Ghost was replaying the betrayal of Shepherd in his head while Archer and Toad were requesting EVAC. He had a feeling that Shepherd was going to betray them, and he understands why they had to wear the fire proof vests now. Although it didn't help Roach... Ghost sat up and pulled his ACR and m9 pistol to him, both weapons giving him comfort as the wound in his shoulder slowly bleeds.
"Ghost, EVACs on the way, ETA thirty minutes." Archer's voice sounded through his headphones.
"Copy, see ya on the other side, over and out." Ghost replied, slowly getting up. As he managed to stand, he heard Archer yell something, but he got pulled back towards the ground and sucked through.
Twilight and her friends were having a sleepover at the library, playing a friendly game of truth or dare, when a flash of lightning struck somewhere outside of Ponyville, followed by a loud crack of thunder.
"There wasn't supposed to be a storm for another three days!" Rainbow yelled, stepping outside. A sudden flash of light and the crack of a whip and there stood the God of Chaos, Discord.
"Discord?!? What are you doing here?" Twilight yelled, taking a defensive position.
"Don't act like that." Discord said with a chuckle, pulling a top hat from nowhere and a cane appeared in front of him. He did a little dance, then took a bow, getting a pair of hooves clapping together from Pinkie.
"Thank you, thank you. I'll be here next week on Thursday." Discord said with a large smile on his face. Twilight shot a bolt of magic at Discord, only to miss and start bouncing around the room, barely missing ponies, dragon, or draconequus. It hit her mirror, causing it to shatter and a portal to open up in its remains, the portal sucking random objects through it. Before it closed altogether, it pulled a large creature through.
"GHOST!" A voice said, clear as day to the ponies, dragon, and draconequus. The large creature flew away from the small portal, landing a few feet away and sliding a few more feet. It groaned, then got up off the ground and held one of its hands to its right shoulder.
"What the bloody hell?" It said, looking around the room at the ponies and dragon. Discord had snuck around it and grabbed a large book, then slammed it into the back of its head. It hit the ground with a loud thump, knocked unconscious by the scared draconequus.
"Discord, what did you do?!?" Twilight yelled, looking at the draconequus with a mix of fear, anger, and excitement.
"I didn't do anything! You fired the bolt and it's only natural that I don't allow it to hit me!" Discord said, holding the book to his chest and staring the creature. Another flash of light and the crack of a whip, along with a large bolt of magic, hitting the draconequus and knocking him out cold. Everypony looked towards the source of the bolt of magic and there stood a large white alicorn.
"P-Princess Celestia!" Twilight yelled, bowing to the ruler.
"There's no need to be formal right now. Now, tell me what happened here." She said, glancing at the creature on the ground.
"Me and the girls here were having a normal sleepover when a bolt of lightning struck somewhere outside of Ponyville, and it worried us because there wasn't supposed to be a storm for another three days. Discord appeared in the library and I took drastic measures to stun him, only to miss and the bolt hit the mirror, creating a portal of sorts, and pulling that thing through." She said, pointing at the large creature.
Twilight looked at the large creature excitedly, but noticed it was covered in blood. "I think it's injured!" Twilight said, using a scanning spell on him. He had a few bruised ribs, but that didn't worry Twilight. There was a foreign object in it's body, in the right shoulder. "Is that why he was holding his shoulder?" Twilight asked quietly, inspecting him farther. She used a small spell and took the small metal cylinder from its shoulder, then used a small healing spell on it. It groaned once more,
"What do you think it is?" Twilight asked. Princess Celestia inspected the body for a good five minutes before a tired reply came from her.
"I think it's a human." Twilight gawked at her answer and inspected the body, then started running around the library for a book about myths. She spent five minutes before she found the book in a small bookshelf, then started flipping through the pages. She found the page she was looking for, the title of the chapter saying 'Humans, evil hairless monkeys.' It had a drawn picture of a very hairy human carrying a wooden club and the head of a pony.
She read the book quickly, looking at key topics about the myth of humans. "This book says that the human has been extinct for over forty thousand years, stood at five foot six, normally carrying around a club or a slingshot, some carrying spears. When they found out about fire, they used it against the ponies, destroying villages and cooking the flesh of ponies..." Twilight read from the book, her eyes growing wider and her voice grew with fear. As she finished reading, she took a few steps away from the prone human.
Rarity had been eyeing the human with disgust, ever growing with what she heard about the myth about it. "What should we do about this horrid beast?" Rarity said, a scowl taking her face. The human groaned as it sat up slowly.
"Craziest fuckin' dream last night. Bunch of fuckin' bright colored horses and a purple lizard standing on two legs." He stood up, facing away from them. "Archer, Toad, do you copy?" Ghost said over the private comms. Nothing but static. "Archer, Toad, Price, Soap, anyone, do you copy?! Don't trust Shepherd! I repeat, don't trust Shepherd! He betrayed us all!" He yelled into the mic, getting quiet gasps from the ponies.
"Who is all of those people?" Princess Celestia asked, stepping forward. Ghost heard the voice and his training kicked in, dropping to one knee, bringing the gun up to aim at the voice, and prime his trigger finger. What he saw was not expected. A six foot tall horse with a horn. "What the bloody hell." Ghost said, lowering his gun in confusion. The way he said it was more of a statement then a question. Ghost stayed silent, standing back up and holstering his ACR.
"I'll ask again, human, who were those people?" The princess said in a threatening tone. "I really don't have to answer that question, since it's secret military information." Ghost retorted. The princess growled, but didn't do anything. They stood silent for a few minutes, having a staring contest with each other.
"My name is Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria and goddess of the sun." Celestia said, sticking out a hoof.
"I am Lieutenant Simon "Ghost" Riley, apart of the Task Force 141, a multinational special operatives group of soldiers." He said, grabbing hold of her hoof with a gentle hand and shook it. She seemed confused by the greeting, but welcomed it all the while.
"So you're a soldier?" Rainbow asked, getting a nod from Ghost.
"Do you eat pony flesh?" Twilight asked, which threw off Ghost for a second.
"In my world, only a few small countries practice eating equine meat, but in most countries it's considered taboo." Ghost explained. Everypony sighed in relief.
"What can you eat?" Applejack asked.
"Humans are omnivorous. We can eat fruits, vegetables, grains, meats and fish, dairy, some fungi. Stuff that isn't poisonous." Ghost answered.
"Why do you wear all of that?" Rarity asked, a slight hint of disgust in her voice.
"I was on a mission before being brought here, but something happened and some of my men died. That's when Shepherd betrayed us." Ghost said sadly, remembering how Roach was killed by Shepherd.
"How long have you and your men been fighting?" Princess Celestia asked.
"We've been hunting a man that tried starting a war for over seven years, and in that seven years, we've never been closer to catching him then when we did since we started chasing him. My last mission on Earth was that we had to secure a compound that was a bloody gold mine of intel about Makarov, the man we've been hunting for over seven years, and we were making our way away from the compound when a few of my men were killed by mortar fire, and one of my closest friends were injured by a mine. After we made it to the helicopter, our leader, Shepherd, took all of the intel and shot both of us and poured gasoline onto Roach, then lit him on fire." The ponies were silently crying at the thought of the man standing before him losing his friends.
"I'm sorry for your loss Lieutenant, and I will try to find a way to send you back, if you want." Princess Celestia said.
"I'm not sure if I even want to go back to that damn war..." Ghost said quietly, still catching the attention of the ponies.
"I understand if you don't want to go back..." Twilight said, walking towards him.
"I lost everyone I love, and the bastard responsible is most likely hiding in some hole." Ghost said angrily. "Alright, lets recount my life. My dad made me kiss a snake and threatened to kill me with dangerous animals, Tommy kept fucking with me with that damn balaclava, I was tortured and driven mad by some drug lord, buried alive, lost my family, killed Roba, taken into Task Force 141, tortured once more, chased Rojas through some Brazilian favela, rescued hostages off of some Russian oil rig, saved Price, watched him launch ICBMs at D.C., went to a compound to collect a DSM that contained info on Makarov, then got shot by the leader of the 141." He finished, breathing hard.
His voice had steadily risen throughout his small rant, not taking notice to the fact that Celestia was searching through his memory. "This man has serious psychological problems due to the amount of fighting, death, destruction, and having a very traumatic childhood." She said, finished searching the Ghost's memory. She recounted his every memory, from the most disturbing to the most pleasant, however few they were.
"Twilight, I must trust you with the Lieutenant here. He has had a very traumatic life, and needs to study the meaning of friendship and peace, however he finds it." Celestia said, turning to her student.
"I will try Princess, but I'm not sure how to approach this situation." Twilight said, her ears pressed against her head.
"I'm sure you can do it, my student. Although it will take some time for him to be reintegrated into society, I feel bad just knowing how bad he's had it so far in his life and I want to do him good." Celestia sighed. Ghost had calmed down and sat on the floor, head in his hands. Everypony were gathered in a group, eyeing the human with a mix of fear and sympathy. They know his backstory, know how traumatizing his life was, yet nopony wants to approach him, not even Pinkie.
"Ghost, can you come here please?" Twilight asked. He stood up, his shoulders slumped, and walked over.
"We've talked this over, and we would like for you to stay with Twilight here. She will be teaching you about the value of friendship and peace. We hope you enjoy your stay here." Celestia said with a sad smile. Ghost just shrugged his shoulders and went back to the same spot as before, sitting the same way also.
"He looks so... defeated. So lonely." Twilight said sadly.
Celestia sighed and said. "He's taking it pretty hard. I scanned the magic from the portal, and the magic used to create the portal is a one time deal. He can't be sent back to his world." Twilight glanced at Ghost, the defeated posture of how he sits.
Twilight walked over to Ghost and put a hoof on his shoulder, causing him to look up. "If you're tired right now, I can lead you to the guest room, if you want." Twilight said. Ghost shrugged and went upstairs with Twilight, her leading him to the guest room quietly.
"It has a few books laying around, if you want to read them." Twilight said, opening the door. A few stacks of books surrounded a desk set off into the corner, a bed and nightstand sitting side by side. He walked in, put his guns down next to the bed, then crawled into the bed, his legs hanging off slightly. "You're not bothering to take off your equipment?" Twilight asked. Ghost remained silent, and Twilight closed the door, walking back downstairs.
