Chapter 7: Meeting The 'Townsfolk'

Jake grunt in annoyance as he pressed a fairly large red button, the device sputtering for a moment but not producing anything of substance.

Lucy chimed in, the speakers crackling much less than before. "Apologies, the coffee maker is currently at the back of the repair pipeline... if you wish I can move it up to-"

"It's fine." Jake cut in, moving back over to his bed. "A few days without coffee won't kill me..."

Plopping down on the in-wall cot, bending over slightly from the low ceiling, he examined his sore left leg. His eyes widened as he looked upon his wound... the previously bone deep hole now filled in with a single skin tone. It still hurt like a bastard, but Jake could barely believe this was the same plasma wound from before.

"...Lucy? What's the armor at?" Jake asked, getting up and stretching a bit.

"58%, There is only so much I can do with damaged charging cells." Lucy replied as Jake opened the armor case again.

Watching the spartan armor open once more, Jake nodded. "More than enough..."

Jake 's armored footfalls crushed chunks of rotted wood as he neared the town from before. He'd managed to nap for a couple hours, and apparently it was all he needed to start healing his plasma wound. He knew the mutations would start kicking in eventually... but it was still remarkable just how quickly that time came.

Pulling at the branches gave him a good view of the village ahead, the sound of bustling townspeople meeting his ears through his suit's excellent audio system.

'Okay... maybe what I saw yesterday was some kind of fucked up pet' Jake thought to himself as Lucy brought the image in question back up.

He looked at it in silence, the creature's surprised face and human-like expression making him second guess for a moment. Shaking his head, the photo vanished as he pulled himself through the foliage and into the clearing. As he crossed the field, his eyes flicked to his health status, this time glowing a much more mellow shade of yellow.

A glance at his shielding still showing 58% should have made him feel a bit more comfortable, knowing it'd take quite a few hard hits to put him down.

Or... two of whatever the hell hit him before.

That didn't give him much confidence. Whatever it was hit like a truck. He doesn't know if that energy attack was less lethal or not, but it sure as hell sundered his shield pretty good.

As he arrived near the town he came up to the same building as before, peeking around before nearly falling over in shock. Not thirty feet away could he see what looked like a trading district, filled with different stalls, shops and sales-people. The only problem was there was no people, just more...

'Horses! A whole gaggle-fuck of them! What the hell is going on!' Jake screamed in his mind as he slowly leaned behind the house again.

Taking in a deep breath his faceplate retracted as he rubbed his eyes, before taking a second peek.

'...I'm seriously losing my shit here. Verix, I can handle... but who the hell took spray paint to a bunch of horses and left them here...' Jake wondered to himself, noticing something even stranger.

Squinting his eyes, he could see some of their mouths moving and gestures being made by their... hooves. He continued to watch, looking at a shop stand helmed by a tan colored one. The stall was filled to the brim with fresh apples, a lengthy line attached next to it. Jake watched as, before his very eyes, another horse conversed with, shared a laugh, then left with two apples. In mid air. Floating...

'...' Jake hid against the wall again, trying to process what he'd just seen. 'They think they're people... the horses are acting like people...' He slowly slid down the side of the wall until he was sitting on the ground. 'I... am so fucked...'

Jake sat there for a while, thinking. He wasn't even sure if one of them would see him, he almost didn't even care at this point.

'No... I've gotta step up. If I don't, Earth could...' Suddenly the burden of the situation finally hit him like a freight train, his shoulders sagging slightly. 'If I don't warn them, Earth could fall... our home...' He paused in his thoughts, thinking over the catastrophic chain of events that could unfold. '...possibly our whole race...'

Shaking his mind clear, he quickly stood and braced himself for what he was about to do.

"Alright... no more cowering. From here, I am Earth's ambassador... god I'm gonna need a drink when I get to Earth..." He spoke aloud, sighing once before turning the corner and looking towards the town square.

"Hail, strangely colored equines!" He yelled out, lifting a single hand in a greeting gesture.

As he yelled, almost all of the horses turned towards him with concern lingering in their features. In a near instant everything went dead quiet, every one of their eye's locking onto Jake's figure in terror.

'...please don't scream.' Jake thought to himself, taking a single hesitant step back as one of the ponies sharply inhaled. 'Shit.'

The moment cascaded into mass wide panic. All of the horses began screaming, running in random directions and quickly filtering from view. Many of them ran to nearby houses, slamming doors shut behind them and covering the windows. In less than thirty seconds the whole town was a ghost's abode, yet not a soul was in sight.

"For fuck sake..." Jake muttered to himself.

Turning around, he jogged at a quick pace towards the forest and ship inside. His mind raced as he went, each armored footfall leaving little holes in his wake.

'How have we not found this planet yet? It's so lush, houses intelligent creatures. As far as I can see, life has been able to thrive here without Verix intervention. But... how the hell does my mission profit from this'

A moment before reaching the border of the forest there was a sudden gust of wind causing Jake, even in his armor, to hold his arms up as he planted his feet. Looking up at what had cut him off, he nearly fainted out of pure surprise.

Standing in front of him, on its hind legs, was an honest to goodness pegasus. It adorned a rainbow mane and tail, along with an image of clouds crackling with lighting on it's hindquarters. Jake rolled his shoulders, brushing himself off before looking back at the... thing. As he attempted to go around it, it quickly sidestepped and blocked his path with a single flap. The creature was only 5 feet away, the forest another 3 feet further.

"I don't know what you are, but nothing comes into my town and terrifies all my friends!" It spoke aloud, giving a small angry snort.

For a moment time seemed to slow down for Jake as he processed what just happened.

'That thing, just spoke... okay... I must be in some kind of fucked up dream, in some kind of coma... from the crash' Jake reasoned to himself as he watched the creature jab it's two front hooves randomly.

"To be honest, I don't know what's funnier..." Jake began, the creature adorning a look of surprise. "The fact my mind came up with something as FUCKED UP as this as a nightmare... or the fact you think taking down a super soldier of Earth's special forces, in melee combat no less, will be easy."

For a moment he did nothing but look at the dumbfounded creature as it stared back. Then it's face morphed from surprise, to anger.

"You think you're so tough huh? Well, come on then!" It yelled back, getting into a stance Jake almost recognized.

'I've entered a whole new realm of insanity...'

Slowly advancing on the creature, Jake discarded his rifle where it stuck to his suit's back on small magnetic pads. Confusion crossed Jake's features when he pulled his fist back, the creature suddenly disappearing from view. A moment later something struck him on the back of his knee, causing him to kneel. As he hit the ground with a light grunt he spun, blocking a punch with his palm just to have another hoof push it down before jabbing toward his lower jaw.

The attack connected, a loud CLANG ringing out as the creature's hoof ricocheted off the helmet’s chin. The pegasus took a small jump back, lightly waving her hoof with a pained expression.

Stumbling back a step, he looked at his foe with a new perspective.

"W...was that fucking Karate?" He asked himself, the creature getting back into a stance.

The rainbow pegasus advanced on him, but now that Jake knew it had some sort of technique he wasn't messing around. With a flap of it's wings it flew towards, pulling back it's front right hoof as went for a blow to the head again. Jake quickly jumped to the side just before impact, causing a look of surprise from the equine as it's punch hit nothing but air. Quickly grabbing onto it's leg as it passed, it let out an unceremonious squeak as it stopped.

"H-HEY!" He heard it yell as he spun around, throwing it into the ground.

It landed with a solid thud and a small oof as it groaned and shook it's head, laying sprawled out on the ground.

Shaking his head Jake quickly decided against seriously hurting it. 'I could... but I'm already at the forest and this thing's fast...' He paused, looking back at the tree-line. 'Last thing I want is more of their ire'

Turning on his heels, he took off into the forest without looking back. A few minutes of determined running is all it seemed to take as he reached his ship, this time much faster than before.

"The fuck is up with this forest..." Jake muttered, swearing the forest shifts in size as he entered the downed ship and wasted no time re-opening the armor station. "Lucy, how long would it take to fully charge the suit?" He asked quickly, setting himself up inside and doffing the armor.

"Roughly three more hours, sir." Lucy replied without hesitation.

"Cuz I've got a plan..."

********************************************

After a few hours of waiting a loud beep went off... signaling the armor finally being charged. As quickly as he could he donned the suit, starting to grow attached to wearing the thing already.

"Lucy, remember what I told you... while they seem to be the apex species here, and highly intelligent-" He began, rubbing the chin of his helmet as he thought back to the slight contact. "They seem hotheaded... also know Karate, apparently..."

"...Karate?" Lucy asked in a deadpan voice.

"Karate..." Jake answered back seriously. "Anyway, I'm gonna go try to figure out if they can help us... somehow..."

"And you think the armor will make you… less intimidating?" Lucy chimed in, electing a roll of Jake's eyes.

"No, they will likely shit themselves. But I'm not walking through that forest unarmored... nooooo way..." Jake stated, shaking his head for emphasis.

As he walked out of the ship he looked around, his armor hugging his whole body but his face still visible due to the currently retracted visor.

Sighing in relief, he pressed a single button on his wrist as the visor closed over and obscured his face. The walk through the dark forest was silent as he thought, hoped, that he can get some cooperation this time instead of complete and utter panic and hostility.

"Sir, I think they're ponies." Corrected Lucy.

"...what?"

Lucy brought the photo back up, and lined it up next to another that looked like it was taken from the scene earlier. "From what I've noticed, they seem too small to be horses... seem more like a pony, or dwarf variant of horse."

"Pony, horse, I don't really care... all I know is they'd better help, or we're all fucked..."

Author's Note

I know this chapter is short, but I literally cut some text out at the bottom and pasted it in the next chapter so I can get this one out sooner. So think of this as a half chapter so I could get it out faster. The next half will be out soon.

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