Chapter 1 - Pony Insertion (original)
The echoes of gunfire resounded through the ruins of City 17, as the Citadel loomed overhead with dark red clouds swirling above it's peak. The fighting between the Resistance and the Combine Overwatch forces had only grown worse as both parties scrambled to get out of range of the Citadel before it's dark fusion reactor collapsed. There were some that were too far into the city to escape however.
A squad of Overwatch soldiers sprinted through a parking garage, it's walls crumbling to the ground as it was shook by the occasional explosion. This squad knew that they would never make it out of the city before the citadel fell, so their leader decided to bring the group as far underground as possible. The soldiers stood before the ramp that descended into the deep, dark underground of the garage. The leader, clad in brown body armor and wielding a SPAS-12, led his squad down.
At the rear of the line was a soldier armed with an Overwatch Standard Issue Pulse Rifle, OSIPR for short. Or Pulse Rifle, or simply an AR2. This soldier was only known to his squad as "7", as that was the quickest way to refer to a specific soldier in the heat of a firefight rather than using his (or her) full identification. Suddenly, a garbled radio transmission was heard by all of the soldiers' headsets.
"Sector is... not secure." The squad recognized it as a fellow trans-human's voice, but something was clearly off about it. The leader opened his comm channel.
"Seven, Four, sweep sector for necrotics and terminate if necessary." 7 opened his comm channel.
"Affirmative." 7 and 4, who was armed with an SMG walked ahead of the group and around a corner where the fire of a burning car illuminated the immediate area in front of them. 7 spotted movement out of the corner of his augmented eye, accompanied with the sound of boots hitting the concrete floor. He spoke to 4, "Possible contact ahead, prepare to engage."
7 opened the pouch on his belt and pulled out a flare gun. He loaded a flare into the gun and fired it into the darkness. The red light of the flare lit the entire area up almost immediately, barely giving any time for the two soldiers to react to the onslaught they had unleashed. A swarm of former soldiers, citizens and rebels charged towards them, with creatures reminiscent of crabs covering their heads.
The soldiers open fired upon the zombie like creatures, 7's OSIPR doing far more damage than 4's MP7. One of the zombie soldiers pulled out a grenade and charged faster towards the two. 7 dispatched it quickly with a few well aimed shots to the head. Suddenly, a zombie that was nearly reduced to only skeletal remains jumped out of the shadows towards 4 as the light of the flare slowly died out. It knocked 4 onto his back, his MP7 clattering to the ground. 7's OSIPR reloaded itself as he watched 4 be torn apart by the zombie, it's claws tearing deep through 4's flak vest. The OSIPR finished reloading and 7 unloaded into the beast. By now the sounds of the heavy boots of his comrades was audible as they rounded the corner and assisted 7 in repelling the horde.
After the last zombie fell, the leader turned to 7. "Seven, take whatever you can from Four while the rest of us scout ahead." 7 nodded and turned to 4's corpse, which was illuminated by the fire as well as being outlined in white by his goggles in his mask. He stepped over 4's MP7 as he walked to the corpse. 7 looked at 4's mauled body for a moment. He had no regret, no pity, and no sorrow. Now 4 was just an objective to him.
He flipped 4 over and opened his pouch. He took out a 357. magnum and a healing vial. 7 was slightly surprised that 4 would have a 357. as those were not standard firearms by any means. 7 took his flare gun out of his own pouch and replaced it with the 357., which had no other ammo other than the six bullets already in the gun. He figured it was better to have more firepower than utility at the moment. 7 then heard his squad leader over his radio.
"7, we checked the rest of the level, it's blocked off by the rubble. Head back to the surface, we'll be there soon."
"Acknowledged."
---A Short Time Later---
Once back on the surface, 7 was fired upon from behind by the low caliber bullets of a USP Match. he was about to take cover behind a diesel truck when a sound akin to an explosion went off behind him. 7 turned around and saw a portal opening above the Citadel, with a beam shooting into it. Then the Combine tower began to be devoured by a large light-blue ball, 7 had no where to go as the explosion forced him into the truck, knocking him unconscious.
Chapter 1 - Pony Insertion
The Everfree Forest, Equestria
3:34 A.M.
7 woke up and coughed a few times, even though his mask was still on. Even as he lay on the ground he could tell something was wrong. For one, he couldn't feel his fingers. Then he noticed how his arms and legs felt like they were bent in the complete wrong ways. He noticed the foliage, how it was much more alive and healthy than the trees in and near City 17.
The moon shone brightly into the clearing where he lay. 7 stood up and then fully realized the severity of the situation. He was no longer a biped, instead his body was that of an equine. A pony to be exact. Any normal human would have panicked. Not 7, he wasn't even human anymore after what the Combine did to him. Now he was a trans-human, in the body of a pony. His armor had also undergone a transformation, it had been seemingly redesigned to fit his new form (without any armor protecting his flank) while still retaining it's previous oppressive look. He found it strange (or as strange feeling you can get with nearly no emotions) that he knew how to move as if he had know how to all along with his new body. Realization struck, this was either a new dimension, or a new planet. It was obviously undiscovered by the Combine, or the planet would not look as nearly as... alive as it did. But there was no way for him to contact any other Overwatch forces, not with all the distance between him and Earth. He had to find a way to amplify his radio signal to contact any Universal Union or Overwatch channels.
Then he thought about why he was here, and why he was a pony. He didn't have the clearance to access the database on the affects of the collapse of a dark fusion reactor as big as the Citadel's, so teleportation wasn't completely out of the question. After all, there was a portal over the Citadel when it exploded.
He decided to think about it later as he looked around for his OSIPR. He saw it at the end of the clearing, where a small path seemed to lead out of the forest. He trotted over to it and stopped in front of it. He then realized that he didn't know how to pick it up. He sat on his haunches and took off his mask using his hooves. His face was now exposed to the elements. 7 had a pale white face, with a five o' clock shadow and a short unkempt black mane. His eyes showed clear signs of alteration. The whites of his eyes appeared to be permanently bloodshot, with irises that seemed to glow white. And in the center of his neck was a speaker, that acted as a voice masker even when his mask was off. 7 Quickly stood up to full height and picked up his weapon with his teeth.
7 walked to where the moonlight was brighter and took the sling for his OSIPR out of his pouch and attached it to the gun. He slung it over his back, put his mask on, and looked for a place to sleep.
---5 hours later---
7 was awoken by a soft voice. "Umm... mister robot pony... uhh what are you, um, doing up there?" It was so quiet that normal ears would not have been able to hear it, but 7's augmentations combined with his new ears could hear it quite easily. 7's eyes shot open and looked down to find a butter colored pegasus with a pink mane below him. The creature looked more and more uneasy the longer he looked at her. He jumped down and landed with a thud, eliciting an "eep!" from the pegasus that any normal person would find adorable. 7 decided to take the peaceful approach with this creature. "I was sleeping." He said with his deep, menacing voice."That's what peaceful interaction sounds like right?"
His deep, distorted voice only frightened the pegasus further. She was now in an almost cartoon-ish shiver as she spoke. "W-w-why w-were y-you s-sleeping in th-the Everfr-free Forest?" 7 simply shrugged. The pegasus calmed down a little. "Could... um... you take your mask off?" 7 complied and took his mask off. The poor pony fainted a few seconds after staring at 7's speaker in his neck in horror.
7 stared at the now limp pegasus.
7 would have been amused. If he could even feel basic emotion anymore.
