Prologue

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Somewhere in the woods on a mountain, a long, gray bus was seen driving down a road with its driver at the wheel and over 17 passengers sitting down in its seats behind the driver, waiting for their stop to come. After 10 minutes had passed, the bus finally came to a stop as the bus driver parked the long vehicle next to a bus stop that was right across the street from a nearby gas station and convenience store.

The bus driver quickly proceeded to open the front door of the bus as eight people slowly made their way out of their seats, down the to the front door of the bus and out onto the side of the street outside. Once the eight people were all off the bus, the driver closed the front door of the bus and drove away back onto the street and into the distance.

The eight people that had gotten off and were now standing right next to the street consisted of 5 guys, 2 girls and a young boy. All of them were wearing backpacks and carrying suitcases that held their clothes and other necessities, as well as some other stuff that they loved that they had brought with them from their homes with them before they all took that bus and came to where they were now.

The names of the 5 guys in the group were John, Gary, Michael, Ned and Tony. The names of the 2 girls in the group were Alice and Claire. And lastly, the young boy's name was Eddie and he was the youngest out of everyone else in the group. All of them, except for Eddie, for obvious reasons, were college students.

John was a 20-year old, white-skinned man with black hair. Right now, he was wearing a red shirt, blue shorts and black and blue Sneakers. John barely had any friends and wasn't that popular in college, but he was a nice guy that always worked hard in college and never caused anyone any problems.

Gary was a 20-year old, white-skinned man with brown hair. He was wearing a green, Pokemon T-shirt, black shorts and black and white shoes. Gary was one of John's only few friends that he had and he was a huge gamer, too! He loved to play Pokemon, Super Mario, Zelda, Jak And Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, Sly Cooper, Call Of Duty, Skyrim, Five Nights At Freddy's, Undertale, you name it!

Michael was a 21-year old, white-skinned man with blonde hair. He was wearing a blue Dodgers shirt, gray shorts and white and blue Dodgers shoes to match. He was the strongest and most athletic out of everyone else in the group as his body was well-built and he often played in football games at his college and some people even called him 'The Rhino'!

Ned was a 19-year old, white-skinned man with short, brown hair. He was wearing a pair of glasses, a short-sleeved, light-blue shirt, dark-blue shorts and white shoes. He was nowhere near as strong as Michael was, but where he lacked in brawns, he made up for in brains! Ned was a straight A student and he had never gotten an F before in his life! However, he often got made fun of and picked on by other students who always called him a geek or four-eyes due to him wearing glasses all the time.

Alice was a 22-year old, white-skinned woman with long, blonde hair. She was wearing a pink shirt, long, light-blue pants and black high-heels. She had flawless, smooth skin and she was considered one of the most beautiful girls in college!

Claire was a 20-year old, black-skinned, African-American woman with long, black hair that she kept in a ponytail. She was wearing a purple shirt, white pants and black high-heels like Alice. She was a smart girl who was an expert cook and she could make some pretty mean spaghetti!

Tony was a 25-year old, white skinned man with spiky, black hair. He usually dressed completely in black. In fact, right now, he was wearing a black shirt with an image of a skull and crossbones on it, long, black pants and black boots. He also had a tattoo of a burning skull on his right arm and if that wasn't enough, he was also smoking a cigarette in his mouth! Tony was a well-known smoker and he was the second strongest guy in the group, behind Michael, but he was also the oldest person in the group as well.

And last, but not least, was Gary's little brother, Eddie, who was a 8-year old, white skinned boy with short, light-brown hair. He was wearing a blue, Lego Batman T-shirt, black shorts and black sandals. Eddie, being only 8-years old, was very energetic and loved to play games a lot. He wasn't very strong or smart and he most certainly didn't smoke like Tony, but sometimes he could be a real handful, which his older brother, Gary had learned the hard way! Eddie was by far, the youngest member of the group, which also made him the most inexperienced, too.

With that said, everyone now left the side of the street and headed down a small path away from both the road and the nearby gas station and convenience store. They walked down the path for the next 50 minutes, under the heat and light of the warm, Summer sun that shined brightly in the sky. They all began to sweat and their legs became sore and tired and they all wondered how much longer were they gonna be walking down that path.

Fortunately for them, it wasn't long after they all thought this, that they saw a old, two-story, wooden cabin right up ahead that stood right in the middle of nowhere and next to the edge of the woods beyond. It may not have looked like anything real fancy, but for them, it was their destination and where they were all gonna be staying and living at alone together for the next 3 days!

You see, a month ago, John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire and Tony's college had entered a science fair competition against other colleges where whoever won would get a special all-expense and already paid for 3-day vacation! Ned entered the competition and he not only won the competition for the college by building a life-size robot that could take and follow basic commands, but he also gave his teachers homework after he had made a bet with them that if he won the competition for the college, they would have to do math homework for the next 3 weeks! Overall, Ned was a genius!

Anyway, after Ned won the competition, he was then informed that according to the rules of winning the competition, he couldn't travel and go on his all-expense and paid for 3-day vacation alone and that he had to bring at least 6 other people with him. So, Ned just randomnly chose John, Gary, Michael, Alice, Claire and Tony to be the ones to accompany him on his 3-day vacation, which they all happily and immediately agreed to.

It wasn't until just one week before they were scheduled to go on their 3-day vacation, that they all learned that they weren't going anywhere too special like Disney World or New York, but they were only just going to be spending 3 days alone together in an old, two-story log cabin in the mountains and in the middle of nowhere! They weren't too happy with this and wanted to stay home, but the trip and the log cabin's 3-day rent had already been paid for and attending the 3-day vacation there was mandatory, otherwise, they would all be forced to pay for the 3-day vacation at the log cabin themselves and out of their own pockets and none of them wanted that, so they all had to just deal with it!

It didn't help either when Gary's mom and dad suddenly informed him that they had to go out of town on an important business trip for the next couple days only one day before he and the others were supposed to go on their 3-day vacation! With them gone for the next couple days, there was no one else around to watch and take care of Eddie and Gary couldn't just go on his vacation and leave him home alone! As a result, Gary was forced to bring Eddie along with him after he informed Ned what had happened so that Ned could also arrange for him to be able to join them as well!

"Is this it?" John complained as he and the others all stared at the old, wooden, two-story log cabin in front of them. "Is this really where we're going to be staying together at for the next 3 days?"

"That's what the map says," Ned replied as he checked the map of the area again to be sure that they were at the right place.

"I don't care if this place is the home of BigFoot! You morons can stay out here and get eaten by a bear for all I care, but I'm going inside and getting out of this stupid heat!" Tony told the others rudely as he made his way to the front door of the log cabin.

Upon reaching the door and trying to turn the door handle to get inside, Tony soon noticed that the door was unsurprisingly locked. "Darn it! The door is locked!"

"Well, what else did you expect, dumbass! Did you really think that they would just leave the front door unlocked for us when we arrived while any random stranger could just come in and make themselves at home in there!?" Michael reminded Tony as Tony glared at him. "Now, get out of the way! Ned gave me the key to the cabin."

Michael placed the key to the log cabin in the keyhole and quickly unlocked the front door as he and the others all followed him into the cabin. Gary was the last person to come inside and he shut and locked the door right behind him.

Everyone looked around the entire log cabin to see some couches, chairs, lamps, tables and other furniture in the living room. In the kitchen, there was a stove, an oven, a microwave, a few cupboards, a small pantry and a large, white refrigerator with 4 plastic cartons of milk, a pack of 10 eggs, cheese, fruits, vegetables, ketchup, mustard, mayo and etc. along with a drawer filled with knives, forks, spoons and other eating utensils and 2 drawers filled with plates, bowls and cups! There was a bathroom downstairs and upstairs that had clean sinks, toilets, tubs and showers with clean and working water as well as soap, shampoo, deodorant,, toothpaste, towels, toilet paper, tissue paper and a plunger in both of them! There were 2 bedrooms upstairs and 1 downstairs and 2 of them came with a small lamp and a nightstand that stood right next to the 2 bunk beds in both rooms and one queen's-size bed in the other second bedroom on the second floor.

Because there were only 5 beds available and there were 8 of them, they all had to decide who would get the 5 beds and who would sleep on the couches and on the floors. Since Eddie was only a kid and he wanted to sleep near his big brother, it was decided that Gary and Eddie would get 2 of the 4 bunk beds. Alice easily convinced the others to let her have the queen's bed and Claire and John got the two remaining bunk beds.

This left Michael, Ned and Tony with the couches and the floors to sleep on instead. Michael was a tough guy and didn't mind and Tony didn't care about sleeping on one of the couches as long as he got to sleep in as late as he wanted to. Ned, was fine with this, too, as he had brought a sleeping bag with him and he was used to sleeping on the floor.

Of course, no one was going to sleep just yet as it was only 2:48pm and none of them were planning to call it a day until at least 9:00pm at night. So with that, everyone began to get some of their things out of their suitcases and backpacks while they all got themselves all settled in.

Tony pulled out a box of cigarettes from his backpack and went outside to smoke another cigarette as the cigarette that he had already been smoking this whole time was all used up and Tony didn't like to go too long without smoking or else he would be in a really bad mood. Even if Tony ran out of cigarettes in that one box before he and the others were finished with their 3-day vacation at the cabin before they went back home, Tony had a couple extra boxes of cigarettes just in case that happened.

Gary pulled out his old Nintendo 3DS from his suitcase as he sat down in a chair and began to play Pokemon Ultra Sun on it while watching Eddie who was playing with a bunch of Legos that he had been carrying with him in his backpack. Gary knew Eddie loved Legos and that they would keep him busy and happy for awhile while he played Pokemon and all his other games on his Nintendo 3DS, his equally as old PS Vita and his even older Gameboy Advance SP while still being able to watch him and make sure he stays out of trouble at the same time.

Ned surprised everyone else when he pulled out his own personal and portable labtop from his backpack and plugged it into the wall so that it's battery could be charged while he used it. Ned also pulled out a history book and a science book and began to read them. An hour and a half passed and he was still reading them with no signs of him getting bored or tired of reading them at all. Apparently, to Ned, reading history and science books, studying and learning educational material was fun for him in a weird sort of way!

Eddie eventually got bored of playing Legos and asked Gary if he could do something else. Gary was one step ahead of him and he pulled out a DVD player that he also had in his backpack along with the complete first season of SpongeBob on DVD and he placed one of the DVDs of the first season that were in the case into the DVD player and turned it on so that Eddie could watch it and would continue to be kept entertained until bedtime. He also had the DVD player hooked up to the wall to charge it so that it wouldn't run out of power while Eddie was watching it either.

Gary, of course, had even more movies for Eddie to watch in his backpack as well as some others for himself to enjoy like Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Batman: The Dark Knight, Rush Hour, a season of The Simpsons, Dragon Ball Z: The Frieza Saga, and even more kiddy shows and movies like Adventure Time, Ed, Edd N' Eddy, Zootopia, Shrek, The Lion King, Goosebumps: Night Of The Living Dummy, and Looney Tunes!

Fitting all of that and his games in his backpack, though, was the hard part. There wasn't enough room to fit any of that in his suitcase as his suitcase was already stuffed with all his clothes and other necessities.

Like most of the others, he also brought his cellphone in case of an emergency. Gary even joked once to the others back on the bus, that he would order a couple pepperoni pizzas and have a pizza delivery guy drive over and deliver them over to the log cabin that they were staying at.

Claire went into the kitchen at 3:50pm and began to put her cooking skills to use. At 5:05pm, she called everyone for dinner and she revealed to everyone that she made everyone tacos for them all to eat.

After everything that they had been through the entire day, no one was really picky about what they were eating. Besides, they all loved tacos and next to her famous spaghetti, Claire's tacos were to die for! Even Tony took a break from his smoking to have some of her tacos himself.

As expected, Claire's tacos were delicious and everyone wanted to have at least 3 of them, but Claire had only made enough tacos for everyone to have 2 tacos each and no more. Still, everyone had to admit that Claire's cooking was awesome and that she did a real good job on the tacos!

For his drink that he was having with his tacos, Tony pulled out a bottle of beer from his backpack, removed the bottle cap and took a couple big sips of the alcoholic beverage inside. Aside from smoking, Tony was also known for drinking beer almost everyday. Like his cigarettes, Tony had some extra bottles of beer in his backpack once the one he was drinking now ran out, too.

Tony stopped drinking his beer for a moment as some of the others were now looking at him. "What are you looking at, huh?" Tony spoke in a mean voice.

"Dude! You already brought your cigarettes with you! Do you really need to have some beer as well?" Gary asked him.

"Shut the fuck up!" Tony replied. "I don't give a shit about what you guys or anyone else thinks about me drinking beer and smoking cigarettes regularly!"

"Hey! Watch what you say in front of my little brother, bud!" Gary scolded Tony. "I don't need Eddie to be hearing bad words like that and for him to start swearing like you, so if you can't be polite and stop using profanity, then you can go outside and finish your beer out there!"

"Whatever," Tony said as he got up out of his seat and grabbed his beer. "I don't need this!"

Tony then stormed out of the house and slammed the front door behind him! Outside, Tony leaned against one of the walls of the house and continued to drink the rest of his beer there so that no one else would disturb him until he was ready to go back inside.

After dinner was over, everyone played some board games that they had found in a closet for awhile as there were no TVs, radios or any computers, except for Ned's portable labtop that he had brought with him, in the log cabin. Some of the others had tried to get Ned to let them use his portable labtop so that they could go online and watch YouTube videos as no one could get any internet on their phones, but Ned refused and told everyone else that his portable labtop wasn't getting any internet either.

Everyone's phones and the log cabin's phone still worked. They just couldn't get any internet out there in the woods at the log cabin. They could still make phone calls if they needed anything or if there was an emergency and they also could still send text messages if they wanted to talk to any family and friends who were back home, but not much else than that.

At 8;30pm, the sun had completely set and it was very dark outside. Tony had finally come back inside and he planted himself on the couch and took out some headphones and a smartphone from one of his pockets, plugged the headphones into the smartphone and began to listen to some rock music that he had already downloaded and saved onto his phone before he had left home to go on this so-far lame 3-day vacation at this log cabin.

Despite the fact that it was starting to get a bit late, everyone was still dressed in their day clothes and had yet to change into any of their pajamas. Even Eddie was still wearing his day clothes, only now he was wearing a Finn The Human Hat from the Cartoon Network series Adventure Time which he was a fan of himself!

The reason for this was because even though they were all stuck at that boring, old log cabin for 3 days and that there wasn't that much to do except for playing board games, going exploring out in the woods and taking in all the scenery around them, none of them felt like going to bed yet. Plus, they were now alone and they had that log cabin all to themselves and with no one else around nearby which meant that they could do almost anything that they wanted to do!

Of course, they had to be careful not to mess up the place or set the log cabin on fire or anything like that as they would be forced to pay for any damages that they caused if this happened. As long as whatever they did at that log cabin was within reason and common sense, it didn't matter what they did as long as they didn't cause any trouble.

But without their mom or dad or anyone else to watch and supervise them, except for the others, Gary told Eddie that he could stay up extra late at night while they were at the log cabin as long as Eddie behaved himself and didn't tell mom or dad about it. Eddie happily agreed to this as he hated going to bed at 8:30pm while his older brother stayed up past 10:00pm and Eddie wasn't going to pass up an opportunity to stay up past his bedtime!

"Yay!" Eddie cried out in joy as he began to watch the Disney/Pixar movie Zootopia that Gary had brought with him on Gary's DVD player.

Ned was also now joining in on the fun for once as he placed the history and science book that he had already been reading for hours back into his backpack before he pulled out some Batman, Avengers and Captain America comics that he began to slowly and excitedly read one by one at a time. Even though Ned was a genius and he spent a lot of his time working on school assignments and reading and watching educational material, that didn't mean that Ned didn't like to take it easy and enjoy reading a good comic book and watching superhero, action and science-fiction movies whenever he had a chance to do so either.

Time flew by and before anyone knew it, it was already almost 10:20pm! Tired and realizing just how late it was becoming, everyone decided to call it a day as everyone put all their things back into their backpacks and suitcases and cleaned up all the trash and messes that they had made. They all wanted to change into their pajamas first before they hit the hay, but they were all so exhausted, that they didn't care and so they decided to go to sleep in their clothes that night instead.

For awhile, everyone slept comfortably and peacefully. However, at 1:22am, they were all woken up as they heard a loud booming noise! At first, they thought it was just their imagination, but then everyone saw a strange, bright light coming from the nearby woods outside!

'What the heck!?' they all thought in shock and confusion.

"What is making all that bright light out there!?" Alice demanded, a bit grumpy that she had been woken up. "I can't sleep with that annoying light shining in here!"

"Yeah! What's going on!?" Claire agreed.

"Maybe someone's out there!" Michael reasoned.

"At 1:24am in the morning!?" Ned questioned. "No one should be out here in the woods at this time of night! That just wouldn't make any sense!"

"Well, whatever is going on, I'm going out there and getting to the bottom of this!" Michael shouted in a serious voice as he put on a black jacket that he had inside his suitcase and headed to the front door of the log cabin, only for Gary to block his path.

"Dude! Are you crazy!? You can't just go out there alone this late at night, especially when you're in the middle of nowhere! If there's one thing that horror movies have taught me, it's that you never go out alone into the woods in the middle of the night!" Gary told Michael.

"This is real life, not a movie, Gary! Quit being so paranoid!" Michael replied. "Besides, who said I was going out alone? We're all going out there together to figure out where that light is coming from!"

"Are you fucking serious, man!?" Tony argued.

"You heard me! We're all going out to investigate that mysterious light!" Michael told him. "Now, everyone, put on some jackets and other warm clothes and follow me!"

"Well, Eddie can't come with us! Whatever we find out there might be dangerous and I don't want to risk putting him in danger!" Gary informed Michael. "We'll have to leave him here and lock all the doors and windows of the log cabin before we go and-"

"Oh, no you won't!" Eddie interrupted his older brother. "You can't just me alone here in this old cabin while you all go out into the woods! You're gonna take me with you or I'll-"

"Or what?" Gary asked Eddie. "You'll throw a temper tantrum like you did when you didn't get that Lego Movie toy for your birthday last year?"

Eddie ignored that last statement and said, "If you don't take me with you, I'll tell mom and dad that you left me all alone here, that's what I'll do!"

Gary couldn't argue with Eddie there as while his parents usually trusted him and would likely believe him if he told them his side of the story, Gary didn't want to risk them taking Eddie's side with him ending up in trouble with his parents who would then berate him for his carelessness before they punished him. At Gary and Eddie's house, the punishment for being naughty, irresponsible and causing trouble was yard work and mowing the front lawn and Gary hated mowing the front lawn!

However, he and Eddie both knew that the real reason that Eddie wanted to come with him and the others wasn't because he was just as curious as they were to find out what was causing that mysterious, bright light. No! The real reason Eddie wanted to come with him and the others was because he hated being alone! Eddie tried to hide it, but he was scared of being left alone, especially in the dark!

Eddie was so afraid of being alone in the dark, that he always slept with a night light on in his room back home every night. Eddie sometimes got so scared, that he would hide underneath his bed covers, believing that some monster or something else was gonna get him if he didn't!

Being with other people, especially his older brother, Gary, was the only time Eddie wasn't afraid of the dark. But Eddie was only a 8-year old boy, so what do you expect?

"Fine, Eddie! You win! You can come!" Gary muttered to his little brother in defeat. "But you have to stay close to me at all times and no goofing around either! Okay?"

"Yippie!" Eddie shouted as he opened his suitcase and pulled out his own jacket that he quickly put on to help keep him warm while he was out with his brother and the others in the woods.

Gary put all of his movies, games, game systems and, of course, his DVD player back into his backpack. Ned carefully placed all his comics and his labtop into his own backpack, too. Tony did the same with his boxes of cigarettes, unopened beer bottles, his smartphone and his headphones. It wasn't long before everyone grabbed their backpacks and decided to bring them with them as well as all of them put on their own jackets to keep them warm, too.

John, Michael, Claire and Ned each pulled out a flashlight from their suitcases that they had brought with them in case of an emergency, turned them on and motioned for the others to follow them as they all slowly stepped out of the comfort of the log cabin and out into the cold, dark night outside. Everyone, still seeing that the bright light was still coming from the woods, all headed in that direction.

As soon as they entered the nearby woods beyond the log cabin, everyone noticed that the normally dark woods were being dimly illuminated by the strange, bright light that appeared to be even deeper into the woods then they had previously thought. As they slowly and cautiously walked through the forest, Gary was holding onto Eddie's hand tightly to make sure that he stayed close and didn't wander off.

For the next 10 minutes, everyone did nothing but continued to walk in the direction of the mysterious, bright light and the deeper they went into the woods, the less dark the trees and surrounding area around them became! They all knew that this could only mean that they were getting closer to the source of the bright light and that it would only be a matter of time before they reached it!

Sure enough, it wasn't much longer before they all reached a small, empty clearing where the bright light was apparently coming from. Stepping foot into the clearing, the group of eight curious humans saw something right ahead of them that made them believe that they were dreaming!

Only 50-feet ahead of them and located right in the middle of the small, empty clearing, was what appeared to be a floating, blue, glowing orb that was as big as a basketball! 'What the hell!?' John thought as he and the others stared at the amazing, but impossible sight before them!

Everyone was at a loss of words and didn't know what to say! But it was clear that John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire and Tony had already made up their minds and wanted to have nothing to do with that crazy, floating, blue, glowing orb in front of them and that they thought that it would be best if they all just returned to the log cabin and called the police and other local authorities to deal with it instead. Eddie, however, had different plans and without his brother or any of the others noticing, he broke free of his older brother's tight grip, freed his hand and slowly made his way over to the mysterious, floating, blue, glowing orb ahead of him and the others!

After agreeing with the others that they had to leave, go back to the log cabin and report their discovery to the cops, Gary turned to face his little brother to let him know about their decision, only for his face to go pale when he immediately noticed that Eddie was no longer standing right next to him! For the next 10 seconds, Gary looked frantically around for his brother until he finally saw him up ahead of him and the others, with Eddie now standing right before the strange, floating, blue, glowing orb! If that wasn't enough, Eddie was slowly reaching out his right hand to touch it, too!

Gary and the others wasted no time and rushed over to Gary and the orb as fast as they could, hoping that they could reach him before he touched the orb as they didn't know what would happen to him if he touched it! Every second that they ran felt like hours as they came closer and closer to Eddie!

Eddie didn't seem to notice them or anything else as he appeared to somehow be attracted to the mysterious, floating, blue, glowing orb for some reason. In fact, right now, all he could think about was touching that orb and finding out what exactly it was and where exactly did it come from!

Right before Gary and the others reached him and could stop him, Eddie suddenly grabbed the floating, blue, glowing orb with both his hands and held onto it like it was some kind of ball! This, of course, shocked Gary and the others who stopped themselves in their tracks as they now didn't know what to do and were unsure if they should still grab Gary and go or not now that he had made physical contact with that strange, floating, blue, glowing orb!

For a moment, nothing seemed to happen and Eddie returned to his normal self as he immediately realized what he was doing and turned to see his older brother and the others staring at him and the glowing, blue orb that he was still holding in his two hands. This didn't last long because what happened next took everyone by complete surprise!

Suddenly and without any warning, the strange, blue orb expanded and grew so huge, it completely engulfed John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie in its bright, blue light! They all screamed as they felt what seemed like the ground beneath their feet disappear as they fell into what they could only describe as some sort of portal that seemed to have no end to it in sight!

It wasn't long after this, that everyone fell unconscious as they continued to fall deeper and deeper into the seemingly endless world of the portal! Both the entrance to the portal and the glowing, blue orb that Eddie had touched that had led to the creation of the portal in the first place both suddenly disappeared without a trace and the previously slightly illuminated woods returned to being the same dark forest as it had been before for many years!

With the 8 humans unconscious and with the seemingly perpetual world of the portal going on and on as they kept falling deeper and deeper into it, only time would tell now what fate had in in store for them next!

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Meanwhile, at Twilight's treehouse library home in Ponyville, in the magical, pony-inhabited land of Equestria, Twilight Sparkle and her loyal dragon assistant, Spike, were both fast asleep in their own respective beds. It was a calm, quiet and peaceful, cloudless night in Ponyville and Princess Luna's glorious moon shined down all over Ponyville and the rest of Equestria.

Twilight and Spike had went to bed a couple hours ago at 9:50pm after a long day of solving friendship problems, helping Fluttershy take care of her animals, reading some old books about magic spells and sending a letter to Princess Celestia about how far she had come ever since she had met and become friends with Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Rarity and with their help and Spike's, as well as Princess Cadence and Shining Armor, they had saved Equestria several times from wicked villains like Nightmare Moon, Discord, Queen Chrysalis and King Sombra. Twilight, of course, had Spike deliver the letter through his green and fiery dragon breath that served as a magical and fast way to send all of Twilight's letters straight to Princess Celestia herself!

After the letter for Celestia had been sent, both Twilight and Spike had decided to call it a day and they both turned in for the night and slept in their beds just like what they were doing now. Little did Twilight, her friends, Spike, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence, Shining Armor and the rest of Equestria know that soon, their lives were about to get even more exciting!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Twilight, Spike and the rest of Ponyville were instantly jolted awake by a loud, booming noise very similar to the one that John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie had heard before they had went to go investigate that mysterious, bright light in the woods! The only difference this time, was that when Twilight, Spike and all the other ponies of Ponyville checked outside their homes to find out where that loud, booming noise came from, there was no bright light or floating, glowing, blue orb to be seen anywhere!

"That's weird, Spike!" Twilight spoke. "What could've caused that loud noise?"

"Beats me, Twilight! But whatever it was and wherever it came from, it's gone now!" Spike told Twilight as he let out a big yawn from his mouth. "I'm going back to bed."

As curious as Twilight was to figure out what had caused that loud booming noise and where it had come from, Twilight knew that it was very late and right now, she and Spike needed to get some rest for the next day. Before going back to sleep, Twilight decided that in the morning, she would enlist the help of her friends to help her solve the mystery of that mysterious and loud, booming sound that she had heard.

Right before she fell asleep, Twilight had some weird, nagging feeling inside of her that told her that soon, something big and crazy was about to happen that would take her, her friends, Spike, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, Princess Cadence, Shining Armor and all of Equestria by surprise and that whatever it brought with it would be very unexpected and exciting! Twilight was right to think like this as life in Equestria really was going to get very exciting indeed!

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Nearby and in another house in Ponyville, Pinkie Pie's entire body was shaking! This wasn't anything new for Pinkie Pie as she was used to her tail and sometimes her whole body shaking just like it was doing now. Pinkie already knew what was going on with her and she even had a name for it, too! "Oooh! Oooh! Oooh! It's my Pinkie Sense again!" Pinkie shouted. "I hope whatever it's trying to tell me involves throwing somepony new a party! I love parties!"

Pinkie then broke the 4th wall by turning her head to face the readers as she said, "Oh, wellsies! I'm sure I'll find out what it is in the next chapter or two!"

Timber!

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In the meantime, outside Ponyville, somewhere in the Everfree Forest and right before Twilight, Spike and the rest of Ponyville were woken up by that strange booming noise similar to the one that John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie had heard back on Earth, a huge and fiery explosion in the form of a giant, green orb suddenly happened and immediately and completely annihiliated all the trees, grass, water and other plant life in the surrounding area! This also included some very poor and unfortunate animals like squirrels, birds, mice and bears to name a few who were all brutally and incredibly painfully reduced to ashes as their flesh and organs melted off their bones and their bones and melting flesh were turned to dust just like Cell when Gohan defeated him with a powerful Kamehameha attack in Dragon Ball Z!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! the deadly, giant, green orb of doom went as it didn't stop until a whole mile and a half of the Everfree Forest was completely vaporized, leaving only the now barren and hard ground left! Fortunately, for the rest of the wildlife and the Everfree Forest itself, the enormous, green orb that had caused so much destruction suddenly disappeared almost as fast as it had come!

After it had disappeared completely, no trace of it was to be seen anywhere, except for the mile and a half of barren land that was now devoid of water, plantlife and wildlife-as well as the 8 unconscious bodies of John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie lying down on the ground! Their unintentional and very unexpected trip through the world of the portal had come to an end.

After a couple minutes had passed, they all stirred and slowly regained consciousness. Their vision was blurry at first, but when they could all see clearly again, they all looked at each other and checked themselves to make sure that they had no serious injuries or wounds of any kind.

To their surprise and relief, there wasn't so much as a scratch on them and they all looked fine. After they were finished with that, though, everyone then looked at their surroundings and noticed all the destroyed and barren land around them which made their eyes grow wide! However, as they had already been in a forest when they were sent through that portal, they still thought they were on Earth when they saw a bunch of the trees, bushes and other plant life of the Everfree Forest in the distance all around them so none of them were aware of the fact that they were no longer on their own world anymore!

"What the hell!" John shouted out in shock as he and the others continued to stare at all the barren and destroyed forest land around them. "What the heck happened to the forest!?"

"It must have something to do with that strange, floating orb and that crazy portal we went through!" Michael reasoned. "By the way, that reminds me..."

Everyone except Gary then turned to face Eddie as they all wore furious and very disappointed expressions on their faces. Eddie gulped as he knew he had gotten himself in real hot water this time and he took a couple steps backwards out of fear.

"Okay, you little bitch! What in the name of all that is sane were you thinking by touching that freakin', glowing orb!?" Tony demanded.

"I'm sorry!" Eddie apologized. "I just couldn't help myself!"

Tony then grabbed Eddie and lifted him off the ground by the collar of his shirt and glared at him as he yelled, "Don't give us that crap! I don't care what your excuse for doing something so naive and idiotic like that is! Congratulations, Eddie! You just won the medal for the dumbest person that I've ever met in my entire life!"

Tony then let go of Eddie as Eddie was now on the verge of crying and Eddie didn't know what to say. "Look around you, Eddie!" Michael ordered as he pointed to the barren and lifeless land around them. "Part of this once-peaceful and thriving forest is all gone and it's all your fault! You're lucky that we weren't killed, too, or we really would've been screwed!"

"Hey! Give my brother a break! He's only 8-years old!" Gary defended his younger sibling as he stepped in and tried to reassure his little brother that the others were just mad and were taking out their frustrations on him as a result. "He's just a kid for pete's sakes! Cut him some slack!"

"And you! You're the one who decided to bring him along with us in the first place!" Alice accused. "You're just as much to blame for what happened as he is!"

"I don't care what you say about me, but leave my brother alone!" Gary told the others as Eddie was now crying with tears pouring out of his eyes profusely. "He's learned his lesson and none of us got hurt, so stop being so hard on him!"

"Besides, we shouldn't be arguing and playing the blame game with me and my little brother! We need to call the cops and report what happened and everything we saw and experienced to them so that-" Gary reminded everyone, but was cut off.

"Are you nuts, man!?" Michael spoke. "Aside from all the barren and lifeless earth around us, we have no evidence of what we saw and experienced to present to the authorities! And both that portal and that weird, floating orb are gone now!"

"He's right, Gary! Without any evidence or any other witnesses besides ourselves, they'll never believe us!" Ned pointed out. "No one will!"

"We'll think of something when we cross that bridge, but right now, I need to make a phone call!" Gary replied as he pulled out his cellphone, pressed 911 and held the phone up to his right ear as he waited for someone to answer him.

Minutes passed and Gary got no response back. His phone was silent.

A bit annoyed, Gary typed in 911 again, but still got no response back. Even more frustrated now, Gary tried typing in 911 again and again and again for the next 5 minutes which all ended with the same result!

Gary gave up and put his phone away and then asked the others, except for his little brother (who didn't have a phone of his own) to try calling 911 on their phones and see if they could reach the police with their phones instead. But just like with Gary's phone, all their phones weren't getting any responses from anyone either!

'What the heck!' they all thought in shock and confusion.

"This doesn't make any sense!" John spoke. "I know for a fact that my phone worked back at the log cabin and even when we entered the forest! Why isn't it working like it's supposed to now!?"

"There must not be a good signal here! We are out pretty far into the woods, afterall!" Ned said. "Perhaps if we head back to the log cabin, we might be able to reach the authorities there!"

"Good idea, Ned!" Alice agreed. "I don't know about you, but the sooner we get back to the cabin, the sooner I can catch some shuteye! We must've been out for awhile and if that's the case, then it's probably close to 5:00am in the morning by now and I don't plan on wasting anymore time standing out here in the cold night when I can be getting some Z-time at our warm, comfy cabin instead! Now, can we go already!? It's freezing out here!"

With that said, everyone began to head in the same direction that they remembered taking through the woods from their log cabin. Of course, what they didn't know was that the direction that they were headed would not take them back to the log cabin and that what they would encounter next would be something that they would never forget for the rest of their lives!

-57 minutes later.

Everyone was now yet again, surrounded by tall trees and bushes as they made their way through the dark forest. Eddie had finally calmed down and stopped crying after Gary comforted him and told him that everything would be fine and that everyone makes mistakes, that they were all alive, none of them were hurt and that was all that mattered. Eddie didn't talk, but gave his brother a small hug as he smiled for a little bit before he and Gary let go of each other and continued walking with the others.

"Oh, come on!" Tony complained. "We've been walking for 57 minutes! It's been almost an hour for crying out loud! How much farther until we reach that bloody log cabin?"

"I don't understand! We're going in the right direction. We should've gotten back by now!" Michael said.

"You better not have got us all lost out here, Michael, because if you have, I'm going to kill you!" Tony warned.

"Guys! Now's not the time for this!" Claire told Michael and Tony. "Once we get back to the log cabin, we can bite each other's heads off there!"

"Fine," Tony spoke. "But once we get back, I'm going straight to bed and if anyone disturbs me while I'm resting, I'll rip your arms off and fuck you up in so many painful and gruesome ways that would disgust even Frankenstein!",

"Everyone, quiet!" Ned commanded.

"Ned! What are you-" Gary asked, but was immediately cut off by Ned.

"Shhhhhh!" Ned told him and the others as he began to look a bit nervous. "Guys! I don't think we're alone out here!"

As soon as Ned said this, everyone became somewhat uneasy, too. Suddenly, everyone heard small and light footsteps approaching them and getting closer! Then, what happened next, none of them saw coming!

Without warning, two wolf-like figures stepped out from behind some bushes and appeared right in front of the 8 humans who all gasped in fear! "Oh, no! Wolves!" Gary shouted out in terror.

However, Gary and the others could only see the shapes of the supposed wolves which were somewhat hidden in the darkness of some trees and he and the others didn't know what they were really looking at! It was only when the two wolf-like figures stepped out of the shadows and into the moonlight, that the 8 humans could all make out the 2 supposed wolves' features clearly and what they saw made their jaws drop!

Right before them, were indeed 2 wolves, or at least what they thought looked like wolves! But these 2 wolves were nothing like the wolves they knew!

These 2 wolf-like creatures sounded and acted like wolves , but the similarities ended there! Their bodies were made out of leaves, branches, tree bark and other natural materials which everyone couldn't quite wrap their heads around as that should be impossible! But the thing about these wolf-like creatures that really put everyone on edge was their eyes!

Oh, their eyes! Their eyes were the worst part about them! Their eyes were nothing, but glowing, green lights without any eyeballs and this alone was enough to give the 8 humans the spooks!

Many ponies in Equestria would instantly recognize these wolf-like creatures that were made out of wood, leaves, and other natural materials as Timber Wolves, which were native to the Everfree Forest! But the party of 8 frightened and very surprised humans didn't know that!

Then, one of the Timber Wolves lifted up its head and let out a loud and terrifying howl! "Ar-woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!"

Suddenly, the Timber Wolf stopped howling before both it and the other Timber Wolf lunged at Michael and Tony! Despite their shock and disbelief from this strange and unbelievable sight, Michael, Tony and the others quickly came to their senses and Michael and Tony both were quick to move and act to defend themselves! They may have been scared of these freaky wolf-like beings before them, but there was no way they were going to become wolf chow today either!

Michael punched one of the Timber wolves hard in its wooden face, which caused it to briefly recoil in pain before it shrugged it off and lunged at him again! Tony dodged the sharp, wooden fangs of the other Timber Wolf and delivered a powerful uppercut to its chin that sent it straight into a nearby boulder, which caused its body to get shattered into a bunch of pieces upon colliding with it!

"Take that, Wolfie!" Tony spoke with determination. "I am not going to get my ass whooped by a bunch of pieces of living, stinkin' firewood!"

Michael managed to win his fight, too, by pinning his Timber Wolf opponent to the ground and getting John to grab a big rock and smash its body apart with it while he held it down! The Timber Wolf cried out in pain as John repeatedly broke it's body apart piece by piece until it, too, was nothing but a bunch of small pieces of wood, leaves and other plants all scattered around on the ground!

For a moment, Michael, Tony and the others all cheered and let out sighs of relief as they believed that they had defeated the Timber Wolves. Unfortunately, their celebration didn't last long when everyone suddenly noticed that all the shattered pieces of the 2 Timber Wolves were slowly moving around and attaching themselves to the other pieces little by little at a time! The 8 humans also noticed the familiar green, glowing eyes of the Timber Wolves were shining again in the piles of shattered pieces of the Timber Wolves that were slowly reattaching themselves!

"What's going on!?" Eddie cried out in horror. "We just beat them!"

"No, we didn't!" Ned told Eddie and the others. "They're putting themselves back together! Their bodies are made of wood, leaves and plants, not flesh and bone like us! Breaking them apart won't be enough to stop them for good!"

"Well, what do we do now, then!?" Alice asked Ned.

"We run!" Ned answered.

"I could've thought of that!" John said. "And you don't need to tell me twice!"

The group of 8 humans then continued in the same direction that they believed would take them to their log cabin, only now they were running as fast as their legs could take them all while they constantly kept looking back behind them to make sure that those 2 Timber Wolves weren't following them! They all felt like they were in a horror movie and that at any moment, they could all meet a very painful and grim fate if they didn't manage to escape!

"Hurry, everyone!" Ned shouted. "We need to put as much distance between us and those things as we can! By my calculations, they'll both be completely back together in 3 minutes! And it's a scientific fact that wolves hunt in packs and if that applies to those things, too, then they'll soon be even more of them after us!"

While running, Ned noticed some blue flowers nearby, which caught his interest. Ned found the blue flowers very beautiful, but he didn't recognize them either. Ultimately, he decided that he wanted to grab some of them and bring them back to the log cabin. However, Ned wasn't one to just grab things on the ground with his bare hands so he pulled out one of his inventions to help him that he had been carrying around with him in his backpack. A robotic hand!

The robotic hand was very flexible and could be folded up like a towel as it was made of special and light materials that made it strong and durable, but light and soft at the same time! If it wasn't for that, Ned never would've been able to fit it into his backpack with his labtop, history and science books and comics and Ned never went anywhere without it in case he wanted to pick up something dirty and unknown to him just like the blue flowers right next to him that he intended to pick and take with him right now!

Using the robotic hand, Ned carefully placed a few of the blue flowers into a plastic bag, which he sealed tightly and placed the bag and the robotic arm into his backpack. Ned then hurried to catch up with the others as they were now way ahead of him!

Ned was wise to not touch those blue flowers that he found because in Equestria, those flowers were known as, 'Poison Joke! If those flowers ever come in direct-physical contact with any living creature, let's just say that things would really get crazy for whoever touches them or is touched by them!

Everyone kept sprinting non-stop as their hearts were beating like drums in their chests! They could only hope that those Timber Wolves (which they don't know that's what they're called) didn't get to them before they could get to the safety of their safe and comfy log cabin, where they could take shelter inside of and call the police for help (which they still were unaware that they were not headed there)!

For awhile, nothing else happened as the group of 8 humans frantically ran through the Everfree Forest. They had all lost track of time and now weren't sure exactly what time it was now.

Suddenly, the dark forest around them started to become a bit less dark as bright light shined through the tall trees. It was only then that the 8 humans felt a bit less uneasy as they realized that it was finally morning and the first rays of the morning sun were now shining down on them! They then realized that they had been wandering around that forest for awhile now and during all that time, hours had passed and now dawn was approaching!

This made them all feel better as this would mean that they would be able to see everything around them clearly and thus make it easier for them to spot the Timber Wolves, if they were still after them, that is! Plus, running for your life in the middle of the woods during the day was less scary then running for your life in the middle of the woods at night!

"Look!" Gary spoke as he pointed right up ahead to see that the trees and bushes around them were becoming fewer and fewer as more and more sunlight shined down on everyone.

"We must be close to the edge of the forest! A little further and we'll be out of these cursed woods once and for all!" Michael spoke happily.

Sure enough, after another few minutes of running, the 8 humans finally emerged from the last few trees and bushes and out and onto a wide-open, grassy meadow! Looking around, it quickly became clear that they were finally out of the forest and that they had lost the Timber Wolves, too!

They all were thrilled to be out of that crazy forest and away from those freaky wolf-like creatures and they all wanted to celebrate as soon as they got back to their log cabin. But when they looked in the direction that their log cabin should've been, they couldn't see it anywhere! In fact, instead of seeing their log cabin, all they could see was a bunch of old-fashioned houses and cottages, which all lay only a short mile or two ahead of them!

The 8 humans now looked very confused and a bit nervous as they now were sure that they were indeed lost and they had never seen that town in the distance before them before in their entire lives! But as confused and nervous as they were, they felt relieved to know that instead of returning to their log cabin, they had all found civilization, which was even better.

As they all slowly walked towards the town, everyone then noticed a sign next to a old, dirt path that led straight to the town. "This way to Ponyville," John read out loud. "Why would any town be called, 'Ponyville'!? That's a pretty stupid and silly name for a town, don't you guys think so?"

"I don't give a damn about the name of the town, John!" Tony rudely told him. "I don't care if that town is called, 'Vampire Village'! I just went almost an entire night without getting any rest! I also don't give a damn that we don't see our log cabin anywhere! I'm going over to that town and I'm checking into a hotel or something so that I can finally get some sleep and peace and quiet!"

"Sheesh, Tony! You don't need to be so rude about it!" Gary said.

Tony just ignored him and kept on walking towards the town that they now knew was called, 'Ponyville' with everyone else following behind him. Once they reached Ponyville, the 8 humans planned to find and check into a motel or hotel, get some rest, get cleaned up and get something to eat before they went to report everything that had happened to them to the local authorities last night.

Despite the fact that their story would sound completely ridiculous and unbelievable, the group of exhausted humans now had some proof to back them up! During their fight with those Timber Wolves, Ned had pulled out a camera and his phone and snapped some pictures of the two Timber Wolves along with recording part of the fight between Michael, Tony and John fighting and breaking the Timber Wolves to pieces on his phone, too! Ned even had a short recording on his phone of the two Timber Wolves slowly putting themselves back together, which was sure to give the cops a pretty good run for their money!

Little did the party of 8 humans know, they were being watched by a very nervous and shy, yellow, Pegasus pony with a pink mane that was flying in the sky and looking down at them with wide eyes! This timid Pegasus pony was none other than Fluttershy who had been close by after finishing nursing a squirrel back to health and escorting it back home to its acorn tree home. She had immediately noticed the 8 humans not long after they had emerged from the Everfree Forest and in shock, she had flown into the sky to avoid being seen by them as they passed.

Fluttershy didn't even know what the humans were as they were completely new and unknown creatures to her that she had never seen or heard of before in her life! While she didn't know what they were and if they were dangerous or not, Fluttershy wasn't taking any chances and without a second thought, she flew fast through the air to Ponyville, hoping she could warn Twilight and the others about the approaching 8 new, strange and unfamiliar creatures heading for Ponyville before they got there first!

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Meanwhile, at the edge of the Everfree Forest, the two Timber Wolves were all back together again and they could be seen along with the rest of their pack as they all slowly emerged from the Everfree Forest, too! Seeing the 8 humans in the distance, they all slowly and quietly followed them as they made their way to Ponyville!

I Don't Think We're In Kansas Anymore!

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At Twilight's treehouse library home, it was now 6:40am in the morning and Twilight and Spike were now in the main room of Twilight's home with Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. Twilight and Spike had gotten up earlier at 5:50am so that Twilight could send Spike to go out to each of her 5 friends' homes around Ponyville and let them know that Twilight wanted to see them all at her place as soon as they could come. Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie were a little sore at Spike for waking them up early, but for somepony like Twilight, they knew that for whatever reason she wanted them all at her place as soon as possible, she must've had something very important or exciting to tell and share with them! So they had all agreed to be at her place by 6:30am, with the exception of Fluttershy who wanted to first take care of some of her animals and return a squirrel that she had been slowly nursing back to health for the last 2 weeks back to its home in an acorn tree before she, too, came over to Twilight's house at 6:40am to join Twilight and the others.

It was now 6:43am and Twilight and her friends were still waiting patiently for Fluttershy, that is except for Rainbow Dash, who didn't like waiting any longer for Fluttershy to come so that they could all find out why Twilight had requested them all to get together at her home in the first place. "Come on, Twilight! Can't you just tell us why you wanted us here right now?" Rainbow asked impatiently. "It feels like we've been waiting here all day!"

"Don't overexaggerate, Rainbow! We've only been waiting for 13 minutes!" Twilight told Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah! 13 minutes too long if you ask me!" Rainbow complained.

"Relax, Rainbow! Fluttershy will be here any minute now and then we can-" Rarity was saying, but was interrupted as the front door to Twilight's house was suddenly opened and a very worried-looking Fluttershy flew in before slamming the door right behind her!

Twilight and the others were about to ask Fluttershy what was going on, but Fluttershy didn't give them a chance as she quickly spoke in a very tired voice, "Twilight! Pant! Strange creatures! Pant! I saw..Pant! They're heading...Pant! I've never seen.. Pant! And I don't know what...Pant! And-"

"Slow down there, Sugarcube! You aren't making a lick of sense!" Applejack advised Fluttershy. "Now, take it easy for a moment, catch yer breath and then tell us what's got you so shaken up so badly!"

Fluttershy obeyed Applejack, took a minute to catch her breath, allowed her heart to slow down and then she cried, "Girls! Before I came here, I saw some very strange and weird creatures that I've never seen or heard of before in my life and they're heading straight for Ponyville!"

After hearing this, there was loud and collective gasp from everypony in the room as they took in this new information. "What did they look like, Fluttershy! Are they dangerous? Are they carnivores?" Twilight asked.

"They looked like hairless minotaurs, only they weren't minotaurs! As for your other two questions, I don't know!" Fluttershy answered. "All I do know, is that I saw them all come out of the Everfree Forest!"

Everypony in the room gasped again after hearing this shocking news! With a very worried and serious expression on her face, Twilight turned to face Spike and ordered him to send a letter to Princess Celestia about what she had just heard from Fluttershy. Twilight then told Spike to write down, "Dear, Princess Celestia. Last night, me, Spike and everypony heard a mysterious and loud booming noise, but when we looked outside, we couldn't figure out what had caused it or where it came from! This morning, I asked the others to come over to help me solve the mystery of the loud booming noise, only to learn from Fluttershy, who informed us that a group of very weird and unknown creatures from the Everfree Forest are now heading here to Ponyville! We don't know exactly what they are, what they eat or if they're friendly or not! But right now, we're gonna go out and meet these strange, new beings before they can cause any trouble or panic among the citizens of Ponyville just in case they are hostile! Please come to Ponyville as soon as you can! -Sincerely, from your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle."

Once Spike finished writing down Twilight's letter to Celestia, Spike quickly used his magic, green, dragon breath and had the letter magically sent to Celestia. After that, Twilight told Spike to stay at her place before Twilight turned back to her friends and spoke, "Change of plans, girls! I'll have to tell you all what I was gonna tell you later! Right now, we must find and get to those strange creatures before they all throw Ponyville into a panic!"

Twilight and her friends, except for Spike, all opened the front door and galloped as fast as they could out of Twilight's house and in the direction Fluttershy had seen the group of mysterious, strange creatures heading to Ponyville from! Once Twilight and the others had left, Spike closed the door, grabbed a broom and a dustpan to sweep up some dirt on the floor and said, "Darn it! Why do Twilight and the others get to go out and have all the fun while I stay here and do chores all the time? Life isn't fair!"

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Meanwhile, John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie were now just right outside of Ponyville and the 8 humans were all taking in the old-fashioned buildings and other architecture all around them as they made their way into the town. So far, they had seen no other humans around and the streets appeared empty, which they all thought was pretty strange.

"Where is everyone!?" John spoke as he was just as surprised and confused as the others to not see another living person yet.

"Maybe this town has been abandoned or something. Otherwise, we would've surely saw someone else by now!" Gary reasoned.

"I doubt it! Listen, guys!" Michael said as he heard a bunch of unfamiliar voices coming from even deeper in the town ahead of them. "Someone's definitely here! We just have to keep walking a little longer and we should see some other people real soon!"

"Whoever they are, they better sell hot wings because I could sure kill for some right now!" Tony spoke.

"We'll see what's up when we get there! Now, come on!" Michael ordered.

Without saying another word, the party of 8 humans kept walking as they headed deeper into Ponyville and in the direction that they heard all the voices coming from. They couldn't wait to see these other people as they all just wanted to get some help, find a place to stay for a little bit and rest, get some food and tell the police what had happened to them and about that strange orb and portal that they had seen back at the forest.

However, these thought didn't last much longer when they all turned a corner and finally saw where all the voices that they heard were coming from. The group of 8 humans all gasped and froze in place as their eyes grew wide and they stared in shock, confusion and amazement at the impossible sight before them!

Not to far ahead of the 8 humans was an entire marketplace with intelligent, talking ponies in many various colors wandering around, selling fruits, vegetables, cleaning supplies and etc. at wooden carts and ponies buying said products from other ponies who owned and were running said carts! For the most part, all the ponies all looked happy, calm or just bored and were acting like humans and some of the ponies were even wearing shirts and hats like humans, too!

"What the hell is going on!?" Tony freaked as he said this out loud, which he quickly regretted doing as he covered his mouth with his hands.

After hearing Tony's voice, all the ponies then noticed the 8 humans, which were creatures that they had never seen before, as they all froze in place and stopped what they were doing, too! Suddenly, a pink mare pony with blue and white hair, shrieked, "Eeeeeeeeeeeekkk!" Then that pony ran away and soon the rest followed as they, too, ran away from the strange and unknown beings in their presence out of fear!

Realizing that Ponyville was a town that literally lived up to its name and that they were the equivalent of aliens to the frightened and confused equines, the 8 humans immediately panicked and ran away themselves, having a pretty good idea of what kind of situation they were now in! As they all ran, they knew that if these ponies really were as intelligent as humans, it would only be a matter of time, before their police and even worse, their government got involved as well and getting caught and getting locked up in some dark and empty cell and being tested on by pony scientists for the rest of their lives didn't really sound that appealing to them, especially if they all ended up being cut open like fish for further study instead!

The 8 humans headed back the way they came, but they didn't get far before a white mare pony with a purple mane suddenly appeared and blocked the path right in front of them along with a orange mare pony with a yellow mane that was wearing a brown cowboy hat on its head! These 2 ponies, of course, were Rarity and Applejack, but the party of 8 humans didn't know that!

"Okay, y'all you strange critters! Stop right there!" Applejack told them.

"Fuck that! I enjoy my freedom a lot and no damn, stinkin' horses are gonna lock me up!" Tony replied as he and the others turned around and headed back to the market area where they hoped to lose the two ponies who were now chasing them!

Just like before, they didn't get far as this time, 3 more mare ponies appeared in front of them to block their path! It was none other than Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie! "Where do you guys think you're going?" Rainbow Dash spoke as the blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane landed on the ground and stood right next to Rarity and Pinkie Pie to help them block the humans' path! "None of you are going anywhere! Give yourselves up!"

"No way! That's not gonna happen!" Michael replied in a defiant tone of voice.

"Oooh! My Pinkie Sense was right!" Pinkie spoke as she broke the 4th wall. "2 chapters later and I finally get to see what it was trying to tell me! Whatever these strange and silly-looking creatures are, I hope they like cake! No! Wait! Of course, they do! Everypony loves cake!"

The 8 humans and Pinkie's friends all turned their attention to Pinkie Pie and gave her very confused and weird looks. Pinkie noticed this and asked, "What? Did I say something wrong?"

With Rarity and Applejack behind them and Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie ahead of them, the group of 8 humans knew that they were trapped and that their only option now of getting out of this was for them to fight! They felt a little bit confident that they could fight off the 5 mare ponies as there were 8 of them and only 5 of them, which gave them the number advantage!

Rarity, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie soon figured out what the humans (who they didn't know was the name of their species or what they were) were thinking as they, too, got serious and took up battle stances of their own, knowing that a fight between them was about to happen! But before anyone could make a move, a big, purple light suddenly appeared right next to the humans and when it disappeared, Twilight Sparkle was standing there in its place, having used her unicorn magic to teleport herself to their exact location and right before them!

"Oh, shit! That purple horse just appeared out of nowhere right in front of us!" Tony cried out in shock and fear. "She must have fucking, freaky, horse powers or something!"

"Hey! Me, my friends and everypony else you've seen here today are all ponies, not horses!" Twilight corrected, not liking the way Tony talked nor how he had unintentionally insulted her, her friends and the rest of Ponyville. "As for what I did just now, that was simply a teleportation spell that I performed with the use of my unicorn magic!"

"Hold on a second! Did you just say magic!?" John asked.

"Yes, I did! I can use magic! Why you ask?" Twilight said.

"Because magic is scientifically impossible! It defies the Laws Of Physics!" Ned explained. "Magic only exists in movies, shows, cartoons, art and fictional books and novels!"

"Then, explain how I can do this!" Twilight replied as her horn was covered in a purple aura and she used a telekinesis spell and made a couple nearby rocks levitate off the ground as they were covered in the same purple aura as Twilight's horn!

Ned and the others' jaws dropped as they stared at the impossible and strange sight before them! After 30 seconds, Twilight's horn stopped glowing as she gently placed the rocks back on the ground and turned her attention back to the speechless and amazed 8 humans.

"So as you can clearly see, magic is very real!" Twilight said.

"Cool!" Eddie shouted in a very excited voice. "If you can use magic, then does that mean you're a superhero because I've always wanted to see and meet a real superhero! Superheroes are so awesome!"

Twilight giggled as she found the young, human boy's childish behavior and claim that she was a superpony very entertaining. "I'm sorry, little one, but if you mean if I'm a superpony, then unfortunately, I am not one. But even though I'm not a superpony, I will tell you that like a superpony, me and my friends protect and defend the magical and peaceful land of Equestria from evil villains, tyrants and-"

"Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Back up a little bit!" Gary demanded. "The name of the country that we're in is called, 'Equestria', not The United States or America!?"

Twilight and her friends didn't know what Gary was talking about and they know looked very confused. "America? What's America?" Twilight asked.

Gary turned to face the others as they all wore expressions of shock and fear as they process what they had just heard. "Oh, crap! Guys! I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!" Gary spoke.

"You think so, moron!?" Tony told Gary rudely.

"Everyone, this is bad! Who knows how far from home we are now!" Claire panicked. "We're most likely the only humans around here, too, and if that's the case, I don't want to stick around to find out what the locals do to mysterious and unknown creatures that just suddenly walk into their town that they've never seen or heard of before!"

The group of 8 humans all agreed that they had to go and plan their next course of action. Then, they all turned back to face Twilight and her friends as John said, "Well, thanks for telling us where we are and everything, but we can't stay here much longer! We'll just be on our way then!"

But before John and the others could go anywhere, Twilight and her friends all became serious again as they all remembered what they were doing and they all blocked the 8 humans from going anywhere! "Sorry, y'all, but we can't let you do that!" Applejack said.

"I don't care! Let us go or we will fight you if we have to!" Michael warned.

"Then you leave us no other choice, but to make you stay then!" Twilight announced as she turned to face Rarity. "Rarity! Use your magic and help me keep them in one place and from going anywhere!"

"Got it, Darling!" Rarity agreed as her horn began to be covered in a blue aura while Twilight did the same by covering her horn in her familiar purple aura!

Suddenly, a blue and purple aura began to surround the party of 8 humans as they began to become extremely nervous as they didn't understand what Twilight and Rarity were trying to do to them! Twilight smiled as she knew that with the combined power of her and Rarity's magic, there was no way that the humans would be able to resist or escape the powerful telekinesis spell that they were using on them and with it, it would prevent them from going anywhere or moving and they could keep them all where they needed them until Princess Celestia arrived and-

'POP!' Twilight and everyone else heard as all the purple and blue magic around the party of 8 humans suddenly disappeared nd the 8 humans could all move their bodies again!

Twilight, Rarity and the rest of Twilight's friends couldn't believe what just happened! "What the hay!?" Twilight and her friends all said together out loud with slight confusion and fear in their voices.

Twilight and Rarity were bothered by what they had just heard and seen the most. It bothered them because they and everypony else knew that only powerful magic users could resist and disrupt telekinesis spells and as far as Twilight and Rarity could tell, the group of 8 humans weren't magical in any way! If they were, she and Rarity would've been able to sense their magic as soon as they met them!

After a moment, Twilight and Rarity just dismissed what had just happened as a simple mistake on their part and they both performed the telekinesis spell on the 8 humans again. However, this time, not only did their telekinesis spell fail on the humans, but no purple and blue aura covered them either!

Twilight and Rarity just shrugged it off again and repeatedly used their telekinesis spell again and again and again, but to no avail! For some reason, after the first 2 times Twilight and Rarity had used the telekinesis spell on the humans, not only was it not having any affect on them, but now, every time they used it on them, it felt like they were trying to carry a billion pounds of weight on their horns!

Finally, Twilight and Rarity gave up and decided to not continue to use telekinesis spells on the humans anymore! Twilight and Rarity panted and they both took a little bit to slow down and take a breather before Twilight cried out, "No! That's impossible! it can't be! Rarity may not be as skilled in telekinesis spells as I am, but somepony like me should have no problem using telekinesis spells on 8 creatures that are only slightly bigger than ponies with ease!"

"Even that time when I lifted that Ursa Minor to help save Ponyville was as easy as pie compared to this!" Twilight shouted as she didn't understand what had happened.

Suddenly, Twilight thought of something that made her feel a bit uneasy and perplexed at the same time. "Oh, no! This shouldn't be possible! It shouldn't be!" Twilight freaked. "It can't be possible unless..."

"Unless what, Twilight!?" Rainbow Dash demanded as just like the rest of Twilight's friends and Twilight herself, even she was not liking where things were going.

"Unless they all are immune to magic!" Twilight answered with worry and concern in her voice.

After hearing that, Twilight and her friends all turned their attention back to the 8 humans who hadn't yet made a move as they, too, were trying to figure out what had just happened, but like Twilight's friends, they had also all heard what Twilight had said and how they were apparently immune to magic! "What the heck!?" the party of 8 humans all thought as they slowly realized that this gave them a special advantage over the ponies that could help them in the long run.

Michael suddenly stepped forward and with a look of confidence and determination on his face, he said, "Perhaps I didn't make myself clear a little bit ago! Let us go now or we will fight you if we have to!"

Before Twilight and her friends could react, Michael and the others all felt something hard hit the back of their heads and before they could do anything else, their vision faded to black as they all passed out and fell to the ground unconscious! It was soon revealed that two Equestrian Royal Guard ponies were the ones responsible for knocking the humans out and right behind them was the Princess Of The day, Princess Celestia herself!

Upon seeing Celestia, Twilight and her friends instantly bowed down in respect to their ruler. "Please! There's no need for you to bow and give me special treatment, my lovely ponies!" Celestia spoke in a sweet and kind voice.

"Princess Celestia! Thank, Equestria, you're here!" Twilight shouted. "We tried to stop these strange creatures, but you wouldn't believe what happened!"

"They're immune to magic!" Celestia said and before Twilight could ask her how she knew this, Celestia cut her off and revealed. "I've been here almost the entire time, Twilight! Me and my guards were all watching you and these strange and unknown creatures from a short distance away and even from where we were, we could still clearly hear and see everything that was happening between you and them! We didn't get involved before because I thought you and the other elements could handle them on your own, but the fact that they turned out to be immune to magic came as a huge and very unexpected surprise for us all! My guards did not kill them, though. They only knocked them out with their hooves and these strange creatures will be out for a little while. But before they wake up, we will have to carry them with us and put them somewhere where they can be watched carefully and interrogated until we know more about them, what are they, where they came from and why are they here!"

"But, Princess! We can't take them all the way to Canterlot and throw them in the dungeons! They'll surely wake up by then and-" Twilight started, but was cut off.

"We aren't going to Canterlot or putting them in the dungeons, Twilight!" Celestia explained. "They are not criminals and we will not treat them as such as they have not committed any crimes and they are a new and unknown species that we have yet to learn about! We will take them into custody, placed under the close eye of some of the royal guards and have them interrogated! Once, we get their side of the story, we will decide what we will do with them next!"

Twilight understood and she, her friends and the 2 royal guards all placed one of the 8 unconscious humans on their backs and began to carry them away. The humans were all a bit heavy, but fortunately for them, they were all used to carrying heavy loads and Celestia informed them of where exactly in Ponyville that they were taking them, which wasn't very far so they wouldn't be carrying them for long either.

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Meanwhile, outside Ponyville, the pack of Timber Wolves waited nearby as they couldn't decide whether to enter the pony-inhabited town or wait for the group of 8 humans to come out instead. While Timber Wolves weren't as intelligent as humans or ponies, they did possess their natural instincts and right now, their instincts were telling them that it was too risky to go after the 8 humans now and that they should wait until later to do it instead.

Besides, Timber Wolves preferred to hunt their prey at night as opposed to during the day as they usually tended to be more active at night, anyway. So, with that, the Timber Wolves all chose to wait until night before they snuck into Ponyville and went after the 8 humans who they planned to make their next meal at whatever the cost!

Interrogations

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Later that day at the local Ponyville hospital, John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie were all still unconscious and were now lying down in 8 hospital beds in one of the largest rooms of the hospital. The room that they were all in was under tight security as almost nopony besides a few royal guards, a doctor, Twilight and her friends and Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were allowed in or out of said room.

Princess Celestia had ordered on of her guards to fly back to her castle at Canterlot and inform her sister, Princess Luna, about what had happened. When the guard had returned to Canterlot and told Luna about the humans and that they were immune to magic and were going to be kept at the Ponyville hospital to be interrogated, Princess Luna decided that she wanted to join her sister and the Elements Of Harmony there at the hospital so that she could see the 8 humans for herself as well.

It was now 7:26pm in the evening and the party of 8 unconscious humans had already been there for hours and everypony knew that they could all wake up at any minute. Knowing that the humans were immune to magic, Celestia had all the guards armed with swords and spears, but Celestia and the others hoped that they wouldn't have to use them if things got out of hoof.

Right now, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna, the Elements Of Harmony and the guards were all standing by the entrance to the room while watching a pony doctor with a image of a first-aid kit on his flank carefully examine the 8 unconscious humans as he held a paper on a clipboard in one hoof and a pen in his other hoof. The doctor was constantly writing down notes and other things that he noticed about the 8 humans.

The pony doctor was quite fascinated by the strange 8 beings before him and he had just finished studying the hair on their heads, which he and everypony else thought were manes and their skin, which mostly lacked fur and was either light-skinned or dark-skinned, which stunned him even more! After this, the doctor decided that now it was time to see their teeth.

After putting on some gloves over his hoofs, he stepped over to Michael and slowly opened his mouth so that he could see what kind of teeth the human had. The pony doctor suddenly gasped, let go of the top and bottom lips of the human's mouth, which caused Michael's mouth to close up again and then the pony doctor backed away from Michael and the other unconscious humans before he turned to face Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and the others with a look of worry and fear on his face!

"Doctor Lifeline, what's wrong? Something seems to be bothering you quite a bit!" Princess Celestia asked.

Doctor Lifeline didn't feel like talking, but he couldn't just pretend that nothing was bothering him nor could he just lie to Celestia and everypony else because of Twilight's friend, Applejack, the Element Of Honesty, who would quickly see through it or any lie almost as fast as lightning! After 10 seconds of silence, Doctor Lifeline then spoke, "I noticed a few things about the 8 unknown creatures before us as I was examining them such as their unigue manes on top of their heads and their lack of fur! They don't seem to have any sharp claws either."

"Well, that last part sounds good," Twilight said.

"But if what I just saw applies to all of these strange 8 beings, then their teeth is a completely different story!" Doctor Lifeline replied.

"What do you mean!?" Princess Luna demanded. "From the way thou said that last part, something tells thee that what you're about to say isn't gonna be more good news!"

Doctor Lifeline nodded. "I just observed the mouth of that one creature and what I saw makes me feel a bit uneasy just to think about!" Doctor Lifeline revealed as he pointed to Michael with his right hoof. "That creature has sharp teeth and if I'm correct, then so do the other 7 as well!"

"So, then that means that these things eat meat!" Celestia spoke with fear in her voice.

"I'm afraid so!" Doctor Lifeline answered.

Upon hearing this, everpony in the room gasped as worried and scared looks appeared on the princesses and the elements faces. Realizing that Doctor Lifeline was now practically shaking with fear and could not take anymore of this, Princess Celestia told him that they would take care of things from here and that he could go home and take a couple days off to calm himself down and get himself back together before he returned to work.

Doctor Lifeline immediately accepted Celestia's offer and he soon galloped away and down the halls and out of sight. As he left the hospital, Doctor Lifeline just hoped that the princesses and the elements could handle those weird and unknown creatures and whatever they were capable of doing!

Once Doctor Lifeline was gone, Princess Celestia became very serious as she then told her sister, the elements and the guards about how they needed to be extra careful around the group of 8 humans and not to let them leave or go anywhere else until they learned more about them and determined if they were a threat or not to them, Ponyville and the rest of Equestria first. Suddenly, Celestia and the others all saw and heard the 8 humans stirring and slowly coming to.

'They're waking up!' Celestia thought to herself.

John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie all felt a bit sore in the back of their heads as they all slowly opened their eyes and came out of their unconscious states. The first thing they saw when they woke up was each other and their first thoughts were that everything that had happened to them since late last night was only a dream and they had just been hallucinating the Timber Wolves, Ponyville and the talking ponies earlier the entire time.

However, when they all sat up, looked away from each other and noticed the princesses, the elements and the guards, those thoughts instantly vanished as their mouths hung agape and they all became as still as statues! After a moment, Tony broke this silence as he shouted, "What the fuck's going on!?"

"I don't know and I don't care!" Michael said. "I'm getting out of here!" Michael then jumped out of his hospital bed and got ready to make a run for the exit!

The Princesses, the elements and the guards quickly came back to their senses and the guards held out their swords and spears at Michael and forced him back to his bed. "You aren't going anywhere! None of you are!" One of the guards spoke.

"Gary, I'm scared!" Eddie told Gary as he got close to and sat right by his older brother.

"Look! Whoever you all are, you can't keep us here! We need to go!" John told them.

"You all must stay here for now and be interrogated! That's how it must be!" Celestia spoke. "But it's only fair that I introduce myself! My name's Princess Celestia!"

"And I'm her sister, Princess Luna!" Princess Luna said.

"And we're the rulers of Equestria!" Princess Celestia revealed.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle and these are my friends Applejack, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie!" Twilight explained as she pointed to her five friends.

"Now that we've told you a bit about ourselves, it's your turn to tell us about yourselves!" Princess Celestia said. "First off, what are you?"

"My name is Gary and I-" Gary was saying, but was cutoff.

"No! No! No! Not who are you! Tell us what are you as in the name of you species!" Rarity told him.

"That's easy! I'm a human and so is my little brother and my friends here!" Gary answered.

"Human?" Twilight spoke with confusion in her voice as she, her friends, the princesses and nopony else had never even heard of the word human before in their lives. "What's a human? Are you sure you're not some distant and new species of furless minotaurs or monkeys instead?"

"Do I look like a minotaur or a monkey!?" Gary spoke angrily, feeling slightly offended by Twilight's statement.

"No, but they were the closest things that I could think of that you even remotely resemble," Twilight apologized. "Sorry. I wasn't trying to insult you or anything else like that so please don't take that the wrong way."

"Well, alright," Gary accepted Twilight apology. "I suppose that you want to know who we all are now, huh?"

Twilight nodded. "What are your names?"

"I'm John," John spoke.

"I'm Gary," Gary said.

"I'm Eddie, the younger brother of my big brother, Gary!" Eddie introduced himself.

"I'm Michael," Michael said.

"I'm Ned," Ned said.

"I'm Alice," Alice told Twilight and the other ponies.

"I'm Claire," Claire revealed to Twilight and the other ponies.

"And my name's Tony and I think this whole thing is stupid!" Tony complained.

Ignoring Tony's rude comment, Celestia spoke, "Nice names, but now I want you tell us where you're from and why you're here!"

"Well, we didn't intend on coming here to uh...Equestria. It's kind've a long story!" Ned explained. "And as for your first question, we're from another country called, 'America'!"

"America? I've never heard of that nation before!" Celestia replied. "The last time I checked, there's no country on Equis that's called, 'America'."

"Nor have I!" Luna admitted.

"Same here!" Twilight spoke.

"Well, judging by the fact that we're in a land with talking, magical horses and-" Ned reasoned, but was cut off.

"Sorry, Sugarcube, but we're called, 'ponies', not horses!" Applejack corrected Ned.

"Right!" Ned replied before he continued what he was saying. "So, anyway, since we're in a land with talking, magical ponies, we've never heard of Equestria or Ponyville and ponies don't talk back where we're from, then it's obvious that we're no longer on Earth anymore!"

"But didn't you just say that you're from America!?" Applejack asked.

"That's the name of the country we're from, but the name of the world we live in is called, 'Earth', not 'Equis'!" Ned pointed out. "With that said, we're a very long way from home! In fact, we're not even on our own world anymore!"

"You mean all of you are aliens from another world!?" Twilight demanded as she began to become both very excited and worried at the implications of Equestria being visited by beings from other worlds.

"Well, that's the gist of it, but yeah! That pretty much sums it all up!" Ned concluded.

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie became very excited as she began to bounce around before she stopped before the group of 8 humans and said, "So this was what my Pinkie Sense was really trying to tell me! Aliens coming to Equestria! That's so awesome! Yay!"

"Then your arrival makes today a very special occasion! And special occasions like these always call for a party!" Pinkie added. "Yippie! Now, I can throw a 'Aliens Come To Equestria' party! That'll be so much fun! I'm so excited!"

"Pinkie, let's not get carried away! As exciting as this news is, we still need to know why these humans are here in the first place!" Rarity told Pinkie. "Maybe later, we can do something special, but right now, we need to know as much about these humans as we can!"

"Oh, alright!" Pinkie sighed in defeat.

Turning her attention back to face the group of 8 humans, Princess Celestia asked, "Ned, you said a little bit ago that as for why you and your friends are all here, it's a long story. Could you please elaborate on that. We have plenty of time today so go ahead and fill us in on everything that happened to you and your friends before you left your world and came here to Ponyville and met all of us."

"Okay, but it's gonna take awhile to do that so you all better make yourselves comfortable," Ned advised.

The Princesses, the elements and the guards all sat down and gave Ned the signal to show that they were ready to hear everything that he had to say. "Well, it all started awhile back when I won a science fair competition and..." Ned began.

.....................................................................................

Meanwhile, just outside of Ponyville, the pack of Timber Wolves had finally decided to make their move as the sun began to set in the distance and the darkness of night slowly began to cover the land. Using the darkness to their advantage, they all hid in the shadows and we're able to sneak themselves into Ponyville without attracting any attention.

After a little while, they saw a earth pony couple sitting on a bench down the street, hugging each other with their hooves, with their backs toward them. Despite their original intent to find, kill and eat the 8 humans from earlier, they couldn't pass up an easy kill when they saw one and so they all quietly snuck closer and closer to the unsuspecting and oblivious earth pony couple who were now getting ready to engage in a big and romantic kiss!

It wasn't until the pack of Timber Wolves were only ten feet away from them, that the earth pony couple finally noticed them and screamed before they tried to run away! But it was too late as they both were pounced upon by two of the Timber Wolves and the rest of the pack all swarmed them and began to tear off all their skin and flesh and feast on their innards, which made a huge bloody mess as the earth pony couple's painful screams filled the air before they slowly died down and both ponies died a slow and terrible death at the wooden paws and fangs of the Timber Wolf pack!

However, the earth pony couple's screams had also been heard by some nearby citizens of Ponyville, who had gone to investigate them, only to stumble upon the pack of deadly Timber Wolves and the mauled, bloody and lifeless corpses of the now deceased earth pony couple! The ponies were beyond disgusted and terrified by what they saw, especially when one of the Timber Wolves pulled out one of the eyeballs from the deceased earth pony husband with its teeth and chewed it to pieces like it was a big, juicy meatball! The ponies then headed back the way they came and informed some local policeponies about what they had seen and witnessed. An in turn, one of the police ponies then headed to the local Ponyville hospital to alert the Princesses and the elements about the Timber Wolf threat that Ponyville now faced!

.........................................................................................

"...So after we passed out after falling through that portal, we all woke up in a forest and after that, we-" Ned was saying, but was suddenly interrupted by the sound of loud and heavy hoofsteps and a scared and nervous male voice coming from down the hallway saying things like, "Princesses!", "Elements!", "We need your help!"

Soon, a gray, male, earth pony dressed in a police uniform stood in the entrance to the room and faced the princesses, the elements and the guards as he spoke, "Princesses, Elements, guards, Ponyville is being attacked by a pack of killer and bloodthirsty Timber Wolves! And they've already killed two ponies!"

"WHAT!?" the princesses, the Elements, the guards and the group of 8 humans all shouted together in shock and disbelief.

Choices

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The princesses, the guards, the Elements and the group of 8 humans were taken quite aback by what they had just heard! The party of 8 humans, especially, were the most disturbed by this news as they had thought and hoped that they had lost those Timber Wolves back in the woods! But if they really had followed them all the way to the strange, old-fashioned, intelligent, pony-inhabited town that they were at now, then some serious shit was gonna down!

The princesses quickly ordered one of the guards to leave them and gather some of the other guards outside and defend Ponyville from the deadly Timber Wolf pack! The guard wasted no time and ran out of the room, to the other guards outside and ordered them to go stop the Timber Wolves as fast as they all could!

The group of 8 humans didn't know what they should do now. They all had 2 options and both of them each had consequences. 1) They could help the ponies fight off the Timber Wolves and defend their town. 2) Or they could take advantage of this unexpected turn of events and try to escape from their captors while they're distracted and preoccupied with eliminating the Timber Wolf threat and restoring order and peace to their small and happy town.

If they chose option #1, they would be risking their own lives trying to stop and defeat the Timber Wolves, but by doing this, they might earn the trust and respect of the locals and maybe even the princesses at the same time. However, while the princesses, their guards and Twilight and her friends had seemed friendly when interrogating them, there was no guarantee that this would be enough to convince them all that they were no threat to them and that they would let them go.

On the other hand, if they went with option #2, they could wait for the right moment and then make a quick escape out of the hospital, out of Ponyville and head somewhere they could lay low until they figured out their next course of action and how they planned to find a way back home! Unfortunately, doing this would also cause the ponies to all mistrust them and before long, they would be on the run and considered wanted fugitives! They could only imagine seeing wanted posters of them wherever they went and with them being hunted down by Equestria's local authorities and any bounty hunters that came after them and being seen as criminals and having to be on the run for years, if not the rest of their lives, didn't sound that very appealing to them either!

While their first option seemed like a wiser choice, they all knew that if the princesses, the guards and Twilight and her friends deemed them as even a minor threat to them and the other ponies, they would most likely be locked up or worse, get sent to some government lab like in the movies! But if they just escaped and ran, they would just be making themselves look even more dangerous and suspicious to the ponies then they already appeared to them! If that happened, they might as well kiss their freedom along with any chances of them ever returning back to their world with them!

'This is fucking crazy!' Tony thought. 'And I need a cigarette right now or I'm gonna lose it!"

"Oh, man!" Michael thought out loud. "What should we do!?"

All the ponies in the room, of course, heard Michael say this and they turned their attention back to him and the other 7 humans who they could all see looked very nervous, confused and worried. "What's the matter, you guys?" Twilight asked them. "And what did you mean when you just said, 'What should we do!?'"

Realizing his mistake, Michael mentally scolded himself for his stupidity as he quickly tried to think of what to say to Twilight. "Uh, nothing," Michael quickly lied as he was unable to think of a clever and convincing answer to give Twilight. "I-I just tend to say random things every now and then, that's all!"

Applejack, being the Element Of Honesty, immediately saw through Michael's lie and then spoke, "And why would you do that?"

"Well, it's...uh, simple really," Michael lied again as a bead of sweat began to pour down the side of his face. "It's-it's...uh...it's because I like to talk to myself!"

"Really? Is that so?" Rarity questioned as just like Applejack, she and the others weren't being fooled by Michael's terrible attempts to lie to them one bit.

"Oh, yeah! I love to talk to myself!" Michael once again fibbed. "Everyday, I deal with a lot of stress and anxiety and talking to myself and using my imagination is a healthy and non-violent way that helps me deal with it! My schoolwork, family, friends and chores usually keeps me very busy and I don't have the time or money to see a counselor or a psychiatrist, so talking to myself and using my imagination is the next best thing that I can do instead!"

"For me, it's smoking a nice, good cigarette, drinking a tall glass of beer and watching MTV!" Tony chimed in. "Now, can I have a stinkin' cigarette already because I've never gone this long before without one!"

"Tony, this isn't the time for this! You can have a cigarette later, but right now, we have bigger problems to deal with and-" Gary scolded him, but was interrupted.

"What are you, my mom?" Tony told Gary rudely. "I don't give a crap about all this lame chit-chat and this stupid nuthouse that we're all in!"

All the ponies didn't find Tony's bad attitude very funny and between Tony and Michael's lying, they were beginning to wonder if they could trust the 8 humans or not. Rainbow Dash, however, strangely found Tony's rude demeanor and way of speaking somewhat interesting and since Rainbow wasn't one for long, boring and well-detailed conversations herself, the rainbow-maned, blue, Pegasus pony felt like she could really relate to him.

"I know, right?" Rainbow Dash agreed with Tony. "With everypony, it's always talk, talk, talk!"

"Same here, uh... you're name's Rainbow Dash, right?" Tony asked Rainbow, who nodded her head. "Well, Ms. Dash, if you think you hate listening to all this dribble, this is nothing compared to what I have to put up with back home! I get a headache just listening to all my college teachers giving all their boring lectures every week! Arrgh! Just thinking about it makes me wish that they would all just shut up!"

"Hahaha! I know what you mean, brother! There's way too much talking going on and not nearly enough action and excitement going on either!" Rainbow Dash smiled. "You're a cool guy! I like that!"

"Well, you're not too bad yourself! If only I knew more people like you back home, then maybe my life wouldn't be so boring and frustrating, but that's nothing a little beer and a few cigarettes can't cure!" Tony replied.

"Ahem!" Twilight interrupted. "I know you two are having a moment, but need I remind you that Ponyville is currently being attacked by Timber Wolves and neither you Michael or your friends have answered our questions about what is bothering you!"

"I already told you!" Michael said. "I was just talking to myself and using my imagination!"

"You can go ahead and drop the act, sugarcube!" Applejack revealed. "I know you're lying! We all do! Plus, you aren't doing a very good job lying so it's easy to see that you're clearly lying through your teeth! If you're gonna lie to us, then at least put some effort into it!"

"What are you talking about? I'm not-" Michael tried to lie again in vain, only to be cutoff.

"There's no point in trying to lie to us, Michael! Applejack is the Element Of Honesty and you cannot lie to her without her seeing through you and your deceit anymore than you can go back and prevent what has happened today!" Celestia explained. "Lying and dodging questions won't get you anywhere here so you might as well come clean and say whatever it is you have on your mind!"

"Yes, Michael! Whatever you're worried about, you can tell us, but whatever you have to say, make it quick! Timber Wolves are attacking the town and the longer we stay here, the more ponies are gonna get hurt!" Twilight chimed in. "No more lies! Just explain what's bugging you and your friends and I Pinkie Promise that we will hear you out!"

"If I do that, will you promise to let us go?" Michael asked.

"That's up to me and my sister to decide," Princess Celestia spoke. "We can't make any promises that we'll do that right away, but the sooner we get everything sorted out, the sooner you can all be on your way! I swear!"

Realizing that lying was useless and that the lives of innocent ponies were at stake with every passing second, Michael sighed in defeat and spoke, "Alright! I'll talk!"

"Remember when Ned said that we're from another world, which technically makes us aliens?" Michael continued as he saw the princesses, the guards and the Elements nodding their heads while listening to him. "Well, think about it! We're on another world where we're the only humans! By now, I'm sure that our presence alone has shaken up your peaceful town and its citizens!"

"Well, yes, but crazy stuff happens here in Ponyville a lot, anyway, so I don't see what's the big deal," Rainbow Dash said.

"We're beings from another world that no one on this planet has seen or heard of before! It's a very big deal!" John replied.

"What are you trying to say?" Rarity asked.

"Look! Imagine what would happen if any of you ended up on our world and were seen by all the humans there!" Claire explained. "They would all freak out!"

"You mean just like we and everypony else did when you first arrived!" Princess Luna asked.

"Yes, but it would be much worse!" Alice replied.

"What do you mean?" Twilight demanded.

"Oh, for pete's sakes!" Michael facepalmed as he yelled. "On our world, everyone would panic, then they would call the police and the government would capture all of you and send you to be studied and subjected to countless tests and experiments where you would be miserable and locked up cold, dark and empty cells for the rest of your lives!"

"What!?" everypony in the room shouted together in shock and horror upon hearing this.

"You heard me, right!" Michael spoke.

"But-but why?" Fluttershy asked in a very shaky and nervous voice. "We-we would never attack anyone, unless they-they attacked and hurt us first, that is!"

"While that may be true, fear is a very powerful and dangerous thing!" Ned explained. "It wouldn't matter if you're friendly or hostile because when you're a new and alien species from another world, people are always gonna be afraid! People fear what they don't know and understand! That's just how it is!"

"But--" Rarity tried to say, but was cutoff.

"No buts!" John stopped Rarity. "On our world, no matter how friendly you appeared to be or what your intentions are, you would be feared by many and caught by the government who would lock you up and run countless tests and experiments on you with or without your consent and against you will for the rest of your days period!"

"Still, I don't see what any of that has to do with-" Twilight admitted, but was interrupted.

"Now, imagine that kind of scenario, only with it happening to us with you on this world instead!" Michael instructed.

"I don't know what that would be like! I'm sure that nothing like that would ever-" Twilight was saying, but stopped herself as realization struck her, her friends, the guards and the princesses all at the same time. "Oh!"

Princess Celestia quickly regained her composure and facing the group of 8 humans, she said, "Okay. You have a point. We all understand now why you've been so nervous around us, but I promise you that that is not our intent and that we imprison nopony in Equestria unless he/she has committed any crimes first!"

"But the other ponies of Ponyville still fear us so how will they react when they see us out and about again, walking down the streets of this town?" Gary asked.

"Then, we'll just have to show them that they have nothing to fear," Twilight announced. "Just like how we showed Ponyville that our zebra friend, Zecora, who lives in the Everfree Forest, was nopony to be afraid of and neither should you be!"

"Right," Michael replied, making a mental note in his head to ask Twilight more about this Zecora character and the Everfree Forest whenever he got a chance to do so.

"Wait! Did you just say that Zecora is a zebra?" Eddie asked in a excited voice. "I love zebras! Their black and white stripes are awesome!"

"Can Zecora talk, too, just like you can?" Eddie continued.

"Of course, she can!" Twilight answered. "All Zebras on Equis can talk!"

"Hold on! You mean ponies aren't the single dominant species on this planet!? You mean there are other intelligent and dominant beings like yourselves that you share Equis with!?" Ned demanded.

"Why, yes! There's us, ponies, zebras, buffalos, minotaurs, griffins and dragons just to name a few!" Twilight stated.

"MINOTAURS! GRIFFINS! DRAGONS!" John exclaimed in shock and amazement.

"Yep! But if I were you, I would stay away from the griffins and dragons, especially the dragons! The dragons are by no means friendly and they won't hesitate to roast or slaughter anypony that gets on their bad side!" Twilight replied.

"Are all dragons like that?" Gary asked.

"No. Not all of them. In fact, I have my own personal dragon assistant, Spike, and he's a real nice guy who's always happy to lend a hoof whenever me and my friends need him!" Twilight revealed.

"No way!" Eddie spoke excitedly. "I have to meet him! I've always wanted to see a real dragon!"

"Sorry to interrupt, but that will have to wait till later! Now, that you've answered our questions, it's time we deal with our current problem, which is stopping the Timber Wolves before they can cause any more harm and chaos than they already have!" Princess Celestia announced. "Everypony, come with us! It's time to get rid of the Timber Wolves and restore peace and safety to all the ponies of Ponyville!"

Princess Luna turned to face the group of 8 humans and spoke, "That means you, too!"

"But what about the other ponies, Princess! Won't they panic even more when they see us again!" John reminded Princess Luna.

"Well, if thou helps us eliminate the Timber Wolf threat, the ponies of Ponyville will be most grateful to you!" Princess Luna replied. "If thou wishes to gain their trust and respect, this would be thou's chance to do so!"

"You got me there!" John answered as he and his friends grabbed all their backpacks and other belongings and followed the princesses, the guards and the Elements out of the room and the hospital and out onto the deserted streets outside.

As the group of 8 humans followed the ponies, Gary thought, 'This place just gets crazier and crazier! What have we gotten ourselves into!?'

The Timber Wolf Terror!

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"Everypony, this way! Hurry!" Princess Celestia instructed as she could hear screams of horror and pain nearby as she, her sister, The Elements, the guards and the 8 humans headed straight for the source of all the commotion.

Soon, everyone had arrived in the town square and what they found make them recoil in terror and disgusts! Throughout the town square, there was over 50 Timber Wolves tearing the place apart! But the worst part was the 12 bloody, and horribly mutilated and lifeless pony corpses scattered around the area!

Everypony and the 8 humans nearly gagged at the sight of this and Gary was quick to cover his little brother's eyes and turn him around before he comforted him and told him that everything would be okay as he knew that this gruesome scene wasn't something that Eddie needed to see, especially for a little kid at his age! While Gary had been fast to do this, he knew that Eddie had still gotten a brief glimpse of the horrible scene before them and now he could only hope that this experience didn't traumatize his little brother or worse!

Even corpses of some of the royal guards that Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had sent to deal with the Timber Wolves could be seen lying around! There were still a few remaining guards that the princesses had sent that were still alive, but they had some cuts and bruises on their bodies and they were looking a bit worn out, too!

While those remaining guards were putting up a good fight and they had managed to defend themselves from the Timber Wolf pack for awhile now, it was quite clear that they weren't gonna last much longer and that they would soon meet the same fates as all their fallen comrades and the all the unfortunate Ponyville citizens! They needed help and they needed it now!

Fortunately for them, the princesses came back to their senses and with similar expressions of anger, disgust and determination, they both flew 10-feet into air before they faced the others as Princess Luna shouted, "The Timber Wolves will regret harming our ponies!"

"Indeed! Their days of terrorizing Equestria has reached its final end! We have put up with them troubling anypony who so much as sets a hoof in the Everfree Forest, but coming out here to Ponyville and slaughtering innocent ponies, including even some of our Royal Guards is the last straw! After today, we will make sure that they never hurt another pony ever again!" Princess Celestia agreed with her sister as she and Luna swooped down and landed in front of the overwhelmed and outnumbered royal guards and shot powerful beams of magic right into the pack of deadly Timber Wolves!

However, even their magic wasn't enough to defeat the horde of ravenous Timber Wolves as their magic only caused the Timber Wolves wooden bodies to be scattered around in pieces and like withwhat happened with the 8 humans' group back in the woods, the Timber Wolves began to put themselves back together, only this time, they did it much faster! It wasn't long before all the Timber Wolves put themselves back together and were in one piece again and they let out a loud and angry howl as they lunged at the guards and the princesses!

The Elements Of Harmony were quick to act and they joined the princesses and the Royal Guards in their fight to defeat the Timber Wolves. Twilight and Rarity both used their magic to hold some of the Timber Wolves in place with a telekinesis spell, while Rainbow Dash helped them by taking to the skies before she flew so fast into the Timber Wolves that they once again were scattered into a bunch of pieces!

Applejack delivered powerful bucks to the Timber Wolves with her hind legs. Fluttershy tried in vain to reason with the Timber Wolves and even resorted to using her dreaded 'The Stare' technique, which also proved useless as the Timber Wolves lacked the ability to feel pain and emotions due to them lacking brains, hearts and other crucial organs that other living beings possess and thus, they were nothing, but mindless killing machines that could not feel pain, happiness, sadness, guilt, embarrassment or fear! They only thing they could feel was rage and hunger, which was why they always were so hostile and aggressive to everypony that they encountered.

Pinkie Pie pulled out her 'Party Cannon' and shot out confetti and even sweets like cake, cupcakes and pies at the Timber Wolves, which, of course, weren't fazed by Pinkie's silly antics and fighting style. Despite them getting covered in cake mix, cupcakes and pies, the Timber Wolves showed no interest in the delicious confections as they were only interested in consuming pony flesh instead and nothing else!

Meanwhile, John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie just stood by and watched the interesting battle before them between the ponies and the Timber Wolves. The 8 humans wanted to help, but how could they!? They had already fought the Timber Wolves back in the forest and like the ponies, they only managed to turn 2 of them into pieces of fire wood that could just keep coming back for more whenever their wooden bodies were broken apart! And now, even these strange magical ponies that they had only just met couldn't stop them either! So if even the ponies couldn't do anything about the Timber Wolves, what could 8 normal humans like them do!?

Realizing that they weren't getting anywhere and that they needed a new battle plan, the princesses, Twilight Sparkle and Rarity all huddled together as they combined all their magic together and at the same time, shot the biggest and most powerful magical beam at the pack of Timber Wolves that they could as possible! They didn't have the Elements Of Harmony on them and they didn't have the time to go get them now so this was the next best thing that they could do! This time, the Timber Wolves were affected by this as every wooden part of their bodies was crushed to tiny pieces!

After they were finished, the princesses, Twilight and Rarity all suddenly collapsed to the ground and they were now very weak and exhausted from using up so much of their magic all at once! The Royal Guards and Twilight's friends all rushed over to them, helped them back onto their hooves and checked to see if they were alright.

To their relief, the princesses, Twilight and Rarity were still conscious and they said that they were fine and that they would be much better in a day after they got some rest and relaxed for awhile first. Everypony was happy was happy, believing that it was all over as Pinkie faced the readers and broke the 4th wall again as she excitedly said, "Yay! We won! Yippie! Now, I can throw a party for everypony and all the readers of this fanfiction! And those nasty wasty Timber Wolves are gone forever and never coming back! Nothing could ruin this moment!"

Suddenly, Pinkie's Pinkie Sense acted up and Pinkie's tail began to shake. "Oops! I think I spoke too soon!"

All of a sudden, everypony, including the party of 8 humans all gasped in shock and horror as the tiny remains of the Timber Wolves all began to move once again. However, unlike before, they didn't put all the Timber Wolves back together and in one piece individually like they usually did. Instead, all the Timber Wolves' remains came together into they were one huge pile of wood and plants from the Everfree Forest! Then, all the small pieces of the Timber Wolves began to put themselves together like a person would when working on a big Lego project! All the pieces of the Timber Wolves attached themselves to another piece and another and so on until they created something more fearsome than the 50+ Timber Wolves from before!

When it was over, the final result wasn't the same 50+ Timber Wolves that they had just fought, but instead, one single giant Timber Wolf that was bigger than Pinkie Pie's house! The enormous Timber Wolf let out a very loud and enraged howl as it looked down at all the ponies and the group of 8 humans with hunger!

"Oh, fuck!" Tony cried out in panic as he was now smoking another cigarette after having just pulled one out of his backpack along with his lighter that he had used to light it. "I knew helping these crappy ponies was a bad idea!"

"Does anyone have any weed killer!?" John asked even though he already knew that that was very unlikely. Besides, from the looks of things, it would take more than some weed killer to take the huge Timber Wolf beast down!

The ponies were once again back on their hooves and they weren't gonna lose Ponyville to the monstrous Timber Wolf! Unfortunately, it became clear that the princesses, Twilight and Rarity were still quite weak and exhausted from their last attack and were in no condition to fight anymore for awhile! And the other ponies didn't know how they were gonna deal with their timber Wolf problem now, especially now that they were up against one giant Timber Wolf instead of just 50+ regular-sized ones instead!

Refusing to give up, the Royal Guards and the rest of the Elements Of Harmony took up battle stances and made many desperate attempts to defeat the huge Timber Wolf. But no matter what they did, the giant Timber Wolf was too strong and it just shrugged off all their attacks like an annoying itch that doesn't stop!

Rainbow Dash didn't have much luck in the air as she kept barely avoiding the giant Timber Wolves enormous and incredibly sharp, wooden teeth and what few attacks that she could land on the colossal wooden beast didn't so much as leave any holes or scratches on it! Before Rainbow do anything else, the giant Timber Wolf swatted Rainbow Dash out of the air and down to the ground with its big tail just like a person does to a fly with a fly swatter!

Upon hitting the ground, Rainbow Dash passed out and Fluttershy rushed over to her to see if she was okay. Applejack became furious and without thinking, she charged the giant Timber Wolf and bucked it on its sides as hard as she could! But like Rainbow Dash, this did nothing and the Timber Wolf sent her flying into one of the remaining Royal Guards with its right wooden, front paw, which effectively knocked them both out as well!

Things didn't look good for the ponies as without the princesses's, Twilight's and Rarity's help or the powerful Elements Of Harmony, they were no match for the enormous Timber Wolf before them! The Timber Wolf seemed to know this, too, as it slowly approached them and looked at stared at them with hungry eyes!

The giant Timber Wolf was about to pounce on the frightened ponies and devour them all with its sharp, wooden fangs when suddenly, the Timber Wolf felt an apple hit it on the side of its head (even though it didn't feel pain) as it turned its face to see that John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Eddie and Tony had stepped forward and had taken battle stances of their own! "Hey, 'Wolfie', shouldn't you be somewhere else like with your grandma as an outhouse?!" John insulted it.

"This was more than enough to get the huge Timber Wolf's attention as it quickly forgot about all the ponies and instead headed slowly toward the party of 8 humans as it began to growl angrily, signaling that it didn't find John's insult very funny!

"You call yourself a wolf?! You're nothing but a bunch of twigs and plants!" Ned mocked the Timber Wolf. "Even a tiny Chihuahua could make a better wolf than you, you overgrown log!"

The enormous Timber Wolf was even madder than it had been before as it came even closer to John, Ned and the other 6 humans until it was standing right in front of them! John and Ned tried to be brave, but inside, they were so scared that they couldn't think clearly and they and the others all wanted nothing more than to run for their lives and get as far as they could from the huge Timber Wolf that was now intent on killing and devouring them first before it continued its rampage on the rest of Ponyville!

John, Ned and the other 6 humans couldn't bring themselves to talk or move anymore or do anything for that matter, but The Timber Wolf, on the other hand, was gonna brutally slaughter and consume the 8 terrified humans before it that it had come all the way out of the Everfree Forest and into Ponyville in the first place and nothing was gonna stop it! Then the giant Timber Wolf opened its mouth as wide as it could as it got ready to eat and swallow the 8 humans alive and in one bite!

Knowing what the Timber Wolf was about to do, Ned began to shake so much that his backpack opened up and the plastic bag with Poison Joke flowers inside of it that Ned had collected awhile ago fell out of his backpack and landed right on the ground next to him. Ned noticed this and looked at the bag on the ground right next to him and back at the approaching massive maw of the giant Timber Wolf and then back down at the bag again! Ned had to act fast or it was game over for him and the others!

Then, for some reason, Ned did the craziest thing he had ever did before in his life! Ned suddenly grabbed the plastic bag full of Poison Joke and threw it as hard as he could and straight into the huge Timber Wolf's mouth!

Ned assumed that the bag must've made it into the Timber Wolf's throat as suddenly, the Timber Wolf stopped its attack and began to cough violently! 'That bag of flowers must've gotten stuck in its throat or something! It's choking!' Ned thought.

For the next 30 second, the Timber Wolf continued to violently cough as it choked and desperately tried to expel the bag of Poison Joke from its throat and body in vain! No matter how hard the Timber Wolf tried, it couldn't get rid of the bag of Poison Joke.

However, the Timber Wolf finally caught a break as the bag of Poison Joke finally got unstuck in its throat and continued its trip down the beast's gullet until it ended up at the Timber Wolf's stomach. But instead of the bag of blue flowers being digested, the bag of Poison Joke mixed with the Timber Wolf's stomach acids as its contents inside began to spread to other parts of the beast's body!

Suddenly and without any warning, the giant Timber Wolf fell apart like a building that had just been demolished as all the wooden pieces of the huge Timber Wolf were scattered around into many piles all over the town center! Unsurprisingly, all those piles soon put themselves back together until they were the same 50+ Timber Wolves that they had seen earlier!

However, this time, the Timber Wolves were different and this became obvious when everyone saw that all the Timber Wolves' eyes had suddenly stopped glowing green and began to glow blue instead! But what was even crazier was when the Timber Wolves suddenly got right in front of the 8 very confused humans and one of them did something to John, which was one of the last things that he, the other 7 humans and the ponies ever expected it would do to him! It licked John playfully on his right cheek and began to wag its wooden tail like a dog!

"Woof! Woof! Woof!" the Timber Wolf barked at John playfully as it licked him again.

John and the others were shocked and very perplexed and even more so when the other Timber Wolves began to do the same thing as well! "What the hell's going on!?" Tony demanded as he kept pushing away a dozen of the Timber Wolves as he refused to be licked by their slimy, green, wet tongues.

"Beats me!" Michael said. "First, they wanted to tear us apart and eat our flesh and now, they're acting like a bunch of dogs! It doesn't make any sense!"

"Well, whatever's going on, I want it to stop!" Gary spoke. "I may be a dog lover, but this is ridiculous!"

"That's enough! All of you, stop licking and sniffing us right now and stand still!" John shouted out in annoyance.

Suddenly, to John's and everyone else's surprise, the Timber Wolves seemed to have understood what John had said and they all immediately left John and the other alone and sat on their hind legs and stood before the 8 humans, looking like they were waiting to be given any more orders to obey. "What the!?" John spoke in confusion and disbelief.

Before John could say or do anything else, Ned beat him to it and said, "Roll over!" the Timber Wolves obeyed again and rolled over. "Now bark!" Ned ordered. "Woof! Woof! Woof!" the pack of Timber Wolves barked together in unison. "Okay. Good job! Now, make yourselves one giant Timber Wolf again!" Ned commanded. The Timber Wolves obeyed Ned yet again and quickly combined all their wooden bodies until they all formed the giant Timber Wolf from before again!

"Good boy!" Ned rubbed the huge Timber Wolf on its wooden nose as it continued to wag it tail happily.

"Ned! What's going on!?" Alice demanded. "What're you doing!? This thing's dangerous! All those Timber Wolves are dangerous! They'll kill us!"

"No they won't!" Ned replied. "Can't you see, the Timber Wolves aren't even trying to harm us anymore! In fact, if anything, it seems that now all they want is to be petted and played with instead!"

"And why is that!?" Michael asked. "They just tried to eat us just a little bit ago! Why would they suddenly just change like that!?"

"I'm not sure! But if I had to guess, it probably had something to do with that bag of strange, blue flowers that I collected back in the woods that I tossed into its mouth! Maybe after swallowing it, it somehow did something to all the Timber Wolves, too! Whatever the case may be, something has made them go from aggressive and deadly killing machines and into docile, wooden wolf dogs!"

"Wait! Did you just say that you had strange, blue flowers and that you got them from woods?" Ned heard a familiar voice as he turned around to see Twilight looking at him with a surprised and confused expression on her face.

"Oh, yes. Why?" Ned asked Twilight.

Twilight gasped in shock. "You didn't touch them did you or come in any physical contact with them in any way right?"

"Of course not! There's no way that I'm gonna touch some weird, blue flowers that have been out in the middle of a forest with my bare hands! I'm not afraid of germs, but I don't like to get my hands dirty when I can just use my robotic hand invention to place flowers like that in a plastic bag instead!" Ned told Twilight. "They're just flowers! Why you ask?"

"Those flowers you had are from the Everfree Forest and they're called, 'Poison Joke'! Everypony knows better than to go anywhere near them, much less to pick them and carry them around!" Twilight revealed. You're very lucky that you didn't touch them with any part of you body or those Timber Wolves wouldn't have been the only things you would've had to worry about!"

"What do you mean by that? Are you trying to say that those flowers were poisonous or something!?" Ned demanded.

"Well, no they aren't, but they...uh...You know what? Forget it! I'll explain later!" Twilight spoke. "Right now, we have more important things to deal with!"

"And what about these guys?" Ned pointed to the 50+ Timber Wolves who had all returned to original forms yet again, but were still friendly towards all the humans and ponies.

"We'll also figure that out later!" Twilight told Ned. "Now, come on! There are ponies that need our help, some of the buildings are badly damaged and we need to assure all the other ponies of Ponyville that they are safe again! Not to mention, that we also have to arrange some funerals for all the ponies that have lost their lives today due to the Timber Wolves!"

"Hey, Gary! Can I keep one of these Timber Wolves as a pet and take it back home with us?" Eddie asked his brother excitedly as he always wanted a pet, but his parents wouldn't allow it as they didn't want to clean up any messes and they knew that Eddie having a pet would just make his room even messier than it already is due to Eddie never putting away his toys and clothes and neglecting to fold his bed every morning!

"NO!" Gary told his younger brother as he didn't want to have to explain to his mom and dad about how and where they got a freaky, wolf creature made out of wood from another world!

"Oh, man!" Eddie whined in response.

Aftermath

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The next day in Ponyville and after a funeral at the local funeral home to remember and pay respects to all the unfortunate and innocent Ponyville citizens and Royal Guards that had lost their lives to the (former) deadly and bloodthirsty Timber Wolf pack, the Elements Of Harmony and the group of 8 humans were now sitting down at a couple couches and tables as they all were silent as they contemplated everything that had just happened to them recently, well mostly everyone that is. Fluttershy was crying quietly to herself and Tony being Tony, didn't seem to give a damn about any of the ponies who had died or about how the others and the other ponies were taking it as he was smoking yet another cigarette.

Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and the remaining Royal Guards weren't with them as shortly after the funeral had ended, the Princesses and the Royal Guards had to return to Canterlot to deal with some important matters as well as breaking the tragic news of what had transpired last night in Ponyville to Twilight's brother, Shining Armor, and Shining's wife, Princess Cadence, which they weren't looking forward to doing one bit. Next to the group of 8 humans, the Princesses had reacted to the brutal Timber Wolf pack slaughter on Ponyville easier than every other pony, but that didn't mean that they weren't upset that it had happened in the first place. In fact, the Princesses along with Twilight and Rarity, had all felt terrible that even with their combined magic, they still couldn't defeat the Timber Wolves for good!

After awhile, though, everyone and everypony decided that it was time to move on and that they needed to take their minds off what had happened last night and focus on what they were gonna do now. Twilight was the first to speak and after reassuring everyone and everypony that everything would be alright and reminding them that they had managed to stop the Timber Wolves and save the rest of Ponyille, she told everyone that all the ponies who had perished last night could rest in peace and that they would always have a special place in the hearts of all the ponies of Ponyville.

Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Applejack and Fluttershy had taken this the hardest as some of those ponies that died had been good, close friends to them for years and their families. For Rarity, she had lost a kind, Unicorn Pony mare friend called, 'Paradise Oasis', who had helped inspire her to pursue her dreams of being a fashion designer pony! For Pinkie Pie and the Cake Family, they had lost a funny and very good-natured Earth Pony stallion called, 'Chuckles', who had taught Pinkie Pie the importance of keeping promises, which in turn, had caused Pinkie to vow to never break her word to another pony, especially if it was one of her trademark and well-known 'Pinkie Promises' that she made! And for Applejack and the Apple Family, they had lost an honest and helpful, Unicorn Pony stallion called, 'Knuckles', who had done so much for them like helping them out with 'Apple Bucking Season', helping Applejack's brother, 'Big Mac', plant crops and occasionally looking after and taking good care of Applejack's little sister, 'Applebloom' while Applejack, Granny Smith, Big Mac and the rest of the Apple Family were out. Over time, Knuckles had gotten so close to the Apple Family and vice versa, that Knuckles had even practically been considered a part of Applejack's family, too!

And as for Fluttershy, she had been crying her eyes out for hours as she was the most sensitive of the ponies and was easy to scare or upset. As such, she had a hard time facing and dealing with sensitive and negative topics like murder, mutilation, disembowelment and death and just thinking about those kind of things was enough to turn her into a emotional wreck!

But thanks to Twilight's repeated reassurances that things were gonna be okay now and reminding them that they still had their families and each other, everyone and everypony finally let go of their losses and all the emotional pain that they were feeling as they knew that dwelling on the past would not help them and that they had other things right now to think about instead. Even Fluttershy had finally stopped crying and calmed down when Rarity reminded her of her pet bunny, 'Angel', back at her cottage and that he and all the other animals that she looked after and cared for wouldn't want her to be upset and that she couldn't keep taking care of them properly if she kept letting her emotions get to her.

Fluttershy dried her tears and slowly calmed herself down as she sighed and spoke, "You're right, Rarity! Crying and being upset won't help me and anypony else feel any better. We stopped the Timber Wolves and saved the rest of Ponyville and that's what really matters!"

Rarity patted Fluttershy on her back with her left front hoof to help comfort her as she replied, "Time heals all wounds, darling! Everypony's safe again now and we can once again return to our normal, happy and peaceful lives!"

"Well...uh...Almost normal lives, sugarcube!" Applejack said as she got Rarity's attention and she pointed towards the party of 8 humans to remind her and the rest of the Element Of Harmony of their presence. "Ever since these 8 weird creatures-uh, I mean humans showed up, things have been different around here!"

"Oh, yeah. I forgot about them," Rarity admitted.

John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire and Eddie were surprised that the ponies had forgotten about them until just now, but they all stayed silent. Tony, on the other hand, took Applejack and Rarity's comments about him and the other 7 humans with him as an insult, which in turn, caused Tony to angrily yell, "Well, sorry to intrude on your little Happy Land, where it's all smiles and rainbows all the time! Personally, all you fucking horses and your silly-willy personalities and all your fur that comes in different colors like a box of crayons makes me sick to my stomach!"

Applejack, Rarity, the rest of the Mane 6 and the other 7 humans all gasped after hearing Tony speak to Applejack and Rarity with such foul and rude language and disrespect. Rarity then looked at Tony with an angry expression on her face and asked, "Okay, bud! Did you just use profanity and call us stupid horses?"

"Oh, here's a tip! I so fucking just did!" Tony replied rudely.

This time, only Applejack, Rarity and the rest of the Mane 6 gasped as they all began to find Tony's rude behavior and language very unacceptable. "Well, how dare you speak like that in front of a lady! Someone should wash that filthy mouth of yours out with soap for talking like that! Don't you have any manners!"

"I don't give a shit about what I say to anyone!" Tony told Rarity. "And by the way 'Miss Fancy Pants', I think your dumb!"

Rarity didn't take Tony's response very well and she was just about to give a piece of her mind, but Applejack beat her to it. "Now, don't ya talk like that to Rarity, buster! How would ya feel if somepony started insulting you and called you stupid, huh?" Applejack scolded Tony. "You better apologize to her or I'll-"

"Oh, shut the hell up, 'Hay breath'!" Tony shouted at Applejack before he smiled and asked. "Hey, aren't you lost, 'Bullseye'? This is the 21st century, not the Old West."

By this point, Applejack was fuming with rage and she was losing her patience with Tony's incredibly impolite and disrespectful behavior fast! It soon became obvious that if no one else did anything soon, then Applejack and Tony were gonna beat the snot out of each other!

But before that could happen, Tony then noticed that the cigarette that he had been smoking this whole time had been all used up (which it had already been 5 minutes ago) and now it was time for him to pull out and light another one. Tony then took his eyes off Applejack, Rarity and the other ponies as he opened his backpack and pulled out another cigarette from one of the couple cigarette boxes that was inside his backpack.

This caused Applejack, Rarity and the other ponies to become a bit confused as they saw him pull out the new cigarette from the cigarette box. In Equestria, there was no such thing as smoking and nopony knew what a cigarette was either so none of the ponies knew what exactly Tony was doing.

"Uh, what are you doing?" Twilight asked.

"What does it look like? I'm getting ready to smoke again. Does that answer your question?" Tony answered. "You sound like you've never even heard of smoke before!"

"Oh, we've heard of it and we know what smoke is, but the question is, how are you gonna make smoke?" Twilight asked again.

"Do you have fire breath or any fire powers?" Pinkie Pie spoke excitedly. "Because that be really, really, really cool!"

"No, I don't!" Tony replied, starting to get annoyed with the questions that the ponies were asking him.

Before any of the ponies could ask him anymore questions, Tony cut them all off and announced, "If it will make all of you shut up, I'll be more than happy to show you how I'm gonna do it! So go ahead and watch and be amazed!"

Suddenly, Tony pulled out his lighter as he placed the cigarette into his mouth and lit the end of the cigarette on fire as he began to smoke the burning cigarette right in front of the shocked and very perplexed ponies! "Ta da!" Tony spoke.

For the next 20 seconds, the Mane 6 just stared at Tony in confusion and surprise as they saw smoke coming from the lit end of the cigarette in Tony's mouth, but not directly from his mouth or any other part of his body. Instead, Tony had used some strange device (that we all know is a lighter) that could create fire to light part of his cigarette (that the ponies also didn't know what it is) on fire and now there was smoke coming from it!

"What the buck just happened!?" Rainbow Dash demanded in shock and amazement.

"Rainbow Dash! Watch your language, please! We don't need you using bad words, too, right now!"

"Oops! Sorry!" Rainbow Dash apologized.

"That's so cool!" Pinkie cried out in excitement as she began to dance around in place.

"Neat! It looks like I'm not the only one around here who can create fire now anymore!" everyone and everypony heard a familiar voice as they all turned to see Twilight's personal dragon assistant, Spike, standing next to a bookcase, staring at Tony with slight interest.

"Spike, how long have you been standing there?" Twilight asked him.

"I've been here all day, cleaning the library and arranging all the books in order from smallest to largest. You told me to do this other day, remember?" Spike replied. "You didn't forget that I was even here again, did you?"

Twilight knew that there was no point in lying to Spike that she had indeed forgotten about him along with all her friends, especially with Applejack around, who was literally a living lie detector and would just point out any attempts she made to lie to Spike. Like her friends, and the 8 humans, Twilight was having a hard time just trying to figure out how she and everypony else hadn't noticed him before, but Twilight just guessed that they had all been so busy comtemplating everything that had happened to them and Ponyville lately and focusing on and scolding Tony for his unacceptable behavior that they just had seen him or anything else around them.

In the end, Twilight decided to change the subject and dodged Spike's question altogether. "Well...uh...Thanks for being here, Spike. You're help is much appreciated! Now, go upstairs and get some sleep or something so that we can all discuss some important things in private."

"But I'm not tired and it's only 1:32PM in the afternoon. It's too early for bed, Twilight," Spike reminded Twilight. "I may like to take some short naps on weekends sometimes, but even I don't sleep that much!"

"Just go upstairs, Spike! We have things to do and-" Twilight ordered Spike, but was cutoff.

Eddie had walked over to Spike and he was staring at him like an exotic animal in a zoo. "Sweet! You must be the dragon that I've heard about! I've always wanted to see a real dragon! This is so awesome!"

"Why is that? Don't you have dragons back where you're from?" Spike asked Eddie.

"I wish!" Eddie replied. "Until now, I've only seen them on tv and in books, movies and art."

"I'm just a dragon, though. There's nothing too special about me," Spike said. "Even though I'm a little dragon, I've met plenty of ponies who fear me just because of what I am. I'm surprised that you haven't said one negative thing yet about me or my race! Most ponies don't wanna have anything to do with dragons, much less be friends with one unless it's ponies like Twilight, her friends, Zecora and the princesses of Equestria themselves!"

"Well, not me! Dragons are amazing and I think you're awesome!" Eddie told Spike.

Spike was quite taken aback with Eddie's amazement, huge interest and positive attitude about him. Ever since he had been born, Spike had never met anypony like Eddie who thought so greatly about him and the rest of the dragon race! This was something that Spike wasn't used to and Spike was starting to enjoy it!

"Well, thanks, uh...uh...What's your name?" Spike asked Eddie.

"My name's Eddie!" Eddie introduced himself before pointing to his older brother and the other 6 humans and introducing them as well. "That's my older brother, Gary! That's John. That's Michael. That's Ned. That's Alice. That's Claire. And that last guy is Tony, but he's a real jerkface, so I would stay away from him if I were you!"

"Hey! I didn't ask for your opinion, 'Little Bit'!" Tony yelled back at Eddie.

"I hate to interrupt, but we have things to do and as excited as you are, Eddie, to have finally met a real dragon, we've already wasted enough time as it is!" John reminded Eddie. "We still need to figure out how we're gonna get home!"

"Oh, man!" Eddie whined. "But I just met him! I wanna talk him more and find out everything there is about dragons!"

"I'm sorry, Eddie, but john's right! We really need to-" Gary told his little brother, but was cutoff.

"If Eddie and Spike are really getting along with each other so well, we should just let them do their own thing while the rest of us figure out what are next course of action will be!" Fluttershy suggested. "Spike's about to go upstairs so why not have Eddie go up there with him so that they can talk more with each other and do whatever they want for awhile, that way they're both happy?"

"I don't know," Twilight said.

"Yeah. I don't feel comfortable with leaving my brother alone, even if he's just gonna be upstairs with a friendly, purple dragon that would never harm a fly!" Gary agreed.

"Please, Gary! Just this once!" Eddie begged his older brother. "If you don't, when we get back home, I'll tell everyone here about that one embarrassing time you-" Eddie threatened, but was interrupted by Gary, who quickly covered his mouth to prevent him from saying anything else as Gary suddenly became very nervous as his cheeks began to turn red with embarrassment.

"You promised me that you would never speak of that incident to me or anyone else ever again!" Gary told Eddie. "That was one of the worst times in my life and I have no intentions to relive it ever again either!"

Eddie freed himself from his older brother's grasp and said, "Well, then you make your choice because of you don't let me hang out some more with Spike, I'll tell everyone about it here right now! In fact, I'll start first with mentioning what happened when you-"

"Alright! Alright! You win, Eddie! You can go upstairs and spend some more time with Spike, only for a little while and that's it!" Gary spoke in defeat.

"YES!" Eddie shouted excitedly.

"Whoa! Hold on there a minute there, kiddo!" Twilight reminded Eddie. "Your brother may have agreed to this, but I haven't so forget it! You're staying down here while Spike goes upstairs by himself!"

Eddie wanted to argue with Twilight to let him go upstairs with Spike, but unlike his brother, Eddie had nothing on Twilight that he could use against her to force him to let him have things his way. Eddie was at a loss of words and couldn't think of anything to change Twilight's mind.

"Oh, come on, Twilight! Just let Eddie do it already!" Spike defended Eddie's plan. "Besides, if I can handle managing and cleaning this library, running errands, sending messages to Princess Celestia and even defeating the wicked and dreaded King Sombra of the Crystal Empire, surely a little kid like Eddie won't be much trouble for me either!"

Eddie didn't like being called a little kid, but he was too fascinated by Spike to care about it. Not to mention, right now, Spike might be his only shot at convincing Twilight to let him spend more time with the purple dragon.

"He's got a point there, sugarcube," Applejack admitted. "Spike is the one who saved the entire Crystal Empire from King Sombra awhile back! When he puts it that way, I don't see why he and Eddie can't be allowed to have some time to themselves with each other upstairs."

"Fine," Twilight sighed as she realized that it was pointless to argue anymore. "You can both go upstairs and do whatever you want to do. Just don't-"

Twilight didn't even get to her finish what she was saying before both Eddie and Spike rushed upstairs as Eddie spoke, "This is the best day of my life! Woo-hoo!"

After reaching the top of the stairs, both Eddie and Spike disappeared out of view. "...get carried away," Twilight finished her sentence.

With that out of the way, Twilight and the other ponies turned their attention back to Tony, remembering what he had just did a little bit ago with his lighter and making smoke come out of the end of the cigarette in his mouth. "Okay. That that's taken care of, please explain to us, Tony, about what you are doing with that thing in your mouth?"

"It's called a cigarette, 'Sprinkles'! It's what me and other people use to smoke with," Tony told Twilight.

"Then what was that thing that you used to make fire and light your 'cigarette' with, if I may ask?" Twilight asked.

"Are you fucking serious!? You're telling me you don't even know what a lighter is!?" Tony yelled as he was really starting to get annoyed with all the questions that Twilight and her friends had been giving him. "This is a lighter! A lighter! L.I.G.H.T.E.R! Lighter!"

"It's what we humans use when we want to make a fire quick and for people like me, to light a good, old cigarette and boy do I love my cigarettes!" Tony answered. "We call it smoking and it's something me and many other people like to do everyday!"

"Wait! You smoke every day!? Why!?" Fluttershy asked.

"Because I like to and I don't give a damn about what anyone else thinks about it!" Tony replied.

"But don't you that breathing in so much smoke is bad for your health!? There's no way that can be good for you!" Twilight told Tony.

"You think that's bad, Twilight! Just wait until you hear what exactly is in a cigarette!" Ned said.

"Like what?" Twilight demanded as Ned got close to her and began to whisper some stuff into her right ear.

Twilight's eyes seemed to grow bigger than they already were as she took in all the disturbing new information regarding all the contents of the cigarettes that Tony and other humans were smoking everyday! Twilight then told her friends everything that Ned had just told her and they began to wear the same disgusted and horrified expressions as Twilight as they turned to their attention back to Tony who was still smoking the cigarette.

"Why are you all staring at me!? I answered all your stupid and annoying questions so leave me alone!" Tony yelled angrily.

"Are you aware of what's even in that cigarette that you're smoking right now!? Are you aware that every time you smoke one of these cigarettes, you're poisoning yourself!?" Twilight warned Tony.

"So. I don't care!" Tony replied.

"Are you also aware of how many other humans have died because of this terrible smoking habit!?" Applejack asked Tony.

"I don't care about that either! Just shut up!"

"Are you aware that you could be using more of you're money to pay for things that...uh...I don't know, like things that you actually need to live and have a nice, long and happy life instead of spending so much of your money just so that you can smoke everyday!?" Rarity spoke.

"You're really starting to annoy me so cut it out!" Tony said.

"Are you aware that other people who don't smoke might be suffering from all the smoke that you and other smokers make whenever you smoke!? Are you aware that that's called, 'Secondhand smoke' and that many people on your world who are non-smokers are getting sick because of this and are having a harder time breathing as a result, which is so, so, so very mean!?" Pinkie Pie added.

"For the fucking last time for crying out loud, I don't give a crap about what happens to me or anyone else as long as I can fucking smoke! I can care less about my own health, or about my money or about if I'm hurting anyone else!" Tony coldly announced.

"How can you be so cold, mean and selfish!?" Rarity demanded. "What happened to you that made you this way!?"

Hearing that last question from Rarity made Tony's blood boil as he furiously yelled, "That's my business and my business alone! I'm not telling you or anyone else about my past so don't bother on trying to ask me that again!"

"You're unbelievable, you know that, Tony!?" Alice berated Tony.

"You, I'm just gonna ignore!" Tony spoke as he turned away to avoid facing her.

"You're acting just like that rude and inconsiderate dragon that once lived in the mountains in a cave outside of Ponyville awhile ago!" Twilight told Tony. "Like you, he had a terrible habit of making smoke and everyday, he would do it without thinking about anypony else or if all the smoke that he was making was or wasn't hurting anypony else!"

"Yeah!" Pinkie agreed as she turned to the readers and broke the 4th wall again. "And for all you readers who don't know what we're talking about, go watch the 7th episode of season 1 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic: Dragonshy! That's one of my most favorite Fluttershy episodes!"

Everyone and everypony suddenly stared at Pinkie Pie with very confused expressions on their faces and seeing this, Pinkie Pie said, "What? What did I say?"

Everyone and everypony just decided to ignore that last thing that Pinkie said as they all turned their attention back to Tony. "So as I was saying, Tony, that dragon was making so much smoke that the skies were starting to be filled with it and this would be horrible for the lives of us ponies and the rest of Equestria as Princess Celestia warned us that if we couldn't convince the dragon to leave, the smoke from all his snoring would cover all of Equestria for the next hundred years and we couldn't have that! So we were forced to go up into the mountains and to his cave to make him stop. Like you, he refused to listen to us, even when we told him about how his smoke was affecting all of Equestria. Eventually, we resorted to using force to make him leave, but even that didn't work. It almost seemed like we had failed and that Equestria was doomed to being engulfed in that dragon's smoke for a hundred years! However, Fluttershy saved the day and managed to persuade that dragon about what he was doing was wrong and that he had to leave!" Twilight explained.

"So that's what you want me to do? You want me to leave?" Tony asked, now feeling like the ponies were only seeing him as a burden and liability.

"No. That's not what we're trying to say!" Twilight explained. "You're not listening to-"

"Oh, I've been listening and I've listened to all of you much more than I needed to!" Tony spoke as he headed over to the front door of Twilight's home and opened the door. "I don't need this!"

"Where are you going?" Applejack asked.

"Outside. Hopefully, I won't be bothered out there by anymore annoying and crappy horses that decide to ask me a million fucking dumb questions!" Tony shouted furiously as he slammed the front door hard behind him and he could be heard storming down the street outside.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but that Tony guy is a real jerk, jerk, jerk!" Pinkie said.

"Forget about him, Pinkie, we still need to figure out what we're gonna do with that pack of Timber Wolves! Ever since they became docile last night, we've kept them locked up in Ponyville's animal shelter and they can't stay there forever! We must decide what we'll do with them first before we do anything else!" Rarity reminded Pinkie and everypony and everyone else.

"She's right! We don't know how long those Timber Wolves will continue to act like friendly, tame dogs or if they'll permanently remain that way! Either way, we need to get to the animal shelter and decide what we'll do next!" Michael agreed.

"Alright! Everypony and human, follow me!" Twilight ordered as she led her friends and the 6 humans out into the streets and towards Ponyville's animal shelter.

Suddenly, Gary remembered Eddie and was about to turn back to get him, but Twilight assured him that Spike would keep him safe and that Ponyville was one of the safest towns in all of Equestria. Plus, it had been almost 30 years since the last time somepony had been kidnapped and almost 150 since another pony had been murdered! Except until last night, when the Timber Wolves attacked Ponyville and killed and ate all those unfortunate and innocent ponies, but now that the Timber Wolves had been taken care of, at least temporarily, Ponyville was perfectly safe again and there was nothing to worry about.

After Gary, Twilight and the others left and left behind Eddie and Spike at the library, a light-brown, unicorn pony stallion with an image of a camera on both sides of his flanks and who was wearing a brown coat and holding an old-fashioned camera appeared from behind Twilight's home. This pony seemed to be very agile and cautious as he quickly snuck down the street and away from Twilight's place without anypony seeing him!

Once he had gotten out of town and he was sure that nopony had seen him and that he wasn't being followed either, the sneaky unicorn pony sighed in relief as he laid against a tree and said, "Things look good. Nopony's seen or heard me and I'm in the clear!"

The unicorn stallion then pulled out a bunch of pictures that he had just recently taken, but he nor anypony else could see what pictures they exactly were of as they were all blank due to them all coming from the old-fashioned camera that he had used to take them with. The mysterious, unicorn stallion, though, knew exactly what he had taken pictures of, but he had to get them all developed first before he could present them to his boss.

"Yes! I did it! I, NewsFlash, have managed to get the very first pictures of these strange human creatures before anypony else!" the unicorn stallion spoke in excitement.

NewsFlash was a pony who had a job as a reporter and he been one for the last 5 years. However, for most of his career so far, he had found very few things to report to his boss and The Press that were that interesting. As a result, for some time, he had been struggling to earn enough Bits to make ends meet and his boss refused to pay him more unless he could find a real juicy story that could make the headlines.

Fortunately, NewsFlash had learned about the existence of the humans not too long ago and while he was skeptical at first about the existence of these new beings, he had nothing else to lose and he hoped that this would be just what he needed to get his career going! And that brings us to where he was now.

"I still can't believe that ever since yesterday when I came to Ponyville, I was able to successfully follow the humans everywhere they went since last night and despite how exhausting and stressful it was, all these amazing pictures that I got were so worth it!" NewsFlash said quietly to himself with a smile on his face.

What NewsFlash had just said was very true as he had indeed been stalking the 8 humans since last night and without them or anypony else knowing! For extra measure, he had even gotten some pictures of the humans going up against the giant Timber Wolf, Tony smoking a cigarette in Twilight's library and Eddie being amazed with and wanting to hang out with Spike The Dragon!

"This is big news! My boss will pay me a fortune for these! Hearth's Warming Eve Bonus, here I come!" NewsFlash cried out in joy as he placed all the photos that he had taken into a saddle bag that he was wearing as he headed for the nearest photo development place to get the photos developed before he would go to Equestria's National News capital building in Canterlot, which was where he would turn them over to his boss and demand a huge raise in wage. "One thing is for sure and that is that once I get back to the office, give these to my boss, collect my well-deserved Bits and copies of these photos are printed out in the latest Equestria Daily newspapers, everypony in Equestria and in time, the rest of Equis will know of the existence of these weird human beings and what happened in Ponyville in the last day and a half!"

Getting Settled In

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Meanwhile, later that day, Twilight and her friends along with the party of 6 humans, had returned to Twilight's home after they had finally taken care of the pack of Timber Wolves at Ponyville's animal shelter. Dealing with the Timber Wolves was easy as they were still as playful and docile towards them as they had been the last time they had seen them.

Not one of the Timber Wolves so much as growled at them and it soon became apparent that their new, friendly and dog-like behavior was indeed permanent. This, of course, was a good thing for all of them since if this hadn't been the case, Twilight and her friends would've had to put them all down as the Princesses had told them to in order to prevent them from harming anymore ponies again and none of the ponies wanted to do that.

So instead, like last night, Ned had given all the Timber Wolves orders to follow, to which they all listened to him and obeyed. After being let out from the animal shelter, Ned commanded them to all go back into the forest where they belonged and for them to never hurt another pony or human again and that from now on, they are to only eat fruits and vegetables, which effectively made them herbivores! With that said, all the Timber Wolves went away and disappeared back into the thick trees and bushes of the Everfree Forest.

Originally, Twilight had intended to be the one to deal with the Timber Wolves, but last night, on their way to escorting the Timber Wolves to the animal shelter and having them temporarily locked up there, Twilight and her friend had all tried giving the Timber Wolves orders and attempted to get them to obey their orders, too, but to their surprise, the Timber Wolves just ignored them! But when Ned or any of the other humans spoke to the Timber Wolves, they were all attentive and compliant! "What the hay!?" Twilight and her friends had thought out loud in shock. "How come the Timber Wolves will obey the humans, but none of us!?" Twilight spoke.

Ned was thinking the same thing and as he took a seat next to Twilight, he told her that he was just as confused as to why the Timber Wolves would only listen to him and the others an not Twilight or any of her friends! Neither of them could exactly figure out the reason for this, but they did have their own theories as to why this was.

After awhile of sitting down at a table and sharing their each other's ideas and theories, Twilight and Ned both settled on one single theory to explain this. Twilight had told Ned that the forest that they had come from was called, The Everfree Forest' and that those woods were infamous to all the ponies and the rest of Equestria for being a place where all the plants and wildlife took care of themselves without any ponies controlling the weather there and maintaining the land and feeding and looking after all the animals and other creatures that inhabited the area!

From the way Twilight spoke about the Everfree Forest, it sounded like she and the other ponies were somewhat unsettled about that place. In fact, Ned and the other humans, including Eddie and Spike, who had finally come back downstairs, as well as a silent and slightly annoyed and bored Tony who had returned from his walk outside, all noticed the uneasy expressions on Twilight and her friends faces, which confirmed this. 'Hm. Why would these ponies be afraid of a place where nature is just doing its job and where they have little to no involvement with?' Ned thought to himself. 'Perhaps tomorrow, I'll ask Twilight about this."

Realizing that they were starting to go off topic, Ned then reminded Twilight about why they were discussing all this in the first place and instantly, Twilight and her friends all blushed in embarrassment as Twilight said, "Sorry about that. Now where was I?"

Twilight then remembered where she had left off and she told Ned that according to what she believes, that bag filled with all those Poison Joke flowers must've had special properties that significantly affected the Timber Wolves behavior, thus causing them to become the docile, wooden canines that they were now! And as for why, the Timber Wolves only obeyed Ned and his friends, both he and Twilight had a crazy idea that might explain that.

If what they were both thinking was true, then maybe Ned and the other humans had some kind of special influence on the Timber Wolves now that they had eaten the Poison Joke flowers and only them alone! As for why only they could this, Twilight and Ned couldn't think of anything else that could explain this.

However, by this point, Twilight already was much too excited with this amazing discovery about the 8 humans as well as the fact that they were immune to magic to continue searching for anymore answers to these questions! All Twilight wanted to do now was ask the 8 humans a million questions about them, their race and what their world was like as she pulled out and levitated a pencil and paper and right next to her with her magic and stood in front of Michael.

Applejack, though, knew what Twilight was planning and stopped her before she could bombard any of the 8 humans with many questions. "Uh, Twi! Let's not get carried away. Ya'll have plenty of time to ask the humans questions later and when you do, you should only ask them a few questions at a time. Nopony likes for another pony to just come up to them and just ask them a bunch of random questions for hours and hours! That wouldn't be okay," Applejack told Twilight, who soon realized that Applejack was right and agreed to wait until later to ask the humans anymore questions.

Suddenly, Twilight's stomach began to grumble and so did her friends, the 8 humans and Spike! It was only then that they all realized that they were starving!

Spike wasn't as hungry as everyone else as he had eaten a few large gems only a couple hours before Twilight and her friends had returned to Twilight's house with the 8 humans after they had all attended the funeral earlier that day so he was only hungry, but not starving! Everyone and everypony else on the other hand, hadn't eaten anything in awhile and were quite famished, especially the 8 humans, who hadn't eaten since the taco dinner that Claire made for them back at the log cabin on Earth before they ended up in Equestria!

Eating wasn't the only thing that they had neglected as they all also noticed that both Twilight and her friends and the 8 humans were exhausted, especially since they hadn't slept at all last night! For the 8 humans, they were even more tired as they had not only been for nearly 2 days now, but they had also got sent to another world, trekked through a dark and dangerous forest filled with all sorts of dangerous creatures and who knows what else, stood their ground against Twilight and her friends, gotten knocked out and captured, been interrogated by the princesses and the Elements Of Harmony, fought and defeated the Timber Wolves twice, went to a funeral, ordered the Timber Wolves to leave Ponyville and not harm another pony or human ever again and more!

Everyone and everypony soon decided that it was time to get something to eat before they all hit the hay. Fortunately, for Twilight, her friends, Spike and the 8 humans, with Twilight and Rarity's magic, they soon gathered all the supplies and ingredients that they needed and created enough food for all of them to have a little feast in Twilight's home!

The feast consisted of daisy sandwiches, hay fries, fruit, veggies, bread, lemonade, water, 30 gems (for Spike) and 3 of Pinkie Pie's famous pies for dessert! "There we go, everypony! Now, please dive in and help yourse-" Twilight didn't get a chance to finish her sentence as everypony and everyone else already got themselves seated down at a couple long tables and placed whatever they could on their plates as they all began to chow down!

Twilight quickly joined in and grabbed a daisy sandwich, some hayfries, an apple, a couple slices of bread and a glass of lemonade. Most of Twilight's friends got exactly the same things, while Spike only got a glass of lemonade and some gems to eat as gems were really the only thing that liked to eat at all. The ponies were pretty much eating almost everything else (except for the gems).

The group of 8 humans, however, hadn't so much as touched any of the daisy sandwiches or hayfries, for obvious reasons. But what they were really focusing on as they were stuffing their faces with fruit, veggies and bread and drinking lemonade and water was a pile of 30 precious gems that Spike was quickly devouring one at a time!

Just like the others, Michael couldn't believe what he was seeing! Right before them, there were real precious gems-and they were all being eaten by Spike as if they were nothing but a bunch of potato chips! Michael couldn't stand to see this and without thinking, he got out of his seat and grabbed Spike to prevent him from consuming anymore of the precious gems!

"Stop that!" Michael yelled at Spike as he grabbed him and forced him to let go of the valuable Ruby that he had in his left dragon claw that he was about to eat next.

"Hey! What was that for!?" Spike demanded, a bit angry that the strong human had suddenly just grabbed him and forced him away from that Ruby and the other gems that he wanted to eat.

"Dude! You're eating rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds and other gems!" Michael replied.

"So. That's what me and all dragons eat," Spike answered.

"Now, Michael, if you're trying to tell us that you want to eat some of those gems, too, there's still plenty to go around," Rarity said.

"I don't know about that, Rarity. I don't think humans can eat gems," Twilight spoke.

"Whoa! Hold on! Who said that I want to eat them?" Michael told Rarity and Twilight. "Even if I could, why would I want to eat and destroy such perfect and precious gems like those!?"

Twilight, her friends and Spike were surprised by Michael's response as they hadn't been expecting them to say that. "Easy there, sugarcube! What do you mean about that? They're just gems! We ponies have lots of them!" Applejack revealed.

"Yeah, Michael! I may not be an egghead like Twilight, but I know just as well as everypony else that gems are very common and easy to come by!" Rainbow Dash chimed in.

"Are you kidding!?" John shouted. "Back on our world, the chances of us coming across those kinds of gems is like trying to win the lottery!"

"All you need, darling, is to use a simple 'Gem Detection' spell," Rarity stated. "By the way, if you aren't gonna eat those gems, then why are you so interested in them in the first place?"

"Do you even know how valuable those gems are!?" Alice asked Rarity and the rest of the Elements Of Harmony.

"They're worth only a few bits at most. I don't see what the big deal is!" Rarity admitted.

"Maybe to you, they aren't worth that much, but for us, those gems could make us rich!" Gary said.

"And why is that?" Fluttershy asked.

"Like we said, those gems are valuable!" Claire spoke. "But I don't think I'm the one who can tell you exactly how much all those gems are worth. Hey, Ned! Can you explain to these ponies about why does gems mean so much to us?"

"Of course, I can! I ain't one of the smartest and best students in our college for nothing!" Ned replied. "Now, let's see!"

Ned then carefully studied all the remaining gems that Spike hadn't eaten (which was now only 12) before he faced everyone and everypony and said, "If I'm correct, then with all these gems put together, they're worth at least 100 grand!"

"See what we mean?" John told Twilight, Spike and the rest of the ponies.

Twilight, and her friends as well as Spike, didn't know what a grand is and they know were a bit confused. "Uh, what's a grand?" Twilight asked.

John facepalmed as he couldn't believe that Twilight, Spike and the other ponies hadn't heard of the word 'grand' before, when it cam to money. "Alright. Let's put it this way," Ned explained. "Let's say that each bit, which is the kind of money that you use, is worth a dollar, which is the name of the currency we use back in America on our world. Pretend that 1,000 bits is worth 1,000 dollars on our world. Now, imagine that you have 1,000 bits. If you have a thousand bits, that means you have one grand! One grand equals a thousand bits or in our case, a thousand dollars!"

"Wait! You mean those gems are actually worth a fortune back where you come from!?" Twilight demanded. "But why!?"

"Simple, Twilight! We don't have magic, so we can't just use any Gem Detection spells to find them like you, Rarity and other ponies can!" Michael pointed out.

"I guess you're right about that, Michael," Twilight admitted. "Without magic, it would indeed be quite difficult to find these kind of gems anywhere!"

"Well, if these gems are so valuable to you and your friends, I guess we can share any extra gems that we don't need or want with you," Rarity offered.

"As long as none of these gems are the ones I'm gonna eat, I guess I can be good with that," Spike agreed, even though he hated the thought of having to give up some nice and delicious gems to the humans.

"That sounds fair enough," Gary also agreed.

"When I get back home, I'm gonna use my share to buy more cigarettes, beer and open a nightclub!" Tony announced. "Maybe I'll even buy the Coco-Cola Company, too, while I'm at it!"

"So you like Coco-Cola, too?" Michael asked Tony.

"Next to beer and cigarettes, I do. I love that soda so much that I've sometimes bought 24-packs at the store and whenever I do, I drink a couple cans of those a day instead of smoking or having beer instead. It's the only other thing that I fucking like as much as smoking and drinking beer!" Tony revealed. "But when I get back home and I buy the entire Coca-Cola Company, I'm gonna rename that great soda after me! I'll call it, 'Tony-Cola'!"

Michael and Ned rolled their eyes, knowing where Tony's idea was going. However, they did find the concept of the popular soda being named after Tony very hilarious.

A little while later, everyone and everypony had eaten until they were stuffed and content. With their previously growling stomachs all satisfied, it was time for everyone to go to bed.

Some of the ponies and humans didn't want to go to sleep, though without brushing their teeth first. These ponies and humans were Twilight, Ned, Fluttershy, Alice and Claire.

Unfortunately, while Twilight had toothpaste in the bathroom downstairs, only Twilight, Fluttershy, and Ned had toothbrushes to use. Ned had packed his own toothbrush and toothpaste with him before he went to spent 3 days at that log cabin back on Earth with the others and again before he went out with the others to investigate that bright light, which would lead them to that strange, glowing, floating orb that somehow sent them to Equestria in the first place. Fluttershy also had a toothbrush on her as like Twilight, she also took personal hygiene seriously and always brushed her teeth everyday.

Fortunately, for Alice and Claire, Twilight had spare, new and unused toothbrushes and toothpaste that they could both use. In fact, it turns out, Twilight had at least 10 more spare and brand new toothbrushes and toothbrushes underneath the sink in her bathroom. The reason for this was because Twilight often invited her friends over for slumber parties and Twilight always like to have spare toothbrushes and toothpaste at her home in case her friends forgot to bring their own and Twilight being Twilight, wanted to be a good host and make sure all her friends were happy and comfortable whenever they slept over at her house.

Alice and Claire thanked Twilight for her kindness and generousity before they went into the bathroom first, grabbed two of the spare toothbrushes and toothpastes tubes from under the sink and quickly brushed their teeth until their teeth were clean and their breath was fresh. After they were finished, Ned went in next, then after him, it was Fluttershy's turn, and lastly, it was Twilight's turn.

After they had all brushed their teeth, they went back to the others and then realized that they hadn't figured out where everyone was gonna sleep yet. The only bed in Twilight's house were hers and Spike's, but that's it. Sure some of the humans and Twilight's friends could sleep on the couches, the chairs and even the floor, but Twilight wanted them to all sleep as comfy as she and Spike did in their beds so she wasn't gonna let that happen.

Twilight then opened a storage closet and she showed everyone and everypony the 16 sleeping bags and pillows and levitated 13 of them over to her friends and the 8 humans. Like personal hygiene supplies, Twilight also kept plenty of sleeping bags and pillows for other ponies like her friends for when she had other ponies staying at her place overnight, too, as well. Afterall, you gotta be prepared for anything.

Twilight's friends and the 8 humans all thanked Twilight again for her kindness and generousity before they all set up their sleeping bags and pillows, got into their sleeping bags and rested their heads down on their pillows. "Goodnight, Eddie!" Gary told his brother as he began to fall asleep.

"Goodnight, Gary!" Eddie told his older brother as he, too, drifted off to sleep.

"Oh, shut up already! No more talking! I wanna get at least 10 hours of straight sleep without being woken up, so either shut the fuck up or I'll rip your lips off your faces!" Tony threatened in an angry and very rude voice.

Everyone and everypony was too tired now to care about how mean Tony was being so they just ignored him and stayed silent until they all slowly fell asleep. It wasn't too early to go to bed as it was almost 10:00pm and the dark, moonlit sky now shined over Ponyville and the rest of Equestria.

----------------------------------------------

In the meantime, at Equestria's National News capital building in Canterlot, Newsflash had finally gotten all the photos that he had taken developed and now he was in his boss's office after he had requested that his boss see him in private as soon as he could. Newsflash's boss was a gray Earth Pony stallion who wore a fancy, blue business suit with a black mane and black moustache and an image of a newspaper that read, 'Breaking News' on both sides of his flanks. This was why he and everypony called him, 'Breaking News'.

Right now, though, Newsflash's boss was in a grumpy mood towards Newsflash since it was starting to get late, and he was tired and wanted to get home. Big News had reminded Newsflash that as Equestria's National news capital, the place was open 24-hours a day and that if he had something important he wanted to share, he should share it with the company's other boss, EyeWitness who did the night-shift and would come to relieve Breaking News of his post in another half hour.

Newsflash, however, had insisted that he speak with Breaking News now. Newsflash didn't want to wait another 30 minutes to share his story with the company as along the way and before, during and after Newsflash had gotten the photos developed and headed to the Equestria National News capital building, NewsFlash had just barely evaded some other curious newsponies, who had seen him look very suspicious and sneaky on his way over to the office and NewsFlash had to keep avoiding them or he knew that they would ask to see what he was carrying in his saddlebag and NewsFlash didn't want to risk them seeing all the pictures of the humans he had taken and all the notes he had written about everything he had heard, seen and witnessed while he was in Ponyville. NewsFlash knew that if other newsponies found out about the humans and reported it to his boss before he could, they would take the credit and all the bits for themselves and he would be back to square one! NewsFlash wasn't gonna let that happen!

After a minute of begging non-stop, Newsflash's boss finally gave up and agreed to hear whatever he had to say as he led him into his office and Breaking News sat at his desk while NewsFlash sat right across from him. "Whatever this is all about, NewsFlash, it had better be good! Otherwise, you can kiss your job here goodbye!" Breaking News warned.

"Oh, trust me, boss! I'm not!" NewsFlash replied. "After 5 years, I've finally found a real story that is gonna make the front page for sure!"

"For your sake, you had better be right! Now, enough talk!" Breaking News yelled. "Words alone mean nothing! You better have some pictures and other proof to support whatever stupid story you're about to tell me!"

"Well, this stupid story is gonna be the biggest story Equestria's ever had in years!" NewsFlash shot back as he opened his saddled bag and levitated all the pictures he had taken of the 8 humans in Ponyville along with all the notes he had written down out of it and placed it all on top of his boss's desk.

Breaking News started to slowly and carefully study all the pictures and notes that NewsFlash had taken and wrote and the more he looked at them, the more his angry and annoyed expression disappeared and was replaced with one of slight fear, confusion and amazement. "What the hay!?" Breaking News cried out in shock, having a hard time believing what he was seeing and reading about with his two eyes!

After 5 minutes of silence, Breaking News slowly took his eyes off all the pictures and written notes and faced NewsFlash again and asked, "Do you know what these things are called?"

"They called themselves humans, boss," NewsFlash answered.

"What about where they came from?" Breaking news asked.

"Thanks to a special spell, I overheard them mentioning to the Princesses and the Elements Of Harmony that they are aliens from another world called, 'Earth'!" NewsFlash replied.

"And their names?" Breaking News demanded.

"Their names are John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie," NewsFlash replied.

"And what about this?" Breaking News asked as he held up a couple pictures of the 8 humans, facing and defeating the giant Timber Wolf and befriending the Timber Wolf pack.

"Apparently, the human called, 'Ned' had been carrying around a plastic bag filled with Poison joke with him and he tossed it into the giant Timber Wolf's mouth! It then choked on it for a bit before it fell apart and separated back into the Timber Wolf pack and the next thing anypony knows, all the Timber Wolves' eyes change from green to blue and they're acting like docile and tame dogs towards all the humans!" NewsFlash informed his boss.

"Are you serious!?" Breaking News demanded.

"It gets even crazier than that, boss!" NewsFlash spoke. "Not only had all the Timber Wolves become friendly and harmless, but when some of the humans told the Timber Wolves to do some things, they all listened and obeyed them!"

"What!?" Breaking News yelled in shock and disbelief.

"It's true!" NewsFlash told Breaking News. "And later, I noticed that none of the Elements Of Harmony could make the Timber Wolves do anything and that the Timber Wolves just seemed to completely ignore them! The humans, on the other hoof, were a different story! Whenever they gave them an order they would always listen to them! And whatever they told the Timber Wolves to do, they would always do it no matter what it was!"

Breaking News then turned his chair around to face away from NewsFlash. "This is insane! This is unbelievable! This is impossible!" Breaking News yelled.

NewsFlash didn't like how his boss was talking and he was beginning to fear that his boss didn't believe him or the story and evidence that he had just presented to him and who could blame him! NewsFlash was still having a hard time believing all this, even though he had seen, heard and witnessed it all himself!

Suddenly, Newsflash's boss turned his chair back around to face him again and now Breaking News had a very serious expression on his face. "This whole thing is...is...is..." Breaking News trailed off.

"Is a bunch of nonsense and a complete waste of your time!" NewsFlash guessed the rest of his sentence.

"This is... exciting, NewsFlash!" Breaking News finished.

"Wait! Really!?" NewsFlash asked, beginning to become very excited about receiving his long-overdue and hard-earned bag of bits that he deserved.

"Yes! Really!" Breaking News replied. "This is exactly what we need to bring more even more publicity to this company and make more and more ponies buy and read our newspapers!"

"I'm glad to hear that!" NewsFlash replied.

"Alright. So how much for all these pictures you took and notes that you've wrote?" Breaking News asked.

NewsFlash then went over to his boss and whispered how much he wanted his boss to pay him for all the pictures and notes in his right ear.

"What!?" Breaking News yelled.

"You heard me! That's how much you have to pay me in exchange for all these photos and notes!" NewsFlash told Breaking News.

"That's ridiculous! You want me to pay you 500 bits for each picture and 150 bits for each one of your notes!" Breaking News spoke. "No deal!"

"That's my price and I won't accept anything lower than it! I went through a lot of trouble to get these pictures and make those notes and big news like that is something that is something that you aren't gonna get from me cheap!" NewsFlash told his boss. "Now, either pay me the bits that I want or I can just quit and take my exciting over to this company's biggest rival, Equestria Times! I hear they'll pay real big bits for anypony who can give them the story of the century!"

"Fine! Fine! You win! I'll give you what you want!" Breaking News spoke as he admitted defeat and then placed a big bag of bits the size of a basketball on his desk and gave it to NewsFlash, who in exchange, gave his boss all the photos and notes that he had.

Having succeeded in his quest and having gotten what he had come for, NewsFlash opened the door that led out of his boss's office before he turned back to face him one more time and said, "I's been a pleasure doing business with you!"

After NewsFlash left and Breaking news got over his slight annoyance and hatred towards NewsFlash, he regained his composure before he became serious again, stepped out of his office and went over to his secretary. His secretary quickly noticed him and before she could say anything, Breaking News ordered her, "Get everypony here ready! We just got another new story and it's time for all of Equestria to know of what has occurred in Ponyville in the last couple days!"

Getting To Know Each Other

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"Rise and shine, everypony!" Twilight shouted out as she and Spike came downstairs to see all her friends and the party of 8 humans just starting to get up.

It was now 6:42am in the morning and the sun had already began to rise into the sky above them less athen half an hour ago, signaling that another new day had just started. While mostly everyone and everypony didn't argue or get annoyed at Twilight for her sudden wake-up call, Tony, on the other hand, wasn't too happy about it as he was still a bit tired and had wanted to sleep in a bit more.

Instead of yelling at Twilight, he just ignored her and tried to go back to sleep, but Twilight and Rarity both used their magic and returned all the sleeping bags and pillows that Tony, the other humans and Twilight's friends had borrowed and slept in last night and placed them all neatly back into the storage closet that Twilight had kept them in before. This made Tony very frustrated, but he decided to let it go only because it should be breakfast time now and Tony's stomach was already growling again, despite all the food he and the others had eaten the previous night before they had all went to bed.

"Fine! Fine! I'm up!" Tony said. "But breakfast better be good and I mean good!"

"Relax, darling! Me and Twilight will make you and everypony else the best breakfast that you ever had!" Rarity promised.

Just like last night, Twilight and Rarity both used their magic to gather all the supplies, ingredients and tools that they needed and within a half hour, they had created yet another little feast for all of them to enjoy. This time, all the food consisted only of fresh daisies on sandwiches, hay salad, oats and raisins, some gems (for Spike), some fresh fruit and orange juice.

For the ponies, everything looked absolutely delicious and they were already helping themselves to everything that was on the table in front of them. The humans, however, weren't pleased with their food options and none of them had so much as touched any of the stuff that Twilight and Rarity had made for them.

"What the heck is all this crap!?" Tony complained as he stared at the daisies on sandwiches, the hay salad and the oats and raisins.

"It's breakfast, silly!" Pinkie Pie spoke. "You should try the hay salad! It's super-duper tasty!"

"Yuck! You call this horse junk food!?" Tony yelled. "Well, I'm not eating!"

"Okay. Suit yourself. More for us then," Applejack said. "What about the rest of you humans? Aren't you hungry, too?"

"I'm sorry, Applejack, but I'm gonna have to agree with Tony on this one," Michael replied.

"Same here!" John, Gary, Ned, Alice, Claire and Eddie agreed and spoke together in unison.

"Alright! What's wrong now?" Twilight asked, not understanding why the humans weren't partaking in the delicious and healthy breakfast that she and Rarity had prepared for them and their friends.

"What's wrong!? Look at these!" John replied as he pointed to the daisy sandwiches, the hay salad, and the oats. "We can't eat any of that!"

"And why not?" Twilight demanded.

"We're humans, not ponies, remember?" Ned pointed out. "We can't eat nor can our stomachs digest those things like you can."

"And we definitely couldn't eat any of those gems like Spike even if we wanted to either!" Ned added.

"Well, what about the raisins, fruit and orange juice? Surely, you can eat-" Fluttershy spoke, but was cut off.

"That and bread was all that we could eat for dinner last night! I want some fucking real food!" Tony demanded. "I want, eggs, bacon, sausages and ham! That's what I call breakfast! I want MEAT!"

After hearing this, the Twilight, Spike and her friends all gasped in shock and horror as their eyes all grew as big as soccer balls! "MEAT!?" They all screamed in terror and surprise.

It was then that the ponies all remembered what Doctor Lifeline had told them about the 8 humans back at the hospital and that he had warned them that the humans ate meat! They realized that ever since they had discovered the humans came from another world and then the terrible Timber Wolf attack on Ponyville and the funeral for all the Ponyville citizens and guards that had lost their lives, they had all completely forgotten the fact that the humans had sharp teeth, which meant that they were carnivores and could and did eat meat!

Twilight and her friends all mentally kicked themselves for forgetting such an important detail about the 8 humans until now. After a moment of silence, Twilight and her friends all calmed down before they faced the group of 8 humans and Twilight said, "Okay. I'm sorry about that. We should've asked you about what your kind eats before we did anything. But if it's meat that you want, then you're out of luck. We're herbivores so fruit, veggies, flowers, oats, some occasional sweets and for Spike, gems, are all that we have and serve."

"I'm afraid that-that we don't consume meat like-like you carnivores do and-" Fluttershy stuttered, but was interrupted.

"Who said we were carnivores?" Gary demanded.

"But Doctor Lifeline said that ya'll had sharp teeth and when somepony has sharp teeth that means that their carnivores," Applejack replied.

"I don't know who this doctor of yours is, but that assumption is wrong!" Ned explained. "Sure our kind does eat meat, but meat is only part of our regular diet. While we do eat meat, we are not carnivores like you all believe us to be. Technically, we are omnivores, meaning that we eat both fruits, vegetables and meat along with grains and other stuff."

"Wait Really!?" Twilight asked as she became even more interested in Ned and the other 7 humans than she already was.

"Yes," Ned answered.

Without saying anything, Twilight quickly pulled out a ink quill and a piece of paper as she quickly wrote down some notes with her magic about what she and her friends had just learned about the 8 humans. Both Twilight and her friends were beginning to realize that the party of 8 humans would be one of the biggest things to ever happen in Equestria!

"Cool!" Rainbow Dash spoke. ""But not as cool as me, of course!"

"Can we ask you some questions?" Twilight asked, Ned and the other7 humans, wondering what other interesting things there was for her, her friends and the princesses to learn about these peculiar human beings.

"Well, anything, sugarcube," Applejack replied.

"If it helps you out with certain things like knowing what to serve us to eat, then I guess we can answer a few of your questions, but only a few for right now!" John said. "And please don't ask us any questions that are too personal unless we say you can. Understand?"

Twilight and her friends all nodded. "Fair enough." Twilight spoke.

"Alright. So where should we start?" Alice said. "Do you want to know about our history, cultures, scientific achievements or about our lives?"

"Why don't we start with your kind's scientific achievements and-" Twilight replied, but was cutoff.

"Why do you humans wear clothes all the time?" Spike asked.

This question made the group of 8 humans start to feel a little nervous. "Uh, that's a personal question, Spike." John told him.

"Now, that I think of it, Spike has a point. How come you always are wearing clothes?" Twilight chimed in.

"It's just something that our species does. Now can we move on?" Claire said, not wanting to continue about this.

"Now, hold on there, sugarcube! I can tell that there's more to it than just that," Applejack spoke as due to her being the Element Of Honesty, she could tell not only when somepony was lying, but sometimes also when they were deliberately trying to dodge questions or leave details out.

"Me and my sister, too, also wish to know why you always wear clothes as well," the familiar voice of Princess Celestia was heard as everyone and everypony turned to see both her and Princess Luna.

"Princesses Celestia, I thought you were in Canterlot!" Twilight spoke, surprised that she, Spike, her friends and the 8 humans hadn't noticed her and Princess Luna before.

"Twilight, please! There's no need for formalities," Celestia told her number 1 student.

"We were, Twilight, but we just finished up all of our duties and informed your brother and Princess Cadence about the humans and everything that has happened here in Ponyville the past couple days. We have some spare time before we must return to Canterlot so we decided to come over and see how you and the humans were doing," Princess Celestia explained.

Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Twilight then turned their attention to the 8 humans. "So, Ned, why do thee and the rest of your race always wear clothes? Is it because of cultural purposes?" Princess Luna asked.

Ned didn't want to have to explain the purposes that clothes had for humans, but Ned realized that the ponies were just gonna keep asking him and the others until they got answers so Ned just decided to get it over with. "Well, if you must know, clothes are one of the human race's basic necessities! We need them just like we need food to eat, homes to live in, exercise to help keep us healthy, taking baths and showers and brushing our teeth to keep us clean and jobs to earn money and pay off all our bills and debts. We, however, do not wear clothes because of cultural purposes, but because it is one of the main necessities in life that we need the most." Ned answered.

"Does your kind wearing clothes everyday have to do with fashion," Rarity asked. "Because if it does, then I would recommend wearing something nicer, especially when attending important meetings and events."

"No. That's not it, but we do indeed dress ourselves better when we are attending, meetings and events like weddings, funerals, interviews and etc.," Ned replied.

"So then, where does the need for clothes really come in?" Fluttershy asked.

"I would say it's because back on our world, our race is required to be wearing them out in public at all times. Not doing this, is considered public nudity and that's illegal back home!" Ned revealed. "It's also very embarrassing!"

"But if I had to guess why we really wear clothes everyday, it's because of our constant need to wear clothes to protect our bodies from the weather and keep us warm when it's cold," Ned admitted.

"It's true! Our bodies are more vulnerable to the weather and the world around us than you are!" Gary chimed in. "We even have to wear shoes and socks just to protect our feet from the hard ground and anything else that could harm our feet!"

"As for when and where this all originated, it was our early human ancestors who first invented tools and eventually clothes," Ned explained. "There used to be a time when our race faced extinction and that time was during the long and brutal era of the Ice Age! As the name implies, much of our world was literally covered in ice and snow and the temperatures were extremely were below freezing back then! As a result, not only did early humans risk freezing to death, but food became scarce as well! so in order to help us survive, they created clothes out of anything that they could use like the hides of skinned animals to keep them warm! As for food, the intense cold made it impossible to find any fruits, veggies or other plants to eat so our ancestors had to improvise! So early humans during that time invented weapons like spears to hunt and kill other animals so that they could eat them and survive! Eventually, though, the Ice Age ended, our species involved, we spread to all corners of the planet and the whole concept of us wearing clothes and eating meat as part of our diet has stuck ever since!"

The ponies were quite taken aback by what they had just heard. They had no idea that the human race had had such a rough past and had experienced a period of dangerously low temperatures that could rival the huge blizzards caused by the Wendigos during the right before and during the time that the nation of Equestria was first founded eons ago! While they didn't like the fact that their kind had and still does eat meat, they realized that the humans only did that so that their race could survive or otherwise, face extinction just like why they needed to wear clothes to keep themselves warm and comfy.

"That's tough!" Twilight said.

For the next couple minutes, no one and no pony said or did anything, but after taking in everything that the ponies had just heard Ned say and remembering that Ned had stated that the terrible struggle to survive and near-extinction of the human race had happened many years ago and long before him and the other 7 humans were even born, Princess Celestia broke the silence. "You don't need to tell us anymore about what your early ancestors did, if you don't want to," Celestia told Ned and the other 7 humans.

"And I thought the dragons were tough, but you humans are tougher!" Applejack said.

"Now, that we've got that out of the way, does anyone or um...anypony have anymore questions that they want to ask?" John spoke.

"Yes. What was your life like back home before you and your friends came here to Equestria?" Twilight asked.

"Well, back home, I never was very popular and I didn't have that many friends either. Gary is one of those few friends that I had and like me, he's a nice guy. Anyway, back on Earth, when I wasn't taking my classes in College or doing homework on Tuesdays, me and Gary would go to the mall , which is a big place where they have restaurants, shops and other things for people like us to do and enjoy and we would go to the Food Court and get the special 10-pack 'Taco Tuesday Special' at Taco bell, which is a name of a restaurant on our world and we would each chow down on 5 of the 10 tacos and they were always delicious! We also went to the nearby arcade and played some fun and classic games like Pac-Man and Jurassic Park! We had a great time! On Fridays, Gary would be invited over to my house so that we could work together to complete our homework and projects, since he also went to college like me and Gary would always end up sleeping over with me by the time we were finished. On weekends, I usually had the house to myself and taking advantage of it, I invited Gary over to play video games and we would have our own little movie marathons while we ate popcorn," John confessed. "However, the one downside in my life was that my parents are so busy trying to make ends meet, that they each have at least 3 different jobs and they usually don't have much time to spend time with me or do things as a family! They would always leave me with simple meals that could be cooked in the microwave for lunch and dinner and they knew that I could easily make myself a bowl of cereal so they weren't worried about me starving. They also knew that I was a smart guy who could make his own bed, brush his teeth, take a shower, go to school on his own, do his own laundry, clean my room, clean my bathroom, check the mail, complete and turn in all his schoolwork in time, make phone calls, send text messages, call 911 in an emergency, do chores and more on my own as well. Everyday, I usually only saw them for 5 hours at most in the middle of the night, which they used to get some sleep before they got back up and left to go to their next job! I admit that I wish that they could've had more time to spend with me and there were times when it was so hard to be alone most of the time! Yet, I knew that my parents still loved me and felt the same way, but we needed the money and all their jobs were what was putting food on the table and keeping us off the streets so we all just accepted it and I haven't let that unfortunate fact bring me down!"

Twilight, her friends Spike and the friends were all shocked to hear this and felt a bit bad for John and they were about to say something, but John stopped them and said, "It's alright. You don't need to worry about me. I know people who have much worse lives than I do! Why don't you talk to Gary now? I'm sure he has some stuff that he wouldn't mind sharing you, too!"

After everyone and everypony turned to face Gary, Gary spoke, "My story is a bit similar to John's, but unlike him, me and Eddie's parents had and did spend lots of time with us! Sure our parents had to go on the occasional business trip and sometimes, be out of town for a couple days or more, but they were always there when we needed them and that's all that matters! As for College, my life at school wasn't too exciting and I wasn't popular either, but that's life, what can you do? I was and still am a huge fan of video games like Pokémon, Legend Of Zelda, Sly Cooper and more and playing video games usually kept me busy and happy in my spare time. As for Eddie, he has a tendency to be a real handful and he keeps leaving messes in his room and forgetting to put all his toys away, even after me and mom and dad had told him a million times to do so!"

"Hey! I do clean up my room!" Eddie argued.

"Putting all your toys underneath your bed is not how you clean up your room, Eddie!" Gary told Eddie.

Before Eddie could saying anything else, Michael spoke next. "I was somewhat popular in College as I played football and was one of the best players on my team! However, when I was younger, I wasn't very athletic nor was I really into sports. In fact, during my childhood, I was so weak that I would often get bullied by some of the older kids, who would call me names like 'shrimp' and 'smallfry' and they would take my lunch money after beating me up! I should've told my parents or the teachers about this, but I was too afraid of the bullies to speak up. Then, one day, I started watching action movies like Rush Hour and The GodFather and after watching them, I became inspired and started regularly working out everyday. After awhile, I was almost as strong and muscular as I am now and soon, I confronted those bullies, gave them a taste of their own medicine and ever since, no one has tried to mess with me again! Strangely, I never got in trouble for fighting the bullies and giving them bruises and black eyes, but I guess that because they feared me now, they didn't dare try to report me for fear of facing my wrath! Later on, I decided that I wanted to put my physical strength to use and after playing some football with some guys in high school, I've been playing in football games ever since and I continued doing it into my College years and well, you know the rest."

"It's my turn," Ned announced as he got everyone's attention. "I'm one of the best students back in the college I was taking back on Earth and I have never gotten an F before in my entire life! In fact, I've been a hard-working, straight A student for as long as I can remember! To be honest, though, despite my high IQ and impressive reputation, I wanna use my skills and knowledge to create my own comic book company, due to my love for comic books! I told my family this, but they just laughed and told me that it would be a huge waste of my skills, time and money and they insists that I become a scientist, or an inventor or an engineer. Because of them, I'm not sure when and if I'll ever achieve my dream of owning my own comic book company and I hate it!"

After Ned was finished speaking, Alice was next. "Almost everyone back home has found me beautiful due to my flawless, smooth skin and needless to say, I'm considered one of the prettiest girls in college!" Alice revealed. "But my past is one of tragedy as at the age of 5, my parents both died in a terrible and fatal crash while we were going on a trip to Disney World! I survived with only a few minor injuries, but my parents weren't as lucky! My mom didn't immediately die from the crash, but in her last moments of life, she told me to not let her and dad's deaths ruin her life and for me to grow up, pursue my dreams and do whatever makes me happy! After my parents deaths and their funeral, I ended up living with my grandfather and after what felt like forever, I finally moved on with my life and became the beautiful woman that you all know me as today! Dwelling on the past, won't make me feel any better. It's the present and future that I'm focused on now!"

Now, it was Claire's turn to tell her story. "I've always had a good family life and no one's ever bullied me," Claire spoke. "My grandma used to make the best food in our family and when I was little, she even used to let me assists her with all of her dishes! We all loved her cooking almost as much as we loved her! But she later passed away from natural causes and after she was gone, all our food tasted quite bland compared to her cooking! When I was older, I took it upon myself to learn how to cook and after awhile, I was able to cook and make certain meals like eggs and bacon and Top Ramen. Over the years, my cooking has improved greatly and I've come a long way! Yet, I still yearn to once again taste the amazing flavor of the food that my grandma used to serve me and my family all those years ago! My cooking is good, but until I can make food as good as my late grandma's, I'll never be completely satisfied with my cooking!"

After Claire had finished with her story, everyone and everypony turned to face Tony, who was next. Tony, however, didn't say anything and just glared at everyone and everypony instead.

"Well, Tony, don't you have something you wanna say, too?" John asked him.

"I already told you yesterday! My life is my own business, not yours!" Tony rudely replied. "I don't give a damn how much you all ask me to tell you, I'm not telling you anything else about my life than what you already know so just shut up and leave me alone!"

Tony then turned away so that his back was facing everypony and everyone else. Seeing that Tony wasn't gonna talk about his own life, this time, John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire and Eddie asked Twilight and her friends about themselves and their lives.

The Elements Of Harmony were happy to share their stories and they told them all about how they met, became friends and saved Equestria time and time again from villians like Nightmare Moon, Discord, the Changelings and King Sombra! Twilight was a very-skilled unicorn pony, who was Princess Celestia's number 1 student. Applejack was an honest and hard-working Earth Pony, whose family owned an entire apple farm called, 'Sweet Apple Acres', which was located right at the edge of town. Pinkie Pie was the town's was Ponyville's local party pony whose job was to make ponies laugh and cheer them up when their unhappy or bothered by anything. Rarity's job was to design and create dresses for ponies, then sell them to make a living. Rainbow Dash was Ponyville's local weather pony and she was in charge of Ponyville's weather and she regularly had to make sure that the weather didn't go out of control and become a huge problem for the ponies and that the weather only stayed the way that it was supposed to be. For instance, if it was supposed to be a sunny day, then Rainbow had to make sure that it was a sunny day and if it was supposed to be a rainy day, then Rainbow had to make sure that it was a rainy day. Lastly, Fluttershy was the town's local animal caretaker and she cared for every animal that was in need or came to her. Being the Element Of Kindness, Fluttershy was the kindest of the Mane 6, but also the least brave as she could be frightened quite easily.

It was then that everyone and everypony (except for Tony) turned to face Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and asked them about themselves. Both princesses explained that they had been around for many years and had been around almost as long as the Kingdom Of Equestria has been! They said that as the two co-rulers of Equestria, they took their jobs very seriously, but at the same time, treated everypony else as equals and led Equestria through many years of peace, friendship and harmony!

Of course, there were things that the princesses didn't like to talk about such as when Celestia was forced to banish her own sister to the moon for a thousand years and after those thousand years of exile, Princess Luna, then known as Nightmare Moon, had almost permanently plunged all of Equestria and Equis into eternal night! Princess Luna still felt bad about letting herself fall down that dark path and nearly making everypony live in a world with a never-ending night, which in turn, would've caused the whole world to become a frozen wasteland and result in the complete destruction of Equis as everypony knew it!

"So what are your parents like? I would love to meet them!" Gary asked the two princesses.

Suddenly, Celestia and Luna seemed to become as still as statues as looks of shock could be seen on their faces! After a moment, both princesses came back to their senses as they both looked at Gary. "Our parents! You want to know about and meet King Cosmos and Queen Galaxia!?" Princess Celestia asked, sounding like she hadn't expected to be asked that question nor wanted to answer that question.

"Yes. I do!" Gary asked.

Twilight and her friends began to realize that the princesses had never talked about their parents to anypony ever and this caused them to also ask the princesses about them. "Gary does have a point. Who are your parents anyway and why haven't we met them?" Twilight asked.

The two princesses felt the eyes of everypony and human in the room staring at them and this made them become even more nervous than they already were. It was then that everyone and everypony noticed the sad expressions on both princesses faces.

"Celestia, what's wrong?" Rarity asked.

"If thee wishes to meet our parents, then thee can't!" Luna spoke.

"And why is-" Alice demanded.

"It's because they're dead! They're gone!" Celestia yelled as a small tear began to fall down her muzzle.

Everyone and everypony gasped after hearing this. Until now, nopony had ever known about the deaths of Celestia's and Luna's parents! And from the way that Celestia had said it, it sounded like it wasn't something that she or her sister liked to talk or even think about!

"What do you mean!? What happened!?" Twilight demanded.

"One day, when me and Luna were just small fillies, somepony…no, some monster broke into our home and our father was quick to hide us in safe place where we wouldn't be found. He and mom both fought the evil fiend and for a little bit, they hand the upper hoof, but soon, that wicked being managed to overwhelm and defeat both of them! And... and...and he murdered them-in cold blood!" Celestia confessed as she and her sister began to cry even harder than they already were. "Then, he got away and he was never caught!"

Again, everyone and everypony gasped after hearing this! Twilight, spike and her friends didn't know what to think of all this. The group of 8 humans began to regret asking the princesses about their parents as they watched them continue to sob profusely.

Before anyone or anypony else could say or do anything, both princesses began to light up their horns as Celestia said, "We must return to Canterlot! We have work to do!"

After saying this, both princesses suddenly disappeared in a bright light and when it was gone, both princesses where nowhere to be seen. Twilight quickly deduced that they had just used a 'Teleportation Spell' and were both now back in Canterlot.

Still, Everyone and everypony couldn't believe what had just happened and what the princesses had just told them! 'What pony would be so cruel and heartless to kill another pony, especially when those ponies had innocent, little fillies that needed their parents to raise and care for them!?' Twilight thought.

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Meanwhile, all over Equestria and beyond, everypony was reading the newest edition of their newspapers from Canterlot. But what they all saw and read on their papers made them all freeze and gasp in shock, slight horror and disbelief.

"What the hay!?" They all were shouting as stared at the newspapers in front of them.

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Nearby, at a local newspaper stand, blue unicorn stallion and a pink unicorn mare both bought each bought a copy of the latest issue of the Canterlot News for themselves and they began to look at and read everything on them as they all slowly walked away and out of sight of anypony else into a dark alley. Once they were sure that nopony else was around or could see them, both ponies quickly transformed in a blue light into freaky, pony-insect hybrids!

Anypony in Equestria would instantly recognize them as the infamous Changelings! The Changelings were much like ponies, only they were more insect-like than pony-like and they could shapeshift into pretty much any form that they wanted to or needed to at will!

While staring at the pictures of the humans on their newspapers and reading about everything that had happened in Ponyville in the past couple days, both Changelings began to smile evilly. "Our glorious Queen Chrysalis will be most interested in these human creatures! We should report this discovery to her immediately!" one of the Changelings spoke.

"Agreed! These humans may be our key to conquering Equestria and draining all the ponies of their sweet and succulent love!" the other Changeling agreed.

Without being seen or heard, both Changelings flew away and headed in the direction of The BadLands where the Changeling Hive resided. Once they got there, they knew that their Queen would be very pleased with them!

The Human Dilemma

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"So these human creatures are real and they're actually aliens from another world?" Queen Chrysalis, the queen and leader of the Changeling race asked the same two changelings that had left for the Changeling Hive before. Chrysalis had a very similar appearance to the rest of her fellow Changelings, only she had a horn and unlike the other Changelings, she actually had normal eyes like the ponies had instead of the insect-like ones that every other Changeling had. "And they were able to both defeat and control wild Timber Wolves, too?"

One of the two Changelings nodded. "Yes, my glorious Queen. As you can see from these newspapers that were just recently released, this is no joke," one of the two Changelings replied.

"Hmm. Then, these so-called 'human beings' might just be of some use to us. Now, I just need you to capture them and bring them to me!" Chrysalis said.

"Don't worry about that. Before we reported this to you, we immediately ordered some of the best Changeling recruits that we have to get them. They're on their way to Ponyville as we speak!" the other Changeling informed Chrysalis. "Unfortunately, getting to the humans won't be easy. According to the newspapers, the 8 humans are currently under the watch and protection of the Elements Of Harmony!"

Chrysalis seemed a bit angered to hear that last part as she and her Changelings held a huge grudge toward the famous 8 ponies due to them partly being responsible for thwarting her last attempt to take over Equestria and suck its citizens dry of their love. She had come so close to doing it during the royal wedding that was between Princess Cadence and Twilight's brother, Shining Armor. It made her blood boil just remembering that humiliating defeat that she and her fellow Changelings had endured after they had all been forcefully expelled from Canterlot and sent flying all the way back into the BadLands by Cadence and Shining Armor! Ever since that day, Chrysalis had vowed that the next time that she crossed paths with those stupid ponies, she would get her revenge!

However, that day was not today and right now, Chrysalis couldn't let her emotions and lust for vengeance distract her from getting the 8 humans captured and brought before her. She knew that if they really could defeat and control Timber Wolves, then these humans were definitely the key to getting her and her Changelings' way!

After snapping back to reality and regaining her composure, Chrysalis smiled and spoke, "Very well. If the humans are with the Elements, then we'll just have to wait awhile until the right moment comes and those Changelings that will be temporarily stationed in Ponyville are ready to make their move! The Elements and the humans can't stay together forever and it is only a matter of time until they become careless and let their guards down and when they do, my Changelings will move in, catch all the humans and send them to me!"

"I can already taste all that sweet, delicious love of all the ponies of Equestria that we'll all be feasting on very soon!" Queen Chrysalis announced as she laughed evilly to herself. "And the princesses and Elements will fall and I will take my rightful place as the new ruler of Equestria!"

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The same time that day, at Applejack's farm, the Elements, Spike and the 8 humans were now eating a huge and delicious feast with Applejack's family. After what happened earlier with the humans not getting a proper meal, Twilight and her friends had apologized to the group of 8 humans for not making enough food for them that was edible to them and so Applejack had then proposed and insisted that they all come over to her place to eat instead. Applejack's family was very kind and honest like her and she knew that her family wouldn't mind sharing some of their food with her friends and the 8 humans if she told them what had happened first, which is what she did.

The party of 8 humans couldn't believe how big Applejack's family was! Her family was so big that the only ponies that they really noticed and remembered were Applejack's older brother, Big Mac, then there was Applejack's and Big Mac's paternal grandmother(who is a light-green, elderly Earth pony with a white mane and tail and lastly, Applejack's and Big Mac's little sister, Apple Bloom who is a young, Earth pony filly with a red mane and tail and yellow fur.

When not looking at and speaking to Applejack's family, the 8 humans were helping themselves to first, second and (for Tony, Michael and John) even third helpings of all the delicious apple-based foods on the table in front of them like apple dumplings, apple cider, apple pie, apple sauce, apple fritters and pancakes with maple syrup! While their was still no meat for the humans as the ponies were herbivores and didn't eat meat, the humans were still enjoying their sweet and tasty meal and they were all full and satisfied again in no time!

After the 8 humans, Spike and the ponies were all finished with their meal, John and the other 7 humans finally noticed the strange markings on all of the ponies' flanks, excluding Apple Bloom, who's flanks were both blank. John and the other humans then asked Twilight and her friends why they had what looked like tattoos on their sides.

At first, all the ponies were silent as they didn't know what a tattoo was or had even heard the word 'tattoo' before either. But after a moment, all the ponies realized what exactly that the humans were referring to. Twilight then explained to the 8 humans that in Equestria and beyond, these images on their flanks are called, 'Cutie Marks'. Cutie Marks represent what everypony's special talent is.

Ned then asked why didn't Apple Bloom have one. Twilight then replied that ponies aren't born with Cutie Marks, but rather they magically appear on them as soon as they discover their special talent and ponies like Apple Bloom didn't have one because Apple Bloom hadn't yet found her special talent yet.

The 8 humans were having a hard time understanding the concept of these 'Cutie Marks' just suddenly appearing on ponies flanks only and whenever they discovered their special talent. Plus, no one or in this case, nopony should let some silly image on their sides determine what they could do and what they were good at.

The 8 humans decided to let these thoughts go, but before they could ask anymore questions, Pinkie Pie then asked why hadn't they ever heard of Cutie Marks before when Tony had one of his own on his right arm? This caused the other ponies to finally notice Tony's tattoo and they all gasped in shock and fear to see that it was an image of a burning skull!

The ponies all backed away a bit from Tony as they all tried to figure out what Tony's supposed Cutie Mark, but every idea that entered their minds made them even more nervous as they all knew that skulls were almost always associated with death! "You have a skull-skull as your-your Cutie Mark!?" Fluttershy asked Tony as she stuttered on her words.

"Correction. This is an image of a skull on fire!" Tony replied. "And no! This is not another one of your fucking and crappy Cutie Marks!"

"It's not!?" Twilight demanded. "But then, what is-"

"We call these 'tattoos', Twilight," Ned explained. "And in case you're wondering, no, they do not have anything to do with our special talents! We humans, don't use our tattoos or have any Cutie Marks to tell us what we're good at! If we want to be good at something, we just have to practice until we get better at doing it, just like everyone else on our world!"

"Oh," Twilight said. "I guess that makes sense."

"But then, why do humans like Tony have these 'tattoo' things in the first place? It seems kind've pointless to have them if they don't have some important reason or purpose," Rarity asked. "So how do you get these tattoos? Do they just magically appear on you like Cutie Marks do on us ponies?"

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" Tony shouted. "What we do is have some guy poke us on our skin with a needle that leaves a little ink underneath our skin and wait awhile and afterwards, you permanently have one of these bad boys on your body for life! Getting mine was great!"

"Hold on there, sugarcube!" Applejack asked. "You're telling us that in order to get these tattoos, you have to keep getting poked by a needle for who knows how long!? Doesn't that hurt!?"

"It sure did, but I'm no wimp!" Tony replied.

"You sound like you actually enjoyed it!" Twilight spoke.

"I did, but I've been through a hell of a lot worse than that!" Tony answered.

"Okay, then" Twilight said, as she, her friends and Applejack's family were becoming too uncomfortable about the concept of tattoos, how humans got them and how Tony was telling them about his experience of when he got his to continue asking him or the other 7 humans anymore questions about them.

Before anyone or anypony could say anything else, two young fillies like Apple Bloom appeared. One of them was a young, orange, Pegasus filly with a pinkish-purple mane and tail. The other filly was a young, white, unicorn filly with a light purple and semi-dark purple mane and tail. Both of these new ponies looked to be the same age as Apple Bloom.

"Who are these two?" John asked Twilight.

"The orange one's name is Scootaloo, a close friend and loyal follower of Rainbow Dash. The white one's name is Sweetie Belle, Rarity's younger sister," Twilight revealed. "They're both Apple Bloom's friends and they along with Apple Bloom, call themselves 'The Cutie Mark Crusaders'!"

"Why is that?" Michael asked.

"Because like Apple Bloom, they also don't have their Cutie Marks yet. So they formed The Cutie Mark Crusaders in an attempt to help themselves and other ponies like them get their Cutie Marks," Twilight explained.

"Yeah and I feel like we're getting closer to getting ours everyday," Apple Bloom spoke as she said hi to her friends and introduced them to the group of 8 humans. After the 8 humans told the Cutie Mark Crusaders their names, Scootaloo spoke in a very excited voice, "So you're the amazing human creatures that we've heard about, huh? Until now, I thought all those rumors about you were just some silly stories, but after just meeting you now, I don't think I'll doubt another pony's word ever again!"

"And you're a brand new and mysterious species that ponies know little about, too! There's so much that Equestria and all of Equis will want to learn about you! Everything about you and your race that we learn will be written down in history books and kept in historical archives! That gives me a great idea about what us Cutie Mark Crusaders can do next to try to get our Cutie Marks!" Sweetie Belle chimed in.

"CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS HUMAN HISTORIANS!" All three Cutie Mark Crusaders shouted out together in unison.

Realizing what the Cutie Mark Crusaders were planning and knowing that the humans didn't want to be bombarded with a million questions at once, Twilight stopped and said, "Now, girls, let's not get carried away. You can't just ask somepony a bunch of random questions at once. That would just be rude and make them feel very uncomfortable. Besides, me and my friends have already learned some interesting things about the humans and if you want, later, I'll tell you most of what we learned from them."

"Most? Why not everything?" Apple Bloom asked.

"There's some stuff that is a little too personal and sensitive about the humans to talk about with 3 young fillies like you. Let's leave it at that," Twilight replied.

"Oh, darn it!" Scootaloo complained.

"Alright. Fine. You win, Twilight!" Apple Bloom spoke in defeat. "But the next time, you or anypony else learns something new about these humans, we want to know everything!"

"I can't promise that, Scootaloo, but you and the other crusaders are more than welcome to spend some time with the humans if you want," Twilight answered.

"Hey, Twilight! I know something that I can share with her and her friends!" Gary said as he opened his backpack and began to search around for something inside of it. "And I think that you're all gonna like it, too!"

Gary then pulled out his DVD player from his backpack, which he had forgotten about as well as all the other stuff inside this entire time along with the movies and DVD cases of Shrek, Zootopia and The Lion King. The ponies all stared at the DVD player and the front covers of the Shrek, Zootopia and The Lion King DVD cases as they didn't know what to think of them.

"These are movies!" Gary told the amazed ponies as he pointed to the DVD cases with the actual movies inside of them.

"We know what movies are. We have movies that are in black and white in theaters, but those don't look like movies to us. They're just pictures," Rarity replied.

"That's where this comes in!" Gary spoke as he pointed to the DVD player. "We call this a DVD player. It allows me and other humans to watch movies on it."

"But where's the movie projector like the ones they use in the theaters?" Twilight asked. "You need one to show a movie."

Gary didn't answer Twilight's question and instead, opened the Shrek DVD case, pulled out the DVD inside and placed the Shrek movie into the DVD player and turned on the DVD player. Immediately, Gary's DVD player turned on and started showing trailers for different movies. The ponies all gasped at what they were seeing and hearing.

They gasped again when Gary pressed the skip button on the DVD player until the actual movie started and the movie opened with Shrek reading the book in the first movie, before he ripped the page out of it and made his first appearance as he stepped out of his outhouse. Shrek then looked around his swamp for a brief moment before he did his regular routine, made dinner and the villagers came to his swamp and tried to capture and/or kill him.

The ponies were speechless the entire time as they stared at the movie on the screen with curiosity and interest. They were startled when Shrek scared the villagers away with a loud scream. Though, they were somewhat amused when Shrek just told them to go away and they did, despite them hearing and seeing that Shrek wasn't really a dangerous and hostile ogre afterall.

The ponies became even more transfixed by what they were witnessing and by the time Shrek and Donkey rescued Fionna from her captivity in the castle and the dragon, they were practically glued to the screen! It was quite clear that they were really starting to enjoy the movie and love Shrek and all the other characters.

Gary then stopped the movie, took out the Shrek movie and put in The Lion King. Gary quickly pressed the main menu button, then played the movie.

Like Shrek, the ponies were quite captivated by The Lion King and all its characters and events. They did find the hyenas to scary and when the infamous stampede scene started, all the ponies were hoping that Mufasa would rescue his son in time and that everything would turn out okay. Of course, it didn't. As always, Simba survived, but Scar betrayed Mufasa and sent him to his death as he was ran over and killed by the stampede of wildebeest. Simba then cried after finding his late father's lifeless corpse before Scar appeared next to him and convinced the young cub that he was responsible for his father's tragic death before he told him that he must leave the Pridelands forever and never come back. After Simba escaped from the Hyenas, left the Pridelands, nearly died in the desert and was rescued and raised by Timon and Pumbaa, the ponies felt like they were riding a roller coaster!

"Scar, you-you big meanie!" Pinkie Pie spoke angrily as she watched the scene where Zazu was being held captive by Scar back in the now desolate and barren Pridelands. "You're nothing, but a liar, a bully, a murderer and a tyrant!" Pinkie then stuck her tongue out towards Scar on the screen to show her huge dislike and hatred for the Disney villian.

This time, Gary let the ponies watch the entire movie as he always hated Scar, too, for what he did and he knew that if he stopped the movie now, the ponies would just tell him to let them see the rest as they would want to see how the movie ended and if Simba would find out the truth, return to the Pridelands, defeat Scar, take his place as the new king of the Pridelands and give the movie a happy ending like it deserves. That, of course, was exactly happened and the ponies were both terrified by Scar's brutal death by the hyenas he had betrayed and at the same time, happy to see him get what he deserved, even though being mauled to death was a terrible way to die even for a big baddie like Scar.

After the movie ended, it got it's happy ending before the movie went to the ending credits and Gary Turned off the DVD player and put the Lion King DVD back in its DVD case. Then, Gary placed both his DVD player and the Shrek, Zootopia and The Lion King movies and their DVD cases back into his backpack. Suddenly, the ponies began to cheer for the Shrek and Lion King movies! "That...was... SO AWESOME!" Rainbow Dash shouted. "Not nearly as awesome as me, of course, but still pretty cool!"

"I'll say! Scar went too far! He also made the terrible mistake of betraying his own minions and trying to place the blame for all his crimes and unforgivable actions on them!" Applejack agreed. "But aside from Scar and the hyenas, there was so many other things that I really liked!"

"I like the other movie more," said Spike. "It had a dragon in it! A DRAGON! I don't know about you, but when's the last time that there's been a dragon in any movie in Equestria!?"

Twilight then turned to face Gary and spoke, "What you just showed us was incredible! Unlike all the black and white movies that we ponies go see in theaters, not only were those films in color, but they looked amazing and that first movie was done in a new style that we've never seen before! Not to mention, there was no movie projector either!"

"Well, that's the beauty of modern day technology back on Earth!" Gary replied. "We have all sorts of different kinds of movies for everyone. We got cartoons for the kids and more mature series and films for teenagers and adults so that everyone's happy. And with newer technology, my race can make shows and movies that look so realistic, that you might actually think they're real! And that's just movies and tv shows! If you thought that was amazing, then there's much more about us and our world than that that'll make you love humans even more!"

"Like what!?" Twilight begged. "Please tell me! There's so much that I want to learn about you and your race!"

"Well, there's video games that you can play at home and wherever you go! Then, there's the invention of Fast Food restaurants like McDonald's, Subway, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut, Jack In The Box where you can go inside and the food will already be ready for you not long after you make your order and pay for your food or you can just go into what we call a drive-thru, make your order, pay for your food and pick up your food, which is why we call it fast food!" Gary told Twilight. "There's also malls, amusement parks, grocery stores, libraries-"

"Libraries!?" Twilight asked excitedly, feeling like she had just won the jackpot.

"Yes. We have libraries like you do filled with just about every book that you can think of," Gary replied. "But we have computers now, so not as many people go to the libraries anymore as much as they used to as people on my world can just use devices that we have called, 'computers' and 'smartphones' and look up whatever we want on them instead."

Twilight was about to ask Gary more questions when suddenly, everyone and everypony heard a bunch of different voices heading towards them! Turning towards the entrance to Applejack's farm, 'Sweet Apple Acres', Twilight, her friends, the group of 8 humans and Applejack's family all gasped in surprise and horror to see a large group of ponies galloping over to them!

But what really bothered everyone and everypony was the fact that all the approaching ponies were carrying cameras and microphones with them, too! "Oh, no!" Twilight thought out loud. "Newsponies at 2 o clock!"

"But why would so many of them come here!?" Rarity said.

It was then that the ponies, dragon and humans all knew the answer to that question. "Uh, guys," Twilight said to the 8 humans. "I hope you don't mind crowds because it looks like your gonna be answering a lot more questions!"

"Oh, great!" Tony complained sarcastically. "More crappy and annoying ponies that want to ask us questions! Just what we need!"

The Elements Of Harmony, Spike and Applejack's family tried their best to block the mob of growing reporters, but they were quickly outnumbered and there was little that they could do to stop them from reaching the humans and placing speakers and microphones right in front of their faces while asking them countless questions while other newsponies were taking many pictures of them! "I always wanted to be famous, but not like this!" Alice admitted as she and the other 7 humans tried in vain to make the reporters leave them alone!

"Look at the little human creature! Judging from it's size and appearance, it must be a kid!" a gray, unicorn, newspony spoke.

"Well, that kid happens to be my little brother!" Gary defended Eddie. "I don't care what you do to me, but if you do anything to my brother, you'll be-"

"We heard that you were aliens! Is it true that you came here to invade Equestria!?" another newspony asked.

"What!? No! That's not true!" John replied. "Only the part about us being aliens from another world is true!"

"Are you a new previously undiscovered species of monkeys or minotuars!?" yet another newspony asked.

"No!" Tony yelled as he forced a few speakers and microphones out of his face. "Fuck you all, you dumbass ponies!"

"What does fuck mean!?" a fourth newspony asked.

The 8 humans then demanded to know how all these newsponies knew about them and that they were in Ponyville in the first place. One of the newsponies then showed the humans a copy of the new newspaper from Canterlot and the 8 humans, the Elements Of Harmony, Spike and Applejack's family all gasped in shock and horror as they learned that not only did all of Equestria now and beyond know about the humans' existence and what happened in Ponyville in the last couple days, but also that a newspony had secretly been stalking the humans since the night that the humans and the ponies had fought and defeated the Timber Wolves until they left to get the pictures that they had taken of the humans to get developed before they reported everything that they had heard and seen about the humans to the newspony's company in canterlot!

"A pony watched us and reported us to the local news place without our knowledge or consent!? That is so rude and unfair!" Claire yelled, just as furious as the other humans that a pony had the nerve to do something like this to them. "That's a huge violation of our privacy and our rights! You can't treat us like this!"

Tony and the other humans were seriously pissed off by this point and things were about to get ugly! But before the 8 humans could pick a fight with the newsponies, they all heard yet another new voice as this time, they all turned to see a golden-furred, unicorn, stallion pony with a black mane and tail and wearing a fancy outfit approach them. The newsponies and Twilight and her friends instantly knew who this new pony was!

"Gold Nugget, one of the richest ponies in all of Equestria, what are you doing here!?" one of the newsponies asked before he and some of the other newsponies took some quick pictures of him.

Gold Nugget just ignored the newspony's question and spoke, "That human is right. You can't treat her and the other humans like that!"

"But they're the biggest thing to happen in Equestria in years! We have to!" another newspony shot back.

"Well, sorry to disappoint you, but I'm with the humans on this one. They'll be no more forcing all those speakers and microphones in their faces while you swarm them with your cameras and absurd, countless and annoying questions!" Gold Nugget shouted.

The 8 humans were beginning to like Gold Nugget. He appeared to be on their side and was going to get all these annoying newsponies off their backs! 'Looks like we got nothing to worry about!' Ned thought with a smirk on his face.

"And the reason for this is because I'm buying the humans and giving them all to my daughter, Ruby, as a surprise present for her upcoming 8th birthday in 2 weeks and I need them in good condition for when I give them to her!" Gold Nugget announced.

Duh! Duh! Duh!

Pinkie Pie then turns to the readers as she breaks the 4th wall and says, "Sorry! I just had to do that! That was a very unexpected twist and dramatic moment in this chapter afterall!"

Everyone and everypony else didn't hear what Pinkie said as they're either too focused or shocked about what is happening to notice. The 8 humans can't believe what they had just heard! Them!? A birthday present!? For this rich pony's soon-to-be 8-year old daughter!?

Gold Nugget sees the shocked and worried expressions on the 8 humans faces. "You'll love Ruby! She gets bored easily and it's gotten so hard to keep her happy, even though I've bought her some of the best and most expensive toys that money can buy! But there's no way she'll get bored of you! You'll make good playmates for her! She might make you play tea party and dress up in fairy princess outfits with her, but after awhile, you and her will get along nicely!"

Now the 8 humans were becoming very nervous and worried as they realized that Golden Nugget buying them and giving them to his daughter would be 10 times even worse than anything that all these newsponies could do to them! "Oh, crap! This is getting scary! How could things get any worse!?" Michael freaked out.

"Nopony move!" everyone and everypony heard a tough voice as they all turned to see a few dozen ponies wearing black uniforms and black glasses that covered their eyes!

If Gold Nugget's unexpected appearance really caught everyone and everypony off guard, then these new ponies were a much bigger deal! "The Equestrian Bureau Of Investigation, what the hay are you doing here!?" Gold Nugget demanded, just as shocked as everyone and everypony else was about them!

"Just call us the EBI, Mr. Gold Nugget!" a EBI pony said with a nametag on his suit that read, 'Agent Classified'. "And as for why we're here, it's the same reason you're here, too! By orders of the Equestrian Government, we must immediately take the humans into custody and have them studied...er, uh, I mean interrogated to make sure that they're not a threat to Equestria and the rest of Equis!"

"I was here first!" Gold Nugget yelled.

"No, we were!" one of the male newsponies argued as he and all the other newsponies forgot about the humans and began to protest against Gold Nugget and the EBI that they got to the humans first.

"We received our orders straight from the top! We're not asking you to give the humans to us, we're telling you to give them to us!" Agent Classified spoke.

The 8 humans really didn't like where things were going now. First they're being swarmed by a mob of out-of-control newsponies! Next, some rich, stallion pony wants to buy them and give them as a birthday gift to his 8-year old daughter to be used for whatever embarrassing or ridiculous things that she wanted! And now, they got the Equestrian Government itself here and wanting to take them away to who knows where to be subjected to all sorts of tests and experiments, while being asked many questions, only for it stop when they would be locked away in some dark, cold and empty cell where they would repeat this process everyday and probably never see the sun or breathe fresh air ever again!

'What's next!?' John thought as he and the other 7 humans were beginning to panic.

"None of you are getting the humans!" everyone and everypony heard as they yet again turned to see dozens of more ponies approaching them, only they were all wearing either lab coats or green jackets with pictures of animals on them and they were being led by a 64-year old, green, unicorn mare with a gray and white mane and tail, who was wearing a similar scientist outfit like the other ponies with her in their scientist-like outfits.

"Three Leaf, the leader of the Equestrian Organization Of Protected Species, what do you want!?" Agent Classified cried out. "If it's about the humans, then forget it! As the EBI, we have special government authorization, which states that we-"

"Just call us the EOOPS for short, Agent Classified," Three Leaf replied. "As for your latter question, then the answer is yes! We have come for the humans, but not for any of the sick and selfish reasons you, Gold Nugget or all these terrible, rude and inconsiderate newsponies have for wanting them!"

"Hey! I'm not selfish or terrible!" Gold Nugget shot back. "Try living with my daughter when she's not happy! It's not fun!"

"Yeah! And we're not rude or inconsiderate!" one of the newsponies defended. "It's our job to ask ponies questions and get all the facts! What do you expect!?"

"And as for you Agent Classified and the EBI, me and my organization know what you and some of the higher-ups in the Equestrian Government are planning to do to the humans and me and the rest of the EOOPS will not stand for it!" Three Leaf told Agent Classified. "As of now, the humans are under the protection of the EOOPS!"

"The EBI outranks you, Three Leaf! Even you have to comply with our rules and orders! Any interference by lesser law enforcement and other government agencies is-" Agent Classified argued.

"Usually that would be true, but according to a clause in Section 18 of the Equestrian Constitution, the EOOPS is allowed to interfere in government affairs in the event of a new and undocumented species, which includes aliens, for future pony knowledge and historical archives," Three Leaf told Agent Classified. "Basically, we're making the humans a protected species and as such, you can't take them and they must be treated with the utmost care and respect."

"Equis, to Three Leaf! According to the new newspapers from Canterlot, the humans said that there's more humans back on their world! These humans aren't the last of their kind nor are they an endangered species at all!" Agent Classified reminded Three Leaf. "These are intelligent, living beings like us, not some wild animals that you can just put in cages or place in a zoo!"

"You're the one to talk, Classified! If I'm correct, then weren't you and the EBI gonna lock them away in cold, dark cells for the rest of the lives when you and the EBI weren't subjecting the humans to countless painful and immoral tests and experiments!?" Three Leaf shot back. "Anyway, we're not gonna put them in a zoo or lock them in cages. These humans may be aliens, but they have the same rights as we ponies do and I refuse to let you have them!"

"Does that mean you'll help us get back home?" Eddie asked Three Leaf.

"I'm sorry, young one, but this is the first time aliens have ever come to Equestria! Until now, we never even knew about your world or race before!" Three Leaf informed Eddie. "Even if we knew exactly where your world is, not even the most powerful teleportation spell could send you and your friends back home!"

Eddie was about to say something else, but Three Leaf beat him to it. "I'm sure that with time, somepony can figure out a way to return you all safely back to your world," Three Leaf spoke. "But until then, you'll have to come with us!"

"What for!? Are you gonna dissect us or do anything similar to what all these crazy newsponies, Gold Nugget and the EBI plan to do with us, huh!?" Michael demanded.

"Absolutely not! We're the EOOPS! We don't condone that kind of treatment and behavior to anypony, animal, plant or otherwise, whatsoever!" Three Leaf answered. "We just need you to come along with us so that we can transport you to a designated facility where sickos like the EBI, Gold Nugget and these crazy newsponies can't bother you anymore! We can protect you there! Not to mention, we'll support you and provide you with all your needs and just about everything you could want, except for being able to return you home, of course! But we will have to do regular check-ups on all you humans to make sure that you're in good health, too. Also, we'll likely need you to remove your clothes so that we can-"

"Wow! Wow! Wow! Hold on a minute!" John interrupted Three Leaf. "From the way you're talking, it sounds more like you're gonna put us in some special, wildlife habitat or something else like that!"

"Well, actually yes, but-" Three Leaf tried to say.

"Nuh-uh! No way!" Gary refused as he and the other humans all shook their heads to show that they didn't like what Three Leaf and the EOOPS wanted to do with them either. "You're not gonna put us in some special habitat for humans in a zoo or wildlife sanctuary!"

"It won't be so bad! You'll be living in paradise there and get to eat some of the best and most nutritious foods and meals that we have! You'll still get to live in houses and sleep in warm, comfy beds every night. We'll even include bathrooms!" Three Leaf replied. "Though, we will also need you to give us urine samples everyday to help us-"

"You ponies can all go and fucking screw yourselves! A bunch of freaky, colorful, shitty horses aren't gonna do whatever they want with me and get away with it!" Tony yelled in rage.

"Now, enough of this! It's time for you humans to return with us back to EOOPS Headquarters so that we can-" Three Leaf started, but was cutoff.

"Forget it, Three Leaf! Me and the EBI have our orders and we're taking the humans into custody! End of discussion!" Agent Classified told Three Leaf.

"Now, hold on there, you two! The humans are mine! I want my daughter to have the best 8th birthday party that she can have and those humans are just what I need to give to her for that special occasion!" Gold Nugget spoke, refusing to give up the humans, too.

"Hey! What about us!?" said one of the many newsponies, who all joined him in defending their own reasons for wanting the humans. "We got to the humans first! There's still so much that we have to learn about them and their world! They're ours!"

"No, they belong to the EBI!" Agent Classified argued.

"You're both wrong!" Three Leaf chimed in. "Me and the EOOPS are the ones that-"

"I want those humans! All 8 of them!" Gold Nugget argued. "They're mine!"

"They're ours!" Agent Classified shouted.

"No, they're ours!" the mob of newsponies joined in.

"No, they are coming with us!" Three Leaf yelled.

Before long, all the different groups of ponies had begun arguing with each other and they were so busy arguing that none of them were even looking at the group of 8 humans anymore. Realizing that the 4 group of crazy ponies were all distracted and that this was there chance to escape, John asked Twilight and her friends to help them and Twilight agreed.

The 8 humans would sneak away, then rush back to Twilight's house where they could hide for awhile. Twilight and her friends would keep the 4 different groups of ponies that were after the humans off their tracks, which would give the humans enough time to make it across town and seek refuge in twilight's home. Then, Twilight and Spike would meet the humans again back at her house, while her friends did their best to keep the 4 groups of ponies away from the humans once they realized that they had been tricked. at her home, Twilight would have Spike send a letter to the princesses informing them of the current situation that the humans were in and that they needed to send help right away before anything happened to the humans!

The 8 humans and the Elements Of Harmony wished each other good luck as the 8 humans carefully and quietly snuck away and out of sight. Before long, the humans were gone and as expected, the 4 groups of ponies soon noticed this as well! All the groups of ponies gasped and asked Twilight and her friends where they had went and they all lied (except Applejack, who didn't say anything, as she couldn't lie herself, due to her honest nature and being the Element Of Honesty) and told the 4 groups of ponies that the humans were headed out of town and were heading for Manehattan!

Twilight and her friends told them to follow them and the 4 groups of ponies all did. The 4 groups of ponies had no idea that they were all being led in the exact opposite direction that the 8 humans were really going.

Unbeknownst to the humans, the ponies and Spike the Dragon, nearby, a group of Changelings in blue armor that had used their shapeshifting powers to blend in with the environment to avoid being noticed by anypony, had seen and heard everything. They all wore evil grins on their faces. One of them, a Changeling with the same blue armor as his comrades, but had a claw mark above and under his right eye, obviously the leader of the group, spoke, "The humans are alone and the Elements Of Harmony will be gone for a little while! Now's our chance! The humans are ours!"

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Meanwhile, across town and near Twilight's home, the 8 humans were running as fast as they could towards Twilight's house, not daring to look behind them! They knew that if any of those 4 groups of ponies got their hooves on them, they were done for!

"I see it! We're getting close!" Ned pointed directly up ahead to see the familiar sight of Twilight's tree home.

"Oh, no! I just remembered! Twilight locked the front door before we all left her place! How are we gonna get inside!?" Alice asked as she began to panic again.

"You don't because you're coming with us instead!" the 8 humans heard a tough and unfamiliar voice from behind them.

The party of 8 humans freaked out as they thought that one of the 4 groups of ponies, if not all of the 4 groups of ponies had already figured out that they had been tricked and had caught up to them! Despite their instincts' telling them not, the 8 humans' curiosities got the better of them and they all stopped in their tracks and turned around to see that instead of any of the 4 groups of ponies that were after them that they had been expected to see, instead there were 8 weird and creepy, black, insect-like and pony-like creatures with bug-like wings in blue armor!

"What the heck!?" Tony yelled. "Now, there's normal-sized, bug horses, on this crappy world, too!? What's next, are we gonna meet the giant from Jack And The Beanstalk!?"

"Who are you guys!?" Michael asked.

"That's not important! You're coming with us and we're gonna take you back to our hive whether you like it or not!" the leader of the group of Changelings replied.

"I'll like to see you try! That's not gonna happen!" John told leader of the group of Changelings and his comrades.

"I'm glad to hear that because I was hoping that we would have to do this the hard way!" the leader of the group of Changelings shouted before he turned to face the other Changelings. "You guys know what to do."

Suddenly, to the 8 humans shock and amazement, they saw the 8 Changelings' bodies disappear in bright, blue lights before they saw that they had been replaced by a couple grizzly bears and manticores! One of the grizzly bears then said, "Surprised aren't ya!? This is one of our kind's greatest feats: the ability to assume the form of almost any being or living creature that we choose!"

Before the 8 humans could process what they had just seen or heard, the 8 transformed Changelings were right on top of them and despite the 8 humans' best attempts to fight back and resist, they were quickly overwhelmed and incapacitated when the Changelings forced them all to drink a blue fluid from a glass bottle. The strange liquid tasted awful and some of the humans almost threw up before their bodies all suddenly became weak and immobile! No matter how hard they tried, the 8 humans couldn't move their bodies a bit, except to open and close their eyes, but that's it!

"That paralysis should keep you all from causing us any trouble for awhile!" the leader of the group of Changelings said before he turned to face the other Changelings as they all changed back into their original forms. "Each of you, get a human and carry it with you so that they can be taken to the hive! Our marvelous Queen Chrysalis, the ruler of the proud Changeling race will wanna see them immediately once we get back!"

All the other Changelings did as they were told and each grabbed a human. The leader of the group of Changelings himself grabbed one of the 8 humans, who was John, as he and his comrades began to fly away from Ponyville and in the direction of the BadLands where the Changeling Hive was located with the 8 humans in tow!

As the 8 humans were unable to do anything and were being taken far away from Ponyville, they all suddenly remembered that they had heard about these Changeling creatures from twilight and her friends before on their way to eat at Applejack's farm. From what Twilight had told them, the Changelings were one of Equestria's biggest enemies and the Changelings were all led by a wicked and cruel, female Changeling called, 'Queen Chrysalis'! Twilight had warned the 8 humans that the Changelings were very clever and dangerous and could shapeshift at will!

If that was all true, then the 8 humans all knew that they were in a lot of trouble and that unlike the ponies of Ponyville, the Changelings would not be so friendly towards them! 'Oh, fuck!' Tony thought as he and the others were carried away by the 8 Changelings and into the horizon!

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Back in Ponyville, a 28-year old, blue unicorn mare could be seen watching the Changelings fly away with the 8 humans from her 2-story bedroom window of her house. Her name was Ocean Breeze and she had been lying down on her bed, reading a book that she had borrowed from Twilight's library 5 days ago when she had seen and heard the 8 humans fighting against the Changelings just down the street in front of Twilight's home from her bedroom window.

Ocean Breeze had been too afraid of the Changelings to go out there and help the humans fight them so she had just stayed in her room, watching the entire fight from her window instead. Ocean Breeze gasped when the Changelings incapacitated the humans and flew away with them into the sky and away from Ponyville!

While Ocean Breeze didn't want to fight the Changelings if she could help it, she knew that as a witness to what had happened, she had to do the right thing and inform somepony else about what she had heard and seen. And that somepony was Twilight and the other Elements Of Harmony! If anypony could deal with the Changelings and save the humans, it was them!

With the Changelings gone, Ocean Breeze left her home and went out to search for Twilight and her friends to inform them of the Changelings and that they had captured and flew away with the humans with them. As she ran, Ocean Breeze just hoped that the humans would be okay until Twilight and the others came to rescue them!

The Deadline

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"Get in there!" a Changeling guard ordered as he and the other Changelings that had been escorting the humans all forced them into a room even bigger than the one that they had all previously been in locked inside that cage.

Once all 12 of the humans were inside the room, another Changeling guard told them, "Our queen expects to see results soon and I mean soon! You have 24 hours to create some of your 'human' weapons or those two little, filthy apes of yours will pay the price! And don't bother trying to escape either! This door is the only way out of this room and we have hundreds of our guards waiting outside in case you try anything funny!"

"But how are we gonna create the weapons? We don't have any tools nor any of the materials needed to make them!" Ned asked, trying to come up with an excuse to stall for time so that he and the others could try to come up with a plan to get themselves out of their current predicament. "We can't just make them out of thin air! We need the right equipment and supplies if we're gonna so much as create even small firearms like handguns."

"Look around the room. You'll find something that you can use to make the weapons. As for tools, that's not mine, the queen's or the Changeling Hive's problem! You figure that out!" a third Changeling guard said.

"Now, stop wasting our time and get busy or we'll waste your two human friends while you all watch and then make you eat all their organs after their dead until there's nothing left of them except for bones! Understand?" a fourth Changeling guard threatened.

Gary held his little brother close to him in a defensive position while Zach hid behind Roxanne, fearing for his life! Gary and the others were prepared to protect the two kids with their lives if things got ugly.

The group of very scared and disgusted 12 humans all quickly nodded their heads before all the Changeling guards left the room and closed the door behind them. Once again, the humans were alone and unable to think of a plan at the moment, they all knew what they had to do and began to search around the room for anything that they could use to make weapons. Just like the Changeling guard had informed them, there was indeed no other way out of the room besides the way that they entered as there were no other doors or any windows anywhere and this room was also being illuminated by another huge crystal that hung from the ceiling above them.

It wasn't long before they came across a few crates that contained various different metals and other strong materials. "Well, we only have 24 hours to show some results and there's no way we can produce more powerful and complicated weaponry like missiles, tanks or even shotguns in such a short amount of time. We'll have to make smaller things like simple handguns," Ned spoke.

"Hey, genius! In case you forgot, we still don't have any tools and aside from you, we don't know a shit about the process to build weapons of any kind!" Tony reminded Ned. "Even someone like you is gonna have a hell of a time making one handgun, let alone enough to please 'Queen Asshole' and her fellow 'bitchlings' in 24 hours! There's no way you or any of us are gonna create the fucking weapons in time!"

"Maybe Ned can't, but with my help, I think we might just be able to pull it off!" Stan revealed. "Over the course of my life, I have learned many things, including how to build weapons from scratch!"

"Really!? How?" Michael asked.

"When I was in my late 40's, I worked alongside all the engineers and armourers who made all the weapons for the U.S. military!" Stan explained. "I was one of the best men that they had too!"

Ned was even more fascinated by Stan Biffon than he had been before and wanted to ask him more questions, but remembering that this wasn't the time to do that, he decided he would just have to wait to do that later. The others, on the other hand, were skeptical about Stan and his skills and doubted that he could help them build the handguns in time.

"I would tell you more about the details about my days working in the military, but now's not the time to be talking about that! We need to get started on those handguns right away!" Stan said.

"If what you say is true, can you really help us make the handguns within 24 hours?" Claire asked. "And without the exact tools required to make them?"

"Of course I can! Do you doubt my skills?" Stan spoke. "Besides, do you have any other ideas?"

Everyone else was silent as they knew that they were all in a tight spot and the clock was ticking. "That's just what I thought!" Stan told them.

"Alright! Now, Ned you and I will work on the handguns," Stan instructed as he motioned for Ned to stand next him before he pointed to the others. "As for the rest of you, you'll be our assistants and you'll be in charge of bringing all the metal and other supplies that you can find in those crates in this room to us. Don't worry about what materials we have to work with or about tools. We'll just work around it and improvise instead. I've built small weapons on my own without tools before and I promise you that by the end of our 24-hour deadline, we'll have some handguns ready to show to the Changelings!"

"You heard him guys!" Ned commanded. "Everyone knows what they need to do so let's get cracking!"

……………………………………………………………………..

Meanwhile, Twilight and the rest of the Mane 6 were now making their way through the hot desert of the BadLands. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were the only ponies who could fly so Twilight, Rarity, Applejack and Pinkie Pie were walking through the warm and dry sand of the huge desert the whole time. Even Fluttershy was walking through the desert every now and then as unlike Rainbow Dash, she spent more of her time on the ground than in the air despite being a Pegasus pony.

Rainbow Dash was very annoyed with the constant heat of the desert and like the others, had small beads of sweat dripping down her body. Rainbow Dash, though, was just as determined as the others to rescue their human friends from the Changelings and Rainbow Dash couldn't wait to get her hooves on Chrysalis and buck her to kingdom come!

However, Twilight reminded Rainbow that they couldn't just storm into the Changeling Hive and take out Chrysalis and the other Changelings even with them having the Elements Of Harmony this time. If they just attacked the Changelings and pushed them into a corner, they would become desperate and would probably use the humans as hostages and threaten to have them killed if they caused them anymore trouble and they couldn't have that!

No! They had to think things through and have a game plan! The Changelings were very clever and if they and Chrysalis were able to infiltrate Shining Armor and Cadence's royal wedding in Canterlot, then they couldn't afford to underestimate them!

Twilight had determined that they would all reach the Changeling Hive by 10:00pm at night, which mean that they still had a long road ahead of them! Twilight's friends all groaned as Rarity pulled out 6 bottles of water from a saddle bag that she was carrying with her and passed 5 of them to her friends and kept the sixth for herself so that they could all at least stay hydrated until they reach their destination.

As they slowly made their way through the desert, the 6 mares just hoped that the humans could hang in there for a little while longer until they arrived and were able to rescue them.

………………………………………………………………………..

Back at the Changeling Hive, Ned and Stan were now most way finished building 20 simple handguns. 18 hours had passed and so far, none of the 20 handguns were complete. They all lacked triggers, bullet cartridges and bullets which were vital components for handguns or any gun whatsoever to have in order to shoot and function properly.

"That's it! Just 2 more hours and we'll have all these ready to go! We just need to give them triggers, bullet cartridges and of course, bullets as well!" Stan spoke.

"This is stupid!" Jeff complained as he rubbed his hungry stomach again. "I would kill for some nachos, some Pop-Tarts, a large Coca-Cola, a peperoni pizza and a meatball sandwich from Subway right about now!"

"Shut up and help us, Jeff, or I'll pound you!" Michael threatened as he raised a fist at him and told him to pull out some more of the metal materials from the crates.

"I like to see you try!" Jeff shot back.

Michael was about to carry out his threat, but Stan stopped him and told him that this was no time for them to be fighting each other. They had to work together if they were all gonna get through this.

"What're we doing?" Alice said.

"What does it look like, Alice!? We're trying to complete these 20 handguns before our deadline is up and so that no one gets killed! What do you think!?" Gary replied.

"Don't you all get it!? It doesn't matter whether we make the handguns in time or not! Once Chrysalis and the Changelings get what they want, they won't need us anymore! And when that happens, we're all screwed anyway!" Alice answered.

"Well, I don't wanna lose my brother today, Alice!" Gary spoke. "We don't have a choice!"

"I have to agree with Alice there, Gary!" Michael joined in. "Plus, I really don't want us as the very first humans in all of Equestria to go down in history and be known as the ones responsible for helping the Changelings conquer and destroy Equestria! We can't let the Changelings win and have their way! We gotta do something!"

"Then, go ahead and tell me! I'm all ears if you have any better ideas!" John said.

Before Michael could say anything, Ned beat him to it. "Actually, I do have one, but it's gonna a bit risky!"

"What do you have in mind?" Gary asked.

"This is what we need to do!" Ned spoke. "First, we need to..."

Trapped!

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Outside the Changeling Hive, the sun had set hours ago and true to Twilight's word, she and her friends had all finally reached their destination in the middle of the night. The 6 mares stopped to take a break and stared at the huge structure before them. The Changeling Hive looked almost like a beehive, only much bigger than any hive in real life and with it being occupied by Changelings instead.

"Alright, girls! This is it! We're finally at the Changeling Hive!" Twilight announced.

"Great! Now, I can buck the daylights out of all those Changelings!" Rainbow Dash spoke.

"Hold on there, sugarcube!" Applejack reminded Rainbow. "Don't forget that we need to rescue John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie first before we deal with the Changelings. Otherwise, they may be put in danger in the process!"

Rainbow Dash sighed in annoyance, but reluctantly agreed with the others that until they found and saved their 8 friends, this would have to be a stealth mission. However, Rainbow did say that if she wasn't the Element Of Loyalty, she probably would just do things her way and charge in there and kick some Changeling butt!

With the Elements Of Harmony still being worn around their necks, the 6 mares slowly and carefully approached the entrance of the Changeling Hive. To help ensure that they didn't attract any unwanted attention, Rainbow and Fluttershy couldn't fly and had to walk with the others and Twilight cast a spell on them that made them temporarily invisible and none of the Changelings would be able to see them as long as they stayed completely still whenever a Changeling looked in their direction. Plus, the 6 mares had to be silent at all times and not make so much as a peep so that none of the Changelings heard them either.

Fortunately, for Twilight and her friends, there were only 2 Changeling guards guarding the entrance to the hive and they appeared to not be the sharpest tools in the shed. Taking advantage of this, the 6 mares came up with a good idea and immediately put their plan into action.

Carefully and slowly making their way over to and right next to the two Changeling guards, Twilight and Rainbow began to whisper into their ears. Twilight told one of the Changeling guards, "Hello!" Rainbow then said to the other guard, "What are you doing?"

Both Changelings then looked very confused and looked all around them to see who was talking to them, but they, of course, couldn't see Twilight, Rainbow and the others and only saw nothing. "Who's there!?" Changeling guard 1 asked.

"Do not be alarmed! I am your conscience!" Twilight lied to Changeling guard 1.

"Really!?" Changeling guard 1 asked.

"Who are you and what do you want!?" Changeling Guard 2 demanded.

Rainbow Dash then quickly thought up a story and replied, "This is a message from your future self!"

"Cool!" Changeling guard 2 cried out in excitement. "You mean it!?"

"Yes! I am speaking to you through your thoughts from 50 years from now in the future!" Rainbow fibbed as she started to already get tired of having to explain herself to the Changeling guard and just wanted to get down to business as she was not one to do long speeches, discussions and explanations with other ponies. "But future me...Uh, I mean you...Or us...Oh, whatever! Anyway, I'm speaking to you now to warn you!"

"What!?" Changeling guard 2 asked.

"Hey! If you're my conscience, how come you haven't spoken to me before?" Changeling guard 1 questioned. "Why are you only just talking to me right now?"

"That's because until now, you didn't need me before! But right now, that's not important!" Twilight replied. "What matters is that you are in grave danger!"

"What do you mean!?" Changeling guard 1 demanded, starting to not like what his presumed conscience (Twilight) was telling him.

"You see your friend over there? You can't trust him! He's not your friend and here's why!" Rainbow told Changeling guard 2. "You're future self, me, is currently rotting in a prison cell in the mighty Changeling Empire, which was formerly Equestria! I am and soon present you are to serve life in prison for a failed assassination attempt on Queen Chrysalis's life!"

"What!? Why!?" Changeling guard 2 demanded. "I would never do such a thing, especially to our beloved Queen!"

"No. You wouldn't, but your so-called friend over there would!" Rainbow explained. "While he doesn't show it, there are 2 Changelings in this entire hive that he hates and would do anything to get rid of! Those 2 Changelings are you and the Queen herself! He wants Chrysalis dead so that he can take over and become King Of The Changelings!"

"That's crazy!" Changeling guard 2 spoke. "There's no way he's gonna succeed in murdering the Queen and even if he did, the rest of the hive would know he did it and would be right on top of him!"

"Yes, but he still does try to do this anyway, but as I already told you, it was a failed assassination attempt and the Queen survived!" Rainbow replied. "However, to clear his own tracks and avoid getting locked up himself, the other Changeling guard right next to you frames you and you end up going to prison instead! By doing this, not only does he manage to save his own skin, but he also takes you down at the same time! We're rotting away in a dark and cold prison cell for the rest of our days, while he walks free and becomes the second most powerful figure in the hive behind the Queen herself! Tell me, do you think that's fair!?"

Changeling guard 2 thought about this for a moment before his expression turned to anger and hatred. "No. That isn't fair and now that I think about it, it makes a lot of sense! It would explain why he's been so secretive and rude to me all these years. Ever since we were first hatched together, I knew he was a jerk, but trying to kill the Queen and then framing me for his crimes is the last straw!"

"Your fellow Changeling over there is planning to kill you! He is very dangerous and mentally unstable as he claims to be receiving warnings from his future self that tells him that you're a threat to him and the hive! However, in reality, his future self is only a figment of his imagination and he is slowly losing his mind more and more everyday! If he is not stopped, he will not only murder you, but also the Queen!" Twilight lied again. "His so-called future self that he thinks he's hearing, has been telling him he needs to kill the hive, drink their blood and eat the Queen so that he can become immortal and the worst part is, he believes every word that it's telling him! He must be stopped before it's too late!"

Changeling guard 1 gasped after hearing this and didn't know what to think. Then, he remembered that his fellow Changeling comrade was known to occasionally talk to himself and act a bit silly. Changeling guard 1 and the other Changelings had usually just ignored it and shrugged it off as him just being weird, but if he really was crazy, then he can be a danger to himself and the rest of the hive!

Even though his presumed 'conscience's' warning sounded a bit far-fetched, he never really trusted Changeling guard 2 and had always thought there was something suspicious about him. Whatever the case may be, he wanted answers and if the other guard did have hostile intentions in mind for him and the rest of the hive, then Changeling guard 1 would personally bring him before the Queen and watch him get locked up in the darkest, coldest and worst cell that the Changeling Hive had!

Changeling guard 1 then stomped over to Changeling guard 2 to confront him and got right in his face! Changeling guard 2 glared daggers at him and said, "I know what you're gonna do and it's not gonna work! My future self told me what you're planning and-"

"Save it, 'Thrash'! I've had enough of your silly antics and me and the other Changelings have put up with it for long enough! I demand that you get these ridiculous notions out of that thick skull of yours and come clean at once or I'll have no other choice than to take you in by force and-" Changeling guard 1 warned.

"Nice try, 'Crush', or should I say 'rogue', but my future self warned me about you and your plot to assassinate the Queen, take the throne, and frame me for her death or what should've been her death, but you failed and set me up and got me locked up instead! If either of us is getting locked up, it's gonna be you traitor!" Thrash shot back.

"My conscience was right! You really have gone off the deep end!" Crush spoke. "You aren't killing the Queen, Crush, and how dare you accuse me of that when you're planning to do it yourself! I don't care what your stupid future self that you claim to have heard has been telling you! You're a menace to the Hive and the Changeling race as a whole and I will personally see to it that you spend the rest of your life in the worst prison that we have! To be honest, though, I never liked you and I will take great pleasure in having you locked up, you looney!"

Thrash found Crush's words very offensive and he looked as vicious as a hungry lion that was about to pounce its prey! "Oh, so you think I'm crazy, huh!? Well, you know what, Crush? If I'm crazy, then I'm gonna be the crazy Changeling that beats the living snot out of ya!" Thrash threatened.

"Go ahead! I'm not afraid of you! In fact, after I'm finished with you, I'll report your betrayal straight to Chrysalis and have you imprisoned for life!" Crush challenged.

"Not if I take you down first!" Thrash declared as he immediately charged himself into Crush and started a fight between him and the other Changeling guard!

Unbeknownst to the two Changelings, Twilight, Rainbow and the others were taking advantage of this distraction and slowly made their way past them and into the Changeling Hive. Rainbow stopped for few seconds to watch the two Changelings beat each other's brains out and she wanted to stay outside and see which one of them was gonna win, but Twilight used her magic on Rainbow and forcefully dragged her inside the Hive, much to Rainbow's disappointment.

Once inside, the Mane 6 kept going until they came to a empty hallway where there were no other Changelings anywhere in sight! This was a good thing too because Twilight's spell finally wore off and the 6 mares became visible again.

Twilight couldn't cast the spell again right now, at least not twice in the same day as it was very draining so Twilight and her friends would just have to be more careful and sneakier to avoid getting caught or alerting the Changelings of their presence. So for the next 15 minutes, the 6 ponies slowly and carefully checked every single room and hallway that they passed for their 8 human friends and each time they checked, they found no trace of them anywhere.

Fortunately, for the 6 mares, after a whole hour of searching, they discovered that they had already seen most of the Hive and there were now only 21 rooms left in the entire place that they had yet to search that John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie could be at now. While this meant they still had some more searching to do, at least now they knew that it was only a matter of time now before they found them.

However, Twilight and her friends begin to notice that something didn't feel right. That's when they realized that for the past half hour, they hadn't seen or heard any Changelings anywhere at all! The rooms and hallways were all empty and quiet, too quiet!

In fact, with no Changelings around, searching the Changeling Hive had been easy, too easy! It didn't make sense! When they had first entered the Changeling Hive and searched through it for the first 10 minutes, the whole place was practically swarming with said creatures before they had slowly became less and less and harder to find!

"What the hay!?" Rainbow spoke. "Where did all the Changelings go!?"

Suddenly, the entire area of the Hive around them went pitch=black and they couldn't see anything! The Mane 6 were startled by this and didn't understand what was going on!

Then, almost as quick as it had came, the darkness went away as bright light once again illuminated the area around the 6 ponies and they could see clearly again! They, however, didn't like what they saw when they noticed that they were now completely surrounded by what looked like every single Changeling n the entire Hive!

It didn't take long for the 6 mares to realize that they had fallen into a trap! 'Oh, no!' Twilight thought in slight shock. 'We've been ambushed!'

None of the Changelings moved or attacked the 6 ponies, but just grinned at them and laughed. Despite having not done anything to them yet, Twilight and her friends knew that they had to act fast before anything else happened!

"Girls, it's time! We need to use The Elements Of Harmony!" Twilight shouted as she and her friends stood together and got ready to use the most powerful magic in all of Equestria on their foes!

But to their shock, after a minute, nothing happened and the Changelings hadn't been defeated or turned to stone like they should've been! When Twilight and the others tried to figure out what happened, their eyes grew wide and they all gasped to see that they were no longer wearing their respective elements around their necks anymore!

"Looking for these?" the Mane 6 heard an evil and very familiar voice as they all saw Queen Chrysalis appear, carrying all 6 mares' elemental necklaces!

Twilight and her friends quickly got over this and with looks of anger and determination on all their faces, Twilight said, "Alright, Chrysalis! You kidnapped our friends and now you've stolen the Elements from us! Release them and the Elements now or I can guarantee you that you will face the full power and fury of the princesses and Equestria! They already know what you did and if you don't surrender now, they'll be here as fast as Rainbow takes care of the weather back in Ponyville!"

"Oh, no! The princesses! I'm so scared-Not!" Chrysalis taunted, not the least intimidated by the Mane 6 or the princesses. "Besides, you're in no position to make demands!"

"I'm warning you, Chrysalis! Stop this now or there will be consequences!" Twilight warned. "Last time, at the wedding, we only cast you out of Canterlot and back to the BadLands! This time, it's over and you and the rest of the Hive are under arrest for kidnapping, stealing and plotting to invade Euestria and suck all the love out of all the ponies that live there!"

"Oh, I'm shaking," Chrysalis spoke sarcastically.

"Ya should be!" Applejack told her. "The princesses and the judge are gonna throw the book at ya and you and the other Changelings will stand trial for all the crimes you've committed against us and Equestria! You'll never take over our kingdom!"

"I beg to differ!" Chrysalis said. "Soon, me and my fellow Changelings will have the means to finally conquer Equestria! And when this happens, even the princesses will fall before me and the Changeling Hive and Equestria and all the sweet love of its stupid ponies will be ours for the taking!"

"Not if we can help it! We defeated you once before and we'll do it again!" Twilight replied. "Even without the Elements, we will stop you!"

Before Twilight or her friends could do anything, they were quickly overwhelmed by the Changelings who pinned them all to the ground and subdued them after placing metal shackles on all their horns, wings and legs. Twilight and Rarity tried to use their magic, but the shackles were designed to prevent anypony who wore them from using any. The shackles also were designed to make it impossible for ponies like Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy from flying due to a special enchantment on them.

Despite this, the 6 mares refused to give up and put up quite the struggle. But this didn't last long and the Changelings all grabbed them and restrained them with their hooves. Chrysalis then smiled and ordered some of the Changelings to escort Twilight and her friends to the Hive's prison cell, which was the room that contained the same metal cage that the Mane 6's human friends had been in awhile ago.

As the Elements were being forcefully led away, Twilight turned her head back to Chrysalis with a very furious expression on her face and yelled, "You won't get away with this, Chrysalis! Forget going to prison! When all this is over, we'll turn you into stone and you will be sentenced to stay like that for all of eternity! do you hear me!? You will pay for this!"

After Twilight and her friends had been taken away and Chrysalis could no longer see them, the evil queen chuckled and thought to herself. 'This time, nothing will stop me and the Changeling Hive's conquest of Equestria! Farewell, Equestria, long live the mighty 'Changeling Empire'!'

..............................................................................

Meanwhile, back with the group of 12 humans and right outside the room that they were all at, a group of Changeling guards stood by. The humans still had 80 more minutes left before their deadline was up and the guards were patiently waiting until then before they went in to see what their progress on the weapons was at. Though, it was obvious that the Changeling guards were bored out of their minds and would rather be on patrol than be charged with guarding the humans and doing nothing unless they caused any trouble or the 24-hour deadline was up and they went in to see how far the humans were with creating the weapons.

Inside the room that the guards were guarding, Ned and Stan were busy giving the others directions and telling them more about their plan. "Are you sure this will work, Ned?" John asked. "You saw how many Changelings there are! There's no way we can fight all of them!"

"Maybe not, but where there's a will, there's a way!" Ned replied.

"Are you serious, man!?" Michael spoke. "It's only the 12 of us against all of them! We can't win!"

"Yeah, you dumbass! This is a bunch of bullshit!" Tony complained. "You and Stan should just complete the guns and give them to us so that I can make mince meat out of those Changelings! I so fucking want to see some Changelings get blasted apart like targets in a shooting gallery! That reminds me of when I used to shoot Rattlesnakes and scorpions in the desert with my dad's rifle! Those were good times, good times!"

"I know what I'm doing, Michael and Tony! There's a reason why I'm one of the best students in college and why I won that contest!" Ned spoke. "As for our plan, let's just say that those Changelings may have had us trapped ever since they captured us in Ponyville, but now it's time for us to spring a trap of our own! It's time for us to trap the Changelings!"

Ned's Gamble

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"Alright, everyone!" Ned shouted out to the others as they all started to pay attention to him. "The Changeling guards will be here soon to check in on us and our progress on developing the weapons we promised them and it's almost time to make our move!"

"Hey, genius, you already told us this, you dumbass!" Tony rudely replied.

Ned ignored Tony and said, "As you all know, it would be impossible for us to fight our way through all the guards waiting outside! So first off, we'll need to keep them all busy before we can go anywhere and that's where I come in!" Ned pulled out a small, black ball the size of a baseball from his left pocket and held it out for everyone to see. Everyone soon noticed that the black ball had what looked like built-in speakers and 4 buttons on the top of it. There was a blue button that said 'On', a red button that said, 'Off, a green button, that said, 'Lower Volume' and a yellow button that said, 'Increase Volume'.

"Are you fucking kidding me!?" Tony demanded before he began to laugh. "You're gonna stop those 'bitchlings' and help us escape with a little radio or boombox or whatever the heck that crappy thing is!?"

"It's not a radio or a boombox, Tony. This is one of the most useful inventions that I've ever created and it's our key to keeping those Changeling guards distracted long enough for us to get out of here!" Ned shot back.

"And what are you gonna do, play rock music and challenge them to a dance off!?" Gary asked, quite skeptical about how Ned's so-called invention was gonna help them.

"Of course not! I'm a straight-A student, not a dancer! Now, will you please let me explain already!?" Ned spoke angrily, beginning to become frustrated with being interrupted.

"Anyway, as I was saying. This thing here is called an 'II', which stands for 'Insect Incapacitator'!" Ned revealed.

"What does it do?" John asked.

"It does exactly what its name implies. It quickly and effectively incapacitates any insect nearby, making them weak and unable to do anything aside from breathing," Ned answered.

"How does it work, though?" Claire asked.

"I just have to press the 'On' button and it will begin to emit a special frequency that will neutralize any insect that hears them," Ned replied.

"But the Changelings aren't insects, at least I don't think they are," Eddie said.

"Maybe not, but from what I've gathered, their bodies and DNA are just close enough to bugs on our world, that my II device should affect them just the same," Ned explained. "In the past, I used to be so afraid of bugs and getting bitten or stung by them that I would always wear insect repellent! Then, last year, I finally had enough and after a couple weeks, I created the II to end my bug problems once and for all! With this, who needs insect repellent? Ever since then, I carry it with me in my pocket at all times!"

"Okay. I guess that makes sense, but how come you didn't tell us about it before? If what you say is true, it would've been a great time to use your II invention when my little brother's and Zach's lives were being threatened by Chrysalis and the Changeling guards back in Queen Chrysalis's Throne Room!" Gary demanded, somewhat angered to now know that Ned could've gotten them out of their current predicament all this time.

"The II only has a 5-hour battery life and I already used 4 hours and 48 minutes of it back at the log cabin on Earth! I have no way here or anywhere else in Equestria to recharge it so we need to save the remaining power it has left until the Changeling guards show up and we're ready! Plus, I estimate that the Changeling guards will only stay incapacitated once they've been exposed to the II's frequency for 5-10 minutes max!" Ned spoke. "Therefore, we can't afford to make any mistakes and we have to use the remaining 12 minutes of battery life on my II wisely because after that, we're on our own!"

"But what do we do after we've taken care of the guards and we get out of this room?" Michael asked.

"I can answer that!" Stan said as he pulled out a white piece of paper that he had been carrying in his pocket just like Ned had done with his II device. Stan then opened up the paper all the way to reveal the contents of the paper. Everyone all looked shocked when they saw what it was!

"A map!?" Everyone else spoke in unison.

"That's right! A map!" Stan explained. "I stole this map that shows the entire layout of the Changeling Hive from one of those Changeling guards that dragged us in here when he wasn't looking."

"This is great! Now we have a map of this entire place! This will definitely be useful!" Ned said before Stan handed him the map and Ned studied it carefully.

When Ned was finished, he pointed to a small section on the map and spoke, "Okay, guys! We're in luck! The one and only entrance and exit to the Hive is closer than I previously thought! But I highly doubt that even with my II device, Chrysalis and her Changelings will let us get very far once we get outside, so we need a more permanent solution to deal with them than just rendering them temporarily defenseless and immobile."

"Way to state the obvious, Einstein!" Tony insulted Ned.

Ned ignored Tony and continued telling the others his plan. "Fortunately, for us, this map has invaluable information that will give us just what we need to turn the tables on that cold-hearted Queen Chrysalis and the other Changelings!"

"Get on with it, Sherlock! I don't have all day!" Tony yelled at Ned, beginning to become impatient with not knowing what the rest of the plan was.

"Shut up, Tony! We don't have time to deal with you and your bad attitude!" Michael ordered.

Ned looked at everyone with a smile on his face. "I'm calling this, 'Operation: Fly Trap'!" Ned announced. "First, when the Changeling guards arrive to check on our progress, I'll use the II device and leave them temporarily incapacitated, while we leave and make our way towards where we'll begin the next phase of our plan, 'The Changeling Hive Amory'!"

"According to this map, the armory contains a few boxes of powerful explosives, which are vital to the success of this operation! We'll need them if we're gonna take down Chrysalis and the Changeling Hive!" Ned revealed before he turned to face John, Tony, Michael and Gary. "John, Jeff, Tony, Michael and Gary, I'll need your help carrying the explosives around, just make sure to be very careful with them! As I said before, they're very powerful and highly explosive!"

"And what are we gonna do with those explosives!?" Alice demanded.

"Yeah! Why do I have to help carry them?" Jeff asked. "Why can't we be carrying a dozen boxes of pizzas instead?" Saying this made Jeff even hungrier than he already was and all he could do was just rub his growling stomach.

"We're gonna take those explosives and set them all off in some different areas of the Hive, including Chrysalis's Throne Room!" Ned explained. "We're literally gonna blow this place apart and bring the roof down on Chrysalis and the Changeling Hive!"

"WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Everyone else shouted in terrified unison.

"You heard me right! We're blowing this place to kingdom come!" Ned confirmed. "If we destroy the Hive, we also eliminate at least most of the Changelings along with Queen Chrysalis herself and her wicked dreams of conquering Equestria!"

"Are you mad!?" Michael demanded. "We'll get killed, too! That's suicide!"

"Not if we all get out in time first!" Ned replied. "After we plant all the bombs where they need to be and they go off, we'll have 10 minutes or more to get out and put some distance between us and the Changeling Hive when it completely collapses!"

"We'll never make it in time!" Gary spoke. "That plan isn't just crazy and dangerous, it's downright stupid!"

"I told you that my plan was gonna be risky, Gary! We don't have any other choice!" Ned told him. "Would you rather we do nothing and let Chrysalis take over Equestria before she decides we're of no further use to her and she goes back on her word and has Eddie, Zach and all of us killed anyway? We can't trust Chrysalis not to break her promise, much less to let us go! I'm just as nervous as you are about this, but these are drastic times and drastic times call for drastic measures!"

Gary wanted to argue some more, but he knew that Ned was right and that Ned's extremely risky and dangerous plan was a huge gamble that they just were going to have to make. "Fine. I'm in," Gary reluctantly muttered. "But if anything happens to my little brother, I'm holding you accountable, got it!?"

Ned nodded. Soon, everyone else also slowly agreed to Ned's plan and with that, it was all settled. Now, all Ned and the others had to do now was wait just a couple more minutes and Operation: Fly Trap would begin!

…………..……………………………………………………………….

Meanwhile, in another part of the Hive, Twilight Sparkle and her friends had managed to escape their changeling captors and free themselves from their chains and shackles thanks to Fluttershy's infamous 'The Stare' technique. They were now carefully searching the Changeling Hive again, only this time being even more careful than before.

The Changeling guards that had been escorting them to the room with the cage earlier had easily and quickly been subdued by Fluttershy's Stare and they were affected by it so much that all Fluttershy had to do was ask them to let them go, remove all their chains and shackles and tell them where their 8 human friends were being held at. Then Applejack and Rainbow Dash bucked them on the back of their heads and knocked them out to prevent them from telling Chrysalis and the other Changelings about them escaping. To be safe, the Elements Of Harmony also shoved all of their unconscious bodies into a supplies closet and placed some heavy things in front on the door to keep them inside once they all came to.

Even with their magic, though, Twilight and Rarity still couldn't exactly figure out where their human friends were, even with the information that their former Changeling captors had given them. Apparently, the entire structure of the Hive was resistant to unicorn magic so it was of little to no help for them. Plus, the humans were immune to magic and weren't magical in any way, so they couldn't just cast a magic detection spell to find them either.

"We're getting closer to them! I just know it!" Twilight spoke.

"Well, wherever they are, sugarcube, we gotta find 'em all fast! Once Chrysalis discovers that we escaped, the whole and entire Hive will be on us like a swarm of bees!" Applejack said. "I don't know about you, but something tells me that things are about to get really crazy!"

"Yeah! Operation: Fly Trap is about to begin and in the next chapter, there's gonna be a big fight scene, too!" Pinkie spoke, yet again breaking the 4th wall. "Oopsie! Now, I'm spoiling the next chapter of this fanfiction. I hope the author forgives me for that."

Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash all stop and stare at Pinkie Pie with very confused and weirded out looks on their faces. "Uh, okay, Pinkie. Thanks for...Uh, sharing that with us," Twilight spoke awkwardly. Twilight then whispered to Rarity, "It's official! I'll never understand Pinkie!"

"Neither will I, darling. Neither will I," Rarity whispered back to Twilight.

However, what Twilight and Rarity didn't know was that Applejack and Rarity were right and that things were about to get crazy indeed!

Operation: Fly Trap

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"Alright, punks! Time's up!" a very tough-looking and mean Changeling guard who was wearing black and red armor and appeared to be the leader of the group of Changeling guards that had been sent to check on the humans' progress on the weapons said as he and 14 other Changeling guards, who looked like they hadn't slept for awhile entered the room with the party of 12 humans.

"Really? It's that time already? Time really does fly when you're busy creating weapons for you and your queen!" Ned spoke.

"Enough chit-chat! Do you have the weapons ready like you promised us or not?" the Changeling guard demanded.

"Of course! We just finished them a short while ago Mr...Uh-" John replied.

"The name's Pound, one of the most powerful and respected figures in the entire Changeling Hive next to the queen herself and you will know and refer to me only as such, understand?!" the now-identified leader of the Changeling guards yelled.

John and the other humans nodded. "Hey, Pound! You look even stronger and more intimidating than me!" Michael said, wanting to get underneath Pound's skin a little before he, Ned and the others put Operation: Fly Trap into action. "Have you ever thought of opening your own gym or becoming a professional wrestler or-"

"Silence!" Pound warned, which caused Michael to go silent. "Stop saying stupid things and asking just as equally stupid questions! Show us the weapons you've made at once or those two brats of yours will be executed immediately!"

"Very well. Please follow me," Ned instructed as he led Pound and the other Changeling guards to a metal table at the back of the room where all the guns laid seemingly finished and ready to go.

Mr. Pound and the other Changeling guards all paused for few seconds as they stared at the strange and unfamiliar weapons with shock and wonder before Pound grinned and turned to his fellow Changeling guards and told them to grab the guns and make their way out. "Yes, Mr. Pound," another Changeling guard agreed.

"Wait!" Gary shouted at Pound.

"What is it now?!" Pound demanded.

"You can't go now! At least not yet!" Alice spoke.

"And why not?" Pound questioned.

"Because you, Chrysalis and The Hive are now so close to conquering Equestria! You should celebrate! I mean how could you not wanna celebrate your soon-to-be guaranteed victory over the princesses and the kingdom of Equestria?!" Stan told Pound.

"We will celebrate later," Pound replied. "We must deliver the weapons to the queen and discuss how we will invade Equestria! We've already spent too much time here wasting time with all you filthy apes as it is! We can't stay here with you any longer!"

"Not even to listen to some nice music real quick?" Ned asked. "Come on, Pound! Just 1 or two minutes of enjoying yourselves and listening to some music before you're on your way! The queen will never know."

"I said no!" Pound refused, but stopped himself when he saw the looks on all the other Changeling guards' faces.

"Sorry, Mr. Pound, but he has a point! Unlike you, we've been up and about on guard duty for nearly 2 days straight!" one of the other Changeling guards argued.

"Yeah! Ever since then, we haven't gotten a chance to rest, especially after the 12 humans were brought here to The Hive!" another Changeling guard agreed.

"At this point, even doing nothing but listening to some music for a minute or two would be very appreciated. It would give our bodies some time to relax and regain our energy," a third Changeling guard added. "Otherwise, I refuse to do anything else!"

"Arrgghhh! I can't believe this!" Pound muttered in defeat. "Fine! We'll take a short 5-minute break, but that's it!

The other Changeling guards all cheered happily.

Pound then turned his attention back to Ned and warned, "And as for you, you said that there would be music and music there will be! But we will won't be the ones making it, you will! It better be good, too, or else!"

"Don't worry about that. I have just the right thing in mind that would be perfect for this special occasion!" Ned replied.

Ned then pulled out his II device and before Pound or the other Changeling guards could do or say anything else, Ned pressed the ON Button on it and shouted, "I call this 'The Swat'!"

Immediately, Ned's II device began to emit a special frequency and Pound and the other Changeling guards suddenly all fell to the ground, completely paralyzed and immobile, only being able to talk now! "We've been tricked! Guards attack!" Pound ordered, even though it was pointless as neither he nor the other guards could do anything.

With Pound and the guards incapacitated, Ned quickly turned off his II device in order to save the remaining power that it had for later before John, Gary, Michael and Tony took advantage of this and stole some of the guards' weapons to arm themselves! John chose a nice, sharp and long sword with a sheathe to carry it in as his weapon! "Now, this is probably one of the coolest moments of my life!"

"I'll say!" Michael agreed, who was now carrying a big, strong, metal mallet in both his hands!

"These are mine!" Gary spoke as he stole a sword just like John's and a small dagger and their sheathes to carry them in!

Tony was about to grab a weapon of his own, too, when he remembered Pound and stepped over to him and looked him straight in the eyes. Gary, knowing what Tony was about to do, turned Eddie around to prevent his younger brother from seeing Tony kill Pound, which would be an unpleasant sight that no kid like Eddie needed to see.

"Hey, Mr. Pound, I hate bugs! Bugs really annoy me, did you know that? You know what I do to fucking bugs that piss me off? I do THIS!" Tony yelled as he suddenly brought his right foot down onto Pound's head and began to bash his head in over and over again!

Pound screamed in unbearable pain and agony as his blood (which was blue) along with pieces of his brain matter went flying across the room and onto Tony in the process!

After 20 seconds of this, Pound finally died and Tony stopped. John then went over to Tony and said, "What the hell, Tony!? What's wrong with you, man!?"

Tony just ignored John and even the fact that his clothes were covered in Pound's blood and pieces of his brain as he went over to another Changeling guard and stole a sharp, metal axe from the defenseless creature. Tony then turned around to face John and said, "That bastard had it coming!"

"Maybe, but even he didn't deserve that!" John replied.

"Whatever. You can lecture me all you want! I don't give a shit about what you or anyone else thinks about what I did!" Tony answered as he began to head out the door that led out of the room. "Now, go ahead and do something about those other bitchlings to keep them from causing us any more trouble or I'll gladly do it myself!"

As much as John and the others wanted to berate Tony, they still weren't out of the woods yet and had to get a move on before Chrysalis and the other Changelings discovered what had happened so they wasted no more time and got to work on dealing with the remaining 14 Changeling guards. Not wanting to stoop to Tony's level or take anymore lives needlessly, the others opted in favor of chaining the remaining guards to a wall with magical chains that they found in a nearby closet outside the room designed to handle and successfully neutralize any pony or Changeling while wearing them.

In addition, the 12 humans also closed and locked the door behind them to help keep the Changeling guards inside. With the magical chains on, the Changelings would remain incredibly weak and would be unable to transform and wouldn't cause the group of 12 humans anymore problems.

With that taken care of, the 12 humans quickly and carefully made their way through the halls of The Hive and toward their next destination: The Armory. They made sure to avoid being seen or heard by any other Changeling guards and even had to hide a few times to avoid getting caught.

"Hurry, guys! This way!" Ned told them as he followed the directions on the map until he and the others came to a pair of double doors with a sign above them that read, 'Armory Room'.

"This is it! Now, we just need to get those explosives and we can move on to Phase 2 of the plan!" Ned spoke quietly.

Ned and the others slowly entered The Armory, aware that as such, there would likely be even more Changeling guards inside. And sure enough, there was at least a good couple dozen in there, who all immediately became aware of the 12 humans' presence and tried to subdue them and warn the other Changelings of The Hive that they had escaped!

The Changelings in The Armory, unfortunately, never got the chance to do so as Ned turned his II device back on, the frequency it emitted also incapacitated these Changelings too, and like before they too collapsed to the ground and could nothing to help themselves or stop the humans. "What is this!?" a Changeling guard demanded.

"I don't know!" another Changeling guard spoke. "Maybe the humans have casted some kind of paralyzing spell on us!"

Ned, then turned off the II device again as he and the others ignored the defenseless Changelings, walked past them and came to another door that read, 'Explosives Room. Danger! Highly explosive! Keep out!'

"Alright, guys! They should be right through here! You know what to do!" Ned said.

"What're you doing!?" a Changeling guard demanded as he quickly noticed that they were about to enter The Explosives room, which caused his eyes to widen in shock. "You stay away from that room! It's strictly off-limits to everyone! Not even I'm allowed in there!"

"Too bad, bud! You and your queen kidnapped us, threatened my little brother's and Zach's lives and forced us to help you create weapons to assist you in taking over Equestria! Now, you have left us no choice, but to fight back and take drastic measures!" Gary reminded him.

"When the queen hears about this, you'll-" the Changeling guard was saying, but never finished his sentence as Tony lunged at him and had his head decapitated with his axe!

Seeing this, the other Changeling guards were about to scream out in terror, but Tony faced them all and warned, "If any of you say anything else, you're next!"

The other Changeling guards had no choice, but to obey Tony's order, due to the weak and helpless position that they were in, lest they meet the same fate as their fellow Changeling guard. "Good. That's what I thought!" Tony said as he went back to the others at the entrance to The Explosives Room.

The others really wanted to berate Tony again for his cruel behavior, but like before, they had to complete the rest of their plan and carry it out fast before Chrysalis and the entire Hive was onto them, which would only make things even more difficult for them than it already was! So with that, Ned opened the room to The Explosives Room as everyone else followed him inside.

The Explosives Room was a much smaller room than the main Armory Room itself. Because of that and the fact that the room was mostly empty, it didn't take Ned and the others to locate all the explosives which were stacked up in boxes right in the middle of the room.

"Bingo!" Ned shouted.

Ned then opened one of the boxes to find that the explosives (not surprisingly) looked like sticks of dynamite, only made of diamonds and a red, glowing energy them instead. Ned also found some instructions that explained that like time-bombs, all you had to do was set the time that you wanted them to go off and they would when the countdown on them reached 0. However, these time-bombs' red, glowing energy inside them actually was a powerful essence of magic, which was so powerful when unleashed that it was just as effective and deadly as a hand grenade!

Ned then turned to face John, Gary, Jeff Tony and Michael and instructed them, "Alright! John, Gary, Jeff, Tony and Michael, each of you grab one box and follow me back out into The Armory!"

"Do I have to?" Jeff complained.. "Those boxes look heavy!"

"Do it, Jeff, or I'll make you carry two of them on your own instead of just one instead!" Michael told him.

"Fine! I'll do it! But when this is all over, I wanna go a restaurant and get one of those all-you-can-eat meals!" Jeff reluctantly agreed.

John, Gary, Jeff, Tony and Michael each grabbed a box and followed Ned and the others back outside and into the Armory Room. The affects of Ned's II device were almost about to wear off the remaining Changeling guards and they all soon noticed the boxes of explosives that John, Gary, Jeff, Tony, and Michael were carrying and began to panic! Ned quickly turned the II device on again to incapacitate them once again and turned it off 20 seconds later after he was sure that all the Changelings had been affected by it, but that did not prevent the terrified Changelings from screaming.

"Oh, crud! The humans have the explosives!" a Changeling guard shrieked.

"If those explosives all go off, The Hive is doomed!" another Changeling guard cried out.

"I told you all to shut up!" Tony yelled as true to his word just a little bit ago, he gently placed his box of explosives down on the ground before he began to brutally slaughter all the defenseless Changelings one at a time! Most were killed by his axe, while others were crushed to death by his feet like Tony had done earlier to Pound!

Gary yet again had to turn his brother away from the bloody carnage and after Tony had finished off the last of the Changeling guards in The Armory, Tony said, "I hope I get to kill Chrysalis next because she's next!" Tony then grabbed his box again and rejoined the others.

The others once again, wanted to chastise Tony for his actions, but now was not the time to do that. They did, however, promise that, after they escaped, they would confront him about his excessive and merciless behavior when they got the chance.

With the boxes of explosives in tow, Ned and the others headed to where they would plant their explosives at. There were five total locations in The Hive that they had to plant and set off the explosives and 4 of those places, were The Mess Hall, The Meeting Room, The Changeling Barracks and of, course, Queen Chrysalis's Throne Room. The 5th place turned out to be The Armory Room and much to Jeff's relief and joy, it was his box of explosives that had been chosen to be set off there, meaning he wouldn't have to carry his box now. The explosives in The Armory Room had already been set to go off in 8 minutes.

Planting the time bombs was very tricky and difficult with all the Changelings around, but thanks to Ned and Stan's ingenuity and cleverness, the time-bombs for The Mess Hall, The Meeting Room and The Changeling Barracks, were all planted successfully and no Changeling had seen or heard them either. The time-bombs themselves were hidden so well, that by the time they all went off, the Changelings wouldn't know what hit them!

'4 bombs down, only 1 more to go!' Ned thought as he and the others quickly and quietly made their way to Chrysalis's Throne Room!

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Meanwhile, back outside of the very same room that the humans had escaped from, The Mane 6 were now standing outside of the door as they now believed that they had finally found their human friends, who were supposed to be right inside. "John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie, don't worry! We're here and we're gonna get you out!" Twilight shouted as she used her magic to unlock and open the door before she and her friends rushed inside.

However, when they entered, they all froze in place in shock and confusion when they noticed that not only were their 8 human friends not there, but there were some Changeling guards in chained to a wall, staring at them with looks of confusion, shock and fear. The 6 ponies' blood ran cold when they noticed the bloody mess on the ground that used to be Pound, which made them all scream in horror and disgust!

"What the hay!" Applejack shouted.

"Eeeek!" Fluttershy shrieked in fright as she cowered behind Rarity, who was just as equally disturbed by this terrible scene as Fluttershy and the other ponies.

"What in the name of Equestria happened here!?" Twilight cried out.

"It was the humans! They did it!" the Elements Of Harmony heard one of the remaining Changeling guards say.

"Really!? How!?" Twilight demanded.

"I don't really know! All I know is that we Changelings heard a strange noise and the next thing we know, we're just as weak and defenseless as we are now! Then, they stole some of our weapons, too! If that wasn't enough, one of those humans, who goes by the name of Tony, went nuts and crushed Pound's head in with his right foot! I don't know about you, but that human is scary!" the same Changeling replied.

"Do you know where they went?" Rarity asked, slowly getting over the gruesome scene around her and her friends.

"That I do not know," the Changeling guard admitted.

"By the way, now that I think about it, why did you want our human friends anyway?" Applejack asked. "And don't try to lie to me because I'll know if are trying to!"

"It's really our queen that wanted them, not The Hive!" the Changeling spoke honestly. "She wanted them to help her and the Changeling race conquer Equestria and to do that, she forced them to build weapons for her and The Hive! As for what kind of weapons that she was after, I don't know! All I do know is that they're supposed to be much more powerful and deadly than any weapon in Equestria, Equis and possibly even the Elements Of Harmony!"

Twilight and her friends gasped after hearing this. Weapons more powerful than the Elements Of Harmony!? That was impossible! "That's impossible! The Elements Of Harmony are the greatest power known to all of ponykind and all of Equis!" Twilight spoke.

"That's what I thought, but Queen Chrysalis is so obsessed with defeating you and the princesses and conquering Equestria, that she'll go to just about any lengths to make it happen! She's even willing to have all of Equestria destroyed just to get her revenge on you!" the Changeling revealed. "To be honest, the fact that she's willing to go that far to do that scares me!"

"Well, thanks for telling us everything you know about what happened here, but now we need to go and find out where they are!" Twilight said as she and her friends made their way back out of the room.

"Wait! Don't just leave us like this! Help us!" the Changeling begged.

"And why should we do that, huh? You're Changelings! You work for Queen Chrysalis, remember?" Rainbow Dash pointed out.

"Not anymore! As of right now, she is no longer my queen and I don't wanna serve or follow somepony who puts themselves and their own selfish and cruel ambitions before the needs of their own citizens and in this case, Changelings! For years, I've put up with her obsession to get revenge on you and take over Equestria, but look where it's gotten us now! Ponies hate us, we're forbidden from entering Equestria at all, we live in terrible conditions in the middle of nowhere, we depend entirely on love to feed us and satisfy our hunger and now we've lost one of our own in a very terrible way to a member of a race not from this world that we provoked by kidnapping and forcing to work for us against their own will!" the Changeling announced. "But long story short, I wish to desert The Hive, Chrysalis and the Changeling race! I don't know where I'll go, but I rather go spend time in jail in Canterlot than continue to live like this any longer!"

The Elements of Harmony were quite taken aback by the Changeling's announcement. They had never thought that they would meet a Changeling who was actually on their side and against Chrysalis like them!

Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash weren't sure if they could trust the Changeling or if he really meant what he said. However, Applejack, being the Element Of Honesty, turned to the others and confirmed that what he was saying was in fact true and that he really did intend to change his ways and leave The Hive and Chrysalis.

Soon, though, it became clear that he wasn't the only one who felt this way as one by one, all the other Changeling guards present also announced that they were deserting The Hive, Chrysalis and the other Changelings too! Like the first Changeling guard, Applejack determined that they weren't lying and that they were now on their side and not Chrysalis's!

Pinkie suddenly became very excited as a big smile spread across her face as she shouted, "Yay! We made friends with some of the Changelings! Now, we can throw a 'We Made Friends With Changelings Party'! Woohoo!"

"That sounds very nice. I would like that. But before we leave, we need to go get our families first! If we leave now, Chrysalis might harm them once she discovers that we have left and betrayed her and we don't want to live without them nor do we want anything bad to happen to them!" one of the other former Changeling guards pleaded. "Please help us leave this bad place with our loved ones!"

"Alright. We'll help you, but only if you promise us that you'll be better ponies...Uh...I mean Changelings and not try to betray us, steal love from ponies or conquer Equestria again! You have to Pinkie Promise, understand? And if you break that kind of promise, Pinkie will know!" Twilight told the Changelings, knowing how well-known Pinkie Pie was for not only keeping promises, but also for her infamous 'Pinkie Promises', which many ponies had come to learn to never break, lest they suffer Pinkie's wrath!

"That sounds fair enough! It's a deal!" one of the Changelings agreed as he and all the other Changeling guards in the room all Pinkie Promised not to betray the Elements Of Harmony, steal love from ponies and conquer Equestria.

With that said, there was no going back for the former Changeling guards. They had all made their choices and not only were they effectively betraying Chrysalis and the rest of their kind, but they had now also made a Pinkie Promise and they would have to keep it for the rest of their lives no matter what.

"Okay, girls!" Twilight told her friends. "Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow and Rarity, I need you to go take the Changelings to their families and help them all escape from here! As for me, I still need to find our human friends and get the Elements Of Harmony back from Chrysalis!"

"Are you sure, Twilight? You know just how dangerous and tricky Chrysalis is! What if something happens and you need help?" Rarity reminded Twilight. "Besides, you don't even know where are human friends are either!"

"I might be able to help you with that!" one of the former Changeling guards said. "The humans may be immune to magic and it's impossible to pinpoint their exact location when the entire Hive is immune to pony magic. But that one human, Tony, got covered in Pound's blood, too! All you need to do is use a tracking spell to track the blood from Pound that went on Tony and that will let you track Tony and wherever Tony is-"

"So is the others!" Twilight finished his sentence as she realized that he was right and that she had just figured out the solution to finding her lost human friends.

"Thanks! You're a genius!" Twilight thanked the Changeling.

"It's no problem! You're helping me and the other Changelings here with us, so I thought it was only fair that I do something to help you out in return," the Changeling replied.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get going before Chrysalis catches on to us!" Rarity spoke.

"And I'll see you guys as soon as I find the humans and get out of here with them and the Elements Of Harmony!" Twilight promised as she parted ways with her friends, who went with the Changelings, who were all freed from their chains and led away with Twilight's friends, while Twilight used a tracking spell to track the blood on Tony, so that she could find all her human friends before she went to take back the Elements Of Harmony from Chrysalis!

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Speaking of our human protagonists, they had now finally arrived at Queen Chrysalis's Throne Room and to their surprise, found it to be empty! There were no Changelings or even Queen Chrysalis herself to be seen in sight!

"Interesting. I wasn't expecting this," Zach said. "Planting the last of the explosives will be a piece of cake!"

Michael didn't waste another moment and carefully and gently planted his box of explosives that contained the last time-bomb inside right against a huge pillar that supported the entire ceiling. Once the bomb went off, the pillar would be destroyed and when that happened, this along with all the explosions of the other time-bombs that they had planted would cause the entire Hive to collapse in on itself like a cave-in in an underground mine!

Ned quickly set the timer on the time-bomb to go off in 5 minutes, which they would need to get out in time. "Okay, everyone! That should do it! The bombs have all been successfully planted and set! Now, let's get out the hell out of here!"

"The first bomb that we planted and set will go off in 20 seconds! Once it does, things are gonna start getting much more dangerous and risky! And when the final bomb goes off, too, we'll only have less than a minute to get out of this place before The Entire Hive comes down on us-Literally!" Stan added.

"You don't need to tell me twice!" Jeff spoke.

"Hey, guys! Something doesn't feel right here," Gary said. "Planting and setting the last of the explosives was easy, too easy if you ask me! Chrysalis and some other Changelings should've been here, but they weren't. I think this is-" Gary told the others was quickly interrupted by an all-too-familiar voice that he and the others knew all too well!

"A trap?" Chrysalis finished as the evil Changeling queen suddenly appeared from behind her throne with an evil grin on her face!

"Chrysalis!?" everyone spoke in shocked unison.

"The one and only," the wicked Changeling queen announced. "I must say, I didn't think you would be able to outsmart and defeat some of my guards. You humans really do have some spunk! Unfortunately, that spunk will cost you dearly!"

"You don't scare us, Chrysalis! It's the 12 of us against you! You're outnumbered!" Michael shot back.

"Am I?" Chrysalis spoke as 30 Changeling guards suddenly seemingly appeared out of nowhere and surrounded the group of 12 humans! "As you can see, it is you who is outnumbered, not me!"

Chrysalis then noticed the time-bomb next to the huge pillar as a look of slight anger and annoyance appeared on her face. "So this is your plan, huh? To plant and set time-bombs like this one throughout The Hive and to blow me and my fellow Changelings to oblivion? Nice try, but that's not gonna happen!" Chrysalis questioned. "It's too bad! You went through all the trouble of getting this far, only for your efforts to be in vain! How pathetic!"

"After I deactivate the countdown on this bomb, I'll have 6 of you immediately killed, while the rest of my guards go find and stop all the other bombs that you've planted and set! The other 6 of you that I spare will continue to make me and The Hive more of your human weapons until either I have enough for the entire Hive to launch a massive assault on Equestria and you're of no further use to me or I have you imprisoned or disposed of for any future attempts to resist me and the mighty Changeling race!"

It was then that everyone felt and heard the first bomb go off in The Armory! "Well, you're too late to stop one of our bombs from going off! The other 4 are all set to go off real soon as well!" Michael shouted.

"Don't get cocky, you insolent welp! Just for that remark, you're gonna be the first of the 6 of you who will be killed!" Chrysalis threatened.

"Unfortunately for you, Chrysalis, we have an ace up our sleeve!" Gary informed the evil Changeling ruler. "Ned, do it now!"

Ned quickly turned on the II device yet again and it emitted its special frequency that as expected, immediately began to affect Chrysalis and the 30 Changeling guards with her! After 5 seconds of this, Ned quickly turned his II device off once again.

Ned and the others knew that Ned's device would temporarily put Chrysalis and the other Changelings out of commission, which would be more than enough time for them not only to escape, but also by the time the affects wore off on the evil queen and her colleagues, all the bombs would've gone off and Chrysalis and the other Changelings would be buried underneath the entire Hive! Ned's device hadn't failed them yet and it was unlikely that it would fail them now.

But to the 12 humans' shock, confusion, and slight horror, Chrysalis and the other Changelings didn't collapse to the ground or become severely weak! In fact, Chrysalis and the 30 Changeling guards with her only looked very annoyed and seemed to be feeling some slight pain in their heads, but nothing that would render them defenseless or prevent them from attacking!

"Where are those annoying sounds coming from!?" Chrysalis demanded as she felt some minor pain in her head. "I don't know what's causing it, but a little headache isn't gonna stop me!"

"Oh, no, guys! I think Chrysalis and the 30 Changelings with her are somehow very resistant to the affects of the frequency that my II device makes!" Ned panicked before he noticed a red flashing light on his device, which indicated that the II device's battery was almost dead! "If that's not bad enough, the battery on this is nearly out of juice! I estimate that it has only 1 more minute of power left at most before it dies on me!"

"So those annoying sounds and our sudden headaches are your doing? Well, guess what!? Our headaches are already beginning to go away and I'm gonna make you feel a thousand times more pain than what my headache gave me!" Chrysalis swore as she and her Changelings slowly moved in on the party of 12 humans to carry out the wicked queen's threats!

"Not so fast, Chrysalis!" a familiar voice was heard that everyone recognized.

The 12 humans, Chrysalis and the 30 changelings all turned to see Twilight Sparkle glaring at Chrysalis and her Changeling guards with a look of anger. "Chrysalis for crimes against the humans and Equestria, you and the other Changelings are under arrest! Surrender now or there will be consequences!"

"Me? Surrender? Ha! I sooner have my wings ripped out than lose to filthy and insignificant ponies like you!" Chrysalis replied. "I will enjoy destroying you, Twilight! Today, I finally will take my revenge on you and all your friends!"

"I also order you to return the Elements Of Harmony at once!" Twilight demanded.

Chrysalis then pulled out The Elements from a nearby bag next to her throne and said, "Sorry, but they belong to me now and I don't plan on giving them back-Ever!"

Chrysalis then turned her attention to her guards and ordered, "Well, what are you waiting for!? Attack her! Attack all of them!"

"Alright, Chrysalis! If you won't listen to reason, than we'll have to do this the hard way instead!" Twilight said as she used her magic on some of the guards and sent them flying across the room!

Some more Changeling guards were about to attack Twilight, but John, Tony, Gary and Michael joined the fight and begin to fight them off with their weapons! "Oh, heck yeah!" Tony spoke in excitement as he sliced a Changeling guard across his body with his axe! "This is even better than watching wrestling on TV!"

Michael easily knocked another Changeling guard on the head with his mallet, which left the poor Changeling seriously injured, not to mention the terrible pain that the Changeling would endure once he regained consciousness! "You made a mistake by kidnapping us and forcing us to work for you against our will!" Michael spoke.

Another Changeling guard tried to attack Eddie, which forced Gary to protect his little brother and fight the Changeling off. After a short sword fight between him and his Changeling opponent and realizing that the Changeling was gonna transform into a strong animal to kill him, Gary had no choice, but to slit his opponent's throat and take his life!

Gary didn't like the fact that he had just committed murder, but when his little brother's life was at stake, he decided that he was still a better person than Tony. Gary then turned to Stan and Alice and told them, "Stan and Alice, I need you to protect, Eddie while I deal with the rest of these guys! Can you do that for me?"

Stan and Alice both nodded, grabbed Eddie and kept him close to them. If any Changelings came their way, Stan and Alice wouldn't let them get anywhere close to Eddie even if they had to join the fight themselves as well!

By this point, Chrysalis was beginning to lose her cool as she watched Twilight and the humans slowly defeat her 30 Changeling guards. Before long, though, Chrysalis and everyone else heard and felt another one of the bombs that Ned and the other humans had planted and set go off and Chrysalis didn't like the way things were going!

'My guards are completely useless!' Chrysalis thought angrily, realizing that she would have to take matters into her own hooves. 'It appears that if I want the job done, I gotta do it myself!'

Chrysalis then flew over to Twilight and before Twilight could react, the evil queen sent her colliding into a wall! Thanks to Twilight's magic, though, Twilight only suffered a few scratches here and there all over her body, but otherwise, she was fine.

Twilight then took up a battle stance and prepared herself for her fight against Chrysalis. "This will make sure that nopony else interferes with our little fight!" Chrysalis announced as she lit up her horn and began to create walls of blue fire that slowly began to surround them and forced everyone else to leave the room and stand outside in the hall, while the Changeling guards who didn't react fast enough were quickly burned alive by the deadly flames!

At first, it seemed like it would be just a one-on-one fight between Twilight and Chrysalis, but John had managed to get inside of the area of Chrysalis's Throne Room where said Changeling queen and Twilight were to fight before Chrysalis had created the walls of burning blue flames! This meant that John could help Twilight defeat Chrysalis, yet it also meant that he was trapped, too, with the only way out, blocked off by the walls of flames!

"You didn't think at least one of us humans, who you and your goons kidnapped, forced us to help you with your plans to invade Equestria and threatened our lives wouldn't be part of this fight, did you?" John spoke. "Well, like it or not, it's you against me and Twilight and we're gonna make you pay for what you did to us!"

"Oh, no! The big, bad,, ugly, scary pony and her even more hideous ape-like sidekick are about to fight me! Oh, whatever will I do!" Chrysalis taunted. "I'm not afraid of you, human, Twilight Lame-O or anything else!"

"I'm so close to getting my revenge and becoming the new ruler of Equestria and eventually even all of Equis and now only you stand in the way of achieving my dream!" Chrysalis announced. "You think my weak and incompetent guards were tough? Well, if you wanna a real fight, I'll be more than happy to oblige!"

Suddenly, everyone all felt and heard the third bomb that Ned and the others had planted and set go off, too, meaning that only two bombs now remained! This only reminded everyone that time was running out and they had to escape The Hive soon or they were in real trouble!

Outside of Chrysalis's Throne Room and on the other side of the walls of blue flames, the others had managed to defeat the few remaining changelings that were left before they turned their attention back to John, Twilight and Chrysalis, who were all getting ready to fight. The others wanted to help, but they couldn't do anything with the walls of blue flames in their way!

Despite this, though, Ned, was determined to at least be of some help to John and Twilight, even if he couldn't help them directly with defeating Chrysalis! Ned then remembered that even though Chrysalis wasn't that affected by his II device, it still might be of some use to John and Twilight during their fight with Chrysalis. It was then that Ned realized that his II device might actually work on Chrysalis, after all! In theory, he believed that if John and Twilight could somehow manage to weaken and tire out Chrysalis first, then she would become almost as affected by the II device when he turned it on and she would be just vulnerable enough for John and Twilight to move in and deliver a few quick and strong blows to the cruel and dangerous Changeling queen in the process! Ned just needed to wait until the time was right to turn his II device on and he, John and Twilight could turn the tables on Chrysalis!

At the same time, though, Ned hoped that it wouldn't be too long as the fourth bomb was set to go off in another minute and a half and Ned definitely didn't want to stick around for too long after the last bomb went off either! 'This fight better last too long or we're all screwed!' Ned though as he was becoming more and more nervous with each passing second.

Back to John, Twilight and Chrysalis, Twilight finally made her move and fired a beam of powerful unicorn magic from her horn at Chrysalis, who quickly and easily dodged it. Twilight shot more beams at Chrysalis, but they, too, also missed as Chrysalis grinned evilly and spoke in a taunting tone of voice, "Is that the best you got? My own Changeling guards can shoot better than you can!"

John tried to attack Chrysalis, too, but Chrysalis used her own magic from her horn and shot a beam at John's sword, which caused it to be sent flying across the room, past the walls of blue flames with the others and out of his reach! John was now unarmed again and only had his bare hands and the rest of his body to use as weapons!

Next, John and Twilight tried to attack Chrysalis at the same time, but the mad Changeling queen quickly overpowered them and sent Twilight crashing into a table, which only left her with some minor injuries thanks to her magic, but she was still in bad shape and she had to use most of her magic to heal some nasty cuts and wounds where blood was beginning to flow out from to prevent losing to much blood and possibly dying of blood loss! With most of her magic having been used up, Twilight was unable to fire anymore beams of magic at Chrysalis or use any other spells that could possibly harm or defeat the insane Changeling queen!

John, however, managed to punch Chrysalis in her chest, which didn't do much harm to Chrysalis, but did make her even angrier than she already was! "You know, human, you and your other disgusting pals are really starting to get on my nerves!" Chrysalis told John.

"Well, then why don't we get serious and you stop playing games with me? I know you can transform, just like all your cronies can, so stop and show me why you think your so high and mighty! Go ahead! Do your worst!" John challenged.

Chrysalis didn't know whether she should accept John's challenge and transform into her most powerful form or stay the way she was and just kill the stupid human with her magic. If Chrysalis turned into her most powerful transformation, she would immediately become very disorientated once she change back as a result due to how much of her own magic she needed to assume that form! On the other hoof, if she didn't do it, she might make herself look weak to John and the rest of The Hive (if they found out)and Chrysalis wasn't about to lose face just because of the damn human's challenge, which would leave her dizzy and a bit weak in her head afterwards!

"I'll show you, human!" Chrysalis shouted angrily, as she accepted John's challenge. "Get ready to say your prayers because your about to meet your doom!"

Without hesitating, Chrysalis began to change into her so-called most powerful form and before long, Chrysalis now stood before John as a 25-foot Cobra-Dragon hybrid! Chrysalis grinned evilly down at John, who tried to look brave, but was really freaking out inside of him! "Prepare to meet your maker, human! Thisssssssssssssss will be very fun for me indeed!"

John, Chrysalis, twilight and the others, then heard and felt the fourth bomb go off! 'Oh, shit! Now, there's only one bomb left and after that, it won't be long before this whole place comes down on us!' John thought with worry. 'As if being in the middle of a fight with a 25-foot, bloodthirsty, Changeling queen-turned Cobra-Dragon hybrid wasn't bad enough!'

Just then, John quickly dodged to his left to avoid the sharp and deadly Cobra-Dragon fangs of Chrysalis, who was now trying to turn him into a bite-sized snack! "Oh, crap!" John freaked out as he was forced to run all around the world (except for where the walls of blue flames weren't at) while being chased by Chrysalis, who was right behind him like a hungry wolf hunting its prey!

Unfortunately for John, it wasn't long before Chrysalis had him cornered and he had nowhere to run, much less have any way to fight or defeat Chrysalis! "Well, it looks like our little game has come to an end! It's too bad! I was just starting to have fun!" Chrysalis spoke as she slowly brought her giant face closer and closer down to John as she prepared to finish him off!

"Oh, no, John!" Twilight screamed out in fear, as she tried in vain to summon enough magic to use a spell powerful enough to save him and defeat Chrysalis!

Chrysalis ignored her, knowing that there wasn't anything Twilight could do to stop her now and that soon, she would meet the same fate as John! "You lose, human! Prepare to die and suffer the wrath of-" Chrysalis cried out, but didn't get a chance to finish her sentence or kill John!

Suddenly, due to the damage that the 4 bombs that had gone off in The Hive had cause, the ceiling of Chrysalis's Throne Room started to slowly collapse! And it began with a huge piece if falling debris from the ceiling that landed hard on top of Chrysalis's massive head, which in turn caused her to scream in pain as her head and the rest of her giant, Cobra-Dragon hybrid form fell to the floor!

This came as a huge relief for both John and Twilight as that falling piece of debris had just saved both their lives! If that wasn't enough, the pain and shock from the falling debris that had hit Chrysalis on her head caused Chrysalis to be unable to maintain her powerful form any longer and she instantly reverted back to her original Changeling queen form, only now she was completely disoriented (just like she knew it would happen) and had a bloody wound on the side of her head! Chrysalis also dropped the bag that she had been carrying with The Elements Of Harmony on the floor, too, in the process.

Seeing what had happened to chrysalis and realizing that this was his chance, Ned didn't waste any time and turned his II device on once again. This time it worked as Chrysalis began to have trouble standing up and felt incredibly weak, which now made her vulnerable to attack!

Then, to everyone's shock and horror, they all finally heard, felt and saw the final bomb go off, which meant that the entire Hive was gonna really start coming down now and that they now only had 10 minutes to escape and get outside or it was game over for all of them! But first, Chrysalis needed to be taken of!

"John! Twilight! Now's your chance! Attack Chrysalis now while she's vulnerable!" Ned shouted out to them.

John and Twilight didn't need to be told twice and without saying a word they both attacked Chrysalis at the same time! John punched her to the face, while Twilight delivered a few strong bucks to the evil Changeling queen's stomach, which caused Chrysalis to cough up the contents of her last meal as well as her to get a broken nose and a couple broken ribs!

After a minute of this, Chrysalis finally recovered from her stupor and the effects of Ned's II device and felt unbearable pain throughout much of her body! Realizing what had happened and what John and Twilight had done to her, Chrysalis now wore a look of rage as she wanted nothing more now than to make John and Twilight die the most painful and terrible way possible!

However, she was in no position to do that now, especially having exhausted most of her magic on her most powerful form and with the horrible beatings and injuries that she had received which now left her extremely weak and almost completely defenseless! Not to mention, that in only a matter of minutes, the entire Hive was gonna come down on her and her enemies!

Chrysalis had only one option now and that was to flee and wait to take her revenge another day! The thought of her once again having been defeated and forced to abandon her plans for revenge and conquering Equestria alone was enough to make her blood boil as she glared daggers at John and Michael!

"It's over, Chrysalis! Your days of terrorizing Equestria and innocent ponies are over! I'm taking you back to Canterlot where you'll stand trial for all the crimes you've committed over the years!" Twilight informed Chrysalis.

"Nice try, Twilight Dumb-O, but I have other plans!" Chrysalis announced in a very furious voice. "You may have beaten me again, but next time, you won't be so lucky!"

"Sorry, Chrysalis, but there isn't gonna be a next time for you! You're all washed up!" Twilight replied.

"I beg to differ!" Chrysalis shot back as she suddenly summoned the last of her magic and used to perform one last spell!

Chrysalis was instantly enveloped in a bright light that blinded Twilight, John and the others, but only lasted a few seconds! When the bright light had faded, John and Chrysalis soon noticed that Chrysalis herself was nowhere to be seen!

"Darn it! She got away!" Twilight spoke.

"Forget about her, Twilight! Right now, we have bigger problems to worry about!" John said as he and her saw that the ceiling in Chrysalis's Throne Room was starting to rapidly fall apart as more falling debris came crashing down all around them. "We need to go before this entire place comes down on us!"

"You're right!" Twilight agreed. "But first, I need to get The Elements!" Twilight quickly grabbed the bag with The Elements and turned to the walls of blue flames and casted a spell to extinguish them so that both she and John could leave and rejoin the others and rush out of The Hive as fast as they could! Along the way, John retrieved his sword and quickly and carefully placed it back in its sheath, which he carried on his back as he and Twilight left the Throne Room.

After John and Twilight had rejoined the others, they all wasted no more time and began to follow Ned's map of the Hive to the Hive's entrance and only exit as fast as their legs could possibly take them! At the same time, they avoided falling debris and any Changelings who hadn't gotten outside or weren't dead!

'We only have a few more minutes left!' Ned thought with panic. 'We need to MOVE it or we won't make it in time!'

……………………………………………………………….

In the meantime, outside and a safe distance away from The Hive, Twilight's friends, along with the former 14 Changeling guards and their families now stood atop a sandy hill of the desert as they all were anxiously waiting for Twilight and their human friends to all emerge from The Hive alive and in one piece! "Where are they!?" Applejack panicked. "That place is gonna come down any minute now!"

"Ooh! Ooh! I see them!" Pinkie Pie shouted, pointing toward the entrance of The Hive. "They just gout, but they're on they're way!"

Sure enough, the group of 12 human and Twilight carrying the bag with The Elements Of Harmony on her back could be seen outside the front of the entrance to The Hive and rushing to put as much distance between them and it as they could before the entire place collapsed completely! Luckily for all of them, they succeeded and not a moment too soon!

Everyone all watched as The Hive finally collapsed in on itself and the Changelings' home and headquarters was no more! The 12 humans had finally escaped from that terrible place and were free again and it felt good to be breathing fresh air again after what felt like years in The Hive!

It wasn't long before Twilight and the humans were reunited with Twilight's friends and former Changeling guards and their families. When the 12 humans first saw the Changelings, though, they took up defensive stances and were about to attack them, but the Mane 6 quickly explained to them that they were on their side now and that they no longer served Chrysalis anymore and wouldn't cause them or anypony else anymore trouble ever again.

After awhile, the 12 humans were finally convinced and relaxed themselves, but they said that they would keep their eyes on the Changelings with them in case they decided to change their minds and give them any problems. The Elements and the Changelings themselves assured them that they wouldn't.

Twilight then opened the bag with The Elements in it and returned each Element back to each of her friends. Twilight and her friends were glad to finally have The Elements back knowing that they were vital to defeating anymore future threats to Equestria like Chrysalis. "Speaking of Chrysalis, Twi, what happened to her? Did she not get out in time? Is she dead?" Applejack asked.

"I don't know, Applejack," Twilight replied. "After me and John beat her, she had one more trick left and she used the last of her magic to escape? After that, I don't know where she is or even if she's still alive!"

"Well, wherever she is, I'll be sure to give her one of my patented Rainbow Power Beat-Downs!" Rainbow Dash promised.

.…….………………………………………………………………..

Meanwhile, about a mile away from where our heroes were at, Chrysalis was slowly trekking through the BadLands Desert, muttering curses and repeatedly kicking the sand around her. She wasn't the least bit happy about everything that had just recently happened to her and The Hive!

Not only had she lost the humans and the weapons they promised her, which were her key to getting her revenge and taking over Equestria, but she had been defeated and humiliated twice and had lost both The Hive as well as most, if not all of her Changelings in the destruction of The Hive itself, which Chrysalis had just barely managed to escape from in time after she got away from John and Twilight!

Twilight, John and the other humans had caused her to lose everything! EVERYTHING!

"This is a nightmare! In just a short amount of time and thanks to Twilight and those bloody humans, I'm ruined!" Chrysalis yelled. "I have nowhere to go and The Hive as well as all my dear Changelings are no more! How could things possibly get any worse!?"

Chrysalis shouldn't have said that as unbeknownst to her, she wasn't alone as a mysterious figure slowly approached her from behind. "Now what am I gonna do!?" Chrysalis cried out furiously.

"How about giving me the scroll that you have?" asked an unknown male voice from behind Chrysalis.

Chrysalis turned around to see who was talking to her and she looked shocked when she saw the mysterious male figure before her, who we don't see, but only Chrysalis does. "Who in the name of Equis are you!?" Chrysalis demanded.

"Don't try to change the subject! I want that scroll that you have! The one about Starswirl The Bearded's forbidden mind spell! That one!" the unknown male figure ordered. "Give it to me!"

Chrysalis held onto the scroll that she had secretly been carrying with her all this time and held onto protectively like it was her newborn child! "If you want it, you'll have to take it over my dead body!" Chrysalis challenged.

"That can be arranged!" the mysterious figure replied as the scene moves away from Chrysalis and to the desert's background as we hear Chrysalis scream in pain and horror before her screams cease altogether.

Next, we see the scroll on the desert ground next to the lifeless and bloodied body of Chrysalis who's head had been completely severed from the rest of her body as the mysterious figure picks up the scroll and begins to slowly walk away with it! All we see is his shadow, which we also can't completely make out to avoid revealing too much about his identity.

As we see his shadow over the scroll, showing that he's studying its contents, we hear him say, "Hmm. This is very interesting indeed. My master will be most pleased with this knowledge once I present it to him!"

.............................................................................

Meanwhile, back to our heroes, they were now walking through the desert as the hot desert sun shined down on them and they were now sweating and becoming dehydrated. Aside from the heat and that everypony was tired, they all were getting hungry as well.

Twilight and her friends also were just getting used to the fact that not only did they make friends with some of the Changelings, during their mission to rescue their 8 human friends, but also that they now had 12 humans on their world, instead of just the 8 that they already knew like they had previously thought! They asked John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Eddie and Tony if they had anything to do with them and why they were on Equis, but their 8 human friends were just as surprised by the 4 newcomers as they were! As it turns out, no one and nopony could've predicted that 4 more humans would suddenly just show up on Equis not long after John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Eddie and Tony had showed up. One thing was for sure and that was when they got back to Ponyville, Twilight was gonna have to get Spike to write and send a letter to Celestia and Luna about these unexpected developments!

Still, after some introductions and explanations, Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie quickly warmed up to Zach, Stan, Jeff and Roxanne. Pinkie Pie was really excited now. As soon as they got a chance, she wanted to throw everyone and everypony a 'We're Now Friends With 12 Humans And Changelings Party!'

"I hate the heat and this desert almost as much as I hated Chrysalis and The Hive!" Zach whined.

"I hate that even now that we're finally free, I'm not at a restaurant, eating my fill yet!" Jeff complained.

"Oh, shut up, Jeff!" John said. "Talking about food isn't gonna help us get back to Ponyville any faster!"

"Oh, and like you're not hungry and dying to get something to eat, too, yourself?" Jeff shot back.

John didn't answer and instead was silent and continued to walk with the others, knowing that now wasn't the time to get into an argument with Jeff. When they got back, though, he, Jeff and the others all intended to eat and get some rest before they did anything else.

Fortunately, The Mane 6, the Changelings and the 12 humans wouldn't have to walk all the way back to through the desert, out of the Badlands and back to Ponyville as suddenly, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna both appeared in front of them with a bunch of Royal guards at their sides riding in carriages, which were, of course, were being pulled around by 4 Royal guards each! The princesses smiled upon seeing The Elements Of Harmony and their 8 familiar human friends, but their expressions changed into confused and shocked upon noticing both the 4 new humans and the Changelings that were accompanying them!

When everyone and everypony was finally standing in front of each other, Celestia asked, "Well, I wasn't expecting this!"

"Neither was I Tia!" Luna agreed.

"Well, it looks like we got some explaining to do, huh?" Zach said nervously.

"Kid, you don't know the half of it!" Twilight spoke.

Celebration!

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2 days later, The Elements Of Harmony, the group of 8 humans, along with the 4 newcomers and the large group of Changelings, who formerly served Queen Chrysalis, had finally returned back to Ponyville, with the exception of the reformed Changelings, who had to go to Canterlot so that the princesses and the Royal Court could decide what to do with them. Despite the fact that these Changelings had given up their wicked ways, they still had to stand trial for any and all crimes they may have committed while serving Chrysalis and the Changeling Hive. Plus, there was also the matter of keeping Equestria from going into a panic when everypony so much as heard about the Changelings that were now staying in Equestria!

One thing was for sure and that was between the Changelings and the fact that they would now have to take into account that there were 12 humans in Equestria, instead of just 8, the princesses would be busy for awhile trying to get all this sorted out. Not to mention, like they had learned before thanks to curious and sneaky ponies like NewsFlash, it was only a matter of time before word got out about the Changelings, the arrival of 4 more humans, how their 8 human friends were kidnapped by Changelings, Chrysalis's plan to use them to conquer Equestria and what the humans did to the Changelings, Chrysalis and The Changeling Hive!

The princesses were quite shocked that the humans not only escaped, but managed to turn the tables on their Changeling captors, then devise and successfully carry out a clever plan to defeat Chrysalis and The Changelings, one of Equestria's biggest threats! They were just as equally surprised that John (albeit with some help from Twilight Sparkle and Ned's II Device) had managed to almost single-handedly fight and take down the wicked queen of the Changelings herself!

Because of this, the princesses and all those closest to them that they had already informed about these recent, shocking and unexpected developments were beginning to see why Chrysalis and the Changelings kidnapped their human friends in the first place! It also became clear that where the humans lacked magic, wings and natural defensive traits like sharp claws, fangs and horns, their race more than made up for with in ingenuity, immunity to magic and whatever weapons Chrysalis was forcing them to make for her and the Changeling Hive!

Despite the sensitivity of how other ponies would surely react to all this, the truth still had to come out sooner or later, but this time, the princesses and the Equestrian Government would immediately be quick to get the word out so that unlike last time, no curious and sneaky newsponies and the companies they work for don't make false accusations and spread any negative propaganda and rumors that could trouble, them, the Elements, the Changelings or the humans. And they knew just the pony who was going to help them do this!

"Guards! Bring him in!" Princess Celestia ordered as she and her sister were sitting on two identical thrones in the Canterlot Castle's royal Throne Room, watching some of the Royal guards escort a familiar newspony into the Throne Room.

Said newspony was soon revealed to be NewsFlash, who now looked angry, confused and worried at the same time. "What is the meaning of this!?" NewsFlash complained. "I was just in the middle of an expensive one-week vacation at Los Pegasus and then these rude guards show up, take me into custody and drag me all the way here against my will!"

"Silence! You're in the presence of the princesses and you will show some respect to them while you're here!" one guard commanded.

"Wait! The princesses!?" NewsFlash spoke in shock as he then noticed the two sisters of the Sun and The Moon sitting down on their thrones right before him.

Without saying anything, NewsFlash then got down and bowed to them to show his respect, not wanting to get on their bad side. Unfortunately for him, he already was!

"Your majesties, it is quite an honor to be in your glorious presence! What can I do for you today?" NewsFlash asked, wondering why they had made him come all the way to from Los Pegasus to them. "Did you read all about that story about the humans that I reported to my boss, who had it published and printed to all of Equestria and beyond? That's some pretty crazy stuff, huh?"

"Yes we did, NewsFlash, and that's what we want to discuss with you right now," Celestia replied.

"And what's that?" NewsFlash asked. "Are you gonna congratulate me for-"

"THOU IS NOT HERE TO BE CONGRATULATED!" Luna shouted in her Royal Canterlot voice. "THOU IS HERE BECAUSE OF THOU'S RECENT ACTIONS!"

NewsFlash didn't like how Princess Luna just spoke to him and this made him feel a bit nervous. "Are-are those actions forcing my boss to pay that outrageous amount of Bits for all my notes and pictures of the humans and everything else I learned that I reported to him? If it is, then I can assure you that for huge news like that, it was a pretty reasonable and fair transaction."

"THOU'S BITS THEY GOT AREN'T IMPORTANT!" Luna told him.

"Then, why exactly am I here?" NewsFlash asked.

"Like my sister said, you're here because of your recent actions," Celestia answered. "Or more specifically, how you went about reporting the humans and inadvertently causing many ponies across Equestria to panic partly due to your carelessness and false claims about the humans!"

"But those humans are the biggest thing to happen in Equestria in years! I had to let everypony know about them!" NewsFlash tried in vain to defend himself. "Sure some of my reports about the humans might've been overexaggerated like them wanting to invade Equestria! Even so, they're still aliens and a brand new species that we haven't even heard of before until just recently. That much is true."

"That doesn't matter. What you did was still wrong!" Celestia replied. "You were sneaky and spied on the humans the Elements, which was not only rude and inconsiderate, but also a huge violation of their privacy! You could've at least made your presence known to them and just asked them questions instead, rather than stalk them like the Timber Wolves do to their prey in the EverFree Forest! But no! You did what you did without their knowledge or their consent and as a result, not only did the humans have to deal with a bunch of other newsponies, Gold Nugget, the EBI and the EOOPS, but the Changelings also learned of their existence, kidnapped them and forced them to help them with their own cruel ambitions that could've put in Equestria in peril before they and the Elements managed to escape from the Changeling Hive just two days ago!"

NewsFlash didn't know what to say! He had no idea what the humans had been through ever since he left Ponyville and reported his findings to his boss. At the time, NewsFlash may have been desperate to find a juicy story that could save his job and his living expenses, but if he had known that he would only cause more harm than good, than he would've been much more careful and get answers directly from the humans and the Elements themselves instead of sneaking eavesdropping on them.

NewsFlash now began to feel bad about what he had done. He let his desperation, selfishness, pride and carelessness cloud his judgement and cause all sorts of problems for the humans, the Elements, the princesses and everypony else in the process. "I was a desperate stallion, who needed those bits real bad! I didn't mean for any of that to happen!" NewsFlash admitted.

"Well, it did and there's nothing nopony can do about it," Celestia said. "Fortunately, we've calmed everpony in Equestria down and reassured them that the humans mean them no harm and have no intention of invading Equestria. As for the humans themselves, they are now currently back in Ponyville, recuperating from everything the Changelings put them through while they were their prisoners."

"Well, that's good to hear," NewsFlash spoke.

"But there's still the matter of your punishment, NewsFlash," Celestia reminded him.

From the moment NewsFlash had heard what had happened because of him, he knew it was inevitable that he would be punished and now it was that time. "So what is my punishment? Am I going to jail? Am I going to spend the next 30 years or so imprisoned in the Royal Dungeons?" NewsFlash asked.

Celestia and Luna shook their heads. "No. Actually we've got something else in mind," Celestia replied. "NewsFlash, for your actions, you are hereby sentenced to..."

NewsFlash began to brace himself for whatever harsh sentence that he was about to be given. "...Live in Ponyville and make friends with the humans!" Celestia finished.

"What!?" NewsFlash demanded in shock and disbelief, not understanding why the princesses were giving him such a strange and lenient sentence.

"Did thou not hear what Tia has just told thee?" Luna told NewsFlash.

"I did. It's just you're just gonna let me off the hook just like that?" NewsFlash asked. "You're not gonna punish me or send me to jail or anything like that?"

"I wouldn't say that, NewFlash. You are still being punished, but since me and my younger sister have our hooves full with important royal business and we're in a good mood due to Queen Chrysalis and The Changelings, which has been one of Equestria's biggest threats for many years, having just been defeated, this time for good, and the return of the humans and the Elements Of Harmony, so we're gonna go easy on you this time!" Celestia informed NewsFlash. "But be warned that if you decide to report anything else about the humans again without at least their and the Elements Of Harmony's knowledge and permission, and ours, too, if necessary, then you will be arrested and spend the next 25 years in a prison here in Canterlot, understand?"

NewsFlash nodded and didn't say anything. "Good. Now, as I just told you a moment ago, you are to move to Ponyville and become friends with the humans," Celestia said. "Also, I want you to make amends with the humans to make up for everything that all those other newsponies, Gold Nugget, the EBI, EOOPS and The Changelings put them through as a result of your careless and inconsiderate actions."

"I will. I promise!" NewsFlash promised.

"Very well, then. Now that we're on the same page, you are free to go," Celestia spoke. "You may go home and begin packing up all your stuff immediately. Just don't take any longer than a couple days to move to Ponyville, okay?"

NewsFlash nodded and quickly left the Royal Throne Room as some of the Royal Guards closed the doors behind him. With NewsFlash gone, Celestia and Luna turned to each other and were now focused on dealing with the next matter at hoof: How they were gonna let Equestria know that there was now 12 humans residing in Ponyville, instead of just 8!

After a few minutes, Celestia turned to the Royal Guards in the Throne Room and gave them an order. "Guards, I need you to go around Equestria and pass around a message from me and my sister! Here's what I want you to tell everypony..."

……………………………………………………………………………………

Meanwhile, back in Ponyville, the Elements Of Harmony, John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie, along with the 4 newcomers, had all finally returned! They had just gotten back the day before and they had been exhausted from the long journey through the BadLands Desert, back across the border into Equestria and back to Ponyville! Not to mention, they had all been starving and thirsty as well, so it came as a huge relief to all of them when Applejack's family prepared another huge feast for all of them again similar to the one that the Elements, John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie had been treated to just the other day, not that long before the 8 humans had been kidnapped by the Changelings and taken back to The Changeling hive against their will!

Yesterday, after they had all satisfied their hunger and thirsts, they had all wanted to go straight to bed, but they were all filthy from the desert, and the evil and cruelty of the Changelings and Queen Chrysalis! Everyone and everypony needed to take a bath or a shower, especially the humans, who hadn't done so for a few days now!

In addition, the party of 12 humans' clothes also needed to be washed and cleaned as they had also been wearing the same clothes that they had been wearing ever since they had arrived in Equestria and Rarity had been quick to point this out when they got back. "Darlings, this will not do! while you're all getting cleaned up yourselves, a nice change of clothes wouldn't hurt either!"

It hadn't been long after Rarity had said that that both she and the other Elements had all finally noticed all the dry Changeling blood that covered Tony's clothes and some of his hands, arms and face that had gotten on him when he killed Pound and all those other Changelings back at The Hive! This, of course, made her and the rest of the Mane 6 scream in horror and disgust until Ned calmed them down and told the 6 ponies that he and the others were just as shocked and appalled by Tony's brutal killings of the Changelings as they were and that they would talk to Tony about it later.

After awhile and being reassured by Michael that he would keep Tony under control if he stepped out of line, the 6 mares finally completely regained their composures, with the exception of Fluttershy (who was still shaking a bit from the fact that one of the Elements' human friends had committed murder and had took the lives of all those Changelings without any hesitation). The others all knew that even Tony didn't wanna get into a fight with Michael and both he and them all knew it! Tony was well-aware of Michael's tough reputation and knew that between the two of them, Michael was more athletic, faster and stronger than him.

Rarity had been the first to go wash up, which she quickly did at her house. When she got back to her friends and the 12 humans, she was surprised when she saw that none of the humans had yet to take a bath or shower. Ned was quick to remind her that he and the others had no other clothes to wear than the dirty ones that they were all currently wearing and that being humans, they had no fur to cover their entire bodies and private areas with. They may have been filthy and were beginning to stink, but there was no way that they were just gonna go get cleaned up, only to have to change right back into their smelly, dirty clothes afterwards and going around nude was certainly out of the question, even if there weren't any laws in Equestria that prohibited it or that no one back home would ever know that they had done so! Afterall, regardless of the circumstance, public nudity was just so strange and gross, as well as downright embarrassing!

Rarity said that she could help them all out and that they should all go ahead and wash up anyway. Twilight told the 12 humans that she had a bunch of white towels in her home that they could use to dry themselves off with and cover their bodies with after they got out from their baths and/or showers. Rarity then revealed to the group of 12 humans that she ran the Carousel Boutique in Ponyville and she made and designed clothes for ponies and could surely do the same for them.

But first, Rarity needed to take some measurements of each of the 12 humans to know how exactly big, small and tight she should make the new clothes for the humans before she went back to her place and got started, so she quickly pulled out a measuring tape and asked the humans to stand still while she took measurements from them. After she was finished, Rarity put her measuring tape away and said, "Alright. I'm all set! You all go ahead and get yourselves cleaned up. I get started on your new clothes and I'll be over with them as fast as I can! See you soon!"

With that, Rarity headed back to her place and began to work on all the humans' new clothes while Twilight led the humans into her house and they all took turns using the bathroom, starting with Eddie and Zach, who were the youngest out of all of them. Once they were inside the bathroom, they both quickly got out of their filthy clothes, happy that were finally out of them for the first time since they came to Equestria! While Eddie and Zach were kids, they knew how to use a bathtub and a shower all on their own, but being kids, they both preferred to take baths and play with all the bubbles.

Once they were clean, Eddie and Zach each grabbed a white towel and covered themselves like Rarity had instructed them to. With his brother clean, Gary went next, followed by John after. Then, came Roxanne and Claire and Alice. Then, Stan and Ned. After that was Jeff and Michael. Finally, Tony went last, which he initially refused at first as he loved his black shirt with a skull and crossbones on it and his black boots and wasn't planning to get rid of them, even though they were dirty, smelly and were covered in dry Changeling blood. However, after Twilight told him that his and the others' clothes would all be washed and cleaned, Tony finally agreed, but only on the condition that his black clothes be returned to him as soon as they're clean and dry.

After awhile, everyone and everypony was clean and good to go. The 12 humans had all been wearing the white towels that Twilight had provided for them and had been waiting patiently for Rarity to arrive with their new clothes.

Soon enough, Rarity did arrive with the 12 sets of clothes that she had promised. Rarity used her magic to give a pair of clothes to each of them as they began to study their new threads.

But their new threads were really just pajamas with slippers, instead of regular clothes. John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Tony, Eddie, Stan, Jeff and Zach were all given blue pajamas with little, red dragons on them, while Alice, Claire and Roxanne all got pink pajamas with cute bunnies, puppies and kittens on them. "So here you all go! Blue pajamas with red dragons on them for the boys and pink pajamas with bunnies, puppies and kittens for the girls!"

"These are pretty comfy!" John said once he got into his pajamas.

"Are you kidding? These are awesome!" Eddie shouted with excitement. "I always wanted dragon pajamas!"

"I may not be a cat person, but I do love rabbits and dogs a lot, especially rabbits!" Roxanne admitted.

"These may not have anything to do with sports, but they'll do," Michael said. "I think they're cool."

"Well, not me! These pajamas aren't black and there's no bones, weapons or even any good ol' profanity on them. Yuck!" Tony complained. "But seeing as though my black clothes won't be ready to wear again for awhile, I don't really have a fucking choice!"

"Just shut up and put them on, Tony!" Michael ordered. "Rarity went through all the trouble of making these pajamas for us and you should be grateful that you'll have anything to wear at all!"

"Oh, blah! Blah! Blah!" Tony rudely shot back.

"What was that!?" Michael demanded as he and Tony were so close to getting into another fight.

Luckily, Tony knew when to stop and replied, "Nothing. I just said that I'm tired and the sooner we go to bed, the better."

"That's what I thought you said!" Michael told him.

"You should listen to your friend, Tony. You're attitude and behavior is very unacceptable and nopony needs to hear you using such foul language all the time!" Applejack spoke. "I don't want you saying any of those bad words in front of my little sister, Apple Bloom, either or I reckon that you and I are gonna have trouble!"

"Same here, Tony. The last thing I want Sweetie Belle to do is learn those disgusting words and develop your bad habit of being incredibly rude and disrespectful to others!" Rarity agreed.

"Ooh! I'm so scared!" Tony spoke sarcastically. "What are you gonna do, ground me and send me to my room? Or give me a spanking?"

"Tony, that's enough!" John told him. "We're all tired and arguing isn't gonna help us!"

"Whatever. I'm going to bed," Tony replied as he pulled out a sleeping bag and a pillow from Twilight's closet and got comfortable on the floor.

"We should start calling Tony, 'Tony The King Of Jerks'!" John said to the others.

"I heard that!" Tony yelled angrily. "None of you guys are any fun! I hate you even more than school!"

"You know what, I changed my mind. School sucks more!" Tony continued. "It's so boring and it brings me down! I'm a full-grown adult now, for crying out loud! I shouldn't even still be in school!"

"Then, why didn't you just drop out of college, Tony?" Ned asked. "Just like everyone else, you're only required by law to attend school until you graduate from High School. So if you hate school so much, then why didn't you just stop going to college instead of making a big fuss about it like you are now?"

"Because without a college degree or major, the only jobs available to me are being a stupid janitor like Jeff was, working at a fast-food joint like McDonald's and a list of other dull and lame jobs that I want nothing to do with!" Tony explained. "I'm not gonna be flipping burgers or clean up filthy and stinky public bathrooms every week of my life until I'm old enough to retire! I'm too cool and badass for that! I should be rich and famous and be starring in action movies or something else like that! Heck, I should have tons of fans coming to me and asking me for autographs! But no! Instead, I've been living a boring life with a bunch of boring and lame people and here I am now stuck in this land of smiles and rainbows! I hate long speeches and being asked annoying questions! I'm not like that! I'm a man of action! The only person here, or in this case, pony that I ever even remotely thought was alright, was Rainbow Dash, even if that was only for just a brief moment! At least she knows where I'm coming from!"

Rainbow Dash didn't say anything, but what Tony just said was true. She could relate to how he felt as she had hated school too and was also more of a pony of action herself.

"Now, goodnight!" Tony said as he didn't say another word and slowly drifted off to sleep.

John and the others wanted to wake Tony up and scold him for his behavior, but that would have to wait until later. They were still quite exhausted and they needed sleep right then and there!

So, everyone and everypony else all immediately got comfortable and hit the hay and had a nice, long rest. After that, that brings us to where we are now as all the humans were still wearing their new pajamas that Rarity had made them in the middle of the afternoon since they and The Elements had only just woken up and Twilight had just started having all their old clothes washed.

Once again, the humans and ponies were all treated to a nice, tasty meal, only this time, it was just a picnic by a small pond next to Ponyville. Nevertheless, the 6 mares all provided delicious foods that both they and all their human friends could eat and enjoy.

Just as she had promised, once their clothes were all done, Twilight returned all the humans' clothes to them, starting with Tony, who wasted no time in changing back into his old, black attire once he got some privacy from everyone and everypony else. The others did the same and also changed back into their old clothes when they were alone too.

Later that day, the 12 humans were all wearing blindfolds and were being led back to Twilight's house by their pony friends, with the exception of Pinkie Pie, who was nowhere to be seen. The group of 12 humans all asked them what was going on and why they were making them wear blindfolds, but Twilight and her friends just told them that it was a secret and that they would find out when they all got to their destination.

Soon enough, they all reached Twilight's house and stepped inside as Twilight closed the front door of her home behind them. Then, Twilight and her friends told the humans that they could take their blindfolds off now.

When the humans all did so, they all quickly noticed that they were back in Twilight's house, but for some reason it was dark inside. Before they could say or do anything, the lights in Twilight's house came on and they all heard and saw Pinkie Pie and a bunch of other ponies wearing party hats shout out to them, "SURPRISE!"

The 12 humans, of course, weren't expecting this and were quite taken aback by this. "What's going on here!?" Gary demanded.

"Why we're throwing you a party!" a random blue, mare pony replied.

"What kind of party?" Eddie asked.

"A 'The Humans Helped Us Save Equestria From The Changelings Party'!" Pinkie answered as she began to jump up and down in joy.

"You could've just told us about the party instead of making us wear blindfolds all the way back here," Zach said.

"But then it wouldn't have been a surprise and where's the fun in that, silly?" Pinkie Pie replied.

"Is there a lot food to eat, like cake and ice cream?" Jeff asked hungrily.

"Of course, silly! It wouldn't be much of a party without cake and ice cream now, would it?" Pinkie Pie confirmed as she pointed to a nearby table where a huge cake, 6 cartons of ice cream, candy and other party foods were at on a wooden table.

Jeff rushed over there and instead of grabbing a small plate and plastic forks, knives and spoons, he grabbed an entire handful of the cake and stuffed it into his mouth, which bothered some of the party guests. Michael was forced to go over to him and tear him away from the cake and other foods on the table. "Jeff, have some self-control, you big glutton!" Michael berated him. "No one wants to eat a cake that you have been digging into with your bare hands!"

"I'm sorry! It's a terrible habit of mine!" Jeff admitted. "I-"

"No excuses, Jeff!" Michael told him. "Just for that, you're not allowed to eat anything else during this party!"

"Aw, man!" Jeff whined, cursing himself for letting his huge appetite get the better of him.

"So, Twilight, this is a nice party that you're throwing for us," Claire said.

"Thanks, but it wasn't my idea. It was Pinkie's. She's the one who decided to throw you a party in the first place!" Twilight replied.

"Why would she do that?" Roxanne asked.

"It's her job and special talent to throw ponies parties. That's what her Cutie Mark stands for," Twilight explained. "She's Ponyville's best and to be honest, only local, party pony."

"This party is lame," Tony spoke as he pulled out a cigarette, placed it in his mouth and lit it with his lighter.

"What are you talking about? I'm having a blast!" Eddie shouted excitedly as he and Zach were playing some party games like 'Pin The Tail On The Donkey' and 'Truth Or Dare'.

Tony then stepped outside and closed the door behind him and sat down on the front porch, knowing that the others would complain if he was smoking inside Twilight's house during the entire party. Tony wasn't alone for long, though, as he heard and saw Rainbow come outside and fly down right next to him.

"What is it now? Does no one want me to smoke outside, too?" Tony asked.

"Nah. I just don't feel like partying right now is all," Rainbow replied.

"Join the club!" Tony agreed.

"Well, knowing Pinkie Pie, that party isn't gonna be over until past 11Pm, so we got nothing better to do until then," Rainbow informed Tony.

"Oh, great, just my luck!" Tony complained.

"Since we're both bored and we have a few hours to kill, you wanna talk or something?" Rainbow asked.

To her surprise, Tony agreed and said, "Yes, but only because I can't think of anything better to do."

"Okay. So how are you feeling? I bet you can't wait for this day to end," Rainbow Dash asked.

"You're right about that! You got me there," Tony admitted. "But that's why I'm smoking now."

"Remember what said before about how you hated school and everything?" Rainbow inquired.

"Don't remind me!" Tony replied.

"Well, I didn't like school either when I was growing up! I used to be bullied and a couple Pegasus ponies would always tease me and call me 'Rainbow Crash'! It was so annoying!" Rainbow confessed.

"I used to be bullied too, but not anymore! Now, if someone ticks me off, I'll beat them to a bloody mess and bury them alive!" Tony replied.

"Nopony bullies me anymore, though, especially ever since I performed the legendary 'Sonic Rainboom' for the first time!" Rainbow revealed. "And now I'm much more awesome than I was before then!"

"I don't know what the fuck a Sonic Rainboom is, but I will admit that I somewhat envy you and however famous you've become since you did this Sonic Rainboom thing of yours!" Tony spoke.

"What about you? What are your plans?" Rainbow asked.

"I don't know and I don't care right now," Tony said. "I'll cross that bridge when I get to it."

"Oh, okay," Rainbow accepted. "Is there anything else you wanna talk about or-"

"If you're trying to get me to tell you about my backstory, then forget it! I'm not talking!" Tony told Rainbow Dash.

"There's one more thing I wanna say, Tony," Rainbow spoke.

"The answer is still NO!" Tony yelled. "Darn it! Why do people keep asking me about my life and-"

Rainbow grabbed Tony with her hooves and shook him hard to get his attention. "Tony, in the name of Celestia, just shut up and listen to me! There's something that I want to tell you that I just can't keep to myself anymore!"

Tony was surprised by Rainbow's outburst, but quickly regained his composure. Tony crossed his arms and said, "Fine. What is it?"

"What I'm about to share with you is something that nopony else or even my friends know about!" Rainbow spoke.

"You mean a secret?" Tony asked.

Rainbow nodded to Tony before she began to look around to make sure that nopony else, but Tony was watching her. When she was sure that the coast was clear, Rainbow pulled out a dead fish and made sure that Tony could see it too. Tony was very confused and asked, "This is your secret? You are carrying around a dead fish and you don't want anyone else to see it?"

Rainbow shook her head. "No, Tony. It's not the fish itself that I've been keeping secret, it's what I'm about to do next!" Rainbow replied.

Tony was about to ask what she was talking about, but he stopped when he saw Rainbow do something that he would never expect her to do! In fact, she did something that nopony would do in a million years!

Rainbow put the fish in her mouth, chewed it and ate it!

"Rainbow!?" Tony spoke in shock.

At seeing Tony's reaction, Rainbow hung her head down as she began to feel nervous and cried! "Now you know! You know about my secret!"

"You mean you-" Tony asked.

"Yes! The truth is I eat meat and nopony else, except for you, knows that I do it!" Rainbow confessed.

All of Tony's previous anger, boredom and frustration had left him and had been replaced with that of shock, confusion and disbelief. "I don't-don't understand!" Tony stammered.

"I don't blame you! Ponies aren't supposed to eat meat! It's unnatural and considered taboo!" Rainbow replied. "The only exceptions to it are beans, eggs, cheese and milk!"

"But why?" Tony asked.

"Because I secretly love eating meat!" Rainbow revealed. "I've always loved meat ever since I was a filly!"

"Why did you decide to tell this to me, though?" Tony demanded.

"I guess because you are kinda just like me in some ways and remind me a bit about myself," Rainbow said.

"So no one...I mean nopony else knows about this? Not your friends, not your family or Princess Luna and Celestia?" Tony inquired. "You didn't tell anypony else about your secret?"

"That's correct," Rainbow confirmed. "I mean how could I!? How would everypony react to finding out that a well-respected weather pony eats meat, especially when that pony is the famous Rainbow Dash and The Element Of Loyalty!?"

"So you're scared that they'll find out about this?" Tony concluded.

"I'm worried that if they all discover my secret, Twilight and the others won't be my friends anymore, my family will disown me and everypony in Equestria and beyond will call me a freak and cast me out!" Rainbow admitted as she cried some more.

"That's-that's rough!" Tony spoke as he now was actually feeling a bit bad about how he had falsely accused her of trying to trick him into spilling the beans about his past and life back home. Tony may have been a jerk, but there was something about the way Rainbow had been willing to reveal such a huge secret of hers to him and how she was acting right now that was getting through his incredibly stubborn and mean exterior.

"What will my friends think!? What will my family think!? What will the princesses think!? How will all of Equis think of me and my love of eating meat!?" Rainbow freaked. "For the love of Celestia, I hope that if other ponies discover my secret, it won't get me kicked out of The Wonderbolts!"

"I don't-don't know," Tony stammered. "But something tells me that there's another reason that you told me your secret, besides the fact that we may share some similarities."

Rainbow nodded again. "It's just after so many years of keeping this a secret for so long, I just had to reveal it to at least one pony! You don't know what it's been like living every day with this anxiety, worried about what others will think of you because of it! While I've done a pretty good job with keeping everypony else unaware of me eating meat, sometimes I fear that they may be getting suspicious!" Rainbow replied. "So I decided to confide my secret in you, which will hopefully ease my fears knowing that there's at least one pony that I know who won't think any different of me because of my secret desire and habit of eating meat."

Rainbow then asked, "You don't think I'm a freak or anything like that because I like to eat meat, do you?"

"No. I don't think there's anything wrong about that," Tony answered.

"You won't tell anyone about this either, will you? You promise you won't, right?" Rainbow demanded. Rainbow briefly considered making Tony Pinkie Promise to keep her secret between the both of them, but decided against, knowing that making a Pinkie Promise would also mean getting the pink party pony involved and unlike Tony, Rainbow didn't trust Pinkie Pie with knowing about or keeping her secret, despite the fact that next to Fluttershy, Pinkie was very outgoing and never broke a promise, especially a Pinkie Promise!

"I promise! I won't tell anyone or anypony else about what you revealed to me," Tony promised.

"Thanks, Tony! You don't know how much this means to me!" Rainbow thanked him before she got up, opened the front door of Twilight's house and flew inside to rejoin her friends at the party, having got a big weight off her chest and feeling better now, while Tony remained outside, still processing what had just happened.

Tony became lost in his thoughts and some old memories that he had been trying to bury for years came back to him. These memories were painful and Tony had been trying to forget about them, but Tony was now beginning to realize that like it or not, they weren't gonna stay suppressed forever! If that wasn't bad enough, then thanks to Rainbow Dash he was developing his own desire to share his own secret with someone else just like Rainbow had done with him!

"Oh, crap! I don't wanna think about those terrible memories anymore, much less talk about them!" Tony tried to tell himself. "I can't do it! I just can't!"

Tony was so oblivious to everything else that was going on around him while he was trying to block out the painful memories, that he didn't even notice it when the cigarette that he had been smoking, fell out of his mouth and landed on the ground.

……………………………………………………………….

Back inside, everyone and everypony else was still partying and having a great time. Pinkie told them all that in awhile it would be time for them to open presents, which made both Eddie and Zach very excited. Jeff kept begging Michael to let him get something else to eat and Michael would keep telling him no, much to his annoyance and frustrations. Alice, Claire and Roxanne were complimenting Rarity on how well she made their new pajamas. John and Gary were dancing. Fluttershy had to go back home to her cottage real quick to check up on her pet bunny, Angel, and the rest of her animals. Applejack was hoof-wrestling Rainbow Dash. Spike was eating some gems. And Ned and Stan were telling Twilight about many of Humanity's greatest inventions and accomplishments of all time, which made the curious, unicorn mare as excited as Eddie and Zach were for getting to open presents soon.

After finishing her hoof-wrestling match with Applejack, Rainbow asked all her friends, except for Spike, to follow her upstairs into Twilight's Room. Once they were all there and alone, Rainbow turned to face all her friends as Applejack asked, "Hey, sugarcube! Why did you ask us all to come up here for? The humans are gonna open their presents in 5 minutes!" Applejack asked.

"Girls, there's something that's just happened that I gotta tell you," Rainbow said.

"What is it, darling?" Rarity asked Rainbow.

"Well, how do I say this? Uh, let's just say I feel weird," Rainbow replied.

"What do you mean by weird?" Fluttershy inquired. "You're not getting sick, are you?"

"No. I'm fine. It's just that I went outside to check on Tony and he and I talked for awhile," Rainbow spoke.

"Did that meanie say anything that hurt your feelings or offended you in any way?" Pinkie demanded.

"Well, yes, but after talking to him for awhile, he and I started to get along a bit," Rainbow answered.

"What did you talk about?" Fluttershy asked.

Rainbow had to think fast, knowing that she couldn't reveal her big secret to them, at least not yet, and she couldn't lie to her friends, thanks to 'Applejack The Lie Detector' around either. So, Rainbow Dash decided that she would tell the truth, but leave out everything about her secret instead.

"I told Tony about how I used to be bullied and called, 'Rainbow Crash' and also that like him, I never really liked school either and after telling him this, he actually began to open up to me a bit!" Rainbow replied.

"So does that mean Tony is gonna start being nicer now?" Twilight asked.

"I wouldn't go that far, Twilight!" Rainbow replied. "But that's not what I wanted to tell you! There's something that I want to tell you and it involves Tony."

"Well, go ahead and tell us, Rainbow!" Pinkie Pie told Rainbow Dash. "There's only 3 more minutes now before it's time for the humans to open their gifts!"

"Alright! Here's what's going on. I think I'm feeling weird and I think it's because I might be falling in love!" Rainbow admitted.

"With whom!?" Twilight asked as she and her friends were now wondering what handsome stallion Rainbow loved.

"With Tony!" Rainbow revealed.

"WHAT!!!" All of Rainbow's friends shouted in unison.

"I know! I know! How could I feel that way about somepony like Tony?" Rainbow spoke. "What I can tell you for sure is that I like him, and not just as a friend! I mean I like, like him!"

Making A Living

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Meanwhile, in an abandoned building in Canterlot, 47 Changelings that were loyal to the late Chrysalis were now plotting their revenge against The Elements and the humans. Even though the queen herself was dead, these Changelings were still loyal to her and her ideals and right now, they were in a very sour mood.

After barely surviving the destruction of The Hive, they were now the only other surviving Changelings (excluding the other Changelings that had betrayed them and joined forces with their enemies). With their ruler and home gone, they had been forced to temporarily take shelter in the long-abandoned building, which had previously only served as a hideout that Changeling spies had used while gathering intel on Equestria, the princesses, The Elements Of Harmony and Canterlot. But now it would be their new home until they were ready to make their next move and get payback on their Equestrian enemies.

However, this time they weren't working alone as just yesterday, they had been approached by a mysterious individual, who offered to take them under his wing, while also providing them the means to take their vengeance on The Elements and the humans. The guy and his motives, though, were questionable and the Changelings weren't entirely sure if they could trust him or not, but at this point, they had nothing else to lose.

"Get ready humans and you, dumb Elements! You will regret crossing us and you will pay dearly for it!" one of the Changelings angrily vowed.

...………………………………………………………………………

"You really mean that Rainbow?" Applejack asked. "You really feel that way about Tony?"

Rainbow Dash didn't say anything, but instead just nodded her head.

"But Rainbow Dash, you know how rude he's been to us!" Twilight reminded her. "Everytime we've tried to be friendly or tried to get to know him better, he keeps lashing out at us and being a real jerk!"

"More like a real meanie!" Pinkie Pie added.

"I know, but-" Rainbow said, but was cutoff.

"Look, Dash, I don't think he's your kind of pony...err, I mean human!" Rarity spoke. "He's very impolite and disrespectful and he has no manners! There are plenty of young, handsome and kind stallions out there that you could-"

"I KNOW!" Rainbow yelled, which caught her friends off guard. Rainbow, realizing that Tony and the other humans were just down stairs and probably heard her outburst, calmed down and lowered her voice. "I'm sorry I yelled like that, guys, it's just while what you said is all true, everytime I look at Tony, it's like I'm looking at my own reflection! He's tough, brave and is proud of himself just like me!"

"Rainbow Dash, there's still so much about him and his life that he hasn't told us yet! And he's made it quite clear that he'll never tell us about his past either!" Twilight replied. "Besides, if you're really gonna start a relationship with him, then you really need to think this through and take things one step at a time."

"Then, that's what I'll do!" Rainbow said.

"I can see that you're serious about this, sugarcube, and there's nothing we can do or say to change your mind and if that's the case, I won't stop you!" Applejack spoke.

"Neither will we!" the rest of the Mane 6 shouted in unison.

Rainbow didn't say a word and neither did her friends. There was no need for them to say anything else. Rainbow knew now that her friends would support her sudden interest in Tony, even though she hardly deserved a mean man like him.

After a minute of silence and making her friends Pinkie Promise not to tell Tony or anypony else about her secret crush on Tony unless either Rainbow tells him or Tony or anypony else figures it out first, Rainbow and the rest of The Elements agreed to keep Rainbow's secret between them for now before they went back downstairs and got ready to give their gifts to their human friends. Pinkie Pie went back to her usual excited party pony self and couldn't wait to see what the humans thought of their gifts when they opened them.

The gift opening portion of the party went by fast as the group of 12 humans opened all their gifts to find that they had been given more new clothes, except this time, instead of pajamas, they now got clothes that they could wear during the day as well. They were nothing too fancy, but it was nice for them all to have more clothes that they could wear during the day, too, and not just the same clothes that they had worn back home and ever since they came Equestria in, with the exception of their new pajamas that they had wore at night just recently.

Everyone, except for Tony, thanked Pinkie Pie and her friends for the new clothes before everyone and everypony decided to call it a day and with that, the party ended. But before the 12 humans could go to bed, too, like their new pony friends, Michael, John and Ned told the others that they had to talk about some important stuff first.

Once they were all inside Twilight's house and were in their sleeping bags and pajamas, Gary asked Michael, John and Ned, "What is it that you want to talk about?"

"Oh, nothing, Gary, except that we're still stranded on another world, if not a different dimension altogether and none of us have even tried to get home yet!" Michael answered.

"Right!" Gary replied, though it was obvious that until just now, that had completely slipped his mind due to everything that had happened lately and he wasn't the only one!

Michael facepalmed in frustration as he realized that only he, John and Ned had remembered that for days now, they had been stuck on the world of Equis and needed to return to their world! "Wait! Did you all really forget about our world and that we need to go home!?" Michael shouted.

"Well, for a little while I did, but-" Eddie spoke nervously.

"But what!?" Michael yelled.

"Michael, give my bro a break! He can't help us get back to Earth!" Gary defended his little brother.

"Gary, please understand that this is very important! Ever since we arrived in Equestria, we have made little to no progress trying to return to our world! We're not on vacation on some tropical island in the Carribean, we're stuck on another world! We don't belong here!" John reminded him and the others.

"Well, what do you expect me to do about it!? In case you're not aware, we don't know how to go back! We don't even know where exactly our world is!" Gary shot back.

"Maybe Twilight and her friends can help us and if not them, then perhaps Princess Celestia and Princess Luna can!" Ned said.

"I have to agree with Ned there. They're our best bet to getting home at this point!" Stan agreed.

"But that one pony, Three Leaf, told me that not even the most powerful teleportation spell could help us!" Eddie said.

"We need to at least try!" Ned replied. "Personally, while Twilight and the others have been very friendly and hospitable to us, I don't want to stay here forever! I plan to follow in Stan's footsteps and become one of the next greatest minds in America!"

"You think that's bad? Our 3-Day vacation at that log cabin has already been over for awhile now! Our parents surely have noticed that me and my brother haven't come home yet and they're probably worried sick about us!" Gary said. "When we get back, they're gonna be so happy and so upset that we just disappeared that I think that they're gonna invent a new type of punishment at our house and whatever it will be, it's gonna be much worse than mowing the front lawn!" Gary and Eddie weren't looking forward to that a bit!

"Same here!" John admitted.

"My life back home sucked! When I turned 18 and graduated from High School, I was kicked out of my family, just for being seen as an embarrassment to them and everyone kept calling me a big 'fattie'!" Jeff revealed.

"I need to continue practicing my cooking if I'm ever gonna be a master chef!" Claire spoke. "There's so many dishes that I want to make, but I can't make them here because they all require meat, which the ponies don't sell or consume here for obvious reasons."

"Do you think the Elements or the princesses can really help us, though? Don't forget that until awhile ago, they never even heard of or have seen a human before!" Alice reminded everyone else.

"We'll worry about that tomorrow!" Ned spoke. "For now, let's get some rest and we'll see what happens next."

Michael then turned to face Tony, who hadn't said a word for awhile now. "Well, Tony, is there anything you would like to say! Do you have any smartass remarks that you wanna share with us or are you just give us the silent treatment now instead?" Michael asked.

"No. I just don't feel like talking right now, is all," Tony said silently. "Now, please don't bother me, I'm going to bed."

"Aha! You just said, 'please'! So you can be nice, afterall!" John pointed out.

"Not another word!" Tony warned as he laid all the way down into his sleeping bag and turned himself around so that he wasn't facing any of the others.

After that, no one said anything else and the others all soon drifted off to sleep as well. They needed to rest for whatever they were gonna have to deal with tomorrow.

-The Next Morning-

Everyone and everypony got up at the same time as they did before the previous day after having gotten a good night's rest. The group of 12 humans all got dressed and twilight and her friends were already at the front door, ready to take them over to Applejack's for breakfast again.

Before they could leave, though, Michael, Ned and John got their pony friends' attention and asked them if they could have a talk before they went and got breakfast. "Sure thing, guys! What is it that you want to say?" Twilight asked.

"Twilight. You, your friends, the princesses and the rest of Equestria have been very kind and generous to us and we thank you for helping us and giving us a place to stay, but we can't stay here!" John spoke.

"You wanna go home," Twilight replied.

"Yes," Ned answered. "This has all been an amazing and unforgettable experience for all of us, but we got friends and family back on Earth and we've been gone from them and our world for a long time now! They must've noticed were gone and be quite worried about us by now!"

"I can understand that," Fluttershy said. "I couldn't imagine not being at my home to take care of Angel bunny and the rest of the animals that come to my cottage when they need me! We may not be related, but they're like a family to me!"

"Do you have to go?" Pinkie Pie asked as she was now trying to hold back tears, knowing that soon, the 12 humans may be leaving Equestria and never come back. Pinkie Pie never liked it when she had to say goodbye to anypony forever, or in this case, humans.

"We have to," Alice replied. "We got our own lives and responsibilities back home and we must return to them."

"Oh, darn it! That sucks!" Rainbow Dash complained. The rainbow-maned Pegasus pony was a little disappointed to hear this, even though she and her friends had known that their new human friends would want to return to their world eventually. Rainbow just wished that it wouldn't have been sooner than later as she hadn't even gotten the chance to start her relationship with Tony yet.

"So, Twilight, is there anything you, your friends or the princesses know that can help us return to our world?" Stan asked.

"Well, I don't think you're gonna be able to go back the way you came here, that's for sure," Twilight replied "To be honest, I'm not sure how we're gonna do it."

"You mean we really are stuck here and there's no way to send us back!?" John started to become very nervous.

"No! What I mean is that teleportation spells have been done by ponies many times before in our history, but using spells to transport anypony over extremely long distances is much easier said than done! Nopony has ever been transported to another world or anywhere else outside of the world of Equis, except for Princess Luna, but that was only once and it only happened because Princess Celestia was forced to banish her to the moon for 1000 years to stop her after she became Nightmare Moon and tried to plunge the world into eternal night!" Twilight revealed. "Aside from that, though, me, my friends and many other ponies thought that such an impossible feat was just science-fiction until you came along and proved us otherwise!"

"That doesn't answer my question!" John yelled. "Can you send us back or not!?"

"Theoratically, yes, we might be able to, but-" Twilight replied.

"But what!?" John demanded.

"The only 2 things that I know that might work are either an extremely powerful teleportation or portal spell!" Twilight answered. "Such spells as those would require a lot of magic and I'm certain that I would need the princesses', including Princess Cadence for it!"

"Then get them here and do what you have to do and send us home!" John ordered.

"It's not that simple, John, the princesses, as well as Princess Cadence, already have their hooves full with more important matters at the moment!" Not to mention, there's-" Twilight tried to tell John, but was interrupted.

"More important!? What could be more important than helping us get home!?" John protested.

"John, darling, I understand you and your friends wanna go home, but you need to remember that like us and you, the princesses have their own lives as well as their share of important responsibilities that they need to attend to. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have to raise the sun and the moon every day and night and watch over Equestria, while Princess Cadence and her husband, Shining Armor, have to-" Rarity told John.

"They only need to help out with one teleportation or portal spell real quick, then we'll be off and they can go and do whatever they need to. That's it!" John said.

"John, the problem isn't about getting the princesses to help with the spell. The real problem is that even if and once we successfully perform the spell, there's no guarantee that the spell will send you right back to your world or that you'll even like where you end up at all!" Twilight admitted.

After hearing this, John and the other 11 humans froze. They didn't like the way Twilight said that last part.

"What do you mean by that?" Ned asked.

"While it's true that we might be able to perform a spell that can help you get back, it's extremely risky and dangerous at the same time!" Twilight explained. "We don't know where your world is and without that vital piece of knowledge, you could end up just about anywhere! It would be like trying to win the lottery, except the odds would be against you even more than that! There would be a one in a trillion chance of sending you back to your world! We don't even know if our worlds exist in the same universe or in two separate dimensions!"

"What if we tell you what our world is like and about our history and-" Ned suggested.

"That won't be enough!" Twilight replied. "If there is such a thing as a Multiverse, then there are probably alternate versions of your world as well with similar histories! With that in mind, as well as everything else I just told you, it would be wise to avoid making random guesses and wait until we can pinpoint exactly where you came from before we do anything!"

"But-" John tried to protest, but was stopped by Gary.

"Sorry, John, but I'm with Twilight on this one. I don't want to do anything that will not only be dangerous for me, but also for my little brother either," Gary told John.

John, realizing that Twilight and Gary were right, sighed in defeat and said, "Fine. We can wait awhile longer. Just give me a rough estimate right now of how long it might take to find out where our world is so you can send us back."

"I-I don't know," Twilight stammered. "All I know for sure is that it won't be anytime soon! I'm sorry!"

John and the other humans didn't react well to this news and they began to wonder if they were gonna live in Equestria for the rest of their lives and never see their homes or their friends or families ever again! They could only imagine that over the years, people would remember them as the 12 humans who all suddenly disappeared without a trace and were never seen or heard from again like Amelia Earheart or those 3 former prisoners who escaped from the infamous Alcatraz prison!

Realizing that they weren't going anywhere, at least for now, John and the others knew that there was nothing that they could do about it and that they had other things to worry about at the moment. Right now, since it was obvious that trying to go back to Earth was out of the question for the time being, they had to figure out what they should all do now.

They then remembered how much Twilight, her friends and the other ponies had done for them and that they had not only heard them all out and not had them locked up because they weren't from Equestria or send them to a government lab (unless you count The EBI), they had also let them sleep at Twilight and Spike's home at night, given them food to eat, gave them the means to keep up with their hygiene, gave them new clothes and pajamas to wear and had even promised to let them take valuable gems back with them when they managed to go home! The ponies had done so much for them and they hadn't done anything for them yet. If only they could do something nice for them in return.

It was then that John and the others all knew what they had to do. "Hey, Twilight! I know you just said that we can't go home now, but-" John spoke, but was cutoff.

"I already told you, John, there's no way for me or anypony else to get you all home right now! I promise that I'll try everyday to find your world so that I can send you back, but until then, you need to be patient and-" Twilight spoke.

"I know, Twilight. But that's not what I want to talk about now," John replied.

"It's not?" Twilight asked, confused. "Then, what do you want to tell me now?"

"Well, there might be another way that you can help us and maybe help you out, too, at the same time," John answered. "But we need your magic and you, Ned and Stan's brains, Twilight. I think I've got a great idea to help us all make a living!"

John, Ned and Stan all whispered their plan into Twilight's and her friends' ears as they all began to catch on to what they had in mind. "I don't think that will be a problem at all. Just let me and my friends know what you need us to do and when and where it will be at," Twilight replied as she and her friends smiled after hearing what they had just heard.

…………………………………………………………..

Meanwhile, at the Ponyville Train Station, Newsflash had finally arrived and was on his way to his new home in Ponyville (as he had promised he would do so as part of his agreement he had made with the princesses to avoid going to jail). Newsflash had only been to Ponyville once and that was when he was stalking the humans and the Elements Of Harmony to get that big scoop that he needed to save his job and get all those Bits his boss paid him. Other than that, Newsflash was completely new to Ponyville and it would take awhile to get used to the countryside town as opposed to the usual big and busy city of Canterlot that he was used to.

Newsflash remembered that he also had to make amends with the humans, who would surely still be a little sore at him for what he put them through. And from now on, he would have to get permission from the humans, the Elements and even the princesses (if necessary) before took anymore pictures of them and wrote anything else even remotely related to them.

But that have to wait for now. Newsflash needed to get to his new house, unpack all his belongings and get settled in. He would apologize to humans and make it up to them when he had the chance.

-One Week Later. At Night-

Outside the entrance to Applejack's farm, many curious ponies had come after being told that there would be a great show at Applejack's farm. It also helped attendance since there were flyers talking about the show all across town, too!

At the entrance to Applejack's farm, Rarity was running a ticket booth and handing out admission tickets to every pony who paid to get in. "Tickets please!" Rarity heard over and over again as many ponies kept coming and coming to buy their tickets before they headed in to see the great show that they had heard about. Rarity didn't know what to think! She hadn't seen this many ponies show up for one event since The Galloping Gala!

Inside Applejack's farm, ponies were buying popcorn, sweet snacks and other tasty treats from Pinkie Pie and Applejack's family members as they passed them by while they took their seats on rows and rows of benches. Right in the middle of them was an old-fashioned movie projector that had undergone some special 'modifications' thanks to Ned, Stan and Twilight. And right in front of everyone and everypony was a large, blank screen you would expect to see in movie theaters!

After awhile, Ned, Stan, John and Twilight appeared and slowly stepped over to the projector until they were standing right next to it. "Good evening, ponies of all ages!" John began. "Tonight! As promised, you will be treated to a great show indeed!"

John then let Stan take over. "You are about to witness what we have achieved and it's all thanks to our human technology..." Stan spoke before it was Twilight's turn to take over.

"And unicorn magic!" Twilight finished.

After Twilight said that, Ned announced, "You've all seen movies before, but you've never seen any quite like this one!"

Once Ned told this to the audience, the movie projector turned on and the large, blank screen in front of everyone now showed trailers for upcoming movies that nopony had ever heard of (except the humans, that is) and not only that, but everything on the screen was in color and not in black and white like all movies in Equestria were! For a little bit, everypony, except the humans thought that they already were watching the movie and were quite confused about what it was about when the screen kept changing from trailers to previews, but not long after that, the actual movie began and this became obvious to everypony when the official opening and title of the movie appeared on the screen! On the screen, the title read, 'Kung Fu Panda'!

Everypony, especially the audience were amazed and completely entranced by what they were watching. They were quite surprised when the movie transitioned from its 2D opening to CGI and learned that Po being a legendary warrior had only been just a dream and that in reality, he was just a regular panda, who lives with and helps his stepdad, Mr. Ping, with his noodle shop, while Po secretly wishes that he can become a great Kung Fu warrior for real!

The movie, the plot, the setting and all the characters didn't have as much of their attention as the fact that they had just been introduced to CGI, a new type of animation that until now, they had never seen or heard of before, much less knew that it existed! Sure, everypony was familiar with traditional 2D animation, but they had no idea that there were other ways to make cartoons other than that! 'What the buck is this!?' the audience all thought in unison.

"Wow! That's one dangerous Snow Leopard!" a brown, earth pony stallion said as he pointed to the movie's villain, Tai Lung, who was making his escape from prison and had now just made mince meat out of all the guards! "I certainly wouldn't want to run into that guy in a dark alley!"

"Tai Lung, you big bully!" Scootaloo spoke angrily as she and the other Cutie Mark Crusaders glared at him on the screen as he beat up Master Shifu and broke Master Oogway's staff.

Not long after this, though, everypony cheered as Po was now fighting Tai Lung and unintentionally making a fool of him at the same time. Pinkie and many other ponies bursts into laughter at the part where Tai Lung's face came into contact with Po's butt. "Now, that's what I call a headbutt!" Pinkie chuckled. "This is definitely my favorite chapter of this story so far!"

"Goodbye and good riddance, Tai Lung!" Applejack shouted as everypony saw Po use the powerful Wuxi Finger Hold on him, ending his reign of terror for good!

Once the movie was over, there was silence for a few seconds before everypony turned to face Twilight, Ned, Stan and John and began to cheer! "You weren't kidding! You promised us we would get a show and you gave it to us!" a brown earth pony stallion said.

"Yup!" Applejack's brother, Big Mac, replied.

"I don't know how you guys did it and I've never seen or heard of a movie like 'Kung Fu Panda' before, but I thought that was awesome!" a blue unicorn mare admitted.

"You gotta show us that movie again! My wife and fillies have to see it!" a gray Pegasus stallion begged.

"Then, all you need to do is keep coming and giving us your Bits and you can watch that movie again and again and more!" Ned replied.

"There's more!?" another random pony asked.

"So much more!" John confirmed. "In fact, our next movie will be on tomorrow night, so please feel free to come and buy your tickets and enjoy yourselves because starting today, we're gonna be making a living by doing this!"

New Lives In Equestria And A Simple 8 Missing Kids Case With A Huge Twist!

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-Some Time Later-

In Equestria, for the 12 humans, days became weeks and weeks turned into months. Thanks to their new business of showing movies from their world, they indeed were making a living!

John and the other humans had explained to Twilight, her friends, Applejack's family and the Cutie Mark Crusaders that if they were gonna be staying in Equestria for the forseeable future, then they had to start earning their keep like everypony else in Equestria did. Also, it just didn't seem right to keep going to Applejack's place for breakfast everyday to get free and tasty food that both they and their pony friends could all eat and enjoy.

The 12 humans had heard how hard-working and honest Applejack's family was from Applejack herself, Twilight and the other Elements and after treating them to so much free and delicious food, it was only fair that they did something for them in return. Of course, none of the humans had any money, or at least not any that could be used in Equestria, so they couldn't just pay them for all back for the food that they had been given or for anything else that they would need in the future either.

And now that they thought about it, they were gonna need to start earning Equestrian money, Bits, if they were gonna be able to pay for or afford anything in this amazing, colorful and magic-filled world that they now lived in. They couldn't keep expecting to continue to get stuff for free, even as nice as the ponies and the princesses were.

Plus, when the humans found out that Applejack's family needed to make more money to pay for things like fixing up the old, family barn or getting Granny Smith an operation to fix her back and get rid of her terrible backpains, they decided that they had to earn money not just for themselves, but also for their new pony friends as well. Fortunately, the 12 humans already had something in mind that would help them achieve just that.

To think that all John and the others had needed was Ned and Stan's brains and Twilight's magic, as well as a movie projector and a blank movie screen. Next, they had to figure out how to play all the movies and shows on the DVDs that Gary and Zach had brought with them and figure out how to convert them from playing on a DVD player to the movie projector instead, which had proved to be a bit of a challenge at first. There had also been the matter of what would be the power source for the movie projector. But in the end, they succeeded and once they had tested the projector to make sure that it could play all the movies without any problems, Twilight easily solved the issue of finding a power source for the projector when she revealed that she could cast a spell on the projector that would keep it charged and fully operational for up to 10 hours each day without wearing herself out.

The next step of their plan had been to find out where they would set up the movie projector and blank screen at. After talking with Applejack and her family and getting their permission, they had all decided that they should show any and all movies that they played on Applejack's farm.

Rarity had agreed to be the one who would be in charge of selling tickets at the front entrance of the farm for any ponies who wanted to get in, while Pinkie Pie and Applejack's family would serve and sell snacks when they played their first movie 'Kung Fu Panda' to the public. All that had been left after that had been to advertise and promote the movie at Applejack's farm, so Rarity and Rainbow Dash had agreed to hang up signs across town, along with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who hoped that doing this would help them finally earn their Cutie Marks and well, you know the rest.

Now, the humans and their pony friends had made so much money from all the movies that ponies kept paying to see at Applejack's farm everyday that not only had they been able to pay back Applejack's family for all the free food that they had given them and allowed them to get the barn fixed and make Granny Smith's back as good as new, but the 12 humans had all bought houses for themselves, too, so that they didn't have to keep staying at Twilight and Spike's house anymore. All of them now had their own homes to themselves, except for Gary, Eddie and Zach, who shared one house together since Eddie and Zach were too young to live on their own and Gary wanted to stay as close to them as he could just in case they encountered anymore dangerous people-err, ponies like the Changelings or the late Queen Chrysalis.

Out of everyone else, Tony was the happiest to get his own place to stay as now he could finally get a little peace and quiet and not have to be around the others or the Elements all the time and he could just have some time to himself. Like the others, Tony had been given his share of the profits that they were making off of showing movies to all the ponies who paid to see them at Applejack's farm and Tony was free to use the money that he got however he chose to. Tony would've been even happier had he finally not ran out of beer and cigarettes after having drunk the last of his unopened beer bottles and smoked his final cigarette. This new development frustrated Tony greatly and as a result, he had to find some substitutes to replace them.

Luckily for Tony, their happened to be a bar in Ponyville where he was introduced to a popular Equestrian beverage that's quite similar to beer called, 'Cold Fury'. As soon as Tony tasted it, he knew that he had just found his new, favorite, alcoholic beverage. "Damn! This is even better than any beer that I've ever had!" Tony spoke.

Tony then turned to the bartender pony, paid for his first bottle of Cold Fury and told him that he would like 6 more bottles of Cold Fury to-go. And that is how Tony ended up becoming a regular patron of that bar and solved his no more beer problem.

As for smoking, Tony was out of luck since nopony made cigarettes in Equestria nor any lighters to light them with. However, Tony loved drinking Cold Fury so much that for the first time, he didn't really care.

Claire had bought a cookbook from a local shop in the town marketplace as well as some food and other ingredients and continued to practice and develop her cooking skills even further. She also got a job at Sugarcube Corner and helped the Cake family bake and prepare all their desserts and other sweet treats to sell and serve to all the customers. Before long, Claire's cooking became so popular that she was offered another job at the fanciest restaurant in Ponyville as one of the head chefs! But what solidified Claire's famous cooking reputation was when she introduced Ponyville to French Fries, which soon got the attention of all the other ponies throughout the rest of Equestria as well! Once ponies took their first bites, they couldn't get enough of the stuff and French fries became the most popular item on the menu there! Everypony was surprised with how much this human food was. They had already known and had fries made out of hay, but they never thought that you could make fries out of potatoes and boy were they so good!

Gary continued to stay close to his little brother at home and at his job at the movie theater at Applejack's farm. However, Gary didn't want Eddie and Zach to miss out on getting an education, so after talking to Applejack, she recommended that his little brother and Zach go to the school at the local Ponyville Schoolhouse. Eddie and Zach, of course, didn't like this, and didn't want to go to school, but Gary would have none of it and enrolled them there anyway.

On Eddie and Zach's first day of school in Ponyville, they were surprised to see the Cutie Mark Crusaders there, too. After talking with them for awhile, they began to get along and soon became friends.

Then, there was the teacher, Miss Cherilee, a female, light-purple, earth pony mare with a light-pink mane. She was very kind and helped introduce Eddie and Zach to the entire class.

When class began, Eddie and Zach thought that it was going to be boring, but to their surprise, they ended playing some really fun games and participated in various activities that were very educational at the same time. It wasn't long before they actually began to enjoy themselves and they both hated it when school was over and it was time to go home.

When they went back to school the next day, this time they couldn't wait to learn, have fun and continue making friends with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and their other classmates. They had thought school was boring, but they had no idea that in Equestria, ponies were educated in a way that made learning fun. School in Ponyville was going great for them!

That is except when they got bullied and made fun of by Silver Spoon and Diamond Tiara, two other classmates who liked to pick on them and the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Silver Spoon was a gray earth pony mare with a light-gray mane, while Diamond Tiara was a pink pony with a light-purple and white mane.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders had told Eddie and Zach about them and that Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon often teased and mocked them just because all three of them didn't have their Cutie Marks yet and to add insult to injury, they would call them, 'Blank Flanks', which was what those two called ponies who didn't have their Cutie Marks. Eddie and Zach knew how Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle felt as they had both been bullied, too, back on their world.

Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon couldn't really call Eddie and Zach Blank Flanks since they weren't even ponies nor were they even from Equestria for that matter, so instead they just rudely insulted them by making fun of their appearances and called them, 'Freaks' or 'Hairless monkeys'. Despite this, though, Eddie and Zach still enjoyed going to school in Ponyville and just learned to ignore Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon as they refused to give them the satisfaction of letting them ruin their time at school.

Eddie and Zach continued to be friends with the Cutie Mark Crusaders and after school, would sometimes join them on their little adventures to try to obtain their Cutie Marks, which all failed. Eventually, they became such good friends that the Cutie Mark Crusaders were even thinking about letting Eddie and Zach become the newest members in their group!

As for Gary, John, Ned, Michael, Stan, Jeff, Alice and Roxanne, they all had their hands full working at their movie theater at Applejack's farm. Word had quickly spread of all the interesting movies and shows that they played there ever since they had aired their first movie 'Kung Fu Panda' to all those ponies, who in turn, told many other ponies about it and then they told more ponies and so on and so forth!

All in all, though, the 12 humans now had nice and happy, new lives in Equestria! Despite missing their families, friends, homes and their old lives back on Earth, the 12 humans were enjoying themselves and their lives in Ponyville a lot!

It wasn't long, however, before they changed their minds about showing movies everyday and instead opted to do it only twice a week so that they wouldn't go through all their movies and shows that they had so fast. So many ponies started showing up, that they even had to start a new policy where all ponies had to buy their tickets in advance and make reservations or lose their seats to anypony else who got them instead.

After awhile, the only movies that they had not played yet were Halloweenish and Christmasy movies like Goosebumps and How The Grinch Stole Christmas, but they were saving both of those for the right time for obvious reasons. Knowing that they needed more movies to show to the crowds of ponies as they all were aware that it become boring and repetitive to just keep showing the same movies over and over again and thus, they would lose their huge audience and all their revenue unless they did something, so the humans turned to Twilight for help and asked her if she knew anything that could help them.

Twilight shrugged and said she honestly had no idea.

Everyone seemed to be at a loss and were about to head back to Applejack's farm and prepare to close their theater when Ned and Stan both thought of something.

Ned took out his cellphone, turned it on and showed it to Twilight who was quite fascinated with it. "Hey, Twilight! I used to download a bunch of movies and shows onto my phone when I was back on Earth and I still have some on my phone now," Ned revealed. "Is it possible to-"

"I don't know what exactly what 'download' means, but I think I know what you're thinking," Twilight replied, having guessed what he was gonna ask her. "But not only can I use a spell to show all the movies and shows that you have on your 'phone' right now, but I can also use a second spell to make it so that I can also allow us to use and play everything else that you've ever had on your 'phone' before, too!"

"That's fantastic! We'll have a lot more movies and shows to use at our disposal now!" Ned spoke.

"Don't forget about me and the others! We have phones as well and I've done my fair share of downloading and I'm sure the others have, too!" John reminded Ned. "That's not even counting everything that I got to watch after I got Netflix on my phone, too, so if we can use all the content from Netflix, too, then we'll be good for a long time!"

"Good! Then, it looks like it's settled then!" Stan agreed.

"Hey, everypony!" Ned, John, Stan and Twilight heard Pinkie Pie and turned to see the pink, earth, party pony bouncing towards them like a kangaroo!

"Hi, Pinkie. It's nice to see you," Twilight said, noticing that Pinkie was still bouncing up and down. "What's going on, Pinkie? Why are you so jumpy-well, jumpier than usual today?"

"Why?" Pinkie Pie answered. "Because tomorrow night is Nightmare Night! Woohoo!"

"Oh, yeah," Twilight spoke as she realized that she had been so busy with her 12 human friends, the movie theater, everypony and everything else that she lost track of the time. "You're right. It's already that time of the year again."

"And a couple months after that, it will be Hearth's Warming Eve and Hearth's Warming Day!" Pinkie Pie shouted in excitement. "I'm, so, so excited!"

John, Ned and Stan were confused as they had never heard of this 'Nightmare Night', 'Hearth's Warming Eve' and Hearth's Warming Day' before. "Uh, what's Nightmare Night?" John asked Twilight. "And Hearth's Warming Eve and Hearth's Warming Day?"

-Earth. Months before the current time in Equestria. A day after John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Claire, Alice, Tony and Eddie's 3-day vacation at the log cabin ended.

To all my readers, just to avoid any confusion, time on Earth and Equestria moves at the exact same amount of time. This next part is only to show what happened after John, Gary, Ned, Michael, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie were sent to Equestria. Right now, in Equestria, during this next and last scene of this chapter, it hasn't been long after their arrival there, much less has been months or even weeks yet. With that said, during the final part of this chapter, not much time has passed on both worlds. Now, that that's out of the way, the story continues now!

Meanwhile, back on Earth, months before the present time in Equestria and almost a day after John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie were due to arrive back at their homes, two police cars drove through the mountains and down a long, dirt road that led to the deserted log cabin in the middle of the night and parked right outside of it. "Is this the place?" one of the police officers that came out of the first police car asked as he looked at the log cabin and the forest area around it.

"Sorry, Brock, but the directions we were given don't lie. We're in the right place," Brock's partner confirmed.

"Alright, Tom, then let's go in that cabin and investigate," Brock replied. "Those kids never went back home on the bus after their 3-day stay at this log cabin like they were supposed to, their families are getting worried and we need to find them!"

Brock and Tom walked up to the front door of the log cabin, followed by two more police officers from the other police car. Once they were at the front door, Tom knocked on the door and spoke, "This is the police! Is anyone home?"

No response.

Tom knocked on the door again, only this time, even harder. "I repeat: This is the police! Is there anyone here? If so, please say so and open this door!"

Again, no response.

Seeing that they were getting nowhere, Brock pulled out a spare key to the log cabin that he had borrowed from the log cabin's owner and unlocked the front door. Remembering their training, the officers didn't immediately step inside and instead, slowly and cautiously entered with their weapons drawn and ready, in case there was anyone inside, waiting to attack them.

They searched both the first and second floors and it quickly became clear to them that no one was around. Then they noticed Ned's sleeping bag on the floor, all the empty and unmade beds and John's, Gary's, Michael's, Ned's, Alice's, Claire's, Tony's and Eddie's suitcases that they had left behind.

"Okay. That's strange. They left their suitcases and a sleeping bag, but none of them are here," Brock thought out loud. "Either this is some mean joke that they're trying to pull on us or for some reason or they all just suddenly got up and left and didn't come back."

"We've already checked this entire place, so they're not in here. The only other place that we haven't checked is..." Tom said.

"The forest!" Brock concluded. "That's where we're gonna search next!"

"Wow! Hold on there!" one of the two cops from the second police car spoke. "It's dark out there in those woods and this entire area is huge!"

"Sorry, Marcus, but we have a job to do and if those kids are out there, we need to find them as soon as possible!" Brock replied.

"Do you honestly expect the 4 of us to search this entire forest by ourselves at this time at night!? Have some common sense, man! We should wait until morning or at least call for some back-up!" Marcus advised Brock.

"I've already talked to the chief at the station and he gave all of us permission to scan out the area. If we can't find them out here within an hour, I'll contact the chief and request for some search teams to come aid us in the search," Brock answered.

Brock then headed out the front door with Tom, Marcus and the fourth officer in tow and closed and locked the door behind them. Then, he and the other officers made their way into the dark forest with their flashlights on and their guns ready.

After 45 minutes of searching, but no signs of John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie anywhere nearby, Marcus faced Brock and told him, "We've already been searching these woods for 45 minutes now and there are no signs of them anywhere!"

"I know," Tom replied.

"The 4 of us will never find them in the dark like this! We really should wait until tomorrow when it's during the day to do this!" Marcus tried to persuade Tom.

"Look, Marcus, I don't know why you want to stop searching for those 8 missing kids until tomorrow so badly, but we got a job to do!" Brock replied. "We still have 15 minutes left to find them and if we don't by then, then we'll go back to the station and let the professionals look for those 7 young adults and that kid that was with them."

"How about we go this way?" said Tom, pointing in the same direction that John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie had went to investigate that mysterious, bright light that had turned out to be that strange, floating, glowing orb. "We haven't searched in that direction yet."

"Come on, guys! Let's go check it out!" Brock ordered as he led Tom, Marcus and the fourth officer with him in that direction of the forest.

Just like with John, Gary, Michael, Ned, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie, they soon ended up in that same small, empty clearing where they had discovered that weird, glowing, floating orb. The only difference was that there was now no bright light or any orb anywhere to be found.

Seeing that they had reached a dead end in their search, Brock was about to give up and agree with Marcus that it was time for all 4 of them to head out and go back to the station, but then, Brock froze when he noticed something odd out of the corner of his eye when he had flashed his flashlight straight ahead of him. Without saying a word, Brock rushed over to the same exact spot that the orb had been, shined his flashlight on the ground and noticed some strange markings and drawings of what looked like horses along with what appeared to be a bunch of words written in a strange language that he was not familiar with.

For a moment, Brock thought he was just seeing things, but when he looked down at the ground again, he saw that all the strange pictures and words on the ground were still there. "What the heck?" he spoke as he studied everything that he was seeing.

Then, unable to resist, Brock touched one of the drawings with one of his hands-only for time to seem to slow down around him as his mind became filled with countless visions! Unfortunately, he was seeing so many visions at once, that he couldn't really make out any of them, but if he had been able to do so, he would've seen the one that showed John, Gary, Ned, Michael, Alice, Claire, Tony and Eddie being sent through that portal to Equestria!

Finally, after feeling a headache coming on and his mind being unable to handle all these countless visions that continued to plague and harass him and his mind, it all soon went away just as quickly as it had come as Brock snapped back to reality and heard and saw his partner shaking him to get his attention. "Brock, snap out of it!" Tom ordered as he shook Brock, which he hoped would bring him back to his senses after he had seen and heard his partner scream like he was suffering from both terrible pain and panic!

After 10 seconds, Brock calmed down, no longer saw anymore visions his mind was clear again and became aware of his surroundings and that he was no longer touching any of the strange words or drawings, due to Tom having pulled him away from them. Realizing what had just happened, Brock knew that there was something really big going on here and that finding those 8 missing kids would have to wait!

"Tom, someone else will have to find those kids," Brock told his partner in a very serious voice. "I don't know what the hell's going on, but I just discovered something that requires much more urgent attention!"

"What do you mean?" Tom asked.

"Don't ask any questions!" Brock commanded. "We need to report what I've seen to the Chief immediately! In fact, we'll even need to-"

BANG!

Brock froze at the sound of a gunshot that he had just heard. But not so much because of the sound of the gunshot itself, but rather because he gasped in horror as he saw that Tom had just been shot and had a fatal bullet wound in his chest, which killed the poor officer instantly!

Looking away from Tom's lifeless body that now lay on the ground in a puddle of his own blood, Brock turned to face Tom's killer-who immediately was revealed to be Marcus! After a moment of silence and processing this, Brock's expression morphed into one of anger and hate!

"Marcus! What the fuck!? Why did you just kill Tom!?" Brock demanded with confusion and anger in his voice.

"Because he knew too much and now, so do you!" Marcus replied in a cold voice, which made it clear that he hadn't shot Tom accidentally and that he didn't feel the least bit guilty for killing him or care about any of the consequences he would face for killing another officer in cold blood. "His death could've easily been avoided, had you just listened to me and went back to the station after we left the log cabin instead."

"You motherfucking son of a bitch!" Brock yelled in rage. "Let me guess, you aren't really a police officer and no one back at the station knows that either!"

"Well, congratulations, Brock! You got me there!" Marcus confirmed. "I don't really work for you or the police department and neither does Mitch!" Marcus pointed to his partner, who wore an evil grin, thus, revealing that both of them were crooks and were in this together.

"So you, too, Mitch!" Brock asked, wanting nothing more than to arrest and lock away him and Marcus and throw away the key for their betrayal, deception and murdering his partner.

"Ha! I'm almost surprised that you just found out about this now! How pathetic! If all police officers are as dumb and easy to fool as you and Tom and the other officers at that popsicle stand you call a station, then I think that-" Mitch insulted.

"How dare you disrespect the police department by posing as police officers and killing Tom! I'll make it my life's goal to make sure that you two rot in prison until you die!" Brock shot back.

"Too bad for you, Brock, because you don't have much of a life left to realize that goal!" Marcus said as he chuckled to himself.

"If you kill me and me and Tom don't return to the station, or at least report back, the rest of the force is gonna come here and launch an investigation and when they found out about what you've done here, you'll have them and every-" Brock warned, but was cutoff.

"We'll see about that!" Mitch replied. "But we've already wasted enough time with you and your stupid partner! So I think it's time we end this little discussion."

Marcus then aimed his gun at Brock, who could do nothing to save himself. Sure, Brock was armed too, but his gun was still in his holster and he didn't have enough time to pull it out, turn it off 'Safety', and shoot. Even if that was the case and Brock did managed to take out Marcus, Mitch was also armed and would be the one to end his life instead!

"What do you have to gain from doing this, huh!?" Brock demanded.

"Like I said before, you know too much," Marcus answered. "You aren't telling anyone about you've seen here!"

"Wait! This is about all that strange writing, drawings and visions that I saw, isn't it!?" Brock demanded. "You didn't want me, Tom or anyone else to come here and discover any of that! That's why you kept insisting that we not go into the woods and go back to the station this entire time! You don't want anyone to know about this!"

"And that's exactly how it shall remain!" Marcus shouted as he pulled the trigger on his gun and fatally shot Brock in his head, which like Tom, also killed him instantly!

With both Tom and Brock dead, Marcus put his gun back in his holster, turned to face Mitch and told him, "Dispose of their bodies while I make a phone call."

"This being a police officer has been torture for me, Marcus! I don't know what I hate more, having to wear this stupid uniform and badge or having to take crap from that jackass called a chief at the station!" Mitch admitted. "Honestly, I can't wait until I can ditch this dumb get-up and job!"

"Fortunately, for you, Mitch, and myself, neither of us will have to do this for much longer," Marcus replied. "As soon as our little job here is over, we won't ever have to work or dress up as police officers again or return to that bloody station!"

"What about the other officers and the chief at the station? It won't be long before they all come here to investigate not only the disappearances of those 8 kids, but also, Tom and Brock," Mitch reminded Marcus. "Not to mention, won't we look suspicious if we just quit our jobs and leave the force shortly after Tom and Brock go missing, especially since we were with them on the same case together? What do we do about them?"

"Relax, Mitch. Before we drove here, I got us some men working on the inside and they'll make sure that neither the chief nor any of the other officers cause us any trouble," Marcus reassured Mitch. "If worse comes to worse, we could always just make them 'disappear' and have them 'replaced'! You know what they say, 'Curiosity killed the cat!' So if they know what's good for them, they'll keep their noses out of our business and not do anything that they'll regret!"

"Now, hurry up and get rid of those damn bodies already! They've only been dead for two minutes now and I swear that they're already beginning to stink!" Marcus ordered as he pulled out his phone from his pocket.

Mitch did as he was told and got to work on taking care of Tom's and Brock's lifeless corpses. Mitch didn't mind that he had been given the task of dealing with the bodies since this was by no means the first time he had done this kind of thing, but regardless of that, he still wore gloves and made sure that he didn't get any blood or any other bacteria on him.

As for Marcus, he dialed a number on his phone and waited until he heard a voice on the other end of the line. We don't hear who is talking to him, though. But what we do hear is Marcus, who tells the unknown person with him on the phone, "Boss! Tom and Brock wouldn't listen and head back to the station. We did what you requested we should do if they didn't. Mitch is currently getting rid of their bodies as we speak."

Again, we don't hear who's talking to Marcus. "I understand! We'll have this entire area completely blocked off from everyone else! No one but us will be allowed in and out of here!"

Once again, we do not hear Marcus's 'boss' voice. "That's correct, boss! After 8 years, another 'Breach' has happened!" Marcus announced to his boss over the phone.

My Little Pony From One World To Another And Back! by NickClash BCommander

by NickClash BCommander

Prologue

Timber!

I Don't Think We're In Kansas Anymore!

Interrogations

Choices

The Timber Wolf Terror!

Aftermath

Getting Settled In

Getting To Know Each Other

The Human Dilemma

The Deadline

Trapped!

Ned's Gamble

Operation: Fly Trap

Celebration!

Making A Living

New Lives In Equestria And A Simple 8 Missing Kids Case With A Huge Twist!