Twilight had suffered Magical feedback many times before, it was a constant risk that came with pushing her magical limits. The main effect was usually a headache that would gradually pass. This time, it was blinding. The feeling like a building had been dropped on her head was shared by her friends, even the Princesses had not been spared.
A choir of ow's and groans rose from the bearers as the three remaining princesses gathered their bearings. A spell of that magnitude could kill any normal unicorn, but the princesses were powerful beyond compare. Twilight's friends were fortunate not to be affected by the feedback directly, but rather by the blast back. As the youngest of the alicorns, Twilight recovered slowly, managing to pull herself together in time to notice the standoff that had formed.
Standing in front of her was a tall creature, rivalling Celestia in height. It stood on two legs and had two arms that ended in claws, covered with brown material similar to Applejack's hat. The head had a short black mane, covered with a three-sided hat made of similar brown material. Covering most of its body was covered in a blue cotton coat that ended where boots began. The thing that caught Twilight's attention most was partially hidden as she was behind the creature, what she could see was a chamber on a wooden frame that was filled with angry-looking red energy. Twilight didn't know how it worked, but it was obviously some sort of weapon, and it was pointed directly at Celestia.
"What the hell is going on?" The tall creature demanded. Seeing it was surrounded, it turned to point the weapon at ponies at random, not seemingly sure which one to aim at. Celestia instinctively threw a shield around Twilight and her now very much alert friends, Cadence and Luna flanking her with their magic at the ready.
"Put down the weapon!" Ordered Celestia, but instead, the creature pointed the weapon back at her.
"Where am I?" Anger and confusion were evident in the voice as the creature aimed down the barrel of his weapon. But so was something else that Twilight was familiar with, panic. Having been ripped out of wherever it came from, it was probably terrified. If she didn't do something, somepony was going to be hurt. She needed to get the creature out of there and calm it down, but where to send it? Where would she want to be if she was scared? Then it hit her.
The General of the Minutemen had done many things in his life since he left Vault 111. Between the Institute, Far Harbour, and his time as the Silver Shroud, It was safe to say he had a high tolerance for the strange. Randomly being abducted by pre-war horses that had more in common with giddyup buttercups and then having an avalanche of books fall on him was probably up there. As he tried to get up, he found himself weighed down by literature. Unable to do anything he listened to the sound of someone nearby.
"Oh no no no, please be ok!" The voice was feminine, and the sound of concern was evident even from below the layer of books. Slowly the weight was disappearing as books were removed. Eventually, the books were cleared enough to see his rescuer. A lavender horse that was moving the books with her mind. The books had a purple glow around them as they flew off onto shelves, and the same aura surrounded the horse's horn. A unicorn? No, there were wings as well, what the hell are these things? whatever it was, it was helping him. it was also currently speaking to him.
"And I thought that the library might help because this is where I went when I need to relax, but I must have been off by a bit. I haven't been to the library here for a while and some of the shelves used to be over there" The horse pointed in a direction and continued her rant.
But The General had stopped listening, instead, he was trying to comprehend the scene in from of him. Whatever this was, it acted like a brotherhood scribe or a pre-war librarian. It wasn't a bio-engineered weapon or mutated wildlife. Most importantly, it wasn't trying to kill him. The winged unicorn's words began to dry up as she saw he was removing himself from the pile of books, her ears lowered as she walked backwards.
The general said the one thing that was dominating his mind. "What are you?"
The response was delayed as it took time for the smaller creature to comprehend the question.
"My name is Twilight Sparkle, The Princess of Friendship!" The response was said in a way and with a stance that indicated pride, but the General simply doubled down on the question.
"But what are you?"
This time, it seemed the question clicked.
"oh," There was a pause before she continued, "I'm a pony, have you never seen a pony before?"
There was a pause, "No, never seen a pony in my life" Was the General reply.
It was a blatant lie, but the wisdom of telling the pony that humans used to use them as animals of burden before blowing up the world might be the wrong answer.
"Wow, you're really not from here. What about you, what's your name?" Asked Twilight Sparkle, The pony princess of friendship.
"I'm Nate, a human." Nate's response could not have sounded more awkward if he tried, the situation seemed so surreal to him.
"Your majesty..." Nate began, before being cut off by the princess.
"Twilight is fine." Twilight blurted out, a blush forming rapidly.
Nate recovered with his usual composure that had been missing until now. "Miss Twilight, what's going on, one moment I am at my desk and the next I'm, here" He gestured around to demonstrate his point.
Twilight seemed to remember something as her eyes went wide and her ears shot straight up.
"I can explain that, but first we need to"
Whatever Twilight was going to say, it ended when the library doors practically exploded and the big blue pony from before sent a beam at Nate. Once again, Nate was buried under books. From underneath the books, Nate heard Twilight once again come to his aid.
"Wait, stop, he's friendly!" shouted Twilight, the sound of galloping could be heard, and Twilight could again be heard, this time nearby.
"Nate, are you ok?" Twilight shouted over the second avalanche of books. This time, She just lifted all the books at once.
Nate, letting out a grunt of pain, let out a deep breath and asked to no one in particular "Why didn't I just go with Hancock today?"
After the fiasco that had been the prior hour, the human Nate was sitting at a table with seven ponies including Twilight herself. Cadence had stayed long enough to make sure Twilight was ok, then she left to return to the crystal empire, which was itself dealing with the same troubles as Equestria. Luna had left to locate any other humans that may have been pulled through by the elements of harmony.
Currently, Celestia was finishing up explaining the situation to Nate, who had only stopped to clarify what she meant by her sister normally being asleep during the day. This had, in turn, lead to Celestia explaining the roles of the princesses. Nate had almost gotten into an argument with the sun princess when it was mentioned she controlled the sun. According to Nate, the Planet he was from, earth, orbited the sun. Nate eventually dropped the subject when it was brought up that Celestia was over a thousand years old. Nate made some comment under his breath, while twilight didn't hear the whole thing, she did pick up something about Sympathising. After a moment of awkward silence, Nate pushed things along.
"So, the Elements, they brought me here, but why me?"
Celestia broke a soft smile, before responding. "The Elements are a manifestation of harmony, they have the ability to look inside a being and see its essence, whatever the reason, the elements saw you as worthy."
"But I don't understand, what can I do?" Nate asked looking at Celestia, "I have no idea what's causing the pulses".
Celestia dismissed the notion, "We have some of the brightest minds looking into the pulses, what we don't have is any experience fighting these threats."
Celestia took moment before saying something she never thought she would need to say.
"Luna and I cannot be everywhere at once, we need you to teach our little ponies how to fight. Will you help us?"
If not for the threat of innocent deaths and rampant destruction, Nate would have found this refreshing, and poetic. Here was someone who barely knew him, asking him to help lead a group, to protect innocent people, while he had no knowledge of the world around him. Three years ago, even though he was dealing with his own problems, he found the time and effort to help the Minutemen. It didn't matter at the time what they could do for him, or how large of a role they would play, They were just a tiny group from Quincy who needed his help.
After a moment's pause, Nate responded. "I'll do what I can."
Celestia seemed relieved, but before she could comment further, Luna entered the room.
"We have found them!" Luna said with triumph.
Celestia stood up, and asked, "How many?"
"Two others, We have memorised the locations." Luna used what Nate had recently learnt was magic to project a map on the table, while Nate knew nothing of Equestria, the others jump on the situation.
"Well, what do ya know, That's Applelossa, I can go and see if cousin Braeburn has seen anything, he knows all the local news." Applejack offered.
"Oooo, field trip, I wanna go, pick me, pick me!" Pinkie shouted waving her hoof in the air.
Applejack looked sympathetically over at Pinkie before talking to her with thought-out words. "That's all well, sugar cube, but maybe you should sit this one out, I don't know what kind of welcome you're gonna get after last time."
Twilight looked over at Rarity, "What about you rarity, want to go see Appleloosa again?"
Rarity looked like she had kicked a rock and the rock had won, before composing herself and replying. "If it is all right with everypony, I would like to pass on this adventure, I still get cramps thinking about last time" Rarity looked over at Pinkie in annoyance at the memory of their last trip to the frontier town.
Twilight then looked over at rainbow dash "How about you Rainbow?"
Rainbow shrugged and responded, "Sure, I could use the free time, the train moves fast enough to let me practice long-distance flight."
"Girls, what about that one" Fluttershy pointed out the second marker on the map, it was over a place the 6 ponies knew all too well.
"The Everfree forest," Twilight said with concern, her brow deepening as she looked at the marker.
"Are you sure you don't want us to wait until we all go together?" Applejack asked Twilight.
Twilight answered decisively with resolve. "No, whoever is out there might need our help, we can't wait that long. However, if you're up for it, I could use someone to help me calm them down if the need arises, what do you say Fluttershy"
Fluttershy was obviously hesitant to go from the titering on her hooves, but quickly steeled herself.
"If something may need my help, then I'll go."
"Excellent, then we shall return to our mission" Luna stated, leaving soon after.
Celestia, seeing Rarity and Pinkie Pie having nothing to do, came up with an idea.
"Miss Rarity, Miss Pie, Why don't you go and spend time with our new guest here, I'm sure he could use a guide on Equestria and its culture"
"Aye aye, Princess!" Pinkie exclaimed, saluting while wearing a name badge, savanna hat, and a whistle that was around her neck."
"Pinkie, dear, I believe she meant an information guide, not a tour one." Rarity softly told the excited pink pony, who promptly blew her whistle in a depressed manner.
"You can all meet back here when you're done, your friends can stay in the castle with Nate in the meantime." Celestia offered, to which Rarity immediately lit up at the prospect.
"Let me look into getting you a faster train to Applelossa as well, considering the importance of your mission, I feel such a change is prudent," Celestia added.
"All right girls, Let's get moving!" Twilight announced with excitement, the rest of her friends filled with as much energy.
Soon, the room was occupied by Nate and his two new guides. Looking down at Pinkie, he asked a very innocent question. "So is there somewhere we can go to get something to eat, like a bakery or...?"
Nate had seen a mini-nuke go off with less energy.