If you're wondering about why the third chapter is called introduction, I'm going to be naming the rest of chapters after the missions from the game.
Cole awoke with a start, his whole body was in pain. He slowly got up and groaned, "Ugh, what the hell happened?" He looked around and saw he was on a small pillar of rubble in a giant crater. "Holy shit. How did-" he stopped when he remembered there was someone with him earlier. He looked around and saw her a few feet from him. He moved over to her and checked to see if she was okay. He felt for a pulse, when he felt it he sighed with relief and took a closer look at her. There were a few tears in her clothes and under those were some rather big gashes, but thankfully they were cauterized so she wouldn't bleed to death. Her hair was burned a good amount, but she still had most of it and her skin was rather burned. 'If she's this bad I probably look just as bad if not worse,' he thought.
He started to gently shake her saying, "Twilight, wake up. Something terrible happened."
She started to get up and rubbed head then stopped and winced. "Ow. That really hurts." She looked at him and gasped, "Cole! What happend? You look terrible."
"Yeah, I hurt like hell all over. We both need to get out of here and get some help. We're both pretty banged up," Cole said.
She looked down at herself and winced again, "Yes, let's get out of-" Her words caught her throat and her eyes widened as she looked around and noticed the destruction around them. "I've never seen or even heard of this kind of destruction being possible. What in Tartarus could have caused all of this destruction?" she asked.
"I have no idea, but-" he paused and thought about what she said at the beginning of her question. "Tartarus?" he asked.
Twilight chuckled nervously, "Uh," but before she could come up with something they heard a noise that sounded like it was getting closer. Looking up they noticed a helicopter stopped high above them and shined a spotlight on them. Over a speaker, someone spoke to another person then addressed them.
"There is a couple of people alive down there. Hey, if you can hear me wave up here." They raised their hands and waved at the man. "If you can walk get out of there and head toward the bridge." There was an explosion behind them, the helcopter turned and they looked in the same direction. "Hey, you in the garage," he called over to someone. Cole and Twilight could only see the shadow of a man that did a weird gesture at the helicopter. Annoyed and after a car fell off of the building the the man in the helicopter yelled, "Get the hell out! The place is falling apart." It then took off in the direction the man seemed to go.
Cole looked at Twilight and asked, "Can you walk? If not I think I could carry you."
Twilight shook her head, "No, I'm okay enough to walk. Let's go."
He nodded and they started to make there way through the crater avoiding the fire and occasional small explosion. As they neared an convenient ramp of rubble and cars, a voice called out of Cole's phone.
"Cole. Hey, you there man? Come on pick up, Cole." It was Zeke.
"Zeke? I think there was a huge explosion. What the hell's going on?" Cole asked.
"Seriously, man? No, shit there was an explosion. People on the TV are saying there are terrorists bombing the place. Meet me at the Fremont Bridge. We'll find Trish and find somewhere to take over until it's over," Zeke explained what was happening and the plan he had. As they neared where they could get into the parking garage there was another voice coming through that Cole didn't recognize.
"What's a terrorist?" asked a rather young sounding voice. Cole was about to ask Zeke what he was doing with a kid when Twilight cut him off, with a slight hitch in her voice.
"Spike?" she asked hopefully.
The boy, Spike, yelled through radio, "Twilight! I'm so glad you are okay. I was worried when we got split up and Zeke said that there was an explosion."
"Yes, Spike. I -We- are rather banged up, but are okay for the most part," she told him. "We'll see you at the bridge, okay?"
"Yeah! See you then," Spike called back, then Zeke ended the call.
Cole looked at Twilight with a smile on his face, "Well, we found him easier than I thought we would, but too bad we couldn't have avoided whatever the hell happened to us."
"Yes, but we are still alive, somehow. So let's head the bridge," she gestured him to lead the way. "You know how get there better than I do." As the joy of knowing where Spike was and that he was safe started to set in, a thought hit her. 'Why was Spike talking to Zeke. He should know that dogs can't normally talk.' She was somewhat annoyed and worried that Spike, even if he was as happy as she was, did something that could get him into trouble. However, as she thought about it more she realized that maybe he wasn't a dog. They were in a different world than the one they went to before, so maybe he was changed into a human. That or the combination of alicorn and chaos magic might have done something.
Cole took the lead and stepped on to a car that was bridging the destroyed ramp to the building. Twilight followed behind him and as Cole passed an exposed generator, a bolt of electricity shot out and hit him directly. Twilight gasped and was about to head over to him when she felt a strange sensation and couldn't move. She couldn't describe what it was, but it was so sudden she froze in her tracks.
When the bolt of electricty died down, she regained herself then hurried to Cole's side and was surprised to see he was perfectly fine. She wasn't the only one.
Cole stared at himself in disbelief as the electricity seemed to crackle off of him and die away. "I should of died. What hell just happened?" he wondered.
Twilight walked up to him and tentatively placed a hand on his shoulder, "Let's get somewhere a little less dangerous and we'll figure it out together later."
He looked at her and nodded, "You're right. Let's get out of here first."
They continued walking through the parking garage avoiding the fires and anything that fell from the floor above. They saw a ramp and started to head towards it. Before they even got near it however, it collapsed and fell to the ground. They looked for another way across, but only saw a fallen pillar reaching halfway across the gap. On the other side there was another fallen pillar that reached little ways out.
Twilight figured she could get them across by flying except for two things. One, she wasn't really sure she could sprout her wings in this world (much less use magic). Two, if she could she couldn't be sure how Cole would react. Yes, she just met him, but he seemed like a nice guy and wanted to be friends with him, since for one thing she didn't have any friends here, except Spike, but he was more like brother to her. For another thing she didn't know anything about this city and would probably get lost. She was so lost in her thoughts she didn't notice that Cole was already starting to cross until he looked back and called to her.
"Hey, you okay?" he asked.
"Yes, just a little nervous walking across something like that," she told him. It wasn't a complete lie, she'd never walked across something like that even in her normal body, but in one she wasn't used to? She was very worried that she wouldn't be able to keep her balance.
Cole moved back across the pillar towards her. "Hey, it will be okay. Just follow me closely," he assured her. He held out his hand to help her onto the pillar. She took it and he helped her up, then he helped to keep her balance. "Alright, now let's cross it together." He moved across the beam slowly, while keeping an eye on Twilight. When he got to the gap, he jumped across and landed neatly on the other side. He turned back and called back to Twilight, "Alright you need to make a pretty big jump. I don't want to worry you, but I'm sure you noticed the metal jutting out of the bottom of the pillar."
Twilight did see the bottom of the pillar and became even more nervous at jumping across the gap. She backed up a little then, as fast as she could without slipping, she ran to the end and jumped. She landed on the pillar, but slipped. Luckily, she fell forward and she wrapped her hands and legs around the pillar to keep herself from falling. She winced as her burned and battered body hit the solid concrete. Cole walked over to her and helped her up. She looked up at him and smiled, "Thanks."
"No problem. Are you okay?" he asked, worried that the fall might have irritated the wounds on her.
She looked herself over. "Yes, I'm fine. A little more sore now, but nothing's reopened."
Cole started to sigh with relief, then stopped. He wondered why he was so worried. He felt it before, but thought that it was because he found out that she was still alive. Of course, he didn't want anything to happen to her, but he had just met her. He seemed to be having rather strong feelings toward the woman in front of him. It wasn't love, he still loved his girlfriend Trish. There seemed to be something about Twilight that made it to where he didn't want any harm to come to her. Maybe it was because she seemed so innocent. What with her not being from this city, she didn't know what kind of things could happen here. There's also the fact that she didn't seem to know that this kind of destruction, while terrible, isn't even near the amount of damage some of the weapons humanity has come up with can cause. He's never actually seen this kind of destruction before, but knew it was possible with the kind of things mankind can, has, and probably will come up with. He was pulled from his musings when Twilight asked him something.
"Cole, are you okay? You spaced out for a while there," she asked.
"Yeah, I was just was thinking," Cole answered.
"Well, I like to encourage people to think and not just act, however maybe not when we are balancing on a pillar more than 30 feet in the air?" Twilight asked worriedly. She was doing her best to keep her balance on the beam, but the longer she just stood the more she felt like she was losing it.
"Huh? Oh, yeah let's get off of here," he said, remembering where they were. He turned and they walked off of the fallen pillar. He jumped down, and he looked back to Twilight climbing down, and apologized, "Sorry about that. I knew you were nervous about being on there and I just stood there staring off into space."
"It's okay," she told him, but then started to wonder. "How were you able to stand there like that? Not only were able to walk across very easily, you also jumped across like you've done it before and then just stood there like you were just standing on the ground."
"Well, me and Zeke used to climb buildings and do parkour." Cole looked at her and saw that she was surprised he climbed buildings, but then looked confused at the other activity. He decided to elaborate. "Parkouring is the activity or sport of moving rapidly through an area. It's usually in an urban environment, navigating obstacles by running, climbing, and jumping."
"Oh. That sounds pretty interesting," she then said to herself, "Rainbow Dash would probably love that."
Cole overheard her, "What was that?"
"Nothing," she said. "It wasn't anything important."
"Well, if you want I can show you how to do it," he offered. "It can come in handy in a city, especially this kind of city."
"I'm not much of an athlete, but if it could help, I'll try," Twilight replied. "I think we've kept our friends waiting long enough. Are we almost there?"
Cole answered, "Yes, it's close by. We just need to get down from here, somehow."
They started walking through the wreckage towards the edge to try and find a way down. As they got near the side of the parking garage, Cole got near an exposed cable and electricity jumped to him. As the electricity coursed through Cole, Twilight felt the strange sensation again, but this time it was a bit stronger. As the cable stopped shooting it out, Cole then unconsciously sent it in lightning bolts outward toward the cars and and portable generators causing them to explode. The explosion caused a portion of the floor to fall and make a way down to the street. When the bolts dissipated, Cole turned to Twilight to make sure she was okay. When he looked at her he saw that some of the electricity was arcing off of her. He rushed to her to make sure there wasn't anything wrong.
"Twilight! Are you alright?" he asked, his earlier worry surfacing again. He still wondered about these unexpected feelings, but was more concerned about Twilight.
When the electricity died down she relaxed and looked at Cole, "Yes, I'm okay. It's weird, I felt a strange sensation just now and last time you were struck by electricity." She looked at herself, "I don't feel like I was just hit with electricity either. Even if it wasn't a lot, I should of felt something."
The things that was happening to the two of them was confusing, to say the least. However, they were near their destination and they decided to head there before anything else. As they neared the bridge they saw police standing around civilians who seemed to be in need of medical attention. They didn't seem to even be able to stand much less walk. The helicopter from before flew past them, saying to the people on the ground, "Medical personnel are en route. Remain calm, those that can walk evacuate across the Fremont Bridge into the Neon District."
Cole, leading the way, headed through the police cars and people. Before they got near it, they saw and heard Zeke and a boy, most likely Spike from the green hair, standing in the middle of the bridge. Zeke shouted to them, "Cole, Twilight, over here, you two. We gotta get out of here."
Cole started forward again, but as he crossed in between the bridge's gates, the biggest bolt of electricity hit him from both sides. Twilight froze and started to twitch slightly, the strange sensation hitting her stronger than ever. After the bolts disappeared, giant bolts of lightning started to crash down around them. The lightning hit everything and everyone around them. They raced across the bridge doing their best to avoid the bolts. As they ran Twilight, through the strange sensation that was coursing through her body, noticed that Cole's arms were enveloped in electricity and more seemed to be drawn to him as he passed lights. When they finally reached the other side of the bridge, the electricity around Cole disappeared and the lightning stopped. As they came to a stop they both collapsed to the ground. They faintly heard Spike and Trish shout their names as they fell into unconsciousness.
Two weeks later...
On the roof that the four friends turned into their home, Zeke was lying on the couch reading a comic, while Twilight and Spike were sitting in separate armchairs. Spike was also reading a comic, while Twilight was reading a book she had managed to find in the lock down. Cole was just standing off to the side. They were situated across from four TVs each one of differing quality. Next to the TVs was a fridge filled with a very limited amount of food and beverages. On the other side of the fridge were several speakers connected to the TVs. Spread out across the roof were several mannequins, lawn chairs, portable batteries, a table, and a bench. There were a few small and withered trees in pots.
Cole broke the silence, "Hey, Zeke, I thought you were going to watch TV."
He moved the comic to look at his friend, "The batteries are dead again. You mind puttin' on the freak show?"
"Zeke! That's no way to talk about that," Twilight reprimanded him.
Cole smiled, "It's fine, Twilight. We take jabs at each other from time to time. It's just a little ribbing between good friends. Did you or none of your friends do it?" He walked around the roof charging the batteries with the bolts of electricity he can shoot off.
Spike grinned, "Yeah, two of our friends are both athletes and sometimes they like to give each other a hard time."
"Well, that's different. They just poke fun at each other. The thing with Cole is-" she trailed off, not being able to think of a suitable phrase.
"Twilight it's fine. I know he was just joking. So, no harm done. Right, Zeke?" Cole reassured her looking at Zeke.
"Yeah, man. Just messin around. Sorry if you took the wrong way Twilight," Zeke apologized.
Twilight hung her head slightly, "No, I overreacted a little. I'm sorry."
Zeke waved the apology off, "Eh. It's no problem. You care a great deal about you friends, ain't nothing wrong with that." As he said that the TV turned on. "Alright boob tube's workin. Nice job, man."
Cole walked back to them, "Weird, it feels like I have more power than before."
"Really? Why don't you try frying the dummies back there. With all of the crazies out there, it would be nice to know how much power you have," Zeke advised.
Cole went around zapping all of the of the mannequins. Their arms, hands, and heads shot off of them.
"Whoo! Man you probably got enough power to take those nut jobs on the street out," Zeke cheered.
Cole chuckled, "Maybe, but I'm not going to go look for them."
"Didn't say you needed to. Just that you can take them if you need to," Zeke chuckling too.
Twilight suddenly stood up and looked at them, "Cole, Zeke, there's something we need to tell you," she motioned to Spike. He put the comic down and walked with her to an open part of the roof. "We've been meaning to tell you, but after you got out of the hospital the two of you spent most of your time getting control of Cole's powers. Which I can understand. You needed to get them under control so nothing like the first day happened again and it gave us some time to see if we really could do what we are about to show you. Ready, Spike?" she asked him.
He looked at her worriedly, "Are you sure? There's no telling how they're going to react."
"Yes, we need to tell them. I can't keep this from them. What if they are in trouble? They need to know so we don't have to hold back," she told him.
Cole and Zeke looked at them. Cole said, "Hey, whatever it is we'll stay friends. You became my friends even though you just met me and stayed friends after we figured out that I'm a human light socket."
"Yeah, well you seemed like a nice person and just because you had lightning coming out of you hands doesn't make you a different person," she said as if that was obvious. "Anyway, I'll show what it is about me first." She closed her eyes and focused.
Zeke and Cole looked at her wondering what she was doing. Suddenly, lavender wings sprouted from her back and she started to flap them. She hovered off of the roof's floor. She opened her eyes to look at them to see their mouths slightly ajar.
Zeke, still out of it from the shock, asked, "Are you an angel?"
Twilight, Spike, and even Cole, snapped out of it by the question, stared at him. After a minute, Twilight facepalmed, Spike burst out laughing, and Cole started chuckling.
Instead of answering right away she lifted her hand. It was enveloped by a magenta aura and they heard something move behind them. They turned to look and saw one of the lawn chairs floating, enveloped by the same aura that was around Twilight's hand. After holding it for a little while she set it down and looked at them.
Cole spoke up first, "I don't really get it. Isn't this the same as what happened to me. I mean, yeah I can't grow anything, but couldn't that be your power?"
"Yeah. You were with him when he got his powers. Aren't these the same thing?" Zeke agreed.
Twilight shook her head and said, "I knew you would say that. That's why I showed you myself first. Spike, would you?"
Spike nodded. He closed his eyes like Twilight did and concentrated. Cole and Zeke's eyes widened as Spike's skin changed purple and became reptilian. He also grew a tail with an arrowhead tip and his hands turned into claws. When he opened his eyes his pupils had become slits.
They stared at him for several minutes before Zeke finally managed to say, "Holy shit. So he's a lizard man?"
Spike fumed at him, "No! I'm not a lizard. I'm a dragon!" To make his point he blew a long stream of fire toward the sky.
While Cole and Zeke stared, Twilight started to explain, "You see, we actually aren't from this world. We are from a world called Equis. The country we are from is called Equestria and the population is pretty much all ponies." They started to open their mouths, but she cut them off, having an idea of what they were going to say. "Yes, after spending time here and somewhere else, I noticed that a lot of the names we give places, and sometimes ourselves, are puns," she continued where she left off. "There are four different types of ponies. The three most common are unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies. What I am is called an alicorn and there are only four of them in Equestria. We have the abilities of all of three races of ponies," she paused letting the information sink in and seeing what there reaction would be.
They sat there thinking over what they were just told. The more Cole thought about it the more it actually made a little sense. The first thing is that before he found her, he had seen flash of violet light where there hadn't been anything previously. The other thing was that she didn't seem to know much about things that most people know at least by high school. She and Spike had both freaked out when they heard gunshots in the street. Usually there would be nothing unusual about that, most of the time when a gun is fired it isn't good. They, however didn't even know what the sound was. Just that there was a loud bang.
As he thought about that a few things stood out to him. He decided to ask her, "You say you are from a different world, but you weren't very surprised by some of the things we came across. You also said that you went somewhere else besides here and your world."
"The answer to both of those questions is the same," Twilight answered. "In our world there is a magic mirror that opens up to another world. The world on the other side of the mirror opens up to a similar world to ours, except for a few things. They were humans and were more technologically advanced than us. What makes me think that is close to being the same as Equestria is because I found people exactly like my friends. They were identical: same name, same hair color, same personalities, even most of their skin color was the same color as ponies coats. I think the difference in what happened was that we didn't enter the mirror, I teleported us here by accident. That's the reason that we ended up here instead of there."
Zeke asked, "Okay, so you teleported here, but how did you teleport here? I mean if you can do that how did you mess it up?"
Twilight blushed slightly and explained, "Well, I used a new spell that I found. Spike didn't want to walk through the Everfree Forest at night," seeing their confused expressions she explained. "It's a forest near the town we live in called Ponyville. It's filled with chaos magic and a great deal of dangerous creatures. We were in it because there was a castle there that the Princesses used to live in. I was reading all of the books in the castle's library and I spent more time there than I meant to. I came across a book full of spells and one of them was a more powerful teleportation spell. It used alicorn magic instead of regular magic. I went outside to use the spell, so that I could get a better heading of where to go. When I started to cast it, the chaos magic that ran through the forest got infused in the spell and instead of teleporting home, we were teleported here."
Cole and Zeke sat on the couch processing everything they had been told and showed. Cole was the first to speak up. "Well, this doesn't really change much." Twilight and Spike turned to look at him looking slightly surprised, even Zeke looked a little taken aback. "What? As she said with me, this doesn't change who they are. Yes, they aren't technically the same species, but while they are here, Twilight and Spike are human. They are also two amazing people that care and trust us enough with their secret."
After contemplating it for a few more minutes Zeke nodded, "He's right. You are still the same people we spent weeks getting to know and became pretty good friends with."
Twilight and Spike stood there shocked by how easily they were willing to except what they had told them. After a moment, grins broke across their faces. They were so happy and relieved that they accepted what they told them and still considered them friends. They then heard something. Turning toward where the noise was coming from, they saw a big plane flying rather low above them.
Zeke shouted, "Whoa! Holy crap. That thing was flyin' so low I thought it was going to crash into us!" Turning his attention back to the TV, he saw that it was starting to static. As it refocused there was a man that had become rather popular during the quarantine. "Hey, guys its the TV jacker. I love that guy."
The TV jacker started to rant over the air waves, "Just got word that the feds dropped some relief packages into Archer Square, the liars at the corporate media tells us that we're gonna get our fair share, that more is coming, heh, that's easy for them to say! They're not the ones living in this hellhole! And truth is that no one is coming to save us. We've been abandoned. So, before the Reapers decide to show up, head over to Archer Square to get the food before them. Voice of Survival out." The broadcast was cut and it went back the normal programming.
Cole looked at Zeke and said slightly smug, "Told you they'd drop food."
"Man, Cole, you think any of those pencil-necks gives a crap about us? You're outta your mind. This is just a PR stunt," Zeke replied.
"That isn't going to stop you from pigging out, though, is it?" Cole asked, even though he already knew the answer.
Zeke grinned, "Hell no it ain't. Zeke's gotta eat."
"I'm going to take the express elevator. You take the stairs," Cole said. He walked in front of one of the gaps in the fence.
"Man you get to have all the fun," Zeke mumbled.
Spike walked up to Cole and asked, "Can I go with you?"
Cole looked down at the little dragon-boy. "I don't know. Can you take the impact?" he asked.
"While I'm in this form I can take pretty much anything. Dragon scales are really thick and trust me we are very durable," Spike told him.
Cole shrugged, "Alright. If you say so." With that the two ran to the edge and jumped, ignoring Twilight's panicked protests.