Gabriel opened his eyes to a small cave. He glanced around, seeing roots crawl down the earthy walls around him, with some light penetrating the spaces twixt roots. Gabe followed a path out of the roots, finding a curtain of hanging moss as thick as a tapestry. Before pushing through, Gabe pulled the magazine in his gun out, checking the number of rounds inside. Plenty, he hadn't loosed a single shot from his rifle in a few days now. Refastening the clip inside the gun, he brushed the curtain of moss aside, cautiously moving forward while scanning the area multiple times. He was in a rather beautiful place, moss and other various vegetation grew on and near boulders lining the outer edges of a very shallow pond. Looking down, Gabe was only ankle-deep on the deepest end of the pond, and could see smooth river stones beneath his boots through the clear water. A warm, brilliant sunlight made the whole place glow, almost radiating a soothing magic.
"Found what you're looking for, Traveler?" asked a voice.
Gabe couldn't deny it was the voice of a mare, only much more familiar than he would prefer. Gabe whirled around, looking above where he just came from. Nightmare Moon.
"I'm surprised you made it passed the guardians, were they too little a match for you?" asked Nightmare.
Gabe opened fire at the creature of nightmares. She vanished with a flash of blue magic. Gabe whirled back around, expecting her to flank him. A heavy blast caught him square between the shoulder blades, sending him sumersaulting forward, and landing hard on his chest.
"Allow me to fix that," said Nightmare, flipping Gabe over with her hoof. Her horn glowed dangerously with powerful magic about to be blasted at Gabe's head. He had to act fast, he didn't know how the armor would react to magic. His legs were free, and he used them to push Nightmare off, throwing off her aim and blowing a crater into a boulder. Leaping to his feet, Gabe took a moment to witness the damage to the boulder. The whole thing was smoldering from the blast, tinges of blue showed within the smoking rock.
"I knew you'd come!" she shouted, sending another blast of magic Gabe's way, which he dodged with a neat hydrogen round-off.
"I know your intentions!" she sent another blast in the form of a huge wave, forcing Gabe to slide beneath it.
"But if you cannot wield the Elements of Harmony, you can do nothing!" she fired a huge beam of electrifying, azure magic, catching Gabe and sending him across the pond and into the boulders.
The weight of the ARX peeled Gabe from the crumbling boulder's surface, bringing him to his knees before Nightmare moon. Gabe could see her shadow overhanging him. He took advantage of this by clenching both fists tightly and readying the hydrogen thrusters. In one quick motion, Gabe lunged upward to his feet and delivered a heavy uppercut to Nightmare's chest. Now it was Nightmare's turn to be sent flying backwards. Gabe rushed her, all hydrogen engines exposed and ready for the fight, while Nightmare struggled to her hooves and conjured a magical great sword. She swung low, as Gabe caught the blade on the forearm of his armor, effectively blocking it. They were then engaged in a deadly dance, Nightmare swinging the magical sword along with some punches with her hooves, while Gabe blocked, parried, and dodged them neatly and gracefully. Nightmare was getting faster, and Gabe found it difficult to keep up. He tried his hardest continuously though, going faster and faster, until he couldn't notice the water droplets frozen in the air in front of him. A little longer, Nightmare was showing fatigue. She made a heavy downward slash, a chance! Gabe threw the sword aside as it came down, holding his fist up and building pressure in the engines of the hydrogen engine.
"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!" with an upward kick, Gabe threw Nightmare onto her hind legs, unleashing the augmented punch with deathly accuracy into her belly. Nightmare retreated back onto a boulder, resorting to magical blasts again. Gabe ran the opposite direction of Nightmare, sliding at the last moment to dodge her magic, then finally pulling out his tactical bow and notching an arrow to it. In the midst of his slide, Gabe leaned back and loosed the arrow for Nightmare, striking harmlessly on a rock behind her. Having his plan set, Gabe walked casually away from Nightmare.
"That's it?"
Gabe pressed a button on his bow, causing the arrow he launched to detonate. He stopped for a moment, listening for life. Nothing. He turned around, checking that his work was surely done. Smoke was still clearing up, and bits of rock were flung everywhere from the blast. Gabe stared into the smoke and rubble for some time, when an electrical blast came from the smoke, making contact with the water near Gabe. The electricity surged through his suit, spurring red notifications of an EMP assault in his HUD. Nightmare came gliding in for a final strike, guiding a mass of magic into an upward slash that sent Gabe through a stray tree at pond level. He was jostled around inside the suit, which landed very hard on the tough floor, skipping across it like a rock with water. He finally slid into a haphazard hole in the ground, confirming unconciousness.
"Hm," said Nightmare turning around.
***
"Ugh...! Are we there yet?" groaned Rainbow Dash, "why were we called on such short notice to welcome these whats-its anyway?"
"Well," began Twilight, "the princess did say these ponies would be important,"
"Uhm... Twi? Ah don't think she called 'em 'ponies'" claimed Applejack.
"Yeah," squeaked Fluttershy, "I'm actually a bit worried about what they are,"
"I'm sure the term 'people' just means status, after all, she did also say they were from outside of Equestria," concluded Twilight.
"Whatever they are," shouted Pinkie with glee, "at least we'll get to welcome them with a party!"
"And the princess did say they had some items of great value, and could help with business all across Equestria," said Rarity.
"Honestly, I don't think we should put any of our trust in them!" proclaimed Rainbow.
"Now, Rainbow, why would you say that?"
"Didn't you read the whole thing?! Celestia said that Shining Armor and Cadence would be there!"
"Come to think of it, it is a bit odd for the princess to be asking them here just to welcome somepony here," said Twilight.
"Well, they must be some very important ponies," said Rarity.
The train they were on jerked slightly, slowing to a stop as they entered Canterlot. The girls picked up their bags and filed out of the train. Almost instinctually, they headed for Canterlot Castle, beginning to get anxious to meet these very important visitors. As they came across the gate guard, Twilight showed a document from the princess, admitting herself and her friends into the castle. Trotting eagerly towards Celestia's throne room, a fear of what they were to find began to creep over them, steadily quickening their pace. Upon entering, they were welcomed warmly, but the unique visitors were no where to be found.
"Hey! What's the deal? Where are they?" shouted Rainbow Dash.
"Princess?" said Twilight.
"They've gone to finish an important task for me," answered the Princess.
"You sent them away?! Weren't they royalty, or something?" said Rainbow.
"They weren't, actually," said Celestia, "they were warriors, alien warriors called humans,"
Twilight's eyes suddenly widened, as she searched for the term in many of her books she had packed along.
"I'm sorry, princess, I don't seem to have anything on humans, or aliens, or... anything like that,"
"You wouldn't," Celestia said casually, "their name is almost as much as we know,"
"Then why on earth would we trust them?" asked Applejack, shocked at the princess's decision.
A strange figure approached from the side.
"Cause we trusted you, and what a damn mistake that was," the figure said. Tevin ambled into the light, sending a clear shudder through the main six. His mask was down, but the rest of his armor was still on.
"Is that... is... that..." stuttered Rainbow.
"A human? Yeah, it's what I'm called, I believe Gabe called you Rainbow, he says you're his third favorite, huh, doesn't make much of a difference now though," said Tevin approaching Celestia, "I gotta tie up some loose ends, and... maybe do myself a favor," he punched the sun princess straight across the muzzle.
"Oh no you don't!" shouted Rainbow flying straight for the marine. Tevin ducked, then rose back up to strike Rainbow's front, throwing off her flying and causing her crash with minor injuries.
"I didn't just come here to kick all your asses! I have news too," said Tevin. He turned to Celestia, who was seemingly unaffected by his punch, "you're right, there is dark magic in the forest, Gabe went MIA, just vanished into thin air after he cut off comms and his armor cam. So, one, if I don't find him, I'll hate you, if I do, I'll probably just take my team and leave, two, at the moment, you're screwed,"
***
The black slowly faded from Gabe's vision, until he could notice light shimmering down on his goggles. His view of the outside was blurred, and what seemed like waves slid past his vision. He was in water, he finally realized. He lifted himself out of the crystal water.
"Shit, you hear that? Holy shit, it's Gabe!" shouted a familiar voice.
Gabe looked over to see Jack and Michael standing at the edge of the shallow stream he happened to be in. Michael and Jack rushed to his side, examining the soldier.
"We've been looking for you for days man! Look, this place is a mine field, while looking for you, American soldiers opened fire on us, we found Chinese, Russian, North Korean, all kinds of nations are here man. And the the fighting is just ripping them the fuck apart, and these ponies are caught right in the damn middle," said Jack. He looked closer at Gabe's armor, "Jesus, man, the hell was able to fuck you up that much?"
"You can tell how chaotic it's gotten, Gabe, we're already spilling fucks onto the field, they've brought N.A.Ps, mechs, unmanned machines, exo-skeletal battle suits, lots of nukes, autonomous electronic soldiers. We're just hammerin' each other like no tomorrow, just like the old days," said Michael.
Gabe nodded in understanding.
"Oh, also, you might want to reset the suit. Jack and I read the manual to that thing, and you'll need to reset to get the adaptive armoring online, it'll really help when you're getting lead flung at you," said Michael.
Gabe nodded again, accessing a user console to reset the suit AI. His entire suit shuddered, then sparked back to life, flashing warnings of suit damage in Gabe's HUD.
"Another thing," began Jack, "we got a present for you, I know you're already pretty well set for walking right up to the devil himself, but, that princess Luna wanted me to give you this as soon as she put some spell on it," Jack handed Gabe a very long rifle with a lethal blade extending across the entire bottom of it.
Gabe grabbed the over-sized weapon curiously.
"M-20 Electro-Magnetic Gauss Rifle, Luna just called it the LateDusk Lance, get a load of that shit," Jack laughed, "listen, the recoil on that thing will kick your ass if you're not careful, it's a cross of a railgun and an M82A2 anti-material rifle, that thing can shoot things through our platform no sweat, so put it to use,"
Gabe gave another nod, stashing the huge weapon on his back and groping around his armor for his Celestia rifle. He looked down, seeing the custom firearm floating in the stream he was in. Leaning down to grab it, he then checked the mag to see if any rounds were left. Washed out. He threw it aside and grabbed a new clip to load his rifle.
"Ready? Alright, let's go, glad that fission reactor worked out, filling up on oxygen and hydrogen from the water," said Jack.
They traversed onward through the Everfree, being in the edges, where many ponies and humans alike had explored. They stepped over logs and through short gentle grasses beneath tree branches reaching out to one another, creating vast networks and creating idyllic arches to witness. There was silence, not even a single bird breathed a note of sweet song.
"This is... pretty peaceful, I wouldn't mind staying here," said Jack, "now I see where you're coming from, Gabe"
Gabe smiled, when suddenly a sharp shock went across his shoulder. He was knocked off balance, his body forced into another direction. He looked forward, seeing glowing red eyes observing him. These eyes were different, though, and seemed more artificial than ethereal.
"Contact! We got clankers!" shouted Michael, sliding behind a log.
"Fucking robots!" shouted Jack, opening fire on the machines, "Come get some of this! I dare ya!"
Gabe grabbed Jack and threw him and himself behind cover, narrowly avoiding a deadly volley of lead fly overhead. Gabe rolled over to claim his own side of the fallen log serving as protection, readying his Celestia rifle for the fight. He poked his head over, loosing some shots into a clanker's head. Gabe was rewarded with a show of lightning and fireworks from the bot, damaging the other machines around the deceased target.
"In trees! Shoot them down!" shouted Jack.
Another clanker dropped from the trees behind Gabe, grabbing his head and throat with metal claws, trying to rip off his helm. He struggled with the artificial beast, trying to grab its optical sensors to destroy. He finally activated his hydrogen thrusters, burning the machine in its heat. Gaining some freedom, he freed his right arm, swinging it back at the machine, shattering the metal soldier in several pieces.
"Yeah Gabe! Show them clankers how to kick ass!" shouted Michael. A machine dropped behind him, grabbing him by the throat and raising up for an execution. Gabe rushed to his cousin's aid, grabbing him by his coat collar and rending him from the mechanical grip. He threw him towards Jack, twirling into a heavy punch to the robot's chest. Ripping his hand from the machine's chest, bringing a chunk of its motherboard with him.
"Shit, thanks man," said Michael.
"Uh, boys, we got one more," said Jack, hesitation evident. Across from them stood a very large mech. From its sides hung a heavy chaingun and a lethal claw.
"Tevin's team, huh?" said a man inside the mech, "too fuckin' bad you gotta die now,"
The crew leaped for cover as the chaingun hailed lead upon the trio. Gabe, hiding behind a tree, loaded his rifle with a fresh magazine, then stashed it for the gauss rifle. With what Jack described as 'having more balls than Master Chief' Gabe leaped from his cover and closed the distance between him and the mech, wielding the huge rifle like a sword with its long blade across the bottom. Gabe lunged for the machine, swinging the blade straight through the armored torso, splitting it, much more cleanly, in half. Gabe landed gracefully on the other side of the destroyed mech, kneeling down like a sword master after a fight. The mech exploded in a mess of metal and blood behind Gabe, confirming his victory over the manned machine.
"Shit Gabe! Is there anything that humanizes you?" asked Jack.
"I can think of a few," muttered Michael, "but now's not the time, we got plenty more clankers and god knows what else waiting for us, and from what I was told, Luna should be looking for us, now that we found you, phoned in to tell the news while you were busy,"
"Okay, then where the hell is our damn evac?" asked Jack.
Gabe looked around, getting startled to see the moon princess stalking them from a rock. He tapped his cousin roughly on the shoulder, pointing at Luna much like he did Chrysalis. Luna simply looked back down, a spark of discomforting interest aimed at Gabe.
"Is it done? You've found what you need?" she asked.
"Uh... Yeah, we're waitin' on ya to zap us home," said Jack.
Without a single word, bright azure magic radiated from her horn, teleporting the soldiers and a very confused Gabe to Canterlot Castle.
***
"God damn... How do ponies get used to that? It feels like my head is getting shoved up my ass," complained Jack.
"I'm with Jack, teleporting isn't all that comfortable," said Michael.
Gabe shrugged his shoulders repeatedly, trying to loosen up from the previous fight, and shrug off the feeling of teleportation. It had felt exactly like Jack had described, and with the ARX, it only felt much worse. Gabe was puzzled, the portal he had gone through didn't feel anything like this. The portal, Gabe remembered his experience through it. He grabbed his cousin and spoke sudden, fast-paced Korean to him.
"You saw Nightmare Moon? That shadow was a portal? And Nightmare called you 'the Traveler'?"
Murmuring rippled across the ponies in the throne room, as Tia and Luna exchanged quick glances, Tia's heavy with concern, Luna's with the same interest as before.
"Would you... please follow me?" asked Celestia.
Gabe and Michael followed both princesses into a small room with a large four-poster bed in its center, Celestia's bedroom. They were seated at a round coffee table set up in her room, and tea was poured for the two relatives.
"You spoke of a portal, that led you to Nightmare Moon, that was made of dark magic, correct?" said Celestia.
The doors to her room opened gently, with the main six ponies filing in, and many onlookers trying to get a glimpse. Twilight and her friends seated themselves around the the table, behind the two princesses.
"Well... yes, Gabe did say something very much like that," Michael was back in his professional manner, very different from his personality on the field.
The princesses exchanged glances, then Celestia said, "Gabriel, are you in fact the Traveler?"
Gabe spoke some Korean to his cousin, having him translate his response.
"Gabe says: I'm not sure, it was what Nightmare Moon seemed to call me, then again, how can Nightmare Moon exist, if Luna is still Luna,"
"Do you know what a Chronomancer is, Gabriel?" asked Luna.
He shook his head.
"A Chronomancer, or the Traveler as we call them, is a being capable of traversing planes even alicorns cannot to get to different events in time, even alternate universes," said Luna.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa," interjected Rainbow, "you're saying this guy can do crazy things that even you can't?"
"Well, Rainbow," said Twilight, "a Traveler could be... well, anything with the intelligence to use it willingly and with control, so a human being a Traveler, well, as unlikely as it sounds, it's possible,"
A silence was kept in the room. Amid it, Luna seemed to be inspecting Gabe, and, though she was his favorite of all the ponies, he found it extremely unsettling.
"It seems," Luna finally said, "that you cannot leave Equestria, for a Chronomancer only appears when needed most-" Gabe's eyes widened "-they are the ultimate warriors, born and bred to fight until they die," Gabe buried his face in his hands. Where he thought he could be free, he was only shackled again. For the sake of his beloved Equestria?