Dropped Into Equestria

3 Weeks Later

Three weeks later I was doing farm work when I heard a twig snap. Having an EXO on to 'applebuck', I drew my M1911, still twitchy from many years of active service. Nothing, not even Applejack coming to tell me it's lunch or Applebloom coming to check on me. I scanned the area and saw nary a leaf blowing in the wind. "I've been reading your file, Corporal." announced a familiar and British voice behind me.

"Jesus Christ!" I spun around and was quickly disarmed before being put in a headlock.

"Sloppy." simply stated what I presumed was the leader of the STARs team I met. "M1911; simple, outdated, effective, and powerful. An American firearm classic. This looks like an old model, but has seen extensive customization. Your work, I presume?"

"Only the laser pointer. Rest was my dad." I strained, in the headlock. The grip was loosened and the pistol returned to me. "So... you've been reading about me. List some quick facts."

"You are a Medal of Honor winner, you are religiously unaffiliated specified as atheist, are fluent in Spanish, Italian, German and Russian, half of your left ring finger has been cut off, you have a tattoo of a scroll on your right shoulder inscribed with the name of your squad, and a tattoo of a rose with the name 'Rachel' wrapped around the stem on your left shoulder. But you could just say that those are on record for all to see, so... You were involved in Operation Moscow Snow, an off-the-books operation to eliminate the heads of Russian Mafia families, who planned to fund an insurgency of North Korean-sympathizers to retake Pyongyang. Ended with the collapse of Russian Mafia's power, a mass arrest of Russian Mafia members after an anonymous tip lead to a OMON raid, and a squash of the planned rebellion. Need I continue?" He was one cocky son of a bitch, I'll give him that.

"No need. Can I at least have a rank, name?" I said.

"Captain, I'll leave it at that. I also see that, at one point, you were going to be married." My blood turned to ice before boiling, "If you don't mind me asking, what happened?"

I sighed, "Her name was Rachel. Country girl, dirty blonde. She was beautiful, funny, patient, just a wee bit cocky, and willing to put up with my crap. In other words, she was perfect. What happened, and you're really lucky I haven't killed you for asking, is she was killed in a car accident. But let's start at the beginning, shall we? I popped the question before I was shipped out to the United States of America Interplanetary Armed Forces Space Station Foxtrot-Romeo 029A 'Clinton', and she accepted. And then North Korea attacked South Korea, where I was in active duty for about a year. Got back after the fall of Pyongyang in time for Thanksgiving and Christmas and, while driving back from a Christmas party, a jack-ass rear ended us, we hit a patch of black ice and crashed. I survived, she didn't. Happy." I finished, seething with depression, anger, and sadness.

"Wow... I'm sorry mate. Never heard someone open up to me like that before. I mean, I've taken you to the ground and held you at gunpoint, and I just kicked your arse but still, you just told me a story like that. I can't even begin to imagine what you saw in North Korea. I read in the history books that it was worse than fighting the Japanese during World War 2. I think that that earns some answers." He unhooked his helmet and took it off. He had dirty blonde hair and some short facial hair. "We're from 2087-"

"Doesn't that mean I'm old enough to be your granddad?" I asked.

"I guess it does, but anyway we're from 2087 and we are part of the United Nations Space Combat and Exploration Federation. However, we're from a special and highly secret division. By that I mean if anyone found out I told you this, you and I could be executed. Said division is called the Deep Space Exploration and Colonization Defense Force, but we've taken to calling ourselves the Sentinels."

"HEY JOHN! YA OKAY?! IT'S TIME FOR LUNCH!" We both heard Applejack calling for me at the same time. Somehow, he had put his helmet back on by the time I turned back to him.

"We'll be watching John." He activated active camo and fled. I turned towards the sound of Applejack's voice and then back to the tree I was about to kick when this all started and saw something carved into the tree. Captain Charlie Norton II Now I had a name. A name that sounded familiar in someway. I assumed that a random, highly decorated Space Marine from a now disbanded outfit weren't commonly on high ranking officers in a highly secret organization IWMDs, so I assumed he downloaded my files when he took me to the ground.

Applejack came into view, her beautiful face greeting me with warm, emerald eyes. "There ya are, ya silly. Who was that that was talkin to ya?"

"Nobody important. Let's go." On the way out, I caught Charlie flipping me the bird as we walked away. I thought of many rebuttals that I could use if AJ wasn't here 'Hey, I'm number one.', 'Hey kids, look! A deer.'

At lunch, I snuck looks at Applejack. Occasionally, Applebloom caught me and gave me a sly smile.

After excusing myself from lunch, Applebloom caught up with me near the barn and stated with giddy joy "Ya like her, don't ya?"

I tried to shrug it off "Psh, I, um, don't know what you mean."

"Yes ya do, Mister. I may not be the Element of Honest but I know a bad liar. Listen, you need to stallion up and ask." she stated.

"My previous job's description was being ready at any moment to get into a metal deathtrap and drop back to Earth at Mach 25 to enter a battle-zone. I don't think I need to 'stallion up'." I wasn't about to let a 14 year-old tell me about how to deal with my love life.

"That may be so, but that was then, this is now. Listen, Ah'll cut ya a deal; if you don't stallion up by the end of the week and ask mah sister out, Ah'll tell her about your little crush." There was a sly, shit-eating grin on her face.

"You're bluffing." I muttered.

"Oh, but Ah'm not; either stallion up and possibly get the love of your life, or Ah tell her and possibly ruin any chance ya had with her." she elaborated.

"Ya know, I don't have to agree to these terms." I said, cockily.

"Ya know, Ah'll tell her anyway." she said even more cockily.

After some groaning, I blurt "Fine! Can't freaking believe that I'm letting a freaking 14 year old dictate my god-dang love life!" toning down my language, even though by that age I could recite the Seven Words You Can't Say On Television by heart.

"Ya know... Ah think she has something for you, too. Ya don't catch it, but she sneaks loving looks at you too."

She walked away and I collapsed against the barn wall. "Having problems with your love life?" asked Charlie, as he deactivated active camouflage leaned against the wall.

"Seriously, dude. You've gone from a shadowy organization of trained killers to an imaginary friend that only I can see and talks me through my problems. In a fucking hour!" I muttered.

"I'll kick your ass into space for mentioning anything of the sort, mate. Now... the hardened killer having problems with a crush-" He stated.

"Bite me." I interrupted.

"-and, and the crush's sister is blackmailing you into asking your crush out, or else she tells your crush that you have a crush. That correct?" he elaborated.

"When did you go from spec ops to love councilor?" I asked.

"When did you go from a Space Marine to a boy scared of a girl?" he retorted. "Listen, from my team's recon-"

"Spying." I interrupted.

"You make it sound so negative. Anyway, from my team's spying, the orange one-"

"Applejack. Her name is Applejack." I said.

"You mean like the cereal?" I nodded "Christ these ponies are weird. Applejack has, on multiple occasions, expressed romantic interest in you, used your name on multiple occasion to the purple one in the castle."

"Right under my nose. Thanks for the info Charlie." I looked around and he was gone, "Charlie? Sneaky bastard." I muttered.

"Hey John. Listen, the next two weeks is gonna be Applebuck Season. The amount of buckin is gonna increase quite a lot, ya ready for that?" Applejack crossed the corner and I understood why Charlie disappeared so suddenly.

"Yeah, yeah, of course. I've gone through hell and back, kicking some trees ain't really gonna faze me."

Suddenly, something appeared on the HUD of my TAG "GO FOR IT, MATE, AND I'LL OWE YOU A BEER!" It encouraged.

"The hell?" I muttered.

"It's me, you dunce."

"How the hell?" I again muttered.

"I'll explain later! Now go for it you pussy or I'll come over there, and kick your ASS!"

**From Applejack's Perspective

Yesterday

Twilight's Castle**

"Ah don't know what ta do, Twi! Applebloom tells me that he sneaks looks at me, too but Ah don't want ta risk ruining our friendship. What should Ah do?" Applejack asked Twilight Sparkle, exasperated.

"These things take time, Applejack. It took Flashy a whole year before he asked me on a date." Twilight explained.

"Ah know, but Ah don't have a year. Applebloom told me if I don't 'mare up' by the end of the week, she'll tell im. And if she does, it might ruin any chance we had together." Applejack looked towards the door of John's bedroom. A thought crossed her mind "If he hears any of this, this little secret is over."

"Don't worry, I can cast an invisibility spell so that only you can see me tomorrow. You're going to tell him about the increase in workload, and then you have an excuse to talk to him, so you can ask him on a date. It'll be perfect!" Twilight shouted.

Today

Applejack tried to look past John's legs, where Twilight was holding words of encouragement. YOU CAN DO IT, AJ! it said in bold, colorful letters. Applejack somewhat heard John mutter something, but she was mostly trying to work up a nerve.

She finally took a deep breath and asked "Hey John?"

John's Perspective

"Hey AJ?" I asked, after a deep breath and many 'words of encouragement' from Charlie. Let's just say, Shakespeare he was not.

However, I asked at the same time she asked me. "You first." I stuttered.

"Good job, be a gentleman." A message appeared.

"Well, Ah wanted to ask ya out on a date." Applejack also stuttered.

"Same." I said, relieved.

"Well the weekend after the final week of Applebuck season, there's a hoe-down to celebrate the end of the season?" she suggested.

"Yeah, yeah, sure, okay. It's a date." I said.

"Was that that hard?"

She walked away on jelly legs, and after see left I spotted the shadow of someone on the roof. I aimed a hand at where the shadow was cast and raised a solitary finger. You can probably guess which one.

"I guess I owe you that beer, don't I? Meet me in the barn's loft in five minutes."

Five minutes passed and I met him behind a stack of hay bales. "Here's that beer." Charlie said, tossing a beer towards me. I caught it and began drinking. "Good job, mate. I won't judge, there aren't that many human women in this world."

"Yeah, I believe the ratio is zero human women for every twenty thousand pony." I joked.

"Nah, a three of my team are women. Didn't you notice in that castle?" he stated.

"No, I was too busy having my ass handed to me by a certain British prick, not to name names. So," I took a drink "how did you hack my IWMD?"

"Do you remember when I plugged something into it?" I nodded. "I was downloading files from you, but I decided to install a back-door that can control you." he explained, taking up a beer of his own.

"Like what?" I asked. Suddenly my EXO seized up.

"Like deactivating your EXO." he stated, matter-of-factly.

"Major Howard always did say that we rely to heavily on them." My EXO was released from grid-lock. "You rely pretty heavily on showing and not telling."

"Guess I do." he finished off his beer and stood up "That's all for me. My team is probably gonna start looking for me if I don't report in soon. Hotel-Bravo, this is Tango-Lima. I am Oscar-Mike, how copy over?"

"Solid copy, Tango-Lima. It's good to hear from you, we were just about to send out search parties." crackled from his radio. I hopped down from the loft as he activated active camouflage.

And waiting in front of me, tapping her hoof, was Twilight Sparkle. "Who was that you were talking to, John?" she asked.

"Well.... fuck me." I muttered.

"I thought I saw an extra shadow on the roof. Now... who was it?"

"Good job, dumbass." A message appeared, and my eyes darted to it. Then my TAGs were enveloped in an lavender aura and lifted from my head.

"Let's see here." Twilight said before clearing her throat. "'Current Objective; Grow some balls and ask her out!', 'You faced the North Korean Army, and received the Medal of Honor, but you can't ask out a girl!'. Who sent them John?"

Before I could say anything, CAL, who was until this point dormant, synthesized Charlie's voice and spoke "That would be me, Mrs. Sparkle. I was giving Corporal Smith positive encouragement, and the only positive encouragement a Marine understands are insults and profanity."

She blushed a bit and said "Sorry, John. I didn't know you had an 'artificial intelligence'. Here." She levitated my TAGs back to me and I put them on.

After she left, I whispered "Jesus Christ! CAL, you are a life saver."

"Only doing my job, sir." CAL replied.

"I may have also unshackled your AI." A message appeared.

"Yes, thank you Captain Norton. I greatly appreciate you doing that sir. The three weeks I was dormant, I was simply activating and calibrating all functions needed to have a 'personality', as you would call it."

"Good to have you back, CAL." I stated.

Picture References

Captain Charlie Norton