Have you ever been in a situation so damn weird, terrifying and confusing that you're damn sure it's got to be a dream?

Imagine, if you will:

A special ops soldier, standing outside a bar, looking at a monster out of your worst nightmare, after you watched it tear apart a completely innocent bystander.

Oh, by the way, that bystander was of the small talking equine variety.

Welcome to my world.

The thing was running towards me, using its gangly legs to power itself forwards. It was about 20 meters away before I finally squeezed the trigger of my FNC. The rifle burst to life, lighting up the night sky with a massive muzzle flare, spitting the 5.56 rounds with a passion, showing no mercy as they flew towards their target. The creature staggered, slowing its pace, the rounds hitting their mark and leaving small pock marks in its torso, head and arms. I had good aim. With a cyclic rate of 700 rounds per minute, the FNC emptied its 30 round magazine in just over 2 seconds. Almost all of my shots hit home, but the beast seemed unfazed. It shook its head and unleashed a hellish scream that drove terror into my soul. I managed to shake it off, and quickly dropped the empty mag, slamming a new one in and racking the bolt.

I looked up just in time to get hit in the chest with one of those huge claws, knocking me backwards nearly 30 feet. Ouch. I landed flat on my back, the sling on my gun preventing it from getting away from me. The monster screamed again, locking onto me with those empty eye sockets and coming my direction again. I brought the rifle up between my legs and pinched off a shot at one of its eyes. The shot hit just above it, but the creature stumbled backwards, grabbing at it's face and flailing about. It shook its head and black blood flew from the hit. The eyes... that's its weak spot. Struggling to my feet, I raised my rifle again and squeezed off some shots, aiming at the newfound weak spot. With the creature flailing about, it was hard to hit. Not impossible though.

I blasted away, hitting the creature and drawing out dark blood with every shot. Several more shots hit the eyes, which drove the damn thing even more wild. It fell to the ground and convulsed, blood jetting from its eyes, before going still. Still cautious, I slowly moved towards the thing, before drawing my sidearm and putting two rounds into its gaping orbits. The thing shuddered from the impact, but didn't move any more. I exhaled, looking around at the carnage it created. I counted nearly 12 dead ponies, and there were probably more in the severed limbs and heads laying around. Red blood flowed freely down the street. Arterial spray splattered the houses and shops around, painting the once colorful and comfortable walls a sickening shade of crimson. Spent casings littered the ground from my fight with the monster. Jesus fucking Christ... So much death, in such a peaceful town. What had caused this? Why was this thing here? What the hell was going on?

Another scream cut through the air.

I recognized this one.
Shaking off my previous thoughts, I wheeled and sprinted towards the sound. It was coming from the Library. Oh shit, Twilight! Running down the main road, I reached up and changed mags, putting the empty one into a pouch on my vest, before chambering a round. More dead ponies littered the street.
How many ponies did this fucking thing kill?
Each corpse I passed increased my fury, made me so pissed off that I was going to rip whatever else did this to pieces.

With my bare hands.

I rounded the corner to the library and saw what looked like a unicorn in a dark robe using a spell to attempt to tear down the door to the library. Several others stood nearby, their heads together in a circle, chanting in some language.
I recognized it as Russian.

O, temnyy lord, dayte nam telo, kotoroye nam nuzhno dlya vashikh prikazaniy, unichtozh'te nevernykh i dayte Temnoy Koroleve zhit' vechno.

As they chanted, their horns glowed and dark, black and green magic swirled around the circle, coalescing into a dark shape. Another one of the creatures.

After seeing this, I decided enough was enough. Raising my rifle, I flipped the safety to semi and Mozambiqued1 the 2 cultists facing me. Both fell, dead to the ground, blood beginning to pool around the bodies. The spell dissipated, and the black mass fell to the ground with a wet slap, incomplete and screeching. The cultists were startled, falling backwards onto their haunches before turning to me.

"There he is!"
"Get 'em!"

The ponies split, with one coming at my left side, and the other at the right, with the third in the middle, charging up a spell as the others charged at me, heads down.

I turned and double-tapped the left cultist, then turned to the right just as the unicorn was about to hit me. With a speed that I didn't know I had, I sidestepped the charge and quickly fired off a few shots, hitting the pony and bringing it down.

I turned back to the middle cultist just in time to be hit full frontal with the spell he was charging. I cringed, ready for the pain it was sure to bring, but felt nothing. The red spell just washed around me, doing nothing. The unicorn looked at me in utter confusion. Snapping out of my stupor, I headshot him, spraying blood and brains all over the library sign, then sprinted towards the broken door. As I got inside, I heard the unmistakable sound of Twilight screaming. I raced up the stairs and through the open door to see Twilight cowering on the floor, on her back, with the last cultist standing over her, with a triumphant grin and a knife in hoof.
Oh fuck!
Everything slowed down as I brought my rifle up, snapped the safety to auto, squeezed the trigger and actually watched the bolt cycle back and forth and the spent shells eject as I loosed a burst into the cultist. Six shots hit their mark, blood spurting from the impacts. The pony gasped in pain, dropping the knife, before falling sideways off Twilight, blood leaking from its wounds.
The world was silent as I heard the cultist's death throes, and my brass tinkling onto the floor. Time resumed its normal speed.
Snapping the safety back on and slinging my rifle, I ran to Twilight, dropping to my knees.

"Twilight! Twilight, are you alright?" I asked, concern evident in my voice. She whimpered, leaning into my chest and wrapping her forelegs around me in a tight hug.

"John... Thank you..." She said, her voice shaky, "Thank youthankyouthankyou" Twilight began to cry, tears streaming down her face as she whimpered. I gently stroked her mane, rocking her back and forth on the floor.

"It's alright Twi, I'm here. No one's gonna get you, you're safe. Shhhhhhh..." I said and repeated, calming her.
This had to be tough for her. Ponies she probably knew were now dead and her town had become ground zero for a nightmarish battlefield.
A huge flash and loud popping sound erupted behind me, startling me. I released Twilight, turning towards the light and raising my rifle. Twilight jumped up from the ground and hid behind me, terror in her eyes.

But standing there was not another cultist, or some kind of demon.

No, standing there was a large white pony, nearly my height with wings and a horn, wearing full medieval-style battle armor, helmet and all. On her flank was what appeared to be the sun.

I recognized her. Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria, goddess of the sun.

And she did not look happy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

IDT Labs, April 18, 2020. 6:02 PM PST

"Well, that was a fucking delicious meal, eh?"

Dingo belched loudly, leaning back in his chair and stretching out. The cheap metal folding chair squeaked in protest under his massive weight. Xander rolled his eyes as half the people in the small room looked over at them, startled.

"Yeah, I'll say. Delicious as basic mess hall food can be," He said, pushing his empty plate away. "You nervous for the op, D-man?"

Dingo waved a hand in dismissal. "Nah, I ain't scared. It's just a fucking portal to a brand new world, never explored, with tiny English speaking horses running around. I ain't fuckin scared at all!"

"Was that sarcasm?"

"No shit! Need a fuckin book to figure that one out, Xandy-boy?" Dingo said, laughing.

"Fuuuuuck you," Xander said, flipping him the bird and also laughing. "Honestly I'm kinda excited. It's not every day you get to go to an alternate dimension and just fuck around for a few days." He shrugged.

"Yeah, I feel ya."
A rumble filled the room, eliciting confused looks from the populace.
Dingo opened his mouth, to speak, then closed it again, a puzzled look on his face.

"Oi, you hear that? Sounded like a bang."

"I didn't hear anything. I felt that rumble though."

"Well maybe if you got the dog shit out your ears you'd actually be able to hear, eh? Let's go see what that was."

"Whatever you say, Dingo." said Xander, rolling his eyes.

The two soldiers stood, gathering their gear before walking towards the door.

"Ladies first," said Xander, holding the door for Dingo, who promptly slugged him in the arm.

As soon as they left the mess hall, they knew something was wrong.

LAB 04 had a massive plume of smoke trailing from it, and several bits of concrete had been ejected nearby. The doors were open and staff fled the structure, in a panic. Both men looked at each other, before nodding and jogging towards the building. They saw Ashley and Ethan coming from the bunk house, confused. Dingo caught their eye and motioned them over.

"Hey, you guys know what happened?" Ethan asked on arrival, motioning to the smoke.

"Nope, but we're going to find out," Xander replied, "Care to join us?"

"With pleasure." Ashley stated.

With that, the four of them ran up to the entrance. There, they were greeted by none other than Leonard Hapkins, stumbling out of the entrance, his once bright blue uniform now black and scorched. He hacked and coughed, falling to his knees.

"You alright there, sir?" Ethan asked, instinctively holding out a hand to help him up. Hapkins grasped the hand, coughing again, before yanking on Ethan's hand, pulling him down to his level. Ethan yelped before being cut off by a one-arm choke hold, with Hapkins drawing his sidearm and placing the barrel against Ethan's temple.

"NOBODY FUCKING MOVE!" He yelled, making Ethan wince from the volume.

Everyone froze, hands twitching close to rifle grips, confused looks spreading across faces. Hapkins struggled to his feet, Ethan squirming in his grasp.

Dingo spoke up, "Oi, Hapkins, the fuck mate? Whatcha on about?"

"ALL OF YOU, INSIDE, NOW!" Hapkins shouted, ignoring the question. Ethan pulled at the arm around his neck, to no avail. Hapkins was too strong, and he had a gun to his head. The team slowly walked into the building, hands above their heads although they had no desire to. Hapkins followed, still with a gun to Ethan's head and an arm around his neck. Inside, the building was in mayhem. A few people lay groaning left or right, and a couple people weren't moving at all. Debris littered the floor, with shell casings interspersed.

"Go through the far right door," Hapkins said, calmer but still with surprising authority. Smoke poured from the open door, but despite that, they obeyed. Hapkins was close behind. They walked into the room, seeing fire and destroyed equipment and more. They wanted to turn away, to leave, but their friend, their teammate, was being held hostage. A blank pedestal was in the center of the room, untouched by the carnage. The team slowly turned to face Hapkins, hands held non-threateningly. He stood there, silent, gun pressed into Ethan's temple. Xander broke the silence.

"Hey, so, mind telling us why you've got a gun to our friends' temple?" He asked, calmly. Inside, he was freaking out, but his demeanor betrayed none of that. They'd all been through the same training. Even Ethan was calm.

"He is instrumental in our little plan," Hapkins said, his eyes changing to a sickly shade of green and his voice growing higher. "Mister Ethan here, is your motivation."

"For what?"

Hapkins grinned crazily. "So that you don't try anything."

A bright flash of green forced the team to look away. When their gazes returned to Ethan, Hapkins had been replaced by... something.

"What in the name of all that is holy are you?!" Ashley said, confused and disgusted.
The thing that had replaced Hapkins was standing on its hind legs. It somewhat resembled a horse, but was far skinnier, had a black skin that was somewhat shiny, and a teal mane. Its green eyes had a double pupil, and its snout was twisted into a insane grin. A pair of insect-esque wings fluttered out to the sides, and its hooves looked like swiss cheese. But that was nothing compared to the gnarled horn on its head, sticking out almost 2 feet from its head. In one of its misshapen hooves it held a pistol, same as before, while the other foreleg was still wrapped tightly around Ethans throat. He struggled a bit, confused by the sudden change.

"You wonder what happened to your Sergeant? Well, see for yourself!" The thing spoke in a high, grating, feminine voice. Its horn lit up, and a blob of green light flew from it and hit the pedestal, opening into a swirling mass of green.

"Now don't make me end your poor friend's life and just step into the portal."

"Look, there has got to be a better way to do this. Can't we just-" Ashley was cut off by a gunshot and Ethan crying out in pain.

"That time it was the foot. Any more questions and he takes one to the brain!" The horse-thing cackled, throwing back its head. "Now step into the portal. NOW!"

With one more worried, disgusted look, Ashley stepped up onto the pedestal, and looking around once more, jumped into the portal. Next went Xander, slowly stepping up onto the pedestal. Apparently too slow for the creature, because it removed the gun from Ethan's head, and fired one shot into Xander's rear plate. He let out a yelp, falling into the portal face-first. Dingo was last, hefting himself onto the pedestal while looking at the creature with fury in his eyes.

"What did you do with the Sergeant , you psycho bitch." Dingo said, straining to keep the anger out of his voice.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll meet him in Equestria. Now hop into the portal; I won't ask again." She said, smiling wide.

His mouth opened to ask what the fuck Equestria was, but he closed it before speaking. With one last, pissed off look, he jumped into the portal.

Queen Chrysalis smiled to herself, her hostage squirming and gasping in pain.

"Now, now, I only shot you in the foot," she said, tsking.

"...Fucking...let...me...go..you...mother...fucker..." Ethan rasped, struggling again and trying to break free. He elbowed the Queen in her underbelly, drawing a painful grunt before she struck him in the temple with the pistol. His vision blurred and he slumped, seeing stars. The floor beneath him was slick with his own blood.

She snarled. "Oh, I'll let you go alright."
The Queen shoved Ethan away from her, dropping to all fours and letting him fall. He hit the ground hard. Sitting up, he tried to draw his sidearm, but the Queen stopped him by firing once, the shot whizzing past his ear. He inhaled sharply, his hands shakily rising above his head.

"Now, please enter the portal like the others."

Struggling to his feet, Ethan limped towards the pedestal, leaving a bloody smear across the floor. He struggled onto it, sweat dripping from his forehead, before shakily standing and facing the Queen.

"Hurry up now, your friends are waiting!" she said, laughing.

"Can I ask you one question?" Ethan pleaded, fear in his eyes.

The Queen rolled her eyes. "Yes, I suppose one question won't harm anything. Ask."

"What's that?" He asked innocently, pointing at the ground beneath her feet. She glanced down, confused. On the ground, spattered with blood from his foot, lay a block of demolitions grade C-4. She looked at it quizzically, before her eyes widened and her gaze flew up where Ethan stood, cheesy smile plastered across his face, holding the detonator in his hand.

"Molon labe, Bitch"

With those words, he squeezed the detonator trigger. The Queen screamed in fury, firing her pistol fruitlessly at him before she was consumed by the massive explosion. The shock wave blew Ethan back into the portal, sending him into oblivion with a smile on his face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"IN THE NAME OF THE PONIES OF EQUESTRIA, I COMMAND THAT YOU STAND DOWN!"
The Princess shouted, her voice layered with echo and authority, like a drill sergeant but ten times more powerful. I winced at the volume, dropping my rifle onto its sling and raising my hands above my head. My hearing protection prevented any permanent damage.

"I'm one of the good guys!" I said, almost pleading. The Princess was quite the sight to behold, big, powerful, and pissed off. Her face showed a look of pure fury, the powerful muscles beneath her gleaming coat rippling as she took a step towards me, speaking again.

"SILENCE, BEAST! YOU WILL BE PURGED FROM THIS LAND WITHOUT MERCY!" The Princess began charging a spell.

"Wait!" Twilight spoke up from behind me, fear in her voice, but it was too late. The Princess let her spell go, flying towards me. I cringed and covered my face with my gloved hands, but nothing happened. Just as before, the spell washed around me. All I felt was a slight buzz, but nothing else. The spell had no effect on me. I felt another spell hit and deflect around me, and again, no effect. Lowering my hands, I looked up into the eyes of the Princess. The look of fury was replaced with one of confusion, of near fear.

"Why are my spells doing nothing to you, beast?" She said, struggling to keep the fear from her voice. I kept my hands above my head, and opened my mouth to speak, but Twi beat me to it.

"He's a human!"
The Princess stopped. Her mouth hung agape at the news.

"H-human?" she stuttered,

"Yes princess, a Human!" Twilight began quickly recalling my story, all the while watching the princess with fearful eyes. When she was finished, The Princess's face took on a look of understanding.

"I see..." she said, "So it appears that humans aren't all warmongers after all..." She smiled slightly.

"I wouldn't say that, ma'am. As you can see, I'm dressed for war currently." I said, gesturing to my garb. "I'm a soldier, after all."

The Princess's smile faded, replaced by one of sadness.

"That said, I like to think of myself as a not-horrible person. I try my best to fight the good fight." I said, attempting to reassure her.

The three of us stood there, in Twilight's room upstairs, silently. The Princess's gaze shifted from Twilight to I, taking on numerous looks, from shock, to anger, hope, pride, sadness, confusion. It looked like she was trying to decipher the secrets of the universe. Well, maybe she was. I broke the silence.

"So, um, Princess?"

"Please, call me Celestia."

"Uh, okay. Celestia, you are aware of what has happened here, yes?"

Her face took on a much darker tone. "Yes. A tragedy outweighing anything I've seen for centuries. The only thing I could relate something like this to would be the Changeling invasion of Canterlot, and that was nothing compared to this. I have the Royal Guard sweeping the town now, making it safe again. Perhaps you could assist us in this task?"

"With pleasure."
Celestia nodded once at me, her eyes like iron in the soft candlelight. In those eyes I saw a fire unlike any I've seen, one that burns to protect those whom are innocent. Those who are helpless, harmless. Her mouth was a hard line, and her posture suggested that she was really pissed off.

"Good. Your enthusiasm will come in handy shortly. How good are you with a sword?" She asked me.
I hefted my FNC, still smoking from the last few rounds, and patted it affectionately.

"I prefer to fight from range. But, if I need to get up close,"- I reached around and slid my 6 1/2 inch Buck Nighthawk fighting knife from its sheath- "Then this will do."

Celestia looked at my knife and gun with doubt, before saying,

"That blade is unsuitable for our activities. Here, take my spare."
She used her horn to levitate a small straight blade sword in front of me. It had a golden handle, and the blade was nearly 18 inches long, made of a strange black material that looked like obsidian. The princesses cutie mark was engraved on the hilt, both sides. It was extremely high quality, and also looked completely ceremonial.

"I think I'll be okay, Celestia. This should suit me fine." I said, patting my rifle again.

"If you insist. It is your health on the line, after all. Besides, what is that long stick in your hands?" She asked, pointing at my rifle. "I presume it is a weapon of sorts."

"This? My rifle. FN-FNC, 700 rounds per minute, 5.56 mm NATO chamber, fully automatic with an AimPoint red dot optic. It does that to people and ponies alike," I said, pointing to the corpse behind me, "Or anything that's flesh and blood, for that matter. Effective out to 600 meters, 800 if I'm lucky. Also great in close quarters, much better than a sword."

Celestia stared blankly at me, blinking a few times as if what i had just said was complete gibberish, which to her, it was.

"Point is, it'll get the job done," I reaffirmed, "Speaking of which, we need to get to that. Someone should look after Twilight, get her to safety."

Twilight was looking at the corpse with wide eyes, pale faced and terrified. She shook, leaning against my legs for support. Her mouth hung open, and her ears drooped. I had a feeling she was going to have a tough time dealing with all this. People deal with trauma in their own ways. Some freak out and panic. Some just stare, like Twi was doing. Some pass out. It depends on the person. I personally ignored it until later, when I would confront the demons that fluttered about my head after such events. Killing people, or ponies, is no cakewalk and no matter what people tell you, killing always leaves a mark. I remember the moment leading up to and right after my memorable kills, and I remember the expression just before the target dies.
I try to think of pulling the trigger as just knocking down a target at the range. I have a confirmed kill count of 61. 52 of them are from my time in the Army Rangers, and only 9 are from my ops with Underdog. As a special operations squad, my team responds to threats that the normal Military can't, due to politics or other factors. We've been contracted by everyone from the CIA to Homeland Security. We've dealt with threats both domestic and foreign. And we've only been contracted 8 times total in two years.

Three times, ops went bad.

Three times, I had to kill people. Again.

Those are the ones I remembered.

So I knew how Twi felt. She witnessed death in the worst form. But she was alive, and that's what matters.

To me, at least.

Celestia looked over at her, concern clear on her pristine face, and nodded.

"I'll see that my best guards keep her safe. As for the more unfortunate..." She nodded in the direction of the dead cultist. "We'll deal with that, as well."
Her horn lit up, and the cultist was surrounded in a golden glow. She lifted the body off the ground, and it disappeared. Only blood was left.

"I never caught your name, human. If we're going to save this town together, that may be a necessity." Celestia said, holding out a hoof.

"Sergeant John Kent, Underdog Contracting."
I grasped her hoof and shook, sealing the deal.

"Now let's save this town."

1: Mozambique: Two shots to the body, one to the head.

Author's Note

Apologies for the really, really late chapter. Lots of stuff going on in the real world; I haven't had much time to write. Also, apologies for any grammar issues or weird English problems. I didn't proofread this one much, I wanted to get it out quick.
EDIT 6-21-18
I added a more comphrehensive ending to this chapter, I didn't like the last one. Chapter 6 is still in the works!