[Tartarus, Equestria: ???]

Deep within the depths of Tartarus three statues stand each on a pedestal and bound by chains. As the air in the caverns flowed, a noise was heard from one of the statues, a slight sound of stone rumbling as cracks started to form on the statue in the middle. Within minutes the stone burst and an ominous laughter could be heard echoing throughout the cavernous depths.

---

[Earth: 2023]

I sat on my folding lawn chair in my apartment drinking a soda while watching a youtube video on my laptop. It was both payday and rent paying day tomorrow and I was both not looking forward to it and kinda excited for tomorrow. My now former boss had let me go from my job due to him basically hating me. The official reason was that he couldn’t afford to keep me as and I quote ‘The store was underperforming and I was the weakest link in the store’ which was bullshit. The real reason was that he wasted a bunch of the company’s money on crypto and blamed it on me, even though I tried to warn him that it was both a bad idea and possibly illegal.

Since I was the only one who knew about it he believed firing me and ruining my reputation with the company was a good idea. I chuckled a bit thinking about this, he clearly didn’t know my sister was a lawyer for this company and she knew me well enough to pass the word along to upper management that He was full of shit, I even gave her proof that he didn’t know about.

I put my laptop down as I heard the doorbell ringing. The upstairs neighbors were out of town for the next few days going to the big city with their kid and since this was one of those split house apartments that meant I had to answer the doorbell for both me and them.

Outside was a delivery guy holding a package, which was a rare sight considering they just normally leave the package on the front porch and leave it to whomever gets to it first. “Umm hello?” I said confused , opening the door.

“Hi, I'm looking for Alice Tennyson?” the delivery asked as I nodded "Great sign here mam.” the delivery guy said before he handed me a clipboard with my name on it as the recipient. I looked at the forum just to be sure what I was signing, it was a standard receipt for a package, though I didn’t remember ordering anything. I just shrugged and signed it. “Thanks, have a good day” the delivery guy said right as he handed me the package and left.

I brought the package into my part of the house and placed it on my dining room table. Maybe it was a gift from my sister or Parents. I looked at the box while grabbing my package opening knife from my kitchen drawers. I unsealed the box but right as I was about to open it I heard someone open the front door. It was probably the upstairs tenants, though strangely they said they wouldn’t be back for another week. I went to check on them to see if everything was alright and to give back their keys.

As I went to greet them the door that split their apartment from mine slammed in my face and I fell onto the ground and slammed into my table knocking the box holding the package I had just gotten and the knife I used to open the package onto the ground. “Ow” I muttered before I looked up and saw two big thugs standing over me with guns. “Wha-?” I muttered as I backed up, before quickly grabbing the knife from the ground and held it in front of me while I tried to be brave.

One of the thugs looked at me insulted. “Why do they always try to be brave?” he muttered before stepping forward and glaring at me.

The other thug spoke. “Look you won’t be hurt if you tell us where you hid the hard drive, okay? Well, you won’t be hurt much.”

I looked confused as he said hard drive. “What are you talking about?” I asked confused as to what they were talking about.

“I’ll be quick and simple. Your boss Jake owes our boss a lot of money and he said you stole the hard drive with the payment. So hand it over and we’ll only rough you up a little as a lesson to not screw with people”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I said firmly but terrified. That bastard probably lied to whomever he owes money to so they would kill me.

“Yeah Jake said you were a lying snake. Though in all honesty, he also is one, so I am sorry about this but I still got a job to do.” the main thug said as he motioned to the big thug as he picked me up and slammed me onto the table. “Now tell us where the drive is.” I slumped down to the floor as the thugs looked at me before they saw the box. “Ah I get it you must have already sold the drive.”

I quickly grabbed the box to try and cover myself as the brute thug kicked me in the gut, and as I slumped over to the ground both thugs looked at me as I took my hand out of the box and slowly rose back up as a note fell out of the box and towards the thugs. The main thug took the note and chuckled. “W-what?” I muttered both angrily and terrified while leaning on the counter trying to stand up right as the thug was about to say something. A gunshot rang throughout my apartment. I fell down as I held my stomach as I started bleeding. A third thug stood at the entrance to the room and everything started to fade. I could barely hear anything over the ringing in my ears as my vision slowly faded to darkness. The last thing I noticed before falling unconscious was a purple flash, then everything went dark.

---

[???]

I awoke in a forest both confused and scared. “What happened?” I muttered to myself as I rose from the ground. As I looked around, memories flooded back to me like a title wave of pain. I quickly fell to my knees and grabbed my stomach where I had been shot... only to find my stomach fine. “Did those bastards leave me for dead in a forest?” I asked myself as I lifted my tank top to see there was no scar or bullet hole on my chest.

I slowly got back up and sighed. “Great,” I muttered in disbelief. I’m in god knows where in a tank top and booty shorts. I sighed as today was supposed to be a day to relax before all the stress that was supposed to happen tomorrow.

I looked at my wrist and noticed a purple watch on my wrist, that I was sure wasn’t there when I got shot. “I know this watch.'' I muttered “Well sorta.” I mused. Isn’t it supposed to be Green, Black and White? Not Purple, Black and White? Coloring aside I knew this as the watch from Ben 10, Alien force to be specific, if I remembered correctly. I chuckled a bit remembering something from my childhood.

Me and my older sister were fans of Ben 10 as kids. And while she grew out of it around the time Omniverse started I remember sticking till the reboot started. That show’s first season was a mixed bag for me. It clearly wasn’t for me, though I did keep an eye on it and watched from time to time when there was an episode concept that interested me.

Anyway I remembered that my sister mentioned she had gotten a big bonus at her job and said she was sending me a little something for old time sakes. I guess this watch was it. As I do vaguely remember pulling it out of the box when I was attacked. Now only if it worked like in the show, I could just fly to civilization or have beaten those jerks who attacked me. Alas this was the real world and such ideas were silly.

I heard a wolf’s howl in the distance and I quickly came to the realization I shouldn’t just stand around and wait for something to get me. ‘Okay the howl came from that direction’ I said pointing towards what I assumed was the north, so I should head in any other direction than that. I looked up at the sky to see where the sun was. “Okay the sun is above me so it should be high noon, I probably have a few hours before nightfall.” plenty of time to find civilization, and hopefully figure out where I am.

I started my walk going where I assumed was the south, it was at least the opposite direction then where the wolf howls came from, so my chances of running into a wolf was probably lower then going north.

Time passed as I wandered the woods looking for any signs of a nature trail or a road. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anything. I stopped as I smelled something horrible “Ugg what's that smell?” I muttered as I froze and saw what looked like a large cat in the distance. It looked weird though as it clearly wasn’t a cougar or something that looked like it would be native to North America, it looked like a lion, but even that description was wrong as it had what looked like bat wings and a scorpion tail, was that a manticore? ‘Okay, mythical monster or not, I gotta go.’ I thought to myself as I took a few steps back before stepping on a small bone that made a loud crack noise. “Aw crap.” I muttered as I saw the manticore’s ears perk up and it move towards my direction.

I started running as I had no clue what to do in this situation. Though as I did I heard the manticore roar and start to give chase. “Okay not dying here.” I screamed as I looked at the watch on my wrist, well considering I was being chased by a creature from Greek myth the watch being the real thing wasn’t the craziest idea. I looked down and mimicked Ben’s movements with the watch as I muttered ‘Please work’ over and over again.

The watch’s center opened and a hologram of Blitzwolfer showed up. “Okay who else I got?” I said as I turned the dial. I saw Greymatter and Rath. “Good enough.” I said stopping and turning around right as I pressed down on the dial and transformed into.

“RATH!” I shouted and roared at the manticore. “LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING MANTICORE! YOU AINT EATING RATH!" I shouted as I punched the manticore in the face, specifically the nose. It froze for a second, taking a good look at Rath and ran. “THAT'S RIGHT YOU DON’T MESS WITH RATH!” I boasted before changing back.

I burst out laughing as I took a moment to breathe, when that moment passed I asked myself “Okay I got two og series aliens and Rath, what else I got on here?” before I reactivated the watch. I had Fasttrack, Pesky Dust, and Jetray. “Okay now we’re talking.” I said as I transformed into Jetray. And took off into the sky. I saw a town in the distance as well which looked like a city with a castle on the side of a mountain. I clearly wasn’t in British Columbia anymore, I don't think I was even on earth anymore considering I just saw a manticore, this was a problem I would have to deal with when I landed, but for now I flew towards the town.

As I landed on the outskirts of the town and transformed back into me before quickly I tidied myself up and walked the path towards the town of... Ponyville? Huh it was a weird name. If I had to guess they are farmers or something judging from that orchard I saw on the edge of town, or the inhabitance could be magical ponies, considering I just saw a manticore and transformed into two fictional aliens anything was possible.

The town was barren as I heard the sound of slamming doors and window shutters, and as I walked into the center of town I caught a glimpse of one of the locals who looked like a pink furred anthro pony. ‘Huh they really are ponies.’ I thought to myself.

[Ponyville, Equestria]

---

[Back at the scene of the crime]

“Damn it Finn, why the hell did you shoot her!” Alex said as he looked at Mendez “Mendez keep her stable!” Alex ordered the bricked up thug who just a minute earlier was beating the poor girl. “Finn, this was supposed to be a simple rough up job! We needed her alive! If she dies you’re taking the fall for this. Both from the feds and the Boss”

Finn looked at the gun for a minute and said “I-I thought we were supposed to kill her, that's what Jake said at least.” And at that moment everything clicked for Alex

“Do we work for Jake, no, you idiot! I swear he must have set us up to get rid of her. Especially considering the letter I just read incriminates Jake for a bunch of shit.” Alex said pacing around. “Mendez load her up into the truck and keep her stable.” Alex said, pulling out a cell and speed dialing a number. “Pick up, pick up, pick up.” he muttered repeatedly to himself as he tried to phone the back alley doctor.

“Ummm-” Finn said, noticing something on the girl.

“SHUT UP FINN!” Alex shouted angrily.

Finn ignored the order and spoke anyway “Why is she glowing?”

“What?” Alex asked as he looked at the girl as the watch she pulled out of the box started glowing a bright purple. “The hell!” he said as the girl vanished in a flash. He looked dumbfounded till the sound of the phone snapped him out of it. “Boss we have a problem, a big one.”

Next Chapter: Chapter 2: A Hex in Ponyville Estimated time remaining: 7 Minutes