Chapter 1: The Arrival
Bullets peppered the ground behind him as the lone sniper sprinted toward salvation. He dodged around bulky tree trunks and thick bushes. The projectiles barely missed, smashing into trees and roots. Birds and critters scattered as he stormed through the underbrush.
“Wells! Get the fuck out of there now!” Shouted an angry General Vasquez through Tyler’s ear mic. “We have a chopper evac just a few clicks north of you current position. Get there alive.”
“Manuel, don’t get soft on me now.” Tyler chided back as another shower of bullets nearly hit him. He frowned as he readjusted his sniper on his back. The weapon slowed him down, but not by much. He leaped over a broad root and sprinted even faster.
“This is no laughing matter sergeant!” Manuel snapped. Tyler imagined the spittle flying from his mouth and smiled. “Now,” he had calmed down somewhat. “there’s a gorge in between you and safety. Then after that it’s home from there. The landing site is only a few hundred meters from there. The chopper leaves in twenty minutes. Good luck.”
“Yes sir.” Tyler replied, saluting in mid-run. He pulled the mic from his hear and tucked in his breast pocket. He dodged another bullet, this time it nearly took off his ear. Tyler gulped after the close shot passed and recoiled off a rock. The chase continued on as such. Tyler would dodge the bullets and put as many trees and rocks in between him and his enemy. They often shouted, “He’s over there!” and, “Com’on!”.
“Good luck trying to catch me now you cock suckers. Whoa.” Tyler skidded to a halt, barely keeping himself from flying off the edge into the gorge. He peered down into its foggy depths. The shouts were getting louder as his chasers were advancing. Tyler looked up and down the chasm, but couldn’t find a single way across. Giving a sigh, he un-slung his sniper from his back and turned to face his rival. They were getting louder still, close enough he could spot movement in the trees. He brought the butt of the rifle up to his shoulder, and searched for his targets through his scope. He fired one shot, than two, than three. He fired more and more, each shot taking down an foe. There were too many of them. Within minutes they were upon him, all twenty of them surrounding him with AKs or pistols pointed at him.
“Well, I loved the little chase we had, but I’m afraid you still haven’t quit won yet.” The group of men exchanged confused glances. “Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!” he shouted as he leaped backwards off the ledge. He knew he wasn’t going to survive the fall, but at least they couldn’t torture him for information. He began to descend faster and faster. Though the feeling of the fall didn’t seem quite right, as if some unknown force was there with him. He pushed the thought aside as he, no need to worry about the little things. He disappeared into the mist, never to be seen living, or dead again.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“Hey Spike,” shouted a lavender unicorn through her treebrary. “I’m going into town to buy some more ink and quills. Do you want to come?” She trotted over to the door just as a miniature purple scaled, green spiked dragon came stumbling down the stairs. He was carrying a stack of books, and went to set them on a nearby table.
“No Twilight, I’m fine.” He said as he climbed up on a stool and began rearranging books. “I need to finish putting books away.”
“Ok, then.” Her horn began to glow a purple hue, as did the door. It opened to reveal a sunny, mid-morning day. She trotted outside and closed the door behind her using magic. “What a beautiful day.” She sniffed the fragrant air. Then the ground began to vibrate. Twilight furrowed her brows. What was going on? The earth all around her shook more violently. She looked down the main street leading to her treebrary. There was a giant dust cloud headed straight for the town. “Is that another stampede?” she asked, but was eventually proved wrong. In fact, it was not a stampede but instead a large group of foreign ponies. As the advance Twilight could make out more details. Each pony wore black stained armor stained with a strange substance. Slung across their backs were crude weapon such as swords and axes. Their faces were hidden behind dark horned helmets with only eye slits to look out of. Eventualy Twilight could make out the town residents running with them, so it appeared. But later Twilight found out that her neighbor were by fact, running away from these strange ponies. She spotted Rarity among the group of terrified equines.
“Rarity! What’s going on!” Rarity skidded to a halt in front of Twilight.
“It’s the brigand everypony has been talking about. Our towns their next ransacking.” Rarity quickly looked behind her and fled, leaving Twilight standing in front of her treebrary. The brigand was getting closer and closer still. Twilight was frozen to the spot. Her hooves screamed for her to RUN, but she just couldn’t. The group of brigand’s past her except for one. This one was a mare no bigger than herself she guessed. Twilight could make out her blond mane and tail and green eyes. She approached Twilight slowly as she un-slung her sword from her back. Twilight pulled her eyes from the pony and onto the sword. It was either poorly taken care of or poorly made for its grip was cracked and almost falling off and the blade was stained crimson and cracked as well.
The mare stopped in front of her and raised the butt of her sword. Twilight looked up in horror as it came crashing upon her cranium. She blacked out and fell to the ground. The only thoughts in her mind were ‘Spike, run.’.
~*~*~*~*~*~
He cracked his eyelids and cringed as he blocked the sun’s rays with as arm. There was a sharp pain in his back, as if something was digging into it. He chuckled as he remembered he had replaced his sniper on his back. What would I do without you? Tyler struggled to sit up, but their seemed to be something wrong with his hands. They seemed paralyzed into fists. He tried to open his hand but to no avail, he couldn’t. He rolled over onto his stomach and tried to stand up, but yet again he couldn’t and only fell to his hands. That’s weird, it feels like I’m on my feet and hands, but, did my legs get shorter? And, wait, what’s this? He crossed his eyes, but it wasn’t his nose he saw, it was more of a snout, a black snout. Now that’s even weirder, where my nose. He brought up his fist to touch his nose, but yet again he was in for another surprise. Instead of his fist, it was a red hoof. Tyler’s eyes nearly popped out of his head. What the ass monkey just fucking happened to me. Remain calm, I’m probably dead and I’m in hell. I knew I shouldn’t have stolen John’s chocolate bars. He seemed to me some kind of black and red horse. Looking down at his hooves he saw that on all four of them, he had red fur climbing up to his knees. Well, at least he wasn’t pink. He turned his head to look down his back and was surprised at both his flexible neck and the wings he sported on his back with his sniper resting in between them. Now that was a shocker. His mouth dropped open at the sight. I can fly! I can’t wait to show my mom. He examined them further. They were black like the rest of him, but the same crimson red bordered each feather. He couldn’t get a really good look of his mane, but he could make out his tale, which was black with strands of red hair. So that must have meant his mane probably looked the same.
His ears twitched, he could hear screaming off in the distance. “Man, I have my sniper and now I have to sve people in hell too. What a perfect afterlife this is.” He stomped his hoop and trotted off towards the screaming. On his little venture he took in account of his surroundings. He was in dense jungle, much like the one he had been running through before he died. Though one thing was by far different. The plants moved and shifted; some even tried to eat him. “It’s the most, wonderful time, of the year.” He sang, “Most wonderful time my ass. I could be on my way home to spend Christmas with my family, but no.” The screams were getting closer as he continued on. He could now see the edge of the forest, which gave off into vast pains of grass and rolling hills. You could actually see the sun rays dance in the grass the shadows of clouds drifting in the air. “Now this doesn’t look like a war zone, or hell. Looks like fucking heaven.” About a click from where he was standing was a town, a rather unusual town by far. It wasn’t your average, every building looks the same and is the same color. Really, there were many colors, almost every color in the spectrum. He stared at it in awe, but then noticed in the center of town, there was movement. A large group of horses in armor, were dragging rather colorful horses and pushing them to the ground in front of a tree. He pulled out his AS 50 and pulled out his tripod and rested his gun on it. Then he peered through the scope so he could get a better visual.
One of the armored horses stepped out of the crowd and paced closer to their prisoners. He then began speaking but Tyler couldn’t make out the words. Finally he walked over to one of the ponies, a yellow one with a pink mane and tail. She too was a pegasus. He armored horse dragged her by the hair in the open space between the two groups. He spoke some more then walked over to another horse in armor, that one handed him a weapon, which he took over to the yellow horse. He quickly raised the weapon to strike at the defenseless horse.
“Oh shit!” Tyler lined up his crosshairs with the armored ponies head and pulled the trigger. The horse dropped lifelessly to the ground and his weapon fell beside him. All the other horses were shocked and amazed, but it wasn’t over yet. Tyler picked off four more of the armored horses. Blood splattered everywhere and they scattered. Tyler popped off the empty clip and replaced it with a full one, then began firing more. He continued this process until they galloped out of town, leaving their dead behind. The colored horses were still stunned by the sudden events, that they just sat there and stared. Finally they began to search the area, but still didn’t move.
“I guess my work here is done. Time to head into town.” He picked up the empty cartridge and placed it in a strap on his bag. He examined the bag, it appeared perfect for such an animal. It must be a saddlebag. Happy with his answer he placed his gun atop his back and began galloping down the hill toward the town.
~*~*~*~*~*~
“What the hay happened?” Shouted Applejack as she got up to her hooves. She gazed over the fallen ponies. “Ah mean really, what happened?” She helped the other ponies up one by one.
“I wonder who did that?” Asked Rarity as she fluffed out her purple mane. “I sure hope their on our side. I’ll be at my boutique everypony.” She didn’t even sound interested in what had happened. She just acknowledged they were safe and that was all she needed to know. Twilight rushed into her treebrary to go find Spike.
“Spike!” she yelled. “Spike, are you OK?!”
“Ya Twi, I’m alright.” Spike was up on the balcony carrying down books. “They didn’t bother to look in here so I thought I’d just continue putting books away.”
“O-ok then. I guess.” Twilight trotted out the door and into the group of ponies. Many had bruises and cuts along their bodies, but nothing too serious. Fluttershy on the other hoof, was crying while Rainbow Dash comforted her. “Everypony!” She shouted to the crowd. “I’m not entirely sure who may have saved us, but until I do, I suggest you go about your daily routines! It’s better to deal with out little endeavor than greave over it!” The ponies nodded their heads in agreement and slowly filed out back throughout town. The ones to stay were her best friends, Rainbow, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie.
“What do ya think happened Twi?” Asked Applejack. “Ah mean, that one pony, right before...you know...and then his head just...exploded.”
“Did you hear those explosions just before that happened.” Added Rainbow Dash. She was still with Fluttershy as she cried.
“Ya, they were coming from the Everfree. Well at least ah think they did.” AJ scratched her head and was deep in thought.
“Eeeeek!!” Fluttershy was screaming and pointing off down on e of the streets. They all turned their heads to see what had scared her even more. It was another pony, this one not in any armor, but he did have a peculiar device on his back. Applejack put herself in between the newcomer and her friends.
“Ah’ve had enough of this today. Ah don’t need any more.” She began to charge, lowering her head for the hit. She almost made contact when, but she didn’t hit anything. The stallion had dodged her and was on the other side of her.
“Well excuse me for saving your lives. Although, I guess that’s how most people act after I do.” He spoke,
“Wait, yer the one who took down those brigand characters?” She mouth dropped. “But, you weren’t even here.”
“Ya, I k now. I was on that hill just outside of the forest over there.” He pointed with his hoof. “Um, so. How was your day?” Applejack just stood there dazed and confused. The only thing she moved were her eyes when she saw her friends gallop beside him. The stallion was tackled by Pinkie Pie however, who inturn kicked her off with extreme strength.
“I just wanted a hug.” She complained, but perked right up. “I can throw another, ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party.” She dashed off. Leaving Tyler on the ground, again his gun digging into his back. Rainbow helped him up.
“Don’t mind her, she’s always like that.” Twilight said. “So, you’re the one who took care of the brigand.” Tyler nodded his head. “Well, do you want to talk over lunch?”
“That would be awesome. I haven’t eaten in three days anyhow.” He rubbed an invisible dust off.
“Three days. Why?” asked Applejack.
“Oh. Well, I was sent on a mission... You know, this is a long story. Shall we go?” Twilight led the way to her treebrary.
