Plunging through the portal was like nothing Scootaloo had ever experienced before in her life. At first, it reminded her of the time that the Cutie Mark Crusaders attempted to earn an ice skating cutie mark, only for ice skating to become ice diving when the ice gave out beneath them; she remembered the icy feeling that seeped into her core, and for a short moment it was just like that. The instant the icy feeling passed, she felt like she was being catapulted at Sonic Rainboom speeds through the air. It was amazing, and if the situation had been different, she might have called it awesome. She didn’t have time to wonder if that was what Rainbow Dash felt every time she flew—not when her friends were still in danger.

Being thrown through a portal to another world by two draconequi—who probably rivaled Nightmare Moon on the evil scale—was not awesome. Landing in a heap with Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom on top of her had left her dazed, but she knew they had to get out of there. Unfortunately, they’d collided with some sort of hollow metal cylinder—a street lamp—jutting from the ground, and made a large amount of noise.

In an instant, there were humans rushing out of the building the fillies had landed in front of. It didn’t surprise Scootaloo that they’d come to investigate the ruckus; every time the Crusaders had ever made such a racket back in Ponyville, ponies had come to find out what the trouble-making trio had done. She found it oddly reassuring that Goldenrod’s kind weren’t all that different from ponies in that aspect.

Multiple flashes lit up the dim area in front of the building. Many of the humans were holding up small rectangular objects that she belatedly realized must have been some sort of cameras. They were nothing like the ones back home. They were small and sleek, and fit perfectly into a human hand. The repeated flashes were making her feeling ill, wishing she wasn’t trapped beneath her friends.

“Do you think this is another one of those wackjob PETA stunts?” one human asked.

“I dunno... It’s possible.” another added in. “Wonder what they’re trying to get across?”

“Probably that it’s our fault that we don’t have unicorns or pegasi,” a third human added in, laughing as he pointed to Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle. “Just look what they did to the poor things. They dyed them all candy colors and gave one wings and one a horn!”

Scootaloo looked up at the human dejectedly. “I’ve always been this way!” she muttered angrily as she struggled beneath her dazed friends to get up. It was no use; she could barely feel her limbs under the weight of her friends.

“Whoa, dude...” the rude human said, turning to one of the others. “That little horse just talked. This crap is too weird for me.”

A cold duet of laughter pierced the air. “If things are getting too weird for you,” Discord roared, breaking out into another fit of laughter. “You really should stick around to see just how much weirder it’s about to get around here.”

Scootaloo watched as one of the humans plucked something paper-like from his mouth and stared at it with a frown. “I’ve got to stop smoking this stuff,” he whispered to himself. “This stuff is going to—”

Morrigan appeared beside the human, setting her lion paw on his back. “Stop smoking? Why dear, it isn’t even lit!”

Without warning, Discord appeared on the other side of the human. He snapped his avian fingers together, and a flame sprouted from his thumb. “Need a light?” Discord asked with a laugh, offering his flame-tipped thumb.

The human smiled in the dim light provided by the lightly dented street-lamp, and returned whatever it was in his hand to his lips. “Hey, thanks. For an alien thing, you’re pretty cool,” he said around the object, before leaning in to place the tip of the object in the flame.

This proved to be a horrible mistake for the human. The tip of the paper object had barely touched the flame when it began to disintegrate into ash. That in itself would have been fine had the disintegration stopped at the end of the paper; it didn’t. Every human in the crowd began to scream as the man’s face began to burn up into ash. Quickly, the effect spread across his entire body, leaving the clothed skeleton to crumble to the ground.

The crowd began to disperse in all directions, shouting about ‘the end of days‘ and ‘aliens are attacking,’ and something about a PETA experiment gone wrong. All the while, Discord was laughing as though he’d just been told the punchline to some hilarious joke. It wasn’t a joke, and Scootaloo could see a grim expression on Morrigan’s face, reflecting her lack of amusement.

“Come, brother.” she commanded flatly. The disoriented Crusaders began to float as Morrigan turned her back. “We need to gain the attention of the United States military if we are to get their retaliation. Fortunately, I know the where and the how. All you need to do is follow my orders.”

Upon emerging on the other side of the inter-dimensional portal, Warren felt violently ill. It wasn’t from the sudden vertigo caused by the high-speed sensation of the portal. Instead, it was the combined pollution and the scent of burnt flesh that was doing him in. All around him were clothed skeletons and swirling clouds of ash. Further down the street, he could make out a car, overturned and burning.

“Legends Bar and Restaurant,” Rainbow Dash pointed out with a laugh as she emerged from the portal. “It certainly doesn’t look legendary, but I suppose if I visit, it’d be at least twenty percent—”

Next out of the portal was Rarity. “Really, Dash, dear... Is now really the time to...” she was saying. The pile of bone, ash and clothing distracted the white unicorn from whatever reproach she had planned for the rainbow pegasus. “Oh dear Celestia...”

Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie followed suit with Applejack just an instant behind them. Fluttershy looked mortified, while Applejack—focused on the buildings around them, instead of what surrounded them on the ground—complained that the air didn’t smell right. Warren couldn’t tell what was going through the mind of the pink party pony. Either she’s as deeply disturbed by this scene as Fluttershy, or she’s planning some sort of funeral/’Sorry a villain from our realm invaded your world and killed your citizens’ party. I really hope it’s the former.

Warren watched as Twilight Sparkle and Princess Luna finally emerged. Princess Luna looked around at the ashen remains of the citizens who had been on 33rd Street West upon the arrival of the draconequi. “I had hoped I would never again see such carnage, Twilight Sparkle,” the Princess said sadly. “No race should suffer at the hands of a draconequus.”

Wandering over to a dented lamp-post, he decided it was as good a place as any to lean. “Yeah, for all the things my people have done to each other, nobody deserves this, especially not just random citizens.” Warren pushed off from the street lamp and made a sweeping motion with his arms. “Ladies! Welcome to the Manhattan borough of New York City. Once home to about one and a half million people, I suppose it’s now home to—” He sighed. “—whoever is left.”

“One and a half million?!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed.

Warren joined in as the whole group said, “No, Pinkie. No parties! We have more important things to do!” The party pony looked sad, but not hurt. Clearly she got the point.

Everypony went quiet for minutes, trying to gather themselves and figure out what to do. Unsure of themselves, they each began to wander around the street. Pinkie Pie was examining an overturned ice cream cart. Rainbow Dash hovered over Fluttershy as she tried to make friends with some literally winged rats. With Applejack examining a van and Rarity fidgeting about around all the human remains, it was a wonder Twilight hadn’t tried to get their attention sooner.

“Alright, everypony gather around me,” Twilight said loudly. Every one of them returned to her instantly. “The plan hasn’t changed. The first thing we need to do is locate Discord and Morrigan. They’ll likely still have the girls with them.”

“Only one problem, Twilight.” Rainbow Dash sounded worried. “Goldenrod just said that more than a million live in this area alone! That’s like thousands of times the population of Ponyville! This area has to be massive to account for that many ponies... How are we ever gonna find them?”

“People,” Warren interjected, rolling his eyes.

Something out of the ordinary caught his attention. He stopped paying attention as the mares around him began planning. Something about the Empire State Building is off... but what? He looked up at the famous landmark across the street from him. Streaks of mud and gouges covered the face of the building. How did mud get up there? Looking further up the side of the building, he realized what was off about the building.

“Say, Twilight,” Warren said with knowing smile and a chuckle. “I think I know where they are.”

“What? How could you possibly have found them? This place is huge!” she responded, incredulous. “With so many large buildings it’d take weeks to search them all!”

Instead of a hurt look, the scholarly unicorn was treated to one of reproach. “I think Celestia would be disappointed in you, Twilight,” he said flatly, before breaking into a smile. “I told you, my world has no magic. That being said, magical creatures will probably be in the most obvious of places.” He pointed up. “In this case, the floating island in the sky above the Empire State Building is a good place to start.”

Everypony gazed up into the sky. They were all astonished to see he was right. Floating above the city was a fair-sized island, complete with docks sagging off the sides. Even as they stared up at the impossibly floating land mass, a clump of stone and dirt came crashing down into a building on the corner of 5th Avenue and west 33rd Street—a Starbucks.

“Oh...” Twilight said sheepishly.

Scootaloo wanted to scream. It wasn’t a desire borne of fear or anger, but one of frustration. The very reason she wanted to scream was the same reason that she couldn’t. As the group made their way west, towards a river, the Cutie Mark Crusaders—still snared in the telekinetic grasp of Morrigan—had broken into conversation in hopes of staving off fear. Discord had taken a dislike to their childish banter, and threatened fire or worse if they didn’t remain quiet; it worked.

Standing on a pier looking out across the river, the orange filly realized just how different her world and Goldenrod’s world really were. It wasn’t just the way the unfamiliar architecture cut against the morning glow growing on the horizon, the look of the strange metal carriages, or even the awful smells in the air that impressed this difference on her. It was the largeness of it all that made the difference hit home. Even the Equestrian capital didn’t match this place in size.

“So, sister...” Discord began, gazing around at the mass of city on the opposite side of the river. “You mentioned a where and a how for your plan. What, pray tell, are we looking for?”

Morrigan chuckled gaily, sending chills down Scootaloo’s spine. “Do you see the island with the large statue?” She made a dramatic sweep of her paw, indicating an island off in the distance. “That’s the one. Meet me there.”

Cringing as a bright white light filled her eyes, Scootaloo felt herself drop to the ground. When she opened her eyes, she found herself staring up at a large green statue of a human, torch raised high into the air, its back facing them. Light sources on the pedestal below the statue lit it, even in the dead of night. As the disorientation of the sudden transit left her, she realized that the four of them—Morrigan, Sweetie Belle, Apple Bloom and herself—were on some sort of pedestal beneath the statue.

A split second later, Discord appeared alongside them. He looked up at the landmark in disgust. “They certainly have a certain ego about themselves, don’t they, sister?” he said, unimpressed. “Who is this, then? Some human empress, I suppose. Are we going to have some fun with this statue?”

“Nothing as fancy as an empress, I’m afraid. It’s a gift from one nation to another,” she replied. “Lady Liberty is a landmark held very dearly in the hearts of the citizens of this proud nation. To see it vandalized would enrage them. To see it altered and relocated impossibly... I can’t imagine them not sending in their armed forces.”

Giving his sister an appraising nod, Discord smiled. “Always the planner, aren’t you, Morri?” he chuckled viciously. “So, what’ll it be? Shall this fair and proper lady become something a bit more wild or vulgar?”

“Of course not, baby brother,” the elder sibling said, returning her gaze to the statue. “I was thinking we should ensure they know who to blame. One of the Equestrian Princesses should do. Or better yet...” The draconequus didn’t finish her thought. Instead she made an arcane gesture towards the statue.

The three fillies stopped examining their immediate surroundings and turned their gaze up to the statue. They watched as the landmark began to twist and bend, curling in upon itself. No longer bipedal, the statue began to take a very familiar shape. Wings spread menacingly, its head lowered in a menacing sneer. What had once been the statue’s torch was now the Alicorn’s horn, glowing a dark shade blue of blue. The statue was, in essence, a replica of the statue of Nightmare Moon on the edge of the Everfree forest that ponies would make offerings of candy to on Nightmare Night.

“I say, I always did like Nightmare Moon. She was so feisty,” the younger Draconequus snickered. “But how would you know of her? She was after your time!”

“Silly brother... You forget my ability to scry,” she scoffed. “Granted, with the difference in the flow of time, I only caught glimpses. Honestly, watching Equestria from here was like watching paint dry. Enough talk, though. We’ve got an island to move, and I know the perfect place for it.”

“Oh?”

“Remember where we came out? There was a very large skyscraper right across the road from it. I believe right above there would be the perfect place for this island.”

“Yes, it does scream ‘We’ve attacked your world. Our portal is right here. Come get us!’ doesn’t it?” Discord laughed. “Well, let’s get to work.”

The fillies saw their chance. Even as the island began to quake, the Crusaders cast their eyes about again. To their relief, there were two flights of stairs opposite of the pedestal on which the statue was mounted. They ran for the stairs as fast as their little hooves could carry them. With a jarring lurch, the island tore out of the ocean floor and began to rise, causing the three fillies to fall.

Apple Bloom was the first up. All of them were covered in scrapes and bruises from the fall to the midway point of the staircase. “If these stairs hadn’t panned out to change direction, Ah reckon we’d be in a lot worse shape.” she whispered.

Scootaloo knew that they had to get away. “Never mind that!” she whispered pressingly, helping a dazed Sweetie to her hooves. “Just run!”

As the filly trio began running down the staircase again, an icy chill ran down their spines. “They’re escaping!” Discord screamed angrily. “What were you thinking?”

Morrigan’s tone was even and soft. “Never mind them, there’s nowhere for them to go.” If her voice hadn’t carried to their ears from a distance, Scootaloo would have sworn the draconequus was right beside her. “They’ll get their punishment for their misbehavior soon enough.”

“I swear to God... if you drop me, I’m going come back to haunt all of you,” Warren groaned, squirming in Princess Luna’s telekinetic grip. “Don’t think I won’t just because you’re the only friends I have in the world right now.”

Twilight shifted uncomfortably as Rainbow Dash lifted the unicorn higher. In addition to being held precariously many stories above the asphalt, she was focusing her own magical energies to keep Applejack afloat beneath her. “That seems highly unlikely,” she said dismissively. “There’s absolutely no scientific evidence that supports the theory that ghosts exist.”

Rolling his eyes, Warren fought back the compulsion to tell her that he was walking proof that resurrection was possible, and that to dismiss ghosts with that in mind was foolish. Truth be told, he hadn’t had the time to reiterate Morrigan’s story. Knowing that the scholar in Twilight might possibly distract her from the matter at hand, he didn’t want to have to explain to Apple Bloom that he was partly responsible for her sister plunging seventy stories to her death.

More than that, though, he knew just how skittish Fluttershy was through reputation. If she clammed up while lifting Rarity, she, the fashionista, and the pink party pony in her telekinetic grip would plummet to their dooms. Secretly, he promised himself that he’d make sure everypony would make it home to their families.

Family: in his situation, it was probably almost as complex as the fact that he was still alive, even though he was dead and buried in this world. If he had the opportunity to talk to his family when this was all done, he wasn’t completely sure he’d take it. Even if it was two years after his very apparent death, a call from him would be like re-opening an almost completely healed wound and pouring salt into it. He didn’t want to cause that sort of grief.

He gazed out at the harbor, only to see that the whole place was a mess. Through the glare of the late morning sun, he spotted the ruined hulk of an aircraft carrier was smoking roughly where Liberty Island should have been. Scattered around it were the smoking remains of a few destroyer escorts and battleships. Every bit of metal out on the harbor was scrap now. At least I know where the island came from.

Attempting to fight the sudden onset of a headache, Warren shook his head and forced himself to rotate in the Alicorn’s magical hold. “Um, Princess? Could we maybe speed this up?” He cast a wary glance back down to the ground. “I kind of have a thing about heights.”

Rainbow Dash burst out in laughter, drawing a glare from Twilight and Applejack below. “That didn’t stop you when I flew you from Canterlot to Ponyville,” she mocked.

“Yeah?” he shouted, letting panic slip into his voice. “I also had a damn parachute!”

“Are you insinuating that the Princess would drop you?” admonished Rarity. “Have some respect! She is still royalty, you know!”

He cast his gaze up toward the edge of the floating island, sweating and trembling the closer it drew near. “No, I—”

“No, Lady Rarity, it is quite alright,” the Princess replied with a smile. “I too was afraid of heights when I was young.” Turning her attention to Warren she said, “I may know of a method to ascend quicker though it is a bit dangerous for many reasons. Do you trust me?”

“Well yeah, of course.” He exhaled hesitantly. “Why d-aaaaaaaaaaaah!”

The Lunar Princess threw him vertically with all the force she could. He stared down at her, incredulity coursing through his mind. She vanished in a flash, reappearing at his side. Once again, he sank into the cushion of her telekinetic field, only to be catapulted again and again, the Princess teleporting each time to keep up with him. The impromptu elevator continued until Warren landed safely—a subjective word, to be sure—on an overhanging dock.

Warren sank to his hands and knees and immediately began kissing the ground. Never have I been so happy to have solid ground beneath my feet. That was his thought until he remembered where he was. Well... still, this is an improvement to being hundreds of stories in the air with nothing but magic holding me up. Then he began to vomit upon the edge of the dock.

“My apologies, Goldenrod,” Princess Luna said softly from beside him. One of her hooves was rubbing his back. “I had hoped that would be preferable to flying.”

Rising to his feet, the human shook his head. “No, you probably did the right thing. It got me up here quicker, didn’t it? I know I should be pissed being treated like some sort of hackey sack, but...” He gave the Princess a weak smile. “I know I’m doing this for Scootaloo and the others.”

Before the Princess could respond, they were interrupted by the sound of a very irate Rainbow Dash. “I don’t see why we couldn’t have all just teleported up here using your magic, Twilight,” she was saying. “It’s not like you haven’t taken us incredible distances before!”

“It’s because teleporting to a place you cannot directly see or clearly visualize in your mind is incredibly dangerous!” Twilight replied, aggravation clear in her voice. The entire group was on the dock by the time she spoke again. “What good would we do the worlds half inside a...” She blanched, looking off in the distance. “Is that—”

Warren turned his head, only to see a large gout of smoke fly at them from the island-end of the dock. He threw himself down to the ground, and shouted, “Jesus Christ!”

Stirring restlessly in her cage beneath Nightmare Moon’s sneering visage, Scootaloo deeply wished she could go back and tell her past self not to run. In hindsight, running had been a very bad idea. Sure, the three Crusader fillies had managed to hide out for a few hours inside a small building not far from the pedestal, but it was only because Morrigan had let them hide out, listening to the screams and chaos going on outside the building and on the streets below. The horrid witch had simply waited for them to fall asleep from exhaustion before making her move.

The memory of what the draconequus had done to Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle was still fresh in her mind. She knew instinctively that the creature was still somewhere out there, watching her. Morrigan called it ‘making an example,’ but Scootaloo knew that she had simply done it out of sheer evilness. Nevertheless, Morrigan’s message was clear. If she made any attempt to escape, a fate far worse than what her friends faced was in store for her.

So she waited... and waited. Time seemed to flow at a perplexing rate. She could watch the sun soar along the sky, but whenever she closed her eyes, time stood still. It felt like minutes, but it could have been hours. The only things marking any regularity in time were her heartbeat, and the regular visits from the monstrosity that was her ‘guardian.’

Just before dawn, the world seemed to come alive with noise once more. A delta formation of strange gray wedge-shaped objects had screamed by, leaving a contrail in their wake and a ringing in her ears. Except for the noise, and the fact that these objects weren’t pegasus ponies, Scootaloo was reminded of the Wonderbolts.

The strange aircraft made a few more passes before another craft entered her vision. This one reminded her of an inverted, winged boat with spinning discus-like objects mounted on the wings. As it drew nearer, she watched the discs began to turn upwards to face the sky and the thing decelerated. It almost looked like it was going to land.

All of a sudden, the sky exploded in fire. Struck by a massive fireball, the strange discus craft veered off to one side and crashed somewhere beneath the star-shaped pedestal below. She turned to face the source of the attack, and nearly screamed at what she saw. It was a large serpentine dragon, but it was also unmistakably Discord. The horns and mane were a giveaway.

“Look at my dear baby brother,” Morrigan chuckled, appearing beside the cage. “He’s all grown up!” The draconequus seemed absorbed in what was going on in the skies. Even as she spoke, the trio of wedge-shaped craft began soaring back towards the harbor. Scootaloo could see what were unmistakably boats out on the water. There were dozens of them, all of them different shapes and sizes.

The wedge-shaped craft didn’t make it out to the harbor. They had only been halfway there when the Discord dragon had soared out in their wake, sending massive blasts of fire after them. One by one, the aircraft erupted in balls of flame and plummeted into the nearby river. Discord roared, seemingly happy to have new targets, and flew out to the harbor. The ships never stood a chance.

Discord returned triumphantly only half an hour later, like a dog returning to its master. Laying down at the base of the statue, he fell into a short nap. “He may be a treacherous one, but even he has his uses,” Morrigan whispered into Scootaloo’s ear. “Look at all that glorious carnage out on the harbor.”

Fighting every bit of reason that told her not to, the filly did indeed stare out at the harbor. All of the boats had been reduced to floating slag, some even having melted together. Inwardly, she shed a tear, not just for the humans who had probably been on those boats, but for both worlds. Defeating Morrigan seemed like an impossible prospect, having seen what she had done to Discord, as well as her friends.

For the next five hours, Scootaloo stared out at the edge of the floating island, wishing and hoping for some sort of release from this hellish nightmare. On a small dock off on one side of the island, she could have sworn she caught sight of something landing. Then there was more movement as another figure landed on the jutting precipice. Surely she wasn’t seeing this. The elements of harmony were on the island, led by Princess Luna! But who is the human with them? Surely it can’t be...

In his sleep, Discord snorted, letting out a blast of flame towards the pier. The ponies cringed back from the flame, while the human threw himself flat against the ground. A voice she never thought she’d hear again filled her heart with hope.

“Jesus Christ!” shouted Goldenrod.