Sunset Shimmer POV:

I didn't know what to do. Joe, the SRS Pilot, was dying. My phone still had some battery life left in it, so I called Fluttershy. Ten minutes of trying to keep Joe from dying later, Fluttershy ran over to us, carrying a massive box with a red cross on it. She looked pale for a moment, before rushing to the fallen Pilot. She opened up the box taking out multiple medical supplies.

"How did this happen to him?" Fluttershy asked me. I looked over to the dead Apex Predator and his Titan, giving her an inkling of what went down. She took off the wrappings, only to immediately apply pressure to the wound. "He's got an opened artery!" She shouted to me. "I need you to get me some tourniquets!" She said to me before muttering under her breath "Step One: Apply pressure." And then she took a thick clean cloth and applied it immediately to the wound.

I rifled around in the box before finding a standard issue tourniquet. I rushed over to Fluttershy, handing the medical equipment. She then applied the tourniquet directly on the bandages.

"That should keep him from bleeding out any more than he already has, but he needs blood." Said Fluttershy, pulling out her phone. She speed dialed someone we both knew. "Hey Big Mac, I need your help with something... No not that..." She said, a small blush forming. "Someone has a ruptured artery, and I need your help getting him to a hospital... Yes Mac, someone. No he isn't IMC. Yes he is a friend. Okay, see you soon." She ended the call just in time for Joe to groan out some incoherent words, but out of all the words, one stood out.

"Emily... Emily..." He groaned out painfully. "Aaron... traitor..." He said before going into a mini-coma. Ten minutes later, Mac shows up with a red truck.

"Pick him up Mac, gently please." Fluttershy said. Mac did as he was told, lifting the fallen Pilot carefully and setting him down into the truck's bed.

"If we take him to a hospital the IMC will kill him!" I protested. Fluttershy just handed Mac an address.

"Take us there! If anypony can help Joe it's him!" She said urgently. Mac nodded, started up the truck, and sped off towards the address with Fluttershy and I tending to Joe. On a particularly bad bump, his groans of pain got louder. Fluttershy then got out a needle filled with a clear liquid and injected Joe with it. She muttered angrily at herself for not doing this sooner.

As we got to our destination, a condemned building in downtown Ponyville, Joe's groans of pain had gone quiet. Fluttershy hopped out of the truck, ran up to a door and knocked on it furiously. Eventually a pony came to the door, wearing a white button up and khaki pants.

"Who's hurt and how bad?" He asked in a gruff tone. She pointed to Mac who was lifting Joe out of the truck. "Human eh? Alright. Bring him in." He said, walking back inside. Mac and I carried him inside. We carried him through several hallways until we came to a large room, like a lounge, with a large table in the center.

"Set him down on the table." He said, walking into a separate room. We laid him gently down on the table. The Stallion came back with a bottle of George T. Stagg bourbon. He poured a large amount of the alcohol into a glass, before downing the entire glass in one go.

He then refilled the glass, and set several surgical tools in it. He pulled out a large cooler, opening it to reveal several blood bags.

"This is O negative blood. Universal donor, can definitely help him." Said the Stallion.

"Wait. Sorry, catch me up a bit, who the hell are you? And what why did you just drink that?" I asked. He looked at me with a deadpan stare.

"I am Bleeding Stitches. And the booze is both for sanitation, and the nerves." He said, pouring a small amount into a cupped hand before rubbing them together like sanitizer. "Now do you want me to elaborate or save his damn life?"

He went immediately to work, we had to leave the room for some reason, he didn't say. After two agonizing hours, we heard a voice.

"Who the fuckin' hell are you?!" Asked the voice.

Joe POV:

I had no idea where the hell I was. All I remember was killing the shit out of Aaron for trying to say her name. Then I saw Sunset before passing out.

"Relax, I'm a friend. I healed you, your friends brought you here." Said the apparent back alley doctor. I saw Bourbon on the table next to me, and I didn't need a second thought.

I took several gulps, feeling the burning sensation go down my throat and into my lungs. I looked at the doc, still holding the bottle, and raised it up.

"I'm keeping this." I said, and I noticed my shirt and helmet were off. I started looking around for them when the doc said something.

"With the amount of scars and metal you have, I think you need it more than I do." He said, eyeing the various scars made both by weapons and surgeons alike. "What exactly isn't human about you?" He asked. I took another long drink from the bottle. Most people ask that when they see my full body. My two colored eyes and robotic parts make for a weird combo.

"Arm, most ribs, spine, and my lower jaw. Most of it's Pilot and Grunt damage. The burns are from torture and Scorches... And if I told you what the barcode was for I'd gut you with that scalpel you're holding behind your back." I said, glancing at him. He looked stunned for a moment before setting it on the table. "As for the separate eye colors, I have Heterochromia." I said, I managed to get my shirt on just before the door practically exploded.

In ran Sunset and Fluttershy followed the pony version of a Legion. I mean, Jesus that guy's huge!

"Joe!" Cried Sunset as she rushed over two me. "You're okay!" She said. I looked to the doctor, shooting him a look that said mention my scars and I kill you. I looked back at her and nodded.

"I should be good to go in an hour or two." I managed to get out before being completely shot down by Fluttershy.

"You will do no such thing! You almost died!" She shouted at me, stunning me. Was this the same girl I met before? "You are going to rest and heal before you're going anywhere buster!" I looked at the other three in the room, only getting stern gazes in return.

"But the mission!" I insisted. Fluttershy simply replied with,

"Your mission can wait a couple days. Besides, you said we'd need to lay low." And with that, I was led outside before being driven to Sunset's apartment.

"Remind me, why am I staying at your place?" I asked, she looked at me out of the corner of her eye, head turned towards the road still.

"So I can make sure you don't run off and cause trouble." She said causing me to groan.

"Only Aaron could screw me over in death." I said, glaring at my injury in me reflection.

"Why did you do that to Aaron by the way? What you did better have a good excuse." Said Sunset as she drove.

I turned to look at her, and figured why the fuck not? I've already told her about most of my life, why not this part? Fuck it!

"I was in the 6-4 at the time, they're mercenaries with hearts of gold, I did a LOT of missions with them. Eventually they made me a member. Anyway, there was a girl in the 6-4, Emily. She was the youngest and least experienced of us. She was like the little sister I'd always wanted, and often times she'd be trying to make me smile, despite all the shit life threw at me." I said, taking out the bottle of alcohol, and taking a small drink from it. I felt the buzz slowly beginning to take effect.

"So, naturally Aaron was the big brother everybody liked. Emily and him got along famously, they were the dynamic duo. Whereas Emily and I were the Destructive Duo. A lot of missions went by, too many to count, before Aaron comes back with a card. He kept it to himself mostly, before telling me about it after I came back with mine. I knew he got the card from Blisk, he's the only one you could get one from, but I didn't know what he wanted to do until that night. He walks in my room, locking the door, and we talked. Eventually he told me he wanted to join the Apex Predators and that he wanted me to join with him. The thing is, I'd come to love the 6-4. Like family. So I refused." I said before taking another drink.

"One fucking mission later and Aaron shot Emily. That was how he got out. He shot Emily in the chest and ran, knowing the others would chase him and I'd stay. Nobody knew that just outside the complex, Blisk was waiting, and he used his Smart Core to kill my family all at once." I said, before thinking fuck the buzz and took a long drink once more.

"The worst part's the nightmares. Usually it's my unit in the SRS, but sometimes it's the 6-4. The 6-4 took me in after Typhon. Some shrink said it mas my mind trying to deal with the experience in a way that I'd understand more. Honestly, I think God's punishing me for my wrong doings. I lost three families in my life. My birth family, the SRS unit, and then my 6-4 task group." I said, stopping when we reached the destination.

"I still think that was unnecessary." Sunset said. I stared at her with a gaze that I knew would haunt her for the rest of her days. It wasn't scary... just broken.

"I had to watch as the girl I loved like a sister painfully bled to death. You don't know what it's like, watching someone you care about dying because you weren't man enough to tell your CO that your best friend's gone traitor. You've never heard six people cry out in fear before being cut off one-by-one. You've never had to bury the pieces and bodies of your family three times. so you don't get to judge what I do or how I do it." I said, walking down a sidewalk. "I'll be back in three hours!" I shouted.

"Where are you going?!" Sunset shouted back.

"To get drunker!" I yelled before drinking once more, praying that the screams would be drowned out by the booze soon.

Author's Note

To be clear, I stated this was in "Modern Equestria", but while most of Equis' weapons were confiscated by the IMC, the phones and other electrical appliances were not.

There you have it! In case you were wondering, no, Joe is not secretly a terminator sent by skynet to destroy Equis. That story is still in the works.

Also, Joe isn't really an asshole, he's just really angry at himself, and that anger can often be directed at those who bring up sore subjects.

Like it? Hate it? Don't care? let me know in the comments below!