A Strange, New World (that isn't as good as it sounds) [For Parsons]

Equestria, 1005 ANM (After Nightmare Moon)

Blitz would have been enjoying just another day of doing random, crazy stunts around Cloudsdale, but to some unicorns brought up to Cloudsdale for privacy for their special project, it was so much more. It was the day all their hard work would pay off, and only one shot at completing their grand project, which would make instanteous travel across Equestria possibly for all ponies, pegasi, unicorn, and earth pony alike. However, just as they were making the final installations of various equipment into their machine, it went off, destroying itself in a large blast, while also shooting off a ray into the sky, where it ran into an unfortunate Blitz, seemingly wiping her from existence without a trace. However, she wasnt killed, for the machine in its great malfunction gave a random destination to whomever the laser pulse hit. By the time Blitz would have recovered, her entire world would be different. Instead of the cloud buildings of Cloudsdale, instead were drab concrete and brick buildings, more reminiscent of Manehatten than anything. However, gone was the old prevalent friendliness of Equestria, replaced instead by a somber, repressive atmosphere. Above, drab, grey clouds that definitely look like any clouds in Equestria hung above, below, solid concrete greeted Blitz's eyes. However, despite all this dearyness, there seemed to be a massive party going on. Banners of flags Blitz had never seen before hung from buildings

Spoiler: flag description

(one of the two flags had 2 main sections, a rectangular stripe down the side that would be closest to a flagpole that sported an eagle centered on it that had a shield that was decorated much like the flag it was on, except the rectangular stripe at the top had three stars. also in the rectangle was 4 stars at the corners and another just below the Eagle's body. the rest of the flag sported 8 stripes, with the color scheme of Red, Gold, and black. Meanwhile the other flag looked about the same, only the rectangle was black instead of red and sported a big red E in its center, and it had 10 stripes instead of 8.)

as festive music filled the air and confetti was thrown from the rooftops. But these celebrations coming from the ponies surrounding Blitz seemed almost forced and faked, like they were being forced to hold this massive party, and they didn't want to.
Next to Blitz stood a unicorn stallion with a light blue coat, light black hair that had strands of red in it, and had orange eyes, she would have quickly deduced this unicorn was probably her best bet at figuring out what was going on...

(Welcome to Terra, that unicorn shall be my character, a family member of the mayor of the Equestrian settlement you are currently in by the name of Red Glory.)

 

Red Glory looked to the pony who had just talked to him, "Huh?" He asked at first, then his eyes filled with fright as he say her face was smiling and 'full of joy', "Smile, Gods dammit! Do you want to get convicted of treason!" He suddenly nearly yelled at her, head suddenly snapping towards the sound of marching boots, "Here come the Glorians! You better smile, wave, and be happy or you're dead!" He said to her quickly before returning his gaze to the approaching sound of marching boots, which were soon revealed to be a group of about 20 strange beings (humans) in full military fatigues carrying aloft flag just like the one with the big red E, only this one had 11 stripes instead of 10.

 

After the soldiers had passed a good ways, their path obviously heading towards the city hall straight down the road, Red turned towards Blitz, "Now I can answer any questions." He said to Blitz, "Oh, and Red Glory, nice to meet you."

 

Red gave Blitz a confused look, "How could yo-Nevermind, now's not the time. Anyways, I can take it you're pretty well uneducated with this place, so I'll give you a basic run down; Welcome to the Autonomous Equestrian Settlement 183 inside of Glory. Those 'things' that just walked by are Glorians, or technically, humans or Terreans, but anyways, Glorians are our technical rulers, this is the one time every hundred years they enter our settlements, or as they see them, their generous gifts to a defeated race. This ceremony is the flag-changing ceremony. Every hundred years, those guys come in, force us to celebrate another 100 years under their rule as they put up a flag with yet another stripe representing yet another 100 years under their rule. Today marks the 1,100 th anniversary of the end of the Ciilonii War, the war we've lived here ever since." Red explained, the bitterness in his voice obvious

 

"Trust me, with the Glorians, only they can make sense of themselves." Red said, "But I can tell you more after the ceremony."

(Time skip to then?)

 

After the ceremony, Red took Blitz to his small apartment to answer any of the questions she had over a cup of neius(think tea, only slightly addictive and much more naturally sweet and pleseant to the taste). Red showed Blitz to his table which was in the same room as the kitchen and living room, with only a small hallway leading to his bedroom and bathroom. After a few moments of preparing the neius, Red sat down at the small table across from Blitz, giving her a cup, "I know it isn't impressive, but what else would one expect to get from an area about 4 square miles big and 2 million ponies living inside?" He asked rhetorically, "Now, if you have any questions, I'll do my best to answer them."

 

"Well, you obviously aren't from here, so I can't say. A human is what you saw earlier, and that's neius, a common drink in this country but oh so woefully rare in the Equestrian settlements, try it! It's quite good!" Red told Blitz

 

Red rolled his eyes, "Just give it a try Blitz! Don't knock something you haven't tried!"

 

Red simply blinked at Blitz, "Look, I know that this is all very unbelievable, but I'm telling the truth. You are on a planet called Terra, you are in a nation called Glory, and you just so happen to be part of a species that even 1,100 years after a war that left 50 million dead on both sides, is still hated for that war, and so we are the most discriminated, segregated group on Terra. We aren't even allowed to leave the walls of the settlement, not that it'll be any better out there. Actually, it'ld probably be worse. At least inside the walls, we have each other, outside lays the unforgiving Terra, which has killed billions of it's own people. Hell, the very nation we are in right now once had an emporer so deranged, he thought the only way to conquer and bring peace to the world was kill anything on it that wasn't Glorian." Red said, "These Terreans, they aren't nice folks overall. They have a very, very dark history dotted with uncountable wars, each one more terrible than the last." He sighed and shook his head, walking over to a window and throwing open the curtains, revealing a very busy city skyline that had tons and tons of skyscrapers, "Center City..." He muttered, "Or UrbaCentralis in Glorian." He went on, "The best representative of Glory in the province of Gloria Inferior. And also one of the worst cities on Terra to be an Equestrian in, second only to Glory's capital, Gloria Renovatus." Red sighed again, "I would probably think this was all a dream too, if I was in your position..."

 

Red eyes grew wide as he heard the word 'Equestria', "You're from Equestria?!" He asked in disbelief, rapidly approaching the table, "Tell me! What's it like! Last we heard the Glorians had advanced from Ciilonii, found Equestria, and razed it to the ground! Are they telling the truth?!"