When Blackburn had visited his cousin in Chicago when he was a boy, he had been amazed by the towering buildings of the giant metropolis. None of them compared to the beast of a structure that stood before him. When Princess Twilight had said that she was taking them to her home, he had been expecting something like the chateaus that he had seen in France or a summer estate. He certainly never pictured a colossal, he wanted to say treehouse castle, made almost entirely out of crystal.
As the group walked up the front steps, two massive golden doors suddenly began to glow in a yellow light. Blackburn and his squad all jumped slightly when the doors began to loudly groan open. From behind the doors appeared two grey unicorns clad in a golden medieval style armor. Blackburn guessed that these were the Princess's guards. The six mares all passed the guards without incident, but when the marines followed behind, they moved to intercept them.
Twilight saw this however and waved them away. "It's alright, they're with us." She reassured.
Looking back with at their princess with some concern lingering in their eyes, the guards nodded and slowly returned to their positions by the doors, all the while eyeing the strange group of stallions with suspicion.
Twilight gestured with her head towards a medium sized (in comparison with the front doors) pair of doors about three down the left side of a long corridor hallway. They too were enveloped with an aura of light, except this one was magenta not yellow like on the entrance. When they opened, the ponies found themselves in what appeared to the marines as a large private study, with a desk at the far left corner of the room, a large mounted telescope pointing out one of the windows a maroon colored cushioned sofa facing a small fireplace with a portrait of the six mares hanging over it, and the most predominant feature, the walls were lined with bookshelves filled with volume upon volume of books. Blackburn's eyes widened in wonder. He had hardly seen more than two books since he entered the trenches, and he loved to read. Another thing that caught his eye was what appeared to be a world globe resting on top of a table off to the side of the room, except he couldn't recognize any of the countries on it.
Twilight went over to one of the bookshelves and lightly tapped on it four times with her hoof. Then suddenly, the bookshelf swung out to reveal a short little purple and green, Blackburn wanted to say lizard, behind it.
"Yeah Twilight? Whats up?" The reptile said, much to the surprise of the marines watching.
"We have some new visitors Spike."
"Did that lizard just talk?" Questioned O'Brien.
"Hey I'm not a lizard I'm a dra..." Spike paused when his eyes fell upon the strangely dressed stallions in front of him. "Um Twilight, who are these guys?"
"We were just about to get to that Spike." Twilight answered. "Could you grab me my notepad and quill please?"
Spike saluted and ran over to the dest and pulled out the notepad and feather quill and quickly brought them over to Twilight. Then, much to the amazement of the marines, they were enveloped in the same magenta aura that had radiated from the door a few moments ago. And on top of that, they were floating in midair.
Blackburn raised his hoof. "Excuse me your majesty. But how are you doing that?"
Twilight looked perplexed. "Do you not have magic where you are from?"
Blackburn shook his head. As he did, Twilight began writing down something on the notepad. She then made her way over to the maroon couch and her six friends took their places beside her. She motioned for the group of stallions to sit in front of them.
"Now, I guess we should start with the basics." Twilight said as the marines formed a semi circle in front of her. "Starting with introductions."
Blackburn nodded. "Of course your majesty." He said. "As I already said, I am Gunnery Sergeant Nathan T. Blackburn." He then turned to the uniformed individuals behind him. "Gents, from left to right state your rank and name."
"Aye aye gunny!"
Twilight and her friends jumped a little when all the stallions loudly spoke in unison.
A light brown earth pony with a small black mustache moved forward. "Corporal Pierre Gustav Buckman ma'am." He spoke with a deep accent that mimicked Applejack's with the exception of a smoother edge to it.
Next was the ash grey unicorn known by the mares only as "Doc." "As I said, I am HM Timothy Hawkins." His eyes passed over each mare so that he could show that he was addressing all of them. When his gaze fell upon the canary yellow pegasus mare, she hid behind her long pink mane.
Next was the grey white earth pony. "Private Patrick Erin O'Brien at your service." He said with a cheeky smile. "My friends call me Patty."
The rest of the marines, after rolling their eyes at O'Brien's cocky attitude, continued to list off their names.
"Private Sampson."
"P-private A-allan."
"Private Cross."
"Lance Corporal Kent"
"Private Rogers."
"Private Toni."
"Private First Class Phillips."
"Private Wilson."
"Private Porter."
Twilight, who had heard all the military terms from her brother being in the guard, and Rainbow Dash, from having gone through Wonderbolt's training, understood what the term private meant. Pinkie Pie however was confused.
"Wait a minute!" She squeaked. "How come you have eight detectives?"
All the marine ponies looked at the pink mare questionably. All the other mares and Spike however, only sighed at Pinkie being Pinkie.
"Pinkie Pie." Twilight groaned as she pulled out of her face hoof. "Private isn't short for Private Eye."
"Yeah Pinkie." Rainbow Dash piped up. "It means that on the list of who is in charge, they are at the bottom."
Blackburn nodded his thanks to the duo. The pink mare perplexed him.
"Now then," Twilight continued. "I guess it's our turn. As you have been told, my name is Twilight Sparkle. And yes I am a princess, but you don't have to bow or salute to me or anything."
Blackburn again nodded. "As you wish your majesty."
Spike was up next. "Hi. My name's Spike, Spike the dragon." He said, puffing his chest out with pride. O'Brien had to suppress a laugh at the ridiculous sight.
Next was the orange mare, Applejack. "Th' names Applejack, and ah want to thank y'all fer helpin' mah sister and her friends."
Blackburn waved his hoof. "Think nothing of it ma'am. Just doing our jobs."
Rarity stepped up to Doc as soon as Applejack was finished. "My name is Miss Rarity Belle." She spoke gracefully. "And I too want to express my gratitude and especially to you." She looked Doc straight in the eyes. "For treating my sister's injuries."
Doc smiled, and grabbed Rarity's. " It was nothing ma'am. Anyone would've done the same."
Rarity blushed at the stallion's gentlecolty manners. These, she had found, were truly rare qualities among most males.
Rainbow Dash now stopped hovering in the air and landed in front of the group of stallions, rubbing the back of her neck in slight shame.
"Names Rainbow Dash, and I'm sorry for snapping at you guys earlier. I'm just kind of protective of Scootaloo."
"I understand completely ma'am." Blackburn reassured. "I was always protective of my younger brother."
"Um, she's not actually my birth sister." Rainbow Dash corrected. "She's my adopted sister. But I do love her very much."
"I can tell."
The next pony was Fluttershy, but she was still hiding behind her flowing pink mane, and she had started to breath shallowly. All the stallions looked on with confusion. They didn't know the canary yellow pegasus was timid by nature, especially stallions. However, Doc could tell that the mare was clearly nervous, and understandably so. She was acting much like his younger sister, who was extremely shy. Remembering the way he would calm his sister down, he got up from his spot in the line and walked up to the now trembling mare and, as gently as he could, placed his hoof on her shoulder.
Fluttershy jumped a little at the touch, then slowly, she turned her head up to see who had come up to her. When she looked up, she saw, through a large set of glasses, a pair of warm hazelnut eyes that spoke volumes of kindness looking at her. They were enhanced by one of the most reassuring smiles she had seen in a while. Then the stallion before her spoke with a voice that would calm a tiger.
"If you want to, just say it to me." He said.
Somehow these words were calming enough for Fluttershy to trust the stallion. "Um..my name is Fluttershy." She said softly.
All the rest of the mares stared in shock. No single pony besides them had ever been able to make Fluttershy speak up so quickly. Smiling softly, Doc stepped back into his spot in the line of green uniformed stallions.
Last but not least was Pinkie Pie. "HI I'M PINKIE PIE AND I MMPPHH!!!!"
Rainbow Dash had shoved her hoof into Pinkie's mouth to stop the oncoming rant. "Let's just leave it at Pinkie Pie."
Pinkie's ears drooped. "Awww, no fun!"
"Alright then." Twilight cut in. "I guess we should on. Now I'm assuming that you are not from here?"
Blackburn shook his head. "No ma'am. We are from the United States of America."
Twilight scribbled on her notebook. "And is the United States a collection of individual countries?"
"No ma'am. It's a single country divided into 48 locally governed states answering to a central government."
"And does your princess head the central government?"
Buckman raised and eyebrow at this question. "Our government isn't a monarchy."
Twilight paused. "Then who is the head of your government?"
"We elect a president who serves for one or two four year terms." Blackburn explained.
"Ooohhh." Twilight understood. "That sounds a lot like the Canterlot Senate, except they are elected for six year terms instead of four years."
"Sounds a lot like England ma'am." Blackburn added.
"Is that another state in your country?"
Blackburn shook his head. "No, England is another separate country on our world."
"And what is your world called darling?" Rarity chimed in.
"Earth."
Twilight again jotted down some notes.
"Ok um..." She tried to remember the stallion's name. "I'm terribly sorry, I forgot your name."
"Nathan Blackburn your majesty."
Twilight nodded. "Were you ponies before you came here?"
Blackburn again shook his head. "No ma'am, we were a species called humans."
Twilight's eyes went wide at this information. "You were humans?!?" she exclaimed.
Blackburn flinched slightly at Twilight's sudden excitement. "Yes we were humans."
Twilight's eyes again lit up. Now she understood why the stallions were clad in so much clothing. That understanding turned to confusion as couldn't recall seeing any clothing like what these stallions were wearing when she was among the humans. "I've never seen clothes like the what your wearing and I visited your universe before." She said quizzically.
Buckman now spoke up. "These are our uniforms ma'am." he explained. "They set us apart from our enemies in combat."
The words "enemies" and "combat" caught all the mares off guard. "What do y'all mean by 'enemies' an' 'combat'?" Applejack asked, slightly afraid of the answer.
"The German Army, and other enemies of the United States during war. And combat against those enemies." Buckman replied.
"Is that what those weird looking stick thingys are for?" Pinkie Pie pointed.
"You mean our rifles?" Blackburn replied. "Yes they are our weapons that we use." Fluttershy cringed at the word "weapons".
"How did you all end up here?" Twilight asked.
"Well we were traveling with our regiment and our sister regiment, the 6th Marines, when we ran into a traffic jam of army units. Then this purple cloud came out of nowhere and we all blacked out. When we woke up, we had changed into this and were in a field outside of a forest." Blackburn explained.
"That's the Everfree Forest darling." Rarity informed. "And I'm surprised that all you ran into there were our little sisters."
"Wait a minute." Twilight interrupted. "You said you were traveling with your regiments, but were you the only ones who were transported here?"
"No not just us ma'am." Blackburn replied. "Our regiment, our sister regiment, and both of the army units ended up in the same situation."
Twilight expression suddenly became nervous. "How many of you are there?"
"Well both Marine regiments number over 4000."
Each mare's jaw dropped to the floor. The Canterlot Royal Guard garrison only numbered about 900! These ponies two units had together over 4000 and that wasn't including the two other units that had also come with them!
Twilight was the first to recover. "I think it would be best if we somehow brought them all here." She suggested. "So we can make sure that there are no complications."
"Good idea ma'am." Blackburn nodded. "They are all probably tense being in an unfamiliar country and we don't want any violent confrontations."
"Can you tell me where they are located right now?" Twilight asked.
"On a road about five kilometers away from here." Blackburn replied.
"That's Whitetail Road." Applejack put in. "We use it to transport our apples to nearby towns."
Blackburn looked back at his squad and nodded. He then turned back to the group of mares. "Shall we take you there? It's an hour walk if you are all up for it?"
Twilight smiled and shook her head. "It's alright. I can get us there quicker." She said.
Blackburn looked puzzled. "How would we get there quick...?"
Suddenly, he was cut off as every pony and dragon in the room was surrounded by a blinding purple light. In an instant, they had all vanished from the room.
When the light finally dissipated and Blackburn opened his eyes, he saw that they were now standing in the field that the marines had appeared in earlier that day.
What made Blackburn uneasy was that they were now surrounded by at least 30 marine ponies with their rifles raised, obviously startled and suspicious by the sudden appearance of the group in the middle of their ranks.
"Well shit." The gunnery sergeant muttered.