New to Equestria

New to Equestria - Chapter Four: Man Overboard

Apparently some ponies were fighters, I couldn't vouch for said pony's mental stability though.

A white stallion stood amidst three diamond dogs, all of which were on the floor. The pony didn't have a horn, nor wings, but seemed to be built like a rock. He was facing away from me, but I didn't need to see his face in order to feel the pure anger radiating off of him. I could see his cutie mark, a pick-axe, not too reassuring.

He did turn to me when I subconsciously closed the door, his eyes were the color of steel blue, a messy mane of dark grey covered his head. What stood before me was a very angry, buff, earth pony. Apparently, he saw me no different than he saw a diamond dog. I sidestepped him as he charged at me, ramming his head into the door and falling on his flank with a dazed look.

"Easy there," I told him, trying not to laugh. "I'm here to help."

My voice brought him back down to Earth as he turned and gave me a fierce glare. He launched himself at me swinging wide with his right arm, I took a hold of it, and using the momentum of his body, slung him across the car. The stallion landed on his hooves, skidding for a bit. After stopping he scuffed his hoof against the floor, imitating a bull preparing to charge.

I cracked my knuckles. "If it's a fight you want, it's a fight you'll get."

"Daddy?" I heard a childlike voice call from behind the stallion, he suddenly froze in place and looked back. There was a filly behind him, apparently his daughter. Her coat was white, but unlike the stallion that attacked me, she had wings and her mane was a minty green, a few shades lighter than her eyes.

"That doesn't look like a diamond dog, daddy!" The filly noted.

The father turned from the filly to me, and then look at the diamond dogs, then back at me. Finally the stallion was out of his rage, I could tell the realization had struck him struck him by the expression on his face.

"You're right sweetie... But what is it then?"

"Allow me to answer that question," I said. "Silver Tongue the human at your service. I came here to help the rest of the passengers with the diamond dog problem and get them up to the front half."

"The front half? Why?"

"The diamond dogs tried burning some parts of the train, the car behind me is badly scorched and i'm not sure if it will hold up much longer."

He was silent in thought for a moment, I couldn't completely blame him for not trusting a stranger, an alien stranger at that. The pony looked to his daughter once more, they shared something I didn't see nor hear, probably a tight father/daughter thing.

"Okay," The father said. “I’m getting my daughter to safety first, go help those ponies.”

“On it.”

I walked further down the train, there wasn’t very many cars if I remembered correctly, with any luck we’d be able to get all of the passengers to fit on the front half. While opening the door, something occurred to me, where the hell were the police?

Entering the next part of the train, nothing but silence met my ears and three diamond dogs stared at me, they’d cornered a single passenger, a pegasus with a blonde mane and gray coat. What confused me wass whether they were all having trouble trying to contain a single pony, or if they were just bullying the poor mare.

Deciding to level the odds a bit, I pulled my longsword from the sheath on my back, doing it slowly and dramatically as possible. Looking at my targets I established the tall and cocky-looking one was probably the leader of their little group. The other two, which were fairly shorter and chubby, were looking unsure of themselves at the moment.

I didn’t have time for more tactical analysis as the tall one literally jumped at me, caught off guard, I was knocked on my back. Before the dog had the opportunity to rip me to shreds with his claws I hit one of it’s temples with the hilt of my sword, the attack knocked out my aggressor, but before I was able to throw his body off of me I saw the rounded diamond dog preparing to finish me.

It didn’t get the chance though, Heckler had my back, delivering a solid punch to the dogs throat and throwing it to the floor. My fuzzy ally extended his arm to help me and I gratefully took it. It became apparent once I was up that the other diamond dog had bailed on his friends, literally jumping out of the train car.

“Woah!” The grey mare said. “That was so cool!”

“I’m always one for making a show out of things.” Heckler said cockily.

“Yeah, thanks for the help by the way.” I told him, before turning to the mare. “Are you okay miss?”

“I’m fine. But you might want to go check the other ponies.”

I stepped aside as the mare walked the way me and Heckler came from, I saw Echo and the white stallion coming through just as the unnamed mare was leaving.

“What’re we supposed to do with these dogs anyway?” Echo asked, prodding one of the canines.

“I’m not sure, but there’s one more car that needs clearing.”

I didn’t get the chance to open the door, it exploded before me, time seemed to slow as if I was in a mainstream action flick and the developers felt more epicness was needed. Only there was a noticeable difference, I saw a big-ass diamond dog charging right at me. It pounced before I was even able to reach for my sword. Timespeed returned to normal as the dog bit into my upper-right torso, pain shot through me as the mutt’s fangs burrowed themselves deep into my body.

I knew I was screaming, but all I noticed was the ever-increasing agony. Then the shaking began, like a wolf swinging around it’s soon-to-be devoured prey. I felt a burning sensation similar to that of being put through the seventh level of hell, my arm felt as if it was coming close to being torn off, my heart dropped, and black started appearing at the edges of my vision.

It was about to be game over, and so soon. Whatever, I still managed to find my longsword in my left hand somehow, I waited until the dog steadied for a moment and when he did, my blade found itself ran through the midsection of an overgrown canine. My attacker pulled out his teeth and howled, I felt my body beginning to lose blood, but I couldn’t feel the pain anymore.

I was on my feet even as the world spun, left hand death-gripping the sword handle. Instead of dropping dead like I hoped, the dog glared at me fiercely, and swiped with his right paw. The sword was still in my hand, it must’ve ripped out. Interestingly enough, I was still mid-air. It took me a moment to realize I was no longer in the train, and that the ground was rushing up to greet me.

By the time i’d hit the ground I was already unconscious.

...

When the darkness parted, I found myself laying in a pool of my own blood, seriously, stuff was everywhere, I was on my stomach, left hand shot out forwards. The sun was now rising, and interestingly enough I saw a unicorn mare.

She wasn’t very colorful like other ponies, she was rather… Monochrome? Grey coat, and white mane with a streak of grey. Her eyes caught my attention, the lower part of the iris was yellow, it

developed into orange as it went up. She wore a long coat, halfway-buttoned up and being worn as a sort of v-neck. She wore a hood over her head, casting a shades over most of her face.

I reached out to her with my left hand as she came closer, trying to make some sort of comprehensible request for help, nothing came out of my mouth though.

“Well, aren’t you an interesting creature.”

“He-hel…” I choked out.

The mare sat there with a smug grin on her face, eyes filled with amusement, if only my hand could reach further, i’d ring her damned neck. My hand fell when I lost the strength to hold it up, I passed out again not long after.

I didn’t have the luck required to get some rest apparently. My brain starting overclocking as a lucid dream melded before me. I remembered the place, a year ago i’d been enjoying a warm homemade meal there. It was my home. I found myself lying on the hammock I called my bed in the second floor of my apartment, it was in the corner closest to the wall that faced the street. Window shutters closed with pricks of sunlight coming through, generating enough light for my eyes to make out my environment in detail.

The floor was littered with clothing and trash, as usual. Pulling myself out of the hammock wearing a sleeveless shirt and sweats, there was a slight sting in the place where the diamond dog bit me, but when I checked the place the fang marks should’ve been I didn’t see anything.

I stumbled downstairs, the first thing that came to my attention was my couch… And the unicorn sitting atop it. The monochrome mare, the same exact one, sat there. Her eyes had followed me as I came down the stairs.

“Sleep well?” She purred. Her voice carried mysticism, and probably would’ve caught my attention from across a football field.

“I hate lucid dreams. I know you’re watching me bleed out right now but at least have the decency to not make me think about the ‘what’s real and what’s not?’ thing.”

“No worries dear. I’m just here to… Study... You.”

“Creepy.” I sighed, averting my eyes from the mare. When I looked back, she was gone.

She came from right behind me not a second later, brushing against my side. “It’s not creepy at all.”

I walked away and seated myself on the coach. “So, what do you want?”

“Just looking to get to know you.” She replied, looking around the apartment with an unimpressed look.

“Well, i’ll tell you what, get me a phoenix down, and i’ll give you my auto-biography.”

“Hmm, no. I want more…”

Uh…

“No.” She shook her head, apparently reading my mind. “I mean literally. Let me show you.”

Her horn glowed, there was a flash of light and I found myself on a rooftop, panicked screams filled my ears. I didn’t see the mare, but a hand grabbed my wrist, when I looked at the source a saw a girl, probably just in her twenties. When I stared into her eyes I realized I was looking at the monochrome mare, only as the monochrome woman… She wore a white hoodie in the same fashion as her pony coat, dark ripped-up denim jeans, and a simple pair of white sneakers.

“Where are we?” I immediately asked.

“You tell me.”

I looked around, taking account of my environment, it clicked immediately, I was in the financial capital for the H.U.N.; Medius. Taller buildings than the one we stood atop surrounded us. I was so awed by my old station that I didn’t notice the masked man standing at the edge-guard of the building until the monochrome woman pointed him out to me.

The man looked like a federal sniper, I would know. He had an M24 Sniper Weapon System propped up on a bipod, scope focused on whatever was below. Curious, I leaned over the wall and looked to the ground below. There was a hostage situation.

“Remember this don’t you?” Monochrome chimed in.

“Too well.” I grimaced. “I hate flashbacks.”

“I hate to remind you of such a dark day, it could have been better though.”

“What makes you say that?”

“You could’ve saved two more people that day.”

My teeth ground together. “I followed my orders, morality doesn’t matter.”

“Really now?”

There was the crack of a rifle, but it wasn’t from the sniper. Down below a man with a sack over his head dropped.

“They’ve executed another hostage.” The sniper murmured.

“HQ copies all.” I heard a disembodied voice all around us.

Another crack, the sniper twitched and I could see his knuckles go white gripping his weapon. There was several more agonizing seconds of waiting before the voice spoke again.

“Send it.”

There was a flash from the end of the M24’s barrel, the executioner below dropped and the sound of breaching charges could be heard, along with shouting and some more fire.

“Why’d you wait? Did you want to see those innocent people die?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Answer my first question.”

“I told you earlier; I was just following orders.”

“You let a man sitting at a desk with a badge decide whether you should save those people or not?”

I looked over to the sniper as he pulled off his balaclava, and I looked back at me. Was “just following orders” a good enough excuse to let those people die? What would’ve happened if I fired early?

I turned back and glared at the woman. “Yes. I did.”