//------------------------------//
// A new face in town [Rewrite] 
// Story: Gears of War: Down, But Not Out 
// by Helljumper206 
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 Equestria, Castle of Friendship Ponyville


 Starlight Glimmer POV



I didn't know what to think right now. I was about to go pack with Trixie for their journey to my old village when she heard a big commotion coming from the cutie map room. When I opened the doors to Twilight's map room, my eyes were on Twilight and her five friends and one baby dragon sitting in their chairs. Then to the black and blue armor pony with a cherry blond tail sticking out that was lying facedown on the map table.

"What did you guys do?!" I shouted at them while looking at the armored pony. I thought it was a changeling at first with all the black and its big blue bold eyes, but another look at it revealed it was just a pony wearing heavy armor and a unicorn too from the way the helmet was anything with its shape.  

The looks I received from everyone's else was just told her they too stunned by this, if not as dumbstruck as she was. Some looked scared, worried or a little scared.

"Twilight, what happened?!" I shouted again.

Twilight looked over at me then back at the armored pony in front of them. I also noticed Twilight's worried look she had. Her worried look was also on the six other occupants in the room.

"I was just trying out a spell that was similar to the one used on the magic mirror. You know the one in my lab that takes me to that parallel Equestria.  Only this one allows others to see other realities. Not travel to and from them or this?!" Twilight pointed at the armored figure." I was planning on surprising you for when you get back from your trip, so I wanted to test it and put on demonstrations for everypony before showing you." Twilight explained. "But something happened that just now increased the power of my spell and caused this person from its reality to travel through to our reality. What it was I do not know, but now we have a new problem on our hooves."

Just then Pinkie Pie giggled "Silly filly it's on our map not on our hooves. " Said the party mare. Suddenly Pinky Pie let out a loud gasp. "Oh my goodness, I get to plan for a welcome to Ponyville party, a Welcome to Equestria part AND a welcome to our reality party all at the same time!!!" She shouted out loud, followed by a rant of happy squealing. "I never get to host parties like as often as I get! OH this going to be so fun!"

Everypony was looking at pink pony with confusion before just righting it off as just Pinkie Pie.

"'grown' I didn't know afterlife involved so much pain and shouting to get in, but you had me at a party whoever you are?" Said an unknown female voice. 

Collectively as one all of the elements and company turn their attention to the armor being on the table. Lazily throwing an armored hoof to the side of its side and rolling onto its back.







Abigail's POV 



Opening up my eyes, I was met with the most beautiful crystals hanging from what looked like tree roots forming out of the ceiling into the most amazing light fixture gear had ever seen. 
And I've seen some beautiful pieces of artwork when pulling guard duty for high nobles and council members.

"Wow... That's a very pretty chandelier." I said while examining the ceiling.  

"Well at least she has a good sense room décor, unlike her choice in 'bizarre' fashion," said an unknown voice. 

'Who was that?'

"My choice of-?!  Oh hell no, what never seen a G-" That was all I could let out before my brain paused at the sight in front of me. I was about to call out the 'who,' who insult of my armor. As being one of the very few who still wears them openly without giving a flying fuck what the higher-ups say to her about it. As such I've always been self-conscious about it. Now to the 'what' I was talking to that insulted my armor is what made me go derp. 

Right in front of me was a creature that I have never thought I'd see in my life. It reminded me of some farm animals, houres I think they were called, only smaller. But its coat was pure white without a smudge of dirt on it and had a purple curly hair over its head. And the eye's; they're huge for something its size. As my mind started to reboot slowly, I didn't know what to think. 'Do I shoot it because of it's not being human or hug it for how super cute it looks, and is that a horn?!' I thought. It looks like something every little girl would want for their fourth birthday. 

I then hear someone close by cleared their throat, snapping me out of my stupor, I began to take notice of my surroundings. I was in the was totally surrounded by more of the same type of creatures but in all of the colors of the rainbow. Hell one did have a rainbow on its head. I was also on some shiny crystal table in the brightest and crystallized like room in existence.  
It took every ounce of mental strength not to freak out. If it were Locust, I wouldn't hesitate in shooting them. But these things didn't look like anything like those ugly worms and weren't trying to kill me 'yet.' I added. Hell, the pink one next to one with the curly purple head was giving me a friendly and unusably large smile as it waved with one of its limbs. 

I found its face to be very expensive, and human-like. The look in its eyes was something I hadn't seen in a long while, innocence. 

Not wanting to feel rude to the friendly pink horse creature I decided not to be rude. 'Hey, I'm dead, why the hell not?' Lifting my arm to greet the cut furry being my mind quickly goes blank again when I get a look at my hand or lack of the said hand.

I could only stare at the limb. Where an armored hand should be, was something that wasn't possible. What held in front of me was an armor stump with a thin rubber bottom not unlike the soles of my boots. Under normal circumstances, I would've panicked. Luckily for me, this wasn't anything but normal. As such, I did the only sensible.

"HHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA MY HAND'S GONE!!" I screamed/panicked/shouted.

My panic caused me to fall back and off the table landing herself between a butterscotch colored one and the rainbow head one. Tumbling head over backward made me do an epic face plant on the floor, which was also made of crystal. My head was the first thing first thing that made hard contact, followed by my helmet popping off and rolling away. 

I could hear the little horse creatures rushing around me, whether to surround me and attack me while I'm down or just wanting to keep an eye on me, I don't know. I then hear them gasp in surprise at something they saw. Feeling my helmet had fallen off to reveal my face was probably what it is I guess. But I didn't care my hand is suddenly gone, I have no idea what's going on, and now my face hurts. Pulling my face off the ground, I found the floor to be very clean. I rare commodity nowadays, and it was so clean I could make out my.... what?

Right under me where my reflection was supposed to be was gone. No more was there a Gear in full battle dress Onyx armor. No more was they're a pale face with short dirty cherry blond hair. In it's sted was a peach coated horse with a short choppy cherry blond mane. 

The fall had knocked me out of my little panic attack only to be put in stun silence at what reflected below her. Right there looking back at her was another one of the creatures. Just this one was staring right back at her in what she assumed to be what seemed like the onyx guard armor made for them. Its face was covered in little peach furry coat narrow with a muzzle in the middle. It's big ears that were slightly concealed behind its messy cherry blonde hair. Then there was the unnaturally large emerald eye's it has above its muzzle with a spiral horn on its forehead.

"What am I?" I said out loud as I look into the dark emerald eyes staring back right at her. Same color as her and her mother.

"Um, excuse me?" A young female voice said. 

Looking up I saw that I was at the at the center of attention of all the strange creatures.

"Are you alright?" Said one of the creatures.

My eye's focused on the lavender one with the horn and wings. She had a dark blue hair on her head with a pink stripe going her hair. "Please don't panic, you're safe, and nothing is going to harm you. Girls give her some space." She ordered the rest that was gathering around me, although a bit more slowly with the rainbow head and the blond cowboy hat wearing creatures. As they seem a little more cautious about me, they slowly backed away, giving me some much-needed space for which I was thankful and now got a good look at all of them. They stood on all fours, and they all either had wings, horns or neither of them. I then looked at each of them as they sat there looking at me and I them.

The lavender one must be the leader by the looks of things. She was slightly bigger than the rest of them but not by much. Also maybe having both a horn and wings gave her more important feel above the others. That and an aura that spoke of leadership. Kind of reminding me of a young lieutenant that works on the logistical side of things. 

There were two more of them that had just horns on their heads. One was the white one with long curly hair that I saw first, and the other was light purple with a darker shade hair on top with a teal color stripe in it.

There was also two that didn't have the wings or the horns. One looked like I could be related to it in colors department with its orange fur, blond hair with same green eyes like mine. It also had brown stinson on its head, similar to the one uncle would use to wear when he was off duty, only his was black. The other one was pink with pink and more pink. It had a big goofy smile on and looked like it wanted to say something if the look she was giving me with those big baby blue eyes it had told me anything.

Then there was the two with wings. A butterscotch yellow one with a long pink hair was taking cover behind a crystal chair with a fearful look. The other one was demonstrating that their wings weren't just for show, and was hovering a few feet above the others with a control of a King Raven pilot would have. Its coat was the color of the sky but that hair and tail, holy shit they got tails too! 'Do I have a tail?' I wondered.

Taking my eyes off the group in front of me for a moment to look at my behind for a check. Also happy to see that my Lancer and Longshot were still attached to the magnetic holsters and the sub pistol on my hip holster. Looking down more past my weapons low and behold there for all to see was a cherry blond tail sticking out of my butt.

"Holy shit, I got a tail too..." Looking back at the group in front of me, the need for questions to be answered needed to be quick became more time looking. I have even more questions would pop into my head to the point I'll go nuts. And I was going to get them one way or another. Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and exhaled. Then repeated the notion till I was calm enough said to the point I can talk with my voice won't do anything funny. When that was done, I opened my eyes to see I was still in color horse land. 'Well got to get some answerers and sitting here isn't going to do anything.' 

"Ok, I'm going to ask some questions, and I better get some fucking answers, understand." They all visibly recoiled from my swearing but also for getting my point across at how serious I was. Receiving nods from all of them. One looked like she wanted to speak but I was short on time and quickly asked the first question. 

"Alright, let's get the fundamental questions down first before my head goes's further down the rabbit hole. Who and what are you?" 

The Lavender one with the horn and wings came forward to introduce them. "H-hello, my name Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and barrier of the element of magic also we are called ponies. I'm an Alicorn pony" she said with a smile.

'OH. WOW.' Was all the I could think about what I just heard, it took all my strength, not to crack a smile or laugh at how ridicules her name, and tides were. Also 'ponies'? Magic!? Am I actually talking to intelligent horses? I didn't know what to think about that. Whatever the end result of this, I feel like I'm going to need one hell of a stiff drink after this. Then again it was a lot better than the Locust. With 'Twilight's' name introduced she went to introduce the next pony, the orange one with the hat.

"This pony here is Applejack; she is an earth pony." The 'Applejack' pony gave her a friendly tip of her towards my direction. To which she returned in kind. 'Never met a bad person who wears a stinson so she can't be bad.' Thinking about a particular stinson wearing rigger that I met a month ago along with my uncle.

Twilight then went next from the cowpony to the pink one that was giving me a friendly wave earlier. She was also vibrating; I didn't know what to think about that, and a feeling told her it was probably normal. So she let it go for now. "This is Pinkie Pie; she is also an earth pony. Expect to have a welcome party later from her." I felt my eyebrow twitch at party part. Well, I hoped she has booze and ice cream here. Hopefully strawberry ice cream. 

The princess then went over to the next 'pony' over, the one still hiding behind her was the butterscotch pony with wings. She was visibly shaking and trying to make herself as small as possible. She was only looking at me with her one baby blue eye while the other hid behind her hair. "This shy pony over here is Fluttershy. She and Rainbow Dash-" she said while pointing to the one that was flying over them."- are Pegasus." Fluttershy gave a small wave her way, and then rainbow head pony gave me a look like she wanted to fight. Something that may be a problem later on, but I didn't care cause now they said a word that sent me over the edge. Pegasus? Really? Ok, this shit just got weird. I may not be well versed with animals, but that didn't mean didn't recognize a mythical creature.

Twilight then proceeded to the other two horn heads in the room. The royal purple hair with a white coat and light blue eyes and the purple and teal stripe-haired one with a light purple coat and bright blue eyes. Both with horns on their heads that matched in the color of their light fur coats. "These are my friends Rarity and Starlight Glimmer. They are unicorns."

'By the Allfathers of old. It's like I went to the world that was designed by a kid!' I mentally screamed but kept my face from showing much emotion, but these things were staring at me and my armor with different views of expressions, and I could slowly feel my sweat start to go down my head from it all. Then a new thought came my head in a littoral sense as I looked up at my new appendage on my head. 'I'm a fucking unicorn... Really?'

When Twilight finished introducing the two unicorns, another creature came up behind her. It reminded me of a lizard person from some old comics to best describe it as it walked forward towards me, it also had something in its claws. It stood on two legs that sported three long toes on each foot. Shiny purple scales covered the thing from head to toe. It had sharp silted green eyes and had fin-like spiked move in a mohawk fashion across its head. Its arms looked a little small to its pongee body, and in its four claw hands was holding a familiar black helmet. 

"And this little guy is Spike, he is my number one assistant, and he's also a dragon," Twilight said.

'Really... Dragons. Sure why not, they got Pegasus, unicorns why not add dragons to the mix. Next week it will be flying bears with bug wings.' The little guy walked up to me carrying with him with what looked like her onyx helmet. If slight modification I noticed on the front to cover her horn was to be considered, but that's for a later debated. He had a small smile on his face and, was he blushing? "Um... H-hi there." The little guy said in a little boys voice. "You ah, dropped this when you fell. It's a really cool looking by the way. Are you some kind of superhero where your from by any chance?" He nicely asked me, which gave a round of suppressed giggles from the ponies around her and an eye roll from the Princess. 

I didn't know why but I so wanted to cuddle with this kid and his cute little voice. He had a speech pattern that had a hint of high society in it, but the genuine cutie kind. That one would want to take home and snuggle too. I gave him a small smile in return, as I tried to grab the helmet with my new limbs. A small teasing thought came to mind that made me smile at the little 'dragon' that I was willing to try. If for the sake of smoothing things alone if I can help it.

"Why thank you, Sir. Spike. You sure are the gentlemen type, and if this is how you act to all the pretty faces, you come across then ladies must love you." I said in a thankful yet playful tone. With a hint teasing in it. The results were better then I could hope for in this situation. After recovering my helmet, Spikes face went beat red from embarrassment with a shy sheepish smile, and all the girls present giggled at his expense. That didn't do the dragon any favors as it made him look more embarrassed. With the mood lighten successfully, whatever tension the naturally born ponies felt earlier was lessened from the humor the armored figure.

With the mood lighten up 'Rarity' took a step forward up to her. "Excuse me, darling, now that we told you our names may we have the honor of knowing yours?" She asked in a high-class voice. It reminded me of some of the stuck up nobles I had to do protection detail when I was serving in the Onyx guard. The main reason why she not in the onyx forces anymore.' Well, they at least they should put a name to face if nothing else.' I mentally agreed.

Setting the black helmet down, I straightened my posture for a more professional look before getting into my intro. 

"My name is Sargent Abigail Terrell. I am a former Onyx Guard and an active duty Gear of the Coalition of Ordered Governments army." 

They all stood there wide eye. They looked at me carefully when I said she was a guard. 

"So you are Royal guard of your country?" Twilight asked her eyes were sparkling at her with some interest. But when she mentioned about me being a 'royal' guard, I finally broke and laughed. The action sent a few of them into confusion, so she had to explain. "I guess you could say that, but I've never heard of the Onyx guard referred to like that. No, the Onyx Guard is an elite special operations unit of the Coalition of Ordered Governments army. We operated under the command of only the top brass and the chairman. Sure we do some guard details for officials, but we also are also the elite of the COG military and do all the messy work. I use to be with them before going back to being a regular front line soldier. One reason being that I didn't like it is because of the attitude of most of the high-class civilians that I had to put up with, they weren't enjoyable to be around most days."

"Oh say no more darling. I've been there, and they're not as glamorous as most ponies believe it to be." Rarity replied. "I have the unfortunate 'privilege' of meeting a few like that."

"I'll take your word for it," I said, getting the feeling that the unicorn was speaking some truth.

"Ok, next question. Am I dead?" I asked. Getting sadden and shock looks from all of them. The defector leader was the next to speak. "No, your not dead and this isn't the ever after either." 

"Where am I?" She asked. Her question got a lot of uncertain looks from the group.

"This is Equestria; you are currently in my home of Ponyville. So..." Twilight then walks up and holds out a leg to the gear. "Welcome to Equestria, Sargent Abigail Terrell." 

She didn't know what it was yet, but I felt like she might be in for a wild ride. One that I would need more than a few stiff drinks and a bottle of painkillers to quell the pain in her head at the end. 

Equestria, populated by ponies, dragons, and other things. Well, as long as there aren't any Grubs nearby.