Chapters Prologue: A change of loyalties
December 5th 2016, one month after the beginning of the war
Cold air blew through the compound, causing the falling flakes of pearly white snow to twirl and spin on their way to the ground. The military compound stank of smoke and engine oil, several litres of which were staining the compacted snow already on the ground. A small square shaped area of dismal land near the old city of London, grey-vale compound had been described as the back-end of the Humans unified task force. A grungy, old fort, resembling a grey box covered in damaged and half de-constructed turrets, encrusted with rust and dirt, no self-respecting soldier would ever want to be transferred to here. The barracks were crumbling apart, forcing the soldiers to pitch ragged tents in the courtyard and there was barely any space for the equipment and heavy weaponry that the taskforce had brought with them. Boxes of food and cases of bullets littered the ground in piles, joining engine parts and patches of ash that had stained the ground.
Since the gateway had opened, providing a path to another world, known as Equestria,with a whole new possibility of prosperity for earth, life had taken a massive dive for humanity. Since humans are naturally suspicious and even in some cases hateful of new species, the peaceful transition had been a simple pipe dream. First the disastrous peace talks with those...Princesses, Luna and Celestial. Then the deaths of their leaders caused by the trotters. Things had gone from bad to worse when they'd announced full scale war with the ponies. To use many of the generals most popular saying:
"Out of the crud, into the deeper bloody crud."
Well that's the polite way to say it. The cities of Earth had been taken by surprise and then swiftly pounded by the invaders. In spite of humanities supposed superior technology and military power, Equestria and it's inhabitants had magic on its side. Not to mention the scale of these spells. The Empire State Building had been demolished in exactly one hour. A simple hour! Pushed into a corner, humanity pushed back with an attack of surprisingly strong unity. Creating the Unified human task force in a space of three months had been an accomplishment all in it's own.
Plumes of black smoke rose into the night sky, covering the moon and the stars behind foul smelling clouds. Fighter Jets and Pegasus danced through the air, trading shots at each other, drawing burning lines across the inky backdrop. Occasionally a burning object would fall from the sky. Deep booms' sounded outside the walls, providing a barely satisfiable commentary for the battle outside. Cries of pain and anguish could be heard from the medical tent, which had was surrounded by crimson snow, tainted by the many battlefield operations that the company had tried to deal with. The war hadn't been a great start to the new year. The green eyed, grey haired 19 year old sitting in front of the interrogation rooms certainly wasn't very happy about it. He gave a groan of pain as he adjusted his peace maker AK-47 rifle slung across his lap. He'd been sitting on the ammo box for about three hours now and his ass felt like it was about to fall off. Being a guard in the unified human army, watching his allies getting the butts hammered trying to retake London from the equestrians wasn't a career highlight. The uniform he wore, comprised of a thick mesh shirt and a thick black combat jacket with long combat trouser, was stained with grime and blood and torn and lined with stitches from many field patches. Hey, Unicorn horns can rip you a new one if you're not careful. A book lay open next to him. the chapter heading read:Dealing with the stresses of life.the ironic tiltle was hidden as the guard closed the book and slung it into the small pack at his feet.
Instead the teenager picked out a small square slab of metal about the size of Nintendo 3DS, with a glass screen on the front. With a quick touch, the screen turned on, revealing a large, alabaster Alicorn, with a flowing mane, coloured to resembling a rainbow, violet eyes and a mark resembling the sun printed on her flanks. golden armour covered her barrel while a golden crown was perched atop her head. It clearly was female due to the eyelashes carefully primed to a curl. The flickering static across the view did nothing to interrupt the speech the creature was giving.
"Of course, I would be happy to pull back my troops from the battlefront," Princess Celestia of Equestria said, her voice magically magnified, "If only you humans would pull back and cease this foolish, pointless attack on our race, either through racist marks or..." but the princess's speech was cut short by a tumultuous wave of angry shouting. Clearly the humans in her audience didn't appreciate the message the princess was trying to convey.
"My little ponies suffer through your cruelty and negligence!" The Alicorn shouted loudly over the roar of the crowd, an outraged expression crossing her white muzzle. "Do you really think it's okay for humans to torture and damage innocent creatures with no justification what-so-ever! Clearly some-ponies really do need to be taught a lesson about Harmony!"
"Yet still," Shouted an unseen voice, "It's okay for your soldiers to chain up our people and keep them as servants, yeah I don't think so you stupid hor..." The guard shut off the machine with a groan, dropping the machine onto the bag. It hit something within the bag with a loud crash. The boy groaned again and bashed the back of his head repeatedly against the metal building.
Jay Hart growled angrily as another soldier appeared from around the side of the building. The silver line on the mans arm signified his status as a captain, though his fair blonde hair and fresh appearance, with a long nose like a knife blade and cold blue eyes, captain bark wasn't a man to take lightly.
"Jay!" He barked loudly, motioning with a large meaty hand. Jay gave a fairly audible groan then stood up and saluted.
"CAPTAIN." He groaned sarcastically barely mustering the energy to hold his hand up. "
Got another consignment of traitors to come through, lets give em' a right good hiding!" The grin that the captain gave him made jay sick. It was full of grim intent and evil malice. Jay could guess at what the deranged captain was thinking about. The pony army marching to their doorstep, with reinforcements from equestria arriving every single day. And the...other group they had to contend with.
BRONY. A supposed equestrian collaboration, terrorist organisation that had been causing trouble for the human resistance movement along the borders of human territory for a few weeks. The penalty for being with such an organisation was imprisonment, torture and in some of the worst cases, death. The captain slapped him on the shoulder with a laugh.
"Cheer up buddy soon we'll have won the war with equestria, then we'll exterminate the entire BRONY community!" he laughed loudly then tossed Jay a brownish envelope.
"And this is?" Jay asked coldly opening the envelope to reveal a picture. Captain Bark stopped on his way into the interrogation building.
"That's your new partner dumbass. apparently he's a friend of yours, though I highly doubt anybody could be friends with a grunt like you. But I digress. It's all in the documents."
Jay waited till the captain vanished into the building then spat onto the ground. "Yeah you just wait Bark," he growled sitting back down and taking out the recruitment document, "You just wait. You think taking down BRONY'll be easy. You think the Princeses will let us win. Well, we'll see who'll be laughing in the end." He gave a wry smile then looked up at the sky. The air battle had been decided. There wasn't a single human plane in the sky.
Author's Note
My next new story. Hope it reads okay for a prologue and if any of our readers are confused about what's going on with events, don't worry. All will be explained in the next few chapters. Also sorry if it's wierdly spaced out, apparently that's the way I need to do it.
“Jay…Jay…Jay…JAYYYYYYY! The guard tumbled off his seat with a shout of fright, the empty whisky bottle falling to the stone tiled floor and smashing into a thousand tiny pieces with a loud crash. The winded man groaned as he hit the stone, smashing his head hard into the floor. Whoever dared to wake him in the middle of his drunken dreams was gonna pay…big time. Nobody who wished to live a happy life from then on knew never to wake him up when he was drinking and especially never when he had a strong headache. That was the main reason he had chosen this dim, barely lit corridor of Gray-vale military compound. It was quiet. Well…it had been quiet until the ass-hat that was his partner decided to shout as loud as he could in Jay’s ear until the half-drunk guard had jumped awake, then tripped over the foot that the asshole decided to stick out in front of him.
“I hate you so much right now Robin,” Jay groaned, turning his head with a groan of tired anger, pushing down so that his face was pressed hard into the cold grimy, wet stone. “You are one mother…”
“Language Jay,” The other guard said with a laugh kneeling down to sweep the broken remains of the whisky bottle into a corner of the dirty, dim lighted corridor. Jay groaned as another headache tore through his skull, and then rolled over onto his back to glare at Robin. The other guard grinned down at him chuckling at the misfortune that had befallen the hung-over man, then reached down and hoisted his partner roughly back up to his feet. A tall man of 24, Robin was thinner than he was, with a short close-cut mop of dirty-blonde hair, streaked with the grime and dirt that had become quite common with any long duration in the humans military compounds, with cool muddy-blue eyes that shone out of his gaunt, hunger starved, thin face that was glowing alight with amusement at the look of utter disdain on Jay’s face. He picked up a large fragment of glass that had fallen at his feet and scrutinised the ripped label on the fragment with a frown. He clicked his tongue exasperatedly and tossed the glass onto the small pile of fragments he’d made in the corner.
“Has anyone ever mentioned to you that drink far too much whisky?” Robin asked, giving Jay a rather pointed look. Jay simply grinned, shrugged then began stretching his arms above his head with a loud popping of joints and muscles. Jay’s grin widened thinly at the look that Robin gave him over his shoulder. He felt his facial muscles ache terribly from the unfamiliar and unused expression. People rarely found anything to smile about these days. No one ever bothered to even crack a mirthless smile. There just didn’t seem to be any point. Why should any human ever smile when there was nothing good to look forward to anymore. No sunlight, No happiness…nothing of that sort
“What’re we doing today mate?” He asked, walking back to his partner and taking one of the AK47 assault rifles that Robin had been carrying. He gave the rusted gun a quick check over, pulling the safety catch back and undoing the ammo cache attached to the weapon. Most of the company’s weapons were outdated and inefficient. Falling apart, just like the whole of the compound that they were stuck in. The whole place was falling apart. Light fixtures hung, burnt out, rusted and forgotten, with the odd occasional spark. The grimy stone tiled floors were streaked with the footprints and muck of other soldiers that had passed this way before them. Thin dirt streaked walls provided little to no insulation from the harsh winter winds. People often starved or froze to death due to the inadequate living conditions that the compound provided. There was a saying amongst the lower officers.
“If you’re transferred to Grey-vale compound, you’ve arrived at the back-end of the world. You’re at the back-end of the world. The lowest of the low. ROCK-BOTTOM!”
Jay finished checking his weapon, then glanced up at robin, who still hadn’t answered his question. Robin, who had also been checking his weapon, gave a non-committal jerk of his head. A look of complete dejection came over his face as he replaced the ammo pack of his gun with a harsh grating sound.
“Guard duty,” he groaned, slinging the rifle over his shoulder, smirking widely at the slight popping of Jay’s bloodshot eyes as the two guards began walking down the corridor towards another dirt stained door labelled, “Cells.” He patted Jay on the back as the door opened and another man stepped out from behind the door. Jay stopped dead, his eyes bulging angrily. General Bark had just stepped out of the cells. Bark’s hair had gone from wavy blonde to grey though the arrogant, knife-bladed look to him hadn’t changed. The generals blue uniform was stained with blood across the front, tinting the fabric to a dark purple. He froze, eyeing the pair coolly.
“You…” He growled, with a smile that didn’t quite meet his deep-set eyes. Jay grinned back, a slight tremor in his voice.
“Me…” He replied, his hands balling into fists. Robin frowned at Bark, tilting his head slightly and grimacing at the thick smell of blood coming off the generals uniform.
“I thought we were doing the guard duty now?” he grunted reaching out a hand to open the door. Bark stopped him, still looking at Jay. He licked his lips slowly, as though savouring the taste of dried blood on his lips.
“I’ll be back soon,” he said quietly, moving to stand directly in front Jay. Jay continued to glare at him, his arms shaking with the force of resisting the urge to punch the arrogant man in the face.
“Will you?” he asked, through gritted teeth.
“Yes I will,” Bark said slyly, walking past the angry guard, smirking coldly. “So you better not do ANYTHING to piss me off Jay, or I’ll have you in the cells along with the new guest we have here.” Jay sighed then turned to Robin and signalled. Robin opened his mouth to argue but seeing the look on Jays face, turned and opened the door for the pair of them.
There was only one occupied cell. The cage was right at the end of the block. The occupant was covered by a thin, patched blanket. The prisoner was shaking madly, whimpers emanating from the inside of the patchwork shell. The small hiccupping and pattering sounds suggested that the unknown captive was crying. Jay and Robin both looked at each other nervously ten walked to the cell.
"Hey..."Jay called out gently tapping lightly on the bars of the cell. The creature looked round. Jay heard Robin gasp. It wasn't a human. It was a pony. The pony had light yellow fur and a dishevelled but still curly pink mane that curled down over one of it's watery, teal eyes. The other, was wide, staring and full of fear. The ponies bottom lip quivered as she, )Jay was pretty sure she was a she judging by the eyelashes that curled over the ponies eyes) gazed out upon the two guards.
"P-p-p-please...let...me..." The soft, terrified voice sputtered its way out of the cowering ponies lips, as she shifted her way towards the back of the cell. Robin took a look at the name on the cells key-card reader.
"Says here...."he mumbled, bending to look closer at the name, "That the Pegasus in here is called...fluttershy." He glanced at Jay almost at a loss for words. "We're supposed to guard a pony?" he asked coldly.
Jay eyed the cowering Pegasus then turned to Robin. His face was set in a cold grim mask of anger. "They told us that there weren't going to be anymore pony prisoners," he said, very quietly. "They said it was just traitors." Robin glanced at him then looked back at the door lock.
"Hmmmm," he mumbled, "She's been brought in for interrogation and..." Robin turned a sickly green.
Jay moved to the lock. Pushing his partner roughly aside, he patched in a code. The door swung open with a click.
"WHAT IN GOD'S..." Robin began. Jay turned to look at him, a fire burning in his eyes the likes of which Robin had never seen before. He watched Jay walk over to the whimpering mare, pull the blanket roughly over her head, then hauled the sobbing pony into his arms.
"I'm done with this," Jay said, a cold tone in his voice, "If Bark gets away with this murder, god knows how many others he's managed to get away with Robin....I wont stand by and let him torture anymore people."
Robin shook his head then reluctantly took the shaking bundle from Jay. He shrugged at Jay, who had raised an eyebrow.
"You're weaker than I am Jay at least I can carry her to the je..." but just as he was about to finish, there came a bull-like shout from the corridor.
"TRAITORS!" Both guards turned to face the door. Bark was standing behind them, a pistol in his hands. He was shaking, his hands gripping the gun with white-knuckled intensity. He glanced from Jay to Robin to the shaking, sobbing bundle in Robins arms. He smiled shakily, raising the gun to point at Robin.
"Finally...I can finally do what I've been meaning to do for years...ever since I met the pair of you..." Jay raised his hands and stepped forward, his eyes fixed on the gun.
"Bark, you know what your doing isn't...."
BANG!
Robin stumbled backward, letting out a howl ass pain blazed through his knee. He tripped over his other foot and crashed to the ground, clutching his leg, feeling a deep warm flow of blood pouring out through the wound. His vision clouded over. The bullet...
Chapter two: Could've gone better
“You’re a fool Jay! You’ll end up a slave to those filthy equines.”
“Really…and you think that’s worse than what you force your own soldiers to do Bark? Forcing them to torture ponies? Yeah, a lifetime’s worth of animal Cruelty’s a lot better alternative than being a slave forever!”
Robin could barely see or feel anything. The bullet in his leg was blotting out every emotion except pain. Hazy shapes swam in front of his vision, sometimes taking the shape of a hand, or a face he couldn’t seem to recognise. He was being carried by someone along a dark corridor, with white hot bullets zipping past them and bouncing off the walls and floor with loud bangs. Fragments of glass and chips of metal peppered them on every-side, falling from broken light fixtures or scraped away from the walls by the shots from their pursuers. Loud, echoing shouts followed them up the passageway as Robin and his carrier ran for their lives. Since he had shot Robin, Bark had taken to chasing both Jay and Robin, along with the escaped Pegasus all across the base, shooting at them every step of the way.
“Come…on…Robin, Come on mate. I…have…to get…” Jay stammered, panting heavily as he struggled under the combined weight of both the injured Robin and the large clothed bundle that was Fluttershy. The Pegasus had stopped screaming a little while back. Robin seriously hoped she hadn’t been hit by Barks shots. Then again, it’d be a stroke of luck if any of them got out of this alive. Alarms were going off all over the base and Bark was chasing after them, a squad of soldiers with him, firing at them every step of the way and screaming insults and curses at them. The stink of smoke and blood hung thick in the air.
“Filthy, traitorous SCUM!” he was screaming, firing his weapon with a kind of frenzied anger, spraying bullets around the corridor, not seeming to care whether he hit friend or foe. “You’ll undo all our hard work, all MY work. YOU, FILTHY, HOOVES KISSING SHI…” Bark stopped his tirade to duck, as Jay tossed a hand grenade over his shoulder, just as he and his charges, reached the exit door and bashed through it. Rushing headlong into the cold winter’s night. The effort of throwing the grenade, seemed to exhaust all Jay’s remaining energy though as he sagged against the doorframe allowing Robin and the blankets containing Fluttershy to fall heavily to the floor. His knees shaking and sweat pouring off his uniform and skin in great rivulets. The grenade exploded, sending flecks of snow and heated water flying everywhere. The heat prompted Jay to haul Robin to his feet and push him over to a waiting jeep.
“Get…up…there!” Jay growled, pushing Robin hard into the cargo part of the jeep. Robin’s injured leg hit the side of the jeep, prompting another howl of pain from him as he fell awkwardly into the back. Blood leaked out of the bullet hole, slicking the metal surface underneath him. “Oh….suck it up you big baby!” Jay shouted, hauling Fluttershy into the Jeep next to Robin. The unconscious ponies’ head lolled limply, staining the pink mane with rust and grime. Jay climbed into the driver’s seat and turned on the engine. The jeep roared to life, juddering slightly as though it were alive. “Hold on mate,” Jay grunted, pushing his foot down hard on the accelerator, “This is going to be a bumpy ride!”
Though Robin braced himself, the pain from each bump and near-crash almost made him black out. It felt like fire, pulsing its way up his leg, traveling up through his leg, across his chest and through his heart. The world seemed to deaden with the pain. The roar of their pursuers seemed lower in pitch than it should’ve been. The impact of bullets striking the car were dulled, so that it sounded like they were driving underwater. Darkness crept into the corners of Robins vision again. He was going to pass out if this pain continued. Jay was shouting at him again, but the words were unintelligible…gibberish. Robin was quite sure that he was dying. The world was dissolving into bright, white light now. Everything was going. The ripped tarp of the Jeep, the smell of smoke and the sound of Jay shouting at him to stay awake. It was all fading to white.
Robin awoke to the feel of someone lightly pressing something down upon his injury. What had once been blurry, undistinguished shapes, now flared into bright undistinguished shapes.
"ARGH! SON-OF-A-BITCH!" Robin shrieked, pulling his injured limb out of the unknown assailants grip and punching out in an attempt to desist the idiot who had attempted to touch his leg. His fist made contact with something smooth but hard with a grisly crunch. He felt whatever he had hit give way. Someone shouted in pain, the blurry shape next to him fell away and the pressure on his leg alleviated. The pain that the pressure had triggered lessened to a painful throbbing.
"OWWW! What the actual f&*£ you complete dick-head!" The other person yelled, rolling onto their front and writhing around, holding his face. "Why on earth do you need to punch somebody who tries to actually help you?! You complete Dick." The boy next groaned, the angry words muffled because the man had decided to role over onto his front and press his face hard into the ground. Robin took the moment, now that his vision had cleared to look around the place he was currently lying in. The triangular shaped cave was a dull grey, with a rough blanket covering the soft, wet ground. Small strips of cloth was covering the entrance, which were fluttering violently in a powerful wind, issuing from the outside. A small cylindrical shaped heat stick was lying on the floor. These small sticks of plastic, with several small chemicals on the inside, the small stick provided a large amount of heat over a small spread of area when snapped, almost like a glow stick. Robin took a look at Jay who Robin now recognised, as the man who he had punched in the face. He grinned apologetically at the other man, who had finally decided to roll up into a sitting position and was massaging his bruised nose with an expression rather akin to a man who had recently been whacked in the face with a rotting fish.
"Sorry about that Jay." He grunted trying to lift his leg to reduce the throbbing in his leg. Said action only served to infuriate his injury even more. Jay gave a groan of anger and pushed Robin back into a lying position. Jay picked up the bloodied rag that had been resting next to Robin and held it up to his eyes, examining it closely. He sighed and looked back to Robin. He looked just as bad as Robin did. His jacket had been torn open at the chest, leaving a long bloody gash, with a large blood-stained rag wrapped around his head. His eye were glazing over, looking almost bleak with pain. He was swaying on his knees a soft groaning noise issuing from between his lips.
"RRRRRIGHT." Jay said briskly giving Robin a look that plainly did not invite argument. "Your leg needs cleaning and binding, or it'll get infected and you'll lose more blood than you already have done. This is going to hurt....a lot." Robin opened his mouth to argue but instead of coherent sentences or even a sound of opposition, Robin howled as pain shot up his leg, spreading like boiling acid through his body. He tried once again to punch the other man but his fist, which had shot straight at Jay's face, collided instead with the hard metal roof of the cave with a loud clang. More pain laced through his arm, across his knuckles. Jay chuckled lightly as he tied another rag around the injury tightly and rounded it off with a small knot.
"I fricking hate you." Robin growled massaging his bruised fist. Jay laughed airily, jerking his head over at the small bundle huddled by the heat stick.
"Don't be ungrateful dude, Fluttershy fainted when I came near her with the med-kit." He held up the small orange case and flipped it open. Taking out a miniscule bottle of brightly coloured pills, he tapped out several and handed them over. "Swallow them down Robin. It'll dull the pain." Robin glared at him then tipped the foul tasting bits into his mouth and swallowed them. He coughed painfully, feeling something thick and phlegmy sticking in his throat. He coughed and hacked painfully until the obstruction cleared and he managed to breath clearly. He spat hard onto the floor and frowned at Jay.
"Where are we anyway," He demanded, "Since when do caves have metal roofs?" Jay stared at him for a second then sighed and lent back and stared over Robins head at the strips of cloth covering the entrance to their makeshift shelter. It was a few seconds before he spoke. When he did, it was in a slow, strained voice.
"I...think we hit the gateway Robin..." He said quietly, never taking his eyes off the fluttering fabric. "One minute we were driving away from the base-camp, Bark was shooting at us. Then something hit us, next thing I know we were rolling down a snow dune. We were stuck upside down. This the back of the jeep. It's just....it's upside down." His small half-hearted smile did nothing to assure Robin, who had sat up on his elbows and was staring at him with a look of utter horror.
"You...mean....we're in...."
"Equestria? I think so." Jay nodded calmly, his small smile disappearing into a frown. "I'm pissed about it to alright! I give a break okay?" He said, glaring imploringly at Robin who was attempting to put himself into a sitting position and was glaring into at Jay with a look full of venom, "You try driving a army jeep across mega-spelled devastated London while people are shooting at you when you haven't passed your driving test after the TENTH time trying." And he dissolved into a fit of angry mumbles about "Driving tests in the apocalypse." Robin glared at Jay still more venomously than before until Jay's mumbles subsided and he looked nervously at the prone boy.
"You mean to tell me..." Robin said, in a voice shaking with rage, "That you managed to not only crash our get-away car but..." Jay looked positively terrified now, shaking with nerves. "That you also managed to get us stranded in what appears..." he glanced at the fabric strips fluttering in the wind. "To be a windswept wasteland where every living creature hates us and will not hesitate to tear us a F&*&ing NEW ONE!" Robin shouted attempting to stand up over the other man. He regretted it when his head crashed hard into the metal roof, bringing on another stab of pain. Robin fell back to the floor holding his head with both hands. Eyes streaming with pain, Robin turned his angry glare toward Jay who was still looking nervous at the prospect of further facing Robin's wrath. The other man soon decided it was safe enough to move back to re-open the med-case and pulled another small bottle, filled this time with a clearish liquid.
"Here," Jay said coldly, thrusting the bottle at Robin who's only response was to snatch the bottle from Jay, unscrew the cap and throw the liquid back harshly. It made Robin's tongue feel like it had been coated in garlic. It stung, making the organ tingle like it had gone numb. "You're some piece of work y'know that?" Jay asked calmly, taking his own bottle from the med-case and drinking the vile liquid within. "Trying to hit the guy who patched you up." Robin stared at Jay for a second, then grinned.
"Yeah, though you were the one who spared no expense on giving me pain dude." Jay grinned back. They both shared a small laugh, until they both noticed that their breath had started to mist in front of their faces. The temperature had started to drop too. Both men looked down at the heat-stick, to see that the small orange cylinder whose glow had dimmed drastically, taking with it the heat that it had brought. Jay sighed, tossing the small med-case back into the small traveling pack that all their army jeeps came equipped with. He glanced at Robin with a pained expression.
"We're going to need to move...see if we can find some help." Jay said calmly though he still looked pained and nervous. Robin stared at him incredulously. He couldn't believe what Jay was suggesting.
"You want us to go out into that..." He jerked his head at the fluttering in the wind, "On my leg, with her..." he jerked his head at the bundle of blankets that was holding the still unconscious Pegasus. Jay nodded busying himself with tightening the straps on the traveling pack. He looked up at Robin with a cold look of desperation.
"Listen Robin," He said, shuffling over to the Pegasus and sliding a few traveling straps underneath the bundle of clothing and pony. "We're both in a bad way. My head wounds caused something akin to a drugs high and your leg will get worse if it doesn't get proper treatment. I don't have the medical skills necessary to get it healed up in the proper way. If we don't move, we're dead anyway. That was my last heat-stick." Robin sighed in angry despair. He sighed as he watched Jay finally manage to hoist the unconscious pony onto his back, giving him the look of a hunchback hermit.
"Fine, you complete arsehole. Help me out of this thing."
Robin had already regretted it allowing Jay to pull him out of the warmth of the makeshift shelter and out into the cold wasteland that was outside. Icy winds cut through the boys almost immediately, like blades dipped into the coldest waters. Clouds of snow swirled through the air, reducing all visibility to the bare minimum. White blankets covered the ground, soaking their boots and socks in a matter of minutes. Robin glared at Jay who had allowed Robin to wind his arm heavily across Jays shoulders.
"You think there's anybody out there?" He demanded, glaring at Jay with a venomous glare. Jay turned his head and raised his eyebrows with a pointed expression. "Alright, alright Jay, I get the point." Robin said, trying to get his footing on the cold, wet, snowy surface. Jay nodded in satisfaction and, heaving the massive load on his back into a better position, set off at a slow lopsided trot, Robin leaning heavily on his shoulder.
Jay was on the verge of passing out after several hours of walking. Robin, Fluttershy and himself had been slowly staggering through the snow-storm, keeping their eyes peeled for any sign of civilisation. So far though, they'd had no luck. Snowy white flakes bombarding them repeatedly from every-which way but loose, soaking them through their supposedly survival jacket's and wetting their skin, freezing them to the bone. Jay was convinced by now that he was the only one still awake. Fluttershy had been unconscious ever since their arrival. Robin who had been trading banter with Jay for several hours, was now slumped against his shoulder with a heaviness that someone couldn't produce while they were awake. This was the one thing that he hated about his body. He was often weaker than most of his other friends, therefore, if he had to help carry anyone who was taller than he was, his progress would also suffer.
He was so close to passing out now. The world was distorting in front of his vision. The flakes of snow in the air became slowly twisting sparks of light in front of his vision. The pain from his head wound was reaching its peak. He was barely aware of anything passing around him. He fell to his knees, Robin dropping to the floor beside him, the small bundle slipping of his shoulders and hitting the ground with a loud thump. He placed his hands on the snow covered ground to try and steady himself. He couldn't bring himself to try and push himself back up to a standing position. He would drop soon, then that would be the end of............
"HEY, HUMAN, ANYPONY AT HOME!" Yelled a loud voice. Jay' head snapped up in surprise. His eyes tightened in shock. Four hazy shapes were standing in front of him. Creatures with four legs, armoured covered barrels and each one of them had long, sharpened....HORNS?!
"Shit...I'm surrounded by fricking ponies. Unicorns. Bloody brilliant." It was clear from the angry snorts around him, that he had said the wrong thing. Something hard cracked him across the back. He fell forward into the snow. His vision clouded over as he felt another harsh strike across the back of his head.
"Damn," he thought as his vision grew darker with each strike. "That could've gone better."
As Jay slipped into unconsciousness, the last thing he hard was the harsh grating voice of the unicorn who had called out to him.
Chapter three: Interogaton and imprisonment
“WAKE UP HUMAN!”
The angry voice, coupled with the bright light shining in his face and the harsh slap across his face jerked Jay back into awareness. He jerked sideways with a groan of pain. His vision swam with the brightness of the light blaring against his eye-lids as he closed them, shaking his head in an attempt to clear the haziness. He lurched sideways as dizziness overcame him but the shackles binding his arms tightly behind his back kept him upright. The pain searing through his jaw intensified as a second slap caught him hard across the other cheek. He was pretty sure that whatever it was that had hit him had managed to knock out one his teeth, though he couldn’t be sure. The force of the attack had numbed the side of his face.
“I said…WAKE UP! NOW!” The voice roared at him again. Jay blinked rapidly trying to clear the haziness from his vision. From what he could see past the searing light, several figures were moving around in the massive shadows cast by the light. Creatures with four legs, tails and judging from the clip-clopping sounds that were coming from his unknown captors, hooves. Hooves. Four legs. Jay shook his head again, refusing to believe what he could only guess who was holding him.
“W-What…where….” He began but the first voice who had had shouted at him interrupted. This time, the voice had dipped its volume to a low menacing growl.
“Who are you? What are you doing here human?”
Finally Jay’s vision managed to clear. A pony’s face filled his vision almost immediately. With white fur covering the pony entirely, it had a strong face, with a powerfully muscled snout, with its muzzle open in a snarl, showing its teeth. The pony’s cyan coloured eyes were full of anger and hate as it continued to glare at Jay. From what Jay could gather from the rather limited view of his captor, the pony had a long, neatly combed mane, sporting a deep, Navy Blue colouring except for a long streak of light blue, almost teal, through the centre of the mane. The pony’s deep voice suggested that his captor was a male. After a few seconds of silence, Jay finally managed to work up the courage to speak.
“Okay….one get your snout out of my face,” He said coldly. The pony’s eyes blinked and his snarl vanished, to be replaced with a look of utter shock. “Two, where the hell am I?” The pony stepped back from Jay, allowing the captive human to get a better look at the stallion. The pony’s entire body was covered by a large piece of metal armour that snaked around the front of the pony’s barrel and over its back. Armour, similar to iron shoes was closed over the stallion’s hooves, providing a clanking noise on the floor. Jutting out from the centre of the stallion’s forehead was a pearly white horn, tapering to a sharp point. On the pony’s flank was what appeared to be a small silver shield, with several purplish pink stars grouped about it. Jay knew what this was meant to be. A cutie mark. From Jay had heard about ponies, a cutie mark was a special symbol that appeared upon a ponies flanks when they had discovered their special talent, though personally, Jay had no idea how on earth the marks were supposed to work. Just like the mane on the stallions head, a long tail coloured the same navy blue with matching teal stripe was swishing about with clear agitation over what Jay had just said. Jay took the moment to look round, but the light shining in his face blotted out all other features of the room, except for the fact that the room seemed entirely composed of stone, with no windows around the blank four walls. The only difference that Jay could see was that the wall behind his captor was a large set of bars, with no obvious way to leave the room.
“Answer the question human.” The unicorn answered coldly, baring his teeth once again in a look that was clearly supposed to be threatening. Jay raised his eyebrows and smirked.
“Give the info I want and then I’ll….”
CRACK!
“You just don’t get it do you human?! I know you kidnapped Fluttershy and that you were trying to escape to attack Canterlot itself! Do you deny it? Huh? DO YOU?!”
Jay stared at him, confused.
“You’re….you’re telling the truth.” He stammered, looking shocked. Jay frowned.
“Obviously, your charming way of interrogation is so easy to open up to.” He replied sarcastically, shifting his knees slightly to alleviate the uncomfortable pain that had begun to grow from kneeling on the stone floor for so long. The unicorn blinked and some of the aggressiveness came back into his voice as he spoke again.
“Fluttershy claimed that you and partner agreed to “take her away.” Judging from what we know of human’s behaviour…” The unicorn gave Jay a glare of deepest loathing. Jay nodded calmly, seeing no reason to attempt to lie. Judging from that horn, Jay guessed that this unicorn meant business.
“Yes I did say that,” he said, prompting the unicorn to look at him slightly harder. “I only said that as a way of saying that I was going to bring her back to Equestria. Speaking of which, I am in Equestria right?”
The unicorn in front of him did not speak at first but gave a soft shake of his body so that the armour covering most of his body rattled loudly. The unicorn’s Teal eyes had lost some of their mistrust and anger but was steadily being replaced with a creeping suspicion. Jay titled his head to the side, grinning widely, though there was nothing very funny about the situation.
“Anypony home?” he asked, giving a soft nervous chuckle. The unicorn in front him blinked, shook himself again, making the armour rattle then got to his hooves.
“My name is Shining Armour. Prince of the crystal Empire and Captain of the Equestrian royal guard.”
“W-Wha…” Jay stammered, frowning at that unexpected titbit of info. One minute this Shining Armour was shouting at him, demanding that Jay tell him what he was doing here, under the delusion that Jay had kidnapped Fluttershy and was trying to get away from Equestria instead of returning the yellow Pegasus to her homeland. The next second, he was speaking quite formally, almost as though this was a meeting for a sale on a house or something of the sort.
“I’m…guardsman Jay. Guardsman of London compound Grey-vale.” Shining Armours suspicious look faded slightly. He eyed Jay cautiously before stepping closer and looking him dead in the eyes. Jay shivered at the glare Shining Armour gave him.
“Well…” The unicorn said slowly, moving his head closer to the captive human so that the horn atop Shining Armour’s head threatened to poke Jay’s eye out. “You seem to be more truthful than other humans I’ve interrogated. Your friend we brought in just shouted and swore.” Jay grinned, imagining Robin shouting at Shining Armour then the Unicorn shouting right back at him. Shining armour shook his head with a sigh.
"But be warned human." Shining Armour said with a slightly twisted grin, "Once Princess Celestia gets her hooves on you...you'll wish you and your friend had never crashed here!"
