In Our Hearts and Hooves: The REDUX!

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They say that there is a very thin line between Genius and Insanity. They're not wrong. What some consider mad others might consider brilliant. And one locked up in the stone dragon was at the same time both and neither. Being locked up inside your own body, sealed in stone but at the same time being aware of everything...well that can drive someone just batty. And if you're already insane...well almost anything can be considered fun.

Chirp, Chirp, Chirp

The flock of birds flew over the most picturesque town you've ever seen. It's various cottages and houses were spread out enough to let grass grow in between them, only a few cobblestone roads leading one way or another.

Ponyville, which, despite its rather friendly appearance, had been ground zero for some of the worst disasters to befall Equestria.

First had been the return of Nightmare Moon, then the demon dragon Discord...

For such a cute place, it attracted a fair number of problems.

At the moment however nothing was wrong, or at least nothing would be wrong as a Cyan colored Pegasus with rainbow hair was pushing clouds around and away from the town.

“Who the hay ordered a storm now?” the aforementioned Pegasus grumbled as she moved clouds.

All in all...a normal day.

For the moment.

Some distance away, on the edge of the forest, three smaller Technicolor ponies were running into the forest.

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADER ADVENTURERS!” They cried, running deeper into the forest.

Said forest, the Everfree, was actually considered dangerous as many creatures inside it were hostile, predatory, or just plain mean.

Deep inside this forest resided a worn down ruin of a castle. Once a towering symbol of Royalty, it had been abandoned and overgrown. It's last action of note had been place where Nightmare Moon had met her match and been purified.

After that it had been ignored and left alone as it was so far inside the forest it was very dangerous to go near. Not to mention you had to get over the ravine which separated it from most of the forest.

Inside the Castle...things started happening.

With a massive POOF of pink and green dust, somepony appeared and dropped to the ground. His fur was tan, his tail and short mane was white and he wore red clothing. All around him similar POOFS were happening, depositing others.

The Counter Guardian spirit slower got to his...feet? Hooves? Staring down at them, he blinked.

“Oh...this is not good.”

edited 3rd Jul '12 10:55:22 AM by RevenVrake

Five poofs appeared. Each one dropped a different person.

The first poof to happen dropped in a bright blue pony. This pony dropped to the floor, his weapon, a SCAR-L assault rifle with a scope and a supressor, skittering away from him. The pony wore what appeared to be a ballistic helmet with tactical goggles over his eyes, and a flak jacket. However, there was no balaclava.

The second poof dropped in another pony, this one bright red. He was wearing a camouflage cap and a flak jacket, and his rifle was a Steyr AUG A3 with a grenade launcher and the same style of scope clipped to it, which stayed with him.

Poof number three dropped in a bright orange pony who wore a boonie hat, olive green, the same style of flak jacket. His weapon, however, was a drum-magazine USAS-12 automatic shotgun. On his back was a very long tube - an M2 Carl Gustav recoilless rifle.

The fourth poof sent in a bright green pony, who wore the same type of ballistic helmet that the blue one wore, but with what appeared to be glasses over his eyes. His weapon was large and deadly; an MG3 heavy machine gun, firing so fast it ripped.

All four of them got up shortly after, Marlowe somehow reclaiming his weapon despite not having the magic that would be required to do so in a body and placing it on his back. They then looked at each other.

"Who the hell are you?"

Quiet.

The orange one was next to speak. "Fuck... those're you guys, aren't you?"

"Far as I know, yeah."

"The hell's up with our new bodies?"

"Hell if I know, but we're gonna find out soon. We can still use our weapons, so I guess that's good."

The last poof went un-noticed by the four, and dropped a simpler pony, who was blue with red hair and freckles. However, she looked almost dead. There were cuts, scratches, and grime all over her visible fur, which was matted to her body and in some sections burned. Blood was slowly dripping out of every oriface, and she made no move, only breathing quietly. She carried three folded-up steel... rectangles on her back. And she looked like she had been wearing armor... but that armor was burned off, and in one part burned onto her back.

edited 3rd Jul '12 11:00:13 AM by SpartyMcFly

"What.the.Hell." The Fourth survivor of raccoon city said angrily,looking at his hooves before turning and seeing other figures that seemed to be unconscious except six figures. but he needed answers. and now.

He took out his pistol,matilda and aimed his pistol at the counter guardian and bad company,somehow it seemed his red lenses were glowing. he said

"Who are you,do you work for los illuminados,why the hell am i a horse and you too,and what is this place?"

edited 3rd Jul '12 11:46:14 AM by Darkomega245

In response, he found four different types of guns aimed at him.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. For the record, we're just as fucking clueless as you are, now can we please put down the guns and not shoot ourselves to death while we're still in alien bodies and trying to comprehend what the fuck is going on?"

The three ponies with the green one straed at him incredulously, as if he had just committed a cardinal sin.

The fourth survivor stared at them for a moment, before holstering his pistol, saying.

"it doesn't matter how many guns you have, the death cannot die. Anyways, you seem to be military judging by your armor and weapons."

before walking to commander Shepard and seeing her condition, he said to bad company. "Human Unit Never Killed. HUNK for short."

edited 3rd Jul '12 11:45:33 AM by Darkomega245

Archer slowly stood up to his 'full' height. While the others were arguing (And pointing large shooty weapons at each other) he had quietly made his way over to the wounded...mini-horse? Person?

From what he overheard of the others arguing, like him they had been human (Well, as human as you can be when you're a spirit).

He was fully aware of Gasmask as he came over but he focused on checking the wounded one over.

She was badly injured, and quite clearly needed assistance from a trained medical person...which he was not.

Glaring up from his spot beside the injured one, Archer asked in a sarcastic voice,

“If you five are going to shoot each other, take it outside. This one is injured and needed assistance.”

HUNK sighed as he had to waste one of his first aid sprays which he only had 2 in order to help her. but he needs allies and he would most likely be in danger without help.

"I'm no medic,but Umbrella is really good at creating portable first aid".

he takes out a silver spray can with a light green label◊ from his belt, which then from the can a green spray covered commander shepard,healing Almost all of her wounds instantly somehow,which after the can stopped spraying,HUNK throwed it away.

edited 3rd Jul '12 12:54:59 PM by Darkomega245

The Spy blinked. Slowly, he looked around. He was surrounded by ponies. Who could talk. And looked cutesy. The Spy blinked again. He looked at himself. His arms and legs had changed. He was a pony now, still wearing his trademark blue mask and vest, and still smoking the same cigarette. However, that wasn't the worst part about his current situation. The worst part was that he wasn't wearing any pants:

"Vhat. The. Hell."

HUNK turned to stare the spy for what it seemed like a long moment,before turning back to shepard,waiting for the first aid spray to bring some results.

If nothing else, the ponies were stallions of their word, and their firearms lowered. They ignored his cryptic remark.

"Good. Yes, we're military personnel, United States Army, 222nd Army Battallion, B-Company. I'm Sergeant Redford. These guys are Privates Marlowe, Haggard, and Sweetwater." Redford pointed to the blue, orange, and green ponies in question.

Contrary to how effective the first aid spray was, it didn't heal the pony on the ground completely - but enough of the mare's wounds were healed for... something inside her body to take over. Blood stopped pouring, and she coughed four or five times, hacking up coagulated blood. Finally, a sound not unlike a space defibrillator went off, her entire body jerked, and she was almost instantly upright.

A raspy, tired voice let out a "Fine, fine, I'm up, I'm fucking up, now stop shocking me... Jesus..." She looked around, then looked at herself. I fired the Crucible and now I'm a horse. Gee, I wonder what else the universe can throw at me. She did look like crap, because the evidence of the wounds was still on her.

HUNK Stared at commander shepard,the red lenses of his gasmask not stopping to glow at all,which then he said.

"Name"he said to shepard with an lack of emotion before turning to the bad company,saying to them.

"B-Company,222 army battalion? Umbrella corporation records of the united states army never said anything about a B-Company or 222 army battalion at all."

edited 3rd Jul '12 5:43:45 PM by Darkomega245

Marlowe shrugged. "Yeah, and there's not exactly public records on anything called the "Umbrella Corporation" either."

"Funny... B-Company is publicly-available info provided you have the will to look..."

Shepard stared at HUNK. For now, he marked the... thing off as "neutral". He didn't look hostile, but the coldness... it just wasn't right.

"Well. Aren't you nice. Commander Shepard, Spectre." She shook her neck, and twin dogtags fell from them - one with the N7 logo on it.

HUNK Turned back to face shepard,which then he said.

"Human Unit Never Killed. Umbrella Security Service taskforce commander in employment for umbrella corporation,the Fourth survivor of Raccoon City incident. HUNK For short."

he Didn't wanted to admit it,but he was glad that there was a military high rank unit here....it seemed this B-Company to him seemed unprofessional.

edited 3rd Jul '12 5:55:19 PM by Darkomega245

Shepard nodded. "I assume you know just as much about why we're horses or where we actually are?"

HUNK Shakes his head,saying.

"Negative,to tell the truth,Horses aren't different colors like red,yellow,green and blue unless Umbrella just did an mass experiment ending in all of the universe becoming horses. Neither do i know why we are on this place."

edited 3rd Jul '12 6:04:36 PM by Darkomega245

“Archer.” Said the tan...mini-horse (He managed to avoid saying Pony in his own mind).

Being familiar with the idea of parallel worlds, via having heard about the Kaleidoscope, He guessed that this was a situation similar to it.

He spoke up again,

“I'm actually willing to bet that if we asked each other, we'd find out that we don't share the same home.” He looked down at Shepard,

“You going to be able to stand?” This ruin didn't look that inviting to him.

Rainbow Dash...well...dashed through Ponyville, looking up and down, in and out of buildings. She came a rest, hovering in the air over the main square,

“Now where did the Crusaders get to?” She wondered, looking back and forth. She pushed on towards Twilight's Library Tree.

She landed and knocked on the door with one Hoof.

“Hey! Twilight!”

Deep inside the Everfree Forest, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, led by Apple Bloom, were moving towards the old castle where they hoped to find treasure and get their marks.

It should be noted that they had tried this plan four times before but hey...gotta give them props for being so stubborn.

“Are we there yet?” That was Sweetie Belle.

“Are we there yet?”

“Are we-”

“I don't know!” Apple Bloom said as they moved around a tree. She was looking back at the other two, talking as she walked,

“Now, Sis and the others beat Nightmare Moon in that old castle so it should have treasure of some kind!” Scootaloo quickly said,

“Why? It's just a castle.”

“Because silly, Castle's always have treasure somewhere in them!” Apple Bloom then walked into something with a thud. She shook her head as she sat on her hindquarters and looked up.

And up...

About a dozen...'timber' wolves, weird creatures that seemed to be made of bark glared down at her.

Scootaloo quickly came up with an idea,

“Cutie Mark Crusaders!...RUN AWAY!” All three tiny ponies spun in place and took off a dead run away from the wolves...ironically heading right for the castle but still a little ways away from it.

Shepard nodded. "Yeah. Whatever happened, I'm good. Surprising considering I was blown up."

Marlowe had taken to staring out of a window in the meanwhile. He leaned against it, reflecting on his current situation.

We're technicolour horses and we're God-knows how far away from America. We're still fucked... at least it's less bad.

And then he saw them. They looked to be three smaller horses. Being chased by a horde of... things. They looked like wooden wolves.

"Uh, guys... we got a problem. Three... I think they're kids, being chased by things." Without needing to be asked, Marlowe stuck his rifle out the window and looked through the scope. As a horse, standing up alone was odd, nevermind him somehow being able to use a SCAR-L despite not having the hands nor fingers necessary at all for it, so he scoped in, hoped to god that it was set to single fire, and centered on a timber wolf. Adjusting for drop, he fired two shots at it.

B-Company crowded around the window as soon as Marlowe had fired his first shot, and Shepard had too, keeping quiet to herself about their weapons.

"Now, I'm no scientist, but I think we should help them."

HUNK Gave a Smirk a sociopath would make under his mask,saying.

"Wolves? Finally,something to break their necks and kill." he Walked up to the window and fired up three shots to three timber wolves and checked how far was the fall on the window.

edited 3rd Jul '12 7:57:50 PM by Darkomega245

The Spy was now mistified by another unique fact: even though he no longer had hands, he could still hold his disguise kit and his butterfly knife, although both looked quite... cartoonish:

"Zhis must be the vork of zhat Hard-hatted fool from zhe other team..."

Scratching his chin, or at least, the pony equivalent of a chin, the Spy simply followed the others whenever they went, remaining completely silent.

Applejack looked up, hoof to her brow, at the darkening skies above.

"Storm's a comin'." The comment was intended for nopony, Applejack was quite alone. Only too recently she had been busily taking inventory of the Acre's harvest; an exhaustingly lengthy task that had kept the farmer mare out of contact with her friends for the better part of a week. Normally she was able to keep abreast of developments in the weather, but the coming of bad weather had been a great surprise. Fortunately the apple trees were largely void of fruit due to the harvest, otherwise the storm could have significantly damaged the fruits.

Applejack turned away from the sky, shut the door of their barn. She spared an extra moment to ensure that the barn door was snug and secure, then padlocked the door so that the harvested crop would be safe until market.

Most of it, at any rate. Applejack had noted that the crop had been especially fruitful this season, and as a result she had more than was actually possible for her to sell due to the nature of their contract with the Ponyville marketplace. Rather than letting the crop spoil in storage, Applejack figured she may as well give it away. And she knew just the mare who might want to take it. Extra apples secure in a saddlebag, Applejack set off towards the distant forest.

While she walked Applejack had a moment to think, and she idly thought of her sister. Applebloom had gone out that morning, undoubtedly to meet with her friends- the Crusaders as they called themselves- and probably make trouble of themselves. Applejack knew the three fillies were smart if eager, and she had to wonder why she was feeling the strangest sense of concern for them.

The feeling still hadn't passed by the time Applejack was at Flutterhy's cottage and animal shelter. She forced it from mind and knocked on her friend's door.

"Fluttershy, ya home? It's Applejack."

These 'timber' wolves were apparently made of sterner stuff than their flesh and blood counterparts.

The bullets smacked into them, blowing slivers of wood and bark out but not slowing them down. But they apparently didn't penetrate far enough to cause any lasting damage. Or the things didn't have internal organs to damage. They did however draw the attention of the pack from the three smaller ponies in front of them to the castle.

Archer had moved up beside the Bad Company to look out the window and he nodded.

Then he jumped out the window. He had timed it so instead of flying into empty space he was right beside the wall.

There was a snap of something like electricity and then somehow Archer was holding a black sword, having a thick black blade that curved with the Yin-Yang simple imprinted upon it. Holding it in his teeth he slid down the wall, the blade biting into the stone and leaving a trail of sparks as he shot downwards.

Upon landing Archer found he could 'hold' the blade somehow in mid air with his mind.

This is new.

He focused and a second blade, White as opposed to the first one being black and he charged wordlessly.

For their part, the CMC were panicked out of their little minds as the beasts started gaining on them. The sharp noises they had heard confused them but they ran on. When they saw the tan and red Pony charging towards them, they turned as one and headed right for the castle, and apparent safety.

HUNK was not surprised at all the timber wolves ignored the bullets at all.

He took out a incendiary grenade from his belt,before pulling the lock and throwing the grenade near some of the timber wolves but not near Archer,burning some of them.

After the grenade exploded,HUNK ran to a nearby door in the area and kicked it open,which then he said to everyone in the room.

"Come on,do you really want to see kids die because of those Wolves?,because i do not".

edited 4th Jul '12 12:40:47 PM by Darkomega245

Marlowe swore as his bullets didn't kill his targets. "Fuck, these guys are resilient! He fired two more shots before Redford looked to Sweetwater. "Sweets, give those kids some covering fire!"

"Aye aye! These guys are gonna meet Ol' Painless! Sweetwater motioned Marlowe out of the way of the window. As the rest of B-Company headed outside, he aligned sights, and squeezed the trigger.

The MG3 was no ordinary machinegun. It was very deadly. Within one second of wolf supression Sweetwater had expended twenty of the one hundred rounds in his ammunition box. The gun itself ripped and tore, viewers unable to hear the individual shots firing.

The blue pony, in the meanwhile, promptly ran out the castle and saw the kids, before doing what she did best. Righting herself onto her hind legs, she somehow pulled her gun out - an M-77 Paladin. The customized heavy pistol expanded, its scope, extended barrel, and short-range taser glistening - and those were only the visible ones. The invisible ones; her thermal clip extension to five rounds and an armor-piercing mod.

She yelled out, "KIDS! OVER HERE!" Almost immediately, she bought the Paladin up and began firing - though her shots weren't that accurate, given that as a Vanguard she was more used to fighting up close and personal.

edited 4th Jul '12 10:09:37 PM by SpartyMcFly

HUNK ran at to where shepard was before saying sarcastically.

"To tell the truth,I expected a highly trained commander with futuristic weapons to be more accurate." after he finished saying that,he too stood on his hind legs,before taking out his pistol matilda and saying angrily.

"I Hate this body" Which then he fired bullets at the Timber wolves.

edited 4th Jul '12 9:45:10 PM by Darkomega245

"Coming!" Applejack heard Fluttershy from the other side of the door as well as something else, but it was to soft and muffled for the farmer pony to hear.

The door opened and out came Fluttershy. "Hello Applejack," the pegasus greeted. "I didn't expect company today. I'm sorry for not preparing earlier," she apologized. It was then something emerged from her thick pink mane. It was some kind of odd creature, the size of a large puppy with a flat, pitch black face, solid white eyes, a thick white mane, and the front legs of a tiger. Hover around this odd creature was what looked like a cobra.....