Angel of War

by Commander Ry

Rating: teen
Tags: Human, Main 6, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 14939

May day, may day, this is Scarlet Falcon 7 broadcasting on emergency frequency one-tree-six...

Second Lieutenant Jonathan M Casey was shot down over the Korean DMZ.
Upon ejecting from his aircraft he would find himself in a very different reality. A reality that, for all intents and purposes, shouldn't be real.
Now he must come to terms with his training, his reality, and the colorful equines that inhabit it.

Published 2012-06-07 13:44:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-02-23 21:13:21 UTC

From the Heavens

The Angle of WarA MLP:FiM Fanfic by Commander RyChapter 1From the Heavens

“Just a simple recon,” they said. “Fly over the DMZ, get the information we need, and fly right back. Quick and simple!”  HA, it was anything but. Those damn northerners were waiting for me; the bastards at JASOC miscalculated or something, got shit Intel! Instead of piercing the radar cover and observing ground movement, I flew straight into a fuck storm of telephone-sized poles of death.  Figures seeing as all our drones kept getting shot down. I was just the unlucky fucker to be assigned this mission so command could get a proper reading of what we were going up against.

I shouldn’t even be in this god damn war.  Three days out of Flight School, and North Korea wakes up and decides to invade our allies in the south. So, being the lucky new Lieutenant I am, I get thrown in some obsolete F-16C and shipped out to “go fight the reds!” And I get myself shot down! Fuck me, I’m so fired.’

All this ran through Second Lieutenant Jonathan M. Casey’s mind as he let muscle memory and months of training glide his parachute earthward.

“First goddamn combat mission, and I get shot down,” the pilot mumbled to himself as he scouted for a safe place to land.

‘That’s odd,’ Casey mused to himself as he pinpointed his LZ; a small strip of clearing between a rather dense forest and a meadow. ‘I remember Korea looking… different.’

As he sailed closer, he noticed a large village about a mile out.  More importantly, he saw what looked to be a small hut carved into a tree not two hundred feet from his landing zone.

‘Shit,’ he thought. ‘The moment I land I’m going to have to book it for the cover of the forest. I should technically be in South Korea, but I’m not taking any chances with the locals; best hide and wait for extraction’

Casey glanced up, making sure his chute was good before his final approach.  As he came in for his landing, he caught a glimpse of a blue shadow streak by him through his visor. Suddenly, a sharp gust of wind picked up and pulled him towards the forest, sending him towards a rather painful looking mass of branched and leaves.  He attempted to correct his flight path, but it was too late. The fighter jock’s body stiffened as he looked up and saw a tree coming directly at him.

“Oh fuc-“

*SLAM*

(X*X*X*X*X*X)

“Oh dear.  Dash, did you see that?”

“Did I see it!?! I almost hit it! What the hay is it?”

“Oh, I-I don’t know, I have never seen anything like it.”

“Let’s go find Twilight and the others to figure out what’s going on.”

(X*X*X*X*X*X)

“Son of a bitch,” mumbled Casey to himself as he spun around, trying to figure out where he was.

The young Lieutenant was hanging out of a tree from his shroud lines; his orange chute was tangled in the branches above.

“Just freakin’ perfect.”

He began to fiddle with the release mechanism in his harness.  He was rewarded with a click and a snap while gravity reasserted itself on his body.

Unprepared for the sudden drop, Casey hit the ground, accompanied by a bone grinding crack emitting from his ankle. A muffled scream tore through the air as he tried to fight the pain.

“AHHH!, F-FUCK!, AHHH!” He slowly dragged himself over to the tree and propped his body against the trunk.  He rummaged through his first aid kit, letting out a joyful cry as he found what he was looking for. Through gritted teeth, he jammed the needle into his leg; the morphine quickly erased most of the burning pain.

Pulling out his topographical map, the pilot tried to assess his location.

‘This is freaking weird,’ he thought to himself.  ‘I was briefed that the Korean landscape was mountainous? And isn’t it winter? It’s like eighty-five degrees out here?!?’

He pulled out his compass as he spun his map. ‘So, I’m pretty sure I ejected somewhere over gridfive.  But I should be in the mountains then, along this ridge.’  He pointed to the map as if he was trying to explain his situation to someone else.  ‘And what’s with this town?’

He glanced up and looked at the outline of the village on the horizon. ‘I should be tens of miles from any building, unless... Shit, I must have flown farther off course then I thought.’

“Fuck it, I’m lost.”  He tossed his compass to the ground.

With those words of defeat, Casey stared at his numb, throbbing ankle. Well, it was fractured, he knew that. He was pretty sure it was a closed fracture.  At least he couldn’t see any blood pooling in his combat boot, which hopefully meant that he wasn’t going to bleed out in the near future. He racked his brain, trying to recall his basic first aid classes; the little Airmen in his head began to sound off, reciting words and terms that he had been drilled on throughout flight school.

‘Remove yourself from the danger,’ check.  ‘If in immense pain, apply morphine,’ check.  ‘In the case of fractures, splint above and below the injury.’

Casey quickly looked around and found two dead tree branches that were straight enough for his needs. He quickly fashioned a splint using medical tape from his gear, and checked it off his mental list. With his foot now immobilized, the Air Force officer pulled out his emergency radio and began fiddling with the settings.

“Time to get outta here,” he exclaimed as he keyed up the mic.

[May day, may day, this is Scarlet Falcon seven, broadcasting on emergency frequency one-tree-six, I have been shot down over grid 5, emergency transmitter is active, over]

Casey’s only response was a jumble of static.

[May day, may day, this is Scarlet Falcon 7 broadcasting on emergency frequency one-tree-six, is anyone receiving, please respond, over]

The radio continued its cackling.

“Nothing can ever be easy, can it?” he sighed as the radio tumbled from his hand.

‘Ok,’he thought.  ‘So I just need to get to higher ground.  A mountain or tree, then the signal should get through, right?  Yeah, I just need to get to higher ground.’He looked at his now splinted foot.

“Fuck my life.”

Casey gathered up his gear.  Using the tree trunk as balance, he unsteadily got up, standing on his one good foot.

“And now for the hard part.”

He let go of the tree, knowing he was on his own for now. He struggled to keep his balance as he attempted to hop to the next tree over, all the while contemplating how best to proceed uphill.  His foot caught on a root, and the first thing to cross the lieutenant’s mind was to protect his face from a sudden impact with the ground.  Without thinking, he put his injured foot down to save his fall. A searing pain shot through him as he screamed and blacked out.

(X*X*X*X*X*X)

Jonathan Casey woke up five feet from the large oak tree sporting his neon orange parachute.

‘Well,’ he thought, checking his surroundings. ‘That sure as hell didn’t go as planned.’

He glanced at his watch to get a bearing on how long he’d been out, only to find a shattered LCD screen staring back at him.  He angrily ripped the watch off, throwing it into the forest; he gave it the finger as it sailed away.

Staring at the sun’s position, Casey figured he had only been out a few minutes. He propped himself back against his tree and tried to think of a solution to his problem. A rustling came from a set of bushes about fifty yards away.  Instinctively, he un-holstered his M9, sighting in on the possible threat, only to find a small herd of horses come out of the brush. He lowered his gun, relaxing a little bit, only to do a double take.

“What the hell is this?” he mumbled.

Staring back at him were six brightly colored horse creatures, which was odd since Casey was fairly certain that pink and purple horses didn't exist. What surprised him even more was the fact that there were unicorns and pegasi in this herd.  Even the one that looked the most normal was wearing a hat.

“What. The. FUCK. Is this?”  His mind raced for answers.

“The morphine! M-morphine has hallucinogenic properties, right?”  Even as he said it, he wasn’t convinced.

“Umm, excuse me?” said the purple unicorn, taking a few tentative steps closer.

Casey’s mind ground to a halt.  ‘Did that purple unicorn just... talk to me?’

“Hello? My name is Twilight Sparkle, and these are my friends.”  The purple mare motioned towards the other five. “And, well, we were wondering who you are?”

“Or what you are?” said the cyan pegasus, receiving a rather dark look from the purple pony.

The pilot didn’t respond.  His mind couldn’t process his surroundings or the situation.  He just stared wide-eyed at the brightly colored group thinking, ‘I was not trained for this.’

“Are y’all ok?” asked the orange pony sporting a Stetson.

“Oh, umm oh dear,” said the yellow winged mare, pointing to Casey’s splinted ankle.  “It looks hurt.”  She made a move to go help the injured man.

At this time, the little Airman in Casey’s head sounded off once again.

‘You’re a downed pilot,’ it said.‘Possibly behind enemy lines. You are too valuable to be captured; you must defend yourself at all cost.’

With this small piece of logic, the officer’s mind woke up. He expertly raised his M9, sighting in on the pegasus’ head while flipping off the safety.

“STAY BACK!” commanded Lieutenant Casey.  “STAND DOWN OR I WILL OPEN FIRE!”

The yellow pony quickly complied, cowering from the sheer tone in his voice.

“Fire?” articulated the white unicorn, attempting to comfort the now shaking yellow mare.  “Darling, there is no fire, and there is no need to use such a horrible tone with Fluttershy.  She is only trying to help after all.”

“ALL OF YOU STAY BACK!” he commanded, ignoring the unicorn’s comment.

“Now dear,” said the white mare, a slightly annoyed tone in her voice.  “Just because you have an injured leg does not give you the right to act like a brute.”  She began to take a few confident steps towards Casey.

“I WILL OPEN FIRE.”  Casey’s mind was broken.  He didn’t know what was happening, who was causing this to happen, and more importantly, who to blame. It also didn’t help that the little Airman in his head was screaming at him to shoot everything that moved. Needless to say, Casey was not happy.

“If you would be so kind as to calm down and let us help yo-”

*BANG*

A puff of dirt shot up in front of the white unicorn, whose eyes were wide with terror as the world seem to freeze around the smoking gun held in the young man hands.

“STAY BACK AND STAND DOWN!” the Lieutenant ordered, breaking the still air around him.

His training was screaming at him, saying he should have put a bullet in that horse-unicorn thing. But despite everything, despite his total mental lock, he couldn’t bring himself to shoot something that wasn’t armed and trying to kill him (at the moment). Instead he opted for a warning shot. Casey raised the M9’s sights to the unicorn’s head.  There would not be two warnings.

Suddenly, his sidearm was wrapped in purple light as it was yanked from his hands. He sat there in confusion for a second before his brain finally gave full control over to his training. The human warrior quickly rolled onto his feet, pulling out a combat knife. The massive adrenaline spike he was receiving prevented him from feeling his ankle, which was surely screaming at him. He crouched defensively, eyeing his pistol floating near the purple unicorn called Twilight.

“What’s the big idea!?!” yelled the cyan pegasus, flying straight towards him.

Casey expertly dodged the attempted tackle, redirecting his momentum and lunging at the pony with his knife. Before the blade could make contact with flesh, the human felt a sharp pain coarse through his abdomen as he flew through the air, slamming into another tree.

With the world spinning around him, he mumbled, “What t-the *cough* fuck?” as he cough up his own blood.

The last thing Casey saw was a blurry orange mare look at him with disapproving eyes before he blacked out for the second time that day.

(X*X*X*X*X*X)

Warning alarms blared inside the cockpit of a F-16B as surface to air missiles streaked to meet it.

“Shit, shit, shit.”

[Golden Eagle, this is Scarlet Falcon 7 I have been engaged, I say again, I have been engaged over grid 6, how copy, over]

Casey rolled to the left as countermeasures belched out the side of his fighter. The jamming pod strapped to the underbelly of the plane was scrambling to save itself, blaring frequency after frequency in a mad dash to break the lock the missiles had.

{Copy, Scarlet Falcon 7 pull back to grid 5}

The nimble jet made a sharp left turn as the afterburners launched it towards the safety of the DMZ and grid 5; three missiles streaked closely behind it. Casey shot over into South Korea.

“Shit, they’re not breaking pursuit!”

With a sharp yank on the controls, the lieutenant launched into a steep climb while deploying the last of his flares and chaff. He was flying into what looked to be a large storm cloud, something he would have normally avoided if he wasn’t about to die. A quick look to his radar told him that his attempts to save his life weren’t working as a third proximity alarm sounded.

[May day, May day, Scarlet Falcon 7 is going down over grid 5-]

Lightning suddenly struck his aircraft, causing the lights in his cockpit to turn purple. Outside his canopy there was only a rainbow swirl of colors.

With that, Casey panicked and pulled the yellow handle located on his chair.  He was greeted with the sudden rush of air and the immense pressure of his body defying gravity.

~(Commander Ry: this is my first foray into the realm of fanfic so any and all comments and opinions are greatly appreciated. I would like to thank shadowdemon137 and the awesome people at "ABQ Bronies" for editing this into something readable and getting me to pull this story out of hiding in my Word Documents)~

Amongst Strange Company

The Angle of WarA MLP:FiM Fanfic by Commander RyChapter 2Amongst Strange Company

The world was dark, an empty void without noise, without feeling, without thought.

Then there was sound, a series of low and high tones that turned into mumbling, then into a conversation.

“Applejack, what are you doing here at this hour?”

“Keepin’ my eye on this here varmint.  Makin’ sure it doesn’t try nothin’ sneaky.”

“I really don’t think that’s necessary.  The poor thing almost died after you bucked it across the Everfree Forest.”

“Don’t you give me that look Twi.  That ‘poor thing’ almost hurt Dash, and I won’t stand for it.”

“Yes, but maybe if Rainbow Dash hadn’t tried to tackle it…”

“Well, yeah… Anywho, what did the princess have to say?”

“Nothing much, just that we should talk with it, learn about it, befriend it if we can. Or at least build a relationship with it that isn’t founded on us attacking it while it was injured.  She agrees with me that this creature isn’t much of a threat.”

“If ah remember right, that thing attacked Rarity first.”

The world went dark once again, and stayed that way for some time.

(X*X*X*X*X*X)

Sound returned once more.  A continuous beep could be heard along with the sound of other machines.

Casey's mind began to reboot as his body slowly woke up from its deep sleep.

'My alarm clock sure sounds funny.'

Light filtered in from the lamps on the ceiling, temporarily blinding him as his eyes fought to bring the world into focus.

"What a weird ass dream," the pilot mumbled as he rolled over, coming face to face with a pink blur.

His mind, not fully awake, curiously tried to figure out what could possibly be pink in his barracks. As his sight focused he made out a set of eyes, a snout, and what appeared to be an explosion of hair.

“-GAAAAAAAASP-“

The confusing pink blob let out an unnaturally long gasp as it jumped into the air.

"Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh, Twilight it's awake!"

Casey could now tell it was an animal of some kind as it bounced out of his room.

"What in the world?"

Casey rolled back over to his other side, attempting to quiet his alarm clock, only to find a heart monitor in its place. A quick glance around the room assured the lieutenant that this wasn't his barracks but a hospital... Or at least something that resembled a hospital room. Suddenly seven horse-like creatures trotted into the room. Like a slap to the face, Casey remembered everything. The ejection, him crashing into a tree, his broken ankle, and these... these things! They had attacked him!

The air force officer bolted upright in his bed, immediately receiving a long streak of pain throughout his body, causing him to wince.

"You really should stay lying down," said a white coated pony wearing a nurses’ cap.

Casey's eyes steeled as he watched her check the monitors to the left of his bed. He moved to grab his gun only to find that his hands were restrained, not that it would have mattered.  A glance down told him that both his gun and knife, along with most of his gear, had been taken from him. This glance down also explained to Casey why he was in so much pain. Most of his body was either broken or at least badly beaten.

"How are you feeling?” The purple unicorn called Twilight Sparkle stared at Casey with truly sorry eyes filled with hope.  “I'm so sorry for the injuries, but you see, Applejack was only trying to protect Rainbow Dash. We got you to the hospital as soon as possible though, and Nurse Redhart here says you will make a full recovery."

The human didn't see this though. He was too busy trying to rationalize this whole experience.

'I was shot down over Korea. I-I must have been captured. Then this whole thing is just a drug induced hallucination. Didn't command say that North Korea was experimenting with drugs and interrogation? Like truth serum, but on LSD. Dammit, I really wish I hadn’t of slept through that briefing. That’s gotta be it though, they’re trying to confuse me, get me to talk; well they’re not getting shit outta me'.

The young man’s mind, weak and broken from this whole ordeal, latched on to the only logical explanation it could invent.

Casey's thoughts were interrupted by Twilights request for information, simply proving the officer’s theory.

"So, what's your name?"

With that his training took over once again. Jonathan M. Casey wasn't scared or confused anymore.  He had a rational explanation for what was happening, something he HAD been trained for. He was captured by enemy forces, and currently being interrogated.

"Umm, can you understand me? What. Is. Your. Name?" asked the purple mare once again in a courteous yet firm tone.

Casey's blank stare was replaced with that of understanding and hatred as he belted out words that were drilled into his head for just this occasion.

"Second Lieutenant Casey Jonathan M., 944th Fighter Wing, United States Air Force. Four-Five-Six-Four-Two-Two-Niner."

The seven mares looked at the pilot with confusion and worry. They had not expected such a harsh tone or long response to such a simple question.

“What did it say?” asked the rainbow-maned pegasus, transfixed by the humans hateful glare.

“Oh oh, I know,” exclaimed the pink mare, now currently jumping around the room.  “It’s a guessing game- I love games!  How about Broken Bill? Or Hateful Hank? Oh oh I know, Evil Monkey! Evil Monkey!”

Twilight Sparkle rolled her eyes at the pink ones antics.  Her gaze had now turned back to the injured human, looking at him expectantly.

“Do- do you know where you are?” she asked.

"Second Lieutenant Casey Jonathan M., 944th Fighter Wing, United States Air Force. Four-Five-Six-Four-Two-Two-Niner."

Casey’s words were met with a confused frown from the purple unicorn.

“Now sugar,” said the orange cowpony, obviously annoyed at the tone the young man had taken with her friend.  “That’s not the question we’re askin’.  You best answer the questions we ask of you.”

The pilot turned his gaze to rest on the pony with apples on her flank, giving her a glare that clearly read “fuck you”.

“It’s ok AJ,” Twilight said, turning to Applejack.  “I don’t think it understands what we are saying.”

“It understands us alright,” piped up the rainbow maned mare.  “Don’t you remember it yelling at us in the forest? It at least understands enough of our language to answer a simple question.”

“Hmmmmm” Twilight scrunched her nose at this.  Turning back to Casey, she restated a previous question but with much more force this time.

“Do. You. Understand. Me?”

"Second Lieutenant Casey Jonathan M., 944th Fighter Wing, United States Air Force. Four-Five-Six-Four-Two-Two-Niner."

The magical mare humphed at this.

“No, do you understand what I am saying?”

"Second Lieutenant Casey Jonathan M., 944th Fighter Wing, United States Air Force. Four-Five-Six-Four-Two-Two-Niner."

“No, no, no,” exclaimed the purple unicorn, obviously frustrated with the man’s lack of cooperation.

“Yeah buddy, you better start talking!” the cyan flyer flew right up to Casey’s face. The pilot tensed.

‘Here is where things get hard... where they get violent’.

Before he could mentally prepare himself, a sharp beep drew his attention.  His heart rate had spiked just slightly according to the small screen depicting a jumping line.

“All right girls, that's enough” said the white caped nurse, her tone firm yet soothing.  “You’re stressing the patient out, and it needs time to rest and recover.”

“But this thing hasn’t even begun to answer our questions!” complained Rainbow.

“Now Dash,” Twilight commented, eyeing the pegasus.  “Redheart is right. We can continue this later.  It needs its sleep.”

With that, Rainbow Dash groaned and the seven began to make their departure.

“We’ll be back later,” said the purple mare, giving the officer one last look of sadness and sympathy.  “I hope we can actually converse then”

Casey smiled smugly to himself as the seven trotted out of the room.

‘LT CASEY: 1, FUCKED UP KOREAN COMMIE PONIES: 0’

(X*X*X*X*X*X)

It had been four days since the human had found himself in his strange reality; four days of bed rest, sparse questioning, and watching the heart rate monitor.

Casey was proud of himself; he had withstood their interrogation thus far, saying nothing but those nineteen words, much to his captors displeasure (especially the purple one). Yet, he was confused, for four days they had come in every few hours; sometimes all six, sometimes just two.But never had they done more than politely question him. He was never tortured, never threatened, unless you count the rainbow ones attempts at intimidation, in all honesty Casey found her more entertaining than intimidating.

This was not the way POW’s were supposed to be treated by the North Korean Army. Where was the pain? The agony? The evil fat guy with the car battery? The more he thought about it, and thinking was really all he was capable of doing, this hallucination torture theory just wasn’t adding up. But if he was wrong, then that would me that he was being cared for by magical colorful ponies. And quite simply, that was crazy.

In order to avoid these crazy logical thoughts the officer instead built profiles of everyone and everything. As his training directed.

The lieutenant was being kept in a rather small hospital room; it was a private white room, with pink trimmings and a lone fern in the corner. To his left was a series of medical equipment, Casey could make out the familiar jumping line of the heart rate monitor telling him continuously that he was not yet dead. To his right was a small cabinet and a window, the curtains were always down so what was beyond said window was a mystery.

The medical staff consisted of what seemed to be only two ponies; at least only the two ever came into his room.

There was a male pony, who appeared to be the doctor. He was brown, wore glasses, and was friendly enough. He would come in once a day read the human’s chart, check up on his progress, and attempt to make small talk. Over the last few days however this doctor seemed to have become more and more put-out with the airmen’s lack of response.

The second pony on staff was Nurse RedHeart, Casey observed she was white with a pinkish mane, wore a nurse’s cap, and conducted herself with dignity and professionalism. She didn’t seem interested in the officer other than doing her job, which entitled monitoring his vitals, administering pain killers, and feeding him (for some reason Casey noted that he was fed a strictly vegetarian diet).

Then he had his captors.

First, there was the purple unicorn named Twilight Sparkle. She appeared to be the lead interrogator, and often made references to personally knowing the “princess” which told Casey that she held a very high rank or at least held the most pull amongst her peers. Although her leadership style was very laissez-faire and she would often defer to the others and be quite open to suggestion. She was perhaps the smartest pony the lieutenant had met (not that he had met many ponies) as she never attempted the same approach twice, she always asked different questions, and she was the only one to actually analyze the nineteen words that Casey spoke. She had actually determined the pilots name as “Jonathan M Casey” and figured out he was in some sort of guard or military-esqe service. Because of this, the airman was extremely wary around her and her very polite ways. He also noted that although she was extremely perceptive she was prone to bouts of great agitation when she couldn’t get questions answered or more information from the young man. He fondly recalled one day that Twilight grew so frustrated she magically flung the fern around his room because he refused to answer “Are you from Equestria?”

This brought up another point though, magic. The pilot observed that unicorns were able to produce a rather strange glowing energy that could manipulate objects around them. As he could not answer what this energy was or where it came from he chose rather to ignore it and write it off as ‘just more crazy shit that I’m hallucinating.’

Next there was the orange pony Applejack, She was a very simple and straightforward individual. She did not like Casey and did not attempt to hide her dislike. Casey was the most at-ease around “AJ” as she was really the only one that behaved the way the lieutenant imagined captors were supposed to. She also seemed to be an individual of significant rank and a leader in her own right, the pilot assumed that she was second in command as Twilight often consulted with her. Unlike Twilight however, Applejack was much more uninvolved, she asked the same questions over and over and never attempted to change her approach. She never let her emotions show except in her tone of voice and seemed more than willing to simply walk away from the officer when he refused to cooperate. He also observed that she would religiously wear a brown Stetson atop her head and spoke with what appeared to be a rather southern affliction..

Then there was the brightly colored pegasus named Rainbow Dash. Of all of them, Casey had her profiled the best. She was egotistical, brash, physically skilled, lived in the present, and instantly assumed she was in control of every situation. She acted before she thought, and never hesitated to act. Basically she was the stereotypical fighter-jock, for nine months Casey had lived and trained with this type of personality while learning to fly. As such he found Rainbow extremely humorous and easy to manipulate. It always brightened his day when she would streak into his room, fly right into his face, and demand information with such helpful questions like “ARE YOU A SPY?!?.” Frankly, other than irritating the purple one, the only other amusement the young man could find was pissing of the blue flyer.

The fourth of the six was a butter yellow pegasus named Fluttershy. Like her name suggested, she was very… shy. Casey honestly didn’t know what to make of the timid pony. Whenever she did come into his room (and her appearances were quite rare) she said nothing, stood in a corner, and attempted to hide behind her pink mane. She seemed utterly terrified of him and the pilot found this fear extremely adorable if not a little bit concerning. The best he could figure was that Fluttershy was a sort of civilian advisor whose job it was to observe the other interrogator’s actions and report on their conduct. But this of course was simply speculation on a hallucination.

Next there was the white unicorn Rarity. Like Fluttershy she seemed positively terrified of the human. Unlike her yellow friend though Rarity’s fear struck Casey as much more personal. Fluttershy seemed to fear him because he was different; Rarity’s fear seemed grounded in that he was evil. The only logical explanation the pilot could come up with for this was that she was the only one he shot at, and almost killed. Despite this fear however, Casey noted that she was very articulate and ask very specific questions. She did a very good job of masking her fear and most always seemed in control of any given situation. Her regal appearance lead the Lieutenant to assume that she was a political figure of sorts, or perhaps part of a noble ruling class.

Lastly, there was Pinkie Pie. She was a bubbly pink pony who desperately wanted to throw the young man a party. Casey hated her.  He would dread the moment she would walk into his room, he despised her voice, her eyes, her hair. Hell the young man had even begun to develop and unusual fear of the color pink. Now he disliked Pinkie not because she was mean or malicious, quite the contrary, she was perhaps the nicest and happiest individual Casey had ever met. She didn’t even really attempt to interrogate the pilot, as her questions usually bordered along the lines of “What kind of cake is your favorite?” No Casey hated her because she would talk to him, and once she started, she would keep going, and going, and going… for hours. It didn’t even faze her that the lieutenant didn’t respond to her questions, she would just keep at it, talking about everything and absolutely nothing. When she was in his room he couldn’t think. Her words made very little sense and were impossible to follow for more than 30 seconds and it was even less possible to just simply ignore her as her bubbly nature seemed to draw the whole room of focus onto her. Casey imagined that Pinkie Pie was insanity in its purist form. He admitted though, out of all of them she was the best at her job. On numerous occasions the officer had almost cracked under the verbal assault of the pink menace; considering it better to give his captors all the information they wanted if it meant that Pinkie Pie would never talk to him again. He remembered two days ago Pinkie had been talking to him for five hours about balloons. In order to make it stop Casey had started screaming and didn’t let up until nurse Redheart came running into the room and removed the pink pony while mumbling something about “protecting the sanity of her patients”.

As the young man was reliving the traumatic experience in his head, he heard the sound of hoof steps outside his doorway.

To his immense displeasure both Twilight Sparkle and Applejack proceeded to enter his room.

‘Great another round of “fruitless pony questions!” I wonder if I can get the purple one to burst into flames again, that was pretty cool’ as the pilot mused he remembered another time that he angered Twilight so much that she literally caught fire. He had of course pissed himself out of fear, but he had to admit, it was the most excitement he had since he was captured.

Before he could start exploring the nature of combustible ponies though Twilight Sparkle began to speak.

“Hello Jonathan, are you willing to talk with us today?”

The fact that she addressed him by his first name made his skin crawl. But it was his own fault, so he stuck with his old standby of angry glaring. ‘Maybe if I try hard enough I could shoot lasers into her smug pony skull.’

Twilight sighed at the his silence “Well I guess there's always tomorrow”

Applejack snorted at her friend's words.

The unicorn gave a sideways disapproving glance at the orange pony before continuing.

“I come bearing good news! Nurse Redheart said you only have one more day of bed rest and then we can start getting you back on your feet. Of course there will need to be some physical therapy, and we don’t fully understand your anatomy so there will be a few days of observation to make sure you're fully healed. But in maybe a week's time, and a little cooperation on your part, you can be fully healed and we can take you to meet the princess!” Twilight looked at the man with nothing but joy and hope.

This hope was quickly murdered by Casey’s hateful glare.

Applejack chuckle “Twi ah don’t think it rightly cares about meeting the princess.”

Her excitement fully deflated Twilight sighed once again “Well, ok. But because of this we have decided to remove your restraints.”

With that Applejack tensed “Twilight I still don’t think this is such a good idea-“

“AJ it’s been four days, we have made no progress getting to know him and he has in no way shown that he is a threat to us since the incident in Everfree, he doesn’t trust us, and we need his trust us if he is ever going to open up to us.” Twilight lectured as she undid the first restraint holding the pilots right hand. “In order to get trust we must give it.”

“Sugar cube I understand what you’re saying but-“ the orange pony was cut off by the unicorn.

“AJ I need you to trust me.” half way through undoing the second restraint Twilight looked and smiled at the cowpony.

Caught off guard Applejack stuttered before finally grumbling “fine, but ah don’t like it one bit.” she proceeded to mumble something about educated unicorns and trust issues.

With that Twilight giggled a “thank you” and proceeded to undo the last restraint.

Finally able to move his arms Casey proceeded to rub his wrists where the bonds had held him for four days.

Twilight smiled once again. “Have a good day Jonathan, behave yourself and tomorrow maybe we can give you a tour of Ponyville.”

With that she left the room and Applejack followed her, half way through the door though AJ’s Stetson covered head stopped and turned around. She brought a hoof up to her eye and then pointed at the young man. Casey returned the gesture with a left handed salute. Applejack raised an eyebrow before leaving the room, the door clicking behind her.

Now alone, Jonathan M Casey looked at his free hands and smiled like a young child who had just stolen a cookie jar.

~(Commander Ry: For those of you who have favorited or started watching this, thank you. For all of you who comment, every bit of criticism and opinion helps, honestly. Special thanks to my editors: shadowdemon137, Bass, and "she-who-prefers-not-to-be-named".)~

Reality

Reality

Angle of WarA MLP:FiM Fanfic by Commander RyChapter 3Reality

Freedom, that was the only thought running through the young man’s head. They had freed him from his restraints and left him alone to his own devices.

‘Those stupid, stupid Communist equines.’

Actually, to say Casey wasn’t grateful would be a lie. Twilight’s trust in Casey deeply touched a part of the young man, causing his subconscious mind to strongly advocate that he should not abuse it.  Unfortunately, this part of his brain was bound, gagged, and thrown in some broom closet located in the lower part of his cerebellum.

His training had full control, and right now his training yelled, ‘ESCAPE!’

The lieutenant made a move to roll out of his bed when he encountered his first obstacle. He was still attached and being recorded by the damnable heart monitor.

‘If I simply remove the connections, then the thing will assume I flatlined and raise some kind of alarm.’

Casey stared at the diabolical machine, contemplating the best way to neutralize it, when his sights rested on a small red switch. He smiled devilishly and flicked the power switch to the “off” position. The screen flashed and went dark. Casey fist-pumped the air in triumph and hopped out of his bed.  Upon landing, he let out a painful cry and fell flat on his face.

“Apparently she wasn’t lying when she said I needed another week to fully recover,”

the human mumbled quietly to himself as he used his bed to support his weight and stand up.  Ignoring his throbbing body, he limped his way to the center of the room.

‘Ok, I can’t just walk out the door,’ he thought.‘There is no way someone wouldn’t see me and in my state. I doubt I would be able to outrun anything. That only leaves the window.’  Casey glanced at the window on the other side of his room.

‘I could probably fashion some kind of rope with the bedsheets, but I need a weapon and other usable supplies if I actually plan on escaping.’ The lieutenant’s observations came to rest on the wooden cabinets next to his intended portal of escape.

‘Well I suppose that is as good a place as any.’

Ignoring the protest of his body, the human hobbled over to the cabinet, throwing the doors wide open. The sight that greeted him was perhaps the most beautiful thing he had ever witnessed.

“Oh hells yes!”

Neatly stored inside the cabinet was the entirety of Casey’s survival gear; his flight suit, boots, helmet, med kit, and best of all… his radio. The only thing he noticed that was missing was his knife and M9, but Casey expected that not even colorful horses would be stupid enough to leave weapons within easy access of their captives.

Forgoing his initial “shimmy out the window with a bed sheet” plan, Casey made for his radio, pausing only briefly to give a longing look at his flight suit. Up until now, the pilot had only been dressed in his boxers and skivvy shirt. He hated being out of uniform.  He felt exposed, incomplete, and rather embarrassed. His modesty, though, would have to take a back seat; his freedom came first.

With radio in hand, the pilot slumped against the wall and began keying up the mic. Casey set the radio to broadcast on a rotating frequency bandwidth.

‘Fuck protocol,’ he thought.‘At this point I just need someone, anyone, to hear me.’

[Mayday, Mayday this is Lieutenant Jonathan Casey of the United States Air Force, broadcasting on all UN frequencies, if anyone is receiving please respond, over]

The radio crackled as the pilot held his breath for a response. After ten seconds he tried again.

[Mayday, Mayday this is Lieutenant Jonathan Casey of the United States Air Force. Any receiving stations please respond, over.]

Another ten seconds passed with still no intelligible response.

‘Shit…’ he cursed inside his head.‘Ok no problem.  T-the room might be hampering the signal. Just got to get outside, give the antenna room to broadcast.’

The shadows of panic began to creep into Casey’s mind. His elaborate hallucination theory was starting to show cracks, cracks that he quickly covered up.

‘Ok , I just have to get outside, there can be a number of reasons why no one is responding on an open frequency.’ The pilot got to his feet, hobbled over to the cabinet and grabbed a small pouch that contained, among other things, spare radio parts. ‘There might be a problem with the radio, or the transmission is being blocked… I-I just need to get outside.’

The young man faced the window and with sweaty hands pulled back the curtains. The image that greeted him was a colorful one straight from a fairy tale, much different to what he was used to.

“I-is this… candy land? …WHAT THE FUCK BRAIN!”

Casey stared at a picturesque town composed of colorful buildings. The buildings ranged widely in their designs, one of them being what appeared to be a gingerbread house.  The town’s citizens all looked to be colorful ponies, going about their daily lives and performing activities that one would find common in a small town.

With his hallucination theory reconfirmed, the pilot went about his mission of getting outside with renewed vigor. After a minute of playing mental chess with the window, he finally figured out how to open it. His luck continued when he discovered that a small three foot ledge ran at the base of the portal. Despite his partially healed injuries yelling at him, he managed to shimmy out onto the ledge and position himself just left of the window.

In his new perch, Casey took a few more seconds to admire the town displayed before him.

‘Man, I have a damn good (if not slightly gay) imagination.’

His psychoanalysis was quickly put on hold as his training caught up with his brain, refocusing him on the task at hand.  Keying up the microphone once again, the lieutenant made his third attempt at communication.

[Mayday, Mayday this is Lieutenant Jonathan Casey of the United States Air Force, broadcasting on all UN frequencies, if anyone is receiving please respond, over]

After yet another eternity that lasted ten seconds, and absolutely no response, the horrors of doubt began to bang on the door of his brain once again. However, the little airman in his head proceeded to deadbolt this door and help the pilot with the very useful suggestion of ‘follow protocol.’ Not being one to disobey orders, he listened intently as his training sounded off, repeating words he remembered quite vividly.

‘In the unlikely circumstances that you are downed behind enemy lines, your radio and your emergency transmitter are your lifeline. Should you at any time find your radio not to be functioning properly, here are some basic field radio repair guidelines.’ His training continued.

‘First, ensure you have pressed the power button to the “on” position.’ Check. ‘Second, ensure you are holding down the “speak” button when you attempt to broadcast.’ Check. ‘Third, if the radio is still malfunctioning, replace the battery, as a weak power source can lead to a weak signal.’ Finally remembering a piece of his training that was useful, the pilot proceeded to dump the contents of his small gear bag next to him on the ledge.  A spare antenna, a spare battery, an orange cylinder, and a few miscellaneous screws and bolts tumbled out in front of him.

“Wait, what’s this- holy shit how could I forget about the ELT?!”

Casey mentally kicked himself as he picked up the orange device. The emergency transmitter, or ELT for short, was a small orange device that emitted a signal which continuously updated orbiting satellites on its current position. Its accuracy in guiding rescue personnel within ten meters of a downed pilot’s position made it an invaluable asset.

The young man made a move to turn the ELT on when he noticed the small flashing orange light indicating it was already on.  Casey’s heart stopped.  Glancing at the small LCD read-out, his darkest fear was confirmed. The ELT had been active for

[4 DAY: 7 HR: 23 MIN]

“No… no, fuck… No, that’s impossible.”

The mental dam that the young man had created to support his theory shattered. If the ELT had been broadcasting for four days, then that meant no one was receiving the signal. The signal could and would be received anywhere on Earth, that’s what the satellites were for.  It would only take JASOC at the most twenty-four hours to scramble a rescue detail, and they would never simply leave a pilot behind.  Millions of dollars of training ensured that.

So, maybe he wasn’t on Earth. That would explain the ponies.  But that in and of itself made absolutely no sense and defied reality.

Maybe, weather delayed the rescue attempt, which would also explain Casey’s inability to contact anyone via radio. However,  the sun was shining, and had been every day since he had gotten there.

‘Maybe…’ he thought.  ‘Maybe that’s just part of the hallucination. Maybe the whole ELT problemis simply part of the hallucination.’

Casey began to reference what he remembered from his psych 101 class during his college years.  ‘A hallucination is a perception in the absence of a stimulus.’

However, hallucinations rarely create a brand new reality.  They build upon the stimulus you were already receiving. This means that something the pilot was experiencing had to be real… but none of it could be.

Maybe this was a dream, but vivid dreams usually leave memory gaps; they jump from one action to the next, and Casey could distinctly remember every single thing he had done since ejecting. Hell, he even remembered some of his dreams while he slept in his hospital room. No, this couldn’t be a dream.

But then… that meant everything Casey was experiencing was real.

“No.”

The lieutenant didn’t understand. Logic dictated that this couldn’t be real, but it also said that it had to be. Unable to comprehend his own reality, Casey did the only other option he had left.  He shut down. He put his body on autopilot and began running through the protocol of repairing his radio.

*Replace battery

[Mayday, mayday … please respond, over]

*wait ten seconds- no response

*Replace antenna

[Mayday, mayday … please respond, over]

*wait ten seconds- no response

*Check and repair all wires and connections

[Mayday, mayday … please respond, over]

*wait ten seconds- no response

*Should radio still not function properly, repeat as needed

*Replace battery…

(X*X*X*X*X*X)

“Jonathan?”

*Check and repair all wires and connections

“Jonathan!”

Casey’s body looked up and saw Twilight Sparkle’s head poking out of the window, eyeing him worriedly. His body went back to the task at hand, completely ignoring the mare.  He had to fix the radio.

“W-what are you doing?”

The pilot looked up again; the first part of his brain to come back online was his training.

‘Hostile! Defend yourself!’

He made for his gun, only to be confused when his hands touched nothing.

The next part of his brain to start up was his instincts.

‘Escape!’

Casey made to grab his gear and jump off of the ledge, only to find his radio lay in multiple stages of disrepair. This half second of confusion let the last part of his conscious thought process come online.

‘Fuck.’

Casey looked back at Twilight, who simply stared at him with wide confused eyes. He looked back at his radio and began to put everything back into his small gear bag.

‘How long have I been out here?’

His ELT read [4 DAY: 10 HR: 17 MIN]

‘Huh, three hours…’

Casey couldn’t remember anything after discovering his ELT had been broadcasting. Even upon remembering that his reality was not real, the pilot couldn’t bring himself to care. He was either crazy or in a completely different world, and both of those answers were unacceptable. So, what did it matter?

After packing up his gear, Casey looked back to the purple unicorn who hadn’t moved since she had found the young man.

‘Why am I even resisting these equines?’  The ponies hadn’t ever threatened him.  They had only attempted to take care of the lieutenant. In no way had they shown to be hostile. Even the questions they asked weren’t of a classified nature. So, why was he trying so hard to resist them?

‘Hell, it’s not like it even matters anyway.’

Casey decided that he might as well cooperate a little; he really had nothing to lose. Perhaps these ponies could provide him some needed insight into this reality, or at least his own crazy mentality.  With this decision, Casey looked out over the quaint little town, a much more cynical glint in his eye.

“J-Jonathan?”

Twilight had inched herself farther out onto the ledge, nervousness apparent on her face.

“Miss Sparkle, is it?” For the first time since he had met her, Casey smiled and responded to Twilight’s attempts at communication.

“Your name, I mean.” Despite responding, the pilot never took his eyes off of the small community displayed before him.

Taken completely by surprise, the unicorn simply nodded in response.  Casey smiled again, a contemplative look crossing his features.

“What do you think would happen if I jumped?”

Twilight’s eyes grew wide.

“Do you think I would land safely on a marshmallow? Or maybe I would be caught by a lollypop giant before I went splat?”

“I-I don’t think-“ the purple mare stuttered, but was cut off by the young man.

“Perhaps you’re right, perhaps I would just fall.”

Twilight inched closer to Casey, sweat beginning to bead on her forehead.

“Jonathan, I-I really think you should come inside.”

Casey smiled at her fear. He found it rather humorous. Was she really worried for his safety? It’s not as if it even mattered if he jumped anyway. The pilot, of course, would never actually attempt to jump; Casey despised the idea of suicide. Still, he found the unicorn’s caring curious. She could be a projection of his survival instincts, a part of his brain trying to ensure he doesn’t do anything irrational. But maybe she was just an individual who feared for his safety, a living creature with compassion.

“Miss Sparkle, I have one more very important question.”

Twilight responded with a gulp.

“Is this real?”

~(Commander Ry: Hope your enjoying the ride so far, this is actually the first chapter to be written entirely this year {the other two were originally drafted summer of 2011}. As always I look forward to any comments and feedback I can get, those of you who are following this story, favorited, or up-voted thank you, I can not accurately express in words my gratitude. Give tanks to my editors shadowdemon137 {you should totally check out his stuff btw -> http://www.fimfiction.net/user/shadowdemon137}, Bass, and She-who-prefers-not-to-be-named. Whit out these people you would be reading allot of incoherent garble.)~

Reality is No Longer Real

Angle of WarA MLP:FiM Fanfic by Commander RyChapter 5Reality is No Longer Real

Casey found himself on a hill, surrounded by wind and noise. The noise was unmistakably coming from an aircraft of some type; a helicopter if the officer’s trained ear was any indication. Glancing up into the clear sky, both the source of the wind and noise was confirmed to be coming from a USAF HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopter. The young man braced himself up on his arms to gather his bearing.

His surroundings slowly began to make themselves apparent; he was sprawled out on a hill, decked out in his full flight gear with an orange parachute tangled in some bushes a few yards away. He was having a hard time clearing the fog from his mind. It was apparent he had been shot down, but didn’t something else happen? Something felt off but he couldn’t put his finger on it.

“SIR!”

The harsh yelling brought Casey back to reality. Looking in front of him, Casey could see the Pave Hawk had dropped a rappel line. Two individuals stood in front of him. One, dressed in an Airman’s Battle Uniform bearing the two stripes of an Airmen First Class stood defensively three yards away scanning the horizon with his rifle. The other, dressed the same, but bearing the stripes of a technical sergeant, crouched before Casey, rifle hanging from its sling. The latter was attempting to address the pilot.

“Sir,” the sergeant exclaimed, “I need you to identify yourself for me.” The sergeant was an image of serenity in a roaring sea of chaos as he spoke above the rushing air.

Still trying, and failing, to fully grasp why everything felt so surreal, the officer responded with an impulsive, “Second Lieutenant Casey, Jonathan M. United States Air Force.”

The sergeant smiled and nodded.

“Yes sir, and what wing were you with?”

Understanding the reason for the questions, Casey responded, “944th, I was on a probing flight three miles north of the 38th when I was engaged. I ejected just south of the DMZ.”

“Very good sir.”

The Non-Commissioned Officer turned to his comrade and barked a quick line of words.

“NELSON, WE HAVE POSITIVE I.D. PREP FOR EXTRACT”

With no more than a nod and a mumbled reply, the younger airman made his way back to the hoist line still dangling from the hovering HH-60. Turning back to Casey, the sergeant smirked.

“Glad to make your acquaintance sir. I am Technical Sergeant Joenas. That other one is Airmen First Class Nelson. We are here to bring you home… Can you stand?”

The pilot responded with a nod and grumbled “I sure the hell hope so,” as he fumbled to fight gravity and his parachute’s shroud lines.

The officer was beginning to make sense of his situation. He remembered being shot down, but everything up until now was a blur. ‘I must have blacked out when I jettisoned, probably landed on this hill. These guys must be the crew they sent after me.’ Even with this conclusion, the pilot had a nagging sensation that something was off or missing. He attempted to clear his confusion by asking questions.

“Sergeant, how long have I been out here?”

As Joenas ushered the now standing officer towards the waiting helicopter, he offered his response.

“Not long sir. We got your mayday about thirty minutes ago, give or take. Feared the worst when we spotted you sprawled out on this hill. But you seem to be alright. Now I’m going to synch this around your waist and I’m going to need you to hold on tight.”

Before Casey could be hoisted up to the waiting aircraft, he saw Nelson tense and raise his rifle.

“CONTACT! 3 O’ Clock!”

 While the officer tried to process the meaning of the words, Joenas had shoved Casey into the dirt crouching defensively over top of him, his own rifle raised.

From his new position on the ground, Casey could see both his rescuers had their weapons trained on a herd of six colorful horses. A very familiar looking purple one attempted to say something, but only her lips moved as the message was quickly chopped to pieces by the spinning rotor blades overhead.

Casey didn’t know why, but he felt that these horses weren’t a threat. In fact his brain was telling him that they were actually friends, that violence was not needed.

“Wait, no don’t- Airmen, stand down!” The officer tried to stand, only to be shoved back into the dirt and have Joenas’s knee slammed into his back.

“SIR, I need you to remain prone and still, we- holy shit…”

The tech sergeants’ reprimand was cut short as a magenta bubble erupted from the purple horse’s horn. It grew to encompass the herd and the men excluding the helicopter. Immediately the wind and noise stopped.  Only silence permeated the bubble encompassing the six horses and the three humans.

Smiling, the purple unicorn began to speak once again, her voice projected clearly in the relative silence.

“Ah much better. Hello-“

Her sentence was shattered by the sound of gunfire.

Airmen First Class Nelson fired three rounds at the horse; the first missed (presumably fired in confusion and panic) but the last two connected with the purple mare, both puncturing her chest and spraying blood into the air. The bubble shield blinked out and the small horse collapsed without a sound.

Casey managed to choke out a “NO!” before all hell broke loose.

The now only five horses all responded with their own varying cries of fear and panic, all of which were cut short as the world exploded in lead and fire. Apparently hearing Nelson fire his rifle, the left door gunner on board the Pave Hawk took that as a cue to do his job and unleashed 3000 rounds per minute on the unsuspecting mammals below. In three seconds the mini gun had left only casings, dust, and a fine red mist in its wake.

Suspecting the conflict to be over, Nelson and Joenas lowered their rifles, only for Nelson’s rifle to flash magenta and then explode in his face; as he fell screaming, the helicopter overhead became encompassed in purple light. Warning alarms and mixed shouts from the crew could be heard as the aircraft was rocketed at the ground.

With a yell of “MOVE,” sergeant Joenas threw Casey down the hill, narrowly missing being crushed by the million dollar projectile. Half running and half falling, Casey could hear the squeal of metal as the helicopter slammed into the hilltop, engulfing it in flames and shrapnel. The forces of the blast launched the officer into the ground, showering him with debris.

Casey didn’t move, he didn’t breathe, and he didn’t think. Nothing made sense. Everything was so familiar but everything was so wrong.  It was like bits and pieces of his memory were all floating around in a fog; he understood what was happening in the present, but he had no idea how he came to be there. This confusion, mixed with the large quantities of violence and stuffed into such a short time made it next to impossible for Casey to rationally think through his situation. So he didn’t. Much like a computer boots up into “safe mode,” Casey’s brain once again handed over cognitive functions of his body to his training. Running on instinct, the warrior stood up, un-holstered his M9, and scanned the surrounding area for any threat. Finding nothing but the burning wreckage at the top of the hill, he deemed their best bet for continued survival would be to follow the ridgeline they were currently on to the south. The ridge would make it difficult for any threat to follow them and give them the altitude to send out a distress signal.

With a plan being formed the pilot yelled out, “Sergeant, we need to move south. If we stay along this ridge, we-“

As he faced the sergeant, Casey noticed Joenas had been hit by a piece of the exploded Pave Hawk. What appeared to be a jagged edge of the rotor blade now protruded from the NCO’s chest. As he spasmed on the ground, blood pooled around him soaking his uniform and the dirt he lay in. That’s when Casey’s training failed him.

“Oh fuck… no, fuck… shit.”

Kneeling next to Joenas, the officer didn’t know what to do. There was nothing he could do; the only thought running through his head being ‘I can’t fix this’. Feeling utterly helpless Casey sat next to the sergeant and just stared at him.

For all the blood and shaking Joenas’s eyes were calm. They were tinted with a hint of fear but for the most part they displayed only confusion. They stared back at the pilot as if questioning this very reality. Neither one of them could talk; Casey because he had no words, Joenas because he had no voice. So they stared at each other.

Casey stared until the blood stopped flowing, until the Sergeant stopped shaking, until the final breath escaped his mouth and the last light of life fled the young man’s eyes. Then Casey cried. He cried for the death he had witnessed. He cried for the violence and carnage that took place moments ago. He cried for his sorrow and anger. He cried because he was confused and he cried because he knew that even if everything made sense it still wouldn’t matter.

Amidst his sobs the officer began to hear laughter; what started out as an easily ignorable chuckle developed into a chortle, then a laugh, and finally a cackle. And just like that Casey’s tears stopped as he raised his gun at the unexpected intruder.

The image that greeted the man had not been one that he expected. Casey sat perched atop a blacked hilltop with red mist swirling around him and nothing else. Joenas’s body and the Pave Hawk wreckage were both gone. In their place was only darkness and mist.

The pistol tumbled from the airmen’s hand as he mumbled, “W-what is this?”

The laughter increased and then stopped abruptly, replaced by an echoing voice.

“You creatures, always being sodramatic.I suppose it takes an inflated sense of self-worth to accomplish great things, but honestly, it is rather humorous to watch how quickly you can inflate the significance of the events that surround your lives.”

The voice was smooth, pleasant almost, laced with a hint of sarcasm. Its words built within the young man a primal rage made even worse by his inability to kill or understand where said voice was coming from.

“But your real claim to fame, what makes you truly marvelous,is your tendencies towards violence. A poke here,a push there,and your first instincts are to kill the problem. But even better, you don’t embrace violence; you don’t act for the sake of violence. You fight only for a cause, a cause which your aforementioned ego turns into a matter of only life and death. You truly are an amazing species.”

As if the fog surrounding the young man had permeated his brain, the officer struggled to form complete ideas to respond to the creepy and ultimately random circumstance he found himself in. Rather than mumbling gibberish he chose to remain silent as the voice continued.

“I was worried at first,but I see now you will do nicely. The spark of violence resides within you, as it does with all of your kind; all I must do is provide you with the proper fuel… We will be in touch Mr. Jonathan Casey. Try not to scream too loudly when you wake up.”

And with that the pilot’s world went black.

(X*X*X*X*X)

“AH!”

Casey bolted upright in his bed, quickly recognizing his surroundings as the small hospital room Twilight Sparkle and her compatriots had brought him to. Reality flooded back to him as the details of his dream began to fade away.

“Well, good morning to you as well.”

Looking to his right the young man noticed that the white pony, Nurse Redheart, stood a few feet away from his bed going over a chart of some kind. Realizing that from her perspective he had just randomly screamed like a crazy person, he attempted to explain his action with a stutter only to be cut off by his equine nurse.

“Did we have a nightmare? I suppose it’s reassuring to know that our species shares that similarity. Now I was told by Twilight that you have finally decided to start communicating with us? I sincerely hope this is true as you answering some questions would make my job much easier.”

Still fighting back the emotional rollercoaster that had been created by his dream, Casey struggled to respond in an intelligible manner to the pony’s genuine yet slightly mocking words.

“I ah, well… umm-“

Redheart looked up from her chart for the first time since initiating the conversation with the human. Casey could see her dull expression turn to one of concern as a sarcastic comment died in her throat.

“Oh, I didn’t realize you were so shaken up. I didn’t mean to insult you, are you okay?”

Casey responded with a quizzical look only to feel moisture drying on his cheeks and noticed his eyes were unusually moist. ‘SON OF A MONKEY WHORE!’ he thought,‘I fucking hate dreams.’

Casey was an unusually emotional individual when he slept. During flight school he earned the name “bright eyes” because on multiple occasions he woke up with a tear streaked face from a dream or nightmare that he had during the night. Casey wasn’t a particularly emotional individual when awake, and he would rarely display more than simple approval or mild annoyance. Usually he would hide behind professionalism or sarcasm to mask the emotions of living. In some way, he viewed emotions as a liability, something that belonged only to him and not something to be shared. Maybe this was the reason why he was so affected when he slept, maybe that was a way for his mind to easily express what was usually repressed. Regardless, the officer hated this aspect of his mind. Continued dreams made worse by public disapproval lead him to respond to dreams with disgust. These feelings were not made better with the genuine worry and question being asked of him by the nurse.

After thoroughly drying his eyes and wiping his face the officer responded through gritted teeth.

“Yes… I’m fine.”

The nursing aspect making itself apparent Redheart continued to show concern.

“Are you sure? I imagine these past days haven’t been easy for you, something that I regrettably have overlooked. Do you want to talk about it-“

Casey cut off the warm intentions with an icy response.

“No.”

The white pony continued to express concern only to be cut off again:

“If something is bothering you, we can-“

 “No, drop it.”

Genuine hurt flashed across her face before she hid it behind her medical chart. After a few seconds her face reemerged completely composed back to her professional and slightly dull expression. Yet, Casey could still see a hint of hurt hiding in her eyes.

“Ok then, well nothing seems out of place; unless you need me, I have other duties that require my presence.”

The officer’s conscience was very upset with him. After slapping him, it began to yell at him with words like ‘asshole,’ ‘jerk,’ and many other expletives that made him feel bad. Recognizing that he took his anger out on the individual who had been taking care of him for the past week, perhaps the only pony who hadn’t deserved to be snapped at, Casey attempted to smooth over his harshness.

“Miss Heart, I apologize. That was uncalled for as I imagine you only had good intentions. But it is a personal matter and I do not share personal matters.”

The pink maned mare’s eyes softened at his words.

“I understand, it wasn’t my place to press the issue.  Anyways, seeing as how you are now willing to use words and can formulate full sentences,” she smirked, apparently falling back to her usual professional cynicism, “I would like to ask you a few questions pertaining to your health and biology. I can’t say I, or anypony else I know, is well versed in your anatomy.”

The pilot did find it odd that they were able to treat him so well, despite the circumstances. ‘Perhaps evidence that this is fake, my mind messing up the reality it created?’ rather than shouting his reality judging questions Casey responded with a simple

“What do you need to know?”

The nurse smiled at the cooperation. “Well, first off, how are you feeling? The magic scan showed us that for the most part, your biology resembles ours with most of the same important parts but just slightly rearranged, though your neural scan was rather different. Anyways, magic can only tell us so much. Have you been experiencing any unusual pain, any weird feelings?”

The young man’s mind immediately jumped at the term “magic.”

‘They scanned me with magic? Fucking magic… ha.’ He quickly reeled in the less intelligent parts of his mind, choosing to rather respond with a simple answer.

“No ma’am. Other than my broken body parts, I’ve actually been healing unusually fast.”

“Really? This is good then, at least we aren’t making your condition worse.”

Casey smirked at this whole experience; he was talking with a colorful magical pony about his health. He decided to continue the notably silly conversation.

“No, for such a limited understanding you have done a very good job as far as I can tell.”

Redheart let on the slightest of blushes at the officer’s complement, causing the more sentimental side of his mind to let out a sound mixed between a gasp and a choke as he caught diabetes.

“I appreciate the compliment, for my last question I am curious about your diet. The scan revealed that you are omnivorous… which leads me to ask, well, are you capable of living without meat?”

The nurse visibly paled at the question as she asked it. Part of Casey wanted to shout out ‘MORE BACON,’ but rather than traumatize his newly made friend the young man answered with the more reasonable response.

“No, protein is rather essential for my diet but that can be easily substituted. So far I haven’t noticed any real issues with what I have currently been fed. Like I said, you and your staff have done a very good job considering me and my circumstances.”

The nurse let out a sigh as she responded.

“That is actually very relieving, considering our society is herbivorous.”

The meat-loving part of Casey’s mind let out a pained sob, crying ‘what is life without bacon?!?’ The officer consoled his distraught stomach as he simply smiled and nodded at the pony’s words.

“Speaking of food, I imagine all that yelling worked up an appetite. Would you be interested in breakfast Jonathan?” Redheart flashed him another smirk as she began to walk out of the room.

Returning her smirk the pilot simply nodded and thanked her.

(X*X*X*X*X)

Casey received a breakfast of apples and other fruit, much to the cries of lament from his digestive system. Redheart had left him alone to eat, saying something about other patient’s needs. So the officer tried to enjoy his fruit while he ran through the recent happening of his life.

First on his agenda of things to think about; his brain was bothered by his recent dream. The details of said dream had faded long ago as dreams usually do; however, he distinctly remembered violence and a creepy voice talking about the human race. His gut told him that the dream was important, but logic told him that in a land of colorful ponies he had bigger issues to figure out. So the airmen filed the details of the dream into ‘I don’t give a shit’ and moved on to bigger problems.

Next, Casey went over his recent conversation with Ms. Sparkle the day before. His conversation with her and the other two had gone on much later then he had previously thought. So late in fact Nurse Redheart had to tell them to leave as “visiting hours were over; this rule applies even to the princess’ personal student.” Going over the conversation again he had come to the conclusion that these ponies were very intelligent creatures, but they were also very naive and seemed to be kept in ignorance by their government. The biggest thing the officer remembered was that they honest to god believed that their rulers raised and controlled the stars and celestial bodies. Despite the young man’s best attempts at explaining  physics, none of them seemed to understand what he was saying. Twilight Sparkle said something about cultural differences and Casey finally just gave up on the conversation and determined he couldn’t fight generations of brainwashing in ten minutes. For the most part, the conversation hadn’t been extremely informative for the airman, but it did open up communications. It was a start, and far more productive than the silent treatment had been. Before she had left, the purple unicorn had told Casey that she hoped to give the human a tour of “Ponyville” (apparently the town he was residing in) and prepare him for a trip to see the princess in a few days. Aside from trying to understand how any creature developed the name “Ponyville” without being sarcastic, Casey looked forward to the opportunity to see more of this reality and try and challenge the realness of it.

The pilot still wasn’t certain if he was imagining things. He had come to accept that this was what it was; meaning he was no longer staring at walls while asking metaphorical questions. But the more information he could gather the better he could evaluate his surroundings. The best way he could do that was through cooperation, so that’s what the human had committed to doing.

After eating and re evaluating past events, Casey decided to go back to sleep. He had nothing better to do considering he was half naked in a hospital, and he figured the purple mare would be by soon to go show him all there was to see while peppering him with a new mountain of questions, now that she had a whole night to think of them.

‘If I’m going to have to deal with these cheery creatures all day, I’m going to need to be well rested.’

~(Commander Ry: Well I'm still not dead, yay. Ch 5 was fun to write but it was different. Hopefully there aren't any complaints because this was always kinda where I intended to go. Also, Season 3- As freaken amazing as it was, it kind of jacked up all the cannon in the show. Because of this I am basically writing this story as if Season 3 and all future seasons never happened. This is the only feasible way I can see me continuing on (Twilight With WINGS!), but If you have any opinions or input they are always welcome. Like always my editors are awesome and basically write the story :P; give thanks to shadowdemon137, Bass, "She-who-prefers-not-to-be-named", and finally the newest addition to those who keep me from posting incoherent garble Devs Iratvs. The last thing, if I have any fancy smacy artist and the like following me, I am totally cool with fan art; I've been looking for a replacement cover photo and just though id throw this out there. Other wise comment, comment, comment)~

Understanding

Understanding

Angle of War

A MLP:FiM Fanfic by Commander Ry

Chapter 4

Understanding

‘Reality.  “The state or quality of being real.”  But what was real? Everyone has their own perception of reality, their own interpretation of their environment. It is common knowledge that each individual has a slightly different reaction to the same event, because every individual has their own personality. Everyone has different means by which they measure said event: ergo, no one was the same. Even with this understanding, almost all individual realities shared relatively exact features. Take the color black for instance; black is black to everyone.’

‘But, when does one reality differ so greatly as compared to what is normal that it is no longer real? What is the line, that once crossed, means everything you think and feel is fake?’

Casey pondered these questions as he sat at attention on the edge of his bed. He stared intently at the whitewashed wall, as if its features held the answer to his predicament.

Twilight never answered his question. She just stared at him in complete bafflement. Once the pilot had realized that she wasn’t going to answer his question, he made an offer to come back inside from the ledge. The unicorn practically jumped at the suggestion, desperately using it as a means to distract her from the rather uncomfortable situation.

So, Casey climbed back through the window, sat himself down on the bed, and proceeded to engage the wall in a staring match. Twilight continued to stare at him in worry and confusion.

After a rather awkward staring contest between Casey, the wall and Twilight, Twilight broke the silence.

“Jonathan, I’ll be… right back. Please just stay there.”

The unicorn quickly trotted out of his room, not giving him the opportunity to respond. So, Casey did as he was told. While sitting on his bed, he stared at his wall and tried to answer the more convoluted questions of his existence.

His soul searching lasted for about ten minutes when it was interrupted by the sound of hooves entering his room.

Looking to his left, Casey saw that Twilight had returned with Applejack and Rainbow Dash. No closer to answering his mental question of ‘why the fuck doesn’t this make any sense,’ the officer reaffirmed his decision to be cooperative.  He responded to their intrusion with a simple hello.  The ponies responded by mimicking the look of confusion and worry Twilight had adopted. They were seemingly taken aback by the fact that the pilot spoke in a conversational tone to them.

Rainbow Dash was the first to overcome her confusion.

“Is that it? Days of saying nothing and now you greet us with ‘hello?’ What gives!?”

Completely ignoring her, Casey turned to the purple unicorn.

“Miss Sparkle,” he said,  “you failed to answer my previous question… Is this real?”

“Sugarcube,” Applejack exclaimed,  “what does it mean by that?” She had traded her worry for complete confusion as she waited for Twilight’s response.

The lieutenant restated himself.

“Am I talking to a purple unicorn?”

Twilight quickly glanced between AJ and the young man, looking for answers within their faces.

“Y-yes? Yes Jonathan.” The purple pony raised her eyebrows, not understanding the significance of the question.

“With all due respect, ma’am, I don’t believe you,” and Casey didn’t believe her.  Unicorns don’t exist and they sure as hell don’t talk. Yet, there she was talking and telling him she did exist. He had no evidence to prove otherwise, so didn’t that mean she was right? The amount of circular logic the airman was experiencing was beginning to give him a headache.

“However,” Casey said with a resigned sigh, “seeing as I have not been provided with any other viable explanation, I am forced to take your words at face value.  Now, I do believe you have some questions for me?”

The orange pony was the first to respond.

“Now hold on a second. Not a hoof-full of hours ago, your lips were sealed tighter than Big Macintosh's lips after Hearts and Hooves Day. What’s makin’ you so willing to cooperate now?”

Casey smiled.  He found her suspicion to be refreshingly “normal.”

“I understand Miss- your name is Applejack correct? Miss Jack, that for the past few days I have been under the impression that I have been hallucinating and actually captured by enemy forces.  A few hours ago I discovered a sort of… revelation, that proved my initial thoughts may not be as accurate as I had first believed. At this point, I am extremely unsure of my own reality, but because I no longer have a definite reason to believe you are hostile, it seems to me that cooperating with you will hopefully provide me with more information to understand where I actually am. You will have to excuse me though, as I am still unsure if you and what I am seeing is actually real, if I am crazy, or if I am in fact experiencing an induced hallucination.”

Applejack processed the officers words with a glazed over expression of confusion. Casey determined she was definitely not a well-educated individual.

“Twi…” she said,  “what is this thing tellin’ me?”

“Um, I think Jonathan is saying that he thought we were his enemies and now he isn’t so sure.” Twilight’s answer was reaffirmed with a nod from the young man.

“Wait...” Rainbow interjected,  “why would you think we were your enemies? And if you’re answering our questions, then what the hay are you!?”

“Rainbow Dash, that’s extremely-” The purple mare’s attempt to curb the blunt nature of her friend was cut short by Casey’s response.

“It’s fine Miss Sparkle. It would be easiest if I answered your second question first Miss Dash, the only problem being your intended meaning of ‘what.’ To be extremely general, I am a male human being. More specifically, I am a citizen of the United States of America and an officer in the United States Air Force. To answer your first question, five days ago I was engaged in combat over a country formerly known as Korea when I was shot down. Right after that, I somehow found myself here and being interrogated by mythical creatures. So my response was rather hostile as I was, and still am, rather confused and scared.”

“Wait, hold on a second, Air Force? You can fly? You have no wings!”

“Well… I personally don’t fly. I…I’m a pilot. Where I come from, pilots operate a machine known as an airplane. The machine is what flies.” Casey struggled to come to grips with the seeming ignorance of the ponies that surrounded him. They weren’t stupid, he knew that; he would actually rate their intelligence on par with an average person. Their lack of understanding basic technology, however, was rather confusing. If this was a hallucination, his brain was doing an outstanding job of making it feel real.

“You mean like Pinkie Pie’s flying gyzmo? I think she called it a… gyro… gyrocopter one time.” The cyan Pegasus was beginning to show genuine interest in what Casey had to say.

“Well, what I fly is similar to a gyrocopter in that it flies, but an airplane is a more stable platform and lacks the ability to hover-“

Much to Rainbow Dash’s chagrin, the lieutenant was cut short by Twilight Sparkle.

“Excuse me, but you said you were from the United States of… Amaraca? I have never heard of such a place, or seen a creature like yourself before. Where in relation to Equestria are you from?” The unicorn stared into the pilot’s features with curiosity seeping from her pores. Casey got the feeling he was being scrutinized not by an individual looking for specific information for specific reasons, but by an individual wishing to know everything simply for the sake of knowledge. He found the quality quite reassuring. However, before he could respond in kind he discovered that the brightly colored flier did not find this quality as endearing.

“Hey Twilight, this thing was answering my question first. You can wait your turn.”

“This “thing” has a name Dash, and it is Jonathan. You can ask him about your flying fetish later, but we need to understand where he came from and who he is.” She raised a dismissive hoof to her pegasus friend, a gesture that seemed to escalate the dispute even further.

“We know who he is! You just said he is Jonathan, and who says my questions aren’t as relevant as yours?!”

The officer watched in awe as the two continued their argument.  Somewhere in the back of his mind his sentimental side was overcome by the adorableness of two brightly colored horses arguing while the little airman in his head facepalmed from the sheer incompetence of the “enemy.”

“I never said your questions weren’t relevant, just that they would best be saved for later!” Casey observed that Twilights irritation level was climbing steadily, and again his subconscious crossed its fingers in hope for more pyrotechnic ponies.

“Oh yeah-” Rainbow’s rebuttal was cut off as Applejack made herself known.

“Whoa nelly.  Both of you need to get back on track.  Rainbow, I think Twilight is right on this one. The princess did put her in charge of this whole thing. Also, I think we are confusing it.”

The pilot made a mental note of the uneducated one appearing to be the most competent, which made him rather concerned.  He would have continued making mental critiques of his ‘no longer captures.’  However, he realized that all three of them had stopped talking and instead were staring at his slack jaw expression.

“Oh, umm… ahem, are you two finished?” Casey attempted to regain his composure.

Those six words caused a very unique response from each of them. Twilight turned the most becoming shade of scarlet and began analyzing the floor, the blue Pegasus snorted and glared, and Applejack responded with a half-lidded expression and a nod.

Still looking at the floor, the purple unicorn responded, “I’m… I’m sorry Jonathan, that was very childish of me. Can we continue where we left off?”

She looked back up at the officer, embarrassment quickly being replaced with curiosity.  “Where are you from?”

For the next two hours Casey fruitlessly attempted to quench Twilight’s insatiable thirst for knowledge. She wanted to know everything. Quite literally everything. There was a ten minute segment of where the officer tried to explain how boots were made, only to discover that leather was a cultural taboo to these creatures and quickly backed away from the more carnivorous nature of the human species. He determined that he was either in a very elaborate hallucination or he was literally in another world. Casey wasn’t able to ask many questions in between the purple one’s verbal assault, but he did manage to understand that this world had no humans on it, was ruled by a monarchy, and resembled many characteristics found in children’s fairy tales. He still had no idea where he was or what he was experiencing, but these creatures did appear to be harmless. None of their questions seemed to have any intent other than understanding who and what he was on a fundamental level.

As for each of them, Rainbow Dash seemed to only concern herself with what the officer had to say about human technology and anything flight related.  Applejack was solely focused on determining whether he was a threat or not.  Twilight was a small child in a candy shop, enthralled by every word the young man spoke.  That was, until Twilight brought up one question in particular.

“Jonathan, you said earlier that before you found yourself here that you were in ‘combat’ over a country you called ‘Careea’ and that was why you were so harsh with us before. What did you mean by ‘combat’?”  She asked this with a confused expression on her face, apparently hoping for an answer to come.

“Umm, well my country is at war with North Korea. With me being a member of the United States Air Force, I was sent to go fight the military of North Korea, eliminate any threats and protect my nation and our allies.”

“Eliminate threats?” Twilight said the words in almost a hushed tone.

“Yes ma’am.  My mission, specifically, is to provide air support to our ground troops, provide surveillance, and destroy any significant military air presence or ground installation.”

"So you’re like part of your nation's royal guard?”  Rainbow Dash interrupted, her eyes wide with hope and anticipation.  “Like a member of the Wonderbolts?"

With that interruption, Casey realized that all three of them were staring at him, each with their own mixture of hesitation; he realized that violence may also be another taboo and he should avoid further elaboration on war.

"In more ways than one I would say you are correct Miss Dash. While I am unsure of what specifically these 'Wonderbolts' are, you could easily equate my role and responsibility to that of an air guard, just without the royal aspect."

"That's so awesome."

Everyone but Applejack seemed to relax entirely with that explanation, with Twilight now going back to her inquisitive nature.

"Wait,” Twilight commented, “without the 'royal' aspect?"

"Well the country I come from is a democratic republic, not a monarchy.  Our leaders are elected by the people."

"The people choose their leaders? You don't have a princess, or one supreme ruler?"

This basic concept seemed to baffle the poor unicorn.  The officer guessed that their society must be well regulated and controlled to keep their people this ignorant. The little freedom loving airman in his head was not pleased with this revelation.  Not one bit.

"No, we elect a president and our other leaders on a rotating basis.  Our history has found that one 'supreme' leader often leads to corruption and abuse of a nation's citizens." Casey spoke that last part with a bit more venom than was necessary.

"Really? But who raises your sun and moon? Who controls your cycle of day and night?"

The little airman in the young man’s head stopped waving its American Flag long enough to give a confused expression. Casey tried to come to terms with what Twilight had just said.

“Ah... say again?”

“Your celestial and lunar cycles, who controls them?”

Again, Casey was absolutely confused in what the pony was asking him. Much like trying to put a square peg in a round hole, his brain just wasn’t connecting the words to the meaning.

“Well... Physics...”

~(Commander RY: ello, so Im not dead, and Im really really sorry. Im a bad Brony. For those of you who follow my story, or for any one left reading this I really do apologize for the delay. Between starting college, doing AFROTC, and generally being awesome I sorta forgot about it. Not that you guys aren't important, but I don't rate writing fanfic high on my priorities. Like I said... Im a bad Brony. But, I still hold true to my early affirmation that I will continue and finish this story. I just can't hold fast to any dead lines. To make a long story short, you will get new chapters when you get them, but you WILL get new chapters. This chapter specifically was tricky, hopefully it turned out ok enough. Like always I feed off of comments and opinions, so hit up that "neeto" comment section below. And of course, give all the praise and thanks to my super awesome editors shadowdemon137, Bass, & "She-who-prefers-not-to-be-named". Those of you still with me, Thanks)~