Author's Note

Just to clarify to avoid confusion later in the chapter, this is way before modern equestria. The three tribes are still split and Celestia and Luna are still Fillies. My take on things is most likely going to be very different from most takes on things, but personally i'm okay with that. I like differing from the norm (Not to sound edgy or anything)

Rock Steady

I was awoken by a sharp pain in the side of my stomach my eyes quickly flying open drawing my side arm and shoving it into the face of whoever dared awaken me. I was quickly relieved to see it was Perkins just giving me the same stone cold stare he tended to do.

"Finally, Captain. We were worried we'd lost you and I know the boys would hate to lose a grouchy old shit like yourself," He said. I gave him a mock glare and then chuckled saying.

"Well Perkins I did learn from the best," He regarded me for a minute before smiling and pulling me up.

"Cm'on Gerald the men we're worried, as you can see we're in the middle of a fuckin' forest," He exclaimed rather loudly, he was clearly not very happy about the situation. For the first time since I had awoken I took a second to look around and I almost passed out again from the shock of it all. Instead of in the desert hell that was Afghanistan we appeared to be in the middle of a giant forest.

I almost burst out laughing from the novelty of it all. I then took on a serious expression and looked over to Perkins who was in the middle of inspecting his MK11 for any damage.

"Any idea where the fuck we are Sergeant?" I asked. He looked over at me and shrugged.

I sighed "Figured as much," I then looked over to where the rest of my squad was, they appeared to be in the middle of repairing a Humvee. It then occurred to me that we should very much be dead, but as they say never look a gift horse in the mouth.

" ALRIGHT LADS, JUST BECAUSE WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF FUCKIN' NOWHERE DOESN'T MEAN WE'RE GOING TO DEVIATE FROM PRIORITIES! Perkins, Take Edwards and go find us a decent place to camp I don't like being in the open in unknown territory. Thorn get that Humvee up and rolling you're the only one here with extensive engineer training. Finally Anderson how are you feeling?"

After the chorus of Yes Sirs that followed my orders Anderson walked up to me and I was frankly amazed.

"I-It's gone sir....I was shot in the fucking shoulder with a 7.62 round...and It's just gone...not even a scar," He sounded shocked and I was as well, but as I said earlier. Never look a gift horse in the mouth , which is exactly what I told him. He seemed to agree with that logic.

Perkins was frankly in a shitty mood. Ever since they left to go search for a new place to camp they'd be harassed by the local wildlife. He didn't care about the wolves made out of wood. He didn't bat an eye at the chicken lizard abomination, No he'd seen too much shit in his life to even give that a second thought. What really gained his ire was the Specialists complaining.

Every other minute it was "Holy shit is that a fucking wood wolf?!" Or a "WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT ABOMINATION?!", and Perkins was frankly sick of it. So when Edwards next spoke "Hey, Sir look what I fo-" Edwards silenced himself when he saw the Sergeant giving him the death glare, he knew he had to choose his next words very, very carefully. So he chose to point instead of speaking. The sergeant looked to where he was pointing and nodded his head. What they were currently looking at was a rather wooded area that would be difficult to notice by most things, this area seemed to lead to the mouth of a cave.

"Good find Specialist, but I swear if I hear you bitching about another abomination of nature you're on latrine duty for the next week, and I don't think you want that here. Got it?", Edwards gulped and nodded. "Good lad,"

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Celestia had been having a pretty boring day, she and her little sister were just resting in the cave they had found after they were run out of yet another town for being quote 'Abominations of magic and nature' while she was confused, she was also greatly saddened. She and her sister hadn't chose to be born this way with both the wings of a Pegasus, the magic of a unicorn, and the strength of an earth pony.

She didn't understand why she and her little sister we're run out of every town they went to, but then again in the mind of a twelve year old a lot of things don't really tend to make sense most of the time. All she knew was that her name was Celestia and her sisters name was Luna, and from what every-pony else had been saying they were monsters. Her pink mane was loosely flowing around her and she had a wing covering the form of her younger sister who had been taking things a lot harder than she had. Instead of Celestia's confusion Luna had felt guilt from something that wasn't her fault, instead of anger at the pony's who had forced her out of everywhere she went she was angry at herself for being abnormal. Suffice to say she needed a lot of comforting and Celestia knew she had to be strong for her little sisters sake, else they both lose their sanity in this cruel world.

That being said she was especially surprised when she heard a loud rumbling outside of the cave. It seemed to end right at the cave entrance then just stop. She was even more surprised when Five Bi-Pedal figures clad in some sort of strange looking clothing and armor all stopped and aimed strange metal sticks the project a green laser at her and her sister. The laser didn't hurt so she really didn't know what to think of it, at least until one of the Bi-pedal figures spoke in perfect Equish.

"Are those....fucking...horses?" One said clearly surprised. The one next to it slapped it on the back of the helmet and said in a clearly sarcastic tone even to her

"No, I thought they we're Dragons here to devour our flesh and burn us to crispy little ranger crusts," The other one grumbled something they couldn't hear which got it slapped over the helmet again. The one at the very front brought some sort of device to his eyes that was attached to the top of his helmet and nearly fell over in surprise.

"Holy shit! They have fuckin' wings....and is that a....horn...dear god I thought these were just a myth!" He exclaimed. She inwardly sighed realizing that these creatures would probably kick her and her sister out of this cave next. What she didn't expect was on to walk up to her and take off it's helmet and goggles revealing a completely bald head aside from a rather large brown beard the covered most of his lower face, He also had green eyes that seemed to have a cold calculation in them as well as a certain warmth and comfort. It was strange to say the least.

He held out a claw that was covered in some sort of glove and said "Here little one, don't be afraid, we're not here to hurt you," He said soothingly. She hadn't realized it, but up until this point she had been shaking like it was middle of a full blown blizzard. She slowly moved her hoof to touch his claw before quickly recoiling expecting him to try to grab her foreleg and pull her to her death. Instead he just sat still those patient eyes locked onto hers the entire time. This time she touched his claw with her hoof, not pulling away just staring into the comforting green eyes, for some strange reason she felt safer here with this Bi-ped then she had in most of her life, it was like he omitted and aura of some kind that showed a willingness to protect the innocent.

She looked up at him and said "W-who are...you?" He seemed rather startled at hearing speak and that made her rather confused, why would it be strange for a pony to talk? She just crossed it off as a cultural thing and repeating her question, though with much for confidence this time

"Who are you?", she asked her tone of voice carrying more curiosity than fear. He seemed to shrug off his shock rather quickly before chuckling.

"Of course you talk, that is probably one of the more tame things I've seen in my brief time here, anyways young one I must ask. Where are your parents? You shouldn't be here alone, things appear to be rather dangerous out here," She looked up at him and said

"I-I don't know where m-my parents are....I never knew them,"

He made a tsk sound before asking "Well, where is your home young one? I don't expect that you live in this cold dark cave,"

She made a face at him before saying "E-everytime we try to go somewhere p-ponies call us freaks and run us out, this cave is pretty much our home..." His eye brow raised at her use of the word 'we'.

"You say we, do you have anyone else with you here?" He asked looking around the cave. She raised her wing allowing him to see her little sister, the tiny alicorn filly tucked up a ball and snoring lightly.

He made a light 'dawww' noise before asking "So you are here alone, you have nowhere to go and no-one is willing to take you in?," she nodded a sad expression on her face as she realized how truly lonely she felt for the first time tears starting to well up in her eyes. He took her into a small hug and said "Well we're in the same ship there young one, why don't you stay with us then? From the way you looked at us when we came in I don't think you've seen any of our kind before, and it sounds like you ponies are the dominate species here, am I mistaken?" He asked lightly.

I nod at him "Y-yeah I think I would've remembered seeing something as strange as you before." The other bipeds behind him chuckled at this, but I didn't know why so I scratched it off as another cultural thing.

He looked down at us before saying "Well then, I guess we could misfits together then young one. Why don't you and you're...Sister? Stay with us for now. She is your sister correct?" He asked. I nodded at him and then said

"W-well if we're going to be friends and stay together I guess we should know each others names. M-my name is Celestia...and my s-sisters name is Luna,"

He stood up and said "My name is Captain Gerald Wilkins of the United States Army Rangers," He said with a large hint of pride in his voice.

The other Rangers behind him introduced themselves as 2nd Lieutenant James Thorn , Sergeant Major Lewis Perkins,
Specialist Steven Edwards, and Corporal Thomas Anderson. I found their names to kinda strange, but I guess it's the whole different species thing so I didn't judge. Though I had a feeling that with them around that thing's would start being rather eventful for me and Luna from now on, I wasn't too sure what to think about that, but I was glad to have finally found friends, and hey they're just like us! Misfits, outcasts. Undesirables by pony society. I was glad to have a large ground of kind friends to lean on when i needed help now.