The Lost Soldier

Ray woke up the next morning, feeling somewhat better than the previous day. He disliked the fact that he was recovering from his injuries at such a quick rate, or rather a rate that was too rapid for him, because he had made up his mind about leaving Equestria and knew that Rainbow Dash would hate the decision. Ray rolled out of bed and stretched, feeling a dull pain in his gut, arm and leg. He wandered into Rainbow Dash’s bedroom, finding her still soundly asleep on her bed. Although the ponies took after beds just like humans did, the blue pegasus was curled up on her bed similar to how a cat would. Ray chuckled lightly to himself, in amusement and relief. His doctor at the Ponyville hospital wanted to see him for a checkup that morning, so Ray took this opportunity to quietly escape the house and take the balloon down to the medical facility.

“Well, you’re definitely making substantial progress!” the doctor told Ray, giving him the good news. “Progress faster than we initially expected! Looking at how your recovery has gone, you should be fully healed in about one more week!

“Seven days?” Ray asked without thought.

“Yes, seven days. That is the length of one week after all!”

“Okay.” Ray said with no indication of truly thinking “I’ll see you later.”

Ray stood up from the examination bed and walked towards the door.

“Wish there were more like him...” Ray overheard the doctor speak to himself as he left. the room. A jabbing pain shot through his body upon hearing that. He slowly made his way down to the lobby, leaving himself to his thoughts. The injuries had reminded him of so much; how many times had he been in a hospital, hoping his friend would pull through, but so many times they wouldn’t. It was so quick. A drawn out beep, a final breath, their last words. It all came rushing back to him suddenly. Ray froze as he entered the lobby. If he had caused those things to occur on his planet, how long would it be until that happened in Equestria? Despite his best efforts, he could feel his heart racing as he tried to fight all the memories that were trying to overwhelm him. It took Rainbow Dash shaking him roughly to snap him out of his stupor.

“Ray? Ray? Are you okay?” Rainbow Dash asked worriedly.

“Agh, uh, Rainbow! Right... The doctor said I would be fully recovered in a week,” Ray replied weakly. “When did you get here?”

“I didn’t find you in my house and I remember you had said something about a check up yesterday, so I came here,” Rainbow Dash said, slightly annoyed that he was trying to change the subject. “Now, tell me what the hay is wrong with you!”

“It’s the hospital… I just remembered some… Things.”

“What is it Ray? What about the hospital?”

“So many times. I lost them. I failed,” Ray murmured.

“Who?” Rainbow Dash pushed, trying to remain calm.

“My friends.

“So Cassandra wasn’t the only one?”

“No! Of course not! War is war! You lose friends in war! It’s always my fault too! I couldn’t save any of them!”

“Alright, calm down Ray! You can’t go blaming yourself for everything. Come on, let’s go outside.” Rainbow Dash took notice of the ponies staring at them, hoping that Ray going out would ease the tension a bit.

“Goodness after all this you would think I would learn that,” Ray said bleakly as the two walked out of the facility. “It’s not so easy Rainbow Dash. I just don’t belong here.”

“What? What do you mean?”

Ray took a deep breath. “I’m going to leave after I’m cleared by the doctor.”

Ray had taken a few more steps forward before he realized Rainbow Dash had stopped, frozen. He turned and saw the sad smile on her face.

“Well I can’t say I’m surprised,” She replied in a strained voice.

“Rainbow Dash, look at everything that happened since I got here. Ponies got kidnapped, Canterlot was invaded, and innocent ponies were killed. I don’t belong here! All I do is kill and bring destruction while here you all barely know what war is. I don’t belong.”

“That’s not all you’ve done Ray! Have you really forgotten running into a burning forest to save me? Even after all I did was show you hostility?” Rainbow Dash pointed out.

“And for what? I lose everyone anyways…”

“Yes, but I’m still alive right? Isn’t that better than leaving me dead?”

“Yeah…”

“Besides, I understand why you need to leave. If I were in your position I would probably do the same thing.”

“Thank you for trying to understand at least...” Ray replied. “And still, I have about a week left to stay here, so I suppose I can still hang out with the coolest pegasus in town.”

Ray grinned when he saw Rainbow Dash’s cheeks start to turn red.

“Let’s see what type of trouble we can get into.” Ray said as he walked down the street with Rainbow Dash in tow, laughing.

The week passed by too quickly for Ray’s liking. He woke up as he always did: quietly and without movement, but something was different this time. He had his eyes open for no more than five seconds and almost had a heart attack when his brain processed his visuals.Rainbow Dash had apparently snuck into his room during the night and fallen asleep with her head resting on his arm.

“Today’s gonna suck,” Ray thought.

He figured she would want go with him to the hospital for the last check up so he woke her up. Rainbow Dash let out a long yawn as Ray gently shook her awake.

“Today’s the day isn’t it?” Rainbow Dash asked groggily.

“Yes… Yes it is,” Ray said simply.

Rainbow Dash sighed. Ray swung his legs off of the bed and reached for the camouflaged blouse which he slid over his olive drab shirt and buttoned it up. He went through the depressing task of packing his gear up from the room Rainbow had so generously let him use and carried his bags out to the balloon.

“I’m really going to miss this place,” Ray said as he boarded Twilight’s balloon for the last time.

The short walk to the hospital took place in silence as the two friends struggled to find words to comfort each other. The checkup was a speedy process for Ray and, as he suspected, he received a clean bill of health. The two friends exited out of the hospital and slowly made their way to the library, trying to prolong the inevitable. It didn’t take long, however, until they arrived at the large tree that Twilight Sparkle called home.

“Well, I guess this is it,” Ray murmured.

“I’m gonna miss you Ray,” Rainbow Dash said as she hugged Ray tightly.

“Right back at you,” Ray said as he returned the hug.

Reluctantly, Ray opened the door to the library and stepped inside.

“Twilight, you here?” he called out.

“Yeah, all of us are here,” Twilight said. Before him stood the five other ponies that he had grown close to over the past several weeks. Ray looked solemnly at his six new friends.

“Are you ready Ray?” Twilight asked.

“No,” He replied simply, half-joking.

“I don’t think any of us are,” Twilight said with a sad grin.

“Any last words before I depart?” Ray asked.

“Of course Ray. I’d just like to say that we were wrong about you when you first arrived in Equestria. You are a really nice guy,” Twilight started.

“Yeah, we’re really going to miss you because you’re a super duper awesome almost-as-cool-as-Rainbow Dash guy!” Pinkie added.

“Yes, it’s been an honor to meet you!” Rarity said with a small bow.

“I’m glad we got the chance to know you,” Fluttershy continued.

“Thanks you fer all the help you’ve done since you came here,” Applejack said.

“Please don’t go,” Rainbow Dash suddenly pleaded and burst out crying. She shot towards Ray and wrapped him up in a big hug. Ray was shocked from his friend’s instant break down.

“Hey, shh... C’mon, it’ll be okay Rainbow Dash,” Ray said as he hugged her back.

“How? I’ll never see you again,” Rainbow Dash managed in between her sobbing.

“You don’t know that. I’ll try to see if there is a way I can get back from my end. Besides, I have a hunch this won’t be the last time I see you,” Ray reassured her.

Rainbow Dash knew that he was lying- there was no way he could ever come back- but his attempt at reassuring her had been a nice gesture. He wiped the tears from her face and stepped away. Two bright lights appeared behind Ray momentarily, catching the ponies’ attention. He turned to see what they were gazing at to find the two princesses of Equestria silently regarding him.

“I guess both of you came to see me off?” Ray asked.

“Yes we did,” Celestia answered for the both of them.

“We wanted to thank you for the things you have done for us,” Luna added.

“Nonsense, I’m sure you could have handled things on your own,” Ray replied.

“Humble, courageous, and kind. Three words I never thought I would use to describe a human,” Celestia summed up with a small smile.

“Thanks, but really I’m none of those,” Ray murmured.

“You shouldn’t sell yourself short Ray,” Luna said, remembering the time he had encouraged her.

“Sure… Well, okay Twilight, let’s get this over with.”

Twilight merely nodded and closed her eyes to focus on the magical task at hand. Her horn started to glow purple and tiny motes of light swirled around the room. They gathered into a faint oval that quickly solidified, forming the picture of a desert in the dead of night.

“Really Twilight? This is probably one of the worst places to have put me in,” Ray sighed.

“Sorry Ray, with a little more practice I could-”

“Don’t worry about it Twilight, I’m sure that it’s safe enough for me.” Ray stepped up to the portal, “I’ll see you all later,” The soldier said with a rather serious demeanor behind his tone. Yet, he himself wasn’t sure if he’d ever return to the land that had helped fill a small hole in his life. With that, he stepped through. A brief moment of disorientation rushed through his head and then the feeling of sand underneath his boots.

“I guess it worked,” Ray said. It was dead quiet.

“Was there any doubt?” Twilight asked from the other side of the open portal, content with her handiwork.

“I guess not,” Ray said without looking back.

Suddenly Rainbow Dash leapt for the portal, but was stopped by Applejack’s quick reflexes, yanking the distraught pegasus back by the tail.

“Hey, let me go!” Rainbow Dash demanded as tears continued streaming down her face.

“Sorry, but ah can’t do that.”

“Thanks AJ,” Ray whispered to no one in particular.

“Ray, please come back,” Rainbow Dash whimpered.

“No!” Ray answered in a strained voice.

He didn’t dare look back to the portal, which cast a faint glow for a few feet around the immediate area. Ray sat down on
the hill of sand and pulled out his radio. Thankfully, it had maintained its charge while Ray was stuck in Equestria after not being in use, so Ray could make a call to any nearby radios.

“Sierra Base, this is Viper One. Do you copy?” Ray asked. There was a long pause. Ray was about to ask again, when a reply finally came in.

“Sierra Base here! Holy shit Ray is that you?” An amazed operator asked.

“The one and only. I’m going to need some evac, so do you mind arranging that for me at my current coordinates?”

“Got it Gunny! We got two stealth Ospreys running an op nearby. I can reroute them to pick you up. They’ve just completed their exfil.”

“The tech boys finally got those working?” Ray inquired.

“They sure did and from what I hear they work beautifully.”

“Well, thanks buddy, I owe you one.” Ray said.

“No problem Gunny. Here’s the team I am rerouting to you.”

“Holy fucking shit, Ray you’re alive?” a voice crackled over the radio.

“I sure am Connor. Glad to see you’re still up and kicking.”

“I’m still kicking? Look at you! We all thought you died after skydiving in to your last mission! No emergency beacon, no
visible chute, nothing! Thought you were a goner!”

“Well, I’m still here! Got an ETA for me?”

“Yeah, we’ll be at your location in about fifteen mikes,” Connor replied.

“Who’s Connor?” Twilight asked in a strained voice through the portal.

“Connor is Ray’s oldest friend. They went through training together,” Rainbow Dash replied weakly after finally giving up on trying to get through the cross-universe.

Ray continued to sit silently, facing away from the portal while waiting for the two Ospreys to arrive. He only noticed the Ospreys were there because of the sand storm they kicked up. Several operators exited the Ospreys and fanned out to ensure the area was secure.

“Nice to see you’re in relatively good shape,” Connor said as he extended his hand out towards Ray.

“You too brother,” Ray replied as he grasped his friend’s hand.

They both gave each other a hard slap on the back before they released their grip.

“Okay, everyone back on the Ospreys. I want to be back at base in-”

Connor never got to finish his order; next to him, an operator’s neck was blown out and an RPG sailed over their heads. The two Ospreys immediately took off and managed to avoid the next three RPGs that, most likely, would have hit them. Someone ran over to the fatally wounded soldier and grabbed their hand.

“Fuck no no no! Come on man, hold on! Hang on Anthony! Not here, not like this!” he cried, gripping his friend’s hand tightly as if it would prevent the inevitable from occurring, but the dying soldier finally let out his death rattle and shut his eyes for the last time.

While that had occurred, Connor had started to issue orders to his team. “Shit ambush! Hunter, West, get up that sand dune and start returning fire back at them!” Connor barked, referring to the operators’ call signs, or their nicknames. “I want the rest of you to move north and try to get a better angle on the baddies! Ray, you stay here though. I don’t want you disappearing again. That Osprey gets back, I want you to be the first on it,” Connor continued.

“Connor I can-” Ray started.

“Don’t worry, I don’t know what has happened to you these past few months, but we can take it from here,” Connor said with assurance and followed the operators running parallel to the sand dune.

Ray walked over to the operator who had been shot in the neck and knelt down.

“I’m sorry…” he whispered and gently pulled the operator’s dog tag off of what remained of his neck.

Ray glanced back and saw the portal to Equestria was still open, and eight astonished ponies were staring at him. Applejack had ceased holding onto Rainbow Dash, but the pegasus was too stunned to move anyways. He could go back, he still had a chance. The portal had begun to dim, but Ray still could run back- back to Equestria, back to Rainbow Dash. His gaze then drifted down to the dead operator and his blood soaking into Ray’s gloves. He couldn’t bring that back to Equestria. They didn’t need someone like him. Dust began to swirl around Ray and the dead operator as the Ospreys quickly lowered themselves onto the ground, now closer to where he squatted. Ray hauled the dead body up into the belly of the VTOL, distraught by his own thoughts.

“Hey Connor! Ospreys are back!” Ray shouted into his radio when the soldier was down.

“Got it, all of you get back inside those birds now!” Connor ordered.

A flurry of acknowledgments momentarily filled Ray’s earpiece and quickly, every deployed infantrymen started retreating back to the vehicle. But before the operators rushed inside, he got one last glance at the portal to Equestria. All he could see now was Rainbow Dash’s head, still in disbelief at what she had seen occur before her innocent, teary eyes.

“Goodbye Rainbow Dash,” Ray thought to himself.

Connor watched as his team boarded the Osprey and swore when he saw it was full, leaving him and one other operator outside. It was Anya, his girlfriend. Ray also noticed who it was and silently cursed as well

“Pilot lift off, we’ll get on the other bird!” Connor shouted into his headset. “Click, come on let’s go!”

The first heavy bird, packed with passengers, slowly lifted off and began to cover the last two operators as they boarded the other Osprey.

“We’re good, take off now!” Anya yelled as she helped Connor on board.

The pilot quickly made the air vehicle gain altitude and followed the other heavier bird as their engines rotated ninety degrees so they could fly faster in the vehicle’s “airplane” mode.

“We made it,” Ray heard an operator mutter and instantly knew it was a rookie.

“Hey, don’t talk like that until we get back to base,” Ray scolded. “Anything could go wrong on a mission.”

“Guys, RPGs inbound!” the co-pilot to Ray’s Osprey called out.

“Fuck, Raven 2-2 hit!” Ray heard one of the pilots of the second Osprey shout.

“Hold on to something!” Connor shouted as that Osprey spiraled down into the sandy landscape..

“Go back for them!” Ray shouted and tried to work his way to the pilots.

“We can’t! If we go back for them, we will get shot down too. We don’t have the capacity to extract them anyway.” The pilot responded in a tone that seemed too calm for Ray at this point. Ray always admired that aspect about pilots: their calm voices even when their bird was on a one way trip courtesy of gravity, but the situation didn’t call for it, in his opinion.

“No, we can’t just leave them!” Ray shouted, quickly becoming angry with the pilots.

Ray looked out the back of the vehicle and watched the crashed Osprey that held one of his good friends quickly fade into the distance. The ramp at the back of the Osprey closed, shutting off the vision of the flames, sand, and pitch black sky. Ray felt weak and hollow.

“You know what Ray, I think it is mighty convenient that there were terrorists near your location the exact moment you make a call for exfil,” someone said.

“Don’t you dare suggest that I had something to do with that ambush,” Ray said and approached the operator.

“Oh, you know it’s true and even if you aren’t a traitor, then you’re still responsible for Connor’s death,” the man jeered.

“You disrespectful little-!” Ray shouted and rushed the older man, sizing him up in the seconds before the fight. He was older than him, but about the same height and same build. Physically, they were evenly matched, but hopefully Ray was better trained and had the element of surprise. The adolescent started with an open handed strike to the chest and quickly followed it up with an uppercut. Ray kicked his tormentor in the knee, resulting in a satisfying crack as his knee bent backwards. Before he could do more damage, two other operators grabbed Ray and dragged him back.

“Calm the hell down Ray!” West shouted.

“God damn it man! He was our leader and our friend and you don’t see us freaking out about it!” Hunter yelled.

“Don’t you fucking dare call me a traitor you bastard!” Ray snarled and thrashed against his two captors.

“Someone grab some morphine; we need to sedate him!”

A fourth operator grabbed a syringe and jabbed it into Ray’s arm. His world began to dim and all he could think about was that he had killed one of his friends and left another one behind. Ray’s thrashing began to slow down, which allowed West and Hunter to drag him to a seat and strap him in. They also put a zip tie around his wrists to help better restrain him. His thoughts began run freely together as the drug dulled his mind, thinking of everyone he had ever failed or hurt: Three more friends to add to the list of wreckage he always left in his wake.

“I’m sorry Connor, Anya, Rainbow Dash… I didn’t want to hurt any of you… I didn’t mean to do it. I’m sorry, all of you. I’m so, so sorry.”

“Jesus Hotel Christ, what in the hell is he talking about?” a voice asked just as the drug finally knocked Ray out.

Authors Note: This story will still be incomplete until I finish the epilogue, thank you for your patience.
Akkura