Chapters Nobody really new what to expect after the first signs of the Great War. Russia declaring war on the entire European continent, then as always America decided to get involved like we always did with absolutely everything at the time. Then the terror groups taking over the entire middle east decided to declare war on the U.S. And finally, the entire planet was set to destroy itself. I can still remember the news headline that shook the country" NUCLEAR BLAST DEVASTATES CHICAGO, U.S WILL RETALIATE WITH WEAPONS OF OUR OWN" and this is where it started, nuclear warfare. I was in my apartment watching the season premiere of Insanity. The 7th season was about to kickoff when the alert interrupted. Most people continued on with their daily lives, not knowing that in the next 24 hours, 5 billion human lives would be killed in an instant.
[2 years later]
I glanced back and forth as i drove through the country side. This was the only area that hadn't been subjected to nuclear attack or any sort of fallout. We were on our way back to "ZONE 5.8.9" or as it was formerly known, Oklahoma City. As I drove along in my Hummer H1, iI glanced at my best friend Mark who was in the passenger seat. He looked back and game me a smile. Me and Mark had been friends since college, after that we we rented an apartment together. Mark was a race car driver and a very good one if i might add. My job however was a little bit harder, I was a U.S Shadow Recruit. Shadow Recruits were responsible for taking out any possible terror threats where ever some might pop up. We started on the nuclear threats but we reacted to slowly,plus most of my squadron had died from radiation poisoning and as of now, leaving me as the last one left. My job now was to drive through the nearby wasteland of America with Mark and find anyone who might have survived. It is a very difficult and unsettling job. you see things that can make the strongest man burst into tears. Once, in Detroit, we saw the remains of a mother cradling her child, shielding her eyes from the blast. The absolute worst are the shadows. The shadows are the people who were closest to the blast and are incinerated. Some of the shadows are of people standing on the stairs or walking down the street, most of the time just daily activities, but we both try to forget it, i just turn up my stereo and listen to my music, usually 80s. Finally after getting back to the city, i decided to take the rest of the evening to relax. it has been a stressful day. I pull into my housing unit and get out, Mark follows me into the house, and we sit down on the couch and turn on the tv.
"What do you want to watch?" I asked Mark.
"just whatever is in the player" he replied
Cable tv dosent exist any more, neither does satellite. Basically its whatever movies or shows you happen to have is your entertainment. I clicked on the tv and turned on the DVD player. Suddenly the living quarters was filled the sounds of V8 engines and the cheering of fans.
" Aw hell yeah, racing!" Mark exclaimed. Ever since the nuclear war racing became obsolete. People were too focused on trying to gather resources or finding things to help support themselves or their family. So Mark always watched re-runs of old racing videos, anything from drag racing to Indy car racing, he didn't care. After watching racing for about an hour, its my turn to choose what we watch. I have an entire series of military shows and movies on a disk that someone had given me in college. I put that in and them Mark goes upstairs to do other things. he hates war, and hates war movies. I love them. I spend about 3 Hours watching that stuff. I decided to look at the clock and noticed that it is past 1AM, so i decided to head upstairs and go to bed. I just take of my tan trench coat and lay down in my own bed, Mark has his own bed in another room. Finally, i just close my eyes and go to sleep.
The next morning was like any other, I wake up, put on my clothes, grabbed my trench coat and headed downstairs for breakfast. Mark always made the same blan-pancakes every day. They tasted like buttered cardboard, but I lived with it.
"Good morning Harper" Mark said.
"Morning, are we eating pancakes again?"
"What do you think?" Mark said sarcastically "Getting food isn't like what it use to be man!"
"I know, I know" I sit down at the table and begin to eat. They tasted like they always do, stale and starchy.
After Mark and I finished the unpleasant breakfast, we grabbed are gear and head out the door. We had a meeting at the council room in the south side of the once active city. It was something about the electronic system failing. We walked outside, hopped into the Hummer, and headed out onto the road. As you drive you see the street venders along the side of the road trying to sell you something, or the survivors of the war. We pull up to a stoplight and wait. Suddenly, I see one of the street venders running past the car, down the street. Mark and I echange confused glanced, then other people begin to rush by. We both get out of the vehicle and look around, everyone was running away from the north side. We couldn't really figure out why, their are no drills scheduled for today, then we hear it. The scariest sound man has ever made.
The nuclear warning sirens were going, indicating the area was about to be destroyed by a nuke. As the people helplessly ran by, Mark and I know what's about to happen. When the bomb impacts, all life within the city will perish in a fiery inferno. The ones running, the men and the women, some with child in hand, were wasting their time, their was nowhere to go and nowhere to hide. Mark and I just stood there, watching and waiting. Mark grabbed my hand as we fell to our knees. I began to cry, the thought of death was unbearable. Finally, as I continued to watch, there was the blinding flash. The wind began to pick up and then buildings began to evaporate. When the blast finally reached us,I felt my skin begin to melt of of my body, as my eyes were burned out if their sockets blinding me, all you could here was the deafening blast, and finally silence. Everything was over, Oklahoma City was destroyed, and I was dead. I was lost in the eternal unknown.
As I opened my eyes, I was blinded by sunlight. I could hear the beautiful sounds if birds. "Is this heaven?" I thought to myself. As i went to sit up, my back throbbed with immense pain.The area around me was completely scorched. There was a huge gash in my arm, and another across my right eye, blinding it. I finally worked up the strength to stand up. It felt as if i hadn't walked in a year, my stance was awkward and wobbly. As I felt my face again, I got a sharp pain and saw blood on my hand. I now had realized that this wasn't heaven at all, but it wasn't any part of earth that I had seen. Most of the Planets surface had been scorched and burned beyond any recondition. The only place that had any sort of identifiable marks was Paris and the toppled torn remains of the once great Eiffel Tower. I decided the best remedy for my eye right now would be just to wear my sunglasses. I grabed them off of the top of my head and put them on. Suddenly, I heard something fly overhead, it sounded almost like a jet. I decided to follow the sound witch had lead over a forest, limping after it as best as i could.
I lost the sound after about thirty minutes, puttered out, I decided to sit down on a fallen tree stump. As I sat there I got flash backs from my jungle fighting when I was in the Shadow Recruits. With this on my mind, I decided it would be best if i examined my possessions to see if anything would be of any use. Reaching into my trench coat, I pulled out a couple of candy bars, a bottle of water, and my 44 Magnum plus the box of ammo. I wanted to be armed in case of any sort of military invasion or camp raids, so i bought this off of a street vender in trade for a ring i had picked of a corpse. I also had a survival knife with a compass on it and a wrist watch. I put everything back into my coat and started walking where the sound had tailed off, unaware of what was ahead.
As i walked through the forest for a couple of hours, I finally saw lights, a town! I could get help there when i made it, so I took off headed for the town but then i heard something that made me stop. There was the sound of screaming followed by barks. Worried that someone might be in danger I took off towards the sound, gun in hand and ready to fight. When iI had finally reached the sound of screaming, I need tripping over a small yellow pegasus, running from a bunch of wolves. I quickly got to my feet and pointing my gun at the wolves, firing off one shot into the pack, stopping them.
"GET BEHIND ME!" I shouted at the small equestrian. She scurried over behind me, watching me. "listen, we are going to make our way over to the end of the forest ok?" she looked at me with her baby blue eyes then nodded. As we began to back up, one of the wolves took of after us, causing me to shoot it. Seconds after that, the other two took off. "RUN!" I shouted dashing towards the exit to this deranged forest. Occasionally i would fire back to keep them from getting to close, but as i was nearing the end one of the wolves managed to leap and sink its teeth into my ankle. I tumbled to the ground in pain as it thrashed around my foot. The other one lunged at me left shoulder, gripping it tight. The little pegasus stopped and watched me get dragged back in terror. Finally getting a good hold on the situation, I reached around and fired back at the wolf biting my shoulder, then turning my gun to the one at my feet, firing a single slug into its brain killing it. I got back up and worked out of the forest, the yellow pegasus pony was waiting for me out there. I could feel the blood rushing down my chest from my shoulder. As i approached her, I collapsed, laying on the ground in pain. She looked at me in the eye and than i noticed tears begin to well up i her eyes, they were the last thing I saw before blacking out.
When I woke up, I was laying on a sofa. My ankle and shoulder had been bandaged up along with my arm. As I sat up I looked over and say the yellow pony looking at me smiling.
"Oh wonderful, your awake" the small horse said.
My jaw dropped a little when she spoke. But then again, its not the weirdest thing I've seen. I saw a lady give birth to a spider-kid thing after having radiation poisoning for eight months."Who are you?"
"My name is Fluttershy". "Whats yours"
"Im Harper. Well, Harper Crossman to be exact."
"What an interesting name, I've never heard that one before" Fluttershy said
"Well, Ive never heard Fluttershy as a common name either"She giggled and then walked off into another room. Fluttershy had a certain tone in her voice, it was very calming. She walked back in with a glass of water.
"Are you thirsty Harper?"She asked me.
"Very" I took the glass from her and drank all the liquid within seconds. Fluttershy gave me a surprised look and then gave a warm smile.
"I just have one question, Where are you from Harper?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well your a human, and until today, humans were just a myth."
"Im from America." She gave me a puzzled look."Earth?" I said, but her expression was unchanged.
"Ive never heard of that place before"
"Now my Question for you is, what were you doing in the forest when there are dangerous animals out there?"
"Well, I was outback feeding the chickens, when I heard a loud boom coming from the forest. I went in to investigate and found that a large section of the forest was burned down. I was going back to get my friend Twilight to tell her, but then those scary timber wolves showed up and started chasing me, then you ran into me and saved me."
Fluttershy hugged me around the neck,"Thank you, Harper."
"Um... No problem" I hugged her back. She was very soft and warm, like I was hugging a giant marshmallow that had been sitting by a fire.
" I can't wait for the rest of my friends to meet you!" Fluttershy said excitedly.
"Wait, there's more of you!?!"
"Oh yes, there are ponies everywhere, in fact we are right on the edge of Ponyville! That's where my friends live!"
I took off my sunglasses since we were inside, but also to get a better look at Fluttershy. She was a very cute pony. She had long pink hair and I also noticed a tattoo of three butterflies near her backside. I was about to ask her about them when I noticed she wore a worried expression.
"What is it?" I asked
"Oh my, your eye, it's hurt!"
"How bad?!" I asked worriedly. Suddenly, Fluttershy got up and grabbed a mirror so I could see. The cut stretched from my forehead down to my nose. It had gotten swollen and sore since I last felt it, and my right eye had turned red, with a black slit going down it, almost like a cats. "Don't worry about it, I will be fine." I lied
"Nonsense, I need to get my medical kit, STAT!" She said as she left the room hurrily
I just layed back down on the couch and thought to my self," What the hell has happened to me?"
Fluttershy kept be busy listening to her talk about her friends while she worked on my face. It stung like a bitch when she started cleaning it with alcohol. I just sorta had to grit my teeth and work through it though, I mean its better than having an infection across half of your face. After that she put a big strip of paper over it to cover it up.
"There all better" She said with a smile.
"I appreciate it Fluttershy"
Suddenly, there was a knock at they door. Fluttershy got up and opened it and then in walked a lavender unicorn pony with dark purple hair with high lights. I noticed she had a tattoo on her rear as well. Taking into account what Fluttershy had told me earlier I assumed that this was Twilight Sparkle. She walked up to me and looked at me for a sec, then she gave a huge smile at me.
" I CANT BELIEVE IT, HUMANS EXSIST! YOU WERENT JOKING WERE YOU FLUTTERSHY?" Twilight shouted excitedly
"Um... no I wasn't" Fluttershy said sounding a bit confused.
"Oh my gosh! I have so many questions!"
"Hey now wait a minute, I've got some questions of my own." I said. "And before I answer anything you throw at me, I need to get my questions out of the way, like how in the hell did i get here?!?"
"We don't know" Twilight said. "Like I said Humans were just a myth, we don't know anything about you. But I'm eager to learn!"
I stood up off of the couch, the ponies came up to about my shoulder making them about 5 feet tall. then a couple more ponies walked through the door, an orange one, a pink one a white one, and a cyan one with a rainbow mane.
"Who are you guys?"
"Applejack"
"Im Pinke Pie"
"Rainbow Dash"
"And I'm Rarity"
"Pleasure to meet you all, Im Harper."
"Im guessing your all friends with these two" I said pointing to Twilight and Fluttershy.
"Uh, duh!" Pinkie replied " We are all the super duper bestest of friends"
Pinkie talked almost to damn fast to understand.
"Fluttershy, are these the only Ponies you told?"I asked
"Yeah, just my friends, I thought they could help"
I noticed out of the corner of my eye that Rainbow Dash was looking me over, almost like she wasn't sure about me.
She suddenly gasped and flew over to me and grabbed one of my hands.
"Girls, look at this!" she exclaimed. "Hey Harper, do you know anything about a giant *AMC Charlston*?"
"A what?"I replied.
"An *AMC Charlston*, they are large, heavy and grey." Twilight said.
"I don't know, maybe if i saw it I could tell you."
"Maybe we could take you to it sugarcube" Replied Applejack.
"Alright, lets go." I started to head through the door, but before i could get to it Twilight stopped me.
"Harper, you can't leave!"
"Why not?"
"If you leave and somepony else sees you, it could cause chaos. Remember, ponies think your kind is just a myth."
"Well, then how am Igoing to get there then?I replied
"Well, I could turn you into a stallion, then you would blend in. Oh, but don't worry, I can change you back when we are done."
"You promise you can change me back?"I asked.
"I promise." Twilight responded.
"Ok, do it"
I looked on as twilights horn glowed, then there was a bright glow and I felt my body shifting. My fingers retracted and then I felt lower jaw start to stretch. After the light cleared I could see eye to eye with all of the ponies indicating it had worked. I saw the ponies faced, their jaws dropped. I caught a glimpse of Rainbows wings extending for some reason. It was a little nerve racking but I mean I felt ok.
"What" I asked.
"um... you may have a little trouble fitting in" Twilight said.
"What do you mean?" I said sounding worried.
"See for yourself" Twilight said. She was pointing to a mirror. I walked over and examined myself. I was a navy Blue stallion with messy matted black and red hair. My eyes were a deep rose red color except for my right one which hat the scar covering it. It sort of looked like a cats eye but it was black. My body was also covered in scars and patched of knotted fur. Looking back I had a longer messy black and red tail. And I didn't have a tattoo unlike everyone in the room. I also had a pair of pretty nice wings, except for the fact that feathers were out of place,broken or even falling out.
"I can see what you mean, is there a way to fix this?" I asked.
"Im afraid not." Twilight said.
"Well, I mean, its not too bad,in my opinion I look hardcore, Now about this thing you guys were talking about where is it?"
"Oh, Its just on the outside of Ponyville!"Pinkie responded.
"Alright lets go." I responded. We all headed out the door with Pinkie Pie leading the way. Fluttershy apparently lives a long ways away from Ponyville because we walked, or well trotted for a long time. As we walked the others asked me more about humans and where I come from. When we had reached edge of the forest, I saw a quaint little town which I assumed to be Ponyville. As we walked through, I Noticed some of the other ponies Giving me looks like "what the hell happened to him" kind of looks. Never the less I walked alongside Rainbow and we walked through Ponyville. We came around the corner of a building at the edge of the town, I heard Pinkie shout "Its right over here!" and then she took off along with the others.When I came up to where I could see the thing they had described, I instantly knew what it was.
It was the wreckage of a C-17 military plane. It must have crashed here like I did during the nuclear blast. The rear wing read "AMC Charlston", this must have been one of the cargo planes from Charlston Air Force Base before it was destroyed.
"Do you recognize this?" Rainbow asked
"Yeah, its an airplane"
"A what?" Rarity said.
"Its and airplane, these things are used for flying, and even though its crashed here, it looks in a good condition."And it really was to. It had a few minor problems but other than this it still had all of its wings still attached sort of. "Twilight, turn me back into a human real fast." She zaps me back to my normal self again and I walk over and open the flight door. "you guys wait out here I'm going to look at something." I go inside and have a look around. The interior is dark and warm, and I can see shadows of some of the cargo. I head up to the cockpit hoping to get some light up in here. I opened the door to the cockpit, and what I saw almost mad me puke right there. The two pilots were still strapped into their seats, dead and decomposing. When I first saw this plane, I had hopes of maybe other humans would have survived this landing and would be here with me, but apparently I was wrong. I decided two comeback later tonight and look into this further into this. So with that being done I headed back out, shutting the door behind me.
"How long has this thing been here guys?" I asked.
"About 2 months. When it cam out of the sky, it took the top off of our town hall." Twilight said.
"Well, there you have it, this is a human thing." They all sort of seemed amazed at that for some reason.
"Well girls its getting late, I think we should all hit the hay" Applejack said.
"I think your right" Pinkie Replied. "Wait, but where will Harper stay?"
"He can stay with me." Rainbow suggested.
"But how? Only a pegasus can can walk on clouds." Rarity asked
"But he is a pegasus, remember?"
"Your right Rainbow!" Twilight exclaimed.
I went through the process of becoming a stallion again, then slowly used my wings to get of the ground. It was hard at first but I sort of got use to it.
"Come on Harper, follow me." Rainbow said before taking off. she was a little hard to follow since she was so damn fast and this was my first time flying. It didn't take long to get to Rainbows house. They wasn't kidding. Her house was made out of literal clouds in the sky. When I touched down, it was super soft, almost like wool. We walked inside and she showed me around. She showed me a collection of trophies for lots of various awards. She also had a poster with other pegasus ponies on it with the word "Wonderbolts" on it.
"Alright Harper, I don't usually get guests so we are probably going to have to share a bed."
"Well, Im ok with that as long as you are." I said. Sharing a bed with a pony was a first for me. However, I have had to share a bed with Mark before, I hated that so much. I swear He snores like a hobo with a sinus infection. Rainbows eyes lit up a little and then she got into bed. I climbed in after her, her bed was softer than any bed I had ever slept on in my entire life. I covered up and then closed my eyes, remembering the plan for tonight.
"Goodnight Harper." Rainbow whispered.
"Goodnight" I told her, right before I fell asleep.