“That must be where the machine took rainbow dash.”
 
Twilight looked on with her four remaining vampony compatriots at the swirling, bright energy vortex suspended in thin air. Ponies in brown and brass were going in and out of it. Strangely enough, these ponies had feet instead of hooves clad in fine leather boots.
 
“Do you think they took Rainbow Dash and Gilda?” Flutterbat asked in a low soft voice.
 
“If they did, we’re sendin’ ‘em back a few quarts empty.” Applejack said.
 
Twilight and Flutterbat circled around the foliage to the portal’s flanks. Pinkie, Applejack, and Rarity crept through behind some bushes closer. When Twilight and Flutterbat had analyzed the number of strange ponies, Flutterbat nodded.
 
Twilight swooped from the tree and snatched an unsuspecting pony, catching the others’ attention. Applejack and Pinkie surged forth from their bushes like battering rams, Pinkie tearing one pony’s throat with her claws while Applejack slammed two in each hand into the ground with enough force to bury them alive. Rarity levitated out of the bushes and shot bolts of black and purple energy at the other ponies as they fled for the safety of their home-world on the other side.
 
When the violet smoke cleared, everypony was either dead or had made it through the portal, save for the one brown stallion Twilight held upside down over a tree. The other vamponies gathered around the lone survivor like fillies around a pinata.
 
“Where is Rainbow Dash?” Applejack asked sternly.
 
“W-who?” the stallion asked.
 
“Did you bring a blue pony through that portal?” Twilight asked, hoisting the pony up as if threatening to slam his face down into the dirt.
 
“M-maybe! Possibly!? Look, I’m not with the slavers, I’m just with the research teams! Please put me down, I’ll go back through that portal and you’ll never hear from me again, I swear!” the stallion begged.
 
“You mean to tell me slavers got rainbow dash!?” Applejack pulled the mortal pony closer, forcing him to look her in the eyes.
 
“Maybe, I don’t know! I’m just a researcher! Ladies, please… put me down!”
 
“Drop him.” Flutterbat said.
 
Twilight unceremoniously dropped the pony to the grass. Applejack hoisted him up by his collar, the light of the moon illuminating her monstrous facial features in an image that would forever haunt the stallion as long as he lived.
 
“Go back where ya’ll came from, tell ‘em everything you saw, an’ tell ‘em we’re comin’ for them next!” Applejack said, shoving him back toward the portal..
 
“Y-yes ma’am! I’ll tell them! I’ll tell them everything!” he said as he frantically scrambled toward the portal. He ran through with little more than a bright flash and soon after the vamponies followed behind him, ready to give another world to the true night.
 
“This tickles!” Pinkie said with a giggle as she went through the portal with the others.
 
On the other side was a raised brass platform flanked by two Tesla coils. There were strange bronze barricades adorned with back to back double F’s. There were pipes, cables, and other machinery adorning the walls, ceiling, and even the floor. Behind them were three spinning giant rings, with the portal in the midst. The other stallion was nowhere to be found. Off in the distance, screams of men, women, and even children occasionally rang out.
 
Applejack felt as if she had seen the double F symbol somewhere before… but where?
 
Suddenly the rings behind the five ponies stopped, and there was a loud bang catching their attention. As they turned around, they noticed the portal imploding on itself in a great flash.
 
“It’s closin’ up!” Applejack called out.
 
Soon the energy vortex disappeared, leaving little more than a fading shimmer in its place.
 
When the ponies turned around, they were greeted by a very large group of ponies in strange brass armor. The armor was fashioned from brass tubes and plates with a small gauge in the periphery of the wearer’s vision. They wore leather goggles and brass gas-masks. They each held some sort of large double barreled rifle in their hands.
 
Flutterbat stepped to the edge of the platform to address the strange ponies.
 
“Um… ponies of… wherever we are. We are your new, um, masters. We’ve come to claim your world if that’s… okay with you.” she said with a squeak.
 
There was audible laughter coming from a few of the gas-masked ponies.
 
“We’re serious! Throw down your weapons! Your lives are ours!” Twilight bellowed.
 
The laughing ponies regained their composure, reduced to no more than a few giggles… then they pulled the triggers. Bolas flew from their guns around the chests and ankles of the vampire ponies, tightening themselves and forcing them to fall to the floor. To their confusion, the supernatural mares could not break free from their bindings no matter how hard they struggled…