Chapter 4: Thera
“Wait, that is a castle?”
“Of course it is! Haven’t seen castles before?”
“First off, yes I have seen castles before. In fact, I dare say my family property has one, or rather what’s left of it. Second…”
“(GASP) YOU HAVE A CASTLE? Does that mean you’re a…?”
“No, I am not royalty. Just part of the lower aristocracy, and just to be clear; the castle is nothing but ruins and is over 500 years old so nothing of value from it. And secondly, this is by no means a castle. This looks more like a palace!”
“An’ what exactly is the difference?”
“Well, the difference being; one is a glorified house for royalty, the other is a large, primitive bunker!”
“I don’t know sir. It looks more like a chateau than a palace to me. With the exception of the tree-like shape of the structure, it’s like a castle keep was built underneath a chateau.”
“Oh my, I never figured you to be a connoisseur for architecture.”
“Hehe, actually I’m not. I just spent a lot of time in France. I’ve seen the Golden Palace of Versailles, I’ve been to Chateau de Chenonceau, and um… Oh yeah, Sir, remember Verdun?”
“Joshua, we do not talk about Verdun!”
“Oh… Right.”
“W-why? What's Verdun?”
“I-it’s a sensitive issue. Something terrible happened there, and he would rather forget it.”
“Oh my… Sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
“No, don’t worry about it, Ms Fluttershy. It was my fault for bringing it up.”
The group left the farm discreetly to avoid catching attention from the locals to what Princess Twilight called “The Castle of Friendship”. The name didn’t exactly amuse the Sergeant, although his thoughts at first were something akin to the Tower of London only to be quickly corrected when he caught sight of it and was immediately turned from suspicion to a critical sour face (both from it being called a castle and the fact that the structure’s material looked alarmingly similar to buildings of a certain alien race he was familiar with). Joshua on the other hand, held a calm expression yet one could see the contained excitement in his smile. He kept his composure partially to try and imitate Percival’s professional mannerism but mostly due to the Pink mare blasting more enthusiastic excitement then he could possibly blurt out.
“It doesn’t matter what it’s called,” Twilight looked back at the group as she led them towards the doors, “All what matters is its function.” Her horn glowed with a soft purple light as the doors swung open.
Joshua made a note of that and turned to the sergeant who also noticed the means to open the door. Curious he said to himself.
“Twilight, you’re back!” What greeted them at the entrance was what Percival and Joshua could only describe to be a small, winged, purple dragon walking towards the group by his hind legs. “When I heard we’re expecting company, I made some…” His voice trailed off when he caught sight of Percival. The little creature was utterly confounded as his jaw dropped and his eyes widened. “H-how? What? W-why?”
“Yeah, I forgot to mention,” Twilight rubbed her mane with her forehoof out of embarrassment, “We are having guests of the more unusual kind.”
“B-but, how? Starlight Glimmer had the mirror monitored. More importantly, how is he still human?”
While Percival raised an eyebrow to that, Joshua spoke out, “What do you mean by that?”
Spike turned and took notice at the Stallion, “Woah! You’re a big one! You’re just as large, no, probably larger than Big Mac!”
“Spike!” Twilight gave the dragon a disapproving look, “They are our guests.”
“Oh, sorry Twilight,” Spike smiled sheepishly before straightening his form before the two, “The name’s Spike. Twilight’s number one assistant and friendship ambassador to the Dragons and Changelings.” He held out a claw as he flew up to level with Percival and Joshua.
“Percival,” the sergeant shook his claw, “Sgt George Percival. And this is my steed, Joshua.”
Joshua held out a forehoof as Spike shook it, “Joshua of Cornwall, at your service.”
Percival gave the young dragon a curious gaze, “A gentle Dragon. Now that’s a first. Spike, was it? I knew a man by the same name.”
Spike raised an eyebrow and smiled roguishly, “Oh really? Was he as dashing and handsome as me?”
Percival smiled, “He was a roguish, dashing sea-dog who is over 300 years old and yet still as suave as ever. You might like him.”
Hearing this, the stallion gave his rider an incredulous look. “Sir, is he a real person or are you just pulling his leg?”
“Oooooh! Are we pulling each other’s legs now? Because I know a game we can pla…”
“Begging your pardon, Ms Pie but can you perhaps tone down your excitement just a tiny bit?”
“Oh, Okay!” Pinky let out a squee as she hopped her way in.
“On a related note,” the porcelain pony addressed the pair, “I don’t believe we properly introduced ourselves.”
She gestured her forehoof with her introduction, “I am Rarity, owner of Carousel Boutique.”
Percival raised an eyebrow, “A boutique owner? Do you happen to be a seamstress who sells her own works or perhaps are you a Captain of Industry?” On that regard, he thought what need is there for clothing if they are all animals who spends most of the time naked?
Rarity proudly smiled, “I prefer to call myself a Fashionista.” She then took a closer look at the sergeant’s blood-stained uniform. “speaking of which, I must say sir, your uniform demands a dire need of cleaning and adjusting. Khaki doesn’t suit your colour and it makes you blend in a forest background!”
Joshua snorted trying to hold a laugh, “That is kind of the point of the Khaki uniform; to make you blend in with your surroundings.”
Rarity gave a dramatic gasp, “But he is an officer, shouldn’t he stand out to let everyone know that he is in charge? Otherwise, how would anyone recognise him?”
“If that were the case,” Percival smirked sarcastically, “I might as well be dressed with a large bullseye and get shot at.”
All went silent as the implication of that last statement sank in.
“I-I see,” Rarity awkwardly broke the silence with a sheepish smile, “I suppose that would be a problem. Still, I do insist that we have that uniform cleaned and patched up. It looks as though you’ve been wrestling a bear!”
“Heh, you look like you’ve seen some action!” the blue, rainbow-haired pegasus gave Joshua a nudge as she floated at an eye level with Percival. “The name’s Rainbow Dash by the way! I’m a Wonderbolt, so I’m kind of a big deal around here!”
The two soldiers shared a puzzled look. “What’s a Wonderbolt?” they both said in unison.
The pegasus’ jaw dropped in disbelief, “How can you not know the Wonderbolts? Have you been living under a roc…?”
Rainbow Dash stopped as she just realised who she was talking to (that and they both gave her an incredulous look). “Heh, I forgot who I was talking to. Sorry.”
“Don’t worry about it,” said Joshua.
The pegasus gave a cough, “Well, anyway. The Wonderbolts are basically the most awesome flyers in Equestria. They’re a group of Pegasi that doubles as an air-acrobatics team and an elite air squad for the military.”
Percival raised an eyebrow as this piqued his curiosity, “Interesting. They sound like the Flying Circus.”
The Pegasus stopped to stare in disbelief at that statement, “What did you say? They are not circus performers!”
“Oh sorry, I think there might be a bit of a misunderstanding there.” Percival explained, “The Flying Circus is by no means a performance group but an elite corps of fighter pilots. Humans can’t fly naturally but we build flying vehicles called airplanes that can travel at great speeds. The Flying Circus is an international squad of Ace Pilots recruited from across every air force in each country and functions as a First Strike or Counterstrike against our enemies. They got their name due to being that each pilot flies a plane of a different colour distinguishing them either by nationality or reputation. They were first formed in Prussia during the first years of the Great War lead by the famous Red Baron and has since changed after the formation of the League of Nations.”
There was a moment of pause until Rainbow Dash broke the silence, “Did anypony get that?” All but Twilight and Pinkie shook their heads. “No? Meh, moving on!”
The sergeant’s jaw dropped. Did that rainbow flavoured equine just ignored me? He thought to himself. He felt a hoof on his side.
“Don’t worry about it, darling,” Rarity assured him, “she tends to zone out of long-winded explanations.”
“A simple, “I don’t understand you,” would have sufficed.” Percival muttered.
“I understood what he said!” Pinkie Pie raised her forehoof with enthusiasm.
“Same here,” said Twilight, “I knew that humanity was an innovative race, but I didn’t expect such innovations to be used for warfare.”
This peaked Percival’s curiosity. She has heard of humanity before. Why and how puzzled him considering this world so far has no human in sight (other than the ones that attacked them). Then again, a lot of their tools and architecture seemed very human so perhaps they had prior exposure to humans before.
“MY TURN!” The pink mare declared. She hopped in front of the pair and before the background behind her exploded with confetti she introduced herself, “Pinkamena Diane Pie! Also known as Pinkie, but you already know that. Professional Party Pony!”
Joshua rubbed his chin, “I suppose you mean Event planner rather than Partisan, correct?”
All eyes turned to the stallion. Percival cleared his throat, “Excuse our presumption, the word “Party” stopped meaning celebration a hundred years ago.”
“So, what exactly does it mean now?” Applejack inquired.
Percival said with a sigh, “Politics.”
Pinkie gave a gasp and looked as though she heard heresy. “What kind of life have you been living if Party means politics?!”
“That’s not to say we don’t have celebrations. But I suppose you’ll find out as soon as we can finally discuss it in your council room.”
Joshua turned to Fluttershy and Applejack. With a blush, he scratched his mane as he spoke with a sheepish smile, “I believe we already got to know each other.”
“Um… Yes, I believe we did,” Fluttershy spoke up with her signature gentle smile.
Applejack on the other hand kept her eyes down and muttered, “Yeup, w-we already have.” Everyone noticed the slight blush from her face.
A smile came out of Percival. So that's your fancy. He gave a mischievous grin to Joshua who in turn groaned.
"Apple on your eye, I presume?"
"Twilight, you're here. I heard from Spike that you were bringing visitors and.... Oh."
Joshua and Percival were lead into a throne room of sorts that somehow resembled the Arthurian legend of the Knights of the Round Table:
Six large thrones (with a smaller one adjacent to one of them) circled around a large round table made of marble like crystal. Above the table and thrones was the remains of a large oak tree with it's roots decorated with lights and other ornaments.
Greeting them as they entered was a light-purple Unicorn with an Aurora-like mane who looked rather startled upon seeing the duo.
"Hello Starlight," Twilight chimed as she lead the rest of the group into the chamber, "these two are our visitors I mentioned."
"George Arthur Percival, at your service." the sergeant tipped his helmet.
"Joshua, tis a pleasure to meet you, miss?" he extended a hoof.
"Oh," the unicorn reached to shake Joshua's hoof, "Starlight, Starlight Glimmer. Headmare of Twilight's school of Friendship and caretaker of the Castle of Friendship." She turned to Twilight with a questioning look.
"Long story short; they are soldiers from an unknown army and we found them unconscious outside of Sweet Apple Acres," Twilight replied with a knowing look, "We were hoping they would give us the longer version as to why they are here."
As each made their way to their respective seats (Starlight, Joshua and Percival were provided as well) the human began to rub his forehead in contemplation, "Now, where do I begin?"
"Maybe you can start by telling us where you're from?" suggested Fluttershy.
"I thought the sergeant already told you; we came from a world called Thera."
"Oh, sorry," Fluttershy shrunk into her seat, "I just thought that maybe you can give us a better idea of what your home is like."
"Well, I suppose I could tell you more about our world." Percival put on a pair of spectacles and took out a journal and flask from his kit. He opened the flask and took a drink from whatever it was inside and continued, "Thera is our planet of origin. I actually came from Northumbria, one of the states of Allied Kingdoms of Britain. Joshua here was actually from Cornwall, Wessex; another of the States of the Allied Kingdom. The Allied Kingdoms of Britain, better known as the British Empire, is just one of the many nations across our world.
"We are actually one of the major powers of our world as well as a member of a global alliance called the League of Nations of Thera. Other members include the French Empire, the Prussian Confederation, the Swedish Empire, the Austria-Hungarian Empire, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Byzantine Empire, the Russian Empire, the Spanish Empire, the Kingdom of Portugal, the Holy Vatican states, the Empire of Ming, the Nihon Empire, the Mali Empire, the Kingdom of Kongo, the Ethiopia-Arabian Empire, and the Iroquois-Cherokee Confederate states."
"Wow," Spike was still counting the nations he listed, "that is a lot of countries."
"You think?" Joshua added, "He didn't even mention the huge number of colonies, vassal states, protectorates, and tributary states. And that's just in Thera!"
"What do you mean by that's just Thera?" Rarity inquired.
"Oh, we colonised other planets. I mean, by Jove, we even built a base on our moon."
The silence from every pony and dragon was deafening. Every jaw was dropped when they heard Joshua's claim. The moon. The honest to Luna, moon. The idea of landing on the moon was outright impossible, and yet here one claims to have not only landed on a celestial object but have also established a colony of sorts on it.
The silence was broken when the pink mare who took out a glass of water and did a spit-take, "YOU DID WHAT?!"
"Look, it's not that important," Percival exclaimed, trying to change the subject.
"Not that important?" A maniacal grin slowly formed from Twilight's face as her eyes twitched, "NOT THAT IMPORTANT?! How is landing on a celestial object in the night's sky NOT IMPORTANT?! It's outright un-doable! It's crazy! WHY AND HOW IN CELESTIA'S MANE DID YOU DO IT?!"
"Woah! Twilight, calm down," Spike grabbed hold of the Alicorn to restrain her, "You are Twilighting again, and Twilighting hard!"
"I DON'T CARE IF I'M TWILIGHTING HARD! I DEMAND AN EXPLANATION FOR THIS IMPOSSIBLE FEAT!"
"I apologise for my outburst there. That was foalish of me, immature. As ruler of this Kingdom, I should be showing more propriety and dignity instead of just reverting to old habits."
"Please, think nothing of it, your Highness. I've seen worse from other rulers."
About half an hour of the Alicorn's crazed state finally subdued by her friends, Twilight kept her head low with embarrassment in front of the two otherworldly soldiers.
The Princess took a deep breath, cleared her throat and continued, "I think we got off topic. I believe that it is time that you told us why you are here."
"To tell you the truth, if I'm going explain the why I need to first explain how. And to do that, a bit of my world's history is in order."
"Oh great, a boring lesson," the rainbow maned pagasus complained, "Wake me up when we get to the good part."
"Rainbow Dash, don't be rude!" snapped Applejack.
"I assure you, Ms Dash, this is one history lesson you won't sleep on. In fact, I dare say not one of you will sleep easy after hearing this." Percival took another swing from his flask before he continued, "Until just recently, our entire world spent the last one hundred years fighting in a war."
The atmosphere turned deathly silent as the sergeant continued, "We called it The Great War because every nation, every country, everyone was involved. What started as a simple assassination escalated due to a long chain of alliances. Experimental weaponry then were recklessly used with outdated tactics. In just the first decade of the war, 130 million died, including civilians."
A collection of gasps were heard from the ponies (and dragon). Then Twilight spoke out, "130?! Within the first decade? Then how many...?"
"2.3 Billion and still counting. 1/3 of our Planet's population." Percival spoke in a hollow tone as he took another drink.
He was not lying about not being able to sleep on this topic. The mere mention of war and assassination was enough to catch their attention. The staggering number of the loss of life with his cold demeanure was what chilled everyone to the core.
"Some of us called it The War to end all War, or The Last War between the Nations. Everyone thought it was the end of the world. Armageddon."
"If that was the case, how did it end? How did you survive?" Starlight asked.
"That is the question," Percival gave a wry smile, "Everyone found out the war was a lie."
"Wait, say what now?" Applejack captured everyone's sentiment.
"Fifteen years ago, a group of mutineers from both sides deserted to Neutral territory. They discovered an abandoned research facility and found an object that changed everything; The Inter-Dimensional Gate. A Xeno artifact that bridges across countless realities. Somehow the mutineers, lead by Colonel Paul Andrews managed to activate the damned thing and landed in another version of our world. There they made contact with an organization known as the Secret Global Intelligence (SGI for short); who in turn contacted an entity called The Administrator."
"Another version of your world? SGI? Administrator? Does any of this make sense to anypony?" Questions came from among the ponies.
"An explanation for another time. Though I suppose I could talk briefly about the Administrator. He oversees a pocket-dimension that bridges across (almost) every reality. His job is akin to a ticket inspector for unauthorised travelers. He knew of our world, and he knew what kept the war going for a full century. The Xenos who built the damned Gate were called "Starcatchers", and for some unknown reason (for me at least) they funded the war effort to keep the lot of us killing each other til we are of an acceptable population for subjugation."
"Th-that's just AWFUL!" Rarity exclaimed.
"Awful does not even begin to describe the utter betrayal of the countless dead, Ms Rarity. Imagine the agony of knowing that your people have been killing each other for a bloody century, only to find the cause of it all were conspiring Xenos and their collaborators trying to thin us out to be conquered."
"Okay we get it, you hate them. But what happened next?" Spike asked.
"Revolution," Joshua answered before Percival, "World wide military revolution. Thanks to the assistance of the SGI and the Administrator, Colonel Andrews exposed the truth of the war and led every army from every nation to turn against their respective leaders in power."
"That's not entirely correct, Joshua," Percival interjected, "Yes, they led The Armies' Revolution but not all leaders or members of our world's leadership were behind the conspiracy. Most had no idea of the Xenos or the collaborators that kept the war going."
"Then who are these Collaborators?" asked Rarity.
"They call themselves The Shadow Empire; better known as the New World Order. They are a Cabal of Aristocrats, Captains of Industry, Crime Lords, Generals, Scientists, Press Publishers and Propaganda, Diplomats, Senators, and other men of influence across our world. They sold us out to the Starcatchers in exchange for Technological advancements, such as weapons and inter-dimensional travel; lordship over Thera as a vassal; and an assortment of other requests such as spacecraft and what have you. They are also the reason why we are here."
"Why is that?" Pinkie Pie asked, "It's not like they made their way here, right?"
"Well, that's the tricky part," Percival continued, "After the Revolution and the establishment of the League of Nations, we tracked down every member of the New World Order that we could get our hands on. But just like rats in a sinking ship, they somehow managed to escape by activating a series of Gates across the world; almost tearing the planet apart in the process. For the last fifteen years we've been hunting them down across hundreds of realities, all the while defending against more than two Xeno Empires both in our own reality and other dimensions.
"Wait a minute," Rainbow shook in disbelief, "so you're telling us that on top of finding these guys, you are fighting against more aliens out there, even though you just barely survived your last war? How are you still kicking?"
"Well, for one, not all Xenos we encountered are hostile. In fact, quite a lot in our galaxy were impressed that we held our own when the Starcatchers eventually invaded us that some decided to ally with us. For two, our weapons (as primitive as they are compared to the other races) utilize materials only found in our world, and somehow manages to break through their energy shields and armour in their ships and ground forces. That and the fact that we just finished our war meant we have more than a million veterans ready to fight their way through Hell and highwater to protect our world.
"As for the New World Order, we know they will find a way to come back to us, and with greater numbers. They have already established themselves in countless worlds; either influencing them or outright takeover under a tyrannical regime."
"And you reckon those folks are here in Equestria?" Applejack asked.
Joshua answered in a careless tone, "Well, yeah. How do you think we ended up unconscious on your doorstep?"
A collection of gasps were heard all over the throne room.
"B-but that would mean..."
"ALIENS! THE ALIENS HAVE FINALLY COME FOR US ALL!"
"Oh dear..."
"Oh Sweet Celestia!"
"Th-they can't be that hard to deal with, r-right? I mean we did face off against worse."
"I don't think it's that simple, RD."
"Twilight! What are we going to do?"
"EVERYPONY QUIET!" Twilight finally screamed out, "We've dealt with problems like these before, and we will fix it yet again. We can do this, remember? We are the Element bearers of Harmony, the Council of Friendship! With our magic and the magic of Friendship across Equestria; from our allies to our students, there is nothing we cannot do together."
This calmed everyone down.
Except the outsiders. "D-did you just say, magic?"
"Yeah, why? Oh, is it because you don't have magic in your world? Well yes, magic is prominent across the world; from the land to every creature."
Percival and Joshua looked to each other. Their faces turn pale with an expression of horror in their eyes.
"S-sir, if this world is made up of magic.... then..."
"We need to get the Hell out of here!"
"Wait, is there something wrong?"
Joshua turns to Twilight with fear in his eyes, "Well your highness, magic is lethally dangerous to mankind."
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Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, I didn't think I would read it here.
Ps. Good chapter.
Well your dimension's magic probably. Not this dimension. Was it mentioned he got pumped with healing spells right? And he interacted around magic being used around him already. Soo obviously they're safe from Equestrian magic
10809312
Oh I wish I could spoil to you what I have in mind about that but I guess I will leave you with this bit of information: Equestria isn't the first world he encountered magic from.
10809319
Ah, well my point still stand. There's a chance Equestrian Magic might be benign cause again i can't be sure he wasn't atleast magic scanned or someone touch him with abit of magic while he recovers. His horse is filled with magic now too. But its your story, so you do you.
I just feel the need to point this out but-
A human is capable of loosing 2 liters(ish)of blood and living. As such I think a rifle round to the shoulder that failed to over penetrate would be all that life threatening.
Just a nitpick and excellent job so far with the story!
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Noted. To be honest, I know very little about anatomy and military but history and geography has always been my passion.
10810901
Ah good, glad to hear you at least have a passion in what you are writing. I don't truly care about these inconcistancies, I juat felt the need to point it out.
This interests me, and it's well written!
hammerzmith.files.wordpress.com/2019/06/great-war-sabaton-single-600x600.jpg
I hope to read more soon
Very interesting idea. A bit odd that technology would stay roughly the same throughout the century-long great war, considering how fast technology advanced in the real 20th century, but still cool.
10859454
Oh trust me, they may be primitive but you'll later see why they have barely changed across the century. (I'll address that in a chapter in the future.)
"British soldiers don't duck,"
That is a lovely quote which one shall use as the basis of this statement: A good British officer makes himself a target as an example for his men! If he shows no fear, his brothers in arms shall also show none!
"The difference being one is a job, and the other's mental sickness!"