//------------------------------//
// Chapter 3: The Beasts of Everfree 
// Story: Friendship is Universal 
// by DudeBroBrony 
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Chapter 3: The Beasts of Everfree


"Wha- What happened?"

Ray Hernandez slowly begins to wake up. Thast thing he can remember is a bright purple flash and a high pitched shreiking sound. He's not one hundered percent sure, but he thinks he head alarms from behind him as well. From the ground he begins to look around him. There's dirt under him and dark green leaves surrounding him as well. It looks somewhat like Earth, but no...that can't be possible. With caution Ray begins to sit himself up using his arms. Thats when he realises his oxygen mask isn't on his face. Panic ensues quickly as Ray starts crawling around the forest floor searching for his mask. 

"Hey, looks like you've finally come to."

Arnold Packer, aka Agent Orange, approches the panicing Ray with an ammused smile. Not only is his mask gone as well, but there's a cigar hanging from his mouth.Ray just looks at him for a moment, the panic finally starting to disipate.

"What happened? Did we make it? What happened to our masks?"

"Calm down Ray. Yeah, we made it. We're breathing fine so we don't need them masks. That's not the trouble."

Ray's eyes go a bit wider than they already were.

"Th-there 's trouble?"

"Can't find Alpha or Beta Team. The Comm system ain't workin' no more. And the Tear closed behind us. So we're stuck here."

Ray's panic kicks back up again as he jumps up to his feet. This can NOT be happening.

"No...nononono, it can't just disappear like that! It was stable as we went through it! It can't just disappear like that!"

His panicing is starting to make Ray's voice rise. Arnold takes a step forward and gives Ray a hard slap to shut him up.

"You were trained for this! Don't you dare quit out on me. You and I both know the protocol for when this happenes. We stick to the mission while the white coats on the Other Side work on reopening the Tear. Now come on we have to get out of here. Heard some noises that I'm going to consider 'unfriendly'."

With the slap and the orders Ray becomes speechless. All he can do is nod in agreement. With shaky hands Ray picks up his pack strapping it back on his back and follws Arnold deeper into the forest.


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"Are we there yet? Are we there yet? Huh? huh? Are we?"

Pinkie Pie begins hopping around in circles as the rest of the ponies travel with the Royal Guard follwing Celestia.

"Not yet Pinkie."

Twilight tries to get Pinkie to clam down, but it's of no use. Just by looking at her it's quite easy to tell she's nervous of whats happening in the Everfree Forest. Rarity prances forward by a few extra spaces to catch up to Twilight.

"There's no need to be worried Twilight. Whatever the Princess needs it can't be that bad."

Twilight sighs, and not in a good way.

"But that's the problem Rairty, whenever there's been trouble Celestia has almost never asked us directly. When we faced Nightmare Moon she tried to tell me she was just an old mare's tale. But this time she's sought us out directly and won't tell us what's going on. It's just...not like her to be so uptight like this."

Rarity tries to smile and shake off Twilight's remarks, but deep down inside she knows Twilight is right. 


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"I need an ETA on when we can repair the Tear!"

General Thorne's angry tone echoes throughout the compound. Scientists and Soldiers are running are like mice in a maze. Most of them have no idea of what to do next. Erika wipes a few beads of sweat off her forehead before looking up to Thorne.

"I can't give you a time. When we found the Tear it was already in existance as we built the Compound around it. There's a chance we might not be able to reopen it."

Thorne's fist bashes down on the top of Erika's console. His anger is getting the best of him as his face begins to turn beat red.

"I don't care what it takes! We have the funding and the best damn technology on the planet! You're going to reopen The Tear and you're going to do it in the next 48 hours! Do I make myself clear!?"

Erika looks away from Thorne frozen in fear. The General usually has a calm and collected demenor. Seeing him explode like this is unnerving to say the least. Taking a few short breaths Erika looks back up to the bear red Throne mustering up all the confidence she can. Honestly, it isn't much.

"Y-yes sir. I'll do what I can."

Those cold stern eyes of the General stare into Erika's own eyes instilling pure fear into her. Throne backs away from Erika and her console trying to keep his temper underwraps. His face is slowly begining to turn back to normal, but the veins in his forehead simply will not relax.

"Good."

And with that the General takes his leave. Of he stays within the confines of the Compound much longer there's no telling what his anger would do to him. Erika gives off a sigh of relif before returning to her work. Reopening The Tear in 48 hours...she knows it can't be done.


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"Guards! What happened here!"

Princess Celestia's voice echoed throughout the forest. Twilight's ears immediatly perked up as she began galloping forward with her friends following close behind her. As the group approches the Princess they see two guards in extremely rough shape. One of them looks extremely winded while the other looks as if he's bleeding from his leg. Shinging Armor himself is using his magic to heal the injured guard's leg, but for some reason it's having no effect.

"Princess Celesita! What happened!?"

The Princess doesn't answer her faithful student for a moment. For now she's starring at the center of the clearing at nothing. With a worried sigh the Princess closes her eyes and turns toward Twilight and her friends.

"I'm sorry for having you kept in the dark for so long girls, but I didn't want to cause a panic in Ponyville. Early this morning I recived a letter from our friend Zecora. She wrote of a glowing "Tear" here in the Forest. Knowing Zecora's wisdom I called forth Shinging Armor and his best Guardsmen to accompany me in investiagting the Tear. When we arrived Zecora was nowhere to be found, the the magical occurance she talked about was here in this clearing. I tried to seal it with my magic, but I was unable to effect it. Rather than take the chance of letting grow unchecked I wanted you girls to weild the Elements of Harmony and stop the Tear before it could cause any damage to Equestria. But now...it's vanished."

The girls all look at their Princess in a mixture of worry and curiosity. THey have no idea what to make of all this and resort to looking at eachother speechlessly. 

"B-beasts..."

The wounded guard limps over toward the Princess and the six ponies. Shinging Armor tries to hold him back, but the Wounded Guard fights to move forward.

"From the Tear...strange beasts came through the Tear. They had four legs, but only walked on two. They held these strange black sticks...one of them made a loud noise and hurt my leg. Th-then the Beasts ran into the f-forest...I've heard the noise from their black sticks again..."

The Wounded Guard tries to speak more, but his words are begining to slur and his warnings are now incoherant babbling. Princess Celestia's eyes look even more worried than before. The creatures of the Everfree forest had always been feared in Equestria, but these new beasts seemed to be bearing weapons of some sort. This is exactly what she had feared.

"Guards. You've heard their description. These Bi-pedial Beasts of the Tear will not roam free under my watch. From what we now know their weapons make a loud enough noise to be tracked. Shining Armor will give you further orders."

The Royal Guards salute their Princess and proceed to turn their attention to Shining Armor. The Princess looks back to the girls with a serious look on her face.

"I know this is asking much of you girls, but I would like you all to accompany the Royal Guard on their search. You're all powerful weilders of the Elements of Harmony, plus with your previous feats having you around will boost morale."

Twilight bows in front of the Princess and the rest of the girls follow suit.

"We'd be honored Princess."


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"Well lookie here! Horses! I think."

Agent Orange looks through a pair of binoculars at what seems to be a massive gathering of pastel colored horses. He can't begin to belive what he's looking at. Some of them even seem to be wearing armor. And it almost looks like they're talking.

"What?"

Ray looks up in disbelif before looking through his own binoculars.

"No way...how...I don't even..."

A devious smile appears on Agent Orange's face as he puts down his binoculars and brandishes his gun. Ray is too captivated by the horses in the clearing to notice.

"Man, I havn't gone hunting in years!"

"H-hunting?"

Ray turns his head at Arnold as his lines up a shot. His eyes go wide as he charges at his partner, aiming to take him down before he can fire. He collids with Arnold as the shot goes off. It's deafening sound echos througout the forest causing a series of birds to fly off in terror.

A single scream of pain echoes from down in the clearing.


End Chapter 2