Crosswindsby RockdioChaptersOneTwoThreeFourOneSeptember 26, 2013 100 kilometers south of Bermuda “What a nice day to fly. Hardly a cloud in the sky, hardly any wind, light load, shame this bird can’t do any fancy maneuvers.” Lieutenant Commander Reginald Hawkins thought to himself. He was flying an MH-60R Seahawk, while it didn’t have the maneuverability of an AH-1Z, the Seahawk was a nice helicopter. “Good day for a cruise Blackjack,” said his co-pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Samuel Mackenzie. “It’ll make it easy to land on the deck.” “True, at least it isn’t pitch black, with a 15 knot cross wind across the deck.” “Oh god, don’t remind me.” Hawkins remembered that one particular landing. What Mackenzie forgot to mention was the ten foot seas as well. After two unsuccessful attempts to land, their third was a little rough. And by a little, it was more like the ship decided that they needed to be on the deck then and there, and rose up to meet them. Broke one of the landing the tail landing gear, and fractured the strut on the left one." “Hey Chief,” called their crew chief, Warrant Officer Robert Michaels, “How’d you get your callsign anyway?” Hawkins laughed a bit. His crew chief was new, so he let it slide. Before he could say anything though, Mackenzie spoke, “Well it’s kind of a long story.” “Oh here we go,” moaned Hawkins. “One night at a bar, he and a bunch of his friends were having a few drinks.” “So called ‘friends’ I should mention, Mackenzie.” “Yeah yeah. Anyway, so he’s out with his friends, right? Well, one of his friends spots some good lookin’ girls over at another table. So he says, ‘Hey, let’s go hook up with those cuties.’, ‘Ain’t enough of ‘em to go around bro.” says another.” Hawkins sighed, Mackenzie was always so eager to tell this story, since he found it so damn funny for some reason. He ignored the story and went back to the instrument panel. ‘Yup, still looking good.’ He brought his eyes up and scanned the sky, ‘Doesn’t get much better than this, man.’ He thought. While they were flying in the Mid-Atlantic, and it was hurricane season, there wasn’t anything in the forecast for bad weather. Hell, he almost wanted a storm to brew up just to make it interesting. “So Hawkins here goes, ‘Well if you can beat me in a game of Blackjack, then she’s all yours my friend.’, ‘Alright, you got a deck?’” “And I go,” he added, “’Why yes I do.’ So I reach into my breast pocket, and grab this very deck from it.” as he says this, he reaches into his left breast pocket of his flight suit and grabs a deck of cards. “You still have those damn things?” “Hey now, don’t be rude. This deck of mine has helped me out in many occasions. Which is why they call me ‘Blackjack’” “Aww, you ruined the story.” “Wasn’t much of a story to tell Mackenzie. Besides,” he returned the deck to his pocket, “while I did win the game, gal was smart enough to know that I was only looking for a good lay that night and didn’t want the same.” “That’s now what I heard Chief.” “Doesn’t make it the truth Mackenzie. Besides, there was this one time-“ “Sir,” called Michaels, “were we supposed to get any storms in the area?” “No, why?” curious, he turned his head to look at his crew chief, and as he did so, he saw the blackest clouds he had ever seen in his flying career off to their right. “Holy hell, where did that come from?!” said Mackenzie, his voice a bit nervous. “Heck if I know Mackenzie, whatever it is, doesn’t look good. Iwo Jima on the line, see if they know anything about where the hell this came from.” “Yes sir!” Warrant Officer Mackenzie reached for the radio controls, and tuned it to the frequency that their chip, the USS Iwo Jima used. “Iwo Jima this is Charlie two-six.” He paused. “This is Charlie two-six calling Iwo Jima” He waited again, and called twice more. “Sir, they’re not responding.” “Hey Chief, I’d hate to bring more bad news, but that storm is starting to come our way.” “What do you mean? Like, at us, or in our general direction?” “Looks a whole lot like at us sir.” “Shit, this is not going to be pretty.” Almost as soon as he said that, the helicopter was buffeted by winds, almost knocking the stick out of his hands. “What the hell! For a small storm, it packs a freaking wallop!” He grabbed the stick, and strained his muscles to keep the stick from jarring out of his grip “Shut up and let me fly Mackenzie!” As the winds continued to howl and buffet the helicopter, Hawkins strained every muscle in his arms and legs to keep his aircraft straight and level. They had another forty minutes to go until they got to Iwo Jima. But at this rate, it may take a lot longer if the winds kept up. “Keep trying to raise Iwo Jima, tell her that we are having some issu-“ An intense flash of light and a thunderous crack interrupted him before he could say anything else. The aircraft suddenly lost power, and began to spin out of control in the wind. “Shit! I’ve lost all power, controls aren’t responding!” Mackenzie already had the radio keyed, “Mayday, mayday! This is Charlie two-six. We’ve lost power and are going down! We’re 100 klicks south-west of Bermuda headed east, bearing zero-seven-six. Mayday, mayday!” Mackenzie kept repeating the mayday call. But something bothered Hawkins. The entire sky was black now, and he couldn’t see the ocean beneath them. And he was pretty damn sure that they were over an ocean when this storm picked up. Just then, the sky cleared up beneath them, and he saw what looked like to be green fields beneath them, and rising very fast to meet them. “Hang on boys!” he shouted, “We’re going in hard!” The last thing he saw was the green fields, before everything went black. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Pain, that was the first thing he felt. ‘Good,’ he thought, ‘pain means that I am alive, and I am not dead. Yet.’ He blinked and tried to open his eyes. First thing he saw was a dark blur. But as his vision cleared, he saw the inside of the cockpit, and the instrument panel directly in front of him. ‘Oh good, I didn't get ejected from the helicopter.’ He struggled to turn his head to his right to see how his co-pilot had fared. He wished he hadn’t. Mackenzie’s face was bloodied, but his neck was twisted at an odd angle. What was worse was the tree limb that was impaled through his chest from the front wind-screen. His flight suit was dark, soaked with his own blood. As he looked around, he saw that there was indeed a tree directly in front of the helicopter. And that a second branch had missed him by scant inches. He tried to open his door, but it was broken, and refused to budge. Hawkins looked around again, and saw that the side door had broken away. It was then that he saw the smoke. “Aww crap.” Being in a crashed helicopter was one thing. Being in a crashed helicopter that was on fire was another thing entirely. And something that he wanted to get the hell away from. As he struggled to get his harness released, he heard his crew chief groan. ‘Crap, I almost forgot about the kid.’ He finally got his harness released, and went back to his crew chief. He quickly looked him over and saw that he was beat up pretty bad. “Damn, kid.” He said “Let’s get you out of there.” Michaels’ harness was easier to release, and he quickly dragged Michaels from the helicopter. Once outside he could see the full extent of the crash. The helicopter had crashed at the edge of a field, near a wooded area. The nose of the aircraft was crumpled like a wad of paper. The landing skids were shoved into the airframe, the tail had sheared off, and was lying on its side fifty meters behind the aircraft. Almost all of the rotor blades had sheared off, save the one still attached to the assembly and embedded into the trunk of the tree that the helicopter was stopped by. Thankfully, for the time being, there was to seeable fire, but there was smoke billowing out of the engine. Reverting to his training, he dragged Michaels to a nearby tree and propped him up against its trunk. In doing so, he realized that he too did not escape from the crash unscathed. He could not walk without a limp in his left leg as well he noticed that his right side hurt immensely. Still, he went as quickly as he could to the aft end of the helicopter, and retrieved what he could from the baggage compartment. He returned to Michaels, and broke out the medical kit. Through rudimentary, he did what he could to patch him up. He bandaged the cuts that he could see, but worried that there may be internal bleeding. And if there was, Michaels didn’t have a lot of time. He then worked on himself. Besides the limp, which he couldn’t do anything about, the pain in his side was from what felt like, a broken rib. That was also bad, but the kit did have some anti-inflammatory pills, which he took two of. As he did this, the reality of the situation clicked into place. “How the hell,” he muttered, “Did we get here?” He tried to remember what happened. ‘Flying over the ocean, headed back to the USS Iwo Jima. Storm out of nowhere. Aircraft lost power. Landed…in a field?’ “Now that can’t be right, no matter how weird it sounds.” He said to himself. "I better have not landed in Oz of all things." He then heard voices. He couldn’t tell who they were from, but they sounded very excited. He quickly checked his gear. survival kits, as well as his 9mm pistol, and three spare magazines. He stowed the gear back in the bag, holstered his pistol, and dragged Michaels farther into the woods. Hawkins swore to himself. He should have been paying attention to his surroundings, and remembered his training. Get as far away from the aircraft after you crash. Make sure you’re safe first. Michael groaned the whole way to another tree, this time propped up against it, facing away from where they came. Hawkins crouched by a tree not too far from Michaels. As the voices got closer, he also heard the sound of several hooves. ‘Horses,’ he thought, ‘great. That just makes it a whole lot better if they’re not friendly.’ He could hear six voices, a smart sounding one, a quiet one, a loud and obnoxious one, a cheery one, one that had what sounded like a southern drawl, and one that sounded sort of ‘posh’. While his head told him not to do it, he leaned and tried to get a good look at who were at the crash site. And then his day just got a whole new level of weirder. He quickly retreated behind the tree and tried to put sense into what he just saw. He saw six, what he thought were, ponies. Four were on the ground, the other two were…flying? Not to mention the colors. Purple, blue, yellow, white, orange, was that one wearing a cowboy hat?… And pink?! But there were no humans, or anything humanoid for that matter. So logically the voices had to be coming from the ponies. He stuck his head around the tree to get another look. “Ponies? Talking ponies?! Christ almighty, what kind of freaking world did we get ourselves into?” Just then, Michaels began to cough uncontrollably, spurting up blood as he did so. ‘Shit. Not only does he have internal bleeding, but those…things are going to hear-‘ “Hey, shh! Do you hear that?” “I think it came from the forest!” ‘Him. Crap.’ He went over his options quickly. He could leave his crew chief behind and escape on his own. He could try to escape with him, but with his condition he doubted that Michaels would last much longer anyways. Or he could stay and see what these…ponies wanted. But he was in a strange place, and had no idea who was going to be nice to him, or what they could do. As they approached, he made his decision. He left. Author's Note To anyone reading this with any military background, I would greatly appreciate any assistance you can lend on any mistakes I make regarding military matters, I would greatly appreciate the assistance as I am civilian, not military. Thanks again! TwoOne hour earlier… “What an absolutely fabulous day, isn’t girls?” asked Rarity. She was laid back in an extravagant beach chair by the edge of a pond. The girls had taken the day off, and had decided that lounging at their favorite swimming hole and have a picnic would make this a great day to relax. Applejack was done her chores for the day, Rarity had caught up on her orders, Fluttershy had made sure that all of the animals in her stead had their needs taken care of, Rainbow Dash didn’t really have anything going on that day, and Pinkie Pie…Well she always had time for her friends. Twilight Sparkle had packed the lunch, and instructed Spike to keep an eye on Owlicious while she was gone. Applejack nodded in agreement. “Darn tootin’! It’s nice to get away from the farm once in a while.” “Isn’t this great guys? I just love spending the day with you all! I mean, I love spending time with you all individually, but together, it’s like five times, no, tentimes better!” Pinkie pie bounced around the girls as they lay by the pond. All except Rainbow Dash, who took the opportunity to show off her diving skills from the swing, “Hey, check this out!” Rainbow Dash held the end of the rope between her teeth, she walked backwards until the rope was taut. The others gathered around to watch the spectacle that would be. Rainbow, making sure that they were watching closely, then galloped full speed towards the pond. When she got close, her momentum carried her upwards as the rope swung. She then extended her wings and flapped as hard as she could, gaining more momentum. Before the rope began to wind itself back onto the branch, she stopped her wings, and let go of the rope, letting her momentum carry her upwards into the sky. When she reached the zenith of her climb, she began to do increasingly difficult aerobatics as she fell towards the water. Spins, twists, loops, and a whole manner of others as she plummeted towards the water. “Oh dear,” exclaimed Fluttershy, “I hope she knows what she is doing.” “She does seem to be putting a little more flair into this than she normally does.” added Rarity. Rainbow Dash added one more twist before curling up into a ball and shouting, “Cannon ball!” just before she landed in the pond. A stream of water billowed upwards. Suddenly Rainbow Dash sprang back out of the water, and plowed through the pillar of water, shattering it, and spreading a curtain of water droplets over the pond. The water droplets caught the light, and formed a rainbow over the water. Rainbow Dash arced over the pond, and completed a loop around the water formed rainbow, a trail of color forming in her wake. “That. Was. Amazing!” Pinkie began to do her impression of Rainbow’s dive, “First she was all like spinning and twisting around and around and around! Then she went sploosh, into the water! Then she went whamo, right through that column of water! Then she went neeooow, up and around the rainbow! Which is awesome because she is Rainbow Dash, and she made a loop around anotherrainbow that she made with her amazing trick!” “Whooee partner,” cheered Applejack, “that was some performance you put on there!” Rainbow Dash hovered above the ensemble and bowed to each of them, “Thank you, thank you. Just all in a day’s work for such a talented pony like myself.” “It was quite the stunt you pulled of there Rainbow Dash,” added Rarity, “ Though I daresay that I’d much rather be relaxing on the beach and working on my tan, thank-you-very-much.” She grabbed her reflector and laid back in her beach chair. Just then, a thunderous crack echoed across the land, startling the ponies from their relaxation. “What on earth was that!” exclaimed Rarity, her reflector fell from her hooves in her shock. Applejack looked around and saw a dark storm cloud a short distance away from them. “That might be the cause of the thunder. Rainbow Dash, I thought you took care of ‘em all today!” “I did!” she glared angrily at the growing storm cloud, “I don’t know how this one came along. I’ll go take care of it!” “Wait a minute Rainbow, I see something else.” said Twilight. As she spoke, a large object appeared out of the cloud. It was large, and somewhat bulbous on one end, then tapered to a long, slender shaft that split at the other end. The object also seemed to have something attached to the top of it, but the distance made it too hard to tell. The object seemed to be out of control, twisting and spiraling as it fell towards the ground. “What in tarnation is that?” asked Applejack. “I don’t know,” Twilight responded, “I’ve never seen anything like that before.” The storm dissipated as quickly as it had appeared, just before the object was lost from sight behind a hilltop. Shortly thereafter, a column of smoke could be seen rising from behind the hilltop. “Whatever it is, I want to find out. Come on girls.” Twilight sped off, leading the five others towards the column of smoke, and the mystery of what the object could be. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ It took over half an hour to reach the impact site, as they crested the last hill they stopped to look upon the scene. There was a fifty foot long, one foot deep trench that terminated at the object they had previously seen. The object was much different when they first saw it. They first saw that the object was now in several pieces. The smaller section had separated away from the main body of the object. At the top of the object, they clearly saw that there was something on top of it. Or rather, was something on top of it. Smoke was billowing from its top, but they didn’t know about the source. “Oh my, I hope nothing was hurt.” said Fluttershy. “This is very strange.” said Twilight. “Let’s take a closer look.” Twilight and the girls made their way down towards the crash site. As they drew near, they came across an unbearable stench. “Dear Celestia, what is that stench?” Rarity retched at the smell. “It is absolutely unbearable.” “Ah’ve never smelled something as bad as this.” added Applejack, “Manure doesn’t smell half as bad as whatever that it. Rainbow Dash made her way to the front of the object that had stopped at a tree. “Uhh guys, I think I found what’s making that stench.” Applejack got their first, ahead of the other girls. “Oh dear, Fluttershy don’t come around here. Ain’t somethin’ you wanna see. Pinkie, you too darlin’.” Fluttershy and Pinkie did as they were told and stayed behind as the others went around front. Everyone gasped audibly, Rarity nearly fainted at the sight. They first saw a creature that they’ve never seen before seated inside the object. Twilight thought it was a craft of some kind judging by the design, and the fact that there was a creature inside of it. However, she didn’t believe that it was alive . “Whatever that thing is, don’t look like it survived the crash.” Applejack said quietly, taking off her hat. Fluttershy looked around the craft, and spotted a trail of flattened grass leading from the craft into the forest. “Umm, girls. I think I found somethi-“ “What’dya suppose that thing in there could be?” Applejack asked. “Hay if I know Applejack.” Rainbow Dash replied, “Never seen something so…weird in my life.” “I don’t think it’s supposed to look like that normally Rainbow Dash,” Twilight answered. She gestured towards what she believed to be its head. “My guess is that the…thing had its neck broken on impact with the ground.” Then she saw the tree branch that had impaled the craft, and the creature’s abdomen. “Or that tree branch.” She said sullenly. “Either way, we won’t be finding out about it.” Undeterred, Fluttershy tried to speak again.“Umm girls, I don’t mean to interrupt, but I found some-“ This time she was interrupted by a loud series of coughs that emanated from the forest nearby. “Hey, shh! Do you hear that?” said Rainbow Dash “I think it came from the forest!” replied Twilight. The girls sped off into the forest to find the source of the coughing. Three“Shit, and I thought you were the light one Michaels.” Hawkins grunted as he shifted the weight of his co-pilot on his shoulders. His conscious immediately began to plague him as soon as he took his first steps away from his crew chief. He hadn’t gone farther than twenty feet before he swore to himself, and turned around to get him. Now, fearing his security, he was trotting as fast as he could with his injuries and the combined weight of his crew chief and their gear on his shoulders. Which was not easy, as his crew chief weighed a measly 190lbs, and the gear was only another twenty on top of that. Normally, such a feat would be taxing on him, but with the added boost from the adrenaline pumping through his veins, he was having a much better time at it. He just hoped it would last long enough to lose the trailing…ponies. ‘Shit, what kind of weird Oz did we end up in Michaels?’ he though as he crashed through the underbrush. He had initially gained a lot of ground on the six of them, they seemed to hesitate entering the forest for some reason, he only briefly heard the name, or so he thought. Everfree Forest, or something like that. He wasn't sure what lay ahead for him, but if it kept the ponies behind him at bay, then it was all the better for him. Unfortunately, their initial hesitation was only temporary, most of it seemed to stem from the yellow colored one with wings. Wings*, he still couldn’t understand why some of them looked like Pegasus. He also saw that two of them had what looked like horns on them. Not quite sharp enough to gore someone, as far as he could tell. But what other purpose they had, he couldn’t gather, nor did he care at this point as he continued the trek deeper into the forest. ________________________________________________________________________________________ One hundred yards behind him, Twilight and the others continued their trek into Everfree Forest, following the trail left of the retreating creature from the crash site. The thickness of the brush prevented them from venturing at a great pace. Thankfully, the creature that they followed left an easy to follow trail deeper and deeper into the forest. Applejack lead the group as she looked for signs of the creature’s path. She stopped at a bush and inspected the broken branches. “Looks like they went this way. Come on y’all, can’t be too far ahead now.” “We’d have caught up by now if somepony wasn’t so scared of the forest.” Rainbow Dash muttered. She looked over her shoulder at Fluttershy who was trying her best to not tremble with fear of being in the forest. Twilight glared at Rainbow Dash, “She has every right to be scared of the forest Rainbow Dash. We’ve gone through a lot of scary things in the Everfree forest.” Rainbow Dash sighed, “Yeah, I guess.” “Ugh, I still don’t know why we have to go trudging through the forest after some creature that we know nothing about, Twilight.” Rarity complained, careful to avoid the branches of the bushes and trees as they continued forth as to not ruin her perfect hair, yet again. “That’s precisely the point though,” she answered, ducking to avoid a low hanging branch, “This is quite possibly a new creature that no one in Equestria has ever seen the likes of. On top of that, it may be injured from the crash, and may need our help. The least we could do is to offer our assistance.” “Which so far it seems keen on keepin’ away from us.” Applejack added as she saw what looked like the footprint of the creature they were chasing. “Lookee here, it’s footprint is over twice the size of our hooves!” “Oh my,” Fluttershy whimpered, “maybe we shouldn’t bother helping it, if it’s such a large creature.” “Come on Fluttershy, you’ve helped out much larger creatures before. Like Mr. Bearington!” said Pinkie Pie. “Oh, he doesn’t like being called Mr. Bearington. Mr. Bearington was his grandfather.” Applejack stopped and inspected a fallen tree limb in front of her, “Looks like it tripped here and fell. Come on, we should be able to catch up now!” There she saw the footprint in the mud, twisted in front of the tree limb, and beyond it, a mass of ferns and saplings had been crushed by a large object. A few had been ripped up by its feet it seems, trying to get back on its feet. _________________________________________________________________________________________ ‘Shit, should have been watching where I was going, instead of trying to look out for them.’ Hawkin’s swore to himself as he lumbered on with Michaels on his back. The stumble greatly shortened the distance between them and the ponies. His breathing became heavy and labored as the adrenaline began to wane and his strength ebbed from his muscles. His back and shouldered cried out to be relieved of the heavy burden of his comrade for a moments rest. He tried to ignore the burning sensation in his legs as they pounded through the underbrush. The forest cleared for a moment, and his hopes brightened for a brief moment. It wasn’t until he saw that the forest cleared out to reveal a wide ravine, at its bottom was a narrow river. He peered over the edge of the ravine, and tried to guess at the depth. Fifty, eighty feet down? No vines, ladders, or anything natural to use to get down there. He could try to use the rope in his survival gear, but he didn’t have the time. He could try to go around it, but he couldn’t see any way of getting across the ravine. What about the forest? He turned and gazed back into the forest from where he entered. He honestly had no idea where he was going, he just chose a direction and hoped for the best. At the very least, he could probably find his way back out with the path that he had inadvertently made. But those weird ponies were behind him, and for some reason, he feared them more than anything else right no- “Can’t be too much farther now gals, come on, the forest is starting to thin out some!” “Fuck me.” They were practically on top of him now. His mind raced. Try to slide down the ravine? No, too injured. Might end up worse than he already was. Try to go around? No, at his speed he could barely keep ahead of the ponies. His muscles ached, and weighed him down with their fatigue. He turned back and forth sluggishly, trying to decide on what to do. With little other choice, he decided on probably the stupidest thing he could do right then. He steadied Michaels with his left arm, and let his right arm go free. He reached to his holster and brought his pistol out, hanging his arm at his side. ‘This was my last tour damnit’, he thought to himself. ‘Last tour with the Navy and I would retire from military life. Spend more time with the wife and kids, go to my son’s baseball game for once, maybe my daughter’s tae-kwon-do tournament, but no. Routine training op went completely FUBAR because of a freak storm, and now I’m in the freaking land of Oz.’ He wiped the sweat that had been dripping from his forehead. “Well, so much for that.” He panted. They then emerged from the forest in front of him. First the orange one, with the cowboy hat, then the purple one, followed by the blue one, the white one, the pink and yellow one brought up the rear. He then noticed that they all had some sort of markings on their hind legs. He squinted at the orange one’s, three apples. ‘Huh, wonder what those mean?’ he then saw that they all had different markings. What they meant was lost to him right now. He raised his weapon, albeit unsteadily. Though the threat was completely lost on the six ponies. They all seemed to be at a loss as what to say as they looked upon the scene in front of them. A tired, wounded man, carrying his comrade across his shoulders with a pack of gear slung across his back, pointing a black metallic object towards them. He tried to keep his weapon steady, but his arm was not obeying his wishes. It shook and swayed with fatigue like a branch in the wind. “Hi there.” The purple one spoke, “My name is Twilight Sparkle. This is Applejack,” the orange one nodded, “Rainbow Dash,” the blue one smirked, “Rarity,” the white one flipped her purple mane with her hoof, “Fluttershy,” the yellow one tried to cover her face, “And Pinkie Pie.” The pink one bagan to bounce around with abandon, constantly smiling. “Hi there mister!” she said cheeringly. “What’cha got there on your back?” She pointed to Michaels. “Is that your friend? Is he sad? I can make him happy!” “Stay back!” he shouted, “Not one step closer!” he emphasized his right hand that held the pistol. “Wait!” Twilight cried, “We’re not going to harm you! We just want to help!” “Ha!” he scoffed, “A likely story. How am I supposed to trust multi-colored talking ponies?” he took a cautionary step backwards, inching towards the cliff edge. Twilight and the others took a step forward, “Look,” she assured, “we’re not going to hurt you. We saw your craft crash and came to investigate. We just want to make sure you’re going to be fine.” “How am I supposed to believe that?” he took another step backwards, “For all I know, you’re going to take me to some magical emerald castle and offer me a balloon ride home, if I’m that lucky!” Hawkins took another step backwards, his right foot just on the edge of the cliff, his attention now fully on the six ponies in front of him, completely unaware of his proximity to the ravine. “Hey!” the blue one yelled, “We’re just trying to help you!” Hawkins pointed his pistol at her and took another step backwards, but all his foot found was empty space. He and Michaels toppled over the edge. And the last thing he remembered was seeing the world upside down, and a purple aura forming around Michaels. ________________________________________________________________________________ ‘Pain, oh good, I’m still alive. Maybe I’m at the bottom of the gorge, lying broken and twisted on the rocks waiting for some horrid creature to eat me alive.’ Hawkin’s eyes were unable to open, so he tried to move his limbs. His legs were fine, except for his left foot, it was stiff and refused to budge, like it was in a cast. He then tried his arms, both of which refused to budge. They felt constrained, yet his hands were free to move and flex. Straps maybe? That couldn’t make sense, unless he were in a hospital. He was finally able to open his eyes. The light was bright, and blinded him for a moment, his hearing though sounded like he was underwater. ‘Drugged? Painkillers maybe?’ He then came to the conclusion that he had been captured somehow. ‘Possibly something to do with that purple aura I saw around Michaels? No, that couldn’t have been real, could it? This has to be the drug, I’m not thinking straight.’ He then noticed that the six ponies that had chased him were next to him, and that he was in fact in a hospital bed. He looked down at his arms, and saw that they were in fact, restrained. Not exactly tight, but still not allowing his arms freedom of movement. The purple one spoke first, “Sorry about the restraints, we didn’t know how you would react when you woke up, so we asked the doctor to at least restrain your arms.” “Ya’ll took a mighty tumble there.” The orange one added, “If it wasn’t for Twilight here, ya’ll would have fallen in the river. And we would’ve have hard a hard time tryin’ to get you out then.” “I still had a hard time trying to rescue you two. Unfortunately you both hit a few rocks before I could stop you two.” Twilight said. “You weren’t trying to go sledding were you?” the pink one smiled, “It’s not even winter time silly! Unless you wanted to go mud sliding. But mud sliding usually involves a lot more water than dirt. But I suppose there was a lot of water in the river. But how were you-“ “Pinkie!” the one called Twilight interrupted. “Oops, sorry.” Pinkie grinned sheepishly. “Now, if you can would you like to tell us your name?” she asked, leaning forward expectantly. Hawkins looked from one pony to the other, still unsure of what their motives were. Or if they had any. Until he could determine that, he knew exactly what he would say to them, “My name is Lieutenant Commander Reginald Hawkins, service number 524-06-9273, born June 17th, 1970.” “Loo-tenant Commander Regenawld Hawkins?” Pinkie laughed, “That’s a silly name mister.” “It’s probably a military title, judging from the clothing he has.” Twilight added. “What about the numbers?” asked the blue one. “Doesn’t make any sense to me.” “Probably something to do with the military as well, Rainbow Dash. Some sort of identification number. What purpose it has, I don’t know.” While the ponies went back and forth about his answer, Hawkins tried to gauge their personalities. The purple one, Twilight, was easily the smartest one of the six. Book smart anyway, the Pinkie one was bubbly and constantly happy, Rarity seemed a bit pretentious. ‘Kind of like my Mother-in-law.’ He thought wryly to himself. Fluttershy seemed shy, and soft spoken. ‘Kind of like my little girl before she discovered martial arts.’ Applejack definitely worked on a farm of some kind, judging by the accent alone, the hat probably had something to do with it as well, he thought. Rainbow Dash was easily the tomboy of the six, aggressive and full of bravado. ‘Probably all talk and no show.’, he thought to himself. The conversation started to wind down, and Twilight looked back to him before she asked another question, “Alright Commander Hawkins, where are you from?” His reply was swift, “My name is Lieutenant Commander Reginald Hawkins, service number 524-06-9273, born June 17th, 1970.” “Uhh, you already said that. I was asking where you were from.” Twilight gave her best grin, hoping that he just misheard her question. But he repeated the same answer again. Undeterred, she tried several other questions, from family, to what his land is like, how old he was. On and on she went, until she became increasingly frustrated. “Ugh! This is going no where!” “Umm, Twilight,” Fluttershy stepped forward sheepishly, seemingly embarrassed at interrupting Twilight, “Maybe he just doesn’t want to talk right now. Maybe we should come back at a later time.” Twilight looked at her, and sighed in resignation, “I supposed you’re right Fluttershy.” She turned towards the door, “Come on girls, let’s leave him alone for a bit.” “Twilight,” Fluttershy added, “Maybe we should get his arms out of those restraints. Just in case, you know, he wants to eat or something.” Twilight looked at her for a moment, and then to Hawkins, her eyes trying to discern if he would try something drastic. She turned back towards Fluttershy, “Alright, but we’ll have the doctor’s keep an eye on him.” She looked back at Hawkins, “Look, we’re really trying to help you. If you just co-operate, maybe we can figure out how you got here, and more importantly, how to get you back home if at all possible. I’ll have the nurse send you some food and water in a bit.” He horn began to glow, and an aura appeared around the leather straps around his arms. Seemingly of their own accord, the straps unbuckled themselves and fell to the sides limp. Hawkin’s eyes widened slightly at the small spectacle. ‘Oh great, Unicorns that actually have…magic.’ He flexed his arms, and rubbed the places that the straps had held his arms in place. It was then he realized that his arms were bare, which meant that he was quite possibly naked. How this detail eluded him was a mystery, but the sudden realization had bigger implications, his blood suddenly ran cold. “We’ll be back soon, we’re just going to check on your friend.” Twilight said as she and the others left the room. No sooner had the door closed behind them did he lift up the sheets, to see if he was, in fact, nude. Thankfully he wasn’t. He sighed with relief. All he had on was his pair of boxers, and he saw that his left ankle was, in fact, in a cast, stretching from his calf all the way down to just before his toes. He noted the heavy bruising on his right side. He pressed his hand on the bruising and winched. ‘Well, even if I try to get out of here, I’m not going anywhere fast. At least I don’t have any broken ribs, just bone bruising.’ He sat up and fully surveyed the room. There was a window, but he couldn’t tell how far above the ground he was. There was also a nightstand and a lamp just to the right of the bed. He reached over and opened the drawer. He was relieved when he saw that everything but his flight suit was in the drawer. He first grabbed his undershirt and put that on, next came his dog tags. There came a light knocking on the door, he quickly shut the drawer, and sat back in the bed. The nurse came in, pushing a cart that had a tray with food on top. Her eyes seemed weary of him as she approached. Nervously, she pushed the cart up to his bed, keeping her eyes locked onto him. When she came up to his bed, she quickly grabbed the plate and placed it in front of him. No sooner had the plate touched the fabric then she was out the door. “Nice to see that I’m a familiar sight around here.” he said to the empty room. He looked down at his plate, thankfully it had an assortment of things that he could eat, mostly fruits and vegetables. Not surprising coming from a bunch of herbivores. He admitted to himself that he was very hungry, and dug into the food. While he would have preferred a pork chop with some home-fried potatoes, he figured that he wasn’t going to be eating anything meat related for a while. As he ate, he went over his options. The ponies seemed genuinely interested in his well being, at least the yellow one, what was her name again? Fluttershy? She seemed to be very worried about him. Twilight was as well, if just for the intellectual knowledge. The others he wasn’t sure about. When he finished, he placed the tray on the night stand and waited. He went over his options as he waited for the six to return. One; continue upholding the Code of Conduct, article V, and refuse to give any information, other than matters of health and welfare. Two: Find his gear and Michaels, if he was still alive, their gear and escape. Which concerning his injuries, would make the attempt all but impossible. Or three; violate the Code of Conduct, and co-operate with them. While option one was the easiest of the three, it would get him nowhere closer to getting home. Two was completely out of the question. His condition was not desirable for escape, not to mention that he had no idea what Michaels’ condition was at that time. For all he knew, he could have suffered multiple injuries, and would require weeks to recover. Option three did, however, offer the best chance of getting back home for both him and, hopefully, Michaels. However, he also wanted to know about this world as well, just in case option three goes sour, he would have at least some knowledge about this strange world. There was another gentle knock on the door, “Mr. Hawkins, its Twilight.” Twilight entered, quickly followed by the other six. “Your friend is doing okay, he’s stable right now.” ‘So you say.’ he thought. “Now, are you ready to talk now?” she smiled, hoping her show of compassion had shown him that they meant no harm to him. Hawkins crossed his arms and looked first at Twilight, then to the other ponies, studying them with hard eyes. He looked back at Twilight who gazed back expectantly, “Alright.” He said, “So long as you answer my questions as well.” Four“I propose this, Twilight. You ask a question, I answer, then vice-versa.” said Hawkins as he sat straighter in the hospital bed. “Ooh, ooh! Is this a game? I love games!” Pinkie bounced in place with excitement. Hawkins looked to her in slight puzzlement, Good lord, how does she keep that energy up? “Sounds good to me Mr. Hawkins. Since we already know your name, how about where you’re from?” “Well, kind of a long story I guess. I live in a country called the United States, in a city called Chesapeake. That city is in a state called Virginia.” Twilight frowned slightly as he said this. Hawkins noticed this and took it as a sign of confusion. Odd, they have roughly the same facial expressions that humans do. “Sorry, let me say that again. I live in a country called the United States. I live in a state, within the United States, called Virginia. The city I live in resides within this state. Is that clearer?” Twilight’s frown deeped slightly, as if in deep thought, “Oh it makes perfect sense,” she said. “I just haven’t ever heard of this nation you’ve mentioned. It must be far beyond the borders of Equestria” Much farther than you suspect, actually. Hawkins thought. “Okay, my question. Where exactly am I?” Twilight’s smile quickly changed into a smile as she began to explain where he was, “You’re currently in a hospital in the town of Ponyville! It is a small town not too far from the capital city, Canterlot.” Canterlot, he thought, Christ, I really am in a fairytale. “My turn! Where is the United States anyway? I’ve never heard of it.” “I thought you were going to ask that.” This time, Hawkins frowned as he thought for a moment. “This is going to sound very crazy as I explain this. The United States is only one of several hundred countries, large and small, that all reside on another planet…or in another dimension for all I know.” “Wait. You mean that you’re not from this world?” Twilight cocked her head as she looked at him in disbelief. Hawkins nodded, “As far as I can tell Twilight.” “Woah! No way! We have a real life alien!” Rainbow dash exclaimed. “Oh dear,” Fluttershy said, “You won’t abduct us all, or anything bad, will you?” Hawkins tried to laugh, something he immediately regretted. Only succeeded in coughing a few times, wincing every time. “I’m sad to say that our race hasn’t advanced in technology to reach that point. But yeah, I suppose I count as an alien.” He looked back at Twilight, “So, what other races do you have here, or is it just ponies?” “Well,” she began, “besides your average rabbits, butterflies and other animals. Speaking of which, do you know what those are, don’t you?” Hawkins nodded, “Hmm. Strange,” she said in a quieter tone, “different worlds, similar animals." She spoke louder once again, "But that’s beside the point. There are Manticores, Phoenixs, Griffons, Dragons, and other magical creatures.” As she listed off each ‘magical creature’ Hawkins sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Just great.” he muttered. “Hmm? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, confused by his reaction. “Those creatures you mentioned, Griffons, Dragons and all of those. In our world, they’re what we call ‘mythological creatures.' Meaning they’re made up. Don’t exist.” “But,” Applejack spoke, “how can ya’ll have the same creatures like Dragons and such, and not have them?” “We don’t” he replied. “By mythological, I mean that they’re a myth, made up by humans long ago to try to explain how things worked in our world. How the sun went around the earth, why it rained, why the oceans had tides. I can go on, really.” The look of confusion had seemed to spread to the entire group standing in front of him, “Look, in our world, there is no evidence that these creatures exist at all. Heck,” he gestured to Twilight, “Unicorns are made up as well,” his hand moved to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, “the same goes for you two. Pegasi are mythological creatures. Well, technically, there was only one. Went by the name of Pegasus. But that’s a story that I don’t have the knowledge to tell you the entirety of.” Pinkie began to look very sad, a first for Hawkins to see, “So no other ponies like us?” Hawkins shook his head, “Nope. Humans are the only creature that has the ability to speak like we do on our world. Though I think that our question game has gone off track quite a bit.” Twilight nodded somberly, “Yeah, sorry. I mean, such an event like this has never happened before in the history of Equestria before, as far as I know. Celestia would know more than I do though.” Now it was Hawkins’ turn to look confused, “You’ve used that name before, Celestia. Who is that exactly?” “Princess Celestia is our ruler, along with her sister, Princess Luna. They’re both Alicorn ponies.” “Alicorn?” Hawkins frowned, “Never heard of that before.” “Basically an Alicorn is the combination of both Pegasi and Unicorn ponies.” Twilight explained. “Princess Celestia would be a better pony to ask.” “Well, why not now?” he moved to get up but Twilight put her hoof on his chest, stopping the motion. “Ah ah ah. You’re staying put.” She lifted her hoof and pointed it at his face. “You’re not in any condition to travel. As well, it’s risky enough to keep you and your friend here. The nurse that came in, as well as the doctor that is tending to your friend come straight from Canterlot. Security is tight right now, as no other pony besides us, the nurse and the doctor have seen you two.” Hawkins had to agree with her on this one. Gauging from the nurse’s reaction earlier, he didn’t have to speculate at just what the other ponies reactions would be if he were to stroll out into town with his injuries, not to mention that no one else has ever seen a creature like him. He nodded in agreement, and sat back down. “Did the doctor have an estimate on how long it would be to recover?” “For you, not long. You were out for a week, before you woke up. The doctor estimated that you’ve got another two or three weeks before your leg can take any significant weight. Your friend though…” she looked down and crossed her hooves. The others, he saw had similar reactions. “He wasn’t sure. Since he’s in a coma, he has no idea how long he’ll be under.” She looked back and him and smiled, “But don’t you worry, he’s being monitored by the staff from Canterlot, and us. We’ll make sure that he’s taken care of.” Somehow the gesture surprised him. Even after all that they’ve done for him, he was shocked to see that they’d care for his friend on their own time. “That…That’s very kind of you all. Thank you.” “Don’t mention it.” Applejack said, “Ya’ll are about as lost as a goose flying north for the winter. It’s the least we could do.” “And when it’s my turn to watch you guys,” Pinkie cried, “We’re gonna have the best time ever! There’ll be cake and confetti and party games and-“ her mouth was suddenly covered by Rainbow Dash’s hoof. “I think he gets the point Pinkie. Anyway, we’ve got to head out. Fluttershy has the first watch for you guys.” Fluttershy smiled, “Don’t you worry Mr. Hawkins. I’ll make sure you and your friend are taken care of.” “Don’t you worry, you’re in capable hooves Mr. Hawkins.” Twilight said as the six trotted out of the room, leaving him alone once again. Author's Note Sorry this one took a while folks! Been busy on my side of the computer screen with work related activities!
OneSeptember 26, 2013 100 kilometers south of Bermuda “What a nice day to fly. Hardly a cloud in the sky, hardly any wind, light load, shame this bird can’t do any fancy maneuvers.” Lieutenant Commander Reginald Hawkins thought to himself. He was flying an MH-60R Seahawk, while it didn’t have the maneuverability of an AH-1Z, the Seahawk was a nice helicopter. “Good day for a cruise Blackjack,” said his co-pilot, Chief Warrant Officer Samuel Mackenzie. “It’ll make it easy to land on the deck.” “True, at least it isn’t pitch black, with a 15 knot cross wind across the deck.” “Oh god, don’t remind me.” Hawkins remembered that one particular landing. What Mackenzie forgot to mention was the ten foot seas as well. After two unsuccessful attempts to land, their third was a little rough. And by a little, it was more like the ship decided that they needed to be on the deck then and there, and rose up to meet them. Broke one of the landing the tail landing gear, and fractured the strut on the left one." “Hey Chief,” called their crew chief, Warrant Officer Robert Michaels, “How’d you get your callsign anyway?” Hawkins laughed a bit. His crew chief was new, so he let it slide. Before he could say anything though, Mackenzie spoke, “Well it’s kind of a long story.” “Oh here we go,” moaned Hawkins. “One night at a bar, he and a bunch of his friends were having a few drinks.” “So called ‘friends’ I should mention, Mackenzie.” “Yeah yeah. Anyway, so he’s out with his friends, right? Well, one of his friends spots some good lookin’ girls over at another table. So he says, ‘Hey, let’s go hook up with those cuties.’, ‘Ain’t enough of ‘em to go around bro.” says another.” Hawkins sighed, Mackenzie was always so eager to tell this story, since he found it so damn funny for some reason. He ignored the story and went back to the instrument panel. ‘Yup, still looking good.’ He brought his eyes up and scanned the sky, ‘Doesn’t get much better than this, man.’ He thought. While they were flying in the Mid-Atlantic, and it was hurricane season, there wasn’t anything in the forecast for bad weather. Hell, he almost wanted a storm to brew up just to make it interesting. “So Hawkins here goes, ‘Well if you can beat me in a game of Blackjack, then she’s all yours my friend.’, ‘Alright, you got a deck?’” “And I go,” he added, “’Why yes I do.’ So I reach into my breast pocket, and grab this very deck from it.” as he says this, he reaches into his left breast pocket of his flight suit and grabs a deck of cards. “You still have those damn things?” “Hey now, don’t be rude. This deck of mine has helped me out in many occasions. Which is why they call me ‘Blackjack’” “Aww, you ruined the story.” “Wasn’t much of a story to tell Mackenzie. Besides,” he returned the deck to his pocket, “while I did win the game, gal was smart enough to know that I was only looking for a good lay that night and didn’t want the same.” “That’s now what I heard Chief.” “Doesn’t make it the truth Mackenzie. Besides, there was this one time-“ “Sir,” called Michaels, “were we supposed to get any storms in the area?” “No, why?” curious, he turned his head to look at his crew chief, and as he did so, he saw the blackest clouds he had ever seen in his flying career off to their right. “Holy hell, where did that come from?!” said Mackenzie, his voice a bit nervous. “Heck if I know Mackenzie, whatever it is, doesn’t look good. Iwo Jima on the line, see if they know anything about where the hell this came from.” “Yes sir!” Warrant Officer Mackenzie reached for the radio controls, and tuned it to the frequency that their chip, the USS Iwo Jima used. “Iwo Jima this is Charlie two-six.” He paused. “This is Charlie two-six calling Iwo Jima” He waited again, and called twice more. “Sir, they’re not responding.” “Hey Chief, I’d hate to bring more bad news, but that storm is starting to come our way.” “What do you mean? Like, at us, or in our general direction?” “Looks a whole lot like at us sir.” “Shit, this is not going to be pretty.” Almost as soon as he said that, the helicopter was buffeted by winds, almost knocking the stick out of his hands. “What the hell! For a small storm, it packs a freaking wallop!” He grabbed the stick, and strained his muscles to keep the stick from jarring out of his grip “Shut up and let me fly Mackenzie!” As the winds continued to howl and buffet the helicopter, Hawkins strained every muscle in his arms and legs to keep his aircraft straight and level. They had another forty minutes to go until they got to Iwo Jima. But at this rate, it may take a lot longer if the winds kept up. “Keep trying to raise Iwo Jima, tell her that we are having some issu-“ An intense flash of light and a thunderous crack interrupted him before he could say anything else. The aircraft suddenly lost power, and began to spin out of control in the wind. “Shit! I’ve lost all power, controls aren’t responding!” Mackenzie already had the radio keyed, “Mayday, mayday! This is Charlie two-six. We’ve lost power and are going down! We’re 100 klicks south-west of Bermuda headed east, bearing zero-seven-six. Mayday, mayday!” Mackenzie kept repeating the mayday call. But something bothered Hawkins. The entire sky was black now, and he couldn’t see the ocean beneath them. And he was pretty damn sure that they were over an ocean when this storm picked up. Just then, the sky cleared up beneath them, and he saw what looked like to be green fields beneath them, and rising very fast to meet them. “Hang on boys!” he shouted, “We’re going in hard!” The last thing he saw was the green fields, before everything went black. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Pain, that was the first thing he felt. ‘Good,’ he thought, ‘pain means that I am alive, and I am not dead. Yet.’ He blinked and tried to open his eyes. First thing he saw was a dark blur. But as his vision cleared, he saw the inside of the cockpit, and the instrument panel directly in front of him. ‘Oh good, I didn't get ejected from the helicopter.’ He struggled to turn his head to his right to see how his co-pilot had fared. He wished he hadn’t. Mackenzie’s face was bloodied, but his neck was twisted at an odd angle. What was worse was the tree limb that was impaled through his chest from the front wind-screen. His flight suit was dark, soaked with his own blood. As he looked around, he saw that there was indeed a tree directly in front of the helicopter. And that a second branch had missed him by scant inches. He tried to open his door, but it was broken, and refused to budge. Hawkins looked around again, and saw that the side door had broken away. It was then that he saw the smoke. “Aww crap.” Being in a crashed helicopter was one thing. Being in a crashed helicopter that was on fire was another thing entirely. And something that he wanted to get the hell away from. As he struggled to get his harness released, he heard his crew chief groan. ‘Crap, I almost forgot about the kid.’ He finally got his harness released, and went back to his crew chief. He quickly looked him over and saw that he was beat up pretty bad. “Damn, kid.” He said “Let’s get you out of there.” Michaels’ harness was easier to release, and he quickly dragged Michaels from the helicopter. Once outside he could see the full extent of the crash. The helicopter had crashed at the edge of a field, near a wooded area. The nose of the aircraft was crumpled like a wad of paper. The landing skids were shoved into the airframe, the tail had sheared off, and was lying on its side fifty meters behind the aircraft. Almost all of the rotor blades had sheared off, save the one still attached to the assembly and embedded into the trunk of the tree that the helicopter was stopped by. Thankfully, for the time being, there was to seeable fire, but there was smoke billowing out of the engine. Reverting to his training, he dragged Michaels to a nearby tree and propped him up against its trunk. In doing so, he realized that he too did not escape from the crash unscathed. He could not walk without a limp in his left leg as well he noticed that his right side hurt immensely. Still, he went as quickly as he could to the aft end of the helicopter, and retrieved what he could from the baggage compartment. He returned to Michaels, and broke out the medical kit. Through rudimentary, he did what he could to patch him up. He bandaged the cuts that he could see, but worried that there may be internal bleeding. And if there was, Michaels didn’t have a lot of time. He then worked on himself. Besides the limp, which he couldn’t do anything about, the pain in his side was from what felt like, a broken rib. That was also bad, but the kit did have some anti-inflammatory pills, which he took two of. As he did this, the reality of the situation clicked into place. “How the hell,” he muttered, “Did we get here?” He tried to remember what happened. ‘Flying over the ocean, headed back to the USS Iwo Jima. Storm out of nowhere. Aircraft lost power. Landed…in a field?’ “Now that can’t be right, no matter how weird it sounds.” He said to himself. "I better have not landed in Oz of all things." He then heard voices. He couldn’t tell who they were from, but they sounded very excited. He quickly checked his gear. survival kits, as well as his 9mm pistol, and three spare magazines. He stowed the gear back in the bag, holstered his pistol, and dragged Michaels farther into the woods. Hawkins swore to himself. He should have been paying attention to his surroundings, and remembered his training. Get as far away from the aircraft after you crash. Make sure you’re safe first. Michael groaned the whole way to another tree, this time propped up against it, facing away from where they came. Hawkins crouched by a tree not too far from Michaels. As the voices got closer, he also heard the sound of several hooves. ‘Horses,’ he thought, ‘great. That just makes it a whole lot better if they’re not friendly.’ He could hear six voices, a smart sounding one, a quiet one, a loud and obnoxious one, a cheery one, one that had what sounded like a southern drawl, and one that sounded sort of ‘posh’. While his head told him not to do it, he leaned and tried to get a good look at who were at the crash site. And then his day just got a whole new level of weirder. He quickly retreated behind the tree and tried to put sense into what he just saw. He saw six, what he thought were, ponies. Four were on the ground, the other two were…flying? Not to mention the colors. Purple, blue, yellow, white, orange, was that one wearing a cowboy hat?… And pink?! But there were no humans, or anything humanoid for that matter. So logically the voices had to be coming from the ponies. He stuck his head around the tree to get another look. “Ponies? Talking ponies?! Christ almighty, what kind of freaking world did we get ourselves into?” Just then, Michaels began to cough uncontrollably, spurting up blood as he did so. ‘Shit. Not only does he have internal bleeding, but those…things are going to hear-‘ “Hey, shh! Do you hear that?” “I think it came from the forest!” ‘Him. Crap.’ He went over his options quickly. He could leave his crew chief behind and escape on his own. He could try to escape with him, but with his condition he doubted that Michaels would last much longer anyways. Or he could stay and see what these…ponies wanted. But he was in a strange place, and had no idea who was going to be nice to him, or what they could do. As they approached, he made his decision. He left. Author's Note To anyone reading this with any military background, I would greatly appreciate any assistance you can lend on any mistakes I make regarding military matters, I would greatly appreciate the assistance as I am civilian, not military. Thanks again!
TwoOne hour earlier… “What an absolutely fabulous day, isn’t girls?” asked Rarity. She was laid back in an extravagant beach chair by the edge of a pond. The girls had taken the day off, and had decided that lounging at their favorite swimming hole and have a picnic would make this a great day to relax. Applejack was done her chores for the day, Rarity had caught up on her orders, Fluttershy had made sure that all of the animals in her stead had their needs taken care of, Rainbow Dash didn’t really have anything going on that day, and Pinkie Pie…Well she always had time for her friends. Twilight Sparkle had packed the lunch, and instructed Spike to keep an eye on Owlicious while she was gone. Applejack nodded in agreement. “Darn tootin’! It’s nice to get away from the farm once in a while.” “Isn’t this great guys? I just love spending the day with you all! I mean, I love spending time with you all individually, but together, it’s like five times, no, tentimes better!” Pinkie pie bounced around the girls as they lay by the pond. All except Rainbow Dash, who took the opportunity to show off her diving skills from the swing, “Hey, check this out!” Rainbow Dash held the end of the rope between her teeth, she walked backwards until the rope was taut. The others gathered around to watch the spectacle that would be. Rainbow, making sure that they were watching closely, then galloped full speed towards the pond. When she got close, her momentum carried her upwards as the rope swung. She then extended her wings and flapped as hard as she could, gaining more momentum. Before the rope began to wind itself back onto the branch, she stopped her wings, and let go of the rope, letting her momentum carry her upwards into the sky. When she reached the zenith of her climb, she began to do increasingly difficult aerobatics as she fell towards the water. Spins, twists, loops, and a whole manner of others as she plummeted towards the water. “Oh dear,” exclaimed Fluttershy, “I hope she knows what she is doing.” “She does seem to be putting a little more flair into this than she normally does.” added Rarity. Rainbow Dash added one more twist before curling up into a ball and shouting, “Cannon ball!” just before she landed in the pond. A stream of water billowed upwards. Suddenly Rainbow Dash sprang back out of the water, and plowed through the pillar of water, shattering it, and spreading a curtain of water droplets over the pond. The water droplets caught the light, and formed a rainbow over the water. Rainbow Dash arced over the pond, and completed a loop around the water formed rainbow, a trail of color forming in her wake. “That. Was. Amazing!” Pinkie began to do her impression of Rainbow’s dive, “First she was all like spinning and twisting around and around and around! Then she went sploosh, into the water! Then she went whamo, right through that column of water! Then she went neeooow, up and around the rainbow! Which is awesome because she is Rainbow Dash, and she made a loop around anotherrainbow that she made with her amazing trick!” “Whooee partner,” cheered Applejack, “that was some performance you put on there!” Rainbow Dash hovered above the ensemble and bowed to each of them, “Thank you, thank you. Just all in a day’s work for such a talented pony like myself.” “It was quite the stunt you pulled of there Rainbow Dash,” added Rarity, “ Though I daresay that I’d much rather be relaxing on the beach and working on my tan, thank-you-very-much.” She grabbed her reflector and laid back in her beach chair. Just then, a thunderous crack echoed across the land, startling the ponies from their relaxation. “What on earth was that!” exclaimed Rarity, her reflector fell from her hooves in her shock. Applejack looked around and saw a dark storm cloud a short distance away from them. “That might be the cause of the thunder. Rainbow Dash, I thought you took care of ‘em all today!” “I did!” she glared angrily at the growing storm cloud, “I don’t know how this one came along. I’ll go take care of it!” “Wait a minute Rainbow, I see something else.” said Twilight. As she spoke, a large object appeared out of the cloud. It was large, and somewhat bulbous on one end, then tapered to a long, slender shaft that split at the other end. The object also seemed to have something attached to the top of it, but the distance made it too hard to tell. The object seemed to be out of control, twisting and spiraling as it fell towards the ground. “What in tarnation is that?” asked Applejack. “I don’t know,” Twilight responded, “I’ve never seen anything like that before.” The storm dissipated as quickly as it had appeared, just before the object was lost from sight behind a hilltop. Shortly thereafter, a column of smoke could be seen rising from behind the hilltop. “Whatever it is, I want to find out. Come on girls.” Twilight sped off, leading the five others towards the column of smoke, and the mystery of what the object could be. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ It took over half an hour to reach the impact site, as they crested the last hill they stopped to look upon the scene. There was a fifty foot long, one foot deep trench that terminated at the object they had previously seen. The object was much different when they first saw it. They first saw that the object was now in several pieces. The smaller section had separated away from the main body of the object. At the top of the object, they clearly saw that there was something on top of it. Or rather, was something on top of it. Smoke was billowing from its top, but they didn’t know about the source. “Oh my, I hope nothing was hurt.” said Fluttershy. “This is very strange.” said Twilight. “Let’s take a closer look.” Twilight and the girls made their way down towards the crash site. As they drew near, they came across an unbearable stench. “Dear Celestia, what is that stench?” Rarity retched at the smell. “It is absolutely unbearable.” “Ah’ve never smelled something as bad as this.” added Applejack, “Manure doesn’t smell half as bad as whatever that it. Rainbow Dash made her way to the front of the object that had stopped at a tree. “Uhh guys, I think I found what’s making that stench.” Applejack got their first, ahead of the other girls. “Oh dear, Fluttershy don’t come around here. Ain’t somethin’ you wanna see. Pinkie, you too darlin’.” Fluttershy and Pinkie did as they were told and stayed behind as the others went around front. Everyone gasped audibly, Rarity nearly fainted at the sight. They first saw a creature that they’ve never seen before seated inside the object. Twilight thought it was a craft of some kind judging by the design, and the fact that there was a creature inside of it. However, she didn’t believe that it was alive . “Whatever that thing is, don’t look like it survived the crash.” Applejack said quietly, taking off her hat. Fluttershy looked around the craft, and spotted a trail of flattened grass leading from the craft into the forest. “Umm, girls. I think I found somethi-“ “What’dya suppose that thing in there could be?” Applejack asked. “Hay if I know Applejack.” Rainbow Dash replied, “Never seen something so…weird in my life.” “I don’t think it’s supposed to look like that normally Rainbow Dash,” Twilight answered. She gestured towards what she believed to be its head. “My guess is that the…thing had its neck broken on impact with the ground.” Then she saw the tree branch that had impaled the craft, and the creature’s abdomen. “Or that tree branch.” She said sullenly. “Either way, we won’t be finding out about it.” Undeterred, Fluttershy tried to speak again.“Umm girls, I don’t mean to interrupt, but I found some-“ This time she was interrupted by a loud series of coughs that emanated from the forest nearby. “Hey, shh! Do you hear that?” said Rainbow Dash “I think it came from the forest!” replied Twilight. The girls sped off into the forest to find the source of the coughing.
Three“Shit, and I thought you were the light one Michaels.” Hawkins grunted as he shifted the weight of his co-pilot on his shoulders. His conscious immediately began to plague him as soon as he took his first steps away from his crew chief. He hadn’t gone farther than twenty feet before he swore to himself, and turned around to get him. Now, fearing his security, he was trotting as fast as he could with his injuries and the combined weight of his crew chief and their gear on his shoulders. Which was not easy, as his crew chief weighed a measly 190lbs, and the gear was only another twenty on top of that. Normally, such a feat would be taxing on him, but with the added boost from the adrenaline pumping through his veins, he was having a much better time at it. He just hoped it would last long enough to lose the trailing…ponies. ‘Shit, what kind of weird Oz did we end up in Michaels?’ he though as he crashed through the underbrush. He had initially gained a lot of ground on the six of them, they seemed to hesitate entering the forest for some reason, he only briefly heard the name, or so he thought. Everfree Forest, or something like that. He wasn't sure what lay ahead for him, but if it kept the ponies behind him at bay, then it was all the better for him. Unfortunately, their initial hesitation was only temporary, most of it seemed to stem from the yellow colored one with wings. Wings*, he still couldn’t understand why some of them looked like Pegasus. He also saw that two of them had what looked like horns on them. Not quite sharp enough to gore someone, as far as he could tell. But what other purpose they had, he couldn’t gather, nor did he care at this point as he continued the trek deeper into the forest. ________________________________________________________________________________________ One hundred yards behind him, Twilight and the others continued their trek into Everfree Forest, following the trail left of the retreating creature from the crash site. The thickness of the brush prevented them from venturing at a great pace. Thankfully, the creature that they followed left an easy to follow trail deeper and deeper into the forest. Applejack lead the group as she looked for signs of the creature’s path. She stopped at a bush and inspected the broken branches. “Looks like they went this way. Come on y’all, can’t be too far ahead now.” “We’d have caught up by now if somepony wasn’t so scared of the forest.” Rainbow Dash muttered. She looked over her shoulder at Fluttershy who was trying her best to not tremble with fear of being in the forest. Twilight glared at Rainbow Dash, “She has every right to be scared of the forest Rainbow Dash. We’ve gone through a lot of scary things in the Everfree forest.” Rainbow Dash sighed, “Yeah, I guess.” “Ugh, I still don’t know why we have to go trudging through the forest after some creature that we know nothing about, Twilight.” Rarity complained, careful to avoid the branches of the bushes and trees as they continued forth as to not ruin her perfect hair, yet again. “That’s precisely the point though,” she answered, ducking to avoid a low hanging branch, “This is quite possibly a new creature that no one in Equestria has ever seen the likes of. On top of that, it may be injured from the crash, and may need our help. The least we could do is to offer our assistance.” “Which so far it seems keen on keepin’ away from us.” Applejack added as she saw what looked like the footprint of the creature they were chasing. “Lookee here, it’s footprint is over twice the size of our hooves!” “Oh my,” Fluttershy whimpered, “maybe we shouldn’t bother helping it, if it’s such a large creature.” “Come on Fluttershy, you’ve helped out much larger creatures before. Like Mr. Bearington!” said Pinkie Pie. “Oh, he doesn’t like being called Mr. Bearington. Mr. Bearington was his grandfather.” Applejack stopped and inspected a fallen tree limb in front of her, “Looks like it tripped here and fell. Come on, we should be able to catch up now!” There she saw the footprint in the mud, twisted in front of the tree limb, and beyond it, a mass of ferns and saplings had been crushed by a large object. A few had been ripped up by its feet it seems, trying to get back on its feet. _________________________________________________________________________________________ ‘Shit, should have been watching where I was going, instead of trying to look out for them.’ Hawkin’s swore to himself as he lumbered on with Michaels on his back. The stumble greatly shortened the distance between them and the ponies. His breathing became heavy and labored as the adrenaline began to wane and his strength ebbed from his muscles. His back and shouldered cried out to be relieved of the heavy burden of his comrade for a moments rest. He tried to ignore the burning sensation in his legs as they pounded through the underbrush. The forest cleared for a moment, and his hopes brightened for a brief moment. It wasn’t until he saw that the forest cleared out to reveal a wide ravine, at its bottom was a narrow river. He peered over the edge of the ravine, and tried to guess at the depth. Fifty, eighty feet down? No vines, ladders, or anything natural to use to get down there. He could try to use the rope in his survival gear, but he didn’t have the time. He could try to go around it, but he couldn’t see any way of getting across the ravine. What about the forest? He turned and gazed back into the forest from where he entered. He honestly had no idea where he was going, he just chose a direction and hoped for the best. At the very least, he could probably find his way back out with the path that he had inadvertently made. But those weird ponies were behind him, and for some reason, he feared them more than anything else right no- “Can’t be too much farther now gals, come on, the forest is starting to thin out some!” “Fuck me.” They were practically on top of him now. His mind raced. Try to slide down the ravine? No, too injured. Might end up worse than he already was. Try to go around? No, at his speed he could barely keep ahead of the ponies. His muscles ached, and weighed him down with their fatigue. He turned back and forth sluggishly, trying to decide on what to do. With little other choice, he decided on probably the stupidest thing he could do right then. He steadied Michaels with his left arm, and let his right arm go free. He reached to his holster and brought his pistol out, hanging his arm at his side. ‘This was my last tour damnit’, he thought to himself. ‘Last tour with the Navy and I would retire from military life. Spend more time with the wife and kids, go to my son’s baseball game for once, maybe my daughter’s tae-kwon-do tournament, but no. Routine training op went completely FUBAR because of a freak storm, and now I’m in the freaking land of Oz.’ He wiped the sweat that had been dripping from his forehead. “Well, so much for that.” He panted. They then emerged from the forest in front of him. First the orange one, with the cowboy hat, then the purple one, followed by the blue one, the white one, the pink and yellow one brought up the rear. He then noticed that they all had some sort of markings on their hind legs. He squinted at the orange one’s, three apples. ‘Huh, wonder what those mean?’ he then saw that they all had different markings. What they meant was lost to him right now. He raised his weapon, albeit unsteadily. Though the threat was completely lost on the six ponies. They all seemed to be at a loss as what to say as they looked upon the scene in front of them. A tired, wounded man, carrying his comrade across his shoulders with a pack of gear slung across his back, pointing a black metallic object towards them. He tried to keep his weapon steady, but his arm was not obeying his wishes. It shook and swayed with fatigue like a branch in the wind. “Hi there.” The purple one spoke, “My name is Twilight Sparkle. This is Applejack,” the orange one nodded, “Rainbow Dash,” the blue one smirked, “Rarity,” the white one flipped her purple mane with her hoof, “Fluttershy,” the yellow one tried to cover her face, “And Pinkie Pie.” The pink one bagan to bounce around with abandon, constantly smiling. “Hi there mister!” she said cheeringly. “What’cha got there on your back?” She pointed to Michaels. “Is that your friend? Is he sad? I can make him happy!” “Stay back!” he shouted, “Not one step closer!” he emphasized his right hand that held the pistol. “Wait!” Twilight cried, “We’re not going to harm you! We just want to help!” “Ha!” he scoffed, “A likely story. How am I supposed to trust multi-colored talking ponies?” he took a cautionary step backwards, inching towards the cliff edge. Twilight and the others took a step forward, “Look,” she assured, “we’re not going to hurt you. We saw your craft crash and came to investigate. We just want to make sure you’re going to be fine.” “How am I supposed to believe that?” he took another step backwards, “For all I know, you’re going to take me to some magical emerald castle and offer me a balloon ride home, if I’m that lucky!” Hawkins took another step backwards, his right foot just on the edge of the cliff, his attention now fully on the six ponies in front of him, completely unaware of his proximity to the ravine. “Hey!” the blue one yelled, “We’re just trying to help you!” Hawkins pointed his pistol at her and took another step backwards, but all his foot found was empty space. He and Michaels toppled over the edge. And the last thing he remembered was seeing the world upside down, and a purple aura forming around Michaels. ________________________________________________________________________________ ‘Pain, oh good, I’m still alive. Maybe I’m at the bottom of the gorge, lying broken and twisted on the rocks waiting for some horrid creature to eat me alive.’ Hawkin’s eyes were unable to open, so he tried to move his limbs. His legs were fine, except for his left foot, it was stiff and refused to budge, like it was in a cast. He then tried his arms, both of which refused to budge. They felt constrained, yet his hands were free to move and flex. Straps maybe? That couldn’t make sense, unless he were in a hospital. He was finally able to open his eyes. The light was bright, and blinded him for a moment, his hearing though sounded like he was underwater. ‘Drugged? Painkillers maybe?’ He then came to the conclusion that he had been captured somehow. ‘Possibly something to do with that purple aura I saw around Michaels? No, that couldn’t have been real, could it? This has to be the drug, I’m not thinking straight.’ He then noticed that the six ponies that had chased him were next to him, and that he was in fact in a hospital bed. He looked down at his arms, and saw that they were in fact, restrained. Not exactly tight, but still not allowing his arms freedom of movement. The purple one spoke first, “Sorry about the restraints, we didn’t know how you would react when you woke up, so we asked the doctor to at least restrain your arms.” “Ya’ll took a mighty tumble there.” The orange one added, “If it wasn’t for Twilight here, ya’ll would have fallen in the river. And we would’ve have hard a hard time tryin’ to get you out then.” “I still had a hard time trying to rescue you two. Unfortunately you both hit a few rocks before I could stop you two.” Twilight said. “You weren’t trying to go sledding were you?” the pink one smiled, “It’s not even winter time silly! Unless you wanted to go mud sliding. But mud sliding usually involves a lot more water than dirt. But I suppose there was a lot of water in the river. But how were you-“ “Pinkie!” the one called Twilight interrupted. “Oops, sorry.” Pinkie grinned sheepishly. “Now, if you can would you like to tell us your name?” she asked, leaning forward expectantly. Hawkins looked from one pony to the other, still unsure of what their motives were. Or if they had any. Until he could determine that, he knew exactly what he would say to them, “My name is Lieutenant Commander Reginald Hawkins, service number 524-06-9273, born June 17th, 1970.” “Loo-tenant Commander Regenawld Hawkins?” Pinkie laughed, “That’s a silly name mister.” “It’s probably a military title, judging from the clothing he has.” Twilight added. “What about the numbers?” asked the blue one. “Doesn’t make any sense to me.” “Probably something to do with the military as well, Rainbow Dash. Some sort of identification number. What purpose it has, I don’t know.” While the ponies went back and forth about his answer, Hawkins tried to gauge their personalities. The purple one, Twilight, was easily the smartest one of the six. Book smart anyway, the Pinkie one was bubbly and constantly happy, Rarity seemed a bit pretentious. ‘Kind of like my Mother-in-law.’ He thought wryly to himself. Fluttershy seemed shy, and soft spoken. ‘Kind of like my little girl before she discovered martial arts.’ Applejack definitely worked on a farm of some kind, judging by the accent alone, the hat probably had something to do with it as well, he thought. Rainbow Dash was easily the tomboy of the six, aggressive and full of bravado. ‘Probably all talk and no show.’, he thought to himself. The conversation started to wind down, and Twilight looked back to him before she asked another question, “Alright Commander Hawkins, where are you from?” His reply was swift, “My name is Lieutenant Commander Reginald Hawkins, service number 524-06-9273, born June 17th, 1970.” “Uhh, you already said that. I was asking where you were from.” Twilight gave her best grin, hoping that he just misheard her question. But he repeated the same answer again. Undeterred, she tried several other questions, from family, to what his land is like, how old he was. On and on she went, until she became increasingly frustrated. “Ugh! This is going no where!” “Umm, Twilight,” Fluttershy stepped forward sheepishly, seemingly embarrassed at interrupting Twilight, “Maybe he just doesn’t want to talk right now. Maybe we should come back at a later time.” Twilight looked at her, and sighed in resignation, “I supposed you’re right Fluttershy.” She turned towards the door, “Come on girls, let’s leave him alone for a bit.” “Twilight,” Fluttershy added, “Maybe we should get his arms out of those restraints. Just in case, you know, he wants to eat or something.” Twilight looked at her for a moment, and then to Hawkins, her eyes trying to discern if he would try something drastic. She turned back towards Fluttershy, “Alright, but we’ll have the doctor’s keep an eye on him.” She looked back at Hawkins, “Look, we’re really trying to help you. If you just co-operate, maybe we can figure out how you got here, and more importantly, how to get you back home if at all possible. I’ll have the nurse send you some food and water in a bit.” He horn began to glow, and an aura appeared around the leather straps around his arms. Seemingly of their own accord, the straps unbuckled themselves and fell to the sides limp. Hawkin’s eyes widened slightly at the small spectacle. ‘Oh great, Unicorns that actually have…magic.’ He flexed his arms, and rubbed the places that the straps had held his arms in place. It was then he realized that his arms were bare, which meant that he was quite possibly naked. How this detail eluded him was a mystery, but the sudden realization had bigger implications, his blood suddenly ran cold. “We’ll be back soon, we’re just going to check on your friend.” Twilight said as she and the others left the room. No sooner had the door closed behind them did he lift up the sheets, to see if he was, in fact, nude. Thankfully he wasn’t. He sighed with relief. All he had on was his pair of boxers, and he saw that his left ankle was, in fact, in a cast, stretching from his calf all the way down to just before his toes. He noted the heavy bruising on his right side. He pressed his hand on the bruising and winched. ‘Well, even if I try to get out of here, I’m not going anywhere fast. At least I don’t have any broken ribs, just bone bruising.’ He sat up and fully surveyed the room. There was a window, but he couldn’t tell how far above the ground he was. There was also a nightstand and a lamp just to the right of the bed. He reached over and opened the drawer. He was relieved when he saw that everything but his flight suit was in the drawer. He first grabbed his undershirt and put that on, next came his dog tags. There came a light knocking on the door, he quickly shut the drawer, and sat back in the bed. The nurse came in, pushing a cart that had a tray with food on top. Her eyes seemed weary of him as she approached. Nervously, she pushed the cart up to his bed, keeping her eyes locked onto him. When she came up to his bed, she quickly grabbed the plate and placed it in front of him. No sooner had the plate touched the fabric then she was out the door. “Nice to see that I’m a familiar sight around here.” he said to the empty room. He looked down at his plate, thankfully it had an assortment of things that he could eat, mostly fruits and vegetables. Not surprising coming from a bunch of herbivores. He admitted to himself that he was very hungry, and dug into the food. While he would have preferred a pork chop with some home-fried potatoes, he figured that he wasn’t going to be eating anything meat related for a while. As he ate, he went over his options. The ponies seemed genuinely interested in his well being, at least the yellow one, what was her name again? Fluttershy? She seemed to be very worried about him. Twilight was as well, if just for the intellectual knowledge. The others he wasn’t sure about. When he finished, he placed the tray on the night stand and waited. He went over his options as he waited for the six to return. One; continue upholding the Code of Conduct, article V, and refuse to give any information, other than matters of health and welfare. Two: Find his gear and Michaels, if he was still alive, their gear and escape. Which concerning his injuries, would make the attempt all but impossible. Or three; violate the Code of Conduct, and co-operate with them. While option one was the easiest of the three, it would get him nowhere closer to getting home. Two was completely out of the question. His condition was not desirable for escape, not to mention that he had no idea what Michaels’ condition was at that time. For all he knew, he could have suffered multiple injuries, and would require weeks to recover. Option three did, however, offer the best chance of getting back home for both him and, hopefully, Michaels. However, he also wanted to know about this world as well, just in case option three goes sour, he would have at least some knowledge about this strange world. There was another gentle knock on the door, “Mr. Hawkins, its Twilight.” Twilight entered, quickly followed by the other six. “Your friend is doing okay, he’s stable right now.” ‘So you say.’ he thought. “Now, are you ready to talk now?” she smiled, hoping her show of compassion had shown him that they meant no harm to him. Hawkins crossed his arms and looked first at Twilight, then to the other ponies, studying them with hard eyes. He looked back at Twilight who gazed back expectantly, “Alright.” He said, “So long as you answer my questions as well.”
Four“I propose this, Twilight. You ask a question, I answer, then vice-versa.” said Hawkins as he sat straighter in the hospital bed. “Ooh, ooh! Is this a game? I love games!” Pinkie bounced in place with excitement. Hawkins looked to her in slight puzzlement, Good lord, how does she keep that energy up? “Sounds good to me Mr. Hawkins. Since we already know your name, how about where you’re from?” “Well, kind of a long story I guess. I live in a country called the United States, in a city called Chesapeake. That city is in a state called Virginia.” Twilight frowned slightly as he said this. Hawkins noticed this and took it as a sign of confusion. Odd, they have roughly the same facial expressions that humans do. “Sorry, let me say that again. I live in a country called the United States. I live in a state, within the United States, called Virginia. The city I live in resides within this state. Is that clearer?” Twilight’s frown deeped slightly, as if in deep thought, “Oh it makes perfect sense,” she said. “I just haven’t ever heard of this nation you’ve mentioned. It must be far beyond the borders of Equestria” Much farther than you suspect, actually. Hawkins thought. “Okay, my question. Where exactly am I?” Twilight’s smile quickly changed into a smile as she began to explain where he was, “You’re currently in a hospital in the town of Ponyville! It is a small town not too far from the capital city, Canterlot.” Canterlot, he thought, Christ, I really am in a fairytale. “My turn! Where is the United States anyway? I’ve never heard of it.” “I thought you were going to ask that.” This time, Hawkins frowned as he thought for a moment. “This is going to sound very crazy as I explain this. The United States is only one of several hundred countries, large and small, that all reside on another planet…or in another dimension for all I know.” “Wait. You mean that you’re not from this world?” Twilight cocked her head as she looked at him in disbelief. Hawkins nodded, “As far as I can tell Twilight.” “Woah! No way! We have a real life alien!” Rainbow dash exclaimed. “Oh dear,” Fluttershy said, “You won’t abduct us all, or anything bad, will you?” Hawkins tried to laugh, something he immediately regretted. Only succeeded in coughing a few times, wincing every time. “I’m sad to say that our race hasn’t advanced in technology to reach that point. But yeah, I suppose I count as an alien.” He looked back at Twilight, “So, what other races do you have here, or is it just ponies?” “Well,” she began, “besides your average rabbits, butterflies and other animals. Speaking of which, do you know what those are, don’t you?” Hawkins nodded, “Hmm. Strange,” she said in a quieter tone, “different worlds, similar animals." She spoke louder once again, "But that’s beside the point. There are Manticores, Phoenixs, Griffons, Dragons, and other magical creatures.” As she listed off each ‘magical creature’ Hawkins sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Just great.” he muttered. “Hmm? What’s wrong?” Twilight asked, confused by his reaction. “Those creatures you mentioned, Griffons, Dragons and all of those. In our world, they’re what we call ‘mythological creatures.' Meaning they’re made up. Don’t exist.” “But,” Applejack spoke, “how can ya’ll have the same creatures like Dragons and such, and not have them?” “We don’t” he replied. “By mythological, I mean that they’re a myth, made up by humans long ago to try to explain how things worked in our world. How the sun went around the earth, why it rained, why the oceans had tides. I can go on, really.” The look of confusion had seemed to spread to the entire group standing in front of him, “Look, in our world, there is no evidence that these creatures exist at all. Heck,” he gestured to Twilight, “Unicorns are made up as well,” his hand moved to Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy, “the same goes for you two. Pegasi are mythological creatures. Well, technically, there was only one. Went by the name of Pegasus. But that’s a story that I don’t have the knowledge to tell you the entirety of.” Pinkie began to look very sad, a first for Hawkins to see, “So no other ponies like us?” Hawkins shook his head, “Nope. Humans are the only creature that has the ability to speak like we do on our world. Though I think that our question game has gone off track quite a bit.” Twilight nodded somberly, “Yeah, sorry. I mean, such an event like this has never happened before in the history of Equestria before, as far as I know. Celestia would know more than I do though.” Now it was Hawkins’ turn to look confused, “You’ve used that name before, Celestia. Who is that exactly?” “Princess Celestia is our ruler, along with her sister, Princess Luna. They’re both Alicorn ponies.” “Alicorn?” Hawkins frowned, “Never heard of that before.” “Basically an Alicorn is the combination of both Pegasi and Unicorn ponies.” Twilight explained. “Princess Celestia would be a better pony to ask.” “Well, why not now?” he moved to get up but Twilight put her hoof on his chest, stopping the motion. “Ah ah ah. You’re staying put.” She lifted her hoof and pointed it at his face. “You’re not in any condition to travel. As well, it’s risky enough to keep you and your friend here. The nurse that came in, as well as the doctor that is tending to your friend come straight from Canterlot. Security is tight right now, as no other pony besides us, the nurse and the doctor have seen you two.” Hawkins had to agree with her on this one. Gauging from the nurse’s reaction earlier, he didn’t have to speculate at just what the other ponies reactions would be if he were to stroll out into town with his injuries, not to mention that no one else has ever seen a creature like him. He nodded in agreement, and sat back down. “Did the doctor have an estimate on how long it would be to recover?” “For you, not long. You were out for a week, before you woke up. The doctor estimated that you’ve got another two or three weeks before your leg can take any significant weight. Your friend though…” she looked down and crossed her hooves. The others, he saw had similar reactions. “He wasn’t sure. Since he’s in a coma, he has no idea how long he’ll be under.” She looked back and him and smiled, “But don’t you worry, he’s being monitored by the staff from Canterlot, and us. We’ll make sure that he’s taken care of.” Somehow the gesture surprised him. Even after all that they’ve done for him, he was shocked to see that they’d care for his friend on their own time. “That…That’s very kind of you all. Thank you.” “Don’t mention it.” Applejack said, “Ya’ll are about as lost as a goose flying north for the winter. It’s the least we could do.” “And when it’s my turn to watch you guys,” Pinkie cried, “We’re gonna have the best time ever! There’ll be cake and confetti and party games and-“ her mouth was suddenly covered by Rainbow Dash’s hoof. “I think he gets the point Pinkie. Anyway, we’ve got to head out. Fluttershy has the first watch for you guys.” Fluttershy smiled, “Don’t you worry Mr. Hawkins. I’ll make sure you and your friend are taken care of.” “Don’t you worry, you’re in capable hooves Mr. Hawkins.” Twilight said as the six trotted out of the room, leaving him alone once again. Author's Note Sorry this one took a while folks! Been busy on my side of the computer screen with work related activities!
