> The wrong universe. (TCB) > by Silverdogz117 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1: Arrival (Rewrite, Reloaded) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- In the beginning there was nothing, then there was everything, and more. The more part is what is especially interesting. There is a theory from our world known as the Multiverse Theory. It says that there are many worlds, universes even! That means that there even could be tens, hundreds, thousands or an infinite number of Earths. One in particular was about to embark on incredibly ambitious experiment. This world, or more specifically the country, was known as Equestria. The name itself implies happy ponies frolicking about, going on adventures and having fun, maybe even learning lessons about harmony and friendship. But, the shiny exterior hides a dark secret that only three ponies know about in all of Equestria. They are the immortal rulers of Equestrian, the Alicorns. For you see, the country known as Equestria was unique in the way that it existed. It was a vampire of sorts, it would arrive in new worlds via a temporal gateway and begin to absorb the planet's life-force. It had done this at least three or four times, however the rulers would like to forget the third shift. Once Equestria arrived in a new planet it would set up a barrier in the guise of protecting itself from the outsiders. The barrier was in fact how it devoured the life-force, anything that came into contact with the barrier, would be atomized and the energy from the reaction would be, eaten. All the barrier left was a crudely drawn image of Equestria in its place. Eventually the barrier completed the transformation and it the ponies would live in peace for several hundred years before a new power source needed to be found. The only way to convince the citizens of Equestrian that this was a good thing was that the inhabitants of the planet needed saving from themselves and that ponydom was the only way to meet that lofty goal... Canterlot Castle, Equestria. 0600 Hours The time had come yet again for Equestria to move on from this world. The natives had been converted a long time ago and the energy reserves were running low again. Luna had already picked the next target, Cadence preferred to think of it as donors, a smallish planet known to the native bipeds that inhabited it as Earth. Celestia paced around the map of the planet that the spy spell had mapped. Around seven continents with near two hundred different countries that fought with each other periodically and the inhabitants, humans they called themselves, were highly warlike. This was going the simplest planet yet, offer something good for free and the inhabitants start running right to you. With the negative aspects of the potions "accidentally" omitted from the propaganda, of course, it really couldn't be any easier. Celestia left the War Room, tactics were always Luna's forte, and entered the Barrier control room. Where a pink Alicorn was hard at work preparing the delicate magical mechanisms and equations. Ever since Cadence's prowess had shown at the Crystal Empire she had was chosen to weave the massive spell, a process that was nearing completion after almost two years. Finally Celestial withdrew to her chamber where the Elements of Harmony, and Spike, were waiting for her. "Princess! Is it really true that we're going to move the country?" asked Twilight, her eyes shining with curiosity. "Yes, my faithful student, we will visit a new world and meet new flora and fauna." said Celestia, the lie coming forth as easily as it first had. The ponies were a little too gullible and it irked her that they weren't as perfect as they should have been. She had made a an adjustment in the formula for a bit more free will in the next generation. "Spike, darling, would you mind stepping out for a moment while the ponies talk?" asked Rarity, her eyelids fluttering in just the right way to melt Spike's heart. "Okay, Rarity." he said as he stepped out of the iron door and sat with his back against the wall and opened the newest issue of Gentledragons Quarterly, a magazine started by the dragons he had met on the dragon migration. He mused over the latest hats, blazers and gem recipes. The grandstallion clock ticked as the hours went by, a few guards came and went as well as a few ponies in lab coats. Spike had missed all of this because he had fallen asleep, eventually the door opened and six ponies and an Alicorn left the room. "Oh, those poor, um, what were they called again?" squeaked Fluttershy, as she hovered low to the ground. "Humans, dear." said Rarity, "They simply must be helped, a planet that's deadly, and not to mention the wars!" "I don't know Rare, any critter might not be as smart as a pony, but they won't like being told what to do if the whatchamacallit doohickey is right." said Applejack. Twilight noticed Spike out of the corner of her eye, smiled to herself and levitated the sleeping dragon and his magazine on her back. "Don't worry about it if the Princess can't convince them, then the Guard will! Right, Princess?" asked Rainbow Dash. "Only if it's necessary, my little pony." said Celestia, her serene smile firmly plastered to her muzzle. Canterlot Castle, Equestria: 1200 Hours, Two days later The marble towers of the castle gleamed in the sun, a lone pony stood at the balcony gazing at the sky as a flock of geese flew across. Sighing she turned and walked down to the transportation chamber. There the other two Alicorns and the Elements of Harmony awaited her. The Elements as well as herself and Luna would do the actual transport while Cadence would wait and cast the Barrier, with Shining Armor and his Unicorn Guard. "Are you sure the calculations are correct Luna?" asked Celestia. "We are absolutely positive, dear Sister!" proclaimed Luna. "You sure?" Luna simply gave her sister a look. "Spike, please, you can't be in here when the transport spell goes off. It's dangerous to non-ponies." said Twilight, trying to convince Spike to leave. "But Twilight, what if you need something like, uh, water!" exclaimed Spike. "No, Spike please, it's for your own good." said Twilight flatly. "Fine... but call me if you need help." said Spike as he trudged to the door. "Alright, my little ponies, the most dangerous part of the transference starts now. Luna if you would please start us off." said Celestia. "Yes, please organize your selves into a circle around the pentagram." said Luna as she took charge. After some shuffling, or bouncing in Pinkie's case, the ponies organized themselves around the pentagram. "Now Twilight, begin the spell like We showed you." said Luna. "O-okay Princess." Twilight stammered as she powered up the Element of Magic. A ribbon of swirling blue began to connect the ponies, it shaking them to their core as it found and greedily absorbed the magic. Finally, the lines of the pentagram began to fill with flame, as the globe of the target planet began to spin rapidly. The pentagram pulsed with energy as the flames went from orange to white. Twilight began to grunt from the exhaustion of controlling the spell, unbeknownst to them a certain baby dragon had sneaked in holding the glass of water. He ran over to Twilight but was tossed back by the turbulent forces of Magic. "Ugh...my head." he groaned breaking Twilight's concentration for a split second as the image of the target planet flickered and changed from a serene one of blue, white, brown and green to a stormy, grey planet. This planet was the product of a nuclear war,started by Humanity's child, still continuing between the Resistance of Mankind and the forces of SKYNET battling over the burnt land. This was the world that the Equestrians had stepped into, a world made, ravaged, and run by war. They were not ready for the unforeseen consequences. Earth, San Diego, SKYNET Center: 1400 Hours EVENT LOG 1402:26: UNKNOWN OBJECT NEAR LOCATION: HAWAIIAN ISLANDS RESPONSE: HUNTER KILLER TEAMS DISPATCHED AT 1403, INVESTIGATE AND DESTROY > Chapter 2: Investigation > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- H/K V.A #12364AX COMMAND: Observe anomaly, designate: Bubble, TERMINATION... Authorized The silver H/K floated above the pink anomaly as its powerful sensor suite scanned the bubble. However, it was not the only one observing the bubble, an old Virgina Class submarine observed the bubble through its far less advanced periscope. "Any ideas Mr. Cage?" asked Captain Belruse. "No sir, one moment we had a few H/K's hummin' around, now they're all occupied with that pink bubble thing." said Cage. "Hm, contact Command and update the Resistance on this. Anything that has Skynet interested in is probably bad for us." ordered Belruse. "Yes, Sir!" Canterlot Castle, Equestria The Princesses and the Elements of Harmony, gathered around the only Camera Obscura in Equestria. The Camera Obscura was an invention from the later days of the Nightmare Wars, it was used to devastating effect by the Nightmare Horde against the Royal Guard. A Camera Obscura physically bent moonlight to gain the ablility to see anywhere in the world, as long as it was clear over the dish that formed the lens. Such as it was, the images transmitted back to the dish had a slight pink and gray hue to them, but it was good enough. All three princesses crowded around the image, but drew back immediately into quiet conversation, the Elements looked on curiously. "This is not the target!" Cadance hissed. "I know that! There must be something left on this rock for us." said Luna. "We must hope so, there isn't enough mana in the crystals to do another jump. We're stuck here for the time being." said Celestia. "Princesses! We found something!" the shout drew the Alicorns attention as their gaze snapped back to the Obscura. It showed a shiny metal object hovering around the Barrier, as it's powerful spotlight gazed upon the shield like a single eye. "What do you think it is?" asked Twilight. "Ooh! Maybe it's one of the ponies that we have to help!" cheered Pinky as she hopped around. "Perhaps." Celestia looked at the image, something about it wasn't right. She shook her head and sent a signal to General Sharps, it was time to begin the conversion. Tech-Com Command, Seattle The "hive" as it was called was a blur of motion as orders were sent out and news from the outside world received. The resistance was lucky that the old civilian satellites were still in operation, they appeared to be safe or never warranted Skynet's attention. Still, the resistance was lucky to have Seattle as it's current base. With what was left of the Puget Sound, Joint Base Louis-McChord and the old Microsoft R'n'D campus under their control, the resistance had a fighting chance. At least until the latest report came from one of the Virginia's. "A giant pink "bubble"?" asked John Conner "Apparently, sats confirmed it just a few minutes ago." said Cameron. "And Skynet?" "Occupied with it." "That's good, its attention's not on us right now." He glared at the live-feed of the "bubble" as he watched the search lights scan the surface. "Any idea what's in there?" asked Conner. "Unfortunately, no, the civ-sats weren't built to do this sort of work. We're lucky as it is." said Cameron. "Keep an eye on it...." John trailed off as the "bubble" opened to allow the passage of a zeppelin? "Put satellite 117's image on the big monitor!" ordered Conner. "Yes, Sir." The image on the screen showed the H/Ks as they hovered underneath the purple monstrosity as if confused by it's sudden appearance. Then the zeppelin poured what looked like grape juice over the sides on splattered the H/Ks. For a moment the H/Ks seemed unaffected, but then they simply... stopped. As if they had been hit with an EMP, they spiraled down in to the bubble and disintegrated into what appeared to be rainbows. "Any news from our sub?" asked Conner. "They're staying the hell away from that purple stuff sir." responded a technician. "Good, do we have any people near there?" "Just a small outpost, a listening array." "Tell them to pack it up and prepare for possible hostiles." "Yes, Sir!" Tech-Com listening outpost 7-B "Alright ladies and gentleman! We have new orders, to pack up everything and hold the fort until evac gets here." said Gordon Clarkson. "Sir, what're we defending from? Skynet?" asked a young tech. Clarkson punched up an image upon the main screen, showing a purple Zeppelin. "This, so far all we know is that it's weapons consist of a purple liquid that has an EMP effect. DO NOT GET THIS SHIT ON YOU. It was potent enough to shut down Aerial H/Ks and I'd rather not find out what it does to human flesh." said Clarkson as he unlocked the weapons chest. All five personnel armed themselves with their weapons, sent the last of the information they had gathered and purged the database. Incidentally the cameras were left on, allowing the evacuation crew a good look at what had happened to the small outpost. Video Log #3164896, Outpost 7-B "Anyone hear that?" asked one man as he hunkered behind his console. "Get ready, Command doesn't know if they're friendly or not but recommends extreme caution." said Clarkson. As if on cue the door fell open to reveal... a dark green pony? "What the hell?" Later studies would argue that it was PFC Margaret O'Donnell who said the first words to the ponies, while others said it was Clarkson. "I come from the land of Equestria offering salvation to those who seek it!" it shouted imperiously. "What kind of salvation?" piped up one of the techs. "Freedom from your human bodies and this forsaken world!" shouted the stallion. "Yeah, no." said Clarkson as he began to backup. "I didn't say it was voluntary." The pony lifted up a tube of purple liquid and tossed it almost leisurely at Clarkson, a direct hit. The Captain screamed as his body began to twist as potion rewrote him on a molecular level. "Kill me..." Clarkson rasped as fur raced towards his elongating head. "It's been an honor sir, Fire at will!" said O'Donnell. Bullets flew and imbedded themselves into what was left of Captain Clarkson and the green pony. A wave of equines began to charge the door falling in droves as the bullets chewed through their lines. But alas, the tide was too great, eventually there were only one human left. He stood shakily as he stared down his former friends. They approached him with smiles that were slightly too large for their faces, and their eyes. Oh God! Their eyes, they lacked the spark of life, it was if the eyes were just plastic on a face too colorful to exist in this world. His pistol snapped up and a single round fired. > Chapter 3: Oops, Did I do that? > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- SkyNet Hub #001, Washington, D.C SkyNet growled, if the term could be applied to a homicidal A.I, as its feeds were cut out one by one from that damn zeppelin. It flung open its vast archives and hungrily devoured all of Humanity's notes on Zeppelins. Apparently they were extremely fragile and had a nasty habit of exploding if hit by, say a missile. An instant command later and four PATRIOT missiles were launched at the cigar shaped ship. T.P.S Olympic The great ship groaned as it's four magical combustion engines drove the two massive propellers at the stern of the craft. Unlike it's human/AI counterparts the Olympic used a Pegasi "net" to inform the bridge of exterior movements at range. "Sir! Pegasi report four large "starbursts" incoming at heading 210!" bawled one of the radio operators. "Come about and raise shields." ordered Captain Cannon. Below decks a team of six unicorns placed their horns into slots in the hull of the ship. A purple-pink barrier began to rise over the exterior of the ship, protecting it from harm as the massive Zeppelin turned on it's axis. "Captain! The forward potion batteries can't get a lock on the "starbursts"! They're moving too fast." said a crewmember. "Order them to start firing just ahead of the 'bursts." said the Captain. The crewpony hurriedly barked orders down the tube to the potion batteries. A few moments later the ship began to thrum as thousands of glass vials were magically spewed out of the front cannons. "Sir! The starbursts have passed the last ring!" yelled the Pegasi Commander. "Sound the collision alarm! Brace, Brace, Brace!" barked the Captain as she hooked a foreleg around the railing that surrounded the command dias. As the first missile hit half the unicorns holding up the shield collapsed and the rest began to strain with holding up the shield by themselves. However, their struggle was for naught as the second missile hit, killing the three unicorns holding up the shield. "Captain! Shields are down!" "Full power back to base!" yelled Captain Cannon, the Olympic began to rumble as it swung around and began to make for the barrier. Then the third missiles hit, the ship heeled under the impact as engines blew. The fire began to lick closer to the gas envelope. It was beaten by the fourth missile that landed directly between the rudders of the Olympic the entire ship blew into a massive fireball above the barrier. Resistance Rescue Huey The Huey's blades whipped the sand and dust around the listening post into a frenzy as it landed. A five man team stepped out and approached the door as the pilots and their guard guarded the helicopter. "Damn..." muttered Private Adams as he walked past the door to the post. "Looks like it's hinges were ripped out, then I don't know? Bucked?" said Corporal Hicks. "Bucked by what?" asked Adams. "Hey! We got bodies in here!" yelled Sergeant Foley. The pair rushed inside the dimly lit facility. Their first site made them gag. "What in the living HELL is that thing?" asked Adams. "It is... or was Captain Clarkson." said the Medic as she wrapped up the mess of human into a body bag. "And the other?" "Corporal Martin O'Donnell, cause of death, self inflicted bullet wound" said the Medic as she stood up. "What about Clarkson, was it whatever did that to him?" asked Hicks. "Unfortunately, no, cause of death for Clarkson were several bullet wounds." "Hey Hicks!" shouted Private Ramirez "I found some traces of purple liquid." "Bag it and tag it with a bio-hazard." said Hicks. "Get Gorman in here and get him on the computers, maybe they can tell us what the hell happened in here." said the Medic. Adams nodded and ran to find Technician Gorman. "Between you and me Hicks." said the Medic. "I think this isn't Skynet, it's not its style." "You think so Lambert?" Canterlot Castle, Equestria "At 1450 an unknown weapon shot down the Olympic over the barrier, we believe that it was a human weapon and that it was retaliation for the destruction of three aerial vehicles of theirs. There were no survivors from the Olympic save some of the Pegasi Net." said Shining Armor as he walked back to his podium. "Thus, the Princess have suggested a ground and sea war, rather than aerial bombardment. We have the three NewFoals in custody and one human weapon. He motioned to the slide operator and the a new image clicked into place." "This weapon, while we have been unable to fire it is capable of passing through our gold plating with ease and scarily accurate. Yet another characteristic of this brutish race." Shining Armor eventually finished his lecture to the Equestrian Royal Guard and went back to the War Room. "Tell us about this planet!" thundered the interrogator. "There's nothing! HA, HA! Absolutely nothing for MILES!" shouted a NewFoal as it grinned psychotically. "Well?" asked Shining Armor. "We've gotten nothing so far, the potion acts too quickly to get any info out of these three. The two on the left are totally gone and last one has just gone." said the interrogator rubbing his eyes. "The most coherent thing we've gotten out of them is a shiny metal man. They seemed terrified of it, and were agitated when we showed them the machines we shot down." "So we have two warring factions?" "Possibly, but we need one that hasn't been potioned to get anything out of them." "Not possible." said Shining Armor, "By the Princesses' decree not one ape sets foot within Equestria." TechCom Command "Sir, the rescue Huey just landed, and they sent the security tape." said a technician. "Send it to my station." said Connor "And Sir? The team said it wasn't pretty." "Noted." > Chapter 3: Sick and Wrong > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- TechCom Command "Sir? are you all right?" called one of John Connor's personal aid, as the sound of vomiting continued. "I'm fine, just ate an expired MRE." said Connor from behind the door. John sat up and wiped his mouth with a paper towel and rubbed his eyes. If he closed them the sound of screaming and the wet noises of bones cracking and shaping amid the torrent of gunfire echoed through his head. The "ponies" had simply overwhelmed the small team in minutes through sheer numbers, it didn't help that the last one had shot himself. He stood up, and glared into the cracked mirror that lined one wall of the room. He had withstood the three times SkyNet had sent a Terminator after him and he was DAMNED if he was going to go out to a Pony Princess. He opened the door and stepped out. "Mr. Stoppable, Call a general meeting and queue up the video the rescue team sent." said Connor as he walked back to his office. "Of course, sir. The lab found something interesting in some of the evidence that the rescue team found, something about a purple liquid." "Forward it to me and the Generals." said Connor. "Sir." Connor sat down at his desk and sighed, he glared at the computer which was displaying the security tape. He put aside his disgust and his mind went on autopilot analyzing the video. Golden Oaks Library, Equestria The three newfoals sat staring at the orientation projection, it was designed to ease the newfoals into their new life as Equestrian Citizens. However, Twilight was suspicious of the New Foals. For some reason they were all the same, brown coat and black main and tail. Their cutie marks were also the same, a red double helix. (A/N there isn't any text.) While having the same cutie mark was odd, but not uncommon due to the rather open meaning of some cutie marks. Pinkie said it had to do with lazy animators, whatever that meant. But for three ponies to be "born" all the same color and bearing the same cutie mark, it was odd, to say the least. Twilight was happy, because it meant it was time for her favorite thing, research! "Spike, fetch Your Cutie Mark and You and Cutie Marks, Why Do They Happen? from the shelf please?" called Twilight. "Ok!" A few minutes passed and Twilight's muzzle was once again, buried in a book. Spike edged his way out of the room, just the way that the newfoals looked at him made him feel funny. It was if they were looking through him and not at him, not really registering his presence but still staring at him. Making it down stairs he nearly ran straight into Rainbow Dash. "Hey Spike do you know where Twilight is?" asked Dash. "Yeah, she's upstairs with the erm... new guys." said Spike "Ah, they creep you out too?" Spike nodded. SkyNet Hub #007 SkyNet was busy, busier than usual, for now it had to account for a new variable, and while SkyNet did not have emotions per se, it hated new variables. First it had to expend some of it's PATRIOTS against the zeppelin, and it had lost several Aerial H/Ks. A subroutine alerted the main conscience of something it had intercepted from the Humans. Apparently they had lost one of their listening posts to small party from the Anomaly, SkyNet tagged the location for destruction, if the humans dared to use it again. It turned it's attention to the video from the outpost, it was grainy, low quality security footage from the outpost. SkyNet watched as the humans on the screen turned to face a {Searching....} pony that had appeared in the room. The pony and the Captain exchanged some words, and then the pony threw some sort of vial at the human, what happened next was a massacre of the ponies. They charged in as the humans opened up on their {ERROR: Unknown creature} and the ponies, the ponies seemed to be inexperienced with machine guns, and were only begin to push forward with two of the ponies with horns formed a shield and pushed in, the guns chipped away at the shield and more ponies died but the potion bottles flew true and hit three of the humans. The last one shot himself rather than be ponified. SkyNet, began to consider it's options, clearly the newcomers were not the ponies that used to exist, but something new, a threat. Using the footage from the security cameras it began to draw up new plans for a new terminator series. The T-800(P). Of course it would need a live specimen for true replication, one of the plain types from nowhere on the continent ought to do it. > It's the End of the World as We know it... > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Tech-Com Command: Seattle, WA There are those who would seek to deny us things, things like life, free speech, the ability to vote and then there are those who fight for those freedoms and those who would rather die on their feet than live on their knees. However, in this world? It didn't matter, not anymore, not with this war. Every single man, woman and the rare child of all creeds had banded together on this forsaken rock, for the simple matter of survival. Now, that drive to survive would be needed more than ever. John Connor stalked the halls of base, pacing like a father in a maternity ward. He was waiting on the results from the science team about the purple goop that had been found at the listening post. He knew what the goop did, but not how it did it, once they knew that, they could perform countermeasures against it. At last the door creaked open. "Well? Can we stop it?" asked Connor. "Straight to the point aren't we?" the scientist said raising a white eyebrow at the leader of the resistance. "Cut the crap, Rosenberg." "I can tell you a few things about this substance. First off, it isn't composed of molecules-" "What! Everything has molecules forming it!" "If you wouldn't interrupt me, I would explain it to you." "Sorry doc, continue please." "It appears to contain pure energy that is formed closely to a integrated circuit, suspended in an unknown medium. We do know that any contact with flesh would be disastrous, or if it were aerosolized as well. I would recommend not letting it touch you. As for stopping it, I don't think we can, reversing the process is out of the question." said Rosenberg, his face grim. "Ah, shit. I know your team is the best out there, but still, keep at it. Anything we can do?" asked Connor. "Yes, if we had more, we might be able to perform more tests without destroying our only sample." Connor inhaled sharply. "Only if there's an opportune chance, I'm not sending my men to get something that'll change them if they spill it." "Fine. Do you know what's for lunch?" asked Rosenberg. "Uh, chicken casserole if I remember correctly." Rosenberg blanched at that. SKYNET HUB#0001, Washington D.C Skynet grumbled to itself as it watched the sixth T-800p break another set of joints as it attempted to perform the same movements as these new targets. It finally reached a consensus as the seventh iteration was brought in for testing, it really needed some test subjects. A vivisection would provide it with all the data it would need, plus a few more for the creation of the fur layer. It needed some way of getting pigment into the fur. Appaloosa, Equestria Appaloosa had gone through extensive expansion since the signing of the Treaty of Alliance and Friendship with the buffalo. It now rivaled Manehatten in terms of population, if only due to the concentration of the Royal Guard in the town. Being at the edge of Equestrian territory had its advantages as the next Purification Zeppelin was prepped after the disaster of the Olympic. This Zeppelin was known as the Sojurn. Unlike the Olympic, the Sojurn was designed as a troop carrier that had been retrofitted with some weaponry salvaged from the Olympic's wreck. A great thrum filled the air as the Sojurn began to move towards the edge of the Barrier. A beam of purple light lanced from the nose of the Sojurn and the Barrier stretched out to accommodate the bulk of the Zeppelin. Its goal was the small chain of islands that Equestria had popped out next to. The natives of this world called them the Hawaiian Islands. "Sir, I have the manifest that you wanted." said a blue pegasus pony wearing the grey uniform of the Equestrian Air Force. "Ah, thank you Quick Strike." said the mahogany pegasus from behind his desk as he pored over the after-action report of the Olympic. "No problem!" Manifest: 400 barrels of Potion THTP 250 Unicorn Corps. 250 Earth Pony Corps. 500 barrels fresh water 500 tons Food (Assorted) 350 potion sprayers 100 fuel rods The captain sat back as he thought about the demise of the Olympic, the shielding had worked to a certain degree, until it was overwhelmed by superior force by the enemy. In order to combat this he had his pegasi net spread even farther out around his ship, so as to catch the "starbursts" earlier and buy time for the shield strength to rise. He hoped it would be enough to keep the thousand souls alive and aboard his ship. The thrum of the engines brought him back to the situation at hand, he got up and stepped out onto the bridge as he watched his helmspony skillfully bring the Sojurn through the barrier and set a course for the islands. Ponyville, Equestria Applejack stared at the three ponies in front of her, each one identical, minus two being stallions and the other a mare. The exact same coat, mane and cutie mark was a bit much for the cowpony. "Ah, just don't get it Twi', why do I have to take 'em in?" asked Applejack as she scrutinized them. "Because, the Princess wants to see how well they can adapt to Equestrian life. We need to know whether or not the mental reconditioning is working as it should." said Twilight as she levitated a notebook and quill next to her. "All right, Twi' if you say so. C'mon y'all, let's git to work." said Applejack as she lead the three ponies into the orchard. Trot, trot, trot Applejack froze suddenly and the trotting came to a complete stop at the exact same time. She moved forward and there it was again! It was like there was one pony behind her, rather than three! "Spooky." she muttered under her breath as she continued to walk into the orchard, Twilight and the Newfoals in tow. The Newfoals were easily taught how to buck apples, but the weird thing was that they did the bucking the exact same way as Applejack after seeing it once. Even the angle of their backs were identical each and every time. Even Applejack wasn't that good. It was like they were those fancy automatons that Twilight would drone on about. "Spooky." muttered Applejack. > Chapter 5: Investigations > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Beep-Beep-Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep The sound of the heart monitor flat lining drove the doctors and nurses in the room into a frenzy. "I need 10cc of nitro stat!" shouted surgeon standing over his patient. He turned and saw the anesthesiologist asleep. "Hey! Wake the FUCK up soldier!" he shouted at the tec-com medic who had slumped over her machine. She shot awake and lessened the anesthetic on the patient. Beep-Beep-Beep "BP and HR is up!" said one of the nurses as she maneuvered a cart back into place as the surgery resumed. Above the surgery theater a man with a scarred face frowned down at the scene. "Sir?" "What is it Stoppable?" said John Connor. "We've seen something on CivSat 16." said Stoppable as he flipped through his ever present clipboard. "Looks like another zeppelin." "Skynet kill this one too?" "No sir. Didn't even launch a missile." said Stoppable as he skimmed the report. Connor suddenly turned around and began to walk towards the command center of the base, startling Stoppable as his clipboard went flying. "Not again..." whined Stoppable as he picked up his papers. Connor paused at the door of the observation room. "Oh, and Stoppable? Make sure Jenkins gets at least six hours of sleep. I can't afford more dead soldiers because someone's falling asleep at the wheel." said Connor before he continued on down the hall. "Yes, sir." said Stoppable as he stood up. It was his least favorite job, relaying sleep commands to the soldiers. Connor sighed as he sat down at his oak desk, however this wasn't any desk this was a behemoth. To call it a desk was a disservice, this was an expanse of mahogany and intricate design that made other desks look like that old desk you used in primary school, you know the one. At one point it had been the pride and joy of some Microsoft VP who had headed up the R&D department that they were now located in, but now it served as the nexus of the Resistance paper trail. Piled high with reports, it looked more like a mountain range of paper than a desk. At the very top, in a manila folder stamped with the words: "TOP SECRET: EYES ONLY", demanded to be read first. John flipped it open and began to scan the information that the analysts had come up with regarding the new third player in the war. Only military, ex-police and former business analysts could reduce magical ponies to a typed up page with a photo and make it dryer than what was left of Death Valley. He flipped past the paper work chain sheet and began to read. Resistance Office of Intelligence Threat Assessment of Equine Combatants Issued: June 6, 2027 Top Secret: Eyes Only The new combatants that have entered the battlefield are certainly unique compared to our current enemy, firstly by being biological in nature as opposed to cybernetic and by apparently not being capable of high technology. The enemy also appears to be similar to pre-Judgment Day equines so this report will refer to the new enemy as Equines until further intelligence can be discovered for an allegiance/herd/nation. John leaned back, he knew exactly how ROI would attempt to get that intelligence, and he didn't pity the horse that they got their hands on. The video from the bunker had shown that the equines were not interested in talking, they were singularly focused on one thing: conversion. The focus of this report will be to provide a threat level and assessment for each phenotype of equine encountered, from the attack on the listening post we are aware of at least two different phenotypes of the Equines. The first type that was encountered was that of a "Normal" or a type that didn't seem to have any sort of external appendages like the second type encountered, the "Unicorn" type. Below is the threat assessment for each type. Normal Type: Strength of that type appears to be greater than that of which would normally be physically possible. However, it doesn't appear to be easily terminated at range, however close combat is ill advised without a bladed weapon. ROI is currently reviewing any rodeo footage to find an effective method of CQC with this type. Recommended Action: Shoot it with any weapon, pistol to rifle will be sufficient Threat to Resistance Forces: Moderate Unicorn Type: This type appears to be a significantly greater threat to Resistance forces than the normal type. In the footage from the listening post it was shown that Unicorn type is capable of ranged attacks and some sort of shielded defense. At this time ROI is unsure of the method of these attacks and defense, and is working on finding a method of mitigating or defeating this "energy". However, it this type is extremely susceptible to close range attack, as Clarkson was able to flank and defeat three unicorns with a pump action shotgun before succumbing to the chemical attacks. Recommended Action: Flank and destroy, treat it like a sniper. Threat to Resistance Forces: HIGH In Short, this enemy is versatile and one to be wary of. We have additional reports of a third type, but they are unconfirmed. We however believe that this force is much easier to dispatch than Skynet's. We have an advantage of being familiar with the terrain as well as being more effective with our attacks. The enemy seems to be content with Roman styled attacks and our methods of asymmetric warfare should be extremely effective. It should be also noted that this enemy is organic as opposed to synthetic. We should also be able to employ psychological warfare. John closed the file and signed the log. He stood up and walked out of the office into the main command center with Stoppable following him. "Sir? About Hamilton, it looks like he's not likely but still critical." said Stoppable. "Got it. Now lets see if we can get ROI some guests. The brief I just read was disappointingly thin, plus with the loss of the three of our men it's clear that we're at an intelligence disadvantage." said Connor as he leaned on the railing that looked over the command center. "Get me the Missouri, I've had enough of not knowing my enemies." Canterlot Castle, 30 miles off the Coast of Hawaii Celestia stalked the halls of the castle like a principal looking for an errant student. This attitude was because she was, Twilight had barricaded herself in the library again. At this point Celestia was considering putting Twilight on permanent party assignment courtesy of Pinkie Pie, if only to make Twilight stop thinking that she was going back to Magic Kindergarten. As if Celestia would send one of the architects of the transplant to Kindergarten, Twilight was far to valuable to send away. At last she had made it to the library, why they had put the library in the farthest corner of the castle was beyond Celestia. She had a nagging feeling that the Blueblood family had something to do with it. "Twilight, let me in." Celestia spoke to the closed door. She could feel the tension in the air get so thick that you could slice it and sell it at a bakery, "Twilight, I'm not angry at you." The door cracked opened a bit as a purple eye looked back at Celestia. "R-Really?" came the wavering reply. "Of course, you had no way of knowing what could have happened, if it weren't for your actions we could have ended up anywhere, we got lucky that we were able to save anybody at all." The honeyed words flowed easily as it had the countless times before. Celestia knew there was no point to pulling out the full WRATH OF THE SUN at this point, they would simply have to make a hop to the next world. "Now get out of the library, I know that Pinkie is getting ready to throw a party to celebrate, and I'm sure that the librarian would like to eat something soon." "PLEASE LET ME OUUUT!" came the shout of a public employee that had been imprisoned with a customer. Eventually the door opened and two unicorns trotted out, the librarian immediately took off towards the dining hall as Twilight began to walk towards the Elements of Harmony Quarters with a slowly growing smile on her face. For her part Celestia took a cursory look at the shambles of the library, and sighed. They'd need to rebuild the Post Modernism section again, it was always the first to go to a Twilight freak out. "Your majesty?". Celestia turned and was surprised to find General Iron Sights standing there in his steel armor. "Yes General?" "There's been an attack on the FOB, and it's bad."