anyways

"Tales of the Robloxians"
or: "Welcome Back to the Ponyverse"

Chapter I: RESURGENCE
It was one of those gloomy Monday mornings that plagued OT City far too often. The date was August 15th, 2011, and the sky was dark and cloud filled. The air was cold and damp, and nobody wanted to venture outside lest they be miserable. Bands of gigantic raindrops tumbled from the sky, creating puddles and filing down gutters and into the streets. On this day, one of the gloomiest days a city like OT City could ever experience, one where it was dark and cold and hardly worth going anywhere for, RTCity quietly sat in his house. His house was a puny little pocket in the city, straddling the border between the Anna District and the far dilapidated purgatory that was the Brony District. He'd hardly noticed just how little it truly was until a few days before, but never had that mattered and certainly it didn't matter now.
Inside his cramped little compartment that he called home, nothing much stood out. A mill-of-the-run home, really, with a quaint little kitchen and a nice, if small living room. A fair sized bedroom and bed, and even a little space for a small library of books. There was but one thing though, in all of his home, that did. It was the little piece of a ship, a ship named the OTSS Lyra, one that he'd before travelled upon, one which had before brought him to a place he'd never, ever heard of before and deposited him on it unceremoniously, with nothing at all but the stuff he'd had in his arms and on his persona. That place had a name now, one which was practically household, and one that RT detested with all his heart.
Equestria. A land where nothing bad ever seemed to come of anything, a place practically utopian in its existence. The place had been found by RT and the seven other Robloxians with him long before the rest of the Robloxian species ever found out about the place. Even then, they'd only learned second-hand of what Equestria was like, or what it even was. But RT knew, oh, he knew what it was like. Moreover, he knew what it was like to be stranded there, not knowing anyone or anything - all because John Shedletsky had a stroke of incompetence at the wrong time. He knew what it was like to be an outcast there, too. All because the Robloxians just happened to have obliterated nearly half of Equestria's grand capital because of John's error.
Of course, this all mattered little to RT now. It'd been almost a year - that all having gone down in October of 2010. Now all that mattered was keeping the bronies - who in essence were those who followed Equestria - in line. Or at least, that's what did matter. There was a sudden rapping on RT's door, which was unusual to say the least, because at 7:30 AM there was hardly any reason for anybody to be knocking on the door of a known Robloxian general - not unless they didn't know who they were dealing with. RT reluctantly walked to the door from his chair in the dining room, and strange feeling of deja vu overcame him as he did. Oh lord, he thought, I am making a huge mistake, aren't I?
He opened the door, and parked outside was the inspiring figure of a ship that looked almost like the OTSS Lyra. The ship was a cold, deep shade of gray, and painted in white on its sides were the words "OTSS LYRA II." In front of it, and standing at the door was an unmistakable character who RT immediately recognized as the bearer of troubles. John Shedletsky. RT knew what this was about. Without even a prompt, RT spoke. "I'm assuming," he went, "that if I say no to this, you'll just throw me into the ship anyways and ferry us off to Paradise Lost?" John only nodded, for he hadn't a need to do anything more, and that was that. RT stepped on to the ship, and before long it was flying off through the clouds and into the depths of deep space itself.

Nothing much had apparently changed, as RT found out. The gang was still the gang, and only a few things had happened. Hello had taken on the appearance of one Applejack, the former Dman12259 was now a strange fellow by the name of Fuzzeedice, and Fastlane was more apathetic than he'd ever been before. But these were minor little differences, and beyond them the people who wore them were still the same. At least, that's how it seemed to RT. Not much conversation was struck up by any of the seven "voyagees," as they called themselves. Besides, it would only be an hour or two before they got to the portal, so why bother? They'd certainly have plenty of time to talk about what'd been going on when they got to the surface of Equestria. So mostly, the voyage they undertook that day was a quiet one, and so it remained until they reached the portal.
Even when they did, however, they found it unusually boring. The first time they'd arrived to it, they'd rejoiced. But now, since it would only be maybe thirty minutes 'til they reached their destination, there wasn't any joy. Actually, there was kind of a contempt for the voyage. "Why are we even here?" asked Dogman, "We know plenty of Equestria! This is silly!" John looked back from his little perch in the helm of the spaceship, casually. "Because we're here to investigate what it's actually like." the controller told his subjects. "You don't actually assume that Equestria's like what it is, as far as you've found and seen it, right?" The Robloxians groaned. "John," RT called out, "we know what it's like. We've all been there. We've all seen it. We know what's been happening there - everything notable! It's silly to assume that we ought to return anyways, they probably remember us and probably hate us!"
But John was unconvinced. "Oh, you people. They can't hardly remember us, they've been suffering ignominious disasters since we went there - and even if they do, I doubt they'll hold a grudge."



...


Chapter II: "WELCOME TO THE PONYVERSE"
It was a very cold morning throughout all of Equestria. Everywhere long down the paved roads from the capital to out in the middle of nowhere, there was this strange cold, which persisted throughout that entire day. The air was damp and cold, just as it had been in OT City. It was August 16th, 2011, and there was not a single creature outdoors on that day that could apparently help it. That was when the Robloxians landed - in the dim mornings of that day, next to where the OTSS Lyra had once rested. Nothing remained of the legacy of the ship, sans a little memorial to the victims of the disaster. That, however, was in Canterlot proper, and the Robloxians dared not venture in to the city for fear of being recognized.
That was always a silly fear. By the time 2011 rolled around, all of the Robloxians had changed to some extent - and to a pony who had only perhaps met them one or two times, they wouldn't have been recognizable. Still, nobody took the chance. So off the little ship they came, and down the long, winding road to a little town called Ponyville they went. It was the only place they knew to go. Now, the time before, they were ill equipped to walk two hundred miles, but they knew better now. On this day, they were ready to walk all that way, to a little bastion of a stranger civilization than their own. This was the place where they called their "temporary home" if they should ever be so misfortunate as to get stuck on Equestria, and today they were.
Ten hours later, they were there. They'd walked all that way. It wasn't very long, and yet it at the same time was.



...

The Robloxians made camp upon the top of a little hill overlooking most of the city, one which they christened "Resident Hill." They pitched up their little tents, grabbed their supplies, set them down and rested for a few hours. By the time they got up again, it'd be morning. And so, when Ponyville woke up that morning, they would find a strange species living right next to them, one which they knew hadn't been there the day before.
There was something odd about this species though, in the eyes of the ponies who lived in Ponyville. Even though nobody remembered the Robloxians when they walked into town on the 17th of August, 2011, there was something familiar about them that nobody could place a finger on. Nobody, that is, except for the six heroes whom the Robloxians had run across the first time they'd arrived. They remembered that there was at one point in time a whole new species of people they didn't know right next to them. They'd introduced themselves to them, and from them got plenty of info such as names, looks and accents. Then, the species just disappeared one day, and the six went on with their days. Now, suddenly, a year later, there it was, again! These "people" though, they looked awfully like the ones they'd seen before. And with that in mind, there came an idea into the minds of these six heroes. Meet these people - and find out who they are.
And then, they were beaten to the punch. While the six of them walked, up came RTCity, who knew exactly who he was talking to when he came up to them. The last time they'd seen him, he'd been a space-helmet wearing stranger with a vivid yellow space suit that popped out in such a way that it could be seen for hundreds of feet. He was a nice, caring person, if a little needy and naive. Now he went under a different name, and had a solid white body with a face of displeasure on his torso. He was particularly cynical of everything, and especially he couldn't shake the feelings of doubt he had in everybody around him. He doubted they even recognized him. Sure enough, when he spoke up, they didn't.
"Oh, hey." he greeted them, "It's been a long time." The six ponies stared blankly at him. "I figured." he mumbled to himself. "You don't remember me, but I remember you." They still stared blankly at him, occasionally glaring at each other in between. Then, one of them, Twilight, spoke up too. "Okay, seriously," she chided him, "who are you, and what do you want?" RT hadn't quite expected such a hostile response from Twilight Sparkle, but he figured it probably came from all those really bad moments which had plagued the six. "I'm RTCity," he spoke, "and you've met me before."
Twilight didn't really understand what the hell RT was getting at. Actually, she didn't really understand anything he was saying, or why it mattered. He was just a stranger in her land, as far as she was concerned. She nevertheless mustered up the politeness to introduce herself. "I don't think we have, but anyways, I'm Twi-"
"I know who all of you are, Twilight." RT interrupted her.
"What?"
"I know who all of you are."
The other five protagonists just stared. Twilight couldn't help but cast doubt on RT's claim.
"Really? You know all of us?" she stated confidently. "I doubt it."
"Well," RT began, pointing towards the others. "You're Rarity." he said to the white coated, purple haired girl quietly standing off to the right. "Next to you is Dashy. Next to her is - oh god, Pinkie, of all people. Then there's Flutter and Applejack, who I assume none of you care about judging by how they're over there, doing nothing at all." A silence fell over the six, which was quickly broken by Twilight exclaiming one thing.
"Who are you?"