Ray looked around the dark room and seen 3 objects on the table. Ray walked over and saw a chrome .44 Magnum revolver with an extended barrel, a custom chrome handled cavalry saber inside of a scabbard and finally a gas mask. Ray picked up the three items and examined them and focused on the revolver. The grip was wooden with a coiled cobra poised to strike engraved in both sides. He flicked the cylinder out and seen six A-P rounds then spun and flicked it back into place, pulled the hammer back and fired off all six bullets. Ray flicked out the cylinder and ejected the casings and watched as 6 new bullets took their place out of no where. "Fuckin magic, can't tell if this is good or bad."

Ray heard sounds coming from a new door in the room and walked over to open the door. Ray seen the heavily storming swamp and knew he was in an all too familiar nightmare. He looked around and saw a large body of water with a worn down and rotted out pier. On the end of the pier was somebody with a mini-gun and an EOD suit. Ray knew what was coming and watched the water behind the literal juggernaut. The water was churning when Ray's past self burst out of the water and thrust a cavalry saber through the back of the giant's knee cap and received a heavy back hand for his troubles which laid him out. Ray looked up to see a giant boot stomp on his chest to pin him and hear a very big gun that was aiming at him starting to spin up. He slapped the weapon out of his face and watched a spray of bullets kick up spurts of water then drew his revolver and unloaded into the mask of the big fucker. The behemoth stumbled back and fell down on his chest. Ray stood and pulled his saber out of the jug head's leg and seen that the fucker was still alive and trying to crawl toward a grenade. Ray ripped the giant's shredded mask off and stomped his head into the ground twice before he walked over and picked up the grenade. He pulled the pin and stuffed it in the juggernaut's suit and kicked him into the water then watched a nice sized fountain of water come out the swamp. Ray walked onto dry ground when he started to hear attack dogs closing in on him and put on his gas mask then dropped his last canister of mustard gas. Ray wiped his saber off and reloaded his revolver and got ready The vision slowly started to fade out leaving present Ray hearing the fading sounds of barking, yelling and gunshots.

Ray slowly started to wake up in a white room and sat up just to see Nurse Redheart push him back down gently and started to change a few bandages on his neck and shoulder. Nurse Redheart asked "We found some new things on your bed earlier today and don't know what two of them are, care to explain?"

Ray reached over and grabbed the three things that saved him so many times in that damn hellhole. He pulled his saber out of it's scabbard and examined the weapon then ran a finger down the nearly razor sharp blade just to curse when he cut himself. A doctor came in and announced that we had guests coming in. Ray nodded and said "Bring em in."

Vinyl and Octavia hurriedly walked into the room and hugged Ray from both sides of the bed. "Ray are you that excited to see me?" Vinyl asked.

"No that's my revolver" deadpanned Ray.

"Suuure it is. If that's what your callin it now. " she teased.

Ray showed her the .44 and spun it on his finger stopping it when the barrel was pointing in the air. Vinyl went silent and it was Octavia's turn to laugh now. "You have quite an audience waiting to speak with you so we'll just finish our talk later." said Octavia who was still chuckling a bit.

Vinyl and Octavia leaned across the bed and kissed both his cheeks goodbye before turning around and leaving the room. The next two ponies to walk in were unknown to Ray. One was a grey mare with a blond mane and the other was the little filly he saved. The mare ran towards him and hugged his neck whispering "thank you" as fast as possible while tearing up. The mare let go and wiped her eyes when Ray noticed her eyes were looking all over the place. "My name is Derpy Hooves and I can't thank you enough for saving my Dinky, all I have on me is this muffin, please take it." she said sniffling.
`Ray took the muffin and was about to bite into it when he seen the little filly looking at it. Ray split the muffin in half and gave a piece to Dinky. Dinky hugged the man and said "Thank you"

Derpy hugged Ray again then grabbed her little filly and with a tearful smile waved bye to Ray. Ray could hear Dinky say "Bye" as they walked away.

Ray looked over to Nurse Redheart and saw that she was sniffling and dabbing her eyes with a cloth. Ray simply rose his eyebrows and smiled a bit before asking "Am I cleared to walk around and get dressed?"

"Y-yeah, you just can't leave the hospital until tomorrow." she sniffled.

Ray nodded and slid off the bed to grab his stuff. Ray threw on his "lucky" outfit and holstered his pistol, saber then hung his gas-mask on a belt loop. "That was a badass muffin." he sais sitting down.

Nurse Redheart laughed a bit then watched as the next guests had came walking in. The mane six had gathered around the bed Ray was sitting on and took turns asking questions. "Why didn't you go get a guard and just wait for them to apprehend that diamond dog" asked Twilight

"It woulda got away if I hesitated" Ray answered.

"Your neck looks horrendous, no offense though darling." said Rarity

"Oh really? I didn't notice." he deadpanned.

"Does it still hurt?" asked Fluttershy.

Ray just shrugged and shook his head no. "That was mighty brave of you sugarcube." said Applejack.

"Thank you" Ray said.

"It was also mighty stupid." Applejack finished.

Ray shut his mouth and rolled his eyes. "I don't think i've ever took this much damage even from my worst crash." said Rainbow who was staring vacantly at his neck and shoulder wounds.

Ray laughed and said "I've taken worse than this in that damn swamp."

Pinkie's hair was down and straight and was looking more somber every second she looked at his injuries. Ray gave her a one armed hug and received a face and mouthful of insta-poofed hair that tasted of cotton-candy. "You said you were in a swamp? Like with alligators? I have a pet alligator named Gummy."

Ray pointed at her and grinned "That's cool as hell."

"Come on girls let's give Ray a few minutes of privacy before he deals with his final guests." said Twilight.

With that the mane six waved to Ray and walked out the room leaving him and Nurse Redheart to talk once more. "What was you talking about earlier when you mentioned a swamp?" asked the nurse.

"Why should I tell you?" asked Ray.

"Medical confidentiality." she answered

"OK it's your nightmare.....I'm a gambler, and in all my years of gambling i've only went into debt that I couldn't repay once. I was offered a chance to get out of debt without paying anything. All I had to do was provide some entertainment and I would be a free man. Entertainment meaning: fighting for my life in a swamp filled with shit that would love to kill me. Deal was the winner goes free, there was 7 others with the same goal as me: survive. I will never forget the sounds and experiences I had in that swamp, not the BRRRRRRTTT of that giant's mini-gun, not the sound of that stalker's Barrett 50. cal ripping through my only friend's skull, and not the fear in that man-trapper's eyes when I left him to the hounds in his own bear trap. I will learn from the past because I don't want to repeat it. I will never forget but I won't let it hold me down and define who I am now." explained Ray who just now noticed the two wide-eyed princesses standing across the room.

Ray and Redheart started to bow but was stopped when Celestia raised her hoof. "That's what you were talking about on the way to the party wasn't it?" asked Luna.

Ray nodded and started to hand them the three tools he used to get out of the swamp. "Ray this is a beautiful weapon" said Celestia when she took the cavalry saber.

Ray watched the two go over the saber like it was show and tell day at school talking among themselves about the quality of the blade and handle. Ray handed them the .44 revolver and saw the confusion on their faces. "It's a custom .44 magnum revolver. It has an extended barrel and custom hand grips. It fires .44 magnum armor piercing rounds capable of punching through some tough stuff." Ray explained.

"What is this thing do then?" asked Luna who was now holding the gas mask.

"It has protected me from poisonous fumes that were designed to kill off living things. It's helped me when I used those same fumes to kill those who wished to do the same to me." Ray said.

"What did these fumes do and what were they called?" asked Celestia.

"Mustard gas, it would cause blisters on the skin and in the airways." he explained.

"Why would your kind do this to each other?" asked Luna.

Ray shrugged and and took his equipment back then said " I doubt y'all came here to talk about this so what did y'all come here for?"

"We wanted to thank you for saving little Dinky and offer you this." said Celestia holding out a medal with her magic.

Ray knelt and watched as the medal levitated onto his neck. Ray looked at the medal and read the inscription. "Equestria Medal of Bravery in the Face of Danger."

"Thank you your highnesses." said Ray

"Now we must take our leave, after all we do have our duties to attend to." said Celestia.

Ray waved goodbye to the diarchs as they took their leave then turned to Nurse Redheart.

"I'm gonna get some sleep and you should too" Ray said laying back on the bed.

"Goodnight Miss Redheart." he said.

"Goodnight Ray." she replied.

Author's Note

I know mustard gas takes a while to really work but this is a story and rules can be bent sometimes. I will try to follow reality as much as possible but again a story and a story in a world of talking magical ponies at that. If ya liked it then leave a like and tell me what i'm doin right. If ya didn't like it then tell me what i'm doing wrong. Thanks for reading . Constructive criticism is appreciated. Flames are cool too, disregarded but appreciated. ANOTHER THING if ya like scary stories be sure to go check out St. Henry the pig's stories