"Hey man, when are we gonna land? It feels like we've been stuck in this thing for days." A person, with average height, and a slightly British accent who was wearing a simple suit, a black jacket, and a fedora, who was also sitting next to me, who goes by the name of Seth, who is also a childhood friend of mine, inquired.

   Me and Seth are taking a flight currently going to the hometown of a friend of ours to congratulate him for getting married. Who am I exactly?

   Well, I'm a rather calm, well, most of the time, enigmatic programmer whose name is Wilson. I wasn't really wearing anything awe inspiring during this flight, all I have on is currently a simple black shirt, a grey jacket, and a grey scarf that a dear old friend gave me.

      "How am I supposed to know? Go ask somebody else who probably knows." I replied half-asleep in annoyance as I was rudely awakened from my nap.

        "Ask who? A flight attendant? Not a single one of them is nearby right now." Seth stated.

         "Well, that's very unfortunate for you, perhaps you could simply wait?" I hissed with annoyance due to still being a bit drowsy and cranky from being rudely awoken, to which Seth responded by rolling his eyes in mild irritation and went back to waiting.

      "Wilson, come on, man. Do something, I'm bored." Seth pleaded desperately after not a lot of time later. That's Seth for you, never the one to just sit still and wait, he's always the adventurous type. He even placed several road blocks on the road to his house to delay an unfortunate pizza guy's arrival,

     Now. you'd think he'd do that solely for the free pizza, you thought wrong, he did it because he found it fun.

      "What do you suppose I do? We're in the middle of a god damn flight."

      "I don't actually know. But, knowing you, you could probably do something entertaining until we've arrived at our destination."

      "Ugh, could you just please let me sleep? Just for a couple of minutes, and I'll probably do something."

     "Fine, I can wait. But I'll wake you up if you take too long." Seth warned me before ceasing his maddening pestering, allowing me to, once again, relax.

     A few moments after our short conversation, I returned to the blissful grasp of slumber. But shortly after I did just that, a loud blast suddenly shook the plane violently, causing a scarring panic within the passengers.

    "What in the blazes? What the hell was that!" I asked frantically as I hastily opened my eyes and looked for anything seeming off, or the cause to the sudden blast for that matter. I did not like what I looked, people were panicking, some of them were even unconscious. And are we loosing altitude? Oh hell, the left wing of the bloody plane is missing!

     "It was an explosive, someone set a damned bomb! The whole left-wing of the plane is almost completely blown off!" Seth replied while being very panicky. I could barely decipher his words as the majority of crowd of people within the plane was screaming in total fear.

     Oh bloody hell, as if my day wasn't bad enough, "I can see that genius! But what do we do now? We're crashing anytime soon!" I inquired, once again, the crowd making my words barely audible.

     However, he had no answer, all he did was frantically look around for a moment and then place both of his hands on his temples and looked down, trying his utmost best to discover a possible answer to make the outcome of this event somewhat more favorable.

      Also a bomb? How did it not get detected by the security? And why is it armed in this plane in particular? Ugh, luck, the commodity which is very evasive to me.

      "Seth what do we do? Come on man, we're gonna crash any minute now!" I repeated, and as expected, he had no answer once again.

      I couldn't think of anything as well, not in this state, my heart rate was going insane, my mind, fogged in fear. I could only do what my fear-induced brain told me, close my eyes and hoped that it all ends quickly, and for moment, I saw green flames envelope me.

                                                     Meanwhile in the Changeling Hideout...

      "I don't understand, the summoning process was done correctly, yet, where is this so called 'human' I've summoned?" A fairly annoyed Chrysalis inquired.

      "Perhaps, the ritual failed? My queen."  A male changeling, whose mane was a deep purple, and whose eyes were of a green hue, said.

     "No, it couldn't have, Andrei. The promised human was placed somewhere else, possibly." A hooded female changeling, who had a crimson mane, and teal eyes suggested.

      "Marisa, are you certain? The summoning spell was supposed to summon a human, with a few tools that the summoned human is familiar with, a few feet from the summoner." Andrei replied.

     "Still, there's a possibility that it was summoned someplace else, magic spells like this one tend to be random and sometimes do not go as planned." Marisa stated.

      "If the human we speak of was summoned somewhere else, I want it to be brought here. Andrei! Rally a group of changelings and find him." Chrysalis commanded the two changelings.

        "My queen, what if the human won't accept our request of assistance, surely it would hesitate assisting an entire new race that he is not familiar with?" Andrei inquired with concern clearly apparent in his tone.

       "If the aforementioned human doesn't come to our aid, we must simply bribe him, everything has a price, we've managed to snag quite the amount of interesting loot from our previous caravan we managed to bring down and pilfer." The changeling queen simply replied, prompting her two subjects to nod in understanding.

       And with that said, the two changelings departed, shortly mobilizing a small team of changelings to initiate the start of the search of the human after their departure.

                                           Back to our protagonists...

        I opened my eyes, expecting my life to have ended, however, instead of whatever the afterlife looks like, I seem to be lying down on the ground of what appears to be a clearing of a dense forest.

        As I inspected my surroundings, I came to a conclusion, it seems so familiar to me, but I'm not exactly why? Examining my surroundings further, I spotted an unconscious Seth laying on the dirt not a few feet away from where I was.

      With worry wrenching my mind, I rushed towards him, almost tripping over a very inconveniently placed rock.

    "Seth! Man! Can you hear me?" I shouted at his body, fearing for the worst. No response, I have to check his pulse, "Come on you imbecile, don't die on me, not in a forest, it'll be a hassle for me to bury your body in unfamiliar territory." I said to his unconscious, or possibly dead body.

      Huh, he still has a pulse, well that's good, no need for a burial then, that means more time to identify the current region me and my previously thought dead entourage. But now, I have to wake up my friend, but how? Perhaps I should douse him with water, but I have don't have even a drop of water on me right now, perhaps I should just slap him in the face, yes, that will work.

      "Ugh, what the hell? What was that for, you mongrel!" He loudly asked in panic after being slapped in the face, suddenly, he had a concerned look apparent on his face,"Wait, how are we still alive? Did we... survive the plane crash?" Seth added in bewilderment, while getting up from the cold ground.

     "Apparently so." Bloody hell, this reminds me all to well of Dead Space 3, well, the DLC at least. Perhaps we've been saved by aliens? Heh, I chuckle at the thought.

     "So, what are we supposed to do now? We're stuck in god knows where, and we don't even know how we got here, and more importantly, we've got nothing!" Seth said while removing the grime and dirt off his clothing.

     I literally have no idea, first, I have no clue where we currently are, and second, I have no knowledge of surviving, save for some methods that I acquired thanks to the "Man vs. Wild" show.

    "Actually, where did you get that bag? I don't even remember you wearing that bag at all at any point." Seth inquired with curiosity. A bag? What bag? Oh this? Wait, I don't recognize this bag at all, nor remembering actually strapping this bag on me. The bag itself weighed a little, as if there were some objects inside.

    "That's actually odd, I don't remember seeing this bag at all, much less buying it, I suppose we should probably check what's inside." I suggested before placing the bag in front of me and opening said bag and started inspecting the items within it.

     First of all, the contents stored within the bag is going to be significantly useful to our endeavors, first, I managed to find a flashlight accompanied by several spare batteries, a med-kit, and three bottles of water.

    "Well, mind retracting your previous sentence now? I bet we could survive for a few days with these." I said snidely as I held the objects in front of him for him to view them.

     "I suppose I should now, thank god for your mysterious bag." Seth replied with a somewhat more relieved tone.

     After even more rummaging, I managed to find something that made my jaw drop and made my heart explode, a bloody Colt python revolver, It had a very sleek look as well, it had a lavish black paint job, and its luster could drive a gun enthusiast murder for the possession gun, and it's condition, it's beyond pristine, not a single speck of dirt tarnished this gun, nor does it looks like it's been used before.

   And it even had several boxes of spare ammunition to go with it.

     Did I have experience with guns? Eh, I do, well, at least some, I go to firing ranges somewhat frequently, normally to settle a couple of bets me and some of my colleagues conjured, and sometimes I go hunting. Was I a good shot? I guess I can say I am,

    I'm no legend, mind you, but I wasn't a mad gunman that would blindly fire two automatic sub-machine guns at a deer in hopes that a bullet would strike its intended target.

     "Holy hell, look at this beauty I  just found." I said as I carefully gripped the masterfully crafted revolver from the bag while appreciating the beauty of the masterfully forged revolver.

      "Look at what?" Seth inquired before he caught sight of what I was referring to, "Holy crap! Man, that is one hell of a revolver!" He exclaimed while being awestruck just by looking at it.

      "You're damn straight it is, I wonder how well this shoot?" I asked, looking for something to aim with it. And lo and behold, I managed to spot a curious looking squirrel.

    "Hey man, mind if I test this thing out on that thing right there?" I said with a smirk as I pointed at it with malice.

    "I don't know, what if it attracts unwanted attention? Then again, we're in the middle of a random forest. I doubt civilization is nearby." Seth reasoned, "Alright, do it, we don't have any food with us, and I'm curious what squirrel taste like.

    I grinned, and I aimed at the soon to be deceased squirrel, I gripped the revolver firmly, controlled my breathing, and I lined my shot. And then I pulled the trigger.

    And there goes the deafening blast from the revolver, and the squirrel's head is no more, no literally, its head was completely torn off.

       "Holy hell! Nice shot man!" Seth exclaimed, I guess he was impressed.

        "Hell, I feel bad, I don't think I deserve that kill, this revolver is way to good to possibly exist. Oh well, who cares?" I replied, still awestruck at how well this gun operates.

        "Perhaps we should out now?" I suggested.

        "Yeah, give me a second to grab the meat and let's go."

         "By the way man, I get to be the one with the revolver." I exclaimed with a smug grin.

                                                                 Somewhere in the Everfree...

           A sizable amount of time has passed prior to the changeling search party has been dispatched, so far, they managed to find nothing. But suddenly, a loud blast was heard just ahead of the group of changelings

               "Sir! Did you hear that? It sounded like it came just ahead of us." A changeling scout said.

               "Indeed, I did. That must've been the human, no doubt. Marisa! I think we just located our human." Andrei stated.

                "Apparently so, onwards! The faster we get this done, the better." Marisa stated.

                                                              Back to our so called "heroes".  

       "I feel as if we've been walking for hours, where are we?" Seth inquired feeling very tired. It's only been a few minutes since we started walking, and this idiot is already complaining.

    So far we've found nothing of use. We've managed to cook the squirrel a while back, it tasted peculiar, to say the least.

       I was about to respond in aggravation, but then I heard something that made my ears perk up, footsteps? It didn't sound like footsteps, but it did, it sounded more like... I really can't identify it really, "Shh! I think I heard something! Get down." I commanded as silently as I could.

     We quickly dove into the foliage, hoping to evade a possible dangerous encounter with the local wild life, "Wilson, what did you hear exactly? Wait, I hear it too, I think it's coming this way!" Seth whispered.

    And so we anticipated what could be our first survival situation, and then, it emerged, a chicken? No, wait, it has a serpent's tail! That's so oddly familiar and mentally disturbing. Wait, I think I recognize it from somewhere, ah! Of course, that show! That show about those miniature equines!

    That's a cockatrice! The chicken-snake like being that is capable of petrifying those that are unfortunate enough to be caught by its gaze.

    But that's impossible, how could that creature from the show exist here? Unless, we're in Equestria, which is very unlikely. Alas, what could possibly be the explanation for this cockatrice's existence?

   "Um, Wilson? What the bloody hell is that thing? It looks as if you just saw a ghost immediately after you directly laid your eyes upon it," Seth inquired, "That, my friend, is a cockatrice, the one from the show 'My little Pony', to be exact." I casually replied.

   No way, are we actually in the land of miniature horses? And if so, dammit! We're gonna be so late for our friend's wedding.

   "What? You mean that incredibly idiotic show you watch? Man, what are you on?" Seth responded.

   "Well, that thing right there looks exactly like the one from the show, and now that I think about it, this place looks a lot like the Everfree forest from the show as well."

    "For god's sake, is this what being in hell is? Being stuck in the middle of nowhere with a lunatic?"

    "Ugh, look man, I know that what I just said felt like it came from a psychopath, but I'm serious, this place looks a lot like the Everfree forest from the show, and that thing looks a lot like the cockatrice from the actual show too."

    "Okay, fine, fine. So we're stuck in the dimension of happiness and rainbows, now what?"

    "I suppose we should go find those ponies, I bet they're more than willing to help." I suggested.

    No response? Was my suggestion that idiotic? Eh, possibly.

   "Um, Wilson," He said, his voice faltering which made me slightly concerned, "I think it noticed us." Seth stated with a somewhat concern-filled voice.

    I turned around to face where the cockatrice was previously standing, and as expected, it had a glare directly pointed to our general direction.

   "Don't look at it directly!" I exclaimed as fast as I could while covering my friend's eyes with my hand.

   "Huh? Why not? It's just some angry looking, enlarged, chicken-snake hybrid, I'm sure you can take it on with your revolver." Seth stated as he removed my hand from his eyes.

   "That's not what I meant! If you stare at it directly, you'll be morphed into a stone statue!"

   "The hell? Well, things in rainbow-land are surprisingly grim-dark, the chances of your stroll being ruined by the local wildlife petrifying you is quite probable."

    "What's the plan? I think it's still there, gazing at us," Seth said before turning his head around and attempting to confirm his assumption then quickly spinning his head back to facing me.

   "Indeed! It is definitely still there, attempting to petrify us. You know, this is a very poor self-defense mechanism. Well, I say that it's a form of defense is because I think it would be pretty impossible to eat petrified prey."

    Well, cockatrices can cancel the petrification if it wishes to, perhaps they drag them to somewhere pitch black and devour them there while they are in a state confusion?

   Eh, I don't know. Are cockatrices even carnivores? Or do they posses the same diet that of a regular chicken? Well, snakes are carnivorous. Ugh, enough of this particular topic, I have no intent to learn what this thing consumes.

   Alright, time to get out of this mess, think, think. Eh, I got nothing, time to shoot at it blindly with my revolver, I suppose. Yes, I know what I just said about me not shooting at living targets mindlessly, but hey, this time, the target has petrification powers.

  "I'll just shoot at it blindly!" I exclaimed as I drew my already-favorite revolver.

  "What? Are you insane? That's a completely idiotic idea!" Seth responded via shouting, "But then again, what other choice do we have?" Seth deadpanned.

   Well, time to execute this pathetic excuse of a plan. I aimed at the general direction of the chicken-lizard hybrid thing and fired in quick succession.

  Bang, all six rounds within the cylinder were unloaded at the cockatrice, well, its general direction, at least. After a few seconds, I turned around to face the thing to see if I manage to land at least a single bullet on it, however, I just faced nothing. Must've ran away.

  "Hey! The plan worked-ish!" I exclaimed in victory.

  "Wait, couldn't we have just taken another route?"  Seth stated as we both emerged from the bushes we were currently concealed in.

   "Oops."

                                   Somewhere within the Everfree, not too far away from our protagonists...

     "There's the sound again! But somethings off, it was repeating for a few seconds." A changeling hunter stated.

     "We're definitely close now, just a few more minutes of searching and we'll be able to locate the human soon enough," Andrei, responded. "Marisa! How are you holding up?" Andrei inquired his already weary-looking companion.

     "Can we- Can we please take a break?" Marisa desperately pleaded, appearing as if she was mere seconds away from fainting due to exhaustion.

    "No, not now, we're too close, we're about to find this human and recruit him soon, I can feel it."

    "Eh, whatever you say, but if I were to die from  exhaustion, it'll be on your hooves!"

     Andrei merely rolled his eyes.

                                                            Back to our protagonists...  

  "There! There's Ponyville! Wait, there's gigantic wall, I don't recognize it, nor do I remember it." I stated while perching from a random tree in the forest's clearing.

  "Ponyville? Alright, I never watched the damn show, but, I can tell why there's a handful of haters of it already. And, a wall? I'm not even gonna question how they built it. But, how big is it?" Seth inquired curiously.

  "Don't judge the show until you watched it, you doughnut. And as for the wall, well, it's hard to tell from here. But judging by the fact that we're not that far from here, Titan Eren could possibly jump over it with ease." I snidely answered, actually managing to make myself chuckle.

   "Eh, wait, huh? Titan Eren? What the hell do you mean?" Seth asked in confusion. Oh, well isn't this a nice surprise? He didn't watched the entire anime yet. Should I spoil it for him? Well, it is his fault, he should've finished that anime months ago. Then again, only the most vile of people would spoil an anime.

   "Screw it, forget what I just said. What I mean is that the wall is not that big." I deadpanned. Yeah, that was probably the right decision. I'm notorious, but I'm not downright an evil being that would slaughter the lives of several innocent beings, without good reason, of course.

   "Huh, do you see something else? Perhaps, these so called 'ponies' that you claim to inhabit these forsaken lands." Seth asked with either pure, or sarcastic disgust in his voice.

    Rolling my eyes, I went back to scouting the wall, then I managed to perceive something familiar, a pony, most likely a sentry, most likely because he, or she, it's hard to discern its gender from here, is clad in Royal guard armor and was stationed on top of the wall. Why do they need gigantic wall?

    "Well, bloody hell. There's a sentry on top of that wall, a pony sentry, to be exact." I stated.

    "A sentry? How can a small sized horse defend itself exactly?"

     "Never underestimate those bastards, or you're in for a surprise." I responded.

     "Screw it, forget what I just asked. These ponies, I assume they're friendly?"

  "Indeed, but they're extremely xenophobic. It is essential that we state that we are of no trouble, and we might receive their help."

      "Help? Help with what? Getting out of here? How could they possibly help us? They're just horses!"

      "Sapient horses, to be exact. And there's more to them than just that. Just trust me."

       "Ugh, you know what? To hell with it, lead the way." Seth grumbled before he proceeded to travel to the pony settlement, prompting me to jump down from my perch and resume traveling once more.

     It only took the both of us a few minutes of walking towards the wall. The sentries currently guarding the wall immediately took notice of us and aimed an assortment of weapons at us, "Monsters! Lay waste to them, men!" A guard, most likely that of a higher rank considering that his armor was much more distinct than the rest of the guards, commanded.

    We didn't even have time to react, I basically just shouted "What!" in disbelief before drawing my revolver. A shower of arrows and beams of light that detonates upon impact on anything solid was rained down upon us.

   We basically retreated back to the Everfree as fast we could, but their constant barrage made a normally easy task much more difficult.

    "Wil! I thought you said they were goddamn friendly!"  Seth exclaimed. "It seems that I underestimated their hostility!" I responded.

   "Yeah, it appears s-" Seth's sentence was cut off by an arrow that somehow managed to land right behind his leg, where the arteries were at, causing him to stumble down, immobile, making him curse in agony as well.

    Even more horrifying, three arrows followed the first one that struck him, all three, despite the odds, managed to strike him at various parts of his body, two in the chest, and one in the head.

    Huh, I can't exactly define this feeling I'm currently experiencing. But it's commanding me to slaughter the entire army of guards. Seth, a dear-old friend that I had since I could remember, taken from me by a group of armed horses. Then I felt it, a surge of anger, pure anger coursed right inside me.

     "Seth!" I exclaimed in horror and disbelief, "You bastards think you can get away with this alive?" I bellowed at the ponies with primal rage, actually causing some of them to look at themselves with a worried face, and some even accidentally dropped their spears or swords, or whatever weapon they had on them.

    Alas, it was inevitable, they had slaughtered my friend, my mind was plagued by the need to avenge my friend, so, I took cover from a nearby tree and I took aim at a random pony.

    I ended the life of one of them with a loud roar from my revolver with precision that would be thought to be impossible. Their reactions were priceless, looks of horror were plastered on their faces, however, I gave them no quarter, they had barely no time to react to my second shot.

   A second guard has been slain due to my marksmanship, his corpse actually fell off the wall, thanks to the power and velocity of the bullet.

  One by one, I thinned their ranks, however, to my astonishment, they managed to rally reinforcements consisting mostly of pegasi wielding spears. I'd estimate that there was at least twenty to thirty pegasi in that squad.

  Oh, and look, they're charging straight at me. I managed to shoot some of them down, but now, they're too close for comfort. And close quarters combat is something I'm not experienced in.

   Too my luck however, a green beam, much similar to the ones that barraged me, struck a pegasus that was literally seconds away from impaling me, combusting the pegasus in green flame.

   More and more of the green beams incinerated the pegasi, causing them to retreat. However, just as they finished falling back, the rain of beams and arrows resumed.

    I looked towards the source of the beam, to my surprise however, I saw several changelings either shooting bolts of green light at the ponies, or firing crossbows via telekinesis.

    "I see you've encountered the ponies, human," A changeling with a distinct appearance stated, "There's not much time left, they'll call for additional forces to kill us. I suggest you follow us."

   "Changelings? Why would I go with you guys? I don't even know your name!" I responded as I took potshots at the opposing ponies.

    "Because, I can assure you, unlike those ponies, we're not attempting to kill you. And the name is Andrei."

   I hesitated to answer him. I simply stared at him in silence.

    "Make your choice with haste human! The ponies are probably rallying reinforcements right now!"

    "Fine, fine! I'll go." I stated.

    "Good, good. You've made the right decision. Marisa," This changeling who claimed to be Andrei called out to a female changeling attempting to snipe ponies with a crossbow, "Let's go! Order our troops to retreat back to the Hive! The human agreed to come with us!"

     Shortly after that, me and the squad of changelings departed from the field of battle.

Next Chapter: Ch. 2 The Hive (Revised) Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 13 Minutes