(Isaac's P.O.V.)
As I start to wake, I feel unpleasant. My body is in pain and my head is suffering a throbbing headache. I’m lying on the ground of some forest not too far away from a small, two-lane road, presumably in the middle of nowhere. The sky is almost dark and covered with clouds that do not let through any source of direct sunlight, looking like it just finished raining. However, the area is completely dry, showing no indications of any recent rain. Our surroundings are quiet and almost lifeless. Were it not for the breeze flowing and the soft and almost indistinct animal noises, such as frequent bird calls that blend into the background and very distant rustling of leaves, it would’ve seemed as if there was nothing living here.
Out of instinct, I place my hand on my head, as if it would help my massive headache subside any. A second passes until I noticed what was different about me. I look at myself and appear to have transformed back into human form, a caucasian male with short hair featuring a mahogany color with a short beard. I appear to be roughly 160 centimeters tall(6' 4"), and for whatever reason, I’m wearing a damn tunic. I must be on some weird version of Earth if that’s the case.
My headache begins to clear some and I’m able to think better while all of this sinks in. After a while of reflection, I have a better grip on the situation: the spell that Twilight and Princess Luna cast that brought us here to another dimension didn’t serve its original purpose of being merely a world-viewing spell. Coming to that result, a question pops into my head: how in hell did Starswirl come up with a spell like that? Not only does a spell like that have a magic requirement on an unseen level, but it would take a god to even handle the amount of concentration needed for it to at least work safely and properly. I don’t care if Starswirl is a wizard as powerful as he is, to accomplish a feat like this could only be possible by at least five wizards as world-renowned as he is or even beyond his talents. Speaking of gods, thank whichever one watching over us that we made it out of Twilight’s and Princess Luna’s execution of the spell in one piece.
Hold on. Did all of us make it out in one piece?
I frantically turn towards Jimalh, who’s passed out on the ground and fairly spaced away from the rest of us, snoring quietly. He seems to be alright, despite being entirely unconscious, which grants me a great relief. He appears to be in human form as well; a Native American with jet black hair, wearing a tunic for whatever reason, and roughly eleven or twelve centimeters shorter than me(5' 9"). Unlike me, however, his hair looks like it can reach halfway down his back and his bangs could reach his collarbone. His face is similar to one of those kids who grew up sick all the time. Not to mention that he is a lot skinnier and lankier than I am.
I’m certain to get my trench knife after his hair later.
As I look at him, however, I realize that he looks sprawled out, limbs in no specific direction, as if he’s just been tossed like a toy handled by a two-year-old; either that or someone who was incredibly drunk off their ass because of some out-of-control party they went to the night before. Seeing him this way brings an unexpected grin to my face. It surely isn’t everyday he looks like this. Normally, one could see him in a fairly controlled posture. Not the perfect, high-society posture someone would see one of those fancy little aristocrats sporting for no other reason than to look damn haughty, but an honest posture that displays how he feels inside, whether it be that he is relaxed, tense, interested in something, about to burst with energy(much like Pinkie Pie), focused, wanting to go somewhere else when we have work to do already, etc, and he was always well aware of that fact about himself.
Well, if anything’s going to get done, I need to wake him up. Having him sleep around much longer won’t do me or him any good. Actually, it might do him some good to sleep off that portal headache, but I honestly don’t care about that right now.
Going over to where he’s sleeping, I kick him on the left side of his ass, causing him to roll over from his side onto his stomach. Once again, I allow myself a grin about what I’m doing. This was too damn priceless. Turns out kicking him didn’t work as well as I had hoped. Being the heavy sleeper he is, I kneel down next to him and pick him up by the forearms until his feet are off the ground and begin to shake him to wake him up. His wobbling in midair almost makes him look like a pinata that the wind has decided to pick on and blow him around, threatening to pull him off from the string that still keeps him tied to the tree. Almost.
Damn, I feel sorry for this guy sometimes.
“ Hey, Jimahl,” I yell, shaking him, “ get up!”
The shaking Jimahl, moaning as he wakes up, asks,
“What happened?”
I place him back down on the ground, leaves crunching under his skinny physique as he makes contact.
“We were knocked out when the two princesses were casting that spell we allowed them to perform at our house earlier,” I answer, “and now I have no idea where we are except in a forest in the middle of nowhere.”
Realizing he has a throbbing headache as well, he puts his hand to his head as well and moans. “Well, I wish that could have gone better,” he states, “which it could have this time.”
I wonder how long it’s gonna take him to figure out he is no longer a pegasus anymore.
“Not really,” I reply, “that spell did seem pretty high up there in terms of difficulty and magic requirement. We were just lucky that the two who were performing the spell were able to pull it off as well as they did. Were it anyone else, we’d might be torn-up corpses separated into other quadrants of space.”
He contemplates what I said for a minute and compares the two scenarios in his head.
“When you put like that, I guess you’re right,” he admits.
As he begins to sit up, he flinches and a flash of pain crosses his face. His hand reaches for his butt to comfort the pain my boot dealt him about half a minute earlier.
“Ow, dammit! My butt hurts worse than the rest of me.”
Oops. Perhaps I should’ve kicked him a little lighter. Even so, I turn away to hide a guilty smile.
“Um,” I reply, trying to hide the expression in my voice that would give me away, “perhaps you hit a big rock or something when the spell tossed you onto the ground. This is a wooded area, after all.”
He ponders the idea for a second, then seems to agree with it.
“Yeah, you’re probably right,” he says, still unhappy about the ‘incident.’
At least it’s convincing enough for him.
It doesn’t take him long afterwards to figure out that he has a new body. He looks at himself as if he doesn’t recognize himself. No hooves to speak of, no tail or wings, two arms instead of forelegs and appendages at the ends of his new limbs.
“You’re entirely human now,” I tell him, “welcome to what I’ve been wearing for the past couple of years during military-style training and even worse real-life situations than you’ve read in horror stories.”
“What, a mini-dress?” he jokes.
“ A human body, smart-ass. Besides, I’m wearing a tunic. So are you.”
He takes another look at his body to discover he really is wearing a tunic.It’s a plain black tunic with a hoodie, much like I’m wearing, except his has a sash for a belt. The realization of this gives his face a confused expression.
“Why am I wearing this?” he asks, “and where did this even come from?”
You just now noticed what you’re wearing?
“Anyways,” I start, “go and wake up the other two so that we can get a move-on. I don’t want to stay around here much longer because there’s no telling what’s around.”
He looks around but doesn’t see them.
“Where are they, Isaac?”
I turn around and find them knocked out about forty feet from us. Much like Jimalh, they were transformed into humans, dressed in what appear to be summer dresses, and look like they experienced the same treatment Jimalh and I got. The only difference was that Twilight was tossed right onto Princess Luna. Not something I bet either of us would dare tell them.
And I thought seeing Jimalh unconscious was priceless.
Pointing in their direction, I tell Jimalh where they are and he goes over to wake them up. Being in a pony body for so long, walking upright in a humanoid body proves to be a challenge for him at first. He gets the hang of it after about ten feet, making the rest of the way there slowly but fairly easily. I watch him walking towards them in a half-perfected walking technique along with a sleepy slouch and an eerie crunch of leaves under his bare feet with no rhythm whatsoever. He’s gonna creep them out for sure when they come around. I’ll just deal with it later if that happens.
Looking over towards a nearby rotted tree stump, I realize I still have my trench coat and the trench knife I picked up in New Vegas last time I was there. However, it flew off of me when the spell threw us, which I choose not care to know how that managed to happen. I go to pick up my coat and brush the leaves and dirt off of it. Searching it, I discover that I still have the custom Colt 1911, tactical knife, and the MK 22 tranquilizer pistol I got from Big Boss at the end of the Peace Walker incident was still there as well.
Good. All of this may come in handy today.
As I don my coat and check to see how much ammunition I still had with me in my deep pockets, I hear a scream coming from behind me. It was Twilight. She was staring at Jimalh as if he were a dangerous stranger. The scream, her widened eyes and her shuffling across the dead, crunchy leaves in her knee-length dress, she definitely doesn’t recognize him. I don’t blame her, though. His jet black hair goes halfway down his back, his limbs are bony and lanky, he walks in a slouch, his face is similar to that of a sick person’s, he’s wearing an out-of-style garment with his hood on, and he loomed over her when he woke her up.
Why the hell did you put your hood on, you dumb-ass? That’s not going to help with anything.
“Who are you?!” Twilight exclaimed with no effort to hide her fear. This is clearly hard on her. She just woke up to splitting head pains in a new environment where a creepy-looking person that looks like some some sort of occult member that she apparently doesn’t remember comes over to her and wakes her up, trying to get her to follow him somewhere.
Jimalh, not knowing how to react, hesitated by nervously stepping backwards. He took off the hood and tried to ask her if she recognizes him, but they have only met a few minutes before the spell taking us here, and the results allotted were non-personal introduction and him explaining that he was coming along as well. Other than that, the two have spent almost no time together whatsoever and have left no impression of each other on each other. Additionally, we were thrown into a painful-as-hell magic wormhole and knocked us all right out. When we came to, nothing welcomed us but a sore body and a throbbing headache. To make matters worse, Twilight has likely never seen a human before, so it’s almost a guarantee that she’d be scared of him.
And he just had to put the damn hood over his head to make things even worse.
I know I have to step in before this gets worse than what it already is. Standing up, I turn to come over there to see if I can explain the situation.
Stepping towards the group, with Princess Luna still asleep by some snowball chance, I try to settle things down by donning an authoritative figure and a calm manner. This has been known to work before from experience, anyway.
“Well, Twilight, it appears that we’ve been transported somewhere and got turned into these beings called humans,” I state with a steady tone. “That creepy guy over there is the one who accompanied me on this trip. His name is Jimalh, but everybody calls him Jim."
She looks back to Jim, who is still standing hesitantly with his attention on Twilight. The memory of meeting him finally crosses her mind and an expression of guilt paints her face.
“Oh my gosh, I’m sorry,” she apologizes. “I didn’t recognize you. It’s just that I’m really tired right now and my head feels like a rock has been sitting on-”
Before Twilight finishes her explanation, she pauses and stares at her body and realizes that she is no longer a alicorn but a human, an average Caucasian girl with dark brown hair of similar fashion as her equine counterpart and eyes as brown as her hair.
The first thing she notices is her right hand which she used to hold her head with to acknowledge the headache, then her gaze runs down her arm to her chest then to her legs to then her feet. She appears to me that she might begin to freak out again, so I quickly try to prevent that from happening again.
I really don't want to deal with that up close.
I place my hand on her shoulder and have her look straight into my eyes. Because of the sheer vastness of the age and omnipresent attribute in my eyes, it tends to either frighten people or on rare occasions entice them if I give anyone my full and direct attention, especially if someone is not on my good side, but I make an honest attempt to soften my gaze. The only thing that matters is that it gets her to focus on me and what needs to be said. For a short while it seems to be working, but she doesn’t say anything.
“I think you broke her Isaac,” Jim comments, trying to peer over my shoulder.
Elbowing him in the sternum, I say in irritated tone, “Not helping here Jim.”
Groaning, he covers his sternum with his hands and falls backwards to the ground, hopefully because he still isn’t used to standing on two legs. I then turn my attention back to Twilight, who seems shocked by my course of action.
“Don’t worry,” I assure her, “he’s fine.”
“That hurt, you ancient ass-hat,” I hear from behind me.
“Shut up, Jim. You should’ve stayed out of what I was trying to do.”
My attention comes back to purple mare-turned-human.
“I know this is a lot to take in right now but you have to stay calm, Twilight. I promise what I’m about to tell you next isn’t a lie: I have been in these kind of situations before.”
“You have?” she asks, seeming to be more composed now.
“Yes. This may be tough to comprehend, but I am the last guardian between the planes of existence. That is one of the reasons I agreed to allow you to perform that spell at my house. Being the last of my kind, the most I do nowadays is relax and keep people that end up traveling between worlds safe. Now then, I’m going to wake up Luna, so remain here while I do so.”
Without objection, she nods, giving me the opportunity to rise and walk over to the other princess to wake her.
Hopefully she will be more subtle than Twilight.
I kneel down beside her and wonder how I should go about waking her. Now that I take the time to notice her, I take in how she appears now in human form. No longer is the Princess Luna a navy blue alicorn with a literally flowing mane and tail, but rather, she now appears to be a human of Spanish descent. Her resemblance is similar to people I have seen on my visits to Spain a very long time ago. She has the same tan skin and curly, jet black hair that ends just after where her shoulder blades should be. Her chest was not small in any sense of the word, and her dress consisted of blues of multiple shades. Unlike Twilight’s dress, Luna’s was strapless and showed more cleavage than what I was comfortable with, and her dress ended halfway down her calves instead of being knee-length.
“How do we know if it’s that chick from earlier and not just some other weirdo lady we don’t know?”
My attention is redirected to Jim's voice behind me, who is standing with his arms crossed and head cocked to the side, staring quizzically at the sleeping subject in front of us.
“For all we know, she could just be somepony that the purple girl was thrown into when we landed here and she fell unconscious from the sudden impact and that blue princess could be hundreds of miles from where we are.”
Now that I think about it, he’s right. This could be just another woman we knocked into. Why she’s wearing such a nice dress in the middle of nowhere is sketchy at best, but the fact still remains that this might not be Princess Luna at all.
Out of everything there could possibly be in existence that has any chance of scaring someone like me, it’s Jim with a possibility of being right about something that could cause us a lot of shit to have to deal with.
Please don’t let this be one of those times.
“And by the way, you old hound,” he added with displeasure in his voice, “you don’t have to be so rough with me.”
At the mention of the word rough, I could feel his foot kick my upper back, propelling me forwards and causing me to fall hard and unpleasantly onto the woman in front of me, who jolts awake from the impact.
Mark my words, Jim, I’m going to beat the living hell out of you for this when no one’s looking.
Before I knew it, my right ear receives a screech of bountiful volume. I can feel limbs underneath me flailing to get me off, but to no avail. As soon as I could manage, I lift myself up and can see the subject underneath me scrambling to get out from under me. The result is being accidentally kneed in the side and jaw, along with an unplanned view up the subject’s dress, who is, unfortunately, without underwear.
Jim, I promise that you are going to cry bloody murder for this.
The mysterious woman in front of me stares at me like has just seen the devil in all his foulness. She begins to openly weep and starts screaming at me, her facial expressions convoluted. There is no way for me to understand her because her sentences are jumbled and only come out as wailing cacophony. This is clearly not Princess Luna. Jim was right this time.
Regardless, I try to reason with the unknown miss in front of me.
“Miss, please try to calm down. See, that idiot behind me kicked me onto you without any warning whatsoever. I wasn’t trying any-”
Before I can finish my explanation, the woman in front of me digs into her cleavage, a sight I’d rather not see, and pulls out a Makarov 6P9 silencer,aimed at my nose. My combat instincts kick in and I reach for my custom colt 1911 in my pocket and follow suit. Her hand is shaking vigorously, which causes both of us discomfort, and she lets out a cry when she fires the first shot. Due to her unsteady hand, the bullet misses, but I can feel it travel close to the left side of my neck. I drop to the ground and take aim. Aiming straightfor the forehead.
Both of us stare each other in the eye, having each other’s full attention. I can see that she’s scared of my gaze, because her gun is about to fall out of her hands from her spastic shaking. I’d rather not know what it is that caused this stranger to act so hysterical as to pull a gun on somebody so readily, even though I was thrust onto her earlier. It’s clear she doesn’t speak English and I’m not entirely sure what language she’s speaking because of her monosyllable screaming, so compromises are entirely out of the option. In the end, it just boils down to who’s coming out on top. I have two people behind me, Jim and Twilight, whom I intend on keeping safe, and Princess Luna, whom we still need to find. Even so, I almost feel sorry for this woman because she just earned a one-way ticket to Hell after attempting to oppose me in a gunfight.
“Not today, you don’t.”
After uttering that little message, my finger pulls the trigger, sending the bullet right through her skull and causing her to fall onto her back with a thud. The gun flies from her right hand next to her forehead and the noise of the shot caused birds to fly off in many directions to nowhere in particular besides anywhere from where they hear a sudden loud noise. I almost didn’t hear Twilight’s gasp. I turn around to see her with her hands covering her mouth, eyes expressing the horror she felt as she witnessed what I just did. Killing another living being. Jimalh doesn’t seemed as phased, though. He does appear to be in a quieter mood, however, possibly out of custom for seeing a dead person, as if he was paying his respects to the recently deceased.
“You- you,” Twilight started, “you just killed her.”
I can see that shooting and killing is going to bother this one, even though I swore I saw books in her library that had to deal with detailed murder; mystery novels, tragic romance novels, history books, detailed hardcover books on wars in neighboring countries that few in Equestria actually cared about, mythical fantasy novels, etc.
I need to explain to her how this was a necessary part of surviving. Getting off the ground and shaking the dead leaves and sticks that stuck to my coat off of me, I pick up the makarov put it and my custom Colt 1911 back where I had put it earlier in my right deep coat pocket and begin to walk over to the two I just protected, primarily Twilight. She’s the one who needs to hear this the most.
“Look Twilight,” I try to say calmly, “I know you aren’t used to being in these kinds of situations, but this is the world we live in for right now, so we have to stay alive long enough to know how to find Princess Luna. Jimalh was right; she could be nowhere near here. She could be in another country or another universe altogether. But we have to try and find her and there may be situations that you might not want to deal with. I’m sorry, but this is what the situation calls for. Can you try and hold on for me? Stay strong until we find her?”
I give her a moment to think about it. This could take the rest of her life to find someone she cares about. Trying to find Princess Luna might mean she would be unable to return to Equestria any time soon. The weight of this circumstance is visibly affecting the young princess, as she begins to shows signs of a meltdown.
“It’s all my fault,” she begins, “ It’s my fault she’s gone. Princess Luna could be anywhere by now.”
“Twilight, calm down, alright? We shouldn’t panic right now.”
“What do I do? How do I fix this? How can I make this alright again?”
Tears start to fall from her eyes as her voice cracks. Jim, not knowing how to handle this, steps back and gives me room to try something, anything, that can possibly compose her.
“I just threw away Princess Luna. And just three years after she was brought back from a millennia of absolute solitude on the moon, no less. She only knew real friendship for three years and then I, the one who showed it to her, tossed her away. You two have no idea how lonely that must be for her or how betrayed she must feel right now. If she’s still alive.”
She has no idea how wrong she is about that.
“Twilight, turn to face Jim really quick for me.”
She wipes her freshly blushed cheeks of her tears and looks at me as if she misunderstood what I just asked her to do. There’s dark purple underneath her eyes that are red from crying that likely stung her eyes.
“Why?”
“Just do it, okay?”
Her gaze falls from me and nods. Turning around, she faces Jim and the two look at each other; both of them having as much confusion as the other, except Jimalh’s expression showed it more obviously. He turns his gaze to me, as if asking what he was supposed to do, but I just shrug. He replies to my gesture by rolling his eyes, as if he was sarcastically thanking me for dumping the responsibility of consoling her onto me. Not knowing what to do, he holds out his arms for a hug to comfort the upset princess. She appears to follow suit, but I quickly strike the back of her neck, causing her to fall unconscious and lands in Jimalh’s arms, who catches her, luckily, and shows an expression of surprise on his face.
“Dude,” he blurts, “what did you do that for!?”
“There’s not a lot of time I wish to spend trying to make her comfortable with the situation we’re in. Since she doesn’t appear to be in a stable mood, this is the best thing we can do for right now until we can either find Princess Luna or find a way back to Equestria to see if we can find someone who can use that spell to try and find Princess Luna and then go rescue her. I know it wasn’t the gentlest of tactics, but it’ll have to work for now, alright?”
“That’s not what I was worried about,” he objects, “I’m more concerned about the fact that you could have killed her doing that neck-chop whatever it was that you just did.”
Silence.
“Jim, please hand me Twilight.”
He holds out the limp princess for me. I grab her from his arms, hold her next to me in my left arm, and, using my free right hand, I slap Jim back-handed across his face. His glower at me from being slapped shows that I almost hit hard enough.
“What was that for!?”
I smack him again, a little harder this time. He saw it coming and tried to dodge, but he wasn’t fast enough this time. Before he has a chance to retaliate with a response, I interrupt him.
“The first slap was for thinking I actually killed her. You know I’ve been trained in every form of weaponry and martial arts to the point of near-perfection, and yet you think I’d be so stupid as to break her neck? That’s an insult to me.”
“The second one?” he asks.
“The second one was for kicking me onto that other woman for no damn reason.”
“You elbowed me in the sternum!”
“You got in the way of me trying to do something important!”
“You mean trying to seduce a princess that was out of it?”
This time he dodges my backhand slap.
“It wasn’t seducing, dammit, it was calming her down.”
“Nopony’s gonna calm down looking at your ugly-ass face.”
“First of all, you look worse than I do. Second, humans don’t use pony affixes like that; they say things like nobody or no one, not nopony, like they do in Equestria. Third, it worked, didn’t it?”
“It didn’t seem like it to me.”
“Well, it did.”
“Anyways,” he says, “shouldn’t we go look for Princess Luka before Twilight wakes up and freaks out again?”
“It’s Princess Luna, dumb-ass. Weren’t you paying attention?”
“You know I’m bad with names, alright?”
“At any rate, you’re right. We should try to find Princess Luna soon. Got any ideas where she might be?”
Jimalh gives the question some thought. He looks to the clouded sky as if it might give him the answer and just stares up for a while. Both of us contemplate my question to see if we can find a solution. Finally, after what could’ve been about ten or fifteen minutes, something makes a grin run across his face. He lets a satisfied chuckle and confidence spreads across his face. He turns to face me with a look that someone gets when they think they have undeniable evidence or proof to help them solve an impossible murder that even renowned detectives couldn’t solve.
“Isaac, my friend, I think I’ve got it,” he says with unwavering pride and determination.
Jimalh, what the hell are you thinking?
“Do you remember how when we used to travel, it was always easier when it was someplace preferable to us? Like with you, it was someplace with violence or fighting going on, like war-grounds or a dojo and with me, it was someplace where I could enjoy some peace and quiet, like on a cloud or someplace away from being destroyed, like when those little para- whatevers started eating everything in Ponyville or when that cosmic bear-thing started breaking the town and Midnight sent it back to where it came from? Or how about the time when that obnoxious blue mare came and put the town underneath a giant glass bowl and enslaved everypon- er, everyone, so to say in this world, and I just teleported to a cloud nearby and watched what was going on and how Midnight outsmarted the one who enslaved the town and saved the day a couple months before becoming a princess and all that.”
I stare at him, almost dumbfounded.
“What are you getting at here?”
“What I’m getting at is what if Luna was able to handle the spell better than Midnight did and ended up in a place where she wanted to be, as opposed to just trying to view another world like Midnight originally intended? Perhaps Luna wanted to look at a night-based area and was teleported there when the viewing spell went unorthodox and pulled us all here. If you think about it, that’s possibly why we’re all here in the first place, because the two casters were not performing the spell in sync with each other. That being said, if we can find a place where it is nighttime, that’s where we can find her. And since all of us, at least I’m assuming it was all of us, were pulled into the same dimension when it happened, it is still likely- not confirmed, but still likely- that she could be somewhere nearby. And since it is almost nighttime here,”
He points to the sky to reveal the departing clouds to a dark sky with a full moon hidden partially behind a cloud close to the mountains as the sky transitioned from oranges to purples to blues the higher one looked to reveal the night beginning to dominate the sky. He continued with his theory.
“That means it is likely that she could still be within this forest or close to any possible civilization. And if she uses her loud-speaker voice like she did on Nightmare Night, we could find her. If not, then it might take a little longer, but we still have a chance. I know this theory isn’t perfect and has holes in it, but that is all I can think of right now. So, what do you think, Isaac?”
I stare at him, almost believing that this is a different Jimalh that, by some snowball chance, got switched with the one I know, because there is no way in hell that he could come up with something like that, even if that theory does have a few loose ends in it. But still, that’s pretty genius being thought of right off the bat.
“Well,” I start, “that is actually an interesting theory, however, nighttime can cover pretty much half this world, her name is Twilight, not Midnight, it’s not for certain that she can use her Equestrian voice as a human, and since Princess Luna was supposedly out-of-sync with Twilight, perhaps her destination was another universe similar to this one as well. I’m not saying you’re wrong, Jim, I’m just not saying you’re right, either. But you still came up with that amazing of a concept, so there’s a possibility that you are correct in theory. Let’s just hope you’re right this time.”
We must be in a really screwed up universe for me to say something like that so easily.
Jimalh points to the two-lane road I saw earlier and looks to me.
“If we follow that road, then it’s possible for us to find some sort of civilization fairly soon. We might want to hurry, too; it’s starting to get dark out here and I can feel bugs biting me.”
He slaps his neck to squash a bug that was biting him. Concerned about Twilight’s health, I gently slip her into my coat to cover her from the insects and carry her piggy-back style underneath. Her head is still exposed, but it will have to do for now. Even I can feel the insects biting me now.
“Let’s go, Jim.”
“Right, Isaac.”
As we begin to walk, he stops in place, after a few steps. I turn around to face him.
“What’s the matter,” I ask.
“Should we go left or right when we’re on the the road?”
Despite how dumb it sounds, he’s actually right. We have to be able to find civilization soon if we’re traveling on foot, and it wouldn’t be wise to part ways since we don’t know the area around us. It’s also an important question because we should try to use our best judgement to find the closest town, if there is a town nearby. I look from the edge of the road off into the hill range, trying to see if I can spot any buildings. Barely, just barely, I can see what resembles a small town in the distance. It seems to me that if we go right, then we can reach the town in approximately half an hour to a whole hour. A smile comes across my face.
“We go right, Jim,” I answer.
He was about to smile, but another slap to the neck interrupts him.
“Alright,” “he says, “let’s go.”
We depart on the side of the road, going right. The moon is shining now, illuminating the world below it without interruption in the dark blue night sky that reminds me of Princess Luna. No other clouds, which look like masses of celestial cotton floating with no worries in any direction they are taken, block its way from shining its light onto this naturally darkened world. I can hear the animals of the night howling and making their instinctual noises as they go about their routines of night. It’s a beautiful sight to see, and it would be even better if the trees weren’t in the way of it all. But I shouldn’t worry about that now. What matters most is getting somewhere safe for the night. Everything else can wait for tomorrow.
Luna, I pray you be safe tonight until we find you again. Be strong.
“Hey, Jim?”
“What’s up, Isaac?”
“Can I ask you something?”
“I suppose so, considering we haven’t much else to do at the moment.”
“You know how you came up with your theory earlier?”
“It was pretty awesome, wasn’t it?”
“Why can’t you be that awesome all the time?”
“Pfft. Whatever, man. I am that awesome all the time; you just don’t notice it.”
“Quit BSing me, Jim.”
“I’m serious! You’re just too self-absorbed to notice.”
“I am not self-absorbed!”
“Yeah you are. Have you listened to yourself talk when you’re on hard cider?”
“That’s only because I’m drunk, alright?”
“Even when you’re sober, too.”
“Pfft. Whatever, man.”
“Don’t copy me.”
“Heh heh.”
Twilight lets out a sleepy moan. Me and Jimalh turn to each other and we shush in agreement. We don’t want her waking up anytime soon, especially if we’re out here in the middle of nowhere. But that’s all about to change as soon as we get to civilization.
Step by step, curve by curve, slope by slope, we head on out into the night on this road that we place our trust in. To find clues. To find people who could help us. To find Princess Luna. Alongside my close friend and carrying a new one, we walk towards an uncertain future, and I smile as we do so.
Getting to the town is taking longer than I thought because there are more curves and slopes on the
road than I had anticipated, only prolonging our trek. Besides the road, there are other problems as well. Bugs
I can’t identify are biting me and Jimalh, who’s starting to look worse than when we started. Fatigue continually
weighed upon him for quite some time now, and I could have sworn he was close to dropping multiple times
with the way he was staggering and how heavy his breathing had become.
The light provided by the moon was cut off by the clouds passing above us were floating right
between us and the moon. To make matters worse, these clouds were moving at an excruciatingly slow pace
and left us fumbling in the darkness. If Jimalh were a pegasus again and he wasn't as tired as he was, we wouldn't have this problem.
Despite what first-glance assumptions would tell, it was possibly around 80 degrees Fahrenheit (27
degrees Celsius), plus the humidity is high, making it seem hotter. Combined with my heavy trench coat and
carrying a warm, sleeping human on my back, I was sweating from the combined factors, causing us sultry conditions.
These damn bugs are causing me problems bordering severe measures. I can feel them on my face
and underneath my clothes, refusing to be drowned by my sweat, biting me and making a defenseless host out
of me. They’re pulling my attention away from everything else and are making my instincts scream at me to let
Twilight Sparkle fall to the ground to free my hands to combat these parasitic devils. They’re starting to mess
Scratch them. Let the girl go and scratch. Jim is scratching himself. That joyous sound he’s making
on his skin makes you envy him, right?
These battles end as fast as they start, resulting in countless, instant battles. Even with my adept sense of focus, I was wavering. Doubts and questions were entering my head.
Where are we going again? Oh, yes, a town down the road. Why? Um, to find Luna. How long have
we been out here? Who gives a fuck anymore.
I didn’t expect relief to hear Jimalh speak to me after such a long period of unnecessary silence.
However, that relief is counteracted by what it was he had to say.
“Hey, Isaac? What do you think will happen when we reach the town in the middle of night, because I
doubt that anyone will be up and about or welcoming strangers in such mangy condition as we are this late at
night.”
Dammit, why didn’t I think about that?
It’s true that we do look squalid and looking for a place to stay for the night when we don’t even know where we are makes us look rather suspicious, especially since our story for being here is easily too far-fetched for people to understand.
Aside from me having a sleeping girl on my back, I doubt we will have any saving grace for us once we
reach anyone. It wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened to me, but I don’t want want Jim to be stuck out here like I’ve been.
“Either way,” he said, “whatever happens then will happen sooner than it would have a few steps ago, right?”
He looked at me and tried to manifest a full smile, which was an expression mixed between weak
genuinity and a sense of doubt. I didn’t want to see him like this. I want him and Twilight to be out of this heat
and out of these bugs and somewhere safe. Although they are not as use to these conditions as I am, Jim’s
taking it better than most others like him; at least he isn’t bitching about how this or that hurts or how he
wants to go to sleep.
How did all of this happen, anyway? Was it because I met Twilight that we’re here now? Or would it
have made any difference in the first place? After all, I allowed her to cast that viewing spell at my house, but
that was just helping someone out. It could’ve been anyone trying to use that spell and I still would have let
them use it because of who I am as the final member of an extinct species besides Jimalh.
Going down the road, my mind begins to recall accounts of me meeting Twilight back in Equestria
somewhere around a year ago.
----------------
A year ago
Jim and I were sitting in the main room in the large plantation-style house that I built five years ago when we first came to Ponyville. We have been living in Ponyville for five years, which was a fairly quiet time; if disaster were to come, it would fix itself if given time, unlike most other places I’ve been where I was normally the one who had to resolve shit that people have started for no damn reason. I had come to know a
reasonably-sized group of civilians there over time and set up some connections.
This was four years before the return of Nightmare Moon, and at the time I was away helping out Big Boss during the Peace Walker incident, so I had no involvement in that, but it was an interesting story to hear from Jim, who was there at the party when it happened and somehow got a black eye and a busted lip in the confusion and went home to hide until it was over. Damn, that was funny shit. I was laughing about it afterwards and he wouldn’t talk to me until I took him to Sugarcube Corner to get him half a dozen donuts. It’s amazing how childlike he is, given his vast age; although it’s true for me as well.
What I did get involved in was Discord’s return, mainly because I was not amused with the concept of the place I lived at for the time being had been turned into the chaos capital of the world. Even though I felt this way and decided to confront him about it, my mind was changed immediately when I saw it raining chocolate milk, which made me walk straight up to Discord and thank him personally. I even shook whatever the hell he had for a hand and didn’t even shoot him full of holes when I figured out he flipped my house and made it float in midair, even though it didn’t fail in pissing me off. My other problem with it was that I couldn’t find Jimalh anywhere until the world regained order and having it turn out that he was one of the long-legged bunnies I kept seeing running around.
Aside from that, the new Ponyville was rather entertaining; long-legged rabbits, clouds shaped like some sort of checkerboard, an endless supply of bakery sweets falling from who-the-hell-knows-where at any given moment, and did I forget to mention the chocolate rain? Damn, I hadn't had that much fun in at least a thousand years.
However, I knew it was not to last and something had to be done about it, and in Ponyville, what better way to do that then kick back and let six mares as dysfunctional as they were discolored at the time take care of it? Sure enough, my theory was proven right and the situation was taken care of in, according to fucked-up chaos time, probably eight weeks, but was actually around a couple of hours.
After that, I got better associated with the brave local ponies who imprisoned and even reformed Discord using a spell that seems a little violating of someone’s individuality.
My first stop was Twilight Sparkle, the purple mare that was unknowingly destined to become an alicorn and rule alongside the three other princesses: Celestia, Luna, and Cadence alongside her husband that almost no one gives a shit about even though he’s a badass piece of military epicness and the Captain of the Royal Guard.
"Good morning, sir. How can I help you?" Twilight Sparkle greets me as I entered her home and library.
I love it when people tell me good morning.
"What do you mean? Do you mean to wish me a good morning, or do you mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not? Or perhaps you mean to say that you feel good on this particular morning; or are you simply stating that it is a morning to be good on?" I ask with a hint of amusement in my voice.
Twilight stops for a moment to think about what I had just asked. She was actually the first person I’ve met thus far (besides Jimalh) who actually took this question seriously and was determined to return to me a proper answer. She responded with,
"Very well then, sir, I mean that I am wishing you a good morning."
"Thank you. Would you mind telling me your name?”
"Oh, where are my manners. My name is Twilight Sparkle."
"Nice to meet you, Twilight Sparkle. Folks around here call me Eagle Fury”
“What can I do for you, Mr. Eagle Fury?” she asks
“Would you happen to have any adventure books that you would care recommending to me?” I asked politely.
She brightens up upon hearing my request and looks over to a bookshelf and starts levitating down a small stack of books. She tells me that these are her most recommended books and I take her word for it as I search the pile.
Searching the collection set in front of me, the book that interested me the most was a book with the cover sporting a picture of a mare with the look of that of an adventurer standing in a safari in front of an ancient temple. The title stated that her name was Daring Do.
Twilight all but jumped in her skin when she noticed my curiosity in the book and looked at me with a bright expression someone would expect from a treasure hunter within arm’s reach of a head-sized chunk of ruby. I can tell she’s ready to give me her history on this book and I wonder just what it is I’ve come across to get such a reaction from someone who has her face in books more often than anyone else I’ve noticed in town.
“Are you interested in that Daring Do book? This is one I definitely recommend if you want a worthwhile adventure book if you haven’t already read this series. Do you know Ponyville’s cloud manager, Rainbow Dash? Don’t tell anypony, but she thinks she’s almost as in love with this series as I am and she is obsessed with it and read it over multiple times, which rarely occurs with her because she normally can’t stand books. There have been days when it was all she talked about and it got on everypony’s nerves. Well, except mine, of course, and those were days when neither of us could keep quiet and needed to just be fangirls about it and talk about how awesome we thought Daring Do was and everything related to her we could think of. Especially when the new books came out and me and her strived to be the first ones in Ponyville to get the first copies when the bookstore that had it opened that morning. Both of us would agree to a race to see who could finish the book first, and I always won by a landslide. With as much as I read and how slow Rainbow Dash is with reading, there really wasn’t a race, even with all the work and sleep she blew off to get done first, while I could follow my normal schedule, with a little tweaking, and be done before she got halfway through the book. The lesson she learned the hard way, don’t mess with librarians when a book is concerned; especially when she’s determined. If you’ve ever seen her stagger or look as if she could fall over if she stood still, the race was most likely the reason for it. Of course, even without the race, she would still stay up too late in her bed rereading it. I keep telling her that her health would suffer if she kept that up, but she wouldn’t listen. I tried getting her to read other adventure books to get her into the spirit of reading, but I was always unsuccessful because she told me she didn’t want to read anything besides Daring Do, no matter what I tried. I guess that’s what you call imprinting, right? There was this one time when Rainbow Dash finished reading volume three again and she...”
And that was all I heard before I tuned her out. I knew she was still talking about the book, but I wasn’t sure what she was saying. Instead, my attention was redirected towards how she was talking and not what it was she saying. She was absorbed in her topic and used outward gestures and facial expressions to convey and amplify her portrayal, so I had a sense of what it was she was talking about even though I wasn’t listening. It was clear to me that she wasn't going to slow down or stop anytime soon, and it was quite a ways before I came back into focus and actually listened to her talking. I knew she was still talking about her friend Rainbow Dash and something about a lucid fantasy.
“...and then I told her that was flirting with the fine line between biggest fan and just outright creepy obsession, but she objected and said it wasn’t weird that she had that sort of fantasy and I was no different, but just because I’m a bigger fan than her doesn’t mean I don’t have control over myself. Daring Do could be the only the book series I read and I could have my room plastered with her merchandise -not that I have my room completely covered in Daring Do merchandise or anything like that- and I could still have more self-control than that. However, there was this one series that I read a year or so ago and I will admit it-”
“Um, may I please check this book out now?”
She looks as if my question confused her, but then realizes that she’s been talking nonstop for the past forty-seven minutes with me mostly listening to what she had to say about Daring Do and Rainbow Dash’s obsession with her and is quick to apologize.
“Oh no. I’m sorry, mister. I wasn’t trying to make you wait here and listen to me ramble on about this. That’s what happens when people get me started on books; I just go on forever talking about them and lose track of everything else in the process. Celestia knows how many ponies I’ve warded off like an exorcist doing that. I’m just like Spike whenever he gets a new comic book; he buries himself in it and won’t change subjects until he cools down about it or I have him busy with assisting me in the library for days because of what there is to do in here. Or like Rarity when she starts reading romance novels while working and ends up making apparel that she themed out of the novel-”
“You’re doing it again.”
Clearly frustrated with herself, she has the book checked out and silently hands it to me. The expression of self-irritation on her face causes both of us to avoid eye contact with the other. I pick up the book with my magic, thank the vexated librarian, and place my new source of entertainment in my black leather saddlebag.
“Once again, I’m so sorry for keeping you here for so long.”
“Don’t worry about that. It was my decision to come in here and talk to you for a spell.”
Twilight looked more confused now.
“You came in here to talk to me?”
“Well, yeah. You and your friends are really interesting if you can undo a world’s worth of chaos. I wanted to meet you guys in person so that I could have an idea of what you all are like.”
Twilight looked confused, as if I had said that the princess was actually a dragon or something.
“You… came in here,” she started slowly, sounding confused, “to… get to know… me? For… stopping Discord?”
“That’s right.
“But I saw you and him acting like you two were old friends who just met each other after a long time.”
“Oh,” I said, “ You saw us being friendly to each other?”
“Well, I saw you with him when I flew over in the hot air balloon chasing down Rainbow Dash and noticed that you left just before me and my friends came to imprison him again using the Elements of Harmony.”
“Yeah, I decided to stay out of the way of all of that, so I took my leave and left the rest to you guys when I saw that all of you had magic charms and looks of confidence. It was interesting to see a rainbow turn him to stone. Especially in the way he looked when he realized he was done for. ”
A silence radiating from Twilight told me she had a question hanging over her. I could tell she would be haunted by it if she kept to herself, so I asked her what was eating her.
“Did you see Pinkie Pie when she was drinking the choc-”
“Yes. Yes I did.”
She facehoofed and sighed. “Pinkie.”
I smiled at her and commented, “Don’t worry. I did the exact same thing when nopony was looking.”
She looked at me with one of those ‘you-can’t-be-serious’ looks and said, “I can already see you two being the best of friends.”
I grinned stupidly and said, “Actually, we already are.”
Her expression metamorphosed from ‘you-can’t-be-serious’ to ‘did-I-just-hear-you-right?’
“You’re a friend of Pinkie’s?” she asked.
My grin stayed. “I was her friend for over a year longer than you were, to be accurate.”
Once again, her expression evolved from ‘did-I-just-hear-you-right?’ to ‘you-have-to-be-kidding-me’
“She’s never told me about you before. I’ve heard about a few of her others friends besides those of us who use the Elements of Harmony, but she never once mentioned you.”
“Pinkie Pie’s never said anything about somepony she called ‘Mr. Muscle Pants’?”
“She calls you that?”
“Against my wishes.”
She rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t put it past her to call other ponies by strange nicknames. I could see why, though”
There was no doubt as to why Pinkie gave me the dubbing ‘Mr. Muscle Pants.’ I was a gray-colored unicorn that had the body of a strong Earth Pony: tall with sculpted muscles that could not be hidden. This body was suited for me anyway because I could use magic for weapons that required hands and muscles that allowed labor-intensive actions. Other unicorns rarely look like I do, so eyes get turned my way every once in a while.
It irritated me that Pinkie Pie never told her friends about me. We weren’t dating or anything like that, but you’d think that as often as we met up and hung out that she’d at least say something to her friends.
“Has she ever spoken about a skinny pegasus with faded-orange fur, a black mane, and bright yellow eyes? Usually hangs around with me?”
“Not that I know of. Have you asked anypony else in our group? Try asking Rainbow Dash or Rarity.”
I shook my head. “It’s fine,” I said, “don’t worry about it.”
“Anything else I can help you with, sir?”
Sir? I thought we skipped past the formalities by now.
“No thanks. I got what I came for.”
“Alright then. Enjoy your book, sir.”
“Please don’t call me ‘sir,’ it makes me feel old.”
Truth be told, I’m likely older than Celestia, which can’t be proven unless I know her actual age which only Princess Luna knows, but I always say it’s all about psychology. Jimalh knows this, and occasionally uses it as his weapon against me if I piss him off enough.
“Sorry, mister.”
“Know what? Just call me ‘Fury,’ alright?”
“Alright.” She waved as I exited the library. “Have a nice evening!”
----------------
I quickly came back to reality when I saw my first true look at the city. The moon was finally showing again and it let me see better. Me and Jimalh were both surprised by what we saw.
It was bad: most of the town was overgrown with plant life, it looked like no one had lived here for years, the buildings were in terrible condition-they were cracked and faded out, some of the dusty windows were either cracked or busted open-, and cars were falling apart, but by the looks of them they were made after the start of the 21st century. This was not what we were expecting.
These surroundings put me into survival mode. I no longer minded the bite of the bugs or the weight of the sleeping princess on my back. I felt that there was danger around here somewhere, and to me, it only mattered that I keep those who were under my care protected. Just like I protected everyone when the spell went wrong with me using all of my power to stabilize them in the jump that would otherwise have ripped them apart with no mercy.
Jimalh speaks up. "It doesn't look like we will have to worry about what people wil think when they see us now, do we, Isaac?"
"No, but first we need to find a place to rest and rehydrate. In the morning, we'll find a change of clothes and get out of these damn tunics, go through all the stuff we brought with us and head out to find Princess Luna."
He surveys the area around us to find suitable shelter, clearly in no objection of finding a resting spot. He points to an old two-story house a fair distance away where we were from.
"Hey, Isaac, that house over there looks like a good place. Let’s go."
As we head over to the house, I start to plan. Something colossal happened here, and dammit, I wanted to check it out. And I would, too, given that we need to know our surroundings.
The house was an absolute mess when we entered (the front door would not open so I had to kick it down), because it looked as if whoever lived here before either left in one hell of a hurry or there was a raid. Clothes and personal belongings were scattered everywhere: on the floor, across the furniture and even up the stairs to the second floor. I made my way up the stairs to the bedrooms.
Choosing the first room I saw, Jim cleaned off the bed for Twilight to lay on (he mostly just tossed everything into a pile) and I laid Twilight down on the bed. Then I turned my eyes to Jim who had not said a word since coming into the house. I’m surprised he didn’t flop on the couch as soon as we came in, as miserable as he looks. Perhaps he forgot he was tired. Would’nt surprise me if he did.
"Jim, find a place in here to get comfortable and get some rest. You look like shit, man."
"That might be so, but you don't look any better than I do."
“And before you get any damn funny ideas, do not get into her bed and sleep with her.”
“Gotcha. I’ll buy her dinner first.”
“Ha ha, very funny. You ain’t got the money for that, anyway.”
“So I should sleep in another room?”
“No. You two should stay together until I get back. Wait right here.”
I exited the room and looked in the others that were in the hallway and a futon mattress that was surprisingly orderly with sheets and a pillow. However, it was obviously meant for a girl because it was entirely pink and sported floral patterns. I dragged it back to the other room and set it next to Twilight's bed in the first room.
“Alright, Jim. How’s that?”
“That’s a pretty badass bed.”
“It has a girly pillow cover and pink sheets on it, and you’re calling it badass?”
“It’s still a really good find in this trash heap of a house."
"True, but I wouldn't exactly call it badass."
"Whatever. Can you help me take off this tunic? I hate sleeping in pajamas and this thing is sweaty.”
“Why do you need my help with taking off your tunic?”
“I forgot how to use a human body because I was a pony for so long.”
“Are you actually serious? It was only five fucking years.”
“I haven’t done the whole body-changing thing as many times as you have and I forgot some of the motions of these human rituals.”
I helped him out of his clothes (thank God he was wearing boxers) and he tested the bed. It was painful to see how much it suited him in some way. Twilight was still asleep, which I found miraculous. I reach into one of my coat pockets and hand Jim my Colt 1911.
"Take this, Jim. If you hear anyone trying to come in here besides me, for whatever reason, shoot them. Don't ask questions, don’t sympathize with whatever sob story they might have, don’t think about the ‘children’, just aim, shoot and try your damnedest to keep you and Twilight in one piece until I get back. This world that we’re in appears to have been in some sort of disaster, it's sure to be dangerous and I need to see if I can find out any clues as to what we may face."
"But what about you, Isaac?" he asked, "Don't you need this gun also since you’re the one who’s going to scout the area? There could be traps around here somewhere."
"I still have the Makarov from that dead woman when we got here, remember? Now get some sleep and I'll see you two in the morning. And for fuck’s sake, don’t end up shooting Twilight, okay?"
It was clear he wasn’t going to respond to that, but he knew it was possible and simply nodded.
I left the room and went down stairs and started to take stock of the equipment. I have 5 clips of ammo for the MK22, which would be 40 rounds of ammo, seven clips for the Colt plus the one in the Colt, meaning 56 rounds in the clips and a few loose rounds and one clip for the Makarov with one of the bullets used, which was obviously aimed at me earlier, a tack knife, Jim's hatchet, a trench knife, duel shoulder holsters, and a ripe banana.
Wait, what? Why the hell is there a banana, of all things, in my fucking pocket? I guess I should keep it in case I get hungry, though.
Leaving questions for later, I then checked my inner pockets and found something unexpected. A Cuban cigar, a gift from Big Boss ,and from Solid Snake an unused pack of The Boss brand cigarettes.
Sweet. I got some smokes for later.
Putting everything back up in my pockets, and the MK. 22 back into the holster, I threw the stupid tunic I was wearing off of me and onto he floor and looked around for some real clothes. There were some denim jeans that fit me pretty well, a pair of old U.S. Military combat boots, a long-sleeve T-shirt, and a lighter for the cigarettes. I put my coat back on and quietly checked on Jim. There was a chance he might try to shoot me, so I quietly called his name from behind the room’s threshold in the hallway.
“Hey, Jim,” I whispered, “can you hear me?”
I could hear him going for the gun.
“If you come in here, I’ll shoot you,” he whispered back.
“It’s me, you dumbass,” I replied, “Isaac.”
“Oh,” he whispered when he saw me coming into view, “sorry. I thought you left already.”
“No. I just came back to tell you I was leaving.”
“Okay,” he replied, “bye.”
At least he was prepared to shoot someone. That’s good.
“Hey, Isaac?”
“What, Jim?”
“Please don’t die and leave me here alone with the girl in this potentially fucked world.”
“Of course I won’t,” I said, “just who the hell do you think I am?”
And with that, I left to check the surrounding area. I would have put the front door that fell over up against the front threshold again, but it had
The world outside still looked like it’s been abandoned for years. Since there was another house in front of us and the road only went left and right, I wondered which way I should go first.
Screw it, I’m going out the back door instead.