Crossing Anthology Two

The beginning of Part 2

It was a sunny, beautiful day in Chapmanville, West Virginia. Jonah was sitting on a bench in front of his school, waiting for his father to pick him. It stressful day of elementary school, though Jonah’s stress did not manifest from assignments or projects, even he knew that pre-school was a simple year. His troublesome thoughts stemmed from something said by his older brother, Seth. Earlier that day when Jonah was in the bathroom at the school, Seth had asked Jonah to do something that ate away at his sanity; Seth told Jonah to tell their father that Seth hated him, and that Seth never wanted to see him again. Jonah was confused, he could not think of why Seth hated their father the way he did. Jonah tried to think back, he thought back as far as his four year old mind could go. Jonah could not think of anything, the only thing he could think of was the cynical and pessimistic bullshit that spewed from Seth’s lips.

Seth never trusted a soul, not one single person. When anyone would offer Seth any good, educated advice or anything else, Seth would refuse and suspect that a person’s generosity and optimism was only a conspiracy against him. Seth was the epitome of an elitist; he believed he was the only smart one in Chapmanville, or even West Virginia, possibly even beyond. Jonah would reason with Seth, and attempt to loosen him, it was never any use, and Seth would pay no mind to someone five years younger.

Jonah kept his seat on the schools outdoor bench and pondered. Finally, the moment Jonah dreaded all day had arrived; his father drove by in his green Jeep, and pulled up to the school in the parking lot. Jonah got up and walked to the Jeep, hesitant to tell his father what Seth had said for him to do.

Jonah awoke from his dream to something kicking his abdomen, his eyes opened to see his dear friend, Cole;

“Get up! Wake up, dammit!”

Jonah pushed himself from the hard floor where he slept in Applejack’s spare room. He looked around to see that Mina and Halie were both already up, Jonah came to the conclusion that these dreams of his childhood have caused him to sleep in even later than what he was used to. Cole put his hand on Jonah’s shoulder and shook it rapidly;

“Come on! Snap out of it! We gotta get to Ponyville and meet Princess Luna. She has a mission for us! She sent that messenger bird over there.”

Cole pointed to a large hawk that stood on the open window; it had a bag strapped to its chest. Jonah’s mind finally gained stable consciousness, and he replied to Cole;

“Really!? Finally!”

“Yeah, but before we head out, she wants us to meet some General of hers or someone. Come on!”

The rest of the morning felt like an instant to Jonah, his mind still trying to wake up, he knew he had to be ready for this mission, considering it was their first and he needed to make a good impression. Cole and Halie’s new found relationship was hitting off well, as they walked they laughed and smiled with each other, and carried lengthy conversations with a wide variety of topics. Jonah, Cole, Mina and Halie met Princess Luna at the Ponyville Town Hall. She was pleased to know that her messenger hawk had gotten the job done correctly, she greeted the four;

“Good morning to you all, I trust that I haven’t woken you too early.”

Jonah sarcastically answered Luna’s question with;

“Not at all, Princess…”

Luna smirked a little, her horn shined a light purple color, and it conjured a portal on the outside wall of the Town Hall. Luna pointed a hoof to the portal she had just created, she instructed;

“This is a portal to General Canis’ office; he is the head of my personal army and guards. You will report here whenever he sends you a letter, the letters have been marked ‘number one priority’, so they will arrive to you with in the same hour as it is sent.”

The foursome gazed into the portal, at the end was a glimmering light surrounded by a vortex of many hues, much like the portal they arrived in Equestria from. Princess Luna continued;

“As the letter tells, the General has a mission for you. You may enter when you are ready…”

Princess Luna vanished in the form of a bright light; the foursome stood there for a moment and stared at the portal. Mina broke the group’s silence;

“So is there anything else we need before we go in? I imagine that this Canis guy is gonna hold us for a while with a lot of military jargon.”

Cole shook his head and said;

“I don’t think so, let’s go on ahead and get this thing going.”

Cole walked through the portal, followed immediately by Halie. Mina jumped through next, and finally Jonah.

The opposite end of the portal landed them in a large office, it was clean, and the air felt a fresh as a meadow. The walls aligned with pictures of guard ponies and other military ponies standing together, with proud faces, the four look around briefly until they see a desk at the far end of the room, placed in front of three large windows. Four chairs were set facing the front of the desk. The four choose where they’d sit; Mina sat on the far right side of the row of chairs Halie sat to Mina’s left, and Cole sat next to Halie on her left, and Jonah sat next to Cole on his left. Cole grabbed two pens from a cup of pens placed on the desk. Cole tossed a pen to Jonah; Jonah caught it and read Cole’s devious expression. The two boys began swatting their pens at each other and blocking each other’s' jabs, laughing as they goofed around. As Cole flung his wrist around towards Jonah, he taunted;

“Bitch. Bitch. Bitch! BITCH!”

The only sounds coming from Jonah were excited grunts and yelps as Cole’s pen dominated his. Jonah got strength and jabbed rapidly at Cole’s abdomen, Jonah laughed. Mina leaned over to clear the obstruction made by where Halie sat, she looked at how Jonah overpowered Cole in their playful pen jousting. Mina became annoyed by the boys’ hijinks and sternly called out;

“Cut that shit out!”

Jonah’s attention was caught by Mina, in his distraction; Cole went forward and harmlessly slapped Jonah’s cheek rapidly about five times. Jonah dropped his pencil, Cole looked at Jonah with a smile and stated;

“I win.”

“No! Interference! Interference!”

“Uh-uh, I won!”

Mina, still irritated, says to Cole;

“It’s too damn early to hear you two bullshit around, also… you… a man doesn’t slap another man!”

The excited atmosphere around the friends was finally pushed out of the way, the door opened behind them, and a dark green coated, male Pegasus entered the room. His mane was slicked back and was a shiny dark gray color; his eyes were a peaceful ocean blue. He walked around the four friends looking at the closely, observing his new elite soldiers with eyes that sunk into them. He sat on the chair behind the desk, and positioned himself;

“Good morning to you all, is it safe to assume that you two are the men that our Princess has recruited?”

The stallion pointed a hoof in Jonah and Cole’s direction, Jonah and Cole nodded their heads in unison. The stallion continued;

“Good, you two look sharp. I am General Canis Major, the leader of Princess Luna’s personal army.”

The General took notice of Halie and Mina’s presence, and did not expect to see any extra recruits. He asked Jonah and Cole;

“So, just who are these pretty lookin’ foxes? Eh?”

Jonah and Cole looked at each other for a brief moment; they had not expected such a loose personality from the General. They looked back at the General, Jonah answered;

“Um, this is Mina; my girlfriend, and Halie; Cole’s girlfriend.”

The General raised a grin, and replied to Jonah’s answer with a laugh;

“Ha, I bet you’re likin’ ‘at huh? Hahaha!”

Halie rolled her eyes, Mina lowered her head into her hand, and her face had a dark scowl. Jonah could tell that without the fear of guard ponies rushing in and apprehending her, Mina would attack the General with full ferociousness. Mina instead motioned her eyes to Jonah, and rapidly to the General and back. Jonah knew that Mina expected him to tell the General to ease his offensive words. Jonah did not want to make any negative first impression, so he remained silent. Cole noticed Jonah’s discomfort, and though Cole did not like Mina, and almost felt like laughing with the General, he spoke up and tried to move off the subject;

“So, about our mission...?”

The General’s eye raised, he quickly remembered the task at hand and said;

“Oh, yes of course. It just so happens that a body was found dead in Fillydelphia today, it was found in an abandoned warehouse. The victim was a female unicorn, and looked roughly to be in her late teens. From the reports provided by the pony who found the body, it seems to have a single hole ‘bout the size of a gold bit, through the noggin. The victim's death is without a doubt connected to the serial killer, judging by how the wounds were described. We need you guys to go investigate the scene, ya got it?”

The four of them understood, the General gave them a sticky note with an address written on it. The four of them exited the General’s office through the same portal left buy Princess Luna, and returned outside of Ponyville town hall.

A mission has been given, and now it will be accomplished. The four young heroes have taken more steps into freeing the once peaceful Equestria, they’ve gotten to know the setting around them, and now it is time to take action. What about all of the ponies who are still afraid? What of the ones that have no ability to take but a step outside their front door? What can be done to raise their spirits?