• Published 3rd Jan 2012
  • 3,776 Views, 66 Comments

Welcome to London - jd896



"Let's give these bastards a proper British welcome!"

  • ...
7
 66
 3,776

Welcome to London

On the hill about 100 yards away, the white machine sat with its pale yellow lights emanating from the front of it. Next to it, two black-clothed figures stood, inspecting the path of the crash. One seemed to be talking to the other. They didn’t notice the ponies a football field away.

“Wh-What are those things? They look… big…” Fluttershy squeaked.

“I don’t know, but those outfits they’re wearing are hideous!” Rarity exclaimed. “Whatever those things are should learn a thing or two about fashion!”

“They don’t look so tough!” Rainbow Dash said, taking off for them. Applejack stomped on her tail.

“Are yew crazy?!” Applejack asked as if the pegasus was demented. “We have no idea if they’re nice or not! Those things could hurt us!”

“Do you have any better ideas?!” Rainbow Dash retorted.

“We’ll figure it out when we’re not being hunted down! We’ll have to go right past them animals right there. There’s only mountains out here.”

Applejack motioned backwards and the ponies looked back to see a mountain range.

“There should be a safer place for ya’ll to land past those things.”

“I thought the point was to not confront them!” Rainbow said, a bit of irritation in her voice.

“Yer not gonna confront them. Yer gonna fly right over them. Rainbow, take Twilight and Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy, you take Rarity since she’s probably lighter.”

Rarity was about to say something, but Rainbow Dash quickly got her word in.

“And what’re you going to do? Be the hero?”

“Rainbow, quit arguing! Yer the strongest and fastest! You can get them away from here quick’r than with us walkin’!”

The rainbow pegasus fell silent.

“Go!” Applejack commanded.

The two figures near the white object began to walk forward, still unaware of the ponies present. Twilight was lifted onto Rainbow Dash’s back. Carrying her, Dash ascended a few feet before taking Pinkie Pie in her hooves.

“Night flying is the best time to fly!” Pinkie Pie said, still being able to get a kick out of the situation. “You better not go slowly Dashie!”

“Slowly?!”

Dash bolted. Meanwhile, Fluttershy was having a difficult time carrying Rarity. In her hooves, Fluttershy was only able to increase her height by a few feet.

“I’d be better off walking…” Rarity sighed.

“S-Sorry! I’m still not used to carrying ponies…” Fluttershy responded, obviously a bit upset with herself.

“Fluttershy! Look out! There’s a dragon com-IIING!”

Fluttershy bolted.

Applejack chuckled to herself for a brief moment. The two figures stopped atop another hill, looking towards the sky. They must have noticed Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy. The farmer adjusted her hat, lowering it, and stomped her hoof along the ground. She pushed off with her hind legs, starting forward on a long sprint. The dry grass and firm ground made for good running, despite her being unfamiliar with the territory.

But wait. Maybe she wouldn’t have to do anything. Maybe she could just sneak around them and they’d find nothing where they crashed! No need for violence!

Unfortunately, this plan would not come through. The two creatures had begun to head back to the white machine they had arrived in, and in a hurry too. Applejack boosted her speed, running faster in order to catch up before they could reach their machine. She was running faster than they could move, but at this distance, she might not make it.

Sweat dripped down the side of Applejack’s face. Should she do this? Is this even necessary? Her mind was running around in her head at a million miles per second. Her blood pressure shot up. She galloped closer and closer to the two creatures and their white machine.

They were just climbing up the hill the machine was perched on. Applejack charged up the hill. The stomping on the ground caused to the two creatures to turn around. Like a jaguar hunting its prey, she lunged at them. Her hooves left the ground and her skull met the first creature’s chest. It stumbled backwards, clutching where the mare had struck and gasping for breath. It fell over soon after.

Applejack spun to the other creature. It reached for something on its waist, but Applejack lunged forward again. It tried to stop her by wrapping its arms around her neck, but she ran straight into its stomach anyways. Its feet slid along the ground a few feet before losing grip from the sudden decline of the hill. Applejack was hauled over the second creature’s body, sliding down the hill on her back. She rolled around at the base of the hill before jumping back to her hooves. A bit dazed, she quickly recollected her surroundings and her thoughts. Above all things, one thing screamed to her:

RUN!

Applejack took off forward in the direction of where her friends had flown off. Her blood pressure was through the roof by then, blood pounding against her skull. A rush of adrenaline now passed through her senses. Sweat poured out from beneath her mane. The reality of the situation had just settled in. Her hooves carried her as fast as-

CRACK CRACK CRACK!

“AGH!” the orange pony yelped. She tripped up, smacking her face in the grass and dirt, rolling around in it. Pain shot through her right hind leg, similar to the time when she got caught on-

CRACK!

Dirt shot up next to her. Applejack quickly rose to her hooves, pain echoing through her leg. She groaned in pain, staggering forward. She spat out the grass in her mouth and forced her legs to walk her forward. She moved away from where the machine and creatures were located, forcing herself to gain more speed.

Throughout this whole ordeal, the farmer’s iconic stetson had stayed glued to her head. It was damp with sweat however and Applejack was anxious to get it off, especially considering it was the “quiet” of night.

“I hope they’re okay…” she muttered to herself, not realizing her mouth had let that escape. Her pace had grown from when she got up the second time, but it had quickly worn away. The orange hooves that had been long-known for their stamina were giving in.

Applejack felt tired. Very tired. She looked back at her hind leg, which was stained with blood and still oozing out. She groaned in pain, her slow walk changing again into a limp. The bottoms of her hooves were coated in a thin layer of dirt and grass from dragging them. She staggered around another hill, which then revealed a wood fence. Beyond the fence was a solid road and on that was a big machine. It was similar to the one from earlier, except it was bigger and green. A tarp was pulled out over the rear of it also. Gathered around the back of it were more of those creatures!

Another blast of adrenaline blew through Applejack. There were at least seven or eight of them. She couldn’t take them all at once! Her mind tried to conjugate a plan, but her legs had a different idea. Self-consciously, she squeezed between the planks of the wood and stumbled towards the machine. Her body crashed into one of the front wheels to stop. None of the creatures noticed her. She turned to go around the front of the truck, but was met by a face full of metal. This metal was stuck off the front and side of the machine.

This collision managed to blur Applejack’s vision. She staggered around the front of the machine and fell on her side. Recollecting herself again, she mustered up enough strength to stand up again. Across the road was another wood fence and a field of tall grass. Perfect. Moving as fast as she could (which wasn’t very quick at all), she forced herself between the fence and tumbled into the tall grass.

The lone mare almost fell again, but luckily didn’t. She probably wouldn’t have been able to get up a fourth time if she had. Her head bent forward, she continued the rigorous task of walking forward. All of her legs ached with pain, the bloody one more so than the others, but she had to press on. She needed to find her friends and quickly.

Applejack walked and walked and walked. It felt like she had been walking for hours. She could collapse on the spot and just pass out. Perhaps a more stealthy approach would’ve suited better. Her head suddenly stopped finding resistance. She slowly lifted her head up, revealing a small grassy plain to her. There were a few dirt roads off to the side, but they were unoccupied. Just ahead were some woods. Huddled around one of the trees were ponies. Her friends!

Loyalty stopped dragging her hooves, forcing herself to trot ahead. Her legs screamed in agony, but she continued on. There was no giving up this close! Applejack’s body wanted to shut down on the spot, but her mind refused. She was less than 50 feet from the fire before it became too much. Her legs stopped moving and she fell straight on her face.
----------------------

Pinkie Pie touched down on the ground outside an area of woods, Rainbow Dash releasing her hold on the party pony. Pinkie immediately began bouncing around a nearby tree as Dash carefully set down Twilight, who was still knocked out.

“That wasn’t so slow, now was it?” Rainbow Dash boasted, causing Pinkie Pie to giggle.

“Of course it wasn’t, but I’ve seen faster,” she poked back, sticking her tongue out at Rainbow Dash.

“Well I was carrying two ponies! I could’ve went fas-“

Rainbow Dash was cut off by a loud screaming. Both ponies turned to find Fluttershy speeding through the air with Rarity, the source of the screaming, in tow. Both ponies hit the ground, skidding across it for a moment before coming to rest in front of Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. Rarity stopped screaming, but was replaced by Fluttershy’s hard panting.

“Ohhh… Note to self. Don’t mention dragons around Fluttershy,” Rarity said, her eyes spinning. She shook her head to regain her composure. “Is Twilight still out?”

Rainbow Dash nodded. Fluttershy fell back on to her flank and took in a large breath. Rarity turned to apologize, to which Fluttershy responded by simply waving her hoof, then turned back to Rainbow Dash.

“Wait, wasn’t Pinkie Pie standing next to you just a second ago?” Rarity noted. Rainbow Dash turned, but flinched backwards. Where Pinkie Pie was standing were only her saddle bags.

“Hey! Where’d she go?!” Rainbow asked, somewhat rhetorically.

“I don’t think I’ll ever understand that pony. She’s so eccentric, but I suppose that’s why we all love her, yes?”

Rainbow nodded in agreement, but sighed also. “So now we’re missing Pinkie and Applejack. Knowing Pinkie, she’s probably halfway around the world now…”

“I’m sure she’ll come back soon,” Fluttershy broke in. “I mean, she’s not the type of pony to go out and get in trouble, right?” Both ponies turned towards her, causing her to grin somewhat sheepishly.

“Yeah, I guess you’re right. She wouldn’t just run off and leave us hanging!”

“But Applejack is still out there in the… the wilderness.”

“Wilderness? Pah! I’m sure the Everfree Forest is worse than this!” Rainbow Dash answered, trying to fight laughing.

“Well I’m still worried about her. I’m not so sure her idea was such a good one…” Rarity sighed. “I’m also not so sure about where we are… How are we supposed to find the Elements of Harmony when we have no idea where to look?”

Rainbow Dash shrugged and decided to sit down. Rarity began pacing around a tree and Fluttershy stayed quiet. For a few minutes anyway.

“Um… Don’t you think we should help Applejack? I mean, it’s been a little while. Don’t you think she should have been here by now?”

Rarity stopped her pacing. “Perhaps you’re right. We should go back to look for her.”

Rainbow jumped to her hooves. “I knew we shouldn’t have left-!” She was cut off by a thud. The three ponies turned their heads towards where they had come from. On the ground lied Applejack.

Simultaneously, the three cried, “Applejack!” and rushed over to their friend. Rainbow Dash immediately pushed Applejack to her hooves, but Applejack slumped over against her.

“AJ! What happened to you?!” Rainbow asked with heavy concern, motioning her friend forward. With Rainbow as support, Applejack was able to walk ahead with her.

“You look like you’ve been through a really bad nightmare!” Rarity added.

“Ugh, I don’t even-“ Applejack started weakly. “I just need to rest…”

Rainbow guides her forward towards the closest tree. She pushes off Rainbow and practically crashes against the tree, sliding down it. She turns herself so her back rests against the bark of the tree and removes her sticky hat, placing it on her lap.

“So, darling, mind telling us what happened?” Rarity asked. Fluttershy walked over, holding bandages in her snout. Applejack lifted her wounded leg slightly towards Fluttershy, allowing her to bandage it. “Just start from the beginning…”

Applejack sighed and wiped her forehead with a hoof. She began to explain what occurred in the few minutes she was gone as best she could. Her description was a bit fuzzy, but it was enough for the three ponies to understand what mostly happened. By the time she was done, Fluttershy had finished cleaning and bandaging her leg.

“Thanks sugarcube…” Applejack said with Fluttershy nodding in a way to say “You’re welcome.” Applejack sighed again and pressed her head against the tree. Rarity and Rainbow weren’t sure what to say, so a long pause ensued. Applejack spoke up again to break it.

“So where’s Pinkie?”

“HERE I AM!” Pinkie Pie yelped out, appearing from the tree branches upside-down. All the ponies jumped in surprise. Pinkie Pie just smiled from the tree.

“Pinkie- Where did you go? And why are you in a tree?!” Rainbow Dash asked, causing Pinkie to laugh.

“Oh Dashie,” she started, playfully calling Rainbow by her nickname. “I went to figure out where we are! See, I snuck away and walked down the road we crossed and found this information center. I’m not sure why it’s in the middle of nowhere, but I went in anyways to ask for directions. There was only one, like one of those creatures we saw earlier, so I said “HI!”, but then he gasped loudly and fainted. A little disappointed, I decided to just take a map of the area and leave a bit on the counter!”

The ponies were unsure of what to say, so Pinkie Pie continued.

“See? I have a map!” She pulled a map out from, seemingly, nowhere and dropped it. Rainbow Dash grabbed it and read the cover.

“’Welcome to England… Your Essential Map.’ Pinkie, what in the hay is this?”

“It’s exactly what it says!” she replied. “Now to answer your second question, I don’t remember why I’m in this tree. I just am!” She flips over and jumps from the tree, landing next to Rainbow. She takes her saddle bags and puts them on her back again. Rainbow opens up the map completely, dropping her jaw.

“Wow that’s a lot of land…” she sighed.

“However are we ever to cover this area? We don’t even know where to go! Where to start!” Rarity said, somewhat annoyed.

“How about we don’t look and we all just go home?” Fluttershy suggested.

All the ponies turned their heads towards her, who then looked away embarrassed.

“We have to look! We won’t be able to get home if we don’t find the Elements!” Rainbow said.

Fluttershy meeped quietly. Rarity sighed. “But like I said, where?

“Maybe we can use Twi’s fancy Element of Magic crown to help us…” Applejack suggested. “It seems to have helped her magic a lot.”

“Maybe…” Rainbow Dash said in thought. “But she’s out cold right now! Her crown is useless if she’s not awake!”
But as if on cue, the crown atop of Twilight’s head began to glow brightly. The map began to glow as well. Everyone just watched in awe as a purple circle was marked around a city on the map. The glowing ceased on both the map and crown.

“London?”

“That looks like a big city…”

“That still doesn’t tell us where we are!”

“I think we’re… HERE!” Pinkie pointed to the western side of the land mass, near the mountains.

“How would you know that?” Rainbow asked.

“Well this is the only area with mountains, DUH!”

The rest of the ponies sighed. “So we’re several hundred miles away from this city. Great! It’ll take us days to get there!” Rainbow said, frustrated.

“There just has to be a quicker way of getting there.”

And then there was a flash. All the ponies disappeared from their location near the woods.
--------

All six ponies suddenly appeared on top of a bridge. Most were confused about what just happened. Taking in their surroundings, they noted what they had been transported to. A bridge. A large bridge that looked similar to a castle.
Expanding their view, the ponies looked in awe at the sight before them. Off in the distance, they could see a huge ferris wheel lit up in a bright blue color. More important, all around them was a beautiful, lit up city, bustling with activity even in the dead of night. More activity meant more of those machines moving throughout the roads of the city. That probably meant more of those animals.

“Wow, the view…!”

“The height…!!”

“Oh, it looks simply marvelous!”

“Reminds me of the time I was in Manehattan…”

“WOOHOO!”

“Where am I?”

The five ponies flinched at the last voice. Looking over, they saw Twilight, conscious and a bit woozy.

“What happened? How long was I out?” she asked, rubbing her eyes. “And why are we on top of a bridge?”

Her friends shrugged. “We’ll explain when we get off this bridge,” Rarity said, motioning towards an open window. The ponies walked across the pathway carefully, take extra caution as to not fall, and made their way to the window. Rainbow Dash assisted Applejack across the bridge, Applejack sporting her hat again. Each pony climbed through the window one at a time. Once through, the ponies did their best to explain the situation to Twilight. It took several minutes, but they were able to describe what happened without any problems. Twilight sat on the floor, thinking to herself.

“The magic in the crown must be able to detect the location of the Elements of Harmony. Rainbow, you said when you had the map, the crown circled the city and teleported us to it, right?

Rainbow Dash nodded. “Then we should find a city map of this ‘London’. The crown might be able to pinpoint the exact location of each Element, which we can then retrieve.”

“I’m on it!” Pinkie said, starting for the stairs, but her tail was stomped on by Twilight.

“Hold on there party pony. We’re not done. We still need to discuss when we’ll act. From what you guys told me, it seems those animals are pretty dangerous. We should only go out at night, when there’s less activity. This city is pretty big and it looks like there should be more activity than there actually is. So we’ll only move around at night, that way it will be harder to be detected.” Everyone nodded in agreement.

“Pinkie, you can go find a map, but be careful. Take Rainbow with you.”

“On it Twilight! Let’s go Dashie!” Pinkie Pie said in a bubbly manner, skipping down the stairs.

Rainbow Dash sighed. “Do I have to go with her? I mean, she’s my friend, but-“

“No ‘buts’ Rainbow. She might need you in case you get in to trouble, but I hope you don’t. You two be careful.”

“Careful. Wha- When am I not careful?”

Twilight raised an eyebrow.

“Fair enough,” Rainbow Dash said before flying down the stairs after Pinkie Pie.

“So what are we to do here?” Rarity asked.

“I guess we’ll just have to wait for them and then we’ll plan out something.”

Rarity sighed and sat down, as did the rest of the ponies. They didn’t wait long however as ten minutes later, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash returned through the window with a city map. Twilight and the rest of the group stood to greet them.

“Excellent! Now we just need the- Wait, why did you two come through the window again?”

“Well, you see-“ Rainbow Dash started.

“We walked out the door and away from the bridge, but I guess one of those creatures got scared or really confused and crashed its machine into another machine. We got a map, then came back to go through the door, but there were more animals dressed up as police, so we decided to go through the window instead.”

Twilight connected her hoof with her face. A drop of sweat rolled down Pinkie Pie’s head.

“Sorry?”

“Ugh, now there might be more who will be looking for us. Never mind, let’s just see if this will work.”

Pulling the map away from Pinkie with magic, Twilight opened up the map and placed it flat on the floor. She stood over it for a moment, but nothing happened.

“I don’t understand,” Twilight said, annoyed. “Rainbow, I thought you said-“

“I did!” Rainbow responded quickly. “It happened when I was holding it…”

She stepped forward and placed her hoof on the map. The map and crown began to glow as it had previously. Similar to before, a purple circle was made on the map. Twilight gasped happily.

“It’s working! Fluttershy, you next!”

One by one, each pony stepped up and touched the map. Like the first time, the map was marked with a circle, designating a different area of the city. By the end, the map had five marks. Twilight, pleased with the progress, folds the map up and places it in her saddlebag.

“That should do nicely. We should be able- Wait, where’s my book?”

The ponies exchanged glances with each other.

“What book Twi?” Applejack asked.

“Ugh, a book I took from my library! It’s gone! It had some important spells in it!” Twilight groaned in frustration.

“Calm down Twilight! It’s just a dusty old spell book! I’m sure you could easily get a replacement.”

“I’d have to go to Canterlot to get a replacement.”

“Oh Twilight, I’m sure Princess Celestia would happily send you another book. You are her ‘most faithful student’ after all!” Pinkie said, her toothy grin still tacked to her face. Twilight sighed.

“Since we’re talking about belongings, um, I don’t remember Applejack carrying one saddle bag,” Fluttershy pointed out.

Applejack quickly checked her sides to find that she did in fact have a missing saddle bag. She hit her head against the wall, upset.

“Ah probably dropped it running away from those… things.”

“Alright, alright,” Rarity cut in. “We lost things, but they’re replaceable. What’s not replaceable are those Elements of Harmony. Princess Celestia is counting on us after all!”

Twilight looked out the window.

“We’ll have to do it tomorrow…”

Outside the window, the sun was rising. The ponies looked a bit defeated. They’d have to start their search the following evening.
-----------

Up on the hill, Wallcroft rolled over and struggled to his feet.

“Burns!” he called out, searching for his comrade. Wallcroft looked down the hill to find Burns just getting to his feet as well. His pistol, one USP .45, was out and had been fired.

“Did ya get it?” Burns shook his head in reply. “Damn… Do you even know what they thing was?” Another head shake.
“Alright, let’s head back to that crash site. Maybe there’s something over there.”

The two went to their truck and strolled over to the area where they had seen the “meteor”. They stopped near the end of the dirt trail and exited the vehicle. Carefully inspecting the area, they searched for any clues of what attacked them. Wallcroft threw his arms up in frustration.

“Well, there’s nothing here! No rock or indication of anything going down! Not even a plane!”

“I wouldn’t be so sure… I got something,” Burns said, kneeling down. Wallcroft walked over and Burns held up a book.

“What the hell is that?”

“’Intermediate Spells for Unicorns: Defensive and Combative Spells’. I have no idea.”

“You don’t think those things were…?” Burns shrugged. “This is weird… C’mon, let’s head back. We need to get back to Hereford before tomorrow.”

The two head back to their truck, taking the book with them. They turned around and headed back towards the road, but as Burns drove, something caught Wallcroft’s eye.

“Burns, stop!” he commanded.

Burns slammed the brakes, the truck skidding across the grass to a halt. Wallcroft quickly got out, grabbed something, and ran back. He reentered the truck holding what appeared to be a shoulder bag, but the straps were configured in an odd way. The bag had some blood stained on it.

“We’ll figure it out later. Drive.”

Burns pressed his foot against the accelerator and the truck continued forward towards the road.

Welcome to London.