Chapter 3: Staring at Eternity
Fluttershy glanced around nervously as the group of guards escorted her and her friends into the Everfree Forest. Everything looked the same as the last time she had been here, dark and scary. The guards will protect us from all of the monsters. I know they will.
Looking to her right, she saw the last glimpses of Ponyville disappear as her vision was filled with the coniferous trees of the Everfree. She heard somepony let out a nervous “peep” and for two seconds, couldn’t figure out who it was. But when she observed the eyes of her friends showing looks of encouragement, she realized it was she who had spoken, and ducked behind her mane to better hide from their stares.
“What’s wrong Fluttershy? Chicken?” Rainbow taunted. Fluttershy just lowered her head more in response. “Oh come on Fluttershy, It’s just the forest...” Rainbow’s voice trailed off, her face betraying her dismay at making Fluttershy feel worse.
“Lay off her, Rainbow.” Twilights encouraging voice made the meek yellow pegasus’ head lift a few inches as she gained some courage.
“It’s okay dear. We’re all scared.” Rarity’s voice filled in the gap when Twilight stopped. “Right, Rainbow?” She said, her voice seething with venom.
“Yah... I guess I’m a littl—”
Rainbow’s apology was cut off as Captain Sword made his opinion known. “Will you all shut up? You are going to get us killed.”
Golden Sword’s Harsh words immediately removed whatever confidence her friends had given her.
Pinkie decided that now would be the perfect time to point out that the clouds were slowly descending towards the Everfree Forest. "Hey, everypony! The sky is falling!"
About half of the guard ponies looked up along with Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack. Twilight was the first to speak up to debunk Pinkies claims. “Pinkie, The clouds are just breaking up. It’s natural over places like this.”
“But Twilight, my Pinkie Sense is telling me there’s gonna be a doozy soon. And I think it has to do with the sky. I’m also sensing that something is gonna fall, so—” Pinkie was interrupted by a coconut falling from one of the nearby pine trees and landing square between the Captain's eyes, causing his body to crouch and adopt an offensive posture.
As Golden Sword flailed left and right looking for his aggressor, Pinkie was on her side, huddled up with Rainbow Dash laughing at the absurdity of the captain’s reactions. “I guess... we... can count out... the sky falling.” Rainbow managed to stutter between breaths.
Fluttershy watched in concern as the Captain slowly realized that he was not under attack and regained a more neutral position. “Who threw that coconut?” His voice was above a whisper, but barely.
“A... A coconut?” Twilight’s face contorted in confusion. “We are nowhere near any form of tropical area. How in Celestia’s name are there coconuts here?”
As Pinkie Pie stood up, she offered the only suggestion she could think of. "Maybe it was a swallow?"
“Let’s just... keep going.” Captain Sword said through gritted teeth as he fought off a furious blush that had wormed its way onto his face.
The large group of ponies continued their trek through the forest without much incident for what, to Fluttershy, felt like hours. This place looks familiar. I wonder if we’ve been here before... No, we’ve been going in a straight line. Maybe we—
Applejack seemed to be thinking the same thing as she interrupted Fluttershy’s thoughts. “Now ah know we passed this here tree before.”
“What makes you think that, Miss Applejack?” Midnight Arrow inquired smoothly. "We have been going in a straight line."
"Ah don't know." Applejack pawed at the ground nervously with a forehoof. "Ah just get the feelin' we've been here before."
"That's natural. Everybody's nervous, but don't worry. Captain Sword's been through tougher times than this; he'll lead us out safe." The sub-lieutenant’s silky tone cut across the heavy air in the forest, and all of the ponies in earshot felt a bit calmer, the nervous flickering of their ears settling back into something more normal.
“Um actually miss... I think that maybe my friend is right.” Fluttershy responded meekly.
“Fluttershy, you need to speak up dear.” Rarity said as she nudged her friend.
“Oh... sorry” Was all Fluttershy could wrangle from her vocal cords before she hung her head limply again.
Fluttershy returned her gaze on the ground as they walked on, keeping her eyes fixed directly ahead. Rarity's hind hooves floated in and out of her peripheral vision, sometimes meandering off to one side before moving back. She let her thoughts drift a bit, content that, at least for the moment, no one was yelling at her. Or asking her something. Or even talking in her general direction.
Content, at least, until Rarity's hooves stutter-stepped in front of her as the white unicorn collapsed to the ground. "RARITY!" she yelled.
“What's wro— whoaah. Anypony else feel that?” Fluttershy stopped, looking past Rarity to see Twilight start swaying. “I’m feeling a bit woozy...”
Looking up, Fluttershy noticed that the falling clouds had reached the tallest trees in the forest and was still rapidly approaching. “Maybe it has to do with th—”
Fluttershy’s voice was drowned out by the captain yelling to his men. “Manticores, incoming! Arrow, take Shining Star, and get the Elements out of here!”
Fluttershy could see three manticores charging down the path towards the line of guards as her vision started to go black around the edges. She watched as the captain drew his sword and charged at the first of the manticores, while the nine other soldiers followed him in. She was faintly aware of her field of vision slowly shifting but she wasn’t moving her body. Her vision darkened as she saw a manticore punch one of the guardponies into a tree.
The last thing Fluttershy saw before being completely overtaken by fear was Shining Star picking up Rarity.
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When Fluttershy awoke, she found herself on Midnight Arrow’s back. “Where are we?” she sputtered groggily. Sounds and smells flooded back into her senses, and she realized with a dull sense of shame that she had simply passed out from fear.
She couldn’t see two hoof spans in front of her due to the lowered clouds. The only indication that they weren’t alone was Midnight’s silky voice flowing through the fog. “I don’t know.” The normally smooth tone of her voice seemed ragged around the edges.” “After we fled the battle, the fog lowered and we got lost. We can’t find the trail.”
“Where’s Rarity?” Fluttershy croaked weakly.
“I don’t know. Last I saw was Private Star trotting off with your friends. I think I heard them yelling, but I don’t know.” Her tone wavered more as she seemed on the verge of crying. “I’m sorry Fluttershy... I failed.”
“Oh Midnight. You didn’t fail.” Fluttershy’s maternal instincts started taking over as she felt her fear of the forest around her leave.
“But Fluttershy, I did fail. I should have stuck with the group when the fog came down. But the ground started shaking, and there were snarling noises everywhere. So I—” her speech was cut off by a choking sob as Midnight Arrow broke down in tears and collapsed.
Fluttershy slid from the prostrate mare's back and crouched next to her, unfolding a wing and letting it drape over Midnight's shoulders. “It’s okay Midnight. You didn’t do anything wrong.” Fluttershy tried to keep her voice from wavering as she tried to calm the depressed pegasus. “I probably would have done the same thing!”
“Yah right Fluttershy,” Midnight snapped. “You’ve stared down dragons before. Plus Nightmare Moon, Discord, Cerber—”
“Stop it right now Midnight.” Fluttershy had adopted her assertive voice and the Guardspony stopped her rant. “You are a Royal Guard, Midnight. You are the best of the best and you know it. Now, I need you Midnight. I need you because I am not a strong pony. I need you because I’m scared, Midnight.” Fluttershy’s voice dropped to a near whisper. “I need you, lieutenant.”
“Fluttershy...” Midnight took a deep breath, and then fixed the yellow pegasus with a stare and a wry smile. “It’s Sub-lieutenant.”
Fluttershy blinked. "Oh, I'm sorry..."
Midnight Arrow patted the pegasus with a forehoof. "Relax, Fluttershy, it was just a joke. Not a very good one, either." She took a deep, shuddering breath and touched her nose to the other mare's shoulder for a moment. "Thank you. For helping me."
Fluttershy's ears flattened in embarrassment, but she managed a small smile. "Oh, I didn’t do anything. After all, it was you who inspired me."
Midnight’s face adopted a rosy tone as she blushed. “We need to find the others... and I can’t do it alone. What do you say?”
Fluttershy stood up and met Midnight's gaze directly. "I say...let's go!"
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Twilight’s horn was awash with purple fire as she lit the way for her group of followers. She needed to find Midnight and Fluttershy. The fog was making finding the path impossible so her group had been trailblazing for the better part of fifteen minutes. Every time she would think about calling out, she would either stop herself for fear of attracting monsters, or her voice wouldn’t carry further than ten hoof spans.
Aww horseapples. If this fog doesn’t lift soon, we’ll never find Fluttershy. Twilight looked around, eyes squinted in a vain attempt to see the ponies a metre away from her. Shining Star was only a few paces to her left so Twilight decided to check up on Rarity.
This drain isn’t natural... Why is it only affecting me and Rarity? If only I could think straight. Twilight was rapidly approaching exhaustion but knew that if she fell, the light she was emitting would die, and the minute that happened, she would stop being a beacon for everypony to rally around.
“How’s she looking, Miss Twilight?” Twilight kept staring blankly at Rarity, her mind occupied with keeping the simple light spell in existence, and her own worrying. “Miss Twilight?”
“Hmm?” Now aware she was being spoken too, Twilight swiveled her head towards the voice that came from a worried Star. “Oh... Um... She looks...”
So peaceful, maybe if I just closed my eyes...
“No!” She shouted. Private Star flinched at the sudden outburst.
“Are you okay Miss Sparkle?” His concern was starting to irritate Twilight, but she kept her voice calm.
“Yes. Just a bit tired, is all. Don’t worr—” A nudge from Applejack cut her off as she leapt away in fear. “Gah, AJ, Don’t sneak up on me like that.”
“Sugarcube, ah’ve been here for three minutes. Besides, Twi, you shouldn’t be workin’ yerself too hard. Maybe we should just take a break here?” Twilight was glad that nopony could see her blushing at being so unobservant.
Pinkie took the time as an opportunity to ruin more of Twilights scientific principles by miraculously hopping around everypony in the fog. “It’s okay Twilight. You don’t need to be embarrassed about being tired.” Twilight’s blush intensified as Pinkie outed her. “After all Twi, you hardly leave the library enough for proper exercise.”
Twilight’s resolve wavered as she felt more of her energy drain. “Fine. We’ll stop here for five minutes. Then we’ll keep going.” She sat down under one of the many trees and closed her eyes for what seemed to be only seconds, but was nudged awake by an impatient Rainbow Dash.
“Twilight, it’s been five minutes. We need to get going.” Twilight blinked in confusion. “C’mon Twi. Get up already! I did a bit of scouting above the fog, and I think it’s almost passed. The forest is just swallowing it.”
Twilight got to her hooves as steadily as she could, not feeling any better. “All right. Lets keep going.” The horn on her forehead blazed with light once more, but Twilight felt as if the world had suddenly tilted sideways, her vision dimming further. She let the illumination spell die out and sat down again in an ungainly sprawl.
“What’s wrong Twi?” The nonchalant expression on the cyan mare's face vanished, replaced by a look of concern.
“Just... dizzy is all. Having a hard time seeing...” Twilight shook her head in what she thought would be a good idea for clearing her head, but instead ended up falling on her side, her concentration completely broken.
“Oh really? I hadn’t noticed,” Rainbow said dryly. She glanced upward again, then back down at her friend. "Look, the fog is clearing up a bit, why don't you just lay off with the magical flashlight thingy and just take a break?"
Twilight lifted her head and gazed blearily at her friend. "But we won't be able to see..." She trailed off, belatedly realizing that she could see, at least dimly. Rainbow's form stood nearby, the multi-coloured swirl of her mane a simple mass of various grey shades in the darkness, but clearly backlit here and there against a torn curtain of cloud overhead. Whatever the mysterious fog was that had enveloped them, either the wind, some odd property of the Everfree Forest, or something else was causing it to slowly dissipate.
It was the "something else" option that had Twilight worried. "Okay, just let me rest a minute, and I'll be ready to go."
"Sorry, you're just too slow for me." Rainbow crouched down low to the ground, a crooked grin spreading over her face. "You're gonna have to learn to keep up."
"What? No, wait, I can get up, I just—wait!" Twilight emitted a startled screech as Rainbow Dash ducked her head low, and with a twist and a shrug, settled the purple unicorn across her back. "Rainbow, you can't carry me, I'm too heavy!"
"Yeah, right." The cyan pegasus rolled her shoulders slightly, settling Twilight's form just between her wings. "I've carried heavier stuff before, don't worry."
Twilight shuddered and let out a moan as her head spun. "Just...don't drop me, okay?"
Rainbow turned to give her a dirty look. "Just as long as you don't get sick back there."
Pinkie’s voice brought Twilight back to a semblance of attention. “Does anypony else hear that?” Her ears were swiveled and her right forehoof was pointing to something amongst the trees like a hound dog. “It sounds like somepony is calling for us!”
Twilight tried to lift her head to look, but couldn’t summon the energy. She did however hear what sounded faintly like a mare’s voice. “I hear it Pinkie... who do you think it is?”
“You don’t think it’s a ghost, do you?” Twilight could feel Rainbow start to shake under her.
Shining Star made his presence known by shouting back. “Midnight? Is that you?” Twilight’s head started to pound inside her skull. Unsure of whether it was from Rainbow’s unsteady movements, or from Shining’s shouting, she let out a soft groan.
“Shining Star? where are you?” Twilight definitely heard that. It sounded as if it were only a few metres away.
“We’re over here!” Star answered back.
Twilight knew she was on the verge of passing out. The pain in her head was unbearable, her face was scrunched up in agony. She felt the cold ground on her side and what sounded like muffled voices. She couldn’t concentrate on any of them however. She let out one last shrill scream and then passed out.
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Twilight’s eyes burst open in panic. “What happened? Where are we?” Twilight again felt her world shift as she fell from the back of Rainbow Dash.
Twilight shook her head and shot Rainbow a glare from where she lay on the ground. "I told you not to drop me!"
Rainbows retort was quick, “I didn’t drop you. Your flung yourself off of me!”
“Twilight, You’re awake! Thank Celestia!” The lilting tone of Rarity's voice washed over Twilight in a soothing wave. “You’ve been asleep for the better part of an hour. Or so I’m told.”
Before Twilight could ask how Rarity was, she noticed that the pain in her head was completely gone, as was the fog. “Twilight, get up.” Captain Sword’s booming voice brought her to re-examine her surroundings. “We are nearing the base of the mountain.”
“Captain? What happened?” Twilight stared at the leader of the guards, noting the fresh scratches and dull spots on his armor.
“We protected you from the manticores.” He stated proudly. “As you made your escape, we held them back. We almost lost Tea Biscuit when he was thrown into a tree.”
“‘Tis but a flesh wound” Tea Biscuit responded indignantly.
“Anyway, after the fog lifted, we regrouped and your pink friend noticed some smoke in the distance.” He turned back towards the direction everypony was still marching and rejoined his soldiers, leaving Twilight with her friends.
Twilight stood in stunned silence at the brevity of the captain until Midnight Arrow nudged her, waving her head in the same direction the Captain went. “Let’s go Miss Sparkle.”
Twilight just shook her head and drifted behind the Sub-lieutenant, who had resumed her conversation with Fluttershy.
Hey, I don’t feel tired anymore! Twilight felt a smile work its way to her lips. I wonder what that cloud was?
The ponies continued along at a steady pace, their individual conversations a quiet murmur against the background noises of the forest. They continued on for several moments, the trees and bushes beginning to thin out somewhat. Just ahead of her, the others pushed through a low line of shrubs and there was a collective intake of breath. Breaking into a trot, Twilight shouldered past Rarity and came to a stop.
Ahead of her, the forest opened out into a clearing, and the sight before her froze her in place, dumbstruck with incomprehension.
What, she thought blankly, is that?
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“Really Taylor?” Gruebel look at his fellow pilot in confusion. “You really never got out much, did you? It’s a brown bear. So long as we don’t act threateningly, it should leave us alone.”
The aforementioned bear stood only twelve metres away from the American pilots, standing on its rear legs to make itself more frightening. “I don’t care what it is. Getting this close without making so much as a sound is just unnatural.” Another roar made Taylor flinch.
This doesn’t make sense, we shouldn’t be anywhere near brown bear country. Gruebel thought worriedly.
The bear fell onto its front legs and started to advance towards the frightened pilot. “What’s going on out there guys?” The bear paused at the new voice. “Stivers is trying to sleep.”
Gruebel saw Gallivan leave the tent, giving the bear another target. He also saw the opportunity to take the bear down for good. Drawing his pistol, he took aim for the now exposed side of the bear’s skull. The loud percussion of two .45 bullets rang through the air as the bear collapsed.
Stivers ran out the tent with his gun in one hand, his belt in the other. “What the hell was that?” he yelled, seeing the bear on the ground made him stop. “Is it dead?”
“No sir. I think I just stunned it.” Gruebel said lamely. “Should we kill it?”
“Well let me think, Gruebel. It’s a dangerous fucking animal, that happens to be delicious. I think we should defin—”
“NOOOOOOOOOO!” Everyone was surprised to hear a woman's voice, but were even more surprised by its source. As the four conscious heads of Flight 19 turned to view the newcomer, four jaws dropped simultaneously. Sprinting towards the group was a yellow horse, screaming at the top of her lungs.
Taylor just stood wide eyed, while Gallivan fainted. Gruebel and Stivers exchanged a glance, both trying to figure out what they’d just witnessed. Gruebel turned his attention back to the oncoming horse. Are those wings?
“Nooooo!” it screamed again.
The closer the horse got to the group, the further Taylor’s jaw dropped. When it got within forty metres of the assembled pilots, Gruebel noticed something else about this horse; it was only four feet tall.
“Guys, what is this?” Stivers voice wavered. Gruebel dropped his gun, eyes still wide.
“Umm...” Taylor closed his mouth long enough to make the syllable. “I think it’s a—”
“Those are wings!” Stivers shouted, oblivious to the answer Taylor was providing him.
As the horse drew near, it pushed Taylor out of its way and continued to the bear. Once at its destination, it began to cry. “Is it crying?” Taylor’s expression contorted in confusion.
Gruebel took this moment to look up, deciding that whatever God had thrown at them, was just too much, but what he saw, was much worse. The shine of twelve armoured pegasi glinted off the sun as they quickly descended, spears under their wings.
Gruebel looked towards the forest edge where the yellow horse came from. Well. I guess I did die. As the pegasi encircled the group of pilots, a bright magenta flash lit up Gruebel’s field of view and deposited five colourful equines not five feet in front of him. What kind of hell is this?
“Drop your weapons!” The pegasus wearing golden armour began to speak in a voice that would have made his drill sergeant proud. “You are under arrest by decree of The Royal Princesses of Equestria!”
Gruebel fainted.
A/N: As was pointed out last chapter, fimfiction ate the formatting. so I tried something new. let me know what you guys think.
Also, Chapter update, on time! Go us. A tremendous thanks to my editors, who talked me through some of my writer blocky times. You guys rock, woohoo.
Anyway, on with the show I almost feel like I'm missing something...
~GoldenArbiter
inb4 everyone else: Author man!
...do "Fluttershy", "Rainbow Dash", and "Rarity", autofilter?
Edit: Yup. Well played, Knighty. Well played indeed.
392614 I think it's an April Fools prank from the site. If that's the case then I'm going to mark this as unread and wait until the second to read anything with canon characters in it
Oh wow. Yeah, that's going to work out perfectly fine! Arrest the weird monsters!
I can't wait for moar!
392614 392625 Bottom of the page, dead center at the bottom, says toggle G1 mode.
farm1.staticflickr.com/131/319047856_dbf1ef3e92.jpg
Wow, it's kinda weird reading this with G1 characters.
So are all of them passed out now or just the three out of the 4 conscious ones?
392653 Please point this out to me.
Also, What the fuck fimfiction. Y U FUK WITH ME STORY!??
392669 uh.... K. Its between the stats section and the donation section. Just press crtl and F at the same time and type toggle. then hit enter.
392675 oh wait. It's April fools day. I get it. I need sleep...
377630 To my knowledge these craft were combat craft, not stripped out for training. That means weapons were mounted, as for being loaded. Well this was a nav and bombing excercise, right? 50/50 chance they were loaded... my money says empty.
(what they were either armed or they weren't 50/50)
Firefly? Surprise? Posey? WHO THE FUCK ARE THEY?!?!=")#/¤/"/(????
392664 u can turn it off u know?
392691 I know, I'm just saying it was a bit odd.
392702 Aah
392690
April Fool's joke from Knightly. G1 Character names. You can change it at the bottom middle section under "Toggle G1 Mode"
392691 Turn what of?
392664
There's a toggle button at the very bottom the the page!
At first I was like:
i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/original/000/004/592/my-brain-is-full-of-fuck.jpg
Posey ? Surprise ? Jesus Christ WTF ?
But then:
April's 1st
lounge.moviecodec.com/images/attachment/3-admirals-and-vice-admiral-vs-tobi-zetsu-and-kabuto-22694.png
encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQiKsGWtNvMOL5qHNso1qerOhrIO6gKZLWkM5jsFtSWsu7xYOe0
Wait, Posey? Surprise? Sparkler?
img.ponibooru.org/_images/1fb6c9a8a388f76ca1f1167d5c9f6cdc/118639%20-%20captioned%20macro%20reaction_image%20twilight_sparkle%20wtf_am_I_reading.jpg
Hold on a sec... *Sees Calendar*
img.ponibooru.org/_images/9c2297875b17a84eb27e7d788a49f1b6/113178%20-%20crazy%20lesson_zero%20reaction_image%20twilight_sparkle.jpg
And what's with the G1 ponies? AND COMIC SANS!?
And I run across another story where career military men faint at the sight of one strange thing, something they are trained not to do.
"Maybe it was a swallow?"
Oh, I see what you did there.
Excellent story! It has a chance to become one of the true gems here! MOAR!!!!
392760 The G1 names
393277
Just hit the toggle button at the bottom.
392625 at the bottom of the page there is a button that says toggle G1 mode, press that and it goes back to normal.
Monty python reference
It almost makes sense for the guard to arrest the space monkeys for making fluttershy cry. Almost.
I'm pretty sure, you can scare a bear off just by firing into the air in most cases (unless it is actually charging you anyways).
...
a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/417168_342042932514875_100001275120449_981397_716797655_n.jpg
393046 Er, psychology training activate: One, they crashed. Two: they woke up in hostile territory, when they were clearly still over america. Three: they are experiencing effects (talking colourful ponies) that are not dissimilar to LSD. Four: The military trains soldiers for combat paralysis, and PTSD. Nowhere in there does it prepare the mind for absolute mind fucking.
I dont want them to surrender immediately... If i was in said situation and had no idea what anything was, i would probaly pick up my gun and aim it sideways with the biggest pimp face to intimidate the people. not to mention i would laugh my ass off while doing this . I dunno, but it wouldve been a better idea to make it so the guy doesnt faint, so you know... not as easy to try and arrest
393845 Best excuse ever for fainting. lol. Also, DAMN YOU KNIGHTY FOR BEING A TROLL. lol jk. Great chapter. Let's see what happens next!
If I didn't faint, I'd make myself as threatening as possible. Not to mention the fact that humans are about 1000 years more advanced than ponies.
Ponies=Spears and Crossbows
Humans=Fighter planes and Guns
How did a coconut get to Equestria, a single Equestrian swallow could never carry one. Unless...
t3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSYSR1FSsmbpnBpV5hGvED8_33Hz6mBh56zzWKZXXp5en5m1J6Lew
"Maybe it was a swallow?"
Dem Monty Python references.
Monty python .
Now all we need is a rabbit with a mean streak a miiiiile wide- oh wait, we have one. His name's angel
The best time to faint as any. Gruebel would probably just start freaking out anyway.
Gruebel fainted. What else do you do when you think your in enemy territory and suddenly a crying pony walks up to you and then a few armors Pegasus land in front of you and say .......................................................................................................................i3.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/newsfeed/000/170/108/tumblr_ljma8zlBy31qdhg8q.jpg
393799 Dem faces 0_0
393046 Hmm you could understand the pilots reactions, in the military you are trained to take stock of the situation and ether find a ways of escape or a way to eliminate the targets, then again these are pilots. Also what are you going to do when confronted by a white Pegasus in golden armor telling you that you are under arrest, My reaction *Pinches self* Ow *Guys are you seeing this too or is it only me?
GG
Just some ranting:
MMM oook, so in timeline you only advanced couple of minutes?
Also shooting a charging bear in self defense gets you arrested by royal decree? LOL? Should have they just stay there and get killed? If fluttershy was watching all going down she could just stop the stupid bear in first place.
The "humans" are taking this all too very well, unknow territory, crashed, comrades killed, charging bear and they just stun him, then unknow lifeform charging at them and they don't shoot it not thinking its going to attack similar to bear? And THEN one of them faints when attacked?
/end of rant
394995
all of the things you bring up are possibilities that I can't say anything about without giving away the story, except the last thing.
You hear a crying woman, and you see a horse. why would the horse attack you? it's a horse. the bear was clearly trying to attack them (or intimidate them).
"By the order of the Princesses, stop right there!"
+1000 bounty has been added to Ponyville.
I would think the soldiers would have none of this, kill the group and then burn the bodies. Make your way to the nearest town and loot it for supplies seeing that your in enemy territory. Then attempt to contact HQ.
Sadly that scenario equals all 15 ponies dead and one of the humans at the very least.
Since that won't happen, I would settle with a good shouting match as the soldiers threaten to shoot while the guards demand their surrender.
Yer man fainting at the end is a bit unrealistic, hes military so he should be able to keep his wits about him.
And things are starting to get good, as ponies and humans finally meet. I am so looking forward to the next chapter, just to see how the pilots deal with a sad Fluttershy.
yes this is gonna be so awesome!
Well, I don't agree with the various posts saying that the humans would have opened fire on the ponies and mutilated the corpses and whatnot. A charging bear, sure, that's a known quantity - you shoot it before it mauls you. Pastel pegasus ponies, on the other hand, are worth a moment of hesitation while figuring out what the hell is going on.
But I do agree that having Gruebel faint was weird. People don't really just up and fall unconscious when confronted with something unexpected like that, let alone a trained military man hopped up on adrenalin from having just shot a bear. And frankly it just looks like a lazy storytelling tool.
Other than that one line at the end, though, nicely written. Looking forward to seeing how First Contact goes.