Chapter One: Equestria

Roach opened his eyes, at first shocked and scared by the scene before him. He knew the town he was looking at. He smiled widely, wondering if he was dreaming. The large crystalline tree like palace being the center of the town, he spotted a rainbow mane pegasus speaking with a lavender coated alicorn, oh yes; Roach definitely knew where he was now.

Roach heard his companions waking up beside him and looked over to see two pegasi lying beside each other, one with a brown, spiky mane and tail, with skin colored fur, a red shield with a white star for a cutie-mark. The other had a curly reddish brown mane and matching tail and paler fur than the other, and instead of red, he had a blue shield and white star for his cutie-mark. Realizing that it was Archer and Toad, he figured he'd been turned into a pony too and got to his hooves, looking himself over; he was an earth-pony with a dirty blonde, sort mane that lay flat against his head and a spiked tail, his coat was a dusty brown color. His cutie mark was the zodiac symbol of Aries. Roach figured his call sign wouldn't work as a name here and decided that, because of his cutie mark, he'd be called 'Aries'.

He looked around him and saw Jayhawk starting to get up, he was a pegasus as well, fitting, considering the name. His coat was a light grey and his mane was a dusty colored light blue with streaks of light grey and black, his wings fading to white at the tips with the feathers dappled with spots of black. His cutie mark was a blue jay with rust colored stripes on its wings. His call-sign would definitely work here. Jay woke up, opening his eyes, revealing them to be a dark forest green.

Jayhawk's eyes went wide as he saw Roach, who instantly pretended not to know what was going on as he looked around with faked confusion in his features. He saw Toad and Archer waking up. Archer's eyes were a light, pale blue, suggesting the sniper was still color blind despite the complete change in species and universe for that matter. Toad's eyes were an emerald green. The three pegasi stood up and looked around in panic.

"What the hell!?" Toad questioned, spotting his and Archer's wings, and then looking at Jayhawk, his jaw dropping at the colors that adorned Jay's mane, tail, and wings.

Roach took a breath, they needed some form of solid ground work here, these three knew nothing about this, possibly didn't even know the show still existed. He'd have to step up and help them as much as he could.

"Um… I think I might know what's going on here…" Roach said sheepishly, spotting the rainbow mane mare flying towards them he gasped in surprise, making the others look up at the cyan pegasus that circled them.

They all looked scared as Rainbow Dash landed in front of them, "Who are you four?" she asked suspiciously.

Roach looked at his companions as the coward and faced Rainbow, he sighed; he knew someone would find out eventually, but he certainly didn't expect it to happen this way, "Um… I'm… uh… Aries…" he answered slowly.

The others looked at him curiously, not familiar with the name, "And… these are my friends," Roach continued, gesturing to the other three ponies, "Jay Hawk, Archer, and…" he paused, realizing that the name Toad didn't fit here, he'd have to come up with a new one, "um… Copper," he said randomly, motioning to each as he said their names.

Toad raised an eye brow at the new 'name' and how easily Roach was talking to this creature.

"Uh huh…" Rainbow responded suspiciously and motioned for the small band of ponies to follow her, "Come on, Twilight wanted to see what I found up here."

"Huh?" Jay asked suddenly, "What do you mean, 'wanted to see what you found'? Did she send you?" he questioned.

"Yeah, I'm the fastest flyer around, she sent me to check out that flash that happened not too long ago," the mare answered, "The name's Rainbow Dash by the way."

They followed Rainbow to the crystalline tree palace, meeting a lavender pony with a horn and wings out front.

"Hey Twilight!" Rainbow Dash greeted, trotting up to the alicorn.

"Rainbow," Twilight responded simply, "And who are these ponies?" she asked, spotting the four ponies behind Rainbow, one earth pony and three pegasi.

"I found them on the edge of the Everfree Forest, where we saw that flash," she explained, "this is Aries, Archer, Jay Hawk, and Copper," she introduced them.

"Hello," Twilight greeted them, "I'm Twilight Sparkle, and where are the four of you from?"

They all looked between each other curiously, "Um… I-uh…" Roach stammered, trying to come up with something but he failed to, "I… don't know…" he admitted.

"Huh? You don't know where you're from?" Twilight questioned curiously.

That gave Roach an idea; he shook his head, "That's not exactly what I meant. We travel, we're not really from anywhere," he answered.

"Oh!" Twilight seemed to accept the answer and Roach breathed a silent sigh of relief, "Well, you're certainly welcome to stay in Ponyville for as long as you like!" she offered kindly.

"Thank you," Roach replied, being polite, as a few of Twilight's friends came out of the castle.

He spotted Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and Spike. Pinkie gasped like she did when she first met Twilight and ran back inside, leaving everyone else to stare after her in wonder and confusion.

"What…" Archer started but didn't finish.

He squinted, grimacing as he rubbed his eyes.

"Archer?" Toad asked, looking at his friend, "What's wrong?"

Archer shook his head, looking at his friend, grimacing as he squeezed his eyes shut again, looking away. He fell on his haunches, rubbing his eyes and looking around him. He shook his head roughly as if trying to clear it.

The other ponies stared in worry at the new pegasus that was now currently in a panic, rubbing at his eyes constantly. He was about to bolt in a terror when 'Copper' tackled him.

"Archer, pull yourself together!" he said sharply, pressing his muzzle against the other stallion's, staring into the closed eyes.

Suddenly Archer's eyes snapped open and he sucked in an audible breath at the eyes staring into his. He recognized them as his American's eyes but he'd never seen them like… like this. Emerald green, he thought, not that he'd know, being stuck with monochromatic sight for most of his life. Now though, he could actually see the color, it made his head hurt and pound against his skull. Archer moaned at the headache and put his hooves to his ears in a feeble attempt to make it stop.

Toad got off of him and helped his friend up, who, with the severity of the migraine he was getting from suddenly being able to see in color, nearly doubled over again.

"What just happened?" Rainbow Dash asked randomly.

The band of ponies, save Archer who'd rather keep his eyes closed than look at a rainbow at this point, looked at her, "I have no idea," they said in sync.

"I take back every time I said I hated colorblindness… this sucks…" Archer said randomly, daring to open his eyes.

They weren't quite as pale now; they had more of an icy gleam to them.

The others just looked at him in surprise, "Wait? What? What are you talking about?" Toad asked in shock.

Archer groaned, "I'll explain later…" he muttered ill-temperedly.

They just looked between each other and shrugged. Toad covered Archer's back with a wing, helping to guide his friend. Archer was keeping his eyes closed, the sudden vibrant colors made his head hurt. The ponies that they had met, each of them introducing themselves, gave them a tour around Ponyville, Archer would rely on the unique sounds and tones of conversation from each place to tell where he was rather than what the places looked like, considering he felt like he'd pass out every time he opened his eyes to try to see the place.

Eventually they were brought to an empty house and told that they could stay there during their stay in Ponyville.

"But, I have to warn you, there are only three bedrooms…" Twilight said slightly, as if she knew it didn't really matter for them.

"That's fine, thank you," Roach replied quickly, again being polite.

The purple alicorn nodded, "Right, well, if you four need anything, you can always find me or one of my friends at the castle," she said, turning to leave.

Toad and Roach both saw the pink mane pegasus stare at Jay Hawk a little longer before leaving, both chuckled.

"What's so funny?" Archer questioned as Jay just looked between the two then towards the shy pony.

"Oh, it's nothing," Toad assured, "I don't know 'bout you guys but I'm bushed, let's go get some sleep, he said; gesturing to the house in front of them.

The others nodded in agreement and Roach opened the door, stepping in first. Archer opened his eyes experimentally after hearing the door close behind him and, after finding that the colors weren't too bright and were rather simple, opted to try to keep them open, at least get used to how his friends looked now.

"We need to get back home," Jay Hawk pointed out as they all settled down.

The others gave their own form of agreement before looking about the house to get their bearings. They each found a saddle bag, two in one room and one in each of the other two. Each bag was either a simple black satchel with a cutie mark that matched one of theirs, or it was a dun color and had two pouches, the cutie mark on it matching Roach's. They looked between each other and opened the bags.

Inside the three black bags were several lengths of rope, a knife, and a few other basic survival materials. In the two dun bags were other materials that they would find useful if they were living in the woods. None of them questioned how the movements of their pony forms came so naturally, although it irked them, they made no mention of it.

Roach pulled out a large piece of parchment he had found in his bag and laid it out on the floor. It was a map. They felt drawn to the cities of 'Canterlot' and 'Cloudsdale'.

"Okay, if we're going to get home, we've got a lot to figure out," Roach pointed out.

Archer nodded, staring at the vividly colored map, his eyes finally starting to adjust to this change, "I think we should start here," he said, jabbing a hoof at Canterlot, "Something tells me we'll have to split up if we go to Cloudsdale…"

Roach and Jay Hawk both agreed, Toad smiled smugly, "I've learned the hard way not to question his intuition," he said cheerfully.

Archer chuckled and flicked Toad with a wing, "Damn right," he said with a laugh as Toad mock glared at him.

Roach and Jay rolled their eyes at them. It didn't matter how much they tried to hide it, everyone knew about how Archer and Toad were so much more than just 'close friends'.

"Anyway…" Jay Hawk cut into the awkward silence, "Maybe we'll find someone who can help us figure these out," he suggested, flapping his wings experimentally.

Archer and Toad nodded in agreement, looking back at their own wings.

"Hey, what about that Rainbow one? She said she was the fastest flyer around right? Must mean she's good at it," Toad suggested.

Roach shook his head vigorously, "Bad idea, I'm not sure we want them to know who or what we actually are… Especially if you see a mint colored one…" Roach said, his eyes going wide, "avoid her… Rainbow might teach you but… I don't know, she's pretty brash and cocky, and we wouldn't get by without raising suspicions."

"Like we haven't already?" Archer questioned, "I mean, seriously, look at Jay Hawk. Have you seen anyone like that? And the fact that we were where they saw a flash when they came to investigate it, it probably doesn't look too good for our story."

"Good point…" Roach said, tapping a hoof to his chin, thinking, "We need to come up with an alibi and teach you three how to fly," his face lit up with excitement, "I know just the pony we need to talk to!" he exclaimed, "But for now, we should get some sleep… In the morning, we go to Sugar Cube Corner."

The others nodded in agreement, keeping their questions about who they'd be meeting to themselves, knowing that Roach would wait till the last second to tell them, and headed off to their rooms.

Okay, so I gave up on finishing first… Yeah, I'm still working on Chapter Two but it shouldn't be too terribly long, I've hit writer's block with all of my other stories unfortunately… So, enjoy, there will be reviewer shout-outs, and let me know what you guys think!

Thanks for Reading, Fly High Aim Higher

~Spitfire out