July 5th, 2018
Unkown Location
??? Hours

There was light. a lot of it. Was he dead? no, he couldn't be, he was feeling pain, ALOT of pain. But that only gave him questions, was he in a Afghani hospital? was he captured? did the Marines push them back? how did he even survive a load of shrapnel coming at him? McIntyre was confused for the first time in many years, after all his training, all of his action on the field, he could only mutter one word.

"Shit."

McIntyre slowly raised himself, Attempting to regain his senses. As he did so, he realized three things. One, He was in the woods, not Baghran, that place was just dirt and rocks. Two, He had his Equipment, none of it lost, which confused him greatly. Three, the world looked... Different, as if he was in a cartoon. Looking around, McIntyre saw the sun above the woods starting to set. If he was thrown into another city, one WITH woods. He'd obviously been left here to die, So he decided the best course of action would be to set up camp and sleep, If anything. But before that, he needed to see if he could contact back to his FOB, or at least his platoon, if they were still alive, of course. Taking out his PRC-153 Radio, So Graciously given to him by the Marine Corps, He soon clicked on the side of the radio, and attempted to contact anyone.
"This is Sergeant Major McIntyre, Third Battalion, Second Marines. I'm stranded out in the woods, Rebels got a drop on me in Baghran. need any pick-up possible, over."
Nothing but static. Fuck. The best course of action was to get some sleep and hope for the best tomorrow. Maybe find a town tomorrow, he spoke a bit of Afghani, so he'd attempt to communicate. McIntyre laid his head down in the dirt, all his equipment by his side.
"Sleeping in fucking dirt, not that I'm complaining that I get to sleep at all." McIntyre Muttered, as he slowly blacked out.
_________________________________________________________________

July 5th, 2018
Woods, Uknown
??? Hours

McIntyre awoke to the sound of slight rustling in the bushes around him, After a few seconds of realizing what danger could actually be in the bushes, either a noisy rebel who came to slit his throat, or a mountain lion waiting to pierce his neck, He wasn't taking any chances, and ran to get his M240B. Picking it up, he slowly moved his back to a tree, and yelled at the bush.

"WHOEVER THE FUCK IS IN THERE, I RECCOMEND YOU GET OUT BEFORE I BLOW YOUR BRAINS OUT, YOU HEAR?" McIntyre Screamed.

The Bush Started to rustle even more, until what appeared to be a mountain lion come out of the bush, McIntyre readied his Light-Machine gun until he saw what the supposed mountain lion was- A Manticore. Something of legend just came out of a FUCKING BUSH. McIntyre's Instincts Reacted Quickly and he pulled the trigger, not letting go for a second.

"Holy-Fucking-Shit!" McIntyre Exclaimed as he saw the Manticore drop down to the floor, riddled with holes from the 7.62x51mm Rounds.

Breathing heavily from the situation that had happened not even thirty seconds ago, McIntyre dropped down, trying to reassess the situation. A Manticore, who he'd thought was just some legend he'd learned in history class, was dead, right in front of him. He wasn't one to freak out, you don't become a Sergeant Major for nothing, but this was an exception. The only idea he'd had for what happened was that in-short, he was in hell, somehow. He attempted to come to terms with this, but it didn't make sense. Where were the flames? demons? it didn't make sense, hell was supposed to be scary, and fill the air with smoke. This place just seemed like the woods, perfectly safe, not counting the manticore, of course. Sighing in defeat, McIntyre decided to waste some time and clean his weapons. The M240B Wasn't a great thing to clean. It's parts showed it. Wear and tear were most likely due to the Kajaki incident, the Ambush In Bahgran didn't help. He Decided to reload, as he wasted twenty rounds on the damn manticore. He decided it would be a while until that was finished. As such, he waited. Waited for the horrid day to end.
_________________________________________________________________
July 5th, 2018
Royal Castle, Canterlot, Equestria
1500 Hours

Celestia was tired. Very tired. She'd been through massive paperwork, most of it consisting of "Human Liberation", "Human Rights", Etcetera. She never truly understood why Commoners and Nobles alike would come and beg for the release of humans, or at least some sort of aid for their care. Sure, humans did a lot of work for their economy, they pulled carriages, worked on farms, and were excellent in basic yard labor. But Humans weren't sapient, they couldn't feel emotions, nor comprehend pony ones. They were simply yard animals. There were also the HLF, The damned Human Liberation Front. They've killed guards, started riots and peaceful protests. Tatarus, They almost destroyed Ponyville in an attack not even a year ago, after attempting to burn down Human farms. It was only after the Royal Guard was called in that most of the HLF Insurgents were either captured or killed. After that, however, it seemed that any HLF Operations slowed down, there weren't any recent cases of arson, murder, castration, or flaying of human owners. She hoped the attacks would come to a stop, they Hoped the HLF would just give up. That obviously wasn't the case. Celestia sighed, taking it all in. She wanted a day off, but her sister couldn't handle the throne by herself, a diarchy needs two to work.

"Nothing Can go my way, Can it?" Celestia Sighed.

Just as Celestia was preparing for some extra paperwork, she felt a magical surge, stronger than what she dealt with when she fought Sombra, all radiating from the Everfree. This was troubling, the Everfree was already as dangerous as that is, along with the strange weather pattern it held. Sensing no good in what could come from this, She Decided to write a note to the Elements of Harmony, specificially, Twilight sparkle. If something like sombra was in the everfree, she could count on her ~~prized student~~ former student.

Dear Twilight Sparkle...

Author's Note

And so it Begins, sort of.