Author's Note

Ugh, my body hates me right now. On top of a lack of inspiration to do anything constructive, I haven't properly slept in over 72 hours.

Anyways, I know I spoke about this in the last chapter, but I put off this chapter for a couple days to let the fandom actually watch the Season 5 finale but regardless, SPOILER ALERT!

私は今、私の腕を憎みます

What is wrong with the world now?

OK, since when did I have an entire armoury in my bedroom?

Feeling healthy again as per my usual after sleeping through the sickness, I looked around my room from under my covers at the wall racks loaded with everything from guns to explosives and military equipment; night vision goggles, monoculars, scopes. It was a soldier’s wet dream in here.

Next question, why was I wrapped affectionately around Luna?

Extracting myself from embracing her in order to sit up, I let the Dragon Eye illuminate the dimly lit room to properly view my surroundings.

Next to me laid Luna, her mane solid and silky as I momentarily watched her breathing in her sleep. Above my head rested my Barret rifle already loaded and chambered for emergency sniping with a AA-12 shotgun resting on its rack just below that.

Swinging my feet from the bed, I took a moment to rub the sleep from my eyes before noticing a fully equipped set of combat gear with parts and pieces hanging nearby for customization; all gently illuminated from below. From the looks of it, I was prepared for an assault mission with all the AR mag pockets attached to the plate carrier.

Looking to the right of the case, near to the back wall of my room sat a reloading bench with numerous specialty ammunition already packed up for use. To the left sat a gun cabinet with the most beautiful M134 minigun resting on the cabinet surface, its black sheen gleaming in the dull moonlight.

On the back wall of the display cabinet with the minigun sat a highly optimised M4 platform kitted out for DMR use with a shotgun underslug attached to the underbarrel. Judging the scratches and wear on the gun, I figured that it had already seen plenty of use already which only raised more questions.

“Captain? You’re awake?” Luna murmured from behind me, looking up at me from under the covers. “Come back to bed, the war can wait a while longer.”

“What? Captain? War? I don’t understand what’s going on.” I replied in a low, raspy morning voice. “Where did all these weapons come from? Why are we sleeping together and why do you have combat armour?” I demanded, taking note of the pony armour in Luna’s colours across the bed from me. Luna sat up with concern, looking at me warily.

“What are you talking about? We’ve been at war with the Crystal Empire for almost three years now, you’ve been integral in taking down high value targets with your human combat experience in the last month you’ve been in Equestria.” Luna explained, rubbing at her eyes with the back of her hoof.

“When I went to sleep there was no war. We only just went and hunted down a pack of Manticores with the sniper rifle there.” I retorted, still utterly confused. Standing up I found myself in nothing but a pair of shorts with Luna’s butt print on my thigh. “Ok what the hell is this?” I demanded in all seriousness, however Luna merely broke into laughter.

“That was a gift from me a week back after we shared our first night together.” Luna replied with a grin. “I had to find an extra powerful elastic to keep everything contained.” That made me shudder at the idea of fucking a horse.

“We did what now? Luna, do you not remember the conversation we had where I told you I had no interest in a cross-species relationship?” I remarked, my face meeting my hands to wake myself up. “You know what, let me wash up and we’ll properly talk about all this.” I requested, gesturing to all the firearms on the walls.

Luna shot out her bottom lip in a pout as I exited the room and entered the bathroom to complete my morning ritual.

Stepping back out again, I passed by Weiss and Eben’s room however the lack of either dragon had me for pause. Instead what sat in their place was what looked like some kind of bat-pod from the DC universe; fully armoured with rather massive looking cannons protruding from the nose of the vehicle.

“Should I even ask about what happened to Weiss?” I asked, poking my head back around the cell wall to watch Luna dress herself in light combat fatigues.

“Who?” Luna replied, looking up at me while the buckles to her armour tightened against her body.

“White baby dragon, about yeah-high,” I held a hand up to indicate height against my body. “has a twin brother named Eben who doesn’t like me?”

“I have no idea who you’re talking about.” Luna replied, her helmet hovering next to her head.

“Of course not.” I groaned while entering the room again to dress in my own combat armour. “Now, explain some stuff to me. This war, what the hell?”

Luna rolled her eyes at me sarcastically before she took a breath and began her explanation. “Three years ago the Crystal Empire reappeared after a thousand years. The evil King Sombra came with it and immediately enslaved his people and forced them all to fight for him. Over the last three years the Crystal Empire has slowly invaded the rest of Equestria and we’ve already suffered the loss of six major cities in response.” I dropped my plate carrier over my torso and buckled it together as I listened. Luna sat on the bed once more, watching me.

“Three months ago, we lost our most capable combat team comprising of Sergeant Rainbow Dash and Corporals Maud Pie and her sister Pinkamena Pie. Even with my sister leading the fight from ground zero, we’d been gradually losing territory. At least, we were until you showed up a month ago.” Luna rolled onto her back, looking at me upside down on the bed.

“You chose to fight for Equestria because of your hatred for King Sombra’s forced slavery policies and in result, you and I began to summon, conjure and create all new weapons that we would use against the Crystal Legion. We’ve quickly become the most feared and highest value target for Sombra’s forces due to your capability to kill enemy soldiers from over two kilometers away before completely disappearing.” Luna’s eyes traveled up the back wall towards the sniper rifle, as did my own.

“That explains the war and the guns, but what the hell is this about us spending nights together after i’m sure I’d established that I don’t want an interspecies relationship?” I asked, leaning against the armour cabinet with my arms folded over my rig.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about in regards to that. Perhaps that was a dream that i’m not all that fond of?” Luna suggested, frowning at me. “When you and I became combat partners and you began teaching me the ways of human combat, we spent our first night three days after you arrived in the forests of the Everfree together, waiting to kill an enemy officer convoy. One thing lead to another and...”

“Right, right I get it. Then I’m going to tell you this right now, this is not my world.” I began, trying to comprehend what had happened.

“I’m aware, you wish to return to your human world once the war here has come to an end.” Luna interrupted me, turning a head away from me to sulk.

“No, I mean this isn’t the Equestria i’ve been living in for the last month. Where I come from there is no war.” I explained, holding a finger up to realign my point.

“So what, you somehow crossed a plane of reality into this world?” Luna looked back at me momentarily before looking off into space. “I suppose it is possible given you have no magic of your own, some kind of reality altering magic wouldn’t affect you like it would the rest of the world.”

“I’ll take your word for it. My new question is how do I get back to my own world?” I demanded, pulling the DMR M4 off its rack to check the ammo load. “Or more importantly, Can I get back to my world?”

“I couldn’t tell you. I’d say you’d have to wait till whatever magic created this world sort of… uncreates it.” Luna shrugged, rubbing the back of her armoured neck with an equally armoured hoof.

“And since I have no idea how long that will take…” I let my voice trail off. “Great. Well then I suppose while we wait we can go and fight this war I apparently have a part of.” I decided, slinging the gun over my shoulder before selecting a sidearm; a silver and black .357 with a 4 inch barrel and slotted it into my thigh holster.

Luna’s horn began to glow and to my surprise, she picked up the M134 minigun with ease and let it hover over her back, acting as a sort of magical sentry.

“And how exactly do you remain stealthy with a massive gun like that hovering behind you?” I wondered out loud. My answer came in the form of a blue shimmer enveloping the massive gun, making it fade away from view. “Oh. Okay, next question; what’s our target and will I need a rifle?”

“Glad you asked. We’re going after King Sombra himself today.” Luna replied with a grin, magically floating down my rifle from the wall. “This rifle has been pre-loaded with Armour Piercing Incendiary rounds by this world’s version of you with the intent that it would only be used to kill the King.”

I strung my M4 over my back and took the large rifle, pulling the bolt back to view the chambered round with the silver tip before letting the bolt push the round back into place.

“Only one round?” I asked, looking up from the gun to Luna.

“Of course. You were rather adamant that you would only require one.” the Princess explained casually as a few extra boxes of 7.62mm rounds vanished to wherever her minigun was kept.

“And I suppose that alternate me has the King’s projected route in it’s entirety already set out that I can simply follow along till we get to the firing position and take him down?” I suggested hopefully, making Luna nod in reply. “Good, good.”

“Then shall we get going? Today is going to be quite the celebration for Equestrian forces you know. Can’t start the party without a bang!” Luna cantered to the door of the bedroom ahead of me. I shrugged and followed after her but was mildly surprised when Luna lowered a wing and allowed me to hop up onto her back.

“Perk of being in an intimate relationship then?” I cocked an eyebrow as Luna took off underneath me, bringing me up and out of my dungeon.

“Nope, perk of having me as a combat partner.” Luna replied, galloping hard up the stairs until we broke the dungeon/courtyard barrier. Spreading her wings wide she continued our ascent even without the stairs as we soared into the red skies above us.

Banking right we soared upwards higher than the tallest Tower, of which I was expecting to find a trapped princess but was sorrowfully disappointed, and aimed northwards where I could already see faint signs of fighting on the horizon.

“So where’s the King?” I asked, looking through the scope of my rifle to view the onslaught of pony on pony murder not unlike a strange combination of future technology having gone into the combat gear and artificial limbs, but with a distinct lack of decent weaponry. It looked like a deadly slap fight to be honest.

“Far side of the battlefield. Chances are he’ll be somewhere high up out of the way of attacking ponies.” Luna explained as her horn cast her magic on me to give me the critical information i’d need for shooting.

With no pegasi controlling the winds, I watched as varying colours of wind intensities blew across the Equestrian landscape in every which way; one wind even aiming straight down at the ground with hurricane level power.

Peering through the scope and letting the magic compensate, I watched the rangefinder tick down from 5000m in the top right corner of the scopes view as I kept my sights on the closest of the fighting.

Looking away from the fighting, I began to survey the landscape for the potential sniper’s nest presumably ahead of us.

“We’re nearly there.” Luna announced as we continued to soar, making no indication of descending to a firing position whatsoever.

“I’ll just take your word for it.” I mumbled as Luna all of a sudden rolled onto her side and dived straight downwards. “I seriously hope you know what you’re doing.”

“Oh I do.” Luna replied with a grin as she pulled up sharply, rolling onto her back in the process. This, of course, had the effect of dropping me from her back at what I estimated to be a kilometer above ground.

“What the hell Luna!” I shouted up at the hovering alicorn as she watched me plummet to my death with a smirk before her eyes began to change to those similar of a dragons.

From the south, in the direction of Ponyville, came a blinding blast of pure white light not unlike a nuclear explosion. I instinctively clamped my eyes shut but the power of a nuclear explosion was so great that the light filled my head with light regardless, making me scream in reply as my body lit on fire before quickly burning up and flaked away.

But yet I lived.

I cracked open my eye again, only to find myself on my back looking up at my dungeon room ceiling above me.

“Okay, let’s call that death number 3.” I whined as I pulled myself upright to come face to muzzle with a bedraggled Celestia in chains with her sister in a similar fashion, both princesses hanging from the ceiling by their hooves. “And today just get’s weirder.”

“What? How- how did you free yourself from your chains?” Celestia asked wearily, looking at me in confusion. “Where did that bed come from?” she added before she caught sight of me. “And what are you wearing?”

“Ahh, let’s just simplify this by saying i’m not from this version of Equestria. Whatever is going on that has you captive isn’t what happens in my world.” I replied after a moment, scratching the back of my head in confusion.

“Well that certainly makes sense.” Celestia remarked as I watched Luna’s slow, shallow breathing. “She yet remains alive but I fear not for long.”

“What can I do to help?” I stood straight up from my bed to address the alicorn before me.

“If you can get us down from here, I should be able to use what remains of my magic to heal her but she’ll need proper rest.” Celestia explained, her solid pink mane hanging over her face in tangled strands. I nodded and set my rifle down to arm myself with my M4, taking aim at the chains that bound them.

“This is going to be loud.” I announced before disengaging the safety and pulled the trigger. A single round was pushed through the tiny chain links, successfully severing a link to allow Celestia’s hoof to be freed. Repeating the trick, I let Celestia drop to her hooves before she collapsed to her knees in agony, letting out a cry of pain in the process.

“What was that? I thought I heard explosions in the dungeons!” a strange male voice shouted from outside the dungeon doors. Shit, here comes the guards. I quickly put two rounds into Luna’s chains, letting the alicorn slump forward onto Celestia’s back before I put another round into the cell door lock.

I pulled the steel door open just in time for a trio of… “what the hell are those?”, appeared from the doorway. I reacted first and squeezed a burst into the first one, making the remaining two throw up green bubble shields, before they began the slow advance towards me with grins on their bug-like faces.

I took a chance and squeezed off another burst, surprising all three of us combatants when the second creatures shield was torn through and their body fell limp. With a grin I turned to the third and final target and fired as their horn began to glow with some kind of offensive spell.

“Effective.” I noted while turning back to the cell, Celestia laying her sister down on my bed before joining her herself. “How is she?”

“She will survive. What spell was that that allowed you to kill those changelings through their anti-magic shields?” Celestia inquired, turning back to me inquisitively.

“This is not a spell, it’s pure human ingenuity to kill.” I replied, shouldering the M4 casually.

“Then do you believe that such a weapon could kill the Changeling Queen?” Celestia looked at me hopefully. I shrugged in reply.

“I don’t see why not.”

“Then please, dispose of Chrysalis and help me return to my throne!” Celestia begged, looking distraught.

“Yeah, why not.” I replied just as the sound of an intense explosion detonated from outside. “Well shit, here we go again. Tell alternate me that the rifle in that cell has a single API round loaded into it!” I announced as the white light poured into the dungeon, stripping away everything around me and shredded my body yet again.

“Mmm, I don’t think i’m going to count these flashes as deaths.” I mumbled once my world came too. “I’ll be racking up the death counter much too quickly if I did.”

“You!” A familiar female voice exclaimed before my vision could return to me. “I thought I recognized you!”

“Oh shit.” Another, male voice mumbled, instantly sparking the fury within me.

Blinking a few times, the world faded into view around me and I immediately found myself in an entirely unknown setting; the walls around me dark and foreboding with flags of Luna’s butt mark meticulously hung from the walls and columns of the… throne room…

“Relax Spike, this isn’t our world’s version of him. He shouldn’t know about any of it.” Twilight Sparkle turned back to the baby dragon. Her suggestion was entirely destroyed with the sound of pulling the bolt of my M4 back simply for show of aggression before taking aim at the tiny violator’s head.

“You know these two, Captain?” A voice not entirely unlike Princess Luna’s inquired from behind me.

“Yep, that little fucker down there tried to get handsy with my baby dragon in our world.” I explained through gritted teeth. “Unless we all want dragon steaks for dinner tonight, I suggest he leaves. Immediately.” I threatened, making the guards in rather strange bat-like armour share nervous glances with each other.

“Please, Captain. It would be much to stressful to get the blood stains out of the carpets. Again.” A voice rife with propriety remarked, turning my head slightly to address the interloper.

The mare was an all white unicorn with a purple mane up in a bob, all cloaked in a pressed suit jacket with Luna’s mark on the lapel.

“I don’t even care at this point. This isn’t my world so I don’t give two shits about your carpets. That little bastard violated my Weiss.” I hissed back, turning on the laser pointer and aimed it directly between the dragon’s eyes; just below his head spikes.

“Exactly! This isn’t our world! This is a world created by using a time spell to change the past! None of this should have happened!” Twilight exclaimed, pulling Spike behind her rump protectively.

“Time spell?” Not-quite-Luna asked in interest. “Nopony in my kingdom but me should possess magic powerful enough to change time. Captain, you will stand down!”

After a minute of fighting an itchy trigger finger, I hit the safety once again and lowered my weapon.

“You’re kingdom?” Spike interjected, poking out from behind Twilight.

“Who else?” Luna demanded, stepping past me and into my view to reveal some twisted version of the Princess I called friend. Wearing some kind of armour over her body and with eyes not unlike the traitorous Luna from the first fucked up world, the guards around us returned to proper status and watched Twilight warily.

“Uhm, Celestia, of course!” Spike replied bravely, making everypony around him share nervous glances again. Soon however, Luna broke out into laughter.

“My sister has been imprisoned in the moon for years! But it is no less a fate than she sentenced me to.” Not-Luna remarked with a frown. “Now,” Luna stomped a hoof down adamantly. “Reveal to us the source of this time magic!”

“Alright.” Twilight decided after seemingly suffering from an idea.

“Twilight, no!” Spike defied, stepping out to protest under my glare.

“We have no choice Spike.” Twilight replied before stepping up to the Princess. “I can take you to it, but you’ll have to get past the timberwolves.” she warned.

Luna grinned in reply, “I am the ruler of all of Equestria. Do you think I can’t deal with timberwolves?”

“No, I know you can.” Twilight replied with a frown. Luna seemed to accept this and lifted Spike in her magic before binding him in magical chains. I can’t help but admit that I let myself smirk at this.

“And if you are thinking of trying to escape, it would be very unfortunate for your friend. Captain, stay here and keep watch.” Luna demanded as she lead Twilight and a few guards out of the castle.

“Little fucker got off easy.” I mumbled, bending over to pick up the ejected round from when I was threatening Spike.

“Honestly, I simply do not understand why you feel you must kill every single creature that looks at you funny. Now you’re just making up reasons to kill something; Weiss? Your baby dragon? Ugh.” the white mare trotted off with her nose turned upwards as the sound of a not so distant explosion broke the otherwise peaceful silence of the castle.

“Yeah, well fuck you too, bitch.” I shouted after her before my body was dissolved and she could retort.

The next two worlds passed just as quickly as they came, the first one with some giant Minotaur-thing destroying everything and the second with some I don’t know what having turned the world into some kind of fun house.

Then I came to the final world.

“Well this is depressing.” I announced as I looked around myself at the barren, dead landscape. Pulling my scarf wrapped around my neck over the lower half of my face to defend against the wind, I reached into a pouch on my back and extracted a thermal monocular with a clip to attach to my helmet.

Attaching the device so that it sat just over my left eye, I turned it on and immediately began scanning the landscape around me for any sources of heat.

“Let me amend that, this is depressing as fuck.” I mumbled as I completed my circle to find absolutely nothing alive around me. With a shrug I all but dropped to my seat and got comfortable in the dirt, waiting for the inevitable flash that would take me to the next world.

“Man, this place is kind of reminiscent of some kind of nuclear wasteland or something… Kinda wonder if there’s anyone actually alive in this world… Could go for a game of Blackjack or something…” I let my mind wander as I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

“Okay seriously, what the hell is-” my complaint was silenced by a completely silent explosion of light from ahead of me.

The rupture consumed everything in it’s path, obliterating the very earth on which I laid until it rushed over me and consumed me just as quickly.

“Taking so long?” I finished, looking up at the ceiling to my room again from the flat of my back.

“What? Oh! You’re awake! How do you feel?” Weiss asked as she sat up in bed. Luna had disappeared and after a quick examination of my surroundings, I evaluated that I was back home again.

“Exhausted, to be honest.” I replied, dropping my helmeted head back onto the pillow with a sigh.

“What- what are you wearing?” Weiss demanded, lifting my left arm to get a better look at my combat gear.

“Honestly, long story. I wanna sleep now.” I replied, closing my eyes in response.