A man called Peter finds himself in Equestria with nothing but his 2 friends and liquid metal in his blood. How will he cope in this strange new world?
Peter finds himself stranded in Equestria with no knowledge of how he got there and with just his 2 friends, liquid metal and only the ghosts of his memories as the reminders of his previous world. Watch as he slowly pieces together the puzzle that is his past life piece by piece.
As I ran through a thick, dense forest the sound of yells caught my attention. I swivelled my head around but in doing so tripped on a tree root. As I stumbled to the ground I groaned in pain trying to pick myself off the ground but succeeded in stumbling to it instead. I spoke in a hoarse whisper to my holographic wrist watch and said my first words in hours.
"KITT You there, "I asked receiving no reply. I tried a different tactic and tried to contact my other companion,
"How about you Allie"? I questioned in my mind, but yet again was met with no response. My heart dropped as all my hope disappeared. I had no means of help, injuries riddled my body and worst of all I was outmanned a 100 to 1. I slumped to the ground in defeat, a sudden wave of fatigue taking over my body. I slowly let my eyes droop and let my breathing slow. Just before passing out I heard many loud voices fill the air around me before a bright flash of light lit up my eyelids, then nothing.
Meanwhile In the Everfree Forrest
As the sun rose over the magical land of Equistria an eerie silence fell over an area of the land. An area that filled the locals with dread: the Everfree Forest. The silence stretched on for miles and not even the early morning birds tried to break it. A disturbance had covered the forest and all the creatures in the Everfree could feel it. It was an unnatural, almost otherworldly disturbance. Time seemed to slow down as a light pulsing could be seen just on the edge of the forest, a pulsing that seemed to gain speed and energy every few seconds. Then with an almighty BANG and a bright flash of light the pulsing stopped. In its place a smoking crater was all that was left. Well that and a strange bipedal creature. The event went unseen and unheard by the locals. That is, except for one. A butter yellow Pegasus with a pink mane and a white rabbit by her side.
The sun peeked over the mountain tops, and a certain Pegasus was readying up for another regular day, or so she thought. As she removed herself from her warm bed she stretched out her wings and let out a yawn.
"Ok Angel it's time to go feed your friends," she said with a sleepy smile. Her bunny companion just glared at her and rubbed his stomach furiously. Fluttershy noticing this sighed.
"I know you’re hungry but we should feed some of the others first, shouldn't we?" she asked in her usual quiet tone. The bunny just responded by flailing his arms towards the other animals and rubbing his stomach so quickly it’s a wonder he didn't combust.
"Now angel how many times have I told you that you are not more important than your other animal friends" she asked. The bunny seemed to ignore her comment. This small argument went on for a record of 2 minutes before angel came out as the victor. But before he could celebrate, an almighty bang shook the entire room. With a small ‘eep!’, Fluttershy hid under the bed shaking in fear. She sat there quivering in fear for what seemed like hours. As her head popped out from under the bed her entire body soon followed suit. With all the courage she could muster she took a peek. What she saw pulled at her heartstrings. A bipedal creature resembling an ape lay in a smoking crater outside. It was hairless except for a little tuft on its head. It wore a strange set of garments that were currently torn and appeared heavily injured.
"Oh my…" was all she could manage in a hushed tone. She wanted to help it but she didn't know if it was danger or not. If it were dangerous she could get hurt but if she didn't help it could die. As she sat there contemplating it struck her.
"I know I'll go gather up Twilight and the girls and see if we can get help for that poor thing." she said with a rarely seen confidence. Then with the speed of a hurricane she galloped out of the house in search of her friends.
As my senses returned, I groaned quietly. I tried activating my body damage counter (or ‘B.D.C’ for short), but it was for whatever reason disabled. Without my B.D.C I couldn't tell how badly I was hurt. I tried lifting my arm to contact KITT but upon doing so saw the extent of my injuries. Burn marks riddled my arm and there were no signs of my holographic watch. If the watch wasn't showing and my B.D.C was disabled there was only conclusion: KITT was inactive. With no known help to come, I tried my last ditch effort in desperation. As I started pulling it to my body I felt a sense of relief knowing it was still functional. As it re-joined I felt it begin the healing all my injuries with a comfortingly familiar numb and tingly sensation. But shortly after the process started, I was forced to stop.I immediately went limp again, as if I was unconscious. As the voices neared, I heard them go silent in what I could only guess was shock. I lay there for what seemed like hours before they spoke.
Voices
"What is that?" said a very tomboyish voice.
"Ah don't know but whatever it is it sure looks weird…" said a rather feminine, southern voice which reminded me of a cowgirl.
"Well whatever it is, its owners had a poor sense in fashion!" exclaimed a British sounding voice.
"But how would you know it has owners Rarity?" questioned the southern voice.
‘Rarity’ retorted "I mean, look: surely no creature would have the skills to make such tightly woven clothing."
"Well whatever it is I hope it likes parties!" squealed a very high pitched voice that hurt my ears.
"Pinkie, apes don't have parties." said a new voice, one that sounded more intelligent than the others.
"Oh I don't think it’s an ape, Twilight," replied a soft sounding voice. "I mean, I have heard of some apes losing their hair, but this is different…" she said matter-of-factly.
"Well whatever it is, I've never seen one before in my life" ‘Twilight’ replied. After saying so, a faint noise sounded, followed by a rather loud gasp. The girl called Twilight started talking but with a stutter "Bu-bu-bu-but that's not possible!"
"What's not possible Darling?" asked Rarity.
Twilight responded in a shaky voice "That Cr-Cr-Cr-Creature has no magical signature!" I heard them all go so silent you could hear a pin drop.
"Then what do you suggest we do with it Twi?" questioned the Southern voice.
"I say we should kick it back into the Everfree. I don’t know about you, but it looks dangerous." replied the tomboyish voice suspiciously. I tensed at those words. Were they taking me back?
"But look at how injured it is!" said the softest voice louder than before. "Maybe we can just patch it up then send it back?"
"Now that I think about it… Sorry, didn't mean to upset you Flutters," replied the first voice. She continued "I mean even if it was dangerous it couldn't do much against us now." I finally worked out what was going on: they were taking me back to the facility. This apparent confusion was all just to torment me. As stealthily as I could, I gathered some Telerium around my hand.
"Ah hate to interrupt but what’s it doing?" said the Southern voice I felt all eyes on me, I honed my hearing. I heard one of them breathing heavily to my right. ‘That’s my target!’ I thought to myself. I may not have KITT, but my reflexes were still above average. I let the Telerium stay in its liquid state so they couldn't tell what I was doing. Then my eyes snapped open and I lunged to the right at something yellow, solidifying the Telerium to form a blade. As I wrapped the blade around its neck I shouted a threat. "Don’t move! Or I will be forced to kill her!"
We were at a Mexican standoff. Seeing them for the first time surprised me. They were ponies: real, talking, colourful ponies, that looked vaguely familiar. There were six of them: two pegasi, two unicorns, and two normal. They were all crouched in battle stances, the two unicorns flaring their horns. The one I held in my hand was one of the Pegasi. From the earlier conversation, I managed deduced who I was holding was called ‘Flutters’. But it was obvious that it was only a nickname. As I put more force on the blade, I heard the pony in my grasp let out a tiny ‘eep!’. We stared at each other for what seemed like hours before one of them spoke up.
"Let her go now!" ordered the one of the Pegasi. She had a cyan blue coat with both her mane and tail the colours of the rainbow.
"Why should I?" I asked, lacing venom into my tone.
"Easy, partner! Don't want to be hitting the hornet’s nest with a short stick now, do you?" replied one of the normal ponies, with a threating tone that failed to affect me.This one was an orange pony, wearing a Stenson hat. With her hair in a ponytail of all things!
"Why hit a hornet’s nest, when you can shoot it?" I said calmly. I could feel the pony in my grasp shake in fear.
"How can you shoot it without a crossbow, silly?" giggled the pink one. I stared at her in confusion before shaking my head. Then the purple one stepped forward. This one had a lavender coloured mane and tail, with a pink highlight running through them. She was clearly the leader of this little group, looking at me right in the eye before speaking.
"I am Twilight Sparkle, protégé to Princess Celestia and wielder of the Element of Magic." She glared at me, as if waiting for a reaction. But my face stayed still as a rock. As this little ‘conversation’ went on, I had been slowly pulling all of the Telerium into me. Telerium, the thing that had forever changed my life. To put it simply, Telerium was liquid metal; able to form weapons, speed my healing and do a whole bunch of tricks. I had been slowly gathering it into my body but not yet activating it. As we stared at each other, I noticed the Pegasus who I had nicknamed "Rainbow" look at me with a smirk of amusement. She noticed me looking but that seemed to only increase her amusement.
I asked in a confused tone "What’s so funny?" She then flipped onto her back in mid-air as if lying on a bed casually. She looked at her hooves as if searching for imperfections.
She bluntly replied "You must be stupid," My eyes just narrowed as she continued.
"I mean look at you: you’re injured and look like you don't have the energy or the will to fight!" she pointed out triumphantly. She grinned, looking over at me. But that grin slowly faded as I put on my own.
"Are you sure about that?" I questioned. As they stared at me confused, a silvery colour covered any injured areas of my body. I sighed as I felt the pain from the injuries dull to an ache and let the liquid metal melt into me. They gasped in shock as they saw my body, completely healed. One of the unicorns spoke, this time a light grey almost white unicorn with a styled purple mane spoke.
"What sort of beast are you to have such dark magic?" She asked in a scared whisper.
I chuckled and replied with a sarcastic dark tone "The kind that will haunt your nightmares…”. I didn’t know at what stage their technology was at, but this was no magic. This was science! Experimental science, maybe, but certainly not magic. They all stared at me in shock, the sarcasm clearing a good AU* over their heads. Twilight Sparkle seemed to regain her composure first and dropped into a battle stance, the glow of her horn returning.
"Well then beast, it's time to meet your maker!” She fired some sort of energy beam at me. I watched it approach me as if in slow mo, confused. Then it hit like a jolt of lightning. Pain shot through my body for the second time this a day. It seemed to reach from the tips of my toes to the top of my head. I fell to the ground as my body convulsed, before my senses faded into the darkness.
Shortly after the creature fell unconscious,
They all stared wide eyed at Twilight. Their gaze switched over to Fluttershy, who was still shaking in absolute terror. They ran over to her embracing her in a hug.
"Are you alright there, sugar cube?" asked Applejack.
"That brute didn't possess you did he?" questioned Rarity, horrified. Their only response was a small squeak as she tried to curl up and become as small as possible.
"Yep that's our ‘shy!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie.
"Pinkie, be quiet! Flutters has just been through a traumatising event, and she's the least qualified for them! No offence…" rebuked Rainbow Dash.
"Sorry Fluttershy, I didn't mean to upset you." apologised Pinkie. Meanwhile Twilight was in deep thought. She stared at the creature, worried to scan in case she became corrupted. It seemed to be intelligent and have some form of dark magic; healing that quickly was just too difficult without exerting more energy than a non-magical being can provide. This creature didn't even break a sweat! However, how could it even perform magic if it didn't have a horn? And if it had dark magic, how was it so easily defeated by a basic offensive spell?! Furthermore, why did it seem to have no magical signature?!? She had so many questions, and yet, no answers. She always got frustrated when she has no answers… Then she had an idea, which now that she thought about it, was rather obvious. Turning to her friends she cleared her throat to grab their attention. They broke the hug.
"Girls, we need to take this thing to the Princess." she replied, getting straight to the point.
"But whatever for, darling?" asked Rarity rather confused.
"Well it seems to have powerful magic yet it has no horn!" Twilight exclaimed, clearly frustrated. The 5 ponies (and 1 unconscious human) didn’t seem to understand.
Twilight continued "And there is only one creature that has that much powerful magic, but no horn." They all looked at each other with looks of realisation, which shifted into horror. Only one being existed like that, and he nearly overthrown Celestia herself. They all simultaneously replied. "Discord.”
*AU: Astronomical Unit. That is the average distance between Earth and the Sun. In other words, 149 597 871 Kilometers.
Peters POV I raised my head groggily, groaning in pain. I stood to my feet, to find my hands and feet bound by thick cuffs. On my fingers, I had these strange rings. Each ring had some sort of gem and was glowing with a faint aura. The rings seemed to have no effect on me except for a weird, but familiar, tingling. The confusion around me was so thick, that you could almost reach out and grasp it. That is, unless, your hands and feet are bound to the walls of a medieval era dungeon. Only one thing I knew of tingled like that, and that was Telerium. Then it hit me like a freight train. “These cuffs and rings were made of Telerium! Haha! Nice try, but that won’t keep me in here for long.” While I was busy examining the cuffs and rings, I had forgot why I had them on. After testing them, I realised that the Telerium was compatible with me, but I couldn't form it into any usable weapons or items. At least it would help in escaping, I guess. I decided against that until I knew more about what I was facing. As I thought of all the possible dangers, a certain memory stuck out; a memory of 6 pastel coloured ponies. Then it all clicked. I remember trying to harm one of the 6, then being hit by some sort of hi-tech beam. The said beam had rendered me unconscious. While my mind was occupied trying to find all the possible reasons as to why the beam actually worked, I didn't see 2 red lights rolling back and forwards in the darkness. I mean, I have metal in my blood! That should have blocked the beam, right? As I began muttering a list of possibilities (a habit which helps relieve stress), I heard a strange noise. It sounded like gravel being crushed underfoot slowly. I froze, slowly turning to face the noise. When I finished, I saw 2 red lights rolling backwards and forwards slowly, as if in mid air. I stared at them, my heartbeat slowing when I finally recognised the lights. I breathed a sigh of relief, staring straight into the "eyes" of the beast as a smile graced my lips.
"KITT is that you?" I asked quietly. I sat in silence the faint whooshing of the lights the only sound until finally a familiar voice filled my body with relief.
"Yes it is me, Peter." KITT stated. I nearly cried out in joy until I realised where we were.
I quietly looked into the red lights and whispered "KITT, activate connection protocols."
He replied in a teasing tone "Thought you'd never ask!"
Instantly my body was bathed in a blue light, hearing a female voice say "Establishing Connection protocols," in a monotonous voice.
I waited 10 more seconds before the words I had been waiting to hear were spoken. "Connections established, Welcome Peter." Instantly my vision was filled with an almost game like H.U.D (Heads Up Display) with my B.D.C in the bottom left corner and the time in the bottom right. I began sending mental commands; sifting through the vast amounts of info until I reached what I was looking for: Telerium reserves. When I read it, my heart sank. KITT was running on critical levels; unable to switch forms and me being stuck with only one sword and a pistol. Granted, I had indefinite amounts ammo, but I needed at least 30 seconds for the Telerium to return to me to be able to reload my pistol. I was imprisoned with only 2 weapons and 1 way to escape.
I turned to KITT and looked at him questioningly. I heard him sigh and say "Do I have something on my visor?"
"No."
"Then why are you staring at me?" he asked
"How did you end up in this dungeon? “ I asked bluntly
After a short pause, he hesitantly replied “Well, it’s a bit of a long story...”
“We’ve got time.” I informed him, motioning to the dungeon we were in.
3rd Person Meanwhile, back in the Everfree Forest, everything was peaceful. All the daylight critters were sleeping in their nests or burrows, while the nocturnal ones were out hunting or foraging for food. After the events of the hairless ape last night, many of the critters were too frightened to stay outside their shelters, should there have been another one of those in the forest. Since another hadn’t yet been found, they needed to work overtime to make up for the food they didn’t get the night before.
In a clearing, there was a light blue spark, which most of the critters ignored, but didn’t leave unnoticed.
Another one, slightly brighter this time. The critters stopped gathering, and went to investigate the sparks.
Without warning, a massive shower of sparks flew out of the air, scattering the gathered critters. The sparks died down, leaving a light blue orb, slowly inflating like a balloon.
When it finished growing, it hovered in the air, before disappearing in an explosion of the same blue light. Left behind was what looked like the hairless ape, except it was covered from head to toe in silvery gray armour. On his chest, there was a light blue crystal, with slightly darker lines coming from it to every other part of his body. There was not much more to describe about it.
It took off its helmet with a click and hiss. The creature was male; just like the hairless ape, except with different hair and face. His hair was hazel brown and eyes were a deep, sea blue with a small purple tinge.
“Finally! I am home!” he proclaimed, looking around him
“Well, not quite, I don’t think I will join Zecora any time soon.”
“I wonder how Twilight and the girls are doing; I hope they don’t miss me too bad!” He chuckled. He tapped his gauntlet, which came up with a holographic map. It showed several blue dots surrounding him, and the words ‘NO SIGNAL’ plastered in the centre.
“No signal? But how? The only way that could happen is if I’m in an alternate dimension, and the chances of that are...” he trailed off.
The Sugar Cube Corner
“Muffin, I’m coming for you!” said a cross-eyed Pegasus, sitting on a table while eyeing the blueberry muffin hungrily. She was about to eat it, but was startled by a shout from the forest, causing her wing to knock it off the table. “DAMMIT, MURPHY!”
“…scanning this world for Telerium, I encountered the ‘unicorns’ you described. They were all covered in gold armour, which begs the question ‘why?’ They have stronger, lighter and cheaper materials to construct it, so why use gold? Afterwards, they had ordered me to identify myself and state whether I was friend or foe. And since my speaker array was still damaged, you can guess what happened next.” he laughed dryly
“Afterwards, I was hit by a beam which resembled the one you described. But here is the curious part: where did the energy in the beam come from?”
He looked at me expectantly. I blinked and replied dumbly “I dunno, magic? They were unicorns after all.”
He gave me a deadpan stare. “You know as well as I do: the first law of thermodynamics states that energy cannot be created or destroyed in a chemical reaction.”
“Yeah, but we are in a land of Technicolor ponies, and everything that I consider ‘Logic’, has been disprove-“
KITT hushed me with a finger on his lips, and pointed at the door.
You might be asking why we were talking out loud, seeing as we had the mental link and all that. That is because it feels more natural. With all the time I was on the run from ‘The Facility’, I was living in constant fear of being captured and researched. Having people to talk to helps keep me sane. And insanity is something which I never - nor do I plan on – experienced.
I was tempted to ask him why he had interrupted, but he anticipated my question and tapped his ear.
I sent a mental command to enhance my hearing.
I heard a scuffle outside. I sat there listening as it seemed to get closer. I started hearing grunts, groans and cussing. As they got closer I managed to determine that one of the voices sounded female. This continued for an extra 30 seconds until a thud sounded beside me. Then a voice spoke angrily. "I hope y’ rot in there, y’ filthy changeling! Think y’self lucky that Princess Celestia doesn’t execute prisoners anymore…” There was the sound of spit hitting the ground.
“Wow! They must really hate those ‘Changelings’.”
After that I heard the sound of multiple locks sliding into place and a pair of hooves slowly walking away.
I heard the ‘changeling’ mutter "Talk about rude."
I froze “That voice, could it be?”
I grinned widely and decided to have some fun. Sending some mental commands I manipulated my voice. I felt the Telerium flow down my throat and onto my vocal cords, pulling and prodding at them untill my voice would be no more than a rasp.
I then spoke with a fake wheeze and asked "What are you in for?"
I heard the voice stop mumbling and move closer. "I was accused of being a ‘changeling’, whatever that is."
“Yup, that’s her alright!”
"What about you?" she asked back.
I grinned madly and tested the mental link with Alliana, and it was as strong as it would get.
"Oh, nothing much. Just accused of being a beast with some sort of dark magic," I replied nonchalantly through telepathy. The silence grew to the point where you could hear a pin drop. Then I finally heard her ask with a stutter “I-is that you, Peter?"
I brought a small blob of Telerium to my hand and replied “Do you know any other humans who can use Telerium?”
After a short pause, she growled and shot a small yet perfectly aimed plasma blast at the little pool in my hand, vaporising it.
“Hey! I only have so much of that, you know…” shaking my hand to cool it.
“Maybe then you should stop squandering it on voice alteration.”
“She does have a point, you know.” Said KITT.
I mumbled something unintelligible and announced. “Well, now that we are all here, I suggest that we plan what to do next. Personally, I would like to hold off busting out until we find out what we are facing. And besides, KITT is running on ‘Critical’ so we won’t get far anyway.” Alliana nodded “As quiet as I am, a Night Fury would stick out like a sore thumb, and I would bet my tail that we are in the media right now. So everyone would recognise us.”
KITT sighed. “So I guess we wait. We never heard your story of how you got here though.”
She looked away nervously. “It’s a bit of a long story…”
“We’ve got time.” I and KITT said simultaneously, motioning to the dungeon around us. We shared each other a knowing look.
? POV I sat in a tree with my EMR* panels deployed. Jumping dimensions was extremely taxing, and I didn’t want to face a Manticore or a pack of Timberwolves without at least 10% of a tank of Forton Energy. And converting Mana gives me a terrible migraine, so that was out of the question.
I have finished my research on Dimension 10 (placeholder name) after spending 3 days there. The results showed that it was a minor deviation from Dimension 9 (placeholder name), which confirmed the Multiverse theory. I originally thought that there was an error in my Jump due to the chances of me arriving in another Multiverse, but the data collected showed that I was indeed in a different dimension.
After the research was concluded, I attempted to return back to Equus, and I partially succeeded. I am in another derivation of the Equus (that as far as I know, I don’t exist in. This is good news as I won’t have any embarrassing encounters with myself.), despite the improbably small chances. At this moment. I am sitting in a tree in the Everfree. I am currently weighing my options right now: should I remain in here, hidden and survive on synthesised food until I recharge enough to attempt another jump, or reveal myself to Ponyville.
The pros of staying in the Everfree are that the chances of me being discovered are rather low, and when I leave no one will be any wiser.
The Cons are that there is still a chance of me being discovered, and that the leaves block most of the sun so I am only capturing UV light right now, so it will take a lot longer to recharge. Plus I will need to use Atomic Manipulation to synthesise food and water, so that will add to the recharge time.
The pros of going to Ponyville are that I will have direct sunlight, decreasing the amount of time it will take to recharge, and I should be able to buy some food and water, removing the need to synthesise it. I might also be able to get donations of Mana to help recharge even faster.
The cons are that there is no telling how Ponyville will react. Last time I had the support of Celestia to prevent panic, but this time I am on my own. Then there is Rainbow Dash and Twilight. Rainbow Dash will likely try to fight me, and Twilight will badger me with questions; with neither being desirable.
I also remember sensing remnants of an unknown energy. It is not Harmonic, Magical, Chaos, Chaotic, Forton, Artron, Electrical, or any other kind I have encountered. Perhaps I am not alone?
I will sleep on this, and decide tomorrow.
End log
I sighed and switched off the music. I had Pinkie promised to Twilight back in my world that I would return by day 75, and as reality bending as Pinkie can be, I doubt that even she can pierce the cosmic veil. But when I return, will Pinkie make me pay for breaking the promise?
I involuntarily shuddered.
Or will she understand the circumstances of me breaking the promise
I chuckled to myself. “That is a problem for tomorrow.”
I switched off my HUD, enabled the proximity alarm, and closed my eyes.
Editors bedroom
I sat at my laptop, typing this sentence, when a small, pink pony with a puffy mane and tail bounced through my door.
“Ah, Pinkie. I was expecting you…”
“So, what did you want me for, I still have that couples 25th anniversary party to plan!”
“Its about [Redacted].”
“What about him?” she asked, with her head slowly twisting around.
I listened to Allie intently, wanting to learn everything about what had happened. According to her: she had woken up in a sort of alley and stumbled out. Upon looking around she noticed a whole bunch of, and I quote: "pastel-shaded horses of every imaginable colour" staring at her. She stared back and did the most natural thing to her: she morphed into one of them. See, Allie being an animorphagi, she has the ability to change her appearance. While this may sound great, it is used mainly for disguise as she can only copy the look of a creature, not their abilities. Anyway, she copied the body one of them nearby, and changed it to suit more her style. She morphed into one of the normal ponies; without wings or a horn. She had given herself a navy blue mane and tail with a charcoal black coat. She had also changed her eye colour to an bright amber intend of the usual piercing green.
Once she was satisfied she looked like everyone else she just walked off. The ponies mouths were agape and some were even trembling in fear. She didn't pay that much heed until one of the ponies yelled
"CHANGELING!" then ran off screaming. After that all hell broke loose. Ponies were screaming and running around trying to find somewhere to hide. She was mildly surprised that they could talk. But knowing "The Facility" and their ability to do the impossible, she didn’t pay it any mind and continued walking. She only got about 2 metres before a loud voice commanded her to:
"HALT!"
She turned around slowly and noticed a line of about 8 of the ponies wearing armour. The unicorns had their horns pointed to her and the others their spears. She looked at them and sighed before turning around and changing once again. This time she had become her normal form. A night fury with piercing green eyes. She glared at them before taking to the sky. She lazily glided over the city before landing in a alley taking her newly acquired pony form. She trotted out but froze. There were three of the ponies; two Pegasi and a Unicorn. They were in aggressive stances ready to pounce at the slightest movement. Allie moved to a defensive position when the unicorn spoke.
"You must be rather stupid trying to take on three fully trained royal guards, Changeling!" he spat at her. She remained silent and waited.
"You know, I'm glad I took that extra class on offensive spells, because I've always wanted to do THIS!" he shouted, before he shot a beam . It seemed to travel in slow motion in her perspective before it hit her straight in the chest. Her eyes bulged and she clutched her chest in pain. Another beam hit her in the head knocking her to the ground. She tried scrambling to her feet (hooves?) before another bolt hit her in the chest again. The last bolt did the job, sending her into unconsciousness. The last thing she heard before completely slipping away was
"Damn Changelings... They've gotten stronger..."
Peter's POV
"And that's pretty much my story." Allie finished. I thought it over noticing a connection between our stories rather quickly.
"The beams..." I muttered under my breath.
"What beams, Peter?" asked Allie.
"Those weird energy beams were present in all our stories," I replied.
"You see, I think you were hit by a lower power one, KITT was hit with a really powerful one and I was hit by a normal one." I said pacing backwards and forwards.
"This is all a test by 'The Facility', and we are the Lab-Rats!" There was a brief pause while the two processed this - admittedly - profound bit of information.
"I don't know, Peter. This seems a bit much just to test a weapon." She said skeptically.
"Maybe the weapon is mind based? If it is the same one, then this might explain why we would be in a simulation. If we knew we were in a test, then our minds would resist it. I know mine would..." KITT said sadly. He didn't know his creator, or exactly how he worked. Which for an A.I is quite a difficult thing. He had just booted one day on a beach, before being shut-down by an EMP and rebooting in "The Facility".
"Come to think of it, Peter, Alliana, what are the safe-words we agreed on?"
I paused for a second to remember the word. "Totem."
"Vulture" said Allie
"Noonien Spinner" finished KITT.
We all breathed a sigh of relief, relaxing in the fact that none of us were imposters. A short while later, KITT spoke
"I am starting to doubt that this is an experiment." I raised an eyebrow.
"Why?"
"The hash-check I ran on my sensor system just finished, and it found no modifications. If this is just a simulation, then they have found a really sneaky way to spoof my sensors." I sighed. This conversation might have cleared up a few concerns, but ultimately it added more questions to be answered.
"So, now what?"
"If this is a just civilisation, simulated or not, I guess we wait for our trial." Said Allie I reluctantly nodded in agreement, followed by KITT.
? Perspective
"Computer, how much is the estimated period of active camouflage available until power levels drop below 7%?"
A synthesized voice replied "At maximum camouflage at high intensity adaptation: 10 minutes. Realistic application would be 50 minutes."
I smiled. 50 minutes should be enough to get in, look around, gather some information, and get out. I walked to the edge of the forest. So far, I was lucky. No predator had found me. Perhaps it was because the suit contained, well, my smell. (note to self: take shower ASAP). Anyway, that is a concern for later. I was at the outskirts of Sweet Apple Acres. It was evening, so Applejack and any other helpers should be heading in.
“Activate active camo - low-power mode." I whispered. In 2 seconds, I blurred into the background; even with Pegasus eyes, you could only make out a faint blur with a slight shadow. To remove the shadow, I would have to project light over it, which would use extra power. But with just the moon and the stars lighting the ground up, it isn't worth it. On my HUD, there was a countdown timer ticking down from "00:00:49:36" with a green "LP" next to it. I moved through the apple tree plantation, with an accelerometer based map on my HUD. This was nowhere as good as LPS (Local Positioning System), as it needed to be updated every so often, and it makes teleportation EXTREMELY dangerous. If you teleported just a nanometer into the ground, the theory of relativity would ensure that you teleported into a crater. But at the moment it was the best I had. A short while later, I was at the farmhouse.
"Nice to know it hasn’t changed..." I thought to myself.
"Add to log, titled 'Dimension #10': 'Sweet Apple Acres exterior looks the same.'" I whispered to the Computer.
"Added to log: 'Dimension #10'." Said the computer out loud.
"Dammit!" I breathed, wincing at the voice.
"Reroute all notifications to HUD."A message popped up in my HUD.
"Sorry, rerouted."
I blinked. "Since when did the Computer have a personality?"
"Note to self: Investigate personalities for A.I's"
"Noted." While I was here, I decided to check whether Apple Jack was home. I looked through a couple of windows, but saw that she wasn't inside.
"Interesting... Where could she be?" Just then I saw Big Mac walk past. I froze, hoping he wouldn’t do a double-take. He did.
"Not good..." Thankfully for me, he just did the pony equivalent of a shrug, and continued into the barn. I breathed a sigh of relief.
"That could have went wrong very fast!"
"Computer: activate Medium level camo when I come into a populated area."
"Will do."
I reset my location, and headed to the town square. 5 minutes later, the green "LP" symbol changed to an amber "MP", and the shadow that the LP camo failed to cover nearly disappeared, and the blur where I was became more transparent.The timer also shot down from "00:00:39:40" to "00:00:20:03". I frowned. 20 minutes was going to be a tight fit, even with reverting to LP camo when I leave.
"Kind of wish I finished the 'Perception Filter' module now." The difference between Active Camo and a Perception Filter is that the Active Camo, well, camouflages you. So when you move, it uses power. The Perception Filter makes people think you are not there. This is significantly harder to program and build, and the more people are looking at you, the more power it draws. It also doesn't work when people are actively looking for you. The advantages more than make up for that. When you move, the filter doesn’t have to update, and when no one is looking at you, it has very little power draw. Which would have been very useful in my situation. While I was pondering on how to make the filter, I arrived at the "Golden Oak Library". The lights were already on.
"This will make snooping a lot harder. I hope everyone in there is asleep and/or not paying attention. Otherwise the moment I the handle, I will be rumbled!" I put my head to the door and whispered
"Amplify hearing by 12 Decibels."
"… Twilight, truth or dare?" Said a female voice.
"Ahh, so they are having a sleep-over. And playing spin-the-bottle by the sounds of it. But wasn't that Pinkie’s voice?"
"Truth." Said Twilight’s voice, although it sounded uncertain
"Did you ever..." I decided to save Twilight the humiliation and swiftly opened the door. And just like I was expecting, everypony was looking at me. Or rather, outside the door.
"That is strange, I feel like there is someone outside there, but nothing is there..." Said Twilight. I mentally face palmed. I should have put up a shield around me to block my magical signature, but I didn't have the energy to spare.
"I feel the same. Oh well, it must be the late hour. Mind closing the door, Rainbow?" Asked Rarity.
"Aww, why do I always have to do that?" Whined Rainbow Dash.
"Because..." While they were arguing, I slipped in.
"Just like Hearth's Warming Eve." I mentally sighed.
"GIRLS! This is just like Hearth's Warming Eve!" I raised an eyebrow at just how similarly we thought.
"Hehe... Sorry, I'll get it." Laughed Rainbow nervously. I moved out of her flight path, and sneaked across the room.
"Rarity, it's still here, and it’s moving..." Whispered Twilight
"I know, darling. Don't you have a spell to reveal it?"
"Ooooooh, sugar! This is not good..." She paused.
"Yes, I do." I saw purple light shining in my direction. I froze realizing what she had just done. Three sharp beeps came from my suit, and a warning message that the refraction field had destabilised. I sighed in annoyance able to figure out the obvious. They were all staring at me in silence. There were mixed looks of shock, disgust and anger. I slowly moved towards the door before things could escalate, but a certain prismatic pegasus noticed.
“Where do you think you’re going?” asked Rainbow dropping to a defensive position in front of the door. I tried to move to a window but they seemed to be a step ahead. They were blocking all routes of escape. I felt a twinge of sadness at how hostile my so called friends were to me. But I reminded myself that it was a alternate universe. Applejack and Twilight started advancing to me.I had to get out. The repercussions of getting captured were far too big, and fighting was out of the question. There was one plausible outcome, and I chose it.
“Out.”
“I didn’t mean to come here. I don’t mean to stay. This is just where fate blew me, one unfortunate day.” I see Twilight cock her head in confusion. Applejack opened her mouth. Probably to ask “What d’ya mean by that?”, but I cut her off.“FORTON CONTROL!” I felt the familiar sensation and heard the same sound which indicated a teleport. For 2 seconds my body felt like it was being compressed (which in reality, is more or less true.). The compression stopped, and was replaced with a slight wave of nausea. I re-opened my eyes, and I found myself outside. I whipped my head around hearing cries of surprise and smirked in victory to myself. However a message appeared on my HUD that caused my smirk to drop. The message read:
“Power levels at 7 percent, cloak deactivating.” I cursed under my breath as my cloak slowly melted away. To make matters worse I heard the 6 inside open the door and spot me. However they froze seeing me without the destabilized camouflage, which had made me appear smaller. I used this distraction to run for the Everfree for some shelter. However they were fast to act and quickly followed. I huffed in annoyance knowing that I keep ahead of them for long. What’s worse was that RD could fly much faster than I could run. I did some quick calculations in my head and sighed knowing that this would drain even more power, but the fact that I would escape was worth it.
"Computer: Activate assisted running, 60%."
"Accelerative Forton Energy" started filling up, before it flashed green, and slowly started draining.
When I reached the border of the forest, I had lost Twilight, Fluttershy and Rarity, Pinkie being Faust knows where. I started weaving through some trees, in hopes to lose them. I had night-vision, so unless I fluffed up, I wasn’t going to run into - *SMASH* I glanced behind me, and saw two pairs of orange legs sticking out from a tree.
“Ouch! I hope Applebuck season isn’t on for a while… ‘Cause I don’t think AJ will be up for a couple of day’s.”
"Computer: force activate cloak, front only, low power." The electricity drainage bar turned red, showing that it was at maximum capacity. Anyone ever had half-dead batteries in a remote control and it only worked for a short distance? This is the same situation. At best, I could only stay this way for a minute before the output would be insufficient to power the cloak.As I had guessed, she turned back, and looked around. I couldn’t help but feels smug at my escape. She landed underneath me, and angrily stomped her hoof at the ground.She mumbled something about "...stupid, teleporting aliens...", and flew off.I breathed a sigh of relief, and deactivated the cloak. I waited 10 more minutes but heard nothing else. I still decided against climbing down so I re-converted all the energy I still had left to stable energy and activated the self-clean routine, selecting the shutdown option for the end of it. Before falling asleep I did one more thing.
“Computer,” I said softly
“Yes, Jonah?” It replied.
“Set an alarm for the crack of dawn.”
“Alarm set, Have a good night, Jonah.” I listened to this in confusion. This was the second time that the A.I exhibited a complex personality with feelings, and I definitely don’t remember programming them. This thought plagued my mind until a bigger one came along. Sleep. I let my eyelids droop and drifted away into the land of dreams.
Peter's POV The Next Day I yawned and stretched before lazily standing up. I blinked the crust out of my eye and let my eyes adjust. It wasn't too bright being in a dungeon so it didn't take long for my eyes to adjust. I scanned the area seeing my two friends. One was sleeping while the other was in what we call ’Low Alert Mode’. I sighed and prepared a little message for them. I sent them both a telepathic message with the same words.
“ALRIGHT GET YOUR LAZY BUTTS OUT OF BED WE HAVE AN ESCAPE TO PLAN!” I yelled telepathically. They both jumped which satisfied me in a sadistic kind of way. They slowly started getting up but not without sending a glare my way. I just raised my hands in mock surrender. I heard a huff from beside me and turned to look at Allie. She was currently in her night fury form staring at me with her huge green eyes.
“Yeah, well what about our trial” She asked. I stared at her and sighed.
“What about it?” I asked
“Shouldn’t we wait for it?”
"Should things turn out pear-shaped, and there not be a trial, I would like to have a backup." I replied, with memories of the last few days flashing in my memory.Allie must have picked up those memories. She shrugged.
"Can't see any flaws in that logic."
“Well let’s start off with some good news,” I continued by saying
“The cuffs we all have on are all made of telerium, so actually escaping won’t be too difficult."
"And the bad news?" KITT asked
"We wouldn't get very far as we can't process the telerium and we have only critical amounts of it," I replied.
"So what's the plan?" Allie asked. We sat there discussing a plan for about an hour. There were quite a few, including digging a tunnel, and making a mad-dash during our trial. But they all relied too much on chance. After a short debate, and convincing Allie that escaping was the way to go (we didn't know what a changeling was, but it had bad implications), we all agreed on a plan.
"So once you and I distract them, we run?" Allie said
"Yeah that's right," replied Peter.
"Ok we have a plan when would be suitable to execute it?" Asked KITT. I was about to answer it when the sound of voices came from the stairs. I froze realizing they were coming back down. Then I grinned and sat back against the wall behind me.
“Now would be a suitable time,” I said to them through telepathy. They nodded before pretending to go back to “sleep.” As the voices neared I decided to mess with them lowering my voice slightly. I heard the door to my cell open and waited in the darkness. There was a distinct “clopping” sound as their hooves hit the cool stone floor. I saw them approach and reach up to undo my shackles. But instead I rose to my full height causing them to flinch . They seemed to recover rather quickly and stood up straight once again.
“Princess Celestia will see you for your trial now,” one of them said in a monotone.
“Lead the way,” I said in a voice lower than my own making them flinch again at how demonic it sounded. I heard sighs in my head as I grinned.
“We’ll keep an eye on you, Peter, just to make sure you’re safe,” I heard KITT say telepathically.
“Yes Mom,” I replied sarcastically earning a telepathic snicker from Allie. If KITT had emotions, then I would bet he would have made a quip then. This conversation took around 5 seconds in which the “Ponies” (Which KITT had pointed out during our plans for escape) were waiting for me by the door. I just followed along silently and awaited my trial.
