When Twilight and the humans finally finished their long, and often interrupted, explanation of just exactly what a human being was, Twilight began to usher her friends out of the basement.
When they were all out the basement door she said, "Thank you for your concern girls and I promise a better explanation of what's going on later, but right now I need to talk with my guests alone."
"But Twilight, ya'll-", Applejack tried to protest, but Twilight cut her off.
"I'm sorry Applejack, but I assure you the secrecy is necessary. I will explain everything later. I promise." and with that she slammed her basement door in the faces of the five mares and dragon. As they heard her hoofsteps recede down the stairs, they looked at each other for a moment. Rainbow was the first to speak up.
"I'm not buying it. Something so dangerous that we couldn't handle it? If we couldn't handle it then why would those two wierdos she found be able to handle it?"
"Ah' don't know, but Ah don't like it.", Applejack said, "Somethin' just don't feel right. I don't like the looks of those fellers. That 'Darren' seemed kinda shifty and that 'Zachary' fella seemed outright hostile. Did you see the way he was looking at Pinkie?" Rainbow nodded in agreement as she stood there, favoring her injured leg.
"Well, to be fair, you and Pinkie Pie did knock him out and tie him up", Rarity pointed out.
"That's not the point!", Applejack said, "And we only did it because he fired that thing at you."
"What I want to know", Rainbow Dash said, "is what are we gonna do?"
"Maybe we should trust Twilight?" Fluttershy said softly, "She is our friend and we've been through a lot together. Maybe she has a good reason for keeping secrets. She did say she would tell us what was going on when she was ready. Maybe we should just wait." The others stopped and stared at her for a moment and then at each other. After a bit of thought, Spike spoke.
"Nah. No way we can just sit back and leave her alone with those two. You know how Twilight can be. She's probably not in her right mind right now. She mentioned some 'big danger' right? Well she's probably freaked out and you remember how she gets when she's stressed. Remember how she acted when she realized she was just going to be late for one of her friendship reports?"
"But that was a long time ago", Fluttershy said, "What if this time is different? She has been getting better about that. Remember the Equestrian Games?" But it was no use. Spike and the other mares weren't listening.
"So what are we gonna do?" Applejack asked.
They stood there for a moment contemplating the issue before Rarity's eyes widened and she shouted, "I have it!" Spike and the other mares perked up and looked to her curiously.
"What?! What do you have?", Pinkie Pie asked.
"I know what to do", Rarity said, "Come closer and I'll tell you." She beckoned them to gather round and began to relate her absolutely genius plan to them.
Darren took the time that Twilight spent escorting her friends out to get a better look at the other human, Zachary, with his un-blackened eye. Zachary was a little over a foot taller than Darren and probably would be even without his armor, which meant that he was at least six feet tall. His hair was a dark brown color and was just a little longer and neater than Darren's. The Wanderer's eyes were green in color. He looked to be no more than half as old as Darren, which put him in his early to mid-twenties. All in all he didn't look too remarkable if you took away the weapons and armor.
Zachary, in turn, was examining Darren out of the corner of his eye. At first glance Darren didn't seem that impressive, but Zachary had learned a long time ago that appearances could be very deceiving. When he examined the man more closely he saw the way Darren held himself even when sitting as they were. It was clear that he knew how to use the sword on his hip and the rifle sitting behind him.
They both stood up from their seats when they noticed Twilight coming back down the stairs and Darren sat his ice pack on the table. Leaving their rifles where they sat, they left the table and moved to meet her at the bottom of the stairs. Twilight saw them coming and began to speak when she reached the bottom of the stairs.
"Alright, now I'm sure you both have a lot of questions and now that my friends are out of the way for the moment I would be happy to- GUN IN MY FACE!" There was indeed the barrel of a gun in her face. Zachary's laser pistol to be exact.
"You have thirty seconds to explain to me what the Hell was so important that you had to ruin the first normal day I was having in a long time and remove me from my home. If I see even one spark come out of that horn of yours I pull the trigger and burn a hole right through your skull." He said threateningly.
"Please! Put the weapon down, I will explain everything if you just put the gun away!", Twilight was confused. Why was the Wanderer acting like this? According to all of her research he was supposed to be a kind and diplomatic soul, not a trigger happy grump!
"Not gonna happen", Zachary continued, "I make it a habit not to trust things that appear with bright lights. Damn aliens..."
Darren grabbed Zachary's shoulder and said, "I believed the lady asked you to remove the gun from her face"
"And I said 'not gonna happen'"
"I don't think you understood me", Darren removed his hand from Zachary's shoulder and, the next thing Zachary knew, there was a knife pressed to his throat and a golden pistol being pressed to his temple, "I said put the gun away." Without saying anything, Zachary let out two low whistles. Suddenly Darren felt a sharp pressure on one ankle and something being pressed lightly into his stomach. He shifted his eyes downward briefly to find Zachary's dog with his jaws lightly clamped around his ankle and Zachary's free hand holdng a knife to his stomach.
"Your move", the Wanderer said. Twilight looked on at the interaction with horror. Her horror then changed to anger.
"I cannot believe you two!", she shouted. Zachary and Darren turned to her with blank expressions.
"You are both supposed to be heroes!", she continued, "I have watched from afar as you both were dropped into situations far stranger than this and kept cool heads. You are both supposed to be the best your world had to offer! Brave and kind, and yet here you are fighting and bickering and pointing guns around willy nilly!", she focused on the Wanderer, "Zachary, I was already going to explain, so there was no need for the gun!", she turned her focus to the Courier and said, "Darren, did you really think that pulling a knife and a gun on an armed man would really force him to calm down? You should both be ashamed of yourselves!"
As Twilight's speech had progressed, the humans' eyes had slowly grown wider and wider. Here was an adorable purple creature admonishing them for daily wasteland behavior... Darren burst into raucous laughter and with a twirl of his pistol and a flourish if his knife he put both weapons away. Dogmeat let go of his leg and looked up at him with his head cocked to the side in confusion. Why was the human laughing? He thought they were supposed to be fighting!
"You know what girly?", Darren asked through his laughter, "I like you. Takes guts to stand up to two armed men like us." Zachary looked back and forth between Darren and Twilight who was looking at him expectantly. Finally, with one last glare at Twilight, he put his laser pistol away.
"Fine, I'll put it away, but I want those answers and they'd better be good", he said, "And if I see even one stray spark out of that horn of yours..." He trailed off, leaving the statement unfinished.
"Thank you. Now, if you would both take a seat again, I will give you a detailed explanation and answer your questions", she lead them back to the table and they took their seats where Twilight spoke again, "In case it wasn't clear and you hadn't already figured it out, you are no longer in the wasteland. In fact, you are no longer even on your own world."
"What, so you somehow brought us to another planet?", Zachary asked, "Dammit, more aliens!"
"No no", Twilight said before he could continue, "Not just another planet. Not exactly anyways."
"What do you mean 'not exactly'?", Darren asked as he leaned forward curiously.
"What I mean", Twilight continued, "is that you are no longer within the bounds of your own universe. At least, I don't think we are from what I've been able to tell."
"Another universe? I've dealt with teleportation before, but to go to an entirely different universe... How is that even possible? " Darren asked.
"With magic", Twilight said matter-of-factly.
"I'm not stupid", Darren replied, "Magic doesn't exist. I'm not some simple minded tribal, so you can give me the real explanation."
"But it's true", Twilight said sternly, "If magic couldn't exist than how did I freeze you earlier? And how can I do this?", her horn glowed and several books and various other items around the room began to glow with the same purple aura and started floating around. When Zachary saw her horn light up his hand went to his pistol, but he remained seated and didn't draw it.
"You don't need magic to do that", Darren said, "I've seen similar affects achieved using manipulated forcefields. It wouldn't be impossible to implant a control chip for some kind of generators into that horn of your's." Twilight released her hold on the floating objects with a sigh.
"Well I suppose I don't have to convince you just yet", Twilight said, "Just as long as you accept the results. As I was saying, you are no longer in your world. You are currently sitting in the magical world of 'Equis'." Her horn glowed again and a chest floated over to her from atop a nearby book case. When it reached her, out floated a crystalline gem, about the size of Zachary's forearm. The crystal then floated over to the center of the table and touched down in a small indentation that the humans hadn't noticed before.
Twilight released the crystal from her telekinetic grasp. Zachary opened his mouth to speak, but he was silenced when Twilight tilted her head forward and a bright beam of light shot out of her horn and into the crystal. Immediately the crystal lit up and what looked to be a large map appeared, taking up the entire table. Darren picked up the ice pack that he'd set down earlier and placed it back over his black eye. Where the ice pack once sat there was now a miniature mountain.
Zachary took his hand away from his pistol and leaned in closer to look at the map.
"This is... This is where we are?", he asked almost reverantly, "There's so much green!", he said in amazement. All trace of hostility seemed to vanish from him as he examined the map placed before him.
"A holographic projection", Darren said curiously, "Impressive. In full color too. Even more impressive. And that is a lot of green... Even more green than when I was in Zion..." Zachary glanced over at Darren in surprise when he mentioned the name Zion but did not say anything*.
"Let's start with the basics. We are currently here", Twilight continued. Her horn sparked once more and a small flashing light appeared in the center of a small town towards the middle of the map, "This is Ponyville."
"Really?", Zachary said, looking up from the map with a raised eyebrow, "Ponyville?"
"Yes, what's wrong with it?", Twilight asked a little incredulously.
"Nothing, nothing. Just... Continue please..."
Twilight glared at him suspiciously before continuing, "This little town resides at the center of the land of Equestria", her horn glowed again and a large section of the map was surrounded by a red border with the first red dot towards its middle, "Equestria is ruled by the Princesses Celestia and Luna who live here", the first red dot dissapeared and reapeared over the figure of a fairly large stone city on a mountainside, "This is Canterlot, the capitol of Equestria."
"Alright, you've got my interest so far, but what exactly do you need from us?", Darren asked.
"Please be patient Mr. Ross, I'll get to that soon.", Twilight said, "The Princesses are rulers of the day and night. Princess Celestia is the ruler of the day. She uses her own power to raise and lower the sun each day. Princess Luna rules the night and controls the moon and stars."
"Wait, so they're supposed to be like goddesses or something?", Darren said. Zachary sat up straighter when he heard Darren's comment.
"False goddesses, more likely", he said, "Is that why you brought us here? To deal with false goddesses?"
"Fight a revolution for you?", Darren said, continuing that line of thought. Twilight's eyes widened in shock.
"What?! No! No, I did not bring you here to fight a revolution and Luna and Celestia are not false goddesses, they are Princesses!"
"You said you believed they ruled the sun, moon, and stars", Darren said.
"Sounds fairly god-like to me", Zachary said, "But I know of only one God."
"You sure we're not here to fight them? Usually when I encounter some all powerful authority figure they end up needing to be toppled", Darren continued non-chalantley. Twilight looked back and forth between the two humans for a few moments, her shock turning into frustration.
"No, Luna and Celestia are not goddesses! They are just very powerful. And no, they do not need to be toppled, we are very happy under their rule!"
"Then why are we here?", Zachary asked.
"I was getting to that! I brought you here because-", she was interupted by a very loud sneeze from a window, high up in the basement wall. "For crying out loud, what now?!"
AUTHOR'S NOTES:
I'm so horrible, I really should just tell you why she brought them there, but I felt like teasing you for one more chapter. At least my chapters are getting longer. Is it just me or did Twilight's dialogue feel a little rushed/forced the way I did it?
1: I've decided that this story takes place right before the events of 'Magical Mystery Cure', but after the 'Equestria Games'.
2: I decided to go with 'Equis' as the name for the 'planet' in MLP: FIM because the only mention of 'Earth' in the show was during the Hearth's Warming Eve pageant as the possible name of a country the Earth ponies would have founded
3: *Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him 144,000 who had his name and his Father's name written on their foreheads. ~Revelations 14:1...
