//------------------------------// // Season 2: Tempus Transitus // Story: The Invisible Brony Defense Force // by SoullessDCLXVI //------------------------------// One year, four months later… April 5th, 2015CE Vernal 16th, 1005LE -||-||-||-||-||- The weeks following the battle of Ponyville had the residents slowly trickling back home. The Mane 6, just hours after the battle, had finally gotten their hooves on the Elements. They used them anyway in hopes of returning everything back to normal. However, the Elements failed to accomplish much as far as normality was concerned. Overture had been turned to stone, those that were injured but alive were healed, fires were put out and loose debris was vaporized harmlessly. The corpses of all the felled bronies returned to their natural, pre-Equestrian forms. But they did little for the mental health of, well, everyone. They didn’t repair any of the true damage to the town, and they didn’t raise the dead. Twilight had said that the reason the elements failed to heal the emotional and mental wounds was that it wasn’t something that could simply be given. It had to be worked for and earned. So nearly all the ponies remained afraid of the bronies, the Canterlot crowd again going against the norm and being the more accepting bunch. Even if only minimally so. It would be months until they would get over their fear. And when they did, it became anger.         Despite their anger we all did our best not to let it get to us. As we had since the beginning we would be quiet and keep our heads down. Even when they threw things at us. We would do as we were asked without question so long as it wasn’t the CMC or equally destructive foals doing the asking. Many of us were forced to sleep in the street. Those few ponies that were open to us would still refuse those of us that looked like we came straight out of a horror movie. Can’t say I blame them, really. On Earth that’d be a sure fire way to earn a Darwin Award.         The Princesses made sure we were getting along with the ponies. They did their best to get the bronies and ponies acclimated to each other. But there’s only so much you can do to convince a group to accept another when they first saw the second initially as naught but extremely violent monsters. Waging war, bringing death, spilling blood, and destroying homes. We were advised by the Princesses to act precisely how we were acting to facilitate better brony-pony relations faster. Apparently they’d soon get over it and treat us better. Due to ponies empathic nature they’d stop seeing us as mindless monsters soon enough and probably feel guilty for their previous actions.         “Honestly, you’re all likely to see a few weeks of being treated like royalty before things mellow out. A guilty pony is a generous pony.” Princess Celestia had said.         I didn’t see it happening. I mean, in my head I juxtaposed freaking GODZILLA on a damn rampage with a miniature Godzilla getting the royal treatment a few months down the line. It was comical in how little sense it made. Never mind the fact that the little asian boy who was the shapeshifter that would forever be known as Gojira was dead. It’d be like the jews doing something similar for Hitler. Or more accurately, the Auschwitz survivors. Well, okay, not that bad. But still pretty bad. So I seriously didn’t expect the kind of treatment Celestia promised. I was prepared to live the rest of my life getting pelted by eggs, flower pots, boots, and the occasional knife. See? Forgiving. Only the occasional knife.         However, the Princess, being the immortal ruler of ponies, shockingly had a deep insight into the pony psyche. I know, right? Who’da thunk it? About a year after the battle we saw a dramatic increase in the quality of life for us. Ponies started mirroring our actions: Acting kind to us, feeding us, helping us build more homes to house the brony population. They began inviting bronies to parties (although Pinkie had been doing that from the start. At first only the invited would show up, but soon no one would come to a party that even a single brony was invited to. The parties were damn right depressing.) Pinkie couldn’t be happier, the city had finally begun to heal. And now it was bigger than ever.         Yes, that’s right. The city of Ponyville. It had become Equestria’s new capital, and was now broken into three districts. Old Ponyville, New Canterlot, and Little America. Three guesses as who lived where. On the outskirts of New Canterlot stood two Castles. One reminiscent of the previous Canterlot Castle, though smaller, dwarfed the second Castle that, while sizeable, could have been mistaken for the former’s lawn art. It was a blue crystalline tree that held a purple, somewhat classic looking castle aloft. Princess Twilight Sparkle’s new home. Yeah. This past year or so has been nuts. I mean, a lot of us had thought when we got here that Twilight wouldn’t actually go Alicorn. That it was creative license by Hasbro and DHX. But, apparently Lauren can see the future even in an alternate dimension and is still pulling strings behind the scenes of My Little Pony. Thanks mostly to Technia, Ponyville City became the most technologically advanced city in all of Equestria. The wonders she brought to the city made it the number one tourist spot on the planet. And as a result the city was continuing to grow and diversify as people from all over moved to town. I knew I was looking at the beginnings of Equestria’s Shanghai. Technia alone, however, couldn’t handle the strain lifting an entire city, nation, or planet on her shoulders. Luckily she hadn’t need to. What things she did make were studied extensively and recreated. A number of new mines, lumber yards, and oilfields had opened up around Ponyville City to get the materials needed as ponies couldn’t easily replicate Technia’s clean removal of resources with even their strongest magic, not that they had given up trying. With our guidance all of these new industries were pollution free. We may not have been the silent defenders we once thought we were but there were some things about humanity that we didn’t want to visit upon Equestria. Among the new industries and infrastructure of Ponyville City was an airport. It wasn’t all that big as the global infrastructure couldn’t handle any 747s we could make, If you couldn’t land it elsewhere there was no reason to launch it. Right now the majority of the aircraft were zeppelins of Equestrian origin, though we had a few small prop planes out and about. The knowledge of how to build larger aircraft, airports, roadways, electric cars, green power plants, solar panels (Celestia was particularly happy with that one) among other things had already been released to the public and just about every major city was in a race to advance. The bronies had mellowed out significantly since the battle of Ponyville. They still had their altered forms, whatever magic had been cast upon us could not be undone. At least not here. And a way home was still being looked into. The Holy Order of Harmony, however, did not die out. New leadership under a John Constantine gutted the previous order and built it back up from the foundation. The division of solar/lunar still existed, though now it had more to do with ideological rather than geographic differences. The Solar half was more about rules, order, and atonement for the battle. Whereas the Lunar half was more about freedom, celebration, and progress. Despite their differences they got along extremely well. My position as the Lunar High Priest remained. As did Pink’s.         Pink himself claimed that he was feeling far better. And I was inclined to agree. Initially. He seemed far slower to anger than anybody I’d ever met. Which alone would be great. Unfortunately the way he would occasionally talk to someone that wasn’t there when he thought no one was looking made me worry for him. I had been thinking of trying to get him to see a therapist in New Canterlot, but then he disappeared. I wasn't worried, he could handle himself and likely just needed some space and quiet. Which if he were being reasonable he hadn't need go far. It's been relatively quiet here for a while now.          Other than an escape from Tartarus by a centaur by the name of Tirek, apparently a G1 villain according to some of the other bronies, everything has been completely and utterly peaceful. If you don’t count the shenanigans of the Mane 6. Which I don’t. Rambunctious they may be, but they didn’t tarnish the peace. And I was thankful, if wary, of the peace. I didn’t expect it to last. There was a formidable military somewhere out there. With tanks and assault rifles who knows what else? And somehow, it had become impossible to find. If that wasn’t enough the disappearance of dozens of unicorn ponies in several cities and towns had the public visibly tense. Other than a few peaceful demonstrations outside local Police Departments and Guard Houses demanding action and answers it hadn’t really escalated too much as of yet. -||-||-||-||-||- Currently a few of us, namely myself, Pascal, Syntax, Princess Twilight, and Princess Luna were searching the woods some miles to the southwest of Ponyville City for any sign of the foothold location of the United States military. Unsurprisingly we found nothing. Again. “I don’t understand. Even if they’ve moved, there should still be signs of their presence. Cleared woods, vehicle tracks, something!” Syntax complained, saying what we were all thinking, and for a few of us, had already said before. “And I’ll say it one more time. The Elements must have returned them home when we fired them over a year ago. And don’t say they were too far away. Discord’s chaos spanned the globe and when we sealed him back in stone everything returned to normal. Everything.” “Hey. That reminds me. Where is Discord?” I asked, suddenly curious. “In truth I believe he met a grim fate during the Fall.” said Luna, shaking her head with just a hint of sadness. “Wait, but wasn’t he supposed to be reformed?” “AHAHAHAHAHA!” We all stopped and looked in mild concern at Twilight when she fell to the ground in hysterics. Eventually she came up for air and wiped a tear from her eye with a flick of her hoof. “Ahh, that was probably one of the funniest jokes I’ve heard in some time, Syn. I’m glad that even during a time of crisis you can find it in you to make ponies laugh. Pinkie’s been rubbing off on you.” She took a few breaths and extended her hoof repeatedly in calming motion and forcibly brought her smile down. “But it’s still a time of crisis and we need to find more clues as to the whereabouts of the unicorns. Let’s go.” “I… wasn’t joking?” I heard Syntax mutter as we all resumed our trek through the woods. Though if anyone but myself heard him they showed no signs that they had. There were more important matters to attend to, like finding our quarry, no matter how adamant Twilight was that they’d been returned to Earth. Silently we trudged on for a couple more miles and several more hours before the Princess called an end to today’s search and teleported us home. Or, to be more precise, her home. She couldn’t very well teleport us each to our own home as people need to see us leave the palace just as they’d seen us enter. For all ponies knew we were just discussing politics as heads of government for our districts. If they knew what we were really looking for it would incite a panic. I headed home, nodding to Technia, Arrow, and Rainbow Dash as they headed inside the castle behind me to begin the day shift of “politicking” with Celestia. Breathing in the pre dawn air, feeling the wind whip at my lunar garb, I drank in the peaceful atmosphere of the City as the Dawnbringer woke and completed her duty. I just wish that this peace will last.