//------------------------------// // A Farewell to Home and A Hail to the New World // Story: Redemption and Rebirth // by KGBCowgirl //------------------------------// "So if we maintain the resonance for at least five minutes, the gateway will open. However, I can not guarantee its stability after the initial cycle." Twilight was attempting to explain the nuances of the portal to her friends, but only received at "deer in the lantern" look from everypony present. "Twilight, you know that egghead stuff goes right over our heads, right?" Rainbow said with a sigh as she looked at the complicated formulas and diagrams. "I mean, come on! I control weather, for Celestia's sake. I can talk all day about low and high pressure and how it can mess with the formation of a thunderhead instead of a regular rain cloud, but this portal stuff..." Twilight sighed dejectedly as she looked over her notes one last time. She couldn't be more prepared if she tried, and Ponyville's residents were as ready as they could be. That did nothing to assuage her doubts concerning the process of using the Elements of Harmony to open a portal to a separate dimension. The risks involved were extreme, but she couldn't see an alternative course of action. "Just make sure you girls keep your focus on each other, or else the spell will fail," Twilight said as she turned around. "We can't fail. If we do, everypony will be stuck here and we'll die with Equestria..." She felt a hoof on her shoulder, which she saw belonged to Applejack. "Don't you fret, Twi. We'll get this here portal open, an' everypony will be safe," Applejack smiled reassuringly before walking outside to take her position in the formation. Twilight took a deep breath before levitating the tiara shaped Element of Magic onto her head. 'It's now or never.' A deafening peal of thunder resounded around the world, eliciting a silence befitting a church. As the last rumbles of the thunder dissipated, Glowing objects began to rain from the sky, an entire spectrum represented as they landed in one part of the world or another. This continued for a mere twenty seconds before the human race resumed its self destruction... "Mother bleeding piss fuck! Can't a guy get some sleep while the world is destroying itself?" The young man grumbled. He stretched, groaning as several of his vertebrae popped back into place. He rubbed his eyes before opening them, revealing a pair of glacier blue irises with yellow rings around the pupils. "First the Koreans invade..." He stood and stumbled over to a window as he spoke. "Now the sky is splitting itself open to keep me up. What in the name of Hecate could possibly happen next?" He brushed his bleached white hair out of his face before spotting something in the sky. An object rocketed into the young man's room, shattering the window and slamming into him. He groaned as he laid on the floor, his body screaming in objecting at the sudden abuse. Maximus Cross was not happy. It was Monday, he needed to leave Ventura as soon as possible, and now he had to deal with whatever it was that slammed into him. "Ugh, the bass cannon's not loud enough, 'Tavi..." A female voice said. She sounded almost tomboyish, her voice scratching just a little as if she spent most of her time yelling over crowds. Max's brain shot into overdrive as he realized that there was a woman in his room. He managed to clear his vision enough to see a mass of two-toned blue hair resting on his chest. Past the hair he could make out almost flourescent white skin... And nothing covering it... "Fuck..." He muttered quietly. The woman stirred, somehow managing to knee Max between the legs as she tried to stand. He ignored the pain in favor of observing the woman that had crashed into his apartment. He didn't have much time, since another object, not unlike the one that had just broken his window, slammed into him before he could move out of the way. While Max was trying to make sure none of his bones were broken by the sudden abuse, the woman appeared to be observing herself as if her own body was alien to her. "Whoa! My hooves look way different now!" She exclaimed. "What are these things attached to them... They look like that little dragon dude's claws, but not as sharp..." As she continued her self-examination, Max could only stare in wonder at her eyes, which were a vibrant red that seemed to glow in the dark. She seemed to finally notice Max, since she turned to face him suddenly. "Hey! Are you one of the locals? What are you guys called again... Humans, right?" Max attempted to speak, but could only release a quiet, wheezing cough in response, since his lungs were having trouble expanding with the extra weight still pressing on his chest. "Oh, sorry about that. Here, let me... 'TAVI!" The woman shouted as she pulled the weight off of Max's chest and into a tight embrace. It appeared to be another woman, with darker skin and a flowing mass of ebony hair. "Wow! I didn't think Twilight could send us both to the same place!" The other woman spoke, her tone more refined, almost like she was from Britain. "Vinyl, while it is a great pleasure to see you as well, I do believe the stallion on the floor over there may be in pain." She pointed to Max, who had managed to curl himself up into a ball while holding himself between the legs to soothe the pain from the first woman's damaging knee. "Why do you say, that, 'Tavi?" The blue haired woman asked, tilting her head slightly. Max managed to find his voice as he squeaked out, "Because your patella just kissed me between the legs..." The fact that Grif wasn't dead yet bespoke an unbelievable amount of luck on his part. That wasn't to say that the Koreans weren't doing their absolute best to kill off the small fireteam and the civilian they were escorting. Grif peeked around the corner, spotting several soldiers smashing relics inside the Alamo. He almost charged in their like a blood-crazed maniac, but stopped himself when he spotted a tank rolling up the street. He kept to the shadows, making sure to stay close to the PFC assigned to keeping track of him. "What do you see, Eintracht?" The soldier asked over his shoulder. Grif gritted his teeth as he did a head count. "Three on ground level, one on the roof, all backed up by that armor that just passed by..." He leveled his weapon, preparing to take a shot, when a flash in the sky caught his attention. He looked up to see something heading toward them at a very fast rate. "...UUUUUCK!" A pair of female voices screamed before Grif was hit squarely in the chest. He was grateful for the body armor at that point as his breath was slammed out of his lungs and he slid along the ground on his back, whatever had hit him was still on top of him. "Oh... Rainbow, are you okay?" One of the voices said, coming from overhead. A second voice, a higher tone than the first, responded, "Yeah, but I think my wings are going to be sore for weeks after that landing... What about you, Rarity?" "I'm fine, Rainbow Dash, I'm just.... Celestia, I'm absolutely filthy!" The first voice sounded from inside a destroyed store. "There's so much dirt everywhere! And it's all over my mane!" "Chill out, Rarity!" The second voice said, audible from whatever was on top of Grif. He opened his eyes to see a young woman straddling his chest, completely naked and rubbing her head. She had an athletic build and small, perky breasts, but that wasn't what caught Grif's attention. The most defining immediate feature of this girl was her rose colored eyes that were accentuated by her short, messy, garishly bright rainbow hair. This wasn't even dyed, it seemed, since the colors were perfectly done all the way down to her roots. And if that wasn't impossible enough, what happened next was bound to make Grif question his sanity. He groaned as the girl still failed to remove herself from his chest. "Pardon me, miss, but you're making it a bit hard to breathe," he wheezed out. The first voice spoke again. "Rainbow Dash, I do believe you are sitting on top of that nice stallion who broke your fall. He seems to be in a lot of pain, though." There was a second's pause before she continued. "Oh, no! This is the worst. Possible. Thing! I can't find my horn, and this new form is simply awful! How do these 'humans', as Twilight referred to them, stand such gangly and strange bodies?" The rainbow-haired girl puffed out her chest, which Grif tried to not stare at. "I still have my wings, so you must have some way to still use your magic!" At this, the impossible met a new level of existence, as the girl shrugged her shoulders and a massive pair of cyan wings spread out from her back. "WHAT IN THE UNHOLY FUCK!?" Grif yelled out, unceremoniously shoving the girl off of his chest and scrambling to get away from her, ensuring that he still had his commandeered weapons. He looked over to the direction of the first voice and saw another woman, taller than the first, and with a notably larger set of assets. Her own hair was a vibrant shade of violet and seemed to be meticulously maintained. The only word Grif could think of to describe this woman's bearing was "classy," and even that wasn't sufficient to describe her poise and grace. He was hypnotized by the woman for a short while until he realized that he was staring. Grif cleared his throat before speaking again. "Um. Ladies... You do realize that you have no clothes on, right?"