Equestrian Veteran

Chapters

Where Am I?
Decision, Decisions
Shepherd-01
Crunch Time

Where Am I?

In An Undisclosed "Hot Zone"

Bobby Klein frantically moved his hand over the ground, desperate to find the magazine that he had dropped by accident. He was down to that final magazine, and his squad-mates were busy laying suppressive fire on the enemy. He needed to get back into the game; each soldier they had firing at the enemy would increase their chances of getting out of this place alive.

Not that he wanted to kill anyone, but that was his duty as a soldier. Unlike Equestria, he thought to himself. When his buddies found out that he watched the show along with his daughter, they started to laugh at him, thinking that he had gone soft. Of course, those who had insulted him couldn't speak straight for a few hours afterwards.

Bobby finally found what he was looking for, and slid it into his M4A1. Just as he was about to target down his holographic sight, he heard something land next to him, which was followed immediately with shouting from one of his squad-mates, Rick Tang.

"Grenade!" Rick yelled out, diving for cover. Anyone who heard it followed suit, including Bobby, who was also silently counting down the number of seconds he had before it went off. A fellow soldier was unlucky enough to be caught in the explosive radius of the weapon, and bits of him flew in several directions. Bobby felt sorry for the poor man, but knew that he couldn't do anything more for him.

Anything but one. By chance, something fell in front of him, and Bobby recognized it instantly. It was the dog-tag from the fallen soldier, and he reached for it immediately, pocketing it as soon as he managed to grab hold of it. At the very least, they would know and remember who the brave soldier was.

Rick was yelling at Bobby and the few other soldier who were with him, giving instructions to breach a locked doorway. Through a quick analysis, Bobby could tell that it was a sound strategy, because the route they were going to take would lead them past the enemy squad, with a high chance they could flank them.

Bobby hurried over to the doorway, with Rick providing him with some cover fire. With a good kick, Bobby managed to get the door open. What he saw nearly killed him. There was an enemy soldier in front of him, and he could also hear something metallic hitting the floor. Without hesitation, he bore his weapon and aimed down the sights. As he squeezed the trigger, something in front of him exploded with a brightness, and he found himself suddenly blind.

Part Two

Bobby wasn't looking directly at the flash-bang when it went off, nor was it directly next to him. However, his ears was left ringing, and his sight returned in a matter of seconds, together with his hearing. However, he didn't like what he saw next, and he most certainly didn't believe it either. There were screams of panic everywhere around him, and he saw colored ponies running around in a frantic manner.

At once, he knew where he was; that he was in Ponyville, and that these were ponies that were scurrying about from him. However, logic told him that none of it was possible. Nonetheless, he realized that the best course of action was to hide away somewhere while things, no matter how crazy it seemed, calmed down a little.

Running through alleyways, and hiding from the occasional pony, Bobby found himself out of the busiest place in town, and on a seemingly quiet riverbank. He set down his rifle and removed his helmet, taking a breather from all the running he had just done. He exhaled, and took his canteen, filling it up with water from the river. He poured some over his face, hoping that, no, believing that it was all just a dream.

As his eyes opened again, he saw that nothing had changed, that he was still on the riverbank that he had arrived only recently. Cursing silently, he returned his water canteen to where he took it, and caught sight of the reflection of something that was right next to him.

He turned in that direction, drawing his trusty sidearm, his Desert Eagle, and took aim. Before him was a filly that was not much bigger than his bicycle he had back at home, a filly with a gray coat. In fact, when he thought about it some more, he realized that he had his weapon trained on Derpy Hooves. He stood there with his weapon in hand, and lowered it slowly. When it was trained on the floor, Derpy skipped past him, almost painfully oblivious to how close she had come to being steak.

Bobby holstered his weapon, and reached for his helmet and rifle. Before he could reach either, however, the rifle was yanked out of his reach, surrounded by a purple glow. His eyes followed his now floating weapon, and he found that, to his dismay, that he was surrounded by six different ponies.

The combat awareness in his brain reacted even faster. If the ponies had him disarmed, then they were probably his enemies. He drew his sidearm once more, but with a flash of cyan his pistol was no longer in his hands. Then, the orange pony was on him, kicking at him with her rear hooves. Bobby wasn't fast enough to dodge it; he took the blow primarily on his vest. He staggered, and the pain he felt from the blunt force trauma, while not incapacitating, was almost unbearable.

He did not hesitate, however, and lashed out at the one who had just assaulted him. He sank his boot into where he though the pony's rear lower left leg met the upper. He heard the satisfying sound of bone giving way, and the scream of pain from the pony was shrill indeed.

Carrying on with his success, he ran past the pony, but the cyan one dashed past him, blocking his most obvious path of escape. Not wanting to change direction, he drew his combat knife and charged. The pony braced for a collision, but Bobby nimbly rolled under her. As he exited the roll, he sank the knife into the cyan pony's legs, and there was heard another shout of pain.

He did not like to cause pain to unarmed opponents, but they had left him with no choice. There was only one pony in his way left; the yellow pegasus. With a roar, he charged her, and the pegasus began shivering with fright. But before he could even get close, he felt a sharp blow to the head, and suddenly he had trouble staying upright. He fell to the floor, and the last thing he remembered before blacking out was the loud thud of his helmet landing before his eyes.

Decision, Decisions

"Twilight, you can't be serious!"

""Oh, but I am, Rainbow! Think about it! This is the first human to show up in Equestria, and we have the chance to study it! You don't find many books that detail humans up close like this!"

"Yeah, but this thing broke Applejack's leg. And let's not forget to mention that it stabbed me in the leg!"

"Which is exactly why I asked Pinkie to tie it down. Don't worry, Rainbow, it'll be safe, I promise you, you'll see."

Bobby's eyes fluttered, and sensations began to return to his body, the pain centered around his ahead foremost of them all. He could dimly hear hushed whispers from all around him, but could not make out what they were saying. He opened his eyes, and found himself staring at a wooden ceiling.

He turned his head to his side, and the whispers stopped. On his right, he could see a purple unicorn, and an orange earth pony that was sitting on a chair at the far corner. His eyes also caught the cyan pegasus that has hovering in the air, and a bandage had been applied to her leg.

Memories began to flood into his mind, and he remembered about the attack the these very same ponies had initiated on him. He moved his hands to better defend himself, but realized that were tied down to the bed by thick ropes. The ponies that were talking had now fallen silent, observing his every move.

Bobby struggled against his restraints, and found, to his surprise, that they were not tied strongly. Indeed, it was easy for him to rip the binds free and sit up on the bed which he lay. To his left, a yellow pegasus yelped in surprise, and fell to the floor with a loud Thud!. He leaped out of the bed, landing on his boots and making a loud Thud! of his own. He dashed past the purple unicorn, who had retreated a few steps backwards, and dodged a strike by the cyan pegasus. However, before he could take more than three more steps, his head exploded with pain, and darkness claimed him yet again.

"Is it still alive? Applejack did hit it quite hard."

"Hard to say. In any case, a dead human is still worth experimenting on, so a win-win situation either way! Did you see that? Its fingers just twitched!"

"So it is still alive! Rarity, hand me that knife, would you? Let's make sure the human never wakes up."

Bobby's eyes opened, and he pushed himself into a sitting position with a pained effort. He took a good look at his current situation, and analyzed the situation thoroughly. He was surrounded by three ponies; one on his left blocking his escape route, and two on the right.

As he was thinking about how best to escape without getting knocked out by these ponies a third time, he suddenly came to a realization. He was in the company of the Mane 6, and they were the same ponies that he had scuffled with the first time he blacked out.

Twilight Sparkle approached him cautiously, and when he did not retaliate, she nodded, mostly to herself. "My name is Twilight Sparkle," she said, emphasizing each word with a deliberate slowness. "Can you understand what I am talking about?"

Bobby suppressed a chuckle. He forced himself into a kneeling position, pained with the effort. With a groan, he replied, "Yeah, I can understand you, Twilight."

"Hey, no human calls Twilight by that name!"

With a push from his right hand, Bobby managed to get into a standing position, and then he was at a height that forced the other ponies to look up at him. All the ponies except the one that had been the last to speak. He turned his focus to Rainbow Dash, who glaring at him with near murderous intent, and he did not blame her for it. After all, he had stabbed her in the foot with his knife, and he knew how that felt like. "Yeah, well, I'm sorry for the knife thing, Rainbow Dash," he replied, motioning at her foot which had the bandage.

"Well, pal, you better be sorry, or I'd-" she started, then stopped mid-sentence. "You...you know my name?"

Bobby stretched his back, feeling rejuvenated as the pain started to fade away. "Yeah, I know who you are, Rainbow," he replied. "And I know everybody, or more rather everypony, else in this room. Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie and Applejack." He motioned at each of the ponies as he said their names.

"Well then, partner," Applejack began. "Sorry about that headbutt o' mine. Thought you were trying to attack us again."

Bobby turned to the cowpony, and felt sorry but what he saw. Applejack had a cast that wrapped her rear left leg. He remembered that, in his confusion, had caused the dislocation/fracture of the cowpony. He also saw that instead of sitting in a wheelchair, she had some sort of device attached to her rear end of her body that looked like what a dog might use when it had an injured leg.

"Applejack, I'm sorry about the leg," Bobby replied, his voice choking up slightly. "I wasn't really thinking straight at the time."

"Don't sweat it too much, partner," she said cheerfully. "Ah bumped into Zecora the other day, and she said she'd be brewin up a potion to fix my leg."

Bobby felt relieved by the fact, and returned his attention to Rainbow Dash, who was still glaring at him, although it was not as serious as before. Before Bobby could even get a word out, Rainbow put of a hoof in the air, silencing him. "I know what you're thinking, but I'm not going to just forgive for stabbing me in the leg," she said decisively.

Bobby sighed, and realized that he had made an enemy out of one of the Mane 6, and it just had to be Rainbow Dash of all the choices. He felt a tap on his shoulder, and turned his head around, and was face to face with a beaming Pinkie Pie. "This party's going to be so awesome!" she cried out, jumping around the human in glee. "I've never had a human in a party before! What's your parties like?! Are they wild, all out parties or the refined ones that Rarity would rather go to?" This drew a protest from the unicorn, but Pinkie continued. "What do humans eat, what do they drink, what do they-"

Bobby held out his hands in mock surrender. "Whoa, hold on there, Pinkie," he told her. "A party's fine and all, but I think we're gonna have to do a rain check on that."

The earth pony looked at him in confusion. "A rain check?" she asked him, her tone still jovial. "What's that? Is that something you can eat or drink? Or is it something that-"

Bobby cursed at himself, regretting that he had managed to get Pinkie talking that much. He had just remembered that, other than Everfree Forest, the weather required the pegasi to shape them and the plants that required the earth ponies to grow them. He did a facepalm, unsure on how to stop the pink earth pony from talking.

Thankfully, he didn't have to pay attention to Pinkie for long. He felt a tug on at his pants, and found Fluttershy looking up at him. "Erm, excuse me Mister Human," she asked in her soft voice. "But I don't think we caught your name."

Right, I did forget to give my name, the man thought to himself. He squatted before the yellow pegasus, and broke out into a warm smile. "My name's Bob Klein," he told her. Then, making his voice loud enough to be heard over Pinkie's, he said out loud, "My friends call me Bobby, so I guess that's what you all can call me."

The yellow pegasus smiled, but was pushed aside by Pinkie. "So that's your name, Bobby?" she asked him, rhetorically. "Well, I'm just gonna have to change the name of the party to 'Bobby, Welcome to Ponyville', and then-".

Bobby shook his head, not even bothering to stop the earth pony's talking. He was about to ask Twilight on a certain matter, when Rarity called out to him. "So if your name is Bobby," she said with in a refined manner. "Then this thing that I cleaned out... Who does it belong to?" She lifted a small, oblong shaped metallic item from the bedside table using magic, and floated in gently to Bobby's open palm.

He looked at the object in his palm, and knew that it was. It was a dog tag, but it was not his because of the name. It had once belonged to Owen Anderson, who had been killed by a grenade blast back in the hot zone. He gripped the tag tightly, and looked at Rarity. "It belonged to a close friend," he replied, his voice now soft. "He's gone now, and this tag's all that we're going to remember him by when all of this is done and over with."

Rarity nodded her head in understanding, and did not broach the subject further. Bobby pocketed the tag, and then asked Twilight his question. "So, Twilight," he asked, keeping his voice controlled. "This has been nice and all, but I really need to get back to where I came from."

Twilight frowned, a sure sign that she was in deep thought. "Well, this is the first time that I've heard of humans coming into Equestria," she told the man. Then, her face lit up as she thought of something. "Princess Celestia should know how to solve this. She's our best option."

She skipped past Bobby, and called down the stairs. "Spike, I need you to write a letter to the Princess!"

~~~

"Ah appreciate what you offered to help me with, Bobby, but you don't have to go through all this trouble..."

"Nonsense, Applejack. Its my fault that you can't buck the apple trees, so this is the least that I can do until your leg recovers."

In ten minutes, Bobby was regretting every single word. Applejack was supervising his progress and giving him tips, but his leg wasn't as strong as the cowpony's, and only a few apples would drop with each kick. He carried on with a dogged persistence, though, as he did want to atone for his mistake that caused Applejack her leg.

He was in the apple orchard on Sweet Apple Acres, and he was tasked with bucking the trees in a small area, with Big Macintosh taking up most of the work. On his fourth tree, he stopped his slow efforts, his leg no longer up to the task. Applejack trotted up next to him. "Don't worry too much bout it, partner," she assured him. "You did do your best."

"Yeah, well looks like my best wasn't good enough," Bobby replied dejectedly. Suddenly, an idea occurred to him. "I'll be right back," he said to the cowpony, and jogged off to the Apple family home. He returned almost ten minutes later, his rifle in hand.

"Whoa, hold on there!" Applejack cried out. "I know you're frustrated an all, but this don't mean you can go shooting them apples."

Bobby snorted. "Its not even loaded, dear Applejack," he assured her. "Its just that the rifle is much more harder than my boots, which means that..." He used his rifle to butt the tree in front of him, and met with resounding success. Half of the apples came to the ground, and with another hit he had cleared the tree with little damage to the tree, He smiled to himself, glad that he had his items carried over to the farm.

As he and Applejack moved on from tree to tree, he recounted his life to the cowpony. He told her of how humans lived their lives on Earth, how the weather and plants changed and moved on their own, and of his own daughter who had first introduced him to My Little Pony.

Applejack was fascinated by his stories. She laughed when he told of her of the times when something funny had happened in life, but he suddenly turned cold as he reached the part where he left his comrades in the hot zone, without any knowledge on their safety.

"So here I am, in Equestria," he told the cowpony. "Bucking trees with my rifle, talking with ponies who can talk. My friends are probably worried sick that I'm gone, and I can't do a GOD DAMNED THING!" He put strength into his arms as he shouted out his last three words, chipping off much of the bark of the apple tree.

There was a cringe that originated from behind him, and saw a frightened Fluttershy standing next to Applejack. "There, there sugarcube," Applejack assured the pegasus. "There ain't nothing to be frightened of."

Fluttershy stood there for a few moments, before shaking herself out of her daze. Bobby had covered the distance between them, and was now wiping the sweat of his brow. "So, Fluttershy," he asked with a hoarse voice due to his parched throat. "What brings you here to Sweet Apple Acres?"

"Well, Zecora asked me to bring this to Applejack," she said as she removed a vial from her pack, handing it to Applejack.

"Well ah'll be," murmured Applejack. "Three days, and she came finished this fancy potion of hers." Applejack downed the vial with a thankful gulp, then kicked her legs out. The device that was attached to her came off, and Bobby help to cut the cast open. "Ah'll be back to bucking apples in no time! Thanks again, sugarcube!"

Fluttershy smiled in return, then looked at Bobby. "Twilight told me to tell you that Princess Celestia just replied her message. She wants to meet you and Twilight at Canterlot Castle."

Bobby thanked the pegasus for the message, and slung his rifle over as he walked off towards the farm. He stopped suddenly, and turned to the two ponies behind him with a sheepish grin. "I just remembered something. I have no idea how to get to Canterlot."

Applejack laughed, and skipped up to him. "Well, ah guess ah;ll just have to show you around, partner!" She looked back at Fluttershy. "Hey sugarcube! You coming along?!"

Fluttershy out a hoof to her jaw. "Um, its okay," she replied, her voice so soft that both Bobby and Applejack almost didn't catch what she said. "I'll meet you guys there, okay?"

Applejack muttered something to herself, incomprehensible to the man that stood next to her. She then tugged at his sleeve, motioning him to move. She began skipping around, joyful at her regained use of her legs.

~~~

"I may have found a spell that will transport you back to where you came from, Bob Klein. It will require some additional research by my pupil, Twilight Sparkle, but it should be ready by tomorrow."

Bobby saluted the Princess. While she was not his superior in any way, she was the Princess of Equestria, and he showed his respect in one of the only ways he knew how.

The princess nodded at his gesture, not really knowing what it meant. She then dismissed the the human, who exited the room, meeting up with the ponies who had accompanied him here. Pinkie Pie was dismayed when she heard that he was going to return soon, trying to make him Pinkie Promise that he'd attend her party before leaving. Applejack was assuring him that he'd finally be able to see his family again. Rarity and Twilight were keeping their silent counsel, whereas Rainbow Dash bid him good riddance.

Bobby was glad at the news that he could go home, although a part of him would miss Equestria. He had a new-found understanding of the friendship that bonded them, and had had experiences which no other human would have. Whether or not he would remember any of this, he was still grateful for the chance.

Princess Luna leapt up the main stairs, landing gracefully next to Twilight. With an urgent tone, she addressed the entire group. "It has come to our attention that the Fluttershy might be in danger. She was last seen entering Everfree forest on her own, and has not been heard from since."

The ponies gasped, thanked the princess for her message and rushed past her out of the castle. Bobby did not follow them, confused by something. He looked at the princess of the night, and cleared his throat. "I know that their friendship is strong, but Everfree Forest boasts creatures that are frightening and powerful," he said. "Do you think it was wise to let non combatants such as them to rescue Fluttershy? Wouldn't one of the royal guard be a better choice?"

Luna eyed the human, sizing him up from head to toe. "I have seen the bond that they share for one another," she replied. "Even a hydra would not stop them from saving Fluttershy. Though I am worried about their welfare in that dark place."

Bobby mulled this over, and he reached a command decision. "Princess, I have a favor to ask of you..."

~~~

Bobby ran past trees and branched that bounced harmlessly off his clothes. Everfree Forest was dark, but he could see quite well. Of course, his visibility was reduced, but that was of little concern to him. He was tracking the whereabouts of Twilight and the other ponies in the forest. He had done some hunting with his father, but he was no ranger. It was slow going, and every minute he wasted reading the tracks of hooves on the ground was devastating to him.

He had asked Princess Luna for transport back to the farm to pick up some gear. He took his gloves, his knife, his Desert Eagle and his water canteen, just for safe measure.

He was deep in the forest, when the bloodcurdling howl of a wolf could be heard. Bobby dropped himself into a prone position, and got up as soon as he realized that there were no timberwolves in his immediate vicinity. The howl had originated somewhere nearby though, and he crept silently to the source, his Desert Eagle ready in hand.

He came to a stop at the top of a slope overlooking a clearing. In the clearing, he spotted the six fillies. Their bodies were covered with open wounds and scars alike. Rainbow Dash's wings were bloodied, and she was no longer flying as she usually was. The six fillies were breathing hard, and were huddled together.

They were not huddled together in a warm embrace, but rather in fear. They were surrounded by timberwolves, and had their backs against some trees, thus blocking off all their avenues of escape. The timberwolves were advancing slowly, as predators savor their kills.

As if Bobby was going to let that happen. He made a quick count of the number of wolves there were, totaling them at around seven. Sparing not a moment, he stepped forward and slid down the muddy surface of the slope, not making a sound.

It didn't last long. Bobby lined up his weapon for a shot at one of the two timberwolves at the base of the slope. He fired, and the shot pierced through the head of the timberwolf. This got their attention. Several of the timberwolves turned towards their new enemy.

As his feet hit the bottom of the slope, Bobby fired another shot that took the head of the timberwolf on his left. Two done, many more to go, he thought to himself. He pressed forward, his footing sure and steady. Another wolf rushed him and leaped, trying to land in a bite on the man. It did not get that far. A well placed shot cleanly ripped through its throat, and it crumpled in a heap.

He had covered at least half of the distance between himself and his goal, and was ready to take out another one of the pack. He aimed and squeezed the trigger, but at the last minute his aim was thrown off when he felt something sink into his left shoulder. The shot went wild, but did not come close to any of the ponies he was trying so hard to save.

There was a timberwolf on Bobby's left shoulder, which was unwilling to release its fangs from him. To make things worse, another timberwolf came up to him and started gnawing ferociously on his leg, a feat which even his clothes could not protect him from.

The pain was growing with each passing second, and he knew he had to act fast. He aimed his gun at the wolf chewing at his leg, missing with the first shot. He tried again, and met success; his shot ripped through the wolf's torso, almost hitting his foot in the process. He reached over his left shoulder and grabbed, throwing the wolf that had caused him so much trouble in front of him. Another shot, and it lay still.

He ejected the clip from his Desert Eagle, and inserted a clip which he had decided to bring along, the only one he had on his person. When the reloading was done, he charged forward with an enraged yell.

There were three wolves left, one to the left side of the ponies, and two directly in front of him. One of them who was in front of him was staring at Bobby, snarling furiously. He made no attempt to divert, instead rushing headlong into the fray.

The wolf that had been tracking him charged as well, and tried to tackle the soldier while baring its fangs. Instead of dodging out of the way, he used his left hand, allowing it to be bitten by the wolf. His gloves absorbed most the damage, but it was paining his hand.

Things moved slowly all of a sudden, as Bobby's combat awareness kicked into overdrive. The wolf that was at the side of the ponies made an attempt on them. Bobby aimed his pistol, but because he only had one hand on the Desert Eagle, he knew his shot would be off way more so than usual. Instead of aiming for the head, he fired for the torso, and it hit his mark. Twigs were everywhere, but were nowhere near the frightened ponies.

Abandoning its prey, the last timberwolf turned, and started for the soldier. Because the timberwolf was coming from his front, Bobby did not want to risk a shot that might result in collateral damage. Instead, he placed the gun on the temple of the wolf that was trying to rip his gloves to shreds, and squeezed the trigger.

He threw his left hand sideways, and the corpse disengaged from his hand. Tossing aside his pistol, Bobby tried to reach for his combat knife, but was not fast enough. He was tackled to the floor by the last remaining timberwolf, who tried to go for the soldier's throat. Of course, a wolf was not much different from a combat dog, who also try for the throat when they tackled a soldier, and Bobby had enough experience with them. He grabbed the mouth of the wolf and clamped it shut, and in one violent motion twisted its neck.

It came as a surprise to him that it did not achieve the expected result. With the exception of the sound of a few twigs snapping, the timberwolf continued its attempt on the soldier's throat. Bobby started to panic, and did the first thing that came to his mind. He punched a fist through the timberwolf equivalent of the windpipe, and his hand emerged on the other side. The timberwolf's eyes lost their glow, and it went still.

He shucked the corpse off his chest, and stood, grabbing his pistol as he did so. He holstered the weapon, and started to remove any obtrusive twigs that had latched onto him. When he was done, he went up to the ponies.

Many of them had started to cry, probably out of fright by the situation that they had been in just minutes earlier. The one that was crying the most was Fluttershy, who was unable to stand properly, her legs shaking in fear.

"Thanks, partner," sobbed Applejack, her hat torn at several places. "You came just in the nick o' time."

The soldier nodded, then gave them a once over. "All of you okay?"

Applejack nodded, and she seemed to had stopped crying. Rainbow Dash had also seemed to had stopped crying. "Fluttershy came here to help you, you know?" she said, with a sob in the middle of the sentence. "She said that she wanted to help you, by coming to the place that most resembled where you came from."

Bobby's heart broke into a few pieces. "Fluttershy, I appreciate that you wanted to help," he told the yellow pegasus with a smile. "But didn't you realize that the Princess had already solved it when she called me to Canterlot?"

Fluttershy gave a sheepish smile which seemed forced, and replied, "S-s-s-sorry."

"Its okay, Fluttershy. Twilight, can you teleport us out of here?"

Twilight shook her head, her legs shaking slightly. Bobby put a reassuring hand on the pony's head. 'Its the adrenaline," he assured her. "When it passes, you'll be fine again."

He stepped next to Fluttershy, and bent over, lifting her over his shoulders. She was heavier than he expected, but he could lift her much problems. He took a few testing steps to gauge his mobility, and when he was satisfied, he turned to address the other ponies with him. "Anypony know the way home?"

~~~

Bobby was seated on a bench outside of the library. He had carried Fluttershy all the way to the hospital in Ponyville, a feat which had exhausted him greatly. At his insistence, the doctor had each of the ponies warded for at least a night. Bobby was worried about more than just their physical wounds; he was worried that the event might have been too traumatizing for them.

Spike was at the hospital with them, keeping watch, which left the soldier to skim through his thoughts on his own. Then, a most unexpected pony came to sit herself next to him.

"I take it that you heard about what happened to Twilight and her friends, Princess Celestia?" he asked.

"Yes. While I am still unclear on what had exactly transpired in the forest itself, I am grateful that you went to their aid."

"You wouldn't be so thankful when they tell you all of the violence that went in there."

"They aren't as vulnerable as you'd like to think. But I did not come here to discuss about them. I came here to talk about you."

"What else is there to know about me? You know I'm human, you know I have a family, and you know that I'm a violent man."

"Twilight will not be able to help you get back, not anytime soon."

"You don't say, princess."

"I can be of help though. You can be home tonight, if you so wish."

"About time. I was beginning to think I would never get this chance."

"There is one thing, though. Before you go, I would ask a boon from you."

"A princess asking a boon from a soldier? Not very likely."

The soldier sighed, and buried his head in his hands.

"Fine. Anything that will get me the hell home."

Shepherd-01

"So, when our boy Bobby here disappeared after he breached that room, you could just imagine the how screwed we thought we were!"

The jeep was then filled with laughter.

"Then, when he came back and he was telling us about talking ponies, we were sure as hell that he'd gone off the meds."

Another round of laughter.

"That was until we heard the news from Intelligence. We got roped into this squad, along with dear Bobby over here. And guess what? They returned him his rank, and gave him a promotion to Captain! Ain't it great?"

And with that, the soldier, Randy, gave a slight hit to the back of the helmet on the still silent Bobby.

"Haha, Randy," Bobby chided. "Keep this up and maybe you'll get a future in the entertainment business."

"No thanks, Bobby boy," he replied joyfully. "I've always said I was gonna be a Marine, and I meant it."

A few Yeps came from the other soldiers who were listening into the conversation. Randy laughed, and placed his free hand on Bobby's shoulder, when the jeep stopped. The driver turned to the Marines in the passenger compartment. "All right gentlemen, this is your stop. Operation Herd Runner is a go."

~~~

"So tell me again why we're going through a damn cornfield?" came Randy's voice over the radio.

"We need to get the HVI out alive, Randy, so shut up and stay frosty," admonished Rick.

The squad, Shepherd-01, were heading to their target, a farm, through its cornfield which were in bloom. The height of the corn stalk could hide a creeping soldier easily, but of course as they moved any observant man could have spotted them. Bobby was at the lead, as he had been chosen as the leader of the Shepherd unit when they received their orders.

"Everybody down!" he ordered, his voice not carrying far in the cornfield.

On his orders, everybody got down into a prone position, and Bobby carried out his own instructions. A flash of light went by overhead, moving in one direction and rotating from here to there. When it passed by, Bobby got up to a kneeling position, and motioned for his squad to do the same.

He saw that the lights were coming from a patrol group, which looked comprised of mercenaries. When he decided that it was safe to engage the enemies, he gave a single order. "Weapons free."

With their silenced weapons, the squad downed the patrolling guards without them even realizing what was happening. Rushing over to the fence, Bobby reached over it and dragged the nearest corpse into the cornfield, making sure that it would hidden from plain sight should anyone come along. His squad mates followed suit.

Bobby vaulted over the fence, making sure to check each corner for more human activity. Shepherd 01 did not run into any more mercenaries, and they reached their destination without incident.

"This is Klein to all Shepherd squads," he said softly over his radio. "Report in."

"This is Shepherd zero three, in position close to the barn."

"This is Shepherd zero two, in position by the garage outpost. Generator is in sight, waiting on you."

"Shepherd zero one, this is Phantom zero one."

Bobby felt relieved. Phantom was the designation of the sniper squads that had been assigned to the operation with the Shepherd squads. "Phantom oh one, this is Shepherd one. What's your status?"

"We have eyes on the playground. See some targets on the roof of the house, and some on the barn. Got some traffic from Phantom two, said they saw some targets at the water tower by the barn. Should we drop 'em?"

Negative, Phantom one," Bobby instructed. "Wait until the lights go out, then you can nail 'em."

"Affirmative. Thermal scope is a go. Waiting on you, Shepherd one. Phantom one out."

One thing settled, he thought. "Shepherd squads, get your night-vision on," he ordered. "Weapons prep. Shepherd two, two minutes, then hit the lights."

"Roger that Shepherd one."

Bobby removed his hand from his helmet, silently counting down the time as he checked his weapons. His comrades did the same, and then everyone pulled down their night-vision goggles down over their eyes. Everything went green, and they avoided looking directly at light sources.

Then, the house went dark. "Move."

The soldiers moved up to the house and stacked up y the door. Bobby tried the doorknob, and found that it was unlocked. Quietly, he opened the door and headed through, moving silently as his training had taught him. There was chatter in the house, meaning that it was occupied. The mission parameters had been to assume all hostiles except for the HVI, meaning that everyone was tense and ready to shoot at the slightest sound.

The door opened into a corridor which adjoined to the living room and the kitchen. There was a head on the sofa in the living room, and a snoring sound could be heard from there. Bobby moved up to the section where the corridor met the kitchen, and swept his gaze around. There were two men in there, trying to find a light source in the darkness.

They never got the chance. Bobby placed a few shots into the chest of one of the men, who crumpled over the table and then to the floor in a pool of blood. Randy downed the other with a well timed head-shot, proving his prowess with a rifle yet again.

As the two friends were busy taking care of the goons in the kitchen, one of the squad members moved towards the living room, past the squad leader. With his heart confident that the two in the kitchen were no longer a problem, he turned to the living room, and saw Rick directly behind the man sleeping on the chair. He cupped the man's mouth with one hand to prevent his voice from alerting any others in the house, and thrust his knife into the man's chest with his other hand. The man resisted just for a second, then went still as his heart bleed out to death.

Bobby didn't stop while he was observing the spectacle. He reached the living room, and saw another corridor that eventually led to a dead end. He motioned down the corridor. "Sweep this corridor," he whispered into his radio, and two squad members carried out the order.

"The rest of you, on me," he whispered, making Rick and Randy fall in behind him. Bobby turned left, and found himself facing a flight of steps. He hated steps, because you had to cover so many angles of attack. Not to mention that houses like this tended to have creaky staircases.

He tested the weight on the first step, and when it didn't issue a creaking sound, pressed forward. Then above him, there was suddenly the voice of a man, speaking in some foreign language. He could not see the soldiers below him, but they could see him quite clearly indeed. There was a slight sound of a weapon shot, and the man's throat suddenly burst open with blood. He slumped forward, over the railing and landed right behind the squad leader and in front of Randy. "Damn, can't these people fall backwards instead?" came a complaint from the soldier.

"House is still not secure. Stay frosty," was the reply. There was a groan from Randy, but he fell silent in the end.

The top part of the house was clear, and so was the area. There was absolutely no sign of the HVI, who was designated Bo Peep. Bobby hoped that the other Shepherd squads had fared better. "Shepherd squads, status report."

"This is Shepherd three. Barn is secure. Bo Peep is not in sight."

"Shepherd two here. Garage is clear, no sign of the HVI."

"All right, keep us posted," Bobby replied with a sigh. "Shepherd one out."

Randy walked up in front of the captain, and the lights came on. Thankfully they had removed their night-vision goggles already. The squad captain looked at his friend, whose usually smiling face wore a grim expression. "Damn, you think the folk who lived here moved Bo Peep?"

Bobby shook his head. "Intel said that Bo Peep was still here," he replied dejectedly. "There's no way they could have smuggled the HVI away without those geeks knowing."

"Hey guys, look at this."

The two men turned to face Rick, who was standing by the couch where he had assassinated the thug earlier. The couch had been moved, and it revealed a trapdoor that was previously hidden. Bobby hurried over to the trapdoor, hoping that the operation had not, and would not be a failure. He looked at his team mates, and they each gave their silent consent with a nod.

With his M4A1 SOPMOD at the ready, he motioned for Rick to open up the trapdoor. Randy followed by tossing a flash-bang down the hole, and they waited for the Bang! When it came, the three soldiers wasted no time in storming the basement. The three lowered their weapons, when they say that they had found their target, Bo Peep.

There were footsteps that emerged from the darkness, and Princess Luna stepped towards the operation's captain. "Hello, Bobby Klein," she said with a smile. "I hope I didn't get into too much trouble."

~~~

The helicopter landed in the airbase, and the troops alighted, escorting Luna towards the room where their commanding officer, Colonel Marshall was awaiting their arrival. Bobby and his squad had to go through two different checkpoints, and came to a standstill when one of the soldiers insisted on a rather invasive technique to screen the princess.

It was then that Col. Marshall came into the argument. "Soldier, as you were," he ordered in a gruff voice. 'The rest of you, that means you too unicorn, right this way."

The princess let out a Hmph! of arrogance, directed towards the Colonel. She had every right to do so, because she was more than just a "talking unicorn" as the Colonel had put it. Bobby chuckled, and imagined just what mischief the princess could get up to in the airbase to express her displeasure. He got rid of the notion immediately, and resumed a poker face.

They were led into a conference room by Col. Marshall, who wanted to debrief the crew. Before he could launch into his droning speech though, the metal locker in the room burst open, and out sprung Applejack. The other soldiers had their weapons trained on the orange earth pony, but lowered them when Bobby revealed to them Applejack's identity.

Then, he walked up to the cowpony, who seemed visibly distressed, and asked, "Applejack, what's wrong?"

Applejack took in a deep breath before replying. "Bobby, you gotta come back!" she said urgently. "Ponyville's in a whole lotta trouble! Discord broke loose, then some undead monsters have been causing a ruckus all over the place! Discord said that when he was done, he'd bring his friends over here!"

Randy whistled. "Undead monsters, huh?" he asked Bobby. "You got caught up in some weird s*** there, man."

"You don't say," came a British accented voice from the door. All heads turned to the newcomer, and saw a man carrying a sniper, and another that had a standard issue rifle. "John Smith, on loan from the SAS," he introduced. He motioned at his friend. "Alec Knightly, my spotter."

John walked up, and stood next to the Colonel. "We lost Phantom two back in that farm," he said calmly to the Colonel. "They were two of me best mates, and they died to save this talking pony over here. If this Discord SOB thinks he can come over to our world and turn their sacrifices worthless, then he's got another thing coming. We're going to stop him, and nobody's going to stop us. Captain Klein, we're with you."

A vein in the Colonel's temple started to throb. "Any of you leave this place, and you're going to be charged with treason!" he yelled. "Even you lot from the SAS!"

The elderly man who had talked down the Colonel smiled. In a swift motion, he used the butt of his rifle and slammed it into the Colonel's temple, and he slumped unconscious. "I have a rifle in my hands. Your argument is therefore invalid."

He turned to the Marines that stood confounded. "Let's go, we're Oscar Mike."

~~~

The soldier's went through the wardrobe in a single file, with the two ponies leading the line. Then, as the last soldier, who was Alec, walked through the doorway, the door closed behind them. The soldier's pressed forward, even though the dark was all-consuming.

They emerged in a clearing, and Bobby could recognize the place. They were not far from Fluttershy's home, but they had more pressing matters to attend to. In their immediate vicinity, there were countless beings, the closest that they came to were zombies. They were humanoid in physique, but their skin were rotting and they were only capable of moaning.

The Marines gagged when they saw the monstrosities, hardened by combat as they were. The only person who did not retch at the sight were Applejack, and John Smith. The elderly man slung his sniper, and drew his pistol. "What are you muppets waiting for?" he asked in an incredulous tone. "Let these fools have it!" With that, he began firing his weapon.

Every zombie in the area was attracted to the sound of the gunfire. The soldiers gave each other a glance, then opened fire with their respective weapons. They were up against supernatural enemies, and they knew it. Where a normal person could only take so much bullets, the zombies could take much, much more. As the bullets were wasted from each clip, the soldiers lost their resolve. The zombies kept coming closer and closer, and soon they would have been overwhelmed.

Until Alec took point. He stepped in front of the group, making sure that there was enough distance between him and the oncoming pack. He changed his grip on his weapon, and pressed a secondary trigger. Something flew out from beneath his weapon's barrel, and it landed with an explosion. It took several moments before Bobby realized that Alec had cleared a small path with his grenade launcher.

The path was closing quick, though, and their chance of escape was closing. Without even waiting for orders, Rick charged the path, mowing down any zombies unlucky enough to get in firing range of his weapon. The others followed his lead, keeping the ponies in the middle of the group, with Randy bringing up the rear.

They managed to get clear of the group, but one of the zombies managed to grab a hold of Randy's sleeve. Though the zombies didn't seem all that buff, Randy couldn't shake the zombie off, even after pouring shot after shot into the creature. Then the zombie's head jerked backwards and a hole appeared in its forehead, and it went limp. Randy shook the arm off, and hurried over to the rest of his squad. He saw that John's sniper rifle was smoking, and ti was nowhere near the man's eyes. As they fell in, Randy managed to give the man the finger, displeased at how closed that he had come with death.

They ran, with Bobby leading the way. Without realizing it, he had led them to the nearest safest place he could think of; Fluttershy's home. He opened the door, not surprised that there was nobody home, and motioned for everyone to get in. When they were in, his eyes took a final look, and not seeing any zombies in the area, slammed the door shut.

"What in the world were those things?" asked Cortez, one of the other members of Shepherd 01. He was trying to catch his breath, and he looked pain with each exhale.

"Yeah, man, I didn't sign up for this s***!" went Taylor, the last member of Shepherd 01. "Those things couldn't die, man!"

"They did die," Randy replied for him. "We just had to waste a whole lotta bullets on just one of those freaks." His face was set with the look of death, meaning that he did not have a positive outlook on the current situation.

"Look, it doesn't matter right now," Bobby cut in. "What matters is that we make sure those SOBs can't hit us again when we're not aware of it."

"He's right," Rick continued. "We need to set up a perimeter watch, secure this Luna and Applejack ponies. I'll take first watch with Bobby." And with that, the discussion, or what had seemed like one, was over.

~~~

"You know, I've seen a whole lot of weird shit in my life, but this takes the cake."

I know exactly what you mean, Rick, the captain thought to himself. Ponies, the man could handle. The creatures back in the clearing, or zombies as the men had come to call them, were in an entirely different league. They could absorbed so much damage to their torsos and limbs, but the SAS sniper had proven that a good head-shot would have downed them quite easily. And so would a grenade or similar explosive, as the other SAS trooper had demonstrated.

"Hey, Bobby, I'm sorry I volunteered us for first sentry duty. Wasn't really thinking about you back there."

Bobby snorted. "Its nothing," he assured. "We're all Marines, aren't we? We do what we have to."

The two were seated around a few lanterns that they had scavenged from the house. They had wanted to make a campfire, but were worried that the flames might be bright enough to be seen by the zombies at a far distance. At least the lanterns wouldn't leave to much of an obvious trail.

With some help from the others, they had also managed to rig up an improvised warning system. Surrounding the house from the three avenues of approach were tripwires, each linked up to a grenade pin. Should any of the zombies, who tended to limp every few steps try to breach the compound, it would detonate the grenades and the soldiers would know from where they were trying to come in from.

Of course, they had wasted the last of their grenades, and were also down to their last flash-bang. None of them had more than one extra clip other than the one in their weapons, and they were running out of medical supplies to treat their injuries. Not one of them were medics, but they had undergone some military first aid, so none of them would be dying from a simple open wound. At least, that was what they hoped.

They wouldn't be staying there long, though. They had agreed, along with the ponies, that they would try to head for Ponyville during the day when their vision would not be restricted by the darkness. Their night-vision goggles had been abandoned, for the devices would not give them much added advantage over their unnatural foe.

A twig snapped behind the two sentries, and they whipped around with their weapons trained. They were greeted with the sight of Princess Luna, who gave them a sheepish smile. Bobby cursed, nearly having a heart attack because of the princess. After all, he had not expected the perimeter to be breached without a grenade going off in the distance.

He tried to lower his weapon, but to his amazement he could not do so. In fact, he could not move any part of his body at all. He could move his eyes, and saw that his partner was not moving either.

His eyes returned to the princess, and he saw the cause of their paralysis. The princess horn was glowing, a sure sign that she was using magic. To his surprise, the captain realized that he had full use of his mouth and could still speak, albeit his voice never reached higher than that of a normal conversation volume. "Luna, what's going on here?"

The princess shook her head, in the same way how someone would do so in a defeated manner. She began to circle around the two soldiers, speaking as she did so. "I hope all of you will forgive me for this. See, human Bobby, on the days before you came to Equestria, not everything had been peaceful and joyful. My sister and I realized that Discord had somehow managed to break free of his stone prison, and on the quiet we tried to track him down. It was on the day before you arrived, that he came to me with a very tempting proposition. All he wanted was for me to deliver to him my sister, Celestia, and the six ponies that embodied the elements of Harmony. In return, he would allow me to continue with ruling the ponies after wiping out their memories, and he would leave us alone in eternal peace."

She chuckled, then stopped in front of the silently raging captain. "It wasn't that bad of an idea. We would never again have to worry about Discord breaking free from his prison, and having to use the elements to stop him again. When dear Fluttershy seemed so upset about you back on the farm, it was almost too easy to plant the idea in that mind of hers that there might be something of value in Everfree forest. Then, with all six ponies in the hospital, drained as they were, it was easy to deliver them to Discord."

Luna took a moment to let it all sink. Then she turned around, and started to claw at the ground with her hoof. 'My sister was more difficult to deliver. We had a short duel, and if not for the intervention of Discord himself, I would not have been able to subdue her."

Bobby was horrified by the news. "And Twilight and her friends," he asked mournfully. "What have you done with them?"

"I didn't anything at all, human," she chided. "Discord, however, had some plans for them. He turned each of them into the antithesis of what they embodied, except for Twilight Sparkle, who remained immune to his touch. Now, they listen to his every whim."

In a fit of anger, Rick burst out, "So you sold out your sister and probably six innocent people?! That's dishonorable and despicable. I would be glad to spit on your grave!" And spit he did, although it did not land far from his mouth.

Luna laughed, not even bothering to keep her voice down. "Its too bad, because we aren't going to see each other again."

With a leer, she closed in on the two men, and their worlds soon turned into complete darkness.

~~~

"So let me get this straight: the same horse that we were asked to save back on Earth is the same *@!%$ who just kicked our asses?"

"For the last time, Randy, yes!"

"When we get out of this place, I'm gonna rip that *@!%$ to shreds."

"If we even get out of here, mate."

The Marines and the SAS soldiers had been captured by Luna, and they were made unconscious through her magic. The first thing that they woke up to was the prison bars, and were greeted by Discord himself, who revealed that they were now in Tartarus. He also taunted them by stating that "They would never see the sun again."

They were not fed, neither were they given anything to drink. Despite all this, no matter how hungry or thirsty they got, they still had bounds of energy to spend in the cell. After what was about three days in their mind, Randy let his agitation get the better of him. "We're all soldiers, sitting here rotting in this stupid cell and not doing a damn thing about it!" he shouted at his mates. "So, sir," he said as he was looking at Bobby, his tone sarcastic. "Have we given up the fight already?"

Bobby closed his eyes, his will already crushed by the helplessness of the situation. Memories floated back and forth in his mind, and his eyes snapped open as he remembered something that had helped him keep sane, even with all the death that he had seen through the sight of his weapons. He stood up, and felt a sudden rush of determination pouring into his person. "No, we aren't giving up," he said decisively. "We're just advancing, in a very different way from our enemies. Randy's right, though, its time we got off our rear and did something."

He cast his eyes around the cell, making eye contact with each man that was in it. "I can't sit here knowing that out there, innocent ponies could be dying because of what Luna did. This wasn't our fight, but I told myself that I couldn't live with the guilt if I could prevent a disaster happening in the world my daughter cared for so much."

He could then see the spark of light in the eyes of his friends, and knew that he had started their engines again. It was then that he received support from a most unexpected source; Alec, the spotter from the SAS. "He's right, that one," he said. "I walked into the room one day, to find my own son watching that show. I was shocked for sure, and I was disappointed in him. Then I realized that, at the end of the day, he was still my son. I made pace with him, and this is my fight as much as it is yours, Captain."

He offered his hand to Marine captain, who took it warmly. The others began to stand, except for Randy who was already standing. When everyone had agreed to continue the fight, Randy stretched his neck, and when he was done, he gave the soldier a smile. "*&@! just got real, guys," he told them, and met with a resounding Hoo-ah!

Randy went up to the bars, and called the zombie guard. "Hey ugly, over here," he called out, beckoning the zombie closer to him. When the guard was in front of him, Randy pointed at the empty cell opposite theirs. "There's something you should see there, cause I think I saw something."

The zombies weren't so bright after all, and he adhered to the Marine's suggestion. It turned its head around, and before it could do anything else, Randy grabbed the collar of its equivalent of a shirt, and slammed it against the bars of the cell. While it was still stunned, Randy reached out from the sides and twisted the zombies neck. Because the flesh was softer than a regular human's though, the head twisted an almost 180 degrees, before the corpse crumpled to the floor. "That was some scary *&@!, that there" he admitted, his face sick.

Not hesitating, he reached down, and from the corpse retrieved a key, and tried it on the cell lock. It opened with a resounding creak, and the soldiers poured out, determined to escape from the prison. Bobby took the lead from his mate, and looking back at the men, said, "Time to raise hell, men!"

Crunch Time

The soldiers had run through a whole maze within Tartarus, and while they counted themselves lucky that they hadn't run into more zombie guards, their patience was running out. It was just another twist after a turn, and everything seemed to be repeating itself. They were passing another familiar corridor, before Randy called out to them from behind. "Guys, look at this door over here."

The men stopped in their tracks, and backtracked to the waiting soldier. They found what he asked them too investigate, and it did pique their interest. Unlike a warped demonic door that they had seen while wandering the place, this door seemed human in origin, complete with a hellish looking doorknob.

Without waiting for anyone, Randy kicked the door open, and they all were greeted with a sight that made them think that they were in dream. They were in a room with shelves, and the shelves were arranged with weapons. Human weapons, ranging from sidearms to even a minigun. Bobby stared in awe. I wonder where these weapons all came from, he thought to himself.

"These look like the weapons we were using around the time when you disappeared," Rick said as a matter-of-fact. "This does make sense, actually. We were in our chopper during evac, when we had a crash. When we woke up, there was no sign of a wreckage, and all of our weapons, save for our knives had disappeared without a trace. Control scrubbed it off, because they couldn't make headway into the investigation."

"That might be true, but why did the weapons end up here, though?" the captain asked his mate.

"Maybe because of this," came the reply. The men looked at Randy, who was beaming as he held up the minigun. "It feels as light as nothing, and lookie here." He pressed the trigger, and the minigun spooled up. Then, it began firing, even though there was no ammunition attached to the weapon. "I needed to get me one of these, and hey, I finally found one."

Excited at the prospect of being armed with weapons that required no ammunition at all, they began passing arms to one another. Randy didn't even bother with any further weapons; he hogged the minigun for himself. Bobby took an M4A1 holographic scope for himself, and caught a Desert Eagle that Cortez passed over.

There weren't enough weapons to go around, and Rick passed the primary weapon to Alec, and MP5 red dot sight. When Bobby looked at the Asian, he saw that the man was only armed with a pistol, and was about to ask him if he was sure he wanted to move around with just a sidearm when the man picked up what looked like a sword. Without a word, Rick removed the sword from the sheath, and Bobby could see that it was a Japanese katana.

Randy walked up to the Asian man, his minigun slung in an uncomfortable position on his back. "You sure you know how to use that thing?"

In reply, Rick brought the sword tip up to the man's throat, not drawing blood but undeniably close to doing so. "Ask me again, and I'll miss next time," he said coldly. With that, re removed the katana, and returned it to its sheath. "Don't let my name confuse you. It wasn't always Rick Tang. If you hadn't placed it, I'm actually of Japanese descent, and my real name is Kenji Okuda."

He fastened the katana to his belt in an improvised fashion, and made sure that it would not drop as he moved around in weird fashions. "I returned to Japan to learn my roots, the art of the samurai." He laughed as he recalled some memories. "Those days were harder than military life! Had to do this, can't do that. Had to sit in certain ways, had to hold a bow in another way, and so on."

He turned to the soldiers who were staring at him incredulously. "What we waiting for?" he asked them. "Come on, we're Oscar Mike."

~~~

The men walked on for a while more, until the group arrived at a cell containing a pony that was all too familiar with Bobby. "Twilight!" he cried out as he recognized the purple unicorn. He didn't even bother to ask the key from his squad mate, almost certain that it would not succeed in opening the cell door. Instead, he used his rifle and fired, blasting the keyhole open. With a kick, the door swung open, and he hurried over to the unicorn, who was still.

An initial assessment told the man that the unicorn had been brutally tortured. Her body was covered with wounds, some of which were still bleeding. Her mane was no longer smooth, and had blood splotches covering it. He shook the unicorn gently on her shoulder, taking great care not to touch any of the wounds that were present.

"Twilight, can you hear me?" he asked desperately, his heart racing with fear. "Come on, Twilight, just say something for God's sake!"

Twilight stirred, and she lifted her head from between her legs. She looked up at Bobby, and gave a forced, weak smile. "Bobby," she croaked. "They took them. Applejack, Rarity, everypony."

"Come on, now. They'll be all right for now," he assured her. "Its you I'm more worried about."

"Just go," she wheezed. "I don't think I'm gonna make it." She coughed, and her body erupted with pain.

"Go on thinking that, and you're sure to die in this hell hole." Bobby stood up, and hurried over and unsheathed Rick's katana from his belt. Using the sword, he sliced through the chain that prevented Twilight from leaving the cell. While he was amazed that the sword was not broken, and that it had managed to cut through the metal chain, he did not dwell on it. He threw the sword back towards its owner, who caught it deftly by the hand-grip and replaced it in its sheath.

With a groan, Bobby lift Twilight over his shoulder, a feat which he had done with Fluttershy. Only this time, Twilight was literally at the gates of Death, and her body felt cold against his touch. He yelled at everyone to move out, and they all hurried, lost but still moving.

As they marched down the silent corridors, Bobby received a vision of the place. In his mind's eye, he could see the layout of the complex, although the perspective was lower what he was used to. He understood that it was Twilight that was showing him the mental images, and he silently thanked the purple unicorn, who was getting colder still. He took the lead, and no one questioned his authority. After a tiring trek through the godforsaken place, they found themselves running towards the exit.

~~~

The exit led them to the barn at Sweet Apple Acres, straight into a mob of angry ponies. The place was not illuminated properly, and the soldiers were assailed by hooves in multiple directions.

"Everypony stop!" said a firm voice. The pony who had given the order was not shouting, and yet her voice managed to carry to all parts in the barn. Then, more lanterns were lit, and the ponies made way for Princess Celestia.

She did not bother with any questions. As soon as she saw her brutalized pupil, she called forth Doctor Whooves, who took Twilight in his care, beginning treating her as soon as he could. The princess then beckoned the humans to walk with her on the farm, and so they did.

"Mister Klein," she said firmly, but did not look at the captain. "Humans. As you can see, Equestria has been plagued with a rather bad problem right now. Discord has taken Canterlot, and has taken up residence in its castle. Canterlot has effectively become the chaos capital of Equestria."

"So the zombies we keep seeing, who won't just bloody die, belongs to this Discord feller?" Alec probed.

"It was when Mister Klein had left for Earth that I realized that Discord had broken free of his seal. I wasted no effort to having him tracked down. When I did though, my sister, Luna, stood in my path and refused me from teaching him a lesson. But enough on past matters. I have a meeting to attend to."

They made their way to a small campfire, and met three other ponies there; two pegasi and the earth pony, Big Macintosh. The god pony sat herself at an empty slot around the campfire, while the soldiers that had accompanied her remained standing. "Humans, this is Commander Typhoon, leader of the pegasi on the farm. With him is Private Quickwing, and for those of you who don't know, the earth pony is the elder brother of Applejack, Big Macintosh."

Big Mac replied with his signature Eeyup, but the reaction of the two pegasi were much stronger. "Celestia, when you called this was council, I was not expecting these hew-mans to be here," the pegasus commander insinuated. "What have they to contribute to our war effort?"

Randy held up a hand. "Whoa, hold up for a sec, but I think you just mentioned a war effort?"

The pegasus commander shook his head. "Can't you humans understand even the most clearest of things? This is a war against Discord, a war you humans can't possibly help with."

Princess Celestia interrupted both parties by raising her hoof. "Please, everypony and every man, just calm down. Commander Typhoon, I do hope that you'll reconsider having these humans in our seige of Canterlot. These humans are the first to escape Tartarus, and they helped rescue my student Twilight Sparkle at the same time."

"With all due respect, Princess, I do not have faith in this humans that you have. If you insist on having these filthy animals here, the pegasi will not join you effort in retaking Canterlot."

The princess was just about ready to countermand his decision, when Randy stepped up in front of her. "Seems to me that we've got a problem here."

"Does it take you that long to understand, filthy human?" Typhoon replied sarcastically and burst out laughing. His private followed suit, and joined in with his own laughter.

"Oh I understand all right. I understand that the flying horses are scared that 'filthy humans' will outshine them."

The commander's eyes widened in anger. "What did you say?"

Randy shrugged his shoulders, his eyes keeping a steady gaze on the pegasus. "You heard me, loud and clear. I asked if the flying horses are just too chicken to fight."

"You have a death wish, human?" the commander responded, his tone having just the slightest hint of death. "I'd bet that my private over here could take you on, single-handedly."

"Its on now, Commander." Randy put just a hint of sarcasm on the last word.

The commander grunted with anger, and motioned the private on to an invisible arena. With silent consent, Randy removed his minigun and his knife, placing them on the ground next to Rick. He then stepped into the ring as well, ready to take on his opponent.

"Why, I'm gonna pound you so hard that-" the private started, and he stopped in mid sentence when Randy covered the gap between them in a few steps. In one fluid motion, he removed the pegasus' helmet and gave you two hard slaps on each cheek, and replaced the helmet just as easily. "Didn't your mama ever teach you not to brag?"

The pegasus stood there with a dumbfounded look, stunned with what the man had just did. It had broken all confines of battles that he had been taught, and he did not know how to react. Randy, on the other hand, represented the epitome of a hardened veteran at the time. He tackled the pegasus, and put his body weight on one wing. He used his arms to hold the stallion down, and locked his hands around one of its legs to prevent it from getting up.

Try as the pegasus might, Quickwing could not break free of the humans lock. Capitalizing on the current situation, Bobby started something which had not been seen in Equestria; he started a countdown. "10...9...8...7..."

As he reached eight, every man had caught on, and started to count with him. Even the Princess, and at her cue, Big Macintosh followed suit. When the number reached zero, the Marine released his hold on the pegasus, giving a triumphant yell, followed by high-fives with his comrades.

"Celestia, it appears that we were wrong about the humans. The pegasus will be more than happy to join the effort. And also let it be that that human is a honorary pegasus."

~~~

The time of reckoning was fast approaching, and the soldier prepped their weapons for the final push. Over the last few hours, they had gone over the plan of action with their comrades. Celestia was to remain behind the front lines, coordinating the unicorns who were to act as the siege weaponry in the coming battle. The pegasi were the air support, and were going to drop boulders on the zombie horde that had amassed on the outskirts of the city, and had flooded the city of Canterlot.

The earth ponies were the skirmishers, and their orders were to beat back the wave of zombies as much as they could without getting themselves killed in the process. They had gathered on a plain outside of the city, waiting for the time when the order to strike would come.

"Anyone seen Randy," asked Cortez, who was done with his weapons prep.

No one had, and the answers came only in shrugged shoulders. There were five of them in the cart, which was pulled by Big Macintosh. The plan was actually two pronged: the ponies would get the attention of most of the zombies on the outside, while the soldiers would fight their way into the castle and get to Discord. What happened then, though, was anybody's and anypony's guess.

Alec was not present in the cart, for he had volunteered to remain in the main allied camp and tend to the wounded. The poor doctots and nurses had their hooves full with the injured, and Alec was not willing to leave them for death. He had the most recent military first aid training, and said that he was better off tending to the wounded.

A horn sounded off in the distance, and the earth ponies charged forward having received the command. Big Mac was in the lead, because he had to pierce through the horde and get the soldiers in position to assault the city. The soldiers helped, shooting at any zombie they could with their weapons, which now had infinite ammunition thanks to enchantments that had been performed on them.

The pegasi were directly overhead, and they were each carrying boulders of different sizes. As they passed overhead, they dropped said boulders, which crushed at least one, of not several of the zombies that were intercepting the earth ponies. There were larger boulders coming from behind the line as well, flung by the telekinesis of the unicorns combined. These landed closer to the city, and would cease temporarily when Bobby had fired his flare to signal that they were ready to begin their assault.

Something caught his eye; a pegasus who he recognized as Commander Typhoon was beginning a rapid descent. It was not part of the plan, and for a moment the captain thought that something was wrong. Then, his fears were put to rest.

Riding atop the pegasus and strapped to a saddle was none other Randy himself. He had gained a newfound respect from the pegasus when he defeated the rookie, and had apparently managed to coerce the pegasus commander with whatever mad plan he had cooked up.

Typhoon leveled out when he reached not more than an arm's length from the horde. Then there were multiple flashes of light from atop him, and Bobby smiled. Randy had placed himself there because his minigun had no overheat, and had taken up the role of an attack helicopter. As the pair passed overhead, the captain could hear Randy's screaming voice. "Eat this mutha******s!"

In one pass, the pegasus-human partners had managed to clear a whole line of the monsters, and they were coming around for another pass. They swooped down, and cut a small but clear path directly in front of the soldiers' transport. Big Mac saw the opportunity, and increased his running speed. To be safe, Bobby let loose the first signal flare, so that they wouldn't be crushed by the rocks that the unicorns were lobbing.

The gap in the horde became smaller as more and more zombies plugged it up. Cortez fired his grenade launcher and created yet another opening in front of them, reloading his weapon attachment quickly. Big Mac managed to clear the horde, and the soldiers hopped off. The hole had not been plugged this time, but the earth pony had no clear way of returning back to the allied camp. Until Randy made another pass with his minigun.

The earth pony galloped away at full speed, leaving the soldiers to press on to their destination. The whole city was filled with zombies, but the soldiers had some breathing room to walk by. To them, it seemed just like another simulation or mission. They worked as a cohesive unit, even though none of the Marines had worked with the SAS officer before, and vice versa. Nonetheless, they pushed on, keeping a watch on each other's six, and no one gave a damn about how many bullets they were wasting.

They managed to make their way to the castle gates, and eliminated as many zombies as they could as they went in. They closed the door, but a zombie managed to get his arm in before they managed to seal it. Rick used his sword and cut his arm off, and the door was thus sealed. The men breathed a sigh of relief.

"Well, we've come this far men," said a John Smith who had a hard time catching his breath. "Let's keep going."

The young Marine captain laughed, and walked past the elderly SAS soldier. He placed his hand on the elderly man, saying, "You'd be more convincing if you weren't so out of breath, old man."

"Who you calling an old man?"

The soldiers laughed, and they headed up the stairs, their weapons in the ready. During that one time he had been to the castle, Bobby had a rough idea where Discord would be, which was most likely the throne room. And his guess paid off, as the men came up to a locked door that led to throne room. With a gesture, Cortez made a move and placed a breaching charge on the door. With a press on a detonator, the door blew open

Without waiting around for the smoke to clear, the soldiers rushed in, clearing their corners as they did so. They didn't have to, because their quarry was seated upon the throne, his arms folded in arrogance. He wore a smile upon his face, and was watching the soldiers' every move with amusement.

"End of the line, Discord," growled John. But as he was about to squeeze the trigger of his weapon, Discord stopped him with a hand. "You won't want to do that, my friend," he taunted. "After all, the ricochet from those human weapons might just hit these poor innocent ponies."

The draconequus gave a low whistle, and from behind the throne upon which he sat emerged five very familiar ponies. "Meet my new loyal subjects; Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie." He stroked the head of Pinkie Pie, who seemed to enjoy it just like a lap dog.

"So, you turned them into your pets, big deal," replied the SAS soldier. He squeezed the trigger, but not before Bobby had smacked the weapon down towards the ground. The bullet hit the floor, and the shot fortunately rebounded harmlessly a few times against the walls.

The Marine captain shot the elderly man an admonishing glance. "Too risky," he told him. With that, he threw his weapon to the ground, having decided on the best course of action. "No weapons," he told his squad-mates. They followed his lead, and chucked all their weapons aside.

"Why, giving up already?" mocked the draconequus. "What's the fun with that when there's chaos to be had? No matter, there's always more ways to create chaos." He pointed at the group of men, and gave orders to the five ponies waiting on him. They each chuckled in turn, and picked a soldier to attack, and circled their targets in anticipation.

Bobby's opponent, fortunately or unfortunately, was the ever athletic Rainbow Dash. The same pegasus that he had stabbed when he first came to Equestria, and now he was against her again. This time, he knew that it had to be done. The cyan pegasus chuckled, and gave him a leer. "Oh, this is going to be good," the mare taunted.

The soldier did not let the taunt faze him. In combat, when your emotions got the better of you it would most likely spell certain defeat. Of course, that said, it finally came into his head that he might have been way over his head to think that he could beat a bad-tempered Rainbow Dash, especially when she had it out for him.

Before he could even get ready to face the pony, he felt sharp blows rain of his head and face between flashes of cyan and rainbow. It wasn't even a fair fight, not for the Marine at least. No matter how hard he tried to grab the cyan pegasus from the air, she would simply flit past him, and the Marine would feel yet another blow on his cheek.

A thought then penetrated through his combat memories. More specifically, a memory had come to his mind. His own partner Randy had defeated a hotheaded pegasus by immobilizing the pegasus's wings, and then the captain realized that he had found the way to beat his opponent.

As the cyan pegasus came for another hit, Bobby dodged it, barely. The pegasus had been moving at such speed that she had a hard time slowing down, especially since she was not bound by friction as those who were on the floor experienced. Moving with swiftness that would have made his officers proud, Bobby grabbed Rainbow by her wings, and forced her to the ground. With a powerful punch, he knocked her unconscious.

Laying the still pegasus to the floor, Bobby rose to his full height, rubbing furiously at his stinging cheeks. He glanced around the room, and was glad to see that Rick was already through with Fluttershy. The yellow pegasus was knocked out, and she had a bruise across her neck that resembled the silhouette of the Asian's katana, and Bobby knew what that entailed. Using his sheathed weapon as a club, Rich had delivered a precise blow that ended his fight quickly.

Cortez, on the other hand, had gotten Pinkie Pie into a bear hug. The rage was visible on the Marine's face, as he rained blow after blow on the struggling earth pony, who refused to surrender to unconsciousness. The remaining Marine, Taylor, had a somewhat more difficult time with Rarity. The unicorn, refusing to get into the thick of the fight, was pelting him with whatever she could grab with her TK. The buff Marine, who had finally decided enough was enough, charged straight into her onslaught. Managing to grab her before she could shy away from him, he grabbed her by the jaw and slammed it straight into the ground, ending his fight.

The one who was having it the worst was the elderly SAS soldier, John. He was up against Applejack, and while he was still as fit for any man his age, John could not get close to the orange earth pony as she would buck her hooves at him when he tried to get in close. The elderly soldier let the displeasure into his face, his training inadequate in the current situation. He tried moving in close again, the stepped back as Applejack bucked again. This time, John followed through by grabbing on her legs, causing the earth pony to lose her balance and fall to the ground. He stepped over her back, deftly removed her hat and slammed his fist into the back of her head. He replaced the hat gently, whispering "Good night," as he did so.

And all but one enemy was left in the room, Discord himself. "My, my, what an unpleasant surprise," the draconequus mocked in a sing-song voice. "So much chaos, stopped by some goody two-shoe humans."

John picked up his Glock sidearm, and aimed it at Discord. "Too much talk, and too little dying for my taste." He squeezed the trigger.

Discord let out a laugh, and then the room was filled with a cry of pain. The bullet that had originated from John's pistol had penetrated the draconequus, green blood oozing out from the entry wound. Discord wore a look of shock on his face, coupled with disbelief. "How, how? This isn't possible! THIS ISN'T POSS-"

His voice was drowned in the barrage of lead that the soldier had started. As soon as they saw that the weapons they had brought with them had an effect on the draconequus, they had hurriedly picked up their weapons and let loose a rain of hell. Even Rick had forsaken his sword in favor of a long range weapon against Discord.

The draconequus' body was soon littered with oozing wounds, with at least a fifty visible entry points on his body. He doubled over from the pain, his breath coming in slow and raspy. The soldiers ceased firing, and a solemn looking John Smith approached. In his hand he held a grenade, and he forced the draconequus' mouth open. "For Phantom two," he whispered into Discord's ear, and flicked the safety pin off. He shoved the explosive into Discord's mouth, and rushed away from the draconequus.

The Marines in the area took his cue, not wanting to be near the draconequus when the grenade went off. When it did, though, the end result was much different than any of them had expected. Sure, there was the unmistakable, muffled Boom! that originated from Discord, who exploded in a dark cloud that obscured everybody's vision and constricted their airways. The cloud did not dissipate, and it took a while before someone had the idea of smashing some of the windows open.

Fresh air then flooded the room, and quickly transported the seemingly noxious cloud out of the throne room. As Bobby coughed out the last remnants of what remained of said cloud, he noticed that Discord had left no corpse behind. Instead, what had replaced where the corpse would have been was none other than Princess Luna.

And the other soldier also realized it as well. Everybody had brought their weapons in line with the shocked princess, coughing as they tried to steady their weapon arm. Everyone was ready to pull the trigger, but before they could do so a voice halted them in their tracks. "Stay you weapons!"

The men turned their heads, but their hands and weapons stayed locked on to the princess, ready to squeeze the trigger at any time. Princess Celestia trotted into the room, followed by Commander Typhoon, Big Mac and Twilight Sparkle, who had a little limp in her rear right leg. As Princess Celestia walked in, the five ponies who had been knocked unconscious began to stir, and they started to get up and losing their balance as they did so.

"Sister, please, let me explain," Princess Luna sobbed out to her sister. She tried to approach the other god pony, but was promptly held back by Rick, who placed his sword at her neck.

Princess Celestia moved past the men, and everypony had finally managed to stand, albeit with great difficulty. They wore dazed looks on their faces, as if they had just awakened from a drunken slumber. Celestia held up her hoof and gently lowered the katana that Rick was holding, and he reluctantly sheathed his weapon.

"Sister, please, I only-" Luna said in between tears.

Celestia placed her hoof on Luna's mouth, a silent gesture of asking her to stop talking. "I know why you did as such, Lu," the godpony assured her sister in a crooning voice, smiling at her sister as well. "Did you really think that I would be ignorant enough not to know that Discord had sought you out?"

Luna gave her sister a look of confusion. At the same time, a new idea had begun to form in Bobby's own mind. "So, knowing what Princess Luna did, you took steps of your own and dragged me into the middle of this crappy mess?" he asked angrily at the god pony.

Celestia looked back at the Marine captain, still smiling. "Yes, that is precisely the reason why you were brought here to Equestria at our time of need," she explained. "Although the spell which I had cast was supposed to bring a kindhearted human, and instead I got you."

The captain frowned, and pointed at the godpony. Before he could reply with a retort, the princess interrupted him. "I got a human who was kindhearted enough, and who could what needed to be done. Above all that, he knew that he could do what was right."

"That's fine and all, but I really just wanna go home," came a voice from the entrance of the throne room. Randy limped in, with the pegasus he had been riding earlier following him, his left wing bent at an unnatural angle. "Seriously. That's all I want at this time."

That wiped the smile off Celestia's face. "How do you humans say it when faced with something like this? Houston, we have a problem?"

~~~

"It was really kind of Fancypants to let out this apartment to us, even temporarily.

"It was nothing at all. After all, you soldiers had been the ones who had saved Equestria. And messed up my hair at the same time."

We were seated in a cafe in Canterlot, along with Twilight and her friends, who had since recovered from their injuries that they had sustained. It was no mean feat, but Zecora had come along and brewed some potions that helped everpony into working shape. We were making idle conversation over cups of coffee, and for once I was actually glad for the relaxed lifestyle.

Celestia had revealed to the men that they had no way of returning to Earth. While she had managed to return me that one time, it was because he had arrived at Equestria through her magic in the first place. Then, we had been lured back to Equestria through Discord's manipulation, and as such we could not return.

Not that any of us were grumbling. The princess had been kind enough to allot each of us a small plot of land each near the outskirts of Ponyville, where we could then build our homes and live out in quasi-retirement.

"And the princess was kind enough to get these medals forged for us. Yeah, Veterans of Equestria indeed," came Randy's condescending voice. 'Looks like this is the last medal I'm gonna receive in my entire life, then."

"Quit your whining already, pup," snapped the elderly SAS man. "I've probably earned more medals than you could ever hope for, and just my luck they're all stuck back home. If you wanted to compare how many awards and medals each of us had, the number that I own would be enough to make you cry to that godpony fellar."

"I knew you were a cranky old man, but I didn't take you for a showoff."

"Come again? You really want a beating that badly?"

I grinned, amazed that they still kept their frenemy relationship until now. However, a voice from a pony made my whole body feel like dying all over again.

"So, the princess gave each of you a place to stay," went Pinkie Pie. "So that's already seven parties for each of your housewarming. Plus another seven to commemorate the medals you all received. Plus another seven for reaching retirement. Oh, and I had thought of using my party cannon, but I had a better idea. I'm gonna use your human thing that goes 'Boom' instead."

I shook my head, just thinking how many parties Pinkie would force us to attend on her whims. I sipped my coffee once more, turning to look at the pink earth pony before I trying to convince her to reduce the number of parties she wanted to throw us.

Instead, I was greeted by a sight that nearly gave me a heart attack, and most definitely made me spit out the coffee that was in my mouth. Pinkie held my Desert Eagle in one hoof, and with the other whe was trying to squeeze the trigger. Her eyes were fixated into the barrel of the weapon, which incidentally was aiming right in between her eyes. She was trying a little too hard in trying to make it work.

I shot out of my chair, my coffee flying from my hands. It sloshed on somebody, or somepony, but I was not worried about that at the moment.

"PINKIE!!"

FIN

Note: It had been a fun experience writing this story, and I hope nopony is too disappointed by its caliber, cause I know its not the best one around. I also apologize for any mistake that I might have made, any gaping holes in the story, and for the inordinate amount of words in some chapters (like this one).