Freedom is a luxury afforded by the will of the powerful. But what will happen when the mighty fall?
Fallen are the princesses Gone is their will Without their people's pretenses A world shall fall still
Civilization in Equestria has collapsed without the guide of their princesses. A failure to heed the warnings of their leaders has resulted in anarchy being allowed to reign free. But, a select few ponies have seen a solution to their species' extinction. The Elements of Harmony have enough energy for one last spell, one that will bring the last citizens of a dying world to one quite unlike their own...
Fear was the overriding emotion in the formerly blissful land of Equestria. This fear was rooted in a great many things, all of which came from a single event. The Princesses of the Sun and Moon were gone.
Many ponies theorized that the Princesses would return at any minute. But, when the sun and moon failed to change their positions from the permanent twilight that shrouded the land in an eerie half-light, a mass panic arose. Desperation took hold as everypony even began to look for the god of Chaos, Discord, in an effort to exert his power over the world's forces. It was all for naught, however, as even Chaos embodied had vacated the world, leaving the world defenseless against the inevitable death of the world by either frost or fire.
The sun would destroy the crops if it was not lowered for the land to cool, and the night would bring a slow death in the form of entropy. The balance of the world was threatened, if not entirely compromised. This fact was not lost on the ponies of Equestria, because the anarchy that arose would have caused Discord to pale in disgust and terror.
The capital city, Canterlot, was the first to succumb to the panic of the coming apocalypse. In less than a week, the once great city of gilded marble and high society was little more than a burning ruin, the crackling of the inferno punctuated by the dying screams of ponies trapped in their houses as their roofs collapsed and the foundations of their homes were obliterated. The death toll was so titanic that nopony dared to venture a guess as to how many died in the hellfire that had once been the center of their world.
More cities fell, one by one, the smaller settlements like Appleloosa and Ponyville being the last to stand. These towns were now refugee camps for the survivors of the death of their homes and civilization. The once great land of Equestria, whose population once numbered in the millions, had been reduced to a handful of camps that totaled out to a generously optimistic number closer to the hundreds. Fire, disease, starvation, or injuries had taken all but these last few ponies, who were huddled in their camps, awaiting a death by the ice of the half-lit sky.
Even the pegasi of Cloudsdale could do no more, as their control over the weather had almost instantly disappeared without the Celestial Sisters to balance the heavenly bodies. As such, the East had become a tundra of rampant blizzards and hailstorms, burying the land in snow and ice, while the West had dried up into a dustbowl, tornadoes ripping apart the last vestiges of the cities that had dotted its landscape. Within a month, the world was all but dead. Appleloosa had been forsaken by the ponies and buffalo alike. A small detachment griffins from across the Eastern sea had migrated to the land of the ponies, in an attempt to determine why their home had been allowed to die in ice. Only one had survived long enough to make her way to Ponyville.
Gilda's reception in Ponyville was far from warm. The last time she had been in the quiet little hamlet, she had stormed off in a rage after nearly terrorizing everypony in town. She hung her head low as she padded her way through the middle of town, her talons creating small divots in the dirt. A mixture of sadness, fear, and an overwhelming amount of resignation hung in the air, exacerbated by the defeated looks on everypony's face. Some ponies were starving, others looked as if they would die from some unknown ailment, a select few, however, were still well enough to render aid to those who slept in the streets.
Gilda was in no position to pity these ponies, as she was injured by her long flight from the Griffin Kingdom. Her left wing had been strained by pressing through the superstorm that hung over Manehattan. She shuddered as she recalled looking down at the frozen bodies of ponies who had died in the city's collapse. Some were even unfortunate enough to have been frozen alive, looks of terror and pain visible, courtesy of Gilda's predatory vision. The gryphoness shook her head to clear her head of the morbid images as she spotted the home of her chickhood friend, Rainbow Dash. Gilda desperately wished she could fly up to the cloud house herself, but her injured wing was still unresponsive, so she settled for going to the last place she had seen in Ponyville before leaving in her tantrum: Sugarcube Corner.
As the young griffin slowly walked to the bakery, she attempted to formulate her speech. Would she be brusque and brief, or would she plea to the sense of mercy and kindness the Equestrians were known for? She opened the door, expecting to see some remnant of the cheer that saturated the shop. Instead, she was faced with the saddest sight she had ever been witness to. The cheery atmosphere that used to grace Sugarcube Corner had been replaced by the smells and sounds of pain and death. It appeared that the bakery had been converted to a triage center, patients ranging from severely emaciated ponies who looked as if they had not been fed a decent meal in weeks to the mutilated bodies of those unfortunate enough to have lost forelegs, rear legs, or other parts of their bodies and only recently succumbed to their horrible wounds.
Though she was a carnivore, Gilda felt herself becoming sick at the sight of disemboweled ponies, missing limbs, and all around death. A familiar pink pony trotted up to Gilda, the formerly infectious smile replaced by a sorrowful, dejected look of absolute defeat. Pinkie Pie looked up at Gilda, a small spark of surprise behind her shocking blue eyes as she greeted.
"Hello, Gilda. Welcome to Sugarcube Triage. I'm sorry I can't throw you a party, but... you know..." Pinkie seemed to have to summon a great deal of willpower to even speak this much. She looked back to a dark green unicorn stallion, whose horn looked as if it had been shattered. He was taking a series of ragged breaths that made Gilda wonder if he was about to deliver a final death rattle. Pinkie returned her attention to Gilda, who was about to vomit what little food she had managed to catch before landing in Ponyville. Pinkie gestured with a hoof for Gilda to follow her back outside, for which the gryphoness was most grateful.
As the pony and griffin walked towards the town's library, Gilda finally spoke. "How many survivors are here?"
Pinkie's pink hair had fallen flat long ago, but it seemed to lose its color as the Element of Laughter responded. "Less than a hundred, and a quarter of them are nearly dead or too sick to move. The group from Appleloosa didn't make it..." Tears formed at the corners of Pinkie's eyes as she sniffled. "Most of these ponies are from Canterlot or Los Pegasus. Everypony else was too far from Ponyville, and Twilight says they died within days of their evacuations."
Gilda's heart dropped into her stomach as she realized the scale of the decimation of the world. She felt fortunate that she had not been caught in the slow, icy death of her homeland. "I heard Cloudsdale..."
"Cloudsdale is gone," Pinkie said quietly.
All semblance of hope left Gilda at that moment. The reputed oldest city in Equestria, former capital of the Pegasus Empire, was gone. At that moment, a somewhat familiar cyan pegasus landed in front of the pair.
"YOU! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" Rainbow Dash demanded loudly. Gilda cringed visibly at the hostility in her former friend's voice. It had been three years since Gilda had stormed out of Ponyville, and she hoped that any ill will had dispersed. She realized that tensions were high, as the world was coming to an end and nopony would have an immediate capacity for forgiveness.
Gilda looked her friend in the eyes before replying, tears forming rapidly as she prepared to deliver the news. "The griffins are gone, Dash. I'm the last of my kind..." Immediately, the hostility disappeared from Rainbow Dash's stance before the pegasus slowly moved towards her friend and embraced her. At this display of empathy, Gilda's self-control broke as she burst into tears, crying into Dash's shoulder loudly.
Rainbow Dash patted Gilda on the back, whispering words of comfort. Pinkie looked on sadly at the emotional breakdown before her, while Gilda let out a full two weeks of pent up fear, rage, and sorrow. The gryphoness was inconsolable, crying even after it began to ache.
An explosion rocked the building as yet another shell struck the ground near the Riverwalk. A young man sprinted for the stairs to the upper floors, dodging bullets and shrapnel as foreign soldiers fired into the heavily populated shopping center. He made his way to the history theater, hunkering down behind a wall as Army personnel rushed to face the onslaught.
San Antonio was a warzone of incredible proportions, people running around the streets, only to be gunned down by the Korean extremists that had invaded the United States only a few days prior. The North Korean government had declared a state of active war against America shortly before sending forces to in to take the country by force. The American military had attempted to stop the onslaught, but by the fourth day of the invasion, the entire western seaboard had been overrun by the Korean People's Army. This was the fifth day, and the Midwest was almost taken by enemy forces.
The young man in question was a local musician, barely twenty years old, and scared out of his mind. Grif Eintracht of Austin, Texas swore as he regretted leaving his gun at home. He peeked around the corner to see several Korean soldiers stalking towards him, their assault rifles raised and pointed in his direction. He swore again before sprinting into the dimly lit theater, looking for anything that he could use as a weapon. He'd already seen the Koreans gun down civilians who had surrendered without incident, ignoring their pleas for mercy.
Grif spotted something near the front row. He rushed to the object, and sighed in relief as he identified an abandoned pistol. He guessed the owner didn't realize it had fallen to the ground in the confusion and panic, choosing instead to evacuate like everyone else. He checked the magazine, and his eyes widened at the sight of some very illegal hollow-point bullets. He had no time to question where the bullets came from before the soldiers loudly entered the theater. Grif slammed the magazine back into the pistol and took it off safety. He squeezed the grip to release the second safety before taking aim at one of the soldiers from behind the seats of the front row. He zeroed in on the man's thigh and squeezed the trigger.
In a loud bang and an almost immediate scream of pain the first of the three soldiers was down, clutching his leg as it gushed blood. One of his comrades took aim at the seat where Grif was hiding and opened fire while another dragged his teammate away. Grif dropped to his stomach and looked for the soldier firing at him. 'Thank you, Grandpa Eddie,' He thought as he made use of the military training his grandfather had passed down. In airsoft and paintball, Grif was hopeless in open spaces, but he excelled in small areas like the theater. He couldn't run fast or hit very hard, but he'd be damned if he couldn't shoot.
The soldier stopped firing, apparently believing that he'd taken Grif down. He was corrected as Grif crawled out enough to aim for the soldier's groin. Grif almost felt bad before he fired... almost. The high-pitched scream from his adversary accompanied the soldier dropping his weapon and putting his hands over his now non-existent nether regions. Grif had no time to celebrate as he sprinted towards the dropped rifle, grabbing it and a spare magazine from the downed soldier. He put the safety back on the pistol before sliding it into a cargo pocket on his pants. He whispered a quiet apology to the screaming man before raising the rifle and aiming for the final soldier, who was looking to see why his other teammate was screaming bloody murder.
Grif opened up on the soldier, firing several rounds into the final man's stomach. He went down with a loud moan. Grif rushed out of the theater before coming face to face with a US fireteam, all with their M4 rifles leveled at him. He laughed nervously before raising his hands and setting the rifle on the ground.
"Uh, the guys in there are down." He said, pointing back to the theater. "One isn't a guy anymore, though..."
After explaining his situation to the US Army soldiers, Grif was allowed to reclaim the rifle, as well as a body vest from one of the downed Koreans. He had a bit of trouble fitting it over his clothes, but managed to eventually don the protective gear.
Now, Grif looked like an average young adult from Texas. He stood at a reasonable six feet in height, with dark blonde hair and tri-colored blue eyes, a darker ring around the outer edge, cobalt in the majority of the iris, and an abnormal yellow ring around the pupil. His clothes consisted of loose-fitting black cargo pants, light green steel toed boots, and a tight-fitting Disturbed t-shirt, which was half covered by a large-hooded white zip-up jacket. Now, over the jacket, was a dark grey combat vest.
"You suited up, now kid?" The sergeant in charge of the fireteam asked.
Grif shrugged his shoulders and moved his arms around a bit. "It's a bit tight, but I don't think I need full mobility to fire a weapon, do I?"
The sergeant laughed shortly. "You're built like a tank, kid. These Koreans are as twiggy as Slenderman."
Grif shuddered at the mental image of the disturbing entity that had become an image of nightmares in the last decade. "Great, Slenderman Koreans. What's next, Terminator Russians? Predator Chinese?" Grif shook his head to clear his head of the images that were flashing through his head with each outlandish idea. "What's going on, anyway?"
A PFC looked over to Grif, sighing. "Hate to say it, sir, but welcome to hell."
Grif returned the look, perplexed. "I thought Lackland was on the other side of town?"
The soldiers laughed at his dry humor, raising the mood slightly. The sergeant clapped Grif on the shoulder lightly. "Keep up jokes like that, we might think you're not a civilian, Mister...?"
Grif snapped to attention like his grandfather had taught him when he was young. "Grif Eintracht, sergeant. Ametuer musician from Austin."
The soldiers laughed even more as they watched the civilian snap to attention like he really was military. "At ease, Eintracht. Are you military?"
Grif relaxed, shaking his head. "No, sergeant. My grandpa just trained me for a summer when I turned eighteen. I never liked the idea of wearing a uniform every day. Give me cargo pants and a t-shirt any day over fatigues."
The exchange was cut short as another explosion rocked the building, causing it to shudder loudly. Everyone fell silent and Grif was ushered to the center of the group. The sergeant signaled for everyone to move forward, while Grif still looked around rapidly, expecting more Korean military to appear out of nowhere. He began to feel sick as he stepped over the dozens of dead bodies of civilians massacred by the People's Army.
The sergeant spoke to the group as they walked outside. "Alright, everyone. We have a mile to cover to get back to base camp, so let's hustle! Eintracht, I hope you can keep up."
Grif focused on the soldier, taking on a determined look. "So do I, sergeant. So do I..."
All five began the trek to the base camp, while Grif just hoped for the best.
Twilight Sparkle was losing her mind as she pored over her massive collection of volumes. She had raided the Royal Library before Canterlot had become an absolute ruin, searching for anything she could find on the magic of the unicorns from before the Princesses' rule. By now she had gone through more than half of the books she had rescued and still found nothing. Everything that had even the tiniest smidgen of hope in its text was either too obscure to translate or turned out to be a useless endeavor laid down by malcontent unicorns from the earliest years of the rule of Celestia and Luna.
No matter where she looked, there was not a single spell that could move the sun and moon to stabilize Equestria into a habitable land again. Twilight thought back to her former teacher's words from almost a month and a half prior.
"You must find a new home for our ponies. My sister and I are not long for this world, and it will be up to you and your friends to save them from a most gruesome fate."
Not three days after that, in the middle of the turning of the night and day, Celestia and Luna vanished from the face of Equestria without a trace. Since then, Twilight had searched for anything that could move the sun and moon, or even turn back time on a massive scale. Her efforts had proven ultimately fruitless, yielding no more than misbegotten conjectures, groundless theories, and physical impossibilities. All, that is, save one.
Twilight did not wish to entertain the idea she had come across, but it seemed to be her only avenue of saving the handful of ponies who had survived. The only problem that lay in this particular course of action, which was her main deterrent, rooted from the fact that the book which mentioned the spell suggested not only an impossible idea, but the power required could only be produced by the Elements of Harmony. It was a theorized spell, developed by Starswirl the Bearded, which he claimed could open a massive portal to a dimension parallel to their own. There were no notes on what existed on the other side beyond occasional references to "humans" and "a world without active magic."
The purple unicorn sighed as she read over every bit of information concerning the other world and could discern that it was very similar to Equestria in terms of geography and ecology, albeit with the previously noted lack of creatures that could use magic.
'But how can the Elements be the only power source that can make the spell work? And how did Starswirl even find out about this other world? There are too many questions...'
At that moment, the door to the library opened. Twilight looked up from the notes to see Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and what appeared to be a griffin. The griffin was crying quietly while Dash had a hoof over her shoulder. Pinkie trotted over to Twilight somberly, giving her friend a sad look.
"Hey, Twilight..." The pink mare said quietly. She glanced back toward the gryphoness, who had sat down on the floor near the entrance, propping her head on her crossed forelegs as she continued to sob. "That's Gilda, Rainbow Dash's griffin friend. You know, the one who left Ponyville after we pranked her? She just got here, and... she's..."
Gilda spoke through her sobs to finish what Pinkie was trying to say. "Everyone else is dead. I'm the last griffin in Equestria." Her crying doubled as she buried her face into Rainbow Dash's shoulder.
Twilight's eyes widened considerably at this. "No..." She looked back down to the portal spell notes before regarding Pinkie seriously. "Pinkie, I need you to do something for me."
Pinkie perked up slightly at the severity in Twilight's voice. "What is it?" Her blue eyes were focused on the unicorn.
"Find Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and the mayor, bring them all here, and get the Elements." Twilight gestured for Pinkie to come towards the notes. "This is our way out. It won't save Equestria, but it will save us"
Pinkie's eyes widened as she skimmed the notes before she nodded sharply and sprinted outside to carry out Twilight's orders. "I'll be back in a jiffy, Twilight!" She called loudly as she exited the library.
Rainbow Dash looked over to Twilight, still comforting Gilda. "What did you find? Is there egghead stuff that can really save us?"
Twilight nodded, gesturing toward the notes. "Starswirl the Bearded may have just saved us all, Dash. However, I need you to go and find your Element, bring it back here as soon as possible."
Dash lightly laid Gilda's head down on the floor before standing to give Twilight a salute and rocketing out of the library towards her cloudhouse.
Twilight returned to the notes. 'Now, to find out how the spell works...'
"Alright, Twi'. Why did ya'll have us all come here?" Applejack asked, her eyes showing the effects of her sleep deprivation since Granny Smith had passed away, leaving AJ to take care of even more responsibilities in keeping Sweet Apple Acres up and running. "Ya know ah have apples to buck before all the trees die."
Fluttershy spoke up next, almost to quiet to hear. "Um, yes. And I have to take care of the animals, since most of them are losing their homes."
"Darling, this had best not be one of your ill-begotten theories again. We simply cannot afford to waste more time on your attempts to make that time travel spell work again." Rarity's normally well-kept mane was horribly disheveled, as her skills with fabric had been put to work almost nonstop making bandages for the various clinics scattered across Ponyville.
Mayor Mare looked around in confusion before asking. "I must ask why I am here. I am, by no means, as powerful as the Elements of Harmony..."
The cacophony of queries and complaints assaulted Twilight's ears until she loudly said to them all. "EVERYPONY, BE QUIET!" When she received matching looks of shock from the ponies and griffin in the room, she huffed loudly. "Now, if that's done, I can explain why I asked for you all to be here."
Spike trudged downstairs, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "Twilight, can you keep it down?"
"No, Spike. And I need your help with something, anyhow," Twilight snapped back. "If you could please find Starswirl the Bearded's journal and my stack of notes. I need to show everypony here what I found before Miss Gilda arrived."
At that, everypony who had recently arrived looked towards the gryphoness who was still seated in the space next to the door. She waved a talon nervously, receiving blank stares in response before the collective attention was returned to Twilight, who had levitated several sheets of paper and posted them on a board in the middle of the room. Floating in front of her was the journal she had asked for. Everypony else sat down as they prepared for Twilight to go into what Rainbow Dash commonly referred to as her "egghead mode," where a long, complicated lecture on an even more complicated subject usually awaited her "victims."
"I'll be quick about this, since we haven't got much time." At that opener, the rapt attention of the other occupants of the library was captured. "I have found a way for us to escape the death of Equestria, but it's a long shot." She pointed to a diagram, which outline the Elements of Harmony in a pentagram, with the Element of Magic at the center of the arrangement. "Starswirl the Bearded was known for his many advancements in the study of magic, from teleportation to time travel." Everypony laughed a bit as they recalled Twilight's endeavor to use the latter some years ago, resulting in her freaking out over an unfounded fear of a nonexistent doom. "He also had notes on something I thought was absolutely impossible, but may be our only ticket to survival. He theorized that a world similar to our own existed in a separate dimension, populated by a sentient species never seen in Equestria, which he referred to as 'humans,' bipedal like Spike is now, but like hairless apes."
Rainbow Dash snorted derisively. "Hairless apes? What's next, they can fly without wings or use magic without horns?" She crossed her hooves over her chest and waited for an answer.
"I have no idea what they can do, or what their society is like. Starswirl's notes weren't very detailed in that respect. But, the ecology and geography is very similar to Equestria's." Twilight's patience was wearing thing already with Dash's rude dismissal of the inhabitants. She took a breath before addressing the final detail, which she knew would shock the group the most. "There's something else..." She began before Rarity cut her off as Dash had mere seconds ago.
"Surely these... hairless apes, as you describe them, have magic?" The fashionista asked, her eyes growing wide.
Twilight sighed, shaking her head. "According to the notes, nothing in this other world can actively use magic. There are no dragons, timberwolves, or any other creature spawned here by the constantly swirling magical energies of Equestria. The inhabitants, both sentient and wild, are almost completely magically numb." The expected reaction of shock and disbelief was rampant as all seven members of her audience vocalized their shock at what Rarity called a "travesty" and Rainbow Dash labeled as "bucking nonsense." The clamor continued until Twilight slammed her hoof on the wood floor of the library loudly, silencing everypony.
"How can a world survive without magic?" Applejack asked. "That don't make any sense!"
"Why and how is not our concern at the moment!" Twilight snapped at her friends and the mayor. "What we need to concern ourselves with is how to get there. Now, according to Starswirl's notes, the portal spell to travel to the other world can only be powered by the Elements of Harmony. That is why I asked you all to come here. Mayor Mare, you are here because everypony in town will listen to your directions. I need you to gather the whole town in front of the library." She pointed to the pentagram design again. "Make sure they are gathered as close as possible, so we don't leave anypony behind. This design was meant to work on a small scale, but at the cost of the sealing of the Elements themselves and the bearers being sent along with the group that is teleported. Make sure everypony knows that we will never be able to return to Equestria again." The mayor nodded before rushing out of the library to carry out Twilight's instructions.
"What about us, Twilight? What do we need to do?" Rainbow Dash asked as her wings fluttered nervously.
Twilight walked over to the class case holding her Element before levitating it on top of her head. "The rest of us need to prepare ourselves for the spell. Gilda, Spike, you two need to wait with the rest of the crowd. We'll be outside in a few minutes."
Gilda nodded her assent and, before Spike could vocalize a complaint, picked the young dragon up in her beak, placing him on her back. She looked back towards Rainbow Dash one last time before walking outside.
When the gryphoness left, the rest of the group gathered near the board as Twilight began explaining the finer details of the spell. She only hoped that she wasn't sending the last citizens of Equestria to their doom.
"Get me a sitrep! How did the Koreans manage to take the entire Western Seaboard in a few days?! Where could they even get that kind of manpower?"
"We don't know sir! POTUS has been moved to a safe location, but we have no idea what resources the enemy has."
"Sir! EUCOM just called in, Eastern Europe has gone dark! Russia is making a move on Berlin as we speak!"
"Middle East isn't responding, General, and reports from the Pacific are showing massive troop movements in China. Intel shows they gave Kim Jong Un his new toys and the manpower to use them... SHIT!"
"What's going on?"
"Sir... San Antonio just got it. AETC Headquarters sent in their distress call not ten minutes ago. The Koreans are already gaining a steady foothold."
"I WANT EVERY TROOP FROM HERE THE MIDWEST EN ROUTE TO SAN ANTONIO YESTERDAY! WE WILL NOT LOSE TEXAS!"
Aria rushed into her parents' house, her black hair flailing as she sprinted through the doorway. Overhead, amidst the explosions of the aeronautical battle raging in the sky, was a massive and almost unnatural storm that split the sky open with divine fire. Lightning crashed down into the plains near the house, setting a small part of the field alight. Aria paid this no heed as she ran downstairs to gather her essential belongings. She entered the underground garage, her Suzuki V-Strom 1000 ready to go with her small pack of supplies strapped tightly to the back. Aria grabbed her jacket, pulling it on as she tracked down her helmet and backpack.
She found both on her workbench, where she had left them the night before. Aria threw her helmet on, pulled on the backpack, and mounted the bike. She turned the key, feeling the reassuring rev of the engine beneath her. She pulled out her remote for the garage door and clicked it to open the door. As soon as the metal gate was high enough for her to clear the gap, she tossed away the remote and rocketed outside. She sped down her driveway before turning toward the dirt road that led east into the nearby forest.
She was about halfway to her first landmark, the bridge over the interstate, before her neighbor, Faith, rolled up next to her on a custom Harley. Aria nodded towards Faith before clicking a button on the side of her helmet, turning on the internal speakers for the Bluetooth inside the helmet. "Call Fairy," she said into the voice command. She heard the dial tone a couple times before Faith answered the call.
"What's up, Singer?"
"Oh, you know, gunfire, lightning, end of civilization as we know it."
"Oh, yeah... So, it's just Friday?"
Aria laughed, hearing the echo of her musical alto through the other side of the call. "Just another Friday would have been fine, but Wichita Falls is under attack, in case you didn't notice. is being taken over by a bunch of squinty-eyed Communists. I thought the news had gone pazzo when they said Korea had invaded."
"Looks like Midge Et Un finally cracked, huh?" There was a brief silence between the two before Faith spoke again. "So what's the plan, Singer?"
"I don't know, Fae. Let's try to get to Atlanta in one piece, then we can make plans."
The two looked over to each other, nodding. Then they accelerated down the road, both praying for the best luck.
"On your knees!" The soldier yelled, pointing his rifle at Ken's face.
Ken just stared in both fear and confusion. "Listen, guy, I tell you. I not speak Korean!" He was met with the stock of the soldier's rifle cracking him in the jaw sharply, knocking him to the ground." He struggled to a kneeling position before attempting to stand again, only for the soldier to kick him in the stomach.
"Stay down!" The soldier said sharply, pressing the muzzle of the weapon against the young man's throat.
Ken glared at the soldier, rubbing his stomach. "Feeling really powerful, aren't you, scum?" He spat at the soldier in Russian. "I hope you fucking burn!"
At this bout of speech, the Korean soldier's eyes widened before he pulled the rifle away and backed up. "Russian? You are friend!" The soldier had switched to halting, obviously non-native Russian.
Ken Markov was originally from Moscow, but had moved to Los Angeles in hopes of going to a good university and becoming an engineer. To hear a Korean soldier call him a friend elicited more than its own fair share of shock. He did his best to play along, shaking hands with the soldier. At the same time he was exchanging false pleasantries, he reached for the long combat knife strapped to his thigh. As the pleasant banter continued, Ken pulled the soldier into an embrace that he could feel was reserved for comrades. At the same time, he slowly drew the curved blade from its sheath before bringing it behind the soldier and slamming it into the man's spine repeatedly.
"Trust not those who may speak in the tongue of your comrades," Ken whispered as the soldier gasped his last breath. He removed the knife as he felt the man take his last breath. "May God bless thy passing and forgive thy sins against thy fellow man."
Ken sheathed his knife before dragging the body of the dead soldier away into an alley. He made sure there were no other troops coming before stripping the man of his weapons and other gear. He had a bit of difficulty putting on the majority of the equipment, since even his own slight frame was larger than that of the Asian man's. He managed to put every piece of the protective gear and holsters on before he picked up the body of the dead soldier and threw it into a nearby dumpster.
Another group of soldiers was advancing on his position, possibly to track down their unresponsive comrade. Ken crouched behind the dumpster, bringing the stolen rifle to bear on the troops, wishing he was somewhere else, not in the middle of a warzone.
All across the United States and Europe, panic was rampant as people attempted to evacuate or even fight back. The combined forces of the Russian and Iranian militaries overran the majority within a matter of weeks, while China and Korea continued their merciless advance across the North American continent, slaughtering or imprisoning anyone they came across. The death toll for civilians alone reached a staggering number well into the millions. All the while, both the great and small of the assaulted lands prayed for anything that could end their plight, and the war with it.
All around the world, great and unnatural storms roiled overhead, bespeaking for many a great apocalypse to come. Great and minor figures commented how the world had finally forsaken the human race and intended to exterminate its mistake, while others bespoke prophecies from God or other divine and otherworldly figures. Still others simply brushed it off as mere coincidence, saying the storms only served a purpose as beneficial camouflage for military forces willing to employ them properly.
This war would make or break man. It would test human determination and perseverance, all while thinning an otherwise oversaturated population of warmongering people for the turning of the ages. A storm of a different kind was coming, but it would bring the greatest change known to man since the conception of fire...
"So if we maintain the resonance for at least five minutes, the gateway will open. However, I can not guarantee its stability after the initial cycle." Twilight was attempting to explain the nuances of the portal to her friends, but only received at "deer in the lantern" look from everypony present.
"Twilight, you know that egghead stuff goes right over our heads, right?" Rainbow said with a sigh as she looked at the complicated formulas and diagrams. "I mean, come on! I control weather, for Celestia's sake. I can talk all day about low and high pressure and how it can mess with the formation of a thunderhead instead of a regular rain cloud, but this portal stuff..."
Twilight sighed dejectedly as she looked over her notes one last time. She couldn't be more prepared if she tried, and Ponyville's residents were as ready as they could be. That did nothing to assuage her doubts concerning the process of using the Elements of Harmony to open a portal to a separate dimension. The risks involved were extreme, but she couldn't see an alternative course of action.
"Just make sure you girls keep your focus on each other, or else the spell will fail," Twilight said as she turned around. "We can't fail. If we do, everypony will be stuck here and we'll die with Equestria..." She felt a hoof on her shoulder, which she saw belonged to Applejack.
"Don't you fret, Twi. We'll get this here portal open, an' everypony will be safe," Applejack smiled reassuringly before walking outside to take her position in the formation.
Twilight took a deep breath before levitating the tiara shaped Element of Magic onto her head. 'It's now or never.'
A deafening peal of thunder resounded around the world, eliciting a silence befitting a church. As the last rumbles of the thunder dissipated, Glowing objects began to rain from the sky, an entire spectrum represented as they landed in one part of the world or another. This continued for a mere twenty seconds before the human race resumed its self destruction...
"Mother bleeding piss fuck! Can't a guy get some sleep while the world is destroying itself?" The young man grumbled. He stretched, groaning as several of his vertebrae popped back into place. He rubbed his eyes before opening them, revealing a pair of glacier blue irises with yellow rings around the pupils. "First the Koreans invade..." He stood and stumbled over to a window as he spoke. "Now the sky is splitting itself open to keep me up. What in the name of Hecate could possibly happen next?" He brushed his bleached white hair out of his face before spotting something in the sky.
An object rocketed into the young man's room, shattering the window and slamming into him. He groaned as he laid on the floor, his body screaming in objecting at the sudden abuse. Maximus Cross was not happy. It was Monday, he needed to leave Ventura as soon as possible, and now he had to deal with whatever it was that slammed into him.
"Ugh, the bass cannon's not loud enough, 'Tavi..." A female voice said. She sounded almost tomboyish, her voice scratching just a little as if she spent most of her time yelling over crowds.
Max's brain shot into overdrive as he realized that there was a woman in his room. He managed to clear his vision enough to see a mass of two-toned blue hair resting on his chest. Past the hair he could make out almost flourescent white skin... And nothing covering it...
"Fuck..." He muttered quietly.
The woman stirred, somehow managing to knee Max between the legs as she tried to stand. He ignored the pain in favor of observing the woman that had crashed into his apartment. He didn't have much time, since another object, not unlike the one that had just broken his window, slammed into him before he could move out of the way.
While Max was trying to make sure none of his bones were broken by the sudden abuse, the woman appeared to be observing herself as if her own body was alien to her.
"Whoa! My hooves look way different now!" She exclaimed. "What are these things attached to them... They look like that little dragon dude's claws, but not as sharp..." As she continued her self-examination, Max could only stare in wonder at her eyes, which were a vibrant red that seemed to glow in the dark. She seemed to finally notice Max, since she turned to face him suddenly. "Hey! Are you one of the locals? What are you guys called again... Humans, right?"
Max attempted to speak, but could only release a quiet, wheezing cough in response, since his lungs were having trouble expanding with the extra weight still pressing on his chest.
"Oh, sorry about that. Here, let me... 'TAVI!" The woman shouted as she pulled the weight off of Max's chest and into a tight embrace. It appeared to be another woman, with darker skin and a flowing mass of ebony hair. "Wow! I didn't think Twilight could send us both to the same place!"
The other woman spoke, her tone more refined, almost like she was from Britain. "Vinyl, while it is a great pleasure to see you as well, I do believe the stallion on the floor over there may be in pain." She pointed to Max, who had managed to curl himself up into a ball while holding himself between the legs to soothe the pain from the first woman's damaging knee.
"Why do you say, that, 'Tavi?" The blue haired woman asked, tilting her head slightly.
Max managed to find his voice as he squeaked out, "Because your patella just kissed me between the legs..."
The fact that Grif wasn't dead yet bespoke an unbelievable amount of luck on his part. That wasn't to say that the Koreans weren't doing their absolute best to kill off the small fireteam and the civilian they were escorting. Grif peeked around the corner, spotting several soldiers smashing relics inside the Alamo. He almost charged in their like a blood-crazed maniac, but stopped himself when he spotted a tank rolling up the street. He kept to the shadows, making sure to stay close to the PFC assigned to keeping track of him.
"What do you see, Eintracht?" The soldier asked over his shoulder.
Grif gritted his teeth as he did a head count. "Three on ground level, one on the roof, all backed up by that armor that just passed by..." He leveled his weapon, preparing to take a shot, when a flash in the sky caught his attention. He looked up to see something heading toward them at a very fast rate.
"...UUUUUCK!" A pair of female voices screamed before Grif was hit squarely in the chest. He was grateful for the body armor at that point as his breath was slammed out of his lungs and he slid along the ground on his back, whatever had hit him was still on top of him.
"Oh... Rainbow, are you okay?" One of the voices said, coming from overhead.
A second voice, a higher tone than the first, responded, "Yeah, but I think my wings are going to be sore for weeks after that landing... What about you, Rarity?"
"I'm fine, Rainbow Dash, I'm just.... Celestia, I'm absolutely filthy!" The first voice sounded from inside a destroyed store. "There's so much dirt everywhere! And it's all over my mane!"
"Chill out, Rarity!" The second voice said, audible from whatever was on top of Grif. He opened his eyes to see a young woman straddling his chest, completely naked and rubbing her head. She had an athletic build and small, perky breasts, but that wasn't what caught Grif's attention. The most defining immediate feature of this girl was her rose colored eyes that were accentuated by her short, messy, garishly bright rainbow hair. This wasn't even dyed, it seemed, since the colors were perfectly done all the way down to her roots. And if that wasn't impossible enough, what happened next was bound to make Grif question his sanity.
He groaned as the girl still failed to remove herself from his chest. "Pardon me, miss, but you're making it a bit hard to breathe," he wheezed out.
The first voice spoke again. "Rainbow Dash, I do believe you are sitting on top of that nice stallion who broke your fall. He seems to be in a lot of pain, though." There was a second's pause before she continued. "Oh, no! This is the worst. Possible. Thing! I can't find my horn, and this new form is simply awful! How do these 'humans', as Twilight referred to them, stand such gangly and strange bodies?"
The rainbow-haired girl puffed out her chest, which Grif tried to not stare at. "I still have my wings, so you must have some way to still use your magic!" At this, the impossible met a new level of existence, as the girl shrugged her shoulders and a massive pair of cyan wings spread out from her back.
"WHAT IN THE UNHOLY FUCK!?" Grif yelled out, unceremoniously shoving the girl off of his chest and scrambling to get away from her, ensuring that he still had his commandeered weapons. He looked over to the direction of the first voice and saw another woman, taller than the first, and with a notably larger set of assets. Her own hair was a vibrant shade of violet and seemed to be meticulously maintained. The only word Grif could think of to describe this woman's bearing was "classy," and even that wasn't sufficient to describe her poise and grace. He was hypnotized by the woman for a short while until he realized that he was staring.
Grif cleared his throat before speaking again. "Um. Ladies... You do realize that you have no clothes on, right?"