Prologue
The Adventures of Ryan and Leon in Equestria
Prologue
Leonard Morse, Ryan Anderson and their team regrouped at a tavern in the abandoned town their source led them to. Unfortunately, the only thing they found was a note taunting the Universal Security Organization.
Leon raised an arm and rests his other hand on the spatial rift generator that was strapped to it. "Alright everyone, let's go home!" He opened a rift.
One by one, the USO officers entered the rift, leaving only Leon and Ryan. The latter held up a sealed bottle of liquor. "At least it wasn't a lost cause."
Leon smiled. "You're right. Hopefully Cyrus is having better luck tracking down Xen." He pats his partner on the back. "Come on." The two entered the rift.
USO Headquarters, Seattle, Washington
A gruff looking man stood in the SRG control room and watched his Leon's team emerge. One by one they came in, but no sign of Leonard or Ryan.
The operator looked up to him. "Director Ericcson, Deputy Director Morse and HFAC Anderson have vanished."
The director was more than shocked to hear this. "What? Track them down!"
The operator continued to search for the missing men. "I'm trying sir, but... they're gone."
Elsewhere...
"Leon?" A familiar voice called, sounding a little muffled. "Leon!" The voice continued. "Dude, wake up!"
Leonard Morse finally woke up and looked around, he saw they were nowhere in particular, it reminded of him of I-80 going through Nebraska. "This isn't headquarters. Where are we?" He looked up to his partner, a pale brown horse-thing with a dark brown mane and tail. "What happened to you?"
Ryan let out a good laugh. "The same thing that happened to you."
Leon struggled to get up and fell a few times, but he eventually stood up. "So we've been turned into horses?" He looked at a hoof, seeing his coat was about the same color, and without a reflective surface, he couldn't tell what his own hair color was and thank whoever, he still had his leather jacket.
Ryan hopped a couple of times. "Better! We're ponies!"
Leon groaned. They were in Equestria. He was somewhat familiar with the world because his organization monitors just about every world one can imagine, but he was not familiar with everything about it as he focused on more important matters. Matters such as the Shadows that were wreaking havoc across the universe; Azriel, one of the oldest entities in existence, is commonly referred to as Cyrus Stark and the only entity who can identify and kill those things; the Destroyers, a group of rogue scientists who were in the process of creating the perfect Shadow that can slip by Cyrus undetected. Life was hectic for USO employees and to be redirected to an off-limits world made things that much worse.
Leon looked at his partner again, this time he noticed Ryan had a pair of wings, he also felt something stick out of his forehead. "So you're a pegasus... do I dare ask what I've become?"
Ryan chuckled. "You're a unicorn."
Leon let out a heavy sigh and pressed a hoof against his ear, where a communications device was placed. "Leonard Morse to USO headquarters, over..."
No answer.
"Leonard Morse to the Creators, over..."
No answer.
"Is anybody receiving me? Over..."
Ryan raised a concerned eyebrow. "What's wrong?"
Leon shrugged. "I can't get a hold of anyone. There's no static or anything."
Ryan shook his head. "That's really bizarre. Try the SRG."
Leon raised the foreleg that the spatial rift generator was attached to and pressed his muzzle against a series of buttons. With the last button pressed, he looked to Ryan. "Here's hoping it works." He pressed the device's activation button and quickly pointed his hoof forward. The device began to power up, but quickly fizzled out. Leon growled. "Son of a-!"
Ryan laughed. "It looks like we're stuck here for a while."
Leon shook his head. "I'm not going to like it here, am I?"
Ryan smiled. "Don't worry, it'll grow on ya."
Leon grumbled as Ryan passed him. "Like a tumor, no doubt."
Ryan looked back to his boss. "Quit whining and follow me."
Leon couldn't help but see the radioactive symbol on him. "Dude, what's that doing on your ass?"
Ryan stopped, raised an eyebrow and looked back at the symbol. "That's my cutie mark."
It was Leon's turn to raise an eyebrow. "A what-now?"
Ryan turned to face Leon. "A cutie mark is a symbol that indicates a pony's talent." Leon was still confused and Ryan pointed to his cutie mark. "You've got a game controller as yours. Now come on, we need to move on."
Leon took slow, careful steps as he adjusted to his new body and eventually caught up to Ryan. "I didn't know you were an expert in xenogeography."
Ryan shook his head and pointed a hoof in the direction they're going. "I'm not, but no one can miss that."
Leon looked ahead and saw a clock tower off in the distance. "That's an awful long walk. What do you think? A good ten miles?"
Ryan fluttered his wings. "Maybe. Want me to fly over there and have someone pick you up?"
Leon smirked. "Think you can even get off the ground?"
Ryan took a deep breath, closed his eyes and began to concentrate on using his new appendages. Slowly, the wings began to flap. He concentrated harder and started to lift off of the ground. Leon was quite impressed, but Ryan fell back to the earth and landed on his face.
Leon grimaced. "That looked like it hurt."
Ryan picked himself up and dusted himself off. "Not as much as you would think."
Leon tried looking up at his horn, but obviously he couldn't. "Flying's out, and I imagine this is too." He poked at his horn.
Ryan hung his head. "So we hoof it then."
Leon nodded in affirmation. "Maybe we can run. If we do, we should get there in about half an hour."
Ryan laughed. "That's assuming our new bodies can maintain that speed. And I do stress the word 'new'. My body was built to fly, while yours was built to use magic."
Leon rolled his eyes upward. "What kind of magic?"
Ryan chuckled. "Any kind of magic."
Leon's gaze didn't falter as he raised an eyebrow. "That is very handy."
The two continued on their way to the town and after fifteen minutes of silence, Leon decided to break it.
"I'd like to know how we ended up like this. Normally when we send people to other worlds, their bodies don't change."
Ryan nodded. "I'd like to know that myself. It could've been a hiccup with the rift. I just hope our boys made it back."
Leon groaned. "But why here? Of all places in existence... why did the rift choose this place?"
Ryan shrugged. "Probably the safest place to be, relatively speaking, of course. The rift might've transformed us so we could blend in with the locals."
Leon shook his head in annoyance. "You're probably right."
One hour later...
Ryan and Leon made it to the town. Ryan was breathing heavily, but Leon wasn't as fatigued. He looked over to his partner who was leaning against part of a fence. "I don't suppose they accept our paper money."
Ryan shook his head. "No they don't."
Leon shook his head. "Stay there while I scope out the town." Ryan saluted him and off he went.
Leon was so focused on the buildings that he didn't notice someone approaching until the two collided and he found himself on his back, facing a pink mare with a poofy pink mane. Her eyes widened, she let out a loud gasp and rocketed away. Leon picked himself up and rubbed the back of his neck. "What the heck was that about?"
Ryan started feeling more energized and decided to get up. I know Leon told me to stay put, but what the hell. You only live once, right?
Ryan found his way to a street vendor selling apples. He recognized her as Applejack. She was beautiful, sure, but he liked Rainbow Dash a lot more.
The orange mare tipped her hat to Ryan. "Howdy, stranger! Are ya here to try some of the best apples in all 'a Equestria?"
He knew she was very proud of her apples, but he also knew neither he nor Leon had any money to buy any. "Sorry. I wish I could, but I'm broke."
She nodded. "Ah understand. Ah saw ya with a unicorn just a bit ago. Are the to 'a ya lookin' for work?"
Ryan grimaced as he rubbed a hoof against his neck. "We've already got jobs, but we don't get paid in bits..." She raised a questioning eyebrow. "All of our needs and wants are taken care of."
Applejack smiled. "You and your friend are guards, ain't ya?"
In a way...
She picked up a bag and set it down in front of him. "Take this as a token of appreciation."
He smiled and nodded. "Thank you, uh..."
She smiled. "Name's Applejack, but you can call me AJ."
The two shook hooves. "Thank you, AJ." He picked up the bag and proceeded to look for Leon, who didn't wander off too far and caught up to him quickly at the library.
Leon raised an eyebrow as Ryan set down the bag. "I thought I told you to stay put?"
Ryan nodded. "You did, but I was able to get a bag of apples."
Leon nodded. "Excellent, at least we won't starve."
Ryan pointed to the SRG. "We need to figure out how to get that working again."
Three pegasi land and Ryan recognized all three of them: Rainbow Dash was giving Flitter and Thunderlane a pep talk. His wings sprung when he saw Rainbow.
Leon facehoofed. "Focus, Ryan."
Ryan nodded mindlessly. "I am.
Leon shook his head and turned to the giant tree house. "So what's this place?"
Ryan turned. "This is the Golden Oaks Library, home to Princess Twilight Sparkle."
Leon started approaching the front door. "If we're going to stay here, I should familiarize myself with their culture."
Ryan found his gaze returning toward Rainbow, but they were gone. Disappointed, he followed Leon to the library.