Rainbow Dash cried out as she awoke. She looked up to the night sky, and realized that it was not really night at all- -and the memories of what had happened to her, including all her sadness, rushed back to her. As she started to calm down, she was slapped with a metal-clad hoof.

“Ow!” she cried, releasing the log that she had apparently been spooning. “What the Buck!”

“Quiet,” hissed Five. “You snoring is attracting predators!”

“Ha ha. Very funny,” said Rainbow Dash, rolling over and seeing the still-glowing embers of the fire. “You didn’t need to hit me- -”

“I’m not joking!” whispered Five, harshly. “Stand up!”

Rainbow Dash looked up, and from the expression she could see on Five’s face, she realized that something really was wrong. Five was standing perfectly still, her eyes flicking from location to location in the darkness beyond the clearing. Rainbow Dash became distantly aware of a strange, distant sound. It was a kind of intermittent buzzing that she could not entirely dismiss as crickets.

“Move very very slowly,” warned Five in an almost inaudible whisper. “And be very quiet.”

Rainbow Dash did so, feeling the urgency in Five’s voice- -and also saw that Five was holding a squarish rifle.

“This isn’t good,” said Five. She raised her hand and made several signs. Rainbow Dash followed Five’s eye, just in time to see Sharpshooter- -still lying belly-down on the top of her transport vehicle, her much larger rifle slowly searching the edge of the forest- -nod and whisper into a device on her wrist. “They shouldn’t be this far north…”

“What?” asked Rainbow Dash. She suddenly gasped- -she saw something moving in the trees beyond. It was like an animal, or even like the chupacabra had been. Something the size of a pony was moving through the forest slowly and deliberately, but somehow without making a single sound. The buzzing was growing louder. “What- -what are those?”

“I messed up,” whispered Five, who now seemed to be on the verge of panic- -something that made Rainbow Dash extremely nervous. “I really, thoroughly messed up.”

“Five,” hissed Rainbow Dash. “What are those things?”

“Gohh,” she said, and then, rapidly correcting herself incase Rainbow Dash took it as an imperative, “they are called gohh.”

“Not helpful,” whispered Rainbow Dash, annoyed.

The buzzing shifted immediately after Rainbow Dash spoke, and she realized that there was only one possible source of it- -whatever Five was seeing, that was what was making the sound.

“Help…me,” called a voice from the forest. It was high and strange- -as if it were being spoken through some kind of machine, or modulated by something that had no real mouth. “I need…help…”

Rainbow Dash’s instincts took hold, and she spread her wings- -only to feel a metal claw holding her leg tightly enough to be painful.

“Let me go!” she said, perhaps too loudly. “Somepony needs help!”

“No!” hissed Five. “That is not a pony! They’re trying to lure you!”

“Please…” said the voice, now modulated differently, and now from behind them, sounding almost like a filly. “It is…dark…come help me…”

“The gohh…they have me,” said another, eerily without the inflection that would be associated with a captured pony. In her heart, Rainbow Dash wanted to spring into action and save them- -but in her mind, and perhaps even deeper, she knew that those distorted, hissing voices really were not ponies.

Then the sound changed. The buzzing rose into a chorus of horrific screams. They came from every angle and every direction- -and Rainbow Dash realized that they were surrounded by unseen creatures that now sounded as though they were being horribly tortured, like ponies being devoured by endless swarms of enormous bees.

Rainbow Dash instinctively spread her wings.

“No!” said Five, “if you fly, they fly! They are trying for a reaction! Don’t. Move!”

The screaming stopped as quickly as it had come, and so did the buzzing. For a moment, Rainbow Dash thought that whatever the “gohh” were had gone- -until she saw a wiry leg step out from the shadows.

When she saw them, she held her breath. She did not know exactly what she had been expecting that they looked like- -and she wished they had retained their anonymity. The shadowy, silhouetted creatures that suddenly emerged from the woods were defintly pony sized, but only distantly pony shaped. They had four legs, but the legs were far too thin, and their motion was jerky and sudden. Their long, bizarre bodies glinted in a way that caused Rainbow Dash to infer that they were smooth, and she immediately thought of enormous ants- -but ants that were somehow inverted, or contorted in some way that did not seem evolutionarily logical.

They moved almost randomly through the edge of their clearing. As they got closer, Rainbow Dash could see that they had numerous antennae that were waving rapidly- -and that, as Five had predicted, they did, indeed, have wings. They had more than two, though; it appeared that they had at least three pairs.

“What are those things?” said Rainbow Dash, still not comprehending. She clapped her hoofs over her mouth as one of them seemed to look up and smell the air. “Can they hear us?” she whispered even more quietly.

“I don’t know,” whined Five. “I don’t even know if they can see. I don’t know anything about them…well…except…”

“What?”

“They’re attracted to technology and magic,” she said, glancing down first at her own gauntlets, and then at Rainbow Dash’s prosthetics. “And…”

“And what?”

“No pony has ever survived an encounter with them…”

One of them suddenly looked up and lurched forward. Rainbow Dash and Five both held their breath. The creature passed through the dim light of the fire, and Rainbow Dash saw it clearly. Its head- -or what she took to be its head- -was actually a smooth, transparent plate. Behind that chitins plate was a swirling mass of dark green material, like swamp muck. As that head approached her, the material inside moved itself, and several yellow eyes opened, staring at her.

“Hey, Five,” said Rainbow Dash, turning slightly as the gohh stared at her, its clawed legs clicking forward as more seemed to join it. “Do robot arms feel pain?”

“No,” said Five, appearing confused.

“And are they stronger than regular legs?”

“Yes…about five times…” Five’s eyes suddenly widened in realization. She shook head rapidly, barely moving it so as not to disturb the creatures that were rapidly approaching her. “No! You woundn’t!”

Rainbow Dash smiled, and she slowly shifted her stance for more leverage. Then, without giving a moment of warning, she screamed out as she brought her robotic left hoof into an uppercut directly against the gohh’s head.

The force was enough to crack its chitinous shell, and the creature stumbled backward, confused and releasing a mewing hiss of surprise.

“I didn’t come all this way to get eaten by big bugs!” cried Rainbow Dash. “I’m not going down without a fight!”

She lifted herself into the air, but the gohh reacted quickly. The swarmed her, grabbing onto her, pulling her to the ground. She punched several with tremendous force, but there were too many. For a moment, she thought that she might finally get to join her friends on the other side.

Rainbow Dash felt a claw cut down her side, producing a shallow but painful cut. She reached out to punch the creature that did it- -but saw that they all immediately backed away from her.

“Cowards!” she said, standing. “Fight me like properly!”

“Don’t provoke them!” said Five, now completely ignoring her request for quiet. She, it seemed, had remained nearly perfectly still as Rainbow Dash had been attacked and had herself been largely spared.

The creatures backed away and looked to each other, confused. They were hissing loudly, but not in the same way as before. Instead, they were producing odd warbling sounds.

“What is happening?” said Rainbow Dash, prepared to fight.

“No idea,” said Five.

Then, suddenly and without warning, they all took flight. Not just those that were in the main clearing, but the ones in the woods as well. Rainbow Dash saw them flying through the sky like locusts- -and she saw that there were far more than she had ever expected.

The one that had cut her paused, momentarily looking down at its blood-stained claw. Then, as if reaching a conclusion, snapped off the limb and flew away itself, leaving it behind.

Rainbow Dash and Five stood for a moment, even after they insects had gone. Then they looked at each other. Five slowly stepped forward toward the leg and- -with great care- -collected it.

“What. The actual. Buck!” cried Rainbow Dash. “How the hay did my snoring do that?!”

“That is grammatically incorrect,” said Five, examining the limb, “as no actual bucking was done this day.”

“Those things, those monsters- -where did they go? Why did they go? And where in Tartarus is Gell?”

“Sleeping,” said Five. “She hates being outside. And don’t rely on her. As for the gohh, I have no idea. Really, none. Not a drop. Perhaps you scared them off.”

“Ha,” said Rainbow Dash. “I bet I did. Can’t blame them, though. I am pretty awesome in a fight.”

“Except you aren’t,” said Five, suddenly becoming extremely serious. “That was an anomaly- -I very nearly watched you get turned into soup. Are you trying to die, Rainbow Dash? Is that what you- -oop. Just got the irony. Nevermind.”

Rainbow Dash looked at Five, completely confused. Five seemed to have become far more interested in the severed gohh limb, however, and had started ignoring Rainbow Dash completely. Rainbow Dash returned to the log that she had been spooning and sat on it. She threw some sticks onto the fire, knowing that there was no way she would be going back to sleep anytime soon.

She smiled weakly, though. For just a moment, this strange future had felt so much like her past.

Sharpshooter did not know what she was seeing. Before she had joined Mountain’s band of gene hunters, she had served several tours as a sniper in the United Coalition in the endless wars that so few Equestrians bothered to care about. She knew what gohh were- -at least as much as any soldier did- -and knew that they attacked without mercy or relent. They were, at times, the enemy- -but they usually only fought against Thebe’s personal golem army.

She had never expected to see them again. It had been her intention to burry those horrors in her past- -and then they had suddenly appeared. Silently, she cursed herself for not asking the travelers to sleep in the hover transport, and for not have seen the gohh coming. Admittedly, it was something virtually impossible. They were enemy soldiers that fought for an unknown enemy and an unknown cause, moss-like creatures wearing biological exoskeletons- -they simply should not have been in that region, not ever.

Five seemed to have been the first to notice them. She had spent the night disassembling and reassembling her rifle with surprising speed, and Sharpshooter had simply watched until the allotted time when Wolf-In-Clothing would take the watch. The Rainbow Dash impersonator had rapidly gone to sleep, and the demon had wandered off hours earlier and never returned.

Then, suddenly, Five had started to become agitated. She started looking around, and Sharpshooter watched as the components of her gun suddenly sparked with blue energy and reassembled themselves automatically. That alone would have been strange enough- -if it were not for the fact that, as Five started to slap the Rainbow Dash, a horrible hissing buzz filled the air. Sharpshooter immediately recognized it and froze, powering down all the magic spells she had surrounding her to make herself less apparent. That was the thing about gohh- -cloaking or stealth spells meant nothing to them; if there was magic or an active machine, they would find it an kill it.

She had taken up her gun, ready to give fire support, hoping that Five and Rainbow Dash could make it to the transport ship in time- -if only to hide. Even though she controlled her terror, as was her training, Sharpshooter knew that the instant the engines were turned on, the gohh would swarm them and tear through the metal like it was paper.

Five had given a hand signal, though, one that was of military origin- -meaning, essentially, “go on without us”. Sharpshooter had recognized her decision, and the heroism implicit in it: if Five and Rainbow Dash moved toward the ship, it would just attract the gohh.

Sharpshooter whispered into her wrist comlink. “Situation red,” she said. “Gohh infestations repeat gohh infestation. Power down everything!”

Then she had just watched, because it was all she could do. Rainbow Dash seemed to not be able to stay quiet, and it was attracting the gohh- -until the point where one of them actual appeared. From her training, Sharpshooter had been vaguely aware of what they looked like- -but she had not been prepared to actually face one. The sudden, rapid motions, the thin, insect-like legs, and the horrible sounds they made all reminded her of terrible things that lurked in dark, moldy places. Still, she got a bead on one of them, knowing fully well that bullets had no effect on gohh- -they had no real brains, or organs, so there was nothing to injure within them.

As she did, she switched on a small piece of technology she carried. It was a well-shielded part of her communication system, a device originally designed for soldiers deployed in gohh-controlled areas. It was meant to translate their words, or what they spoke instead of words.

As she flipped it on, she saw Rainbow Dash move suddenly- -and punch one of the gohh in the face. That was the single most brave and horrifically stupid thing she had ever seen, and she watched the gohh swarm the blue mare.

Before she could react- -or even look away from the carnage- -the gohh suddenly jumped back, all of them seeming confused. The translation module suddenly started to convert their buzzing and hissing into words.

“Aberration,” it said. The word was repeated many times by many different voices, each one modulated to a slightly different tone by the translation system.

“Not understood.”

“Out of place.”

“Time, wrong time!”

“Wrong time! Incorrect era!”

“Not understood!”

“Reaction?”

“Reaction unknown!”

“Contaminated? Contaminated! I am contaminated!”

“Do not attack.”

“Aberration unidentified.” Then, all together, “time traveler.”

“Further information needed.”

“Sentinel inadequate. Require further.”

“Further.”

“Further.”

“Home. Go home aberration.”

“Go home seventh race.”

“Go home.”

“Agreed.”

“Yes.”

Then they suddenly took flight- -so many of them that Sharpshooter could barely count them. She did not know what was happening, or understand what they had been talking about, or if the translation had even been correct- -but somehow, they were leaving.

“Thank Satin,” she said under her breath. As she watched, however, one gohh seemed to have a bad reaction. It did not leave with the others, and paused. Then it tore off its own limb and joined the others.

That limb alone, Sharpshooter knew, was worth millions. Precious few pieces of gohh exoskeleton were ever recovered, aside from those taken by Thebe and lost to ponykind forever. She tried to stand to jump down to take it, but found she could not. She was shaking too badly.

Instead, Five crossed the gap and picked up the limb. Sharpshooter was annoyed, but figured that the bat pony probably deserved it for what she had just gone through. Out in the field, the two continued to talk for a moment, and then went back to normal life, as if nothing had happened. Either they did not understand what had happened, or they were both something far more than ordinary travelers.

Sharpshooter collapsed against the ceiling of her group’s sky-van and rolled over, looking up at the starless blue-black sky. She tried to calm herself, but found that even as she became less afraid, she only became more confused. She did not know what the gohh had been saying, or why they had reacted- -but she knew that she would need to write an extremely long and well-formatted report to her company.