//------------------------------//
// Chapter One: Warm Welcome 
// Story: Rimworld: Colony is Magic 
// by Anotherrandom 
//------------------------------//

The first thing Twilight Sparkle noticed after awakening was how dark it was. 

The next thing she noticed was pain. 

Her whole body ached, every inch of her hurt terribly. Pain receptors screaming for attention. Barely conscious and confused, the unicorn tried to move, only to fail, restricted by unknown means. 

Twilight Sparkle, the student of Princess Celestia and the Element of Magic, was reduced to screaming and struggling against her bonds with animalistic desperation. Agony already clouding her brilliant, if bit neurotic, mind. 

Magic, just use magic! screamed her instincts. The unicorn tried, only for her spells to fizzle out of existence. 

She started to choke. The smell of smoke filled her nostrils. 

Moving failed. Teleporting failed. Telekinesis failed. Her horn lit with purple energy once again, revealing her prison, and if nothing changed soon, her tomb. Collapsed walls of jagged gray metal, wires and black smoke. Her lower body was trapped, torn steel burying itself into her skin and flesh. 

What happened? Did the library collapse? Spike! I need to get Spike!

Bracing against the wreckage pinning her down, she desperately tried to lift it. 

More coughing. 

Fast calculations went through Twilight's head, but the results were not good. The flames were roaring close, but she would suffocate long before that became an issue if nopony found her soon.

Then she heard it. The tearing of metal from somewhere above her head.

“Help! cough Here! Please!” her voice was coarse and quiet, and she was getting so tired.

No! Not like this!

“Help!” So tired and sleepy, why was it so silent suddenly? She only heard her own heartbeat. it was so...peaceful.” 

I'll just lie here for a while. Twilight's tired mind decided. A part of her was calling for more struggle. That she had more fight to give. But, for the life of her, Twilight couldn't remember why she was supposed to fight in the first place.. 

I wonder where the girls and Spike are. And why the library is so full of metal? Did Dash prank me again? 

Will Celestia miss me?

I don't wanna die. 

And then, there was a rush of cold air on her fur. 

“Gotcha,” said a voice as something grabbed her and the world sunk into merciful darkness.


The second time Twilight Sparkle woke up, there was still pain. Lessened and far more dulled than before, yes, but still pain. 

Twilight had her fair share of minor injuries in the past. It was simply the part of making advanced research into magic, raising a dragon hatchling and being friends with the Element of Loyalty. Still, it was nothing quite like the pain she was in now. 

Slowly getting into an upright position, she noticed a small blanket falling off, revealing her body covered in bandages. 

“Easy there, we don't wanna pull anything crazy-like now,” said the voice from before - the one that pulled her from that place. 

The scene before her was far more bizarre than what she could have imagined.

Inside what appeared to be a cave, sitting next to a small fire, was a creature unlike anything she saw before. It sat in what would be an extremely uncomfortable position for a pony and most of it was hidden under what to Twilight appeared as a silly amount of clothing. Some of it even made of metal and looked like armor.

The strange being had a flat muzzle, two small, but sharp eyes in a proportionately small skull. It possessed an intense gaze, unnerving her on an animalistic level. She realized why fast. 

Front-facing eyes usually meant a predator. 

On its head was a short mane of dark brown. Its front legs were strange, bending weirdly and having five short digits each, looking similar to Spike's claws, but she could not say surely as it was covered in yet more clothing.

Spike!

Panic raised through her, sending heart racing, she tried to stand up and-

“Calm down,” the creature admonished her. “What have I just said? No craziness”

The creature got up, one of its front legs (claws?) hovering above an unknown item, made of tubes, wood and an iron cylinder. She also realized how large it truly was. Broad shoulders. strong barrel and bipedal. It would easily be as tall as Celestia, including the horn. 

“If I wanted to hurt ya, I would do so already,” It said. “Now stay put.” 

That did little to ease her worry as it, or he, as the deep voice suggested, approached her. 

“Name’s Knight, by the way,” the being introduced itself. “And before you ask, it's a nickname.”

Twilight raised a brow at that. Was Knight an unusual name for his species? 

Without much ceremony, the now identified Knight opened his rucksack and handed her a filled water skin.

It was the moment Twilight realized how thirsty she was and how dry her throat was. And after an awkward moment where she slowly approached Knight’s extended claw and grabbed it with her hoof - to his apparent confusion. 

She opened the bottle and sniffed, scrunching her muzzle at the od smell.  The man rolling his eyes. 

“It’s just water,” he said exasperatedly. “It ain’t poison. Maybe it got a bit bad taste from the waterskin. It isn't exactly fresh, but it hasn't spoiled yet.” 

With that, Twilight took a greedy gulp. The odd taste aside, it was just water. 

Normal water. But why did he call a water bag a water skin?  

She shrugged. Probably some regional accent thing. He did sound a little like Applejack. 

“Take it slow,” Knight advised. “You were roughed up pretty badly by the crash.”

Crash?
 
After a few more gulps and with her thirst now sated, the pony sat on her rump, staring at the creature in front of her, him staring right back.

“With that out of the way, what about a proper introduction?” he said with a smile. “I gave you my name, but I have yet to hear yours?” his expression darkened. “And I know ya can talk, so speak up.” 

Oh, she had been silent the whole time, hadn't she?

“My name is Twilight Sparkle,” Twilight said sheepishly. “Can you tell me what happened? And where am I? And what are you? I have never seen a creature like you. Are there more? Do you know where Spike is? Also, what is that? And is that a tool, it looks really complicated and-”

He raised his claw up- with one of the digits extended in what had to be a gesture of some kind, the pony closing her mouth with a pop. 

“Now, now,” he scolded her, but his voice sounded warm. “You stare at me for a minute, fish out of the water like, now you shower me with questions? I have some of my own first, if you don't mind.” 

He chuckled. It was a strange sound that sent shivers down her back. 

“Also, sorry about the name. The translation must have butchered it something fierce.”

She gave him a strange look. She wasn't aware any butchering took place. 

Knight shrugged, taking her silence and confusion as embarrassment. 

“S’good, it happened to us all,” he grinned. “But boy, if I take you back to the base, they're gonna have a field day with me,” he rubbed his hands. “Let's start with the hard one. What’s the last thing you remember?”

Twilight gave it a thought. She had just written a letter to Princess Celestia and went to bed. 

Spike was already asleep and then…

There was smoke, pain and the fire. She was trapped, unable to breathe, drifting away and calling from help. 

“I was just at home, trying to sleep and then…” 

She found it was hard to speak. Her voice betrayed her. 

“Then I woke up and everything was wrong and I couldn't move and…”

The voice! He saved her life. Didn't he? The bandages…He must have got her out, but what happened? It couldn't be the library she was trapped in. With all that metal and machinery, it had to be somewhere else. Did she have a train accident and suffered a subsequent amnesia? Sufficient head trauma could cause memory loss, but her head seemed relatively uninjured. 

“Okay, an abductee, like us,” Knight said slowly, sadness -or at least tiredness creeping into his voice.  “Well, there is not a good way to say it, so I'm just going to drop the bombshell.

The man sighed deeply. 

“You are not on your home planet anymore. What I got you out of was a shuttle crash.” 

Twilight stared at him blankly for a second.

And then she laughed. 

“What? Not on Equus anymore? That can't be true,” she said confidently.

It was a simple statement. 

Being abducted by aliens and getting dropped on some unknown planet?  That was impossible, totally and absolutely. This was all a bad dream. Yep. definitely. Anytime now, Princess Luna would sweep in and end this nightmare. Then she would have a good laugh with the girls about it tomorrow. 

“Denial I see?” he asked mockingly. “Welp, not that I expected that a group of midget psychic horses would know much about space travel.”

He was calm, delivering his word as he would just read the newspapers and not shattering her worldview. 

“Well, I have another question for ya,” Knight said. “How many moons does your world have?”

What kind of question was that?

“One, of course,” she answered in the same tone she would use when talking to small foals asking obvious questions or a really obnoxious cat. 

He smiled. It showed sharp teeth, and it didn’t seem all that friendly. 

“Look outside for a minute. Should be saving us enough time and explaining, then we can talk further.” 

She took a few tentative steps towards the mouth of the cave. Her legs still hurting a bit, Knight offered her one of his strange front legs. She refused. Leg cramps and some scratches would not defeat her. 

Standing behind her, Knight continued to give her that strange, confident and yet almost sad smile. 

With a sense of doom, she stepped out from the mouth of the cave, the night sky unrolling before her eyes. Full of gleaming stars. 

Stars she did not recognize at all. 

And also…

“No,” was all she managed to say. It was weak. She wanted to scream, but she just didn't have the strength. 

She started to cry.

Above her, hanging on the infinity tapestry of space, were moons. 

Four of them. 

“I think you now have even more questions,” said Knight. His voice is not as brash or confident. His tone was almost solemn. 

“Well, welcome to Rimworld.” 


“What now?”

That was the only question that remained, at least the only important one. Really, she had so much more, but that one burned into the forefront of her mind, setting her mindscape ablaze.  

She sat back in the cave, facing the flickering campfire. Knight walked around, packing his bedroll back into his bag and pulling something from it.

“I'm going ‘home’ to others,” the man said, revealing the thing he had pulled from his bag to be a skillet, a pair of eggs and a flat piece of wood. “I just had a mission outside. Traveling on this hell planet is difficult, just one giant desert,” as if to punctuate his statement - but really just to see if the surface was hot enough - the man dropped a sprinkle of water on the skillet, the sizzling noise making Twilight flinch. “One has to travel only in the early mornings and around sunset, when there is still a bit of light, but it has cooled down enough to not bake one alive.”

He sighed, cracking the eggs and dropping them on the skillet. The smell filled the cave fast, making the pony’s mouth water.  

“You can tag along with me for a spell if you want,” he offered, waving around the spatula as he worked on the scrambled eggs. “Won't be an easy road. But if you decide I'm bad company, there is an oasis not far away.”

Twilight, for her part, mostly watched the skillet hungrily and listened to her tummy grumbling away.  

“I planned to stop there for the day and get some water,” he explained as he pulled the skillet from the fire, grabbing a fork from a pocket of his duster and digging in, talking with his mouth full. “You can stay - hmm, needs more salt - there if ya want. But I wouldn't fancy your chances around here alone. Caravans tend to stop at the oasis and some of them are… unsavory folk. 

The pan put the skillet on the floor, reaching into his pocket until he found another fork and handing it to Twilight.

“Or, you can go back to our base with me. We could use someone with psychic powers.” 

Going with him? 

The pony looked away from the eggs - as hard as it was - to assess the situation with a clearer head. 

He did save her life, and while he wasn't much of a pleasant company so far, she thought she could understand why. He said he was an abductee, didn't he? That meant that he went through the same realization as she did. 

That there was probably no way home. 

No! Stop! Bad brain, Princess Celestia would find her. Sooner or later. She just had to stay alive until then. 

He pulled her out of the wreckage, treated her wounds and gave her food and water in the middle of a desert. So she could trust him, even if he seemed a bit grumpy and mean.

He was also right, Twilight realized, alone in this unknown place, with nearly no first hoof experience at wilderness survival in a desert environment. She would have no chance. 

But first, breakfast! 

The fork levitated 

“If that’s decided,” Knight said. “I think you had some more questions and we still have a few hours to kill.” 

He would soon come to regret those words 


“Please, just stop. My head is gonna explode.” 

Knight had had an interesting day so far. 

When he saw the damaged shuttle barreling towards the ground at terminal speed, he expected many things. That everyone would be already dead. That there would be no one at all. That there would be some danger, be it environmental or from the passengers. 

But a psychic midget unicorn was not one of them. 

And it was friendly! Well, maybe too friendly. 

“So you have not only multiple languages and cultures but also methods of governance and entire nations completely different from each other?"

Trying to explain to her how the ever-evolving clusterfuck that was human civilization worked was a terrible mistake. 

But at least he got some words edgewise during his days long  interrogation and found out a little about his new purple companion. 

Like the fact that she came from a hyper-religious feudal world, stuck mostly in the middle ages, with some strange exceptions. 

At least, that's what he thought. He wasn't really into history, that was Lilith's territory. He used to be a gardener, for goodness sake! What would he know about geopolitics and anthropology? 

But as far as he understood, the horse people (or ponies as they called themself) were ruled by a diarchy, each representing a part of the day and night circle. Also, it seemed like they believed they were actually responsible for moving the heavenly bodies. Which was ridiculous, but intriguing.

Knight wasn't religious. He strongly believed that if gods existed, his existence was nothing but a cruel joke for them to laugh at and so he shed them no prayer, but sun worship always made some sense to him. At least it was actually there, doing stuff, and you could say things like ‘Don't stare at god too long, or you go blind’, but it was still silly. 

So, Equestria, a land inhabited by a bunch of sapient, colorful pony people. Worshiping sun and moon and some overarching concept called harmony, frolicking in the field, being all peaceful like. At least she said so, and so far, he had no reason to not believe her. What a place. 

And I thought Lili’s home was absurd. 

Other than that, it was mostly Twilight who asked him questions. And he answered. Mostly. 

The purple equine became really nervous after she asked him about the revolver he kept nearby. Knight just told her that's a weapon and not to worry about it, which did very little to calm his companion. 

Couldn't blame her, waking up wounded nearby an armed stranger…

Then the subject of food came up. He had only those two eggs he…requisitioned along the way from a totally abandoned nest. But the road ahead took days to cross and sooner or later, she would need to eat again. 

Fortunately, he came prepared. He always took more than he would need for the journey, just in case. 

Unfortunately. what he had wasn’t exactly…pony friendly.

He had pemmican. 

He gave it to her without much thought. After all, she was fine with eggs, why would pemmican be any different?  

So, when she ate some, and she asked him what it was, he told her, not expecting much of a reaction

She puked all over him. 

Meat is a big no-no in her culture. Who knew? 

Some apologies and one ruined trousers later, all was forgotten. Forever. On the threats of suffering and violence if it wasn’t. 

“But there is still so much I don't know!” Twilight pleaded. 

“Later,” Knight snapped, Twilight flinching back, ears flat against her skull. He sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.  “You can ask Lilith all about your weird science stuff. She will tell you more…probably,” he paused, looking into the distance. “Now, I have to make sure we make it in the first place, so please, silence for now."

“But-”

“No buts,” he said, though more softly and less angrily. “This part of the trail is real dangerous, so stay behind me and do what you’re told.” 

Twilight pouted but did what the biped told her. 

He could only roll his eyes.

It wasn't all that bad. His mission went without a hitch. Just as the signal promised, a cache of advanced components, waiting for him to claim them. Of course, the mad animals guarding it were a problem, but nothing a few shots from his trusty revolver wouldn’t solve. And a new face around base and pair of hand, er, hooves, to work were always welcome. 

Not to mention her psychic abilities. He first noticed them at the crash site, and only found her because of it. The purple glow he at first mistaken for a flare was some kind of energy manipulation. At least that's what the human chose to think it was.

She called it magic. 

Yeah, right. 

The second time was when eating, she used telekinesis. Which at least explained how a bunch of horses without opposable thumbs operated tools.

She also said it was much harder to use here than normal, probably caused by ‘magical’ exhaustion.

Psychic burnout more likely. The unicorn mare did tell him she tried to use her abilities to escape from the ruins of the shuttlecraft, so it seemed plausible to him. Not that he knew anything about psychics. With how rare psychics were, she was the first one he ever met in person. Before that, he only heard stories about them from Sun Glory - their leader. Though he did only explain how to fight them most efficiently and not much else. 

The man looked at the tiny equine by his side, trotting through the hard terrain. 

Hopefully, he wouldn't need to use that information anytime soon. 

He took a breath and continued down the rocky, hidden path. 

The night was fast approaching, the sun mostly hidden by the mountain range that hosted their temporary home. It wasn't far. He could see the entrance to their secret valley from where he stood, but darkness, sharp rocks and tiredness are a bad combination and he did not want to risk an injury when they were so close to safety. 

“When we arrive, let me introduce you,” he spoke to Twilight, the equine perking up a little. “Remember, be polite and if by any chance it was King's turn in the kitchen, try not to puke on me again, please.” 

Twilight nodded, sufficiently embarrassed from before, and looked around. 

When the shock of her situation passed, she could not deny it was a little exciting. Not only was she the first pony to step onto an alien planet, but she was also the first to make contact with genuine extra celestial life forms! 

Then she saw the planet was a barren wasteland of rough sand, rubble, rust, debris, and dead bushes. The sun here was nothing like the sun at home. Here, the glow seemed angry, like it personally tried to turn the planet into a smoldering heap. Now she understood why Knight wore so many clothes and insisted that she wear at least a head wrap made from some of his extra garments. 

Heat insulation. Heat stroke was no joke. 

She also saw a few animals, but she kept her distance at Knights' insistence. 

Knight called them sand lions - strange creatures who were all claws and sharp teeth. She saw them prowling for prey in the desert. She also saw an animal that looked like a giant flightless bird, but the human shooed her away before she got a better look. 

Strangely, Knight seemed more unnerved when they encountered the bird than the sand lions, muttering something about emus and a lost war, whatever that meant. 

Soon, they both arrived at what Knight called the kill box.
The entrance to the valley was a very narrow gorge, finally getting wider and turning into a secret valley - though she didn't see the valley itself, the entrance being walled off by fortifications. Barricades, ditches, and barbed wire made their movement slow. She nearly slipped twice into a hole. 

There were lots of them, small craters in the ground, in the stone brick walls of the fortifications, or in the cliffs of the valley. Even some miscellaneous items were left on the ground. Empty bottles, discarded bows and broken spears. 

With slow, deliberate steps, they made it through, until they were at the doors, made of thick durable steel, covered in scratches. With a relieved smile, Knight pushed a button next to it four times with counted pauses.

“Now we wait.”  

They didn't have to wait for long


At this point, Twilight was utterly flummoxed. 

When the doors opened, what was waiting behind it was another human, nearly identical to Knight, except for his clothing and mane, which he kept longer. 

First, he looked scary, with even more strange armor on him and a serious expression. 

Then he saw her and broke into manic laughter. 

After some explaining, he introduced himself as Crown, the colony head builder, ‘Knights’ twin brother. 

Turns out, there was something called a translation program, some sort of spell it seemed. 

Twilight didn't fully comprehend how one would go around making it, but it made it so everypony understood each other, only that it had a bit of a flaw when it came to names. 

It translated them fully from the original language.  

Knight's ‘real’ name was Warrior Fond of Horses. 

I mean, he did say that Knight is a nickname. 

While that answered the unasked question of how she was able to talk to alien beings without a need for a year long linguistic study, it raised many more for the studious unicorn. 

Why would somepony place a spell-like that on, as Knight described it, hellish RimWorld, and how they maintained it? And if there is somepony like that, would they help her to get home?

And who names their children Warrior Fond of Horses? That's just cruel on the poor colt. 


“Oh my god, she's so cute!” 

The two brothers led her to what they called community hall, a large building made from wood and old stone bricks. Crown said it was one of the first buildings they had built after arrival, first as a barracks, and they repurposed it later. 

Nothing fancy, a dance floor, few speakers, dartboard and few other games and a lectern. 

And now one very peculiar human. 

Lilith wore a white lab coat over her tall, lanky frame. Her eyes seemed unfocused and her long hazelnut mane frazzled. Young, Twilight guessed, same as the twins, probably only a bit older than herself.

Lilith was also currently in the process of hugging her and squeezing her so much that her eyes bulged. 

“It's like the plush animals I used to have when I was a little girl!” the woman said excitedly. “Where did you find it?” 

Knight - who was until then too busy having a great time over the spectacle and grinning like an idiot - finally decided to intervene. 

“That’s Twilight,” the man said with a cheeky grin. “Twilight, meet Lilith, our resident head nerd.” 

“Air..I…Need…Oxygen!” Twilight wheezed out, lungs straining with all she got. 

The woman froze - hearing the adorable purple creature speak a bit of a shock to her.

“Oh! I'm so sorry,” Lilith said, letting Twilight go, the mare coughing and taking deep breaths. “I thought that...so sorry. My mistake.” 

Some more embarrassing apologies later, Twilight was given a bedroll and a meal, made primarily of corn - which tasted surprisingly good. And met the last two colonists she hasn't met yet. 

King was shorter than the others, but still extremely tall by pony standards. With a heavy set body, sort of fox smile and quick eyes. He kept mainly himself, but Twilight was told he was responsible for their workshop, security and weapon maintenance.

And then there was the leader of the ragtag group, Sun Glory. 

An imposing figure, clad in powered armor. His arm was replaced by a prosthetic, the impossibly advanced mechanical construct moving with hypnotizing agility. His face was scarred, metal jaw in place of the flesh and bone. 

By his hip was a sword of strange style, with serrated teeth instead of an edge and a massive hilt. 

He was the image of a true, hardened soldier. Somebody who would stand under the harshest of fire unbroken. 

And said imagine was totally ruined by his goofy smile, chef hat and a pink apron.

With a big red heart on it. 

And a chef hat. Did she mention the chef hat?

“Well met Twilight,” the giant soldier said with an unmistakable warmth in his voice - it reminded her of Celestia. “Must say, here I thought I already saw everything. And yet here you are.” 

Her sentiment, exactly.

As Glory was sitting down, she could hear the different parts of his armor make weird droning sounds. 

“I wanted to thank you,” Twilight began slowly, still unsure in the presence of the alien leader but found herself at ease under his serene smile. “You were nothing but kind to me.”

The man chuckled. It was a deep, omnipresent laugh that filled the room. 

“While I appreciate the thanks, I'm hardly the person to thank,” Sun Glory said, the metal jaw whirring as he spoke. “That would be Knight. But I'm obliged to say that our acts of hospitality were not entirely made for goodwill's sake alone.”

He took a deep breath.

“There is a lot you need to hear, to understand our situation, and to ultimately make your decision. Of joining us, or going into the wild,” he raised his hand, stopping Twilight before she could say anything in response. “And while right now that seems like an obvious choice, hear me out first.” 

He paused for a second

“This planet is hell,” he said simply. “And it was made so with intention.” 

Twilight wanted to say something, but the scholar found herself silent. 

“Twilight, Knight told me your world tech was not the most advanced,” Sun Glory said, the pony unsure how to respond to that. Not the most advanced? Sure, they didn't have prosthetics like that, but surely, it couldn't be that behind. “Tell me, did you have some TV or radio? Or some other kind of home entertainment.” 

Pondering for a second what it had to do with anything, she finally answered.

“We do have radios,” Twilight answered with a shrug. “I personally don't have one, but they are popular in the bigger cities. I don’t know what a TV is but there is an arcade in Ponyville and some other hoof held games exist, did you mean those? When I was a foal, I was too busy with studies to be interested in them."

The man scratched his chin - the prosthetic fingers met the bionic jaw with a metallic ting. 

“So using a reality TV show as a shorthand is out,” he sighed. “Well...do you know what gladiatorial combat is, Twilight?” 

Twilight shuddered. 

There were times in Equestria past, when pegasi fought each other in blood games, fighting in grand cloud arenas, sometimes to the death. That was long before the unification of the tribes, when things like magical duels between unicorns tended to end in fatalities. Even the earth pony competition of the iron pony stemmed from a forgotten tradition of an often deadly series of trials. It was supposed to be used to determine who is in the right when a serious accusation was made without enough evidence or witnesses to support its claims.

And lastly, there were the griffons. 

At the time when raids into the pony territory were common, the captured ponies were forced to fight with wild beasts for the entertainment of their overlords. That was until Princess Celestia and Luna cracked down on the borderlands and defeated the griffon high king, shattering their empire. 

When she still as a filly read on the subject from a rather…detailed tome taken from the restricted part of the Centerlot archive. It caused her many nightmares severe enough that she asked Celestia to let her bunker up in her giant bed, where she would be safe under a pair of alabaster wings, and not alone where the griffons could get her. 

A fond memory now, if silly one, something she would look back at with a smile. But that was in the past. Now she was now a grown-up. A big mare that is not scared of the monsters under her bed. An Element of Magic 

But the fear, the terror of realization dawning unto a pony. That they had to take a life to simply continue to be. It made an impression on the young mind, one not easily shaken away.

Damm you Herocoltes and your well-written body of historical works!

“Ah, I take it as a yes,” Sun Glory said, seeing the pony’s expression - which was a potent mix of fear, anger and disgust. 

“Why would you want to know?” she hissed. 

She could not help her reaction. This was still a taboo and a sore subject to talk about in most of the Equestrian society. Those dark times were over and there was no good reason to dwell on them.  

“I want to explain this in terms you understood, so you can make an informed decision, knowing what it entails as much as possible,” the man answered honestly. The pony blinked a few times. That was…not what she expected. “Why, you might ask?” she gave a nod. “Well, because lives are at stake. Yours, of my friends, and mine. 

He paused, his hand tightening around the hilt of his weapon - the gesture appeared less as a threat and more of a tick the man didn't even fully realize he had.  “I'm responsible for all of them, and that right now includes you.” 

Sun Glory’s eyes narrowed. 

"I'm not going to fail you. I'm not gonna fail them.”

Twilight was a bit spooked by this sudden change. Serenity and calm, before in Glory’s voice, now replaced by deep conviction. His eyes spoke of determined fire. 

“We were abducted, taken from our homes by force,” the soldiers spat on the ground. “Placed into this hellscape of burning sun and endless desert, of beasts and monsters, both literal and metaphorical. And someone did this to us.”

He took a deep breath, fingers letting go of the sword handle he grasped during his speech. 

“Twilight, I won't sugarcoat this,” he continued, more softly. The gleam in his eyes, while not gone, now far weaker than the blaze it was before. “We are prisoners thrown into a lion's pit so an adoring audience can laugh at our misery. As much as we try to keep our spirit up, with silly jokes and whatnot, we are desperate people in a desperate situation, doing what it takes so we can see our family and home again.”

He looked at Twilight. Truly looked. He gazed right into her eyes, the pony wanted to look away, but she resisted the urge.

Sun Glory smiled.

“But that's what we can get you, Twilight,” he spoke again, his voice holding to its warm, calming quality. “We can give you an opportunity to see home again.”

Twilight perked up. Home. She could go home again.

“The conditions of this game are simple,” Sun Glory said bitterly. “Four years and hundred waves of enemies. Survive and go home.

He laughed a humorless laugh.

“The game is, of course, rigged against us. Would not be a good drama without it. I will not lie to you, just as I won't lie to any under my protection. I made that promise, and I intend to keep it. We are a year in, and we have escaped defeat so far, but only by the skin of our teeth.”

He pointed at his robotics jaw.

"And sometimes, not even that.”

He paused. The pony fidgeted in place. Torn and unsure what to do. 

"I believe that we will make it,” he finally continued. “I truly do, but the possibility of failure is real and the chance that not all of us are coming home is not insignificant.”

He stood up, putting his remaining real hand on her shoulder.

“It isn't easy. The danger is great and the price for losing is everything,” he said with deliberate slowness, before his voice became steel again. “But it is a chance, a chance of seeing our loved ones again.”

Sun Glory looked down. And for a second, Twilight could swear she saw his eyes become misty. 

The man shook his head. 

“If it's too much, I understand,” he said warmly. “No one will blame you. We give you some of our supplies and send you on your way. Even just being here is a risk. While the waves sent are always coming at the same intervals, our jailors are imaginative in our torment, and enjoy…shaking things from time to time, so to speak.”

Twilight did not react at first, her expression remaining neutral despite her internal conflict.

That did not seem to deter Sun Glory.

“But if you decide that the risk is worth taking, a psychic on our side could be the difference between life and death. Of course, there would be bloodshed and misery and pain.”

He shrugged, the movement accompanied by the droning of metal parts of his power armor.

“The other option is wandering this desert, waiting, wanting. Maybe you find some meaning out there in the wasteland. Maybe not.”

He got up to his full height, towering above Twilight. The other humans were tall, but Sun Glory was massive even by those standards.

“What I'm offering is a goal,” he said. “One that’s distant now. One that we may never reach. A fight for our future that was stolen. A fight we may very well lose.”

He turned and walked towards the doors, the pony noticing how silent his footsteps were despite the weight which the human carried himself.

“Ultimately, it's up to you,” Sun Glory said to her as he opened the doors. “Sleep on it, take your time. We can talk later when you decide.

He stepped through the meek wooden doors, turning to her for a few last words.

“Right now, rest,” he commanded. “Hopefully, it helps.”

“Goodnight”  

After that, they left her alone with her head swirling with thoughts.


Later into the night, she had trouble finding sleep for multiple reasons.

Exhaustion, aching body, filth in her fur, her fresh bandages being too restrictive and uncomfortable. 

Horrible, terrible thoughts poisoning her mind. 

Is there a rescue coming?

The humans were more advanced than the ponies in terms of scientific advances. She saw it first hoof. The prosthetic and the armor. The strange tools and machines she saw glimpses of when she made her way into the community house. 

Yet, they did not expect a rescue, even though they certainly knew more about travel between worlds. The way they spoke about different development levels of planets…

If they did not expect a rescue, what did that say about her chances? 

Princess Celestia was ancient and wise and good and kind and-

And she knew absolutely nothing about traveling to worlds outside Eguus, other than some discarded experiments by Star Swirl. And even if she could somehow find her? 

The magical field on this barren rock was much weaker than of Equestria, even basic levitation was draining her reserves fast. Teleporting her home? Out of the equation. Flying? Thru the empty confines of space? 

She was alone and help was not coming, and she better accept it. 

How would they even know? From their perspective, she probably just vanished from her bed in the middle of the night. Abducted by aliens? Nopony could even guess as to what happened to her. Well, maybe expect Pinkie Pie, but she was Pinkie Pie so that hardly counted. 

Girls…

Would they think she ran away? Would they give up or continue searching for her? 

Forever?

What about her parents? Her BBBFF?
Spike? How would he take it?

Princess Celestia? 

Tears started rolling down her cheeks as she wailed long into the uncaring dark. 


The atmosphere in the diner was tense that morning

“Don't you have to replant the crop after the stupid flash storm burned it?” asked Crown. 

His brother was right. He had to replace the west field.

Again.

It was always the west field. Knight did now know why the west field kept being burned to ash by storms for what felt like the billionth time, but it just kept happening! 

No matter what they did, how many lightning rods they build or new toys they tried, those stupid crimes against the laws of nature appeared only there. Out of nowhere, with no rain or anything. 

Flashstorms.

They even had buildings entirely made out of steel, yet that had never been hit. 

Only the field, only his goddamn field. 

He got pretty good at replanting it, at least. The plants that were sent to them by their mysterious captors were surprisingly helpful. 

For one, the speed with which they grew could not be normal. Rice that grows into a harvest-ready plant in only ten days? Corn that makes wood-like fibers? Cotton that basically turns into cloth basically by itself somehow?

Of course, those miracles of bullshit science were offset by the droughts, blights, giant acid-spitting locusts that first devoured the crop and then tried to eat his face, and the constant fires. 

Must be good for the soil, though.

The fires, not the face-eating locust. 

He would move the field somewhere else if he could. Sadly, space for growing crops was vastly limited to the meager strip of arable soil found in their small hidden crater valley. 

“It's not that big of a deal, only half of it burned this time,” he explained sheepishly.

That earned him a strange look from everyone.

Knight started to sweat. 

“You are not trying to avoid The Duty, Are you?” asked Lilith, brows raised suspiciously. 

He forced a strained smile. “No… but on the subject, I brought the advanced components, so maybe as a reward?” 

That did not convince anyone.

From the corner of the building, they could hear sizzling sounds as Glory prepared breakfast. 

Breakfast, Knight did not register when, but it became a sort of ritual for them. 

The diner was the second building of their small colony. They built both of them into ruins that they discovered in the crater valley. While the community house used to be their barracks, the diner used to be storage and workshop. It was the floor that gave it the name, the small black-and-white tiles and a jukebox just gave it a look of an old classic diner in his opinion. And after he started calling it that, the name stuck.

The building itself wasn't overly big, with only two rooms, the larger one contained a long dinner table, an old school jukebox that only played two songs none of them knew, a tube TV playing some bizarre alien rendition of a family sitcom and a kitchen, where Sun Glory ruled supreme. The smaller room was a walk-in freezer. 

And every morning, they would wake up, Sun would make them food and while they ate, they would schedule the daily chores. And each day, someone would make a mark on the calendar, the stupid paper calendar each one of them hated with a burning passion. 

He could see it. Two days from now.

Another wave. 

They knew what they would be facing. Knight wondered if that only stoke the fires of rage in the hearts of his fellows. The fuckers even used a point system! As to mock them - look, this is the price of life. Calculated in painstaking detail, isn't that swell? 

“I think that is a good idea,” said Sun Glory, back turned to them as he worked the stove. Knight smiled. Finally, The Duty was the worst. “Giving her a tour would help her. Both to familiarize her with the place and to make her focus on something else. And she trusts you the most.” 

Ah, that half baked idea.

Dammit. 

More sizzling, some garnish, some salt. 

Oh god, he was hungry for some real food after eating trail mix and pemmican for a week. 
He overheard some discussion about the installation of new automatic doors into the lab between Crown and Lilith, but he didn't care enough to really listen to it.

A tour. That ain't that bad. And If I play my cards right, no Duty for me. 

Today looks like a good day.

“I still think that you overdid it, the whole speech,” Lily said suddenly. “The poor girl just landed here. You didn't need to scare her half to death.” 

Oh no.

“Maybe Lilith,” replied Sun Glory. “But better than the other route. Of not knowing what she had signed up for until it's too late. Would you have that on your conscience?” 

One week, that's all I'm asking.

“Yeah, but we kinda need her, ya know, mostly sane?” Crown piped up. “You do realize that, do you? I mean, what's the harm in introducing things to her as they come, eh? And it is not like you told the truth anyway. You did omit a few details, didn't ya?”

I do wonder, if this is some fucked up reality show for aliens, do they classify it as a drama or comedy?

His brother was right, of course. While Sun told most of it, and never truly lied to her, there were a few points where he chose to use...restrictive reality on. But he could not fault Sun Glory for that, even if he thought that it was going to bite them in the ass later.

Like right now, for instance. 

In the doors stood the purple pony in question.

She looked nearly as bad as when he got her out of the shuttle crash. Circles under her eyes, clean strokes in her filthy fur, showing where tears flowed. Still half-covered in bandages and with his torn up shirt used as a head wrap. 

“Ehm…Morning,” Lilith said through a forced smile faker than an actor's apology. 

God bless you, Lilith, you are worse than King sometimes. 

“I made a decision.”

No one made a sound. The universe decided to take a break for a while and time stopped. Knight felt a pang of disappointment. Even though he knew the pony for only a short time, and the incessant questioning was annoying, he could not help but be charmed by the inquisitive equine. 

“Oh, well, that's good,” Sun Glory said. “Breakfast is ready.”

It looked good. It always looked good, and the taste was nothing to scoff at. Usually, it tasted delicious. Unfortunately, there are only so many types of dishes one can make from corn, rice, small amounts of milk and a weird blue bulbous fruit similar to prickly pear they found. 

So corn fritters, salad and a corn casserole for lunch that they would take with them to work. 
Still, beats the diet of trail mix and pemmican. 

“I'm staying here.” 

The words came and had weight behind them. Like a heavy door shutting closed. 
Or coffin lids.

“I have to at least try.” 

The brief pause was shattered with laughter, bitter, sad laughter. Twilight's face turned into an image of confusion.

“It's nothing, it's just,” Sun Glory said through the mirth and half chewed fritter. 

“That's exactly what we said when we landed here, too.” 


Things did not go by her expectations so far.

That didn't really mean anything to Twilight, as she did know what to expect in the first place when she was offered the tour of the base. 

Knight took her around, showing her what was where. It was actually a somewhat impressive place, considering that only five creatures built it in under a year. 

The whole colony was placed into a crater made long ago by a meteorite that impacted a mountain range. At the very center, a small lake formed over the countless centuries and millennia. With only one path leading into it, and a stable water source, it made the ideal base for the trapped humans.

Other than the community house and the diner next to each other to the west, there was the workshop, a big brick building to the east, housing and the lab to the south, and animal pens and fields in the center. The entrance, a makeshift hospital, if you could count a small wooden building with four beds as a hospital, and the kill box were north. 

But what surprised her the most was the name.

The wooden sign by the gate proudly proclaimed it to the few that would see it

“Really?” she asked in a voice that was angry, tired and surprised at the same time.

Knight only grinned more.

“Well, you see, Sunny, the good ol’ chap, had the great idea of voting for the name,” he flashed her a toothy smile. “What he didn't account for was that only three people showed up to vote, and only one actually put down a candidate.”

“My idea won. With one third of the votes.”

“But, why?” the pony asked. 

He shrugged. “I felt like it”

Welcome to Going South. 


When Knight took her to the lab, she nearly jumped with excitement. 

To Knight, it seemed like the regular old boring room, where Lilith did the nerd stuff. 

To Twilight, it was literally a new world of possibilities and scientific and magical discovery. The clean room with steel floor and it's impossibly complicated machinery and delicate instruments representing all the new possibilities and discoveries to be made.

It also confirmed her thoughts about Humans being more advanced technologically than ponies. The purple unicorn’s working theory was that by living on worlds with less ambient magic, humanity was forced to adapt to their surroundings by other means. 

It would answer the question of why they seemed to covet ‘psychics’ so much, even just her most basic levitation seemed to amaze them. On the upside, her new friends looked unaffected by this planet's low magic, while she had a constant head and horn aches. She suspected that their native world was very much the same in that regard. Or maybe Eguus was simply special and had an unusually high magical presence to the rest of the universe. 

Yay science!

To her dismay, Knight dragged her outside the lab before she could ask Lilith any questions. 

“She is busy, and I don't want to bother her and have half the lab explode,” he explained, rolling his eyes at the pouting pony. “The last time I did that I had to be the guinea pig.”

The man shuddered.

“Never. Again.” 

So now, she was in the pens, overlooking a herd of strange animals. 

The best description she came up with for them in her mind was a crossbreed between antelope and a yellow water balloon that desperately wanted to die. 

“Those are boomalopes,” Knight explained. “Quick warning, they are extremely flammable, explode, have the self-preservation instinct of a man wearing copper armor during a lightning storm and all the life expectancy of a hamster inside a nuclear detonation."

“Why do you even have them, then?”

He gave her a look - a distant, haunted one of somebody remembering horrors beyond imagining. 

“We milk them.” 


After that episode, Knight led her into the warehouse. A fascinating place for Twilight. Shelves full of parts and materials. Furnaces illuminated the place with an orange glow, and everywhere she looked, tools she could not even grasp how to use. 

But one part she recognized - a simple table with a sewing machine on it. 

Behind it, King. 

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?” the human asked, scratching his shaggy beard as he gave her a look. 

For the studious unicorn, the look he gave her was similar to the one Rarity had every time she tried to get Applejack to wear something “befitting a lady”. 

That's to say, a challenge. 

“Never made clothes for a horse,” he grabbed a roll of measuring tape and approached her with a shrug. “But it can't be that hard” 

“A pony,” Twilight said with indignation. 

“Tomatoes tomatos”

Large pieces of cloth, scissors and a few scissors gathered around King as he worked. He was using her as a living ponyquin - something she was more than familiar with after so many dressmaking sessions with her fashionista friend. But not being as talented, or simply not knowing, the process was not exactly gentle nor painless.

“Why do I even need clothes?” she asked after a particular painful moment where he accidentally pulled on her ear after trying to make her a hat that would fit her. 

“Do you like your skin?” King deadpanned.

“Yes?” Twilight said tentatively. 

“That's the reason why. Well, unless you like sunburns, you’re going to cover yourself. Now please stay still. I need to get those measurements right,” he pulled another piece of cloth, scissors swooshing as he cut a shape from it. “And have you decided what kind of armor you want?” 

She raised an eyebrow at him. “Why would I need armor?”

“Do you like your organs?” 


After several more painful hours, an order for a flak vest, a duster and a load bearing vest was made. She also managed to talk him into getting her a pair of saddlebags - as none of the backpacks they had any use for her. 

She was also given a ten-gallon hat, similar to the one that Applejack used to wear everywhere. 

“Now, we need to get you a shooter,” King said as he began rubbing his hands. 

The bulky man ran to a metal cabinet, pulling several long objects made out of metal and wood from it.  

Twilight raised an eyebrow. “A what?”

“A gun," he clarified unhelpfully. "A boomstick, the express pain delivery, the lead spitter-”

“I don't think they have guns where she's from, King,” snickered Knight, watching the gun obsessed friend struggle with the concept.  

“And I don't want a ‘shooter’ anyway!” Twilight interjected with a stomp of her hoof.

“Ah, more of a melee gal then,” King shrugged. “Close and personal, I get you. Now, I think a chain spear or a rocket hammer-”

“I don't need any of that! I have magic, you stupid monkey!” she shouted. King took a step back. 

A purple glow enveloped her horn. 

A click and a blur later and a gun was aimed at her. Knight's face turned from an amused smile to serious in a flash.

“Now, calm the hell down,” Knight's voice was just as cold as the barrel of the gun pressed against Twilight's temple, the pony afraid to even breathe. “You take the psy charge away. We just want you to make it, that's all. We’re not your enemies.”

She released her magic; the glow fading. She then shivered as Knights holstered the revolver just as quickly as he pointed it at her.

“I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me,” the mare said with a quiver in her voice.

The unicorn mare realized that it was irrational in her situation, but she felt like having to be armed would be letting some of her principles die. What awaited her here was made clear. A fight to the death. But the way King talked about weapons just rubbed her wrong. 

And so she lost her temper for a moment-and nearly got killed for it. 

“I think we are done here,” Knight finally said and turned his back, walking through the workshop's door without looking back. 

With that, the pair left the workshop, and the stunned King behind.

Twilight slumped down. What will happen now to her? Would they kick her out? Doom her to waste away in the desert? What had gotten into her?

It was on the way back to her temporary bedroom when her tour guide noticed that she was limping. 

“You’re bleeding,” Knight pointed out. The bandages around her foreleg turned a shade of pink. It felt like a thousand ants were eating it. But she said nothing. Why? 
The truth of the matter was that she was scared. 

They helped because she was useful to them. Because they thought that their chance of survival was better with her than without. She heard them say it. What would they do if she couldn’t help them?

“Should have said you are not okay,” Knight sighed deeply. “Of course, you would be on edge with a wound like this. Fuck! We would let you rest, ya know?” 

He gave another sight.

I’ll take you to Sun,” he said with a hint of resignation. “He knows what he is doing when it comes to patching people up…mostly.” 

“You are not mad at me?” she asked.

The man paused, as if he was pondering the questions for a few seconds.

“Nah,” was her verbose answer. 

“I just insulted your friend!” Twilight argued. “I threatened him with magic!”

“You called him a monkey and made your forehead glow. I pressed a gun to your head,” he gave her a look. “You should be mad at me, really. And don't worry about insulting King. We call each other much worse things. He may be a bit anxious round’ you for a while though. But he will get over it.”

He gave her a smile.

“Now, let us go to the doc!”

He looked at her, tilting his head. “Or vet, whatever.”


It should have concerned Twilight that the man, whose main job was chef, was also their best doctor. 

But it should not have come as that big of a surprise. At least he knew how to use a knife with a steady hoof, er, hand, she thought. 

Also, he almost immediately showed his skill, the mechanical arm of his purring like a cat as skeletal metal fingers gently removed the bandages, applied medicine that she did not recognize, all in a few seconds and without causing her any pain. 

“Few bruises, minor lacerations, this one will need some stitches.” 

Sun’s Glory voice was calming to Twilight and his tone reminded her of home and Nurse Redheart. Soothing in a familiar way. 

Still, the idea of being stitched in a makeshift hospital did not sit well with Twilight, and she showed it by nervously fidgeting. 

Just don't think about it, it will be over soon. 

“Hmm,” the human hummed as he carefully inspected her hoof, his other hand reaching for something behind him. “By the way, is there anything you want for dinner?” 

Twilight bit her lip. She hated hospitals and the fact that this wasn't even a real one didn't make it better. “Shouldn’t you concentrate on your work now?”

“Yes, but I just needed to distract you from the needle.” 

The what now? 

Before she could process it, she felt a quick pinch near where the more serious cut was.

“Just a little something, so you will not feel it when I do the stitching,” the man explained, " Local anesthetic, don't worry about it.” 

True to his words, the pain subsided from her hoof, replaced by numbness around the small but jagged and angry looking wound. 

With a curved needle in the robotic hand, the healer got to work, but the unicorn could not look at it without risking losing lunch. Another distraction was needed.

“How did you lose your arm?!” she barked and instantly regretted it, and face hooved with the one free front leg. 

Smooth, just ask the creature doing a small surgery on you about probably one of the most traumatic events of his life. Great idea genius! 

For his part, Sun did not show any outward reaction to her outburst, his hand not shaking in the slightest.

“Got blown up, but I put myself back together. Now.”

He took a step back to look over his work. 

“It's not infected, has a good color, and as far as my experience with human biology goes, it should heal nicely soon enough.” 

She gave him a grateful nod and related a breath she did not realize she was holding. 

“Thank you.” 

He waved her off. 

“It's my duty. But I still want to know more about your diet.” 

Twilight was more than happy to talk about the proper pony diet, while Sun listened intently and sometimes made notes and asked questions. Turns out, Sun Glory had a high standard for his craft, and learning about foods from foreign cultures was a hobby of his. 

“How did you even end as the colony doctor?” she asked him. 

He gave her a gallic shrug. 

“I had first aid training before we arrived,” he said. “And well, it kinda became my job to keep this place running. So, I do my best to keep them happy, fueled up and sometimes keep them standing with a little invasive maintenance.”

Twilight nodded at the armor-clad human. It made a lick of sense, in a strange roundabout way. 

“Well, no reason to keep you here,” Sun Glory put down his tools. “Rest, a bug dinner and good night sleep are the best medicine for you now. We can talk about accommodation and work assignments tomorrow morning.”

“Finally,” Knight was waiting by the door the whole time, bored.  “I’ll lead you back. Can’t wait to go to bed myself.”

Only for Sun to stop him.

“And where do you think you are going? There is still work to do.”

“What?” Knight pointed at Twilight. “I took her on the tour. That was the work.”

The armored chef gave him a look. “Aren’t you forgetting something?”

Sun Glory motioned towards the animal pens with his head. Something lit behind Knight's eyes as the realization dawned upon Knight,

“You wouldn't,” he said. 

“I would and I will,” Sun Glory handed him a bucket. “King needs the chemfuel for a project and it's your turn.”

Knights shoulders slumped. Utter dejection about his fate now overpowered the human. 

“And be careful around Izzy,” Sun Glory added with a mischievous smirk. “She ate something weird and you don't want to trip on the results. I'm pretty sure it qualifies as makeshift IEDs.”

Knight could only sigh.

The Duty always found him in the end,  


The desert was silent that night. 

Twilight tossed on her bedding, shivering. It got cold at night; it was freezing outside and it wasn't that much that much better inside. 

Back in Equestria, nopony would allow such craziness, freezing in a desert? Preposterous!  

She had to be strong, for her friends and for Celestia. Before long, she would be back home, in her own bed, hugging Spike and never letting him go again. 

Just three years…

During the day, she successfully put those thoughts away. But the loneliness got to her now. 

Loneliness, yes, she was lonely. 

The humans were mostly okay when not agitated first, or at least not mean to her on purpose, she supposed. 

But they weren't ponies, they didn't hug her, she barely saw any physical contact between them, another thing that made them alien. 

There was something about them that made her insides crawl. They fought, they were armed, all of them had at least some armor, always. Even Lilith, under her lab coat, had some metal vest. 

And they kept going after losing arms, and jaws and…

They were not normal ponies, was the point her mind was trying to make. 

It was a scary concept for Twilight. What would she do if put into the same position? Would she break or pull-thru? Was that kind of resilience in her? 

Someone knocked on the doors.

“Hey, eh, can I come in?”

King's nervous voice interrupted her musings.

“I have the clothes for you.” 

Purple magic enveloped the door outside the short human, scratching his head and holding a package. 

“I also wanted to apologize. I acted like an idiot, sorry.”

The clothes were no masterpiece of fashion, as were the dresses crafted by Rarity, but good for what they were. It also included one of the vests with hard blue metal inserts in it, and a simple helmet, shaped to be able to wear it comfortably and not block her horn.

She put the duster on immediately. The cloth was snug against her fur. 

Better already, she smiled. 

“Jesus, it's cold in here,” King said through the rattling of his own teeth. “You know you can turn on the heaters, do you?” 

“I can do what?” 


The next morning, Twilight was irate, to put it mildly. 

Mane frazzled even more than Lilith. Her whole body and new clothes were drenched in white foam. Her tail singed and burned. 

“Hey, stop giving me the stink eye,” King defended himself from her glare. “This is on you.”

Twilight learned a valuable lesson that night. Sleeping next to the heater was not the great idea she thought it would be, especially putting the cloth bedroll so close to the heater it caught on fire. 

“So, I think here next to the cliff wall,” Crown spoke, tracing a wooden stick on a basic sketch of the base written over the dinner table with chalk. “The ground is stable and it would be in the shade for most of the day, so temperature management would be less of a hassle.”

And while Crown was talking towards her, he did not really talk to her as he planned what would become her new house in this oasis full of what the purple unicorn decided were crazy people. 

Twilight was okay with it. Further communication with the - again - definitely crazy people - did not seem exactly appealing to the unicorn at the moment. 

With breakfast made of numerous corn-derived meals over and plans made, she had one last important question.

“What am I doing today?” she finally asked Sun Glory. 

“If you don't have a project, probably haul stuff for Crown so he has an easier time constructing your house,” he said to her after a few seconds of pondering. “After that, I think Lilith told me something about the research she needs help with. You said you were a scholar, so maybe try to see if you can be of help.”
At that, the frazzled woman raised her head from where she was devouring her breakfast. 

“Is that a good idea?” the woman asked. “From what she said, her world seems to be technologically stunted.” 

“Lilith, we had spent a week researching a way to use a watermill, not realizing that we are stranded in a fucking extreme desert,” retorted Crown. “The only ones stunted here are us.” 

“It was not that bad,” Lilith said awkwardly, avoiding his eyes. 

The man gave her a blank look.

“We still do not know how to make carpets, Lilith. Carpets!” he exclaimed. “We can build a machine gun but not a carpet. And don't let me start on the other furniture we don't have.” 

He started anyway.

So, that was how Twilight learned that the advanced aliens had no idea how to make a sofa.
 
It was going to be a long day. 


Crown sang a happy tune to himself as he laid stone blocks, forming a wall. 
The job was simple, repetitive, and gave ample time to ponder and think. 

Crown hated it with a passion, so he decided to sing - much to the dismay of anyone possessing functioning ears. 

That, unfortunately, covered the sleep-deprived pony. Who not only had very good hearing, much better than the humans actually, but also knew how to sing properly. 

Of course, she would never call the sounds the Crown made singing, the same way one doesn't call a scream of a dying animal a conversation. 

On the other hoof, Twilight had to give due credit to his ability to build fast. In a few short hours, a good portion was already made. 

But she was also already exhausted and feeling like her lungs were trying to escape to greener pastures through her chest, using nothing but a carving knife and a can of gasoline. 

More slate bricks were delivered, enveloped in her magic. That was delivery number three.

By her calculation, only twenty remained. 

Oh joy. 

“Ya sure, you are okay?” Crown inquired, putting another brick in place. “With that leg still all banged up, you can take it slow if ya need.” 

“No, I'm” pants. "totally," a desperate struggle to get oxygen into her. ”Fine,” collapsing to the floor. 

“Well, it was time for a pause anyway,” Crown said as he put his tools away.

“Sorry, I'm just not an athletic pony.” Twilight said. The sandy floor was surprisingly cold to lay on. The deadly laser of death that was this world sun still getting up to its another attempt to burn the planet to ash. 

“Nah, this is good,” Crown said with a wave of his hand. “You already hauled enough with your fancy psychic stuff. I think I have it now, at least for the walls.”

He resumed working, Twilight sitting in the shade of the growing building. It was kinda nice, minus the singing. She could afford a relaxed breath. 

Taking a page from Rainbow’s book and taking a nap sounded heavenly about now.  

“Looks like you are finally getting it.” Crown tone was playful, and she was too tired to do anything now, but to give him a small nod.

“Hmm,” she hummed. “With what I heard, I didn't expect to be bored here.”

He stopped like struck, brick still in hand and eyes wide.

“You didn't.” 

Thunder boomed in the valley and a flash of a white cut through the clear sky.

“MY CORN!” 

Twilight stared at the field, now on fire.

Crown facepalmed.

“We really need to tell you about the murphy laws.” 


One fast firefighting session later, she was washing in the pond.

“You are really good at putting down fires, ya know that?” Crown said from where he was cleaning himself next to her. “We didn’t even lost the harvest this time.”

Twilight smiled - it was a small, sad smile, but a smile nonetheless.

“I helped to raise a dragon,” she told him. “I had a lot of practice.” 

“Yeah, but I still want fire foam poppers in the field,” called out Knight, rubbing ash and soot from his cowboy hat next to them.”

“Are ya crazy?” His brother retorted. “Those things are expensive as fu-frick. We can't afford to lose so many components every time there is a little wildfire.”

“And what about our food, ya big and mighty “I need the components” sir, see what your precious components do when we are all dying of starvation!”

“It's just some stupid corn!” Crown yelled back.

The two brothers, as siblings do, argued. Somehow changing subjects to how Crown once accidentally entombed himself in a room, and how it was still somehow Knight's fault. Meanwhile, Twilight slowly walked to the lab. Wasn't there something about a project? Maybe she could help, whatever it was. It could not be worse than listening to their bickering about tables and how there were never enough of them.

Soon enough Twilight found that, in fact, it could be worse.


The unicorn mare was hyperventilating. 

Such barbarity forced upon her. How? Why? What has she, by Celestia's mane, ever done to deserve such a fate?

“What do you mean, we don't have any books?” Twilight said, a manic glint in her eyes. Don't you keep written records? Notes? Anything?”

Lilith shrugged “No? I'm sorry, we just don't have the-”

“You are a researcher! You write things down. That's what you do!” the mare yelled.

No, she was stronger than that! She would rise above, prove herself truly worthy of literature in all its glory! She would shepherd these humans, save them from the hellscape, the sin that was an absence of books in their lives. She would write, she decided. Yes, that would be her purpose. She would be their savior. A new chance a-

“We don't have any paper or pens,” Lilith explained easily. “Or anything to make them. We could use stone tablets, but that would be widely impractical. I apologize. But I can teach you without it! Just don't touch these glass tubes, and -please- don't yell at me again…”

Twilight took a deep breath.

“No, you are right, I apologize. What was that you were working again? I didn't exactly listen. Having my little episode, hehe.”

Great Twilight, what an element of harmony you are, yelling at somepony and nearly making them cry. She is almost like Fluttershy. Just a bit more…sciency? 

Is sciency a word? I need a thesaurus…

“Yes, that!” Lilith exclaimed happily. “I was working on a new system to help us defend against the wave tomorrow. I call it gun turrets. We can already make the weapon and a mechanism to operate it. You see, the main issue is the rudimentary AI to operate it and…Are you listening?”

The wave was tomorrow. 

It hit her like a train, or a speedy cyan pegasus not paying attention again. 

Stomach-churning, the world started spinning. A deer in the headlight look plastered on her face, her stomach churning.  

“I think I may have screwed up,” said Lilith. “Wait! Not on the floor I-. ACH... and I just cleaned up.”


“Better now?” 

Twilight gave the scientist a nod, still feeling very uneasy. ‘How did it even slip my mind?’ she thought. ‘So little time left.’ 

Very awkwardly, Lilith put her hand on the mare's shoulder. 

“It's going to be okay,” she said in her best calming voice, but it only came out very strained. “Sorry, I'm not good at the whole emotional support thingy.” 

“Do y-y-you always feel like t-this? Before….”

“I used to. We worked on it. Don't worry, it does get easier with time. Now I'm only half-scared to death!”

Against herself, Twilight smiled.

“See! I'm getting better at this.”

Lilith pointed at her desk.

“But we better start working. Who knows, maybe we can find a way to build turrets that don't shoot us in the back accidentally!” 

They didn't. 


In front of Twilight stood a house. 

Which in itself wasn't that surprising. That's what houses were supposed to do, after all. Stand. Unless they were built with sketchy structural integrity. But that was exactly what she suspected this one had, considering it wasn't there in the morning. 

It included furniture, floors, plumbing, and electricity. 

“How?” she asked, bewildered. 

“Ya know," Crown shrugged, "I just get them bricks and put them up on each other till there's a wall.” 

He pointed at the welding torch behind him.

“Then I weld them solid.”

"I still don't think that's how you are supposed to do it," said Knight. leaning against a newly made wall.

Crown shot him an annoyed glare. 

“What do you know? It worked so far, didn't it?” 

Knight smirked.   “Yeah, I suppose, but maybe make some windows next time.”

“...Oh.”

The house only had two rooms, a bedroom, and a bathroom. It wasn't very spacious or impressive. It beats sleeping on the floor again, at least. And it was a nice gesture. 

She still missed her library, the coziness of her tree. Every time she closed her eyes, she imagined being home with her friends. 

She could see them in her head. A sunny day in Ponyville. Everypony smiling and enjoying their time. Her friends having a nice picnic, the one that they planned for, and one she would never arrive at. Spike sitting by her side and giving a wistful look to Rarity. Rainbow Flying around, and Pinkie being Pinkie. The Applejack bringing her home cooking, Fluttershy showing her new animal friends. How she missed it all. 

“Hey, you dolts, dinner is served!” King called them .

But maybe, just maybe, she will be okay.

For them. 


“Time to wake up, princess!” 

Twilight groaned. Crown may have forgotten the windows, but the bed was heavenly, it made her remember the enchanted cloud bed Celestia used. So comfy.

“Five more minutes Spike.” 

Sunlight mercilessly attacked her through open doors. One very unimpressed human standing there. Knight tossing her clothes onto the bed.

“Get up. We have a meeting,” He paused, picking up her flak vest and tossing her too. “Oh, and take your armor. You’re gonna need it.” 

So she did. Not bothering to brush her mane and making her way to The Diner, where everyone else was already waiting. Feeling like a prisoner marching on his way to be exiled to Tartarus. 

Sun Glory was by the big table with a map of the crater valley carved into it. His hands on the map, he began drawing.  

“Now that we are all here, we can begin,” Sun Glory said, leaning over the table. “I believe we already made most of the preparations.”

“Yup,” King said. ”I loaded the special ammo in Betsy. And I made extra green tips for us too. So we are fine as far as ammunition is concerned."

“Good job. What about the fort? Crown, how do we hold up?”

The builder shrugged. “The fortification and traps are repaired and reinforced. Unless they bring some explosives, they ain’t going through there."

Sun Glory smiled, “Well done. What about the turret project? Any luck?”

Lilith sighed. 

“No, sadly. Twilight understood the subject surprisingly well for a mid-worlder, but unless we want a wild weapon running amok, the targeting system is not ready.”

Twilight gave a nod. She had found that programming was surprisingly like making a spell matrix, and learned fast. But the complexity was too much for the two of them to do in time for the attack. 

“No matter. I'm sure you did your best,” Sun Glory said. “Now, what we stand against is a marauding group of mantodeans with an exiled queen. Around forty of them. Our main objective is to funnel them into Betsy's cone of fire. For that- yes Twilight?”

The unicorn put down her hoof.

“Eh, what are mantodeans?” 

“An insect-like humanoid species." Sun Glory stated, not looking up. "Probably made as a biological weapon that got out of control, like most giant bugs around here. Knight, you, as our second-best shot, will take a position on this ridge. We have some grenades that-”

“Can't we just talk them out of attacking us?” interrupted Twilight.

“If only it was that easy. We can't negotiate with them. Now-”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because they are monsters, Twilight” Sun Glory did not look up from the battle plan, but she could hear the shift in his voice. “They are not people. The’re things. Barely sentient bioweapons, nothing more. They don't know mercy, hesitation or fear. If they get beyond our lines, if they defeat us, we are dead, or worse.”

Twilight frowned. 

“But we have to try! The magic of friendship can-”

“They eat people,” 

The way Sun Glory said it, trying to not sound harsh. 

Decked in his marine armor, face betraying a hint of emotion from his otherwise unchanging demeanor. 

“Their whole culture, if you can call it that. Is about that,” Sun Glory’ hand turned into a fist, shaking a little with emotion the soldier buried. “They come, kill, eat and enslave. One big hunt. There is no negotiation, not with mantodeans. Our best chance of defense is killing the queen. The rest of the should scatter soon after.”

Chance is not guarantee. A chance. That's all he offered to her. A chance. The only one she got. 

‘I won't lie to those I'm responsible for,’ was his sentiment, his promise. 

“Well, if the bugs come, let's show them what this is about." Knight pointed at the ridge on the map. "You said something about grenades?”

Sun Glory nodded.

“Yes, we have a crate of them. Take it with you to the ridge. Use them to force them into the open.” 

He turned to the scientist.

“Lilith, your position is here. Take potshots at the group. They should be bunched up as they come from the rift. You don't need to hit anything, just keep them from going too close to the cliff walls. I take the position here, closer to the center. The walls are most vulnerable here, so if there is a breach, I hold them while the rest provide fire support," he said, robotic fingers tracing along on the map.

"Crown, you will cover, you will Knight. If any of them start climbing to the crevice, you should have a line of sight from here. Bring them down.”

He turned to face the stocky human and the pony sitting next to him.

“Lastly, King and Twilight. You two are on machinegun duty. King, do your thing with Betsy. Twilight, your job is to help him keep that gun operational. Just follow King’s instructions, he will show you what to do. Your main role is reloading and changing barrels. You have telekinesis, so that should not be hard."

He looked over at the gathered colonists. All their weapons, gear. Everything seemed ready.

“Be careful. While the mantodeans use mainly tribal level tech, they can spit acid, are exceptionally dangerous at melee combat and are deadly with throwing weapons, but as long as nobody does something cocky and stupid like dancing on the walls, we should be fine, I’m talking about you Knight. “

“It was one time, and I only got shot a little.” 

“No dancing. Is everything clear? Any more questions? Good, now I made pancakes, fuel up!”

“We are gonna need it.”


So that was how Twilight got to where she was now. Sitting in the shade of what King called M1919A4, nicknamed Betsy. A weird construction on a tripod in a heightened position, right in the center of the slapdash fortifications the humans build over the year of relentless attacks every other week. 

King showed her around the mechanism, and while the inner workings of the machine fascinated her, the fact that it was a weapon made to kill was extremely unnerving to the peaceful equine. 

Her own brother was a guard, yes. And she knew he carried a spear. But they did not expect guards in Equestria to actually use them on ponies! 

And now the purple mare had to sit through a quick lecture on what to do to keep the thing running while King fires it and kills as many beings with it as quickly as possible. 

She was only glad that they didn't make her use her magic to actually hurt others, nevertheless, she felt horrible, like she may pass out.

“You okay there Sparky?”

King sat back, fidgeting with ammo belts and inspecting the gun. 

“We have about half an hour before they show up.”

“I don't think I can do it.”

“Been there, done that, didn't even get a t-shirt, had to make it myself. Look, you are stronger than you think. You've been here for the whole three days and didn't even have one single mental breakdown! You’re already doing better than most of us after we arrived.”

“I cry myself to sleep and barely get out of bed.”

“Silver linings, Sparky, silver linings. I mean, you do get out in the end, so you’re winning so far. Aren't you?”

“How can you be so calm?” she asked. 

“Oh hell nah, I'm not. I'm panicking, terrified, and I nearly evacuated my breakfast at the thought of an army of spider people trying to eat me. I just hide it better than you.” 

A strange, blood curdling sound reverberated through the valley cut their conversation short. Cold sweat ran down her spine. 

“Well, time to prove me right Sparky, keep you cool, and I'll do the rest, okay?”

She shuddered and gave a nod.

Wave number twenty-one arrived. 

Knight from his position at the ridge, was first to see them. 

Shots from his hunting rifle echoed, then an explosion as he tossed a grenade from the box next to where he lay. 

Shrapnell rained upon his opponents, burying itself into chitin and flesh. 

There were a lot of them,

Large, hulking beings, standing upright on two pairs of legs, covered in hard chitinous hide, indentations and scars from previous battles upon it. Instead of a mouth, the mantodeans had vicious mandibles, ready to rend flesh from the bones of their victims. In their claw-like arms, various primitive weapons, from clubs to spears. Nothing but malice and hatred filed their four small, forward-facing eyes. 

Some of them were letting out roars meant to terrify their prey. 

Born by their queen, they would serve, hunt and die for her, as that was their only purpose

“Eat shrapnels ya bunch of weeny simps!” 

Knight had his own opinion on the hive mind. 

The plating upon the bodies of the insect-like creatures protected them from most of the deadly projectiles the humans threw on them so far. Still, several bodies lay broken and bleeding upon the desert floor, their dying screams joining in the cacophony of sound filling the air. 

Lilith shot her auto pistol as they came into range, the armor piercing bullet finding its mark in the eye of one of the beasts, emanating a yelp of pain, it threw its spear widely at the stone barricade, but it kept its distance from the cliff. 
Just as they planned.

Crown took aim and sent a bullet down the kill box at one of the more ambitious enemies, who had the bright idea of climbing to his brother. 

Shame that the mantodean warrior's back was exposed to his rifle!

Sun Glory reloaded his revolver, his agile arms moving like a blur. His voice carried itself over the battle, calm and collected. A ball of acid struck next to him, sizzling on the wall. 

“Keep the pressure up! Knight, throw one grenade over those cacti! Smoke them out into the open!”

Twilight was desperately trying to filter out the sounds of the battle. Her sensitive hearing was bombarded with screams of agony and the ringing from flying bullets and explosions.

King lined up his shot.

A group, clustered together. One of them stood taller than the others, the body structure different. A queen.

Breath in. Breath out. 

The machine gun sprang to life. The belt moving, shots flying out. The silver-tipped cartridges were fed into one of the best creations of a master of his craft, and finally, the boomalopes were put into good use.

A.P.I ammunition, or armor piercing incendiary. 

Thank you, John Moses Browning, god of all firearms.

In a second, the queen and her entourage were turned into burned mincemeat as the torrent of bullets tore them apart. 

King sends burst after burst at the enemies, inflicting horrific damage upon his targets, who after a few hits resembled living torches. 

While the mantodeans were a terrible foe to face on an open battlefield, their biology held a fatal flaw, one that was in all possibility what led to them being released on an abandoned Rimworld instead of being used in real warfare. 

Their blood was flammable.

The errand rounds set fire to the foliage, joining in an inferno raging below the stone fortifications of the colonist.

“Changing!” 

Surrounded by a purple glow, a new belt was levitated into Betsy, and the carnage resumed. 

Round after round, the mantodeans were cut down like the grass, joining their leader in hell as far as King was concerned. 

It didn't take long, and what was left of the raiders turned tail, but King was not in a merciful mood, shooting until a clicking noise replaced the roar of his gun. 

Finally, he relaxed and let go of the trigger.

It was all over in a few minutes.

The battlefield was left devoid of life, The kill zone was filled with flaming bodies. A horrible smell reached their nostrils as the wind changed. 

Twilight stood there in a daze, practically deaf and staring into nothing. 

“Well, glad that's over,” said King. 

With a sob, Twilight collapsed to the ground.