> Existence
>  by Spectar37
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> The Start...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 1
Hello there. Do ya want to hear a story?

No? Well I’m gonna tell you one anyway!

This here is the epic tale of a kid, his friends, guns, evil entities and the seemingly impossible…
_____________________________________________________________________


Today has been pretty good to me so far. School wasn’t as bad as it normally is and I am 10 seconds away from playing Battlefield 3. “Andrew,” AW COME ON! I was so close to starting my virtual killing spree. 
“Yeah what,” I replied, hiding my annoyance from my dad. 
“Could you help me move the trailer please?” my dad asked. I sighed. My fun can be had later.
“Sure,” I answered, jumping out of my comfortable Gaming Seat.

Now I’m not exactly a strong person. I’m probably one of the weakest guys in the entire year level at school, mostly because of my liking for video games. Not that I really care or anything, I get told that I’m along the lines as one of the smarter ones in the school. I can come up with some pretty crazy things, like one day using neutron stars as power generators. I really don’t understand why dad asks me to help him with jobs that require muscles. I would probably be of more help with calculations or cooking.

Oh well, one moving task to do then I’ll be back to playing Battlefield 3...
_________________________________________________________________________
The moon is high in the sky as a purple pony of the unicorn variant sat on a hill, observing the starlit sky intently. Sitting at the ponies side is a baby dragon with purple, you know what, you probably know who I’m on about.

Twilight broke the silence first. “Still as beautiful as always,” she said, causing the dragon to turn to her. “Don’t you think, Spike?”

“Not really,” Spike answered with a yawn. “Maybe you should try a new hairstyle, I’m sure Rarity could help”

“I meant the sky!” Twilight huffed in annoyance at the response she got. “Well it’s getting late,” she began, “we better head home and get some sleep.”
As the unicorn and the dragon walked away, they fail to notice the release of magical energy nearby as a spell left behind by an old enemy is set off…
_________________________________________________________________________
My virtual spree having long been done, dinner been eaten and all of the miscellaneous tasks people do before going to bed done, I started heading to bed.

BUT not before I have said goodnight to everyone!

“Good night Dad,” I said as I walked into the living room, where my dad sat watching a rugby match. 
Dad turned and responded, “Good night.”

I ran off towards the office, where my mum was on Facebook. I don’t understand why people even use Facebook, it doesn’t do anything a text message or call can’t do other than show EVERYONE EVERYTHING about you.

Anyway, back on task. “Night Mum,” I said, causing a near invisible jump from my mum. I’m so good at that.

“Good night Andrew,” she said, not bothering to hide her annoyance. I just chuckled and walked down the hall, to an open door where my brother’s bedroom resides.

Poking in, I notice my brother still playing Mass Effect 3 on his PS3. Fun Fact: I finished that game on PC a week ago. “Night Kyle,” I said, getting no reaction at all from the kid. Damn, just when I thought I was good.

His concentration still on the Screen in front of him, Kyle spoke up, 
“Why are you going to bed so early?” I don’t normally get questions when I say good night, but I think this one is warranted. It IS only 8:30.

“I’m tired,” I answered matter-of-factly. He accepted what I said and continued playing, more focused than before. “Good night bro,” I smiled at the comment and walked off to bed…
_________________________________________________________________________
“ANDREW!”

I awoke suddenly to a very bright, pure white world of a sort. I looked around to see the same thing all round. I start trying to make sense of my new environment, slowly getting myself off of the invisible floor to stand up. As I got myself off the floor, I noticed that I am wearing different clothes, a blue shirt and track pants. My brain started working overtime to solve this dilemma.

A legion of questions entered my thoughts. Where am I? Is this a dream? How did I get here? How do I get out? Where’s the exit door? Is there anything dangerous here? If so, where are the guns?

“I see you’re awake,” The Voice said FAR softer than before. I spun around, trying to find the source of the voice. Instead I was met with the same near blinding white expanse in every direction. Yep, definitely a dream. 
“Who are you,” I demanded, not expecting the voice to actually answer it.

“Your questions can wait,” The Voice answered, avoiding the question completely as expected. “The others need to arrive first.”

The voices answer left me with more questions. “What do you m-”

“I SAID THEY CAN WAIT!” The voice cut me off, startling me as well. Wow, that was mean. It could have been nice about it but no, it had to yell at me. Oh well, I can try and think my way out of this while I wait...

*2 minutes later*

Well my brain still isn’t being of much help at the moment. I still have no idea where I am or how I got here. It’s still just white everywhere and the voice is being very quiet, as in silent quiet. Meh might as well start walking.

As I move my foot forward, several flashes of black appear around me, doing terrible terrible scare damage. Oh damn, I must have pissed it off! “PLEASE DON’T KILL ME!” I basically screamed out, closing my eyes and getting into the foetal position, bracing for the worst. 

A moment passed and the voice started to laugh. Well now I feel kinda stupid as its laughter died down, it spoke to me. “Silly Andrew, I’m not going to kill you,” It reassured me. For unknown reasons, I believed it. And I have pretty bad trust issues.

I opened my eyes to find the same pure white all around, but there was a major change. All around me lay the forms of 5 very familiar forms. Humans. VERY familiar humans. “They will wake up soon,” It spoke. My friends are here as well? Well this is a pretty insane dream, never knew my imagination was this creative.

The first to wake up was Sam. He is slightly shorter than me, just like the real one. Maybe it is the real Sam. He has brown hair and a solid build, wearing a pair of grey shorts and a yellow shirt. He groggily got up onto his feet and looked around. 
“Hey,” I said, getting the desired head spin towards me reaction. He looked surprised, then again I would be surprised if this happened to me so that observation was sort of stupid. “Pretty insane dream, isn’t it.”

Sam looked around, trying to comprehend this landscape but obviously failing. His head spun to face me. “Wait,” he began, “Where am I?”

“I have no idea,”

> The Drop
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 2	
I told Sam of my mini-adventure in this white landscape, making sure not to tell him about me screaming.  “So,” I heard Sam begin, “What now?”

“I don’t know,” I said, “the voice said that it’ll start answering after the others wake up.”

“Sounds simple enough,”

“Tell me about it,”

I began to pace, this feeling in the back of my head telling me something. This was starting to feel real, but it can’t be. It’s not possible for this to be real. It can’t be…

“Hey Sam,” I spoke, breaking the silence, “I’m starting to get this feeling that this is real,”

No reply. He is staring isn’t he? I turn towards him to see if I am right. Aaannd I am.

“Sam,” I slowly approached him, “Stop staring,”

He seemed to jump after I said that. “Oh sorry,” He apologised.

I sighed, “So do you have a feeling that this is more than a dream?” I asked Sam.

He thought for a moment then answered, “sort of,”

“Hey Andrew,” Wait, who said that?

I spun on the spot to see the source of the voice to see Tim. “Sup?”

Tim is Sam’s twin brother, non-identical. He is slightly taller than Sam, has a lighter brown hair than his brother and wore a black shirt and pants. “Where am I?” 

“I’m going to get asked those questions every time someone wakes up aren’t I,” I complained.

Before I could complain more, Sam interrupted. “We don’t know,” he began, “all we know is that there is a big voice, 6 of us and lots of white,”

Tim smirked, “So someone’s been busy,”

“Really Tim,” I said, unamused by his comment, “Really.”

“Yes,” he said, maintaining his grin, “I went there.”

Shaking my head, I turn to see another person standing. She smiled at us. “Hey guys,” she greeted, getting the twins to spin around to face her.

Cloe is about the same height as me with bright orange hair, wearing a denim pair of pants and a green singlet. “Sup,” I said, extending my fist out for a Brohoof. YEAH, didn’t see that one didn’t you. Actually you probably did. “Fancy seeing you here,”
She accepted my Brohoof and asked the question that begs to get asked. “Where am I?”

“Tim,” I said, grinning, “your turn to answer,”

“Aw come on!” Tim started whining, “Why me, you know a lot more than I do,”

“Because you haven’t answered the question before and also know about as much as I do,”

Tim groaned and answered Cloe, “Ok, so we have no idea where we are and the big voice won’t talk until we are all awake,” Tim said more but I couldn’t hear him.

“Ok,” Cloe said, preparing to ask Question that begs to be asked #2. “So who is the voice?” and there it is. 

“We don’t know, it refuses to talk until everyone is awake.”

“NO I DON’T!” The Voice shouted in annoyance, startling me and the others. Well I think the others. “I said the questions can wait until everyone is awake,” Well, that was unexpected.

“Anyway,” I said, “While we wait, what were you guys doing before this,” indicating towards the environment, “because I know I was definitely asleep.”

“Sleeping,” Sam answered.

“Sleeping,” Tim followed.

“No way,” Cloe started, “we were all sleeping,”

A groan coming from one of the two still sleeping individuals made me spin to see who it was. “Sup,” I greeted, “have a nice sleep there I hope.”

Tony got up slowly, adjusting to the fairly bright room. He is taller than me, with brown hair similar to Sam’s and wearing grey pants and a white shirt. The next thing he will say is ‘where am I’, I bet.

“Where am I?” There it is!

I turned to Cloe. “Your turn,”

“Ok,” she replied vibrantly, “So we have no real idea of where we are other than the fact that there is a big voice that I think is in control of this entire place.”

Tony seemed to stand there for a moment, shocked at the answer that he got. He probably has a ton of questions going through his head right now. The question in my head was whether he was going to ask the same question as Cloe.

“So what now?”

His question caught me off guard. I didn’t expect him to ask that yet. “Well,” I began, “we wait until she wakes up. Have I told you that I have no idea why she is here?”

“No but I don’t really care,” Sam almost predictably said.

A quiet moan alerted us of her waking up. I was about to greet her but Sam cut me off.

“Hey,” he greeted, a smile on his face, “Have a good sleep there?”

This comment seemed to cause her to react badly. She jumped up suddenly and backed away from us. “Where am I?” she demanded.

Before I could turn to Tony and ask him to fill her in, Sam began to explain.

“We don’t know.” Well that explanation was short.

She is a rather short individual with long brown hair, an orange shirt and brown pants. Her caution was notable, being that the only one she recognises as a friend is Sam. 

“Now then,” the voice began, “since everyone is awake, the questions can begin,”

Before I could even think of a question, she interrupted my thoughts. “What was that?”

“That was me,” the voice answered, making an obvious comment. “Now I’m going to guess that you are wondering where you are.”

“Yeah,” all of us answered at once, which was pretty cool.

“Well then, brace yourselves for the truth,”

We waited in anticipation for the answer to come. Damn It was taking It’s time. “You are in the Multiverse.”

... What? “Are you serious?”

“Yes I am,” its quick response came. 

Wow, so this is the multiverse. Seems a bit blank really.

“Well, this isn’t exactly the multiverse,” it continued, “it’s more like a plane of existence above the multiverse where living beings are capable of being present. In between the multiple universes is nothing, therefore a living being will simply be obliterated if it went in there without proper protection, something you lack. Luckily I was paying attention and saved you all.”

“Ok,” I interjected, “thanks for that I guess.”

“So, moving on, I’m going to guess you want to know who I am,” The Voice guessed.

“You guessed correctly.”

“Many call me God, Odin, Zeus, Chuck Norris, Morgan Freeman, and Osiris,” The Voice said “but officially, I am known as the Guardian of Existence. Self-appointed of course.”

Wow, this guy has some pretty cool names. Now then to ask my question, “How did we get here?”

The Guardian seemed to mumble something illegible before starting. “Well, there seems to be a rift that happens to create an access point to a specific universe that happens to be able to take things from other universes that happened to have sucked the six of you and no one else through in which the process would have ripped you to pieces if I didn’t intervene.”

“Wait,” Sam said, “You mean only the six of us went through?”

“Well, yeah,” Guardian answered, “but the rift created holes in several other universes.”

“So we can still go back?” she asked.

“Well, no,” The Guardian answered, making my hopes of going home moot, “The holes are one way, for now.”

Wait, he said for now. Either he is working on it or there’s a catch somewhere. I need to ask about this. Also he’s a he now. Just remember all the badass names he has.

“So there is a way to get home?” I asked.

“Yeah, there is,” Is there a catch, “but I will need your help.” Yep, there is.

I turn to the others, silently asking them for their approval. If it is a way home, then I’m willing to take it. I’m just worried the others won’t want to risk it. A moment of thinking later and the others nod their heads, obviously as willing to do this as I am. “Ok, what do you want us to do?”

“Well first, you need weapons,”…


*20 minutes of explaining and arming later*


Now suited up in armour and armed with an arsenal of weapons, we were ready to go.

“Ok, so get in the drop pod and I’ll send you through,” The Guardian announced.

“So you are sure we’ll be fine, you said yourself energies from a different universe will kill us,” Tony asked, understanding his concern.

“You’ll be fine,” The Guardian reassured, “just go in, find the source and I’ll figure it out from there.”

To me, that didn’t sound very reassuring but we sort of have no choice so I’ll go with it. Watching as the others get into the pod, I grabbed my newly acquired weapons and headed for my seat in the pod.

“You all comfortable?” the guardian asked.

“Nope but I’m ready,” I replied sarcastically.

“Mostly,” Sam answered, obviously sitting next to her. I ought to get her name sometime.

“Yeah, sure,” Tim answered, obviously not caring.

“Yeah actually,” Tony threw his answer in.

“Not really,” Cloe answered.

“Let’s just get this over with,” the girl-that-I-ought-to-get-the-name-of-sometime said.

“Ok then,” The Guardian began, “hold on, I’m throwing you in at 2400 meters a second, but don’t worry, you will survive without so much as a bruise.”

As the door closed in front of me, worry set itself into my mind. The sound of mechanical work outside told me that we were being loaded into a launcher of sorts, or I assumed so. Soon after, I felt my insides go up as we were fired out of something, heading to the surface of wherever we’re going. The weightless feeling lasted only a moment before the loudest thump of steel on dirt was heard and all of my insides dropped really hard, leaving me dizzy from the feeling. After a moment, the dizzy feeling subsided, leaving me amazed to not be in pain. Wow, the guardian was right, we would be fine. 

“Everyone alright?” I yelled out, hoping they could hear me.

Mixed replies could be heard from everyone, ranging from “Yeah, sorta,” to “Oh, my stomach.”

“Well, You’s are all good,” I assured, looking to the sides at my weapons, “so who has the door controls.”

“I do,” the enthusiastic voice of Sam answered.

“Ok, might as well do this fast,” I shouted through the steel that separated the sections of the pod, “everyone ready?”

A collection of affirmatives rang back.  “Hit it.”

The synthetic voice of the drop pod chimed in as Sam pushed the button.

“Drop pod doors opening.”

As the hissing of the air seals releasing came, so did the burning pain. All my senses were assaulted by something. I started tasting metal for no reason, I smelt burning flesh, there is a constant ringing noise in my ears and my body felt as if it was on fire. I went to scream in pain, but no noise escaped my mouth. Getting a face of dirt as I fell out of the pod was the last thing I did before losing consciousness…

> Unexpected Arrival
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 3


*5 Minutes earlier*
Twilight and her friends were enjoying a picnic on a hill at the outskirts of Ponyville. Their laughter filled the air around them. The sun in the cloudless sky shone brightly over them. This was a good day.

Then, Pinkies tail started twitching.

“This is different from the normal twitch,” At this, everypony stopped their chatter to listen to Pinkie before looking up into the clear blue sky. To find a flaming object falling from it. 

Everyone watched with wonder and then worry as it came closer to the ground. “Where is it going to land?” asked Fluttershy, showing obvious concern for the animals in the area.

Twilight did several quick calculations in her head before answering confidently, “Don’t worry, Fluttershy,” she began, “It should land on that hill right there.” She pointed with her hoof at a hill no more than 40 meters away.

Almost as if on cue, the object impacted with considerable force on the hill, frightening everypony at the picnic except Rainbow Dash and shaking the ground beneath them.

Soon enough, everypony recovered from the initial shock and went to look at the object. It had six flat metal faces shaped in an upside down cone shape. Twilight’s curiosity to learn more about the new and alien object took her closer to examine. Voices from within could be heard as she got closer.

“…are all good, so who has the door controls,”

The voice sounded like it belongs to a colt. Ponies that need our help, Twilight thought. “I do,” another voice, belonging to another colt, chimed in enthusiastically.

“Ok, might as well do this fast, everyone ready?” the original voice shouted back. By now, Twilights friends had joined her inspection of the pod looking thing.

Several voices rang in response, some belonging to mares, with a collective “Yeah”
“Hit it,”

As soon as he said that, the six sides of the steel pod thing hissed loudly before opening like a flower. Twilight and her friends were ready to provide help to whoever was inside. Instead, they see alien creatures clad in what looks like their equivalent to armour falls out of the pod with faces showing pure agony. An ear piercing shriek left the mouths of the six creatures collectively. Fluttershy showed a fearful expression while the others had looks of horror from the sound that the creatures made. A moment later and the creatures began to fall, one by one, face first into the dirt before becoming still.
Fear and wonder mixed themselves in Twilights head, horror at the look of these creature filled Rarity’s mind, curiosity flew through the brain of Rainbow Dash, excitement remained in Pinkie’s head, worry for the creatures health seeped into Fluttershy and Applejack remained cautious.

Applejack was the first to talk. “What is that?” She asked Twilight.

“I have no idea,” She answered, “My books have never had anything about creatures like this.”

“My, it looks dreadful,” Rarity complained.

“I think it looks pretty cool,” Rainbow countered.

“I gotta plan a party for them,” Pinkie shouted.

“I hope they’re alright,” Fluttershy quietly said.

“Ah don’t know about that,” Applejack responded to everyone’s comment.

Twilight began to think using her logical mind. “Ok, Fluttershy,” She perked up at the mention of her name, “You take care of these things, but be careful, we don’t know if they are aggressive or not, tie them up if you have to, Rarity,” Rarity stood straight at her call, “You help Fluttershy take care of them in any way you can, Pinkie, Applejack,” The two stopped looking at the creatures, “We don’t know what they eat so gather some food, any sort of food, to find out their diet, Rainbow,” at the mention of her name, Rainbow Dash turned to attention, “Help Applejack and Pinkie with the food, I’ll send a message to the princess about this then help where I can.”

“Everyone know what they’re doing?” Several nods from her friends followed her question. “Ok, let’s do this,”

> Epic Introductions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 4


*Unknown amount of time later*

I awoke to an uncomfortably low roof over my head. Ok, this is unexpected. I look around to find my friends still unconscious, surprisingly. Normally I don’t wake up as early as them, from what I know of. But that can wait till later, I have a situation to puzzle my way out of.

I try to get up to find my left hand tied down to the small bed that I currently reside on. The knot looked fairly weak so I should easily be able to undo it. While I was untying the knot, I looked around the room. We seemed to be in a small cottage somewhere in the world we reside in, which I’m in need of finding out. The knot ceased to be and my now free hand no longer hindered me from getting up. 

Standing up, I find myself suddenly stronger than normal, or maybe that’s the lack of armour on. My head seems… clearer than normal. I look around, processing information insanely faster than normal. What happened to us? Were we captured? Experimented on and this cottage was just here to keep us calm when we woke?

I’ll think about that later, for now let’s get more information. Using my extensive knowledge of viable and unrealistic military tactics used in video games, I search the room for relevant info on where we are. After about 15 minutes of looking, I only learned that the locals write in English so they must also speak it. I’ll have to leave the room for the knowledge I seek.
I opened the door just a crack to see if anyone was outside. Luckily, no one was, letting me proceed to the door adjacent to our room. I once again check if anyone was inside to find it empty, and a bedroom. Ignoring that room, I move on.

*10 Minutes later*

Ok no one but us here. I returned to the first room, which is what I’m going to call the room my friend are in, to find Tony slowly regain consciousness. As his eyes opened I spoke up. “Sup.”

“Where are we,” he asked, again.

“In a cottage on a small hill,” I told him, “other than that, no idea, still.”

“How long was I unconscious?” he asked. I’m guess everyone’s gonna ask me that.

“About half an hour,” I answered, hearing him sigh before finishing, “After I woke up,”

“Wait, you were out as well,” I nodded, “so who bought us here?”

“That is what I have been spending half an hour trying to figure out,”

“Oh, so do you have any idea?”

“Neoup,”

“…Well damn,”

Remembering about the newfound clarity in my mind, I decided this was as good as any time to ask if anyone else has it.
“So Tony,” I began, getting his attention in the process, “Have you noticed things like you can process information faster?”

This left Tony thinking for a moment before he answered. “Now that you mention it, yeah,”

This is interesting. Before my mind could pursue this topic further, the noise of a creaking bed alerted me to the fact that someone else has woken up. I turn to see the Girl-That-I-Should-To-Get-The-Name-Of-Sometime-Soon trying to get up.
“Sup,” she spun to face me, her expression that of annoyance, “you need help with that rope?”

“Did you do this,” She demanded again.

“Neoup,” I answered.

“Are you lying,” She, again demanded.

“What’s with the demanding,” I replied in annoyance, “and what sort of question is that, if you asked a person who was actually lying that they aren’t exactly going to say yes.”

That seemed to shut her up for a moment. A very short moment.

“So, where are we?” She asked.

“Good question,” I answered, “we are in a cottage on a small hill in an unknown land with no idea how we got here,”

“Oh,”

Tim and Sam began to regain consciousness and as they awoke I began.

“Sup, we are in a cottage on a small hill in an unknown land with no idea how we got here, what land we are in or where our weapons and armour is,” I pause to take a deep breath before continuing, “So does that answer all your questions and do you need help with the rope?”

“… Actually yeah,” they both answered in sync.

“To which question.”

“The first one,” they answered in sync, again.

“Yay, I’m so good,” I said, using my superior sarcasm. Then I remembered that I have to get a name.

I spin to face her, “Almost forgot, what is your name?”

“Why do you want to know,” She asked.

“I can’t just keep calling you random girl all the time,” I answered her.

“You haven’t called me that.”

“I can start.”

“… good point, the names Anala,” She answered my original question.

“Cool name there,” I commented honestly.

The creaking of another bed means the last person to wake up has awoken. I turn to face Cloe as she tries to get up and see the rope. Ok my time to shine.

“Sup, we did not do that, no we are not lying, we are in a cottage on a hill in an unknown land with no idea how we got here and where here is nor the location of our weapons and armour,” pause for breath and dramatic reasons, “any questions?”

“Nope,” She replied, seemingly unphased by my quick and sudden explanation.

“Aw you could at least look surprised like Tim and Sam were,” I complained sarcastically.

“Well sorry for ruining your fun,” She answered, “but someone has to do it.”

“Point,” I replied before turning to everyone, “Anyway, Has anyone noticed it to be easier to think and walk and stuff like that?”

This threw everyone but Tony and I into deep thought. The first to answer was Sam. “Yeah I do actually.”

“Yep,” Cloe chimed in.

“Yes,” Anala followed.

“Well, yeah,” Tim answered last.

“Cool to know,” I said, heading towards the door, “if you need me, I’ll be downstairs.”

I went downstairs and looked around before hearing new voices. “… if they’re awake?”

Sounded female, gonna guess about nineteen to twenty two. Obviously has company unless she talks to herself.

“Or mean?” Different voice, quieter, again female, guessing similar age to first voice.

“Don’t worry, It’s not like we can’t take ah few critters on,” Another female answered with what sounded like confidence. This one has a weird southern american accent I’ve heard in a couple TV shows. Sorta stereotypical if you think about it, but that’s not important.

The three owners of the voices were at the door and opening it. I was turning around to see who they were until Tim ran down the stairs shouting my name. 

“Yeah what,” I answered, turning to see what was so important.

“We know what the loca…” Tim trailed off before going slack jawed and staring over my shoulder.

“Something behind me?” I asked curiously.

“Uuhhhhhhhh,” was all Tim seemed to be able to say.

I started turning around while still talking, “Aw it can’t be that ba-HOLY UNICORN!”

Right there, in the doorway, stood a unicorn and two others. Of the familiar variant.

Twilight Sparkle stood in the doorway, two of her friends, specifically Applejack and Fluttershy next to her, all with their lower jaws hanging open. Similar to what I’m doing right now. They were shorter than I am, only coming up to my chest in height.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
The commotion I caused seems to have my friends rushing down the stairs. 

“What’s happening down there,” I could hear Sam yell out before appearing at the bottom of the stairs followed by everyone else. They looked around before going slack jawed like everyone else in the room. I gathered my senses as well as I could before talking. “Sup.”

This seemed to have surprised the ponies in front of me, which isn’t surprising at all. I’m surprised they haven’t ran yet, actually. “Uhh,” Applejack began hesitantly, “Stay back, whatever you are, or ah’ll do somethin to ya.”

“This is Epic,” I said to myself before answering Applejack’s threat, “Don’t worry, little Applejack, I don’t wanna cause trouble.”

“Wait,” Twilight interrupted, “How did you know her name?”

Now, time to troll, or try at least. “Magic, Twilight, Magic.”

“You know mine as well!” she ranted, “but that’s impossible, you didn’t use any sort of magic at all, nor read my mind or anything!”

“Never could,” I threw in, smirking.

Tim realised what I was doing and decided to intervene. “Don’t be so hard on them,” he began, “To them, aliens just dropped in out of nowhere.”

I saw his point and sighed, “Ok, I’ll be a good boy.”

“Ok, Ah want some answers,” Applejack said firmly.

“Ok, shoot,” I said, trying to avoid physical confrontation because, let’s face it, I can’t take a pony on in a fight.

“Ok then, what are ya,” she demanded, almost as bad as Anala.

“Human.”

“How do ya know our names,” More demanding.

“Magic,” I won’t tell the truth just yet.

“Yer lyin,” Oh, she’s good.

“Maybe I’ll tell the truth another day.”

“Where are ya from.”

“I’m guessing another dimension,” Sam answered her for me.

This seemed to get twilights attention, “Really, but that’s impossible!”

“Lately the impossible has been happening a lot to us,” Tony said matter-of-factly.

“But to do that, you need to basically have godlike power, and there is nothing with that much power let alone the fact that you possess no magical power at all.”

“Aw they are so Cute!” I could hear Cloe say through the heated debate

“Andrew,” Tim said quietly over my shoulder, “look at Fluttershy.”

I’m going to go with this for now. I look over to where Fluttershy who was shying away from the situation. She is scared of us I think. Gonna do what I do best.

“ALRIGHT, CALM DOWN!” I shout out, killing the growing tension in the air with extreme prejudice. “We’re scaring Fluttershy.”

All the humans in the room backed away from the ponies a little bit before I say more. 

“If our presence is a major issue, we will head back upstairs,” I said, getting a glare from Anala. I don’t think she likes the idea of the ponies getting the final say.

“No, it’s ok,” the quiet voice of Fluttershy spoke up. This actually surprised me.

"Are you sure," I asked, concerned if she was making the right decision. We all know what humans are like.

"Yes," she replied, her voice carrying hidden strength, yet somehow managing to still sound shy, "I don't mind you being here, i just don't like it when every pony fights,"

Cute, she used pony terminology. Then Twilight spoke.

"I told the princess about the six of you," she began, already predicting where this is going. "She wishes to see you herself," AAaaand my prediction is spot on.

"Ok, how long toll she arrives," I ask, hoping to have time to get to the drop pod.

"A few hours from now," her answer came. That's more than enough time to gather our equipment. 

"Alright," I began, but before i could say more, my entire body went numb and i collapsed onto the floor. My senses faded out as my mind randomly got weaker, fading out of consciousness. I just got up...
> Evolution
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 5
They watched as he fell to the ground with no warning. Everything in the room was shocked at the randomness of the situation. The humans were the first to take action.

"Well that was random," the solidly built human said, trying to slow the fear growing in every humans mind, including his. "Lets get him somewhere comfortable to sleep, or whatever he's doing."

Two of the five humans still conscious move to pick him up before one of them stopped and turned towards the ponies.

"Excuse me, but do you mind if we could use one of the beds upstairs?" The slightly taller one of the two asked politely.

"Sure," Fluttershy answered, in a more confident voice, "go right ahead."

"Thanks," it replied before continuing with its intended task. Using their arms to lift the once talkative human, the two carrying him began talking to each other.

"What do you think happened," the shorter one began.

"Don't know, at least he's still alive," the other replied.

Their chatter faded as they ascended the stairs, leaving the three ponies with the three remaining humans. The silence between the two separate groups lingered for a moment before the tall, male like one talked.

"So, How was your day, he asked, trying to ease the tension.

Applejack was the one to reply. "Good, until you six basically landed right darn on top of us,"

"Well, sorry about that," the orange maned human girl apologized.

"Hey Cloe," the tall human called out from the window at the far end of the room, getting a reaction from the orange maned girl, "look at this."

At this, the human called Cloe walked over to see whatever he wanted to show her. "What is that," she said, looking at something out the window.

"I don't know."

"It's probably some creature from the Everfree Forest," Twilight answered

“It’s not,” Tony said flatly.

“How would you know,” Twilight asked.

“It’s bipedal.”

This caught Twilight off guard, she has never heard of a bipedal creature in the Everfree Forest. Twilight ran over to the window to see the new creature only to find it nowhere to be seen in the sunny afternoon light.

“Where is it,” Twilight asked in confusion.

The tall human next to Twilight lifted his hand and pointed with some sort of appendage towards the tree line. “In the shadows.”

Squinting her eyes, Twilight began to see the outline of a tall bipedal creature. The look of this creature seemed to radiate dread. She quickly looked away and stepped back from the window.

“What is that,” she said, fear lacing her words.

“I don’t know,” the tall human began, “But it’s gone now.”

“Good,” twilight replied with relief, “I don’t think it’s here to be nice.”

“What do you mean, Twilight,” the shy voice of Fluttershy spoke up.

Twilight turned to her friend and began. “The creature just felt,” she paused to search for the right word, “Wrong, it felt wrong.”

“But how could any creature be wrong,” Fluttershy asked.

“Yeah, it ain’t no different ta any other critter from the Everfree Forest,” Applejack chimed in.

“Well I’ll be upstairs to see what’s taking Sam and Tim so long,” Cloe interrupted.

“I’ll join ya,” the quiet girl said quickly.

“Ok, I’ll try to answer the ponies questions,” the male human said.

_________________________________________________________________________
*Unknown amount of time later*
I slipped back into consciousness, again, to find a large, soft object pressing against my back. I open my eyes to find the ceiling, must be on a bed then. My hearing slowly returned to me, allowing me to hear the voices of Sam and Tim.

“…us, I’d trust him.” A voice, Sam’s I think, said.

“I would too,” a second voice, Tim’s, replied, “but how will he take it.”

I slowly got up from the bed, my head hurting for some reason. I could see Sam and Tim heading for the door. “Hey,” I spoke up, alerting the two of my conscious state. 

They turned to face me, surprised about something. Dunno what it is.

“Quick question,” I began, “how long was I out?”

Their surprise quickly wore off after my question. “About a minute,” Tim answered.

Wait, that can’t be right. “Really?” I said.

“Yep,” Sam replied matter-of-factly.

“So what was that about?” Tim asked.

“Oh it was some random evolutionary process that happens after exposure and how do I know that?” I blurted out of nowhere, the pain in my head receding slightly. How do I know this?

“…What,” Sam and Tim said, almost in unison.

“Oh knowledge about this was inserted into my brain during the process and I just answered my own question didn’t I,” I, once again blurted out, with the pain practically disappearing.

“Yeah,” Tim told me, “you did.”

“Wow,” I began, “does this make me super smart?”

“Square root of 906.01 is what,” Sam asked me.

“30.1,” I answered flatly, “I did play Mass Effect 2, Sam.”

“Oh yeah,” Sam replied, deflating his cheery mood a little.

“Anyway,” I began as I jumped off of the bed, but before I could continue, Cloe walked in through the door.

“Andrew!” she shouted, surprised that I’m conscious. “You’re up already?”

“Well, yeah,” I answered.

A moment later, Tony and Anala walked through the door. Both seemed slightly surprised buy my recovery, but Anala seemed irritated about something.

“Sup,” I greeted the two. 

“Sup,” Tony greeted me back. Sadly, no greeting from Anala. She probably doesn’t like me.

“So what was that about?” Cloe asked. I saw that coming.

“Oh it’s just some evolutionary process that’s gonna happen to all of us,” I said, not knowing where that last part came from. I’ve learned to not to question that.

Everyone reacted to what I said, backing up with looks of fear on their face.

“Ah don’t worry,” I reassured as best as I could, “it doesn’t hurt.”

Everyone relaxed after that. Everyone, except Anala. Damn, she don’t trust me one bit at all.

“And how exactly do you know,” she said questioningly.

“The process inserts knowledge in your head as well as enhance your body and mind,” I answered, again not knowing where the last bit came from.

“Suure,” she replied sarcastically.

I give up. “Well you best get comfy,” I said to everyone, “don’t wanna collapse when you’re standing up now.”

Everyone took my advice and sat down. Once everyone got comfortable, the pony walked, or is it trot, through the door to join us. Twilight, Fluttershy and Applejack seemed more relaxed than before, but something seems to be agitating Twilight. I’ll ask about it later.

“Sup,” I greeted the ponies.

“Now what in tha hay is that suppose ta mean,” Applejack said, annoyed at what I said.

“Human greeting, basically means what’s up,” I answered her.

“Fluttershy,” a new voice, got a sort of English accent in it. Probably Rarity. “You home, dear,” Yep, Its Rarity.

At this, Fluttershy jumped up and flew out the door, literally, to talk to Rarity. 

A silence hung in the air as Fluttershy was gone. I was thinking of ways to troll the ponies more as well as thinking of possible outcomes to our introduction. This is going to be interesting…

> Moar Intros
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 6

As we waited for Fluttershy to return to the room, we all heard the hoof steps of more than two ponies. Wait, they’re all here?

In a sudden explosion of confetti, the legendary pink pony of rule breaking burst through the doorway in slow motion, literally. It was surprising to see everyone else in the room jump in fright, also in slow motion. Did time just slow down?

I'll think about that later, this is entertaining.

The looks on my friends faces as their muscles moved to form startled expressions was priceless. It was awesome. Unfortunately, time returned to normal and my friends squeals reach my ears. Then the onslaught began.

“Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie, what’s your name, do you like cupcakes, do you, do you, do you?” she suddenly gasped loudly, “I should throw you all a party, a Welcome-to-Ponyville-nice-of-you-to-drop-by-in-a-metal-box Party! We’re gonna have streamers and cake and punch and confetti and cupcakes and balloons and pirates and…”

“OKAY, so anyway, names Andrew,” I interrupted, cutting off Pinkies long party speech.

“Why hello Andrew,” the unmistakable voice of Rarity came as she entered the room, somewhat uncomfortable around us. Understandable.

Rainbow Dash flew through the door, and hit me. Ran straight into me. The impact sent me flying a few metres, throwing me into the bed. Managing to get back up through the pain, I look up to see Rainbow was already up, in a defensive fighting stance.

“Stay away from my friends!”

“Rainbow!” Twilight shouted, “What are you doing! They were trying to introduce themselves.”

Rainbow stopped and chuckled awkwardly. “Oh, I knew that.”

Sam was the first to introduce himself. “Hi, I’m Sam.”

“Hey, I’m Cloe,” Cloe happily said.

“Hello, I’m Tony,” Tony greeted.

“I’m Tim,” Tim said flatly.

No greeting or intro from Anala. She really doesn’t like the ponies. Guess I’ll do it for her.

“And she,” I began, gesturing towards the brown haired girl, “is Anala.”

“Well,” Rarity said calmly, “nice to make your acquaintance.”

I sat down and listened to the random conversations that occurred after our introductions. Tony went and talked to rarity about designs of some sort. Sam started to discuss random, physics related stuff with Twilight. Tim walked over and idly talked to Fluttershy, receiving no reply about anything he was talking about and Cloe attempted to out talk Pinkie, with Rainbow laughing at their antics. Anala, however, sat back and avoided the ponies, moving over to where I sat.

“Why do you trust them?” she asked, genuine concern showing, “you don’t even know them.”

I sighed. “That is where you are wrong,” I began my speech, “I know how these ponies work, I know that they are peaceful by nature, I know not to break a pinkie promise, I know that Twilight loves knowledge, I know that Fluttershy loves to help animals, I know that Rarity is a local dressmaker, I know that Applejack runs an apple farm, I know that Rainbow is the fastest flyer in the world, and I know that the princesses are good people, or ponies in this case.”

“I trust them because I know them enough to trust them,” I concluded my speech, “and so do the others.”

Anala was silent, taking the new information in. Before long, she walked out and joined the conversations going on. I, however, sat back in silent observation, thinking about the time slowing thing that happened earlier.

Is it possible that the magic in this land is affecting us in adverse ways? I don’t know, but it’s possible. The guardian altering us while we were in the drop pod sounds far more plausible. The guardian has been fairly secretive about stuff so far so it wouldn’t be surprising. Maybe he designed a serum that used magic as a catalyst, causing mutation of the body and mind to facilitate accelerated brain processes and efficient neural activity.

Applejack walked up to me, having walked around and listening to everyone and everyponies conversation. My thoughts can be shared later.

“So,” she began, seeming far more comfortable talking to me. “Why ain’t ya talkin with the others?”

“Cause I sorta don’t have anything interesting to talk about,” I answer her.

“Well, why don cha tell me about ya home,” the hat wearing pony asked.

Eh, why not.

“Well then,” I began, “I like home, even with the many downsides.”

“What sort of downsides,” Applejack asked, a look of scepticism on her face.

“Well,” I began to answer, “there are a lot of bullies and mean people, trust issues that all humans have and the generally large amounts of violence in the world but other than that, it’s pretty cool.”

The look of horror on her face at what I told her served to remind me of the peacefulness in this world. Damn, well she wanted to know.

“T-that’s horrible,” She stutters out, “how do you live in a world like that.”

“Skill,” I reply cheekily, inciting a chuckle out of the apple farmer.

“No, really,” she said, “how do you live in a world like that.”

“Well, I just focus on the good things in life,” I replied, giving a confident smile.

“Well that’s-,” her reply was interrupted by a rapid succession of thuds. I look up to find the ponies looking down at the limp forms of my friends, looks of concern on their faces. Seems that the process happened earlier than predicted.

“Well I did tell them to sit down,” I said to no one in general, getting up to put them into far more comfortable positions. This will annoy me. I might as well ask for help.

“Do you ponies mind if you could help me out?” I asked.

All of them jumped up and said a collection of affirmation. After a bit of effort and magic, we got Tim, Sam, Tony, Anala and Cloe onto the beds. “Thanks for the help,” I thanked them.

“Aw it was nothing,” Rainbow replied, showing her confidence in ample quantities.

A loud knocking noise from downstairs caught everyone’s attention. Someone is here.

“Um, I’ll get it,” the meek voice of Fluttershy spoke before she walked out the door and down the stairs.

The tension in the room grew in anticipation to who it is. 
“Hey Twilight,” I whisper, “who do you think it is.”

“I don’t know,” she replied in a similar whisper to mine.

“Guess we’ll know soon enough,”

Soon enough, the sound of hoof steps could be heard. Who is it?

Fluttershy emerged from the doorway, followed by no one. I guess it was just mail.

Just then, I was proven wrong.

Another pony walked through the door, one of huge importance.

“Hello, my student, and hello to you, human.”

Aawwwwwwwwww Shit...
> Royalty
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 7


The princess of the sun stood there, allowing silence to take the room.

“Princess Celestia,” Twilight said, surprised at the presence of the princess. The ponies in the room bowed to the princess. Now time to annoy everyone.

“PRINCESS,” I shouted, spreading my arms out, “hug?”

This succeeded to annoy everyone in the room, my blatant ignorance towards her royalty is working. Celestia, however, seemed to take my random outburst well, smiling at my antics.

“Uh,” the princess chuckled, “sure?”

Aww Yeah! I get to hug the princess! The looks on the six ponies faces is gonna be priceless. The hug was short, but still a hug!

The ponies wore looks of horror at the sight of what I did. I smiled.

“Now, I want answers,” Celestia said firmly.

Damn and I was hoping for no questions. “Ok, go for it.”

“Who are you,” her first question came.

I sighed, this is gonna take time. “Names Andrew, I come from a different dimension and I have been tasked with a mission.”

She narrowed her eyes, “What kind of mission,” she demanded. At least she has a good demand.

“The kind that usually doesn’t end up in conflict,” I answered sarcastically, “but if you want specifics, a search of a sort.”

She seemed sceptical about my answer, then again, if I was her I would too. “What are you looking for,” she asked.

I thought about it for a moment. Should I tell the most important individual in the world what exactly we’re looking for or not. Ah, screw it. “A rift in existence,” I tell her, truthfully I must add.

This seemed to gain a laugh out of Twilight, probably thinks that was a joke. “You’re kidding,” she said through her laughter, but once seeing my fairly serious face, her laughter stops.

“You are kidding, right,” she asks, her worry shown on her face.

“Nope,” I answered seriously.

“But that’s impossible,” she began hysterically, “a rift of that sort would most certainly destroy everything in the world!”

“Actually, it’s quite possible,” I said, “with the proper tech and rift generation techniques you can create a temporary rift that allows travel through the dimensions of the multiverse.”

This caught her attention, probably the techniques bit.

“What’s a multiverse?” Twilight inquisitively asked. Oh god, what have I done.

“I’ll tell you later,” I told the purple unicorn. That’s gonna be a pain to explain.

“So,” I said, turning to the princess, “sorry about that bit of off-topicness, any more questions.”

“Yes, one more,” Celestia began, “Why are the others still asleep?”

“Oh,” I spun to look at my friends. The process seems to take a little longer for them it seems.

“Yeah, don’t worry,” I assured Celestia, “they’ll be alright, in fact they should be awake right about now.”

As we watched my friends, waiting for them to wake up, I start losing confidence. After a few seconds though, I noticed something.

“Stop faking it,” I said flatly, causing them to get up from their false sleep.

“See,” I said, turning to the princess, “Completely fine.”

“So how did you know,” Anala spoke up, while the others were silent.

“Cloe gave it away,” I answer her.

I spun back around to address Celestia. “Anyway, these are me friends, I’ll let them introduce themselves.”

“Uh,” Tony began nervously, “Hi, I’m Tony.”

“I’m Sam.”

“Hey, I’m Cloe.”

“I’m Tim.”

“Hey, I’m Anala.” So she decides to introduce herself this time.

“Well hello, I’m-“

“Princess Celestia?” Tim interrupted, attempting to troll the princess.

“…Yeah, how do you know?” Celestia asked.

“Well, about that,” I began, “I would say magic but that would be a lie,” I thought of a tactful way to word this, so many fanfics have them freak out and go into depression when told they’re in a Cartoon.

“So, What’s the real reasonin,” Applejack spoke up impatiently.

“Ok then,” I take a deep breath.

“Well, your all in a TV show where we come from.” Damn it, Tony.

The ponies reacted fairly well to this, surprisingly. No looks of horror or overreacting. Just looks of confusion. I don’t get it.

“So what’s a TV?” Twilight asked inquisitively. Ok, now I get it.

‘Oh yeah, I forgot they don’t have TV,” I heard Tony mumble.

“Can we answer these questions later,” I asked, “I sort of want to get to the drop pod.”

More confused looks. “You know, the huge metal box like thing.”

“Oh,” the six ponies say collectively.

I walk down stairs, not bothering to wait for the others. “Andrew,” I heard a voice behind me.

I turn to see the ever so inquisitive purple pony behind me. “Why do you want to go to it?”

Better be a bit discrete with the truth. “We forgot a few things from the pod.”

“Oh what sort of things,” she asks, “Is it a TV?”

“Well…” I trailed off as the rest of the ponies come down the stairs, followed by the humans.

“Oh I can’t wait,” she squealed, “Do you mind if I study it?”

“Uhh,” well they’re guns, but do I tell her.

“Well let’s get going,” Thank you, Tim.

“Alright,” I say, turning to address everyone, “So where did it land.”

“We can show you,” Twilight excitedly, too excitedly, “Come on.”

The door flies open as twilight rushes out, slowly followed by everyone else. Everyone began having conversations with everypony. Cute.

Celestia walked up beside me, seems like she has more questions.

“So, how much about us do you know?” the princess asked.

“More than enough,” I answered.

“How much exactly,” She continued to ask.

“Do you want specific?” She nodded. “Fine then.”

I raise my hand and point at the orange pony wearing a Stetson asking Tim questions. “Applejack, owner of an apple farm outside Ponyville, Element of Honesty and possesses great strength due to her job applebucking.”

I move my hand and point to the flying rainbow pony bragging to Sam. “Rainbow Dash, part of the local weather team and Element of Loyalty, she is the fastest flyer in Equestria and aspires to become part of the Wonderbolts.”

I point at a yellow pony hiding slightly behind her pink hair talking with Anala. “Fluttershy, looks after the local fauna and is very shy, possesses the Element of Kindness and is probably the most hardcore pony here.”

My finger reorients to point at a pink pony bouncing alongside Cloe as they talked. “Pinkie Pie, local party thrower and Element of Laughter, she is very fond of her pinkie promises.”

I shift my hand to point at the white pony with purple curled hair conversing with Tony. “Rarity, local dress maker and fashion pro, she is the Element of Generosity and a fairly classy person.”

I point my finger at the purple pony ahead of everyone. “Twilight Sparkle, local librarian and your student, she is the Element of Magic and is god tier at using magic of all sorts.”

I turn to Celestia to find a shocked look on her face. “I’ve got more if you want to hear it.”

A loud Screech coming from behind us could be heard. I turn to see what it is only to find something that I would have feared if it were real. Unfortunately, it is.

“AW SHIT, RUN!”

> First Strike
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 8


As everyone tried to get their thoughts straight, I rush up to twilight. “Lead us to the pod as fast as possible.”

As she nods, I hear the flare of energy as the demon prepares to throw a fire ball at us. “MOVE!”

Pushing the pony away, I spin to find a ball of fire floating in front of me. What?

“Cloe,” I hear Sam say, “what are you doing.”

I look at Cloe to find her hand outstretched, glowing a bright red colour. Is she manipulating the fire ball?

“I don’t know,” She answers him. The demon screamed in anger, its attack being stopped by Cloe.

“Well lets run,” I shout, catching their attention, “the ponies are a mile ahead of us.”

We all run after the ponies, slowly catching up. Small explosions of energy where the demons attacks miss could be heard behind us, slowly getting closer. It’s gonna hit one of us soon. There’s only one way to prevent that. “Serpentine!”

“What?” Tim shouted.

Wow, really. “Zigzag!”

“Oh,” I hear my friends say collectively.

We began to zigzag around, manoeuvring out of the way of the demons fiery attacks. The drop pod came into view, its panels still open. Oh I hope no one stole anything. The ponies are standing around the pod, curiously looking at it.

I turn to see how close the imp is. The demon was only two dozen metre behind us, chasing us with the intent to kill in its eyes. I need to get to the pod faster or we’re doomed.

I pushed myself to go faster, feeling my legs work harder than ever. Not that they ever worked like this anyway. The pod got closer faster and the impacts of the fire balls sounded further away.

I look back, only to find my friends trailing too far behind me. The imp was catching up. Tony, for some reason decided stopping and facing down the creature was an awesome idea. “Tony,” I shout out, slowly coming to a stop to help them out.

Tony raised his hands and did a fairly powerful pushing motion in the imp’s general direction. Suddenly, a pulse of energy flew out of his body and sent the demon flying back, buying time for everyone. How did he do that?

Enough thinking, more running. I raced towards the pod and looked for the correct slot. There. Diving in, I try to find the best solution to this problem as fast as possible.

“Andrew,” Tim yelled distantly. They’re not here yet. This’ll have to do.

Climbing out, I rack the shotgun in my hands and run after my friends, the imp trailing mere metres behind them. No time to get closer.

“Get down.”

As my friend realised my intent and dropped to the ground, time slowed down once again. There’s that brain stimulation thing. As the creature came into view, I took aim and aligned the sights of my weapon, before pulling the trigger.

The resounding bang of the shotgun blasted out as pure bolts of energy left the barrel simultaneously, ripping and tearing through the body of the demon. Its slowed screech of pain could be heard as it fell backwards to the ground.

Time returned to normal after that, making everything sound normal in the process. My friends returned to their feet, looking back at the creature that was chasing them just before.

“Is it dead?” Tim asked, worry evident in his voice.

I stare at the creature for a moment before I answered him. “No.”

Ignoring Tim’s following comment, I stepped over to the creature. It’s brown skin riddled with deep wounds that any human would have died from. I rack my shotgun, discharging the spent energy from the weapon before pointing at its head.

As I pull the trigger, its head explodes with the impact of the round punching through it. A second later, its body begins to turn to ash. Now it’s dead. By the time I turn to my friends, the body is gone.

“Is everyone alright,” I ask them, hoping the spread didn’t get them.

“Yeah,” they collectively say before walking towards the drop pod.

I turn to check on the ponies, only to find Fluttershy missing and everyone else slack jawed, except for Celestia. Oh yeah, I forgot there were ponies nearby. “Don’t worry, its safe now,” I say to them as reassuringly as I can.

Soon, Fluttershy peeks out of a nearby bush, her fears slowly vanishing. Every human crowded around me.

“What was that thing?” Sam asks.

“How did it get here?” Tony asks.

“Why so brutal?” Anala asks.

“How did you know it wasn’t dead?” Tim asks.

“That was pretty awesome,” Cloe said.

Everyone turned to Cloe, questioning looks on their faces. “What, it was actually pretty cool.”

“Anyway,” I say, breaking the awkwardness, “Sam, it’s a demon, imp variant. Tony, remember when the guardian said the rift spread to other worlds. Anala, because brutal isn’t enough to kill it. Tim, it didn’t turn to ash.”

“There, that all the answers you need?” I ask, receiving a nod from them.

“Ok then,” I turn to address the ponies. “Sorry about that, hopefully the blood doesn’t stain.”

Their slack jawed trance was broken. They looked at me, fear in their eyes. Damn I better reassure them that I won’t hurt them.

“Ok, I promise, wait, I Pinkie promise not to hurt anypony with this, ok.” I lower my gun and place it on the ground, seeing their fear fade slightly. “Cross my heart, hope to fly,” I promise while doing all the actions, “Stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Their fear never leaving their eyes, they understood that I meant it. Well Pinkie would.

“Why,” I hear Twilight ask softly, almost inaudible.

“Sorry?”

“Why did you kill it,” she said loudly, looking like she was on the brink of tears, “Why did it have to die?”

Ah damn it…

> Arming up... Again.
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 9



“Why did you kill it,” she yells furiously, “It was probably sacred.”

“Well…”

“We could have talked to it,” She continued to rant, “We could have negotiated with it.”

“But…”

“My student has a point,” Celestia interjected. Damn everyone’s against me. “We could have asked the creature why it attacked.”

This is irritating. “You all done yet?” I say, not hiding my annoyance at being interrupted.

“So why,” Twilight asks.

I sigh. “Do you even know what that was?”

“Well, no but it was scared,” she answered.

“Are you sure,” I ask, my anger rising, “Did you look into its eyes and see fear.”

“Well…”

“That Demon does not fear, does not show mercy and hates everything,” I rant, “How can you talk to something that only wants to see you dead, how can you negotiate with something that wants to watch the world burn?”

The silence met the end of my rant, leaving everyone to think about what I said.

“Killing it not only saved us, but you, Ponyville and the world from a painful fiery death.”

A moment later, Twilight looked at me, staring straight into my eyes. Her gaze felt almost invasive. “Why would it do that,” she asked, tears streaking down her face.

This is not easy, but the question was directed at me. “It’s just the way it is,” I tell her. “Some things in the universe want peace and prosperity, others want a safe home.” No, this isn’t going to work.

“Here, I’ll give an example,” I begin, “We humans live in a very twisted way, compared to Equestria. We all want different things, some of us want a safe home while others want more. This draws us into conflict, nations going at it for generally good reasons. Resources, land, to stop bad people, whatever. But of all the good qualities we have, there is always the one percent that wants everything, that want to hurt people because they’re different, that want to see everything burn. Where these things come from, things are opposite. The one percent wants peace and friendship while everyone else wants to see everything die.”

“That’s why I shot it, why it died today,” I conclude my speech.

Everyone silently took in my speech the entire time. I turn to my friends to say one thing.

“Gear up, I don’t want to get caught like that again.”

Everyone nodded and gathered their weapons. I sigh and pick up the shotgun before walking towards the pod.

“Andrew,” I spin to see all seven ponies approaching me. They wore looks people have when they are about to apologise.

“I’m sorry for upsetting you,” Twilight apologised.

“Yeah, upsetting people is no fun,” Pinkie followed.

“It wasn’t right fer us ta have yelled at ya like that,” Applejack added.

“We were not understanding ponies and ask for your side before we judged you,” Rarity spoke up.

“Yeah, even though it was kinda cool,” Rainbow interjected.

“Um… I’m sorry for not trusting you,” Fluttershy quietly said.

“I understand the position you were in, being responsible for the workings of Equestria and I am sorry for not seeing things from your perspective,” Celestia said.

“I’m sorry you had to see that,” I apologise back, “It was brutal and merciless, and I scared you all.”

“Oh, It’s ok,” Fluttershy meekly said.

“Anyway, sad speeches aside, I got stuff to get,” I say before running off towards the pod.

I get in to grab the remainder of weapons that I was given. Now that I have a reason to need them, I don’t want to be without them. The demons will eventually come back and I want to be ready to take them on.

My collection consisted of a Plasma Pulse Gun, or PPG-32 as the guardian calls it. It’s a short weapon with a 40 round magazine and a range of 400 metres, which was pretty good. Looked a lot like one of my nerf guns as well. As I slung the pulse gun over my shoulder, I pulled out the next weapon in my arsenal is the shotgun in by hand, apparently called the Desolater. It fired a plasma discharge capable of terrible damage. As I slung that over my other shoulder, I pulled out the last two weapons in my section of the pod. They consisted of a simple pistol and a sword. The pistol worked similar to the pulse gun but had a far slower fire rate and, somehow, infinite ammo. It even came with a little holster for itself which I clipped to my waist. The sword, however, is a mystery, which I blame on magic. It was indestructible and could never dull, which I tested before the drop. Damn thing is impossibly tough. I clipped the sword and its sheath to the belt that the pistol holster came with.

So, the only thing missing now is my armour. Wish I had it on my.

Suddenly, a brief flash of white emanated from my body, bright enough to nearly blind someone for a second. I suddenly felt heavier, as if something was teleported onto me. I really wouldn’t be surprised if that happened.

I look around to find whatever happened only to find nothing. Something was on my back. Must be whatever is making me heavier. I reach around to grab whatever it is only to find that it won’t move. I could feel a piece of paper attached to it. Pulling it off to see what it is, everyone crowded around me, staring at my back in wonder. I look down at the note and read.


Andrew
Sorry about the flash but you’ll get used to it.
Have some armour, didn’t know that the last set would disintegrate on contact with the worlds atmosphere. Anyway, have a good one.
GOD


Wow, he’s fuelling his own ego.

More flashes emanated from my friends as what I assume is the Guardian sending more armour our way. Weird discs appeared on the backs of my friends, all with little sticky notes on them.

“Hold still for a moment,” I tell Sam, who happens to be the closest to me. As soon as he stopped moving, I pulled off the note and gave it to him. I walked around, doing the same for everyone else.

When everyone finished reading their notes, I began to wonder how to use it. Knowing the Guardian, he will probably make these discs produce bubble shields or something. “So how do we use these,” I asked everyone.

“Don’t know,” Tim answered. Well this sucks, How do these work.

A creeping feeling spreading across my back caught me by surprise. It spread across my body at an alarming rate. I look down at my arms to find a silver lining growing across them. Everyone, including the ponies gasped in surprise at what was happening to me. It grew to encompass my entire body, losing my vision as it covered my face. What is it?

Clinking noises could be heard as the all too recognisable sound of metal coming in contact with metal. A whirring noise soon followed, sounding like my hard drive. My vision returned to me in a sudden fashion, temporarily blinding me. When my eyes recovered, several digital displays popped into my sight. A heads up display! AWESOME! I always wanted one.

Ok, time to pay attention. One of the many displays said something about a neural link. It’s connected to our brains. Turning my attention to other displays, I drank in the information as fast as I could. Nano Skin underlay, Energy Shield System, Nano Armour monitors, Munitions recharge ports and an Adaptive form system. Dunno what the last bit is, but I don’t care. I’m in freakin’ Power Armour.

“Wow,” I heard Tim say behind me. I span around to find everyone staring at me. Apparently my armour looks awesome enough to stare at.

“I know, it’s pretty sweet,’” I say. 

More displays appeared, identifying my friends and highlighting the ponies. Target identification systems as well. This thing will make life too easy.

The humans all tried looking at their backs, trying to figure something out. I tried to think but the awesome displays were distracting. Wait, if this is connected to our brains then if I think about having no helmet, the helmet should disappear.

I was proven right as the HUD disappeared and my vision became black for a moment before returning to me as the Nano Skin retracted back into the disc. My friends looked at me, surprised once again at what happened. “How did you do that?” Tony asked.

“The things are connected to our brains,” I answer, “just think it on.”

“How does that work,” Anala asked.

I sigh, “You don’t watch enough Sci-fi stuff.”

Her questioning stopped as everyone else was slowly enveloped in the silver suit that was the Nano Skin. As soon as the entirety of their bodies were completely sealed in the Skin, metal armour plates flipped out from the discs on their backs, encasing them in protective steel plates. They all look fairly intimidating now. Lights began to glow along the leg, arm and chest plating, making it look a lot like something from Tron. The Guardian obviously loves ripping off of movies. Then again, that probably has its own universe.

As their helmet lit up with several lines of light streaking across the frontal face, the armour finished its self-setup bull. Now all of us look badass. Well, nearly all of us.

“So, what do we do now,” I asked everyone. “I say we D up and train for the use of those powers that Cloe and Tony have.”

“Hey, why is it that only Tony and Cloe have powers,” Tim complained.

“I’m pretty sure that all of you have powers,” I answer him, quelling his complaining.

“What does D up mean,” Cloe asked.

“Set up shop and get some defences.”

“I agree with the training bit,” Sam interjects, “but I would prefer to meet the locals.”

“Meeting the ponies will most likely cause disaster,” Tony retorts, “especially if we come across Lyra.”

“What could possibly happen,” Anala asked, “We have guns.”

“First of all, no shooting ponies,” I began, “Second of all, ponies don’t know what guns are, except the seven ponies over there, and three, Lyra will chase us down and ask too many questions.”

“Maybe we could help you there,” Celestia said.

“Ok, what do you suggest,” I ask. 

> Transformed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 10


*20 minutes, a walk and some tea later*

I stood behind Fluttershy’s house, staring at the purple unicorn pointing her horn at me. Their plan hopefully works, it would definitely make our life easier.

“So are you sure this is gonna work,” I ask Twilight as her horn glowed with energy.

“Don’t worry, I’ve done this before,” she answered.

“How many times.” I ask.

“Once before.”

“That isn’t very reassuring.”

“Then you shouldn’t have volunteered to be first.” She has a point there.

Bracing myself for the oncoming burst of magic, I waited for her to execute the spell. Damn spell has a wicked charge time. Now that I think about magic, I wonder if a human could use it. It would be pretty awesome.

My thoughts were cut off as the spell struck me with the force of a Sparta kick. I was sent flying back before striking a tree. The intense pain scrambled my thoughts, confusing me. I tried to stand but fell back down before I could even push myself up.

“It worked!”

I groaned as I once again tried to get up, only to land on my face. I could see the others run up to me, saying things that ended up mixing together, making unintelligible gibberish out of what they were saying. I try to speak up only to find that I can’t speak.

“What is this!” I surprisingly shout. Turns out my voice was trolling me.

“Woah, quiet down there,” Sam said, “We’re right here.”

“By the way, you should look at yourself,” Tony says, a small smile on his face.

“Sure, but I sorta don’t understa- HOLY HOOVES!”

I look at where my hands should be to find hooves. “I have hooves.”

Everyone broke into smiles as I slowly stood up. “This is AWESOME!”

“I mean, look at me. I got hooves and four legs and no hands and a mane. Ow what colour is it, probably black knowing me. Anyway, brown coat, good flexibility and... Wait.”

I feel like I have more arms. I move these extra limbs to find them on my back.

“WINGS! I have wings. This is so badass and awesome there is no way to express it, I wanna try em out right now.”

I jump in the air and spread my newly acquired wings and flap them, gaining altitude as I go. wings So the body mutation even has redundant data about how to use wings properly but that don’t matter. This is so fun. Why weren’t humans given wings. I spin in the air and try a backflip, only to crash into the ground, hard.

“OW,” I shout in pain, “Ok, lets avoid doing that.”

I look up to see Pinkie and Rainbow laughing hysterically. “What,” I shout at them, “I’ve never flown before.”

“I know,” Rainbow says through her hysterics, “But I have never seen a pegasi fly like that.”

“Eh whatever,” I say before I turn around to Twilight. “So can I turn back now?”

“I weaved a little bit into the spell Twilight used,” Celestia answered, “You should be able to transform between a pony form and your human form.”

“Wow, that is possibly the most metal thing I have ever heard.”

A flash of light blinded me for a second, forming a little scroll in front of the Princess. She opened the scroll using her magic, reading it for a moment before closing it and burning it.

“I’m sorry everyone, but I need to go and check on a problem elsewhere.”

As the princess said her farewells to the ponies, I was left with no real answer to my question. How do I transform?

When the princess left the others walked up to Twilight, asking to be ponified. Why did she happen to leave before she answered my question? That was surprisingly convenient.

“AW YEAH!” the all too familiar shout from Sam could be heard. I span around to see a pegasus pony, obviously Sam. He had a white coat with a brown mane, with a similar build to when he was human, except pony. His eyes have a deep blue colour in them. He had a pair of glasses for a cutie mark, which I could understand. He always was a smartass.

“How do I look,” Sam asked, striking a pose and flaring out his wings.

“Not like a boss,” I answer, “Cause that’s what I look like.”

“Sure,” he replied sarcastically, walking over to converse with the ponies.

Twilight charged the same spell again as Tony stepped up, bracing for the spell. As Twilight unleashed her spell, the beam of energy flew out and impacted with Tony, making him collapse to the ground and envelop him in a bubble. A few seconds later, the bubble dispersed, revealing a unicorn pony where Tony used to be. Tony’s new pony form had a light brown coat, a brown mane and was fairly taller than me. His eyes possessed the same deep colour as Sam’s. He wore a pencil for a cutie mark. His drawing skills were always good.

“Wow, this is awesome,” Tony said.

“Now I can call you a dick head,” I say to him jokingly.

“Ha ha very funny,” he said flatly, obviously not happy about my pun. He soon walked off to talk to the ponies.

Tim stepped up to be changed. After the spell did its thing, Tim was turned into a pegasus pony. He held a fair few similarities to his brother, such as the white coat and brown mane, but has a much smaller build. His eyes differed from his brother’s blue, being a darker green colour. He lacked a cutie mark, which surprised me. He is really pro at annoying people.

“So this is what it feels like to be a pony,” he said.

“Yep, pretty cool isn’t it,” I reply.

“Yeah actually,” he said, flexing his new wings while he walked off to an empty patch of ground.

Cloe jumped up, eagerly waiting for the transformation spell to hit her. After its execution, a unicorn emerged from the bubble. She wore an orange mane and a light brown coat. Her eyes were a light green. The cutie mark she wore is a book.

“So how do I look,” she asks everyone.

“Ah, the ever so elusive impossible question.”

She turned to me, a scowl on her face. “How is that,” she asked me, not bothering to hide the tone of annoyance in her voice.

“Well, let’s be real, you’re a girl,” I began, “To a guy, that question is a lose lose lose situation, where if I say no, you will yell at me for being mean, if I say yes, I open myself up to being called a perv or saying that I have feelings towards you, and if I say nothing, you will yell at me for either ignoring you or for not answering.”

“So,” Cloe says, “Just answer the question.”

“Oh fine then,” I say, stopping to think my answer over to avoid all of the possible lose situations.

“Well,” she said impatiently.

“Fine,” I answer, “I’ll go with good on this.”

“What’s that supposed to mean.”

“It means you look good.”

The pause in speech let the tension in the air grow beyond any amount I thought possible. I really hope none of the outcomes I mentioned happen. I like my friendships. My comment better not ruin any of them.

“Ok, thanks,” Cloe broke the tension, before trotting off to talk with everyone else.

“…Ok, anyway Anala,” I say, gaining the last human form’s attention. “You’re up.”

“Do I have to,” she asked, or complained in this case.

“Unless you want to hide in the forest full of mythical creatures by yourself and have no social interactions whatsoever, then yes you kinda have to,” I answer her, “Sorry.”

Huffing in annoyance, she got up and stood in position. Twilight charged the spell for the sixth time before firing it at Anala. As the spell finished its work, a light green pony stepped out of the orb of energy that encompassed the human. Her mane was a brown colour like everyone else. Why does everyone get brown colour, it’s so common among us.

“So do I at least look decent,” she asked.

“Yeah,” Sam said behind me, giving me a bit of a jump there. Of course Anala’s transformation attracts his attention.

“Anyway,” I say loudly enough to gain their attention, “I’m just going to talk to Twilight.”

Trotting away from the two of them, I notice that the spell had taken a lot of energy on her part. Actually, why didn’t I notice earlier? She looked exhausted from the number of times she used the same spell. Stronger than in the show, I wonder how long she has been I Ponyville.

“Hey,” I say as I approach her, “You alright.”

Twilight looked up at me before answering, “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

“You’re stronger with magic compared to last time I saw you use magic.”

This put a worried expression on her face. “Don’t worry about it,” I said, “Wall breaking stuff and all, can’t break it too many times.”

“Does this have something to do with this TV you spoke of earlier,” She asked.

“Well, yeah,” I answer her, worried that the fanfics might be legit in the way ponies react to being told they’re from a TV show.

This piqued her interest. “Could you show me?”

“Well, the trouble with that is the fact that I don’t have a TV on me and I don’t have my external hard drive.”

“What’s a hard drive.” Damn it, Andrew. Just shut up before you end up sitting there talking forever.

“Uh, can I tell you tomorrow,” I ask.

This seemed to kill her interest really fast. “Ok,” she said as her head drooped, her ears following suit.

“Anyway,” I start, changing the topic quickly, “I better organise a place to stay for us.”

This put Twilight into thought. I walked off to gather my friends. “Hey, everyone,” I shouted, getting everyone’s attention. “Come on, we gotta organise a place to stay.”

Everyone grumbled in annoyance as they trot over.

“What is it,” Tony grumbled.

“We need a place to sleep,” I answered.

“Can’t we just stay at their houses,” he asked.

“Now, we all know that only happens in fan fiction.”

“Hey,” Twilight said. I didn’t notice her walk over to us.

“Yeah, what’s up,” Tim said.

“Well, I have plenty of space in my library.” Damn it, Twilight. You proved me wrong.

“What did I say,” Tony said smugly.

“Shut up.”


> Stargazing
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 11


Our walk into town was fairly uninteresting, which is a good thing. Don’t want these awesome new forms to not work now would we? When we got to Twilight’s library, It was already night. Why do I not notice these things?

We were shown around a bit before being shown to the surprisingly large basement. The basement already had several differently coloured beds in it, one for each of us. It’s really likable, nice and roomy. Also warm.

We gathered our weapons, which we managed to get in here without other ponies questioning about them and neatly placed them against the walls. They were organised depending on which belonged to whom.

“So are you all set,” Twilight asked us.

“Yeah, Thank You for letting us stay here,” Tony said.

Everyone followed Tony’s words with a flurry of thanks.

“Well, it’s getting late,” Twilight said, “I better get to bed.”

“Night,” I say to her, followed by everyone else.

Twilight smiled. “Good night,” she said back as she trots up the stairs, leaving us down here to sleep peacefully.

The silence took over the room. I looked around to find everyone also looking around.

“So,” I said, breaking the silence, “Sleep time?”

“Eh, I’m going to bed,” Tim said almost tiredly, claiming the black bed in the process.

“I’ll head that way as well,” Sam followed, taking the white bed.

“Meh, nothing better to do,” Tony said as he headed for the blue bed.

“I’ll stay up a bit,” Cloe said before heading to the red bed.

“I’m gonna sleep,” Anala said, taking ownership of the green bed.

Damn, that leaves me with the yellow bed. “Ok, night,” I say, “I’m gonna stargaze.”

I trotted up the stairs and towards the front door before anyone else could talk. I slowly opened the door as quietly as I could and slipped out. The town looked really peaceful, not a single pony in sight. I looked around before determining that I need a hill to view the stars adequately. Lucky for me, there was a hill around the corner in a little park.

I made my way to the top of the tiny hill. Not a single pony could be seen, which was understandable considering how late it must be. The air smelt clean, fresh, and much too fresh, in my opinion. The place feels serene, too peaceful. But what is to be expected from a place that knows no war.

I turn my head up to gaze upon the stars. What met me instead was the clearest sky I have ever seen, followed by stars. I always liked the stars. In my eyes, they possessed a sort of calming feel to them. The idea that there are more things to know and see, more people to meet or aliens in this case.

Gazing at the stars clears my head, letting me think about things better. I began my path of thinking with what is happening to us. Is exposure to magic affecting us this way? If so, are there side effects? So many questions in my head with no answers.

My thoughts were interrupted by hoof steps. Yeah, I noticed it this time.

“Hey,” I greeted, not bothering to see who it is. Probably one of us humies, but I better be careful.

Before they could talk, I started rambling. “So I guess you are probably wondering why I’m out here looking up at the stars.”

I paused for a moment before continuing. “Effectively, I’m out here cause I like looking at stars so don’t judge me. I like the ideas they bring, their calming effect, the darkness, the shapes they can form with the right mind. Let alone, it’s clearer here than where I come from.”

I let my words sink in for a moment, still staring at the stars. “I hear that the local Princess of the Night owns the night sky,” I said to the stranger. “If so, she does a pretty awesome job, best sky I’ve ever seen.”

I perked my new ears up to hear who it is easier, though they might have walked off during my mini speech. The silence took over the world once again. Meh, they probably left.

“Thank you,” The stranger behind me said quietly. So they didn’t leave.

I turned around, “No problem, though I don’t understand why you would tha-“ I was cut off by the sight in front of me.

Princess Luna, Night Princess, Owner of the Night Sky and moon AND Best Pony was standing behind me this entire time. So, I just told her I love her night and all it brings then complimented her skills right in front of her without knowing. “Uh, this is awkward,” I blurted out.

A moment of awkwardness passed before I talked again. “Anyway, how was your day?”

She seemed taken aback by the question. “Uh, that’s a weird question,” she says.

“Oh yeah, forgot about the bit where I bow to you, seeing as you’re the Princess,” I said before bowing before her. Damn, I hope I don’t get some retarded punishment for forgetting to bow.

“Worry not, creature, I know what you are,” Luna replies. Oh, she knows what I am.

I got up off of the ground. “Oh, I was hoping to practice my pony being skills there,” I said.

“Anyway, I’m to assume your sister told you about us,” I began, “Did she leave any details out?”

She thought her next words out. “Is it true that you slayed a demon?”

“Yeah, you could say that.”

She walked over and sat down next to me. Her magic mane flowed continuously, unaffected by the elements of the world around it. “Cool mane, bro.”

She turned to me, a confused look on her face. “What,” she said.

“Your mane, it’s cool,” I said, “Wish I was that cool.”

“Thanks.” Wait, I complimented her again, didn’t I. Wow, I’m bad at this.

“Anyway, what brings you out here?” I ask.

“I wanted to see these humans my sister was talking about,” Luna answered.

“Hey Andrew,” someone said. I turned around to see five faces.

“So, you decided to stargaze with me,” I say to my five friends.

“Are these your friends,” the princess asked. My friends recognise who it is and bow, except Anala.

“Yes they are,” I answer, “also, don’t worry too much about bowing, she came down to see us.”

Getting up off the ground, the five humans walked up and sat down atop the hill with us. “So anyway, we’re all here, ask away.”

“This is so awesome,” Tim said to me. His favourite pony is also Luna.

“I know.”

Luna perked her head up before speaking. “Could you tell me about your home?”

Oh, this is gonna be fun.

“Well, our home is pretty good,” Tony began, “Humans as a race have accomplished so many things. We have spread ourselves across the world we live in, building cities housing millions and towns all over the place.”

“We have no magic,” Sam began, “We rely on technology to assist us in our everyday tasks, such as getting from place to place, to building the structures we live and work in, to exploring and understanding the universe.”

“The plants and creatures of our world are diverse,” Anala began, “We try our best to understand them and their needs while working to gather resources and space to work in, but it is sort of hard when they can’t speak our language.”

“We have used so many resources that the world can’t keep up with us,” Tim began, “We are slowly mining our world out and putting gasses into the air, damaging the world we live in just to survive.”

“We as a people are brilliant and artistic,” I began, “The music we create is beautiful and breathtaking, and sometimes it reflects the mood you’re in. The art we create can be perfect, or completely random and confusing.”

“Humans have war in their blood, unfortunately,” Cloe began, “We all know how to fight in some way, and the reasons we fight range from semi worth it to absolutely stupid. The ones that are sent to fight these wars only want to see their family safe.”

The princess wore a neutral look, never showing her true emotions. I bet she is either scared really bad or something worse. She lowered her head, hiding her face from view.

“How can you live like that?” She asked.

“When you’re born into that sort of world, its normal to you,” Sam answered.

“We can’t believe that you have magic and peace,” Anala said.

This seemed to quiet the princesses next words. As silence took over, I looked at the stars once again. “Humanity has always looked skyward for its true path,” I said, breaking the silence between everyone.

“True,” Sam said, “True.”

“Anyway,” I turned to the princess, “Sorry about this but we better get to bed.”

This seemed to annoy her a bit. “Wish we could hang out here longer but unfortunately humans aren’t nocturnal, See you tomorrow night.”

She nods. Yay, I get to hang out with the princess more. I bow before turning and making my way to Twilight’s library. The others follow suit before catching up to me.

“So,” Tim said, walking beside me, “You been tuning the princess.”

“Shut up.”

> Practice Time
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 12


I awoke to the sound of weapons being primed. Seems the others are awake. A few more minutes of sleep won’t hurt. Wait, weapons being primed? But only hands can do that. I flung myself out of my bed to find five humans holding our guns. Wait, they’re my friends. But how did they turn back into humans.

“Oh, morning,” Tony said, “You know you sleep like a rock.”

“Well, yeah,” I replied sheepishly.

“Anyway, we’re humans now.” Anala said.

“Quiet,” Tony warned, “Lyra could be nearby.”

Anala grumbled to herself and went back to checking her weapon. Why do cool things happen when I’m asleep?

“So, how did ya do it?” I asked.

“Oh, it was quite simple,” Sam said, “Just do what you did with the armour.”

Why didn’t I think of that? Damn, I’ve been off my game lately. Following his direction, I thought myself as a human, focusing on the aspect as much as I can. Soon I felt something flow in me before everything became unbearably bright. A buzzing noise took over my hearing and my body started contorting itself painlessly. The brightness subsided, revealing the basement once again. I looked around to find the room smaller than it used to be. My friends smiled at me and said something but I couldn’t hear them. The buzzing noise drowned them out. Slowly it began to fade, letting once again be able to hear.

“…come back soon,” Tim said.

“What’s coming back?” I asked.

“See, it’s back already,” Tim said to Cloe.

“What’s coming back,” I asked again.

“Your hearing,” Tim finally answered.

“Oh.”

I took a step only to stumble forward. I stopped for a moment to regain my balance. Recovering quickly, I walked over to my weapons and prepared them.

“So, what are we gonna do?” I ask.

“I say practice,” Sam says, “We just encountered a demon. I bet whatever it is causing the rifts is related to the demons.”

“I want to relax,” Cloe said, “I mean, we’re in Equestria, why not.”

“I’m going with Sam on this,” Tim said.

“Relax,” Tony voted.

“I don’t really care too much,” Anala said.

Alright, deciding vote time. “I’m going with practice.”

Cloe groaned, “Why can’t we relax today.”

“There are more than one type of demon. These things get far tougher and smarter than the simple foot soldier we encountered yesterday, I would rather us be competent with our weapons sooner rather than later.”

My speech did not improve her sour mood. “Why are you in charge anyway?”

“Cause you let me, now let’s turn back into ponies before we cause chaos.”

Everyone followed my advice and turned into ponies. A bright bubble of energy encompassed them before disappearing suddenly, revealing the pony forms of my friends. Focusing on the idea of being a pony, I once again felt the flow of energy within myself. The brightness returned as well as the buzzing. As the transformation finished, Twilight walked down the stairs.

“Good morning,” she said.

“Morning,” we responded collectively.

“So what do you plan on doing today?” she asked us.

“We would relax a bit but everyone wants to practice their skills before we do anything else,” Cloe complained.

“Hey,” Tony jumped in, “I don’t want to either, but I see their point of view.”

Frowning a bit, I turn to Twilight, ignoring the bickering behind me. “We’re planning on finding a secluded place where wandering eyes won’t look and check out these new powers we seemed to have gained,” I tell her.

The bickering behind me stopped. I turn to see why to find everyone staring at me. “What,” I say.

“Why didn’t you just say that before,” Cloe said.

“Say what.”

“That we were gonna test out our new powers.”

I blinked. “Well I thought that you knew what I meant.”

“I thought we were gonna end up watching Tim shoot everything.”

“Hey,” Tim chimed in, “I won’t shoot everything.”

“Sure you won’t,” Sam added.

And so the bickering resumed, the twin brothers arguing over what Tim would shoot. I turn back to Twilight, seeing an expression of confusion and worry on her face. She raised her hoof and pointed at my friends. “Are they always like this?” the inquisitive unicorn asked.

“It’s a human thing,” I told her, “We’re artistic by nature and almost always have conflicting ideas.”

“Oh.”

“Anyway, I must ask,” I began, “Do you know of such a place where we can practice out of sight?”

“Well there is one place…”

“Sweet,” I exclaim.

“But first, let’s get some breakfast.”

“Alright,” I cheered before turning my attention to the bickering group.

“…would just shoot trees for the hell of it,” Sam said.

“Guys,” I shout, gaining everyone’s attention. “Let’s get breakfast and argue about what to shoot later.”




*20 minutes, some breakfast and a little walk carrying several weapons later*




“…and that’s why mum never let us have toy guns,” Sam concluded.

“I know,” Tim replied, annoyed at his brother.

We were nearing the edge of the Everfree Forest on a path that looks like it has never been used in its life. Twilight walked ahead, leading us to some place right at the edge of the forest. The weapons on my back clunked together quietly as I walked alongside my friends.

“We’re almost there,” Twilight said to us.

“Thanks again for doing this for us,” I said, “You’ve been way too nice to us.”

“I’m only doing what anypony would do,” she replied.

“Wow,” Anala said, “This country is way too peaceful and friendly.”

“Well isn’t your home like this?” The unicorn asked.

“Noooooooooo,” I answered, “And before you ask, you don’t want to know.”

The unicorn sighed, probably at my evasive answers. “Well we’re here.”

We stop and scan the area. It was literally on the edge of the forest in a clearing of a sort. The trees were plentiful enough to obscure the clearing like space while still being outside of what I would call a forest. More like a tree bordered park if one were to ask me. Sweet Apple Acres, or what I think is it, is in view of the clearing. That will make getting home easier. A little orange spot was moving on the horizon, indicating that Applejack was working. I like this spot.

“Thanks again for this,” I once again thanked Twilight.

“Oh, it was nothing,” she said bashfully.

“Well it’s a lot to us,” I tell her before turning to the others. “Alright, let’s do this.”

As we turn into our natural human forms, Twilight watched the display in awe. I look at her, standing over her once again. It feels good to be human.

Twilight shook her head before looking up, “How did you do that?” she asked, “The spell I used turned you into a pony but you just reversed it.”

“Yeah…”

“I thought you said you don’t have magic,” she said accusingly.

“Well, Celestia said something about adding an extra to the spell,” I told her.

“Well…” Twilight went into thought, stopping herself from saying whatever she wanted to say. “It’s not exactly impossible…”

“Exactly,” I said, bringing my rifle to bear. “We need targets.”

“Sam,” Tim shouted.

“No,” Sam replied.

“Also Tony,” I began, “you need to find out how you force pushed that demon.”

“Ok, got it,” Tony replied before walking off in thought.

“Cloe,” I said, gaining her attention. “You need to find out how to do that fire stuff.”

“Yay,” she said before doing something with her hands. I don’t even understand.

“The rest of us,” I said, addressing the remainder of us, “Time to learn how to use these weapons.”

“YEAH!” Tim, Sam and I yelled out, slapping our hands together in a collective high five.

Putting my rifle away, I brandished my sword, readying to spar. “Who wants to start first?”

“Don’t worry, I got this,” Sam said, bringing to bear a 5 foot staff.

“Really, you chose the stick.”

“Hey, it’s an immense wooden rod.” Wow, he named it?

“Get on with it,” Tim shouted as he sat on the ground, “I wanna see this fight.”

We approached each other, stopping a few metres away before circling around. Our eyes stared at the other, waiting for a giveaway on the opponent’s actions.

“Wait, you’re not seriously gonna fight right?” Twilight asked us.

“Yeah we are,” I answer her.

“But someone could get hurt,” she shouted, concern and worry in her voice.

I stopped. “Oh yeah,” I say. “We better get our armour on.”

“Oh almost forgot about that.” The transition between armour less to steel clad was almost seamless, the plates and skin weaving their way over our bodies as the sensations of the outside world left us. The HUD activated, giving me a clear view of the world as if I was using my own eyes. I saw Sam clad in similar yet heavier looking suit, ready to spar.

“There we go, all set,” I say before lunging forward, sweeping my sword around to hit Sam’s shoulder. He deftly stopped my attack with his stick before bringing the bottom up, hitting me in the face. I stumbled back, forgot he did a martial arts thing. I quickly took a defensive pose as soon as I recovered, preparing for the onslaught. It never came.

“Sorry about that,” Sam apologised.

“Worry about that afterwards,” I tell him before charging him. I brought my sword forward, aiming for his midsection. He swept the blade away with one end of his stick, leaving him open for my plan. I continued running at him, throwing my weight at him. I collided with him, sending us both onto the ground, our weapons being left behind. I went to hit my opponent but was kicked off of him instead, flying to the side a few metres. I got to my feet and spun around only for my head to spin back around as it was struck by Sam’s stick. The armour does wonders in protection but even I felt this. I fell to the ground with a new headache.

“Oooooh,” I could hear from Tim and Anala. They obviously saw that.

“Uh, I think I used too much force,” Sam commented.

I slowly pushed myself up, dizziness kicking in. As soon as my feet were underneath me, I stood back up. “I’m ok,” I say, “I’m good.”

I stumbled over to where Tim was sitting, and sat next to him.

“How was it?” he asked.

“Head hurts something horrible but I’m good,” I answered.

He laughed. Sam stood in front of us, his stick in hand. “So who’s next?”

Tim stood up, armour folding out and covering his body as he pulled out a mace. “Your on,” I said confidently.

“Cool weapon bro,” I say.

Tim turned his head to me. “Thanks,” he said.

They both took position several metres away, focusing on each other. Soon Tim charged, swinging his mace in a wide arc. Sam deflected the attack before swinging one end of his stick around, aiming at his brothers head. Tim ducked underneath the stick and stepped back, his mace behind him. Sam spun, moving his weapon to repeat the last move he did. Tim didn’t aim to block the attack, instead pulling his mace upwards, slamming it into his brother’s gut.

Sam stumbled back, adopting a defensive stance as soon as he could. Tim advanced, bringing his mace down onto Sam which was stopped successfully. Sam in turn bought his stick down onto Tim’s head, knocking him down to the ground. He then put his foot on top of his brother’s chest, taking a triumphant pose.

“Alright, you made your point,” Tim said, trying to get up but being stopped by the human foot on his chest.

“Yeah,” Sam said, “I’m a boss.”

“Sure you are,” I shout sarcastically.

A burst of flames hitting me caught my attention. I grabbed the rifle on my back and spin around, ready to shoot the culprit. What I saw instead was a laughing Cloe. “Yes,” she yells excitedly.

“What was that about?” I shout.

“Hey, watch this,” She shouted back. She quickly flipped her hand out in front of herself. I jumped up as her hand caught fire. She slowly waved her hand around, demonstrating her new power. “How awesome is this?!”

Twilight walked up behind me. “So, she can use magic,” she said.

“This is new,” I reply.

Throwing another fireball, this time at Tim, she jumped giddily. This may become problematic. “Can you stop throwing fireballs around, please?” I ask.

She growled. “Aww, why not?” she whined.

“Because you’ll end up hitting something without armour,” I tell her.

Turning around, I saw Tony approach us. A soft force impacted against my back, setting off the shields and displaying warning indications. I turn around and look at Cloe through the helmet.

“No,” I say, “Just no.”

I spun back around, once again facing Tony. “So you figured it out,” I shout his way.

“Sure did,” came the reply.

“Care to demonstrate?” I ask, the distance between us closed.

“Sure.” He curled his hands back. I was thinking about what he was doing before he flung his hands out. The pulse of energy struck me, sending me flying back. I slid across the dirt on my back, stopping as my head hit a tree. My headache is now three times worse.

“Ow,” I yell out for no reason. I slowly got to my feet while holding my head. Damn that hurt. “Thanks for making my headache worse.”

“Oh, sorry about that,” Tony said apologetically.

“Don’t worry,” I say, stumbling forward. “I’ve had enough.”

“Says the one hit upside the head several times,” Anala says before approaching me. “Hold still, I’m gonna try something.”

She puts her hand an inch away from my head, one on either side. Wait, what is she doing? Her hands started glowing softly, doing some random magic related thing. Why does everyone else get magic powers?

Her hands stopped glowing, taking my pain with them. As her hands lowered back to her sides, my mind was blown. “Healing powers?!” I shout out.

“Well…”

“How come everyone else gets awesome powers?”

“I don’t…”

“Don’t answer, it’s a rhetorical question,” I say, shaking my head a little.

“So, you wanna spar again?” Sam asked.

“Noooooooooo,” I answer. I turn to Twilight to find a small crowd of ponies gathered. Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity and Rainbow sat by her side, grins on their faces. Well, Rarity wasn’t grinning.

“That sure was a good show ya put there, Mister,” Applejack said, maintaining the grin on her face.

“That was awesome!” Rainbow said to Cloe.

“That looks fun,” Pinkie said giddily, jumping on the spot.

“I simply don’t understand,” Rarity started, “Why do you senselessly fight each other so, what is the word I’m looking for.”

“Badassly,” I offer.

“Realistically,” Tim offers.

“Awesomely,” Cloe offers.

“Aggressively,” Tony offers.

“Bossly,” Sam offers.

“No, Sam,” Tim said.

“Don’t care,” Sam said back, a grin plastered on his face.

Rarity looked at us, probably confused at our random banter. “Savagely, you could hurt somepony like that.”

“Well, that’s the general point,” I say.

“Why in Equestria do you want to hurt ponies?” she asked.

“Who said we would be using these skills on ponies?” I answer her question with another.

“Well who are you going to be using them on?” The purple maned pony asked.

“Demons, what else.”

“Demons, Demons, Demons, Demons,” Tim sang.

I stared at Tim. “Yeah, Demons.”

I turn back to the ponies to find a look of understanding on their faces. “Anyway, pony time,” I shouted.

The transition was swift, the feel of four legs returning. My armour was missing however. I like that armour. The ponies went slack jawed, except Twilight who already saw this trick. Wish I could take a photo right now.

“Let’s head back to town,” I say, “I don’t feel like getting hit upside the head again.”

“B-but how…” Rarity trailed off.

“I have no idea,” I answer truthfully.

> Answers
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 13



The sun hung directly above us, signalling midday as we made our way to town. The five mares conversed with the others, asking question that I never bothered to listen to. I’m too busy thinking.

Cloe has gained fire powers, being able to conjure fireballs and throw them at will. Just like the demons can. Tony, however, can force push people while Anala has healing powers. Why does the world make them OP? I’ll ask myself that later when I have more information. The rest of us seem not to have such abilities, being stuck with whacking things really hard. I still remember that stick.

“Hey,” a voice interrupted my thoughts. I look up to find the overly inquisitive purple unicorn walking beside me, a smile on her face. This can’t be good.

“Yeah, what up,” I say as a response.

“You promised to answer my questions today.” Aw shit, I did.

“Can’t you ask someone else?” I asked.

“I did,” she answered, “they told me to ask you.”

What? I look back at my friends. Tony grinned back at me. I sighed in defeat. “Ok, ask away.”

“First of all, what’s a multiverse?” the first question came.

“Ah, this is gonna be fun,” I mumble to myself before beginning to answer. “The multiverse used to be a theory among us. No one really agreed with it too much but I liked it. Anyway, it’s effectively a plane where all the universes that exist sit around and exist. It’s occupied by an entity who calls himself the Guardian.”

Twilight took all of the information in. She loves that knowledge. “How many universes exist?” Twilight asked.

“Effectively, so many that saying an infinite number exist is easier than guessing,” I answer.

“Wow, that many,” the unicorn said.

“Yep.”

“Ok, now what’s a TV?” Twilight asked.

“Ah, this is easy,” I say loudly. “So, think a box. Wait no think about a big panel.” I paused for a second before continuing, not caring if she was thinking about a panel or not. “now think moving images on the panel… now think sound that goes perfectly with the image, like if there was a moving image of a pony hitting a piece of metal there would be a thump noise or whatever it sounds like to go with it.”

“…Ok, I think I get it,” twilight said, her face a mask of quasi-understanding.

“Yay,” I cheered.

“Now, what is a TV show?” She asked.

“Aw, this is too easy,” I say to myself before answering. “Think a stage play put into a TV.”

Twilight showed her confusion. “How does that work?”

“Simple, all you need is the sounds and a camera that takes sixty pictures a second and puts them on the TV instantly.”

“But wouldn’t the TV get crowded with images?”

“No, the newest image replaces the old image, making the image look like it’s moving.”

“Oh.” I think Twilight gets it now. “Now, one last question.”

What?! I thought we were done. “Ok,” I say, hiding my underlying feelings.

“What are those things?” she asked, gesturing to the weapons on my back.

“Guns,” I answer, “Plasma based weapons to be exact.”

“And what’s a gun?” Oh yeah, they don’t use guns here.

“Projectile launchers, designed to cause harm at the healthy range of a hundred metres,” I answer once again.

Twilight looked horrified. “Well what do you expect from a human, pleasant stuff and happiness?” I ranted. “It disgusts me, the way we are. We always fight each other over stupid shit, continuously evolving our weapons when we could be doing something productive.”  My voice began to rise in volume as I got deeper into my rant. “Something like improve computer science or medicine, find a way to explore the stars more readily, maybe improve farming techniques while we’re at it but NO.” My voice was practically shouting at this point. “We instead choose to kill each other more, then when the world is dying around us we solve the issue by killing each other some more!”

I snorted as my rant ended, diving as deep into thought as I can. I tried to calm down. I began to search for something happy to think about. Stars, I need stars.

My thoughts snapped back to reality to find several ponies in front of me, stares of fury coming from Applejack, Rainbow and Rarity. The five humans stood beside them, looks of worry on their face. Twilight could be heard crying off to the side of the path with Pinkie trying to comfort her. Shit, I upset everyone. Stupid ranting skills.

Before my mind could react, I was violently tackled to the ground then restrained with magic. I tried to pull against the energy to find it unbreakable.

“What did ya say ta Twilight?!” Applejack yelled furiously.

“I told her about humanity.”

“You WHAT!?” my friends shouted in disbelief. Well, except Anala.

“Well, I more or less went on a rant about our negatives,” I corrected myself.

“Andrew,” Cloe said softly, “THAT’S WORSE!”

“I know, I know, I’m sorry,” I said, basically on the verge of releasing tears. “I don’t want to hurt people, I don’t. I just…” I stopped before looking down. “I just want to be alone.” I felt the magical restraints loosen a bit before jumping into action. I need just a little solitude. 

I broke out of the restraints and jumped back onto all four hooves. I spun on the spot and jumped forward with as muck force as possible, spreading my wings and taking to the skies. I flew as fast as I could, trying to get out. The place where we practiced should do. I turned my body into the direction of the place where I was whacked in the head and continued on, hearing shouts behind me but ignoring all of them.

I need to think. I need to be alone...

> Andrew
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 14


“Don’t chase him,” Sam shouted at Rainbow just before she jumped into the air. He looked into the distance, watching Andrew fly away.

“Why not?” the rainbow maned pegasus asked.

“Because he’s upset,” Tim answered.

“Why should we care?” Rainbow asked rudely.

“You don’t,” Tim answered equally as insensitive.

Cloe walked up beside the brothers. “You know where he’s heading?”

Sam observed the direction of the far off pegasus for a moment. “Back to the clearing,” he answered. He sighed before turning towards Ponyville. “Let’s go.”

“Wait,” Anala began, “he’s upset. Shouldn’t we, you know, cheer him up?”

“No,” Tim said. “He will just try and run again. Let him take his time, he’ll be back when he feels better.”

Anala shrugged at his answer before going with the idea. Sam turned towards the ponies. Twilight felt somewhat better now, her friends successfully cheered her up. 

“You alright,” Sam asked Twilight.

Twilight sniffed. “The things he said,” she said as her head turned towards the human in pony form. “Are they true?”

Sam was taken aback by this question. He didn’t want to answer it. He looked away, trying to avoid the subject.

“Are, They, True.” Twilight demanded an answer.

“I don’t know what he said,” Sam answered, getting a sigh of relief from the pony. “But, knowing him, they most likely are.”

Twilight’s mood dropped once again, remembering Andrew’s words. Her eyes welled up at the thought that they might be true.

The humans turned back towards the town. “Let’s get some lunch,” Cloe said, “you can tell us what he said while we eat.”

Twilight looked at Cloe with a look of worry. “What about Andrew?” she asked.

“He will come back when he feels better,” Tony answered.

The ponies and humans began to make their way back to town. Twilight took one look back, concerned about the missing human. She quickly thought about what to do before walking away.

The large group continued down towards of the town, talking about assorted things. “So, what are your exact thoughts on our practice?” Tony asked Rarity.

“Oh, I think it is simply barbaric,” she answered.

“Well it can’t be that bad,” Tony reasoned.

“They just attack each other, no concern for one another’s health,” Rarity retorted.

“Did you see the one between Andrew and Sam?”

“Well, no. We were too late for that one.”

“That’s why you think they have no concern for each other’s health,” Tony concluded.

“Well whatever do you mean?” Rarity asked, curious as to why the human would think that about her opinion. Surely the other fight played out similarly, Rarity thought.

“Well, you see those two,” He indicated towards Sam and Tim, both were arguing about something stupid. “They’re brothers.”

“Wouldn’t that mean they care about each other?” 

“Not exactly,” Tony answered the question. “I can say that they care about each other but the two of them compete against each other over everything.”

Rarity seemed confused. “So, they both want to be better than the other?”

“Yeah, pretty much.”

“And that happens to include fighting.” Rarity concluded, understanding the reasoning but still thinking such things were barbaric.

Sam’s voice invaded the conversation. “Hey, guys.”

“What is it,” Cloe said.

“Where’s Twilight?”

Everyone stopped. The words hit the group hard. They all looked around, trying to find the missing pony. Cloe was the first to get the idea. “Did she go back to the clearing?”

Everyone turned towards the clearing and ran.

________________________________________________________________________________

Twilight made her way to the clearing, thinking of an appropriate approach to the situation. The clearing was getting close when a noise made its way to Twilights ears. It came from the clearing. Fearing the worst, Twilight ran as fast as she could towards the clearing at the edge of the forest.

When she entered, the same noise made a loud comeback. The noise sounded similar to an explosion, except much quieter and accompanied by a sort of whining noise that sharply dropped before winking out. The small explosion behind her blasted a hole into a tree and made her duck and cover her head with her hooves.

“HOLY SHIT!” Andrew yelled out.

He ran over to her, dropping the rifle in his hands. His iron clad human form dropped to its knees as he came to a halt next to the unicorn. Twilight’s hooves fell back to her sides as she looked up into the human’s eyes. Tears were streaming down his face.

“I’m sorry,” He apologised, a whimper escaping his mouth. “I’m so sorry.”

“I-Its ok,” she said, “No pony was hurt.”

“W-What? I almost killed you,” he said loudly, his control over his emotions faltering.

“Then be glad that you didn’t,” she tried to comfort the taller being.

He sniffed before offering his hand, which Twilight took. Helping her up, he stood up and returned to his previous position in the middle of the large clearing. He picked his rifle back up before taking aim at his target. Twilight looked in the direction the rifle pointed to find Andrew’s sword stuck in a battered tree.

“Ya know,” He began talking, “I seem to have this weird tendency.” The report of his rifle firing filled the pause in his speech, sending a dart of blue out which hit the handle of his sword. “It seems that no matter how hard I try.” Another bang, another direct hit. “I will almost always hurt someone around me.” Three shots fired, one direct hit. “And I don’t want to do that but the world seems to make me anyway.”

Andrew then held down the trigger of his gun, sending a steady stream of bullets at the makeshift target. Almost every shot missed the sword, tearing the tree to shreds. A stop in the gunfire followed by a hiss indicated that the battery was depleted. Andrew then ejected the case and placed it in a slot on his suit before pulling another one out and placing it into the bottom of his gun. Pulling the charge bolt back, he flicked a switch on the side labelled safety before turning to the unicorn.

“I just don’t want to hurt anyone no more.” His eyes once again leaked tears as walked to the battered tree. The thing looked like it was close to falling. As he ripped his sword out, the tree did, in fact fall over and crash into the ground. He sat down on the wrecked tree and put his head in his hands.

Twilight approached the sitting human. As she sat next to him, he raised his head from his hands. “Hey,” she said.

“Look,” he said, “I’m sorry for hurting you.”

“No,” Twilight said, “I’m sorry for making you upset.”

“But you didn’t.”

“Yes I-“

“No you didn’t,” he interrupted. “Don’t blame yourself for something that you didn’t do.”

The unicorn was surprised by the human’s outburst. He genuinely believes she didn’t do anything wrong. 

Andrew suddenly raised his head and looked at Twilight. "Tell ya what," He began cheerfully, "We both seem to be in shocking moods."

Twilight giggled softly. "Yeah, you could say that."

Andrew shifted his body slightly. "How about I tell ya the positives about humanity."

Twilight almost jumped at the idea. "I would very much like to hear that," she answered giddily.

The human smiled. “Sweet,” he said before jumping up and becoming encased in a bubble. He emerged from said bubble, pony in form. “Let’s catch up to the others.”

________________________________________________________________________________


The large group of ponies were running, and in some cases flying in the direction of the clearing, fearing what could happen. “How close are we,” Anala yelled up at the flying brothers.

Sam squinted his eyes, looking towards the forest. He saw a small purple form walk out accompanied by a brown form. “They’re leaving the forest,” Sam replied.

“That doesn’t answer my question!” Anala shouted back in frustration.

“He better not hurt Twilight or I’ll show ‘im a thing or two about bein’ hurt,” Applejack voiced her thoughts.

“I’ll kick him to Cloudsdale,” Rainbow added.

As they got closer, they heard his voice. “…and then he saw what caused the sound, but I can’t tell you cause you’re not a monk.”

“What?!”

“Twilight!” the girls yelled out in relief as they hugged their friend.

“Hey girls,” she said in response.

“HI EVERYONE!” Andrew shouted. Everypony and human winced slightly at the random outburst. Rainbow proceeded to tackle him to the ground, receiving a satisfying grunt of pain from the human. “Damn, everyone seems to love kicking my ass,” he mumbled to himself.

“You better not have hurt her,” she growled at Andrew.

“Well-“

“Rainbow, relax,” Twilight interrupted him. “I’m fine.”

At this, Rainbow Dash flew off of Andrew, whom proceeded to get up. As he stood on his hooves he winced in pain. “Thanks for the bruise,” he thanked Rainbow sarcastically.

She just grunted before slowly flying towards town as everyone else walked behind her.

“So,” Tim asked Andrew, “You alright.”

“Yep,” he cheerfully answered, “all because of Twilight there.”

At hearing the praise, Twilight blushed. “Oh, it was nothing.”

Andrew smiled at her. “Thank you, I owe ya one.”

“Ah don’t worry about it.”

“Too bad, you get one anyway,” he stated, “So where was I up to before.”

“Art,” she answered.

“Oh yeah.”

> Stargaze 2: Gaze Harder
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 15


I sat at the top of the same hill as last night once again. Cloe and Tony decided to join me this time, apparently to see how things will ‘play out’. Maybe they think that I like the Princess or something stupid like that. Meh, don’t really care if they’re there or not, we’re only out here to look at stars, right.

Gazing up into the sky, I thought back on the day. So now Rainbow Dash hates me now. I better apologise for whatever sometime soon. I’m not absolutely sure whether Rarity or Applejack hate me but I better plan to apologise about this afternoon. 

“So I see that your friends have joined you today,” the voice of Luna sounded.

“Yep, humies dig stars,” I say almost factually. I can actually safely say that all humans like stars.

“Is that so?” Luna replied.

“Well, generally many people like the stars from what I know,” I said.

“Well it seems that they aren’t paying attention to the sky,” she said matter-of-factly.

“Oh yeah,” I said as I turned to the princess. “They’re here to see how things ‘play out’, whatever that means.”

I looked back up at the stars. “At least I am doing what I intended to do.”

“And what would that be,” the night princess asked.

“Looking at awesome stars and hanging out with my friends,” I answer.

The conversation seemed to end at that comment, Luna making no reply. No idea why really. A series of possibilities ran through my head. Had the conversation truly ended? Did she disappear?

“You consider me a friend?” Oh, didn’t see that one.

“Well, why wouldn’t I?” I answer with a question. I love doing that.

“Well, I am the princess of the night and…” she trailed off.

“Ones status in society doesn’t matter to me,” I say to her.

The silence once again fell upon us. I look over at Luna, she was looking down, a smile on her face. Aww, cute.

“Thank you,” she said really quietly.

“Don’t worry about it,” I say. “Anyway, how was your day, or night, whatever it is?”

“Oh,” she was taken aback by the question, the same one I asked yesterday. “Well, it has been good,” she answers, “how about you?”

“Well,” I began, “I went out, got my ass kicked, got fireballs thrown at me, got tossed onto the ground, hurt Twilight’s feelings-“

“What?!” Luna shouted in surprise. 

I raised my hooves defensively as I quickly formulated my response. “Hey, it was an accident,” I said, “I told her the negatives about humanity and, well yeah.” I looked down, ashamed at the memory.

Before she could respond, I continued. “It’s all sorted, Twilight followed me after I ran off and I apologised.” I paused for a moment, keeping my emotions in check. “I then proceeded to cheer her up by telling her all the positives of humanity, get tackled by rainbow and now I am disliked by a bunch of people.”

Luna looked confused. “Oh yeah, Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow now hate me because of what I did.”

Luna backed up a bit. “How can you be so casual about it?”

I shrugged my shoulders or whatever they are. “Comes natural to being me I guess.”

“Eh!” I heard shouting behind me. I turn to see Tony and Cloe behind me. Oh yeah, forgot about them for a moment there.

“What!” I shouted back.

“Get on with it,” Cloe yelled out. “I wanna see you two kiss already.”

What?! I looked away and back at Luna who had red cheeks. Well this is embarrassing. I turn back to face my friends sitting at the base of the mountain. “No!” I shouted. “Just no!”

“Aww,” I heard Cloe whine quietly as Tony laughed. Damn, this is really embarrassing. I’m getting them back later.

“Anyway,” I say as I look to the stars. “Embarrassing moments aside, I’m just gonna look at the stars.” I need to get better at this one day.

“Sure, I better return to Canterlot,” Luna said, that blush still on her face. Damn ponies and them cuteness. “My sister is probably worried about me.”

“Understandable,” I say. “See ya tomorrow night?”

Luna smiled. “Yes, I’d like that.”

“Alright,” I say cheerfully. “See ya tomorrow.”

“Good bye,” Luna said before turning around and taking to the sky. I watch her fly towards what I believe is the general direction to Canterlot before turning to my friends. Large grins were plastered on their faces.

“I hate you guys so much,” I say to them.

“No ya don’t,” Cloe replied cheerfully. “Ya love us.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sure I do.”

“Aww, admit it,” Cloe jested. “Ya like her.” Tony snickered at her comment. Wow, what a nice bro.

“Suure I do,” I say sarcastically. “Let’s just get back to the library already.” I begin to trot off towards the giant tree of a library, not really caring about the others at the moment.

“Alright, stay in denial,” Cloe said before following me to the library.

“You do realise you have a chance with her, right?” Tony asked.

I stiffened. “Yeah, I do but I’ve got a home to get my friends to.”

“Oh yeah,” Tony murmured.

We reached the library door when we started hearing arguing. Those brothers are at it, aren’t they? I opened the door to see something I never expected.

“…that even possible?!” Twilight shouted.

“I said I don’t know,” Sam answered.

“HEY!” I shouted, interrupting everyone and allowing me time to look at the scene in front of me. There was a random pillar of wood right in the middle of the room. Sam was standing on top of it, looking down at everyone from ten feet above the floor. There was a quiet voice that could be heard but I couldn’t make out the words.

“Alright,” I began, “First, what is that?”

“That,” Twilight answered, annoyance laced deeply in her words, “is a pillar of wood Sam there made.”

I took the new info in. So Sam can create things. Now everyone but Tim and me have awesome powers. “Ok second, Can you get rid of it?”

Twilight huffed. “No I can’t, it’s different from other things,” she said.

I look up. “Sam?”

Sam’s head popped over the edge of the pillar of annoying. “Yeah?”

“Could you do me a small flavour and try and get rid of this pillar?” I asked.

“Uh, I’ll give it a whack,” Sam answered.

“Thanks,” I say before walking over to Twilight. “So,” I began. “What happened?”

Twilight sighed. “Well I was about to head for bed when that pillar just appeared from under him,” she explained.

“Ok, I think I-” I was stopped by a low rumbling noise as the pillar slowly disappeared. Sam stood on the top, eyes closed in concentration as he used his newly acquired powers to destroy what he created. As he reached the floor, his eyes opened.

“Seems that Sammy there has powers,” I said, a smirk in my face. I turn to Twilight to see her slack jawed at the display of power.

“B-but how…” she muttered.

“Magic seems to affect humans something shocking,” I say to her. “You saw the lack of a horn while we tossed fireballs and healed headaches.”

“Uhh, I’m just gonna sleep on it,” Twilight said as she turned to the stairs.

“Good night,” I say to her.

“Good night,” She says back. As she disappeared up the stairs, I turn to the other stairs and start my trek to the beds.

“I’m a go to bed,” I say to the three humans.

“We’re coming too,” Sam said.

We all walked down the stairs quietly. As we got to the bottom, we saw Anala trying to get some sleep but not quite getting comfortable and Tim sitting on his bed reading a book. I made my way to my bed before flopping onto it.

“Hey guys,” Cloe said. “Guess who’s getting in with Luna.”

“I hate you guys so much right now,” I say bitterly.

“No ya don’t.”

> Day 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 16


The dark basement met the retinas of my eyes once again as I awoke from my sleep, hoping that today they won’t continue the Luna thing. That got really annoying. I look around a little to find everyone is still asleep. Wow, how late were we awake till last night? I groaned as I slipped out of bed and stood up on all fours. Still a pony at least.

I quietly made my way to the stairway before I heard voices upstairs. Seems that Twilight has visitors or something, maybe a ‘close’ friend? I slowly made my way up the stairs till I found a point where the voices sounded coherent.

“…just made a pillar in the middle of the library,” a voice belonging to Twilight said.

“Wait, how is that possible?” Rainbow’s voice chimed in. “I’m no genius but I thought pegasi can’t use magic.”

“They can’t,” Twilight answered. “But he is a species that comes from a different universe completely.”

“But I thought the spell you used turned them into ponies,” a completely new voice spoke.

“I thought so too, Spike,” Twilight replied, “But they can somehow switch between being human and being a pony at will.”

“Never heard of that happening,” The new voice which I now know is Spikes said.

Ok I’m done listening. I walk the rest of the way up the stairs and poked my head out. I saw Spike, Twilight and Rainbow Dash sitting around a table eating breakfast. I stepped out into the library quietly, trying to avoid alerting the three individuals at the table. Might as well have fun while I’m at it.

Spike, however, noticed my sneakery. He gasped loudly. There goes my fun.

“Thief!” he screamed loudly.

“Aw, ruin the fun why don’t you,” I say.

“Spike!” Twilight shouted at the dragon, “Calm down.”

“B-but he’s trying to steal stuff,” he tried to reason.

“Aw now that’s just insulting,” I interject.

Twilight turned to face me, giving me a look that instils fear into me. “You’re not helping.”

I backed up a bit, fearing for my life. Damn that looks scary. She turned back to Spike and began speaking. “Spike, this is Andrew.”

“Sup,” I greeted with a smile.

“Uh, hi,” he greeted back. I already like him.

“Heh, I like this guy already,” I said. “So anyway, how are you all?”

“Actually, pretty good,” Twilight answered.

“Eh, alright I guess,” Spike followed.

“Uh, yeah I gotta say something,” Rainbow said.

This caught me a bit by surprise. I thought she hated me. “Ok, so what is it?”

“I uh,” she struggled to say more, “um, sorry.”

“Wait, what for?” I asked. This is getting confusing.

“Yesterday,” Rainbow said quietly.

Oh yeah, that. “What’s to be sorry about?”

“Well I did tackle you several times for no reason,” she gave her reason.

“Well I see no problem with it, really,” I said. “Let’s be real, that’s what I would do if someone made my friend cry.”

“Wait,” Spike spoke up. “So if someone hurt your friends, you would attack them?”

“Hell yeah I would,” I answer. “The amount I would kick their ass is directly proportional to the amount they hurt my friend, multiplied by two and subtracted by how much stronger they are compared to me.” You know, that sounded cooler in my head. Maybe that last bit killed it.

“Woah, remind me not to make you angry,” the dragon said.

“Actually, knowing this world, everything is stronger than me,” I say.

“Still doesn’t reassure me,” Spike replied.

“Anyway, we’re getting off topic,” I say before turning to Rainbow Dash. “I accept your apology but think nothing of the incident, it’s totally understandable.”

“Heh, thanks,” she replied with a smile.

“No problem,” I say, returning the smile.

I heard hoof steps behind me and spun around to see Tim slowly approaching. When he saw that his sneaking failed he stopped trying. “Aw, I was this close,” he said.

“Well I’m just a boss like that,” I cheekily reply. “Oh yeah, Spike, this here is Tim.”

“Hey,” Tim greeted.

“Hi,” Spike returned the greeting.

“Aw it’s so cute,” Cloe suddenly appeared next to me, making me jump.

“Cute?” Spike said, getting a little red in the cheeks. Is that even possible?

“How did you do that?” I ask Cloe.

She simply shrugged. “Dunno.”

I looked at her in disbelief. “Anyway, Spike, this here be Cloe.”

“Hey,” Cloe said cheerfully, smiling at the small dragon.

“Uh, hi,” he greeted awkwardly.

I turned to the stairs, expecting more people to come up it. No sooner had I looked did Anala, Sam and Tony come into view. “Morning,” I greeted them.

“Morning,” They replied in unison.

“So,” I began as I spun to face Spike, “This here be Sam, Tony and Anala.”

“Hi,” Anala, Sam and Tony greeted collectively.

“Uh, hi,” Spike nervously replied. Maybe he’s scared of the idea of six random ponies sleeping in the basement.

“So anyway,” I said, “What are we doing today?”

“Relax a bit,” Sam advised. “I don’t thing you want to get your ass kicked again.”

“Wow, thanks,” I say. How can he be sure that I will get my ass kicked again.

“Yay,” Cloe cheered, “Relax day!”

“Meh,” Tim said.

“What,” Tony began, “You don’t like the idea?”

“Oh no, it’s just that I don’t really care what we do,” Tim answered.

“Alright, let’s get to it,” I announce.

“YEAH!” We all shout out while bumping our hooves together. As we finished our discussion, I turn to see the ponies in the room giving us confused looks.

“Human thing, you’ll get used to it,” I tell them, hoping to alleviate their confusion.

“Hey,” Cloe spoke up, “Let’s go to Sugarcube Corner.”

“Cool idea,” I say before turning to the two ponies once again. “If you need us, you know where to find us.” 

We walk out the front door with Sugarcube Corner as our destination. Our peaceful stroll was interrupted by a small explosion in front of us. The burst of flames landed a mere meter from me, warming the air in front of me. I was about to turn and accuse Cloe of doing that when a six foot tall humanoid creature came into my view. It turned to face us before letting out a deathly screech.

“Run,” I said as I turned back to the library and ran, my friends trailing behind me. We needed our weapons.

The run was short and uninterrupted, the imp giving up on the chase after finding that ponies are faster than it is. We busted through the door, startling a reading unicorn and pegasus. I ignored their protests and ran down the stairs. As I hit the bottom of the stairs, I forced my body to morph into its original form as fast as I could. Metal plates folded out over my body, encasing me in the now familiar power armour. I grabbed my guns as the others followed suit and grabbed their respective weapons. We dashed back up the stairs once again and took up positions around the front door.

“What the hay is going on here!?” Twilight shouted at us.

“Demon attack,” I answered. A look of horror surfaced on Twilight and Rainbow’s faces. This is their home.

“Well there goes our day of relaxing,” Cloe said.

“I know,” Anala said, “I was looking forward to today.”

“We all were,” Tony said.

“Well what are we doing,” Twilight said frantically, the panic in her voice evident.

“Yeah, let’s go kick them out,” Rainbow said before trying to bolt out the door. Luckily, I was right next to it.

“Woah there,” I say as I block the door, “You’re staying here.” A burst of flames on my back accompanied with the warnings from my suit told me the demons were close. I slipped to the side of the door, taking cover from the flames. Tim fired his rifle out the door in the general direction of the source of these fireballs.

“WHAT!?” Rainbow and Twilight yelled.

“You’re both too important to die today,” I said. “Besides, we got this.”

“You got this?” Twilight yelled at me, “You can barely hold your own against Sam for ten seconds!”

“Lucky Sam’s on our side,” I retorted before going into thought. If I remember everyone’s weapon choices then I can formulate a plan.

“Well Andrew, what is your plan,” Twilight said, still panicking about the survival of her home.

I stopped for a moment as a plan came together in my head. “Alright, this is the plan,” I began, “Sam, you and Anala go to the balcony of the library, you both have precision weapons and can cover us or just take them out from there.” 

Not waiting for a response, I continued, “Cloe, you and Tony can skirt around town and save as many ponies as possible.”

“Tim, you and I are gonna distract and lure all the demons into Sam and Anala’s kill zone,” I concluded.

“Uh, that don’t sound very good,” Tim voiced his concern.

“But it’ll be fun,” I say in response. “Now while we’re at it, war cry?”

Tim smiled, “Which one?”

“I think you know,” I said as I returned his smile.

“Oh, for the sake of everything, HURRY UP,” Twilight screamed at us.

“Alright, on three,” I say, getting ready to run out.

“One.” My body pumped in the adrenalin.

“Two.” I notice everyone tense up, ready to spring into action.

“Three.”

I spun around the corner and jumped out the front door. I drew in a deep breath as Tim and I shouted the war cry as loud as we could.

“WAAAAAAAAAAGGHH!”
> Attack
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 17


I charged forward, seeing the line of demons attacking screaming ponies. I fired my rifle into the midst of the creatures, searing away their flesh with bolts of plasma. I slid to a nearby house and slammed my back against the wall as the flaming projectiles sent back exploded behind me. I looked across the street to see Tim in a similar situation as I am, back against a wall as orbs of fire flew in his direction. I nodded at him and brought my wrist to my face.

“Sam,” I said into the wrist mounted radio, “How many are there.”

I waited for a response but never got one, probably not in position yet. I peered around the corner to get a look myself only to nearly get hit in the face by a Demon’s fireball. I looked up at the Tree House Library thing to see Sam on the balcony, looking all around for something.

“Sam, the radio’s on your wrist,” I say before popping around the corner and holding down the trigger of my gun. I hid behind the wall as I was hit by their flames. Luckily this armour is awesome.

“Oh, I knew that,” Sam finally responded. A lance of light accompanied by a loud thumping noise flew out of the Library into the direction of the creatures. A hideous scream of pain was emanated from beyond the wall I hid behind.

“We have 13 up ahead of you,” Sam answered my original question.

“Sweet, thanks,” I say, “Tim, cover me I’m moving closer.”

“Ok,” Tim responded before popping out of his cover at the other side of the street and fired his gun. I swung around the corner with my gun raised and charged forward. I watched as several Demons were hit by Tim’s barrage of bolts. I fired a few shots off before sliding behind a broken cart.

“Alright,” I shouted, “Tony, Cloe, this is the part where you get going.”

“Right,” I hear them respond through the radio. I place the rifle in my hands on its magnetic holster on my back as I pull out my shotgun. Beams of light shot over the top of my head as Sam and Anala fired their guns, followed by more screaming Demons.

“Alright, I’m moving up,” Tim said through the radio. I stood up, shotgun ready to go as all of my enemies came into view. The world slowed to snail pace like it had a few days ago, giving me more than enough time to select my target. The street ahead was dotted with several Imps, all of them moving in our direction. The forms of dead ponies could be seen. I fired the gun at the nearest demon, tearing apart its body and killing it. Another shot from the library flew past my head and connected with an Imp’s head, blowing it off. The two corpses began to turn to ash before I ducked behind my cover once again.

Tim slid next to me, putting his rifle away and pulling out his mace. I know what he’s up to. I pulled out my sword and pistol as he looked at me.

“Highest count?” he asked as more bolts flew around our heads.

“Sure,” I answered. Without waiting, I jumped over the broken carriage and ran at the closest demon. The creature swung its clawed hand at my head, which I ducked under before ramming into its body. I pulled my sword up as it stumbled back before slashing it across the Imp’s face. It fell back, clutching its face as it hit the ground before it’s body began to disintegrate.

Several alerts whined as I was struck by a flurry of flames from the others. I spun around and raised the pistol in my hands. Five demons stood several metres away from me, their hands on fire as they drew back. Tim suddenly jumped into my view and tackled one of the abominations to the ground. He grasped its face with both his hands and the pinned demon screamed. A stream of energy departed the creature before flowing into Tim’s hands. A second later, the Imp was ash.

The other demons rushed at him, intent on making him dead. I fired at the creatures, trying to buy time for Tim. The demons just ignored the pain. When one of the four remaining invaders was about to claw away his armour, Tim spun around and swung his mace up. The weapon struck it in the chin, crushing it’s head and sending it flying. The second demon ran through his partners remains to attack only to be met with a down swing of Tim’s mace, putting the creature into the ground.

The last two were closing in on Tim. I fired away at them only to be stopped as their bodies fell to the ground, their heads missing. Realising what happened, I raised the radio to my mouth.

“Damn kill stealers,” I shouted. Laughter could be heard through the radio as Sam laughed at my outburst.

“Just be happy that you ain’t dead,” he replied. I huffed before walking up to Tim.

“Now what was that?” I asked him about his absorb thing he just did.

“No idea,” Tim answered, “Just felt like doing that.”

What? That makes no sense. I’ll question him later. “Ok anyway, we better find more.”

Pulling out my rifle, I walked further into town. Tim walked beside me, his shotgun ready in his hands. A roar interrupted our walk and made us turn around. A dog like creature was running at us, it’s mechanical back legs powering it forward. I knew what this is.

“Aw shit,” I said.

The bulky creature closed the massive distance between us fast. It tackled me to the ground before I could react and bit into my arm. I yelled out in pain as its teeth went straight through the plating and embedded into my arm. A loud thump told me that Tim shot it with his shotgun. The creature roared through the arm in his mouth before shaking his head to the side, pulling me with it. Its teeth tore through my arm as it shook its head the other way. I screamed as it continued tearing my arm apart. 

Its body suddenly stopped moving, falling limp on top of me. I groaned as the things weight crushed me before its body vanished.

I lay there for a moment before Tim’s hand came into view. “Need a hand?” He asked.

I grabbed his hand with my unharmed arm and let him help me up. “Thanks,” I said before looking around. The forms of ponies littered the area, groans of pain emanating from some of them. I narrowed my eyes at the scene in anger.

“Guys,” I said into the radio, “come down, it’s time for the hard part.”

“Alright, be there soon,” Sam replied. I slowly walked towards the library, clutching my mutilated arm. That isn’t gonna be useful for a long time.

Anala and Sam met us at the broken carriage I used earlier. They saw my arm and visibly cringed.

“Ooo, that doesn’t look good,” Anala said before approaching me. “Let me fix it up.”

I grunted before lifting up my arm, the pain intensifying as it left the support of my working arm. Anala used her healing powers and fixed my arm up, removing all the pain.

I exhaled in relief. “Thanks for that.”

“No problem.”

I smiled before raising my arm to my face. “Cloe, Tony, where you at?” I asked over the radio.

“Over at Sugarcube Corner,” Cloe answered, “the place is clear and everyone’s fine.”

“The Carousel Boutique is all good as well,” Tony followed.

A sharp zapping sound interrupted my thoughts before a flash of green crossed my vision. I knew what that meant. “TAKE COVER!” I shouted as I ducked behind the carriage, watching the others scramble behind buildings. Multiple different colours flashed over my head as bolts of energy were fired at us. These aren’t demons.

“Surrender, Demons,” a voice shouted out at us. Ok, definitely not demons.

Wait, did it just call me a demon? “WHAT?!” I yelled out in outrage, readying my shotgun. “Did you just call me a demon? I’m gonna mess you up!”

I pushed myself up as fast as I can, bringing the weapon in my hands to bear. I snarled as I aimed perfectly at my target before freezing. At the receiving end of my shotgun was a unicorn. He wore a set of golden armour, telling me that he is a royal guard. Flashes of light flew past me as the unicorn’s company continued to throw magic at me. I lowered my weapon as a burst of energy hit my shoulder.

“STOP!” a voice bellowed out. It came from the sky. I didn’t bother looking as my eyes were still locked onto the unicorns, who surprisingly listened. That person must have a lot of authority, probably their boss.

A large form entered my eyesight, landing on the ground before standing up majestically. My eyes refocussed to see Celestia. She observed the area, seeing the sight of dead ponies. I stood up straight and raised one of my hands, saluting to the Princess of the Sun. Her head turned to me, a cold expression on her face. This ain’t good.

“What happened,” she asked, her face betraying no emotions.

I dropped my arm before answering, “Demon attack, fifteen of them.”

“Don’t forget the one that tore your arm up,” Sam pointed out.

“Sixteen,” I corrected myself.

Celestia’s head dropped, showing her emotions. “How many dead?” she asked, her voice cracked as she seemed to hold tears back.

My mood died instantly. “We don’t know yet,” Tim answered.

“I hope none are though,” Anala added.

My eyes widened. “Oh damn,” I mumbled before turning around. “Sam, check on Applejack and her family.”

Not waiting for an answer, I continued, “Tim, get to Fluttershy’s and make sure she’s safe.”

“Yeah, got it,” They answered collectively before running in different directions, heading towards said places.

I looked around at the carnage, saddened by the scene. I fell down onto my hooves at my body reformed into a pony once again. Now time for the hard part.

“Ok, let’s start counting.”

> Meeting
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 18



I trot along towards the library, a massive smile on my face and a clipboard between my teeth. I had just finished counting and the results were pleasing. The guards were off doing whatever, but I didn’t care. I’m on my way to the library. As the door to the tree house came into view, I straightened my face up. Time to get my troll on.

I stopped for a moment at the door, straightening my expression once again before I pushed my way in. Inside I saw twelve ponies standing around the large, circular table in the middle of the room. Celestia had gathered the Elements and my friends around the table. My faked sadness held as I strode towards the table, gaining everyone’s attention.

“Andrew,” Celestia began, “What news do you bring?”

“The count,” I said as solemnly as I could. Everyone’s expression dropped as I said this.

“What is it?” the princess asked. Everyone looked eagerly my way, wanting to hear the news no matter how bad it is, or isn’t in this case.

I flicked my head up and sent the clipboard down the table before I smiled. Seeing this, Sam and Tim smiled as well. As Celestia picked the clipboard up with her magic, all of the humans smiled in understanding.

The princess raised her eyebrow, or whatever it is. “Trololo there isn’t one?” she read out.

“Yep,” I said cheerfully, smiling wider and dancing on the spot slightly. All the ponies in the room were confused. I don’t think they get it.

“So there are no dead ponies?” Twilight asked.

“Exactly,” I answered, “pretty cool eh?”

“But how?” Celestia asked in confusion.

“Pretty neat isn’t it,” I said, “all the ponies were unconscious, scared shitless by the demons, worst case was a burnt flank.”

“Hey!” Rainbow stomped the table as she rose from her seat, “are you calling us ponies wimps?”

“No,” I say casually, “I’m calling those ponies wimps.”

“That’s the same!”

I opened my mouth to make a witty comeback only to realise I don’t have one. “Well, whatever.”

“Let us be glad that nopony died today,” Celestia said.

“Yeah,” Rainbow said as she sat back down.

I heard metal contact wood behind me, making me turn around. I saw a green earth pony guard dragging a gun out of the basement with his teeth. Wait, a gun!

I jumped up and ran over to the fool. “Woah, bro,” I said, “Put the deadly weapon down.”

The guard stopped and looked down at the contraption between his teeth before he raised a hoof and held it up. “It doesn’t look deadly,” he replied. What an idiot.

“What’s your name?” I asked.

“My name’s Chirp.” Why are pony names so weird?

“So,” I said, putting on a straight face, “Do you like your head?”

He cocked his head to the side in confusion. “Yeah,” he answered.

I smiled. “So why is the barrel of the gun in your mouth?”

“Well,” he paused to think about his answer, “How am I supposed to move it?”

“You don’t!” I shout at him. How thick can a pony be?

Chirp straightened himself, standing up proudly. “I do not take orders from you,” he said firmly.

My eye twitched. “You will now,” I snarled.

Chirp leaned forward, attempting to be intimidating. “No I don’t.”

Screw this. I snatched the gun in his hoof by the handle and ran back towards the table. “Hey!” he shouted in surprise.

“No one touches my gun!” I shouted at the guard. I slid to a stop in my old position and placed the weapon underneath me. He can’t get it now. 

Twilight looked at me, her head leaned to the side in curiosity. “What was that about?” she asked.

“No reason,” I answer, “Let’s move on to the next point.”

The gun underneath me began moving. I look to the side to see Chirp trying to take my gun, again. “Please stop, I’m trying to get to my next point here.”

He looked up at me, an angry look on his face. “I was ordered to take this for study.”

“Well tell your boss that you failed,” I growled.

I turn back to the table. “Now my next point,” I said, straightening myself before continuing. “The guards suck.”

“What?!” Everyone that is naturally a pony yelled in surprise

“I’m serious,” I shouted, emphasising my point by slamming my hoof onto the table. “They took five full seconds to hit me in the shoulder, five full seconds of me exposing myself to their attacks before being hit.”

I waited for a response. Celestia looked up. “What makes you insult the capabilities of my guards in front of me?”

“The sheer fail that they are,” I answer matter-of-factly. “I’m sorry if I insulted you but that is my opinion on their capabilities.”

My head flung forward, slamming into the table as I was hit in the back of my head. The gun underneath me slipped away as I righted myself, holding a hoof to my head in pain. I am going to hurt that Chirp guy so bad!

I spun around and dashed towards Chirp as he ran for the door. I tackled him through the door, hitting the dirt ground outside the front door. “No taking!” I snarled as I took the gun away from him. Turning back to the library, I see everyone gathered at the door.

“See what I mean?” I say, “He can’t even get my gun off of me.” I dragged the gun passed the group and back inside the library. I set it aside and returned to the table, waiting to continue. “Anyway, I would like to teach the guards my limited knowledge of warfare.”

“What can you teach that they haven’t learnt?” The Princess asked as she returned to her seat at the other end of the table.

“How to war,” I answered. The room went silent, my words having a bigger impact than I thought. “I’m sorry to say this, but war is coming.”

“Ok,” Celestia solemnly said.

Ok, time to change the topic. “Anyway, onto my next topic of discussion.” I clapped my hooves together as everyone returned to position. “I move to have all our names changed to extra cutesy!”

“Noo!” Cloe instantly complained as predicted.

“What, I freaking love cute things!” I retort. 

“Why would you want to change your name?” Twilight asked.

“Really?” I say, wondering why she can’t see the obvious. “Well Andrew is not a very pony-like name.”

Twilight blushed. “Oh,” she quietly murmured. Dat blush.

“Well, What shall your name be?” Rarity asked.

“Well…”

> Being a Teacher
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 19


I stood before thirty guards ponies, all of whom were called here for a ‘mysterious’ meeting of a sort in the town hall. Cloe, Sam and Tony stood beside me, waiting for me to address the ponies.

“Hello, all,” I announced, “I am Darkside, the new training instructor.” I paced to my left and raised a hoof, pointing at Cloe. “This is Instructor Fyrebook,” I introduced her to the masses before moving my hoof to point at Tony. “Instructor Plume,” I shifted my hoof to Sam, “and Instructor Samus.” 

“What is this!” one of the guards yelled out.

“This is me telling you to shut up!” I shouted back. “I’m here to teach you how to war if it damn well kills me!”

I started to pace across the ranks of ponies as I continued to talk. “Now when you shot at me earlier, I was standing still and you all managed to miss it!” I stopped pacing for a moment, standing in front of one of the iron clad guards. “Now quite frankly, that’s absolutely pathetic!”

I continued my pacing, scanning the crowd for any objections. “You will learn how to fight properly against an enemy who can and will kill you in less than a second,” I continued my monologue, “You will listen to our instructions and follow them to the letter, and if you don’t like it get over it!”

One of the guards stood up. “I refuse to be taught what we already know!” He shouted, receiving approval from his fellow guards ponies. 

“Well you obviously didn’t know shit a few hours ago,” I retorted, “So if you know so much now, try and take me down.”

He backed up, seemingly intimidated by my open challenge. His expression hardened before he leapt forward, His wings spread out and propelled him forward as he raised his hoofs. I jumped to the side as his hoof slammed into the ground where I last stood. I swung my tail around and tripped him before following up by leaping forward and slamming my hoof into his chest.

He screamed out in pain as I leaned towards his writhing form. “If I were an imp class demon, you would have been dead the moment you leapt at me,” I whispered into his ear before standing back up. “Anypony else?” I asked, not expecting a response at all. When no one accepted my challenge, I continued with my teachings.

I grabbed the rifle sitting against the wall behind me and swung it around. Standing on my hind legs, I leaned against the weapon. “So does anypony know what this is?” I asked, a smug grin on my face. None of them should have any idea.

“Oh, I know!” Wait, what?

A group of three fillies ran up to us, excitement evident on their face. One is a pegasus an orange coat and a purple mane, another was a bow wearing yellow pony with a red mane and the last is a white unicorn with a pink and purple mane. They sorta remind me of the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Wait, they are! How did they get in here?!

The fillies slid to a halt in front of me, their eyes studying every inch of the rifle I’m leaning on. “Tha’s the thing that creature on the hill was using,” Applebloom said in the same accent as her sister.

They saw me up there yesterday? “Oh umm,” I blurted out, “could you step away from it please?”

“What’s it do?” Scootaloo asked, ignoring me completely.

“Yesterday, it was makin real loud noises an’ throwing this bright blue stuff at trees,” Applebloom answered.

“Well that doesn’t sound very interesting,” Sweetie belle said, a bored look on her face.

“Cept it cut down the trees!” Applebloom said, her voice rose a bit.

“Cool!” the other two fillies exclaimed.

I fell to the floor at the gun disappeared from under me. The fillies were pulling the gun away from me before I heard a click. “No you fools!”

A hoof hit the trigger guard before Applebloom stopped. She turned to look at me as the rifle on the floor continued to point towards the wall. Lucky it isn’t pointed into the crowd. Then she slipped.

The resounding bang as the superheated plasma broke the sound barrier, being propelled by the magnetic coils inside the gun. I jumped up and ran for my gun as the plasma detonated against the wall, luckily causing no harm.

“No!” I shouted at the fillies as I snatched the rifle away from them. “Stay away from the extremely deadly pulse rifle!” I hugged the gun, flicking the safety back on. Damn ponies and stealing extremely deadly hardware.

The faces of the fillies fell after I shouted. “We’re sorry, mister,” they apologised in unison.

I responded with a grunt, not caring if they apologised or not. Too many ponies have taken my gun and almost blew something up. I started to walk back to my speech position in front of the guards before being stopped by a hoof to the head. “Ay,” I yelped as I turned to see the assailant. It was Cloe.

I sighed in defeat. I knew where this was gonna go. I turn back to the long faced fillies. “Ok, your apology is accepted,” I said with a grin, “But you better not pull a stunt like that again, you almost blew someone’s head off.”

“You three head home now, were teaching war here,” Sam said to the fillies, who surprisingly listened and left after saying goodbye to everyone very loudly.

“Well, someone’s good with fillies,” I murmured before turning back to the guard to resume my speech. “So does anypony else know what this is?” No reply.

“Well this baby is a PPG-32, or pulse rifle.” I swung the weapon around so everyone could get a good look at it. “It fires magnetically accelerated plasma rounds at speeds faster than sound.”

“Now this plasma round is capable of melting through light armour and remove the head of a target without armour in one shot.” The murmuring among the guards was enough to tell me that they understood what I just said. “Luckily, I’m not using this weapon to kill ponies, only demons and heretics.”

“Uh, excuse me sir, but what are these demon things?” I heard a guard ask. Yes, I got called sir!

“Well, let’s just go with ugly two legged creatures that throw fire and turn to ash when dead,” I answered. “There are more types and stuff but I can’t be bothered explaining.”

“So what is the point of this meeting?” the guard asked.

“To tell you that we’re gonna teach you to war, hard,” I answered. “Now we need to know your current capabilities so we’re gonna run a few tests out at Sweet Apple Acres.”

> Party
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 20


“Good work, everypony,” I said as the guards ponies gathered around, breathing heavily from the exercises I just put them through. The sun was meeting the horizon, signalling that the day is ending. The apple trees in the next paddock were devoid of apples, having been bucked out earlier today. Time to evaluate.

“Chirp,” I began, gaining the attention of the annoying green pony. “Your running is atrocious but you can at least throw a punch. Aegis!” I called out, grabbing a red pegasus’ attention. “Your fast and hit hard but can’t manoeuvre for shit.” I looked at the faces of the several ponies in front of me. “You all did good today but we have a very long way to go, dismissed.”

All the guards sighed heavily and relaxed, collapsing onto the ground as I grinned.
“Do you have to work them so hard?” I heard Sam ask me.

“I could have worked them harder.”

“Don’t work them too hard.”

“I won’t,” I said as I saw Applejack approach us. “Sup!”

“Hey,” Applejack called back. “Y’all get to the barn as soon as ya can, we got a surprise for y’all.”

“Sweet thanks,” I shouted in reply. As she left to do whatever, the others walked up behind me. “You know what this is.”

“Party,” Tony replied.

“Yay!” Cloe yelled in excitement.

I turn to the exhausted guards. “You all up for a surprise?” All of them groaned at the thought, “This is gonna be fun,” I grinned before we started to walk towards the barn.

“Prepare for a jump scare people,” I warn as we neared the barn. The world around it was silent. As we approached the massive front doors, we noticed they were left ajar, letting a small shaft of light inside. I went in first, slipping inside as quietly as possible. The massive room is completely black, the door not letting enough light in. Sam, Tony and Cloe slipped in equally as quietly and stood beside me. I nodded to each of them before taking a step further inside.

“SURPRISE!”

“Aaahh!” I screeched before falling onto my back.

“Ha!” Tim laughed out from the front of the mass of ponies, pointing a hoof at me. Anala was standing next to him with an amused smile on her face.

I narrowed my eyes at him as I rolled back onto my hooves. “You…” I trailed off, trying to find a proper insult to use. “You shmuck.”

“Surprise!” Pinkie appeared out of nowhere, startling me again. “Welcome to your ‘Welcome-to-Ponyville-and-thank-you-for-saving-us-all’ party!” Wow, epic party name.

“Thanks,” Tony said.

“Enough chit chat, lets PARTY!”

The party music began I took a moment to look around. There was punch and cupcakes on a table to the left of the barn door where many ponies congregated if they were not dancing. The massive speakers that were pumping out music sat at the back of the room, surrounding a DJ pony of some sort, probably the one called Vinyl Scratch but I can’t tell from this distance. The dance floor in the middle of the room was full of various ponies of all types, all having a good time.

Suddenly, a brilliant plan for payback hatched. “Excuse me for a moment,” I said before walking over to Tim, completely unaware of his approaching horror. He was talking to Rainbow Dash about my expression when the party started, getting a giggle out of the cyan pony. He seemed really engaged in this conversation. Now was my chance.

“Yatzee!” I shouted, lunging at him then grabbing him into a hug.

“Aahhh!” he shouted in surprise, “No, why?”

“You brought this on yourself.” Getting a groan of defeat from my friend. Mission accomplished.

Rainbow held her sides as she laughed at our antics .

“Aw, you want one too?” I asked.

Rainbow stopped laughing as suddenly as it started. “No!” she quickly and urgently, obviously not wanting to ruin her tomboy reputation.

I got off Tim and held my hooves out. “You sure you don’t want this hug?” I asked, smiling as she backed up.

“No,” she answered with a blush before realising her mistake. “I mean YES!”

I lowered my hooves. “Ok then,” shrugging before walking off to talk to Anala. I found her standing in a corner with Sam. I know how this will go, I better leave them be. I moved on to find more ponies to converse with, leaving Sam to his attempts at getting the girl.

I walked around, looking for something to do. Dancing seems like a fun idea, but I suck at it. Might as well be social. I went over to the food table surrounded by ponies. “Sup,” I greeted everyone, giving everyone a smile. “I’m Darkside.”

Everyone suddenly gasped in surprise before running off, leaving me standing next to the table by myself. Wow, that’s just mean. I left the table, saddened by these events. Better be less social or I’ll end up scaring everyone here. I moved over to the corner of the barn to sit and think. Why do these ponies fear me? They probably saw me with the guards earlier. That ain’t a good impression at all.

I sighed sadly, wondering how I could do to be less intimidating. 
“What’s wrong, dear,” a voice interrupted my thoughts before they could start. I look up to see a really concerned Rarity, ain’t she a nice.

“Hey, what brings you to my little corner of thinking?”

“You seem sad,” she answered.

I dropped the small smile that had appeared on my face earlier. “Yeah, I guess I am, but it doesn’t matter.”

“But of course it does, dear,” she said as she took a seat next to me.

I smiled again. “Thanks for being concerned but don’t worry about me, I’ll be fine.”

“Now don’t take me as a silly filly,” she replied seriously, “You are far from being fine anytime soon.”

I sighed in defeat. “I’ll get over it, I always do.”

“Well, what’s made you so upset?”

I grinned. “It’s nothing now, having company fixes everything.”

“That’s good.”

“Indeed it is.” Then I remembered my promise.

Rarity noticed my wide eyed expression. “What’s wrong?” 

“I just remembered a promise I made,” I answer before turning to the barn door, seeing the night sky in all its glory through the party. “I’m so sorry to do this, but I must go.”

I ran out the door at full speed before taking flight. I forgot about my promise to the princess for a moment there. That’s not good. I kept flying until Twilight’s library came into view, indicating that I was going in the right direction. I went to land on the hill that we always meet on, only to crash into the dirt face first. I slid to a halt hearing delighted laughter. As I struggled onto my back, I saw a laughing Luna. What a cute smile.

“Am I late?” I asked her as she continued to laugh at my misfortune.

She kept giggling for a moment before she answered. “No, you are not.”

“That’s good,” I said as I attempt to get to my hooves. My face was hurting something shocking. “There anything on my face?”

At this, she leaned uncomfortably close to examine my face. I slowly backed up, trying not to be awkward about it. Luna frowned, pulling her face away from mine. “You’re bleeding,” she finally answered.

“Well that’s better than I expected,” I mumbled to myself.

“Shouldn’t we get you some help?” Luna asked, a concerned look on her face.

“Nah, I’ll be fine,” I answered sitting down “So, how was your day?”

Luna seemed to be uncomfortable for a moment. “I, uh…” she trailed off as she sat down next to me.

“Wait,” I say, thinking of what she is implying. “You’re nocturnal.”

Her head lowered. “Yes,” came her answer.

“That explains it, you’re also lonely.”

She nodded her head in acknowledgement. I furrowed my brow as I thought of a way to help. As an idea came to me, I stood up and offer Luna a hand, I mean hoof. “Come, I have the best idea.”

The Night Princess hesitated before she took my hoof and stood up. I started walking to the party. If I want my idea to work, we would need resources. 
“What is this idea?” Luna asked as she walks beside me.

I open my mouth to answer, only to be interrupted by a voice. “Hey guys,” the voice said, making me look for the owner. I groaned when I learnt who the owner is.

“Check this out,” Cloe shouted over her shoulder as two other ponies appeared. I groaned more, realising the shitstorm to come.

My friends d’awed at the sight that beheld them, getting me to blush a little. I looked at Luna, who has a very visible blush on her face. “So do I have to slap a filly?” I ask aggressively.

“Aw, you love us,” Cloe said, getting a smile from me.

“Damn you and your truths,” I said in retaliation before I moved onto the matter at hand. “Anyway, I need your help.”

“Aw, he needs a wing man,” Sam called out, getting more d’aws from the others.

“No,” I began, “I need twelve sticks, fire wood, four bags of marshmallows and a fez.”

They gave me a quizzical look. “We’re doing an all-nighter.”

“Ohhh…”

> Camping
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 21



The moon hung high in the sky, surrounded by shining stars as we entered the clearing we used as a training area. The trees stood high around us with exception to the one that I cut down. The five of us walked around, many of us carrying something ranging from fire wood to marshmallows. I stopped in the middle of the clearing. Luna stood in front of me, a bit nervous about the situation. She probably isn’t used to being with so many ponies in a place like this.

“Why are we here?” Tim asked, walking towards me from the pathway here.

I dropped the wood on my back in the centre of the clearing, making sure there was plenty of space between it and the trees before I answered with a smile. “Campfire!”

Cloe stopped by the fallen tree. “Let me guess, you want me to start the fire?”

“Bingo!”

“Why can’t you just do it?” Cloe complained.

“Because I don’t know magic,” I countered.

She groaned at my statement, knowing that she had lost. Cloe lowered her head, aiming the horn protruding from her head at the pile of wood next to me. My eyes widened as she used her fire spell, sending the wood up in flames and burning the hairs on the side of my hindquarters. I yelped in pain, jumping to the side as my leg got touched by the emerging flames. Cloe smiled as the others failed to stifle their giggles. “Happy now?” She asked teasingly.

I narrowed my eyes at her before smiling. “Yes, actually. Now, operation nightly is in effect.” I clapped my hooves together as the rest of us dropped whatever they were carrying. Tony carried four bags of marshmallows in some saddlebags we borrowed from a local shop owner. He sat down next to the blazing wood, waiting for the rest of us to join him. Tim was carrying the twelve sticks we need to cook the marshmallows, which he dropped near the fire before joining Tony. Cloe wasn’t carrying anything so she just sat down next to Tony. I went and joined my friends, Tim to my right while Cloe sat to my left. Luna moved and sat between me and Tim.

I grabbed the pile of sticks and started handing them out. “So who wants to hear a story?”

“No!” everyone but Luna shouted as I handed a stick to Tony. They obviously object greatly to the awesome idea.

“But it’s a brilliant idea,” I argue as I handed the next stick to Luna. “I ain’t sitting around doing nothing all night.”

“Your story will probably suck,” Tim rebutted as I handed him a stick.

I placed a stick in front of me before handing the rest to Cloe. She’ll probably burn all of them. “Too bad, you hear one anyway.”

Everyone but Luna groaned at this before getting comfortable, pulling out one of the marshmallow bags and grabbing one each.

“It can’t be that bad,” Luna said as she grabbed a marshmallow and stuck it on her stick.

“See,” I call out as I stuck a marshmallow on my stick. “Someone thinks it’s a good idea.”

“No,” Tim continued to object.

I held my stick over the flame to cook my marshmallow as I continued. “Well, I’m telling you one anyway…”

_________________________________________________________________________

I stood on a stone balcony, FAMAS assault rifle in hand as I overlooked the scene in front of me. The courtyard in the centre of the mansion was in disarray. The stone gazebo that sat in the middle of a large pond has been reduced to debris and a large hole was made off to the side, allowing easy access to the underground passage. The three doorways on each side of the square were somehow still intact even after all the explosive punishment that they took. The sounds of sporadic gunfire filled the air.

A man in a dark Russian military uniform appeared from the door to the right, carrying an AUG A3 assault rifle. As soon as I saw him, he swung his weapon to point at me and fired. Faint music slowly took over my hearing as I ducked behind the door behind me, taking a round in the shoulder. Getting shot is not fun, but I needed to take down the enemy.

The faint music continued as I swung around the door, flicking my assault rifle into a ready position before taking aim. The opposing soldier was in the process of moving closer to me, trying to get a clear shot. He never saw the hail of bullets that tore him apart. As his bloodied and destroyed body hit the floor, my vision became white…

_________________________________________________________________________


“…and that is how I won my first close quarters match!” I concluded, gaining a face hoof from Tim and Tony.

“Are you serious?” Tim asked.

I thought about the story for a second. “No, I suck at games.” 

Tim groaned at my comment. I just shrugged and pulled my marshmallow on a stick out of the flames and took a bite. “Wow,” I blurted out in surprise, “this is good.”

“Really?” Cloe asked sceptically, pulling her stick out of the fire as her marshmallow began burning. As the blue flame surrounded her food, Cloe blew it out near instantly before taking a bite. At least she didn’t throw it at someone.

Her eyes widened as she tasted the blackened marshmallow. “Wow, this equestrian stuff is awesome,” she exclaimed.

“Well I’m glad you like it,” Luna replied as she removed her marshmallow from the fire and ate it.

I ate the last of my food before grabbing another. These marshmallows are awesome! “So who wants to tell a story this time?”

Everyone went quiet. “So everyone wants me to tell another story?”

“No,” Cloe answered. “Also you forgot to say everypony.”

“Of course you would point that out.”

She just smiled at that. Cloe can be mean sometimes. “Anyway, back to the point.”

“What point,” Tim said irritably, finally taking his head off of his hoof.

“We need something to do, so why not story tell?”

Tim groaned again. He sure likes groaning. “Because only you want to.”

Oh. “Well why didn’t you say so earlier?” I asked before pulling my stick out of the flames.

Tim took his stick out of the fire and bit into his cooked marshmallow. “Because I didn’t think your story would suck that bad.”

I deflated a little at that. “Well, I didn’t understand it at all but it wasn’t that bad,” Luna interjected.

This cheered me up a lot. “Thanks,” I quietly said, smiling at the small compliment.

“Hey Luna,” Tony spoke up, “Did you hear about the training program we set up for the guards?”

“I have,” she answered.

And so the discussion of how we’re gonna train the guards started. Luna’s knowledge of the average skills of the royal guard was extensive, being far greater than I guessed. A few hours passed as well as a few topics. We moved from talking about training to Magic: The Gathering cards to several other topics I can’t remember. The marshmallows have long since run out, the stick burnt down to mere twigs and the campfire is long dead. The others had fallen to sleep, leaving me the last man standing. My sleepiness was catching up to me but I’m gonna try to stick this out.

“We haven’t looked at the stars yet,” I say to Luna, who is looking at the others. She seems a little nervous about something.

Luna looked up and smiled. “Yes, we haven’t.”

“Care to join me?” I asked as I stood up, my weariness almost making me fall over.

She gave me a concerned look.  “Aren’t you a little tired?”

“Oh, I’m tired but I said I’ll stick this out.” This is easier with video games.

Luna thought for a moment before deciding to join me. We walked outside the clearing to bear witness to the night sky, shrouding the world in stars. It was brilliant.

“Brilliant, isn’t it,” I say absently as I turn to look at Luna. My eyelids are getting really heavy now.

“Thank you,” Luna replied, a blush crossing her beautiful face. Wait, why am I thinking like this?

“ts’alright.” My speech is slurring now. Don’t remember doing that when I’m tired. Damn magic and its random effects.

My hearing faded out as I blinked, but my eyes didn’t open. I fell to the side as sleep overtook me, being stopped by a really comfortable and furry surface. I tried to think of what it could be but my conscious thoughts ceased.

Sudden movement woke me from my slumber. My mind snapped to attention as my head contacted the dirt ground. Luna’s form crossed my vision as I began to make sense of what is happening. I yawned as I got to my hooves.

“Oh,” Luna jumped as the world came into focus. “Sorry.”

“About what?”

“For waking you.”

“Damn, I fell asleep,” I said, “Well at least whatever I slept on was real comfortable.”

Luna suddenly turned her head but I already noticed what she was trying to hide. Her blush appeared before she could hide it successfully. As I put two and two together, my eyes widened.

“That was you I was sleeping on, wasn’t it?” I said, my face reddened as I giggled nervously. “I am so sorry about that.” Then my wings sprung up.

Our faces became an even darker shade of red. “Uh, I hate life sometimes.” I pointed a hoof towards the clearing as I continued to talk. “I’m just gonna go that way.”

Luna nervously laughed. “Well, good night then.”

I smiled despite the situation. “Good night, see ya tomorrow I hope.”

Luna returned the smile before jumping into the air, flying back to Canterlot. I let out a breath that I just realised I was holding while I walked back into the clearing. The burnt pile of wood still sat where we left it. My three friends still lay sleeping next to it. This is gonna be fun.

“GOOD MORNING!” I shouted, waking the three humans instantly.

“Holy shit, don’t do that,” Tony shouted in response.

“Come on, mission accomplished.”

“Really?” Tim asked.

“Yes, now let’s get to bed.”

> Guard Schooling
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 22


I awoke again, this time in the comfort of a bed. I looked around bland basement and noticed everyone else was already up. “Good morning,” I greeted as I landed on my hooves.

“It’s not morning.”

“What?!” I snapped to attention and bolted up the stairs. When I reached the top, six ponies that were sitting around the central table jumped up at my sudden appearance. They just happened to be the ponies I wanted to talk to

“Please warn us before you do that,” Rarity said, letting out a sigh.

“Sorry bout that,” I say before walking over to Pinkie. “I must apologise profusely for what I did yesterday.”

Pinkie looked confused for a moment before realising what I was on about. “Oohhh, don’t worry about that,” she surprisingly replied cheerfully.

“…What?”

“Yeah, Rarity told me that you disappeared and I was mad so we all went out to look for you and saw you with Tim and Tony and Cloe and Luna and that you were planning to stay up and keep Luna company and that was reeealy nice, so we watched you and the others go to a clearing and have a camp fire and a little party just for Luna!”

“…wow.” She can talk.

“And then we were had to get back to our party and finish it but Twilight thought that she should stay and watch out for you and all.”

“Wait, what?” Ok, I’m scared now. I really hope she saw nothing. Twilight, however, had a smile that says she saw everything.

“So what happened after we left?” Pinkie asked, having just finished talking.

“I don’t wanna talk about it,” I answer, backing up uncomfortably. Please don’t go there.

“I know what happened,” Twilight announced, a sly smile on her face.

“Please don’t tell them!” I pleaded. “I don’t wanna be endlessly asked questions about it!”

She pointed a hoof at me. “You were getting close to the princess last night.”

“Wait, what?!” I heard everypony shout in surprise.

“I knew he was getting in with Luna!” Sam shouted loudly, getting some laughs from ten other ponies. Damn, they just had to walk up the stairs now.

“This is gold!” I heard Spike join in.

“Great, now everyone knows.” I sighed in defeat, very hard defeat.

“Everypony,” Cloe corrected me again.

“Spikes a dragon, my statement is correct.”

“Who cares about that, how are you and Luna?” Rarity asked.

“I ain’t gonna answer that,” I answer stubbornly. They won’t get answers that easy.

“Aw but what am I going to tell everypony else?”

“Nothing!”

“Aw, you can tell us,” Tim joined in.

“No I can’t.”

“”Pleease?” Cloe pleaded for answers.

“Hey guys, lay off him,” Rainbow interrupted, Applejack jumping to help her. “We shouldn’t be pushing him to tell us.”

“Aw, but aren’t you just a little curious?” Rarity replied.

“Ah may be a mite curious, but that don’t mean ah have tha right to jus’-” Applejack never finished before I interrupted.

“You know what, I’m gonna go do what I am supposed to do today and teach some guards how to war,” I say as I stormed out the front door. I ain’t putting up with that. Now where is that town hall…

The guards waited patiently as I stood before them, like last time just without the backup. The town hall was populated by the same 30 guards today. Aegis and Chirp were also attending, surprisingly. Maybe they want more hard criticism.

“So you ponies are back for some more training?” I asked rhetorically, maintaining the constant scowl I’ve had since the talk earlier. “Well we’re gonna be doing something different today.”

I walked towards the door before beginning to yell. “Move it!”

As the guards formed up outside the hall, I announced my plan. “We’re going for a little run to a suitable spot, try to keep up.” And then I ran.

The pounding sound of hooves followed me the entire way to our destination, the edge of the Everfree Forest. The guards were keeping up better than expected, telling me that there has been some improvement. I ceased running and turned around as the forest’s edge came into view. “Alright, this is our stop.”

The guards returned to an orderly formation before I continued. “Today we will be doing combat training.”

“Wait, how?” I heard a white, generic looking guard call out.

“Well, Generic looking dude, we’re doing target practice, interception exercises and full contact sparring.”

“What!” They all shouted out in surprise.

I walked over to a tree about 30 metres away from the group and slapped a hoof on it. “This here is your target, unicorns,” I announce to the group of assorted ponies. “Try and hit it from there.”

All the unicorns in the group smirked and murmured to their peers something before one of them took a step forward, horn glowing with energies. The pony lowered his head, taking aim with his horn before releasing a bolt of energy at the tree. It flew through the air at a comparable speed to plasma before hitting the ground.

I laughed, almost falling onto my face at the display of skill I just witnessed. “What was that?!” I said, still laughing hysterically. “That’s pathetic!”

Through my teary eyes, I saw the unicorn walk back into the group, grumbling at my blatant criticism. I finally got up and leaned against a different tree as others stepped forward, trying to hit the tree I told them to. Many failed, missing by a mere centimetre or two while a fraction got a direct hit. After some watching, I noticed the many ways that they could improve and reasons that they were missing so much.

“Here’s some advice,” I began as I stepped towards the group. “All of you are leaning your head so far forward you can’t aim at all, try finding a head position that lets you aim as well as shoot.”

Many of them took this advice to heart and started to look for a suitable head position. I smiled before walking off. Can’t let the others slack off now can I? “Alright, everypony else pair up.”

All the pegasi and earth ponies looked confused for a moment before pairing up. They seemed to be pairing up thinking that they’re gonna be a team. The faster and more agile pegasi paired up with the stronger, harder hitting earth ponies. I noticed that the two ponies that I actually know the names of have paired up. I grinned at this. “Congratulations, you just chose your sparring buddy.”

“What?!” They all shouted out in surprise.

“You think that I’m gonna put you in two on two practise?”

“Well-”

“Well I wasn’t, now get into fighting stances,” I instructed, “You all need to learn how to fight in the heat of combat.”

“What if we refuse?” another generic looking dude asked sternly.

“You all get a one on one with me.”

At this they all entered a fighting stance, readying themselves for training. I grinned at the overpowered threatening skills I had. The unicorns were still going at it as I shouted the instruction to begin…

2 hours of training had left the guardsponies with little to no energy to go on with. As I finished concluding todays training, the guards began the trek to town, many with bruises covering a majority of their body. As the last guard left I began my journey to the library, thinking about the sort of inventive shit the others have come up with but was stopped by a unicorn stallion standing in my way.

“What is it?” I asked, irritated at the interruption to my thoughts. I looked up to see someone extremely important. “Hi captain.”

“What were you doing to my guards?” Captain Shining Armour asked threateningly.

I just smiled at his intimidation attempt. “Teaching,” I answered.

The Captain scowled at my answer. “Does this teaching involve beating them senseless?”

“Eyyup.”

“Why!”

“Do you want to be able to protect yourselves in the coming war?”

This caught him by surprise. “I won’t be here all the time, I have a job to do, friends to get home.” I poked him with my hoof. “Your home is under attack by a threat that I have only ever seen in a video game,” I continued. “They are the third worst thing conceived by the human mind, next to heretics and OP aliens.”

Shining lowered his head in resignation. “So you need to train the guards to be able to take them on,” he said.

“See, you’re getting it now,” I smiled. “Now I have to get to the library to face whatever your sisters gonna throw at me.” I began to walk again, the smile on my face turning into a frown. I am gonna have a bad time.

“Wait, you know Twilight?” The Captain asked me as he began walking with me.

“Yup, been staying in her basement with my friends for the last three days.”

“What did you do to make her angry?”

“Nothing, she just knows something that I didn’t want anyone else to know and she told everyone.”

He grinned as I continued. “I gotta see this.” I groaned at his comment.

We reached the library without incident. I took a deep breath as we approached the door. When I opened the door, my situation suddenly looked far worse than before.

“Hello,” Celestia greeted me.

“I am hating life so much…”

> The Question
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 23



“How was your day,” The Princess asked kindly, smiling quite pleasantly.

“Horrible,” I answer bluntly.

“Now don’t be like that,” Shining said, the grin still plastered on his face. “You were having fun teaching the guards all day.”

“Ok, maybe I was having fun then,” I corrected myself.

“Anyway, I am here to discuss a certain topic with you,” Celestia said as she began to walk past me to the door. “In private.”

I had an idea of where this would be going, but I hoped against it as I followed her outside. I nervously looked around, trying to distract my thoughts as the door closed behind me. “So what’s up?” I asked nervously.

“You seem nervous,” Celestia stated.

“Maybe I am.”

The sun princess laughed at my answer before putting on a serious tone. “I need to speak with you about a delicate subject,” she quietly said.

My ears perked up. “Ok, shoot.”

“My sister, Luna,” she began, killing all my hopes of avoiding the topic instantly. “I believe you have met her.”

My nervousness returned. “Yes,” I answered, hiding my nervousness effectively.

“I also hear that you have recently been spending many nights out looking at the stars with her,” she continued, walking in the direction of the hill where Luna and I look at stars.

My heart raced as my suspicions of what Celestia knows grew. “Yeah,” I again respond, hoping deep down that I don’t have to talk to her about what happened last night.

“I also heard of the little incident that happened last night,” she turned, smiling knowingly at me.

My eyes widened as my hopes were crushed once again. “I’m sorry please don’t incinerate me!” I shouted out, cowering beneath my hooves.

The princess let out a hysterical laugh. I looked up from where I was to see the princess on the ground, laughing uncontrollably.

I got up, confused at the event that has just transpired. “…Ok.”

Celestia slowly calmed down, trying to control her laughter. “Why would I do something like that?” she asked rhetorically, still giggling at the thought.

I looked down and thought for a moment. “Well, yeah it does sound stupid…”

“She has been happier ever since you watched the stars with her.”

I stopped. This never happens around me. “What?” I asked in disbelief.

“I would like to thank you for that,” The princess smiled kindly as she said this.

My brain ceased functioning for a moment as it tried to comprehend what I just heard. “What?” I shouted, my eye twitching repeatedly.

Celestia laughed again before turning in the general direction of Canterlot. “I’ll let you think on it.”

I walked back inside, still thinking about what she said. I don’t make people happy. Well, ponies in this case but still the same meaning.

“So, what were you two talking about?” Pinkie appeared out of nowhere, snapping me out of my thoughts. “Was it something super duper secret? Or maybe something about cakes, or maybe you were talking about Luna!”

“…I have no idea how you talk so fast,” I commented about her ludicrous speaking speed.

“That’s avoiding the question!” she continued, a frown on her face.

“Maybe I don’t want to answer the question.”

“Aww,” she said, disappointed at my response. At least she isn’t pushing for an answer.

“You know what,” I whispered as I lean close to one of Pinkie’s ears. “Your last guess was right.”

As I walked towards the kitchen, an impossibly huge smile appeared on Pinkie’s face. “Don’t go telling everyone please.”

The kitchen in the library seemed a bit smaller than what I’m used to, considering humans are about as tall as the princesses but I would manage. I only wanted a sandvich.

“So how was your day,” I heard Twilight say. I spun around with sandvich in hoof to see seven ponies. Oh great, she’s gonna ask questions with her friends and her brother are here.

“Good enough,” I answered.

“I must ask,” she began as she left the group and approached me. I took a bite of my sandvich and waited for her to continue. “What are your feelings towards Luna?”

That’s it. “Don’t make me,” I threatened as I backed up, taking another bite of my sandvich.

“Make you do what,” she asked with genuine concern, backing up herself.

“Don’t make me rename you Twilot Spickel.” I said threateningly.

She stopped. “Really, that’s it?” she asked questioningly, the ponies behind her stifling their giggles.

“Either that or I threaten to hug you.”

“…You do realise that won’t stop me.”

“I’ll hug everyone then.” I said as I put my sandvich down on the kitchen bench.

“That still won’t sto- woah!” I interrupted Twilight, leaping at her and bringing the full wrath of my hug upon her. The six ponies still in the doorway suddenly fell over, laughing at the scene before them.

“You still think that this hug isn’t incentive enough to stop?” I asked as she groaned underneath my hugging.

“YES!” she screamed out her answer, hurting my ears something shocking. I let her go and returned to my sandvich. The ponies were still rolling on the floor, laughing constantly. I took my sandvich in hoof, intent on finishing it as I watched the group continue their laughter at Twilight’s expense. Surprisingly Shining didn’t do the traditional brotherly teasing that all brothers must do after witnessing such a thing happen, settling with a simple smile and more laughter.

By the time I finished my sandvich, the moon had replaced the sun in the sky and the stars showed themselves. Time to head to the hill. I smiled at the thought as I walked to the door. “I’m gonna watch the stars,” I told the ponies, who finally calmed down.

“Ok, good night,” The ponies replied in unison

“Night guys,” I shouted back as I left for the hill, noticing a group of ponies coming this way from town. Probably Sam and the rest. Wait, what are they laughing about? I’ll worry about that later.

I reached the hill and sat down at the top. The stars glowed differently tonight, more lively. I watched and waited, doubting whether Luna would come or not. No sooner did I begin to doubt that Luna appeared, gliding down from the sky majestically. I smiled as she landed next to me, smiling herself…

> Spying
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 24


Andrew was walking off towards the hill behind the Library when the humans returned from Sugarcube Corner. At this sight, the group stopped talking completely. A moment went by in silence until Sam laughed, shortly joined by everyone else except Tim.

“What are you laughing about?” Tim asked, oblivious as to why everyone was laughing.

“Andrew’s gone to ‘watch the stars’,” Cloe answered him.

Tim laughed a little at that. “I see what you did there.”

“Should we follow him?” Tony asked.

“You can, I’m going to bed,” Ana announced before walking ahead of everyone and into the tree.

“We should let him have some time alone,” Tony answered.

“Yeah, let’s leave him be,” Tim agreed before walking towards the door with his brother. Cloe and Tony trailed behind them

When they reached the door, it suddenly flew open. The door hit Tim and Sam, knocking them down. A group of ponies came through the door and looked down.

“Oh, sorry bout that,” Applejack apologised.

“It’s alright,” Sam said as he got up.

“You alright?” Rarity asked.

“Yeah, I’ll be fine,” Tim answered as he too got back up.

When Andrew left their view, the ponies began to move again. “We’re in a bit of a rush,” Twilight told the humans as she past them and walked towards the hill.

“Wait, what are you up to?” Sam asked, suspicious as to her intentions.

“Uhm,” Twilight was thinking of an answer when Pinkie interrupted.

“We’re gonna go do some super sneaky stuff up at that hill!” she answered with too much energy. 

Sam gave them a deadpanned look. “You’re spying on Andrew,” he said flatly.

“Oh I gotta see this,” Cloe cheerfully followed up.

“I’m staying out of this,” Sam said. “I don’t wanna get caught.”

“Suit yourself, I’m going,” Tim announced his decision.

“Count me in,” Tony stated.

Twilight huffed. Now our chances of being caught have risen, she thought. “Ok, lets go,” she announced, her voice laced with annoyance.

“Don’t worry, we won’t be caught,” Tim told her as they began their short journey. When the hill came into sight, they saw a lone figure looking up into the sparkling abyss. Noticing who it is and that he was oblivious to their presence, Twilight signaled the group to follow her to the side where a brush large enough to hide the group while keeping within earshot sat.

As the group got comfortable in the brush much to Rarity’s complaining, Cloe noticed a dark figure swoop down and land next to Andrew. “Luna has arrived,” Cloe whispered to the part of the group not paying attention who responded by ceasing their shuffling and listening as hard as they could.

“How has thine night been,” Andrew asked Luna cheerfully.

“Quite good so far,” came her answer.

“That’s good, my day was better than expected,” Andrew continued. “You should have seen the look on Twilot’s face earlier.”

“What’s that about,” Tony quietly asked Twilight, who was simmering at what she just heard.

“That should stop her from asking questions about that topic for now,” Andrew continued, oblivious to the group hiding a few metres away.

“What was the topic,” Luna asked.

“Just something I prefer not to talk about, which reminds me about a time…”

“You asked him about his feelings, didn’t you,” Tony interrupted the hearing of everyone else, trying his best to sound serious while remaining undetected. He got shushed by everyone but twilight.

“…how was training the guards?” Luna continued the conversation on the hill.

“Better, they aren’t gonna get rofl-stomped anymore,” Andrew answered.

“Rofl-stomped?”

“Beaten really easily.”

“How so?”

“Well, they can actually hit something with magic consistently now. The ones that can’t use magic can easily manoeuvre in close combat, so I say quite the productive day.”

“Well that’s good.”

“Indeed it is,” their conversation ceased.

“They look so cute together,” Rarity whispered to everyone, enticing a giggle from the humans of the group.

“Wait,” Andrew spun around and looked at the nearest brush, which happened to be the one that everyone was hiding in.

“What is it?” The Princess asked the human.

“Someone’s hiding nearby,” he answered as he narrowed his eyes. His expression softened soon afterwards as he turned to Luna. “No matter, I just remembered something important.”

Luna looked at Andrew, her hair flowing around as her head turned. “What is it?” she asked, a look in her eyes that none could tell the meaning of.

“Sorry bout yesterday,” He apologised. “That was an extremely embarrassing thing to happen and I just wanted to apologise for making a really awkward situation.” Andrew went into thought. “You know, talking about it is awkward.”

Luna just laughed at the human, leaving him dumbfounded. She calmed down slowly. “There is no need to apologise, that’s the first time it has ever happened to me.” Luna suddenly threw her hooves in front of her muzzle.

“…Ok, this is awkward,” Andrew facehoofed as he said this, the group in the bush almost revealing themselves as they all stifled their laughter.

Luna giggled nervously. “Yeah, it is.”

Andrew sighed as he turned to the sky once again. “For both our sakes, let’s move on to a different topic.”

The two remained quiet as they stared into the stars together. The ponies and humans in the brush remained silent, waiting to see if there was any more to be heard. “Nice night sky once again I must note,” Andrew broke the silence.

Luna smiled at his compliment. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” Andrew smiled as a swirl of magic appeared in front of Luna. The swirl shrank quickly before flashing like a camera, releasing a popping sound and revealing a scroll. Luna took the scroll and opened it. Andrew watched as the night princess’ expression hardened into a scowl.

“What’s up?” He asked.

“Something’s come up,” Luna answered, annoyance evident in her voice. She stood and spread her wings. “I’m so sorry for cutting this short, but I must go.”

“It’s alright, there’s always tomorrow.”

Luna smiled at Andrew one last time before taking to the sky, her wings carrying her to Canterlot.

Andrew sighed as he turned to the brush from earlier. “You can come out now.”

Cloe popped up first, an annoyed look on her face. “How did you know?” she asked, though it sounded a lot like whining.

Andrew smiled. “Cause I’m awesome.”

Rainbow dash popped up next, a similar expression on her face except a bit angry. “Hey, only I can be awesome!”

“Sorry.”

The rest got out of the brush, huffing in frustration. “You’re real lucky,” Tim told Andrew.

Andrew kept smiling. “Well why don’t you join me some time?” He asked rhetorically.

“How did you know we were there?” Twilight asked.

“You all laughed.”

“…oh.”

“Well then,” Andrew slapped his hooves together. “Let’s head to bed, don’t want Sam and Ana having any fun, now do we?”

> Leaving
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 25


I was having breakfast with my friends, some sort of oats. I guessed that twilight left to do something as I haven’t seen her at all. “You know what I find weird,” I spoke my mind.

Tony looked up from his food. “What?”

“They don’t have TV’s or computers,” I stated, “but they have advanced 7.1 stereo systems and wubs.”

“I haven’t seen one.”

I shook my head. “No but they’re in the show.”

Tony paused for a moment before nodding. “True.”

I went back to eating as everyone else started do discuss the ponies technology. I paid little attention to the conversation, focusing more on my own thoughts. I am beginning to get questionable feelings about the situation we’re in, especially mine. I have to avoid having feelings for anyone here.

“Hey, Andrew,” Cloe grabbed my attention, diverting me from my thoughts.

“Yeah.”

“What’s happening between you and Luna?”

I narrowed my eyes. “I’m not gonna tell anyone,” I growled out my answer.

“Tell me!” she began to whine.

“No.”

She continued to whine, repeatedly asking me to answer her question. I began to get increasingly frustrated at her persistence before I cracked. “NOTHING!” I scream at her my answer, letting out all of my frustrations. I watched Cloe as she shrank in her seat before I continued. “Nothing is going to happen.” As my anger dissipated, I buried myself into the act of eating. The day hasn’t even started and it’s already ruined.

As I cleaned the plate I used, the library door opened. I ran several possibilities through my head as I went to see who it is. When I reached the main room, the others had stopped eating and were smiling at the princess standing in the doorway.

Celestia was giving a warm smile to everyone. I returned the smile like everyone else in the room. “Princess,” I greeted happily, giving a nod as she walked to the table.

“I am sorry for interrupting your breakfast, but I wanted to bring some news,” she said. This news mustn’t be very good.

“It’s alright, we don’t mind,” Sam replied.

“What’s the news,” Ana asked.

“There have been sightings of strange two-legged creatures near another town.”

Oh, that ain’t good. “Alright, tell us where and I’ll organise for some of us to go,” I told Celestia.

“What?” the others questioned.

“…Ok, I’ll organise for me to go,” I ‘corrected’ myself.

“Not saying that no one else will go as well,” Sam added in.

The ruler of the land smiled. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” I smirked as I said this. I like being nice.

“The town that sighted the creatures is in a fairly secluded area, called…”

)*RANDOM INCONVENIENCING TIMESKIP*(

The ponies in my group were assembled in front of me, near the last place we trained in. They all sported some form of bruise on their body, having performed full contact sparring yesterday. I paced in front of them, studying each one of them closely. I stopped in front of the centre row to make my announcement.

“You are gathered here for three things,” I began. “First, I am promoting all of you to Butt Stallion.”

“What!?” the lot of them shouted in surprise.

“Would you all rather be Butt Pirate?” I retorted with a grin before I straightened my face. “Just think of it as private.”

All of them began to grumble about their promotion before one of them asked a question. “What were we before?”

I smiled, knowing exactly what to say. “Silly Fillies.” This incited more grumbles from the guards.

I interrupted their quiet complaining loudly. “Next point, I need some of you to come with me to another town and the rest to guard Ponyville.”

“Which one, sir?” a generic looking dude shouted.

“The one where you find out later,” I answered

I let them talk among themselves before I made my decision. “Ok, I’m gonna just say that I plan on taking Aegis, Chirp and you two,” I stated, pointing at two random ponies, one a unicorn and the other an earth pony, in the front row.

“Uh, sir,” I heard Chirp speak up. “I would like to make a request.”

This is interesting. “Ok, shoot.”

“May I stay here in Ponyville?” He asked, even though he just said he was making a request. Either the pony’s weird or something’s up.

“Upon what reasoning,” I stated, practically demanding an answer.

This caught him off guard. He hesitated to answer the simple question. I was beginning to think about denying his request when he finally answered. “The local librarian, sir.”

I grinned as the guards snickered at his answer. He’s got a fancy for Twilight. This is gold. “Accepted, upon one condition.”

I heard some questioning among the ranks of guards. Some of them didn’t agree with the way I work but this didn’t seem to be a problem for Chirp, who was smiling ear to ear. “What is it, sir.”

“If the town is attacked, you protect that librarian till your dying breath,” I told him, “her brother would kill me if she dies.”

The guards gave a hearty laugh at the condition. Maybe they like my decision now. “Who wants to take his place.”

A grey coated unicorn stepped forward. His golden mane matched the shade of the armour the guards wore. “I will,” he said, confidence in his voice.

“What’s your name?”

“Spinning Cogs, sir.”

“Cool name bro, you’re in.”

He stepped back as I brought up the next point. “Now, point tree,” I began. “Do any of you know what I truly am?”

“What do you mean, sir?” Chirp asked.

“Let me show you,” I answered before I did something I haven’t needed to do for a while. I performed the transformation process. I stood on my two legs, disoriented by the lack of front legs. I felt the armour plates slide into position from the disc on my back, encasing me in durable Nano steel. The helmet folded out and over my head, providing protection and badass points. The ponies gasped at what they witnessed. I opened my eyes, taking in all of the info the HUD in the helmet fed me and looked down at them.

“What are you all surprised about, I did the reverse in front of you all a few days ago.” I said, pacing around, getting used to my bipedal form once again. The ponies straightened themselves, taking this far better than predicted as I once again stopped pacing and faced them. “Alright, you’re all taking this too well,” I shout in frustration.

“Would you rather us panic?”

“Yes, actually.”

“We’re not like that around here.”

“Fine then,” I said, still confused as to why these ponies are so accepting. Might have to do with the existence of dragons and other things. “The train leaves in thirty minutes, you four better be there in twenty five.”

“Yes Sir,” came the chorus from the guards.

“Dismissed.”

As the ponies dispersed to do whatever, I walked to the library to pick up my guns.

)*EXTRA STRENGTH TIMESKIP*(

I was at the train station 10 minutes early, my collection of weapons on my back. I was absently checking my rifle over for the tenth time when an orange pony and two humans with similar weapons approached me. “Cloe, Tony, Applejack” I acknowledged them.

“Andrew,” they replied.

I got up as suddenly as I could and gave them all a group hug, of which they returned. As I let them out of my hug I began to talk. “So, I moustache you a question,” I said. Not giving them the chance to answer I continued. “Are you READY… to GO TO TOWN?!” 

“Uh, yeah,” Tony and Cloe answered.

“Good cause I got us some company.”

“Oh great,” AJ said, unenthused at the idea.

“It’s not all bad, I trained them.”

> AAAAAPLEOOSA!!
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 26


“AAAAAPPLEOOSA!” I shouted as I departed the train, the morning sun hitting me in the face as I observed the barren land in front of me. The town was fairly small, consisting of a salt bar, Sheriff’s office and assorted shops and houses. I wore enough firepower to level the town on my own. Tony, Cloe and Applejack walked up beside me as I stood and observed Appleoosa.

“Please, never say that again,” Tony said, irritated at my butchery of the town’s name.

“Ok then.”

Appleoosa looked like it wasn’t inhabited at all. The lack of pony was disturbing. “Where’s the pony?” I asked the people beside me.

“No idea,” Applejack answered. “Maybe yer looks are scarin away all the ponyfolk.”

“Impossible, you ponies aren’t that scared of tall bipeds with deadly weapons.”

“Yeah they are,” Aegis spoke up as he jumped off the train.

“Sure,” I disregarded his response and proceeded to explore the town, seeing traces of movement inside various buildings. I started to fear that the town is dead and signalled to spread out, raised my weapon and cautiously approached the Sheriff’s office. Tony and Cloe took position behind nearby buildings as I reached the halfway point between the station and the office.

“Anyone alive,” I shout out, hoping for an answer. The silence met my call. I lowered my head, knowing what has happened and continued forward.

“Take’em down!” What?

The sudden onslaught of projectiles took me by surprise, the first hitting me in the face. I scrambled for cover, being hit multiple times before I reached an alleyway. With a moment to breathe, I finally took notice of the gooey substance covering me. Are they using pie? This is just stupid. I raised my weapon anyway, training the sights on the alleyway opening.

A pony rounded the corner of the building, wielding a pie for a weapon. I smirked and took careful aim before firing off one shot. The pie in his hooves exploded, showering the pony in hot apple pie chunks. He screamed as his form of ‘defence’ was blasted to pieces and ran. I grinned maniacally as I followed the pony out.

“Come on, don’t pussy out on me now!” I shout after the unknown pony. This stopped him in his tracks. “If you wanna defend this place, you gotta do all that you can to take out the invader.”

The pony turned to face me, allowing me to take in his appearance. His yellow coloured coat was covered in clothing normally found in western style movies, except more pony-like. His Stetson hat cast a shadow over his face, giving him some points towards intimidation. He reminded me of one of the characters from the show, but I can’t put a name to it.

“Braeburn!” Applejack both shouted and answered my thoughts.

“Stay back, cousin,” he shouted in reply.

“Let him try, Applejack,” I tell her. This surprised Braeburn a fair bit.

“No, you’ll end up killin him.”

“I promise I won’t kill him,” I tell her as I turn to face her. Cloe and Tony were sitting down, probably wanting to watch the show. “Much.”

“Wait, you know this thing?” Braeburn asked his cousin.

“He is not a thing,” She answered him. “Him an his friends saved Ponyville from them things.” She pointed her hoof behind me.

I spun around and raised my rifle, ready to shoot down any foe there possibly could be. At first I didn’t notice it, but far in the distance there stood a creature. The air it gave off made me sure it was a demon. It soon disappeared, but I was sure it will be back with an army in tow.

“What was that?” Braeburn asked as I lowered my aim.

“Demons,” I answered before clapping my hands together. “Now that’s out of the way, let’s go make friends.” 

The ponies that never left the train just now decided to get off. “Where have you been?” I shouted out at the guards I asked to help.

“Sorry sir, we were still asleep,” Aegis answered.

“Don’t tell him that,” Cog said.

“Don’t worry, it’s understandable,” I tell them.

“oh…”

I smiled at them before walking into the centre of the street. “People of Appleoosa, we come in peace!”

Tony face palmed. “Why did you say that?”

“It was cheesy.”

“So,” I hear a tough sounding voice as the sheriff pony, or what I assumed is the sheriff pony, walked out of the building to my right. “You say you come in peace?”

“Yep, we’re here to…”

(somewhat more convenient time skip)

“… and that’s why we’re here,” Tony finished explaining our appearance in the town. The rest of the town was slow to show themselves but eventually the entire town had left hiding and either stood around us or returned to whatever they were doing before.

“So, yer here on the princesses orders?” Braeburn asked Tony.

“Sort of…” I tuned out of their conversation and walked off. We’ve got work to do and an area to scout out.

“Where are you off to?” I heard Cloe ask me.

“Scout out the area, find easiest defence method and set it up.”

“Now?”

“Hell yeah.” I continued on my way, leaving Cloe behind and found the ponies I wanted to talk to. “Hey guys.”

The group of guards jumped at my introduction. “Sorry sir.”

“Don’t apologise,” I tell him before putting on a serious face. “Now Aegis, I need you to fly around the area, tell me where the demons are at and where they’re hiding.”

“Yes sir,” Aegis acknowledged and took to the skies.

“You two dudes, I need you to set up some cover and stuff to protect from fire based attacks.”

“Got it,” They both replied and ran in separate directions to carry out the order.

“Now Cog, you have a special job,” I grinned at him.

“What is it?”

“We need a town sized shield to lessen collateral damage, you think you have what it takes?”

“That won’t be necessary.” That sounded familiar.

I turned around and noticed something that I thought I would never see this early in the day. The majestic mane still flowing in an invisible wind, Princess Luna approached us. Spinning Cog bowed down to her but I decided to do what I normally do.

“Luna, you’re early,” I greeted with a smile, of which she returned one in kind.

“Why yes, yes I am.”

I opened my arms, gesturing for a hug which Luna accepted. It was short, but awesome nonetheless. When she let go, I turned to Cog to give him something to do only to see a horrified look in his face. “Uh, sir?” he questioned, confused as to what just happened, or is that offence.

“What,” I spoke sarcastically. “You’ve never seen someone talk to the princess before?”

> Defender: Combat Evolved
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 27



“So what are you up to?” Luna asked.

“Setting up cover, a shield and finding out where the demons will most likely attack from.”

“Is that all?”

“Hey, I hate making long plans,” I sternly told her. “It’s not very adaptable when it’s too long.”

“Ok,” Luna concluded our conversation as a group approached us. The group consisted of Applejack, Braeburn, Cloe and Tony. I groaned as I remembered what the others would most likely do.

“Aw, they’re so CUTE!” Cloe shouted out. I face palmed in embarrassment.

“You have no idea how much I hate you right now,” I mumbled quietly.

“The two of ya are pretty cute together,” Applejack agreed with Cloe, giving a sly smile while she was at it.

“Please, Applejack,” Luna began, grinning. “We don’t want to make the poor colt embarrassed.”

“Ah not you too,” I complained.

Luna giggled at my comment. “What, do you like me?”

“Nope,” I shouted as I turned around and briskly walked away. “Nopenopenopenopenope,” I continued saying as I walked away, drowning out whatever they followed their question. The laughter of the mares and my friends mixed together at my response. I couldn’t help but smile.

Anyway, work time. Grabbing my shotgun, I began to run out of the town. If we are to defend this place, we need to know the land better. The hill where the last sighting was seems like a good start so I ran towards it. On my way, I ran as many strategies through my head. Bum-rush with shotgun won’t work here.

As I crested the hill, a large expanse of dirt lay before me. This approach is very vulnerable to artillery but it is the only one for a large army. Then it dawned on me, there is no artillery here. Damn.

I began to turn and went to walk back to town when I noticed something. There was a long line laying on the horizon. I couldn’t make out what it truly was but it seemed to be a train or something similar. I once again went to turn around when a flash of gold in the sky barrelled down towards me. Aegis had finished scouting already.

He landed heavily on the ground next to me, shaking the ground slightly. He was breathing heavily and his eyes looked like they just saw a nightmare. “Sir,” he said in between large gulps of air.

“How hard did you push yourself, man?” I asked sarcastically.

“Its…” he tried to continue but his breath still hasn’t caught up with him.

“Take your time,” I said as I leaned down to his level.

He continued to take in as much air as possible, giving me time to contemplate his condition. What could cause an armoured guard to run as fast as possible from it? A hydra or dragon could.

“Ok, I’m good now,” Aegis finally spoke up.

“Good, now what is it?”

“There is a massive demon army approaching the town right now.”

Well I wasn’t far off of the ‘nightmare’ notion. “Ok, thanks for the info,” I said as I spun around and ran as fast as I could to town. The group of people I was looking for were not where they last were, forcing me to do a search. Luckily for me, the search was short. They were in the salt bar.

As I burst through the doors, the ponies inside screamed. Some ran, some came to their senses and resumed whatever they were doing but I paid no attention to them. The group were sitting at the bar, enjoying themselves, or they were.

“Why did you do that?!” Tony yelled at me.

“Demons are early, they’ll be here in about an hour.”

“oh…”

The group rushed to their feet, or hooves in some cases, and rushed out to prepare for an attack.

“So whats the plan?” Tony asked me.

“Get support, set up defences, win.”

(!MOAR TIEMSCEEP!)

We stood in a line, facing the hill waiting. The several slaps of rock we stuck around the place provided cover for the several ponies that have joined us in this endeavour. It was hard to organise but once they heard that their home was at stake and that we couldn’t do it on our own, they joined in on the defence.

“So,” I thought out loud, going over a mental checklist. “We got 100 ponies, cover, a few guns, a plan…”

“I can create a shield for the town,” Luna interrupted my thoughts.

“Thanks.”

She smiled. “You’re welcome.”

“Now, we wait.”

“… are they here yet?” Cloe asked impatiently.

“No.”

“Now?”

“Aegis,” I called out, gaining his attention. “Wanna scout some more?”

“Sure thing,” he acknowledged before taking to the skies. He reached his intended height and looked over the hill. His expression changed but I couldn’t make out what it looked like. What I did notice was an orb of energy fly over the hill at him. He ducked underneath it and flew back down, once again landing heavily.

“So they’re here?” I asked.

“Yeah.”

“Could you prep the shield spell please?” I asked Luna.

“Already on it.”

We waited a few seconds before a figure came into view. It stood far taller than the measly imps that we previously encountered as well as being far more bulky than one. Its pinkish red skin gave away its rank. One of Hell’s Barons led this army. It let out a deathly roar, the sound resonating off of the walls in the town. This is gonna be fun.

That is, until I saw its backup. Seven hulking beasts came into view, flanking the leading demon. Their fat body took up far more room than anything I have ever seen, their arms completely missing, replaced with menacing cannons that were far larger than anything we had. The deadly Mancubi have come into play noe. As they raised their arms to point at the town, the glowing eyes of a legion of demons came into view.

“I think we need more guns,” Tony said.

“Luna,” I said. “Shield?”

“Give me a little more time.”

Their weapons began to glow, telling me they were charging.

“Now?”

“Hold on!”

The barrels began to leak fire.

“Now!”

“Got it!”

A beam of energy shot out of Luna’s horn, hitting an invisible roof and encasing the town in a pure midnight blue field just as they discharged their weapons. The fiery plasma met blue shield, exploding harmlessly off of the barrier as they continued to shoot. The ponies began getting unnerved when their attacks were redirected at us only to meet the same fate as the other shots. They soon saw the futility in their attempts and ceased firing. I saw an opportunity to finish this slightly quicker.

“I can walk through that, right?” I asked Luna.

“Yeah, you should be able to,” she answered.

“Good.” I walked forward, going straight through the field like it wasn’t there and pulled out my rifle.

“What are you doing?” Cloe asked.

“Following the plan,” I told her as I raised the rifle, took careful aim and shot one round off. The plasma streaked through the air as fast as any bullet, hissing the entire way before hitting its intended target, the Baron’s head. It screeched in pain and clutched its face. It did not fall, killing my hopes with plan A. Time for plan B. I flung my arms out, making myself look extremely confident before I shouted out.

“COME AT ME, BRO!”

The leader looked up, having heard me and then roared once again. As if on response, several demon-dog things flew out from beneath the Mancubi’s arms as they aimed at me. They were soon joined by a line of imp’s. They came at me in leaps and bounds, propelled faster as their mechanical rear legs made closing the distance between us fast and baring their teeth.

Oh shit…

> Battle of Appleoosa
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 28


I frantically scrambled to a rock to my right, all the while holding the trigger down on my gun. My shots were joined by two new streams of bullets as I hit the rock and reloaded. Slotting the old clip into a port in my armour, I took a new one out and slammed it in all the while being pinned down by fiery orbs of energy. Hearing a quiet whine come from my hands, telling me that it is ready to fire I poked out and loosed a few rounds.

Cloe and Tony appeared beside me, hitting the rock hard. They shot at the incoming swarm as I witnessed the dome over the town falter. I also noticed Luna staring at us, a worried expression on her face.

“Don’t let that shield fall!” I yelled over the sounds of fighting at Luna.

“Holy f-” I heard Cloe say, the rest drowned out in gunfire as she snatching fire out of the air and throwing it back.

“What do we do now?” Tony asked me.

I went through my knowledge of what’s happening in my mind in less than a second. “Well we need to take down the Mancubi before we can have any backup, then we kill that Baron.”

“What?” Come on, has no one played DooM™?

“Shoot the fat things on the hill!”

“Ok,” Tony and Cloe said in unison before jumping into action, standing up and shooting a constant barrage at the monsters. I took this opportunity to ditch cover and move up.

When I was in the open, the demon dogs reached me, forcing me to draw my sword and fight. I slashed at the large creatures, forcing a few to back up only to be replaced by the ones behind them. The only way for me to win this fight was to go on the offensive.

Bringing my rifle up with one hand, I sprayed round after round into the faces of the demon dogs, felling a few that charged before running out of ammo. Warnings went off as I was assaulted with fire but I disregarded it completely, waiting for a chance to acquire an advantage over the dogs. When one of them went in for the kill, I seized my chance.

As the creature lunged forward, its jaws wide open to crush whatever it grabs, the time dilation thing kicked in and I jumped forward. The sword was aimed precisely at its mouth, stabbing into the roof of its open maw easily and killing the beast instantly. Another one circled around his dead brethren and jumped at me as the demon on my sword began to turn to ash. I reacted instantly, yanking out the blade and bringing it down onto my new assailants head. It too died as the top half of its head fell to the ground. 

The third one was lucky, clamping its mouth around my sword and ripping it out of my grasp. My suit was getting hot as the barrage of fireballs continued. I dashed back and whipped my shotgun out. The dog followed me, really wanting to take a piece of me away. Using one hand, I aimed carefully at the beast’s face and opened my mouth.

I pulled the trigger. The recoil threw my arm back and slammed the shotgun into my shoulder, which hurts a lot. At least the end result was the dogs front half of its body exploding into a fine, red mist.

I dropped my shotgun for a second, grunting as pain lanced through my arm. Ducking down to pick it back up, several projectiles flew over my head. The legions of fire throwing demons approached, bombarding the town continuously. Wow, ain’t I lucky.

The hill suddenly erupted with light, creating a resounding boom and blinding everyone in a flash of white. A shockwave of force knocked me to the ground, tossing me down as if I was nothing. As I slowly got back onto my feet my eyesight started returning to me. The ringing in my ears persisted as I stared at the hill. One half of said land mass was completely obliterated, the bloated abominations taken with it. The sight would inspire fear into any enemy, but the imps on the ground just got back up and kept coming.

I ran to the nearest rock, all the while firing down towards the incoming tide of demons. As I reached cover, my hearing started returning to me and the sound of constant gunfire overtook the ringing. The other two came running over but something was different.

“A rocket launcher!” I yelled at Tony. “Why do you have a rocket launcher?!”

“Cause I got to it first,” He said smugly. Cloe stopped midway and began shooting as Tony slung the massive weapon over his back.

I face palmed, or tried my best in this armour. “Whatever, just shoot them some more.”

“Can’t, out of ammo,” he told me.

“Great,” I groaned as I reloaded my guns and returned to fighting. With the major threat to the town gone, the shield spell was left as it is. Luna rushed our way with several ponies following her, including the guards I brought along with us. I covered them as Cloe ran towards a rock. I think now is a good time to go on the offensive again.

“Alright let’s do this,” I began, sword drawn and shotgun ready as I jumped cover and charged.

“LEROY JENKINS!”

I was halfway before I heard Tony on the radio. “You’re an idiot.”

The demon legion pressed on, numerous imps were cut down in a hail of bullets and magic. I was followed by a group of earth ponies and pegasi as I closed in on the creatures. Many wore makeshift armour consisting of a few slabs of wood. It proved to be very useful as it kept them alive from the waves of fire. When the distance was finally closed, I slashed at the closest head I could find as the pony defence force collided with the offending forces.

As the ponies around me began to fall I pressed forward, attempting to reach the head of this attach and cut it down. They can keep their own. The imps in my way proved to be a challenge but they died all the same, some before I could even hit them. As I reached the centre of the massed army, the baron entered my sight. Up close the demon looked grotesque. Several burns and holes were covering its muscular form, which towered over me at 2 metres in height. Before I could even make a move, it picked me up and roared into my face then proceeded to throw me out into the defending force.

I took the time in flight to study the battlefield. The Imps continued to flare brightly as they fell, being pushed back and cut down by my friends and Appleoosa’s residents. Many pretty lights flashed across the empty land between the attackers and defenders. Before I could continue, the feeling of falling came to me and the imps became bigger.

I slammed into the creature fast, crushing it underneath my weight as its body broke my fall. But even after all that, I crashed into the dirt hard. The pain was unbelievable, I felt myself bend in ways that I never knew were possible and my head start to swim as I barrelled across the land and slid to a complete stop. Breathless and hurting all over, I managed to lift my head up and watched on as the creatures surrounded me. I reflexively reached for a weapon but my right arm refused to move, instead sending an impossibly painful feeling from my shoulder to my brain. I frantically searched for a gun with my left hand and finally grasped my rifle as the imps screeched threateningly at me.

A golden beam of light interrupted them, turning the demon and his friends to ashes before they could do so naturally. The sky began to rain magical bolts of death as flying chariots descended upon us, casting an enormous shadow over us. The battle instantly became one-sided, the demonic legion being reduced to nothing in a matter of minutes. I laid where I had landed the whole time, too hurt to move and listened to the sounds around me.

As the Battle of Appleoosa came to an end, four people came into my view. Cloe, Celestia, Luna and Tony looked down at me.

“You alright there?” Cloe asked, a grin on her face.

“My ass hurts and my shoulders brokeded, but otherwise I’m fine,” I answer. I got a few laughs, which is good.

“Alright, can one of you help me up?”

> Aftermath
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 29


“Ow, stop moving my arm!”

“We have to get it fixed,” Tony said as he dragged me into town. It turns out my shoulder was actually dislocated, which sucks real bad.

“I know but can you just not move it now?” I ask, grimacing in pain.

“Don’t worry, we’re there,” he said as he put me onto the ground.

“Ow.”

“The next part is gonna hurt real bad,” He told me.

“Great.” He stepped back as Cloe approached me. “Oh hell no!”

Before I could even react, I was bound down by an invisible force. My working arm was coated in a deep blue aura.

“Why are you doing this to me!” I scream.

“We need to fix that arm,” Luna replied.

“But why her!”

“Because she wanted to.”

A sudden pain expanded from my shoulder as my arm was pushed back into place while I was distracted. “OW!”

“Harden up,” Cloe quipped.

“You’re a...” I began, jumping up as the restraints disappeared. My arm can move without hurting horrifically. Couldn’t say much about the rest of me. “Wow, it moves again.”

“You’re welcome.”

I looked around. The town wasn’t missing anything and all the foals are safe, though I can’t say the same for the ponies who fought. I looked to Luna who was smiling kindly at me. Celestia was standing next to her with a similar smile. Then I remembered that there were casualties.

“Alright, back to work,” I mumbled to myself morbidly as I went to bury the fallen.

*/)…2 Hours Later…(\*

I sat on the top of the destroyed hill, away from the mourning and grief. The sun was at the horizon, making way for the night.  Thirty eight lives were ended today, and in this general area. I really need to hit something now.

“So, ya like being alone,” I heard a voice say.

“Yeah, I do,” I answer back as I turn to see whom I speak to. 

“Why are ya up here?” Applejack asked, standing a few metres away. There was a small cut on the side of her face, probably from all the fighting.

“Cause I can,” I tell her, turning away and looking at the setting sun.

“There’s a reason, yer just not tellin’ me.” She doesn’t sound too happy.

“I don’t wanna talk about it.”

Applejack was now sitting next to me, having walked up when I wasn’t looking. “Look, ya can tell me what’s wrong,” She began, looking fairly sincere with what she said. “And it kinda looks like ya need ta.”

I gave in. “Ok then,” I groaned a little inside. Better to get this over with than let them nag you until you do. 

Raising my hand to point at the plains ahead, I began. “You see that patch of land?” When I saw her head rise and look, I continued. “That land is stained red with blood. How much is questionable at best but we all know who’s blood it is.”

I let Applejack think it over a bit, waiting to see if she gets my point. When she looked at me questioningly, I relaxed a little. She figured it out, now I can go back to my thoughts. “Uh, could ya explain without the riddles and stuff?” She asked.

I facepalmed. “Ponies, little Applejack, ponies.”

She looked down, remembering the fact that there are some that aren’t here anymore. “Because I asked for help, they are dead.”

We sat in silence, the night taking the sky. I sat there, thinking over what happened today. I almost didn’t notice Applejack say that she was heading back to town. After a few more minutes of thinking, I got back up. No use thinking about what has already happened. When I turned around, I met another face.

“Are you going back to town already?” Luna asked me.

“Not anymore,” I replied with a smile. Luna is definitely best pony.

(EPIC TIMELORD STUFF)

“You know, flying is awesome” I began as we approached Appleoosa. It was well past midnight, the stars were clearly shining down on us and I was feeling the day take its toll on me. “I mean while I was up there flying, I saw everything and I wasn’t even in a plane.”

“I know, I have wings,” Luna replied

“I coulda been listening to that awesome song that talks about flying while I was up there.”

“What sort of song?” Luna asked

“Dunno but I must ask, am I annoying you?” I asked Luna. A second passed and I was back to talking. “Sorry bouts that, I sorta talk a lot when I’m tired, nervous or somewhat unhappy, but don’t worry I’m only a little tired.” We were half way through the town at this point. Surprisingly no one has been woken up by my constant chatter.

“Suddenly a wild Celestia appears!” I exclaimed as Celestia walked out of the office in the middle of town, getting a laugh out of Luna.

“I see you two are having fun,” she said as she looked our way.

“Mostly, all I’m doing is constantly talking and she’s just listening but otherwise we’re good,” I say as if what she said was a question.

Luna had stopped laughing and joined in on the conversation. “Yeah, we enjoyed the night.”

“Always liked the night, it’s all starry and stuff,” I chattered on.

“You seem to be a bit talkative at the moment,” Celestia spoke.

“Yeah, he hasn’t stopped since we started walking back,” Luna told her sister.

“Sorry bout that, just a little tired, I’ll head to bed.”

“Good night,” the two sisters said as I walked off.

“A good night indeed.” As I walked over to where I believe we’re sleeping, the sisters began to talk to each other quietly. I heard Luna jump and shout something as I entered the local inn. I quickly found our room, did a changeling and turned into a pony again. Stupid beds and being designed for ponies…

> Epic Chapter Title
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 30


“Wake up!”

A sharp pain in the side of my ribcage woke me from my slumber. The aches of the previous day returned with it. I quickly sat up flailing my hooves wildly, striking something soft.

“Ow!”

I look to the side to see a pony, unsurprisingly. I was surprised to see that it was Cloe and that it took that long for my brain to figure it out. I was also surprised to see a hoof flying towards my face, too fast for me to move. More pain took my senses as the hoof crashed into my snout, making it uglier than ever. I fell back onto the bed, in too much pain to scream.

“You bitch,” Cloe growled, obviously angry at me.

“Why…” I tried asking a question. I hope she got the message.

“Because you hit me.”

“You woke me up!”

“So?”

I rolled off the pony sized bed and onto my hooves, somehow standing after getting decked in the shnoz.

“Girls,” I mumbled quietly to myself as I started walking out of the small room to get some food.

“I heard that.”

“You were supposed to.”

I reached the bar safely, seeing Tony already here. He had an apple pie sitting in front of him as he sat down with a book floating in front of him. I could tell that it was magic by his glowing horn. After some thought, I ordered some apple juice and apple pancakes, which surprisingly exist and joined him.

“What you got there?” I asked as I sat down. When he didn’t immediately answer, I tied reading the title. “Predictions and Prophesies?”

“Cloe told me it’s a good read,” he replied as he took a bite of his pie.

Wow, these pancakes are good. “How?”

He smiled. “You will be surprised what these ponies come up with.”

What isn’t going to surprise me. “Mind if I have a read after you?” I asked him.

He suddenly closed the floating book and placed it beside my food. “Sure but be careful,” he told me. “It’s Twilight’s.”

“But I thought that you were reading it.”

“Finished it already.” He looked at me with a weird look before speaking again. “What happened to your face?”

“Cloe.”

“Ok,” he said as I flicked the book open and started reading. 

This book has it all. Nightmare moon was expected but Everfree Forest being infested, reaching the stars, countless wars and even Zerg were not. Ok maybe the wars were. And the stars. There were actually quite a few predictions on wars and even one on trans universal travel. A specific one caught my eye, however. 

“Oh, look,” I said flatly as my eyes skimmed across the page. “They predicted the appearance of the demons.”

“Hey there, mister,” someone spoke to me. I look up from the page to see Braeburn.

“Hi Braeburn.” This seemed to have surprised him. Almost as if we haven’t met.

“Have we met before?” And it seems that we haven’t. Probably the pony getup.

“Probably not,” I answer, playing along with the new guy act and going back to reading the book. This is gonna be fun.

“Braeburn, this is Andrew,” Tony tells the uninformed pony.

“Ruin my fun why don’t ya,” I mumbled quietly as Braeburn jumped slightly at the revelation.

He began to stutter, “S-so, yer one of them-“

“Yes,” I say before he can ask anything. “I am.”

The situation was tense. The three of us were quiet, none of us speaking a word. Ok, I’m bored.

I flipped the book shut and turned to Braeburn. “So, how’s the day?” I ask.

Braeburn was taken aback. “uh, good?”

“That’s good, mine has been somewhat good. Got punched awake, decked in the shnoz and now I’m here with a friend and a potential friend with some breakfast, a book and nothing trying to kill us.” I downed the entirety of my juice immediately before continuing. “That’s a win in my books.”

“Ok,” he replied, unsure about what to say.

I stood up and grabbed the book, preparing to leave. “Anyway, I’m off to get an apology and most likely fail.” I pointed a hoof at Tony as I swung the book underneath my wing. “You, sir, have some talking about later.”

He looked questioningly at me, but clarity crossed his face as he realised what I was on about. I could tell from the nice shade of red on it.

“Later, bro’s,” I said my farewell and I left them to their own devices. As I left the building, something in the distance caught my eye. The guards had set up camp on the opposite side of the town, relative to where the exploded hill was. Several tent like structures were strewn about in an organised matter, all of them brilliant white with a golden sun emblazoned on the side. The biggest of them all stood in the centre with a long flag with some sort of princess yin yang logo on it, one side deep blue while the other bright gold, flying from a pole in the middle. I assumed this was some sort of command tent thing, I’ve seen enough movies to tell the difference. I turned towards the guard’s camp and proceeded. Maybe they can teach me something.

I reached the outskirts of the camp before being stopped by two ponies wearing golden armour. Noobs, haven’t any of them played minecraft?

“Halt!” one shouted at me as their spears crossed my path.

“None pass without authorisation,” the other stated.

“How about this,” I began as I laid the book to the side. I walked back to where I was and continued. “You let me through, and I don’t cause serious injuries to either of you.”

“Are you threatening us?” he asked.

I shrugged. “Nope,” I said before springing into action. Pulling at one of the spears, the guard to my left tripped as I swept it out of his grip. I gave a swift kick to his head as I swung my head around, tripping the other one before he could bring his weapon down on me. I swept the book up and began to run towards the centre, by now the guard had gotten up and asked for help. They chased me through the encampment, redirecting me several times in their attempt to intercept me. I eventually made it to the command tent, having snaked my way through the guard’s base of operations. As I stood at the main door flap thing, the guards closed in on me from all sides, leaving only one option. I jumped through the door.

“…and there is the possibility of attack on these three locations.” The captain informed his audience, pointing a hoof at a map spread across a table. Luna sat next to her sister, taking in the details of whatever he said as well as her sister is.

“Sup,” I greeted everyone.

“HALT!” The guards jumped in behind me.

“Oh yeah, about that,” I said as I began to run to the other side of the table, attempting to prolong this chase unnecessarily. I was stopped in midstride as I was enveloped in magic.

“Oh god,” I mumbled quietly as the guards pounced onto me, pinning me down. One of them even hit me in the face, right where it hurts.

“STOP!” the loud, command from Luna resonated through the room, and probably a few kilometres out. The guards followed her command obediently, releasing me in the process. Dusting myself off, I attempted to stand tall but the alicorns in the room were too tall for me to do that.

“What did you do!” Celestia demanded from me.

“Well I was walking by when two guards stopped me. I tripped one and kicked the other, fairly easily must I note and began to run. In reality I was testing their capabilities and seeing if they could stop me on my way here. They don’t know much about human thinking patterns or combat and aren’t very adaptive to their situation, you should look into that.” 

“This pony is trespassing on a restricted area,” that one pony I tripped.

“Oi, who are you calling a pony!” I almost find that insulting. Almost.

“Ok, I’ll look into that,” Shining answered. I’m surprised that they didn’t throw me into a cage.

“Anyway, have any of you seen Cloe?”

“I’m right here,” Cloe said from behind the mass of captainness that is Shining Armour.

“You, sir, owe me an apology!”

“No I don’t!”

A burst of magic interrupted the argument and a magic scroll of mail appeared in front of Celestia. She opened it as soon as it appeared and after skimming through it, she read it aloud.

“Send help, under attack, Twilight…”

I knew what was happening. “Mobilise your troops and get to Ponyville as fast as possible.”

A random guard objected. “Sir, why-“

“NOW!” I scream at them. If they don’t listen, I will make them.

“Do as he says,” Celestia commanded. “He knows what’s happening.”

As the guards left and spread the word through the camp, Shining understood.

“What if it’s just a hydra?” he asked the princess, nervousness in his voice. Hell, if my sister was in there I would be scared as well.

“Oh, then it would be dead already,” I answer.

He glared at me, the sort that could kill if it shot laser beams. I looked to Cloe and she looked back. She understood and ran out to town with me.

“How good is your magic?’ I ask as we ran down towards the inn to get our guns.

“Pretty good, I think,” Cloe answered. “Why?”

“We’re gonna teleport.”

“What about Tony?”

“He can catch the train or just stay here and guard this place.”

“That reminds me about what he and brae-“

“Less talk, more rush!”

> Madness
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 31



I looked down at the far away ground as we materialised above the ruins of Ponyville. There was no hope for me as I fell, weighed down by several weapons. At least Cloe can just teleport to the ground, which she did. What a bitch…

I spread my wings in an attempt to slow myself down. What I ended up doing is gliding across the ground, still not slowing down. After a minute of listening to screams and watching the fire and light fly around, I was finally slow enough to land safely. As soon as I touched down near the smouldering remains of Carousel Boutique, I changed my form from that of a pony to my armoured human self. Readying my rifle, I nodded to the already prepared Cloe and moved deeper into the warzone of a town.

The first group of imps we encountered were mowed down mercilessly, but not before we noticed their focus.  Sugarcube corner was in fairly good condition, considering the circumstances. The reason soon popped her head up from the window.

“Hey!” Ana yelled at us, her sniper rifle in hand. A weapon that shoots laser beams.

“Where’s everyone at?” I asked, hoping she would tell me where the most secure place is.

“Ana, you still there,” the built in radios crackled to life.

Ana raised her hand to the side of her head. “Sugarcube is good, got helped out by the others.”

I took this as my cue and activated my radio broadcaster. “Sup.”

“Andrew, your back!” Sam shouted.

“Bit sore but ready to kick ass, where are you at?”

“I’m at Flutters cottage with a few guards, Tim is holding the library.”

“Thanks,” I end the conversation and look to Cloe. “Cloe, hold Sugarcube. Ana, to the library.”

“Why?” she asked me, waving the sniper rifle around.

“Because you don’t have a best pony, now come on.”

I left Cloe behind, letting her guard the house that Pinkie lives in, which seems logical since people fight harder for things that they value more. Ana left the building and followed me to the library, or the giant flaming tree. Once we made it there, there was already a massive battle going on. A small army of demons were advancing through several streets to take on the one man that felled them in droves. What surprised me the most is the fact that only the leaves on the tree were burning. I pointed Ana to a good vantage point where her skills would be at their best, one of the still intact houses with a balcony.

I proceeded to jump into action, sweeping the advancing horde with gunfire. Hitting one of the seemingly well placed carriage for cover, Tim ran up to me, taking down any creature in his way before he shouted something at me.

“How did you get here so fast?” he asked as the clicking sound of reloading could be heard over the fighting.

“Teleport,” I answered as I gunned down another imp.

“Where’s the army?” A beam of light cut through the enemy ranks.

“A day away, at most.” More corpses faded to dust as they fell.

“They’re running,” the radio crackled out, the tone of Ana’s voice familiar in the distortion. She was right, the demons attacking turned tail and began to run. Many were shot in the ass on their way out. As suddenly as it began, the fighting stopped.

“Huh,” Tim started. “Seems you scared them off.”

“See you inside,” I told him as I turned around and headed indoors. Walking through the door, a bullet zipped past my head.

“Hey!” I shout at my assailant, who was actually little Spike. Who gave him a gun?

“Sorry!” he apologised.

I smiled. He just wants to help. “Don’t worry about it.”

The little green guy lowered the pistol in his hand as Twilight ran out of the basement door.

“Hey,” I greeted the unicorn, startling the poor thing. Totally worth it. “Where’s everyone at?”

As she calmed down from the scare, she answered. “In the basement.”

I thanked her as I ran down the stairs, but not before stopping at the door. “Also, make sure he doesn’t shoot me again.”

I left a red faced dragon and a purple unicorn to do whatever as I checked out what’s happening downstairs. The sight seemed almost depressing. Half the town was down here, a fair few burnt or painting the room red. I saw a few familiar faces. Rarity and Rainbow were helping the hurt, cheering them up if they could. What concerned me was the lack of fillies.

“Hey, sir,” Chirp shouted up to me as he saw me. He sported several wounds along his body.

“Looks like you got cut up pretty bad,” I said, feeling sad for the poor guy.

“Heh, yeah,” he began before coughing. I swear he just coughed up blood. “Got ambushed by some of the damn things while me and Twi were heading to Fluttershy’s.”

Huh, first names already? “You did your job well,” I told him, walking up and giving him the greatest man hug ever. He deserves one. He groaned in pain.

“Sorry about that,” I apologise.

The radio crackled to life again. “You there, Andrew?” Sam called through the waves.

“I hear ya,” I answer back. “What up?”

“Uh, we may need some help here,” he stated before a familiar boom resonated out of the internal speaker. “Get Down!” then there was nothing.

“Gotta go, bro,” I tell chirp and speed run up the stairs and out the door, catching a small argument about a gun between Twilight and Spike. “Keep it up!” I shout to Tim as I sped past him and down the road. Burnt corpses were strewn around the place. The sound of madness returned as gunshots popped through the town, followed by screams. That didn’t matter now.

The way to the cottage was fairly clear, the living unlucky enough to not be a pony. That was, until the structure came into view, or what was left of it. The entire thing was ablaze, a dead guard laying at its still intact door. Aegis, it seemed. He was my favourite guard.

A knight and his buddy, a huge and fat flame cannon wielding thing stood at attention, observing their work. Luck was with me as I managed to hide behind a tree, one that wasn’t on fire. I saw a glimpse of Fluttershy’s face as something carried her. At the sign of movement, they attacked simultaneously. A green charge and flaming projectiles sizzled through the air, hitting their target dead on. It was obvious that whatever was pulling her out of the blaze wasn’t their own. Soon, the door flew off its hinges at deadly speeds, sliding to a stop a metre away from my position. Fluttershy appeared first, followed by whoever was carrying her.

Sam was hit immediately, the green charge thrown by the hulking knight sending him back in and one of the two fiery bullets burst off his armour. Where the other one hit accelerated my plan. Little Flutters was hit directly between the wings.

“Oi!” I shout at the unwitting enemies as I charged the fat demon, my sword drawn and ready. By the time his guns came to bear down on me, I was too close. Using his own weapons I kicked off the ground and slashed at his most vulnerable point. The gurgled growl told me its throat was shredded successfully as I landed in front of the demonic knight. Before either of us could react, the knights head was shorn clean off, light passing through it as the rest of him faded.

I looked to the cottage and saw Sam, Sniper rifle in hand as he stood over Fluttershy’s whimpering form.

“Get her to the library,” I tell him, turning and looking out at the forest, the source of all this pain.

Sam silently picked her up and walked past me. I readied my rifle and followed him, covering him and the pegasus in his hands.

> School's out
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 31


“Clear the way!” I shout at the occupants of the basement as Sam brought the injured pegasus to the only empty bed. Twilight rushed in, saw the sight and a look of shock pasted itself on her face. She shook herself and I knew not to be in her way. Unfortunately for me, she ran at me and slammed me into the ground. The floor felt less painful than dirt at least.

“What happened!” she screamed at me, tears already forming in her eyes. Shit just got harder.

I took a deep breath, prepared my body and told the truth. “She was hit, flame cannon round between the wings.”

She hit me. “Why couldn’t you protect her!”

No, I ain’t taking this. “I tried!” I shouted back as I flung her off of me and into a wall. “I’m not a god, I can’t choose who gets hurt and who doesn’t.”

That shut her up, or maybe the wall did. At least she was quiet long enough for me to think of something.

“Sam, how is she?” I asked him without turning my head away from the distraught unicorn.

She won’t last without help,” Sam answered grimly. Watching your favourite pony die isn’t easy.

I kneeled in front of Twilight, my head level with hers. “Now moping about the past doesn’t help anyone, plus I’m pretty sure that you know medical magic.”

Her face brightened, and I smiled. “Show me how good you are.”

She got up and rushed over to Fluttershy and got to work. I knew that would do it. I left the room, Twilight the medic getting to work on helping one of her closest friends. The library itself was still intact, surprisingly. The books were not too damaged, considering what just happened. The attacks had stopped, giving us some breathing room. The adrenalin was wearing off. I found a corner near the door, pulled out my shotgun and just sat down.

“Hey,” Tim popped up next to me, seeing my face. “It’s all finally catching up to you?”

“Yeah,” I resigned. “I’ve seen some shit man.”

“So have I,” he replied, a similar tone in his voice. “So have I.”

“I’m too old for this crap.”

We just sat there, saying nothing. “Hey bro,” I broke the silence.

“Yeah,”

“You need a hug,” I said before giving him the greatest man hug ever.

“Nooooooooooo,” he complained as he pushed me off.

I laughed at the response. “At least we are still ‘us’.”

“Hey guys,” Ana called from the top of the stairs. “Have you seen Tony?”

“Oh, he’s with the army,” I told her, my sour mood somewhat fixed.

“Ok,” she quickly said as she ran into the basement equally as fast.

“…She’s got bigger balls than us,” Tim said.

“Never knew you looked.”

“Nooo, I mean the metaphorical kind.”

“Sure,” I finished teasing and stood up. “Anyway, I’m gonna go find some fillies.”

“Why?” he asked.

“I haven’t seen any yet.”

Tim stood up. “Eh, might as well help.”

We proceeded out the front door and headed towards the local school. If I’m right, then this is a school day. We almost got lost but luckily we stumbled upon it before we declared our lostness.

“Huh, it’s still intact,” Tim noted. He wasn’t far off. Half of the school was completely demolished. The closer half remained intact enough that the front door still seemed to work. I nodded to him and pointed at the other side of the door. Kicking the door in, we swept the hallway for anything demonic. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any.

“Check that half, I got this side,” I told him, pointing to the right before opening the first of my doors. No dice. The next few proved to be the same before I heard a call.

“Andrew, you gotta see this.”

I ran to the source, the third door on the right hand side of the hall relative to the door. I entered the room to see something good. A tightly packed group of fillies and colts were packed into the corner, fearing for their lives. Various colours and races made the sight somewhat cute. I could see a bit of blood flowing in the mix but it didn’t look too serious.

“H-hi,” the little filly I remember to be Scootaloo said.

“Don’t worry, we’re getting you outta-” I was cut off as the back of my head was struck hard. The floor collided with my face, mashing my already injured nose more. Even the stupid high tech helmet that comes from who knows where didn’t do shit to save it.

Random sounds escaped my mouth as I tried to get up. My ears rang from the impact. I turn to look upon whatever hit me to see a pony. It had three smiley faced flowers for a cutie mark, a coat of bright purple and a striped mane of pink and brighter pink. It was talking with narrowed eyes, but suddenly softened. Tim probably said something. By now my hearing has returned and began hearing things again.

“Sorry!” I heard a caring voice from the pony.

“Don’t worry about it,” I said, albeit a bit loud. “Names Andrew.”

“Cherrilee,” SHE told me. 

“Alright,” I clapped my hands together. “Let’s get going to the library!”

We got to the tree house safely and led the younglings in safely. One had a nasty looking cut on their ear but they looked alright. Twilight was standing at the door waiting. Something seems off.

“What up?” I asked her.

“Just wanted to talk to all of you.” Aw shit, I’m in deep.

I played along, engaging my poker face. “Ok,” I say as I walk in and take a seat at the table. The others were already there except Tim, Tony and me. Now we’re all here. Well, all minus Tony.

Turning to the head of the table, I asked the mare sitting there, “So what’s this about?”

“We need to move everyone out of here,” she answered. At least I ain’t in trouble.

“Where?” Sam asked. “I don’t know of any place that is still standing except Sugarcube corner, and even that’s seen better days.”

“The hospital,” Twilight answered. “It has the space and the medical supplies we need.”

“Is it safe though?” Cloe asked.

“It is. Hospitals are made of far more durable material to prevent damage in the event of an accident, like a fire or misplaced storm cloud.”

“That may be the case, but is it still in one piece?” I ask.

“It’s outside the town, opposite to the forest. It should still be there.”

“Anyway, when do we move?” Tim asked.

“As soon as we can,” she told everyone as I heard something strange. I left the table to investigate the noise to see the sky full of ponies. The army got here fast. Too fast.

“You guys ditched me!” Tony shouted from outside as he charged at the door.

As he crashed through the door, horn glowing, I smirked. “You enjoyed it.”

“No I didn’t,” he told us but the near invisible shade of red on his cheeks told me otherwise.

“Sure,” I said as a team of medics ran through the door.

“Where are the injured?” They asked.

“Basement,” we all say.

They ran down the stairs with an urgency I have never seen. They take their job seriously at least. The door remained open, letting more ponies in. Two guards walked in and took position at either side of the door. The princesses followed.

“Princesses!” I exclaimed loudly as I opened my arms. “Hugs?”

I got one, but Twilight stole first hug from me. Soon everyone else got one as well. Them guards are looking pretty sour. Shining armour soon walked through the door.

“Shining!” Twilight shouted as she got up and sped her way to her brother.

“Twilie!” the Captain shouted as he embraced his sister. The relief on his face could be seen a mile away.

“To what do we owe the pleasure?” I asked as they finished their moment. Or maybe I killed it.

“Just wanted to see my little sister.”

“Of course.”

“We also wanted to talk about recent events,” Celestia stated, going full business mode or something like that.

“Well, everyone take a seat and we shall begin…”

> How to war
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 33



“…And that’s when you appeared,” I finished a brief discussion. The table had given all their points of view on what happened. I even gave them what I heard from little Chirp. Twilight had left to care for her wounded friend. The newcomers paid attention to everything we said.

“So what do you think are our current options are?” Shining asked everyone.

“Well, my good captain,” I began before anyone else could begin. “From what I can see, we rebuild as fast as possible hoping that they don’t attack again or we move into the forest and do some team slayer, find the source of their armies and close it.”

“That’s too dangerous, even for them,” Shining told us.

“No it isn’t,” Tim stated. “They’re demons.”

“They’re in there,” Ana said, sure of herself.

“Ok, assuming they’re in there, how do we take them on?” The sun princess asked.

“We can sweep the forest, standard pattern and find them before following up with the main force from the sky,” the captain answered professionally.

“That sounds too predictable,” Sam pointed out. “Why not scout from the sky and bring the main force on the ground where there’s more cover.”

“We won’t be able to bring the full might of our force on them,” The captain countered.

“What about splitting the forces up, half in the sky and the rest on the ground,” Cloe said.

“Who will move ahead?”

“I could,” I offered.

“How will you tell us where they are?” Ok, he’s got me there.

I I decided to redirect the question. “Striking them will be easy, we have the weather but scouting will be an issue.”

The pause that followed told me that they were a bit confused. “Wait, you never used the weather to your advantage?” The look on the captain’s face told me enough. “Well think about it, lightning has enough voltage to fry anything effectively with the exception to pegasi.”

“Meaning we could attack them from the sky even without unicorns,” Celestia spoke up.

I clapped my hands and grinned. “Now you’re getting it.”

“So we attack from above and the ground,” the princess concluded.

“That’s how you war, people,” I exclaimed as I sat back and listened on to the planning.

“If we organise the guards to round up storm clouds, we could shock them all and find their source before they can strike back,” Luna stated.

“I’ll see to it,” Shining nodded his head before walking out the door. 

“Meanwhile, I must ask the six of you-” Celestia never finished her sentence.

“We’ll do it,” I said quickly, earning five aggressive stares. “Ok then, I’ll do it.”

“I’m in too,” Sam joined in, followed by everyone else.

The Princesses stared at us in disbelief. “Why?”

“I’m bored!” I answered.

-*Two Hours Later*-

“Ah, the Everfree Forest,” I said to myself as the six of us stood at the edge of the forest accompanied by a troop of 30 guardsponies, one being the familiar Spinning Cog. Too bad they don’t have lasrifles. “Home to dragons, hydras, manticores, cockatrice and who knows what else.”

I spun around to face the team of ponies and humans, ready to take on demons and heretics alike. “Ladies and gentlemen,” I began. “You are all about to take on demons in what we are assuming their source.” 

The force looked around nervously, either at going to hell or that they have to listen to me. “Today we are moving ahead of the main force and finding the enemy so that we don’t end up going in the wrong direction. Let’s go.”

I took a step into the forest and felt a chill go up my spine. This place feels off, even smells off. I put my helmet on and continued onwards. The forest itself seemed normal to me. Trees grew how they wanted to, animals did what they wanted and the dirt was soft. Surprisingly, no form of wildlife had attacked us. Maybe they liked us.

After thirty minutes of random song singing and trekking through the bush, we entered clearing with some very interesting findings in it. The rotting carcase of a manticore lay at the foot of a tree, evidence of severe burning on its body.

“That’s brutal,” I told Tim, who had walked up beside me. I looked around further, ignoring a pony retching into a bush. There is no burnt tree here. “They tried hard to leave no evidence.”

“Maybe they were trying to be quiet about their presence,” Tim suggested.

“Probably,” I said as I noticed sky through the tree line. I walked towards it, wondering if we already walked straight through it. We can’t have done it that fast. As I breached the tree line, I saw that it was just a cliff. I saw a pony standing at the edge, motionless like a statue.

“Hey, you alright there?” I asked as I approached the still individual. When I was close enough I shook his shoulder, or whatever they call it. Then I saw a nightmare of a sight.

The cliff overshadowed a massive sink in the land, like a little hole in smooth sand. The cliff expanded in a full circle around said hole. The dip in the land was full of fire, a legion of over 9000 demons carpeting the land where trees once stood proudly. In the centre was a portal to the unknown, more fire coming from its maw. It didn’t seem very large but the army it had summoned was more than enough to clean this landscape of life in an hour. Now I know why the poor guys all frozen.

I ran back at break neck speeds, clearing the thin tree line between the hole and the clearing within seconds. I stopped in the centre before shouting out to everyone. “Where’s the messenger!”

When a guard raised his hoof, I ran up to him and said, “Tell them that Operation Shock and Awesome is a go.”

The sound of metal on flesh came from behind me. “Why did you call it that?” Tony asked.

“Cause I can.”
> Gateway
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 34


The hole in the ground was teeming with activity as the team sat at the cliff’s edge, waiting for our time to descend into hell. Clouds shifted in the distance, moving according to plan. For now, we wait.

“Anyone up for some tic tac toe?” I asked the team, bored of watching the fire spread through the trees below. No one took me up on my challenge. “Story time?” No reply, except Tim’s groan. “Fine then.”

I sat down at the foot of one of the trees behind us and checked over my weapons. I noticed a small scratch on my shotgun, but all was good. When shit hits the invisible fan, I’ll be ready.

“Hey,” a voice interrupted my thoughts. I look up to see Rainbow hanging from the tree.

“What are you doing here?” I asked her. If she wants to join the fight, she outta luck.

“Just wondering what you guys are doing.” She said coolly. Too coolly.

“You want to join us, don’t you,” I said flatly.

“What?! No, no,” She replied quickly. “I mean, if you have any-“

“No,” I tell her.

She fell out of the tree at my answer. “What?!”

“No, your town needs you.”

“I want to fight!”

“Not today.”

She tried to make a convincing argument but soon gave up, opting instead to growl in frustration and fly back. At least she listened, right.

“Andrew,” I jumped up as Sam called me.

Approaching the hole, the clouds in the sky sped over the top of it. “Lightshow in three, two, one.”

The little pegasi in the distance kicked at their clouds but no form of lightning came. Instead the clouds released a torrent of rain down into the hole, reducing flames to nothing. The demons attempts to hit the flyers were coming short and falling back down. 

“What’s the point of this?” Cloe asked, slightly upset at the lack of lightning.

“I have no idea,” Tony answered her.

When the rain stopped, the pegasi grabbed their clouds and flew off. When they left the area safely, another set of clouds set themselves up above the demon hole. They stopped perfectly, casting the ground in shadows. As the first pony kicked, the lightning struck the ground.

“That’s brutal,” I said as I watched the display in front of me, finally understanding the rain. The first screech hit our ears 2 seconds later. I looked down the side of the cliff to see that it turns into a steep slope 2 meters down. That’s good.

I turned to the 30 man/woman/pony army. “That’s our cue, let’s move,” I said as I jumped off the cliff. The screams of surprise brought a smile to my face, even when I could barely hear it over the crack of thunder. I knew I wasn’t going to die from fall damage due to the slope but they didn’t know that.

“Come on, do I have to do all the work myself,” I shouted up at the heads looking down at me. No sooner had I said that when they jumped down themselves, many sliding professionally down while others looked cartoonish in their attempts. Silly Timmy.

The slide down soon levelled out, the remaining outer trees cutting our line of sight on the portal and the lightshow above. Standing ready, I looked the tree line in front of me as the rest of the team reached the ground. The first to roll to their hooves were some guys I forgot to ask the names of. The next group consisted of 3 muscular earthlings named Roid Rage, Ground Pound and Jenkins. Sam and his brother followed, sliding on his feet smoothly as Tim rolled next to him. The rest of the team followed them afterwards, all of whom I didn’t know the names of except the humans.

When everyone had corrected their composure, we moved forward. The sight of trees didn’t last long as we neared the hellish centre of the forest. Burnt carcasses and trees soon surrounded us. The burnt remains of trees stopped completely, revealing an expanse of dirt. The few living beings left were quickly silenced.

“They did a good job,” One of the random guardsponies said to his team mates. There is always that one guy…

The portal we were looking for remained intact, unfortunately. It was barely big enough to fit 4 of us in there at the same time. Their forced are basically crippled here. The portal itself was being powered from the other side, so to shut it down will either require a nuke to throw in there or a strike team to go in and turn the power off. The latter it is then.

“Ok, team,” I began to tell them the news. “Good news is this is the source of the enemy army.”

“And the bad news?” Tony asked.

“We have to go in there to turn it off.”

The news hit them all hard. Well most of us, my friends were unfazed by the idea. 

“But for now, we wait for the army…”

“We’re here,” Luna shouted from above us, flying next to her sister with the army following them. They lead the charges here?

“That was fast.”

As the army moved around the portal, ensuring that nothing was gonna come out any time soon. The Princesses landed beside us, giving a curt nod as the team bowed before them.

“I assume you heard everything?” I asked the two of them.

“Yes we did,” Celestia answered. “We ate preparing for an attack on whatever resides on the other side.”

“Where do you need us, then?” I asked again.

“We will need you to sneak past whatever line they have set up and destroy the source of this portal.”

“Don’t worry, we got this,” Sam told her.

I thought of a plan as fast as I could. I want us to be in there before the ponies. “Sam, Ana, you stay here and provide sniper support from the portal. Cloe, you help the ponies slay them demons. Tony, you help her.”

They nodded their heads. I still can’t believe that they let me be in charge. “Most kills?” I asked Tim, readying for the fight.

He responded with the loading of his gun and a grin. “You’re on.”

We charged into the breach, ready to take on whatever they can throw at us. What met us was an environment made of stone and fire. The land was suspended in the air, with lava sitting something close to a kilometre below us. Behind us stood some sort of portal device. A UAC logo sat proudly on its bulk. Its power cable trailed off to a massive stone temple in the distance, connected to the makeshift platform of an island by an almost orchestrated battlefield, with several stone huts sitting on the sides with random rocks sitting around for cover. The temple was guarded by one distant figure, which happened to be a giant, mechanical, four-legged spider with a minigun.

“Oh fu-“

> Hell...
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chapter 35


The first rock we hid behind had been pulverised by the constant rattling of the minigun wielding spider at the other end of the battlefield. Sam and Ana fired shot after shot at the creature to no avail. No matter what we throw at the creature, it just shrugged it off like it was nothing.

“How are we going to beat this?” Tim asked over the chipping of stone as the bullets whittled it down.

“Tony!” I shouted over to the other two to our right. He shifted as he pulled the tube off of his back and pointed it at the machine. The quiet thump of the launcher was followed by an extremely fast blue projectile. It collided with the opposing force, annihilating it and showering the environment in metal and blood.

“Wow…” Tim said quietly.

I activated my radio broadcaster. “Sam, areas clear,” I spoke into it.

The portal behind us rippled as guardsponies streamed in. They really need lasrifles. They took up positions behind the rocks, a perimeter being created. The radio crackled as Sam spoke. “Alright, the princesses are coming through.”

No sooner had that been said did the regal sisters step through. As they looked around, their faces gave looks of disgust. “Don’t be mean to the demons, this is their home,” I said as I approached them.

“This feels like a trap,” Luna spoke up.

“Probably is.”

“And you’re just going to walk into it?” Celestia asked.

“Hell yeah!” I span around and started walking to the temple thing, where the power cables are going. “Guy’s, cover me.” I didn’t really expect them to.

As I got closer the huts to the sides opened up, revealing little baby things. With the upper body of a human baby and the rest being giant fly bits, they’re ugly as shit.

“It’s a trap!” A random guardspony who sounded similar to THAT guy said.

“No shit!” I shouted back as the swarm fell upon me, trying to slap me with their hands, or rather claws. The little baby things had claws as well, apparently. They covered me, limiting my movement and slashing at my armour. Their sudden screams indicated that they were being shot off of me. When only 4 remained, I flailed my way out of their grip, bringing their bodies down onto the floor before stomping one in the face. The rest tried to get back to scratching me but were promptly shot in the face.

“Oh god, I just killed a baby…” I heard Ana say.

“Harden up, it’s just a demon baby thing,” I heard Cloe reply.

“I found that fun,” Tim joined in. 

“Shut it about babies bro’s,” I tried to tell them.

“You guys are sick.”

“Come on guys-“

“No we’re not!”

“I said SHUT UP!” …That worked at least. An explosion later and I was on the floor, hearing the gargled roar of my assailant. As I got up, a laser line appeared over my head and striking the demon down. I never got a chance to see what it was but I did get to see its backup.

A pair of four legged spiders stood mere meters away from me. A sort of brain with stubby arms sat inside it, moving levers with professional ease. Its case mounted gun swung to face me before I even began to move. I jumped to the side as it fired, the bolt of energy swished past my face as I dived for the nearest rock. I didn’t make it. Instead I pulled my shotgun on them and fired. A shimmering red field suddenly appeared around them, protecting them from my wrath.

Of course they have energy shields.

I crawled as fast as possible to the rock I dived at, whispers filling the world as several swirls appeared in the air. A sudden crack and the undersides of said swirls widened, dropping demons onto the floor. The guardsponies began shouting over the demons screeching before blows were exchanged. The spider things stood at the front, protecting their friends when the magic began to fly. I fired another shot at it when it started shooting. This time it’s stupid shield didn’t stop it, letting me hit it in the face. The creature that perched itself in the machine flailed about as its face was ravaged by shotgun rain, sending the spider chassis on its side before the creature itself exploded spectacularly. Magic continues to fly at them from downrange, putting down the imps unprotected by the second spider. Now’s my chance.

I vaulted over the rock I used for cover and ran for the temple while the ponies and demons fought. “Where are you going?!” someone shouted on the radio.

“The temple,” I said simply as I bolted past spawning demons. The remains of the giant spider laid to the side of a door of equal size, leaving a pretty messy sight on the way in. When I got through, I saw the power source. A big box humming with energy sat right next to the door. Strips of blue lights ran down its sides, meeting perpendicularly to another line leading to a terminal attached to its side. That was easy.

“Guys, I found it,” I say through my broadcaster. Before I could study the controls of the terminal and find a big red button, a group of demons streamed in from the giant temple doors. I shot them down effortlessly.

I turned back to the terminal and began to read it. Surprisingly, it’s in english and not some stupid demonic moon speak. So, running at 80%? Let’s turn that up to over 9000. It only reached 101%.

The thing began screaming warnings at me. Apparently turning it up any more will activate the auto shutdown. That just won’t do, I want to blow this up. A sound to my left told me to shoot there. The sound of a screaming demon followed by a click told me all I needed to know. I reloaded the rifle while studying the controls. Then the red button appeared.

I did a short search in the terminal for what the red button does as the fight outside raged harder. At least they’re too stupid to try and stop me. Upon its completion, the screen displayed a wall of text. 

The Red Button is used as the self-destruct safety function.
Upon use the system instantly activates the self-destruct protocol, giving all nearby personnel one minute to leave the blast radius of 60 metres. This function is only to be used to keep the Plasma technology inside this device away from the competition or enemy hands.

Ok then. Light fuse, run away. I got this.

“Have you found a way to destroy the power source,” Sam asked over the waves. “The demons are pushing us back.”

“Yup, light fuse run away.”

“Meaning…”

“Get everyone back through the portal,” I tell him. “I will have one minute to run my way to the portal before everything explodes.”

“Ok.”

I looked out the door to the portal. It was 100 metres away, all of which was crawling with things that want to eat my face. It could be worse. It could be impossible. The ponies were evacuating through the portal, followed by the princesses. Why are they going through last?

“Alright, they’re all here, or whoever survived,” Tim told me.

“Good, also tell the princess I’m sorry.”

“Why?” He asked

“Just in case.”

I turned to the power generator. I then punched the red button and ran. The doors were already open when I ran through, only to be met by an army of demons. I charged through the legion in front of me, pushing the creatures to the side and holding down the trigger as they all tried to grab me. One of them did and as a treat, got decked in the face. 40 seconds and 50 metres left and the radio went off.

“Luna wants to know where you are.”

“Not now, Tony,” I said, still ducking and pushing my way through the imps. Unfortunately one tripped me. 

Luna suddenly appeared out of nowhere, firing a laser beam at the assailing demons. They were swept away and turned to ash near instantly. She seemed to be careful where she was aiming, making sure to miss me. That was, until she was hit. I spun and fired the entirety of my munitions at the offender before I turned to see her on the ground.

“You alright?” I asked, a little panicky as I ran to her.

“I’m fine,” she said, shifting and trying to stand but failing, her left hind leg burnt half way down. I helped her up, providing support for her as I continued my run to the portal, albeit a lot slower now. The portal spat magic and bullets past us. At least I have a little help. With a meagre distance left to traverse, I let a smile cross my face. We were going to make it.

I could hear their encouragement over the sound of battle, though I don’t understand-

Then the plasma generator exploded, the shockwave sending us towards the portal…

And onto the stone floor. I looked up, expecting to see a familiar face but instead all I saw was stone and metal. I got to my feet, bringing Luna with me. As I saw we were stuck in this hellhole, my right eye twitched…

“Fffffff…”