Prologue

Author's Notes:

Ponies on Earth. Humans in Equestria. This is a story in which human and pony meet and work together. But it's not either of the above categories. This is a story about a meeting on neutral ground, a world not known to either species. There will be some conflict, and distrust, on both sides. But it will not be dominant, save at the very beginning. This is also a crossover story. Other beings from other worlds will also get dumped on this planet by the force that brings our protagonists here. Some will be new allies. Others will be dangerous foes.

Before I start the story itself, let me give you a few of the assumptions that have gone into this work, so we'll be starting on the same page:

1: Ponies do NOT speak English. The language barrier won't be a major issue for long (translation magic), but it is there at first.

2: Pony Magic has a scientific explanation, which the ponies are aware of. To wit, they are manipulating the 'Thaumic Field' which is basically a fifth fundamental force alongside the four forces humans know of.

3: Pony technology is often at a lower level than human tech. But, their science is equal to ours. The lag in tech is due to them not needing as much tech thanks to magic. (Necessity, Mother of invention, you know the drill.)

4: The Earth Fallow Meadows comes from is identical to ours, save for the lack of MLP.

Equestria. The first warning sign was something so small that many ponies didn't even notice it at first. Even those that did failed to understand the import. Rainbow Dash, having assigned her weather crews to their jobs for the day, was sleeping soundly atop a small cloud she had fashioned for just that purpose. Supposedly she was seated in the high-altitude position looking down to monitor her crew's progress, but she knew they could be trusted. And so she slept, and dreamed.

In her dream, crowds were chanting her name as she stood in a Wonderbolts suit, a Gold Medal around her neck. "Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash!" the dream crowds chanted, and then the Princesses flew down from above.

"Rainbow Dash," Dream Celestia said, "You are the greatest flier our nation has ever seen. That is why I am taking away your Gold Medal and replacing it with the first, last, and only Platinum Medal instead!"

Rainbow smiled as the crowds chanted louder. This was the best dream she had ever had, or at least it would have been if not for the fact that she had it at least once a week. Plus, that flashing was getting annoying. Were there press ponies taking her picture? She looked all around but saw nopony with a camera. The flash strobed again, brighter than before...

...And Rainbow woke up. "What the hay?" she muttered. "That's never happened before... What was the deal with those lights?" And then another flash came, and the pegasus realized the truth: The flashs in her dream had came from something in the real world. Casting about her gaze, she saw storm clouds in the distance, beyond the Everfree, with lightning flashing about both in the clouds and from them to the ground.

"Past the Everfree... That's near Mule's Coast... There's not supposed to be rain there today..." Rainbow sat and watched the storm. The longer she watched, the more unnerved she grew. There was something about it...

Making a decision, Rainbow held an enchanted gem to her ear. "Cloudkicker, you hear me?"

"Loud and clear boss, what's up?"

"I'm not sure... Get everypony together and meet me up here. I wanna get your opinion on something..."

Earth. Just outside Fallow Meadow, Indiana. Bertram Gumbal, 'Bert' to his friends, stared at his radio in confusion. Something was causing significant static and interference, and he couldn't figure out what it could be. "No storms on the radar... No unusual sunspot activity... No signs of the feds doing anything in the area that they'd be jamming the airwaves for..."

"Grrrowl..." Bert looked down at Shadow, his two year-old Malamute, and grinned.

"You don't get it either eh?" He asked the dog. It gave a huge yawn in response.

Bert shook his head. He knew exactly what everyone in town would think if they saw him getting upset over this. "Ol' Bert's at it again, crazy survivalist that he is." They would say. He didn't mind the survivalist part. That was true through and through. But crazy? Hell no. He wasn't one to see aliens and conspiracies in everything around him. He actually trusted the government, to an extent. He just felt better knowing that if things went south he had a radiation-hardened shelter, ten years of food, and enough weapons and ammo to outfit a platoon.

With a sigh, Bert rose, grabbed a backpack, and motioned for Shadow to follow. Man and beast walked side by side up the stairs, out the back door, and up another, exterior staircase to the roof of their home/fortress. "What the hell?" Bert whispered. To the east, he could see a vast swath of dark clouds flickering with lightning, where there shouldn't have been anything according to the weather radar he had just checked.

The storm was too far away to hear the thunder, so Bert rifled around in his pack until he found what he was searching for: a directional microphone. Pointing to the east, he could now hear the rumble of thunder. He waited for a especially brilliant bolt and started counting. "one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand..." He reached twelve before the thunder rolled in his ears.

Reaching over to scratch Shadow behind the ears, Bert waited five minutes, then counted again. This time he only got to ten. "Coming this way... Storms never come in from the east around here though..."

Bert's thoughts were interrupted by a low growling. It took him a moment to realize the source; Shadow. The dog, who normally liked stormy weather, was staring at the distant storm, hackles up, growling under his breath.

"Yeah, I've got a bad feeling too boy..." Bert whispered. The dog growled louder...

Equestria. Twilight Sparkle sat in an oversized chair sipping tea and reading her newest acquisition: "Manticores Are From Mars, Venus Flytraps Are From Venus." She had to admit it was a strange tome. The author was either writing it as a parody, in which case he was a genius, or writing it seriously in which case he needed to be locked in a padded room. Either way, it was worth a laugh, which the mare needed after a hectic week. Chuckling at the book's contention that "Manticores are an asexually reproducing species, a fact necessitated by the lack of womanitcores" Twilight took a sip of her tea... ...And promptly spit it back out as she was startled by a sudden loud booming knock from the door.

"What in the world...?" Twilight trotted to the door, unhooked the locks, and opened up to find Rainbow Dash. The pegasus was looking rather haggard and unkempt, prompting Twilight to ask "What happened to you?"

By way of an answer, Rainbow grabbed Twilight and flew straight up with her, perhaps a hundred feet, then pointed towards the Everfree with a free hoof and said "That thing happened."

Twilight's gaze followed the line her friend was pointing in, and she was the storm, now looming high over the forest. "A magic storm?" She asked. "But you've busted up tons of those in the past."

"Not like this one." Rainbow answered. She flew back to the ground and let Twilight go. "That's not just wild magic from the Everfree... I first saw it when it was off past the forest... And it's coming this way, right for the town!"

"And the weather team can't break it up?"

"Tried." Rainbow said. "That's how I got so roughed up."

Twilight shook her head. "Okay, tell me exactly what happened."

Rainbow nodded and began her story: "So I see this thing off where there's not supposed to be any rain today. Looked wrong somehow, can't explain any better than that, sorry. Anyway, I got the whole crew together and told them we were gonna try to break it up. We approached like normal for that kind of thing, but then... I dunno Twi, it was like I hit a solid wall that wouldn't let me get close enough to do anything. The others did too."

"Weird." Twilight mused. "Then what?"

"Well, I had the others stay back, tried a couple more times myself... Same thing every time. Then Dust Devil said he wanted to try something. He did this high altitude corkscrewing maneuver, tried to drop in on it from directly above..."

"And...?"

"And it blasted him with a really powerful lightning bolt!" Rainbow exclaimed. "He's gonna be okay, pegasus electrical resistance and all, but it was so strong he was knocked out, we had to fly him to the hospital."

"Hold on Dash, are you saying that a thunderstorm purposely blasted somepony with lightning!?"

"That's exactly what I'm telling you." Rainbow insisted. Seeing Twilight's skeptical expression she said "Look, I don't blame you for doubting, but if you'd seen it yourself you'd know. It was on purpose."

Twilight decided to humor Rainbow's absurd claim. "Well..." She said, "If that's true then it implies a controlling intelligence... Which for something like a cloud would mean that somepony enchanted the storm magically... Carry me back up, I wanna check something."

Rainbow did so, and Twilight's horn lit up as she scanned the area around the storm, examining the Thaumic Field in detail. She knew that the rogue storm had to be magical in nature, given the barrier that stopped the pegasai from entering it. She also knew that on the odd chance Rainbow wasn't wrong there would be a structured coherent latticework to the magic, in order to create the intelligence.

Of course, Twilight didn't think Rainbow could be right about the storm actually attacking somepony with malice. And so she wasn't shocked to find no sign of such a lattice. But as she scanned deeper, she got one of the biggest surprises of her life: There was NO magical energy in the storm at all... Not even the background magic that permeated all of existence. It was like a null spot, a void.

Twilight's jaw dropped open. She didn't know what such a void could mean. But she felt sure that whatever it meant, it was going to be very, very bad. "Dash, get us to the Mayor's Office right now!" She exclaimed...

Earth. For a relatively small town, Fallow Meadow had an active social scene. Partly this was all of the teenagers around; The High School for the entire surrounding county was on the northeast edge of town, and everyone from the school hung out in the town itself. Another reason was an excellent family-owned diner, called "The Spoony Bard" for reasons only the owners understood. When Bert raced into town behind the wheel of his Hummer, he knew the diner was his best bet for finding who he needed to find.

The survivalist swerved neatly into an open spot before the building's front doors, pausing only a moment too keep up his composure. He glanced up at the sign, the diner's name in neon, with an animated element featuring two characters. One was the eponimous bard, with a lute in his hands. The other was an old man with a cane. The animation depicted the old man jumping up and smacking the bard over the head over and over. For the thousandth time Bert wondered what it meant. With a sigh he exited the vehicle, Shadow close at his heels.

Inside the diner, waitress Florence Maxwell was already having a bad day. Both of her usual coworkers had called in sick, leaving her to handle the entire customer load alone. As she hustled between tables and booths, Flo tried to distract herself by listening to the animated discussions going on between a pair of men at the counter. This was a daily ritual for the two; they spent at least an hour every morning bantering back and forth over coffee, on pretty much any subject that caught their attention.

As she refreshed their drinks, the younger of the two asked "How you holdin' up Flo?"

"I'd walk out, but three people's worth of tips is too good to pass up." Flo answered honestly.

"I hear you there."

"I'd like to see what happened if she did walk out." The older man said. "Can you see the look on Herb's face?" He laughed.

"Now Phil, that's another reason why I can't." Flo said. "He'd try to handle it all alone, and you know the kinda state his heart is in."

Everyone looked up and out the front window as they heard a screeching sound. They saw Bert's expert swerve into the empty parking spot. "Show off." Phil said.

"It's just Bert, you know what he's like."

Watching as Bert stepped out of his seat, Flo's eyes widened. "I know he's not actually bringing the dog in here..."

But he was. Bert rushed in through the front door, Shadow close behind. "Bert! No dogs!" Flo exclaimed.

"Call him a service animal." Bert replied. He looked at the younger of the two men at the counter. "Rog, you've got weatherman training right?"

"Minored in meteorology. What's this about?"

"Bad storm comin' in from the east. Real bad..."

Roger favored Bert skeptically. "That doesn't make any sense..." He pulled his cell and activated the radar app. "See, nothing."

Bert shook his head. "Gonna have to do this the hard way." He muttered. Saying "Come on." He grabbed Roger by the ear and pulled him off his stool, around the counter, and towards the roof access stairs.

"Hey! Hey let go! Damn it Bert what's the deal!?" Roger complained.

With Phil and Florence following, Bert dragged Roger to the up the stairs and out onto the roof. He pointed east. "That look like nothing to you?"

Roger's jaw dropped open as he looked up to the storm clouds now looming high into the eastern sky. He looked back and forth between the storm and his cell's screen. "That's not possible."

"Lord a' mercy this looks bad." Flo whispered.

Bert nodded. "Yeah, even Shadow's spooked and he usually likes storms."

Roger finally found his voice again. "I um, I think we'd better call Sheriff Tucker... They might wanna sound the storm sirens..."

Equestria. Twilight and Rainbow arrived at the Ponyville Town Hall to find a crowd already gathering, looking towards the approaching storms with trepidation and fear. "Twi!" A familiar voice called out. Applejack rushed to her friend's side. "What's happenin'?"

"I'm still not sure." Twilight replied. "But it's good that everypony is here. I think we should get the whole town inside, to the basement shelter."

"Alright then, I'll get things movin.'"

"Good." Twilight nodded. "Is there anypony who's not here yet?"

"Just Flutters, livin' so far out by the Everfree."

Rainbow's eyes went wide. "What!? But that means she already under the storm by now!" Before Twilight could stop her, the pegasus was gone.

"Oh I hope she knows what she's doing." Twilight said.

As she streaked towards her shy friend's home, Rainbow was careful to regulate her speed. As much as she wanted to get there as fast as possible, she knew that a rainboom might trigger another lightning bolt attack from the storm and that was the last thing she needed. Overhead, the clouds churned and flashed and rumbled, a deep rolling thunder that never quite ended.

Then, just as she was reaching her destination, the sun shone through. "What the buck?" Rainbow thought. She looked up and her mouth dropped open in awe. A massive circular wall of rotating clouds was spinning about, still filled with lightning and thunder, but the sky directly above was clear. "An eye?" She thought. "Only hurricanes are supposed to have those..."

Shaking herself back to the task at hand, she banged on Fluttershy's door and was unsurprised by the lack of an answer. "Flutters! Flutters it's me open up!" She exclaimed.

Getting no answer, Rainbow decided to switch over to her usual brash attitude: She turned around and bucked the door in. Flying into the house, Rainbow needed only moments to find Fluttershy clinging to Angel, both of them hiding under her bed. "C'mon, let's go!"

"Oh but I can't go! The little animals might be hurt after the storm is over!"

"And that won't mean anything if you're too hurt to help them!" Rainbow countered. She grabbed ahold of a hoof and started dragging Fluttershy out from under the bed, switching positions when possible to grab ahold under Shy's wings and start forcibly carrying her, out the door and back towards town.

"Rainbow Dash! Put me down!"

"When we're safe!"

Back at the Town Hall, Twilight and her friends stood gazing out the doors at the pending storm which now filled the sky from horizon to horizon. They had managed to safely secure everypony else in the basement, save for the staff and patients at Ponyville Hospital, which were sheltering in place.

"Come on Dash, get back here already!" Twilight worried.

"Oh it's Dashie, she'll be fine!" Pinkie said.

"I hope so."

"Should we risk going after her?" Rarity asked.

Applejack shook her head. "Much as I want to, no. That'd just be more of us outside in... ...that."

"Hey look!" Pinkie exclaimed, pointing, "There's clear sky! Maybe it's gonna blow over!"

"I don't think so Pinkie..." Twilight said. As they watched, the eye of the storm was coming into view, and followed closely behind a pair of pegasai, one exhausted, the other annoyed.

"Oh thank goodness you're both here!" Rarity said.

Rainbow was panting hard from the exertion. Fluttershy looked ready to give her the stare. And then, before anything else could happen, a low whistling sound started, and grew louder and louder. Six ponies stared at the sky, watching a display unlike any they had ever seen...

Earth. Bert and the crowd from the diner stared apprehensively out the front windows as the storm sirens began to blare. The last few citizens still out in the streets ran for shelter wherever they could find it. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled in an ever-increasing cacophony of visual and auditory stimulation.

“Look! The sun's coming out!” Florence said.

The eye of the storm settled in over Fallow Meadows. A whistling sound screamed, audible even over the sirens...

On two worlds, impossible storms whirled and boomed and crashed.

On two worlds, impossible storms settled in over small towns.

On two worlds, a loud whistle cut through the skies, accompanied by a tremendous surge in lightning and thunder along the storm's eye walls.

...On two worlds, storms vanished as quickly as they had formed, leaving behind no sign that they had ever been there... ...And no sign of the towns they had settled over...

Somewhere else. Situated in the shadow of a vast mountain range to dwarf the greatest peaks on Earth were a pair of small meadows, perhaps two miles apart from each other. They were bisected by a small creek, and surrounded by forests filled with life. It was, from any reasonable viewpoint, a picturesque locale. Not that anyone had ever thought so since this world was not home to anything intelligent. That was about to change.

Into each meadow came a blinding flash of white light, which faded away to reveal a pair of towns. Towns which, in both cases, were left to wonder just what had happened, and where they now were...

Chapter One

Author's Notes:

For clarity,

"XXXX"

Denotes a scene change.

"xx"

Denotes a point-of-view change within the same scene, usually from human to pony or vice-versa.

Ponyville town hall. Twilight Sparkle groaned as she picked herself up from the floor. "What happened?" She mumbled.

"Heck if I know." Applejack answered. Twilight looked and felt a brief tug of annoyance that the farm mare was the only one who had apparently managed to keep on her feet through the, well, the whatever it was that had just happened. Applejack continued "All I know is, the lightning went crazy like no lightning I've ever seen before. Then there was this huge booming sound and flash of light."

Standing now, Twilight shook herself off and tried to focus. Everything looked normal enough, at least inside the building. There was no smell of smoke in the air, a relief after so much lightning. And... "What is that sound!?" She exclaimed.

"It just started darling." Rarity said. "High and low back and forth..."

"Some kind of alarm?" Rainbow suggested.

"Maybe..." Twilight pondered. "This would be a good time for an alarm to be going off."

"Yeah, but what pony in their right mind'd make something so annoying?"

"Good question."

"Okay, let's get organized." Twilight said. "A.J., Dash, take a look around outside, see how much damage there is. Pinkie, go down into the shelter and make sure everypony is unharmed. Spike, take a letter."

"Ready when you are Twilight!" The dragon said, producing quill and parchment.

"Dear Princess Celestia," Twilight began, "We have just experienced a most unusual event here in Ponyville. A rogue storm of incredible power blew in from beyond the Everfree forest. The storm has dissipated now, and everypony who took shelter in the town hall seems to be okay. However, the storm itself had some most peculiar properties, of a kind that I have never personally encountered or even read about..."

Twilight stopped as Spike snickered. "Something funny?"

"Sorry Twi. It's just... Something You've never read about!? I never thought I'd see the day."

Fluttershy and Rarity chuckled softly as well. "It does seem unlikely dear." Rarity said.

Twilight shook her head. "Okay okay... Enough humor at my expense, there's a letter to send." She resumed dictating. "For one thing, Rainbow Dash swears that the storm intentionally attacked a pegasus attempting to disrupt it. While this is not entirely impossible, it would require a spell matrix to hold a consciousness magically. Which leads to the second anomaly: The storm was entirely devoid of any Thaumic energies whatsoever. As you know, this should be impossible; even if a thaumic vacuum could be created, the surrounding energies would flow into the area to correct the imbalance. With regrets, I must admit to having no idea whatsoever on how to explain this. Any assistance is appreciated. Your loyal student, Twilight Sparkle."

As Spike rolled up the scroll, Fluttershy asked "Thaumic energy?"

"Magic darling." Rarity replied. "Thaumic is the scientific term for it... But Twilight, are you certain? No magic in it at all?"

"Zero." Twilight confirmed.

"Ready to send!" Spike announced. He held out the scroll and blew fire, burning the scroll into magical energies that swirled around and around before dissipating.

"Everypony's okay!" Pinkie announced, bouncing back up the stairs from below, followed by some of the braver townsponies.

"Good. Now let's-" Twilight was cutoff as a shimmering green cloud appeared, and condensed into a scroll which fell at her feet. An all-too-familiar scroll.

"Isn't that the same scroll Spike just sent?"

Spike popped the seal and read the first line. "'Dear Princess Celestia. We have just experienced...' Yeah, that's it all right."

"Why did the letter come back here?" Fluttershy asked.

"They're supposed to return to sender if they can't be delivered." Spike answered.

Twilight nodded. "Right. But why...?"

The front doors slammed open, to reveal Applejack and Rainbow Dash with frightened expressions. "Um, Twi, y'all might wanna come take a look at this..."

"Oh my, how bad is the town damaged?"

"The town itself is fine, far as we can tell." Applejack said. "And as you can hear that awful sound has finally stopped too. It's just... well... Come look."

With Twilight leading the way, the ponies in the lobby filed out into the now brightly-sunlit day. As they looked about it became clear that the town had indeed weathered the storm with little or no damage. It was Dinky Hooves, riding atop her mother's back, that noticed first. "Wow! Look at that!" She exclaimed, pointing off to the north.

Twilight looked, and her jaw fell open. Where there should have been nothing but open fields leading up to the slopes of the lone mountain where Canterlot stood, there was now a thick forest that continued to the feet of a much larger and more intimidating chain of mountains. The peaks continued as far to the east and west as she could see, snowcapped and unfamiliar. Of Canterlot there was no sign. "W... What!?"

"Where's Canterlot!?"

"Where are the Princesses!?"

"Where are we!?"

The voices grew ever more panicked. Twilight wanted very badly to panic along with them. But she had a duty, and so instead she shouted "Okay! Calm down! Everypony just calm down right now!"

"But what's happening?" A still-panicked voice shouted from the crowd.

"I... I don't know." Twilight admitted. "But whatever it is, we'll all get through it if we just stick together.

Amidst a commotion of ponies being jostled out of the way, the Mayor arrived and proclaimed "Miss Sparkle is correct! We need to work together to gather supplies and create a secure area. The town hall itself is our best choice for that. So, if everypony will follow me back inside, we can make our plans and get started, allowing the Element Bearers to work on the larger issue in peace." She turned and trotted back into the building, followed by the crowd.

"Well thank goodness for that." Applejack said. "So, you're up Twi. What should we do?"

"I think... Reconnaissance first... Rainbow Dash?"

"Ready!"

"I want you to fly straight up, five hundred hooves, and see whatever there is to see." Twilight said. Dash nodded, saluted, and started to fly away when Twilight quickly grabbed her by the tail.

"Huh!? What gives?"

"I mean it Rainbow Dash." Twilight said. "Straight up, look around, straight back down. No matter what you see, no flying off on your own!"

"Okay okay, sheesh... Be right back..." Pumping her wings hard, Rainbow ascended rapidly to the altitude Twilight requested. Leveling off, she scanned the surrounding area. Mostly she saw forest, and to the north the great mountains. Ponyville itself was now situated at the center of a meadow surrounded by the forests. Looking closer, the pegasus saw that the entire town had apparently been bought here, even Fluttershy's cottage and Sweet Apple Acres, but the cutoff line was sharp along the perimeter.

Thoughts of home led her to look for her own cloud house, but it was nowhere to be seen. "Great. The one thing the storm doesn't bring..."

Moments later, Rainbow's ruminations on the loss of her home were cut short when she saw movement out of the corner of her eyes. Focusing, she could just barely see... ...something... hovering in the sky perhaps two miles away. "What the hay is that?" she whispered to herself. Rainbow considered ignoring Twilight's concerns and flying over for a better look. Before she could do so, however, the mystery flier descended straight down. Watching, Rainbow saw what she had somehow missed until now: Another town.

Twilight and her friends watched as Rainbow Dash slowly fluttered down to the ground. "Well?" Pinkie asked.

"The whole town's here." Dash replied. "Flutter's place and the farm too, but not my place... And, there's a new town that way." She pointed west.

"A whole new town!?"

"Yeah. Funny looking too, buildings looked a little too big and they're not made like the buildings here... And, one other thing... Something flew up from the town, then went back down."

"'Something?' What kind of something?" Twilight asked.

"Yes dear, there are only so many intelligent beings that can fly... Was it a pegasus, or a breezy, or (Celestia forbid), a changeling?" Rarity asked.

"None of them. I don't know what it was, except that it wasn't just, like, a bird or a bug or something..."

"Weird... But we need to investigate!" Twilight declared. "Come on girls, it's time to meet the neighbors..."

The Spoony Bard diner, Fallow Meadows. Bert was, of course, the first one back on his feet following the flash. He peered out the diner's windows, shocked to see sunlight where there had been only the darkness of the storm. "Alright folks, everybody on your feet!" He shouted over the still roaring storm sirens.

Roger stood, helping Florence up. "What the hell just happened?"

"That flash... Bert, did some nutjob finally drop the bomb?"

"No bomb... Least ways not a nuke." Bert said. "We're still here after all. Don't blame you for thinkin' that though, bright as it was."

"So what did happen then?" Another patron asked. "I mean, something's not right here."

"I don't know, but I intend to find out." Bert said. "Anyone wants to come with, I'm heading over to the Sheriff’s office. Maybe they'll know something, and maybe they can turn that damned siren off."

Most of those who were in the diner, including Florence, Roger, and the cook followed behind Bert as he walked down the street. The height of the buildings in that part of town screened locations further away from view at ground level, so none of them yet noticed the change of locale. Halfway to their destination, the sirens fell silent. "Thank God for that." Roger cheered.

"Don't be too happy about it." Bert said. "Look." He motioned to a nearby traffic light, which was dark.

"Aw man, the power's out?"

"Yep, whole town I'd say."

"Great."

They walked the rest of the way in silence. As the group was approaching the station, Sheriff Conrad Tucker stepped out, holding a rifle. "Bert, am I glad you're here." he said. "Never thought any of the weird stuff you survivalist types go in for would happen here."

"For the love of... I'm not a conspiracy nut!" Bert exclaimed. Then belatedly he added "Wait... What weird stuff? You mean the storm?"

"Nope, c'mon, you can see from our roof..." Bert and company followed as the Sherriff led them up onto the roof of the four story building. From there, they could see the surrounding forest and mountains.

"What... ...Where the hell are we?"

"The million dollar question my friend." Tucker replied.

Roger said "The storm... I know how crazy this sounds, but that freaky storm must've done something to us."

"Yeah... Now we know why the power's out." Bert said. "Sheriff, you've got generators for the station right?"

Tucker nodded. "Yeah. And I think I know what you're thinking Bert, and there's bad news on that front too... We've got our radios online, computers too... There's nothing. No radio, no television, no internet."

"But what could knock everything out all at once?" Florence asked.

Bert said "Radio interference? That's what first alerted me that something was up, I was getting heavy static on frequencies that should have been crystal clear."

"I don't think so." The Sherriff answered. "See, we can't get any outside communications, but our own radios..." He pushed a button on his radio. "Allen, Allen you read?"

"Loud and clear boss." A voice came back.

"Okay, just testing. See? No interference now."

A look of intense concentration came over Bert's features. After a moment he said "But if the airwaves are clear... And there's no active broadcasts..." He blanched.

"You've come to the same conclusion I did then." Tucker nodded. "Wherever that storm's taken us, it's not just around the corner... We're not on Earth anymore..."

A ruckus erupted among the group at these words, one that took the Sherriff several minutes to calm. Still not wanting to believe it, but knowing that it made more sense than any other option, Florence asked "So, what are we supposed to do?"

Bert said "Getting intel on our surroundings is the first step."

"Right." Tucker agreed. "And we're already working on that. Come on." He led them back to ground level, and into the back parking lot of the police station. Here they found a pair of young men working around a small machine.

"A drone?" Bert asked.

"Exactly. We've mounted a better camera than it came with, we're just gonna send it up, get a good look." Tucker started back towards the door. "We'll be able to watch in real time.

Back inside, Tucker and the rest of the group along with several deputies stood watching the video feed as the drone flew upwards. They could see the seemingly endless forest, and little else. Bert looked close, searching. "Hot damn!" He suddenly exclaimed. "Look here! That's my place."

"Good news. We might need the weapons."

"You've got 'em... Supplies too, food, medicine, fuel..."

"Hey! What's that!?" Roger said, pointing at the screen.

"Some kind of bird?"

"Maybe..." Tucker radioed to the men operating the drone. "Can you guys zoom in on that?"

"One sec..."

The view suddenly began to change, zeroing in on...

"You guys seein' this?"

"Winged horse?"

"Yep."

"Pegasus. That's what the Greek Myths called winged horses."

"Am I allowed to say I'm not seeing it?"

"Is it just me, or is it looking this way?"

"It is! Guys, get the drone back on the ground."

Tucker and Bert exchanged worried looks. "What the hell do we do now?" They asked together...

Deep in the unfamiliar forest six ponies moved in a tightly huddled group. "I know it's not the Everfree," Applejack said, "But darned if it's not giving me the same vibe."

"Yeah, anything could be in here." Pinkie agreed.

"Not what I needed to hear right now." Fluttershy whispered. Several voices muttered their agreement.

"Oh, but anything can mean anything!" Pinkie said. "Not just anything bad!"

"Maybe..." Twilight said. She sounded unconvinced.

Rarity asked "Rainbow dear, we've been walking for half an hour and you said it wasn't that far... Are you sure we're still on the right course?"

"I'm wondering the same thing." Twilight agreed. "Can you take a quick look?"

"Sure thing." Rainbow flew out of sight above the forest canopy, then returned a few moments later. "We're good. It's just over the next rise."

"Did you see anything else?" Fluttershy asked. "Like, maybe who lives there?"

"Well, actually yeah... I didn't wanna scare you..."

"We need t' know." Applejack said.

"Right, well... They're some kind of tall things, walkin' around on their hind legs like minotaurs."

"Minotaurs!?"

"No, like minotaurs. Smaller though, but still a little bigger than ponies... No horns, not much hair..."

"Freaky."

"Totally."

The friends continued on in silence, climbing the rise and looking down on the new town. "It's bigger than Ponyville." Twilight observed, "Maybe half again as big."

"Yeah... And look at those creatures... Never seen anything like 'em!" Applejack said.

"Oh but look!" Fluttershy squealed, "They've got pet dogs! They can't be all that bad if they keep pets can they?"

"Hey! If they like pets like we do, maybe they like parties!" Applejack and Rainbow grabbed tightly onto Pinkie's tail before she could bounce into the center of town and pull a party cannon out of nowhere.

"Maybe later Pinks. After we know more about them!"

"Aww.... Then again, the more we know the better I can make it... Okay!" Pinkie grinned.

"Crisis averted." Twilight thought with a sigh of relief. She said "Okay, let's go..."

Meanwhile in Fallow Meadows, Sherriff Tucker was debating with Bert on how best to proceed. "Look, it's clear we're on some kind of alien planet. We need to know more about it if we're gonna survive..."

"I agree!" Bert said, "But going out half-cocked'll just get people killed. Fortify and defend first, then go exploring."

"Fortify with what!?"

"There's more than enough supplies in town for a couple of weeks. Especially with what I've got."

"We can't just sit here-" The Sherriff was interrupted by a deputy charging through the front door.

"Sherriff! It's here!"

Tucker frowned. "What's here?"

"The winged-horse-pega-thing sir... It's approaching on foot... And it's bought friends..."

At a range of one hundred hooves (Just under one hundred fifty feet) the Element Bearers stopped and stared at the mysterious town before them. The locals had noticed their approach, and most ran into whatever buildings were closest to them, but a few had stayed and stared back. "Okay... We're here..." Rainbow said. She looked at Twilight. "Do you wanna ring the bell, or should I?"

"For now neither. They know we're here. Let's let them make the next move." Twilight sat down to wait.

Rainbow shrugged. "You're the egghead."

And so they sat, and waited. It was a short wait. Less than ten minutes later a rumbling sound rose, and grew louder. Moments later a large metal carriage pulled into sight and grew closer, before stopping twenty hooves away. Doors opened, and three of the beings emerged. One was dressed in camoflage. The other two wore what Twilight suspected were the uniforms of guards. All carried what at first looked like some kind of sticks, but as they drew closer she recognized the features and swallowed fearfully at what she knew they must be.

"Here we go girls..." Twilight whispered. Be on guard, but don't do anything rash... ...Rainbow." She chuckled at the stare her friend gave, then looked up at the creatures. "Greetings. My name is Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia, and these are my friends. We come representing Ponyville, and hoping that you have answers to our questions..."

"Are those... Unicorns?" The deputy asked as he stared out the window of Bert's Humvee.

"What the hell is this Bert?" Tucker asked. "I'm starting to think we're all just hallucinating."

"Nah, life's never that easy." Bert answered. He braked to a stop. "So here we are and there they are... Plan?"

"Play it as it lies." Tucker said. He opened his door and stepped out, reaching back in to retrieve his rifle. The three men walked slowly, cautiously, until they were almost close enough to reach out and touch the nearest pony, a lavender specimen with a horn.

Said unicorn stepped forward. "Queelie. Ne xaxa yo Wernka Dernas, dotii t Paolo Celxia, utuos be graxx. Retran lo traxn Predibur, corta ne fomarroa."

The men exchanged glances. "Language... Duh, shoulda seen it coming." Bert said.

"Language?" the deputy asked. "Maybe they're just dumb horses making noises."

Bert shook his head. "No... Listen to it, there was structure, cadance, meaning... That wasn't animal sounds, it was words." He looked to the ponies. "I'm sorry, we can't understand you."

Twilight face-hooved. "Oh! Oh duh! Of course they don't speak our language, how could they?"

"Well can you translate?" Applejack asked.

"Of course!" Twilight smiled. "Translation matrix creation is a very simple spell. All I have to do is borrow the information from the language center of one of their brains... I wouldn't do this without permission ordinarily, but we need to be able to communicate."

In later days, both human and pony would recall what happened next and shudder, the fear of how close both came to disaster, the thoughts of what might have happened if they had... Twilight looked at the nearest creature and closed her eyes. Her horn began to glow, and a moment later a glow appeared around the creature's head. And then the screaming started. Twilight's eyes popped open to the the creature yelling and panicking, jumping back, trying to brush the magic glow away. The other two were pointing their weapons at her and shouting angrily.

Realizing that she had made a mistake, Twilight canceled the spell, sitting and gesturing with her front legs in what she hoped were non-threatening motions. The two creatures fell silent, and stopped pointing the weapons at her. The third however...

Sherriff Tucker looked back and forth between the purple pony and his deputy, the latter screaming and swiping madly at whatever the glow around his head was. He reached a decision, bought his rifle to bear along with Bert, and shouted "Stop! Cease and desist! I will open fire if you don't stop right now!" Of course, the pony could have no idea what he was saying, but perhaps the general idea would get across.

To his surprise, it did. The pony stopped, and began gesticulating. "What's it doing now?"

"'Don't shoot!' Motions?" Bert suggested.

"Or maybe it's apologizing. Or trying to explain what it was doing." Tucker said. "Either way, let's see what happens." He moved his aim away from the ponies, Bert following suit. "Carl, you okay?" Tucker called to his deputy.

"I will be!" The man angrily replied, leveling his gun. "Damned thing tried ta brainwash me or something!" He moved to fire, but Bert was quicker, grabbing the end of the gun and skewing Carl's aim away. The gun discharged with a loud roar, the shell flying harmlessly afield.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?" Bert was about to exclaim, but before he could speak he was beaten to the punch: The rainbow-maned pegasus was in the air, staring down the deputy at close range, yelling in words the men couldn't comprehend though given the context Bert suspected much of it was vulgar.

Pegasus and deputy were clearly about to come to blows. The situation was defused on both fronts when a lasso wrapped around the angry pony's waist and started pulling her back, while Carl was manhandled to the ground by Bert and Tucker.

"Now what's this nonsense about mind control?" Bert asked. "That's science fiction."

"And so are aliens?" Carl exclaimed. "You saw it! That glow around my head..."

"Could've been anything. Tell me, if you're so sure it was trying to control you, what did you feel?"

"Feel?"

"Yeah, you shoulda felt, oh, I dunno, trapped in your own head, or a voice saying 'Kill all humans' or an urge to point the gun at me or your boss... You feel any of that?" Bert asked.

"Well, no." Carl admitted.

"Okay then." Bert continued, "Headaches, nausea, itching, painful burning sensation?"

"No nothing!" Carl said. "I didn't feel a thing at all!"

"Then maybe it wasn't an attack. I mean, come on, if that was what they were doin' don't you think they'd have done it to all of us?"

Tucker was chuckling to himself. "Damn Bert, I thought you were supposed to be the paranoid one, not the voice of reason."

"Prepared doesn't equal nutcase." Bert said. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not just trustin' them... But someone's gotta give this a chance. Might as well be someone that can defend himself if it turns out bad."

"Yeah, I just hope Carl didn't already cause that." Tucker said. And then, from the crowd that had gathered at the edge of town, came a scream for help...

Chapter Two

Fallow Meadows. At the sound of the scream, which Bert recognized as Flo's voice, he and Carl turned and ran back towards the crowd. Sheriff Tucker stayed behind with the ponies. Bert reached the crowds, which parted ways to let him through. Somewhere amidst the milling people he could hear Flo again, calling out "Someone help!" Using the shout to get his bearings, Bert changed course and soon found the source of the cries for help.

A large circle had opened up in the crowd. At the center, Flo was on her knees next to a prone form on the ground which Bert recognized as the diner's chef, Herbert Clark. "His heart?" Bert asked.

Florence nodded. "I don't know what to do!"

"I do." Bert sat his gun down and started CPR. "I can buy us some time, but we need a defibrillator!"

Someone shouted back "There's a portable one at the market! I'll grab it!"

"Good, let's hope she gets back fast." Bert said. Looking up he noticed a familiar face. "Roger! Get in here, do breathes while I compress!" Roger scrambled to help.

"It just happened out of nowhere!" Florence whispered. "He was fine and then..."

"Not your fault Flo... Herb's ticker's been in bad shape for years, I guess the stress of this just pushed it over the edge... Where the hell is the defibrillator!?"

"Here!" A young girl muscled her way into the circle. Bert guessed she was still in High School.

"Know how to use it?" Bert asked.

"Yeah, I volunteer at County General on the weekends." The girl said. Her mention of the hospital made several of the adults realize an unfortunate truth: Even if Herb survived this, there was no hospital bed waiting for him.

Bert's ruminations on that were broken when the girl exclaimed "Shit!"

"What? What's wrong?"

"Battery's dead!"

Bert sighed. "Well damn..."

Twilight's ears perked up at the sound of a scream, the analytical portion of her mind noting that it sounded almost identical to a pony's scream. She watched as two of the creatures departed in a hurry back towards the sound. "They rush to help each other out..." She said. "Maybe they're not so different from us."

"I hope so." Applejack said. "But, why'd they get so upset over a simple spell?"

"Maybe they've never seen magic before!" Pinkie suggested.

Rolling her eyes, Rainbow said "C'mon Pinkie, who's never seen magic?"

"She might have a point Dash." Applejack said. "They're not even from Eqqus after all..."

"Maybe... Though, I think it's more likely that they just mistook my translation spell for an attack spell." Twilight mused. "Ugh, this is horrible! If I could cast the spell we could communicate, but in order to cast the spell I need to tell them what I'm doing in advance..."

"You'll figure it out." Rainbow said. "You're not the egghead for nothing."

"Thanks for the vote of confidence."

Suddenly, another shout was heard from the crowd. None of the ponies could understand the words, of course, but sometimes the tone of a voice can convey it's meaning as clearly as the words themselves. And this was clearly a cry of a being in distress.

"Somepony needs help!" Fluttershy exclaimed, and before the others could react she was off, running towards the massed crowd of creatures.

"Hey! Stop!" Rainbow shouted, before taking off in pursuit. The others followed close behind, with the tall creature chasing after them.

"A shrinkin' violet until she sees somepony in need, then look out!" Applejack said.

"But this isn't somepony, it's something." Pinkie said.

"It's Fluttershy." Twilight said. "That just makes her more determined."

With their pink-maned friend in the lead, the ponies reached the crowd. The creatures reacted with surprise to their arrival, stepping or jumping back out of the way, allowing them to quickly reach the source of the trouble. One creature was on it's back on the ground, others kneeling around it. One, fiddling with some machine, let out a single sharp word, followed by a terse comment from another.

Fluttershy didn't hesitate, but ran to the scene, startling back those trying to help. She turned her head, laid one ear on the creature's chest, then after a moment looked at Twilight. "It's heart isn't beating!"

"Assuming they have heartbeats." Rarity said.

"True, but it makes sense they would." Twilight said, joining Fluttershy. She looked closer at the machine one of the creatures was holding. "That looks like..." She hopped over the prone creature, looked at the one holding the machine. Sitting, rearing back on her hind legs, she pantomimed holding paddles to her chest, acted like she was shocked, then pointed questioningly at the machine. The creature nodded.

"Then why isn't she using it?" Twilight wondered. She held her forelegs apart in a questioning manner.

Bethany Stanz had never expected a day like this. What had started as a normal school day went south in a hurry with a weird storm, a town fixture having a heart attack, a powerless defibrillator, and now an alien horse-thing doing charades to her. She quickly realized it's meaning though: It was asking if the machine was indeed what it was, and she nodded, hoping that gesture meant the same thing to these creatures.

The alien spread it's forelegs apart, a confused look in it's eyes. "Asking why I'm not using it..." Bethany understood. "How can I explain the batteries are dead?" She asked.

Florence reacted with admirable speed, taking the machine from Bethany, turning it over, and popping the battery case open, spilling out the batteries. She pointed to them, then made a slashing motion across her neck.

To most everyone's surprise, the purple pony's eyes went wide with understanding, and it began motioning at the machine and then the ground. Florence sat the defibrillator down next to where Bert was still attempting CPR, then jumped back at the sight of what happened next.

A murmur passed through the surrounding crowd as the pony's horn began to glow, along with an identical glow around the defibrillator. "Whoa..." Bethany whispered. She found the courage to step closer, look at the machine. "It's got power!" She exclaimed.

"Well don't look a gift-horse in the mouth girl!" Bert shouted. "Use the thing!"

"Right!" Bethany drew the paddles from the machine, checked to be sure it was fully charged, then shouted "Clear!" and pressed the paddles to Herbert's chest, shocking him.

The chef's body jumped from the jolt, but didn't react further. Bert and Roger resumed working while the machine charged up for another try. The second jolt had no more effet than the first, but no one was willing to give up yet. Waiting, Bethany looked over at the purple pony, who was still sending power into the defibrillator. She noticed with some concern that her mane was now sopping wet with sweat and a strained look was spreading over her face. "We're not gonna get too many more chances!" Bethany exclaimed. "Come on Herb, work with us here... Clear!"

The third shock jolted Herbert's body off the ground again, and this time it was followed by a sudden sharp breath as the man's body responded. "Oh thank God... Herb! Herb you hear me!?" Sheriff Tucker asked, kneeling next to him.

"Wha... Wha happe?" Herb managed to slur out.

"Just a little scare buddy, you're gonna be alright..." Bert said. He asked "I know we don't have a hospital... What about doctors?"

"Doc Burn's office is just a couple blocks from here." Florence said.

"Okay good... Someone run and get him... A stretcher too..." Bert stood and stretched, noticing as he did that Roger was grinning at him. "...What?"

"'A gift horse in the mouth' Bert? Under these circumstances?"

"No, see, I didn't..." Bert face-palmed. "Oh God I did..."

As soon as the sick creature started breathing again, Twilight halted her spell and slumped to the ground, exhausted. Converting Thaumic energy to electricity was simple in theory. In practice, it was like juggling swords. By hoof. Behind your back. While blindfolded.

"Are you okay?" A soft voice asked.

Twilight looked up to see a concerned Fluttershy standing over her. Rising to wobbly feet, she gave a reassuring smile. "Yeah, I'll be fine 'Shy... That's not fun though."

"Well I guess you having to do it was kind of my fault for running here. But I'm glad you did."

"Me too." Twilight agreed. "The power was out in their machine, I think he'd be dead now if we hadn't came."

Applejack said "Ya did a good thing Twi... And not just for him, this might help us all get along... But for now, I can tell you're dead on your feet. We should go home, come back and try again tomorrow."

"Yeah, I think so." Twilight agreed. She reached out and pulled on the pant leg of the creature in camouflage, getting it's attention. When it was looking, she motioned to her friends and back towards Ponyville, then put both forehoove together, laid her head on them sideways, and pantomimed being asleep. The creature nodded, and said something to it's compatriots.

As the ponies walked away, they heard a shout. Looking back, Twilight saw that it was one of the two in uniforms that they had first met, not the one she had tried the spell on. He said something, then smiled. Assuming it was an expression of gratitude, Twilight waved and smiled back...

Deputy Carl Harner couldn't believe what he was seeing. Observing from the edges of the crowd, he watched as the unicorn, the same one that had tried to do something awful to him, (Bert be damned, he knew that's what it had to be), used it's freaky alien powers to help save Herbert's life. Like he was falling for such an obvious ploy. Yet to his distress, it seemed like everyone else was falling for it.

The purple menace tugged at Bert's pant leg, and motioned to him. "Hey Sheriff! I think they say they're going home now!" Bert shouted.

Bethany said "I'm not surprised... Whatever the purple one was doing, it really seemed to drain her."

Carl nodded. He had thought so too... Assuming it wasn't just another part of the act, it was useful information: These aliens could do impressive things, but they ran out of juice quickly.

He continued to watch as the aliens walked away. "Hey!" Sheriff Tucker called out. The aliens looked back, and he smiled and shouted "Thank you." The lead alien returned the smile before continuing on.

"Never thought you'd be fooled so easily Sheriff..." Carl though, "But no matter. I know they're not what they seem to be. And I'll stop them. They bought us here. And one way or another, those damned horses are sending us back home..."

Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle rose early the next morning, disturbed by an annoying sound she couldn't identify. Trotting down the steps, she saw Applejack and Apple Bloom asleep on the couch. By orders of the Mayor, all ponies except those assigned perimeter guard duty were to spend their nights inside the town itself. This meant that Sweet Apple Acres was off limits at night, except to Granny Smith who couldn't be budged from her rocker by twenty strong stallions, and Big Mac who had volunteered for the guard to keep an eye on her.

Thus Twilight had taken in the two Apples, along with Farmer Corn Yield who was drowsing away in an easy chair, and Rainbow Dash who was... Where was she anyway? Twilight looked all around, seeing nothing until she again heard the noise that had woke her. She looked up. Rainbow was near the ceiling, laying on a cloud, snoring vigorously.

Chuckling in spite of herself, Twilight trotted to the kitchen. The smell of food would surely wake everypony, and none too soon, for there was much to do today...

A half hour later, Twilight, Spike, Rainbow, and the Apples were seated around her table. The farmer had declined the offer of breakfast, insisting that he had work to do in what was left of his fields. "So what's the game plan?" Rainbow asked.

Twilight buried her head in her hooves. "I'm at a loss." She admitted. "We've got to go back and try to communicate again... But it's such a mix-up! We have to be able to talk to them in order to tell them it's safe to use the spell that'll let us talk to them, but since we can't use the spell first we can't talk to them to let them know and arrgh!!!!!!"

"That mime stuff was workin' pretty well." Rainbow argued.

"No, that's no good... How do you mime 'This won't hurt you' to a being that's terrified of magic?"

"They're afraid of magic?" Apple Bloom asked.

"Afraid or somethin' like it." Applejack told her. "We don't know why."

"Weird."

"Weird and problematic." Twilight said. "I mean, do you see where this could go? We can't communicate so we can't help each other out which means neither of us will survive as well as we would otherwise which means we're stuck here until we all die and then someday the Princess figures out how to bring the town back home but all she gets is a graveyard and then she blames herself and gets too depressed to raise the Sun and then there's no light and everything freezes to death and our whole world dies all because I couldn't talk to these beings and oh my Celestia that makes me guilty of genocide and how will I ever live with-"

Applejack slapped Twilight. "Easy there sugar cube... That's too far ahead... Think one step at a time."

"Right... Right... One step... Okay, maybe I could do word comparisons, get one of them to say the words for basic things like numbers... It's not much, but it's a start."

"See? Told you you'd figure it out." Rainbow said.

"I've hardly 'figured it out.' It would take years to bridge the language barrier that way."

"Y... Years?" Apple Bloom asked. "But we're going home to Equestria aren't we?"

"Bloom, I guarantee you the Princesses have noticed Ponyville's gone by now and started working on figuring out where we are and how to get us back... I assume our neighbor's leaders are doin' the same for them... And I know Twilight'll be on the case too, soon as we're secure. So of course we're going home... But, I can't lie to you, it might be awhile." Applejack hugged her sister, who accepted it happily.

"Thanks sis."

A knock sounded at the door. Spike rushed to answer, expecting the other Element Bearers. Instead he found the Mayor and a pair of the town's guards. "Mayor!" Twilight exclaimed, rushing to greet her.

The Mayor held up a hoof. "There's no need for the usual pleasantries. I have so much to do I can only stay a moment. I just wanted to inform you of a couple of things before you go, assuming that you're going to try to communicate again?"

"Yes, we're leaving shortly."

"Good. So, the first thing is, they've been watching us. Nothing overt or threatening, and I can hardly be upset when we're doing the same to them with a pair of pegasai, but that flying machine has hovered over Ponyville most of the night. And the second thing, as I already alluded to, we've had a pair of guards keeping watch from a safe altitude."

Twilight nodded. "Anything worth reporting?"

One of the guards, Twilight thought his name was Storm Rider, said "Not as such... Armed guards have patrolled their perimeter through the night, just as we've done. And just after sunrise three of them started through the streets in those mechanical carriages they've got, announcing something over loudspeakers though of course we have no idea what they were saying... Honestly, given the size of the town and the number of individuals we've seen, I suspect most of them are still hiding away in their homes."

Applejack said "Which makes sense... I figure most of us'd still be hiding too, if we'd not been gathered at town hall to begin with."

"Okay, well let's gather what we need and go." Twilight said. "The sooner we sort this out the better..."

Sheriff Tucker stood at the front doors of the police station in the early morning light, listening as the drivers headed out to announce the mandatory emergency meeting in two hours. He frowned. So many of the townsfolk had stayed hidden in their homes since the storm, and without power or phone service most of them probably still didn't know what had happened. Telling them was going to be a nightmare.

Of course, that was just the first hurdle. After they were told, there were so many other logistics to be worked out: Power, communications, food, water, medicine, trash and sewage... And then there were the ponies. Cautious though he still meant to be, the Sheriff really didn't think they meant any harm. Certainly, one of the things they had seen with the drone strongly indicated that they were also victims bought here from their true home. He planned to use that to convince people that the ponies were not responsible for the abduction.

Or try to convince people... He thought back to his conversation with Carl the previous evening. The man was convinced these ponies were evil incarnate and nothing was going to tell him otherwise. Tucker knew that at least a few people would side with the deputy, and that sooner or later they would be trouble. At least Carl had resigned his position. Not something Tucker would normally allow in a crisis, but it seemed prudent to let it go given how unhinged the man was becoming.

Tilting his head back, Tucker looked up and caught sight of a pegasus high overhead. It was green, unlike either of the ones watching through the night. "Shift change?" He wondered. With a sigh, he started walking towards the High School, where the town meeting was to be held in the auditorium. It was going to be a long day...

In Ponyville Twilight Sparkle trotted out of her library home accompanied by Applejack and Rainbow Dash. She wore a pair of saddlebags heavily loaded down with parchments, quills, and stoppered bottles of ink, along with several other items she thought might be useful. "Are you sure you don't want me to come along?" Spike asked.

"If these beings are leery of magic, how are they going to react to a fire-breathing dragon?" Twilight replied. "You'll get a chance to meet them, don't worry, but for now we should take this slow."

"Same reason I'm leaving you here Bloom." Applejack said. "I know you wanna come, try t' get an 'alien helping' cutie mark, but until we know for sure it's safe..."

"That's okay sis, me and the girls can find something to do in town."

"Like goin' to school?"

Apple Bloom's eyes opened wide. "What!?" She exclaimed, "We're stuck on an alien planet and they still didn't cancel school!?"

"Learning is important." Applejack said.

"And fun!" Twilight added.

"But... But... But how could they... on the first day even! And..." Apple Bloom continued to stumble over her thoughts, getting more and more worked up, until she noticed the adults snickering. "...What?"

"Fooled you!" Rainbow Dash laughed.

"Ha." Apple Bloom deadpanned.

Still chuckling, Applejack mussed her sister's mane. "Aw come on Bloom, it wasn't that bad was it? Besides, we're meeting Pinkie and Rarity and Sugarcube Corner. Tag along, I'll get you a cupcake..."

A bell dinged as Twilight stepped though the bakery door followed by her friends. Working away behind the counter, Mrs. Cake called out "Pinkie, your friends are here!" then moved to serve Apple Bloom. A moment later the Pink pony came trotting down the stairs accompanied by Rarity.

"Are we all ready to go?" Rarity asked.

"What about Flutters?"

"She's meeting us on the way." Rainbow answered.

Twilight said "Then I guess we're ready."

"One more thing!" Pinkie said cheerfully. She stepped behind the counter, picked up a large white bakery box with her mouth, and balanced it on her back.

"Donuts?" Twilight asked.

Pinkie nodded enthusiastically. "A gift for our new friends. Donuts, yes, and also a bran muffin... Derpy insisted. Something about how 'Most beings are happier and more friendly when they're regular.'"

"Pinkie what!?"

"Eww.."

"Disgusting."

"How could she say something so uncouth?"

Mrs. Cake looked up from her work. "She's a mother dear... We tend to think in those kinds of terms."

That answer took everypony be surprise, silencing them until Rainbow finally said "And that settles it once and for all.. I am never having foals..."

The comment broke the mood, and once everypony was finished laughing they continued on their way...

Chapter Three

Cole Porter Public High School, Fallow Meadows. Sheriff John Tucker stood on the stage of the school's auditorium, looking out over the gathering crowds as people found seats. From the look of things, he suspected the announcements over patrol car loudspeakers had worked: very nearly the entire town seemed to be present, people packing into the chamber like sardines.

"Where are all the kids?" A deputy asked, noting that only adults were present.

Tucker answered "There's eight thousand people in this town, and only five thousand seats in here... We've got the kids and teenagers busy in the gymnasium for the time being. If we're lucky, only a few people will have to stand."

As the deputy nodded, Bert approached from the seating area. "I dunno Sheriff." He said, "It's like you thought, a lot of folks don't have the slightest clue what's happened yet. But there's been rumors flyin' left and right..."

"Correct rumors?"

Bert laughed. "What do you think? I heard at least five different stories just walking through the room... I especially liked the one in which I've staged a coup and taken over the town government."

"You might as well have." Tucker replied. "Damned Mayor off in Hawaii when this happens..."

"Lucky guy." Bert said. "Or maybe not, I expect the press won't leave him be right about now." He shuddered. "Way I see it, you've got the easy job here compared to that."

"Yeah, I'll keep telling myself that." Tucker answered sourly. He looked out over the room. "Looks like we're ready. Tucker walked to the podium, tapping on the microphone to get people's attention. Once the room was quiet, he began: "Ladies and gentlemen, thank you all for coming... I know that you're all at least a little scared right now. I also know that there are a lot of false rumors running around-"

The Sheriff was interrupted by someone in the second row, "Just get around to it! What the hell is happening?"

"Yes. That's where I'm going, if you'll please settle down. Now then, at the moment I can't tell you everything for the simple reason that we don't yet know everything, but I'll tell you as much as we do know. To squelch to rumor mills though, With the Mayor gone I'm in charge not Bert. There hasn't been a nuclear war, ravenous aliens aren't eating people, or replacing them, or laying eggs in their chests, and we still don't know what happened at the end of 'The Sopranos.'" Several people chuckled at this last one. Tucker continued, "So far as we can tell, that freak storm yesterday was something more than a storm. We don't know what it was, or how it did it, but as anyone who has been to the edge of town knows, we're no longer where we were. We're not in Indiana, and based on the total lack of radio transmissions we don't think we're even on Earth anymore."

Tucker fell silent here, waiting patiently for the predictable commotion to run it's course, a wait which took several minutes. As people began to quiet down, several questions were shouted at the stage. "How will we get home?"

"What about our food and water supplies?"

How are we supposed to survive?"

"All good questions!" Tucker answered. "And yes, one of the reasons why we've called everyone here is to work together on answering them. I can tell you that we have enough resources, both human and materiel, to make this work if we all come together. But, before we go into that, there is one more very important thing I need to tell you." As the crowd again gave it's undivided attention, the Sheriff said "We aren't alone here. There is another town about two miles from us... ...And it's inhabitants are not human."

This time the commotion was deafening, a frightened ruckus that nearly turned into a riot. "Carl was tellin' the truth!"

"They'll kill us all!"

"I say we go make 'em send us home!"

"Yeah! Chew bubblegum and kick ass!"

"Horses I tell you! Weird alien horse things!"

"Horses!?"

"People! People calm down!" Tucker was shouting into the microphone, but it was doing no good. As the Sheriff began to worry that the situation might get out of control a blaringly loud sound rang out, causing a hush as everyone looked towards the source. Which was of course Bert, holding a naval air horn to a megaphone.

"Calm the hell down or I turn the thing on high and hold the button down for a full minute!" the survivalist shouted. "Now listen to the man, he's got more to tell you!"

Though the crowd was still muttering, they looked towards the podium, where Tucker resumed his presentation. "Alright, yes, there are aliens. And yes, they look kind of like small horses or ponies though the differences are strong enough you'd never mistake one for a regular Earth horse. Furthermore, as I'm sure many of you have heard, when they made contact with us yesterday there were a pair of incidents involving Carl Harner and the cook from the Spoony Bard Diner..." Over the next few minutes the Sheriff explained what had happened as best he could. When he finished there were of course questions, though at least the crowd stayed calmer this time around.

"How's Herbert doing?"

"Doctor Burns has him under observation. He looks to make a full recovery."

"What if these aliens turn hostile?"

"We've got Bert." The crowd laughed.

"Why are you so sure that what they tried to do to Deputy Harner wasn't an attack?"

"I'm not. But it wouldn't make sense to attack just one of us... And they did use the same power to save a man's life a little later. I think that deserves benefit of the doubt."

"Benefit of the doubt!? But if they bought us here..."

There was the question Tucker had been waiting for. "I don't think they did." He explained, "In fact, I think they're in the same boat we are. Bring up the pictures boys!" He shouted. On a projection screen behind the sheriff an aerial view of Fallow Meadows appeared. "This picture was taken yesterday by a drone we sent up. Notice, all the way around the edges of town, how clear-cut the line is between what was already here and what got bought along with us from Earth."

There was muttering and discussion in the crowd as people took note of the clear line all the way around the town. Tucker motioned for the next picture, which was a close up of the edge, at a place where it intersected a rail line. "Here you see where the railroad met one side of the edge. It's sheared cleanly at the border, and the other end of the tracks is the same way."

"Nice slideshow sheriff, but what's the point?" Someone yelled.

The room turned dead silent when the third picture appeared. Tucker let people look for a moment before he said "Here is an aerial shot of the alien's town. As you can see, it shows the exact same circular border, razor-sharp, all around the perimeter. In fact..." He motioned for the fourth picture, an image of where the alien town's railroad was cut, "...The size specifications are different of course, but our neighbors have rail service at home too... And it's cut in the same way."

"It's true then..." A man in the front row said, "They're victims here too."

"Can they help us? Can we work together?"

"I hope so," Tucker replied, "And I think that they hope so too... I think it's why they came yesterday. But there is a problem, naturally we speak different languages."

With this knowledge discussions started in earnest all through the crowd, people suggesting possible ways to breech the language barrier, things the aliens might be able to offer humanity and vice-versa, the implications of first-contact, and a myriad of other important topics. Tucker looked on, proud of his townsfolk and daring to hope that just maybe this would all work out.

And so it was at that moment that a deputy stuck his head in the room and shouted "Sheriff? They're back."

Pinkie Pie bounced energetically through the dense forest, the large box of donuts (and muffin) somehow staying perfectly balanced no matter what kind of crazy jumps and stunts she performed. "...I just hope they turn out to like chocolate. And vanilla, strawberry, butterscotch, caramel-mmmmuph!" The pink mare was silenced by an orange hoof in her mouth.

"We get it Pinkie." Applejack said. "Just like I hope they like apples, Twilight hopes they have a library, Rarity wants a closer look at their clothes, etctera etcetera etcetera... We gotta be calm and polite though..."

"Oh duh, I know that." Pinkie answered. She did a full double backflip, the box uneffected even when she was upside down with it underneath her. "That's why I'm working out all my energy now, so that even I can be reserved for once... Well... Reserved by my standards anyway..."

Twilight favored Pinkie with an incredulous look. "Um... Thanks, I guess..."

"No problem! Just don't ask me to do it on a regular basis."

Fluttershy whispered "I hope the sick one from yesterday is okay."

"Well that's up to their egghead doctors." Rainbow said.

Twilight nodded. "Rainbow's actually right for once."

"HEY!"

Twilight continued, "We did what we could to help, but it's up to him and the doctors they've got. And speaking of doctors and sickness, Pinkie, don't be upset if they don't eat any of that right away. They might want to test it first. I know I would."

"What!? You mean they might think that we mean to poison them!?" Rarity was aghast.

"Not necessarily... But they'll want to be safe I'm sure, and that means making sure... I mean, even though there's nothing wrong with our food for us, maybe there's some ingredient harmless to us but dangerous to them?"

"Ahh... Well that is a more palatable concern."

"An' I'm guessin' it goes both ways?" Applejack asked.

Nodding, Twilight said "Absolutely. If they offer anypony anything at all to eat or drink, accept it but don't consume it, not until we know for sure it's safe... As with our food to them, even if there's nothing wrong with it from their point of view it could still be toxic to our systems."

They continued on until the town came into view from atop a high ridge. "Huh... Looks awfully quiet." Applejack said.

"Perhaps they're all still in their homes." Rarity suggested. "They could be late risers in the morning."

The group continued into the town itself, going past the location where they had met with the locals the day before, still neither seeing nor hearing anything. "It's like a ghost town today..." Fluttershy said.

"No kidding." Rainbow agreed.

Even though the creatures wouldn't be able to understand her words, Twilight called out "Hello? Is anypony here?"

Her query was answered by an unexpected source; with a fluttering of wings a green pegasus dressed in royal guard barding set down in front of them. "Royal Guard Private Updraft Ma'ams." He said by way of introduction, "Looking for the locals?"

"Yes. Where are they all?"

"Keep going this way ma'ams, they're all gathered in some large building. You can't miss it, it's the one surrounded on all sides by those carriages they use."

Twilight gave the guard a smile. "Thank you Private. Come on girls."

Following Twilight, Pinkie asked "Why would they all be in one place? Even I can see these aren't partying circumstances."

"Emergency meeting maybe?" Applejack suggested.

Twilight agreed."That'd be my guess... Unless something spooked them and they've holed up together for mutual protection... But then, the guard would've seen anything like that and told us."

It took another ten minutes before the target building came into sight. As Updraft had said, it was unmissable owing to it's size, all the carriages, and one other tell the pegasus hadn't mentioned: armed guards at all the doors. "They look... ...mean." Fluttershy said.

"They're on guard duty. It's their job to look mean." Rainbow reassured her friend.

"Yes, and we did have a mostly peaceful meeting yesterday."

"Let's try to approach them."

Moving slowly and carefully, the ponies approached the guarded doors. The guards saw them almost immediately, but made no move to attack or even threaten the group, a single individual disappeering into the building. At a range of twenty hooves they stopped to wait, knowing that an authority figure would probably arrive soon enough.

And indeed he did. Twilight recognized the features and uniform as belonging to one of the creatures who had come to meet them the previous day. He didn't come alone, though: Through the doors and the glass walls to either side of them she could see a large crowd staring out at her and her friends. At least most of them appeared to be more curious or shocked than afraid, though a few looked frightened or even angry, and at least one ran away screaming something.

While Twilight analyzed the crowd, Pinkie stepped forward, sat the box on the ground, and opened it. She looked up and smiled as the lead creature bent down, inspected the contents, and shouted something before picking the box up and handing it off. There was a short awkward silence before another creature approached and sat a plate on the ground. Pinkie beamed with joy when she saw what was on it: A slice of cake.

>Mmumph, mmumph, chomp munch chomp...< Twilight was distracted from her observations by the sounds of somepony eating. "Pinkie!!" She exclaimed upon seeing what the mare had just devoured, "What did I tell you!?

"Oh relax Twilight, it was fine!"

"Pinkie you can't know that..."

Pinkie gave Twilight a serious, dour expression. "Twilight. It's me. You can't possibly think I would eat anything bad."

Twilight returned the expression and answered "Pinkie. It's cake. I can totally think you would eat it even if there were a label that listed sauerkraut, toadstools, and arsenic sauce as ingredients."

"Oh no way." Pinkie replied, "Sauerkraut is gross. But really Twi, it's okay. If there had been anything wrong with the cake my Pinkie Sense would have told me."

"Wait, there's a Pinkie Sense tell for bad food? What happens?" Applejack asked.

Rainbow Dash said "She keels over and dies."

"Rainbow!" Rarity snapped, "That's a horrible thing to say!"

Pinkie said "Um, actually Rarity Dashie's right."

"Wot?" Twilight asked blankly.

Pinkie laughed. "Oh, I mean I don't really die of course. But see, if I get within ten hooves of bad food my whole body goes rigid, then my eyes cross, I flip over onto my back, my hooves all stick straight up, and I lay there as if I'd keeled over! That didn't happen, so I know the cake was okay!"

Twilight simply shook her head. "Okay..." Levitating objects out of her saddlebags, she began preparing for the task she had in mind...

As Sheriff Tucker stepped outside, he could see that it seemed to be the same group as before waiting for him. He was a bit concerned that so many of the townsfolk had followed him out of the auditorium to see their visitors, but people seemed to be staying calm, save for one younger woman, who took one look before exclaiming "They'll kill us all!" and bolting. He was pretty sure it was the same one who had screamed those words earlier.

As he approached, the pink one presented a box and opened it. "Donuts?" Tucker wondered. "Gotta have these analyzed. Probably best to return the favor too..." He looked back over his shoulder, shouted "Hey! Someone run to the cafeteria, get a slice of cake or pie or something!" Carefully closing the box, he handed it off to a deputy with instructions to deliver it to the lab. The local facilities were not as well equipped as those in a major city of course, but they would be able to detect any toxins or unknowns.

A teenaged boy came, delivering a slice of red velvet cake. Tucker expected that the ponies would treat this gift in the same way that he intended to treat the donuts, and so was surprised when the pink one gobbled it down in seconds. He then watched with bemusement as the purple unicorn seemed to chew pink out over it. He had already concluded that purple was the leader, and he was getting more and more certain that she was also the smart one of the group. As the ponies argued back and forth over something, he wondered absently if these beings chose their rulers on the basis of I.Q.

After a few minutes of discussion, purple returned her attention to the Sheriff. Her horn began to glow, but before he could react several items floated out of her bags: a sheaf of paper, quill, ink, and a number of short wooden sticks that she dropped in a pile. Suspecting this might be something important, Tucker called back for Bert and some of the school's teachers to join him.

As they watched, the pony pulled a single stick out of the pile, slid it towards them, and said "Tik." She added another stick next to the first. "Pau." Tucker, Bert, and the teachers exchanged looks, then looked back at the pony who had an expectant look on her face. Tucker shrugged.

Pulling back the second stick, the pony said "Tik." Returned the stick, withdrew the first. "Tik." Both sticks. "Pau." A third. "Gim." One stick to the far right. "Tik." a symbol drawn in the dirt. "Onos." Another stick. "Tik." A new symbol. "Maqes." Two sticks. "Pau." The first symbol. "Onos." One stick. "Tik." Second symbol. "Maqes." Three sticks. "Gim."

"Holy shit." Bert said. "She's giving us numbers." He grabbed up one of the sticks. "Tik. One." Then added another. "Pau. Two."

"Tik... Wun, erm... Onne... One?" The pony said, before scribbling something down.

One of the teachers looked on in awe. "One plus one equals two plus one equals three... We're actually communicating simple but clear concepts with an alien being..."

"Yeah Ed, that's neat and all," The other said, "But it'd take forever to learn each other's languages like this."

Ed replied "Total language, true. But basic numbers, mathematical notations, and a couple hundred concrete nouns and simple verbs won't take long at all, and it'll cover the essentials."

Bert nodded. "Trade, if nothing else." He held up four sticks. "Four."

"Four." The pony answered. "Loowom."

The linguistic exchange continued for three hours, each side writing down phonetic translations for the other's words. Numbers were covered first. Notations like plus, minus, and equals. Colors and shapes. It was like the first day of school, for both species, and both were excited. There was some exasperation when more complicated words didn't get across; both tried to communicate names only to be hindered by the other's uncertainty of whether the words being said were individual names, species names, genders, races, or something else. But it was a start...

Somewhere else. Deep in the forest, several miles from the two towns,a creature stirred. It had no name, neither for itself nor for it's kind, for they were clever but simple creatures, beasts of prey that lived for the moment. Rising, the creature (Call it Alpha, for that was it's function in the pack,) stretched its many legs and turned its head all about, echolocating it's surroundings.

Alpha was hungry. So were the cubs, if the sounds they made were telling. Leaving the rest of the still-sleeping pack behind, it climbed to the top of a rise and enhaled deeply, testing the scents in the air. Something was different. There were smells Alpha had never encountered before.

Like all predators, Alpha now had to stride a narrow line. Caution, concerned with survival odds through the risk assessment of unknowns, told it to steer clear. Curiosity, also concerned with survival through learning, told it to investigate. The creature wavered between the two for some time before calling out. It was soon joined by it's mate, Beta, and second male Gamma. Leaving the pack, the trio moved to investigate.

Perhaps an hour later, they heard sounds none of them recognized. Alpha gave a soft three-beat growl, instructing the others to stay hidden. As they observed, a small herd of unknown quadrapeds passed by, making much noise as they went. Alpha wanted to hunt them, but it was leery. For one thing, this was an unknown. An unknown that stalked through the forest with no concern for being quiet to avoid those that hunted by sound. Those types were usually troublesome to bring down, or poisonous if you did.

As Beta and Gamma waited for Alpha's signal, a new creature suddenly passed into range. A large, long-necked grazer that Alpha knew well. This would be an easy kill, food for the whole pack for days. It gave the signal to charge the new prey.

But even late that night, it's hunger sated, Alpha thought about the new prey. It was an unknown, which made it too dangerous to attack. But that wouldn't be true for long. Alpha would stalk. Alpha would study. Alpha would learn. And soon, Alpha would feast...

Ponyville. The small run-down cottage had sat near the edge of town for nearly a century. When occupied, the owners had all made sure to keep it in pristine condition, but after a decade empty it was getting to be in rough shape. The paint was peeled away, the roof leaked like a sieve, the windows were shattered, and the lawn was overgrown in tall grass, weeds, and young trees.

But it was structurally sound and had a cellar, which was all that had mattered when the stallion's private guards saw the storm rolling in, the terrible lightning, and the flash of white light. Convinced that they were witnessing the rolling in of some terrible magical weapon, they had ushered their charge down into the cellar, and there they had waited.

And so now, in the dead of the second night on the new world, a cellar door slowly, carefully, as quietly as possible swung open. Four burly guards trotted out and looked around in surprise. "The house is still here?" One of them whispered.

"The town's still here." Another answered, peering out the window.

The third looked down into the cellar. "Stay there. We'll check it out."

They did so, and returned to the house. "It looks okay sir! You can come up now."

"Ugh... It's about time." Prince Blueblood complained as he climbed out of the cellar followed by his remaining guards (Including the Illusionist Guard hired to create assassin-foiling body doubles) and two heavily laden porters. "What happened? Why is the town still here?"

"We're not certain your majesty."

"Hmmph." The prince shook his head. This was all too much. First, it was bad enough that business had bought him to some jerkwater town in the first place. Then, it had to be the same town that the madmare from the gala called home. And then something spooks his guards and they shove him into a hole for two days. Just. Too. Much.

"Your majesty, I think we should leave."

"Oh yes, we should absolutely leave this terrible hovel."

"Actually sir, I meant the town itself. Even if the town wasn't destroyed, something odd happened here and it's probably best that we head back to Canterlot."

With an exasperated sigh Blueblood answered "Well, the business is concluded at any rate... And I really do not want to encounter... ...her. Very well, let us be on our way then. Even walking is better than being here..."

As the Prince and his entourage filed out the door and crept stealthily out of town, a mare watched from the shadows. Two days in a cellar with that fool had been the last straw. Watching as an illusory copy of herself accompanied the group, Trixie Lulumoon sighed. All she had to do now was hope that the magic keeping the illusion together lasted long enough that none of Blueblood's guards would come back looking for her... Oh, and how to get out of a town where everypony hated her...

Chapter Four

Fallow Meadows. Day Five. Bert Gumbal rose with the Sun, prepared and ate breakfast, and climbed to his rooftop with a cup of coffee. The native forests of this world pushed close against the line of Bert's property, and from them he could hear the noises of various alien creatures as they went about their business. Sitting his cup down on the ledge, Bert drew a small plastic baggie from a pocket, opened it, and deposited a small pile of sunflower seeds next to his cup. He then took the cup, stepped back several feet, and waited.

The wait was short. In less than a minute, a small winged native flew in, landing of the ledge and helping itself to the seeds. Bert crept in close, the creature not seeming to consider him a threat as he examined it up close. On first glance, this being didn't look all that dissimilar to a terrestrial bird. It was covered in feathers, had a beak, and hopped along the ledge on a pair of thin clawed feet. But there the likenesses ended: This 'bird' had four wings rather than two, and in place of eyes were a pair of large parabolic-dish shaped ears.

Bert switched on a small pocket recorder and began speaking. "Notes on local fauna: Day five. Natives seem to be primarily hexapeds and octopeds rather than tetrapeds... Bird analogue sports four wings, all feathered. Also of note: I've yet to see anything local that has eyes... This was puzzling at first, but now that I can see clearly that even the birds here have external ears, a trait unique to mammals on Earth, I think I know what's going on. I suspect that most, if not all, of the local animals echolocate like bats. Call it 'sounding' rather than seeing, the result is the same, sonar is the primary sense here..."

He paused for a moment, thinking, before he continued, "This will have a significant impact on survival tactics in fighting back against local predators... For example, surfaces transparent to us should be opaque to them. On the other hand, even the slightest movement or sound could be fatal at the wrong moment... I've been giving this a lot of thought for the last couple of days, and I've come to a conclusion: We need to know more. I still think what I told John Tucker was right, fortifying needs to come before any major exploration. But that's well in hand under the Sheriff's guidance. So I'm breaking my own rules and heading out for a short foray, probably just a couple of hours. If anyone finds this I didn't make it back. Good luck to you all."

Switching off the recorder, Bert finished his coffee before climbing back down, and heading into his armory to prepare. He loaded a large hiking pack with food, water, a first-aid kit, and other supplies including pen and paper, a camera, and extra ammunition for both of the guns he planned to take. For maximum flexibility, Bert took both a handgun and a rifle, and also fastened a machete to his belt. "Shadow! Come on boy!" He called, the dog racing to join him. Man and beast headed into the forest, alert for whatever they might find.

Finding something of interest took less than an hour. Bert had found a game trail and decided to follow, which led past densely packed trees, over a steep hill, and down into a narrow valley with a swift-running creek. After gathering a water sample for analysis back in town, the man stood and looked around. A handful of the local birds could be seen in flight, and further upstream was a trio of natives Bert hadn't yet encountered. Each looked like a bizarre cross between a giraffe and an armored dinosaur: Bigger than elephants, they were covered in fur except where the armor plates were located, and had long thick tails. The necks were elongated, the better to browse from trees as two of them were doing. And as with the 'bird' they had no eyes and large dish-ears to listen to echoes.

"Doesn't anything here have eyes?" Bert wondered. Then he heard the familiar sound of Shadow growling in the back of his throat. "What's wrong boy?" Bert whispered. He turned to look, half expecting to be staring down a predator. Instead he found his dog, ears forward, hackles up, staring intently at... ...A mushroom. "Really?" Bert asked, one eyebrow raised. "Some guard dog you are."

Shadow glance back at his master, a hurt look in his eyes, before turning his attention back to the fungus, glaring as if it were the most. Dangerous. Thing. Ever. Laughing, Bert muttered "Well, I should gather a sample I suppose..."

Pulling a thick plastic bag from his pack, Bert reached down, intent on plucking up the mushroom. Then fell back with a shout of surprise as it moved, jumping up and turning in place. It now looked like a bizarre cross between the cap of a mushroom and the body of a frog, with the cap where the frog's head would be. Bert watched, bewildered, as the whatever it was hopped away out of sight. The dog, rather than pursuing, simply looked Bert in the eyes, as if to say "Told you so..."

Ponyville, Sweet Apple Acres. Scootaloo sat in the Crusaders clubhouse, staring out the window, bored to tears. "We've gotta do something!" She finally exclaimed.

"Yeah but what?" Apple Bloom asked. "You know the grown-ups are gonna be too worried to let us leave town. Hay, I'm amazed Applejack let us come back out here."

"I know, I know..." Scootaloo conceded.

"Of course, our cutie marks aren't gonna find themselves... And we've done everything I can think of that could be done in town."

Scootaloo gestured angrily. "That's my point! We've gotta get out there in the woods! Destiny is waiting for us! I just know it!"

"Maybe..." Apple Bloom said. "Sweetie Belle, what do you think?"

When Sweetie didn't answer, Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked around, seeing that she was not inside the clubhouse. They found her just outside, staring intently up at the sky. Scootaloo asked "Sweetie? What's up?"

"Do you see one of those flying machines?"

"No, I'm just looking to see if there are any more moons."

"Say what?"

Sweetie Belle looked down, met her friend's eyes. "Last night Rarity was busy at Twilight's 'til after dark... She didn't want me left alone so I had to be there with her. We walked home after dark, and when I looked up at the stars I saw two moons! So I'm wondering, if there are two here, why not three or four?"

"Really? Two moons? That's cool!" Scootaloo said, looking up for herself.

Apple Bloom said "Cool to look at maybe, But I bet Princess Luna is glad she's just got the one. I mean, can you imagine having to juggle two of them? Or more?"

"Yeah that would stink." Scootaloo agreed. Then a funny expression crossed her face. "Hey! Wait a minute!" She exclaimed. "If this is a whole other planet that even the Princesses don't know about then how are the sun and moons moving!?"

"You're right!" Apple Bloom said. "There must be somepony that lives here!"

Hopping up and down, Sweetie Belle said "Let's go tell the adults!"

Apple Bloom started to nod in agreement, but Scootaloo's eyes went narrow and shifty. "Yeah... We could tell the adults... or.... We could go find this somepony ourselves. We'd be awesome heroes and maybe get our cutie marks for it!"

The trio leapt into the air, clapped their forehooves together, and shouted "Cutie Mark Crusaders! Alien Alicorn Hunters! YAAAY!!!!!!!!!" They galloped away into the forests...

Some time later, a trio of very tired, very hungry, very lost fillies were still wondering through the dark forests. "Maybe this wasn't the best idea." Sweetie Belle said.

"Yeah... At least we've been dumb enough to go into the Everfree enough times we sorta know our way around there." Apple Bloom agreed.

Scootaloo snorted. "Oh come on you two. This'll all be worth it soon! You'll see! We'll find this planet's Alicorns and ask them to send Ponyville back home. Then we'll be super-awesome heroes and get super-awesome hero cutie-marks!"

"Ooh! What'dya suppose hero cutie marks look like!?" Sweetie asked.

"Like in the comic books of course." Scootaloo's eyes went wide. "Oh hey! Y'know what would be sweet? My name starts with an 'S' anyway, what if I got Supermare's 'S' Shield for mine?"

"I wouldn't mind a Batmane symbol." Sweetie said. "But... Nah, it'd clash with my color scheme and Rarity'd freak out. What about you 'Bloom?"

"I dunno... Maybe a Plaid Lantern symbol with an apple inside it... I've just had a bad thought though... "

"Bad thought?"

"Yeah... Who says it has to be Alicorns controlling this sun and moons? What if it's, like, the timberwolf or chimera equivalent of an Alicorn?"

"They'll roast us over the sun and eat us!" Sweetie Belle gasped.

Scootaloo had a brief image of herself roasted and served on a bed of rice, a cutie mark of herself on fire over a sun on her flank. "Nah, not worth it." She decided. "Okay, I'll confess, this was a bad idea I had."

"Yeah. Let's turn around and go back."

With Scootaloo in the lead, the fillies turned to retrace their steps, hoping to find their way back to the town... They had only gone a dozen hooves when, somewhere ahead of them along the path they had followed, something roared. The fillies stopped and stared down the path, eyes wide.

"Okay... Let's take a little detour eh?"

"Yeah, that sounds good."

Angling ninety degrees to the right from their original heading, the trio slowly made their way through the forests, moving with slow careful steps to avoid being heard by whatever had roared...

Had it possessed the intelligence to conceive of the concept, Alpha would have thanked the heavens for what was now before it: Three of the new prey creatures, all alone, and clearly young. It traced their outlines in the echoes reflecting off of them as they turned and tried to evade it's position. Even without backup, this was a perfect test of how easy or hard to kill these prey were...

With a suddenness that belied it's size, a massive predator stormed out of the trees, running straight towards the Crusaders. "Run!" Scootaloo shouted, and they took to their hooves, not thinking to scatter. The hunter was close, so close they could smell it's breath on the air. A fallen tree trunk appeared ahead, with just enough room underneath for the ponies to fit.

"Pour on the speed!" Apple Bloom yelled. "Then stop as soon as we're under the log! It'll have to go over the top, and maybe it'll be dumb enough to think we kept running!"

"Good plan!" Scootaloo agreed.

They ran as fast as their short legs would carry them, reaching the tree trunk in moments and ducking underneath. Safe for the moment, they looked around, seeing that the tree had been even bigger than they had first thought: at the center there was at least ten hooves in either direction to where the creature would be able to get to them.

Speaking of the creature, it had indeed leapt to the top of the trunk, as Apple Bloom expected it to. But it hadn't kept on running. "Where'd it go?" Sweetie Belle whispered.

"Still up on top I reckon." Apple Bloom whispered back.

"Well no more sound. Not even whispers. Maybe it'll go away."

It didn't. Instead, with a crash of it's feet on the ground and a loud roar, the creature reappeared, trying to reach it's head under the trunk to grab one of them, but unable to reach far enough.

"Ha! It can't get to us!" Scootaloo triumphantly exclaimed.

Apple Bloom shook her head. "Yeah, but we're still trapped."

"Maybe we don't have to be." Scootaloo said. "If we back closer to the other side, maybe it'll try to push in further and get itself stuck... Then we can just walk out."

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle agreed that this was worth a try. But as the started to edge towards the far side of the trunk, another creature like the first appeared there, growling and snapping.

"That roar must've been a call for reinforcements!"

"Great. Now what do we do?"

"We sit tight. They still can't get to us, and they never will with all of that wood in the way."

And then the first creature pushed harder, and the wood began to splinter and crack, allowing it to get a bit nearer to it's quarry. The second creature did the same. The Crusaders looked back and forth in fear, knowing they didn't have much time to do something.

"Well... Only one thing to do now." Sweetie Belle said.

"Eyup." Apple Bloom agreed.

"Shall we then?" Scootaloo asked.

"Lets."

Three fillies nodded in agreement, then screamed at the top of their lungs...

Meanwhile in Fallow Meadows trade negotiations were under way. It wasn't easy, what with an extremely limited translation list, but working together Twilight and the Mayor on one side, and Sheriff Tucker and a local merchant on the other, had managed to convey what each side needed and what each could spare. Now it was just a matter of exchange rates.

"I still think we should offer them a fair weight in bits." the Mayor insisted.

Twilight shook her head. "That's no good... We don't know what they use for money, and besides what good is money, or even precious metals, when they're stuck here?"

"I see your point... Perhaps a barter then?"

"Yeah, I think that's what it'll have to be." Twilight looked at the Sheriff, and as best she could in his language said "Trade... One-One? Weight? Value?"

"Value. Weight inequal."

Twilight nodded. Switching back to Equish, she said "That makes sense. I mean, can you imagine an equal weight trade of, say, cotton and gold?"

"If you find anypony willing to make such a trade dear, let me know."

The mares both chuckled. Twilight looked back to the Sheriff. "Value. Yes. Um..." She pondered for a moment how to phrase the question of ratios with so few words. She finally settled on "Quantity?"

Tucker glanced at the merchant. "Quantity? What do you think she means Jack?"

"Not sure... Asking about how much for how much maybe?"

"Makes sense..." Tucker agreed, nodding.

Watching from the sidelines, Florence sipped her coffee and said "Looks like we're maybe getting somewhere."

"Yeah." Roger agreed.

"Of course, none of it'll mean much if we don't figure out how to get power back to the whole town... Or stable food supplies."

Roger said "It's not quite as bad as all that. The tests so far show that the local plants are mostly edible. And we've got some livestock, and seed stocks for planting crops too."

"I know, I know... It still worries me." Florence sighed. "I mean, it's just like how we can technically survive even if we don't get the power up. But we're all so used to having it, I'm not sure how most people will do in the long run."

"We'll have to get used to walking instead of driving." Roger said. "The generators we've got can power key infrastructure indefinately. But the fuel supplies are gonna go stale in the space of a few months and then... I've heard there's a group trying to figure out how to build wind turbines with the supplies on hand."

"I hope it works."

From behind the pair, a familiar voice spoke. "Long term? You're all giving up already..."

"Stuff it Carl." Roger said, turning to face the former deputy.

"Why can't you all see it?" Carl Harner insisted. "These aliens are why we're here! They can send us home if we make them!"

"You don't know that Carl!" Florence exclaimed.

"And you don't know they're not!"

Roger laughed. "That's the best you've got? Absence of proof!?"

Carl was about to respond with a stream of obscenities, when a shout drew his attention. "Great. More of them again." He grumbled. From the edge of town, a pair of the aliens, one orange and one white and purple came running, shouting something to the two already present...

"Twilight! Twilight!" The mare looked up at the sound of her name being called to find Applejack and Rarity galloping towards her.

"Girls!? What's wrong!?"

The girls, the Crusaders, they're missing!" Applejack exclaimed.

"What!?"

"Oh yes it's horrible! They're wandered off into the forest I just know it!" Rarity said.

"Okay... Okay..." Twilight tried to think. "Is anypony looking for them yet?"

"Rainbow Dash of course." Applejack answered. "And half a dozen guards."

"And several others are planning to join the search shortly as well." Rarity added.

"Okay good." Twilight said.

The Mayor said "I shall return to Ponyville. The search effort will need a coordinator."

"Good thinking." Twilight agreed. "Okay, let's go find them." The mares started to rush away when Twilight exclaimed "Oh duh!" She returned to the waiting Sheriff and rummaged about in her saddlebags until she found a photo album...

John Tucker and the other humans present watched as the purple unicorn pulled a book from her bags, paged through it, then presented them with a photograph. Pictured were a trio of obviously young ponies. Purple gestured towards the photo, then towards the outskirts of town.

"Ah hell, I think she's sayin' some kids have gotten themselves lost out there." Roger said as he looked at the picture.

"Children?" Florence said. "Dear Lord anything could be out there..."

"Get some rifles." Tucker called out. "We'll help look."

"Put a price on it Sheriff." Carl shouted. "The kids for our trip home!"

Angry, Tucker stomped over to Carl and got in his face. "Even if you were right about them, which you're not, these would still be children! What the hell is wrong with you!?"

"Ask your purple friend!" Carl shouted back.

The surrounding crowd was growing bigger. And Tucker couldn't help but note, more unsettled. Several were shouting, and it sounded as if a notable percentage were taking Carl's side. Not wanting push the situation further, Tucker turned away from his former deputy and walked back to where the ponies were. "Anybody got those guns yet!?" He demanded, "And where the hell is Bert!?"

Following their encounter with the mushroom-frog ('Frogshroom?') Bert and Shadow penetrated deeper into the forest. As they went, Bert took samples of fruits, nuts, and other potentially edible plants for the labs back in town. The more they knew about this place, the better.

They reached a clearing as the sun neared it's apex. "Good a place as any for lunch." Bert said spying a large rock formation. Climbing to the top, man and dog settled in to eat. But no sooner had Bert finished unwrapping his sandwich, a scream rang out through the trees.

"Sounds like someone's in trouble!" Bert shouted, leaping to his feet and grabbing up his rifle. "Come on boy!"

Finding the source of the trouble took only a few minutes. Bert carefully parted a pair of branches to see a troubling scene. Two large animals, obviously predators, were ramming themselves at a fallen tree that was beginning to splinter under the assault. The screams were coming from underneath. "What the hell are kids doing out here?" Bert wondered, then decided he could get answers later. Right now he needed to save them, but how...?

He considered the guns he was carrying. Too risky, these creatures were huge. Then again, like the other indigenous life so far, they didn't seem to have eyes. If they used sonar, they would need very sensitive ears. Maybe too sensitive, in proximity to the boom of a gunshot. "It's the best chance we've got boy." Bert said to his dog. "Heel."

With Shadow close at his feet, Bert strode out into plain view. The beasts heard him, and turned, facing right towards the man. They roared in unison, and charged. Bert calmly raised his weapon and fired into the air. The effect was immediate: Both of the predators reared back, letting out an ear-piercing shriek of pain. But they didn't flee.

"Ah hell!" Bert exclaimed as they began to come after him again. Seeing no other option, he ran and dived for the tree trunk. At least he could be with the dumb kids, able to calm them down while he thought up a new plan. Shadow close beside, Bert rolled under the trunk just in time, barely avoiding the snapping jaws of the hungry beasts.

Safe, he looked up, searching for the lost kids. And saw ponies. "Really?" He groused.

Author's Notes:

Alpha's species is basically the Night Stalker from Dougal Dixon's 'After Man: A Zoology of the Future' but with more legs.

The "Frog-shroom" is a Final Fantasy 11 style funguar.

Chapter Five

The Crusaders looked with fear at the creatures that had joined them under the fallen tree. One was clearly a dog, the other... "What is it?" Sweetie Belle whispered.

"I think it's one of the things from the other town." Apple Bloom replied. "Big sis says they seem friendly enough... And I think maybe it was trying to save us."

"Fat lot of good that did then." Scootaloo complained.

"It still tried." Apple Bloom countered.

"Yeah, I guess... Maybe we should try to talk to it?"

"They don't know Equish." Apple Bloom answered.

Sweetie Belle said "But we can't just sit here." She took a single step forward and reached out with a forehoof. "Hello!"

The creature stared at them, not answering. It's dog however was more forward. Bounding forward, it began to sniff at Sweetie's offered hoof, then wagged it's tail and started licking. Sweetie laughed, which only encouraged the dog, who had clearly decided it liked her.

It was about then that the hungry creatures began ramming the tree again, determined to crash through to their quarry. Man, dog, and ponies stared, and the dog began to growl, then bark angrily. Looking back and forth between her friends, Scootaloo said "I hope one of you has a plan, 'cause I got nothin'." The looks on their faces answered her question for her...

Staring down the gigantic predators, Bert's mind was in overdrive as he sought a way out of this predicament. His initial concerns still applied: The guns he had lacked the kick for a sure-thing kill shot on such large targets. An elephant gun would work, but he hadn't expected to need that much force. Ramming the barrel of the rifle into one's mouth as it lunged was an option, but he didn't even know if these things kept their brains in their heads or not.

"Time spent thinking clearly is never time wasted." Bert quoted to himself. He considered everything he had available, the gear he had bought, Shadow, the terrain, even the three fillies. And as he thought, a plan began to form. It wasn't a perfect plan. For one thing it would require him to use himself as bait while the ponies and Shadow got away. Then again, once he was on his own he could take bigger risks, have a better chance of also getting clear. He looked over at the ponies. They were staring, eyes wide, towards the raging beasts. How to communicate his plan to them so they'd know what to do?

Getting an idea from his high school football team days, Bert searched his pack for the pen and paper he had bought along, and after finding them clapped his hands once to get the ponies' attention. He waved them in closer, and though they were clearly still unsure of him they did slowly step up.

As they gathered in, the pegasus' stomach rumbled. Chuckling, Bert found a granola bar and tossed it to her. She seemed confused as to what she was being given, but smiled widely once she managed to rip the end of the foil off. Bert grinned himself when she broke it in three and shared with her friends.

Making sure their attention was on the paper, Bert began to draw. First a square (He motioned to himself) then a circle (Point at Shadow) two 'X's (motion towards the creatures) and finally three triangles. Before Bert could point to the fillies, the yellow one motioned towards the triangles and then herself and the others.

"Good. You get it so far." Bert said. He nodded, and continued drawing, adding in the tree trunk and other nearby features. Confirming with a look that they were still following, he drew a series of arrows from the positions of himself and them. "Now... What were your words for numbers...?" Bert pointed to the arrows in sequence, numbering them for the ponies as he went.

Yellow and Orange were clearly following his plan and agreeing with it, nodding and discussing something excitedly. But the other...

The unicorn motioned towards Bert, then towards the creatures. "Quo? Virra lo gubby, thac!" As she said the last word, she pantomimed the creature's jaws snapping shut.

"I hoped they wouldn't see that far ahead." Bert thought to himself. He smiled and held up the rifle. "Uhm...Bang bang?"

Yellow looked at the gun quizzically, then grabbed Bert's pen and drew out a crude depiction of what looked like a cannon. Bert nodded yes, and all three fillies' eyes opened wider.

Above their heads, a cracking sound announced that the tree trunk wasn't going to take much more pounding before it gave way. "Now." Bert said, shouldering his pack and saying to Shadow "Guard." while pointing at the ponies. The dog understood, staying close to them. Holding up three fingers, Bert counted down, then ran for it on zero, the creatures giving chase...

As soon as Bert and the creatures were gone, Scootaloo took point and the Crusaders ran in the opposite direction, back towards Ponyville. "I sure hope he knows what he's doing!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed.

"Me too!" Apple Bloom agreed. "I'd hate for anypony to get hurt savin' us!"

"I'm not worried. He's got that little cannon remember?" Scootaloo said. "Betcha he'll get in the clear and blast 'em!"

Apple Bloom shook her head. " I dunno... If he was so sure of himself, why'd he send the dog with us?"

Scootaloo skidded to a halt, staring at Shadow. "Hey yeah! But... Aw no, I don't want him getting eaten!"

"Look let's just get back to town!" Sweetie Belle said. "We'll tell the guard, they'll send somepony out to help!"

"It'll be too late by then!"

"Maybe, but it's all for nothing if we stay out here and get gobbled up by something too!"

Suddenly Scootaloo gasped. "Look!" She said, pointing up to a familiar prismatic streak in the sky. She shouted "Rainbow Dash! Down here!"

With a loud fluttering of wings, Rainbow landed before the Crusaders. "What are you thinking doing out here!?" She demanded. "No wait, tell me later, let's get you back to town first."

"No wait! We can't go yet!" Sweetie Belle said.

Rainbow gave the unicorn a puzzled look. "What? Why?"

Gesturing to each other and the dog, all three fillies talked over each other as they explained how the alien had saved them from certain doom. Sorting out the story, Rainbow shushed them and asked "So he's still out there being chased down?"

"He saved us and they're gonna eat him!" Sweetie Belle wailed.

A determined look spread over Rainbow's face. "Oh buck no they're not... No creature saves my biggest fan and gets eaten for it!" She looked down at the Crusaders. "Stay here, hide. I'll be right back." Before anypony could answer, Rainbow was gone in a flash of rainbow light...

Bert ran headlong through the trees, hunters close behind. As he ran, he took note of a detail that would be very helpful to know in the future, assuming he survived this; when these creatures were in pursuit mode, they focused their sonar more tightly on the intended prey. He could actually feel the intense waves of sound reflecting off of his body.

Luck was with the survivalist. As he leapt over a large rock formation he caught sight of something he could use. Changing course, Bert pushed himself for all he was worth in one last sprint, jumping down into a narrow fissure in the ground just as the creatures would have reached him. They now stood directly overhead, aiming their sonar down into the hole but unable to fit in to reach him.

Both creatures snarled and growled and roared in frustration. They pawed at the ground, but the sides of the fissure were solid rock, not soil they could dig up. After several minutes, both seemed to give up and wander away. Bert was relieved, until he realized they were going back the way they had come from. Going back after Shadow and the young ponies.

He quickly climbed up, out of the fissure, and got their attention before diving back in. Again, quicker this time, they turned to go back after the others. "Damn. Fast learners." Bert cursed. Then something unexpected happened...

Rainbow Dash heard the alien before she saw him. He was yelling something in that odd language they spoke. Looking down, she saw him standing next to a hole, waving his forelimbs and screaming. Then she saw the predators. "Sweet Faust, that's what had the girls cornered?" She wondered. "No wonder they needed help. But why is he yelling at them like-" The thought was cut off short as Rainbow figured it out.

She flew down, fast enough to create a clap of wind from her passage, stopping a few feet above the forest floor, with the predators between her and the alien. There she hovered, forelegs crossed, planning to stare the beasts down. Of course, stare downs can be difficult when... "No eyes!?" Rainbow exclaimed. "Well that's not fair!"

The creatures rushed forward as the alien waved his limbs and shouted louder. Rainbow tried to evade them by just flying up out of range, but they proved to be phenomenally good jumpers; before she could get high enough to be in the clear, she was knocked to the ground. Looking up, seeing both looming over her, the pegasus whispered what she expected to be her last prayer.

Then there was a loud cracking noise, similar to a cannon shot but higher-pitched. The beasts reared back and shrieked, stepping away from Rainbow as they did so. Another crack, and they stepped further away. Getting back to her feet, Rainbow saw the alien, holding one of those portable cannons they had, firing a third shot. Oddly, he hadn't fired towards the creatures, yet they still roared in pain.

Now, Rainbow Dash might not be the smartest pony out there; Certainly not on 'egghead' level... But she wasn't dumb. "No eyes... big ears... Loud sounds hurt them!" She exclaimed. Then she grinned. "You guys want loud sound? I'll give you loud sound..." She rocketed high into the sky, near her maximum altitude, then sped straight down as fast as she could...

Bert was surprised when the pegasus suddenly flew away. She had apparently been trying to help him, and the sudden departure left two options. "Either she lost her nerve after taking the hit, or she's got a plan." He thought. He hoped it was the latter, though he could hardly blame her if it was the former.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!!!!!!!

A tremendous crash, as of rolling thunder or a sonic boom rumbled through the forests, vibrating everything. leaves and branches fell from trees, the rifle fumbled from Bert's hands, and the creatures screamed in pain and terror. Having had enough, they turned and fled, off in a direction opposite where Bert had left the fillies.

"The hell...!?" Bert shouted. He looked up to see a brilliant display of colors fading away and the pegasus descending towards him. "Was that you...?" He wondered.

But there was little time to contemplate, as the pony landed in front of Bert and motioned for him to follow her. Having no better ideas, he grabbed up his rifle and followed, finding a few minutes later that they were going to where Shadow and the fillies were waiting.

Elated to see it's master, the dog ran to Bert, tail wagging, tongue lolling out to lick his hands, and Bert was also surprised to be jumped and tightly hugged by the little unicorn as well. After freeing himself from her grip, Bert motioned to them and started to walk back towards where he knew the pony's town was. He stopped when the adult pegasus shouted something.

Bert watched, as she needed a moment to think in order to figure out how to convey her message. She motioned to the orange filly, then to herself. Then she motioned to the other two, and back towards Fallow Meadows.

"You're saying... Their parents or something are at our town right now?" Bert guessed. He nodded. "Alright then, Fallow Meadows it is." He started towards the human town, and the ponies followed close behind...

Back in Fallow Meadows a search team had formed up, armed and ready to push into the dark forests in the hopes of find both the missing ponies and Bert, whose taped message had been found when Tucker sent a deputy to fetch him. Included in the group were Tucker himself, two deputies, a pair of senior boys from the high school, and Bethany Stanz who had insisted on returning the favor that had been done during Herbert's heart attack.

Through careful use of the few words they knew, humans and ponies had decided to break into three groups, each containing one pony and two humans. But as they were moving out, a voice called to them from the forest edge. Into view came Bert, Shadow, and four ponies.

"Shoulda known." Tucker chuckled to himself, while the three ponies that had already been with them ran to the others. Even without knowing the language, the tone of relief in their voices was unmistakable. As Bert walked to him, Tucker said "Long story, I'm guessing?"

"Kids being kids." Bert answered. "But we do need to talk. I've gotten a good look, almost too close in one case, at some of the stuff that's living out there... And we might have a serious problem on our hands..."

While Bert relayed what he had seen, seven ponies had a reunion which started out as happy relief and turned into three fillies being grounded for weeks. "You could've been killed!" Applejack said, "What were y'all thinking!?"

"Yes Sweetie Belle... Please explain what possessed the three of you to do such a dangerous thing?" Rarity agreed.

Sweetie Belle explained "We realized that the sun and moons here move, which means there must be an alien alicorn or something controlling them! We went to find her."

"I'll explain this to you someday girls, but it doesn't actually work that way normally... Eqqus is a unique world, most planets the sun and moon move on their own."

"Say what!?" Applejack asked.

"One thing at a time dear... Punishments first."

"It was actually my idea. Please don't punish them." Scootaloo said

"Sorry squirt. Your idea or not, they still went along with it."

"Exactly." Rarity agreed.

Twilight said "I'm so glad you're all okay! Now don't ever do that again!"

"We won't." The Crusaders promised.

Rainbow said "I'm tempted to make you make that a Pinkie Promise."

"No reason to go quite that far." Applejack disagreed. "Now let's get you back home to start your groundings."

"Hold up a moment!" Twilight asked. "Before that, I'd like to hear about this. What happened, what all did you see?"

The Crusaders began to tell their tale, Twilight listening earnestly...

"...And that's about the size of it." Bert concluded. "There are some very big, very dangerous animals out there."

"And some freaky mushrooms too." Roger sighed. "This place gets more and more strange every day."

Tucker nodded. "True enough. Although, it's the 'no eyes' thing that gets my attention. I mean, think about it: Our equine neighbors do have eyes."

"Yeah, it's more evidence that they don't belong here." Bert agreed.

Listening from the sidelines, Bethany Stanz asked "So what are we supposed to do? I mean, if we're going to survive here we'll need to farm some land, but if it's that dangerous out there..."

"We've got enough material to build a defensive wall around the town itself." Roger said.

"Isn't that a bit medieval?" Bethany asked.

"Squeaky wheel and grease. It's what we need to do." Roger countered. "Still doesn't solve the farming issue though."

Bert said "Clear some forests around the edges of town. Plant in shooting range of the top of the wall. It'll work if we do it right."

Standing next to Roger, Florence said "We could convert areas inside the town to crops too; the big fields around the school and in the park for example."

"Yeah, that's good." Tucker said. "Bert, can I assume you've got seed stores in that compound of yours?"

"Of course. Corn, wheat, soy, beans, you name it."

"Good, so-" Tucker was interrupted by the sound of loud excited yelling. He looked to see the Purple pony rushing towards them...

"He did what!?!" Twilight exclaimed. "Oh! Oh! Oh I'm so... How did I not think of that!?"

"Y'all have been busy." Applejack said. "...Think of what?"

"Oh it's perfect! It'll work! It has to work!" Twilight babbled. "Paper! I need some big sheets of paper! Right now!" She looked around frantically, setting eyes on one of the female locals. Rushing up to her, Twilight dropped a piece of paper on the ground, tapped it, then motioned wide with her hooves. Seeming to get the message, the creature ran into a storefront and emerged moments later with a large artist's sketchbook.

Twilight smiled in thanks, then took the sketchbook in her magic and ran towards the group of creatures she had been working with the most...

As Tucker and company watched, Purple opened the sketchbook, produced a quill and ink from her bags, and started drawing. "Looks like the kids told her about my idea." Bert said. They waited as Purple drew, and looked closely when she turned the page to face them.

Depicted were nine smaller images in three rows of three. The pony clearly wasn't an artist, but the drawings were at least good enough to tell what they were supposed to be. The first row depicted two ponies. One spoke in the first panel, the other in the second, and the third panel showed them both smiling and shaking or bumping hooves. The second row was identical to the first, save that it showed two humans instead. The third row showed one human and one pony. The human spoke, then the pony, but the third panel showed both frowning and spreading their arms/forelegs in confusion.

"So, yeah... We can't talk to each other." Roger said. "We get that already."

"Hang on I think she's going somewhere with this..." Tucker said. He nodded for the pony to continue.

Flipping to a new page, Purple began to draw again. It took only a couple of minutes before she presented them with a new set of images. This time, the first three images were the same as the last row on the first page. From there, a fourth panel showed a glow around the pony's horn and also around the human's head. Panel five depicted speech balloons from both human and pony, and panel six showed both smiling and shaking hands/hooves.

"Mister Gumbal..." Bethany whispered, "Is she saying what I think she's saying here?"

"Yeah... Yeah, I think you're right..." Bert answered.

With a raised eyebrow, Roger asked "Care to fill the rest of us in?"

Bethany answered "She's saying that the thing she tried to do with Carl Harner the first day, that glowing around the head thing... She's saying that we'd be able to understand each other if she was able to finish doing it."

"Now hold on, how is that even possible?" Tucker asked.

Bert shrugged. "How is any of this possible? The real question is, do we let her do it, and if so who will it be?"

"Me." Florence said, surprising everyone. "I'll do it."

This was not a plan Roger liked. "Now hold on Flo, we've not even decided to do it or not, and-"

"And nothing. We need to be able to talk to each other. So we have to risk it. And since it is a risk, it can't be you or Bert or the Sheriff. Me though, I'm just a waitress. Besides, Herbert's been my friend for twenty years. I owe them for helping to save his life."

"Her logic's sound Rog." Bert said.

"Right. So let's get this over with." Florence stepped forward, bent down to her knees, and nodded to the pony, who nodded back before closing her eyes.

"I'm sure glad Carl left after you told him off." Bert said as the pony's horn began to glow. "He'd be shooting right about now."

The glow around the pony's horn peaked, and a similar glow ebbed and flowed around Flo's head. After the first minute Tucker said "Flo? Can you hear me? How do you feel?"

"I feel just fine actually." Florence answered. "There's no unusual sensation at all."

The glow continued another full minute, and then the pony fell to her knees and all was silent...

"Twi!? Twi you okay?" Applejack asked, worry in her expression.

Twilight's eyes fluttered open. "Ugh... I'm okay A.J... That's not an easy spell is all."

As Twilight rose back to her feet, Rarity said "Well don't keep us in suspense darling! Did it work?"

"Let's find out..."

After it was over, Roger helped Florence back to her feet. The group watched as the purple pony recovered for herself, then stood and looked up at them. The pony smiled to Florence, cast a quick gaze around at everyone present, then opened her mouth and said "That should be sufficient. Can you understand me?"

"Holy crap it worked." Roger whispered.

"But how, I mean..." Sheriff Tucker focused his attention on the pony. "Um, yes... Yes, we understand you. Are you understanding us?"

"I am! The spell worked!" The pony practically squee'd. "I mean I knew it would work, but I've never actually had to use it myself before!"

"Wait, 'Spell?' You mean like magic?" Bethany asked.

"Oh, well that's kind of complicated for a full explanation, but it's what we call it." The pony said. "Oh! My name is Twilight Sparkle, student of her majesty Princess Celestia!" She offered a hoof.

Bending down, John Tucker said "I'm Sheriff Tucker. The fellow in the camouflage in Bert Gumbal, that's Roger, Bethany, and the lady who agreed to help you is Florence... Um, the hoof, do you bump or shake?"

"Either works." Twilight smiled.

After they had shook, Tucker asked "So, can your friends understand us now too?"

"Not yet." Twilight answered. "Right now, all I've done is copy the language information from Florence's mind to mine. I can cast another spell that will transfer it to my friends, and with the help of other unicorns I could cast a blanket spell that would enable all of us, human and pony, in both towns to communicate." She looked at Florence. "But, since the information came from your mind, magic etiquette requires me to have your permission before using it."

"That's fine, of course... We all need to be able to talk to each other. But, I am concerned about one thing..."

Bert said "I'm wondering the same thing, I think. If this spell of yours can do what you just did, what other knowledge could you take from someone's mind?"

"What!? I would never..." Twilight fell silent for a moment, then said "Actually, I guess it is a fair question from your point of view..."

"Thanks for understanding."

Twilight nodded. "Sure... But to answer, it's not a concern. The spell can transfer linguistic knowledge, and theoretically pure book data on basic subjects. But personal memories, skills, plans, and what I suspect you're concerned about, tactical data, is beyond it's abilities. And even if I could do such a thing, as I said, I would never actually..."

"Okay, we'll take your word for it." Tucker smiled.

Smiling back, Twilight said "Okay, give me just a moment and I'll cast the spell on my friends." She turned to face the other ponies, horn lighting up as she did. The glow lasted for a shorter period this time.

"Is that it?" The rainbow-maned pony asked.

"I think so. I understood you perfectly." Bert answered.

At this everyone, human and pony, began to talk over each other, eager for open communication. They were all cut off by a loud whistle from Twilight. "Before we begin," She said, "A warning. The translation matrix works by making direct connections between languages. This means it's usually very accurate, but it can be fouled up by words used in 'slang' form, or by words that don't have direct equivalents in the other language. In other words, to both humans and ponies, if somepony uses a word that comes across as unintelligible, or intelligible but doesn't make sense in context, please say something."

"In that case I already have a question." Roger said. "'Somepony...?'"

Chapter Six

Author's Notes:

Fair Warning: Headcannon Time in this chapter. Also just a single 'getting to know each other' talking scene.

With the language barrier finally removed, human and pony both agreed that they should retire someplace comfortable to conduct the first round of actual communications. A royal guard pegasus was dispatched to retrieve both the Mayor and the remaining bearers. Once they arrived, Twilight used the translation spell on them, and then Sheriff Tucker led both groups to the school, and it's spacious and comfortable senior's lounge.

As she trotted through the door, Twilight asked "So you just say 'everyone,' not 'everyhuman?' But what about your planet's other sapient species?"

"As far as Earth and sapients go, you're looking at it." Bert said.

Roger said "Well, maybe. Atlantic Dolphins are highly intelligent, analysis of the sounds they make shows all the relevant properties of being an actual structured language rather than just animal sounds. But they don't build things and we've never cracked their language, if that's what it is, to talk to them. So we can't be sure."

"Interesting." Twilight said. "Eqqus is home to a number of intelligent species; Beyond ponies there are Zebras, Gryphons, Minotaurs, Dragons-"

"Dragons!?" The entire group of humans exclaimed at once."

"Um, yeah... You've heard of Dragons then?"

Florence suggested "This might be a good place to start John."

Tucker nodded. "Yeah... Look, Back on Earth, we have creatures that we call 'ponies' and 'zebras.' But they're just animals, not people, and not very bright even as animals go. There also aren't unicorn or pegasus versions of either."

"But we do have ancient myths and legends about unicorns and pegasai." Bethany added. "And also legends about dragons and gryphons and minotaurs, but the actual thing never really existed on Earth, smart or otherwise."

"Weird." Rainbow said.

"Double weird." Twilight said, "Most ponies don't know them, but the very oldest Equestrian records contain mention of humans as well. But, like you said with dragons and such, there's no evidence that humans ever really lived on our world."

“This is too detailed to be coincidence though.” Bert said. “Our ancestors and yours have to have met each other at some point.”

Listening in from the sidelines, Apple Bloom asked “Could they have met here? Like, maybe those storms happened before a long time ago and bought some folks here, then sent them home later on?”

“Now that's a thought.” Applejack agreed with her sister.

“Maybe...” Twilight agreed.

Roger said “Well here's the test on that... Do your myths talk about big creatures without eyes?”

“No.” Twilight replied. “It was a thought though Apple Bloom. Getting back on topic though...”

“Yeah. So, are dragons really huge? Do they really breathe fire?” Florence asked.

“Yes to the second question.” Rarity said, “Though they have control over when they do it.”

Twilight added “And while dragons can get really, really big they aren't all giants. Actually, my assistant is a small dragon named Spike. You'll get to meet him soon.”

“So there's more than just ponies in your town?”

“Oh, just Spike.” Fluttershy whispered.

“What about you guys?” Rainbow Dash asked. “All we've seen are Earth Humans. Don't you have Unicorn or Pegasus Humans?”

“Nope, no horns or wings for us.” Tucker said. “And... I assume an 'Earth' Pony would be one without horns or wings?”

“Yep. That's us.” Applejack said.

“Are there other types of ponies?” Bethany asked.

“Well there are Thestrals.” Twilight said. “Think Pegasai with good night vision and bat-like wings instead of feathery wings. There aren't very many of them though... And then there are the Alicorns...”

“Wait, 'Alicorns'? That's a term I don't remember from our myths.” Roger said.

"Not surprising darling, since there are only the three." Rarity said.

Nodding, Twilight said "That's right. The Princesses, Celestia, Luna, and Cadance, are the only Alicorns. They're bigger than other ponies, as tall as you actually, and have both a horn and wings, plus the strength of Earth Ponies. They are immortal as well, and control the movement of our sun and moon."

"Oh I get it." Roger said, "You're talking about your deities."

"What? No, not at all." Twilight said.

"Alicorns are powerful, but they're not gods." Applejack said.

"Okay, so I'm not getting the details right. Sorry. But I mean, Immortal? Controlling the sun and moon? That's gotta be something to do with your religion..." Roger insisted.

"No! No, okay, look... I think we're not seeing eye to eye here."

Roger started to push the point, but Tucker cut him off. "I hope Rog hasn't offended you. But, from our point of view what you are describing does sound religious..."

"Can you explain a different way?" Bert asked.

"Hmmm... I can try." Twilight said. "What part of this is most confusing to you?"

"Immortality." Roger said. "And controlling heavenly bodies. Stuff in the sky only seems to move because the planet rotates."

"Hey! Isn't that kind of what you were talking about earlier Twilight?" Rainbow asked.

Applejack said "Yeah, you said Eqqus was unique that way."

Twilight's eyes opened wide with understanding. "Okay! I think I can explain a couple of things at once here!" To her friends and the Crusaders she said "Moons orbit planets and planets orbit suns. Ordinarily, planets spin on a rotation axis; when the part of the planet you are standing on is facing the sun it's day, and facing away, night. Eqqus used to be the same way, and when it was day and night happened automatically without any need for control."

"Wow. What happened to change it?"

"Discord." Twilight said. "It was his final action as the Princesses were sealing him away. He robbed Eqqus of it's angular momentum, stopping it's natural rotation."

"Hang on, this is sounding mythological to me now too." Tucker said. " I mean, I don't want to question your beliefs, but..."

"Well it sure sounds like you are!" Rainbow exclaimed. "How can you tell us what we've seen with our own eyes isn't real?!"

"Yes, it's quite troubling." Rarity agreed.

"And I'm sorry, I don't mean it that way! but..."

The meeting started to degenerate into a shouting match. Luckily, Bert still had the air horn he had used at the town meeting days earlier handy. One long blast shut everyone up. "Let's be calm here." He said.

Roger nodded. "Yeah... Yeah you're right."

"Okay then. Sorry." Rainbow said.

Florence said "Let's start over, from the beginning, okay?"

Twilight nodded her agreement. "Okay. And, I think I have a better starting place. Bethany, you asked about magic... And it's been clear to us from day one that you guys don't really understand how unicorn magic works... Let me ask you a question: Do you know about the five fundamental forces of physics?"

"We... Know about four fundamental forces." Roger said. "Gravity, electromagnetism, and the two nuclear forces. You're saying there's a fifth?"

"Yes! The fifth force is called the Thaumic Field. If you really can't use what we call magic, then it's not surprising that you've missed it's existence. After all, unlike the other forces, the Thaumic Field only shows itself by temporarily modifying the other laws of physics. So if nothing on your world uses it, you'd never have a chance to notice anything!" Twilight clapped her forehooves together in the joy of figuring out a mystery.

"I'm still lost... Are you saying that this force is somehow connected to living beings?" Tucker asked.

"Kind of... The field exists regardless, but conscious mind is what can interact with it. Strange, really, that mind on your planet can't..." Twilight mused. "There must be an extra ingredient, something ubiqitous on Eqqus that we've never noticed because of it's ubiquity and absent on your planet." She pulled out a notebook and began writing down equations.

"Oh dear... We've lost Twilight for a while." Rarity said. "To continue what she was saying though, our distant ancestors called this power magic, because they didn't know the science behind it. And we've kept the term, even knowing better, because, well... ...Because why not, I suppose. It works."

"Sort of like how we still say 'sunrise' and 'sunset' even though we know better." Bethany said. "But, Twilight said your planet doesn't spin on it's own? How can that be?"

"Magic can do a lot of things." Applejack said. "You've already seen how unicorns can focus the magic in their horns and cast 'spells' with it. And we Earth Ponies get a boost to our natural strength out of it, along with the ability to make near anything green grow faster and healthier than it'd be otherwise."

"And us pegasai too!" Rainbow said. "I mean, take a look. Cool as these wings are, I'd never get off the ground with just them!"

"I had been meaning to ask about that..." Roger chuckled. "I just figured it was like the old bumblebee thing, but you tap into this power to fly?"

"Oh yeah, it kind of makes us lighter weight when we're in the air. And, we also use it for weather control." Rainbow grinned. "Wanna see?" She zoomed out of the room, flying, and returned moments later with a small wisp of cloud.

"That's..." Roger swished a hand through the cloud. "Why isn't it dissipating?"

"Because Rainbow is making it stay coherent." Fluttershy said. "It'll disperse normally once there aren't any pegasai around to control it."

"Or I can get rid of it like this." Rainbow jumped atop the cloud, bouncing up and down until it suddenly released a brief burst of rain, soaking the floor.

"Dash!" Twilight exclaimed, looking up from her now sopping wet notebook.

"Oops. Sorry."

"This is all very impressive." Tucker said, "But let's move on shall we?"

"Lets." The Mayor agreed.

"But hold on, Twi still didn't finish explaining the angry mammoth thing!"

Twilight snorted in laughter. "That's angular momentum Dash. To finish off so we can go on though: Discord was a being with magic nearly equal to the princesses. Over a thousand years ago, he tried to conquer our whole planet. Celestia and Luna defeated him, and sealed him in stone. His last act, as he was being sealed, was to stop our planet from rotating on it's own."

"I can see how that would be a problem." Bert said. "Half the planet would be under endless day, baking to death. The other half would freeze out in eternal night..."

"And even the border between night and day wouldn't work as a place to live. There's be constant storms more severe than anything that happens normally." Rainbow said. Every other pony in the room stared at her in shock until she figured out why and said "I'm on the weather team. You have to know these things."

"Right..." Twilight said, "...Egghead."

"HEY!!"

"Anyway, the princesses figured out what Discord had did and tried to set the planet rotating on it's own again. But, it turned out that he didn't just stop the planet's spin; He had also stripped away it's ability to hold onto angular momentum. No matter what they did, no matter how much spin was put in, Eqqus would spin down again and stop every twelve hours."

"But what about Celestia controlling the Sun and Luna the Moon!?" Scootaloo insisted.

"Not entirely true Scoots. Eqqus' moon is stuck in a gravitational stability point. It's always located with the planet directly between it and the sun."

"A Lagrange point!" Roger said. "Yeah, we know about those, there are several of them for any two massive objects in space."

Twilight smiled. "Yes. And that's the story: Our planet is always directly between our sun and our moon. So, sun rises, moon sets. Sun sets, moon rises. Either Celestia or Luna can do it alone, but it's easier on them to split the difference. From Canterlot, Celestia's turn raised the sun and Luna's turn raised the moon, so early pre-science ponies thought that's actually what they were doing, and the idea has stuck to this day."

"Wow. I never knew..." Applejack said.

"Most ponies don't." Twilight said, "Though it's hardly a deeply hidden secret, just something that doesn't come up... Anyway, now that that's out of the way, what's next on our agenda?"

"Cooperation." Bert said. "We're making plans to build a defensive wall around town. It won't be much, we've not got the materials for anything elaborate, but with all the dangerous creatures out there it seems prudent. My question is, what about you? Can you do something similar?"

"Not really... We're kinda short on supplies." Applejack said.

Rainbow said "We could build cloud walls I suppose... But even with pegasus magic they wouldn't be as strong as stuff that's actually solid."

"What about...?" Florence started to make a suggestion, but fell silent.

"Go on Flo, if you got an idea let's hear it!"

"Well, I know that it would be difficult, for humans and ponies both, but, if we really need each other's support and it seems like we do... Why not move everyone together? Then we'd just have a single settlement to defend."

"Fears aside, that's not a bad idea." Rarity said.

"We could move easily enough!" Pinkie said. "Most pony buildings are built to be moveable after all."

"We'd have to leave the Town Hall behind." The Mayor said.

"And probably my library." Twilight agreed, "Though I could maybe find a way to transplant it with enough magic... I'll need to do some research..."

"But it still leaves the question of ponies and humans being scared of each other." Fluttershy whispered.

"Yeah, but we've got other far worse things to fear." Bert said.

The Crusaders quivered at the memory of the beasts in the forest. "You can say that again!" Apple Bloom said.

"Why don't we do this then?" Tucker said, "We'll each take the idea to our own, and if both sides agree we'll proceed. And we can still work together regardless."

"That's good." Roger said. "So, the next question is, what do we have to offer each other?"

"Well, we can both grow foodstuffs." Applejack said. "In fact, I imagine Earth Pony magic could help your crops grow faster too, so we can be sure of having enough to go around."

"That Pegasus weather control'd be useful as well." Bert said.

"And on our side, well... We seem to have a bit more advanced technology." Bethany suggested.

"A lot more, from what I've seen." Twilight said.

"I've wondered about that." said Fluttershy. "It sounds like we have about the same knowledge base, but humans have done some more with it than we have."

"Necessity." Roger answered. "We have a saying that it's the mother of invention. You haven't needed as much technology, since you have magic to do things with. We don't."

"Makes sense." Applejack said. "In any case, some of your machines could come in real handy for all of us."

"Except for one tiny little problem." Bert said. "Nearly everything we build runs off of electricity. We'll be running out of fuel for the generators in a couple of weeks."

Tucker and Roger swore. Bethany asked "What about what Twilight did with the defibrillator?"

"Not a long term solution." Twilight answered. "Converting magic to electricity... Easier said than done."

"Still, there are possibilites aren't there?" Rarity asked.

"Oh sure. If we could build wind turbines for example, pegasus weather control could keep the air flowing through them all the time."

"Assuming we're stuck here for a long time," Roger said, "We could convert some automobile engines to run off of ethanol or biodiesel as well. We wouldn't be able to run all that many of course, but we wouldn't need more than a handful of them anyway."

"Mostly, we need to keep public places powered." Tucker said. "Homes, well, I'd like to keep the lights on at least..."

"We could trade you magic-powered lanterns." Applejack said.

"Good, good, I'm sure some people will take you up on that." Bert replied.

"But what about all the other things we need power for?" Bethany asked. "I mean, okay, we can live without a lot of it. Television, computers, iPods, they're out the door. Fair enough. But, what about power for cooking food? For radios, if nothing else we should keep a news channel going."

"Girl's got a point John." Bert said to the Sheriff. "And beyond that, and I say this to all of us because I get the feeling Ponyville used to be in a climate not that different from what Fallow Meadows knew... We're in the mountains now. The winters are likely to be brutal compared to what we're used to. How are we gonna stay warm?"

Rainbow rubbed the back of a forehoof through her mane. "Technically my weather team should be able to keep warm air around. But it's not a permanent fix, you mess up the seasons you pay a price sooner or later."

"Even in Indiana the winters get cold, our buildings are well insulated." Florence said. "They're just not usually built for indoor fires."

"We might have to start making some modifications." Bert agreed. "At least the sporting goods stores are stocked full of winter clothing."

"Then hopefully you should be covered." Rarity said. "As for us, I guess my priority at the boutique needs to be pushing out lots of thermal scarves and hoof-warmers."

"Boutique?" Bethany asked, "You make clothes?"

"Oh yes dear, it's my special talent."

"But... None of you are wearing anything."

"Naked!?" Roger exclaimed, spitting out a mouthful of coffee as he realized what had been in front of him the whole time.

"For ponies, clothing is mostly decorative." Twilight said. "For special occasions, and also, as Rarity was saying, for staying warmer in cold weather."

"Which raises the question, why do y'all wear them all the time?" Applejack asked.

The humans all exchanged looks, unsure of how to respond. It was Bert who finally said "Two reasons. First, you've seen that we don't have fur coats over our whole bodies. We get cold way easier than most things do."

"Makes sense. And the other reason?"

Bert eyes the three fillies in the room, wondering how to broach the subject. Finally he said "Do Ponies know what modesty means?"

"Oh of course!" The Mayor replied. "Any stallion or mare that went around exposing... that... would be arrested."

Twilight added "But of course they'd have to be intentionally trying, after all everything's hidden by our coats and our tails... and our, um... Our... ...OH!"

"Yep. You've got it." Bert chuckled.

"Got what?" Sweetie Belle innocently asked.

"I'll tell you when you're forty." Rarity answered.

Pinkie Pie suddenly jumped into the middle of the group. "I get the next question! I get the next question! Me Me Me!!!"

"Go ahead Pinks." Twilight said.

"How many chucks would a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck norris?"

"Um..."

"Er..."

"Okaaaay..."

"I think this is a good stopping point then." Tucker said, eying the pink pony warily.

"Right." Twilight agreed. "Come on everypony..."

Chapter Seven

Author's Notes:

4/8/15 Edit: Added a paragraph to better explain the a.o.e. language spell.

Prince Blueblood looked around at the steep rocky mountain slopes in disbelief. How could this be? What manner of universe would allow such misfortune to befall one as grand and valuable as he? It was bad enough that what should have been a two-day walk through open grassy meadows had turned into a week-long trudge through a monster infested forest that shouldn't have been there. It was bad enough that two of his guards were now too injured from monster attacks to effectively protect him, and that the illusionist, whatever her name was, had vanished presumably into the belly of some horror. It was bad enough that his hooves were drying out and cracking and would surely require days of pampering to recover.

But now, now, after all of that, they had finally escaped the forest that shouldn't be there. To find Canterlot, which should be there, wasn't. In it's place were mountains much grander, snowcapped and freezing cold.

"I demand that somepony tell me what is going on!" Blueblood exclaimed.

But none of his guards could even venture a guess. At least, not until one of them pointed to the eastern horizon and exclaimed "Your highness! Look!" To the east, a second moon was rising into view.

"Two moons!?" Blueblood said. "And during the day? Whatever is Auntie Luna thinking?"

"Begging your pardon Prince, but I don't think that's what's going on here. I don't think we're on our world anymore."

Blueblood's eye opened wider at this revelation. At first he was horrified. But then, as his mind worked it's way through the implications, a broad grin spread across his muzzle. "We're not on Eqqus... We're not in range of my aunt's knowledge or power...And that means..."

"Prince Blueblood? Are you okay my Prince?" A guard asked, noticing the royal's unusual reaction.

"Oh, I'm better than okay. But do not call me Prince. For here upon this world I shall be King. Yes, King Blueblood the First..."

As the guards, seeing little other choice, bowed down and proclaimed "Long live the king," Blueblood motioned to his porters, who bought forth a chest containing supplies which Blueblood had long ago had made and took with him everywhere just in case. From out of the chest came a crown, a cloak, and a jeweled scepter with a gold and diamond head carved to look just like the newly self-proclaimed monarch's visage.

"Now then! Let us return to Ponyville, where you, my newly formed Royal Guard, shall subjugate the populace and cause them to build me a King's Palace!" Blueblood trotted back the way he had come, his head dancing with dreams of a palace so grand it would make Versailles look like an outhouse...

Two days after Twilight was able to successfully cast the translation spell, a team of unicorns gathered in the middle of Ponyville. Following Twilight's lead, they pooled their power together and drew on the linguistic knowledge now in her mind to cast a new spell. This one was incredibly powerful, spreading out in a dome from it's starting point, reaching not only to the whole of Ponyville itself, but also further, all the way to Fallow Meadows and a short distance beyond. The spell dome endured for eleven minutes before collapsing. Within the effective radius, every sapient being whether human, pony, or dragon received in their minds the sum total of knowledge on how to speak, read, and write the other's language alongside their own. The newly gained knowledge would be permanent; there was no need to maintain or recast the spell periodically.

With the language barrier finally removed, talks between human and pony proceeded apace, as did the development of plans for survival. One of the earliest points, frightening to both sides but agreed upon as wise, was to combine into a single town, so that the wall to be built around Fallow Meadows could protect everyone. One the one hand (or hoof) this wouldn't be too hard; Pony houses and most other buildings were built to be easily moved. Everything but the town hall (too big) and the library (After all, rooted firmly in the ground) could be relocated in a matter of days.

Conversely, this was held back by fear. Most humans were still uncertain of allowing five thousand aliens inside their defenses, and most ponies were unsettled at the thought of being surrounded by eight thousand tall bipeds. And so Ponyville stayed where it was even as the wall began to go up.

Less contentious was the establishment of a provisional counsel, half of it's members from each species, to oversee trade, mutual defense, and the resolution of conflicts. From the human side Bert and Roger were chosen, along with Miriam Zahn, a government teacher from the school. The ponies chose Macintosh, along with Cherilee (probably the second smartest pony in town after Twilight), and Filthy Rich for the economic perspective.

Ground began to be cleared in preparation for planting crops, though it would be many months before such efforts yielded results. Fishermen (mainly human and a few pegasai) tried to supplement food stores with native fish from the river. Suffice to say lures to trick sonar were harder to get results with than lures to trick sight. Gathering of local vegetation, once it was proven safe to eat, was more successful. All in all, at the two-week mark things were proceeding much better than anyone had anticipated. Which of course meant it was time for something to go wrong...

Alpha stood atop a rise, sonar pointed down towards the hive of new creatures. It's previous encounter with the prey was still in it's mind, but they were no longer marked as 'prey.' They were now considered 'threat.' Led by instinct Alpha had, after the failed hunt, sent a loud echoing call out into the woods. It was a call to arms, a call to the alpha leaders of every other pack of it's kind, a call which said, in essence, "Danger. Stand together." And so over the next few days they had gathered, massing, hidden, roundabout the two hives. Waiting for the signal. Which Alpha gave...

Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle was busily pouring over plans for a new power grid when a knock at the door distracted her. "Be right there!" She called out, and took a moment to steal one last glance at the plans. It was actually a masterpiece of urban design, considering how little time the human and pony engineers had had to come up with it; A dozen emergency generators, each powerful enough to run twenty human homes on it's own, amplified ten times over with carefully placed magical crystals. With the homes in Fallow Meadows soon to be lit by magic lanterns and heated by indoor firepits, the setup would be able to supply what power was still needed. Ponyville itself, smaller and accustomed to less electrical needs anyway, could make do with a single augmented generator; Bert Gumbal had already donated them one of his, but they were waiting until they knew for certain if they were moving before hooking it up.

Nodding in satisfaction that the design would work, Twilight trotted to the door and opened it wide, shocked to find... "Trixie!?"

"Hello Twilight Sparkle. May Tri- May I come in?"

Still stunned, but remembering her manners, Twilight motioned for Trixie to enter. "Trixie, how did you get here?"

"That's what I wanted to talk about Twilight. See, after our second... encounter... I was aimless. Aimless and angry, but not angry at you. Angry at me."

"You? Trixie the amulet was controlling you, it wasn't your fault-"

"Yes it was. Because I was still in control of myself when I intentionally went looking for it just to get back at you." Trixie hung her head low, but continued speaking "I wanted to make things right somehow. To do something good with my talents for a change. And that's when I found an ad in the Canterlot Times for a job as an illusionist bodyguard."

"Wow. That'd be perfect for your skill set."

"I thought so too. The trouble came when I found out who I would be guarding, you see-"

Trixie was cut off by the sound of screams from outside. "What the hay?" Twilight exclaimed.

The mares galloped to the door, and out into the sunlit morning to see what was happening. All around, ponies were running in fear from some manner of large creatures neither had ever seen before. They were perhaps thirty hooves long, with eight muscular legs, mouths bristling with sharp teeth, and a pair of sonar-dish ears atop their heads.

"These must be the same predators the Crusaders and Mister Gumbal ran into." Twilight gasped.

"Predators?" Trixie asked. "From the Everfree?"

"Ever... You've been out of touch for a bit haven't you?"

"Since that weird storm. Why?"

"I'll tell you later, right now we've got a town to save!" Twilight ran off towards the nearest of the creatures...

Carl Harner awoke with his third hangover of the week. Grumbling to himself, he stepped out into his backyard, started a small fire, and put a coffepot over it to boil. Waiting on the water, he tipped his head back and looked up at the sky, where a pair of moons were visible near each other. "At least the view is cool." he whispered.

Ever since his confrontation with John Tucker over the missing pony children (foals?) Carl had kept out of sight. Waiting. Watching. And thinking as well. And in the course of this thinking, he had finally came to a number of realizations. The first, the most important, was how foolish he was to actually want to go on the offensive. Either he was wrong about the ponies being responsible, in which case there was nothing to gain. Or he was right, in which case there was no hope of winning a stand-up fight against against such powerful beings.

Not that he thought for a moment that he was wrong. Damnit, it had to be them! But, there were better ways to approach the situation. Stealth, subtlety, guerrilla tactics. Of course, for that he would need like-minded allies. It was probably best to bide his time, until something happened that would wake up at least a few people to the danger everyone was in.

As even Carl would eventually be forced to admit, the universe has a sense of humor; His first sip of coffee turned into a spit-take as he heard a woman scream, followed by still more screaming, and the sound of gunshots. Apparently he wasn't going to have to wait after all...

Around the same time that Carl Harner was waking up, Florence was arriving at the Diner. Being a public place, and a source of cooked meals, it was on the short list to get power, and had become very busy from sunrise to sunset each day as meals were provided free to all comers until some sort of economy could be established. She was surprised to find the doors already open and the dining room filled to capacity with guests. "Who's cooking?" She wondered.

In the kitchen she found her answer. "Herb! What are you doing!?" Florence exclaimed. "You had a heart attack! You're still supposed to be in bed!"

"I was a marine for thirty years Flo. You know that."

"This isn't exactly a 'semper fi' situation Herb." Florence answered dryly.

"Maybe not. But I've still got a duty." Herb flipped a griddle full of pancakes, all at once. "See? I still got it."

"Okay, but I'm keeping an eye on you, you hear?"

"Wouldn't have it any other way my dear. Now then-" A scream sliced through the air. Before Florence could even react, Herbert pulled an assault rifle from behind a pile of boxes. "Maybe semper fi after all." He said, and rushed for the door.

Florence and a number of diner patrons followed behind Herb as he went outside into the street. A small rush of people raced past, and when they looked back in the direction the runners were fleeing from chills went down all of their spines. Standing in the middle of the closest intersection were a pair of beasts unlike any on Earth, massive eight-legged predators, swooning their heads about as if undecided on who to attack.

Without hesitation, Herbert raised his gun and fired. The bullets hit their mark, of that he was certain, but the target barely seemed to notice, save for flinching back from the sound. Herb fired again, joined by a number of others who were also carrying weapons, but again the monster stayed on it's feet. They did get more of a reaction this time though; It roared and charged right for them...

Ponyville was in the midst of a full-scale panic. Not that monster attacks were anything new to the town of course, so it was organized and civil as panics go. But it was still a panic. Two dozen of the massive carnivores had descended upon the town all at once, trying their damnedest to catch and consume everypony in sight. (so to speak). The saving grace was the beast's lack of comprehension of doors, and their inability to detect anything through windows.

While the townsponies hid and waited for the all-clear, the guard set to work attempting to deal with the intrusion. It was easier said than done. Magic allowed the unicorn guards to strike with their swords and spears from afar, and pegasai could divebomb the creatures from a safe altitude, but it quickly became apparent that they were extremely sturdy and hard to significantly injure.

Running towards the battle, Twilight Sparkle was surprised to find Trixie at her side. "What?"

"I meant what I said Twilight. I want to do something good for a change." Trixie said. "Now what's the plan?"

"Plan? I've not gotten that far yet... I'm told that loud noises can hurt their sensitive hearing though, make them run away."

"Fireworks spells then?" Trixie asked.

"The booms from those are as loud as the real thing..." Twilight nodded. "Let's try it!"

Together, the mares charged up their magic and started firing off charges into the air. As the booming sounds rumbled through the air, the creatures began to roar and flinch back, but otherwise held their ground. "This may not have been my best idea..." Trixie admitted after several minutes. "They're not running, but we've got their attention. As soon as we tire out and stop..."

"Yeah... Let's start slowly backing away." Twilight agreed.

As they backed down the street Rainbow landed near them. "Hey! What are you doing here!?" She demanded of Trixie.

"Focus Dash! Monsters!" Twilight said.

"Oh, right... Okay look, we've got big problems these things are everywhere!"

"They're the same creatures you saw in the forest right?" Twilight asked, "Why don't you try to scare them away with another rainboom?"

"Can't." Dash replied. She spread out her left wing, and it was clear that several feathers were missing. "One of them almost got the drop on me when they first showed up. Lost a couple of primaries. I can still fly, but not that fast 'til they grow back in."

"Nuts. Okay, what else?"

"Well, from what I could see up high it looks like nopony is doing too well against them." Rainbow said. "They're just soaking up wounds like they're nothing!"

"You can say that again!" A familiar voice said. Twilight looked and saw several guardsponies, among them Midnight Steel, Sword Breaker, and Big Macintosh trotting towards her. Sword Breaker said "I charged my magic to the limit, blasted one's head clear off. It's still going! Guess their brains are somewhere else in their bodies."

"Or their nervous systems are just distributed throughout." Twilight mused, continuing to cast fireworks spells and back away from the creatures.

"Maybe all of their systems are distributed all through their bodies." Midnight suggested. "It would explain why nothing seems to do more than annoy them."

"Yeah, it would."

Rainbow said "I hate to say this, but I think we're gonna need help."

"The humans?" Macintosh asked.

"Who-mams?" Trixie asked, confused.

"I'll tell you once we're clear." Twilight said. "And yes, maybe those guns they've got will be more effective."

"Okay good." Midnight nodded. "As soon as you three mares are safe, I'll lead my team to Fallow Meadows and ask for assistance."

"Two mares." Rainbow said. "I'm slowed down but not out of the fight. I'll come with you."

"Okay good. That'll give me and Trixie a chance to recover and join back in when you get back." Twilight agreed.

It took only a few more minutes to slowly back to the door of the Library. Once there, Twilight set off a particularly big firework spell, enough to distract the creatures while everypony ducked back inside. Once they were secure, Midnight Steel led Rainbow Dash and his team out the back door, setting off on the perilous journey through the forest...

When the creatures charged, the crowd scattered. People ran wherever they felt they would be safest, which basically amounted to any unlocked door they could reach in time. Naturally, Herbert led those nearest to him back into the diner, slamming the door shut just in time. "Everyone get back!" He ordered, "Back against the wall, away from the front windows!"

The crowd complied, with many going further, on into the kitchen, peeking out through the crack in the door. Through the window, the predators were clearly visible. One was on the far side of the street, facing the buildings there, while the other was directly in front of the diner windows, facing them. Most of the crowd expected it too lunge forward through the glass, but instead it simply stood there, doing nothing. After several minutes, it cocked it's head in confusion, but made no further move.

"What the hell's it doing?" Someone whispered.

"It's sonar can't see through glass." Herbert realized. "It knows we have to be here somewhere, but it can't find us."

"Should we try sneaking out the back?" Florence asked.

"If it decides to charge anyway, yeah. Otherwise the safest thing to do is wait right here."

Bert Gumbal was having the time of his life: One armored Hummer, one elephant gun, and lots of targets. Not that the giant gun was doing as much as he'd hoped. It was clear these creatures were sturdier than most things on Earth. But he could at least drive them away from the people they were going after, and that without being chased down himself thanks to the sheer volume of the weapon's discharges.

On hearing another scream, Bert switched the vehicle in gear and sped down the street, arriving to find one creature stalking around a small one-story house. The flower beds were trampled, there were great holes stomped into the deck, and from the look of things the beast had even been walking on the roof; several areas were bowed in precariously.

Stepping out of the hummer, Bert took aim and fired. The creature roared in pain and fear as the slug tore through one of it's legs, severing it just below the main body. Perhaps it was the pain, or confusion, but unlike the others Bert had faced thus far today this one didn't run. Or at least, it didn't run away. Instead it charged right for it's attacker.

As Bert jumped into his seat, ready to speed away, more shots rang out. These were from less potent weapons than Bert's, but they got the message across. The creature stopped short in it's attack run and fled.

The source of the new shots became apparent when Carl Harner stepped into view from behind a nearby house carrying a shotgun, followed moments later by Bethany Stanz appearing from inside the house with her own weapon. "Thanks guys!" She said, "This wasn't doing the trick alone."

"All part of the service." Bert answered. He looked at Carl. "You here to help, or to go off on a rant about how the ponies sent them to kill us all?"

"The first one." Carl said. "Trust the little technicolor freaks or not, I'm not gonna blame them for everything. We're in an alien wilderness, this was bound to happen sooner or later."

"Yeah..." Bert agreed. "Okay, you two wanna help, hop in. I'm making my way to the Sheriff's office in between stops."

Bethany climbed into the back seat behind Bert. Carl started to take the front passenger seat, only to settle for the back across from Bethany when Shadow, who was already in said front seat, growled menacingly. "Sorry Carl, he's got permanent shotgun." Bert laughed.

As she settled into her seat, Bethany looked around at the read cargo area. "Damn Bert." She said, "Packing enough?"

"Extra guns, extra ammo, water, M.R.E.'s, a medical kit, and three pounds of C4 plus detonators." Bert said. He frowned. "Don't tell Tucker about that last one eh?"

"My lips are sealed if I can have one of these." Carl said, hefting a machine pistol from it's cradle.

"Done."

After two more diversions to help those in need, Bert finally drove onto the town's main street. Immediately they saw the creatures that were threatening the diner. "This could be tricky." Bert whispered. "Lots of plate glass windows for errant shells to smash through..."

"Explosives?" Carl asked, then stopped himself. "No, no good the shockwaves would smash even more glass."

"Yeah."

A knock sounded at the rear of the hummer. Expecting to see a creature bumping against the rear, the three turned to instead see John Tucker and a deputy. Bert popped the locks, and the two men crowded in. "I'm open to ideas." Tucker said. "They've got most of downtown locked down and anything we do that's strong enough to actually hurt them would put more people in danger too."

"We've got neighbors." Bert said.

Everyone looked at Carl, expecting him to freak out at the mere thought of asking the ponies for help. Instead he said "I don't trust them. I never will, I think. But... It's worth a shot. Either they're victims like us like the rest of you think, in which case they might really want to help. Or they're the reason we're here. In which case seeing them in action is useful strategically."

"When even the skeptic agrees it's time to act." Tucker said. "Who's going?" The question was discussed for a short time, before it was decided that Bert, Carl, and the two deputies would head for the alien town, while Tucker and Bethany tried to sneak into the Diner through the back alley...

Chapter Eight

Rainbow Dash hovered a few hooves above the ground as she followed Midnight Steel on the way to Fallow Meadows. At the guard captain's insistence she was now wearing the barding-armor of a pegasus guard, complete with a long spear slung over her back between her wings. It was, to speak mildly, getting on her nerves. "Look Midnight, do I really have to wear this stuff?" Rainbow complained. "I mean, it's bad enough that I've been slowed down by losing those feathers, now this junk's just making me even more sluggish!"

"You're on a guard mission in dangerous territory Miss Dash." Midnight replied. "The armor stays."

"Aww man... Hey! Mac! Help a mare out here will you?"

"Nnnope."

"You're no fun." Rainbow sighed.

"None of this is fun." Macintosh said. "Ponies could be dyin' back there. We need to get help."

"Then let me lose this stuff and I'll fly straight to the town in half the time!"

"That may not be necessary." Midnight said as he suddenly stopped. "Listen."

Pealing her ears, Rainbow listened for whatever the captain had heard. She caught it after a few seconds: voices, drawing closer. "Hello!" She called out.

"Hello!" A reply came back. "Who goes there?"

"This is Captain Midnight Steel, Equestrian Royal Guard, Ponyville Division! Who might you be?"

"Bert Gumbal, from Fallow Meadows!" The reply came back.

Humans and Ponies met each other moments later. "Wow! Good thing we ran into you!" Rainbow said.

"And we you. We've got a problem we were hoping you could help out with."

"Likewise." Macintosh said. "In fact... Lemme guess, big, eight legs, too many teeth to count..."

"What!? They're attacking you too?" Bert said. "Damnit!"

"What are the odds...?" Carl asked.

"Poor." Bert replied.

Midnight Steel nodded in agreement. "Yes. These are clearly just animals, but a dual assault implies a capacity for planning beyond what most predators can manage."

"Well this was a thought anyway." Deputy Jackson said. "I guess we all just go back now?"

"Well, not so fast..." Macintosh mused, "We were coming t' you because magic's not really working and we hoped those guns you've got would. But if you were comin' t' us..."

"Yeah." Bert agreed. "Guns aren't workin' so great either. These guys are built to last."

"Eeyup... But maybe if we went on t' your town and you go on t' ours..."

"That's not bad... Maybe the combination will make the difference."

"Hell I got nothing better. Let's do it..."

And so, perhaps twenty minutes later Bert and his team arrived in Ponyville. It was the first that any of the humans had seen of the town firsthand. "Nice little town."

"Except for that." Jackson said, pointing to where a creature was pursuing a mint-green unicorn through the streets.

"Help! Anypony help!" Lyra exclaimed as she fled, her pursuer drawing ever closer.

Bringing up his gun, Bert took aim and fired. The shot hit it's mark, damaging one of the creature's legs. Of course, with seven more in working order it kept coming. But it was slowed now and Lyra began to pull ahead. As she did, she turned and rushed towards the humans, Bert and now Carl continuing to fire over her head.

The creature took numerous shots, but didn't seem phased by any of them until it stumbled to a halt, roaring and turning it's head away, presumably to reduce the volume of sound from the gunshots.

"T...Thank you!" Lyra gasped out as she fell to her knees at the human's feet, panting for breath. "I thought I was done for!"

"Don't discount the possibility yet." Bert said. "We're still not really hurting these things too badly."

"I saw a guard blast the head off of one." Lyra said. "Slowed it down, but didn't kill it, it just kept on attacking."

"Jeez, what's it gonna take?"

"Got explosives Bert?"

"No, left the C4 in my Hummer, didn't think we'd need it 'til we got back."

"There are explosive spells." Lyra offered, "But I'm a musician not a Guard. I don't know any of them."

"And would they work anyway?" Carl said, "Surely the Guards thought of trying them already, and they were still coming for help."

"That's true... Still..." Bert looked down at Lyra. "The Guards we met said to meet up with Twilight Sparkle at the Library. Can you get us there?"

"Oh, sure! This way!" Lyra galloped away, humans rushing to follow. The creature seemed to consider continuing it's pursuit, before thinking better and wandering off in search of an easier target.

"So lemme see if I've got this straight..." Trixie said over the steaming cup of tea Spike had served her, "We're all stranded on another planet with another town full of aliens from yet a third planet..."

"That's about the size of it." Twilight answered.

"Well, we're not stuck here forever right?"

Twilight sighed. "I hope not. I mean, I've still got a number of potentially helpful books to go through here, and it's a given that the Princesses back home are looking too."

"You know, maybe this is good for you Trixie." Spike said.

"How do you figure?"

"Well you wanna turn over a new leaf right? What better chance that a whole new situation where everypony needs to put their best hoof forward?"

Trixie smiled in surprise. "That's a good point... Thank you Spike, that's exactly what I'll do!"

"No problem. And, for the record, as far as I'm concerned you've already got a good start just by not calling yourself by name-"

"SPIKE!!!" Twilight interrupted, "That was rude!"

Trixie was just laughing. "It's okay Twilight Sparkle. He kind of has a point."

"Well, maybe..."

Trixie's eyes suddenly opened wider. "Twilight, there's something I was trying to tell you before. The reason I'm in Ponyville is because-" A loud knocking sounded from the front door.

"Twi! Let us in!"

"That sounds like Lyra." Spike said. "What the hay is she doing out on the streets in this!?"

"Who cares? Let her in before she gets eaten!" Twilight exclaimed.

Spike ran to the door and swung it open, stepping back in shock as he did so. "Whoa! Twilight, Lyra bought company!"

While Lyra simply trotted through the open door, the humans all had to duck at least a little to clear the frame. Recognizing two of their guests, Twilight stepped forward to greet them.

"Mister Gumbal! Thank you for coming! But, where are Rainbow and the guards?"

"Fallow Meadows." Bert replied. "We're under attack too."

"Aw no... Well, thank you for coming anyway, maybe together we can-"

Twilight was cut off by an "Eep!" sound from behind her. She turned to see Trixie staring up at the humans.

"Oh, um, Trixie these are our neighbors..."

Trixie shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. "So... You're... Who-mans?"

"Close enough." Jackson chuckled. He looked at Spike. "And is this... a dragon?"

"Spike's the name." the young drake said, offering a claw to shake.

"Tim Jackson." the deputy answered, shaking hands with Spike.

Recognizing Carl from the first day, Twilight trotted over to him. "Sir? I just wanted to apologize for the misunderstanding. I never meant-"

"Whatever." Carl interrupted, turning away. "We're here to do a job right? Let's do it!" He stomped away to the far side of the library and bent down to peer out a window.

"Yikes. What's his problem?" Spike wondered.

Twilight looked to Bert, unshed tears swimming in her eyes. "I'm sorry! I really am! How can I...?"

"This isn't about you, it's about him." Bert said, too softly for Carl to hear. "Humans, we have a lot of weird stories about alien invasions and mind-control and evil duplicates... I think Carl's just gone a bit over the edge from everything that's happened."

"But if I hadn't tried casting the translation spell on him..."

"I'm pretty sure he woulda gone downhill anyway, it just would've taken longer is all." Bert replied. Speaking louder again, he said "Now, Carl's right about one thing: We've got a problem to take care of... How are we gonna deal with this?"

Rainbow Dash and the guards reached Fallow Meadows to discover the aftermath of pandemonium. As they trotted (or flew) down a residential street, they could see damaged porches, overturned vehicles, and great footprints pressed deep into the ground. There was also blood, though thankfully not much. It seemed that most people must have gotten to safety. Of the creatures there was no visible sign, though roars and other calls could be heard from not-to-far away.

"Miss Dash, do you see anyone?" Sword Breaker called up to the pegasus hovering overhead.

"No. No humans. No anything for that matter."

"Okay, we need a reference point before we go any further." Midnight said. "We should knock on a door or two, see if anypo- -anyone is home, what they can tell us."

"Might be dangerous t' do that." Macintosh said. "These folk's 'r gonna be scared."

"We gotta know something though!" Rainbow agreed with Midnight.

Nodding, Midnight turned to the unicorn of their group. "Sword Breaker, charge up a shield spell, just in case."

"Right."

So with a defensive spell at the ready, the ponies carefully approached some of the houses along the street. In two cases, there was no answer. In another two, voices from within shouted out for them to go away, and wouldn't be reasoned with. Yet another person opened up, screamed, and slammed the door in their faces. And so it went, until...

"We'd better have some luck this time!" Rainbow complained as they trotted up to yet another door.

"Be patient." Midnight counseled, "It's like I said, they're afraid and on edge."

Macintosh nodded. "Eeyup. It's actually a good sign that we've not been attacked." He reached up and knocked on the door.

After several seconds, the sound of locks being unhooked could be heard, followed by the door swinging open. A man stood in the open door, perhaps forty years of age, six feet tall, thinning salt and pepper hair atop a narrow face defined by large thick glasses. He wore a tweed coat and khaki pants, and looked straight ahead, above the level of the ponies' heads. "That was odd... I would have swore I heard..."

"Down here sir." Midnight said.

"Oh!" The man exclaimed as he looked down and beheld his visitors. "Oh, that was rude of me, it's just, even at my height most humans are tall enough I don't have to look down to see them!"

"It's quite alright sir. My name is Midnight Steel. And these are Sword Breaker, Macintosh Apple, and Rainbow Dash."

"Ahh, I'm Reginald Bakker, and it's a pleasure to finally meet some of our neighbors first-hand..." Reginald fell silent for a moment as a roar echoed across the town. "Would you like to come in? It's certainly safer than being out there right now."

"Thank you, but that's actually why we're here. These creatures are attacking our town as well, so we've switched places with a group of humans to try and help each other drive them off."

Rainbow said "That's why we're here. Can you tell us anything about what's going on? Like, how many of them there are, or where they're concentrated?"

"I'm afraid I've been in hiding since it started." Reginald answered. "Taking care of my brother. So I can't really tell you much."

"Your brother? Is he ill?"

"Injured. One of the creatures went on a rampage all the way down our street earlier. Nigel was outside, tending to a plot of vegetables we've planted, and he didn't quite reach the door fast enough. he's got a bad gash down his left arm."

"May I see him?" Sword Breaker asked. "My magical skills aren't really focused in medical care, but I do know some first aid."

"Anything would be appreciated." Reginald answered. "It's infection I'm worried about..." He led the way into the house. As they followed the man, the ponies took note of numerous shelves loaded down with books and a pair of cluttered desk overflowing with paperwork. When Macintosh commented on it, Reginald explained "My brother and I both teach at the school, as well as teaching online college courses."

"Eggheads." Rainbow said. "I've gotta introduce you two to somepony..."

"I'd be delighted to meet a pony scholar." Reginald said. "And I'm sure Nigel would as well. In any case, here we are." He opened a door leading into a small bedroom. Another man, identical in appearance, sat on the edge of the bed, feeling for his pulse, a thermometer in his mouth.

"Who was it Reg- Oh!" Nigel pulled the thermometer from his mouth. "Well this is a surprise."

"A pleasure sir." Sword Breaker said. "You brother says you're injured. If you're willing, I'd like to take a look."

Nigel nodded and half turned, removing a large blood-soaked towel from his arm as he did so. "It's really not that deep, though the length and width are a concern." He said.

"Hmmm... May I check the wound magically? You shouldn't feel anything."

Nigel looked nervous, but nodded in the affirmative then watched in awe as the unicorn's horn lit up, accompanied by a glow over the length of the wound.

"Well I'm not detecting any poisons..." Sword Breaker said after a moment. "So there's that. I assume you've disinfected the wound?"

"As best we could, with alcohol and iodine." Reginald answered. "But as you can see, he's still bleeding."

"Anticoagulants in the creature's saliva, most likely... I can stop the bleeding temporarily, but you really need a human doctor to take care of this."

"Easier said than done, with what's out there roaming the streets right now." Nigel sighed.

Midnight said "There's safety in numbers. And we're generally headed for the town center anyways... Come with us."

"Are you certain? Neither of us owns a weapon, we wouldn't be any help in an attack."

"Then we'll just have to hope we aren't attacked." Midnight answered firmly.

"Alright then, let's get ready..."

Ponyville. Trixie peered out the window of the Golden Oaks Library, eyes peeled for any more of the creatures, which she was happy to note were not presently in sight. "Okay, we're clear." She said, looking back over her shoulder.

Moving together, four humans three ponies and a dragon slipped quietly out the door and made their way through the deserted streets. "I still don't see why Twilight and Trixie can't just teleport us all to Sugarcube Corner." Spike whispered.

"And I don't see why a freakin' dragon can't just breathe fire all over the damned monsters!" Carl shot back, a bit too loud for anyone else's tastes.

"Shush!" Bert demanded.

Twilight quietly whispered back "Spike, humans aren't used to teleporting and we might need to save the magic anyway... Mister Harner, Spike's still too small to breathe enough fire to make a difference."

"Okay, I get that." Jackson said, "But why are we going to a bakery?"

"Pinkie Pie." Twilight, Lyra and Spike all answered together.

Seeing the uncomprehending looks on the faces of Trixie and the humans, Twilight added "Trust us: That'll make sense soon enough."

The group stopped at the sound of a loud roar from behind. Turning, they saw One of the creatures coming towards them. "Aw hell! Run!" Carl exclaimed.

Before anyone could move, a pink blur shot through the group and stopped on a dime directly in front of the charging beast, which stopped in surprise. "Pinkie!?" The ponies in the group shouted.

The creature lunged forward, intent on making a bite-sized meal of the pink pony. But then, to the shock of most of those present, Pinkie reached behind her back and pulled out an enormous glob of cotton candy. The mass was even bigger than her body, it just kept coming as she pulled, and then she spun around and shoved it into the open mouth. The creature began to stumble about, grumbling as it tried to get free of the sticky substance, only to ensnare itself even worse.

Pinkie trotted over to the waiting group. "That'll give 'em something to chew on..." She quipped. Ponies facehooved and humans facepalmed, all but one who demanded:

"How did you do that!?"

"And that, my friends, is why we wanted to get to Pinkie." Twilight said, giggling. To Carl, who had demanded an explanation, she said "Just accept it. Trying to figure out the stuff Pinkie does... That way lies madness..."

Carl wanted to insist. He really did. But before anything more could be said, the now thoroughly enraged predator broke itself free and roared at the top of it's lungs. "Go! The girls are waiting for you at the Bakery!" Pinkie said.

"But you..."

Pinkie produced a party cannon from thin air. "Go! I've got this!" She fired the cannon, it's strange ammunition covering the creature head to tail in a seemingly inescapable pinata costume. As the others ran, Pinkie produced a large stick and began to whack away at the poor beast, that had no idea what it had gotten itself into...

Sugarcube Corner. Applejack stalked from one end of the dining area to the other, grumbling to herself. "Now where in tarnation'd Pinkie disappear to?"

"You know Pinkie darling... She could be anywhere."

"Yeah I know, but still..." Applejack stopped pacing and looked out the plate glass window. "Hey look!" She pointed out the window just as the door flew open admitting Twilight and the others. "Girl am I glad you're okay!"

"You too girls." Twilight said with a smile. "We've got work to do, and we'll need some of Pinkie's supplies to do it."

"She ain't here..."

"Oh we know, we saw her on the way over." Spike said.

"Yes, she's fighting one of the monsters." Lyra added.

"She's what!?" Applejack shouted. It took the combined strength of Twilight, Lyra, Spike, and the Cakes to stop the farm mare from barging out the door right then.

"She's fine A.J.!" Twilight insisted. "Pinkie, remember? I'm more afraid for the poor monster."

"Well... I guess so..."

"Well, in that case, if you don't mind me asking, what's the plan?" Fluttershy whispered.

"I thought nopony'd ever ask." Twilight smiled. She pulled a table into the middle of the room and laid out the plans. "First, Trixie, Lyra, Rarity and I will try to charge magical energy into our human friend's guns in the form of time-delayed explosives spells. Ideally, the shells will detonate once they're inside the creature's bodies." Seeing Fluttershy wince at this, Twilight said "I don't like it either Flutters. But..."

"Oh, I know..." Fluttershy whispered. "Most ponies see me as soft, but I do live on the edge of town, dealing with wild animals all the time. Sometimes you have to protect yourself. And while you should do as little harm as possible, well, these creatures don't really leave us that option do they?"

"I'm afraid not." Bert confirmed.

"So there you have it. I just hope that most of them have the sense to run away before they have to be killed."

"And that's where the rest of you come in..." Twilight said. "We'll need three spare party cannons, all the black powder charges you can find, and a herring..."

Chapter Nine

Fallow Meadows. With Reginald and Nigel Bakker in tow, Rainbow Dash and the Guard headed for downtown. It was slow going, owing mostly to the need to advance quietly in order to avoid unwanted attention. Once, at the intersection of two roads, they had to wait half an hour hiding behind a fence row until a trio of predators moved on. No one looked too closely at what had been holding the creature's attention, but from the carnage of crashed vehicles and the buzzing of insects it was clear enough.

Eventually they reached Main Street. "We're close to the Sheriff's office now." Reginald said. "It's a block and a half to the west."

"Excellent. We can meet up with the local constabulary and plan our next offense." Midnight said. He started to walk in the indicated direction, but stopped at an all-too-familiar sound. "Hide!" He hissed under his breath.

The group quickly ducked into the nearest building, a Mail-Service store which seemed to be abandoned. No sooner than they were safely inside, one of the creatures appeared from around a nearby street corner. It didn't seem to have detected their presence though; instead it continued straight across the road and out of sight around the opposite corner.

"I wonder where he's going in such a hurry?" Rainbow said.

"Let's find out." Nigel said. "I know this place, we can get to the corner without going outside..." He led the group through a door, down a long hallway, and up a flight of stairs, coming out on a second-floor balcony overlooking the street the creature had taken.

As soon as they got there, it was clear where the beast had been going. Half a block down was the Spoony Bard Diner, three of the creatures now lurking outside. They were agitated, confused, stomping their many legs and letting out small grunts of frustration.

"What the hell are they doing?" Reginald wondered.

"Well, that's the diner... There's gotta be people inside right?" Nigel asked.

Midnight said "They can't see right? The windows just 'look' like solid walls to them?"

Nodding, Nigel said "Of course... They can hear the people. They know that they're there. But they can't figure out how to get to them."

"Well then, we'd better move before one of them decides to charge or something and smashes that glass in." Rainbow said.

"Maybe... But where is..." Midnight stopped speaking, looked more closely. "Look there!" He said, motioning towards a vehicle in the street.

Following the line of sight Midnight had indicated, the rest of the group saw what he was pointing to: There were two people in the car. As they watched, a door opposite the creature's position slowly, carefully opened and the pair emerged. "Hey! I know them!" Rainbow said.

"Yes, that's Sheriff Tucker." Reginald agreed. "And I recognize the girl from school, though I've not had her in any classes and can't place her name... What are they doing?"

"Plannin' somethin'." Macintosh said. "We'd better get in position t' help."

But then, as the group watched, things went south for Tucker and Bethany. They tried to quickly run across the short gap between Bert's Hummer and the nearest building undetected. It didn't work. All three of the creatures detected them and charged to the attack, roaring as they came.

"Tartarus!" Midnight swore. "Attack!"

The Guard ponies moved quickly, jumping to the ground and charging. Years of training served Midnight Steel and Sword Breaker well, as they move in synchronicity, each knowing where the other would be, and what he was planning. They waylaid the second creature in line, distracting it away from it's intended prey with the temptation of a closer meal.

Rainbow snared the attention of the third beast, flying in a circle around it before zipping away as fast as her injured wings could manage. Arguably, leading the thing on a chase through town wasn't wise; it would be all to easy to round a corner into the open mouth of another. The pegasus judged that a risk that had to be taken.

This left Macintosh to handle the first creature, the one closest to the two humans. Galloping headlong as fast as his hooves could carry him, he closed on the creature from behind.

Meanwhile, John Tucker and Bethany Stanz were running for their lives. "No time... to stop... and shoot..." Tucker panted out between breaths.

"Yeah... Should we... split up...?" Bethany asked.

"Next corner... I'll go left..."

They reached the corner scant seconds ahead of the creature. Tucker broke left, praying it would follow him instead of the girl. It didn't. Swearing loudly, shouting for Bethany to RUN, Tucker leveled his gun and prepared to shoot the creature from behind. But before he could pull the trigger an enormous red pony, the biggest individual the Sheriff had yet seen, tore around the corner at full speed. As Tucker watched, the pony drew in close behind the creature, leapt into the air, and once airborne pulled the spear that was strapped to it's back.

The Sheriff didn't have time to wonder just how they held things with hooves before the pony rammed the spear into the creature's back, using it as a rod to pole vault up and over, landing out of sight in front of the beast.

Bethany, meanwhile, found that she had run herself into a dead end. Pressing against the wall, she turned and the creature was right there, mouth open, teeth gleaming. She closed her eyes and prepared for the end...

...Then just as quickly snapped them back open as the creature roared in pain and a pony dropped down from above, turned away from the creature, and bucked it hard in the head with his rear hooves.

Not wasting the opportunity, Bethany fired over the pony's head, striking the creature which now flailed backwards squealing and trying to turn it's head far enough to pull the spear that was sticking out of it's back. Of course, turning it's head meant that it's sensitive ears were now pointed directly behind, where Tucker took a shot of his own.

Though not seriously injured, the beast decided that there had to be easier prey somewhere else. It turned and lumbered away down the alley, back in the direction of the diner.

"Oh thank God!" Bethany exclaimed. She looked at the pony. "Am I glad you came along!"

"Jus' here t' help miss...?"

"Bethany. Bethany Stanz."

"Macintosh Apple. Most folks just call me Big Mac."

"I can see why." Tucker said as he joined them. "You're easily the biggest pony I've met so far..." He looked around and asked "So, did you meet up with Bert's team?"

"Sure did." Said another voice. Tucker looked around to see Rainbow, Midnight, and Sword Breaker approaching. "We managed to drive off the other two, but they'll come back I'm sure."

"Then let's get inside the diner where it's sort of safe, and figure out how to be ready for them." Tucker said. They hurried down the alleyway towards the back entrance...

Back in Ponyville, Twilight Sparkle was putting the finishing touches on the modified explosion spell that she and the other unicorns present would use to enhance the human's ammunition. Sighing, stretching out her legs, she turned to find Applejack and Rarity waiting. "We've got our part finished." Applejack reported, "Except for this..." She motioned to a plate of smoked herring. "What did we need it for anyway?"

"A snack." Twilight answered. "I missed lunch."

"Honestly dear, you'll get as bad as Pinkie at this rate..." Rarity said, though she was chuckling. "Still, we do have a concern..."

"Eeyup. What the hay is Trixie doin' here!?"

"It's a long story... And I don't think I've heard all of it yet, she keeps getting interrupted. But it boils down to, she's trying to do things right for a change and she really wants to help."

Rarity raised an eyebrow. "And you believe her?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I do." Twilight answered.

"Well, I shall give her a chance then, IF she can prove herself..."

"I'm sure she'll appreciate it." Twilight said. "Anyway..." She raised her voice "Trixie, Lyra, come here a minute!" With all four unicorns together, Twilight showed them how the spell would work, then they rejoined the rest of the group, unicorns pairing up with humans: Twilight with Bert, Trixie with Tim Jackson, Lyra with Carl, and Rarity with the second deputy, Vernon.

"Okay, does everyone know the plan?" Bert asked.

Humans, Ponies and Dragon all nodded yes, except for Fluttershy who asked "Um, when are we supposed to light the fuse on this... ...thing?" She motioned towards a bizarre conglomeration of three party cannons, thirty black powder charges, and a wooden scaffold holding it all together.

Twilight grinned. "Don't worry Fluttershy... You'll know..."

Four humans and an equal number of unicorns walked together through the streets. Though their ultimate goal was to attract the creatures, they first hoped to find a lone example to test the new magic ammo out on. The entire plan depended on them being able to not only scare the beasts with loud sounds, but also to actually hurt them badly enough that once frightened away they wouldn't readily return. And that meant being sure the enchanted bullets would work as planned.

And so they crept the empty paths of Ponyville, hunting. A strange activity for an equine, of course, but necessary. Luckily, the search didn't take long. Less than ten minutes after leaving Sugarcube Corner, they peered around a corner to see a mass of creatures, at least ten of them, milling about outside of a row of storefronts. One of them was wandering further away from it's fellows, and curiously trotted down a narrow alleyway.

"Perfect." Bert said when none of the others followed it. "Where does that alley come out?"

"This way!" Lyra said. She took the lead and led the group to another crossroads three streets over. "It should come out right up there." She said, pointing towards the gap between two nearby buildings.

"Who shoots first?" Jackson asked.

Twilight said "You and Trixie go first... I wanna gauge the power level before I try."

And so they waited. The creature seemed to be taking it's time, and several of those present began to wonder if it had turned around, or gotten stuck. Then, after more than ten minutes, it finally strode into sight, turning it's head about to scan in all directions. It noticed the ponies and humans almost immediately, roared, and charged.

"Okay, here we go!" Trixie exclaimed. Her horn began to glow, and Jackson took aim and fired. The creature kept coming as the bullet slammed into it's body, but after a moment there was a muffled 'THUD' and a screech from the beast as it stumbled and fell to the ground, unmoving.

"Is it... ...dead?" Rarity asked.

"Only one way to find out." Bert answered. Gun at the ready, he carefully edged closer to the fallen predator. Reaching out, he poked it several times with his gun, getting no reaction. He observed closely, seeing no breathing movements. "I think you got it." He called back. "But damn, even then, the body still looks intact from the outside."

"Should we turn up the power a little next time?"

"Just to be safe, I would." Vernon said.

Carl said "Okay, we know it works. Now let's go find the rest of them..."

Lyra's ears perked up. "Do you hear that? I don't think we'll have to go looking."

Suddenly a hoard of the beasts began spilling out of the alleyway. "I guess that's why it took so long!" Twilight exclaimed, "It went back for the others!"

"Exposition later dear, right now we need to get to work!"

The next several minutes were chaotic, to say the least. 'Seeing' their fallen comrade, the first few creatures rushed to the attack, being felled by magic-boosted gunfire. As more of the pack arrived, they took note of how many had been slain and became more cautious. But the numbers kept growing as more and more arrived.

"Okay, that should be good." Twilight said. "They're going to attack in-mass soon."

"That's good!?" Carl shouted.

"Remember the plan." Bert countered. "Now we fall back to the bakery for phase two."

"And hope we've got all of them in town together." Rarity nodded.

Everyone turned and started to run. The creatures pursued, but at a distance, wary of these beings that could actually kill them. As they fled, they picked up another pony. "Pinkie!" Twilight exclaimed as the party mare appeared from a side street and ran alongside, "What happened to the one you were holding off?"

"Oh, he's a good five miles from here by now." Pinkie answered, "And still running like the Gluemaker was on his heels. He'll never bother us again."

"What did you do to it!?"

Pinkie grinned. "We partied like it was nineteen ninety-nine!"

"Ooookay...."

"Look! We're almost there!" Bert shouted. Ahead, they could see Sugarcube Corner and the contraption, which Applejack had hauled outside. She, Spike, and Fluttershy were standing at the door, watching in shock at the size of the pack pursuing their friends.

"Spike!" Twilight shouted, "Light the fuse now!"

The dragon nodded and turned to face the contraption. He belched fire, igniting the fuse which began to burn down rapidly. As humans and unicorns ran past the burning fuse, everyone huddled into the bakery and slammed the door shut behind them.

The creatures came to a screeching halt just outside of the bakery. They cocked their heads in confusion, and one smelled around the door. But before anything else could happen, the fuse finished burning down...

The eruption was spectacular. Three fully-loaded party cannons went off all at once. They were aimed straight down, so the shot acted as a rocket motor, propelling them into the sky, raining down noisemakers as they went. Startled by the sudden cacophony of sounds, the creatures quickly stumbled backwards, growling as they went. As the sound of the launch died down, they began to move back in.

And just as they reached the door again, the hot, rapidly moving cannons impacted the ground... Directly on top of the pile of black powder charges. The boom exceeded even the decible level that accompanied a rainboom, and it wasn't even up in the air, it was right. There. Two dozen predators shreaked in pain, shaking their heads, stumbling over each other and even their own many legs in the rush to get away.

Inside the bakery, everyone was too busy shaking off shattered glass to cheer. "Oops." Twilight said. "I should've thought of that... Good thing the bakery windows are safety glass."

"Mister Cake says they have to be, because of me." Pinkie explained. "Something about a Me clause in the insurance policy."

"Right... Well hopefully they're gone for good."

"Even if not, it'll take awhile to build their courage back up." Bert guessed.

Applejack said "And in the meantime, we can figure out better ways to be ready for 'em."

"Like not being here." Twilight said. "I'd say this has been a really good example of why we should go ahead with relocating..."

Back in the Diner, Herbert, Florence, and their patrons were watching out the front windows, keeping an eye on the now-empty streets. They knew that something had happened to draw the creatures away, but what that something was eluded them. "Look!" Someone exclaimed, pointing. Across the street, a door opened and two men rushed out, heading towards the diner.

"Is that the Bakkers?" Florence asked.

"I surely think so."

The brothers traversed the street as fast as they could, and ducked into the front door. After the obligatory period of 'are you okay's' and 'what the hell are you doing out there's', Reginald was able to explain what had happened while Herbert put his combat-medicine training to work on Nigel's arm.

"And that's the story." Reginald finished. "We don't know what happened to the Sherriff, or the young lady, or our equine friends for that matter. But we both decided that we should get somewhere with more people while we had the chance. So here we are."

"And here he is to." Florence said, motioning to the window. One of the creatures was back. It now had a spear in it's back and blood draining from it's nostrils, as well as from gunshot wounds, but it was still up and moving, on the hunt.

"You don't think it got someone do you!?" A young woman asked.

"Nah... It can't have eaten this quickly... If it caught someone it'd either still be there, or have the body with it."

"Oh thanks, that's a charming image." the woman shot back.

"Hey! I was trying to help!"

"Now listen!" Herbert shouted, "Enough of that! We've got to figure out some sort of plan here!"

"Exactly." A new voice entered the conversation. Everyone looked in surprise to see Sheriff Tucker entering from the back, followed by Bethany and the ponies. "We need a plan. And you were a marine Herb, so we'll listen to whatever thoughts you've got."

"Well, way I see it, we've got two things to do..." Herbert mused, "First of course is simply running them out of town... Second though, is makin' sure they don't wanna come back, at least until the wall is done."

"They don't like loud sounds." Tucker said, "How can we use that?"

Nigel said "What about the tornado sirens? If we could get power to those..."

"No, we wouldn't be able to run the whole network with what we've got." Someone in the crowd said.

Herbert looked at the ponies. "I've heard what one of you did to help get my heart beatin' again... Could you do that with a siren?"

Sword Breaker said "If Miss Sparkle was here, she might be able to. I'm not in her league though..."

"And besides, what good would one siren do?" Tucker asked.

Herbert smiled "Gather round... Here's what I'm thinking..." As many humans and ponies as would fit crowded in around the countertop, and Herbert explained as he drew out a simple diagram, "Okay first, you, Colorwheel..." He pointed at Rainbow who chuckled and gave her name, "Rainbow then, how high can you fly?"

"I've hit eleven thousand hooves. Oh, a 'hoof' is about like this." She spread her forehooves apart the requisite distance.

"And can you see the ground well from up high?"

"Well enough. I could pick out individual ponies from that height, though I couldn't identify them very well."

"Good, the first step of the plan is yours then. I need you to get high enough to see the whole town, and count up exactly how many of these buggers we're dealing with."

"Can do!" Rainbow saluted, before flying out the back door and straight up.

"Good, once we know what we're dealing with, we'll take one storm siren, preferably near the edge of town, and get power to it somehow. Then we'll lure all the creatures near it, however we can, making sure from Rainbow's count that we don't miss any..."

"...And then we blare the siren and scare them off." Bethany finished. "I like it."

Midnight agreed. "A good plan. Though without any other reason to be afraid, they'll return more quickly."

"Yeah. Afraid I don't got any ideas there." Herbert admitted.

"We'll just have to double-time the wall." Tucker said. Looking across the crowd he saw Harold Smith, the wall foreman. "Can it be done Harry?"

"I can shave a few days off maybe, but we're still looking at a couple of weeks."

Macintosh said "Beggin' yer pardon, but if the siren works, why not just switch it on every so often? Give 'em a reminder of why they ran in the first place."

"Bert's not gonna like this," Tucker said, "But we could run a siren off the engine in his Hummer..."

"Then let's do it."

"Sure thing... As soon as we get rid of him." Nigel said, pointing to the waiting creature beyond the window.

Over the next few minutes, a plan was finalized. Midnight and Macintosh, together with Tucker and Herbert, would lure the creature outside the diner away. Bethany, Sword Breaker, and the Bakker brothers would run to the Hummer, drive it to the southernmost storm siren, and do whatever they could to get it running. Rainbow Dash and several armed humans would fan out and lure the creatures there. Hopefully, the blaring siren would drive them off.

They had only to wait for the pegasus to return with intel, which she did soon after the plan was finished. "Twenty-seven." Rainbow said as she flew in the door. "Most of them together in two big groups with just three on their own."

"Excellent. Let's get to work!"

Bethany stood by the diner door, gun in hand, watching out the window. The creature was still lurking about in the street, directly between the diner and Bert's Hummer. "I hope they know what they're doing..." she muttered.

"Midnight Steel has been a guard for twenty years." Sword Breaker said. "And you've seen firsthoof how strong Macintosh is. I'm sure they'll be fine, and if your Sheriff and the other fellow have experience they should do well too."

"It still seems quite dangerous though." Reginald said.

Outside, the creature suddenly turned it's head, roared, and stomped off out of sight. "That's our cue." Bethany said. She threw the door open and stepped out, quickly looking around in all directions. Seeing no other threats, the girl ran for the vehicle with the rest of the team close behind. Scrambling into the driver's seat, she was pleased to see the keys still in the ignition. "Everyone in!?" She asked.

"We are all secure." Sword Breaker replied.

"Good, let's hope I can handle driving this thing!" Bethany said as she turned on the engine and threw it into gear, stomping the pedal to the floor.

"WHOA!!" All three of her passengers exclaimed together.

"Is this normal for these things!?" Sword Breaker screamed.

"Lead foot driver." Nigel answered. "Turn south at the next intersection."

"Right!" Bethany swerved around the corner, barely letting up on the gas.

"How do you still have your license!?" Reginald demanded.

"...License?" Bethany grinned. "Never actually got one..."

Given the speeds achieved by their driver, the group reached the siren quickly. Bethany slammed on the brakes, screeching to a halt next to the pole the siren was mounted on. Her passengers wobbled out on unsteady legs, Reg and Nigel heading to the control box mounted six feet off the ground.

"There are test controls mounted here." Nigel shouted. "So we won't have a problem switching it on. The question is how to get power up there."

"Can't we use Bert's jumper cables? Route power through the control box?"

"No. that'd just short out the controls. We need to get power up there."

"Is there any way I can assist?" Sword Breaker asked.

Nigel said "We need power cables long enough to reach from the vehicle to the siren."

"With the power out, couldn't we cut the regular cables from the poles and use them?" Bethany asked.

"That'd take too long." Nigel answered.

"Maybe not." Reginald countered. He looked at Sword Breaker. "Could you use your magic to pull the cables from that pole?" He asked, pointing at the nearest pole too where the siren was mounted.

"Absolutely." The unicorn replied. His horn began to glow, and moments later the lines tore lose from the farther pole while remaining connected at the siren end. The free ends floated down to the ground next to the Hummer.

"Perfect." Nigel said. "Bethany, turn off the engine until we're ready."

Engine off, the cables were quickly stripped and connected to the Hummer's electrical system. "Are you sure this will work?" Bethany asked, eying the jury-rigged connections.

"We'd better hope so." Nigel answered.

Everyone looked up at a shouting voice, to see Rainbow approaching full speed, several humans behind her. "Tell me you're ready, 'cause they're coming!" She shouted.

"Ready as we're gonna be!" Nigel replied. "Everyone, take shelter in there!" He pointed to the nearest building.

From behind the crowd came a rumbling as over two dozen angry predators rushed ahead. As the last of the crowd pressed into the building the creatures ran straight past the Hummer and the siren, so focused on what they were already chasing that they didn't notice the group huddling inside the vehicle.

"Oh that's perfect." Reginald whispered. "They're past the siren, it's between them and the rest of the town. We shouldn't have to worry about the sound chasing them back into town now."

"What are you waiting for then!?" Bethany whispered back, "Do it!"

With a nod, Nigel turned and threw the switch. The siren blared to life, almost unbearable at such close proximity. Humans and Pony alike covered their ears, wincing at the volume. Yet as bad as it was for them, it was even worse for the targets. With roars that rapidly diminished to whimpers they fled, rushing off into the forest...

Author's Notes:

To head off some questions:

Pinkies' reference to the 'Gluemaker' raises some fair questions. While it is a funny idea for a pony myth, it's certainly odd to think that ponies would come up with such a figure on their own; surely even primitive pre-unification ponies would never have did that to each other. Stay tuned, I actually have an explanation that Twilight will expound on in chapter eleven.