Chapter 2: What the h*** are you?

He woke slowly.

Damn, he thought, The fall didn't kill me and now I'm laying at the bottom of this goddamn hole.

He rolled over, and to his surprise, nothing hurt. He opened his eyes and was blinded by bright sunlight. He sat up then opened his eyes again. He furrowed his brow at what he saw. He was in a field, knee high grass surrounded him.

Wha- am I dead?, he thought as he looked around for angels and pearly gates, he saw nothing but more grass and a tree, here and there.

No, not dead. Or heaven isn't all it's cracked up to be

He noticed he still wore his armor, though his helmet had come off. He looked and found it and his weapon laying a few feet away. With no apparent threats, he slung his weapon and surveyed his surroundings from a standing position. He saw a dirt road in the distance, to which he began to jog.

Follow road, find people., he thought as he chose to go left on the road.

As he was walking he found that neither the GPS or radio in his helmet worked, Sunuva bitch, they need to make these things more shock resistant. He grumbled as he neared a thin forest.

A good 30 meters into the group of birches and oaks, he heard a noise. Instinct took over, he unholstered his sidearm and panned across the woods. 'Nothing', he thought as he replaced his handgun, 'Must've been a deer.' He had just resumed his brisk walk when something slammed him from behind. He landed on his face and felt weight on his back, he rolled and reached, found a limb and pulled. SNAP, a bone broke and he kicked his attacker off of him, it landed landed a few feet away. Henderson jumped to his feet and drew his pistol, then leveled it at his adversary.

"What the hell are you?", he muttered under his breath.

He stepped closer to the creature and saw it was an animal of some sort. It was unconscious, so he crouched beside it. It was small, about five feet from end to end. It had large ears and a small snout. What got Henderson was it's color, and the fact that it had wings. It was covered in light blue fuzz, and had a mess of rainbow hair on its head and a similarly colored tail. It had striking symbols on its hind legs, a cloud with rainbow colored lightning protruding from it.

The creature moaned and shifted. Henderson stepped back and took aim at the thing's head. It rolled and stood, head hung low and eyes closed. Henderson prepared to fire. It put weight on its front right leg and let out a yelp of pain. Then, as if he had made a sudden noise, it turned to face Henderson. Henderson's finger tensed, then froze at what the creature did next.

"Bring it on, hoss.", the creature said, as it lowered its head, laid back its ears, and snorted. But it stood in place, making no move to attack.

Henderson addressed it, "What the hell are you?", the thing's head still in his sights.

"I could ask you the same thing.", it answered after a few seconds consideration.

Henderson also paused, then decided to comply, "Ezekiel Henderson, Lance Corporal in the United States Marine Corps."

The thing's expression softened slightly, "Name's Dash, Rainbow Dash."

Henderson chuckled inside, but quickly reverted to the task at hand, "Why did you tackle me?", he had more pressing questions but tried not to get ahead of himself.

"Because you looked like a threat.", Dash said, matter-of-factly, "Why did you break my fore-leg?"

"Because you looked like a threat.", Henderson repeated, "Are you a threat?"

"That depends, do you plan on hurting me anymore?"

"Only if you plan on surprise tackling me again."

"Then I guess neither of us are threats.", Dash raised her head, "And you told me who you are, but not what you are."

"As did you.", Henderson holstered his handgun.

"I'm a pony, a mare pegasus to be exact.", she examined her broken fore-leg.

Pony, mare, pegasus. It's equine. A horse., he thought, then responed, "Human, male human."

"Human?", Dash cocked her head quizzically, "I've never heard of those."

Henderson looked down from Dash's face to her broken leg, "That's not going to heal on its own, you need medical attention."

Dash sighed, "There's a clinic in town.", she nodded down the road, "But I can't get there on my own."

Henderson mulled over these words for a moment, then walked toward her, "Hold still." He said as he crouched, put one arm just under her neck, another across her hind legs, and lifted her off the ground. He lifted her above his head and around it, then let her weight rest on his shoulders, in the same fashion a shepherd carries a lamb.

The duo was silent for a while, then Dash spoke up, her voice hitched whenever Henderson took a step.

"Where'd you come from anyways?", genuine curiosity in her tone.

"Well I was with my team, other Marines, warrior humans, and something went wrong and I fell into a hole and wound up here. Where is here anyways?", Henderson was leery to give to many details, his mission had been "hush-hush".

Dash wasn't satisfied with Henderson's answer, she decided to try again later. "Equestria." She answered, as if he should already know that.

Henderson thought through all his training, there wasn't a place called 'Equestria' in the Middle East; or any part of the world, for that matter.