"Well, if you wouldn't mind, I thought we could start off with a base examination of your psyche."

"Be my guest. While you're in there, feel free to silence the voices." I let out a dry laugh as I rummaged through my sack.

"Uhh partner, can Ah ask what y'all are lookin fer?" the orange mare questioned.

"My gun." I replied as I withdrew the .460 from my bag and strapped the holster to my thigh.

"I... I don't think that's legal, Mr. Drifter." Twilight fearfully told me.

"Yeah, and who's going to stop me from carrying it?", I pulled the slide back, and released it with a brief click, "Don't worry, I'm putting the safety on."

To my surprise, none of them visibly relaxed; in fact it made each one of them cringe. As I slung my bag back over my shoulder, Twilight spoke up, "Umm, Alright then... Follow me, we'll go back to the library to conduct some experiments."

The walk back was great; I found the small town to be peaceful and rustic. It was as if I had been there before. Everything was perfect... well up until I noticed the patrons of the community turn their heads in disgust. I would've been fine if they just did that... but a few minutes after I realized their disdain for me, a thin, weak looking stallion approached me; and proceeded to spit in my face. "Murderer! I believe I speak for this town when I say we don't want you, nor any of your propaganda in our town!"

I quickly wiped the spit from my face, and just stared at the saliva in my hand. After a minute, I looked up to find the same stallion being patted on the back by a group of hippy-like ponies. Not one to idly sit by and let myself be degraded, I bum rushed the scrawny man, and quickly backed him up into a near by building. With one hand, I lifted him off the ground, and slammed him down to the earth beneath, "Listen fuck face, you do NOT, and I repeat DO NOT spit on anypony... especially me," He clenched his chest, and was wheezing. I drew my pistol from his holster, and leveled it straight at his head, "They just discharged me... you know why? Because even Celestia herself is afraid of me!" I quipped, followed by a cynical laugh.

Most of the six mares, along with many passerby's, stood in complete shock. The only exception being the blonde maned one, who frantically called over to a red stallion, "Mac! We need some help over here, asap!", before I knew it, the same guy was trying to subdue me, but to no avail.

The small, scrawny fuck who spat on me still lay on the ground, not even bothering to move a muscle. Before Mac managed to take me down, I fired three shots around the stallion's head; making sure to scare the piss out of him... in the end it paid off, as I glanced down I saw a dark line run down the leg of his pants, along with a large stain in the groin area.

I hit the ground with massive thud, and let out a "Oomph" as I connected with the hard dirt below. My beloved sidearm broke free of my grasp, and slid a few feet from my reach. Fluttershy, as I was later told her name was, picked up my gun and carried it back to Twilight, unsure of what to do with it. The large red stallion proceeded to lift me up, and put me in a bear like vice. The guy who I shot at slowly rose to his feet, before freezing in front of me. I said nothing, but gave him a demonic smile, making sure to imprint my face into his memory. As soon as I started to squirm, he bolted. Ran faster than I thought a small thing like him could.

"You can let go now.", I ordered in a stern voice.

"Nope.", was the only response I received.

"Big Mac, if you c-could drop him off at the library, th-that would be very helpful.", Twilight asked the large man.

He said nothing, but just nodded and walked down the road.

After a few minutes of being carried, we arrived at a large tree with multiple openings carved into it. I was dropped, quite literally, onto a small black leather couch. Mac just nodded to the six mares, and exited without a word. Heh, strong, silent type, eh? Wonder what makes him tick...he looks to be a simple fellow, so it shouldn't be that hard to piss him off... My thoughts were interrupted by Twilight.

"Okay, question number one; Do you hear voices, outside your own, in your head?"

"Straight to the point... yes, I do. Constantly, they won't leave me alone."

"Do you know the voices, do they have distinct personalities?"

"There's only a few of them...they all speak in different manners. But what would you expect? After all, they're the voices of fallen squad mates. The ones I let die..."

Twilight, along with the others, looked at me in shock. "Y-Y-You let them die?!?!"

I chuckled at the question, "For the most part, not literally...but I accept full responsibility for their deaths. In some way or another, I caused their demise."

"How...How did they die?"

"Well, my last squad leader went out with a bang- literally. When we were out on patrol, his humvee ran over a mine... He didn't die on impact, no... he actually survived the blast...well the first one, anyway. I got out of my vehicle, along with my other squad mates,to check on him. From our perspective, he didn't look too scraped up. So we, well I, made him crawl to us if he wanted help. Seemed hilarious at the time... but when there's one mine, there's always a field of them. Like I said, he went out with a bang.

"The other three voices are from previous battle buddies: Torque, Skully, and Tank. All of them were good soldiers, going above and beyond the call to serve Equestria; they were Marines, after all. Torque was the one I was the closest with. He and I weren't so different. We were lethal, and had no regrets about anything we did. Together, it seemed as if we were unstoppable; as if we alone would be able to put down the griffin insurgents by ourselves. The day he died... We were just walking around on guard duty. Earlier we had a game of rock, paper, scissors in order to see who would take point that night. Initially I lost, and demanded best two out of three. In the end, I won. Little did I know, that was the last fun we would have together... he lost his head to a sniper. I can still remember his blood splashing in my face, having to wipe his brains from my eyes to get a clear shot at his killer.

"Skully, on the other hand, was my complete opposite. He enlisted solely for military benefits. He had no sense of nationalism, yet he mourned every loss that we encountered- how that worked, I'm still unsure of. All I know is that I didn't know or like him very much. Before you jump to conclusions, no I didn't kill him, nor did I put him in death's way. He was captured during a surprise attack, and listed as MIA for three months. We eventually found him, eyes gouged out and limbs torn off. He was nothing more than a torso with a head... the sick bastards nailed his arms above him in an 'X', and left what was left of his legs by his side. It took a while to realize what they had been doing with them; they had been eating him! I never felt a surge of hate and sympathy like that before, nor since. Each day since, I have carried his dog tags with me, so that I will never forget him. I may not have liked the guy, but if anyone deserves respect it's him; he lasted all those months...we could tell, his body was freshly killed; no decay was present. Even being so different, we were, no, are brothers in arms.

"The last, Tank, didn't die so bad... he was a good stallion. But he trusted people too easily. That was both his greatest gift, and his ultimate downfall. Like Skully, I didn't kill him, nor put him in situations that put him in danger. I have no opinion of him, really. He and I got along to an extent, but for the most part I kept my distance from him, making sure not to get too attached. You'd be surprised at how having any sort of relationship, good or bad, with a pony makes losing them harder. This was before we fully understood what the griffins were willing to stoop to... Th-they had strapped a bomb on a crying child. He had a soft spot for kids, telling me on one occasion that he hated that we had to tear up so many families. In the end, he decided to check it out. As soon as he stepped up to the young boy, there was a giant flash of light and a large boom... I was knocked back, and hit my head hard against the stone street. When I awoke, nothing remained of the child, and Tank laid in the street with a large chunk missing... Like I said before, we weren't very close, not in the slightest. But I couldn't help but shed a single tear as I watched him bleed out.

" I don't know why Skully and Tank haunt my thoughts, maybe they want closure... Y'know there are nights when I dream of drowning in blood, and their voices are always screaming at me. Other nights, I find Torque wandering my mind, simply humming to himself... but when I put my hand on his shoulder, he dissolves into nothing, and the dream slowly fades into a memory; Torque lays in front of me, head blown to bits, and blood n' brains on my face. And those are the times when I can actually sleep.", I turned my head up to find all the mares in the room, along with a small dragon, looking at me with terror in their eyes, and tears on their cheeks.

As she came back to reality, Twilight concluded, "I...I think that's enough for now... you can stay here if you like. I offer you my couch, and home to rest in."

"Thanks, but if you don't mind I'd like to take a walk to clear my head. I'll probably be out for a while... I promise I'll be back, and to not cause no trouble. Unless I get spit on again. Then someones getting ripped a new one.", I said while walking out the door, making sure to pick up my pistol from the sheepish mare on the way out.

Author's Note

Hey guys, welcome back for all of those who favorited this story. I hope that you found this somewhat disturbing (really, I hope you saw that Drifter is fucked up), and also enjoyed the whole chapter. If you didn't read the title of the video, the song is Freak me out by Weezer. I, personally, think that song goes perfectly with the scene. It's calm, yet describes a few things about Drifter...they're very subtle, I won't give you any adamant answers, but I think y'all can pick up what I was intending.