"Grayson! Bail that shit! The block's cooking!" I could hardly hear the sergeant shouting over the poppling of gunfire. It was nothing like the movies. No loud booms from the muzzles, no powerful flashes, we couldn't even see where the guns were shooting from. Tiny lead needles cut the air in half with the sound of party snaps, amplified into a terrible scream by the sheer force of the gunfire.

"I can't get Harmen out!" I reported, yanking back on his carryall strap as hard as I could.

In front of me, a window exploded into shards of razor blades that cut through the air. I picked up my rifle from the roof of the flipped vehicle, and dumped my magazine wildly into the vast desert.

"Grayson! They've got reinforcements! Get out now, or we can't help you!" He warned.

I screamed as loud as my lungs could produce, banging loudly on the ceiling. I looked down at the corpse at my feet, and snatched the tags from his throat.

*Bump*

My gaze snapped to my right leg. The bright orange dusk deepened rapidly into a black night. Pink hair bounced only an inch from my pocket.

She looked forward, walking close at my side. Behind me, the others were having a conversation about the carriage I had not been listening in on.

I looked ahead, we were nearly right in front of the barracks.

"Girls!" The voice was surprisingly loud, I instinctively snapped my hand behind me, grabbing at a rifle that wasn't there.

Pinkie's silhouette bounced through the brightly lit doorway, out towards us she ran.

I nodded to her as she approached, she smiled as she ran past, greeting each of the others as loudly and as brightly as to be expected of her. After she had finished the element, she turned around to face Fluttershy.

"Hey Fluttershy! I haven't seen you in a while!" She spoke much more quietly, now.

Fluttershy nodded in response, her hair covering her face. She was so close I had to keep my hand against my hip. There was no room to droop.

"Well, there's still plenty going on inside! Go meet some of the guards! They're so much different than the ponies in Ponyville!" She grinned.

"I'm sure they're an interesting bunch." Applejack nodded.

We followed her back into the smell of drinks, and the sounds of laughter. This could be the last time I ever saw some of these troops, so I walked up to the largest group I could find, and listened in.

"No, not really. Why would she want to?" A female asked.

"So that she could see what the ponies were doing. You know? Pull tabs on a few ponies, get some details, maybe that could stop an assassination one day. It could make the difference." The male defended.

"Yes, but ponies have a right to privacy, you can't just expect them to be totally fine with being spied on all the time." She replied, rolling her eyes.

"They don't need to know! It's for everypony's safety, I mean maybe there's other ways, but that's my idea." He finished, a few ponies nodding in agreement.

I looked behind me, Fluttershy's head was sweeping back and forth through the room systematically, like a guard dog.

I bumped her with my leg.

She squeaked and spun around, snapping her attention to my knee. She followed it back up to look at my face, only for a moment, before another sound caught her attention. She sweeped the other edge of the room with her gaze, her ears twisted back and forth like a radar beacon.

"Twilight said this party would be just what you needed." I stared at the back of her head. She moved an ear at me, only for a moment, before continuing to focus on the ponies in the room. "To be upfront, I don't think she knows the first thing about us." I added, looking back towards the barracks entrance.

She turned around and looked at my face for a moment, then turned her gaze to the ground. I had seen eyes with less color, eyes that have had the souls completely pulled from them before. But her eyes were so much bigger than a human's. Her gaze, in all honestly, was starting to creep me out. They looked like marble doll eyes, with pupils carved too small.

"You going to follow me around for the rest of tonight?" I asked.

Her hoof reached up and rubbed her other leg awkwardly.

I looked back to the ponies in the circle.

"What if we only inserted them into government areas? They could still be disguised, too!" The male pony defended.

"That adds too much room to expand their influence!" The female argued.

"I'm going outside." I told Fluttershy. As I moved towards the exit, I could hear her hooves thumping against the tile floor.

'You know, a drink might cool her nerves a little. Just like Elliot and I used to do, drink to forget.'

"Hey, 'Shy?" I stopped and turned around, she nearly ran into me.

'If she goes alone, maybe that little accomplishment will gain her back some confidence.'

"You want to go grab two drinks for me? I think one of them will do you well. And the other because they'll only let the 'vets have one, so you can grab me seconds." I smiled. "I'll be by the door."

She looked up uncertainly, before turning around and taking a hasty walk towards the drink table, where a line had become more of a short and scattered crowd.

I slumped at the wall next to the door, as a thought popped into mind.

'Shit wait, they walk on all fours, how is she could to grab two glasses?' I scratched my now scruffy chin, '-maybe she'll stack them?'

Something became much larger than the crowd, poking up above them. I looked across to see Fluttershy herself walking on her hind legs.

The tiny hairs on my back snapped upright, a chill crept down in response. It looked like a very awkward movement for her, she swayed back and forth off-balance. I watched her staring into the glasses, the liquid always nearly tipping out, but never quite splashing.

Stopping slowly in front of me, she extended a hoof slowly. I took the glass from her, she stared carefully at her own. I could see her shivering by the ripples in the wine.

She dropped slowly back onto her leg, now only using a front leg to hold the glass.

I stepped outside, into the much quieter night outside.

"That looked like quite a chore." I teased.

She made a faint noise behind me, it sounded as if it were vocal. I turned my head as I walked.

"Did you say something?" I raised an eyebrow.

"I can't balance myself upright anymore..." She looked towards the dirt.

"Anymore? Could you before?" I smiled, this was the first she had spoken since her arrival.

"Mhm." She nodded.

"That's quite a chore, it seems. Doesn't look like you all really have the upright posture to keep your balance." I added.

"We can all do it, I think." She explained. She raised her head and looked straight as she walked.

"You're speaking again." I quickly regretted bringing it up. I could make her embarrassed or shy, and cut the progress in half.

She sighed. "I don't know why I couldn't. I just felt, like I was-"

"I know what you mean." I cut her off.

"Is this common, where you come from?" She spoke quietly.

"What you're dealing with? You could say so. With us, infantry, it's about a quarter of all of us. But victims of violent crimes or other serious experiences can catch on just as much." I explained. "Believe me, you're far from the worst I've seen."

She remained quiet. I could feel a tension filling the air, like gasoline was filling the room, waiting for something to start the chaos. Ahead, a bench sat beside a torch. I set course for it.

"Something on your mind?" I asked.

"No." She responded quickly, she sounded nervous.

"You know, I've seen a lot. Whatever you have to say is one of the least likely things to tip me off right now." I urged, turning and slumping down on the bench.

She stopped, looked up, and kicked her feet up, turning sideways and slumping down. The way they lay reminded me of a housecat. It was a familiar, and rather cute position.

"It's really not important." She shrugged off.

"It's better than silence, I'm sure." I rocked my head back, closing my eyes and relaxing.

"I don't want to offend you." She hesitated. "Have you dealt with this yourself?"

I scratched my chin. "You see, in many cases, it's not really a temporary illness, like a cold. You're either all in, or can only train yourself to hide the symptoms. But with the question at hand, yeah, I think so. I've kept it pretty quiet from the others. But Elliot's told me that sometimes I'm not 'all there'. What you're going through, I get it."

"Oh." Was all she came back. I felt guilty, because I wanted her to ask more.

"It's not really from the killing, either. I know I've taken a lot of lives. And I know they will never know what hit them. But what I dream about, or see when it gets quiet, is how much danger I was in. Not how much danger I was."

She remained silent.

"You seem like the quiet and innocent type." I didn't know how to finish the sentence, so I left it at that.

I took a long drink of my wine, Fluttershy copied the motion, finishing our drinks at the same time.

Again, silence. My eyes closed, the dead quiet, my mind slowly drifted.

Author's Note

MMmmmmmmdo you like updates?

I already know what's coming up from the next 5 chapters or so. It's going to be REALLY twisty, but I think I like this plot line the best. Writing them, that's the hard part.