A lone figure trudged through the blackened wasteland that it once called home. The iron boots pushed through the broken concrete like a hot knife through butter. Ash fell from the sky, but the soldier shook it off like it was nothing. The helmet that he donned upon his head had only one engraving to remind him of what he once served, only one thing to remind him of the times before now. Only one thing that could bring tears to the unlucky man: A dove that grasped an olive branch in one claw, and a scroll in the other. A symbol of peace that now meant nothing to the battered world, but the soldier kept on going.

One of his heavy boots stepped on something that made a sickening crunch. He raised his armored boot and looked at what he had stepped on. Shattered glass slid away to reveal what was underneath, a picture. A man was hugging his toddler son in the portrait, who was smiling up at his presumed father. The man looked around and realized his surroundings for the first time since the ash had started falling. A single tear rolled down his cheek as he kept on with his walking.

Darkness was overcoming the city faster than the ash could fall. The soldier clicked on a light that was on his shoulder and brushed away the ash that had fallen on his plastic mask. The man was lucky that he had it on before this happened, but he didn’t feel lucky. The tears tried to fight their way back up, but he forced them down. If he was the last one, then he had to keep his dignity. Dignity for what? Unless there was a deity watching him, then who else cared about him at this point? There was no one else, because they were gone.

A few tears escaped his tightly closed eyelids. Nearly causing him to break his resolve, but then he realized something that could help with his loneliness. He lifted his arm up so he could see his wrist, he then slid a small shutter up so he could view the small tablet attached to his metal covered wrist. He tapped on it, using his memory to activate what he wanted. A crackling sound rang inside his helmet before settling to a dull hum.

With a dry voice, he spoke, “Echo one to Echo six do you copy?!”

Static.

With the sound of desperation starting to rise in his voice, he spoke again, “Sergeant Lowell to Major Harris, do you copy?!”

Static.

She was not responding to his pleas. The Major always responded whenever her soldiers were in dire need of assistance, and right now was certainly one of those times. This was enough to break the poor man’s emotional wall. He let forth a stream of tears that were absorbed by his mask’s interior padding. The tears subsided after a short few minutes, and he continued his trek to nowhere. The Sergeant let out a disheartened sigh; realizing that he was alone in the wasteland that was once the great city of New York.

“Are you sure that you are alone in this- Wow, this was a city at one time? Things sure do get boring in that statue, so I suppose going back in time to spectate was a great source of entertainment for this poor old chaos causer.” The voice cackled in a mad manner. Sergeant Lowell pivoted on his heels and faced the voice, which turned out to be a mix and match of animals that were both fictional and existential.

The living jigsaw puzzle put both of his arms up to his cartoonish, donkey-shaped face that bore a look of feigned shock. “Oh how frightening! A monster! Whatever shall I do! Oh my goodness I just can’t- BWAHAHAHA!” The beast broke out in a chorus of laughter. he wiped an invisible tear from his eye and continued. “Oh I’m sorry… I cannot say that with a straight face… Anyhow, you are the last of your species if the future has anything to say about it…”

Sergeant Lowell wanted to say that the creature was lying; That the creature was babbling nonsense about a subject he knew nothing about, but he let the monster speak his mind, even if it sounded absurd. Then again, the world did just blow up…

“So, I’d like to make a deal with you Sergeant…” The creature smirked and crossed its forearms. “How would you like to live in utopia. Granted, that utopia is in the future, but it is a place that you could be happy in. Or… Happy compared to whatever you’re feeling right now.” The thing snorted. “There is only one thing that you have to do.”

The sergeant’s head lifted up at the beast’s smiling face with interest at the possibility of being freed from the plague of war that had fallen upon the now desolate wasteland of a world. The prospect of having to earn it did not deter him in the slightest. “What do I have to do?” His voice was barely audible, but it stood out.

“Ill give you time to explore, but after oh… I don’t know… A year? Yeah, a year of getting to know the area and ponies, but after you explore and do whatever it is that you humans do, you must free me from my stone imprisonment.” The chaotic being expected the soldier to think about it, but the armored hand shot up to meet the beast’s lionlike paw. He firmly gripped it and shook it vigorously, closing the deal between the two beings.

“I’ll do that… Just please get me out of this hellhole.” He sighed in relief and rubbed at the cracked, glass faceplate that once displayed information to help him whenever he was in the field, but was now going to be used to attract and send radio waves. Sergeant Lowell had a feeling that these ponies would would not have radios if they were peaceful, based on the logic that ponies are usually herbivorous, they would most likely be docile. if they were docile then they would most likely not have war. Technology, such as the radio, arose from war. Thus, ponies should not have much technology.

“That’s the spirit, my armored friend! You’ll get along just fine in Equestria! Hey, for being so kind I think I’ll let you keep your personal possessions!” The being snapped his fingers and everything was soon engulfed in a bright white light.

He was immediately startled when he woke up, for he saw naught but the ground closing in on him at an alarming pace. He flailed in midair for a short time before realizing that there was nothing he could do. Although he did remember that the suit and the occupant could survive an orbital drop from one of the orbiting space colonies that were scattered in the upper atmosphere. He blinked as he saw a cyan dot race towards him like a missile, and impacted him with the force of one.

He did a flip in midair before landing on something soft and alive. “I saw you falling when i was taking a nap and I thought that you must have had an accident up there… You must be one of Fluttershy’s creatures that escaped! I knew that bear was going to cause trouble in there, thought he was gonna rally those animals up and escape, well he did! I just knew it!” He heard the creature speak about her friend and the animal’s antics.

He decided that now was not the time to be in shock, he was a marine after all. They were trained to not break under stress. Talking pegasi were no exception to this training. If he could stay sane meeting a mix and match of creatures then he can stay sane meeting a few ponies. He heard the impact of hooves against dirt and he pushed himself off the pegasus, much to its surprise.

The pegasus proceeded to yawn and rub its’ eyes in a dazed motion before looking at the armored human through squinted eyes. Her mouth dropped open and her ears laid flat against her had as she backed away cautiously. “Y-you look like you’re for a war, a-and you don’t have wings s-so…” Her eyes widened even further as she asked the most important question of the day.. “Are you an a-alien?”

The soldier grinned maliciously before leaning into her ear to speak. “The question is, didn’t your mother teach you that you should not talk to strangers?” The aforementioned mare let out a tiny squeak before flying off at a speed that would rival the airforce’s fastest jets. A rainbow trail was left, which led to a town not too far away. He sighed as he realized that this “Discord” character was not lying when he said that the future was inhabited by ponies. He also realized that he had most likely sparked bad relations with his new neighbors.

He turned about to further examine his surroundings, which happened to be a dark, dense, and scary looking forest. He was sure that this forest could not possibly top the shattered earth from the past, so he started his walk into the unknown. Hopefully, a walk that would not be his last.

Author's Note

Woo!