Hammer was nearly beaten to pieces by his friends when he had delivered his information. They couldn't believe it. They were in a strange, new world? No, it was Hammer playing tricks on them. Hammer squirmed out of their grip, and faced them.
"You think I'd play a trick like that on my own friends? I wouldn't. It came as a shock to me as well, but haven't you noticed? The world's, well, happier, and somewhat more colorful." The others looked around. They actually hadn't noticed that. Pumpjack walked forward, and stared Hammer down. She scared him slightly.
"So whaddya think we oughta do, Hammer?" He thought for a minute.
"If this land is somehow linked to Airtseuqe, then the worlds might be similar, but just reversed. They could have their own version of Ponyville here." At the mention of Ponyville, they all heaved a sigh of relief.
----********
The young filly had been watching them discuss where they were, and a strange name kept coming up. A land called 'Airtseuqe.' She got up off her hindquarters and booked it to Ponyville, intent on telling the most intelligent pony that she knew of.
----********
Hammer looked at all of his friends.
"So it's settled then. We enter their version of Ponyville, and examine what is different, and, if possible, recruit somepony into helping us out of our strange predicament." They all nodded as best as they could, the Element plates still on. They returned to their path that they believed would lead them through the Everfree Forest.
----********
After about an hour of trial and error, they eventually made it out of the Everfree. Hammer had to catch his breath.
"Okay, whose bright idea was it to make chimeras HATEFUL of ponies? That's just messed up!" Deepwood nodded, and opened her book.
"This whole world deserves its own book for how nature works. There are things we don't understand here." Hermes glared at Deepwood.
"Great, mate, bleedin' brilliant. Now I suppose we just WALK up to those creatures, and ask, 'Oh, would you mind standing still for us? We want to write down how you react to ponies.' You're a bloody fool for thinking that, Deepwood. We'd be be'er off steering CLEAR of any creatures here in this land." Deepwood looked down, a little bit saddened. Hammer kept trotting, looking around for any signs of something similar nearby. His friends, bickering amongst themselves at that point, turned and saw him going forward, and decided to catch up. Hammer crossed the final ridge and was greeted with a familiar sight, except that it was, well, pink.
"You all see that, right? Ponyville is coloured pink." Hermes had to rub his eyes before he believed what he saw.
"Bloody hay! That's not right at all! That's just, erm, wrong!" Beanstalk walked forward, and ignoring the pink colours, she announced where they were in a voice louder than she usually spoke.
"YAY! IT'S PONYVILLE!" She charged down the hill, not aware of an orange Earth Pony pulling a cart up the road. Hermes saw the danger, and 'zapped' to Beanstalk, who was just realizing what might just happen. He pushed her out of the way, but ended up crashing into the cart himself, knocking both the orange pony, and IT over. Hermes went tumbling, and the orange pony stood up, slightly dazed.
"What the? Who did that? Come out, ya varmint. Ya gotta be considerate to them ponies working!" She apparently hadn't noticed it was Hermes who had ran into her, because as she turned around, she saw Hermes rolling head-over-hooves down the hill, screaming bloody murder as he couldn't stop.
"BLEEDING BRILLIANT! I AM NOT ENJOYING THIS! HAMMER!" Hammer heard his name called, and booked it from the group. Going downhill meant he could pick up more speed, but that also meant that he had to move that much faster to catch up with the rolling Hermes. He righted the overturned cart, and faced the orange pony.
"Just going to borrow this for a minute or two." Before she could protest, he was already rolling down the hill, a smile of determination spreading across his face. He was accelerating much faster than he would have been if he had been galloping.
"Wait up, Hermes! I'm coming!" A crowd of ponies had gathered at the end of the road, which ended in the town square of the pink Ponyville. Hammer's mind began racing, and he was waving wildly for them to move, or they might get hurt.
"MOVE! SCATTER! JUST DON'T STAND IN THE WAY!" The crowd didn't get what he meant at all. Hammer was finally overtaking Hermes, so he extended his hoof as far as possible, and grabbed that pony's hoof. Dragging him onto the cart, they looked up to realize that the crowd had NOT dissipated, and in fact had gotten larger. Hermes glared at Hammer.
"You're a bloody fool, you know that?" Hammer shrugged, and then they collided.
Hammer went flying straight for the pole in the centre of town, unable to keep from slamming into it. Hermes had hopped out before they had crashed into what was apparently the orange pony. How she had gotten in front of the cart that easily was beyond them. Hammer picked himself up, and brushed his Element helm off, before pulling it off.
"Good thing I was still wearing this, or that could have been messy." The crowd stared at him, but parted to let Hermes, Pumpjack, Beanstalk, Scooter, and Deepwood through. As Hammer and his friends congregated in the middle of Ponyville, they were getting strange looks from the crowd.
"What are those?"
"They aren't from around here."
"Why was the brown one so reckless?" Hammer motioned for them to pull off their Element plates, when a lavender unicorn came barreling in front of them.
"I came as soon as I could. Thanks, Dinky." The young filly smiled, and cantered away. The lavender unicorn looked them over, then held out a hoof. Hammer guessed it was a greeting, and returned the gesture in a hoofshake. The lavender unicorn seemed pleased at that, and her face became less tense.
"May I ask who you are?" Hermes stood forward, and stood proudly tall.
"I am Hermes, the Lightning Earth Pony!" Deepwood stood forward, and kept writing in her document book.
"I'm Deepwood. This is very interesting. Interesting indeed." Scooter stepped forward, a huge smile across his face.
"Name's Scooter! I love anything with more 'n 3 wheels!" The lavender unicorn was taken aback for a minute or so. The ponies in front of her seemed strange indeed. Hammer stepped forward, held his hoof across his chest, then held it up, pointing at the sky, a traditional Airtseuqe greeting.
"I am Hammer. May life treat you well." Beanstalk stepped forward, though she was shaking from fear. So many new ponies, it was enough to make anypony afraid, though the others may have been afraid to show it. At last, Pumpjack stood forward, seemingly indifferent to the unicorn in front of her.
"I'm Pumpjack. Now, if'n ya please, y'all gotta go now, and oughta leave us alone." The unicorn turned around, and motioned for the crowd to leave. They all dejectedly left, sad to not be able to greet the newcomers. The unicorn faced Hammer and his friends again.
"I'm Twilight Sparkle. Welcome-" Hammer interrupted her.
"-to Ponyville. We know. Where we come from, we have a version of this, except it's not so........ pink." Twilight seemed strangely interested in this, but didn't have a chance to ask, as five more ponies came into the square. Twilight flipped around, and faced her friends.
"Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie! Good thing you're here. Now-" The pink Earth pony standing behind Twilight, whom Hammer naturally assumed was named Pinkie Pie, pulled out five necklaces and a crown. She passed them out.
"They might be meanie faces, who knows?" Hammer put back on his helmet, and stared them down. This came as a shock, as the six they had just met stared at the symbols on their armor. The one called Fluttershy backed up and hid behind Rainbow Dash. Applejack seemed to have her interest piqued with Hammer and his friends. Twilight stared, somewhat in shock.
"Your symbols, they're like Element symbols!" Hammer and his friends stood up proudly.
"We hail from the land of Airtseuqe. We represent the Elements of Combat!" At this, the six Hammer and company had just met stood back, and put on their articles.
"We live here, in Equestria, and we represent the Spirits of Harmony!" They almost began fighting with their respective elements, when three little fillies came barreling through. One stood right in front of Hammer, and stared at him intently. He stared back, slightly confused as to what was going on.
"Uh, who in the high heavens are these three?" Applejack and Rarity grabbed two of them, and held them for safety, as if they were siblings. The one in front of Hammer just kept staring at him.
"You got a problem, little one?" The filly had apparently been trying not to laugh, as she fell over in convulsing fits of laughter. Hammer backed up, slightly confused and alarmed. Rainbow Dash fell over laughing, as well. Hermes seemed quite irritated at this.
"Hammer, we're wasting our bloody time. Let's leave, go BACK to the Everfree, and sit tight in the Wheelworks." At the mention of the Everfree, EVERYPONY who was from Equestria, and standing in that town square, froze. It was as if a blizzard had come through, and everypony had become an ice block. Scooter waved his hand in front of Rarity's face.
"They've lost it. Let's just go. This is just weirding me out." That was felt across the whole group, as they slowly backed away. As they turned around, however, those six were in front of them, AGAIN, this time with their mouths wide open.
"You LIVE in the Everfree? Aren't you scared?" Pinkie Pie bounced around them, seemingly ignoring the fact that they lived in the Everfree Forest. She was babbling on about something, but the one part that came out clearly enough was something about a party to celebrate the new ponies. Hammer looked at Hermes, who stared at him. They were both confused immensely, and that wasn't helped by the pink pony bouncing around them, acting as if it was a game. Hammer knocked her over to get her to pay attention.
"Get a grip on reality! We're outcasts here, not the sort of ponies you want to be getting involved with!" Pinkie just stared at him, a huge smile spreading across her face again.
"That's why we need to welcome you! You all need friends!" Hermes panicked, and 'zapped' away. As soon as he did, Rainbow Dash sat down on the ground, jaw down so low it could have fallen off at any point. Hermes returned, holding the Book of Legends.
"Hammer, got your book. Should shed some light on our world for them." He handed it off to Twilight Sparkle, who immediately began delving into its pages ignoring EVERYTHING. Rainbow Dash got over her shock enough to stare at Hermes.
"How can you be that fast? Let's race!" Hermes nodded. A race would be a good step to asserting his superiority over a mere Pegasus.
"From 'ere, to the nearest farm. That should be good." Rainbow Dash nodded, and took off, Hermes running fast behind. About five minutes later, Hammer could barely hear six loud booms, Hermes' Sonic Rocket.
"Miss Twilight, we need a way back home. Isn't there anything you can do?" She looked up from the book.
"Your world is very alien in nature. War, famine, Celestia was the one who became evil. Incredibly strange." Her friends fell over in shock. Hammer laughed.
"Must be too much to handle. Worlds like ours are never meant to collide, and yet they have."