Bad Memories

Chapters

Discovery
Awakening
Ponyville
Inquiry
Acceptance
Questioning

Discovery

Matt woke with a start, twitching in his sleeping bag as he emerged from the nightmares. Rocky, Matt's German Shepard, took an instant interest in this, licking his master's face, glad to see that he had woken up.

Matt smiled "Good morning Rocky"

*BARK!*

With a grunt of pain, he rose to a sitting position, still wearing his Kevlar vest and tan beret.

Rocky lept outside the crudely pitched tent as his master struggled to get up.

Matt was a tall, wiry man, He was about 6'1 and had a weight of about 170 lbs. His face spoke of hardship with a long scar that ran across his right ear, into halfway of his cheek. His blue eyes showing a hardened personality. He also had a scruffy chin from not being able to shave for two days.

Matt, over the last 24 hours, had suffered several serious injuries, and had yet to see a doctor. In fact, he was lucky to still be alive.

Corporal Matt White of Specialist Team 64 had suffered from multiple bullet wounds on the arm, gut, and the leg, by a 9mm gun. He also had a splinted, fractured leg after tripping on some stray roots. This was acquired while running for his life, away from the enemy Russians who had just attacked and destroyed Paris. Matt and his wife had been taking a vacation there, celebrating his return from his tour in Italy, only to suffer from now, distant, horrible memories.

He mentally slapped himself, today, he needed help.

Struggling, Matt finally got out of the crude tent, and took in his surroundings.

He was in the middle of a small clearing in the forest, trees on all sides. The clearing was about 20 yards in diameter and had tall grass to the right of his tent. His tent, was bent and misshapen after the desperate, painful pitching of it. He had made a small fire ring that had since, been smoldering the last bit of fuel.

Matt sighed, he had no idea where he was, no idea of the forest he was in and in no condition to find out. He whistled for Rocky, who padded up to him immediately.

"Alright boy, I need you to find some food, and if you find anybody in red clothes, run." Matt said to Rocky.

He not was sure he could not get all of that, but Rocky was a very smart dog. Matt, before this incident, had taken Rocky with him on multiple hunting treks with him. And the dog was great at it too, smelling a rabbit a quarter mile away. He also knew that his master was in trouble, noticing how he was barely able to walk after running from the men in red.

Rocky barked and then headed into the woods in search of food.

Sighing. Matt pondered what he should do for the next few hours. At first he just once again looked to his surrounding treeline, noticing something...odd.

The trees around him, though he could barely see at that time, seem much...brighter then the night before. These trees seemed to thrum with life. And was that bush there before?

Shrugging it off, Matt just thought his mind was playing tricks again. Suddenly, a spasm of pain racked his body, sending pain impulses from every part of his body to his brain. Sighing, Matt removed the old clothes he had been using as bandages to see the bullet wounds underneath. The 9mm wounds were still bleeding, sending a bit more blood out with every pulse of his heart. He had brought no medicine supplies, of all things, so he had to make do with the currently bloodstained clothes. He tightened up the shirt around his arm wound and repeated it for the other two bullet wounds. He then did the same with his makeshift splint.

Picking up his M16 standard rifle, he slowly got to his feet with a grunt of pain, and began surveying the treeline for any signs of red uniforms. After doing this for about a half hour, Matt put down his rifle, and began practicing with his compound bow and 24 arrows. Being one of best marksman of his company, he had decided to branch out his specialties. And began using the bow in most of his hunting trips for the challenge. After drawing a target on a tree with red berry juice ( the animals had not been eating them, so he assumed they were poisonous.) and began shooting arrows at the target. after 12 shots, he went up to survey his results.

He continued this a few more times, then put away his bow and sat back down in his dirt spot. He checked the time on his watch, 11:30 and then picked up his rifle, checking every little bit of the rifle and counting the extra magazines that he had scavenged. He had about 15 spare magazines, more that enough. He then heard a twig breaking.

*SNAP*

Matt spun around, the rifle in his grip, to where the tent was laid. The sound came from behind the tent, and Matt could not get up in time as that would take too long with his fractured leg.

*SNAP SNAP*

He heard two more twigs snap, this time behind him, and spun around the rifle until he was looking over the smoldering remains of his previous fire.

He froze, blood pumping like ice.

There, about 30 yards away from him, was a enormous beast he had never seen before. Scratch that, he had seen that before. But these were supposed to be a myth! He studied the beast with the mouth and head of a lion, and the tail of a scorpion, and it was also about 15 feet tall! The manticore staring back at him with blood red eyes, eyeing up its prey.

*RAUGAHHHHHHH!* The beast roared as it began charging him.

Instinctively, Matt began firing at the charging behemoth, trying to get a shot at its eye but to no avail, the damn creature seemed to just shrug off the bullets.

"Shit..." He muttered

The beast was upon him now, only about 10 yards away and the beast oped its huge maw, ready to swallow Matt whole. Matt began firing at the creatures mouth, which finally, must have been painful enough for the manticore to stumble back a bit. Only when Matt looked in its eye did he see pure hatred burning. "I just pissed it off, didn't I?" Matt thought. His suspicions proved right when it position itself to charge again.

*BARK BARK!* Rocky came flying out of the bushes to Matt's left, and began biting the manticore's hind right leg, drawing a bit of blood.

With a roar of rage, the manticore turned to its right and swiped down at Rocky, swatting him into a tree as if he were no more than a fly.

It was at this moment, while it was turned, that Matt had his shot. Immediately as the beast turned, Matt began firing at its eye, getting several hits. The great monster roared in pain and than began charging at Matt once more.

Instead of opening its mouth like it had done before, it reached a clawed paw out, and raked across Matt's chest, sending him sprawling into the tall grass to his right. His wounds screamed in agony and his leg had gotten too much pressure and developed in a full break. He thanked his lucky stars that his kevlar vest had taken most of the claw, but then blood started gushing out of the three new claw wounds across his chest.

Trying to right himself, He looked for his rifle but was despaired to see it laying about 10 yards away. The manticore began charging again at Matt. Who, instinctively pulled his M-9 pistol from its holster ans began firing blindly in the tall grass. He heard one last, agonizing roar and heard a thud as the beast fell to the dirt, making a mound about 5 yards from where he sat.

Matt fell, exhausted as the adrenaline left his system. He was already a bit weak from the blood loss earlier but now with the new, more serious wound, it was unlikely that he would survive in the next hour. His only hope was now, that someone friendly would find him and get help. Or if a Russian found him and ended his miserable life with a bullet to the brain.

Rocky whimpered in pain as he crawled to where his master lay. His own left hind leg, right fore leg ans a few ribs broken as he was shot into the tree. He made the crawl to Matt, and stood guard, whatever the cost of him, he would protect his master.

"Come on angel, just one more bite? Pleeeeeeease?" Fluttershy begged

Angel shook his head and slapped the carrot away. He had enough food for now and wanted to take a hop around the Ever Free Forest. As he hopped off he decided to go into the clearing that no pony knew about, not even Fluttershy. He loved spending time in that place, as it was where he got to lay in the grass and soak up some sun.

As angel approached the clearing, he saw a tent. Angel felt disappointed that some pony had found his special place, and decided to snoop around and watch the pony.

Angel heard rustling in the tent and watched, dumbfounded, as some mysterious creature, and a large dog had crawled out of the tent. Angel had never seen either the type of dog, or the very tall creature that the dog was following.

Angel tries listening in as the creature said something to the dog, and the dog ran off. Angel had heard the word 'Hunt' as was lucky that his scent was disguised from running into some berries ans splashing the juice all over his coat.

When the dog left, the tall creature had spent the next hour or so doing random things. Angel had now turned around and attempted to leave without a sound, but stepped on a twig when going behind the tent.

*SNAP*

The creature turned, alert to Angel's location, who stood as still as possible until it looked away behind it after hearing another two snaps.

It was then that the manticore had charged out, and Angel watch the whole scene unfold in front of him. When the manticore had finally died it was when Angel began hopping back to the cottage as fast as he could. Angel needed to get Fluttershy to know about this, as Angel saw that the creature was seriously hurt.

Angel had made it to the cottage and hopped through the bunny-door, and found Fluttershy almost instantly.

"Oh, there you are angel! Come back for more carrot?" She said the last part with a smile.

Angel face-pawed, then hopped up to a table with a saddlebag full of medical supplies, and then to the door, fulling Fluttershy's mane.

"Is somepony hurt Angel?" Fluttershy asked. Angel nodded and beckoned Fluttershy to follow him. Fluttershy and Angel left the house and Fluttershy began to follow angel out into the Ever Free Forest. Both of them moving at top speed.

When they both entered to Ever Free, Fluttershy began to wonder. "Why would anypony go in here?"

Rocky continued to stare at the body of the monster, about five yards from where he sat, guarding his master.

Rocky had been hunting a squirrel when he began to hear the all-too-familiar sounds of his master's sound maker being used.

Rocky instantly stopped hunting, and ran as fast as he could back to his master. Approaching the camp, Rocky saw the monstrous beast preparing to charge at Matt, who was sitting on the ground with his long sound maker.

Rocky did not think, all he knew was that he must protect his master. He barked, and ran up to the beast and began chomping down on its huge, right hind leg, drawing blood.

The beast roared, turned to his direction, and swatted him into a nearby oak tree, instantly breaking his right fore-leg, and several ribs. Rocky could only lay down, helpless as his master began shooting at the great beast once again, getting a roar of pain in response.

When the monster raked his master across the chest and sent him sprawling into the tall grass, Rocky could only let out a whimper, helpless. He heard several more bursts of sound from that direction, a roar, then felt an earth-shaking crash.

Finally gathering up the strength, Rocky began limping to where his master lay, and lay down next to him, protecting him at any cost to himself.

Rocky finally came to the conclusion, that the beast, was in fact, dead. He looked over to his master, the blood seeping out of his chest.

His ears perked up, hearing some more twig-snapping in the direction of the camp. He tried letting out a threatening growl, but only resulted in a soft whimper. Then he heard a voice, recognizing the language his master used, he hoped that it was not yet another red-coated man.

When Fluttershy saw the tent, she asked herself the same question she had thought about five minutes ago. "Why would anypony, of all things, camp in the Ever Free Forest.

Angel led her up behind the tent, and Fluttershy had begun inspecting the tent, itself. The tent was lopsided and crude, as if somepony had tried setting it up in a haste, or simply could not do any more effort into pitching it.

She trotted around the tent and immediately began hyper-ventilating. Not ten yards to her right, there was the body of a full grown manticore lying face-down in the tall grass. Blood was pooled around its head and into the mound of dirt it had left. It looked like it had died while charging.

She heard rustling behind the tall grass, in front of the manticore. She trotted up to get a closer look, and gasped as she attempted to comprehend the scene.

Lying in the grass, was two creatures. One was a very large dog, about half a foot smaller than Fluttershy, with a grey/white pattern around its body. Upon seeing Fluttershy the dog held a confused glance, and then growled at her threateningly, attempting to get up. When the dog fell back down to the ground, Fluttershy realized that it must have some broken legs, and perhaps some broken ribs. It was at this time that she saw the other creature. Lying next to the ground, unconscious, was a very tall, about as tall as Celestia if not more, bipedal, ape-like creature. Across its chest, covered mostly by a strange looking vest, were three large claw marks, each were bleeding profusely. Upon its right arm, left leg, and midsection, were some bloodstained clothes wrapped around said areas. The remains of a splint could be seen about a yard away, Fluttershy noticed that the creatures right leg appeared to be in an unnatural position. These had appeared to be older wounds than the claw marks, giving the impression that this creature had fought off, and killed, a full grown manticore while crippled.

She thought "How does a creature of this size, who was already hurt quite badly, fight off a manticore?

Angel's tapping on her leg snapped her out of it, this creature needed serious help and fast! She turned to Angel.

Picking out a small piece of paper, Fluttershy quickly scribbled a note, folded it, and then hoofed it to Angel.

"Take this to Twilight as fast as you can Angel bunny! This creature will not survive without help. Angel saluted, then hopped off in the direction that they had come from.

Turning back to the injured creatures, she tried getting closer to better inspect the odd species, but the growl from the dog forced her to back off. Despite its injured state, the dog was only a little smaller than herself, much bigger than Winona. If the dog was able to take a bite, it could be crippling to herself and therefore, be unable to save the creature bleeding to death in front of her.

She turned back to her medicine bag as she looked around for some kind of tranquilizer. When she found none, she left the bag and began looking for large, sweet smelling, blue-green berries, called Guam berries, that grew in the Ever Free Forest. These berries had a special property that acted like a very fast, and powerful tranquilizer. She did not use them herself, as traveling into the Ever Free was very dangerous.

After foraging for a few minutes, she found three Guam berries, enough to knock out the dog for about two hours. Flying back to where the dying creature and dog lay, she tossed the three berries in front of the dog. Rocky took instant notice at the aroma and could not help but eat them, as soon as they got in reach.

After about two minutes, the dog had fallen into a deep, berry induced sleep. She moved the dog away just a few feet so she could get a better look at the creature bleeding to death in front of her.

She listened for breathing first, relieved to hear it still drawing breath, albeit slowly. She then fumbled for a few seconds to find the creature's heart, finding the pulse to be very faint. Despite having no reference level to its health, she could still safely assume that a faint heartbeat on any creature, is indeed, very dangerous.

Fluttershy's attention was brought to the claw wound first, which was currently the most serious injury that it had. The heavy vest seemed to take a bit of the blow, but the wounds were still rather deep. Quickly picking up and opening the bottle of disinfectant with her teeth, Fluttershy poured the solution into each of the wounds, resulting in the creature twitching in pain. Biting back bile, she took out her roll of linen bandages and lifted the body off the ground slightly to wrap the bandages around its chest. After wrapping a number of times and tightening them up, she had done all she could for the injury and began inspecting the older wounds.

She first unwrapped the shirt on its arm, tossing the bloody rag a few feet away, and begun to inspect the wound. It was a wound that Fluttershy had never seen before. The wound was a deep, roughly 9mm hole that had made a near perfect entry, showing no signs of turning or and other sloppy entry signs. It appeared to be no more than a day old, as the wound was still bleeding slightly. Having no idea, or the correct materials, to heal the wound, she repeated the steps that she had done to the claw marks. Disinfecting the hole and covering it with a clean bandage, wrapping it tightly.

Fluttershy then repeated the steps with the two other similar injuries. Picking up a nearby piece of wood with her teeth, she positioned the timber next to the broken leg. She re-set the broken leg, with a sickening , until it had appeared straight. Then she began wrapping the piece of wood to the leg with the last of the bandage.

Doing one last check up on the creature, Fluttershy then moved her attention to the dog...

"Spike! Is the food done yet!?" Twilight called from the library.

"Almost!" Spike replied.

Sighing, Twilight Sparkle returned to the cleaning and re-organizing of her library, which was a complete mess. The day before, Scootaloo, being the kleptomaniac that she was, had "found" a note on Ms. Cheerilee's desk, noting the pop quiz she would be handing out today. Since all of the fillies (except Sweetie Bell) had not yet studied for any tests, they all came galloping through her front door, going right past Twilight and to the bookshelves. Utter chaos ensued, books flying everywhere from the history section, to the magic section as the students crammed in information.

Twilight had tries to calm down the fillies, only when they left for bed hours later was there finally some peace and quiet, along with a nearly destroyed library.

Sighing again as her stomach growled, Twilight levitated "A Brief History of Equestria" Back to its proper shelf.

"Food is done!" Called Spike from the kitchen. Twilight made her way into the kitchen and sat on her haunches next to the table. Spike carried over her grilled cheese and dandelion sandwich, and his own sapphire sandwich with a side of ruby.

Twilight levitated the sandwich to her mouth and took a bite, and hearing Spike take a huge chomp of the gemstones with a loud crunch. About to take a second bite, she saw a flash of white by her kitchen window, and saw Angel hopping up and down on her table, with a note in his mouth.

"Hmm?" Twilight took another bite as she read the note, Angel tapping his foot in impatience as she read. Her jaw dropped, losing the half-chewed food as it dropped to her plate.

"What is it Twilight" Asked the baby purple/green dragon.

"Spike!" She cried. "Fluttershy has found a strange creature severely hurt by a manticore in the Ever Free Forest! She says that it will die if we don't get there in time!" Spike's jaw dropped as well.

"Go and get Rarity and Pinkie Pie and tell them to meet at Fluttershy's cottage, I will get Rainbow Dash and Applejack. Angel" She turned to the rabbit. "I need you to wait by the cottage to lead us to where you found the creature, none of us know where it is." Angel nodded and hopped out the window.

Twilight and Spike both got out the door as fast as they could. Spike running towards Sugarcube Corner, while Twilight galloped off to Sweet Apple Acres.

Fluttershy began working on the injured right foreleg of the dog, strapping a piece of wood the the broken leg with a few vines as she was out of bandage. The pooch also had one or two ribs broken, but Fluttershy could not fix it as she did not have the materials, time, or the environment required.

Finished with the leg, Fluttershy returned her gaze to the battered and broken creature. Its breathing still faint along with its heart, which had slowed down even more.

There was not much time left, the girls needed to get here in the next few minutes or there will be no time to get it to the hospital. The creature was far too heavy for Fluttershy to carry any distance, along with the dog, moving alone was out of the question...

"Alright so what you're saying is that Angel found a really weird looking creature that has been severely injured and will die if we don't get it to the hospital in time?" Repeated the cyan pegasus.

"Yes" Twilight simply replied, redoubling her efforts to keep up with Angel as he led them to the site.

"Is it sentient? Does it wear clothes?" Asked the ivory white unicorn Rarity.

"I would think that it is for several reasons. 1. There was a dog protecting its body, 2. He was indeed, wearing clothes, including a strange, and heavy looking vest and another strange hat. and 3. It somehow fought off a manticore while injured, and somehow survived, leading me to believe that it can use magic, or had some odd invention do the deed for it."

Rarity nodded, galloping alongside Twilight.

Applejack moved up to her left "Do ya think its hostile?" She asked.

"I don't know, but in this state, it wont be doing anything for quite a bit of time" Twilight replied.

They all saw the tent ahead and all went around it, instantly seeing the huge manticore corpse to their right.

"WHEEEEEEEE!" Pinkie cried as it jumped onto the body. "Whoa this thing is BOUNCY!" She said as she began jumping.

"Pinkie get down from there!" Said Twilight. "Fluttershy, where are you!" She cried.

"Over here" Came her soft reply, it came from the tall grass in front of the manticore.

The ponies all gathered around and observed the two bodies. They all nodded to each-pony. Twilight and Rarity began levitating the strange creature as Dash sped ahead to warn the doctors of what to expect. Fluttershy picked up the dog, despite its weight and began flying home to her cottage to drop it off.

Matt briefly opened his eyes, and saw a blur of trees as he was being moved. Matt was so exhausted he could not even move, opening his eyes had been a challenge in itself. Again Matt realized that he was being moved, quickly, by something that he could not see. His last thought before closing his eyes...

What is going on?

Awakening

All was silent in the small town of Ponyville. The moon, high in the sky, gazing into the beautiful lands of Equestria.

But not all had slept in this quiet town. Upon a hill, on the southern region of Ponyville, sat a hospital. Several stories tall and wide, all of the windows in this unassuming building were dark, save for one...

"What's going on!" The woman next to Matt had cried.

"BOMBS! WE ARE BEING BOMBED!" Screamed Matt, as he ran to the window.

"Get the food packed! We need to get out of here!"

The woman nodded, quickly running out the door, followed by Rocky.

Matt looked outside into the streets of Paris, and watched in utter shock as he tried to comprehend the scene.

Solders, to the left and right of Matt's vision, had been spread out and were engaged in a gunfight between the red-coated Russians, and the green uniformed French and American, former being on the left. Each solder was taking cover behind overturned cars, or keeping their heads down in huge craters. Looking farther to his right, Matt got a clear view of the Eiffel Tower, in all of its, beautiful, burning glory. The once proud structure, had now been razed and felled by the communist bombs.

Returning his gaze to the street in front of the hotel, he saw the Allied forces being driven back, away from the hotel. The Russians had now gotten complete control of the street, and was now sending teams of three inside each of the buildings to find stragglers. Including, the hotel that Matt was watching from.

"SHIT!" He cried. Rushing to his pack, he pulled his standard M-9 pistol and placed it in his holster. He was lucky that he had the foresight of bringing this along on the trip, despite the haggle of getting it past security.

"What is going on!?!?" Cried the woman from the other room.

"Russians have entered our building, and they are probably killing anybody they find! PACK FASTER!" He yelled over the bombs. His skill with his gun might hold off one or two, but he needed a different approach to this situation. More men would come if a survivor radioed for help.

After gathering the two extra clips he had packed, he ran into the other room to help with the packaging of the food.

*CRACK!*

*BANG BANG*

Matt froze, listening to the sounds that had come from just below their room, hearing a cry of pain followed by another shot.

*BANG!*

He heard more noises, this time from his own hallway. Voices that sounded Russian, though he understood little Russian, he recognized that they were talking about their orders, which was to kill anyone on sight. Matt had already known this, judging from the noises below him just a few minutes ago.

He looked desperately around the hotel room while the woman was sitting with a terrified expression. His eyes fell on the kitchen.

"Hey!" Matt whispered to her. "I have an idea."

Matt shook slightly as he woke up. He did not remember much, only that a huge creature, which looked remarkably like a manticore, had attacked him in some strange forest. The he remembered waking up to himself being moved by God-knows-what. But that could not have happened, that just did not seem logical. Oddly though, his sleeping bag did seem much more comfortable then last night while he was laying cold on the ground.

"Hmph." Matt said groggily. "What a stupid dream."

Slowly, Matt opened his eyes, eyes blurry before he blinked several times, clearing out the sand. Focusing, he saw a ivory white ceiling, with a small light above him.

Matt blinked, this wasn't his tent color, the tent was green. He tried sitting up, but cried out in pain when he moved too fast.

"Oh great! Your awake!" Said a feminine voice next to him. Was he in a hospital? Was this still a dream? It certainly felt real. The voice was English, perhaps some fellow troops had found him in the forest and carried him back!

"Here, let me help you sit up" Said the voice again. Matt could not see the speaker since he could not move his neck too much. He felt some pressure on his back as he was helped up into a sitting position.

Matt briefly glanced around, he was clearly in a hospital, various medical supplies adorned the whitewashed walls. He looked out the window to his right, and saw that it was dark outside, perhaps midnight based on the light given off by the moon.

"Ugh" Matt groaned. "Thanks nurse." He said.

"No problem!" Said the voice again. Matt craned his neck to look around for the nurse, but he could not see her. He glanced to the left side of the plush, white bed and saw...a...a...pony? Matt stared.

WAT

"Is something wrong?" Asked the pony, backing up from the bed, giving Matt a clearer view of her. The white pony was about three feet tall, going up to about his waist were he standing. She had a nurses cap on, with a red cross stitching in the middle. And had a picture of another red cross emblazoned on her flank.

Oh and he noticed one more thing.

It just spoke English

"Please allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nurse Redheart." The pony curtsied, bending her right foreleg so she sloped down on that side.

Matt just continued to stare at the talking equine.

"Um, sir? are you okay?"

Matt stared for a few more seconds, then began to laugh nervously and dropped back onto the bed, unconscious.

"So Twilight, anything new on that...thing?" Asked the baby dragon.

Twilight nodded her head. "Yes, Nurse Redheart informed me that the creature had woken up just last night, around midnight."

Spikes eyes grew with excitement. "And?"

"As soon as the creature, who I would guess is male, saw Redheart, he laughed and passed out again.

"Awww, bummer! I had been hoping that after a week he would finally be awake and able to talk. He can talk right?"

Twilight nodded. "Yes, Redheart told me that he said several words before passing out."

"Sweet!" Spike said, getting a rolled pair of eyes from Twilight.

Twilight returned to her desk, opening a large textbook titled "Guide to the Animals of Equestria" and opened the book to the bookmark. She had been looking through a number of textbooks, trying to find anything even remotely related to the creature that was currently lying asleep in the hospital. But the closest thing she had found to it, was some species of apes, and even that gave her no indication as to what it was. It was sentient, she knew that, but it sounded like he had never seen a pony before, given the fact that he passed out as soon as he saw Redheart.

Closing the book and returning it to the Non-Fiction section, Twilight walked into the kitchen, and poured herself some water. Drinking the glass of water, she thought about what she should do for the rest of the day, as her library obviously had no information regarding the strange species. Or even that huge dog that he had with him. She glanced over to the grandfather clock in the corner, 10:30, and decided to visit the creature and talk to Redheart again, for the fifth time this week.

Gathering up some paper and quills, she strode out the door, leaving Spike to handle the library by himself for a little while.

Fluttershy was in her cottage, busy checking over the dog's right leg and chest. Fluttershy had found out that the name of the dog was 'Rocky' with his collar, that had the name engraved on it. Another medallion was also next to the name-tag saying, 876, Burban street, NY.

She thought it looked like an address, but she had no idea what this 'NY' or 'Burban street' was. Checking back over Rocky, who had been sleeping for a few hours now, she re-tightened the cast on its leg, and made sure its spine was stable so it did not move the ribs too much.

After Fluttershy had finished the check-up, about a half hour later Rocky had woken up.

Fluttershy smiled. "Good morning Rocky. Are you hungry?" She asked.

*BARK!*

Smiling some more, Fluttershy trotted into the kitchen and gathered up some dog food she had made for Winona, Rocky seemed to enjoy it as much as Applejack's dog. With the bowl of food in hoof, Fluttershy went back into the foyer, noticing Rocky looking out the window.

Fluttershy sighed, and flew over to pet Rocky on the head. "You want to see your master, don't you?" She asked. Rocky whimpered in return. After Rocky woke up inside of Fluttershy's cottage, he was rather hostile. Barking as soon as she entered, but unable to move. After Fluttershy had gained his trust, she found that Rocky was a very smart and very loyal dog. Of course, after a week of not seeing his master, Fluttershy could understand his sadness.

Fluttershy then said. "You know. Your master woke up last night, I was thinking that I could take you to him later, maybe he will wake up again!" Rocky looked excitedly at her, only reinforcing her position at how smart the dog was.

"Ah ah ahhh. We can't see him if you haven't eaten yet, you are going to need the energy." She smiled as Rocky scooted down and began eating the food Fluttershy had placed on the table.

After Rocky was done, Fluttershy took him outside, picked him up, and began flying towards the Ponyville hospital. Carrying a very nervous dog.

Back inside of the hospital, Matt began stirring awake again.

"Heh heh heh, my mind was playing tricks on me again, first this "manticore" and now talking ponies? Haha, good one brain!" He thought, as he opened his eyes.

He started, looking back up at the familiar white ceiling and the suspended light. He sat up quickly, ignoring the pain and quickly moved his gaze around the room, which looked exactly the same as his "dream".

He averted his gaze over towards the window on his right, the sun was shining bright, leading Matt to believe it was noon. He began looking over himself, and realized that he was wearing his green undershirt, which had several large holes in the chest area, and smaller ones in the gut, shoulder, and arm area. He knew what the smaller holes were from, bullets, but the holes in the center, could they be...? No, that would be stupid, there was no way a...manticore had done that. But, it was exactly where he remembered in the "dream" that he had. Was that reality?

He diverted his attention from the holes, which all were stitched close, and focused on the door to his left when he heard some voices discussing something.

"...and he just passed out? Just like that?" Said one voice.

"Yes, almost as if he had never seen a pony before." Said another voice, which Matt had recognized from the dream.

"Odd." Said the first voice. "Is he hostile?"

"No, it doesn't seem like he is, at least not right now. Ah! We are here."

Matt heard the squeaky door open and shut to his room, two figures walked in...or rather, trotted in.

The first one that had made itself visible, was the nurse that Matt had seen from his dream, if it was a dream anyway. This equine was followed by another pony. The second pony had a lavender coat, some stars emblazoned on its flank, and a horn in the middle of hits forehead. Matt also had just realized how huge their eyes were, much bigger in proportion to their heads than Matt's eye to head ratio.

"Ah! You're awake again!" Said the nurse.

Nope, not a dream.

Matt was about to fall back to the welcoming tides of unconsciousness before the nurse cried out.

"Wait! don't fall asleep again!"

Matt finally got his senses together and said. "Wha...where am I?"

The nurse replied. "You are in the Ponyville hospital! I hope that you remember my name."

"Uh...yea. Redheart right?" The nurse nodded. "Alright...um...could you tell me what exactly happened?"

"I think that Twilight here can explain better than I can Mr......."

"Just call me Matt"

"Alright Matt, well Twilight can better explain what happened to you" The nurse indicated to the purple unicorn standing to her left, whom had been staring at Matt the entire time.

"Right well..." Twilight cleared her throat. "Well, me and five of my other friends found you bleeding to death in the Ever Free Forest. In front of a body of a manticore that had died from some holes in its eyes. You had a broken hind leg, three huge claw marks on your chest, and several small holes that looked to be about a day old. Fluttershy, one of my friends, found you first and kept you alive while we carried you back here, in the Ponyville hospital." She finished.

Matt stared. "I am going insane aren't I?" He said to nobody in particular.

The unicorn raised an eyebrow to this. "Ummm, I hope you're not. Haven't you ever seen a pony before? We certainly do not know what you are. Or what any of your gadgets that you had with you are."

Matt was still trying to process all this information. Talking ponies, magic, manticores, new world, a hospital. None of this seemed real or logical. Maybe I was found and captured by those damn Russians. Who knows what ungodly experiments they practiced in their labs. Maybe they are practicing one of those experiments on me now! I have to go with it though, if they figure out that I know this is a experiment, then they would most likely kill me.

Matt sighed, there was no easy way of getting out of this. He will still play along, but he would be careful with what he would say to these...ponies

"No, I have never seen anything like you before. As for what I am, I am a human."

"A human..." The unicorn seemed to levitate a piece of paper and a quill out of her bags, and wrote something down.

"Um, what did you just do?

"Hmm?"

"That...thing you just did there, it was like you just levitated the paper and quill out"

She raised an eyebrow. "What? Magic?"

Matt face-palmed. "Okay lemme get this straight." He took a deep breath. "I have been...teleported into this world, where there are unicorns, non-unicorns, and god-knows-what else that can talk. The unicorns can do magic, there are manticores, and I am the first human that you have ever seen, ever."

Twilight and Redheart nodded. "It would sure seem that way."

Again, this just reinforced his thoughts on the experiment theory.

Matt sighed. "Alright, can one of you help me get up? And also, where is my gear, and my vest?"

"Here, I'll help you up." Said the nurse, biting and pulling off the covers, revealing his leg which was in a cast. He threw his legs over the side of the bed. Redheart hoofed him a crutch and then helped him get off the bed. Switching the crutch to his left shoulder, he took a few steps to get comfortable.

The nurse pointed over to the corner next to the window, showing him where his gear was.

"After we got you back here, my friends and I searched your campsite for your stuff. I don't think we found everything, but we found quite a bit." Said Twilight.

"Its alright, thanks." Replied Matt with a nod.

Walking over to the pile, he ignored most of the bags and picked up his torn Kevlar vest. Reaching into one of the pockets, he pulled out a ring and sat there, gazing into the diamond that adorned it.

Twilight watched from across the room, seeing the ring and was about to ask Matt whose it was. Then she saw a single tear fall down his cheeks, and decided against asking. Matt sat there for several more minutes, then placed the ring inside of his pants pocket and walked over towards Twilight. Kneeling so he had and eye-level view he asked. "Thank you for saving me, but I had a dog with me. His name is Rocky, and he is about six inches smaller than you with a grey coat. Did you see him?" Matt kept a cautious ear tuned to her answer.

Twilight nodded. "He was laying down next to you when Fluttershy found you. She said that Rocky was growling as soon as she got close to you. Rocky had a broken right fore-leg and some broken ribs as well so Fluttershy carried Rocky to her cottage in the forest and has been caring for him for the past week."

"Whoa whoa whoa, the past week?!?"

Redheart nodded. "You had sustained serious injuries and lost a lot of blood. In fact, its a miracle that you even woke up at all."

"That right? Well thank you then nurse for caring for me for the week."

"Your welcome!" She said brightly.

"Anyway, how is Rocky doing?"

"Very well." Twilight said. "He really is a very sweet dog, I went to go visit him and I watched him play with Winona,my friend's dog."

"Great." He looked outside the window and saw a yellow figure flying towards the hospital with a grey blob on its back.

"Hey Twi, what's that?" He indicated the yellow blob, which had landed and was walking inside of the hospital.

"Oh, that is Fluttershy, she is a pegasus."

"There are pegasi too?"

Twilight nodded. "Yep"

After sifting around his stuff for a few more minutes, he heard hoof-steps coming from the door.

"Oh um, hi, um, can I come in? I mean, if that's okay with you." Said a quiet voice.

Turning around, Matt saw a butter-yellow pegasus at the door. It seems like each species, Unicorn, Pegasus or whats called earth ponies are all the same average height. Each at about 3 feet tall, half of his height.

Twilight turned to the newcomer. "Oh hi Fluttershy! Come in!" Twilight beckoned Fluttershy inside of the room.

"Hi there Fluttershy." Matt said, squinting hard at her. "I heard that you're the one who saved my life. I wish to thank you for saving me and my dog."

"Oh, um, your welcome." She replied quietly.

*BARK BARK!* Rocky padded from around the door and started limping towards Matt.

Matt looked up. "Rocky! How are you boy?" Matt walked over to the pooch and gave him a big hug.

*BARK!*

Matt smiled. "That's good"

Matt turned to Fluttershy. "So how is his leg?"

"His leg has healed up rather nicely, I got a friend named Zecora to make a special potion that should heal him up in a few more days. She should be done with your potion by tomorrow." Fluttershy nervously replied.

Matt nodded. "Thanks Fluttershy"

Twilight turned to Nurse Redheart. "So nurse, will he be able to come outside with us any time soon? I want to introduce him to every-pony else."

Nurse Redheart nodded. "As long as he takes it easy, he could leave now if he wants too."

Twilight turned to Matt. "Well? Would you like to go meet every-pony else?"

Matt shook his head. "Maybe tomorrow, I got a lot of information crammed into my head for one day. What with talking, multicolored ponies, magic, manticores, and an entirely different world, getting anything else into my brain, I would probably go insane. I appreciate the offer, but I think I am going back to sleep for the rest of the day. I will go and meet others tomorrow, but I need rest.

Twilight nodded. "Okay, see you tomorrow then." She left the room.

Redheart gave Matt one quick checkup, then left the room as well.

Matt turned to Rocky and Fluttershy. "Hey Fluttershy, again, thanks for saving me. Can you give Rocky a quick checkup back at your home? I am still worried about that leg, despite the potion your friend made."

Fluttershy nodded, picking up Rocky on her back. Rocky began to whimper.

"Hey boy, come on, I will see you tomorrow. Don't worry about me."

Rocky did not seem content, but he stopped whimpering and allowed himself to be carried out the door.

Matt sighed, and climbed onto the bed, looking out the window for a few minutes. How was he going to get out of this? This must be Russian work, this just could not be real. Although this certainly felt real. His eyes became heavy and he laid his head on the pillow on his bed. He quickly embraced the calling of sleep and passed out.

Twilight made it home and quickly moved to her desk. Picking out a piece of paper and a quill, she began to compose a letter.

Dear Princess Celestia...

Ponyville

Nurse Redheart stood next to Matt, who had been asleep for the past day or so. While she was doing a checkup on his stitches and cast, she noticed that Matt began twitching and mumbling in his sleep.

Redheart tried to listen to what he was saying, but could only comprehend the occasional word.

"Throw...flour...Rocky...they're here......run..."

This made no sense to Redheart, but perhaps this was a traumatic event that had happened in his life. His voice sounded strained, and the last two words she had comprehended were more or less...disturbing.

Redheart continued to watch Matt for a few more minutes, as he twitched and turned in his sleep, before she left to check on the other patients.

Redheart thought. "What happened to him?"

"Come here!" Matt whispered to the woman across the room, beckoning her into the kitchen.

The woman looked like she saw a ghost, her face completely pale from shock and fear. Matt didn't blame her, there were Russian solders just down the hall, shooting as soon as they broke down the doors.

Matt quietly stood up and reached into one of the cabinets, pulling out a half-empty bag of flour. He handed this bag to the woman next to him.

"Alright, here is the plan. We are going to barricade the door with that table." Indicating the kitchen table that was just next to the pantry. "And we are going to roadblock the small hallway with the couch over there, Forcing them to climb over it and giving us a bit more time. When they break down the door, and they are, I need you to take that bag, and throw it to the ground. The cloud of flour will blur their vision, and I'm sure that they won't be expecting it. While they are dazed, I am going to shoot at them, hopefully I will get a few hits on them and incapacitate them."

"But what if they shoot you first!?! Then what?!?" Whispered the woman.

Matt sighed. "Look, you and I both know that this is our only chance. If I get shot, but kill at least one of them in the process, then that is one less for the Allies to worry about." Matt handed her a kitchen knife. "If they kill me, you will be behind them when they bust it down, behind that lip next to the door. You also have Rocky with you, so you won't be completely defenseless. Now come on! We are losing precious seconds."

Matt and the woman positioned the table in front of the door, giving it a bit more reinforcement. They then began to quickly drag the couch towards the door, and roadblocked the small hallway leading from the oak door. The woman ran behind the wall lip, into the bathroom next to the door. While Matt threw a living chair on its side, giving Matt some cover.

He heard voices, and footsteps from outside the door, all speaking in mumbled Russian. Matt looked to the woman, and whispered. "They're here..."

Matt quickly looked around, something was wrong...but what...?

Matt started, Rocky! Where was he!?!

No time, there was a knocking on the door. Getting more forceful with every rasping.

*knock, Knock, KNOCK, KNOCK!"

Matt held his breath, blood roaring in his ears. He pulled his M-9 from its holster, and pointed it at the door He looked to the woman next to the door lip, she was scared, but had a face of determination. Matt smiled, she was a tough one.

*KNOCK!*

One last knocking, then silence. His neck hairs stood on end, time seemed to slow down. Footsteps. Voices.

*CRACK!*

The door flew off its hinges, shattering the kitchen table meant for protection. Three red coated solders ran inside of his hotel room, one of which quickly tripped on the remains of the wooden table and fell behind the couch. The woman rounded the lip, and threw the powder on the ground. resulting in a cloud of white flying into the solder's eyes.

Matt took this instant of confusion to unleash a hail of 9mm hell. Getting out of cover from the chair, he began firing into the cloud of white, aiming at the silhouette of the solders.

He hit one of the men in the head, blood and brains flew everywhere and coated the once white walls with a fresh layer of crimson. He then got another of the solders by filling his chest with lead. The man cried out in pain until another bullet hit him in the throat. The man fell to his knees, eyes wide as he watched the blood fountain from his neck, then fell and joined his comrade in the afterlife.

Several bullets flew over Matt's head forcing him to take cover. The solder that had tripped behind the couch was now using it for cover, something that Matt had hoped to avoid. Holes began getting punched through the chair as the solder unleashed a wall of AK-74 bullets, Tearing the chair apart. Matt's pistol was out of ammunition and although he had another clip, there was no time to reload. The bullets from the solder was tearing the chair apart, and in seconds, will render his cover useless and he would be shot. He quickly looked around for other cover, but the couch had been moved and the counter was too far away to run over towards.

"This is the end then..." Matt thought

*BARK BARK!*

Matt's head shot up, and he watched his dog come flying out of the bedroom and charged at the solder hiding behind the couch. Rocky jumped over the roadblock and landed behind a very surprised Russian solder. Before the man could reach for his combat knife, Rocky leaped at his neck, and tore the man's throat out. More blood grazed the walls and the man fell face-first onto the wooden floor.

"Rocky!" Matt cried. The dog then padded over to him and laid his head on his lap. Rocky had just saved his life, had he not been there, he would most certainly be dead, or been held captive by the communist forces.

Leading Rocky and the woman, who had been hiding in the bathroom, into the bedroom. He closed the door and picked up what was left of the door and laid it against the door frame, blocking most of the view inside the room. He began scavenging the men for weapons and ammunition. He found that two of the men, including the one that nearly killed him, had been using AK-74s and the other had drawn a pistol, with a sniper rifle on his back. They were probably going to make a sniper nest on this roof, as the hotel they were in was one of the highest in the street, at about thirty floors. He picked up the three rifles and their ammunition, a combat knife, and a single grenade.

Rushing back into the bedroom with the equipment, He quickly learned how to reload his new rifle and gave the other gun to the woman sitting on the bed. Matt looked out the window, and saw a team of American solders fighting their way back into his street. If they were to get out alive, the Americans needed control of the hotel.

Looking towards the sniper that was laid out in front of the bed, he quickly made up his mind. Matt told the woman of his plan, then picked up the two rifles in each hand and began making his way up fifteen flights of stairs. When they got to the top, the door to the roof was locked.

Matt sighed, then dropped the two guns to the ground. He took a step back, then kicked the door out, throwing every bit of force into the old metal door. A hinge cracked, and Matt pushed the door down onto the ground. Grunting, he picked up the two rifles and made his way outside.

The sky was a orange-red color of sunset, leading Matt to think that it was about 6:00. Russian planes flew overhead, dropping bombs on streets and buildings alike. There was constant explosions and cracking coming from the streets below him, from firearms and cars exploding.

Running to the end of the building, he dropped the AK-74 next to him, and began looking through the scope of the Russian sniper. Rocky and the woman stood guard next to what remained of the door, to warn Matt of any stragglers that had come by.

Matt looked to the streets, and saw that the American team had begun to fall back, the red horde advancing upon them. Matt saw an American getting knocked in the head by a Russian gun, and was about to have been finished off before Matt pulled the trigger.

*CRACK*

The Russian's head exploded, sending blood, bone, and brain in all directions. The remainder of the body fell backwards onto some shrapnel. The American solder, though dazed, was picked up by his vest by another solder and thrown forward behind a overturned car. Matt continued to cover the advance of the American solders, killing any Russian stupid enough to poke his head over the cover he was behind.

Matt was down to his last magazine, and the Americans were almost in front of the hotel, and at this moment, Matt heard an all too familiar sound.

*WHRRRRRRRRR*

He looked to the left, and saw Russian armor plowing through the cars is if it was foam, A solder was above the tank cover, manning the turret and unleashing hell upon the Americans, who all took cover.

The long barrel of the tank then began rotating right, and up. Until it was pointed straight at Matt's location.

Matt yelled, picked up his rifles, and ran towards the woman and Rocky.

"RUN!" He screamed, sprinting to the other end of the building as fast as he could.

Matt heard and felt an explosion behind him and was thrown forward, dust clouding his vision...

"ah, Ah, AHHHHH!" Matt yelled, shooting upwards in a sitting position on his bed, getting instant protest from his chest. A startled, and worried lavender unicorn next to him.

"Oh thank Celestia! You're awake!" Said Twilight as she dropped her two forelegs off Matt's bed.

"Wha...what happened?" Matt asked, still reeling from the explosion in his dream.

"You looked to be having a nightmare." Said Twilight. "You were screaming, turning and tossing in bed. You sounded tortured, and scared. So I tried waking you up, I guess I did too good of a job at that..." She smiled sheepishly.

Matt turned to face her. "No no, thanks. That was something that I had hoped I would never live again."

"What? That happened to you? What happened exactly?" Twilight asked worriedly.

Matt looked away towards the window, not answering for several minutes. Finally, he replied. "I...I don't want to talk about it. Its a terrible story that no man, or pony, should ever have to live." Not a lie, but not true either. The story that he would give would be heart-wrenching to himself, but also had information that he could not afford to give the Russian scientists.

Twilight was silent for a little bit, but accepted Matt's answer. If he does not want to talk about it, then I won't force it out of him. Twilight thought.

"Alright, well, I came over here to pick you up. I was going to show you around town, and introduce you to all of my friends. I was also going to give you some knowledge on our lifestyle and other bits of information. I was also hoping that you would be able to tell me what some of your stuff was, and how it works." She said the last part indicating the bags in the corner, by the window.

Matt nodded, still suspicious. "Of course, let me just put some more decent clothes on, I gotta get out of this ruined shirt anyway. Oh and where is the bathroom?"

Twilight pointed over towards a door to the right of the entrance. Picking up a pair of jeans, a long-sleeved, blue shirt, and a pair of white sneakers, Matt walked into the bathroom and closed the door.

Twilight waited outside, thinking of questions to ask the human. It seemed like he always wanted to wear clothes, despite every-pony in town was usually naked. But she noticed that Matt had very little hair on his body, save for the top of his head, and he must of lost body heat faster than ponies did. They also probably had a...different anatomy in their "privates" then ponies. But Twilight noticed something else, Matt seemed...suspicious for some reason. It sounded like he still did not trust them, thinking that perhaps we might do something to him. Twilight made a note to ask him about that later.

Matt walked out of the bathroom, wearing much cleaner clothes then what he had before. He did not have many sets of clothing, but enough to last him for a few days.

Twilight looked over to him. "You ready?" She asked.

Matt nodded, picking up his crutch and started moving towards the door. They walked out into the hallway and proceeded to the main desk, where Nurse Redheart was seated.

Matt walked up to her. "Hey nurse, just wanna let you know that I am going out to town to meet others with Twilight." Matt indicated the purple unicorn next to him.

Redheart looked away from her papers and spoke to Matt. "Of course! Don't wanna keep you cooped up in a hospital like this. Oh, by the way, Zecora dropped off her potion to help you heal, its right here." Redheart handed a small glass vial with a red liquid inside of it, kept in by a cork.

"So...I just drink this?" Matt asked.

"Yep, be careful though, Zecora said that it was a little hot and spicy. There is a water fountain over there." She pointed down the hall.

"Alright then, bottoms up!" Matt uncorked the vial and drank the liquid in one gulp. He started sweating and his face turned cherry-red.

Bad idea Matt, a very, very bad idea. Matt thought.

He began sprinting down the hall to the water fountain, taking huge gulps of clear liquid leaving a laughing pair of ponies behind.

"Hey Twilight." Redheart said. "When you went inside of Matt's room, was he tossing and turning? As if he was living a dream?"

Twilight sighed. "Yes. I asked him about it but he said that no pony should ever have to hear about his story. From the way he was reacting in his sleep, I don't doubt him."

Redheart nodded and Matt walked back to the desk, placing the vial on the top.

"A little hot and spicy?!? That thing burned hotter than swallowing fire!"

Redheart giggled. "Well you don't have to worry about it any more, you don't need to drink another potion. Zecora said that this potion should triple your healing rate, fixing your leg and closing up the cuts on your body faster. Although, those cuts and holes will scar."

Matt nodded, then turned back to Twilight. "Ready to go?" He asked.

Twilight nodded and they both walked outside, Matt squinted at the sudden exposure to the sun.

Twilight giggled. "Haven't seen the sun in awhile have you? Anyways, I think that we should go see Rarity, at the Carousel Boutique first."

Matt shrugged. "Your choice, I haven't got a clue where I'm going so I'll just follow your judgement."

They began walking down the path, Matt taking in the sights of birds and pegasi flying in the skies. They then made it inside the limits of Ponyville, small houses on both sides of the road with the occasional store in between. Matt began, predictably, to attract a lot of attention. This was bound to happen, as Matt was a full three feet taller than all of the ponies in the roads. They more or less ignored him however, giving him the occasional glance when he looked elsewhere.

"Ah, we're here!" Twilight stopped in front of a store with a blue/purple walls in a circular style. There was also a small tower-like protrusion at the top of the building.

"So you said that Rarity was some sort of fashonista?" Matt asked, looking into the windows filled with dresses.

"Yep, get ready for a few questions from her about clothes though. She will probably take all our time with fashion questions if you let her."
that

"Well she will be pretty disappointed. I may have a nice looking cover, but my pages are blank in this field."

Twilight nodded and pushed the doors open with her magic, a purple hue emanating from the doors, a bell rung above them.

"Just a moment!" Came a voice from upstairs. After a minute or two, an ivory white unicorn trotted down from upstairs. She had a purple mane done up in a style and a purple tail that was in curls.

"Hello darling!" She said to Twilight, then turning to Matt. "Ah! You're standing up! I thought with your injuries that you might not even wake up again!"

Matt flinched slightly, thinking of the injuries that the Russians had given him. "Rarity" must of noticed this.

"Are you okay darling?" She asked Matt.

Matt looked at her. "Hmm? Oh yes, I am fine."

Rarity raised an eyebrow, but then began asking Matt a slew of questions. Matt both expected, and unexpected the questions that she had asked. All of which involved style, clothes, what Matt wore, and anything else of the like. Not one question had involved any information regarding who he was, what he did, why he was in the forest, or anything critical at all for that matter. The closest to critical info she had gotten to, was what his vest was made of, and that was common knowledge for the Russians.

After the questions had gone on for about a half hour, Twilight finally stopped Rarity from asking any more info on what humans wore, much to the disappointment of Rarity.

"Sorry Rarity, but you just spent an hour asking Matt about clothes, and we are losing daylight, I still got to introduce him to every-pony else."

Rarity's eyes dropped. "Oh alright, do come back though Matt, I still didn't ask what kind of head wear your kind has."

"Alright Rarity, some other time." Matt replied.

That will be the day. Matt thought.

They exited the boutique and began walking in the direction, of what Twilight had called, Sugarcube Corner, where her friend Pinkie lived.

After walking for about ten minutes, Matt heard shouting and a scuffle break out to his left.

"Help! Some-pony stop that thief!"

Matt turned left and saw a red stallion running through the crowds, with what appeared to be guards wearing golden armor behind him. Matt saw a small bag that was being held in his teeth, with what appeared to be several coins inside, reflecting the sunlight. The stallion continued to charge through the crowds, going straight towards Matt's location.

Something in Matt snapped, the red coat, the coins the reflected the shine of the sun, the two guards chasing him. This looks exactly like...no...they want me to kill him, yes that's it! They are trying to test me! Well I guess I have to disappoint these communist bastards!

Matt took a single step back, and got ready for when the red-coated pony would pass him. He positioned his good leg. The stallion then galloped only a few feet away.

Matt then took his good leg, and swept his leg underneath the thief's hoofs, sending the red-coated pony into the air. Matt then took his right hand, and pummeled the thief into the stones, not hard enough to kill him, but enough to knock him out. The bag of coins flew out of his mouth, sending a few copper coins among the flagstones.

"Sit down, bitch." Matt said to the unconscious thief.

Twilight stared at Matt, then at the thief, and then back to Matt again, an incredulous look on her face.

It looked like he had done things like that before. What is his background? And why was he so secretive about it?

The guards that donned golden armor galloped up to the unconscious thief, then placed him in hoof-cuffs and picked him up, giving Matt a respectable nod. Another pony, a blue unicorn, galloped to Matt.

"Thank you so much mister!" She said. "I was going to get my little filly a birthday present, when that crazy stallion decided to take my bits!" She began to pick up the spilled coins on the stone, placing them back into her bag. "Again, thank you so much!"

Matt was shocked, the nod of the guards, and the thanks of the blue unicorn, didn't they want Matt to kill the thief, confirming his hate for the Russians? It's almost like they did not want me to kill the red thief, but that makes no sense! They are testing on me right? Right?

Twilight cleared her throat. "Um, Matt. I think we should keep moving, we are gathering a lot of attention.

Matt nodded and picked up his crutch, limping his way to the same direction they were going before. Within five minutes, they arrived at a happy looking, colorful bakery. Matt could smell the pies and pastrys being baked inside.

Matt and Twilight walked inside, and immediately took in the fresh and sweet aroma.

"HI THERE!" Screamed a pink pony, hanging directly in front of Matt from the rafters.

"Jesus Christ!" Matt yelled in shock, hand instinctively going to where his pistol holster would be. When he realized that he had forgotten it, he raised his fist to knock the crazy pony out cold.

"Wait Matt!" Cried Twilight, to which Matt slowly began lowering his fist.

Twilight sighed in relief. "Matt, this is Pinkie Pie, and trust me, you will get used to her after a while. She may be a bit...rambunctious but she grows on you."

"HAHAHAHAHAHA, you should have seen the look on your face! You were all like..." She made a huge circle with her mouth and widened her eyes. "...And then you were like this..." She raised her hoof above her head, looking to be about to punch. "...And I thought, 'Whoa he is actually going to hit me!' But then you stopped when Twilight said stop. HAHAHA that was so fun!" She was about to talk more until Twilight shoved a purple hoof into Pinkie's mouth.

"That's very nice Pinkie, but I was hoping that you could simply introduce yourself to Matt here, without giving him a heart attack. Oh, and could you get down from there?"

"Okey dokey loky!" Replied Pinkie as she dropped straight on her face from the rafters. She got up and stuck a pink hoof out towards Matt.

Matt studied her for a few seconds, and then shook the pony's hoof.

"So, what do you do Pinkie?" Matt asked.

"Well, I work here! I cook stuff that tastes good, especially cupcakes! Would you like to try one?" She reached a hoof back into her poofy mane and pulled out a chocolate cupcake covered in rainbow sprinkles. Matt raised an eyebrow at this, and slowly shook his head.

"No thanks"

Pinkie turned to Twilight, and asked her the same thing, and she declined.

Pinkie then looked up at the ceiling. "What about you reader person?"

".............."

"Alright then, more for me!" Pinkie threw the cupcake up into the air, opened her mouth, and swallowed the cupcake whole.

Matt and Twilight both stared at her in confusion. Pinkie eventually broke the silence.

"So Matt! Can you cook? Twilight can't cook at all so she just gets Spike to cook everything for her. Isn't that right Twilight?" Pinkie said.

Twilight grinned sheepishly. "Don't rub it in Pinkie." Twilight laughed.

"Yea, I can cook pretty well, what were you planning to make?" Matt replied to Pinkie Pie.

"Super! I need you to help me make some vanilla cupcakes! I am hosting a party later today and I am super duper far behind!" She threw an apron towards Matt.

"How many bowls of mix?" Matt asked.

Pinkie smiled. "Twenty!"

Matt stared at her. "Twenty? That is a lot of batter Pinkie. Is there that much time?"

"Duh! Of course there is silly! I'll mix the ingredients together, and you mix it all up!"

Matt looked to Twilight for help, who just shrugged and trotted over to a chair in the corner, and began to read a book.

Matt then started mixing the batter as fast as he could, his arm quickly getting tired from the constant rotations. He looked over towards pinkie, who was literally throwing the ingredients into a bowl from every corner of the room. She slid a bowl down every few seconds, perfectly measured in the ingredients.

Matt had only stirred five bowls when Pinkie was done with her part and walked over to where Matt was working.

"Wowee, you are sloooooooow! Here, lemme try."

"By all means, go right ahead." Replied Matt as he took a step back from the counter.

Pinkie pie cracked her neck, and then took the whisk and began beating the batter into submission. Her fore-leg looked like a blur as she spun it around. Pinkie slid a mixed bowl every few seconds, quickly filling up the end of the table.

"Done!"

Matt looked back at Twilight, to see if she had just seen what Pinkie did. She looked back at him, then giggled as she got up from the chair and began walking over.

"Well, I hope you two got along, but I still gotta introduce him to Dash and Applejack. See you later Pinkie."

She waved at Matt and Twilight as they left the bakery back into the light of the sun, which had begun to dwindle over the horizon.

"Oops, I guess I lost track of time!" Said Twilight. "Say Matt, do you wan to stay in my guest room? I would think that you have had enough of that cramped hospital room."

Matt looked to the sunset for a few moments before answering. He honestly did not want to sleep in the hospital again, despite it being fake, as this entire world obviously was, he never liked hospitals. Ever since he was a kid, he has hated needles, doctors, all of that stuff. It was a silly fear, being he was an American Marine, but it was still there nonetheless.

Matt nodded. "That would be great Twilight. Where do you live?"

"Just a few blocks that way." Twilight pointed right and they made it to her home in a few minutes. Matt stared at the house.

"You...live inside of a tree?"

"Well...yes, but it is actually a library."

"So you live inside of a library, that is inside of a huge tree?"

"Um, yes?"

Matt simply nodded, and began limping to the front door and opened it up, quickly revealing many bookshelves filled with what obviously goes into it.

"Twilight? That you?" Called a voice from the kitchen.

"Yes, and I brought Matt along with me!" Replied Twilight from behind Matt, closing the door.

"Matt? Who's Matt?"

"Hes the creature we found in the forest. His name is Matt."

A small, lizard-like creature with green and purple scales rounded the corner and began sizing up Matt.

"Wow, you're huge!

Matt laughed a little bit. "Maybe your just small."

The lizard extended a small, clawed hand. "Hey, my name is Spike. I'm a baby dragon"

Hmph, they put in dragons too? Matt thought.

"Hello there Spike." Matt shook his hand. "My name is Matt, and I am a human."

"Cool"

"Hey Twilight, you said that there is a guest bedroom."

She nodded. "Down that hall and to the right. Go and make yourself comfortable, I'll go back to the hospital and pick up your stuff. I'll also go and get your dog, Rocky back from Fluttershy. She says that his leg and ribs have been healed already from the potion that Zecora made him."

"Great, thanks Twilight." Matt replied, as Twilight exited the house.

"So Matt." Spike said. "What do you eat? Carnivore? Herbivore? I am making some hay spaghetti and a gem sandwich."

"Uhhhhh, I can't eat either of those. I am an Omnivore but I can't digest either hay, or gems."

Stupid scientists, they should already know this. Unless they are trying to fuck around with my head Matt thought.

"Well, we have some Apples, can you eat those? Other than that we have nothing else to eat."

"Sure, apples are fine." Matt walked into the kitchen and checked the fridge for the fruit. He grabbed two apples and then sat down in the middle of the library, looking at all the titles of books.

Matt began to ponder about the past few days all that had happened. He thought of the talking ponies that surrounded him, the respective nod of the guards after he stopped the thief, the thanks of the civilian after he had saved her money. He also thought of how...real his injuries felt. And lastly, he looked around the room at the books. Every single one of them had a different title, leading to yet another question. Why would these scientists bother with making all of these different titles? It looked like this would have taken hours of work. And all of the detail of the ponies, the buildings, the landscape, and the feeling of the sun on his skin.

He got up from his sitting position, picked up his crutch, and threw away his apple cores.

"Hey spike! Tell Twilight that I am going for a walk!"

"Will do!" Replied spike from the kitchen.

Matt limped out to the front door, and opened it. Letting the moonlight spill into the library before he exited and closed the door.

Luna was flying above Ponyville, a bit disappointed that no-pony had been taking a night-walk. Her spirit instantly raised when she saw a pony just below her, walking in the middle of the empty street.

She was going to make her presence known, before she got a better view of this...pony?

This was no pony, in fact, this creature resembled exactly what Twilight's letters described the creature they found in the forest. Twilight had sent another letter to Tia the day before, telling her that the creature, whose name was Matt, seemed very suspicious of the ponies. Tia must have been equally suspicious of the human, asking Luna to fly around Ponyville to get any more info on the humans actions.

Swooping slightly lower, Luna began to follow Matt, who stopped every few minutes. When he stopped, he would always simply stare at some building, as if he were studying its architecture, or determining if it was real or not. After the third stopping, he picked up a fist-full of dirt and stared at it, like he was trying to unlock its secrets.

Suddenly, Matt froze. He stood up, dropped the dirt, and spun quickly around to where Luna was flying, who quickly turned invisible. Matt frowned as he continued to stare in Luna's direction, then turned around and began walking back to Twilight's home.

Luna followed, curious to see what he would do next...

Inquiry

Luna continued to follow Matt, invisible still. Matt seemed extremely uncomfortable, and continued to glance at Luna's direction, seeming to know exactly where she was.

"How does he know where I am?" Luna thought. "Even when I move side to side, he still follows my location."

Suddenly, Matt whirled around, and again, stared right at Luna's location in the air behind him. He quickly picked up a pebble, and threw it to where Luna was flying. Caught off guard, she narrowly dodged the stone. However, the sudden movement of her wings had displaced a bit of air. And when the pebble sailed through the displacement, it seemed to arc down faster then what was natural. Luna froze in her place, staring at Matt to see if he had detected the unnatural pebble movement.

He had.

Matt's eyes widened, and he turned around to begin running down the street. Luna easily followed by air, noting his movement and sense of urgency.

"Great" Luna thought. "I just made him more suspicious then he already was."

Matt continued his sprint, and eventually ended up at Twilight Sparkle's home, opening the door. Luna landed and moved over towards the window, attempting to listen in on any conversation.

"Oh, hello Matt!" Said Twilight. "I gathered up all of your stuff and put it inside of your room. Oh, and I picked up Rocky as well, Fluttershy made a small bed for him too."

Matt slowly nodded, looking around the room for any apparent eavesdroppers. "Um, thanks Twilight..."

Twilight raised an eyebrow and looked around the room, looking past the window where Luna was peeking through, who was still invisible. "Are you okay Matt? It seems like you are looking for some-pony."

Matt more or less ignored her and looked around for a few more minutes, then replied. "No no, I'm fine. Well goodnight Twilight." He started walking down the hall to his bedroom.

Twilight looked confused but still did not say anything. She said goodnight to spike and then proceeded upstairs for bed.

Luna moved away from the window and then flew around the house to look into Matt's room.

She looked through the window and saw Matt hugging Rocky and then sat on the bed for about ten minutes, thinking. Luna then saw Matt take out a small ring with a diamond on it, and gazed into the diamond. After five minutes, and several tears, he kissed the diamond and placed it on his nightstand.

Matt then crawled into bed, with his feet hanging off the back since the bed was made for a pony, and laid his head on the pillow, quickly going to sleep.

Luna was about to leave until Matt started tossing and turning in his sleep, in obvious distress. When this continued for several minutes, Luna made up her mind.

Since Luna was the princess of the night, she also had some control over dreams of creatures. Dissipating into an vapor form, she went through the window and started viewing Matt's dream discreetly...

...Dust flew everywhere, clouding Matt's vision. He could not see, and all he could hear was a loud, piercing ringing in his ears. His mouth tasted of powdered concrete and blood. He heard shouting not too far away, but it seemed so distant, disembodied...

"...Get up! For god's sake get up Matt!" Cried the woman.

Matt was spun around until he was facing upwards to the sky, then he felt a solid slap across the cheek, which snapped him out of it.

"Wha...what?" Matt said, struggling to get up.

"Oh thank god, you're okay!" She helped Matt to his feet. "We have got to get out of here!"

Matt shook his head, and said nothing as he ran to the sniper rifle that was ten yards away. Picking it up, he checked the ammunition remaining in the magazine. He had two bullets left and he had no extra magazines remaining.

He jogged with the rifle back to his old spot after he checked to see if Rocky was alright, which he was, and then took his sniper position on the ledge.

He scoped in, and aimed his crosshair on the tank. He moved up slightly and saw the Russian manning the turret on the top of the tank, which was pinning down any American solders that could have destroyed the tank. Matt focused his rifle on the Russian.

*Click*

"Fuck!" Matt yelled. His rifle had misfired the round. Quickly pulling out the magazine, he continued to keep th rifle down towards the Russian side as he waited for the bullet to fire. There would be no telling when it would fire, and he couldn't shoot the other round as that would cause an explosion.

*CRACK*

The gun finally fired, and ricocheted off of a overturned car, and then hit a Russian solder's AK-74 rifle, knocking it out of his grip with a surprised face. Matt stared. "How in the hell did that even have a chance of happening?" He thought, nearly laughing.

Matt then took the magazine with a single round, and rammed it into the sniper rifle. He then scoped back onto the communist grunt manning the turret mounted on the tank.

*CRACK*

The bullet pierced the man's throat, blood gushing out between the man's hands as he tried to staunch the bleeding. The communist finally stiffened, and fell across the turret he had just been manning, burning his cold, dead skin.

The tank, once again, began rotating back to where Matt was positioned. Before an American solder burst out of hiding with a scavenged RPG and fired it at the tank.

*BOOM!*

The tank exploded in a shower of metal and oil and echoed throughout the long city street. Using the scope to scout around the battlefield for a little longer, Matt finally threw the rifle as hard as he could over to the Russian side. He turned and walked away hoping that the heavy rifle would hit an enemy on the head.

He walked back to the woman and Rocky, beckoning them to the door.

"Alright, the American forces are out in front of the hotel at this very moment and are moving up. This is our only chance to get out alive, so, we are taking it. Let's stop by the room so we can pack up some more gear in case we get separated form the battalion. I am talking about clothes, communications, that sort of thing, but do not over weigh yourself, we need to move fast and long." Matt said to the woman, who just simply nodded.

As they all ran down the stairs, they finally came across their floor and ran to their room. Passing by all the blood and bodies in the hallway, Matt and the woman began packing. Matt was in charge of everything that was not clothes while the woman was in charge of the complete opposite.

Matt grabbed a duffel bag, opened it, and began throwing items inside of it. First he grabbed his camping gear that he had brought, which was his tent, sleeping bags, and his bow/arrows. Next, he grabbed his laptop bag which had his phone and laptop, along with his iPod touch for communication, and portable entertainment. He then grabbed Rocky's food and some treats, along with a tennis ball. Lastly, he packed away a solar-charged car battery that he made when he was in college. This battery was charged by solar energy and then could be tapped into by his modified power strip.

Swinging the duffel bag around his shoulder, he turned to the woman, who threw a bag of clothes, that could fit inside of his half-full bag. After unzipping the bag, throwing the clothes in then re-zipping, they were ready to go outside. Well, Matt was ready, the woman looked to be about to throw up. Rocky was jumping around everywhere, obviously nervous as well.

Picking up the duffel bag and his rifle, Matt bit back bile as he once again crossed the blood stained hallway to the door of his room. They then began running down the stairs again until they made it to the ground floor, where there was another metal door. As soon as he opened the door to the lobby, he ran to the corner and threw up, along with the woman.

The lobby had been massacred, civilians and solders of both sides that had been inside when the bombs hit were all dead. Some had their bodies thrown apart by grenades or when they flew through the window, shot off by the bombs that had destroyed the streets. Looking to the main desk, he saw several bodies slung across the top, staining the deep colored wood with crimson.

Looking behind the large desk, he saw several bodies of American Army men and women with their respective gear. Matt called the woman and Rocky over to where he was standing, then he dropped his AK-74 and picked up the familiar M-16 rifle. He also undressed a man and a woman from their vests and slid it on themselves. After gathering up three grenades, a flash grenade, and any extra ammunition for his rifle and pistol, he handed the woman a M-16 rifle. Matt knew that this would matter little since she had no experience with these weapons, but he and his fellow solders knew this gun better than the Russian standard and could help her easier with the American rifle.

After gearing up, Matt looked outside to see both sides at a stalemate. Neither side gaining the advantage. He told the woman to stay close to him, and held onto Rocky's collar, and charged out into the red tinted sunlight.

Sprinting and zig-zagging in between the cars, he ran to the farthest point from the fighting, but where there was still solders. There were two American solders behind an overturned car there.

"Here." Matt pushed the woman down behind the car, in between the two solders, who had begun to stare at him. "Stay here and follow the solders, but as far back as you can, I don't want you getting shot."

One of the solders finally spoke to Matt. "Who the hell are you?"

Matt grunted. "Corporal Matt White of Marine Specialist Team 64."

"Okay...Why are you here? That detachment is not in Paris." Asked the second solder.

Matt pointed to the hotel that they had been staying at. "I took a vacation here while I was on leave. Only my first day here."

"Damn...hope you got your money back." The solder said the last part with a chuckle.

"Fuck you. If she." Matt pointed to the women. "Gets hurt, I will personally find both of you, cut off your hands, and shove them so far up your ass that your brain will get a massage. Capiche?"

The solders nervously nodded their heads, then began to fire down the street to the oncoming Russian forces.

Pivoting on his heels, Matt ran back to the front lines with Rocky and then slid behind an car that had skidded sideways. As soon as he made it to cover, he peeked his head over the car to see the oncoming communist troops. He began picking off the solders one by one until some bullets whizzed by his head, forcing him to duck. Three Russians then rounded the side of the car, seeing him instantly.

"Well shit..."

Two of the Russians charged at him instantly, being too close to raise their guns at him. Rocky jumped at the solder to Matt's right and began his work on him, while the one on Matt's right charged at him with a combat knife. Dropping his rifle, Matt reached down to his two knives in his boots, and pulled them out, reflecting the dull sunlight. He then twisted the two knives in his hands reverse style, catching the Russian slightly off guard. Not many American solders had two knives, but this one seemed to know what he was doing, but he was too close already to back off and then began swinging at Matt.

Matt caught the blade on his left knife and then delivered a punch to the Russian's gut, sending the red-coated solder backwards, but he quickly recovered, swinging the knife again. This time, Matt caught the solder's knife using his right knife, and flicked his wrist, sending the Russian combat knife skidding down the road. Matt quickly stabbed the communist's gut with his left, then dragged the solder closer to his face.

"You picked the wrong day to get out of Moscow motherfucker."

Matt quickly pulled the knife from the solder, spun around him, then impaled both of his knives into the Russian's back. When he withdrew the blades, the Russian fell on his knees, and then fell flat on his face.

Matt was about to sit down for a moment when he remembered, there was a third solder. As if on cue, he was forced to the ground by the butt of a rifle, he rolled over only to face the barrel end of a rifle pointed straight at his face. His attacker began saying something in Russian, but then stopped abruptly.

The communist looked down to his chest, and saw a gleaming red blade impaled through his body. The blade receded, and the solder fell over, dead.

Matt looked up above him and saw an outstretched hand, grasping it, he was pulled back to his feet.

"Ugh...thanks..." He turned to face his savior and they both froze at the sight of each other.

"Sgt. Richards!?!?"

"Corporal White?"

Sgt. Richards lead his squad when they were deployed in Italy, he was there when they got pinned down by some other Russian forces. He had also saved his life on numerous occasions, including this one.

"What the hell are you doing here Corporal?" Richards asked.

"I was on vacation in this hotel during leave." He geustered to the hotel next to them. "And I barely escaped with my life. What are you doing here? Are you on leave too?"

"I had nothing to go back for, so I volunteered to lead security groups through Paris, as you can see, we were not exactly prepared to take on a full force."

"What exactly happened anyway? One moment we were sleeping peacefully and the next I was thrown out of bed by a bomb."

He sighed. "Long story short, they made a new stealth system and the took half the city before we knew what hit us."

Matt nodded, called for Rocky, then once again began shooting at the oncoming forces, whether that be by gun or by knife, with Richards fighting alongside him. Matt continued to hold them off while Richards put two fingers up to his headset, listening for a radio signal.

"Alright, listen up. HQ is saying that there is a whole shitload of commies coming down this street, and back there is already taken." He motioned behind the front lines. "Paris is just about lost and we are isolated, so they are telling us to escape by any means necessary. We can't get air support either."

Matt began looking around for an exit, and his eyes fell on a closed manhole. He motioned towards the manhole and Richards went and picked the cover off the hole. He radioed for all the solders to run here ASAP. Matt went to find the woman. When he found her, he was relived that she was okay, and then helped her down the manhole. He got a fellw solder to carry down Rocky. Matt was the last one down, maneuvering his heavy bag into the hole and shutting the cover closed. They were all thrust into the darkness of the sewers...

"Enough." Luna said quietly as she exited Matt's dream. She had seen enough blood, red coated humans, and of the woman to know that this was certainly not a happy dream. Luna looked back to where Matt was sleeping, and he was tossing and turning in bed, muttering.

Luna dipped her horn down to Matt's head, and he stopped writhing in bed and began to sleep peacefully, his dream over.

*Grrrrrrr*

Luna looked to the corner and saw the dog, Rocky, growling softly at Luna. Luna put her hoof up to her mouth.

"Shush."

The dog stopped growling and began staring at her quizzically, trying to figure out what she would do next. Luna turned into a mist and drifted back outside of the window. When she was out she returned to her physical form and began flying back to the Canterlot Royal Palace. She had to tell Celestia about what she had seen in Matt's dreams...

Matt woke up quietly and peacefully, the first time in a while. He recognized his dream, not unlike the other dreams he had. Shuddering, he pulled himself out of his bed, using his crutch, he limped over to where the bathroom was.

Matt washed his face in the sink basin, then looked up at the mirror. He saw a rugged, face stare back at him. Its beard unkempt, his face pale, his eyes with dark circles underneath, and his dirty brown hair.

Man, I look like shit..."

Matt washed his face off some more to get out all the grime, and then left the bedroom. Matt checked his watch, 5:30, and then paced around to find out something to do for the next few hours. All of the "ponies" were still asleep and so was that small purple dragon. Matt woke up Rocky, gave him some of the food he had packed, and then began rummaging through his pack again, seeing what was recovered.

He found his M-9 pistol, still loaded, in his duffel bag with its holster.

Odd, one would think that this should be removed after he was found. Stupid fucking scientists.

After checking his pistol, and his rifle which was also recovered, for any signs of damage, he holstered his M-9 pistol to his waist, just as a precaution. He also moved his prized solar battery in front of the window to gather up solar energy. With Rocky following Matt, he walked out the bedroom and into the main body of the library. Matt was not hungry, so he began browsing the library for its contents, to see what exactly these scientists had made up.

After picking up a copy of, "A Brief History of Equestria", Matt sat down at a desk and began reading. He was becoming more and more astounded as he read, the whole story seemed so...perfect. To write anything like this in a fictional sense must have been astoundingly hard for anybody, even for a group of writers working on this at once. The only other way of this being so well written, was if this had actually taken place, and the author had seen everything first-hand. After reading the summary of "The Great Equestrian War" He checked the cover again for the author, but all it said was, "Princess Celestia".

"Princess Celestia huh? What a bunch of baloney!" Matt laughed and returned the book to its shelf, and continued to browse the shelves for a bit longer, Rocky watching him from the corner, gnawing on a few tennis balls. Matt eventually returned to his room and gathered up his solar battery, and his laptop and iPod from his bag and returned to his desk.

Placing the heavy battery on the floor, Matt plugged in his laptop and powered it on, resulting in a loud start up noise. "Alright, so I get shot, and yet, this laptop still works perfectly, go figure" Matt said to himself. Matt checked his watch again, 7:00, and deduced that these pony things would likely be getting up at any moment. Scoffing, Matt logged into windows, and opened up Team Fortress 2.

Obviously, there was no internet connection, so all he could do was play training mode. He did not mind however, his laptop was very powerful and could sustain a number of bots. The map "Dustbowl" was selected and he began playing as the engineer. He was upgrading his sentry until he was interrupted by a voice above him.

"What are you doing?" Twilight asked groggily.

Matt stared a few minutes and then said, coldly. "Playing a game"

"Sentry down!" Played the laptop. Matt cursed softly, those damn spies...

Twilight saw this strange device that sat on the desk, quickly woke up, and ran downstairs to get a better look. She stared a the moving pictures on the device, enthralled. Matt eventually got a bit bothered by this and turned to Twilight.

"Can I help you?" He said sternly.

"What is that device? Its amazing!"

Matt raised an eyebrow. "Uh, its a laptop. Why? whats so good about it?"

Twilight looked to Matt, amazed. "I have never seen this before in my life! What exactly does it do?!?" Twilight levitated a paper and quill over and waited for Matt's answer. Matt seriously couldn't believe why this...creation would ask that question.

Honestly, what are these damn commies trying to test? And what for?

The silence was interrupted by a loud belching followed by a soft jingle from upstairs.

"Aw COME ON! I was dreaming about me finally getting my wings!" Cried Spike from above.

Twilight placed the paper and quill back down. "Excuse me." Twilight then began galloping upstairs to Spike. Matt stared in that direction for a few seconds, then returned back to his game, ripping through solders with his mini-gun.

"Hey Spike, got a letter?"

"Uhhhhh, yea. Twilight, you might want to come see this." Spike said, rolling up the parchment.

Twilight frowned and levitated the letter in front of her. Unraveling it, the note read.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

It would appear that you were correct in your assumption of Matt, saying he was suspicious of you and everypony else. Luna was watching Matt wander through the streets of Ponyville in secret. Matt appeared to be studying every last brick and plank of the buildings. While we do not know why he was doing this exactly, we now have some information about his past.

Luna followed Matt into your home, and watched as Matt slept. He was tossing and turning in his bed, mumbling incoherently. When Luna traveled into his dream, she saw something...traumatic.

We will explain in greater detail later today. At about 1:00 this afternoon, we will be in Ponyville. I want to ask Matt a series of questions regarding his past, and why he is here. I do not know if he is hostile, or outright friendly, but with the information you have given me, it is likely he will not want to speak at all of it.

Regardless, I need you to have Matt inside of your library when we get there.

Sincerely,

Celestia

P.S. Luna here, also make sure that...long metal thing, is secured away from Matt when we are there. Same with the smaller metal item, similar to the longer one. I have good reason to believe that these are seriously dangerous when used with intention. Be discreet about our coming, Matt will likely panic if he knows we are on our way.

Twilight rolled the letter back up, and placed it on her desk. She was beginning to worry about what would happen when they got here. Twilight looked at the clock, 7:30, and began thinking of ways to preoccupy Matt's time. He would stil be suspicious, so she must be careful.

"Twilight?" Spike said.

"Spike, I need you to go into his room, and pull the long metal item out and hide it somewhere. Do not let him see you do it, or else it will only raise suspicions. I will look around for anything else he has in his possession that looks similar to it"

Spike nodded and then ran downstairs, to Matt's bedroom. Twilight looked outside and saw everypony going outside for their work. Since it was a Sunday, Twilight was relieved that the library was closed, it would make it easier to keep Matt from freaking out.

Spike quickly ran downstairs, but then slowed when he was in sight of Matt. Matt was using some sort of device that showed pictures moving on it. Spike could stare at it for hours, but he slapped himself, snapping out of it. He quietly moved past Matt, and went down the hall into his room.

He looked in the corner and saw the pile of stuff. Ranging from clothes, to bags, and other knick knacks that he, and perhaps Equestria, did not know of. He quickly began searching the bags for the long metal object, which he found almost immediately, and began looking for a place to hide the odd contraption.

*Thud, Thud, Thud*

"Oh hay!" Spike quietly muttered. Twilight's steps were much lighter than this, and paced differently. This must have been Matt, coming to his room.

Spike looked desperately around to find a place to put the item. If he placed the gun back into the pile, it would stick out, and it was on the bottom earlier, Matt would surely find out that he had been rummaging around. But if he hid it now, then Matt might not know at all, since the metal piece was in the bottom of the pile. Spike looked to his left at the window, threw it open, tossed the black object outside, then quickly slammed it shut.

The door opened.

"Spike? What are you doing in here?" Asked Matt.

"Oh nothing, just cleaning up the house. Twilight always tells me to do her stupid chores, like cooking or cleaning. You know." Spike replied, trying to keep a straight face as he began making Matt's bed.

Matt raised an eyebrow, and continued to study Spike for a few more moments, before shrugging and going to his bathroom.

Spike let out a sigh of relief and then climbed out the window, shutting it as he left. He picked up the black, metal object and moved it behind the house. Spike then placed the object inside one of the thick bushes that lingered up next to the house.

Spike sighed, finally done with the ordeal, and then proceeded to make himself a sapphire and jade sandwich, to help him relax.

Twilight watched Matt use his strange device that he called a laptop, for most of the day. After he was done with the invention, he began gazing out the window, and stared at every pony that walked by. He seemed especially interested, or agitated, when a red pony would go trotting by. Twilight made note of this just in case.

It was about noon when Matt moved from the window absentmindedly, and began browsing the various books in her library. Matt tended to focus on the history and science books. He laughed at almost every single page, like it was all a big joke.

Twilight checked the clock after a time, 1:00, and prepared for the entry of the princesses. Twilight looked towards Matt, and froze. There was a flash of light being shone dully from his hip. It was there, Twilight saw, the other, smaller version of the metal contraption.

Stupid, stupid, stupid! how could I forget the one most important thing I had to do! Twilight thought.

Twilight tried to think of a way to get the device away from his hip without his noticing. To her dismay, there was no solution that would work in time for the Princesses. She looked outside again, and saw the Princesses carriages being set down in front of her house. Twilight ran outside to intercept and warn the two royal figures.

"Ah, hello my faithful student!" Celestia started. "Is Matt still inside?"

Luna moved up next to her sister. "Does he have access to the metal contraptions?"

Twilight slowly, solemnly nodded. "Yes he is inside, but he still has the smaller version of the metal item. What is it anyway?"

Luna replied. "When I was in his dream, it appeared to be a weapon. What it does, and what it is called, I do not know. But you say he still has the smaller one, where is it now?"

Twilight sighed. "On his hip."

Luna flinched slightly. but quickly regained her posture.

"No matter, Celly, are you ready?"

Celestia nodded her head. "Yes"

The three began walking back inside, while the guards all stayed outside, save for one guard for both Celestia and Luna.

Matt continued to feel that something was amiss. Spike was "cleaning his room", Twilight had been watching him just about all day, not saying anything. Something was happening today, and he hated not knowing things. Matt moved over to the corner where Rocky was sleeping, and began stroking his fur.

Matt heard the door swing open, and without looking, said. "Twilight, what is going on, and who is with you?"

All three of the ponies were taken aback. How did he know there were more ponies there without looking?

"I know what you are thinking, you are wondering how I knew that without looking. Well, it comes from being forced to listen for the slightest noise, and always having to watch your back every day for two years straight." Matt said, still not looking in their direction.

Celestia nervously cleared her throat. "Yes well...allow me to introduce ourselves. I am Celestia, ruler of Equestria. And this is my sister, Luna, who leads alongside me."

At the name of "Celestia" Matt stood up and turned around to the new ponies. Celestia and Matt now both knew what each other had looked like. Matt stood tall, actually about an inch taller than Celestia, while Matt sized up Celestia. She had a flowing, sparkling mane that had all of the bright colors of the rainbow, had wings and a horn, and had a presence of authority around her.

"Is that so?" Matt said with a touch of sarcasm. "You are the great Celestia, one who wrote many of these books." Matt gestured to the bookshelves around him. "And the one who rules Equestria with a gentle, but firm hand...or hoof."

"Yes that is correct." Celestia replied.

"And now you want to ask me questions, about how I got here, what my background is, all of that stuff. That right?"

"Yes"

"Well I am not telling you bullshit."

Celestia was shocked, along with Twilight. No-pony had ever talked with such vulgar in front of royalty. And Matt also seemed to read their minds! Luna however, was not as surprised at Matt's outburst. After all, his memories are something that one does not forget easily. Matt turned back around and began petting his dog once again, who was just glaring at the three ponies in front of the door.

"Ugh, whats with all the yappin?" Said Spike as he walked down the stairs, he had obviously been sleeping since his eyes were all droopy. He stopped walking when he saw the two princesses, and Matt simply paying more attention to his dog rather than the virtual goddesses that were in this room.

"Care to elaborate? Why do you feel so strongly about not telling us anything?" Celestia asked.

Matt said nothing, he sighed and then sat on the ground, crossing his legs, and simply sat there, staring at the floor.

"We know about what happened to you Matt, at least, we know some of what happened." Celestia said.

Matt shook, and looked at the two princesses that were in front of him. "What?"

"Luna here watched your dream last night. Having power over the night she also has the ability to manipulate and watch others dreams. She saw the destroyed streets of the city you call Paris, the red-coated men, who she did not hear the name of, and the woman that was with you." Celestia sighed. "I can understand now why you seemed suspicious when you woke up in the hospital, as Twilight here noted in one of her letters. I sent Luna here to watch you as you were in Ponyville, When she told me of your dreams, then I knew why you were so tense."

Celestia drew another breath before speaking again.

"Luna here told me she saw blood, lots of blood, bodies, exploding machines, knives, and everything else that we do not know of. Luna eventually had enough and stopped your dream when you moved into the hole."

Twilight and Matt were thunderstruck. Twilight could not believe what she was hearing, that Matt had first hand experience of watching people die, sometimes by his own hoof...er hand.

Matt however, was surprised, but yet not surprised. If these Russian scientists could basically make an entire world in his head, then them know this information was not quite as surprising as one would think it would be.

There was a long period of silence, lasting about twenty minutes or so. During that time, Matt continued to sit with a thoughtful look on his face, thinking hard.

The long silence was interrupted by laughter, Matt's laughter.

"ha ha ha Ha Ha Ha HA HA HA!"

Matt stood up, and looked at the ponies with a penetrating stare.

"If you honestly think this will make me talk! Then you are sadly mistaken!" Matt's face slowly formed into a crazed look.

"I have gone through hell and back! And now you motherfucking communist bastards are experimenting on my mind, to get me to talk! Well it WONT WORK!"

Matt drew the small metal object from his hip and pointed it to his head. The three ponies stumbled backwards in shock.

"I don't know if this will work at all, I might actually die, or I will just wake up. Honestly, I hope I just die, so I can join my friends that were shot down by you red uniformed pieces of shit. If I wake up however, I will be sure to look all of you bastards..." Matt looked up at the ceiling. "And say things so horrible that you will kill yourselves for knowing that you are the shit of the earth!"

Celestia was mortified, Matt thought that he was being tested on by those men that he was running from. Celestia did not know the entire story, but she did assume something like this was on his mind. Celestia did not expect however, for Matt to point his weapon at his own head. Rocky was stood up from his corner, and looked around the room with frantic eyes.

Taking a deep breath, Celestia tried to talk to Matt. "Matt..." She said in a gentle tone. "What makes you think that this world is fake?"

"...You have to be shitting me. Did you honestly think that I accepted this world for what it was, and had no doubts about it! HA! There are unicorns, pegasi, regular "earth-ponies" and now alicorns. And they fucking talk. There is magic, manticores, and god knows what else! This is like some little girls show!"

"There is not any of this where you come from?" Asked Celestia, genuinely confused.

"What? Of course there is not! You should all know this! Your gig is up you Russians! So just stop this stupid charade!"

"Matt, this is real. This is not some figment in your head, this is real life. Equestria, ponies, manticores, magic, its all real. I can understand why you would think otherwise, in fact, I think that if any of my little ponies were to go to where you are from, they would have the same reaction. Did you feel your wounds when you were hit by the manticore, or did you feel the sun as it shone on your face?"

Matt faltered, the pistol in his grip hung loosely for a moment as he thought about what Celestia said. But his maddened mindset just denied all reason thrown at him.

"LIAR! This is all some crazy experiment to get answers out of me!"

"Matt, even with what your technology that we saw, I honestly don't think that any-pony from where you are from could possibly alter one's mind so accurately. In fact, the only pony in Equestria that can do that is Luna right here." Celestia indicated to the smaller, dark blue alicorn next to her.

"Also, Twilight has observed that you have been reading our history books, many of which written by myself. The amount of time to fabricate that much information so chronologically and perfectly would be inconceivable. The only reason it is recorded at all is because my sister and I have lived for thousands of years."

Luna stepped up to her sister, leaving Twilight behind who was still paralyzed with how the discussion had turned.

"Matt, what did you dream of after you entered the hole?" Luna asked.

Matt stared at the small navy blue alicorn, still holding the pistol to his head. His arm had begun to hurt from stretching the bullet wound so much.

"Uh...I...I was in a meadow, with flowers everywhere and trees surrounding the clearing."

"Were the flowers blue and yellow, and the trees oak and maple?" Luna asked.

Matt stared. "How...how did you...?"

Luna's horn glowed, and a cloud materialized in the middle of the library. An image of a meadow with flowers and trees was shown within the cloud from a first person view.

"Remember? I can alter alter and watch any-pony's dreams. I am the only one that can do this, as Celly here told you."

"Do you believe us now?" Celestia asked Matt.

Matt had a thoughtful, yet slightly crazed look on his face.

This all makes sense.... Matt thought. I can't believe it but it makes sense what they said. I am in some crazy world, where the myths on earth are reality here.

Matt thought through all of the information that his brain had absorbed in such a short amount of time. And after about ten minutes of thinking, Matt slowly pulled the pistol away from his head. All of the ponies, and Spike from the stairs, sighed a collective sigh of relief.

Celestia's voice was now much more relaxed. "Matt, I am sure that this must be hard for you to take in all at once. Why don't you rest for the rest of the day. We will talk with Twilight here and give her a few instructions, which she will relay most of them to you. I will get the top scientists of Canterlot to find out how we can get you back home."

Matt simply nodded absentmindedly, beckoned over to Rocky, and began slowly walking to his room. Matt opened the door, walked inside, and then shut the door behind him.

Celestia turned to Twilight, who had gotten over her paralysis, and levitated a piece of paper and a quill over.

"My faithful student, I need you to allow him to stay in your home for the time being, or any-pony's home that both you, Matt, and the resident feel comfortable with. I also need you to gather up some information about his home. As in his geography, politics, social standards, that sort of thing. I also need you to find out about some of his equipment that he brought with him, but don't be too pushy. Lastly, I need you to observe his medical condition until he is of a healthy stature."

"Yes princess Celestia" Twilight said, nodding.

"Great." Celestia wrote Twilight's instructions on the piece of paper and levitated it over to Twilight, who then placed the instructions on her desk.

"I expect a letter or two during the next week Twilight, to show what you have learned. Come Luna, we must return to Canterlot and hold public court. The ponies of Equestria may be peaceful, however their problems continue to pester their lives."

"Yes sister" Luna replied.

As the two royal sisters boarded their chariot, and flew off back to the capital, did Twilight finally notice Spike on the stairs.

"How much did you see Spike?" Twilight sighed.

"Everything following the first bit of vulgarity." He replied.

"Alright, it wasn't going to be a secret for long anyway. I will call the girls over later today and explain what has just happened recently." Twilight said.

Note

Sorry about the chapter delay everyone. School and a little bit of writer's block kicked its way into my time.

But I now have some new ideas flowing so the next chapter should not take as long. I hope...

Acceptance

For the first time since he woke up in the Ever Free Forest, Matt slept quietly. However, the only reason he did not dream at all, was because his mind was too busy trying to cope with the situation at hand.

He had somehow been transported into some place that was filled with magic, talking ponies, manticores, and who knows what else. His mind was in total shock, and needed to process all of this information. But even with no dreams whatsoever, Matt woke up feeling mentally exhausted.

Matt opened his eyes and tried to get the morning sand to clear away. He continued to lay on his small bed, staring up at the dark oak ceiling. His mind was blank, he simply was not capable of thinking.

After nearly a half hour, Matt finally snapped out of his trance and threw the covers off of himself. He turned until both of his legs were over the side of the bed. Matt was surprised when his broken leg had almost no pain reaction form the sudden movement. Curious, Matt took off his shirt, revealing toned muscles, to look at his bullet wounds. After undressing the bandages, he inspected each of his wounds. Each of them had almost fully healed, none of them were seeping out blood.

"Damn" Matt grunted. "That...Zecora thing must really know its stuff"

At the sound of his voice, Rocky instantly woke from his small bed in the corner, and looked excitedly at Matt. Matt bent over the bed to take off the cast, and then inspected the leg. His bone was completely mended, and only gave off minute shocks of pain. Matt decided to go without the cast and crutch, but to keep it easy while the 'potion' he drank does its work.

Walking over to his bag, Matt scooped up a fistful of dog food, and dumped it into the small bowl that Fluttershy had made for Rocky. As Rocky ate, Matt proceeded to the bathroom to splash water all over his face, waking him up. He began to smell the air, which smelled stagnant and sweaty, and then smelled himself.

"God damn I need a shower..." He said

Matt looked into the small bath/shower stall at the faucet, which was created in an odd fashion with 5 or so handles. Matt chuckled softly.

"Heh, its like using a friends shower...in another country"

Matt walked back into his room and changed his clothes. Whistling for Rocky, Matt opened the door to his room and proceeded down the hall, his head nearly touching the ceiling. As he walked into the library, he began skimming his fingers over the edges of the books, as if to check if the books were there. Matt knew of his problem, but that did not mean that he would accept it so hastily. After all, this was much different to his once everyday life of coffee and television, and maybe reading the newspaper.

Matt and Rocky both smelled an aroma coming from the kitchen. Walking into it, Matt saw a small green and purple dragon at the stove, preparing something. Matt checked his phone time, which was oddly the same to the large clock in the corner of the kitchen. 7:00

"Uh, hey...Spike. What are you making?" Matt asked quietly.

Spike turned to Matt, and checked his hip for something that Matt already knew. Spike then looked at Matt with a bit of concern.

"You okay Matt? I saw you kinda go crazy yesterday with that metal thing. And you really do not look too good right now, like you might fall over if I poked you." Spike said.

"Well, with what my usual everyday life used to be, and now this, yes, I did go a little bit crazy the moment I saw one of these...ponies." Matt replied. "So what are you making?"

"Waffles"

"Huh, at least that's not different. Where is Twilight?"

"Upstairs doing some book checks, since we are open today, she always goes crazy about things being in the right place. So I am usually stuck with making breakfast. Waffle?" Spike asked, holding up a waffle with a fork.

Matt nodded, grabbed a plate and the waffle, and found a small fork and knife in a drawer. Matt was at least lucky enough that spike used the same silverware as he. He was also thankful for the maple syrup that Twilight also had. Rocky continued to roam around the home to sniff different things as Matt sat down to the table. Twilight walked in just as Matt was about to take a bite.

"Good morning Matt!" Twilight exclaimed, then put on a face of worry. "Are you feeling alright? You seem much paler and exhausted then yesterday."

"Just the result of my brain trying to take in account of all the seemingly impossible physics quirks of this place. Forgive me if I look tired but I honestly don't think any amount of sleep could really fix that." Matt replied.

Twilight nodded, then proceeded to kinetically levitate a waffle to her plate, and then began to eat. After Matt was half done with his breakfast, Twilight asked a question.

"So Matt, Princess Celestia asked me to find out about your culture, knowledge, and some of your items that you brought with you. When would you like to start?"

Matt looked up from his plate and gazed at Twilight. "Would you mind if we could start this later today? I really need to get some fresh air."

Twilight nodded. "Of course, I understand that you still need to take this all in account."

"Do you know where a clear grassland is? I just want to relax in the fields for a while."

Twilight nodded again. "If you take a right down from this street, and then take a left on the next intersection and go straight. You will eventually find a clearing with a schoolhouse on top of a hill. There is plenty of space there."

Matt finished his meal, then sat up and placed the dish and silverware in the sink. "Thank you. I might be gone for a while so don't expect me until the afternoon."

Twilight acknowledged Matt and then continued to eat her meal as Matt left the kitchen. He walked over to his room and picked up a tennis ball and some dog treats. He left his pistol in the bag since he did not want to involuntarily shoot some pony in the face. Speaking of guns, where was his rifle? Matt was pretty sure he left it in the bottom of the bag. He made a mental note to ask Twilight about this later. Lastly, Matt looked into his laptop bag and pulled out his iPod touch and some headphones.

Matt whistled for rocky, who quickly padded down the stairs and sat next to Matt. Rocky was very well behaved so Matt could walk him around without a leash. Matt called goodbye to Twilight and Spike and then walked out the front door into the bright sunlight. After walking for about twenty minutes, Matt came across the large clearing with the red schoolhouse resting upon one of the larger hills.

Matt walked over to another hill a small distance away and then laid down onto the soft grass, Rocky sat down on his rear to look around for predators. After deeming that it was safe, Rocky laid down next to Matt, who then began to scratch Rocky behind his ears. For some time, Matt only listened to the birds chirping and felt the wind breaking on his face, his mind completely blank. After hearing some voices, Matt opened his eyes and sat up.

Moving up to the schoolhouse, were about fifteen different pastel colored ponies. Each of these ponies was about half the size of all the ones Matt had seen in town, and since they were going to a schoolhouse, he concluded that these must be children. Or rather, foals.

Several of the foals looked up to the hill that Matt was sitting on, but then continued to to trot up into the schoolhouse. After all of the foals had gone inside of the schoolhouse, Matt checked the time, 8:00, and then began to relax some more. However, he felt uneasy simply resting there and sat back up to look at the schoolhouse. When he turned his head to the window facing him, several sets of eyes quickly backed away from sight. Matt laughed softly, he could understand their wonder at himself but still found it amusing for them to back away so quickly.

Matt snapped his fingers to signal that Rocky could go off on his own. At the snapping, Rocky got up from his position and began running around and sniffed every single tree, bush, and even animals that got near him. Afterwards Rocky began running around everywhere.

Matt chuckled, then pulled out his iPod and selected his Beethoven playlist. He usually was not into this kind of music, but he did listen to it when he needed some mental clarity.

Where am I?

Matt thought. He had no answer, no information at all to answer this question. The place was very different, yet very similar to his home. There were rabbits, birds, marigolds, and countless other similarities. Course there are many differences, the primary ones being magic and talking, multicolored, multi-species, talking ponies.This was clearly an undiscovered species, but the ponies had not seen anything like Matt before. He would ask Twilight this later.

Why am I here?

Again, this was a dead end. Nothing pointed as to why he was here, whether the reason was benevolent, or malicious.

How did I get here?

Matt was camping in the middle of a forest after running from the Russian forces, hence his suspicions of a Russian experiment when he was found. The forest that he woke up to was very different, at least from what he saw, to the one he had set up camp inside. It was also very dangerous, having being attacked by a manticore mere hours after waking up. Perhaps this forest was unique in its 'magic' that these ponies had embraced.

How do I get back home?

Matt thought this one through quite a bit. He had absolutely no clue as to the process of arriving here. He fell asleep in the forest, and then woke up to this place. In the back of Matt's mind, he thought that it would not work the same way backwards. Then again, what awaited him when he got back? Would the forest he slept in be captured? What happened directly after the Paris attack? And what would he do? All he could do was wait, and ask many questions. Again, Twilight seemed to be the type who would know most of this information.

Matt ran through these questions for hours, trying to process his possible solutions. Matt opened his eyes after a cold, wet tongue was licked across his forehead. Matt smiled, and got up from his seat on the hill and began petting Rocky. Matt checked the time, about 2:30 and realized that he had been meditating for hours. He turned off his Beethoven playlist and pocketed the iPod touch. Matt reached into his bag and scooped up the tennis ball and ran over the hill where he was resting upon to a more flat area.

Matt smiled, and threw the tennis ball across the field, bouncing off of several rocks. Rocky went sprinting after it, biting the ball in midair and then returned it to his master. After repeating this for about a half hour, Matt felt uneasy.

*SNAP*

Matt whirled around, and three small foals yelped in surprise. Matt raised an eyebrow at them, and began to watch what they would do next. One of the foals was a yellowish color with a reddish mane and a bow. The second, a white unicorn, had a light pink and purple mane done in a style. And the last one, an orange pegasus, had a purple mane in a loose style. Each of them continued to cower behind the cover of the hill. Matt sighed.

"Don't sneak up on me like that you three, I really do not like surprises. You don't have to hide from me you know." Matt said softly.

The foals peeked up from over the hill, and slowly pulled themselves into full view. They began to approach Matt, and Rocky who was sitting at his master's side, studying the foals with curiosity. The yellow pony with the bow spoke up nervously.

"Who are you?" She asked with a noticeable southern accent.

"My name is Matt, and this here is Rocky." Matt replied, scratching his dog's head. "And who are you three?"

"I'm Applebloom!"

"I'm Scootaloo!"

"And I'm Sweetie Belle!"

"And we are THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!" They all chanted at once, Rocky barked to emphasize the point. Matt put on a smile, and a face of confusion.

"The Cutie Mark Crusaders huh? Forgive me for being ignorant but what exactly is a cutie mark?" Matt asked.

The three foals likewise put on a confused face.

"You...you don't know what a cutie mark is?" Scootaloo asked.

Matt shook his head. "Nope, to be honest I don't know half the stuff from around here. And I am sure that you have no idea what I am or where I am from either. So what is a cutie mark?"

Sweetie Belle spoke up. "A cutie mark appears on a pony's flank when he or she discovers their special talent! As you can see, none of us have our cutie marks yet. So that is why we created THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!" They said the last part all together, and Rocky barked again.

"So a cutie mark is some sort of picture on their rear to show what they are good at? I was wondering what those weird tattoos were that I saw on nearly every pony that I had seen."

"So what are ya? Do you have a cutie mark?" Asked Applebloom.

"Well I am a human. I am an omnivore, I stand on two legs, and I am sentient, as you can tell. And no, humans don't get cutie marks. The closest to us getting one would be if we got a tattoo by having ink punched into our skin. Hurts quite a bit actually."

"Whats an omnivore?" Asked Scootaloo.

"I think an omnivore is something that eats meat and plants." Said Sweetie Belle.

"Wait a second, you eat meat?" Applebloom asked Matt.

Matt nodded. "We do eat meat, but we are able to survive without eating meat if we so wished. Many people from where I come from have chosen to become vegetarians, so that they only eat fruits, vegetables, wheat, and the like. Don't worry though" Matt said to the now shocked fillies. "I wont eat meat as long as I am here, I sorta figured out that you are all herbivores." The faces relaxed.

*BARK*

Matt smiled, Rocky had been waiting for attention for a few minutes now and had enough of the group ignoring him. The three young ponies looked at the dog and then back to Matt, who nodded. Rocky was about a full foot taller than the small ponies, but he laid down on the ground as the three fillies began to play with Rocky.

"You three wanna play fetch with him?" Matt asked, holding up the now dirty tennis ball. The three fillies each nodded eagerly. Applebloom took the ball in her mouth, threw it up into the air, then spun around and bucked it across the clearing. When Rocky returned, Sweetie Belle took the ball with her telekinesis and flung the ball down the clearing as well. Scootaloo used a different style however. She picked up the ball and flung it onto her back, where she balanced it with one of her small wings. She found a nearby stick and picked it up with her mouth. She flicked the ball from her back with her wing and swung the stick across, hitting the ball.

*Thud*

The tennis ball was smacked clear across the clearing, landing in the surrounding woods where it quickly disappeared into the foliage. Rocky whimpered.

"Uh, sorry about that" Scootaloo said with a sheepish smile.

Matt laughed. "Don't be. I brought another ball for Rocky here anyway. Besides, that was a good hit."

"Thanks"

Sweetie Belle started. "Oh no! I forgot I needed to help Rarity with a dress today! I got to go girls, it was nice to meet you Matt!" Sweetie Belle then galloped down the path and quickly out of sight.

"Ah have to go too, big sis says that I can help with apple bucking today!" Applebloom said.

"Can I come with you? I wanna try to practice flying by jumping off of the trees." Scootaloo asked Applebloom, who nodded.

"Nice to meet you Matt!" The two fillies called as they galloped away.

"Likewise!" Matt called after them.

After getting a last view of the clearing, Matt decided that he had been there for enough time and began walking back down the path. Walking slowly, Matt eventually made it back to town where ponies were going about their business. The ponies generally accepted his prescience, like this was not the strangest thing that had happened to them. Of course, there was the occasional glance at him when Matt was not looking.

"GET YOUR CUPCAKES RIGHT HERE FOLKS! THE PINKIE SPECIAL!" Shouted a voice, that Matt recognized as Pinkie Pie.

Matt glanced to where he heard Pinkie's voice, and easily saw her at the stand on account of her hot pink coat and puffy mane. Matt shrugged and walked over, he might as well try a cupcake.

"What's going on Pinkie?" Matt asked casually.

Pinkie looked at him and grinned wide.

"Only selling my brand new, extra-delicious, extra-fabulous, super sugary PINKIECAKES!" She said to Matt.

Matt quickly realized that he had no money with him, only a few dollars in American cash. He was about to say so when Pinkie shushed him.

"Don't you worry you're silly little head about it, HERE!" Pinkie tossed a pastry into Matt's hands. "I still owe you from helping me in the kitchen a few days ago, so this one is on the house!" Pinkie said with a smile.

"Gee, thanks Pink." Matt said. He took a look at the pastry in his hand. It appeared to be a huge, full pound cupcake with about three times more frosting then there was actual cake. It was all a hot pink color with the top covered in rainbow sprinkles.

"This looks like diabetes in a bite..." Matt muttered, which Pinkie didn't hear.

"Well? Aren't you going to try it?" Pinkie asked with an expectant look on her face.

Matt hesitated for a moment, but then took a moderate bite of the huge cupcake and nearly gagged trying to suppress the sugar.

"Phew, there is too much cake in this sugar." Matt said laughing, Pinkie took it seriously however.

"REALLY!?! Well then back to the kitchen with me!" She shouted, packing up the stand and cupcakes in mere seconds then disappearing in a puffy pink cloud.

Matt was left there stunned, with his pointer finger in the air, as if he was going to say something, but he promptly put it back down. He decided that he should head back to Twilight's home to begin the questions, since the sun was beginning to set over the horizon.

No sooner had he taken ten steps, a mint-green unicorn crossed his path and stared, thunderstruck at Matt.

"Umm.....hi?" Matt said nervously. The unicorn's eyes widened with awe and wonder. Suddenly, she squealed in excitement and quickly galloped over to where Matt stood. The green unicorn circled around him many times, lifting his arms, touching his legs, and studying his face. Then she squealed again and sprinted down the street without saying a word. Several bystanders sighed and rolled their eyes.

"You might wanna try and avoid her dude." Said an ice-blue earth pony to Matt. "She is kinda crazy about your kind. Says she has dreamed of them for years, but none of us believed it. Now that she has seen you she will be on your trail."

"Thanks for the tip." Matt said to the pony, who nodded and then continued on with his business.

After walking for a few more minutes, Matt finally came across Twilight's home and made his way inside. Twilight looked up from her desk as soon as he shut the door.

"You have been gone for quite a while, been thinking?" She asked, Matt nodded.

"Alright, so what do you want to know?" Matt asked Twilight.

"Well, my primary focus is on your technology and the lifestyle of your kind. Would you please gather your bag and meet me here? I need to get some paper and quills." Matt nodded, then made his way into the room. Again, he could not find his rifle. After making his way back into the library, Matt sat on a chair and prepared to ask, and be asked.

"Before we start, do you know where my rifle is?" Matt asked.

"So that is what it is called? Was it the long, black metal thing?" Twilight asked. Matt nodded.

"That's the one"

"Spike!" Twilight called. "Go and grab Matt's rifle! the thing you hid in the bushes!"

"Okay, be right back!" Spike called from the back room. Matt looked at Twilight with a questioning stare, when he was about to say something, Twilight cut him off.

"Princess Luna informed me from your dream, that the 'rifle' as you call it was a weapon of some kind. So we hid it in case you had a violent reaction to the news. I kinda forgot about your smaller weapon however..." She said the last part with a sheepish smile.

"It's alright." Matt opened his bag, and spread out all of his stuff, excluding clothes, all over the rug. There was a M-9 pistol, a flashlight, laptop, iPod touch, phone, headset and a small set of speakers, and the large solar powered battery Matt had made himself. "So what first?" Matt asked.

Twilight took a moment to gape at the objects that adorned the rug, but finally snapped her attention to his laptop.

"What is this? I forgot the name earlier, and you did not tell me how it works, or what it does exactly."

Matt smiled and picked up the laptop. He powered it on and placed it facing Twilight on the floor. The Windows logo appeared for a moment then transferred to the log in screen. Matt opened up his profile. He chuckled at the sight of Twilight, whose mouth was so agape that small beads of drool were falling out of her mouth.

"Uhhh, Twilight? I would appreciate it if you did not drool on my laptop."

Twilight started, then broke out into a blush.

"S...sorry about that." She stammered.

"No problem. Anyway, this is a laptop. Think of it as an artists flip-book, that has tons of different flip-books. This device essentially takes those pictures and plays them instantly, though it is much more complicated than that. There is a very thin piece of material board, called silicon, on the inside of this..." Matt said, tapping on the bottom of the laptop. "...That directs the entire device. I honestly do not know exactly how it works, but I will give it my best shot. I can move this mouse around, like this, and press this button to get a certain task done." Matt pulled up Microsoft word. "This function here, allows me to type words onto a piece of virtual paper, and erase mistakes, using this keyboard here." Matt demonstrated by typing Twilight's name on the document, then backspacing.

"Then when you are done with it, you print it out with a printer, which you do not have here so this is pretty much useless here. But this does many other things than that, it can play music, play movies, and do all kinds of other stuff. In fact, many humans had worked together and created something called the internet, which everyone can use to communicate, have fun, and exchange information."

Twilight had been furiously writing this down the entire time, constantly dipping her quill in the ink and writing every word he spoke right down to the second. Then Twilight asked a question.

"But what were you doing yesterday with that?"

"Oh, that is one of my favorite video games, we also use computers for entertainment purposes."

"I see, well, I would love to see more of this but there are plenty of other items that I must note. So let us go on." She pointed her hoof to his iPod. Matt picked it up.

"This right here, is called an iPod. This is almost like a much smaller version of my laptop, but does not have some of the things the laptop has and vice-versa. The primary function of this is to store and play music, while being able to keep it with you much easier." Matt demonstrated this by picking a classical song and using the speakers, played it for a few minutes, to which Twilight listened intently. Matt turned off the music. "I have plenty of other songs on this, mostly rock, techno and things like that. But this also can play different styles of games. Like this game here." Matt opened up Tilt to Live, and began tilting the iPod, to which the arrow responded by moving in that direction. Matt then closed up the app and placed it back on the floor.

"You know, you ought to show that thing to a pony in town named Vinyl Scratch, she would love it." Twilight said to Matt, as she continued to write notes.

"I have a question, how were you able to kill that Manticore in the forest, while you were crippled?" Twilight asked. "Was it that rifle? What does it do exactly? And why do you have it?"

Matt sighed. "Yes, the rifle is what I used to kill the Manticore. What it does, along with my pistol here, it fires lead at whatever it is pointing at in super high speeds. This is a weapon, designed to kill." Matt said, Twilight had a horrified look on her face.

"But...why did you have it in the first place...?" She asked.

Matt sighed again. "I would prefer not to talk about it, but I was not killing in cold blood. More like running for my life. Just leave it at that please..." Twilight got over her horror, and nodded.

"So, what does this do?..."

After spending about another hour explaining all of his stuff, from the battery to his small flashlight, Twilight began asking some questions about everyday human life, and his home's geography.

"Before I ask about your life, I would like to see the geography of where you are from. Do you have any references with you?" She asked.

"Uhhh, I might have a world map, but no national maps. Here." Matt reached into his bag and pulled out a moderately sized political world map, and handed it to Twilight.

"Mind if you tell me where I am? Like where we currently are on this map?" Matt asked.

Twilight studied hard at the map the floated in front of her, then shook her head.

"I have never seen this before, are you sure it is a world map?"

"Positive. Do you have a world map I could see?"

Twilight nodded, then floated over another map. Matt unraveled it, and was greeted by a landmass that took up the center of the map. Matt thought it looked similar to pangea, but there were some differences to the position and shape of the land. The entire landmass was surrounded by a huge ocean, which was labelled, 'Ocean of Harmony' and had subsections in certain areas near the land.

Cheesy name, but that is beside the point. Where the hell am I exactly? Well I can't be too surprised, after all, physics is treated like a joke here.

Matt shook his head. "Well this just confirms it, I have been transported, for whatever reason, here, in what seems like a different dimension."

Twilight slowly nodded her head. "It would seem so. Well I will make a note of that to the princess. But before that, could you tell me where you live on here?" Twilight asked, pointing to Matt's map.

Matt leaned over and pointed on the U.S.A

"Right there, The United States of America"

Twilight wrote this down. "Could you tell me about who leads your kind?"

"Well" Matt scratched his chin. "My home country works under a system of democracy. Essentially, every four years, every citizen of my country has a right to vote for our next leader, who we call the president. He is known as the head of the country, but there are other groups, like the congress, that makes laws and preforms other duties among other things. Trust me, we work things out in a really confusing and tedious way, so I won't explain it all. But not all countries are under the same system we use. I can assume that you live under a monarchy, am I right?"

Twilight nodded, still writing notes.

"Well" Matt continued "There are not many absolute monarchy's left in my world, but there are still many constitutional monarchy's. These are countries that have a royal family, King, Queen, prince, and all of the like. They have a lot of influence, but have no actual power. One such example is the United Kingdom." Matt pointed on the respective country. "Unfortunately, many other countries have embraced much more...critical government. A good example is North Korea here. This country is a tyranny, which has a single leader that has taken power using ruthless ways. Often killing or maiming others in order to gain power. Many other countries, mine included, frown upon this style and try to take action against it."

"What!? That's terrible!" Exclaimed Twilight.

Mitt sighed, then said. "Our race can be very...violent. While in the early years of our race, war was very commonplace. But for years, war had not happened. Of course, there was tension between the countries for years, but no direct contact between the powers had erupted. But...all things must come to an end at some point..." Matt trailed off, and had a forlorn look on his face.

"It sounds like you come from a troubled world" Twilight said with a concerned look, while she was still writing notes.

"You don't know half of it..." Matt mumbled quietly to himself.

"What was that?"

"Nothing"

Twilight put away her paper and quills. "Well, I think that is enough for one night. Would you mind if I invite my friends over tomorrow? That way you can get to know them, and vice-versa."

"Sure" Matt said as he gathered up all of his stuff into the bag. "Well, I am going to sleep, goodnight Twilight."

"Goodnight!"

As Matt shut the door, Twilight wrote invitations to the rest of the bearers and sent them via Spike's flame.

Matt flopped into bed needing a long rest. Today was rather eventful, and Matt also forgot to ask Twilight about the strange green unicorn that had studied him earlier.

But Matt would not get rest this night...

Matt flopped off of the ladder, and landed in thick water. He could not see, as the entire tunnel was darkened.

"Lights on boys, I hope to get out of here alive, and with our noses not smashed up against our faces." Said Richards, turning on his light. Matt reached into his bag, and pulled out his small pocket flashlight and tucked it into his vest, so wherever he turned, he could see there. Lights started flickering on from the other solders in the company. Matt looked down at his feet and saw the sludgy water running over his 'borrowed' boots.

"Ugh, smells like shit down here..." One trooper commented.

"Larry shut your ass up or I will make you scoop some up into your helmet." Richards said to the solder, who quickly stopped talking.

Matt looked around himself and whistled Rocky to his side, then he found the woman and Matt beckoned her to get behind Matt. Taking a quick look around, the tunnel looked like a labyrinth.

"So what first sarge?" Matt asked Richards. "And where are the french? Are there any among us who know the tunnel system.?"

Richards shook his head. "Nope, we got separated from the rest of the forces. We were equipped to handle some riots, or even a few paratroopers. But not an entire army. The wedged us apart like a hot knife through butter. We eventually made it to your street and had the skirmish there. By the way, were you the one providing sniper cover?"

Matt nodded.

"You always were one of the best shots in our company. You pretty much saved our entire team by taking out that gunner. Nick here almost shit his pants when that one commie knocked him down, then his head exploded." Nick, who was nearby, began laughing nervously.

"Glad to help"

Richards turned to the remainder of the company. "Alright men! Keep your eyes peeled. We need to get out of here and I am sure that these communist bastards have set up some traps for us while we try and escape. Keep to the walls and listen for any foreign noises and voices. I want to live to fight another day, not die in some god-forsaken shit-hole like this."

"Yes sir!" The company said, in a quieted volume.

The company began walking, the water splashing lightly as they marched through the stagnant liquid. There were constant noises of rats squeaking, roaches skittering around, water drainage pipes dumping liquid, and other noises one would expect from being in a sewer of feces, vomiting.

Matt turned to see the woman behind him heaving up whatever was left of last night's dinner, vomiting and heaving for about thirty seconds. Matt stooped down when she was done and helped her back up to her feat.

"Come on, we are almost there. Just a little bit longer to put up with this damn tunnel." The woman nodded, still saying nothing.

After countless time of walking, Matt began to count all the rats that would pass by. The rats would quickly scurry away whenever they got close, as expected. However, Matt had not seen any rats in several minutes, and down here, rats were a very common sight.

"Stop now!" Matt quietly ordered to the company, who stood there looking at Matt in confusion. Matt ignored them.

"Matt what the hell is going on?" Richards asked Matt, who shushed him quickly.

Matt listened for the noises of the sewer, for any noises that would be a reason of rats population. There was nothing, no noises, rats, and in fact, very few cockroaches adorned the walls and ceiling.

"Too quiet..." Matt thought.

His blood froze and his heart skipped a beat.

*Ding*

"EVERYONE GET DOWN!" Matt screamed to the group, which most followed his order. Matt shoved the woman down into the sludge.

A white flash exploded from a point in the middle of the room. Matt fell backwards on his rear as he tried to get his bearings. His ears ringing and being partially blind for a moment. When his vision finally cleared, he saw a group of Russian solders barreling through the small bypass tunnels into the larger tunnel that the company was traveling in. Nearly all of the solders who did not move in confusion at Matt's command were killed instantly, save for two. Each of them pulled out a knife and a pistol and began firing blindly at the solders, which felled several of them. After the guns clicked, the went on a blood-rage and started hacking and slashing at any Russian that would get close enough. This bought Matt and the company time to recover from the blast. Eventually however, the Russians put a bullet inside of each of the American's heads, to which their bodies dropped into the sludge. But the time bought was enough to allow Matt and the rest of the company to stand and fire back.

Matt raised his M-16 and began holding off the waves upon waves of Russians coming from the surrounding maintenance tunnels. The Americans, slowly but surely, began losing numbers, as whenever and enemy was killed, two more would replace it. Nick, who was next to Matt, had his chest pumped full of lead. Nick staggered, but got back up to his feet and smiled. He coughed up blood and stained his teeth in the crimson liquid, then pulled the pins on his grenade belt than used his last bit of energy to charge at the Russians. The sudden drop in enemy numbers gave the men a chance to reload. Rocky was doing his part by taking down an enemy that popped up right behind Matt. But this was not enough, the Russians eventually got within melee distance and Matt was forced to pull his pistol and knife.

It was a total bloodbath on both sides, men died nearly every second on both sides. When Matt's gun clicked, he pulled out his second knife and began hacking at the red forces. Glancing to his right, he saw Richards was busy engaging an enemy with his fists, dodging and dealing blows back and forth. Larry was shot down from behind, to which he got behind Larry's killer, and stabbed him through the back. Another solder charged Matt, and drew a red arc on the side of Matt's face with his knife. Matt quickly killed the man.

This continued for several minutes, until only Matt, Richards, Rocky, and the woman were left alive. Richards got behind his assailant and snapped his neck, killing the last Russian solder. Bodies were everywhere, blood flowed into the water and ran like a river down the tunnels. Matt walked over to the woman, who was still laying in the water, and pulled her to her feet. She was crying, her tears leaving tracks on her once clean face. Matt held her for a long time, until she finally choked her tears down and sat on a stone.

"War is an evil, cold-hearted bitch..." Richards muttered. Matt slowly nodded, then began to scavenge around for ammunition for his weapons, along with a few grenades.

*Splash*

*Click*...

"Matt! Matt wake up!" Twilight yelled, trying to shake Matt awake. He had been screaming and yelling for about ten minutes, and Twilight was desperate to rouse Matt from his dream.

Matt suddenly shot his eyes open, yelled, and quickly sat up, hyper-ventilating.

"Matt! Are you okay!?!?" Twilight asked, worry evident on her face.

"They...they were everywhere..." Matt said.

"Who?"

The clicking came from behind Matt's head, he knew this was the end.

*Bang*

Suddenly, Matt heard a splashing from behind him. He turned, and saw the body of a Russian laying face-down in the water. Matt looked up and saw the woman holding the M-16 rifle up, the barrel smoking.

Matt smiled. "Nice shot..." Matt trailed off, his face had a look of absolute horror...

"They did not stop, they killed us all. They were ruthless..."

"Who was?" Twilight asked.

"The...the Russians"

There was a glint of light next to the woman's head, the silver revolver moved through the air, reflecting the little light that was in the sewers.

There was a flash of light that illuminated the tunnel for an instant. The woman's body fell into the water, blood streaming from her head into the rotten waters...

Matt began crying and made his way to his nightstand. He picked up the diamond ring and began staring into it. Twilight watched from the side in confusion.

"She...she did not make it. The bastards killed her right in front of me..."

Twilight realized with a start, that Matt's special somepony, had died in the episode that Matt had tried to explain to her. She walked closer to Matt and asked.

"What was her name?"

Matt sniffed again. "Her name...her name was..."

"REBECCA!" Matt screamed...

Note

Sorry about how long this chapter took. I had some personal problems here at home and I had very little access to any computers. But now that episode is mostly over so I should be able to write more often.

Questioning

Matt did not sleep the rest of that night. Instead, he stared out the window, watching the stars, reminiscing. Rocky was laid out across his lap but Matt did not feel Rocky's weight push on himself, he was too numb for that.

Twilight had asked more about what exactly had happened that day after he told her his wife's name, but got no more answers. Twilight knew that he needed time to calm down, so she left. She sat on her bed, thinking, until...

"Oh hay! I invited the girls over!" She exclaimed. There was no way to stop them from coming to meet Matt now. She hoped that they would not ask any...personal questions.

"Yo Twi. What happened just now? You went downstairs to wake Matt up and you took your sweet time coming back." The baby dragon asked.

Twilight sighed, then turned to Spike and explained the entire story, at least what she knew.

Spike listened intently, incredulous. "Damn..."

"Yea..."

"Well, nothing we can do for now. Let's just try to go to sleep and hope for the best."

Twilight crawled back into the bed and quickly succumbed to the tugging sensation of sleep.

Meanwhile, in the guest room...

*****

Matt could not think, he could not speak, his body felt like it was stone. Cold, unmoving.

Rebecca's body still laid in the murky waters, continuing to bleed and make a trail of red in the liquid excrement.

Finally, Matt got over the shock and looked up at his wife's killer. He wore a uniform that spoke of authority, albeit slightly dirty and wet, he was likely a Russian officer. He carried a large revolver in his hand, the barrel smoking and covered in specks of blood. Matt could not see any other description of the man due to the low light.

"You..." Matt muttered. The man turned to face him as he spoke this.

"You..." The officer raised his revolver at Matt, and began to take aim at him from across the corridor.

"You..." Matt was visibly shaking, his rage overflowing. The officer raised his thumb and lowered the hammer of his revolver.

*Click*

"YOU FUCKING BITCH!!!" Matt roared. He stood up quickly and began sprinting at the murderer, Matt's eyes seemed to turn red with the blood lust.

*Bang*

The man fired his gun at Matt, and with seemingly superhuman reflexes shifted his head to the side. The bullet whizzed by his ears and a sound was heard as the round struck the brick wall. He continued to sprint at the man, Matt wanted him to die, to suffer...

The distance was closing, and the officer was desperate to line up his aim with the charging American soldier. But he could not quite get the shot. The distance was closing between the two. Twenty yards away...

Fifteen...

Ten...

Five...

Matt collided with the officer, sending him skidding down the hall a few yards, but he remained on his feet. Matt continued to lunge at him, throwing punches and kicks whenever he could. However the officer continued to hold his ground, since Matt was acting out of pure rage he attacked with no goal or direction in mind. Other than to kill the Russian officer that murdered his wife. The two each exchanged blows, Matt pulled his knife from his sheath but it was bettered away by the revolver. And for who knows how long, the two traded blows, evenly matched. Eventually, Matt managed to knock the revolver out of the man's hand, sending it skidding down the sewers. After a few more seconds of the brawl, the officer got a clean hit to Matt's head, knocking him off his feet.

The officer scrambled around the floor to find his revolver, then stood and pointed the barrel towards Matt's face. At this point, Matt was on his knees, tears streaming from his eyes. This continued for about thirty seconds, the two staring at each other in silence. During this time, Matt got a better view of the officer. The man had cold blue eyes, and a small scar running over his right eyebrow. He also had several scrapes and smears of mud all on his body. Finally, the officer spoke.

"Pitiful really." He said with a very think Russian accent. "I found out long ago that every man has his weakness, I suppose I found yours. Having relationships can only result in creating a man's soft point. I must say, you fought well, killed all of my men. But, as you can tell, I do not make the same mistakes as these fools." He geustered to the bodies at the other end of the hall.

"Say hello to that woman for me will you?" The officer lowered the hammer of his gun.

As his body tensed up slightly to pull the trigger, Matt took this instant and swept his legs under the officer's. But not before the gun discharged.

*BANG*

Matt's shoulder exploded in pain, the bullet passed clean through the tissue. He was still lucky however that the round did not drill through his skull instead.

With clenched teeth, Matt kicked the gun out of the stunned man's hands and sent it skidding away several meters. Matt pulled his other knife out with his good arm and attempted to reach the officer's throat with the serrated blade. The man had regained his senses at this point and grasped Matt's arm, trying his best to throw the knife away from his neck. For both of the men, it was madness. The blade would get centimeters from the officer's neck only to be pushed back from redoubled efforts. Matt nearly lost grip on the blade at one point but quickly got back into control, albeit hard with only one usable arm...again, this stalemate lasted for what seemed like forever, when it was actually only two dozen seconds.

"White! What THE FUCK is going on?!?!" Yelled Richards from around the corner, Rocky was heard barking as well. Matt nearly looked back down the hall to see his old leader but resisted the temptation. The Russian, seeing Matt in his bit of confusion, took this opportunity and slugged Matt across the face, sending him sprawling into the rotten waters. The man got up as fast as he could, and quickly darted down the same side passage that he came from. Matt wanted to go after him, but he knew it was fruitless.

Defeated, and broken, Matt sat on the curb of the sewer and began sobbing. He then trudged over to his wife's body, picked it up, and cried even harder. The tears clearing off any muck that was still on his face. Richards quietly walked over to Matt and patted his shoulder, what else could he do? Richards looked at the broken solder that sat crying before him, while Rocky laid his head on his master's lap.

"It's all my fault..." Matt moaned, barely audible.

"Matt, do not say that again. This was not your fault." Richards replied.

"Yes it is, I was supposed to protect her, make sure she stayed alive. One minute I am recovering tags and the next this Russian bastard shot her point plank in the head. If I can't keep a single person alive, let alone my wife, then what good am I to be here? Let alone be a soldier" Matt continued sobbing and he closed his wife's now dull eyes.

"How the hell were you supposed to know that this would happen?" He geustered to the surrounding area. "We are miles and miles behind the front line. Who knew that your vacation would go to shit? This attack should not have even happened. And do not tell me again that you are a bad soldier. You are one of my best marksmen, you have saved numerous lives while we were in Italy, and hell, you took out the tank's gunner despite the fact the hunk of metal had a shell wrapped precisely for you. You did your best, and that is all anyone could ask for. It won't help if you punch yourself until everything is better." He stopped talking abruptly. Splashing could be heard from a distance away. Since the walls rebounded sound there was no telling how far away the footsteps were.

"Matt, I am sorry but we have to leave her..." Richards trailed off. Matt simply nodded, unable to speak. He leaned over and grasped his wife's hand, kissed it, then removed her engagement ring. After placing the ring in his vest pocket, Matt slowly stood up, and grasped his shoulder in pain as the last waves of adrenaline passed.

"Shit, we need to patch that up. I don't have any bandages with me, and we did not have a medic with us" Richards said, concerned.

Matt grunted, then pointed to his bag that laid at the end of the hall. Sgt. Richards ran over to the bag, pulled out an old, tattered shirt, then ripped it into a long shred. He then tied the scrap fabric around Matt's shoulder as tightly as he could.

"There, that is all we can do for now. Can you still hold your gun?"

"Yea...I think so..." Matt replied quietly.

"Good, lets get out of this hole of sin."

After turning a few corners, the two soldiers saw a metal grate with weak rays of sun shining through the holes. Reinvigorated, the two began running towards the grate, and took a look outside.

The sun was settled in the middle of the sky. Planes continued to fly into the city, with almost no resistance. In front of them, through a clearing, was a dense forest. Other than that, there was no other place that the two were likely to escape by.

"How the hell are those planes still flying in like nobody's business? They should be getting shot straight out of the sky, instead they just cruise by and land." Richards observed.

"Beats me, let's just get out of here, I am sick of this place."

"Agreed"

The two backed up, Rocky staying behind as he kept a lookout for any other enemies.

"On three" Matt commanded "One, two, THREE!"

The two men charged at the grate and collided with it, sending the piece of metal flying off it's welding and landing a few feet away. Turning their flashlights off, the two men, and dog, took their first few steps into the sunlight in hours.

*Splash*

Everyone shot gazes down the hall they had just come, they saw several flashlights being shone around until they finally landed on the small group standing by the exit. They shouted something in Russian.

"Shit." They both said.

They were about to open fire on the group, but the Russians beat them to it. Rapid cracking could be heard as their weapons discharged and sent bullets flying down the length of the tunnel. Matt grabbed Rocky by the collar and threw them both out of the way, Richards quickly following suit. Right next to the two was a large boulder, surrounded by smaller rocks, that was even bigger than the sewage grate they just crawled out of. Nodding in silent agreement, they both quickly began clearing rocks out from the front of the boulder, spun around it, and began pushing with all their might. Slowly but surely, the huge rock began rolling in front of the grate, absorbing several rounds as it did so. The men were about fifty yards away and the rock was only half covered. Redoubling their efforts, the men continued to push.

"Стой!" [HALT!] One of the men yelled mere feet away, only to be muffled as the behemoth finally covered the entire hole.

Matt and Richards both breathed a sigh of relief. But it was short lived.

Rocky began growling towards their left, a cloud of dust was being kicked up, and was heading straight for them.

Richards growled. "Fuck me...get down." He whispered.

The Cloud of dust continued to move towards the two soldiers and dog. Eventually, having reached the slope, they continued along in the shadows, like the vehicle was trying to hide. It also began moving slower as it continued.

"...I am telling you Nick!" Said a voice from the vehicle, which was still disclosed in the brush and dust. "We need to take roads and drive west. We have got to haul ass if we want to live."

"And I am telling you to shut the fuck up! The commies have almost certainly blockaded any routes stemming from the city. So we need to go in the forest! We will have cover from the air and the Russians will have limited view in between the trees!" Said a second voice.

"Yes, absolutely foolproof! At least until you decide play chicken with a goddamn tree!" Said the first voice.

"I must say that I do agree with monsieur Nicholas here" Said a third voice, with a thick French accent. "If we take the roads, then we will almost certainly be caught."

"Both of you are morons..." said the first voice in a gruff tone.

The cloud of dust finally parted and revealed an American jeep cruising along in the slope's shadow. Matt and Richards both looked at each other, than began waving to attract the attention of the jeep. The jeep nearly sailed right by the two, until a man in the back finally saw them and told the driver to pull the car over to the two survivors. The man in the passenger seat leaned his head outside the window.

"Quick! Get in!"

*****

Matt shook his head, startling Rocky from his spot on Matt's lap. Refocusing his gaze back outside the window, he saw that the sun was just beginning to peak above the treeline. Only a few ponies had begun walking out their doors to start the new day. Groaning, Matt flung his now completely healed legs over the bedside. He slapped himself awake and began trudging over to the bathroom. He splashed water over his face from the sink and then turned to the shower covered by a deep blue curtain. Then he stared at the six faucets that adorned the wall.

Oh yeah...Note to self: Ask how to use this fucking shower. Matt thought.

Sighing, he pulled the curtain back over the shower then left the bathroom. Rocky was waiting for his master to open his bedroom door. Matt drowsily walked to the door, opened it, then began stumbling down the small hallway. As Matt walked into the foyer, he heard light snores coming from upstairs, indicating that the librarian was still asleep. He walked to the back door and let Rocky outside to do his business, then walked into the kitchen. Opening the half sized fridge, Matt pulled out a plate of leftover waffles. After tinkering around with the oven for a few minutes, he eventually managed to turn the oven on and placed the waffles inside to re-heat.

Matt let Rocky back inside after a few minutes and then retrieved his waffles from the oven. Grabbing the syrup from the fridge, he walked over to the table and began to dig in.

Shame I can't eat bacon here. That's what made my breakfast worthwhile! Man, I need some meat

Finishing his meager breakfast, Matt walked back into the foyer and began thinking about what to do next. After a few minutes, he felt some wind being displaced behind him. Turning around, Matt saw a small barn owl sitting on the coat rack, staring at him.

"Uhhh...Hello?"

The owl continued to stare at him, then rotated it's small head 360 degrees.

Matt cringed, he always hated when they do that.

"So...what's your name?"

"Who?" The owl hooted.

"You"

"Who?"

"YOU" Matt pointed to the owl.

"...Who?"

Matt deadpanned at the owl, then turned to a full sized piano in the corner of the room, opposite of the stairwell. Sighing, Matt walked over to the grand piano and sat down on the bench. Cracking his knuckles, Matt began playing one of his favorite classical pieces, Canon.

There was a reason for his liking of this song. Matt's father, Ralph, played this song nearly every day while he was raising Matt. When he was about seven years old, Matt had been playing with his toy cars while his father played the song in the background. Eventually working up the courage, he walked over to his father and asked.

"Dad. Why do you play this song so much?"

His father smiled, then scooped up his son and placed him on the bench.

"Well" His father began. "Do you like the song?"

"Yes, but I was just wondering why you played it every day."

"Why do you like the song?" His father asked, smiling.

"Well, I think it is really relaxing. Usually I don't like these songs, but this just sounds...nice" Matt replied, looking up at his father.

Ralph chuckled. "Those are my exact reasons for playing it. I like to play it when I feel stressed, sad, tired, or angry, and this song helps me to relax and forget all of those feelings. Also, many people think that it was created nearly four hundred years ago. Can you imagine, writing a bunch of little notes on paper, before even the light-bulb was made?" Matt's father pointed to the lamp the rested on top of the piano. "And Pachelbel wrote this entire song in nothing but the light of the candle. It makes me feel...humbled."

"But dad" Matt had said "You play this almost every day. Is something wrong?"

His father sighed. "Life can be hard son, and sometimes can be a bit...overwhelming. I will tell you when you're older."

Of course, the usual excuse. Matt thought.

"Now run along and go play with your cars." Ralph picked up Matt then placed him on the floor.

Years later, when Matt was about fifteen, he and Matt's mother, Barbra, were visiting Ralph in the hospital. Matt's father had been diagnosed with lung cancer. Matt was distraught, but his father had told him not to worry.

"Come on son, this is not the worst thing that has happened to me." He chuckled. "I'll be fine, so don't keep fretting over me. After all, you never know what life will throw at you. Whether that be good or bad is fate's choice, but it is all part of living life the way it was meant to be."

Ralph looked much older as he laid in the hospital bed. His white hair seemed even snowier, and his wrinkles seemed even deeper than usual. While Matt was still apprehensive about leaving, he finally, grudgingly, agreed to leave.

Matt received the devastating news when he was seventeen. About two weeks after Ralph passed, Matt was sitting in a chair in a suit, watching the funeral take place. He did not cry, he could not, for all of his tears had been used up the night before. The sun was just passing over the hills and began plunging the sky into twilight. A few birds could be heard chirping in the distance, their tune matching the somber environment as the Funeral processed.

As Ralph's coffin was lowered into his grave, his favorite song began playing. The tune seemed to meld perfectly with the mood of the funeral. So slow and sad, yet...uplifting. As the coffin was fully lowered in the dirt, Ralph's tombstone was in view. It read...

Here Lies
Ralph White
Husband, Father, A Fighter
"You Never Know What
Life Will Throw At You"
R.I.P

It was after the funeral that Matt dedicated himself for about a week to learn Pachelbel's masterpiece. And when he perfected it, he preformed to his mother, whose eyes welled up with tears. Drawing Matt in for a hug, she whispered into his ear.

"Thank you Matt..."

As Matt finished the last note of the song, he heard some scuffling from behind him. Turning around, Matt saw Twilight, who had been watching Matt play the piece the whole time. As Twilight began trotting down the stairs, the owl began clapping its wings together, seemingly applauding Matt's performance, sending feathers everywhere.

"That was beautiful." Twilight said "What is it called? Where did you learn it?"

"It's called Canon by Pachelbel, and I taught myself how to play in the memory of my father. It was his favorite song." Matt trailed off and looked despondently at a bookshelf.

Twilight nodded. "So...what do you want to eat?"

"I had some leftover waffles from the other day. But do you know where I can get some coffee? I feel like I am about to fall over at any second."

Twilight nodded. "Yep, there is a stall for coffee in the marketplace. Take a left and keep going straight and you should make it there."

"Thanks." Matt walked over to the door and began tying his shoes. As he opened the front door, Twilight called out.

"Wait!"

Turning, Matt saw a small bag being levitated over to him. Grasping and opening the bag, he saw ten small, golden coins.

"Some money for the coffee"

"Thanks"

"Don't mention it" Twilight smiled warmly, then turned around back into the kitchen.

After walking for about five minutes, Matt came across the market. At the opposite end was town hall, and in between was just stalls and flagstones. After searching for several minutes, he was unable to find the coffee stall. So instead of blindly looking for any longer, he asked an earth pony with a yellowish coat, and curled mane of blue and pink.

"Hey, do you know where the coffee stall is?" Matt asked.

"Why yes it..." The pony turned around and gasped. Looking around desperately, she pulled Matt over to a pile of boxes and barrels behind a cherry stall and made him crouch down. The pony continued to look over-top of the storage containers, like she was searching for someone.

"Ummm...pardon me for asking but why the hell are we hiding?" Matt asked, raising an eyebrow.

She sighed and climbed off of the crate. "Name's Bon-Bon, and my roommare's name is Lyra. She is shopping with me today and if she sees you, then she will go absolutely bonkers."

"Let me guess, she is a unicorn, has a mint green coat, and a lyre...cutie mark?" Matt said, he was still having a hard time calling those ass-tattoos cutie marks.

"Yep, you met her?"

"Well if you say meet as in she saw me, gasped, then pretty much teleported next to me. Poking me and grabbing some of my clothes, only to let out some fan-girl squeal and speed off."

"Yep, she told me all about it yesterday. Chewing my ear off saying 'I'm right! I told you so!'"

"Right about what?" Matt asked.

"Oh nothing" Bon-Bon said dismissively. "By the way, the coffee stall is over there." She pointed...or rather hoofed in the direction of town hall, where Matt saw a sign with a coffee cup.

"Thanks"

"Be careful! Do NOT let Lyra see you."

After climbing out from behind the crates, Matt began the short walk to the coffee stall. While walking, he began looking around the market. Dozens of ponies, of all types and colors, were busily going to and fro in between the stalls. Just about every single shopper turned to look at Matt, some even came closer to inspect him closer. However none of them had any direct contact with him, and all around they simply treated him like another shopper. He was about halfway to the stall when suddenly...

"Look out!" A voice yelled above Matt. Looking up, he saw a bag of mail heading straight for his face.

"What the F-" Matt muttered before the bag of mail collided with his face. After getting the sack off of his head he looked up...only to see a gray pegasus collide with a nearby tree. The pegasus continued to fall and hit nearly every branch on the way down. Until she finally landed on the ground, her hind legs sticking up in the air.

"Uhhhh...you okay?" Matt asked as he approached the disoriented pegasus. She got up and shook her head, then opened her eyes to reveal an amber color. When she looked at Matt, he noticed that her eyes were pointed in two totally different directions.

"Oh! I am so sorry! Are you okay?" The wall-eyed pegasus asked, concerned.

Matt laughed. "Don't worry about it. But uhh...you okay?" Matt nodded to the tree, then pointed to his eye. The pegasus sighed.

"Medical condition. Had it since I was a foal. Sometimes my eyes cross and I can't tell which way is which. What's your name?" She said.

"My name's Matt, you?"

"Mine's Ditzy, but most ponies around here call me Derpy."

"Derpy? That doesn't sound very nice."

Her face adopted a sad expression. "I don't really mind. I mean, when you go around looking like this." She pointed to her eyes. "Then you are bound to get some sort of nickname."

"Well if it's all the same to you I'll just call you Ditzy."

Ditzy gave a small smile.

"So do you need any help with your mail?" Matt asked. She shook her head.

"No, don't worry about it. I'm sure you got some kind of business going on that you need to get to. Besides, It was my fault I dropped it. Bye!"

Before Matt could say anything, Ditzy sped off to her spilled letters and then flew off. Shrugging, Matt continued to the stall. When he finally made it to the coffee stand, he saw a familiar ice colored earth pony.

"Oh hey, I saw you yesterday didn't I?" Matt said. The pony nodded.

"Yea, but seriously dude, stay away from her. Just a big bundle of crazy, ever since she saw you, even more so. Name's Ice."

"Matt" They shook hands/hooves.

"So what can I get you?"

"Uhhh, just a large, Black."

"Coming right up, that will be six bits." Ice said as he began filling the cup.

Reaching into the bag, Matt pulled out six of the small, gold coins.

"Uh, I assume these are bits?" He said.

Ice nodded. "Yep, still not exactly used to our money are you?"

"No not really. My country used green, printed pieces of paper. But based on the price of the coffee, I guess a bit is the same as one dollar." Matt shrugged.

Ice placed the coffee cup on the table as Matt tossed the coins to Ice, who somehow caught them with his hooves. Shaking off the questions, Matt picked up the cup of coffee and walked to a small table nearby. After a few minutes of sipping and watching the skies, the hair on the back of his neck perked up. Looking around, all he saw was a number of pastel colored ponies. Then, Matt saw her...

Lyra was standing in front of the town hall, staring straight at Matt from across the plaza. Matt's eyes widened and he looked at Ice desperately for help, but he had not yet seen Lyra so just gave Matt a questioning gaze. When Matt turned back around to Lyra, he nearly fell out of his chair when he saw that the unicorn was sitting in the chair opposite of himself.

"Um, hello?" Matt said, trying to hide his nerves.

"...So you are a human?"

"Uh, yes?"

"I KNEW IT!" Lyra began hopping around cheering, but just as quickly returned to her seat and put on a serious face.

"So what's it like having fingers?"

"I guess they are good for...holding things?"

"Yes I'm sure they are..." Lyra said nodding.

"Uhhhh, is there something you need?" Matt asked.

"No, I just wanna look at you..." Lyra replied.

He needed a distraction, now. Discreetly, Matt reached into the small bag of bits and 'accidentally' dropped one of the coins, where it then rolled behind the strange unicorn.

"Oops, dropped a bit." Matt said

"No no, don't worry I got it." Lyra said as she turned around to find the coin.

Matt looked at Ice, who gave a desperate signal to Matt for him to haul his ass out of there. Grabbing his coffee, Matt began sprinting away from the unicorn and out of the plaza.

"Found it!" Lyra cried out, only to see that Matt was no longer at the table.

Lyra turned to Ice and shot him a dire stare. "Where is he?!?"

"No idea" Ice shrugged.

Matt continued to run until the tree library was in sight. Panting for a few seconds, Matt finally got his breath back and took another sip of coffee as he walked through the front door.

"HIIIIIIIIII!" Pinkie Pie jumped right into Matt's face as soon as the door opened.

"MMMPH!" Matt was so surprised that he accidentally flung the hot cup of coffee directly into his own face. The scalding liquid running down his shirt. Matt covered his face with his hands.

"AHHHH!"

"Oops! Sorry!" Pinkie said, still bouncing.

"No no, it's fine. After all, hot coffee to the face feels NNG nice..."

"...Alright Pinkie thanks for the cupcake. I put it in the fridge for n..." Twilight walked from the kitchen and trailed off when she saw Matt covered in coffee.

"Uhhh, what happened?" She asked.

"Well" Matt began as he tried wiping the liquid from his face with his shirt. "I was forced into hiding, got mail dropped on top of me, got my coffee, sat down, saw this crazy unicorn, then had to distract her as I ran off, saved my coffee, only to have it splashed in my face as I walked in the door. How was your morning?"

"Well, a bit less exciting than that. Was it Lyra?" Twilight asked.

"Yep"

Twilight nodded. Pinkie stopped bouncing, reached into her mane, pulled out a small towel, and hoofed it to Matt.

"There you go! You got a little coffee right there." Pinkie poked Matt on the nose.

"Where the hell did that towel come from?" Matt asked, confused.

Pinkie shrugged. "Big mane."

"Right, well then. I need a shower to get all this caffeine off me. Spike!" Matt called.

"What?" Spike poked his head out from the study.

"Can you show me how to use the shower? There are six faucets, all I want are hot/cold water."

Spike snickered, then said. "Yeah sure, follow me."

*****

After Matt had his first shower in days, he felt much better. He changed into his marines T-shirt and shorts and walked out of his room, drying his hair with a towel. As he walked back into the library, he saw 4 other ponies had entered and were mingling with one-another.

Matt had already met Rarity, and to some degree, Fluttershy, however there were two others that he did not recognize the other two that had joined the group.

One of the two newcomers was a cream colored earth pony. She had her mane and tail kept together with a band, and wore a stetson hat. She also had rather visibly toned muscles and piercing green eyes. The other was much more...unique. The most obvious, and ridiculous feature must have been her mane and tail, as each was colored in six hues of the rainbow. After getting over the obnoxious colors, Matt examined the rest of the pony. She was a cyan colored pegasus, with magenta eyes, and an athletic build, however, not quite as toned as the earth pony. From her body language, Matt could tell that she was very energetic, yet lazy at the same time. The pegasus was hovering off the floor as the six ponies chatted together. Rocky was darting all around, going to and fro in between the ponies. Matt decided to make his presence known after observing the ponies for about a minute.

"I assume that you are all Twilight's friends?" Matt said. Every head in the room turned to Matt, the two newcomers were the most surprised out of all.

"It can talk!?!" They both asked, amazed.

Twilight opened her mouth to speak but was cut off by Matt. "HA! That was my same exact reaction at first. But no, I am not talking. I am simply opening my mouth in different shapes so I can whistle in different tunes. Your brain is just screwing around with you." Matt gave a half-smile.

The cyan pegasus rolled her eyes. "Ha Ha Ha"

Twilight spoke up. "Sorry, I forgot to tell you guys that yes, he can talk."

Matt rolled the towel back up and placed it on his room's doorknob. "Alright, Twilight told me that you would come over today for some Q and A. Well, here I am." Matt sat down in a nearby chair. "Whelp, here goes nothing. My name is Matt White, and that over there is my dog, Rocky. I was born and raised in Annapolis, Maryland of the United States, but moved to New York after leaving collage. I currently live on 876, Burban street, outside of NYC grounds, and there is a forest behind my house where I have my outdoor fun. And now, I am in a world of colorful talking ponies with currently no idea how I got here. Aaaaaaannnndd as soon as I woke up, I was attacked by what looked like a manticore, which does not exist in my world mind you, and I woke up in a hospital. There is the gist of my story, any questions?" Matt finished, all of the ponies had a confused face on, Twilight less so.

Eventually, the cream earth pony spoke up. "What's ah Maryland?" She asked with a heavy southern accent.

Matt face-palmed "Oh yeah, forgot to tell you about that. Well, My country, the United states, Is from what I can tell, this world's version of Equestria. I lived in one of the fifty states, or regions, called Maryland. Annapolis was the city that I grew up in. New york is another state, where I currently live. I read in one of these books that there are other lands in this world, like the Griffon Kingdoms or the Dragon Lands. That correct Twilight?" She nodded.

Matt chuckled. "I honestly still can't believe that there are griffons, dragons, manticores, honestly, this is just ridiculous. By the way, what's your name?"

"Applejack" The pony replied.

"Nice to meet you Applejack. Alright, anyone else have a question?" This time Twilight raised her hoof.

"Why are you saying that griffons, dragons, and manticores are just ridiculous?"

"Well, in my world, they are nothing more than just myths, folk-lore, fictional, whatever. They simply do not exist in my world. In fact, unicorns, and pegasi are myths too, passed down stories from a place called Greece."

Twilight was incredulous. "But then how did your kind even think about all this?" Matt shrugged.

"No idea, my guess, someone had some kind of vision and wrote it down somewhere. Any other questions?"

Pinkie pie shot her hoof up. "Yes Pinkie?" Matt asked

Pinkie took a deep breath then shot out words without pause. "WhatkindofcookingdoyouhavedotheymakecupcakespiesohhhhhhhhhhhwhataboutcinnamonrollsIlovethosewhat-MMPH!" Twilight shoved her hoof inside of Pinkie's mouth, finally ending the spiel.

Matt stared, then shook his head. "Please, talk slowly."

"Okay..." She pouted. "What kind of food do humans eat?"

"Well, we are omnivores, so we eat all kinds of food. Pasta, cake, steak, eggs, ice cream and much more. We have taken raw ingredients like meat, wheat, and other random things and created thousands upon thousands of recipes."

"Wait one moment" Rarity started, with a sick look on her face. "You eat meat?"

Matt nodded.

"Why would anypony eat meat?" Applejack asked.

Matt shrugged. "It's not my fault, it's just how humans were made. Can't change nature."

Fluttershy spoke up, albeit very quietly. "Do you, umm, eat ponies?"

Matt shook his head quickly. "Oh nonononono, Just about all humans do not eat pony, or horse meat. From what I heard it tastes terrible anyway. But I honestly do not know if there are some who do, maybe some secluded tribe." At this, all the ponies in the room let out a sigh of relief.

The cyan pegasus raised her hoof. "Yes...uh, what's your name?" Matt asked.

"Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in Equestria!" She said proudly. "How did you manage to kill that manticore? Most ponies would have to run or fly away from it, even I can't beat one! But you somehow killed it while you were injured. How?"

Matt stood up, marched to his room, picked up his rifle and pistol, walked back into the foyer and then set them down on the floor.

"This is how I survived. Twilight already knows the gist of it but these are called guns, or firearms." Matt ejected the magazines from both guns, and released a single round from each. He held up the 9mm pistol round. "This is called a bullet. What the gun does, is it fires bullets at your enemy incredibly fast. There is a small pin inside of the gun, that is rather hot, and when you pull the trigger here." Matt pulled the trigger on the rifle, resulting in a click. "The pin moves forward and hits the little indent here." Matt pointed to the small dip on the bullet. "And creates a small explosion within the gun, which sends the bullet speeding out of the barrel." Matt pointed to the end of the barrel on the rifle and pistol.

"We place the bullets inside of a magazine, like this, and then place it into a gun. So we can fire the gun without having to replace the bullet every single time we fire. My kind uses these for protection, for sport..." Matt's voice dropped dramatically, to the point where the ponies could not hear him. "...Or for war."

Rainbow was amazed. "Cool! Can I see you use it!" She asked with a hopeful face.

Matt shook his head. "Maybe later, these things are not exactly quiet and can be very dangerous when used around others." Rainbow Dash crossed her hooves and let out a *Humph*.

Matt smiled. "Anyone else got a question?"

Applejack raised her hoof. "Yes?"

"You said that ya don't know how you got here, but do you remember anything before you arrived?" Applejack asked.

Matt's smile disappeared, and Twilight openly cringed. She knew something like this would come up at one point or another. Yet...she was still interested in his story, despite the morbid information she already knew.

Matt sighed. "Get comfortable, it's a long story." Matt walked over to the desk in the corner, where Twilight had transcribed Earth's map onto a piece of paper. Picking up the original map, Matt brought it back and began his story.

"Well, first things first, I am a soldier for my country. My world is in a state of a nearly global war. My country, plus many others, are at war with three other countries or groups. Our enemies are Russia, Korea, and The Middle Eastern Union." Matt pointed on the map to the respective locations. "When the north portion of Korea invaded the southern portion, our ally, we tried to help the south by sending soldiers. However, recently turned communist Russia, supported the north. Not expecting the Russian support, we had to retreat. Seeing what had happened, many countries such as France, Britain, and the United States declared war on the now complete Korea." Matt again pointed to the respective countries" And by extension, Russia declared war on us. Eventually, after about half a year, the Middle East countries amazingly formed together and joined our enemies."

Matt took a deep breath, then continued. "I was deployed in Italy for about two years, until my tour had ended. They expected me to return to the battlefield in a few months, so when I made it home, my wife, Rebecca, suggested we take a vacation. After a few days, we decided to take a trip to Paris, the capital of France. My wife always wanted to visit there, and the front lines were in Germany, so we thought it would be safe at the time."

Matt took another shaky breath, then continued to tell the six about his story. About how on the first night, the bombs began to fall. To how he and his wife escaped from the nearly destroyed hotel. From his trip into the sewers, to finding a way out of the tunnel and into the sunlight. Matt had to stop and explain to the ponies several times, like what a tank is, or a car, and other unfamiliar things. Pinkie's mane continued to deflate slowly as the story progressed. When he retold his wife's death, every pony in the room let out a collective gasp, as Pinkie's mane completely deflated. Matt made it to the point where the jeep had located him and Richards before he stopped.

"I can't remember anything else right now. Sorry, but if you have any more questions, could you wait until tomorrow or something? I need a break." The ponies all nodded, and the guests began getting up to take their leave, until.

"Hey every pony! What did I miss?" Spike asked as he walked from upstairs.

"I...I'll tell you later Spike." Twilight said.

As the ponies began walking out the door, Pinkie's mane suddenly inflated as she gasped loudly. She sped out the door and last Matt saw, began handing papers out to nearly every pony she came across.

After about a half hour of thinking, Matt picked up an apple from the kitchen. Then he set outside for the rest of the day, observing the birds, ponies, and the sky.

*****

Note:

I am super fucking sorry about the distance between this chapter and the previous one. I won't even begin on excuses for two reasons.

Too many fucking small ones that combined to make a behemoth.
It is mostly due to a good percentage of my laziness.

Now, once again, I say that I hope to put up chapters more regularly, but it is not a guarantee.

Again, please leave your reviews, praise, or disdain for this story. Just please don't say "You suck, GTFO faggot"