Author's Note

Oh Jesus, I had the most terrifying dream last night, so glad that’s over with, anyways hope this chapter is to your liking.

When a character is thinking, it will be in bold lettering

Recon

After grabbing a first aid kit, Joel’s standard issue rifle, and locking the doors so no one could enter, the two pilots entered the forest. Brandon told Mirth to stay behind and watch the chopper. Mirth wanted to argue, but Brandon didn’t want to hear any of it. Seeing she couldn’t win this, she gave up but asked to keep in contact with the two.

The forest was dark and creepy if the two had to sum it up. Brandon and Joel’s rifles were trained in every direction, they had no idea what prowled in these woods and needless to say, none were too excited to know what was out there with them.

“Hey, Brandon.”

Brandon turned his attention to Joel who was shaking a bit, while he walked, clearly uneasy about doing recon in this forest.

“What is it Joel,” he asked.

“You think I should’ve joined the Marine Corps or become an Army Ranger?”

Brandon snickered at Joel’s question. “Be serious, Joel, you know as well as I that you wouldn’t make it past basic.”

Joel just rolled his eyes while scanning his environment, nothing to be seen aside from plants, trees, and rocks. They had carved x marks into the trees so they didn’t lose their way back to the heli. It had been a long time since they had entered the forest and decided on a plan to get a better visual without using the helicopter, they wanted to save fuel just in case they needed it again.

“Okay, you see that tree?” Brandon said while pointing to a tall tree with many branches in a circular area in the forest.

“I need you to climb it and see what you can find and hopefully get the layout of the land we are in, this obviously isn't Iraq nor any other area in the Middle East.”

Joel nodded, looking at the tree before walking over to it and began to climb it, branch by branch. On the ground, Brandon kept watch and decided to call Mirth, he was still on edge about her appearance, but she didn’t seem to want to cause any harm. Brandon couldn’t tell if people were lying but he definitely knew how to root out a good person from a bad person, something the military took a liking to.

He quit being an MP because he longed to fly and he was mainly getting sick of doing patrols or just standing in one place. Paperwork was definitely a bitch whenever he had to do it.

His boss was the main reason he became a warrant officer, he was overly demanding, mean and if you completed something, he’d find a way to mess it up so you would do it all over again.

He wanted more thrills and to actually save lives, something he apparently failed to do today. Ignoring those thoughts, he grabbed his walkie-talkie and pressed the speak button.

“Mirth, do you read, over? After saying that, Mirth’s voice came through the speaker.

“What?” She said, clearly confused.

“I said, do you read, over?”

“Yes I can read, I’m not a baby, what book do you want me to read?”

“No, i said… oh just forget it” said Brandon as he hung up, remembering she was not part of the military, or someone from the land of the living in general.

Just as he hung up, Joel had made his way down to the ground, sweating bullets.

You are damn lucky you got watch duty Mr. former MP, he said before slugging him playfully.

“Help!!!”

The two men snapped to attention at the scream, Brandon recognized the screams as children.

“Are those kids!?” Joel asked.

“What else would they be, dumbass?” Brandon retorted.

“So, do we follow the…” was all Joel could say as he was grabbed by his wrist by Brandon as they barreled through the foliage, not caring if any hungry predator saw them.

They arrived at a rocky ledge that overlooked a rock wall, what they saw below were not humans at all. Three creatures stood on their two legs like humans, the only thing that made them odd was the short equine-like muzzles, yet it more resembled a cat’s muzzle than a horses. They had ears on the top of their heads, one seemed to have fucking wings, another had a horn on its head.

The main threat was certainly the giant lion with bat wings, horns, and a scorpion tail, standing as tall as a god damn Polar bear on all fours that is.

“The fuck is that thing?” Muttered Joel as he took in the spectacle.

“Do you have a plan, boss?”

Brandon thought for a bit, if there were no human kids around here, where were they?

Brandon considered the idea of helping these kids, well, he thought they were kids, the former MP inside him telling him to help, but at the same time, he thought he would just get hell from whatever family or authorities that lived around here.

“Joel, what did you see up there anyways?”

“Is this really the time to be asking me about this?” Joel said, pointing to the soon to be massacre below them.

Answer the damn question, I don’t want to get caught in the act doing this.

“I saw a town pretty far from here, maybe we could give these, uh, kids a ride back.”

Brandon nodded, not like he would allow them to get spotted that easily. He pulled Joel in and told him what to do after that, they silently made their way down. Brandon only hoped that they wouldn’t have to resort to faze two, lethal force.
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Apple Bloom’s POV.

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It was supposed to be a quick trip into the forest to get our Cutie Marks, only to end up lost. To make matters worse, we stumbled upon a hungry manticore, it chased us to a dead end which leaves us trapped with no way of escape.

“Girls, I’m sorry I got y’all into this mess, if Diamond Tiara didn’t tease us so much, maybe we wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place,” cried Apple Bloom.

“Hey, Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon are jerks, they can’t tell us what to do or what to not be,” said Scootaloo, still aware of the approaching manticore.

“Well, that’s good and all, but how are we going to get past our demise?” Sweetie belle Pointed out.

Before the monster could take a swipe at us, a loud whistle came from behind it, causing the beast to turn its attention to whatever made that noise. I thought it might be Applejack as she always whistled like that, but as the monster moved aside, we saw a being wearing heavy clothes and a helmet.

If his face wasn’t flat with no muzzle, I would easily pass him off as a pony in an odd attire. He also had no ears, or maybe they were under his helmet. The manticore seemed pretty upset that he didn’t get to eat as it approached the stallion, or that’s what I think he is.
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Back with Brandon and Joel.

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The beast came closer to Brandon’s position, its huge fangs, the same size as a fucking hippo’s were on full display. Now that he got his attention, he signaled Joel to check on the kids, he had been trying to understand why they have such odd facial features.

He was not trying to be mean or anything, but what would you do if you saw anthropomorphic equines with techno colored fur. The one in the middle had yellow fur, red hair, or mane, with a large pink bow.

The one with stubby wings had orange fur, and a magenta colored mane while the girl with the horn had an elegant white coat with a purple and pink mane. Brandon didn’t know whether to say hair or mane due to their equine and human features.

He nearly avoided a swipe from the cat’s mighty paws, both embedded with grim reaper-like claws. Any closer that hit alone could have decapitated him. He flicked the safety off and set the gun to burst. Avoiding another blow, he fired at the… well, whatever it was, making it roar in pain, but soon that pain turned into anger.

The beast’s tail knocked Brandon over as he fell to the ground. The monster loomed over him, it’s stinger poised to strike. Before it could finish off Brandon, it roared in pain once again and turned around to see Joel with the frightened kids. He held his rifle that was currently trained on the monster’s back. The beast, forgetting Brandon at the moment, charged straight for Joel, who in turn fired at the oncoming lion hybrid.

Brandon had a new plan, he got up and fired a few more rounds at the creature who slammed into Joel. Joel quickly dodged a swipe from the hybrid and climbed onto its back. Joel pulled out his knife from a holder and began to slash the hybrid’s back and neck, hoping to hit something.

While that was happening, Brandon got up off the ground and held his M4 up and continued to fire upon the beast.

The beast didn’t swing its stinger at him, less it wanted to kill or paralyze itself. The hybrid flipped itself over, leaving a stunned and winded Joel on the ground.

Firing a few more rounds at the cat, it turned its attention back towards Brandon and without hesitation, it charged.

“Time to end this,”muttered Brandon as he aimed for the creature's head.

*Click*

Brandon flinched at that dreaded sound. He had used up his entire magazine and he didn’t notice due to the climactic fight. He then found himself flying through the air before hitting his head on a tree. He wasn’t unconscious yet, his vision was blurry but that was not his main concern. The lion hybrid was only inches from him, his rifle was out of his reach on his left. He struggled to go for his M9.

The hybrid brought its head down to his level. Brandon had only one last card to play, something another friend in the Army had given him to fight those bastards. The beast let out an ungodly roar but that didn’t faze Brandon one bit. He reached behind him, pulled a pin on a grenade given to him and chucked it down the beast’s throat. The hybrid began to choke on the device which gave Brandon enough time to make his way back to Joel and the kids.

“Kids, if you can understand what I am saying, close your eyes, you don’t want to see this.”

The girls, or that's what the two humans assumed they were, closed their eyes. The lion hybrid decided to run into the foliage and you could hear a muffled explosion and a loud painful yowl.

“Well, that went better than I thought it would,” said Joel.
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Twilight and the gang, along with two guards were traveling through the forest, the deeper they got, the more unnerving it became. With the two guards, one Stallion and one mare holding spears, crossbows strapped to their hips in a sort of holster, seemed to keep any nearby predators of the forest away. Nothing interesting had happened on their journey, Rainbow Dash and Pinkie pie on the other hand wanted something interesting to happen. The two guards had to shush Pinkie a couple times to not alert any nearby predators in the vicinity.

It had been probably one hour of non stop walking and rarity was hating it.

“Oh please, can we take a tiny break, my legs are killing me, I would usually complain about how dirty this forest is but that’s another story for another time.”

“Doggone it, Rarity, your sister could be in danger!” Yelled Applejack.

Everypony just face palmed themselves at Rarity’s complaining yet continued their trek, leaving Rarity to lay down on a log. Seeing she was alone with all the dangerous wildlife, she made her way back to the group.

The group stopped in their tracks as loud firework-like sounds pierced the silence and ambience of the forest.

“Maybe Apple Bloom brought some of our fireworks and is giving their location to us,” Said a relieved Applejack.

We got no other choice, let’s go, said Twilight.

Before they could move any further, a rotten smell filled the air, it smelled of a dead animal. They looked to their right and saw a sight none wanted to see, the dead carcass of a manticore.

Hearing some voices ahead of the group, they cautiously approached a clearing.
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Back with Brandon and Joel.

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Brandon and Joel had been explaining some things to the CMC, also known as the Cutie Mark Crusaders. To be honest, they were surprised at what answers they got from these fillies.

“Okay, let me get this straight, your species are called ponies, you have different races, and you all live in this world we are now in called Equestria,” said Brandon.

“And there are three Princesses, one raises the sun, another raises the moon, and one has the ability to sense if someone…”

“It’s somepony,” said Apple Bloom, correcting Joel.

“Ooookay, so the Princess of love can tell if somepony has feelings for another, am I correct?” Finished Joel, still looking at the girls.

The three girls nodded.

“Excuse me please.”

Brandon excused himself and walked into the foliage, Joel could hear tons of profanities, just about every word you could think of. Before Brandon could say anything, Joel told the girls to cover their ears.

Joel obviously could tell Brandon was pretty pissed, all he wanted to do was get the previous mission over with and head home back to America.

Joel had family too, but he didn’t see them often. Both him and Brandon were single, and most likely would stay that way until they were done serving.

Brandon came out of the bushes, after recovering from his fit of rage, he had told Mirth everything and he said he would be coming back with three kids.

Okay, kids, we’re going to give you a ride back to your village. Apple Bloom nodded to Sweetie belle and Scootaloo.

“It’s okay girls, they saved us, so I trust them.”

Sweetie Bell and Scootaloo looked at each other and after a few seconds, nodded.

“Alright, let’s get…” Brandon was cut off as the foliage and a few voices approached their position.

“Oh shit, abort plan, abort plan,” whispered Brandon as he and Joel ran up the rocky ledge they had come down from and hid themselves.

Out of the bushes came more ponies as Apple Bloom called her species. One was a lavender unicorn with a dark purple mane, a pink streak running down it, there was a white unicorn as well with a curly purple mane.

The lavender pony wore a plaid vest over a white collared shirt and a skirt along with it.

The others were an orange pony with a blonde mane and a stetson, a cyan Pegasus with a rainbow mane, and another Pegasus with butter yellow fur, and a light pink mane.

The last one was… Brandon didn’t have the words, she was all pink, her hair was poofy, and she was bouncing around. One thought ran through Brandon’s mind.

“I want whatever she is on, looks like she’s having a fucking great time.”

The two others wore armor, and Brandon had to shake his head at the choice of armor. They both wore gold armor, in modern days that would be the last thing anybody would be wearing on the battlefield. Gold was damn heavy and he felt kinda bad for the two. One seemed to be a stallion and the other seemed to be a mare, Both had white fur.

The yellow Anthro pony, which really did describe what they were, was crying, so he decided to listen in on that specific conversation.

“What could have done that to that poor poor manticore,” she said, still crying as the others comforted her.

“Poor manticore? Last time I checked that thing was gonna tear me a new one.”

“Don’t worry Fluttershy, when I find whoever, I’ll teach them a lesson they won’t forget,” said the cyan Pegasus.

“Oh shit, that one's hostile.”

Brandon turned to Joel and told him what the next objective was. “Joel, I will contact Mirth and tell her we are on our way.”

“Those armored ponies won’t be a major problem unless we have to resort to fighting, I’d rather not fight someone in gold armor in any way.”

Joel nodded but his eyes went wide at something that he thought was impossible. Brandon looked to where he was looking and he saw the all pink pony was looking at us and trying to get the other’s attention.

“How the fuck did she see us, we are in perfect cover,” said Brandon as the others took notice of the two camouflaged beings.

The rainbow maned pegasus took an aggressive stance and the two armored ponies took a defensive stance, that was all the two pilots needed as they dashed for the chopper.

They ran through the forest as fast as a jungle cat, they could hear shouts and oddly the sound of wing beats.

Looking behind him, Brandon saw that the cyan pegasus was gaining on them, yet each turn slowed her down due to the dense woods. The two pilots had the advantage but that was all lost as Brandon tripped over a root sticking out of the ground.

“Brandon!” Yelled Joel.

His leg hurt like hell and he may have twisted his ankle. Joel went back to him but Brandon pushed him away.

“Don’t help me Joel, I will lead them away, if you escape, try to find me in that town, use my walkie talkie to contact me, now go!”

Joel nodded and took off towards the helicopter, passing the marked trees. Brandon got up slowly, using his rifle to balance himself. He switched the rifle’s safety off and headed in the opposite direction but didn’t get far as a powerful blow to the back sent him flying into a tree and knocked him out.
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Joel’s POV.

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I burst through the trees and saw the helicopter, my ticket out of here. Sitting next to the cargo door facing me was Mirth, sleeping but woke up when I approached her. She looked around and I knew who she was looking for.

“Where’s Brandon?”

“He’s leading a group that was chasing us away, he twisted his leg and I don’t think he made it out of there in that condition.”

“What! We have to go back for him,” she yelled accusingly at me.

“I think he has a plan, but he wants us to find another place to hide and then we will fly over to the town we saw.”

Mirth gave me a deadpan stare but lost it quickly as she went to jump into the helicopter. I did the same, stowing my rifle before getting into my seat. I noticed some of the overhead panel switches were not in the right position, most likely due to Brandon while I was unconscious, so I corrected their positions. Within a few minutes the chopper started up as I waited for the rotors to reach full power, which would take some time.

After a while of thinking about what Brandon had said, I slapped my face remembering we marked the trees so we could find our way back, that also meant the ponies could too. I checked the dashboard and thankfully the rotors were at full speed, the. Heli was ready for takeoff.

I grabbed the thrust lever as the helicopter slowly lifted off the ground, but then the helicopter was stuck in place, a blue glow engulfing the controls and everything around me, aside from Mirth. no matter how many times I tried to give lift to the chopper, it wouldn’t budge.

“Mirth, I need you to open the back door, grab a rifle, and see what’s going on down there!”

She nodded and hopped over various supplies and medical beds, picking up a rifle. Thankfully she knew how to use a gun, and opened the left side door.

I heard some gunfire but stopped after a while. Mirth came back to her seat, buckled in and sat down. I was able to move the heli again and we moved out of the area.

“Care to tell me what you did back there?” I asked with a suspicious look.

“Oh don’t worry, it was those ponies so I just sprayed a couple rounds to scare them off.”

I shook my head in annoyance, me and her were acquaintances to say the least. I hope negotiations weren’t thrown out the window, yet we could pretend this never happened if we were caught, couldn’t we?