Stargate: Equestria

Connection

Chapter 2

At Carter's warning, the team took cover behind a nearby hillock just inside the treeline, breaking out the binoculars. O'Neill could see two figures moving along the plains. They were maybe 50 yards away from the treeline and about half a mile away from the team's location. He raised the binoculars and the figures jumped into clear view. Two horses galloped along the plains, kicking up grass and dirt behind them as they ran.

O'Neill was not what you'd call an animal person; he couldn't have pinned down the breed of horse had his life depended on it. They looked like average horses, though, with brown coats and short manes of a deeper brown. One wore saddlebags over its flanks, and O'Neill could tell by the way they thumped against the horse's legs that they were full, and heavy too. The other horse had no bags, but on its flank was an oddly familiar symbol.

He lowered his binocs. "...Teal'c?"

The Jaffa answered, his voice even more guarded than usual. "Yes, Colonel O'Neill."

"You see the lead horse?"

"Yes, Colonel O'Neill."

"That's a Jaffa mark on its butt."

"Yes, Colonel O'Neill."

"Son of a bitch."

Jackson cut in. "What's that behind them...?"

O'Neill lifted the binocs again. Now that the horses were closer, more were visible behind them. Three more horses, except...these were not like the others. They were about half the size, and their coats and manes were far more varied in color. O'Neill lowered the binoculars again and rubbed at his eyes. "Tell me I didn't just see that."

Jackson murmured, still looking through his own binocs, "Depends. Did you see a horse wearing a hat, a unicorn, and a pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane?"

"Damn," O'Neill sighed. "I was really hoping I was hallucinating." With a shake of his head, he focused on the horses again. The three smaller ones were clearly in pursuit of the other two, and as he watched the winged horse leapt into the air, gaining height and speed. It angled itself, ready to dive at the Jaffa horses.

Before it could swoop down, two energy blasts roared through the air from above the SG-1 team, forcing the blue flier to abandon its dive. O'Neill spared a brief moment for approval; the horse broke to one side, rolling to dodge the blasts easily. Perhaps it had some dogfighting training. Or horsefighting, for that matter.

O'Neill firmly got a grip on his mental stability before it could run away giggling madly. He looked up just in time to see another horse fly into the open airspace from over the trees. This one was of the same size and color as the two Jaffa horses, but it was also winged, and...O'Neill groaned as he recognized two Goa'uld Ma'Tok staves, one fixed under each wing. He dropped the binocs entirely, letting them swing freely from his neck as he buried his face in his hands. "You have got to be kidding me!" he complained.

"Sir, shouldn't we do something?" Carter's voice was urgent. "The other horses don't have any weapons."

O'Neill grunted. "We don't know why they're chasing the Jaffa. For all we know the little horses could be piranha." He lifted his head and waved vaguely at his mouth in response to the blank looks the others gave him. "You know. With teeth. That eat meat."

It was Jackson's turn to speak up, his attention still on the pursuit. "I think the Jaffa have other horses with them. I see the bags moving, and...yeah, a hoof just stuck out. It looks pretty frantic."

O'Neill frowned, picking up his binocs again to peer through. "Fine. Teal'c, take out the glider horse." He paused for a moment before adding, "I can't believe I just said that."

With a wordless nod, the Jaffa hefted his own staff, leaning it against the hillock to stabilize it. The two flying horses dodged and looped about, and it was a dogfight, O'Neill could see now. The little blue one was proving to be more than a match for the larger one, but as time passed, the staff blasts got a little more accurate, making the blue horse work harder to dodge them. Teal'c sighted carefully; the dogfight was just outside the optimal range for the weapon. When he judged the moment to be right, he let fly with his own blast as the battle passed by the team's hiding spot.

Teal'c, who had once been Apophis's favored warrior and leader of his military might, proved true to his training and skill. The blast lanced through the air, smashing into the Jaffa horse's side just under its wing. It let out a hideous scream of pain and staggered through the air, tumbling to the ground with its one good wing flapping frantically. It crashed into the water of the river, sending up a mighty splash.

The blue pegasus looked startled by the sudden change in the situation, but recovered quickly. It wheeled around, lining itself up again, and dove with blinding speed onto the back of the laden horse. It pulled at the bags with its hooves and teeth, and after a tense moment the bags tumbled free of the Jaffa.

Both brown horses wheeled around at this, but the pursuers had the advantage of momentum; the behatted horse and the unicorn shot past the pegasus, both twisting around in midair to plant their hooves on the ground, lashing out at the Jaffa horses with their hind legs. The Jaffa were struck squarely, stumbling away and clearly in pain. One of them jerked its head at the other, and they jumped the river, retreating at a full gallop.

The smaller horses didn't give chase. They slowed to a halt, panting and watching the retreating figures. Then the behatted horse turned to look into the trees directly at SG-1's hiding spot. "All right. I know y'all are in there! Come on out!" The voice was strong and brassy, a note of command to it.

It was just one more shock on top of all the other shocks, and O'Neill only stared this time. Jackson coughed into a fist, managing to keep his face straight. "Well, Jack, you were right. The locals speak English."

O'Neill just shook his head. "Come on. Let's go say hi to Mr. Ed."

---

The team crested the hillock, moving out of the trees toward the horses. They could see now what the bags had held; three even smaller horses tumbled out as the pegasus pulled the flaps open. They shook themselves and crowded around the pegasus, their shrill happy voices carrying across the plain.

The cheering died away as the horses all laid eyes on SG-1. The younger horses let out cries of alarm and crowded behind the pegasus, peering out from behind its legs. The older ones narrowed their eyes, stances wary as they shifted to put themselves more solidly between the little ones and the humans.

O'Neill came to a halt several yards away from the group, holding up his empty hands. "We mean you no harm, we come in peace, yadda yadda. I'm Colonel Jack O'Neill. This is Major Samantha Carter, Daniel Jackson, and Teal'c." He gestured to each in turn before looking back to the one who'd spotted them.

Now that they were up close, he could see details much more clearly. The older horses all came up to his waist at their shoulders, the tops of their heads just barely clearing his belly. They had to look up at all of the humans, their eyes almost ridiculously large. The behatted one's mane was pulled back into a ponytail, and O'Neill had to work to keep his face straight as the pun dropped into his head. The unicorn's coat was sleek white, its mane looking as if it had spent the morning at the hairstylist, though after the chase it was more bedraggled than it probably usually looked. The pegasus's mane was purely fantastical, striped in all colors of the rainbow and cropped ragged in a cut that managed to look tomboyish. All three appeared to have some kind of tattoos on their butts like the Jaffa horses; O'Neill would have thought them brands, but they were in full color.

He caught the pegasus's eye and allowed a swift but genuine grin. "Good flying, Rainbow."

He could not have caused more of a shock if he'd told them he was going to eat the little ones. All eyes and mouths widened in shock, and the pegasus darted at him before he could react, pressing its nose to his and glaring for all it was worth. "How did you know my name?" The voice was rough, but clearly female.

Teal'c and Carter hefted their weapons uncertainly, but O'Neill simply raised his eyebrows, meeting her stare for stare. Her eyes were huge, and despite the anger in them O'Neill had trouble looking away. "Lucky guess?" he ventured cautiously, then picked up confidence as he gestured to the blonde horse. "Don't tell me. I bet her name's Freckles."

Whatever answer Rainbow had been about to give was cut off in a short yelp. Freckles had gripped Rainbow's tail in her mouth and yanked her back to the ground. "Settle down, ace. They ain't here for a fight." Rainbow rubbed at her head with a hoof and stuck her tongue out at the other horse.

Carter stepped in quickly, getting a look from O'Neill but ignoring it. "That's right, we don't want a fight. We're just...well, a little surprised at seeing talking ponies."

Both of O'Neill's eyebrows shot up and he blinked at Carter. "Ponies? Seriously?"

"Well, yes sir. Ponies are smaller than-"

He held up a hand. "Lesson later. Intros now." He turned back to Freckles. "You know our names. How about yours?"

The ponies relaxed somewhat, and Freckles nodded. "Well, I can understand the surprise. Y'all are pretty new to us too." She smiled. "Name's Applejack. This here's Rarity," the white pony dipped her head with a genteel smile, "and Li'l Miss Feisty here is Rainbow Dash."

O'Neill tilted his head, spocking an eyebrow at the pegasus. "Again: seriously? That's your name? 'Rainbow Dash'?" Try as he might, he couldn't avoid the sarcasm that coated the pegasus's full name.

Applejack cocked her head at him. "What's wrong with it?"

Rainbow Dash cut in, glaring at him. "Yeah! You got somethin' to say, big guy?"

Carter nudged O'Neill in the ribs, and he stifled the snark he was about to unleash. He contented himself with putting on a too-serious expression, shaking his head. "Not at all...Rainbow Dash."

Applejack sighed. "Look, I think we mighta gotten off on the wrong hoof here." Her expression softened and she smiled up at them. "We wanna thank y'all for helpin' us. Those varmints were abductin' our little ones there. If'n ya hadn't come along, I hate to think what mighta happened."

O'Neill glanced at the others, then nodded, relenting a little. "It's...what we do."

Applejack looked over her shoulder, frowning into the distance. "I've never seen anypony like that before." She eyed the SG-1 team, the wary expression filtering back into her face. "Do y'all know who they are?"

O'Neill spread his hands. "I can honestly tell you I've never seen them before in my life, Freckles."

"Colonel O'Neill!"

The colonel's head whipped around as Teal'c spoke up. He looked toward the river where the Jaffa pegasus had landed and saw flickers of movement in the water: a weak splash of a wing. Teal'c was already on his way to the river's edge, and the rest of the humans and ponies followed quickly behind.

With O'Neill and Teal'c hauling on the body and Applejack gripping the weapon harness in her teeth and pulling backward, the three of them managed to get the pegasus back on dry land. The pegasus coughed up a gallon of water and managed a weak glare up at the group. "Epona will see you dead for this," he sneered. Then, his defiance made known, he slumped to the ground, eyes falling shut.

Carter knelt beside him, checking vitals. The injured area was burnt black, but a good portion of it was on the underside of the wing. "He's not dead," she finally announced, "but he needs a doctor."

"Or a vet."

Carter shot O'Neill a dirty look, then turned to the ponies. "Can you help?"

Rainbow Dash's face lit up in indignant fury, and she flew to a stop in front of Carter. "Help? Why should we help him? He tried to ponynap Scootaloo and the others!"

Carter didn't back down from the angry pony, giving her a stern glare. "Because he has information. If we just let him die, then we're no better off than we are now, and his friends might try to attack again. You got lucky today, but maybe next time will be different. We need him if we're to figure out what's going on."

Applejack and Rarity shared a look while Rainbow Dash fell to grumbling, hovering a short distance away. Rarity finally turned to smile at Carter. "Of course we can help. We'll take him back to Ponyville for treatment. You'll all have to come back with us, of course. We simply must know your story!"

Carter looked up at O'Neill. Jackson did too, barely able to hide a grin. "Well, here's your locals, Jack. Now we just need to find 'the one who guards long-lost knowledge.'" He threw a bit of his own sarcasm into the last sentence, arching an eyebrow at Jack.

Rarity's eyes lit up, and she beamed. "Oh, you must be referring to Twilight Sparkle!"

O'Neill only smiled smugly at Jackson.