A Second Chance

by Shadowstep

Rating: teen
Tags: Original Character, Tragedy, Crossover, Human, Twilight Sparkle, Gore, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Dark, Other
Length: 21926

Captain Michael Denton finds himself in a new and very different world.

The NCR Veteran Ranger, Elite Class, Capt. Michael Denton was seen as a kind and honorable man by wasteland standards. Until it finally broke him. His reason for joining the NCR changed. He used means that would be considered monstrous to defeat his enemies and complete his objective. The NCR saw this and decided to use him as a weapon. Haunted by the death of his sister and his government using him, Michael turned into a monster. But after a mission gone wrong Michael found himself and his team trapped by raiders inside an underground research facility and his life was about to take an unexpected turn.

Published 2011-11-05 20:26:31 UTC
Last updated 2012-09-13 16:59:43 UTC

Chapter 0: Bad Luck

“It’s a simple reconnaissance mission Captain, you won’t need backup” the Colonels words rang loudly in the back of my head as I gritted my teeth forcing myself to run faster. Dashing down the corridor I cursed myself for not being more careful, now we had an army of raiders hunting us! Bullets striking the walls around us causing big clouds of dust and debris to
explode into the hallway, a few rounds flew right by us and struck the wall at far end of the corridor. My duster was flapping behind me as I thundered down the hallway, sometimes I really wished my gear wasn't so fucking heavy!

“How the hell did we get into this mess?!” Frank yelled.

“Shut up and run!” Jesse shouted in response, firing his sub-machine gun over his shoulder in our pursuers’ general
direction.

We were rapidly nearing the end of the corridor when I noticed a red door marked as “Maintenance” on my immediate right.

“Follow me!” I bellowed, throwing myself against the door at full speed. Despite it being over two-hundred years old the wooden door was surprisingly sturdy.

As I tumbled through the smashed door I found myself in complete darkness, I tripped on something and slammed into the cold steel floor, banging my head on a toolbox. My shoulder was aching and my chest felt sore, my forehead was bleeding badly.

I heard the low rumble of Frank’s machine gun as two strong arms grabbed me and started half-lifting, half-dragging me down some stairs. What the fuck are we supposed to do now? I thought as everything started getting fuzzy.

As I opened my eyes I saw that I was in some sort of infirmary/science-bay. With the adrenaline of the chase out of my system I felt just how much everything hurt. I winced from the pain of a bruised rib as I forced myself into a sitting position. I was lying on some kind of medical stretcher. I noticed that Frank was holding the door closed while Jesse was in the process of pushing a big steel-locker in front of it. I heard banging on the other side of the door. I grunted as I tried to get off the stretcher, on my second try I managed to get onto my feet.

“How the fuck did a bunch of raiders both successfully ambush and trap three Rangers inside of an old factory?”

“Fuck if I know.” Frank said.

“Michael you should-“Jesse started.

“Should what Jesse?”

I looked up at Jesse who seemed positively dumbstruck. As I turned around to see what he was looking at my jaw dropped. Behind a broken down wall on the far side of the med-bay was a massive steel gate with two spinning lights reveling the text “Vault-tec” engraved in the center of it.

After a bit of scavenging I found a flashlight in one of the lockers blocking the door and checked for batteries. ‘A half-spent fission battery and it seems functional’ I thought to myself as we approached the opening. I turned it on shining the light over the gruesome scene waiting on the other side of the wall. Dozens of skeletons were spread across the floor, old dried up bloodstains coloring most of the floor and the walls black.

“Unauthorized personal detected. Activating security systems, lethal force authorized” a robotic voice chimed. Two turrets placed above the door spun around and aimed straight at us.

“Take cover!” I shouted. But instead of blasting us apart, the turrets just made a few clicking noises.

“Out of ammo…” Jesse sighed with relief. Frank promptly shot both turrets causing two explosions.

“Dammit Frank!” I yelled as I put my fingers in my ears to stop the ringing. Frank just shrugged as I glared at him. After the ringing stopped I saw the control panel right next to the gate.

“What the fuck happened here?” Jesse asked with a disgusted look on his face.

“My guess is that they were the reason that those turrets ran out of ammo.” Frank muttered.

As I approached the controls I noticed a skeleton was lying on top of the panel. As I carefully lifted the skeleton of the panel I noticed that he or she had managed to punch in a password before dying.
“That’s convenient, we owe you, big time.” I said to the skeleton now lying on the floor next to the panel. As I pulled the lever the massive door gave out a hissing sound and an alarm started chiming.

We had been walking through the vaults murky hallways for about an hour before we found the anything useful, the infirmary. After patching ourselves up and grabbing a few supplies, mostly Stimpaks and Med-x, we continued down the hallways of the dark vault. Well at least until we reached a certain door.

“Kitchen/Dining Room, you think there is any food left?” Frank asked.

“The powers been out for lord knows how long, and you think there will be anything edible in there?” Jesse chuckled.

“Powers out? Those turrets sure looked very active!”

“They were probably running on their own generators, in case you haven’t noticed there are no lights on in here.”

I stopped and turned around. “Cut the chatter and get moving!” I barked at them.

“Yes sir!” They said in unison and with that we started moving down the hallway deeper into the vaults murky corridors.

It didn’t take long until we found something noteworthy, the bones of a worker still dressed in rags that resembled a vault jumpsuit. So this place actually had people in it? I thought as I took a closer look. I noticed that the skeleton had a Pipboy, it
didn’t take much effort to get it off, and with the Pipboy in my pack we kept moving.

After a while we stumbled onto what looked like another vault gate but much smaller than the one at the entrance. As we approached the door and I saw a terminal next to it, as I started accessing the firewall to hack it a robotic voice chimed.

“Please present your employee Pipboy for identification”.

Dumfounded I pulled out the device I had in my pack and presented it to the terminal. A small light started shining as the terminal scanned the Pipboy.

“Pipboy identification complete, welcome Director Phyllis” the voice chimed as the door swung open.

What waited on the other side of the door was unexpected. It was a cubical room with dark grey walls a few flickering lights and two big pylons sticking out of the walls that were emitting some electrical currents into the air, both pylons were pointing to a position directly above a platform with a terminal and some sort of chemical dispenser and as we stepped in we noticed that the floor was covered in a fine layer of dust.

“Good evening Director how was your day?” The robotic voice asked.

“Just fine and dandy…” I grumbled.

“Voice identification failed, activating security systems” The voice chimed loudly.

We all cried out different expletives as the door slammed shut behind us and a hatch opened in the roof. Only to hear a loud clang as the massive turret fell out of the hole and smashed into the floor with a loud -CLANG- causing the dust on the floor to rise.

“Fantastic.” I coughed while swaying my arms trying to clear away the dust.

Next to the security door was a small keypad. After examining it I noticed that not only couldn’t I hack it but the code was 42
digits long.
~42 digits?! What the fuck man!~ A voice in my head shrieked. “And here I thought I was finally rid of you.” I muttered.
~Well everyone needs a vacation now and then you know.~

Jesse looked at me like I was crazy; I just shrugged “I hear voices. Guess I got shot in the head one too many times.”
After three hours I gave up on guessing the code. We still hadn’t managed to find any way of opening the door.

“We’re not getting out of here, the code is 42 digits long and that will take years to guess.” I sighed.

“Why not just hack it?” Jesse suggested.

“I don’t see any point in trying. There is nothing to hack, if anything I could try to bypass it but that would most likely result is that I manage to fry the circuits.”

“I guess that’s bad?” Frank asked.

“B-bad? I asked, eye twitching. Yes Frank that would be bad! Without it all we can do is starve to death, which probably is what’s going to happen anyway since there is no way in hell to open this goddamn door!” I snapped at him and slammed my fist into the door.

Frank and Jesse shot me a worried look. I had never lost my cool; we’d seen and fought super mutants, deathclaws, even when cornered by a behemoth. Not even during the three weeks we had spent in the Legions prison camps. After going through our packs we realized we had barely enough food and water to live past the week. I really hated the idea of starving to death after everything that had failed to kill me.

That’s just great; I lead us into a death trap twice in one day! But that’s not the best part. In the first we would just have been shot or maybe a little tortured now we were going to starve instead. I sighed and went over the options.
Either we keep trying to guess the combination and starve or one of us could try the combination while two others killed themselves to spare provisions. Excellent leadership if we get out of here I’m resigning. After hitting the wall with my fist and cursing a couple of more time I decided I was going to try that damn terminal again and see if anything’s changed since the last time.

I walked up to the terminal and was greeted by something else then the last three times I had tried. “Begin experimental procedure?” After clicking my way through some screens it told me to put my arm into the chemical device.

Why the hell not? I thought putting my arm into the arm slot in the machine.

“Mike, the hell do you think you’re doing?” Frank shouted.

“Experimenting” ~We’re really this stupid?~ "I didn’t ask for your opinion." ~I’m your brain. My opinion is your opinion.~ "Shut up will you?"

I looked over at the screen and instead of the usual scientific mumbo-jumbo there was clear text.
My eyes widened when I started reading. “Injecting Biological Agent E-479x.” I hastily clicked up the specifics on the agent. “BA.E-479x Will alter your DNA string so that you become extremely susceptible to mutation. That will allow your DNA to change to the indignant life-form that is the closest to matching your DNA and body type upon entering another dimension.”

“What the f-fuck were they doing down here?” I stuttered. ~Nothing good would be my guess.~ If I could, I would have stomped my inner voice’s head into paste but that would be bad for me. Stomping your brain to mush is bad for you I’ve heard.

Then suddenly I felt an excruciating pain in my arm. “aahhAhhh!!!” I screamed as the machine released my arm. I could see my veins, they were glowing red. And my arm felt like it was on fire!

“Wormhole establishing in 3 - 2 - 1…” The robotic voice chimed. ~Ooh that sounds bad, but at the same time rather exciting!~ my brain chimed back.

Then there was a flash of light as the pylons fired some sort of energy beam between them, the beams connecting right above me. I saw a cyan colored cloud form above me and my eyes widened in horror as the cloud began dispersing, reveling a tunnel into what looked like space. I was suddenly yanked upwards as I caught a glimpse of something that made my heart sink into my feet. A cyan colored energy blast riveted across the room turning Frank and Jesse into dust.
“NO!” I screamed as I was sucked into the wormhole.

After what had been the most disorientating trip of my life I exited the wormhole into another dimension when a sudden pain shot through my body. It felt like every single one of my cells was being torn apart. I opened my eyes and all I could see was green. I noticed that it was grass and I was approaching it at an alarming rate. ~This is going to hurt, a lot.~

I slammed into the ground at bonecrushing speed and indeed I did hear a loud crack followed by immense pain. “What’n’tarnation?!” Someone yelled. The pain caused my vision to go a little blurry but my mind was already going into overdrive.

~What just happened? Did we just see a blue police-box? Who yelled? Is she going to help or gut us? And why is the grass so… comfortable?~ Didn’t matter how much my brain wanted answers, I simply groaned “ouch…” Upon which everything started getting even more blurry and I then something poked me on my now broken rib causing a wave of fresh pain to shoot through my body as everything went black.

‘Wake up!’ My brain yelled at me. Not yet, let them kill me first. ‘Wake up, or I’ll give you a tumor!’ Yeah right, you can’t do that, can you? ‘Want me to try?’ I started squirming a little bit.

“Oh good ah was gettin’ worried for a moment there, yah okay?” The female voice asked. ‘She’s got a southern accent? Where are we exactly?’

“I’ve been better” I groaned in response as I struggled to open my eyes. Blinking away the tears that had formed in my eyes I found myself staring straight into the face of a very odd looking orange pony wearing a cowboy hat. I noticed that I was lying on the pony’s back.

“Can yah walk?” she asked.

‘An orange p-pony? An orange pony wearing a Stetson hat? Screw this I’m taking a break. I’ll be back when the insanity settles.’ My eye started twitching violently as I slipped of her back and landed on the ground with a soft thump and a brand new jolt of pain.

“Ah g’ess not.” Was the last thing I heard before everything went black again.

Chapter 2: Broken Facade

It took a few hours, but I finally got myself under control. I sat up and looked over to the mirror taking in the sight of my new reflection. My light brown coat, my black mane with grey shades, my new eyes and the equine body was kinda important too. It finally dawned on me.

“So, I’m a pony now?”

~Looks that way~

“Any chance this is a drug-induced dream?”

~No drugs in our system~

“Are you sure?”

~Yep~

“Fuck.”

I got of the bed and noticed how natural it felt to move, almost like nothing had changed. A few moments later I eased my way over to the couch that now featured my gear. I checked the pile and found my leather duster, the body armor, an old torn shirt, a pair of dusty trousers, an old filthy pair of socks, my backpack and my helmet.

I checked the dusters holster and frowned as I didn’t find my old trusty 12.7 mm handgun. I opened and looked through my backpack, I smiled as the first thing I found was my weapon. I lifted it out of my pack and ejected the clip, an impressive feat using hooves, and checked the bullets.

“Thank god, I decided against loading it with hollow points. It would have torn her leg off.” I sighed as I slid it back into the gun and dropped it on to the couch. I also found my little bag of fun; I cringed as I remember the day after the battle at the airport, when the drugs exited my system all at once, and buried it under all the financial clipboards and tin cans I had in my backpack.

“Why do I carry so much crap?”

I opened another compartment in my pack and pulled out a brick of C-4 explosives and put it back, faster than I pulled it out. I then thought of something. I pulled the drug bag back out, opened it and pulled out a Super-Stimpak. I looked over to the window, it was dark outside. I walked over to the window and opened it, letting to cool breeze wash over me and fill the room.
I looked up and saw the moon; it was much larger and much more beautiful than the one back home.

‘Wait! What will happen if we inject a Super-Stimpak now? We might still be under the biological agent thing!’

“Maybe, but I don’t have time to wait until my rib heals on its own. Besides what’s the worst that could happen?” and I jabbed the needle into my chest. The pain in my chest lessened quickly, but was soon followed by an excruciating pain that shot through my entire body. I shut my eyes and clenched my teeth and forced myself to endure it. But it was no good and I started to scream through my clenched teeth.

After a few minutes I opened my eyes again, I was drenched it sweat, I looked myself over. Nothing had changed, except that the couch was a little further down and seemed smaller. I looked over to the mirror. My eyes had turned an even darker shade of red.

The door burst open and the nurse from earlier rushed into the room. She looked like she just got out of bed; her mane was spurting out in all directions.

“Are you alright? She sounded a little scared, she looked at me with big eyes, which creeped me out, and walked over to me putting her hoof on my forehead. I pushed her hoof away and tried my best to look like it was nothing, but I was still shaking.

“I’m fine, really” my voice sounded raspy and strained.

“Uh-huh, now why don’t you go back to bed and try that again tomorrow?”

“But…” I tried but she just glared at me, which was even creepier.

“Fine” I grunted and went back to the bed and lied down on the soft mattress. Something was wrong, I was bigger then before, I could not stretch my legs out fully anymore, but my rib was better at least. The nurse closed the window pulled the curtains shut and left the room.

When she shut the door behind her I realized that I was exhausted, and that this hospital bed was really comfortable, and this room smelled like vanilla, which was very relaxing. I had no idea where I was or how I got here or if I was ever going to be able get back home, but right now it didn’t matter, I just wanted some sleep.

But then something hit me, I threw myself out of the bed and stumbled over to the couch. I picked up my duster and rooted through its pockets for a while my sense of panic was growing. Then I found it, in the bottom of my inner left pocket. I lifted out an old silver locket; I took it in my teeth and went back to my bed. After a few minutes of careful prying I managed to open it with my teeth. A picture of a young girl was inside. She was smiling and had her arms wrapped around her older brothers neck, she was riding on his back. They both seemed so happy. But that was a long time ago.

“I miss you, sis.”

The picture was cut out a newspaper: The picture had been taken of our village when we had been accepted into the NCR. Everyone had been so happy, so eager to serve their new government, none of them knowing that all of them would be dead within the month. I wiped a tear from my eye, closed the locket and put it under my pillow. I sighed and tried to get
some sleep.

oooOOOooo

The heat singed and burned my skin as I walked through the burning remains of my town, smoke made it hard to breathe. Frank walked past me and kicked in the door to the one building that wasn’t on fire, city hall. As I walked in I could feel my insides turning. The first thing that hit me was the smell. Then the sight of gutted and mutilated bodies, spread around, nailed to walls or chained to the roof. A raider charged out of a room laughing and swinging an axe.

I pulled the bolt of my assault rifle back and flicked the safety off and unloaded an entire clip into him, screaming as I did it. More and more charged out of rooms or downs stairs in the old building. I reloaded and stood my ground. At that very moment a raider hit me from the side, knocking the rifle out of my hands and pushing me into another room where she tried to strangle me. After a moment of struggling I pulled out my knife and jabbed it into her stomach, stunning her for a moment. I pulled the blade out and proceeded to stab her several times both of us screaming, for different reasons. Before charging back into the atrium and throwing myself at the raiders, knife in hand.

After a brutal fight all the raiders had been taken care of, I walked up to one that was wounded. I picked up my rifle and pointed it at his legs and blasted them clean off, and then began pumping his body full of bullets until Jesse grabbed me from behind. He was crying while he dragged me out of city hall.

oooOOOooo

I woke up panting and sweating, then I heard something. I perked my ears and focused, the calm breathing and the soft muffled thumping of a heart and the sound of turning pages. I was not alone in my room anymore. I opened my eyes slowly and looked around, there was someone on the couch. It was the lavender pony that helped me yesterday. Then I noticed what book she was reading, my mission journal.

I cleared my throat. Nothing, not even a change in her breathing pattern. I got out of the bed, slowly making my way over to her. When I was right in front of her I gave her a more thorough observation. She had a lavender coat, dark blue mane with purple and pink stripes and her mark was a purplish star with five white stars surrounding it. I pushed the book down from her gaze with my hoof and glared into her eyes.

“Interesting read?” I asked, almost growling at her.

She yelped in surprise and held up her hooves like I was about to hit her. The glow around the book disappeared and it fell
to the floor with a soft thump, I picked it up and threw it into my backpack.

“S-sorry I was just-” She looked scared.

“Just… What?” I asked, still glaring into her eyes.

She regained some of her posture, but still seemed like she was scared to death of me.
“Well, I got a here a few hours ago, and after a while I got bored and the book was just lying there. I just got curius, and after a little while longer I decided that I would give it a look.”

“Didn’t your mother teach you that it’s rude to read other peop- other ponies journals?” I said as I moved over to my backpack and closed it. I turned around and saw the look in her eyes, fear.

‘I don’t think she knew it was a journal.’

“It was a journal? It was your journal…” She looked scared, but curios at the same time.

“Yes it is my journal, how much did you read?”

“Maybe a dozen pages, before you scared me half to death.” She smirked; looked like her curiousness was gaining the upper hand over her fear.

I sighed heavily. “You look like you have some questions for me. Unfortunately those questions will have to wait.” I sat down on the bed, facing her. “Why are you here?”

“To ask you a few questions...” She smiled shyly while rubbing the back of her head.

I sighed loudly and fell backwards onto the bed. “Of course you are, what do you want to know? No let me guess, you want to know everything.” I sat back up and stared at her, she nodded slowly. I groaned and got out of the bed again and made my way to the couch. I opened my backpack and retrieved the journal and threw it over to her. At first she looked confused then she blushed.

“There you go, answers.”

“You want me to read your diary?” She asked quietly.

I rolled my eyes. “It’s not a diary, it’s a mission journal. Besides it’s better than sitting around answering questions all day, if you have more questions later I’ll be happy to answer them, but that will take the brunt of them.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, what is your job? I mean it’s not many professions that require you to keep a mission journal.”

“I am, was a Ranger.” At her confused look I added “I was a soldier.”

“Oh, like one of the royal guards?”

“What? Yeah sure.” She nodded and picked up the book. She started for the door when she turned around.

“I never told you my name did I?” She trotted over to me and reached out her hoof. “Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle.”

I took her hoof and shook it. “Michael Denton.” She smiled and trotted out of the room, closing the door behind her.

‘Giving her our mission journal can’t possibly come back bite our new tail.’

I picked up my clothes and put them on the bed. A lost cause. The only thing I could wear was the duster and it was far too big to fit properly. I swung it onto my back and tied the sleeves around my neck. Very large and baggy but it did the job. I took a deep breath and trotted over to the door and opened it. The reception at the clinic was empty and the blood had been cleaned up. I peeked through a door and saw a familiar face.

“Hi Rose.” I said as I walked into the room, her face lit up as she saw me.

“Hey! Thanks again for helping yesterday.” She smiled at me as I trotted over to her.

“No problem.” I said, rubbing her mane. She giggled and pushed my hoof away.

“Where did you learn that anyway?” Her smile vanished almost as fast as mine.

“Things back home are complicated. I-I don’t want to talk about it.” I looked away and stared out the window. My jaw dropped again as I walked over to the window. Outside was dozens of colorful ponies all going about their daily business while chatting and laughing.

“Rose, got any advice for a newcomer?” I asked, entranced by the sight.

She snorted. “Only one. Stay away from Pinkie Pie.”

“Why?” I turned to find her smirking at me.

“Oh, you’ll find out sooner or later.”

“Okay then, get well Rose.” I gave her a pat on the head and headed for the door.

“Hey, what’s your name?”

I turned around and looked her in the eyes. “Michael Denton.” She giggled at me. "What?"

"What a silly name!" She smirked at me again “See you later Michael.”

“See you later Rose.” and with that I walked out the door into the reception. I went back to my room and stuffed my things into my backpack and swung it onto my back. I reloaded my pistol and put into the holster in my duster as walked over to the clinic entrance. I took a deep breath opened the door and went outside, and was immediately hit by a pink freight-train.

AN: This chapter was hell to write, I found out that I can’t write Twilight properly. That's all, and I want to thank everypony who actually read this. And I want to thank DancesOnTheAshes for being awesome and proof-reading this!

Chapter 3: Tears and Broken Bones

The pink blur hit me with such force that it flung me, headfirst, back into the clinic, scattering my equipment around the room and sending me crashing into the nurse who just exited Rose’s room; she looked more annoyed then surprised. As soon as I had shaken off the initial shock I got off the muttering pony and reached out a hoof to help her. “Sorry ‘bout that.” I said as I helped the grumbling nurse to her hooves.

”Hi I’m Pinkie Pie!” I turned around and found two massive bright blue eyes staring at me. In front of me there was a pink pony with a pink fluffy mane and tail, she had a smile that was unnaturally wide, but as soon as our eyes locked it faded a little bit, and it also seemed a tad forced.

~I’m scared…~ Oh come on you big sissy, she’s just a pony.

“Uh, hi I’m-“ I started, but was interrupted by the pink pony. “You’re Michael Denton, former NCR Veteran Ranger, ranked Captain. Thirty-nine years old, used to have green eyes and is afraid of spiders!” She machine-gunned out while skipping around me.

~Ok now I’m impressed.~

I was flabbergasted. “How the fuck did you know that?” I asked, turning my head trying to keep her in sight. She stopped and put a hoof to her muzzle, obviously in deep thought. “I don’t know it just sort of popped into my head!” She said resuming her skipping. “But that’s silly though, you don’t look a day older then twenty-two!”

“Twenty-two years old?”

“Yep!” She exclaimed.

‘The Super-Stimpak stimulates cell regeneration. In our state of mutation the regenerating cells must have increased our body size and shaved off a few years at the same time.’ Since when did you get smarter than me? ‘Since day one.’

“Hey, why are you out bed?” I turned around and found the nurse pointing a hoof at me.

“I feel better now. My rib is fine.” I said and tapped my side. “Thanks for the concern though.”

“Hey what’s this?” I looked over my shoulder and saw Pinkie Pie sitting in the corner, eyeing my locket. I trotted over to her and snatched it out of her hooves. “Hey! I was only-” She started but was interrupted. “Never, ever touch my locket!” I shouted at her. She looked shocked, and a little scared. Then she put on a nervous grin. “Okie dokie lokie!” She forced a giggle and zoomed out the exit. As soon as she was outside I let out a sigh and hung the locket around my neck. I then started picking up all the things that her tackle had spread around the waiting room. I stopped as I saw the Pipboy lying on a chair. I picked it up and slid it on, which easy since I didn’t have a hand blocking the hole. I turned it on and checked the screen.

Scanning Blood, Bone structure and Brains waves for anomalies: WARNING: Anomalies detected: 5

Physical Health Levels: Medium: (Warning: Subject is suffering from Jet withdrawal) (Warning: Subject has 1 very recent bone fracture)

Psychological Health Levels: Low: (Warning: Subject is suffering from split personality) (Warning: Subject is suffering from severe levels of Post-Traumatic Stress)

Additional Warning: Subjects body has been exposed to a high amount of radiation of unknown origin: (Amount of Radiation exposure: 21,738 Rads)

“Wow.” I slipped it off and put it into my pack. “Jet withdrawal, fantastic.” I muttered. And I’ve been exposed to over twenty-thousand Rads? I should have been dead hours ago. And what does radiation of unknown origin mean? I gathered all my things and trotted over to the nurse. “I never caught your name.” I said reaching out my hoof. “I’m Michael.” She took my hoof and gave it a light shake. “Redheart.”

“Thank you for all the help Redheart.” I gave her a strained smile and started for the exit. “Oh by the way, where am I exactly?

“Ponyville.” She said simply, picking out new bandages from a shelf.

I sighed and rubbed my neck. “Less specific.”

“Equestria.” Now she turned around and looked at me quizzically.

Now I was getting worried. “Uhh, Less specific.”

“What, don’t you know what planet you’re on? She snorted.

“Earth?” I asked hopefully.

“Earth?” She looked at me like I was an idiot. “It’s called Equis, Didn’t you go to school?”

~Does boot-camp count?~

“No ma’am, I did not.” I said as I walked out the door into a new world.

Walking through Ponyville earned me many odd looks, more than what I was comfortable with but less than what I was used. I assumed that it was because of the duster and the large bag hanging from my back. But I also noticed that I was about half a head taller than the rest of Ponyville. But I was also getting a few winks from the mares around the market, something that both disturbed and flattered me a little bit, which made it even more disturbing.
All of the sudden a very loud grumbling broke me out of the trance that the village had put me in. “Ugh, I’m starving.” I looked around for, well anything really, and saw a stand with a familiar orange pony wearing a Stetson. Moving towards the stand I saw an unfamiliar sight, boxes filled with fresh apples, and my stomach growled even louder.

“Howdy! Now that rumblin’ can’t be mistaken, yer starving.” She looked at me and smiled, then she recognized me. “Oh hey it’s you!” She exclaimed as I got up to the stand. “Hey there, thanks for dragging my sorry hide to the clinic yesterday. And yes, I’m starving.” I smiled at her and reached my hoof out. “I’m Michael.” She took it and shook it so hard she almost dislocated my shoulder. “Howdy Michael! Ahm Applejack. An’ don’ you worry ‘bout goin’ hungry, we got everythin’ a pony could ever want!” I took a glance at her wares, she had almost everything that could be made with apples for sale, and finally laid eyes on a plate of apple fritters.

‘Freshly baked goods? We haven’t had fresh anything in months!’

“A couple of those please.” I said, pointing at the fritters. “Sure thin’.” She said and put a couple of fritters in a bag and slid it over to me. “That’ll be six bits.” She said smiling.
I reached for one of the pockets in my duster when something occurred to me, I only had bottlecaps. My heart began to sink.

“Uhm… I don’t have any bits on me I’m afraid.” I said sheepishly, rubbing my mane.
She looked at me for a while before she said. “Well you look strong. Hay, you look bigger then you were yesterday, so take those fritters an’ come help me and mah brother back at the farm later. You might even give him a run for his money! ” And my heart climbed back up.

“Hard labor for food? Reminds me of home.” I picked up the bag with my mouth, sporting a genuine smile for once. “And thanks for the fritters!” I started walking away, the smell coming from the bag almost made me drool. “Y’all be back here in two hours and we’ll head to the farm!” She said as she waved me off.
I stopped. What if I didn’t go through alone? I turned to Applejack. “By the way, where did you find me?” She pointed her hoof down a dirt road to her left. “Thanks again, I’ll be back soon.” I said trotting down the road she had pointed out. I couldn't shake the feeling that I was going to regret taking this route, but I had to know.

I had been walking down the dirt road for about twenty minutes, kicking the occasional rock off the road or looking at the birds flying around in the air along with some winged ponies. That froze me in my tracks. “They got Pegasi too? How did I miss that?!” I yelled at no one in particular. But when I thought about it, a few of the ponies in the market had indeed had wings. “What’s next? Shadowmares or maybe Alicorns?” ~You had an odd obsession when you were a kid didn’t you?~ “It was better than shuffling Brahmin dung all day.”

I shook my head and continued down the road. I was now keeping a steady pace while pondering on the events that had occurred during my day in Ponyville’s clinic. Rose, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie and Nurse Redheart. I’ve been here for one day and I’ve already treated one bulletwound, nearly got interrogated, spent the night in a clinic and been physically assaulted by a Jethead. “I get the same welcome everywhere.” I muttered, I looked up and saw a few trees that had gotten their tops burnt off. “Must be around here somewhe-“ I froze as I saw two brown and grey piles on the field next to the road ahead of me.

“No…” I dropped the fritter bag and slowly started walking towards the piles. “This isn’t happening…” I walked up to the two piles lying in the grass.

“No! No no no, god no! The ranger dusters, the helmets both lying in the grass next to two big backpacks and scattered gear. I knelt next to the dusters, I reached out and put my hoof on the smaller one and opened it. “Jesse, I’m so sorry!” I fought back the tears as I stared at the ashes that were once by best friend. I looked over to the bigger one. “Frank…” I shook as tears started rolling down my cheeks. “Fuck!” I cried out, I desperately looked around and saw a small hill overlooking a lake. “Don’t worry guys, I won’t leave you here.”

I grabbed the first duster in my teeth and started dragging it towards the hill, once I got to it I let go of the duster and sat down next to it. It finally sunk in, Frank and Jesse were dead. I broke down into violent sobs, I stood up and headed back to Franks duster, still sobbing as I walked.

Once I had dragged Frank over to Jesse and brought their equipment with me I opened my bag and pulled out a small hand shovel. It took me a while, the earth was very soft and every time I dug up dirt it refilled again, but I was done. I had dug a hole, about one and a half meter into the ground. I grabbed Jesse’s duster and gently lowered it down into the hole. I did the same thing with Frank’s, carefully, to spill any of the ashes. Then I reached down and retrieved their dog tags. Then I filled up the hole. Once I was done I sat down next to the grave. I put Frank’s and Jesse’s helmets on top of the dirt pile, facing towards the lake.

The hill was much nicer from where I was sitting; the view of the lake was beautiful. There was a small tree growing next to the grave. I stood up and looked down at the helmets, tears rolling down my cheeks. I pulled of my own dog tags and laid them one the grave with the chain around the helmets. I saluted them “At ease soldiers.” ~Goodbye guys, we’ll miss you.~

I then had an idea, I took Jesse’s backpack and rummaged through it, I found some scrap metal and a sensor module. I opened Frank’s and found a leather belt and wonder glue. I saw an ivory handle; pulling it out revealed a beautiful, royal-
blue revolver with the inscription "For honorable service" I turned the weapon in my hooves and looked at the other side
"Against all tyrants". I could feel new tears forming in the corners of my eyes.

“Frank you old bastard. You were a ranger long before you met us weren’t you?”

I felt the weight of the weapon in my hooves, even with my younger, equine, body it still felt heavy; I carefully stuck it into my other holster. I then took some surgical tubing and a medical brace and got to work. After half an hour I had a little contraption with my handgun attached to the front of the medical brace. I stuck my hoof into the medical brace and pointed the gun towards the lake. I grabbed the string of surgical tubing with my teeth and pulled, the sensor module went to work, a small metal bar moved the trigger of the handgun back and the weapon fired, the kickback was considerably smaller than it had been earlier. I watched the ripples in the water as I slid the clip out of the gun, fumbled for a bit and slid a clip of hollow-point rounds into the gun and put it back in the holster.

“It’ll have to do.”

I got off my plot and slowly walked away from the hill, Frank’s and Jesse’s dog tags clinging softly against the locket around my neck. I was staring into the road as I walked. I didn’t get far until I heard the giggling of excited children, it stunned me a bit since I hadn’t heard that sound in decades. I looked up and saw three fillies galloping towards me, one orange with a purple mane and small wings the second had a white coat and purple and pink mane she also had a horn and the third was a bright yellow filly with a red mane with a huge pink bow in it. They zoomed right past me, yelling something about marks and creature catchers. They headed for the dark forest down the road. There was something about that forest, it felt… wrong. But right now I didn’t care, so I kept walking towards Ponyville.
It took me nearly an hour but I had finally managed to drag myself back to Ponyville. I slowly trotted over to Applejack.

“Howdy Michael, Twilight was lookin’ fer you earlier!” She said as I trotted up to her. “She did, did she?” I asked. Not bothering with masking my pain.

“Somethin’ wrong, sugercube?” She asked, her voice filled with concern.

“Yeah, but I’ll deal with it on my own. And please never call me "Sugercube" ever again.” I said turned to go to Twilight’s house when I realized I didn’t know where she lived. I looked over to Applejack, she just smiled and pointed at the big tree in the middle of Ponyville. “Thanks.” I muttered and trotted off towards the big tree.

My entire body felt cold as I stopped in front of the tree and knocked on the door. It opened and Twilight stood on the other side, she had a mix between worry and fear in her eyes.

“You were looking for me?” I asked simply.

“I was, I have a few questions for you.” She said, avoiding eye contact.

“I said I was going to answer your questions, and I aim to keep my word.” I pushed her to the side and stepped into what appeared to be a library. “You live in a library?” I turned and looked at her. “I get the same reaction from everypony!” She groaned and trotted past me and sat down on a pillow, I chose to stand. “You had some questions, get to it.” I growled, making her jump. “You’re in a bad mood today.” She chuckled nervously. I lowered my head. “I buried my best friends barely an hour ago so yes, I’m in a bad mood.” I muttered.

“Oh, I’m so sorry!” She sunk back into the pillow. “What happened to them?” I raised my head and glared into her eyes, making her slide backwards a little bit. I walked over to one of the windows and put my hoof on it.
“This place happened!” I shouted. “They died when I was transported here!” I stomped my hoof so hard it left a dent in the floor.

“My condolence for your friends, but that brings up one of my questions.” She said with a rather nervous tone. “You said you were transported here, and from what I’ve gathered from your journal you’re not a pony either.”
I turned away from the window and stared at her. “Get to the point.”

“What are you?” She asked, her voice tinged with curiosity.

“I’m human.” I said simply not taking my eyes from her.

She looked confused for a moment before asking the simple but dreaded question. “What’s a human?” Instead of answering I lifted up my locket walked over to her and opened it, showing it to Twilight. “Those are humans, the one in the front is me, the girl on my back is… was my sister.” She stared at the picture for a little bit, then looked at me. “What happened to her?” I closed the locket and let it fall back against Frank’s and Jesse’s tags, a letting out a soft cling as they connected. “Raiders.” I sighed.

“I think I read about those in your journal. Something about a place called Evergreen Mills?”

“Evergreen Mills… the one place not even the Lone Wanderer would touch.” I found out that my home had been attacked by raiders, no one survived. I tracked them to Evergreen Mills, but I couldn’t get in, I needed help. I signed up for the NCR Military and got to training. Jesse joined me; he was one of the only other survivor from our village. After Anvil we were selected for ranger training and placed under the command of Staff Sergeant Frank Mason.”

“Did you manage to save her?” She asked with tears in her eyes.

“No, it took several years before we were ready to even try to attack Evergreen; we stopped preparing for a rescue mission and started preparing for a suicide run. Frank refused to let me and Jesse do it alone so he came along. We killed most of the raiders and drove the rest out of Evergreen. But we were too late to save my sister.”

“What happened to make your world so… evil?” Twilight looked like she was going to be sick. I lowered my head.

“We did. Humanity happened.” I said with a deep sigh.

“I’m not sure I understand.” I straightened up and put my left hoof on my chest, mimicking an old man in a recording I saw when I visited camp McCarren at one point before being sent on that god forsaken mission to DC.

“Since the dawn of human kind, when our ancestors first discovered the killing power rock and bone, blood has been spilled in the name of everything: from God to justice to simple, psychotic rage.” I deflated and sat down on the floor. “Humanity never changed. The NCR tries it’s best to do good, but the wastes aren’t making it easy for us.”

“What made the world change?” She looked at me like a child, eager to learn new things. If it wasn’t in this subject I might
have chuckled at the sight.

“There was a great war about two hundred years ago, no one remembers why. But our nation had been at war with a rival nation and one day the bombs dropped, turning the world into a hellish wasteland.

“What are bombs?” She asked, her continued curiousness into such a subject was so… adorkable, and a bit annoying.

“Do you know of fireworks?” She nodded. “They are like fireworks made to destroy and kill.” I sighed deeply. “And the bombs that were dropped back then were powerful enough to destroy an entire city, and they dropped many.”

“What?!” Twilight looked horrified. “Why would they do such a thing?” She almost yelled. I just shrugged.
“No one remembers why anymore. We only remember that they did.”

She was quiet for a bit then said “If your world was so horrible.” She gulped. “What was your place in it?” She asked hesitantly.

“As I said this morning, I was an NCR Veteran Ranger, a soldier in hell. Our job is to clean up the wastes and try to make it safe for the people of the NCR.” At her confused look I added. “We kill the bad people that no one else can kill.” She didn’t seem to find that very soothing.

“Anything else you want to know?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Oh yes, I have tons of questions!” And she pulls out a notebook. I groan and sit down at the table. The following hours were spent explaining basically everything I could about technology, culture and history. I even showed her the Pip-boy, bad idea. It ended with me being forced to physically take it away from her before her experiments could do some real damage. I was about to call it a day when the front door slams open.

“What the?!”

I saw a hoof flying towards my face and reacted instinctively; I grabbed it with a forehoof and spun around slamming its owner into a bookshelf. She yelped in pain, she had one of her wings pinned between herself and the shelf behind her. I stood up on my rear hooves and lifted her of the floor, pulled her away from the shelf allowing her wing to get clear before slamming her into the shelf again. I leaned in and growled in her ear. “Try that again, I fucking dare you!” She looked confused. “Hey, what gives?” She struggled a little bit, she wasn’t going anywhere. She then looked over to Twilight.

“Tell your coltfriend to back off!” She shouted to her. I pinned her harder against the shelf, she winced.

“Let her go Michael!” Twilight said firmly. The Pegasus stopped squirming and just stared at me for a few seconds, before breaking out in hysterical laughter. “BWAhaha! Y-your name is… Michael? That name is so stupid!” She pushed out between fits of laughter. “What, my name’s not stupid!” I pinned her harder against the shelf, but she was too busy laughing to care. “Michael! Let. Her. Go.” I lifted the Pegasus a little higher before dropping her. She yelped and hit the floor with a thud. I reached down a hoof to help her up; she just swatted it aside and got up herself. “Sorry, reflexes.” She puffed out her chest. “You got yourself quite a looker didntcha Twi, kudos” She scoffed. I turned to Twilight; she looked shocked, confused and was blushing so hard she had practically turned red. I looked from the laughing pegaus to the blushing unicorn and sighed.

~What’s with the mares in this town?~

I stood in front of Twilight and tapped her on the head. “Hey, you have any more questions for me?”
She was yanked out of her stupor. “What? No not yet, I need to talk with the Princess first.”

“Who? You know what don't answer, I don't care.” I picked up a few books that had been knocked off the shelf and put them back, probably in the wrong places though. “Bye, Twilight.” I said and went outside, it was dark outside. As I walked through the empty market and noticed that Applejack’s cart was gone, and remembered that the fritters were still lying where I had found my friends. I took a deep breath. I could almost smell trouble in the air. I looked up into the sky, a beautiful blue vista; it was something I was not used to. As I admired the sky there was something gnawing at me from the back of my mind.

“I got a feeling this day isn’t over yet.”

“Excuse me?” ~Speak of the devil~

I looked down and saw an elegant unicorn with a white coat and an overstylized mane. She looked rather worried about something.

“What?”

“You wouldn’t have happened to have seen three little girls running around would you?”

“Small giggling things, one of them with a huge pink bow?” She perked up a little bit at that.

“Yes that’s right! Where did you see them?”

“Last I saw them they were headed for that forest.” I pointed my hoof at the large forest at the edge of town. She spun around with a panicked expression on her face.

“Oh no! They are in the Everfree forest? And you just let them go in?!” She now turned on me with rage in her eyes.

“Hey! I had no idea they weren’t supposed to go to the forest.” I defended.

She deflated. “What if something happened to them?” she said sadly.

I stiffened. “There is something dangerous in the forest?” She just nodded. I looked over at the forest and patted my sides, the combat rig for my 12.7 mm and the Sequoia secure inside my duster.

“Well then, seems like I finally have something to do!” I said eager to get moving. I turned to her. “You take it easy, I’ll find the girls.” Without waiting for a response I turned and galloped towards the forest. The wind blowing in my mane, a direction to follow. It was wonderful.

/=/=/

Everything changed as soon as I set a hoof in the forest. Most notably it got very dark, very fast, dark and cold. I slowed down to a trot. I eyed the ground for tracks. I heard a howling that sent shivers down my spine. I looked around me, nothing but trees, bushes, rocks and mud. And in the mud there were tracks, the tracks of small hooves. But as I got closer I noticed another set of tracks, a massive wolf paw. It seemed very recent, and it was following the smaller tracks. A sense of dread starting building up.

I shook the feeling off and galloped of following the tracks. I don’t know for how long I had been running when I heard the howling again. This time it only built up rage inside of me. I picked up the pace and thundered down the dirt road. I flew over small water streams, ran straight through thorn bushes but never slowed down. It wasn’t long until I could hear children screaming, I lowered my head and bit the straps holding the backpacks. The backpacks dropped taking with them all the gear except for my weapons. Then charged on ahead, without all the extra weight I moved with a lot more ease. My muscles pumping, my heart felt like it was going to explode. I did something I hadn’t done in years. I stopped and reached into a pocket, taking out a canister of jet. I sprayed it into the air and closed my eyes as I took a deep breath.

I opened my eyes, everything around me slowed down, the leaves falling from the trees crawled to a stop and my heart beat once a minute. I scraped the ground with my hoof and charged on ahead. I started losing control but I fought the haze back, I needed my focus. My veins were pumping out unnatural amounts of adrenaline. I skidded to a stop as I reached the slope down into a tiny valley. I looked down and saw a massive wolf standing in front of three crying fillies. The wolf was growling, baring its teeth at the girls. My temper exploded. I pulled out the contraption; I aimed it at the creature. Only to see the leather belt snap and the gun plummet to the ground. I take a deep breath and reach into my duster; I clench my teeth around an ivory handle.

I pull out a massive revolver, feeling the weight in my neck. I point it at the wolf and slide the hammer back with my tongue and put it on the trigger. I take a good long look at the wolf and notice something odd. Its fur isn’t grey or brown, but blue. Blue like the night sky and covered in stars. ~A constellation wolf?~ The wolf takes a swipe at the white filly with its massive paw and I pull the trigger. The next few seconds were agonizing. The flash from the barrel blinded me; my ears were ringing so loudly I couldn’t think. I missed a few teeth, my head was vibrating and the revolver was gone. When my hearing finally returned all I could hear was a loud growling. The wolf was staring at me, murder in its eyes. The bullet seemed to have missed.

“Ah come on! That ain't fair!” I bellowed and charged the wolf. I threw myself at the wolf bucking at everything I could reach. One hoof connected with its snout jerking its head to the side. I landed behind the wolf, and then felt a massive force yank me backwards. A quick glance revealed it had latched on to my duster with its powerful jaw. It sent me flying into a tree; I bounced off and landed on the ground with a thud. The wolf seemed satisfied and went back to the fillies. I got to my hooves and charged the wolf again, this time aiming for its ribs. “FUUUCK”!” I screamed as I slammed into the wolf’s side. It let out a loud yelp and fell, rolling with me on the ground.

“RUN!” I screamed at the fillies as I rolled over now with the wolf on top of me. It starts snapping for my head with its massive jaws. I desperately tried to keep it away but it was far too strong. The fangs clashing closer and closer to my neck. I slam my right forehoof into its mouth trying to keep the teeth away from any important parts. I felt a mind-numbing pain as its jaws snaps shut. I scream and begin pummeling it with my still free forehoof, repeatedly slamming my hoof into the wolf’s ribcage. I heard a distinct -crack- and the wolf let out a loud whimper and let go of my leg. I rolled over and got to my hooves; my right foreleg was bleeding heavily and was horribly disfigured. The adrenaline dulled the pain enough for me to pull out another Super-Stimpak and jab it into my leg. I scream as my leg begins healing, I start popping the bones into place as it heals my leg. Once it was done I look up and see the wolf lying on its side under a tree, whimpering.
I walk towards the wolf, grinning. But once I got close it spins around on to its paws and pounces at me. It grabbed onto my back with its teeth as we rolled in under a massive fallen tree. The wolf was on top of me and was biting and clawing my back, rending flesh from bone with every swipe. I felt that it was a tight fit under the tree.

~You’re going to let this fucking thing kill you? After all the shit we’ve seen, all the shit we’ve done! You’re going to let an oversized wolf in a fantasy world finish us off?! The log is massive and lying low, show this fucker who we are!~

The tree trunk was low, low enough for one thing. I did the only thing possible. I pushed myself to my hooves, forcing myself up. My muscles were protesting, I was pushing them too hard. I dug my hooves into the dirt. I kept pressing upwards, pinning the wolf between my back and the tree. I could feel one of the muscles in my left hind leg burst. The pain washed over me, I ignored it. I felt my newly mended leg begin to crack, I ignored it. The pain was excruciating but I kept pressing. Pushed harder and harder, the wolf was thrashing around trying to get loose and whined loudly until *SNAP*.

The wolf let out one loud yelp and then fell silent. It slipped off my back and I could finally relax. I fell on my side. I couldn’t breathe, I didn’t care, I had won. And now I felt so very cold.

“…”

~Come on~

“…”

~You can’t give up now~

“…”

~Get up!~

“…”

~You are an NCR Veteran Ranger! And those fillies still need us!~

“… -cough- …“

~That’s it, get up soldier!~

“Gaah! -cough-“

~That’s better~

“W-w-where?”

~Where you left them~

I slowly turned my head; the fillies were right where we had left them.

“H-how m-many s-stimpaks do we h-have left?”

~One~

“It’s enough”

I drew my left forehoof back under my body and pushed. I put down my right hindhoof and pushed. I got up, my back and neck covered in deep lacerations. I set down my right forehoof and pulled it back with a scream; it was broken in several places. After a few seconds I set down my left hindleg, the pain flared but was manageable. I began dragging myself across the valley. Every step was hell, blood was dripping from everything. I probably looked like a fresh ghoul. With every step the fillies got a little bit closer.

After three agonizing minutes I had reached them. I collapsed next to the white filly; she had a deep gash in her side, almost reached all the way from her neck to her flank. “Give her this.” I said and the Stimpak fell out of my torn duster. And everything starts getting dark. The orange Pegasus trotted over to the Stimpak and picked it up; she then went to the white unicorn and pushed the needle into her thigh. I let out a rustling breath of relief as I saw the liquid being injected.

“Can I go now?”

~I don’t mind, boss. It’s up to you now.~

“… I think I’ll go then…”

~We’ve had a good run, it’s been an honor.~

“…”

Then the cold started lifting, I felt a warm presence above me, light burned through my eyelids, coloring the darkness bright red.

“Not quite yet, Ranger.” A warm, motherly voice spoke.

[Authors Notes] Well there it is. This chapter will be the last to go up in a fairly long time, when I began writing i had no story or plot, so I'm going to spend some time on that. And between school, friends and everything even remotely pony related i will have a lot of distractions. I hope you liked it and by the time chapter 4 goes up I'll have a plot for you guys. ! I'll say that you'll probably not see anything new within a month. And for all of you reading big thanks! If you have any questions about ANYTHING pm me, I'll answer every question you may ask.

Chapter 4: Nightmares

I was being hoisted into the air by a bright white barrier that was surrounding me; it felt like I was just floating through the air.
I was slipping in and out of consciousness. The pain was intense but manageable. My faithful old duster was hanging in rags from my back dripping with blood.

“The fillies.” I gurgled. Trying to look up at whatever was lifting me; it made my neck feel like it was on fire, without the heat.

“The fillies are going to be okay, thanks to you.” Spoke the same warm voice.

"Who... are you?"

"Shh, sleep now Ranger."

The warmth started filling my body, washing away the cold and the pain. I could feel my mind slipping, I closed my eyes and relished in the sensation. I felt limp, and so very tired.

oooOOOooo

I jammed the shovel deep into the dirt. Digging trenches was slow work so the Drill Instructors usually had the fresh recruits dig them. Me, Jesse and a handful of other recruits that had been a part of the raid on the officers’ liquor cabinet (Staff Sergeant Mason had spent almost a full hour shouting at us.) We were now digging trenches outside of camp. So not only were we forced to do grunt work, we were forced to do grunt work with a wicked hangover. Jesse groaned loudly.
“Hey, shut up Jesse this was all your idea.” I groaned back. He glared daggers at me.
“I suggested it, you went through with it!” He shouted. I cringed as the sound waves slammed against my skull, so did the rest of the recruits.
“Would you guys shut the fuck up? Please.” Someone moaned, several others muttering their support of the suggestion. I stabbed the shovel deep into the dirt again, all of us groaned loudly as the alarm in camp went off and sent waves of pure agony through our heads. I jammed my index fingers deep into my ears. I looked towards camp and saw a soldier coming our way. When she got close enough she started shouting, her words broke my heart.

“Anvil’s been hit!”

I dropped my shovel, Jesse stood there with an empty look in his face. Next thing I knew we were running towards the command tents. A large amount of soldiers had gathered outside, Staff Sergeant Mason stood in front of a group of heavily armed troopers. I looked to Jesse, he nodded. We reluctantly walked up to the gathering and stood amongst the other recruits who weren’t going. Frank faced his men.

“Men, Anvil’s been hit. According to the transmission a large raider party was pummeling its walls with everything they had. We got the message twenty minutes ago, Anvil’s fucked if we don’t get there within the hour. You have been trained well and
I have full confidence that you can kick some raider ass! Oorah?”

“OORAH!” The response came from the troopers.

I broke out of formation and was going to join the soldiers but an MP stopped me. “Hold it!” He shouted as he grabbed my arm from behind. “You’re not going.” I spun around and planted my fist in his face; I felt teeth crunching against my knuckles, he went down screaming expletives at me. I shrugged and jogged over to the soldiers, Jesse close behind.

“What in the hell was that about, son?” Frank asked as I walked up to him.

“We’re coming with you.” I said simply, Jesse nodded.

“You’re the idiot who stole my scotch aren’t you? Get back in the trenches.” He said and turned around to get the platoon moving.

“Sarge, we’re from Anvil!” Jesse shouted.

Frank stopped and turned his head to look at us. He then walked over to the medic and pulled his backpack off, he threw it to me. He also went and picked up two rifles and a bag of spare ammo from a table and handed them to us. We looked at him.

“Well? What are you waiting for? Fall in line!” He said. We snapped a salute and took place at the front of the platoon. We set of towards Anvil; I was having trouble focusing on anything. Jesse put his hand on my shoulder. I looked at him; he gave me a sad smile.

“Anvil’s walls are strong Mike; Amy is going to be alright.” I nodded, but I heard the doubt in his voice.

I stopped suddenly, I felt like my life was over. Black smoke, I could see black smoke on the horizon. The platoon picked up its pace, it was now jogging. I took one look towards the smoke and ran; I sprinted past the other troopers. Even with Franks shouting at my back I kept running. I now saw the town. Fire, smoke and blood. The town was covered in Fire, smoke and blood. The only building not on fire was the town hall. The makeshift walls made from car wreckages and alike were smashed, the gate was broken down. I could hear the others moving up behind me. A few gasps, some insults directed towards the raiders. I flicked the safety on my service rifle off.

Anvil had been reduced to a burning ruin ruins; severely beaten and mutilated bodies were spread all around. I heard some of the troops losing their lunches, I couldn’t blame them I would have too if I hadn’t lost it when I saw the smoke. The heat singed and burned my skin as I walked through the burning remains of my town, smoke made it hard to breathe. Frank rushed past me and kicked in the door to the one building that was worth checking out, town hall. As Frank took a step back covering his nose I pushed my way past him. I could feel my insides turning. The first thing that hit me was the smell. Then the sight of gutted and mutilated bodies, spread around, nailed to walls or chained to the roof. A raider charged out of a room to our left laughing and swinging an axe. I turned my rifle on him and fired, a full clip slammed into his chest as he was sent stumbling backwards.

I slid the magazine out of the rifle and slid a new one in; as I pulled the bolt back I heard a loud scream and something hit me in the side. Someone tackled me, sending the both of us crashing through an old door into a bathroom. My attacker climbed on top of me. It was girl, not much older than me. She brought her hands down on my throat and began to choke me. I tried pulling her hands off, but she was strong. I drew my combat knife and jabbed it into her stomach. She stopped choking me, she was in shock. I drew the knife back out, rending flesh on the jagged backside of the blade. I kicked her in her chest sending her crashing onto her back. I got on my knees and turned the knife in my hand, blade point downwards. I drove it deep into her chest, now she began to scream in pain. I kept stabbing until she stopped. When she stopped I got off her and scrambled into a corner.

I just sat in the corner for a while. I had just killed two people, why did it feel so satisfying? I heard shouts and gunfire from the room I had been in a few moments ago. I got up and ran out. Knife in hand I threw myself over a raider in the process of pummeling a trooper with a sledgehammer. I brought the blade across his throat, the blood flowing freely over my hands. I threw his soon to be corpse to the ground and fell to my knees next to the wounded soldier. I pulled out a Stimpak from my backpack and injected him with it. I knew it would be enough to keep him alive until the fight was over.

I picked up his rifle and looked up the stairs, several raiders were coming down the stairs. I aimed my rifle and kept pulling the trigger until. *click* I didn’t see how many went down, but three were still running towards me. I once again drew my knife and charged them. Pushing the blade into the first one’s throat, pulling it out in a sweeping motion spraying blood over his friends as I sliced a big wound over the second one’s chest. I slammed the pummel of the knife against his nose, smashing it deep into his face. As he screams I turned and jammed the blade into the skull of the third one sending him crashing to the floor.

The second one had crawled back to the wall and was half lying on the floor half sitting. I picked up my old rifle by the bathroom door and walked up to him. I pointed the rifle at him and fired, I kept pulling the trigger even as the rifle stopped firing and giving out a clicking noise.

Someone grabbed me from behind and started dragging me towards the door; I looked back and saw Jesse. He was crying, and I saw why. He had an old silver locket around his neck, the engraving “Michael” displayed across it. My heart turned to ice. I snatched it from him, breaking the chain. I opened it. The picture. My little sister riding on my back.

“Where?” I asked him, my voice dark with hate.

He pointed towards one of the back rooms. I pushed a soldier out of the way heading for the room. I ran through the open door and looked around. There, in a corner. A small girl, barely fourteen years old. Her long blond hair, dirty and bloody. She was lying with her back turned towards me. I shakily walked over and dropped to my knees. I put my hand on her shoulder, she was warm. I turned her over and fell backwards. Her face was covered in cuts, she had been stabbed, beaten and violated. She had a marking on her chest. A single letter, Q.

I pulled out a small switchblade; I pulled up a sleeve and pushed the blade deep enough so that it’d leave a scar. I carved a Q into my lower left arm. I heard a whimper from the other corner. I turned slowly. There in the corner was a wounded raider. He stared at me with terrified eyes. I got up and slowly made my way over to him. I grabbed his leather vest and pulled him to his feet. I then smashed his head through a window on his left. He screamed but was silenced as I grabbed his throat. Pushing my finger in deep, he begged for his life. But my hand against his throat made it sound more like a gurgle. He was shaking, I was shaking. I started pulling and he tried to scream. A loud meaty ripping noise, I was covered by a shower of blood. He toppled and slammed into the floor, blood spreading from his neck. I stood there, his Adam’s apple, skin, veins, artereis and part of his air pipe in my hand. I turned as I heard someone enter the room behind me; Frank was standing in the door opening.

“You fought like a man possessed today, what’s your name kid?” He said as he walked over to me and glanced at the bloody mess at my feet.

“Michael.” I growled, clenching my fist around the meat.

“Michael I’m sorry abo-“

“Don’t, I don’t need comforting. Just more raiders to kill.” I interrupted.

“Well then Michael, Listen I think you are Ranger material. I’m recommending you for training when we get back to camp.” He patted me on the shoulder and walked out.

I looked out the window. Smoke and fire. I should be sad that my sister and my home was gone, but I felt nothing. I looked at my sisters body, nothing. I felt nothing. I just wanted to find Q. I just wanted to kill. I just wanted to die.

“Ranger training… Yeah that’ll do. Watch out Q, I’m coming for you.” I dropped the lump of meat and walked out the door.

[Authors notes] Yeah I'm back, I've been busy with Skyrim the last few days. I hope you liked it. And Thank you for reading. Oh and I might have kindoff forgotten to mention that this is my first fanfic ever and maybe even the only thing that ever passed 1k words so critique is welcome^^

And for the the pmv of the chapter PMV - Luna's Facade
Its Heavy Metal, enjoy.

Chapter 5: A New Day

I dragged myself out the door, my boots were heavy. I put the strap of my rifle onto my shoulder. I looked around the lobby. Blood and bodies were everywhere. Quite a horrific sight, I couldn’t care less. I headed for the exit. When I passed Jesse he tried to put his hand my shoulder, I shrugged it off. I didn’t want to talk to anyone right now.

The fires were still raging outside. I stood and watched as my old house burnt to the ground. The heat from the fire made my eyes sting but I didn’t care. My right arm started to ache. I didn’t think much of it. But as my house was crumbling in front of me my arm was starting to hurt badly. I turned around and stumbled towards the others. Once I reached the group gathered outside town hall my arm hurt so bad I couldn’t see straight, my left thigh was killing me and there was something wrong with my eyes.

I cracked open my eyes, well eye, my left eye was covered by bandages. I was back in the clinic. The room was exactly the way I left it, except that the curtains were now dark blue.
“Home sweet, home.” I croaked. I tried to move, hopeless. I was covered in bandages, except for my right foreleg which had a cask, which was wrapped in bandages. It had some writing on it. I turned my leg a little bit to get a better look. Scootaloo, Applebloom and Sweetie Belle.

“What the hell?” I turned it a little further and could hear the bones scraping against each other. My scream probably alerted half the town. After a few moments of agonizing pain the door flew open. I blinked away the tears that had formed in my eye. Standing in the door opening was Nurse Redheart. She was followed by a large white alicorn.

“Princess why is he awake?”

“He is fighting the sleep spell.” She spoke with the same warm motherly voice. Right now I hated it so much. And then it clicked.

‘Twilight…’

“What? No not yet, I need to talk with the Princess first.”

‘The Princess…’

I slowly turned my leg back the way it was when I woke up. The alicorn winced as she heard the bones scraping against each other. Unlike last time I was ready for the pain. I closed my eye and took a few deep breaths.
I opened my eye and the anger in me flared. I glared at the Princess, the same glare that used to send raiders running with their tails between their legs. To my satisfaction she hesitated before she took a step towards me. She opened her mouth to speak; I interrupted her before she could get a single word out.

“Why am I still alive?” I growled at her. She seemed taken aback by my words. She opened and closed her mouth a few times. She obviously didn’t come here expecting hostility from me. I closed my eye and sighed heavily. I tried to sit up but my body wouldn’t listen. I could barely move my legs and head but the rest felt like lead.
“You should not try to move. You have suffered severe injuries and should get rest.” I sunk into the softness of the bed. “How severe?” I opened my eye and stared at the Princess. Redheart, hesitantly, made her way past the Princess and over to me.

She pulled out a chart and started flipping through pages. “You had a large amount of deep lacerations all over your back, neck and face.” I put my left hoof on the side of my face that was covered in bandages. With my luck something important was sure to be damaged. “The upper thigh muscle in your left hind leg was almost torn in two.” She turned to a new page. “Your foreleg.” She pointed at my cast. “Had multiple fractures and in several places it had clean breaks.” She flipped to another page. “And you have some minor fractures in your ribcage along with some internal bleeding but that was fixed rather quickly.”

“How? When Rose was injured you barely knew what to do but when I was injured you can fix internal bleeding?”

“I wasn’t here to help then.” the Princess smiled at me.

“And you fixed me how?” I demanded.

“With magic of course.”

“Then why didn’t you just zap me back to health?”

“I tried to ‘zap’ you back to health but there were… complications. You reacted strangely to my magic. When I started healing you, you weren’t just being healed. You were absorbing the magic. I didn’t think much of it at first but then you started changing.” That last part worried me.

“What do you mean ‘changed’?”

“It was very subtle at first and as soon as I noticed it I had to stop, fortunately it was enough to heal your fatal injuries.”

“What do you mean with ‘changed?!” I yelled at her, she sighed loudly.

“Your body absorbed a tiny portion of my magic. I don’t know how it changed you, but your aura is different from when I found you in the forest. I can’t tell what you are anymore.” I stared at her. This is impossible; the agent is still in effect? “You are no longer an earth pony.”

“What do you mean?”

“Your magical aura is a hybrid of all three kinds; you’re like a unicorn without its horn or a Pegasus without its wings.”

‘Congratulations we are no longer a pony, we’re an abomination.’

“What does that mean for me then?” She looked hesitant.

“I’m not sure; As much as you are a ‘hybrid’ of all three kinds I don’t think you will ever be able to use magic.” ‘Damn’ “You might be able to walk on clouds but I would advise against testing.”

“Noted, nurse? Those kinds of injuries would put me down for months, is there anything you can do to speed up the process?” I looked at her with what I hoped was a pleading eye. Apparently it wasn’t as she started fidgeting and looked away. Then her eyes lit up. “Ooh! There is one thing! I’ll be right back your highness.” After a quick bow she rushed out of the room, leaving me and the princess alone.

That’s the first time I really took in the sight of the Princess.
She had a pristine white coat that was expertly groomed. Her mane was flowing through the air, somehow, and had with a very soothing color scheme. Her horn was long and looked very sharp, it sent a chill down my spine, and her wings were, well large and feathery. She also had a golden tiara, sort of neck brace also made in gold and golden pony shoes.

“It’s impolite to stare.”

I then realized I might have let my eyes linger for a moment too long. I looked her in the eyes; she had a mischievous grin on her face. She was beautiful and she knew it.

“What is your name Ranger?” the question caught me off guard, for a few moments my mind was blank. I said the first thing that popped into my head, after two decades of being called it, it only felt natural.

“Reaper.”

“Reaper, you have my thanks for saving the lives of the fillies. You risked your life for foals you had never even met, is there anything I could do to repay you for such an act?”

A favor from the Princess of Equestria… Well there is one thing.

“Could you send me back to my world?” She looked at me for a few seconds, she looked saddened. I guess I had my answer.

“I am afraid not Reaper, sending you back home would require opening a new rift. Which is not only extremely difficult and dangerous to do, plus the Doctor would not appreciate it very much.”
I was disappointed, I didn’t know why I wanted to go back, but I did, I really wanted to go back.

“Oh.” Was all I could get out.

Redheart came charging back into the room. “We got this!” She held up a bottle of some sort of liquid. “What is it?” the Princess wondered. “It’s the Valiant Mend Potion. It should reduce the time it’d take for you to heal down to a few weeks.”

I nodded, it was a bad move. I felt my neck flare up in agony at the slight movement. I didn’t even blink. The Princess’s horn started glowing and the bottle uncorked itself and flew over to me. I gulped down the whole bottle. As it hovered away I could bask in the glorious taste of the potion, it probably taste horrible but the last thing I drank was radioactive, muddy, water. And that had been hours before I ended up here…

“How long was I out?” I asked turned my head to look at the nurse.

“Almost a full day.” I didn’t realize it until now; it felt like my throat was filled with rusty barbed wire. I would probably drink the blood of a Cazador if had to.

“Could I have a glass of water?” I looked at the Princess with the biggest puppy eye I could make. “Please?” She raised an eyebrow and smiled at me. A glass appeared in midair already filled with crystal clear water.

After downing half a gallon of water I turned my attention to Redheart. “Where are the fillies? Are they safe?” She gave me a small smile.

“Yes they are fine; they are at their houses resting for time being. Except for Sweetie Belle, I thought it wise to keep her here for observation in case her wound would take a turn for the worse. But it’s healed up nicely, didn’t even leave a scar. Whatever you gave her is even more potent than the Valiant Mend Potion I gave you.” I chuckled.

“Yeah, Stimpaks will do that. They kept me alive for over thirty years… whether I wanted to or not.” I added under my breath.
The Princess spoke up.

“I think it’s time for me to head back to Canterlot, I didn’t leave a note. My guards are probably issuing marshal law as we speak.” She snorted.

“I’ll walk you out Princess.” The nurse headed out the door with the white Alicorn, she turned to me when she reached the door.

“Oh and ‘Reaper’?”

“Hmm?”

“Happy Heart’s warming eve.” She winked and closed the door.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays Everyone!

Chapter 6: The Pip-Boy

Three weeks in a hospital bed, was more like one. Turns out you were supposed to only drink a third of a bottle every three days. Tripling the dosage and taking it every day tripled the effect. If you discounted the sweating, intense headaches, light headedness, convulsions and severe stomach pains then it works like a charm. At first Redheart had been reluctant to give me a tripled dose. It took a few hours of negotiating and a few attempts at rolling out of bed to get it myself before she agreed to increase the dosage. And apparently the Princess had swayed all my piling hospital bills, which had been a huge relief. Owing favors to people, or ponies, was something I hated.

The filly that had been in the clinic left the very next day as planned. She came into my room to thank me but I pretended to sleep. I had one of the more nasty headaches and the last thing I wanted was to be mean to the poor thing. She had stood there for a few moments before giving me a hug and scampering out of the room, the added weight to my cracked ribs had been a great distraction from my headache.

I had quite the few visitors during the week I spent there. Twilight had stopped by a few times to beg for a closer look at my equipment, much to her chagrin I said no every time. Applejack had stopped by with a massive batch of apple fritters and apple pie; apparently one of the fillies I saved was her little sister. I have never eaten anything that got even remotely close to being as good as her homemade apple pie.

Rose stopped by a few times. She had recovered well, her leg was bandaged and she didn’t put weight on it. It wouldn’t be long until she had recovered completely. She brought a bouquet of flowers the first time she visited. We would mostly talk about her day, mine was rather predictable. I woke up, I downed a bottle of the potion, I spent a few hours shaking, I stared at the wall and I slept. The same reoccurring nightmare of my home town burning haunted my sleep. So her day was naturally more interesting. She would talk about flower sales, the antics of the ponies around town etc.

I had already taken today's dose and the worst of the convulsions had stopped, time to bail. I rolled of the bed and landed on my hooves, no crack, no pain, perfect. I took a deep breath; the stale air of the room filled my lungs, bleh. I stretched, pretty much every joint in my body popped. I then trotted over to the window and swung it open; I shivered as I felt the freezing air wash over my body.

The town was covered in a thick layer of snow, the reflection from the sun in the snow made my eye sting. I had only seen snow once before and that was years ago. I took another deep breath and savored the cold air. I trotted over to the mirror, I only had the cast and the bandages on my head still on. I had gotten used to only seeing with one eye but it would be nice to have proper depth perception again.

I began unwrapping the cocoon that was my head. But when I removed the final length my heart nearly stopped. My left eye had a long scar across it, running from my eyebrow almost all the way down to my chin. It had a slightly smaller scar running down right next to it. As I opened the eye I gasped. Milky white, no sign of an iris or a pupil. And worst of all, I still couldn’t see.

I dragged myself over to the sofa and plopped down onto it, I sunk into it. I had gotten hurt before, but it could always be fixed. Broken bones, dislocated limbs, bullet wounds, stab wounds, poisoning… the nails from the crucifixion. I looked down at my wrists, the scars were gone but I could still remember the feeling of the nails breaking through my arms as they nailed me to the cross. But this… this was different.

“No! I have survived worse. Now is not the time for wallowing.” I said to no one in particular.

I leapt out of the sofa and went over to the pile of backpacks in the corner. The ponies had been nice enough to pick up the stuff I had dropped on my dash through the woods. I rooted through them before I found what I was looking for. My locket and the dog tags, they had been polished and the locket had a new chain. As the familiar weight of the locket fell down on my neck I could have sworn I felt stronger. I took one more look in the mirror.

“You would have thought I would have noticed my eye getting mauled.” I muttered to my reflection.

I looked over to the coat rack, empty. I surveyed the room. There was no sign of my clothes. I hoped my natural coat would be enough to keep warm. I reached down and swung my backpack around my neck. It felt lighter, ever so slightly lighter. I ripped it open and noticed that something was indeed missing, the Pip-boy was gone.

“Twilight…”

I closed the pack and trotted out into the reception.

“Going somewhere?” I screeched to a halt. I made it halfway to the exit before she saw me. I turned and looked over to the nurse sitting behind the counter in the lobby. Her smile was kind but her eyes were made of steel.

“I was going to ask Twilight about some missing possessions.”

“Leaving right now would be a bad idea.”

“Why?”

“You haven’t had your examination yet, plus the guards would be all over you if you came charging out here without warning.”

At the mention of guards my gaze hardened. It felt like the temperature in the room sunk a few degrees.

“Guards? I scraped my hoof against the floor and locked eyes with Redheart. “What guards?” The nurse shifted in her seat a little bit.

“The Princess decided it was best that a detachment of guards was sent here to keep an eye on things.”

“Keep an eye on me you mean.” I flashed a smile and turned to the door. “Let’s not keep them waiting then.”

“Not without your examination.” She stated as she galloped in front of me and blocked the door. We locked eyes and it was obvious she was trying to stare me down. I straightened up and noticed I was a good chunk taller than her. Her insistent nature had been getting on my nerves a lot recently, now it was starting to piss me off.

“You have helped me, however reluctantly it may have been you helped me and for that I’m grateful.” I towered above her as she seemed to shrink under my hard gaze. “But don’t push your luck.” She gulped loudly and stepped out of the way. “Thank you.” I pushed the door open and headed outside.

I took nearly three steps outside before slipping on a patch of ice. I found myself airborne for a few seconds before landing in a deep pile of snow.

I flew out of the pile and started shaking myself to get the snow off. Some was stuck in my coat and I had to brush it off with my hooves. I was shaking all over, my teeth rattled together like jackhammers. I glared at the offending snow pile with all the burning hatred I could muster for an inanimate object. I shook my head hard to get rid of the snow that got stuck in my mane.

I looked up and saw four ponies standing in front of me. Their coats whiter than the snow they stood on. First thing that struck me was the uncanny resemblance their armor had to the Legionaries armor except that they were gold colored, it looked like it was mostly for show. The second thing was how pathetically little protection it offered, it barely offered any protection for the throat or face.

I looked at each and every one of them. They all looked so stoic, not a single wrinkle on their brows or anywhere in their face. They only had the hard eyes of soldier, pathetic, unprotected and probably horribly trained soldiers but nevertheless soldiers. I have to give them some credit though, that glare they were giving me was starting to get a little creepy.
One of them took a step towards me.

“I’m sorry sir, but you have to stay within the clinic.” He said. His voice was deep and hard. It was obvious he was trying to sound tough, lots of people try that when they think they are in charge.

“Excuse me?” I faced the guard who had addressed me.

“We have direct orders from the Princess herself to keep you within the clinic at all times.” He stated. He was so stiff that you could probably beat down a door with him.

“Huh, well that ain’t going to happen.” I cracked the guard a smile.

“I will not ask again get back in the clinic or else…” He narrowed his eyes at me.

“Or else what?” I was determined to see how far I could push this idiot.

“Or we will drag you back in kicking and screaming.” He growled. I grinned at him.

“I’d like to see you try.” I snorted at them.

That pushed him over the edge. He lashed out at me with a forehoof. I waited until the last possible moment before making my move. I easily sidestepped his kick and slammed both of my hind hooves into his armored side. I felt my hooves connect with the armor and it sent him crashing onto his side. I heard the snow crackle behind me and spun around just in time to duck a kick from one of his buddies. Once I was beneath him I could see just how useless his armor was. It really offered no protection to his face or neck. I brought my right forehoof up in a powerful uppercut that caught him in the jaw knocking him out cold. He fell backwards and disappeared in a snow pile.

By now the first guard was up and charging me again. I didn’t know why the other two hadn’t joined yet but I had other things to worry about. Once he was within range I kicked up snow into his face. He flinched, giving me enough time to swipe his legs sending him tumbling into another snow pile. I turned and looked at the other two guards. They looked at each other and nodded. At the same time they extended long wings and flew upwards.

Oh fuck, forgot that some of them had wings. They separated and then came soaring back down towards me from two directions. I smiled and dropped to my stomach and heard the loud clang as they collided a few feet above me. My smile dropped as they both came crashing down on top of me though.

“Should have seen that coming.” I muttered as I pushed the two unconscious guards of off me.

I looked around. Four guards, three down. I walked over to the pile the first guard had slid into. Make that four guards down. His helmet had fallen off andhe had stumbled into the pile and actually managed to knock himself out on it. I trotted over to the Clinic door and knocked twice before opening the door and poking my head in.

“Excuse me, Nurse?” The nurse looked up at me from the counter. “You got four new patients out here.” I grinned and closed the door.

As I walked past the first guard I noticed two dents in his armor. And they were deep.

“What the hell…” I went over to him and picked up his helmet to take a closer look. It wasn’t gold colored it was actual gold. If they wear actual gold armor they needed some serious overhaul to become adequate. I dropped it and stepped over him. If this had been my squad I’d have to whip ’em into shape.

/=/=/=/=/

The trot to Twilight’s place had been filled with perils. Some slipping around on ice. A few holes covered by snow. Tools and various sharp objects under a thin blanket of snow. In fact, that I hadn’t ended up needing medical attention was quite the accomplishment.

The town was sickeningly charming covered in snow, with snowponies all over town. Decorated houses and trees. Ruins of forts from snowball figths.

The library looked different covered in snow. But then again, it was a tree. I waded through the snow over to a window and peeked inside. Twilight was sitting in the middle of the main room, back towards the window, she was studying something closely. I made my way over to the door and after I had shaken the snow of my legs I knocked twice, hard, and pushed the door open. It let out a lovely creak. Twilight turned her head slowly and as soon as her eyes landed on me they shrunk to pinpricks.

“Twilight.” My tone was colder than the weather outside. She visibly shivered when I spoke.

“Oh, hey Michael!” Her eyes were dodging back and forth at an impressive rate. “The nurse said it’d be at least three weeks before you got out of the clinic.” She had turned around and was trying to hide something behind her back.

“I got better.” I shrugged.

“What happened to your eye?” She looked at my left eye with a mix of sympathy and mild disgust.

“It didn’t get better.”

She twisted in her seat a bit.

“Twilight, where is my Pip-Boy?”

“Your what? I have no idea what you’re talking about, hehe...” She rubbed the back of her head
with a hoof. The only way she could have been more obvious about it was if she had an actual sign above her head branding her a liar.

“Look, Twilight, let’s not do this. We could dance back and forth for a while and make me mad or you could give it back and that’s that.”
She sighed and levitated the Pip-Boy from behind her back over to me.

“Thank you.” I slid it onto my left foreleg and thanked god that there were only big buttons and a couple of wheels. I clicked up the Bio-lock and activated it. I winced as three long needles drilled into my leg; I gritted my teeth as they started working their way into the bone. Then the hole starting filling a cushion with air until it was attached to my leg. The screen went black as it rebooted.

The screen showed me a few details about my previous injuries, that my body no longer was dependent on Jet and that it was activating dormant computer systems… dormant computer systems?

A stabbing pain went through my skull as I felt something in my head heat up and lock itself into my nerve system. For a few seconds it felt like my brain was going to melt. After a little while it cooled down and stopped sending electric impulses through my body.

I looked down at the Pip-Boy, Strength Implant Online. Then another shot went through my head, this time it spread down my spine and the pain was far more intense this time. My spine felt like it was on fire. I dropped my knees and started panting. Twilight rushed to my side, she was talking but I couldn’t make out words. It was all muted and blurry around me. If she hadn’t had such a distinctive color I wouldn’t have been able to tell that it was her.

The duration was shorter than the first but it hurt a lot more. I glanced at the Pip-Boy again. After blinking away some tears I could see that the Reflex Implant was Online. Twilight left my side, I tried to look where she went but I could barely see anything.

“Third times the charm!” I grunted.

My whole body convulsed as the third implant fired. This time I knew what implant it was. The Sub-Dermal Armor. The flash of pain was mindnumbing but it only lasted a few seconds.

I was reduced to a sweating, twitching pile on the floor. I was panting heavily. My legs were shaking violently. After a few failed attempts to get back on my hooves I decided to stay on the floor for a while. My heart was pounding so hard I got worried it might explode.

I took a final look at the Pip-Boy. This was actually the first time I studied it, it was one of the
3000 - A models. Sturdy old things, damn near indestructible. I turned a wheel and clicked a button and a screen popped up asking me what color I wanted the screen to be. I clicked Green. Then a new screen popped up.

_____________________________
Strength Implant: Online
Reflex Implant: Online
Sub-Dermal Armor Implant: Online
_____________________________

Level: 30 (True Mortal)

HP: 385/405

AP: 86/86

Strength: 7
Perception: 8
Endurance: 8
Charisma: 6
Intelligence: 7
Agility: 7
Luck: 1

_____________________________

Effect Strength: 1+
Effect Perception, Agility: 1+
Effect Damage Threshold: 4+
Effect Pony Charisma: 1+
_____________________________

Tough Guy
Ranger Takedown
Night Person
Kamikaze
Ferocious Loyalty
Weapon Handling
Terrifying Presence

_____________________________

After scrolling around its screens for a while I could determine one thing. I had no idea how these things worked. I finally managed to struggle to my hooves. I made my way over to the table. I plopped down on the chair I found Twilight on and smacked my head into the table. I felt so tired, I decided to close my eyes for a second.

oooOOOooo

I stopped in front of the officer at the desk. She looked ragged, beaten all to hell. She had a few nasty scars in her face and was wearing an eye patch. She looked up at me and flipped a page on her clipboard. Her eyes tracked down the paper.

“Michael Denton. Recruit. Specialty, CQB and Combat Medicine. Callsign, Reaper. Welcome aboard Ranger.”

She stood up and stretched her hand out to me. I took it and shook it firmly.

AN: Sorry about the *Looks at the calender* Dayum.. Real sorry about the slow update. There has been a lot going on lately. Most peeved off about the fact that I was going to get FoNV Ultimate Edition last friday, NO ONE had it in store. No one. As always thanks for reading and have a nice day.

Thanks to NeverKnown and DancingOnTheAshes for making this readable.

Chapter 7: Quest Added

The Ranger smiled at me as she let go of my hand, her scars twisting along her smile and making her look rather.. unpleasant. I returned her smile, best I could, and picked up my badge. The three golden lines with the white star engraved on a small metal emblem, I fastened it to my shirt, right above the heart. She then handed me the patch, the yellow arm patch with the black bear standing in it’s hind legs above a red star. The white text spelling out ‘Ranger’ below the bear. This I would put on the left shoulder pad of my Patrol armor, but for now I stuck it in a pocket.

I turned to Jesse, giving him a small smile. “I’ll wait for you outside.” he nodded and stepped up to the Ranger’s desk, smiling casually at her as I passed him on my way to the door. Pushing it open and stepping out into the small waiting room, it looked trashed, it always did. No matter where you went no one could ever keep it clean, empty bottles and coffee cups spread out all over the place. There was even a turned over coffee pot on the table, I sighed. Walking over to the table and turning it upright again, a muffled sloshing coming from it. I blinked, opening the lid and leaning in, taking a sniff. Recoiling in disgust as the horrid smell hit my nostrils, this.. ‘coffee’ must be months old. I shuddered and put the pot back down, someone else could deal with that.

Just as I was about to turn for the bench I felt someone grab my shoulder, acting on drilled in reflexes I snapped my hand around the hand of whoever it was and pulled it forwards, putting my other hand under the shoulder and bringing the.. lavender creature around through the air, slamming it down onto the table, putting my lower arm over it’s throat and raising my fist for a blow, I froze, staring down into the large purple eyes of... “Twilight?”

oooOOOooo

“Twilight?” I blinked, looking around. Twilight was laying on the table in the center of the library, dazed. The chair I was sitting in had been flipped over, rocking slowly back and forth on the floor. The pony let out a choked whimper, making me pull away the hoof I had over her throat and took a few steps back, watching her sit up and cough violently as she rubbed her sore neck.

~PTSD, nothing to worry about. Until you snap and kill someone.~

“Twilight, I-I’m sorry.” I offered weakly, walking over to her and putting my hoof around the shaking mare, rubbing her back. These ponies were definitely not used to violence. But they seemed to be used to compassion as she relaxed slightly at my touch. At least she stopped shaking. That’s when I heard another whimper, turning my head and spotting a butter yellow pegasus. Her long pink mane seemed to go on forever, curling up slightly right above her hooves. She was rigid, unmoving. She seemed to believe that if she didn’t move, at all, I wouldn’t see her.

“Uhm, hi?” I gave her a disarming smile, I hope. Unfortunately it seemed to have been a demon’s grin since she yelped, collapsing into a ball on the floor, hiding behind her hooves, and hair, and wings. Shaking violently. I sighed, Twilight pushed my hoof away as she slipped off the table, rushing over to the pegasus and stroking her mane. Whispering into her ear, she seemed to know what to say, since the mare calmed down.

~Is it just me, or is she almost too adorable? And together? That’s almost weaponized cute right there.~

“Shut up.” I muttered.

Twilight looked up at me, her eyes locking with mine. I could see that she was shaken, shocked even, and a resolve. I'd probably get hit by some sort of spell if I showed any further sign of hostility, so I adopted a calm look. “I’m sorry.” I said again, it seemed to make her relax a bit more, so I gave her an apologetic smile. “In between dreams and consciousness I have a hard time controlling myself, and I’ve been having rather vivid nightmares lately.” That seemed to peak her interest; I could see it in her face. She had questions, and lots of them. Then something caught my eye, someone else’s. The mare on the floor was peeking up at me through her hooves, but as soon as she noticed I had noticed her she let out a ‘meep’ and hid back under her hooves.

I bent over, picking up the chair and putting it back next to the table. I got a little worried as I saw a long crack in the wood where I had slammed Twilight into it. I glanced over at her; she didn’t show any signs of pain.

~She might still be going on adrenaline, what will happen when it settles?~

Did I just put another pony in the clinic? Redheart was going to kill me, well, not kill me. But scold me, which is even worse. I went around the table to pick up the books I had knocked off of it. Putting them back on the cracked wood. I was going to have to replace her table, somehow. There was a loud ping, I blinked and looked around. Neither Twilight or the yellow mare seemed to have heard it.

Then I glanced down at the flashing Pip-Boy, I had a new… quest? Luckily the Pip-Boy only has three large buttons and a few wheels, so I could operate it with hooves. I clicked down to the journal page, noticing the new ‘quest’. It read, “Repairing Burned Bridges.” Then a little box under it, it was checked. “Apologize, a lot.” Then it read, “Replace broken table.” That one was unchecked. But, then something at the top caught my eye. I noticed another quest. Which was marked as the main one. “Visitor From Another World.” With a checked box as well, “Find out where the hell you are.” And an unchecked one. “Optional: Find a way back home.” And, a finished quest.

I cocked my head as I read it, “Cutie Mark Crusader Pony Saviors, yay!” With the three marks filled, “Find the missing fillies.” “Optional: Defeat the Lupus Major.” “Get the fillies to safety.” As well as the reward, “Ponyville Fame Gained.” And a new.. perk, “Cyclops: Lost your eye, your depth perception is down the drain. Permanent – 2 to your Perception. Although you got bragging rights for a wicked scar, + 10 to Speech and Unique Dialogue options to certain ponies.” I scratched my head, this thing was confusing.

~Well, it is connected to our brain… I mean ‘me’. So it could be stealing your thoughts.~

“True, I suppose.” I mumbled, stacking the books on the table. Then I felt eyes on me, I turned my head and found both ponies watching me. The Cute one looked confused, not scared. I felt relieved about that, Twilight though, Twilight looked intrigued. She had more questions. Wonderful. I suspected telling her I hear voices wouldn’t shorten the list.

~Voice.~

“Huh?”

~Voice, singular. I’m the only one in here.~

I stood there, silent, for a moment. Glancing between Twilight and the crack in the table. The silence quickly becoming uncomfortable. That’s when the door to the library flew open once again, the room instantly becoming freezing. In through the now open door stepped the classy white unicorn.. lady? Yeah, lady. A white and pink scarf wrapped around her neck. She spotted me and lit up.

“There you are!” she chirped and trotted over to me at a brisk pace, wrapping her hooves around me and giving me a bone crunching hug, which I had not expected he to be able to deliver. “I wanted to thank you for saving my sister, but I didn’t know how to, so. I did what I do best, ta da! I know it’s a little late for a Heart's Warming Eve gift, but I wanted to give you something.” she pulled out a large present from nowhere, dark red paper and a green bow adorning the top. I blinked, taking it out of her hooves slowly.

“Thanks?” I offered as I took the bow off, pulling off the sticky tape and very gently tearing off the wrapping paper.

~Yay! We got a cardboard box!~

I stifled a snort, didn’t know how she would take it. Then I opened the box, my eye widening and my jaw dropping. I grabbed onto it and the box fell to the floor, my old duster unfolding to it’s full length. It looked, new. It was repaired. But, there was no sign of repair, no new threads or ugly miscoloring. It also seemed smaller, and shaped differently. I slipped my hooves into the sleeves, cracking a smile as I noticed it had been resewn to fit my equine body. Draping it over my shoulders and back felt wonderful, like something about me was right again. The leather was darker, smoother.

“I had to get a special permit to work with it.” the mare said, “Leather is not exactly.. common.” I turned to her, giving her an earnest smile as I put my hooves around her. Giving her a rather tight hug, but I must’ve failed to keep my strength in check as I heard her croak. “You like it then?”

I parted the hug, giving her an apologetic smile. “I love it, thank you.”

She smiled warmly at me, and I blinked. She.. was, adorable. I looked around the room, my eyes getting caught on Twilight and the pegasus. Everyone was adorable!

“My name is Rarity.” she cooed, causing me to look back at her.

“Reaper.” I said simply.

She blinked, her smile getting a little weak. “Lovely name.” Then her warm one returned, “My sister wants to see you, she’s back at the boutique. I can show you the way if you want.”

I nodded, “Alright, lead the way.” with that she turned around and waved at the girls,

“Bye girls, don’t forget our spa appointment, Fluttershy.”

“Oh, I won’t Rarity.” the yellow mare, ‘Fluttershy’ piped up. Her voice hit me like a brick wall, a very.. small, quiet and soft brick wall but a brick wall nonetheless. If my heart wasn’t frozen solid in a block of ice it would’ve molten instantly. Rarity then grabbed my hoof and led me out of the library into the biting wind again, luckily my trusty duster kept the wind at bay. Letting me bask in warmth.

As we got outside she let go of my hoof, not wanting to risk slipping on any stray patch of ice, and trotted along the shovelled path through town. Walking through the town at this hour was very different, those snow forts were now occupied, with several strike teams attempting to break through their walls. Colts and fillies getting pummelled in snow as they got within range of the fort’s defenses. I chuckled quietly at the sight, reaching down and helping a small brown and white colt out of a snow pile. He mumbled his thanks and rushed back onto the front line. Quickly joining the casualties of the snow war.

Rarity giggled as the colt got taken out by a hail of snowballs. Some foals had even set up a frontline base camp behind a stall. They were actually sending out ponies to flank the fort while setting up a full frontal assault as a diversion. Soon the fighting had spread into the fort, there were snowballs everywhere and barely any missed their marks. I was actually impressed.

We stood and watched the battle from the sidelines, after about ten minutes the fort was in ruins and it’s protectors taken prisoner. They actually raised a flag on the snow pile that used to be the fort. A white sheet with a cupcake painted on it. It was.. refreshing, to see kids being able to play with each other.
Rarity and me left the battlefield when the prisoners started a riot, pouncing their guards and rubbing snow in their faces. I watched them with an amused smile as we wandered towards a rather spiffing looking building.

“Carousel Boutique.” she declared proudly, “Home to the finest dressmaker in all of Equestria, me.” she cooed, putting a hoof on her chest and closing her eyes. Like she was basking in praise.

I rolled my eyes.. eye, but then I looked down at my duster, it looked better than new. “I won’t argue against that.” I smiled at her. “You did an amazing job on my duster.” I was taken aback as she let out a squee.

She grabbed my hoof again and nearly dragged me to the Boutique, she pulled the door open with her ‘magic’ and showed me inside. At first glance you would brand it a clothes store, but on the second I noticed that all the clothes, dresses, suits. The latest fashion and the more posh styles of the higher classes. I could see why she had a bit of an ego. Thankfully it was warm in here, pleasant and homey. I took a deep breath, the shop smelled of warm milk chocolate. Making me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, or in other words. It made me feel weird. It didn’t take long until she put a cup of it in my hoof, it was steaming, even had a marshmallow floating in the middle.

“Thank you.” I said, sipping at the hot liquid. Soon the cold from the wind washed away, making me feel warmer and fuzzier.

“Sweetie Belle~” she called out in a sing song voice, “He’s here.” I could’ve sworn I heard something shatter on the second floor, the noise made Rarity twitch and sigh. “If you’ll excuse me, I spent much time on your gift. I need to get back on schedule.”

“Of course.” I nodded, “I would pay you, had I the funds.”

She looked like I had suggested burning all her clothes, “No, no! It’s a gift, gifts are free.” she said before trotting into another room and closing the door behind her. I turned my head as I heard the soft clopping of hooves on wood. Spotting the white little filly standing at the bottom of the stairs. She smiled a little nervously at me.

After a few seconds of silence she trotted over to me and reached up, putting her hooves around my chest best she could. “Thank you.” she said in an incredibly soft voice. I put a hoof around her, it covered most of her back, and held her close. Smiling down at the filly burying her face in my chest I could swear I felt something break inside of me. I stroked her mane, parting the hug. Her smile had no nervosity left as she looked up at me like I was a hero.

“Want to see my room?” she asked, looking at me expectantly.

“Yeah, sure.” I nodded, and she lit up like fireworks. Wrapping her hooves around mine and dragged me to the stairs. I chuckled, letting her lead me up the stairs. She was innocent, truly innocent.

~In a way, this place is amazing.~

“I have to agree.” I mumbled, thankfully Sweetie Belle didn’t hear me. She was busy dragging me into her room, and after a quick look around the room I came to the conclusion I would probably be playing with dolls shortly...

Chapter 1: First Contact

I grunted and shook my head as I broke out of unconsciousness. I found myself in a fortified position behind some sandbags with a couple of Troopers that looked like they would break out of the fortification and run at any moment. The sound of
gunfire almost unbearable as I poked my head above the sandbags, I was on the airfield next to base.

“What are we supposed to do now Captain?” one of the soldiers asked, he sounded worried.

“Ah shit, we’re all gonna die!” Another said with panic creeping into his voice.

“Stay down we just need to hold out a little longer!” I shouted as I looked over to the field. Hundreds of legionnaires were charging over the airstrip. I looked around for anything to use I almost started panicking before I saw it. The multiple barrels and massive body of the weapon sure was a sight for sore eyes.

“Stay here!” I yelled as I mantled the cover and charged for the weapon, bullets flying all around me. My run was cut abruptly short when I was hit by the blast wave from a grenade that sent me tumbling over a busted wing landing next to another couple of terrified soldiers.

“Ouch” I grunted. I sat up and opened my pack “Fuck playing fair” I muttered. I pulled out my little bag of fun and turned it upside down letting the drugs land in the dirt. I injected myself with a Med-x, a Psycho then swallowed three Buffout and
inhaled a canister of jet and jabbed a Super-Stimpak into my neck as a precaution.

I could feel my muscles and senses growing stronger as everything slowed down, I felt invincible. The soldiers looked at me with worried glances as my vision turned into a red haze. I screamed at the top of my lungs and charged over the cover. Still screaming as I headed for the Vulcan. Getting hit by gunfire didn’t even slow me down. In fact I barely noticed the bullets
striking my vest.

A legionary positioned himself between me and my target and charged me. “Get the fuck out my WAY!!” I screamed as I slammed straight into him. I heard the satisfying noise of breaking bones. He hit the ground screaming in pain. “Oh I’m sorry did that hurt? Maybe this’ll help!” I shouted as I stomped on his neck, I smiled as I felt the vertebrae snap under my boot. Then I stomped a few more times for good measure before returning to charging towards the Vulcan.

I threw myself almost three meters through the air landing on top of the gun as I picked it up in a rolling maneuver I pulled the trigger causing the barrels to start rotating. Then as I stood up I looked down and saw the safety was on and it had plenty of ammo. I pointed it at the legionnaires with a stupid grin on my face.

I started laughing like a maniac as I flicked the switch. The roar that the gun let out was deafening. Spewing bullets at a rate I had only heard of before, everywhere I aimed the weapon legionnaires were turned into a red mist. Spent cartridges flowing from the gatling gun like a golden waterfall. Cackling like a maniac I slaughtered dozens upon dozens of legionnaires before something caught my attention. I heard two voices, one unknown but the other one felt familiar. All of the sudden the Vulcan disappeared and the legionnaires froze in their tracks. But before I could react two soldiers jumped me and pinned me to the ground.

oooOOOooo

“Applejack hold him down! I can’t examine him until he stops moving.”

“Ahm tryin’ nurse, he’s mighty strong!”

“Wait here I’ll get the sedatives.”

“Get off of me!” I screamed my mind still on the airfield and fought against the hooves holding me pinned to a bed. I stopped fighting as I felt someone stick a needle into my arm causing me to feel limp and woozy. “Get off.. of.. me” I whispered before
the anesthetic knocked me out.

~Time to wake up, NOW!~

I force my eyes open and begin to draw in air, filling my lungs until they almost burst. I winced as I felt the sharp pain from a broken rib, as well as a disturbing wave of nostalgia. I grunted while I took in my surroundings, I was in a hospital room, in a comfortable hospital bed. The room had whitish walls, a large window with dark green drapes along with a couch, some chairs and an old desk. The room also had some pictures on the wall of an almost sickeningly colorful and cheerful
landscape. But what really caught my eyes was the mirror sitting on top of the desk and what was looking back at me.

“What the fuck…”

The creature staring back at me was a light brown pony with a jet colored mane sporting dark grey outlines and blood red eyes. Eyes five times the size of any creature I had ever seen before.

I forced myself into a sitting position, ignoring the agonizing pain in my chest. I looked down at my hooves. ~We have hooves now?~ As I rolled of the bed I found myself in a very strange body, standing on all four I flexed every muscle in my body getting a feel on how my body now worked.

I didn’t have much time to explore my body or have a new mental breakdown when I heard a very familiar sound. A gunshot followed by several screams of fear and one of pain. A few moments later a heard a door on the other side of my own slam open and several distressed voices shouting and crying.

I didn’t waste a second. I charged at the door and kicked it open. The room on the other side was a waiting room in a small clinic, but instead of people there were a few brightly colored equine creatures standing in front of me. ‘Not dealing with this yet’. I rushed over to the counter where a cream colored pony with a picture of a medical kit on her flank was trying desperately to help a white pony with a dark red mane.

I pushed the nurse out of the way and looked her over. She had been shot in the left hind leg right above the knee. She was bleeding heavily and hyperventilating.

“What are you doing?” The nurse pony almost shouted at me.

“I know what I’m doing” I said turning to look her in the eyes. She nodded and I went back to examining the wound.

“What’s your name?” I asked softly as I gently stroke her mane trying to calm her down.

“R-rose” She whimpered.

“Okay, Rose does this hurt?” I asked, gently but firmly stroking her inner thigh.

“N-no” she sounded like she was about to break into sobs.
Good that means the leg isn’t broken. “Nurse I need a scalpel and pincer.” She nodded and ran into another room. Rose looked at me with terrified eyes.

“Rose do you trust me?” I asked, she just kept hyperventilating but then a purple pony with a blonde mane came up to her and took her fore hooves in her own and a pink pony with a green mane started stroking her mane and telling her everything was going to be okay.

“Y-yes.” She whimpered weakly.

The nurse came back with a small scalpel, a pincer and some bandages. I took them and gave Rose an apologetic look before starting basic field surgery.

I took the scalpel in my mouth and pushed the blade into the bullet wound until I felt it scraping against the bullet. Rose was now screaming through her teeth. Shit how am I going to use the pincers like this?!

“Someone grab the pincers and help!” I half shouted through the blade in my mouth, it was small enough to make my words clear enough to understand. A lavender unicorn ~unicorn?!~ walked up beside me and her horn started glowing, the pincers started levitating with a purple glow, I just stared at it for a few seconds before adding it to things I would deal with later.

“You see the bullet?”

“That metal thing?” The lavender unicorn with the glowing horn asked.

“Yeah, if you see it pull it out slowly.”

The pincer grabbed onto the bullet and slowly pulled it out. Rose stopped her muffled screaming but kept whimpering and sobbing quietly. I grabbed a roll of bandages and pushed it against the wound then taking another and wrapping it hard around the leg to stop the bleeding.

“Wait for the wound to stop bleeding then disinfect and wrap new bandages around it.” I looked around at the group the bright colored ponies standing around me.

“T-thank you!” Rose pushed out between sobs.

“No problem Rose, just stay of that leg for a while.” I said stroking her mane. I looked up at the ponies surrounding me and I could feel my eye twitching again.

“Whoever used one of my guns, goes and gets it right now and puts it back into my pack and does not touch anything else, are we clear?” The purple pony with the blonde mane nodded with a shameful look in her face.

“Good, now if y’all excuse me.” I walked back into my room. I closed the door took a deep breath and once again the adrenaline that kept me going faded away bringing back the agonizing pain that had been multiplied by recent activities. I laid down on the bed in fetal position and started hyperventilating.

Authors note: I was shellshocked by the response to the prologue. This chapter is a little shorter but i hope you will like it anyway. For my first story ever written about anything i'd say i'm rather pleased with how it turned out. But since i have a lot of stuff to do (Mostly reading other fanfics!) I wont be uploading too often. And i would be very grateful to anypony who could offer creative criticism i will even pay attention to the trolls. (If i get any)

BIG THANK YOU TO EVERYPONY WHO READ THIS!