As I layed on the surgical table, I started to realize why people love morphine, it was almost like living a dream. Then I felt the ground shake, leaving my brain in such a shamble that I couldn’t tell up from down. I soon found the direction of down when I hit the floor after falling off the table. As I sat up and looked around, I heard a muffled shout of my name, or I thought I did. I couldn't tell with all the sounds bouncing around in my head. Soon my mind finally connected to what my eyes were seeing, a flashing red light on the wall in front of me. Then I heard the alarm sounding.

At that point I felt the adrenaline in my system rise, flushing out the morphine. I stood up, ignoring the slight pain in my chest, and picked up a vest and my pistol off the ground. After putting the vest on, I proceeded for the door. I quietly pushed the door open and stepped out with the gun raised, prepared for any attack. As I walked through the halls, I kept looking around corners, prepared for anything to happen. I spotted Tyrock standing in front of the garage door, he was still wearing his helmet and was holding the door open with his right hand, with the pistol in his left. It looked like the gun was about to fall out of his hand at any moment.

“Tyrock what’s the situation?” I asked walking up to him, looking behind into the living room and making sure nothing came up behind us. When he didn’t answer, I looked over at him. He was facing towards the garage, but he wasn't moving. I reached over and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Tyrock, what's going on?” He used his right hand to point into the garage. I pulled him out of the way and looked to see what would cause him to react like this. What I saw is what I could call a small horse, but it looked like someone dyed its coat a sky blue color and it mane a navy blue. Another thing about it was it was wearing full navy blue camo along with a combat helmet. It was standing on the far side of the garage with its back to us. As I watched it headed over to the security panel for the power system, that’s when I knew it was the one that had set off the alarms.

“HALT!” I yelled, through the open door and aimed my pistol at it. When it turned around, I found another interesting feature about it. It had a spiral horn in the middle of its forehead, sitting in a hole cut out of the helmet. It also had on some type of goggles that made it so I couldn't see its eyes. When it saw me standing there its horn lit up in a violet hue and so did my pistol, in a split second the pistol was yanked out of my hand and thrown in front of the creature. The pistol started levitating in front of it, still covered in the strange violet cloud. It was spinning around almost like it was being controlled. When it pointed the gun at me, the horse whined, or whatever sounds horses make. I slowly raised my hands and tried to look as less threatening as I could be. It whinnied again and the gun moved closer to me, at that point I connected that the horse was the one controlling the gun. The horse then took the gun and pointed it at small door to the right that led outside. Then it pointed the gun to the door I came through.

“Hey cuz, I think it might be best if you get out here.” I called out, still keeping my hands up. I turned to see Tyrock walking out of the door with his hands up, but without a gun, at least one I couldn’t see. He walked over and stood to the left of me. The horse then snorted, using its hoof, it looked like it were pointing to the door that leads outside.

“What do you think it wants?” He asked, his voice slightly muffled by the helmet. I shrugged, then looked at the small horse more closely, trying to figure out how it was controlling the weapon. It had to be some kind of telekinesis. At this point the horse's mouth looked almost like it was frowning and it nose was scrunched up, like it smelt something rotten. Then the gun was against the side of my head, pushing me towards the door. I looked at the door then back the horse, the gun was pressed harder against my head.

“I guess it wants us to go outside.” I guessed, turning for the door.

As we walked over, I heard the clip clop of the small horse following, I could also feel the presence of the gun get less and less with each step. When I reached the door, I risked a quick look back and confirmed that the gun was still pointed at us, but was now just in front of the horse, a few feet behind Tyrock. I slowly reached down and grabbed the doorknob, twisting it open. When I did, a strong wind blew in, almost like opening a thousand year old air proof tomb. The moment I breathe in the air, I felt my whole lungs lit aflame. The air washed down my throat, causing me to lean against the door as I gasp for air. The inside of my skull, at the back of my head, was itching like water went up my nose. There was ringing in my ears, and my throat felt scratchy, and I started to feel light headed from the lack of oxygen. After a few seconds of raspy breathing, the ringing in my ear subsided, I then tried to stand back up. Daring to take in another deep breath, I found the air to be pleasantly cooling and refreshing, giving the sensation like my lungs were going numb. The back of my head still felt irritating itchy, but that too was starting to go away. Finally able to get a good look around, I found the clearing we were in was completely different. The clearing that our house was in had about two hundred yards to the tree line, this clearing had only half that and the forest was one I have never seen before. The trees were a darker color almost pure black in some places, there was also vines that sprouted from almost everywhere. The trees were tall enough that they blocked out the sun, making the area around us even darker. Then there was the mood of the forest, all forest have has a type feeling, like some are peaceful while others give off a mysterious feeling, almost ominous. This forest gave off the feeling of death and made you feel like something was watching your every move. I could hear the sound of birds and other woodland creatures moving about through the underbrush. Then I heard the horse step out, it then did something I never expected it to do, it spoke.

“Ah, that feels better.” The voice had a feminine tone to it, and when it spoke its mouth moved like ours would, not just open and close like a horse did, but actual speech movement. As soon as it spoke, Tyrock pulled out a pistol from behind his back and aimed at the horse. At that same moment, the horse pointed the gun back at him.

“What in the fucking hell type of horse are you?” Tyrock asked in a husky voice, coughing into his free hand.

“I am a pony, and technically a unicorn.” It said, with what I would guess an irritated tone. “And you two are my next test subjects.” I looked at the pony and then at Tyrock. Then doubled over and laughed.

“Good one cuz, you almost had me.” I laughed out. “Alright. Where are the cameras? Come on out guys.”

“Stone, what are you doing?” Tyrock asked still pointing the gun at the ‘unicorn pony’.

“Oh please, you're not fooling anyone. I mean, could you come up with a more stupid prank? A ‘unicorn’ is trying to capture us and use us as test subjects. not bad for a few hours how did you pull it off?” I said still trying to spot the other guys from the academy. “This hologram has T.G. written all over it. GOOD JOB BUDDY, BETTER LUCK NEXT TIME.” I yelled into the forest.

“What are you talking about? Are you delusional?” The pony asked in a hushed whisper. “I'm on a mission to find the best team in the galaxy, and keep your voice down. This is the Everfree Forest, home of the most dangerous creatures in all of Equestria.”

“What do you mean Equestria?” Tyrock asked as I walked to the edge of the clearing, looking for old comrades. As I did so, the chances of this being a prank became slimmer and slimmer as I couldn't spot cameras or our friends.

“I teleported you to Equestria to test if you can handle the challenges of this world. You two would be my third team in the past two days; I’m almost out of magic.” She said as I walked back over with a look of concern on my face, but beneath that I was starting to panic. Normally I could handle any situation I was trained for, but I don't remember them telling us what to do if we were suddenly teleported to another planet.

“You said ‘the challenge of this world,’ what do you mean by this world?” Tyrock asked, lowering his weapon a little.

“I brought you from your planet, to the planet of Equine. The home of my creators. I have to find a team capable of protecting them.” She said, floating the gun in front of me in almost a truce like fashion. I yanked it out of the air and pointed it at her.

“Stones, lower your weapon; I don't think this thing means any harm.” Tyrock said, putting his gun back in his holster and reaching over to push mine down. In half a second, the gun went from the horse to pointing at my cousin’s throat, the one spot that we have yet to design the vest to protect. He slowly raised his hands and took his helmet off, giving me a bigger target to hit. “Stones you need to calm down, give me the gun before you do something you’ll regret.” I looked him in the eye and saw the one look that made me fill with guilt for even doing this.

“Why am I doing this?” I asked myself, turning my eyes towards the ground. I felt the gun slowly being pulled out of my hands. When they were empty I dropped them to my sides.

“Stones look at me.” He said placing a hand on my shoulder. “Go take a breath and see if you can find anything that can pose a threat or could be of some use.” He held the gun out by the barrel. I looked at him and nodded, taking the gun out of his loose grasp.

As I walked off, I could hear Tyrock telling the pony that I don't mean any harm, that I’m just a little freaked out about all that has happened. I rolled my eyes, thinking he was just the same way. After I got a couple of yards out of ear range, I tried to take some deep breaths, then the pain hit me. I dropped to the ground, on one knee, trying to hold back a scream.

“Stone's!” Tyrock yelled running over. “What’s wrong?”

When he reached me, he pulled open my torn vest and put a hand on my chest, causing me to inhale sharply through my gritted teeth. When he pulled it back it was red with blood, ‘where did that come from?’ I wondered, then I could see the unicorn coming over.

“Shit, come on we need to get you inside, now!” He said, pulling me up and throwing my arm around his shoulder.

“Wait.” I heard the pony say after Tyrock dragged me a couple of feet.

“Wait?” Tyrock asked, a mix of panic and anger in his voice. “We don’t have time to wait, he is bleeding out right now. I’m surprised he even last this long.” He started for the house as the corners of my vision started to turn black.

“I can heal him, but it could mean that you guys won’t be able to go home.” She said, walking over.

“What are you talking about?” Tyrock asked, still hauling my body forwards.

Soon her horn started to light up, a trail of light floated out of it and moved over to me. It looked almost like a giant glow worm, and then it connected with my wounds. It felt like someone dumped a bucket of fire ants on my chest, causing me to cry out in pain and drop to my knees.

“What are you doing!?” Tyrock yelled, trying to keep me on my feet.

I could feel some kind of energy seeping into my wounds. I felt the muscle and skin start flowing across my ribs, covering the open wound. I could also feel my heartbeat slowing down, reminding me of the sniper breathing exercises that we used to keep our aim steady. I could also feel the strength returning to my legs. When I was able to stand on my own two feet, Tyrock backed off and looked at me in almost awe. I reached a hand up and felt where my wounds were, or where they should have been. All I felt was four lines on my chest. I looked down to confirmed what my hands were telling me. All that was left of the near life threatening lacerations were the scars that could only been see if it was six months ago that the injury was inflicted. Even the vest was fixed.

“What the hell did you just do?” Tyrock asked, looking at my newly formed scars as if they may soon burst open.

“I used a healing spell, it speeds up the healing process. I guess it also works on objects as well.” She said sitting down and taking a deep breath. “Now I don’t have enough magic to complete my mission. I don’t even have enough energy to send you two home.”

“Hold it, did you just say that we can’t go home, that we are stuck here?” I asked walking over to her and pulling out my pistol. This time, Tyrock didn’t object when I pointed it at her.

“I told you, I’m out of magic, I was only given a small amount when I was created. Now that I have used almost all of it, I might as well start calling myself an earth pony, for all the good that it will do me. Now I will never be able to protect my creators.” She explained, looking down towards the ground and her ears splayed back, her voice getting quieter and quieter with each word.

Tyrock and I looked at each other. Not one of us felt bad for her, she kidnapped us and made it so we were stuck on an alien planet without any way to get home.

“Look I don’t care who your creators are, what they are. All we care about is how to get home.” I said, raising my voice not quite to yelling. She looked up at me behind the blacked out goggles with a death look that wouldn’t even scare a child.

“I told you I can't.” She said, trying to hold back her anger.

“I don’t believe you. If so, then I guess we can just go find someone who isn’t as worthless as…” I started mid-sentence, and then Tyrock interrupted me.

“Stones.”

“What?” I said irritated.

“Listen.” He said, putting a hand to his ear. I looked at him like he has gone crazy.

“ What are you talking about? I don’t hear…,” then it dawned on me, the forest has gone silent. There were no sound of the birds or the bugs, not even the wind. It was almost like the forest was holding its breath. I looked over at Tyrock; he looked at me then tilted his head, jestering to something off to the side. I followed his eyes to a small patch of vegetation. At first, I didn’t see anything, then I saw one of the bushes move.

“Get inside the house, now.” I said to the pony, slowly raising my gun to aim at the bush. She stood up and with as much noise as possible and ran for the door. When she did, a brown blur jumped out and headed straight for her. Without even thinking, I shot the creature in the head, dropping it to the ground. When I saw it, I could have sworn I had lost my mind. It looked like a wolf, but it instead of skin, it was made of wood with moss as fur. “A timber wolf?” I thought as looked at the weird wooden beast. Then I heard another one jump out behind me. I turned and had the gun aimed at it, but Tyrock beat me to the punch with a direct hit to its heart, ending its life. Soon the woods exploded with more than a dozen of them beast jumping out and surrounding us. Tyrock and I slowly moved towards each other, until we were back to back.

“Stones, you think we can take these things?”

I looked at the beast summing up their strength. They were about as tall as my shoulder and had glowing green eyes. One of them, I guessed was the alpha, could almost look me in the eye. I then saw the one Tyrock shot stand back up and walked over like nothing ever happened. I don’t know if Tyrock saw it, but the one I shot explode into a pile of sticks.

“Maybe, how big are the odds against us?” I asked keeping an eye on the alpha as the pack circled us, growling and snapping their wooden maws.

“About fifteen to one, that’s not including the big guy over there.” He said as we both turned the opposite way the wolves were.

“Piece of cake, as soon as one move, blast them. Head shots only.” I said looking over to the house.

I could see the pony slip inside and shut the door. One of the wolves turned to look, but I didn’t give it a chance to finish as I made its head disappear from its shoulders. Then all hell broke loose. One jumped at me from my right, aiming its gaping jaws for my head. I turned and fired a round down its gullet. Taking one of it friends out with a bullet the moment it came out on the other side of his neck. I heard Tyrock firing a couple of rounds taking out a few of them. I kept firing rounds after rounds, taking out the bloody devils. For every one I took out, two more took its place, making it harder and harder to keep them off of me and Tyrock. One of them charged us, getting to close for comfort. I back kicked it, knocking it to the ground and aiming the gun to take the creature's life. When I pulled the trigger, all I got was a click, making my heart drop with a dread realization

“Shit, Tyrock I’m out, cover me while I reload!” I yelled, dropping the clip out and attempting to reload quickly. The creature I had hit moments ago, jumped up and pinning me to the ground before I could react, knocking the pistol out of my hands.

I grabbed its neck, keeping its snapping jaws away from my head, its breath smelt of rotting wood, covered it decaying flesh. The smell alone was almost nauseating. I tried to call Tyrock, but the monster was scratching at my vest tearing the camouflage fabric, but not getting past the protective armor underneath, causing me to groan from the force needed to keep the jaws from chewing on my skull. Just when my arms were about to give out a blue fire ball slammed into its side knocking it off of me and igniting. soon after it a green and tan blur came out of the house and rammed into another charging at me. I turned and found Hunter standing between me and the timber wolves. He still had his K-9 armor on and he was baring his fangs showing the metal K-9s he had, capable of tearing through weak armor, the wooden skin the wolves had wouldn’t stand a chance against it. But before I could stand up, another one charged at me. I dove to the side, landing next to my empty pistol. I picked it up by the barrel and swinging it like a club, hitting the creature across the jaw, turning its head away from me. When it did, I pulled one of the knives out of it sheaths and stabbed it in its neck, just at the base of it skull. After I pulled it out and looked at it, I could see it was covered with an eerie green sap. I turned, prepared for the next attack. The wolves were still circling us, but were now weary. The alpha was still snarling at us, ready to attack at a given opening. I turned to look at Hunter, who just destroyed the wolf that he tackled off of me by ripping its throat out. I heard Tyrock reloaded a new clip in his pistol. I flipped mine over and did the same.

I fired one round into the air scaring away the smaller ones, leaving the alpha alone to face us. I pulled the knife up and rested the gun on my wrist aiming at his head ready to take him out. He looked at the piles of sticks, marking his dead pack, and growled at us. I took a step forward, but he turned and disappeared back into the trees. I keep the gun facing in that direction, where he disappeared into, for about thirty seconds then slowly lowered my pistol. I heard Tyrock give a sigh of relief, holstered his gun at his side.

“You okay?” He asked, walking over to me. I nodded, still not taking my eyes off the spot the alpha disappeared at. After I felt him grab my shoulder, I turned to look at him. His face was as neutral as they come, but his eyes were almost glowing with adrenaline and, I’ll have to say, absolut joy. I would have to say the same about me. I haven’t had that much fun since basics training. At this point, I heard the door open and the unicorn popped out.

“Are you guys okay?” she asked. I looked over at Tyrock who nodded. I looked down at Hunter as he walked over and sat next to me.

“We’re fine.” I said, looking up at her. “How about you, are you good?” She nodded, walking over to a pile of sticks, shuffles a few then turns to us.

“I’m sorry that I brought you here. I should have asked but I didn’t have the time.” She apologies rubbing her left leg with the other hoof. “Today was my last day to bring someone here. If I didn’t, I would disappear and the spell would fail, and so would my mission.” Me and Tyrock looked at each other then back at her. We both knew what it felt like to fail a mission. Now that I have had a look around, I could see what they needed to be protected from. This world had its dangers like ours, but from the look on the pony’s face told me that she has seen something that she wish she could unseen.

“You said we’re the third team you brought here. What happened to the other two?” I asked walking over.

“The first team I brought here landed about two miles that way.” She said, pointing in the direction of a mountain range. “They were eaten by a Manticore. The other team landed in Foggy Bottom Bog where a hydra got them.”

I turned to Tyrock with a look of “is she serious”, he shrugged off then walked over.

“I got the feeling that this place is rather peaceful compared to our world, so why do they need protection if they just stay out of the forest?”

“It was peaceful until my creators found the elements of harmony. When I was created, I was given their memories. I know everything they have gone through. Sure they have always came out on top, but it’s only a matter of time before something happens to them and this world is left defenseless. That is why I need somepony to guard them, but without being seen.”

“Okay, what exactly is a threat to them, besides whatever is in this cursed hell you call a forest?” I said waving a hand towards the piles of sticks.

“Just last week, they had to fight a creature known as Discord, he is a god of chaos. His only wish is to throw this world into chaos and disharmony.” She declared turning away from him. then in a low voice. “He almost succeeded, and he would have if they didn’t have the elements of harmony to turn him back into stone.”

“If he is been turn to stone, then what do you need us for?” Tyrock asked.

“Because, all it took to free him was a couple of ponies fighting in front of his statue.” She said spinning back around. “It may have taken a thousand years, but he was still freed. He knows now how to get free and I know he will try anything to be free again. If that happened, I don’t know if they will be able to stop him a third time.” She said, again sitting down and lowering her head to look at the ground.

“Look if what you say is true, then I guess it am only a matter of time before someone gets hurt.” He answered. She looked up at him, her face showing true terror at that notion. “I don’t know how we are supposed to stop a god if he is freed, but hell, I have never back down from a challenge and this sound like a hell of a hard one. I’m in.”

She looked at him in surprise; I followed with the same look.

“Tyrock what the hell do you think you’re doing?” I asked, grabbing him and spinning him around so he was look dead at me. He had a look that I knew all too well.

"Hey, do you have any plans on getting home. As long as we are here we might as well help out." Tyrock retorted, not losing that glem. “As far as I can see it, I’m up for any challenge as good as those wooden beast.”

As I lt looked at him his face was full of nothing but pure determination. A look that I haven’t seen this intense since the day we walked into a destroyed village in Iraq, one that we arrived just a day late. That day, he promise that we would never let another innocent life be lost on our watch. We have yet to break that promise, and he wasn’t going to let it happen here.

I knew there was nothing that would change his mind. I sighed and looked over at the unicorn. “I guess I owe here fore saving my life... twice now." I thought as I stuck my thumbs into my pockets "What’s your name miss?”

She looked up at me and took her helmet off, underneath was a mane that fell down, almost touched her shoulder. It was spiked in some places, it was the same navy blue as her tail, but had a white highlight down the middle. The goggles came off with the helmet, revealing neon blue eyes, the size of oranges.

“Jane, Jane Blue.”

“Well Jane blue, it looked like you have yourselves a couple of guardians.”

Author's Note

Hey if you are reading this, thanks for staying with the story and tell me what you like about it and what you don't like. I will try to get the next chapter out as soon as I can. if you see any mistakes let me know and I'll try to fix them.