Two Thugs in Equestria

Chapter 4

The heat was oppressive. The air itself was hot, and every breath of the superheated oxygen strained Charlies lungs.

“Christ couldn't we have picked a better place to invade?” Charlie joked to his squad mates.

“Fuckin' ragheads...” Mickey, the team's support gunner said. “ I don't know how they do it. And then they run around in fuckin' pajamas, the fuck is with that?”

Lieutenant Wallace turned around. “ Stow that shit. We gotta be on high alert, we've had three ambushes in this town in the past two weeks. I don't want to go home in a body bag, so pay attention.”

“Sir yes sir.” James said with a lazy salute.

The Lieutenant scowled, he hated it when James gave him a poor salute. It was a sign of disrespect, while it would be a good idea to discipline James for his behaviour, it would be pointless to distract the team in a hostile environment.

The team slowly crept up the empty street. The sun bleached buildings showed no signs of life. Charlie scanned the rooftops with his L85A2 rifle, he saw no movement whatsoever.

“Sir?” Charlie asked hesitantly.

“Yes corporal?”

“Every notice how when no one is around, It means something bad is gunna' happen?”

“Relax Marine, if we get attacked we got us some air support to pound the fuck outa' them.”

It was tense as the troop slowly marched through the town. No one said a thing.

James walked up to Charlie “ Hey Charlie?”

“What?”

“When we ditch this party, I got us a job when we get back home.”

“Illegal?”

“The best jobs are.”

Charlie lightly chuckled. “You know, I'd think that after that last run in with the law yo-”

“Contact! Contact! Left building!” The lieutenant screamed.

In the time it took for Charlie to register what was happening, an RPG had exploded next to the Lieutenant. The officer screamed in pain for a few moments before succumbing to his injuries.

Everyone in the squad had opened fire on the group of men firing at them from the tall left building.

Charlie could barely register what was happening, he had expected contact, but nothing like this. As he looked around he saw Mickey lying on the ground, a round had ripped through his throat and a pool of blood was growing around his now lifeless body.

Distraught by his dead comrade, Charlie was caught off guard by a bullet impacting with his left shoulder.

Charlie snapped back to reality in an instant. “ Shit! I'm hit!”

“Shut the fuck up! We all are!” James screamed to Charlie.

Charlie crawled over to the dead Lieutenant, bullets riddling the ground around him. He searched the body and found the radio. He turned it on.

“This is Hitman two actual! We are requesting immediate air support! Danger close!”

The radio crackled to life. “ Roger. Two fast movers inbound.” Said the radio operator reffering to a pair of Tornado GR4's.

Charlie was now the single focus of all the attackers fire. He looked up at the building and took another round in the chest.

“Charlie!” James screamed over the roar of gunfire.

Charlie did not even respond. He looked to the sky and saw the two Tornado fighters incoming. He took another round to the stomach.

“Charlie!” James screamed again as he scrambled to aid his closest friend.

Once again Charlie did not respond, he simply looked at James. Charlie was loosing blood. I'm going to die. It was strange feeling, facing your own mortality in the face, and then accepting it.

“Charlie don't you fuckin' die on me!”

Charlie cracked a smile before passing out.

“Charlie!” James screamed again.

“Charlie!” He repeated.

Why can I still hear him?

“Charlie wake the fuck up!”

Charlie awoke in a daze. Apparently James had been shouting at him for the past few minutes.

“Charlie you okay man? You were shaking and screaming.”

Charlie rubbed his eyes and looked around, Twilight was looking very worried.

“Y-yeah I'm fine. I just had a dream...”

“Iraq?”

A long sigh escaped Charlies dry lips. “Yeah...”

“Whats Iraq?” Twilight asked, slightly intrigued at this new word.

“Iraq is a country.”

“Okay...So why did a country make you have such terrible dreams?'

“There was a war in Iraq. James and I served in it, I saw some pretty messed up things...”

“Umm...” Twilight looked embarrassed. “What exactly is a war?” Twilight was clearly not used to asking the questions.

“A war is when two countries fight against each other. They send soldiers, like James and I, to fight and kill the other country's soldiers. It is a terrible, but common part of humanity. No one should ever have to experience war... it messes you up.” Shortly after experiencing his injuries in Iraq, Charlie had been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Charlie had told James about and James had been remarkably supportive of his friend.

“That's terrible!”

“Yeah...it is. Now lets forget about this whole conversation, I don't want to jade you just yet.” He put on a fake smile, the memory of seeing his platoon decimated and him sitting there, nearly dying on a filthy street was still fresh in his mind.

James was quiet for the entire conversation. He was dumb, but not dumb enough to joke about the war in which they had lost so many of their friends. It may not be very apparent, but even James had limits on what he would say, he knew how messed up Charlie was.

“Wait a minute, you said you were a criminal before and now you are saying you're a soldier, which is it?” A tinge of anger was audible in her voice.

Charlie just shrugged. “We were both. We joined at the same time, did our minimum service of four years and then we delved into our current line of work.”

"How old are you?" She inquired.

"I'm 28. Graduated university at 22, joined the Royal marines until I was 26 and worked with James here for the past two."

“Alright then, Sorry if I seemed a bit angry, Its just that here the Royal Guard are the closest thing we have to soldiers and a contract with them is for life so I thought you were lying to me..."

“Don't worry about it"

Twilight nodded before turning to walk away.As she was walking away she suddenly remembered something. “ Oh Charlie, Princess Celestia sent us a letter back, she is going to be here tomorrow. She wants no one to know you're here so...just relax and stay away from the windows.”

“That's cool and all, but isn't this place a library? A public one? As in one that people just walk in to grab and read book whenever?” Charlie asked, his voice escalating in panic with every question.

“No one really reads in Ponyville.”

“Straight up!” James shouted.

Twilight just deadpanned then continued her explanation. “ Anyways...No one really reads here except me and Dash. Rainbow only reads Daring Doo books and she just checked out a couple last week so she should be busy for quite a bit longer.”

“Alright, I just dont want to be sent to the moon for disobeying the princess.” Charlie slapped a hand over his mouth at his comment.

Twilight's eyes narrowed.” How would YOU know that Celestia can send ponies to the moon?”

“Uhh...” Shit!   “That was just a Human saying.”

“Hmmm.” Twilight turned around and left Charlie.

I've got to remember to NOT use any brony sayings. Might cause the world to implode or something.

“Hey James, can I talk to you for a minute?”

James, who had been sitting in the corner playing with his Glock looked up at Charlie. “ Yeah, sure.”

James walked over and sat down next to Charlie. “That dream...I haven't had it in months. Why is it coming back now?”

“Maybe it's 'cause you're in a new place?”

“Nah, I dont think so. I think it's something different...”

“Well don't worry about it man, I'll help you through it okay. Just 'cause I bust you're balls doesnt mean I don't love you man.”

Charlie looked up and saw true emotion in James' eyes. Despite all of his faults, he really is my best friend. Scratch that, he's my brother.

“Thanks man, wanna see what kind of trouble we can get into?” Charlie said with an evil grin.

“Damn straight.”

James got up first and gave his hand to Charlie who grabbed it up and let James pick him up.

Charlie started scanning the book shelves. It has got to be here somewhere...ah here it is!

Charlie smiled as he looked at the book A Guide to Pony Anatomy.

James looked at Charlie and new exactly what he was thinking.

As Charlie scanned the pages, he found the page he was looking for. “Oh Twilight, Can you help me with something?” He called.

“Sure what is it?”

“What is the main purpose for this body part? I'm a little confused when it comes to ponies.” Charlie turned the book so that Twilight could see what the page was. Twilight turned a bright red as she saw the close up of a male pony reproductive organ.

Twilight tried to respond but she could do nothing but stutter.

“Ha ha ha!” Charlie dropped the book as he fell to the ground laughing. James was laughing too.

Twilight, now realizing that they had known exactly what it was and this whole ordeal was just to embarrass her, became very angry.

“Well you seem to like embarrassing me, so it's now my turn!”

James was the first to recover from laughing “ Huh?”

Twilight's horn started to glow and James could feel himself being levitated. Charlie snapped out of his laughter once he realized that he was floating as well.

“I have to go out for a bit, so you two can keep each other company...close company.”

Twilight then forced both of the men to lie down on top of each other. James struggled to get away but was unable to.

“What the fuck is this? I ain't gay man!”

“Ooh, look's like some one isn't sexually secure...”

“Shut the fuck up nerd!” James shouted at Twilight.

“Well I got to go, so have fun!” She concluded ad she walked out of the door.

James and Charlie just tried to avoid eye contact as they were in such a compromising situation.

As Charlie was looking everywhere but into James' eyes, he spotted a purple dragon looking at them with disgust.

“Uhh, am I interrupting something?”

“NO!” The two criminals shouted in unison.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Nightfall had come and all were asleep in the library. Charlie had been hoping for happy dreams, but he was not given that gift.

Charlie stood there above the kid. He was only fifteen years old. There were five men surrounding the kid, his face was bloody.

Of the five men, James was one of them. The others were members of the Mob.

The kid had been beaten for stealing from the Mob, he had taken some of the drugs they had given him to sell.

One of the Mafia members stomped his face again. The kid coughed up blood.

“You fucked up kid.”

One of the mobsters reached into his pocket and tossed Charlie a gun.

It was a brand new Colt 1911.

“Why are you giving me this?”

“Waste 'em.”

“What?”

“Blood in, blood out. Kill this fucker and you and your boy James are in the gang.”

Charlie pulled the slide back on the gun and pointed it at the kid's face.

As Charlie looked down the gun's sights, his hand had started to shake.

“Come on Charlie, don't be a pussy!” James shouted. “ We offed guys in Iraq and they were real motherfuckin' fighters. This punk is just some junkie dealer!”

James clearly wanted to join, but Charlie was not sure if he could do it.

“Fuck it...” Charlie mumbled to himself. “I'm going to hell anyways.”

He looked into the kid's eyes and saw tears streaming from them.

As he looked down the sights once again and lined up the kids forhead he felt his soul leave him. He became a husk. He had no emotion.

Emotionless, he fired the weapon.

Charlie awoke in a cold sweat.

“Christ...” No matter what he did, the dreams and memories of his past life haunted him.

As Charlie sat in the mattress that Twilight had pulled out for him. He was covered in sweat and was panting heavily.

He looked over and saw James still fast asleep on the couch.

Charlie closed his eyes and tried to fall asleep but soon gave up on that as it was impossible.

Charlie got up silently, opened the door and left the library. It was way past midnight so there was very little chance anyone would be out.

He mentally told himself that he was being stupid and that disobeying both the princess and twilight was a bad idea.

Sadly, at nearly three in the morning, Charlie was in no mood to listen to logic and reason.

Ill be back in time, no need to worry.

He had no idea how wrong he was going to be.