//------------------------------// // Strangers to Equestria // Story: My Little Pony: Exiles of the Empire // by Hikarikurai24587 //------------------------------// Chapter One: Strangers to Equestria It was a seemingly normal day in Equestria as Spike woke up. The sun was shining into the castle, Twilight was already gone. ‘Most likely to the school.’ he thought with a yawn when he noticed a note from Twilight: ‘Spike, I know you stayed up late last night helping me with the papers so I went ahead to the school without you to let you rest. ~Twilight’ Spike yawned as he climbed out of his bed walking over to the window overlooking Ponyville. It seemed to be about late morning meaning that the school of friendship was in full swing. Tiredly Spike turned away from the window to head to the kitchen when the ground shook. His head jerked seeing smoke rising from the Everfree Forest. His new pair of wings twitched and he did his best to hurry over and see what was going on. Other ponies were in the streets pointing towards the streak of smoke in the sky. Twilight and the others were already heading in the direction and Spike did his best to catch up. However he lost them when he got to the tree line. He didn’t want to fly, he was unsure if he could keep himself up. Gritting his teeth he ran into the dark forest making sure to try and find them through the trees. He spotted the smoke within the forest and knew that if he had followed it he would catch up. Spike felt himself run into something that felt like a boulder. Stumbling back Spike noticed the black rock in front of him. Spike was about to move around it when it moved, he jumped back and looked up seeing a massive human staring down at him.  “T-Twi…!” Spike tried to call out but tripped over his own feet. The human managing to catch him and lifted him off the ground. “Wrecker.” a voice spoke up and the human looked to his right. “We don’t have time, put it down.” Before the human holding Spike could respond Twilight’s voice caught their attention. Spike reached up to scratch at the arm. The grip tightened slightly before the humans moved away as Spike tried to get out of the grip as he was taken away into the woods. It was almost like he was forgotten in the grip of the human. This did cause some irritation to rise up within him. ‘Am I really that forgettable?’ “Spike!” Twilight called out looking around with her friends. “That’s odd, I thought I heard him calling out.” “Somethins’ not right here Twilight. Pinkie Pie told us that she saw Spike following.” Applejack told her as they looked around. “I hope nothing’s happened to him.” all eyes were on Fluttershy as Pinkie Pie looked around. “The forest is so dark and scary.” “Why didn’t he just fly?” Rainbow Dash asked, lifting a few inches off the ground. “He has wings now.” “Spike isn’t used to them, it took me a while to get used to flying.” reminded Twilight as Pinkie walked over to a spot. She glanced at the ground before placing her hoof down on the spot. She bounced away causing the ponies to look at one another. “It’s Pinkie Pie… don’t question it.” sighed Rainbow Dash as the group began to follow her. Spike on the other hand was having no such luck in getting away from Wrecker. It was almost like he had forgotten that he was holding onto the dragon. Finally getting fed up Spike opened his mouth a bit and let loose a little bit of flame. Not enough to do a lot of damage to his captor but just enough to get him to release the dragon. It worked… for about ten seconds as Spike tried to use his wings to fly away and he was snatched out of the air. Turning around Spike saw more of these armored humanoids and let loose a blaze of fire in his panic. Most of it went straight towards Wrecker’s face. The hand released him again and Spike flew backwards into a tree. He clung to one of the branches hiding behind the leaves as the armored humanoids put out the fires. The one who had spoken with Wrecker was looking in his direction. “Stand down.” a voice spoke and Spike heard footsteps approach the tree. Spike jumped to another branch when another leapt upon the branch he was standing on. This was a definite human male, he glanced at Spike.  “Spike!” Twilight’s voice rang out from beyond the trees. Spike opened his mouth to call out. “Twi….!” The human made a sushing movement and that was when Spike noticed he was treating Spike like Fluttershy would when trying to calm down some of her animals. It was like he didn’t know what Spike was saying. ‘That’s odd, I can understand him. Could it be beca….’ Spike’s thoughts were interrupted when the tree shook hard. Rainbow Dash knocked the branch he was on causing him to fall only for the human to dive after him. They fell into the bushes without any of the ponies noticing.  “Spike!” Twilight called out as the ponies entered the clearing. Their eyes were immediately glued to the armored humanoids. Twilight’s eyes widened in shock as she realized that they were all humans wearing strange armor. “Who are you?” Applejack asked and Twilight noticed them glance at each other. “What have y’all done to Spike?” “Strange.” one of them, wearing blue accented armor, spoke as he approached Twilight who craned her neck to look up at him. “They’re….” Rainbow Dash flew in the way shouting. “Get away from her!” The humans’ raised strange devices and the ponies readied themselves for a fight. Well, everyone but Fluttershy and Twilight Sparkle, who was confused at the presence of the humans on Equestria and how they didn’t acknowledge Applejack's question. Three of the humans also did not seem to want a confrontation. Rainbow Dash and Applejack were looking at the biggest one there was. He popped his knuckles before charging forward, Pinkie Pie was looking at the one wearing all the strange gadgets before moving towards him to investigate. Twilight flew into the air to try and get into a better spot to try and stop everyone.  “Wait….” Twilight shouted at her more hotheaded friends causing the one in the bandana to look up at her and signal to another. She projected a shield as he fired a shot. Rarity launching her own attack at him, it was clear that this was a misunderstanding. One of the humans was moving to where Fluttershy was. It was clear to Twilight that he wasn’t trying to harm her, instead trying to keep her calm. This action seemed to cause Fluttershy to panic more. ‘It’s like… she can’t understand him.’ Twilight thought before flying towards the one with accented armor. She waved her legs at him before pointing at her mouth then to him. The human looked at her for a moment before shaking his head. She pointed towards him and nodded pointing at herself. Then gesturing to her friends and shook her head. One of the strange blasts ripped right past her. Her eye twitched before she turned around letting out a single order in a loud voice emboldened by her Royal Canterlot voice. “STOP!” Her spell filled the area as the humans covered their ears only to find themselves frozen in place alongside the ponies. With a flap of her wings Twilight landed turning to address her friends. “Girls, they can’t understand us. Just as you can’t understand them.” This earned a confused look from Rainbow Dash who asked. “What about you? You didn’t seem confused.” Before Twilight could answer there was a deep inhale of breath before Pinkie Pie spoke quickly. “Oh that’s because she and Spike went through the mirror. Some of its magic must have been left behind on them. So they can understand them, but none of the guys can understand her. Doesn’t mean that one isn’t trying.” “Yes… thank you Pinkie Pie.” Twilight said before looking at them humans. “They didn’t come through the mirror, so the magic didn’t affect them.” “So how in Equestria are we supposed to communicate?” Applejack asked, causing Twilight to sigh. “Even if we do communicate, how do we know that they don’t want to hurt us?” “This one… he wasn’t trying to hurt Fluttershy. He was trying to calm her down. He saw that she was afraid and wasn’t trying to scare her.” Twilight replied, pointing at the human closest to Fluttershy. “He was trying to appear as unthreatening as he could. Just like this one was trying to get the others to calm down, and the one with all the strange equipment has just been recording us.” Twilight sighed before feeling drained. She released the spell, stumbling a bit and shaking her head. ‘Must be because the humans are bigger than us.’ she thought before looking at the one in blue accented armor. Once in a while casting a weary glance towards the other humans who had participated in the fight. One still holding Rainbow Dash by her leg, the one she assumed was the leader motioned for him to release her. Once he did so Twilight tried to figure out a way for them to communicate. She tried everything: hoof gestures, charades, even using Pinkie Pie. Nothing worked. ‘Maybe a temporary translation spell, until we can learn the basics.’ It was the best plan she got, but how to communicate it to them. She could go with the Starlight Glimmer approach and just zap them first and explain later. Shaking her head mentally, she knew the only way to explain was through hoof gestures. She pointed at herself, then to her horn, then to the humans, pointed at her mouth then to the humans again praying that they understood. “Twilight… what are you doing?” Rarity asked as the humans spoke amongst each other. “I’m trying to tell them that I am going to cast a spell that will allow us to communicate. Just until we learn each other’s languages.” answered Twilight and Rarity cocked an eyebrow before looking at her horn. Twilight glanced up before realizing that she could just show them her plan. Smacking her head with her hoof Twilight used her magic to project an image of her plan in front of the humans. “Uh, girls? Where’s Spike?” Fluttershy’s question went unheeded, causing her to glance around. She just hoped he was alright. Spike let out a groan, his head was throbbing. ‘I must have hit it when I fell.’ Spike thought, placing his hand against the spot that hurt. That was when he remembered the human, looking around carefully he spotted him on the ground. A growl caught his attention as a pack of Timberwolves slowly made their way out of the trees. Spike climbed to his feet before running forward and letting loose a stream of fire towards one. An eerie howl filled the air as the leaves and wood of its body burned. The other wolves continued forward though they were now focused on Spike. The young dragon stumbled back as one of the wolves leapt towards him. Spike dodged to the side as a hum filled the air and the Timberwolf was cut in half. The human was on his feet wielding a strange weapon. The Timberwolves, sensing the danger, turned their attention to the human. With quick strikes from the weapon most of the Timberwolves were defeated. A few decided to strike from the shadows and while he was dealing with them the last one attacked his back. Spike moved forward shouting. “NO!” The Timberwolf was knocked into a tree splintering into sticks and smoke. The human dispatched the rest before turning to look at Spike. He knelt down asking. “Are you alright?” Spike nodded his head and the human smiled before patting him on the head. “That’s good. Come on, let’s get back.” “Spike!” Twilight’s voice called out as she emerged through the trees, relief washed over her face as she ran forward giving Spike a hug. The armored humanoids walked out of the trees behind her causing Spike to duck behind her. The human climbed to his feet to look at the humanoids. “Don’t worry, I’ve explained everything to them. After a translation spell.” Twilight assured him before looking at the human and pausing. “I missed one.” “I’ve got this.” one of the armored humans spoke up, one with blue accents, before approaching the human. “General Skywalker, this is Princess Twilight Sparkle. Apparently there is something keeping us from understanding each other. She has used some sort of… she refers to it as a spell. It allows us to communicate with them. Tech says that it didn’t affect any of the technology.” General Skywalker thought for a moment before nodding. “Alright, I have something to inform her.” Twilight focused as her magical aura surrounded her horn before it wrapped around Anakin. Spike noticed that she was tired. ‘We should get them back to the castle back to this. I can tell Twilight what happened there.’ he thought to himself. Once the magic died down Fluttershy and Rarity helped Twilight when she stumbled back. She steadied herself before looking at Skywalker who knelt down in front of her. “Princess Sparkle.” he spoke and she looked at him. “I would like to know, what does your kind know about the Force?” “What’s the Force?” Rainbow Dash asked in a loud whisper causing Applejack to shake her head. Twilight shushed them before saying. “I’m sorry General Skywalker, but we don’t know anything about the Force. If it’s anything like our magic then I could have a better idea… why don’t we take you to my castle? We can compare notes… is there a reason why you asked?” All eyes were on Skywalker who took a moment to think before saying. “Well… your friend, he’s able to use the Force.”