Chapter 5:
Journey

The moment the sun's first rays lit up the horizon I woke Twilight and Dash again, having used my second watch to adjust the length of both the pants to fit the two ponies. I’d also give Twilight my second jacket so most of her fur would be covered up so that’d she'd be hidden away much better than she’d been before. The same was true for Dash as she wore the shirt, pants and ghillie scarf around her neck. Me myself was wearing the adjusted ghillie suit, something that greatly amused Rainbow for some reason.

“So, we have already passed the arctic strait on the train… That’s good,” I said as Twilight had made a little sketch of Equestria’s map, having marked a spot on the top right of it to indicate where we were. We'd briefly gone over where to go the day before but now would go into a bit more detail.

“Manehattan lies to the south of us on the coast, but on hoof that’d be two, maybe three, days,” Twilight continued, then pointing at another spot to the west. “Then we have Rainbow Falls here, it’s closer but the ground is mainly open hills and some mountains.”

“That’s something we can’t risk. Depending on how persistent this group is they’ll have patrols over that place and we won’t have anywhere to hide,” I pointed out. "Can you two eat local plants? We don't have a lot of food and I don't think I can stomach grass and flowers.”

Twilight gagged in response, while Rainbow merely looked disgusted. "Jack that's-"

"Yeah, we can do that," Rainbow cut Twilight off with a wing over the unicorn's mouth.

Note to self, ponies do not like to eat wild plants. Though not that we have much choice right now...

“I guess we’re wasting time then, aren’t we?” Twilight said, looking slightly nauseous as she strapped on her saddlebag which had some of the items from my backpack in it to lighten my load.

“We are. I’ll take the lead, you two follow single file behind me and stay sharp, try to avoid making too much sound.” Pushing my rifle onto my back I started moving into the forest.

Birds chirped all around us as we walked through the bush, avoiding clearings and open fields as we carefully made our way south. The two ponies held up pretty well, considering everything that had happened the previous day, remaining silent throughout the morning. Though that didn’t last forever as we found a little creek to refill our water and take some time to apply my camo on the pony's faces, hair, and for Rainbow her wings.

“So you really do this for a living?” Rainbow asked as I used the green camo I had to colour her face.

“Pretty much. It’s tough work which takes a lot of harsh training but it really teaches you a lot about yourself,” I answered, as I moved over to her ears and made them green as well. “What is your job if I may ask?”

Rainbow smirked, “I’m Ponyville’s weather manager, I can clear the sky in ten seconds flat!” she bragged. “I’m also training to become part of the Wonderbolts.”

Chuckling in response I got some brown camo and started painting a three-stripe pattern on her face. “And what might those be? I take it they’re like a flight team or something?”

“That’s right, the best of the best!” She exclaimed, grinning widely.

“Good luck with that, sounds like a tough team to become a part of,” I chuckled, giving her a pat on the shoulder while fishing a small mirror out of my pocket and showing Dash her own face.

“Whoa, that’s awesome. I look like a completely different pony,” Dash gawked as she took a few poses.

“It should help you blend in even more.” Turning to Twilight I got more of the camo and started working on her face as well. “So you work for your princess, what is your exact job? A researcher?”

“Well, sort of. I normally work as a librarian but I do write theses on theoretical magics and have developed advancements in several magic fields.”

“Sounds interesting but I’m afraid I would not understand much of it without a lot of explanation,” I chuckled, swiftly covering her in camo.

“So, if you don’t mind me asking, what would have happened if we had appeared in your world instead of ours?” Twilight asked speculatively.

“Well, that would have depended on if you’d have changed into a human or stayed as ponies,” I answered, taking a few seconds to think through all possible consequences. “As a human, you’d probably be placed into a mental institution if you claimed to come from another world but as a pony, the results would probably span from being dissected for research to having someone walk you around on a leash.”

“What?!” Dash exclaimed as I finished my thought, looking back at the pegasus as she was sitting on her butt with her wings extended.

“Well, I’m sure there are good people out there but most will probably panic,” I amended, Rainbow still sitting down but now desperately trying to avoid eye contact and pawing the ground.

Wait what did I... Oh dear lord, she’s into that stuff.

I couldn’t help but start snickering, quickly devolving into laughter as I fell onto my side. The flustered look of horror on Dash’s face only fueled my mirth further.

“Uhm, what’s going on?” Twilight asked, completely oblivious to why I was laughing.

Getting off the ground, I slid up next to Dash, and wrapped my wing around her, pulling her close and whispered into her ear. “Don’t worry Dash, I’ll take you out for walkies if you want to.”

Smack

Rainbow’s hoof smashed into my beak, making me stagger slightly but other than a nasty sting it did nothing to dampen my mood.

“Rainbow!” Twilight exclaimed aghast that Dash would do such a thing.

“Calm down Rainbow, just stepping on your toes... hooves... annoying you,” I snickered, giving her a nudge on the shoulder and making a suggestive purring sound before returning to camouflaging Twilight’s face.

“I still have no clue what the two of you were talking about…” Twilight whined while Rainbow tried to disappear into the ground.

“Let it go Twilight, Rainbow is entitled to her private life too.” Twilight shot an annoyed look towards me but dropped the subject. Glancing back at Rainbow I caught her staring but quickly averted her gaze. Deciding to give her some space, I swallowed a verbal jab and focussed on Twilight’s camouflage.

“There, much better.” Stepping back I passed Twilight the little mirror to her and allowed her to look.

“I think I can see the merit in covering our colour like this, though I have to ask, did you just randomly put those stripes on or is there a system?” Twilight asked as she thoroughly inspected my work.

“I tried to hit the spots that protrude out like your nose because those naturally will be brighter due to light fall, by making them dark and leaving the rest of your face light it breaks up your features,” I explained, storing away my depleted box of camo.

“That’s interesting…” Twilight said absentmindedly as she passed back the little mirror. “Anyway, I take it we’re going to be on the move again?”

I nodded, filling up my canteen with water. “Make sure you drink your fill, you never know when you can refill and drink again.”

The two ponies nodded and took the time to drink up while I packed and got my backpack back on. After they were done I got our bearings again, I and my two self-appointed charges moved back into the thick forest. My stomach ached as I'd rationed the food we had left to last three days, which sucked. Rainbow and Twilight had been able to eat some grass and flowers back at the creek and were better filled than me.

This remained the case for the rest of the day as we made our way through the woods. I tried to see if any of the critters would come close so I could catch one but none did. My stomach growled as we set up camp for the evening again, dividing the watch into three this time, allowing me to get the first two watches to sleep before waking me to take the final one for another uneventful night.

Rainbow and Twilight ate some more local flora as I stashed the sleeping bag into my backpack again, watching the two ponies eat.

“Are you okay, Jack?” Twilight asked as she noticed me observing them.

“I’m good,” I answered with a lie, sleep deprivation and the low amount of food getting to me but not wanting to burden them with my troubles. Twilight looked concerned at me for a moment but didn’t press the issue.

After dividing up our water we headed south again, hoping to find Manehattan soon. Our pace, compared to the one we’d held the days before, had slowed down considerably as none of us had the amounts of energy we'd started with. Twilight and Rainbow had a couple of hushed conversations which I didn’t participate in as we made our way through the brush.

“Hey, look at that!” Dash exclaimed as we passed a little open spot on a hill, my gaze immediately following Dash’s pointed hoof out at the horizon where we could see towers shooting into the sky. I smiled and wanted to reply but then noticed a couple of dots in the sky.

“Down!” I said in a hushed but harsh tone as two griffins flew through the sky. I immediately hit the deck behind a bush, Rainbow jumped next to me and Twilight behind her again. Not a leaf moved as we held our breaths, wind rustling the leaves of the trees as the griffins passed way too close for comfort. We remained still for a good five more minutes after they passed before getting up and finding a more secure space under the brush.

“That was close…” Twilight said, her ears twitching in all directions as she attempted to pick up any sound.

“If they’re here then we’re going to run into more of them, we need to move fast because I don’t want to stop for the night if they’re actively searching for us,” I growled.

My body ached and whined at every step as it was tired from abuse, but that wasn’t going to slow me down as I led Twilight and Rainbow through the woods. Both ponies were deathly quiet and constantly observing their surroundings, adrenaline still up from the previous near encounter. It wasn’t long before we had to hide from another patrol going overhead, waiting for them to leave again. I was pretty sure that if Twilight and Dash hadn’t been camouflaged I’d probably have been shooting at griffins by that point.

“We’re not going to make it to the city at this rate,” Twilight observed silently as we lay in wait.

“No matter, we need to get there regardless. No going back.”

"You don't get it, there's farmland outside the city, no cover for a good long bit."

"Well... shit. Still no going back, we'll figure something out." The cycle of hiding repeated itself for a third time before we reached the aforementioned open farm fields that stretched all the way to the city itself.

“This is really a problem,” I grunted, having taken my sniper rifle off of my backpack to scope out the field and air, finding a whole bunch of armed griffins flying around.

“They’re taking a big risk being this close to the city itself,” Twilight said with astonishment in her voice. “Why would they risk the guard coming out to confront them?”

“It’s because they needed to reduce their search area,” I answered, noticing a glint of light coming off of something and aiming my sniper rifle to see what it was. “The forest was an area way too large for them to cover with too many places to hide so since they probably figured where we were going, they set up as close as they dared in a place where they could have a good view of the surrounding area… shit.”

“What’s wrong?” Dash asked, concerned at my swear as I started calculating a firing solution in my head.

“Four pegasi, approximately… half a click, near that farmhouse. Gleaming gold armour. Are they your guards?”

“That sounds like Celestia’s personal guard, yes,” Twilight said with an undertone of concern. “Jack, what are you seeing?”

"Twilight, Rainbow, get back into the forest and hide in the bushes some way away from here," I said authoritatively, laying down between the brush so I'd blend in with my gilly suit.

"Jack-"

"NOW."

Rainbow immediately held her mouth and stepped back into the brush while I returned to looking through my scope. I lowered my heart rate with breathing techniques and placed my crosshair on one of the griffins surrounding the small guard group. A flare shot straight up into the air from one of the pegasi guards as they were attacked.

CRACK!

The sniper rifle gave an immensely loud report as it slung the bullet at supersonic speed towards its target while I hawkishly followed the bullet’s trajectory, it was clear that I was going to miss the first shot. Cycling the weapon I took aim again at the now brawling mix of ponies and griffins. The second round coursed perfectly to one of the assailing griffins and hit its body, evening the odds for four guards as they weren't as outnumbered as they'd been before. The third shot from my rifle tipped those odds into the guards' favour as they quickly dispatched the rest of the griffins.

“JACK!” Rainbow shouted from behind me, making me turn around to see the two ponies running my direction with two griffins after them. Not hesitating a second I left my sniper rifle on its bipod and jumped up with my assault rifle, the two chasing creatures halted in surprise as hadn't seen me laying there.

"Hello chaps, mind dropping those pointy sticks and fucking off?" I said, the two griffins looked at each other briefly before charging me.

Damnit.

Crack!
Crack!

The two half birds crashed into me, one wasn't moving anymore but the second was still breathing. The griffin grunted in pain but got a hold of the barrel of my rifle. Rolling over the floor I reached into my tactical vest, pulled out my combat knife, and stabbed him in the throat. Rainbow and Twilight looked on in horror as I pushed the corpse off me.

“Back into the forest for cover! GO!” I ordered again as I could see more griffins diving down from above. A rogue arrow then came through the canopy, striking me from above in my back near the right shoulder.

In a cry of pain I stumbled, getting my bearings quickly as adrenaline dulled the pain and sharpened other senses. Raising my rifle I returned fire through the canopy. Twilight immediately followed the order but Dash hesitated as I struggled to get my assault rifle into the air to fire at the incoming hostiles, getting only a couple of inaccurate shots off.

“Come on!” Dash shouted as another arrow struck me in the centre of my chest, luckily bouncing off of the ballistic plate inserted in my vest.

“I SAID GET INTO COVER!” I roared, firing a full-auto burst up at the griffins, downing one of them before limping deeper into the forest. Getting my remaining smoke and tossing it behind me. I tried to run but not before getting hit in the leg with an arrow which passed straight through. Shrieking in pain again I dropped to the ground, crawling to a tree for some shielding before firing the rest of my magazine at the griffins.

One of the newly arriving griffins had landed right outside of the smoke cloud and charged. Without time to reload, I pulled my pistol and fired shots at him until he stopped moving. Looking at where Dash and Twilight had disappeared in the brush I was glad to see the two ponies had run off as I reloaded and scanned the smoke for more griffins to appear.

“What’s wrong? You all scared?” I taunted, an arrow suddenly coming through the smoke and glancing off the side of my helmet. My reply, a burst of automatic fire in the direction from where it came, only being rewarded by more arrows flying in my direction, one of which hit my right shoulder again but piercing deeper this time and going into the side of my chest.

With a ragged breath I leaned against that tree, hearing squawks and shouts coming from the griffins on the other side of the smoke followed by the clashing of metal. Behind me, I could hear the faint ruffling of leaves. Sluggishly swerving my rifle around I found two wide-eyed camouflaged ponies poking a little too far out of a bush.

“I… told you to… go…” I grunted at them while coughing up blood and getting back onto my legs, looking through the dissipating smoke to find a larger group of gold armoured guards engaged with the group of griffins that were desperately fighting back and trying to flee. Not having the strength in my busted up arm to use my rifle, I got my pistol and started firing shots to help the guard out.

“Jack, stop!” Dash shot forward as I collapsed again, having no clue what to do after finding half my side bloodied, only seeing the arrows stuck in my shoulder and pulled one out. I Cried in pain as Dash held her hooves over the wound, trying to stop the increased bleeding.

Gritting my beak, I raised my pistol a final time and sent a few shots into a griffin standing over the guard he’d managed to get onto the ground. The avian's corpse dropping right onto the pony he was about to skewer. The fight lasted only a short while longer before the griffins had either fled, had been captured, or killed. The guard then switched their focus on Dash, Twilight, and me.

“Twilight Sparkle? Rainbow Dash?” The two ponies nodded while trying to stop my bleeding. “I’m Lieutenant Steel Thunder, I need you to-”

“Need to what?” Dash snapped at the Lieutenant, “He needs treatment!”

The guard looked down at me for a moment and frowned. He grunted something about civilians and rolled his eyes and turned to his fellow guards

“Medic!”

Author's Note

I adjusted this chapter quite a bit, give me a shout when you find something wrong with it.

Remember that comments are like authors' food, we gain energy from them. Constructive criticism is welcome.