The Survivor

Chapters

1: An End and A Beginning (Changes Finalized 2/26/22)
2: A New Experience (Rewritten 7/26/22)
3: Starting Anew (Rewritten 11/28/2022)

1: An End and A Beginning (Changes Finalized 2/26/22)

It's just another spring day at the base for Sgt. John Benson. He sits at a picnic table under the beautiful blue sky, listening to the sounds of the birds chirping and singing in an old oak tree, fifty yards away. The squirrels chatter away, chasing each other around. Sgt. Benson is cleaning his McMillan Tac-50 sniper rifle after just finishing at the shooting range.

From the corner of his eye, he notices his captain coming towards him. As the captain nears, he gets up from the picnic table and stands at attention, saluting and greeting him with, "Afternoon sir!"

Cpt. Burt Shraber continues on walking, returning the salute to Sgt. Benson with an annoyed look. He then stops and stands before him, "Damn it John, how many times I gotta tell you to cut that shit out during off-hours and on weekends! Please return your rifle to the armory and grab your special rucksack, and meet me at the east side of the base by the old dry dock area Sgt. Benson, there is something I need to give to you for safety's sake."

John relaxes for a moment, feeling like that was an order, and responds by snapping to attention once again—saluting him with a hasty "Sir Yes Sir!"

Cpt. Shraber palms his forehead, annoyed at his continuing habit. He lets out a sigh in surrender, then turns to leave and looks at his watch. When he sees that it is 5 p.m. he decides on a time and looks at his friend, "Be there by 7 p.m," then takes his leave.

John waves goodbye and gets a slightly annoyed wave back, which greatly puzzles him. Before he reassembles his rifle, he quickly finishes the cleaning of his weapon and puts the kit away.

After picking up his equipment, John takes the rifle back to the armory and heads for home. As he arrives at the barracks, John retrieves the rucksack his captain requested and quietly wonders why he wants him to bring this supersized backpack along. As John starts making his way to the meeting, he thinks about what might be going on and arrives five minutes early.

After seeing John approach, Sgt. Schraber continues to lean against an aging wall that has a large chunk of sidewalk butting up against it. When John gets close enough, he motions for him to wait there a second. He then proceeds to open a hidden cover in the wall, and looks into the retinal scanner first with his right eye, then presses his hand to the scanner for verification.

John stands a short distance away and watches earnestly as the chunk of sidewalk sinks into the ground a few inches. It then stops and slides into a slot on the left side of a square shaft, a platform then rises into view with a pedestal near the left edge of the floor. "What is this sir?" John asks the captain.

"Shh, now's not the time for questions, I fear we are being watched." The captain answers while glancing around the area for anybody that shouldn't be there.

"Nobody is around though" as John looks around nervously before continuing "I know we're not being followed by anybody."

"I know John, it's just my senses telling me something isn't right." he responds, feeling a little nervous about what he needs to do. "Ok, let's get going John." he says.

Cpt. Shraber steps onto the metal platform and motions for John to join him on the makeshift elevator. He then presses a button on a pedestal in the elevator once John joins him and starts their descent into the earth.

Sgt. Benson maintains his balance as the elevator descends into the earth as the concrete slab slides back over, then back up to close the hole. He wonders how far down the shaft goes, as the elevator continues to descend, coming to a halt twenty minutes later.

Burt steps off of the platform and into a dimly lit corridor. "C'mon John, there's a bit of a walk still." He says as he motions for him to keep up.

John steps off the platform and breaks into a light jog to catch up to his captain. He then continues to follow him down the corridor, when he asks, "What is this place Burt?"

Burt kept moving forward and replies, "This is a vault that holds a single, very dangerous weapon."

John follows him in silence for a minute before he asks his captain, "What is the weapon, and why do we even have it here if it's so dangerous?"

He looks back at John with a straight face and answers, "It is called a Mobile Mini-nuke or MMN-01 for short, and it's here because It's an experimental thing the government has cooked up to try to even out the balance of power in the world."

He stars at Cpt. Shraber in disbelief at what he just heard. "Are those fuckers crazy! WW3 nearly kicked off a few months ago when we accused a few countries in the Middle East of building up their nuclear arsenals!"

Burt comes to the end of the corridor and sighs sadly, then places his hand and eye against a scanner saying, "Beginning of fall."

John stares in awe at the dead end before them as the wall slowly falls into the floor, revealing a decently sized room beyond the corridor.

Burt enters the room, heading to a pedestal rising from the floor. As he reaches the pedestal, he places his hand on top of it.

As the pad detects a hand resting on it, it sends a signal out to give them the challenge. Through several hidden speakers, a voice echoes throughout the room, coming from nowhere and everywhere all at once saying, "I have become death, the destroyer of worlds."

Burt keeps his hand on the pedestal and answers, "Oppenheimer."

John hears a noise in the room like stone against stone, as a thin and large slab of stone with a chest on top rises out of an opening in the floor. Curious, he moves closer to get a better view, the chest is an ornate black box with silver corners. Gold filigree adorned the sides in continuous, adjoining arcs. He notices that a golden lock sits in the center of the chest with a keyhole large enough to fit a skeleton key.

Burt takes a key from his pocket and inserts it into the lock, then turns it to open the lock. He places the key back into his pocket, then lifts the lid and pulls out a rectangular-shaped device. Setting it carefully on the stone block, he steps to the side and motions John to come closer.

John takes a few steps forward and examines the box closely. Slightly bigger than a shoebox, the casing looks like black titanium, having two handles on either side. The display had an illuminated, inlaid keypad with a round, key-shaped switch above it.

Burt takes a different key from his pocket and holds it in his fist. "Set your rucksack down and open the secret compartment at the bottom."

"What the fuck are you doing sir? I don't want to carry that dangerous fucking thing around with me." John replies unhappily.

"DO AS YOU'RE TOLD SERGEANT!" Cpt. Burt shouts angrily to John. "Only you can keep this thing out of enemy hands." He replies. Turning his head to look up at John, he holds his palm out and faces up with the key to the device sitting on it, waiting for him to accept his new responsibility.

Sighing in defeat, he hesitantly takes it from his palm and pockets it while shaking his head, "I'm doing this under protest sir." John states, obeying his superior. Setting the rucksack down and unzipping it, he opens the compartment at the bottom of it.

Lowering his hand, Burt sighs and looks away saying, "I'm sorry my friend but there's no one else I trust to do this job but you." Turning around, he takes the device from the stone block's surface and then turns to face John. Moving to where the rucksack sits and taking a knee, he carefully starts to lower the device into the compartment. He lets out a sigh of relief, then stands back up and says "A perfect fit, now it's YOUR baby to guard."

He looks up at his friend and superior, then narrows his eyes saying, "Asshole, I'm not gonna be giving you alcohol for a while, you know that right?" John replies seriously while closing the compartment up, then zips the rucksack closed. He lifts it onto his back and waits to follow Burt.

Burt laughs loudly and then says, "Awe don't be that way John, It's not like I'm gonna ask you to use it." He then heads for the elevator, motioning John to follow.

John sighs and follows him out while answering, "Oh fine then, I'll just give you a wine cooler as punishment."

"Sounds like a deal to me, you always did brew really good alcohol." Burt says and continues down the corridor, towards the elevator that leads to the surface.

John continues to follow the captain, thinking about what he would do once they return to the surface.

Almost a half-hour passes by before they finally reach the elevator as Burt says, "Wait thirty minutes before using the elevator please." Stepping onto the platform, he raises his hand towards the pedestal with a slightly sad look on his face as it starts to rise out of view of his friend.

John waves goodbye to Burt, but notices the sad look on his face and says, "Yes sir. Don't give me that sad look, because I have to get you that drink I promised when this shit is over with."

Burt smiles and chuckles at hearing that, and says, "I look forward to that drink when it's over John, I'll catch you later when it's safe to return it here."

John loses sight of Burt's head as it rises out of view and calls out, "See you later captain." As he loses sight of his friend, he waits for a half-hour as Burt asked him to.

John continues to lean against the wall as the elevator returns from the surface, then moves to get on the elevator when the ground beneath him shakes violently. As he loses his balance due to the violent shaking, he quickly braces himself against the wall to avoid falling and letting the device hit the floor.

He hears a loud crash coming from behind, informing him of the room collapsing at the end of the corridor where he used to be. As the shaking finally subsides, John says to himself, "Holy shit, what was all that about?!" He then hurries onto the elevator and presses the button to get to the surface before he is buried alive.

Twenty minutes later, the elevator starts nearing the surface, and all of the dust and smoke from outside began to fill the elevator shaft. John begins to cough because of all the dust and smoke in the air around him, causing him to cover his nose and mouth. As John finally reaches the surface, he looks around with shock on his face when he notices a mushroom cloud rising into the sky, making him think, 'This can't be really happening, but I can smell the smoke, hear the explosions from far away as well as the burning fires. I know some people do have nightmares that seem real to them. Could this be what theirs were like? There are even a few people who can feel or smell when having a dream. Is this similar somehow?'

When he looks around, he sees that many of the buildings are burning wildly and says, "What the fuck is going on around here?" When he sees the wall, he spots his friend hunched over, burned and bleeding badly. John runs over to Burt, hoping he isn't dead. He grabs Burt while loudly asking, "CAPTAIN, ARE YOU OK?" As he gets more anxious, John repeats himself and lightly slaps him on his unburnt shoulder.

Burt painfully opens his eyes while coughing, and takes a breath to say, "No, I'm not ok." Cpt. Burt Schraber looks up at Sgt. John Benson, kneeling down before him with a worried look on his face. Knowing that he doesn't have long to live with his extensive burns and injuries, he takes a ragged breath and gives his friend one last order, "Forget about me and gather what supplies you need to survive this, get fully geared and get yourself the fuck out of here. THAT'S A DIRECT ORDER SERGEANT, NOW REMEMBER YOUR TRAINING AND GET YOUR ASS OUT OF HERE!"

"SIR YES SIR!" John says while rising to his feet in a hurry, he then heads towards the barracks to get what equipment he has in his room.

Cpt. Burt takes one last look at his friend while he runs for the barracks with a smile on his face, he softly says, "I'm proud of how you turned out kid." Closing his eyes, his body falls onto his side, releasing his final breath.

John runs towards the front door but is stopped by a scary sight before his eyes. Part of the building Is burning and a portion has already collapsed, barring entry through the front. John begins looking for another way into his room on the second floor when his eyes notice a shattered window on the first floor that wasn't in flames yet.

He carefully climbs through it and works his way through the room. After taking a look around, his eyes land on the corpse of a young woman burnt beyond recognition lying on the floor. He cringes at the horrible sight thinking, 'What kind of a hellish reality is this, this can't possibly be real...can it?' before returning to his task, exiting the room and running down the hall leaping over dead bodies that are in the way.

Turning to the left, he runs up the stairs, sidestepping bodies that litter the steps and the landing. Reaching the top and turning left, he runs down the hall and leaps over a hole that appears in front of him. Finally at the door to his room, he opens it and hastily enters.

John sets the rucksack down and quickly starts working his way around the room, gearing up with what he needs for survival. Now equipped with a canteen on the side of his belt and a flak vest over his torso, he grabs his helmet and straps it on before double-checking his inventory. Looking through the items he needs to survive, he has everything except for weapons, magazines and ammo, night-vision goggles, and food.

After picking up the backpack and exiting the room, John carefully throws the rucksack over his shoulders and exits the way he came in. Stepping back through the shattered window, he lands firmly on the ground and made his way to the armory for the rest of what he needs.

John looks outside and watches more nukes go off in the distance, a few detonate in his line of sight while others are just marked by a mushroom cloud above the distant target. Wasting no time to deal with the hell that's happening around him, he breaks into a sprint towards the armory.

John slows down and looks inside the armory cautiously, finding it mostly undamaged. He fully enters the building and learns that the armorer has locked himself behind the gate of the arms room thinking, 'Well that is a predictable sight, but still...this is all too much to be real.' He approaches Corporal Newman and says, "Hey Newman, open the door so that I can gear up for a fight. Captain Shraber's dead, and it looks like WW3 has just begun. I saw many buildings on fire, and the barracks are a lost cause." explaining to Corporal Newman what the situation is outside.

Corporal Newman's eyes bug out of his skull yelling, "REALLY? NUKES ARE DETONATING ALL AROUND US!"

He then sighs saying, "Yeah, so I guess it would be good to unlock this door and stop hiding behind it."

Newman's face turns into a frown, and feeling bad for being scared, he unlocks the gate to the arms room. "Come on in and help yourself to what you need, because the world has officially gone to hell now," Newman replies as he opens the gate and heads back to his desk.

John enters the armory, takes off his rucksack, and sets it down before grabbing what he feels he needs: Five magazines for his sniper rifle and three full 100 round .50 cal ammo cans from an unlocked cabinet.

"Corporal Newman, open the big cabinet," said John.

Corporal Newman obeys the order and unlocks the cabinet saying, "I'm not surprised you're taking that too, it is WW3 we're talking about." Then returns to his desk and sits back down.

John retrieves two carrying bags to hold additional plastic ammo boxes for the M249 he's taking with him on his journey, making sure to grab two full cans holding 4 plastic boxes each with 200 rounds of linked ammo in each box for the M249 along with an NVG and an extra battery from the shelf. Moving on to the weapon locker, he picks up the M249 and ties it onto the back of his rucksack. He then retrieves his sniper rifle and leans it between the wall and a weapon rack, then starts to fill the empty magazines; setting them securely in pouches on his vest and backpack, but leaves one out.

While packing things up, John moves things around so that he still has room for a few MREs to sit on top before he closes his rucksack and puts it on his back again. He then grabs the rifle, loads the mag, and chambers a round. Exiting the room and heading for the outside world, he stops and looks back saying, "Goodbye Newman, I hope I get to see your ugly ass again one day." before walking towards the destruction that lies on the other side of the doors.

Newman calls out, "YOU BETTER OR I'M GONNA SIT ON YOU!!"

John laughs while entering the hell outside, and starts to make his journey to his girlfriend's apartment thinking, 'I wonder what else this hellish nightmare will throw at me...'. Arriving ten minutes later he freezes in his tracks, losing his grip on his sniper rifle. It lands on the soft grass with a quiet rattle as he falls down onto the soft grass on his knees in shock at the sight of the crater before him. He looks around at what used to be houses and buildings, but now nothing's left standing at all.

A massive crater takes the place of where her apartment building once stood, devastating him at seeing the destruction before him. John hangs his head and lets the tears run down his face in rivers as he starts to sob thinking, 'This...This must be a dream, it must be... There is no way that what I have seen here...is really happening.'.

He pays attention to nothing as he sits there, waiting for himself to wake up when the sun finally reaches the horizon. A loud crackling sound fills the air as static electricity starts gathering around him, he doesn't notice anything due to the emotional and psychological pain caused by the hellish things he saw earlier. Continuing to think everything happening around him is part of a terrible nightmare when he is struck by a bright bolt of lightning, immediately followed by the sound of thunder.

A few hours ago in Equestria...

The morning is bright and clear as Twilight searches for the hidden section in the library of the Castle of Two Sisters. Twilight heard Luna mention a book to her about a secret of Equestria, and hopes to find it. As she reaches a certain shelf, she pulls on Luna's favorite book, Goodnight Moon. A bookshelf then slides back and into a space in the wall, making it look natural.

Entering a much larger room, she starts searching for the book she wants, finds the book two hours later, and exits the room. She stands in the Two Sister's library and tries to read the cover of what she found but can't due to the book's age. She sighs with disappointment and goes back home, hoping to read it in better lighting.

As she arrives at home, Twilight sets the book down on the friendship table. She then sits down in her chair and starts to read it but she's interrupted by the table activating, showing a spot on the map just outside of the Everfree Forest. Twilight sees the cutie marks belonging to her and Applejack, and leaves the castle to get her friend while complaining, "It always seems to know when I'm starting a new book because this happens EVERY TIME!"

Applejack sees Twilight trotting towards her, feeling ready for a short break from harvesting zap apples. She meets her halfway, asking her, "Howdy there Twi, what can ah do ya for?"

Coming to a stop with an annoyed look on her face, Twilight answers, "We have a mission Applejack, just outside of the Everfree Forest. Could you use help with the zap apple harvest?"

Shaking sweat off her body, she then sighs a breath of relief saying, "Ah definitely could use the help! Ah'd be grateful if ya would."

She smiles while following Applejack to the zap apple trees saying, "I found an interesting book hidden away in the castle, I look forward to getting back to reading it."

As Applejack stops by the trees, she takes a seat near them and smiles saying, "Is it anything ya might find useful?"

Twilight looks to her friend and answers, "I sure hope it will satisfy my curiosity when Luna mentioned a book that contains a secret about Equestria, I wonder what the secret could be..." She then looks around and grins as they relax near the zap apples when she asks her, "Want to make it a race?"

Feeling her exhaustion fade away, Applejack grins back and replies, "Of course, it's been a while since we last competed against each other. Yer on!" They both count to three and take off for the zap apples, competing for fun and to see who will finish first.

After a couple of hours, they both are breathing hard as Twilight looks at the number of barrels they filled and chuckles saying, "Looks like we tied, Applejack." With the race over at last, the girls sit beside a water barrel to cool off. As she catches her breath and walks beside her friend, Twilight tells her about the trip she made to the castle. As they walk through a field, they reach the spot the map indicated, but nopony is there. Looking around puzzled, she says, "Well this is a first for me Applejack, we came to help solve a friendship problem but there's nopony around to help. Let's go back so we can read that book and figure out what secrets that book holds."

"Me too, Twi, ah can't believe there's nopony around for us ta help," Applejack looks around in confusion as well and continues, "Ah'll come with ya Twi, ya piqued my interest with that book."

As she follows her home, she asks, "Ah wonder what we'll learn from that book, Twi."

"I guess we'll see when we finally get to my house and read it." Twilight eagerly replies, picking up the pace a bit.

Finally arriving at her home, she opens the book and they begin reading it together. A couple of hours pass by when their eyes open wide as they read the end of the book. Applejack is stunned at what the species did to the other inhabitants in Equestria saying, "Ah can't believe a species so thoughtless and cruel actually existed HERE of all places!"

"I know what you mean Applejack, how can an entire species see others as nothing more than food or servants?" Twilight says, feeling glad that their entire species was banished from Equestria around two millennia ago by the legendary Starswirl The Bearded. "Another scary thing is that there is no real description other than they were taller than any foal or full-grown adult."

"Ah can't believe they were fond of huntin' dragons, it even said that dragons were terrified of comin' across them." Applejack shudders at the thought of how terribly strong these things were. "Ah hope they stay banished from Equestria."

Just then another light appears in the same spot as before, along with the same two cutie marks hovering above the location. Seeing this, she shakes her head and starts moving towards the door saying, "Ugh, this better not be another wild goose chase...let's go Applejack."

They return to Twilight's home a half-hour later as Twilight feels really aggravated by another useless trip, and gives the table an annoyed glare and asks, "Is there something wrong with this darn table!?

She looks at the table and shakes her head saying, "Ah dunno Twi, but that table is being weird today."

Sunset approaches as the dreaded, but much-loved mail pony, Derpy Hooves shakes Twilight's castle as she slams into the side of it. After recovering from her epic crash landing, she knocks on the door to deliver an important message to Twilight from the castle.

Feeling her home shake violently from the tell-tale sign of Derpy's arrival, she chuckles lightly and says, "I hope she's ok from that rough landing." Twilight answers the door and asks, "Are you ok after that crash, Derpy?"

Derpy hands her the message with a smile and answers, "Oh yes I'll be fine, that happens all the time with me, have a good day princess!" She then takes off for her next stop and darts towards Ponyville, causing cats to screech in surprise as she knocks trash cans over and bottles break after falling down to the street while she darts between the houses.

She closes the door and reads the message, causing a worried look to come across her face, and says, "Applejack, Princesses Celestia and Luna have been kidnapped by Queen Chrysalis!"

"Heavens ta Betsy Twi, let's get a hoofin'." Applejack replies eagerly. Before they start to leave, the table once again shows the same light near the Everfree Forest, with the same cutie marks above the location.

With night quickly approaching and Twilight already annoyed at the table, she exclaims, "I SWEAR, IF THIS IS ANOTHER WILD GOOSE CHASE, I WILL EXAMINE YOU!!"

"Ah agree with ya Twi, this is pony apples!" Applejack says as the two of them start trotting towards the Everfree Forest.

The two of them arrive at the spot outside the Everfree Forest as Twilight loses her cool, yelling, "That's it! I've had it with that table, as soon as we get back from rescuing the princesses I'm going to thoroughly examine every inch of it!" Stomping her hooves, Twilight turns to go save the princesses.

"And ah'll help ya Twi, this is the last time that table pranks us!" Applejack says while turning to go save the princesses with Twilight. She hears a strange, staticky noise coming from somewhere close by, and tries to pinpoint where it's coming from as a black cloud starts to form above them. Seeing her friend walking her way, she realizes the danger she is in and shouts, "WATCH OUT TWI, GIT OUT FROM UNDER IT!!" Warning her of the danger above her as Twilight looks up and gallops to safety, out from underneath the cloud as it gets bigger and turns into a thunderhead.

Quickly flying beside Applejack, Twilight shouts in surprise as a loud crack of lightning strikes the ground where she used to be. Lightning continues to strike the same spot over and over as the sound of static electricity builds up, the noise becoming too loud for their sensitive ears to handle.

The two cover their ears and wait a couple of minutes for it to go away. As the static builds up to a critical point, a lightning bolt turns the slowly darkening sky into day for a brief second, temporarily blinding and deafening the two ponies.

As the light fades away, the two ponies think they see something there, but can't really make it out due to a large purple blotch blocking their vision. Placing their hooves over their eyes, the two girls try to get rid of the spot they are seeing.

A couple of minutes pass before they are able to hear clearly again, and think they hear somepony sobbing. As their vision clears up, they see the shape of something in the spot where the lightning struck the ground.

Twilight turns her head towards the vague shape, wishing that the bright sunset wasn't in her eyes so she could find out what's there. As her curiosity gets the better of her, she approaches the spot cautiously, not sure if it's friendly or not. As she hears quiet sobs coming from the spot ahead of her, she learns it's a living creature but is very sad as she sees it start to rock back and forth. speaking while sobbing in between, "I wish I would wake up already, this nightmare is just too much to handle anymore..."

When they hear that, Applejack and Twilight both try not to startle the poor creature with sudden sounds. Twilight slowly makes her way in front of the creature and lays down on the ground just outside of its reach, then tries to think of a way to get its attention without startling it. Coming up with a subtle idea, she uses her tail and lightly whips it back and forth in hopes of the creature noticing the movement.

As his eyes open up, he looks around at the ground curiously for a moment. Noticing that there is tall grass in front of him instead of short grass, he catches movement in his peripheral vision. Taking notice of the movement, he slowly gets his crying under control. He then wipes the right sleeve of his arm across his eyes to dry his tears, lifting his head up to look up to find what made the movement thinking, 'Did the nightmare change, or did I wake up?' To his surprise, he sees what he believes to be a newborn foal lying on the ground in front of him flicking its tail side to side. He then makes himself a little more comfortable, wanting a better look at the foal, he moves his body into a sitting position. Still unable to make out more than the basic outline of the foal, he wonders if there is a carrot or an apple nearby to offer them.

Looking around, he doesn't see anything to offer the foal but grass. Instead of offering food, he decides to try coaxing the foal to come closer to pet it by raising his hand up flat with his palm facing the sky while slowly extending it towards the foal's nose saying, "Come here little one, I won't hurt you."

She turns her head towards the creature's voice and finally gets a look at the face belonging to the creature before her, seeing a pair of beautiful green eyes with a few gold streaks and a red tint around the edges. Twilight glances over at Applejack briefly, then lets out a soft giggle after hearing that and says, "Umm...no offense but I think I'll stay right here until I get to actually meet you, sorry." Twilight replies with a gentle smile and holds her ground.

Sgt. John Benson's eyes move to the foal's head and sees the whites of the foal's eyes. He is alarmed at suddenly hearing the foal speak, and quickly draws his combat knife from its sheath around his right ankle. Rising to his feet and hastily shrugging off his backpack, he gets into a fighting stance with his weapon raised, and exclaims, "YOU CAN TALK, W-WHAT'S GOING ON?!" Not knowing what to do, he looks around nervously as he feels his fear rise while his heart beats faster.

Twilight freezes in place as she sees the figure suddenly have a weapon in its grasp, becoming three times taller than her, even standing on her hooves, and answers shakily, "Y-Y-Y-Yes I c-c-can t-talk, and I d-d-don't know."

Not waiting for the creature to harm her friend, Applejack races around the creature and jumps up, aiming for the upper half of its body in an attempt to knock them to the ground. As she topples the creature backward, she stands on top of the creature then moves a forehoof to its throat, trying to pin it down saying, "Hold it right there, ah won't let ya hurt her!"

As John is pinned to the ground, his training kicks in, showing an opportunity to flip the tables on his opponent. He clenches his hand into a fist and grins, then quickly curls his fist, and then his arm, and drives it into their rib cage as hard as he can to knock the wind out of their lungs in order to quickly restrain them. He then feels the weight on his chest disappear and rolls to his right, landing on his stomach, and quickly straddles his opponent while pressing his blade to their throat saying, "Rule number one, the fight is not over until the other can't fight back."

Applejack feels the air get knocked out of her and gasps for breath, trying to get back up but finds she is unable to as something heavy lands on top of her while something long and sharp is pressed against her neck. Fearing the blade to her neck she shouts, "AH YIELD, AH YIELD DAGNABBIT!!"

With his blade to their neck, he moves his blade a little and grabs the back of his opponent's neck. He then gets up onto his knees and pulls their head up off the ground while moving the blade to the front of their throat and says, "That was fun but you need a lot more training in hand-to-hand combat in order to have a chance of pinning me, little one." He slowly begins to notice the lack of the smell of smoke and the sound of crackling fires consuming the wrecked debris scattered around him and thinks, 'Maybe I am only dreaming because the sound of fire and the smell of smoke can't just disappear. Yeah, I must be dreaming this all up, I wonder where I fell asleep at.'

Twilight lights up the area with her horn to see what is happening and immediately regrets it. Fear is on her face when she sees Applejack held by the neck with a blade pressed against her throat, lying underneath of a really tall creature that matches the description in the book she and Applejack read earlier. Tears form in her eyes and run down her face as she quickly pleads, "Please, don't hurt her! I'll do whatever you want, just please, please don't hurt Applejack!"

Sgt. John Winston Benson suddenly finds it easier to see and notices that the orange foal below him is apparently female and is called Applejack, turning his head towards the foal with a bright light above their head. Blinded by the light and unable to see, he isn't able to make out much detail other than they have a light purple coat and says, "Okay, you have a deal but I can't see too well with that bright flashlight in my eyes."

She cocks her head in confusion for a moment before realizing the creature means her light is too bright and extinguishes it, then recasts the spell to be not so bright and says, "Sorry, is this better?"

His eyes adjust to the change in light and is shocked to see the tip of the light purple foal's horn has a small white orb at the very end of it while the rest of it glows with a weird aura and asks, "What are you? Why do you have a horn on your head, is there something wrong with your horn to make it glow like that?"

Twilight looks up at her horn, relieved to see that nothing is off, and cocks her head to the side saying, "There is nothing wrong with my horn, I am just using magic to see better." She then watches the creature, wishing he would let Applejack go, and answers, "My friend and I are called ponies, I am an alicorn while she is an earth pony. I promise to tell you more if you will let Applejack go."

John looks at the talking pony curiously and thinks, 'Yeah, this is definitely a dream. At least it is a better one than the last nightmare I experienced.' He chuckles and says, "Okay then, I don't know why I'm having this weird dream but I will wake up eventually." He then glances down at their friend and decides they aren't a threat he can't handle saying, "Alright, I don't see a problem with that as you don't have any weapons." He then gets into a kneeling position and pulls his knife away from her throat and returns it to its sheath, then moves his right hand underneath the filly's body and helps her stand up saying, "Stand up little one."

Applejack feels the creature's hand brush against her teats, causing her to lightly blush as she is set onto her hooves. She feels his grip around her neck slip off as she receives a gentle swat to her rear, making her run towards Twilight as his hand slides down her back.

She watches Applejack run back with a blush on her face, making her curious for a moment but she decides to ask about that later and turns her attention back to the creature. She stares back at the creature with confusion and says, "I-I assure you that it is quite real, it is an important part of every pegasus, unicorn, earth pony, or alicorn."

John stares at her in disbelief saying, "M-Magic is real, are you really that twisted in the head to believe magic is real! That is a fantasy that only exists in make-believe fairy tales, dreams, fiction novels, and movies."

Applejack gets a feeling that the creature is very confused and lost, making an idea form in her mind, and taps Twilight's shoulder with her right forehoof and quietly says, "Uhm Twi, ah think that they don't know where they are."

Twilight forehooves herself at not realizing it sooner and says, "Do you know where you are right now?"

He looks around and doesn't see burning buildings anywhere and says, "I am asleep somewhere, dreaming away until I wake up or someone wakes me. I was having a nightmare before this, but it is over now and I don't want to talk about it. I will tell you that this is turning out to be one weird dream."

She tries again to help the confused creature out and says, "I'm sorry, but you are not dreaming right now. Can you tell me where you think you are?"

John refuses to believe what is being said and says, "I am not quite sure. I may be in my barracks, still asleep in my bed at the base in Colorado."

Twilight sighs and corrects him saying, "I am sorry, but you are in Equestria. This is a land mostly inhabited by ponies, our princesses have been taken by the evil changeling queen, Queen Chrysalis." As her curiosity rises, she asks, "I answered your question, what in Tartarus are you!?"

He thinks for a moment and says, "Equestria, huh...I heard of it before in a show that my girlfriend loved to watch." A sad look crosses Sgt. John Benson's face as he remembers the hellish nightmare he had before this one and replies, "I'm a human, my name and rank is Sergeant John Winston Benson." As he is able to see them both clearly now, he takes a good look at the two ponies standing before him, one has a purple coat and eyes, sporting a very dark blue mane and tail with raspberry streaks in it, a unicorn's horn, and wings of a pegasus. Next to her stands Applejack, who seems a little older with an off-orange coat, green eyes, and a braided blonde mane and tail. He notices a light blush on Applejack's face and decides to tease her a little, and winks at her teasingly, causing her to look away while blushing harder. Still believing that he is dreaming, he asks the both of them, "Is this Queen Chrysalis tough?"

Shaking her face to stop blushing, Applejack clears her throat and replies, "Well, she ain't exactly easy ya know...Why are ya askin'?"

He looks around the lighted area for his rucksack, finding it with his M249 on the back of it as his rifle lays on the ground nearby. A grin shows up on his face at seeing his two weapons, John gets up and walks over to his rifle, grabbing it with his right hand, he then points to the backside of his rucksack with his free left hand and answers, "Because I might be able to help you get through her warriors. I AM a very well-trained soldier after all."

Twilight becomes more curious, wanting to know more about this human as she replies, "Umm...okay, sure you can help us save them if it keeps us from fighting them all alone." She then thinks to herself, 'Is it just me, or is he a little too accepting of what is going on right now? I'm not talented enough to deal with somepony on the verge of a mental breakdown, so I'll need to tell the princesses about it and let them handle it.'

"GREAT, just give me a moment to change weapons real quick," John replies. Going to his rucksack, he kneels down beside it and holds his rifle with both hands while making sure the safety is on, unchambers the loaded round slowly, and removes the magazine. He then lays his rifle on the ground and grabs the unloaded round, returning it to the mag, and reinserts the mag into the rifle so he can take his M249 off his rucksack.

Twilight watches in curiosity as the human takes a weapon from his bag and asks, "What are you doing?" as he places the weapon he was holding into its place.

John grabs his rucksack, wondering what's inside that he can make use of. He then sits the bag upright and opens it up, finding an NVG, then removes it. He then digs around and pulls out a can containing supposedly holding the plastic ammo boxes for the M249 when he finds some canvas bags inside his ruck. He then sets them aside and pulls out the two canvas bags, after getting a better look at them, he finds out they are for carrying magazines for the M249 and sets them aside as well with a chuckle thinking, 'This is definitely a strange dream...'

He moves to his SAW (Squad Attack Weapon) and grabs the cocking handle on the bolt with his palm facing up, then pulls it all the way back until it locks into place with a click and returns the cocking handle to its forward starting position until it clicks into place once again. Next, he then puts the weapon on safe by pushing the safety button on the left side to the right, hiding the red line indicating it is ready to fire. He then opens the weapon's cover by squeezing the latches and lifts the cover up, then checks to make sure the tray, the breach, and the chamber are all free and clear of any debris.

He opens up the can and removes one of the plastic magazines and inserts it into the receiver underneath, making sure it is secure. He then grabs the first few inches of the linked ammo and lays it into the tray while resting the barrel on his rucksack, using his left hand to hold the link in place carefully as he slams the cover down hard. Hearing the cover click into place, he knows his gun is loaded and ready for action. He then opens up the bipod legs and sets the weapon down, then pulls out two more plastic magazines before closing the ammo can and returns it to his rucksack before closing it up. He then grabs the NVG and attaches it to his helmet, he grabs one of the canvas bags and puts one of the magazines into it, and hooks it onto his belt.

After doing the same thing with the other bag, he picks up his ruck and throws it over his back with a grunt before kneeling down to grab his M249 and slings the strap over his right shoulder, then moves the strap over his head to make it easier to walk and save his stamina for the coming battle.

Applejack watches as the human gets back onto its feet and says, "Dang that looks heavy, umm...what all do ya got in that big sack?"

John smiles and answers, "Well, I'm not entirely sure what's in there exactly but it appears to have some food and clothing at least." He then tries to make a joke and asks, "Shall we go rescue those damsels in distress?"

Twilight laughs at John's joke and replies, "Yes let's go save those damsels. My friends call me Twilight."

The three of them make their way towards Princess Celestia and Luna's location with the help of one of Twilight's spells. Needing to rest a bit as well as plan a strategy before reaching the queen's lair, Twilight stops and lays down for a bit, starting a fire to keep them all warm.

Sitting down for a rest, John takes out his canteen and cup, then pours water into it and drinks it. He then thinks of the two ponies and refills it while asking, "Do you two want some water?" and offers the two ponies some water.

Twilight smiles and makes her way over to the offered cup saying, "Thank you, John." She then takes a drink from the cup and motions Applejack to come over to take a drink as well.

John refills the cup with water and lets the ponies drink their fill. As they sit back down, John says, "When we engage the enemy, make damn sure you DON'T stand anywhere near the front end of this thing when it goes off or you WILL be either hurt or killed."

Taking one last drink from the cup, he puts the canteen and the cup away and asks, "Twilight, Applejack can you two deal with any threats that get too close? I will have to reload this if it runs out of ammo. I don't know anything about magic, so please keep them back while I do so."

Applejack gulps and responds nervously, "Y-Yep, ah can sure handle that."

Twilight feels nervous after hearing the human say killed and says, "Yes I can handle that task." She then takes the opportunity to ask, "By the way, what is that weapon you're using called?"

Looking at his weapon, he tells her, "This weapon here is called an M249 heavy machine gun, it fires multiple projectiles at a rapid rate. The one on my rucksack here is called a McMillan Tac-50 sniper rifle, it fires a single projectile capable of hitting a target far away."

Getting to his feet ten minutes later with a smile on his face, he says, "Well you two, shall we get this fight started?" Showing some concern, he says, "I'm warning you now, there will be a lot of blood, I hope you aren't squeamish."

The two gulp hard as they reply nervously, "Not at all, John." The three of them continue on their way towards the princesses.

They arrive as the sun is a couple of hours away from rising and take their positions when they are greeted a few minutes later by an army of 200 changelings standing in their way.

Paying no heed to the music starting to fill the air, John gets down into a kneeling position. He then lowers the NVG into position and turns it on. He then prepares to unleash hell on the enemy, looking eager for some action and shouts, "BRING IT ON YOU FUCKERS, I SAID BRING IT!" He then begins to sing along with the song as he clicks the safety off and starts firing his weapon at the army of changelings.

The two girls' mouths hang open at John's sudden outburst, making Twilight cast a spell to protect their ears from the noise of the loud bap-bap-bap-bap coming from the gun as they see the army finally start to charge towards John hissing angrily. They both look for any changelings that try to sneak around to attack them from behind, doing whatever they can to protect each other and the human.

Queen Chrysalis is startled briefly at hearing a cacophony of strange music and chaos erupt outside of her new lair and screams, "DARK MIST, GET YOUR CHITIN IN HERE RIGHT NOW!"

Running into the prison wing of the lair with a terrified look on his face, Dark Mist answers quickly, "My queen, how may I be of service?"

Angrily tapping a hoof on the floor, the queen screams, "WHAT IN TARTARUS IS GOING ON OUT THERE!"

Still shaking, Dark Mist gives his report saying, "My queen, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, and some strange creature we've never seen before are tearing through our troop numbers like paper! That creature is using some kind of weapon that can't be stopped."

"IMPOSSIBLE!" Queen Chrysalis yells in disbelief as the cacophony continues on.

Turning to Queen Chrysalis, Celestia asks, "What is wrong, are your plans not working out Chrysalis?"

Grinning, Chrysalis turns to Celestia and says, "Oh, and what makes you think that you will make it out of here alive?"

Minutes pass by as the noise starts to quiet down a little, seeming to be getting closer as Queen Chrysalis prepares to order her followers to kill the princesses. Everyone inside the room jumps when an explosion makes everyone in the room freeze and turn their eyes toward the heavy double doors falling towards the floor.

Earlier

John calmly walks down dark corridors, keeping an eye on any direction he can while firing at the changelings foolish enough to turn to fight as others flee in terror at the mere sight of him. Reaching a secluded quiet spot, he tells Applejack and Twilight to wait for him to open the door, and stay quiet while he talks to the queen to give her a very special present.

Nodding their heads, the two girls agree. Twilight asks, "What is it you are going to give to Chrysalis?"

Arriving outside of the prison wing's entrance, grinning with an evil look in his eyes, he says, "Something that just happened to be in the bottom of my rucksack, it's just a small device to demonstrate Mankind's power." Pulling out two blocks of C4 and breaking them in half, John applies them to the hinges and wires them up to the detonator. John stands back a safe distance with the girls behind him and presses the button to blow the hinges on the heavy double doors.

Falling to the floor, the heavy double doors make a loud, echoing bang. Acting to play the part, John proudly enters the room first with malice all over his face as he turns off his NVG, lifting it up to look at the princesses. Motioning with a hand wave, he orders the two girls beside him.

Princess Celestia's eyes widen in fear at the sight before her, sobbing and exclaiming, "Oh no, no, NO NOT THEM AGAIN!!" Seeing her prized pupil and Applejack enter the room like slaves, she continues to tremble and sob incoherently.

Hearing Celestia sobbing brings a big smile to Chrysalis's face as she turns to greet the strange creature whom her enemy fears, saying, "I'm very upset with you killing so many of my children, however, I can't let you leave until you give me that THING you used on my poor children."

Still acting like a stooge, he responds, "Your Majesty, if you would allow me to have those two as concubines, I will grant you a device that makes this weapon PALE in comparison to it, nothing will be able to stand in the way of what that device can do once it opens."

Pondering the offer, Chrysalis grins evilly and makes a decision saying, "My dear friend, I do think we have a deal. Please give me the device now."

Setting his weapon and rucksack down, John answers back, "Apologies Your Majesty, but as a show of good faith, can you give me those two over there first?"

Chrysalis frowns and ponders the counter offer saying, "You are a tough one, but I will allow it just this once!" She then opens the cages and drags them both to the creature with her magic.

With a nod and a smile on his face, he removes a few items in his rucksack in order to open the secret compartment. After pulling the device out and setting it on the ground before him, he says, "Your Majesty, this device has a time seal on it, and will only open after the time entered runs out."

Still following the plan, Twilight continues on and slowly moves over to Celestia and Luna, whispering into their ears quietly, "Please play along, this is all planned out, just trust me." She then stretches out her wings according to the plan while waiting for the next part.

Going along with her scheme, Celestia keeps sobbing as Luna hangs her head and looks gloomy.

As she starts to feel really annoyed, she taps her foot and yells, "WELL HURRY UP AND GET TO IT THEN, DON'T KEEP A QUEEN WAITING!!!"

Entering fifteen minutes into the timer, John searches his pockets for the key and finds it. He then inserts it into the keyhole and turns it before removing the key. He returns it to his pocket and stands up, leaving the device to count away. As he sees Twilight stretching, he kicks her in the barrel with the side of his boot, knocking her onto her side roughly. "There's another whipping for you, Twinkle-Butt! How many times have I told you not to talk when I'm handling business!!" Raising his hand to backhand Twilight, he stops and lowers it after she cringes and nods saying, "Good, you have learned your lesson, maybe I won't use the Flail Whip on you this time."

Seeing them being treated so poorly sends Chrysalis into a fit of laughter, saying, "OH, YOU HUMOR ME, CREATURE! You may leave now that you have repaid your crime of entering my territory and killing my children."

John bows to Chrysalis before repacking his rucksack and returning it to his back, leaning over to pick up his weapon and yells at Twilight, "Now take us back to camp, there is a lot of work you all need to catch up on while I sleep!"

Twilight tries to catch her breath after it was knocked out of her after being roughly kicked in the side, she rises to her hooves and nods her head saying, "Y-Yes Master." Hearing her cue, Twilight gets up groaning. As she begins the spell, she hears John sarcastically say, "Awwe, did I not kick you hard enough?"

As Twilight completes the spell, the sound of Chrysalis's laughing ceases while the stars appear in the sky above them. John feels himself get pushed onto his ass and finds an angry Twilight standing on his lower legs with her forehooves on his chest and hears her shout, "That kick was a little hard you know!"

With a sigh, he says, "Look, I'm sorry Twilight, I had to REALLY sell it so we could get out alive. We need a protection spell NOW Twilight. You're not going to want to miss this."

Twilight casts the spell over the whole group and looks towards Chrysalis's lair. As the minutes pass by, a sudden burst of light blinds the group, making them cover their eyes. The flash of light is brighter than the sun as it's immediately followed by a very loud boom. A huge column of dust and smoke rises endlessly into the air as the light fades out.

Immediately after the initial blast, John yells to Twilight, "Keep the spell up Twilight, this better be a strong shield because we're dead without it!"

Looking back at the fading light giving way to a slowly rising column of dust and smoke, John calls out the stages, "One, a bright light appears, preceding a massive fireball, sending out an electromagnetic pulse, killing any electronic devices. Two, immediately after the fireball, a shockwave of air is sent out, crushing any object or structure unable to handle the force. Three, burning any gases available including oxygen, leads to the birth of a firestorm, rapidly increasing the temperature to extreme levels. Four, a vacuum effect is created, sucking air and debris from around it, making the column of dust and smoke get higher. Five, radioactive fallout returns to the ground, leaving it heavily irradiated and hazardous without proper gear." He sighs sadly before saying the last one. "Six, black rain will fall to the ground, but DO NOT drink it or let it touch you, or you will get radiation poisoning."

Twilight readjusts her shield to keep out harmful elements and dangerous temperatures as the four ponies watch in awe and fear as the first wave approaches, bringing with it flying debris, making them all brace themselves for the endeavor as the debris bounces off, cracking the shield. As the second wave passes over the shield, the temperature inside rises uncomfortably, making them start to sweat.

Looking up at the shield, Celestia and Luna see cracks all around it and channel all their magic to Twilight to aid her in fixing the cracks and keeping the shield up. Luna encourages Twilight by saying, "You can do this Twilight, just think of this as another one of my sister's more difficult tests."

With the black rain beginning to fall, John looks and motions for the others to look at him saying, "Sorry but we are going to have to move while keeping this shield up. One of you is going to have to carry Twilight on your back until we are out of the danger zone." He watches as Applejack picks Twilight up and starts to follow the two large ponies walking ahead of the group.

Walking for what seems like forever, John looks around and thinks that the group is finally far enough away to drop the shield. Feeling the temperature inside the shield drop at last, he says, "Okay Twilight, you can drop the shield now." before dropping to the ground breathing heavily.

Finally hearing she can drop the shield that is consuming so much of their combined magic, Twilight happily releases the spell, watching as the shield falls apart around them. As Twilight's head falls beside Applejack's sweaty neck, she quickly falls asleep.

Applejack lays down slowly to avoid dropping her sleeping friend and gives John an angry look while raising her hoof to show that she is not happy with them.

Waiting for Twilight to wake up, the group takes a break. Twenty minutes go by as Celestia lifts the sun over the horizon while Luna lowers the moon while Twilight stirs and opens her eyes moments later.

Celestia drops her calm demeanor and angrily shouts using the royal voice, "WHAT IN THE BLAZES OF TARTARUS ARE YOU DOING HERE HUMAN?! I THOUGHT STARSWIRL THE BEARDED HAD BANISHED YOUR KIND FROM EQUESTRIA!!!"

Startled at the sudden outburst of the princess, John scoots back a short distance answering, "W-Why are you yelling at me, I helped to save both of you?!"

Twilight walks over to Luna tiredly and taps her shoulder quickly and speaks softly up to her saying, "Uhm...Princess Luna, I think there is something you should know about this human."

Luna lowers her head closer to Twilight saying, "And what might that be Twilight?"

She whispers quietly into her ear saying, "I think you should intervene because the human is confused and doesn't know where they are, I tried to convince them that they are really in Equestria but they seem to think that this is a dream and not reality. I don't know enough to properly handle this, so I had to wait until we rescued you both."

She looks at the human and watches them closely for a couple of minutes, she then notices a twitch in their hand. She walks towards her sister and softly places a hand over her mouth to silence her, saying in a mere whisper, "Shhh... I apologize for interrupting you, dear sister but now is not the time for anger. Can't you recognize the troubled state this human is in?"

Celestia closes her eyes for a few seconds and takes a few calming deep breaths, then opens her eyes and tries to see what her sister sees. She watches every move the human makes, missing the slight twitch in their hand, and says, "I'm sorry Sister, but I do not have the same intuition you do."

Luna smiles softly and says, "That is okay sister, I shall handle this for it needs to be handled very carefully." She then looks away from her sister and turns towards the human, taking a few steps forward until she stands in front of them. As she looks at how tall he is, she lifts her head up higher to look at his face. Unable to look at his face and into his eyes she lightly giggles before saying, "My my, you really are a tall human. My name is Luna, it is nice to meet you. Could you please do me a favor and lower your head to where I can get a better look at your face?"

John looks down at the small pony called Luna and nods, then moves his body into a sitting position with his left leg outstretched and his right leg bent inwards with his boot resting against his left thigh. He then unslings his M249 and lays it on the ground, then looks at Luna's face looking right back at him, and says, "Okay, here you go. My name and rank is Sergeant John Winston Benson, nice to meet you as well. May I ask if you are a mare or a stallion? Your voice seems to indicate you are a female, is there anything else you need me to do?"

She smiles and giggles saying, "Your guess at hearing just my voice is correct, we are all female here except for you. With how unfamiliar you are with this place, it is no surprise that you have a little trouble telling females from males." She then shakes her head slowly side to side saying, "Not right now, but I would like to talk to you and help you. You think you are dreaming, correct?"

He looks at her, feeling slightly confused, and cocks his head at a slight angle saying, "I know I am dreaming because none of this is real, horses can't talk or use magic. There aren't any royal princesses in their race, only those that bear the names of Royal or Princess, and those are just that because there's no such thing as a pony being a princess. There are a few strange things here that aren't in the real world, such as those crazy talking insect things called uh...changelings...right. No way is it real that with the help of a make-believe talking Alicorn named Twilight and her talking earth pony friend, I rescued two mythical talking pony princesses with just my SAW. So yes, I must be in a dream because I may have fallen asleep in one of the buildings at the shooting range while trying to get approval to practice long-range sniping."

Luna sighs and says, "Okay then. If you truly are dreaming, close your eyes and try to change the area around you. Each individual can control their dream if they wish to, all they have to do is use the power of their imagination to create something different."

John closes his eyes thinking, 'I'm already dreaming, so this should be easy.' Unsure of what she is up to, he imagines himself in a desert somewhere in the Middle East. After keeping his eyes closed for a while with the location in his mind, he opens his eyes to see that nothing has changed around him saying, "It didn't work, I don't get it... Why didn't it work?"

She watches him try a couple more times, succeeding in only irritating himself further, and asks, "Would you mind if I showed you something?"

He winces as a slight pain shoots through his head and slides his hand underneath his helmet to rub the side of his skull and nods his head, feeling confused at what is happening, and says, "S-Sure, I don't see any problem with it. What is it you want to show me?"

Luna lays down on her stomach and says, "Okay then, lay down just in front of me and I will use my magic to help you understand what I am talking about."

John is a little curious about what she is going to show him with her magic and lays down with his M249 on the ground in front of him saying, "Okay, now what?"

She then smiles sweetly and says, "Now I just want you to close your eyes and let your mind wander, I promise you that I will not do anything harmful with my magic. I am just going to take us to a place where I can show you what I was talking about."

He is unsure about falling asleep with strangers around him but hesitantly does as she asks, taking a calming breath while letting his mind stray thinking, 'I have no clue why she is being so nice to me right now, I wonder what she is trying to do...'

Luna lays her head down and casts her spell to bring him into the dream realm with her, taking him to her own dream as she drifts off to sleep. Finding herself lying beside her bed as the human shows up just in front of her and says, "You may open your eyes now and look at where we are."

John opens his eyes and feels a cold floor underneath of him, he pushes himself up and feels much lighter. Turning his head to look behind him, he immediately notices that his rucksack is gone and asks, "Hey, what is up with this? My rucksack is gone." He then looks around and sees a room with smooth blue walls, high arch windows with light blue outer trim around the edges, and a dark blue wooden cover at the top of each arch having a design with some gem at the top of the arch. Each window has a set of drawn-back, dark red inner curtains with a thin outer curtain, which hang freely in front of the windows. He looks at more of the room to see strange lamps placed around to provide light, a few odd paintings of ponies or landscapes are hung in places along the wall as there is a large, high arch blue door with a few intricate light blue designs on it and a large, white moon in the center of the door and designs. He finally notices the really large, strange bed towards the back of the room and says, "Wow, this is impressive and very strange. Where are we right now?"

She smiles at him and stands up saying, "We are inside my bedroom, inside my sister and I's castle in the city of Canterlot. This is the realm of dreams that I watch and protect each night, I make sure that my subjects sleep peacefully and without nightmares. I am sorry to say this but it is important that you know and understand that right now, you are asleep and seeing what I am imagining. To help convince you of this, let me change the scenery a bit. Hmmm...what might help to convince you about this being a dream? Oh, I know just what to show you, though I don't want to visit that place again. This is to help you out, so it is not my place to ignore what someone needs."

He looks around as everything around him fades away like a mist blown away with a gentle breeze, taking notice of the change of scenery instantly as he finds himself in front of Luna on a large barren alabaster plain with a black sky. He looks a little closer at the strange, white dirt below him and digs his fingers into it. Making a fist, he picks up some of the dirt and notices that it has a faint glow to it, and hastily dumps it out of his hand. He looks up at the sky and sees glowing white specks scattered all around and says, "Hold on a sec...what the FUCK is going on?! How are we still breathing in space?!"

Luna chuckles at his reaction then looks up and to her left, at the blue planet she calls home, deciding to answer his question later and says, "Turn around and look to your left, then search for a blue planet a little ways above the white horizon and you will see."

John turns himself around and tries to find what she is describing, he finds it and is shocked at seeing planet Earth saying, "Wow, this is quite an interesting view, where are we at? How do you know what Earth looks like?" He takes a closer look at the various continents scattered around and turns back around, focusing all his attention on her saying, "Wait a minute, that's not Earth... Just where are we Luna, and what is going on?"

She sighs and says, "You may not want to hear this but you need to understand. Right now, we are on the surface of Equus's moon where I was banished when I became Nightmare Moon. Everything you see here is all a dream, though the field we came from is real. You are not on Earth anymore Sgt John Winston Benson, I do not know how you came to be here but my sister, Twilight, and I will try to figure out what brought you here as well as try to find a way to send you back."

He is in total shock at hearing her say that and looks at her saying, "Y-You're lying to me... I can't possibly be in another world right now! If I really am on some planet called Equus, that is filled with creatures of fantasy, then...that means the hell I came from...actually...happened..." As the reality of everything that he saw sinks in, his head slowly turns to face forward while his eyes drift down to stare at the ground.

Luna slowly walks up to him, feeling a little worried about him, and speaks gently, "I would never lie to anyone, I have learned that any lie told hurts someone. You may not know me, but you need to understand that I will always find time to help and talk to you. Is there anything I can do for you?"

John sits there quietly for a moment, not wanting to deal with his inevitable breakdown right now. He tries to fight it off but fails and it comes anyway, he begins to sob while his upper body slowly rocks back and forth as he says, "D-Dead...they're all dead...my friends are dead and gone...the world I came from is dead."

Her eyes grow as large as saucers, filling with tears while he continues to break down. She walks up to him and wraps one of her forelegs around him, then gently tries to pull him into a hug as tears start to make their way down her face. Canceling the spell keeping them in the Dream Realm, she gets up and walks over to the sobbing human, then lays down next to him. She then places the back of her left front hoof tenderly against his cheek as tears flow down her face, feeling sad about having to make him see reality and softly says, "I promise that things will get better for you, just give it time. I will always be there if you need me to, perhaps even my sister may help you if you should ask. We are both just a letter away, just find Twilight's little brother Spike and ask him to send the letter to one of us."

Celestia watches as the human curls up around her sister, making her wonder what happened, and asks, "Just what did you do to him in the Dream Realm sister?"

Luna looks over at her sister with tears trailing down her cheeks and says, "I helped John to face the reality of his situation, I am afraid that he will need help from many kind ponies to recover from what he has lost in the world he came from. Perhaps we could investigate what brought him here and find a way to send him back if he wishes to?"

Twilight looks at the human curled up around Luna, feeling sad for what the human must have gone through to make them break down like this, and says, "Well, I can tell you how it started earlier if you want to hear the full story, Princess Celestia."

Celestia then turns her gaze from Luna to Twilight and says, "Very well then Twilight, tell us how this all started."

She sits down and says, "Okay, well I was at your old castle, searching through the library's secret room. I was hoping to find a book that Luna indirectly mentioned containing a secret history of Equestria, but she avoided my questions and only told me to look for her favorite book to get the answers I wanted. After I found the book two hours later and returned to my castle, I was going to start to read it when the friendship map summoned me and Applejack. It showed a location a little ways from the Everfree Forest sort of near Sweet Apple Acres, I put the book down and went to go get her. I arrived and wanted to help her finish harvesting the zap apples before they vanished, we both took a short break and went to the location it showed me but found nothing. So, Applejack decided to go with me to my home and check out the book. We then learned about the existence of some strange, really tall creatures that were not nice to others at all but were all banished by Starswirl The Bearded. The table again showed us the same location with only our cutie marks, but nothing was there when we arrived and waited for a few minutes before going back to my home. We were annoyed at how the table was pranking us like this when it showed us the same thing as before, and that is when we received a message from Derpy telling us you were taken captive by Chrysalis. And we went to go check it out but if nothing was there that time, Aj and I were going to check out the friendship map to see what was going on. This time, however, when we were about to leave to go save you two, Aj and I heard a strange staticky noise fill the air when she noticed a dark cloud appear over where I was standing. I looked up to see the cloud getting even bigger when Applejack told me to run and get out from under it, I barely made it over to her when the cloud started to create bright lightning that repeatedly struck the ground where I was moments before. I watched the cloud continue as the staticky noise continued to get louder and louder, it became so loud that it hurt our ears. As it started to give me a headache, a super bright bolt of lightning struck the same spot as the others did before and blinded us for a few minutes. That is when we encountered this human that matched the book's description..."

The solar princess looks at Twilight as she finishes her story, and finds her story very curious saying, "When we are ready to move on, could you show us this spot where the human appeared?"

Twilight looks at her and nods her head saying, "Yes I can, though it may be a little while. We need to let him go through his breakdown, only then can he start to recover and regain his composure." She looks at the crying human and feels sorry for whatever caused him to cry like that.

He continues to sob as he lays there and starts to talk to no one in particular saying, "Am I...dead...am I? I don't know, I must be but can't tell. What will I do now, where will I go...I have no home."

Luna wraps one wing around him as she hugs him with her forehooves tightly, caressing his back with her hoof while trying to calm him saying, "Shhh, everything will be okay. Let out your sadness, pain, and tears. Let them out so you can move on from this grief." Wanting to help him get over it, she begins to sing a lullaby to him saying, "I know you are not a baby and I am certainly not your mother, but this is the only lullaby I know that might help you calm down." She then begins to hum a song that her mother used to sing to her and sings, "Hush little baby, don't say a word, Mama's gonna get you a mockingbird. If that mockingbird won't sing, Mama's gonna get you a diamond ring. If that diamond ring turns brass, Mama's gonna get you a looking glass. If that looking glass gets broke, Mama's gonna get you a nice soft robe. If that nice soft robe wears out, Mama's gonna get you a cart to pull. If that cart you pull turns over, Mama's gonna get you a dog named Rover. If that dog named Rover won't bark, Mama's gonna get you some paint and a brush. If that paint and brush lose charm, you'll still be the sweetest little baby in our home."

John calms down a little after hearing her sing and chuckles saying, "I guess this world has a few similarities with the one I came from, I remember that lullaby being different from how you sang it." He then sits up and lets out a sad sigh, and continues to speak, "Everything that I remember seeing in my previous world is very different now. It's all gone, burnt to ash and reduced to rubble and ruins. I really have no idea as to how I got here. I was in front of my girlfriend's destroyed apartment when I found myself here in an unknown and strange world. How do you know of my species though?"

Celestia looks at the human harshly with mild sympathy in her eyes as she answers, "Your kind originally began here eons ago, as you evolved into more intelligent beings, you began treating other species living here like food and slaves!"

John hangs his head and sighs, feeling sorry for those in Equestria his ancestors treated poorly, answering back, "Well I'm sorry for what they have done to those living here, but I am not like them, I swear."

She then narrows her eyes and says, "I have yet to see proof of that since you have indeed saved both me and my sister's lives, but at the same time you laid waste to the entire hive and even may have killed every changeling inside of it. One thing that is not tolerated in Equestria is taking the lives of other sentient beings, and you have already violated that. I shall send you back to where you came from." She then charges up her horn with the spell she learned from Starswirl The Bearded to send him back to where he came from.

She watches as Celestia is about to re-banish John, Twilight intervenes, saying, "Princess Celestia, when Applejack and I first met John, it was clear that something bad had happened wherever he came from. Do you think that it would be better for him to remain here to recover from his breakdown at realizing how much he has lost and to see how wonderful Equestria can be? After all, it was his idea that saved you two."

Ready to use the spell taught to her by Starswirl The Bearded, Celestia starts casting the spell but stops as she hears what her prized student says. Sighing in defeat, Celestia says, "Very well, you may have your way, Twilight. But remember, I will be watching this one closely."

Twilight smiles at hearing her answer and says, "Thank you, Princess Celestia, I will not let you down." She then looks at John and says, "All six of us are gonna show you around Ponyville, and Equestria whenever you are ready for an adventure." Remembering that he has no place to call his own, Twilight thinks for a moment and says, "Ummm...you can use one of the spare rooms in my home in Ponyville if you like, I hope you will feel comfortable there until you find a place of your own."

Pondering the offer Twilight made, John looks at Applejack who is staring at Twilight with her mouth hanging wide open, and says with a grin on his face, "That is a great way to catch flies you know, Applejack."

Snapping out of her stunned attitude, Applejack closes her jaw and gives John an angry face. While a blush appears on it, she starts heading to Ponyville, saying, "Ah'm still mighty unhappy about yer plan fer dealing with Queen Crysalis as well as holding a knife to mah throat, mister John."

He looks over at Applejack and says, "I understand that Applejack." then turns his gaze to Twilight saying, "Thank you for asking Celestia to give me a chance, I accept your offer, Twilight. Until the time comes that I can find a suitable place to call my own, that is." Turning around and following after Applejack, he notices that Twilight is lost in thought.

2: A New Experience (Rewritten 7/26/22)

It is a couple of hours past sunrise as Sgt. John Winston Benson, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna make their way to Ponyville after the destruction of Queen Chrysalis's hive when Celestia stops and turns to John with a look of disdain on her face and asks, "I must know a few things first, before we continue any further, human."

John turns his eyes to look at Princess Celestia and releases a sigh, then answers her, "I will answer any question you have miss, and tell you what I can."

Applejack turns to listen to the conversation, watching John in shock as he talks so casually with the princess. She then notices Twilight snap out of her little daze to focus on the conversation as well, seeming to have questions of her own to ask.

Eager to get answers, Celestia proceeds to ask her questions, "One. What in Tartarus was that thing you tricked Chrysalis with? Two. What new dangers do we face from that device? Three. Since you are clearly a warrior, what are your name and rank? Four. What happened where you came from?"

He looks away for a moment before returning his gaze to her and shifts his stance to carry the weight of his gear easier, then begins answering her questions, "One. That was a nuclear weapon built by the U.S.A or otherwise known as the United States of America. Two. Radioactive material will start to slowly make its way outward through weather and winds, possibly creating a few cases of radiation sickness among any who receive a large enough dose of radiation within the blast area as well as outside when the debris returns to the ground as fallout. We were under a shield the whole time and we also left the blast area so we're safe, but should be examined in 24 hours to be sure. Three. My rank and name are, Sergeant John Winston Benson, miss." John goes quiet when he feels an emotional pain stab his heart while tears flow from his eyes as he begins to recount the events to them all, then continues saying, "Four. I was about to head up to the surface after securing that device when a violent tremor nearly sent me to the ground while I was preparing to use the elevator to return topside. When I got to the top of the elevator shaft, all I saw around me was fire, dust, and smoke."

John pauses for a second as he remembers his fallen friend, and quickly decides not to mention it, saying, "I saw that the base I was stationed at had been nuked. When I went to retrieve my gear from my room at the barracks and stepped inside, I thought I was in hell ma'am, as I could hear more nukes detonate in the distance. I made my way to my room through the carnage inside the barracks' halls, grabbed what I needed, and then took off to the armory after that. I picked up what I needed there and when I had what I needed, I went home—" He then stops talking as his sadness overtakes him completely, making him raise his hands to his eyes while tears flow freely from them.

He slowly collapses onto his knees as he becomes overwhelmed by sadness and begins to sob once more, letting his M249 slide off his shoulder and fall onto the ground with the strap following it shortly after.

The group looks at John, feeling sad when they hear more about what happened as he remains on his knees, crying as Celestia hesitates for a moment before being the first to make a move when her motherly instincts kick in and tell her that he needed comforting. Feeling guilty for making Sgt. Benson recount his painful experiences, Celestia walks up and sits down before him, wrapping her forehooves around him in a warm embrace. She holds him closer to let him cry it out and show him that everything was going to be okay after this.

John feels someone holding him and wraps his arms around them tightly, then continues crying. He slowly regains enough control of his crying, then resumes his tale, "A-After I went back to where my girlfriend and baby lived, there was nothing left of the apartment. Just a massive crater marking where they must have died, our baby girl was not even a year old yet..."

Everyone around John starts to tear up after listening to him speak of the total devastation of his home. The remaining ponies Follow Celestia's lead and wrap their hooves around John, comforting him after the tragic loss he has endured. While in between sobs, John cries out, "They're gone, my friends, my family, my girlfriend, and my baby. They're all gone!" Everypony in the huddle holds John tighter as they cry with him, wishing they could take his pain away.

An hour passes by as the group starts to slowly separate from the hug, with John lying asleep against Celestia's side. A soft smile crosses Celestia's muzzle as her sister lays down in front of her with her head on his lap.

While John sleeps against Celestia with Luna's head in his lap, Twilight and Applejack move a small distance away to talk about how traumatized Sgt. John Benson must be after an experience like that. "It may be inappropriate, but I can't help but be curious as to what it looked like where he came from before all that started," Twilight says with a curious look in her eye.

Applejack replies back with caution in her voice, "Ah know Twi, so ahm I, but I think it would be best fer now to just let 'im open up to us when he is ready to. Hearin' the story is one thang Twi, but seein' it fer ourselves is quite another, and we dun wanna be traumatized ourselves if we should try to see what he saw back there."

The next morning...

Celestia finishes raising the sun and stands before Sgt. John Benson, looking down at him as he lays beside Applejack, and Twilight, watching as he wakes up and looks around for a moment. She then smiles at him when he looks up her body to her face, "Good Morning Sgt. Benson, did you sleep well?"

Sgt. Benson sits up, feeling something soft and warm holding onto his arms. He looks down to his right to see what it is and sees two lavender limbs, his eyes follow the limbs up to where they connect, learning they belong to Twilight's upper body. He then looks to his left and sees two brilliant gamboge limbs, then follows them up to see Applejack laying next to him and looks back up to Celestia, "As well as anyone could after seeing what I saw before coming here, thank you for asking. Where is the other one, your sister Luna?"

She keeps a gentle smile on her face, "My sister had to return to the castle to get some rest for tonight, I would like to stay longer but I must return to the castle and begin day court. Is there anything that you wish to talk about or ask before I go?"

He sighs and tries to blink the sleep out of his eyes unsuccessfully, Well, sorry to say, but I think we are going to need to deal with the cleanup sometime today before others start to panic about stuff falling from the sky. I suggest gathering whatever subjects you need to clean up an area that large, the radiation is the biggest threat because it slowly devastates the body."

Celestia then nods her head then sighs, "Alright, I shall listen to your suggestion and do what I can to handle this important matter. How much time do I have to work with to get everything prepared?"

Sgt. Benson thinks for a moment, "We should have everything ready and be at the site no later than 3 pm, otherwise the debris field may become even larger."

She keeps the gentle smile on her face, then decides to tell him, "I will always be there if you need somepony to talk to, as will my sister. Just write a letter to us if you need to talk, just ask Twilight or have her assistant send it. Have a wonderful day Sgt. Benson." She turns around and charges up her horn, then teleports back to the castle to begin her day.

He then looks around for his weapon and finds it on the ground beside his pack, deciding to lean back on his hands and feels the two ponies on either side of him stir in their sleep as Applejack wakes up with a yawn while removing her hooves from his arm.

Applejack searches for her hat and stretches her body out as she begins to fully wake from sleep, "Oh right, ah forgot ah didn't get home last night." She then looks to her right, sees John sitting close to her, and smiles, "How're ya feelin' now, pardner? Ya've been through quite a lot. If ya need to talk about it, just come find me at Sweet Apple Acres or in town. Ah need to get back home before the others wonder where ah'm at, see ya 'round pardner." She then gets up and makes her way back home at a swift trot.

John hears a yawn come from his right and looks at Twilight as she removes her hooves then stretches as well, with her mane covered with bits of grass and needing a good combing.

Twilight stretches her forehooves out in front of her, leaning back with her rump sticking in the air as she thinks she is inside her room. She then stretches her back legs out by leaning forward, then cranes her neck backward and tilts her muzzle up to the sky. As she returns to a normal stance, she sighs pleasantly and shakes her body when her right wing brushes against something soft. She finishes shaking her body and turns her head to look at what she just brushed against, and sees the human sitting up with his back slightly leaning against his arms that are supporting his upper body's weight. With a light chuckle, she smiles at him, "Sorry my wing brushed against your arm, I forgot that I didn't get home last night. Did you sleep well?"

He looks at her and releases a sad sigh, "Not really, but it is what I am sort of used to after everything I experienced where I came from. I will sleep better once I adjust to this strange place, and have a chance to mourn the loss of my family and friends."

The smile leaves her face at hearing that, "If you ever want to talk to anypony about anything, you can always count on the friends you make here to always be there to listen and lend support. We should get on our way to my home, I am sure you are eager to bathe and get some rest."

Sgt. Benson looks to Twilight and nods his head, "I think that would be a wise choice indeed, I need to have these clothes decontaminated before I get sick from the radiation my equipment is now covered in."

Twilight thinks for a moment about what she can do, "I will have to consult the hospital regarding what spells to use to detect and handle this radiation you mentioned, I felt many things assault the barrier when the device went off but I cannot identify each one."

He pushes himself to his feet and heads over to where his weapon and pack are, picking up his pack first and putting it onto his back. He then leans over to grab his M249 and slings it over his shoulder while looking at Twilight, "Alright, lead the way, it's gonna be a long day when we head back to that crater sometime between 1 pm and 3 pm to clean up that field."

She leads the way to her crystal castle and sighs, "Well then, let's get you settled into a room then so you can take a shower while I get some supplies together and go to the hospital and ask them about spells to deal with radiation."

Sgt. Benson then follows her towards her home in Ponyville, keeping an eye on the horizon for anything coming their way. He focuses on the current task at hand, doing what he can to keep his thoughts off of the total devastation of what he held most dear. On the way to Twilight's castle, John looks over to her, "Thank you again Twilight for letting me stay in one of your guest rooms. Then I can start unpacking this damn heavy ass rucksack."

Twilight smiles and continues heading to her home, turning to look back at him briefly, "You are welcome, I help out my friends any way I can. Right now, you are in need of a place to stay, and I have more than enough rooms to spare."

Twenty minutes of walking later, at Twilight's home

Twilight opens the doors to her crystal castle for him, "Come inside, I would give you a tour of my castle but, unfortunately, I have a few tasks that need to get done before we head back. Just so you know, there are only three others that stay here with me. One is my assistant Spike, who is a baby dragon. Another is a pony named Starlight Glimmer, which is away right now on an errand I sent her on earlier this week, and the last one is an assistant owl named Owlowiscious."

John enters Twilight's castle, looking quickly around the room as his upper and lower body really start to ache and burn, he looks to Twilight and rolls his shoulder, "I understand that. Sorry to ask Twilight, but could you guide me to where I will be staying for now so I can get this beast of burden off my back?"

Looking at John, Twilight giggles softly, "I would but unfortunately, I have a few tasks to take care of. I will have my assistant take you to where you will be staying." and begins to lead him to where he will be staying and looks around for Spike, "Are you around Spike, I have a guest here that I need you to show around." as he doesn't answer the first time she tries again, "SPIIIIKE!"

Spike hurries down the steps, "I'M COMING TWI..." and trips, smacking his face against the stair and proceeds to tumble down them, "Ow...ow...ow..." He then lands at the bottom saying, "Stupid stairs..." He picks himself up off the floor and hurries to where Twilight is, "I'M COMING TWILIGHT, WHERE ARE YOU?!

She then looks through the doorway on the other side of the room, "I'M IN THE FRONT ROOM WITH THE MAP TABLE. I HEARD SOMETHING FALL, ARE YOU OKAY?"

He heads towards the archway while rubbing his head, "IT WAS JUST ME TRIPPING ON THE STAIRS, BUT I'LL BE FINE." He slows to a walk and starts to round the corner as the room starts to come into view, " What do you need me to do, Twilight?" He stops in place as he sees a strange creature behind Twilight, raising his hand to point a finger at the thing behind her with curiosity all over his face, "Who and what is that behind you?"

Twilight smiles and looks at her assistant, "This is Sergeant John Benson, he is a human soldier and just got here from another world, and will be staying in one of the empty rooms for the time being." She then turns her gaze to Sgt. Benson, "Sergeant Benson, this is my number one assistant Spike. Just so you know, Spike is a baby dragon." She then returns her attention to Spike, "Since he is new here Spike, could you please show him around after taking him to the room across from Starlight's? I have a few errands to run into town before the cleanup later today, so I will return in two or three hours."

Spike looks at the human, then looks back to Twilight and nods his head, "Sure thing Twilight." He then looks to the human and waves his hand toward him, gesturing the human to follow him, "Follow me this way Sergeant, your room is over here." He then turns towards the stairs and starts heading out of the room, "What is it like where you are from?"

Sgt Benson quickens his pace to catch up to the baby dragon and says, "Well our world is much more advanced than yours, magic doesn't exist there, it is entirely populated by human beings like me, and also there are no talking gryphons, unicorns, pegasi ponies, dragons, or alicorns. The world I come from is driven onward by science, which I think is a mistake."

The dragon leads the guest down the hall to where his room will be at and says, "That is kind of sad that there isn't magic in your world, magic is a wondrous thing. How come, isn't science a good thing?"

He follows him down the hall as his footsteps echo down the halls and shakes his head saying, "We never really knew what magic was, so we didn't miss it, although several people fantasize about what it would be like. As for science...well, it can be a double-edged sword because it can cause harm if the societies of the world are not ready for it, or if it leads to something that could potentially start a war."

Spike reaches the room across from Starlight's and opens the door, then goes inside and looks around, "Here is where your room will be. If there is anything I can do for you, just let me know."

Sgt Benson enters the room, scanning it for any enemies out of habit before heading to the center of the room and laying his sniper rifle on the ground. He then sets the heavy rucksack down in the center of the room, taking a few moments to remove the M249 from his rucksack and set it in a corner with the bipod folded down to keep the barrel raised. He takes a few seconds to lift the tray assembly and slide out the unused portion of ammo, then slams the tray down. John rolls the ammo back up and places it back in the sack it came out of, then sets the sack down beside the weapon. He sighs blissfully as he unfastens his helmet and sets it aside, then works on the vest. After getting his vest off, he sets it down beside his rucksack. Picking up his sniper rifle, he lays it beside the wall next to his M249. He looks at the rucksack and decides to remove some of the things that he won't need from it, kneeling down beside it and begins taking his clothes out and placing them on the dresser, and stacking a few MREs on top of the pile. As he digs around, he pulls out his class A uniform and says, "I must have forgot about grabbing you when I was back in the barracks, at least I'll be able to look nice if there are any formal events that require one to wear fine clothing."

Spike watches him curiously as he takes a few more items out of his bag and asks, "Wow how do you get so much into such a small bag?"

He continues to sort through his stuff and picks out what he needs saying, "Well, it is all about how well you manage your space and organize it. Do dragons have any special abilities here?"

The baby dragon smiles and nods his head answering, "Dragons can breathe fire and fly, however, I am not old enough to get my wings. Each dragon can have their own unique color of fire. Mine is green, I also can send and receive messages from Princess Celestia."

Sgt. Benson finishes sorting out what he needs and sets the ammo for his M249 aside with the stuff he doesn't need, and chuckles when he finds two books still in his rucksack. One of which is War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, the other is The Art of War by Sun Tzu. As he looks over the two books, he says, "I can't believe I forgot you two books in here, but I'm glad I have something that reminds me of better days."

After setting it all into a pile to be decontaminated by Twilight, he closes up his rucksack and then starts putting his vest back on. Grabbing his helmet, he stands up from his position on the floor and returns it to his head then fastens it. Looking down at his rucksack, he leans over to pick it up with less effort saying, "Much lighter with all that stuff out of there and off my back." He then looks at the young dragon and says, "I'm going to wander around for a bit to get my bearings, do you think that you can find a detailed map of Equestria so that I know where I am?"

Spike looks at him and nods saying, "Unfortunately, I don't think Twilight has one. Though she does have one that has every town and city on it. Would that work?"

John sighs and shakes his head saying, "It would work, but I might have to ask Twilight or the princesses to make a map for me so that I can keep track of my position." He then turns and grabs his sniper rifle, then slings it over his shoulder and heads out of the room saying, "I need some time to myself, so I'm going to walk around for a little while. I won't go far enough to lose sight of this castle though, see you later kid."

A couple of hours later

Twilight makes her way back home from the hospital when she realizes she forgot to tell her friends about their new arrival saying, "Oh, I better go see what they are up to now. I think that I will head to Sugarcube Corner first to see if she knows where the others might be."

Pinkie Pie throws a big birthday party for Fluttershy's bunny, Angel, when all of a sudden her Pinkie Sense activates, sending her vibrating across the floor of Sugarcube Corner saying, "Wowie this is a big one! That means something completely unexpected is going to happen!"

Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash stop talking and watch Pinkie Pie as she vibrates along the floor quickly as her Pinkie Sense continues to shake her body.

"Darling I find myself intrigued at what is going to happen shortly." Rarity replies as she looks out the window, trying to see if anypony was approaching.

Rainbow Dash sticks her head out the door, looking around and thinks she sees somepony approaching Ponyville in the distance, answering, "Hey, I think somepony is coming but I can't really make them out."

Getting curious, the group of friends look out the windows of Sugarcube Corner, waiting for the figure to come into view.

A few minutes passed by as they recognize Twilight coming their way as Rainbow calls out, "Hey Twilight, did you finally decide to come join the party?

Twilight smiles and heads inside saying, "I wasn't able to come because the map table summoned me and Applejack to go on a mission, we just got back not too long ago. I came here to tell you that while we went on that mission, we came across a new arrival to Ponyville. Once the party is over, do you think that you all could come to my castle and meet him?"

The others nod their heads and agree as Pinkie stops vibrating along the floor then prances around Twilight asking, "OOH, SOEXCITING! ICAN'TWAITTOTHROWHIMAWELCOMETOPONYVILLEPARTY!"

The group chuckles at Pinkie's antics, stopping as scrolls appear in front of all of them. As they read the scrolls that appeared in front of them, they look to Twilight and ask her if she knows what the emergency meeting is about.

She looks to her friends and says, "I do know what it is about, but you will learn that from Princess Celestia when we get to my castle."

As they head to Twilight's castle after dropping their pets off at their homes, they pass through the tall doors and stop in their tracks as their eyes land on a strange creature dressed in an odd fashion.

After they arrive at the castle, Rarity is the first to speak saying, "What are you wearing?! That is absolutely the ugliest outfit I have ever seen."

The group lets out a few small snickers while Rainbow Dash facehooves herself saying, "Forget about the fashion for once and notice that this creature...IS NOT A PONY!!"

Just then a party cannon fires as Pinky Pie shows up out of nowhere, jumping into the air and exclaiming, "Ohmygosh ohmygosh ohmygosh, WELCOME TO PONYVILLE STRANGE CREATURE, LET'S BE FRIENDS!"

Forcing himself to calm down by taking a few breaths, he chuckles softly at the scene before him and rises to his feet to answer the white mare with a horn on her head first saying, "Hi, my name is Sgt. John Winston Benson, little one and I am a human." He unfastens his helmet and sets it down beside him on the large stone table then continues, "This is a uniform that military personnel wear for going into battle, the clothing under the gear I am wearing is called an Army Combat Uniform, or ACU for short."

Twilight hears the doors close behind her and sees Applejack and Ember standing there when she hears a pop come from somewhere in front of her, turning her head to see who arrived, she sees that it is Princess Celestia and begins to say something to her when she is interrupted.

Clearing her throat, Celestia gets everyone's attention to notify them of the situation saying, "Proper introductions will have to wait as there is a pressing matter that requires immediate attention, but first, we will need to wait for a few others to arrive."

Rarity hardly hears what Celestia is saying as she stares wondrously at the face of Sgt. Benson like she's in a dream. He has medium-length black hair reaching his shoulders, a beautiful pair of green eyes, and a jagged scar over his right eye going to the left corner of his mouth, bringing a blush to her cheeks. Her gaze is interrupted when Rainbow Dash taps her on the shoulder, startling her and making her accidentally say, "Handsome."

Furiously blushing, Rarity hangs her head when the room bursts into laughter at her response as other important leaders from around Equestria start entering the room. As the laughter quiets down, the leaders gather around the table in the room and wait for Celestia to tell them about the situation.

It takes thirty minutes for Celestia to finish telling everypony what the situation is and why she called them all here suddenly as she concludes her speech by saying, "I know this is a lot to take in and understand, but I am ready to hear what you all have to say."

She listens to them as they speak, hearing that some are startled to hear what happened last night while others are angry about not being able to help save her and Luna. Celestia quiets them down once more by saying, "We need all the help we can get to minimize the damage that was caused by the nuclear weapon that completely obliterated Chrysalis's new hive, we now need to clean up the aftermath.. We need to work together to protect the safety of Equestria." She then looks at John and says, "Please tell us what needs to be done precisely, sergeant."

John then sighs and feels the eyes turn to him as he then explains what medication needs to be administered to those exposed to the radiation. After explaining it, he uses his hands to count saying, "Well for one, we will have to contain or destroy the clouds that carry the debris if at all possible. Two, we will have to somehow safely dispose of the dangerous material while using shields to protect everyone during the cleanup."

Celestia sighs and replies, "That will require a lot of help to clean up a mess of this size, even the Wonderbolts will be required to help out. There is so much to do, let's send out messages to get help with the cleanup."

Sgt. Benson replied, "Yes it will, but it will not be so easy to do for a couple of reasons. First off, everyone who helps in the disaster zone will need a shield to keep them safe from the invisible radiation in the air. Secondly, we'll need a first aid station to treat anyone who gets sick or injured immediately to minimize the harm done if their shields fail to protect them. Lastly, to make disposing of the material a little easier, after the clouds carrying the debris are brought to the ground and destroyed they will need to be pushed into the crater, where they can become harmless once again."

Twilight's jaw hits the floor upon hearing that. "Are you SERIOUS?!" She said, "Do you know how hard that will be for me to maintain that many shields for everypony that's helping to clear your mess!!"

Discord pops out of Celestia's ear and then jumps off and returns to his full size holding up a claw saying, "Uhm...perhaps I might be able to offer a better solution to deal with the clouds and debris, do you want to hear it?"

John looks at the strange creature standing before him and raises his brow curiously then says, "Okay science project, what is your idea."

The draconequus hears a few chuckles and snickers from the crowd and scoffs while crossing his arms and turning his nose up and away from them saying in a mock hurt tone, "Hmph, that may have been a good poke of fun at me, but that doesn't mean I'm not mildly annoyed. I was even going to offer to use my magic to create a hole to another dimension for the clouds and debris, but after you made fun of me I might not feel like it now..." He then keeps acting as if he is hurt by the name-calling.

He sighs and shifts his posture to be more comfortable and says, "Look...I'm sorry for what I said, I have had a super shitty couple of days so forgive me if I'm a bit rude."

Discord's act starts to crack as he fights a smile saying, "Okay then, I suppose that will do." Unable to keep up the act anymore, he snorts and then starts laughing saying, "Do forgive me, but I was just messing with you a little, I'm not hurt at all. In fact, that was the funniest thing somepony ever said about me." He then calms down a little and continues with a serious tone, "I apologize for you having a bad few days, is there anything that I can do to help make you feel better?"

John facepalms himself and groans saying, "Unfortunately no, it will take me time to get over how much I lost back home. Can you really do what you claim, open a hole I mean?"

He nods his head sincerely and says, "Of course I can, I am the embodiment of Disharmony and Chaos which means anything is possible."

The sergeant thinks for a moment before nodding his head saying, "Alright then, that is better than what I came up with, but you will have to keep it open for awhile until the contaminated material is sent through it."

Discord smiles proudly and says, "Hah, that is child's play for me."

With that out of the way, John looks at Twilight and replies, "It will be tough to manage, but I do think you, Celestia and one other pony might be able to handle that." He then looks at Celestia and asks, "Well Princess Celestia, shall we be on our way? How are we going to get there anyhow with a group this large?"

Celestia smiles and says, "Well by teleport of course, are you ready? I am going to teleport us near where you told Twilight to drop the shield."

He nods his head saying, "As ready as I will ever be, let's go."

She begins charging her horn with the spell and says, "Alright, it has been a while since I teleported a group this large, so just bear with me on this."

John blinks as a flash briefly blinds him when Celestia casts the spell, he goes to look around but immediately doubles over and throws up onto the ground. Regaining his composure and wiping the vomit off his mouth, he says, "That was really a really unpleasant feeling, felt like my stomach was trying to jump out of my throat."

Celestia smiles sheepishly and apologizes, "I am sorry for your discomfort, but it has been several decades since I last used that spell."

The group of leaders take a few minutes to work out who is doing what for the cleanup to go smoothly to prevent the radioactive material from spreading out too far from the area. With a plan in place, the leaders send out messages to their lands, summoning whoever could help out to where they are.

At the outskirts of the blast area, Twilight casts a spell to show the affected area to mark the outermost edge of the danger zone while Celestia takes to the sky to help Twilight mark the edge. Upon seeing how large the area actually is, her mouth turns into a frown. Not wanting to look at the poisoned land before her eyes, Twilight watches Celestia surround the area with an orange pass-through dome.

The group takes in the devastation before them as a few faint at seeing how much damage such a small weapon can do. John sighs and hangs his head saying, "We humans are wretched things. Our greatest achievements during our existence are nothing but war, violence, nuclear warfare, and mass destruction."

John hears someone come up beside him and turns his head to gaze at them, seeing that it is a creature he has never seen before, prompting him to kneel down and ask, "I have never seen a creature such as you before, what and who might you be?"

Picking up a weird-colored crystal, Ember turned her attention from the devastated land before her eyes to the human beside her, feeling a little scared out of instinct. "Have you never seen a dragon before, human? I am a dragon. My name is Dragon Lord Ember, and you will address me as such until otherwise told." she says to the tall figure kneeling down to look at her body curiously.

He continues to check her out curiously as his sniper rifle hangs from the strap on his shoulder and says, "Apologies Lord Ember, I mean no disrespect, I was only curious because dragons don't exist where I come from."

Ember's eyes widen a bit at hearing his reply and wishes to know more about it, but brushes the thought off to get back to what she wanted to ask him. "That is interesting, but I would like to know what this odd crystal here is."

Still checking her out curiously, John averts his gaze to look at the green-tinted crystal and answers, "That little crystal you have in your claws is actually a glass-like mineral that contains mild radiation, but is safe to handle. It is called Trinitite - a mineral formed when sand gets sucked up into the fireball of a nuclear blast, which is around 300,000 kelvin or 539,550 degrees Fahrenheit at the center of a nuclear detonation. In a liquefied, super-heated form, the sand falls as rain to the ground, cooling and hardening into chunks of greenish-looking crystals like the one you are holding that contain melted chunks of the device." then returns to looking at the details of her body curiously.

Shocked at what she just heard, Ember's jaw falls open as she thinks of how to respond to that, before recovering enough to close it and say, "That is interesting to know but how hot is that compared to the lava in a volcano?

Sgt Benson thinks for a moment and closes his eyes for a moment before looking up at the sky saying, "Well, if I remember what I read on the internet right...when lava is first ejected from a volcano, it varies between 1300 and 2200 degrees Fahrenheit."

Ember blinks in disbelief for a moment and says, "That is hot, way too hot for any dragon to safely handle." then closes her claws in a fist around the crystal, when she notices that he is still looking at her. She tries to decide if he is staring at her for too long but feels a little pleasure from his lingering gaze. So in response to his staring, she strikes a pose so he can get a better look. She then looks over her shoulder and cocks her head to the side, saying, "Do you like what you see, human?"

Realizing he was caught staring at her for way too long, John blushes while replying, "Yes Lord Ember, you have a very stunning appearance."

Noticing the blush on his face, Ember smiles and says, "Thank you for the compliment."

John feels his knee getting sore and returns to his feet, then takes one more look at the attractive dragon lord, standing on two legs no higher than his shoulder, having bright red eyes, moderate deep blue spikes, brilliant cyan scales with the underbelly a pale turquoise, her wings are a moderate indigo with low, front-curling horns of light apple grey. He then lifts his eyes back to the devastation and mumbles under his breath, "Such a beautiful array of colors for an attractive dragon."

Having sharp hearing, she hears every word he said and causes her to blush furiously. She clears her throat and softly shakes her head to stop blushing then says, "What is your name, human? You may call me Ember if you so wish."

Briefly looking back at Lord Ember, he answers, "My name and rank is Sergeant John Winston Benson, Lady Ember."

Upon being called a lady by Sgt. John Benson, the blush returns with a vengeance. She smiles at the compliments he gave her as they both begin the daunting job of cleaning up, while she orders a few dragons that arrive to find and put any green minerals like the one she has into a pile if any of them wanted to add a few to their hoard.

While looking around and checking the perimeter, John hears something way off in the distance. Sounding much like a tortured scream coming from some poor creature caught in the blast, John instinctively sets his sniper rifle down, then shrugs his rucksack off his back letting it fall to the ground. Leaving his rucksack on the ground behind him, he picks up his sniper rifle and begins scanning the horizon for the source of the scream.

Spotting movement outside of the dome, John raises the sniper rifle to his shoulder and zooms his scope in on the creature with practiced ease. He sees a creature having the head and body of a lion, a scorpion's tail, and the wings of a dragon charging at the group, calling out to whoever can hear him, "What the hell is that thing?!" hoping someone would tell him. John looks at the poor creature having bad burns all over his body with bones showing in some spots and part of its jaw visible. Feeling sorry for the suffering creature, John prepares to put it down and flicks off the safety then adjusts his aim.

Fluttershy approaches him swiftly, then looks at the creature charging towards the group and answers, "That is a manticore, normally they aren't so aggressive. You're not going to hurt him are you?" She then looks at the human as they focus on the manticore and pleads, "Please don't harm the manticore, he didn't do anything to us!"

Looking briefly to his right, John spots a pony with a pink mane, cyan eyes, and a yellow coat standing beside him. Hearing her begging for the creature's life, John says back, "I'm sorry but I have no choice but to end the manticore's suffering, can't you see what state they are in right now?"

Taking a closer look at the manticore, Fluttershy gasps in shock as she sees how badly the manticore is hurt. She sighs sadly and hangs her head as tears start to flow from her eyes, feeling sad from not being able to save them then replies, "Oh...o-okay then, I guess there is no way to save the poor manticore from its suffering."

Looking at her, John nods saying, "Such is the way of life, we must be considerate to what is best for others and what they would like when they suffer pain. With animals like that manticore, we must decide for them if it is more merciful to save their life or to end their suffering. Be at peace, manticore." then adjusts his aim one last time and squeezes the trigger. A loud bang rings out as fire erupts from the end of the barrel, frightening the pony and making her leap back away from the noise.

Fluttershy darts behind Ember, being startled by the loud noise coming from the weapon the human was holding. Turning her eyes to where the manticore is, she faints when she sees its head disappear from its body, exploding into tiny pieces as the weapon hit its mark.

Seeing the manticore's head explode, John hears a thud and quickly looks to his right, seeing that the yellow pony has fainted. Setting his weapon down and flicking the safety on, John walks over to the pony and uses his canteen to splash some water over her face to bring her around.

Opening her eyes and regaining consciousness, Fluttershy comes face to face with the human that took the manticore's life. Trying to curl up into herself, her eyes meet a face having a very beautiful pair of green eyes, medium-length black hair, and tanned Caucasian skin. Letting out an audible squeak, she starts to wail over the death of the manticore.

John reaches out and softly pets her mane to try to calm her down saying, "There, there little one, I wish there was some other way to save the poor manticore, but when any creature is suffering as badly as it was, it is considered a mercy to end the suffering it is going through."

Fluttershy's crying slowly comes to an end upon hearing him explain, eventually saying, "I-I understand but it still upsets me whenever a creature can not be saved. Thank you for showing mercy to the poor manticore, what might your name be mister?"

John stops petting her mane and answers, "My name and rank is Sergeant John Winston Benson, and who might you be little filly?"

She slowly gets back to her feet with a few tears still on her face, and answers shyly, "My name is Fluttershy, mister John. It is nice to meet you."

The cleanup goes on without a hitch afterward, with the clouds being rounded up, forced to the ground, and pushed through the portal by the air group. The ground group then pushes the debris near the portal while Discord holds it open to an empty void to contain the debris left radioactive from the blast as several ponies and dragons move what they can through it. Seeming to take hours, the sun starts reaching for the horizon as the last of the debris passes through the portal.

Using their magic to cleanse the radiation, the magic group put the final touches in place as Discord closes the portal. With the cleanup done, every group starts to make their way to the safe zone recovery area. Celestia and Twilight return from maintaining the dome while the magic barriers are dropped as they are no longer needed to keep the food and drinks safe from poisoning.

With the cleanup finally over, John, Celestia, Twilight, Spike, Cadence, Shining Armor, Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Ember lay down in a small group together as several nurses hand out small bottles of Potassium Iodide to everypony that was there for the clean up as a precautionary measure.

John holds a few chunks of Trinitite in his hand and offers them to the group, with all except Shining Armor accepting the offer. They are all curious as to what the little mineral is. So he explains to them what it is and that it is safe to handle, causing Twilight to become really interested in it and asking, "Please tell me more about this glassy mineral, John."

John answers her question by saying, "Before I answer that, you must listen to a bit of my world's history first." Clearing his throat, John begins, "On September 1st, 1939 a nation named Germany, led by a despicable man named Adolf Hitler, invaded the nation of Poland." John starts telling every event that happened up to the turning point in the war for Germany, leading him to say, "The Americans kept supplying the war effort against the Germans but little did they know, the Japanese were planning an attack against America. We were in a depression where money was extremely hard to find, and jobs were even harder. Many citizens lost their everything, and thousands of factories shut down. It continued until December 7th, 1941 when Japan launched their surprise attack against America at Pearl Harbor, which was near Honolulu, Hawaii. One day after the attack, the depression ended as the sleeping giant called America woke up and actively joined the fight against the axis powers. The war quickly turned against Germany after the invasion of Normandy on June 6th, 1944. After invading Germany, America focused more attention on Japan with vengeance at the center of it. In 1939 the Manhattan project began when America learned that Germany was trying to develop nuclear weapons. Island by island, America pushed back the Japanese with tooth and nail every inch of the way because they were ferocious fighters that fought to the last man. Eventually, America grew weary of a drawn-out battle, as the Japanese began recruiting civilians into joining the fight to push back the Americans at the edge of their homeland. A difficult choice was made to drop nuclear bombs, the Uranium gun-type Little Boy on Hiroshima and a Plutonium Implosion bomb Fat Man on Nagasaki, the Japanese cities were immediately destroyed upon detonation. WW2 ended on September 2nd, 1945 when Japan formally surrendered." John ends the story by saying, "Trinitite was discovered and given its name from the first successful nuclear detonation at the Trinity test site in Socorro, New Mexico on July 16th, 1945."

Remembering the history that mankind has makes John sigh and say, "Humankind has an extremely violent and bloody history with itself." He looks up to find that everyone in the group has their mouths hanging open in shock from hearing just a small portion of mankind's history and says, "That is just one war that happened 80 years ago, and there are easily thousands more wars that happened long ago."

Cadence blinks and closes her mouth with a sigh, saying, "It's very sad that love and friendship don't have strength in your world like they do here." Cadence said.

Celestia looks at Cadence and nods saying, "Such hatred and destruction could have been avoided then."

John looks at them both then says with a sigh, "Yeah, science has always propelled us forward in the name of progress. Don't let your world's scientists make the same mistakes ours did."

Wanting to change the subject from such a grim topic, Celestia comes up with an idea and says, "Thank you for being so thoughtful in suggesting a cleanup for the aftermath of that recent event as well as saving Princess Luna and I from Chrysalis, I do believe you earned the right to be called a citizen of Equestria and may purchase land when you have the bits to pay for it."

As they rest up, the different groups return to the lands they came from. The only ones that aren't leaving yet are Celestia, Twilight, Cadence, Shining Armor, Spike, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie.

Looking back to where the manticore's body lays, John asks, "Can you all come help me take care of something that needs to be done?"

Twilight looks up from the Trinitite she holds in front of her with her magic and answers, "Of course, what can we do to help?"

John watches as the rest of the group nods and also offers to help out, saying, "We need to give the manticore I killed a proper burial, it don't feel right just to leave them out there to rot and poison other animals."

Fluttershy walks over and stands beside him, giving him a gentle smile, saying, "That is very kind of you to do for the manticore John, I think they would like that very much. We all will help you give the manticore a proper burial."

Making their way to the body of the manticore, they begin digging a hole in the ground big enough to lay the manticore down in. As Twilight and Rarity help finish the hole, they both lower the body into it as John says, "I'm not really sure what to really say, but here goes nothing. As we lay you down to sleep, we pray you are at peace and find a better life than the one you had suffered. Rest in peace manticore, I am sorry for the suffering you endured at my hands."

Applejack, Fluttershy, and Spike start pushing dirt into the manticore's grave as Rarity finds a nice enough rock to use for the headstone and sets it in front of Twilight so she can inscribe it.

After the headstone receives its inscription, Rarity and Spike search for a few gems to use to decorate the headstone. With Twilight's help, they put on the final touches and Twilight then uses her magic to set the stone in front of the grave.

John looks at the headstone with a smile and reads it aloud saying, "A manticore lies here, having lost its life in an unfortunate way. May he find peace in a future life." Looking back up at the others, John says, "For those that were here during the blast, let this remind you of how lucky we are to have survived because those unfortunate survivors in Hiroshima and Nagasaki suffered far worse."

Taking a silent moment to take it all in, nopony speaks a word. Solemnly turning around to return home, Celestia glances back to the others and softly says, "Come on my little ponies, let's all return to Twilight's for a bit before I need to return so Luna can take over our royal duties." and teleports them all to Twilight's home.

Arriving back at Twilight's, John fights back the unpleasant feeling of his stomach trying to jump out of his mouth saying, "I hope that teleporting doesn't always feel like our stomach is trying to jump out of your mouth, if so...I will stick to walking." He then recovers and opens the door, letting the girls walk through first.

Twilight then looks back at him with a smile saying, "Thank you for the kind gesture, but I could have handled that myself." and walks through the doors with a smile on her face. She waits for everyone to gather around, then clears her throat and says, "Everypony, meet Sgt. John Winston Benson, he will now be living among us in Ponyville for the foreseeable future."

Celestia speaks first saying, "Now that we can properly meet, I'm Princess Celestia, I am in charge of raising the sun, and the co-ruler of Equestria alongside my younger sister, Princess Luna. Should you have any nightmares, you will get the chance to meet her when she comes to deal with them."

Taking a closer look at Princess Celestia, John sees that she has an almost pure white coat with wings and a horn, pretty magenta eyes complimented by her mane and tail comprised of cerulean, turquoise, cobalt blue, and heliotrope, having an image of a sun on her rump.

Speaking up next, Rarity says, "I am Rarity darling, I represent the element of generosity. I run a chain of designer boutiques across Equestria, my home base is in Ponyville so please feel free to stop by any time if you find yourself needing new clothes. I am also the generosity teacher at the School of Friendship."

Turning his eyes to Rarity, John sees she has a horn, and a light gray coat with a picture of three diamonds on her rump. Her eyes are a lovely azure complemented by an indigo mane and tail.

Speaking up next, Rainbow Dash takes to the air saying, "I'm Rainbow Dash, the best flyer in all Equestria, I help maintain the weather and keep the skies clear around Ponyville. I am also a full member of the Wonderbolts, I represent the element of loyalty, and am also the loyalty teacher at the School of Friendship."

Turning his attention to Rainbow Dash, John sees that she has wings, a pale cerulean coat with a cloud, and a picture of a rainbow-colored lightning bolt on her rump. Her eyes are a moderate cerise complimented by a rainbow-colored mane and tail.

Quietly speaking up, Fluttershy gives Rainbow Dash a soft look, making her return to the ground. Fluttershy then says, "I am Fluttershy, I am an animal caretaker. I represent the element of kindness, I am also the kindness teacher at the School of Friendship."

Getting a better look at Fluttershy, John notices she has a pair of wings with a picture of three butterflies on her rump.

Speaking next, Twilight says, "We already met but I am Princess Twilight Sparkle, I am the princess of friendship, and the ruler of this castle, I am a mentor to Starlight Glimmer, The founder and principal of the School of Friendship, and I represent the element of magic."

Taking a closer look at Princess Twilight, John sees that she has a picture of small white stars surrounding a large purple one at the center on her rump.

Introducing herself next, Applejack clears her throat then says, "Ah'm Applejack, ah live and work at Sweet Apple Acres. Ah represent the element of honesty, ah'm also the honesty teacher at the School of Friendship."

Looking at Applejack, John notices that she has an orange coat with a blonde mane and tail, and sap green eyes with a picture of three apples on her rump.

Seeing her chance, Pinkie Pie bounces up and down, firing her party cannon saying, "I'm Pinkie Pie, a wildly energetic pony that bakes, caters, and throws parties for every occasion big or small. I'm also a friendship ambassador to Yakyakistan, I represent the element of laughter, and also the laughter teacher at the School of Friendship." Reminding herself why she did that, she pulls a questionnaire out of her hair and hands it to John saying, "Please fill that out so I can plan your welcome to Equestria party sometime soon!"

Chuckling at the energetic nature of Pinkie Pie, John fills out the questionnaire and hands it back to her. Looking at the bouncing pink blur in front of him, he can barely make out details. Having a pale raspberry coat with what appears to be an image of three balloons on her rump, her eyes a light cerulean complemented by a very curly brilliant raspberry mane and tail. John then responds to her request saying, "That sounds fun Pinkie Pie, though it will have to wait till after I get settled in and until I get into a partying mood, is that ok?"

Answering with a beaming smile, Pinkie stands still for a moment to take the paper back answering, "No problem! That will be Oki doki loki!"

Smiling, Spike says, "I'm Spike, Princess Twilight's best friend, and number one assistant. I use my fire breath to send scrolls to and from Celestia, I am also the friendship ambassador to the Dragon Lands.

Looking at the small dragon in the group, John notices he has wings, light mulberry scales with a light spring budish gray underbelly, and moderate harlequin spikes complemented by moderate pistachio eyes.

With the introductions over, John asks, "Why do some of you ponies have wings, while others have either a horn, wings, or sometimes neither one?"

Princess Celestia answers, "Very good question Sgt. Benson, there are four different kinds of ponies. There are Alicorns like my sister Luna, Twilight, Cadence, and myself. There are earth ponies like Applejack, and Pinkie Pie. There are Pegasi like Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash. And there are Unicorns like Rarity. Have you never seen ponies like us before?"

Hearing what Celestia is saying, John answers, "I'm sorry but Alicorns, Pegasi, Unicorns, Dragons, manticores, and many others are mythical creatures in my world. The animals in our world are unable to speak as you do, and magic doesn't exist either."

Fluttershy responds to that by saying, "That sounds horrible, I couldn't imagine being in such an awful world, not being able to talk or choose to live the way we would like."

Rainbow Dash speaks up after her, saying, "Yeah, it would be a nightmare not having wings or a voice."

Twilight gasps at hearing that magic doesn't exist and says, "Yeah, that world really doesn't sound fun to live in as a pony. Having absolutely no control over your life where there is so much that we enjoy here."

John shrugs his shoulders and says, "I do feel sorry for the ones that were abused by their owners, but that is just how things were in our world."

Celestia smiles and looks at the others saying, "Well, I must be getting back to Canterlot everypony. I shall see you all another time." then teleports back to the castle to change duties with her sister.

Another hour passes by as they get to know each other a little better with Cadence and Shining needing to head home to take care of Flurry Heart, their daughter. Twilight looks out the window as the sun sinks past the horizon when the others decide that it is time for them to return home as well, saying their goodbyes before leaving Twilight, John, and Spike at the castle.

Spike yawns and stretches his arms over his head saying, "Well everypony, today was quite eventful so I would like to get some sleep, goodnight Twilight, Sgt. Benson. Is there anything that you need me to do before I go to bed, Twilight?"

She thinks for a moment and says, "No there isn't Spike, thank you for helping us out today with the cleanup. Goodnight." then watches him turn and leave the room.

He remembers that his clothes are still contaminated with radiation and sighs saying, "Hey Twilight, could you use your magic to remove the radiation from all of my stuff? I will also need wash what I can and bathe because I can smell the smoke from the hell on my world."

Twilight nods her head and says, "Of course I can do that for you, I also have some soap they gave to me after I spoke with the nurses and doctors about radiation. I didn't know much about radiation until they told me about it, it is quite astonishing how it can devastate the body but can also be helpful through medical equipment."

John thinks for a moment and says, "Before you do that, I should bathe to remove the layer of filth and radiation from my body. Ahh crap, that won't work because I have nothing to wear because it needs to be decontaminated first. Would you mind doing that for me? Then I can ask you to decontaminate the clothes I am wearing."

She giggles and says, "Of course I can do that, but wouldn't it be more efficient to decontaminate everything at once, then you can use the shower. They taught me a few spells they use to deal with radiation, one of which removes it while another is a barrier similar to the one I used yesterday to protect us with the last one able to detect it."

He then chuckles and says, "Right, I wasn't really paying much attention during the cleanup so I didn't see you use it. Okay then, that is quite convenient. Are you able to remove the radiation from living beings as well?"

Twilight thinks about the spell for a moment before nodding her head saying, "It can be done, from what I understand of the spell. Though, to be sure, it would be a good idea to use the soap they gave me."

John then nods his head saying, "Alright then, let's go take care of that then." and exits the room to lead her to his room.

As Twilight begins going through the pile piece by piece, she wonders how she will remove the radiation from his body without removing his clothes thinking to herself, 'I will have to try casting the spell on what he is wearing first.'

A half-hour passes as Twilight removes the radiation from each and every item he has, then attempts to decontaminate the clothes he wears. It proves to be a little tricky at first, but she manages to succeed after a few tries.

He watches as Twilight casts the spell on him, feeling static electricity start to shock him all over. He manages to deal with the annoying sensation for a few seconds when they start to actually hurt quite a bit saying, "Ouch. Um I don't think this is working so well anymore, could you stop the spell? The static shocks are really starting to hurt."

She drops the spell and gasps asking, "I'm sorry for hurting you, are you alright? I don't know what went wrong with the spell, I cast it the way they taught me without changing it."

John smiles as the sensation ends then says, "Perhaps it is because of where I was born, but there are a variety of reasons it might have gone wrong. At least you got everything else cleansed of radiation, could you show me where your shower is so that I can get some decent sleep?"

Twilight nods her head saying, "I sure can, follow me. It is just down this hall a little ways, it is the only door that is different from the others."

He follows her down the hall, arriving just outside the unique door wondering if they have hot water here or not. Looking over to Twilight as she opens the door, he says, "Do you ponies have hot water or do you take cold showers?"

She looks up at him and giggles saying, "Don't be silly, of course we have hot water. We've had hot water for about 200 years now, though we only had showers for 40 years."

John smiles and looks at her saying, "Where can I find the towels?"

Twilight opens the door across from the bathroom and smiles saying, "Right here, and there is a basket for the used towels. Used wash rags go in there also but need to be wrung out first or they might leave puddles on the floor."

He then turns and heads back to his room saying, "Alright, I'll keep that in mind. Thank you again for showing me kindness and letting me stay with you for a while until I get back on my feet."

As Twilight heads to her own room, she then stops and turns around saying, "Oh, I will set the soap the nurses gave me on the countertop beside the sink for you." and then heads towards the bathroom.

John then briefly stops and looks over his shoulder saying, "Okay, thank you for remembering that." and then returns to heading towards his room.

Two hours later, he exits the shower feeling like a new man and yawns saying, "I need to finish in here before I go to bed." He reaches in to grab the wet rag, then wrings the water out of it and tosses it into the basket. He then grabs the towel he brought into the room and dries himself off with it, then drops it to soak up any water that fell off him and onto the floor. With the water cleaned up, he tosses the towel into the basket as well and begins to get his underwear and socks on.

He tries to turn the light off but gives up when he doesn't see a button, then leaves the room when he notices that the light turned off and turns around. Seeing that it is actually off, he wonders how it happened thinking, 'Tomorrow, I will have to ask Twilight how the lights work.' He then continues on his way to bed.

Meanwhile, inside the throne room in Canterlot Castle

Luna wanders the dream realm, checking on her sleeping subjects' dreams. She smiles as she sees them dreaming of all kinds of things, like living in a house built out of food and candy or being everypony's hero. Pulling her head out from a dream, she heads to the next dream when she catches the faint smell of smoke coming from further down.

As she follows the faint, out-of-place smell, it gets a little stronger before fading away completely. Sighing as she loses the trail, she returns to checking on her subject's dreams.

While she spends another half hour checking on the dreams of her subjects, she notices that the smell has returned a little bit stronger than last time. Trotting down the hall hoping to find the source of the smell so she can deal with what is causing it.

The smell gets even stronger as she takes notice of a black door, riddled with small holes, long gashes and scratches. She wonders if this is where the smell is coming from, then moves towards the door to open it when it disappears a moment later. She sighs in irritation as she realizes that the pony belonging to this door is being startled awake by a particularly strong nightmare, and knows that she will require others to help.

Forced to wait a few minutes until the pony returns to sleep once more, Luna sees the damaged door appear again as smoke starts to filter through the holes. She opens the door and enters the dream, finding herself in a desert under the hot sun amidst a raging sandstorm as a figure stands on two legs trying to press forward to their target while grumbling about having to babysit a newbie on a dangerous mission. Recognizing the voice as Sgt. Benson, she squints her eyes to keep the sand out of them and continues to follow him as she takes notice of a second figure near John.

She follows the pair through the sandstorm, eventually getting through it and sees a large encampment in the distance when the other human speaks up. Immediately hearing their voice, Luna identifies it as female when they ask about this mission.

The female soldier looks at the NCO and asks, "So, what are we doing here exactly, Sergeant Benson?"

Sgt. Benson looks at the corporal and sighs saying, "You mean besides sweating our asses off? We are here to prevent the terrorists from getting their hands on some chemical warheads, our primary objective is to kill the ones in charge of this deal without leaving a trace that indicates we were responsible and gather intel about what they were intending to use them for as well as find out who made them. We are to complete our mission without being seen or heard. Welcome to the Graveyard Squad, newbie. Remember to always make your shots count when trying to kill someone stealthily because you might only get one."

Luna watches the dream or memory play out for a little bit as everything seems nightmare free before an unexpected arrival causes them to adjust their plan of attack.

He watches as the helicopter lands at the encampment and sees who gets out, a smile crosses his face when he sees the two brothers start making their way into the camp as the chopper takes off saying, "Well, well, isn't this a pleasant treat...the two brothers just arrived, and have no way back if we can manage to disable any means of escape."

The female looks at him with wide eyes saying, "T-The Scandere Brothers?! They are the most wanted terrorists in the entire world, we will most definitely kill both of them before this mission is complete."

John looks at the eager newbie trying to prove themselves and nods his head then responds, "Keep your head in the mission Corporal Saveen, there is no room for personal vendettas here. It clouds your judgment and impedes your intelligence, take a breath and calm the fuck down... That is an order."

Luna watches from afar as things go smoothly for an hour until an alarm sounds from within the camp followed by multiple smaller pops in rapid succession. A huge cloud of yellowish-green fog begins to spread throughout the camp, causing coughs and screams to be heard from within.

Sgt. Benson puts on his gas mask while hauling ass away from the camp, cursing under his breath over the mistake the corporal made.

Managing to shake off his pursuers, he stops on a hill a fair distance from the camp and looks towards the cloud of toxic gas spreading throughout the camp. He removes his gas mask and puts it away, then sighs heavily over what happened.

The princess watches curiously as John reaches into his pocket and pulls out a beaded necklace with two small tags on it along with a bundle of papers with a booklet, wondering, 'What...what happened to her?'

John looks down at her personal effects and sighs saying, "I'm sorry that I let you deal with those chemical weapons, this was my failure...not yours, soldier." then turns and heads away when a sudden bright flash and a loud boom blind him momentarily. When the light fades away, he looks at it and starts to scream.

Luna heads towards him to help calm him down, but is roughly ejected from the dream as he wakes up. She slams into the side of the corridor where the doors appear, grunting in pain from the impact.

It takes her a few seconds to return to her hooves, letting out a sad sigh saying, "Well, I will have to get the others to help me deal with this." Luna makes her way to where Twilight's, Applejack's, Rarity's, Fluttershy's, Rainbow's, and Pinkie's doors are located, then asks them to gather at Twilight's castle to help her deal with a nightmare that is plaguing Sgt. Benson. She then makes her way to the last pony's dream that she will need aid from, her sister.

Celestia is dreaming about eating a cake the size of a mountain when she spots her sister making her way towards her with a sullen look upon her face and asks, "Lulu, what has you so upset on this joyous day of celebration?"

She sighs and says, "I am sorry to intrude on your dream, Cece, but I am in need of your aid to deal with a nightmare that plagues Sgt. Benson and preventing him from getting any sleep. I need you to wake up and go to Twilight's castle when you are presentable."

Luna's sister gets a surprised look on her face and quickly nods her head saying, "Very well sister, I shall meet you there."

Luna then leaves her sister's dream and returns to her body, sighing as she feels the bruise forming from the impact against the corridor saying, "I hope this nightmare doesn't hurt the others." and then starts to teleport to Twilight's castle.

Twilight's castle in Ponyville, a few minutes later

Twilight stands in Spike's room, helping him return to bed after being scared awake by John's screams saying, "I'm sorry that you are unable to sleep due to John screaming like that when he wakes each time, let me cast a spell so that you can continue sleeping while the girls and I help Luna save John from nightmares." and starts to cast a silencing barrier to keep all sounds out.

Spike looks up at Twilight with a smile saying, "Thanks Twilight, wish I could help you all but I'm just so tired."

She smiles and says, "You're welcome Spike, goodnight."

He then yawns and stretches, then says, "Goodnight Twilight." while closing his eyes as he sees Twilight cast the spell."

Twilight then makes her way back to the others in the map room as she is startled by another terrified scream from John's room, causing her heart to race each time she hears it and says, "Don't worry John, help is on the way."

Luna watches as Rarity finishes making some tea to help everyone wake up a little when she sees Twilight return from putting Spike back to bed saying, "Is poor Spike finally back to sleep, Twilight?"

She nods her head saying, "He is, Princess Luna. I even cast a barrier so that he will not be woken by John's screams anymore, we can begin anytime you are ready."

The princess then looks at the pillow and blanket lying on top of the table saying, "Okay, I shall go get John and bring him here." She then looks at Twilight asking, "Could you show me to where his room is, Twilight?"

Twilight nods and makes her way to the hall saying, "Of course, it is right this way."

When they approach his room, they hear John scream once more. Luna and Twilight enter the room and wait for him to wake up screaming once more, happening a few minutes later as Luna does what she can to calm him down.

Luna stands beside the bed looking at John's body as it trembles from fright and says, "Seargent Benson, you are being plagued by a nightmare. It is using your memories to gain more power, will you let us allow us to enter your dream and deal with it so you can sleep peacefully?"

John looks at Luna while breathing quickly as his heart slows a little saying, "O-Okay, so what do you need me to do?"

She looks at him and says, "Right now, I would like you to follow me into the main hall of Twilight's castle. There is a table there for you to lay on with a blanket and a pillow on top of it to help make the table a little more comfortable. Then the next thing that I need you to do, though you may not want to, is to dream of what might be bothering you most."

He sighs shakily and says, "I-I don't really want to relive that hell. Is there any other way to handle it so I can sleep?"

Luna closes her eyes and shakes her head, then sighs saying, "I am sorry, but there is not. Everypony needs to face their fears or they will not be able to move forward in their lives."

John looks away at the wall for a few moments, then turns back to look at Princess Luna saying, "I don't want to burden you with what memories I have and what horrors await in them."

She continues to look at him with an unwavering look upon her face saying, "Fear is but an obstacle for one to overcome to reach their goal. I am determined to overcome whatever challenge that presents itself in order to serve the needs of my subjects."

He sees the determined look in her eyes and then looks ahead saying, "Okay then, don't say I didn't warn you beforehand. Let's go deal with this nuisance so I can finally get some sleep."

Luna leads the way to the main hall and then sees him lie down on the table, shifting her gaze to the others and saying, "Alright everypony, I will take us into the dream realm and guide you all to his dream so we can deal with the nightmare. Please spread out in a circle with the table in the center and lie down, I will then cast my spell to link us all together so we can wander the dream realm once you all are asleep." She then moves beside the table and looks at John saying, "Okay Seargent Benson, please close your eyes and try to dream of what you are avoiding." As he closes his eyes, she lies down beside him on the floor.

A few moments later as they sleep, Luna casts her spell to link everybody together. As Luna sees them all arrive in the wide corridor, she then begins to lead the others down the hall towards John's door.

John starts to relive the memory, finding himself cleaning his weapon as his superior approaches him. As he rises up and salutes him saying, "Afternoon, sir!"

Luna looks at the others as she reaches for the damaged door and says, "I do not know what is beyond this door, but we all will get through this together." and then opens the door and waits for the others to enter first, closing the door behind herself as she follows them through.

Celestia looks around the dark room, squinting at how little light there is and says, "Umm, dear sister, do you know what is going on? What is this place and why is it so dark?"

Luna looks around the pitch-black room and answers, "I know not what this room is, nor why it is so dark in here, but it is supposed to be what is bothering Seargent John."

Twilight tries to create a light to help them see better but finds herself unable to, leaving her shocked and worried. Twilight voices her worries by saying, "Umm, can anypony else use magic here?"

Having no idea of where they might be, Celestia and Luna both try to use magic but find they can't. Still unsure of whomever's dream they were in, they look around for another door. A sourceless light appears and starts to brighten up the room bit by bit when Luna lets out a gasp in surprise, causing everypony to turn their eyes to what she found.

Luna stares in shock at what stands before her, it is a massive pair of black stone doors with heavy iron chains sealing them both firmly, with what looks like blood running in rivulets down from the cracks in the doors and their frame. But the most disturbing thing that draws her attention are the two large skeletal figures that stand on either side of each door holding harvester's scythes, ominously guarding the door against any who seeks entry.

Twilight moves to huddle against Celestia and Applejack, nearly frozen in fear at seeing such a dangerous-looking door. Twilight shakes while looking at the horrifying door, moving tighter against Celestia for safety.

When the two giant skeletons slowly turn their heads to the group, they gasp in fright when bright red orbs fade into existence as the skeleton on the left speaks. "Abandon all hope, ye who enter here, for there is naught but fear, misery, and torment beyond these doors. Turn back now before it is too late to return with thy sanity.”

Luna steps forward, answering, "We will not turn back, Seargent Benson needs my help."

The bright red orbs in the second skeletal figure's eyes light up this time, saying, "Art thou serious upon gaining entry to Hell?"

Twilight, Rarity, and Fluttershy frantically bite their hooves in fear upon hearing the two skeletal figures speak, not knowing what else to do, they watch Luna as she says, "I am most serious, open the door now please."

The two skeletal figures put their scythes on their backs as they step down from their podiums and walk slowly to the heavy doors, then lean against them and start to push with great effort. With a creaking groan, the doors slowly open as some blood rushes out towards the ponies, making Rarity and Fluttershy faint at the sight as the doors open away from them. As the doors open fully, the blood returns to the door to form a wall of blood they had to walk through to enter John's dream.

The ones that didn't faint from fear gulp loudly as Luna looks at them over her right shoulder and says, "Let's go my little ponies, we have a nightmare to deal with."

Twilight picks up Fluttershy and carries her on her back as Applejack picks up Rarity and carries her the same way Twilight is, then follows the others as they pass the skeletal figures easily as tall as the town hall in Ponyville with the doorway being the same height of the main gate of Canterlot's outer wall. Their eyes are drawn to the guardian on the right as they say, "Fare thee well on thy journey, little ones."

Getting through the door without fainting, Pinkie lets out a sigh of relief as she looks around at the nightmarish world they are in. "Over there!" Pinkie shouts as she hears somepony talking. Making their way to the scene, they all are shocked at who they see before them. Before them is Sgt. John Winston Benson as he kneels beside somepony injured.

Rarity and Fluttershy slowly recover from their fright and take notice of the devastation around them as Rarity trembles while Fluttershy hides behind Applejack's flanks. She sees the two humans talking and then continues to look at the wrecked buildings that burn wildly as large metal objects have been hurled into them or just flipped over and says, "Oh good heavens, this place is so dreary and dreadful! Nopony's nightmares could ever be this bad."

Rainbow looks on at their surroundings and nods her head saying, "Yeah, this nightmare is easily the worst one in our world."

Everypony's eyes tear up as Luna says, "They cannot see us, for we are in a memory. We must watch this until it becomes a nightmare."

Twilight looks around at the area saying, "This is a memory! Unbelievable, this is definitely a nightmare if I ever saw one. Look around us Luna, there is nothing here but burning and uprooted trees, destruction, and debris."

Luna looks at Twilight and sighs sadly, saying, "I know Twilight, but this is still his memory of what must have happened to his world." As she watches the events unfold, she starts to understand the pain he must be in as they approach a large brick building that has a portion of it burning wildly as the front of the building has partially collapsed.

They follow John through the window and into the room, gasping and freezing in place when they see the poor female's corpse turned into charcoal. The terrible sight and the foul smell cause them all to gag, as Luna hurries them into the next area.

The area turns out to be a hall with bodies littering it, some being torn in half as Applejack and Twilight throw up while Rarity carries Fluttershy after she fainted at the state of that female's corpse.

There is a brief period of happiness as John meets the armorer but is destroyed as they stand outside, seeing what's happening to the world around them as they look at the numerous mushroom clouds as nuclear weapons continue to detonate in the distance, hurting their eyes briefly.

Everypony starts to sniffle and cry as John arrives at his girlfriend's apartment, now a massive crater. "Get ready everypony, it has begun," Luna says as familiar forms start to appear around them and approach John one by one.

"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO KEEP THE DEVICE SAFE SERGEANT JACKASS BENSON! I'M VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU JOHN, YOU FAILED ME!" John's captain yelled.

Celestia speaks first saying, "John did not fail you, sir, he remembered he was a soldier and protected those who were innocent and defenseless."

The young female's corpse crawls her way towards John yelling, "You disgrace, you didn't even have enough common decency to put a sheet over my body when you found it that way, what a heartless and remorseless monster you are?!"

Twilight replies, "He was given an important mission, he couldn't afford to stop and put sheets over everypony he came across, or he too might have died."

The armorer, Corporal Newman steps forward yelling, "You left me behind you asshole, you abandoned me, and left me for dead, what a great friend you are."

John snaps out of his devastated state and answers, "You're right, I did leave you behind because I had something that needed to be kept safe. You could have followed me when I left, but you stayed there to keep yourself safe."

Just then the smoke from the fires starts to gather into a single spot, creating a strange figure that looks like John and starts walking forward saying, "You are absolutely evil to have decided to use the device on creatures that were of no concern to you. I bet you just had to know what it could actually do, despite the risk to those you were supposedly protecting. You don't really give a flying fuck about them do you, DO YOU!!??"

Applejack jumps in between John and the smokey creature saying, "Now hold up ya creep, John here may have used the device, but he had no other choice if he wanted to get everypony out safely. He saved harmony when the thing went off, takin' care of a big threat to our world, provin' to us that he really does care."

With a horrifying shriek, the figures surrounding them burst into mist and vanish, leaving Luna to sigh in relief and say, "We all managed to defeat the nightmare, we should return before he wakes."

After making their way back from the dream realm, they begin to wake up from their fight with the nightmare. Watching as John slowly opens his eyes yawning. "That was quite the interesting experience I had, I never knew you could actually deal with nightmares. Your sister mentioned that if I had any nightmares, I would meet her. When she said that, I thought that she would come to me and sing me a lullaby or something like that." John states.

Luna returns to her hooves chuckling softly as she blushes while the others burst out laughing at the thought of her doing that, rolling her eyes at their behavior saying, "Yes, we all were there to save you from the nightmare. It is a part of my special ability to enter the dreams of ponies to save them from their nightmares."

Rainbow sputters and says, "Princess Luna may have a really nice voice, but you are not that young anymore!"

Celestia controls her laughter and hides a blush while answering, "That is certainly true, though it would be quite the experience if she did that for somepony."

She smiles and looks at John saying, "Allow me to formally introduce myself, Seargent Benson. "I am Princess Luna, I am in charge of raising and lowering the moon and keeping ponies safe from bad dreams at night, I also rule Equestria alongside my sister, Princess Celestia."

John sits up and turns his eyes to Princess Luna, noticing she has wings and a horn just like her sister then says, "Outside of any formal or military nature, please call me John." He then says, "Okay Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, that goes for the rest of you as well." while looking at each of the princesses first before shifting his gaze to the other girls in the room. He then returns to looking at Princess Luna's appearance, seeing a dark blue coat with a very dark cornflower blue splotch on her rump underneath a picture of a white crescent moon. Her eyes are a moderate cyan complemented by her mane and tail having a moderate sapphire blue with a grayish perusian blue outline.

Luna looks to everyone around her as they nod and agree and sees them start to yawn, then returns her gaze to John saying, "Very well then John, the same goes for me if you ever see me outside of official matters."

Celestia then quickly nods her head saying, "I would like to request the same as my sister had said."

She then smiles and briefly looks at her sister before looking to the others and saying, "Since the trouble has been dealt with, you all should return home and get some sleep. I have to return to my patrol of the dream realm before it is time to begin the day."

He watches as they all say goodnight to each other and to him, and responds in kind before rising off the map table and then making his way back to his room while Rarity folds up the blanket and Pinkie takes the pillow.

A few seconds after the sun appears just above the Eastern horizon

John wakes up and stretches his stiff body out with a few warmup exercises, then gets started on his morning run. He searches through his clothing and just having a single pair of shorts and a grey, short-sleeved shirt with Army in big black letters across the chest. He continues to dig through his stuff and finds his jogging shoes, then changes into his PT uniform and heads towards the main hall to get some exercise.

Owlowicious rests on a perch in the corner of the room as he hears someone walking through the halls, watching the door silently as the newest guest of his owner enters his vision. Curious as to where he is going, he hoots to get his attention.

He hears someone say who and then stops to look around saying, "Huh, I'm just getting some exercise...do you...need something?"
His eyes then land on an owl perched in the corner of the room and says, "I'm guessing you must be Twilight's assistant, your name is Owlowiscious if I am not mistaken."

Owlowiscious hoots again and nods his head ever so slightly, keeping his gaze on the new guest curiously.

John returns to heading to the door saying, "Alright then, see you later." and then heads out the door, closing it silently before taking off on his morning run.

A few hours later at Twilight's castle

Twilight stirs as something bright hits her eyelid, making her roll onto her other side...only to fall off the edge of the bed saying, "Wah!" She then picks herself up off the floor and scowls at the window thinking, 'Thanks for the sudden wake-up Princess Celestia... I always like waking up whenever I fall out of bed.' she then grumbles a little bit and starts to head to the kitchen when she hears noises coming from John's room and then stops by his door and looks inside to see him doing something to one of his weapons and asks, "Morning John, what are you doing to your weapon?"

John briefly looks up from his M249 that he is putting back together after fully cleaning it saying, "Morning Twilight, oh nothing much. I'm just reassembling this M249 after taking it completely apart and giving each of the parts a thorough cleaning, would you like to learn how to take it apart and put it back together?"

She smiles and nods her head eagerly saying, "I definitely would, but I need to take care of my morning routine first. Is that okay with you?"

After Twilight returns from her morning routine, John spends a couple of hours teaching her how to disassemble and reassemble the weapon to satisfy her curiosity.

John watches Twilight try to reassemble the M249 without his assistance then looks at the pile of his belongings on the floor, deciding to get started on it saying, "Well, this room won't organize itself so I may as well start on it." He then looks to Twilight and chuckles saying, "Enjoy the fun of getting it back together Twilight while I organize my things around this room." He sees her concentrating on the weapon parts and simply mumbles 'uh-huh', making him chuckle at her determination and single-minded focus on her current project.

John starts organizing by gathering his uniforms first and placing them in a couple of dresser drawers after folding them up one by one, then moves onto his PT uniform and puts them in a different drawer. He then moves onto his underwear and socks then puts them in the empty drawer on the right side.

He then moves to the wardrobe and begins stacking the few MREs he has on the top shelf of it, making sure to leave some space. Looking the wardrobe over, John sees no suitable spot to hang his helmet and vest. He sighs and sets them both on the floor of the wardrobe with the helmet on top of the thin mesh equipment vest that lays on top of the kevlar vest.

John then places the ammo cans side by side in the wardrobe next to his kevlar vest, with the remaining belt ammo for his M249 on top of the two cans. Taking the NVG off his helmet, he places it in the space beside the MREs.

He then looks through his remaining stuff and places it on various shelves around the room, then moves his books to a shelf and sets a bookend on either side of the two books before hanging his rucksack on a wooden coat rack with three hooks on it.

Twilight finishes reassembling the weapon and looks up at John asking, "Hey John, I think I finished reassembling this M249. Could you double-check it for me?"

John looks down at the M249 and then sits on the floor saying, "I can do that, just one moment." He then grabs the weapon and moves it in front of him, then sets it down to begin checking it over.

As he looks the weapon over, she looks around the room and sees that he has placed his things in various places around the room. As she looks at what he has, she becomes curious if he needs anything to make his stay more comfortable and asks, "Hey John, I was just wondering if there was anything that you might need to make yourself more comfortable living here?" Her eyes pass over a shelf with two books on it that he must have brought with him from his world. Unable to resist the urge to read them, she asks, "I'm terribly sorry but can I borrow one of those books you have up there on the shelf? I have read every book in this library and Canterlot's library at least three times. I have even went to the ruins of The Castle of Two Sisters' library and brought back any books that Celestia and Luna permitted me to take from there." Twilight then looks at John with big puppy dog eyes, hoping that he would let her read at least one of them.

After thinking for a second he chuckles and says, "Go right ahead and knock yourself out, you can read them both if you like. After all, I just forgot to unpack them from my previous mission." He then remembers how uncomfortable the bed was to sleep in and then finishes reassembling the weapon and says, "You finally got it back together correctly Twilight. Now that you mention it, I could use a bigger and longer bed since I'm a different size than you ponies are if that won't be too much trouble."

Smiling from ear to ear, Twilight buzzes with happiness at getting two completely new books to read. Using her magic to gently bring the books to her. She then looks back at him and says, "Thank you, John. That is not a problem at all, we will have to go to Carousel Boutique first, and then Sweet Apple Acres. Please follow me and I will take you there." She then gets up and prepares to exit the room, making sure to bring the two books with her.

John sets the weapon to the side of the room, considering the town to be a safe zone in the field and grabs his ACU cap then places it in his cargo pocket on his right leg. He then stands up and follows her out of the room and down the hall saying, "Lead the way Twilight." and then closes the door to his room behind him.

Reaching the main hall where the friendship map table is, Twilight notices Spike reading a comic and snacking on a bowl of gems. As she sets the two books down gently, she says, "Good Morning Spike, could you make sure that nothing happens to these books I borrowed from John while I'm gone?"

Hearing Twilight and John in the room, Spike looks up from his comic to see her set down the books she borrowed saying, "Sure thing Twilight, I will make sure these books stay in the condition that you borrowed them in." then promptly returns to his comic.

Twilight smiles and answers Spike, saying, "Thank you, Spike, I knew I could count on you to keep these books from John's world safe while we go get him a bigger bed to sleep in." and heads towards the doors to visit Rarity's Carousel Boutique. As she led the way there, other ponies stopped to look at the strange, tall new creature in Ponyville.

As he follows Twilight, John chuckles at himself for putting his cap on his head in habit saying, "I guess old habits die hard."

On their way to the boutique, Twilight looks up at John and cocks her head asking, "What do you mean, John?"

Still walking, he looks at Twilight and says, "You see Twilight, soldiers like me wear this ACU cap when in the field or at the motor pool where the military vehicles are parked. During ceremonies, special events, and whenever they are on the base, they wear a black beret. Headgear, meaning caps, berets, or helmets, are not allowed to be worn indoors."

Rarity sighs in annoyance when she hears somepony knock on her door as she works on complicated outfit designs for Sassy Saddles and Sapphire Shores. Reluctantly setting down the patterns, she then heads to the door. She opens it and is surprised as she sees John and Twilight paying her shop a visit, saying, "Oh please come on in you two, don't be shy. What can fashion extraordinaire Rarity do for you this fine evening?"

Twilight chuckles as she and John enter the shop, saying, "Well, Rarity, we decided to stop by to ask for your help in making some bed sheets and a mattress casing for a bigger bed that we will ask Applejack to build for John because he is so much bigger than we are. I will ask Applejack if she can let you know when she gets ready to start on the mattress for the cover to be sown over it. Would that be alright with you, Rarity?"

Rarity had a big smile plastered on her face upon hearing Twilight's request, making her clap her hooves together quickly. With ideas beginning to fly around in her head, Rarity could hardly wait to get started on the new order, she then quickly answered Twilight's question by saying, "That would be just marvelous Twilight, since that will give me the chance to finally get two urgent orders out of my mane. That will also allow Sweetie Belle and I to work together to come up with a few designs to use for your special order. Is there an urgent need for these soon?"

Seeing how excited Rarity is at getting a special order, John answers, "Not really, I can get by for now with the smaller bed, but will need it within two weeks or I will start to suffer from lack of good sleep."

Rarity continues to smile at hearing his relaxed deadline request, then asks, "Thank you, that is more than enough time to make a complete set of bedding and include a few pillows with the order. Do you have any requirements as to what material is used or how soft the pillows must be?"

Thinking for a moment, John answers, "Only thing I ask is that you make the sheets as smooth as you can and the pillows as soft as you are able to."

As she looks up at John with a wide smile, she says, "That will be no problem at all John. Also, because you have never visited Equestria before, that you will soon become the newest official resident in Ponyville, and also, for the fact that you saved the lives of ponies everywhere by destroying that monster Chrysalis, I shall not charge for this order. I will not be persuaded otherwise darling, so don't bother trying to change my mind." Lifting her nose into the air and turning her head to the side to show her resolve, Rarity smiles and gives John a sidelong glance.

Hearing what Rarity just said leaves John stunned as he then says, "I am speechless with your gift, there is no doubt that you are truly selfless. Generosity definitely suits you miss Rarity."

Getting such a compliment from John causes Rarity to blush as she tries to make a polite exit saying, "Well I appreciate you both visiting me. I must continue working on the urgent orders so that I can finish them and start working on your order. Don't be a stranger now darling, feel free to drop by Carousel Boutique for anything fabric related you may need in the future, have a good day you two!" Rarity waves a hoof goodbye at Twilight and John before swiftly returning to her orders.

As they let Rarity get back to her order, Twilight and John exit the boutique and start heading towards Sweet Apple Acres to ask Applejack for her help.

As they arrive at Sweet Apple Acres a few minutes later, Twilight and John search for where Applejack might be. Finding her bucking ripe apples off a tree, John looks to the right and sees a few strangely colored apples on a few trees a couple hundred yards away. As John approaches Applejack, he waves at her saying with a chuckle, "Hi there Applejack, having fun with the apple harvest?"

With her back hooves landing back on the ground, Applejack looks at the two of them saying, "Barrels of fun, would ya mind lendin' a hand fer these last few trees?"

Twilight smiles and says, "We sure can Applejack, we have a request to ask of you after this." and starts to grab empty barrels and place them under the last few trees. She and John start picking the ripe apples and placing them in the barrels gently so they don't bruise.

Applejack watches John as he treats the apples with great care, bringing a smile to Applejack's face as they finish up the last few trees. When she and Twilight finish moving the full barrels over to the barn, Applejack asks, "What can ah do ya fer?"

Before Twilight can tell Applejack about their request, John looks at the odd apples on the trees and asks, "What type of apples are those striped ones over there Applejack? I have never seen their kind before in my world."

She looks at the trees bearing the apples John is talking about and smiles saying, "Why those right there are called zap apples, mah brother had to harvest them without me when Twi came to get me for a mission. They can only be harvested once per season, and the season is a very short one at that, lastin' only five days once they ripen. They disappear after the fifth day if you don' git 'em picked, they do zap you if you try to buck 'em off the trees if they aren't yet ripe. Ah'll tell ya more bout 'em at a later time because ah'm fallin' behind in the harvest due to the amount of regular apple trees bein' ripe."

John smiles as an idea forms in his head and says, "Not a problem Applejack, I'm sure that Twilight wouldn't mind helping you get all caught up with the harvest. One day if I get my own place, I would love to try an experiment with a few of the zap apples after I set things up."

Applejack sighs happily when she sees Twilight nodding her head with a smile and smiles back at them saying, "Ah greatly appreciate and accept your offer. Ah'll owe ya fer yer help with finishin' the harvest."

Twilight sees a chance to even the scales favor for favor and says, "Applejack, I'm glad that you could use our help with the rest of the harvest because we came here to ask if you would build a bigger bed and a mattress for John since he is much larger than us ponies are."

Smiling at how she can repay their kindness, Applejack says, "Ah sure can handle that fer ya. Do ya have any special requests fer the details on the bed or mattress, John?"

Smiling back at Applejack, he replies, "The only two things that I ask is that the top half be as soft and fluffy as possible with the bottom half being small bundles of straw, and also would appreciate it greatly if a way could be found to prevent the straw from poking my skin. Unlike you ponies, we humans don't have thicker hides like you or the hair that makes up your coats."

She takes a small drink of water saying, "That is simple enough, is there a date that ya need this to be finished by?"

Twilight looks at Applejack and says, "Within two weeks if it isn't too much trouble, Applejack. We asked Rarity to make the sheets and mattress cover, and we also told her that we would ask you if you could let her know when you were ready to start on the mattress so that you two can finish it together."

Applejack smiles at the relaxed deadline for the request and says, "Ah can sure handle that much, ah can even git Big Mac and Apple Bloom ta help me build it and put it together fer ya after it's finished." Taking some time, Applejack and Twilight use a tape measure to find out how tall, wide, and long to make the bed frame.

After Applejack writes his measurements down, John follows the two girls to help the Apples finish the zap apple harvest.

3: Starting Anew (Rewritten 11/28/2022)

John, Twilight, and Applejack are picking the last few zap apples from the trees when the last few rays of sunlight disappear from the ground when he eyes them curiously. Unable to resist his curiosity, he asks, "Hey Applejack, what does a zap apple taste like? Is there anything special that sets it apart from other apples?"

The two girls chuckle while looking at each other, Applejack and Twilight smile as the farm pony says, "Why don't ya just eat one and find out."

With a puzzled look on his face, John shrugs and plucks the last, almost square zap apple off the tree he was working on. He turns the zap apple over in his hand and examines it, deciding to go ahead and take a bite out of it. He tries to ignore the giggling ponies in the background and opens his mouth and bites into the zap apple.

As his teeth sink into the zap apple, he starts to feel tingling around his mouth and gums. When his teeth meet and remove a chunk from the apple, then begins chewing when he feels a funny electric charge run through his body. Though it does not hurt, it is just enough to make him tingle all over. Finding it very similar to the feeling you get when you stick your tongue on a new 9-volt battery, John has an indescribably electrifyingly delicious taste hit his taste buds, causing his hair to rise into the air, trying to take his hat off his head.

He bursts into laughter himself saying, "God DAMN that is one fine taste, thanks for waking up my taste buds, Applejack. I would rather eat one of these over an MRE any day, now I really wanna try that experiment with a few zap apples when I get my own place." Loving the taste of the zap apple, John quickly resumes eating it.

Remembering that he is in a new world, John pulls out his wallet and pulls out a 20-dollar bill and shows it to Twilight asking, "Umm, is this by chance worth anything in your world, you two?"

Twilight takes a closer look at the strange piece of material and feels it with her hoof, then sniffs it curiously asking, "What is this John?"

Getting a bad feeling in his gut, John says, "Where I come from this is one form of currency, there are a few other forms but I don't think they're worth anything here either if you don't recognize this." then pulls out a credit card and handful of change containing quarters, dimes, nickels, and pennies then shows them to the two girls.

Looking at the items he holds in his hand, the two ponies shake their heads as Applejack says, "Unfortunately not, the coins we use here look different from them. We call em bits here, let me show you what they look like." She then reaches into her mane and removes something then holds a few gold bits in her hoof for John to look at.

He hangs his head slightly and sighs saying, "Figures... New world, new money. Oh well, guess this stuff I have is garbage then." He returns the change to his pocket and the bill to his wallet and wonders how he will make a few bits to afford things in this world when an idea strikes him and ask, "Applejack, would you happen to need a hand around here to help you guys catch up?"

As Applejack places a hoof on her chin, she thinks of what to say to his question. She finds the answer to his question a few moments later and answers, "It may not be a job that could last a year...but ah think we could use an extra hand for a little while, so come to our house around noon tomorrow okay?"

Smiling, John answers, "Sure thing Applejack, I will see you tomorrow around noon." he then helps the two carry the full barrels back to the barn so they can be put away. With the zap apple harvest finished up, John and Twilight wave goodbye to Applejack then start heading back to Twilight's castle.

Remembering what John said after biting into the zap apple, Twilight asks, "Hey John, what is an Emary?"

As he walks beside Twilight, he chuckles and says, "Not Emary Twilight, M-R-E. MRE stands for Meal Ready to Eat, it's a variety of sealed packages containing food, some of which need to be placed in a warming pouch called a Flameless Ration Heater, which contains mostly magnesium combined with metallic iron particles and table salt. Pouring some water into the heater gets it hot enough to cook the food inside of the pouches, the food itself is designed to be able to have a shelf life of five years if kept at or below 75° Fahrenheit."

Hearing something related to science brings a gigantic smile to Twilight's face as she excitedly says, "Flameless heat! I can't wait to start experimenting to find out how that works! How can food last for five years without going bad?! I would love to know how that is done so I can come up with a way to make our food last that long!"

He chuckles and stops Twilight's rambling saying, "Twilight, the heater is a single-time use only. It is safe to discard after that, but when it is activated, it rises to a temperature of 100° Fahrenheit and creates a very dangerous hydrogen gas that can be toxic in confined spaces and flammable if near fire. I am not sure how they were able to make the food last that long, but you are welcome to have one of my MREs so you can find out."

Bouncing along while having a big smile on her face, Twilight excitedly says, "New experiments, oh my gosh new experiments! Thank you, John! I'm so happy right now I could just explode!" Without really thinking, she jumps up and gives John a kiss on the cheek, and resumes making their way home.

Arriving back at the castle still socked by Twilight's sudden action, John's mood turns sour thinking to himself, 'What the FUCK just happened? There was no call for her to kiss me like that, I was only being nice.' Rubbing his head in confusion as his heart starts to ache for his dead girlfriend and daughter, he looks at Twilight in sadness and sighs saying, "Twilight, I know you are happy with what I said, but please don't do that again because I'm still hurting over what I lost back home." Then turns around and heads to his room to lay down and get under the covers.

She stops in her tracks as her mood turns somber when she remembers what she did, then turns around to apologize for it to see him already gone as a door slams shut. With a heavy, and sad sigh she returns to her room to get some sleep and berates herself in her thoughts, 'Way to go Twilight, you let yourself forget about the pain your guest is in and lose yourself in the excitement over new experiments then up and kiss him... What the buck is wrong with you?'

He has difficulty falling asleep at first due to Twilight's action but manages to fall asleep when he curls his legs under him a bit to keep them from sticking out into the cold night air.

John gets up early from habit as the horizon begins to brighten then starts putting on his Army shirt, shorts, and shoes then moves on to his morning exercises. Beginning with a warmup of twenty-five pushups, sit-ups, and crunches, he then silently exits his room while leaving the door ajar so that he knows which room is his. He spots Owlowiscious on the edge of a chair and walks past him saying, "If anyone asks, let them know I'm doing my morning exercises okay?" He then shakes his head thinking to himself, 'I can't believe I'm actually telling a bird what I am doing.'

He then looks back at the owl and swears he saw it wink at him, then silently exits the castle for his morning run. As he passes through the town, he waves at the few ponies that are out and about at this hour saying, "It's a good morning to get some exercise, isn't it?"

As he is on his second lap around Ponyvile, he keeps an eye on the fields around the town when the sunlight finally hits the tops of the buildings. Deciding to do another unofficial patrol around the town, John slows his pace to a swift walk and looks for any obvious signs of trouble around town.

Noticing nothing from his small exercise patrol, John makes his way back towards Twilight's castle by cutting through the center of Ponyville. As a few ponies watch him curiously as he passes by before returning to what they were doing before, he sees young foals start to make their way towards a red building on the edge of town and assumes it must be a school and looks to a random passing mare with a light sapphire blue coat and a blonde mane and tail then asks her, "Excuse me for my curiosity miss but is that red building the young foals are going to, a schoolhouse by chance?"

The mare stops and looks at the human, then smiles saying, "Yes it is, my daughter Dinky goes there. My name is Derpy Hooves, and you are Sergeant John Benson, is that correct?"

He nods his head as he sees that she has a wonky eye, finding it rather adorable when feels his heart ache, wincing slightly at her mention of her daughter but ignores the pain saying, "Yes I am. I won't keep you from your task, good day, and thank you for answering my question miss Derpy Hooves."

Derpy watches him continue on by, cocking her head in curiosity as she wonders, 'Why did he wince when I mentioned having a daughter?' She stands there wondering about it for a few seconds before returning to her business.

John returns to the castle after exercising his body and opens the front door of Twilight's castle, then walks through it. Noticing that Twilight has her head buried in a book she borrowed from him, he sees Spike look up at him from a comic he's reading. He then holds a finger to his lips, signaling him to keep quiet for a second. As he sees Spike nod and grin, he quietly closes the doors and walks up behind a completely oblivious Twilight and suddenly grabs her firmly around the barrel and shouts, "BOO!"

As she is startled by the shout and being grabbed roughly around the barrel, she screams, "EEEK" as her eyes shrink to pinpricks, causing her to instantly teleport herself beside spike breathing heavily as her eyes dart around the room for the pony responsible, seeing that it was John who did it, she waits for her eyes and breathing to return to normal so she can scold him for doing that to her saying, "JOHN, WHY IN TARTARUS DID YOU SCARE ME LIKE THAT, I COULD HAVE BLASTED YOU WITH MY MAGIC!"

John laughs harder as he watches Spike fall out of his chair from laughing so hard with tears coming from his eyes at her reaction saying, "You have really great reflexes for having your head buried in a book, Twilight." He continues chuckling as her mane has a wild look to it as a blush crosses her face and then crosses his arms with an accomplished smile on his face saying calmly, "We are now even for yesterday.

Twilight's eyes and breathing slowly return to normal as she spots John leaning on the back of the chair she was just in, still laughing at her reaction. She tries to get herself to stop blushing from the surprise by trying to act mad about it saying, "Jeez, you could have at least warned me you were going to do that John, before making me scream so embarrassingly!" She then huffs in minor annoyance and asks, "Besides that, where did you go?"

With his laughter subsiding, John replies, "I exercise every morning a little before the sun rises to keep myself in shape." Getting a sinister idea, a grin spreads across his face as he asks, "You know, you could join me if you want in the morning. I can give you a special wake-up call."

Going back to her book, Twilight huffs saying, "Thank you for the offer but I will pass on that. Could you bring one of those MRE thingies to me before you go to Applejack's?"

With a smile still on his face, John walks past her as she sits back down, he says, "Of course I can Shrieklight." Unable to help himself, he chuckles as it causes Twilight to scrunch up her face at the name and then asks her, "You said that you lived here with three others, right? So where is the other one I have yet to meet?"

She looks at John with a scowl on her face and says, "The one you haven't met yet is my student, Starlight Glimmer and she has yet to return from a mission to set up a Cultural Exchange festival between Yakyakistan and the Crystal Empire. She should be back in a couple of days. Are you eager to meet her so you can annoy her too?"

Spike chuckles at her reaction as he watches a blush return to her cheeks as John grins at Twilight before looking at him and asking, "Sorry for being rude, but why are you so small?"

He smiles and replies, "It takes a few years for a baby dragon to be as tall as Lord Ember is unless I let myself get greedy, though I don't like doing that because I lose some of my intelligence but regain it when I return to normal. Also, my current diet is primarily gems, though it has been too long since I had meat. I try to avoid eating it around ponies because it tends to really freak them out."

Thinking on that John says, "I can understand that, but fear is meant to be gotten over. When I was in my world, I ate in front of vegans all the time while they fought to keep down their food because they thought that what I was eating was disgusting."

Looking back with a smirk on his face, Spike says, "I bet doing that didn't make you any friends though."

He looks at Spike and laughs saying, "I made one friend when I did that one day, they were eating a tofu burger and looked at what I was having and said, "Yuck, how can you eat such greasy and disgusting processed food that is so unhealthy for you? I just grinned and replied back, Wouldn't you rather have food that you can actually taste? Not that paper mache burger that looks like it came out of a trash can? Poor bastard came up to me a week later sicker than a dog yelling, You bastard, that food you ate tasted like it fell out of a garbage truck I then said back, What, I never said that it was a good taste. We both laughed and were friends from that point forward." Remembering that event brings a smile to his face.

John then looks back to Twilight and asks, "So Shrieklight, what time is it?"

Twilight looks at him in annoyance and huffs saying, "It's noon, you better get going or Applejack's gonna be displeased."

He then stands up straight saying, "I better get going then, see you later Shrieklight." then closes the door behind him.

Spike looks to Twilight with a smirk on his face saying, "You didn't have to mess with him that much Twilight, it's only 9 am."

She then huffs in irritation saying, "Well he made me make a sound so embarrassing and then called me Shrieklight more than once!"

John pulls his hat out of a pouch on his leg and puts it on, then takes off down the road at a swift jog, taking him five minutes to get to Sweet Apple Acres. He sees Applejack in front of the barn sorting apples and slows to a walk as he approaches her saying, "Sorry for being so late Applejack, I was doing my morning exercises and teasing Twilight."

Applejack watches John approach, hearing him claiming to be late makes her laugh saying, "What'cha mean late, yer three hours early."

He sighs and chuckles saying, "It seems Shrieklight pulled a fast one on me for creeping up behind her and grabbing her around the barrel shouting boo, causing her to scream eek."

She laughs at the prank saying, "Yep she definitely got ya back for that, wanna help me finish sorting these apples so they can be sold off?"

John nods his head saying, "Of course, you sorting them out by type?"

Applejack nods her head saying, "Yep ah am, ya catch on quick pardner. Be sure to fill the half barrels with one of each type, then load 'em onto the wagon alright? Oh, if they have any brown spots on 'em, toss them into the two barrels that are painted black so the livestock can enjoy 'em."

With a nod, he gets started, saying, "No problem."

It takes them a couple of hours to sort through the apples when Applejack wipes her forehoof across her forehead, removing the sweat and then smiles saying, "Well John, lets go find mah brother Big Mac and the rest of the famly so we can start this interview."

Following Applejack to find her brother, he spots a stallion with a brilliant amaranth coat and a cross-section of a big green apple on his flank, an orange mane with sap green eyes pulling a cart full of barrels towards the barn.

Stopping close to her brother, Applejack introduces them by saying, "Hey Big Mac this is John, he wants to help us out around the farm, let's go find Granny and Apple Bloom so we can start the interview."

Following the two ponies to their farmhouse, John taps his shoes against the stone step to get the dirt out of the grooves so he doesn't dirty the floor. Entering the house after Applejack and Big Mac, John sees two other ponies standing in front of him. One on his left appeared to be an elderly pony, having many wrinkles on her coat and bony knees. She had a light lime green coat with a pie on her flank, and a light gray mane complemented by light orange eyes. To the right of her stood a young filly only rising to just above his hip, having a pale light grayish olive coat with an apple in the middle of a shield on her flank, and a brilliant amaranth mane and tail that were complemented by her brilliant gamboge eyes and the light crimson bow she wore on her head.

Standing off to the side of her family, Applejack smiles at hearing John clean the dirt from his shoes to keep it outside, and waits for him to finish. With John inside at last, Applejack starts introducing her family to him saying, "John, left ta right is Big Macintosh, Granny Smith, and Apple Bloom. Family, this here is Sergeant John Winston Benson, he is a human that comes from a world very different than ours. Right now, he has asked me if he could work fer us here on the farm."

Upon hearing the introductions, Granny Smith says, "I run things here on the farm, mister Benson, but we all have a say in if you'll be permitted ta work here. Now let's get this interview started!"

After hearing her speak, John readies himself for the coming questions. Each question that Granny Smith asks requires John to remember when he used to help out on his family's ranch before joining the army. Thinking of what it was like back then, John spaces out a little.

Seeing John space out a little makes Applejack wonder why and ask, "What'cha spacing out for, John?"

Realizing he had been staring into the air thinking about the past he answers, "Sorry, ah wus jus thinkin' o' the days when ah lived an' worked the farm fer mah granpappy and pa." Immediately realizing his Southern drawl came back, he clears his throat and apologizes again. "Sorry about that, my accent tends to change back whenever I think back on those memories."

Stunned at hearing that he once lived and worked on a farm, Applejack can't help but ask, "Please tell us more bout that John, ah find it hard to believe ya had a peaceful life before being a soldier."

Smiling at her curiosity, not even noticing the deep blush that had appeared on her face after hearing his accent, John answers, "Ok then Applejack, get ready for a tale, this is gonna take a little bit."

Applejack and her family take a seat to hear John tell his tale, with Apple Bloom excitedly clapping her hooves together saying, "Wow a new story, I love hearing new stories!"

John chuckles at how excited Applebloom is and begins his story saying, "The days were long an' hard bein' farmers, havin' ta git up before the crack o' dawn each day an' work late into the night ta get all the chores done on time when plantin' season came round. It sure wasn't easy havin two thousand acres ta plow, cultivate, and plant. Even with bigger tractors, planters, plows, an' disks or cultivators it takes the best part of a day ta git the fields turned over. Sorry, ah digress."

"It was a chilly Friday morning in April, the fields had finally thawed from winter, an were dry enough to turn over after the second harvest last season. It was mah turn ta feed the animals, so ah decided ta use the temperamental John Deere 4520 tractor, which had a front-end loader and a bale spike attachment on it."

"Ah started it up without issue, raised the loader up and took off ta spear a one thousand pound round bale to drop into a big mixer, first cuttin' off the strings that kept it from fallin' apart. Before droppin' the bale into the big mixer, I stopped the tractor, got off o' it and started the stronger Massey Ferguson 8160 that was hooked up to the mixer already and engaged the power take-off drive shaft, turnin' the mixer on."

"With the mixer goin' I got back onto the 4520 and dumped the bale in. I then went back fer another bale, removin' the string and dumpin' it in as well before switching to the bucket. Switchin' to the bucket took a few minutes, after that, I drove to the silage pile to fill up the mixer to make Total Mixed Rations fer the cows to eat. After fillin' up the big mixer, I parked an' shut the 4520 off."

"Walking to where the 8160 was runnin' with the mixer stirrin' together the silage an' hay, I climbed up into the cab an' drove to the pasture where them cows were located. Takin' twenty minutes to get to the pasture, I stepped out to open the gate an' shut it after I drove through it ta keep the cows from gettin' out, I started passin' by the line o' feed bunks an' dumpin' the mix in as I went."

"With the mixer empty, I drove back an' parked the mixer to hook up to a five-bottom plow to the 3-point hitch. Liftin' the plow off the ground, I took off fer the fields to catch up to the others that were already half done with their fields. Startin' from a corner of the field, I drove a few laps around the outer edge so I could drive back the way I came. By the time I was finished, it was past noon and the others were waitin fer me in the beat-up '79 Dodge W-150 we used for goin' to town for lunch."

"After lunch, we'd all go back to finishin' our fields so we could begin plantin'. Drivin' the plow back to its spot an' droppin' it off, ah hooked up ta' a 12-foot disk ta smooth out the turned ova' field. Drivin' back ta the field I turned ova' first, an' I once again did a couple laps round the outer edge ta drive back."

"Takin' another couple hours, we finished our fields and hooked up ta machines called planters that do three things in sequence. First, they open a furrow fer the seed to drop into. Second, specially designed smaller plastic disks control the seed spacing, and drop the seed into the furrow that is made. Three, two small spiked wheels push dirt back into the furrow, leavin' no air pockets in the dirt 'round the seed."

"After takin' the rest of the day plantin' the fields, mah older brother Jack and younger sister Susan fed the rest of the animals. Susan always hated havin ta feed the pigs, due ta the smell of the manure we had to suck out of the pits. Usin' the slurry tank we'd spread the manure onto the fields ta help the plants grow for a higher yield an' better harvest."

"Once them crops we planted became tall enough, sprayin' season began. We only had to spray three times during the growth stages ta control insects and weeds. Once the crops became ready to harvest, the really long days began, sometimes leavin' the combines and grain trailers runnin' all night to get the crops in."

Seeing everyone looking at him in awe, John figures they would have questions to ask and replies, "Alright then, whose question is first?"

Closing her mouth and raising a hoof, Applejack waits for John to pick somepony.

Seeing Applejack raise her hoof first, John briefly raises his arm and points a finger at her saying, "What do you got for me Applejack?" then puts his arm back down, resting his forearm across both thighs.

Upon being picked first, Applejack asks, "What is a tractor, John? We don't have them here."

"A tractor is a machine that operates under its own power using an internal combustion engine, it is not able to think for itself, but can perform different functions through different controls. It can also pull various implements that carry out various jobs around the farm." John answers.

John thinks that answering the questions was going to take a while, and he was right. It takes an hour to answer all of their questions about the things from his world. Patiently answering the last few questions they had, John takes a little time at the end of it to ask, "So Granny Smith, do you think that you can allow a has-been farmer like me to work here?"

Granny Smith took a moment to think on the answers she asked him during the interview. Finally reaching a decision, she said, "Ah do believe that you will be a fine addition to our farm. Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres John, can you start today and help us get ready to make zap apple jam tomorrow? We fell behind due to the regular apple harvest and a couple of us were sick."

John Looked at her and answered, "Not a problem Granny Smith, where do you need me, what will I be doing, and how do I do it."

The elderly pony looks at Applejack first, then looks at her family and smiles saying, "Ya did great with finding this one here Applejack, now let us all inform him of how we do things here."

Later in the day as John helps the family with their preparations, he finds a few things they do that are weird but keeps quiet about how embarrassed he feels.

Applebloom finishes up her tasks as she looks at the sun sitting low in the sky near the horizon, then shifts her gaze to look around the farm and sees John sitting by himself with a blush on his face. Wondering if he is feeling embarrassed, she makes her way toward him.

He sits with his back against the barn and looks to his right to see Applejack's sister heading toward him saying, "Well, it looks like everything is prepared for the big day tomorrow. I wonder how much jam you are going to make and sell?"

She sits next to him and chuckles saying, "I'm sure that we will make and sell lots of jam, because everypony in Ponyville loves it as well as several other ponies throughout Equestria." She then looks out at the apple trees and smiles gently saying, "Did you know that a few years ago, I was super embarrassed about the way my family acts around this time of year?"

John grins and half chuckles saying, "I had no idea, how did you deal with that?"

Applebloom smiles and says, "Well at first, ah handled it badly and tried to keep Granny from coming to school during Family Appreciation Day and embarrassing me in front of the others in my class. However, she still made it despite my best efforts. As she started talking to the class, I slowly learned to take pride in it because if it weren't for Granny's discovery of the Zap Apple Trees...Ponyville would have never existed."

He then chuckles and says, "Ah so it is the Ripple Effect then, meaning that one thing affects a larger area around it."

She then cocks her head in slight curiosity, saying, "Uhm, yeah...ah guess so. What ah'm tryin' to say is, you shouldn't let the opinions of others affect you and just be yourself."

Applejack stands beside the door and rings the triangle while hollering, "DINNER'S ON EVERYPONY, COME AN' GET IT!"

John then chuckles and says, "Well Applebloom, I think that you should head inside and eat. I should be heading back now to wash up and eat dinner, catch you later." then gets up and starts heading towards the road to Ponyville.

Applebloom smiles and walks alongside him asking, "Do you want to stay for dinner, we always have lots of food available?"

He looks down at her then shakes his head with a gentle smile on his face saying, "I'm sure that the food that your family cooks is amazing, but I need to wash up and get started with my evening exercise routine. I'll see you tomorrow, Applebloom."

Applejack sees Applebloom walking beside John and smiles saying, "There ya two are, come inside fer some grub before it gets cold."

John looks over at Applejack and smiles saying, "I would stay Applejack but I need to return to Twilight's to wash up after doing my evening exercises, what time should I be here tomorrow?"

She thinks on it for a moment and then says, "Well alright then, yer always welcome to stay and eat with us. Ah'd say around a half-hour past sunrise if that is alright with ya."

He then nods his head and keeps walking towards the road as Applebloom turns and heads toward the house, then waves to the two of them saying, "That sounds good, I will see you all tomorrow."

Applebloom stops to turn and wave to him saying, "See ya tomorrow John, it's gonna be a fun day."

Applejack also waves goodbye to John saying, "Goodnight, and be sure to rest up good! Yer gonna be workin' hard!"

A few minutes later, John returns from Sweet Apple Acres and heads to his room for a change of clothes. Seeing Twilight still at the table reading one of his books, he chuckles and says, "Having fun reading that book Twilight?"

Twilight is startled by whoever just spoke and looks up from the book in front of her and says, "This book by Sun Zoo or whoever is confusing! What does that even mean...be like water?"

He chuckles and nods his head saying, "Yeah, if you have a mind for military tactics you would have a better time understanding that book. Perhaps your brother would have a better chance of understanding that. Well, I'm going to change clothes and head outside."

She then groans with frustration and returns to the book saying, "Ugh, alright then."

After John returns to his room, changes his clothes, and heads out the front door, he looks to see Twilight focusing on the book again and grins saying, "Act weak when you are strong, and act strong when you are weak."

Twilight grumbles and says, "Stop trying to confuse me!" and returns to reading the book.

He then opens the door and goes outside, then turns around saying, "Much to learn, you have, Grasshopper."

She looks up from the book with a glare and shouts, "Be quiet and go exercise already, I'm trying to understand this confusing book!" and then grumbles at hearing him laughing, which disappears when the door closes with a soft bang.

After John returns from his exercise and a jog around Ponyville, he heads back into Twilight's castle and closes the front door behind him, and says, "Alright Twilight, I'm going to take a shower, eat an MRE, then go to bed. Try not to stay up too late reading, your only going to drive yourself crazy from frustration trying to make sense of that book." then continues toward his room to prepare for his shower.

Twilight mostly ignores what he said and continues reading saying, "Uh-huh...goodnight."

Back in his room, he gathers a fresh pair of socks and underwear, then exits his room. Returning to the bathing room, he reaches into the shower and turns it on, then adjusts the temperature to his liking. After setting his clean clothes on the counter by the sink, John grabs a clean towel then takes his clothes off and tosses them into a pile on the floor. He then steps into the shower after setting the clean towel within reach.

A few minutes ago

After having a miserable trip back, Starlight Glimmer gets off the train from the Crystal Empire on a mission to help arrange a Cultural Exchange Festival to improve relations between Yakyakistan and the Crystal Ponies. She then heads back to Twilight's castle and grumbles quietly about how hard she had to work to make the mission succeed which has left her smelling worse than a sweaty yak rolling in dung.

Almost taking the doors off their hinges, Starlight enters Twilight's castle and sees her reading a book on the friendship table and says, "Well the mission was a success Twilight. Now if you'll EXCUSE ME, I have to go wash up!"

Not really hearing what her pupil just said, Twilight says, "Okay, I hope you had fun."

After returning to her room, she uses her magic to pick up a few brushes and soap. Starlight then quickly makes her way to the Bathing Room where she hears the water already running, and thinks that Spike must have been thoughtful and started the shower for her. The idea brings a smile to her face as she enters the room and shuts the door behind her thinking, 'How very thoughtful of Spike to start the shower for me.'.

In the shower a few moments ago...

Sitting down in the shower, John pours some of the gel onto his head as water drips down the side of his head from his wet hair. He then sets the bottle on a shelf and vigorously works his fingers into his medium-length thick black hair. Working the gel into a thick lather, John continues to wash his hair as some of the soap trails down his face over his eyes.

As she enters the room, she smells a strong, yet sweet scent of mint and rosemary coming from the running shower. She then takes a deep breath to savor the pleasurable scent, then lets out a blissful sigh and starts sliding the curtain back. After pulling it back halfway, she sees something using the shower already. With another whiff, she can tell the scent is coming from the suds on the creature's head and asks, "By Starswirl's Beard, who and what are you!?"

Startled by the sudden question, John is forced to keep his eyes closed due to the suds and replies quickly, "I'm a human being and my rank and name are Sergeant John Winston Benson. Whoever you are, you really smell so either jump in or get out of here and wait your turn."

Starlight's jaw hangs slightly agape at the greeting from the incredibly rude creature, eventually recovering enough to say, "I have never met such a rude creature as you before. W-What are you anyways, some kind of monkey?"

Recalling what Twilight had said about one other pony that lived here, John tries to remember the name while answering, "Ummm...that is an understandable mistake but no, technically we are great apes. Are you just gonna stand there stinking up the room or will you wash it off?"

Growling, Starlight tries to remain cool and replies, "There better be room in there, so keep your paws to yourself, Ape."

Finally remembering the name Twilight said, John says, "Twilight said that she lived with three others, Owlowiscious, Spike, and one other pony named Starlight. I take it that is you, right?"

Fighting back a frustrated scream, Starlight answers, "Yes that is me, now let me in!"

With a twisted smile on his face, John answers, "Alright Stinklight get your rump in here before I change my mind, but do watch your step, I had to sit down just to fit in this ridiculously small shower you ponies use."

With a small frown immediately crossing her face, Starlight yells, "It's Starlight, not Stinklight! How can that be, this is one of the largest ones in Equestria?!"

John then chuckles and replies, "Well what you see now are just my legs, and as you can tell my feet nearly touch the far side. I am sitting up so my rear is against this side over here, I would look at you but unfortunately for me, I have soap suds in my face." Bending his knees and pulling them up toward his chest for the pony to fit, he says, "Okay there should be just enough room for you to fit, just be mindful of where your hooves land or you may either pinch skin, step on me, or seriously hurt me. Oh if you didn't already know, I am a male so try not to stare at my manhood too much."

Blushing furiously at having to bathe with a male, Starlight focuses her eyes on the space where his legs used to be and steps into the combination tub/shower, carefully maneuvering her hooves in front of the legs of John's body. Finding her face so close to his, she finds herself curious about what might be under that mass of foam. She turns her face to the side and stammers saying, "E-Excuse me while I t-try to turn myself around, so don't you dare open your eyes or I will kick you in the head!"

Finally able to wash off the stink from her body, Starlight carefully turns around to face the stream of water coming from the wall. She then grabs some soap and starts to rub it into the side of her neck, working up a nice lather. Putting the bar of soap back, Starlight uses one of her brushes to rub the suds into one side of her neck.

Ready to wash the shampoo out of his hair, he says, "Excuse me, but do you think that you could raise the stream up higher so I can wash my head?"

Starlight then looks up at the shower head and adjusts the angle as high as it will go then says, "That is as far as it will go, if that is not enough for you, you will just have to wait until I'm finished."

John then searches around with his arms to find the stream of water to wash his face off and bumps into a soft coat asking, "Uhm forgive me for touching you but what did I just bump into?"

She then sighs and continues scrubbing her filthy neck saying, "You just bumped into the side of my left flank, the stream is currently hitting my hindquarters. So move your hand up higher and to the right, you should then find it no problem."

Not sure of where she is exactly, he uses his fingers to get an idea of where she is. Reaching further forward, his fingertips land on a soft coat saying, "Forgive me, but I'm trying to figure out exactly where your body is, I'm not trying to be a pervert."

Starlight sets the brush aside and uses her magic to adjust the stream so she can wash the suds off her neck, when she feels a hand bump into and start touching the left side of her barrel. Hearing that he isn't trying anything weird, she huffs in annoyance and says, "That is the left side of my barrel you are touching, I moved the stream down so I can wash the suds off my neck. Give me a moment and I will put it back to where it was."

John then waits for a little bit, then starts to feel some stray droplets strike his hand when he hears her say, "There you go, I moved it back."

As she uses the bar to lather up the right side of her barrel, she hears him thank her and ask her to shift her stance wider so that he can get closer to the stream and says, "Alright, but try not to bump into my hooves or I may slip and hurt you." Starlight then tries to shift her front hooves wider while trying to avoid slipping. Once she is finished, she then grabs her long-handled brush for her tail with her mouth while using her magic to pull her tail to the side of her body so she can brush out the clumps of mud in it saying, "There, now be careful not to bump into my legs, my hooves are on a slippery surface and can slip very easily."

He then puts his hand on the left side of her barrel and runs it back toward him, trying to feel how long her body is when he feels a slight bump saying, "Ok, I'm guessing I'm touching the front side of your left flank right?"

Starlight fights the urge to whack him with the brush and then growls out around the brush in her mouth, "Uh-huh!"

John then runs his hand down the side of it, feeling the muscles lead down to a sturdy limb. He places his fingers around the limb and says, "Okay, this is your back left leg. Now I can feel down to where your hoof is and figure out where my foot is exactly, bear with me just a little bit longer Starlight." He then feels down the inside of her leg to her hoof, then to the floor and back to his foot saying, "Ah ok, my left foot can go straight forward under you without bumping you."

She continues to work out the clumps and sees a foot stick out under her chest, then groans, "Ugh, will you hurry up already?!"

He then reaches out with his right hand and bumps into something soft but firm, and uses his fingertips to feel what he is touching when he feels something like hair touching the back of his hand and sighs nervously saying, "Sorry, but this is your rear right?"

Starlight growls back at him and snorts, "Yes it is, but you are not my special somepony so move your hand or lose it!"

John quickly moves his hand along the side to the right, then slides his fingers down to find her leg. After finding the inside of her right leg, he runs his fingers along the bottom of the tub towards him to find his foot saying, "Alright, now where is my foot...ah there it is." and begins to extend it slowly so he can scoot forward.

She stands there, getting really annoyed with how touchy-feely he is getting when she hears him grunt. She looks back to see that he has a well-toned body that triggers a light shudder to course through her body, also causing her heart to skip a beat. Seeing that he also has a few long scars across his chest and a few smaller ones along his strong upper arms, she watches him slide his body forward as she feels his skin brush against her hooves and looks down beneath herself saying, "Be careful, your upper legs are touching my hooves."

He then nods his head saying, "Okay, sorry bout that...wish I could see." and moves his body a little further ahead when he feels her legs touch the sides of his lower abdomen. Lowering himself back down to the bottom of the tub, he reaches forward to find the stream saying, "Alright, now where is the water at..."

Starlight watches as he sits up straight, his upper body coming to rest against her backside, allowing her to feel his skin against her rear. As he continues to lean forward, she is forced to lean forward as he finally gets his head underneath the stream of water and starts to run his fingers through his hair vigorously.

John feels his cock harden as he continues washing the soap out of his hair, leaning his head forward further to wash the back of his head saying, "Almost done with my hair, then you can return to washing yourself."

As she watches him wash off the suds while blowing a few raspberries to get the soap out of his mouth, she chuckles and says, "Didn't anyone tell you not to talk with your mouth full..." when her back hooves start to slide forward as he shakes his head side to side like a dog, then slip completely and startle her while exclaiming briefly, "WAH!" She then feels her rear fall and slam down on his lap when she feels a sharp pain coming from her marehood, causing her to hiss in pain and then look back to see what happened. What she sees back there robs her of her ability to think and speak as shock and pain overwhelm her.

Last Point Edited

He feels her land on his legs and then leans back out of the stream, shaking his head side to side asking, "You ok, Starlight?" He then feels a tightness and warmth around his cock and gasps, then looks down to see a light pink unicorn mare with moderate persian blue eyes, a moderate purple mane and tail with a light blue streak through them. He shifts his eyes down her back to see that her rear is right up against his abdomen and sighs sadly saying, "Oh fuck..."

Still unable to think of what to do, Starlight feels his member twitch inside her when her eyes shrink to pinpricks and screams to herself inside her head, 'My first time ever is with an ape from Tartarus, what kind of hell-spawned nightmare is this!' She looks ahead and sees blood run into the drain in front of her, then jerks her head back around to get a good look at the face of the human that just claimed her virginity. Having chin-length thick black hair, green eyes, and tanned Caucasian skin, she finds him strangely handsome for a creature she had never seen before.

John lifts his head up and looks into her eyes to see them wide with shock, pain, and fear. Trying to find something to say to apologize for what he did, he places his palms over his eyes with a heavy sigh saying, "Damn it...fuck I'm so very sorry this happened Starlight, I understand if you never want to speak to me and want me to leave."

Starlight's eyes slowly return to normal at hearing that he was seriously sorry for what just happened, and fights past the urge to scream and blast him with her magic then groans and says, "What's done is done, you have taken my first time with this unfortunate accident but I can't force you to leave because you didn't do it intentionally. The only thing to do now is to move forward, now please wash my body off and carefully wash my mane and tail. I have a difficult time getting them really clean."

He then places his hands on either side of her flanks and uses his strength to help her stand back up, ignoring the pleasurable sensation of pulling out of her. John then starts washing her body like she asked and grabs the bar of soap saying, "So uhh...how long did you know Twilight?"

She feels him run the bar of soap over her left side first and adjusts the stream further down to get her barrel wet and says, "Well we didn't get off to the best start when we first met at a small village called Our Town. Twilight and her friends arrived one day and spent some time there, eventually learning about my scheme and ruining my plans before chasing me out of town to regain their cutie marks that I have stolen from them."

John continues washing her body off saying, "So you were a villain then, what happened to make you change?"

Starlight feels him use his fingers to scrub her sides, letting out a sad sigh saying, "Well after Twilight and her friends wrecked my plans, I sought to get revenge on them by using a time spell to interfere with one key moment that led to them earning their cutie marks and eventually becoming friends. Each time Twilight went back in time to stop me, it resulted in a different fate for Equestria. Then after a while, she managed to talk to me and got me to stop. Once we went back, I let things continue their course. A little after that, she took me on as her pupil to teach me the magic of friendship."

He finishes the left side of her body and then moves to scrub the rest of her and smiles saying, "It seems that you are very lucky to have a pony like Twilight to teach you that. Things are much different and even tougher in my world, be glad that you have a peaceful world here that is free from gruesome things like war."

She struggles to stay awake as she feels him scrub along her back and right side, not understanding why it is feeling so nice as her head hangs a little lower and says, "What can you tell me about yourself?"

As John begins telling her what he can remember of his childhood, he sets the bar of soap aside and rinses the suds off of her before moving to scrub the rest of her saying after a while, "After I graduated high school, I signed up with the army and took a few courses in college. After earning a degree in Brewing Science and engineering, I began trying to make my own liquor. After a few years of trial and error, I broadened my horizons and sought a different course in special ops. When I got bored of that, I switched to being a sniper." He then goes quiet as he hears gentle snoring, making him lean to the side to see her head hanging low with her eyes closed and chuckles saying, "I guess you had a long day too, let me finish cleaning you up, then you can hop out and dry yourself off."

Starlight's eyes slowly flutter open as she hears the sound of water hitting her back and remembers she is in the shower, causing her to shake her head and say, "Ugh, I can't believe I fell asleep taking a shower..." She then feels something rubbing her rear and tugging lightly on her tail then gasps and looks behind her to see John rubbing soap onto her rear and into her tail, then asks, "What in Tartarus do you think you are doing?!"

He sighs and then continues cleaning her up saying, "Well I am scrubbing the blood and mud off of your backside, do you have a problem with that?"

She then huffs and narrows her eyes at him with a glare on her face saying, "I am still not happy about you taking my first time, but at least you are cleaning up after taking my virginity."

John loathes himself for the choice he made that led up to the accident and finishes washing out her tail before handing her the bar saying, "Here you go, now you can finish your face and then dry off."

Starlight feels him wash the suds out of her tail and quickly snatches the bar of soap from him saying, "Thank you, I intend to do just that and get out of here then go to bed." She hurriedly starts to scrub her face and foremane, then sets the bar aside and adjusts the stream downward to rinse off. She slaps him across the face harshly with her wet tail before stepping out to start drying herself off, then retreats to her room a few minutes later after gathering her shower supplies.

After returning to her room, she sits down on the bed and starts to brush the tangles out of her mane and tail. Unable to keep herself from thinking back to what happened a little while ago, she slowly starts to sob and lies down on the bed. Burying her face in her forehooves, she breaks down in tears and stops in the middle of brushing out her mane sobbing, "Oh Celestia why did this have to happen to me!"

Feeling like shit for taking her first time with that accident, John cranks up the heat to as hot as it would go to punish himself for what happened. Resuming his now absolutely scalding shower, John continues to wash his body slowly to make the pain last and burn his own skin.

As Twilight heads to her own room, she hears crying coming from Starlight's bedroom. Worried about her, she trots over to the door and gently nudges it open to see her pupil lying on her bed crying and mumbling, "Why me?" She trots over to her pupil with a concerned look on her face and asks, "Was the Cultural Exchange Festival that bad, Starlight?"

Taking a deep breath in between sobs, Starlight says, "The Exchange Festival was a success Twilight, but it wasn't that mission that caused me to cry like this, it was what happened after that mission..."

Twilight gives her a big hug, wrapping her hooves and wings around her to comfort her pupil asking, "Okay then Starlight, tell me, what happened that makes you cry like this?"

Starlight hugs her back and starts her story by saying, "Well it all began when I got off the train." She then tells the story as it happened, not leaving a single detail out. As she reaches the end of her story, Starlight asks, "Did I do something to deserve this?" After a few moments, she looks up at her face to realize that Twilight isn't responding.

Twilight sits on the bed beside Starlight with her face frozen in shock which starts to slowly turn into rage at what happened. As her rage builds up to her limit, she looks toward the door as her vision changes to a slightly red haze and shouts, "HOW IN THE BLAZES OF TARTARUS COULD THIS HAPPEN!!" Madder than she has ever been in a very long time, Twilight hops off the bed and hastily trots off to the Bathing Room to give John a piece of her mind.

As Starlight cries out, "I'm not ready to be a single mother..." Twilight gets a little angrier at John for allowing that to happen to Starlight and stomps down the hall to where John is. When she arrives, she throws open the door but has a hard time seeing through the thick steam in the room, making her start to sweat. A bit of her anger fades away as she feels how uncomfortably hot it is in here, throwing open the curtain and yelling, "John, how could you be so thoughtless, giving her a decision like that!? Don't you have any common decency in that head of yours? She is not ready to be a mother yet, you better hope she doesn't end up pregnant after that, or you WILL be taking care of them both!"

Still feeling the pain from the scalding water, John slowly answers, "I do regret my choice to mess with her like that, I never wanted that to happen. Believe me, I hate myself for creating that situation and am punishing myself for it as we speak." He then takes a breath and then tells her, "She won't get pregnant because in my world humans can only reproduce with each other, not with different species. Aside from that, it takes more effort to bring me to release during intercourse, which means I did not cum inside of her so pregnancy is not a danger."

Stepping closer, Twilight starts to see the form of him sitting in the shower through the thick steam clouds filling the entire room and responds, "Well we will have to find out for sure if you are able to reproduce in this world by running some tests, because things work differently here, John."

As he finishes washing, John turns the water off and reaches over the side of the tub to grab the towel to dry his head off first. The steam continues to block his body from Twilight's eyes and stands up to dry the rest of his body. Starting with his back, he grabs the ends of the towel with one in each hand, bends his arm around, and shifts his hold on the towel before running it across his back. Moving to the front of his body, he quickly dries off his arms and starts on his lower half. He then begins drying off his legs and privates saying, "When do you want to do those tests? It can't be tomorrow because I'm helping Applejack and her family make the Jam." He then wraps the towel around his waist and pushes open the door to let the steam out.

She looks at John through the thick steam as it starts to billow out through the door, finding herself marveling at how toned John is, bringing a thought to her mind and making her blush fiercely. She averts her eyes to keep herself from fantasizing and thinks about when to run the tests saying, "I am not sure, but I will talk to you after I look at my schedule."

John then looks down at the hazy shape of Twilight as the steam continues to roll out the door saying, "Okay then, well if you wouldn't mind, I'd like to wear something besides a towel out of here."

Twilight blushes a little, but nods saying, "Very well then John, I will see you later." She heads towards the door and stops just in front of it then looks back at John, noticing discolored patches of reddish-pink skin all over his arms, torso, and legs. Feeling a bit concerned, she asks, "Are you okay, John?"

Not wanting her to treat his burns, John lies to her saying, "Yes I'm fine, now scoot on out of here so I can get dressed."

Being reassured that he is ok, Twilight exits the room saying, "Alright then, I hope you have a good day tomorrow over at Applejack's." She then walks down the hall and enters Starlight's room, knocking on the open door.

Looking up to the door to see who was knocking, Starlight sees her mentor standing just outside with a smile on her face. She then invites her in saying, "Come on in Twilight, I hope you didn't hurt him too badly over the accident."

Entering the room, she shakes her head and replies, "Oh Celestia no, Starlight I wouldn't hurt him over something that was really just an accident. I did give him a good scolding though, so you know, there is very little chance of you becoming pregnant due to John telling me it takes more of an effort to bring him to release." Sitting at the side of her bed, Twilight comforts her and strikes up a conversation to take her mind off the unfortunate event.

John tosses the towel into the basket with the others and then collects his underwear from the countertop, then tugs them on and collects his dirty underwear and shower supplies then heads towards his room to get some sleep.