The Lost Soldier

Hi all thanks for all the feedback, not much else to say.

Ray followed Twilight through Ponyville as she lead him to her house, which she
explained was a library in a tree. As they were walking he noticed the he didn’t see anypony on
the street or in any buildings and was about to ask Twilight about it but then thought it was
probably his ‘reputation’ or the fact that they had never seen a creature like him before. They
approached a tree that, to Ray, looked like someone had hollowed it out and put in some
windows and wall mounted planters, but was somehow still alive and growing because of the
healthy looking green leaves sprouting from the trees branches. Twilight opened the door and
found it pitch black inside. Twilight entered and Ray followed her inside. Just after he entered
however the door slammed shut behind him, and there was a loud popping sound, very similar to
a gunshot. The first word that entered the young operators mind was ambush and as the light
snapped on his hand was already on the grip of his .45 caliber MK 23 pistol.

“SSUURRRRPRISE!!!!”

Ray stood still and let out a sigh of relief. Judging from all the decoration it wasn’t an
ambush but a surprise party. Twilight looked as shocked as Ray and shot a horrified look on his
face as he slowly removed his hand from his sidearm. Normal party activities commenced as
Twilight trotted over to Ray.

“I am soooo sorry I should have warned you, I hope you’re not mad, I should have
known this was coming”

Ray observed a large sign that read “Welcome to Ponyville” and figured that this
happened often.

“No it’s fine” said Ray as he flashed a soft smile “In fact I’m impressed”

“Really?” replied Twilight.

“Yea it’s really hard to surprise me because I’m such a good observer. For example on
our way over here I noticed that no pony was on the streets or in the buildings. I assumed it was
because they haven’t seen a human before or were informed of my species ‘reputation’. Now I
realize that they were all here getting ready for a surprise party.” Before Ray could continue
Pinkie Pie came bouncing over to them.

“Hey how do you like the surprise party?” asked Pinkie.

“I’m surprised you surprised me” replied Ray “but it seems nice and a party is a good
way to break the ice, and I enjoy parties.”

“Yay I’m glad you like it!” exclaimed Pinkie.

“But” continued Ray “It was a very big risk throwing this party, from what I’ve gathered
you ponies think humans are a violent species. Some people I know react very violently to
surprises, but as I said before it’s a good way to break the ice. Next time I suggest you think a
little bit about the person you will be surprising, even if you only meet them for a few minutes
like you did. You can learn a lot about someone from spending only a few moments with them.”

“Okie Dokie Lokie” said Pinkie and she raced into the crowd to rejoin the party.

“Hmm I might have been wrong about you, you seem to be very logical and calm, not
violent like some of the books I’ve studied said” Twilight replied to Ray’s comment.

“You might be surprised; humans are capable of huge acts of kindness, or huge acts of
violence. Also, even though I love reading books, you can’t believe everything they say. You’re
lucky that I was transported here to Equestria and not some other person, because I do admit,
there are many bad people on my planet. Anyways I want to put my stuff away before I join the
party.”

“Ok follow me, your room will be in the basement, I’m sure we will find a better place
for you to reside in but it should be fine for now.” Twilight replied.

Ray imagined that he would be sleeping on a floor in a dark cold room and was
pleasantly surprised again. He saw a large assortment of scientific supplies in a nicely lit room,
and a bed, with sheets! To most people this would have seemed normal but to any soldier,
especially one who should have been on a mission right now, this was a very great luxury.

“Thanks Twilight” A very grateful Ray said.

“Oh it’s no problem. There’s a dresser to the right of the bed for anything you need to
store in it.”

“Ok.”

“I’m going up to the party now.”

“I’ll see you up there” replied Ray.

Ray took the long bag that held two of his other weapons and put them in the locker, he
wouldn’t need them anytime soon he hoped. However he didn’t expect that this world was
perfect and assumed there were some dangers or predators so he decided to check out his
weapons after the party. Lastly Ray decided to change out of his green and black jump suit. Ray
never really thought about what he should wear but he figured that he might freak out or make a
bad impression on anypony he met up at the party if he wore the wrong thing. Ray always liked
to make sure he was prepared for anything so he always packed several different BDUs

whenever he went on a mission. Sure it added a few pounds but it had saved his life more than
once. He wouldn’t wear his digital desert camouflage because it was for concealment, and he
definitely wouldn’t wear his ghillie suit which would probably scare several ponies to death
should they see him. Ray eventually decided to wear a straight black BDU designed by Delta
Force for urban combat and anti-terrorism ops that was made of a fire resistant material. He
chose it because it didn’t have an erratic design and didn’t look like a monster to somepony.
Reluctantly Ray put his sidearm and combat knife in the drawer as well. If he wanted the ponies
to trust him, he would need to trust them. Ray got up and ascended the staircase to rejoin the
party.

Ray opened the door and entered a place that he thought was as chaotic as a battlefield,
some pony obviously knew how to throw a party. Ray figured he would have to wade through a
sea of waist high ponies but apparently he was channeling Moses and he managed to part the
pony sea. He began to look for the other four ponies he had been introduced to earlier. Seeing a
familiar orange pony he again miraculously parted the pony sea for a second time and walked
over to say hi.

“Hi there Applejack”

“Oh uh howdy there Ray”

“Am I interrupting anything?

“Nope ah was just gitting myself a cup of punch”

Applejack nodded towards a punch bowl full of a purple liquid. Ray figured if it was
good enough for ponies so he should try some too. He grabbed a familiar plastic red cup and
used a ladle to spoon a few scoops of fruit punch into his cup and took a sip.

“Wow this is pretty good” said Ray.

“Yep it sure is, made from the best ya know?”

“Not really… wait earlier you said something about trees, so you farm some of the fruit
in this punch?” asked Ray.

“Just apples sugar cube”

“Ah I see”

They traded small talk about Applejack’s job until she asked Ray something that caught
him off guard.

“Well I…” Ray tried to think of something to say to stall for time but he didn’t need to.

“MY TAILS ATWITCHIN’!” Ponies everywhere jumped under the closest object, which
was basically nothing except for the table with the fruit punch and food.

“What?” Ray said before he noticed a shadow loomed over him and barely dodged a very
well-aimed plastic cup filled with punch. Ray’s combat instinct’s and training kicked in and he
calculated that from the angle and speed the ‘projectile’ had come from a high altitude and was
not an accident. Ray’s eyes traced a line following the trajectory of the cup, but even his
lightning quick reflexes barely caught a cluster of bright colors disappear from his sight.

“What was that about?” Ray said in a calm but loud voice.

“What do you mean?” a pony said.

“Are you not from around here?” said another.

“Actually I’m not.” replied Ray in the same calm loud voice

“It’s ok every pony I’ll tell Ray about it, you can just continue to party.” Twilight said.

“It’s ok my tail stopped twitching” said Pinkie.

Everypony resumed normal party activities and Twilight waded her way over to Ray.

“What was that all about?” Ray asked again.

“Well Pinkie has something all of us in Ponyville call ‘Pinkie Sense’ which is when she
can predict a sudden upcoming event. A different part of her body twitches for a different event,
for example her twitchy tail means watch out for falling things.” Twilight waited for Ray to
reply with denial and disbelief but was surprised by his response.

“So it’s sorta like a gut feeling?”

“Umm I guess” replied Twilight

“Oh ok that makes sense”

“Aren’t you going to deny that or something, I mean I know you’ve proven that you are
smart and logical, kind of like me, and I know I couldn’t believe it at first I had to learn to just
trust it even though it’s inexplicable.”

“Actually I learned a long time ago to trust my gut feelings, it has saved my life more
than once when I was working.”

Twilight just shrugged and walked away. She realized that she still realized that she
didn’t know exactly what his job was and turned to ask him but he was gone. Twilight looked
around and noticed that he was making his way toward one of her other friends and decided to

ask him about it later.

Ray made his way towards Fluttershy because he still had to thank her for patching him
up after his rough landing. He noticed Rainbow Dash was talking to her and figured he could kill
two tangos with one bullet.

“Hi there Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy.”

“Oh hi there Ray, I didn’t hear you walk up your so quiet…” said Fluttershy.

“Heh yea I tend to be quiet like that.” Replied Ray “By the way thanks patching me up

today.”

“‘Patching you up’?” said a confused Fluttershy.

“Oh yea it’s a way of saying treating my injuries from where I’m from” replied Ray.

“Oh I see, well your welcome”

“Ok what’s your game?” Rainbow Dash growled “acting all thankful and nice, but I’m
on to you, Princess Celestia and Twilight said your race is violent so what’s your plan huh? Earn
our trust and betray us?”

“What? No I honestly am not planning on hurting you guys. Earn your trust: yes, betray
you: no.”

Ray’s eyes caught a flash of her rainbow colored mane… multicolored… A sly grin
spread across his lips. That’s when a very young pony came bouncing up, she had a dark orange
coat and a purple mane. Fluttershy excused herself saying she needed to go check on some
animals she was caring for as the younger pony, Ray searched his memory for the proper term,
filly came up.

“Hi Rainbow Dash!” said the filly.

“Hi Scootaloo” said Rainbow Dash.

“Hi uh… whatever you are” Scootaloo said to Ray.

He let out a little chuckle “I’m a human”

“Hue man?”

“Yep”

“Ok anyways were you bothering Rainbow Dash? I saw her give you a suspicious look”
Scootaloo then gave Ray a suspicious look also.

“Well I wasn’t intentionally bothering her” Ray answered. “Oh yea I need to talk to
Rainbow Dash about something important so can you give us some privacy?” He then asked.

“Sure, but I’m watching you…” with that she trotted away.

“She’s a good kid, she’s not related to you is she?”

“No she isn’t related and yeah she’s a good kid.

“I can tell she idolizes you.”

“What?! How’d you figure that out?”

“It’s clear by the way she was protective of you and you yourself admitted she isn’t
related to you.”

“Ok your smart I’ll give you that” Rainbow Dash growled.

“Also I think you would want to know that I sent her away because I didn’t want her to
know how bad of an example her idol is.”

Rainbow Dash’s shock registered on her face for a split second “I, I don’t know what
you’re talking about” was all Rainbow Dash could manage.

“Oh drop it I saw you throw that cup at me, you may be fast but I’m fast too” Ray replied
nonchalantly. “Oh by the way I wanted to thank you also”

The sudden change of subject again caught Dash off guard.

“I saw you on my way down” Ray explained “If it weren’t for you I would probably be
still up in that tree, you told everypony that you saw me didn’t you?”

“Well yea I did” Dash managed to say.

“You single handedly saved my life I owe you, so if you ever need a favor come looking
for me, I shouldn’t be too hard to spot”

With that Ray left feeling had made progress earning everypony’s trust, he was glad he
had made some progress on Rainbow Dash too because he knew it would be hard to earn her
trust. The party itself was dieing down and he made his way over to see Twilight.

“Hi I think I made a favorable impression in some of your friends tonight” Ray said to

“I saw” was all that came as a reply.

“Well I’m going to get to bed now.”

“Good night, see you tomarrow”