Convergence

Major Hamilton touched down on the mountainside overlooking the city.  His chute spread over the rocky landscape, billowing in the wind.  Quickly, he unstrapped his parachute, as to avoid being blown away.  He looked down at the city.  A large neighborhood burned, though the majority of the place was still in one piece.  Even as he watched, buildings seemed to be engulfed in multi colored glows, and then stop burning.  Hamilton looked up at the now distant speck that was Tango 5, the last surviving aircraft of the squadron.

Hamilton felt slightly perturbed at bombing a city, but now that the enemy had at least shot back, things were even.  Just keep telling yourself that crap Ham…  He shuddered at the sight of his squad mates planes.  He knew that none of them had managed to bail out, and there was no chance they had survived the crashes… at least, he thought so.  He glanced at the burning piles, dispersed over thousands of yards.  He thought out loud.

“Six and two collided, so no chance there…”

Then he turned to face the distant wreck that symbolized Tango three.

“But maybe there is hope for you yet, Trevor.”

Hamilton started running towards the distant wreckage.

<(^)>

“Jackpot, this is Tango 5, squad mates are down, repeat, my squad is down, I need you to scramble a rescue chopper.”

“Tango 5, this is Jackpot, can you confirm?  Your squad is down?”

“All other Tango elements are destroyed, but I saw the Major bail out, over.”

“Dang it… I thought this was supposed to be easy.  You got two Blackhawks fitted for rescue ops inbound.”

<(^)>

“Alex, I think we may need you.”

“Need help with the fire?”

“No, a pegasus soldier just confirmed that one of the pilots managed to get out.  He’s in good condition, and probably armed, so we don’t want to just run up to him.  We thought that we could take you to him, see if you can talk to him.”

“What about James and Jonathan?”

“Jonathan and James are both busy with that sulfur and whatnot… They’ll come but they need to finish up first.”

Alex sighed, then looked at the messenger that was talking to him.  He checked his handgun.

“Alright, let’s get going.”

The pony kneeled.

“Ok, get on my back.”

<(^)>

Hamilton ran up to the cockpit of the burning jet.  The glass was shattered, and blood was everywhere.  Carefully, avoiding any jagged edges, Hamilton raised himself up to look at Trevor, the pilot.  Blood stained his uniform, and he lay lifeless in his seat.

“Dang…”

Hamilton breathed, lowering himself from the plane, knowing the fire would soon reach the fuel.  He turned to leave.  Before he could take his first step, Hamilton heard a gargled cough from behind him.  He spun around.

“Dear God…”

Hamilton leapt up onto the plane once more, ignoring the jagged metal that bit into his skin.  He grabbed the pilot by his shoulders.

“Trevor!  Dear God, don’t let ‘em die!  Trevor, stay with me!”

Trevor’s breath came in short gasps, and blood trickled from the corner of his mouth.  Hamilton glanced at the flames that were slowly creeping up the A-10’s twisted fuselage.  He fumbled with Trevor’s restraints, before cursing and drawing his knife.  He slit through the stubborn fabric, and gingerly lifted Trevor from the cockpit.  Trevor groaned as a shard of glass slit his leg.  The fire crept nearer, crackling like cruel laughter as it consumed the aircraft.  Hamilton began dragging his comrade away from the jet.

Trevor screamed as his torn body was hauled across the ground.  The jet exploded.  A piece of shrapnel tore the fabric of Hamilton’s uniform, and he felt his eyebrows singe.  The two men dropped to the ground.

Hamilton grabbed his radio, frantically calling.

“Attention, anyone that can hear me, this is Tango four, my squad mate is freaking torn up!  I need a medevac!”

“Tango four, this is Blackhawk three zero one, call sign Hermes, can you identify your location?”

“Hermes!  We’re up on the mountain overlooking hostile main city, about fifty yards from a burning A-10.”

“Roger that Tango four, do you have your transponder beacon?”

“Yes, switching on now.”

“Rolling in hot, ETA is five minutes.”

“Freaking hurry dang it!  My man is going to freaking die if you don’t get here soon!”

<(^)>

Alex gripped the pegasus, holding on for dear life.  The mountain side rushed up at them quickly, and Alex’s attention was drawn to the two small figures taking cover behind some rocks.  He pointed, and the pegasus nodded.  Swooping down, he dropped Alex about a hundred yards behind the men, and then folded his wings.

“Thanks Bluebolt.”

The pegasus shifted.

“No problem… Colonel.”

Alex turned and began walking towards the two other men.  He soon saw why they hadn’t noticed his arrival; the one man was trying to bandage the other, who seemed to be losing a dangerous amount of blood.

“Can I help you with that?”

The man was startled, whirling around to face Alex.  His hand dropped to his side arm.  Alex proceeded towards him without giving any indication of noticing the man’s reaction.  He kneeled beside the wounded soldier, and quickly cut a bandage from his sleeve.

“Who are you?”

“Alex.”

“Where did you come from?”

Alex gestured behind them, to where Bluebolt was still waiting.  The man gasped slightly, before nodding.

“And who are you?”

The man hesitated.

“My name is Fredrick Hamilton.”

Alex fastened the sleeve around one of Trevor’s legs, which was badly torn.

“Nice to meet you Fredrick.  I would offer you my hand, but I’m afraid that it is a little bloody right now.”

“Likewise, Alex.”

The man thought for a moment.

“How long have you been here?  This world, I mean?”

“Oh, about two days, three if you count... never mind, not too long.”

“How did you get here?”

“I was RIO on the first strike.  After a slight, um, inner conflict, we landed in the city.”

Hamilton looked confused.

“The first strike had no losses, and it was made by Apaches, not anything that requires a RIO.”

“Oh, so they covered that up too?  The real first strike was a complete failure, made by four F-15s.  Only one of them is still intact.”

“The other three?”

Alex spoke softly.

“Helped shoot down two of them myself.”

“What…”

“You know that what the President is trying to pull off right now is wrong Hamilton.  I bet you’ve known that since you were given the assignment.  Just didn’t think you could do anything about it.”

“I…”

Hamilton was interrupted as two Blackhawks flew overhead, then circled around to land just a few yards away.  Four marines bearing a stretcher quickly leapt from one of the birds, sprinting towards the three men.  Alex stood and backed away while they loaded Trevor onto the stretcher.

Another Marine came and motioned to Alex and Hamilton.

“Huh, thought you said there were only two of you.  Anyway, come on, let’s get the heck out of here.”

The Marines and Hamilton took off towards the chopper, Trevor in tow.  As they loaded Trevor onboard, the marine that had motioned to him turned back to Alex.

“What, you planning on staying the night?  Come on, let’s get a move on!”

Alex simply turned and started walking away.  The marine was about to shout again, when Hamilton grabbed him and whispered something, motioning towards the city.  The marine raised his rifle and shouted at Alex.

“Sir!  I need to you to come with us, now!”

Alex slowly turned, his hands raised.  Suddenly, Bluebolt flew out from behind several boulders.  The marine turned and fired a burst, barely missing the pegasus.  Alex opened his mouth, shouting.

“No!”

Alex began to raise his handgun.

The marine swung to face Alex, and pulled the trigger.  A hail of bullets swept across Alex’s chest, knocking him to the ground.  Alex helplessly squeezed the trigger as he fell, the bullet flying uselessly through the air.  Alex lay still.  The Blackhawks lifted off from the mountainside, leaving the man behind them.

Bluebolt soared up to Alex.

“No, Colonel, No!”

“Bluebolt…”

Alex said weakly.  Bluebolt managed to get underneath the limp body, getting him on his Back.  He felt warm blood trickle

through his coat.  Weakly, Alexs hands grasped Bluebolt.  Bluebolt spread his wings, and dove towards Canterlot.

<(^)>

“Can’t you use your stupid magic or something!  He’s going to freaking die!”

James slammed his fists against the wall.  Celestia tried to comfort the human.

“I can’t just cast a spell on him, your anatomy is different than ours… I might do more harm than help.  Trust me when I tell you that our doctors are doing all that they can.”

Celestia guiltily looked at the mangled man on the operating table.  Despite her words, James had spoken true.  Alex was dying.

“James…” the voice barely croaked.

“I’m here buddy, but don’t push yourself!”

“I… you have to stop Nickelson.  Whatever it takes.  Promise me.”

“I swear buddy, but you aren’t done yet, just hang in there!”

At that moment the door burst open, and a very concerned Twilight ran into the room.  Celestia looked at Twilight.  Twilight…  Celestia’s mind raced back to where she and Twilight had been when James and Alex had arrived.

“Twilight!”

Alex’s breathing was growing weaker.

“Yes princess?”

The lavender unicorn looked horrified at the sight of Alex.  Celestia saw the rest of the elements of harmony peak through

the door behind her.

“Twilight, your spell!  The one you were explaining to me!  You have to use your spell!  On Alex!”

Twilight’s eyes grew wide.

“But that will make…”

  “He’s going to die!  He barely has a minute left!  There’s no time, Twilight, quickly!”

Twilight gulped, and then turned towards the bloodied human.

Blood gurgled from his mouth, and he had lost consciousness.

Perhaps that’s for the best.  She thought.

Carefully, she braced herself, and then lowered her horn.  It glowed brilliantly, and James stepped back from the table.  As Alex’s chest fell, seemingly for the last time, a brilliant beam of magenta energy slammed into his body.  The light in the room grew to blinding, and James felt heat on his skin.  As his vision returned, James gasped.

<(^)>

“The whole deal with the president is of course of concern to me, but unfortunately, due to the relatively small amount of equipment and aircraft we have on hand here, we can’t do much.”

General Quentin looked at Ryan, trying to get him to understand the situation.

“But without support, we can hardly do anything!”

Ryan shouted, frustrated with the General.

“We can’t just count on the men already there, their all so afraid and weirded out that most of them will obey orders just because it’s something familiar.  You can’t do nothing!”

The General smiled.

“I believe that you misunderstood the statement, I said that we don’t have much at this base.  However…  I do have a few favors I can call in…”

Ryan stared at the General as he reached for a phone and kicked his feet up on the desk.  Quentin dialed, then stuck the phone to his ear.  Ryan could hear the line on the other end ringing, then:

“Hello?”

The General smiled.

“Hey Admiral, its Quentin, how’s everything going?”

“Quentin!  Nice to hear from you.  Things are going fine over here, how are things on your end?”

“Ok, ok, but interestingly enough, I just received news about that guy that you had some colorful things to say about last election year.”

Ryan smiled as he heard the response.

“What has the moron done this time?”

<(^)>

Am I dead? Alex wondered to himself.  It was an odd question, since felt more alive than he had ever been.  Still, who was to say how being dead felt?  Slowly, though he couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, he heard voices.  He realized that one of them belonged to James.  Definitely not dead then…

Alex tried to open his eyes, though for some reason, he felt as though his forehead weighed a million pounds.  All that weight seemed to be crushing down on his eyelids.  He managed to force them open.

“Ssshhh… he’s awake.”

Alex groaned.

“Do you feel ok?”

Alex turned his head to look at the speaker, Twilight.  How do I feel?

“I feel… good.  You guys certainly must be good medics, considering how many bullets that was and all.  I feel great actually, but… I don’t know, I feel, different too, but maybe I’m just imagining things.”

He stopped for a second, and then reconsidered.

“Actually, I totally feel different, not bad… but… oh wait, am I not wearing clothes?”

Alex realized he couldn’t feel anything on his body.  He sighed, and then looked at his expectantly bare body.  Alex froze, completely stunned.  The body he looked down on was not his.  Or at least, it wasn’t his old body.  A gray coat now covered his entire form, and a long, light green tail trailed off from his hindquarters.  He was most certainly no longer human.  Alex started trembling, and his breath came in short gasps.

“I… I’m…”

“I’m so sorry!”

Twilight broke in, her voice tinged with regret.

“I tried to restore you to your original form, but I just didn’t know about your makeup, where all the organs go…  You were dying, and I only had a few seconds!  I’m so sorry…”

Twilight quivered.

Slowly, Alex nodded, still trembling.  Then, carefully, he moved one of his arms up to his face.  He slowly marveled at the hoof that now graced the end of his arm, as opposed to the hand that had previously been there.  It was strange, but it felt almost as dexterous as his hand had been.  Alex suddenly remembered the weight on his forehead.  Carefully, he reached upward.  His hand- hoof, Alex silently corrected himself, hit a hard, cone shaped object that jetted forward from his head.

Alex strained his eyes and looked up.  Sure enough, sticking out from amongst a light green mane, he had a horn.  It was gray, just like the majority of his body.

“I’m… I’m a… Unicorn?”

The statement stunned him, yet it appeared to be true.  Suddenly, Celestia entered his field of vision and smiled.

“It certainly appears so.”

“How did I… change?”

Twilight, seeing that Alex was only stunned and shocked, not furious, hesitantly began to explain.

“Well… you were so torn up, and recently, I’ve been working on this one spell…”

Twilight sighed.

“The spell is designed to do virtually anything that involves rearranging the makeup of an object.  The only problem is, although you can change something that you don’t know the makeup of, you have to know the makeup of the end product.  I don’t have enough knowledge about your species anatomy… so I didn’t have a choice.  I had to turn you… into a pony.  I can understand if you’re mad at me.”

Alex was finally beginning to process the information, the initial shock slowly wearing off.

“I’m not mad at you Twilight.  I’m not mad at anyone, except maybe the guy who shot me.  You saved my life.  Even if I am a little… shocked at the moment.”

Alex slowly exhaled.

“But, you said that you can change anything?  That means that if we were to give you enough information on humans, you could change me back right?”

Twilight shifted uneasily.

“Well… there is a slight complication… The energy that is exerted on molecules to rearrange them like that…  Well… it isn’t natural.”

Alex looked at Twilight, his green mane falling in his face, partially obscuring his view.

“What… what does that mean?”

Twilight took a deep breath.

“If you use the spell on the same molecule more than once… it completely destroys it.”

Alex slowly slid off the operating table, and landed on the floor, unsteady on his four legs.

“So you’re saying that I’m going to be a… um… unicorn…”

Twilight grimly nodded.

“Forever.”