Split-Second Change!
Ch.1: What the H!?
"Man... What do I want to do in life?" That's the question I've been asking myself for some time. After I graduated from LSV; that stands for Limited Service Volunteer, I was actually at a complete lost. Even coming back home felt different, a lot more, as if I can't fit into this whole civve lifestyle anymore. Being away from all this for six weeks is sure different, I'm definitely out of place right now, and I hate that feeling.
Well, at least I made my folks proud, the whole family really, I even went to my dad for some help. He told me that when he saw us doing our P.T. session, showing what kind of training we were doing for the last 6 weeks, he saw me loving it. Every ounce of it all. Even when the whole Company was Marching onto the Parade Grounds, where we had our very last Drill. He suggested that I look into going through the Advance Training Course next, after that Territorial, get part-time in the Army. Or full-time, either one works.
I liked that, but I was thinking of going into studying. Then again, the Army pays for you and gives you many opportunities in your work-life. So, I opted to taking that. Still though, it's been almost a week since Graduation, and I still feel out of place. I tried to keep myself busy, as much as possible, keeping fit as well. Luckily we live out on the country side, but even that can't fill my needs.
Soon, though, I was doing the Advance course. Man, the Staff weren't kidding when we asked them about this. Still though, it was fun all around, just like LSV. Some time later, I was already signed up for the Army and became an Arms Specialist for the next five years. After a while, I ranked from Corporal, to Staff Sergeant. Heck, that gave a scare to the Staff I had back in LSV, even my friends from my Platoon, if not the whole Company back then.
Apparently I was one of the few who ranked up this far. It was good to see those familiar faces again, I was even surprised to see those that I thought were going into work. I guess all of our Platoon was here... Well, those that wanted to join the NZ Army.
A couple of weeks of Shore-Leave came and we were ready to see our family again. But before that, we planned on going out camping and hiking throughout half of the first week, and then we go see our family. Things have changed. For better and worse, but I don't care much about that. It was great to see them all, but time flies by all too quickly for them, and I had to head on back to Base. Saying my goodbyes, I jumped in my car with my sports bag, Army back-pack with my different sets of Camo Uniform, and drove off. When I reached the halfway point though, everything just went blank. My car wasn't there anymore, but at least my bag was with me, still.
No matter where I looked, there was nothing but white, for miles! Just what happen to me? I can't be dead. I'm still alive. "Wait... What's that light?" I wondered, and without thinking much, because I didn't had any other options, I grabbed my stuff and walked towards it. Hopefully this will get me somewhere, other than here.
I just hope it doesn't lead me straight down to Hell...
(James, Ponyville...)
"Man, this is some day." I commented. It was an afternoon Sunday, and me and the girls were outside having a picnic together. Right now, some of us were playing games with the Cutie Mark Crusaders, while I lied underneath tree with Fluttershy and Rarity, lying by my sides.
"Hmm..." I heard Fluttershy hummed. "It sure is."
"I must agree, as well." Rarity spoke up next. "We seldom get the chance to do this together." After saying that, both of these lovely mares cuddled up to me some more, nuzzling into my chest, something that borderline as intimate. Laughing nervously, I body temperature was beginning to rise from this kind attention.
"Uh... Girls? Are you trying to tell me something?"
"Hmm... Maybe." Rarity purred. "But that's entirely up to you to figure out." Closer and closer, she and Flutters brought their faces up to mine. In a quick flash, they gave me a peck on my cheeks, while holding on my arms with their forelegs.
I must've been blushing hot red when they did that, but it wasn't unpleasant. Although, it was pretty forward of them to do, especially Fluttershy. I then asked them. "So, um... What was that about?"
"Oh, that was just for being such a handsome sweetheart. As always." Rarity replied.
"Cut it out Rarity, you're gonna spoil me." I blushed at that claim of hers.
"But it's true James. And I should know that..." Fluttershy added. Man, this is getting a bit out of hand, maybe I should...
"James!" Hearing my name being called, the girls and I and jumped up, standing, seeing Mitta running past the girls playing, towards us.
"Hey! Mitta, what's wrong!?" I asked her, as she skidded to a halt in front of us.
"There's... Another... Human... In town..." Mitta answered in between breaths. But that alone made us stare at her in disbelief. Another human? Here!? I thought she was joking!
"Wait a minute! But that's impossible!" Twilight exclaimed. "How can there be another human!?"
"He just appeared in right then and there!" Mitta answered. "Anyway, you must come see him, James. He's at Sugarcube Corner." After that, I ran straight towards Surgacube Corner. I'm not sure what to expect from this new guy, but other questions came flooding in; like was he friendly? Did the princesses brought him here? The latter I thought was a bit bizarre. If anything, the possibilities of that happening was slim, and even then, they might just call me in to decide on that subject.
Making it there, crowds of ponies were circling around the place like vultures. Most likely curious about the new human in town. Hopefully he's not hostile towards us...
(Few moments ago...)
After going through the Light, I ended up somewhere, some place I've never saw. Right now, I was in unknown territory, but from the look of things, nothing bad was about to happen. Checking my surroundings, I was in a town of some sort, a very old, prehistoric looking one. The buildings themselves looked a lot like those medieval houses and such back then. But what really surprised me was the fact that it wasn't humans living in them. In fact, there were ponies. Technicolor ponies. Everywhere I looked. There were also unicorns and pegasus roaming about as well, not just earth ponies. Or is it miniature horses? I can't tell which one.
Wait a flipping minute. If they're living inside houses, working in buildings, etc., then that means... They're intelligent... Okay, this is a bit much to take in. I need to sit down for a moment...
"Excuse me, dearie?" A voice called out from behind.
"What?" Quickly, I spin myself around to look at who it was, but found no one... "Odd."
"Oh my! So sorry darling, but I'm down here." Looking down, it was indeed a pony, a mare, baby blue coloured coat, pink mane and tail. A mother as well, seeing that she's carrying twins with her. But there's just one thing I can't get over: they can talk! Alright man, pull it together! You may not be on Earth anymore, but that doesn't mean you lose your sanity! Seeing my discomfort, she presses on. "Are you alright dearie?" She spoke to me in a motherly manner.
Calming myself down as much as possible, I nodded. "Yes ma'am, I'm fine. Sorry for getting in your way."
"Oh, don't fret about it. I'm just worried about you." She said kindly, before asking me. "But may I ask, are you a human?" I couldn't believe it. She knew what I was.
"How...did you know?" I asked her. "I thought I was the only one here?"
"Certainly not, my dear." She told me. "But before that, could you please help me with carrying some of these grocery bags?" Looking at them, there seems to be bags filled with dairy and baking ingredients. She must run a baking store with her husband then. Nodding, I walked over to them and grabbed most of them, leaving her with two left for her to carry. She was quite surprised by this. "Oh my! Are you sure about that? I can carry some more, you know."
I chuckled a little with a friendly smile. "It's fine. I've carried heavier gear than this." I told her. "Now, shall we?"
She was uncertain about it, but didn't push for it. "If you insist." After that, we walked around town for a bit, stopping at some places, only because she was worried about me pulling more weight. Such a nice woman she is, then again, she's a mother to two, so of course she would fret over about this. After reassuring her it's fine, she sighed. "I'm so sorry for pestering you about this, but I just feel that you may be overdoing this."
"Well, it wouldn't be the first time, and I nearly got sent to the sickbay for that." I laughed at that memory, but she didn't found it amusing as I did.
Pouting at me cutely, it was kind of hard to take her serious, but I tried my hardest to keep a straight face, while she scolded at me. "Why would you do that to yourself? No one told you to do so."
Holding my hand up to cover my snickering, I said to her. "Well, it was my job to update and maintain standards in Inventory. So there was a lot of heavy duty here and there."
She gave me a peculiar look, almost as if she cannot comprehend what I meant. But then she looked at both my bags. "Excuse me, but what's with those bags of yours?" She asked. "I don't mean to intrude, but I'm just curious. And your stature...just how are you that big?" Well, at least she's very respectful about looking into people's personal stuff and life. Although, I'm not sure if I should tell her, I can't even tell if they have any form of security and authority going about in town.
Shrugging, I just told her as much as I wanted to, can't let out everything. "These bags? The black one is carrying my sports kit. While the bigger, Camo-coloured one, carries my uniforms." She seem satisfied by this, but looking around, we seem to have drawn quite the attention. "Uh... How about we double on back to your place, as in now." She didn't need anymore convincing, picking up the bags, we both made a dash run for it. Following closely behind her, she led us to her bakery, which was a gingerbread house! I mean, holy heck! Is it even real!? Wait, no, NO! Don't fall for it! It's probably just a theme of the place, not the real deal.
Making our way inside, I had to be careful when going through doors, otherwise I'll end up hitting my forehead. Since these buildings are smaller and all. Although, it still didn't help with getting a little privacy, seeing as this home of hers is made to serve the public goodie bakes. Sheesh, you think after encountering the first guy they would get over it. Maybe they're used to him being the one and only human?
"Oh... My..." Hearing my good hostess huffing and puffing a bit, I looked down at her. "I... Think I may...need to get out more often..."
Chuckling a bit at that, I asked her. "Where do you want these to be?" She pointed towards the kitchen. The doorway leading into it wasn't wide enough, I have to drop my load to lay down my bags. At least none of them were insensitive about taking a peak inside. Because if any of them tried that, a straight up uppercut will land them in the hospital. Grabbing mine and hers, I headed in and placed them on the counter, next by the fridge, and went back in the main lobby. I found a couple of them were trying to move my military one to a table, where my sports one is, for me. Problem was that they can't lift it off the floor.
Walking over to them, I tapped his shoulder, to let him know I'm back. Got quite the fright from me when I did that, and quickly backed away. "S-sorry! We-we were just--!" I held up a hand to halt his stuttering, and went to grab it.
"Thanks." I said to he and his friend in kindness and walked over to my table they generously let me have.
After making sure everything was where it should be, she returned. "See honey? Another human is here in Equestria." Is that the name of their nation? Quite befitting for them.
Anyway, turning to face her and her husband, he was staring at me exclusively, which was starting to annoy me a bit. He must have sensed my agitation, as he quickly snaps his head in another direction. "I'm...terribly sorry about staring at you rudely. I-it wasn't intentional, I swear!"
"Apology accepted." I told him.
Then his wife came up. "Thank you so much for helping me back there. Oh, and where are my manners, I'm Cupcakes, and this is my husband Carrot Cake. We're the Cakes."
The Cakes family, huh? Well, they certainly live up to that. Smiling a little, I nodded. "Nice to meet you, Mr. and Mrs. Cakes."
"So, what's your name?" She asked me, but I'm not sure if I should give my name yet. I mean, yeah, they're nice and all, but maybe I should talk to this other human, if there is another. Seeing me deep in thought, Mrs. Cakes probed at me. "Dearie, are you alright? You seem to be lost."
"I'm fine." I sighed. "I was wondering about the other human you mentioned."
"Oh, you means James."
"Is that his name?"
"Yes. Do you know each other?"
"No. Did he say where he's from back on Earth?"
"I thought there was only one nation?" Well, this isn't helping. Sighing, I just stopped playing 20 questions, it would be best if the guy himself, James, was here.
"... Can we get you something?"
"A glass of water sounds nice." Was the only thing I wanted right now. With that said, the Cakes went and came back with a glass of water, along with a jug full of it as well. Although, I did see one of the on-lookers run off somewhere. Hopefully to go get James. There are some question I need answered...
(Back to James...)
Moving between the gathered crowd, I went inside and from what I saw, I was surprised by the scene. The guy sitting down, he's military. Can't tell if he's from the U.S. Army, but he's big. Hope he didn't bring a gun along, or things will get ugly real quickly. Soon though, he turns his gaze towards me. "So... You must be James?"
"Uh... Yeah, that's me." I said nervously. "So... Which State are you from? Back home, I mean."
"... None." Wait, what? I was confused by this answer. Isn't he... "By that, I mean I'm not American. It's just an accent I got stuck with at a young age." OK, that explains it! Hey wait a minute, is he blaming me!? "I blame your media, not your people."
"But still...!"
"Not everyone is working for the media."
"Okay, so, if you're not from the States, then where?" I inquired, not wanting to go around in circles.
"Tell me, do you where New Zealand is back home?" New Zealand? Now where have I heard that name before? Scratching my head, I was really thinking on where have I heard, or seen it, on the map.
Then it came to me. "Oh! Now I remember, isn't it a part of the British Empire! And that it's made up of three Islands!" Smiling at me, he nodded his head. "Yes! Okay, and is it found in the Southern Hemisphere, in the Pacific Ocean!?"
"That's correct." He answered. "At least you didn't mistaken it to be a part of the Aussies. Unlike your country." Oh no, now what did we do?
I was almost afraid to ask, but I did it anyway. "Um... What did they get wrong?"
With a heavy sigh, he told me this. "It was sometime ago, but you guys were pretty fascinated with our favourite sport: Rugby."
"Hmm... Can't say I heard of it, sorry."
"It's alright, it's new to your people. Anyway, you guys wanted us to show you how the game works. Do you still remember Grid Iron?"
"Yes."
"Well, think of it like that, only without the protective gear, save for the cup."
".... Okay? Isn't that dangerous?" I was starting to think that we might be asking a bit too much.
He rolled his eyes at me. "Well duh! But look at us, we're still playing it! Only because the game itself is built around brute strength." He said. "But yes, it is dangerous. Hence the reason why there are rules of engagement, along with health and safety protocol to that. So don't worry so much." Well, that's good enough for me.
"Alright, so, anything else that's different?"
"The passes. You don't pass the ball forward, it's backwards."
"That's...weird."
He snorted at that remark. "Yeah well, you guys kept whining about it, because you kept passing it forwards. When we explicitly told you how the passes worked in this game of ours." He stated, which made me feel a little embarrassed. "Anyway, it was nothing more than a test game, not the real one."
"But still, the whole world watched it."
"Yeah, it was. But guess what you fellas got wrong?" Oh boy, this is gonna make me feel sorely disappointed.
Taking a wild guess, I knew I'll get it right. Besides, he already gave the answer. "We got you mixed up with the Australians. Didn't we?"
"Bingo!" He said with a little laugh. "In fact, it was quite hilarious. We Kiwis were a little disappointed that you got it all wrong. As for the Kangaroos, I'm not sure, but you might have tick them off."
Facepalmming myself, I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Oh man, I'm so sorry that happened."
"Ah relax! Come on, have a seat." Taking his advice, I took a seat across from him, and he gave me a glass of water. "Now, let's get down to--"
Before he could finish, a familiar pink blur came in and got right up to the poor guy's face. "Hi, I'm Pinkie Pie! Oh wow, another human, that's so cool! Do you want to be--!?" Pinkies mouth was closed shut by him clenching his hand over it. Apparently he was getting annoyed by her.
"Please, do be quiet." He told her, and as he lets go of her, she did just that. "Now, Pinkie Pie, right?" She nods. "You're friends with James here, I'm guessing."
"Yes, that she is. Although, where are the others?"
"Others?"
"Yes... Oh here they are!" Pointing towards the doorway, the rest of the girls came filing in.
"Pinkie! What were you thinking!? Running off like...that?" Twilight said until she and the others got a good look at the other human. "Whoa..."
"'Whoa' what?" He said to her humorously. Which made her flinch.
"Oh, I'm sorry! It's just that...um...?"
"You're used to James." He said. "You're all used to seeing the one and only human male you've made friends with. Seeing me must be jarring to you." Well, I guess he got that right. The way how the girls seem to be acting, their body languages were telling us they feel uneasy about this whole thing. About him.
Speaking of which, I didn't explain about his appearance: his clothing consisted of a black jacket, grey camo army pants, black boots, with a black cap on top of his head. The cap had a yellow fern at the front, with the letters 'NZ' embedded in it, along with Staff underneath it. Brown coloured eyes, black hair no doubt, possibly short as per protocol. He must also shave, seeing the telltales around his freckled face. Although you could just barely see them, since his skin is tan. Wait, I never asked for his name!
"Say, what's your name?" I asked him.
"Oh right. I forgot about that." Seems I reminded him about that. "My name's Harrison."
"Harrison...?"
"Mountain."
"Harrison Mountain... That's a pretty cool name, actually!" Well, at least he's nice and well mannered. Maybe this won't be so bad. But still, he's from the Army, and if word gets back to the Princesses about his presences, I might not be able to do anything for him.
