Pre-story warning; this chapter alone is about 7,000 words. It's a long read to say the least, and I don't know if the next chapters will be as big as this. If they are then this won't be updated very often. enjoy

Chapter 1

Nestled in the high Alps was Fort Galileo. Passionately nicknamed "The Tops" by the troops stationed there, It holds the record for the highest runway in the world. Due to it's extreme elevation, it is mostly used to train Swiss Special forces and as a proving ground for experimental high-altitude jets. It was high noon when the newest batch of pilots had arrived in a UN Chinook. The Helicopter glided to a halt, it's doors swung open and thirty of the best and most experienced pilots in Europe began to exit with their gear. They were the best of the best, except for one. His name was Yelsen Kozlov, he had moved to Britain from his small town in Poland. He enlisted in the RAF and showed exemplary flight skills all throughout his training. His friends would joke around calling him "bird brain" for his quick mastery of almost every plane he set foot in. He was about to be put on the list to be shipped to Israel as an instructor when his commander had swapped him to be garrisoned here until "further notice". When he asked his commander why he had done this, he would simply say "it's were you'll shine the most." Yelsen couldn't believe it. he was the best pilot at his base, but these were the best in the world. He couldn't believe how lucky he was to be here, at the same time he felt like an ant sitting in the shadow of these great men. A bead of sweat rolled past his brow. The men stood at attention in front of their new CO. He spoke loudly and clearly, "Alright now listen up! You've been chosen based on your performance in tests, and for some of you, in combat. Some of you have received medals, some of you have been called 'the best'. well here at The Tops, you're just another pilot. Everybody here is the best and I expect the best out of all of you, not just in your flying, but in behavior as well. I will not tolerate bragging, insults, or prejudice. You'd all be surprised how many

primadonnas get kicked out of here every week because they're 'too good to get kicked out'. Now that that's been cleared up, I want everybody to know their wingman. Here, your wingman will accompany you on all of your flight missions."

The Colonel proceeded to call out the pairings one by one. Yelsen held his breath, he was afraid that he might be a burden on his wingman.

"Eric Thompson, you will be with Yelsen Kozlov."

Yelsen was approached by a tall british man, Eric jutted out his hand for a handshake. Yelsen looked at it for a second before shaking it.

"Nice to meet you Yelsen." Eric spoke in a friendly, british accent.

"a pleasure." Yelsen had a mild Russian accent, his name was Russian but his family was mostly German.

"what's your story?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"where do you come from? If you're going to be my wingman I might as well know who's covering me."

"oh, I grew up in Poland and moved to England. I joined the RAF and now I'm here, there isn't much to say."

"do you miss your family there?"

"of course, I send them the occasional check and package full of food. They really enjoy these Hershey bars, I always get letters with notes at the bottom saying 'more Hersheys!'"

Eric chuckled, "can't they buy them at the store?"

"they live on a farm in a very small town, there aren't many stores."

"I see, I see. I look forward to getting to know you better."

"thank you."

"for what?"

"for the compliment."

Eric shrugged, he wondered if Yelsen was cut out for being the best in the world. He seemed to be incredibly humble, only time could tell if he would be able to acknowledge his talents.

In a far away place on a distant planet lay a town. It was the town of Ponyville and it sat snugly in Equestria. A young mare named Twilight Sparkle and her friends had gotten back from a night at the Gala. Rainbow Dash couldn't believe it, she had gotten so close to impressing the Wonderbolts but always fell just shy of success. All six of them had fallen short of their goals and the night ended in disaster, and all six of them returned home disappointed. All were disappointed, except for Rainbow Dash. She was frustrated, she was good enough to be a Wonderbolt and she knew it. Last night would've been her big break but it kept slipping out of reach. "next time" she thought, "next time I'll impress them for sure." the day was generally uneventful and the ponies slept peacefully.

Block E was filled with talking and laughter. The men were under strict orders to get to know each other and the air was alight with conversation. Eric and Yelsen were sitting around their bunks, telling stories of their homes and of childhood memories.

"bullshit." Eric said in disbelief

"I swear it's true." Yelsen threw his hands up defensively

"It took me three months to get used to the F-22's HUD panels. And it took you how long?"

"four weeks."

Eric laughed, "yeah right, if that's true then I owe you a hundred pounds."

"I swear, just ask my old instructor."

"I will, you can count on that."

the entrance to the barracks swung open and the commander walked in. everybody saw him and stood at attention. The commander paused before waving a hand, "at ease."

everybody shuffled a bit and stood more casually.

"now there's going to be test flying today. It's nothing big, we just want to see how the pairs get along. You and your wingman will all be briefed on a mock reconnaissance mission. We'll record your coms and put up some cameras to monitor your progress. Head to the main building in five minutes for briefing."

Twilight had just woken up when a letter suddenly popped through her door. She picked it up and opened the letter, it contained several pages and only the first one was readable. She flipped through it curiously before reading the note.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

There is a very peculiar spell that I have acquired, I want for you to give it to the princesses and see if they can figure out what it is. I would post this letter to them directly but, I haven't the time to make a trip to canterlot and I doubt that this would get noticed in the downpour of mail she gets everyday. If you could investigate this as soon as possible I would appreciate it.

Sincerely,

Julias

It struck her as odd to be receiving this but she couldn't help but be curious as to what the symbols meant. She began looking through her books and after an hour of searching came up empty handed. She sent a letter to Princess Celestia asking for help on the mysterious letter. She received a reply asking to see the letter and promptly sent the whole packet to her. After a few minutes she received one last reply asking her to get to the palace as soon as possible. Within a few minutes a Canterlot chariot arrived outside of her door. She got on and as they took off, she couldn't help but have a bad feeling about all of this.

The five minutes had passed and the room was filled with pilots from across Europe. The air was tense as all of them felt a slight sense of pride, they all felt like they had something to prove. There was an unspoken competition between every pairing, the room was filled with a deafening silence until the commander walked in.

"good, I see you all had no problem showing up on time. I hope that you all slept well last night because this will be a 24 hour flight. You will fly over Germany and land in Sweden, from there you will scout out a fake enemy naval convoy. Then you'll fly straight back to base for debriefing. You'll be taking off in F-4 Phantoms today and although you will travel together you will be gathering intel independently. Alright, pick a jet and await further instructions."

Twilight charged through the doors panting. She had gotten there as fast as she could, but it still took longer than she was comfortable with. The two princesses were looking over the papers, visibly concerned for the papers. She walked to the base of the steps leading to the throne and waited to be told what was so important.

Princess Celestia put down the papers, "thank goodness that this was sent to you."

"why? What do they say?"

"they're ancient runes of great magical power, if these got into the wrong hands..."

"what? What would happen?"

"It is said that these can summon another world to bring destruction to all of Equestria."

"is there anyway to destroy them?"

"not without activating the magic inside of them, the only thing that we can do is put them were they can never be found again."

"do we have anywhere in Equestria that can hold this kind of power."

"yes... follow me."

Eric and Yelsen were scheduled to be the last ones to take off. Eric was the co-pilot for the mission. Yelsen, not wanting to be a burden, offered to be the co-pilot. Yelsen noticed something on Eric's hip as he clumb into the cockpit.

"what's that?"

"hmm? Oh this?" he pointed at a pistol in its holster.

"can never too careful, it's always good to have a sidearm."

"it's a training mission though, there isn't any danger."

"what if we have a malfunction and crash land in the wilderness. Gotta think of everything out there."

Yelsen made a mental note of this.

"I have a spare, I could get you one if you want."

"it's fine, it's fine."

they sat idle, watching each of the other groups taking off ahead of them. Finally they were called up to take off.

Eric called out the check list,

"Engines"

"check"

"coms"

"check"

"GPS online?"

"check"

"nervous?"

"check"

"where are we going?" Twilight was following Celestia through the dark under belly of the palace.

"it's a special chamber that we put the worst things world in."

The halls were ages old stone dimly lit by torches, it felt cold and condemning. Finally they came upon a massive iron door. The halls were filled with noise as massive gears slowly grinded against eachother. The doors slowly opened and revealed a massive room with a pedestal in the center of it. It struck her odd, the worst thing in the world to be put into such a room. She expected a room filled with all sorts of security, but the only security was an iron door and an underground room. She was quickly corrected as the papers were placed on the pedestal. A bright magical orb enveloped it and turned to crystal. That was it, disaster had been averted... but then the room started glowing brightly. The magic within the runes had been activated by the same magic that sealed it away. Twilight couldn't tell what was happening and shielded her eyes from the light.

"hey, you see that base over there." Eric pointed out the window to some seemingly unimportant buildings.

"yeah."

"that's the large hadron collider."

"it is?"

"yeah, the blokes over there do some crazy things. I hear they're supposed to be testing right now."

"is that so?"

Yelsen stared at it in curiosity, he had never seen it before and it honestly looked rather unremarkable. Suddenly a large black ball began forming out of it and expanding. He suddenly realized that it was expanding rather quickly and it wouldn't be long before it reached the two of them.

"shit Eric, we have a problem."

"why? Wha-" he turned to face Yelsen but stopped at the huge black ball that was growing ever quickly.

"fuck, hang on tight Yelsen!" he quickly banked away from the ball in an attempt to escape.

The light faded, Celestia and the papers were gone, all that was left was dirt and large pieces of metal. There was a massive whole in the ceiling that led outside. She stood blankly before running out of the room. She needed to find Princess Celestia and figure out what was happening before it was too late.

"Shit, I don't think we can outrun it." Eric was cursing under his breath, the orb was growing faster and faster and it wouldn't be long until they were wrapped up in it.

"well," Yelsen spoke in a dull tone, "I guess it's goodbye then."

"been a damn pleasure flying with you."

"heh, didn't even get past the first mission."

"what say we charge into it, guns blazing?"

"can't see why not."

"for the queen eh?"

He turned around and flew straight towards the orb, the jet was outfitted for training and a few fake missiles pitifully fell off of the wings and disappeared into the black orb. Then, they hit it as well. They hit it in the way that one might hit a ghost and passed straight through. They found themselves several miles above the ground surrounded by falling dirt and rocks. Eric could see the compound, helplessly falling towards the ground. He looked at the gauges, everything was either offline or going crazy. His GPS was out, his speedometer was fried and the altitude kept going up. The jet, not acustomed to the height they were at, promptly began to stall. The only thing that could be done was to wait until you were low enough that your wings would pick up lift and keep flying. They fell in helpless freefall for a half of a minute before Eric could regain control. He turned the engines down and began to glide away from the debris above them.

"Yelsen! Whats the damage?"

"Navigations and communications are down, some of the electronics are fried but other than that all other systems are good."

"thank god."

Yelsen looked back, he could see large chunks of earth falling tto the ground. The massive white orb they had flown through was being carried higher and higher into the sky by something, although he couldn't make out what. He turned his attention back to the panels in the cockpit. He laughed as he saw the weapons bay were empty.

"you fired the duds?"

"I said guns blazing didn't I?"

Yelsen laughed, "where are we going to land?"

"hell if I know. let's just see where we are, alright?"

after a few minutes the radios began to come back on. A voice called in through their headsets.

"This is Alpha 1, any units that can hear me, report in."

Eric answered the call, "this is Alpha 15, we hear you, over."

"roger that. What's your status?"

"Navigations are down but other than that we're fit to fly."

"roger, anybody else?"

"this is Alpha 7, we're here."

"status?"

"we're good, Nav systems are down."

"Alpha 4 reporting in."

the reports continued to come in, everbody was present except for Alphas 5, 9, and 10. Alpha 1 appointed itself as the leader of what was left of the squadron.

"I want all units to rally over the town." Alpha 1 instructed.

"wait, theres a town?" Alpha 6 asked in disbelief.

"yeah, it's on the side of the mountain." replied Alpha 2

"you're gonna have to be more specific."

"it's the tallest one of them."

"roger that, I have a visual. Thanks."

Eric and Yelsen could see a few of the jets as they headed over to the city below. One jet was already circling slowly, high over the city.

"this is Alpha 8, I've reached the rally point."

"copy that, stay there until everybody gets there."

"roger."

Twilight bounded up the last flight of stairs and looked up. Her heart sank, above the city were several flying objects. Everypony was looking up in confusion as they circled menacingly above. They created a loud noise as they flew and were unlike anything she had seen before. Then she realized that they must be some of the horrors released to destroy Equestria. She ran through the streets, yelling for everypony to get indoors. Within seconds the streets were cleared and she could see members of the Royal Canterlot Guard flying to fight against the beasts.

"everybody here?" Alpha 1 called through the radio.

"I think that's everyone." Alpha 7 replied.

"we're all present." Alpha 3 confirmed.

"okay, let's move out everbody, follow me." Alpha 1 began to fly towards some large, flat, grasslands.

"whats the plan?"

"there doesn't seem to be any airfields so we're going to find the flattest patch of land and try to crash land."

"isn't there a better solution."

"we only have so much fuel, now we can try to land or crash with an empty tank. Which will it be?"

there was a pause, "fine."

"hey Captain." it was Alpha 14

"what?"

"we better bugger off, there's some animals flying towards us."

Yelsen looked out the window, what appeared to be flying horses with golden armor were quickly approaching the jet formation.

"alright, everybody on me!"

Everybody followed Alpha 1, leaving the horses behind. The 12 jets roared across the landscape in search of a place to land. On their way they passed what appeared to be an ordinary British town. Yelsen called out through the radio, "look down there, there's a town."

"yeah what about it Alpha 15?"

"if we can get down there, maybe we could radio in for help. They must have a radio somewhere in there."

"looks like a backwater town to me, bet they only have a single telephone."

"well it's the only town that I can see. Besides, we could stay there until we figure out what's going on."

"okay, we'll make it a point to get there, but we need to land."

"hold on, I- I see an open field ahead."

they passed over a small forest and found a large, flat clearing. Alpha 1 called out orders as each jet slowly tried to land.

Rainbow Dash couldn't believe her eyes, several hunks of metal flew past the town. She couldn't believe how fast they were going, she would have to actually try to go that fast. Curious, she took off in pursuit to see just were they were going.

Most of the Alphas had landed, it was down to Eric's jet, and Alpha 1. the field was littered with jets and the grass had been torn up from jet after jet landing. Everybody was amazed that nobody had crashed or broken their landing gear on something.

"alright, just you and me Alpha 15, make your approach and be careful. I've said it once and I'll say it again, this is a crash landing so be prepared to bail out. Just take it slow and it'll be good."

"roger that," Eric replied calmly, "isn't my first crash landing you know."

"let's just hope it isn't your last."

Rainbow Dash watched as the metal beasts swirled around and landed in the field. She wondered what the big deal with landing was, with anything else that flew it was as simple as putting your hooves on the ground. With these, they dragged along the ground before stopping. After half an hour, there was only two jets left. One of the jets flew in slowly and finally made contact with the ground, breaking chunks of the ground as it went. It came to a stop and turned sharply. It slowly trudged out of the way of the last jet as it came to a touchdown and stopped just short of a few trees.

The radios were filled with cheering, we had all made it. Everybody relaxed a little bit as Alpha 1 gave out the order to get out and regroup.

Now the hunks of metal had opened up. Strange creatures stepped out of them, they were unlike anything she had ever seen before. They walked on two legs and had strange, grey skin. They all walked across the field to eachother and huddled around.

Yelsen was surprised just how many of the pilots were armed. Most of them had pistols and one of them had brought an M4 carbine. They all took off their helmets and looked around before Alpha 1 had begun the meeting.

"alright, were are we? Any ideas?"

everybody looked around but was silent.

"nothin' huh? Did anybody see what brought us here?"

Yelsen spoke up, "we were flying past the Hadron collider when a black orb came out of it. It sucked us in and brought us here."

"is that all?"

"that's all I know, sir."

"okay, we need to establish a definite leader. I'm a first lieutenant, is there anybody here higher rank than I am?"

one of the pilots walked up to him and shook his hand, "Captain Jonathan Shuemaker, seeing as I'm highest rank I'll take over this operation."

"a captain? Why didn't you take hold sooner?"

"you were doing well commanding everybody, I assumed you were around my rank. If we make it back home I'll recommend you for promotion, you did good."

Alpha 1 stepped back, Jonathan turned to the rest of us.

"fantastic job getting over here, we'll all make it out of here as long as we can stick together. First order of buisiness is finding other people. I want everybody to cannibalize their jets and take everything of value or use with them. We'll hike to the town in ten minutes. Now go."

the creatures had been talking for a couple minutes and had now scrambled back to their machines. Rainbow Dash saw one of them standing there, he was the one who had been shouting out to the rest of them and was now watching the creatures search their machines. She landed and began to walk up to the creature. It looked over at her and stared with a confused expression on his face.

The blue horse just stood there, Jonathan thought he was hallucinating. The two stared at eachother before the blue horse began talking. "who are you?" Jonathan's mind broke for a few seconds. Finally he managed to make enough sense of the situation to reply, "I'm Captain Jonathan Shuemaker, now what on earth are you?" he tried to identify what it was. It was a horse, no it had wings, it was a pegasus. He thought over what that would mean before settling that either he was going insane, or he was in deep shit.

"I'm Rainbow Dash, I saw you fly past our town and I wanted to know what you were doing."

Yelsen hadn't brought much and was the first to finish searching his jet. He walked up to the captain and stared at the blue pegasus. The two stared in silence, Rainbow Dash could feel the tension building up in the air.

"so, are you going to answer my question?"

Yelsen was a bit more at ease with this strange occurrence. He walked up to Rainbow Dash and jutted his hand out, "I am Yelsen Kozlov, how are you."

"I'm fine, what is it you guys are doing?"

"ah, well, there's a town nearby. We're going to go see if it has a radio so that we can call for help."

"help? You guys are in trouble?"

"yeah, we're not sure were we are. A huge black orb sucked us up into here."

Rainbow Dash extended her hoof out and received a firm handshake. Jonathan grabbed Yelsen on the arm and pulled him back, "just what in the hell do you think you're doing. We don't know if this... this thing is trying to kill us or what. How are you so calm when dealing with it?"

"you were so relaxed just a second ago, why are you all paranoid captain?"

"I thought I was the only one seeing it, apparently it's real and if it's real..."

"if it's real then what? We aren't on earth? I'm terribly sorry commander, but it's being friendly and if it was trying to hurt us then why isn't it attacking one of us?"

"biding it's time maybe."

"I'm not here to hurt you, and I'm a pegasus not a thing." Rainbow Dash cried out in self defense.

"listen, if it backstabs us I'll take the blame but for now it isn't hurting anything."

Jonathan let up his grip on Yelsen's arm. Soon the rest of the men began walking over to the captain, all of them sharing the same bewildered expression. Rainbow Dash felt slightly intimidated by how many of them there were. Finally the last two pilots joined the rest of the group. One of them looked at Rainbow Dash and walked up to her.

"wait a second,"

Rainbow Dash looked at him oddly, "what? What is it?"

"you're Rainbow Dash aren't you?"

"yeah, how'd you know?"

"you're from that my little pony show my daughter watches, yeah she talks about you all the time. Can't get a letter from her without you being snuck in there."

Jonathan relaxed a bit from hearing this, "what are you talking about?"

"this is a pony from a kids show, that's what I'm talking about."

"slow down, what the hell is going on then?"

"we're in a kids show captain."

even Rainbow Dash was shocked to hear this, especially Rainbow Dash.

"a kids show about ponies?"

"yes."

"you're fucking with me right?"

"no, sir."

Yelsen began cracking up. Jonathan glared at him, "what's so funny, Yelsen?"

Yelsen could barely reply between gasps of laughter, "heh, we're the best pilots in the U.N. Trained to pilot the weapons of war to keep peace around the world. And now we're in a show for little girls." he continued laughing, a few of the other men joined in. Jonathan waved a hand for silence, the men quickly became quiet. He looked at Rainbow Dash, "could you take us to the nearest town?"

"no problem, just follow me." before anybody could react she flew up and started flying backwards, "it's just on the other side of this forest."

The men looked at Jonathan, he looked around at them and started walking towards Rainbow Dash, the men following close suit.

Twilight Sparkle was in a panic, there were strange beasts somewhere in Equestria causing mayhem and the Princess was nowhere to be found. Luna was busy keeping debris from falling onto Canterlot, and most of the royal guard were busy tracking down the creatures. She felt helpless, there wasn't much she could do here. She thought of where they were going, "oh no" She cried out in realization that they were headed towards Ponyville. She ran back to where her Canterlot chariot was sitting and called over the nearest two guards. As they flew towards the small town, Twilight worried that she wasn't too late.

"hey Mikey, get the fuck up you aren't going to believe this." Sam said as he shook Michael up out of his bunk.

"Goddamnit Sam, we get put on standby for one week and you spend it waking me up everytime a rookie hits a target." Michael got up out of bed, it wasn't the first time he had an unexpected awakening. As a U.S Ranger, you get woken up almost exclusively when it's inconvenient. He got up and walked out into the Fort courtyard, everybody was looking up in confusion. He looked at the sky and suddenly felt dizzy, there was another goddamn planet in the sky. "what the fuck is going on Sam?"

"hell if I know, all I know is that things are about to get interesting."
"interesting, heh, sounds like such a mild word now."

Sam went back into the barracks and came back out with a small radio. He beckoned for all the other rangers to come listen to it as he tuned it to the news. The static turned to fuzz before clearing up to the voice of a news anchor.

"Confusion around the globe as all satellite communications suddenly shut down. Reports of a new planet continue to sky rocket across North and South America. World leaders have yet to make any announcements as to what is going on, or what they plan to do. Observatories around the world are beginning plans to use space telescopes to examine the planet's surface. Many scientists are amazed and excited for this event, while many others remain skeptical of the new planet."

The men had followed Rainbow Dash through the forest, they finally reached a road that lead straight through an apple orchard. Some of the men tried to reach up and grab a few apples before falling behind and running up to the group. After a few minutes they reached the roads of the towns. All of them had expected ponies and humans living together, it made sense to them considering the Victorian architecture. They were just as surprised as the crowds of ponies that filled the streets, staring at them in fear and confusion. Rainbow Dash saw this and flew over to the crowd, "no, no, no they aren't bad. They're cool, really. They're just separated from their home, that's all."

the ponies began to relax and after a few seconds, they returned to whatever they were doing while exchanging bewildered glances at the men. Rainbow Dash breathed a sigh of relief that the ponies didn't go into a panic and began to fly over to the men. "okay, we're off to a good start. Just wait around until Twilight Sparkle gets here, she'll know how to get you guys home." the men looked around before wandering off. Jonathan yelled at the men to rally back to him after ten minutes. The men littered the street leading into the market. Some were confused, some were amazed, and many others were paranoid. Jonathan himself didn't like it, they were outnumbered and in the open. They most likely outgunned these horses but they were still without any support or reinforcements. They hardly even knew where they were. Yelsen was optimistic of the whole situation, he was fascinated by this town of horses and looked forward to meeting this so called Twilight Sparkle. He wandered down the path to the apple orchard. He was hungry and wanted to buy something to eat, he also wanted to see just how horses picked apples. He walked for a few minutes before he saw an orange horse carrying a cart walk onto the road. He walked up to her, Yelsen had spent enough time on the farm to recognize a mare from a mile away. She wore a cowboy hat and had her hair in a ponytail. She looked at him as if she wasn't sure he was real. He stopped a few feet away from her, "hello, I'm Yelsen Kozlov, how are you today."

she looked at him for a second before rubbing her eyes, "just what in the hay are you?" she had a deeply american accent. He furrowed his brow, "you have an american accent, and yet you are nowhere near america."

"what's this america?"

"it- it's another country on another planet. And you sound like you come from there, I don't really understand how."

"another planet? I get it, it's just a dream. Well, I shouldn't be going to work on a perfectly good dream."

"no, it's not a dream, it's just... weird."

"weird? I'm sorry sugarcube but we passed weird awhile ago."

"it's still not a dream."

"if it's not a dream then were do you come from?"
"I come from Poland, I signed up for the RAF in Britain and now I've been teleported here somehow. Besides, doesn't this feel a bit real for a dream?"

"it sure does but it's also a bit weird for real life, I've never seen anything like you in my life."

"well, now that we both know that we're awake, I'm Yelsen Kozlov. How are you today?"

"I'm Applejack, I was just on my way to town to sell apples and then you came here."

"how do horses pick apples?"

"horses? I'm sorry but we're ponies, and we don't pick apples, we kick them off of the trees. It's called applebucking, I would show you but there aren't any apples in season."

"you kick the apples out of trees?"

"nah, we kick the trees and the apples fall out."

Yelsen flinched, either the trees were flimsy or these ponies were unbelievably strong.

"do you have any apples for sale?"

"I'm sorry but if you aren't from here then I doubt you have any money."

"I have mo-" he realized that all he had was a few british pounds he had brought with him, "what money do you take?"

"bits, Equestrian bits."

"never heard of them, thank you anyways, have a good day." Yelsen began to walk to the town. Although he was disappointed that he couldn't get something to eat, he was excited to have actually had a conversation with a pony. He walked back to the captain, most of the men had made their way back and were sitting around. Some of them were cleaning their equipment, others had brought something to eat and were munching on a snack. Others were talking to a few ponies who had become curious as to who these strange creatures were. Yelsen joined Eric, who was talking to a colt about Britain and the air force there.

Yelsen listened in on the conversation, "and then there's the F-16, it's able to go at Mach speeds."

"mach speeds?" the colt asked in amazement.

"that means it breaks the sound barrier."

"wow!"

there was quite a crowd building up around the men. Soon all of the men were engaged in asking and answering questions with the ponies. Yelsen was enjoying the sight, there was talking and laughter. It warmed his heart to see the ponies be so accepting of the pilots. He looked over to see a white pony with a horn and a purple mane walk over to him. He snickered, this planet had talking horses, pegasi, and unicorns. This really was a little kids show.

"hello, you don't seem to be busy so might I ask who are you... you..."

"people, I'm Yelsen, pleased to meet you miss..."

"Rarity, I must ask what it is you're wearing. I haven't seen anything like it and it doesn't look to fashionable. I'm sorry to intrude, but what is it?"

"flight suits."

"flight suits? Do they make you fly?"

"no, they help protect us from G forces and high-altitude conditions while flying our jets."

"I'm terribly sorry darling but I don't know what any of those are."

Yelsen sighed, explaining them to her would take awhile, "it helps us stay safe while flying airplanes. Does that answer your question?"

"yes, thank you for your time."

"no problem, you're very cordial."

"I do try to keep formal when meeting strangers for the first time."

"no need of that with us, we spend so much time speaking formally that almost all of us prefer casual."

"I see, what is it that you... people, do anyways?"

"we fly airplanes to keep our home and country safe from enemies."

"enemies? Like what?"

"depends, mostly terrorists these day. We've had the good fortune of avoiding any real wars."

"wars?"

"yeah, I suppose you might not know what wars are but."

"I am aware of what wars are but there hasn't been any in Equestria for centuries."

"exactly, none in Equestria, we don't come from here. We're from a planet called Earth, it ain't exactly peaceful there, so we fight to keep things as safe as possible."

"you- you haven't hurt anybody? Have you?" Rarity was shocked at the thought of talking to someone who had been through a war. She herself had only heard the names of a couple wars that were short and nopony actually died from.

"me? No, but some of the pilots here have, there's a couple veterans among us."

"that's terrible."

"it's not like we go starting fights, whenever we fly, we fly to kill those who have already threatened or harmed us. We fight so that millions of people can sleep tight knowing that we're defending them from the evil people who want to kill them."

the two stood in silence. Yelsen waited for some response or objection to what he did but none came. He eased his stance and grinned at Rarity, "what do you do?"

she stared at him for a second before eventually replying, "I work as a fashion designer at Ponyville."

"heh, a fashion designer eh? Could you, make a custom hat for me? I'll pay of course but."

"sure, what did you have in mind?"

"I'd have to draw it up for you. Later, maybe."

"alright, I'm a bit busy so I'll talk to you later about it. Farewell."

"thanks, goodbye."

Rarity walked off, Yelsen was about to turn his attention to the next pony when Jonathan called for the group's attention. He yelled out to the pilots to rally on him. The men crowded in a circle around him, the ponies watching as they did so.

"Okay, we found the town and it's not what we expected. We can all agree on that. Now I'm all for talking with the towns people but if you'd look to the sky for five seconds you'd realize that the sun is on it's way down." he was right, the day had passed quickly and they had maybe three hours of daylight left, "the point is that we need to make a camp. Seeing as none of us has any money or tents, this is officially a survival situation as far as camp goes. Once we've set up a camp then by all means, talk with the townsfolk. Chat it up, have a good time, but when I give an order you'd better drop whatever you're doing and follow it. The primary objective is still to get home and get rescued, and I don't want any of you to forget that. Am I clear?"

there was a collective, "sir, yes, sir" from the men.

"now that that's settled, move out."

Twilight Sparkle's heart sank, there were several strange creatures outside of the town. They appeared to be walking away. She didn't know what they or what they were doing but they must've been scouting out the town. She called out for the Canterlot guard to land in front of the creatures.

Jonathan gave out a snicker as an elegant chariot being towed by two armored pegasi landed twenty feet in front of them. The pegasi released the straps holding them to the chariot and stood at guard. A purple unicorn jumped out and looked at them fiercely. Jonathan examined them, they appeared to be some sort of military unit. Struck him odd that a kid's show would have a military. He looked back into the crowd behind him, "hey Yelsen, get over here." Yelsen ran up to him through the crowd.

"reporting."

"you seem to be friendly with the ponies here, go have a chat with that little group up there."

"yes sir."

"and cut out with that sir bullshit, nobody's gonna be giving out an after action for this."

"yes si- Jonathan."

"please call me John, now get up there kid, you're up to bat."

Yelsen walked at a cheerful pace towards the three ponies. He extended his hand out to the purple unicorn, "hello, I am Ye- aagh" his body locked up. The unicorn's horn was glowing and Yelsen suddenly found himself unable to move.
"agh, the hell is going on?"

the unicorn looked as if it were in a rage and it spoke in a harsh tone, "now I don't know what you are but if you've come here to destroy my home then you've got another thing coming."

"sorry, I- I think we might've gotten off to a bad start. I'm Yelsen erghh, I'm Yelsen Kozlov. We aren't here to hurt you, now please, just... let me go."

"oh no I'm not falling for that, those runes sent you here to destroy Equestria. You're up to something, I just know it!"

"fuck, we aren't up to anything. I don't know of any runes. Okay your world has magic, I get it, but my world doesn't have any magic so it must've been you guys."

the magic loosened up a bit, "you mean, you have no idea what's going on?"
"we know as much as you do, even less from the sounds of it."

the magic released and Yelsen fell to the ground. He looked over to see a few of the pilots holstering pistols. He returned his attention back to the unicorn, she looked utterly confused. He got up and extended his hand a second time, slowly this time.

"okay, as I was saying, I'm Yelsen, how are you toady?"

"if you aren't here to destroy us, then why are you here?"

"we have no clue, we just want to find a way home."

"well... that doesn't answer what you're doing right now."

"we were just going to leave town and make camp."

"may I follow you, I'm still a bit curious as to what you're doing."

"take it up with Jonathan, our captain. Though I'd doubt he'd be against it."

"captain? So you're military?"

"yeah, we were on a training mission when we got put here somehow."

"interesting, I would be interested how you organise."

"take it up with the cap' he's just over there."

Yelsen pointed over at the captain, Twilight Sparkle walked up to him. Jonathan smiled at her, "Captain Jonathan, Royal Air Force, I heard the exchange from here and no, I wouldn't mind if you tagged along. I don't want any trouble and neither do you. All I want is to get these men home safe. We're going to be taking a little hike so it might take awhile."

Jonathan led the men through the forest back to were they had all landed. Twilight Sparkle followed along and examined every order and procedur she could. After half an hour they finally reached the jets. Twilight watched as the captain called off orders and after an hour, they had set up several tents made from fallen branches. She looked at the machines, they were the same ones that had flown over Canterlot. She breathed a sigh of relief, atleast if they were hostile she knew where they were. They had set up the small box and the captain was standing around fiddling with it. The sun began to set and after a few more orders, the soldiers began to go to their tents to try and sleep. A couple were still standing around, patrolling the camp. She walked into the camp and asked what the box was, the captain called it a radio and said that he was trying to make contact with home, after a few frustrated minutes he gave up. Twilight began asking questions about who he was, where he was from, and what he was doing. It didn't take long for her to realize that he really did want nothing more than to be home. She looked over the horizon to see the moon rise, only to find the moon accompanied by something massive. What appeared to be a planet was flying alongside the moon through the night sky. The captain suddenly looked very worried.

"oh shit, that's, no. it can't be." the captain said, staring in disbelief at it.

"what? What is it? What is that?" Twilight had a trace of concern in her voice

"wait, I can, I can see Europe. Holy shit that's." Jonathan said, almost yelling.

"what is it?" Twilight said more urgently this time.

"it's Earth! Holy shit that's Earth! We weren't the only ones sent here, our entire goddamn planet got sent here as well. No fucking wonder GPS was down."

Twilight's eyes widened as she realized what this meant, their home was now right there. Sending them back wasn't as simple as using some magic to send them home, now their home was hovering around Equestria. The captain ran through the camps shouting at the men to wake up.

"everybody up and at em' the Earth is up tonight! I want everybody on their radios, they gotta know we're here."

the men slowly got out of their shelters one by one, and they all had the same amazed expression on their face. Twilight looked in horror as to what might happen next. She watched in despair as the soldiers all jumped into their machines and started calling through the radios. Thoughts raced through her mind. what if they were actually hostile? There's an entire world of them hovering menacingly above. And if they were telling the truth, and they did make it home, How would the rest of the world be dealt with? She tried to come up with solutions to no avail. At midnight, she heard one of the machines get a response, "Copy your last Alpha 8, we'll try and patch you through to Fort Galileo, stand by." Twilight felt fear rising in the pit of her stomach. She felt fear as to what the future might hold for Equestria. And as the radio continued being patched through from place to place, she couldn't help but feel that she would be seeing a lot of these soldiers very soon.

Author's notes

my god this turned out huge, I mean seriously. I've started this as a secondary project for when I feel like writing but I don't feel like working on Misplaced. If you like this then you might like that story as well. Also, if chapters this big become common for this story then updates might take awhile. Review, please, it helps me improve my writing, or at the very least that this story is good or bad. Thanks for taking the ungodly amount of time required to read this chapter and this silly little author's notes.