From War to Peace

First Contact
Ever free Forest, Equestria
6:30 A.M.

The first thing to register for me was cold. I snapped to attention and groaned as waves of electric pain surged through my sore body. Groaning, I looked around in my drop pod, grimly noting that if I ever let anybody adjust the drop trajectory ever again, it had better be for a pretty damn important reason. I popped the hatch to my pod and stepped out and stretched. “Well, that was painful,” I muttered to myself as I rubbed my back. I observed my environment. The early morning sunlight was shining through the trees of the thick forest. Various trees and flora ranged from small coniferous shrubs to what could be described as giant Redwoods covered in hard bark. I looked at the tree to notice a scar; chunks of wood and bark were removed from the pod’s impact. A frown creased on my face as memories from last night’s drop flooded my mind.

1:30 am Last night

“Mike, turn left, turn left.” Said Matt with an urgent voice as I tried to control the pod's descent. My hands flew over the control panel.

“Yeah, I’m trying, but the controls are locked up,” I yelled as I tried to move the now locked up controls.

Lane stood up and checked the computer terminal on the table. Contorting his face in conflict, Lane began to explain,” Well, the good news is that you are currently heading for a forest, the bad news is that your current descent vector is too steep, you’re gonna have to bounce off some trees to decelerate.” Lane continues to calculate the specific odds and trajectories.

I noticed Gunny tap Blake on the back of the head and began to complain. “Dammit, Blake, I told you not to change the trajectory. It was fine, to begin with.”

Blake simply shrugged and grabbed some more chips and drawled a simple “He’s been through worse.”

I looked out the fire-engulfed canopy to notice that I was quickly approaching the trees, “Well, here comes the fun part.” I said to myself in a sarcastic tone. The thruster kicked in, trying to slow down the pod. I braced myself expecting the worst.
Present time

I sighed as I looked at the beaten up pod. It had bounced off a couple of trees and slid several yards before stopping completely. “God, it’s like the New Mombasa slip-space event all over again,” I said quietly jokingly to myself. I reached in the pod and retrieved my rouge helmet, I looked into the reflective visor before putting it on, and then I reached in and grabbed my weapons. I holstered my pistol, then grabbed my assault rifle and loading it with explosive rounds.

“Hey Mike, you there? Mike?” Matt’s voice cracked over the comms, and then Wolffe chimed in.

“Nah, man, I think he’s seriously hurt… We should get some help.” I smacked the side of the helmet, causing their video feed to clear up.

“Oh, quit your whining, guys. I’m fine, and next time you change the trajectory during a drop… my fist and somebody's nose are gonna have an argument,” I said jokingly. I pulled the video feed from the camera they set up in the barracks on my HUD. I saw money exchange hands as Lane looked rather smug. I sighed in hopes that they weren't betting on my survival odds.

"Ya had us worried there for a second; five hours silence, we were sure the pod crash had killed ya," I heard Blake drawl as he walked into the barracks, some plates of breakfast in hand. Blake smiled as he sat down on his bunk and drawled out with a mouth full of cereal.

"Herll, wer just bout ready… to draw straws as to who would go tell Del Rio." Blake smiled and blew a bit of his messy auburn hair from his face, green eyes sparkling with mischief. Rolling my eyes and sighing in resignation, I pulled the action back on my assault rifle and let it go making a metallic clank, then focused on the nav point on my HUD.

I strolled through the thick forest listening to the birds' chirps and the crunching of leaves as I walked. Looking around at the beautiful scenery, I glanced at my motion sensor and noticed three unknowns at about twenty-five meters out. Deciding to play the caution route, I activated my active camo and walked quietly over to them. As I got closer, I ducked behind a fallen tree.

Peeking my head over the log, I spotted a few of these strange wolf-like creatures; they were dark in color, jagged in shape, and had sharp green piercing eyes.

“That’s new,” I muttered to myself, deciding that now would be a good time for a tactical retreat. Trying to move away quietly and not attract attention, I got up but stepped on a twig causing it to snap. One of the creatures let out a spine chilling howl, and the pack began to stalk towards me, malice in their eyes.

At this point, I heard Gunny laugh and smartly quipped, "Well, Mike, making friends already, I see."

From somewhere in the background, I heard a very light but forceful, "SHOOT IT IN DA FACE!" I sighed and shook my head, "Guess Brayden is awake now." I muttered in entertainment.

Rolling my shoulders, I drew my Assault Rifle, “Well, no need to hide now.” I said dryly. Taking aim, I quickly dispatched each creature as they charged. A few assault rifle bursts later, I slung my rifle and walked up to the corpses to find a rather peculiar find. Upon being shot, these wolves had splintered and shattered like wood. My curiosity now peaked. I kneeled down next to the remains and examined them. "Well, what in the hell?" I muttered with a shocked voice. Their remains contained no blood, no organs, no muscle structure, nothing even remotely flesh and blood organic in nature whatsoever.

“Well, I have been on my fair share of forerunner installations, and not one thing can compare to this.” Lane said with a confused look on his face.

"How is that even possible?" Wolffe asked, shock evident in his words as his medical background told him this had to be a lie.

"Nothing we've ever encountered has had a body structure like this; it's almost like they're held together by magic?!” At this point, I figured if I stuck around much longer, Wolffe might have a coronary, so shrugging, I stood up, “Yeah, well, maybe we can capture them and examine them later… if Del Rio will allow us to set up a research station.” I said, reassuring him as I walked off.

Eventually, I got closer to the waypoint placed on my HUD, reaching the edge of the woods. Looking out across the wide-open fields, I noticed a small town in the distance. Knelling down, I brought up the zoom function of my helmet and examined the town closely. As the zoom cleared up, I eventually discovered what the town's inhabitants were, "Oh, you have got to be fucking…" I slowly spoke, Matt finishing my thoughts.

"Are those horses… WITH HORNS!?" he questioned, incredulously creeping in on his voice as he sat on his bunk, his empty plate falling to the floor.

Lane jumped up and tried to get a closer look, "Oh wow, that's different… kind of makes sense, what with the planet mostly being wide open fields… but still, so exciting!" Lane practically squealed in joy.

Rolling my eyes and trying to retain my sanity, I began the long march towards the village. Weaving through fields of grass and alcoves of trees, I finally reached the outskirts of the village to see a unicorn standing next to a smaller horse that was trying to move a large boulder off the path.

"Lovely, Mike, do try and avoid the natives." Drawled Blake as Gunny collected the plates and headed back to the Mess hall. "Lord only knows wh- OH MY GOD!" Blake yelled as we all gasped in awe at the unicorn.

The unicorn's horn began to glow a vibrant blue, as did the boulder as it began to float into the air. The unicorn flocked its head to the side, and the boulder came flying straight at me. Shaking out of my revere, I dropped to the ground as the boulder whizzed past me, only inches above my head, and into the field behind me where it landed with an earth-shaking thud and rolled for several feet before stopping. The unicorn, looking rather smug, nodded to the little horse, and both proceeded to canter into town.

I lay there in the tall grass and tried to control my rampaging heartbeat. Judging from the silence over my comms the channel, I'm pretty sure Matt crawled in a corner and died a little after watching the event. Lane was astonished at this as he stared at the video feed. “Did you guys…” I managed to stutter as I tried to stay as low in the grass as humanly possible.

"Just see that? Yes.” Said Lane jubilantly as he interrupted me, grinning ear from to ear; he stood up and fist pumped, “THIS IS FREAKING INCREDIBLE!” Lane yelled; apparently, Lane's jubilant yells were enough to shock Matt out of his catatonic state, and in a flurry of motion, Matt crawled back into view and sat there looking at Lane like he was crazy.

“No offense Lane but that one lifted a rock…. WITH IT’S MIND." Matt yelled, shaking his hands around in a rather comical manner, "I think if Mike just wandered into the town, they would more than likely just rip him apart. Can you imagine what telekinesis will do to flesh and bone?” Matt continued with his rant.

Fighting my nerves down, I turned on active camo and crept closer to town, keeping close to cover. “Alright, all I have to do is keep to the shadows, and I’ll be fine,” I whispered to myself. I ducked into an alleyway and watched as a few ponies walked past me. A cyan-colored one with a rainbow mane glided past. Opening my mouth in awe, I stuttered out a simple statement, “That one is flying.” Lane seemed to explode in excitement at this, “WOW, THIS DAY IS JUST GETTING BETTER!” Running over to his bunk, he grabbed a journal to take notes. Sighing heavily in defeat, Matt facepalmed and shook a hand at the video screen. “Mike, just place a beacon in the center of town and call it a day,” Matt said.

Gunny chose this moment to walk in, observing the chaos that was our squad, and with a quizzical look, asked the million-dollar question. "Oookay, what did I miss." Brayden stood up and rolled his shoulders. Limping over to the fridge replied, "Well, it turns out the horned ones have telikensi, telekinesi, screw it they move stuff with their minds," Brayden nonchalantly waved his hand as he grabbed a jug of water and some aspirin, standing and rolling his shoulders he continued his explanation, "There's also the fact that Mike also almost got turned into a paste, but that's beside the point." Brayden shrugged and limped back to his bunk past a now face-palming Matt and a chuckling Blake and Wolffe.

Overlooking Brayden's casual attitude and huffing in indignation, I peeked around the corner to clear the area. Ensuring that the coast was clear, I crept out of the ally and stuck to the sides of the streets, keeping a casual pace. I got closer to the center of town and started to prep the beacon. I quickly darted over to a tree, and I was quickly running out of places to conceal myself. I glanced over to the motion sensor to see three rapidly approaching dots heading my way. I looked up to see an orange pony riding what looked to be a scooter heading right at me with two of her friends in tow. I tried to roll to the side and move, but it was already too late to move out of the way.

CRASH

I brick-walled the three ponies; they sat there rubbing their heads in confusion as to what they hit, and the one with the pearly white coat looked dead at me, her face changing from confusion to fear. My active camo had shut off from the impact; I drew my pistol, thinking it would be relatively easy to silence them with the non-lethal round but hesitated when I considered the consequences. Shooting them might incite them to attack me. Trying to make a split-second choice, I looked to the comms for any advice, but sadly they weren't much help… “Shoot it in the face, shoot it in the face!” Brayden yelled over the comms as Matt, Blake, and Wolffe motioned for me to run. Sadly my choice had been taken from me when one had started to scream. While I was busy cringing from the sudden loudness, I failed to notice the other two had slipped away from me and had gotten a few of their friends.

Drawing my aim to silence the white one, I was suddenly thrown to the ground by the earlier cyan-colored pony. She glared at me with anger in her eyes as she stood ready to stomp my face into the dirt, then I heard a sweet southern voice say. “Y'all better explain yourself, or you’re going to be in some major trouble.” I turned my head to see a tan pony with blonde hair and what looked like a cowboy hat standing over me with calm but determined eyes with the other two ponies hiding behind her. “Holy… you speak human English,” I said with surprise. They looked at me with confused faces. "What's a human? Or English for that matter?" The Blonde one said, suspicion and intrigue gathering in her eyes.

“WHAT? Did it just speak perfect human English?" Matt screeched as he dropped his head on the pillow in behind him. “Lane, pass me a beer,” Matt muttered. Lane stood there, shocked into stillness at the discovery, and Brayden shook his head as he continued to mutter, "Shoulda just shot it in the face, no stinkin ponies can use their fancy-ass magic powers when there's a bullet in their head." Blake sat on his bunk rather quietly with a semi-amused look on his face, and Wolffe sighed and passed out the beers, "Ya know Mike, now might be a good time to turn on the diplomat." Wolffe said as he plopped down into his chair.

Taking Wolffe's advice to heart, I slowly but surely raised my hands in a pleading manner. For a second, I was sure that the cyan one was about to snap my neck when I moved my hands; this was not going to be easy. “Alright, alright, if you guys let me go and escort me to a place where we can sit down and talk, I can explain myself,” I said, desperately trying to plead for a deal. “How do we you know if you’re not just going to run away?” The cyan-colored one said, inching close enough for me to practically feel the aggression roll off her.

A purple-colored pony approached me from the blond one's right and got close to my face. She stared at me, examining me closely. I could practically see the gears turning in her head as she eventually sighed, “I think we can trust him, girls.” The others looked at her in confusion, the cyan-colored one practically in utter shock, expressing her confusion in a question, "What do mean you think we can trust him?" The purple one nodded her head to me and stated calmly and clinically eerily similar to a certain DMR marksman scientist I know, “Look at him, he’s three times bigger than us if we just wanted to get up leave right now, he easily could.”

The cyan-colored one rolled her easy and leaned back a bit, hooves on her hips in an eerily human manner. “Please," she said mockingly, "I pinned him down so easily.” She rebutted. Seeing a chance to redirect the attention, I decided to put in my two cents, “Okay, in all fairness, you caught me off guard. But I am impressed you really blindsided me.” I said in a pleading manner as the cyan one tried to keep her composure. Finding his humor once again, Blake coughed over the comms, “Kiss ass,” igniting a fit of laughter in the silent barracks. Silencing my speakers, I vainly tried to defend my honor, “Hey, you would be impressed too.” I said, rebutting Blake’s comment.

The ponies group continued to stare at me, and I decided that seeing a face might help if they were indeed rather human-like. I put my hands near my head and grabbed the helmet, pulling it off, revealing my face. Pale Caucasian skin shined with traces of sweat. I was in my mid-twenties; my body strived for some fresh air. With my face now showing, I became somewhat self-conscious of my appearance; my dirt brown hair was messed up and tousled from my helmet, sky blue eyes shined with a friendly spark betraying the scar's intimidation factor over my left eye. Shrugging, I looked up at the group and smiled, “Sorry girls, I was talking to some friends through an ear piece.” I said with a grin. “Alright, I promised an explanation of why I am here. If we could go somewhere quiet, I can tell you why.”