Author's Notes:

(The revamped version of Ch. 6, enjoy)
Bold - Character Narrating (Either Perspective or Narrator)
Italics - Character's Thoughts
Color - Character Who's Narrating or Thinking: Chancellor Puddinghead
Rubert

Earlier this morning; Chancellor Puddinghead hops down the recently made road that leads to her home. Following behind her is Smart Cookie, the chancellor’s secretary, who frantically tries to catch up. Far in the distance is Puddinghead’s home and temporary office; the two-story house is simple, made with wooden walls – not painted yet – a straw roof, simple two by two windows and a door. To others it may look like it’s in complete shambles, to Puddinghead… its all she’ll need.

Nearing the home, Puddinghead pushes the door open with a hoof and enters inside, with Cookie close behind. Once inside, Cookie instinctively closely the door with a loud thud, turning to face Puddinghead with a fearful look. “Chancellor… Where-is-the… ‘creature’?” asked Cookie.

Puddinghead, placed a hoof to her mouth to hush Cookie, then pointed above her. “They’re sleeping. I placed them in my guest room; it’s the door on the left in the end of the hall,” whispered Puddinghead.

Puddinghead motioned Cookie to follow, Cookie nodded and went up the stairs with Puddinghead. Upstairs is simple as was the outside; the walls too weren’t painted but a few decorations were placed, some portraits, a wooden stand to hold a pot of flowers, and a statue of an earth pony. Standing outside the door that Puddinghead said her guests were in, she began to ease the door slowly open. Peeking inside, two long figures are laid on the beds that are meant to fit a pony, their appendages stretch out of the beds’ edges, hovering over the air, their strange “claw-like” - hands I believe is what their called – appendages slackened and still.

Closing the door, Cookie stares at Puddinghead with both complete and utter fear, and shock.

“You weren’t joking… You… you actually found a new species…” said Cookie, shocked.

“Told you so,” said Puddinghead, in a sing-song voice.

“Are they… alive?”

“Uh huh; they’re lucky I found them on one of my walks. They were just… there.”

That was when Cookie returned from her inner thoughts and focused her attention toward Puddinghead. “What do you mean, they were just there?” asked Cookie.

Puddinghead instantly stiffened up, and continued to look at the two strange creatures, scratching her chin. “Weeeeellll… I saw them… on one of my walks… in a crater-”

“IN A CRATER!” shouted Cookie, grabbing Puddinghead by the cheeks. “WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY CRATER?!”

“Shey vhere jush yhere, en da wole.”

“What?”

After letting go of Puddinghead, she took a deep breath and repeated what she said. “They were just there, in the hole. That’s what I said, I couldn’t just leave them-”

“What? No, no no nonononono nooooooo! Its not a bad thing for you to help two defenseless beings… It’s just… You found them in a crater?” asked Cookie.

“Yeah… It was odd, but that’s how I found them. It was as if they fell from the sky,” said Puddinghead, contemplating the idea. “But they didn’t see to be able to fly and a mode of transportation by air is ridiculous; right Smart Cookie… Smart Cookie?”

At that moment, Smart Cookie froze stalk still, beginning to remember something that happened the night before. Flashing lights, falling stars… strange music; it only could mean one thing, nothing else… AT ALL. With every ounce of air she has and her very own voice, she screamed the one word to best describe the current situation.

“ALIENS!”

Cookie’s screaming continue for ten consecutive seconds, her scream echoing within the unfurnished home and all the way outside. Puddinghead covered both her ears with a single hoof, sitting down on her plot to stabilize herself. Unnoticed by either mare, one of the beds’ sheets shifted slightly; the one in the left slowly begun to rise.

After done screaming, Cookie took a few deep hard breaths to get her oxygen capacity to full – probably scream again – when Puddinghead shoved a hoof in her mouth. “Smart Cookie! We have injured here who’re trying to sleep. While I’m impressed how clear your voice is, I don’t believe this to be the best spot to do this. So please… stop-screaming,” said Puddinghead. “Are we clear?”

Smart Cookie nodded twice; Puddinghead’s hoof left her muzzle, the taste of dirt and something sweet leaving her mouth. While the two mares sat on the floor, they heard an audible creaking from behind them. The two slowly turned their heads to find the source of the sound; standing up to the height of two ponies was the most terrifying sight before them. Considering the only source of light coming from the candle set outside the room, they couldn’t see much but were able to a good image of the creature.

It stood on two legs like a minotaur, but straight not slanted like most minotaurs are. Its left hand which was visible in the dim light had five tiny thin – in the minotaur dialect – fingers instead of three like all minotaurs have. While tall for its size, it was surprisingly thin but was able to stand up unfazed by its own weight. However what was truly strange was the lack of a fur, the only spot of there being some on the top of it’s head; its mane being spikey, the pointed tips having a black charcoal color. Strangely though is that the creature smelled of something… it was similar to smoke but… there was a distinct scent.

But out of all of this… what truly terrified the two mares… was that its eyes glowed with strong intensity, as if they were capable two bright torches. The two mares sat stalk still, clutching each other in their grasp, not daring to make a single move… the creature had been staring at them the second they turned around.

It knew they were in the room; it was looking, no, examining them with its piercing look. Smart Cookie could imagine it staring at them with a hunger… for them. The creature reached forward with both it’s lengthy appendages, its two giant – another minotaur word – hands hovering above them. Before the creature could grab their tiny heads… somepony screamed.

Puddinghead was holding a scream inside the whole time but after seeing the creature reaching for them, she couldn’t hold it in. This however created an opening for them; the creature was now holding both its hands against the sides of its head. Not wasting a single second, Smart Cookie grabbed the scruff of her neck and tossed her out of the room, her following behind. Once in the hallway, she slammed the door close, grabbing anything in hooves reach to block the door. Chairs, stools, a pile of boards, and a hammer and nails; she boarded up the door and blocked it with an arrangement of items.

Slowly she trotted away from the room’s entrance as if it were cursed. She kept her gaze on the door, afraid something might happen, but after some quiet seconds of nothing, her body loosened. With the room not having a window, the only way out was through that door; securely blocked by Smart Cookie. Cookie slowly looked at Puddinghead, and the two began to laugh. At first it was quiet when a noise was heard. It started out slow, then it increased in speed and volume… until they heard something.

It was quiet ticking noise, as if a rain droplet was hitting something metallic; the noise continued to get louder and quicker. That was when Smart Cookie looked at Puddinghead, having realized something she forgot to ask before they arrived.

“Chancellor… Did you check their belongings?” asked Cookie.

“Oh… yes… why?”

“It’s just… what did you find?”

“Nothing m-much… I did found some dynami-”

“DYNAMITE! WHERE IS IT!?”

With a single hoof, Puddinghead pointed at the barricaded door. Smart Cookie heart sunk; she turned around, grabbed Puddinghead and ran downstairs. At that exact moment, a large boom was heard and the door, the hall and the wall where the previous existent door was adjacent from were all blown away. Walking out of the still smoking hole was the tall lanky figure, holding two red sticks with white wording. The words are blocked by its hands, but puts the two red sticks inside a pouch strapped to its side.

Twisting its body in an impossible way, the figure walks toward the stairs as it smiles sadistically. The two mares dove straight behind a table that was knocked on its side from the explosion.

“Why did you leave dynamite in the same room they were in?” said Cookie, whispering.

“I was surprised he had dynamite, but I was more surprised they were still alive!” said Puddinghead, whispering back.

“Well now one of them is up, and wants to blow us up to the moon,” responded Cookie. Cookie began to rub both her eyes with each her fore-hooves, tired from all of this. “What are we going to do?”

“Maybe we can talk to it. It could be just as scared of us, as we are of it.”

Cookie gave Puddinghead a cold and annoyed glare, having wished she ended up frozen before than this nonsense. However, before she could say a retort, the table was lifted away with such speed that the two mares took a long second to register what happened. Both of them looked to what moved the table and saw the figure having tossed the table aside as if it were a stick.

Cookie grabbed hold of Puddinghead, wishing comfort before her demise. Cookie continued to mumble random prayers and wishes, when the figure and Puddinghead made eye contact. Now staring at one another, face to face… Puddinghead realized how curious of a look the figure had before they panicked and ran downstairs.

She tilted her head to try something and in doing so, the figure followed. She then lifted her left hoof to the air; the figure doing same with his left hand. Puddinghead tried something more complicated, blinking her left and right eye in a certain code. Just like that, the figure copied it perfectly. Puddinghead slowly moved her hoof forward, and so did the figure; both hand and hoof were about to make contact when a third voice spoke.

“Joseph… What the hell, are you doing?”

Puddinghead stopped her action and swiveled her head to the new voice, when she saw the other figure leaning against the wall with probably the most angriest looks she seen… ever. The other figure was also tall and lanky like his fellow comrade, but his choice of clothing were slightly… different, so too was his hair. While the one with the explosives had hair that made it look like a fuze, the other one’s hair seemed to be similar to fire – to Puddinghead it reminded her of a jester’s hat – of some sort.

Wait… Did it just talk?

Both mares realized that if the other one could talk… that means…

“Ah Rubert, why you’d ruined the fun… I was getting to the good part.”

“For deities sake, you and your sense of sadistic humor… I swear I would kill you for if you weren’t my brother.”

The two figures began talking to one another – well it felt more like arguing – ignoring the gawking stares from both Chancellor Puddinghead and Smart Cookie. Cookie was the first to shake from her stupor and spoke up toward the two figures. “COULD SOMEPONY EXPLAIN WHAT IS GOING ON HERE!?” shouted Cookie.

The figure that stood by the wall stared at Cookie, glaring with unbridled rage when it all smothered within a moment’s second. “Joseph, help me here,” said jester-haired figure. The fuze-haired figure moved in a swift motion, slipping his arm under the other figure’s shoulder. The jester-haired figure leaned his weight against the other figure, the two walking as one toward the two mares until both crouched down. They made perfect eye contact with the two mares; each pair of creatures looked at one another until the jester-haired figure spoke up.

“Sorry about my idiotic brother and his crazy personality. The name’s Rubert… Rubert Crane,” said Rubert.

“Oh let me do my introductions too bro!” shouted Joseph, unnecessarily increasing his voice. “Hi, my name is Joseph Crane! I like exploding things!”

Cookie was so flabbergasted that she couldn’t say a single word… Puddinghed however could. “Me too me too! I want to introduce myself tooooo! My name is Puddinghead, but you can just call me Puddin!”

In that single second, all the rage that Rubert tried to hold back was unleashed in a single enraged sentence.

“NOT ANOTHER OOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEEEE!”

After a few hours of cleaning, and explaining later; Joseph and Rubert sat on two stools adjacent from where Cookie and Puddin sat, where instead of stools they sat on a bench near the front of Puddin’s house. Rubert talked about himself, his brother, their jobs – not the whole story – why and how they came to this… world. Cookie was amazed by the whole story, while it did sound slightly unbelievable but with everything that’s happened, it’s no surprise to her anymore.

Puddin however wasn’t shocked the slightest, keeping a complete straight face from start to end. She would rub her chin and continue to listen, but when Puddin raised her hoof to ask a question, all of that faltered instantly.

“I’m sorry for interrupting… but what’s a vehicle?” asked Puddin

Rubert facepalmed himself while Joseph laughed hysterically, slapping his knee with the palm of his hand. “As I said before; it’s similar to your carriages but has a power source, capable of traveling long distances, depending on the container until it needs another refill,” said Rubert, rubbing his forehead. He then looked at Smart Cookie and spoke to her, annoyed of the whole situation. “Is she always like this?”

“Constantly,” responded Cookie. The two sighed in agreement, while Joseph and Puddin just laughed it off. “Anyway; it’s best that you understand about our… ‘world’.”

Cookie was still suspicious of the idea of other worlds, but it was better theory than saying they’re aliens or mutated minotaurs. The prospect of other worlds is actually not that old, considering Starswirl mentioned of such a theory actually possible, but as to there being a capable way of traveling to other worlds… that is uncertain.

Cookie began the story of how the three pony tribes founded Equestria, the Windigos, the three pony tribes’ leaders – Puddinghead being one of them – the strange lights in the sky, and the present with them meeting the Crane brothers.

From what Cookie could understand, Rubert was something they called a ‘mechanic’; it’s apparently similar to a blacksmith, while Joseph was a master of explosives. The ponies aren’t confused of the idea of dynamite and gunpowder but still have limited knowledge on the method, with the closest thing to explosions is through magic. The Griffin Kingdom and other races however are a slight head start within the technology side of things, meaning their weaponry are more advanced.

With their pasts roles revealed, Smart Cookie could summarize that they belonged to some sort of personal army of sorts; a mercenary group of sorts. Still… if they were mercenaries… where are their other comrades? “You mentioned there being other strange lights? Where did these lights landed?” asked Rubert.

“I’m sorry but… I was half-asleep when it happened. Only Puddin found you two because a pillar of smoke was happening where you two crashed. It’s possible the other tribes may have found your friends,” said Cookie.

Rubert showed a worried expression, his brother oblivious to the obvious problem at hand. Within seconds Rubert stood up and began to walk, stopping to turn his sight toward the two mares.

“I must ask… do you know where we crashed?”

After heading back to said crash, it had cooled down the ground easier to traverse through. The two brothers dug through the dirt with the help of the two mares. Puddin stopped her digging and glanced at Rubert.

“What are we trying to find here?” asked Puddin.

“Anything; when we crashed I noticed some stuff falling with us. Some of it must of crashed with us, sooooo… AHA!” Everyone stopped their digging to look at Rubert. He was holding a strange device, it looked like a sword but was blunt, it looked like a stick but was thicker than a branch. Rubert swing the strange stick, making loud swooshing noise with each movement. He then placed both hands on each end and suddenly it shrunk, putting it inside his vest.

“Bro, you found your baton! I wonder if I could find my grenada?” said Joseph, continuing to dig.

“Let’s hope you don’t… Don’t want another incident,” said Rubert, whispering.

Before Rubert could continue digging, a loud boom echoed behind him. Turning to see what happened, he saw Puddin holding his brother’s grenade launcher. The launcher had a cylinder-reloading system, with a pretty sturdy handle. There were two triggers; one was used to shoot said grenades while the other exploded them manually. Some of his brother’s ammunition was still inside and Puddin accidentally clicked a button with the word “KABOOM!” labeled on it… Luckily it was only filled with smoke bombs.

“CHANCELLOR!” shouted Cookie, running to the explosion. “Are you okay!?”

Puddin coughed a cloud of dust into Cookie’s face, who is now also covered in dust too. “I’m… I’m fine,” said Puddin, her voice raspy.

Joseph extended a hand, and Puddin accepted it kindly. He then lifted her up with strength that’s strange for his lanky figure. He gave Puddin a piggy-back ride, smiling crazily. “Nice boom!”

“Thank you,” said Puddin, smiling back.

Joseph was somewhat acting different than his usual, “Blow up everything in sight” attitude. Rubert and his brother didn’t had a happy childhood… well a happy life is a better way to put it. He quickly shook his past memories away, somewhat glad his brother is busy enjoying life than explosions.

Smart Cookie noticed this and smiled with him; while these two strangers are somewhat… volatile. Their good folk, Cookie could tell but while they didn’t tell a lot of themselves… Did that really matter? All that does is that they may have made some new friends… and possible allies in the future.

Rubert looked up to notice the sun going down earlier than its supposed too, but shook the thought away. “Seems to be getting dark,” said Rubert. “We’ll continue our excavation later.”

“I’ll tell some of the stallions to place some torches here to make sure no wildlife get near this site. While we wait out the night, I’ll cook something for us to eat… By the way… what do you two eat?” asked Cookie, having forgotten to ask that.

Rubert completely forgot that they eat meat and telling that fact would definitely make their new friends, skeptical of them. Thank the deities for Joseph’s sudden interruption.

“I WANT PIE!”

“YEAH! PIE! PIE! PIE! PIE!” shouted Puddinghead, agreeing too.

Both Puddin and Joseph kept chanting the word pie over and over, making their way back to her house. Smart Cookie simply stared but gave up to their antics and followed. “Pie it is...” said Cookie, following.

Rubert watched the trio leave, ready to follow when he stepped on something. A loud clank was heard; looking down he saw a rectangular shape in the ground. No way… that can’t be… Not wasting a single thought, he crouched down and dug the object out. “Well call me a monkey’s uncle.”

Said object was had a metallic pole coming form the top, extendable like Rubert’s baton. It had several buttons and switches, but what truly made the object interesting was the see-through screen on the top. Rubert clicked a button, the hand-held radio coming to life.

If I get this working, I can contact the others… Maybe even the Boss…

Distracted by his find, Cookie shouted back at Rubert, getting his attention. “Hey, you coming!”

Rubert looked up and pocketed the device away, making sure to turn it off to save the energy on it. “Yeah, I’m coming… I’m coming,” said Rubert, his voice going quiet. And then… I’m leaving.