Chapter 5: Day 2

Gunter

I spent the rest of the night unable to sleep, and instead, trying to recover my mental state.  Rainbow's tight embrace helped immensely, and I actually chuckled a few times to some of the things that Rainbow said in her sleep, but for some reason, I quickly forgot what they were, and why they were funny.  Throughout the night, Rainbow would hold me tighter, and looser throughout the night, her grip changing every couple of minutes.  Eventually, as the hours rolled on, I could feel the morphine wearing off as the pain evolved from a subdued itch, to a burning sensation.  Prompted me to think, I ain't going home am I?  I wonder how the guys are doing?  IS there a way back?  Do.  Do I even WANT to go back?

Thankfully, the sun rose up, the rays easily coming through the windows.  My mind now screamed for me to start doing something, so I gently, ever so gently drew myself away from Rainbow Dash.  My body wailed and cried at me for the movement, and Rainbow muttered something about not letting go, but I was off the bed, getting real cold from not being under the covers with Rainbow.  Wow, that sounded... not at all what I meant.  AT ALL.  I really need to think... before... I think.  Damn it!  That was so fucking dumb.  I walked out of the room, my joints cracking and popping as I go along.  My eyes were puffy, and crust had developed all over my eyes.  Rubbing my eyes free of crust, I made my way back to my packs, took out my coffee packet, and start to make myself some coffee, using the container for my canteen as a cup.  I didn't have any sugar or creamer, but to be honest, I'd become practically numb to the bitterness from the years of just being grateful to have coffee that was warm.

It was satisfying, warming my body up, and my muscles began to relax.

Rainbow Dash

I woke up, and immediately I knew something was wrong.  Gunter wasn't in my hooves.  I slipped off the bed, the covers getting dragged off of the bed with me.  I found him in the living room, leaning against the wall, sipping something in a strange looking cup.  I held back a gasp, still not used to seeing the substantial damage that Gunter had suffered.  He looked back at me with warmth in his eyes, eyes that had dark bags under them, and his natural eyes' veins had enlarged.

"Morning, how'd you sleep?" he asks casually.

"Pretty good, you?"

"Pretty good, after you held me I didn't get any more nightmares."  I see his eye flicker to another color for a second, but it passed too quickly for me to tell what it was, and Gunter's face remained passive with no change.  I wanted to ask him about the change in his eye, but decided not to pry.  He was intelligent, and it was probably pretty personal.  I didn't want a repeat of last night.  This time, I see something.  But he's a human, so I can't really place it.  Recognition maybe?

"So what's on the agenda?  Whoa whoa whoa, they're coming."  He leaped across the room in a flash, dropping his strange cup next to his things, and sat down quickly, leaning against the wall.  What did he mean that "they're coming"? The small sounds of clopping hooves came from the other side of the wall.  Oooh, that's what he meant.  The girls woke up.  As for the agenda, well, the morphine has probably worn off my now.  So he's going to want something for that.  Hmm, maybe Zecora has something!

And the Cutie Mark Crusaders came out, full of energy.  They went straight for Gunter, "Hey boy!  How're you doing?" Applebloom goes.  I can see that Gunter REALLY wanted to say something, but he held it in by biting down on his lower lip.

"He seems to be feeling better!  You have a good sleep boy?"  Scootaloo asks, not expecting an answer.  Gunter's eye flashes another color again, this time a little longer.  It was a sickly looking green.  Is it just me, or does his eye flash the color that he's feeling?  His eye was back to being blue.  Slowly, it changed to a yellow as the three fillies began to pet him and coo to him.  And then, a small smile.

"Hey girls, I need to take Gunter to Zecora's to see if she has anything for his wounds.  Could you go see Rarity and see if she's open?" I ask.  If the Everfree Forest wasn't so dangerous, I might bring them along.  But of course it was dangerous.  There was an un-namable amount of dangers that existed inside.  Gunter had taken down a pack of manticores, so there was no doubt in my mind that he could protect himself, and of course I could too.

"Sure!"  Sweetie Belle says cheerfully, and they burst out the door into the windy wonderland.  The door closed with a firm slam.

I turned to Gunter, "So, ready to head out?"

Gunter

"So, ready to head out?" Rainbow asked.  I shrugged, picking up my cup again.  "Not yet.  First, I need to finish my coffee, and pack up something to keep us safe."  I said "to keep us safe" almost involuntary.  I'd been around civilians long enough to know that they usually felt uncomfortable around guns.  Speaking of which, I couldn't help but feel guilty about lying to Rainbow about sleeping.

I chugged down the hot coffee, feeling the fire burn its' way down my throat.  However, instead of the natural burning sensation most people would experience, it just felt really hot.  The way I understood it, my throat had scarred up so much from gas and hot fluids that I no longer felt pain.  I shoved my canteen inside it, tossed it into my pack, and shouldered my M60.  In the woods, 5.56mm rounds wouldn't be very effective due to their small powder charge, as they'd be stopped by trees easily.  The M60 was a 7.62mm, which might not be much wider in diameter, but the bullet was longer, and the bullet head larger.  At the very least, it would go through some trees.

"Ok, now I'm ready."  Rainbow smiled softly, and we left her house, locking the door behind us.  The pathways through the town were for the most part clear of snow, so we could easily walk along with the crowd.  Many... uh... ponies, looked at me with mixed reactions, and often multiple emotions.  Some looked at me with fear without trying to hide it, and others looked at me with thankfulness and warmth.  Some would come up to me to pat me on the head, or give me a treat, which tasted like grass.  However, there were a few of them that nuzzled me with gratitude.  I recognized one of them from the attack.  This one had almost been killed by one of those monsters.

Once we'd reached the outskirts of town, the amount of ponies we encountered dropped to nothing.  Here, Rainbow Dash took to the air, flapping her wings lazily and without effort, whereas I high-stepped through the snow.  Living in the northwest had its' advantages.  The harsh winters made one tolerant to the cold.  My chest and still human leg cried out against me, threatening to give way, but I knew my limit, and it was far from reached.  Off in the not too far off distance, I could see a dense forest, branches bare of any leaves.

"So this pony we're meeting lives in the forest?" I ask.  It seemed odd to me that someone would live away from everyone else.  I was suddenly reminded of hermits, outcasts and criminals.

"Yeah, and I have to warn you, she isn't like me or the girls.  She's something called a zebra."

"Hmm, we have those on my world too."

"Really?" She said challengingly, "Describe one."

Ooohohoho!  Challenge accepted!  "A zebra is basically, as you say, a pony.  However, instead of a constant color, like you, they have black and white stripes, and their manes spike up like a mohawk.  Good enough?"  I was smiling, knowing that I had her.  I was so right, she was smiling too.

"I guess you're telling the truth then!"  she punches me in my metal shoulder playfully, producing a metallic *ping* sound.  We were close to the entrance of the forest now.  Taking off my gun, I scanned the forest as it fell into my hands.  There was nothing.  No animals, no ponies,  no sound, no nothing.  It was practically a void.  That was extremely bad news.  Forests always, ALWAYS had sounds in it unless

"Is it supposed to be this... quiet?" I ask.  She just shrugs, like it's no big deal.  This has got to be one of the worst ideas, EVER.  But I just followed her in, my gun swaying back and forth, my head and eyes wandering.  The hairs on my back had risen, and the sensation of nails being driven in by unseen eyes.  Just like back home and in Russia.  In my head, the gunfire, bombs, and screaming began again.  It never ends, the dying never ends!  I was slipping away into my own personal hell again, but all I could do was remember, and go through it all over again.

I was saved when Rainbow shook me harshly out of the daymare, "HEY!!  Gunter, stay with me.  What's with you dude?  Is this normal?"

I shake my head.  I'd only gotten one of these episodes when I'd been on leave for too long.  "Yeah, yeah, just got lost in some, uh, old memories."  I looked about me, and we were still in the same spot that I had drifted into memory.  I hope I'll be able to keep it under wraps, I think, worrying over what might happen if I can't.  In a short while, we came to Zecora's, which was a large and very old tree.  Rainbow knocked a few times, and the door opened up to a zebra that had a few piercings, and many rings that went around one hoof and her neck.  She gave Rainbow a friendly smile, and welcomed us in rhyming.

"So what brings you here?  I lend you my ear." She says.  I wonder why she keeps doing that.  It isn't like she needs to, right?

"Well, I just adopted Gunter," she gestures at me, "with my friends.  But he was hurt really bad from a fight with a pack of manticores, and I was wondering if you had anything to help his recovery along."

Zecora turned her intense gaze on me, nearly making me flinch.  Those greyish blue eyes seemed to try and break into my very soul, "Ah, hello big one, why do you look like you want to run?"  She queried with a glint in her eye that told me,

SHE KNOWS

She laughed to herself, and went about collecting various vials that dangled from the ceiling, carried them over to a bench, and mixed them all together.  She came straight up to me, a large vial in one hoof, and held it out to me, "Drink, it'll be over before you blink."  And she winks.  I was so stunned at how easy she figured it out, that I just took the vial, still staring back at those eyes.  I guess my face betrayed me, because she laughed, loudly this time, "Why are you so surprised? I guess you didn't know about my watchful eyes."

"How?" is all I can muster.

Instantly, Rainbow has her hoof in my mouth, giving me a, what the hell are you doing?! look.  In a whispered tone, she goes, "Are you crazy?"  I brush her hoof away, and explain in a normal tone, "She already figured it out, what harm can talking do now?"

She sucked in a breath, looking back and forth between me and Zecora, who was still smiling.  Finally, she asked, "How?"  Huh, just like what I said.

"I looked into his eyes, and found his soul inside in a flash.  Eyes tell no lies Rainbow Dash."  She says still amused at the situation.

"Ok, so if I drink this, I'll heal up?"  She nods.  Well, here goes nothing. I open up the vial, and chugged the tasteless liquid until none remained.  Well that wasn't so... bad... My stomach was in upheaval, burning and moving violently about inside me.  Warmth spawned in my injured leg, where I'd cut, and where I'd been shot.  Everything lost the strength to hold me up, and I fell to the ground, weakly trying to catch myself to no avail.

What

the

FUCK!?  What did she put in there?

I dry heaved on the ground, nothing but a few strands of spit coming out.  I felt my body curling up into the fetal position as the warmth turned into pain like a thousand red hot needles were stabbing me all at once.  A croak eventually came out of my mouth just before my hearing went too.  I was in a world a pain like no other.  Eventually, my mind fell to the wayside as my body forced me into a dreamless sleep.

My head felt like it'd been put into a vice, and that vice had squeezed my head to point of bursting.  My body felt like lead with a faint undertone of soreness.  All this passed within a few moments to be replaced by a new feeling, one I had nearly forgotten.  Peaceful bliss mixed with the pleasure of my mind being partially numbed with that feeling when you're dozing, and the sweet warmth of a heavy blanket.  I wanted this feeling to last forever as I basked in it's excellence.  But as with all good things, it came to an end.

It faded like the fog before the sun, and I was wide awake.  I found that I no longer had that pain in my body and leg.  I felt myself through the clenching and unclenching of my muscles, and found that I was healthy now.  No pain, no stiffness, just plain well-being.  I figured that it was time to get up, so I threw off the blanket, and I was satisfied to know that I still wore my pants.  I'm in Rainbow's room again?  When did she bring me here?  I looked at my chest, and there were my new scars that mutilated my beautiful, and expensive, tattoos.  Wow, all that pain actually got me somewhere.  Gonna have to thank Zecora for that.

I slipped off of the bed, and felt the coldness of the floor, sending shivers up my spine.  For some odd reason, I liked it.  I felt safe for once, and could enjoy the simplest of pleasures and not give a shit if it seemed stupid to anyone.  I took a step forwards on my human leg, and with great glee, found that it supported my weight as if I had never been wounded.  My confidence surged with a broad smile that spread from ear to ear.  I stalked to the doorway, listening.  The sound of hooves clopping against the wooden floor, drawing a picture in my mind of a pony walking through the house, coming closer, but would still be out of sight for a while.  I turned around the corner, heading down the hallway that would lead me to the approaching hooves.  Wait, there's another set of hooves matching pace.

Rainbow

I'd brought Twilight with me to see how Gunter was doing.  I'd been scared and angry at the same time, winding up as a crazy mix that barely let me get out a, "What did you do?"  Turned out, that the potion sped up the healing process, and all the pain he would have suffered through all at once.  But the kicker was, it didn't use any magic.  It was biological.

"So he's healthy now?"  Twilight asked.

"Yeah.  Moments after he collapsed, well... it was kind of disgusting.  Zecora removed the bandages so that his wounds wouldn't fuse to the cloth.  Ugly red, thick paste bubbled out, and flattened itself out against the skin, and then turned black.  Zecora cleaned it off, and it was healed.  He's been asleep ever since."

We rounded the corner, and quite literally ran into Gunter, coming to a immediate stop.  He didn't even look phased as he held his stance without even taking a step back.  He blinked, "Now I really need to thank her."

Did he- did he figure it out before we came?  "How're you feeling champ?" I say, trying to hold back my surprise, backing up a step.

He smiled brightly (yet strangely fatigued), his eye going yellow, "Better than I have in ages!  Shame it didn't bring back my arm or leg."

What about his eye?  Doesn't he want that?  I should ask him.  "What about you're eye?  Wouldn't you want that back?"

"Not really.  My old eye couldn't see very well.  Everything out of that eye was fuzzy, and made for more of a distraction than an asset to my field of view, so I'd keep it under a bandage anyways.  This robotic one is actually better than my natural one." he says pointing at it.

Twilight asked, "Who installed them?"

He let out an exaggerated breath of air, his cheeks puffed out, "I don't remember their names, but they were pretty good at syncing up my new appendages and eye to my nervous system."

"Wait, you know what a nervous system is?"

"Yeah.  It's almost common knowledge where I'm from.  Nerves send information to the brain and exist in every part of the body.  Our brain is the organ that keeps the whole thing together."

Wow, I knew he was smart compared to the humans here, but he sorta seems like an egghead like Twilight if not for the fact he's a, oh what was that word he used.  Oh yeah!  Badass.

Twilight just shook her head, "I want talk to the pony that trained you.  Who. WAS.   IT!!!!"  She was grinding her teeth, and looked more angry than I'd seen yet.  I look at Gunter.  His eyebrows were furrowed, and his robotic eye was fighting between red and yellow, swirling into an orange.

"How can I prove to you that I'm actually intelligent?  For fucks sake I saved you AND your town from those manticores with weapons I know you don't have.  I can TALK, which from what I've gathered, can't do."

"You can't because there is NO way that you can prove you're sentient.  You're. A. HUMAN."

Gunter scowled at Twilight with hate, his eye burning such a powerful red that it seemed to leak out that same hue.  He almost TREMBLED in rage.  A sinking feeling of dread made my heart drop out of my chest.  I imagined Gunter killing Twilight in so many ways from simply beating her to death with his fists, to a potentially hidden knife gutting her.  But instead, he looks to me, face softening, "You took care of our arrangement, right Rainbow?" in a smooth, and calm voice.  I nod stupidly, surprised at the total 180 in his attitude.  "I might need you to take care of a few more things for me, just in case I can't stand her."  I knew what he was talking about.  He had a knife on his belt right now, and no doubt, had some other "things" in his pockets.

"What are you talking about?" Twilight asks, irritated by how we weren't letting her in on what we were talking, no doubt.

Gunter just looked at her with venom that made my skin crawl, "Nothing for you."  That look, even Twilight visibly recoiled from it.  Without taking his eyes off of her, he says, "Rainbow, can I see you in the room, ALONE."  That last word seemed more directed at Twilight than me.  Gunter went straight back into the room, and I followed, shooting Twilight a look that said "stay right there".

I closed the door, and Gunter was immediately digging through his pockets taking out curved boxes, and then finally, the knife on his belt.  He looked at all these pieces with a strange look of worry, "I feel naked without all these," and he visibly shuddered, looking like a nervous wreck.  I wanted to know more about his past, what had made him feel like this without weapons, but I swallowed it.  He takes one of the boxes, and removed one of the things inside.  It was a cylinder that coned inwards to another cylinder, which coned inwards again to a sharp point.  I knew what this was for.  It was to keep Twilight busy on something other than him, hopefully.

"What time is it?"

"Almost 6 in the afternoon."

"Then I need to go to her place soon, huh?"  He looked even more tired, if that was possible.  Is he going to be ok without me?

"Actually, right now.  You ready?"

He shook his head, "No, but let's get going before I make a break for it."

I hid all these things under the bed, along with all his other things.  I felt guilty about lying to him about taking his things somewhere safer than my house, but I didn't exactly have time to take care of it.  We opened the door, and I reluctantly watched Twilight magically attach a collar to his neck, and then the leash.  Gunter just sucked in a deep breath, eyes closed.  When he opened them, he had a blank, nearly sullen look on his face, the robotic eye empty white.

Gunter

I numbed myself, something I'd learned how to do when I'd been tortured in occupied Russia.  It was the only way that anyone could survive that camp.  I didn't like putting myself through it.  Each time I put myself in this mindset, it lasted longer, and took more effort to bring myself out of it.  I let Twilight lead me out of Rainbow's house, down the streets that I didn't care about, past ponies that I wasn't going to bother trying to remember, or even respond to if Twilight stopped us to let them pet me, till we came to a large tree which showed it's age.  The door opened, and we went inside.  I composed myself to bring back a thought.  But I didn't want to.  This felt ok, not feeling.  It was peaceful.  There wasn't any of that background noise, just quiet. Remember My thought was faint, but it was enough summon forth my memories of everyone I'd known, lastly, Rainbow Dash.  How she cared about me, comforted me.  How she was my friend.  And I was out, faster than ever.  My mind came back in control, and lastly, the noise returned, just in the background.

I looked about the interior of the tree.  The walls had been cut out into shelves that held thick books in hard cover, all labeled with different titles.  I felt myself beginning to drool at the realization that this, was a LIBRARY.  How many stories could be here?!  I wanted to pick one up immediately, and begin reading, but the leash around my neck pulled me away to a corner in the room.  I looked at Twilight, and saw an almost smug look on her face.

Inside, I smiled.  This wasn't going to go her way, not if I could help it.  I pulled out the bullet from my pocket, and tossed it to the floor in front of her hooves.  "Have fun with that.  Research it to your hearts' content."  I felt confident, my own smug smile on my face.  Twilight took it between her teeth, and placed it on the table in the middle of the room.  But I hadn't moved.  My eyes went to my leash.  It went straight into a wall, as if it had been a part of the tree to begin with.  I wasn't going anywhere until I tore it out.  I refocused on Twilight, who was looking over the bullet with a puzzled look.  She has no idea what it is, does she? I felt a strange sense of glee knowing how clueless she was.

"That's called a bullet.  I used those to kill the manitcores."

"Explain them."

I went through the tedious task of explaining the chemical compound of the powder, the primer inside it, and scientific reasoning to the shape of the shell, and how the rifled barrel aided in the guidance of the bullet after it fired.

Twilight

The longer Gunter talked, the more and more that I doubted myself.  NO!  It's just a human.  It's just a human.  I repeated in my head over and over again.  I followed his instructions on how to pull the bullet head out, and I spilled out the dark powder.  It stunk, almost not unpleasantly.   I wonder what would happen if I lit it on fire.  I took out a scrap piece of fire, hold it in the flame of candle, and touched the powder with a burning edge of paper.  It lit up with bright yellow-orange flames, and burned for a about 15 seconds, and died abruptly.  A simple fire wouldn't be able to propel a piece of metal like he's talking about.  I brought this to Gunter's attention as a challenge to his statements, and he replied, saying that when the powder lit up in the shell, the gases inside created enough pressure to force the bullet out at the speeds he spoke of.  Again, I resisted the thoughts regarding his intelligence.  I saw his smug look, but I was going to show him!   I'd been able to get one of his strange apples of metal before Rainbow Dash had come back.  I wasn't going to allow an animal to keep me from my research!

My horn shone to life with magic, and out came that ball of cloth around that apple.  Gunter was staring at it, horrified.

Gunter

FUCKING FUCK!  HOW THE HELL DID SHE GET MY DAMN GRENADE!  In my mind, I kept cursing.  In body, I was surging forwards, fighting against the leash, "TWILIGHT!  Put that down!  You're going to kill yourself!"

I thought Rainbow Dash took those to Fluttershy's or Applejack's?  Ah shit, she was too busy taking care of me to get that done.

All she does is smile wickedly, and laughs, "Oh, I'll be careful.  You won't stop me."  And the leash pulls me back, arching my back until I fell over backwards, and was dragged to the wall until I was nearly against it.  To my horror, she took off the cloth that covered the grenade.  Fuck!  Fuck!  Fuck!  Fuck!  The grenade fell to the table with a loud thud.  Oh dear GOD!

"For the love of God!  Stop doing whatever the hell you're doing!  Don't even think it!"  I gripped the leash in both hands, and pulled with all my might.

She looked at the grenade, trying dissect it in her mind.  She took out two pliers, a small one, and a large one.  This large one gripped the body of the grenade, while the other.  THE OTHER, went to the pin.

The clamps took hold.

I placed my feet on the wall.

It pulled.

I pulled

The pin was free.

And so was I, flying across the room.

The handle flipped off.

I shoved Twilight as hard as I could and knocked the grenade to the floor at the same time.

The grenade flew forwards, off the table.

I was in the air, jumping over the table after it.

The grenade bounced.

I was just behind it.

Another bounce.

I scrambled after it.

It rolled.

I was on top of it.

I covered it.

I won't be making it out this time.  This grenade will kill me.