Two years later...

"Sir," an armored soldier walked into the makeshift camp, "patrols report that the surrounding area is uninhabited by sentient life. The terrain is primarily jungle and swamp. Flora and Fauna similar to Determis but several differences have already been recorded as well as entirely new species." he handed a tablet to the officer

"Thank you, Corporal." the officer took the device and scanned the contents. "No dangers discovered, yet. dense foliage could provide cover for even large predators." he examined it in silence for a moment, "Very good, update me as to any changes, carry on." The soldier gave a salute, which was returned, and strode back out of the camp.

The camp was situated just outside a large stone ruin. Whether or not the architects still existed was yet to be seen. Still, the magical energy here was unlike anything ever recorded. The chance for discovery was incredible, though the captain was only here for the pay.

"Sergeant," he turned to their runesmith, "how long until the defense systems are ready."

"Not long now, sir. I should be finished in about an hour." the soldier answered him, "That's the minimum, sir." he continued when the Captain opened his mouth, "If I go any faster it will fail and explode."

"As soon as it's ready set it up first, then give me the report. I don't trust this place."

"Understood." the soldier went back to work.

"What's your name, soldier?" the captain asked.

"Sergeant first class, Jacob Corbin, sir." he responded.

"Glad to have you with us, Sergeant Corbin."

"Thank you, sir."

---------------------

With home camp set and secure it was almost time to start surveying for resources. His Master at Arms was equipping the men, and was preparing the briefing. It would be a quick outing, mainly to become more familiar with the area.

Most of the soldiers left with the group leaving Sergeant Corbin and a few guards at the site. He was happy for that though  as it left him with peace and quiet to work on his machines. They were his love in life. He had no wife or kids, his parents past away along time ago, and his brother was dead. The machines and devices in front of him were his friends and family.

It's not like he wanted friends. Friends were fickle and would abandon you at the drop of a hat, but not machines. If you treat machines right they would never let you down.

The engineer worked in silent bliss not noticing the shadow overhead. Tools and equipment flew off the table when he jumped at the sound of an alarm and the auto turrets unleashing their deadly stream at some unknown target. Jacob ran over to the rifle he had on the table opposite of the one he was working on and grabbed it.

Oh, shit he thought to himself ohshitohshitohshitohshit. He wasn't a combat soldier he was an engineer, killing was not something he was good at nor something he wanted to do. He's had to before but it was never enjoyed.

When he got to the source of the disturbance he saw his beautiful machine flung through the air by a massive claw. He looked at the intruding creature and froze. It was something that he had only read about in books. Something that was extinct back home. It was a dragon.

The four remaining soldiers were engulfed in one massive burst of fire from the beasts great maw. Too stunned to think he fired his rife at the monster and instantly regretted it.

The dragon turned it's head and glared at the frightened man. That was all he needed to start running like it was armageddon (as far as he was concerned it was). He could hear the beating of the beast's wings behind him. There was no slowing or turning around, he just ran.

After an indeterminable amount of time he burst out of the dense jungle and found himself on a rocky outcropping. Noticing the creature was nowhere in sight he relaxed. He walked towards the cliff in front of him and was graced with a welcome sight... civilization. The town sat on the left of where he left the jungle and sat on the edge of said jungle

"I'M SAVED!" he yelled gleefully before an unscheduled nap.

-------------

The bell to the school house rang and colts and fillies stampeded out.

"Daddy!," Aurora gave her waiting father a hug, "I got a gold star!"

"Woah, another? Keep this up and you'll break a record or something." Midnight said

"Six more." said the purple filly, "Oh the crusaders are having a club meeting, can I go?"

"Of course." he said.

The Cutie Mark Crusaders have come along way in the past two years. They have six more members, a hand book, uniforms, and a series of 'Cutie Patches'. They no longer run around doing random things hoping to get lucky, but instead try to teach young colts and fillies what it means to find yourself. Twilight even asked the princess to give them an official charter as a nationally recognized organization.

"Applebloom said she's find me at Sugarcube Corner in a bit." She said.

Cupcakes at The Corner (as Midnight had taken to calling it) was a daily thing for the father and daughter. Pinkie Pie already had their treats ready when they arrived, a chocolate cupcake with strawberry filling for Aurora and a Chimi-Cherry-Changa for Midnight.

The door opened and rainbow dash came in in a hurry, "Midnight come on. Rarity found something you might want to see."

"Wha ish it?" he said behind a mouth full of cherry pastry.

"It's some creature that was passed out on the cliffs." she looked worried, "It kind of looks like how you described a human."

Midnight almost choked on his treat, "What!? Pinkie can you watch Aurora until Bloom get's here."

"Okie-doki, say hi to the humimim for me." she said.

"Sorry, honey, I got to go." he said to Aurora and kissed her on her beside her horn before running out the door.

"It's at your shop." RD said quickly, "Sorry for not asking but we didn't want it in anypony's home. It might be one of the violent ones."

"that's fine. Smart thinking." he said.

They went through the main floor to the bedroom he used when backed up with orders. Rarity, Spike ,and Twilight were already there. Midnight was shocked to see that it was, in fact, a human. Just then the human woke up and pulled himself up. Midnight's eyes grew to the size of plates and his jaw dropped.

"No way," Midnight couldn't believe what he was seeing, "Jacob?"

---------------

Jacob heard whispers, and boots running up steps, followed by a door opening. He opened his eyes to see a wood plank wall. oh, my head he thought to himself, How much did I drink last night. Deciding to see where he was he sat up in the bed and turned around expecting to see the bars of a jail cell (it wouldn't be the first time he got hammered and woke up in jail). Instead he found himself looking at four strange looking creatures. They looked like horses, or maybe ponies would be more precise, but they weren't like any he's ever heard of. They all had vivid color and very human-like expressions of confusion on their faces, especial the dark blue one.

"No way... Jacob?"

He looked around, Did that horse just talk? No "Hello, who's there? Could you come get your pets, their creeping me out?"

The cyan blue one with multicolor hair on it's head and tail suddenly looked angry and flew up to his face... It can fly?. the thought was quickly pushed out of his mind at what happened next.

"Who are you calling creepy, and do I look like somepony's pet to you." it spoke.

He was on the border of panic before he remembered that he was in a alternate dimension. The course of evolution here must have favored this species. Logic managed to gain control.

"I'm sorry, I'm not from around here." he said.

"That's for damn sure," the dark blue spoke again. Something was familiar about that one

"Do you know him, Midnight?" said a purple one with a horn... a horn?

"He's from Determis. More specifically, the Kordan Empire." He looked at the pony confused How does he know that? the other ponies were looking at him with the same expression.

"How do you know where I'm from, little guy?" he asked

The pony smirked, "I'm hurt, Jacob."

It knows my name

"You don't recognize your own little brother?" There were gasps from all the other ponies in the room.

Recognition hit him like a truck. It wasn't his appearance, obviously, but his voice and composure.

"D-david, is that really you?," he realized it was. He didn't know exactly how he knew but he did, "What happened to you? What are you? What are you doing here? Where the hell is here?" he said.

"Woah, slow your roll a bit.One question at a time." he began from how he arrived and explained everything that happened to him.

After he was finished Jacob finally spoke up, "Wow, so basically you were sucked here by a spell that went funky, got turned into a pony, became a hero, got married, and had a kid."

"Eeyep." Midnight said, "You're taking this a lot better than I did when I got here, and I took it pretty well."

"The whole 'world full of talking ponies' thing is easy. I expected the natives of this dimension to be different. It's you that I'm having difficulty with. Not only are you ALIVE but your a pony." he looked lost on that, "My little brother... is a pony... My little brony!!!" he said and pulled Midnight into a hug. The others hit the floor laughing.

Jacob let go of him. he suddenly had a concerned look, "Dave, I was on a recon team here, and you know what that means."

Midnight eyes filled with fear, "They're coming here." Jacob nodded, "How long do you think we have?"

"Three months, at least, four at the most if regular reports aren't sent back. It's procedure to allow for possible time differences."

"What are you talking about, Midnight? Who's coming?" Twilight looked worried.

Midnight looked at his wife and friends, "An invasion."

---------------

AJ, Fluttershy and Pinkie arrived a few moments ago after receiving messages to meet at the shop. Midnight introduced them to Jacob as Twilight wrote a letter and passed it to Spike. The seven ponies and the human watched as Spike sent a breath of magical green flame out the window.

"Now we just wait for the princess to respond." said Twilight.

It didn't take long for the young dragon to belch a scroll. Twilight took it with her magic and read aloud.

Dear Twilight Star

This is indeed terrible news. As I, my sister nor my generals have any previous knowledge of this enemy I am leaving Midnight Star and the human Jacob Corbin in charge of the defense of Equestria. Any support you need for this effort will be granted.

I am placing my faith in all of you

Your princess of the sun

Princess Celestia

"She's putting this off on us?!" Jacob said anger showing, "War is coming here and your princess says 'deal with it yourselves'. Does she not care?"

"Hey, calm down." Midnight said, "Equestria hasn't been to war for over 250 years. They're inexperienced, while we grew up with it. We know more about war than anypony here, and we are the only ones that know this enemy."

"Ok, fine then tell me, little brother," Jacob looked in Midnight's eyes, "what are we going to do?"

"First plan, then carry it out." responded the midnight blue pony, "I'm just trying to think of a plan." he thought for a second, "Hmm, hey, Jacob, you remember where the recon camp was."

"Yeah, by some old ruins. It looked like a castle." he answered.

"The the old palace ruins!" Twilight said, "We know where that is."

Midnight nodded, "Good let's go and see what can be salvaged."

------------

Applebloom ran as fast as she could away from Midnight's shop. She couldn't believe her ears... war. Not just war, but war with the humans Midnight told her and her friends about. She ran across town to the CMC club house, and burst through the doors startling everypony inside.

"Sweetie, Scootaloo, ah gadda talk ta y'all in private, now." she said quickly and ran back out side.

Her two friends joined her outside, "What's wrong Applebloom?"  asked Sweetie Bell, "You look like you saw a ghost."

"Ah went to see if Midnight would come over ta tell some stories," Applebloom was near panic, "when ah overheard 'em talkin ta somepony ah never met. Y'all remember them stories he use ta tell 'bout them humans where he came from. They're gonna invade in three 'r four months!" she finished out of breath.

"Wait what?" asked Scootaloo, "Humans, like what Midnight use to be. Who was the pony they were talking to?"

"Ah don't know, but he said he was Midnight's brother." answered Applebloom.

"Come on let's go meet him than." said Sweetie Bell

"They're goin' ta the Everfree forest, ta find some camp." said AB

"Well then let's go, TO THE CUTIE MOBILE!" said Scootaloo.

The three fillies jumped into a cart next to the club house, Scootaloo on the back. Her wings revved up with a loud buzzing sound. She still couldn't fly. Turned out she had a rare birth defect that caused her feathers to be shaped wrong and unable to generate lift, but they still made plenty of thrust. The little cart took off towards the strange forest. As the forest came into view they saw eight figures enter.

When they got to the forest they parked the cart next to Fluttershy's and went into the woods after their sister's and friends. The Everfree was different every time they entered it. It was the scariest place in Equestria as far as the residents of Ponyville were concerned. Bloom, Sweetie and Scoots agreed but they also found it exiting.

The three fillies followed the same path, but could no longer see the ponies they were following. They continued on, though at a much slower pace.

"Maybe we should go back." said Sweetie.

"No way, I want to see the human." Scootaloo said, "And before you ask, no, I'm not going to wait for them to come out."

They walked for a about an hour with Applebloom at the front. She was following the hoof prints on the path like Midnight showed her when she stopped. A weird track had moved over the hoof print. it was a wide curvy line with holes on both sides.

"What is that?" she asked herself out loud.

"What is what?" asked Sweetie as she and Scoots came up beside her.

Scootaloo looked up over Blooms shoulder and her eyes went wide in fear, "R-r-r-r-RRRUUUNNN!!!" she screamed as a serpent-like creature lunged at them with sickle like arms barely missing as the three sprinted down the trail. It slithered after them.

-----------

Twilight stood horrified at the scene before her. Blood and charred remains of humans were everywhere. The poor mare couldn't hold her lunch down and vomited in a bush nearby. Things like this were a rare sight in Equestria and she was not prepared for it. She wondered for a moment how Midnight and Jacob could walk around it unfazed, but than she remembered what he use to do when he was human. This was probably nothing compared to some of the things he's seen. She was glad the others were asked to stand watch outside camp.

"Jacob, you get your tools and whatever other equipment we could use, I'll raid the armory." Midnight told his brother, "Oh, how many were here?"

"There should be 47 bodies." Jacob replied.

"Twilight, I really don't like asking you to do this, but I need you to count the number of bodies here. We need to know if any of them escaped." Midnight said, "Can you handle that." She just nodded, "Thank you, Twilight." He gave her a kiss on the cheek and headed toward a large steel box.

After a half hour the three met in the middle, Twilight was pale. Seeing her like this broke Midnight's heart, even more so to ask, "How many did you count?"

"forty seven." she said quietly.

"I found the hauler, it's still functional." said Jacob, "It'll have to be moved across the bridge, but we could drive this stuff out."

"Good I was expecting to make multiple trips, so this will put us ahead of..." Midnight was cut off by the sound of screaming, "Jacob grab a gun."

-------------

It was gaining on them. Several of it's swipes almost hit them, but they were lucky. Scootaloo was running behind her friends trying to distract it. She was by far the most agile of the group. Another swing of it's massive bladed arm barely missed as the flightless pegasus jumped up over the arm.

She turned to look at the beast. It was a pale brown with a mouth that set vertically on it's face full of needle like teeth and two black beady eyes. It was a sight that she would never forget as the arm that just missed her came back at her face to ensure it would be the last thing she would ever see.

she screamed in agony as the arm tore across her face. Her senses all dulled, except for pain. All she could hear was the screech of the beast that was going to kill her and the distant sound of thunder crashing. Next Chapter: Chapter 4: Preparations Estimated time remaining: 1 Hour, 39 Minutes