Twilight's head felt like it was spinning. The lavender unicorn struggled to remember where she was and what had happened to put her in such a state.
"...I don't think..."
Unknown voices echoed through her skull. She recalled heading into the Everfree Forest to borrow some supplies from Zecora, but something had gone wrong...
"...Just a second doc..."
Memories stirred at the sound of the voices. She had just entered the forest when she had found herself face to face with a trio of monsters, one of which had attacked her on sight and presumably knocked her unconscious for a short while. The thing had been using some kind of magic to alter its body, but the only spells Twilight knew of to perform such a feat were lengthy and exhausting - this creature had been changing its appearance every few moments as it attacked.
"It...it's not an EVO!"
The startled cry brought Twilight well and truly back to reality. The monster was standing right next to her! It took every ounce of her self-control to avoid screaming and running, as she was certain it would be able to easily catch her in her weakened state. No, if she wanted to escape she would need to wait until it was distracted or better, left entirely.
Twilight heard the creature take a few steps backward, and risked opining her eyes a crack. The three creatures were tall and bipedal, but lacked any fur except on the top of their heads. All in all, Twilight would have described them as some twisted parody of a monkey or ape - not unlikely, considering the other inhabitants of the Everfree Forest and the strange effects imposed on them by the region. The one nearest to her, the one that had been standing over her just a moment ago, was wearing a red jacket and navy blue leggings, while the one on the right wore a dark green suit and black glasses, with a slight frown on its face. The third creature, which Twilight guessed was a female of the species, sported a lab coat and was fussing over a small electronic device.
This was odd. While a number creatures in the Everfree Forest were intelligent and capable of speech (dragons and sea serpents among them), none had mastered the use of technology. What kind of creatures were these things?
The female creature spoke up. "That explains why none of my scans are working - this device is designed to measure nanite energy readings and extrapolate data on the target based on anomalies in the measurements, but here there are no nanites for it to analyse."
Twilight had no idea what a 'nanite' was, but evidently it was keeping the creatures distracted from her. Realising that it was only a matter of time before they turned their attention back on her, Twilight decided to make her move. Scrambling to her feet, she made it only a few metres before collapsing again - the strain of holding a force field against such powerful and repeated impacts had been too much even for her, and it would take time for her strength to build up again.
In the end, all she had accomplished was to draw the focus of the creatures back onto her. Twilight slipped into full panic as they slowly walked towards her. This was it; she had attacked them and now they were going to take their revenge and there was nothing she could do to stop it and-
"Take it easy, we're not going to hurt you."
The voice snapped Twilight out of her panic, and she realised she had curled up on the ground out of fear. Looking up, she saw the female creature offer a reassuring smile. "My name is Doctor Rebecca Holiday, what's yours?"
"T-Twilight Sparkle." the lavender pony responded, still somewhat shaken.
"Twilight Sparke?" The creature in the red jacket snorted. "What kind of name is Twilight Sparkle?"
The creature called Doctor Holiday shot him a brief glare. "It's very nice to meet you Twilight." She gestured towards back towards the first creature, then to the one in the green suit. "This is Rex, and that is Six." Despite his earlier demeanour, Rex smiled and waved at Twilight, while Six simply adjusted his glasses.
"Why are you called Six?"
The green-suited figure barely reacted to the question. "It's because I'm the sixth most dangerous person in the world." Twilight recoiled slightly at the implications, but otherwise maintained her composure; she was still alive, which had to count for something. Although the way he said this so matter-of-factly was interesting - Twilight had read a number of books on dangerous creatures, but none of them had been numbered by their dangerousness, and Six had featured in none of them. She could think of a reason why this could be the case, but it was extraordinarily unlikely.
"And where...is your world?" Twilight asked, deciding to test her theory.
This time Holiday was the one who responded. "We come from a dimension that runs parallel to this one. We got here by passing through a rift between the two worlds." She was right! These creatures were from another universe! Before Twilight could stop herself, she launched into a cascade of questions. What differences are there between the dimensions? Did the two worlds share the same landscape or history, or were they completely independent from one another? Do the wildlife and plant-life share any similarities? Did they use the wormhole theory or entanglement theory to create the rift? How much power did it take? How did they generate that power?
"Slow down a second," Rex interrupted, holding his hands up. "Perhaps I should explain a few things for you."
Twilight sat down a bit more comfortably as Rex began to tell his story. Apparently the three of them were a species known as humans and came from a world without magic, but a team of scientists had been attempting to create something similar via microscopic devices known as nanites. The nanites were able to alter matter at a molecular level, and would have been used to cure diseases, grow food to end hunger and generally improve the quality of life for all humans.
But before the project could be completed, there was an accident.
A huge explosion ripped through the underground laboratory that housed the Nanite Program, destroying the town above it and spreading the millions of uncompleted nanites across the globe. Without any instructions to guide them, groups of nanites would spontaneously activate, rapidly mutating their host into a monstrous creature known as an Exponentially Variegated Organism, or EVO for short. Humanity descended into panic and chaos; for many it seemed like the end of the world had arrived.
But all hope had not been completely lost. Funded by the original investors for the Nanite Program rose Providence, an international organization dedicated to countering the EVO threat. Their directive was to contain or kill all rampant EVOs, while simultaneously working with the world's best scientists to try and rediscover the science of the nanites, long since lost in the original explosion, in order to try and find a way of undoing the madness plaguing the world. They had been able to slow the descent of humanity and even restore a sense of order to the world, but ultimately there were far too many EVOs for Providence to handle. They needed a cure, or mankind was going to die out.
Five years after the Nanite Event, they finally got that cure.
On a mission to hunt down an especially powerful EVO, Agent Six had encountered a young boy who possessed the ability to manipulate the nanites in and around his body, yet displayed none of the mindless violence typical of an EVO. Taking him back to Providence, it was discovered that the boy had the ability to deactivate nanites within an EVO, returning the host to their original form. What's more, he remembered nothing but his name - Rex. Seeing an opportunity to turn the tide of the war, Providence's leader White Knight decided to keep the boy within the organization as a 'secret weapon' against the EVOs.
Over the next couple of years, Rex began to rediscover snippets of his past, as well as the true purpose of the Nanite Program. Rex's parents, Rafael and Violeta Salazar, as well as his brother Ceasar, had been researchers within the project, and were forced to inject Rex with nanites to save his life after a crippling accident. Unlike the nanites which would soon cover the globe, these nanites were fully programmed, and granted Rex the ability to communicate and control other nanites, which he would later learn to utilise in order to modify his body into various mechanical weapons and to cure rampant EVOs.
Near the end of the Program, Rex's family made a shocking discovery. The founders of the Program - a group known as the Consortium - had realised that, properly programmed, the nanites would be able to rearrange the very fabric of reality itself - gravity, energy, matter, all of the laws of physics could be rewritten with the correct commands. A set of five Master Control Nanites were created, which would be able to direct the other nanites to accomplish this task. When Rex's parents discovered the Consortium intended to use the Master Control Nanites to essentially ascend to godhood, they were left with only one option - overloading the main nanite reactor would disperse the five Master Control Nanites randomly across the globe where they could never be used. Caesar and a few other scientists made it out, but Rafael and Violeta were caught in the explosion.
Over time, the Consortium's plans gradually became more apparent. When he began to resist, White Knight was forced out of Providence and replaced with the sinister Black Knight. Providence moved away from the old methods of Cure, Contain or Kill and began to research ways to control EVOs, while simultaneously seeking out the Master Control Nanites so that the Consortium could finally achieve their goal.
This didn't sit well with Rex, and along with Agent Six, Doctor Holiday, White Knight and a few other allies he has been fighting against Providence ever since, trying to collect the Master Control Nanites before Black Knight can get her hands on them.
"That still doesn't explain why you would be here." Twilight spoke up at last. "An explosion would hardly be sufficient to transport these Master Control Nanites between dimensions."
"Yeah, we're still not sure about that ourselves." Rex responded. "Black Knight came here a couple of weeks ago, but we have no idea why."
Odd. If other humans had appeared in Equestria, Twilight was sure she would have heard about it. "If she's here, then she hasn't been seen since she arrived." Rex's story had taken some time to tell, and glancing upwards it was clear even through the dense canopy of the Everfree Forest that it was getting late. Twilight had no intention of staying out here at night, when the more vicious monsters of the forest began to wake up. "We should probably get you somewhere safe, but if you walk into Ponyville it'll cause a panic." Safety was not Twilight's only motive - Princess Celestia would want to hear about this, especially if this Black Knight was as dangerous as Rex implied.
"We can take care of that." A tap of a button on Rex's wrist, and the human immediately vanished into thin air. "Just lead the way and we'll follow." Rex called out, assuring Twilight that he was still there. Following his lead, Six and Holiday also activated their cloaking devices.
Having regained enough strength to do so, Twilight stood up and began the trek back towards her library. One way or another, she had a feeling it was going to be a long night.