. I kinda am an alien to them aren't I. Wait, but then that would mean I should ask the questions first. Would it? I think it would. But, I guess these things did give me a bed and a roof over my head, and I don't want to sound hostile.

"Alright. Sure. Keep in mind I have a million questions going through my head as well, Sparkles." I replied, and attempted to get comfortable. This was gonna be a long day, I can already feel it.

***

"..So you're a hairless monkey."

"For the last time, no! We evolved from monkeys!"

"Therefore you're a monkey."

"Your logic sucks."

"Does it?"

"Yes."

"It's better than yours."

"Please, tell me, how is your logic better than mine?"

"Because you're a monkey."

"Well screw you too."

This.. has pretty much been the past hour or so. Twilight kept asking about humans, our world, and other things. Right now we're in a battle of wits to see who has the better logic, and the other assholes in the room are just laughing at us. Jerks.

"That's hardly a good response to an argument, Jason," she said to me, with this stupid smug smile on her stupid smug face.

"That's pretty cowardly. You're trying to get out of the topic at hand by telling me my argument is bad. C'mon, just admit you're wrong. Kay?" I asked, no, ordered her. At this statement I decided to put on a not-stupid smug smile on my not-stupid smug face. She seemed taken aback at this, and gasped.

"...Whatever! I still think you're a monkey. Let's just move on. You say the ponies aren't intelligent, right? And pegasi, unicorns are just myths?" she replied, seeming a bit mad. Hehe, I made the purple pony mad. I simply nodded at this. Twilight then pulled out a notebook again and started writing things down. Jeez, she's been doing this all day now. Even if it's only been an hour.

"Right. So, can you tell me, how do you control weather, then?" she asked. Wait, sorry, what? Control weather? Can weather actually be controlled here!? Holy crap. What I'd do for that back on Earth. Maybe this damned rain would stop after that.. shit, is it even all stormy and whatever here?

"We don't. It just kinda happens. Except that for the past.. dunno, seven months we've been stuck in worldwide hurricanes, storms, earthquakes and such." I answered her, looking away. Dammit, I gotta get in contact with my family.. my phone's probably blowing up with calls right now. Why didn't I put my cell phone in my pocket? Considering I have a little bit of change in it, my phone would probably come too. Huh, I wonder why I even put that in my pocket. Old habits die hard I guess.

And with that everyone in the room almost fell over and fainted. They all gasped at the same time, hell, one magic'd a couch out of nowhere and dramatically fell on it, which I don't have an explanation for, and the rainbow one just.. just seemed so shocked.

"H-How is that even possible!? You HAVE to control weather! Oh man, you gotta get those humans to do something about that! How.. how do you even LIVE in that kinda weather all year?" she started throwing questions at me like it was no one's business. I wasn't even sure how to answer any of the questions.

"I don't know. We never did control weather, just attempted to predict it. Which worked, sometimes. Humans are nowhere near having the ability to just control weather like that yet. As for living in this weather.." I paused, and gave a deep sigh. "Not all of us have been that lucky." I finished. Well, I think I just depressed all the ponies. They all seemed near tears, and were sitting on their.. rump, I think. Except for Pinkie, she was plain crying her eyes out at this point, lying on the floor. Shit.

"W-wait! Guys! Look, I don't know how this happened, but we're getting through. We have some really nice people helping us by delivering food and water door to door, and offering shelter to the homeless. It's fine--" I attempted to say, until Rainbow stopped me.

"Fine!? That's not fine at all! That's terrible! That's.." she started to say, and then locked eyes with everyone else, as they said this together..

"..Chaotic." Oh dear. Chaos is really a problem here isn't it.

"Okay! Alright! So! Applejack, can Jason stay at the barn? This is the guest room after all." Twilight spoke to Orangey as everyone started getting all nervous. What's going on?

"Course. Jason, you gotta stay 'ere for a bit. We gotta check somethin'. Might be.. Twi, how long's the train to Canterlot?" Orangey looked to me and said.

"Four hours! If we go now, we can catch the late afternoon train, get there by evening, check the statue.. talk to Celestia, or Luna, and.. we'd probably have to stay the night." Twilight responded, pacing around the room, eyes closed. Somehow she didn't bump into anything.

"Then let's go! Alright, Jas, I think Applejack's brother Big Mac should still be around if you need anything, but you're gonna have to stay alone 'till tomorrow, I.. I think we know why your world is like that, big guy," Rainbow said to me, before flying out of the room.

"You should probably go check the town soon, if you like. Considering how you were out for like twelve hours, I decided to inform everyone of your arrival. So, seeya later Jason!" Twilight nodded and told me. Perhaps I should check the town soon.

And with that, everyone said their goodbyes and left the room. Now I'm alone while they're going on some adventure. I'm jelly. At least they might know why Earth hasn't been doing so well..

Chapter 3: Day On The Town

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 3: Day On The Town

The six ponies galloped with every last ounce of energy to the train station. The past twenty minutes after leaving Jason for them has been going to their homes to pack, say respective goodbyes to whoever they needed to, Spike for Twilight for example. The run was hectic, with adrenaline taking place the ponies went faster than they knew they could. All of them were thinking the same thoughts. They knew a certain somepony that could have done the terrible things to Jason's world. Well.. not really somepony. But, that didn't matter to them, all they were thinking was to get to Canterlot as soon as possible.

It didn't help that Twilight got a response from her mentor yet, either.

***

"Hey. Big guy. I'm going out for a bit."

"Eeyup."

"..Seeya."

After taking just a brief minute or two to look around the house, I was up and out the door. Letting Big Mac know I was gonna go see the town, I left.

Oh. My. God. What. Air. What is this. A sun. Holy shit. The sky isn't cloudy. I'm not freezing.

The sunlight quickly entered my eyes and gave me its warmth. I was wearing a dark blue sweater and jeans, and with the sun being out.. I was actually getting hot, and started to sweat a bit, whilst shielding my eyes. But oh, was it worth it, to be outside again! In nice weather! The occasional wind blowing through was wonderful. I slowly stepped forward, and seen the gravel path leading down some hills, presumably to Ponyville. I took a look around, and seen a large barn right next to the house, and an apple orchard just down the way. Farm animals were all around the area. Yeah, Orangey did say this'd be a farm. I continued walking the path, as the town finally came into sight. Just a little ways now. I wasn't even sure that I really wanted to go back so much now, if the weather is like this. Seriously. It was bothering me, how.. amazing it was out. There really is a difference between storms and normal autumn weather.

Then, I finally remembered something. They didn't even know what a human was. I had to explain my extremely little knowledge about politics, government, and well, my enormous knowledge about technology. So wherever I am, is gonna be inhabited by these ponies. Well, Twilight did already tell everyone I'm here. Somehow. I guess this is a small place. Jeez, I'm gonna be an alien to them. Eh, they're gonna be aliens to me too. This'll be a fuuuun day....

So after another ten to fifteen minutes, I end up in the town of Ponyville. I was right, the place is pretty damn small. It had an old medieval kinda look to it, but it worked. It was a nice little village. Looked great. I might need to compliment the builders of this place. Huh, now I'm wondering how they built all this without fingers. Great, that's gonna bother me for a while now. Ponies trotted around town, going in and out of shops, restaurants and such. Oh god, restaurants. What am I gonna eat while I'm here? Ugh. Now that I had restaurants on the mind, I realized I was starving. Well, I was unconscious for twelve hours apparently. I didn't even get to eat my sandwich before that. Shit I need to eat. Judging by the sun's location, and brightness, I had to conclude that it was around dinner time anyway. How in the fuck I managed to do that I have no idea whatsoever. Maybe that kinda just, happens or something here. So, I need to eat. Let's eat something. Alright. Yep. Let's go. And eat pony food. Shit.

I walked around for a few minutes, and ended up in the town square. A statue of a pony galloping was in the middle, with benches around. Ponies running their own kiosks were all around. Selling vegetables for the most part. Otherwise fruits and/or desserts of sorts. One selling what I think was apples seemed to be closed. I just sat on a bench looking as the ponies walked around, smiles on their faces, going on with their days. Most going to eat dinner. I was greeted by a few, a simple 'hello' or a few questions about what humanity is like, as I just sat for a moment. Trying to decide where I should eat. That wasn't gonna work sadly, as I had noticed, I can't read pony. I can communicate perfect English with them, but nope, can't read pony. Goddammit. Thankfully, one certain teal unicorn had seemed very adamant about showing me a nice place to eat. I was currently walking alongside her, as we went to what I think was a sandwich place.

"So, you use your, hands to grip things right? Fingers and all?" she asked. She was very interested in my hands.

"Yeah. We kinda.. kinda just.." I motioned grabbing an object with my hand. "..that. We do that. Wrap our fingers around stuff." I answer, wiggling my fingers around, before putting them back to my side.

"Awesomeee! Oh, oh! Are.. are those good for tummy rubs?" the pony asked me, examining my hand as we walked. It was getting creepy now.

"..I guess. I never gave very many.. uh.. tummy rubs. Why do you ask?" I answered again.

She suddenly got this huge grin on her face, and stopped. Standing alongside her, she continued to examine my hand with her hooves. Then, her eyes widened, and her grin fell short as she dropped my hand.

"A-ah. You know what. Sorry about that. Nevermind. Besides, we're here." she blushed, and replied. Kay. Wait, since when can ponies-- whatever.

I looked ahead, and yeah, there was indeed a place in front of us. A place in which we probably eat. It had some outer tables, and a fancy-looking waiter standing nearby them. Looked like a male. Behind the tables was a large building, and from what I can tell through the windows, some booths and such. Other than the fancy waiter, it looked casual. More like a lunch place, than one you'd go for dinner, though. Bah, I'm from what seems to be a different world, I don't know these things. Right, different world.. Wonder if I get to go home. Hm. I should figure some things out. First of all, this weather is--

"Hey! Jason! Anyone home?" I was distracted by a sudden knock on my forehead. Oh. The green pony that's showing me where to eat. She's still here. Right.

"O-oh. Yeah. Sorry about that." I nodded, and followed as she walked in front of me, to sit at table the fancy waiter showed us to. I hadn't even noticed she told the waiter to get us a table. As she got on the chair and sat on her rump, much like the others did earlier, I noticed two things. First of all, I'm gonna break this goddamn chair the second I sit in it. Second, she has a tattoo on.. on.. her butt. That's right, when I was sitting before, I had noticed this. All the adult ponies, or, horses I guess, had this tattoo. Hers, was a lyre. Wonder what that means?

"Hey. I haven't got to learn much about this place since I got here. Still don't know how, but I plan to find out. Anyway. I'm not sure how to go about this but uhh.. I've noticed this thing about the ponies here.." I started, slowly sitting down on the chair, somehow not utterly destroying it into pieces.

"Yeah?" she asked.

"Well, there's.. there's this thing I've seen.. on ponies'.. derriere.."

"..Derriere?"

"Yeah, derriere that's.. that's French, there's French here right?"

"Of course there's French."

"Yeah, well, there's this.. this thing, on everyone's.. derriere."

"..Derriere."

"Yes, that's.. that's French it's.."

"I don't understand.."

"It's pretty common, it's.. it's like.."

"Can't you just say it..? I.. I don't speak French.."

"Well no, I.. okay I could, but.. y'see.."

"Derriere.. I have never heard that word in my life. Ever."

"It means butt."

"..."

"Well it actually means behind, but.." I finally explained, and rested my head on my arms. She was blushing way more than she was earlier, and seemed pretty nervous. And then she started giggling. What?

And within just a few moments she started laughing out loud, almost tipping her chair over. Ponies around started staring at us a bit from the sudden outburst.

"Ohh my... yes, that's called a cutie mark." she answered finally, after her laughing fit stopped. I nodded.

"Ah. So, what's it mean? It just a tattoo?" I asked again.

"A tattoo?" she returned my question with another.

"Well it's like.."

"..Go on."

"It's this.. this design, right? You get this design, drawn into your arm, or back or whatever. I never had it done before, but I hear it's done with lasers."

"So, they draw a picture on you with lasers."

"That's what the rumors say! Goddamn tattoos. No wonder they got banned."

"..Lasers."

"Lasers."

"Humans let each other get laser'd."

"It's an odd place," I said, finally deciding to check out the menu. The waiter's probably gonna-- oh look there he is.

"Hello sir and madame. Vat vould you like to order?" a different waiter than before came, only taking a moment to look me over. Eh, everyone'll do that probably. This pony however, was French dammit! I knew it, they have French here!

"I have no fucking idea whatsoever." I blurted out, and took a look at the first page on the menu. Daisy sandwiches? Wait.. oh SHIT. That's right. They're.. they're.. the things that aren't meat-eaters. The hell am I gonna eat?

"Hahaha! Um, excuse him. We'll have the.. hm.. Jason, what do humans eat?" the unicorn in front of me asked. Damn. How do I go about doing this?

"..Y'see, my friend, us humans.."

"Yeees."

"We kinda.. kinda eat.."

"Why do you keep doing that?"

"Doing.. doing what? What do I do?"

"That! I.. nevermind. Continue."

"Kay well. Our diet.. consists of.. okay screw this. We eat meat. That's how we get protein and shit." I answered her. The two ponies before seemed a bit taken aback by this, but didn't freak out. Thank god for that. Don't need to freak out the ponies by meat and stuff.

"Ohh. Well, they don't have meat here. There might be some griffon place somewhere that does, but... for now, you're gonna have to have vegetables and plants. That okay?" she responded, albeit a bit nervously. I nodded. Maybe it'd do me some good to have some vegetables, but.. I'd kill for a hamburger right about now.

"You have lettuce sandwiches? I think I can roll with that." I asked the waiter, and he nodded as he wrote down my order. This is gonna be so filling, I can feel it.. oh god. Why must I only eat lettuce and bread when I haven't eaten for like a day.

"I'll have the daisy sandwich, myself," the unicorn said, closing her menu. I closed mine as well, and put it on the table. Around then I noticed something. This pony.. she already knew my name, probably thanks to Twilight.. but I never even asked for hers. Smooth, bro, smooth.

"So, hey. I never really got your name," I said to her as the waiter walked away.

"Oh! I didn't tell you? I'm so sorry! M-My name is Lyra Heartstrings." she answered with a smile. Huh, her name is somewhat.. human-like.

"Cool." I replied, nodding. And now we wait.

***

Twilight Sparkle and her friends were still on the train to Canterlot. Just ten minutes before, they had gotten on, and entered their car. It was pretty small for six ponies to all share, but it was only for a few hours. Currently the five sat on the couch, trying to think of things to do to pass the time. The other of their friends, the sixth, was hogging the bed taking a nap, so that was out. Twilight couldn't help but wonder about Jason. Where did he come from? Is he okay in Ponyville? Will he be able to return to his home? Will he even want to? and more questions swirled around in her head. But one.. one certain question arised more, tugging at her, she desperately needed an answer.

Was it actually Discord who took him?

Chapter 4: The Calm Before The Storm

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 4: The Calm Before The Storm

After a long four hours of waiting, the train had finally arrived in Canterlot, sure enough by evening. The six friends ran to the castle as soon as they were let off their car, in a hurry to see the princess. On the ride, Twilight had realized, she forgot to send a letter to Princess Celestia saying she was coming, but that didn't matter now. A far bigger importance is on the table here. They didn't get too much information from Jason before running off to Canterlot, but how his world was in such a bad state of weather, earthquakes, and none of his 'electricity', it almost seemed as if anypony could figure out what that meant. The weather wasn't controlled, but it must be controlled with all things considered, and whoever's doing it is making it terrible for the inhabitants of his world. And then, Jason ends up here. That, Twilight nor her friends could figure out why yet, but they had a pretty good idea of who's doing these things... an old friend, you might say.

***

Pony showers are shit.

Like DAMN, these things are tiny. I decided, if I was unconscious for so long, then went and had dinner with a horse, I needed to take a shower. The place where I make all of life's decisions. So I went back to the barn place. Got lost a few times, and it took me about a half an hour to find my way, but here I am. I think they should be in Canterwhatever by now-- it already has been like four hours. After eating, Lyra decided to show me around town a bit. I have to say, Ponyville is a really nice place actually! Lyra had shown me all the major restaurants in Ponyville, even this one near the outer part of town where the griffons eat. I thought it'd be best to just go with the flow and not freak out over hearing that there's griffons here, found that might be a good idea. Apparently, that's the only place in town that sells meat. I don't remember what it's called, but I'm definitely keeping the joint in mind.

I'd like to say I was only taking this shower for those life's decisions, but.. I smelled. Bad. Maybe because I had dinner with a horse. That lettuce sandwich was badass, though. It was filling, somehow. They like, took the bread, put some lettuce on it, then some sorta ranch dressing, and some goddamn croutons. It was great. I like pony food. I'm still not eating hay though. No matter how many times I tried to deny it, Lyra kept offering me some of her hay fries that I didn't even see her order. Suspicious. It probably came with the daisy sandwich though. Maybe I should try some of those flower sandwiches, no one ever said I couldn't. Did they?

Wait, right, I'm supposed to be taking a shower.

This shower sucks. Almost no water pressure, it's freakin' tiny, and from what I can see from the towel, I don't think it'll be able to fit me. Wait.. aw, crap. I just remembered I don't have any more pairs of clothes. I'm gonna need to wear the same pair. Ew. I'm gonna smell again. I guess I can say this shower was for life's decisions, then.

So.

I'm in a world where the superior race is ponies. Don't know shit about them, other than a little that Lyra told me. Apparently those cutie marks I tried to ask about are these.. well, they're tattoos, but they're natural. When you find your special talent, whether that's music, writing, baking or whatever, a picture representing it just kinda.. pops up on your ass. So that's a thing. I should probably find a library or something around, so I can know a little bit more, maybe read up on history or something. Heh, me wanting to read history. Yeah that isn't gonna happen, I can feel it already.

Apparently the six ponies that found me are the 'Elements of Harmony', or some shit. Twilight is the element of magic, Orangey is the element of honesty, the one that was breaking the laws of physics is the element of laughter, the rainbow one was the element of loyalty, that white one with the curly mane is the element of generosity, and the yellow pony that was hiding behind her is the element of kindness. Something like that. I don't goddamn know. But, these elements, or ponies, or horses, or... ponies that hold the elements, or whatever the fuck they are, are freaking heroes! They saved this Equestria from some ass who tried to make it night forever, some guy who really likes crystals, and.. I don't even know what the hell this other thing was. Whatever he was, he sounded really badass. In the snap of a finger or whatever, he could make a chocolate milk of glass. And the clouds would rain chocolate rain. While I'd like to never see rain again, that sounded like a true sight. Too bad he ruined everyone's lives or something for a bit, though.

This is a really interesting place, I gotta say. Lyra was saying that Ponyville has some sort of crisis on a day-to-day basis, but, I still think I can kind of roll with it. The fact that there's no people around is gonna bother me, but, really, I haven't seen a human face in so long.. huh. And now I'm wondering if there's anyone else here. Why did I get sent here? Am I special or something? Maybe I'm not the only one here. Eh, that's probably just wishful thinking. But, I wonder if I'll get to be sent back. Honestly though, I don't know if I'd want to, I mean I don't want to abandon all my friends and family, but... I think I can live better here. Not sure if they'll be giving jobs to aliens here, but if I could find a way to make some money, I'd be better off living here. I don't think I want to go back to Earth, er, my Earth at least, with how it is nowadays. I'll still look for a way, I guess, but well who knows how long I'll be here-- maybe I should work on getting a job and a place.

Wait.. huh, I'm still in the shower.

Well I should probably get out of the shower now considering I've been here for like twenty minutes, I finally realized. Maybe see if Orangey has any books. Why do I feel the need to read? Why did I just rhyme?

***

The Elements now sat in the gardens of the castle. After asking to see the Princess, guards have told them to wait here, and when she is ready, she would come to see the six friends. They have been waiting for about fifteen minutes, now. She usually would not take this long, if they remembered correctly. They were nervous to no end, they knew something was wrong. What confirmed this for them?

The fact that Discord's statue was missing.

All of them searched high and low all around the gardens, but it was not found. It was gone. There was no reason to move it. With the bipedal creature here, supposedly from a different world, and Celestia being late, they could only draw one single conclusion.

Discord had found a way to escape, and the Princess may be in trouble.

"Girls.. come here, we're going in!" Twilight yelled out, at the realization of this. Everypony galloped over, and sat next to Twilight. Closing her eyes, Twilight concentrated her energy into a spell. Having to use almost all of her power, she had managed to teleport her and the other Elements into the throne room, although she was specifically told to not do that by the guards. She didn't care for that. She wouldn't have any of it. Twilight needed to see if her mentor was okay.

And was she?

Possibly.

But there was something off. To the surprise of the ponies, sitting on the throne was Princess Celestia, but her coat and mane had turned a dull grey, and she seemed a bit agitated at the sight of the six.

"What are you doing here?" she demanded to them, through gritted teeth.

"P-Princess, are you okay!? We think Disco--" Twilight started to speak, before getting cut off.

"Enough! I am well. Discord is fine," Celestia said, making it clear she didn't want them around for much longer.

"Oh, and another thing, Twilight?" she continued, squinting her eyes. "Don't call me Princess anymore. I'd rather you used my more recent title..."

"Queen. Queen Celestia." she finished, with a mischevious smile. Oh no. Twilight knew what was going on. Discord got here first. The princess wasn't going to be of any help, it seemed. Or queen...

***

"So basically, what you're saying is, you kick the shit out of the trees and the apples just happen to fall in the baskets."

"Eeeyup."

"That's.. that's not right! That's not right at all! What is this black magic!?"

"We're earth ponies, remember?"

"B-but that still doesn't make any sense!"

This place is weird goddammit. Right now, I was in the living room with Big Macintosh, and he was telling me about their apple orchard and how they do things around here. Apparently, they turn around, kick the trees with their hind legs, and the apples fall out and right into the baskets. The fuck is that about. I will never understand these things.

Knock knock knock.

And suddenly someone knocked at the door.

"Ah'll get it." Big Mac got up and walked over to the door. Whoever was at it was knocking repeatedly, seemingly in a hurry.

"Big Mac! Where's the human!?" someone at the door started asking as soon as Big Mac opened the door. From where I was, I couldn't see who was at the door, but it sounded like a young guy. Maybe like ten human years. Huh, guess I'll get to see a kid pony. Filly or something. It sounded male, though. Does filly mean girl?

Big Mac stepped away from the door to let the pony at the door in. Except.. um.. it wasn't a pony. Wasn't a pony at all.

"Hey! Jason! Hi, I'm Spike, I need to show you something quickly!"

"Oh my fucking god, you're a lizard thing. A talking one."

"Uhh, actually, I'm a dragon. And I am indeed talking."

"That is badass. Okay, little guy, except I don't know if that's correct, but anyone try to tell you you're not badass? Come get me."

So a dragon just casually walked in to the place, saying his name was Spike. Little guy was holding a scroll of some sort. He was small, no bigger than like, a dog or something. Honestly he looked like something you could keep as a pet. Shit, that'd be awesome, a dragon pet.

"Haha, thanks. I have been told different many times though, since I live around ponies. But anyway. I have something for you." he responded, giving me the scroll. So I unwrapped it, and tried to read it. But nope, can't read pony. Shit.

"Yo. I can't read pony. Mind uh... reading it for me?" I asked him, scratching my head. He nodded, and took the scroll back and read it out loud for me, no questions asked. This guy.

"Dear Twilight Sparkle, I have recieved.. yada yada yada.. okay, here's the important part. I believe there is a problem here, too. I have found out that there is a Human here on our land. You may have already met him, but from what I have seen, his name is Jason. He is truly from another world, and his is going through chaos. It is a highly advanced one, but yet its inhabitants are going through times where they are having trouble surviving. I believe I know the reason for this. Discord's statue is missing from the garden. I think I have reason to believe he might be responsible. I'd like to find, and possibly help the Human. If we can find Discord, and get him to fix what he has done, that would be for the best. But he may find us first. You need to gather the elements, and be ready to use them at any time. // Okay, alright, it stops here for a bit, Jas. Then it goes back a bit after, here. // Oh dear. Twilight, Discord is in the castle. I believe he is coming for me. If he comes to me, who knows what he may do. If he corrupts me like he did to you, then.. // alright, the letter stops here. I just got this now. Something's up, Jason. I think we need to see if they're okay." Spike read the letter to me.

Most of this didn't make much sense to me but.. I knew it was bad.

"Well fuck everything."

Chapter 5: Meeting The Night

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 5: Meeting The Night

Ahh. How much I missed peaceful nights. It's too damn bad I won't be getting one. The weather continued to be nice, perhaps just a little bit colder, and the night sky looked amazing. Moon was out, and stars engulfed the sky all around. I'd like to just sit back and enjoy it, but, shit is happening. After getting that letter from the Princess, who I have yet to meet, Spike and I ran on down to the train station. Big Mac says he would've came too, but couldn't leave the town for the night or anything. Something about a Granny Smith. These ponies really like apples.

"Okay! We're here!" Spike exclaimed from next to me, as we did indeed reach the train station.

It was a nice, quaint little station. There was an older pony there, sitting on a chair, who would sell the tickets. He seemed like a friendly old stallion. Guy had a train for a cutie mark. Nearby where you would come in, a little gift shop lay, with a bunch of little trinkets and such. Still open, too. I guess it isn't rare to see late night town-goers here either. The entire place was made of hardwood, save for the windows and whatnot in the gift shop. Benches were all around, facing the tracks.

Spike gave the stallion some money, and bought us two tickets to Canterlot. Which is where the Princess was I guess. I made a feeble attempt to protest, but, well, I didn't have any money with me that'd work here, so I had to let him pay. Soon I'll make sure everyone stops paying for my shit. Soon.

And that brings us to now. After hanging out at the station for a while, a train came rolling down the tracks, ready to go to Canterlot. Spike and I walked in, and now we just sat on a chair occasionally looking out the window and such. We had been in the train for about an hour now I think, it was getting pretty late. And Canterlot was another three hours away, according to Twilight. Shit.

My thoughts were interrupted by a set of foot.. hoof.. hoofsteps coming to the door of our car, and it opening wide. The pony that walked in was a female, goddamn there's a lot of ladies here, but there was something odd about her. Whoever this was really damn tall, like, maybe seven feet or something. Considering how I'm around five foot six, she towered over me. She donned a midnight blue coat, and her mane actually looked like the night. Stars and constellations were made up on her mane. How you manage to do such a thing, I have no idea. Also, for some reason, she had a horn, and wings, too. Huh.

"Hello, ma'am." I greeted her as she walked in and walked to us in the aisle, seemingly wanting to talk to me or something.

"A-ah! Hello, Princess Luna!" Spike spoke nervously, attempting a bow in his window seat. Wait, oh shit, this was the princess!

"Oh god! I-I am so sorr--" I attempted to apologize, until she held up a hoof, silencing me.

"Hello, young Jason, Spike. Jason, if you may come with me for a moment, we have things to discuss," she said to me with a look of determination in her eyes. Hell, it was in her voice too. Shit's about to go down.

"Of course, Princess Lu--" I responded, well tried, but she cut me off again.

"Please. You may call me Luna." she told me as I stood up from the chair. Huh, okay.

And as she told me to do so, I followed her into the car she had came from a minute ago. This one seemed a bit more fancier, it was cleaner, had a mini-fridge, and the whole thing was, well, really blue. Also, there were a bunch of ponies in what looked like Roman armor standing around. All looking the exact same. White stallions, blue eyes, gold Roman armor. Her guards?

Luna sat in a chair and motioned for me to sit next to her. And so I did. I hadn't noticed until now but, she has a really pretty mane.

"Jason, you don't know why you appeared in Ponyville this morning, is this correct?" she asked me, with a bit of worry.

"Yeah. Hey, Luna, did anyone ever tell you your mane is pretty?" I responded. Wait--

"Fuck-- I--"

"O-Oh my. Thank you, I don't recieve many compliments on my mane." she giggled a bit nervously, and said back.

"Right. So. Yeah, today I woke up in a bed with six talking ponies around, telling me I'm in a world called Equestria or something. That doesn't happen often where I come from, to say the least." I made an actual answer this time, instead of being hypnotized by her mane. I want my hair to be like that. That would be badass shit right there.

"Yes, that is true, for the most part. You are in a world, named Earth, but in the country of Equestria, where the ponies live. There are other countries that have inhabitants of griffons, and zebras, and such too."

"Wait. Earth? This world is called Earth?"

"Yes, hence the name, 'Earth ponies' for the ponies you may have seen without a horn or wings."

"Well damn. My world is called Earth, too."

"Right..." she nodded, and looked to the window, seeming nervous.

"Everything alright, Princess?" I asked her, raising an eyebrow at this.

"Yes. I am well. Now, while I really would like to chat about Equestria, and your world, more important matters are at hand, Jason." she responded with that same look of determination from earlier. Is this where shit goes down?

"Yeah, you were saying something about that. What happened? Spike and I got worried, he was sent this letter not long ago saying something about Discord coming after you. Since the Elements were in Canterlot too, we decided to haul ass and get on a train to Canterlot and check on things," I said to her.

"Me? Oh! No, that was my sister, Princess Celestia. As Twilight Sparkle is her personal student, my sister tried to send her a letter. About you, I think. But, I walked into the throne room not long ago, and seen some paper scrunched up into a ball on the floor, which was her letter that I had sent, and Celestia was... grey. Celestia is the leader of Equestria, see, and today she thought she should be a queen instead of a Princess. And, she made that happen. She's acting like a tyrant, and overall not being the nice, motherly figure everypony looked up to her as," Luna started saying, looking down to her hooves.

"Discord had gotten to her. He is what is known as a dragonequus, and is quite literally the God of Chaos. He has done many terrible things to Equestria. And now, he has corrupted Princess Celestia, the leader of Equestria. I do not know what happened to the Elements. But they are missing. And you, a creature never before seen from this world, has come here today. Discord may have brought you here as a plaything for him, and he may try to corrupt you too." she continued.

"We cannot let that happen. No offense, but we know little of you humans. Very little. I do not believe there has ever been a human on this world, at least as far as I can remember. You could be a danger to Equestria, and Discord may try to make that be. So, I have decided to find you, to warn you of this. He will find you. He might know where you are right now. We must find the Elements, and help Celestia. I am truly sorry to have to make you do this, but, please, we must help Equestria before who knows what happens. I will try to protect you, as I do want to see you make a return to your family and friends. Our first course of action when we arrive in Canterlot is to search for the Elements. Using the same spell I used to find you, I can find them the same way. So now, do you accept, Jason? Do you accept to help our land of Equestria? In reward, we can try to get you back to your home, to your family. We can possibly help your world, too. Please, consider this offer." Luna had finished.

Well shit. This Discord fucker is planning on taking a shit on this place. I can't say I want that to happen, at all. I've let Ponyville grow on me in the short time I've been here, and I can't leave everyone here to die. Can I help? Probably not. I'm just some twenty year old dude who lives in a tiny apartment. What can I do? I don't know. Whatever I try, will it work? Hell no, but... maybe it's worth a try. I'm not going to deny and see this land in ruins. I need to do something. Besides, if this pony is for real, she could save Earth. She could save it. Soon enough we're gonna run out of food and supplies to give to the people, and if that happens, then we're done for. I'm not letting seven or so billion people die when I could make the choice to save them. Fuck is that dramatic.

"As much as I don't know how this'll work in the end, I'd like to say that I accept. I accept to go through whatever horrors that this, uh, quest will have, because I want to help this world. I want to help anything. That was a problem I had back on my world, I felt useless most of the time. Just a big blob of nothing. I want to be a part of something. I will do whatever it takes to make this world whole, Luna!" I declared, determined to do something for once. I will be something. I could help a friend, finally.. I never got to do that. I never got to be there for my friends. My little amount of friends, anyway. Shit would happen to them and I didn't have their back. Yet they had mine. And that's why I loved them. And that's why I need to fix this land. And that is why I need to go home.

"Then it your time to rise, Jason." Luna responded, with a smile.

***

The six elements sat in a pitch black room, unable to get out. Hooves tied to the cold, steel chairs they sat on. The emotion of fear, struck throughout each of their bodies. Rainbow Dash, the one who would have the team on her back, the one who was strong and ready for anything, was near tears. Pinkie Pie, the literal representation of the element of laughter, had her mane and tail deflated from their usual happy, bubbly selves. Each of the ponies knew, they wouldn't see the outside again, no, not for a while. They wouldn't be happy with each other again. They wouldn't be happy at all.

Why?

Because Discord had taken them there, and he did so with force.

It wasn't the Discord they were used to. This time, he didn't want just chaos.

He wanted destruction. And so, he had decided to take the Elements, and the Princess, into corruption, as they were the only things that would be able to take him down. He wanted to destroy Equestria. Not rule it, or chaos-ify a few towns here and there. Utterly destroy it. Bring it into flames. It was definitely implied to the Elements Discord wanted to burn it to the ground.

All because he was simply bored. It was part of his nature to do things like this. But would anyone ever get a real reason? Would anyone help him, so that he can be good? Will anyone save the Elements?

The only likely answer at the time, was just simply, 'no'. Hope was gone. The Elements wouldn't make it out of the room, Discord made sure of that, by making sure all six were taken away of any magic or special things they could do in a snap of his talons. They couldn't scream for help, Discord made sure of that by sewing their mouths shut, yet letting them breathe. This was it. This is their final moments.

***

"FUCK. TELEPORTING. GAAAH."

"I did warn you it'd hurt a bit."

"Yeah, what's the big deal Jas?"

"I.. I didn't know.. I'd be near death or something.. l-let's just go.."

So teleporting sucks. Like really bad. Luna and Spike had decided that instead of waiting for the rest of the three or so hours left of the train ride, that we should just teleport. I felt a little bad for the dragon dude, he paid money for those tickets and now this princess is teleporting us. But, yeah, I agreed anyway, not knowing what I was getting into. It was, well, let's just say I don't wanna teleport much more. My stomach twisted into knots, and my eyes shut closed. My bones felt on fire, and I swear to god I could feel my goddamn skull about to fall out of my head. I felt moving somewhere, which should be expected I guess, at supersonic speeds. Within just a moment of all this, I ended up puking out the one lettuce sandwich I had earlier that day. Next time someone tries to teleport me I'm gonna punch them right in their stupid face. Because ponies who teleport have stupid faces. Unlike me of course.

We ended up in Luna's bedroom or something. The lights were off, that is, if there were any lights in the room, but from what I could see it was a night theme. Moons, stars, and the night sky were all part of the wallpaper. And she had this huge bed, could fit five ponies probably. So like two humans. After Luna and Spike went outside the room as I cleaned up my puke off her floor, which was reeeaally something I wish I didn't need to do, we were off to find the Elements.

Chapter 6: Not Alone

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 6: Not Alone

Turns out we were in a castle. It made sense I guess, she was a princess. And according to fairy tales, princesses live in castles or something. After I decided I should stop gawking and freaking out at every little thing in the castle-- no really, it was amazing, they had a buncha portraits and stuff, one such portrait including one of the Princess Celestia that Luna was talking about and it looked really awesome, but she was levitating a banana in it for some reason-- we headed out into Canterlot. To say it was badass was the understatement of the year. The houses here looked a bit more high-class than Ponyville, with shinier paint and seemingly high quality materials. Which mostly consisted of wood. I didn't really know what classified 'high quality' wood, but, it looked pretty.. wood-y. That makes sense.

No it doesn't.

So, Luna was now trying a spell to find the elements, while Spike held the elements... yeah. So the ponies aren't the elements of harmony. Well they kind of are. But, the elements of harmony were actually some jewelry. Necklaces, and a crown. After Luna grabbed the elements for the elements Spike held on to them. So the Elements must wear the Elements in order to be the Elements and do whatever the Elements of Harmony do. Fucking magic, how does it work.

Luna seemed to be having a hard time with the spell. She was struggling a bit, and seemed to be putting a lot of energy and concentration into it. Well, I guess using goddamn magic to find out a pers-- pony's location is pretty hard to do. I should really get into the pony lingo here.

"...It's not working," Luna finally said, with the light slowly dying from her horn. She seemed mostly confused more than anything, while a bit disappointed too. This is a buncha shit.

"Why not? Do you need to like rest or something?" I asked. She shook her head, although she seemed exhausted after trying that spell.

"No, no, I should've been able to do that. My magic was supposed to connect to their magic, and give me at least an approximate location to where they are. But it's as if they don't have their--" Luna's eyes suddenly widened, and mouth dropped slightly.

"Don't have their what? Luna?" I raised and eyebrow and walked over. She looked okay, though.

"Discord! He must've gotten rid of their magic! That's why I can't sense it, it doesn't exist!" Luna frowned, and looked to her hooves again. Well that sucks. Big time. Wait a second...

"You say you need to connect to their magic, right? Well, there's no magic where I come from, and uh, no offense Spike," I glanced over to him, who was standing beside me. "but Spike here isn't exactly a unicorn. If we don't have magic, then how'd you find us?" I asked. If she can find us, and we don't have magic, then there might be a way to find them still, I thought.

"Ah. I thought you'd ask that. All of Equestria has their own kind of magic. Only unicorns can use it out of the abilities they were born with. Say, pegasi, they have magic to have flying easier for them. Their magic makes them a bit lighter when taking to the skies. And Earth ponies, they have a great natural ability to farm, build, or any other physical work. Dragons have the same magic as pegasi when it comes to flying, and--"

"FUCKING MAGIC!" I kicked a rock down the streets and at a random grey pegasus. She gave me a look, but went on her way anyway. Wait, this one had bubbles for a cutie mark. What? But anyway, goddamn, everything has magic here? Wow. I want magic. Wait.. shit, I just cut off the princess of this place.

"Uhh. Right. So you, uh, just, looked for Spike then.. right? Heh heh.." I said, blushing a bit.

"You need to learn your magic, dude," Spike said suddenly. He's been a bit quiet, I just noticed.

"Well excuuuuuuuuse me, Princess. I only come from.. a really far place." I rolled my eyes and replied. Honestly, saying that made me consider the fact that I'm on the same world, here being called Earth and all.

"Huh? I didn't say anything." Luna interjected.

"What? I'm talking to Spike, Luna."

"But you made it sound like that was addressed to me."

"And how did I do that?"

"You said 'Princess'."

"Er... it's a human thing. Anyway. So if they don't have magic, how are we gonna find them?" I scratched my head and asked Luna.

"I'm not sure." she answered, drooping her head. She seemed really beat up that she couldn't find the elements. They sound like serious business these ponies. And if their magic is gone-- oh wait a fucking minute.

"Luna! If a pony dies, do they still have magic in them?" I blurted to the princess, and stood right in front of her. Spike's eyes widened, and I could see tears just barely starting to appear.

"J-Jason.. no.. they don't. If a pony dies, they lose their magic.. and since I can't detect the elements' magic, I can't check for life signs. B-But Discord.. Discord only took their magic away. It has to be that. He doesn't kill.. I think.." Luna responded, taking a step back. He doesn't kill? Bullshit. Buuut I probably shouldn't bring up my doubts.

"R-Right. Where would a likely place for.. um.. I apologize for these words, but, hostages go in Canterlot?" I ask, scratching my beard. Wait, I don't have a beard. What am I doing. Goddammit.

"Hmm.. they'd usually go into the dungeons of the castle. Discord most likely put the elements in there. We should go see." Luna started walking back to the castle gates. Welp, alright then.

***

"Ahhh... hello my little ponies. Good evening."

A voice that just screams 'mischievous' roared through the now slightly lit room. It was still dim, but the ponies could now at least see each other. It wasn't just the six elements now, a very large group of armored ponies stood next to them, in around the same position. Mouths tied shut, magic removed, and all those good things. The entirety of the Royal Guards sat in the room, having fallen victim to a certain dragonequus' traps. Only then did the elements realize how large of a room they were in.

"How is everypony doing? Oh, why, Rainbow Dash, do you have something to say?"

The same voice spoke again after seeing a struggling pegasus, and with a faint snapping noise, Rainbow Dash could speak again.

"DISCORD! You're not getting away with this! The human is gonna come save us, and kick your sorry flank!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, continuing to struggle out of the now somewhat warm chair, failing at every move.

"The human? And why, may I ask, do you have so much trust in him, Dashie? He's claiming he's from another world, walks on two feet, and who knows what he could do! I mean, you all just and up and left him in bed merely an hour after his arrival, and gave him permission to go around Ponyville! For all you know, he could have terrorized it by now. You might return to nothing. Is this trust, or is this false hope? Are you realizing you have nothing, now?" Discord replied, with sound logic. Was it trust? Maybe it was.

"Of course I trust him! My element is loyalty, duh! At first, I didn't think so highly of him, obviously, but then once he woke up and all of us started talking I gave him a chance! And I'd like to call him a friend! His race is full of talented people, they have millions of humans assigned to different armies just to protect his kind, he even said he considered enlisting for it in a while! He said he tries to protect!" Rainbow shot back, tears welling up in her eyes. She really did hope he would come. But would he? Was he ready to protect?

"Oh, please, Rainbow, why would he want to come protect you? You said it yourself! 'Millions of humans assigned to different armies just to protect his kind'. This is an entirely different place, filled with things he had never seen before. You guys are aliens to him. He protects his kind, his friends. What reason does he have to come back for you?" Discord replied.

Rainbow Dash didn't say anything. She burst into tears at that, and started to realize just what kind of situation they were in. Everypony had been there for hours, starting to starve, thirst, and get cold. They would die in here. With so many ponies there, the air wouldn't be fresh much longer. It was probably already done.

"Anypony else? Oh? How about you, Twilight? Any words about the precious human?" Discord was having fun. He was having fun torturing these ponies. Doing these things to them.

Twilight took in a gasp of air, as soon as her mouth opened. Her mind attempted to put words together, but only one came out.

"Why?"

Twilight had tears streaming down her face as well. All she wanted to know was why anypony would enjoy this. Why did Discord keep bringing chaos? Sure, he's the god of it, but, why? Why did he have to exist?

"Why what? Why do I continue to do the things I do? Why did the human come? Or perhaps, why is the most powerful beings in Equestria, as in the Elements of Harmony, the Royal Guards, all trapped in a room? Along with Princ-- sorry, Queen Celestia being a bit.. different? Well, those last questions I intend to answer. So if you would please be silent, and turn off your cell phones, we may continue," Discord said. Just a few seconds later, Twilight found her mouth closed once again. "No!" she thought, her one chance to talk to Discord and it was ruined. But she was left wondering this: "What's a cell phone?"

"You all know about the human that arrived. Jason. You six met him, why, you found him as soon as he arrived. You guards were informed of him as soon as Celestia found out about him. Anyone know why he's here? No? Come on let's see some hooves everypony. Oh, right, you're all tied up, sorry bout that." Discord chuckled, as all ponies just simply wanted to go home. To be safe. To return to their families. But with this thing here, that was just a hopeless wish. It must've been well past the time everypony should've been home, and with Equestria's army gone, and Celestia becoming a tyrant... everypony was fearing the worst.

"Something must have brought him here, you must be thinking. And, why.. you might be right! You also, might be in the same room as him. Oh! I spoiled it was a male. Darn it. Oh well. Anyways. What is the reason that he's here? Hmm.. eh, I don't wanna answer that yet. Suspense? Yeah, suspense. Suspense is a great part of chaos. Can he go home? Maaaaybe. Oh, look at me, being so vague. Here, how about an actual answer to a question. Is he the only one here...?"

***

"Goddammit squad! Get your shit together!" a loud voice barked out towards the four he was working with, as one dropped the package he carried, before picking it up seconds after. The five were in a forest, but not your average, peaceful green forest. No.. this one was shrouded by darkness, blackness and wreckage. The pitch black trees had fallen over, making movement a problem. Steps and the loud voice of the first male were the only sound anyone in the area could hear.

"Sarge, where do you think we are?" the same that dropped the package asked his superior.

"I don't know, Private. But we need to get out A.S.A.P, I'm thinkin' that bomb might have detonated.. let's hope Echo Team defused it, and we're just goin' crazy or some shit..." Sarge responded to his fellow soldier, whilst raising up a blue and cyan camouflaged metal object and looking through the scope on the top, scanning the area with it.

"I'm thinking the latter might be true, Sarge. Echo gets shit done. And, it's not raining." another soldier replied, doing the same, holding up his own metal object. His was a bit smaller, and had a shorter scope, still donning the same blue/cyan camouflage.

"Yeah. It's nice to not be soaking wet, and not having to hear the raindrops and lightning cracking and such. But why? Did the storms actually stop, finally?" a fourth soldier put in his own two cents. This one was holding another package, just like the Private was.

"Shit, man. Think about it. We're dozing off in humvees, while Echo was still moving in, then we wake up in a dead forest and the rain stopped. You don't think.." the fifth and final soldier said, trailing off.

"No, dumbass! That was a nuke for god's sake! We'd be dead, and last time I checked nukes don't turn off the weather. And we cannot under any circumstances have let that nuke detonate. Now, shut the fuck up, all of you. It's late, so grab an MRE, we're setting up camp right here for the night. In the morning, we're Oscar Mike, and we're gonna look for civilization. Or at least a way out of this goddamn forest." Sarge shouted to all of them, making them salute in return, as the soldiers looked in the packages for an MRE. Well, except for one.

"Um. Guys? I think we got a bogey. It's a pretty big bogey. Might wanna check this out." the Private said, looking off into the distance.

Chapter 7: From Darkness

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 7: From Darkness

"Dungeons are gay."

I hate dungeons. Luna, Spike, and I had walked right back into the castle and down into the dungeons. That reminds me, I also hate stairs. I was totally okay with them before, but I swear, we were walking down this one staircase for like fifteen to twenty minutes. My legs were burning, and I felt as if I was just gonna fall over and tumble down the stairs. It was a pretty steep staircase too. Didn't help that I was already getting tired, as it was late in the night. Before I leave here, I'm gonna see if I can get elevators made. Anyways, we were at the bottom of the stairs, and Luna opened the door to the dungeons. Right around then is when I decided to blurt out my opinion of the dungeons.

"Jas, how can dungeons be gay?" Spike asked, facepa-- hoof-- clawing. Faceclawing. Yep, faceclawing, that sounds about right.

"Dunno. They just are." I replied. They were pretty gay.

Okay, dungeons can't be gay. But it was so depressing down there. It was pretty damn dark, save for a few torches around. But they were few and far between. Was freezing down there, like it was the middle of winter or something. Maybe around below twenty Celsius. It was a large, open hallway with the rooms on each side, with a mattress, toilet, and well that's about it. The whole place was made of cobblestone, seemingly cracking. Very medieval looking. Which made sense considering everything else was, well, medieval. Our steps and words echoed throughout the dark hall. It went on for a while, it took the three of us around fifteen minutes again to go through the whole place and look in the dungeons to see if the Elements were around. But what did we get? A big sack of nothing. No one was there. I think I seen another door at the end, but it was too dark to see. Our short visit to the dungeons ended as soon as it started, pretty much. With that, we headed back upstairs, and decided to go back to Luna's room to make another game plan.

***

"Hmm... I think that's enough for tonight, everypony. Remember what you have learned, for it might help your sanity. It isn't really like you can do anything with it, though. So why don't you get some sleep now, hmm? Especially you, Fluttershy. With how you exploded on me when I let you speak, you must be tired now! I mean really, it's a good thing no fillies were around." Discord's voice spoke for all ponies to hear. It echoed through everypony's mind, and within just a few moments, ponies started falling asleep. Most of the Royal Guards had decided to stay up and alert, in case Discord tried anything. What they'd do in return, they didn't know. The Elements closed their eyes for the night as well, except for just one.

Twilight Sparkle.

She knew she heard it. Right after Discord left, she heard sets of hoofsteps above her.

They walked around for about fifteen to twenty minutes, then eventually just stopped. If there were hoofsteps above the ponies, then... well, obviously they were under somewhere. They had realized there was a ceiling above them already. But, something just kept nagging at Twilight. Those hoofsteps, they had sounded so familiar, yet not at all. They were above, really high above. Not high as in a few floors up, but as if the ceiling of the room they were in was towering above them. What could this mean? Twilight thought. It didn't really help as to where they were, but if it was a high ceiling, that might be valuable to keep in mind. It was just too bad that she wouldn't be able to do anything with it. All she could do now was have hope. Maybe the human was coming for them.

***

"Squad, get down!"

The team of five dropped to the ground as they all started to scan the area looking through their respective scopes. They found nothing, except for one, bogey, as the Private put it.

"What in the name of god is that..." Sarge muttered to himself as they all looked ahead at.. a creature. Not the same as the enemy they were fighting moments before. It looked like a lion of sorts. But, not just any lion. To the team's shock, and horror, it donned actual wings on its back. Red, dragon-like wings. The mane of the creature was a big, heavy red, just like the wings. And a red tail to go along with it. It stared directly at the squad, before letting out a bloodcurdling roar throughout the forest. The creature slowly stepped forward.

"S-Sarge. Permission to open fire?" the Private whispered, shaking at the sight of the creature in front of them.

"Hell yeah. OPEN FIRE!" Sarge shouted, rising from the dirt and stone and pulled a trigger on the blue-and-cyan object he held. Lights flashed from the device, as the creature in front of them started roaring louder and took damage. The cracking of the weapon firing, tiny little things being ejected from its barrel was heard from the ears of each fighter. The rest of the squad stood up and did the same, pulling the trigger whilst aiming at the creature. The noise from the weapons became louder, and the flash of them firing got brighter. Each weapon was kicking back, and shaking at the usage of its firing.

Within just a moment, the firing died down, and the creature they once seen was now on the floor in a pool of blood.

"What in the fuck was that." a soldier asked to no one in particular, walking over to examine it.

"Ho-kay. Plan changed everyone, we ain't sleepin' now. We're getting our asses out of here this instant. Johnson!" Sarge started, with the Private looking in his direction at the sound of his name. "I want you to stay down here, keep an eye out."

"Roger that, sir." he responded, giving a salute and went through the package he held moments before to put on some infrared goggles.

"Lieutenant!" a soldier walked over to Sarge and saluted. "Alright, Carver, see that tree? Climb it. Look for the nearest exit, or anything of interest. Got it?" Sarge pointed at a somewhat stable tree. It did look as if it may fall down sometime soon, but it was the tallest in that direction, and would have to do.

"Sir, yes sir!" Carver responded, walking over to it after grabbing a pair of his own infrared goggles.

"Corporal, c'mere!" another soldier went over to Sarge. "Stay down here with Johnson, Goodwin."

"Of course, sir." he nodded, and went to grab his own goggles.

"Kendrick. Get up this tree here," Sarge waved a finger at a tree on the opposite side of Carver, "and report what you see in that direction."

Kendrick simply saluted and nodded, before going over to the tree and taking a good look at it before attempting to climb it.

"Sarge, what will you do?" Private Johnson asked, standing beside Sarge.

"I'm gonna try and plan a way out of this mess, maybe fix the radio. We need to get in contact with either Echo, Delta, Overlord, or maybe even the rest of Alpha. The rest were in their own Humvee near us, so they might be around. We're gonna need to keep an ear out for gunshots. They had M4's and P90's, like us, and there's those things runnin' around here, so listen out for those rounds." Sarge replied.

"How you think the war's going? Think Echo's kickin' their asses in?"

"I hope so, Private. They need to be fighting now more than ever."

"Hm. Sarge? You're not one to go soft.."

"Well, I don't know what to think anymore, Private. All I want now is to not be wherever here is. There's too many questions unanswered. Now, why don't ya shut the fuck up and follow your orders, Johnson?" Sarge smiled, and lightly punched Johnson's shoulder, causing him to return the favor with a punch of his own.

"Sir, yes sir."

***

"And then, Discord got hit by the rainbow thingy, and he got turned to stone! It was awesome!"

"But, but, it doesn't work that way! You can't just... just use jewelry to just make harmony out of thin air! Magic doesn't--"

"Jason, I believe you have forgotten you're on a different world."

"Sigh. Right. Anyways. What do we do now? They weren't in the dungeons."

Spike, Luna, and I walked back up those goddamn stairs and now stood in Luna's room. Well, I stood. Luna sat on her bed, and Spike stole a chair. Being the gentleman that I am, I just stood and leaned against a wall instead of stealing chairs and all. The Elements of Harmony weren't in the dungeons, and now we had to figure out where to go next. We were stumped. Honestly, we did more small talking about the weather, and the apparent fact that crossing dimensions can happen than we did figuring out a plan. And then Luna spoke up.

"Hmm... has anypony seen the guards around?" she asked us.

Hadn't noticed it till then, but, that was when I realized there were actually no guards around. They'd probably be patrolling the castle and whatnot, but I didn't see any.

"Nope. Discord?" I replied, frowning.

"Must be... hmm. I think I may know, but it's getting late. You two should go to bed." Luna said back, seemingly deep in thought. I just kinda facepalmed at this.

"Goddammit Luna. I have nowhere to stay. Spike probably has to return to Ponyville. And I'm not your kid or something." I crossed my arms and looked away. Assholes just laughed at me.

"Jason, I can get you a room in the castle! Spike, I can teleport you back over to Ponyville if you like." Luna stood up from her bed, and walked over to the door with us following. Huh, a room in the castle. I can roll with that.

"I should go back. I'll never hear the end of it if Twilight heard where I am. Besides, I gotta do... library stuff. I dunno, I probably already have a list of things I need to do." Spike rolled his eyes and replied to the princess as we left her room and started walking.

"Well, I can accept a good night's sleep and a room in the castle, I guess. Take me to 'em. Oh, one question, I'm not gonna need to wake you up in the morning or something--"

"Ah, no! Morning!" I attempted to say something, before Luna's eyes widened, and she stopped.

"...Luna? You okay? Did the morning do something?" I raised an eyebrow, and turned to see Luna. She looked as if she just had some sort of revelation or something.

"..No. I am okay. In case of Celestia not being in her right mind tomorrow, I may have more duties to do. Anyway, don't wake me in the morning. I am the princess of the night, meaning I must control the night obviously. As such, I sleep through the day. Come to my quarters after you get some dinner, alright? I will give you some bits tonight, and inform the town of your arrival." Luna spoke. Why is it so easy for people to tell the entire town something?

"Right. So I'm on my own for the day."

"I'm sure you'll meet somepony to keep you busy until I wake. Maybe a mare...?"

"Oh, fuck you Luna." This goddamn pony just told me to go get a girl. What the hell am I going to do with a pony girlfriend!? I'm not even attr-- ah, screw it. Damn this place. Damn this place to hell. Either way, we just laughed it off, and I was sent to a guest room.

Chapter 8: A Last Stand

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 8: A Last Stand

"OVERLORD! This is Echo-Four, we need CASEVAC now! We have wounded, over!"

"That's a negative Echo-Four, you absolutely need to get to that nuke, under any circumstances. Over."

"O-Overlord! Are you not seeing this!? The mission is a failure! We LOST! Get the birds in the air now, over!"

The once peaceful area was torn apart and made into a warzone. Lightning took down the walls of the large warehouse, and fog made vision unclear. The noon sun helped somewhat, but was hidden behind the clouds for the most part. The last of the five squads moved in for this mission sat behind the little cover of a fallen table. Only six of the Echo Team survived the fight, and even their attempt to move in with stealth tactics failed. Mounted MG's ripped apart Bravo's helicopters, Charlie's members, and even took down Delta's vehicles. Half of Alpha completely disappeared, and the rest couldn't fight. They were some of the first to get shot, and only barely surviving, sitting alongside the final Echo members. Opposing forces held RPG-7's, and took no hesitation in firing at their enemies and their birds. They were so close, but Echo knew they couldn't win. They now made an attempt at covering behind a table they had kicked over in the warehouse, but the table couldn't hold the rounds being fired on and around it. The bomb was just in front of them, but they only had around fifty seconds to get around the barrage of .50 calibers and defuse it. It was over.

"I said, that's a negative! CASEVAC request denied! Defuse that bomb, over and out, Echo-Four!"

Overlord was no help. The U.S. Marines base couldn't send reinforcements, an evac, nor could they get close air support. The weather was at its peak, winds hitting minus forty Celsius no problem. Fog had been thrown in the mix, causing the need for infrared scopes. Helicopters and or jets could not take to the air for reinforcements, it was too dangerous, and even for an operation like this, it was too risky.

Thirty seconds, and the bomb would detonate, if Echo didn't move their ass.

"Well, everyone, it's been a goddamn honor serving with you guys. You were all like brothers to me, and I couldn't ask for more. Now, I got a stupid idea. But, keep in mind that if I make it back, we're going for drinks. Got that, Echo?" one soldier spoke.

Twenty-five seconds.

"Heh, you got a stupid idea? Well, it's an idea. Quick, lay it on us."

Twenty-one seconds.

"Can't. No time. Adios!"

Eighteen seconds, and the soldier started executing his, 'stupid idea'.

***

"Hey! I see something, Sarge." Lieutenant Carver spoke from his seat upon the tree. He had spotted something, after about twenty-five minutes of everyone just staring around. Except for Sarge, he had been keeping himself busy attempting to radio for Alpha, opening it up and fixing it back together.

"Eh? What do ya see, Carver?" Sarge stood up and put the half-assembled radio on the ground, before walking over.

"I see a hut. A damn small one at that. Some weird mask things are around it, and uh-- wh-what in the fuck." Carver replied, adjusting his binoculars suddenly.

"Huh? What is it?" Sarge asked, raising a brow.

"It's, um, well I'm just gonna be blunt about it. I'm not lying here, there is a fucking zebra in the hut, Sarge. Not like one of ours. It's small, and it's got these huge eyes, and its face looks like, well sort of how our faces would. There's also some sorta mark on its ass. Dude. Either I'm high on everything in the universe, or we need to haul ass and see where in the world we are." Carver responded, looking worriedly at Sarge. By now, the rest of the fighters had looked over and listened to Carver.

"Carver, the fuck? You been drinking again?" Johnson chuckled, looking up to the tree.

"Johnny. I can see it through the window. There is, a goddamn zebra, in the hut. And there's some sort of pot in front of it. It's stirring something inside of it. Sooort of how a witch would, actually. I can't really see it from here, but it's, oh god, I think it's green!" Carver exclaimed, starting to climb back down the tree.

"So, you seen, a witch zebra with a human face, stirring up some sorta potion, inside a hut." Kendrick facepalmed, and continued to scan the area.

"Yeah, well, don't believe me? Climb up that tree. Or just come with me. No, like, really, do one of the two, I need to know I'm not insane." Carver answered, jumping off the tree halfway through, and almost tripping over.

"Fuck it. I don't know what's up with you, but let's go. Alpha, move out!" Sarge declared, before asking where exactly the hut was. After Carver gave him the direction, he took the lead, and Alpha started moving to the zebra's hut.

***

It was deep into the night, around two hours after Jason had went to his own room. All ponies would be asleep, and perhaps all humans. Luna, however, being the princess of the night, was awake. She had set preparations for Jason's arrival in Canterlot the day after already. She put a little bag in Jason's room with sixty bits, complete with a written note about it. It used a lot of magic, but, Luna had used a spell to find out what the human's language was, and translated her words to it. She had done it before, with ponies that spoke different languages, or even different species. It was fairly easy to do with the human. The princess was currently writing a letter to send to everypony in Canterlot, now. It'd be sent through magic, and a copy for everypony would be in front of their doorstep. After a few moments, she had deemed the letter good for the ponies. Although they were more of the, high-class ponies, the letter had to suffice. There simply wasn't enough time for a warmer welcome.

"Dear ponies of Canterlot,

Good morning to all, it is I, Princess Luna. I hope you are having a great day so far. This is a mass letter, being sent to everypony of Canterlot. Due to unknown happenings, a creature that claims to be a 'human' has been sent to Equestria. The human isn't from around here. It is a he, and he is a bipedal creature with forelegs on his upper area, much like a minotaur. He wears clothes at all times, I can only assume it's traditional for his kind. He is much like an Earth pony, being without a horn or wings, and seemingly strong and ready for physical labor. Other than teleporting. Don't teleport him, he doesn't like that and will vomit on your floor. The human is not hostile, in fact, he is a great friend. His name is Jason, and he will be walking around Canterlot today. Do not be alarmed, he will not hurt anypony. I can say that for sure. Why, it seems he's much more keen on helping us ponies than any sort of pain. Please, do treat him nicely, he can speak and will greatly appreciate it if you do. I can sense that he has been through bad times, perhaps it's from where he's from, or something else. I also wish you do not ask too many questions about where he is from, if you talk to him. I believe that he cannot read our language, while he can speak it however. He may need help with this. So yes, keep this in mind, a creature named Jason will be in the town of Canterlot. Thank you for reading everypony, and to all a good day.

Sincerely,

Princess Luna"

Smiling at her work, she rolled the letter up, and added the royal seal onto it. Using a spell she doesn't use very much as Celestia usually handled these, her horn lit up as the letter was teleported to everypony's doorstep in an instant, leaving her with her own single copy. And with that, Luna went out to her balcony, which looked over the town of Canterlot.

"I believe things will become interesting, for a while."

***

"Hello, gentlemen. I trust you all are having a great day?"

Five military combatants sat tied to different chair in a small, pitch black room. They had only recently woke up, and they did so in this room. With next to no prior memory of what happened to them, they could only wonder what could've happened. They remembered a fellow squad going in to the enemy's warehouse, but, not much after that.

"Huh. Taking us hostage, huh?" one member of the five spoke up.

"Oh, I guess if you wanna put it that way, go ahead. I just want to talk." a voice responded. It was unfamiliar to them, and the accent didn't seem like the one of their enemies. Perhaps it was another ally to them, they started to think.

"Well okay then, fucker. Alpha? Echo? Who's here?" another talked, gritting his teeth.

"Alpha-Two here." the first soldier responded

"Alpha-Three."

"Alpha-Four."

"Alpha-Five reporting."

...

"No one else?" the first member of Alpha asked.

"Y-You fuck! Where's the rest of our squad!?" Alpha-Two yelled, struggling to rip himself out from the ropes, tying him down.

"Ooh boy. It seems we're getting off to a bad start. Please, let me introduce myself, my name is Discord, friends..."

The Next Day

"Buh I dun like ponies... nooo, stop it.. waddafuck are you doing with my pan... wh-- what?"

I slowly opened my eyes, to be greeted by, thankfully, not a light. Well that was a weird dream. Things happened. I ended up in a world being inhabited by small horses, went looking for six superhero horses, went to sleep in a castle, and ended up with a wh--

My thoughts were interrupted as I realized that I was actually still in the castle. That WASN'T a dream!? I'm still in a different world!? Oh god, I should probably apologize to that mare. How'd I find her, anyway? I went to sleep in the guest room and then found myself with her-- oh whatever. Let's get up now, why don't we.

The bed was actually pretty big. Bigger than mine back home. I guess they do that for guests or whatever, maybe for those princesses. I threw my legs over the side of the bed, and got up on my feet... only to fall back down on the bed. I never was a morning person.. alright, let's try this again. Up and at 'em.

Throwing my legs over once again, I put my hand on the bed, and threw myself away from it. And falling flat on my face. I attempted to swear, but, well, my face was kind of being muffled by the carpet. Alright, once again, let's go.

I put my arms out in front of me, and tried to pick myself up enough so I can get my knees out. Pretty much doing a push-up, I got my knees under my chest, and got up. Slowly. I wobbled a bit, but kept my balance. Fuck yeah.

The room was pretty goddamn big. Yet still it was only like half of Luna's room. The bed was in the middle at the back wall, and to the left of it was a little nightstand, seemingly with a bag and note. Huh. I'll take a look at that soon. The other side of the bed was another nightstand, and near that was a big shelf was a mirror above it, taking over the right wall. The door was parallel to the nightstand, and in front of the bed was.. well, it was just a wall with another shelf. A rug lay in the middle of the room, with a design of a sun and moon on it. The floor around it was a really nice grey carpet.

Deciding to read the note, I took it from the nightstand and unfolded it before reading it.

"Dear Jason,

Hello little human, it is Princess Luna writing. I am about to send a mass letter to Canterlot informing them of your arrival, including for them to treat you nicely and not ask too much about where you're from. I have decided against saying you are from another world, it may cause trouble. If ponies ask where you're from, say I personally said for you to keep that a secret. They'll understand. In the bag, I have given you sixty bits, of which is our economy. You will need this in order to buy yourself food, or anything else you may need. Try not to spend it all in once place. Return to your quarters after you find yourself supper to eat, and once I wake I will come meet you, and we shall continue the search for the elements. Have a good day, Jason.

Sincerely,

Princess Luna"

Oh, wow. It really sounds like I'm serious business here. Wait, no shit. I'm from a different world. Folding the note back up, I looked inside the bag, and sure enough, there were indeed things in there. Coins. No, not just any coins. Gold coins. If these are 'bits', then I just hit the goddamn jackpot. Or, wait, hold on. Oh, dammit nevermind. After giving one some examination, it actually wasn't gold. Still, it was sorta shiny, and it looked pretty cool. I think I might keep one as a souvenir or something. I left the letter on the nightstand, picked up the bag, and went over things I had to do. Okay.. I could go-- clothes. Clothes. I. Fucking. Need. Clothes. I probably stink like a skunk. That had a bath. At the dump. While rotting or something. I wonder how long it'll take for a pony to make me clothes?

Chapter 9: The Roads of Canterlot

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 9: The Roads of Canterlot

It was as if time slowed down, that very moment. The soldiers watched in awe as their fellow Echo member did the unthinkable. It was something you just wouldn't do in a situation like that, but he did it. Through the rain and fog, it did make the enemy's rounds a bit off-center, but that wasn't really much of an excuse for what he did. Rockets blown away the dirt around them, and a line of .50 caliber fire kept the Echo Team suppressed into their cover. All to protect the bomb. When it detonated, they would go down with Echo, and of course, the bomb itself. The nuke would destroy everything in its path, and they were just outside the city of Vancouver. Not for him, though. It was indeed stupid what he was attempting, but just like his squad member said, it was an idea.

The brave soldier flipped himself over the table and dashed to a nearby piece of cover. Rounds actually paused for a moment, either in pure confusion or guns heating. The soldier rushed up against a shelf, putting his back to it and taking deep breaths.

"Fuck this. Echo, let's move!" a soldier shouted, pulling the same move, running to the same cover as their friend.

The two soldiers now standing behind a large wooden shelf, rounds began to fire again. Once more, hot .50 calibers surrounded each soldier. The cover of their last squad members was cracking, about to be destroyed. Not good.. a soldier thought. He glanced over at the timer on the bomb in the middle of the warehouse, and just a few feet away from them.

"FIFTEEN FUCKIN' SECONDS!"

He yelled to his squad, before trying to get a plan together.

"What do we do, Echo-Four!?" the soldier next to him yelled.

"I got it, hold on!"

***

Alpha Squad moved through the trees and bushes, cutting low branches and vines. A small opening began to enter their vision, as they stopped for a moment to scan the area. Looking around with their IR goggles and weapons, they could only see trees and moss. After confirming they were alone, the squad continued moving into the clearing, taking slow steps.

After a few more moments, they had reached the edge of the trees and could now see the clearing without anything obstructing their view. It was quite small, but just as Carver said, there was a hut right in the middle. It was tiny, perhaps just big enough for one room. Masks littered the area around it, and large windows were on each side. The grass was somewhat green around it, a nice opposition to the dead, black blades throughout the trees. Motioning for the soldiers to follow, Sarge crouched down and walked slowly over to the hut.

The five got to the front door, and took glances inside the windows. Not wanting to be spotted, they only looked for a second, not giving them much time to see. It was somewhat dark inside, and without binoculars, it was hard to see inside. Sarge went right in front of the door, and the rest of the squad stood behind him, waiting for his go. He signaled a short countdown as he aimed his weapon at the door.

'3.'

'2.'

'1.'

Sarge attempted to kick open the door, as the squad raised their weapons. Except, the door didn't budge. It was locked shut. Signaling for the soldiers to back away, Sarge tried another tactic. This time, he put some distance between himself and the door, before breaking into a sprint at the door, and did a small jump as he kicked at the hinges of the door once more. Once again, it didn't budge. This was odd, considering Sarge had done numerous breaches before, doing this exact kick. The door would usually fly off the hinges and inside the room, and that's when his squad would move in and take out the hostiles if there were any. Sarge had another idea, but his thoughts were halted as the five suddenly heard a voice from within the hut.

"Why must you smash, when the door could crash?"

It was a female voice, and had an accent to it. Whoever it was spoke in a rhyme, however, it was as if they had meant to. After the voice spoke, they heard steps coming to the door. But, it sounded off. It didn't sound like what they'd usually hear. Oddly enough, it sounded as if it was a set of four, which didn't seem right to the soldiers.

After a moment, the door opened.

"What in the fucking shit fuck."

"Please excuse while I fall over and die."

"Well this is different than what I was expecting."

"I KNEW IT!"

"Why is there a little cute zebra thing at the door? Wait-- oh. It fainted."

The soldiers stepped away from the now-opened entrance. Inside the hut, was just as they thought, what seemed to be a little zebra. Carver was right, there was indeed a zebra in the hut. And it just fainted. It definitely didn't look like a zebra they had seen before, it was much smaller. Around four feet, maybe. It looked cartoon-ish? The eyes on it were huge, and the fur didn't seem as heavy. It wasn't natural, in their eyes, why, it looked like it'd be from something children watched.

"Okay, well, I am officially scared. You guys go ahead and do things, I'm gonna work on getting the hell outta here." Kendrick spoke before walking away from the hut.

"Fuckin' hell, let's move out squad." Sarge backed away from the zebra and closed the door, before examining the area once again.

"Sarge! There's a path here."

***

"Wait, stop, stop! I'm not gonna eat you!"

"How should we trust you!?"

"Oh, I dunno, maybe the written letter from the goddamn Princess?"

"You probably fabricated that with your weird hoo-mayn magic!"

"I don't even have magic!"

Stepping outside was not a good idea. Ponies here aren't exactly as accepting as Ponyville. I, currently, have a mob of ponies chasing me because I'm an alien. As soon as I walked into the main area of the town and got noticed, they ran after me. So what do I do?

The only idea anyone would do-- Engage Assassin's Creed mode.

I put all my energy into my legs and thrust myself forward with each step. I needed to go as fast as I could, the ponies actually had torches and pitchforks. I ran through the streets, sidestepping around other ponies on the street as they just added more to the ranks of the mob. Unicorns, thankfully, couldn't magic me over to them, or them to me. I think they were busy holding weapons or maybe too focused on catching up? Pegasi were just about right on my tail, however. My non-existent one, anyway. I have a feeling I'd probably offend some ponies by saying that. Wait, why am I thinking about what I should say around ponies?

I noticed a restaurant to my left, with a big apple on it. I would assume it is an apple place. Anyway, it was on the corner of a T-intersection, and I could either go left or right. Left-- restaurant, buildings around the same size, eventually opening into a bit more space. Right-- A dead end with dumpsters around. Huh. A left sounds about right. Wait.

Whatever. I ran to the alleyway behind the restaurant. Oh, yeah, you know what I'm doing. Conveniently enough, there were some cardboard boxes in the alley, that led to a pipe, of which led to the roof. The flat roof. Yeah, let's do this. This is stupid. Stop it. Shut up brain. I ran into the dark alleyway as the boxes got closer in my sight. The alley was quite narrow, causing a bit of trouble for the mob, making them have to adjust so they aren't completely overwhelming each other. Ha. I got to the boxes, and started my climb. Yep, climb.

You are going to fall. Don't do that. I successfully executed a high jump, bending my knees and goddamn landing on the boxes perfectly. There were like three medium sized boxes there, and they were full I believe, or at least from what I can tell about the top one. The mob stopped for a sec and just looked shocked at the jump I did, like no one could-- oh right. Ponies most likely can't jump like that. Hell, I didn't even think I'd be able to make it. I turned to the metal pipe, and jumped right to it. Thankfully it wasn't necessary to do a high flying-jump again, and it was kinda easy. Did I ever mention that I climbed before? Well that'd be a lie. I'm just trying to give myself confidence. This is the first time I've ever did parkour. Shit.

I awkwardly climbed up the pipe, with a bit of trouble getting my legs up, but got up nonetheless. It led to the roof, to which I extended my arm to the edge and grabbed onto it. Taking a quick look down, I had noticed the unicorns were now trying to use their magic, if their lit up horns meant anything. And the pegasi were now flying up to me. Oh. I swung my other arm over to the edge, and pushed myself up and toward the roof. I put all my weight into my now-burning arms, and raised myself up. Finally, I was able to get my leg up, and so I swung that over, and flipped myself up. I rolled to the roof, and-- wait, rolled to the roof?

It would appear that you are on a roof.

I am on a rooftop. Oh shit. Let's do this?

Yes, yes, let's do this.

To my left were a ton of buildings, stores, other restaurants and such. All with small crevices between them. Ahead that way was the square, the center of town. Alright, well, let's go! I took a quick look behind me to see that some of the pegasi were already up the roof, and unicorns were popping into place, or teleporting whatever. I went back to face the buildings, and broke into a sprint. The building was pretty big actually, so I had some time to get some speed. The wind blew past my face as I ran, behind me and all around. The breezy winds alongside the warm weather was something to die for, when put next to Earth's weather. I was running for my life-- but I never felt more alive.

Eventually I came to the ledge of the rooftop and knew I need to do this now. I need to keep moving. I can't stop this run, I have to keep going! Once I was at the edge, I let myself be controlled by adrenaline and started the jump. I crouched down, closed my arms closer to me, and as the mob started to corner me... I jumped.

I extended my legs out with all my strength, and did a Superman pose as I flew over the gap, and onto the next building. I rolled a bit before getting myself together, sitting on the ground. The entire mob came to a standstill after seeing what I just did, all of the ponies completely shocked. There were a few pegasi that just stayed floating in the air, and some ponies who couldn't climb just sitting there staring. Well, they're gonna start coming after me again, so, I decided to keep going. Getting back up on my feet, I turned to see the buildings of Canterlot. The roof I was on was smaller, maybe half the size of the restaurant, while the next one was just about the same size-- but higher up. Meaning I'd have to do another high jump, while going forward, making the whole jump much harder.

I was losing breath, but I didn't let myself be stopped. I once again rushed forwards to the next building, and I could hear the flapping of pegasi wings. I came to the ledge quicker than last time, and well, if I wanted to escape, I had to do the same thing. And so I did. I completed the same whole thing again, crouching my legs and closing my arms.

"Come here, you thing! Why don't you go back to your own world!?" I heard one pegasus yell, almost cutting off my attention as I started to pass the gap. But I didn't let them. I leaped upwards, doing the same Superman pose, and reached my hands out as far as I could, as they got more and more tired. Soon enough, I finally made it to the ledge of the next building, hanging off the end with my hands. Crap, come on, gotta get up. I put my weight into my arms, and slowly pushed myself up. As much as I hated to acknowledge, I was getting tired.

I could feel my legs being tugged on. I was being pulled away, but I kept pushing forward. I took a look back, and seen a blue pegasus hovering behind me, grabbing on my shoe with their teeth. Not long after, more came up behind me and started the same thing.

"Why won't you leave me alone!? I don't want to be here either! Leave me alone!" I yelled, as my grip loosened. I need to get away!

"Well who do you think you are!? You're an alien, you aren't even from this world!" the blue pegasus retorted, letting me know it was female. Yeah, didn't know otherwise, didn't get a good enough look.

"I didn't fucking try! I was brought here! By something from, here! Your damn ponies stole me from my home! I didn't ask for this!" I was being taken away. I couldn't go on any longer. My right hand fell from the ledge, and my left was just barely hanging on. I didn't want this! I didn't want to be shunned for being, well dammit, who I am!

"You think you can lie to us!? Well just wait until the princess comes, she'll put your sorry flank in a dungeon! You came here for a reason, didn't you!"

"God dammit, do any of you even listen!? I don't want to be here! This is your fault, someone here took me! I'm only running because I don't want you taking me again, I'm only trying to go back home!" I screamed back, as fingers started coming off from the ledge. I was being stretched away, felt like I was being ripped apart.

But, I think that's what made the dent in them. A few of the pegasi flew underneath me upon hearing me, and went together to pick me up. I let my hand go from the ledge, as the ponies had me in their hooves and slowly flew to ground level. The Earth ponies from the earlier mob stood around and looked at me with sorrowful faces, as I descended from the rooftops. I was put onto the sidewalk, in front of the building I tried to climb to, just across the street from the square of Canterlot. The blue pegasus walked in front of me, frowning. She had a brown mane with a pink headband in it, matching her tail which was pretty much the same-- brown with pink in it. She had a few freckles under her eyes, too.

"Oh man... look, I... I'm sorry. I thought you might have been like, a threat or something. But you really aren't supposed to be here, are you?" she looked up at me with sad eyes, and asked.

"No. I should be home right now. Home was depressing, for what's been going on in it, but I should not be here. I need to find a way back." I sighed, and replied.

"How did you get here, then? Do you know?" another pegasus walked up and asked. This one was a stallion, he had an olive coat with a dark green mane.

"No clue. I was just about to have something to eat, then all of a sudden my TV turns on and tells me I'm going somewhere. Next thing I know I'm in a place full of magical horses. Where I come from, we don't even have magic, or pegasi." I rubbed my temples as I thought over everything. Doesn't make much sense.

"TV?"

"Yeah. It's too complicated to explain right now. Basically, it needs power to turn on, and everyone has been out of power for like the whole year. Then it gave me a message, and I end up waking up here."

"I'm so sorry to hear that. How come you've been out of power?" the blue mare spoke.

"Well, where I come from, we don't exactly control weather. Whatever wants to happen, happens, and we just have to deal with it. And, for the past seven months, about the entire world has been thrown into hurricanes, storms, earthquakes, you name it. It's been hell on Earth, as we'd say. All this destroyed our power sources, internet, everything. You'd think I'd be happy to be here, but... I'm not sure just yet." There was a long pause, before anyone said anything.

"Well... I do hope you can find yourself a way back to your family, and your kind. But you know what? You've proven to us, me at least, that you can be a part of us. You're always welcome here." she walked up to me, stood on her hind legs, and wrapped her hooves around me. The hell?

Then just as she said that, the entire mob of ponies that were once trying to kill me came up to me and did the same. Oh my god, they're hugging me. I'm in the middle of a group hug of two different species. I couldn't help but smile at this, as I wrapped my arms around as many of the ponies I could. You know, I'm happy here. It's nice to know I'm accepted, perhaps even loved. I didn't want it to end... I didn't want to leave. These ponies are making me want to stay here.

"So. I sorta skipped through the letter today. What's your name, big guy? I'm Violet Sprint."

"Name's Jason--"

CRACK!

The group hug disassembled at the unmistakable sound of a lightning bolt hitting the ground. I stepped back, and scanned the skies. What did I see? The entire sky was filled with clouds. Just a second ago it was completely clear! No, no, no, there can't be a storm! I started to barely hear the patting of rain hitting the ground, as I continued to step away. I need to get everyone inside somewhere, dammit, this is not right at all!

Everyone started looking in the direction of the castle simultaneously, as a sight came into our vision. A pony that looked like Luna, with the horn and wings, but white, was flying in the air and towards us. She looked familiar, I think there was a portrait or something of her in the castle.

"Princess Celestia?" a pony spoke, just above a whisper.

"QUIET, FOALS!"

Well this isn't good.

So the Princess Celestia I heard so much about, just left from the castle. The sky was now dark, the sun covered by clouds. Lightning started hitting around Canterlot, as the thunder echoed throughout our ears. Rain started dropping on the roads, hitting my clothes. There's that feeling again. I was cold, and of course, wet. I felt helpless again. Useless. The wind picked up, and gave the same harsh freeze from back on Earth. The one with the humans. Hail. Hail appeared. The weather just suddenly turned from beautiful to miserable and cold. Celestia flew down, and landed in front of me, glaring at me. She was entirely grey. Her coat, mane, and tail all lost their color. Her eyes were just dead. No feeling in them whatsoever. No emotion. Just a grey pupil staring back at me. She wore armor, but it was dull and shared the same color as her coat. She also wore a crown, but it was cracked and broken, as if someone had purposely destroyed it.

"WHERE ARE THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY?" she shouted to me, taking a step forward.

I backed away once again. The Elements, shit, I genuinely don't know where they are. I couldn't remember if Luna or Spike took them. I couldn't even think straight. The rain... no, I thought I escaped! I thought I wouldn't need to be in rain again! I was sure of it, I wouldn't need to see this shit!

I dropped to my knees, and closed my eyes, gritting my teeth.

I could hear the clopping of pony hooves running to and fro down on the streets, but all I could think was one thing.

Well, two perhaps.

"I am not telling you shit.. Where the fuck are they? Twilight... Rainbow Dash... Applejack..." I started recalling the six ponies' names, keeping my eyes shut.

I started thinking of any possibilities. She must know where they are, right? They probably aren't in Canterlot at all, I thought. This princess/queen pony must be pretty powerful as well, changing the weather so much like thaaaaaa...

OH.

Wait a fucking minute.

"THAT IS NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS! WHERE ARE THE ELEMENTS OF HARMONY!? WE KNOW YOU HAD SOMETHING TO DO WITH STEALING THEM!"

I balled my hands into fists, and slowly opened my eyelids. I looked up to the grey pony standing over me, who of which was in a state of rage, I could tell. Her eyes, they now held emotion. All it was, was hatred.

And she wasn't alone.

"Celestia... you.. y-you..."

Everything started clicking into place...

"Hey! What the fuck is going on?"

Wait, what? Who said that? Ponies don't swear, do they?

"Oi, I dunno mate. I think that's the queen, Sunbutt or somethin'!"

Oh. I knew that accent anywhere. Ponies wouldn't have that sort of accent...

"Oh my! Look! That's another human there!"

***

"My baby.. my baby's missing!"

An older woman wailed onto the phone, talking to a friend of hers, as a grave problem had aroused. In a moment of sheer luck, the phone actually worked.

"J-Jason's not picking up either... And Robert called too, he said his son and his friend disappeared... they were together, at his house, up in his son's room, and after a few hours they were just gone. Apparently this happened last night after dinner... I-I don't know why his friend would leave the house, but he did.. how long has it been since you found out your daughter...?"

"A-Around the same time.. after dinner.. she wouldn't accept my calls, and I requested the police search for her... and she wasn't in the house.. she'd never leave, she'd never leave! What happened.. what happened.."

"I-I don't-- kn-- krrrrrrrshh an-- Beep. Call disconnected."

Chapter 10: The Will To Destroy

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 10: The Will To Destroy

Celestia slowly turned away from me to our side, where three voices made themselves known. I could see her eyes widen, she looked at least a bit shocked, but I wasn't too sure for some reason. The sounds of ponies running came to a stop, and the city of Canterlot slowed to nothing. Everyone stopped to look at the source of whoever spoke. I slowly rose to my feet, and walked over to Celestia, trying desperately not to fall. The rain from underneath me made it hard to do so, as I almost slipped a few times. I couldn't help but notice how concerned Celestia looked, she looked as if she just seen the end of mankind or something. Reaching the edge, I finally got a good look at whomever it was.

"Oi! Well, would ya look at that mate."

"Oh, yes, look! It's ehh.."

"Jason?"

"Yeah that's it!"

I realized why Celestia was shocked, now. Holy shit. I stepped forward as I seen the three voices. I shook my head, and blinked rapidly, not entirely ready to accept this yet. This can't be right. No.

My running came to a stop, as I made my way to the source of the voices. Three bodies stood before me, with a shocked expression on their faces.

"Mate..."

That accent, I knew it anywhere.

"F-Fuckin' hell, man.."

His swearing, yeah I couldn't forget that.

"Jay... why are you here?"

And that female voice An unmistakable one.

"My god man.. didn't think I'd see any humans here, and now I see you three..." I replied to them, rubbing my temples at the sight of my three best friends here in an alien world along with me.

My response was a slap across the face from the one with the accent. His name was Daniel, he was Australian, but he moved to Canada for family reasons or something. We were pretty close, liked a lot of the same things, except he was a huge comic book fanatic. He wanted to become an artist one day, and he definitely could. His drawing was really great. But, that wasn't exactly my concern right now, he just slapped me in the face! It hurt, too.

"Dan? What was that ab--"

"Jason, what the bloody hell are you doin'!? The princess or whatever jus' flew on ova' an' starts screaming at ya! She.. she said you stole the Elements, mate? Where are they?" Daniel crossed his arms and yelled.

"What the fuck? Why the hostility? Do you think I'm trying to take over this place, or something?" I started to explain, but first looked back at Celestia. She flew down over to me, and got a tad too close for comfort.

"Where... are they." she said in a lighter tone, but still holding the same amount of hatred as before.

"We heard about those fuckin' Elements of Harmony, apparently they're the most powerful things in this Equestria or whatever. Why is she saying you stole them? You didn't, right? 'Cuz you mighta been an asshole at times, but you ain't this kinda asshole." Matthew, the one who was swearing a bunch, glared at me. The hell!? I thought these guys were like, my bros. And sis, I guess, including the last one who was there. Oh, and how long have I been an asshole to them?

Dammit, I don't need this, man. I've been having enough trouble. Now my friends are turning against me. But why? They seemed so much more concerned about this world than they did about me being here. Or me at all. I started to think, should I confess? If I say I was working with Princess Luna and Spike to steal the Elements and defeat Celestia, that definitely wouldn't help at all. Can I lie? Bluff my way out? These ponies have magic and shit, they probably have concrete proof that I helped and just want to know where they are. Actually, yeah, that would explain a lot of things. So I guess bluffing is sort of out of the question. But I can't say that her own sister had the idea of taking them, can I?

"Explain yourself, Jason!" Daniel gritted his teeth and took a step toward me.

Aaaand that's right about when I was done.

"Fuck off!" I yelled, and pushed Daniel away. I turned right around, got on my feet and moved my ass.

Running, it was the only thing that seemed right at the time. I have to leave Canterlot, I thought. They know I'm guilty of stealing the elements, they must. Who knows what they do as punishments. I pumped my legs as much as I could and ran through the streets, as the ponies just seemed dumbfounded at the scene before them. Some were running, some were flying, some were magic'ing some stuff. Most of them seemed to go in one direction, of which was somewhere behind me. Wait, oh. Behind me. I'm still an alien and now they are convinced I stole the Elements. And ponies like mobs. It was true that I assisted in stealing the Elements, I guess, but I'm not the bad guy here, am I? Am I? That Luna pony, it was her idea. The Elements were probably still with her. But can I say that I know where they are? They might know something's up if I, in fact, know where the Elements are. I could be giving myself in like that. Which is not what I'm about to do. I'm about to get the fuck outta here.

"AFTER HIM, MY SUBJECTS!" Celestia's shout rattled the streets as it echoed throughout the city, and that just gave me more motivation to run. Run as far as I can. Get away from this place. This horrible place.

The things I have seen and heard, and the things I haven't. There's something going on here. And as much as I'd like to know what, it isn't worth it. I need to go home. Except, I, well, could I? I promised to help save the ponies, and in return Luna would take me home and help it. Fix it. Make us whole again. Luna's probably my only ticket out of here. I don't think it'd be possible for anyone else to send me back. And if I do leave Canterlot, I can't return. I can't return to anywhere near this place. They will be looking for me, and they'll find me. I need to hide somewhere, until I can get to Luna again. I don't know if I could just ask her to send me back, I mean, I'm pretty sure I made it clear I'd help her and not back out. But goddammit, I don't think I can help now!

I looked back after quickly sidestepping around a stand of some sort, and seen Celestia right behind me, and her horn was lighting up a bright yellow. And Daniel, Matthew, and-- hold the phone, where'd they go? I was now being followed by Celestia, and a few different jet black ponies, all with a bunch of holes in their bodies, and their eyes were a neon blue. Just blue. No pupils or anything, just blue. They also had horns, and wings, but they looked more like something you'd see on a fly more than on a pony. Also, the ponies that I previously thought were attempting to form a mob behind me, were now running in fear at the sight of the black ponies, all in different directions. Screaming, screaming for help. I kept running. I looked ahead, and seen a familiar sight coming close. I smirked, as I started cooking up a plan. A train station was right in front of me, as I tried to push myself further, and run faster. I needed to hurry, now.

Dammit, how many times am I going to get ponies chasing me? I reached the station, and wasted no time trying to execute a plan. It was a bad plan. A very, very bad one. But, I sorta had no choice. I ran through the gift shop, knocking down several gifts, right past the ticket booth, and right to the tracks. I stood on the wood just above the tracks, and quickly looked left and right. Left, nope. Right, yeah, here we go.

I turned back around to the ponies standing there. Neither looked tired, or out of breath, or anything. As my rush of adrenaline started to die down a bit, I realized I was goddamn beat. I didn't show any signs of weakness, however.

"So, is this how it ends? Is this how I fall, how you'll take me down? Is this, our final dance? Then.. so be it. Let's dance."

Ten...

"Alright, you gotta hit this brother. You got it. Deep breaths.

Nine...

"Alright, okay, line it up..."

Eight...

"Finger on the trigger. Scope on the target. Breathe in, breathe out, alright?"

Seven...

Echo-Three aimed through the ACOG scope attached to his rifle, set to 4x zoom. This was it. The last few seconds, to either write in another successful mission, or a terrible failure.

Six...

"TAKE THE SHOT, ECHO-THREE, WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF TIME!" Echo-One yelled from the still barely holding table, somehow not fallen under the barrage of fire that hasn't come to a stop just yet.

Five...

"Five seconds. C'mon, it's showtime buddy. Take the shot." Echo-Four gave advice from right next to the soldier.

Four...

Echo-Three was ready. While he doubted the plan would work, it was the only one possible. His carbine rifle was aimed directly at a tiny box on the nuke, which held the wiring to it. At least, they hoped. It seemed somewhat likely, anyways. Of course, the best idea would've been to go over and disarm it through there, but it isn't going to work that way.

Three...

"Echo-Three! You got this, do it! Fire!" Echo-Four said, getting slightly more nervous.

One last deep breath, Echo-Three started to pull back his index finger...

Two...

TWANG!

Echo-Three finally pulled the trigger, and his rifle fired off a round. The recoil was minimal, as only one round went off. The cartridge flew through the air, and successfully hit the box. The small door to it flew off the hinges, and the wires were all ripped and thrown apart. Echo squad all looked to the timer, in hopes that it would stop, and they had won. Would that have disarmed it? They never tried anything like it. And would straight damage to the wires effectively defuse the bomb?

"N-no.. no no NO NO NO! F-FUCK!"

One...

"NO! IT'S STILL GOING!"

"Fuuuuuuccc----"

"No... No..."

"Overlord, we have results on the nuke. It just detonated, sir..."

"Echo! Th-This.. this is Overlord.. c-can you read me..."

"They failed.. we should've called in reinforcements..."

"Delta!? Charlie!? Br-Bravo! Alpha... please, anyone, can you read me!"

"Wait. What.. what's going on!? Overlord! The nuke! It was just a small explosion, it's not reaching anywhere outside the warehouse!"

"What? What're you talking about, Lieutenant!?"

"Look! It was about the same size of maybe a few C-4 explosives, the warehouse is gone, but it's not.. it's not enough to go to Vancouver!"

"How in the hell.. I thought we ID'd that as a WMD!"

"W-We did!"

"Hold on, you two.. I'm looking now, and I see an explosion, but uh, why's it leaving a rainbow cloud?"

"Ah... there we go. Here they come, now. They will assist you, my friends."

"Fuck yeah they will. Ya know, we could start a lil army here."

"Roger-fuckin'-that, Alpha-Two. It'd only be so much easier, to do what we're about to do."

"It's so nice to see you all have such enthusiasm in this. Remember the plan, everypo--one."

"Right! We get to the kid, find out where he's hiding the Elements, get 'im on our side, and we're good to go!"

"Good job. It really is a shame he had to end up against us..."

"Yeah. Asshole's going down. By the way, where's Chrysalis? Did she get her Changelings in yet?"

"Of course."

Sarge and his squad had finally reached the end of the forest, and finally made their escape. Thankfully, they had managed to bring their packs with them, the boxes that held their items. They had to go back to where they fought the lion-thing, but they got it. They were met with a massive, beautiful green field. Large snowy mountains could be seen off into the distance. The weather had continued how it has been for the past while-- rain, sleet, hail, and heavy winds. It had started as they were still going through the trees and forest, and definitely didn't help their moods at all. Without getting a lick of sleep and just MREs, water, and only being able to have small amounts of energy drinks to keep them up, they weren't happy. They were tired and just wanted a nice bed to fall into. They had noticed a small cottage in the distance, with birds and animals of all sorts around it. The squad made a plan to go there after examining the area, once more.

"Yo, Sarge. Check out the mountain. Is that a castle?" Johnson asked to Sarge, scratching his chin.

"I think so, Private, it looks like something's going on over there, too. Gimme the binoculars..."

"Ahh.. just like I remember. Loss of color, corrupted, and against ponykind! Heh, heh... let's see.. we have the Royal Army, Changelings, the Elements of Harmony, and not to mention we're getting some backup from an entirely different dimension.. oh, I can't wait!"

"Hail Discord!"

Chapter 11: The Fight Begins

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 11: The Fight Begins

Sarge took a look through the binoculars, getting a better view of the mountains in the distance. Setting it to full zoom, he noticed something that he couldn't mistake, something you'd see in a fairy tale-- it was a large, colorful castle up on the side of one of the mountains. With several spirals going up into the air, gold all around, windows with a size enough for a giant, Sarge couldn't even comprehend the sight. "Why is there a castle? Do they still make castles?"

It didn't stop there, however. Around the outskirts, almost hidden from the size of the castle, were houses. Buildings. It was as if there was an entire town around the castle up there. Being so far away, he couldn't tell for sure, but Sarge could've sworn the roofs were thatched, and looked somewhat medieval. It went together with the fact that there was a castle, but, why? Sarge and his squad were past the times of medieval, by thousands of years. At the closest edge of the town, the one facing the squad, Sarge barely made out what seemed to be a small, wooden station. Taking a moment to examine it, he could tell something was going on. What it was, he didn't know. But it didn't look good.

Shaking his head, he gave Johnson the binoculars back and sighed. Sarge knew now, they had to get answers, fast. He found himself questioning many, many things, including where on Earth they could be, if they were on Earth at all. He felt as if his own sanity was going out rapidly, and it didn't help at all.

"Alright. Let's just get to that cottage, squad. Castle is now secondary objective, that's Zone Bravo. Move out..."

Discord flew to the skies above Canterlot. He had finally finished making his plans, setting up his army. In just a few moments, the city would be just a pile of ashes. He smiled, thinking of it all. Discord had been planning this for years, years of being in that horrible stone prison of his. Queen Chrysalis had finally come to his aid, one faithful day. She came in the disguise of Princess Celestia, and removed the damned thing. This happened just a few months before Discord started to pull off his plan. The weeks after his release were spent fabricating the lie that Discord never escaped, and setting up execution. Discord, and Chrysalis were both pleased and astounded as Discord had used his chaos magic, and successfully found another universe, much like their own. This universe was one in which Equestria was in a futuristic time, with ponies riding carts that flew on their own, machines that could control the weather without the work of pegasi, and countless other new things. But no, it wouldn't work. Discord knew what he was looking for, he was looking for a world that was different. That wasn't Equestria. A different species than ponykind. Might as well go all in with this new magic, right?

Discord searched universes as if it was nothing. He and Chrysalis stood in a large, dark tent with a pool taking up most of the space. This pool, on the outside just looked like normal water for anypony to just jump in, but it was not. Discord created the pool in order to look into any other worlds that are out there. He would summon a birds-eye view of random coordinates from different worlds into the pool, and it would show. It wouldn't be known, of course. Discord took extra caution to make sure there was no way that the view would be visible to the different worlds.

It took him long, weeks, a month even. But Discord finally found something that pleased him. It was a world similar, yet not at all to their own. The planet was called Earth, just like their own. It was populated by a species called 'Human'. They were intelligent, could speak, and had advanced technology. After some research, Discord found this world had extreme amounts of his favorite little thing... chaos, of course. What sold him on this world was the wars, the one going on in its present to be specific. The events that appeared throughout the years of the fight struck him as interesting. Very, very interesting.

After finding information about the wars, and the Human Earth, Discord knew it'd work. He began work on how he would summon the creatures from the world. The soldiers who would put everything on the line for their nation. The protectors. The fighters. The brave 'people' who would do anything for their families. They would help, for sure.

The days after finding Human Earth were ultimately successful. Discord was able to summon objects from the world, food, books, and some of their technology. It was less than a week before the day he would make his attempt at overtaking Canterlot that he finally tried summoning a Human. Discord didn't try soldiers yet, just anyone would do, to see if it would work. And, well, in short, it did.

***

Celestia circled around the human, standing before her in the train station of Canterlot. "Is this our final dance?" he asked her, moments before. Was it? Is this all? How it ends?

The human put up his arms and moved the extra digits into a ball. He backed away, and moved around the Queen of the land.

"I don't know what the fuck you are. But I know you are dangerous. To me, to Equestria, and to yourself. You might be the Princess, or the Queen, but really, I don't give a shit," he began.

Celestia raised an eyebrow as to where he was going with this, still circling around him.

"If you make yourself out to be a threat to..." he looked around, seeing ponies watching from a distance. Some hiding, some covering their children's eyes. "...anypony here, or myself, I'll show you what humans can do. I don't care if you lead this place, I will do whatever it takes to protect these good ponies."

The Changelings that ran with the Queen readied for attack. Crouching down on their hooves, they glared daggers into Jason. He, to put it in something he would say, didn't give a shit.

"So now, what will I do? I will show no fucking mercy. For what you, yes, YOU, done to me, and my planet!" he shouted, causing Celestia to flinch back.

"You, you did it didn't you? You're the reason I'm here, right? You... you're the reason all my friends and family are living in a hellhole right now, aren't you?" Jason stopped, and waved a finger in Celestia's face, and awaited a response.

"You'd be half-right, I guess." Celestia smirked, and said back.

"Oh, half right? Then that's good enough for me. Do you know what happened where I'm from? You do, right?" Jason crossed his arms, and slowly walked closer to the tracks, as he heard a distant roar.

"Okay, so, first of all, I've lost family to your shit." he didn't give Celestia a chance to reply. "Oh yeah, I did. So much crap has happened, I mean, where do I start..."

Celestia attempted to protest, but Jason stopped her before she could say anything. "Haha, no, fuck you. You will speak when I give you permission. I'm talking right now."

The roar got closer, as he spoke. Celestia could hear it, and so could the ponies. Jason stood right on the edge, now, facing Celestia.

"But y'know, maybe now isn't a good time. I've gotta go. I think I have a good amount of answers, now. I'll back, Celestia. I will see you again." Jason spread his arms, and... stood. He did nothing. Waited.

And waited.

Until the source of the roar from the tracks came into sight. "Adios!"

***

Okay, let's fucking do this! The train flew down the tracks, and didn't stop. Good, whoever was driving this train realized it's a good idea to keep moving. Hopefully this train was going to Ponyville. There's some ponies I have to talk to, and god knows what other places there are. Ponyville was the least dangerous place I can go right now.

I spun around, and got a good look at it. It of course, was somewhat small, for the ponies I'd assume. Really, it just looked like the last one I was on. Orange, and small. It had a metal edge, and right over that was a small indent leading to the flat roof of the train. Well, it's now or never!

I bent my legs slightly and jumped as high as I could, towards the train. The wind of the train speeding down hit my face, and sorta only added to the cold I already felt. The orange train's speed was spectacular, if I actually do this without dying or something that'd be a hell of a feat.

I extended my arms, and reached to the edge. And, I goddamn grabbed it. Hanging on the side of the train, it left the station and onto the tracks of the mountain. It went down a slant, and from what I could tell, leaded to Ponyville. With the rain and sharp winds, it was nowhere near what I'd call easy to stay on. My fingers kept slipping, before reflex kicked in and I grabbed back onto the railing. I could barely make out through blurred view the faces of many, many surprised ponies.

Looking to my right, I seen Celestia now chasing the train, flying, but I already had a head start. Seeing this, I realized I need to move. I pushed my arms up, as my body started gaining enough height to get to the top. I pushed a leg up and on the indent, and picked the rest of my weight up and over. I slid on top, and stumbled a bit before getting my feet straight. Huh. I'm standing on top of a speeding train trying to get the fuck away from a crazy Princess pony. And she's going to chase me. When did I decide to star in an action movie?

Celestia landed on the train and moved closer to me. "YOU ARE AT FAULT FOR RUNNING, HUMAN! GIVE ME THE ELEMENTS, OR WE WILL KILL YOU!" she screamed, taking slow steps.

"We!? Who's we!? I don't see any of your precious subjects with-- oh, you mean those.. oh." So she did have some sort of backup. A lot of backup. Remember those bug pony things with the blue eyes? Yeah, apparently they also come in hordes.

Hundreds of the damned things flew up behind Celestia, and stayed in the air, glaring at me. Again. 'Shiiiiiit.'

"These are Changelings... the army of Queen Chrysalis. Tell us the location of the Elements, and you don't need to see what they can do!" she shouted again.

"Screw you am I telling you where they are! Throw as many of these Shitlings at me as you want, I'm getting the hell out of here! I don't care how long it takes, or what I'll have to do, but I'm going back to Earth! This isn't Earth, this is NOT how things happen!" I shot back.

Celestia shook her head in dismay, and signaled for one of the Changelings to move in front of me. It didn't exactly seem hostile just yet, so I only took a step back. Was that a stupid idea? Dunno, probably.

And now for the most odd thing I've seen here yet. The Changeling stood up on its hind legs, and started to... morph. The forelegs extended outwards, grew slimmer, and its color changed to one resembling mine or Daniel's. Human skin color. The hind legs did the same thing, longer and looked like a human leg. The forelegs then grew fucking hands, fingers and everything, as the rest of its body changed. The torso grew higher to make it seem like a bipedal, as then clothes just materialized onto the legs and torso. Familiar clothes. The body looked familiar to an extent, too. But then, the head of the Changeling finished the transformation. What'd it change to? As should be somewhat obvious at this point, it just went and changed into a human. But who?

It... oh god, it was her. The girl from earlier. She hadn't said much, and I hadn't said anything to her. She just stood next to Daniel, and Matthew, not doing anything. Looking away. But now, she was different. Worse.

Her clothes were ragged and dirty. She didn't have her shoes, and as such her bare feet were wet and cut. Her hair flew in the wind, before getting patted back down by rain. She slowly stepped forward, wobbling in each stride.

"A.. Amy..?" I asked.

She looked up to me with sad eyes, and frowned. Oh god.

"Jay.. help me.. I want to go home.." she responded, walking closer. Oh no...

"I get it. You want me to sympathize with her, before she eats me or whatever, right? This isn't Amy... right?" I looked past Amy, only to find that Celestia and the horde of Changelings disappeared. Oh.

"Jason... please..." she started tearing up, and kept moving closer to me until she was right in front of me. She hung her head, and I only wanted to do something... help her...

Help the girl...

She needs you...

you need her...

Uh.

HELP THE GIRL...

SHE NEEDS YOU...

YOU NEED HER...

What the fuck?

DO SOMETHING, JASON!

I'm fucking done. I'm hearing voices now. Nope. Nope nope nope. Nope. Noooope.

"I'm so sorry." I whispered, before spinning right around and running once again.

Where are you going? Are you just going to leave her in the cold?

Tears came to my eyes, now. The train was moving straight, going through a pathway on the mountain. Ponyville was in sight. I hoped I was close, but I really couldn't tell.

SELFISH! You only want to help yourself! You won't help your closest friends! You can't protect them, you can't be there for them!

The wind picked up as I ran even faster on the now-getting slippery train. Why am I hearing voices!?

You can't help anyone! You can't do anything! You won't go home! If you do, you will just die! What makes you think the blue pony will take you back!? You know nothing of this world! It's a false hope!

I kept running. Just three more cars and I'll be at the front. No looking back now!

Who are you, Jason? A man, or nothing?

"IT'S NOT HER! IT'S NOT HER!" I screamed, at the top of my lungs. It echoed throughout the mountains as I reached the end of the train. I couldn't go anywhere, now. I fell to my knees, and clutched my head.

How do you know that? Do you not remember there is magic here? She could have been teleported for all you know! It was her!

"NO!"

My head burned with the pain of a thousand knives, as the voice kept speaking. I couldn't take it. This was too much. Too damn much. Why was this happening? Am I finally going crazy? Was that actually Amy back there?

"Jason... is that you? Oh my god, what's going on?"

I heard her voice again behind me. I looked behind me, and seen, well, her. Amy, or something in her body, looked at me worried. She looked more or less the same, ragged dirty clothes, cuts all over, but she had shoes on this time. They were still tied, but not as neatly as she usually would tie them.

"I... I was at my house... then the TV started working for a second... but it felt like it was talking to me..." she began. I stayed facing forward.

"Wh-whoever it was, said I'm going to a place called Equestria... and I just woke up here. Why are we on a train? Where are we? What's going on?"

"I don't know."

***

Echo Squad found themselves alive after the inevitable blast. They awoke in a small house, a cottage of sorts. The cottage was fully intact, in no way damaged. The squad was littered all over, one found themselves in the bathroom, one spread out on the kitchen table, one underneath the coffee table, etc.

"Echo? Anyone here?"

"Echo-Two... on the kitchen counter..."

"Echo-Three-- FUCK, MY HEAD!"

"ECHO-FOUR IN THE BATHROOM!"

"Echo-Five, reportin' for duuu-- is that a bunny?"

"Echo-Six here. Anyone know why the fuck I'm on the ceiling fan?"

Echo-One stood up from being on the railing leading upstairs. Everyone seemed to be downstairs, except for Echo-Four and Echo-Five. "What happened?" was all he could think. Standing on a stair, he took his radio out from a pocket and started speaking into it.

"All Units, this is Echo-One. Can you read me? I am alive. Five others of Echo Squad are also well. We need evac, now. Cannot pinpoint location. Over." he spoke, and waited.

"Ah yeah, I tried that. Got some static, but no--" Echo-Four began, as he left the bathroom.

"Echo-One-Actual! Fuckin' hell! This is Alpha-Ten-Actual speaking! Where are you guys? Alpha-Five, Six, Seven, Eight and Nine are with me, but we're in the middle of batshit nowhere. About to move into a small cottage, over."

"Are you kidding me!?"

"Alpha-Ten-Actual, we are in a small, very colorful house. There are animals all over the area. Rabbits, birds, you name it. Compass is giving me nothing, and I can't get coordinates. Other than that, we have no idea. Marking this Zone Alpha, we're about to move out, over."

"Copy that Echo-One-Actual. Moving into the cottage now, over and out."

***

"Target is on train, moving to Zone Bravo-One, Ponyville. Who's that with him?"

"Didn't the Changeling morph into her?"

"Yeah, but we're standing down for a minute, remember? The Changeling shouldn't be there."

"Maybe Discord finally made her meet Jason again. He was always 'waiting for the right moment' to wake her up."

"True. Wonder if he'll meet the rest soon?"

"What? Of course not."

"Well hey, I don't know what's going on. I just do what I'm told."

"I still sort of think we shoulda backed out on this one..."

"Whatever... you heard the man. I think he's a man, anyway, never seen the guy. He said there's a nice reward in it for us. Take the shot, Alpha-Two."

Chapter 12: Detour

RISE

CHAPTER 12: DETOUR

The train continued to move towards its hopeful destination of Ponyville, as I stayed on my knees. I had no intention of getting up, no matter how much my legs hurt. My mind was a mess, I didn't know what to think.

Was that Amy?

How will I get home?

What will Celestia do to me?

Will I survive?

I took a deep breath, as I suddenly noticed something off into the distance. I was riding through the mountains now, and straight across from the train was a small light. A green one. It progressively got brighter, albeit slowly. I finally gave in and got back up on my feet, almost tripping in the process. I couldn't see what exactly it was, all I could make from it was just a green light coming from a part of the road on the mountains. That was pointed right in my direction. Huh.

"Hey, what's that over there?" Amy walked up and asked from behind me.

I shrugged, and tried to make hand-binoculars to get a better look. It didn't work. Why did that never work? Between the darkness of the storm clouds and the rain, I couldn't see much other than the light. I didn't know why, but it didn't feel right, as if this isn't something I should simply forget about.

Fsshhhhh...

A noise started coming from the area of the light. Like something powering up. Okay, fuck this, not taking any chances.

"Amy, run!" I turned around and said to Amy, as I started to move my feet. For like the third time this day. I couldn't really run, I was more just jogging, somewhat slowly. No, no, I need to go faster, God knows what this is now!

Frrrrrrrrrrsssshhhhh...

The noise got louder, and closer. Too close for comfort. Taking a look back, I seen a confused Amy running behind me, and the li--

MY EYES. The light was blinding! Upon seeing it I immediately closed my eyes, and, being the clumsy fuck I am, tripped on my ass. Amy went right past me, but stopped as she noticed I was on the ground. Wait, she isn't trying to pick me up is she?

"Amy, no--"

"AAAAAHH!"

Dammit. She looked at the light, didn't she. She turned right away, hands right up to her eyes. I tried getting up, but failed. I fell right back down, and rolled right on the indent. Shitshitshit. My arm dangled off the end, as I started slipping off. I tried to grab back on the train, but my hands kept slipping off. Damn you rain! My left leg joined my arm and fell off the train, as the noise became earsplitting. My eyes closed, as suddenly I felt myself getting exhausted. Tired to no extent. My strength ran dry, and I couldn't get myself back up. No, no no! I was finally about to give in... not now! I was now only barely hanging onto the train by my right arm, grabbing desperately at the indent. If I fall, I'm dead. No matter what I tried, I couldn't give myself any motivation to get back on. No strength. Useless. I felt... useless.

"No wonder you feel useless..."

Fuck, I know that voice.

"Where did your, 'friend' go, Jason? Haven't you noticed she hasn't picked you up?"

She hasn't... that's because she knows better.

"Hmph. You think she's a true friend, don't you? If she is, why didn't she help you? It's because you did nothing for her. You are useless. She doesn't want to help you, no one does."

"I don't need this right now..."

"Then when, Jason? When? Does it matter when you're hearing this? If I never told you, you just would have died without knowing what kind of person, you are."

"...Who are you?"

"Does it matter?"

"It matters as much as me hearing who I really am before dying, and that seems to matter a lot."

"Fine, human. I will answer. I am known as Queen Chrysalis... and I, alongside Discord, am the undertaker of the fall of Equestria. Now, Jason, you have two choices..."

Chrysalis. I heard that name before. She's the leader of the Changelings, if I recall correctly.

"You will join me, Discord, the Changelings, the Royal Army, and the army of your own kind in the making of New Equestria, where we do things differently. Or you will die a coward, in vain. Decide now. You have around thirty seconds. The odds are one to hundreds of thousands, Jason. You aren't going to stop us. If you die, well, no one will care. But if you join us, you will be a part of something, Jason... escaping is not an option. Join us. Say yes, and I will take you to my chambers."

"What happened to the charge!? You brought a horde on me, you attacked the train station, possibly killing some of the ponies! Now you're standing down and telling me to surrender!?"

"I have my reasons, Jason. Twenty-five seconds."

I continued to lose my strength at alarming rates. Faster than I usually would if I tired myself out. Was it that light? Maybe it was some sort of laser that makes you tired or something, I don't know. I was barely holding on, and I was just about ready to fall off. But I held for dear life. I couldn't die, and I couldn't join them. I might be one of the only ones who can fight back. Was I? Could I even help? Fuck, man. I needed to make a decision, now!

"15 seconds. Hurry, Jason."

And then there's the voice, urging me to do something still. Not helping. Come on Jason, do something!

Dammit... there's only one thing I can do.

"If this doesn't work... I'm sorry."

I took my arm off the train, and jumped off.

***

"How come that didn't work for me!?"

"I dunno. How long ago did you try?"

"...A half hour ago?"

"And you didn't think of using the radio to call for them again."

Echo-One and Echo-Four stood in the living room, taking a moment to examine the house along with their squad before moving out. Well, except for Echo-Six.

"Guys. Guys. You're getting dangerously close to that switch. Guys. I need to get off the ceiling fan. Guys?" Echo-Six spoke, lying on the ceiling fan looking over Echo-One and Echo-Four as they stood quite close to a switch on a wall, of which was quite close to the fan.

"Hey, check this out. Whoever lived here had some odd pictu--"

SLAM!

"GET DOW-- Alpha?"

With no prior warning, the front door suddenly fell right in thanks to a devastating kick, from none other than Sarge of Alpha Squad.

"Oh. Hello!" Echo-Six waved a hand at the squad, who were completely dumbfounded.

"...Do I even wanna know?" Sarge, not even taking a moment to examine the room, raised an eyebrow and pointed at Echo-Six. Of course, he was now starting to accept the ceiling fan, and attempted to get comfortable.

"I dunno. I sorta woke up here. I vaguely remember something about a nuke and very loud bullets. Bullets are l--"

"Right then. Echo-One, what's your status?" Sarge shook his head and asked Echo-One, seemingly forgetting entirely about Echo-Six.

"I still need to get down--"

"Honestly sir, I don't know. The nuke detonated, despite our best attempts, it was suicide to run out and try to defuse it. I remember a blast, just barely, and blacking out right after. I thought I was dead. But then I remembered if I thought I was dead, then I'm obviously not dead--"

"The point, Echo-One?"

"Um, right. So I blacked out, and woke up on the railing."

"..."

"...Where's the rest of your squad?"

"I don't fuckin' know.. Four was just with me, and Six is on the fan--"

"Which I still need to get down from--"

"--And I'm not sure about Two and Three. I think they were upstairs or something. God knows where Echo-Five is."

"Right. Well, get your squad together, we're moving out in ten mikes." Sarge walked back out the door, and proceeded to get a better look at the exterior of the house, as Echo-One walked upstairs to investigate.

Echo-Four, however, just stayed in the living room looking at a picture.

Six.

Six of the things. They all sat together.

"Who the hell would have a picture of six cartoon-looking horses in their living room..."

***

"The fuck? Did... did he just jump?"

"Well, at least there's no way he would've survived that. I think we're done here."

"Goddammit man, maybe if you actually hit the fucker we would be! We still have to find him, you know what's up with him!"

"I-I don't know how to use these magic weapons! I'm surprised the light even worked at all!"

"There's two triggers! One for shooting, and one for the light! Now, he lost all his strength, fell down a mountain, is probably dead, and we need to find him to make sure."

"My god... well, come on, let's go."

Chapter 13: He Holds The Key To Redemption

RISE

CHAPTER 13: HE HOLDS THE KEY TO REDEMPTION

"Three... hours... of this shit, all because you missed your shot..."

"Wait, shut up, I see something."

God knows how many times this has happened by now, but I felt myself feeling not much better than a pile of shit. I lost conciousness, but after an amount of time I had came to. Kept my eyes closed, though. Need rest. Yes, rest, I would enjoy that. But on a bed or something, not rock. What happened? I tried to recall the events prior to knocking right the fuck out and almost dying, but nothing came. I remembered being on a train, going to Ponyville probably, but not much else. I fell, I think. But off the train? Or off the mountain?

"Hey, that looks like him! Get the rocks off!"

I heard someone speak from next to me. Sounded male, but, oddly enough, not exactly what I'd say would be from a pony. It sounded American. Somehow, I could tell a difference. Huh, maybe it's a real human. She might've been a real human...

Within just seconds of hearing the person talk, I felt a heavy weight come off my chest. As in the literal form, mind you. The rocks or whatever that was on top of me came off, and I finally opened my eyes, to see who or what happened. Surely enough, my predictions were true.

"Wh- hey, buddy, uh... you okay?"

"Why is he alive!? He should be dead! Not alive!"

Two bipedal creatures stood above me, not ponies. Humans, of course. From where I was, I couldn't really see them, but definitely human. Can't tell if yet another trap. I stood up, putting my hand on a nearby rock for support, and looked around. Huh, now that I'm up, starting to feel much better. Already healing. Taking a moment to see my surroundings, I noticed I was at the foot of a huge ass lake. Behind me, was-- oh, wow, that explains that. Dozens of mountains were up and above. I could barely see the tracks the train must've been on. It was long gone now, though. Did I actually fall off the mountain!? I didn't feel wet or anything, I couldn't have fell in the lake. And I had rocks on top of me. Perhaps when I fell on the ground, some rocks decided to follow. Which should be more reason for me to not be alive right now. What the hell?

Anyway, to my left was basically a large field, few trees here and there, and Ponyville in the distance. Looked beautiful though. Roses, dandelions, apple trees, and of course the tall grass, all put together to make an amazing sight. Now on my right, was pretty much what I expected. The clean, yes clean, water of the lake was pretty much the entire direction. And I could just almost see the shadow of spirals going into the air. Canterlot. But, my vision of that far was obstructed, by weather. Yep, still raining. Right in the middle of a storm, as usual. Goddamn, I need a jacket. It's cold. I don't like cold. Hmm... wait, aren't there two people in front of me?

"Yes, hello, I am alive. Hell if I know why. You guys kn-- holy shit. You're..."

Finally looking at them, I noticed something. These guys were goddamn U.S Marines! They had the uniform and everything! Some sort of weapon was on their back, didn't really look like anything familiar, but shit, these are Marines! They wore a blue-and-cyan camoflague. Heavy armor, large vest, padded everything, etc. The U.S flag was on their shoulders, and two different patches were on their arms. One had a yellow bar, and the other was the same, but silver. I recognized these as Second and First Liuetenant ranks. The one with the silver patch, First Liuetenant, stepped forward and spoke.

"Hello, sir. Name's Richard. First Liuetenant, Alpha Company, of the U.S Marines. You seem to be doing okay for yourself, considering you just fell off a train, then off a mountain." He smiled, and offered his hand. I, of course, gave him my hand and shook it. The one with the yellow patch did the same, offering his hand.

"Yeah. Er, name's Nick. Second Liuetenant, Alpha Company, U.S Marines. Are you alright?" He was a tad nervous, I noticed. He had the same weapon on his back. Again, couldn't see what.

"Uh huh. Don't know why I'm alive, but yeah, here I am. And here you guys are-- you know what the fuck is going on?"

"Well, yes, we do. You aren't gonna like it, though." Richard responded.

"Let's hear it, then!"

"You know about the wars that have been going on?"

"Well, sort of. I don't remember much. I know it was something about nuclear warfare going on, though."

"Yeah... that's tied to this. If you want to understand, you want me to tell you about the wars?"

"I guess? Are you even allowed to tell me about it?"

"I'm not gonna tell you every single detail, buddy. But, it wouldn't matter anyway."

"...Alright, so, lay it on me I guess."

* Richard *

So, it all started on the 18th of November, 2043. You probably remember, news was buzzing about it for weeks. The U.S.A was threatened. Bomb threats, again. They kept mostly anonymous about it at the time, but made it known they could hit bombs whenever they wanted. It was no doubt a terrorist group. A large one. The group had hacked TV networks, to put videos of terrorist attacks, threatening, the... usual things. Again, you probably know this. According to the end of these videos, they called themselves the 'Cloak'. They had a logo of sorts. Three people, standing next to each other, wearing red cloaks. Always would be in the videos.

So now, they said if the President didn't comply with their orders, "hell would be unleashed". Things like pressing something on a computer, to save a man from execution, were just the beginning of what they asked. Sending the Cloak files, like our own intel. But the President did it so they didn't drop the bombs. He did it for the U.S.A. So we could live happy.

This went on for over a month. And with it, the threats, the orders became more insane. Once, the President had to go to an area of the Cloak, to shoot a man. It was a large warehouse, but all that was in it was a table, a man tied to a chair, and a gun. The President, however, complied. Except, once he pulled back the trigger, nothing happened other than the bang of the weapon. It shot a blank. Wasn't loaded with real rounds. The man was freed, and the President was taken back to the White House, all within the same day. If he left without shooting, or didn't go to the warehouse at all, well, they already had a nuke aimed and ready to go.

Eventually, in January, the storms started. The Cloak stopped the messages. Of course, they wouldn't be seen anyways, after cable stopped working. As it progressively got worse, missions got harder. Our first thought was to get deployed somewhere and search for the Cloak, but they were sneaky bastards. Not even us could get a fix on their location. And so, some squads were deployed to just do a city-wide search of, well, everywhere. Everywhere we could. Marines into the States, Canadian Army into the North, S.A.S into Britian, to find this damn terrorist group. Wasn't really simply city-wide searches, more of an actual world-wide search. They were number one on the most wanted list.

Then, almost the whole year passed, when in September the Canadian Army found something. Yet another warehouse. It was huge, painted black, and had covered windows. Right outside of Vancouver. They informed us about it, said it looked suspicious. And thus, plans were created to infiltrate the building and see what's up. Spanned across five different squads. Alpha, and Echo Company of the Marines, Bravo, Charlie of the Canadian Army, and Delta of the S.A.S. And they were right, it was definitely a Cloak building. They had a WMD ready for detonation in there and everything. Sometime in October we went in, and... fuck, I don't even know what happened next.

One moment Alpha's in humvees outside, Echo in the warehouse, everyone else at backup positions, and the next we seen the warehouse blown to bits. Just the warehouse. The nuke didn't go off. Except, once we got off our asses and took a look at the place, the nuke wasn't there. Or anyone that was in the area. But here's the weird part-- it left a cloud of smoke. Not just any cloud, but a rainbow cloud of smoke. So of course, we walked in... and ended up here. I woke up here. I don't know how. Look, there's more, but we gotta go. C'mon.

* Jason *

"So, the nuke sorta detonated, everyone disappeared, then you walked into the warehouse, and now you're here?"

"Um, yeah, I guess."

"And the fucking Cloak was in the warehouse."

"A lot of them."

"..."

You know those times when you make a realization, or at least think something very plausible and you're just like "Fuck everything"? This is one of those times. The Cloak, man. He's right, the Cloak's a terrorist group. They actually did something a while back, they set some fires or something. But y'know, on important buildings. Like banks and such. It sucked. They sucked. So, when everyone disappears from a rainbow explosion from the Cloak, and these two guys are here now, you start thinking things. This place is probably the worst to be in right now.

"Look, I know what you're thinking. That's exactly why we're moving out, now. Come with me."

I sighed, but went along with them anyway. They started walking, and I went alongside them. But, instead of going to Ponyville, we went to the right, where there was an odd-looking forest there. Real... odd. And I could've sworn I heard Nick whisper to Richard something along the lines of "We got him."

***

"Sarge, Sarge! Look!" Johnson hurried to Sarge with the binoculars, and almost threw them right in his face from pure adrenaline.

"Private! What the fuck is getting you so hyped up!?"

"Over there! Oh my god, I-I can't really see it, but I think it's Alpha, they, they got this guy with them, and... they're going IN to the forest we just left, sir."

"Alpha? You mean, the rest of the squad?" Sarge set the binoculars to full zoom and looked where Johnson was pointing.

"Well, there's only two of them, but they're definitely Alpha. I think it's One and Two."

"Shit, that is them! They're heading right to that damned forest! Johnson, get on the radio with them, now!"

"Hey, everything alright out here?" Echo-One walked out the door to meet a shocked Sarge and Johnson of his fellow Alpha squad.

"Alpha-One and Two are taking some kid into that forest over there... I don't know if you've been in it yet, but it's pretty much literally hell. To go in it is signing a death wish. And they look oddly happy about it, too?"

"Lemme see those... h-holy shit, were they that grey last time?"

"Grey? I don't know. Can't see with this rain, I'm surprised we even found out that was Alpha-One and Two. I have a bad feeling about this..."

***

"Oh, marvelous! Would you look at that. They're finally bringing the other human in. It's about time, wouldn't you say, hmm?"

"Yeah. We'll be able to use him real good."

"Agreed. Especially considering he holds an Element."

"H-He's an ELEMENT!? But there's only six!"

"Twilight, Twilight, Twilight. Do you really think the Elements of Harmony are the only Elements?"

END ACT 1: RISE

"People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates." ~Thomas Szasz, "Personal Conduct," The Second Sin, 1973

Chapter 14: Dark Secrets

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 14: Dark Secrets

Alpha Squad

"This is Alpha-Ten-Actual. Do you copy? Alpha-One, Two, do not go into that forest! Repeat, do not go into the forest! Look to your left. You should see a house, that's us. Alpha and Echo are here. This is Zone-Alpha-- rendezvous here, now, over!"

"Fuck, they aren't getting it, Sarge!"

"REPEAT! This is Alpha-Ten-Actual, do NOT go into that forest! Unidentified bogeys are swarming the area, do not engage! Rendezvous Zone-Alpha, the house in the field, over!"

"They must be recieving it, though. We communicated with each other just fine!"

"Maybe they're too far? And we are getting shit on from the rain again anyway. Damn, it's pretty fuckin' cold too."

"Guys, I'm falling--!"

"Dammit! Repeat, this is Alpha-Ten-Actual! Get away from the forest!"

"Fuuuuc-- ooowwwww."

The shouts of command died quickly through the thunder and lightning of the storm. Any and all attempts to warn of the spawn from Hell itself were lost with no chance of getting a message anywhere. The fellow combatants, codename Alpha-One and Alpha-Two, were going into highly dangerous territory. They brought along another man with them, a more younger one. Not any older than twenty, or so. This man had no enthusiasm of following, but it was if he had no choice. Nothing else he could do, or would rather anyways. He seemed clueless, lost. As Alpha Squad noticed this, they started to fear the worst.

"Ugh. Word of advice-- do not fall off ceiling fans. Anyway, what's happening?" Echo-Six limped out from the cottage they were once in to get briefed on the mission.

"We don't know. Look over there, see those guys? That's Alpha-One, and Alpha-Two. They have someone with them, and they're walking into that forest. Usually, you wouldn't go into a forest when you're supposedly lost, so, I'm assuming they must want to go in there." Sarge took another look through the binoculars to make sure he was correct, and he was indeed. The three men continued walking to the forest, now just a few metres away from the tree line.

"Huh. Yeah, that doesn't make any sense. Wouldn't they just, oh I don't know, look around and see us? It's as if they need to go in there or something. By the way, pass the binoculars." Echo-Six observed, crossing his arms.

"Hell, if I didn't know any better, it sort of looks like they got a hostage. You don't take civilians into forests." Sarge commented, before handing the binoculars to Echo-Six for him to see the three.

"And that would mean they gone rogue. But, that seems highly unlikely, don't you think? And how do we know that's a civilian?" Echo-Six retorted.

"That's what would make sense to me. But dammit, I don't really know anything about what's their problem. We should move out, we're sitting ducks out here." Sarge frowned, and walked back inside the house to regroup the soldiers in the area.

Jason

You know, I actually don't like rain. Never did, even before the storms hit. Always thought it sucked. With rain came cold, and with cold came sickness. And honestly? Not the biggest fan of forests, either. Especially when two somewhat suspicious-looking 'soldiers' are leading me into it when I'm lost. But then again, I am indeed lost. These guys seem to know what they are doing, where we're going. Maybe we'll just stick to the outskirts, I thought, hide between trees and bushes as we head to Ponyville. I then started to realize, I can talk, and should probably use this ability to the best I could.

"So, hey, guys. What's the deal with the forest?"

Both of them grunted in response. They didn't even look my way. We just kept on moving, no sign of turning to the town that was like right there.

"You both do realize there's a civilization and village just to our left? I mean really guys, you're soldiers, you should take a look at your surroundings. Going into the town where there's probably, people and most likely shelter would be the best idea." I sort of hesitated on the word 'people', as there wasn't exactly people there. I decided to keep that on the down-low for now though, but they probably know already anyway.

Not even acknowledgement this time. Nothing. Just kept on walking. Did I ever mention I also do not enjoy long walks? I really hate long walks. There's a reason why I chose a train as my escape route. Yeah, great escape route. Ended up falling off a mountain and now some people you've never seen before are leading you into a possibly dangerous forest. And they probably aren't even people.

I really felt like just walking away from these people. Nothing seemed right here. But, well, it was too late. We finally came to the forest, and holy hell did it look fucked up. As soon as we came to the forest, there was a tree fallen over in our way. Black vines were ripped apart all around it. Dead grass. Dead leaves. Dead plants all around us. In fact, I could've sworn I seen a dead animal of some sort underneath the tree. Also, I couldn't see more than maybe a foot and half in front of us, after that it just went pitch black. The entire thing was basically just darkness.

"Follow, and stay close. We're taking you to our base of operations," Richard said, albeit much deeper and that much more suspicious. It just sounded wrong. Something was telling me to get the fuck outta there, but, I stayed. I didn't run, as much as my gut told me to. I just followed anyway as we ducked under the tree without fail. The rain had lightened up in the forest underneath the trees, so at least I was away from that for a bit.

Nothing really happened as we walked. It had been about fifteen minutes or so of stepping over mud and trees, when finally we found something. It seemed like just a random stone, up against this big hill. The place was covered by some trees. But, the two soldiers went over and pushed the stone out of the way, revealing an opening in the hill. It was dark, but I could barely see some torches lighting up the cobble down ahead. Nick closed the opening as Richard took the lead, and I went in behind him as we walked into the cave. The pathway was just straight stone all the way down, about ten feet or so, then it turned a corner to the left, of which I couldn't really see from this angle.

"Kid, go up. You're first." Richard spoke, and pushed me ahead of him.

I stepped forward, slowly. With the uneven rock flooring I almost lost my balance a few times, but I managed. I couldn't hear anything around the corner other than the soft crackling of torches. One lay right at the end of the path, lighting up the last half of the stone. I knew something was up, this wasn't right. They would've known about the town, wouldn't they? And why's their base in some cave in this dark forest? Why am I going first? But I knew I couldn't go back. It was now or never.

After an extremely long minute, I finally got to the end.

"Hello, ol' pal! How's Equestria treating you?"

I froze up at the sound of this voice. No, no, no, it was too familiar. I heard that voice before and it wasn't in a good time.

I turned to see the source of whoever spoke... and just barely got a glimpse of the most horrifying thing I've ever seen, before getting knocked upside the head and fell to the floor.

Chapter 15: Project Air

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 15: Project Air

"Sargent, what do we got?"

"Nothing yet, sir. We can't know for sure what really happened unless we send a team down there."

Overlord rubbed his temples in frustration. It has been about three to four hours since the detonation of what was identified as a nuclear bomb, and no information has been gotten. People ran from one end to the other of the U.S.S Command Base, giving papers and investigating the blast site through satellite cameras. It was a frenzy, yet nothing has been gathered.

"Thanks Sargent. It's too risky to send a team in, though." Overlord responded to the man trying to help search the blast. The Sargent, just like everyone else in the room, had been suggesting to the higher-ups to just deploy a team at the warehouse to investigate further. Some officials agreed, but Overlord had decided against it-- no way they could fly any more planes in this weather, it had gotten much worse.

"Right. Sorry, Overlord." the man looked away from Overlord, and back to the computer screen in front of him. Little information had been found, but what surprised most workers was not that the WMD didn't have the blast radius they expected, but the fact that it left a rainbow cloud. All colors of the rainbow were fitted into the cloud, as it went up into the sky. It has since passed, and all that was left was just the burnt and broken pieces of the warehouse.

Overlord had left the room of the dozens of workers, to go into his office. He walked over to the main lobby, and took an elevator up to the top floor. It had only took several minutes, but for some odd reason Overlord couldn't help but think something is severely wrong.

Ding.

Within just a short moment, the elevator came to the top and let Overlord out. After walking down to the end of the hall of other offices and such, he stopped in front of his door to admire the message on the wall just next to it, there hadn't been one time he didn't.

General Simon "Overlord" Kolb

General. He always did think he did well for himself, but as a man with the rank of General? He wasn't even sure how he got himself so far himself, but Overlord was always a humble man. And for it, a respected one too.

Simon twisted the door handle and pushed it in, looking over his office. Even though recent events for the past while have been more than extraordinary, he always kept it in an orderly fashion. As much as he could, anyway. His desk at the end of the room was a clean, simple, wooden one, although quite large. A leather chair lay behind it, even after seeing years and years of usage it still held up. Stacks of paperwork sat neatly on his desk, a small corded phone on the other side. Simon went to go sit at the chair after closing the door behind him, facing forward. After a moment, he slumped down in his chair, and attempted to figure out what the hell is going on. Perhaps if we went back to the beginning...

Simon started to think back to the day the threats of The Cloak-- who set up the bomb-- came to be. It was November 18th, 2043, and televisions worldwide had gotten interrupted with videos of the terrorist group.

"Hello, everyone."

Every time, it would always start with this opening statement. A deep, obviously changed through a computer voice would greet the viewers of the messages. The voice sounded male, but it could've been anyone, maybe no one at all and just put through a Text-To-Speak program. The television would go black, and just the sound of his voice started the show.

After that, the screen would go static and the voice would continue. The ominous voice would remind the world of various attacks, sometimes even showing footage, depending on how they felt that day.

"Hundreds, hundreds of thousands of deaths, because you let your guard down. You let this happen. This was your fault, leaders."

The message was directed worldwide, no television was left without these being played. The TV's in airplanes, the TV's in local electronic shops, it was everywhere. The language was translated at the time if needed, but what they were trying to say still went across.

The person, or people behind it, went on about how the world is falling. Corruption, in the economy, in whatever they wanted to say.

"Where's your freedom? You aren't free from the lies and slander, you aren't free from anything! The media, it tells you false information! You don't have freedom! Why!? Well, we're going to do something about it!"

This is where the threats started. Bombs. The group had them, and they weren't afraid.

"This goes directly to the president of the United States. Mr. President. We have something for you to do, for us. We consider you an enemy, and you should consider us one as well. We want something from you. We want your army's intel. As much as you can give. We want to see what your weapons are, your soldiers, your mission info. If you don't... well, Mr. President, I should tell you that we have weapons. Weapons, of mass destruction, Mr. President. You know them as nuclear bombs. I won't tell you where, but we have one set up right now. Listen to us, or else we shall detonate the bomb. Thousands of lives would be lost, and you could stop it. Meet us here, Mr. President..."

Their reasons for setting up bombs would be just what they have been saying-- the world isn't right, it's wrong and they believed it was the leaders of this world's fault. They wanted revenge, and they thought this was the best way to do it. By doing this, whoever denied to do whatever the messages told them to would be risking the lives of their country. It worked well.

The President of the USA complied, and did whatever they told him to. Intel, go to a place for something, sometimes even do something for the people. Some had even started to gain small trust for the group, as things started to change. Things were being fixed, in fact. But still, most stood their ground and didn't listen.

This went on for about two months, until mid-January. Other world leaders had been ordered to do the same things, no matter how drastic. Laws had been changed in some countries, even. But, that's when the incident occured. Some had believed it was the end. And for some, it was. The weather had been changed, changed for the worse. Rain, hail, lightning, all of the above. For seven months. Storms had been brought into the entire planet, and it stayed that way until the present. Almost as if... it was being controlled.

Simon stood up from his desk, and idly scratched his short, grey beard. Controlled. Was that a possibility? Could some God or something be controlling it, making this happen? No one had a plausible theory to explain it all, at least not with science. Simon didn't know, no one he asked knew. Honestly, it was actually the only thing that made sense, now that he thought about it. But who? Or what?

Knock knock.

"Sir? Are you in there?"

A woman suddenly came to the door of his office, knocking.

"Yeah. Come on in."

She opened the door, and let herself in. She seemed uncertain, as if she learned something she's not sure she wanted to. Simon had noticed she was definitely troubled about something.

"Overlord, you were right. We have came to a conclusion about Alpha's disappearance, the explosion, and a little extra."

Simon nodded, intrigued. He leaned against a wall, raising a brow.

"Okay, go on. What do we know?"

"There's a little missing, regarding The Cloak and how they got the bomb. But hurry, get 'him' on the phone... we have concluded they didn't die, but rather they were taken somewhere by the bomb. Alpha, Echo, and probably whoever of The Cloak was there. They were taken to Code 397142B."

"Oh Jesus Christ... are you sure?"

Simon stepped back and shook his head. This was impossible, but considering the circumstances, it was that much more likely.

"Yes. Project Air is now top priority, and we might be close to a stable release. We're gonna get them back, but it's gonna take a while. They're saying about, maybe three to four weeks, maybe even a bit over a month. But they aren't stopping." she tried to reassure Simon.

Simon looked at the phone with a solemn look. It finally happened. He didn't think it ever would, he always believed Project Air wouldn't bring any working results. They got a few, yes, but nothing useful. They did keep 397142B in mind for, reasons, but it was the last thing on his mind. How could The Cloak have connections with something like that? How could they make it?

He sighed, and realized what he must do. Simon knew a man that could help, or at the very least give some answers. He had always been an odd person, even Simon had to admit, as much as he didn't want to. But after Project Air began development, this person was ecstatic to hear about it, and even worked on it a bit. He brought theories, he brought some work, he helped Project Air a ton. He was one of the higher-ups in the project, and he could be all that's left. He had the connections Simon thought The Cloak could never have, and the guy was right. He was the only choice.

"Right. I'll get Jason on the phone."

The woman nodded, and left Kolb's office. She was the secretary of General Kolb, Jane Chandler. She still had work to do, after reporting to Kolb of the deployed soldiers' whereabouts. Being one that preferred to take the stairs, she walked down the steps to the lower levels, where Project Air was being worked on. Project Air was a classified military operation, to go where no one has gone before-- literally. It started in early 2018, the project was built to view what is out there. Not like a telescope, oh no. And not like a satellite. And not to view our Solar System. With enough development, not even our universe.

To view other existing worlds.

Other planets we have not yet discovered, has finally gotten easier. Project Air was built to see these worlds, and the main goal was to see if it was actually possible for transport... to whatever they could find. Going to other worlds, by simpler means than, say, a rocket for God knows how long. Jane didn't know how it worked, she just made sure things were intact. Jane only hoped it did what it was supposed to-- she, like many others, were fearing the worst for Earth's future.

Two ominous-looking large steel doors lay before her as she came to the underground level of Project Air. A warning sat on both doors:

WARNING: Dangerous experiments are being executed in this room. Do not enter unless authority gives permission. Always wear ID tag when entering, and be cautious if you decide to do so.

Jane simply pushed in the doors, and immediately a worker near the doors greeted her.

"Hey there, Jane. What brings ya here?" he asked, looking up from his clipboard filled with paper. He was a man in his forties, sent to keep Project Air in safe hands. He was one of the leaders of Project Air, and for good reasons.

"Hi, Nate. How goes things?" Jane asked the man, smiling. If there was one thing she did, it was that she tried to always keep an optimistic view on everything she could.

"Well, we definitely can confirm a transport to 397142B has happened. We're still going through the process of translating the data to something we can actually see, but it has happened. Tons of people on the mission are there. There's also some jumbled up nonsense, and... we think there's wounded. Or dead. It's too early to know for sure, ma'am." Nate took a look at the clipboard to make sure what he was saying is correct, and finished with a nod.

"Any other information on it?" Jane leaned against the door, wanting to know what else there is.

"I... yes, there is, but um..."

"Go on."

"Well, you know how we reached 90% earlier this week? Well, our first view into 397142B is almost done translating. It could be finished in a matter of minutes, in fact, before you came in it was about 99.78 percent, I think. Finally, after who knows how long, it should be almost done. But... another look at the data is leading us to believe that, well..."

"Nate, please, continue. I won't hold it against you or something."

Nate took a heavy sigh, before coughing the rest up.

"W-We think--"

"HEY, NATHAN!" A loud, yet definitely content voice shouted across the room. "It's done translating! I'm about to put the place up for view on the big screen, c'mon!"

Chapter 16: The Phantoms

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 16: The Phantoms

"Sir, we have the subject."

Dizzy. Vision blurry.

"Yes, I see. Why, I never would've guessed..."

Slipping in and out of consciousness.

"Guessed what, sir?"

Head pounding. Telling me to rest.

"Oh, come on, Lieutenant. You know what he supposedly is."

Voices were distant. Sounds of what I think was struggle, but I couldn't properly acknowledge it.

"Right."

I blinked rapidly as slowly, very slowly, memories became rushing back to me. I started to remember where I was.

"Shall we begin?"

The voice was becoming familiar to me. I could only relate to one I had indeed heard, although I can't remember where.

"Of course, sir. Applying the Element shouldn't be too hard. And then, we have the ultimate weapon."

I opened my eyes, and noticed I was lying on a bed. An extremely uncomfortable bed, felt like a rock. To my dismay, I attempted to move my hands and feet but to no avail. I was trapped inside clasps for each limb, keeping me down. Made of leather, typical. I couldn't help but notice the size of them... made for hooves. Hooves bigger than my hands and legs.

"Ah, the Elements of Redemption. It is time you have awoken."

On my left was a rock wall with a closed door at the end, and to my right I noticed everything. One soldier I recognized as Richard stood at attention talking to... I don't even fucking know. Whatever it was, it had body parts of all sorts. The only thing I could think to call it, was monster. It donned a deer antler and a blue goat horn. An arm of a lion and a claw of an eagle. A bat's and a pegasus' wings. I could barely see a goat's beard from my position behind him.

"NO! Please, Jason, d-don't listen to them! You can't be an Element of Redemption!"

And then I noticed the rest. Just ahead of me were six beds, just like mine. However, the occupants of these were strapped down. These occupants? None other than the Elements of Harmony that I had previously been searching for. Twilight Sparkle, on the bed closest to him, just shouted in response to what she had been hearing. A guard pony, a stallion, stood in front of them.

"Silence, Magic! You will only speak when spoken to!" he yelled back, putting himself right in front of Twilight. I gotta do something. I pulled my arms back with as much strength I can muster, as I felt my hands had started to actually become loose. Looks like they sort of overlooked the fact that I can easily get out of the large clutches of the seemingly homemade trap.

"HEY! You can't talk like that to my friend!" Rainbow Dash, being held right next to Twilight, tried to retort. The guard, however, simply addressed the freak of nature standing before them. I continued to pull my arms, and started to tug on my legs too. I didn't know what's going on, but I need to get the hell out of here.

Pop.

With a popping sound, both of my hands became free of the make-do clasps. After giving my wrists a moment to lay at my side, I gripped the sides of the mattress and pulled myself towards the wall behind me.

"Sir! Apply the mouth removal spell!" I had no idea what the hell that meant, but if it was anything even remotely related to what I think it was, then I need to act. Now. With one huge heave, my legs instantly gotten out of the leather that held it. Alright, let's go.

"Fuck. YOU!" I jumped out of the bed and lunged at the stallion. Filled with, rage. Anger. An anger I thought I'd never know. They trapped my only friends in a planet that isn't even mine. I'm hearing some shit about more Elements, but I don't care. I'm done.

The stallion turned to see me jumping at him, and was shocked. I don't even know how I can say this, but I grabbed his neck as we both fell on the ground. I grasped with all the might I could and I put a ton of pressure on his throat. I could see him attempt to struggle, but for a reason I couldn't place at the time, he wasn't able to escape. My arms started to shake from the strangling, as I realized what I was doing. Jesus, man. Put him down. I stood up, grabbed the guard by the neck, and threw him against the wall, effectively knocking him out. Not what I had in mind, but that works too.

"Wow! I hadn't even noticed you woke up! You escaped the bed, you knocked out my dear Royal Guard over there, and wow are you mad! Good show!"

The 'thing' I seen earlier was clapping his talons and started to seem impressed with what I did. Honestly, I'm a bit surprised too, how did I manage to get out and get that guy there? Back home, I'd never be able to that, let alone get the motivation to even do so. Anger does things to you, I guess. I looked over at him, getting a better look at it finally. The thing was intimidating, to say the least.

"I..."

I attempted to talk, but closed my mouth immediately. This could be one of the only times I ever get to talk to him, so I better make this count. Be smart about it. I took a deep breath, and began.

"Look. I don't even know what the fuck you are. But as of right now I don't care." I started. The thing raised an eyebrow in interest, as I noticed Richard also wanting to listen.. The Elements were looking my way as well, waiting to hear what I had to say.

"You have me, and these innocent ponies trapped in some... cave or something. Now, as much as I want to know why, I'll get to that after." I continued. I stepped forward, cutting down the gap between us.

"You're gonna let us out. And then I'm gonna rain hell on your fuckin' parade like you never goddamned seen before. You are messing with the wrong person." I smirked, as I thought about that. I wasn't bluffing.

"I know people. I know people who are doing things you could never imagine. In real, real high places. They might be back home, and not here, but you can guarantee that they will be here before you know it. And they'll knock you on your ass."

"Sarge? Aren't we supposed to go to the castle?" Private Johnson asked as the two squads, who are now assigned to the same objectives, started walking through the clearing between the cottage and the mountain bearing a castle on its side.

"Fuck that. We're going after our teammates. No one gets left behind, soldier."

"They're coming. We have advanced technology, comparing you guys to us, we're lightyears ahead. We came past this age thousands of years ago. Think about this: We have a carriage. A carriage that moves on its own as you push a pedal. They can go as fast as over seven hundred miles per hour, even if you don't see those often. The ones you do can get two hundred easy. They were made over a hundred years ago... think about what we have now." I noticed Twilight got even more interested at this point. Seems about right.

"Footsteps. They probably went in here."

"Nice job. Let's go."

"You don't know what you're doing. You're dead. Done. You'll want time to prepare. Let us out, and maybe I'll tell my friends to not torture you too bad once they come. Believe me, you'll fucking need that."

"They stop at this rock. I think I see light behind it..."

"Holy shit, you're right. You, you, come here, let's push this."

"You don't understand, Jason," he finally said something back. "you aren't going anywhere. I have magic beyond anything you've ever seen here. Do you know who I am? I am Discord, the God of Chaos! And you're about to finally take your Element into hand. You're an Element of Redemption. The Elements choose their bearers, and you've been chosen! You have no choice whatsoever other than to take it, and become one of The Redeemed." Good, I have his name now. I still didn't let my smug grin fall from my face, oh hell I kept it on.

"Shit! I-I hear yelling, the hell's going on over there!?"

"I don't know dammit, let's go! At least we still know they're alive..."

Discord kept yelling, and I kept stalling. Someone is coming. I heard the footsteps, I heard the rock, and now I'm hearing shouting. I'm getting out of here, and he's going down. The best part? Those weren't hooves.

"Are you even listening? Do--"

"FREEZE, HA-- what the fuck?"

"Who--?"

"Oh good, you're all here!"

And I was right. Those definitely weren't hooves I heard. Finally, my own kind, and this time I know it's them. Humans. Apparently, a lot of soldiers were taken, as a whole eleven more just waltzed right in, guns up and ready. I don't think they seen the ponies before, or Discord.

"Oh good, so we are in some fantasy land with ponies and monsters. Fantastic." One spoke, seemingly in disgust.

One stepped forward, hands shaking. They could barely hold their rifle, an M4 or something. I couldn't identify who it was, as with them and five others, they wore masks on their faces. Their shoulders all donned the U.S flag, and just underneath I noticed a little tag alongside a patch signifying their rank, saying the words 'Echo Company'. I couldn't see what the maskless people's were, but if I had to guess, probably 'Delta' or something.

"What... what are you?" Oh, well, that's something. She spoke up, to Discord. Of course, he just grinned and stepped back for everyone in the room to see.

"I, milady, am a dragonequus. You may refer to me as Discord. Or if you want to get fancy..." Discord leaned forward to look the soldier in the eye, at least the eye of the mask. "...God of Chaos works too."

I noticed one looked me in the eye, one of the ones without a mask. He seemed sort of old, probably like fifties or something. He nodded, and winked. At this, I smiled and did the same gesture in response. Shit's going down, but I'm getting out of here. Wait hold on, the Elements. Right after the nod, I pointed a thumb over to the trapped ponies. He caught this, and nodded once more, before walking up to Discord.

"Alright buddy, I don't know what the fuck is going on, don't know who and/or what you are, don't know why there's trapped ponies or whatever over there, but I don't care. You know who we are?" he lowered his rifle slowly, while keeping an air of superiority with him.

"I do." Richard finally said something, stepping up from behind Discord. Oh of course they know each other. Great.

"...Alpha-One." The man seemed suprised, like he hadn't seen him yet, but definitely knew who he was. I guess they were assigned to some sort of mission together? I tried to think all I could, but I started to wonder. Do I know Richard? Actually, do I know all of these people?

"Alpha-Ten... or should I say, Sarge? What kind of name is that?" Richard replied. Sarge. Yeah, I can't forget that.

"My damn codename don't matter right now. What are you doing, Alpha-One?" I can tell he means business right about now.

Creak.

"The same thing I'm doing. And you don't need to be concerned with that, Sarge." The door suddenly opened, and out walked Alex. I didn't get to see much of what was behind the door, but it looked nothing like I never seen before, and that's saying something. They better get that thing running back home, and fast...

"A-Alpha-Two. I, I--what?" If Sarge wasn't confused already, he was now.

"It was just a simple mission, wasn't it?" Alex ignored him, and walked over to the group of soldiers.

"We didn't even have to do anything. The bomb was supposed to be defused, and you'd be free, you'd be back at base by now honestly. But you fucked up, and now you're here. Funny, isn't it? Having a nuke detonate in your faces, takes you to another world. Ain't that something. By the way, not sure if you haven't noticed yet? But we aren't Alpha no more." Alex smirked, continuing.

"Alph..." Sarge sighed, looking away for a moment. "Alex. What is going on? Another world? The fuck are you going on about?"

"The world, our world that is, it's changed. It changes everyday. And now, with Project Air finally entering its final stage, and the world it found being translated to picture, we really are evolving. I mean hell, by now, it could be done. You remember what Project Air's objective was, right? We're damn close." Project Air...

"The Cloak. They aren't who we thought they were, Sarge. They aren't even people, Sarge. Maybe technically, but not any more. And we never really knew anything about who they really were. But now? Please, take this time to get a good look at the leaders of The Cloak... if you would be so kind to follow me, we are offering you to join us. You have a great oppurtunity here, you'd be the highest-ranking squad of The Cloak-- The Redeemed. The highest of pretty much everything. You would have everything, you'd be at the top of the world. Now, come."

"What."

"What?"

"What the fuck..."

"This is why I should not have gotten out of bed today."

Time slowed down. Alex was motioning for the soldiers, and me, to follow. Discord, and Richard all had that stupid smug look as shit began to hit the fan. Sarge looked me in the eye again, and made hand motions.

'Come here, let's get out of here. Run.'

I nodded. But first, I had to take care of things.

"Hey, motherfucker. Think fast!"

I jumped at Alex, grabbed his arm and bending it the complete wrong way, before smashing in his elbow, and collapsing his leg. I threw his head into the wall, making him fall over, no hesitation or resistance. I dashed towards the soldiers before getting behind Sarge. We had a few seconds, Discord and Richard both seemed shocked at the stunt I just pulled. I took this second to grab Sarge's pistol from its holster, and aimed it between the two people... things in front of us.

"You fucked with the wrong guy today." I stood tall next to Sarge, and the rest of Alpha Squad. I hadn't known before, but I know who these are now. I noticed a few of the soldiers next to the beds holding the Elements of Harmony, and I gave them 'the look'. It was just, y'know, that look. They knew what that meant, of course.

"Wow. Now I'm really surprised. Except, now I know why you were chosen to be one of The Redeemed." Discord grinned, but Richard kept a stoic face through this.

"Maybe now isn't the time. But remember, Jason. You are powerless. You are nothing. We have control. We will find you. We are The Cloak." I laughed at this, they don't know what they're getting into, do they?

"And we are The Phantoms. And we will fight back. And we will resist. And you will perish. Guys... do it." I looked over to the soldiers now standing behind the Elements, and gave them the confirmation. Within less than twenty seconds, they got all the Elements freed as they ran to our side. Oddly enough, Discord, and Richard just stood, arms, or whatever Discord has, crossed.

"Go. Enjoy your freedom, for it will not last longer than a day. You will regret not accepting the Elements of Redemption."

The group, all eighteen of us, simply turned around and walked away. Me leading everyone. You know that 'ain't nobody fuckin' with my clique' walk? We were doing that. I felt a tad more badass after what just happened, even if it was messed up on so many levels.

The female soldier walked up to me and patted me on the shoulder. "Nice job back there, Jason." she spoke, behind her mask.

We reached the end of the path, and walked through the opening. The rock seemed pushed aside, still. Now here we were, in the dead of night, out in the forest.

"Oh. My. Gosh. That sooo crazy! We were like trapped and then you woke up and beat up that pony then the other hoo-mans came and you beat up that other meanie and they let us escape and--" Pinkie, if I remember correctly, started bouncing around again as we got out.

"Pinkie, cool it for a sec. Jason? Can I ask you something?" Twilight walked in front of me, with a stern look on her face.

"Go ahead."

Twilight sighed heavily, before shaking her head, seemingly trying to clear it of something.

"I'm eternally grateful for what you did. You actually went out and saved us. I'm not sure if anypony saw you, or if you met any of the Princesses or what happened, but we are all in your debt for that." Twilight started, unsure of something.

"No problem. You know, it was actually Spike's fault I came for you. He had a letter sent to him, by Princess Luna I think, saying a bit about what happened. I didn't understand half of it, but I knew it wasn't right. From there, w-- I took a train to Canterlot. Now here we are." I replied, smiling. Trying to, anyway. I knew where this was going.

"All that said, I need to say something. I didn't expect you'd be able to do what you did there. And all that about 'The Cloak' and 'The Phantoms', I..." Twilight trailed off. I gave her a moment to get her words together.

"Jason, who are you?"

"That's a damn good question."

Hundreds, probably even thousands, of ponies all sat, hooves tied in a giant area of some sort. It was dark, but barely bright enough to see the radius around them. Everypony could only think one thing, 'How did the entire Royal Guard Army of Equestria's Defense manage to get trapped by Discord?'

"Strike Force. I think I know where we are." A stallion spoke to one alongside him.

"I don't think that matters no more, Red Spear. But what do you think?" the other asked.

"This is the un--"

"Hello, everypony." A voice boomed through the ears of everypony there, interrupting Red Spear's theory. The voice was unlike Discord, in fact, this was female. But all too familiar still.

"You know who this is. I am Queen Chrysalis, of the Changelings. Discord is away right now, tending to other matters. I have some people for you to greet. Discord and I are not the only ones leading the inevitable attack on Equestria. We have some friends, helping us. You should know who they are."

The Royal Guard, confused as to why she would let them know these things, let her speak. Not like they had much other choice, anyway.

With a sudden stomach turning feeling, the ponies felt the familiar feel of teleporting. They were all invidually teleported to a small, tiny room with only enough room for two ponies... and one human. Each and every one had been teleported to see this, or at least that's how it seemed.

"There is another. But he shall remain secret for now." the bipedal creature before them stood tall, donning a red cloak to cover their body, including their face.

"Everypony, meet Daniel."

General Simon Kolb sat at his desk, putting the phone down after the sixth failed phone call attempt. He needed to get his number one on the phone now, and nothing was happening.

Simon's hopes were raised again, as the phone started ringing its happy tune. He picked up the phone, to only see it was his secretary Jane calling about something. Nevertheless, he answered.

"Hello?"

"Simon. It's ready. Get down to Project Air."

Chapter 17: Escape

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 17: Escape

The group of us walked forward through the forest, me in lead. I had already taken note of the path coming, in case of emergency. The rain still hit us, flooding the area. I could see the ponies being a bit grossed out from walking in all the dirt, mud and rain, but they went along. My already-old clothes were soaked, goddammit all I want is to just change these damn things. The mud did get on my shoes, but it was hardly a problem. At least, that's what I was trying to tell myself after stepping in the fifth puddle. The walk was silent, there were no words to be spoken. Everyone needed time to think, the ponies especially. The wind was heavy, and the storm was at its peak. Unless, if this supposedly-magic-created storm is anything like back home, then it should get worse by tomorrow. Even with this hoodie, and baggy jeans, it was freezing. Again. I reached back, and put my hood on as we kept on walking. I could see the fallen tree near the exit off in the distance. Almost there. I started to think, perhaps we should stay the night here, but I'm sure everyone here wants to sleep somewhere tonight that ain't a muddy forest with god knows what around. They probably have some fucked up predators around. I realized I still held Sarge's handgun, I decided to tighten my grip on it-- just in case.

Eventually we came to the tree, as I turned around to see what the plan was for the night. It was dark out, still visible, but getting dark. It was definitely late. Either we sleep here, or we pull an all-nighter and get to town.

"Alright everyone. What's the plan?" I asked, to see what everyone thought.

"I thought we're leaving?" one masked soldier spoke.

"That depends. We can move to another area of the forest, and spend the night here. Don't know if we're getting anywhere anytime soon. There's a town about..." I took a moment to think about the distance. "...ten clicks east of our position, we can make it there in around an hour or so if we stay low."

"Then let's walk an hour. Trust me, we didn't see any of them for God knows why, but there's some shit in this forest. I still don't know what it was, but we ran into some... lion thing with wings. We got the jump on it, but I don't want to stay the night knowing those things are out there." Sarge stepped up, telling me about the forest. Yeah, I thought it'd be a bit dangerous.

"He's right, Jason. We should just go. And... actually, hold on." Twilight stepped beside Sarge, and seemed to concentrate on something. She struggled, trying to do something. Not entirely sure what. In fact, she looked sort of constipated.

"Drat. Well, there goes that plan. My magic is still gone." Twilight frowned.

"Sorry, wh--"

"Right. Luna was telling me about that. You six don't have your magic or something, right?" I responded, thinking back on earlier events.

"Nope. Discord somehow took me and Rarity's-- wait, did you say six?" Twilight raised an eyebrow, apparently not knowing this.

"Yeah. Luna couldn't find you guys, 'cuz you all were missing your magic or something. Now, I'm just gonna hope you don't need it, because we should probably start getting the hell out of here." I turned back to the tree, before hearing something that actually made me a bit sad.

"Right. I'll keep an eye from above!" I heard unmistakably Rainbow's voice speak up, confident and everything. "Wait, huh?" she spoke again.

"What's wrong, Rainbow?" Twilight asked, concerned.

"I can't fly. I..." I heard Rainbow also struggling for something, I had to turn around.

"T-Twilight, why can't I fly?" Rainbow looked Twilight in the eye, almost looking angry.

"Oh my goodness, Rainbow..." Twilight shook her head, before drooping it down.

"Twilight, why can't I fly? Jason?" she looked between the two of us, demanding an answer.

"Luna... Luna said pegasi magic is by letting them be light enough to be carried by their wings. Since your magic is gone, your wings can't carry you. Now, let's go, please." I answered.

"Hold on, big shot." Rainbow walked up to me. "I... okay, what is your problem? You just suddenly came into our world, and now all this is happening. I, I-I bet we could've beat Discord, just like every other time! We don't need you! Because of everything, because of you, I can't fly now!" Rainbow shouted, loud. Definitely loud. I could've sworn I heard some leaves moving around.

"Rainbow. Now is not the time. We're gonna--"

"No! Do you know what it's like for a pegasus to be grounded? Pegasi not being able to fly is, it's, it's like taking away the one thing that makes you... special. Who knows how long it'll be before I can fly again! Before anypony--" Rainbow moved closer, angrily, before I cut her off. Pegasi not being able to fly must be some shit.

"I don't want to repeat myself. Now, is not the time!" I retorted, and attempted to turn around, before Rainbow grabbed me by my sleeve and turned me back to her.

"ANSWER ME! Why are you here!?" Rainbow yelled, practically standing on me now. Okay, I definitely heard leaves moving.

"Rainbow, calm yer jets! Jason's right, we best be movin' on now Rainbow." Orangey-- sorry, Applejack, stepped up behind Rainbow.

"Look, can't you do your pony drama somewhere else!? We're gonna fucking get killed out here! Let's go!" an unmasked soldier spoke, before turning around to the tree and going underneath it.

"No. Stop." I put my hand out to signal for him to stop moving. He, thankfully, seen it and came back.

"We need to move, Jason. You said it yourself." he glared at me, knowing we need to go.

"They deserve to know, and we aren't going anywhere until I talk to them." I sighed, before going over to Sarge.

"Sarge. Get the team to secure the perimeter. I'm telling them who I really am." I handed Sarge back his gun.

"You sure that's a good idea?" Sarge took the pistol, and holstered it.

"Yeah." I only said one word, and went back to the ponies.

"Alright, you heard the man! Defensive positions, diamond formation! Let's go!" within just seconds of the command ordered from Sarge, all soldiers surrounded us, protecting us. I took a deep breath, and kneeled down, not caring about my knee getting dirtied from the mud. I took my hood back off, also not caring about my hair.

"Alright. So... where do we start..." I thought hard, thinking of how to tell them.

"From the beginning. I had faith in you, and I just want to make sure I can keep it." Rainbow stared. The other ponies came up to listen, too.

"Okay. Well, let's start with my name. As you know, it's Jas--"

"FUCK! Get over here!" A soldier to my right yelled suddenly. Shit! I turned over to him, only to see him being tackled by... what the fuck. I could only describe it as a type of wolf, but not one I ever seen. Its entire body consisted of wood, and it had this gross-ass breath. A wolf, made out of goddamn wood. What?

BATTATATATTATATANG!

As we all turned around to the thing, a deafening roar of the rounds ejecting from a rifle echoed throughout the forest as our visions were blinded of the muzzle flash conflicting with the darkness of the night. As soon as it started, it was over, and the wolf was dead on the floor. At least, that's what we thought. All that was left was a pile of sticks and twigs. The Echo-Squad soldier next to the shocked one on the ground stepped back, smoke rising from the barrel of the rifle.

"Goddamn. You okay there?" the soldier bent down and gave the other on the ground a hand, as the voice made it clear this was the woman member.

"I'm... I'm good. Thanks. I thought it was bad waking up on the ceiling fan, but this? Jesus." The one in the dirt took her hand, and came to his feet.

"Yeah. That ain't the las' of 'em. Timberwolves travel in packs, at least Ah'm pretty sure." Applejack straightened her hat, before trotting over to the tree.

"Also, the sound of that weapon there probably attracted every living thing in the area. Probably woke up Ponyville too. Let's go." Twilight walked over to the tree as well, going underneath it.

"Okay. Sarge, I'm gonna need that pistol back." I asked Sarge, as he gave it over with a bit of hesitation, before going through the tree.

Everyone else bent underneath the tree, with me covering their backs. My legs ached to the point where I was having a bit of trouble walking correctly, but I managed. I had to. The rain became more of a problem as we got to the tree line, and into the clearing between Canterlot and Ponyville. I quickly put my hood on, and looked around, seeing Ponyville to our right, and a crashed train on the left. Wait, is that the same train? How'd I miss the train falling when I got out?

"Fuck, what happened over there?" someone asked me.

"Uhh... I was being chased to my death by the entire town and this world's leader, decided to jump on a train to get out of there, got shot and fell off the whole mountain. I didn't see, but apparently the train followed. Don't ask why I'm alive." I answered, before taking another look around the area.

"I don't know why any of that happened, but I'm sure it can wait. We must go, I can hear those ruffians coming..." The white-coated unicorn, Rarity I think, trotted over.

"Right then. Follow me, stay close, call out any monster things." I took the lead and broke into a jog towards Ponyville. Who knows how long this'll take, but I don't see any vehicles around.

"Shit. They're already coming!" Sarge yelled, as we all faced the forest. Yeah, they're coming. The monsters started flooding out of the forest, running towards us. Tons of the things ran with the speed of a freighter, agility of a free runner. The timberwolves sped at us, with other creatures I never seen before following. Lion-things with wings ran over, tailed by bears... with fur that was pretty much the night sky, stars and all. They were transparent, just another thing to add to the 'what the fuck is wrong with this place' list. They were pretty damn big, too. Definitely a tad bigger than the bears I've seen before.

"Oh Celestia. The Ursa Minors. Please, don't--" I think Twilight tried to say, but that was quickly cut off by Sarge.

"FIRE!" Sarge shouted, before the cracking sound of his gun firing spread around the area. Soon enough, it was parroted by the other soldiers, shooting their own rifles. I could barely hear Twilight trying to say something, and the yellow one seemed extremely scared about something. Whatever, let's go.

I raised up the pistol in front of my eyes, and looked through the notches of the iron sights. Already I can see the lion things falling, and the bears being damaged, and sticks laying around on the ground. I never really shot a gun much, but I remembered something my father told me when I was young.

"Look through these little things up here. These are your iron sights. Grip the gun tight, both hands now. Take a deep breath, and hold it in. Move your index finger to the trigger, put pressure on it... and shoot."

I aimed the pistol towards an oncoming timberwolf, before taking a deep breath, inhale, exhale. I inhaled once again, this time keeping it in. I put my finger on the trigger, and pushed it... before nothing happened. Shit.

"SARGE, THE GUN AIN'T FIRING!" I yelled over the sounds of war between races, which consisted of mostly guns shooting and monsters falling. They put up barely any resistance.

"TURN OFF THE SAFETY!" he shouted back. Right, these things, they have safeties. I twisted the handgun so the right side was visible. Sure enough, there was the little knob for the safety. I flicked it, and brought the sights back up. And as soon as I did, the gunfire gradually came to a stop.

"Out!"

"I'm out!"

"Reloading!"

And of course, everyone was out of ammo. I brought the gun up, and looked back to the timberwolf, running faster. It soon came just a few feet in front of me, and I knew it was time. I breathed in, kept the gun aimed at the timberwolf's head, and pushed the trigger.

Twang!

The gun ejected a round, and within less than half a second, the timberwolf was impacted by the bullet, and toppled over. Dead. The thing was dead, now. The lions with wings were flying over, as a collective click was heard around. Magazines were replaced. I went through the same procedure, aiming the weapon at a lion this time, inhaling, and pulled back the trigger.

Twang!

Another one down. The bullet went clean through its upper chest, as he went down clutching it. I noticed the yellow pony absolutely terrified, as the Elements were slowly backing away from all this mayhem. I assume this isn't how they handle things. Nonetheless, no one stopped us.

Batatattatatatatang!

Soon enough, the rifles were back to firing upon the enemy that tried to overcome us. Back to work. Gun up, breath in, trigger pulled.

Twang!

Lion down.

Twang!

Another one bites the dust.

Twang!

Timberwolf dead.

Twang!

Add to the growing list, yet another lion.

"St-stop!!" I heard someone from behind scream, but no one listened. Me neither, I can tell when something's trying to kill, and we need to defend ourselves!

Twang!

I shot at a timberwolf that attempted to jump on me, but of course it didn't make it very far. Through all the deaths of the monsters, and all the bullets, the things finally got an idea of what they should be doing. Retreating. I could just see the fear on their faces, before they turned tail and ran back into the forest. Putting some extra heat on them, everyone fired the last of their magazines into the monsters, even if they didn't hit anything. As for me, I was out.

"YOU BETTER RUN, ASSHOLES!" Sarge yelled, as he pumped his rifle in the air. The others cheered and copied this move, yelling their own little insults usually relating to the mothers of each creature.

"Hoo-rah!" someone shouted.

"HOO-RAH!" we all exclaimed.

We turned around to see if the Elements were ready to get going, when an odd sight entered our vision. Or, rather, lack thereof.

"Wait, huh?"

"Where the hell did they go!?"

They disappeared. They left on us. They left us to fend for ourselves. Obviously, we could, but, they didn't even stay to see if we'd be fine or anything. I thought those were the good guys, what the hell happened?

"Those horse things ditched us... alright, Jason, speak up. What the fuck is going on?"

I sighed, again, and rubbed the bridge of my nose, before shaking my head. Of course, they have to know, but I'm really not interested in explaining every little thing right now. The soldiers had grouped together in front of me, waiting for me to start talking.

"I don't know, dammit. I woke up yesterday in a bed with all six of those ponies standing around me. Apparently, we managed to find ourselves in a world where the dominant race is ponies. And, as I just found out myself, there's mythical monsters. How we got here, I have no clue. As for me, my TV suddenly turned on and something, and I'm pretty sure that something is that Discord or whatever, started talking. Saying something about a place with... harmony, friendship, magic and crap... I assume that we are there right now," I started.

"Those ponies there were the Elements of Harmony. They saved this world, also named Earth for some reason, like three times. Superheroes. That's why they are important. I think Discord, and his monster things, tried to capture them to use them against Equestria-- this country. Considering how we escaped, don't think it worked. He most likely wants us to help him, I don't know how he thinks he's gonna convince us, but he might find a way." I continued, ignoring the fact that everyone was confused past anything I've ever seen according to their faces.

"We gotta make a plan. We need to fight back, and if Discord is right, we only have a day to do so." I raised a finger and started thinking.

"Oh, hold on. Why do we need to fight!? Why should we!? If all these things are in that forest, and no one's dead, then where's the problem!?" And suddenly one of the soldiers I recognized as Kendrick started screaming. "Come the fuck on, Jason! Don't you remember what you did to us? Why should we fight alongside you?" he finished coldly.

"What are you talking about?" I turned to him and crossed my arms.

"You abandoned us, in Iraq, 2041. You abandoned your father. After everything good you did for us." he started.

"You led The Phantoms." Kendrick raised one finger, letting the rifle fall to his side with his other hand.

"You were the reason Project Air is as far as it is. In 2040, you helped your father, who was a Major then, progress Air. Remember? You came up with the theory that made it translate data to images. Then you disappeared." Kendrick walked in front of me and glared at me.

"Your father was devastated. We all were. We marked you MIA... we didn't want to change that. But eventually, we gave up, we had to mark you KIA, Jason. Did you know we're close? We're so, so close to seeing what we found. The images are probably ready now. Hopefully they found this, and can come here, but I don't know about that yet," Kendrick continued.

"Holy fuck, you guys. You bring up all this shit at the worst time. As much as I do want to know where the hell you went, and all of your reasons, we really should not be standing out in the open, and the rain, like this. C'mon." Sarge facepalmed, before turning to walk to the town. Wordlessly agreeing, everyone followed. A masked soldier walked to my side, as we started walking.

"Hey. What was he talking about? I can't really remember what happened." The female one asked, looking towards me. I took a heavy sigh, and gulped. I might as well, I guess.

"I abandoned The Phantoms in an operation on checking out a place in Iraq we thought a secret enemy organization was hiding." I tried to say as little about it as I could. No one needs to know everything.

"What was he going on about, with your father?" she asked. You just had to ask.

"My father has a pretty long name, you uh, you want to know?" I tried stalling. Nodding her head, she made it clear it wasn't gonna work.

"...He's known as General Simon 'Overlord' Kolb."

The pegasus mare Violet Sprint woke up with a start, instantly taking glances from side to side of her room. Although the light was out, Violet soon realized she was alone in the room. She wiped off some sweat from her forehead, and got out of her bed, throwing off the blanket. Violet trotted over to the one window in the room, and looked out. From her room's position, she could see the plot of land between Canterlot, and the small town of Ponyville. The source of the earsplitting sounds was found in just a few seconds, as she seen something that was an extreme shock, enough she had to shield her eyes for a moment.

First, her eyes went over to the group of creatures in the middle of the clearing. They were all bipedal, and held a weapon of some sort. They look like Jason, she thought. Violet thought back to the whole event in Canterlot, and couldn't help but feel sorry for the thing. Violet soon realized, Jason's probably down there. But, that line of thought was eradicated as she noticed what was around them.

It looked like hundreds, hundreds of them.

Hundreds of dead monsters from the Everfree Forest.

They all appeared to have died from the group of bipedals. Holding back vomit, Violet looked away and took a deep breath. Yet she couldn't help but look back. Stacks of timber, manticores on the ground, even unmistakeable footsteps from an Ursa Minor were seen. What happened?

Violet walked away from the window to try and collect her thoughts. Sitting on the end of her bed, drooped her head down and just attempted to think about what she just saw. It's not like I didn't see that. They killed all those things. They might've had it coming, but... Violet bit her lip, and tried taking another deep breath. Right around then is when she realized something.

Oh Celestia, I have to check on Mom.

Violet quickly got off her bed and went over to her door. Her door was at the end of the left wall, and parallel with the bed. She opened it, and ran out and down the hallway. Violet and her mother's rooms were on the second floor of her mother's rather small house, and as such Violet passed the stairs and the balcony overlooking the living room. Violet had moved back into her mother's house after a few years of living alone, as she was getting old, and sick. Violet was pretty much her caretaker, but she knew her mother may not have a long time.

Violet's mother had gotten diagnosed with a form of cancer the doctors didn't say they've ever seen before. Every hospital in Canterlot, and even the one in Ponyville had rejected her due to not being able to do anything. It was a lost cause. What they did say, is that she had maybe two months to live. That was three months ago.

Violet ran into her mother's room and opened the door. In the bed, once used for two ponies, was a pale, seemingly sleeping Golden Wing-- Violet's mother. She wasn't looking too good.

"Mom? Are you up?" Violet walked over and whispered. Golden Wing's eyes fluttered for a moment, before eventually opening and looking over to Violet.

"Violet..." Golden Wing tried to put a hoof on her daughter's shoulder, but that soon dropped as she had a bad coughing fit. The coughs were heavier and worse than Violet had heard before, and lasted longer.

"Mom... are you okay?" Momentarily forgetting about the noises outside, Violet got closer to the bed and asked her mother.

"Violet... I love you..." Golden Wing stayed still, but put on a small smile through cracked lips and wrinkles.

"What? Mom? What's going on?" Violet reached out and put her hoof to her mother's, as her eyes started to water.

"Mom's not feeling good, Violet..." Golden Wing barely got that out as she started coughing once more, before putting her head back in the pillow.

"Mom, no, you can't do this! Let me help you, what do you need!?" Violet asked desperately, as she started to fear the worst.

"This is it, Violet baby..." Golden Wing coughed a bit more, sinking into her pillow. "It's time..."

"Mom, no no no! D-Don't talk like that!" Violet stood on her hind legs, and put both forelegs over her mother. "I'll take you to a hospital, please, come on!"

"No, that won't work..." Golden Wing's coughs became shorter, along with her breath. "You know... Dad always said..."

"Dad always said what? What did he say, Mom?" Tears came down from Violet's eyes as she listened intently.

"He... he always said... you should find a stallion, Violet," Golden Wing's voice became raspy and dry, as the time came closer. "Find somepony who'll... help you... and work for you..." Even through this, Golden Wing still kept that smile on. It was a genuine smile, of happiness.

"I know you'll get through this, baby..." Golden Wing barely spoke above a whisper, almost inaudible. "I love you, Violet."

With that, Golden Wing became limp as her head rolled over, eyes closed.

"Mom... Mom... I-I love you too... I..." Violet's voice trailed off, as she seen her mother's face. She looked peaceful, like she finally found where she was supposed to be. Ponies always did say Paradise existed, and it seemed like her mother just found it.

Violet walked over to the other side of the bed, and got on it, under the blankets. She scooted up to her mother, and wrapped her forelegs around her once again, as Violet attempted to stop the tears.

"Good night, mom." It was to no avail.

Chapter 18: Semper Paratus

A story by somedude726

RISE

Chapter 18: Semper Paratus

After what felt like hours, but probably only around twenty to thirty mintues, we finally made it to the end of the large clearing and the town was in grasp. A small cottage I hadn't seen before sat on the outskirts, with bird cages and even the little chicken house things outside. Looked like a home for animals. None were outside, as the rain probably made them want to not be outside, although I think I could see some around in there little homes.

"Okay, everyone go into Zone Alpha. Then we should probably talk," Sarge spoke, and started walking towards the cottage.

"Zone Alpha?" I questioned, following.

"Yeah, the cottage." he responded, continuing to walk.

"Right."

After a few silent moments, we finally made it to a house, somewhere we can go inside! Sarge opens the door, and we all go in, shivering from the cold. The warmth of the cottage welcomes us, as we all finally take in the fact that we're not outside. The calm demeanor of the cottage was destroyed as soon as Kendrick got into my face though.

"What the fuck." he simply stated, spreading his arms. Didn't ask, wasn't even really a demand. Just a 'what the fuck'. All things considered, he had a hell of a reason to. Thing is, I'm the reason for most of those.

"Start from the beginning." Sarge added.

"Right... Operation Black Feather."

Somewhere in Iraq, 2041

"Alright everyone, listen up!" I barked to everyone in the CH-146, as they got to attention. Alpha Squad, all ten of us, were packed into a small transport helicopter, the CH-146 or Bell 412, headed to an abandoned old warehouse in Iraq. Intel suggested an organization of sorts had been hiding out in here, plotting for something massive. If intel was correct, this group had been making nuclear bombs, and planned on using them. So, The Phantoms, our own little group under the command of USSOCOM, had been sent in to investigate. The Phantoms was a huge special operations bunch, sent in to any worldwide threats made to the United States, or anywhere else around the world. The macho-secret-spies-group basically. There were around fifty of us, and we broke off into five different squads. Going by the NATO phonetic alphabet, we called each group Alpha through Echo. Each other squad were in their own other helicopters as well, flying down the same road we were.

"Yes, sir!" the squad shouted in response over the chopper blades, saluting. The pilot even went along as well, putting up a hand and a shout. Now, everyone listened to me, because of one reason. General Simon Kolb, at the time Major, used to be the commander of The Phantoms. He'd been extremely busy with a top-secret project he hadn't told me about yet, and one day he just decided he can't lead The Phantoms. So, he passed the torch down to me, and I ended up as the leader of The Phantoms.

"We're almost there, so everyone ready up. Look, we don't know what we're about to find here, it could be empty, or we could be ambushed. Be ready for anything," I say to the group as I pull the C8A3 carbine rifle out from its resting spot over my shoulder. I look it over, it practically shined from the sunlight through the window. This little gun was my baby, I had cleaned it daily and went with it every deployment. At least, that's always what I thought at the time, this was my very first deployment. It was a little odd commanding The Phantoms on my first deployment and mission, especially when it's one where you're storming a possible terrorist hideout, but when your father is Simon Kolb that's what happens.

"Yes, sir!" the squad chanted.

The rifle was equipped with a C79A2 ELCAN optical sight fitted onto the carbine's rails, the standard for the C8A3. On the underbarrel donned a foregrip potruding vertically, and on the side rails had one red laser sight. A selective fire switch lay above the trigger, set on full-auto. Of course, the safety was on. As I had found out from the shooting range, this set of attachments was my favorite way to use the gun, foregrip did wonders for my horrible accuracy. With all these things on, the gun did get heavy and that definitely didn't help, but I hadn't planned on shooting many people. In my younger stupidity, and yes I realize this was just three years ago, I kept the optimistic view that I wouldn't fire it today. Yet I had all of these things on the gun, usually made for, well, shooting. Wasn't the best of choices.

I hit the magazine release button on the C8A3, and checked rounds. As I expected, the double-column magazine was full with thirty 5.56x45mm NATO cartridges. I slammed the same magazine back into its socket, and pulled back the slide on the rifle. The magazine locked into place, so I continued checking the gun. I raised the weapon in front of me, and looked down the optics. The reticle popped up, as the red triangle and 3.4x28 magnification entered my vision. Satisfied with the rifle, I leaned forward in the seat, and slung the carbine over my shoulder. Now, to the next weapon.

I reached over and pulled the Remington R1 Carry handgun from the holster and looked it over. Really, I just sort of liked holding it, it just felt awesome. I went through the same procedure, checking mag, optics. Of course, the magazine was full with .45 ACP rounds and the iron sights were ready. This pistol was equipped with just a suppressor attached to the muzzle. I twisted the suppressor and made sure it was tightened, and as it didn't turn any more I decided I was good. Making sure the safety was on, I put the firearm back in the holster.

"Ten mikes out!" the pilot, Tucker, declared as he continued flying.

"You heard the man, ten mikes out. Lock and load, gentlemen." I add. You know, I think I was pretty good as a squad commander then. At least in talking. Meanwhile, I was shaking in my seat, and either no one saw or didn't want to bring it up. Thank god for that.

I look outside the window, and stare off into the distance. The entire area below was filled with sand and dirt, you'd think we were in the middle of a desert. Definitely felt like it, with the heat on top of it. The whole area just felt bland, and sad, really. Maybe I'm just used to clean grass and such, but this was just bad. The road path had long since turned from anything flat and smooth to gravel and sand, with bumps and potholes everywhere you could see. I guess it was a good thing we were in the helicopter.

I continue to look out the door's window once and look ahead of us, and notice a small object off into the distance. It appeared to be a building of some sort... and I couldn't help but notice the flags and armored cars surrounding it.

"Shit. Is that the warehouse?" Walden, the Sergeant sitting next to me, noticed me looking out the window. He appeared to also notice the building.

"I think so. Look at the flags, I never seen anything like that before." It was true, the flags on the vehicles and building were completely new to me. Not even intel said anything about this. The flags were a black background, with three hooded figures on top of it, donning dark red cloaks. A thin yellow stripe lay behind the hoods, going up vertically.

"Yeah. What kind of flag is that? Intel didn't say anything about that." Walden replied.

"That's because it was never in intel. Did intel say anything about those cars, either?" I ask, as the chopper continued to move, giving us a better look at the cars in front of the warehouse.

"Don't think so. Jesus, they got turrets, armored vans, is- is that a Humvee?" Walden responded. Looking down, keeping my eyes peeled, I noticed a camoflauged truck with an unmistakeable weapon on top.

"Yeah... they managed to get a Humvee. What the hell?" I muttered, before the pilot interrupted us.

"Coming in for landing everyone!" Tucker spoke.

"Heh. I dunno, man. You're the commander here." Walden finished our little conversation, as the squad stood up and went over to the doors.

"Okay Alpha, listen up!" I start.

"Sir, yes, sir!" they chant, as the helicopter starts lowering down.

"We don't know what's down there. But I can already see armored vehicles, guns, and intel suggests a mercenary organization may be inside here. We could be ambushed, this could be a trap, there's a number of failures that could occur in this warehouse!" I start.

"So I want you all to be ready for anything, got it? We are not dying today!" I shout, pumping a fist in the air as I do so.

"Hoorah!"

The helicopter lowered a distance away from the warehouse, and off to the side, down the road. Each other of the CH-146 choppers landed in different areas, except for Delta who of which was still in the air, for tactical placement. Might not be the best idea to send around fifty people in through the front doors, there were definitely better ones. Once we hit the dirt, we opened our doors and dropped out, after the pilot informed us he'd be returning to base. The ride was a good couple hours, don't even remember how long, so it was nice to stretch the legs a bit. After we stood on the road for a bit and scoped out the area, I decided to brief everyone again on something.

"Alright, so we're going in the front goddamn door. Breaking in through the front. Bravo Squad is dropping in through the top, Charlie Squad is breaking through the back, and Delta--" I point to the last helicopter in the air, some distance away from the building. "--is on recon watch. Or, y'know, sitting up there with a .50 Cal." I chuckle a bit at the last statement, before a member of Alpha interrupted me.

"Yeah, well what about Echo? They must be doing some fucked up shit again." Petty Officer Phillips asked, smirking behind his helmet.

"Well, you'd be right Phillips. They plan on coming from underground, and should there be a reason for it, they're ready to blow the place to shit." I return the smirk, and grab the C8A3 rifle from my shoulder, and have it at the ready.

"Well, I guess you should always be prepared..."

"Semper Paratus, soldier." I replied. Latin for 'Always Ready', the motto of the United States Coast Guard. I might not be a U.S soldier, but it was something I liked to keep in mind. Besides, Echo Squad were U.S Marines.

"True that. So, we gonna wait for them first, or what's happenin'?" Phillips asked, again.

"Yep. They dropped down at a nearby manhole, they should be going through the sewers now. They'll tell us when they're ready." I answer. "Ready your weapons, everyone." I remind the squad, as I start walking towards the warehouse, making a 'follow me' motion with my hand.

I noticed that if there were someone in this place, they were definitely here recently. The sand held rough-looking footsteps, tire tracks. Most of it was blown over by the wind of the helicopter, but it was there. Between that, and the armored cars, I couldn't help but be a bit worried. Again, being younger, I did not want to shoot this damned gun, then I ended up being assigned to Alpha Squad thanks to USSOCOM, and here I am going in the front door. According to my father, who used to be part of Alpha, this was the squad for frontal assault. So, yay that.

"Hey. You doing okay, Kolb?" Walden jogged up next to me, with a brow raised, guess he noticed.

"Umm... sure." Not the best response from the man commanding an elite squad with members around the world sent for terrorist threats and such.

"Man, the son of Simon Kolb himself, and that's all he says?" Walden really catches on to things fast. I really just wanted to say I was not fit for this position, because I was not, but that didn't seem like the right thing to say.

"C-Come on, let's go." I attempted to drop it. Maybe that was a worse thing to say.

"You don't wanna do this, do ya?" I need to ask my dad why he thought Walden was such a good soldier.

"No one should want to kill. At least, I sure as hell don't." Again, elite squad commander. Don't I need to be all 'do whatever is necessary' and have some sort of want to put down these terrorists?

"Heh, alrighty then. When there's one of them standing on you shouting in some language ready to blast your face off with a shotgun, don't come running to me." Walden smirked and walked back behind me, giving me some distance. What is with everybody and smirking?

"Krrrrschhhh... All units, this is Echo-Six-Actual. Do you copy? Over."

And there's Echo Squad.

"This is Alpha-Ten, we read you loud and clear, over." I speak into the mic inside the helmet, awaiting response. Bravo, Charlie, and Delta all give Echo their acknowledgement after mine.

"Yeah, okay, here's a tip: Do not ever go into sewers. They suck. And-- right, sorry krrrrsch. Anyways, we're ready. Bombs are ready, while I really don't wanna need to set 'em off, they're here. We should be right underneath the warehouse, over."

"Roger that Echo-Six, moving in now, over and out." I respond. Each other squad let it be known they're ready, and we keeped moving. By now, we moved past the cars, and were now walking alongside the front wall.

"You ready, Kolb?" A voice suddenly asked from behind. Turning my head, I see a soldier walk up to me and stand at my side. He was an older fellow, perhaps in his fifties. The wrinkles shown, and the scars proved it. He had hair still, just greying out at this point. A normal hairdo, nothing crazy. A dark grey five o'clock shadow of hair had been on the old guy's face. One look at this man in full Canadian armor wielding a C7A1 rifle, you can tell he's been through some shit-- but he's not stopping anytime soon. His very presence gave me the strength, the will to go on. The courage to open those doors.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm good Sarge."

Present, October 17th 2044, 7:02 PM

Grabbing his cell phone, General Simon Kolb rushed out the office he once sat in, and ran down the marble-floored hallway. Dashing past two workers on break, he immediately hit the 'down' button of the floor's elevator. 'Yay, generators,' he thought. The two workers walked over to Simon, one holding a cup of coffee, and the other one with a cigarette in his mouth.

"Hey, Overlord. What's the rush?" Even now, Simon couldn't help but flinch back at the use of his nickname being used outside of war. He wasn't sure why it stayed, but it did.

"Gotta go downstairs." Simon responded to the young, cup-wielding male.

"For what?" he asked.

"Reasons." Simon answered, in a slightly harsher voice than he would have liked.

"What, you hidin' somethin'?" the man with the cigarette suddenly accused in a light manner-- possibly joking, even. Yet still, Simon couldn't help but feel offended, as he slowly turned his head away from the elevator doors and to the person smoking right in front of him.

"Don't. You. Ever. Accuse me. Of anything." The harshness in his voice was meant that time.

Before a response could be made, the doors opened, as Simon walked in and hit the 'close doors' button. Being alone from the two, Simon let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, and let himself calm down. Sudden memories he didn't want to ever have again were brought up to surface, and before long any excitement and happiness Simon had before had disappeared. 'Why'd I choose this job...'

The General pressed the button for the underground basement, and leaned on the back wall. He rubbed his temples with one hand, as he awaited the elevator to take him to the bottom floor of the building.

'I shouldn't have acted like that. That's not like me at all.'

Simon started to feel uneasy about something. It didn't seem like it was that little debacle, something else. He couldn't put a finger on it, but something just felt off. Simon had been feeling this a ton lately, but whatever he thought he just could not figure it out. But right now, this felt like whatever was about to happen-- it was about to happen soon. This was something in the present, not regret of the past or concern of the future. Unlike other times, Simon hadn't made the connection to Jason as he did with other times this happened.

Ring, ring, ring.

After a few moments of being in the elevator, Simon heard his cell phone ringing, and its vibrations in his pocket. He shakily reached a hand in there, and pulled it out, to see an unknown number calling. 'What? How... who is this? Maybe it's someone I know on a different phone?' Reluctantly, Simon eventually tapped the 'Answer Call' button and put the phone to his ear.

"Hello?" Simon asked, feeling something he hadn't actually felt since a time he could not remember... fear. Of what, he did not know, and that only put more fuel to the flames.

At first, the only response was static. Of course, this had always happened everytime a call was made, the quality would be low and there'd be static in the call. Over the months, ever since the sun never came out from the clouds, ever since crops died and farms were rendered useless, ever since electricity would only come through gas-powered generators, this was just something you get used to.

"Hellooo?" Simon asked again, a bit louder this time.

"Krrrrschhh... Brace for impact. krrrrschhh..."

Brace for impact? Simon quickly started sweating, as he fought to keep his feet together, and leaning on the wall. For a moment, nothing happened. Static stayed on the phone, and Simon didn't respond. Nothing seemed wrong for that one moment.

"What--"

FWOOOOOOOMM!

The call dropped as the phone hit the ground, along with Simon as he fell to the floor. The sound could only be explained as one thing, and he did not like it at all. An ear-splitting explosion had definitely occurred somewhere, and it was way too close for Simon's liking. The elevator shook with the force of a large-scale earthquake, as Simon slid across the floor and smacked his head in the nearby wall, throwing him into a daze. The elevator had stopped moving altogether, and alarms went off, as well as the sprinkler in the elevator.

'What the fuck!?'

Simon attempted to raise an arm to the railing bolted in the walls, but to no avail. His arm flinched back and a sudden pain shot up through his forearm up to his shoulder, causing Simon to shout in reaction. His vision started to get blurry as he heard screams around, on the floor he must've stopped at. But eventually, all he could see was the somehow still intact cell phone in front of him, with a text message lighting up the screen.

"I said brace. -Unknown Number, 19:14:24 17/10/44"

Begin Act 1

A story by somedude726

RISE

Prologue

17 January 2044

For the past two weeks before this faithful day, it was preparations being made as far as the eye can see. People were on the run for supplies to hold down the fort, and more importantly, themselves. It was predicted that on this day, the storms would hit all over the United States, and possibly Canada as well. Hurricanes, tornadoes, thunder, you name it and reporters would say it'd happen on the seventeenth of January. This was only proven further by the mass of dark, grey clouds. No one had a great reason for it, and no one needed such. Because the people of the USA and Canada had families to protect, and you don't need a reason for that.

And as it turns out, the storms had came. It started in the city of Orlando, and quickly spread to cities around it in just the short time span of a few days. Rain and hail engulfed the streets, almost forcing the residents to stay in their homes. It didn't take long for food to become scarce, and as the heavy winds made their mark, electricity becoming none. With food low, and darkness engulfing homes, the only sensible choice would to attempt to go out and get food, or possibly some batteries. The problem is that, is the simple fact that stores were closed. Employees didn't dare to step outside, just like anyone else. Even if it did mean some would be able to get more supplies for this ever-lasting storm, even if it meant some would have hope.

Soon enough, all of the state of Florida ended up in similar to how Orlando was. Small floods already had taken place, within just a week after the storms' start. Some towns were experiencing the hurricanes. And some were under orders for all citizens to stay indoors. All this meant food and beverages were gone within no time. Police and military forces realized this, and decided to take it upon themselves to deliver these items to homes. It was a nice try.. but sadly, this operation failed within the first day. In the harsh weather, and devastating winds, anyone who went out immediately had to find shelter.

And thus started the calls to 911. Ambulances were called dozens at a time, to search and rescue any lost inhabitants of their respective towns. Deciding to ditch the coats and go for armor, medics jumped in their trucks and drove to save their friends. The citizens. And.. it worked. Trucks would swerve a bit, and nothing could protect from the cold, but going for armor made the missions easier. Police and military, picking up on this idea, donned their heavy armors and started their operation once again. 'Operation: Rise'.

The name was chosen to give hope to the victims of these horrible days. So that they know, that they will rise. For the first three weeks to about a month, it was successful. Families were given a care package, each day. It would have a pack of twenty batteries, various foods for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, a two liter bottle of water, and things went well. It was slightly costly, but anything to save their cities. This went on around the world- not just Florida. After the first month of Operation: Rise, the storms went to nearby states, making it's way through each town without failure. It never let up, not a bit. It got worse, in fact. People were dubbing it the worst storm the world has ever had.

June 21 2044. On this day, the storms had continued to spread throughout the USA, and finally, made it's mark in Canada.

Earthquakes started to appear.

Heavy rain, dense winds, and large hail kept residents inside.

July 30 2044, the storms went through Canada and continued going.

Soon enough, just about all countries were taken by the horrible things. It was worldwide.

Someone.. someone would say.. the world was in a state of chaos.

Begin Act 2

"Sir, we have the subject."

"I see... why, I never would've guessed..."

"Guessed what, sir?"

"Oh come on, Lieutenant. You know what he supposedly is."

"Right."

"Shall we begin?"

"Of course, sir. Applying the Element shouldn't be too hard. And then, we have the ultimate weapon."

"Ah... the Elements of Redemption... it is time you have awoken."

"NO! Please! Jason, don't listen to them! You can't be an Element of Redemption... you just can't!"

"Silence, Magic! You will speak when spoken to!"

"Y-You can't talk like that to my friend!"

"Sir! Apply the mouth removal spell!"

"Fuck. You."

A STORY BY SOMEDUDE726

RISE

Begin Act 2: Redemption