Was this, death? She sat, floating around, as nothing, but something… A paradox, a void, a soul without a host but not dead. She had closed her eyes, she had dreamt of a world where everything went perfect, but she knew the reality, and no matter how she tried to turn her eyes away she could still feel them, she could feel their pain, their wrath, their horror, their fear. And then, there was a flash of light… And now this, this half-life, this strange abyss… Were she a lesser being she would have simply floated around the nothingness, as a spectre in a world beyond the physical. Part of her wanted to join that grand nothingness, but something, some force beyond just simple magic, had pulled her back together, the strands of her being, the tethers of mind and magic, being wrapped back into a united whole. Her existence was tied to the stars, as long as a single light shone in the void, she too would shine bright, one form or another… A blessing and a curse. She had been so wrapped in sorrow she had not seen the obvious solution, it was horrible, but to end pain and suffering, something drastic must need to be done, she hardened her heart, and she burned.
She didn’t expect to run into a local so quickly, “Umm, well, my name is Harry Potter, nice to meet you, Luna.”
“Harry Potter, that's a good name, there was this one famous kid named Harry Potter, he was a boy though,” Harry was confused, she knew about her, well, the old him, back when he was living with the Dursleys, did she know them, was she going to try and bring him-her, whatever, bring Harry back to them? She couldn’t have that, she was dangerous, if she really did know about her- Harry’s mind was racing, and she nearly drew her pistol and shot the girl right there as mindless panic took hold, but she got control of her mind and body before she did something that would blow their cover. “What’s wrong Harry Potter, you look scared, I think I said something wrong…”
“N-No, it’s not that, I’m fine, seriously,” She was probably talking about another Harry Potter anyway, the chances were pretty high that there were at least a few people named Harry Potter in the world… The words of her Elder came back to her, “I don’t believe in random chance, I believe in probability.”
“Did you say something?” Luna asked.
“Oh, just, nothing,” Shit, she said that aloud, she cannot say things like that aloud, she doesn’t know who is listening in at this very moment.
“Well, you should come and visit me and my father, we live just over there-” She pointed to the stone tower on the side of top of the hill. Weird place to live, Harry thought to herself, this wasn’t a normal suburban neighborhood at any rate, she would need to be extra careful.
“Perhaps, we’ll see,” She didn’t want to go into potentially hostile territory without backup, she would need to bring the other fillies, perhaps one of the adults, not too many though, that would make them stand out too much, perhaps place two or three on perimeter guard while she was visiting, just in case anything tried to sneak up on them.
With that, she walked away, a new mission appeared on her pipbuck titled “A Dangerous Dinner” with the notes “Join Luna for dinner.” Weird how that worked, must be those divination spells Sparkweld had been talking about. She moved her hand to tap the screen and she realized she had her hand gripped tight around her pistol without realizing. She started to shake with the realization of how close she had come to killing a human.
She made it back up the hill, the ponies were busy plotting out where they were going to place the shielding spells to keep the area safe while building, whatever it was they were going to build here. As she arrived Lightning Striker, aka Mac Kriegsworth, announced “This location is unsuitable for a permanent outpost, not enough cover and too close to civilization, we’ll be moving the portal talismans!” As he said that, Sparkweld, in pony form, arrived though the portal, wearing a pipbuck with a strange boxy protrusion.
“Sparkweld, what are you doing, you’re going to break our cover!” Harry said.
“Stealthbuck,” he said, pointing to the boxy attachment, “One hour of an invisibility spell before it needs to be recharged,” With that, he loaded the talismans into a saddle bag and activated the stealthbuck, shimmering for a second before becoming mostly invisible, you could still see a very slight shimmer as he moved but you wouldn’t be able to notice unless you knew what to look for, and from a distance he would be completely undetectable, “Alright,” It was weird having his voice come from seemingly nowhere, “I’m moving it out east, I saw another forest on your maps, your pipbucks should automatically update locations of interest once I’m finished resetting the portal, only one of you should follow me, too many may seem suspicious.”
“Alright,” Lightning said, “I’ll go, I’m the highest ranking here.”
“Good idea,” Harry began, “I’ve made contact with one of the locals,” Her voice shook as she remembered nearly killing a human child, “She invited us for dinner, it’s in all likelihood not a trap, but I would still want some cover, just in case, facilitating good relations is an important step in our mission.”
“Yes, that would be advisable,” The invisible Sparkweld said, before he started marching off.
A few minutes later, when they thought the time was right, and they were done surveying the area and testing out their pipbucks, Harry, Lambent, and Victory, in their aliases of Harry, Lucius, and Vicky, moved toward the strange tower-house as the afternoon was slowly turning into evening, outside, hidden behind some shrubs, was Rosemary, alias of Lance, was waiting, ready to give covering fire should the dinner prove to be a trap. The house was surrounded by a lush garden, the radiation meters on their pipbucks, completely unmoving, ticked up ever so slightly as they approached the house “Magical radiation,” Whispered Victory, “Still much lower than radiation levels in Equestria, but higher than the surrounding area.” That made Harry cautious.
“Oh, these your friends?” Luna began as she opened the door.
“Yep, Lucius Kriegsworth,” Pointing to the human Lambent, and “Vicky Themorre,” Pointing to the human Victory.
“Nice to meet you Lucius Kriegsworth and Vicky Themorre, my daddy is cooking, I told him we have guests, I could see you walking up down the road, from the top of the tower… Be careful in the forest, the place is full of nargles.” This made Harry and the other fillies concerned, was she watching them? Good thing the portal location was being moved, but it would be prudent to figure out just how much she knew. They trotted inside, Luna had them sat at the table, the house was strange, every surface was coated in paper, odd trinkets, and strange little devices, the walls were coated in tacky wallpaper and bright colors that made Harry think of images of pre-war Equestria, before anyone could notice they pulled their sleeves over their pipbucks so they wouldn’t be noticed save for a small bulge.
A tall, middle-aged, slightly effeminate looking man marched up the stairs, “These your new friends Luna? I’m afraid I can’t talk, I need to finish cooking the firemelon.”
“What’s a firemelon?” Harry asked as casually as she could, something about this place wasn’t adding up.
“Oh, not heard of them? I guess that makes sense, they’re from Ireland, daddy imported a few of them from the wizards over there.”
Wizards? Harry was sure that magic didn’t exist on Earth, at least not in the way it did on Equus, there were a few other possibilities, Wizards being the name of a company or organization, but the way the magical radiation meter danced around, nowhere near enough to be dangerous, but enough to confirm that magic was present here, put doubt on those counterpoints… Never trust in random luck, trust in probability.
As Luna left to talk to her father, the three foals turned human silently agreed to tell the truth if magic came up in the discussion, as long as it didn’t give away any details of the rangers or their mission. It did, “I assume you’re muggleborn,” Luna’s father came down and sat with everyone, carrying trays of all sorts of weird looking food, there was some meat on the piles, Lambent was clearly hesitant, but Harry, being a former human, and Victory being a wastelander who was used to bloatsprite and radroach meat, started eating… It tasted good, better than most wasteland foods, it was fresh for once.
“Yeah…” Harry didn’t know what that term meant, but it was clearly the response they hoped to hear.
Glory stood over the patch of dirt, it was easy to find, with the skies clear and the radiation for the most part gone, not entirely, but mostly, it was far easier to spot the enervation fields, grass didn’t grow. And here, right in the middle of this circle of death, was a small pile of dirt, it was a grave, an unmarked grave, but Glory had been there when it had been dug… She cried, she cried, and she cried, she pleaded, she wanted Blackjack back, she couldn’t have been dead, even with her leg missing, her flanks rotted away, her throat torn out and blackened by the dark magic, she couldn’t have been dead… But she was, and there wasn’t anything she could do about it… That moment, when P-21 finished laying the last pile of dirt, Glory wanted to be in that grave too, it was lucky she was a pegasus, not a unicorn, else she could have floated her beam rifle and just ended it. She tried to, but Rampage’s hoof had taken care of that, a smack to the jaw, hard enough that she coughed up blood, snapped her out of it… Even now though, a little over a year later, she still hurt inside on seeing this grave, her eyes pricked with tears.
“I wish you could see me now, Blackjack… From a scared little filly just branded dashite, to, well… Hero… Hero of all the ponies of Equestria, I’m leading us away from the wasteland, I just wish you could be here to help me… I need to go now, I have important work, but I just wanted to come by and say… Thank you…”
Glory pulled herself together and marched up toward Flank... The town was in ruins, after Deus and the bounty hunters swarmed the place, they simply fought to the death, Deus was probably the only one who survived that battle, and in the end, everyone in the town either ran or got killed. Littlepip and Steelhooves were standing together, along with a few dozen Rangers and at least three scores of NCR volunteers, dressed in blue-painted uniforms, carrying makeshift pipe guns. "Are we ready to make our move on the Hoof," She said, the NCR had been rapidly expanding, most of Old Equestria was now under their command, but there were many factions who didn't want to join and many places too dangerous.
"We-" Littlepip began, but then she paused to pull out a napkin and started coughing, she continued for a few minutes, Glory caught bright red stains on the napkin as she pulled away, "I-I'm fine. Yes, the Collegiate, Pecos, Harbingers, Steel Rangers, and Crusaders have joined us already, but the Zebra Remnants, Reapers, and Society Ponies have been actively hostile, negotiations have broken down, they're currently in control of the Hoof, but not for long."
"I've sent my rangers to deal with the Reapers, with luck they'll be pacified soon enough, Rampage is leading the charge," Steelhooves said.
"If things get bad enough with the Reapers we can have the NCRAF bomb the Hoofington Stadium, and I am going to have last-minute negotiations with King Splendid, hopefully, we won't have to arrest or kill the Society, but with their beliefs that's unlikely, I'm bringing two companies of Regulars with me."
"Then," Glory continued, "With the NCRAF we'll be able to breach the core."
Harry had put together a picture in her mind of these… Wizards… From careful questioning she had deduced that magic was indeed real on Earth, these wizards had their own society, hidden from everyone else for fear of the non-magicals, the muggles, the name sounded like an insult. They were an enclave, much like the Grand Pegasus Enclave, but instead of hiding in the clouds, they hid in plain sight with careful spellcraft. A Grand Unicorn Enclave, if you would. Dealing with these wizards was going to be quite the political balancing act.
Then, something unexpected happened, an owl flew through the window, again, Harry kept her hand tight around her pistol just in case, but the owl didn’t attack, just dropped a letter on the table in front of Harry, from the envy in Luna’s eyes, she clearly hoped the letter was for her, she pulled it out and read.