Never Bring a pony to a gunfight

The gentle rhythm beat of a heart was starting to come into feeling, the static fuzz of a television set was whispering through Pvt. Avery's brain,

"Huh? What's going on? Where am I? I was just in No-Mans land and I...Alright, No time to panic let's try moving the left leg" Pvt. Avery thought to himself making a attempt to move his leg, but there was no response,

"Alright...Legs gone...Let's try opening our eyes now..." he once again thought to himself trying to open his eyelids with the sleep snapping out of his eyelashes, he was too weak, he couldn't bring his eyes to open,

"OK, OK, don't panic, let's put all our effort into it..." he thought to himself yet again, his eyes slowly flickered open with a bright white light filling his eye retina, everything was blurred and out of focus, he couldn't recognize anything, but still moved his eyes around to try and focus,

"easy now! Take it slowly! Good, Very good!" muffled voice encouraged him, a white hoof closed in between Pvt. Avery's eyes, suddenly the blur began to focus and it all turned into solid shapes,

"Oh it's just a field hospital...with a white horse...in a nurse cap...and a cross on it's flank...and this hospital is a lot cleaner than regular field hospitals" Pvt. Avery said to himself slightly confused. Pvt. Avery continued to look around and noticed his chest was banded up also looking around to see who spoke to him just a moment ago,

"You took quite a bullet there!" cheerfully exclaimed the Pony Nurse moving to Pvt. Avery's bedside table, Pvt. Avery would've jolted backwards but his paralyzed limbs kept him from budging an inch but his seamless expression was all to noticeable,

"You...You can talk?!" Pvt. Avery exclaimed with a jaw drop but to his attention, he noticed ALL the Doctors and Nurses and even the patients were Ponies,

"Uh...Yeah, of course I can. How else would I have became a Nurse?" The Pony Nurse continued on and noticed how the human man couldn't grasp the concept of a Pony not only talking but working a full time job,

"Your accent...I'm in America? Or perhaps I'm back in Britain with a American horse?" Pvt. Avery responded to the Nurse giving her a perplexed look on her face,

"Where's America? Whats Britain?" The Pony Nurse questioned rubbing her head and looking at a map of the planet on a magazine perched on the stool next to the bedside table,

"Oh please...The British Empire covers quarter of the friggin' globe!" Pvt. Avery said rolling his eyes at the Nurse with a smug look on his face,

"Hmm, Well sorry! Never heard of them! Anyway I need to take down your home information so I know where to send you once you've recovered" the Nurse gleefully said changing the subject,

"Uh...Britain, England, London on King Street-" Continued Pvt. Avery trying to remember his home he paused as the Nurse cut him off,

"Hang on...Where, Where and where?" the Nurse said confused leaving Pvt. Avery seamless once again,

"You don't have a home...Do you?" The Nurse continued on, Pvt. Avery shook his head looking at the picture of the planet on the magazine and didn't recognize any of the countries,

"Very well, I'll find somepony to take you in for your recovery Mr. um?" the Nurse asked Pvt. Avery looking at her clipboard,

"Oh Avery, Terry Avery" he replied to the Nurse.

Later on that day the Nurse went of in pursuit of a caretaker and thought to herself who could be a caring pony for a new never before seen creature, she stamped her hoof and exclaimed "Fluttershy!" The Nurse smiled as she ran over to the timid pony's cottage placed dangerously close the ever dangerous Ever-free forest.

"Oh, A new species? How wonderful!" Fluttershy exclaimed in her quiet gentle voice and flapping her wings in glee,

"Yes! It's not pony nor is it a wild animal, just uh...don't be scared by it OK?" explained the Nurse to Fluttershy trotting out her gate back to the hospital,

"Uhg! You simply can't were this mess for a second more!" bellowed Rarity in disgust holding up the muddy, ripped and bloodstained Military Uniform and not to mention the fact it smelled like it'd been worn for 50 days without wash, Pvt. Avery realized he'd been stripped in his sleep in a attempt to wash his clothing,

"OI! What the bloody hell do you think you're doing?!" cried Pvt. Avery in embarrassment covering himself under the sheets,

"I suppose it'll need to be repaired since it's the only clothing designed for your kind, oh well! I shall fix up this horrid thing!" Rarity sighed getting to work with her stitching next to the bed. Many minutes later after Rarity had spick and spanned up Pvt. Avery's clothes Fluttershy had made it to the hospital with the Nurse,

"Well? How do I look?" Pvt. Avery asked Rarity giving a royal salute, his boots shined with brand new stitching, his clothes were soft and the green looked as good as new, his body and hair had been cleaned entirely with his rucksack stitched as well,

"Absolutely dazzling! I say, you can be my regimental soldier any day!" Rarity said with a friendly giggle,

"Alright! Here he is!" introduced the Nurse walking round the corner with Fluttershy, at first Fluttershy's expression was blank, she'd never seen a Human being before and Pvt. Avery turned around, raised his salute and smiled his shiny white teeth,

"Oh...my..." Fluttershy nervously said cowering under her pink mane, Pvt. Avery seemed so tall to her, he was only roughly about 6.7 tall but it was almost as tall as a bear but she had experience with bears,

"Pvt. Avery at your service, Ma'am!" Pvt. Avery proceeded clicking his heels together and straightening his posture, and Pinkie Pi-

"OH MY GOSH! Are you excited? I've never been so excited well except for this one time I went *GASP* but really what could top that?!" exclaimed Pinkie Pie jumping around the hospital blasting confetti all over the place, the awkward silence was broken by the Nurse clearing her throat then announcing

"Yes well um...We've got more patients on the way so I guess you should be going!" the Nurse said leading them out the front door. Walking down the streets of Pony-ville wasn't to pleasant for Pvt. Avery as everypony stared at him asking themselves "What in Equestria is that?" but ignoring them he proceeded to chat to Fluttershy's friends on the way to her cottage,

"So when did you come to Equestria" asked Fluttershy with a cheerful smile,

"Erm...I say now that is a bit of a boggler..." responded Pvt. Avery scratching his head in bewilder as memories of the trenches flooded back into his head,

"Oh well, I've got some nice soup at my cottage, you should try it, Oh! If you're OK with that..." Fluttershy whispered cowering under her pink mane once again. Once settled down in Fluttershy's cottage all Pvt. Avery sat down at the oak wood table opposite Fluttershy,

"So...uh...Have you always lived in Pony-ville?" stammered Pvt. Avery trying to break the awkward silence in the dining room,

"Oh, um...No...I was born in Clouds-dale with Rainbow Dash..." Fluttershy responded nervously flicking her hair out of her eyes,

"Well as you can see, I've never been in this country before, I was raised in London, and moved to Warwickshire for a small segment of my life to try and find my brother, my dad got me a scholarship in Cambridge University and then I left to join the Kings Army!" Pvt. Avery continued,

"Oh, what did you do in the army?" Fluttershy asked slurping her soup,

"Well..." Pvt. Avery proceeded transcending into memory.

1914, England, Liverpool, Liverpool Barracks, 14:32

"Grow some bollocks, lad!" bellowed the drill sergeant straight into my ear hole as I tried to remove the bayonet from the sack of hay, it was tough and wet hay and I couldn't possibly pull the knife from his stomach, bloody horrible bastard that Drill Sergent was, I was only 15 and they were already shipping me to France, I thought the war was only going to last 'till November and then I'd go home plus I was rather fond of the rule "Under no circumstance should the enemy carry guns" but that rule was quickly dropped in the first big push when the last platoon got turned into a bullets and bayonets sandwich. Hah, the most amazing time of that war was by far the great Christmas truce of 1914, we could hear Silent Night drifting in over the still, clear air of no Mans-land, and then we saw the Germans lowering there weapons and we did the very same, we all gathered and sang that night and had the most wonderful game of footy you'd ever seen, I was never too good at footy unfortunately but no matter. The war seemed over as I'd suspected, but our commanders came back and ordered us to fight, those who disagreed would suffer death by firing squad and well...that just goes to show how horrid life was back in the trenches, in 1915 we were once again invited to a mass slaughter all I remember was seeing all my fellow soldiers getting ripped to pieces by the German guns, the western front was getting closer to Berlin, Germany but only about a inch a day. I was running, no sprinting as fast as I could to reach a small collapsed building for cover...but a lucky machine gun shot got me right in the chest and somehow...here I am!

"Oh my goodness! That's horrible..." Fluttershy whispered in her gentle voice once again, she noticed how he was looking down at his food with a grim expression,

"You must miss England something terrible hmm?" Fluttershy said in a gentle manner,

"Whilst my farther is a judging man, yes I do miss my dear England, her swooping swallow, the mighty empire..." Pvt. Avery yearned on looking up at Fluttershy.