Chapter 1
Canterlot Tower, Equestria, now

-----

Okay, okay no pressure, Twi. Just focus, the magic and try not to think about the gathering crowd, and how hard this is and YEOW!

Shh! Spike be quiet! Twilight need some time without ya prattling at her. This is tough magic!

Yes, spike, please be quiet. This is a delicate procedure, and if we mess it up, the elements could be damaged, or worse.

A book lay open on the element’s stand in the secure room of Canterlot, it’s crisp but bent and timeworn pages detailing complex matha-magical equations and alchemical diagrams of the heavens. The center of the left-hand page detailed the elements and a unicorn inside a pentagram, with the unicorn representing magic. This configuration was the same as the one Twilight was in right now, with the elements resting on the five points of the pentagram, connected by runes and symbols. The element of magic in the form of the ornate crown it had taken since NightMare Moon. The text on the page read:

During a matter transference spell in is necessary to take proper procedures in order to insure safety. Matter transference with the Elements Of Harmony is extensively and indefinitely more difficult. Without the proper containment spells, the space-time continuum could rupture, through quantum resonance and magical energy inference. Treat the Elements with extreme care, but treat the pentagram and dissipation charms and wards with even more, for there is no grater danger to ponies in the immediate area than a Tear. A Tear is a crude portal through ether and void, but with no parameters or destination. The Tear could put anypony anywhere in any timeline, past or future. The Tear could even drop a pony into a timeline NOT their own; essentially a different dimension.

Spike never even noticed that, in the instant Applejack stepped on his toe, the other foot smudged the carefully drawn runes at the edge of the element of Loyalty.

Twilight’s horn and the element of magic flared and pulsed in unison, lighting up the runes and pentagram, turning the white chalky lines into glowing purple ones. The elements flared up as the runes around each burst into violet flames; Honesty, Kindness, Laughter, Generosity and finally on Loyalty. But at Loyalty, the flames faltered as if in indecision of what to do with the broken line of runes. Suddenly the flames made their decision and, with a spark and flash, the space-time continuum ripped like a washcloth and, in a blink, the princesses, the ponies, the elements and one bemused baby dragon were gone, just like that.

Twilight! Twilight, wake up!

Wh… wha?

Twilight sat up, shaking her head to clear it, then yelped and fell right down again.

Yeah I know, but kind of cool when you first look at it.

Twilight stood on wobbly feet beside her friends, blinking and gaping in disbelief at the sight that held everyone in its thrall. The Tear should have put the ponies in the same place as where the magical error occurred, but if this was the secure room of Canterlot castle, then the Tear excelled beyond expectations.

The room around them was moldy and in an excessive tier of decay. The broken window showed a soaring wall made out of some black, shiny metal laced with glowing purple. Multiple sharp towers peaked even farther up into the sky, laced with the same purple as the wall. The largest tower was a needle to the heavens. Dark glass encased in a lattice of even darker metal. Huge chimneys belched smoke up to the sky. Boards and stones were littered all around the oblong space. The friends walked out, but were unaware that Celestia, Spike and Luna were missing from their ranks. Their surprise was, as Luna might have said, doubled, for Canterlot was not the same castle it once was. Most of the old thatch and wood buildings were all burned skeletons of their former selves, but some were just in a state of decay. As they walked toward the gates of the black fortress, they were confronted by a group of ponies wearing vests and helmets of the same color scheme as the fortress. The helmets concealed the pony’s heads, but the horn poking out of each on was enough to tell them they were all unicorns. Emblazed on the front and sides of the vest was…

“Oh my… is that my…” Twilight managed to get out before one of the unicorns telekinetically lifted a sleek black gun and fired a pulse of violet light at her. The force of the blast sent the unconscious Twilight skidding a couple yards down the rough street.

“TWILIGHT! Oh my…” Rarity turned on the other group. “You… you… you BASTARDS! You have no right to do that to poor Twilight! Why don’t you take off those helmets so we can talk to something else besides an… unfashionable piece of headwear!”

The lead pony cocked her head to one side, then her visor clicked and snapped. Multiple dark panels flipped out and overlapped one another as the mare’s face was revealed. “Oh Celestia… you’re m…” Rarity squeaked before she and the rest of them were blown away like twigs in a hurricane.

The other ponies searched the six friends, and when they found nothing, one stallion said to the commander of the Group:

“They have nothing, no ID or registration even. What should be done?” he asked.

The leader’s helmet unfolded even farther, revealing violet curls and a white coat. “I guess we can… dispose of them.” She said, but a holographic video feed appeared to change her mind. “Change of plans; we take them back to HQ.”

“Yes Cpt. Rarity!”

Sparkletech Tower, minutes before

-----

“No.” Twilight’s mind said. “No. This cannot be happening.” The office of Sparkletech Industries LTD’s manager and CEO was blank and colorless, courtesy of the morning sun. “They could not have broken in. NEVER could they have broken in. The imbeciles from Terra Quod Equus and Thunderhead couldn’t break into a house of cards!” “Guards! Get in here, STAT!” Twilight bellowed from her desk, quite out of the mental realm.

“Yes, Mademoiselle Sparkle?” A unicorn said as he bowed low after rushing into the office.

“Who triggered the alarm just now!?”

“erm… well we haven’t located the perpetrators yet, but we’re working on it…”

“Is there ANY chance that these… perpetrators were from Thunderhead or Terra Quod Equus?”

“Well… actually there is a high chance they were from Thunderhead, seeing as they were aerial sensors… but they took out the cameras with a Trojan and the programmers are on overtime as it is so we… I mean… I thought is would be best if um… we…”

“INCOMPETENT!” Roared Twilight. “This is NOT A GAME! DO YOU UNDERSTAND!? If those pegasi were to break into the mainframe, that idiot Dash would have the next CENTURY of Sparkletech plans! Now be useful for once and get me the captain!”

The unicorn whisked off into the hall, the automatic doors sliding silently closed behind him.

Twilight sighed, turning in her chair to face the city outside. The Sparkletech tower dwarfed everything else in Canterlot and it’s energy shields were said to be the brightest thing in Equestria, but even it could not compete with the soaring heights that the Thunderhead company headquarters reached with it’s thrusters belching out smoke loaded with charged particles that made it look like it was creating thunderclouds. And Terra Quod Equus, Oh the little hayseeds. How Twilight itched to get her hands on them. As she built her tower ever higher, the TQE built their base of operations ever lower, getting free geothermal from the blazing core of the planet itself.

Worst of all were these company’s managers. That idiot Applejack, whose hereditary placement at the head of TQE and her inheritance of the Apple family’s extensive fortune and stocks meant she didn’t have to do any work to get to the upper class.
And Rainbowdash. Ohh that Rainbowdash! Most arrogant of the arrogant. Most insufferable in all of Equestria. Her company didn’t do anything but out fly, out invent and out maneuver Sparkletech and Terra Quod Equus. Applejack and Twilight were in agreement of one thing; Thunderhead was too fast and too powerful to be at the hands of one as uncaring and short tempered as “Ms. Dash”.
As a result of this division of ponies into their respective companies, Celestia and Luna were distraught. Just like the tale told every hearts warming eve, the ponies would find the mysterious blizzard brought by the windagos. The blizzard indeed came, along with three of the creatures. Each superpower took one, studied it and airdropped it far, far away. Sparkletech developed a freeze gun, TQE created a cryogenic chamber and Thunderhead made a nimbus crystallizer that could create perfect snow in clouds. Needless to say, the princesses were stunned. Discord could now spread freely without the threat of the blizzard.

Perhaps they had been friends once, when they defeated the gryphon empire. Now they were not friends, just wary, uneasy allies. Had the gryphons not risen back to power and launched another attack, Twilight guessed they would still be fighting. The gryphons surged into Equestria, confident that their new technology would allow them to defeat the ponies, but were unprepared for what they found. Equestria was not the neo medieval land it was during the last war, but a metropolis of steel, computers and technology. Sparkletech ruled Canterlot, Terra Quod Equus commanded Ponyville and Thunderhead’s flying fortress shadowed Cloudsdale like a hawk. The gryphon’s technology was not too far behind, but still, a gryphon stun rifle was nothing compared to a Sparkletech variable electropulse incapacitation device. A gryphon speed amplifier and wing strength enhancer was as useful as an airplane to a Pegasus when compared with the Thunderhead wing articulators and velocity enhancement apparatus. The gryphons freeze drier was a child’s toy compared to the TQE molecular nourishment replicator. All in all, the ponies could have crushed the gryphons easily, had not they been bickering amongst themselves, halfheartedly beating back the gryphons. The gryphons were sneaky and tactical in their battle plans, but their technological and power disadvantages allowed them to beaten at every turn. Eventually, they withdrew, dispirited and without the resources needed for another attack any time soon. But no more, the captain was here.

Sparkletech tower, now

-----

The sliding doors opened soundlessly, as the captain sauntered over to Twilight’s desk.

“Yes?” Twilight prompted.

“The pegasi are on their way, but not voluntarily. We also found something of interest… maybe you should see.” Rarity stepped aside, her team wheeling two gurneys in. One held five incapacitated but conscious ponies. The other held RainbowDash, struggling against projected violet bands of force. They all stared at the two ponies.

“Hmm… let that purple and that white one go, but leave the rest.”

Twilight and Rarity’s cuffs were released and they hobbled over to the desk, numb with disbelief and shock.

“Y… you’re… ME.” Said Twilight and Rarity in unison.

“Indeed… so the quantum resonance scanner did not lie… something rippled through the fabric of space-time.” Mlle Twilight said. “Oh… are your… friends unicorns?”

“Um… no… they’re pegasi and earth ponies, but wait, I…”

“Thought as much, okay everypony!” Said Mlle Twilight to the four remaining prisoners. “Get the hell out of my tower!” As she said this she slammed a red square on her touch screen desk. Panels on the wall retracted and dark robotic hands spun themselves out of their dens and ripped the four cuffed and one restrained pony out of their bonds and held them over a hatch in the floor. "Hahaha! Damn you! Stay away from me… FOREVER!” Mlle Twilight grinned sadistically as the hands relinquished their hold and the four ponies’ screams faded away.