Ghost Recon: Equestria

Chapters

Implosion
Contact
Reconnaissance
Higher Authority

Implosion

The sun was low in the sky, just beginning to set on the peaceful town of Ponyville. Ponies began entering their homes and sitting down either alone or with friends or family for dinner as the town’s streets became practically desolate and void of life.

On the outskirts of town, a certain shy yellow mare by the name of Fluttershy was tending to the animals that resided in and around her cozy cottage, which, much to her relief, allowed her to care for each animal without any unwanted confrontations with other ponies.

“Time for lunch, everyone!” she called, her voice like silk to all that could hear it. A crowd of various small creatures then gathered around the bowls she had placed in what one could only describe as the living room of her cottage. Several assortments of food were in each bowl to cater to the needs of each animal. All the animals began to eat from their respective bowls of food; all but one.

“Now, Angel, if you don’t eat your food now, you’ll be hungry later.” Fluttershy said in a soft voice. The one she was addressing was a small white bunny, who currently had his arms folded and his head turned away from her, a pout plastered on his face.

“C’mon, Angel...” she said, slowly cantering towards him. He looked back with one eye and then immediately sped towards her, jumped on her head, stomped on it a few times and then proceeded hopped out of the nearby open window.

“Oh, Angel...” Fluttershy sighed, a clear tone of defeat in her voice. She briskly cantered to the window and looked outside to see where he might have scampered off to, but was instead greeted by a loud, thunder-like noise that had come from the direction of the forest behind her house. This elicited a small ‘Eek!’ from the timid mare and had caused her to fall back onto her butterfly-adorned flank, shaking in fear from the sudden noise.

She had sat there shaking for a good couple of minutes before deciding to go into town and seek help.

“You’re good to go, Kozak”

Staff Sergeant John Kozak was the engineer of Ghost Team “Hunter”. He was currently on a mission to eliminate the last remaining Raven’s Rock forces in Primorsky, Russia. But, there had been rumors that they were in possession of a nuclear warhead, and since this particular base was so close to the North Korean border, the Russian government dared not touch it out of fear of an international incident.

This was also the reason why Kozak was going in alone; he was the only member of the team able to fully identify a nuclear presence and disable it. Even a small team of four was too risky, as it rose the chances of their presence being discovered, and would probably lead to Raven’s Rock detonating the warhead before the team even got close. This was their contingency plan, they were leaderless and had nothing left to lose.

“Alright” Kozak replied.

“Now, Listen;” the voice on the radio demanded “this is just a recon mission for now. When, and only when, you find any hard evidence of a nuclear device in the headquarters, you have permission to disable it.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Good luck out there.”

The radio crackled off as Kozak began to move from his observation point towards the direction of the base.

Twilight Sparkle was in the middle of reorganizing all of the books in her library when she heard a loud knocking on her front door. She sighed as she walked to the door whilst still holding many books in the air with her magic. She proceeded to open the door to gaze upon an out of breath Fluttershy out on her front porch.

“Oh my goodness, Fluttershy!” Twilight said with clear worry in her voice. The magic she had been performing to levitate the books had dissipated as her concentration had been turned towards her friend Fluttershy, who was clearly distraught enough to come running to her library in the middle of Ponyville all the way from her cottage on the outskirts of the town “Are you okay?”

“Twilight *Gasp* you have to *Gasp* come quickly!” Fluttershy said, struggling to breathe properly.

“Okay, Fluttershy, calm down! Take a minute to catch your breath and then tell me what happened!”

As Kozak crept through the forest separating the observation point from his target, his camo active to avoid any unnecessary hostile engagements, his Holographic Information System (HIS) began to flicker.

“What the hell?” Kozak asked, to no one in particular.

“What’s the problem, Kozak?” the voice on the radio asked.

“Something’s wrong with my equipment. The HIS is acting up.”

“Could be the terrain.”

“No offence, Major, but the last time you said that, it turned out our system had been hacked.”

“Hmm... Fair point.” the voice on the radio said with a contemplating voice “I’ll run diagnostics on the mainframe so we don’t have a repeat of last time. Be on your toes for any Spec Ops soldiers.”

“Got it.”

As Fluttershy took a few moments to rest on one of the chairs in the library’s front room, Twilight took it upon herself to assemble the rest of her and Fluttershy’s friends. She had sent Spike to fetch them as quickly as possible, and had told him to tell them that this was a matter of urgency, which, from Twilight’s perspective, it most certainly was.

She had never seen Fluttershy like this before; sure, she had seen her scared and downright terrified enough to curl into a ball and cry, but she had never seen her so assertive at the same time. It showed how serious whatever Fluttershy had witnessed actually was.

After a few minutes, Spike had returned with Rarity and Pinkie Pie, both Rarity and Spike were panting heavily, yet Pinkie Pie seemed to be totally fine, bouncing in place like usual, as though she had only walked around the corner, but had undoubtedly kept up with both the posh white pony and the small purple dragon.

“Spike!” Twilight shouted, obviously aggravated at the baby dragon “I told you to get everypony!”

“I couldn’t find Rainbow Dash, so Applejack offered to go find her!” Spike said, raising his arms defensively.

“Well, do you know how long they’re going to b-” And, as if on cue, a rainbow-coloured blur sped through the open window and across the library, and then crashed into the adjacent bookcase, knocking over half the books that were stacked there. The blur was infact a familiar rainbow-maned pegasus named Rainbow Dash, who was currently sitting against the near empty bookshelf upside down under a pile of books that was as high as her chin.

“Heheh...” the pegasus chuckled nervously “Sorry about the bookshelf, Twi.”

“Dang it, Rainbow Dash!” a familiar voice called from the doorway “I told y’all if ya sped off like that you’d end up causin’ trouble!”

“But you said that it was important!” Rainbow shouted back.

“It is important!” Twilight interrupted “Fluttershy has something to tell us.” Twilight side-stepped out of the way to reveal a now-frightened pegasus hiding behind the chair which she had occupied just a moment ago.

“Well, what is it, sugarcube?” Applejack said, making her voice as calm and soft as she could.

“W-well...” Fluttershy stood up slightly “I heard a loud thundering noise come from the direction of the everfree forest, but it sounded much different to a normal thunderbolt...”

“Hmm, that is strange...” Twilight brought a hoof to her chin “I think we should investigate this strange phenomena...”

“But it came from the E-E-Everfree F-Forest!” Fluttershy squeaked in protest.

“And that’s exactly why it needs to be investigated!” Twilight rebuttled.

“It’s probably just some pegasus messing about with some clouds!” Rainbow Dash said “I mean, it’s not really that big a deal, is it?”

“It didn’t sound like any thunderbolt I’ve ever heard...”

“...then it’s settled.” Twilight nodded “We better go out there and see what might be the source of the loud thunderbolt Fluttershy heard!” There was an underlying tone of giddiness and excitement in Twilight’s voice, which was understandable, due to the pony’s passion for all things sciency and her compulsion to find out as much as she could.

“Well, alright, Twilight...” Applejack said, with some hesitation in her voice “Ah guess we’d better get ready to move out.”

Kozak was now halfway through the base, opting to go the stealthy route without killing anyone, as he deduced that it would cause more trouble than it’s worth, and he wouldn’t have to worry about hiding the bodies.

His HIS status had gotten worse, as it was now pointing out hostiles that weren’t actually there, buzzing from time to time, and giving statistics that Kozak knew were not correct.

“My gear is still acting up.” Kozak whispered into his radio.

“Well, we ran diagnostics several times and found nothing. Looks like the problem is local, Kozak.” the voice on the radio said.

“It’s been getting worse since I entered the base. Think it might be that the enemy has some new hardware?”

“If that’s the case, you better get your ass in gear, Kozak.” the voice on the radio said, a tone of worry evident “Whatever it is they have, it must be big if it’s interfering with your HIS.”

“Roger that.” Kozak did exactly as he was told, and picked up the pace. He was moving noticeably faster now, but not so fast as to disengage his active camouflage. His HIS was showing a large group of hostiles up ahead of him, but Kozak wasn’t sure if they were actually there, or if they were another glitch, so he decided to slow down a bit and took cover behind a guardrail.

Kozak peeked over the railing to get a look, and what he saw was in fact a large group of hostiles. He could hear them speaking Russian, and decided to listen in on what they were saying. Kozak spoke immaculate Russian, so it was no problem for him to figure out what they were saying.

If he were not wearing a mask over his face, a slight look of shock would have been able to be seen on the soldier’s face. But his training as a soldier had taught him to confirm any intel with hard evidence, so he made his way to an office-like room where there were papers strewn on a lone metal table at the edge of the room.

“Sir,” Kozak said “I can confirm that the enemy is in possession of nuclear weapons...” he put his hand around his chin and began to rub it “...a whole lot of ‘em.”

“Tell me again why you needed all of us out here, Twilight.” Rainbow Dash moaned. The group was now at the edge of the Everfree forest doing one final check on supplies.

“Well, the Everfree forest is a dangerous place, and it’s best to travel in groups when entering it.” Twilight said.

“Okay, what I meant to say is; tell me why you needed me out here, Twilight.”

“I must agree with Rainbow Dash, Twilight. Surely you don’t need this many ponies to come with you for a quick trip into the Everfree forest.” Rarity added.

“You two quit yer bickerin’! Ah thought y’all was supposed to be the element of loyalty, Dash!” Applejack said.

“Hey! I’m completely loyal to my friends, it’s just that...” Rainbow Dash trailed off and looked in the direction of the forest and took an audible gulp.

“Yer scared, ain’t ya, Dash?” Applejack taunted, a devious grin on her face as she prodded the rainbow-maned pegasus.

“Am not!”

“Well, I’m super-duper-extra-crazy excited!” Pinkie Pie shouted, bouncing around the group.

“How can you be excited? We’re going into the Everfree forest!” Fluttershy questioned.

“Yeah, but there could be mysterious ponies in there who are feared by the town because they’re totally misunderstood, but they’re actually really nice ponies and they like cupcakes and I decide to organize a party for them and they’re really happy about it and thank me so much for doing it!” Pinkie Pie took a deep breath after she had finished.

“Uh, Pinkie Pie?” Twilight asked “Didn’t you just describe what happened with Zecora?” Pinkie Pie stopped bouncing for a moment and looked at Twilight, her face showing she was deep in thought.

“Hmm... I guess I did!” she exclaimed, and continued to bounce around the group of ponies. Twilight opened her mouth to argue, but was stopped by a hoof on her shoulder.

“Don’t bother, Twilight. She’s jus’ bein’ Pinkie Pie.” Applejack chuckled. Twilight sighed in defeat and turned to face the other girls.

“Does everypony have everything?” she asked. All the girls nodded, including Pinkie Pie, who still hadn’t stopped bouncing “Alright, then. Let’s go girls!” And with that, the group set off at a moderate pace into the Everfree forest.

“Kozak, you’re gonna need to do something about those warheads.” the voice on the radio commanded.

“Affirmative.” Kozak replied.

“Make sure you mai- -tain radio- -tact” the voice on the radio became distorted and began cutting out.

“Say again, Major, you’re unreadable.”

“Ma- -ain rad- -ontac- -t all tim-” the voice became more distorted.

“You’re completely unreadable, Major!” Kozak was now becoming frustrated at the faults forming in his equipment.

“Yo- -uipment is ma- -ioning, Koza- -e’re cuttin- -adio transmiss- -n to av- -d any po- -ible secur- -y brea-”

“Damn radio!” Kozak swore under his breath “Looks like I’m on my own...” Kozak continued through the base, heading towards the area where the intel had shown the weapons to be. He snuck through empty corridors and weaved through obstacles to avoid hostile confrontation. He stopped in front of large steel door, which was closed and, after the soldier attempted to open it, proven to be locked.

He reached behind his helmet and pressed a small button. This had activated his magnetic vision and allowed him to see past the wall surrounding the door. His equipment seemed to be fairing better now, with less static and incorrect information, but his radio still wasn’t working. Behind the steel door was a large warehouse-like room, and Kozak counted twenty hostiles, who all seemed to be guarding the group of large shipping containers in the far corner of the room.

The magnetic vision had shown, what Kozak could only assume were, multiple nuclear warheads inside each container.

“Jesus... this is enough firepower to start World War 3!” Kozak’s voice had become weary, due to the fact that there were more warheads than he had gathered from the intel. He looked around for an alternate entrance into the warehouse “Dammit, there doesn’t seem to be another way through.” He gave an exasperated sigh and deactivated his magnetic vision.

He examined the area surrounding the door more thoroughly, and discovered a small grate in the wall.

“Looks like my crawler drone could fit through there.” Kozak pulled out his miniature quadrotor and placed it on the ground. It transformed into a small UGV. He proceeded to pull off the grating and then drove the UGV into the small vent, where he maneuvered it through the labyrinth of an air ventilation system.

It finally exited the maze at the far end of the warehouse, which elicited a small sigh of frustration from Kozak. He activated the UGV’s camouflage, which was similar to his own optical camo, except it was much better at keeping the UGV unnoticed when it was up close to hostiles than when he did the same.

After driving between the many boxes and shipping containers that occupied the large warehouse, and doing his best to keep the UGV from making physical contact with any hostiles, he found the door he was currently on the wrong side of. Kozak drove up to the controls of the door and activated the UGV’s EMP blast, a device capable to knocking out electronics up and stunning enemies within a fifteen-foot radius. Luckily, no one heard the blast and Kozak was able to maintain his element of surprise.

Slowly but surely, Kozak eliminated all but three of the enemies in the warehouse, either by breaking their necks, or taking out groups of two by lining them up and using one bullet to kill them. The final three enemies were all standing together, the one in the middle looking much higher-ranking than all of the grunts he had encountered in the base so far. He approached the group, but remained in cover to listen to what they were saying. He was, again, able to translate what they were saying with a high degree of accuracy.

“What is so special about these bombs, General Vadim?” the first grunt asked.

“You’ll find out soon enough, Zakhar.” Vadim replied.

“Well, it better be good,” the third soldier spoke up “because I don’t even think this many explosives would help us now.”

“Don’t worry, Viktor, these are no ordinary explosives!” Vadim boasted.

Kozak decided this would be the best opportunity to strike, and pulled out his silenced pistol. He jumped out of cover and quickly shot the two grunts in the head, killing them instantly. He then reached for Vadim and held him on the ground with his pistol pointed at Vadim’s head before he could even process what had happened.

“What’s so special about these warheads?!” Kozak questioned, a sense of urgency in his voice. Before he could ask again, Vadim headbutted Kozak and broke free, allowing him to reach for his pistol. Kozak gained his footing and quickly pointed his gun at Vadim, finding that the General had done the same.

“It looks like we are at a stalemate...” Vadim said “Who are you?”

“You’re in no position to be asking questions!” Kozak snapped, the fear of what the implications of these nukes might be rattling him “Now answer mine; what’s so special about these nukes?!”

“You want to know what’s so special about these nukes, American?” Vadim asked in a taunting tone “Why don’t I show you?”

Before Kozak could react, the russian pulled a small remote from his pocket with only one button on it. He pressed the button and dove for cover, leaving a confused Kozak shooting at the spot where the general was previously.

Suddenly, a loud beeping could be heard, Kozak turned to find that, to his horror, the beeping was coming from one of the shipping containers.

“Are you fucking insane?!” Kozak shouted “You’ll destroy this base, if not the whole of Primorsky, including yourself!”

“Ah, you are sadly mistaken, American.” Vadim said, in a matter-of-fact tone “These are not nuclear warheads, they are very... special explosives!” He chuckled.

“What do you mean by ‘special’?” Kozak questioned, still fully aware of the beeping that was now getting faster behind him.

“You see, these bombs do not explode, but rather, they implode!” He chuckled.

“They what?!”

“They have ten times the force of the Tunguska event, pulling in on the same point!”

“That’s impossible! The technology needed for that doesn’t even exist yet!”

“We are Raven’s Rock; we have enough money and power to create such things!”

“You bastard!” Kozak taunted, keeping his gun trained on Vadim behind his cover “Shut it off, now!”

“Again, you are sadly mistaken, American. There is no way to shut down the bomb once it is armed!” The general chuckled, his head peeking out of cover for just a moment. Kozak took a shot, and it hit Vadim directly in his left temple. He ran up to the corpse and searched for the remote the general had used to activate the bomb.

He had found it, but was instantly distraught when he found out it only had one button on it. He threw it to the ground, breaking it, and cursed loudly. Kozak had but one option: escape. He ran in the opposite direction of the bomb, moving his legs as fast as he could will them to, but it was too late.

Kozak felt himself being pulled back in the direction of the bomb. He hadn’t even heard it go off, and now he was being dragged towards his untimely death. He looked around as time slowed for him; guns, bodies, large crates and even the shipping containers were being forced towards the epicentre of the implosion, in fact, anything and everything within a twenty-foot radius was being sucked into the singularity, including Kozak himself.

There was complete silence, as though it was being sucked in as well. Kozak screamed an inaudible scream, even his voice had been silenced by the implosion. He felt pain like he had never felt before, it was the pain of each and every single one of his molecules being torn apart and pulled into the singularity, and then reformed, and in an instant, he felt nothing. All he could see was total darkness, when suddenly loud thunder-like noise rung in Kozak’s ears. He felt himself land on something solid, and then he passed out straight away.

“C’mon, girls! I heard the noise come from this way!” Scootaloo shouted, eagerly galloping ahead of her friends.

“Ah don’t know about this, Scoots...” Applebloom said with a hint of fear in her voice as she dragged behind Scootaloo.

“Yeah, I mean, shouldn’t we tell the grown-ups about this first?” Sweetie Belle added, struggling to keep up with her two friends.

The trio of fillies had spent most of the day in their treehouse they had built on the Apple family farm, sitting around idly looking for ways to earn their cutie marks. Scootaloo had suggested that they try and earn their cutie marks in gliding, but was dissuaded by the other two fillies who were scared of heights; Applebloom suggested they try their luck at bowling, but the others thought that it would be a waste of time to do something they had already tried, and Sweetie Belle had just sat there thinking of excuses against the irresponsible ideas her two friends were trying to rope her into.

But their boredom was put on hold when they heard a loud, thunder like noise from the direction of the Everfree Forest. The Cutie Mark Crusaders, as they liked to call themselves, had found the noise, not scary or unnerving, but a perfect opportunity to earn their cutie marks. They all shouted ‘Cutie Mark Crusader: Investigators!’ at the top of their lungs, but Sweetie Belle was less enthusiastic than her two friends. The three had then set out for the Everfree forest in search of the noise they had heard.

But that was half an hour ago, and even though it seemed like Scootaloo was leading the group, none of the three fillies knew where they were going, and were now starting to lose interest in origin of the noise they had heard.

“We’ve been walking for half an hour!” Sweetie Belle whined.

“Man, you’re more like your sister than you think, Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo chuckled.

“Really?!” Sweetie Belle had suddenly perked up, ecstatic that she bore resemblance to her sister, a pony whom she truly looked up to.

“Ah’m fairly sure that was supposed ta be an insult...” Applebloom muttered under her breath. Sweetie Belle seemed to have caught wind of this, as she went back to her original annoyed face.

“I’m pretty sure it’s just a little farther.” Scootaloo said, attempting to reassure her two friends.

“W-we should turn b-back... it doesn’t seem safe around here!” Applebloom began to shake as she looked around to see trees with knots in them that resembled scary faces, and the phosphorescent fungi that were on the trees provided a creepy and mysterious ambiance. Applebloom’s eyes widened as she saw a pair of yellow eyes peering out from inside the bushes, making complete eye contact with her. She froze, unable to speak. She tried to scream, but it was as if her voice had been stolen by the owner of the unholy yellow eyes. There were a few moments of unnatural silence, which, to Applebloom, felt like hours.

“Who!” The sudden noise shook the bush and made Applebloom scream and jump into the air. She ran as fast as she could to catch up with her two friends who had gone on further ahead without her. The owl Applebloom had been looking at gave an inquisitive stare at the frightened filly for a moment, but then reentered it’s home in the bushes to continue resting through the day.

“Guys!” Applebloom shouted wearily at her two friends. They turned around to meet a yellow and red blur smash into the two of them, making them all crash into the bushes adjacent. They tumbled out into a clearing, all lying on the floor in a pile.

“Ow...” Scootaloo moaned.

“Where am I?!” Sweetie Belle asked, disoriented by the crash.

“Heheheh...” Applebloom laughed nervously as she picked herself up off the floor, facing away from the girls “Sorry about that, you guys.”

Applebloom did not receive a comment back from either of the two fillies, which she found oddly uncharacteristic of them. She turned around slowly to see what had caused her friends to be so unlike themselves, and was met by a sight she could not believe.

She looked on in abject horror as a huge monster was pointing a small metal object at Scootaloo’s head. Afraid of what this unknown metal thing might do, she just sat and stared at the monster.

“What the hell are you?” it asked.

Contact

Kozak suddenly awoke, breathing quickly and heavily as if he had just had a close encounter with death. He sat up as his breathing rate slowed and took a look around. He was in a clearing of some sort. There was thick forest all around him. Loose papers, broken wooden crates, a couple of supply caches and the corpse of one of the grunts he had killed, Viktor, were strewn around on the ground.

So it really did happen... he thought to himself That implosion should have killed me, and yet, here I am, out in a forest of some kind.

“Major?” Kozak asked through his radio “Come in, Major. Do you read me?” There was no answer. After trying a few more times, he decided to give up trying.

Kozak stayed sitting for a minute. He pondered about how long he’d been unconscious for, but decided that it wasn’t too important at the moment. He was, however, curious to see where exactly he was, so he pulled himself off the floor and walked over to one of the supply caches, but then stopped halfway there.

He turned around and approached the body of the fallen Raven’s Rock soldier. Normally Kozak wouldn’t care what happened to the bodies of the enemies that he had killed, but this one seemed different. At least all the other bodies were probably found by someone and given a proper burial of sorts, but this one had come with him into the implosion and out wherever it had dropped them, and seeing as Kozak didn’t seem to be getting an answer on his radio, decided that this place was quite far from where they had entered the implosion.

So, he made an exception for this soldier, and put him in a more respectable pose; lying on his back with his legs straight and his hands laying on top of each other on his chest, and his AK-47 right by his side as his final weapon against whatever may lie in wait for him in the afterlife. He decided to go the extra mile and be sentimental by picking a flower from a patch on the edge of the clearing and putting it in his hands.

“Rest well, my enemy in arms, and brother in travel. Rest well, Viktor.” Kozak said quietly in Russian, kneeling down on one knee and bowing his head respectfully in front of the deceased soldier. He decided that he had been respectful enough and that he should go restock on ammo for his guns on the slim chance he got ambushed.

He stood up and turned towards the supply caches when he heard mumbling coming from his left. He instinctively crouched, pulled out his pistol and engaged his optical camo. Kozak identified the mumbling as two voices; they were quite feminine and didn’t seem to have any hostile intent behind them. They were definitely speaking english, but Kozak couldn’t identify what they were saying.

All of a sudden, he heard a loud shout come from the direction of the two female voices. It was another female voice, and though it was shouting, it seemed to have a tone of fear, not anger or hostility. Then, three bodies came tumbling out of the bush in the direction Kozak had been staring at. He prepared his gun and pointed it at the closest body to him.

But when he took a minute to actually look at the figures, he realised that they were not women, but in fact miniature, pastel coloured horses. The one furthest from him had a yellow coat, a red mane and tail and a big red bow in it’s hair, the one after that had a white coat and a mane and tail with two different shades of purple in them, and the closest one to him, which he currently had his gun trained on, had an orange coat and a dark purple mane and tail.

“Ow...” the orange one groaned. This startled Kozak, and also confirmed his suspicion that these were the three voices he had heard behind the bush. He deactivated his optical camouflage to allow them to see him, as he wanted answers to a few of his questions, and he found interrogating a subject was much easier when they could see you.

The orange-coated one rubbed her head with her hoof, opened her eyes and blinked them multiple times to help herself get over the daze she had no doubt acquired from falling through the bush. Suddenly, her eyes opened much wider and she sat there completely still, obviously staring at the big, dark, armour-clad figure that was looming over her.

“Where am I?!” the white one was the next to wake from the trio’s simultaneous daze, not too well, either, as she was clearly disoriented. She took a little longer to respond to Kozak, but once she did, her expression was more dramatic than that of the orange ones, and she looked to be shaking, but neither of the two had made a sound since laying their eyes on him.

Finally, the last one showed a sign of life as she chuckled, lifting her head and rubbing the back of it with her hoof somewhat bashfully, just as the orange one had done.

“Sorry about that, you guys...” She said, not turning around. This made Kozak slightly anxious, as he didn’t know if the yellow one had any idea of his presence yet, and whether or not she was going to do something about it. Finally, she turned around, her reaction being the same as, what Kozak could only assume were, her friends. He found this to be an appropriate time to begin asking them questions.

“What the hell are you?” Kozak asked slowly, but this had not helped dampen the anger that was evident in his voice. Of course he was angry. He had just woken up in a strange place after suffering what one could only call a defeat, and was now asking small, brightly-coloured horses questions. For all he knew, he could be in an insane asylum, laughing his head off whilst he shouted about what was happening right now.

Kozak mentally shook himself, looking on at the three things that were in front of him right now.

“I won’t ask again; what are you?” This time Kozak was able to hold back his anger and refrain from swearing when asking the question. His voice was also much calmer now, aswell. The three fillies flinched when they heard Kozak speak, which made him furrow his brow.

“Y-y-you can sp-peak Eq-q-questrian?” the orange one stuttered, breaking Kozak’s concentration slightly. Usually he would lash out if someone asked him a question when he was interrogating them, but, as this was a special case, he took a moment to think over what had just been asked of him.

Equestrian...? he wondered Does she mean English?

“I can speak English, if that’s what you’re asking.” Kozak’s tone was quite demanding and his gun was still trained on the orange one’s head, but he had decided to loosen up a bit, seeing as these three seemed to pose very little threat to him.

“Wh-what are you, a-anyway?” the orange one spoke up, startling Kozak. He held a look of surprise on his face, unseen by the girls due to the mask covering most of it, as the small talking horse seemed unphased by the fact that a gun was pointed in her face.

Only after the orange one’s question did Kozak begin to wonder where these things might have come from. Were they some sort of experiment? Or were they some currently undiscovered equine species? The latter meant that he had been taken further from civilization than he originally thought, and, knowing his luck, he guessed that it was most likely the current situation.

“My name is John Kozak,” At this point Kozak decided to lower his gun, but did not relax his hold on the weapon. The three took notice of this, and their bodies became visibly less tense.

“You have a name?!” the yellow one furthest from Kozak asked with a surprised voice, instantly perking up.

“That’s so cool!” the orange one jumped up with excitement, all three suddenly having smiles of enthusiasm plastered on their faces. Kozak cocked his head slightly in confusion.

“Is it really so strange to have a name?” he asked, finally loosening the grip on his gun, but keeping it out just in case things went awry. The back and forth questions had given Kozak the impression that these three definitely weren’t dangerous, but he decided to keep his guard up.

“Well, not really...” the white one finally spoke, her voice the highest of the three “I guess it’s just no pony expects a monster to have a name. My name’s Sweetie Belle, by the way!”

“Mine’s Applebloom!” the yellow one added.

“And mine’s Scootaloo!” the yellow one finished “And we’re...”

“THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!” the three shouted in unison. Kozak stood there, looking at the three with a slightly annoyed look under his mask. What annoyed him wasn’t the fact that they had called him a monster without even really knowing him, but rather the fact that their names were incredibly girly and cartoonish.

It was then he noticed the style of everything around him. It was all very cartoonish and brightly coloured, which made him give an even more annoyed look under the confines of his completely opaque mask.

But he decided not to dwell on it and to continue the conversation he was having with whatever he was talking to you.

“You never answered my question;” Kozak’s tone turned cold, as if it were a matter of life and death that he know what these small creatures were “What exactly are you?”

“Duh, we’re ponies!” Applebloom said with quite a condescending tone “Ah think the better question is: what are you?”

“Well, I suppose I’m a human.” Kozak answered instantly, his voice turning tough and strong again “But I’ve definitely never seen a talking pony before.”

“That’s just stupid!” Scootaloo huffed.

“Yeah! What kind of a pony can’t talk?” Sweetie Belle added. Kozak decided not to answer that question due to his fear of what these things might do.

“So, are there any more of you talking ponies, or are you the only three?” Kozak asked. The three gave him a confused glare before looking at one another and suddenly huddling together as they began to whisper to each other. This made Kozak put both hands on his already un-holstered pistol, gripping it tightly due to the three ponies suspicious behaviour.

“Whaddya think, girls?” Applebloom asked. The trio had formed a tight circle to prevent John from hearing them “Should we tell ‘im about Ponyville?”

“I don’t know,” Sweetie Belle said wearily “He seems like an okay... thing...”

“Well, I guess he’s alright, but I don’t like the look of that thing he’s been holding ever since we found him.” Scootaloo looked behind her to see John with both his hands gripping the strange metal object tightly, as if he were gaining comfort from doing so “For all we know, it could be a weapon!”

“Ah’m sure it’s nothin’, Scoots!” Applebloom reassured “It’s probably just some sort of-” She was cut off by a sudden crashing sound.

“Ah won’t let you hurt mah sister!” a familiar voice shouted. The three turned to see Applejack on top of John, who was currently surrounded by a purple-colored aura. This seemed to be constraining him, as he was obviously attempting to move his arms, which were now spread out against his sides.

“Twilight,” Rainbow Dash groaned “We’ve been walking for like, five hours! Why don’t we take a break already!” The pegasus was dragging her hooves along the ground and her eyes looked to be half shut, which were obvious signs that she was tired.

“It’s only been half an hour, Rainbow.” Twilight sighed “And we can’t take a break! We’re close to the source of that strange noise Fluttershy heard, I can feel it!”

“And since when are you psychic?”

“Look, Dash,” Applejack said sternly, no doubt having grown tired of the Pegasus’ constant whining “complainin’ won’t get us there any faster, so hush yer gums and keep walkin’!” the rainbow-maned speedster huffed in annoyance before bowing her head in defeat.

“My goodness, it is extremely dirty out here!” Rarity whined.

“Oh, not you too, Rari-”

“Shhh!” Twilight hushed “Do you hear that?” She looked around, making the others do the same. All of a sudden, a few quiet voices could be heard, making the whole group perk up.

“Um... I think it’s coming from that way.” Fluttershy said quietly, pointing down a clear path between two sets of trees.

“C’mon, girls!” Twilight motioned with her hoof for her friends to follow, and they all galloped off in the direction Fluttershy had pointed.

They had reached a large bush when the talking stopped. They decided to peer through the bush, and what they saw was a fairly large clearing with a fair bit of debris scattered across the ground. The debris mostly consisted of strange looking pieces of wood and odd metal boxes, but those were not what had got the attention of the six ponies, but rather the six-foot tall monster holding a strange metal object that looked as though it was about to pounce on three unsuspecting ponies.

Only then did they realize that the three ponies were Applebloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Applejack was the first to notice this, and jumped out of the bush to stop the monster that was about to eat her little sister and her friends.

“Ah won’t let you hurt mah sister!” Applejack screamed, landing on the menacing figure. The monster looked like it was going to retaliate against her, but luckily Twilight had constrained it with her magic at the last second. It was now sprawled out on the floor like the rest of the debris, at the total mercy of Applejack.

“Wait!” a familiar set of voices were heard to the left of the six ponies who had now all passed through the bush with looks of astonishment and fear on their faces. They turned to see all three of the fillies running towards Applejack in an attempt to no doubt stop her from hurting it.

“Don’t hurt him!” Applebloom pleaded to her sister.

“What?!” Applejack looked at her with total disbelief “What are you talking about, this... thing was about to attack you!”

“No he wasn't!” Scootaloo exclaimed “He’s actually really friendly!”

Applejack looked back and forth between the girls and the monster she had pinned with the help of Twilight’s strong magic. She then decided it would be a good idea to get off of the monster she had unjustly attacked and walk back over to her friends.

It was then that Twilight decided to release her magic holding the beast, which allowed it to stand up and dust itself off.

Kozak stood up and dusted himself off after the purple one of the new group of six ponies decided to disable whatever it was she was using to hold him. At least, he thought it was her who had done it, judging by how her movements correlated with the force pushing him down onto the floor.

He looked at the orange one who had originally attacked him by surprise, knocking him to the floor and disarming him at the same time. He thought about what he should do with her, and decided that letting her live was the best option, seeing as this seemed to most likely be a misunderstanding.

“So, any particular reason why you attacked me?” Kozak asked with a very annoyed tone. This startled all of the ponies, all except for Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, who had been talking to him enough to have gotten used to his ability to talk.

“Wow...” the purple one gave Kozak a stare which made him slightly uncomfortable “You can speak perfect Equestrian!”

Oh, not this again... Kozak mentally groaned.

“This here is John Kozak!” Applebloom said happily “He’s a hue-mane who’s never seen a pony before!” All six of the girls looked at her, the light-yellow one in particular seemed to be less afraid of Kozak than the others, which gave Kozak a sudden interest in her.

“How do you know so much about him, Applebloom?” the blue one with a rainbow coloured mane and tail asked, a clear look of suspicion on her face.

“That’s because I told them.” Kozak interjected, giving a cold stare at the mare from under his sunglasses, similar to the one the orange mare with the country accent was giving her.

“You seem like a nice,” the light-yellow one finally spoke up, her voice much warmer and friendlier than any of the others “what was it again? A hue-mane?”

“Human.” Kozak corrected. At this point he thought it’d be a good idea to go and retrieve his pistol, which had fallen about 15 feet from where he was now. He walked over to it, bent down and picked it up.

“What is that?” the purple one asked, a glint of interest in her eye.

“It’s nothing.” Kozak said blandly, holstering the gun. It was in his best interests not to tell these innocent-looking creatures that he was in possession of a weapon that could kill almost anything instantly if handled right. Right now, he wanted to gain their trust so that he could find out what was going on here, and hopefully get home.

“Well, it’s getting awfully dark.” the white one that bore a striking resemblance to Sweetie Belle spoke up, her voice having quite a posh accent to it “Perhaps we should make our way back to Ponyville now?” All of the ponies nodded in agreement, and Kozak thought it was a good idea to get to civilization, but cringed when thinking about how stupid a name like “Ponyville” was for a town. But it did give him some confirmation; he was a long way from home.

A very long way from home.

Reconnaissance

Kozak walked along the dirt path, the moonlight beginning to shine through the forest canopy as it became less dense. Alongside him were nine ponies; Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo and Applebloom. They all trotted and walked along in silence, the only audible noise being their steps and the ambiance from the forest around them.

The purple unicorn had suggested that Kozak come with them to their town, clearly due to her curiosity towards him. The three known as the ‘Cutie Mark Crusaders’ were ecstatic about the idea, whereas the other five reluctantly agreed, making their way back to ‘Ponyville’.

The girls had decided to introduce themselves to Kozak a little while ago, and the silence surrounding them had lasted since then. Kozak was clearly not in the mood for talking, and each pony had noticed this.

“So...” Twilight spoke up, breaking the awkward silence “Care to tell us a bit about yourself?”

“No.” Kozak answered simply, hoping that would be the end of it. Although he had no such luck.

“Why not?” Twilight pushed, moving closer towards Kozak in a subtle attempt to make him feel as though he had to answer.

“Because I don’t feel like it.” Kozak said sternly, moving away from Twilight and returning the gap between them to it’s original distance, which seemed to discourage the purple unicorn for now. About another minute of complete silence passed before the most courageous of the group decided to speak up.

“So... um...” Fluttershy spoke up, surprising the rest of the group “Do you have any family?” she asked. Kozak stared at her for a second, his face going blank under his mask as he began reminiscing about his family. His eyes betrayed his true feelings for a brief moment, which, lucky for Kozak, went unseen under his sunglasses.

“Oh, okay...” Fluttershy spoke with comforting tone in her voice, as if she had somehow seen through his eyewear. Kozak took note of this, guessing she was one of the more perceptive ones in this group of ponies trotting beside him.

“What was that about?” Twilight asked Fluttershy.

“Oh, nothing.” she replied, turning to Kozak and giving him a wink which went unnoticed by the other eight ponies. Kozak breathed an inaudible sigh of relief, and decided that the somewhat timid yellow pegasus was worthy of his trust.

“Y’know, now that I get a good look at ya, I guess you look pretty cool.” Rainbow Dash said, clearly trying to smother the tone of excitement in her voice. Kozak gave no reply, which made the rainbow pegasus visibly frustrated.

“So, is that your skin or something?” she added, hoping to get a response.

“No.” Kozak replied coldly, hoping to deter her, unlike he had the purple unicorn.

“Really?” Rarity interjected “So you’re saying those are clothes?” her voice carried a fair bit of excitement with it “Oh, it looks so stylish! Everything matches! The ‘all black’ look definitely suits you!” She squealed, her fashionesque side taking hold of her.

“That’s very intriguing.” Twilight mused to no one in particular “Did you make them yourself?” she asked, her voice holding as much excitement as Rarity’s. Kozak had now grown tired of the ponies’ constant question asking, and increased his walking speed to get a fair bit ahead of the group, even though he had no idea where he was supposed to be going.

They’re more annoying than Thirty after he’s had too much to drink... Kozak thought, when he suddenly remembered his team. He wondered how they were fairing without him, and whether or not they were completely aware of his disappearance yet.

Kozak’s pace slowed as he looked at the ground dejectedly, bowing his head as he felt sadness for the first time in a long time. The others noticed this, all of them wondering what could have crossed his mind to make him like this.

The journey back to Ponyville felt longer than it actually was for everypony, including the being known as John from the Everfree Forest. They had been walking for thirty minutes, but it had felt like hours since nopony had dared to break the silence, in fear of what the six-foot creature might do. He, on the other hand, just didn’t feel like talking for some reason.

They had now reached the edge of the forest, and the rooftops of Ponyville were visible as a faint glow emanated from the town.

“Alright, everypony.” Twilight said somewhat hesitantly, stopping the rest of the group in their tracks “It’s night, which means that most ponies should be in their homes right about now. It should be easier to sneak John here” she motioned a hoof towards John “into the town.”

“So you’re just gonna let him into our town without a second thought?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, clearly frustrated and somewhat fearful of this decision. She moved in close towards Twilight and put a hoof to the side of her mouth, covering it from John’s view “What if he’s dangerous?!” she whispered.

“You know I can hear you, right?” John asked “Look, I’m not dangerous to anyone who isn’t dangerous to me.” The girls looked at each other with slightly worried looks, obviously not reassured by his words.

“Well, I guess that’ll have to do...” Twilight said, not sure if this was such a good idea anymore “So, where is John going to stay?” She looked around, hoping to get a response from one of her friends.

“He could stay at the farm!” Applebloom said, jumping in place “There’s plenty ah space in the barn!”

“Yeah!” Scootaloo exclaimed.

“That’s a great idea!” Sweetie Belle shouted.

“But-” Applejack tried to interrupt, but was cut off by a poke at her leg. She looked down to see Applebloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle all looking up at her with big, sad eyes.

“Please~?” they asked simultaneously, all quivering their lower lips in an attempt to look as cute as possible.

“Fine...” Applejack sighed.

“So it’s settled then;” Twilight said “John will stay at Applejack’s farm. I’ll come and visit to ask him some questions tomorrow morning, but until then, I think we should all get a good night's sleep.” Everypony nodded their head in agreement, but John just stood there, looking at the purple unicorn with his arms folded.

And so, the group said their goodnights and each pony went their separate ways. Applejack and Applebloom headed towards the farm, accompanied by their new guest, John Kozak. The older of the two sisters wondered how she was going to explain the six-foot tall behemoth to Big Macintosh and Granny Smith, whilst the younger of the two yawned loudly.

Kozak had walked along the dark and quiet town road for ten minutes, staying silent and watching the two ponies accompanying him. He brought his previously disregarded questions back from the corners of his mind. Why could these ponies talk? Why were they so cartoonish? And, more importantly, why were they so trusting? Kozak really had no idea, but he intended to get these questions answered in the morning by the pony known as Twilight.

He sighed and shook his head at how he was probably the unluckiest member of his team. He was always the one getting in bad situations, and was always the one who got shot at first. He began to reminisce about the various times he had been shot at first when he was brought back to reality, or what he assumed was reality, by the familiar country accent which had attacked him just a little while ago.

“Whelp, here we are.” She said, opening the fence gate in front of them “Y’all will be sleepin’ in that barn over there.” Applejack pointed towards a dark red barn a small distance away from them. Kozak looked to the right of it to see a large apple orchard, each tree teaming with many bright red apples. Kozak nodded at the orange pony. She seemed to accept this response and turned to look at Applebloom.

“Get ta bed, Applebloom.” Applejack said, pointing towards a small house to the left of the barn.

“But, Applejack-” Before Applebloom could say anymore, however, she was cut off by her own yawning, betraying how tired she actually was.

“No buts, little missy.” Applejack said sternly “Y’all are gonna get yerself inta bed an’ sleep before ya do any damage to that young little head a yours.” she pointed towards a small house to the left of the barn. And, with that, Applebloom walked off in that direction, dragging her hooves as she slowly cantered to what Kozak could only assume was her home.

Applejack walked off towards the barn, motioning for Kozak to follow. Once they reached it, she opened it up and walked inside, grabbing a cloth from a wooden railing and placing it over a pile of hay in the centre of the barn. She then turned to Kozak.

“This is where y’all will be sleepin’.” She motioned towards the crude bed made out of a large cloth and a pile of hay “If ya need anythin’, just come up ta the house an’ ask. But try an’ be discreet about it, ‘kay?” Kozak nodded “Alright. Good night, ah suppose.” Applejack tipped her hat slightly walked out of the barn, closing the door behind her and shrouding it’s interior in darkness.

Kozak looked down at the bed, thinking it wasn’t so bad compared to some of the other places he had slept before. Although, what he had planned to do tonight didn’t exactly involve sleeping.

After 15 minutes of walking, Twilight arrived at the Ponyville public library, which also served as a home for the purple unicorn. She slowly opened the front door, expecting Spike to be asleep and not wanting to wake him, and, sure enough, she could hear familiar snoring coming from the library’s bedroom on the second floor.

She slowly entered and crept up the stairs to find Spike sleeping on the floor, sucking his tail rather than on his bed. She figured that he was probably worried about her, since she had left abruptly and hadn’t told him where she was going, knowing only that it was an emergency. Of course, he would never admit that to her, but she knew it to be true.

And so, she picked him up with her magic and gently floated him over to his small bed at the foot of hers. She looked at the baby dragon, smiling at how cute he looked whilst sleeping. She looked at her bed for a moment before deciding not to go to sleep just yet. She trotted back downstairs, closing the bedroom door behind her, and went into the library portion of her home.

Twilight lit a candle and began scouring the bookshelves, looking for a particular book which might be of use to her. After an astoundingly quick search, she found the book she was looking for. She went over to the table in the middle of the room, carrying the book and candle over with her magic. She set them both down and took a seat.

“A Collection of Creatures from Around the World.” Twilight read “This should help me understand a bit more about John...” She began flicking through the book, looking for a passage on ‘Humans’ “H... H... H... Ah! Here we go! Okay; Hamster, no... Hedgehog, no... Hippopotamus, no... Hyena, no...” Twilight cocked her head in confusion “I don’t understand... there’s nothing in here about ‘Humans’!” She sighed in defeat.

She looked over to her personal desk in a vain attempt to figure out what was going on, when she noticed something peculiar laying on top of it. She levitated the object towards her to find that it was a scroll with the royal seal. Twilight stared at it for a few seconds before opening it quickly, wondering what it could be.

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I am writing to inform you that I have felt some sort of disturbance in the magic field surrounding the Everfree Forest near Ponyville. There are frequent disruptions in that area due to the nature of the forest, however this one seemed to be greater and more powerful than any I have ever felt.

As such, I am visiting Ponyville tomorrow in order to find the source of said disruption, and expect you and the other holders of the Elements of Harmony to help me in achieving this goal.

I fear something of great magnitude is behind this, and it may be a threat to the people of Ponyville, if not all of Equestria.

Yours truly,

Princess Celestia.

Twilight stared at the letter for a few seconds, wondering what it could mean. She wondered if John was the one to cause the disruption, but then sighed and decided that she needed to get some sleep for tomorrow if she was going to help the princess figure this out.

And so, she blew out the candle and crept back upstairs, not noticing the crunching of leaves from outside her front window.

Kozak had snuck out of the barn after deciding to do a little reconnaissance in the town. He ran quietly to the front gate of the farm and hopped over the fence. He continued at a brisk pace towards the town, hoping to get a look at the parts he didn’t see whilst passing through.

As he neared the faint glow, he decided to activate his optical camouflage, becoming totally invisible. He couldn’t move very fast whilst his camo was up, though, otherwise it would stop working, so he crept through the town, looking for any notable buildings which could give him information.

He passed by many houses on the lonely street he walked down, all of them looking almost exactly the same, but each with small differences. As he got closer to what he guessed was the town centre, he found an odd looking house which seemed to be made up entirely of gingerbread. He assumed this was some sort of confectionary shop, and the look of it was simply a marketing ploy.

Kozak saw that most places had no light emanating from them, and thus made it impossible to see inside. He would have tried to break into the houses of interest, but he had no knowledge of lockpicking, and the only other way he knew how to get through a locked door would have woken up most of the town, so he kept moving through town.

Kozak eventually stumbled onto a large tree, which he had done a double take over. At first glance, it looked like an ordinary willow tree, but after closer inspection, he could make out windows and a door. He slowly approached the literal tree house when he was startled by a light that suddenly came out of the front windows.

He approached the left window even more slowly, cautious of what he might find, only to see none other than Twilight Sparkle reading a book inside. He felt at ease again as he took cover behind the wall under the window and peered over the windowsill. The purple unicorn seemed to be talking to herself, but Kozak couldn’t hear her as the window was shut and she was probably talking quietly out of respect for her neighbors.

Kozak watched as Twilight flipped through the pages of the book she was reading, obviously trying to find something specific. Kozak’s eyes widened in surprise as he noticed she wasn’t even touching the book, but rather, the pages were turning on their own. He noticed the entire book was enveloped by a purple-aura, as was the unicorn’s horn.

He stared for a couple of seconds in disbelief before mentally shaking himself and resolved to ask that question along with many of the others he had. He continued to watch as the book closed and Twilight stared at it with a look of frustration. She then turned to look at another table to the right of her; it was covered with papers and had an inkwell with a quill in it. Kozak assumed this to be her personal workspace.

He stared through the window as a rolled up parchment floated from the desk to the table in front of Twilight. His lack of knowledge on how she was able to perform such a feat began to pester him, but he shoved his many questions to the corners of his mind as he watched her open it quite quickly. It was obvious that the purple pony knew this scroll was somewhat important, but Kozak wanted to know why.

He saw Twilight’s eyes move as she read the paper she had unrolled. Her eyes grew noticeably wider as her pupils dilated, signifying that whatever she was reading had somewhat shocked her. She was as still as a statue for a few seconds after her eyes had stopped moving, clearly rattled by what she had just read. She shook her head slightly and the parchment rolled itself back up, much to the frustration of Kozak.

Twilight sat up from the chair she was in and blew out the candle that had been sitting on the desk she was using a few seconds ago. She cantered towards a set of stairs and began to ascend them when Kozak felt that now was the time to take his leave, being unable to enter the house without disturbing the entire town.

He began to creep back through the streets of Ponyville, trying to process what he had just seen. It had left him with many questions, most of which were about how the purple unicorn was able to make the objects levitate. But, he also wanted to know why she had been shocked by the letter she had read.

Under the circumstances of his current situation, it seemed more than likely that it was something to do with him, but the simple question of ‘What?’ was nagging at his mind. He decided that getting frustrated wouldn’t help answer the question, and that he should wait till tomorrow to get answers.

And so, Kozak made his way back to the farm, where he hopped over the fence and snuck back into the dark red barn, the moon fairly low in the sky. He placed his weapons and unneeded attachments to the side of the crudely-made bed, and lay down in an attempt to sleep.

He stared up at the roof of the barn for a few minutes, still wondering about his team. He wanted to let them know he was alive, but also know if they were okay. A ghost team wasn't of much use without an engineer, and Kozak knew this, but he also knew that his teammates were exceedingly tough and skilled, and they should be fine without him for a little while.

And so, for the first time in years, Kozak fell asleep without a second thought, unaware of what awaited him tomorrow.

Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took so long, I seem to have caught a case of procrastination. Anyway, it seems as though this story has gotten quite popular, I mean, wow! So many favourites! And the amount of comments telling me to hurry up really is encouraging! I really appreciate all your support, guys. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, and hopefully you won’t have to wait more than 4 days for the next one.

Higher Authority

From inside the enclosed space, the three operatives sat in silence, hearing nothing but the distant echo of water hitting the deck.

Each man sat on the edge of their own bed, all deep in thought, as though they were waiting for something to happen that would affect them significantly. The three men were Ghost Leader Cedric Ferguson, Robert "Pepper" Bonifacio, and Jimmy "30K" Ellison. The steel door to the left of them opened slowly, breaking the silence with a slow, metallic screech. Each of the men looked towards the door to see their commanding officer, Major Scott Mitchell.

“Any news?” Ferguson asked.

“No.” Mitchell replied “It seems he’s officially MIA, presumed dead.”

“No, there’s no way Kozak would just die!” 30K shouted “He’s a tough bastard, and he’s alive...” He clutched his dogtags “I know it.”

“Look, the least we could do is carry on.” Pepper spoke up “It’s what he would have wanted, 30.”

“You’re talkin’ like he’s already dead, Pepper!” 30K walked up to Pepper slowly and gave him a cold, suspicious glare.

“You know he was as much a brother to you as he was to me!” Pepper proceeded to grab 30K’s collar and pull him upwards. 30K grabbed Pepper’s collar, fruitlessly attempting to do the same.

“That’s enough, you two!” Ferguson intervened, pulling the two apart “We’ve all been rattled by what’s happened, but fighting about it isn’t going to solve anything!”

“He’s right, gentlemen. Whatever Kozak found is the reason he’s gone missing.” Mitchell said with a solemn voice “We need to find out what it was and how to stop it before it can do anymore damage.”

“Okay.” 30K nodded.

“What do we need to do?” Pepper asked. Both men wore determined looks on their faces.

A gentle breeze passed through the weathered barn, gently awaking Kozak from his slumber. He slowly opened his eyes and then immediately sat up, scrambling for his guns. But, when they were nowhere to be found on his person, every muscle in his body became tense as he slowly looked around in an attempt to analyse what dire situation he was now in.

But, instead of finding himself surrounded by enemy hostiles, he was met with the sight of a humble barn that looked handmade in design. Sunlight peeked through the holes in the walls and ceiling of the barn, creating many miniature spotlights. One of said spotlights fell on a pile of weapons and tactical gear to the left of the engineer.

Kozak lifted himself off the ground and reached for his equipment, inspecting each piece thoroughly for any changes to their usual setup. Only after he was satisfied that his weapons were in perfect condition did he contemplate his current situation.

After taking another look around himself, Kozak remembered everything that had transpired the day before. Kozak had never been very sharp when waking up after sleep, be it one hour or twelve, he always woke up and assumed he was in the worst possible situation, not taking a moment to consider what had happened the night before.

He wondered if he should seek help about that fact, completely unphased by the fact that he was in a place filled with colourful talking ponies. But the veteran had seen many things, so his stoic reaction was almost always to be expected.

The peaceful silence in the room, which Kozak was very unaccustomed to, was broken by a light knocking on the barn door. Kozak turned his head quickly and fixated on the door, his instincts kicking in as he pulled his pistol out and aimed it at the door.

“Um... Mister John?” Kozak immediately recognised the voice to be Applebloom’s and relaxed, holstering his gun “Are you awake?” she asked shyly.

“Yes.” Kozak replied. He walked towards the left door as it opened to reveal a small yellow filly with red hair and a big red bow. “Did you need something?”

“Well, Applejack told me ta bring y’all some food.” Applebloom pulled out a bucket filled with apples from behind the door that was currently closed. Kozak got on one knee took the bucket of apples in one hand and then placed his hand on her head.

“Thanks.” Kozak said gratefully. The engineer gave a small smile from under his face mask, which went unnoticed by the eager young filly. She smiled widely at his show of gratitude and cantered back towards the apple orchard.

Kozak watched as she trotted away, and then grabbed an apple from the bucket. He stared at it for a second before wiping it on his bulletproof vest, pulling down his facemask and taking a bite. He looked down in amazement at the bitten apple in his hand as he vigorously chewed the piece in his mouth.

Mmm... that orange cowpony wasn’t kidding about these apples. Kozak thought.

He looked down at the bucket of apples and silently thanked Applebloom for bringing so many. He continued to eat the apples from the bucket, reminiscing about the poor quality of food he had been eating for the past few years, and comparing it to the red deliciousness of these apples. For once, Kozak was happy to be where he was now, but was completely unaware of what was in store for him today.

Applebloom happily trotted to the clubhouse on the edge of the Sweet Apple Acres orchard. She couldn’t wait to see Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle, or rather, she couldn’t wait to tell them about how she had gotten to spend more time with their new found friend than they had. Applebloom was a sweet little filly, but she always liked to gloat to her friends whenever the opportunity arose.

She reached the clubhouse, and could hear talking coming from inside. She entered to find Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle arguing with one another.

“-but it doesn’t matter if that was his skin! He still looked so awesome! Almost as awesome as Rainbow Dash!” Scootaloo shouted.

“No, he looks really scary! And it’s definitely not his skin! Didn’t you hear him talking to Rarity about it?” Sweetie Belle replied.

“Well, not really. I was listening to Rainbow Dash tell me how she went easy on the John, because she knew straight away that he was good!”

“But she didn’t even attack him!”

“Exactly!”

Sweetie Belle just huffed, signaling she had given up on Scootaloo, and turned away from orange filly with a pout on her face.

“Are y’all finished?” Applebloom said, grabbing the attention of her two friends. It seemed as though they hadn’t even noticed her standing there during their argument due to the looks of surprise they both held on their faces.

“Oh, hey Applebloom! Why are you so late?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Well, ah was gonna come straight over here after breakfast, but Applejack asked me to go an’ take some food to John.” Applebloom said with a smile on her face.

“Really?!” Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle shouted in unison.

“What did he say?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Well, all he said was thanks... Oh! He also patted me on the head!” Applebloom said proudly, her smile growing wider. Both fillies stood there for a few moments in silence before looking at each other and then back at Applebloom.

“That’s so awesome!” Scootaloo shouted.

“You’re so lucky!” Sweetie Belle added.

And, with that, the three young fillies began planning various ways to earn their cutie marks, most, if not all, including Ponyville’s newest guest.

After Kozak had finished eating every freshly-picked apple that had been in the wooden bucket, he decided to return the container to it’s rightful owner. He pulled his mask up over his mouth again and began walking towards the living quarters of the farm. Just as he reached the door, however, it swung open, revealing a large red stallion with a blonde mane.

They both froze, but showed no signs of surprise at one another’s presence. The red stallion simply moved his eyes around Kozak’s body, analyzing him. Kozak knew this kind of personality; he had dealt with it a few times during undercover missions. Men who always analysed every detail of a person, who were somehow able to discern whether or not they were to be trusted. The kind of men who were very few and far between. The stallion’s eyes had stopped moving.

“You that hu-mane Applejack let stay in th’ barn?” He asked slowly. He had a deep, calm voice.

“Yes.” Kozak replied with an equally calm tone.

“You ain’t gonna hurt mah family, are ya?”

“Not if they don’t hurt me.”

“Ah suppose that’s fair.” The stallion nodded “Th’ name’s Big Macintosh, but everypony ‘round here calls me Bic Mac.” He extended a hoof out in front of him.

“John. John Kozak.” Kozak grabbed the hoof and shook it firmly.

Without a word, the two continued walking past each other. Kozak had to lower his head slightly, as the house was clearly not made for anyone taller than 6ft.. Applejack emerged from a doorway on the right of Kozak.

“Oh, Mr John! You startled me!” Applejack said. Kozak noticed a familiar look on the mare’s face. Though it was discreet, it was there; a look of genuine fear. She was attempting to hide it out of consideration for his feelings.

“Here’s your bucket back. Your little sister brought me some apples in it.”

“Well, that’s mighty kind of ya, Mr John!” Applejack took the bucket from Kozak’s hands and walked back into the kitchen with it. Kozak began looking at some of the pictures up on the walls, but before he could study the captured memories in any detail, a loud knocking came from the front door.

Kozak decided to answer the door, and gave no consideration to the fact that he was a foreign creature here, and that whoever was at the door might have a heart attack upon seeing him. He opened the door to find Twilight Sparkle on the other side of it.

“Oh, Mr John!” Twilight said in surprise.

“Oh, hey Twilight!” Applejack said after returning from the kitchen “Well, ain’t this a pleasant surprise! Is there something ya needed?”

“Well, actually,” Twilight looked nervously at Kozak “I was wondering if I could ask Mr John here some questions?”

“Sure.” Kozak replied, nodding in approval. Twilight turned around and motioned for Kozak to follow, obviously wanting to speak in private. This made him slightly weary of what she might want to ask.

Twilight stopped when they were a fair distance away from the house and turned to face Kozak.

“S-so...” She muttered. It seemed as though she was somewhat hesitant when speaking to the engineer, and that being near him was the last thing she wanted to do, much less talk to him.

“You said you had some questions for me?” Kozak decided that it would be best if he took the lead out of respect for Twilight.

“T-that’s right.” The mare appeared much more confident now “I have quite a few, if you don’t mind?” Kozak shook his head, and the unicorn nodded in response “Alright... first thing’s first,” Twilight pointed at Kozak’s Assault Rifle “What is that metal object you have on your back?”

Kozak stared at her for a few seconds, wondering how to phrase the question. He wasn’t going to lie, or refuse to answer the question; he had given Twilight his word, and that meant more to him than it did to most people. It was the only part of himself that he actually liked, and he was determined to keep it that way.

“Well, it’s kind of hard to explain...” Kozak took his gun into his hand and presented it to Twilight “This object is designed to fire small projectiles at high speeds, with almost pinpoint accuracy. The projectiles can travel hundreds of metres in seconds, and can penetrate the toughest materials.”

He strapped the assault rifle on his back again while Twilight stood there in complete awe. Kozak’s explanation had answered her first question, but raised so many others that began racing through her mind. Before she had a chance to speak again, however, Kozak pulled out his pistol and presented it just like he had the assault rifle.

“This is a much smaller version of the one on my back, but subsequently is less powerful and the projectiles travel much less farther.” He placed it back in it’s holster “Humans call these devices ‘guns’.”

Twilight had gained a look of horror on her face after realising that the metal device Kozak had just shown her had been pointed at her and her friends.

“W-why would anypony create such a device?” Twilight asked, somewhat fearful of the answer.

“To kill.” Kozak replied very coldly, causing Twilight to grimace “It was solely created for use in war as a more effective way of killing.” he added.

Twilight was completely shocked by what she had just heard. She wondered why anypony would want to kill another in such a gruesome manner. To her, it seemed barbaric.

“During the great war against the Griffon Kingdom,” Twilight mused “ponies had to fight against griffons. They were forced to create new, more effective ways of defeating the enemy, before they were defeated themselves. What you’ve just told me goes way beyond anything ponies would ever dream of creating, but that doesn’t mean I don’t understand why it was created.” Kozak gave a confused look at Twilight from under his mask, which she seemed to pick up on “What I’m trying to say is, I’m okay with the fact that you have that.”

“I’m assuming that was to clear your conscience rather than spare my feelings?” Kozak chuckled. Twilight was a slightly taken aback by this, but then gave a friendly smile. At this point, she had become visibly less tense.

“Y’know, you aren’t really as scary as I thought you were.” Twilight said.

“Well, you aren’t as girly as I thought you were. You handled what I told you pretty well for such an innocent looking pony.” Twilight giggled whilst Kozak watched her, smiling under his mask at the display of innocence “So, did you have anymore questions for me?” he asked. Twilight brought her hoof to her chin and began tapping it.

“Well, the other night, you said that those were clothes?” Twilight pointed at his clothes.

“Oh, right. This is armour.”

“What?!” Twilight shouted in disbelief “How can it be so thin?!”

“It’s a special type of armour that stops the projectiles that come out of guns.”

“That’s amazing!” Twilight came up towards Kozak and inspected the armour more closely “Do you have anything else as amazing as this?” Kozak gave a small grin and reached for the button on his left shoulder. He pressed it, activating his optical camouflage.

Twilight’s mouth gaped even wider and her pupils dilated as she stared at the shimmering mass in front of her. She let out a excited squeal that could put any little girl to shame.

“OHMYGOODNESSYOUKNOWMAGICTHISISUNPRESIDENTEDICAN’TBELIEVEYOUCANTURNINVISIBLE” Twilight took a large breath of air before continuing “IHAVETODOCUMENTTHISANDIHAVESOMANYQUESTIONSPRINCESSCELESTIANEEDSTOKNOWABOUTTHI-” The mare suddenly stopped her excited rant and her excied expression turned to one of shock “Oh no! How could I have forgotten about Princess Celestia?!”

Kozak looked down at the unicorn who had now become frantic as she started mumbling to herself. Her hair had suddenly become uncouth and she had started hyperventilating.

“Wait, Twilight,” Twilight quickly focused her attention to Kozak “who’s Princess Celestia?”

Princess Celestia was tired. She had been kept up all night by the magical disturbance that had emanated from the Everfree Forest. It was stronger than any she had ever felt before, but that wasn’t what worried her. She was worried by the fact that it had happened so close to where her Student Twilight Sparkle and her friends live. They were not only close to the princess, but they were also the current bearers of the Elements of Harmony, and if anything were to happen to them, it might mean the end of Equestria.

She was currently in the royal chariot and was being accompanied by two of her strongest guards.

Once they had reached Ponyville, Celestia was surprised to see that there was no one there to meet her. Not even her faithful student. She immediately thought the worst, and decided to take action.

“Guards,” she addressed the two pegasi that had been pulling her chariot “search the town for Twilight Sparkle and the other bearers of the Elements of Harmony. Make sure you find them, and if you find anything you might consider a threat, you have my permission to do whatever necessary to protect this town. I will stay here in case they are just running late, and will call you back if they arrive, understood?” The two armour-clad pegasi saluted and flew off in separate directions.

Celestia had now been put on edge, but she knew that she could do nothing but wait. She only hoped for the safety of Twilight and her friends.

After explaining who Princess Celestia was to Kozak, Twilight had run off to gather her friends. She had told Kozak to make his way to the entrance of the Everfree Forest, where they had emerged from last night, and made sure to stress the fact that he should be discrete whilst traveling through the town if he didn’t want to scare any of it’s inhabitants and cause unnecessary panic.

Luckily, Kozak was an expert in stealth, and had the ability to become invisible at will, so traversing the town quietly was no problem for him. He had reached the edge of the town and just begun walking toward the spot Twilight had told him to go to when he spotted a yellow object in the sky.

He noticed that it landed near where he was supposed to meet the girls, and couldn’t help but investigate what it was, despite Twilight’s warning to stay out of trouble. As he got closer, he spotted three ponies; two of them were armour-clad pegasi, and the other had both wings and a horn, and was significantly larger than any of the equines he had met so far. Based on Twilight’s description, he guessed this to be Princess Celestia.

Kozak quickly made his way to one of the trees on the edge of the forest for cover. He peeked out to see Celestia raise her hoof. The two pegasi saluted her and then flew off in different directions towards the town.

Hmm... They must be soldiers of some sort... Kozak thought Then that means that she has a fair bit of authority.

He focused back on the Princess to find her looking around herself, as though she were looking for something that she knew was there, but couldn’t quite see.

Wait, is she looking for me? How could she possibly know I’m here? But then Kozak remembered the description Twilight gave of Celestia. She was the most powerful being in this kingdom, and considering that this was a land of talking ponies with wing and horns who could perform magic, it made sense that she knew he was there.

“I know you’re out there, I can sense your presence.” Celestia said “Show yourself!” Kozak moved closer to Celestia.

“You’re much more perceptive than I thought.” he said, disengaging his optical camouflage. Celestia was taken back by his appearance, which was no surprise, since Kozak stood slightly taller than her.

“What do you want?” she asked in a stern voice. Kozak didn’t like to be questioned, but was willing to answer truthfully, given his current situation.

“Nothing in particular.” he said. Celestia looked more aggressive now, which caused Kozak to pull out his pistol and aim it at her. She flinched at the sight of it, but still maintained her stance.

“What is that?!” she asked, a clear tone of worry in her voice.

“Just a precaution.”

“Are you threatening me?” Celestia asked with a scowl on her face as her stance became much more aggressive “Do you know who I am?!”

“You’re Princess Celestia.” Kozak replied instantly, putting her off guard for a moment. She visibly steeled herself.

“So you know who I am?” She asked “I have never heard of a creature like in you in all my years of ruling Equestria, so how is it you have heard of me?”

“Twilight Sparkle told me.” Kozak replied bluntly.

“What?!” she exclaimed “What have you done with her?!” Celestia pointed her horn at Kozak, indicating she was ready to attack him.

“Nothing.” Kozak said calmly.

“You’re lying! Why would she tell something like you anything willingly?!” she shouted. Kozak had now become tired of the Princess’ unwillingness to cooperate.

“Look, I haven’t done anything to her. She’s only gone to look for her friends and bring them here.” This seemed to calm Celestia, as her stance had returned to a less aggressive one. Kozak decided it was a good time to lower his pistol as well “I don’t mean any harm. I’m only looking for a way to go back where I’ve come from.

“How can I trust you?” she asked.

“Well, for one, I’m not pointing this” He motioned his gun “at you anymore.” He holstered his pistol and decided to move closer to Celestia, causing her to move back a bit. But before Kozak could move any closer, he felt something slam into the back of his helmet with enough force to knock him unconscious.

One of Celestia’s royal guards had spotted Twilight and her friends making their way towards the location he had just come from, where they were meant to meet up with the princess, and had decided to report back.

As he flew back, however, he spotted a creature of some sort having a standoff with Celestia. It was clear that she was talking to it, but he couldn’t see anything that resembled a mouth anywhere on the creature, so was unsure if it was talking back. The creature was completely black, and had no discernible features, other than it’s eyes, which were glowing an unnatural light blue.

The guard did not want to approach the monster, as it seemed to be pointing an object at the princess, and, judging by the fact that she hadn’t attacked yet, he concluded that it was a kind of weapon. Due to the fact that he had no idea what the weapon did, he thought it best to wait until the perfect moment to execute a sneak attack.

He noticed the creature put away the object, and had begun walking towards Celestia. The moment she flinched backwards, the guard acted instinctively, flying as fast as he could directly at the monster. He slammed into the back of it’s head, which seemed to knock it unconscious.

“So, where were we supposed to meet the princess?” Rarity asked.

“Just up ahead, near the entrance to the Everfree Forest.” Twilight replied.

“Do you know why she came here?” Fluttershy asked.

“There’s been a disturbance in the magical field surrounding the forest, bigger than any that has happened before.” Twilight explained.

“You don’t think John has anything to do with it, do you?” Applejack asked.

“I don’t know...” Twilight looked dejectedly at the ground “Considering the circumstances, I’d say it’s definitely possible.”

“I knew we shouldn’t have trusted him so easily!” Rainbow Dash shouted “Why did you send him alone?! He’s probably done something to the princess!”

“Don’t say things like that, Rainbow! I’m sure everything’s fi-” Twilight was cut off by the sight of John lying unconscious on the floor in front of Celestia and her two guards “Oh my goodness!” Twilight ran up to John’s unconscious body “What happened to him?!”

“Don’t worry, Twilight, he’s only unconscious.” Celestia explained “It looked like he was about to attack me, so one of my guards attacked him in an attempt to protect me.”

“Was he going to attack you?” The unicorn asked.

“No...” Celestia looked down at John “He explained he was friendly and attempted to approach me. It was all just a misunderstanding, although I fear I won’t be able to make it up to him...”

“His name is John.” Twilight said “He called himself a ‘Human’. We found him in the Everfree Forest last night when Fluttershy told us she heard a thunder-like noise and we went out to investigate.”

“Hmm... that is most peculiar... I think he may be the reason for the disruption.”

“That’s what I thought too, but I don’t think he did it willingly.” Twilight said, eliciting a look of confusion from Celestia “When we found him, he said that his home was far away from here. The way he said it makes me think he doesn’t exactly know how he got here.”

“Well, the only thing we can do now is tend to his wounds and wait until he awakes.” Celestia said. In truth, she did not know how to proceed from there after, and was weary of what might happen. The only thing she could really think about was John’s aura; it was bleak, filled with sadness, as though he had experienced death much more than once. Any normal pony would go insane from such an aura, yet he seemed perfectly reasonable when talking. She could only compare his aura with one other.

Her own.

Author’s Note: Phew! This one was a toughie! Not only was I on vacation for a couple of weeks, but I also lost the steam I had before I went, so it took quite a while to get it back. Don’t worry, I’ll try and get a new chapter out as soon as I can after this one (Just as soon as I relax for a few days). Well, as always, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter!