> The Great Transition
>  by Bronyfordays
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Equus is Dying, Earth is Surviving
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I sighed as I gathered my belongings, 'what else do I need?' I thought to myself. I checked my list of things I needed to pack, 'only the essentials,' I repeated in my head. "Let's see," I said aloud, "I've got my data chip, extra food and water in case of an emergency, portable computer, headset for long range talking, and my photo book. I think that about covers it!" I turned around, put my travel pack on my back, and went out the door, "Spike!" I called as I went downstairs. 

"Hang on!" came Spike's voice from his room.

I sighed and waited at the front door, this gave me time to think of everything that has happened in the last 20 years. My name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and Element of Magic. Born nearly 40 years ago, I was an isolated pony when I was young. Always wanting to study and read, I never had any true friends. Until I went to Ponyville, there, I met my five very best friends. We went on so many adventures together in this wonderful land. Eventually, I became a princess which, let me tell you, was hard work. That was back in my early 20s. Even though we had our struggles, life was pretty good in Ponyville. Eventually, technology started advancing too. 

There were luxuries we never even dreamed of! Computers were soon being made, which used voice control systems for navigating. Long range headsets were made to communicate with one another, and the newest advancement, was the construction of spaceships. They were in early development when the news came. That was ten years ago, a year of twisting emotions for me. 

By this time, four of my friends had actually starting dating somepony else. Rainbow Dash was finally a wonderbolt at this point, and she started to date this tall stallion by the name of Flaming Strike. Applejack was still a hard working farm pony who, to our surprise, started dating Rarity of all ponies, who by the way, was a top fashion designer. Then there was Pinkie Pie, she surprisingly, announced that she was dating a changeling by the name of Prickle. Changelings were now allies to us after Queen Chrysalis had a shocking change of heart. Though ponies were apprehensive, and still are today at times, Celestia agreed to the peace treaty. That left Fluttershy and I, though Fluttershy eventually found a stallion much like herself, together they started an animal shelter. This shelter was now the largest one in all of Equestria, though it won't really matter now.

Anyway, depressing thoughts aside, later that year the news came. Delivered by Celestia herself via our portable hologram emitters, it stated that somehow, our planet Equus was dying. Even she didn't know why, this nearly caused world wide panic as news spread to other kingdoms. Luckily, Celestia stated that all citizens of Equestria were allowed to go on the three massive ships that were to lead us to our future. Other intelligent beings on Equus tried to head to Equestria so they could leave too, but Celestia had closed the borders. There was no way we could take every life form on the planet into space. 

Sadly, some empires didn't like that, so they tried to start wars with us. But their leaders thought against it since Equestria was the most technologically advanced nation. So the years went by as we prepared for The Great Transistion, as Celestia had called it, for we would be transitioning to a new life. Today we were ready.

"Um...Twilight?" Twilight was snapped out of her thoughts as she was poked in the side by Spike. "Ready?" 

Twilight looked at Spike, he was pretty much her height by now. He was a purple dragon with green spikes trailing down his back. Twilight sighed again, she remembered all the good fun they had here. He was like a little brother to her.

"Yes, I'm ready Spike," I said and we exited my old castle. As we trotted along to the train station that led to Canterlot, I looked around the ghost town of Ponyville. There was no sign of life, the streets were empty, it seemed so surreal to me. We passed Sugarcube Corner, a popular hangout for my friends and I. After a depressing and quiet walk, we made it to the station. There were only a few ponies left getting on the train, looked like nine. Plus the conductor, so ten. Me and Spike got up on the platform and took a look at the train.

It was the newest model, a sleek blue passenger train. It had a pointed tip at both the front and back. Magic combined with the technology made the train go decently fast, we would be at Canterlot within twenty minutes. 

"Pwincess?" I heard a child's voice from behind, I turned around to see a filly, couldn't be older than four. Though she seemed familiar, that blue body with short red hair that had a purple streak in the middle. Oh that's right! Bon Bon's filly. She just stared at me with adorable eyes, despite all the sadness inside, I couldn't help but smile at the cute filly before me.

"Sugarcane!" I heard what sounded like Bon Bon's voice across the station. I turned to see Bon Bon and Lyra heading towards me and Sugarcane. They noticed me as they came galloping over, "Hi Princess!" Bon Bon said as she picked up Sugarcane. 

I rolled my eyes, "How many times have I told you girls to just call me Twilight!" 

"Oops, sorry Twilight," Bon Bon giggled. 

Lyra looked at me confused, "Shouldn't you be prepping for the launch back in Canterlot?" 

"Yes," I said, "I just came back to grab a few things...and say goodbye to the town." I started choking up at that statement, I still couldn't believe we were leaving. After ten long years, I just still couldn't wrap my head around it.

I noticed the silence and saw the sorrowful stares of my friends and decided to change the subject, "So, where's Night Watcher?" I asked, wondering where Bon Bon's husband was.

"Oh!" Bon Bon's head snapped to attention, "He's over there with his two friends." She pointed a hoof to where three stallions were. 

I was about to say something when the doors to the train slid open, signifying that we could get on. As we all climbed aboard, I took one last look behind me at the town I called home. Then, I entered, hoping that our new life would be just as great.





"Remember how I told you to hold it," I said, watching my little sister practice shooting with a rifle. "Aim using the sights, make sure they're aligned correctly. Don't forget your stance. Now, make sure you're aiming at your target. Don't anticipate the recoil, relax, get comfortable with the rifle, now fire when ready," I watched as my sixteen year old sister fired the hunting rifle, at the tree a couple yards away. I could see the tree's bark get a hole straight through it from the bullet. "Great job!" I said enthusiastically. She was getting better.  

My name is Jack Stephens, a twenty year old male born in a space station. Yes, you heard that right. A long time ago, people wouldn't have believed it. But that was before nuclear war ravaged the planet over 400 years ago. It was a hard time, the year 2050, but the Alliance predicted it would happen, so they somehow built a spacestation. They brought up centuries worth of space food and 100 volunteers along with it. They built a little farm on one end and a water maker on the other end. Feats that were deemed impossible in the early 20th century, but in the 1950s, technology had started to advance greatly. Then in the year 2050, as predicted, bombs fell in the major cities of Earth, killing nearly every one on the planet. The Alliance, luckily, sent off the rockets containing the 100 volunteers right before the bombs fell. 

If you're wondering who the Alliance was, it was a massive group of countries that formed together to fight the Terrors, the remaining countries of Earth. The Alliances had the upper hand, so the Terrors launched 100 nukes across the world. The Alliance got word of this and fired back. The 100 volunteers watched in horror as mushroom clouds filled the skies. That was the last time any human set foot on Earth, humanity was nearly extinct. But the volunteers kept on living, doing their best to survive. 

Now if you're wondering how I know all this, it's because my family and our village are ancestors of the original volunteers. Now, there are 200 of us, we have farms, a source of purified water, and even a leader, my dad. Or at least it was my dad, technically it's me now. This is because my dad is sick, he's going to pass away soon. I must do my best to bring humans back, I must look to the future. 

If you're also wondering how we're back on Earth, well that's simple. Apparently, while doing a satellite check, the first one in 50 years, my dad found that somehow, plants were regrowing on the Earth's surface, and rapidly too. It was astonishing, impossible even. As if the Earth had magic in it or something. I know that sounds stupid, but while doing the satellite check, my dad noticed a strange anomaly present in the Earth's atmosphere. But then it was gone, just like that. 

So with this news in hand, everyone went back to Earth to check it out. I was one month old at the time so I don't remember much, but my dad said it was a glorious sight. We landed in the ruins of New York City, and once everyone stepped out of the five rocket ships, they were astounded to see not just beautiful plant life. But animals too, and I'm not talking about those mutated ones, though there are plenty, but real live everyday animals! My dad says it was just a miracle, but I think it was something more. Whether it be God, aliens, or Earth itself. Maybe even a magical being from another world, ok maybe not that last one. But the point is, it saved us from being stuck on that damn spacestation for all eternity.

So, we went about looting everything, taking guns for protection and hunting, grabbing tools for building and all that jazz, we even have a steady supply of books to read. Since then, the village has become bigger and bigger, with a trading system and even a small police force. My dad was the main man, mostly because he was pretty intelligent. Now since my dad is sick, I have to lead the village. So that's two things I have to worry about. 

"Jack?" I heard my sister say my name, I looked over at her, she looked fairly concerned. "You alright?"

"Yeah," I lied. She looked at me, not believing me one bit. 

"Is it about dad?" She asked.

"Partly," I sighed.

"He's going to survive, right?" She was worried, I could tell. We lost mom a year ago to a sickness, now dad was ill. I was silent for a second, "Right?" She asked again.

"Yes," I knew it wasn't true. He was going to die eventually, I just couldn't tell her. I looked at the food we managed to gather, plenty of meat plus fruits and vegetables. Enough to last us a while, I could even probably hand in some of the hide for clothes. We tried using all the parts of the animal, most of the time we did. "Come on Sarah, let's head back." 

We headed back down the streets of old New York, looking at the destruction the bombs did. But also looking at how beautiful nature was, we still couldn't understand how it happened. Eventually we reached the street our village was on. There were two guard posts on either side of the street to make sure nothing could get in. The two guards on the east end nodded as we entered the village, it was composed of makeshift tepees and stands with awnings above them. Most of the houses were built out of the old buildings on the street.

My assistant, Anthony Williams, noticed me and ran up to us. He was an african american with short hair. He was pretty muscular, which is why I also chose him to be captain of the police force.

"Anything of interest?" I asked him. 

"Well," he started, and by the look on his face he had a couple things in mind. But getting a closer look, his face wasn't distressed, which probably meant they were good things. "The farms are still very prosperous this season. Everyone has enough food for the week, maybe even a month!" 

I nodded, this was definately good, last year food supplies were relatively new. "What else?"

"Let's see," he looked at his list, he really liked lists for some reason. Come to think of it, he liked anything to do with paper. Books, art, writing. He was kind of an egghead. But I didn't mind at all, after a couple seconds, he looked back up. "Sally made a full recovery." 

"That's great!" Sally, a 17 year old, was hunting when she tripped over a rock and fell into a ditch. She sprained her ankles and needed to be carried back. I knew she would be okay, but you always should be cautious. "Anything else?"

"Umm...oh yeah. The head nurse wanted to see you," he said. Then put his hand to his chin in contemplation, "Though I don't know why."

I sighed, it was probably about Dad. I looked up at the sky, it was getting dark out, I could already see some stars. I told Sarah to bring the food to our house, parted ways with Anthony, and solemnly headed towards the makeshift hospital. People waved to me and I waved back, people smiled and I smiled back. My dad told me once that he was happy to see everyone so friendly to eachother, way back when, everyone hated and distrusted eachother. That's how the war came about, but now, everybody is friends with everybody. To honor my dad, I'm going to make sure it stays this way.

Eventually, I made it to the hospital, inside what looked to be a movie theater. I walked in and there was Head Nurse Thompson waiting for me at a desk. She was a red head and 25 years old, yes I know the names and ages of everyone in the village. To be honest, I kinda thought she was attractive, she had good looks and a beautiful smile, and gorgeous... 

"S...so, what's up?" I said, taking my mind off her body.

She sighed, uh oh, that's not good. "I don't know how to tell you this, but your dad has a month to live." 

My face went pale, I couldn't find a word to say. One month?! I couldn't believe it, a couple days ago, Thompson said he'd be fine for a while, "H...how'd you find out?" 

"He has a deadly disease, not going to explain it, but I figured it out by how long he's been sick." She bit her lip, "But that's just an estimate, it could be later...or sooner."

I felt dizzy, this was too much to comprehend. 

"Have you not told Sarah yet?" Thompson asked. I shook my head, then felt even more dizzy. She sighed, "Go home and tell her."

"B...but..." I stuttered.

"No buts, go. I have work to do. But, Jack..." I was partially out the door when she stopped me, "I'm sorry." I nodded and left the hospital, it felt like a dream as I walked to my house. I called to Sarah from outside and she walked out. 

"What's up?" she asked. She had no idea.

"Let's go to the Site," I told her. We walked towards the spot just outside the village where my family and I would just sit, laugh and talk about things. Once we got there, we sat down in the smooth grass. Yet, before I could even say anything, Sarah started crying. "Sarah?! What's wrong?!"

She started sniffling as tears fell down her face, "Dad's gonna die soon, isn't he?"

I froze, she knew?! I didn't know what to do, but whenever Sarah and I were sad, our father would always hug us and talk to us in a calm voice. Now, I wasn't our dad, but I was all she had at the moment. So, quickly as I could, I wrapped my arms around her.

"It's ok, sis. He's still got some time left in him," I tried to calm her. "Don't forget what he said, 'a Stephen is strong.'" I said that in a very deep voice. That got a giggle out of her.

"I always thought that was the cheesiest saying ever," she said. "Still, I'm gonna miss him." I could still see tears running down her face, but she wasn't making noises anymore. 

"I will too, but remember, we still have each other. Which I know is overused," I said, she giggled again. "But it's true."

She actually smiled and looked up at me. Maybe I wasn't bad at this thing after all. "You're right. He wouldn't want us crying over him anyway."

"Yes, exactly," I said letting go of her. "Just remember, he'll always be in our hearts." 

She rolled her eyes, "You are just full of those dumb sayings aren't you?"

"Maybe," I said. Then I looked at the stars, Sarah following my example. 

"You really think there are other life forms out there?" she asked.

I lied down, hands on my head, "Yeah, I just have this feeling, you know?"

"You have all kinds of feelings," she said, smiling as she lay down beside me.

"Yeah," I said. Then I realized what she was inferring, "What are you saying?" 

"I've seen the way you look at Miss Thompson," she said slyly.

"Hey!" I punched her arm slightly as she laughed. Then I looked back to the stars, "Well, maybe in the future, we'll see those life forms."

Sarah snorted, "Whatever, bro."
> Chapter 2
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I stepped out of the train and onto the platform, Canterlot was just as silent as Ponyville. It was creepy, as if life was just taken away from the city. 

"Twilight?" I heard Spike from behind me. He looked fairly worried.

I smiled very unconvincingly, "I'm fine Spike." I saw the three ships in the sky above Canterlot, they were really big. It makes me think of how far we've come with technology. Spike noticed me staring at the ships.

"Can't believe we're going to another planet," he said, "By the way, where is the planet we're going to? How long will it take us to get there?"

"It's a planet not too far from here, should only take us a year to get there at the speed we'll be going," I said as we walked towards the castle. 

"A year?!" Spike exclaimed, "But that's a long time in a space ship!"

I rolled my eyes, "I'm well aware of that, but that's as fast as the ships will get there without encountering problems."

"Problems?" Spike asked nervously.

"Don't worry, if we don't go too fast, we'll be alright." Finally we reached the castle, the guards bowed to me as I approached.

"How will all of them get on to the ships?" Spike struck a thinking pose for a second, "Scratch that, how did anypony get on the ships?"

"That's easy," I replied, "We have little transport ships that transfer us from the ground to the big ships. Look, here's one now!" I pointed to a transport ship stopping next to an open balcony on the side of the castle.

"That's little?" Spike asked sarcastically.

Ignoring him I continued, "Since there's not enough room for them to land on the ground, the ponies use that balcony to climb aboard the ship."

As we entered the royal chambers inside the castle, we noticed that not only were Princess Celestia and Princess Luna in the room, but so were Queen Chrysalis, Princess Cadance, and for some reason Discord. Though Discord seemed like, really depressed for some reason. As we walked in they noticed us and welcomed us over.

"What's everyone doing?" I asked, I noticed a map of the galaxy on the floor.

"Just some final calculations," Princess Luna said, "We need to make sure nothing has changed position in space the past week."

"Okay," I nodded, now that I looked more closely, I could definately tell it was brand new. Then I looked at Discord, "What's up with Discord? You'd think he be with Fluttershy."

Suddenly, Discord burst into tears, which shock me greatly. Discord never showed himself like this before, especially not in front of any of us. "Is he okay?" I asked, genuinely worried about him, despite him being the bad guy twice, he's been good for almost 20 years. So I did kinda consider him a friend, maybe not a best friend but, you know.

Cadance looked at Discord, "He's been like this for 2 days straight."

"What's wrong with him?" I asked.

"I think you can figure it out," she said.

At first I recoiled at her statement, but looking at her face, it didn't show any anger. So I thought, what happened two days ago? There was Fluttershy's wedding with Green Leaf, but what did that have to do with-

"Oh..." I said, Fluttershy was Discord's best friend, so it was safe to assume he had feelings for her. Since Fluttershy got married, it must've left Discord heartbroken. Then again, it was just a hypothesis, though the way Cadance was looking at me suggested she knew what I was thinking. "Shouldn't we do something?"

"Already tried," Cadance said, "he's stubborn as a mule."

"I can hear you, you know," Discord said, his head face down on a floating table. "I can assure you I'm fine physically and mentally." 

I raised an eyebrow, "You sure don't look it."

Discord glared at me, tears still going down my face, "I'm fine."

I probably should've ended it there, but I kept pressing him further, "Love doesn't work like that." 

"What do you know about love? You're 40 and haven't even had a crush!" he retorted.

I was stunned by his reaction, "Well...I..."

"Discord!" Celestia glared at him, "She's just trying to help."

Discord snorted, "Whatever, I'm not even in love in the first place. I don't have time for such petty emotions."

Everyone rolled their eyes at that. Though Chrysalis giggled, which turned into a laugh.

"What's funny?" Discord glared at Chrysalis.

"Oh nothing," she said. "It's just your antics crack me up. In my opinion, I would've left you as a statue." 

"Is that so?" Discord said angrily. 

"Yes, all you do is play silly games and hide your emotions in your head as if they were sealed shut. Except for now of course." Chrysalis smirked.

"At least I didn't beg to Celestia like a dog!" 

"Well, you're as dumb as a rock."

"Oh yeah? Well you're stupid."

The two were about to get up and start whacking each other when Celestia stood up, "ENOUGH!" She roared.

The two former villains stopped in their tracks, staring at Celestia. So did Luna, myself, Cadance and Spike.

"I will not have you fighting over petty things like this! We have far more important things to worry about! So sit down so we can finish this meeting!"

Immediately, Discord and Chrysalis sat down, though they were still glaring at each other. "I've never seen her like that before..." Spike whispered in my ear.

"Sister," Celestia put her smile back on, "please continue."

Luna cleared her throat, "Well, as far as we can tell, nothing seems to be out of order in the galaxy."

"What about the other kingdoms?" Celestia asked.

"They seemed to have completed their preparations too," Luna said.

"Wait," I asked. "Other kingdoms?"

"Did you not tell her, Sister?" Luna leaned over to her Celestia.

"Tell me what?" I asked.

"Well," Celestia started, "we've been spying on the other kingdoms."

"What?! But that's just, immoral!" I said, this was ridiculous.

"I just wanted to see how they were holding up," Celestia said. "As it turns out, they have also have been working on leaving the planet."

"Really?" I said, this was news.

"Yes, they have built their own ships, and I made sure they were going to different planets. So we wouldn't all end up at the same place."

"Okay, that makes sense."

"Indeed, is that all Luna?" Celestia turned back to her sister.

"We believe it to be so. The final transport shall be arriving shortly."

"In that case," Celestia stood up, "let's go."

The seven of us traveled up to the balcony that the transport ship would be arriving at.

As we reached the top, we noticed how stunning Equestria was at sunset from this particular balcony. "I'm really going to miss this place..." Spike said sadly. 

I sighed as I took in the sight, "Me too Spike. Me too." 

Celestia walked up to me and put her hoof on my shoulder, "It's alright Twilight, we still have the memories. We also have a bright future ahead of us."

I started tearing up, "It just won't be the same."

"I know, but you still have your friends."

I looked up, Celestia was looking at me with a hint of sadness. But there was hope in there as well. I looked around, Spike was trying hard to cover up his tears. Cadance and Luna were looking at the sunset in thought, even Discord and Chrysalis looked sad. "You're right! We've got each other, and our future!" I saw everyone look at me, smile, and nod. I heard the sounds of the ship heading towards us. We all looked back at the sinking sun, the last time we'd see this sight.

"On to greater heights," I said confidently.

We boarded the ship as it parked and I sat next Celestia. The interior was a light grey color, with the passenger section wide enough to fit at least 30 ponies in it. The cockpit was closed off by a metal door in the front of the cabin. 

"I almost forgot to tell you, Twilight," I turned towards Celestia.

"Yes?" I asked.

"We're bringing the Elements of Harmony with us."

"What? Aren't they connected to Equus?"

"Yes, but they're also connected to you and your friends," Celestia pointed her hoof at me. "Besides, Equus is dying, so therefore we should take them."

I looked at her, her logic wasn't really credible. I had a feeling she was hiding something. But I didn't press any further this time, the doors to the outside closed and the ship jostled a little as it made its way to the the third main ship, the Collosus. The whole flight was depressing and silent, there weren't even any windows to look out of. 

Finally, the ship came to a halt, and I heard a whole bunch of noises as it docked in the Collosus. A blinding red light came on and the doors reopened, instead of green fields and blue skies, we were greeted with a small white room with more doors on the opposite end. We entered as well as the pilots and the doors behind us closed. After a second, the metal doors in front of us opened and we emerged into a long hallway with various openings on each side. 

"Luna and I are to head to the bridge and oversee the launch," Celestia said. "The rest of you can head to your rooms if you'd like, please don't enter the employees only areas."

"Where are my friends?" I asked.

"Don't worry, I made a private suite for you and your fellow elements. Just follow the signs," Celestia pointed a hoof towards the signs littering the hallways. 

"Oh, thank you!" I said, "You didn't have too."

"Nonsense," she said, "now go, find your friends."

With a goodbye to my group, Spike and I headed down the halls, looking for our private suite. "This ship really is something, huh Twilight?" Spike said, noting how long and big the hallways were. "There must be dozens of hallways and hundreds of rooms!"

"Indeed Spike, let's see," I walked up to a green sign with black lettering. "The private suites must be this way." 

We walked down another hallway and eventually reached a large blue door that said Private Suites in bold letters. I hesitated as I put my hoof on the handle, it'd been a full year since I've actually seen all my friends together. Breathing in, I pressed on the handle and the door opened to a very beautiful room. 

The floor was covered in a bright blue carpet, and the furniture was a vibrant red color. The magenta wall was covered in various paintings and such. There was even a decent sized window overlooking Equus, and there, sitting on the various furniture strewn across the floor, were my friends and they're families.

There was Applejack, she was an orange earth pony with a brown stetin hat on her yellow mane. Her brother, Big Mac, was a big red stallion with an orange mane. There was his mare friend, Finesse, a graceful yellow earh pony with a blue mane. And the youngest in the Apple family, Apple Bloom, who had a light yellow cream body, and had a pink bow tie on her red mane.

Next was fashionable Rarity, Applejack's mare, she was a white unicorn with a stylish purple mane. Her sister Sweetie Belle, was also a white unicorn with a purple and pink mane. Next was Fluttershy, a timid yellow pegasus with a pink mane. Of course there was her stallion, Green Leaf, a green unicorn with a red mane.

Of course, there was the ever hyper Pinkie Pie, a pink mare with a dark pink puffy mane. Then you had her favorite changeling, Prickle. Finally, there was the local wonderbolt, Rainbow Dash, a fast blue pegasus with a rainbow mane. Then there was her stallion, Flaming Stike, a red pegasus with a yellow mane. 

As soon as I closed the door, everypony turned towards me and smiled. The first out of their seat was of course, Pinkie Pie. "Ohmygoshit'sbeen solongImissedyousomuch!" she said faster than lightning as she hugged me.

"Pinkie! It's only been a week, I saw you at the speech!" I said, squirming in her tight hug. 

Applejack was next and tore Pinkie off of me so I could breath. She gave me an infinitely lighter hug, "We know that, Twi', but it's been a long week."

I sighed, "It has been, hasn't it?" 

Applejack looked me in the eyes, "Don't get yerself down over it."

By this time, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and Rarity have trotted over. "I know," I said, "I just can't believe this is happening."

At that point, everypony just group hugged me, except for Rainbow, who was standing still, probably debating if she should join or not.

"You know," Rarity piped up, "I heard that hugging makes you 20% more awesome nowadays."

I could tell Rainbow wasn't buying it, but in the end she joined in anyway. After the hug we all sat down, me feeling a lot better. 

"Hello," we heard a voice on the intercom, "this is your captain speaking, we will be launching in 30 minutes." 

"30 minutes, huh?" Rainbow said, "Geez, I'm already bored out of my mind. I don't think I'll last a year."

We laughed at that, and for a while we talked about things, catching up and stuff. It must've been at least 30 minutes later because the captain spoke up again. 

"Alright everypony, we are ready to launch, we will be going at a steady 1 light year per hour, but don't worry, you won't feel a thing. Launching in T-5 minutes, we are moving at a steady 10 miles per hour at the moment."

"Oh! We should totally take a picture before we launch!" Pinkie exclaimed. She looked at Fluttershy, Rainbow, Applejack, Rarity, and myself and we all nodded in agreement. "Yes! Big Mac! Can you take a picture of us in front of the window?" 

Big Mac gave an 'eeyup' and we moved into position in front of the window overlooking Equus. We all put on our smiles and Big Mac snapped the photo. 

"Yay!" Pinkie said excitedly, "Thanks girls!"

"No problem Pinkie, anytime!" I said happily.

"T-1 minute before launch! We are sailing at 100 miles per hour now," the captain's voice came on again. 

I turned around, looking at Equus one more time, my friends and their families followed suit. "Here we go," I said. 

Applejack put her hoof on me, "We'll get through this."

"Honest?" I asked, stifling my tears.

I couldn't tell, but I was sure she smiled behind me, "You're asking me if I'm being honest?" I giggled, she was the Element of Honesty. 

"Just remember darling," Rarity said, "we're in this together!"

"You're right!" I said.

The captain's voice came back on, "Launching in 10...9..."

I stared at Equus, this was it.

"8...7..."

A new future.

"6...5..."

A new life.

"4...3..."

"Hang on..." I said. "What's that sound?"

"2...1..."

There was an ear piercing sound in my head, and by the looks of it, in everyone else's too. 

"0...Launch!"

There was a slight push and the ringing stopped. For a second everything felt good, but as I breathed a sigh of relief, everything went wrong. The ship started rumbling and the alarms went off. The room was red with blaring alarms. Quickly, I ran out the door, I could hear my friends galloping after me.

As I galloped to the bridge, I could see workers and citizens running about trying to get to safe places. Eventually, I made it to the bridge, there was the princesses, as well as Chrysalis and Discord. 

"What's going on?!" I yelled over the alarms.

The captain, an old brown earth pony with a grey mane, turned towards me. "I've got no idea, Princess, but we're trying to take control of the situation!" I could see various workers at terminals pressing all sorts of big buttons. One worker was electrocuted as a terminal malfunctioned.

"You call this taking control of the situation?!" Celestia roared, "You assured me this craft was in mint condition! Now my little ponies are in danger!" 

"It's not the ship," we turned to Discord, who was floating in air, still as a rock. 

"What do you mean?!" Luna yelled.

Discord stared out the cockpit, it looked as if we were in a massive whirlpool in space, "This is a wormhole."

"What's that?" I asked, scared to know the answer. I noticed that my friends had joined me. Though now that I thought about it, the term sounded familiar.

"Basically, it warps space and time and can instantly direct you to another part of the universe."

"What?!" we all said.

"That means it could take us anywhere?" Celestia asked, I could tell she was very worried.

"Sadly, yes, and we have no way of knowing where it'll take us," Discord said.

"Can we stop it?" Cadence suggested.

"No, there is no way," Discord frowned. "We'll just have to hope."

"But-" I was cut off as the ship lurched forward, knocking us all to the ground.

I looked up to see a planet, a decently sized one. But the problem was, we were flying straight into it! "Captain! We gave to stop the ship!" 

The captain looked up and his eyes widened, "There's no way! But we might be able to slow it down!" 

As if on cue, the workers immediately went back to work, pressing buttons and pulling levers. But ttheships were still coming in way too hot! At this rate we would all die, and the planet was getting very close! We couldn't even see the entire thing!

Suddenly, I had an idea, "Princesses! If we work together, maybe we can put together a barrier spell on the ships! So they won't break on impact!"

"Twilight, that could kill us if we tried using that much energy!" Cadance said. 

"It's worth the risk," I said, not backing down.

Everyone nodded, we had to try. Celestia's and Luna's horns started glowing, then Cadance's. Now it was my turn, taking in a deep breath, I concentrated all my magic and willpower on creating a barrier spell on the three ships. My eyes were glued shut so I couldn't see what was going on, but I heard shrieks and yelling as we got ever closer to the surface.

I could feel my horn sparking as my magic depleted, but I kept going. The screams were getting quieter for some reason, but that didn't matter, what did was saving everypony. Everything felt like it was getting more and more distant until, I couldn't feel anything anymore. The last thing I heard was the sound of a large crash.
> Chapter 3
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I awoke with a fright on some smooth, comfortable moss. Quickly, I looked around to survey my surroundings, I was in a small clearing that looked fairly familiar. I felt something hit my head and I sat up. Where my head was the hand of my sister, who was sleeping snugly in the moss. 

Then I remembered what happened yesterday, the news about our dad and Sarah crying. We must've fallen asleep out here while looking at the stars. I looked up, it was near noon!

"Damnit!" I said, everyone must be worried, not to mention what could of happened to us out here. Totally irresponsible of me, "What a great leader I'm turning out to be."

"Stop that," I heard Sarah say behind me. I looked to see her still lying down, but giving me one of her glares. "You're a great leader, even Dad made mistakes." 

I could tell she realized what she said afterwards, "Sarah, it's fine. We should be able to talk about Dad without getting sad anyways."

"I know," Sarah sighed, "is he really gonna die soon?"

I hugged Sarah again, "We don't know for sure, but...it's a possibility, yes."

"Okay," she said quietly.

"You alright?" I asked.

"Yeah, better at least," then she pulled out of the hug, "Why are you all sweaty?" 

"Oh," I said as I let go of her, "I think I might have had a bad dream."

"You mean one of those 'nuclear nightmares'?" She smiled.

"You know I hated when Dad said that," I frowned.

Sarah stood up, "I know."

I followed suit, "Of course you did."

She laughed, it was so infectious that I just had to join in too. After a couple more moments, we stopped. 

"Hang on," she said as her smile turned into a frown. "Do you hear that?"

I frowned as well, there was a slight ringing in my ear, "The ringing? I thought it was just-"

All of the sudden, the ringing rapidly grew sharper until it became unbearable. Sarah and I clasped our hands over our ears as the ringing just kept piercing our ears. But it didn't help, it was as if it was inside our heads! It became even more sharper and I could barely hear Sarah screaming. I looked up to see Sarah fall to her knees in pain!

"Sarah!" I yelled, and just like that the ringing stopped. Quickly, I ran over to Sarah and grabbed her shoulders to help her stand up. She looked at me, tears running down her face.

"What was that?" she asked.

"I don't know, but you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine. You?"

"I'm okay," I hugged her again. Whatever it was, was over, until I heard another noise. "Now what?"

"W...what..." Sarah was stuttering.

"What?" I asked, Sarah was looking at the sky behind me. I turned around and immediately wished I hadn't. Three giant, flaming asteroids were heading straight towards the city. Wait, they weren't asteroids, they were pure whight and were football shaped. They, honest to God, looked like space ships. But that didn't really matter right now...

"Shit, at the speed they're going, they'll completely obliterate the city!" I said.

"What?!" Sarah hissed. "What're we gonna do?!"

There was no way we'd be able to evacuate the village in time. 

"God damnit! I don't know!"

I looked around, there was a ditch at the edge of the clearing. It looked deep enough to block the shockwave the impact would bring. I grabbed Sarah's hand and led her to the ditch.

"In here!" I pointed.

"What about the village?!" 

"They have the emergency shelter, besides, Anthony's there. I trust him completely. Now, come on!"

Sarah jumped into the ditch that was at least 5 feet deep.

"Sarah," I said, "press your back against the wall. Stay there!"

She did as she was told, albeit very nervously, and I looked back at the space ship asteroid things. There was fire building around the front of the objects. They were also nearly at impact.

"Shit!" I yelled as I jumped into the ditch. I looked back one more time to see a strange glow around the objects. But then my view was covered buy the wall of the ditch. I pressed my back up against the wall and closed my eyes, hoping for the best. I felt Sarah grab my hand.

"I love you," she whispered.

"Same here Sarah, but we're not gonna die, just trust me," I wasn't sure myself, but I had to believe. For both our sakes. A couple seconds passed, then some more...and more. At about two minutes, I got curious and opened my eyes. We were still alive and in the ditch, for one thing. That was a good start, I looked to my left to see Sarah looking right back at me.

"W...what happened?" she managed to say. 

"I don't know," I said, "Stay there, let me check it out." Slowly but surely, I stood up and cautiously peeked over the ditch. Somehow, everything seemed fine, did we hallucinate? I looked around and, to my surprise, the three massive objects were just sitting there, in the ruins of the city. Albeit some of the buildings fell down to make room for the ships but, still. Nada. 

"Is everything alright?" Sarah spoke up. "What's out there."

"Take a look," I nodded my head.

Carefully, Sarah stood up and looked over the ditch as well. Her reaction was a little bit different than mine. 

"Woah!" she said, "That looks so cool!"

I rolled my eyes and climbed out of the ditch, then knelt down and helped Sarah out. Together we stood up and got another look at the ships. They were definitely huge, had to be quite a few miles in length. As well as a couple miles wide. They were a sleek silver and had what looked to be giant black engines in the back. Yep, they were definitely space ships, but what kind of lifeforms brought these ships here? Were they evil or good? What did they look like? So many questions raced through my head that I started to get dizzy. 

"Bro? You alright?" Sarah asked.

I cleared my head and turned to her, "Yeah." 

"So...what do we do?" 

I thought about it for a second, "Alright, I want you to head back to the village and grab Anthony as well as a couple of his guards. Tell them to head to that building near the space ships." I pointed towards a half destroyed building in the distance. "I'll be waiting for them there." I started grabbing my gear: the hunting rifle, a small pistol, a couple nutrient bars, bottle of water, and a small first aid kit.

"What about me?" Sarah asked.

"I want you to stay at the village," I said as I put the stuff in my backpack. "Don't leave."

"What?!" She said angrily, "I want to help out!"

"It's not open for discussion," I holstered my weapons.

"Too bad!" she crossed her arms and looked away.

"Look at me," I said, and when she didn't, I used my leader voice. "Sarah Stephens look at me!"

Finally, she did, "What?"

"You are going to be helpful. You're going to be the leader while I'm gone."

"Bu-wha?" she stuttered.

"Yes, you're the only one I can truly trust."

"But I'm not cut out to be a leader, I'm only sixteen!"

"Then this'll be good training for you."

"You're acting like you'll be gone forever!"

I stopped at that, what if I was gone forever? What if I died, or was abducted or something? No, I had to stay positive! 

"Are you?" Sarah asked.

I looked into her worried eyes and hugged her, "I promise you, I'll be back. You don't have to worry." We hugged for a little while, then we stepped apart. 

"Stay safe, ok?" I asked her.

"I should ask you the same question," Sarah said. We both smiled at that. "I love you."

"You too, sis," then she ran off towards the direction of the village. After she left, I turned back towards the ships, took a deep breath, and headed towards the building. 
> Chapter 4
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

'Where am I?' was the first thought that came through my head. I had reason to ask that too. I was in what seemed to be complete darkness. I tried to remember exactly what had happened before I went unconscious. There was the launch from Equus, then the wormhole, then the princesses and I trying to prevent a crash landing. Oh no, had we failed?! Was I dead, along with everybody else? 

"Hello?!" I yelled, was this what death was like? No, I had to think positive! "Is anybody there?" 

"Just us as far as we can tell," came a voice from behind. I nearly jumped from the sound and whirled around to see Princess Luna behind me. 

"Luna?" I said, confused. "What are you-" 

Then I put the pieces together, Luna could enter other ponies dreams. "So I'm dreaming?"

"Yes," Luna nodded. 

"Then, did we do it? Is everyone safe?" I asked.

"Indeed," Luna smiled. "The ships are safely on the ground with only a few injured ponies. You just used too much magic." 

I sighed in relief, "Thank Celestia." Then I frowned, "This sure is a weird dream, just nothing as far as the eye can see."

Luna frowned as well, "It does seem strange."

As we looked around, I noticed a faint light in the distance. Then it started growing brighter and brighter until Luna noticed it as well.

"What the?" we both said at once, finally the light became blinding and I had to close my eyes. After a second I opened them to find myself and Luna in a strange city. It kinda looked like Manehattan with the big buildings, but instead of ponies walking around, there were strange creatures walking around. 

They had the same kind of stature as Spike, two arms starting at shoulders below the neck, they walked on two legs as well. On top of their heads was what seemed to be their only source of hair. Their heads were also weird, they had round ears jutting out from the side. Their pointy noses stretched away from the spot below their eyes. Oh, and their eyes! They were like tiny little slits on the front of their face.

There were other notable things as well, such as their color, it varied little. All of them seemed to be wearing different types of clothing as well. Some were talking into strange objects, some kind of long range communications device? Some of the creatures were in these odd carriages, like trains, it seemed to power itself. 

"Where are we?" I heard Luna ask behind me.

"That's an awfully good question," I said. 

Suddenly, what sounded like sirens in the distance started blaring constantly. Every creature immediately stopped what they were doing. A voice could be heard, coming from the skies. Luna and I looked up at the same time the creatures did. There was some kind of small flying ship, but there were blades on the top spinning speedily, probably to keep it in the air. The voice, which somehow spoke the same language I did, could be heard coming from the ship. 

"This is the President, everyone must take shelter immediately! This is not a drill. I repeat everyone must take shelter immediately!"

I heard another voice nearby go, "It's the Terrors! They're finally dropping the nukes on us!"

At that point the streets were filled with chaos, the screaming of a million creatures was heard. Quickly, I flew upwards to get a better glimpse of the chaos. The creatures were frantically running into various buildings down below. Luna quickly followed my lead as I stopped in the sky. I could see a vast ocean in the distance, and coming from it was another ship, this one was going very fast, unlike the other one which was more rounded in the front, this one ended in all point.

After a second or two, the ship zoomed past us and went a ways away from the city. As it went a couple miles away, I could see something large fall from it. Then it hit the ground and, to our horror. A huge explosion occured and a giant mushroom shaped cloud formed. That wasn't the worst part, the shockwave from the explosion carried all the way to the city. I looked down to see millions of the creatures covered by the dust and debris of the shockwave. 

Somehow Luna and I weren't affected by the shockwave and we looked around as the dust settled. To our shock, dozens of buildings had toppled over and the ones that hadn't looked terrible. But the worst part of all, was the total silence. Nothing at all. 

"Dear Celestia," Luna said in utter disbelief. It looked as if every single creature was killed by the blast. 

"Princess Luna?" I turned towards Luna. "This doesn't seem like a normal dream."

"Indeed," I heard a voice from behind and turned to see a jet black stallion with black hair. He was unnervingly tall, about as tall as Celestia herself. But the creepiest part was his eyes, the iris' were pure red, he just seemed evil. Then he spoke in a creepy deep voice, "This is a vision."

I was about to speak when Luna, who I completely forgot was there, trotted up next to me and spoke in a demanding voice, "Who might you be?"

The stranger smiled, "I go by many names, but in all fairness, I'm just a traveler."

Luna and I staggered back at that, "what?!"

"Yes, but enough about me," he said. "What about you Twilight?" 

I was startled when he called my name, "Oh, well...what do you want to know?" I asked.

"How about what you think of this vision?" he said as he waved a hoof around.

I was a bit unsettled at his tone, but I gave my thoughts on the matter, "It's very disturbing, I don't know what could have caused all those poor creatures to die in such a horrible manner. It looked like some sort of giant explosion, but nevertheless, it's a terrible sight."

The stranger snorted, "why are you pitying these fools. They destroyed themselves."

"What do you mean?" I asked, "Why do you despise them so much?"

"Because, they're worthless. That's why I made sure they died off!" He said.

My eyes grew wide and I heard Luna gasp, "You caused this?!"

"Well I certainly helped them die off, that's for sure!"

I couldn't believe what I was hearing! This being caused the extinction of an entire race I've never even heard of! I was angry to say the least.

"You're a monster!" I said.

"Maybe, but I did save your sorry flanks," he said.

"What do you mean?" I asked. 

"Well," he started. "You see a long time ago, the creatures on this planet were divided into two main groups, the Terrors and the Alliance. Now, unlike how you ponies settle things, these creatures declared violent wars on eachother." 

Luna gasped, "You mean like in the early days?" 

"Yes, but much worse, some of these wars caused thousands of deaths, sometimes in brutal ways."

Luna and I were shocked, "Why would they do such things?" I asked.

He shrugged, "Dunno, maybe it was just in their blood to fight." 

I looked down, "That's terrible."

"Oh but I'm not done yet!" He smiled, "Let me tell you about their creations!" 

"Creations?" I wondered.

"Yes, not only did these poor creatures like to fight, they made killing machines to fight with."

"Like what?" 

"Like guns! They're handheld objects that kinda look like metal sticks that fire small pellet like things called bullets at lightning speeds! These bullets can easily kill anything on sight, depending on the gun and where you shoot. The worse part is that they mass produced these things, they aren't even just for fighting. The creatures killed animals for sport with these weapons!"

"That's downright atrocious!"

"Indeed! But the worst weapon of all, was the nuclear bomb," he whispered as if it was the scariest thing ever. Though if it was worse than guns, then it probably was.  

"What's that?" I asked, afraid to know the answer. 

Instead of saying something, he just waved his hoof around the ruins of the city. At first I didn't understand, but Luna did. 

"You mean that explosion was made by the creatures, and the thing falling out of the ship was the bomb?!" 

He nodded. 

"Why would they make such a terrifying weapon?" I said, shivering at the thought.

"I don't know," he said. "Probably the same reason they made guns, but it just shows that humans are nothing but bloodthirsty beings that do nothing but kill everyday. That's why I destroyed them by influencing the Terror's decision to launch 100 nuclear bombs into the air! Then I did the same with the Alliance."

I thought about it, but I still didn't think it was the right thing to do, "That doesn't mean you had to kill them all. Right Luna?"

I turned to her but couldn't believe my eyes when she looked at me guiltily and said, "I'm sorry Twilight, but he's right."

"W...what?" 

"Yes," the stallion said, "because if they ever found your planet. I'm sure the consequences would be deadly."

As much I hated to admit it, the stranger was probably right. If these creatures who are capable of so much violence came to our planet. Who knows what would happen?

"I guess you're right...but tell me, what were these creatures called?"

"Humans," then he smiled. "Well that ends our little session. Nice meeting you two! Adios!"

With that, the stranger disappeared as well as the vision. Luna and I were standing in complete darkness. We just stared at each other for a second, then Luna spoke up.

"I think your dream is about to end, so I'll be going. We can discuss the matter later."

After those words, she vanished and another bright light engulfed my vision.





As soon as a I felt the warmth, I opened my eyes. Quickly I looked around, I was in the room where my friends and I took the picture. I was lying on a very comfy sofa. As I took a sigh of relief, I heards footsteps approaching the door. There was some talking I couldn't quite make out and then I heard a knock on the door.

"Twilight, darling, may we come in?" it was Rarity.

"Yes, of course," I smiled.

The door opened and my friends filed in, as well as the princesses. They all had concerned looks on their faces. 

"Are you feeling alright?" Celestia asked.

Now that she asked the question, I was feeling a little weak, my horn was hurting too. I used up a lot of energy on that spell.

"For the most part, just a little woozy," I said.

They all breathed a sigh of relief. 

"But I had a really strange dream," I said. Everyone looked at me confused, spare Luna of course.

"What kind of dream?" Celestia asked. 

So I told them everything Luna and I had seen, the city, the creatures called humans, and the mysterious stranger. As I told them them the story their expressions went from curious to astonished and finally to horrified. Then my friends all started talking at once

"Those humans sound like jerks!" "Think of those poor animals!" "That seems downright terrible." "Horrifying!" "I wouldn't want to invite them to a party!" 

Then Celestia interrupted them and said, "Whoever they were, let's just be glad we don't have to deal with them." 

"She's right," I said. "No point in worrying about it now." 

Then Celestia's Long Range Transmitter, or LRT, which I just noticed at that particular moment, started buzzing. She pressed a hoof on the button on the side and spoke, "Yes Captain?" 

Everyone could hear what the Captain said, "We got movement heading towards our ships. Looks like some sort of alien creature."

"What does it look like?" Celestia asked. 

"Tall, it's standing on two legs, got two arms on it's side. It's also got some sort of stick in it's hands." 

All our eyes were wide open at that statement. 

"It couldn't be..." Luna muttered.

"It sounds like a human, and by the description he has a weapon. The gun," Celestia said. "Alright, everyone follow me." 

Everyone was about to leave when Celestia turned towards me, "Not you Twilight."

"What? Why?" I asked, confused.

"Twilight," Celestia frowned, "You've already exerted enough energy, if the human starts a fight, you could be really hurt." 

"But-" 

"Twilight please, we don't want y'all to get hurt," Applejack said.

I frowned, but eventually caved in, "Alright." 

Then my friends group hugged me to make me feel better, it was nice. I watched as everyone left, unaware that I put a hidden voice recorder in Applejack's hat. Hopefully, this would all end well.
> Chapter 5
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I swore as I stumbled on some debris, I was coming up on the weird spaceship thingies. Then I sighed, there was a downed building that I would have to climb over. The debris was at least 15 feet high, and there seemed to be no way around it. I debated whether or not I should wait for Anthony and his force to get here. If I did climb up, I wouldn't be getting back down easily. But I couldn't wait.

"Welp, here goes nothing," luckily, the slope wasn't completely at a 90 degree angle, so it was easier to climb. As I took my first few steps though, I heard a voice from behind. I couldn't make out what it said because at that moment, I lost my footing and fell back down to the ground.

"Damn," I said, as I slowly got up and turned around. Immediately, I froze, right in front of me was a group of weird looking...horses? At first glance I thought they were, but then I noticed a lot of differences. They were much shorter than your average horse, more like a small pony. Except for one, that one was pretty much my height. Then their faces, the eyes were huge to say the least. Even weirder was the fact that they all had different color coats and manes, ones that horses really shouldn't have. But the weirdest thing? Some had horns, or wings, or even both. Then my mind was blown when the big one opened its mouth.

"Who are you?" it asked.

I was pretty much speechless, talking ponies?! Then another one spoke up, this one was blue with both wings and a horn, and it's mane! It was always flowing, and seemed to have the night sky in it.

"Sister, we already know what it is, and that it's dangerous, that's all that matters!" the pony said. The pony stepped forward with a glare in his\her eyes. 

Unconsciously, I pulled out my pistol. If they saw me as a threat, God knows what these alien ponies could do to me. That's when things went downhill fast. All of them gasped, one of them shouting 'it's got one of those gun things!'

Immediatly, a rainbow blur hit me head on and I flew back into the debris. As soon as that happened, a sharp pain hit me in my side. It felt like something impaled me! I grunted as I fell to the ground, hands and knees on the grass. Somehow, I had still had my gun, I wasn't planning on killing anybody, I just needed to get out of there. Slowly, I stood up and looked at what had caused me to go flying. It looked to be a mare pegasus with a light blue coat and rainbow hair. 

We glared at each other for a few seconds. After a couple seconds the big white pony spoke up, this time she seemed somewhat angry. 

"Put the gun down!" she said.

"I can't," I said, I couldn't just get rid of my only protection. What if they were leading me into a trap?

Then Rainbow here got all riled up, "Listen to the princess!" 

Then I got punched...er 'hoofed' in the face. I fell right onto my butt, and grunted as the pain in my side spiked. Rainbow was about to go at it again, even though her friends were telling her to lay off a bit, when a shot rang out across the decrepit street.

"Anthony!" I yelled, "Thank God!" 

The bullet from Anthony's pistol was lodged in the debris near me and Rainbow. 

"That's just a warning shot!" Anthony said as two more officers came around the corner of a building. "Now get away from my friend!"

"Who the hay are you?" one of the other ponies said. I couldn't tell which one. It was then that I realized that all of the ponies were paying attention to Anthony, not me. 

Quickly and quietly, I grabbed my gear, which had fallen off me at some point. I looked at Anthony, he saw me for a second and slightly nodded. Then I stood up and crept away from Rainbow, who was too busy getting angry about something. I listened in on the conversation as I set my sights on an intersection not far from where I was. Going left on the intersection would block their view of me, because of a small building. 

"The name's Anthony, head of the police force, and it's my job to protect everyone in the village. That includes Jack."

I smiled, thanks Anthony. Sadly, the smile didn't last long as I stumbled on a root of a nearby tree creeping up out of a crack in the pavement. I must've caused enough noise because when I looked back, everyone's attention was on me. The only option now was to run.

"Scatter!" I yelled and started running, Anthony and the two officers followed suit. I was at the intersection and was about to round the corner when I looked back, it looked like they weren't following us. Good. But, as usual, my happiness didn't last long as I ran into something head on. Wait, not something, someone.

My momentum carried me over whoever it was and I landed hard on the ground. Groaning, I sat up and looked around to see who I tripped over. To my horror, it was another one of those damn alien ponies! I started to wonder if I was just hallucinating all of this. I mean now that I thought about it, this all seemed a little too...unrealistic. 

But I was brought out of my thoughts as the pony, who had wings and a horn btw, groaned, sat up and looked at me. Quickly I went reached for my gun, but it must've fallen out of it's holster. That's when I looked back at her, at least I think she was a she, my pistol was floating next to her. 

"W...who are you?" I stuttered out. 

She just smiled and said, "My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle."
> Chapter 6
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I stared for a second at the pony who introduced herself as Princess Twilight Sparkle. A pony princess? This was getting ridiculous. Slowly I scooted away from the pony. She stood up and frowned, the pony was even stranger now that I got a closer look. Other than her eyes being huge. Her face was much flatter than normal horses. Of course there was her coat, it was freaking purple! Her mane was also different shades of purple. Then there were her wings. Yes, she had wings, and a horn to top it all off. 

"Are you okay?" She asked.

"I must be hallucinating, or I'm dreaming," I said more or less to my self, but this pony, Twilight, heard me anyway. 

"I'm sure you're scared, but believe me when I say you're not dreaming. Please, don't be alarmed, I don't intend on hurting you."

Slowly, I relaxed a little. But I was still very cautious, "Why should I trust you?"

Twilight sighed a little, "I suppose after my friends decided to attack you, it seems only reasonable that you are cautious. But after hearing those things about what you guys did, I admit we were concerned for our safety too." 

"What do you mean, after what we did?" I asked but then I heard Anthony calling out to me from nearby. "Look, you seem to bear no ill towards me, so I'm gonna make sure Anthony doesn't find you. I want to talk to you more so meet me here tomorrow at this time, alone, I don't need another fight."

"Wait!" She called. "What's your name?"

I paused. "Jack."

With that I ran off, I still had so many questions in my head. Who were these ponies? How could they talk? Where were they from? And most importantly, why were they here? Hopefully, these questions would be answered tomorrow.

Eventually, I found Anthony at the Site, sitting on an old log. As I approached him he quickly looked up and smiled. 

"Thank God you're alright! What took you so long?" He asked. I decided against telling him about my short talk with Twilight. If I told him he would come along no matter what, and I was gonna do this alone. 

"Eh, lost my bearings for a little bit," I said instead.

"Alright," he said. "Then let's head back, we're gonna have to tell the village about what's going on."

"What, that technicolored talking horses from another planet attacked us?" I said sarcastically.

Anthony laughed, "Well when you put it that way..."





After a bit of walking we reached the village. Everybody stared at me, probably because they saw the giant spaceships. I went to the village square, which was basically an intersection on the road. I stood on an old podium that my father used for speeches. Anthony stood right beside me. As I collected myself I was looking around at the people gathering in front of me. My sister was right in the front, worry in her eyes. I cleared my throat.

"I'm sure you all saw those things crash into the city. As far as we can tell, they're some kind of spaceships," this got a murmur in the crowd. 

"You mean extraterrestrials are visiting Earth?" Someone said.

"Unless there's a mass hallucination, then yes."

"What do they look like, are they hostile?"

"Sadly they are aggressive, but as far as I can tell, they have no intent on killing us."

This got even more murmurs. But then the same guy spoke again.

"You didn't answer my question, what do they look like?"

I looked to Anthony, who just nodded. I looked back and said, "They look like horses."

Silence. Then another person spoke, "You mean with like hooves and tails?"

"Yes," I said. "They also seemed to have wings and horns, and can talk in English."

Their response was exactly what I wasn't hoping for. They laughed. 

"Talking space horses?!" Someone giggled. "That's rich!"

Some of the more serious people weren't laughing, as well as Anthony and Sarah. I knew it, people just didn't take me seriously like they did with my father. I need him back. 

Then, as if things couldn't get any worse, one of the doctors came running towards me, "Jack! We've got a situation!" 

I froze, "What do you mean?"

"It's your father, he-" 

As soon as I heard father, I sprinted towards the makeshift hospital, hearing multiple voices behind me. I didn't care, all I could think about was my father. I quickly opened the door and saw Mrs. Thompson, standing there. She must've been waiting there for a while. As soon as I saw her face, I knew. It's happening.

"No..." I whispered.

She nodded, very slowly. 

Tears were falling down my face as I pushed past her even with her objections. I opened the door to where my fathers room was. There he was, on the bed. His face was pale and his eyes were closed. At first I hoped he was just sleeping. But then I touched his hand, it was cold, so cold. My stomach felt very queasy and I felt like I was gonna faint. But then, Sarah barged in. 

"Jack? What-" She stopped midsentence when she saw Dad's lifeless body and the tears falling down my face. I tried to say something but my voice caught in my throat. Immediately, she ran out the door.

"Sarah!" I yelled and ran after her. As fast as I could I ran through the village, past the crowd, and out the gate. I knew where she was going. I reached the Site within seconds, and there was Sarah, hugging her knees in the middle and crying. I ran up to her and sat next to her, rubbing her back. 

"Why does this have to happen to us?" She sobbed. 

"I wish I knew the answer myself," I said, trying to think of the right words. "Sometimes, things happen and we have to deal with them to the best of our ability." 

"I can't deal with this, though!"

"Yes you can, I know you can. You're a strong one."

"But how?"

"Just keep on living, that's what he'd want."

"Oh God, Jack. He's dead."

"Shh, I know sis. But you can't dwell on the fact."

"Well, what am I suppose to think about?" 

"The good memories."

"Like what?" 

"Like the times he used to sing to us when we were little."

"I guess."

"And the time when you and I got in trouble for stealing cookies, and he made us eat just the cookies for two days straight."

She giggled, "Yeah he had a weird way of punishing us."

"But it worked, we didn't eat cookies for a week!"

"I suppose," she said as she closed her eyes.

"Just remember those times. Live your life."

"Yeah...what do you think he'd think about aliens visiting us?"

I laughed, "You believe me then?"

"Of course."

"Well, he'd probably want to get right up in their business, he was all about that."

"Yeah, he was."

"Just remember, he's always watching us."

After Sarah didn't respond, I looked down and she was asleep. Shortly after thinking about my dad, Sarah, and these ponies, I did the same.
> Chapter 7
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I stared at Jack as he ran around a corner and out of my line of sight and I knew in my heart that humans are not what that mysterious stallion made them out to be. Maybe some things he said were true but, Jack seemed more scared and protective than anything. He did NOT seem aggressive, that's for sure. That cop too, he was just protecting Jack, he didn't even try to kill Rainbow Dash. He could've, but instead tried to scare her, so Jack could make his escape. Sure they had those guns, but they only fired them once and not to kill. Maybe WE were the aggressive ones. It made me sad to think about it, I was supposed to be the Princess of Friendship and I just let my friends scare off the only other intelligent species on the planet.

Sighing, I teleported back to my room on the ship, grabbed a book on...something and plopped on the bed as I waited for my friends to get here. Though, I couldn't even read, which sounds crazy...me, Twilight Sparkle, can't read a bucking book. My mind was too busy thinking about the humans, there was still a chance, tomorrow I could make things right.

I sat there in silence for a couple minutes as I waited for my friends. Finally, I heard a door open and someone call my name, "Twilight, you here?"

"Coming Rainbow!" I said as I put the book back and walked to the main room. There they were, most of them looked angry, probably at Jack. Though Celestia and Luna both had poker faces. "Hi guys."

"You were right!" Rainbow Dash spat. "Humans are jerks."

"Yeah, they're big meanies," Pinkie said.

"Darn tootin'," Applejack said.

"What brutes!" Rarity said.

"They're um...really not nice..." Fluttershy said.

"What they said!" Spike said.

Okay...looks like this is going to be harder than I thought. 

"I think we should force them away from us," Luna said. "They're too radical to be around our little ponies."

My eyes widened at that, "No..." I muttered. Luckily, no one heard me. Celestia eyed me curiously.

"What do you think Twilight?" She asked. 

Oh boy..."W...well, I mean, I haven't seen them first hand. So..."

"But you saw what they did in your dream," Rainbow countered.

"Well, um..."

"Is there something your not telling us, Twilight?" Luna asked. 

Dangit dangit dangit dangit.

"No..." I lied.

Celestia put a hoof to Applejack's stetson. Everyone looked at Celestia curiously, but I instantly knew what she was doing. I was about to grab my hidden ear piece when Celestia took the one in Applejacks hat and smashed it on the ground. There was a sudden noise in my ear and I grabbed mine and threw it. Then I noticed everyone staring. I whimpered. 

Celestia walked up to me, "I'm not mad Twilight. I know you did it to make sure you're friends were alright."

I nervously laughed. "Yeah," I said. That and to see if the humans were really as bad as that liar of a stallion said they were.

Hopefully no one picked up on my nervousness. 

I looked out the window to see it was dark out, almost midnight. Time sure flies. 

"Well my little ponies. We better head to our beds, good night," Celestia said. 

And with that, we went to our seperate beds. As I lay down, all I could think about was the meeting tomorrow. 
> Chapter 8
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I woke with a start, I wasn't in my bed. Quickly, I surveyed my surroundings. I was at the site, must've fallen asleep again. Then I remembered, the ships, the ponies, and...Dad. I almost cried right then and there, but I realized Sarah was lying near me. I had to be strong, for her. I looked at the sun's position and realized, I had to meet that Twilight pony! 

I thought about bringing Sarah back to the camp, but she can take care for herself. It's not like any mutants would attack her. We drove them all away a long time ago. She would be perfectly safe. Besides, I didn't want to see the villagers right now. Except for Anthony and the two other cops, as well as Sarah, no one believed me about the ponies. I don't know how my dad did it, but he was a great leader.

I set a gun down next to Sarah, in case the ponies decided to be more aggressive. I didn't trust them, not even that Twilight pony. Though I was still going to meet her, so I guess there was some trust. With that, I walked off, unaware of the figure stalking me.





I solemnly trudged through the streets back towards the attack site. Now that I was out of Sarah's view, I started thinking about Dad. I reached the attack site and...started crying. I couldn't help it. All the memories and, I couldn't help but feel guilty. I wasn't there when he died, it probably was terrible for him. He had no inkling of where we were, and died alone. I cried even more. 

Then I felt a hand on my shoulder, I looked up to see Anthony, looking at me sadly. Damnit, he can't be here. 

"Anthony, you shouldn't be here!" I hissed.

He patted my shoulder, "And leave you to suffer alone? Hell no!"

"That's not the reason," I whispered.

"Then what's the reason?" He asked curiously.

But before I could tell him to go away, fate decided to drop Twilight into existence. Noticing where my eyes were looking, he immediately turned around and whipped out his gun.

"Who the hell are you?!" He said.

Twilight started stuttering, being at the wrong end of a gun can do that to you. Her horn started glowing.

"Stop!" I yell. Instantaneously, they both stop and look at me. But they both keep their guard up. I didn't know where to start, so I went with introductions. "Anthony, this is Princess Twilight Sparkle. Twilight, this is Captain Anthony Williams of the police force."

The two looked at me, then each other, and for a couple awkward seconds of silence, I thought things were gonna go downhill. Then Twilight held out her hoof.

"Nice to meet you, Anthony," she smiled. For another couple seconds he just looked at her, confused. "Well?"

"What? You want me to kiss it or something," Anthony said sarcastically.

I stifled a laugh as Twilight blushed and stammered, "N...no! Shake!"

"Ah," Anthony said. He grasped her hoof in his hand and shook it gently.

I watched as they let go, and spoke up, "I didn't know you guys had handshakes." 

"Handshakes? That's what species with hands and claws call them, ponies call them hoofshakes," she said nonchalantly.

However, that made Anthony laugh, I managed to stifle yet another one.

"What's funny?" She asked.

"Nothing, nothing," Anthony said, calming down. Then he looked at me, "Twilight, you mind if I borrow Anthony for a second?"

"Go ahead, he is your friend," she said.

"Thanks," he came over to me, and walked me over to a secluded spot. I already knew what he was gonna ask, so I answered for him.

"Because I was worried how the two of you would react to each other," I said.

"You know me enough that you could've brought me along and it would've been fine,"  he argued.

"Yet you pointed a gun at her," I countered.

"Because she appeared out of nowhere! Like, how did she do that?!" 

"No idea, teleportation machines?" 

"Ok, but still, you should've told me!" 

"Whatever..."

"Um...Jack?" I heatd Twilight say.

"Yeah?" I turned towards her.

"My friends are coming..." she said worriedly.

My eyes widened. "What?! How do you know?"

"I thought I heard something, so I scanned the area, my friends are searching for me!" She started acting up. "I should've realized this would happen!"

"Twilight!" I yelled. She stopped panicking. "It's okay, Anthony and I will just hide behind that car." I pointed to a run down Porsche on the road. 

She nodded. "Good."

With that Anthony and I hid behind the car a couple yards away, I actually found my rifle that I dropped during the original encounter. Stowing it on my back, I looked towards Twilight to see her friends just arriving. I could now take a better look at the different ponies. There was the biggest one, who was white and had a picture of a sun on her flank, weird. And her hair, it was brightly colored and seemed to flow no matter what.

Then there was the medium one, she was a dark blue and her hair literally looked like the night sky. It was also flowing. She had a flank picture as well, a moon. Come to think of it, they all had those. Twilight had a pink star surrounded by other ones. That was all the time I had to think because they started talking.

"Twilight?! Are you okay? What happened?" A regular white one asked. It had a curly purple mane and seemed to be a unicorn. The two big ones had both a horn and wings, like Twilight. She also had 3 blue diamonds on her flank. 

"Did those humans get you?!" That was the rainbow haired one that flipping attacked me. She was a cyan blue pegasus with a rainbow lightning cloud on her flank. "We should find where they live and teach them a lesson!"

I heard Anthony growl, I turned towards him and shook my head. He reluctantly nodded. 

Finally, Twilight spoke. "No, that's not it, I just was...taking a walk."

Anthony silently chuckled, "Man she's a bad liar." I slapped him on the back of his head. 

Somehow though, none of them seemed to notice. I sighed in relief. Until I heard a loud growling noise coming from nearby. The ponies seemed to hear it too, as they all tensed up. It sounded familiar...

Anthony tapped my back, "Um, that sounds like-"

And suddenly, a couple yards away from the ponies, came a group of creatures I never though I'd see again. Mutants. Each mutant was unique and was really hard to describe. But one thing is clear they were nasty. There were only three of them, but those ponies were no match for them. Only bullets could kill them. 

"Mutants! I thought we drove them all off!" Anthony said worriedly. "What do we do?"

"Shoot 'em," I said calmly as I grabbed my rifle. I stood up in a hunter's position. In reality, I was quite nervous, I didn't want any of them to die. Sure some of them were asses, but that didn't matter right now. I told Anthony to watch my back and aimed at the creatures. For some reason a yellow one with long pink hair was walking towards them. She was a pegasus with pink butterflies on her flank. "Shit!" 

I tried to aim at the mutant in front before the pegasus could get close...but I was too late. The mutant whacked the pegasus into the air and she was launched into some debris. I couldn't tell if she was still alive. Sadly, her friends decided that they should all abandon the mutants that are attacking them. As they ran towards their fallen companion, one of the mutants jumped at the big white one. But this time I was ready, I shot a bullet straight at the beast and it landed dead on the ground with a thud. Luckily, bullets could easily kill mutants for some reason.

Sadly, the mutants realized they were being shot at and turned towards me. "Anthony! Could use some help here!" Anthony turned towards the mutants quickly and shot down the second one with a couple of well placed bullets from his pistol. The last one was speeding up, but I was faster. With a nicely timed shot, I put it down and it skidded on the ground for a second before stopping a few feet away. 

As I scanned the area for anymore threats. My eyes locked with Twilight's. She was looking at me for some reason. But it was a look of fear, why? That's when I heard it, faint steps from behind. 

Anthony breathed a sigh of relief, and was about to speak when I shoved him to the left. Immediately, I felt a force pin me to the ground from behind. It was another mutant. I struggled and heard Anthony yell 'Jack!'. Somehow, I managed to turn onto my back and face the creature. It kept clawing at me but I managed to hold it off. But I couldn't do it forever. After a couple seconds, I started getting tired. But, right before I couldn't hold on anymore, the mutant went flying off of me and straight into a rusty car, the force killed it instantly.

I sighed in relief, and looked around for my savior. Anthony was staring at something behind me. I turned around to see the ponies a couple yards away. That pink haired one was draped over the big white ones back. But they were all staring at Twilight. Who was looking at the mutant in shock. She had smoke coming from her horn.

"Twilight, are you okay?" I asked, feeling very tired.

"I...I killed it..." she stuttered. 

"H...how?" I asked, for some reasing I was losing conciousness. 

"With a fire spell..." she said, then looked at me. The last thing I heard was her saying. "Jack! You're arm!"

Then...darkness...
> Chapter 9
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I opened my eyes and found pitch blackness. Everywhere I looked, there was darkness. Panicking, I started to shout for help. No answer. Eventually, I calmed down, this must be a dream. But nothing was happening, which was odd for one of my dreams. 


“Well, well,” I heard a deep, almost sinister voice. “Look who finally decided to show up, on my doorstep no less.” 


I turned around to see a dark shadowy figure with red piercing eyes. It was around the same height as me, but that didn’t make it any less scary. 


“W...who are you?” I stuttered. 


It chuckled, “Names are not important. All you need to know is I am very powerful, beyond your imagination.”


“What do you want with me?” I asked, scared to know the answer. 


“I’ll get to that, first let’s sit down and have a drink, shall we?”


Suddenly, a table and two chairs appeared right in front of me. 


“What the?!” I said, “How did you do that?”


“Also not important, now sit,” it said that last word very sternly, so I complied. 


“So,” it started. “What do you like to drink?”


“Um...water,” I replied.


“Ah, that’s right, humans haven’t had anything but water in over 400 years. Karma, I suppose.”


I raised an eyebrow, “What’s that supposed to mean? And how do you know all this? Wait...are you an alien?” I said the last question excitedly.


“So many questions,” it said. “I won’t answer the first two, but as for me being an alien, I guess you could say yes.”


“Gee, thanks a lot, real helpful,” I said sarcastically. 


“I’m not here for your needs,” it said angrily.


“Then why are you here?” I asked.


“To tell you something,” it said.


“What might that be?” I said, this guy was a jerk.


“Stay away from those ponies,” it said. 


“What? Why?” I said.


“I’m warning you right here, right now,” it said. “Stay away. Or there will be consequences.”


I snorted, “Like what?”


“I told you I am powerful, I could destroy your village in a heartbeat.”


Now it was my turn to get angry, “What?! What did we ever do to you?!”


“Lots!” It yelled back. “You wouldn’t understand!”


“Yeah, but whatever it is, we don’t deserve to be killed!” I argued. “We’re the last remaining descendants of humankind and you’d just kill us off, like that?”


“I’ve done it before, I can do it again,” it said.


“Before?” I said confused, then the realization hit me. “You didn’t!”


It laughed, “You’re smarter than you look. Yes, I was the one who decided humanity’s fate.”


“But the Terrors were the ones that launched the nukes,” I said. 


“True, but tell me, do you have any records on the leader of the Terrors?”


I thought back to all the history books that I’ve read, not a single one mentioned who exactly the leader was, unless... 


“Catching on now, are we?” It said.


“You bastard!” I said through gritted teeth. My fists were clenching.


“Anyways,” the figure started walking away. “I’m warning you, stay away from them. Or I will make your life a living hell.” 


And then, it vanished. I stood there alone, then dropped to my knees. As if I didn’t have enough problems on my hand. First my Dad and now these stupid ponies. The blackness didn’t leave, why wasn’t I waking up? That’s when I started to cry. Eventually, I couldn’t keep my eyes open and drifted off to sleep…


The first thing I heard was talking, or it seemed more like arguing. 


“For the last time, I’m telling you! They’re not a threat!” I heard a voice say, it sounded familiar.


“I don’t know,” another familiar voice said. “That Anthony dude seems suspicious, he hasn’t said a word since we got here.”


“His friend is hurt really badly,” the first voice said. “He has the right to stay silent.”


“Twi’ does have a point,” a voice with a thick southern accent said. “They haven’t hurt us so far.”


“Yeah!” A high pitched bubbly voice said. “And they saved us. Ooh, we should throw a ‘thanks for saving us’ party!”


“Now’s not the time, darling,” yet another voice said. This time another accent I didn’t recognize. It kind of sounded like one of those old world accents from the recordings we had on the spaceship. “As for me, I don’t know if we can trust them, but we have a bigger problem to worry about.”


“Fluttershy…” the original voice said sadly. 


At this point, I finally opened my eyes. It was definitely bright. But we weren’t outside. That much was for sure. 


“Oh thank god finally,” I heard a voice I knew all too well say. “You’re awake!” 


“Anthony?” I turned my head to the right and saw my friend sitting up in a chair a bit too small for him. He had a look of pure happiness on his face. “Where am I?”


“On a spaceship,” he said.

Brain fart, “What?!”


“Just what I said, we’re on one of the ponies’ spaceships,” he said.


I remembered what the disturbing figure said. It didn’t feel like just a dream. I could hear the ponies conversing outside the room still. “We have to leave,” I said, getting up. At that same moment, I started getting dizzy.


“Woah there!” Anthony ran over to me. “You’re still recovering Jack! Why are you in such a hurry?” 


“It’s complicated,” I said, biting my lip.


“Jack,” Anthony looked straight into my eyes. “I can handle it.”


I sighed, I was about to talk when I noticed something odd. The ponies outside the room had stopped talking. It was quiet. 


“Anthony,” I whispered. “Open the door that leads outside.”


Anthony, as perceptive as always, realized what I meant and quietly walked over the door. As quick as lightning he opened the door and the five ponies, who must’ve been leaning on the door, tumbled in, almost comically. Anthony walked back to me as the ponies got back up.


“Well, should’ve figured that,” he said.


“Why were you listening in on us?” More suspicious than anything else.


Twilight looked at me, red with embarrassment. “W...well, we just wanted to know what you were talking about.”


“So, instead of coming in, you decided to eavesdrop?” I said.


“Well...yeah,” she said.


I rolled my eyes, “Whatever.” Then I sighed, “Well, it’s been nice talking to you, but we should really be going.” 


I quickly stood up and immediately fell face first onto the floor. 


“Dammit, Jack!” Anthony said. “I told you not to get up! You okay?”


“Just dandy,” I said picking myself up off the ground. “My leg was asleep. Now, can we get going?”


“Why are you in such a hurry?” I heard another voice say. Coming into the door were the two bigger ponies I had seen at the attack site. There was the dark blue one, slightly smaller than the other one. The other one, as I recall, was named Princess Celestia. Celestia was the one who spoke, she had a suspicious look. But the other one, who I also assumed was a princess as she wore a crown, just looked kinda sad. I looked at her and she immediately looked away. Whatever.


“Yeah,” that damn rainbow haired one said. “You got something planned?” 


“What’s that supposed to mean?” Anthony said, narrowing his eyes. “Why the hell would we attack you in the first place?”


“Because that’s what you do!” Rainbow hair said. “You killed your race, how can we not know you won’t do it to us?” 


“She has a point,” the white one with purple hair said. 


“While y’all haven’t hurt us yet,” the orange one with a stetson hat said. “Ah still don’t trust you.”


“I could care less if you trusted us!” Anthony yelled. “I’m starting to understand why Jack wants off this wretched ship!”


It was coming to a boiling point when I realized something, “How do you know what happened to the human race?”


The ponies, plus Anthony, looked at me. I looked at the ponies, none of them answered. Twilight and the blue princess looked especially nervous though. “Did you watch it happen?”


Still no response, “Twilight,” I said. I couldn't believe I was saying this. “I’m willing to trust you, but you gotta answer me.”


Twilight was silent for a second, finally she spoke. “Alright, but on one condition.”


The other ponies in the room went wide eyed. But said nothing. 


“Go for it,” I said.


“You tell us what you were gonna say to Anthony,” she said.


Oh boy, this was it. Anthony shook his head, looking at me. Sorry man, but I gotta go with my instincts on this one.


“Fine.”


Anthony sighed, but didn’t say anything either.


“Ok,” Twilight said. “Who goes first?” 


“I’ll go,” I said. “Might as well get it out of the way.”


So I told everyone the story of the figure, how it threatened me and my village, how it said to stay away from the ponies, and it’s part in the destruction of mankind. I left out the part where I cried myself to sleep. No point in telling them that.


The room was silent for quite a bit. “Then again, I could just have been dreaming.”


“You were dreaming, but that figure wasn’t just a figment of your imagination,” the blue pony said.


“You know this how?” Anthony said. “And who are you anyways?”


“I am Luna, Princess of the Night. As to how I know, my magic allows me to enter one's dreams and rid them of nightmares.”


“Question,” I raised my hand. “Did you just say magic? As in, spells and such?”


“Indeed,” Luna said, confused. “Why?”


Anthony and I looked at each other for a moment. But I decided to play along, “Alright Princess, what else can you do?”


She looked even more confused, “Well, I can do all basic spells as well as all the more advanced ones. And I raise the moon.”


I blinked a couple times, Anthony looked like he was going to burst out laughing. Originally, I’d think she was joking, but the way she said that…


“Is something the matter?” Luna asked, tilting her head. 


Then Anthony couldn’t take it anymore, he laughed. “P...princesses, magic and talking colorful horses?! If I didn’t know any better, I’d think we were on drugs. Or at least in a kids show!”


The ponies just stared at him. The rainbow one looked very upset, “It’s ponies not horses!”


“Whatever,” Anthony calmed down. “You really expect us to-”


“Anthony!” I yelled angrily. “Stop!”


Anthony jumped at that, he knew he’d screwed up. “Y...yes Jack?”


“Can I talk to you for a second?” I said sternly. Anthony was as loyal to me as possible, so without arguing, he shuffled on over.


“I’m gonna get straight to the point,” I whispered. “I brought you over here for two reasons. One, you’re acting like a child. Two, we can’t afford to antagonize them. Not after I told them all that. While I am insanely skeptical on this whole magic thing, I don’t doubt they have the power to overtake us and our village easily. I mean, they have freaking spaceships with God knows how many other reinforcements in each one.”


“But we didn’t do anything to them!” Anthony seethed. “They don’t have the right!”


“I know that,” I said calmly. “But you’re not making the situation any better. Now, they were gonna tell us important information, we’re gonna listen to what they have to say, then we’re gonna leave and tell them to never bother us again.” 


“What if they don’t care, and attack us anyway?” Anthony asked, calming down, but still pretty tense. 


I looked at him, then at the ponies. They all had various expressions on their weird pony faces. Nervousness, anger, suspicion, confusion. Twilight had a concerned expression, Celestia had a poker face, and Luna looked sad. But as I looked at their faces, I understood something. They were just as scared as we were. Something in my gut told me they didn’t know we existed until that fateful day. But how did they know what happened to the human race? Unless...someone told them! As I made that realization, I remembered Anthony had asked me a question. 


“Unless we do something harmful to them, they won’t,” I said. “So I’m going to ask them a question. Please don’t do anything rash.”


Anthony stared at me for a second, then nodded. We both turned to face the ponies. Then Twilight spoke.


“So, I am assuming-”


“Who told you?” I interrupted with a question.


Twilight blinked, “What do you mean?”


“Who told you what happened to the human race?”


Immediately, they all started to sweat. I knew it. I spoke up again.


“What did he look like? I wanna know if he was part of my village.”


Twilight shook her head. “He wasn’t a part of your village.”


I raised my eyebrow, “How do you know?”


“Because he wasn’t a human.”


I scoffed, “Impossible, there weren’t any other sentient life forms on the planet, nay, the solar system when the bombs were launched. The original volunteers would’ve known.”


“It’s true,” I turned to Luna who spoke. “I was in Twilight’s dream when it happened.”


“Here we go with this dream entering magic shit. How do you expect me to believe a word you say, when you keep spouting this magic nonsense.” I said.


“Hold on,” Twilight said. “You don’t know what magic is?”


“Magic is the stuff of mythology, and I doubt you guys have things like dragons and minotaurs.”


“Actually, we kinda do have those, plus magic.”


I raised my eyebrows for the umpteenth time, “Really now? Until I see proof, I am not gonna believe you.”


I ate my words real fast when Twilight’s horn started to glow. I saw movement out of the corner of my eye and saw a cup float towards me, also enraptured in the glow. My jaw dropped at this. Of course! I remembered something, when me and Twilight first met, she had levitated my gun. Levitation, how was this possible? I was starting to really believe in this magic, but not just yet. 


“What else can you do?” I asked, still suspicious. I couldn’t see Anthony’s face, but I was sure he was just as curious. 


Twilight's horn started to glow and I was shocked to see her disappear and reappear five feet to the left. Teleportation?! I remembered when Twilight appeared right in front of me and Anthony at the attack site.


“I...impossible…” I heard Anthony mutter.


“You really didn’t know, did you?” Luna asked.


Anthony and I shook our heads. 


“How did you get by without magic?” Twilight asked. 


“Easy, we-” Anthony started. But I cut him off with a hand.


“I do believe we are getting off track here,” I started. “Let’s say I do believe in this magic, what did you see in Twilight’s dream, and who or what told you?”


Twilight looked at Luna, and Luna nodded. “Well,” Twilight started. “We basically saw first hoof what happened the day the bombs fell.”


“Y...you mean you saw the bombs fall?!” Anthony said, shocked.


Twilight nodded. “Yes, we saw a bomb fall from this really fast aircraft, and how it obliterated a city near an ocean. All those humans...we saw a lot of those humans just die instantly.”


“...”


All was quiet, until I had the nerve to speak up, “I’m sorry you had to see that.”


Twilight gave a halfhearted smile. “It’s ok. But that’s not all. After we saw that happen a tall black stallion with red eyes showed up. He told us the gist of what happened, but…”


“But what?” I asked.


“He said that humans were evil, and that they deserved to die,” Twilight said sadly.


“He what?!” Anthony shouted. “How dare him! If that’s what he thinks about the human race, then he doesn’t know shit about us! Sure we have our problems, but everybody does! Just because we have bad eggs doesn’t mean the whole race needs to be destroyed!”


“Anthony’s right,” I said. For some reason, they all looked guilty. “Is that why you attacked me? Because you thought he was justified in saying we were evil?”


They didn’t say a word. I knew it hit them that they were wrong. I really wanted to get angry, I really did. But I knew they were scared, while that doesn’t really justify what they did, I couldn’t do it. I just wasn’t that kind of person. Anthony seemed to be mulling some things over in his head too. Finally, Twilight spoke.


“I’m sorry,” she said. “I realize we were in the wrong, I’m sure you probably never want to see us again. So, I guess-”


“I forgive you,” I said. The reaction was instantaneous. Everybody, including Anthony, said ‘what’ at the same time. I managed a smile, “I forgive you, I’m not sure if I trust you, but I forgive you.”


Anthony looked at me for a second, and smiled. “Well, if this guy forgives you, then so do I.”


Twilight stuttered, “B...but what we did was beyond reasonable and you should hate us for it!”


“Well,” I said. “You’re right, I should. But I’m not that kind of guy. You realized your mistake and apologized for it. Doesn’t really take much else for me to forgive than that.”


“I...I don’t know what to say,” Luna said. “We are all very grateful, I’m sure.” 


Luna looked at the rest of the ponies. 


The pink one said, “Super duper grateful!”


“As much as I hate to admit it, I am too,” the rainbow one said, which surprised me, she didn’t seem like one to admit they’re wrong so easily.


Then the small white one spoke, “Of course dear!”


Twilight spoke next, “Definitely.”


The orange one then said, “Darn tootin’!”


And lastly, the pony known as Princess Celestia said, “I am too.”


“Great!” I said.


All seemed like it was going well, I remembered what the figure said about getting too close with the ponies, but you know what? Screw him. Sure, I didn’t know if I could trust them completely, but if they were gonna stay on Earth, we were gonna have to get along. In spite of myself, I actually smiled. 


You have made a powerful enemy today, Jack Stephens. Remember this as I tear all you hold dear apart. 


I put the strange voice into the back of my head, I was scared of what was to come, sure. But at this moment I was happy. I felt that we could take on whoever this being was, I knew it, in fact. 


But, all good things come to an end. As another pony I didn’t recognize ran in, he was a stallion, I could tell as his body shape was different than the others. 


“What’s wrong, Green Leaf?” Celestia asked. 


“I…it’s Fluttershy!” He cried. “Something’s happening!” 


“What?!” Twilight said.


“Who’s Fluttershy?” I asked. No one answered as they all ran out of the room. Then I remembered, she was the pony who got hit by one of the mutants! If she had radiation in her, she could be in serious danger! Quickly, I sat up. 

“Whoa!” Anthony exclaimed. “What are you doing Jack?!”


I didn’t say a word as I sprinted out of the room. Hopefully I wasn’t too late. 

> Chapter 10
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I didn’t think twice before I galloped out of the room along with everypony else. I was a bit worried about Jack and Anthony, but Fluttershy was at the top of my worries right now. We all galloped into the medical room Fluttershy was stationed and gasped. The two doctors tried to calm down a convulsing Fluttershy. 

“Doctor White Coat?” Princess Celestia spoke up. “What’s wrong with her?”

“I don’t know!” The struggling doctor said. “There’s something in her circulatory system that’s causing these spasms, but I don’t know what it is!”

“Nuclear radiation…” A voice said from behind us. I turned around and to my surprise, Jack and Anthony were standing at the door, though Jack looked very weak. “But I’ve never seen it like this before.”

“What’s nuclear radiation?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“It’s hard to explain, it has to do with atoms and particles, and all that science crap. What I do know is that absorbing a lot of it can kill you,” Jack said.

“What?!” I said. “Where’d it come from?!” 

“My best guess is the mutants,” Jack said. “They used to be everyday animals, but the radiation caused them to mutate into those.”

“Geez…” Rainbow Dash said. 

“Is she going to be okay?” Pinkie asked.

“I don’t know…” Jack said. Which made me worry even more.

“But there has to be someway to save her!” Rainbow Dash cried.

“There is a way,” Jack said. “We must take her to my village.”

“Well what are we waiting for!? Let’s go!” Rainbow Dash said.

“Right!” I nodded. We began to make preparations to go the village. But as we were getting ready, Discord came rushing into the room.

“I came as soon as I heard the news! Is Fluttershy going...to…” Discord trailed off as he noticed Jack and Anthony. 

“Umm...who is this?” Jack asked.

I heard Anthony say something that sounded suspiciously like, ‘more like what is he’. But Jack elbowed him.

“I could ask the same of you,” Discord said. But then he shook his head. “Argh! This is no time for chitchat! Is Fluttershy going to be okay?!”

“Well, we are going to take her to our village.” Jack said. “We have an antidote for radiation sickness.”

Discord seemed to mull over those words in his head, I thought he was going to object. But in the end, he said, “Alright.”

“Can we go now?” Rainbow Dash said impatiently.

“Wait,” Jack said. “You can’t all go!”

“Why?” Rainbow Dash said.

“Because it would cause a panic,” Jack said. “My people don’t even know you exist.”

“As much as I hate to let my little ponies go off on their own like this, I agree,” Princess Celestia said.

I looked at Jack, who looked a bit shocked for a second, then I noticed him clutching the bandages on his arm, “Jack, are you okay?”

“Huh? Yeah I’m fine, I just felt that what Princess Celestia said reminded me of something,” he said. “Anyways, I’ll allow a maximum of five to go with Fluttershy.”

“Deal,” I said.

“Good,” Jack said. “I am sorry, but like I said, I don’t want to cause a panic.”

“You don’t have to apologize Jack,” Princess Celestia said. “We understand.”

“Thanks,” Jack said. “So who’s going with us?”

“Luna and I will stay here,” Princess Celestia said. “We need to start figuring out what to do next. But I think Twilight should go, as well as Fluttershy’s husband, Green Leaf.”

Jack nodded. “Who else?”

“I’ll go,” Rainbow Dash said. “In case this is a trap.”

“In that case I’ll go too,” Applejack said.

I saw Jack and Anthony roll their eyes. I knew it wasn’t gonna be a trap, but my friends just wanted to play it safe.

“Whatever,” Jack sighed, he was starting to sweat for some reason. “Alright, one more.”

“I’ll go…” Discord said quickly. “I just can’t stand Fluttershy like this.”

Nopony objected to that. But when I looked back at Jack he was swaying on his feet.

“Jack are you really alright?” I asked, worried.

“I...I’m fine!” Jack said, but contrary to those words he slumped to the ground. 

“Shit! Jack!” Anthony said, kneeling down to feel his friend’s forehead. “He’s burning up!”

“Do you think that slash from the mutant gave him radiation sickness too?” I asked.

“It can’t be…” Anthony stopped all of a sudden, all that could be heard was Jack’s ragged breathing.

“Anthony?” I said.

“There’s something in his lower back…” Anthony said. “It’s like a really big nail! Shit, there could be an infection.”

“What are we going to do?” I asked.

“He’ll have to stay here,” Princess Celestia said. “We’ll take care of him, we have the medications to treat an infection.”

It looked like Anthony was about to object when Jack grabbed him by the shirt and spoke in a coarse voice.

“Anthony, I’ll be okay…” He said. “Right now you need to get Fluttershy to our village. Can you do that for me?”

I was a little shocked by how much Jack cared that Fluttershy was hurt.

“Yes,” Anthony said reluctantly. 

“Good,” Jack said. Then he looked at Fluttershy, “You guys should get going, there’s no telling how long she’s gonna last.”

We all nodded, and as we said our goodbyes, I couldn’t help but feel that everything would turn out alright. Hopefully, all of our problems will vanish after this. But there was still one more thing on my mind, I just couldn’t get rid of the thought that I had actually killed something. 


The trot to the village was long and quiet. Anthony had opted to carry Fluttershy, which we were all grateful for. But as I looked back at the two, I noticed that Fluttershy was getting worse. Luckily, Anthony finally spoke up.

“Alright, everybody.” He said. “Around the street corner is the village. Let me go and talk to the guards first.”

We all nodded as he handed Fluttershy over to Discord and walked around the bend. I took the time to look around the ruined city, it was definitely big. But it felt kinda small at the same time. Probably because most of the city was decimated. After a couple seconds, he came back around and waved for us to come over. Slowly, we turned the corner and were met with a wooden wall a yard or two away.The middle seemed to be a giant door and there were guards on either side. The first thing I noticed were the guns in their hands, they still made me slightly nervous, but I now knew for sure they weren’t going to be aimed at me anytime soon. But as they noticed us, their jaws dropped and the left one almost dropped his gun.

“Holy shit…” The right one said.

“Ugh.” Anthony groaned. “I told you guys not to freak out!”

The two guards steadied themselves again and said, “Sorry Captain.”

“Captain?” I asked. 

“Yeah,” he said. “I’m captain of the police force.”

“Huh,” I muttered. 

“Alright, let’s go,” Anthony said and pushed open the giant doors. Meanwhile, the guards kept staring at us. Which made me a tad uncomfortable. Then I looked inside and saw tons of other humans walking around, but every single one stopped and stared as we came in. I was getting more and more uncomfortable, until a female human came running towards us, she looked a bit shocked at us but kept coming anyways. 

“Anthony!” She said. “Where’s Jack?! I woke up and he was gone, I’ve spent the entire day making funeral preparations myself.”

“Jack’s fine Sarah,” Anthony said. “He was hurt.”

“What?!” Sarah said. “Where is he?”

“He’s um…” Anthony said, not sure how to explain it. 

“He’s back at our spaceships,” I said. “In the the care of our doctors.”

Once I said that, however, all the humans, save for Anthony, gasped. 

“What?” I asked, confused. “Was it something I said?”

Anthony chuckled, “No, it’s just no one knew you could talk.”

“Man…” Sarah said. “Talking, multicolored space horses. Jack was definitely telling the truth.” She then shook her head. “Nevermind, I have a lot of questions Anthony!”

“Not now,” Anthony said. “We need to go to the hospital!”

“What?” Sarah said. “Why?”

“One of their own is injured,” Anthony said, starting through the village. I was looking around in the meantime, everyone was still staring. I was also still uncomfortable. But I walked as well. Most of the houses were makeshift, while some were built into the old, decrepit buildings. Eventually, we came across what looked to be a movie theatre. “Alright, here we are.”

“Your hospital is a movie theatre?” Rainbow Dash asked. It was the first time anyone else spoke the entire time.

“When the entire world has been blown up,” Anthony said. “You can’t be picky.”

“I guess…” Rainbow said.

And with that the group went inside, which housed the main lobby. In the lobby was what looked to be two doctors. Guessing from the lab coats. The two looked at us and their reactions were immediate. The one on the right fainted and the left one just stood and stared. 

“Umm…” Discord said, looking at the fallen doctor. “Is he gonna be ok?”

That seemed to knock the female doctor out of her trance, “Oh yeah, he just faints easy. Anyway, Anthony and Sarah, you mind telling me what’s going on?”

Sarah just shrugged and looked at Anthony, “Well, these ponies and…” Anthony stopped when he noticed Discord.

“Draconequus,” Discord said.

“Yeah, that,” Anthony said. “They have a friend who is being inflicted with radiation sickness.”

Discord showed a heavily breathing Fluttershy to the doctor, “Can you help her?”

The doctor looked at Fluttershy, “Well we do have a new serum that can expel the radiation from the body.”

“Then what are y’all waiting for?” Applejack said.

“I’ve never used it on a completely different species before,” she said. “The effects could be...fatal.”

“Y...you mean she could die if you give it to her?” I said, worried.

The doctor nodded, “It’s possible, but she’ll die anyways if you don’t use it. Still, it’s up to you.”

“Gather around,” I told my friends. As they complied, Green Leaf seemed especially nervous, as did Discord. “What do you guys think?”

“I think we should do it,” Green Leaf said immediately. “It’s the only chance she’s got!”

“According to the humans…” Rainbow Dash said. “What if they’re lying?”

“What would they gain from that though? And we’ve seen how they are, they’re not evil,” I said.

“I suppose…” Rainbow said.

“I think we should do it, if there’s a chance, then I will take it,” Discord said.

“Same,” I said.

That left Applejack and Rainbow Dash. “Ah say we do it, we have to!”

Everyone looked at Rainbow Dash, who rolled her eyes, “Alright! Geez…”

“That settles it,” I said. We walked back over to Anthony, Sarah, and the doctor, who was checking on the unconscious doctor. Whom she had laid on a table. “We’ll do it.”

The doctor nodded, “Follow me then.”

Our now slightly larger group walked further into the theatre, eventually reaching a room at the end. The doctor opened the door to the room and the group walked in. In the center was a small operating table with a light above it. Though it seemed as if the light hadn’t worked in a long time. That was all there was, no equipment, probably since there was no electricity. Instead of a light, there was a gas lamp on a small stand near the metal table. 

Quickly, Discord put Fluttershy on the table and the doctor turned on the gaslamp, the doctor then checked over Fluttershy. 

“Alright, everything else seems good,” she said. “Is everyone going to stay here?”

I nodded and assumed everyone else did too. 

“Alright,” She said and picked up a syringe that I hadn’t noticed before. “This is the serum, are you ready?”

We all nodded. “Good,” She said, and very carefully injected the serum into Fluttershy. We all held our breaths as the seconds went by, until finally something happened, albeit not something good. Fluttershy started spasming uncontrollably, quickly, the doctor and Anthony started to restrain her. 

“What’s happening?” I said, scared to know the answer.

“Either her body’s accepting the serum in a violent way,” the doctor said. “Or it’s rejecting it…”

I couldn’t believe it, was this all for nothing? Had we failed in saving my friend? I couldn’t help it, I cried. During my crying I heard something odd, the sound of silence. I looked up to see Fluttershy as still as could be. The doctor walked over and checked for a pulse, and shook her head. I cried even more at that, how could this happen?! I looked at my friends, Green Leaf was being comforted by Applejack and Rainbow Dash was looking at the ground. Even Rainbow Dash was crying silently. Meanwhile, Discord was just staring at Fluttershy’s still body, and the humans were solemnly looking at us.

“Damn it all!” Anthony said abruptly. We all looked as he walked towards Fluttershy determinedly. “No way I’m giving up now!” 

“W...what are you doing?” Rainbow dash asked, surprised at his suddenness.

“AR,” Anthony said.

“Anthony!” The doctor exclaimed, “You aren’t properly trained to do that kind of stuff on animals.”

“You aren’t either!” Anthony said, then smiled. “And we’re not dealing with an animal, we’re dealing with an intelligent being! Plus, it’s the only chance she’s got!” 

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, why did they care about us so much? After what we did to them too! 

“What’s AR?” Applejack asked. 

“Assisted breathing,” Sarah said as Anthony put Fluttershy on her side. “When you bring air to the lungs by breathing into the mouth.”

“What if that doesn’t work?” Discord asked. 

“Then I start doing CPR,” Anthony said. “ Chest compressions. Green Leaf?”

Green Leaf’s ears perked up, “Yes?”

“Do you want to do the assisted breathing?” Anthony asked.

“O...of course!” Green Leaf said, trotting over to the table. “So I just breathe into her mouth?” 

“Yes,” Anthony said. “Carefully.” 

So we watched as Green Leaf did just that while Anthony kept checking for a pulse. After a few nerve wracking seconds, Anthony spoke again. 

“Goddamnit! Alright, keep doing that and I’ll start chest compressions!”

Green Leaf just nodded and kept breathing, while Anthony started pressing up and down on Fluttershy’s chest. Seconds passed, nothing. The doctor started talking as Anthony’s breaths got more and more ragged, trying to bring life back into our friend. 

“Anthony,” the doctor said. “Stop! She’s gone! She would’ve come back by now!”

And to be honest, I was losing hope too. Even Green Leaf had given up, “Anthony, please! S...she’s gone!”

“Not happening!” Anthony said, and started slamming his connected fists onto Fluttershy’s chest. “Not when it’s my fault!”

That caught all of us off guard, “What do you mean?” I asked.

But Anthony didn’t answer, he just kept pounding. It was then I noticed Fluttershy glowing, it was magic! Who was using it? The ones who could control magic were me and Discord, I looked over to where he was, but he seemed to be zoning out. Then I noticed, it was coming from Anthony! But...how? I could see his fists glowing! “Anthony?” I muttered.

“Stop!” Rainbow Dash yelled. “You’re making it worse!”

But with one last slam of Anthony’s fists, an explosion of light occurred and Anthony flew backwards into the wall, then he slumped to the floor, unconscious. We all were still as statues for a moment until something miraculous happened, Fluttershy’s eyes fluttered open. 

“W...what’s going on?” She said timidly as her eyes darted around. Then her eyes rested on Sarah and the doctor. She gave a small nervous squeak and hid behind her hair. 

“Fluttershy!” We all said excitedly. She looked over at where we were just as we came in for a group hug. Even Discord gave a little stealthy hug, though I noticed it. 

“Um?” Fluttershy said quietly. “What happened? Why are there humans here? Where is here?”

“Well...you sort of...died...Fluttershy,” I said awkwardly.

“I...I did?” Fluttershy said nervously.

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash said. “But Anthony brought us to the human village and him and the doctor brought you back!” 

“They did…?” Fluttershy looked at Sarah and the doctor. But then I realized something.

“Oh dear Celestia! Anthony!” I said. And everypony realized, aside from Fluttershy, realized what I meant.

We went over to where Anthony had fallen and the doctor checked Anthony for a pulse. She sighed and said, “He’s fine, probably will be aching a lot and have a minor concussion when he wakes up, but that’s about it.”

We all sighed in relief, “Thank you, Doctor.” I said.

“You’re welcome,” the doctor smiled. “And call me Thompson. I guess Jack was right, there really are talking space horses.” She chuckled.

“Actually,” Rainbow Dash said. “We’re ponies.”

“What do you mean Jack was right?” I asked.

“Well,” Thompson started. “He tried telling us that you were real, but aside from Anthony and the two cops that were with him, nobody believed him. We all thought he was just rambling about aliens again. Then again not many ever took him seriously as a leader anyways, though I did.”

“Wait, he’s the leader of the village?!” I said in shock. 

Thompson nodded, “Yeah, by the way, where is Jack?”

“He got hurt, so we left him in the care of our ponies. That reminds me, we should head back and see how they’re doing,” I said.

“Okay,” she said. 

“Tell us how Anthony does, when he wakes up,” I said. She nodded, and we left. As we walked out of the village, I had even more things on my mind. Sure Fluttershy was alive, but how did Anthony use magic? And now that we know humans aren’t a threat...how will the two races get along? And most of all, who was this mysterious being antagonizing the humans? Something told me our struggles were just beginning…




End Of Arc 1

> Chapter 11
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

ARC 2

TENSION AND MUTANTS

“Great…” I said as I opened my eyes. I was standing in the black void again. Which could only mean one thing…

“Indeed,” the voice said. I turned around to find the shadowy figure. “Because now, I can kill you humans without hesitation!”

I stared down those damned red eyes as they stared back. “Yeah, like you hesitated when you killed off the rest of humanity?”

“Believe it or not I did,” the figure said. “For a long time, I debated whether or not I should. Even now, I debated. But you wouldn’t understand.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I wouldn’t. Only a monster would understand. Which is what you are buddy.”

The figure laughed, “Maybe I am. But you humans are as well. However, these ponies are something entirely different. They haven’t had a war in a long time, let alone serious crime.”

“I doubt that very highly,” I said. No war? Please.

“Doubt what you will,” the figure shrugged. “It doesn’t matter now. What does matter is the fact that you did not heed my warning.”

“Yep,” I said. “I don’t take orders from scumbags.”

He frowned, “Is that the best insult you can hurl at me?”

I snorted, “I don’t need to play your game.”

“Right,” he said. “Enough games. I think it’s high time I killed you.”

“You can’t kill in a dream!” I said. Yet I was still scared, was it possible? I was about to find out.

“Try me,” he said. The figure pointed at me and all of a sudden, I felt a huge pain in my chest and I fell to my knees. I didn’t scream though, I could at least give him a hard time. After a second, the pain stopped and I looked back at the figure, who was now walking towards me. “Hmph, your willpower is stronger than I expected. I suppose it’s only natural, humans can be stubborn.”

I took a ragged breath, “Eat shit…”

“Wow,” the figure said. “No need for those words. Anyway, I doubt you’ll last another round.”

Then the pain came again, a little worse than before, I willed myself not to scream and kept holding on to my consciousness.

“Really?” The figure said. “I’m genuinely surprised. You are a very determined human. Almost a shame I have to kill you.”

“Or maybe,” I said, smiling. “You aren’t as strong as you thought you were.”

The figure laughed. “You’re not in the position to say these kinds of things you know.”

“I can say whatever the hell I want,” I said. “Ever heard of free speech?”

“You’re snide remarks will get you nowhere, now die!” The figure said as he lifted his finger again. I braced myself for the pain, but it was much worse. I almost fell unconscious that time and even grunted a couple times. Eventually I fell to the ground. But I held on. Then the pain stopped. I looked up again to find the figure breathing heavily. “H...how? You should be dead!”

“Getting tired?” I said, I was confused as to why I hadn’t died yet too.

“Shut up, human!” The figure said. Once he stood up straight, he snapped his fingers and a pistol suddenly appeared in his shadowy hand. “I will admit, you arestronger than expected. But…”

I gulped, I didn’t know what he was doing before, but a gun? That would definitely kill me.

“Scared now?” The figure said as he put the barrel of the gun against my head. “Though, since you made it this far, I guess I’ll grant you one request before I kill you.”

I thought about that for a second, what should I ask of him? “You’ll kill me no matter what, right?”

“Well of course!” He said.

“Then at least leave the village be,” I said. I couldn’t bear the thought of my friends dying.

The figure seemed to mull over that for a second, “Fine, as long as they don’t interfere with the ponies, that’s okay.”

I sighed with relief.

“Now,” the figure said. “I suppose this is goodbye, Jack Stephens. You weren’t as bad as I thought you would be.”

I closed my eyes as I felt the barrel press into my skull more. I waited...but nothing happened. After a couple seconds, I opened my eyes and looked up at the figure to find his mouth agape, seemingly staring into space. Then I looked behind him to see the dark blue pony from before. Her freaking horn was going through the figure’s chest!

“Holy crap!” I exclaimed. “Did you just kill him?!”

“Nay,” the pony said. “This shadowy figure was just a projection.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Wait, who are you?”

“I am Luna, Princess of the Night,” she said. “This figure wasn’t real, I guess you could compare it to a hologram.”

“Okay,” I said. “So that whole dreamwalking thing you said was true, huh?”

“Of course!” Princess Luna said. “To be honest, I don’t know how you humans survived without magic.”

Then there was a small rumble in the void, Luna looked at me. “You seem to be waking up, we can talk more once you are up and about.”

“O...okay…” I said. Then she vanished as the rumbling became more and more violent. Eventually, I closed my eyes and blanked out.





“Sister? Is he waking up?” A voice said.

“Indeed,” another voice said. It sounded like Luna’s.

I groaned as I felt the light shine upon my face. If I remembered correctly, I was in the hospital on the spaceship filled with ponies. Never thought I’d see the day I’d meet talking technicolored ponies. Then again, I’ve never thought about talking technicolored ponies in general. Slowly, I opened my eyes.

“Surprise!”

And wished I never had. Seriously, my eardrums hurt from that. But after my ears stopped ringing, I looked around. Everywhere you looked, there was confetti and balloons! And in the middle of the room...was the nine ponies I’ve met so far, plus that mismatched animal guy. Hard to miss him. But I had one question…

“Um...why?” I asked.

“It’s a party silly!” The all pink one said.

“Yeah I got that,” I said. “But for what?”

“To thank you of course!” She said.

I just tilted my head.

Twilight rolled her eyes. “For everything, Jack.”

“Everything?”

“Yeah! For saving us from those monsters!” The blue one with rainbow hair said.

“Even though it was rather...disturbing,” the small white one with purple hair said.

“I mean,” I said. “I did what I had to do.”

“But that’s not all,” Twilight said. “You were nice to us, even after we treated you like that. We were such...such…”

“Poopy heads!” Poofy pink haired one said. I rolled my eyes, my people would probably use way worse words than that.

“Exactly,” Twilight said. “But that’s over now, so we decided to throw you a thank you party.”

“Well,” I said, rubbing the back of my head. “Thanks, I guess.” Then I realized the fact that Fluttershy was up.

“You’re better, I see,” I said.

Fluttershy nodded shyly, “Thanks to your friend.”

“My friend?” I asked.

“Anthony,” the rainbow one said.

“What’d he do?” I asked.

“Well,” Twilight said. It looked like she was unsure of what to say. “We think he might’ve used magic to save Fluttershy.”

I looked at her like she was crazy, “Anthony...used magic?”

“Basically,” Twilight said. “Yeah.”

I thought about it, to be honest, seeing all that I have seen these past few days, I wouldn’t put it past that statement being true. But one thing bothered me.

“Why wouldn’t Anthony tell me something like this?” I asked, more to myself than anyone else. But the big white pony spoke anyways.

“It’s possible that he didn’t know that he had magic in him, or that he could use it for that matter,” she said.

“I guess,” I said. “But how has my race not used magic before? You’d think that would be a big thing in the history books.”

“That’s a good question, Jack,” the white pony said. “One that shall wait for another day, as we still have to celebrate.”

“And you are?” I asked.

“Oh that’s right!” The white pony said. “We still have to to do the introductions! My name is Princess Celestia.”

“Ah,” I said. “Well, I already know a couple of your names. Fluttershy, Twilight, and Luna.” I said, pointing to each one respectively.

“Good,” Celestia said. “Now let’s start with the rest.” She pointed to good ol’ rainbow hair and said. “This one’s Rainbow Dash.” Rainbow Dash gave a wave.

“Then there’s Applejack,” she pointed to the orange one with a stetson hat, who in turn said
‘Howdy’ in a southern accent.

It went on like that, her introducing the rest. The pink one was Pinkie Pie. The small white one was Rarity. And then there was Green Leaf, Fluttershy’s husband. Finally, Celestia pointed to where that mismatched animal guy was, who was gone.

“Where’s Discord gone to now?” Twilight sighed.

The other ponies just shrugged. Then Rainbow Dash said, “I don’t know, but I’d love to get this party started sooner or later.”

“Yeah!” Pinkie Pie said. “Let’s party!”

And so we did. To be honest I was having a good time, the best part was that I could go home whenever. I’ll be honest, I was probably procrastinating, staying so long. But I worried of what would happen when I got back. They told me Anthony was fine so I didn’t have to worry about that. But, I am the leader now, which a lot of people didn’t like. Plus the fact of my dad’s funeral, which still had to take place. Just thinking about that made me sad.

“You okay Jack?” Twilight asked, noticing my smile drop.

“Uh,” I said. I had to think fast, I never told them about my dad’s death. “Yeah, I just have to...go to the bathroom!”

“O...okay,” Twilight said, she didn’t buy it. But she seemed to let me go. As I walked out of the room, I noticed the one known as Discord, standing a ways down the hall. I walked over to him, like me, he seemed to be down.

“What do you want?” Discord asked abruptly.

“Wow,” I said, taken aback by this fellow’s mood. “Why so grumpy?”

“Not really any of your business,” Discord said. “Now please leave me alone.”

I was starting to think this guy was a real piece of shit, then again, everybody gets grumpy now and then. Though he seemed to not want to share why. But, I didn’t feel like giving up just yet. I had to think of something that might help.

“My dad died yesterday,” I said. Why I was saying this, I didn’t know, but he seemed to be surprised at the statement.

“I...I’m sorry to hear that,” Discord said.

“Yeah, my sister’s taking it pretty hard, she’s young so it’s tougher for her,” I sighed.

“If you don’t mind me asking,” Discord said. “How’d he die?”

“Not at all,” I chuckled in spite of it all. “He died of an unknown sickness. We checked all the medical books we could find, nothing.”

“And your mother?” Discord asked.

“She died from the same sickness when I was around 18,” I said. “My sister was only 14 at the time.”

“Sounds like you’ve had it rough,” Discord said.

“Haven’t we all?” I asked. Then I leaned onto the wall and said, “Your turn.”

“I don’t know…” Discord seemed reluctant.

“Come on man,” I said. “You can’t keep everything inside.”

Discord chuckled, “I get that a lot. Just...promise you won’t tell them.”

“Deal,” I said.

“Alright,” Discord said. “I think I’m...in lo...lov…”

He seemed to be trying to say something, but was having a hard time saying it. “You’re what?”

“InlovewithFluttershy,” he said rapidly.

“Woah,” I said. “Was not expecting that.” I looked back at the party room. “So none of them know?”

“Well,” Discord said. “Some of them might think I have a minor crush on her, but I think it’s way more than that.”

“Isn’t she...you know…” I said, not able to say it. But he knew what I was saying.

“Yeah, married,” he said. “Why do you think I’m so depressed?”

“Point taken,” I said. “Looks like we both have it bad right now.”

“Indeed…” Discord said solemnly. “You know, I used to actually despise these ponies.”

That was news…”Really?”

“Yeah, I was what some would call, the ‘bad guy’.” Discord said. “You know the one, he wants to take over the world and is evil just for fun.”

“You were like that?” I asked.

“For thousands of years I was,” Discord nodded. “Then those six came into my life, Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack.”

I stayed silent, encouraging him to go on, and he did.

“Originally, they were sent to defeat me, which they did using the Elements of Harmony.”

“The what now?” I asked.

“I’ll tell you later,” Discord responded. “Anyways, for a while, I was encased in stone again. So-”

“Wait,” I said. “You were encased in stone?!”

“Yeah,” Discord said nonchalantly. “It’s basically my prison.”

“T...that sounds terrifying,” I said. I don’t know why, but that thought just gives me the willies...

“You get used to it after the first time,” Discord said. “So, Celestia, being the enigma she is, decided to free me and make be a better draconequus. That’s what my species is, by the way. And she put me in the care of those six.”

“And you’ve been good ever since?” I asked.

“Well,” Discord hesitated, but then admitted. “I’ve made some mistakes.”

He seemed to be bothered by something, but I let it be. We stood there in silence for a little bit, until Discord spoke again. “You’d better get back to the party.”

I looked at him, “Okay, but if you need anything, come on down to my village. I’m a good listener.”

“Thanks,” he smiled. “I knew humans weren’t what he said they would be.”

And with that, I walked back to the party room, yet as I was walking, something in my mind was telling me there was something wrong with his last sentence. But I just couldn’t figure out what it was. As I reached the party room, I noticed everyone staring at me.

“What?” I said.

“Jack,” Celestia said. “I think I should tell you why we came here.”

“Ok…?” I said. Confused as to why they were serious.

“Our planet is dead,” Celestia said solemnly.

“Dead?” I asked sitting down. “Planets can’t die.”

“Ours can,” Twilight said. “At least it’s magic can, which then causes the planet to be a lifeless husk.”

“Wow…” I said, taking it in. “So that’s why you’re here…wait, does that mean you have your entire race on these ships?”

Celestia nodded, “Almost 1 million permanent residents of our country, Equestria.”

“That’s it?” I asked.

The ponies seemed taken aback by my question.

“Yeah,” Luna said. “How many humans were there?”

“At our race’s peak, there were over 8 billion of us,” I said, trying to remember what I was told.

The group gasped. Celestia spoke, “That’s a lot of one race.”

“Yeah, especially for you guys,” I said.

“Indeed,” Celestia said. “How did you maintain such a strong population?”

“I don’t know, but it wasn’t really a good thing,” I said. “All those people and the extensive use of resources caused disease, resource shortage, and famine. Plus it was estimated that global warming, caused by greenhouse gases, would cause icebergs to melt and raise the sea level, not to mention make it extremely hot. For some reason that never happened after the nukes fell.”

“Wow,” Twilight said. It looked like they were having trouble taking it all in.

“I’m sorry to break the mood everypony,” Luna said. “But there is an important matter to discuss.”

Luna looked at me, I then remembered the newest dream I had.

“So...that shadowy guy tried to kill me in my dreams today,” I said, maybe a little too abruptly.

The group gasped, except for Luna of course.

“I can’t believe we trusted that guy,” Twilight said frowning.

“It’s okay Twilight,” I said. “The past is the past.”

“Did he say anything?” Celestia asked. “Anything that could help us figure out who he is?”

“Not really,” I said. “But if it weren’t for Luna, I’d be dead. He had a gun and was about to shoot me. Then Luna stabbed him from behind.”

The group looked at Luna nervously.

“Don’t worry,” Luna said. “It was just a projection. He wasn’t really there.”

“Oh,” Twilight said. “But why use a gun? I thought he despised those.”

“He didn’t use one at first,” I said. “First, he tried to kill me with magic. But for some reason it didn’t work.”

“That’s odd…” Celestia said.

“Yeah,” I said. “He seemed surprised too.”

We all fell silent for a second, until I spoke back up.

“Well,” I said. “Before anything else happens, I need to head back to the village. I am the leader, though not very liked.”

As I sighed, Twilight spoke, “Why don’t the populace like you?”

“It’s not that they don’t like me,” I said. “They just don’t think I should be leader of the village. The only reason I am is because my dad…”

I stopped as soon as the word dad came out of my mouth.

“What’s wrong?” Twilight asked. Donning a worried expression. I didn’t want to, but I knew I had to tell them. They’d find out sooner or later anyways.

“My dad died yesterday,” I said.

Literally everyone except me gasped. Too many condolences were thrown at me at once to the point that I didn’t know who was saying what.

“Guys!” I said, maybe a bit too loud. “It’s alright, I just have a hard time thinking about it right now.”

“Are you sure Jack?” Celestia asked.

“I’m sure,” I lied. The words were hollow, I was far from alright. But I had to do my duties back at the village, so I couldn’t stay any longer. “Anyways, I’ve got to get back to the village. Many a things to do, plus, I’ve got to make preparations for the funeral.”

They all looked at each other for a second, then Twilight spoke up.

“Do you mind if we come to the funeral?” she asked.

I was definitely taken aback by their question. “Um, not really, but I have to ask why?”

“Because, silly,” Pinkie Pie said. “We want to be there for you, what are friends for?”

You know I hadn’t really stopped to think about that, but I guess they were my friends now. “Alright, you can come.”

They all nodded.

“Now,” I said. “Where’s the exit?”

“I’ll show you the way,” Discord, who I didn’t even notice was back in the room, said.

“Alright,” I said. And with that, I waved goodbye to everyone in the room and the two of us walked towards the exit.

“I just wanted to say thank you,” Discord said suddenly.

“Why?” I asked, feeling a little weirded out by all the odd looks I was getting from the ponies. “Oh, because of our talk?”

“Yes,” Discord said. “I realized that there are ponies and humans alike that have it worse than me right now.”

We stopped at a door that had a big exit sign next to it. Discord opened it and said, “Here we are.”

“Thanks,” I said, and as I walked out I said, “Just remember, there’s plenty other fishes in the sea.”





As I was walking back to the village, I took my time and looked around. I was starting to see everything differently now. I felt less...alone. Which was good. But then something caught my eye, there was an old ruined store. Which would seem normal, but there was a display out behind a glass window that was somehow not broken. There were some figures and above them was a sign with three simple words, yet those words filled me with confusion and nervousness.

“My God…” Those three words? My Little Pony.