In Our Hearts and Hooves

Twilight realized something was wrong the moment she saw the broken window and the needles embedded in the tree outside Carousel Boutique. It wasn't really the fact that there was a mess, even, it was more the fact that Rarity wasn't there cleaning up the disaster zone. Rarity would never leave such a blight in front of her beloved store. Twilight wouldn't either, the young mare reflected on her similarity to Rarity as she unconsciously pulled the needles from the tree with her magic. Both unicorns were neat, and though their methods were very different, Twilight knew that at the end of the day Carousel Boutique would be a prim and polished little store on the outskirts of Ponyville. To see anything else was indicative of something being very wrong with the natural harmony of daily life. So Twilight magically repaired the window- roughly as the glass was still cracked, and they'd need an actual repair pony to come by to get the job done properly- but it was the right thing to do, if Rarity herself had somehow been distracted from the job. Now to get in and-

Wait, was that Rainbow Dash? And Pinkie Pie? And who was the new pony following both of them? By way of Pinkie Twilight was more or less aware of every pony in Ponyville even better than she was aware of the volumes in her library- though to be fair her books weren't shoved into her face by the party mare of Ponyville. Twilight raised an eyebrow and tried to trot round the building after them. What she saw blew whatever she could possibly have envisioned out of the water.

Satori was shaking her head free of the sudden cobwebs that had invaded with Pinkie's thoughts, the tethers of her Third Eye whipping around as she did so. She grumbled something or another along the lines of an "it's okay" to Burns-His-Foes, but before she could try to make a more comprehensive statement, yet another set of new thoughts entered her vision. To her relief, they were mostly blank, as if the pony in question had all the thoughts blasted out of her head by something or another.

"We... we have another guest." Satori pointed a hoof in Twilight's direction. Twilight's eyes were wide, her mouth virtually grazing the ground.

"... Ah! There's our dear Twilight!" Rarity motioned for Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie's attention.

On the outskirts of Ponyville, where the foreboding Everfree Forest loomed, only the most foolhardy of ponies would dare try to advance any further into the deeps of the thick tree masses. As it was, Fluttershy was normally even more timid than usual when she was working in this area. It was to her misfortune that a good chunk of the beaver population of the area chose to have burrows within this dangerous area. It wasn't really any trouble, the creatures of the forest wouldn't dare come out into the open unless provoked, but Fluttershy was still incredibly jumpy and nervous when she made her rounds her.

"Come out, don't be shy." Her quiet voice roused a beaver, a particularly fat specimen who was probably already hibernating despite winter being weeks away. Fluttershy giggled when he began to grumble in animal tongue, knowing his lazy personality as well as she knew the personality of almost every other animal that made Ponyville it's habitat. Each animal needed it's own special treatment, a nuance of Fluttershy's universally agreeable personality that she'd have to bring out so that the animal would trust her. In this case, a little playful poke to this particular beaver's big belly would melt his heart. Most more or less considered her like their own mothers anyways, though of course she would never dare to claim that she was anything of the sort. She humbly just did what she could and tried to be the animals friends without trying to take any sort of credit for anything...

Why did she feel eyes watching her? Fluttershy froze, realizing:

The forest. Something, somepony was in there right now. Possibly multiple ones. The rush of the wind above, probably a Pegasus, caused Fluttershy to squeal in fright and jumped several feet, aided by the aerodynamic structure of her wings. The beaver she had been attending too, far more rational, grumbled once more when he didn't receive his expected belly poke and retired back into his den.

"W-wait, I'm sorry I- eep!" She actually saw something this time, some kind of caped pony with a giant hammer! She fell backwards, cowering and covering her eyes with her hooves.

Rainbow Dash

"Twilight!" Rainbow Dash said as she spotted the purple unicorn. "It's about time! We've got strange ponies coming out of all kinds of woodwork!"

Flying over to meet the unicorn, she once again went over who was present in order to get her friend up to speed ASAP.

"We've got one that can read minds, another that has some strange fascination with explosions, some kind of warrior pony, and..."

She paused as she came to Marvin, not quite sure what his defining trait was yet.

"I'm not sure what his deal is. Oh, and another pony dropped out of the sky about half-way between here and Fluttershy's. I think he had a hammer with him, too."

Beta Ray Bill

It was much easier for Bill to get a sense of his surroundings from way up high. Not far off, he could see town, which oddly enough looked like it was populated by more beings much like himself.

Perhaps more importantly, there appeared to be a magnificent castle in the near distance. Perhaps a government center? He would need to play the castle a visit. If it was home to whoever was in charge, he would need to speak with them about the current situation.

Before he could fly off, however, he noticed a yellow individual on the ground nearby. A local, though what they were doing he wasn't quite sure. Still, perhaps they could give him more information about where he was before he flew off and potentially did something rash.

"Greetings." Bill said as he landed nearby. As he got a closer look, it appeared that the individual was cowering in fear. Perhaps things would improve if they knew he could be friendly.

"I am Beta Ray Bill, and I am hoping that you could tell me where I am. Worry not, for if you are a being of peace, then I certainly mean you no harm."

Burns-His-Foes gave a gentleman's bow to Twilight as she entered, as he had done with the other female new arrivals. This was a reflex with Jarls, who he regularly had to ask to help fund the college. Why they had to be convinced beyond 'The Archmage saved the world no less than twice and this is an institution of magical academics' he'd never understand, but he did know it made him quite angry.

"I am Burns-His-Foes, the Archmage of Winterhold. It is a pleasure to meet you, Twilight."

The eyes of Beta Ray Bill weren't the only eyes watching Fluttershy. These eyes were slit, and had been watching the manner in which she tended to the little beaver. A friend to the animals, apparently, and one that probably wanted to keep them close. And Jake was beginning to feel hungry...

He grinned a terrible grin. All he had to do was follow her home, and wait until nightfall.

Spike had been dusting off the shelves of the library when there was a rapport on the door. Twilight, for all of her borderline obsessive compulsive tendencies, was a pretty lousy housekeeper, and as such it normally fell to Spike and even Owlowiscious to take care of the chores around the house. Spike didn't have a problem with that, the awkward librarian of Ponyville had been his best friend for Celestia knew how long, and he would happily serve her till the distant day when circumstances forced them to part.

"Coming!"

Spike put aside the feather duster he had been using and ran over to the front door. While short, the door was just designed so that he could reach and pull open the top half, allowing him to see who it was who intended to come in. A pretty intimidating looking stallion, burly and strong like Bic Macintosh with a far duller colored coat. Spike gestured a welcome.

"Hey there. You new in town? Looking for Twilight Sparkle?"

"I would be the mind reader, Twilight. It is a pleasure to meet you." Satori was still a little off kilter from her foray into Pinkie's stream of consciousness, and as a result the thoughts of those around her were muffled and difficult for her to understand. She was in fact facing the wrong way, away from Twilight.

"A pony with a hammer? Fluttershy?" Rarity turned her head towards Rainbow Dash. "Oh dear. I hope Fluttershy is doing alright with our newcomer ponies..."

A being of peace? No harm? The only thing Fluttershy got from that was that he would have intended her harm in other circumstances, which did little to assuage her fears. She shuddered slightly, gulped, then managed to squeak something out:

"I-I'm Fluttershy. Th-this is P-Ponyville and... and please don't hurt me!" By the time she was done speaking she was barely audible anyways. Even worse, she got the forboding sense that there were even more ponies besides herself and Beta Ray Bill in the immediate area. But she could see nothing, primarily because she was still cowering.

"Uh, no. I heard this was the Library? I'm from outta town, thought I'd look up some local history while I was here." Derek said, dropping the rock he had been levitating (quite surprising to himself, it felt like having fingers again).

Burns-His-Foes looked over to Satori. Clearly so many thoughts around her were causing her a bit of discomfort. He looked around before making a decision. The amulets and rings in the chest on the sledge floated out. He hooked himself back up.

"I... Well, certainly if there was one injured party, there will be others. I'm going to go see if anyone needs my help. Rarity, please look over the amulets when you have time."

With that, Burns-His-Foes began heading towards the exit.

Rainbow Dash

"Fluttershy doing..." Rainbow Dash said, half-way thinking out loud. "Uh oh."

Dash had been so concerned about the pony that had smashed into the ground, she had completely forgotten about what might happen if Fluttershy ventured out into the area. Which was in all likelihood a near definite possibility.

"We need to go make sure she's OK!" Dash shouted, and zoomed off back the way she'd originally come from. She stopped before she got very far, however, pausing mid-air and then flying back a bit to make sure the others would be able to follow here. "Come on! This way!"

Beta Ray Bill

As powerful as Beta Ray Bill was, super-hearing was not among the abilities he possessed, which made it difficult for him to understand what was being said. At best, all he could get was that...she?...was terrified and that he had done little to ease her fears.

"I'm afraid I didn't hear what you said." Bill said, trying to tone down his own voice as he holstered Stormbreaker into his belt in hopes of finding some way of assuaging her fears. As far as he could tell, there was absolutely no reason to suspect she was at all any kind of threat he would need to be worried about.

Burns-His-Foes, realizing that Rainbow Dash was worried for a friend, galloped after her at an impressive speed, given the sledge he was hauling and it's contents- a sword with a tiny sun in its hilt, a malicious looking hammer, and a strangely shaped shield.

It didn't take long for Twilight to regain her bearings. A few seconds at most, during which time she had the courtesy to elevate her now dangling jaw. Didn't have time to stand their gawking when there were problems to be solved, namely the issue of Rarity's now wrecked boutique and the appearance of several strange new ponies. They seemed, for the most part, normal. Though the fact that one of them, a violet unicorn that was presumably the one responsible for the damage, was facing away from her as she introduced herself. As a mind-reader no less. While such a thing was not outside the realm of possibility, she had never seen a pony with such talents before. Perhaps she'd be able to get some tips later. The ability to peer into the thoughts of others, while a blatant violation of privacy and ethics, did hold some interesting possibilities. Perhaps if she was able to secure the funding from Princess Celestia and find a good stock of willing test subjects... Twilight shook her head, banishing both thoughts of mental intrusion and any remaining disorientation.

Another of the strange ponies, a tall, green unicorn with a ball of fire marking his flank, introduced himself as Burns-his-foes. A most unusual name indeed, though nothing worth investigating. What was worth investigating, however, was the second part of his introduction. An Archmage, eh? Not a title granted to ponies of little skill or power, though not something granted officially. It was a mantle taken on in hubris rather than in duty, though this unicorn seemed relatively humble. The town he mentioned, Winterhold, didn't ring any bells. She had studied many an atlas in her time, and the globe she kept in her quarters was usually enough to clear up any holes in her knowledge of geography. Perhaps it was a small town, a little burg not worth mentioning in any book or map. If this was true, being the Archmage of the place was nothing to boast about. Still, he seemed a scholar and gentlecolt, a quality that was both rare and treasured in this day and age. Perhaps they could reconvene later, in the library. Who knew what sort of secrets he had learned in his time, what wonders that he had seen and could share.

But now was neither the time nor the place. She gave a small bow in return to the Archmage, a gesture intended as a friendly greeting rather than any sort of formality. "It's a pleasure to meet you too." She managed to choke out before the green unicorn took his leave, following behind Rainbow Dash to investigate another odd appearance near Fluttershy's cottage. She hoped the yellow pegasus was alright. She had a tendency to collapse under pressure when things went pear-shaped that didn't help in the least in these situations, though for now these intrusions seemed relatively peaceful aside from the unexpected destruction of Rarity's home and business and that could easily be fixed with some hard work and some bits thrown in from everypony involved. That could wait until later, though. For now, it was best they focused on these new arrivals and figure out where they'd come from and allay any confusion they may have had. She suspected nothing to extraordinary, though it was best to keep her mind open. Though with the mind-reader whose name she had yet to discover standing but a few feet away, perhaps that saying wasn't the best summary of her current thought process. it now occurred to the unicorn, as she took a glance around what remained of the shop, that she wasn't exactly comfortable with the possibility of having somepony poking around in her head.

There would be no stone unturned, no secret left... secret. Her every thought and contemplation was left bare and visible to this nameless pony. A chilling thought, to be sure. She bit her lip and glanced around the Boutique once more before turning to Rarity, trying in vain to mask her obvious discomfort. " How long has she been here, exactly?" She asked, gesturing to the mind-reader. It would've been better if she asked the source of the problem first, but she didn't look to be in any condition to answer questions.

edited 12th Feb '12 2:48:18 PM by Bindlestick

-Unidentified Location, Somewhere In The Everfree-

Oh god... fuck, my head... fuck my everything...

Preston Marlowe was not having a good start to his day. No memories of the night before, check. Woke up outside, check. Splitting headache that feels like a T-82 ran him over - ow - double-check. He felt fucked up, and his most likely guess was that he and the boys had a party last night - and he'd drunk himself shitfaced. Now he was paying for it.

Still wasn't the stupidest thing he'd ever done. He wasn't exactly sure what it was. Maybe it was just standing there, watching Haggard fire a shotgun into the air while yelling "THERE'S GOLD IN THEM THAR HILLS", not only somehow referencing pop culture, but declaring war on a neutral country with absolutely no effort on their part. Maybe it was when he destroyed the Aurora device - it was his idea to shoot it while it was almost at full power with a handgun. (His mind quietly decided to addendum that a shotgun would've worked better, or at least the AKs-74u he was carrying at the time. But he quelled those thoughts and focused all of his mental willpower on gaining his senses back.) Or maybe it was how he got into B-Company in the first place - he wasn't going to joyride in a helicopter ever again. Leave the flying to the pilots.

And that brought up Flynt. Poor fucker got owned by karma after he saved them - the Blackhawk he was in took an RPG, and went down. There was no sign of his survival, and Aurora had gotten too far - they were forced to assume him dead and leave him behind. But he pushed those thoughts back too - he could grieve later (he knew Haggard sure as hell was). For now, he had to get up.

Still, this definitely qualified as one of the stupidest things he'd ever done. He rocked slowly up onto his feet, testing his weight, and then noting that there was something that could be defined as... wrong about him today. He felt like he had two left feet - and two right feet, for that matter. Snorting in a manner particularly like that of a horse (wait, what? No, focus!) he angled his head down, and noticed that he was blue. And that he was a horse. A blue horse.

It is at this stage that Private Preston Marlowe, the sane man of B-Company (if he could be counted as that), the resident hyper-competent soldier, freaked the fuck out, going into utter panic mode for a couple of seconds as he lost balance and fell down onto the pavement again. There was a clack, and that was enough to offset the panic as he got up and looked to his left side.

Hung there by a harness was his usual XM8 assault rifle. Same XM320 grenade launcher. Same 4x zoom scope, slanted so he could look through it easier. The thought of the workhorse - the weapon that kept him alive throughout the Aurora incident - made him smile, and turned off panic mode. At least he could deal with hostiles, or Russians.

He didn't know how to fire. Crap.

Looking around, and somehow managing to rotate his body with four legs to do so (noting the familiar presence of his helmet: were his goggles still up there?) he saw three more. One was dark red, same gun as him, and wore a cap. Redford. One just wore the helmet, and he was green, but the thin-rimmed glasses were a dead giveaway that the horse lying in front of him was Sweetwater. The last one was orange, wore a beanie, and carried a couple bricks of C4. That was undeniably Haggard.

But then the primary problem remained. Namely, they were all horses, the rest of his squad was still out cold, and he had a headache that put every other one he'd had to shame.

Inside the land he would come to know as Equestria, in the warped body of a pony, Preston Marlowe said his first words.

"What the fuck happened last night?"

edited 12th Feb '12 11:29:01 AM by SpartyMcFly

Ponyville Library

Spike nodded. "You've come to the right place, my good man. Got all sorts of stuffy, boring history books for lending. Come on in!" The baby dragon unhooked the bottom half of the door at that and let it swing open, so that Derek could make his way into the library, clean and proper with Spike's hard work.

Border of Everfree Forest

"I- I said that I'm Fluttershy and that this is Ponyville. A-also, please don't hurt me." Louder now, or at least loud enough at any rate. Fluttershy was slightly less anxious now that the large and scary looking hammer had been put away, though she still couldn't shake the feeling that something malicious was watching her. Being that Beta was now the only pony in sight, Fluttershy's anxiety was more or less directed solely onto him.

Carousel Boutique

"Rainbow Dash, wait!" But the pegasus was already gone, and Burns-His-Foes along with her. Rarity hadn't really thought that Fluttershy would be in any danger, as she couldn't really conceive of any being in their right mind being willing to harm the beautiful and kindly young mare. Perhaps Discord, but then again he wasn't really much of anything anymore, except a charming lawn ornament for the Princesses. Rarity had half a mind to run after them, if only to jump on the bandwagon, but then Twilight seemed to have more need of her here than anywhere else. That, and Rarity didn't want to leave the Boutique as wrecked as it was any longer than she had to.

"Why, yes Twilight. It was the strangest thing, she seemed to appear in this fashion out of thin air!" Sweetie Belle was already beginning to stack up scattered kitchen utensils and return them to what drawers had survived the blast, Rarity joined in, keeping an eye on the others as she began to clean. "She seems harmless enough. Except for the part about reading our every thoughts."

"I can't see anything at the moment, your friend Pinkie had quite the doozy for me in her thoughts..." Satori shook her head in an attempt to clear the cobwebs once more, as she did so Twilight and any other newcomers felt that same strange sensation of accomplishment that accompanied Satori's Third Eye homing in onto their thoughts.

"Thank you."
Derek walked in, looking for two distinct sections. Fortunately he found two books that would do. Levitating it off the shelf, he sat down to read "The History Of Equestria", specifically the latest published. Having out of date information would not be good, especially if anything world-shattering had happened recently.
Making sure Spike wasn't looking, Derek also levitated "Biology For Dummies" off the shelves.
Then, the realization came down like a ton of bricks.
"Wait, are you a lizard?"

-The Everfree Forest-

After a few moments, though, Marlowe was wondering if he should wake them up. The decision was made when Sweetwater began to groan. He immediately cantered over.

"Sweets? You alright?" Sweetwater looked at Marlowe. "Yeah. I'm good. More than I can say for you. Ya look horse-faced, Pres."

Marlowe snorted again. "Alright, Sweetwater, don't freak out now, but... speak for yourself." With that, Sweetwater looked down. And found that he was a green horse - no, no, no, the legs were too short, he still had an understanding of systems of metric. He was most likely a pony, but even then, the legs didn't match up.

Yeah, that was definitely worse. "Uh, Pres... I think we're ponies."

Marlowe swore, again. "Fuck!" "Hey! You kiss your mother with that mouth?" Marlowe shook his head to clear any sarcastic thoughts. "Look, Sweets, sorry, but we can't just dilly-dally like this. We gotta wake up Sarge and Hags, and hope that they don't react as violently as we did."

Sweetwater thought for a few moments, shifting his weight because of the relatively colossal M60E4 machine gun strapped to his side. "Yeah. That's a good idea. I'll wake Hags, you get Sarge."

Marlowe immediately moved over to Sarge. "Saaaarrrrge..." The dark red pony/horse/equinoid snorted and batted a leg at Marlowe. "Hey, Sarge, watch it! I'm not a fish!" Sarge mumbled something, and began to stir. He saw immediately what they were. "Marlowe... I been drugged, or are you a horse?" "Pony, sir. At least, that's what Sweets says." "You fucking with me, Pres? You better hope you aren't." " With all due respect, Sir, check yourself."

Sarge looked at himself, and swore under his breath. "Sir, keep it down. Don't want Sweets to hear ya, huh?" "Sweets can go fuck himself, I AM A HORSE." "Hey! Shared sentiment, Sarge!"

Marlowe sighed. "Sweets, any luck waking up Ha-" All thoughts were interrupted by a scream - a loud one - that came from Haggard, who immediately began to flip the fuck out. Sweetwater tried to hold him down, but with only flat surfaces instead of opposable thumbs, it was difficult, and Marlowe ran over trying to keep him down as Haggard's breathing shot up like a rocket. "Hags, calm down-" "-Hags, we'll get this fixed, I know we can-"

It took half a minute of reassurances (and an official order of get up off your ass and give me a sitrep) before Haggard was able to stand up groggily. He looked over to Marlowe. "What the fuck happened last night, Pres?"

Marlowe shook his head. "Hags... I have no idea."

Beta Ray Bill

In all his life, Bill was quite certain that Fluttershy was without a doubt the shyest individual he had ever met. It made conversing with her difficult.

"Do not worry. I do not attack others without good cause." Bill said, though he was getting the feeling that there wasn't anything he could say that would ease her fears.

"Hey, you leave her alone!" Came a voice from behind him, and Bill turned to see two more ponies coming his direction. Given the current trend and the name of the local town - Ponyville - it stood to reason that they were what the local population was made of. And he had little doubt that he himself had been turned into a 'Pony' as well.

Rainbow Dash

Dash wasn't quite sure what was going on when she arrived, but what she saw was the pony that had dropped out of the sky standing in front of a very intimidated Fluttershy. Sure, Fluttershy got scared from everything, but didn't he recognize that he was terrifying her?

"You alright, Fluttershy?" Dash asked as she landed next to her yellow friend and did her best to do her own intimidating stance towards the hammer-pony. She wanted to be sure to tell this newcomer that she wasn't about to let either herself or her friends get pushed around.

Ponyville Library

"No problem man. Library's open to all." Spike picked up the duster and went back to cleaning. Derek's bit of thievery completely escaped Spike's notice, mostly because he wasn't even looking at the stallion. "Actually, I'm a dragon. A baby dragon, mind you."

Edge of Everfree Forest

Oh, now there was a surprise. Fluttershy had almost taken off when she had first seen the oncoming streak, but had stopped when she recognized the distinct rainbow trail. It was Rainbow Dash of course, and in an event that reminded Fluttershy of their youth on Cloudsdale, Rainbow Dash was once more playing the part of her protector. That alleviated a good deal of the fear gripping Fluttershy's vocal cords, and allowed her to approach something resembling a normal volume.

"I... I'm alright, I guess. How are you, Rainbow Dash?"

Burns-His-Foes didn't instantly go into an intimidating pose like Rainbow Dash. No, he'd rather not spill blood if he could avoid it. Still, his horn lit up with fire to show he was ready should anything happen. He stood between Rainbow Dash and the hammer wielder.

"You'll have to forgive me if this looks a bit strange to me. A frightened lady, someone standing nearby with a hammer out in the middle of the woods... It's almost enough to make a guy think something was happening."

edited 12th Feb '12 1:47:18 PM by Krautman

-The Everfree Forest-

Once Haggard was sufficiently calmed, the four looked around.

"This place creeps me the fuck out. Dark, spooky, foreboding - it's like everything's out to get you here." "Then we get them first. But for now, we should try to figure a way out."

The four of them looked around, searching for an exit from this dreaded forest of doom, before Marlowe quietly cleared his throat, and pointed one hoof at a trail. With a very, very faint light at the end of it. "I think we might have our way out of here, guys."

There were cheers from Haggard and Sweetwater as the four former humans formed up into a tight group, moving as one throughout the forest, weapons kept trained. Marlowe took point - as he always did - with Sweetwater and Redford not too far behind. They advanced, and strangely, aside from things zipping through the brushes (which only served to scare Sweetwater), they went mostly unharmed as they travelled.

Didn't mean they didn't keep their rifles up.

At some point Haggard decided to start a discussion with Sweetwater. "So... you say we're horses..." "Ponies, most likely, but yeah. We're horses." "If there's humans around here... they gonna ride us?" Redford butted in. "I'll buck them in the nuts before they try. Of course, if I can figure out how to do that in the first place..." "Well, I'm just sayin'. There could still be humans around here. We might even be taken in as a fuckin' science experiment." "I have to agree with Haggard here. We may need to stay on the down-low. I mean, it is probably good we find civilization but we may end up becoming fugitives." "We've already survived everything the US Army could throw us into. I'd like to see them try and take us."

The gang emerged from the border, near Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Beta Ray Bill, and Burns-His-Foes, not even noticing the four as they talked. "I mean, this M60 could probably do some damage, but with the stuff they'd be bringing with us after a while... Hey, Pres, you got the M2?" Marlowe looked to his left, and sitting there was an M2 Carl Gustav. A flipped scope, but still a Carl Gustav. "Yeah, I've got the rocket launcher." "Good. Let's hope the inhabitants are friendly, and we don't need to use these." "Did you not just disregard my entire fuckin' point about the whole 'dissected by scientists' thing?" "Hags, I don't think Sarge cares much for that anymore. And I'm with him - we've survived B-Company, we can survive anything."

Other than that small exchange, Marlowe kept quiet. He left the banter to his squadmates - he was never any good at it on missions.

Ruins, Everfree Forest

Daring moves through the ruins, not finding much. She wasn't especially surprised... The ruins weren't booby-trapped at all, and so much had happened here. Still, she found a couple of artifacts, some plates, a couple of bowls, and a silver spoon. Disappointed, Daring moves toward the edge of the ruins when she notices some stairs she'd missed before. As she descends the stairs, Daring can't help but notice that the stairs appear to be far older than the rest of the ruins. In addition, the walls and stairs appear to have been once painted a pattern of black and white. At the bottom of the stairs, she finds a large rock blocking her path. After several failed attempts to move it out of the way, she gives up, and exits to look for a unicorn to help her.

That was good to hear. Aside from some property damage and invasion of privacy, these new arrivals were relatively harmless. Though she had to question how long that would last. They were confused and disoriented and it only took one confused pony to bring things crashing down. Ignoring Rarity for the moment, Twilight turned to face the visitor, noting her cutie mark. An unlidded eye, fitting given her abilities. "Yes, she... tends to do that." The unicorn responded. Sometimes, it seemed that Pinkie Pie was less a pony and more a force of nature. Which would explain a lot of things, actually.

This train of thought was suddenly derailed by the sensation of satisfaction that washed over her, raising the hairs on the back of her neck. Was this a side effect of the mind-reading. Quite possibly, though it could have been a different effect entirely. She wasn't prepared to rule anything out. Still, it would probably be a good idea to keep her idle thoughts in check for the time being. Didn't want the stranger catching anything she didn't want to hear. Speaking of which... "So, who are you again? I didn't catch your name."

Carousel Boutique

Before Twilight finished speaking, Satori was already responding. "Satori. Satori Komeiji. I am highly aware of your misgivings with my power, and I understand. If you wish me to depart now, I will."

"Depart? That would be outrageous of us to demand, right Twilight?" Rarity's manners demanded she grant the mind reader asylum, regardless of the nature of the powers she possessed.

Edge of Everfree Forest

Another new pony, a stallion this time. Fluttershy looked up at Rainbow Dash, confused.

"Who's your friend, Rainbow?"

"Of course it would. You don't have to leave at all, Satori. In fact, I think having a mind-reader like you around would open up quite a few doors." Twilight said, nodding in agreement as she did so. She glanced at Rarity, smiling. She really was the Element of Generosity if she was so willing to give a complete stranger, especially one that had done a good bit of damage to her home, shelter. She looked back to Satori, smile still plastered on her face. Had to keep a cheery disposition. The mind-reader looked depressed enough already, no need to make things worse.

Still, there was some business to conduct here and she'd be damned if she wasn't going to get to the bottom of things. While she was certain that Satori already knew she was going to ask, she was more comfortable with openly voicing her queries than letting Satori do it for her. "So, where are you from?" She asked, cocking her head to the side slightly.

"Ah, Dragon."
Dragons? I step out of WW3 and into Lord Of The Rings, with extra ponies.
Derek continued reading. Biology was a priority, and just from skimming the beginning, he could tell the lifecycle was similar to most mammals. Apparently Unicorns could levitate objects and do talent specific spells, based on their "cutie mark" (Ass tattoos were genetic and were basically puberty. Evolution, probably.). Pegasi could walk on clouds and could control the weather (Apparently, the seasons didn't happen on their own, either.). Earth ponies (the normal ones) were apparently stronger than most and had a way with plants.
What shocked Derek the most was the description of the "Alicorns", unicorns with wings (or pegasi with horns. It was kinda like asking if a zebra was black with white stripes or white with black stripes.) of which there were few known examples. Most prominent were Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, who raised the sun and the moon each da-
What.
Derek read that last part again.
Raise the sun and the moon? So, the Princesses are also Godesses and this planet is Geocentric. And not even the sun and the moon do their own work.
Enough biology to get by for now had been acquired, now on to history.

Rainbow Dash

"Thanks, but I've got this." Dash said to 'Burns-His-Foes', ironically not taking notice of her friends question. She then stepped around the pony so that it was just her and the newcomer face to face.

"I meant no harm." The pony said. "I am Beta Ray Bill. I simply wished to learn where I am and perhaps discover something that might provide me with clues as to how to get home and regain my normal form."

"Hmm..." Rainbow Dash said. "Alright. But I'll be keeping my eye on you, so don't you try anything funny."

Just to drive the point home, she pressed her hoof up against Bill for a brief moment. Bill didn't seem amused by the act, but Dash didn't care.

Beta Ray Bill

He didn't know what it was, but this 'Rainbow Dash' seemed rather antagonistic. He wondered just who she was that she felt a need to get into his face like this.

"Do not worry." Bill said, his voice lacking enthusiasm. "I have no intention of causing any 'funny business'."

Looking towards the fourth pony with them, he reiterated Fluttershy's question.

"But again, perhaps you could introduce us?"

"Oh, yeah." Dash said offhandedly. "He's 'Brakes-His-Fiends' or something like that."

-Edge of the Everfree Forest-

After a few seconds more of walking and talking, Marlowe decided to looks around. Look to the left, more forest border. It did look creepy - and dark, about as dark as the inside of an APC. They were lucky they were out of there, come to think of it. Look to the right, four other po-what?

As Haggard and Sweetwater continued to debate on a new world, Haggard held up a hoof, and then tapped Redford's shoulder. "We've got four horses, or ponies, or whatever. Over there."

Redford promptly shushed Hags and Sweets, before they stood there, looking onwards at the other four, considering their options. "Well. I guess this is our chance to find out whether or not they're friendly." There was another few seconds of thought. "Pres, Sweets, you two head up and find out what's going on. We'll stay here and hold up the proverbial fort." Haggard opened his mouth to complain, but a glare from Marlowe shut him up for the moment, and he grumbled to himself.

Marlowe and Sweetwater only nodded their assent, before the blue earth pony and the green unicorn moved off a bit to the side, to discuss how they should do this.

"So, Sweets, how're we gonna do this?" "Idunno Pres, you've been excellent at plan-making. You figure it out!" "Uh... walk up to them and say hello, hope they don't ostracize us, attempt first contact?" "I can't think of anything better. Just... try to look as non-threatening as possible." "Sure, because we're carrying guns. Non-threatening. Got it." Rolling his eyes, Marlowe took a deep breath, then ordered Sweets to follow as he somehow managed to lower his twin weapons. The two began walking towards the four already present, hoping that one of them would have answers.

edited 12th Feb '12 3:56:08 PM by SpartyMcFly