TCB: A Kinder World

03 - Itinerary

“Open the door.”

“Yes, Sir!” the HLF soldier saluted, and pushed a button.

With a hiss, a large vault-like door swung open, and revealed a curious and distressing sight.

“Completely isolated,” Tulip boasted, “Magic-insulated. This is both the safest and the greatest prison of all time.”

The cell was not unlike the concrete cells that Fluttershy and Twilight had briefly occupied. Padded walls of white lined it, and smooth tiles made the floor. In the middle, held to the ground by thick black chains...

“Princess!” Twilight blurted out, then turned to Tulip. “Release her!”

“I can’t,” Tulip shook his head. “Assuming you’re telling the truth, and there is a Celestia in your universe, then we’ve got a 50/50 chance, at best, of not unchaining a Celestia that will kill us all - our Celestia. And that’s assuming your Celestia went through the portal on your side to come out here. This could just be our Celestia failing to travel through the portal. I might be willing to believe that you two might be telling the truth, but at the same time, I’m not jeopardizing what’s left of the entire human race by taking a risk this big on you two.”

Twilight frowned, about to protest, then recalled the recent history she’d managed to skim-read from a series of old news articles. The Equestia that humans knew was a far cry from her Equestria - they had good reason to be paranoid.

“You,” Tulip pointed at the guard. “Has she woken up since she passed out?”

The guard shook his head. “Nary a peep, Commander. Out cold. Remote MRI suggests she’s in a very deep sleep, like a coma, or hibernation.”

Tulip grunted. “Until she wakes up... we’ve got no idea what we’re dealing with.”

“Coma?” Twilight asked. “Like, a coma-coma?”

“Or hibernation,” the guard repeated, and shrugged. “Whatever it is, she’s asleep, and I don’t think she’ll wake up any time soon."

“So...” Twilight looked at Tulip. “What happens now?”

“We carry on with the plan,” Tulip said. “We had a deal. I showed you your princess, and in return, you carry a message to Equestria, from us, the Human Liberation Front.”

“A message?” Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Is that all?”

“Well, technically,” Tulip said, “It’s blackmail. Terms of surrender, essentially. They do what we want, or we kill their princess.”

“You can’t!” Twilight reached out and grabbed Tulip by the lower front of his shirt with her forehooves, shaking the bigger man. “You can’t do that!”

The sound of simultaneous clicks filled the air, and Twilight realized that she’d kind of crossed a line by touching the Commander. She slowly took her hooves off the man, and the rifles aimed at her from four different soldiers were lowered in return.

“As I was going to say,” Tulip said, pretending that what had just happened, hadn’t, “Was that while I seriously doubt we can actually kill Celestia, even in her weakened state, we might be able to bluff whoever Celestia left in charge at Equestria into surrender, or at least a treaty. Or something better than an eternal stalemate here on the edge of bloody nowhere. At the very least, I want to be somewhere that isn’t this ice-encrusted asshole of nowhere.”

“And you want to send me and Fluttershy?” Twilight asked, incredulous. Tulip nodded.

“You might have a more liberal stance on ponification,” he said, “But you two are still ponies; you can walk into Equestria unharmed, probably. I’ve never seen an Equestrian lift a hoof against another Equestrian. And you might be able to get a lucid sentence out of them, even - show a pony a human, and it just goes downhill from there. Nothing gets done.”

The party began to walk out of the cell, and the door swung shut behind them with a gentle clang. The bolts dropped with a considerably less gentle array of clunks and hisses.

Fluttershy raised a hoof. “Um, Commander,” she said, “How... how are we going to get there? Aren’t we in the far north, and Equestria is in the far south?”

“Well,” Tulip nodded. “Not that far south. Can’t you ponies walk or something? Fly?”

“We’re not athletes,” Twilight pointed out. “Nor, I confess, are we that fast. Based on that map you showed us earlier, It could take weeks, going one way. And, ow-” Twilight rubbed her horn- “With this stupid metal ring on, I can’t teleport. And even if I could, it could still take weeks.”

Tulip grunted. “I can’t spare the resources to send my pawns down the board, even if it will check my opponent faster.”

“We don’t need a lot,” Twilight shook her head. “Just a way to reduce the distance we need to travel.”

Tulip looked pensive. “Alright, I’ll see what I can do. In the meantime, go back to your cells. Some of my men are getting antsy.”

Twilight and Fluttershy looked around at the soldiers; they didn’t look it outwardly, but it was written all over their eyes, the way they watched the ponies, hands resting on grips and triggers.

They were afraid.

Twilight nodded. “Yes, Commander. Come on, Fluttershy. Let’s go to my cell, that way we can talk.”

Tulip watched the two ponies wander off, an escort guard falling in place behind them without a spoken word as they went, and sighed.

Whatever Richard was doing, he was probably having more fun.

+==[~~~]==+

“Would you lift your arm up?” Lyra asked.

Richard complied, sighing. He was not having fun at all. On the plus side, he wasn’t being attacked and didn’t have ponies all over him, trying to force him to drink purple drink.

On the flipside, his nerves were screaming for him to take action, and he had one unicorn clambering all over him, trying to find out the limits of his human body for some reason or another.

A small part of him was trying to think of a way to kill her and escape intact, and try as he might, there was no silencing it.

“I see,” Lyra commented, tapping Richard in the helmet. “This isn’t your skin. It explains why you’re not warm like us.”

“Ah think it’s like a shell,” Applejack offered, standing once more to the side of the room, watching the examination happen in the middle of the library. “‘bloom said he got awful scratched up by the manticore and didn’t seem to feel it none.”

“About that,” Rainbow Dash began, pointing at Richard’s chestplate. “What happened to the scratches? They’ve vanished!”

“Auto repair systems,” Richard grunted as Lyra poked him in the side with a stick. “The suit fixes itself.”

“Fascinating,” Lyra nodded. “Can all humans repair themselves like that, Richard?”

“Uh,” Richard stopped his train of thought. “I don’t think you understand. This suit is not a part of me.”

“Oooh,” Lyra nodded. “I see. So why are you staying in there? Come on out so I can get a good look at you!”

“No!” Richard shouted, then cleared his throat. “I mean, no. I’d rather keep it on, thanks.”

“Why do you wanna keep it on?” Rainbow Dash asked, flying up to visor-level with Richard. “Got something to hide?”

“I wouldn’t feel safe,” Richard said, averting his face, and lifting his leg at a gentle prod from Lyra. “I honestly don’t trust you ponies as far as I can throw you.”

“Why not?” Applejack asked. “We already told y’all that we don’t know what that potion stuff you talk about is.”

“I hope you’ll understand me when I say I’m not buying a word of that,” Richard said, putting his leg back down and letting Lyra take his hand. “Suit stays on, that’s final.”

“Suit yerself,” Applejack snorted. “It’s mighty warm out.”

The door rattled, and Richard watched the door open to reveal a dimunitive purple creature with green spines, standing on two legs like himself. It was smaller than he’d seen before, barely knee height, but it didn’t stop him flinching.

“Hey, watch out!” Lyra cried as she was inadvertently knocked to the floor. “What gives?”

“That!” Richard’s arm shot up, and he pointed at the confused, purple thing. “What the hell is that doing here?! You’re all out to get me, aren’t you?”

“Uh,” the creature said, opening his mouth to expose razor-sharp teeth. “What is that? Applejack, Rainbow Dash, where’s Twilight gone? Wasn’t she doing an experiment today? I feel like I’ve missed some very big things.”

“This is the experiment, Spike,” Applejack sighed. “Or what’s left of it, anyhow. Twilight opened a portal to another world or somethin’, and got sucked in with Fluttershy; this human popped out right after.”

“A human?” Spike looked at Richard. “Never heard of them.”

“Really?” Rainbow Dash looked at Richard. “Because he sure seems like he’s heard of you.”

“He might not be as big as he was when I last saw him, but I think I’d I know that thing,” Richard said, taking a deep breath. “It’s very hard to not know something you've watched burn your friends alive when he’s not throwing them straight to Celestia for ponification!”

Spike turned a shade of green. "B- burned alive?! I- I would never- I could never do that!"

Lyra intervened. "Spike, we know. But this human, Richard, he comes from a world where our... counterparts... have done what sound like abhorrent things to his kind." Lyra turned to Richard. "Richard, please - try to calm yourself. Whatever things have happened, whatever ponies have done to you in the past - please try to set it aside for now.”

Applejack reached out to Richard, and the human flinched, before correcting himself. Applejack’s hoof rested on the side of his leg, reassuringly.

“Lyra’s right,” she said. “You’re among good folk and friends, now, and friends don’t hurt friends - right? All you gotta do is trust us, at least a little.”

Richard grimaced. “Alright, fine. I’ll try. But no promises.”

“Hey,” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, “I just had the most awesome idea - Spike, could you send a letter to the Princess, and see if they can help get Twilight and Fluttershy back?”

Spike shook his head, dismissing the images of burning, and nodded. “Sure thing! I’ll get right on it, just let me grab my quill and paper.”

Lyra watched the dragon go, and looked at Richard - the human was shaking ever-so-slightly, even under his suit.

“Richard?” She asked. “Are you okay?”

“P-Princess,” Richard stuttered. “The fucking princess.”

“What’s wrong with Celestia?” Rainbow Dash asked. “Didn’t we just go over this? Trust, like AJ said.”

“The last time I saw a Princess,” Richard said, slowly, “I stabbed her in the neck with an electrical conduit, and pushed her into a portal, which just so happened to lead here. Forgive me if I fear that we might not be on speaking terms, at best.”

“Really?” Applejack looked at Rainbow Dash. “You sure about that, sugarcube? Ah don’t recall seein’ Celestia fall outta that portal. Only you.”

“Besides,” Rainbow Dash dismissed. “Princess Celestia lives in Canterlot - that’s miles away!”

Applejack nodded. “Don’t you worry none, Richard. It’ll be fine.”

“Right,” Spike’s voice rang out, as he ran back into the room. “Ready to take that letter, Rainbow Dash.”

“Awesome.” Rainbow dash coughed and cleared her throat. “Dear Princess Celestia...”

+==[~~~]==+

The Commander leaned on the podium, getting his points in order in his head. With the ponies back in their cell, it was time to start talking business, and that meant addressing the entire human race.

What was left of it. Forlorn Hope was the HLF’s last bastion, and now manned by less than a thousand men and women; all people who had stood firm to the last and expected to die or go pony the night before. The remnants of humankind.

And Tulip was the de-facto leader, thanks to his HLF rank. Did that make him president, perhaps? He coughed, and cleared his throat; the people gathered before him ceased their talking, and he began.

“Well, here we are,” Tulip said, smiling. “I can honestly say that I don’t think any of us even considered we might still be alive and human at this time. But here we are, and it fell to me once again to decide what we do next.”

Tulip left the podium, and began to pace, his voice carrying out over the crowd anyway. “I say, we take this chance that God has given us! We should seize this opportunity, and put Equestria in its place! But first,” Tulip held up a finger. “We must discuss the Princess - we have her, Equestria does not. What do we do?”

“Kill the bitch!” an anonymous, male voice rang out.

“Skin her alive!” a female retorted.

“Tie her up, and execute her little fucking ponies in front of her!” a third voice suggested. Tulip held up a hand.

“Those are... admirable suggestions. I see why you would want that,” Tulip nodded. “But I have a better idea. Why don’t we do to Equestria as they have done unto us? They have taken what we value most - our families, our friends - and used them against us! Now, I say, it’s high time we had our revenge.” Tulip returned to the podium, and slammed a fist down on it. “We will use the Princess herself as a bargaining chip to secure unconditional surrender from the Equestrians!”

The crowd roared its’ approval.

“They will kneel to us, on our terms,” Tulip shook a fist. “Or we will execute their precious Princess. We still have the Deus Ex, and the Deus Ex still has one rifle round remaining - she might have dodged the first round, but in her current state, she won’t be dodging shit.”

The crowd let it sink in a moment.

“Let’s have some fun with her, then!” a voice shouted. “Give us some fun with her before we pop her!”

“Specialist Oss,” Tulip glared at the speaker. “This is becoming an unsettling trend with you.”

“Yeah!” a second voice rose up, supporting Oss. “Why can’t we have a lil’ fun?”

“Because we’re human beings,” Tulip said, thumping a fist on the podium. “We define the word “humane”, and we should act with a little integrity, should we not? If- When we win this war, I want the historians to be able to look back at this sordid state of affairs, and see that even though we fought a dirty, losing war, we won it in true style, with as much class and honor as we could be expected to. Something clearly unimportant to Oss.”

“How are we going to deliver the terms of surrender?” a voice asked.

“Good question,” Tulip nodded. “That was the other thing I needed to talk about. Some of you may be already aware that we have two unusual Equestrians on-site whom I have seen fit to walk around freely, albeit watched at all times by myself and two guards.”

A small gasp came from a significant portion of the crowd, those who hadn’t seen or heard the rumors.

“Are you mad, man?” a voice yelled. “You’ll get us all ponified!”

Tulip held up a hand. “If anyone was going to be ponified, it would have already happened to me by now. These two ponies are not from this world, but a parallel one, it seems - they not only have no desire to expose us to potion against our will, but the idea of doing so is abhorrent to them, and they view the Equestrians we know with a sort of... pity. They have had multiple chances to break my faith in them, whether they knew it or not, and have passed every single test. There has only been one event which even came close to resulting in my own personal harm, and the circumstances behind that were entirely my fault.”

“What happened?” the first question-asker asked.

“I told the Princess’ protege we were going to kill her Princess if things didn’t go our way,” Tulip confessed. “Despite being from a parallel world, she clearly has faith in her Princess, I’ll give her that. Consider it an incentive when I send those two back to Equestria with the terms of surrender.”

“You can’t just let them walk!” a voice protested. “They’ve played you!”

“They aren’t just going to walk,” Tulip shook his head. “The journey is, at any rate, too great for just hooves or feet. A vehicle will be used, one of our own, to ferry the ponies back to the border. But it needs humans to drive it and ensure the ponies do as they’ve been told; given the nature of the mission, and the high chance of anybody going on the mission not coming back human or alive, I am making this mission a volunteer one.” Tulip put a hand into the air. “Hands up if you want in. I’m looking for two volunteers, one driver and one escort.”

Nobody moved. Tulip frowned. “Don’t everybody all volunteer at once, now.”

“I’ll go,” a soldier stood up. “I’ll volunteer, if nobody else will. I’ve seen the ponies, I don’t fear them that much.”

Tulip nodded. “Thank you, Mr. Carpenter. Your contribution won’t go unnoticed.”

Nobody else moved, save for a repairman, who raised an insulation-gloved-hand into the air tenuously before slowly standing.

“I... I don’t think I could go,” he confessed, “I’m no good in a fight. But I’ve fixed up one of our least-damaged AI-controlled mechs, I could send him as an escort, perhaps?”

Tulip nodded. “I would rather not send one of our precious few mechs, Smith, but given our abundance of volunteers, and the tactical benefits of having an escort that isn’t alive, I’m going to allow it.”

“Why not send me?” Oss’ voice rang out again, and the crowd watched Tulip’s face flinch for less than a fraction of a second as he turned to look at the Specialist, who was grinning smugly from his place in the crowd.

“I want the messengers to deliver the message alive and in one piece, Oss,” Tulip said, slowly. “I don’t believe you are of any use on this mission, to that end.” Tulip turned back to the crowd at large. “Everyone else, thank you for displaying such eagerness to help support this war-changing decision, but we can’t take everyone. If you made it in, or volunteered on behalf of someone who couldn’t make it here today, make sure you’re ready and assembled at the vehicle bay by oh-eight-hundred hours tomorrow. If you didn’t, I suggest returning to your posts and making sure they’re spick-and-span tomorrow for the inspection at oh-seven-hundred hours. Dismissed!”

The crowd got up, grumbling about the short-notice inspection, and Tulip leaned on the podium, running a hand down his face.

I seriously hope I’ve chosen right. Leading the remnants of humanity was never in my job description.

+==[~~~]==+

A flare of green flame curled in the air, punctuated by a deep belch, and with a flash, a scroll was formed, falling into Spike’s claw.

“The response letter, already?” Rainbow Dash bounced up from her seat on the step, dropping her book with a thlap, to land in a splayed-open shape. “Read it! Read it!”

“Hold up, there, RD,” Applejack chided. “Give Spike a moment to catch his breath, and try not to treat the books like that - Twilight’d have a right fit if she caught you doing that. Probably ban y’all from the Library, even.”

Rainbow Dash looked down at the Daring Do book, and blanched. “Ah, no, ah ha, see, I was just looking for a bookmark, yeah.” With a swift flick of her head, Rainbow Dash plucked one of her own feathers from her wings, stifling a squeak of pain, and scooped up the book once more, dropping the cyan feather between the pages and snapping the book shut again, resting it on a table. “There, see, bookmarked.”

“Nice save, RD,” Lyra nodded. “Real smooth.”

“Right,” Spike smoothed out the letter, and frowned. “Huh, this isn’t the Princess’ usual hoofwriting...” He read on, regardless.

“Dear Rainbow Dash,

Forgive me for intercepting your letter to Princess Celestia, but the letter seemed to be having trouble finding her; given the nature of the letter, I have since decided to keep it from her entirely.

Things are not all well in Canterlot; it appears that there is nothing unusual, but I felt several pressures on reality, and Celly has been acting somewhat strange for the last several hours. And then you send this letter about a human, in place of Twilight Sparkle, who I would have expected to be dictating the letter, and mention that Twilight Sparkle herself has vanished.

I know I am not my sister, but I ask that you and your friends bring the human to Canterlot. Travel quietly and with stealth, lest the human draw attention, and we shall get to the bottom of things.

Regards,

Princess Luna

Regent of the Moon”

“Well, that doesn’t seem too hard,” Rainbow Dash shrugged. “We’ll just travel by night and stuff, right?”

Lyra stopped poking Richard to look at his face through the visor. “Uh, RD, that’s probably not the problem.”

Inside the suit, Richard was shaking, eyes darting from pony to pony. Watching.

“You can’t go home!” Applejack protested. “The portal ain’t working, and the two ponies who know how to make it work are on the other side of that portal, probably!”

“Then I’ll find another way,” Richard declared, shrugging Lyra away from him and making for the door. “A way that doesn’t involve serving myself on a silver platter to the Princesses, thank you very much.”

“We told you,” Rainbow Dash repeated, exasperated, “We don’t have that potion stuff. How many times do we have to go over this?”

“Go over it as much as you like,” Richard snorted. “I’ll believe it when I’m back in my bunk, and I’m still a human.”

“Look, Richard!” Lyra darted in front of the human, and with a glow of magic, pushed on his chestplate, halting him. “We don’t have to go straight there. Why don’t we go the long way, and see if we can’t get you used to Equestria, prove that we’re not the ponies you’re used to?”

Richard looked at the unicorn’s magic gripping his chestplate, and at the unicorn.

“What if I say I don’t want to?” He asked, resting a hand on his knife. “What if I resist?”

“Then we won’t,” Lyra shrugged. “We’ll drop it, and just stay here. In Ponyville. But Luna will still see you sooner or later, and for everypony’s sake, especially yours, I think you want the meeting to happen on your terms, not hers.”

A tense moment followed. Applejack and Rainbow Dash noted the hand resting on the knife, and wondered if they should take action. Lyra prayed to Celestia that she hadn’t made the wrong call. Spike... he wasn’t sure what he could do if push came to shove, but he prepared to do it anyway.

Richard drew a deep breath, and seemed to relax. “Fine. You’ve got until we get to Canterlot to change my mind, unicorn.”

Lyra, Applejack and Rainbow Dash relaxed in kind. Lyra nodded to Richard. “I promise you won’t regret it. What time is it?”

“It’s a quarter to five,” Spike relayed, looking to a clock. Lyra frowned.

“Quarter to five? No way we can get anywhere before nightfall.”

“Shoot, that late already?” Applejack looked frantic. “Ah gotta go finish the south field before sundown! ‘Scuse me!”

With a blur of orange, Applejack shot out of her metaphorical blocks and with a few deft steps, dodged around Richard and Lyra in the doorway to shoot out into the town, leaving a rooster-tail of dust behind her.

Rainbow Dash coughed and spluttered, having been clipped by Applejack and spun about. “Darn it, AJ! You owe me a race!” She shot over to the door, watched the receding mare, and sighed, sinking back to the ground. “Ponyfeathers, I’ll never catch her now.”

“What happened to ‘fastest pegasus in Equestria’?” Lyra asked, grinning slyly. Rainbow Dash flushed.

“Well, I am,” she reaffirmed. “Fastest pegasus. AJ’s an earth pony and just as quick.”

“Why can’t we travel after sundown?” Richard asked, bringing the conversation back on-track.

“Duh, it ain’t safe after sundown,” Rainbow Dash explained, as if to a small child. “Timberwolves and Woldwardens come out at night, sometimes. As well as other things.”

Richard just looked at Rainbow Dash. “So, anything I should be afraid of?”

“You serious?” Rainbow Dash tilted her head, before remembering what she was talking to. “Oh, right. Manticore. Uh... I’d say Hydras. Wanna watch out for Hydras, no matter how tough you are. Even Minotaurs stay away from Hydras.”

“Fuck me,” Richard breathed. “You keep Hydras here in the heart of Equestria? Near villages?”

“We don’t keep them,” Lyra intervened, explaining. “They just... live there in the forest and other places. We leave them alone, they leave us alone. It works. You know what a Hydra is?”

“Fuck yes, I know what a Hydra is,” Richard said. “Our convoy was harassed by a herd of the bastards. We kill them, they just grow more heads. While we were distracted, ponies got into us with needles to puncture our suits.”

Lyra bit a lip. “That sounds...”

“Fucking terrible?” Richard shook his head. “That doesn’t do it justice.” He looked around the library, and sighed. “I guess I can stay here for one night. We’ll set off in the morning, okay?”

“Good, good,” Lyra nodded, before pausing. “I should... like, find a place to stay for tonight. I’m visiting from Manehattan, after all. RD, hook me up with a place?”

“Hmm,” the weathermare fluttered into the air and kicked backwards idly. “I think... Colgate might have a spare room. She’s got a fairly big place on the edge of town, and she’s got a room for boarders. We could talk to her first, see if she’ll put you up.”

“Sounds great!” Lyra nodded. “You can tell me more about it on the way. Uh, Richard,” she said, turning to face the human, “I’m guessing you don’t want to go anywhere. You going to be okay staying here?”

Richard shrugged. “I’ll be fine. Tomorrow morning, sunup. Don’t be late.”

“I won’t!” Lyra danced towards the door. “Wouldn’t miss the chance to study you more for the world!”

Lyra danced out the door, and Rainbow Dash just watched her go, before looking at Richard, sizing him up one last time.

“You sure you’re okay?” she asked.

“I’m fine,” Richard repeated. “Don’t you have somewhere to be?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, and did a flip in the air. “Catch you later, human.”

With a rush of wind, she was gone in a rainbow flash, leaving just Richard and Spike alone in the library. Spike coughed awkwardly.

“Well, uh,” he began, “I... think we have a room with a bed that’ll fit you,” he guessed. “I can set that up if you w-”

“No,” Richard shook his head, and looked around the room. He spotted a stool next to a table, and sat on it. “Here is good.”

“Are... are you sure about that?” Spike looked anxious. “That seems a little... uncomfortable. Are you sure you don’t want that bed? It’s no trouble.”

“Do Equestrians have hearing problems?” Richard snarked. “I said, I’m fine.”

“Fine, jeez,” Spike took the hint and backed off. “Well, I’ll be upstairs if you need anything, I guess.”

Richard nodded, and folded his arms, settling back onto the stool as the small dragon stumped upstairs and vanished. Hardly ideal conditions for sleeping, but given how he felt right now... he didn’t think he could sleep anyway.

+==[~~~]==+

“What have we gotten ourselves into?” Twilight lamented, pacing back and forth in her cell.

“What do you mean, Twilight?” Fluttershy asked quietly, sitting on the edge of the bed.

“This!” Twilight waved a hoof. “We’ve managed to get ourselves into a world where Equestria... isn’t!”

“But,” Fluttershy pointed out, “Equestria does exist. That’s the problem.”

“No, it doesn’t,” Twilight reiterated. “Equestria is filled with good, kind ponies. These ponies outside... they’re cheap imitations, not kind at all! What kind of Equestria would go out and forcibly assimilate another nation? And since when did Princess Celestia allow that sort of thing?!”

“I see,” Fluttershy nodded. “Then what do we do?”

“We’ll do the right thing,” Twilight stated. “We’re going to go to Equestria on behalf of the Humans, and negotiate for peace! At any cost! The fighting has to end - I would have thought you’d be with me on this one.”

“Oh, um, I am,” Fluttershy nodded. The pegasus turned to a folder next to her on the bed. “But, Twilight, have you seen these?”

“Seen what?” Twilight walked over, and looked. The folder was filled with pictures, grainy and fuzzy, but pictures. On them, ponies ran back and forth carrying vials of fluid, while humans responded with their guns and weapons.

“These ones,” Fluttershy said, pushing a smaller cluster of photos out of the pile. “I think... things might get... awkward.”

Twilight looked from photo to photo anxiously. “But... how?”

Fluttershy pursed her lips. “Maybe... there is more in common with our Equestria than you think.”

Twilight put the pictures down. Pictures of ponies she knew. Applejack, Rarity. What was left of them. A hazy picture of a dot in the sky that could have been Rainbow Dash. A picture of her brother, Shining Armor, standing over a cowering human. A long-range image of herself, even, standing over a gathering of absent-minded looking ponies.

“No,” she whispered. “It can’t be.”

“But what if it is?” Fluttershy mumbled. “Do you think...?”

Twilight put the pictures away, and closed the folder with finality. “Whatever it takes, Fluttershy. For everypony’s sake. Even if...”

She spotted a stray photo that had flopped out when she closed the folder; a picture taken with haste, half over-exposed thanks to the blinding light shooting to the left of the camera.

Twilight swallowed. “Even if I... we... have to go against this world’s Celestia herself.”

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