War Is Useless Here

[Felix Falora]

The denizens of Azeroth knew war. It was a natural occurrence for them, another movement in the cycle of life. For as long as the Horde had existed within the world of Azeroth, the humans had known hate for them. And when the Alliance was formed to combat the Horde, the Horde still knew hate for them. And even when the Horde unified under the leadership of Thrall, a shaman who wished to be rid of the old ways of the Horde and lead his people back into a shamanistic lifestyle, one that would cleanse them of their sins, it still did not change a damn thing. The Alliance and the Horde hated each other. They would always hate each other. Many attempts had been made at peace before, but they had all failed. And after the Battle for Lordaeron, the fight against the Forsaken for their home back, the Alliance and the Horde were at full on war again.

The battleground for a certain party of the Alliance this time was at Gilneas. Two noble women were already well acquainted with the area. It was their home, right before the subsequent invasion of the Forsaken following up an attack caused by the dreaded worgen, of which many Gilneans, including the women, became. Only by being cleansed within the purifying energies of the Scythe of Elune were they free from their feral nature. They were sisters, but while one felt the need to remain human and keep to her old heritage, the other had embraced her new feral side with stride. She felt it was natural, and as a druid, she wanted to go along with it. Her sister, however, was a warrior. She would not feel the same and did not feel at peace in her feral form, only taking it to combat their infernal, undead enemies.

The other three women varied. One was a pure human, untainted by the worgen curse, yet oddly born in the night elven city and raised by feral druids much like the worgen woman in her natural form. One was an actual night elf, yet her presence was cold and deathly, telling the two Gilneans that she was a death knight, a former servant of the dreaded Lich King. The final woman was a gnome, short and lithe in appearance, looking more so like a human child, yet her stature and demeanor gave away her years of experience in the wars that had been avoided by Gilneans for so long. The women had managed to become friends in battle, despite their varied differences, and thus they were all known to each other, taking on their roles with stride.

Helena and Annalissa Ashenworth, sisters of Gilneas who were known during the Forsaken invasion for their clever strategies. Ambushes, sabotage, and traps were their staple. And in head-to-head battle, Helena would rip her enemies apart while Anna would heal her beloved sister. Emeraldi Shadowheart and Myushelle Yseraborn, former compatriots who served amiably in the war against the Lich King, yet were disgraced when they could not save their other compatriots, one of which was Myushelle's own sister, from the effects of the Cataclysm, which changed both of them. Emeraldi went from being a hopeless wanderer to a redeemed soul within the Cathedral of Light, but Myushelle went from being a sadistic, bloodthirsty spirit of war to what Emeraldi used to be.

Lunessa Gearspinner was the last, an Operation Gnomeregan survivor, and as the most experienced of them, she was pretty much tearing up the battlefield with her flames. The downside to it all, however, was her insanity. She loved watching the world burn. She got a kick out of seeing her enemies being engulfed by flames. She was thrilled as they decayed into ash. Nobody cared at the moment, however, as they did battle with the Forsaken. It was when the portal opened that they started to get antsy. "Lunessa!" Emeraldi called. "Stop casting!"

"What?! But we were getting to the best part," the Mage replied in her high pitched, semi-squeaky voice. By that point, however, the portal seemed to act like a miniature black hole, but its magical effects were only pulling in the five Alliance soldiers. They tried to stand their ground, but were ineffective against the raw energies of the gateway. As they flew through dimensions, screaming in shock, they eventually landed upon solid ground again worlds away from their own. The first to wake up was Lunessa and, when she did, she swore she had somehow fallen asleep during battle and was just dreaming all of this up.

The world was so colorful and vibrant. It was nothing compared to the bleak, despair-ridden atmosphere of Gilneas. She pinched herself lightly and squeaked, yet noticed nothing seemed to change. "Ok, who hit me and how hard did they hit me?" Lunessa asked herself, yet when the other girls woke up, they had pretty much similar reactions. Everything looked bright and happy. Nothing was the way it was supposed to be. There were no blood-stained corpses upon the ground. In fact, they appeared to be standing on a road of sorts. By the side of it was a white picket fence and on the other side was open space. "If this isn't a dream, then what happened?"

"The Forsaken have skilled magi," Annalissa speculated. "It isn't entirely impossible to consider the idea they might have tried to spirit us away from the battle."

"It is utterly impossible!" Lunessa replied. "As a skilled mage, I know well what one can do with portal magic, and unless they had the regents and the knowledge of this area intact, they couldn't have consciously sent us here!"

"In that case, it must have been some sort of interference from a higher power," Emeraldi replied. "I know the rest of you might not be able to comprehend it, but... that has to be the case. There's no other plausible explanation."

"We'll figure it out later," Helena said. She was the straightforward one in the group, she knew, and had to take charge somewhere along the line. "For now, let's figure out where we are exactly. Stick together, ladies, and remain alert. We don't know what'll happen. Myushelle, take the lead and be prepared to... you know..."

"Take hits. Yeah, I got it. Don't worry. Nothing can hurt me," Myushelle replied and began to lead the way down the road. Trees with apples passed them by, yet nothing seemed out of the ordinary... up until they came across a village accompanied with some of the weirdest buildings of all time. They were colorful, bright, and vibrant. Some of them did not mesh well together and others stood out plain as day. The style of the architecture was also quite odd. But as they moved on, that was not the weirdest thing of all. It was Emeraldi who noticed it first, pointing with a heavy blush on her face.

"L-Look."

They looked, but they could barely believe it. In the village were moving ponies of many different colors, colors that ought to have never existed upon a realistic equine. Not to mention the weird markings that covered their flanks. They did not look like they were branded upon them, so that meant it had to be part of their natural appearance. But that wasn't the weirdest thing of all. What was weird was the fact they were talking to each other and doing things, eating things, playing games normally reserved for humanoids. Blinking, Helena rubbed her eyes and noticed nothing changed. "So... um... everyone can see this, right?"

"I see it, but I can't believe it," Lunessa gasped. "Scientific evidence has proven time and time again something like this should not exist, yet..."

"Something like this would be my paradise... but it's here for all of us," Emeraldi said.

"Ignoring your usual tendencies, priestess... I don't know where we are or what that portal did, but it looks like we are not even within the boundaries of Outland. This is some other alien world that is not Azeroth and we best be wary." Anna nodded as she gave her final thoughts on the matter.

"Wary?" Myushelle wasn't convinced. "They barely look like they could hurt a fly, much less us."

[shiftyPotentate]

Mm mm mmmm, mm mmm unh mmm...

Vinyl bobbed her head along with the music in her headphones and hummed along with it. Her eyes were closed, and hidden behind her trademark shades. The MP3 player floated beside her, held in place by her telekinetic magic, with a purplish-blue glow around it. She seemed not to have a care in the world, and for the moment, she didn't. Her career was going great, she loved her work, and she had frequent downtime, like now, for instance. She opened her eyes to make sure she wasn't going to run into anything, and slowed to a stop. She pulled her headphones down off her ears and draped them around her neck. She couldn't believe what she saw.

What in the hay is that up there? she thought, using a hoof to slide her shades up to get a brighter look.

Up ahead were what looked like a group of... something. Creatures she'd never seen before. She listened intently, though it was difficult to hear because she'd recently been listening to music. Using a little magic, though, she amplified the sound waves coming from their direction. They were talking like a normal pony would, so they couldn't be too bad. It sounded like they were just lost. And nopony was around to welcome them.

She grinned, letting her shades slip back down. When in doubt, she thought, don't be nopony. Be somepony!

She cantered forward and stood before the group. "Hey, everypony, welcome to Ponyville!" she said confidently.

[Felix Falora]

When Vinyl came up to them, it took them a bit off guard, but they did not react in a hostile manner. It was a friendly greeting, why would they? Still, Emeraldi had to wonder why she was being so friendly considering the company... and especially how they were garbed. Sure, she herself was dressed in traditional Gossamer garments, a tradition for the priests and priestesses of high rank within the Cathedral of Light. The white with gold decorations was a more soothing contrast to what her compatriots normally wore. Myushelle wore armor she had received from the dread citadel of Naxxramus. The black and red color scheme was topped off with skull decor, giving off a definite feel of death around her. It was easy to see why she was chosen to represent the party's "tank" as it were.

The other three did not wear nearly as intimidating a suit of armor, but they still looked intimidating in their own right. Helena and Annalissa both wore garments fashioned for their appropriate class from materials found within the hellish deeps of the Molten Core within Blackrock Mountain. In Helena's case, her warrior gear was armor with a color scheme mixing in black, gold, cyan, and a natural plate color. The shoulders had spikes adorned and the headpiece worn was a mask that had spikes near the back. Annalissa's gear were leather brown robes fashioned with white feathers and green leaves as well. Her shoulder piece was literally leaves adorned onto tree branches and her headpiece looks like weird antler horns jutting out from her canine head.

It was Lunessa, garbed in the more recent creations for those who had come from the hellish plane of fire, the Firelands, that would speak first. She wore robes crafted in a color scheme meant to represent fire; various blacks, oranges, and reds in other words. Her shoulders and headpiece looked to be literally burning, though they were only enchantments and would not hurt to the touch. The headpiece's enchantment came out in the form of a feather. It looked silly, unfortunately, and Lunessa was not rather fond of it, but it would do until she could put together a gear worthy of a Firelord. "Ponyville?" Her Gnomish voice, despite herself, was always doomed to sound like that of a child's. "Excuse me, ma'am, but that's not a village I've ever heard of before."

"We were spirited away to this area in the midst of a battle for our homeland is what our kind friend here should be explaining," Annalissa continued. "We're trying to find our way back home. Might you know the route to Elwynn Forest or Dun Morogh? Or maybe we're on Kalimdor... do you know the route to Darkshore?"

"Are we even in Azeroth anymore?" Myushelle asked. She meant it more to be a joke. She had no idea that she was right on the mark with that comment.

(Pictures for reference to what they are wearing.

Lunessa: www.wowhead.com/itemset=1007#screenshots:id=240690
Annalissa: www.wowhead.com/itemset=205#screenshots:id=241583
Helena: www.wowhead.com/itemset=209#screenshots:id=243505
Myushelle: www.wowhead.com/itemset=-23#screenshots:id=139004
Emeraldi: www.iaza.com/work/111021C/iaza12289433067600.png

Yup.)

[DM: Dersite Merchant]

What a day. By that point, the eldest proprietor of Sweet Apple Acres (aside, of course, from his Granny Smith), Big McIntosh, had most of his share of apple trees bucked and their fruit harvested. Now he was wheeling a cartload to the market to make some sales. His younger sister Applejack was currently with the remainder of her friends wondering where the rest had disappeared off to. At least, as far as he knew.

Just as he was headed into town, he saw the resident DJ, 'DJ-PON3', talking to a small group of strange armored creatures. They had a weird slender shape and appeared built to walk on all fours. They spoke of battle... Other than that odd little instance in Appleloosa which his sister spoke of, there hadn't been a battle in Equestria for over a millennium; not since Discord's reign of terror.

What's more, the one spoke names he wasn't familiar with in the slightest. Elwynn Forest? Dun Morogh? Kalimdor? Darkshore?

In response to whether or not they were even in Azeroth anymore, Mac had to calmly pipe in, "I'd reckon... nnnope," in a simple, matter-of-fact tone.

[shiftyPotentate]

Vinyl blinked. As her world was one untouched by war or strife, she had no idea what their garbs were. To be completely honest, she thought they were dressed up thinking Nightmare Night was coming soon. Which reminded her. She'd have to find a good costume for that. Something subtle, but attention-drawing. Maybe with lots of glowsticks.

As she was about to respond, she heard a voice behind her. Big MacIntosh, the owner of the voice, had come up behind her with his apple cart. She spared a grin. She always admired a hard worker, and he certainly was one. No doubt about that.

"Oh, hey, Big Mac, I didn't even notice ya!" she said, welcoming him. "How's the apple pickin' treating you?" She turned back to the odd group. "Well going by the fact I've never heard of Azeroth, I'm pretty sure you ain't there anymore. This is Equestria!"

She raised her shades with her magic, showing her bright red eyes. "Name's Vinyl. Vinyl Scratch. And this is Big MacIntosh, one of the ponies who works over at Sweet Apple Acres. I just call him Big Mac."

[Felix Falora]

Myushelle did not really jump at the other presence behind her. None of them did, save for Emeraldi. The priestess was easily startled when it came to situations outside of the battleground. At least there, she knew anything could happen. It was a matter of steeling yourself in order to survive. But right now, in this unknown land where anything could be an enemy without them even knowing it, while nothing seemed to be an enemy at the moment, she was easily frightened. However, when she turned and saw the stallion who had answered her undead friend's question, her cheeks flushed red and she nodded lightly. It was the death knight who facepalmed lightly. Vinyl's continuation upon the answer explained what they needed to know. They were not in Azeroth anymore.

"Pardon us," Lunessa replied to the unicorn before pulling her friends off to the side to discuss in whispers over what had happened. And considering all of them were from a wartorn world, they didn't understand how sweet and peaceful Equestria was, so peaceful that it had no need for profanity... so Lunessa proceeded to use it in her opening remark. "This is fucking bullshit! Where in all the many hells did that damned portal take us to?!"

"A new world," Annalissa said, keeping her tongue pure and untainted by the language the gnome was using. "Equestria, the unicorn called it." While they were not in Azeroth, unicorns could be found there if you looked hard enough. Some served as the mounts for paladins and priests alike. "Equestria... perhaps derived from the word equine... what a simple word to call an entire world. Not to mention... Ponyville..."

"A village of ponies, we get it, we're not stupid Anna," Helena responded dryly. "So we've basically been teleported to a world of talking, human-like horses. Pray tell... how in the world did the Forsaken manage this sort of stint?!"

"It's possible the Forsaken did not. Remember the reason we were set to combat the Forsaken as we were? They are apparently suffering from lack of morale caused by the disappearance of their dread Banshee Queen, Sylvanas Windrunner. It is possible we were sucked into some kind of rift the same that took her."

"If this is where it takes us, I'd rather not go back to Azeroth," Emeraldi replied, eyes looking over to Big MacIntosh. Her cheeks flushed red again, but Helena's hands cupped the priestess' head, forcing the woman to face her.

"I would not trust you to stay in a world of horses after what you tried to do to my sister... and my horse." Helena growled.

"Sick tendencies or none, neither of us belong here," Lunessa said. "We have to get back to Azeroth, commit Horde genocide, and conquer the world for the Alliance, remember?"

"Sick tendencies? What nonsense coming from the one insane enough to enjoy beautiful Hyjal burning!" By this point, Emeraldi was offended enough that her voice rose.

"Fire... is pretty! Regardless of what it touches!" Lunessa did the same.

"Congratulations you two... you have now managed to look absolutely insane in front of two sentient members of the equine species," Annalissa replied airily. "In either case, we don't know how to get back to our world, so we'll have to make the best of what we can."

After sometime of silence, however, Myushelle finally spoke. "This place... I don't think I can stay here... it's too colorful... and peaceful... and happy looking."

"I'd love to disagree, my friend, but..." Emeraldi noticed two fillies playing together, laughing as one chased the other, and grimaced lightly. "Yeah. Your deathly presence would bring you naught but... difficulty."

[DM: Dersite Merchant]

Strange beings. They seemed rather edgy and troubled, as if they'd seen more than their share of bad times and a place as peaceful as Equestria seemed foreign to them.

In response to Vinyl's question about his apple picking career, he said calmly, "All right." He then threw the foreigners a glance as they huddled whispering before looking back at the DJ with a look that seemed to say, So, what do you make of them?

[shiftyPotentate]

She caught his look and nodded towards the group.

"I'm not sure why in the hay they're wearing all those weird costumes, or where they're even from," she began, "but they sound lost to me. I think the best thing we can do in this situation is to take them all around Ponyville. Maybe they'll find something that can help..."

She looked back to the group. Something about them seemed off. Exactly what had they arrived here from?

[Felix Falora]

Myushelle nearly summoned forth her Acherus Deathcharger, a powerful undead horse that served as the mounts for those who were part of the Knights of the Ebon Blade. When Helena interrupted the ritual, however, and gestured to the ponies still there, the night elf realized she'd be walking. Hoisting her belongs over her shoulder, she seperated from the group. If either of the two asked why she would have to leave, they would have to explain where they were from and what Myushelle was. But, until then, they just remained silent. Perhaps she'd find her way back and continue the good fight. In the meantime, Lunessa thought, we need to get our bearings straight. Most of the others agreed with her... save for one.

They're all so beautiful, Emeraldi thought. The land is vibrant, serene, and peaceful, and the denizens are all stunning... it's like the world was created to be in perfect, melodious harmony. Back in Azeroth, I was shunned until the Cataclysm. But even then, I was branded a failure for not being able to save people. Why would I ever want to go back to that doomed world? I... I want to stay here... forever... Yeah, Equestria had that effect on people. The Priestess could not foresee that the dimensions being open to others would have effects. For now, she saw paradise, and wanted to indulge in it.

[DM: Dersite Merchant]

There was something about those... people that Big McIntosh couldn't quite put his finger on. Something dark and not like anything Equestria had ever seen as far as he knew. But Vinyl was right; they were lost and would probably need help.

He gave as a response, a tiny, curt nod of the head and one of his most frequent stock phrases, "Eeyup." Truth be told, Mac wasn't that big of a talker.

[gantzgun74]

Meanwhile in the town of Ponyville, as all of this happened...

As she went about her work in the Ponyville Library, reading up as many books as she could, Twilight Sparkle considered this one of the few times she had ever been truely alone since she started living in Ponyville. Not even the books, the pages and texts that she had found so comfortable and familiar helped her feel anymore full, welcome, or at home.

Home just wasn't home without Spike around.

Owlowiscious, her trusty owl and midnight hours assistant, helped keep her company and helped to fix up the library whenever she finished up with reading that day... And of course, Apple Jack and Rarity was still in Ponyville and often visited her. (Those two weren't the pair one would often find paired with each other, but she appreciated their comings regardless). It was just nice to have someone else in the library aside from her... But it just wasn't the same without the entire gang there to enjoy a day in their usual manner. She did have other friends though, and likely... MAYBE would have went outside to to perhaps talk with the mayor, maybe the Cutie Mark Crusaders, or perhaps wrote a letter to Princess Celestia, but right then? She had important business to handle.

And said business was finding her friends. Not only was Spike missing, but so was Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash... As if that wasn't enough, Pinkie Pie went missing only a day or so ago...

Nopony had seen those three in well over a week, and Twilight, feeling responsible, had poured over book after book after book, trying to find something, ANYTHING that would likely give her a clue about where they went. Heck, Twilight was starting to lose sleep over her studies, and her studies, for today, had her going through books in Section T (she had her books organized in Alphabetical order).

No matter what she did though, nothing came up that matched what she could be looking for... Twilight let out a groan when she saw that this was the case... ... ...

WHOOSH!

At that moment, Twilight jumped in surprse when that familiar bird landed on the text, giving her a round intelligent stare. "Wha- Owlowiscious!!"

The bird let out a semi-loud 'hoo!' as if to reciprocate Twilight's greeting.

"I'm talking about you, of course! Don't play dum-" She nearly facehoofed at falling for that old trick again. "Look... Owlowiscious... I NEED to look for something that can help me find the others. What are you interrupting me for?"

The owl turned it's head with a slight short spin until he looked to the door. "I don't have time to go out. I have to read until I find something!" Owlowiscious looked back to her almost wisely, refusing to move. "But..." She let out a groan, realizing she was talking to the bird... She had been doing that a lot lately... Okay, yeah, Owlowiscious was intelligent but... He was still a bird. Blame it on the loneliness.

After a long hard minute, Twilight let out another groan when she saw that the owl wasn't going to budge on this...

------------------------------------------------------------------------

It took her a minute or so to fix her mane, and she used a bucket of water she prepared to wash off her face and wake herself up some more. She still looked a TAD sleepy, but it wasn't TOO horribly noticeable. In fact, everypony seemed to miss it, as they shouted their own greetings to the librarian. Twilight half-heartedly returned them. As for Owlowiscious, Twilight let the window open to allow the owl to leave and return to the library at his leisure once he cleaned up Twilight's mess of books... Though making sure to leave out the ones that she had yet to finish.

She had been ABOUT to try Rarity's place when she noticed a... Rather odd sight.

Just outside of town, she could see what appeared to be an odd scene between Big Macintosh, Vinyl Scratch and....

5 creatures that looked nothing like Twilight had ever seen before?

.... What in Equestria?

Officially curious, Twilight approached the scene cautiously. "Big Mac? DJ PON3?"

The two turned to see her approach them, and likely noticed her eyes were positioned in an expression of confusion. "What's going on over here?"

[shiftyPotentate]

Vinyl had been about to ask about Myushelle, when she noticed Twilight approaching. She waved to her. "Hey, Twilight, how're you doing?" When she got a closer look, she noticed Twilight's tired eyes. "Whoa. You look like you could use a nap. What's been keepin' you up? Don't tell me you're pulling all nighters for your studying again..."

She made light of it, but she'd been there before. Once she had to stay up all night trying to find the perfect sound for Octavia. It had to be powerful and moving, but classical and deep. It took her several hours before she'd found that by slowing down a faster, more punchy dance song and raising the pitch of the bassline, she could replicate that sound while still staying true to the original.

The second she finally found that, she'd promptly crashed asleep right on her mixing table.

"That's not healthy to be doing, Twi." She knew it'd be impossible to convince her since she knew how that felt. The need to put off your sleep for a greater task of importance.

[Felix Falora]

Myushelle managed to slip away unnoticed when Twilight appeared. She'd probably disappear in the Everfree Forest somewhere along the line, leaving the other four to wonder about their current state. What kind of magic brought them here? For what purpose were they brought here? Was the Light trying to test them? If they were, it was obvious Emeraldi was failing. She kept looking at Ponyville with practical stars in her eyes. The other three were battle-hardened soldiers. They might not have been sociopaths, but they knew that their order needed them on the battlefront. Emeraldi was a healer, and she hated war. She'd do anything to avert it. The only one that could really talk her out of it was walking away to spare the ponies a glimpse of death, but the three had to try.

Annalissa would attempt to break Emeraldi out of her grandeur before she got herself too lost in it. "Emerald, dear, I can see your adulation for this place. Truly it does look like an amazing village. But we do not belong here." Her voice was low, in hopes that no one would hear her. Odds are someone would anyway. "We are soldiers of the Alliance... and you are our prized healer. We could not afford to lose you, even to this self proclaimed paradise. You are what keeps us alive as we battle against the infernal Horde. It'd be easy to turn your back on the fight, but only a coward would run away and dessert her homeland. When we find a way back to Azeroth, you have to come with us. We..."

"You could heal just as well as I," Emeraldi replied, counteracting the Druids points and also keeping her voice low. "Your druidic magics are as strong, if not more so, then my Light given magics. You are a powerful Gilnean and should not expect one who holds no love for the war to keep up. I am sick of the fighting. You and the others obviously have this immensely driven hatred of the Horde that compels you to commit mass genocide. I wanted to settle down and start a family, live in peace. In Azeroth, I can't do that. None of us can do that."

"You can't very well start a family here either. And while I will not insult your preferences, you couldn't very well start one with a stallion either."

"I will not deny this line of reasoning, but I could still lead a life of peace. In the long run, that is what I am looking for." Emeraldi sighed. "I wanted to see the work of Lady Proudmoore and Thrall come to a close. But then Putress ruined everything at the Wrathgate." She spoke of an event before the Cataclysm, during the war against the Lich King. The High Apothecary of the Forsaken launched an assault on soldiers of the Alliance, Horde, and Scourge during a raid upon Angrathar the Wrathgate, a location that could lead troops into Icecrown, the land where the Lich King once ruled. In a fierce retaliation to this attack, King Wyrnn sent soldiers to the Undercity in order to destroy Putress while Thrall and Sylvanas brought death to the main composer of the orchestration, the Dreadlord known as Varimathras, with their own contingent of Horde troops.

Yet Wyrnn had a secondary objective challenged when Thrall and Sylvanas appeared with their troops. He had hoped to take Lordaeron back for the Alliance. And while Jaina had stopped unnecessary bloodshed between the two, the war had officially begun anew upon that day, and was taken to further extremes during the attack upon Icecrown Citadel, the lair of the Lich King. It was all out war by the time Garrosh ascended to become Warchief and Deathwing had broken through his prison in Deepholm, bringing ruin to all. "If it wasn't for him, we might have seen peace. Not all of the Horde are evil. The orcs take a shamanistic path. The trolls of the Darkspear Tribe seek a land for their own. The tauren... you work with the tauren, Anna! You know how they are!"

"It doesn't matter how they are." Helena was finally cutting in. "They are our enemy. We are their enemy. We are not Argent Crusaders and Anna only works with the druids of the other races. She may see trolls and tauren in a higher light then I, but as for me, I am a soldier. I will do what I must for my people in the name of my country. That is the main purpose of the Alliance. We exist as a driving force, a fighting force, for the king. And if he demands extinction of the Horde, we deliver."

"Then you have no free will. You've just admitted you are nothing more then his pawn." The only reason Helena did not slap Emeraldi there is because she didn't want to blow their cover and bring their attention to the equines. But it was getting harder as Emeraldi continued. "You have just admitted that you would willingly kill and slaughter anyone the king demands be killed. So what if he demanded an orphanage be burned, huh? Would you be the one to spread the goblin's rocket fuel and drop the torch? Because quite honestly, if something like that were to be ordered, I would look the king straight in his eyes and kindly tell him to go fu-"

Her curse was cut off by Helena's temper coming to full circle. Something had to stop the curse as cursing never got through in Equestria... well if it did, it certainly wouldn't be an admission of the F-Bomb. So it made sense that Helena's hand would finally come hard across her face. But Anna and Lunessa both facepalmed. Lunessa had chosen to remain silent in the events of something like this occurring and, sure enough, further attention would be wrought upon them... and negative attention at that.

[DM: Dersite Merchant]

As the strangers continued to whisper among themselves, Applejack's friend Twilight Sparkle, the Ponyville librarian, showed up. Not long after she did, he saw one of the bipedal creatures suddenly round on and slap another.

With a startled wince, Big McIntosh answered Twilight's question, "Ain't sure m'self..."

And then another thought came to him. Wait... There were five of them just a minute ago...

[gantzgun74]

Twilight merely ignored Vinyl's commentary; really she knew that staying up as late as she was wasn't a smart idea, but she simply couldn't sleep like a normal pony, not when there was work to be done. She looked to Big Mac when she found that he better answered her earlier question. "Thanks Big Mac."

She was just about to greet the odd strangers herself when one of them rounded and slapped the other upside the face. Twilight looked quite surprised at what had just happened. "Hey!"

She walked up to the group, looking curious about what was going on. "Is something the matter here, everypony?" She wasn't really sure calling the group ponies would be appropriate since these people weren't ponies by any stretch of the imagination, but she just grew up using that saying, so she didn't really know better. "Why did you slap your friend?" She held up her head in a dignified manner, as if she was about to enter into a lecture. "Forgive me if I overstep my bounds, and also if this is some sort of normalcy where-ever you are from, but I do not believe that is a good way to treat a friend."