The Interloper

Chapter 9- Freya

So, Sun Booty and Moon Booty decided they needed to talk in private, presumably about Ink Butt jumping into and hijacking my dreams. I'm guessing with how hard Celestia has been trying to convince me that she won't vaporize me on the spot, Luna's mental meddling could kick the legs out from under that table.

And let's be honest. I don't want Little Blue anywhere fucking near me.

"So, what's up?" I directed at Shining Armor, trying to get some small talk started.

"What's up? The sky, the ceiling, the sun. What kind of question is that?" Was his response, his face was pretty funny. He crinkled his nose and furrowed his brows. I honestly wasn't too surprised. Although we speak the same language I can bet our vernacular is radically different.

"Well, where I'm from it's a way of asking 'how are you doing?'. So I ain't surprised at your answer, we may speak the same language, but we ain't got the same vernacular."

"What do you mean by that?" He asked, he's starting to soften up a bit. Good, good.

"Slang terms or idiomatic phrasing mostly." I explained, hoping he was tracking that at the least.

"Okay, I think I'm following. Well, to give you a better answer. You're in a cell until we figure out what to do with you and your comrades." And there is that venom again.

Going to need to use a different approach.

"So, you think I'm a threat?"

"Yes, I do. I think you're here with ulterior motives. I've seen the mess you and your three friends made. We've seen what your weapons are capable of, and frankly it's barbaric. It shows us that humanity, while capable of speech is still just a bunch of uncivilized animals."

I just looked at him then spit the used up dip into the cup from earlier. I stood up and walked over to the bars of the cell and noticed how they backed up from the bars. I guess I scare them, even if there are iron bars separating us. Even then, I'm much less of a threat than they are. They have magic.

"I got an idea." I propose.

"Oh, yeah? I bet it involves a way to kill the Princesses."

"Yeah, whatever. You're a soldier; I'm a soldier, so let's have a talk. Soldier to soldier," I elaborate, hoping this piques his interest and gets him to drop the tough guy act.

He looks around warily, first at his guards then up at me. I can see the musculature of his jaw tensing up slightly as he wages an internal war with himself. After a few moments of silence that felt like an eternity, he finally spoke up, "Okay. So, start talking."

Hook, line, and sinker.

I sat down and put my back against the wall with my feet out in front of me and leaned against the bars of my cell. Where to start?

"So..." inhaling deeply "what would you do if I told you the very way y'all are acting is how I'd handle the situation?"

"We're both professional soldiers. Regardless of levels of culture and intelligence, some things soldiers share in common."

"Yeah, I know. You and your Princesses are also tense because of a recent invasion by another race. Then suddenly, me and my boys show up and waste a bunch of the bugs that were giving you and your boys heapin's of trouble. Y'all are scared me and my boys are here as conquerors."

"Yeah, I'm following...." he said, indicating he hasn't fallen asleep on me just yet, he also indicated with his hoof for me to continue.

"As I was saying, the small devices we arrived in. We used them as methods of escape. Think of them as lifeboats." I lied to him, partly. We did use them as lifeboats, but they're really assault devices used in planetary invasions. They don't need to know that.

"Lifeboats for what? There no seas for miles. Your story is coming up short, human." That's what I was afraid of. Judging by what I've seen, they probably don't even have the steam engine or any analog thereof.

"Look, do I look like I'm from here? Even you're precious princesses have acknowledged that I'm an alien to your world. My species is capable of space flight, and our ship had some... problems... and needed to be abandoned."

"This discussion is over. You're obviously trying to make fun of us with your childish stories." He spat out.

"Whatever Sandy, I should've known you lacked the mental faculties to look past your own fucking nose." I shot back while rolling my eyes and crossing my arms. He stomped out rather angrily with his entourage following him with the exception of one small pegasus mare. She didn't leave with the rest.

I closed my eyes to take a nap, I was tired, my face hurt, and I was alone.

"E-excuse me?" a soft feminine voice asked I'm guessing me. I just want to nap.

"Fuck." I exhaled. "What is it?"

"Are you really from another planet?"

"What's it matter? It ain't like I'm gettin' back anytime soon if ever." That thought was hella depressing. Holy shit, I'm in deep.

I'm guessing she winced at that. At least from what I could tell, she picked up one hoof and brought the back of it to her mouth. I wasn't too focused on her, "Standard Operating Procedure for bailing out of a ship is for the Captain to order all hands to abandon ship and then send a distress signal to the nearest colonized planet. The distress pulse contains the time and date the ship was abandoned as well as the location it went down so the Navy could attempt to recover the crew." The next part was going to hurt as I've been forced to give up the search for a missing Ranger company before because the ship carrying them went down and by the time we got the distress signal it had already been over six months.

I exhaled, "I'm considered MIA, and if they can't get HERE in 120 days they list us as MIA, presumed KIA. And this is uncharted space. So I'm not going home." My heart dropped. Other than my brothers elsewhere on this planet, and the three in a hospital who are comatose, I'm alone.

I pinched my eyes closed to fight back the tears. Now is no time to be weak.

"I... I'm sorry, for what it's worth. Even though I hardly understand what much of that meant. I'm really sorry." Was her response before walking away. Was she trying to comfort me?

Anyways, after her exit I was finally alone. Nap time.

"Mr. Steiner? Mr. Steiner..."

I was jolted awake when I felt myself falling over after having been pushed. When I finally forced my eyes open my vision was filled with large, white, winged unicorn. And I promptly flipped my shit.

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!" was my automatic response as I scrambled to my feet and attempted to put some space between me and her. After the initial shock wore off and I calmed down, "Holy shit... fuck me sideways..." I clenched at my chest and bent over some to catch my breath.

"I apologize for scaring you. My sister has somethings on her mind she wishes to say." Celestia said, as she sidestepped to reveal her sister with her head hung low and a forlorn look on her face.

"Mr. Steiner..."

"SGT Steiner, please. Calling me Mister makes me feel old." I interrupted with chuckle, hoping to lighten the mood some. She was adorable, and she scared me. But if I'm going to get out of this cage I need to be nice. I can be a jackass later.

"SGT Steiner," she corrected and continued, "We would like to apologize to you from the depths of our heart for the invasion of privacy we hath wrought. Tis a misunderstanding on our part, but also a judgement failure that we as a leader made, that should not have happened. And we beg of your forgiveness." She finished, laying her ears back and looking towards the floor shuffling her front hooves.

Well, I didn't see that coming. And her speech mannerisms are weirding me out. "Um... apology accepted. Just don't do it again, mmkay?"

"Well SGT Steiner, would you like to leave this cell for better accommodations?"

"Hell no, I fucking love this dingy ass dungeon!" I retorted. The look on their face was classic, they have no idea what sarcasm is.

"Are... are you sure?" Luna asked, definitely the more shocked of the two. I think Big White caught on after a few.

"Sarcasm sweet cheeks," I picked up my ruck and threw it over one shoulder, "After you ladies." Gesturing towards the door, indicating that I'll follow their lead.

"Thou had us puzzled for the moment."

"Just a moment? Pretty sure you thought I was being serious. Anyways..." I followed them out of the dungeons and into the rest of the palace. "Y'all cleaned it up pretty good." I commented. "Last time I was here I remember shooting up the place at some weird ass bug shits."

"Ah, yes. The Changelings. They used to keep to themselves and have never launched an attack on even a tiny village. They're actually so elusive and rare we thought they may have been extinct." Celestia lectured. I remember some of what Chrysalis, I think, said.

Now to try and get the other half of the story.

"Sooo.... what do they do?"

"They feed off the love that creatures have for one another."

I made a face like that made sense to me, because it didn't. But whatever, "So what made them just invade? I mean, it don't add up if their creatures of subterfuge."

"An astute observation. We aren't entirely sure ourselves." Big White side as she looked over her shoulder back at me, "This way," taking a left up a flight of stairs.

"Well, I'm sort of an agent of subterfuge. I'm a Ranger. Asymmetrical warfare specialist," I bragged. I'm proud of it.

"We hath never heard of Rangers or Asymmetrical warfare. Pray-tell, what is it?" I forgot Little Blue was behind me, she still looks adorably guilty.

"Eh... it's kinda how it sounds, ya know? It usually involves a disparity between two opposing forces such as size or technological advantage. Kinda like if your forces are outnumbered, using hit-n-run tactics. We fight in a way to minimize our weaknesses while emphasizing our strengths. And Rangers are just a type of soldier trained to specialize in the usage of such tactics."

"So you utilize dishonorable tactics to defeat your opponent?" She questioned.

"Negative. Dishonorable is using noncombatants as leverage. Rangers pride themselves on minimizing the losses incurred by noncombatants."

"Noncombatants?"

"Those not taking part in the conflict such as civilians," I retorted. I'm guessing they still line up and march towards each other en masse. "I got a question, what is your level of martial technology?"

Luna stopped and scrunched up one side of her muzzle and cocked an inquisitive eyebrow, even Celestia stopped, "Our what?"

I should've known, "What kinda shit y'all use to fight with?"

"We use swords, spears, and our unicorns cast magic. Why does that matter?"

"Oh it matters. Weapons dictate tactics used. The last time humans relied on swords, bows, and spears to wage war were close to seven centuries ago. The tactics you utilize are well over a millennia old by Terran standards." Their jaws hit the floor.

"But how," Big White finally spoke up.

"We can travel MASSIVE distances in space. What makes you think we haven't found a more efficient weapon than the sword or spear?" I asked, somewhat rhetorically.

"Art thy sure thou species lacks magic?" Luna asked, quite flabbergasted.

"Uh, yeah... as an old quote went that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I replied. I don't remember who said it though; I wish I had access to the data banks in the ship.

"So you're saying your technology is magical? That would make more sense if you have found out a way to harness thaumaturgy by way of technology since you lack the ability to manipulate is organically." Celestia said.

"Thauma-what," I asked cocked my head back.

"Thaumaturgy is the science of magic. I'll have someone teach you in it should you wish to know more. I can only postulate that your lack of knowledge regarding thaumaturgy means that isn't how your technology works. Is it?"

"Nope."

"This excites us! Just how does it work?" Luna damn near yelled into my ear, making me wince.

"Physics, chemistry, mathematics; smart people shit. Stuff I only understand on an entry level." I reply.

"What are these things thou speaketh of?" Luna looked perplexed, this can't be good.

"Um.... what do you mean?" I asked as we continued walking, I need to ask where they plan on taking me. "So where are going?"

They stopped for a second so Celestia could answer my question, "I figured we could house you in the rarely used Minotaur Ambassador suites, the furniture and fixtures in those suites are proportioned in a way that is most beneficial to your biology." And then they continued with me in tow. "As for Luna's question, what are chemistry and physics? I too, am curious. Is chemistry similar to alchemy?"

"Chemistry came from alchemy. On ancient Terra, our primitive science revolved around alchemy, which was based on trying to change one type of material to another. When we got a better understanding of the elements, it changed to Chemistry, the study of material composition.

“Physics is the attempt at study of how the universe behaves, or less generally studying how forces such as motion operate." I finished rather proudly, that I remembered that from University astounded even me. Hell, I'm not a smart kid. I went to college for the history, and because mom and dad made me.

That thought made me frown long enough for them to pick up.

"Is there something wrong?" Celestia asked in that soothing voice of hers. It was incredibly soothing, but she still could probably vaporize me.

"Nah, just an old thought; anyways, did any of that make sense to y'all?" I said, quickly wiping the frown off my face and replacing it with a neutral gaze. I can't believe I'm trying to explain how chemistry and physics works to a couple of magical horses. God I hope they don't ask me about horses.

"I think I understand, but can you give an example of each?"

"Yeah, do you know what chlorine and sodium are?" I asked, looking at them waiting for answer. When they nodded they did I continued, "Chlorine is a deadly gas in its most base form and Sodium is a very volatile metal in its most base form. Both deadly to organic creatures on their own, but combined together they make common table salt. Something the body needs."

Looking at them to make sure their eyes didn't glaze over, I noticed they might actually be able to understand. I thought I also heard some gears turning before they turned and looked at each other, before asking "And what of physics?"

"In layman's terms, how much energy do I need to exert to throw a ball a certain distance. Or how fast will I fall to the ground if I trip?"

"Tis interesting. We wonder how the Academia would take to the introduction of such theories."

"Okay, I just gotta know. Why are your speech mannerisms in 'Ye Olde English'?" I asked, trying to make my best Briton impression.

"We shall explain it to you in further detail at a later date. But I," Luna pointed toward herself with a hoof, "insist on using the royal 'We' as is tradition as well as using Royal Equestrian."

And with that they continued in silence for the next few minutes before opening their mouths again. Predictable, their curiosity knows few bounds apparently. "So, Sergeant Steiner, how old are you?"

"Twenty five Terran standard years. Why?"

"From your earlier explanation, you have 365 days to a year? With each day lasting 24 hours?" Where is she going with this? "While our years are only 336 days long. So you would be twenty six years old in Equestrian years by my calculations. How long do Terrrans live?"

Damn, she did that math in her head? "Eh, the average lifespan is 126 years for men and 131 for women. Why?"

"So you're impressively young still!"

Okay, that was a weird question. "So, I've had something on the back of my mind for a hot minute now. In my ill-fated escape attempt, I saw what looked like a human. And you knew I was human, without having to ask me. The hell is going on?"

She stopped and hung her head low and turned around to face me. When she brought her eyes up she had a very visible sadness and regret in them. "Ponies keep humans as pets and a source of labor."

I froze.

I didn't know how to think of that so I just closed my eyes and started to breathe really slowly.

I'm not sure why I was bothered by it. Humanity domesticated horses and used them in numerous ways, sometimes even as food.

But our horses weren't intelligent, they were just beasts. Weren't they?

"Sergeant Steiner, I don't know how to explain it to you. But humans here aren't the same as you, at least... not anymore."

That explanation wasn't helping. Especially with the 'not anymore' tacked on at the end.

After a few more moments of silence I opened my eyes and looked Celestia dead on in her magenta eyes. "So am I just the Royal Pet now?"

Her eyes widened in shock and her wings flared, making me jump back. "Absolutely not!" she spat out in insult, "how could you think so negatively?!"

"Easily when we get to my room I'll explain. Some silence to digest this tidbit of info may be beneficial to my health." Because this tobacco I'm about to put in my mouth sure as hell ain't.

Celestia mentally reprimanded herself for her outburst at that last question of his. He had genuine fear of her and Luna and had seen that ponies had indeed domesticated, or enslaved, humanity depending on who you asked. His want for silence was expected, and as a wish she would grant.

He looked tense, like he was about to confess to a brutal murder he committed. His eyes just glazed over and he just followed them. The human clearly has retreated into the depths of his mind to wrestle with his thoughts.

Celestia looked over at Luna and could see some unease in her sister as well. Luna knew something Celestia didn't, she knew the bomb that the human was about to drop on Celestia. Luna didn't know all the details, but she did see some of the effects of what was to be dropped on her sister were. Namely the destruction of a human city. A level of destruction she had never seen before and didn't even know was possible.

And Luna felt sick to her stomach at the thoughts. The same thing he was going to drop on her sister was the same reason he was heavily scarred and missing limbs, as well as an emotionally hollow creature.

The regal sisters continued to attempt to communicate with each other with nonverbal cues and the sisterly empathy they had built over the course of thousands of years. But all it did was serve to deepen the anxiety that was already eating at the two.

"Alright SGT Steiner," Celestia spoke up, breaking the silence, "Here are the suites we'd like to house you in."

"Good deal, now, “he exhaled deeply, "First things first, there somewhere I can puke? I been swallowin' my dip spit and I think I've gotten a tad sick from it." He was starting to look green, so it must not have been something they do often, which would explain why he was spitting in the cup earlier.

"That way, past those double doors," Celestia pointed as the human bolted through the doors after dropping his ruck with a 'thud.' After a few audible heaves, he flushed the toilet and spit a few times, turned on the water faucet an gargled some water before spitting a few more times and returning to the main foyer.

"Now... where were we?" He asked.

"You were going to explain why you easily came to the conclusion we were going to keep you as a pet." Celestia responded, shuffling her wings in unease.

"Ah." He stated, taking a seat on one of the couches in the main room. "I'll start with Terra and lead up from there. You might wanna take a seat, this'll be a while..."

He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands together and opened his mouth. What came out floored the jaws of both royal sisters.

"Humanity is going extinct."

He looked at both sisters maintaining his stoic facade. Any moment, he would say 'just kidding,' as the sisters began to contribute to his more morbid sense of humor that he has displayed.

But he didn't he just concluded with, "That's the end of the story that's coming. Let me start far earlier."

"Written history on Terra started somewhere around 7000 years ago. And the entire time humanity was the sole intelligent creature on the planet that we knew of. We had our mythologies about regarding that. But that aside, humanity had hundreds of cultures and races. All were very different; some of the more pivotal ones were the Greeks, Arabs, Chinese, and Egyptians, at least early on. After a while, the Romans were power players on the world stage.

"And many of the cultures were radically different. Such as the Greeks and Persians, they were diametrically opposed in their beliefs. The Persians were a monotheistic culture of hegemony, while the Greeks were democratic, putting the freedoms of the individual on a pedestal. So our history was wrought with warfare. One of the few things all the races and cultures had in common. So our history is almost marked by warfare instead of anything else.

The sisters were sitting there with rapt attention. Awed by this aspect of another race and the openness an ambassador, unwilling as he was, was sharing.

"Humanity is great at fighting. Most of our advances came from martial inventions, our search for a better way to kill our fellow man. We're a warrior culture. And many credit that to our evolutionary upbringing."

That puzzled the sisters "Evolutionary upbringing? What could push a race to be so violent?"

"You see, humans were never the strongest or the fastest. We don't have sharp claws, long teeth, or horns to fight of predators. We ain't fast enough to out run them and we can't simply fly away. We have no scales, thick hide, or heavy fur to protect us from the elements. And Mother Nature herself claimed more human lives than humanity did. And humans have killed millions of their own kind throughout history.

"Terra tested us. But one thing we did have was intelligence. Were we had no claws, we made spears. We're we had no scales, we made armor. We built houses to shield us from the elements. We built ships to traverse the seas. We domesticated certain animals to help us.

"But even with all our technological advances, Mother Nature would still lay us low. She still claimed her sacrifices using earthquakes, hurricanes, sandstorms, tornadoes, floods, wild fires. So many dead humans. But our technology did allow us to kill more of our fellow men than her."

His raspy laughter and shaking of his head was mildly disturbing.

After a few seconds of laughing he continued, looking back up at them, "But we've had so many good things as well, the art, the music. The medical advances, so many diseases that claimed millions of lives are all but footnotes in human history. Human life expectancy tripled. The comfort of living sky rocketed.

"We still had our conflicts though. We even enslaved other men throughout our history. We still have instances in the Republic today of slavery, although it's far different than it once was, it's still just as vial." He punctuated that final sentence with outward disgust that radiated from him.

"2260 years ago was what we called 'The Year of Our Lord' and it's used as a marker for our history. To give you an idea of how often we fought as a species. In 1914, we had the first of what we called the World Wars. In it's four years of fighting, over 16 million were killed. Then not too long after in 1939, World War Two started and ended in 1945 with the loss of estimates ranging from 40 million to 85 million."

The sisters were almost catatonic at the revelation that humans were killing each other in numbers so great they dwarfed the populations of all the nations of Equus combined. They wanted to ask him more questions, but they figured that his continued talking would answer those questions.

"Then we had World War Three that was the longest and bloodiest war in human history. It started in 2036 and wasn't over until 2053. No one knows how many died exactly, but the estimate is 360 million."

He paused, swallowing audibly. In which Luna interjected, "It is no wonder thy species is going extinct... ye are driving yourselves to it."

He just laughed, and Luna glanced worriedly at her sister who just returned her gaze with the same look of incredulity. After he finished laughing, "Oh you... I haven't even gotten there yet. Humans are like roaches, no matter how many are killed, there are just so many more. To give you an idea what I mean..."

He readjusted himself on the couch and unclasped his hands, the human was becoming quite enthused with recanting the history of his species, however abridged it was.

"In 1969, we traveled into space and landed some men on our moon." Celestia's and Luna's jaws dropped, to which he laughed. "So outer space was not impossible for us by any stretch. But we didn't have any real significant breakthroughs in space until 2093 with the invention of the Royce-Karlsson Drive that allowed us to travel to other planets, which we did.

"And as of six years ago, in 2254, humanity under one central authority, the Republic of Terra, had sixty-two planet-states, twenty-three Republican colonies, eighteen corporate owned colonies, and an estimated thirty to fifty colonies that govern themselves independently of Terra.

"In all the Terran planet-states and colonies there were 54 billion inhabitants." He paused before looking down. "And in 2254, we made first contact with an alien race far above and beyond us technologically. I was on the planet Eisenwuld when they attacked.

"We weren't ready at all, and back then I wasn't a Ranger. I was just a part time soldier doing my annual training there before returning to my home planet and continuing my education. When they hit us, they hit us hard. Wiping out an entire armored battalion in minutes, and they cut through our navy in just under an hour. After the five day battle, we lost 44 million people.

"That was also the day I lost my left leg and left arm. Which the Army replaced, and put me through physical rehab so I could get used to them. I saw you looking at the scars on my body earlier, Celestia, and that's what they're from."

Celestia was downcast on hearing that, laying her ears down, "I... I am sorry to hear that."

"Don't be." Was Steiner's response, "After a year of rehab, the Army gave me a choice: I could get out and go home or I could go through some additional training and get back in the fight. The entire year I was in rehab I remember seeing the news of planet after planet, colony after colony, and battle after battle... we were gettin' our asses kicked. For every battle we won, we'd lose five. And we often gave better than we got. If we lost five ships, we'd destroyed at least thirteen of theirs. If we lost a company of soldiers, we'd killed more than a thousand of their soldiers."

"How are you losing then? It sounds like you're winning the war,” Celestia asked astutely for someone not well versed in warfare. However, warriors know the difference.

"Because you don't win wars just buy killing the enemy. The winner is merely the one who forces his opponent to stop fighting. We've lost twenty-two planet-states and 12 billion lives. Many of those planets were important because they were agrarian planets that helped to feed our vast population. Others were factory planets, like Hephastus, which made many of our weapons. Or in the case of Eisenwuld, they were a massive fortress world that served to train many Terran soldiers, marines, sailors, and aerospacers.

"And their technology makes ours look primitive in comparison. They have directed energy weapons, far superior energy shielding, their ships are larger and faster. And they drown us in their numbers. Only our tactical prowess has kept humanity from being eradicated in a single year.

"Anyways, seeing us losing in the news, if I didn't try to help in some capacity to do something for my species in one of its darkest hours, then I was coward. So I opted to continue my military service and went through training to get me back up to par. And I partook in the Battle of Antapolis, where one of our few victories was. And that's when I remember fighting with the Rangers.

"Seeing their inhuman fighting ability and their selflessness, I knew I wanted to be one. We regular grunts called them the 'Angels of Death.' And it was a well-deserved name, there were many ground battles won because of their presence. And often the Rangers would stay behind or go to Snake occupied worlds just to mess things up.

"In fact, I ended up here because we were ambushed on our way to a world they had occupied and were starting to use as a staging ground for other attacks. We were supposed to disrupt their operations, but shit went south and we got fucked up and abandoned ship on this planet."

The SGT stood up briefly to stretch and get himself some water from the cart a maid cautiously wheeled in. He looked over the assortment, ignoring the vegetables and hay for the fruit and water. Grabbing an apple and a cup of water he asked, "Y'all want anything while I'm over here?" Celestia and Luna shook their heads indicating they didn't.

Before he could take a bite of the apple after he sat down, a low moan turned into a growl and he nonchalantly said, "Sounds like my stomach is practicing it's whale mating calls." After swallowing a few hungrily snapped bites, he continued, "Now where was I? Oh yeah...

"After the Battle of Antapolis I volunteered for the Rangers. And after the 210 day grueling training I finished in the top twenty percent of my class. I ecstatic, that was until I found out about the attack on my home world of Baumwolle."

He glanced at Luna, who tried to shrink into the sofa cushions. She knew of the attack on Baumwolle and seen some of his memories of it. Celestia looked concerned at her sister's reactions and had a feeling she knew what was coming next as his gaze hardened.

But he instead was now looking through her as he continued, "My home world was responsible for growing produce. We were an agrarian planet that grew large amounts of cotton for clothing and corn and soybean for food. Losing it and the sister world of Yazoo meant that humanity had a potential food crisis on its hands."

He took another drag of water from the cup and finished the rest of the apple, setting the core down on the table beside his couch.

"The Army Guard stationed there were overwhelmed in hours and resorted to waging guerrilla war with the Snakes to try and keep as much of the civilian populace alive as possible until the Navy and Army sent relief.

"And it was heroic of them, but they weren't trained nor prepared for it at all, even if they performed admirably. Regardless, when we arrived we could replace the regulars on the planet to allow them to focus on evacuating the planet. After two weeks, we finally got all the refugees evacuated so we could focus on fighting.

"We fought for another two months in vicious hit-and-run attacks, ambushes, and sabotage that cost them a cruiser and eight corvettes as well as close to sixty thousand ground troops. In return we had 261 KIA of the 550 or so that stayed. So our title as Angels of Death was well deserved.

"After the fuckers packed bags and left, we began searching through the ruins of some of the cities for any survivors we may have missed. And the commander let me go to my old house." Tears started welling up in both his and Luna's eyes. "I got there to see it in shambles, it was utterly destroyed. I didn't find any bodies anywhere on the farm in my hours of searching."

Luna got up from her seat and went and sat down by him while he continued, "Even my entire platoon helped me search the whole farm. We didn't find anything, so I was hopeful that they got off the planet and checked into a refugee housing facility on one of the other worlds set up." He blinked the tears away, but talking had become strained for him to maintain his composure.

"However, they never checked in. I refused to accept that my parents and spouse are dead... " he started to fidget with the ring on his hand, then it clicked in both Luna's and Celestia's minds. That ring is significant to him in that it represents his wife or parents.

"But it's been three years now..." He said in a low whisper as a shiver racked his body. Luna sympathetically wrapped a wing around the soldier, who seemed to not even notice the gesture. His eyes were filling up again, and a single tear broke free and ran down his cheek and dripped onto Luna's wing.

"So much death...

So much destruction..."

And with that, he stood up and clapped his hands together and said in a cheery manner, "And I give humanity ten more years at it's current rate before it's extinct."

The sister's looked at each other, then back at him, who looked like he was hardly phased at all. In fact, he had a small smile on his face as his hands clasped together in front of him as he casually shifted his glaze between the two alicorns.

He finally broke the silence with a question, "So does that answer your question about why I can easily assume the worst?"