War in Peace

   Jericho lay in the darkness, he figured he was laying down because he felt something flat against his stomach, as his mind began to register he wasn't dead he began to make a mental checklist of his internal systems.

   "...Touch... Numb, but check..." He began, listing each of his senses, "Breathing, Check... Smell, there’s a metal scent, so check...Taste? I can taste my own blood... The metallic taste..." He paused his check for a second to think about it, "Wow... I haven't tasted my own blood in a long time..." As his intrigue had subsided he continued his checklist, "...Hearing... My ears are pounding and ringing at the same time... But I can hear a low humming so I guess that counts as a check...For now, Wings... Wait? When did I bring out my wings...I could've sworn I kept them phased out... it doesn't matter, I'll have to figure that out later. And finally...Sight... Either I'm blind or my eyes are closed... I hope it's the latter."

   He finally attempted to use the muscles that opened his eyelids, and he was greeted in the order of darkness, then redness, Then whiteness as his eyes began to adjust to the fluorescent lights that were shining in the room.

   Once his eyes finally adjusted completely, He was able to focus on his arms that were splayed out in front of him... He was checking his arms until his eyes drew to where his hands should be, and instead he saw...

"...Hooves... Well... No wonder my sense of touch is dulled... I have... Hooves..." His train of thought stopped for a few seconds as his discovery set in, "HOOVES! WHAT THE HELL!" His mind began to go over several different thoughts at once, Until a headache began in his skull just above his eyes, He closed his eyes and blinked away the pain as he brought his front right hoof to his head to massage the pain away. His hoof stopped as it touched something sticking out of his skull, "I swear to the eternal dragon... if I landed on a pipe... I'm going to be furious..." He thought with a groan as he slid the hoof up and down the protrusion, He found out that whatever it was had become attached to his skull as if he were born with it, He shot up into a sitting position... And even though his numbed tactile sense was in place, He still had a headache and his vision began making him see spots. Once his vision cleared he stared up at the roof of the room as if he were addressing some sort of higher being, And spoke in a low growl so that if anyone happened to be awake near him they wouldn't hear it.

   "If I am... Where I think I am... And the council has done... What I think they've done... Those guys will certainly feel my wrath when I get back!" His gaze dropped down to the hooves that replaced his hands and he began to speak to himself, As if expecting his mind to reply.

   "...An Alicorn... Do those guys even know how over-powered this crap is!? And if anyone back home found out about this I'd be alienated from all of them! An Alicorn! REALLY!?" His voice was certainly hoarse, but the muttered growl came out as if he was still refreshed... He continued to stare at his hooves until his eyes finally noticed something missing other than fingers.

"My ring! Uh-oh... that's not good..." He thought, bringing his mind to the enchanted ring that kept him sustained without the need for food. A magical item that went by the name of a Ring of Sustenance, Yeah... Nothing fancy, But it was the name that stuck. All of his other thoughts were suppressed as his stomach began to growl, knowing that it finally got to make a decision on how the (newly appointed) alicorn would live his life.

   He tried to keep his mind on his other thoughts as his growing hunger began to try and take over. "...but seriously... an alicorn... I had always imagined myself to be a pegasus. But I can kind of understand, since back home I'm on the god-council... but an Alicorn? They seriously had to advertize that I have more power than the average person?" he grumbled as he finally started to examine his body.

   He saw that his legs were probably long enough to stand him at least close to his original height of six-foot tall. He rubbed a hoof against his horn and knew that even if it felt uncomfortable now, He would have to get used to the thought of having one. He then began examining his wings, they were long, and were colored a kind of silvery-white color, the same as the hair on his hide. His wings tingled as their outstretched position felt the air around his body. His look flashed surprise as he realized how his uniform had changed, instead of a navy blue dress shirt, pants and combat boots... he only had a dress shirt on as well as combat boots that were in a different shape than a regular foot, "Probably to accommodate for the fact that I'm now an equine being." he thought dismissively. He had a mane and tail that seemed to be a tri-color mix of coppery-brown. When his gaze finally rested on his flank, he saw what cemented the fact that he was no longer in Hell... A cutie mark in the shape of the symbol of the Strife Assault Force (the cover art of this story).

   Jericho blinked several times as he looked around, not only did he see the black and red armor of his soldiers, but he saw a sea of color showing under the armor. His crew began to stir, much as he had, slow and groggily. When more and more began to get a sense of where they were, Jericho knew that he would have to do something, because he certainly saw several of his crewmembers begin to silently panic in the unfamiliar bodies that were now theirs. He began to speak to all the crewmembers present in the room.

   "Ok... everyone, attention!" he called out, and smiled inside as any panic the crew had was replaced by the habit of obeying a command given by their leader, he paused before continuing, "I'm going to call the rest of the crew in so I can try to explain as calmly as possible... what has happened."

   The crew waited patiently as Jericho brought the mike to his face. It was quite awkward trying to lift it with hooves, he actually had to get one of his neaby crewmembers to press the intercom button when he was ready.

"All crewmembers and combat personnel report to the command room... I repeat, all crewmembers and combat personnel report to the command room to be debriefed on the situation." he quickly replaced the mike on it's stand and tried to think of how he was going to explain the sudden physical change in his crew.

   When the rest of the crew had finally filed in, Jericho took a mental note that the amount of pegusai, unicorns, and earth ponies was roughly a third of the group each. he took a second to breathe before he addressed each of his soldiers.

   "Alright, everyone knows that something quite unusual has happened..." he receives a few nods of agreement as several members of the group look around to their teammates, and he continues, with all their gazes snapping back to him. "From what I can tell, something about that Rift Vortex changed our physical appearance to that of an equine nature..." once again, a few nods from the crowd, "...So, what we need to do is find out how we can defend ourselves until the entire crew is able to bear arms again, or at least is confident in their ability at close quarters combat." he pauses for a few seconds, trying to think of some sort of logical action to take, then an idea pops into his head and he decides to roll with it. He gives the crew a look over and then begins to speak once more.

   "How many of you consider yourselves skilled in the use of magic?" he asks, which only about half the unicorn members raise their hooves to, "Ok... a lot less than I was expecting... but at least it's better than nothing..." he ponders, then continues.

   "You will be our defense until we can figure out how to defend the rest of the crew on their own..." The statement begets a few moans of protest from the crowd, but overall they understand that it has to be done, Jericho collects his thoughts once again as he continues. "Now... since you are our only means of defense right now, you're going to have to learn quickly how to walk as you are and make sure you don't go tripping over yourselves. Everyone else, report to the training rooms." he orders, his men salute once more before they begin to leave, many of them tripping over themselves or others since they're not familiar with being quadrupeds.

   Jericho began taking a few careful steps, trying to keep his balance. He stumbled a few times as he walked to the training rooms, but he soon began to get used to walking on all fours, the entire time his mind drifted to the nagging sense in the back of his mind that he was missing something... something that made him who he was, but he shrugged it off as he reached the training rooms. A smile barely showed itself as he watched his soldiers enter the metallic rooms, relieved by the fact that the holographic interfaces could be resized and accessed by them.