...He was apparently on a VERY peculiar land...

The ground looked like a rugged carpet, made of stone, stretching as far as the eye can see, forming into a small hillside if you looked towards the right... And towards the left... Well, the land seemed to succumb to the great skies above...

The sky was odd, too... All black and static, no stars, no planets, no NOTHING. Blank. Honestly, the only thing INTERESTING in this... STRATA, were the towers...

Yup, the towers...

Made from an unknown metal, corroding bright red, these constructs looked like some weird high voltage electricity pylons... Not that the National Grid would ever use such things... They were fairly flimsy, shabby looking things, no idea who could have designed them...

Escher, probably...

It was a miracle they didn't toppled over in the strong wind...

He ducked again, hooves over head, as another object flew trough the area, entering and leaving with an explosion of bright light and sound. He glanced up between his hooves...

The object was a spaceship of some short, a clam-shaped one with what appeared to be a midget Easter Island Stonehead on it's "front"...

It rocketed trough the sky, swirling around the pylons like crazy, the driver definitely having trouble controlling it's vehicle. The barren meadow of pylons was a decompression-station, a decommissioned time and space zone that no longer kept up with the rest of the succumbed worlds of the Strata-system... It was left abandoned eons ago, but, mostly due to the fact that time doesn't existed in these zones, many architectures survived trough "nonexistence". A few industrial facilities, run-down agricultural compartments... Strangely, while most commercial buildings were made in absolute Brutalism, the residential ones, apartment blocs, skyscrapers and such were built in an extravagant and unrestrained non-Euclidean geometry that looked absolutely ghastly in the state of frozen decay it was suspended...

Whatever was the reason they abandoned this place, it was most likely due to heavy traffic.

Timeline and Zone Trespassers often dared to tamper with the energetic waves of the "Dimensional Cracks and/or Leaks", which often led to their disintegration, and the actual trespassing itself was followed by above mentioned light and sound effects...

THESE trespassers, however, were not the case...

They were pursuing one of their members, and kept causing serious electro-magnetic disturbances in the air...

He could taste a certain metallic taste in his mouth, as his nostrils filled with the unsound smell of electricity...

And it was also quite worrying that the last trespasser, coming from a most dangerous wormhole between the levels, though clearly NOT a part of the group he'd been pursuing, was even more rough with it's flight... It hit the wires between to pylons, just as it exit the decompression zone, making bright white sparks flicker in the air... The tower closer to the exit point shook, then, after a few minutes, it snapped in half, and collapsed with a series of loud metallic clanks and screeches...

After the cacophony was over, he could finally stand up... All was silent now, but he had also lost track of the trespassers... He could hear voices from the collapsed pylon, but he decided to leave them for now... This crack-zone was in no need of saving, and he wasn't a fan of euthanasia, especially if it meant the destruction of an entire strata. Even if it was a fairly "quirky" one...

Sighing, he left, climbing back up the hill, into the nearest town, where he had left the TARDIS.

The Interstrata war had probably raged here as well, as the buildings were more destroyed than decaying... He also noticed a mortally high level of radiation in the air, but since time was frozen here, he shouldn't be worried of the ionizing particles... Right?

Entering the TARDIS, he carefully typed the coordinates of his present time - actually, scratch that - base of operation world. And left...

With a very well-known zooming sound, an odd building appeared in the back end of the impasse Melancholy Interwall, found between the train station and the Post office's warehouse. It's oddity didn't really came as much as from it's alienage than from it's obsolescence. It looked like an old Police Booth from roughly a hundred years before, when the Canterlot region made the Stalliongrad province one of it's satellites, the final one, in a bloodless overthrow of the despotate in control. There was a large outbreak of crime and violence in both regions, not to mention street riots. Soon, Police Booths were deployed so that the local authorities could act faster. Fifty years afterwards, the riots finally ceased, and many Booths were decommissioned and scrapped, but a few still remained, some preserved, some turned into phone boxes (the more unfortunate ones into stabilized porta-loos), some still intact and in working order (some vandalized), and some working as miniature museums 'bout that period of time.

But they were only located in larger cities (Canterlot, most importantly), so it was quite surprising when a certain grey pegasus with a dirty-golden yellow mane came across one in the humble town of Ponyville. Everyone WOULD'VE knew her by her cutie mark: bubbles.

But instead, she was known by her walleyes. Not that she really minded it. Trough the jibes and sobriquets hurt a tad bit. Or was it a tad lot?

She was known by many by her more sophisticated nickname "Ditzy Doo", trough most people still called her Derpy.
Not that the word meant anything, but it sorta described her personality. She WAS bubbly, so to speak, and one heck of a klutz at times. But she was more than willing to help in all cases - even being a bit forceful, too - and had a heart of gold, anyway.

Her house was around the corner, but she often spent her time in the warehouse's humble loft, peaking out trough the ventage, waiting for the Doctor to arrive.

The Doctor, often called Doctor Whooves by the residents of Ponyville, was odd sort, trough fairly intelligent, he seemed to be a bit of an airhead, still, as if not being completely used to be a pony. But he was kind, light-hearted fellow, all the same... He lived in the old Police Booth at the end of Melancholy Interval, which, as Derpy could tell by now, was bigger on the inside.

The "met" blue cabin sometimes just disappeared, leaving with an ominous zooming. Derpy knew that it was in those moments her friend had left off to travel trough time and space, saving people from certain, impending doom, and making things right.

And like many times before, as she saw the TARDIS appear out of the blue (no pun intended), she raced straight towards it, not noticing that she burst trough the railing of the air intake (again).

By the time the door opened, she was already standing front of it, holding a freshly made batch of muffins (she was an expert in those).

"Ah, Ditzy! Glad to see you!" he greeted her with a warm smile. He really liked this queer little mare. She surely brought a smile to anyone's face (well, ALMOST anyone's face).

"'ow waw wouw dwaw, dwowtow?" she asked sweetly, with the bag of muffins still in her mouth...

"Hmmm... Fine, I guess..." the Doctor replied, taking the bag from her mouth (making both of them blush lightly, as he still didn't learned to use his hooves that easily, so he used his mouth, which came VERY close to Derpy's), an walked inside the TARDIS, followed by an eager (and quite startled) pegasus...

Once they finished the muffins, the Time Lord described the world he visited. After a good hour of speech, he turned to his intensively listening assistant.

"Well?" he asked.

"What's a... Strata?" she asked back.

The Doctor facehoofed, then just sighed, smiling and shaking his head... That was until he heard a familiar chirping sound...

Turning to his saddlebag dropped on the floor, he picked out a noisy device...

And gasped!

"They're HERE!" he shouted, and ran off, holding the machine in his mouth...

"Who are?" Derpy asked, taking the device in one hoof, and the Doctor in the other, as she flew of, logically following the arrow on the tiny screen of the gadget.

"The trespassers! They're here!"

******************************************************************************

"CHRIST Almighty, that WAS quick!"

The sudden blurt from the Traveler had woken up Twilight from her daydream...

"Who's Christ?" Spike asked, also looking up from the list the purple pony had shoved into his hands.
"A supposed son of THE God in one of the worlds I came from." Alexei replied, putting his coat on.
"And WHAT was quick?"Twilight asked, also standing up.

"The trespassers!" the figure replied, already outside the library "They've arrived sooner than I expected!" then, he mumbled something that only he could hear "So much for a long buildup in the beginning!"

The news, albeit no word was spoken, soon spread through town. Everyone was tidying and cleaning their houses, expecting the "Trespassers" to take shelter in their humble homes.

Well, almost everyone.

"Wha' do yah mean, 'I shall go'?" Applejack snapped, watching her family doing all the cleaning up, and sending HER away!
"Now, now, Applejack, that nice Mr. Alexei sayed that ya'r role is import'nt, so ya'll better be off to meet with the "v'sitors"." Granny Smith replied.

It was one of those moments where Applejack's jaw literally hit the ground...

"Grannee Smith..." she stammered "Do yah know everythin'?"

"Hehee... Less than what you'd expect..." her grandmother replied, chuckling...

"Yah shall go, Appl'jack!" her sister encouraged "Mahbe som' of the v'sitors could help us out! Who knows, mahbe they bring some fut'ristic, ahdvanced technology that could help Sweet Apple Acres. Our income coul' go skyrocketin'!" she added.

Big Macintosh just stared blankly at the floor he was mopping, then, lifting his gaze, he smiled, sharing his opinion on the topic:

"Eeyup!"

So Applejack left the farm, still sulking a bit. She did, however, hoped that Apple Bloom was right, and that at least ONE of the visitors - even through they were "mortal engines", as the Traveler described them - would help out the Apple family's business... There has been a bit of stagnation on the market, due to the bad weather caused by an unfortunate accident at the weather factory near Cloudsdale. A rainbow refinery, which also produced lightnings as byproduct, had a serious malfunction in one of it's distilizers, causing an explosion in the refinery block, No. 4, and allowing massive amounts of pure licenta radiation escape into the environment, causing a massive disruption in weather schemes made ahead as far as 5 years!

A long debate had already started about whether rainbows are a necessary part of the weather in general, and rumors of Cloudsdale building 'Orbitary Rainbow Annihilators' began to spread. The entire anti-rainbow agenda was pushed by unicorns and a few wealthier earth ponies, along with a few pegasi anti-weapon groups which prospered on the rumors.
Thankfully, the majority of Equestria found the whole accident rather more of an 'unfortunate incident' than catastrophe. Earth ponies accepted the challenge of a more wilder weather, and the pegasi training grounds were absolutely delighted, along with many famous unicorn research groups. Licenta radiation is a long-thought-to-be lethal poison which is necessary for liquidizing the rainbows' colors without mixing them up. It was dangerous and COULD be lethal - leading to spontaneous combustion - if a certain amount was enough dense and compacted. But in the open air, it quickly dispersed, and the only thing it did was spicing up the clouds' behavior.

The only victims of the incident were the two workcolts in the operator room, who escaped with a minor case of poisoning - making their irises and pupils turn rainbow-colored, or "trippy" for a few weeks - and some smaller bruises - protective glass is protective.

The weather, however, DID effected the market, and farmers were given a hard time... As for the Apple family, the most prominent thing was that several parts of the orchard began to randomly produce Zap apples, and at some places, Paz apples, which were basically like Zap apples but in negative colors, and had a certain spice in them.
Twilight and other professionals had already tested them with Gallopper-Muler counters, and they were fine, not a single bit of radiation in them.

But people were still very cautious, and it seemed that they'll, sooner or later, will have to go abroad to sell their apples - albeit the foreign press was probably even more exagerative as the tabloids at home.

So, the orange mare REALLY hoped that at least ONE of the visitors would be at their aid.

Little did she knew, that she was absolutely right!

On her way, she noticed Derpy carrying the Doctor through the air, heading towards some direction. She figured, "if anybody else would know of the visitors' where'bouts, it'll surely be that time-crazed stallion". So she promptly followed them.

Pinkie Pie was literally thrown out of Sugarcube Corner. Standing up from the ground, and undusting herself with a swift shake of her torso, she glanced back in disbelief.

"But WHY can't I heeeeeelp?" she asked, imploringly. Mrs. Cake gave a sigh, as one of the twins peaked out above her head, giggling...

"Now, now, dearie, I'm pretty sure your friends are all there, waiting for you to arrive and greet the visitors!" she replied kindly.

"Yeah, think about it!" the gentle voice of Mr. Cake added from within the building "We'll take care of the cleaning up, and you can go ahead, meet with your friends and the "trespassers", or whatever that kind fellow called them."

Pinkie, having one of her moments in life when she was unsure of what to think, simply replied:

"O-kay?"

...And walked off, still pondering.

By the time she noticed that there was VIRTUALLY no possible way that her landlords/stepparents/friends would KNEW about her supposed role as an Element of Defiance, the door of the candy shop had already shut.

On her way, she noticed Applejack running through town, occasionally looking up, where the pink pony saw her walleyed friend an her - she squeed mischievously here - future coltfriend, perhaps? Known as the Doctor, anyway.

She dashed after them, thinking exactly what her friend did: if there are inter-dimensional trespassers from another world, Doctor Whooves would surely be there...

And with that, she continued skipping merrily towards them.

There are few things that ever actually caught Rainbow Dash's attention - especially when she was asleep. Not that she was completely ignorant, or that she didn't care about others. It's just that, she WAS a TEENY bit insensitive at times, or had been preoccupied, it was different every occasion.

And to her protection, she DID noticed the klutz of a pegasus flying pass her with the brown, spiky-maned earth pony stallion. She did woke up, and followed them, and she DID noticed her friends following them, too... She then remembered what Scootaloo told her before she went to take a nap on the stratus cloud.

"Ah, right, the "trespasser" are arriving." she thought, the sped up, getting closer to ground level.
"Hope there are some slick, cool guys among the visitors. Or at least ONE person who'd be as cool as me... Well, not AS cool, but near it."

Her prayers were answered, thought the "cool guys" were proven to be MUCH more cooler than she would expected. And not in the WAY she expected.

If there was a rumor or gossip going on, the first one to hear it could only been ONE pony in Ponyville: and that was Rarity. The shop was clean, Sweetie Belle was of with the Cutie Mark Crusaders to pep up the clubhouse... Everything was ready... Except for herself, naturally... A last bit of make-up, a nice, rich, but casual dress... Maybe some jewelry? But no! She'll have to be on time, BANG on time!

The last she expected is fate to take her words literally.

She stepped out Carousel Boutique, only to see three of her friends run pass, following a flying object... Which pretty much looked like the good Doctor Whooves and her assistant, Ditzy Doo...

"Right." she uttered, and rushed after the others. She secretly hoped there would be some novelty among them. Not that she minded the simple proles, but she DID longed to see what other worlds' nobility looked like...
Well, she got THAT wish granted, trough she wasn't exactly pleased.

Fluttershy was already there. She went out for a nice morning walk on the far edge of the field of green next to the town, and thus, was the first to witness the disturbance in the air. In a point suspended in mid-air, the view twisted, as if a rock was dropped into still water, messing up the reflection... It was followed by a weird aura that made the warping area turn monochrome with blue, and by weird whooshing sound.

When Alexei, Twilight and Spike arrived, it was as small as a filly. When the Time Lord and Ditzy arrived, it was as big as Princess Celestia. When the rest of her friends arrived, it was bigger than Alexei.

They all stood there, waiting for the trespassers' arrival.

The brown earth pony handed his hoof.

Alexei did the same.

"I'm Alexei."

"Doctor. Just, simply, Doctor."

"Doctor Whooves?"

"Yes."

They shook hands/hoofs.

"Ummm... A little MORE info about our soon-to-be-visitors?"Twilight asked. The figure stared for a moment, then sighed.

"Well, I'm not gonna lie to you..." he muttered "They're right bastards. Honestly. The biggest bunch of gits you would found from here to the the Andromeda Galaxy."

The others just stared at him, now a bit concerned. The Traveler continued:

"It's not like they're evil, but rather - as one of them said - a product of their environment. Their world is much more ruthless and cruel than yours, and MANY people are like them there - or worse. Thus, they've became real jerks, with various unlikable personality features. And really, nice people are so seldom among them--..."

He stopped here, as a silhouette appeared in the portal, slowly emerging, as if coming trough a tunnel.

Their muscles tensed, and their eyes kept focusing on the shape forming out from the illuminating haze.

As it finally did, smiles shrunk, eyes went a bit wide, eyebrows raised, and several blinks were made.

"Oh, super! I've finally made it here!" the newcomer said. The ponies just stared at him...

Something in the back of the Doctor's mind was violently attempting to click, but failed every time. Derpy's walleyed expression changed into a normal, if awestruck gaze. Rarity's smile was turned into a frown, mouth shrunk to it's fifth, and left slightly agape. Pinkie's grin turned upside-down as her eyes squinted slightly on the sight. Rainbow Dash's jaw dropped, as she slowly lowered to the ground, eyes fixated on the being - machine? - in front of them. Twilight's eyes went wide, her pupils slightly shaking, as she tried to put the pieces of information that flowed trough them, as her brain's gears creaked to an abrupt halt.

Applejack... Well, she was trying oh-so-hard to comprehend the sight. But the more she tried, the more scrambled her mind became.

Spike just stared. He had no jokes for this.

Fluttershy's eyes opened a bit wider. She knew it wasn't nice at all to stare, but, the being seemed so... Unique... Yeah, lets say this, unique. But it sure looked, and sounded... Kind?

Alexei sighed... This was a good start.

"Umm... Hello?" the purple unicorn asked.

The visitors eyes darted towards the source of the voice, and his smile grew broad.

"Ah, Twilight Sparkle, is it? I am so very glad to see you!" who-, or WHATever he was, he had a very slight lisp. Twilight took a step back when he called her by her name.

It was a fairly odd thing, to say the least. It had four pair of small, metal wheels, apparently having pieces of metal just existing under them like holograms (well get to that later), two pairs secured onto weird boxes near the two ends, a slightly protruding, cabin-like part in the middle with oddly shaped windows, stuck between two long, smooth edged cuboid parts. He was definitively made of metal, painted Forest Green with the rectangular parts ending in yellow, and with it's protruding midsection having a black roof.

It also had red strips of metal on each end, having a hook of some sort and some rubber pipes on it, and oval-shaped pieces of metal on studs as well. The most notable thing was his face, however. He had a grey face which followed shape of the rectangular part it was on. He had a HUGE nose - it looked like a beach-ball with nostrils -, stretched-triangle-tear-shaped eyebrows, and a jolly smile on his face.

"Uhhh... Hi?" Twilight tried again, desperately trying to get the otherworldly being's sight accepted into her mind...

"And I see that Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Spike, AND the Doctor, aaaand... Ditzy Doo? Is here as well... Oh hello..." he finally noticed Alexei "I haven't seen you before..."

"I get that a lot." the Traveler replied blankly "Anyways, I'm Alexei, Space, Dimension and Timeline Traveler, not to mention the God of Denial."

"Aaah." the being replied, pretending to understand what the stick figure just said "Right. Oh, how rude of me, I haven't even introduced myself. Well then... Good day to you all! I'm--..."

"DEEEREEEEEEEK!!!" an angry voice both finished and interrupted him. More white shadows began to emerge from the portal, the first one being a fairly boxy one, which darkened with every inch it moved towards them, finally appearing as rectangular... Actually, downright BOXY, cuboid like machine-being, with a larger gray face, a short stumpy body, a short, stumpy cabin at the back, six small wheels with stainless steel rims, connected with dirty, silvery rods, and apparently, a short stumpy temper... As it rolled forward, it made an oily growling and clanking noise, quite a loud one, too. On its sides small edges could be found, where various boxes - apparently parts of his body - rattled. He also had the same red metal stripe with the round metal plates, but his were black, and along with the hook, he only had one rubber pipe on his front. His windows were small and squint, and dark from either the interior of his cab or because of the grime - it was hard to tell, as his body was entirely painted in a greasy, dirty black color, slightly brown shaded, thought, and visibly smudged here and there, probably due to shabby paintwork.

His face was different as well: A large, square shaped one, with a near invisible chin - in contrast of the first arrival's -, sinuous eyebrows nearly as thin as a line, now frowned, an ugly, pointy nose, round, slightly bulging, baggy eyes, a mouth area shaded by his small, slightly triangle-shaped cheek-bumps, his mouth was apparently twisted into a snarl, with quite a few wrinkles, which, along with his "look into certain Hell" glare and frowned eyebrows gave him a very angry, and very frightening look.

"Oh, uhhh... H-Hello, Diesel..." Derek uttered, a cracked smile on his face...
The boxy being named Diesel turned his eyes towards the eight ponies and the God, his Face-O'-Fury turning into a moderately ignorant look, eyebrows slightly raised, but still in the same anguine shape, eyes half closed, and mouth shrunk into a small, careless pout.

"Sorry, didn't see ya there..." he spoke with a slight British accent "Anyways, make yourself comfortable, this might take a while..." and with that, he turned his look back to Derek, with only his snarl missing, now replaced with an enhanced pout with lots of wrinkles.

The other one, Derek, looked away, sheepishly and afraid.

His surly companion seemed to be in a mix of disbelief and anger...

"Derek, you... Just... What THE HELL were you THINKING?!" he snapped, after some difficulty.

"Well, I... I wanted to visit Equestria, a-and... Well... I got these neat dimension-jumping devices... I did ordered a lot, because... I hoped someone else might want to come with me, so..."

Diesel interrupted him...

"SOMEONE?! You ordered enough for THE ENTIRE BLOODY RAILWAY! And that even includes EVERY SINGLE PIECE of rolling stock! J-Just what...?! HOW were you even ABLE to pay for all of this?"

A sly smile spread across Derek's face.

"Oh, I think you'll like what you'll hear..." he said, eyes half closing...

"Oh, REALLY?!" Diesel snorted, raising an eyebrow "How's that?"

Derek took a deep breath, as if savoring the moment. Then...

"It's ALL charged on the Thin Git's booze-money account!"

The black machine's expression quickly shifted from irritated to awestruck, then, it slowly creeped into a nefarious, thoroughly DEVIOUS look, his eyebrows lowered slightly, eyes fully opened, mouth turning from a sharp, angry moue into a content, triumphant smile, making his face look less threatening, to say the least, but in the same time, much more shady...

"Weeeeell..." he said in a slick, oily voice, the rumbling and clanking coming from inside of him smoothing into a quiet, low purring noise "What can I say? I would've never, ever expected... You, Derek, of ALL engines, getting our collective revenge on Sir Wyatt Fronts... I'm DREADFULLY grieved..." he made a particularly nasty smirk here "But... I couldn't be prouder... Guess all that banker business DID payed off... Heh... In one way or another..." Diesel finished, chuckling evilly, while Derek smiled once again.

"I'm glad you feel like that!" he replied, happily.

"But still..." his companion added, eyebrows lowering, and mouth showing a half-smile "You SHALL NOT speak of that to ANYONE. Comprende?"

Before Derek could answer, there was a loud, abrupt noise, like an industrial-sized trumped or horn going off, coming out of the portal, which STILL haven't closed up, yet. The next moment, something - someone - else emerged from within, the loud noise going off again, clearly, the new visitor made that sound...

When he finally emerged, Rarity gasped, and nearly fainted. The other ponies recoiled...
The new one was another machine, far more different from the others...

He was recognizably larger, and not to mention longer than the previous two... His cab was mounted into his body in a sort of streamlined way, with three square windows on the front. Speaking of fronts, he also had a protruding one in front of his cab, albeit a short one. It's front (I gotta stop saying that) was painted in a paled out yellow color, on which he had a similarly yellow face, which basically melted into the metal. His eyebrows were similar to Diesel's but they were a bit thicker, and a bit angular, and a bit longer, extending sideways pass his eyes. His eyes, however, seemed almost normal compared to his comrades', but they were blood-shot and baggy. His nose, presumably snub once, was a bit swollen and dented - it was probably broken a few times. Another noticeable thing was his joined stubble - he probably didn't shaved for a long time by then, and the lower part of his face could almost be considered gray. His front was yellow, and the rest of his body was blue - well, as far as the mares could see. The reason why they've taken aback was the machine's state: his side and boogies were covered in scratches, mud, soot, oil, and other muck, his windows were smudgy and spotty, the middle one was cracked, and he had several dents on his body. He also had a red metal plate on front, but of course, that was barely recognizable, as it was also covered in grime. He also had protruding studs with plate-shaped pieces of metal on front, once probably painted black, but now, they were scratched and worn. The plastic pipes he had faded colors and were roughly patched up with petticoat and metal bands, and the hook he had was much more robust, and seemed to be extra secured to that metal plate of his. He had a frown on his face, but it was more of a frown of irritation or tiredness - maybe even his normal expression - than a frown of anger.

With internal, mechanic growling, he stopped on the other side of Derek. Diesel was on his right, while the newcomer was on his left.

"Dere ya are!" he spoke, with a THICK British working class accent "I'v' bee' loo'in' fo' ya trough WO'LD'S an' shi'! We'e 'ave ya been, ya twi's?!" he snapped.

"It's nice to see you too, Spamcan." Derek replied, ever so ignorantly kind.

"Huh... What are YOU doing here?" Diesel asked back crabbily, before raising one eyebrow in suspicion.

"Me? I'm sear'in' fo' you guys!" Spamcan replied "Whe'e ar' we, anyway?"

He looked around.

The scenery was beautiful. A large, green meadow, with a few healthy trees and bushes here and there, the sun shining brightly with only a few puffy clouds on the sky, birds chirping and butterflies flying around, low in the high grass, snow covered mountains in the distance, one sporting a large castle or abbey of some sort, built close to it's peak, and small village in the distance, bustling with life...

Something inside Spamcan growled up, and thick plumes of back, sooty smoke flew up from his top, rising from two points of his roof, as he spoke:

"Not ba'. Bi' too greenie an' poofy fo' my taste, but i's no' 'alf ba'."

Two birds playfully flied trough the smoke, but came out the other side, coughing badly and covered in the greasy smog.

Fluttershy gasped, and quickly flew to them... She took them down to the ground, where she gently cleaned them from the soot, while they kept on coughing the smoke out.

Finally, they were ready to go, and in a tired manner, they flew off.

The yellow pegasus then flew right in front of the large machine, and looked at him with fear and sincerity...

"Please, would stop doing that? It's making the little birds sick, and I have a feeling that's not all the problem your... Smoke... Can cause... So... Can you... Stop it, please?"

Spamcan just stared at her, bewildered. Did that undersized, winged horse just TALKED to him? AND asked nicely, too?
His previous gruff and slightly blunt look returned, as Fluttershy slowly lowered to the ground, not being able to bare the large machine's look. She sat on the ground, then slowly laid down, peeking up at the being which looked down at her with a sedate and mighty look. She squirmed, and tried to look smaller, hiding her eyes under her long mane... Then, she heard the grimy, brusque machine talk, in a deep, croaky, harsh voice, but with no malevolence in it whatsoever.

"Sorry... Force o' habbit... Bu' I can' 'elp th' smoke. I wor' da' way."

She looked up, surprised.

"Huh? Work that way?" she asked.

"I'll say! What sort of ridiculous postcard world IS this?!" an unknown voice suddenly asked. It sounded grumpy, and very, very posh.

"Weeell, yes, it DOES look a bit of a "highland sights" cliché, but on the other hand, it seems very pure and, most importantly, CLEAN. I kind of like it." the other voice was snooty and picky, but sounded much more smooth, and much less posh. It also seemed to be a bit younger, and a LOT more pleased than the first.

Two other machines rolled out of the portal, and stopped next to Diesel. They had the same shape, slightly similar to Spamcan's, but the protruding front bits were longer, and the bodies themselves also seemed longer. One was painted similar to Spamcan: blue body and yellow front and face. But he was much more cleaner, only a bit of dust/soot on the lower part of his sides, close to the wheels, and on the red metal plate on his front. His oval-shaped plate thingies, on the other hand, were sparkling clean, and even trough painted dull gray, they glistened silvery in the sunlight. His windows were intact, and the rubber pipes and hook on his front seemed new. His face, on the other hand, shown of age: he had wrinkles around his baggy, narrowed eyes, and around his haughtily pouting mouth, trough none was a wrinkle of laughter. He had very thick and long eyebrows, but they've seemed to be elegantly combed - and gel covered? His eyes were sizable, proportionally as big as his eyebrows, and VERY deep within them, a light of wisdom could be seen - hardly, as it was clouded up by a look of arrogance. He had a monocle on his left eye, with a thin metal rim, collected to his... Side, by a thick black rope. His nose was bigger, triangle-shaped, and sharp.

The other one was painted like Derek: green body, with only the front being yellow, and with a rectangular, gray face. He seemed to be the only one with normal sized and shaped eyebrows and eyes so far... He had a snub nose, and an impish half-smile on his face, no wrinkles or frown. He was even cleaner than the other one, with his paintwork shining in the sunlight, and a bright red metal plate on his front, and his plate-shaped stud were silver gray, and sparkled in the sunshine. His pipes and hook seemed brand new as well. He looked very spiffy, and very confident... And very smart in a snooty, uppity way.

"Ah, that's ALL we needed!" Diesel groaned upon seeing the new arrivals...

"Who are they?" Twilight asked. Diesel glanced at her, surprised that somebody from THEM asked HIM, then replied, as unenthusiastic as possible:

"Well, I might as well introduce them, as they're too much of a pair of snobby sods to do so. Ahem... Here we have Sir Alaric English Electric, or 40 125. We call 'im Old Stuck-Up. The other one is D261, or Bowler. To cut it short, Stuck-Up's a posh twat, and Bowler is a paranoid, hypochondriac toff. The other one on Derek's far side is D199, but just call him Spamcan. I'm Diesel. Oh, yeah, and this is Derek beside me.

The mares just stared. Weird names, numbers, and unflattering nicknames...

They didn't even noticed when two other machines rumbled out from the portal, soon followed by a third.

They all stopped next to Spamcan.

"And who are they?" Fluttershy asked him.

Spamcan glanced to his side. Next to him parked two other machines, their shape similar to Diesel's but they were painted differently - among other things...

Their wheels seemed to be a bit further from each other than Diesel's wheels, and the strip of metal on their front where they had the plate-shaped metals on studs was painted in a dark, damp brownish-black color, along with the plate-shaped metal parts - but it was more likely that they were THAT dirty. Their faces were a bit narrower, and they had yellow and black wasp stripes around them. Their bodies were dark gray, with a stripe of yellow going along the side, close to their roofs, in the same level as their small, squint windows, with the words "BARROW IRONWORKS" in them in black. Their cabs (and the odd boxes on the small edge on their sides) were yellow as well, but the paint was dusty, had smudged splodges and watermarks on them, their bodies were scratched and covered in dust, soot and ashes, even bearing a few traces of burning... Their wheels and the rods connecting them were black with smirch. They both had stubble, thought one of them had a heavier one, while the other had more narrower eyes - they had dark circles around their eyes, maybe because they didn't slept enough, but who knew. Not that it mattered, anyway, they were still clearly twins... They were both weather-worn, dirty, and looked quite grim, both wearing a mischievous, or more like sinister grin on their faces, eyeing up the scenery, as a now familiar mechanical growling-purring could be heard from within them... Both had depressed, slightly round noses, normal-looking eyebrows, and pronounced chins.

When their looks finally fell on the ponies (and the Traveler), they both opened their eyes wide in surprise, then, the one with the heavier stubble started to smile warmly, while the other one rolled his eyes, looking irritated.

"The' ar' 'Arry an' Ber', th' Iron Twins." Spamcan explained "An' tha' othe' guy is... Ohmygod..." his face went a bit pale, as the third machine, a large, sepia and rust brown colored, tube shaped thing, much like a large worm compared to the others, stopped beside the Iron Twins.

"Greetings, Mr. Spamcan." he spoke in a deep, early Hollywood gangster voice, mixed with a bit of Italian "I'm also very pleased to see you, too."

Instant surprise was the mares' first reaction. Spamcan, who, even thought they had no idea what he was, looked like a total thug, a hard nut who won't take horse apples from anyone, was now cowering (along with the others, pass the Twins), at the sight of a member of their gang who was presumably older than all of them.

While naturally, the ponies didn't know that they were right about every detail in that consideration, still proceeded asking the rudimentary excuse of a polite question...

Well, Rarity did, anyway...

"And who, pray tell, are YOU exactly?" she asked, with both superciliousness and respect in her voice.

The machine looked at her, blankly eyeing her up. His face was the only yellow part on his body, a bright (yet, faded) rectangle on the dull brown body. He had two large windscreens above it, both covered in thick layers of dust, so the only place you can see trough them was the clean path left by the windscreen wipers. The rubber pipes were located on the two sides of his face, and his stud-based plate-shaped metal thingies were also oval and rusty. His face looked like a mixture of Diesel's and Old Stuck-Ups - a sharp, triangle-shaped nose, a bit hawk-like, brush-like, snaky eyebrows, narrow, bagged eyes, heavy wrinkles on the forehead, noticeably many around the mouth, from laughter, as it seemed, and a small, almost unnoticeable diagonal cut across the face, including his left eye (intact), his nose, and his mouth. He also had noticeably acute chin.

After an uncomfortably long stare, the internal rumbling coming from him stopped with a nasty, short uproar, two small plumes of pellucid grey smoke left from his top (Fluttershy winced here), and turned his gaze towards the other machines.

"Buffer me, who are these nags?" he asked the Twins.

"NAGS?!" the ponies hollered in anger.

"...Ponies. Excuse me. Who are these... Ponies?" the brown machine repeated after a short cough.

"More importantly, what's "buffer"?" Pinkie Pie suddenly asked.

And I really thank her for that, 'cause writing down "plate-shaped metal thingies on studs" was SERIOUSLY getting on my nerves!

"Wha'? Buf'e's?" 'Arry (the one with the narrower eyes) asked, speaking in a hoarse, deep Glaswegian accent.

"Ya don' 'no' wha' buffe's ar'?" Bert (the one with the heavier stubble) added, his voice similar, but even deeper and a bit monotonous, hinted with a south-londonian accent aside the Glaswegian.

"Buffers are these round or oval things we have on our fronts." Derek explained patiently, looking down at his buffers "They're there for safety when shunting or pulling trains..."

"Wait, did you said, "trains"?" Rainbow cut him off, surprised.

"Yes, trains..." Derek replied simply "Why?"

The ponies stared at each other.

The machines blinked, and also exchanged glances...

"Oh dearie me..." Derek exclaimed "I forgot! They've never seen a diesel engine before! Or an European one, for that matter! They probably have no idea what we are!"

"Well, we could hav' guessed." Applejack replied dryly "Th' wheels kinda give it away, y'know."

"Oh, alright..." Derek replied sheepishly.

"So, let me get this straight..." Twilight spoke up sternly, trying to wake from her newfound disorientation "You guys are from another dimension, or timeline, or world, whatever, and you are living locomotives, am I correct?"

"Basically, yes." Bowler replied "We're diesels."

"But I thought HE was called "Diesel"." Fluttershy replied, pointing a hoof at the black box on wheels.

"I am." Diesel answered morosely "Creative name, isn't it?"

After noticing the confused stare, he cleared his throat, and explained:

"You see, we are indeed locomotives, or engines, as in 'the ENGINE-powered unit of the train'. But unlike the STEAM engines you probably have, which run on coal and water - if they don't run on magic AS WELL -, we have internal combustion engines, or motors, which use a liquid fuel refined from crude mineral oil, called diesel oil, after it's discoverer, Rudolph Diesel. We all run on this same fuel, and thus, we are called "diesels". But my builders were SOOO creative, they gave me this hilariously convenient name." he finished, ever so unenthusiastic.

The Mane Six looked even more bewildered now, except for Twilight and Spike, who were most amazed.

"Internal combustion engines?" she asked, excitedly.

"Yes." the diesels replied in unison.

"But... That's... Just... BRILLIANT! "she cheered.

The engines were dumbfounded.

"It is?" the Twins asked, again, in unison.

"Yes!" Spike added "I've looked into this. You know, a few decades before, a famous chemist stallion called Rudolf Dazzler invented a new type of piston engine that run on oil made out of herbs. Sadly, it was proven to be uneconomical at the time, given that coal was much easier to mine."

While both the diesels, the mares, AND Alexei stared at Spike in utter surprise, the purple unicorn continued.

"Nowadays, easy-to-reach coal is scarce, or located in dangerous regions, like the Dragon Dominion. Rail transportation is a great mess, and it's slowly dying." she finished, a bit sad.

Stuck-Up snorted, and chuckled a bit.

"Then it sure is in better conditions than the Hellhole we slack off all day." he snickered, before breaking down into a hearty guffaw, gloat-filled and rude, and soon to be followed by his "colleagues", apparently.

The ponies just stared, unsure of what to think. They didn't even noticed as two sleek and slim, streamlined bodies slipped out from the portal, stopping beside the brown engine.

"So, who are you, anyway?" Rainbow Dash asked the old engine.

"I go by many names." he replied darkly "But, to NOT to get you into any... Sticklers, refer to me as... The Brakefather.

After a bit of awed silence, the yellow pegasus spoke up.

"Excuse me, Mr. Brakefather, sir, but that's a rather silly name, if you don't mind me saying... Sorry..." she muttered, looking away.

The engines suddenly stopped laughing, and stared at her with a mix of horror and pity.

But the Brakefather just smiled broadly.

"It's alright, my dear, um... Mare. I think so as well. But I keep it so as to avoid any... Inkling, that may be implied about me." he said mysteriously, then added, with a lighter tone "And to remind me of my days in retirement..."

"Retirement?" Fluttershy asked back.

"Indeed. You see, do to an unfortunate... Incident, due to the incompetence of my, ugh... DRIVER, I had suffered not only an explosion, but a rather hasty and, dare I say, thoroughly botched up rebuilt, ending up as a brakevan for a period of time, but, thanks to that, I survived the extinction of my class."

"What's a "brakevan"?" Pinkie asked.

"Why, Ah'm surprised ya don' know that, sugah." Applejack replied, rhetorically "A brakevan or caboose is a wagon at the end of a train which helps it to slow down, hence it's name."

"Ooooh..." the pink earth pony replied, apparently satisfied with the answer. Then...

"Hey, who are those?" she asked, pointing at the two newcomers. They were twins as well, and noticeably female. They were streamlined, had one large windscreen at the front, and where painted yellow with a familiar blue stripe at their middle. Their entire cab was painted yellow, with in-built pair of lamps edging their faces, which basically marked where it ended, as it was built well into their bodies, which were blue. They didn't have buffers.

"Ah, there you are, girls! We've been wondering what took you so long!" Bowler smirked...

"THERE you are, Derek!" one of them spoke up. She had blue eye shadows, and talked in an equally mixed welsh/londonian accent "We've been looking trough WORLDS to find you! Don't you DARE run away like that!"

"Yeah!" the other joined in. She wore a very humble red lipstick, and spoke in the same accent, trough her voice seemed a bit lighter "We know the world may seem to be a dark and cruel world at times - oh, hello, guys! -, but there's no need to run away like that." she then looked around, along with her twin. Their faces were noticeably feminine, located on the very front, on the edge of the streamline, with thin, curving eyebrows, naturally pronounced eyelashes, cute, snub noses and pouty, full lips. Their paintjob expressed speed and officially, and was just a bit sooty, especially on the roofs.

"Allow me to introduce them." Old Stuck-up offered, then cleared his throat "Ladies... Mares, and gentlemen... Gentlengines, allow me to introduce you to the finest assets of the Other Railway: Philippa and Emma, the High-Speed Trains. Together, and with their coaches, which are not present, they make up an InterCity 125 set. Highly recommended for commuters and shorter express runs." and with that, Stuck-up stopped, groaning and muttering under his breath about class, engines and bleeding hearts...

"So... Who's Philippa and who's Emma?" Applejack asked, after a bit of silence.

"I'm Philippa. But just call me Pip." the eye-shadowed one answered.

"I'm Emma! Hello there!" the one with the lipstick replied, cheerily.

"It's easy to tell them apart." Diesel sneered quietly "Pip, usually leading the train, is the more serious and sensible one, while Emma, careering at the back in most cases, is the more cutesy-poo, ditzy one. They're our token girls and our ONLY hope to avoid a financial crunch. Given that if they wouldn't be here, our PATHETIC excuse of a railway would've shut down due to "sexism in workplace". I think in your case it is needless to say, don't judge them by their gender. They can easily put up a banter with the rest of us and prevail - even though that's quite bloody annoying when it happens MOST of the time."

Exchanging perplexed looks over this curious comment, the ponies finally looked at Alexei, who just shrugged his shoulders.

What made them turn their attention back to the visitors was a rather loud and impolite sound.

"BUUUUAAAARRRP!"

Rolling out from the portal was... Yet another engine?

It was hard to tell...

He was long and rectangular, although his top appeared to be vaulted. His wheels were strangely set: four pair of big ones connected via similar rods Diesel, 'Arry and Bert had, one middle-sized pair at the back, and a four small wheels at the front. His body was like a large box, with a few, tiny windows and two longs-stretching strip set of vertical railings on the sides. His front had a door on it, framed snugly in a thin, articulated piece of plastic that surrounded it, with two tall, narrow windows on each side. Maybe because of this, his face was located at a very low level - just above his brick-shaped buffers. His eyes were far from each other, located ALMOST above the buffers, but still, a bit tighter. They were round, and he wore a WIDE set of glasses, with lenses JUST big enough to cover his eyes. His eyebrows were white, and they looked like they've been drawn on his front with chalk - when they were ACTUALLY real ones, bending down on the outer edges. He seemed to have no nose, and his mouth was just above the metal plate - let's call it on it's name, buffer plate - practically making it his "chin". He apparently had a second, smaller section with six small wheels, which he towed along.

He rolled forward with an airy whirring, and stopped with a gently whoosh of his air brakes, right beside Bowler.

"Sorry I'm late guys. Took me time, you see..." he had the accent of an uppity, sappy business-Briton "But, on the other hand, I did organized what you asked for, Spamcan!"

Now THIS sentence caught EVERYONE'S suspicion. They all looked at the grimy engine with an earnest, stern stare. Spamcan reversed a bit, then decided to spill the beans...

"Ya see..." he began "Whe' Dere' left, le'vin' a sap'y not' be'in', we all decide'... Well, Pip an' Emma decided, ou' o' worry, and Diesel, ou' o' rage, tha' we'll go afta' Dere', an' save hi' arse, le'vin' all wor' be'ind. Bu' den, I cam' up wi'h an' idea: le's make EVER'ONE leave th' railwa' be'in', alon' wi'h all th' co'ches an' truc's an' wha'not, le'vin' th' Thin Git in a bi' pile of SHETH fo' makin' US do th' clean-u' afta' th' mel'down a' th' nuclea' plant! An' THA"S we'e I as'ed Cromwell to 'elp."

"Indeed, it was a brilliant idea. I was SICK an' TIRED of pulling those fallout trains, trough the unusually strong propulsion from Mr. Bottomsly did help... When I was PUSHING a train..."

"BLAAAAAAAARP!" a noise "said" from behind.

"Oh I kno' it wasn't INTENTIONAL, but still!" Cromwell sniffed,

"Who's Mr. Bottomsly?" Rarity asked.

"Oh. He's my tender!" the aloof engine replied, rolling forward, revealing the boxy thing behind his body to be joined with him via some unrecognizable metal parts at the bottom, and the same articulated black door-frame plastic between them. The tender itself looked like an auxiliary one, used for trains where they couldn't stop to take on water for long distances - only this was fairly crude in design - in fact, it looked like a large, block-shaped water tank with curving edges and thick pieces of riveted metal welded/screwed to it's sides and galvanized iron sheets on it's top, except for a spot where two large valves - one red and the other brass. On it's far end, a chromed top hat could be seen, apparently welded to the tanker's top.

"Sooo... You're a steam engine?" Spike asked.

Crowell stared at him in shock for a moment, then chuckled...

"Oh, HEAVENS, no! I am nothing more than an experimental gas-turbine express locomotive. The reason I look like this is, well, because... I was built on a drunken whim, and was made out of tinkered parts, a burned out first-class coach, and a stolen gas turbine originally intended for an alternative power plant in Denmark. And Mr. Bottomsly, I believe, is made out of a septic waste container, which was due to be displaced from the local chemical refinery. Nevertheless, I still work fine, apart from Mr. Bottomsly's vulgar outbursts - but it's not his fault, poor chap..."

This left our future heroines and heroes in perplexity. While Cromwell's unusual elegant manners and smoothness did calmed them down a bit, things still looked uncertain.

"So, let me get this straight..." Twilight began, talking slowly and loudly to catch everyone's attention. She turned to the engines.

"You guys are all here because you followed HIM." she pointed a hoof at Derek "...Who came here to visit us..." she pointed at herself and her friends "...And everyone came along, 'cause YOU and YOU TWO..." she pointed at Diesel and the High-Speed Twins "...Decided and said so. Then HE..." she continued, pointing at Spamcan "...Thought it'll be a good idea to tell EVERYONE to move OVER HERE, to Equestria..." she pointed at the ground "...So that you guys would get your... Boss? In trouble..." she finished.

The diesels exchanged looks...

"Yeah." the Iron Twins replied.

"...Sort of..." Derek added.

"Exactly!" Stuck-Up declared.

"Certainly!" Bowler agreed.

"Indeed." Cromwell backed it up.

"You could say that..." Pip and Emma answered with a slight delay.

"That just about covers it." the Brakefather muttered.

"Yesh." Spamcan answered.

"OK, enough with the agreeing, we all wanted to come here for VARIOUS reasons, and now, literally the ENTIRE railway is on our neck!" Diesel snapped

"Natura--..." Derek was cut off.

"OH SHUT IT! Who's leading the bunch, anyway?" the black engine growled.

"I've left BoZo in charge." Cromwell answered "He has a great sense of direction."

"Yeah, I suppose that's true..." Diesel muttered "Still, it'll take time..."

"About I week, I believe..." Cromwell answered "'Till everyone's here. Literally. EVERYONE."

The engines just groaned.

Diesel suddenly looked up, and an expression of deep suspicion creeped onto his face, as he took a slow, deep glance at the Brakefather.

"But tell me..." he spoke slowly, his irritated voice going smooth and acute "HOW did you ended up back in service, Don?"
The brown engine shot a disparaging glare at Diesel.

"Well, unlike you, you sorry excuse of a shunter, these fine, stud lads were altruistic and noble enough to grant me my only wish: a new motor! They've got it from a Russian heavy-weight freight engine who had somehow ended up here, and who was doughty enough to offer ONE of his eighteen cylinder engines for me... Well, after a bit of... "Fillip"..." he smirked darkly, before breaking down into an evil chortle...

All engines shuddered at that last comment, Apart from the Iron Twins, who grinned viciously.

Even the mares and the god took an uneasy step back...

Suddenly, Cromwell seemed to remember something... Something... Unsettling...

"Cue on that..." he spoke hastily "I think I should of mentioned it before... One UNWANTED person have joined us as well..."

"Who?" Diesel asked, before they all went a bit pale "Oh, God save us..."

"I'm right here, you know!" Alexei grumbled.

"Oh... Right... Didn't see you there..." Diesel replied, SLIGHTLY surprised. He then looked towards the gas-turbine engine again, wide-eyed.

"Cromwell... Please, tell me, it ISN'T... HER..." he shuddered...

"Oh, no-no-no-NOOO!" Cromwell exclaimed, before shuddering delicately "I wasn't talking about Mrs. Cruelly..."
All the engines, AND Alexei, let out a relieved sigh...

"But HE is, in fact..." he was cut off, when they heard an all-too-familiar whistle and loud chuffing approaching them.

"Wha-Who-Why-WHAT? WHATISTHAT?!" Bowler panicked, hyperventilating (literally, as his radiator's rotor buzzed up loudly).

"What the...?" the Iron Twins mumbled.

"Wow... Is... Is that really...?" Derek asked in surprise.

"It is..." the HSP Twins winced.

"Bloody 'ell!" Spamcan swore, frustrated.

"I'll say...!" Stuck-Up blurted out.

"Aiaiaiii..." the Brakefather groaned...

"Oh dear..." Cromwell moaned...

"Oh no... Oh no! It can't be... It... CAN'T... Possibly beeee...!" Diesel whimpered, as the latest visitor arrived, stopping beside Cromwell, wheesing out steam...

"STEAMIE?!"

Yup, it was Steamie. A fluorescent green saddle-tank steam engine, with six small wheels, connected via traction rod, a small, stubby black funnel, a stout dome, a small cab with an arched roof, a small bunker, filled with plastic-looking coal, round, white buffers on sparkling red buffer plates, his young, juvenile face bearing the most biggest, SICKENINGLY cheerful smile that Equestria had probably ever seen... His face had a small, snub, round nose, big Bambi-eyes, small, delicate eyebrows in contrast of the monsters and colossi the diesels had, and a wrinkle-less face, which still looked like it never even heard of Botox. On the other hand, his smile gave people the feeling his firebox was stuffed to the brim with Prozac.

"Ah, THEEEREEE you are, fellas!" he spoke in an unreal, squeaky voice, with a BIT of londonian in it "I've been looking over WORLDS for you, only to find out you've came... Here..." his voice drowned away, as he looked around, mouth shrunk down into a small, awed gape, as he stared around with dangerously wide eyes... First slowly scanning, his pupils then began to dart around wildly, until he squeezed them shut, as his mouth turned into a wide, shut-mouth Spongebob grin.

He shot a knowing/smug/trolling glance at the diesels.

"Why, guys..." he spoke, his face returning into an ALMOST normal, self-righteous expression "I would of NEVER thought... You lot, out of all the baddies and anti-heroes... Coming too..." he took an impossibly small inhale, then, after an effect pause:

"EQUESTRIAAAAA!!!!!"

While the engines and the mares recovered from a 200 decibel, shrill holler, Alexei tried to clean out his nonexistent ears out with his finger...

"Well, this is off to a ruddy marvelous start..." he uttered to himself.