What would you like to know?" I asked Twilight as she used her magic to bring a chair over to sit on. I wasn’t surprised by her use of magic, mainly because it wasn’t the strangest thing I’ve seen in my life. Invaders from another planet would be at the top of my list. Twilight sits down in the chair and stares at me awkwardly. After a moment of awkward silence between us, she finally spoke up.

“Tell me how the war began,” she asked. This got the attention of her friends. Rainbow Dash and Applejack move and sit on either side of Twilight. Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Rarity get comfortable near Twilight. I remain stoic at the question so that the ponies couldn’t notice me literally screaming internally. I personally didn’t want to talk about the war right off the bat. Those were dark days for Humanity. I decide with a different option.

“I’m going to save that one for last. It’s not a pretty story. How about I tell you a little bit about myself.” I replied, praying that she would agree.

“Very well,” Twilight said while still looking excited. It looked extremely creepy.

“You already know that my name is Brandon. I am twenty years old, graduated from Kingwood High School in 2013. After high school, I joined the US Army as an Infantryman,” I paused and saw that the ponies were one hundred percent listening to me. Twilight somehow had a pencil and paper, writing down everything I said. “I started basic training on June 10th at Fort Benning, Georgia and remained there for fourteen weeks, graduating on September 13th. I then went to Airborne School for three weeks that was on the same base.” Rainbow raises her hoof into the air. "What's your question?" I ask her.

“What is “Airborne” School? I doubt you can even fly without wings.” Rainbow questioned, earning a glare from Twilight for her last comment. “Airborne School is where you learn how to properly jump out of an airplane, which is a type of flying machine humans use to travel. It's actually more falling with grace than anything else. You have a parachute so that way you don't fall to your death. Standard combat jumps are around 700 to 800 feet."

“WHAT!?!” All the ponies screamed in unison, causing me to instinctively reach for my pistol. Realizing my actions almost immediately, I release my grip on the pistol and relaxed. "Why did y'all shout?" I ask as I try to stop the ringing in my ears.

"Is everything you know always have to be killing or fighting. It seems to be horrible way to live a life." Pinkie said, her mane deflating in the process. Ignoring the defiance of proper hair structure, I answer her question in the most truthful way I could. "I enjoy it. It's the best job I ever had. The killing part is not the glorious part but it comes with the job. I do it to protect those that can't protect themselves." Hopeful that they were satisfied with my answer, I decided to move to the topic that they were all "dying" to hear about.

"Twilight...."

"Yes, Brandon?"

"I think I'm ready to talk about the war."

Author's Note

This a pre-chapter to chapter 4 which will discuss the beginnings of the war and how everything started and how things got to how they are today. hopefully I can have the first done by the end of the day but no promises. Sorry for the delay on this story. The military is taking all my time and energy so I have little time for MLP and other things in general.