Foster's shoes clapped against the cold, metallic floor as he bolted down the hallway. The sound of air rushing through his gas mask muffled out almost all other sounds. His eyes couldn't focus on one single object for more than a second, he was panicking.

He could only recall the color purple. Something purple swallowed Skully and Lewis. What was that purple thing? His mind was wrapped around the machine so much so that he didn't notice the Gorefast turning the corner. He smashed into the creature, throwing both of them to the ground.

“Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!” His mind raced for what to do next. Most people were blessed with the ability to act without thinking, but Foster didn't have the famed 'instinct'. He quickly jumped to his feet as the Gorefast had trouble standing due to it's loss of working arms. It wailed about the ground, swinging it's blade in a spasmodic action. The blade managed to score a mark on Foster's calf, leaving a rather large gash in it's wake.

Foster fell to his knees in pain as he began to fumble for his medical syringe. The beast began sitting up as Foster jammed the rusty needle into his thigh. In his haste, he accidentally broke the needle off in his leg, allowing for most of the medical formula to spill about the floor.

"Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" He yelled, looking up to the almost completely recovered Gorefast just meters away. He picked a small hand full of the serum and slathered it on his injury and quickly jumped back to his feet.

Not remembering the numbing effects of the medical serum, Foster's leg gave out from under him after only a few steps, causing him to stumble back to the metallic floor. His breathing intensified as he turned his back to face the Gorefast.

If the being had a jaw it would've screaming in fury at the incapacitated man. It slowly approached Foster, swinging it's blade in a wild manner, causing Foster to panic more so. Foster thought for a moment as he looked down at the broken syringe. He reared his hand back and threw the item at the Gorefast with all his might, causing the glass component on top of the syringe to shatter in the being's face.

It's swung it's arms wildly as it's basic instincts told it to pluck the bits of glass out of it's eyes. The being made a sound that resembled a death cry to Foster. He grinned slightly behind his mask. Unfortunately, the cry seemed to attract attention. Foster gazed past the original Gorefast to view two more of the beings.

"Oh, COME ON!" He yelled as he turned to run from the beings. His leg was still in a state of numbness, but only to a point were he had a slight limp. Foster's chest was aching, he couldn't handle much more. His body yelled at him to stop running, but his brain told him to continue onward. He just wanted to lay down and finally die but something kept him going. He turned one last corner as he was faced with something he never would have guessed to see in all his years. In front of was a tall man, dressed in a dark, long coat with a wooden cross around his neck and a large fire axe in his hand.

Foster slid to his knees as the holy man had already started a swing that seemed to be timed just perfectly. His first attack seemed to make contact with one of the red beast's heads in a manner that seemed to be more planned than a spur-of-the-moment attack. The Gorefast's dead body shifted to it's side as it collided with the second Gorefast, causing it to also tumble off balance.

Foster didn't even stop to look back at the carnage, he only continued to run until he was met with a wall. Behind him the priest was happily chopping away at the living Gorefast making sure it was truly dead. He didn't want to take any chances, the last time he did... well, he never did. Everything had to be just so, never leave it to chance.

The creature's head finally rolled off it's mangled stump as Alberts stood above the being, breathing heavily. He turned to Foster with a look that made the writer question whose allegiance he belonged to. The two men stared at each other for a few moments as Alberts’s disarming look turned to one of calm and peace.

"I'm glad to see that I was not the only one to be blessed today brother. Tell me, where are the others? Have they finally joined the choirs?"

"Uh, um..." Foster barely managed to get out. He was still attempting to recollect what had happened not two minutes ago. "Glovers... he's gone." Foster couldn't help but to trail off into thought as the images played back in his head once again.

"And what of Skully? Or my dear friend Lewis? Are they accompanying Glover to the gates?"

"I... I have no idea. They found this machine and... Listen, can we find a better place to talk about this? I really don't want to see anymore Gorefasts, I've had my share of them for a while."

"Of course, brother. Come, I know of a place of solitude. There we can continue to plan our next move." They headed towards the elevator shafts. Foster wanted to talk on the way there, but was still preoccupied with trying to piece back what was left of his sanity.

==============

Consciousness slowly forced it's way back into Lewis's mind. The pain and the misery followed. He had know idea what is happening to him or where he was, and he savored every moment of the obliviousness. Then the memories finally made their way back into his mind. He could recall the specimens, the axe, Mike Noble, the Patriarch, the machine...what happened in the machine? What did it do. Lewis was blind the entire time, all he saw was blackness... and his memories. He preferred the blackness.

Then it finally came back as well, his eyesight. He was greeted with the beautiful colors of pink and gold and blue. Peaceful colors, things he had not seen in a while. The simple innocence of these colors brought tiny slivers of happiness back to the man. It was one of the few things that reminded him of a time before. He cherished the beautiful hues, then something else came into his sight. It was a being similar to that of a horse. It had colors similar to that of the walls, it even bore characteristics to that of a cartoon. He wanted to smile even more so. This was obviously an angel, and he was obviously in heaven. He was grateful for this gift. He was finally able to see his loved ones again, they were probably proud of him, for his sacrifices.

He wanted to hug the beings and accept his new life in the skies, but something held him back. He couldn't move anything. Something was wrong. He then took notice to what the 'angels' were doing. They were operating on him. He could view them stitching wounds on his chest close, and removing bits of metal from his body. Surely if he was in heaven they wouldn't have to do this, right? They wouldn't have to repair his spirit. He thought for a moment.

"No..." he said weakly behind his mask, reaching up at the beings with all his might. Trying to make one of them mess up and finish him off. One of the masked beings looked back at Lewis's hand and jumped in shock. The others began to focus on the first creature and then onto Lewis.

They looked upon Lewis with nervous eyes as one of the creature's appendages began to glow. Lewis looked slightly to the left to view a syringe moving closer and closer to his body. He attempted to struggle, to at least go out fighting, but something in the back of his mind was telling him to give in. And he did. All his muscles relaxed, even before the needle met his body, and he went into yet another deep sleep. He gladly accepted his new found slumber, he loved to dream. It was the only true escape from this nightmare.

=============

"So you're telling me that they... teleported, into a different dimension?" Alberts had a look of utter confusion on his face ever since Foster mentioned the 'purple light'. "Are you sure this isn't part of your story?"

"Listen. I know exactly what I saw! They teleported or something, and we have to get them back!"

"You are aware, brother, that if this is not what you think it is you are throwing our lives away for an unjust cause? It is possible that it is a 'teleporter', but there is also a chance that it is something that could vaporize us into thin air! What then?" Alberts’s voice was shockingly serious at this point. Foster was cautious of his words now, for he had no clue what state Alberts's mind was in.

"I don't know whether or not it is a teleporter, but I do know that we must go through it. I don't always listen to my gut, but right now, I really think we gotta go back there." Alberts rubbed his face with his hands as he tried to think of other solutions to this problem.

"Alright, brother. I will join your cause, but only if we return to the camp. I do not relish the fact that my flock might go astray without my continuing consent. At least allow me to have word with them." Alberts once again bore a soft, friendly face, something Foster noted not to trust too often.

"Fine. It might be a good chance to resupply as well." Alberts playfully patted Foster on the arm and drew a deep, hearty laugh. At least he was back to normal now. The two men sat for a moment before Foster broke the silence.

"So, how did you get out of that horde?"

"My friend, surely you are not underestimating the power of a man with a cross." He finished his sentence with a wolfish grin that both comforted Foster, and sent waves upon waves of chills down his spine.

=============

Skully came to in a comfortable bed. He was still in the same apparel as before, was that all a dream? He was in a white room with white sheets. A warm glow coming from the window as an all around peaceful atmosphere seemed to rest upon the room.

"Wait..." Skully said aloud, through his mask. Peace? Warmth? This wasn't right. He shot upwards in his bed. “This is some sort of trick. It has to be.” He looked all around the room. It seemed like a normal hospital room. A white room with medical equipment and a few chairs for visitors but something wasn't right. There was no sense of fear, or anything related to war. He actually liked it.

Then he heard something just outside the door. He took vigilance as he slowly crept towards the door, he knew it was too good to be true. He laid his back against the wall adjacent to the door and slowly pushed the cracked door open, careful to not make a sound. He saw through the sliver a lone quadrupedal being. With a coat of pure white. "What in God's good..." he whispered to himself. The being was completely white, with the exception of it's light pink mane and tail and it's clearly noticeable red cross on it's upper back thigh.

"Oh... you've been busy Kevin." he whispered to himself again. The creature seemed to be pushing around a cart of medicine, Skully concluded that this was some sort of support specimen that might be able to heal others. "Oh, Lewis’s is gonna want to know about this."

The 'nurse' specimen entered a room with the cart of medicine. Skully couldn't make much out before the door closed, but he could've swore that He saw Lewis's mask on one of the bed posts in the room. He ever so slowly opened the door and crept out, all without making any noticeable noise. Sneaking wasn't his greatest skill, but he did manage to reach the end of the hall without being noticed, so he made note that he was doing well.

All the while he was sneaking around he couldn't help but notice how clean the entire establishment was. He was surely shocked at Kevin's standards. He turned the corner to gain sight of a large red box hanging on the wall with large yellow letters that spelled out 'FIRE'. A truly beautiful sight, indeed. He went over to the box to see that it was locked. He looked to both sides, no living thing in sight, and hopefully not in earshot either.

He pulled his hoody's sleeve up to his hand, so as to lessen his skin's surface area, and quickly thrusted his elbow into the glass. The large sound of shattering glass echoed through the halls. "Shit." he whispered once more. He stood perfectly still for what seemed like an eternity, waiting for the inevitable to come. Yet thankfully, nothing seemed to appear.

He reached his hand past the broken glass to gain the contents of the box: a medium-sized wooden handle with a large, red piece of metal at one end that could cut through a door in seconds, and bone much easier. Skully almost drooled at the feeling of this piece in his hand. His mind traveled to happier places. His instinct was beginning to take control.

He took caution as he slowly crept towards the room that contained Lewis and the being. He put his back up against the wall by the door, once again, and slowly inched the door open. The 'nurse' was doing something to him, but he wasn't sure what. He completely opened the door without so much as even making a squeak. He grinned again.

"Too easy." He whispered as he entered the doorway. He tilted his head to his side as a relieving crack sounded near his neck. He took a deep breath as he readied his weapon. He pulled it back so far that the pointed end seemed to touch his back.

Just as Skully was readying for a kill, Nurse Tenderheart seemed to be traversing the halls. She saw the opened doorway and, out of curiosity, looked inside. She saw the alien being that appeared in the ballroom just days ago rearing a fire axe behind the Nurse Galen. Tenderheart screamed at the top of her lungs as Galen quickly turned to see what was happening. She saw the giant creature in front of her. She saw the large fire axe in it's hand. She screamed at the top of her lungs, but also quickly jumped out of the way.

Skully brought the axe down with immense force, causing the blade to leave a deep mark in the tile flooring. He pulled it out to quickly aim another swing. "You ain't gonna touch him again you damn MUTANT!" He took a vertical slash at the nurse, just barely missing her as she ducked in time.

Skully was getting frustrated. He took one more downward swipe at the nurse, once again missing. This time, his axe became slightly jammed into their ground following the attack. He attempted to pull the weapon out when he looked up to view the sight of two larger specimens that seemed to resemble the nurse specimen, wearing gold plated armor. He panicked slightly, pulling with all his might to get the weapon back out of the ground.

The first large specimen didn't take any chances. He rushed Skully with a quick head ram, pushing Skully all the way against the wall. Skully was caught off guard by the sheer amount of strength in the attack. He quickly reacted by grabbing the specimen by the neck and holding him under his arm. Luckily for Skully, the other specimen seemed to be paralyzed.

While still holding the first specimen, Skully began to thrust his elbow directly into the back of the beings neck, causing a large amount of pain to course down it's spine. After a few hits, Skully brought his knee directly up into the creature's neck, incapacitating it instantly. Skully looked up at the second creature. He glared at it through his dark goggles for a few moments before reaching down to his ankle and pulled out a hidden combat knife.

He flipped the knife so that the blade would face the pony to make for better jabbing. He struck a stance with his knife, all the while the second specimen was struck with pure fear. Skully flicked his fingers towards himself, almost taunting the creature as if it would cause it to charge.

Behind the second specimen ran a third one, but this one was slightly different. It had a horn that was glowing. Skully lessened his stance as he gazed at the creature. It stopped right in front of him as the horn intensified in color. It's head shot back as a large bolt of the glowing aura sped towards Skully.

Before he could even think to move, the bolt hit Skully directly in the chest. He felt a pressure that could only be matched by getting shot with a T-shirt launcher loaded with a brick. Skully fell to his knees. The creatures began to surround him as he coughed and clutched his chest in pain.

A white creature walked towards him. It was clearly different from the rest. It was much taller, and it had something that the others didn't have, wings and a horn. It's mane and tail were colored with stripes of light blue, light green, light purple, and light pink, which seemed to always be flowing, even when there was no breeze in the air. This majestic creature stood above Skully for a few moments before speaking.

"Do you yield?" It asked in a feminine voice with a stern look on it's face. Skully nodded and continued to cough. The white creature looked to the others and nodded, they then proceeded to leave the room.

"What are you?"

Skully managed to stop coughing, but still held his chest in pain. He looked up at the white creature. "I'm a... I'm a human! What the fuck are YOU!"

"I am a pony, one of the native beings of Equestria. Where are you from?"

"London... London, England." As he finished his sentence another wave of pain shot through his body. "Oh fuck, my chest!" The white creature looked upon Skully with a slight feeling of remorse. The white pony slowly approached Skully, who was slightly recovered now, but he swung at her weakly. "Back up, back up! How do I know I can trust you? How do I know this isn't some sort of trick!?"

"Well, you were unconscious for days. If we wanted to do anything to you, we would've already without any form of resistance. I believe that fact is proof enough, is it not?" Skully was completely recovered now. He thought for a moment as he observed the 'pony' in front of him.

The very look of this being defined majestic. It's perfectly trimmed coat, it's unfaltering stance, the way it's hair flowed in the wind with grace. Skully was impressed. "So... this 'Equestra', where on Earth is it?"

The pony looked at Skully with a confused face. "On” Earth? I'm afraid to tell you, but Equestria is a planet all it's own." Skully's eyes widened behind his goggles. He was definitely going to need some explanations.

===================

Lewis's nose picked up an odd scent, weakened by the filters of his mask. A sort of lemon-y smell, with... Tea? His eyes shot open. “Okay. NOW I'm in heaven. I gotta be!” He sat up in his bed. He looked to where he thought the smell was coming from. He saw Skully sitting in a chair, next to some sort of horse-thing, sipping tea in a small, porcelain teacup, while listening to some form of classical music.

"Am I in, Hell?"

"Close, chap. Equestria." He tipped his cup towards Lewis upon saying Equestria.

"You going to explain the uh..." he pointed at the pony.

"Oh, this is Celestia. Oh, sorry, Princess Celestia. Ruler of Equestria and all of pony-kind." Lewis' face held an expression of 'Are you kidding me?' behind his mask. "Yeah," Skully continued. "I found it hard to believe as well. But, just take a look out the window." Lewis got out of his bed and approached the window, careful to avoid Celestia.

Through the window he saw many other creatures similar to Celestia.

“Well, shit. I’m at a loss of words.”

Skully sat himself upwards slightly. “I wouldn’t blame ya, Lewie. It’s... a little hard to comprehend. Especially since we went through what we went through. Just breath in and out, every thing's gonna be alright.”

“Jeez, Skully. I’m not tearin’ down the walls over here. What’s with the speech?”

“Well, let’s just say that when I woke up... I didn’t see things as clearly as you.”

Lewis put up his hand. If he knew any small bit about Skully and blackouts, he didn’t want to know the details. “You can spare me, I just need some...” he looked at the kettle. “Tea, just some tea right now.”

He picked up a cup and poured himself some of the tea. He looked over to the white pony, named Celestia, who was sitting ever so patiently in the corner. “So, um...” he tried to piece together all his questions into manageable sentences for the being. “First question, how exactly did we get here?”

The Princess cleared her throat. “Well, I can only really tell you that you teleported here somehow. Other than that is mystery.”

Lewis scratched where his chin would be if he wasn’t wearing his mask. “Teleported you say? Skully, remember the machine?” Skully turned his head up from his cup.

“Of course, how could I forget that rattlin’ piece a’ crap we jumped through before nearly dying. What about it?”

“I think we found out the meaning of it.”

“Yeah, lemme guess, teleportin’? Come on Lewie, I ain’t that much of a muppet.”

Lewis threw his hands up, “easy now. I’m just making sure we’re all on the same level here.”

Skully tipped his head down to take another sip of his drink. He heard a slurping sound coming from Lewis’ direction and quickly looked up to see a glimpse of his face, but only saw him adjusting his mask. Lewis just looked at Skully.

“What?” Lewis asked.

“Nothin’, nothin’.” Skully said almost disappointed.

“Well, let’s get down to business, shall we?” Lewis said enthusiastically as he looked over to Celestia, she nodded back to him. “We do know that a machine sent us here, so... any idea on how we’re gonna get back?” The room was silent, even Princess Celestia was stumped by the question. “Anything? Come on, I’ll even take a ‘let’s rebuild the damn thing.” Still nothing.

Celestia broke the silence after a few more moments of thinking. “Surely we can have more time to discuss such matters. I’m fairly certain that you wouldn’t want all your plans made here in a small, cramped, hospital room, would you?”

“She’s got a point.” Skully began, “maybe we could head around town, get to know the place. I gotta feeling that we’re gonna be here a bit longer than a while.”

“Oh,” Celestia chimed in, “I’m afraid you can’t simply walk into town. My subjects would... I’m not quite sure what they would do, seeing an alien race merely walking around like it was their daily stroll. I hate to constrict such beings as yourselves, but you’ll have to stay hidden for the time being.”

“Listen up, Princess.” Skully snapped, “You saw how we got here and what we did while we we’re here. If you couldn’t tell, we’re in a bit of a WAR for the survival of our species. If the Patriarch wants to come after us, I’m pretty sure he can, and we need to be ready for that.”

The Princess gave Skully a glare that could shatter stone itself. “I’m fully aware of your predicament, you’ve made it very clear that you are in this ‘war’ and I’m fully aware that you need to get back, but I can’t just have some humans running about, causing panic in my kingdom! If you need supplies, we can bring what we can to you. But anything beyond that I can not have!” She shot out of her seat. “Good day, sirs!”

Skully just stood, in full awe, at what had just happened. He had just gotten told by a giant white pony in a land called ‘Equestria’ ruled completely by ponies. Foster is definitely gonna wanna hear about this one, though, he’s wasn’t quite sure Foster would believe it.

Skully looked back to Lewis who had just finished his tea while Skully and the Princess were ‘discussing’ their plans.

Lewis cleared his throat, “Well, you’ve done something I never could’ve imagined, you’ve pissed off a Princess of an entire planet.” He made a mocking clap with his hands, “Good job, mate. I’m really fucking impressed, you fucking muppet.”

Skully rubbed his eyes with his fingers, “Hold on, hold on...” He started to think. “Alright, I’ll go apologise, or some other bull crap, you... you put on some more tea, kay?” Lewis nodded.

He put his thumbs up and sarcastically said, “Good luck.” With a smart-ass grin under his gas mask.

Skully took a deep sigh. He hated apologies, he’d much rather jam a shotgun into a screaming, skinless demon’s face any day of the week.