You Are Never Out Of The Fight

“Where in god's name am I?!”

I shouted out at the ‘people’ present within the room.

“You are currently in the Ponyville Hospital at the moment.”

The nurse answered. Upon closer inspection of her, I noticed that she had white fur all over her body and she had her pink hair up in a bun as well.

I then closed my eyes and took a deep breath,

“I don’t remember how I got here.”

I said to everyone while pinching the bridge of my nose, trying in vain to quell the migraine that was threatening to split my head in two.

The doctor cleared his throat and adjusted his glasses to sit better upon his muzzle before saying,

“Miss Fluttershy found you in the Everfree forest. If not for her, you surely would have succumbed to your injuries and died.”

This caused me to open my eyes suddenly,

“I remember it now!”

I said in realization, I then threw the sheets off of my bed and saw that both of my legs were wrapped in a thick layer of bandages.

The doctor cleared his throat again,

“As you can see, we had to deal with the injuries that you had sustained on your legs as well as the rest of your body.”

This caused me to give my body a once over. Upon examining both my arms, I found to my relief that all of my fingers were present. My right arm was wrapped in a thick layer of bandages and my left arm had stitches running down the front of my forearm as well.

As I continued to inspect my left appendage, I flexed my left hand only to be met with a stinging pain.

“Fuck me.”

I said through gritted teeth,

“As you can tell, your left arm needs some time to appropriately heal.”

The doctor said to me, I then looked at him with an annoyed expression and said,

“Who are you exactly?”

The doctor adjusted his tie and said,

“I am Doctor Cloud and I am the head practitioner here at Ponyville Hospital.”

I then took in a deep breath and coughed violently into my left hand. After gaining my composure back I looked back at Doctor Cloud,

“What the fuck is this, some kind of fairytail bullshit?”

I chuckled slightly at this,

“Hell, if this is supposed to be heaven...God played a cruel joke on me.”

As I said this, I leaned back into my hospital bed and stared up at the white ceiling that greeted my view.

“I can assure you sir that this is reality.”

Doctor Cloud said to me in a matter of fact tone,

“If I may ask, what caused you to endure such wounds on your body?”

This comment of his made me clench my left hand and look at the doctor with a blank expression,

“Oh, you know...A firefight.”

Before the doctor could get another word in I continued,

“Me and my brothers continuously being chased down by insurgents in the mountains of Afghanistan.”

I said through gritted teeth.

“Killing dozens of them, all while getting pushed further and further down the mountain.”

As I continued to speak, Doctor Cloud and the nurse present started to look worried,

“Having bullets tear at your flesh, but telling yourself that your brothers are going through the same pain...Knowing that no matter how many times you fall off a cliff and smack into rocks and trees while being chased, that you can’t give up...Because giving up means death.”

As I said this tears began rolling down my cheeks,

“Watching helplessly as your closest friends that you’ve known over the years die right in front of your eyes one by one.”

At this comment the nurse that was in the room covered her mouth in shock and walked out of the room. Doctor Cloud lowered his head and walked towards the rooms door,

“Your majesties, he’s conscious.”

And without another word Doctor Cloud left the room in silence. As I tried to regain my composure, two new faces walked into the room. One was probably about six foot six and had a pure white coat, with a golden crown adorning her head. She also had multicolored hair that blew in a nonexistent breeze, she was probably the most beautiful creature I had ever seen in my twenty eight years of life.

Her elegant white dress, her magenta eyes and her kind smile made me feel warm inside, almost as if I were right at home. As I moved my gaze from her to the second creature present, I internally gasped at the sight that was before me.

She almost made the other one look mediocre. She stood at about six foot three and had a midnight blue coat of fur that covered her body from head to toe and she was also wearing a crown as well, only instead of being gold it was jet black and so was the rest of her regalia. She had hair that looked like the night sky and it blew in a nonexistent breeze as well.

As both of our eyes met, I averted my gaze to the foot of my bed and waited for the two to speak.

“Hello. My name is Princess Celestia.”

The white one said,

“And my name is Princess Luna.”

Said the other one.

“My name is Isaac Bowen.”

I said to them in a stoic manner,

“Charmed.”

Luna said with a wide grin upon her muzzle.

“May I ask who and what you are?”

I said to the two, which made them glance at one another in a confused manner. Celestia cleared her throat politely,

“My sister and I.”

She gestured towards Luna,

“Are ponies and we are also the rulers of Equestria.”

She finished with a kind smile. I scratched at my beard before saying,

“Equestria...Can’t say that I’ve heard of it before.”

Celestia frowned slightly.

“I would imagine so, considering that you are not from this realm.”

My eyes widened to the size of dinner plates at her comment, I then looked at both of them before laughing really hard. This made the two sisters look at me with different levels of worried expressions.

“So, you mean to tell me that I’m in some fairytale type of bullshit right now?”

I said before swinging my feet over the side of my bed.

“Thanks for your hospitality, but I need to talk to Headquarters or get stateside again.”

Luna ran over to me and put her hands on my shoulders,

“We recommend that you do not move from this bed. Not until you are healed properly.”

I looked up at her with anger in my eyes and shouted,

“Let me go now!”

I forced her hands off of me and stood up shakily, much to the surprise of them both.

“By the sun.”

Celestia said,

“You shouldn’t even be able to walk right now.”

I looked back up at her and said through gritted teeth.

“I’m a fuckin’ frogman. We don’t give up.”

Celestia looked at me shocked but confused at the same time. I ignored both of them and hobbled my way towards the door, only to have my hospital gown get caught on an i.v. stand causing me to fall on the ground. Behind me, I heard Luna gasp as she made her way over to me.

“Why are you doing this to yourself?”

She said with what sounded like a tremble to her tone. I ignored her yet again and began to crawl towards the door, leaving a long streak of blood on the floor behind me in the process.

Before I could fully make it out of the room, my body was engulfed by a golden aura and I was suspended in the air.

“What the fuck is happening to me?!”

I shouted out in response to the sensation of being lifted into the air by nothing. I was abruptly flipped around, only to be met with the stern gaze of Celestia herself,

“You are not going anywhere, Isaac.”

I immediately shut my mouth,

“I feel like I’m being scolded by my mother right now.”

I said to myself. Celestia moved out of the way and I found myself floating across the room and back into my bed.

As I was placed upon my bed, the sheets were lifted up by the same unknown aura and placed upon my body.

“Honestly, you need to rest and recover.”

Celestia said to me as she folded her arms across her chest in a scolding manner.

“I’m sorry Celestia, but for the first time in a long time I feel out of my element at the moment.”

Her expression softened at my remark,

“I understand, but could you tell my sister and I about yourself?”

Luna nodded at her sister's question and returned to gazing at me.

I sighed at her question,

“I guess it would be the polite thing to do.”

I sat up in my hospital bed and got as comfortable as I could before continuing the conversation,

“My name is Isaac Bowen and I am a Chief Petty Officer in the United States Navy.”

Celestia spoke up this time,

“We figured that you were a soldier, considering the attire and gear that you were wearing when you arrived.”

Luna then chimed in,

“Are you a sailor then?”

I chuckled at her question,

“Not necessarily. I am a part of a Special Operations force known as the Navy SEALs.”

Celestia and Luna looked confused at my statement,

“What exactly is a SEAL...You don’t look like a seal after all.”

Celestia said.

This caused me to burst out laughing, making her blush in embarrassment. After getting my laughter under control I continued,

“SEAL stands for Navy Sea, Air and Land Teams, which basically means that I am conditioned to fight in the air, land and sea.”

Luna slightly blushed at my comment before saying,

“So you are a warrior then?”

I scratched my chin,

“Yes, but I am an elite warrior. Less than twenty percent pass SEAL training.”

Celestia then said,

“So what does one of your expertise do exactly?”

I cleared my throat,

“Typically a SEAL specializes in covert and surveillance operations. In my line of work SEALs are in close-knit teams, ranging from four to six members per team.”

Luna’s eyes widened at this,

“How is this possible?!”

I smiled at her antics and said.

“Because SEALs are the very best Special Operations group in the entire United States Military, if I dare say the entire world.”

Celestia looked amazed by this and said,

“Why were you in bad shape when you arrived here?”

I frowned slightly,

“Me and my team were doing an operation and got compromised. It was four of us against an entire army of insurgents in the mountains of Afghanistan.”

Luna put her hand on mine and said,

“Where are your other team mates? Surely they would have arrived with you as well.”

After she said this I looked down and stared off into nothing. After a few minutes of silence I managed to choke out my next words,

“They all died up on that mountain. Didn’t matter how many enemies we took out, more and more just came.”

Luna gasped in shock at this and moved to hug me, the warmth that she provided made me smile weakly.

As Luna removed herself from me, she sat at my bedside,

“What were their names?”

Celestia said.

“Lieutenant Morris Woodson, Petty Officer First Class Jacob Ford and Petty Officer Second Class Andy Schultz.”

I felt more tears rolling down my cheeks,

“God this is the most I have cried in my entire life.”

I chuckled weakly,

“It’s okay to let your emotions show themselves, Isaac.”

Celestia said in a motherly tone. I smiled at her with tears continuing to roll down my cheeks,

“Thank you for understanding, Celestia.”

She nodded and smiled warmly at me in response. Before I could say anything else, I lurched forward in my bed and vomited up blood. It sounded like Celestia and Luna were trying to say something to me, but I couldn’t hear anything.

The last thing I saw before succumbing to darkness was Luna’s beautiful blue eyes crying while looking at me.

“Why is she crying?”