//------------------------------//
// Act 1 Part 5 - Keep Moving 
// Story: I Against I, Me Against You 
// by Flynt Coal 
//------------------------------//

Princess Luna’s chambers were much more modest than many ponies seemed to believe. Yes, her bed was big and soft, and she had shelves adorned with various trinkets of sentimental value to her, but other than that the only other significant aspect of the night alicorn’s room was the view. Still, it was peaceful and offered respite from the stress that came with royalty. And the past few days had been especially stressful for Luna.

She had come back to her chambers immediately after raising the moon in the night sky. Normally, Luna would spend time with Celestia for a while before her sister retired for the night, but this night Luna had elected to avoid her. She still loved her sister dearly, but the wounds from their most recent argument were still fresh. Besides, Luna wasn’t sure that she could so much as share simple pleasantries with Celestia without bringing up her issues with the current situation.

Avoiding Celestia wasn’t the only reason Luna had returned to her chambers before beginning her duties as Night Princess. She often liked visiting her subjects in their dreams using her unique abilities, offering them wisdom and encouragement as she saw fit. But the simple passing on of wisdom wasn’t why she lay down on her bed, closed her eyes and allowed herself to drift into the dream world.

Luna’s consciousness traveled the intangible space where Equestria’s dreams resided, passing between seemingly infinite bubbles of light that allowed her glimpses into her ponies’ subconscious. She passed all of them by as her consciousness pushed beyond the dream world of Equestria and traveled beyond the stars. Luna had never traveled this far in the dream world before, but this time she had a reason. This time she was looking for something.

Luna was connected to all ponies in Equestria by their dreams. There wasn’t a pony whose sleeping mind she couldn’t see. She would be able to find them so long as they were asleep and dreaming... no matter where in the universe they were located.









Twilight followed Church as they made their way through Red Base towards the rear entrance. After agreeing to help her get back to Equestria, Church wasted no time in trying to sneak Twilight out of the Reds’ tiny installation. Truth be told, Twilight very likely didn’t need his help to do this. As a unicorn of exceptional magical ability, she’d gotten herself out of much tighter situations, and these Red soldiers hadn’t displayed much competence. The only thing keeping her in their custody was the fact that she had nowhere else to go.

As if to reassure herself of this fact, Twilight chanced a peek in one of the Reds’ quarters where she heard the muttering of a certain Red sergeant.

“That makes a thousand dead Blues…” Sarge mumbled between snores.

Twilight simply carried on with Church to the back entrance. She decided to play along with Church’s attempt to break her out. He had finally agreed to help her, and she didn’t want to repay him by making his efforts to “rescue” her seem redundant. Even if they kind of were.

After whispering for Twilight to wait, Church walked out the back entrance and disappeared. She still wasn’t sure how to feel about the idea that Church was a ghost. How could even the most rudimentary unicorn magic be completely alien to him while he talked about getting killed by Caboose and returning as a spirit like he was describing a trip to the grocery store? Twilight also wasn’t sure about the fact that he was currently possessing Simmons, the only person on Red Team that she considered a friend (or at the very least liked better than the others).

“Okay, here’s the plan,” Church said, reappearing in the base’s rear entrance. “Tucker’s waiting outside with one of the Reds’ vehicles. While I go up top to distract the lookout, you rond… rendez… uh… regroup with Tucker and he’ll drive you back to our base.” 

Twilight nodded in affirmation, which caused her to once again feel the presence of the headset on her head. “Okay. Turn on your radio so I know when to go.” Twilight was honest with herself: she did kind of like the idea of being a part of the team. Wanting to belong was a basic equine (and possibly also a basic human) trait, and having a radio headset now made that possible. More or less.

Church nodded with Simmons’ head and the two of them left the threshold of Red Base into the dark canyon. Twilight saw Church head up the ramp to the top of the base in her peripheral as she briskly trotted straight towards Tucker. The aqua soldier was sitting on the small vehicle that one of the Reds had called the “Mongoose.” Seeing Twilight coming, Tucker motioned for her to get on the back.

“Y’know, it fucking figures. I finally get the chance to rescue an alien chick on a badass motorcycle, and that alien chick turns out to be a fucking horse,” Tucker sighed. “I mean really? You couldn’t just be a little human looking?”

“I’m sorry the way I was biologically designed isn’t satisfactory to you! I’ll have to try harder next time!” Twilight could not have been more sarcastic if she tried.

She hopped up onto the back of the Mongoose and reluctantly wrapped her hooves around Tucker’s waist. “Keep your hands and your comments to yourself!” Though Tucker had said he wasn’t… interested in her that way, Twilight still felt uncomfortable around him.

Tucker started up the engine to the Mongoose and the two of them took off at a pace that alarmed Twilight. This was both due to the speed at which they accelerated into the darkness of the canyon and the fact that it was deviating from her plan with Church.

“Hey! We were supposed to wait until Church signaled us over the radio!” Twilight shouted over the vehicle’s engine.

“He did!” Tucker replied. “Didn’t you hear him?”

Twilight reached up to her head to feel for her headset. It was still there. So why hadn’t she heard anything? Regardless, they were well across the canyon by that point, and the inviting lights of Blue Base awaited.









Church made sure his radio was turned on and transmitting as he ascended the ramp to the top of Red Base. In truth, he was slightly annoyed that he had to go through all of this trouble to rescue Twilight from the Reds. Didn’t she have some kind of crazy unicorn magic she could use to escape herself? Regardless, Church made it to the top of Red Base, where he spotted Donut tapping his foot and singing quietly to himself.

“Let me blow you… away…”

Church walked up behind Donut and awkwardly cleared Simmons’ throat, trying his best to sound like the man in maroon armor he was possessing. 

“Uh… hey, Donut! What’s… what’s kicking?” Church made sure he spoke loud enough so that he’d both get Donut’s attention and signal Twilight and Tucker over the radio.

Donut whirled around and greeted the man he thought to be his comrade with a friendly wave. “Oh hey, Simmons! I thought I felt someone come behind me.”

Whatever Church was about to say next was cut off by a coughing fit.

“Are you okay Simmons? I hope my meat didn’t make you choke,” Donut said with concern. “I know we ate dinner a while ago, but those MREs always get stuck in my teeth for hours!”

Church was so busy dying of awkwardness that he hadn’t heard Tucker start up the engine to the Mongoose. Donut, however, was not so distracted.

“Hey, what was that?”

“Probably me, choking on my discomfort,” Church stuttered.

Donut was not convinced. He turned around in the direction of the noise just in time to see Tucker and Twilight speed away on the ATV. Church cursed inwardly as Donut let out a drawn out gasp. 

“Fuck it…” Church muttered, releasing Simmons from his control and returning to being a transparent white ghost.

“Whuh… what? What’s going on?” Simmons asked, wobbling a bit and placing a hand to his forehead.

At this, Donut whirled around and grabbed Simmons by the shoulders. “The Blues are taking the unicorn and the Unicorn!”

Simmons remained stiff as a board in Donut’s grasp. “Wha…?”

“Twilight Sparkle! I still had so much I wanted to ask her! Like whether or not Equestria is a matriarchal society free of male oppression!”

Simmons looked out across the canyon and just caught a glimpse of the taillights of the Mongoose disappear over an incline.

“Okay… what I got from that is Twilight was taken by the Blues…” Simmons said.

“I have to tell Sarge about the unicorns!” Donut exclaimed, releasing Simmons and hopping down the large square hole in the top of Red Base.

“Okay… I still don’t know what the fuck is happening…” Simmons said. 

Church was long gone by this point. He figured that by the time anyone else on Red Team learned that Twilight had escaped, she and Tucker would already be safe back at Blue Base. He highly doubted anyone but Donut would be interested in launching a recovery operation this late at night when they were about to be relocated the next morning. 

Church simply made his way across the canyon back to the cave where he had hidden his robot body, hoping nothing had fucked with it while he was gone...









Arcane Star’s eyes squinted as he concentrated on the set of wires inside the black robot. Progress on the ship had already been slow going before Twilight Sparkle’s disappearance. She must have activated something before vanishing because now the rear entrance to the alien vessel was tightly sealed. With the rest of his team’s efforts now focusing on finding a way back inside the ship, Arcane Star found himself returning to the main research tent where the inert alien android was kept.

Day after day he’d spent hours studying the mechanical being, using a variety of spells to study it inside and out. Over time, he began to have an idea of how some of it worked. Currently, he had a small panel in the back of the “neck” open and was carefully replacing fried wires with his own magically enchanted copper wires.

“Excuse me, Arcane Star?” 

At the sound of the young mare’s voice, Arcane Star looked up from his work and saw a blonde, white coated pony in guard’s armor standing in the entrance to the tent. He recognized her right away as Sunny Side, the young recruit whose family owned a farm in this very town. Her Commanding Officer often assigned her to escort him whenever he’d have to venture into the ship. Her presence was a mostly unnecessary precaution, but the two of them had gotten to know each other well in their time together and had become fast friends. 

“How can I help you, Sunny?” 

“Tome Keeper sent me to get you. Said they found something on the hull of the ship.”

Arcane Star arched an eyebrow. Tome Keeper was overseeing the team’s efforts to cut their way back into the ship. She wasn’t supposed to send for him until either they breached the hull or… something else came up. Arcane Star hastily closed the panel on the back of the black robot’s neck and moved to join Sunny Side.

“Alright, lead the way!”

As the two ponies left, Arcane Star thought he heard something mechanical whirring. He chanced a look back only to see the synthetic alien lying still on the operating table exactly where he’d left it. 

He followed Sunny Side across the clearing to where the spaceship continued to lie. The two of them passed Javelin Spear, the Commanding Officer of this regiment of the Equestria’s forces. The grizzled stallion acknowledged them with a nod as they approached Tome Keeper and the team of mages tasked with breaking back into the ship. 

The unicorn mare’s once white coat had long since given way to a faded gray, the blue and green hairs that made up her mane not faring much better. The fact that Arcane Star remembered what she looked like in her youth made him realize with some despair that he was getting pretty old himself.

“What’s the situation out here, Tomey?” Arcane Star asked his old friend.

Tome Reader lowered the clipboard she held in her telekinetic grip and looked at Arcane Star. “I think we figured out why the ship suddenly locked us out,” she gestured to the side of the ship with a hoof. “You see that computer terminal there?”

Arcane Star followed her hoof and found what she was pointing at. A small screen with several lit up buttons and displays was embedded into a small part of the ship’s hull close to the cockpit.

“Our mages found that under a panel when they were trying to cut their way through the hull, but here’s the good part: something tried to communicate with us through that terminal. I think one of those alien constructs is inside the ship itself!”

Both of Arcane Star’s eyebrows found his forehead. “Incredible! Have you tried communicating back?”

Tome Reader shook her head. “You’re the head researcher here, not me.”

Arcane Star turned away from his old friend and gave the exterior terminal another once-over. Drawing his breath, the unicorn stallion carefully approached the terminal. When he got closer, he could make out words on the screen.

Diagnostics:
> Engines 1-3 critical meltdown. 98% damage. Offline
> Ignition coil 82% damage. Offline.
> Life support systems 60% damage. Oxygen Depleted.

“Uh… hello? Can you understand me?” Arcane Star tried, not really sure how to proceed with the communication. More words continued to appear on the screen.

> Emergency thrusters 2-4 91% damage. Offline.
> Rear stabilizer 79% damage. Offline.

“Hello?” Arcane Star tried tapping the side of the hull next to the terminal, but received nothing for his troubles save more neutral statements declaring the status of the ship’s systems. He was coming to the conclusion that the alien construct couldn’t communicate by oral means when he took another look at the most recent words to appear on screen.

> Knock knock.

Arcane Star squinted. “Wait… what?”

> Knock knock.

Arcane Star moved his head back. “Uh… who’s there?”

> Targeting.

Arcane Star swallowed. “Targeting who?” 

> A dirty, dirty shisno. Ha ha ha.

His eyes widened at what he saw next.

> Weapon systems 10% damage. Online.

> Command: Primary weapons activate.

Arcane Star turned and frantically ran toward Tome Keeper and the others, “EVERYPONY! GET DOW-”

A bright flash accompanied by a loud boom shook the entire clearing, sending Arcane Star and everypony else either falling or scrambling to the ground. One of the tents directly in front of the ship was sent flying straight up into the sky by a bright, fiery explosion. 

> Command: Thruster 1 activate.

The ponies suddenly heard the high pitched whine of an engine and the ship began to move. Arcane Star struggled to his hooves to get a better look at the alien vessel. At first, he thought it was trying to take off, but then he realized that it only had one engine running. All it was doing was rotating in place on the ground. His mouth hung open when he realized: It was rotating so that the front was facing him!

Before he could react, Arcane Star was tackled to the ground. At the same moment, a series of loud pops rang in his ears, and he heard several whooshing sounds as significantly less explosive—but nonetheless just as lethal—projectiles whizzed past. Another loud blast and distant screams indicated that another of the more volatile projectiles had been launched shortly after.

Arcane Star looked up at the pony who had pushed him out of harm’s way and saw Sunny Side looking down at him. The young guard recruit suddenly looked over to where the alien ship was still rotating along the ground and saw that the forward facing weapons were once again lined up with the both of them. Sunny shut her eyes and tried to cover Arcane Star with her body, but they both knew it would do no good. They once again heard the sound of several loud pops echo through the clearing, but this time they were suddenly muffled.

Arcane Star and Sunny Side simply lay there for a while, one on top of the other until they were certain they weren’t actually dead. Slowly they looked up at the ship to find a large, transparent, blue domed shield was covering the entire spacecraft.

“As much as I’m sure the head researcher enjoys having you on top of him there, Private Side, I think he’ll live if you get off of him now!” Tome Keeper’s voice rang out.

The pair of them looked over to see a grinning Tome Keeper standing beside Commander Javelin Spear. The unicorn CO was channeling power into his horn, matching the hue of the domed magical shield now surrounding the ship.

Sunny Side hastily climbed off of Arcane Star, her face suddenly very red. She offered him a hoof to help him up, after which the head researcher dusted himself off. Sunny Side wasted no time in stiffening up her posture to stand at attention before Javelin Spear. Tome Keeper walked up to Arcane Star with a jovial smile.

“You sure have a way with these aliens, Star!”

Arcane Star returned the smile. “Indeed. If I have to talk to another, it’ll be too soon!”









“Shit, it sounds like you unlocked Gamma,” Church said.

Twilight was sitting in the center of Blue Base with Church, Tucker and Caboose. According to Church, Doc had already left due to the fact he wasn’t technically part of their squad to begin with. Sister was… no one really seemed to know where Sister was. 

Twilight had just finished telling the three Blues everything that had happened before she was teleported to Blood Gulch. She told them about the ship, the dead soldier in black armor, the white helmet and the mysterious A.I. she found sealed away in the ship’s systems.

“Who’s Gamma?” Twilight asked.

“Oh, he was this A.I. who was kind of a huge jerk that belonged to this guy who was also a huge jerk,” Tucker helpfully explained. “We locked him away behind a firewall on board the ship.”

“Is there anyone around here who isn’t a huge jerk?” Twilight asked.

“I’m pretty sure I’m nice!” Caboose said.

“Yeah, but you’re also an idiot, so it balances out,” Tucker said.

“... I suddenly don’t feel like being nice anymore.”

“Okay, so it sounds like after you released Gamma, he activated the time distortion armor ability inside the helmet to… transport you here somehow. According to Tex, the time manipulator functions on the same principles as slipspace technology, which could explain that...” Church mused.

Church immediately noticed the inquisitive look Twilight gave him. “Slipspace drives are what ships use for faster-than-light travel. They’re translight engines that can transport matter to a series of dimensions called slipstream space. It pretty much lets us take shortcuts through space by bending physics.”

“Wait, since when were you an expert on this shit, Church?” Tucker asked.

“Tucker, we learned this shit in basic! Anyone who travels through space has to know this!”

Twilight had completely abandoned thinking about how she arrived in Blood Gulch in favor of this amazing technology. The ability to travel between dimensions? All she wanted at that moment was to learn more about it.

“So, it’s like a pocket dimension…” Twilight said to herself. This didn’t stop the Blues from hearing her, though.

“What’s a pocket dimension?”

“Exactly what it sounds like,” Twilight took an eager breath. “Many unicorns with sufficient magic levels make their own pocket dimensions to store and access objects from anywhere. I made mine as my final exam for second year of Celestia’s School!”

Of course, Twilight still knew how to access her pocket dimension. She could probably even access whatever she still had in there all the way from where she was in Blood Gulch, but she didn’t think she kept anything inside apart from a few books and extra quills. Using her pocket dimension to try to communicate with somepony back in Equestria was out of the question, as she was the only one who knew how to access it. Princess Celestia had been present when she first created her pocket dimension, but it seemed highly unlikely that she would know how to access it after all these years, or for that matter would even think to access it.

“Oh yeah, I have one of those!” Caboose said.

“Caboose, I don’t think your pocket counts as another dimension,” Tucker said.

“I don’t know… there’s a lot of weird things in there… like gum.”

“Anyway, Tex hooked up the helmet with the time distortion ability to give the ship the means to travel through slipstream space,” Church said, trying desperately to remain on topic. “The only thing that doesn’t make sense is how Gamma got it to work on you. As an armor ability, it only works on whoever’s wearing the armor. It only worked on the ship because it was hooked up directly to the ship’s computer…”

“Right… and I was connected to the computer with my magic!” Twilight thought carefully about the night she’d been messing with the ship. “There’s still one thing that I’d like to know: Why would this ‘Gamma’ program send me here in the first place?”

At the presentation of this question, the Blues fell silent. Church scratched the chin of his cobalt helmet. “Hmm… good question. Gamma may have been a lying dick, but as an A.I. he’d never do anything without a logical reason…”

Church and the others remained silent as they continued to ponder this mystery.

“I guess why he teleported me doesn’t matter for now,” Twilight finally said. “What matters is finding a way back…” Twilight was suddenly overcome by a yawn.

“Yeah… we’re going to have an early morning since we’re being relocated tomorrow,” Tucker sounded like he was suppressing a yawn himself. He didn’t quite succeed. “I think we should figure the rest of this out once we’re settled in our new base.”

As much as Twilight wanted to figure out a solid plan to get home, she couldn’t deny she was really tired. She remembered it had been a while since she’d gotten a proper night’s sleep, and as much as she didn’t want to admit it, she was feeling the effects.

“Mmm… now that you mention it, sleep sounds like a pretty good idea…” Twilight yawned again. 

When she opened her eyes, Tucker and Caboose were already heading to their quarters. Twilight decided she would find a place to sleep as well, but she wanted to ask one more question before retiring.

“So, are you guys going to Rat’s Nest too?”

Church looked back down at Twilight, looking lost in his thoughts until that moment. “Hmm? Yeah. Wait, actually no. I got different relocation orders from the other guys for some reason. I’m supposed to go to some place called ‘High Ground’. I guess you’ll come with me so we can work out how to get to your homeworld. I don’t think Tucker and Caboose really need to come along.”

Twilight put a hoof to her chin. “I wonder why they would separate you from the rest of your squad…?”

Church shrugged. “I know, that was really considerate of them. I’ll have to send Command a thank you card!” Church then reached into a compartment in the side of his armor and produced a small black rectangular object. “Here, you can take a look at this datapad if you want. It has all of the information you’d need on where we’re going. Exact coordinates, GPS, etcetera.”

Twilight took the object in her glowing magic and brought it closer to herself to take a look. The screen was like a tiny computer currently displaying a map. Two locations were marked down: one she was guessing was their current location, and the other seemed to be High Ground. Her vision blurred as another yawn activated her tear ducts. She decided that she would study the datapad more closely tomorrow. 

Remembering their earlier conversation about pocket dimensions, she decided to access hers for the first time in what felt like ages. The little black datapad disappeared in a flash of light.

“Not gonna lie, that shit still kinda freaks me out,” Church said, referring to her magic. “I hope you’re planning on giving that back.”

“Of course. I just wanted to hold onto it for a little while for further study,” Twilight said. 

Yes, she realized that putting away one of Church’s things someplace where he couldn’t reach it was a little rude, but she had no intentions of keeping it. Besides, a part of her felt that she was entitled to be a little bit rude to him after the way he was with her. That same part of her immediately felt guilty for that thought. Since when was she so passive aggressive? 

“Yeah, that’s fine. You can hold onto it for a bit, I guess,” Church said as he turned to leave. “I’m gonna go keep watch up top. Make sure the Reds don’t try anything while you’re all asleep.”

“Aren’t you going to sleep at all?”

Church shrugged. “Nah, I never really get tired. Must be part of the whole ‘being a ghost’ thing.”

“Okay. Uh… goodnight,” Twilight said awkwardly.

“Hmm? Yeah, see ya…” Church said noncommittally.

Twilight still had more questions. Specifically, she was curious about Church’s interest in the ship. She decided that she’d put her curiosity in check for the time being. After all, Church was helping her now, and Twilight didn’t want to risk making him reconsider. Still, she couldn’t help but wonder whether Church’s interest in the ship had anything to do with the name he kept mentioning: Tex.









Arcane Star gave an anxious sigh as he made his way back to the main research tent. He was still a little shaken up from nearly being blasted by an alien ship. Of course, he had made sure to track down Sunny Side after the whole ordeal was finished to thank her for saving his life.

“Don’t mention it! I’m sure a charming guy like you has got a special somepony back home counting on you not to die,” she had said with a shrug.

“Yeah… sure,” Arcane Star had decided not to mention the fact that his wife divorced him shortly before he was sent to investigate the troublesome ship. 

The very same ship that was quite effectively making Arcane Star forget his personal troubles in favor of entire new ones. When Tome Reader had called him out to the ship earlier, he thought they were finally making progress. Instead, they’d taken a huge step backwards. 

The alien vessel was now constantly under a domed shield that mages in the Royal Guard were taking turns keeping up. The ship, or rather the A.I. controlling it, hadn’t made any more attempts to attack since the shield first went up, but they weren’t sure it would be so well behaved if they decided to lower the shield. In truth, all Arcane Star wanted was another chance to communicate with the alien construct. Despite what the A.I. had said, he did not think its attempt on his life was out of malice. No, the behavior was more reminiscent of a wounded animal, cornered and out of options.

Entering the main research tent, Arcane Star tried pushing all thoughts of the recent events from his mind. No use dwelling on them if there was nothing to be done for now. Might as well just return to work on the… the…

Where did it go? Arcane Star’s eyes widened and his heart raced as he stared at the large operating table that formerly held the mechanized alien in black armor. Eyes wide and pupils tiny, he looked all around the tent, trembling.

“Oh Celestia, I’ve seen movies about this…”

He turned around to leave the tent as quickly as he could... and came face to face with the black armored alien, alive and fully functioning. His first instinct was to call out for help, but the thing moved with lightning speed towards him and grabbed him by the throat.

Arcane Star couldn’t struggle nor even move. Fear had shut down all of his primary motor functions as the tall bipedal creature slowly and deliberately pulled him closer until its helmeted face was inches from his, staring into him. Instinctively, Arcane Star fired up his horn, but the creature moved to grab it in its other hand faster than he could blink. Then, very much to Arcane Star’s surprise, it spoke.

“Where is it?” the alien spoke in a harsh, female voice. “Where’s Omega?”

“W-what?” Arcane Star squeaked forth. Oddly enough, the main thought running through his head at the moment wasn’t how badly he hoped this thing wouldn’t kill him. Instead, it was the fact that it not only could talk, but appeared to be female. I guess Tome Reader owes me twenty bits.

“My A.I.! The one you pulled out of the back of my helmet! Where is it?” 

“G-gone! It’s gone! I tried converting it to an M.I., but the conversion failed!”

“You did what???” The synthetic creature scrutinized him intensely. It was as if it (or rather she) was looking for something in him. Finally, the creature dropped him and stood up to its full height again. “You have no Goddamn idea what you just did, do you? You just made him damn near unstoppable!” 

Arcane Star should have screamed for help right there, but the way the alien looked down at him he had the feeling he wouldn’t live very long afterwards. “I don’t know what you’re talking about! The conversion failed… didn’t it?”

“Was there anyone else present when you tried converting him? Any other ponies?”

Arcane Star opened his mouth to answer, when what the creature had just said hit him. How did she know they were called ponies? More importantly, how was it she seemed to know about M.I.s? 

“W-well, yes. There were six mares from Ponyville!”

Arcane Star saw the way the black armored alien clenched its fists and he immediately recoiled, whimpering in anticipation of a blow that never came. He looked up to see the terrifying entity still standing over him.

“If you wanna live, then you have to tell me everything you know about them. What they all look like, and how I can find them!”









With a content sigh, Twilight Sparkle stretched out on the picnic blanket, taking in the warm Ponyville sun. She smiled happily at all of her friends as they sat around her. To her left, Rarity was working on a crochet with Spike fawning over her. Beside them, Applejack and Rainbow Dash appeared to be in a competition to see who could eat the most picnic food the fastest. To their left, Pinkie Pie was trying her best to start a confetti fight with either one of them. Beside Twilight on her right, Fluttershy sat quietly brewing tea with her pet bunny Angel nestled between her hooves.

Twilight had a book in front of her, but she didn’t really feel like reading it. She was simply content to sit in the grassy clearing in the company of her friends. They talked amongst themselves about nothing in particular and occasionally Twilight would speak up, but mostly she just listened to their voices. At the moment, she had nothing to worry about. No monster was threatening Equestria, and she didn’t have any reports to do. Everything was perfect.

Twilight’s ears twitched as she heard a noise a fair distance behind her. Turning to investigate, Twilight was surprised to see Princess Luna standing just outside a line of trees a few feet away, looking at her with a guarded expression.

“Hey, girls! Princess Luna is…” Twilight turned back around and trailed off upon realizing she was talking to an empty clearing. The picnic and all of her friends were gone, as if they had never been there at all.

A lump formed in her throat and Twilight’s heart sank when she realized what was going on and where she really was. Twilight half expected Luna to be gone when she turned around again, but the night alicorn was instead standing right in front of her, having closed the distance between them without making a sound.  

“I’m sorry for interrupting your picnic, Twilight Sparkle. You seemed like you were enjoying yourself,” Luna said with nothing but sincerity in her voice.

Twilight looked down steadily, expecting to wake up in Blood Gulch any moment. Instead, a dark blue hoof lifted her chin up and she found herself looking into the comforting eyes of Princess Luna. It was then that Twilight remembered a certain ability of Luna’s, and her face lit up as a little bit of hope returned.

“Are you… really here?” she asked.

Luna nodded. “I’ll be sure to let the others know you’re alright. I’m certain it will ease their minds greatly.”

“How are they all doing?”

Luna hesitated. It looked to Twilight that there was something she wanted to tell her. “They’ll be just fine. They’ve faced worse things before. What of your predicament? I may be able to talk to you here, but there is nothing I can do to bring you back to Equestria.”

“All things considered, I’m doing okay,” Twilight said with cautious optimism. “I made contact with the aliens here and I’ve gotten some of them to agree to help me find a way back home!”

Luna’s stoic but concerned expression abruptly broke into a giddy smile. “That is pleasing news, Twilight Sparkle! You’ve actually talked to the aliens? That’s amazing! You must be learning so much!”

“Yeah, I’m learning things alright...” Twilight said with a roll of her eyes.

Princess Luna smiled a bit longer before giving way to a more serious look. This one was different from the concerned look she had before. Twilight thought it almost looked… guilty.

“Twilight… I have another reason for contacting you like this. You see… I owe you an apology.”

Twilight tilted her head and narrowed her eyes.

“I lied when I told you Celestia was out of the country. When I sent you to investigate that ship, I did so without Celestia’s knowledge. In fact, she preferred that you not get involved at all.”

Twilight’s mouth opened and closed like a fish out of water a few times before she asked, “Why…?”

“That’s what I had hoped to discover in sending you to investigate. Instead, all I did was place you in danger…” Luna was suddenly unable to meet Twilight’s eyes.

“I don’t blame you for what happened, Luna. Neither should you,” Twilight furrowed her brow. “That being said, I don’t know why you couldn’t just be honest with me?”

Luna returned her gaze to meet Twilight’s. “You must understand, when word of the ship first reached Celestia and myself, she started to act… strangely. She and I have faced the forces of darkness and chaos for millennia, but when we were told of that ship...”

Luna closed her eyes and shook her head. “I’ve only ever seen my sister so frightened one other time.”

Twilight brought a hoof to her mouth, puzzling over what it could all mean as Luna continued.

“I’m worried, Twilight. I’ve been having premonitions. That ship is just the tip of the iceberg to something far bigger. Celestia knows something about what’s coming, but for reasons I can’t comprehend she won’t tell me, you or anypony else.”

Twilight suddenly heard a distant voice she recognized as Church. “Hey Twilight… Twilight! Wake up!”

“I’m sorry I deceived you, Twilight Sparkle. But I have to know what Celestia is hiding.”

The green plain outside Ponyville began to vanish, taking Princess Luna with it. As Twilight started to become aware of her surroundings in Blue Base, Luna’s words lingered.

“The fate of Equestria could be at stake...”









Church stood outside of Blue Base, the early morning sun just coming up over the canyon walls. Beside him was a small pile of duffel bags and crates full of the team’s things. Gripping his sniper rifle firmly in hand, Church tapped his foot anxiously as he waited for the vehicle from Command to arrive.

“Hey, Church? Can we talk real quick?” 

Church turned around to see Tucker walking out of the base’s front entrance with some sort of case in his hand. “Since Twilight’s an undiscovered species of alien, what do you think the guys from Command are gonna do once they find out about her?”

Church sighed. “I know. I’ve been trying to figure out what to do all night! I don’t want to lose my chance to find Tex if the people at Command take Twilight to some lab for research or something!”

“Well, I was looking through a bunch of my stuff, and I found something I ordered back when I had Junior,” Tucker explained, holding up the case in his hand. It was an empty beige box with a grated door on the front.

Church immediately knew what Tucker had in mind. “Huh, that might actually work.”

“Yeah... Twilight’s gonna be pissed, though!”









Twilight stood alone outside the rear entrance to Blue Base, her dream conversation with Luna still repeating in her mind. The things that Luna told her unsettled Twilight more than words could describe. She knew lingering on them would do her no good though. She instead opted to focus on her current problem: finding a way back home.

For what felt like the dozenth time, Twilight reached up to her headset and pushed the button to transmit.

“Hello, Church? Can you hear me?” Twilight waited for a response yet again, and yet again received none. At least, not from the person she expected.

“Hey! Twilight!” 

Twilight recognized the slightly deeper voice immediately. “Simmons? Why does the radio only work with you?”

“I’m not talking to you on the radio. I’m behind you.”

Twilight turned around and sure enough, she spotted the soldier in maroon armor step out from behind a rock.

“Oh…” Twilight lowered her hoof from her headset and walked over to where Simmons was hiding. “What are you doing here?”

“Sarge sent me to do some last minute spying on the Blues before we moved to our new bases,” Simmons said. “I also realized that since you’re using the radio from Donut’s old helmet, no one’s probably changed the batteries in a really long time.”

Simmons pulled out a pair of small cylindrical metal objects and showed Twilight how to change the batteries in her headset.

“There! Those should last you for a while.” 

“Thanks, Simmons,” Twilight gave him a friendly smile. “I’m sorry for running away from you guys, but Church has agreed to help me find a way back home!”

“Oh, that’s cool!” Simmons exclaimed. His gaze shifted downwards steadily. “Actually, I also thought I’d take this opportunity to say goodbye. I gotta say, it was kinda nice having someone to talk to for awhile who doesn’t think I’m a total nerd!”

“Oh, I definitely think you’re a total nerd,” Twilight giggled, giving Simmons a playful jab with her hoof, “but I guess I’m not really one to talk!”

Both of them then heard the sound of a Warthog’s engine over at the front of Blue Base.

“Well, sounds like I need to get going,” Twilight said.

Simmons nodded. “Yeah, I should probably get back to Red Base.” 

With that, Twilight Sparkle turned to make her way to the front of Blue Base.

“Good luck with the whole… finding a way home thing!” Simmons called out as he began making his way around the other side of the base.

“Thanks, Simmons! Maybe I’ll send you an interplanetary postcard!”

As she walked around the outside of Blue Base, Twilight couldn’t keep the happy grin off her face. Her radio was working again, and she was on her way to getting back to Equestria. Things were finally working out for her! She saw Church and Tucker heading around to meet her halfway. However, not even they could ruin her good mood.

“Hey guys! I got my radio working! I can officially be part of the team now!”

“Yeah, yeah, that’s great, Twilight,” Church hastily said, depositing some kind of beige crate with holes in the sides and an open metal grate on the front. “Listen, I need you to do us a huge solid and get inside this dog crate for the trip.”

Twilight looked from the dog crate to Church and Tucker. “Why...?” Twilight knew the answer, but she wasn’t asking Church or Tucker: She was asking the universe at large.

Before she knew it, Twilight was lying down inside a cramped dog crate being loaded onto the back of a jeep along with the rest of Blue Team’s stuff. Church, Tucker and Caboose all hopped into the seats in the back of the jeep, and soon they were driving away from the small concrete structure in Blood Gulch that served as Blue Base.

As they did, Twilight couldn’t help but get this feeling that they were forgetting something…









“Helloooo? I’m ready for our road trip! Where the fuck is everybody?”

Simmons was walking along a cliff high up on the side of one of the canyon walls when he heard a familiarly ditzy female voice echo throughout Blood Gulch. He turned around and looked back in the direction of Blue Base. Standing alone outside the small building was a single soldier in yellow armor wondering around aimlessly. Had the Blues left without her?

“Interesting…” Simmons muttered as he turned around and headed back towards Red Base double time.

Soon, he was walking up to Grif and Sarge, who were helping the man in gray armor from Command load their bags into the back of an M831 Troop Transport Warthog variant. The vehicle looked just like a regular warthog jeep, only instead of a gun turret on the back it had four seats along the sides. Grif was only loading in all of the light bags. One at a time. Very, very slowly. Simmons walked up to him.

“Hey, Grif. Working hard to contribute as usual, I see!” Simmons said. He then took a look around. Someone was missing. “Hey, where’s Donut?”

“He left with some guys from Command while you were out reconning,” Grif explained. Simmons ignored his made up word. “They said something about his experience with the aliens and getting him debriefed. Suffice to say, Donut was more thrilled about the prospect than he probably should have been.”

“Yeah…” Simmons nodded. “Wait, by alien did they mean Twilight?”

“Nah, I think they were talking about the aliens we were at war with. You know, the ones that aren’t totally lame?”

“But... that doesn’t make sense! Donut doesn’t have any experience with those aliens!” Simmons pointed out. “If anyone in this canyon needs to be debriefed, it would probably be Tucker…”

“Ah, Simmons!” Sarge exclaimed, marching over to his two subordinates. “Get any good last minute intel on those dirty Blues?”

“Well, I’ve confirmed that they definitely have Twilight again,” Simmons started.

“Wait, the Blues took back our baby horse alien?” Sarge asked. “When did that happen?”

“Last night! I thought Donut woke you up to tell you as soon as it happened! I was wondering why you weren’t ordering an immediate counterattack.”

“Simmons, if I declared a Red Alert every time Donut came into my room at night talking about unicorns, we’d never get any sleep!” 

It was then that the driver of the troop transport, a soldier in light gray armor with a different looking helmet from the assembled Reds approached them. “Alright guys, hop in. It’s time to move out!” 

Sarge turned and walked towards the transport jeep. “Right! Now, if you haven’t got anything else to report, let’s saddle up and hit the road!”

It was then that Simmons remembered the strange thing that he saw on the way back from Blue Base. “Oh, that’s right! It looks like the Blues have left one of their soldiers behind!”

Sarge froze in the middle of climbing into the back of the jeep. He slowly turned his helmeted head to look at Simmons, the rest of his body in suspended animation.

“... What?”

“The Blues have already left for their new base, but one of them is still over there!”

Sarge hopped off the side of the jeep and pulled out his shotgun, cocking the barrel dramatically. “I knew it! It was a trap all along!”

“Sir…?”

“If we leave now while one single Blue remains in this canyon, it means they’ve won! I should’ve known that’s what they were planning!”

“It honestly looks like they just forgot about her…”

“Who cares if the Blues won this fucking canyon, I just want to get the fuck out of it!” Grif exclaimed, hopping into the back of the troop transport.

“Hmph! I expected as much from you, Grif!” Sarge turned to face Simmons. “C’mon, Simmons! We have a battle to finish here!”

Simmons looked from Grif to Sarge uneasily. “Normally I would agree with you, sir. But we have orders from Command and I think we should follow them.”

Simmons turned around and climbed into the back of the jeep. The driver from Command walked around and approached Sarge.

“We’re running late now. Get in or I’m leaving you!” the soldier in light gray armor said firmly.

Sarge looked up at Grif and Simmons while he fidgeted with his shotgun. “I told you: I never leave a fight unfinished, or a Blue unkilled!”

The driver turned around. “Suit yourself. Guess we’ll have to find this squad a new sergeant...”

Simmons didn’t take his eyes off Sarge as the man in red stood defiantly in front of Red Base. Not even as the jeep pulled away, Sarge and their home for five years got smaller and smaller with distance.









Church looked up as the Troop Transport they were riding in pulled to a stop in the underground garage where the Command Checkpoint was. The drive had taken them all morning, but they were finally at their first stop.

The facility was built into a cave, with natural rock making up the walls and ceiling alongside metal and concrete. Looking off to the side, Church could see a landing pad outside the cave with a Pelican dropship resting on it. Beyond it, nestled into the rock of a tall cliff was the concrete facade of their first destination: Rat’s Nest.

Three more soldiers from Command approached their jeep for inspection. Church tried not to let just how on edge he was show. This plan had better work.

“Hey, what’s with the armor you guys are all wearing?” Tucker asked as he and Caboose got up to disembark.

Church had actually been wondering that himself. The gray armor that all of the Command troops wore looked different from himself and the rest of his squad. Mostly it was the ODST helmets. The visors were more angular than the ones on the Blues’ helmets and seemed to protrude slightly. Additionally, the helmets themselves were more rounded. There seemed to be minor variations in the armor itself as well, but they were less noticeable.

“Our armor? This is the standard for everyone in the program. You’re the ones with outdated equipment!” the Command soldier who appeared to be in charge stated.

“Shit, guess we need to upgrade,” Church muttered. He then looked over at Caboose, who was standing behind the jeep with Tucker. “Hey, Caboose! I need you to remember something very important: upgrade your armor as soon as you get to your new base!”

“Okay!” Caboose said.

“I’m serious: you have Mark Six armor right now. Make sure you get whichever model is higher than six!” Church spoke slowly and carefully so as not to confuse him.

“Don’t worry Church! I’ll be so high above six I’ll be able to see my house!” 

Church heard a certain snarky female voice. “Wow, Church. You’re worse than my mom on my first day at Celestia’s School.”

Church didn’t even look at her as he hopped off the back of the vehicle and forcefully whispered. “Hey! Quiet! You’ll blow everything!”

At that moment another of the soldiers from Command approached Church and the Blues as they all stood around behind the vehicle they arrived in. “Okay, Private Church?”

“That’s me.”

“You can board the ship outside just as soon as we’ve checked your bags.”

“Wait, you’re taking me there with a ship? Isn’t that a bit overkill for one guy?” Church asked.

The Command soldier shrugged. “The guys in charge really wanna make sure you make it to your new base safely for some reason.” The gray soldier then began looking through Church’s bags and immediately noticed a certain beige dog crate. “Uh… is that an animal?”

“Yes. This is my dog: George.”

The “dog” in question gave a tired, annoyed sigh. “Bark bark. Bark.” It was the least enthusiastic barking ever uttered.

The Command soldier studied Twilight Sparkle intensely for what felt like a whole minute before turning around to address his superior. The two gray soldiers conversed for a few seconds before the one inspecting Church’s stuff returned.

“Yeah, it’s against regulations for you to keep a pet on frontline military facilities.”

“What? Says who?” Church demanded.

“Says the regulations!”

Church exchanged an uneasy glance with Twilight. The purple pony seemed just as aware of the severity of the situation as he. “But… I need her! She’s my… seeing eye dog!”

“Wait, you’re blind?”

“Uh, yes!” Church desperately exclaimed.

“If you need proof, just watch him try to hit something with his sniper rifle,” Tucker said, receiving a glare from Church.

“So... how does a dog help your aim?” the Command soldier asked.

Church hesitated. “Two barks means I’m on target. One bark I’m not. Watch!”

After nudging Twilight’s crate a couple of times, Church raised his sniper rifle in the general direction of Caboose, but intentionally aimed far to his left.

“Uh, bark…” Twilight stated, putting zero effort into her dog imitation. Church moved his sniper rifle horizontally in Caboose’s direction.

“Bark…” 

Church adjusted his aim until he was pointing straight at Caboose.

“Bark-bark… bark-bark,” Twilight sighed.

Church lowered his sniper rifle and turned back around to face the Command soldier. “Yes, I realize it’s not a perfect system, but it’s our system!”

The Command soldier just put a hand on his chin, and after a few seconds consideration, shook his head. “I’m sorry, but there are proper UNSC approved methods to assist handicapped soldiers. The dog has to go!”

“Dammit!” Church swore as the Command soldiers offloaded the rest of his bags, leaving a very distressed looking Twilight sitting in the dog crate on the back of the transport jeep.

With Church’s bags offloaded, one of the gray Command soldiers tapped the side of the jeep a few times and it began driving away with Twilight.

“NO! GEORGE!” Caboose yelled. “Don’t take George away! We have a special friendship! Not as special as my friendship with Church, but still! You can’t separate a boy from his dog! The power of our love will bring us together again!”

Church suddenly realized that he was being led away. One of the Command soldiers had him by the arm and was gently leading him outside to the dropship.

“I just want to say: You’re very brave for joining the army in spite of your disability,” the gray soldier said. “You know, my friend’s sister is blind!”

Church growled. “I hate all of existence.”