Marcus

Marcus was standing in the forest looking at all the tree and vegetation that was growing around them. He sighed heavily as he waited for his friends to show up. During his wait he received a few texts from them letting him know that they were on their way. To him it was a long shot since he wasn’t even sure if they were in the same area. The more time that he spent in the weird forest the more he thought that he wasn’t in Scotland. There were ruins of castles and forests in Scotland but this was different. It felt as though the forest was alive and those ruins were definitely not made by humans. The ruins were covered in pictures of the sun and moon with two horses circling around them.

The whole thing felt off to him and he was hoping that his friends might have some insight. He continued to wait but was startled by some rustling behind him. He turned around as he pulled his pistol from his side. He readied his pistol as he waited for whatever was in the bush to come out. There was a few seconds of eerie silence and he got tired of waiting. The biggest problem that he had during these types of situations was patience. The only reason that he wasn’t dead entirely was because of luck and good friends. He slowly walked towards the bush and pushed aside the large leaves. He lowered the gun when he saw who was behind the bush.

“Jesus fuck, Brandon, I could have blown your head off,” Brandon could only grin sheepishly as he lowered his own weapon.

“Sorry man, I just wasn’t sure what was on the other side of the bush,” Brandon said as he walked out of the bush.

“I’m pretty sure that is why we invented those calling sounds so we could avoid something like this,” Marcus put away his weapon and brought his friend in for a hug.

After that little scare they settled down and started to laugh. They sat down together on a pair of stumps as they waited for the others. They could have easily passed the time with conversation but they found it best to remain silent. A few minutes went by when there was another rustling of bushes. Marcus was ready to pull his weapon when Brandon stopped him.

Out from the bushes came Jaeden and Callie. They were about to greet each other with high fives and hugs but they were stopped by the sound of a twig breaking. The four of them had their weapons out and pointed at Ryan. Ryan had his hands in the air while he stared down at all of them. They rubbed the back of their heads and chuckled nervously as they put away the weapons. Their friend put his hands down while he chuckled a bit himself. They continued to wait and then from behind the tree came Drak. They all remained silent but gave a small wave to each other.

They continued to wait and to help pass the time, Jaeden pulled out a deck of cards. He dealt the cards to everyone but Callie and Drak. They were going to play extreme slap jack that they made up. The point of the game was to get all the cards. There were a few rules but the most important was what happened to a miss-slap. The rule stated that if a player were to slap the pile with no matchups then the player that last played the card got to slap the other player as hard as they could. The game itself could be considered unnecessarily violent but it was fun either way.

As they played the game, Callie and Drak kept watch. As they stood watch they couldn’t help but laugh at Brandon. After four years he still didn’t get the game so he ended up getting slapped a lot. The worst one was that he ended up unconscious during one of the games. As they continued to listen to the repetitive slapping and cries of pain they saw something in the distance. They carefully walked over and met up with Andrew that was watching his surroundings. He saw his friends and waved to them as he walked towards them. They reached the others and couldn’t help but laugh at Brandon’s red face.

“So that just leaves Blake, Luke, and Alex. Weird since they are always the first to show up,” Marcus said.

“Well that is because they are in a spot of trouble,” Andrew said.

“How much trouble are they in?” Ryan asked getting up from the ground.

“I’ll let all of you be the judge of that,” Andrew pulled out his phone and handed it to Marcus.

Marcus and the others looked at the phone and were at a loss of words. Well Marcus was at a loss of words because the others have already seen these.

“What exactly am I looking at?” Marcus asked as he looked back at Andrew.

“Well they are in a dungeon of some castle. That horse there is apparently named Celestia and is the ruler of this place.”

“Then what exactly is this place?”

“We are no longer on Earth. We are on some world called Equestria,” Marcus then walked over to a tree and lightly beat his head against it.

“Do we know where this castle might be?” Brandon asked.

“The best that they could come up with is on some mountain because of the cliff side that they saw.”

“Did they say what this horse thing is specifically? Like what type it might be?” Ryan asked.

“They aren’t exactly sure what she is. She didn’t mention what kind of horse that she was.”

“Well with the way things look it seems that she is a cross of a pegasus and a unicorn. That is impossible though since they are mythological creatures,” Marcus said joining the group again.

“Well see that is the weird thing,” Andrew said.

“If you so much say that pegasi and unicorns are real than this is going to be really awkward,” Andrew could only rub his head nervously as he looked at Marcus.

“You have to be fucking kidding me. The next thing we are going to find out is that we are probably stuck here. So did anyone else make contact with these horses?” Callie, Drak, Andrew, Ryan, and Brandon raised their hands.

Marcus took a huge sigh as he walked towards the edge of the forest. The friends followed to see what he was up to. He stopped at the edge of the forest and looked out to the nearest mountain. He could barely make out what he was seeing in the distance so he stuck out his hand. Jaeden rummaged through the bag pulling out a pair of binoculars. Marcus took them and looked through the lens. After looking through them for a bit he threw them to the side. Binoculars were not a good substitute for telescopes.

“So the most that I was able to make out is that there is a city on the side of that mountain. I would be up to the idea of heading there right now but the sun is higher up in the sky. So most likely these creatures are walking around and most likely freak out if they saw us. So for now we will head back to a set of ruins that I was staying in until nightfall. Once night hits we will head out but that will be one hell of a trip.”

The friends just slightly shook their heads for the pain that this was going to bring. They walked back into the dark forest and headed for the ruins. They reached the ruins and settled their stuff all around the building. They started taking stock of everything that they had and got prepared. Callie walked up to Marcus and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned around and she was motioning her head so they could talk in private. He followed around the corner and stopped when she turned around.

“I didn’t want to say this in front of the others because I don’t want to scare them. You saw that I raised my hand showing that I made contact with the horses. His name is Whooves and he seems a little iffy.”

“How iffy are we talking about?”

“Well, when I was talking with him he knew my name without me introducing myself. He also knew where to find you and he seems to know about everyone else. He seems somewhat trustworthy but I just don’t know.”

“Okay. For now we will just keep this between us until we run into him. If you see him or see anything that shows that he is around get one of us. Which reminds me to do this,” Marcus walked out from behind the corner and whistled. Everyone turned and looked at him.

“I forgot to mention but no one is to go by themselves except for me. Everyone needs to find a buddy and stick with them. Never lose your buddy and don’t let them do something stupid,” Marcus watched as the friends paired up. Ryan and Andrew teamed up. Callie and Brandon teamed up. Drak and Jaeden formed the last team.

Marcus took the time to look through the supplies and found what he was looking for. He was glad that these didn’t get lost because now they were going to prove useful. He started pulling out the cloaks that were hidden under spare knives and food. They used the cloaks when they went past areas heavily controlled by Black Watch. The cloaks were a very dark black and had a deep hood. It also concealed their whole body so they could hide weapons. He found the one that was his and put it on.

He sighed as the memories of everything flowed through. These cloaks held many memories that were special to each one. He walked into the foyer and joined the others. They were about to say something but when they saw his cloak they kept quiet. Some of the memories were painful to remember when seeing these cloaks. He didn’t say anything as he handed everyone their cloak and stuffed the last three back into the bag. They reluctantly put on the cloaks but they were less than enthusiastic.

Drak was the only one that didn’t get a cloak since he wore that red hoodie. They didn’t argue that choice since it was still dark in color and had a deep hood. He was comfortable in his red hoodie and it wasn’t a real hindrance on everyone.

Marcus walked out of the foyer so they could have their space. He knew that most of the memories that these cloaks brought were more about him, Blake, Andrew, and Luke. After that rescue these cloaks were only a few things that showed their humanity. He held the cloak tightly against his body, taking in its scent. The cloak still smelled of blood and death. He shivered as he remembered where these scents originally came from. He gave one final look out into the forest before joining the others.

He pulled out one of the sharpeners and went about sharpening the knives. The others took the time to look around the ruins. There wasn’t much for them to see since the whole entire thing was pretty much destroyed. They saw the banners of the sun and the moon and they found what they were certain was a throne room. As they walked through the room they could feel that there was an eerie presence in the room. They slightly shivered as they left the room as fast as they could. They joined back up with their friend as he finished sharpening.

It was going to be a while before they moved out so they packed up their things and got ready for some sleep. Marcus stayed up as his friends slept. He never slept much but when he did he would stay up until he fell asleep again. He was constantly plagued by nightmares when he slept and he wasn’t the only one. Andrew, Blake, and Luke still suffered nightmares but they have been able to fight through them. There would be nights that they would wake up scared but it was normal. Since his friends were asleep he took the time to look around the forest some more.

Blake, Alex, Luke

“Have you grabbed the paper clip yet?” Blake asked bored out of his mind.

“I almost have it. Just try and keep your pants on,” Alex said as he slightly shook his head.

The three of them had been sitting around waiting on Alex. While he was busy digging for the paper clip the other two switched off for watches. There was an occasional guard that would stroll by and they would try and antagonize him. They would succeed in making the guard angry but would not step into the cell. He finally got the paper clip and started working on the lock. The other two kept watch so he could concentrate on the lock. He worked as hard as he could on the lock but couldn’t get the door to open.

“Fucking hell I can’t get this to work,” Alex stated angrily.

“Wish Andrew was here then he could have gotten us out,” Luke said.

“So what do we do then?” Alex asked.

“We wait and hope the others come and save us,” Blake answered. The friends nodded as they went about sitting in their cell waiting for their friends.

Ruins

Marcus watched as the sun disappeared below the horizon and the moon came out. He was about to walk away when he looked back at the moon. He stared at the horse impression on the moon. It was vaguely familiar to that dark horse on the door. He shrugged as he put it up with this weird world just being as it is. He walked into the foyer to see his friends starting to get up. They looked back at him and nodded their heads. Once everyone was up and stretching they went about packing their things.

They stored their guns away for now since they didn’t have much ammo to go around. Marcus looked over and saw that Drak was still apprehensive about doing this. He walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. Drak looked at him and even though his friend couldn’t see his face, he could tell that he was calming down slightly. He didn’t have to do anything that he didn’t want to as long as he watched their backs. They gave each other a small fist bump as the others finished packing.

Everything was packed and they all stood on the balcony edge, looking off into the distance. They were ready to head off when they heard laughter. The friends looked at each other in slight confusion. They waited around but were met with silence. As soon as they took another step they heard the laughter again. It was different than before because if sounded more menacing. Marcus looked up to the moon and saw that the horse face was gone. He sighed as he looked at his friends and gestured with his head for them to follow. They walked towards a wall and climbed to the top. They quietly walked through the hallway until they were in a different part of the foyer.

There was nothing but silence that greeted them inside the room. They walked closer to the edge and were stunned at what they saw. There were six horses of varying color and species standing their ground against a horse that was similar to Celestia. The difference being was that her coat was a dark blue along with her mane and tail that were moving freely. She had a horn and a pair of wings. She had fangs and her eyes were slitted like a cat. Marcus saw that Andrew was breathing heavily and was somewhat angry.

Andrew was ready to jump down there to help Fluttershy but was stopped by Marcus when he put his hand on his shoulder. His friend shook his head as he looked at him pleadingly to go down there. He sighed as he saw that his friend wasn’t going to let him go down there. They stood against the railing as they watched the events unfold. A lavender unicorn was talking about how friendship was going to help her beat this creature known as Nightmare Moon. They watched intently as the horses floated off the ground and launched a rainbow beam at Nightmare Moon.

Their jaws fell open as they were blinded by the bright rainbow light. After a few seconds of blinking they were finally able to see. They looked over and saw that Nightmare Moon was no longer standing in the same place but a different creature. She was similar as Nightmare but she was calmer looking than the other that was standing there. The friends started to slowly back away so they wouldn’t have to deal with them. They were stopped in their tracks as there was another flash of light. They looked over and saw that Celestia had shown up and was smiling at the six.

She walked over to the blue horse that was on the ground crying. She hugged her as she tried to calm her. She said that she was her sister and that her name was Luna. Getting kind of tired of this weirdness they started to leave. As they walked away the ground started to crack. The friends all looked at each other as the ground gave way and they fell. They all hit the ground with a hard thud and were sent unconscious.

Celestia and Gang

Celestia hugged her sister tightly, glad to have her back. She turned to her pupil and her friends and smiled at them. She was about to say something but turned towards the noise. She saw the balcony fall and notice seven distinct figures fall with it. Once the dust settled and no more of the upper level was falling, she walked towards the destruction. She was followed by Twilight and her friends, ready in case it was some sort of trap.

When the alicorn reached the rubble she saw seven cloaked figures. She held up her hand telling her pupil and her friends to stay back. They did so but kept a close eye on the seven figures. The alicorn carefully lifted one of them with her magic and pulled the hood down off one of them. When the face was revealed she heard Fluttershy gasp in surprise. Everyone looked back at her as they tried to see what was wrong.

“Fluttershy, do you know what that thing is?” Twilight asked.

“I do. His name is Andrew and I met him yesterday. He left this morning when he got something from his friend to meet him in the Everfree forest,” Fluttershy was trying to keep the tears in her eyes as she looked at him.

“Will he be alright, princess?” Fluttershy asked.

The alicorn summoned her magic as she scanned over all the figures. She smiled at the timid mare as she nodded her head. The pegasus breathed a sigh of relief that her human friend was alright.

“So what are we going to do with them?” Rainbow asked.

“I am going to take them back to my castle so they can meet their friends,” Celestia answered.

“Are you sure that is wise, princess? I mean I trust in your power and judgment but we aren’t sure of what these things are,” Applejack said in a concerned voice.

“I understand your worry, my dear Applejack, but I think everything will be okay. If worse comes to worse then I will deal with them properly,” Celestia said in a serious tone.

The gang nodded their heads as they walked out of the castle with the unconscious creatures in tow. They reached the end of the Everfree and the white alicorn took the rest of the creatures in her magic. She wished her student and her friends a good morning and teleported back to the castle with her sister.

Blake, Luke, Alex

The three friends were asleep for only a few minutes when they heard their cell door open. They looked up to see Celestia levitate their friends inside the cell. They looked at her angrily as they readied themselves to attack her. She stopped them when she raised her hand and started speaking to them.

“Do not worry you three. I did not harm your friends. They had a rough fall in some old ruins and are unconscious. They are doing fine and should wake up soon enough. Once they are all awake I will come back to talk with you all.”

The three friends went to dragging their friends to the other end of the cell to keep them safe. The mare closed the cell door as she placed the knives and three cloaks that she pulled off of them. She gave one last look at the three friends as they sat around the others waiting for them to wake up. She smiled a little seeing how protective they were and found it somewhat amusing. She walked back up the stairs as the friends waited for the others to wake up.

2 hours later

Brandon groaned as he tried to sit up. He rubbed the back of his head trying to stop the headache from forming. He looked around and saw that he was the first one up. He looked out the little window to see that the sun was starting to rise in the sky. He looked back at his sleeping friends and brought his fingers to his mouth. He blew hard as he gave a loud shrieking whistle. The friends were all startled awake and were scrambling to their feet.

“God Brandon, could you be any more annoying with that whistle?” Jaeden asked rubbing his head.

“I could. Would you like me to try?” Brandon asked as he lifted his fingers again.

“No.” Everyone answered.

“So now that we are all back together, what is the plan?” Alex asked.

“Well the simple version is just to get out of this cell, grab our stuff, and then go find a place to hide out,” Blake answered.

“Hey Andrew why don’t you get started on getting rid of that door,” Luke said.

“The better question is why haven’t you broken out before hand?” Andrew asked.

“Well we tried but we can’t get that lock to cooperate with us. So we just waited around for you guys to get to us. Granted we were hoping that you weren’t going to be joining us in jail,” Blake said.

Andrew only shook his head as he got to his feet and walked to the door. While they waited everyone straightened out their cloaks and pulled up their hoods. He was able to melt the door away and they all walked out. They walked towards the table and grabbed their supplies. Blake, Luke, and Alex put on the cloaks though they weren’t very happy about it.

“Good thing she hasn’t found the bags in those ruins,” Marcus said.

The friends all nodded as they quietly walked towards a spiraling staircase. Marcus led the front while Drak watched the back. They walked up the stairs and carefully opened the door. He peered outside and saw that there was no one outside. He opened the door all the way and started walking down the long hallway. They took careful steps and kept their eyes peeled for anything that would blow their cover.

They reached a corner and stopped. Alex carefully peeked around the corner and saw two guards with their backs turned. He patted Jaeden’s shoulder as they walked around the corner. They were reaching for their knives when Marcus stopped them. He shook his head as he whispered to only knock them out. The two of them nodded as they snuck up behind the guards. Alex looked at Jaeden as he counted down. When he reached zero they grabbed the guards in a choke hold.

The guards struggled for a few seconds before stopping. They laid them on the ground and check their pulses. They were still alive and they sighed in relief. They nodded towards the group as they came out of the corner and continued their walk. As they walked they were stopped by a loud crashing sound. They all turned around and saw a maid running away.

“Let’s get going before they get their backup!” Marcus shouted.

“Why the fuck can’t this ever be simple?” Callie asked.

“I don’t know but just keep running and don’t look back,” Luke said.

They were running for a couple of minutes and they could hear the stomping of feet. They continued to run until they found a window. They used the rest of their energy and picked up their speed. The window was getting closer and when they had a couple of feet left they jumped into the air. They could see that it would be a short drop to the ground but they would survive. They were cheering on the inside as they neared their freedom. That was stopped when they hit an invisible wall.

All the friends groaned as they got up from the ground. Drak carefully walked over to the window and stuck out his hand. He felt the invisible wall and ran his hand over it. He looked back at the others and could only shake his head. Marcus punched the wall to his left as hard as he could to release his anger. All the friends turned around as they watched all the guards surround them. They watched as the guards parted ways to allow Celestia through along with the other six that they saw.

“I see that all of you are awake and have caused quite a stir in my castle,” Celestia said as she smiled at them. A few of them cringed at her smile as it was too genuine.

“How about you let us go and we can put this all behind us?” Marcus asked.

“I’m afraid that I can’t do that. You are unknown to us and therefore suspicious.”

“Yeah well from what I can see we really haven’t done anything that bad. You seem to be the evil one here since you locked up my friends.”

“Watch your tone there creature. Do you have any idea who you are talking to?” A guard asked.

“No I don’t and frankly I don’t care. The only thing that I do know is that as soon as this wall is down I’m kicking your ass first.”

“You kick my ass. I highly doubt that. I am a trained guard so you wouldn’t be able to touch me.”

“Yeah because all the guards here are trained so well. That is why we broke out and knocked out two of you on our way here. So if anything you wouldn’t be able to land a blow on me.”

“Well you better show respect to the princess or I will make you,” Marcus turned to a lavender unicorn that was staring daggers at him.

“I’ll show respect to her royal assness when she shows us some respect first,” Marcus said as he chuckled a little.

“Why you little-” The cyan pegasus was cut off as the princess held up her hand.

“Very well then. Why don’t we retry our introductions in the throne room?” Celestia asked as she stared at the cloaked figure.

“I’m fine with that but if you want this to go smoothly then you better let us out,” Marcus said as he crossed his arms.

Celestia nodded as she snapped her fingers and they were all taken to the throne room. The friends put a hand to their mouth as they ran around going to different potted plants. The princess walked to her throne to join her sister as she waited for them to finish puking their guts out. Teleporting was always gut wrenching for first time travelers. She sighed as she looked at the plants that she was going to have to replace. The friends finished puking their guts up as they walked towards the front of the thrones.

“Before we get started I have two questions. First, would you like something to eat and second, can you please remove the cloaks?”

“Yes we would like some food and I guess we can take them off. No sense in keeping them on since you probably know what we look like,” Marcus said as he pulled off his cloak. The others joined him except for Drak.

“I believe that my sister has asked that you remove your covering,” Luna said as she stared at Drak. He carefully pulled his hood over his head some more as he got behind Alex.

“He won’t be taking it off since it helps him to keep calm,” Alex said.

“What is he afraid of?” Celestia asked.

“We are not at liberty to say,” Blake answered.

“Why you ungrateful creature. My sister is being kind enough to listen to you and you are just going to use that trust,” Luna said angrily as her voice grew steadily in volume.

“I don’t have them do something that they aren’t comfortable with. Also you better start watching your tone or we will have a problem,” Marcus said as he stared at the dark blue princess.

Luna growled angrily as she got up from her throne. She walked over to Marcus and stared at him. She lifted her hand and brought it across to strike him. He was quick to react as he grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back. She gave a sharp yelp and guards started to pour into the room and the other six were getting ready for a fight.

“Everyone stand down right now!” Celestia yelled as her voice echoed through the room. The guards lowered their weapons and the human released the princess.

The dark blue princess joined her sister as she continued to stare angrily at the human. The guards started to leave the room as they saw their night princess was safe. Once they were gone, Celestia sighed heavily as she took her seat again. She looked back at the creature that assaulted her sister and contemplated her next action.

“Why don’t we try something easy? What are all of your names?” Celestia asked. Marcus looked at his friends as they all nodded.

“My name is Marcus and these are my friends. You already know Blake, Luke, and Alex since you had them in your dungeon. She is Callie and these are Andrew, Brandon, Jaeden, Drak, and Ryan. I already know both your names back at the ruins but who are these six?” Marcus asked as he pointed at the six horses standing next to the white princess. The lavender unicorn looked at the princess who nodded at her.

“My name is Twilight Sparkle and I am the personal student of the princess.”

“My name is Applejack.”

“I am Rarity.”

“The name’s Rainbow Dash.”

“I’m Fluttershy.”

“Hi I’m Pinkie Pie,” this one came out of nowhere and scared the crap out of everyone.

“Okay I caught all of your names except the cream colored one,” Marcus said.

“Her name is Fluttershy,” Andrew said. He gave a small wave to her who also waved back.

“Well I can see that this will take some time so why don’t we get some food in here and we can truly get started?” Celestia asked. The friends nodded as she called in some of her maids to get them food. Some of the tension was lost as they were finally going to get something to eat and hopefully get some answers.