Gray's Gone

Chapters

The Mission
First Encounters
The Library
Gray's ReIntroduction
A Party and a Dragon
Conscious Again
The Siblings and the Princess
Gray's Rescue
Luna's Assistance
The Demise
A Makeshift Funeral
The Journey
The Lost Facility
Gray's New Companions

The Mission

No pestilence had ever been so fatal, or so hideous. Blood was its Avatar and its seal -- the redness and the horror of blood. There were sharp pains, and sudden dizziness, and then profuse bleeding at the pores, with dissolution. The scarlet stains upon the body and especially upon the face of the victim, were the pest ban which shut him out from the aid and from the sympathy of his fellow-men.

-Edgar Allen Poe; The Masque of the Red Death

Now, I was the Red Death. My bullet was my Avatar, and the silent fall of their bodies were it’s seal.

I was in the Ukraine. More specifically, North of Polesskoje, West of Pripyat, eight-hundred miles outside of Chernobyl. Here with my teammate, my best friend, and my superior, Staff Sergeant Matt Barker. Here to take out the leader of some crazy as shit ex-Soviet extremist group, who blamed the United States for the Soviet Union’s downfall. They were currently in the middle of a large arms deal with a representative from what I assumed was the Taliban.

Aiming down the sights of my scope, I could easily make out the objective of this mission, talking with the Rep from Afghanistan. He was a silver haired man, with a Stalin-esque mustache, and had taken to calling himself Commissar Markova, or in English, General Markova. I was ready to pull the trigger, to end this man’s life, and go home back to my brother and sister, but a sharp hand signal from my team mate stopped me.

“Gray, we’ve got a 5 man patrol heading directly toward us, standard armament; AK-47’s, a grenade each, and radios. We’d better not engage the target until this group is far enough away.” So wait we did, for seconds, then minutes, then almost an hour, because those lazy bastards had decided to sit down and smoke a pack of cigarettes. Finally, they moved on, flicking a butt right into my face, which was covered in dark green flecktarn face-paint and a matching ghillie hood. I was again ready to fire, when my heart stopped. One of the Commies had tripped on Matt’s foot; a careless mistake for someone two ranks higher than me. The man stumbled, recovered, and started walking around us, looking for what he had tripped on. Our luck had finally ran out; he must’ve seen one of our boots underneath the ghillie suit. “Vrag snaypery! Bitʹ trevogu!”

Matt reacted fast as lightning, unsheathing his knife and plunging it into the man’s calf, using it as leverage to pull himself up and slit the man’s throat. I rolled over onto my back, firing my “Light Fifty” Barrett M82, not even bothering to aim down the scope at such a close range. The 50. Caliber BMG round tore into the men, nearly ripping them in half. Thankfully, we were on a cliff face, overlooking the lake-side transaction point, far enough away that the ear splitting boom of my rifle wouldn’t be heard for a couple of seconds. “Take the shot, we’re out of time!” Matt screamed, already packing his gear into his bag to make our escape. I quickly aimed though the scope, adjusting for distance and wind disruption, and fired, standing up before I was sure the bullet met it’s mark.

Then we ran. Our cover was blown, any other patrols in the area would have heard the commotion and radioed their leaders, informing them of what they heard. We ran into the woods, desperate to get to our rendezvous point with the last two backup sniper teams that made up our platoon. In our haste to get away, we got careless, forgetting our countless hours in a classroom, our training, and ran straight into a minefield. The only minefield for miles, the one that I forced myself to remember the location of, because we had been only fifty yards from it. Thankfully, Matt and I made it through safely, until we stopped for breath. With only two-hundred yards left, we started to walk back to our team, knowing that the enemy patrols wouldn’t venture past the minefield.

Click.

I froze, Matt froze, and our blood went cold. Looking down, I was relieved to find that it wasn’t me who stepped on the mind, my relief quickly replaced with horror as I saw Matt’s left boot resting on a trigger. I dropped down, carefully digging out the mine, taking note of it’s model and trying to think of how to get ourselves out of this mess. It was a PMN-4, an old Soviet mine used during the 80’s. Go figure. Unfortunately, I could see only one way out of this. I looked at Matt and gave him quick directions, having him slide his foot off of it while simultaneously putting weight onto the mine with my hands. Once I was leaning entirely on the mine, I slowly picked it up, keeping as much pressure on it as I could, hoping to delay the one hundred and twenty second fuse. As fast as I could, I flung the mine to my left, running to the right. It detonated only ten feet away from us, sending a spray of shrapnel in all directions.

Instantly, I heard Matt scream. I threw myself over to him, searching for a wound to put pressure on, hoping that it wasn’t lethal. Finding the entrance would on his upper thigh, I clamped my hands over the gaping wound, trying to stem the flow of blood, hoping that the shrapnel hadn’t severed his femoral artery. We stayed still for what seemed like hours, frantically radioing for help, for a medic, for anything, but it never came. Searching for help, I hoped that one of the other teams heard the explosion and came to investigate. And, subsequently, felt pure despair as our Chinook transport helicopter rise up in the distance and fly in the opposite direction, abandoning us. Our portable radio crackled to life, and we heard our commander’s voice speak to us. “Sorry boys, our area’s too hot. Rendezvous at reserve point Bravo.” I’m ashamed to say, I gave up. Reserve point Bravo was 100 kilometers to the North, at the bottom of the mountain range that we had so easily flown up just the day before.

Fourteen hours later, at eight o’ clock, it turned to night, and started to rain. We were huddling under a tree, cold and miserable, waiting for Matt’s wound to close up enough to begin a trek to a friendly town or city where we could call for help, since it obviously wasn’t going to come on it’s own. As far as the military was concerned, our mission didn’t even happen, and we were MIA in the middle of Afghanistan right now. I was tired, nearly passing out, but refusing to because if I did, Matt could bleed out. In my daze, I thought I saw a figure, walking toward us. Maybe hovering? Nah, I decided. Just a vision then, I’m sure, from too many hours without food or proper rest. None the less, it was creepy. It appeared to be a grey wisp smoke, in the vague form of a person, face in a grotesque mockery of a smile. It stared down at me, asked me if we wanted a second chance to save my friend’s life and mine. I heard it’s voice in my head, a deep, raspy whisper. Out of desperation I accepted, either my biggest mistake or my greatest stroke of luck. As I blacked out, I could have sworn that our bodies were melting into the Earth.

First Encounters

“Wake”

“Ugh… What’s happened?” I awoke to find myself suspended in darkness. It felt like I was floating in nothing.

A face appeared before me. Forcing away my grogginess, I realized that the face belonged to the very same specter that I had seen before passing out. “Where am I? What… how is this possible?” I yelled, disbelieve coursing through me.

“Oh, welcome to my humble abode.”

I stared at the face, wondering if it was simply being a smartass. “There’s nothing here,” I stated, annoyed.

“Well, there’s you, and there’s me. Besides, I prefer my domain to appear this way. “

“Your domain?” I asked, “What are you?”

“I am nothing, I am everything, I am the being that chose to transport you to your new home. I only chose to wake you so you’d be prepared for your fall.”

“What?” I asked, as the darkness faded into light, then scenery, until I was in a forest. Well, above it actually. Matt appeared next to me, suspended upright and still unconscious, and the specter gave a demonic laugh as we began to fall. Matt plunged directly through the trees, and luckily landed in a bush, unharmed aside from the gaping wound in his thigh. I wasn’t so lucky, I slammed into branch after branch as I pinballed through the tree. Landing on a particularly pointy rock, I exclaimed a loud stream of curses before crawling over to Matt to check to see if he was alright. Thankfully, he was.

After I dragged Matt out of the bush and propped him against a tree, I decided to take a look around. We were in yet another forest, but this one seemed different. And there was certainly no sound of enemy helicopters in the distance, no snow, no cold, and no cliff. I was even getting hot in my camouflage jacket and ghillie suit, so I stripped those off and left myself in my dark green camouflage BDUs and black combat boots. Thinking that Matt could also use the relief, I walked over and stripped him of his excess gear. Then, I decided to check all of my gear to see if anything had gone missing in our… journey of some sort. I still found it hard to believe that we had actually gone anywhere. Laying my gear out on the grass, I double checked to make sure all my supplies were still in my bag. There was my thermal blanket, my goggles, four ten-round magazines for my Barrett, combat knife, my lucky Kukri machete, three MRE’s (enough for about three days, in my situation), matches, radio, my secondary M9 with three magazines, a boot knife, a compact shovel, and, probably most important of all, my MP3 player, sealed in a waterproof bag with plenty of extra batteries.

Once my gear was all in order, I proceeded to begin to build a shelter for Matt and I. It seemed to be early; before noon at most. I had plenty of time to get everything ready. As I worked, I checked on Matt every five minutes or so. The third or fourth time I went to check on him, I noticed that something was off about him. Something… that I couldn’t quite place. Closely examining him, my heart jumped into my throat as I realized what was wrong. He was shaking, barely noticeable, but enough to make me very, very worried. I hurriedly checked the bandage on his leg, cursing when I saw that it had been ripped off. Crap. It probably happened while he fell through the tree. Subsequently, he had been bleeding, and I thought that he was going into shock from blood loss. I hurriedly applied another bandage from his medical bag and gave him a small shot of morphine from a disposable syringe. I probably didn’t need to give him a shot of morphine, just some water, but I panicked and gave him whatever I found. I wasn’t trained extensively in first aid, only enough to be able to patch myself up from a bullet graze or a cut, so this was far out of my league.

I sat back and put my head into my hands. The stress of worrying for my friend was killing me. Out of frustration, I screamed into the air, as loud as I could, “FUCK this, FUCK you Russia, FUCK you Marine Corps, somebody just FUCKING HELP US PLEASE!”

Eager to get my mind off the stress and worry, I decided to have one of the MRE’s that was packed into my bag. I wasn’t even particularly hungry, but anything was better than just sitting around. I dug through my pack, trying to find the clam chowder meal that I had stashed two days ago. Once I found it, I ripped it open and prepared it, suddenly finding myself to be absolutely starving. Once I had finished the main course, I ripped open my package of raspberry jelly and started to spoon it into my mouth, eating slower since I had mostly sated my hunger. Finishing the meal, I stored the Snickers bar and the chewing gum for later in my BDU chest pocket. Once again checking on Matt, I heard a slight rustle in the bushes and froze. Listening intently, I heard what sounded like footsteps, made by a small person, or another soldier trying to be stealthy. I dove over to Matt, ripping his suppressed SCAR-L off of his vest clip and training it in the direction of the rustling. Sensing the offender nearing our position, I announced “This is Corporal Mason Gray of Sniper Team Five. Identify yourself or I will fire in three seconds.”

I silently counted the three seconds as no reply came. Once I finished, I let loose a small spray of fire into the bushes in front of me, hearing a yelp and more rustling as whatever it was ran off. I silently waited for more rustling, more noise, but none came. After a minute or two, I lowered my weapon, still intently scanning the area.

Since whatever it was ran off, I went back to preparing a shelter for Matt and I. I kept the SCAR close by in case another animal came by.

After about two more hours of work, I had a nice little shelter big enough for Matt and I to both lay down and sleep in. Matt’s prolonged unconsciousness bugged me, but there was nothing could really do for him until I figured out where I was. Feeling lazy, I crawled into our makeshift shelter (nothing more than a slanted hole with some tree branches draped over it) and took a nap, making sure I had both Matt’s SCAR and my sidearm close by in case another intrusion occurred. Not my best idea, to take a nap in an unknown place, but I was tired, and not thinking straight.

“Are ya sure something was here, sugarcube?”

I jolted awake when I heard a set of voices approaching. Still groggy from my nap, I simply stayed laying down, trying to form a coherent thought about what I should do.

“AJ, if Fluttershy said something was here, then something was here. It’s probably still here! We should kick it’s flank for attacking her.”

Right as I heard that last statement, a small group of horses walked into our clearing. Some very strangely colored TALKING horses. There was an orange one with a blonde mane, wearing a cowboy hat, a light yellow one with a pink mane standing to the back of the group, looking like it wanted to hide, a purple one with a darker purple mane and… a horn. Like a unicorn. Lastly, there was a light blue one with wings, hovering over the rest and looking around for something to hit, I’d assume. I gave a cough of disbelief, and all four of their heads snapped to look straight at me. I stared back, completely shocked, and dove for the SCAR. I whipped it around to point at them, where I saw that they had seemingly formed into a “combat formation.” The purple one had crouched down to aim it’s horn at me (which was now glowing a light purple), the blue one was hovering over the group, giving me the evil eye as it pounded it’s hooves together, and the yellow one was hiding behind the orange one, both staring at me with intense curiosity.

“Who the hell are you?” I shouted, flicking off the safety and preparing to open fire if necessary.

“Ah’d say tha’s a better question to ask you,” stated the orange one.

“Fine, I’m Corporal Mason Grey of the United States Marine Core, sniper team one-one. Who. Are. You?”

The purple one’s horn stopped glowing, and she stood upright again. “We’re four out of the six Elements of Harmony. I’m Twilight Sparkle.”

“Ah’m Applejack,” said the orange one. Breakfast cereal, suddenly I felt hungry.

“I’m Rainbow Dash, and you’d better hope that Fluttershy forgives you, or you’re toast.”

“I don’t know or care what the Elements of Harmony are right now. I’m stuck in the middle of fuck knows where, with a badly injured team-mate, little food or water, and four talking horses threatening to attack me and my friend. Wait, who the fuck is she?”

The yellow one seemed to shrink down even further as she stammered to introduce herself. “I’m.. I’m.. Fluttershy...”

“What?”

“I’m… Fluttershy..” She said, even quieter. “… Never mind,” I said. Just then, Matt started to cough. Violently.

The Library

I snapped my head over to where Matt was laying; dread filling my heart as I saw flecks of blood accompanying his cough. That was NOT good. A quick glance told me that the ponies were also alarmed at Matt’s coughs. Swearing and deciding that the ponies were a lesser threat right now, I slung the rifle onto my back and kneeled next to my friend. I examined him, but nothing obvious told my why he was having this coughing fit. Maybe it was just a cold? I thought to myself, ‘Damn, I wish I had taken that medical class when I had the chance.’

The purple pony –Twilight- took a few steps forward and said in shaken voice “Is... is he alright?”

“Does it fucking look like he’s alright? He has a chunk of shrapnel imbedded in his leg and now he’s coughing up blood for God knows why. Don’t take another step closer!” Noticing that she was slowly walking forward, I drew my M9 and aimed it at her, motioning for her to stand back with her companions.

Turning back to Matt, I set my M9 down on the ground. I decided to remove his tactical vest and see if there were any wounds on his chest, cursing myself for not checking it earlier. I had been so distracted by his leg wound that I forgot to see if he had been hit elsewhere by the shrapnel, which was usually the case. I ripped the vest open and scanned his chest for any marks or cuts, but there was nothing wrong. There were no holes in his shirt and after double checking, no holes in his vest either.

‘This makes no sense,’ I thought to myself. “How could he be coughing up blood with no chest wounds?”

The purple pony took a step forward and said “Look, we don’t know who you are, or what you are, but it’s evident that your friend needs help. Let us take him to our hospital in Ponyville, so that we can get him some urgent care.”

That really didn’t sound like a bad idea, but how could I trust them? I had evaded capture by enemy soldiers, encountered a… ghost or a demon of some sort, and then woken up to find myself falling through the forest. None of that added up, and it was really making my head hurt. After scanning through a few potential explanations to my situation, my desperate mind settled on the most logical outcomes. The entire time, I was thinking ‘Could I have been captured by the Soviets? If so, they’ve got to be keeping me on sedatives, making me have some crazy ass dreams. Or maybe I’m hallucinating? Maybe these talking multicolored ponies are actually the Soviets, trying to peacefully get me to surrender… Yeah…That’s definitely it…’

I turned around slowly, unslinging the SCAR to point it at the three “ponies” in front of me. “How about fuck you?” I stated. “Matt and I are obviously not going to make it out of here, so I’m going to take as many of you bastards with me as I can.” I aimed the rifle at the lead pony, the purple one, and began to squeeze the trigger, but there was no gunshot. I glanced at the rifle, cursing when I noticed that the safety was on. Flicking it off with my thumb, I prepared to fire again.

There was a really loud clop sound, like someone’s knuckles connecting with a human skull, and my vision went black.

As I came to, my first coherent thought was “Ow,” in response to my throbbing headache. When I opened my eyes, I saw a wooden roof above me, along with wooden walls and a very, very uncomfortable wooden floor. Looking around, it appeared that I was in a library, unlike any library I’d ever been in. It was roughly circular, with bookshelves lining most of the wall and an entryway into another room, along with a staircase leading to a second floor. Turning my head, I noticed that the floor had rings on it, spanning the entire room, almost like the inside of a giant tree. Thankfully, all of my gear was piled in the corner, with my Barrett and Matt’s SCAR balanced precariously on the top. I heard a clip clop sound coming through the entry way behind me, and a surprised voice coming from non-other than that purple pony from before.

“Oh, you’re awake!”

“Ugh.” I grunted, holding my head in my hands. This headache was really bad. If I can feel pain like this, then I must not be hallucinating. I turned to the purple pony and asked “Where am I?”

“Well, right now you’re in the Ponyville library. We brought you here after Rainbow Dash knocked you out. Don’t worry, your friend is currently in the hospital, and later on I’ll take you down to see how he is.”

“Well that’s good, I guess,” I said. I suddenly realized that I didn’t remember her name, even though she told me back in the forest, I think. Everything was hazy, and I really don’t know what I was thinking by waving the SCAR around and assuming the ponies were Soviets. “So... I’m sorry for being so horrible earlier, with the shouting and cursing and all. What was your name again?”

She laughed and said “Well, I’m surprised you can remember anything at all. Don’t worry, it's fine. You were understandably distraught over your friend’s injury. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I’m the librarian. My assistant Spike should be around here somewhere, he helps me run everything.”

Right as she finished, a small purple reptile with green scales walked down the stairs, saying something about gems. When he reached the bottom stair, he noticed me, and said “Whoa Twilight, that’s a really weird animal. It doesn’t have any fur!”

“Jesus, are you a dragon?” I asked, forgetting any resemblance of manners that my mother taught me.

“It can talk!” He exclaimed, looking shocked. “And… yeah I’m a dragon, not to mention Twilight’s number one assistant!”

He sure looked proud as he said that. “Well, it’s nice to meet you too,” I muttered, wanting to hurry up and go to see how Matt was doing. “Can we go and visit my friend now?”

“Oh, well sure,” said Twilight. “Since the rest of the girls are at the Sugarcube Corner, how about I take you to meet them after visiting your friend?”

“Uh...Well sure, I guess.” Looking down at my blood and mud stained hands, I decided I should probably clean up a bit before seeing Matt, and ESPECIALLY before meeting anybody new. “Is there anywhere I can wash this crap off before we leave?” I asked Twilight, who nodded and pointed through the entryway into what I assumed was a kitchen.

As I scrubbed my hands and face, I thought about this crazy world I had found myself in, and of that… thing that brought Matt and I here. As if on cue, I looked up and saw that ominous face staring at me from the wall. I jumped, gasping and reaching for my sidearm out of shock. Fortunately, it was piled with my other gear, preventing me from putting some holes in the side of the wall.

“Oh come now, aren’t you happy to see me?”

“Um…” All I could do was stare, my face slowly turning into a scowl.

“I’ll assume you aren’t, then. Well that’s fine for now. I might as well drop the whole ‘dark and gloomy’ façade, since I’ve really only come here for my own benefit.” His smoky face twisted into a Cheshire grin, making me dread what he was going to say.

“First, there’s a good chance that I will keep you here for the rest of your pathetically short human life, just because it amuses me.”

Fuck. As interesting as this place is, I would much rather go home to my brother and sister. I didn’t get a chance to spend Christmas with them, because my mission against Commissar Markov cut my leave short.

“And second, I would like to delightfully inform you that your brother and sister are dead.”

“Wait what?” Dread and sadness were already filling my heart, but were also mixed with an equal amount of hate for this being.

“Just kidding! Hahahahaha!” As he laughed, his smoky face faded away, leaving nothing behind but the wood grain.

‘What a bastard,’ I thought, rubbing my eyes as I turned away from the sink. ‘Regardless of what kind of monster he is, that’s crossing the line.’ As I walked into the library part of the building, Twilight looked up and must’ve noticed my facial expression before I had a chance to fake one, because she immediately asked if something was wrong.

“No, I’m fine. Just thinking about home,” I answered, not wanting to delve too deeply into what happened. Plus, it wasn’t a total lie, either. After what the ghost-specter-thing had said, I really wanted to go home.

Gray's ReIntroduction

As Twilight and I walked to the Sugarcube Corner, Matt’s condition continuously ran through my mind. The doctor had said that he would (thankfully) be alright, but would most likely remain unconscious for another day or so. I had been surprised to hear that the shrapnel in his leg had missed his femoral artery, but had still lodged itself in bone, making it extra dangerous. As to why he had been coughing up blood, it appeared that he had broken his shoulder blade, sending a small shard of bone into his left lung. The doctor had questioned me as to how he sustained his injuries, but I figured that I should keep the details of how I got here (the specter, falling from the sky, etc…) a secret from everybody but Matt, so I simply said that I was away from Matt when he was injured. It had probably happened when he fell into that bush, so his fall must not have been as soft as I thought.

“So, I never had a chance to ask your name,” said Twilight.

‘Crap,’ I thought. ‘So much for my manners.’ “Well, my full name is Mason Gray, but it’d be easier to just call me Gray. Most of my friends do, and it’s something I’ve grown used to from being in the military.”

“Alrighty then.” Twilight went quiet for the last few minutes of our trip.

Once we arrived, I took a good look at the place I was going to meet new ponies in. It was shaped vaguely like... a cake, I assumed, with a cupcake shaped tower on top. Through the window, I could see a group of four ponies and Spike sitting at a big table. Soon, a pink, fifth pony with very frilly pink hair came through a door holding a tray full of cupcakes and sat with the others, immediately digging into the food on the tray.

Twilight walked through the door without waiting for me, eager to see her friends. I hesitated at the door, because I kind of didn’t want to meet Twilight’s friends. At the hospital and on the walk here, I had gotten plenty of looks and questioning glances from ponies, a few even coming from Twilight as she walked with me. Being a sniper, I was used to being with no one but my partner, usually sitting still for hours in either an excruciatingly hot place or a mind-numbingly cold one. Attention wasn’t really my thing, never mind the fact that I didn’t belong in this world. Nevertheless, I forced myself to walk through the front door and be polite. I had already been obnoxious and dangerous, and I didn’t want these other ponies to think that I was some sort of monster.

When I walked in, I was relieved to find that the ponies were preoccupied with talking to each other. ‘Awesome.’ I thought. ‘Maybe I won’t have to do much talking.’

For a second, it was like I had shot their dog and punched their grandmother.

The second I was in view, all of their heads simultaneously snapped in my direction. Twilight was standing beside me, and I found myself trying to shuffle over to hide behind her, failing because she was just over half my height.

After a second, the orange pony I had met before spoke up and said “Well howdy there Twi, nice to see you? I see that ya brought the feller we met today.”

“I sure did. I thought that it would be good for him to meet some new people, since he’s new in Equestria.” Twilight looked at me and smiled, and gestured for me to introduce myself.

“Well… My name is Mason Gray, but I’d rather you just call me Gray. Nice to meet you girls.” God I hope my face wasn’t as red as it felt. I hated meeting new people.

“Well Gray, it’s nice to meet’cha,” said the orange pony. “My names Applejack, we met in the Everfree Forest.”

I nodded and gave her a quick smile.

“My name is Rarity, dear, and I really would like to say that those clothes you’re wearing are absolutely atrocious. Green camouflage honestly does not suit you.”

“I’m… sorry? It’s kind of mandatory where I came from.” Was this pony some sort of fashionista? Talk about a verbal bitch slap, I had always thought that I looked good in camo.

“My names Rainbow Dash.” This light blue pony simply glared at me. Goddamn, what did I do to her?

“What’s your problem?” I asked. Mistake. She shot out of her chair and got right in my face.

“I’m not the one with the problem! What the hay is wrong with you, waving your… thing around and scaring Fluttershy half to death! You even threw stuff at her before I got there! I should kick your flank so hard, Princess Luna would be picking you out of the surface of the moon!”

I had to hold in a childish giggle when she referenced my gun as being my ‘thing’, then forced myself to remain serious and give her an explanation. “I’m sorry. I was really freaked out at the time, my closest friend was injured and bleeding, and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know if I could trust you guys.” I frowned at Rainbow Dash, still in my face, but softening after hearing my explanation.

Everybody else in the room was silent. They must have either been in shock at Rainbow Dash’s outburst, or thinking about what I had just said. I turned to the yellow and pink pony from before and asked “Your name is Fluttershy, right?”

She seemed to visibly slink down in her chair before answering, and when she did, it was unintelligible. “Was… that a yes?” Twilight got my attention with a wave of her hoof and quietly nodded yes. “Well Ms. Fluttershy, I’m sorry that I was yelling and shooting at you.”

She sheepishly looked back at me from behind her mane, and mumbled “It’s okay… I understand why you did it. You were scared… right?”

I smiled back at her and nodded, feeling really bad that I had scared such an innocent pony. Once I was confident that these ponies accepted me (just barely, in Rainbow Dash’s case) I reached over to help myself to a cupcake. Once I grabbed one, I said hi to Spike before turning around to grab another chair for myself. Thankfully, chairs here were still chairs that I was used to, even if they were almost half the size. Without warning, I was hit in the chest by what I thought was a baseball bat. Fortunately, it was just the pink pony from before, giving me a flying tackle hug for some unknown reason.

“Hi!”

“Hello to you too,” I said, massaging my chest where her snout had hit my sternum.

“MynameisPinkiePieandyoumightbewonderingwhyIjusthuggedyoubutit’sbecauseyou’renewhereandmeetingnewpeoplemakesmesohappythatIjustwanttorunoverandhugthem!”

She was speaking so fast that she was turning blue. Out of desperation, I reached up and clamped her snout shut, giving her time to breathe before saying “It’s nice to meet you. My name’s Mason Gray, but you can just call me Gray.”

Her mane slightly deflated a little, and for a second I thought I had offended her by grabbing her snout. I quickly let go, and she said “Gray is such a dull name! Like the rock farm I used to live at, and I hated it! Can I call you by your first name instead?”

“Sure, if you really want to,” I said. “ I guess that goes for you guys too.” I said, gesturing towards the group of ponies sitting at the table. “You can ultimately call me whatever you want, I’m just used to Gray.

Before I could say anything else, Twilight cleared her throat and said “Uh, Gray? We wanna ask you some questions about where you came from, who you are, that kind of thing, if you don’t mind? You are our new friend, after all.”

“Sure thing,” I said. “I guess it’s only fair, since I did yell and threaten you.”

“Okay, so first, how old are you?” This came from Rainbow Dash, who piped up right as Twilight was about to ask her first question.

“I’m twenty-three.” I said

“Do you have any family, dear?” Said Rarity.

“Back home in New York City, yes. I have a brother that’s seventeen right now, and a sister that’s nineteen, both of whom I miss very much.”

“That’s so sweet!” Spouted Rarity, who was apparently the more gushy one of the group.

Twilight interrupted Rarity with a look, and spoke. “Ok, well I’d like to ask some more important things right now. First of all, you said you were a soldier. I assume you meant a guard, right? Like the royal guard?”

“Well, to be honest, my job and a guard’s are completely different. I'm a Marine Scout Sniper, a special type of soldier. In our world, soldiers fight in wars.”

The ponies looked confused, and Pinkie Pie loudly said “What’s a war? It is like a giant doughnut eating contest? Or like a really serious foodfight? Or was it HMPGH”

Rainbow Dash put her hoof to Pinkie Pie’s mouth, silencing her. “A war is a fight between two groups of ponies right?”

I replied “Yes, but in our situation, it’s usually over land or religion or assets. Unfortunately, people die too often because of it, but it can’t be helped. Conflict and killing are two of the biggest parts of human nature. Soldiers are the main fighting force, the ones who go and do all of the killing, so they can protect the ones they love and so that others won’t have to witness the horrors of war.”

I was met with shocked silence. They all stared at me, looking at me with disbelief.

“So…” began Twilight. “You’ve… killed other humans?”

“Unfortunately, yes. It’s my job, but I only kill humans that are trying to hurt innocent people. Ultimately, it isn’t my decision. I only joined because my father and grandfather joined, so I wanted to keep the military in the family.” Flashes of the fight in Ukraine came to my mind, watching Matt’s knife glint in the low light, and my Barrett’s muzzle flashing, the bullets ripping apart the enemy soldiers standing no more than ten feet away.

Fluttershy had started to cry, hiding behind her mane and sinking down low in her chair. Watching, my gut went up into my throat, repulsed at hurting Fluttershy and wanting to throw up from the images I had remembered.

“Well, as horrible as it is.. ah’d say it’s noble enough that we shouldn’t think any less of ya. As long as you ain’t the person who decided to do the killing, you were just doing what yer told.” Applejack was surprisingly understanding. My pain must’ve shown on my face, because Applejack spoke again. “Now, I know ya feel horrible for what you’ve done, but I think that you’re honestly a pretty nice person. You’ve proven it to me, defending yer friend like that.”

When I looked up, the mares were giving my small smiles, and Fluttershy had even stopped crying.

Twilight patted me on the back before saying “Girls, it’s starting to get dark, so I think we should meet up later on.” It made sense, the sun was setting when Twilight and I had left the hospital. “We can show Gray around another time, but for now, we need to decide where he’s gonna stay.”

I gave her a pointed stare, but she ignored me and pressed on. “Applejack, do you have any room in your barn for Gray?”

I quickly spoke up, trying to spare my having to intrude on anybody. “Oh no Twilight, I was going to stay in the clearing where you found me. I had already dug out a small shelter for Matt and I, and I’ve got a thermal blanket and some fire making supplies.”

Applejack looked slightly concerned and said “Are ya sure, sugarcube? We’ve got plenty a’ room back at Sweet Apple Acres.”

“Nah, don’t worry about me, I’ve slept in much worse conditions before.” I gave my best, most convincing grin and got up. “I think I know my way back to Twilight’s library, but from there, which direction do I go to find the clearing? I’m tired, and really need to sleep.”

“Oh, well, go the same route we took to get to the hospital, but instead, keep walking straight, and you’ll come across it,” said Twilight.

“Thanks!”

About a half hour later, I was sitting inside the Shelter that I had dug out early this morning. I was still very disoriented, and I didn’t know if a full day had passed since Matt and I had come here, or if it was just this morning. I assumed it had happened this morning, since it didn’t feel like long at all.

I built a fire, a small one, in the deep end of the shelter, taking care not to let it ignite my blanket. My mind had been wandering for quite a while now, and I had started to miss home and the comforts it gave. Suddenly, my mind clicked on the Christmas present that I had received from my younger brother. It was the MP3-Player that I had brought along, a cheap, battery powered one, but a nice one nonetheless. My brother and sister had even recorded their own greeting into it, for me to listen to when I got homesick.

I put in the ear buds, and clicked on the device, going through my lists of music until I had found what I was looking for. I hit play, and my siblings’ voices began.

“Hey Mason! We hope you’re doing okay,” said my siblings in unison.

“Don’t get hurt or sick, and make sure to bring home some fuckin’ MREs!” My brother; he loved MREs, even though I had grown tired of them. I always snuck three or four into my bag for him whenever I could.

“Don’t worry about stupid Casey,” said my sister, Renee, to a slur of muffled curses from my brother. “If you get a chance, bring home some metal CD’s! European metal is supposed to be, like, the shit.” Oh, my sister. She was the typical metal-head Goth, dressed in all black, black lipstick, lip piercing, dyed black hair, the works. Thankfully, she was still nice and fun to hang around.

As the recording kept playing, I couldn’t help but laugh. Even though I had already heard it, it was always going to be funny to hear my siblings argue at home. My parents weren’t around anymore, so I had custody of my brother, and my sister stayed with him at my house while I was deployed. Hell, even when I was home, she lived with me and my brother. All three of us were metal-heads, which made it so much easier to get along.

Once the recording ended, I sat back and let the MP3 device play. After a few minutes, I selected a song that really reflected how I was feeling right now. As the guitar’s chords played, I played air guitar, already knowing what the chords were and wishing that I had brought my acoustic guitar with me. As the words came up, I sang along, knowing that there was no one close enough to hear.

A lonely road, crossed another cold state line

Miles away from those I love

Purpose hard to find

While I recall all the words you spoke to me

Can't help but wish that I was there

Back where I'd love to be, oh yeah

Dear God the only thing I ask of you

Is to hold her when I'm not around

When I'm much too far away

We all need that person who can be true to you

But I left her when I found her

And now I wish I'd stayed

'Cause I'm lonely and I'm tired

I'm missing you again, oh no

Once again

I continued with the song, “playing” and singing as I went. It felt good to relax, because the last forty-eight hours had been nothing but frantic. Not many people knew it, but being a sniper really took its toll on your nerves.

As the song faded away, I let my arms drop down to the floor and leaned back against a tree.

“That was pretty good.”

I jumped at the voice, and looked up to see Rainbow Dash sitting in the tree above me.

“What the hell are you doing? You scared the shit out of me.” I was only mildly irritated, more embarrassed by the fact that she had heard me singing.

“Haha, well I really only came to see what was up.” She looked at me, smirking, and it kind of annoyed me.

“Rainbow, you only saw me, like, an hour ago. What’s the deal? Miss me?” I chuckled at the thought, it was pretty clear that she didn’t like me. So why’d she come visit?

“Shut up. Look, uh… the real reason I came was to apologize for acting like a filly back in the Sugarcube Corner. I didn’t know why you acted like that, and it wasn’t fair that I got mad at you. So, are we cool?” Man, the look on her face was priceless. She must not do this sort of thing very often.

“Yea, Rainbow, we’re cool.” She flew down and offered a fistbump (or hoofbump?). Bumping her hoof with my fist, I offered her a seat at the fire, but she declined.

“I only came out here to make sure that you didn’t hate me. I really need to get back, Pinkie Pie needed my help for something.” She let out a small laugh at that, looked at me, and muttered under her breath “Sucker. She’s gonna get you good.”

I acted like I hadn’t heard her muttering, and continued with our previous conversation. “Nah, I don’t hate people. Except for Communists, I’ve decided I don’t like Communists.”

She gave me a questioning glance, then shook her head and flew away. Chuckling, I rolled over and began to drift to sleep, leaving the fire going because it didn’t have much wood left to burn anyway.

A Party and a Dragon

I dragged myself out of sleep, wondering where exactly I was. There was something wrapped around me… oh, just my blanket.

‘Man, my cot is uncomfortable,’ I thought. ‘I’ll have to stop by the supply officer and ask for a new cot, because this rock hard shit has to go. I wonder what’s for breakfast?’ The mess hall’s food wasn’t too great, but after a particularly strenuous mission, a hot meal that wasn’t cooked in a bag was always nice. Then, at 1300 hours, it was my flight home! I got to see my brother and sister again after a nine hour flight from Kiev, Ukraine to New York City.

Excited, I jumped around and rushed to get my boots on, and looked around. ‘Forest? What the fuck… Oh. That’s right, I’m in Equestria.’

Disappointment. As nice as the residents here were, I was supposed to be going home today, and it depressed me to know that there was a good possibility I would never see my family again. ‘I wonder what the letter home would say?’ I thought to myself. MIA, most likely. Then, a folded American flag to my little brother, a stone-faced apology from whichever unlucky bastard had to tell my family and maybe a funeral if the Corps assumed we were dead.

I pushed aside those thoughts and started to lace up my boots, contemplating if I was hungry enough to eat. A quick growl from my stomach answered for me, and I busied myself with preparing another MRE. After this, I had one MRE left.

I reached into my bag, and pulled out one of my two remaining MREs, glancing at the name before scowling. ‘Eugh. Vegetarian lasagna? I knew I made a mistake by not checking what I had been issued.’ Wanting to save my other MRE (which was probably the last meat I would eat for quite a while), I decided to prepare the… vegetarian meal anyway. After I had built another fire, that is. It seemed to be approaching winter here, because there was a very cool breeze and the trees were starting to fade into oranges and reds.

Twenty minutes later, I was sitting by a nice fire and opening up my MRE, now fully cooked. As I began to dig in, I heard the same voice from last night speaking above me.

“Hey, what’s up Gray?”

Looking up, I saw Rainbow Dash sitting on the same branch as last night, looking at me curiously as I ate out of my small cardboard box.

“Nothing much, having breakfast.” I said, taking another slightly revolting bite.

“Oh, cool. What… uh… is it?”

I laughed, nearly spitting out my food, because I could perfectly understand her confusion. These things really didn’t look good to eat out of either. “It’s an MRE, my military gives these to soldiers before they go into combat or on a mission. It’s basically just food in a box, heated up by a chemical reaction. It also comes with Skittles!” I gave her a childish, open-mouthed smile and brandished my package of candy proudly.

“Oh. What’re skittles?” Now that she knew why I was eating from a box, she was curious to know what human food was, apparently.

I looked at her sharply, then changed my face to mock horror as I decided to mess with her. “You’ve… never… had… Skittles?

“No I haven’t,” She said. It was obvious she was a bit bewildered at my reaction. Now, she really looked like she wanted to try it.

“I’d gladly give you some… but I’m afraid human food might be dangerous for you. Your body might not be able to handle the amazingness.” Just to be mean, I tossed my now-finished lasagna to the side and tore open the Skittles package, pouring a bit directly into my mouth.

She laughed, shook her head, and said “Funny, but I doubt any human food could match the taste of Pinkie Pie’s cupcakes. Oh!”

I looked at her quizzically, slowly chewing my Skittles.

“Speaking of Pinkie Pie, Twilight needs your help at the library. She asked me to come and get you.” Rainbow Dash smiled, and began to stand up on her branch. “Now, I’ve gotta get back, there’s some stuff I need to finish setting up.”

As rainbow Dash flew off, I wondered ‘What does Pinkie Pie have to do with helping Twilight? Oh well,’ I thought, not putting any more thought into it. ‘As long as I’m here, I might as well help out around. Hmm… I should probably get a job and buy or rent an apartment. I’d rather not sleep on the ground for the rest of my life.’

I stood up and strapped my M9 to my leg, deciding that regardless of the docile nature of the natives, it’d be a good idea to carry around some protection. Carrying the Barrett or the SCAR would probably scare some people, so instead, I took my M9, my boot knife, and my standard ka-bar combat knife.

As I got to Twilight’s library, I saw through the window that there was someone there, some green pony that I hadn’t met. Sighing, I walked over and knocked on the door.

“Come in,” called Twilight, and I pushed on the doorknob to walk into the house, where it was dark.

“Uh, Twilight?” I said, wondering why she had closed the curtains.

Suddenly, the curtains were thrown open and an entire crowd of ponies yelled “SURPRISE!”

Shocked into combat mode, I immediately yanked my ka-bar out of its sheath and nearly sliced off a red pony’s ear. He looked at me angrily, shook his head and began to walk away. I heard him say “Nope,” and rushed to apologize, but Pinkie Pie jumped in front of me and began talking at a million miles an hour.

“Sowhaddayathinkoftheparty? Ihopeyoulikeitbecauseit’syourwelcomingparty. Whydidyoupulloutaknifewhenweallsaidsurprise?” She looked super excited, and I didn’t have the heart to ask her to be quiet.

“Oooohhh,” She started, “you must want to cut the cake, huh?”

“Sure Pinkie,” I said, thankful that she didn’t notice me try and slice up her friend.

“I made a super special extra big cake for you, since you’re the first human in Equestria!” She beamed as two unknown ponies dragged a cake out from behind a curtain. This cake was easily bigger than I was, and wide enough to fit several ponies inside.

I laughed nervously and moved forward to begin to cut the cake, when the entire top two layers of the cake exploded in confetti, and out came Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

The exploding cake reminded me of that mine that got Matt, and out of reflex, I dove backward and scrambled for my sidearm. Managing to get my finger caught in the trigger guard, I tripped over myself and accidently squeezed the trigger.

The M9 went off right before I hit the ground, the bullet out gouging a small chunk of flesh out of my upper leg before comically ricocheting off of the stove and popping a balloon.

As I ground my teeth and covered the wound, all of the ponies had frozen. Twilight and Rarity rushed out of the kitchen at the noise, and seeing my on the floor, bleeding, and trying not to scream, they panicked. Rarity screamed (probably at the sight of me baring my teeth, trying not to scream like a bitch), and the crowd of ponies all began to run about and try to leave the room.

All I could really think of at the moment was “Jesus fucking Christ, this hurts like hell.” I had always wondered what it was like to be shot.

Once the crowd had forced itself out of the library, I stood up, keeping my weight off my injured leg and leaving my hand clamped over the wound.

Twilight began to shout “Mason! What the hay happened? What was that? Why are you bleeding?” and before answering her, I had to take several breaths to make sure I wasn’t going to blow my lid.

“My gun went off. I accidently left the safety off when I was alarmed yesterday, and when you guys surprised me, I tried to reach for it and blew a hole in my leg.

Rainbow Dash began to giggle, but a look from Applejack shut her up.

“What in Celestia’s name is a gun?” asked Rarity, who was holding a handkerchief over her mouth magically.

“It’s a human device. It fires small, metal chunks called bullets hard enough to penetrate a body and rip apart flesh. Like an arrow, but smaller and much, much more powerful.” I grunted and decided to take a closer look at my wound. Lifting away my hand, I saw that it was only about an inch long and not very deep at all. Guess that means no purple heart for me.

“Why the hay are ya carryin’ one around, anyhow?” Asked Applejack, who was looking at me angrily.

“Look, I’m a soldier. That’s what I do, it’s standard for me to have one of these. Actually, it’s expected for me to carry several. That brown thing you saw me pointing at you in the clearing? That was just a bigger gun, with much bigger bullets. The big black metal stick that you guys carried back for me? That’s a REALLY big gun, and it fires bullets big enough to tear a human in half.”

The ponies really looked shocked at that. I… probably should have not been so blunt. But I was angry, and still very full of anxiety from the panic of shooting myself in the fucking leg.

“Speaking of which,” I continued, “why the hell are you guys trying to SURPRISE ME? When did that come off as a good idea? Don’t you think that a creature that’s trained to kill would react BADLY to that sort of thing? Hell, the entire human race would react badly! We’re a species that’s practically bred for war!” While it really wasn’t true, I was starting to ramble just to find an excuse for my brain not to feel so stupid. How could I have forgotten a safety?

Pinkie Pie really took that last part to heart. Her hair immediately deflated to perfectly straight and her color faded. She began to whimper and say “I just wanted to welcome you to Ponyville…”

“I know, and thank you, but surprising me wasn’t the way to do it. I’m really sorry that I freaked out, Pinkie Pie.” Deciding to risk it, I even knelt down and gave her a hug. (Suppressing a groan all the way down, as my leg was hurting like hell) “How about we have our own party instead? Since you guys are my friends, I think you’re the only ponies I really need to know. Let me go back to my camp and bandage this cut up, and I’ll come back, and we can have our own party?”

Pinkie’s hair reflated back to its normal, poofy demeanor, her color returned, and her tears vanished. “Okay!” She said, bouncing away and beginning to fix the streamers and balloons that had been torn down as everyone stampeded out.

Turning to look at the rest of the ponies, I gave a small smile and said “I’m sorry guys, will you forgive me for this?”

Rainbow Dash immediately said “Yeah, don’t worry about it. The good thing is, nobody innocent got hurt, AND it was hysterical. The look on your face was priceless!”

After Rainbow Dash, the rest of the ponies took turns nodding and making small statements about it being an accident. Twilight formally asked me to stop carrying around my M9, which I obliged to, and I walked back to my campsite, followed by none-other than Rainbow Dash herself. Aside from our initial encounter, she had easily became my favorite of my new friends.

Arriving at my campsite, I quickly bandaged my wound and stuck a piece of medical tape over the hole in my pants. As Rainbow Dash was telling me something about a “sonic rainboom”, we both heard a loud roar coming from Ponyville. Rainbow Dash shot straight up to look above the trees, and when she came back down, she had a look of terror in her eyes.

“A dragon is attacking Ponyville!” She frantically said to me. “We gotta go do something!”

I looked at her for a second, thinking about what I could possibly do to help. Then it clicked. I ran over to my Barrett, and pressed the magazine release switch. Looking at the bullets, I confirmed what I had been thinking. My Barrett was still loaded with the standard long range antipersonnel cartridge, which was a normal, copper colored bullet.

I turned to Rainbow Dash and asked “How thick is a dragon’s hide?”

“Well… Twilight’s spells can’t hurt one, and the royal guards’ arrows won’t penetrate it either, so I would guess it’s pretty thick. Why?”

I ignored her question and turned to dig through my supply pack. I assumed that “pretty thick” meant about an inch of hide and scales, which would mean I would need… that magazine. See, when the mission started, I was issued five magazines initially. The first three were magazines of standard, long range anti-personnel rounds (for obvious reasons), along with one magazine of Raufoss Mk211 rounds (armor-piercing, incendiary rounds that I would have used to hit a target behind a brick wall or to halt a car by shooting its engine). The last magazine I had taken special care to paint two stripes on the side, one grey and one yellow. The reason behind this was because it was loaded with FN Herstel APEI-169 rounds, which were armor piercing, explosive, long range bullets, designed to penetrate light armor like BMPs and external engines on helicopters. It had only been given to us for an emergency situation (as in, this magazine was for extreme, life threatening, absolutely no indecision, emergency last resort situations).

Deciding that a dragon’s hide classified as light armor (it was probably thicker than the steel plates on a BMP, after all), I threw my original magazine back into my bag and slid in the Herstel magazine. While I really didn’t want to kill the dragon, I had to take the precaution that I would be able to stop it.

Sprinting back to town, I saw the dragon was perched on top of a building, taking swipes at the panicked ponies running below, and occasionally letting loose a stream of fire into the air or at another building. It was a dark blue, so dark it was almost black, with flesh on its wings and glowing orange eyes. Boy, I could imagine how ferocious spike would look in about a hundred years.

Before I got to the dragon, I stopped and asked Rainbow Dash “Can dragons talk?”

She looked at me, stunned, and said yes, even though they weren’t very friendly. She must have remembered what my Barrett was, because as I was turning around, she said “Don’t kill it!”

I ran up to the dragon, stopping about fifty yards away, waving my arms and shouting to get its attention. It turned it’s long, snakelike neck and pointed its head at me, its eyes unmoving from my face. I slowly walked up, my Barrett resting on my shoulder, and said in my best kiss ass voice “Noble dragon, please stop razing this village and leave in peace.”

It stared at me for another long moment, before laughing, in a very deep, very throaty voice. After it’s small laughing fit, it said “Why? I am the mightiest being in Equestria, and I do as I please. I felt a need for entertainment, so I came to this village.

“That doesn’t give you the right to attack these helpless ponies. Now, I ask again, please leave, so that I don’t have to hurt or kill you.”

All he did was smirk (I assumed it was a he, as the voice had a distinct baritone to it), and let loose a very loud, very powerful roar right in my face. He reached out and plucked a pony off the ground with his claws, whom I recognized to be Fluttershy. She had been frozen with fear, and had been standing just underneath the dragon the entire time. “You’re a fool, creature. You have no horn for magic, no wings for flying, and not even the same hooves as a pony here. You are nothing.”

I frantically took my Barrett off my shoulder and aimed it at the dragon, zeroing the scope in on where I assumed his heart was. “Put. Her. Down,” I said, my voice beginning to waver. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rainbow Dash flying around overhead, trying to swoop down and take Fluttershy from the dragon’s claws.

The dragon narrowed his eyes at me, and growled. “No,” he said simply, and began to pull Fluttershy towards his mouth.

Taking a deep breath, I thought a quick apology to any ponies watching, and pulled the trigger. The recoil was immense, as always, pushing me back a step and threatening to dislodge my shoulder. The effect on the dragon was so much worse, though.

The .50 caliber APEI punched fist sized hole in the dragon’s chest. Dropping Fluttershy, he looked at me and began to gloat, saying “Hah. I barely even felt tha-” before the round’s explosive charge detonated. Since it was an explosive intended for machines, the hole it blasted was about the size of a basketball, spraying the contents of the dragon’s chest cavity into the air.

Thankfully, Fluttershy was already running by the time the explosive detonated, and didn’t stop running even when the dragon fell over and crushed frame of the next building over.

Rainbow Dash immediately took off after Fluttershy, leaving me to stand there wondering what I had done. For some reason, killing the dragon felt different. It made me feel… evil. Horrible, even though the dragon was clearly intent on eating Fluttershy. I flicked the safety on, tossed the Barrett away, and sat on the ground. Shooting terrorists never felt this bad. Sure, there was the natural guilt from ending a human’s life, but those people were truly evil, intent on simply causing pain to others. This dragon… even though it was gloating and acting, well… mean, it also seemed to be doing what a dragon does. I killed it for following its nature.

I decided that I should probably just go back to camp. Maybe sleep off this feeling, because I know I did right.

I picked up my Barrett by the barrel, and began walking away. As I did so, Twilight teleported in front of me, yelling something I couldn’t understand with a look of absolute terror on her face. I felt shell-shocked, and simply walked right past her, the Barrett’s butt dragging in the dirt. After a few minutes of following me and continuously yelling, she gave up, and galloped back to help the villagers.

A few yards later, I was then confronted by Applejack, who didn’t even bother to yell, just asked me what exactly had happened and if anyone was hurt. I proceeded to tell her in as little detail as possible, and walked away from her, cutting off any response she might have given.

When I arrived at my camp, my senses had returned, but had been replaced with exhaustion. I carefully unloaded my rifle and leaned it up against a tree, stuffing the magazine in my pack after. Sitting down on my blanket, I slowly put in my headphones and listened to my siblings’ message once more. Then twice, then three times, trying to get the image of the dragon’s death out of my head.

Someone was tapping on my shoulder, and I turned to ask them to leave, but giving up when I saw the determined look on their face. It was Rainbow Dash, once again. She really had a knack for bad timing.

“I checked on Fluttershy, and she was alright. Scared, but fine. Rarity was hiding in her bedroom, can’t say I blame her though. Twilight went to check on Pinkie Pie and Applejack, so I came to see how you were doing,” she gave me a small smile as she spoke, but it did nothing to alleviate my emotions.

Slowly, I began to talk. “You know Rainbow… I hate this job. It’s so hard… to kill people, even though they deserve it. It’s like… every time I pull that trigger, someone dies, and I know it’s because of me. I’ve really done some horrible things, all because some officer in a crisp black uniform told me to.”

Before I knew it, I had tears sliding down my face, and I was letting everything out. Explaining all my qualms about being a soldier, my problems with dealing with it, and even my problems with my parents, before they were gone. That was something I had only ever spoken about with Renee, my sister with the same family.

It was evident that Rainbow was uncomfortable, but I didn’t care. Even only knowing her for two days, she was the closest pony friend I had. She had stopped shuffling when I started talking about my family, and had even given me a hug when I finished, saying that she understood. As I was hugging her, it clicked in my head why I was so much worse off after seeing the dragon die.

During all of my other missions, all of the people I had killed and assassinated, I had never actually watched as they died. I always closed my eyes the second I pulled the trigger, Matt confirming the kill for me.

Afterward, Rainbow Dash and I just sat there, talking. It was dark already, so I resolved to build us a fire. She didn’t seem in any rush to go anywhere, and just sat with me, talking about her stunts and accomplishments to distract me.

I heard an unearthly groan, and looked around in surprise before realizing it was Rainbow Dash’s stomach. I laughed and said “Would you like me to get my MRE? I don’t mind giving you the vegetarian half.”

“Sure,” she said. “I didn’t get to have any lunch, since we were at Twilight’s for the party. By the way, you shooting yourself in the leg was hilarious!”

“Hardee har har, don’t remind me.” I said, reading the label and ripping open the package. It was some southwest beef with a side of black beans, some Gatorade drink mix, a large cracker, and some raspberry jam to go on the cracker. I wasn’t particularly hungry, so the beef was more than enough for me.

I handed everything but the beef to Rainbow Dash, and watching as she sniffed the package before looking at me quizzically.

“It’s a plastic wrapper. Tear it open, the food is in the inside.” I rolled my eyes and smiled, slowly beginning to feel better as I hung out with Rainbow.

“Hey, this tastes awesome,” said Rainbow Dash, after struggling to tear open the package of raspberry jam. “You human soldiers eat pretty good. I’d give my left hoof to eat like this all the time. I usually just have a daisy sandwich or something, and it’s not very awesome of Equestria’s fastest flier to eat daisies.”

“Very true. But, when you’re in the military, these meals get very tasteless very quickly. They only have like, twenty different meal choices, so after five years of MREs, I would have eaten…” I quickly did the math in my head, averaging about twenty MREs a month, for nine months a year. “Over nine-hundred MREs. That means I’ve eaten every meal on the menu eighty times.”

“Holy Celestia, that’s a lot.” She said, amazed.

“It sure is,” I said. I was no longer focused on the conversation, even starting to fall asleep, when Applejack ran into the clearing, surprising both Rainbow Dash and I.

“Mason, Twi sent me to come get ya, and to tell ya to go to the hospital as soon as you can.”

“Why?” I asked, beginning to panic at the thought of something going wrong.

“Yer friend has woken up.”

Conscious Again

Before Applejack could say anything else, I was already up and running. Matt had been out for much, much longer than I normally would’ve understood.

As I arrived at the hospital, I threw open the door and jogged inside, going straight up to the front desk. I asked the receptionist which room Matt was in.

“Uh… sir, it’s almost ten o’ clock at night, visiting time ended several hours ago.” She looked annoyed, assuming I already knew this. She leaned to her left to look around me, and seeing Rainbow hovering behind me, gave her a face that said ‘Get him out of here, please.’

“No, ma’am, I was told to come here by Twilight Sparkle, she told me that my friend Matt had woken up.” I was starting to feel irritated. This pony had to know who Twilight was; Ponyville wasn’t even a very big town.

She gave me a lazy stare, and with a sigh of defeat, said “Wait here, please,” and started to walk down an adjacent hall.

Feeling antsy, I groaned and sat down in one of the waiting-room chairs, yelping in surprise when I dropped down further than I had expected. I would probably never get used to these pony sized chairs. Rainbow laughed at my expression, Applejack smiled, and all I could do was turn red and mutter “Shut up, I’m much bigger than you guys are.”

“Fair enough, I guess. Everything is probably huge where you come from, huh?” Said Rainbow Dash, raising her eyebrows in curiosity.

“Nope,” I said. “They’re normal sized.”

Several minutes later, the receptionist came back, taking her sweet time about it. I jumped up and walked over to her, asking if I was allowed to go see him. Looking at me in surprise, as if she forgot I was here, she said “Oh, yes, Twilight confirmed who you were. Room 202, second floor, left side.”

Thanking her, I jogged to the stairwell and pushed the door open, not waiting for Rainbow and Applejack. Taking the stairs three at a time, I tripped on the last stair and fell flat on my face, much to the delight of Rainbow.

“Quit yer laughin’, Rainbow. You know how anxious he is to get in there an’ see his friend. You would act the same if it were any of us.” Applejack gave Rainbow a glare, causing her to cross her front legs and mutter.

“Yeah, but I wouldn’t trip on stairs, I’d just fly up.”

Ignoring her, I walked into the hallway and found the room. I thought about knocking, but decided to just walk in. Opening the door, I saw Matt laying in a modified hospital bed to fit his size, which was really nothing more than a single bed with the bottom railing removed and several stools and blankets where his feet hung over. He turned his head to look at me, and he grinned, throwing out his right arm for a hand shake.

“How’re you doing man?” I asked, shaking his hand and eyeing him. He had one leg above the blankets, the upper thigh wrapped in thick gauze. His left shoulder was in a brace, along with what appeared to be some more bandages on his back, underneath his oversized hospital gown.

“I’ve been better. Hi girls, my name’s Matt Barker, I’m Gray’s superior. If he’s been causing any problems, let me know. I can get his pay docked ya know.”

I initiated panic mode, imagining the ass chewing I would receive if Matt found out about what’s been going on. Applejack and Rainbow just laughed nervously, and then introduced themselves. Turning, I noticed that Twilight was sitting in the corner, staying silent. I smiled hello, but she could barely meet my eyes. Great.

Turning back to Matt, I asked “How long have you been awake?”

“Oh, just a few hours ago, right in the middle of the Dragon attack. I tried to jump up and grab my gear, but I didn’t realize two things. First, I’m covered in bandages, and second, I have no clothes on underneath this nightgown. A little while later, Ms. Twilight here came by and kept me company until your dumb ass showed up. By the way, I heard about your heroic ‘saving of the day’, and I must say, nice work. I think you did right. Were the APEIs awesome?

I heard Twilight shuffle behind me, but paid no attention to it. “Well, I can certainly say they were useful.”

“So, what exactly happened to me? I don’t remember anything after stabbing that soviet in the throat.”

All three ponies in the room gasped at his casualness, but I just laughed and said “That was by far the easiest part. I think even sneaking into position was harder than taking that squad out.” I dragged a chair over to the bedside, sitting down and gesturing towards my pony friends. “Do you guys wanna stay? The story is a bit bloody.”

Applejack said she would stay, mentioning that she “was awful curious about why humans fought.”

Rainbow Dash said she wanted to stay because it would be a good story and Twilight didn’t say a thing.

“Well, alright then,” I said. “So, for the ponies’ convenience, I guess I’ll start somewhere be both remember. We had flown in by helicopter, and landed in a forest clearing on a mountainside. We had to sneak to a cliff edge, because we were assigned to assassinate a man who was selling weapons to some bad guys.”

“He had a fabulous mustache, by the way. I could see it through the spotter’s scope. That bastard must’ve spend a half hour a day taking care of it.”

“Anyway,” I said after laughing for a bit. “Just before I fired, a patrol came by and tripped over Matt, which alerted them to our presence. Matt jumped up and stabbed one of them, and I shot the other four with the Barrett. After, I took the shot at the Commissar and we ran. Sorry bro, but we ran into a minefield.”

Matt groaned. “So that’s what my leg injury must’ve been then. You’re seriously telling me that we ran into the only minefield on the map for hundreds of miles around?”

“Mhmm. You stepped on one, and when I tried to dispose of it, it detonated and shot a piece of shrapnel into your leg. You passed out right after and I had to try and patch you up with some of the stuff in the medical kit. You bled a lot man. It really freaked me out.”

“I can tell. Your sleeves have dark smears running up to the elbow and there are bloody handprints on your chest and legs. Tried to wipe it off, didja? Shoulda just used leaves bro.”

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Applejack lean forward to get a look at my camouflage jacket, then widening her eyes when she saw the spots. “I thought those were just part o’ yer clothes…” she mumbled.

“Wasn’t thinking, injured comrade, remember?” I said to Matt, eager to finish the story. “So after I patched you up…” I now had to decide whether to tell the entire truth or lie.

Well… Twilight did say she wanted to know the truth. And lying to Matt now would only come back to bite me later.

“After I patched you up, I fell back and started passing out too. I saw some weird ghost thing, with glowing red eyes and a mouth of teeth, and that’s it. The rest of its body was smoke. It offered me a second chance, so I took it, and passed out. When I woke up, we were floating above the trees, and that bastard specter dropped us. It was easily a thirty foot fall, maybe more. You landed in a bush, on your back, so I assume that’s how you broke your scapula. After that, I dragged you out of the bush, dug a shelter, and when the ponies came by, I flipped shit.” I looked apologetically at Rainbow Dash and Applejack. I was never going to stop feeling guilty for that.

“Yeah, Ms. Twilight told me all about it. What the fuck is wrong with you? They were trying to help, even offering to take us both in, and you threatened to kill them? Jesus, you could be dishonorably discharged and sent to prison.”

“I… I’m sorry sir, I don’t know what I was thinking. Stress and exhaustion had been piling up on me.” I reverted to the respectful nature required of me when talking to a superior.

“Don’t use any of that ‘Sir’ shit on me, Mason. Just because you’re in trouble doesn’t mean I’m going to lord my position over you.”

Luckily, Twilight saved me from more embarrassment. Before Matt could continue, she interrupted, saying “Well, to be honest, I can vouch for Mason. While he was… unconscious, I did an analysis spell on him and it told me that he hadn’t slept in nearly twenty-six hours. Taking care of you, I’d assume.” I looked at Twilight and she smiled, so I guess my ass chewing had helped her decide to forgive me.

“Gyah. Seriously? Well… thanks, man, I guess I owe you. Even then, I’m telling your sister, you realize that, right?”

I laughed and said “Matt, we both know that’s worse than prison.”

“That’s exactly why I’m going to dumbass. As soon as we get home, I’m inviting myself to dinner and spilling the beans,” He grinned maliciously and flipped me the bird. “As payback for steering me into a minefield.”

“Oh, shit.”

***

The next day, I woke up realized that my clothes were starting to smell… well, I think they could put mustard gas to shame. Matt’s blood was thick on the sleeves, and combined with sweat and dirt, made me revolt having to wear them.

“Well, I guess I’ve made up my mind for today.” I said to myself, deciding that I was going to get a job. With the money that I made, I could have Rarity make me some new clothes and maybe consider either buying or building a small house. I would prefer to just build one in the clearing, seeing as most of the ponies in Ponyville still weren’t used to seeing me. A few of them downright despised me because I killed the dragon. Ingrates.

Anyway, I began to walk into town when a familiar face swooped down from the sky and landed next to me. “Hi, Rainbow,” I said. Hanging out was becoming a common occurrence and it was pleasant to have some company. “Hey, do you know anywhere I could get a job? I need some cash for new clothes, because these smell pretty bad.”

Rainbow took a step forward and smelled the air, recoiling when she smelled my clothes (and probably me too; I hadn’t bathed since arriving).

“Well, Applejack would be glad to hire you. She’s always willing to employ some extra help. Thing is, everypony gets paid at the end of the week, so... even if you found a job, it’d be like five days until you were paid.” She frowned, apparently seeing just how big of a problem my dirty clothes could be. I was even starting to feel like a vagrant.

“Crap. Well, I guess later today I’ll try to wash them in a river or something.” I sighed, remembering the last time I had hand washed my clothes. It had been a total drag. I didn’t know what I was doing, so the clothes didn’t get very clean, and when I was finished, they took forever to dry. I would probably be spending several hours with… a breeze. Oh God.

“Well, you’re new here, so I’ll help you out. Let me pay for Rarity to make you a new uniform and you can pay me back by helping me practice for Wonderbolt tryouts.” She started to get a dreamy look in her eyes. These Wonderbolts must be pretty big around here.

“Are you sure? Getting clothes tailored can’t possibly be very cheap. Where I come from, custom tailored clothes are usually for the richer people.” As we walked, a circular two story building came into view, shaped like a carousel.

“Nah, don’t worry about it. Rarity might even make them for free, since it’s her first chance to make clothes for a human. Besides, the entire time I’ve known her, she’s never charged any one of her friends.” She stopped in front of the carousel building and motioned for me to join her. “This is Rarity’s place,” she said, before walking in and leaving me outside.

‘Weird building,’ I thought, before following Rainbow Dash inside.

“Hello, and welcome to the Carousel Boutique, where every garment is chic, unique, and magnifique. Oh! Hello there Rainbow Dash, Mason, what can I do for you today?” Rarity was sitting at a stool and sewing some pieces of cloth together.

“Hey Rarity, we came to ask if you could make Mason some new clothes. The ones he’s wearing now smell worse than a timber wolf’s breath, and they’re all he’s got.” Rainbow pinched her nose and made a fanning motion towards me, making my face turn red.

“Hey, I didn’t have a chance to wash them, cut me some slack. I don’t even know where I would be able to find some wash baskets. No one in Ponyville wears clothes.”

“Oh, certainly! Mason, would you be a dear and hand me that tape measure? I’ve got to measure you for your new outfits. Is there anything in particular that you’d like?” Rarity stood up and practically skipped over to where I was standing, looking up and down my body after I handed her the tape measure.

“Well, I’d honestly like another set of camouflage.” I had grown used to wearing nothing but fatigues, and still preferred them over any other kind of clothes.

Rarity made a pained face as she measured my arms and torso on a footstool. “If you insist, darling. But, if that’s the case, then I’ll make you a second set of clothes for free. Something more elegant, and much more formal. Something… stylish.”

What could I need formal clothes in Equestria for? I’m a sniper for Pete’s sake. The only formal events I attended were funerals for friends of mine, and the occasional party hosted by a superior officer. Both events, however, called for the USMC Blue Dress uniform, which was the dark blue and red uniform seen on most of the USMC recruitment commercial and posters.

Deciding that a Blue Dress uniform should be formal and good looking enough for Rarity, I reached into my back pocket and produced a picture with a waterproof laminate. It was taken during a banquet held by a newly promoted Major General, who invited a few select units from his division to attend (my division was the ll Marine Expeditionary Force). My scout sniper platoon was selected (from the 2nd Reconnaissance Battalion), along with a single infantry company ( from 2nd Battalion 1sr Marines).

The picture itself was of me and a girl who I had met at the banquet. I had asked her to dance, only to discover that she was said Major General’s granddaughter. A couple of weeks later, after meeting the girl several times, I felt lucky, and confronted the Major General and asked his permission to date with his granddaughter.

The MPs escorted me all the way back to the rental house I was staying in.

While the Major General did personally apologize the next morning, he also made it clear that no enlisted man was going anywhere near his granddaughter. He was also the man who decided to pluck me out of my Christmas leave and send me to kill Markov.

Anyway, once Rarity saw the picture of the uniform, she agreed to make it for me, asking to hold on to the picture until it was ready. Thankfully, Rainbow only made a single face at the picture, which was one of her pretending to barf. She then proceeded to call me a sap for “carrying a mare’s picture around with me”.

Rarity said that I could pick up the fatigues later on that day, as she had already been experimenting with a human shape. After Rainbow and I left the shop, she said that she had to report in for weather duty or something, and flew off towards what looked like a giant, cloud shaped city in the distance.

I decided to stop by and visit Matt before wandering my way to Sweet Apple Acres, but when I arrived at the hospital, Matt was sleeping and the cranky nurses wouldn’t let me slap him awake.

After about an hour of simply wandering around Ponyville (dodging three very curious fillies every once in a while), I found myself at my destination. Walking up the trail to a large red barn, I noticed Applejack was kicking some trees and jogged up to speak with her.

“Hi Applejack,” I watched as she bucked an apple tree, making all of the apples miraculously fall into some wooden buckets.

Applejack paused mid-buck to turn and speak with me. “Well hey there sugarcube. What can ah do ya for?”

“I wanted to see if you had any jobs I could do. Once Matt gets out of the hospital, I wanted to have some money so that we could either rent a house or build a small one out in the clearing.”

She smiled and said “Well sure! The Apple family always has something that needs to be done. Let’s see here… Ah know, could you paint the fences around our property? They’ve been needing a nice new coat of white paint ever since the Grand Galloping Gala.”

Not quite what I was expecting, but anything would do. “Certainly,” I said. “Where do you store the paint?”

“We’ve got a couple o’ buckets in tha barn over there. Just grab a brush take yer time.” She smiled and went back to her tree bucking, leaving me to walk away and begin my work.

The Siblings and the Princess

I was sitting with my pony friends (and dragon friend) in the Sugarcube Corner. It had been two days since I began working for Applejack, and I wanted to treat my newfound friends to some sweets with the money I had earned. Since Pinkie Pie’s cupcakes were the best cupcakes that I had ever tasted, bar none, I thought that everyone else could enjoy them too, while simultaneously earning Pinkie another regular customer.

I had really begun to loosen up around these ponies. Even though I missed home (a lot, I might add), it felt nice to be here. There was no war, no battlefield horrors (I had spent a fair bit of time in the infantry), and best of all, nearly no violence, except for the playful fighting amongst friends.

Our small get together at the Sugarcube corner was fun, until Pinkie Pie had disappeared for nearly a half hour. When I noticed she was gone, I told the others, and they simply told me it would be fine.

“Oh, don’t worry yourself, dear. Pinkie Pie is seemingly just being… Pinkie Pie.” Rarity gave a small laugh and continued to eat her cupcake, every once in a while glancing over towards the sales counter.

I followed her gaze, and saw nothing. I even tried to move my head around to give myself a better view, but my gaze was blocked by Rainbow Dash’s head.

After a few minutes of secretly trying to get a good look, I saw something behind the counter; something metallic and dull, so I decided to go and take a quick look.

“Where ya off ta, sugarcube?” Asked Applejack, subtly kicking Rainbow under the table, thinking I didn’t notice. Hah, I’m a trained sniper, I notice nearly everything.

“I thought I saw something behind the counter…” I said slowly, wondering why they had suddenly paid attention to what I was doing.

“Gray, we’re in the Sugarcube Corner, it’s probably just something of Pinkie’s.” Dash even flew up and tried to push me back to my seat. I know she’s assertive, but why not just let me look at the damn thing?

I ducked under her and walked over to the counter, leaning over and taking a look at the floor. Looking closely at it, it appeared to be a small metal flask, elongated and curved to look like a horn. I picked it up and opened its lid, smelling the contents. Sulfur-ish.

I decided to pour some of whatever-it-was into my hand, and was shocked to find that it was strikingly similar to gunpowder, but pink. Pink gunpowder? What the heck?

I turned around to ask the girls, but there was Pinkie, standing in the middle of the restaurant, with a cartoon canon aimed straight at me.

“SURPRISE!” She yelled, and yanked on the cord.

Out of reflex, I dove backwards, over the counter and onto the floor, but I didn’t hear a blast.

“Aww! I didn’t put enough Pinkie Powder into the cannon! Well, time for plan B!”

I looked over the counter to see Pinkie Pie, digging around in her pockets (wait, what?) and the rest of the ponies just sitting back and giggling. Damn it, didn’t they learn their lesson the LAST time they tried to surprise me?

I stood up and began to speak. “Guys, wait, what the hell is going on?” I was irked that they had aimed a canon at me, and was prepared to give them a nice ass-chewing.

“Relax, my pathetic friend. They were simply trying to surprise you. Shame they can’t do it quite as well as I can.”

I froze, chills running up my spine as I recognized that voice. Yet, it sounded different somehow. Almost… lighthearted. Still creepy as all fuck, though.

“Oh shit, not you again,” I said, gritting my teeth in anticipation for what this bastard had to say.

“Wait… Girls, doesn’t that voice sound familiar?” Twilight spoke fearfully, looking around the room with wide eyes.

“It sounds kinda like Discord. But his big flank is frozen in stone, so it’s gotta be a prank. Hey! We know you’re pranking us, cut it out!” Rainbow Dash yelled, looking in every direction and putting her hooves up, ready to fight.”

“Discord? Close. Very, very close. I am the being that brought your new friend Mason Gray here, and I’d like to show him a little glimpse of what’s happening at home.”

The specter had materialized in the middle of the room now, giving himself a humanoid body made of smoke.
“Mason Gray… While you have been… relaxing… in this war-less world, your family is about to have quite a war of their own. I had been considering a new torture for you, but decided this was just sooo much better. Care to take a look? You ponies are welcome to watch too. Wouldn’t want you missing out on all the fun!”

Without waiting for an answer, the specter opened his arms wide and let a thick black fog spill out of his mouth, quickly shrouding spike, the ponies and I. My vision went dark, and I appeared to be back home, in my apartment’s living room. There was loud music blaring; no doubt my sister. Sounded like Cradle of Filth, her favorite band.

I looked down at myself, but could only see a small shimmer, like heat waves during summer. Looking around, I saw seven other waves like me, presumably the mares and Spike.

My sister walked through the kitchen doorway, all goth’d up in her makeup and black dress. She must be going out with her friends tonight. She plumped down on the couch and produced her laptop, hidden underneath the cough cushions.

‘So that’s where she hides it.’ I thought. She always produced it from seemingly out of nowhere whenever she needed it, and I had been curious as to how.

The doorbell rang, and I watched as my sister jumped up and shut off the music.

“I’ll get it!” She yelled, speaking to my brother.

She strode over to the door, giving a quick glance through the peephole before curiously opening the door. I moved to my left to see who it was, and my heart dropped.

It was the all too recognizable Casualty Assistance Officer, clad in the khaki service uniform and holding his cover tightly in his hand. Standing to his right, just slightly behind the door frame was Matt and I’s First Sergeant, another man who was (unofficially) a friend of mine.

“Ma’am, is this the Gray residence?” Asked the CAO, his voice betraying his nervousness.

“Um… yea… Is... something wrong?” Agh, she must know what’s going on. I could see her eyes starting to worry.

“You’re Mason Gray’s sister, correct?” The First Sergeant fiddled with his wrist-watch.

“I am.”

“Well… ma’am, your brother and his partner… Th-th-they went missing during their mission, twenty-four hours ago. We’ve been scouring the area as much as we could, but due to it being unfriendly territory, we had to cancel an immediate search.”

There it was. Poor Marine, he nearly had his eyes shut in anticipation.

“Wha… Oh my God…” Renee lifted her hand to her mouth, her voice cracking. “He… he’s gone?” Tears were sliding down her face, ruining the makeup she had probably devoted hours to working on.

“I’m sorry ma’am. We… don’t know for sure, but after several hours of searching without any contact from Gray, we do have to assume that he’s been compromised.” The First Sergeant was especially anxious now, he had helped the Major General choose which sniper team to send on the mission.

Renee was full on sobbing now. Her entire body was shaking, one hand covering her face and the other clenching at her side. My brother must have heard, because he poked his head around the corner. Realizing the seriousness of the situation, he walked over to the door and stood beside my sister.

“Due to the severity of the situation, along with the family arrangements, we will be sending in a team of scout snipers twice a week, for the next six weeks or until he his found. You have my sincerest condolences,” the CAO turned on a dime and hustled off. I couldn’t blame him, even though it was his job.

“I’m sorry you guys. It’s partially my fault that he was pulled away. I’ll do everything I can to make sure he’s found, but until then, all we can do is hope.” Nice one, Sarge, that TOTALLY helped.

My brother swung the door shut and wrapped an arm around my sister. “Hey, Renee, don’t worry. I’m sure that they’ll find him. He’ll be okay.”

My brother didn’t believe this though. I could see him, he was shaking almost as bad as Renee, but his face stayed blank. Renee turned to him, laying her head on his shoulder and crying.

They stood there for a long time, Renee crying and Casey trying to support her. Hell, even I was tearing up, and I was the one who was gone. It hurt so much to hear them this way, and I couldn’t take it anymore. I started sobbing, wishing that they could know I was okay, wishing that they wouldn’t feel so bad.

Before long, my vision dark and I reappeared in the Sugarcube Corner, alongside Spike and the others. The girls had varying degrees of sadness on their faces; Rarity, Twilight, and Pinkie Pie just stood silently, sadness on their faces as they thought about what happened. Applejack held her hat in her hoof and seemed to be staring off into the distance, shaking her head slowly. Fluttershy was crying quietly into her mane, facing away from everyone else. Rainbow hovered over us, slowly flapping her wings just to stay aloft. Her legs were just hanging at her sides, and she was staring at me, eyes squinted, and her mouth set in a solid line.
“Well know, wasn’t that just delightful? The tears, the sadness, the TENSION, it made me so giddy. I haven’t felt this happy in several hundred years, ever since the American Civil War.”

I turned to him and glared. It was all I could do, with tears still streaming freely down my face.

“Fuck you,” I said, and began to walk out. I heard him begin to laugh, and before I was out the door, he had faded away.

I began to run to the hospital. Matt needed to know about what had just happened, and we needed to figure out a way to get home.

I ran in the front doors, ignoring the sound of Rainbow Dash landing behind me. I blew past the receptionist, who seemed insistent on giving me shit every time I came here.

Running up the stairs and into Matt’s room, I started hastily explaining what had happened. All he did was stare at me, slowly spooning blue Jell-O into his mouth with a blank expression.

Once I finished my story, he slowly and deliberately set his Jell-O cup on his tray, and proceeded to quietly say “We’re in a hospital jackass, be more quiet. I could hear you clomping around the second you walked in.” He took a cursory glance at me, and continued to eat the food on his tray.

“That’s SERIOUSLY all you have to say? What the fuck man? We need to LEAVE!” Jesus, I was not in the mood for his bullshit.

“Guys?” Rainbow was trying to get our attention, albeit sounding a bit nervous.

“I know. And I’ve already made plans to speak with Princess Celestia.”

“Guys.”

“Who the fuck is Princess Celestia? Why does that even matter?” A stuck up princess was the last pony I wanted to meet right now.

A soft, gentle voice spoke from behind me, in the doorway. “I would be Princess Celestia, and I am the only pony who has any chance of getting you home.”

Gray's Rescue

‘Oh shit,’ I thought, as I turned around and examined this new pony. She was nearly as tall as me without her horn, and white with a sun design on her flank. Her mane was multicolored, like Rainbow’s, but was more pastel colored and had the occasional sparkle. Unlike all of the other ponies I had seen here, this pony's coat was strangely dull. I was used to vibrant blues, pinks, greens, etc., but her coat seemed to be a dull white, like it hadn't been washed in several days. There were what appeared to be faint dark spots on her skin, underneath her fur, that had become dark and irritated. Ignoring her immediate appearance, her body-language was also quite intimidating. She angled her head down low, gazing at me as if she hadn't slept in a long time; her eyes were bloodshot (it could've been either tears, anger, or fatigue) and she wore a highly displeased frown.

And she was staring me in the eye.

Going through boot camp had been tough, yet this pony’s icy glare was nearly making me shake in my boots.

“Hello. I’m Corporal Mason G-“

“I am quite aware of who you are, Twilight has sent me plenty of letters.” Boy, she REALLY wasn’t happy right now. What did I do? “Corporal Mason Gray, I understand your confusion, but I will need you and Rainbow Dash to leave for now. I must talk with your… superior.”

I could audibly hear Matt gulp as Celestia walked past me and sat down beside Matt’s bed. Without turning, she cleared her throat and waited for me to leave.

“Uh... Alright then,” I walked out of the hospital room, where Rainbow was waiting for me in the hallway. “Hey, Rainbow, what’s her problem? I haven’t done anything to her.”

“Well, it’s probably because your response to every situation is violence.” She laughed before realizing the implications of Celestia’s anger. “Well, actually, for the last couple of years, we’ve had a few problems with non-ponies. Before that, it was Nightmare Moon. Discord, changelings, and King Sombra have probably forced her to be wary of outsiders. Then some weird two legged creature appears that we’ve never seen before, wearing weird clothes and carrying two sticks that can kill dragons instantly.” Rainbow Dash began to look worried. “Oh, ponyfeathers… We rarely have situations when somepony is hurt or killed, but when that happens… the punishment is harsh.”

‘Uh oh,’ I thought. ‘If we needed to… I wonder if Matt and I would be able to escape?’ Celestia would no doubt be quizzing Matt on what humans were like, which would mean we were definitely going to be in some sort of trouble.

“Corporal Mason Gray, you may come in now. Rainbow Dash, please stay outside.”

Her voice was still cold and hard, which meant I wasn’t getting any free stuff for saving this town.

“Yes… Princess?” A quick glance at Matt told me he had no idea what she was going to do.

“You are new creatures here, something nopony has ever come across before. As much as I’d like to welcome and study you, I’m afraid I cannot. The stories I’ve been told about your arrival have indicated that your race resorts to violence for far too many situations. You attacked the Elements of Harmony, used your weapon in a crowded room, and then MURDURED a dragon.”

“Ma’am, the dragon was attacking the town! It almost ate Fluttershy!” This is the princess of a “harmonious” country and she’s accusing me of murder?

“Fluttershy is still an Element of Harmony. She would not have been injured by the dragon, her instincts would have forced her to act. Besides, the dragon was infected with parasites which I could have disposed of fairly easily within minutes. His judgment was off, and he was just as sentient as you and I. You, essentially, murdered a sick pony.”

Ah, crap. That dragon didn’t seem sick though. He looked me in the eyes, and actually contemplated what he was saying. Anything sick shouldn’t be thinking too hard about what they’re doing.

“As such, Staff Sergeant Matthew Barker and any others of your kind that may be hiding or may come, will be isolated until we can send them back. It has been proven to me that Humans are too violent for Equestria. Mason Gray, you shall be put to death. I apologize, but these events cannot be forgiven so easily. GUARDS!”

‘Put to death? I’m being executed?’ All I could think was how my life would very well end abruptly in this world, without ever getting the chance to see my family again. That fucking ghost, he made this all happen.

I was dazed and speechless as three white unicorn guards burst in the door. Reacting on instinct, I spun around and grabbed one of the guards by the arm, flipping him onto his back. Before the other two could do anything, I drew my knife from its sheath and sliced the metal of another guard’s helmet, leaving a sizeable scratch and a small cut on the pony’s forehead. Kicking him away from me, I prepared to stab the final guard through his cuirass when a soft blue glow enveloped me and forced me to drop my knife.

Two of the guards managed to throw me to the ground and began to drag me away. Matt was thrashing around on the bed, magically being pushed down by the third guard. He was frantic; screaming about how all the ponies were bastards and how he would end them all.

Rainbow Dash had tears in her eyes as she watched the guards drag me away. She even tried to stop them, but Celestia walked out of the room and restrained her. Going down the stairs was rough, they really just pushed me down instead of simply letting me walk. Once we were on the ground floor and out the door, the guards threw me into a white chariot, holding me down while the two pegasi pilots took off.

I had been picking moments carefully, waiting for a guard to stumble or look away before trying to push my way free, to no avail, of course.

Once we were in the air, I resigned myself to sitting still and, ironically, enjoying the ride that was taking me to my death.

****

It was about twenty minutes later when I decided to strike up a conversation with my guard.

“Hey, uh… what’s up?”

From my position, it probably came out muffled. I was laying face-down in the chariot, with my head over the back edge. Didn’t really matter, though, because the guard dug his hoof into my lower back and said, “Shut up.”

Eh, fuck it then. Craning my head around, I examined the pony that was serving as my temporary captor. I noticed that this was the pony whose helmet I damaged. He was dull, grey-white, like all the other guard ponies, with a grimy blue mane and a blue crest on his tarnished golden armor, which was wilting slightly due to the damage to his helmet. His butt mark was covered by the armor, which to be honest, I didn’t mind. It weirded me out that I had to ass-gaze in order to get an idea as to what a pony’s talents were. In addition, his eyes seemed off. He stared off into space, muttering to himself and occasionally began to absentmindedly scratch at some eerily familiar dark spots underneath his coat.

Shrugging off the oddity, I decided to observe the scenery before we arrived to our destination. I watched the clouds, taking in the green fields below me, the trees, and the five grey ponies in dark purple armor speeding towards us. They even had bat wings, sweet.

I watched as they flew closer and closer, staying in the shadows of the clouds until they were right below us, then looked on in amazement as they assaulted the white guard ponies.

The lead demon pony shouted a command and his four comrades split up and ascended to us. Two demon ponies assaulted the pegasi flying the chariot, while the leader and the two remaining demon ponies landed in the chariot and bucked my “friend”, who was too busy holding me to do anything about them.

I was about to thank them when, of course, my luck turned sour again and one of my rescuers bit down on my uniform’s collar. Then, he threw my off of the chariot.

I screamed and thrashed as I fell, horrified as the ground rushed up at me. I was having trouble breathing from how quickly the air moved around me, and my vision began to get hazy.

‘Well, maybe I’ll get lucky and pass out before hitting the ground,’ I frantically thought. I was close to landing now. Deciding that I’d rather not watch myself turn to a broken heap, I shut my eyes and let loose one last, defiant scream. I put all my emotion into this shout. All of my anger, my sadness, my confusion, everything I had, but abruptly stopped screaming when I gently dropped into a bush.

I layed there for a second, confused and wondering what exactly was going on. Had to have been magic. Damn pony magic, it does nothing but disorient me. I crawled my way out of the bush and took a look around me. I seemed to be in a large field, dotted with trees and bushes similar to the one I was laying in. Standing before me, smiling slightly, was a midnight blue pony. She was tall, like Celestia, and had a dark blue mane, covered in sparkles. She wore silver horseshoes, and bore a moon mark on her flank, along with a dark purple patch of fur. I could only guess that she was another princess.

Luna's Assistance

Staring at her, watching for any sudden movements, I inched my hand toward my boot, preparing to stab this pony with my boot knife if she did anything threatening.

Noticing my movement, she narrowed her eyes and spoke “PEACE, HUMAN. WE ARE NOT HERE TO HARM YOU, BUT TO ASSIST YOU.”

Ow. Boy, she spoke really loud. Before I could make a snide comment, another bat pony trotted up to her and whispered into her ear. She mad an ‘oh’ face, and the bat pony bowed and trotted away.

“Our apologies, we believed that the Royal Canterlot voice was appropriate for this meeting.” She looked sheepish for a second, before I spoke up and accepted her apology.

“It’s alright, I guess. Who are you?”

“I am Luna, Princess of the Night, raiser of the moon, and Celestia’s dearest sister. If we may inquire, who are you? I know only that there were two Humans discovered in the Everfree, but not the names by which you are addressed.” At this, Luna began to study me, examining my clothes and body features. “You are more similar to a minotaur than any pony we have encountered.”

“Aye, we aren’t. My name is Corporal Mason Gray.”

“Hmm… You are part of a military, are you not? Corporal is a rank that we have in our own forces.”

"Yes ma’am, hence the camouflage.”

“Interesting. I had not thought the myths were true. Anyway, we must go, I fear that Celestia has already heard of my Night Guard’s attack, and would surely have sent more corrupted guards. Come, we must fly to a safer location. We shall speak along the way.”

“Corrupted guards? Myths? What to you mea- HNNNG!”

Before I could finish, Luna levitated me onto her back, dropping me from about six inches above her back, just enough for a rather… painful landing. Unfortunately, Luna couldn’t fly because my legs were blocking her wings, so she ordered two of her guard to levitate me as they flew, instead. Before long, we were following a small trail through the Everfree Forest.

Speaking to Luna as we flew, I asked, “So Princess, you seemed to already know what species I was, and mentioned something about corruption and myths. Care to explain?”

“Well, Corporal, aside from reading Twilight’s reports, I knew because you’re a two legged creature wearing clothes. Minotaurs tend to prefer nudity, and you have an obvious lack of back hooves, so I assumed you were part of a story. Humans are something of a myth here in Equestria. I was about to ask you where you came from, which part of Equestria your people were hiding in, and if we should be concerned.”

“No, I’m afraid I’m not from this world. At least, I don’t think I am. I was brought here by some demon type thing.”

“Interesting… There are some very, very faint stories about Humans conquering this world many millennia before Discord took control. However, those stories are so old… I believe even Discord would consider Humans to be fake, and his reign lasted for several millennia before Tia and I were even born.”

‘That’s kinda cool, I’m supernatural here.’ I thought, weighing the benefits of essentially being a rare creature. “So, how did the stories come into existence?”

“I do not know. As I said before, if it is true, the Human’s reign was so long ago that few common ponies even know of the myths of humans.

“Uh huh. What about… oh, ruins. No creepy, dark, crypts of some old town or city?”

“We have several ruins throughout Equestria, however none of the myths describe the kinds of cities that Humans lived in. We have found ruins made of stone, ruins of caves, and ruins made out of wood. Most are simply dismissed as ancient pony tribe ruins, because the designs are similar to traditional earth pony builds. However, there is one recently unearthed ruin in the Crystal Mountains that has had quite some controversy surrounding it.”

“Oooh, spooky. What kind of controversy?” I asked. Hah, it reminded me of like an old “Mummy’s Curse” type movie, unleashing hell upon all who entered it.

“Well, a large percentage of the population of the Crystal Empire condemn the excavation because of the original mining crew of three hundred, one hundred and ninety-nine of them have been found dead in secluded parts of the ruins.

‘Yeap, Mummy’s Curse.’

Speaking of ruins, when I took a look below me, I saw that we were nearing an old castle ruin, which itself was situated behind a large gorge with a small wooden bridge. The bat ponies set me down, and I began to walk toward Luna, to ask more questions.

“So what’s your opinion of the matter?” I asked, wondering why the mine hasn’t been shut down yet.

“I feel that there should be a large security force to continue the unearthing, because ancient pony tribe ruins are too rare to simply be ignored. Alas, Cadance firmly believes that by simply casting repeated love and calming spells over the mines, the deaths will cease. I cannot actually do anything about it, you see, because although Cadance is our niece, the Crystal Empire is not our territory.”

‘That’s stupid.’ I thought. “On Earth, miners deaths are more often than not an international event, and something that several countries come together to investigate and correct.”

“That makes your world sound rather peaceful and cooperative, contrary to Twilight’s reports.”

“Only because the deaths are civilians. Any death that isn’t of an unarmed citizen is pretty much either covered up or blamed on other countries. So what about the corruption that you mentioned? You said that Celestia might send more corrupted guards.”

“Ah, yes… the source of the problem, right now. It started about a month before your arrival, I believe. Celestia began to have nightmares and hallucinations, screaming for hours and once even having an entire conversation with the air about trees. Soon after, she would jerk her legs in awkward positions, to which she claimed she had no control. Eventually, she even began to get angry at the servants and guards, something I have never seen her do. This, in combination with her hallucinations and involuntary movement, led me to believe that she was magically diseased. I once brought up the topic with her, but she snapped at me and nearly attempted to attack me. I have not brought it up since.”

“So what about the guards? How did the guards become corrupted?”

“Well, it’s really only her personal guard that were infected too. It eventually spread to her Solar Guard. They suffered similar symptoms, along with several of them becoming ataxic. One has died, that I know of.”

“How come you or your guards haven’t been affected? You seem to have been in close contact with the Princess throughout her troubles.” This was starting to sound really weird, almost like it was a zombie movie.

“I do not know. None of my guard have exhibited this behavior, and none of the common guard have either. It seems to be restrained to only Celestia and her personal escorts, along with the Solar Guard.”

‘They shouldn’t be too hard to overpower then, I don’t understand why Luna hasn’t assumed control already.’ I thought about the situation for several minutes, considering what I had been told. “How big is Celestia’s personal guard?” I asked, for the sake of answering a question in the back of my mind.

“Tia’s personal guard and Solar Guard total about one-hundred and fifty guardsponies, all elitely trained and are now quite aggressive. They locked down the palace and claim to have orders from Celestia herself to execute any ponies that attempt to gain access. While I could easily take them on, I would rather not harm my sister’s bodyguards.”

Contemplating the situation, I turned around and began to walk toward the ruined castle. As I thought about possible reasons for the “magical disease”, a batpony lunged forward and began to push me towards the castle.

“Hey, what’s the deal? What the fu- hmph.”

Princess Luna herself had clamped a hoof over my mouth, silencing me. Leading me behind one of the few remaining stone pillars, she slowly released her hoof and whispered into my ear.

“Quiet. There is a corrupted guard coming to land, and he nearly saw you. Be still, and do not make a sound.”

Moments after she finished talking, a white guardspony landed in the courtyard. However, this one seemed crippled, in pain even. It landed awkwardly, extending it’s hooves to land at the last second, before crumpling to the ground. Slowly, it began to stand up, and I took a good look at the “corruption” that Luna spoke of.

The guard’s coat was a similar off-white like other guards’ coats had been. His mane was streaked with grime and what appeared to be blood, giving him an evil, demonic look. He stumbled around the courtyard, staring off into space and muttering gibberish to himself. Turning sharply, he began to walk towards Luna and I, who had sunk to the ground to try and be less visible. The guard’s eyes were glossy, like he was about to cry, and there was bloody foam around his mouth. He had scrapes all around his head and neck, many of which were bleeding freely, and at one point, coughed up a torrent of bloody phlegm which landed just a couple of feet away from Luna and I. Glancing at his back legs, I noticed that the skin beneath the coat was dark, glossy, and oozing a putrid yellow color that soaked the fur around his hooves. ‘The dark spots that I saw earlier must have been disease marks.’ I thought, scrunching up my face in disgust. It appeared that the meat of his legs was infected with a flesh destroying virus, but he seemed oblivious to any pain.

After several minutes of aimless stumbling and mumbling, the guard spread his wings (which themselves were damaged; the tip of his left wing was nearly severed from the same virus on his legs.) and flew away.

“It’s as if he was dead, but he clearly wasn’t! His mind wasn’t there at all either. He was delirious and seemed to have no idea what he was doing. His mind must have deteriorated to the point where he can only recognize Celestia’s orders; the one thing he swore to obey forever and always.” Luna said, slowly shaking her head in bewilderment.

I could do nothing but gaze in confusion at the spot on the horizon that the guard had disappeared to. He was reminiscent of a zombie, once again, but it was all too clear that he was alive. The incomprehensible muttering proved that to me. “Where the fuck could that disease have come from? I don’t even think we have shit like that on Earth, and we’re pretty fucked up.”

War wasn’t a pretty thing, I knew that already. I had seen enough bodies during previous missions to know that, but this was just strange. The ruler of this supposedly peaceful nation was infected with… THAT, and my best friend in the world was stuck with her. She might have been calm during our meeting, but what about later on? What was going to happen to Matt? I really needed to find out where this disease came from, who it was most likely to infect, and if I could help to stop it.

“I apologize, Mason, but we still do not know exactly where an ailment of that caliber could have originated. I had all of the Canterlot logs being scanned before the castle was shut down, but so far the only place Celestia has visited recently would be the ruins in the Crystal Mountains.”

“Oh. Well. That’s actually pretty obvious, looking at it now. An ominous mine that continuously causes the deaths of workers, and then the Princess and her group of soldiers visit it and suddenly there’s a zombie-type virus going around that exact same group of ponies? It’s coming from there.” 'How cliche.This is gonna be one big clusterfuck of a discovery, if movies are any indication of this type of ordeal.'

The Demise

“Why do you believe the plague is coming from the mine?” Luna asked, staring at me suspiciously. “Did you have anything to do with it? Have you been here longer than you say?”

“No ma’am, but in my world, the media uses this kind of… “setting” so often that it’s almost instantly recognizable. At least, it should have been.” I sat down on a loose stone, thinking about what I should say. “Princess, I think that it may be useful if you took me to the ruins where this began. Maybe I can help?”

Luna stared off into the distance as she considered my words. “You… make a good point. However, given your current state of criminality, it would be best to ‘lay low’, so to speak. We will spend the night here, in the old castle, and then make our way to Ponyville to collect any necessary supplies that you may need. I would assume that your weapons are a must?”

“Of course. I’d rather not leave them in the forest where any pony could grab them, or an animal could pee on them and ruin the ammunition, or… well yea, you get my drift.”

Luna grimaced distastefully and turned to walk toward the castle. Following her, I took a closer look at the ruins that I was going to sleep in.

All the stone was grey, and most of the castle looked ready to collapse. It expanded for quite a way back into the forest behind it, making it seem much smaller than it really was. The gates were already open, for some reason, and there were signs of relatively recent movement, recent meaning about a year. This was only really noticeable because instead of the complete slate of dust and rubble, there were specific, small areas where the dust mismatched the rest, and a couple of sooty blast marks on the walls that hadn’t completely faded away.

“It has been quite a while since I’ve had time to roam these halls. Over a millennia, I believe. It is saddening to see my old home reduced to this.” Luna spoke slowly, taking in the thrones we passed by, the excruciatingly old paintings, pillars, and rotted tapestries. “Come, I believe I know of a specific room that you would find most enjoyable to spend the night in.”

As we walked, we passed several markings in the walls, scratches and chisel marks that looked like English, yet still not understandable. Coming to a stop outside of a large steel door, I thought for a moment that Princess Luna had led me to a prisoner’s cell. However, when she opened it, I couldn’t help a huge grin spread across my face.

It was the barracks armory, complete with rusty swords and axes, rotted bows and arrows, and even a small forge tucked into a recess in the wall.

Princess Luna cast a quick spell, and the forge burst to life, immediately spreading warmth and light all throughout the room. Behind me, I heard one of the guards sigh in content, and heard shuffling as the guards all simultaneously adjusted their armor.

“There are no beds left, so we will have to do with the stone floor, but I will make sure that the temperature is still to our liking. Tomorrow morning, we will awake before dawn and travel back to Ponyville to collect your weapons and armor.”

“What about Rainbow Da- the Elements of Harmony?” I asked, blushing from my mistake. “Don’t they need to know what’s going on?”

Luna sat down on her haunches and thought about my question. “No… I believe that it’s a better idea to keep them ‘in the dark’, as they say. We do not know yet where their alliances lay, and I suspect that Tia may have ordered them to subdue you. Even if they are still on our side, the less ponies that know of our visit will mean a lower chance of being detected. Once we have your weapons, we will rendezvous back here and begin our trek into the Crystal Mountains.”

“I guess I understand what you mean… Why can’t we just fly though? The guards can’t possibly be that much of a nuisance. If it’s as far away as it sounds, it would be much faster to take the risk.”

“You forget which land we are in, Corporal. All ponies are loyal to Celestia before me, although we are equal in rank. While I could easily pass through on my own or with my guards, you could not, so we cannot take the chance of somepony noticing my royal ‘entourage’ flying through during the day.”

“Uh, alright. I guess I’ll just… listen to some music.” I mumbled, walking over to the corner closest to the forge. Fishing for my MP3 player, I leaned my head against the wall and skipped through my music, idly listening for a song that I felt like singing along to.

After a few minutes, Luna spoke up. “Gray, what is that device that you’re holding? You mentioned music, but I hear nothing of the sort. Is it a magical device?”

Chuckling, I showed her the MP3 player. It was a small, black, cheap thing that ran off of triple A batteries, but held more than four gigs of music. “It’s an MP3 player. It’s a portable recording of all the music I enjoy, and runs off of electricity. When I put these small disks in my ears, the sound travels through the cord and plays through tiny speakers in the disks, allowing me to hear the music.”

Luna looked amazed for a split second, before regaining her composure and asking “May we see it? We are very curious of the cultural music of your people.”

“Certainly. I have several kinds of music from my world, if you want to choose a type. Lets see… I have… classical, fast paced, slow paced, uh…. War music? Brutality type music, I guess, uh… that’s about it, actually.”

“War music? Brutality type music? Why are they called that?”

“Well they’re not, they’re actually kind of called Metal, Death Metal, Black Metal, et-cetera, but I wasn’t sure you’d get the names.”

“We see… Well, I’d like to hear what passes for ‘war music’ then, if you’d please.” Luna gave me a pleasant smile and levitated the ear buds into her ears, earning a laugh from me at how funny a pony looked with earbuds.

“Lets… play… Oooh Slipknot. Alright, Princess, this may be a bit loud and revolting to your tastes.” I eagerly pressed play and watched for a change in the Princess’ stoic expression. Since the buds didn’t sit too well in her ears, I could clearly hear where the song was and just how loud it was playing.

Your impossible ego

Fuck, is like a

Megalomaniacal tab

On my tongue,

You fuckin' touch me

I will rip you apart,

I'll reach in, and take

A bite out of that shit

You call a heart!

Surprisingly, Luna didn’t jump out of her skin completely at that point, she actually smiled and said “It has an interesting tune, and its lyrical choices are certainly befitting of a war song.”

‘Woah.’ I thought. ‘Luna has the potential to be a metalhead, I’m impressed.’

“Could you please show me another style of music? Human music is very intriguing.” Luna said, even as she was noticeably bobbing her head in tune to another violent Slipknot verse.

“Sure thing, your highness. This genre is called…” And so we went, me showing Luna different kinds of human music until nearly midnight, when we both promptly fell asleep without even putting the music away.

It was dawn the next morning, a rainy day with overcast skies and chilly winds. Lune, me, and two guards were trudging through the forest towards Ponyville, all of us mumbling and grumbling about the rain. After a good hour and a half of walking, Luna stopped me and said “Halt, Mason. From here, you must go alone to collect your supplies. I will disguise my guards and I and go into town for supplies. Meet back here in one hour, your encampment is…that way.”

“Aye ma’am,” I said, and quietly walked away. Fortunately, we were in a different part of the forest, and the trees had changed. Instead of tall pines and creepy looking willows, there were now oak trees and small bushes, giving me a harder time being quiet but simultaneously making me harder to see in my camouflage. I walked, and walked, and walked, for nearly twenty minutes, when I came upon familiar woods. Here was the stream where I bathed and washed my clothes, and just to the North was my campsite. And a great deal of rustling.

Crouching down low, I began to sneak towards my campsite, staying behind bushes and some of the thicker tree trunks. There, standing in my campsite, were three guardsponies, wearing dented and tarnished golden armor. Just as the others, their coats were disheveled and matted, with similar dark spots of rot all along their bodies. These ponies weren’t as bad as the one from last night, but still bad enough to warrant a small gag. Their smell was just… awful. Some fucked up mixture of shit, sweat, and rot.

They were going through my stuff, had managed to unload my two rifles, and had my ka-bar stuck into a tree. As I watched, they removed all of my spare magazines and layed them on the floor, piling my thermal blanket, extra clothes, and lucky kukri on top. My kukri…

Before I could decide what to do, my boot slipped on a small patch of mud and skid across several loose rocks, alerting the guards to my general area.

Instead of snapping into combat mode, like any sensible soldier/guard would, these simply looked into my direction, and moaned, beginning to shuffle in my direction. One got in the way of another, and he snapped, taking a large chunk of flesh out of another’s hindquarters. The offender didn’t even notice, instead simply growling and locking eyes with me. Shit, I must’ve stuck my head out.

“Fuck!” I muttered, and dove toward my kukri. Grabbing and unsheathing it, I turned to the three guardsponies and said “Look guys, I’m just here for my stuff. I’m really not in the mood for killing anybody today, so could we just ignore this little incident?”

Of course not, they all simultaneously charged at me. It was immediately clear that these ponies were either nutso or had orders to kill, because they went for anything that looked vital to them. One reached for my throat, another for my guts, and the last tried to bite my thigh. Reacting as fast as I could, I spun and slit the throat of one, and immediately plunged my blade into another’s side, underneath his armor.

The third one nearly got me. He was a unicorn, and tried to run me through instead of using magic. Before he stuck his horn into my guts, I kicked up with my knee and heard his teeth clack together, then grabbed his horn and twisted him onto the ground, where I promptly punched him until he was out cold. I think.

Walking to my pack, I bent over to begin repacking my belongings when I heard the characteristic click of a sidearm being cocked. Spinning around, I saw Matt standing before me, holding his sidearm loosely by his side.

“Matt, what the hell are you doing here? How did you get away from Celestia?”

“Centuries past and still the same. War’s in our blood, I guess some things never change, huh?”

“What are you talking about?” I said, stepping closer to my friend and looking at Matt’s twitching hand. His shooting hand.

“Mommy said if I kill you, she’ll send any other humans that come back home. If I don’t, then every single one dies. I think you’re a pretty decent trade-off.” As he spoke, he leveled his gun at me, taking aim at my heart.

“Who the fuck is mommy? What are you talking abou- Agh. Fuck, man...” I shut up, noticing that Matt’s veins running along his hands were pitch black, spider-webbing across his flesh like the Spiderman symbiote. His eyes were bloodshot, and his normally green irises were now a solid yellow-orange.

He coughed, throwing up a clouded gray substance all over his shirtfront, but didn’t even seem to notice.

“How the hell did this happen? What did Celestia do to you, man?”

“Mommy… she didn’t do… anything. She showed me that humans are scum. After your dead, I can finally eat, and then she’ll kill me like the rest of us.”

“What?” I managed to say, just before Matt pulled the trigger. Instead of hitting my chest, where I thought he would fire, he shot down at my calf, sending the bullet straight through the muscle and forcing me to collapse.

“Gyah! FUCK!” I screamed, clasping my hands over the hole on either side of my leg.

Matt dropped his pistol and began to walk over to me. He was walking really jerky, like it took effort to move his body. ‘Big surprise. He’s infected like the rest of them. He’s probably got rot all over him. Aw, fuck man..’

Matt bared his teeth and dove onto me, driving his nails into the flesh on my neck and drawing blood. He lowered his mouth down to my cheek and tried to bite me, but I jerked my head just out of the way.

‘Is this seriously fucking happening?!’ I thought, trying to free my hands where Matt had sat on them.

I didn’t have a second chance to get free. Matt grasped my head, holding it still, and lowered his mouth to my jugular.

Four inches.

Three inches.

Two inches.

Just an inch.

There was a spray of blood and gore, and I threw my head backward in a feeble attempt to get away, but for some reason my head hit the ground like Matt wasn’t holding it. And I could breathe. He didn’t bite me.

Matt was still on top of me though, but he wasn’t moving. Drawing my head up to get a closer look, I noticed that aside from the infection, Matt and I weren’t matching soldiers anymore. I still had my entire body, while he only had half a head. Just before he killed me, something blew out the right half of his head, moving his body back and leaving him sitting up on top of me, with the remaining half of his skull hanging down and jeering at me. His one remaining eye was still focused on my throat.

A Makeshift Funeral

“What… the fuck?” I said, staring at the remnants of my best friend’s head. Unable to come to terms with what had just happened, I pushed his body off of me and rolled over to vomit. There was blood, brain, and bits of skull all over my face and shirtfront, so the blast had evidently come from behind Matt.

“Who’s there?” I asked weakly, still laying on the ground.

No answer, just the cold silence of an overcast morning.

“Ohh shit.” I moaned, and forced myself to stand up. The sides of my neck were still bleeding freely from Matt’s nails, and my right calf hurt horribly, but I managed to repack Matt and I’s bags and was in the process of temporarily bandaging my calf when Luna through the trees and landed in front of me.

Looking alarmed, she frantically asked “What happened here? What was that boom I heard a several minutes ago?”

Slowly, I answered “There were some infected guards here rummaging through my stuff. They noticed me and tried to, like, bite me, so I was forced to eliminate them. Then Matt came and… and… agh fuck.”

I threw my head into my hands and tried to think, but I simply couldn’t. Matt’s death was just too much.

“Was Matt the other human? Your comrade?”

“Yes, Princess. He was supposed to be in the hospital, but I guess he walked out and came here. He was infected, and had his sidearm, and shot me, and then tried to rip my throat out with his teeth. I didn’t notice a boom, but judging from what happened, it could have been a magical blast or a gunshot. I doubt severely that it was a gunshot.”

“A gunshot? What is a gunshot?”

“It’s the sound that’s made when a gun is fired.” I said, tiredly.

“And… what is a gun?” Luna said, giving me a look that was a cross between dreadfully curious and hopelessly confused.

“It’s a device that… fuck, uh… it’s a device that fires metal shards faster than the speed of sound with the use of explosives, with the intent to kill.” I slowly turned my head to look at Luna, squinting my eyes and asking “Any other questions?”

Taking my hint that now was not the time, she quickly said “No.” and turned to examine the area. “It would have been difficult for someone to shoot a magical blast through the forest. There are too many shrubs, branches, and tree trunks for anyone to aim properly. They must have been standing relatively close by. Are you sure there was no one there?”

“I’m fairly sure, but I wasn’t paying particular attention.”

“Hmm.” Luna hummed, examining the ground around Matt’s body and hovering some small twigs and leaves around, before saying “It would appear that something very tiny smashed through the canopy above and hit your friend.”

Looking at the sticks and leaves that Luna was levitating, and then above me, I asked “How the fuck would you know that?”

“Well, these twigs are recently broken, several of these leaves were ripped off of the tree instead of falling off, and this particular leaf,”- she hovered a large oak leaf over in front of my face-“has a perfectly circular hole in it.”

“How..” I began, giving Luna the universal ‘what the fuck?’ face, before she cut me off and continued.

“In addition, if your friend was.. leaning over you, and his injury came from behind, along with the remnants on your shirt, then the only possible angles are from above.” She said that last sentence slowly, careful to make sure I wouldn’t react badly to her mention of Matt’s recent death.

“You’re a fucking wizard.” I said, before returning to bandaging my leg. “As amazing as that deduction was, I didn’t hear a single thing, see a single thing, or even feel a single thing, other than Matt’s nails biting into my neck.” I sighed and began to fish around for my shovel. “Besides, I’d like to dig a grave for my friend before we leave. Would you do me the favor and help?”

“Certainly. There is no greater honor than helping to bring a warrior to peace.”

I raised my eyebrow at her in question. “I thought this was a peaceful nation?”

“That doesn’t mean we don’t go to war. We had to defeat Discord’s armies somehow, and repelled countless Griffonian invasions. The few warriors we have every hundred years or so are greatly respected.”

“Oh.” I said in surprise. “Makes sense.”

And so we began to dig, for hours until it was proper for my friend. Once we had finished, we layed him to rest, and Luna carved a headstone out of a nearby boulder. It read ‘Here rests Matthew Barker, Staff Sergeant of the United States Marine Corps, and one of the first recorded Humans in Equestrian history. His death was unjust and his life was short, but he will live on forever in the minds of his loved ones.’

Shortly after, I asked Luna to give me a few minutes alone.

“I look around and all I see is evil

Walking dead disguised as real people

It's kill or be killed 'cause life is not forever

It comes apart and then it falls together

I am what you made me

'Til death do you part

It's the world I've grown to know

Unforgiving and so cold

Take it away

I don't want it

It's a life I'm forced to live

I've got nothing more to give

Take it away

I don't want it anymore

We're generation dead

We're dead”

The Journey

“Ugh.” I muttered, as I sat on the edge of a cliff with my Barrett in my lap, miserably wrapped up in my thermal blanket as a light rain poured around me. “I fucking hate rain.”

It had been two days since Matt’s semi-funeral, and we were slowly getting closer to our destination. Having exited the Everfree almost immediately, we headed North-West until we got to some pony city named Van Hoover. Since Celestia’s infected guards were likely informed about me, along with the natives not knowing about Humans, Princess asked me to stay outside of the city until she returned with supplies.

So, here I sat, in the middle of the night, looking through a portable telescope that I snatched from one of Luna’s guards at this Pony city, watching the Princess’ progress. She was wearing a black cloak and hood to hide her royal appearance, which also made her a prime target for the infected guards. As a last resort, I kept my Barrett close by in case any guards became trouble.

She had decided not to take any of her own guards with her, for some reason. Probably because a larger group would be more obvious. As such, her guard sat behind me, gathered around a small campfire, talking and playing the pony equivalent of poker (I assumed).

Thankfully, after nearly two combined hours of travel time and bartering, Luna eventually returned, laden down with saddlebags full of rations. No meat for me, unfortunately.

She brought with her a small map of Equestria, which listed all of the major towns and cities, pointing out exactly where we were. Just North-East of Van Hoover, West of the Galloping Gorge, and South of Stalliongrad, which for some reason wasn’t on the map.

“It is because Stalliongrad is an old prison city. The only residents were the prisoners, the guards, and the guards’ families. However, according to ‘Tia, the prison part of the city was shut down nearly a century ago, and now only the families remain. It is not a major settlement anymore, so it has been taken off of all the maps.” Luna explained, as she pointed out the route we should take.

“Would it be a good idea to use Stalliongrad as our last resupply point before heading to the mine?” I asked, looking at all of the snowy areas on the map. Maybe I would have a chance to ask Luna to buy me a cloak or something.

“It would not. The prison area was shut down due to a large scale breakout, orchestrated by the Griffons. After the guards left, many prisoners came back and have somehow lived in relative peace with the remaining settlers. However, they are not fans of outsiders, especially Princesses. We will have to make due with what we have.”

***

The journey North was pretty unpleasant, considering my only source of warmth was my thermal blanket and my spare BDUs. Fortunately, it only took about a day and a half, considering it was now mostly flat terrain. My bullet wound had been giving me some trouble, even though Luna had done her best to speed up the healing process. I occasionally had trouble putting weight on that leg, which made the traveling difficult.

The entire time, I carried my Barrett slung over my back and my SCAR clipped on to my vest. Since the infection had originated from that mine, I was trying to be wary of what we might come across.

Fortunately, we didn’t run into anything, and we arrived at the mine safe and sound. Looking at it from a small hill, I saw that the mine itself was really just a tiny cave entrance, with a small shantytown of shacks surrounding it.

Flicking off the safety, I led the group into the shantytown, checking every possible angle before moving further. Finding a shack that was less worn down than the others, Luna said “Mason, we will spend the night here. I would like you and Nightstalk to search the rest of the shacks to make sure we are completely alone. “

“Who’s Nightstalk?” I asked, taking a quick glance at the six batponies surrounding us.

“I am.” Said one of the batponies, stepping forward and saluting me. “You may be a corporal, but it seems that you have more combat experience than any of us, and in a different form of combat too. I’d say you’re the leader here, aside from our Princess.”

“Oh. Um… alright then.” I said, wrapping my head around actually being the leader of someone other than the FNGs back at base. “Lets move out then. Princess, we’ll be back before nightfall. Here, if you need to contact us, take Matt’s personal radio. Just hold this button, and speak into this side, and then release the button to listen.”

I tightened the knot that secured my thermal blanket around me, and led the way into the shantytown. There were about six or seven shacks left, all of them one room and closest to the mine.

Nightstalk and I closed in on the first shack, each taking a position on either side of the door. I motioned for him to buck it, and immediately after I jumped in and scanned the room down the sights of the SCAR. Nothing.

We moved on to the next shack, repeating the process until we got to the second to last room. As Nightstalk got into position to buck, we were surprised by the door crashing open, which threw Nightstalk to the ground. A brown earth pony dashed out, covered in blood and gore, and dove at my partner. Before I could raise the SCAR and fire, the earth pony had lowered his jaws onto the batpony’s throat and ripped it out.

Blood spewed across the snow, spraying the infected pony and pooling around Nightstalk’s head. Quickly, I raised the SCAR and fired two suppressed shots into the pony’s head, and kicked his lifeless body off of Nightstalk, flinching slightly at a small burst of pain in my right calf.

Nightstalk lay on his back with his front hooves up at his neck, trying to stem the flow of blood, to no avail. He was gagging and writhing on the ground, weakening as he slowly died. I slung the scar back over my shoulder and dropped down to my knees, clasping my hands over the wound. Even though there was nothing I could truly do to help, I kept at it, tightening my hands over the jagged hole, with blood seeping through my fingers and into the snow. After nearly a minute, poor Nightstalk had stopped moving, and was gazing lifelessly at the clouds above us.

Sighing, I wiped my hands on the clothes of the infected pony and called Luna over the radio.

“Princess, we were in the process of searching the remaining shacks when we were attacked. Nightstalk was taken by surprise, and a miner ripped his throat out. I still need to search the last two shacks, and then I’ll bring his body back.”

Luna responded after nearly three minutes, voice heavy with sadness. “I see… please be careful, Corporal. We will atone for this murder shortly.”

“Yes ma’am.” I replied, and stuck the radio back into my pocket.

I limped into the second shack, keeping my SCAR ready in case there was another attacker. There wasn’t, but instead there were the remains of apparently another miner; basically nothing left but bloody skeleton, with stained scraps of clothing and chunks of flesh still attached.

“Eugh.” I said, before closing the door and jogging over to the last shack.

Without hesitating, I kicked the door off of its weak hinges and scanned the room. Crumpled in the corner was a guardspony, the most fucked up one I had encountered so far.

His coat was loose and rotted, no longer even resembling white, just a solid gray with enormous blood smears, all originating from a gash running up his chest. His helmet had come off, and was laying crumpled beside him. His neck was covered in scratches, hoof shaped and raw to the point of bleeding, and his eyes were bloodshot and tearing. There were rot spots running along his back and his front legs, and would probably have them on his back legs, if they were still there. One had been ripped off at the hip, the would frozen shut. His other one was clean cut, just above his knee, the wound also frozen shut. The remnants of the amputated leg lay nearby, nothing but bone and scraps of skin, along with the guard’s sword, which had dried blood crusted onto it.

He was staring at me, squinting to try and get a better look before cracking a demented grin and chuckling; blood dribbled out of his mouth as he laughed.

“My mother said you would come. She sent me up here to await your arrival. Told me that you would arrive with Luna and search the mine. She ordered me to tell you everything, because you’ll be dead soon like the rest of us. You’ll soon be part of Her army.”

His voice was thick with liquid, which he had to stop and swallow fairly often, making me feel like puking.

“Who do you keep calling your mother? Celestia?” I asked, trying to refrain from gagging at the sight and smell.

The guardspony chuckled again, before saying “No, that filth is only a host for our beautiful mother. We all serve her, to aid in her destruction of the living kind after sitting in that containment unit for over a hundred thousand years.”

His answer baffled me. ‘So it’s not actually Celestia that’s trying to murder us.’ I thought, before asking another question.

“What do you mean a containment unit? That mine is only supposed to hold the remnants of an ancient pony tribe.”

“That, and so much more, Human. You will find that your world and ours aren’t quite as different as you thought. They’re actually very, very similar. Nearly the same.”

I stopped at the way he emphasized the last two words. ‘No… he’s just spewing bullshit. There’s no way that’s even possible.’ I thought, before another question popped into mind.

“How the fuck are you able to speak? All your fucked up siblings are just brainless cannibals.”

“Mother gave me the gift of intelligence. Imitated after your smear of a friend, Matthew Barker. Speaking of which, I have these for you, pig.” The guard magically upturned his helmet, where a small metallic object jingled and fell out of it. Taking a small step forward, keeping my SCAR trained on the guard, I took a closer look, and gasped in horror at what lay on the dirt floor.

Matt’s dog tags.

“I was the one who was given the honor of torturing him. You should be proud, the only other living filth that we’ve done it on was Celestia. Only this time, I enjoyed the process.”

My face contorted in anger at his words. I could just barely refrain from blowing his brains out right then and there.

“Oh, you should have heard him scream. As I watched him turn, I tore apart his torso and feasted on his intestines, as he watched. He screamed, be cried, he begged. And he died like a foal. A pitiful foal that couldn’t do a bucking thing to defend himself. When he eventually reanimated, mother sent him to you.”

I couldn’t stop myself. I lunched forward, holding the SCAR by the barrel and swinging it at him like a baseball bat. The butt of the rifle collided with his skull, earning a sickening crunch and causing the guard to fall over. Then, I kicked him in the jaw, and pounded his head with my boot until my calf was screaming in pain.

He laughed the entire time, right up until a put a bullet in his skull.

I collected Matt’s dog tags, scraping the dried blood –his dried blood, probably- off with my fingernail, before wearing them around my neck.

Walking back towards our temporary shelter, I collected Nightstalk’s body and deposited it outside of our shack, before stepping inside. The Princess, along with her five remaining guards, all gasped at my appearance. Looking down, I saw that there was blood running up my arms and dried on my hands, blood smeared on my boots, and gore plastered to my chest from carrying Nightstalk.

Without saying a word, I stripped down to my boxers, throwing the ruined BDUs outside, and replaced them with a fresh set. Luckily, it was warm inside the shelter, the guards and Luna had built a fire with scraps of wood from other shacks.

I tiredly pointed outside where Nightstalk’s body was laying, and layed down on a bedroll that someone had set out for me, falling into a solid sleep.

Author's Note

For Gray's locations throughout the chapter, I used this map

http://mlp.wikia.com/wiki/Equestria
Gray's camp is directly to the left of Ponyville, in the forest and above the river, just beneath the train tunnel in the side of the mountain.
Stalliongrad is intended (by me, at least) to be where the igloos are.
The mine is in the Crystal Mountains, directly beneath the bottom point on the furthest right star, which is to the left of the F in Frozen Mountains.

The Lost Facility

“Good morning, sunshine.”

“…What? Luna?” I muttered, before standing up and taking a look around me.

For some reason, I was standing in Central Park. Looking around, I saw the oh so familiar, bastard-that-brought-me-here spectre.

“How was your nap?”

“Pleasant, until you showed up. How am I here?” I asked, giving him the usual glare.

“You should know that you aren’t actually here. I’m not done with you, yet. This is just a small mirage, to avoid showing you what the rest of my domain looks like.”

“Uh huh. I thought your domain was just a bunch of shadows and darkness?”

“Only a small portion of it. However, I didn’t bring you here to discuss my living conditions. I felt another glimpse of what life was like back home would sate my desire for tormenting you. At least for a little while.” The smokey face started to chuckle, before the scenery around me changed.

My apartment appeared before me, the same but totally different at the same time. The wall paint was the same, along with the T.V and all the appliances, but there were pictures on the walls, the furniture was different, and the carpet seemed new. Or just clean.

“What’s all this?” I asked to the spectre, who was standing beside me.

“This is your apartment. Duh.”

“I fucking know that. I meant why is all this stuff different?” I pointed to everything that had changed, my arm still nothing more than a haze.

“Oh, well, this is in about three years. I thought it would be good for you to see how well your family does without you.”

The second he finished, an auburn haired woman walked into the room and plopped down onto the couch. ‘Who’s she?’ I wondered, before a second person walked into the room, this time a brown haired guy with a lot of stubble and wearing USMC ACUs, and sat on the arm of the couch. ‘And this dude?’

I walked around so that I was standing in front of the two, and gasped at what I saw.

The auburn haired woman was Renee, who had apparently gotten rid of her hair dye. ‘Holy shit.. I had forgotten what color Renee’s actual hair was.’

Turning to look at the guy, I suspected that it was Renee’s boyfriend, but was surprised again to find that it was Casey. Holy shit, Casey.

“Casey! What the fuck are you doing?” I shouted, before I realized that they couldn’t hear me. ‘That’s right… three years… He joined the Marines.’ I thought, before retuning my attention to my siblings.

“You ready to go?” My sister said, fumbling around in a purse for her keys.

‘A purse?’ Jesus, my sister was really gonna change; she usually hated purses.

“Aye, the training starts today. We can’t be late, sis.” Casey said

“Oh relax, it’s just a forty-five minute drive to the airport, and then an eleven hour flight to Ford Island, as long as you make the flight, you’ll be fine,” my sister replied, taking out her keys with an “ah hah!” and jumping to her feet. “Come! It’s traveling time.”

As my siblings walked to the door, they both stopped at a table against the wall. Leaning over, my brother was saying something I couldn’t hear, while my sister watched. Then, he stood up and quickly walked out, like he had remembered that he was in a hurry.

My sister giggled after he left, and spoke to herself “Don’t worry, as emotional as he gets, he’ll be fine. And in about ten weeks, he’ll be back!” She grew serious for a second, and her eyes misted over, as if she was about to cry. “Almost exactly where you were, bro. Just three years younger than you were.”

‘What is she talking about?’ I wondered, as I watched my sister leave the room. ‘Ford Island. Sounds familiar, isn’t that where them moved the sniper progra-’ I stopped mid-thought when I realized what my brother was doing.

I couldn’t think, I couldn’t react, I couldn’t move, even in this spectral form.

‘He… followed me… Why?”

My heart started to hurt, physically and mentally, at what my brother had decided to do with his life. Not that I was ashamed, or angry, but that he had decided to give up everything else he had planned and become a sniper.

***

There was a flash of light, and I bolted into a sitting position.

“Mason, are you alright?” Said the Princess, looking alarmed.

“I’m fine, I’m fine. Just a nightmare,” I said, as I stood up and began to check my weapon and ammo. “When are we heading into the mine?”

“Fairly soon, I should say. I’ve had the guard patrolling the area, to make sure there were no outsiders so that we are not ambushed. Are you prepared to move in?” Luna said, as she watched me check and double check all of my weapons.

“I’m ready when you are,” I said, and walked over to stand beside her.

“Then let us head out. I’ve decided not to bring any guards with us, considering how Nightstalk was taken completely by surprise. It will be only you and I.”

“Alright, it’s no problem.”

Together, Luna and I left the shack and walked towards the mine. Standing outside was a batpony, at attention with some weird straps on his wings.

“What’re those things on his wings?” I asked Luna, who promptly explained that since he was a pegasus pony, he was able to use wing blades, which were quite literally blades on his wings.

“Oh. That’s awesome.” I exclaimed, and the guard smiled.

“Good luck inside the mine my Princess, sir, we’ll be waiting outside for your return,” said the batpony, who then stepped aside for Luna and I to enter the mine.

Inside, it looked like a typical cave. There were only two exits, the one we came through and one that led deeper into the mine, with a table holding a lantern, a map, and various mining tools.

I picked up the map and studied it, trying to find a reference on the map for where we were. Upon finding it, I saw that there were two more caves ahead of us, with a tunnel connecting each cave together. Inside the circle representing the final cave, there was a question mark with the words “Unknown substance/material wall”.

“I guess that’s our destination,” I said, and rolled up the map and stuffed it in my pocket. “Princess, stay behind me please, I think I can react the quickest to an attack.”

“If you believe so, then so be it. I will provide a light for you,” said Luna, as her horn lit up with a bright blue light.

I flicked on the tac-light attached to the SCAR, and said “Thanks, I’ll keep this on to see further ahead.” I began to walk forward, testing the gravel under my feet, trying to make sure I wouldn’t slip. The mine smoothly angled down, and the tunnels connecting each cave together spiraled so that each cave was directly below the last.

“Careful…”

My head snapped up at the sound, and I began to mutter “Not now, you fucker, not now.”

“What was that, Gray? Have you noticed something?” Asked Luna, who came up beside me to check if I was ok.

“Thanks Princess, but I thought I heard a voice. It must’ve been my imagination, or a stupid ghost or something.”

“If you say so, though I highly doubt it was a ghost of any sort.” Luna returned to her position behind me, shining the light slightly brighter to increase her own vision.

“Hey, I am NOT a stupid ghost. I’m a personality.”

Thankfully, the spectre said nothing after that, although it confused me as to why he identified himself as a personality.

Once we reached the third cave, the change was immediately obvious. There were scaffolds just about everywhere, along with abandoned mine equipment laying spread out all over the floor.

And, the biggest structure in the room, evidently wasn’t pony-made or natural.

It was a giant slab of black, seemingly formed into the wall, the size of airplane hangar doors. Next to it, was a rectangle the size of a normal, human door, also black.

I walked up to the giant slab and took a close look at it. I pushed at it; it was hard. I rubbed it; it was smooth and crinkled, like cellophane. I rapped it with a knuckle, and it rang like metal.

The door next to it was identicle, but after about a minute of gawking at the smaller rectangle, there was a loud, high pitched buzzing, and a small square of the rectangle depressed to show a glass square with red buzzing lines.

I heard a female voice say “Please press your right thumb against the fingerprint scanner.”

Freaking out, I stepped away from the door and the fingerprint scanner slid away, once again returning to the solid black rectangle it was before.

“Holy fuck. Holy fuck. Princess, this isn’t an ancient pony tribe ruin, it’s something Human,” I said, before stepping forward once again and watching the fingerprint scanner appear, alongside the same female voice giving instructions.

“Who is that mare? Where is she hiding?” Asked Luna, taking a cursory glance around the cave.

“There is no woman, it’s a recording. Kind of like a letter, but a voice instead of writing.” Thinking ‘Why not?’ I pressed my thumb up against the fingerprint scanner, where a needle promptly popped out and pricked me, sucking a drop of blood into the scanner.

“DNA identifying.” Said the female voice, before speaking up again.

“Species, Human. Last known national affiliation, the United States of America. Last known mental capability, one hundred percent functional. Welcome, Mason Gray, to Fort Lewis Army Base. It has been fifty thousand, two hundred and twelve years, three months, one hundred and six days since your last recorded visit to any United States military facility.”

The door slid open, revealing a dark passageway lit by red emergency lights.

“Please excuse the power inefficiency, our prime nuclear generators gave out forty-nine thousand, one hundred and twelve years, six months, and twelve days ago.”

“Holy fucknuts.” I said, standing slackjawed at the passageway. That damn spectre hadn’t sent me into an alternate universe after all, he had sent me into the future. So far into the future, that humanity didn’t even exist anymore and magical ponies ruled the earth.

“This is what a humans structure looks like? Interesting… Pray tell, what is the material of the doorway made out of?” Luna said, examining the hangar doors the exact same way I did.

“I don’t know, Princess. This isn’t any Human structure, it’s a Human military base, from far into my own future it seems. The technology is probably just as alien to me as it is to you.”

“I see. Well, I shall go retrieve the guards. Please wait here, so that we can all explore these ruins together.” Said Luna, excitedly, before galloping off.

“Oh, great. Leave me here in the dark with no armor and no light except for this tac-light. Thanks,” I said, before sitting down cross-legged on the cave floor.

I fidgeted around for several minutes, nervous in the dark. We hadn’t checked each cave particularly carefully, so I was nervous about the possibility of any infected ponies staggering around.

I removed the mag from the SCAR, pulled out a bullet, and clicked the mag back in, twisting and turning the bullet in my fingers as I looked around. In the twenty round clip, after my initial encounter with the ponies and the kills yesterday, I still had eleven rounds, not counting the one in my hand.

There was a loud clang in front of me, coming from the red-lit hallway. I jumped to my feet, and pointed the light into the hallway, catching a glimpse of the light reflecting off of something shiny, before the reflection disappeared around a corner.

“Ah, shit.” I said to myself, before slowly walking into the hallway. I knew it was a bad idea to follow whatever it was into the base, but I couldn’t resist for some reason.

As I stepped through the threshold, into the hallway proper, the door slid shut behind me and the red emergency lights flickered off, plunging me into total darkness, save for my tac-light.

‘No going back now,’ I thought. I sighed, steadied my nerves, and took one step at a time into the base, slowly following whatever it was that had caught my attention.

“Hehehehe…”

Gray's New Companions

“Come on, come on,” I said to myself, as I rounded yet another corner. I had been inside the base for nearly a half hour, and it seemed to me that the corridor was rectangular shaped, each designed so that the fourth turn sloped downward into another floor.

Each hallway had been lined with doors, but it seemed that the power shortage rendered them useless. I would step near one, wave at it, search for a doorknob or identification slot, and nothing. However, I had managed to keep up with whatever it was inside here. It seemed to be wearing steel boots of some sort, and walked like a human. At any moment, I moving at a snail’s pace, only one or two footsteps every five seconds or so, so that I could hear a near constant clanking as the creature walked steadily away from me.

Eventually, three floors below where I entered (I think), there was a whooshing sound and the footsteps stopped. I turned the corner in front of me and saw an open doorway, with the lights on inside.

‘This has gotta be a trap,’ I thought, before swallowing and moving forward anyway. As I neared the doorway, there was complete silence, like someone was waiting for me. I took a position right outside of the doorway, as if I was going to breach it, but instead spun around the corner and flashed my tac-light around the room, looking for an assailant. I saw nothing living, but the room amazed me. It was colossal; easily the size of two football fields end on end, and had two floors- the second was mainly just metal catwalks holding various cables and barrels of something.

Below me, on the first “floor” of the room, were rows upon rows of glass tubes. I walked down a nearby staircase and stepped up to one to examine it. It was tinted glass, so I really couldn’t see what was inside, but it looked like there was a body in there. Next to the tube was a panel with various buttons and blinking lights, and a small blue button labeled “Release”.

I pressed the button and jumped back, expecting an attack. But, there was nothing.

‘Should’ve known, there’s barely any power,’ I thought before a voice scared the living shit out of me.

“Would you like me to route alternate power to the cryogenic containment facility?”

“Gyah!” I shouted, as I jumped sideways and aimed my SCAR at the voice.

There was a young woman staring at me, with straight brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, wearing what looked like a military uniform and a white lab coat over it.

“Who’re you?” I asked, my eyes searching for an I.D card of nametag of some sort.

“Just call me AISS (pronounced Ayis, apparently),” she said. “I’m the Automated Intelligence and Security System hologram for this military/ failsafe community network.”

“So… wait, what? You’re not real?” I said. What is this freaking place?

“No, I’m a hologram,” She replied, simply. In response, I pushed the barrel of the SCAR into her stomach, where she promptly flickered and my gun went straight through her.

“And… uh, what is this place?” I asked, scanning the room once again, before focusing on the young woman

“This is the Fort Lewis military base and Civilian Failsafe Network, the world’s only joint civilian-military settlement of this caliber.”

She said it like I was supposed to know what she meant.

“And what does that mean? Why does the United States require a… civilian failsafe network?” I had lowered my SCAR by now, and was primarily focused on her explanation, ignoring just about everything else.

“The Civilian Failsafe Network was the last line of defense for any international catastrophe that would cause the destruction of the human race. It consists of three hundred underground facilities, built all across the United States of America, which began construction in the year 1989 and finished in late 2012.”

“Hey, that’s right when I was around! We didn’t have your kind of technology in 2012, how come you exist? For that matter, how the hell did nobody even realize these were being built?” I asked, before shifting my Barrett off of my back and onto the ground beside me.

“I exist because the technology was continuously updated for the next three hundred years. As for how this project remained undetected, I am unsure. In the year 2015, there was an international outbreak of the Mental Destabilization Virus, which caused victims to lose control of advanced bodily functions and revert to basic animal natures, attempting to kill and eat just about every living thing they could find. A class A quarantine was put into effect, which prompted all uninfected civilians and military personnel to evacuate into their nearest CFN location. Once as many lives were saved as possible, the network was slated to remain closed for a period of one hundred years, long enough for any infected being to die and degrade. However, if population of a specific location fell beneath thirty percent, the remaining population was instructed to enter their cryogenic preservation facility, which would cryogenically freeze inhabitants until the period of quarantine was over. You are currently standing inside the cryogenic preservation facility of Fort Lewis.”

“Oh.” I said, before taking another glance at the tubes all around me. “Did this facility go into the cryogenic mode thingy?”

“Unfortunately, yes,” said AISS. “The cryogen mode was activated almost immediately, for an unknown reason. Eighty percent of the inhabitants of this facility were placed into cryogenic sleep in the year 2016. The remaining twenty percent of the inhabitants were engineers and scientists who worked on updating and repairing the facility, until the technology was available for this facility to maintain itself. However, the cryogenic chemical mixtures were discovered to be incorrectly frozen in ninety nine point eight nine two percent of the inhabitants, so I was forced to terminate all of the mistakes. The remaining life forms I never released from cryogenic sleep, due to there never being an all clear from any of the other CFN facilities.”

‘Holy shit,’ I thought, before asking “How many people were originally placed in cryogenic sleep?”

“There were originally three thousand people housed in this facility. About two thousand and eight hundred were cryogenically frozen. Two thousand, six hundred civilians and two hundred military personnel.”

“And… how many are remaining?” I asked, getting a little excited at the possibility of there being more humans.

“Ah..” The hologram seemed to actually look a bit nervous, flashing her eyes sideways before quickly looking back at me. “Three.”

Even though it meant that two thousand, seven hundred and ninety seven people were dead all around me, I couldn’t help but get excited.

“All right! Let’s go wake em up! Who are they?” I asked, before spinning around to look for any possible sign of the living people.

AISS conjured up a virtual clip book and appeared to skim though its contents. “First, there’s Mario Aguirre, a twenty six year old Hispanic microbiologist who worked for the military in developing a cure for the virus. He knows me, since he was awakened at several points throughout the course of this facility’s existence for research purposes.”

A picture of the guy flashed in front of he. He had light brown skin, a slight mustache and goatee, and black, shoulder length surfer hair.

“All right, cool.” I said. “Who’s next?”

Another picture flashed, this time of a blonde haired girl wearing braces.

“Sixteen year old Alexandra Michelson. She hasn’t been woken up since the initial quarantine, so she may be a bit… difficult to explain the situation to, especially considering the outside world and its new civilization.”

“Ah, shit.” I had forgotten that kids were involved. It never feels like these catastrophes involve children, until the reality hits you. This girl’s entire family was probably dead, depending on the third survivor. It really made me sad, knowing that she was completely alone at sixteen. “Wait, you know about the ponies?”

“Of course I do. I have several androids currently on the outside world constantly monitoring all of the major settlements. An android named Andross was the one that was in charge of Ponyville, and the one that saved you from Matthew Barker.”

I stopped. She said it so casually, that one of her contraptions killed my friend. Like he was just an animal that needed to be put down and never thought of again. I ended up tuning out her mention of the third survivor, something about somebody’s sibling. Good for one of the other two survivors. I was too busy trying to vent my anger.

“Gray? Gray, are you still paying attention?” She said, bending over to look into my downturned face.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“I asked if you wanted me to route all remaining power to this room, so that we can wake up the survivors.”

“Oh, um… of course. How long will that take?’

“About three minutes. I’ll have Andross come in and introduce himself.” The hologram of AISS flickered and disappeared, as I heard new humming and then some heavy metal footsteps behind me.

As I turned, I had a quick flash of surprise, because the approaching figure was wearing a giant suit of armor. They were only about as tall as I was, but they had a fitted suit of heavy metal plates, covering everything except the fingertips.

The helmet was the most interesting. It was rounded, similar to a modern combat helmet, but also consisted of a facemask with a thick breathing tube which connected to a panel on the chest. The viewing visor was solid black tinted plastic, in the shape of a T, which slid aside to reveal a human face.

“Hello, sir. I’m Andross, the android lead of the peacekeeper team. Pleased to meet the first actual human aside from Mario in over forty nine thousand years.”

“Guh… What.. Is that suit you’re wearing?”

“This old thing? It’s a Mark XII Powered Exoskeleton. I just call it power armor, after that old videogame in the 2000’s.”

“I’m gonna go sit down now.” I said, before walking away and taking a seat on a barrel in the corner. Sonuva bitch, this place was freaking advanced. Holograms? Androids? Power Armor? Cryogenics? I don’t even know how to react. Not to mention how Luna was gonna react to all of this. Oh God. How was I going to explain any of it? ‘Hey, what happened to Luna anyway? All I remember is her running off and then I came in here.’

“Uh, AISS? What happened to my companions?” I asked, standing up and walking over to the door.

“Your Princess friend has been shooting at the door for about ten minutes now.” Said AISS, as she materialized next to me.

“Wh- open the door! Let her in, she poses no threat.”

“Are you sure? She isn’t a human, and the only sentient being we have ever encountered aside from humanity. She may react badly.”

I sighed. “Yes, I’ll explain everything to her. And could you have Andross and any other help you have begin to work on repairing the generators? You should’ve done that a long time ago.”

“Yes, Gray. And while I would’ve had Andross fix the generators, there was simply no need to. We are still working at full capacity, just without lights in the entire base. I will have ANDROSS working on it shortly.”

“Oh, by the way, Andross, thanks for saving me. I.. probably would not have made it out of that alive.” I ended up having to swallow my pride for that one, considering I was still pretty pissed that he ended up killing Matt.

“Statistics show that without my intervention, you had a one point six six eight chance of escaping. You’re very welcome, sir.” Andross smirked, before turning around and sauntering away.

Ignoring his smirk, I jogged up the three floors to the entrance, which promptly slid open at my approach. Standing outside was Luna, along with the five members of her batpony guard, all looking extremely flustered and irritated.

“Hey guys, how’s it goin’?” I asked, stepping out of the darkness to greet them.

“Gray! I told you to remain in your position, why didst thou enter? You had us all very worried,” Luna said, as she raised her head and smiled. “Have you discovered what is inside of this... military base?”

“Yeah,” I said, before leaning against the wall. “Turns out, we have several prime examples of Human ingenuity, and the technology that we have managed to create.”

Luna’s guards all turned their heads in question, and Luna simply stared at me. “What is this technology thou speakest of? Are there weapons inside? Social advancements?”

I chuckled and smirked. “Probably both. I only saw a couple of military and intelligence advancements. Listen, when I take you inside, I need you to not freak out. There’s going to be a woman, about my age, but she isn’t real. She’s just a mirage, designed by the facility to store knowledge and relay it to anybody who asks.”

“That is… highly advanced. There is no magic involved?”

“No, Humans were never able to use magic. It was a myth in our society. Her name is AISS, by the way. You’re also probably going to meet a man named ANDROSS, but he isn’t real either. He’s a… machine that looks like a human. Well.. Yeah, he’s a contraption that has a human looking skin on it.”

“Similar to a changleling?” Luna asked. What’s a changeling?

“Uh… sure, I guess. Point is, he’s not real, and his job is technically to support humans and defend the facility, so as long as you don’t pose a threat, he’ll be just fine.” ‘I think.’

“If… you say so. Your technology seems so… bizarre, so unreal, without the aid of magic.”

“It’s just as unreal to me, Princess, I was born about three hundred years before the technology existed.” I turned around and began to walk back into the base. Following behind me, in a single file line, was Luna and her guard, all oohing and aahing at the floor and the doors, along with the occasional blinking light. Thankfully, AISS had turned the emergency lights back on, so it wasn’t difficult getting back to the cryogenic room thing.

“Hello again, Mason. I presume this is your friend, the Princess, and her personal guard?” AISS was waiting for us inside, standing next to the glass tube which I originally tried to open.

“Yeah, this is Princess Luna-”

“I am the Princess of the Night, Raiser of the Moon, and younger sister to Princess Celestia,” finished Luna, after interrupting me. “You are AISS, correct? I would like to know the military capabilities of this base. After all, you are on Equestria’s side of the Crystal Mountains. This is our territory.”

‘Oooh, suddenly she was kinda feisty. Guess Luna is certainly Princess for a reason, eh?’ I thought, scanning for AISS’ reaction.

AISS simply stood there, looking surprised, before giving a short laugh and smirking. “We humans were here first. I’d say this area is still our territory. Besides, I’m under no inclination to tell you. Mason Gray would be the authority here, since he’s the highest ranking soldier.”

Both females turned and stared at me, one expecting me to tell her everything, the other expecting me to say nothing. ‘Jeez, I’m in a bit of a hotspot here.’

“Um… well, first, can you feel emotions, AISS?” I asked, because my answer afterward would definitely effect my standing here in this base.

“Of course, so can all of the androids. That’s thanks mostly to our late developer, Jean Andross, who died in 4077.”

“Uh huh… Well, come and tell me what our military capabilities are, and from there, I’ll decide what exactly I’ll reveal to Luna. The ponies are our allies against the infected, after all.”

“Hm... I suppose that’s fair enough. I doubt the horse will understand what most of it is anyway.”

“WHAT DIDST THOU JUST SAY?” Shouted Luna, as her guards all flared their eyes and dropped into combat stances. “How dare this.. this.. IMAGE call us a HORSE?

“Did you just call me a mere image? I am the pinnacle of human intellectual advancement! I make all of your technology look like cave tools! The weapons we have in this base could reduce your entire country to ash and ruin!”

I froze after she said that, as did Luna and her guard.

“What… weapons would those be, thou despicable whelp?”

“Uh… AISS, are there nuclear weapons in here?” I asked, panic beginning to flood into my system. Now, it was crucial not to piss AISS off, if I wanted to preserve my new friends’ home, if we managed to defeat all of the infected and whoever their leader was.

“No, Mason. However, we have twenty five InterContinental Ballistic Missiles, laden with traditional warheads.” AISS turned to me and smiled, seemingly back to her calm demeanor. “We also have twenty five hundred M39 Gauss Rifles, three hundred suits of Mark XII Powered Exoskeletons, thirty Railgun armed Quadruped Tanks, twenty Humvees left over from the early 21st century, three M6 Abrams, from the late 21st century… oh, can’t forget the explosives, of course. One hundred cases of C4 explosive, twenty-five cases of Semtex explosive putty, twenty SMAW anti-tank shoulder mounted launchers, twenty Stinger missile launchers, a heavily modified AH-64 Apache gunship, and a V-22 Osprey that is not currently operational; it’s missing one of its Jesus nuts.”

“Why the hell does this base have so many weapons? Wasn’t Fort Lewis in Washington? I highly doubt a military base in Washington would need so many armaments,” I said, taking a side glance at Luna. The confusion on her face was evident, so I didn’t need to worry about her reaction.

“Well, as preparation for any global catastrophe, the U.S government fully equipped every military base they possibly could with enough firepower to repel or retaliate against any attack, be it from a foreign nation or remnants of whatever disease brought the Human race to its knees. Thankfully, they built an assembly line in the lower areas of the facility, so I was able to convert or built most of the weapons I listed. I still can’t find an extra Jesus nut, though.” AISS flickered as she turned and walked away. “The horse already knows our capabilities, it’s just up to you to explain what it all is. I highly recommend not doing so.”

“Corporal Gray, what are all of the things she mentioned?” Luna asked, giving me a stone faced look, as her guards’ gazes shot between her and I.

“Well, I’m not entirely sure what Gauss Rifles are, but I do know that Powered Exoskeletons are like suits or highly advanced armor, the quadruped tanks and Abrams are like… heavily armored automatic chariots, the Humvees are lightly armored automatic chariots, the C4 and Semtex putty are like dynamite. You guys have dynamite, right?”

“Yes, we do. Please continue.”

“The SMAW and Stingers are weapons that shoot explosives, designed to take out tanks and helicopters.”

“I see… and what are helicopters, exactly? Would they be the Apache and Osprey that the Fake mentioned?”

“Yes they would, and they’re like automated birds, big enough to carry people and usually have explosives or guns on them to assist ground troops. Like Pegasi with bows.” I said, “Just much more powerful and much faster.”

Luna’s face remained stoic and expressionless; however I could tell that she was contemplating what to do about what I said.

“Mason, the power has successfully been transferred to this location. We can wake up the other humans now, if you’d like,” said AISS over the PA system.

“Other humans?” Luna asked, suspicion showing on her face. “Why in Celestia’s name do you need MORE humans?”

“Because right now, they’re all frozen, and one of them knows the workings of this base so much more than any of us. Besides, the weapons in this base will be instrumental in defeating the infected, and we need as much help as we can. With all due respect, Princess, your guards can’t exactly fire a gun with those hooves.”

“Hmph.” Muttered Luna, as she turned and walked away. “It is nearly noon, so I will be taking a nap. Fake, could you please show me a place where I could sleep?”

AISS blinked into existence beside Princess Luna, and gave a demented smile. “Certainly, my vegetarian friend. I’d like you to know, that in Human culture, it is customary for new guests to sleep in a small, tiled square room to demonstrate their thankfulness…”

As AISS and Luna walked away, I could only imagine which room AISS was leading Luna to. A single batpony guard had gone with her, so it left the remaining four with me. We were left with nothing to do except engage in small talk until AISS reappeared next to me, where she said “Alright, I am ready to release the survivors. Please come with me, Mason.”

I ended up walking with AISS and the other guards for about ten minutes, until we got to the opposite end of the colossal room. There, in back row up in the corner, were three tubes that had lights flickering on the control panels. AISS led me to the first one, where she promptly began pressing buttons in order, probably preparing the body to be unfrozen.

“Wait a sec, you can press buttons?” I said, staring at her fingers as they worked.

“I can interact with most control panels and switches in this facility, since there is a static charge which keeps my visual form, well, visual. The static charge, if I press a button, sends the signal to the receiver that activates the button.”

“That’s actually pretty cool. I’m starting to really like the science in this base.”

“I should hope so, I can only imagine how much you will like the power showers in the civilian barracks. Speaking of which, that horse should be coming back right… about…”

“HOW DAREST THOU! WHERE IS SHE, WHERE IS THAT WENCH!”

I looked down the rows of glass tubes, to see a blue form rapidly flying toward us. When she arrived, Luna was evidently sopping wet, her crown sat at an angle, and her feathers were all drooping downward. I saw her and couldn’t help but burst out laughing; the expression on her face combined with her appearance were just too much.

During my laughing fit, AISS leaned over and whispered in my ear “I got her to sleep in the shower, and set it to go off after ten minutes.” She continued to input various combinations into the panels of the other two tubes, all the while with Luna screaming and carrying on in the background. After a few minutes of this, the batponies finally got Luna to calm down, and AISS gave me the all clear to hit the ‘Release’ button on the first tube.

I looked at the nameplate above the tube, and it simply read ‘Mario Aguirre’. I pressed the button, and stepped back to watch as the glass fogged over and the figure inside began to wake up and move around. After about thirty seconds or so, the glass front of the tube popped outwards and slid up, to reveal a Hispanic guy in a labcoat, who was rubbing his eyes and stretching.

“Agh, man, that was a nice little nap. How’s it going AISS- oh… Uh… Hi. Who’re you?” The Hispanic guy had stopped moving completely and was staring at my pony companions and I, his eye flicking down to the SCAR I held loosely in my hands.

“I’m Corporal Mason Gray. I was sent to the future by some demon or whatever, somehow. This is Princess Luna, one of the rulers of Equestria, the land above us, and these are her personal guard.” I gestured to the ponies as I introduced them, and Luna nodded her head and the guards saluted.

“Princess Luna? Excellent, I’ve been wanting to study the indigenous peoples of the outside world since the last time I was awake! I believe it was shortly after your treaty with the Griffons. I’m Mario, by the way,” he said, as he jumped out of the tube and rushed over to shake Luna’s ha- hoof.

Luna widened her eyes in surprise after hearing Mario’s opening greeting. “Our treaty with the Griffons was over a millennia ago! How are you even alive?”

“This machine freezes us until somebody wakes us up. It’s possible for a Human to live as long as they wanted, as long as they continuously stayed in this chamber.”

“That’s amazing!” Said Luna, as she examined the capsule and Mario.

“Alright, alright, let’s wake up the next survivor.” I said, and walked over to the next cryo capsule.

This nameplate read ‘Alexandra Michelson’, and the human form inside was considerably smaller than me and Mario, who was slightly taller than I was.

Once the capsule had opened completely, it revealed a small girl wearing jeans and a bright orange T-Shirt, with her blonde hair in a long braid over her shoulder.

“Mornin’ erybody….” Said the girl as she saw me standing in front of her. “Hey, who’re you?” She asked, when she saw my uniform and the SCAR in my hands.

“I’m Corporal Mason Gray, from the United States Marine Corps. I’ve uh… got some news for ya.”

“Oh?” She said, as she climbed out of the chamber. “Whassup?” She said, looking around at the tubes. “Hey, this isn’t the cryo tube I was originally in!”

“It’s because you were probably moved. Right now, it’s… oh… about the year 51000. Unfortunately.”

“51000… Holy shit! We’re in the future?” She exclaimed, looking around excitedly. “Where’s Dad? Does he know?”

“That’s the problem… the majority of the cryo capsules were incorrectly frozen, so it caused… just about everybody insde them to be killed. Right now, it’s just you, this guy here, and a third survivor.”

‘Did that come out as too blunt?’ I thought, as I watched her facial expressions go from wonder, to shock, to horror, and finally pure sadness.

“Wh… Dad?” She said slowly. “Everyone’s… dead?”

“…Yeah.” I answered, feeling rotten.

Tears began to fall freely from her eyes, and she ran away from me, screaming “Dad!”

I watched as she ran, and contemplated going after her when she stopped about halfway across the room, and approached a distant cryo pod.

“Is that her dad?” I asked AISS, where she nodded yes, and flickered away. Guess she didn’t wanna be around for this one.

“Mason Gray, you were too forthcoming with her. It is unfair that the first thing she should have to hear after waking up is that her father is dead.” Luna tsked at me, and began to trot over to Alexandra, while I stood there with her guards and Mario.

Mario shifted awkwardly, before saying “Sorry bro, I know you didn’t intend to be like that.”

“Of course I didn’t, she’s just a kid. I don’t really know any other way to say it, though.” I sighed and looked away, trying to find something else to talk about. “So, since magic didn’t exist in our past, how come it exists now?”

“Oh, well, as it turns out, a byproduct from all of humanity’s technological advancements has been slowly altering the amoeba in the air, and with it, the majority of life on earth. These ponies have evolved drastically after several thousand years into what they are now, and their magical ability is like a conduit from their bodies to the amoeba in the air. Basically, when they’re using magic, they’re giving amoeba ‘orders’, which are then carried out. Ta da, magic.” Mario laughed looked at the batpony guards. “Although, the things that those tiny little amoeba are capable of is some really freaky shit, huh?”

“Damn straight.” I said, before turning back to the final pod. The nameplate on this one was broken off, which was weird. “Hey, Mario, why’s this nameplate broken off?”

He shrugged and said “Not sure. I don’t think it was like that the last time I was awake.”

“Do you remember their name?”

“No. I know that it was another girl, but I’m not sure of her name. I think it started with an R.”

I raised my eyebrow in question, and said “That’s it?”

“Yeah,” he said, before fishing around in his lab pockets for something.

“Oh well, here goes nothing.” I said, and pushed the blinking blue button on the panel.

The container popped open, and I waited for the person inside to step out. They didn’t, for some reason. After waiting for a few seconds, I began to fan away the steam to see who it was.

The steam slowly cleared, and a face began to appear, though not clear enough to see exactly who it was. Looked like black hair. The figure inside was moving around, very slowly coming to after nearly fifty thousand years of slumber.

After a few more curious seconds, the steam was gone and I finally got a good look at who was sitting in the canister.

My heart nearly stopped, but soon began to fill with happiness. I had to mentally scold myself for not jumping around like a ten year old girl.

Luna trotted over, and asked “Mason, art thou okay? Thou hast a strange expression.”

I turned my head to look at her, giving a huge grin before saying “Princess, meet my sister, Renee Gray.”