The Melding of Two Worlds Pt. 1: The Battle for Ponyville

The day started out simple enough. After I'd gotten my hangover gear (ie sunglasses and a cup of coffee), I'd left the tent and looked at the town. I then proceeded to have a mental meltdown as I stared at a cyan blue pegasus with rainbow colored mane and tail flapping at eye level.

"What are you?" asked a feminine voice.

I pulled down my sunglasses, much to my eyes protest, trying to ensure that I was looking at what I thought I was looking at, "A human. What are-" Everything clicked. I remembered the day before, and I understood, "Nevermind. My name's Wolfgang. Can I help you?"

"Yeah, what are you all doing here?" She asks, spreading her forelegs out as she spoke.

"You haven' heard?" She shakes her head, looking annoyed, "Where 'ave you been? We got here in the middle of the day!"

She shrugged, "I was asleep." It sounded like this was a normal occurrence. I groaned, and filled her in. She didn't look too happy, "Really? Equestria and the Crystal Empire are at war?"

"Yep."

"For stuff in the ground, that nopony is sure of being there?"

"Stupid, but yep."

She snorts from her nose, "What makes you so sure that Equestria needs help? We've got our own army! It's quite impressive." She says this with a confident zeal.

I groaned. My hangover forcing my brain to drag itself through all sorts of pain just to process the quickest solution. My mind fell onto a single, simple solution. "Come with me." I say, turning around and walking off east of camp. I yawned as I entered an empty field. I looked around for a suitable target. I saw a thin, dead tree that was still standing. Bingo.

I pointed at and said, "See that tree? I'm gonna demonstrate what our army can do." I pull out my Desert Eagle, take aim, and fire. The bullet hits dead center of the thin trunk. The tree was so thin, that the tree actually cracked, and fell over. I looked at the pegasus, who's jaw was hanging over as she stared in disbelief at the fallen tree. I unloaded my pistol, and took out a bullet.

"You see this here?" I asked. I got a nod, "Imagine the head of this, movin' faster than yer eyes can follow. That's enough to rip through at least five bodies before it stops movin'."

The pegasus drops to the ground, her wings falling to the side, "We're...we're... doomed." Her eyes started tearing up, but she holds herself together fairly well.

I put a hand on her shoulder, starting to feel bad about the bluntness of my demonstration, "No yer not. You got a whole nation gearin' up to fight fer ya. You ain't gonna git hurt if we got somethin' to say 'bout it."

"What can you do against something that can knock over trees?"

"We shoot 'em, an' drink."

Before she can ask me what I meant by that, I raise up the bottle of vodka that I somehow still had in my hand. I open it, and hand it to her. She takes it hesitantly, but takes a swig. Her face screws up, like she's about to spit it out. But she swallows, coughs, and asks, "What is this?"

I take the bottle back, and close it, "Some of the best vodka I've ever drank."

"That tastes terrible! Why would you ever want to drink that?"

I chuckle, "To get drunk an' shitfaced!"

"If you wanted to get drunk, you should try Applejack's apple cider! It's sweet and alcoholic."

"Alright, when I manage to get some of... whatever currency you use here, I'll see 'bout gettin' some. Hey, by the way, what's yer name?"

"Rainbow Dash! But you can call me Rainbow." She says this with a smile.

"Ok, Rainbow. Look me up if I ain't doing anythin', an' we can see 'bout havin' some fun in this town of yers."

She smiles, and raises a hoof, "You got it!" I raise a fist, and bump her hoof, "Whatcha doing today?"

I groan, "This new Colonel of mine gives me the vibe that we'll be gettin' straight tuh work fortifying the town. That means diggin' trenches an' fillin' sand bags."

Rainbow lets out a sympathetic ooh, "Well, if you need me, I'll probably be at Sugar Cube Corner at some point."

I sigh myself, "And I'll be here somewhere, diggin'." The size of the upcoming task was beginning to take a toll on my imagination.

Rainbow gives me a friendly punch on the shoulder before flying off into the sky. She seemed nice. I like her. I went back to the city of tents. After morning call of from the trumpet playing revali, we all gathered at the mess tent, where four lines of men had developed. When I found myself at the counter, I found that our breakfast were ration "eggs", toast, and something that looked like hash-browns. Not exactly the best of breakfasts, but it was better than nothing. The cook took a saucer, scooping up some of the yellow "eggs" with pepper sprinkled into it, and plopped it onto my tray. I thanked him as I grabbed a couple slices of toast, and moved on to get another chef to plop on some of the hash-browns. Another thanks, and I continued on. The mess hall didn't have any tables or benches, and there appeared to be a reason, as the men who'd gotten their meal were now walking out of the tent. I followed them, allowing for the sea of fellow militia men to lead me off to wherever we were going.

We finally came to the empty field that I had been in, Colonel Mien Bláha was standing on the supply crate that had been in the plane I'd jumped out of. There were hundreds of men here, too many for me to count. They were all sitting and eating as they waited for him to begin. I sat down with them, and started eating with a stainless steel spoon. Everything just tasted bland, tasteless. Zlat sat down next to me, somehow finding me through the sea of troops. He had the same thing as I did. Eggs, toast, hash-browns.

After about a minute, the Colonel seemed to be satisfied that enough men were here, so he began, "Well men, it appears that we're ready to begin. Unfortunately, command hasn't given us an entire battalion of troops to defend the town. Right now, as it stands, there's only 650 men here, including myself. If it is deemed necessary we'll be reinforced by an artillery contingent whose size will be determined later." he was met by nervous mutterings from us. I wasn't very happy myself. I mean, a battalion wasn't exactly very big to begin with, but now we're even less than a battalion? This was very bad news if we got attacked by a significant force. We needed to get our fortifications up, FAST.

The Colonel started talking again, "I know, this is very unsavory news. However, this is more reason to start getting our defenses up quickly. Thanks to the local alicorn princess, we will be getting some help in our defenses. Most notably, she will be raising the ground of this town Ponyville, up by nearly a hundred feet. Right at this moment, the local populace is being notified that the change will be occurring in about an hour. We will be arranging our trenches to face downhill in both directions. Your platoon leaders will instruct you on where to dig. Now, if we get reports that the enemy is advancing towards us, we will then begin the task of mining the roads, destroying the rail road they have here, and setting traps in the fields surrounding the road. The local populace, however, will need to be evacuated. Some of the unicorns, pegasi, and... uh... earth ponies will be staying behind to try and help maintain the town and defenses. They shall be using the train that faces west, and will destroy the rail as they leave. Now, find your platoon leaders, and let's get ready."

We scrambled to finish up our meal, throwing our treys at the mess hall in panic, and rushed about in a frenzied crowd trying to find our lieutenants. I found him, a tall, lanky Racoonian man. The rest of the 649 men finally settled down to wait over the final hour. The wait opened up for our fear of what was going to happen grew. Our imaginations started coming up with all sorts of different possibilities. Like, would all of a sudden be on top of a hill?- all of a sudden rise up quickly and be flown up into the air?- or would it be a slow rising feeling?

Our answer was simple, we rose slowly. It was slow, yet it didn't take long before we were done. Our result, a beautiful hill to defend. The top of the hill was the town, which as far as I could tell, had the size of about two football fields put together. The hill's decline had about the length of 50 yards, of a gentle decline, enough to allow the trenches behind the first to easily shoot over their heads.

We look to our lieutenant, and he began speaking, "Alright, we'll be digging out the first line of trenches at the bottom of the hill. It's going to be going around the entire hill. Once we finish that, we'll need to be making another line of trenches that'll be about ten yards behind the first line, and so on and so forth. At 30 yard intervals, we'll need to build concrete pillboxes." We're all already groaning, even Zlat, and as far as I knew, he didn't even need to help!

He speaks up though, "Um, sir? How do I enter the militia?" All eyes are on him.

"You serious?" someone asks.

"I am."

The lieutenant sighs and hands him a paper and pen, which I recognize as the papers that said you agreed to fight and aid in the fighting of whoever he was ordered against. The same ones I'd signed. Did he carry those around with him all the time? He signed quickly and filled out some of the personal information, and handed it back. "Welcome to your new home I guess." someone says.

The lieutenant says, "You'll get your tags in a week or so."

Throughout this whole thing, I had my eyes glued to Zlat. I just, couldn't believe it. This guy was such a pacifist that he would gladly take a punch from a bully in school. That guy, was now a member of the militia of New York City. We got our entrenching tools, small shovels and pickaxes, and walked down the hill at our target, and started digging. It was boring. Therapeutic, but boring. We dug the trenches about two and a half feet wide, and eight feet deep. We had to be reminded to put down more dirt for a fire step that would allow the soldier to stand up and fire over the edge, which was about 2 and a half feet high. The squad split in half, digging in two directions. Above, another squad was filling up sandbags full of the dirt we dug up. The rest of the day we spent digging. Squads split up to dig out sections of about 20 feet long, then we'd make a small growth in the trench width, which was where a machine gun would go. That little growth would be when we'd meet another squad doing the exact same thing. It was at this time, that everyone knew that this was going to be a long day, so we made a quick trip back to our tents to toss down our shirts and anything else that wasn't our pants (which included our shoes and socks). Our pants we wore. This day was impossibly hot. Our bodies were drenched in sweat, humans glistening in the sunlight, while the anthropomorphics fur plastered themselves to their bodies. But all of our feet were dirtied by mud and dirt. By midday, we were all bone tired, and had only managed to dig out 2 full trench lines, and a quarter of the third. We hadn't even started building the pillboxes.

We couldn't even crawl out of the trenches we were so tired. There wasn't a single smile in my squad. Not even Zlat's optimism seemed to be able to penetrate our weariness. We heard the sound of several carts rolling up.

"Cider! Apple cider! Come an' get it!" Came the voice of young voice with a hint of southern drawl. I managed to pull my head over the side of the trench. Three ponies were dragging carts full of wooden barrels. One was a large stallion with a red coat and orange mane and half an apple on his flank, another was orange with blonde ponytails, freckles, and a brown cowboy hat. The final one was small, had a yellow coat and red mane and tail. I managed to pull myself out of the trench, and started stumbling over.

"My my! So that's what they look like." The orange one said.

I stopped in front of them, and asked, "Is it free? Cuz I don't exactly have anythin' to pay you with."

"Nope! It's free! If yer fighting for us, least we can do is give you something to cool you off!" Said the small one with a cheerful smile.

"Eeyup." The large one confirmed.

I met their smile with a toothy grin, and called over the rest of the unit. The ponies turned their carts around, showing the three barrels in each cart that faced towards us, and mugs hanging off the sides of the cart. I grabbed one, held it under a dispenser, and let the cider flow until it filled up the mug. I moved out of the way for the others to come forth.

I looked to the orange one, "Thanks. It's been a long day, an' this is sure tuh help."

"Yer welcome! Name's Applejack! This here," she gestures at the stallion, "Is Big Macintosh, or Big Mac fer short, and this," she ruffles the hair of the younger pony, "Is Applebloom. We're all siblings, and we're mighty grateful fer yer work here."

I reach out a hand, which Applejack puts a hoof in, "Even though you'll probably forget mine, my name's Wolfgang Piatek. Pleased to be of service." I then chug down the entire mug of cider, which was one of the sweetest drinks that I had ever had the pleasure to drink. I gave out a resounding gasp of air with a smile plastered over my face.

"Hot da-" I started, soon realizing that there was a kid nearby, I censored myself, "aaaang. This cider is pretty awesome! You made this?"

"Yep, right down the other road at Sweet Apple Acres, the local apple farm. Yer welcome to come by if you ever get the chance."

"I just might come down. If I ain't doin' anything, I might come to help out with any work you might 'ave. I hate 'aving the feelin' of owin' a debt to someone."

"Well sure! Help would be a welcome sight. Depending on what you get done will determine yer pay though. We ain't like them factories in the cities that pay you by the hour."

I nod, "Makes sense." I bid them good-day with another thanks, and headed back down to the trench, where the others were already beginning to gather again. I felt better, rejuvenated even, like the work so far had been light. The feeling grew to the point where I felt well rested, and a strange energy seemed boil in my veils, like I'd drank a few energy drinks. My foot was tapping against the ground quickly as I wolfed down my food. Looking around, everyone else looked to be under the same effects. Work resumed, and our unit, as well as any other units that tasted some of Applejack's cider, ended up working faster than we had that morning. By the end of the day, we ended up finishing 10 trench lines, and three fourths of the 11th. That night, we all went to sleep immediately.

The following day started just like the last. We dug more trenches until the final trench line was built. After that, we started filling up the trenches with wooden planks to build something of a flat floor for the trenches, which had a bowel shape to it. This was going to be very helpful, since once we had rainfall, water would be pooling on the bottom. We did the same for the firing step. For the back end of the trenches, we placed a weave between wooden pikes (which were buried into the ground) that kept the dirt and mud from slipping forwards. This work went much quicker, and we finished this for all of the trenches within the day.

The day after, we all began the construction of the pillboxes. I wasn't an engineer, and neither were most of the other people in the militia. But we managed to learn quickly from the diagrams that were handed out. First, we dug out a section of untouched dirt that would be large enough for the pillbox about 3 feet deep. We then set up wood posts on the corners, and connected them with plywood. We then made wall for it that spaced about a foot away from the first wall. We made sure to make the openings for the gunners, because we really didn't want to use our pickaxes to make them after the concrete sealed up. We'd pour in the concrete, and let it sit. We actually managed to make a decent amount of pillboxes that day, about half of the needed pillboxes. All we had to do was wait for a few days for them to solidify. The next day we finished up the final pillboxes, and had even made a spotting tower for the east side of town. With that, we were given a day of rest.

-

I woke up, and I was immediately assaulted by the smell of sweaty, stinking men and muscles that cried for me to not move. But my nose won out the debate of whether or not to move. I needed to get out of here and get a bath. I fell out of bed, and rushed out of the tent, my stomach beginning to revolt against me. I took two steps out, and I retched out whatever it had been that I ate last night onto the dirt. I coughed a few times before standing, and looked for the shower. But I found nothing. We'd been so focused on the construction that no one had thought to set up the showers. I went into the town, where I continued to look for a source of water to clean myself with. And there it was. A creek deep enough for me to wash myself in. I waded in to the center which was about 4 feet deep, and began to scrub myself with my hands. I scrubbed and scrubbed and washed as hard as I could, but I couldn't seem to get clean enough to where the stink would leave.

"Do you need a shower?" a familiar voice asked. I turned around to find Twilight, and a host of other ponies, most of which I'd already met.

"Need is a bit of an understatement. I haven't showered in almost a week now, and I'm covered in filth." I say. The white unicorn with a purple, styled mane held a hoof to her mouth as if that were the only thing keeping her from throwing up. Oh, if that's enough to make you feel like throwing up, you shouldn't try to go near camp or else you'd never stop.

"Come with me then, you can take a shower in my castle!" Twilight says.

I thank her, and stepped out of the creek. Rainbow Dash and Applejack are looking at me hard when I come out. Or rather, at something on me, "What?"

"Oh, nothing it's just that you have... a lot of muscles." Rainbow manages to say.

"Very large ones too." Applejack says, still staring.

OOoooooh. I see what's going on! You're getting the hots for me! I think sarcastically in my head. I laugh inside as I followed them to the crystal castle, but I also take a look at myself. I wasn't all that muscular. If anything, I'd actually lost some weight in all that hard labor. Inside the castle was a labyrinth of halls with signs that had been placed on each hallway telling the reader where it led. She led me straight to one of the bathrooms, and opened the door for me as I approached it. I gave a short thanks before entering, and shutting the door behind me. I undressed myself, entered the shower (which oddly looked much like a human shower) and turned the water on. Nice, cool water fell on me as I proceeded to wash myself clean. It amazed me how many layers of dirt had piled on me. Layer after layer fell, until I finally came to skin. Bright. Red. Skin.

I finally finished, put on my filthy clothes, and stepped out of the bathroom. My mind, and I think my heart too, stopped for a few moments as I saw what lay before me. All six ponies, which looked to have just race backwards, were trying to look as inconspicouos as possible, whistling and playing at the floor with a hoof.

"Ok, mind tellin' me what you want?" I ask, feeling a bit violated.

"We were, curious to see what it was humans do in the shower." The white unicorn asked.

I raise an eyebrow, not enjoying the thought of ponies trying to see me nude. I mean, being ponies, they probably wouldn't think of it sexually, but it still felt wrong to me.

"If you really want to know more 'bout humans, would you just ask? It's a lot less creepy that way."

Twilight seemed to squee in delight, "Ooh! I know the perfect place!" Her horn lights up, and a flash later, we're in a totally new room, one that has a massive round table made out of crystal. My stomach, for the second time today, revolted against me, and I started dry heaving.

"What, are you doing?" asked Twilight in a very disgusted tone.

"Dry- BLEH!!- heaving," I moaned before continuing for another few seconds.

"Ok, note to self, don't ever teleport humans! EVER again!" Twilight says.

I'm breathing heavily as I bring myself back into a sitting position, "That would be smart. So, what questions do you 'ave?"

Twilight teleports a scroll, a quill, and a few bottles of ink, and she's ready to write, "How many countries besides ours is there?" She asks.

I have to ponder this one. Most of the smaller nations had been swallowed up over the years, and others had broken apart, "I'd say, 'bout 150 of them. But that ain't an exact number, just a guess. You see, I ain't a very worldly man."

"Ok, my turn," Rainbow says, "What kind of sports do you have?"

"Football, baseball, soccer, tennis, and more that I don't know."

"What are the rules? How are they played?" She asks fervently.

"Hell, I don't know. It's a bit much to explain. It'd be better just to show you, and explain as a game went on. Let's just say this, football is a contact sport that occasionally results in broken bones, baseball is a classic sport with fewer injuries includin' hittin' a ball with a bat. Soccer is kickin' a ball on the ground and tryin' to shoot it in a goal, and tennis is hittin' a ball over a net at another person. Most of these sports are actually kinda borin'. Next."

For the next several hours, I was answering questions about the human world and how our society functioned. I made it clear, however, what was affected by biases and what was simply fact. Finally, they asked, "What's with the human and animal hybrids?"

Well, that was going to come up at some point. "Well, that's something of a touchy subject, and a long story. A long time ago, well before my great-grandparents were born, some scientists got the 'great' idea that we needed more diversity. Whether it was out of some sort of fetish, or genuine want of diversity in the world, they managed to do it. First, they started with apes because our genetic code is so similar, which turned out pretty badly. The kids that they created had the mind of a kid, but the strength of several men. Broken bones and concussions were commonplace when they mingled with people who got them angry. By the time they reached their teenage years, the test subjects ended up killing several scientists that were working on the project. Bound by law, they executed the test subjects."

The group gasped, "Why? Why would they do that?"

I shrug, "It's the law. Look, I get it. Equestria is a nice place, an' I doubt that murders happen very often. But look at it this way. Once someone has killed another person, who's to say that they won' try again? If we send them to prison, they're just as likely to kill people in there, or get corrupted by the gang members that are there."

"Even if it was only an accident?" The yellow one with the pink mane asks.

"Well, that's why we 'ave three different levels of murder. Third degree murder, second degree murder, an' first degree murder." I proceeded to start talking about our legal system and how complicated it was.

"Wow, that is..." Twilight cuts herself off, unable to find accurate words.

"Complicated." Rainbow, Applejack, Spike and I say all at once.

There's a long pause before anyone says anything. Finally, Rarity asks, "What do you think of us? As a whole, I mean."

Well, there's a loaded question if there ever was one. I take a moment before I answer, thinking of an answer, "To be honest, I'm not entirely sure. We have animals back home that look uncannily similar to you, an' yet I can still make the distinguishment between the two of you. But when I look at the people here in the mental sense, I'm terrified fer what's to come. You ain't ready for what's coming, not by a long shot."

"What do you mean?" Spike asks.

"When's the last time Equestria was at war?" I ask pointedly. The ponies and dragon think, debating to each other.

"We don't know. The last time we were at war must have been over a thousand years ago before Celestia and Luna took over." Fluttershy says.

"There you go. War is brutal, unimaginably so. Men an' women tryin' to kill each other fer some reason they don' really know besides that they're doin' it for their country. Thousands, if not millions of people shootin' at each other. You aren't ready for that kind of chaos. If you watch, I fear what that will do to your minds." I pause, feeling like crap for saying this, "However, you probably see it as us being unbelievably violent an' barbaric. If so, so be it. I'm here to make sure that your country will stay free, an' I'll be damned if I don' follow through with it."

The silence was absolute, so much so that I could hear my veins pumping in my head. The girls and Spike looked at each other with a strange look of understanding. "So let me ask you a question, what do you think of my people?"

They said nothing for the longest time, which actually made me start to think that they didn't know what to think. "I think that you are as kind as your world allows you to be." Fluttershy muttered.

That's... actually nicer than I expected. I smiled at her sadly, "That's very nice of you. Unfortunately, I don' know how accurate that is. I've seen good men in my home city, but I've also seen how depraved an' horrible we can lower ourselves to be. I know that people 'ave their reasons, but sometimes, I wonder what life might've been if we hadn't fallen so far."

They looked at me strangely, "What do you mean?" Pinkie Pie asked, no hint of her seemingly habitual happiness in her question.

"Well, there used to be a time where people were nicer to each other. We talked to each other, left our doors unlocked, an' no one had to fear 'bout being robbed outside of a city or raids from bandits. Now, the only thing keepin' people safe are the militia's an' the military." I hunched forwards, feeling dark, "Every day, I pray that I don' have to shoot at anybody. At the very least, this war has provided a good incentive for our military to round up all the bandit hideouts and force them into service. Maybe this war will bring some good."

"What happened?" Rainbow asked.

I chuckled stupidly, "Where do I start? A couple world wars, a few nukes gettin' dropped, a few pandemics, famine, droughts, an' some computer virus's. At one point, tanks were a common sight in battle, but now, we're lucky to find a dismantled relic. Our airforce used to have engines that made their own fiery propulsion, now we're regaled to propeller planes, just like two centuries ago. We're a shadow of our former selves, but at least we're gettin' better."

I know that they didn't understand exactly what I'd said, but the meaning was clear, and they understood the drastic differences between now and then. I felt like the world was crashing down on me as for the first time, I processed life. I lived in a small apartment, barely scraped by financially, and had a job that threatened to kill me nearly every day. All in a world that felt like it wanted to crush you. I knew that subconsciously I had known this, but I'd drowned myself in alcohol to snuff it out.

"Sounds like you aren't exactly in the best shape to be defending us from other countries." Applejack said.

I puffed out my chest, scowling, I roared, "I thought I made it clear that the entire WORLD was sufferin'! Believe it 'r not, Chestein is actually doin' better than most! We've almost rediscovered how to make tanks again!"

Applejack seemed to be taken aback, unsure of my outburst. I sighed, feeling embarrassed at my lack of control, "I-I'm sorry 'bout my outburst. I gotta go." I stood up and quickly made for the door. As soon as I put a hand on the door, a hoof was placed on my shoulder. It was Applejack.

"I accept yer apology, but I'm kinda curious 'bout why you seemed so mad."

I sighed again, not wanting to say, but I figured I didn't really have a choice, "Cuz as f***ed up my country 'as gotten, I'm still proud of it, an' I don' like hearin' unfounded insults bein' attributed to it. I gotta go." With that, I opened the door, and found my way out of the castle.

I walked back towards the tents in silence, the town not having awoken yet. I shoved my hands into my wet pants, and hunched my back. My mind kept punishing me with the feeling of guilt for lashing out, and anger at myself for not maintaining control. I quietly cursed at myself. When I got back, enough men had woken up to where we were organizing into our groups again. We were told to go out and run laps in the trenches to get familiar with them. One lap on the first trench, and then two on the second. By the time we reached the 15th trench, we'd have to do 15 laps for that trench. Now, not only were our backs and arms in pain, so were our legs. We were all groaning and cursing at the Colonel under our breaths. When lunch rolled around, no one was leaving their tent. Rather, we drank from our canteens, and huddled by the watertower for refills. Dinner rolled around, and we pulled ourselves away from the source of water, and settled to eat boiled green beans, mashed potatoes, and beef. It tasted terrible, but we all wolfed it down as fast as we could, and tried to get seconds. A lucky few managed to get some vegetables, and I wasn't one of them.

I fell in with the rest of my unit, and dropped onto my bunk, only, I felt something off about my bed. I was laying on something. I rolled over and found a small pile of letters addressed to me and many of the others in the tent. Sarge, a guy we called Mishap, Charlie, Maxwell, me, Zlat, Vinnie, and Marcel got letters, mostly me and Zlat, since our school seemed to have a lot of curious students. Unfortunately, this left the Barborov twins without any mail. I felt bad for them, but there wasn't a readily available solution. All I could think of was letting them read my mail if they weren't going to make them depressed as all hell. I had 12 letters, the first of which was from my principal.

Dear Wolfgang,

Your fellow students are very excited by the prospect that they have a fellow student in Equestria, and would like to be able to write to you, as evident by the many letters you and your brother will be receiving. The entire school is actually interested, but we have decided that we would only let through a few letters for you to read. If you know of anyone who would enjoy talking about their experience and Equestria with our students, please make a list.

Principal Spiller

Well, this was interesting. I called out to the guys, asking, "Hey guys, read this will ya?" I passed around the letter. I took notice that the Barborov twins seemed to take particular interest. "Would you guys be willing to get involved in this?" Everyone was smiling, so the general result, was yes. They were all very interested. I started writing a note back with a pen and some scrap paper.

Dear Principal Spiller,

My entire unit is more than interested in writing back to someone from school. We've just finished up building our defenses, and I'm not so sure what we'll have to do otherwise. Here's a short list of the guys, other than Zlat, who would be glad to write back. There's 650 guys at the town I'm in (Ponyville), so there's bound to be plenty of people who would love to write back. If I can, I'll see about getting some of the locals to agree to it too. They're good people, and they write in English if you can believe it. OH! Great news! Zlat isn't blind anymore! They've got a cure for that. It's quite literally magic. No, I'm not joking. I didn't want to believe it either, but it's true.

Wolfgang Piatek

That last bit made me feel a little apprehensive. I only knew 7 individuals here, and after my exit, I wasn't feeling too confident about coming back, my guilt was still pressing on me.