Goliath One-Status: K.I.A.by Eternal AviatorChaptersPrologueChapter One: Blue-On-BlueChapter Two: Hunting the HunterChapter Three: An Odd IntroductionChapter Four: Meeting New People... or PoniesChapter Five: Clearing Things UpChapter Seven: A Normal PicnicChapter Six: Marcus Vs. the Everfree ForestProloguePrologue “Ladies and gentlemen, we are all gathered here today on this fine evening to pay tribute, to a soldier known as Michael Ivan, also known as Goliath 2 of the Goliath squadron” Said Lt. Colonel James Watson. He and the other U.S.A.F. pilots stood tall in place on one side of the massive and decorative coffin, the evening sun’s rays turning their black uniforms a light shade of grey. None of them moved a muscle, even though the sun shined right in their eyes, but looks of sorrow were easily visible on their faces. “Michael was not only a friend, but a hero. He lived as a hero, and he died as one too.” the Colonel continued, “Michael has achieved an incredible feet bringing our country to where it is today. His heroic final action in battle, left us all something to learn from, but mainly to be thankful for. And with that said, let us all salute to him once more, and let him know that wherever he may be, he’ll know that we all honor him greatly. Amen.” As James stepped aside, his place was taken by former U.S. Army veteran, Sgt. Major Carson Brownway. “ATTEN-TION!” He shouted. As he did so, he and all the other pilots raised their hands to their foreheads in a salute. And another group on the other side of the coffin, a firing-squad, did the same. “HUT!” He shouted. The firing squad each raised their rifles upward. “HUT!” He shouted again. The firing squad each fired a single round into the evening sky, this was repeated until the firing squad had all fired three rounds each. The pilots kept their salute throughout the rest of the ceremony until they were dismissed by the Colonel. Everyone, including some of the pilots, went home somberly and teary-eyed. Some of the pilots hugged loved ones, while others just got into their cars and headed for home. That is, everyone except for Sgt. Marcus Ivan, he just stood there above the buried coffin while his eyes welled up with tears. After he was sure almost everyone had left, he got down on his knees, put his face in his hands, and began to cry softly. Shortly after, Marcus felt a hand on his left shoulder, he turned to see Major Veronica Stellic, a bomber pilot for the Special Deployment Unit, standing behind him. He looked closely and saw some tears in her eyes also. “God, she has the most beautiful eyes...” Marcus had to force that thought aside. “I’m, so sorry Marcus. I really am...” “Thanks.” Marcus said as he got up and wiped some tears from his cheeks and sniffled. “Life hasn’t been the nicest to me lately so, it’s been tough for me.” “Hey, you wanna join me and Jones (a retired U.S. Marine who served in Afghanistan for three years) at the bar? Maybe some friends time will help cheer ya up a bit!" Veronica said as she nudged Marcus with her elbow. Marcus sighed deeply. “Sure. Got nothin else to do so, why not? Heh heh.” “Great!” she turned to Jones, who was on the other side of the field, and gave him a thumbs up. “And I’m driving!” she shouted to Jones . “Oh hell no!” He replied playfully and sprinted to the car. “Oh hell yes!” Veronica shouted after him as she too ran to the car. Marcus simply jogged to the car as they all headed to find the best bottle of Sam Atam’s they could get their hands on. ~~~~~~~~~~ The next day, Marcus headed over to the airbase on the outskirts of town. When he got there, a few minutes after he stepped inside and was headed to his part of the camp, he was stopped by Colonel James. “Woah James, easy does it!” Marcus said as James almost knocked him over. “Sorry man, hey, I’ve been lookin’ all over for ya! The commander wants you to have this. James handed over a small piece of paper with the Commanders’ handwriting on it. It read: REPORT TO RUNWAY 4 A.S.A.P. THERE’S SOMEONE I WANT YOU TO MEET. Marcus read the note, and looked up at James nodded, and took off in the direction of the runways. But before he could get far, James stopped him. “And Marcus,” he said in a calm voice, “sorry about yesterday.” And with that, James pulled him into a quick hug, and Marcus took off running. Marcus, jogging now after the long run, finally got to runway-he checked the note- 4 was it, and sure enough, the heads-up advisor and commander in chief was waiting for him. Standing next to him was a, teenager? Marcus slowed to a walk as he approached the commander. “Commander, good to see you.” Marcus said with a quick salute. “You to Sergeant.” He responded with a handshake. “So, your note said you wanted me to meet someone? Marcus stated holding out the note. “Indeed I do,” he said, and beckoned the teenager over. “this is Natov Vladimir. He’s an ex-Russian pilot, and he is one of the best. I’ve chosen him to be your new wingman.” The Russian stepped forward and extended a hand. “It’s an honor sir.” Marcus was a little shocked at how Russian this guy sounded, but he still shook his hand with a smile. “Likewise.” “I’ll leave you two to talk things out.” the Commander said as he walked away. “So, what’s my new code-name sir?” Natov asked. “Well because you’re my wingman now, your new code-name is Goliath 2. And please, call me Marcus.” He replied with a smile “Yes sir!-Uh, I mean Marcus!” Natov said with a little laugh at the end. “Heh heh, it’s fine, now c’mon, I’ll show ya where you’ll be staying.” Marcus said as he wrapped an arm around Natovs’ shoulder. “If the chief says he’s the best, I guess he is...” Marcus thought as he and Natov headed back to the camp sites. It was then that Marcus noticed the large backpack that was slung over Natovs’ right shoulder. “Whatcha’ got in there?” Marcus asked as they stepped inside the huge main building. “Oh, this is just everything I need to get set up at the camp” Just then, Raptor squadron, another group of trained pilots each flying an A-10B Thunderbolts IV, was seen approaching the runway. Marcus chuckled. “I’ll have to introduce you to those guys, they’re a friendly bunch.” That night was much more relaxing for Marcus, he was able to get some reading done on his book, and let himself really unwind as he sat on the sofa in his TV room. Marcus scanned the room for a moment. “Damn it, did I really just loose the remote again? Fuck... Oh wait, here it is! Yay!” Marcus sighed with relief as he pulled the remote out by the corner he saw from under the sofa. He clicked on the TV and watched some Hardcore Pawn. He laughed a little when some black girl trying to sell an old XBox 360 went totally ballistic when they wouldn’t pay her for it. He checked the time on the cable box, 10:27 p.m., it had been about an hour since he had gotten home. Marcus turned off his TV and went to the bathroom to get ready for bed, as 10:30 p.m. was normally the time he went to bed. He climbed into bed under the soft blankets, turned off the lights, and drifted slowly off to sleep. “That Natov guy seems pretty nice... I wonder how many other planes he’s flown before... I just hope he doesn’t end up like...... He did......” Marcus started to dream , but those thoughts dwelled in his head. ~~~~~~~~~ One week before funeral “Goliath flight, you are cleared to take off, go NOW!!” Shouted Lt. Colonel James Watson. About 30 second after his order James watched as four F-35B Lightning II’s, also known as Goliath Flight, propelled themselves down the snow covered runway as a wave of bombers overhead were destroying the airfield. It was too risky taking off vertically as a plane could easily get hit by a bomb. “Alright team, you know what to do.” Marcus assured the team . “Right, kill bombers first, and escorts after.” Said Goliath 3 “That would be correct.” Stated Goliath 2 in a joking voice. “Focus guys! If the bombers manage to destroy this base, than we lose our foothold here.” Marcus made sure of the two. “Alright guys, we discussed how to deal with the Lancers right?” “Yup, follow me 3! I see a good group!” Said Goliath 4 as he and 3 closed in on a passing bomber squad approaching the base undefended. “2, follow my lead. Let’s take out that last group, you and me pal!” Said Goliath 1 happily.” “Alright, let’s have some FUN!” Replied Goliath 2. After a few minutes, Marcus got a message saying that the group 3 and 4 were pursuing was destroyed. After that, 2 pointed out something to Marcus that made his blood go cold. “Marcus look, the bombers... They’re flying away... But why?” Just then, a cold and deep Russian voice spoke through their radio frequency. “Ah, good to be back, isn’t it?” Said the voice in a devious tone. “Menshikov. What are you doing here?” Marcus demanded. “You haven’t changed a bit, have you Ivan? Heh heh heh.” That laugh made the hairs on the back of Marcus’s neck stand up. Then Marcus got a missile warning on his H.U.D. (heads-up-display). “Enough chit-chat, you die today!” Menshikov said evilly. He turned and banked the plane but by then Menshikov was right behind him in his legendary PAK-FA. They were both flying at top speed, when Menshikov started to use his cannon, he managed to hit one of his rear flaps and another part of his right wing: the parts that, when hit, would keep the plane from being able to turn for a short time. Then Menshikov just disappeared, and before Marcus knew it there was a missile headed straight for his cabin. Then he saw Menshikov bank and leave the battle zone in front of him. Marcus could only watch as the missile got closer, and when he just about knew that he would die, time seemed to slow down. Michael’s plane came from Marcus’s right and the missile struck him instead of Marcus. “MICHAEL!!!” Marcus yelled. Marcus could hear struggling. “I’m-I’m okay, I think... but, my plane’s not responding...” Michael said in a panicked voice. “Bail the hell out!!” Marcus ordered. “I just told you my plane’s not responding, AT ALL! Oh shit... I-I’m, losing oil pressure... I can’t keep her nose up...” Marcus watched in horror as Michael’s plane suddenly dipped downward. “No, Michael, don’t worry! I need a rescue crew at his expected crash sight, NOW!! “No... No, don’t... Everything’s gonna be fine, just...” Marcus heard a sniffle come through the radio. “Look... I can already see unidentified armored trucks moving on the desert, two of them are towing A.A. batteries. They’re russian. If they get there and I’m alive they’ll unlock every secret and tactic that I know of in the Air Force.” Said Michael slowly, his plane only gliding after shutting down his engine. “What are you planning on doing Michael?” Asked Marcus. Michael hesitated, knowing that Marcus wasn’t going to like it. “Marcus... I need you to shoot me down...” Marcus couldn’t believe his ears. “What? Michael, what are you thinking?!” “Think about it! I'm cornered now, what choice is there?! If they capture and interrogate me and I break it’s over for the Air Force! We can not risk an entire branch of the U.S. Military for one life!” Shouted Michael. “No Michael, I won’t do this!” Marcus replied as his eyes started to blur with tears. “Just do it, please... for the future...” “But... but Michael... No, I can’t... Please...” Marcus felt a tear run down his left cheek. “Marcus... for the United States, for our pride and freedom... Do it...” Marcus looked at the right joystick, the one with the button for launching sabre-class A.A. missiles. He looked back to the rear of Michael’s aircraft which was slowly descending. As he flipped up the cover for the button, all his favorite times with his favorite wingman flashed in his mind. The time Marcus gave Michael a fake lottery ticket and he thought he won $40,000, Marcus and Veronica both rolling on the floor laughing at the angry look on his face. The time Marcus had to leave the bar due to drinking three too many bottles of vodka, and how he threw up on Jones’s new jacket afterwards. The time Jones got a blindfolded lap-dance from Michael instead of a real girl on Jones’s birthday, man the look on his face when the blindfold was removed... The world around him and Michael faded from existence, leaving only them in a black void. Marcus put a lock crossair on Michael’s aircraft before saying his last words to his best friend. “Goodbye Michael...” Marcus said with a sniff. “Farwell Marcus...” Michael replied softly. Marcus’s hand trembled slightly as he put his thumb over the small, red button. “Forgive me Brother.” Marcus whispered to himself. He closed his eyes, and pressed the button with a *click*. ~~~~~~~~~~ That was all Marcus saw in his dream before his eyes snapped open and he quickly sat up in bed, breathing heavily. He scanned the room for a second before putting his face in his hands. That was when he realized that there were tears streaming out of his eyes and his whole body, from the waist up, was beaded with sweat. The *click* echoing in his brain like someone was right next to him. “Am I ever going to get over this?” Was the one question he asked himself, that he couldn’t answer... ever... Chapter One: Blue-On-BlueChapter One Earth June 18th, 2023 Along a one-way dirt road, a gentle breeze shifted the trees slowly. There was not a single sound except the sound of rustling leaves and birds chirping their daily song. “Come on the risin’ wind, we’re goin’ up around the bend. Ooh! Bring a song and a smile for the bango, better get while the gettin’s good!” The extremely loud music easily drained away the surrounding noise as Marcus happily sang along to the males southern like voice over the radio. “Hitch a ride to the end of the highway, where the neons turn to wood! Come on the risin wind, we’re goin’ up around the bend. Ooh!" Marcus decided to turn down the radio a bit and just hum to it instead as he spotted the area where the dirt road turned into paved asphalt. Plus his ears were starting to hurt from the song volume. Marcus could hear the dirt churning under the large 12’’ tires of his Ford Excursion. There were no authorities on the road so Marcus gave the massive V12 engine one last rev before he turned onto the calm street. The revving sound of his beloved truck always made Marcus get that “oh hell yeah!” sensation. Just when Marcus was pulling onto the road, he felt (and heard) his stomach grumble uncomfortably. Marcus groaned as he finally realized that it was from hunger. “Wow I must be hungry, I wonder if that local Subway is still open...” He pondered that thought for a moment and looked at the digital clock on the trucks dashboard, 5:54 p.m. The Subway closed at six. “Yeah, I think I can make it...” Marcus said out loud to himself. Just then, his iphone 8 rang a little loudly then he would’ve liked, but it was from when he was blasting the music earlier. He looked to see who it was; UNKNOWN CALLER flashed across the clear screen. Curious, Marcus picked up the phone and pressed ignore. He parked in front of the small Subway restaurant and got out of his car. He spotted another person leaving and headed inside. The employee was washing the counter when he heard the bell above the door ring as Marcus stepped inside. The man looked up and greeted Marcus as he approached the food area. “What can I get for you sir?” The man asked kindly, but Marcus could tell that this guy wanted to go home, so Marcus didn’t hesitate with his order. “I’ll get a...” After Marcus had left with a satisfied stomach, his phone rang again. He looked at who was calling him and saw this: UNKNOWN CALLER. Now Marcus was a little annoyed but a bit creeped out too... Who was this? Marcus decided that nothing good would come out of ignoring it again, so he answered it. “Who is this?” Marcus demanded instantly. “Nevermind that, the chief wants to see you first thing tomorrow in the briefing room.” Marcus heard a very Russian like accent in this mans’ voice. “Natov, is that you?” “Look, just be there tomorrow morning okay?” “Answer my question, that’s an order damn it!” Marcus heard a sigh before the answer came. “Yes, it is. The Chief told me to just keep this between you, Veronica (and her co-pilots obviously), me, and him. He said he wanted to keep the mission tomorrow a secret, that it’ll draw too much negative attention...” “Keep what mission a secret!?” Barked Marcus. “Whoa man, chill!” Natov replied, “The attack, remember? The bomber escort?” Natov stated calmly. “Oh OOHHH! Okay, sorry man, you caught me kinda off guard their. Yeah don’t worry, I haven’t told anyone yet so you’re good. I really hope you can handle aiding the Russians again after... you know.” Marcus said coldly. Natov sighed sadly into his cell phone. “Maybe not, but it’ll be worth it getting’ to go on my first flight as an American wingman!” Natov said excitedly. “I hope so, hey man I’ll see you in the morning’ okay?” “Alright, see ya.” “Later.” Marcus pressed the end call button on his phone and started off for home. He checked the clock again, 6:32 p.m. As he was driving home, he came across a familiar intersection on his town's Main Street and saw a pair of headlights coming from the right. Marcus looked more closely and saw that the car that the headlights belonged too was headed right for him at an alarming rate. Marcus stepped on the gas to try to avoid but it was too late, his truck and the other drivers brakes could be heard clearly before the unknown driver struck the side of Marcus’s Ford and everything went black. ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus woke up in, a hospital bed? Marcus was about to sit up when he heard a familiar voice speak, “Hey bud, easy does it.” The voice said as he was gently pushed back into the bed pillow. Marcus grunted before responding. “Hey Jones. What happened to me?” He heard another familiar voice, this one female. “You got t-boned by some dumbass driving a Blazer, he claims he didn’t see you until it was too late, but I punched him anyway...” Jones put his face in his hand and chuckled. “Oh, Veronica, when will you get over that punching people doesn’t solve problems?” Marcus asked jokingly with a little laugh at the end. Veronica shrugged with a laugh. Marcus tried to sit up again and could, after a few minutes, he was able to stand and walk again. “I feel like I’m gonna throw up...” “Whew, good thing I can walk for now, big day tomorrow!” That was when he realized he didn’t know how long he was out for, he frantically searched the small room until he saw that it was almost exactly twelve o'clock at night. So Marcus decided to get to his place and sleep. “Hey guys, I’m gonna go get some sleep, see you two in the morning!” Even though he ended up having to get driven home by Jones, before Marcus knew it, he was in his own comfy bed, sleeping like a log. ~~~~~~~~~~ June 19, 2023 Marcus was on his way to the airfield in a car that was lent to him until his Excursion was repaired. He decided it was time for some tunes and with that, he turned on the radio and started listening to Smoke on The Water. Marcus came across that same intersection that he had his little doozie on and grimaced, he could’ve sworn that he even saw that same Chevrolet Blazer on the opposite road. When he came to a familiar small street, he turned onto the dirt path that led to the airbase a little quicker. Marcus wanted to make sure he got all the details before he embarked on this mission later today (he was always like that). Just as he did, his favorite guitar and drum duo from the song started and he turned up the speakers in the car. Marcus drove down the dirt path in the oversized field towards the base, when he noticed a small group of three Black-Hawks and Apaches flying away from the runway. “Why do they always get the ‘blowin shit up’ missions?” Marcus returned his attention to the road where he saw the right turn that lead to the side entrance of the base. He turned off the music and picked up his phone. He peeked up at the road occasionally while he searched the ‘recent callers’ list until he found the number that Natov had called him with and pressed ‘redial’. He heard it ring a few times before that same Russian voice, which made the sides of Marcus mouth creep upwards, answered. “This is Natov.” He said flatly. “Hey Natov, good to hear your voice.” Marcus responded cheerfully. Natov’s serious voice turned friendly when he realized who it was. “Ay, Marcus! How’s it goin’? “Good! Hey, I’m about five minutes away. See me at the west enterance so we can get ready.” Marcus & Natov both made their way to the aircrafts, of the F/A-38 VTOLs while the commander made his way to the Heads Up Advisory Center. Marcus climbed into the snug cabin and eyed the helmet sitting on the seat, he sat down and put on the helmet. He then touched the screen in front of him and the cabin automatically closed, while a computer voice spoke from the plane. “Identify: Ivan, Marcus. Flight authorization: accepted. Startup sequence: initiated. Controls, Navigation, Communication, and leventry systems are now online. Takeoff when ready.” “Okay, you ready?.” Marcus asked as he gave Marcus a thumbs up. Marcus nodded back to him as he grasped one handle in each hand, the left one for throttle, and the right one for movement. “Alright Natov, let’s see if we can suprize the folks at the other base!” Marcus said, as he slowly pulled back on the throttle and felt himself and the plane rising in perfect harmony. He looked over to his right and saw Natov rising too. “Alright 2, follow my lead.” “Roger that.” Natov replied. “Command this is Goliath 1, everything is checking out.” Marcus said. “Goliath 2 here, all systems green. We are ready to proceed with the mission.” “Copy that, move on to mission area. I’ve marked it on your tactical situation maps, I’ll update you once you’ve reached your destination where you’ll rendezvous with Veronica and her unit.” Informed the commander. Almost simultaneously, Marcus and Ivan started moving in one direction, the thrusters all moving forwards at the same time to propel the jets forward. After a minute of continuous flying in one direction, Marcus contacted command, “Command, we are preparing to make the transition to supersonic.” “Copy that, Mach 1, Mach 1.” Replied the Chief. Marcus could literally feel the sound leaving him as the plane sliced through the sound barier with ease. A few minutes later, Marcus heard Natov say, “Command, we are approaching hypersonic, clearance to proceed? “Granted” “Alright bud, time for the big one!” Marcus excitedly said. Marcus began to actually see the pure oxygen get pushed around the plane in a white cone starting at the nose of the jet. “Whew! This is quite the first-time experience!” Just then Marcus got the last news he was expecting. “Uh, Goliath Flight, do you copy?” Asked the Commander in a concerned tone, which also concerned Marcus and Natov. “Goliath Flight, go ahead.” Replied Marcus. “One of our guided missile batteries is targeting you from the base, we’re trying to regain control but--oh fuck, Marcus!! MISSILE INBOUND!!!!” Screamed the Commander. Marcus suddenly got a missile warning on his H.U.D. The H.U.D. showed the direction the missile was coming from and the distance, and it was coming fast. “Natov! Evasive maneuvers!” Shouted Marcus as he banked hard to the right. The missile followed his movement and continued approaching. 1,000m...500m...200m... Marcus deployed flares and banked again. The missile turned off course and momentarily disappeared from view. Marcus’s H.U.D. no longer showed the missile warning as he and Natov returned to their previous heading. “What the hell was that?!” Yelled Marcus angrily. “I don’t know, we’re trying to figure it out now but--” “Marcus! Look out!!” Interrupted Natov. Marcus got another missile warning but this time his heart almost stopped. This time the distance read: 100m...60m... Marcus’s plane automatically deployed flares due to the missile’s close proximity but too late. As the missile was headed towards the left side of the cockpit of the plane, the flares only diverted it to the back of the plane so it struck his left engine. “Ahh! I’m hit!! I’m going down!!” Marcus shouted as his plane wobbled and billowed smoke from the back. As Marcus fell out of the sky, he noticed he was heading straight for a large lake he saw earlier. “At least it’ll be soft landing...” The thought calmed Marcus slightly and he decided not to eject. Marcus was able to angle the flaps to let him glide onto the surface of the lake. Unfortunately, the turbulence rammed into his plane and caused it to endo into the water, knocking Marcus out cold. “Marcus!” Called Natov. “Marcus, are you okay!? A Pause. “Goliath One, do you copy!? Command, blue-on-blue! I repeat, blue-on-blue, Goliath One is down!!” Underwater, Marcus and his F/A-38 drifted slowly to the bottom of the massive body of water. In the dark water a sort of light began to grow and brighten at the bottom. With Marcus still out cold, the jet sank undisturbed closer to the strange light. Marcus finally regained consciousness and flipped up the tinted visor that covered his eyes. As his eyes adjusted to the murky surrounding, he caught sight of the light that was becoming brighter and closer with every passing second. His eyes widened in shock and he eventually covered them due to the brightness. “Oh shit... This can’t be good... he thought as he sank into the light. ~~~~~~~~~~ Ponyville, Equestria A large apple tree shook as all of its apples fell neatly into the awaiting apple cart that was positioned below. In the distance, a (very) young and high-pitched voice with a very southern like accent called out. “Big Mac! Applejack! Time for lunch!” “Be right their Sis!” Called back the orange mare known as Applejack. Big Mac, Applejack’s brother, started to head back to the farm when he stopped and turned around. “You comin’?” Asked Big Mac. Applejack just stood in place watching the horizon. “Wha?-Oh, yeah. Go ahead, I’ll catch up with ya.” Big Mac just nodded and started off for the barn again. Applejack watched the afternoon sky for a few minutes, admiring the beautiful afternoon, a gentle breeze added some calming sound to the surroundings, before turning to head back. She had taken a few steps when she heard a loud crack in the distance, like a gunshot would sound like in real life, Applejack turned to look and spotted a distant white orb hovering in the sky. It grew slowly but steadily brighter until Applejack, who thought she would go blind if she staired too long, was forced to turn her head away. She looked back in time to hear yet another crack emit from the same spot, but this one was followed by a strange... thing flying out of the circle, which disappeared immediately afterwards. “What in the name of-” That was before the poor pony realized that it was headed straight for her. It approached at an extremely fast speed before Applejack, so stunned to move, saw two little things deploy on the front-sides and start shooting what looked like a blue and seethrough cone from each one. The same happened to the larger back ones as the entire flying machine angled itself backwards. Then it hit Applejack like a brick to the head; this thing was crashing, not landing, she was able to figure that out when she saw that the thing was very wobbly as it descended, and thick, black smoke billowed from the back tube. Now Applejack was running in the opposite direction as fast as she could... ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus uncovered his eyes and looked forward. “What the fuck was THAT?!” Marcus wondered. That was before he heard the sound of beeping and the plane’s voice saying, “Emergency shutdown, initiated. Emergency shutdown, initiated. Emergency shutdown, initiated.” Marcus by now was frantically jerking the joystick in all directions, hoping to get the planes nose upward. No luck. Then Marcus noticed the small red switch located to the right of the dashboard: the priority override. Using the priority override was a risky maneuver because it would shut down all the flight computers, stabilizers, and sensors/monitors momentarily, allowing the pilot to regain control from any situation with no assistance whatsoever. But Marcus had no choice, he flipped up the cover and flicked the switch, immediately after, the plane spoke. “Emergen-priority override: Delta, Foxtrot, Tango, Zulu. Startup sequence, initiated. As the last coordinates were being mentioned, the dashboard started to come back online before Marcus’s eyes and he felt pressure on the sticks again (which was good). Without hesitation, he enabled the jump-jets (the forward placed mini-thrusters) and angled the rear thrusters downward to try and slow his descent. His tactic kind of worked except for three things: the dashboard was telling him that his back left engine was badly damaged, which meant that the amount of thrust produced by the rear engines was not stable, so the plane was very ungainly as it descended. Two, there were no stabilizers or anything like that to try and keep the plane from crashing, so he had to do that all himself. And three, there was what looked like a small horse running away from him. “Oh no, I’m about to kill an innocent animal for nothing!” Marcus said to himself sadly. “Wait, where the hell did it come from?!” Marcus thought to himself. But due to his skill & experience, Marcus was able to do this just before he landed: he waited for the ground to be what he was going for as 40 meters above it, before going full throttle. This allowed him to barely hover above the ground while still trying to tilt backwards. Then he evened out the throttle to glide above the ground before Marcus did a very risky move. He completely cut power to the thrusters and folded them in just fast enough and at the right height so that he hit the dirt ground with no damage done to anything under the plane, and he knew that the landing gear would break if it took that much pressure. Marcus was jerked around inside the cockpit, with the seatbelt holding him in place, from the sudden impact. Ultimately, knocking him out cold... Again... ~~~~~~~~~~ Applejack sprinted as fast as she could away from the object grinding through the dirt towards her. As she ran she got backed up against a massive apple tree with nowhere to go, the poor mare could only close her eyes, and wait to get flattened. She waited and listened for the sound of soil getting pushed out of the way of the thing that was going to kill her, until she finally opened her eyes only to almost have a heart attack. This mysterious... thing, had stopped with its point only mere inches from her neck. “HO-LY. SHIT!!!!” She thought to herself. Applejack breathed a hefty sigh of relief as she slowly moved away to the side, where she had to duck under the point to get away. This thing could not be from this world. She looked back a few times before she ran back to the barn. Before she did anything else involving this... UFO, she had to have somepony at her side just incase and she knew that. She decided that it would be best if only Big Mac and herself knew about this until further notice, so she just acted like there was nothing up throughout lunch (which in this situation, was kind of hard). Applejack was shot some curious looks and questions during the timespan, but she just answered them with “Yes!” or “No”. After lunchtime was over, Applejack pulled Big Mac aside. “Big Mac, I need ya to come with me!” “Wha- why?” Asked Big Mac. “I’ll explain later, just c’mon!” Big Mac thought it would only make things harder if he resisted any further, so he ran along side his sister to the spot where they had left off apple bucking earlier. As the large unknown object came into view, Big Mac put a hoof in front of Applejack to stop her. “Whoa sis, what do you think you’re doin’? Do you even know what that is?!” “No, but whatever it is, it wasn’t planin’ on landin’ here, somepony maybe hurt inside it!” Applejack exclaimed as she pointed out the sparks and smoke coming from the back. “But where would that somepony be is such a contraption? I ain't seein’ a place for guards to pull it, I also don’t see anyplace for a passenger...” But applejack slowly walked up to the side of it anyways and asked in a shaky voice, “Is-is there somepony in there?” Chapter Two: Hunting the HunterChapter Two Equestria June 19th, 2023 “Is-is there somepony in there?” The orange mare, Applejack, stood to the left of the strange aircraft that had crash-landed in the far side of Sweet Apple Acres. When no response came, she and her brother both hesitantly made their way in a full circle around the machine, trying to inspect every inch of it. “I still think we should either leave this thang alone, or get some friends over here at least...” Applejack groaned, finally giving in to her sibling’s idea. “Alright, fine. I’ll go and get the other five, you stay here and keep a keen eye on this thing...” Before Big Mac could protest, Applejack was already in a full-on sprint towards the companion that lived the closest; Rainbow Dash. It took a few minutes, but she finally found the pegasus she was looking for. ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus awoke from a blank sleep inside the snug, but surprisingly comfortable cabin of his F/A-38 VTOL. He pressed a button on the side of his helmet and the tinted visor flipped up into the helmet slot, as he began to look at his surroundings. He could not remember anything except for a white light and about a minute before that. When he was looking, something caught him off guard... “When did all these trees get here? Last time I checked, I was flying above a desert and sinking in-oh shit, everyone probably thinks I'm dead...” As soon as his brain started to (try to) work, the whiplash of the crash hit him like a Smart Car colliding with a semi-truck as his head started to throb violently. Marcus rubbed his forehead when something else caught him off guard. A voice could be heard faintly through the cabin of the jet. “Is-is there somepony in there?” It sounded female, and Southern, but the throbbing of his head and the semi-noise-canceling glass made it too hard to tell. That’s when the thing that caught him off guard the most registered in his mind. “Pony? What the fuck does this person mean by that?! Maybe it’s a metaphor?” Marcus just pushed that thought out of his head and tried to contact command. “Ug, this is Goliath 1. I’ve crashed in-arg-an unidentified field about-hello? Command, do you copy? Damnit!” After his failed attempt to get help, he just decided to open up the cabin to see if he could get help the old-fashioned way. The sound of the cabin depressurization tended to sooth Marcus a little, he just loved that hiss. As the glass paneling moved forward towards the nose of the plane, he began to stand up to get out. When took a step onto the first stair, he stumbled and fell the rest of the way out of the plane. “Ow...” He thought as he lay face-up on the dirt staring up at the blue sky. When he finally was able to stand up, he turned to find something that caught him off guard even more so than the use of ‘pony’ in the person’s speech. He turned and had a staring contest with a... horse? This horse wasn’t like any other he had ever seen. This one had a fire engine-red coat, with a orange mane and tale, and it was... tiny compared to the horses he had seen before. Plus this figure in particular seemed to be giving Marcus not a plane look that most normal horses do, but this one giving him a look of... horror... That was the last thing Marcus registered before he buckled down to his right knee and face planted in the dirt. ~~~~~~~~~~ Big Mac watched in curiosity as the unknown being climbed out of the front of the machine, and had to push down laughing at the creature as it took a step onto the stair and fell out onto his back. Big Mac started to slowly approach the fallen critter, when he heard it let out a faint grunt and backed away as the thing stumbled to its feet. When there eyes met they seemed to stare at eachother for an eternity, before the biped buckled down on its right knee... and collapsed. Big Mac cautiously walked over to the fallen being, and nudged its side with a hoof. No response. He tried it again and gave up. “Welp, I guess I’ll just wait for Applejack to get back...” ~~~~~~~~~~ “Okay, do we have to do this right now? Just c’mon! I’ll tell ya when we get there!” Applejack tried explaining to Rainbow Dash. “Alright fine, where did you say it crashed again? I can meet you there.” Rainbow Dash responded. “On the far side of Sweet Apple Acres, but-” But Rainbow Dash was already out of sight, on her way to Sweet Apple Acres. Big Mac sat next to the being just staring into the sky, when he noticed a rainbow blur over head and got up. As Rainbow Dash landed about ten meters from the crash sight, Big Mac walked up to her. “Hey! I heard that a UFO landed here. So where is-WOAH!!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she flew up to the side of the massive machine. She just hovered in-place and gawked at the thing, then she noticed the biped laying face-down in the dirt and landed behind it. She then flew up a few feet and settled down on top of the UFO and laid down. “Well whaddaya know! I guess I’m braver than I thought!” Rainbow Dash said as she settled on the hard metal surface. “Yeup.” Big Mac calmly responded. Another voice made Rainbow Dash jump a little. “Rainbow Dash! What do you think you’re doin’!” Shouted Applejack as she trotted down the field. “Oh give me a break! You don’t see it trying to kill me do you? Oh, and watch out for-” But Applejack had already tripped over the fallen creature. “Ow! Wh- what the hey is thi-” She was cut short when she saw what she had tripped over. “Whoa!” She said as she jumped back. “What do you think we should do with this thing?” Asked Rainbow Dash, still perched on top of the metal surface. “We should get Twilight, she’ll know what to do!” ~~~~~~~~~~ “I still can’t believe this is happening! A real alien!” Announced Twilight as she was levitating Marcus to her library and bounced with joy every so often. “I know, I know. Let’s just get this thang back to yer place before it wakes up again.” Said Applejack as Twilights home came into view. “But where are you gonna keep this alien when we get there?” Asked Rainbow Dash. “Maybe the basement? Just for now.” Twilight happily responded as she trotted towards her home. ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus shakily sat up after another blank slumber. His vision was blurry, but he could make out the books that lined the walls of the room. “Great, it had to be a library didn’t it?” Marcus rubbed his eyes and got to his feet, he wasn’t very steady but he could at least stand. That was when he heard shouting from an upstairs level of the building. He pulled out his B23R and slowly proceeded to walk up the stairs on the far side of the room. when he was up the stairs, he looked around, still undetected, and spotted a door. As he proceeded to open it, two things were detected in his mind: the door was locked (not a big surprise...) and it was really short. He never minded the second thought and went with the only way to get out of this locked place that he could think of. He took a few steps back and charged at the door. The door snapped into three pieces and flew off its hinges. He stopped as his eyes adjusted to the blinding sunlight and pressed the button on his helmet as the dark visor covered his eyes. “Ah, that’s better...” His thought was cut short when he heard footsteps rushing from the inside of the house. As his gut took over, he ran as fast as he could into the nearby forest. He glanced back to see probably the most bizarre thing he’d ever seen: a orange pony with a yellow mane wearing a cowboy hat, a cyan blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail, and a purple unicorn(?) all watching him with intense focus. Marcus decided not to process what he had just seen and kept running into the forest. ~~~~~~~~~~ “No! I don’t want it in our house!” Shouted an angry Spike. “Don’t worry, we’re only keeping it for right now!” Replied Twilight, “But why can’t we move it into, gah-I don’t know, Applejacks barn?!” Yelled Spike. “Because, Spike, I have a business to run, and a family to take care of!” Retorted Applejack. “Ug! Can we please figure this out another time?! And Spike, for Celestia’s sake, suck it up! Shouted Twilight which made Spike recoil a little. “Hmf! Fine!” As spike was walking away, there was a loud crash emitted from the doorway. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack all went to see what happened. They looked to see a gaping hole where the front door used to be and pieces of it littered the ground outside. Then they all gasped (yes, even Rainbow Dash) when they saw the strange biped kneeling outside while one of its arms was shielding its eyes. Then it quickly got up and sprinted in the direction of the Everfree Forest. “C’mon! We can’t let it get away!” Shouted Rainbow Dash as the three of them (hesitantly) followed the creature into the forest. ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus didn’t stop running until he was out of breath. He stopped and leaned against a thick tree to catch his breath. Then he took notice that it had gotten really dark. “Odd... It was daytime a few minutes ago...” Marcus didn’t mind though, he pressed a few things on his data glove and his visor suddenly showed everything in a green and white view of the night vision/thermal imaging. He slumped against a tree and thought about what he should do next. “Okay, everyone thinks I drowned or died in that crash, which is okay! Wait, that not okay... Gah! Think Marcus, THINK! First things first; I need to get back to my jet, all of the tactical and survival gear is in the compartments. As well as the-” Marcus did a facepalm to his helmet that would've made Twilight jealous.. “The Dragonfires! I totally forgot!” Marcus said out loud. Marcus checked his data gloves touch-pad to see if it was still paired with the two things he needed. This is what he saw: F/A-38 VTOL signal strength: 94% MQ-27 Dragonfire(s) signal strength: 93% Remoteflight available He tapped the Dragonfire icon and waited about 15 seconds before the camera view for the three of them, placed in a side compartment on the jet, opened up each a separate window on his H.U.D. The three were waiting for orders as they flew out of the side of the compartment and just hovered in place. Marcus pressed another icon that told the Dragonfires to return to the source of the control signal, and watched the three camera views start to move all in one direction towards the forest. Marcus got a notification on his HUD of the orders given to the drones: Orders set: I.D., Monitor, Eliminate threats, link with transmission source Marcus smiled as he watched the signal strength slowly increase, but was cut off when he heard a roar close by. He quickly got to his feet and was confronted by one of the scariest thing he’d ever seen. A massive 13-foot tall lion with bat wings and a scorpion tail was slowly approaching him. Marcus pulled out his B23R and shot one three-round burst at its leg, which made it bucle over and roar but get back up and start limping at him. Marcus emptied his whole clip on the thing to no avail. He then pushed a icon on his data glove and pointed a crossair shown on his H.U.D. at the beast and tapped engage. Just when he thought he was gonna get eaten, three rockets came from the top of a nearby tree and struck the monster simultaneously. Marcus smiled and breathed a heavy sigh of relief as the monster fell in a mangled and bloody mess, and the three dragonfires came over a tree and hovered in defensive positions around Marcus. Target Eliminated ~~~~~~~~~~ “Tell me again why we’re doing this?” Asked Applejack. “Oh don’t be like that! C’mon, this is fun!” Responded a obviously very excited Rainbow Dash. “Yeah, walking around searching for a possibly deadly alien in the Everfree is a whole lot of fun...” Twilight said sarcastically. “But I thought you were the one that was all excited about studying this alien?” Said Applejack. Twilight sighed in defeat. “How long have we been walking anyway?” “I don’t know, 15 minutes?” Replied Applejack. “Aw, guys! You’re giving up alre-” Rainbow Dash was cut off by some distant bangs in the distance, followed by what sounded like three more powerful bangs all from one direction, which caused all of them to jump. “W-w-wh-wh-what was that? Asked Twilight in a shaky tone. “It s-sounded like it came from over there!” Responded Applejack. “Well what are we waiting for, invitations?! Let’s go!” Said Rainbow Dash as she sprinted off in the direction of the noise. The other two looked at each other and shrugged before following. When the two of them were just about out of breath, they came into a small clearing where Rainbow Dash was staring at what looked like a red mound of fur. When the two of them got closer, they realized it was a huge and bloody manticore body. The reactions can be deascribed in this analysis: Rainbow Dash was literally frozen in place, Twilight's face turned a strong shade of green, and Applejack ran over to a nearby bush and threw up. After Applejack had returned to the two, Rainbow Dash spoke up. “What...what could have done this?” She turned to the other two, “You don’t think... it, did this... do you?” “I think we should split up to find this thing. If one of us finds it, it’ll think of us as less of a threat. I’ll bet it only...hurt...this manticore because it attacked first...” Suggested Applejack as she gagged a little. The other two hesitated before nodding and heading off in different directions. “Well that went easier than expected...” ~~~~~~~~~~ Rainbow Dash walked along her invisible trail in search of the strange alien that killed the manticore they encountered earlier. Not a fear in the world, she proudly trotted along the thick vegetation for what seemed like hours. “Ug, this is hopeless!” “No it’s not! Just keep looking! You’ll find something!” Her thoughts battled it out in her head until she spotted something shiny on the ground in another small clearing, like a blackish-silver. She knelt down to get a better look. It almost looked like some kind of cartridge. Maybe it was from the alien? It was an idea. “Hmm, I must be on the right track, the alien can’t be fa-” Rainbow Dash couldn’t even finish her thought as an irritating crack could be heard from above her. She looked up to see a massive rock that was wedged in a tree fall. To scared to move, she watched as the large stone fell and, with her wings outstretched to fly, crushed her right wing. She screamed as she heard the bones in her wings get crushed with a chilling ‘crunch’. She lay there helpless as tears began to stream out of her eyes. For the first time in a long time, she felt... scared... genuinely scared... She tried to pull out from the rocks grip, but a sharp pain shot through her wing. She lay there for what must’ve been an eternity until, when she thought she was about to pass out from the pain, when she heard a deep growl that made her entire coat stand on edge. She was able to look up to see a small pack of three timber wolves slowly creeping around some trees, and Rainbow Dash knew that they were getting ready to tear her to shreds... “Well... I guess this is it...” The wolves took a step closer... “I’m going to die out here...” The pack took one more step... “I’ll never see my friends again...” The pack got even closer... “Or be in the Wonderbolts...” The lead wolf was getting ready to pounce... “Goodby life, I’ll miss you...” At the last thought she let out a small sob as the wolves were about to make their move. She closed her eyes as the first wolf lunged, as it did, a loud noise that made Rainbow Dash's ears ring, echoed through the area. And the first wolf fell dead, she managed to look at the corpse to see three holes in the side of its head and blood was pouring out. Before she knew it, the same loud noise played her eardrums twice and the other two wolves dropped to the ground. The same effect on them as well: three holes and blood. At that moment, Rainbow Dash did the only thing she saw suitable for this situation... she opened her muzzle and screamed. ~~~~~~~~~~ Twilight calmly trudged along the forest, not a thing on her mind but finding the strange creature. “Ug, I feel like it’s been hours since we started this... Maybe I should just turn around and-” Twilight’s thought was short-circuited as she noticed something in the dirt. She knelt down for a better look and noticed that it was a... footprint. And not the kind that anypony would leave behind. Then something ‘clicked’ in Twilight’s head, this print looked a lot like the footwear that the alien was wearing. “Sweet! Looks like I’m on the right track. Now I just have to follow these prints!” Twilight was slowly following the constant trail of prints when she heard a familiar voice from behind her. “Twilight! Hey, wait up!” Yelled Applejack as she ran towards Twilight. “Applejack! Hi! What are you doing here?” Asked Twilight. “Oh, I was just following these footprints I found! Pretty amazin’!” “Hey, I was just following these footprints too-” Twilight was cut off by a distant scream coming from the same direction as the footprints. As if on cue, Twilight and Applejack both shouted, “RAINBOW DASH!!!” Chapter Three: An Odd IntroductionChapter Three Equestria June 19th 2023 Marcus winced as the blood-curdling shriek played his eardrums like a bongo. As he slowly made his way to the source of the noise, he realized that some sunlight was leaking into the small clearing and disabled his night-vision. As he got closer to the large rock, he noticed a couple of blue feather tips poking out from the side he was on. Maybe it was some kind of bird? But birds don’t scream, at least not like this one did... He looked at his surroundings and noticed one of his gun magazines laying on the forest floor. He walked over to it, picked it up, and put it in a utility pouch on his vest. He then turned around and was presented with the third most ‘WHAT THE FUCK’ moment since he crashed. Trapped under the rock,was the right wing of a small cyan blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail. “I’m not sure whether I should question this, or just help the poor thing. Considering it was probably what those wolves were about to make an appetizer out of...” But Marcus’s care for other living things kicked in and he moved to the other side of the creature. When he was in the line of sight, the pony weakly looked up. As said pony did so, three things happened at once: it gasped, then started hyperventilating, and Marcus got a serious deer-in-the-headlights look at soon as it happened... Even though Marcus knew the poor being couldn’t understand him, he started to say to it in a calm voice, “Hey, hey! It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to help you. Okay?” To Marcus’s great surprise, the pegasus actually started to breath more steadily, as if it could understand him. “Okay, so I’m gonna lift this rock off of your...wing... and then you’ll be free! Okay?” Without waiting for a response (as if it could give one), Marcus moved over to the side of the huge rock, put himself in a almost hugging position, and started to lift with all his might. After a few seconds, Marcus could feel the rock getting lifted up. He moaned and groaned as he fought to lift the large stone. After a few agonizing seconds, he completely picked up the rock until he was on one knee and the rock was resting on his chest. He then turned about 45 degrees to the left and set the rock down with a loud “thump”. Afterwards, he turned his attention to the blue pegasus who was looking somberly at its right wing, which was halfway extended but was bent at a bad angle. He slowly approached the creature which staggered away. Then something caught Marcus off-guard again. This pony, like the slightly larger red one he had seen earlier, was giving him a look of sheer horror. As if it was knowing it was going to die. Then, just as he was about to tell the being that he wanted to help it, a series of footsteps was heard from the left. On instinct, he whipped his B23R from its holster and trained it in the direction of the noise. He enabled his night-vision to see if there was anything in the dark forest, and he saw something that gave him another “WHAT THE FUCK” moment. Two more things of the same shape and size at the pony standing by him were sprinting towards the clearing they were in. ”Shit, they must’ve heard that scream before...” Marcus disabled his night-vision, but moments after, he felt himself being risen up into the air. He squirmed to get out of the purple aura that was encasing him, but soon felt himself being shot back into a thick tree. He hit the tree so hard that the whole thing shook slightly as he fell to the ground. As he did, his six years of ground experience kicked into gear as he got up and sprinted at a breakneck speed at the two ponies standing at the edge of the clearing. He saw the unicorn and figured that the color must’ve been related to the aura that had shot him at the tree, so he want after that one. ~~~~~~~~~~ “RAINBOW DASH!!!” The purple unicorn and orange earth-pony both ran as fast as they could in the direction of the scream, hoping that their friend was okay. After a few horribly long minutes, they saw a small lighted clearing and stopped. They both watched in amazement as the biped they had in Twilight’s library was holding a huge rock over what looked like... Rainbow Dash! “Twi, look! It’s her! And that thang looks like it’s going to hurt her!” Whispered applejack. “But we can’t just charge in there and confront that thing! Who knows what it can do?! Plus it just put down the rock, see? Maybe it’s nice.” Said Twilight as the rock hit the ground away from their friend. “Uh. look again there...” Said Applejack nervously as the biped took a small step towards Rainbow Dash. “Ah think it’s gonna eat her!” On that note, both of them charged towards the field. Twilight saw the creature pull something out of a pouch and aim it towards them, but Twilight's horn glowed and the thing was lifted into the air and smashed into a thick tree. Afterwards, the creature got up surprisingly quickly and charged at full speed towards Twilight. Twilight stood dumbstruck as the creature tackled her with the force of a buffalo and before she knew it, she was pinned down by the creature's left arm across her chest and the device the creature was wielding in it's right arm before was pointed at her head. She struggled to get free to no avail, she was firmly pinned to the cold forest floor. As tears started to well up in her eyes from the force of the attack, the fierce look on the creatures face started to soften into a frown. But it was hard to tell because a dark black visor covered its eyes. As a tear flowed down her eye, she heard Applejack from behind her. "Twilight, look out!" Marcus didn't even have time to register a horse had just talked before he was knocked off of the lavender unicorn by a powerful ram from the one with the stetson. "Arng!" Marcus grunted at he got to his feet. He went to raise his gun to give the orange pony what was coming for it, only to realize it was on the ground four feet away from him. When the orange pony started running at him again, Marcus was ready. Right before it could spin around for a hard kick, he delivered a hefty drop-shot punch to her abdomen. After the pony was down, clutching her abdomen in pain, Marcus wasted no time in his next offensive. He ripped out the seven-inch blade holstered on his left hip and pinned down the pony with his right arm. As he was about to bring down the blade, a voice came from the direction of the Rainbow one behind him. “Wait please! Don’t hurt her! She's friend of mine!” Suddenly Marcus's face softened he released her and backed away, he flipped the knife so he could throw it at a moments notice. “W-w-wait... You can, t-talk?” Asked Marcus, still keeping his attention on the orange pony, whose hat was gone. “Why sure we can!” Said Applejack assertively. “Now I think ya owe Twilight here an apology fer tacklin’ her like that! And me for almost killin' me!” With his free hand Marcus rubbed his temples. “Look, I don’t know who you are or why you can talk, but I was just saving your friend here from being eaten by a pack of wolves!” It said as it jabbed a thumb at the three dead wolves. Twilight’s and Applejack’s face both turned a pale green as they saw the wounds in the heads of each one, and Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement. “And you know what? You neither of you deserve an apology! You threw me into a fucking tree, and you were the one who picked a fight with me!" “Oh it’s alright, I understand...” Said the unicorn bitterly while Applejack snorted. When no one said anything afterwards, Rainbow Dash spoke up. “Maybe you three should start over, that was kinda’ a rough meeting there.” Said the pegasus with a little chuckle at the end. Twilight then cleared her throat and said in a calm but slightly shaky tone, “Hi, I’m Twilight Sparkle. And this is Applejack, and that’s Rainbow Dash. She said as she pointed with her hoof to the two ponies. “It is an honor to meet you mister-” “Marcus Ivan.” Marcus finished with a smile. “But you can call me Marcus.” He then stretched his right hand out and gave her hoof a quick shake. She looked at her hoof for a moment before realizing that it must’ve been a greeting of some sort from wherever Marcus comes from. Than Applejack, not wanting to leave a hoof unshook,--even in this case-- walked over to Marcus and gave his hand a shake. “Pleasure to meet ya partner.” She said half happily. "Ya can put up quite a fight." Soon after, Rainbow Dash went up to Marcus and shook his hand. “It’s nice to meet you Marcus.” She said as she released. “And thank you for, you know, saving my life...” She said sheepishly. “It was my pleasure.” Replied Marcus. ~~~~~~~~~~ “Are you sure you know where we’re going?” Asked Rainbow Dash with a hint of concern in her voice. Every once in a few minutes her hurt wing would throb due to it being broken, but Marcus had wrapped a first-aid cloth he kept in a small med-pouch around it. It hurt when he was putting it on, but he knew it would do the trick. “I’m pretty sure, I placed a magic trace from Ponyville to here. All I have to do to get back is follow the trail.” Responded Twilight proudly. Her horn glowed to make a faint light as they walked. Marcus looked at Twilight with a very confused look. “Um, I’m sorry,” Marcus said as he waved his hand. “but did you just say magic? And what the hell is Ponyville?” “Why, Ponyville is where we live.” Said Applejack. “And yes, Twilight did just say magic.” “Why? Haven’t you heard of it?” Asked twilight as she looked up at Marcus. Marcus looked back into the large eyes of the unicorn staring curiously at him. “Well yeah I’ve heard of it, but in my world it doesn’t exist beyond the pages of books. It’s just a legend...” He replied with a shrug. At the mention of no magic, Twilight stopped dead in her tracks and stared at Marcus in awe. “Wait, you mean magic doesn’t exist in your world?! Bu-but how can you live without magic?!” Twilight almost shouted. “Hey there, calm down Twilight.” Said Rainbow Dash calmly. She leaned in close to Marcus who listened. “She’s really into magic, it’s like her life er something so...” Marcus replied with a mouthed “oh”. “Well... We just do, I guess...” Said Marcus as they continued to walk on through the dense forest. “How could anypony live without magic?” Twilight wondered. ~~~~~~~~~~ As the four of them were walking, they saw a faint light in the distance. “Is that this Ponyville you were talking about?” Asked a slightly tired Marcus. “Yup, that’s it alright. C’mon, you’ll love it there!” Said an excited Twilight. “Hey there partner, what are ya thinkin’? We can't just stomp on in there, the town will have a heart-attack!” Pointed out applejack. Twilight pouted slightly and Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement. “How about you show me where my jet is first, and we’ll go from there?” Suggested Marcus. “Jet? You mean that thang you almost ran me over in?” Asked Applejack accusingly. “Yeah... and sorry about that...” Said Marcus as he slowly shrugged his shoulders. “Your, jet, is this way.” Said Twilight as she and the others walked around the outskirts of the village towards Applejacks barn. As the four of them came over a small hill, Marcus stopped dead in his tracks with his mouth hanging open. In front of him was an apple orchard that seemed to stretch on forever, as far as the eye could see was apple trees. Just...apple trees “Holy shit!” Marcus said to himself. He had never seen an apple orchard this big in his life. As he gawked at the mass of apple trees, he noticed a large grey mound at the top of a hill in the orchard which he recognized as his jet. Marcus walked up to his jet and climbed into the snug cabin to see if anything was working right while the other three and Big Mac watched in curiosity. Marcus touched the screen and the main dashboard flickered on while a few beeps sounded as well. He pressed a few things on the dashboard and the window with any damage reports was enlarged. Marcus looked at the following stats which were connected by a line to certain parts of a 3D display of his jet. Right main thruster DMG level:: 71% Left main thruster DMG level:: 93% [Moderate-heavy damage to left turbine sustained] Right jump-jet thruster DMG level:: 0% Left jump-jet thruster DMG level:: 0% Frontal hull/canopy DMG level:: 11% [Substantal amount of water detected in lower canopy--Eject system in jepardy--May requier manual water extraction] Primary/secondary intakes DMG level:: 0% Armament DMG level:: 1.7% [Internal payload is undamaged, repairs will be directed to frontal vulcan cannons] Then the same computer voice spoke from the plane. “Sustained flight is not achievable in current aircraft condition, estimated auto repair time completion for all damaged areas--96 minutes.” Marcus also noticed that the three Dragonfires were in their bays in the side of the jet from a different window on the screen. He sighed and climbed out of the aircraft to face the four ponies facing him. “Well, the auto repair isn’t gonna be done for about another two hours.” Said Marcus in a slightly annoyed tone. “Hmm, maybe we should introduce you to the other three?” Suggested Twilight. “I think so too, I’ll go get them and bring them here.” Said Rainbow Dash. But before she could get far Marcus stopped her. “Hey Rainbow, uh, are you sure they’ll be fine with, you know, meeting an alien?” He whispered to her. Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I guess we'll find out.” And with that, she was off. ~~~~~~~~~~ Rainbow Dash ran along to the closest one of the three which was Pinkie Pie, at Sugarcube Corner. She stopped in front of the small bakery and walked inside. She wasn’t there. She checked the upstairs room. No Pinkie. Curious, Rainbow Dash walked back outside to see the mare she was looking for walking by. “Hey, Pinkie Pie! Wait up!” Yelled Rainbow Dash. Pinkie Pie turned to see who was looking for her and a huge smile spread across her face as Rainbow Dash approached. “Hi Rainbow Dash! How’s it going?” Asked Pinkie in her usual happy and high pitched voice. “Hey Pinks, I need a favor. Can you go and get Fluttershy and Rarity and get them to come to the barn as soon as possible? I’ll explain why later.” “Sure thing Rainbow!” Pinkie said as she bounced off in the direction of Rarity’s house, as she was closer. ~~~~~~~~~~ After Rainbow Dash was out of sight, Applejack and Big Mac decided to continue with their apple bucking, and Twilight decided this would be an excellent time to find out at least a little about Marcus. So she turned to him, who was leaning up against the side of his jet, and started to ask away. “So, Marcus...” She said, Marcus looked down at her large eyes. “If you don’t mind me asking, why are you here?” The question caught Marcus off guard (again!) and he looked back up into the darkening sky. “Well, I honestly wish I could say... I was preparing to disembark on a mission to escort a bomber that was going to destroy some ICBM silos being held in a Russian FOB, or foward-operating-base. Me and my wingman, Natov Vladimir, each flying one of these,” Marcus tapped the F/A-38’s hull. “were flying to the other base where the bomber and its pilot were waiting when I was targeted by my own base defenses..." Twilight gasped as Marcus slowly shook his head. "I tried to avoid it but those warheads were top-tech, they're called havoc-class missiles for a reason, I was hit..." Marcus sighed and looked down at Twilight, who was staring at him with her mouth agape. "I crash-landed in a big lake and sunk to the bottom where this big light pulled me in... then I crashed here.” He concluded as he looked back to the unfamiliar star pattern. Twilight pondered the news she’d just gotten and looked back up to Marcus. “Wow, that's... unbelievable... But, another question, if you don’t mind.” Marcus nodded in approval. “What did you use to kill those timber wolves back in the forest? I’ve never seen a wound like that.” Marcus pulled out his B23R and examined it before presenting it to Twilight, who took it with her magic and gave it a thorough examination. "Huh... so *that's how I was flung ten feet into a tree...*" “Very interesting. How did it make those holes in the heads of the timber wolves?” “Yeah, is it like a laser or something?” Asked Rainbow Dash. Marcus and Twilight both jumped at least six inches and glared at the pegasus who was standing by an apple tree. “Well you see,” Marcus took the gun and flicked off the safety “When I pull this trigger here,” Marcus pointed at the trigger. “three bullets, which are small but extreamly fast moving pieces of metal, fire at a time and the shells are ejected from the side here.” He pulled back the uper-reciever and locked it to show the hole where the shells fly out of. Twilight got a glimps of a gold and bronse thing just below the opening. "Are those gold things the bullets?" Marcus looked to confirm what she saw and nodded. "Yes, but they're not real gold though, and I'm afraid that me telling you the technology of bullets will have to wait for a while." He then extracted the magazine, clicked the uper-reciever forward, and pulled the trigger to put the hammer forward, after which he slid in the magazine. "You may want to cover your ears" Marcus siad as he cocked the pistol. "This is what firing a pistol is like." Before the two girls could protest, they covered up there ears in instinct and Marcus pulled the trigger and fired one three-round burst at the ground. He was used to it but the two ponies covered their ears as the three loud cracks echoed through the landscape. “Sorry...” Marcus reached down to the ground and picked up the smoking bullet casing. The two uncovered their ears and glared at Marcus. "Was that really nessesary?!" Snaped twilight. "Probably not." Marcus replied flatly with a 'straight' face. "I acually thought it was kinda cool, aside from it being so loud." Said Rainbow Dash. "Ugh..." Twilight groaned. "Whatever." She then turned to Rainbow Dash. “Are the others on their way?” “Yeah, they should be here in a moment.” Replied the pegasus. A few moments after, three pairs of foot (or hoof) steps could be heard from the other side of the barn. “Come on, that should be them.” Said Rainbow Dash The three of them turned and walked to the barn. But Marcus had a strangely bad feeling about this and for a good reason. “How are these other ponies going to react to meeting an alien? This is going to be interesting...” Chapter Four: Meeting New People... or PoniesChapter Four Earth June 19, 2023 The massive aircraft carrier known as the USS Barack Obama, the headquarters for the special U.S. military force JSOC, slowly floated across the Pacific Ocean without a disturbance in the world. The crew of the ship was on extremely high alert due to a small helicopter attack that had occurred the previous day. One of the transport VTOLs had been damaged during the attack but it was being repaired at the moment. Admiral Briggs stood in the top floor of the main tower keeping a watchful eye on the deck. He was tired of the threat from Memendez and the fact that one of his best Air Force pilots had just disappeared and he didn’t need any more things to sidetrack him now. Down a few levels, was the transmission room. Where all the information sent from other ships, air forces, ground forces, and satellites is received, and vice versa. One of the operators in the room, the one running the satellite's network, was routing a trans solar system satellite or an orbital V.S.A.T. to try and get another image or something from outside of the solar system as the U.S. has been trying to get something interesting for over 15 years. The last ‘something worth talking about’ moment was in early 2018, when an entire alien colony was thought to be seen on the surface of Neptune. That was kept a secret from then on by Area 51. “Alright, let’s see if we can get one last looksy here...” The operator said to himself as the view of the orbital V.S.A.T. started to look beyond the edges of the solar system. One of the V.S.A.T.’s cameras came across the colorful and undiscovered planet they were classifying as OBJECTIVE DEEP SPACE. After a couple of minutes of watching the planet, something of the unthinkable happened. The V.S.A.T. picked up an extremely faint distress signal that was of the same frequency as a F/A-38’s crash call (is what it’s called) coming from the planet. Not believing what he saw, he did a quick reset of the sensors to see if it was an error which happens often. After trying and still getting the signal, he gave another satellite operator a tap on the shoulder. “Hey, dude! Are you getting this signal that I’m getting from DEEP SPACE?” “Yeah man, I don’t know what it could be. I just did a sensor reset but it’s still there...” Replied the operator with a little concern in his voice. “I’m gonna go tell Briggs, he needs to hear about this...” Said the other operator as he got up and headed to the staircase of the tower, but the other grabbed his arm. “Do you have any idea what this could be about?. “I have no idea...” The man almost mumbled as he walked off. ~~~~~~~~~~ Equestria June 19, 2023 The three ponies, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy, walked calmly through the middle of Ponyville to Applejack’s barn on the other side of town. “Did Rainbow Dash tell you why we need to go to Applejack’s barn?” Asked Fluttershy in her usual quiet voice. “Nope! She just wanted me to get you two and head to the barn!” Replied Pinkie Pie as she hopped along the two. “Hmm, I do wonder what she requires...” Rarity said to no pony in particular. Once they had arrived at the front of the large barn, they could hear numerous pairs of hoof steps from the other side of the building and Twilight emerged from the front door. “Oh good, you’re here! Come on, there’s someone I want you three to meet.” At the mention of meeting someone, Pinkie’s mind started racing with party ideas as she started bouncing violently, Fluttershy hid behind Rarity, and Rarity was wondering what clothing fashion this newcomer could be into. As they all walked (Fluttershy had to be pushed by Rarity...) to the barn to greet their new arrival, they came to face the craziest being they had ever seen. ~~~~~~~~~~ “How are these other ponies going to react to meeting an alien? This is going to be interesting...” Marcus slowly walked to the back of the barn with Twilight and Rainbow Dash at his sides. When he entered the barn, Twilight walked to the front of the barn. Marcus could hear her talking but couldn’t make out what she was saying. A moment later, three ponies walked into the barn. He couldn’t even get a good look at the trio before he heard the white one shout, “Twilight, look out!!!” Marcus was encased in a whitish sphere and bolts of electricity were striking him from the inside of the orb. He yelled in pain as he withered up at the bottom of the sphere getting jolted by bolts every second. “Rarity, stop!! STOP!!!!” Shouted Twilight as Applejack tackled Rarity. As she did so, the orb surrounding Marcus disappeared and he fell to the ground, twitching violently from all the electricity that was just passing through his body. Marcus’s mind was flashing insanely as he could barely make out Twilight standing over him with an ear to his chest, that was all he remembered before he passed out. ~~~~~~~~~~ “Twilight, look out!” Shouted Rarity as she encased the strange being using an offensive spell she hadn’t used in ages. The Sphere of Eternal Suffering shot bolts of electricity at the creature for a few seconds before she was tackled by Applejack. She yelled in protest but she was no match for the strength of the earth pony's pin. After Applejack had let up, Rarity shot up and began to brush her mane and tail furiously with a brush that came seemingly out of nowhere. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and looked over to Twilight who had a ear to Marcus’s chest. “Is he okay?” Asked Applejack who was standing on the other side of the unconscious biped. “Yes, his heart rate is really high but he’s still breathing.” She turned to Rarity, whose face was plastered with confusion. “Why did you do that Rarity?!” “I...But...Who?” Rarity sputtered. “This was that someone that I wanted you to meet!” Rarity looked like she had just seen the apocolypse, she just stood there dumbstruck trying to process what was happening. “I... I’m so sorry... I thought it was a Diamond Dog and I...” Rarity said as tears started to blur her vision. Then Rainbow Dash put a hoof around Rarity’s back to comfort her as she remembered the last Diamond Dog capture, where they had taken Rarity underground against her will to dig for diamonds and gems for them. “It’s okay Rarity, you didn’t know.” She said in a calm voice. Applejack then walked up to Rarity and said in a calm voice, “Ah think it would be best if you left before Marcus here wakes up again, I doubt he’ll be very happy...” Twilight turned to Applejack to protest but Rarity put up a hoof to silence her, she then turned and left the barn. Twilight looked at Applejack. “Why did you do that?” “Think about sugarcube, if Marcus here remembers this when he wakes up, he’ll go berserk!” Replied Applejack. Twilight wanted to argue, but the pony had a point. She then noticed Fluttershy staring ahead with shock on her face from the scene that had just unfolded in front of her, and Pinkie Pie was waving a hoof in front of her. “Well you two, this is Marcus.” She said sheepishly as she pointed a hoof at the biped laying face-up in the hey. ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus squinted into a bright white light in the distance. Was he dead? Was that Heaven he was looking at? Huh, happened a little sooner than he expected. He turned his head ever so slightly and saw a familiar face smiling down at him. “Ma...Michael...?” Marcus said at almost a mumble. The face smiling down at him then turned to a face of confusion as the light vanished to be replaced by a red wood roof. He then realized that he was laying on hay and dirt ground. “Michael? Uh-oh, I think you got his head there Rarity...” Said the cyan blue pegasus to herself. “Ug, Rainbow Dash?” He said as he sat up and rubbed his temples. “Hey there partner, you alright?” Asked Applejack. Marcus turned his head to see Applejack and her brother standing to his left. “I don’t know... All I remember is that white unicorn and-the unicorn!!” Marcus fought the urge to throw up and got to his feet as he scanned the room intently to make the pony foolish enough to do this to him regret it. That was when he smelled scorched metal and looked down to see some of the chest plating, his arm plating, and his back plating was streaked with black burn lines from the electricity. “WHERE IS THAT HORSE?!” Marcus bellowed so loudly that everyone in the barn with him cringed up. Marcus heard the back barn door open and snapped around, ready to unload his feelings at the unicorn, but was instead looking at a small yellow filly with a red mane and bow looking at him with curiosity and fear. Marcus eased up a little realizing that he would probably scare the little thing shitless by even moving. Applejack turned and saw her little sister. “Applebloom, what are ya doin’ here?” “I was just looking to see what all the commotion were about.” Replied the filly. “And what’s that thang?” “I’ll tell you later, now please go.” Said Applejack. After the filly had left the room, Applejack turned to Marcus who was still ready to explode. “Now Marcus, ya need to calm down okay? You’ve been through a rough one there so-” Applejack was cut off by Marcus. “A rough one? A rough one!?” Marcus did a sarcastic laugh that made the hair on Applejack’s neck stand on edge. “A rough one, yeah, in less than twenty-four hours I’ve almost been killed three fucking times while I'm not even in a war zone and you’re calling that a rough one?!?!” Marcus screamed. He felt all his anger endlessly building up and getting vented only verbally. He stood there while all the ponies stood in the room dumbstruck at the enraged being. Marcus had never been this angry in his life with the exception of one other time. The yellow pegasus with the pink mane was cowering in fear from the force of Marcus’s assault. Upon seeing said pony, Marcus started to ease up a little finally as his breathing became steady. Marcus just stared at the ground until the bright pink pony slowly walked up to Marcus. “Um, excuse me Mr.-um Sir...” The pony said with a little giggle at the end. “But if it makes you feel any better, I brought you a cupcake.” Marcus looked at the pony and sure enough, there was a chocolate cupcake with orange frosting on it perched on the top of the pony's head. Marcus’s flat face turned into a gentle smile as he took the sugary treat. He could only stare at it for what seemed like an eternity, not even knowing how it got on her head, before replying. “Th-thank you very much, Mrs.-” “Pinkie Pie.” Said the pony happily. Marcus took a bite into the cupcake and felt one of the best sweet tasting sensations he’d ever felt in a long time wash over his taste buds. He closed his eyes to savor the deliciousness that the bite gave him and Pinkie Pie smiled from ear to ear. Then without warning, the pony moved in and gave Marcus a hug. He recoiled for a few seconds before wrapping his free arm around the pony and pulling her in. Marcus had never felt a genuine hug in what seemed like decades so he enjoyed it while it was to be. “Aww, isn’t that sweet!” Chortled Rainbow Dash. Marcus and Pinkie Pie stopped hugging and looked at the pegasus before Marcus started chuckling. He sighed afterwards and looked around at the ponies surrounding him. “Well, this is an of-first answer for me even, I guess all I needed was some love. It was really something new to me after a while.” Marcus said with a smile. “At least since...” Marcus’s frowned but brightened up again when he eyed the yellow pegasus in the back of the barn. He walked over to the cowering pony and knelt down next to it, he then spoke in the softest voice he could muster, “Hi there.” The pony looked up and quickly looked away. “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you. Can you tell me your name?” He said in his softest voice. The pony looked up slowly again but didn’t look away. Then without making eye contact, she said in a voice softer than Marcus's, “I’m Flu-Fluttershy...” Marcus smiled. “Well Fluttershy, it is nice to meet you. My name is Marcus Jay Ivan, but you can call me Marcus.” Marcus said as he knelt for a few more seconds before standinf and facing the others. “Goodness it’s getting late!” Pointed out Applejack. “You’re right!” Said Twilight. Then she was struck with a problem. “Hey Marcus,” She said as she turned to him. “where are you going to sleep?” “Oh oh oh, I know! He can stay with me!” Chanted Pinkie Pie. “But he’s too big to fit in your room.” Said Rainbow Dash. “Yall can sleep here in the barn.” Said Applejack. Marcus held up his hand to stop their ranting. “Hey, hey... None of you need to reserve space for me. I can just sleep my jet. All the comfort I need is there.” “Are yall sure? Cus I can just-” Started Applejack. “Please, I insist.” Said Marcus calmly as he started to walk outside with the cupcake still in his hand. “What’s a jet?” Asked Pinkie Pie. “I’ll tell you later.” Replied Marcus as he exited the barn and walked towards his awaiting 'bed' so to speak. Marcus climbed into the cabin and closed the glass hatch, and he put his visor in front of his eyes too as a sort of seethough sleep mask. His last thoughts before he fell to sleep were: “This is really something new...” “That Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy bunch are so nice...” “I’m going to fucking kill that unicorn...” and “I’m going to fucking kill that unicorn...” ~~~~~~~~~~ June 20, 2023 Marcus slept a bit worse than he would’ve liked, but he still got some quality sleep which was all he needed. When he woke up, he was still ¾ of the way asleep but he was in a good mood. The sun was shining its morning rays on the small town of Ponyville. His mood dampened a few notches when he remembered he wasn’t on his own world, but he pushed it aside as his eyes adjusted to the light. Just as he was about to start getting out, he heard what sounded like a trio of ponies headed for the jet. He didn’t move and listened closely. A few moments later, he was able to make out three voices bickering at each other quietly from outside. He heard one voice that was very high pitched, another that had a very yonge kind of southern voice, and another that was a tad lower than the other two. These three ponies were most likely fillies so Marcus ignored them and tried to fall back to sleep. Just as he was lowering his visor over his eyes, the loudest chant he had ever heard in his life could be heard. “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS, ALIEN INVESTIGATION TEAM GO!!!!!” Even through the semi noise-canceling glass, Marcus’s eardrums felt like they had imploded as he groaned in protest. After the pain in his ears had subsided, he pressed a button on the dashboard and the cabin hissed and opened. Without even looking, he said, “Hey! Would you mind not exploding my eardrums please!? I’m trying to slee-” Marcus cut himself off as he looked out and stared at the three fillies staring at him with mouths agape. As he scanned the group, he noticed the same yellow filly that he saw yesterday. He slowly pressed the button on the side of his helmet and the visor flipped into the slot on the front. After a few moments of staring, the three screamed simultaneously and Marcus just did the same for a reason he didn't even know. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... Why are we screaming?” The three stopped and the dark orange one with the purple mane shrugged and looked at the others. “Uh, I don’t know...” Replied the orange one. Then Applejack came running up the hill. “What the hey is goin on here? Hey, what are you three doin here?” Said Applejack. Applebloom sudently got a look of guilt and shifted uneasily. “Well... Ah may have, um... told these two about the alien yesterday...” Responded the yellow one slowly as it tapped it's front hooves together, which Marcus found a bit cute. “Applebloom! Ah told you not to tell anypony else!” Said Applejack. “I know, I’m sorry.” Marcus decided it wasn’t necessary for this, Applebloom, to get in trouble because she was excited about him, so he cut in. “No, Applejack. It’s alright.” He looked down at Applebloom. “You know Applebloom,” Marcus said as he climbed out of the jet and knelt down in front of the filly. “I appreciate your interest in me. So I’ll make you and your friends here a deal.” Marcus picked her up with ease and set her on the wing of his jet. He did the same with the other two so they were all perched on the left wing of his jet. They all stood for a few before settling. “You three can ask me anything you want the answer to.” The three fillies faces lit up like light bulbs at this news. “Really?! Wow, you’re the best!” Said the orange one joyfully. Marcus nodded. “But before we start, I’ll have some questions for each of you. First, what are your names?” “I’m Applebloom!” “I’m Scootaloo!” “I’m Sweetie Belle!” “And we’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” The three of them chanted together. Marcus smiled and leaned up against the side of the cabin exterior, this was really cute to him. He was going to enjoy this. He looked to see Applejack and gave her a thumbs up, she returned it by nodding and went to continue with her daily business. “Well you three I must warn you, I may not answer some questions that are secret or private. Understand?” The three fillies nodded vigorously. “Okay, you go first.” He said as he pointed at Sweetie Belle. “ What would you like to ask me?” She put her hoof up to her chin for a second. “How old are you?” She asked excitedly. “I am 36 years of age.” Marcus pointed at Scootaloo. “You next.” “Hmm... Oh! Can this thing fly as fast as Rainbow Dash?” She asked as she tapped a hoof on the wing of the jet. Marcus had to avoid laughing right in the filly’s face at the ridiculous question. “Heh heh, I’m pretty sure it could.” All three of them started mumbling back and forth at the news that something was actually faster then Rainbow Dash. Marcus pointed at Applebloom. “Now your turn.” The filly had the question already in her head. “How strong are you? Do you think you can you buck an apple tree?” Marcus had to ponder the second part of the question but he responded to the first part. “Well, let’s see...” He picked up Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo under their chests with one arm each. They both squealed with joy as Marcus began curling with them. Marcus grunted a few times due to them being some pretty heavy 'weights'. After a few seconds, he set down the two giggling fillies next to Applebloom who was looking at him with her mouth hanging open. “How’s that for an answer, huh? Marcus said with a little snicker at the end. Marcus turned to face the closest apple tree and approached it. He then looked back at Applebloom. “By ‘bucking’ do you mean just kick it?” “And make the apples in it fall out!” Replied Applebloom. Marcus faced the tree as the three fillies watched with hard focus. He waited a few seconds before raising his right leg and front-kicking the body of the tree as hard as he could. The whole three swayed voilently and apples poured out of the vegetation at the treetop. Marcus grunted as a few hit his head ad noticed he left a small dent in the wood where his foot had connected with the tree. "Hm, the trees must be less tough here than Earth, I don't think I could acually dent a tree there..." He turned around to face the three and laughed a little at the look they were giving him. Shock. Wide eyes, mouths agar, speechless. Shock. Marcus clapped his gloved hands to snap them out of their trans. “Hello?” The three fillies then started assaulting him with compliments and cheers. After the bombardment, Marcus walked over to the cabin of the jet and leaned up against the hull. “I’ll be damned! This is the most fun I’ve had in a really long time!” Chapter Five: Clearing Things UpChapter Five Earth June 20, 2023 Admiral Briggs was caught in a frantic web of chatter coming and going from the Barack Obama, the air force base in Marcus’s hometown, Area 51, and the President to see if anyone could’ve had a hand in Goliath One’s death. And the strange distress call coming from OBJECTIVE DEEP SPACE was also drawing some attention from the military. The best source of info right now was Natov Vladimir, Marcus’s wingman. He was on board the Obama at the moment as he was needed for critical info. When he was questioned, he gave up every detail about the incident. One detail in particular raised some eyebrows: the fact that it was a full moon on June 19, the day of the occurrence. Appointment after appointment went by before the three military bases involved came to a conclusion. Area 51 was going to launch a prototype satellite to OBJECTIVE DEEP SPACE loaded with a loadstar U.A.V./radar provider. The U.A.V., as well as being loaded with hellstorm missiles, was also going to have a comm. channel linked to it so that if Marcus was somehow on the planet along with the F/A-38 emitting the crash call, they would be able to give radar coverage as well as a way for him to talk to the Obama and vise versa. In other words, the U.A.V. is going to act as an extension cord for the comms. reach so that it can get to Marcus, assuming he’s there... Area 51 was currently modifying a trans-orbital satellite to be able to exceed the limits of our solar system to travel into the other one, and to carry the loadstar on it while staying attached and intact until ready to deploy it over the planet. Admiral Briggs had his priority set, and that priority was finding out what happened to Marcus and... Possibly looking for a new Goliath One. ~~~~~~~~~~ Equestria June 20, 2023 Twilight walked down the countless rows of trees to the crash site of Marcus’s plane to see if he was awake yet. When she got there, she saw the CMC and Marcus talking to each other. What was wierd (and funny) about the situation, was that the CMC were sitting on a wing of the contraption and seemed to be having a good time. Marcus saw her coming and told the three to wait while he talked to Twilight. “Hey Twilight, how’s it going?” He asked as he walked closer to her. “Good, great actually. Come on, there’s something I want to show you.” Replied Twilight. The two of them walked back to Twilight’s house silently. “Um, is that your house?” Asked Marcus as they approached the massive tree that was Twilight’s house. “Yep, the entire inside was hollowed out to make a house from it. It’s also the town library. “Library? Is that where I woke up after I had landed here?” Asked Marcus. “Yes, you were in the basement when you woke up.” She replied as they came around the side of the tree to go through the front door... which wasn’t there... Marcus remembered when he had smashed through the door when he was escaping yesterday. “Um... sorry about yesterday... you know, destroying your front door...” Marcus said as he rubbed his head. He honestly felt a little bad about it and he wanted to do something about it. “Is there any way I can make it up to you?” Twilight gave Marcus a friendly smile. “You’ll see when you get inside.” Marcus got a slightly uneasy feeling about this, but he continued on anyway. “You know that white unicorn you 'encountered' yesterday?” Asked Twilight. Marcus’s face darkened. “Yeah... What about it?” He replied slowly. Twilight opened the door and walked inside, Marcus followed. Twilight went into the main room while Marcus stood at the entrance to the house. Moments later, he heard Twilight say his name and he walked over. Before he was in the same room, Twilight looked to the part of the room Marcus couldn’t see yet. “Rarity, this is Marcus.” “Rarity...” “Rarity stop, STOP!” Marcus stepped into the room as the memory rang through his head, saw the unicorn, and everything went south. ~~~~~~~~~~ “Okay, you can make yourself comfortable and I’ll go and get him okay?” Asked Twilight. “Oh okay, I still think this is a bad idea. Who knows how he will react?” Said a nervous Rarity as she sat at table in the living room. “Oh don’t worry, I’m sure he’s over it by now. You two will just sit down and talk things out.” Replied Twilight happily. Rarity sighed before replying. “Okay darling, run along now!” And with that, Twilight was out the door headed for Sweet Apple Acres. Eleven minutes later Rarity was reading one of Twilight’s books and eating a pancake Spike had brought her when she heard the front door open. She put down the book and waited for Twilight and the ‘visitor’ to walk in. Rarity had been rehearsing what to say as an apology and she was ready. She heard Twilight call her name and she stood up, Twilight then walked in. “Rarity, this is Marcus.” She said happily. Rarity looked at the door as Marcus walked in. As soon as she saw the being, she almost passed out from fear. This was the same being that she’d almost killed and she knew it was pissed. Rarity had never been more right about anything in her life... Before Rarity could even begin to react, the biped, Marcus, raised its right hand and pointed at her. “YOU!!!!” It bellowed. Rarity stood with her eyes wide from fear as Marcus charged at her faster than his first encounter with twilight. After three strides, the biped leaned forward and dove into a tackle/lunge. Rarity got the wind knocked out of her as the two rolled for a split second before she was pinned down by the throat, Marcus’s left hand around her neck pinning her to the ground while the right was holding an ‘L’ shaped device at her head so the point of it was touching the side of her forehead. "Marcus!" Shouted Twilight, hoping to break up the tussle, but Marcus didn't seem to notice as he screamed into the horrified face of Rarity. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT KIND OF SICK, TWISTED MEMORIES WHAT YOU DID YESTERDAY PUT INTO MY HEAD!?!? HUH?!?! DO YOU?!?!?!" He screamed at the top of his voice, his face only inches from hers. "I... Um..." Rarity muttered in a small voice. She could barely say anything due to the hand that was tightening around her throat. She recoiled into the wood floor even more when Marcus's death-glare intensified somehow even more. "MY DAD!!! THATS RIGHT, HOW MY FUCKING FATHER WAS BRUTALLY KILLED!!!!!" Marcus yelled, as magma coursed through his viens at the mention of his dad, even from himself. Marcus was then surrounded by a transparent, purple shield and lifted away from the shell-shocked Rarity, who laid there with tears flowing down her cheeks. Marcus looked around for a second before his gaze fell upon Twilight, who was slowly walking over to Rarity. Marcus also saw a sight that was cute, but didn't make him feel better the slightest: a small purple and green baby dragon was standing at the entrance to another room and staring with dinner plate-sized eyes at the scene in front of him. Marcus looked back at the unicorn who was shakily standing up with Twilight next to her, to continue unloading his feeling. "DO YOU WANT ME TO TELL YOU HOW HE WAS MURDERED?!?! CONSIDERING YOU USED THE SAME THING ON ME THAT WAS USED ON HIM, YOU MUST REALLY WANT TO KNOW!!!!" Marcus bellowed from the inside of the sphere. He also drew Back his right hand and punched, with a armored and gloved fist, the inside of the sphere. It didn't do anything visible, but Twilight felt a student jolt of weakness shoot through her. "SO HOW ABOUT YOU AND I CAN SIT DOWN WITH A CUP OF TEA, AND HAVE A GOOD LAUGH AS I TELL YOU THE STORY OF HOW I LOST A PART OF MY LIFE?!?!?!" Marcus shouted. He drew back his left hand this time and thrust it at the sphere. To everyone's (including Marcus) surprize, a large spider-crack made itself visible as Twilight was weakened significantly again. "How is he breaking through my magic? That's the strongest restraining spell I know!" This thought worried her greatly, she knew that if Marcus got out, there was no telling what he could do to Rarity... ~~~~~~~~~~ "Marcus, please stop!" Twilight shouted. "I can't say I know what it's like to lose a father, but give Rarity a chance!" Marcus softened a bit and backed away from the edge of the sphere. "I'm going to drop this spell, and you and Rarity are going to talk this out. Okay?" She said. From inside the sphere, Marcus hesitated before he gave a small nod as he began to breath normally. Twilight disabled the spell and Marcus landed on his feet. He glared at Rarity before slowly walking up to her with a deep frown plastered on his face. After four steps, the little dragon raced in front of Rarity, putting himself between the towering Marcus and Rarity. "Stop where you are or you'll r-regret it!" Said the dragon in a slightly shaky voice. Marcus almost cracked a small smile but marched past him. "That thing's got balls..." Marcus thought as he walked. As Marcus got closer to Rarity, the pony took a few small steps back so Marcus slowed his pace. He got to the table he'd first seen Rarity at and sat on one of the chairs. "Please, sit Rarity." He said in a calm voice. Rarity slowly made her way to a chair at the opposite side of the table and sat down. Marcus looked at Twilight and the dragon. "Would you two mind if we talked alone?" He asked. "Sure, come on Spike." Replied Twilight. "No! I'm staying here to make sure this beast doesn't hurt Rarity!" Demanded spike who folded his arms. Marcus shrugged. "Suit yourself." Marcus turned to Rarity. "Rarity... I am so sorry about what has happened here today... I just saw you and-mmph." Rarity put a hoof to his mouth to silence him. "No no dear, you had every right to be as mad as you were here. It is okay." She said quietly with a smile. Marcus sighed after the hoof was removed from his mouth. "But still... Well, I'm glad we have come to an agreement. Is there any way at all that I can make up for what I did?" Marcus asked softly. "Oh not at all dear, it is me that should me making up for you!" She suddenly got a twinkle in her eyes as she looked at Marcus. "I know what I can do to show you how sorry I am!" Marcus shook his head. "Please dear, I insist!" She pleaded. Marcus stared as all sorts of measuring tools, pins, and cloths appeared out of thin air with a 'pop'. "Oh no. Thank you very much, but these are the only clothes I need." Marcus insisted. "However..." Marcus leaned in close to Rarity and leaned her head back slightly. "I see I left quite a mark with that choke-hold earlier." Rarity looked at Marcus. "Oh don't worry about that-" She started. "No no, I think I have something that will ease the pain there and anywhere else I may have hit you in my jet." Rarity looked at Marcus curiously. "Excuse me, but what may a 'jet' be?" She asked. Marcus stood up. "Come with me and I'll show you." He looked at Spike. "You can come too if you want." ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus walked between the rows of apple trees to his plane with only Rarity behind him. As the jet came into view, Rarity was both amazed at the amazing machine and disgusted at the hideous shade of grey the jet was colored. "Ug! What a absolutely hideous color that is!" She complained. "Oh quit your whining!" Said Rainbow Dash. Marcus spun around and trained his B23R in the direction of the voice, but holstered it after he saw it was Rainbow Dash. "Oh my god, Rainbow Dash! You can't sneak up on me like that!" Said Marcus playfully. "Hey. I see you got your wing fixed." He said as he noticed the white cast over Rainbow Dash's outstretched right wing. "Yeah..." She said with a sigh. "Doctor says I won't be able to fly for about a week so..." "Bummer..." Replied Marcus as he walked over to the side of the jet to where there was a large panel. He held up his left arm (the one with the data glove) and punched in a override code. The panel hissed and opened up to reveal a large storage space. The two ponies watched as Marcus reached in and pulled out a medium sized, metal case and set it on the ground in front of them. He undid two latches and the case popped open to show an assortment of medical supplies. He took out one of three small containers containing powerful pain-killers. "Here, it'll taste bad but you'll feel a lot better." He said as he held the pill to Rarity who took it with her magic and popped it in her mouth. She cringed at the bitter tasted as she swallowed. "It'll take a minute for the painkiller to work." Said Marcus as he packed up the case and put it in the plane. "Thank you very much." Said Rarity. Marcus just put his hand up and nodded. "In return, I think I know a spell that can fix the damage done to your armor yesterday." "Really? How?" Asked a baffled Marcus. "Just take it off and I'll do the rest." Replied Rarity. Marcus did as he was told and removed his heavy, grey, balistic jacket, which was attached to the armor and few pouches to uncover his upper body which had a thin, sleevles shirt over it. His body color, as well as his face, was a light brown-ish color. After, he looked at Rainbow Dash who was staring at his muscular upper body. "See anything you like?" Marcus asked playfully. Rainbow Dash quickly looked away as her cheeks and the bridge of her nose turned red. "What?! No no no no no! It's just that you remeind me of a minotour sort of... She stated. "Are you kidding me?!" He almost shouted. "First a manticore, than wolves made out of wood, then pegasi, than unicorns, than a dragon, now freaking minotours?! This world is just full of suprizes, isn't it?" He chuckled. "Wait, how do you know what these things are? You aren't from here!" Asked Rainbow Dash firmly. "Again, more myths and legends on my world. It's all in the books..." Marcus replied slowly. A silence fell over the three until Rarity called 'done' and Marcus put on his jacket and zipped it up. He looked down at the plating and nodded in approval. "Impressive!" He said happily. ~~~~~~~~~~ Inside the cockpit of the F/A-38, Marcus dreamt of the first time he'd been inside of an actual Air Force base. He and Michael were getting a private tour of the Air Force base from their dad, Jack Ivan. He could remember every single detail from the trip on that day, April 22, 1998. April 22, 1998 “Are you sure this is a good idea, Dad? What if we get caught?” Asked Marcus nervously. Jack chuckled lightly. “Don’t worry you two, I’ll be the one getting in trouble if we get caught, not you two. So don’t get us caught okay boys?” He said playfully. “Okay.” “Okay, Dad.” The two, including Michael, replied The three walked along the rim of the inside of the large Air Force base for a few minutes before arriving at one of the hangars. This group of hangers in particular, housed a small collection of MIG-31 Foxhound Interceptor fighters. “Whoa!” Michael shouted excitedly. “That’s so cool! What kind of plane is that, Dad?” Asked Marcus. Jack stared at the parked plane for a moment before replying. “This...” He said as he walked up to it and rubbed the side of the hull. “is a MIG-31 Foxhound Interceptor. This is the exact plane I used when I was on my last mission.” He finished softly, a gentle smile on his face. The two boys stared at him in astonishment, before Jack started to walk to the next hangar. Present time Marcus shifted in his seat as his dream fast-forwarded to when Michael had gotten his first aerial kill as a pilot. February 4, 2015 At Kop'ung in North Korea, a huge battle was taking place between the U.S. and North Korean forces. The conflict had begun when North Korea finally worked up the balls to launch a long-range nuclear warhead as the U.S. We had destroyed the missile before it could even get halfway to the country and we, as well as South Korea and China, immediately lashed out with heavy ground and air assaults against North Korea. Marcus and Michael were both flying F-35B Lightning IIs with two other flights: Raptor squadron and Warlock squadron. “Raptor, this is Goliath. We’ll provide aerial overwatch while you give some cover to our guys on the ground. How copy?” Said Marcus. “Raptor flight copies all. Let’s go boys!” Said Alex Brighner, the leader of Raptor squad. Marcus and Michael both watched as the four A-10A Thunderbolts banked and disappeared in the direction of the city. “Marcus, I’m picking up a small group of North Korean fighters. Most likely after us.” Said Michael. “You got a plan?” Marcus waited a few seconds before replying. “Roger that, Warlock, follow me and Goliath Two and give us additional fire support while we take out those fighters.” Replied Marcus firmly. “Okay.” As the two squads of fighters flew at the approaching group of enemy fighters, Michael said the five words he’d wanted to say his whole life, “I have a lock, firing!” He shouted as a sidewinder class A.A. missile flew from the bottom of his plane and hit one of the MIGs head-on. “Alright Michael! Your first kill!!” Said Marcus happily. “WOOO!!!! YEAH BITCH!!!” Michael cheered. Present time--June 21, 2023 Marcus stirred uneasily in his seat as his dream fast-forwarded again, this time, back to the death of Michael. The entire image played itself from beginning to end, as if it was a tape he had restarted. Marcus jolted upright after the nightmare had finished at the same exact spot it did last time. “Michael?!” He shouted from inside the cockpit as he quickly opened it up and climbed out. “Michael, where are you?!” He shouted again. “Michael...” He said as he got to his hands and knees and started to cry into his hands. Soon after, he felt an arm--or foreleg--around his shoulder. He looked up slowly to find himself staring into the eyes of Rainbow Dash, who had a somber look on her face. “That Michael guy sounds really special to you...” She said. “Is he a friend of yours back on your world?” Marcus looked at the ground. “He was...” He grumbled. Rainbow Dash’s ears folded back at ‘was’. a moment of silence came before she replied. “Did he... die?” She asked slowly. Marcus waited before nodding very slightly, still staring at the ground. “Did you get who killed him?” She asked quietly. “Did you seek justice on the terrible thing that did... it?” Marcus’s mood somehow dampened even more as the question pounded his brain. “No...” He replied quietly. Rainbow Dash looked stunned. “Bu-but how? Surely with that thing you-” She started but was cut off by Marcus. “I didn’t...” He looked at Rainbow Dash with teary eyes. “because it was me, who killed him...” Rainbow Dash stared at him with a dumbstruck expression, and Marcus was on the verge of crying. “But... but you didn’t mean to... Right?” She asked, almost afraid to go further. Marcus’s lower lip started to quiver slightly. “Oh Rainbow...” He said as he pulled her into a tight hug. “I did mean to...But I didn’t want to at all... Please, please understand!” He sobbed uncontrollably. Rainbow Dash’s heart started racing as she returned the comforting embrace, knowing she'd just hit a major fault-line. “Woah!!” She thought as she blushed heavily. “Uh... um, it’s okay Marcus! I understand, really I do.” She said as the hug ended. “I can’t say I know what that could feel like, but I’m so so sorry about it...” Marcus sniffled and wiped his eyes before replying. “Thank you Rainbow Dash, very much. It means a lot to know you’re by my side.” He said, finally cracking a smile. “Sure thing... Hey, you hungry for some breakfast? I’m sure Twilight wouldn’t mind if we stopped by her place!” She said excitedly as her ears perked up, trying to change the subject as well. “Breakfast?” Marcus thought for a moment before replying. “What kind of things do you eat for breakfast?” He asked with a curious look on his face. “Well, I hear Spike can make some mean pancakes. Do you like those?” She replied. “Heck yeah, I like pancakes!” Marcus immediately responded loudly. Rainbow Dash giggled at the reply as she started to walk towards the barn with Marcus at her side. “Pancakes? Damn... I could maybe get used to this......Maybe...” Marcus smiled at the thought as the two proceeded to the outskirts of Ponyville from Applejack’s barn. He looked at his data glove, not knowing why he hadn't checked the time earlier, it read: 11:43 A.M.: lunchtime. "Oh well, maybe the pancakes will wait... He wished he could have pancakes but just smiled instead. Chapter Seven: A Normal PicnicChapter Seven Earth June 22, 2023 The Odyssey had made faster progress then expected, pushing it ahead of schedule. The Afterburners had been long since been offline, as no tech can (currently) prevent high gas consumption, unfortunately... Lt. Colonel James Watson took a bite out of his peanut butter & jelly sandwich as he sat down in his newly assigned command post, upon the U.S.S. Barack Obama aircraft carrier. Just over a week before the discovery of the rogue crash call, and the report of Goliath One being killed in action, James had been resigned to a position he very much appreciated. "Jeezus, I know I'm a good commander..." He thought slowly. "But this is insane!" He exclaimed to the Green Bay Packers bobble head on his desk. "I mean getting-" James was about to begin another pointless rant when the door behind him swung open. "It's almost show time lieutenant. The Odyssey is a half-hour away from DEEP SPACE." Ordered Admiral Briggs as he quickly left the small room. James imedeatly put down his half-eaten sandwich and marched behind brigs to the tower elevator. The ride up the narrow elevator was quiet, but adrenalin was thick in the air. Mainly from the Colonel. "Noah gave me the details on my way here in the VTOL." Stated James. "So, talking to a signal that's on another planet to see what talks to us?" "That's about right, we've gone through a lot of confused senators, and surprisingly, even other militarys that didn't like us before have come to our side due to this case." Said Briggs proudly as he and James walked into the central communication center. Everyone in the various rows of computers stood and saluted to the Admiral as he and James walked between them to the main console. "At ease, gentlemen." Briggs said to the room. James sat in the left seat of the computer desk while Briggs took the right and enabled the system. "You'll need to scan your retina I.D. for it to let you in." Said Briggs as he scanned his own. After James had scanned the small bracelet, the Barack Obamas' A.I. spoke crisply. "Primary system operator confirmed: U.S.S. Barack Obama commander, Admiral Tommy Briggs. Secondary system operator confirmed: First operation commander, Lieutenant Colonel James Watson. Log in accepted." James knew what to do already and began syncing his unit to the Odyssey, while Briggs contacted the operations command room. "Obama command, give me some good news, we're burning daylight." Ordered the Admiral. A second passed before a response came. "We're enabling the extension now, James should be able to connect now. However, I have good news & bad news." "I'm in." Updated James. Briggs nodded and replied to command. "Give it to me." "The Odyssey has reached it's destination, and we are awaiting the order to detach the Loadstar." At this news everyone in the room cheered and clapped, as they had been listening too. But they all shut up as the op. commander went on. "However, there appears to be some kind of kinetic energy that's preventing us from getting in range. And from our sensors, it seems to be reacting with the hull of the Odyssey like two repelling magnets." Briggs took a moment to search for a response, while James sat dumbstruck at the news. "So what are you telling me? The planet's atmosphere is keeping our shuttle from going forward?" Briggs slowly asked. A pause came before an odd answer followed. "Not the atmosphere, a solid kinetic force that's only focused on where the Odyssey is, like some kind of planetary defense. And the more power we put into the engines, the weaker it gets..." Replied the operator. Briggs took a moment to devise a short but effective plan, while James just sat next to him with his hands on his lap. "What's our fuel level at?" "At 72% capacity, no worries." "Okay, enable afterburners and push through that shield. Disable only when the barrier is down. I made a promise to some important people I'd get that shuttle down there, and I'm not ready to give up just yet!" Ordered the Admiral. ~~~~~~~~~~ Equestria One day prior "Who's Lyra...?" Asked Marcus, a bit of concern in his tone. "Uh... She's a bit, 'funny'..." Pinkie Pie slowly replied with a giggle. When Marcus cocked his head slightly, Twilight stepped in. "Lyra supposedly has this crazy belief in the existence of Humans, she's a little weird to be around sometimes, and I think your flying machine may have peaked her interests..." Marcus sighed heavily before doing a double take. "Well alri-wait. How does Lyra know about the human race in the first place?!" Demanded the pilot as he stood up. When everyone in the room shrugged, Marcus decided to just vault the situation for later. "Okay whatever, but should I worry about her? Like, being on my jet in all?" Before anyone could respond, Applejack, as if on instinct, blurted out. "Yep." Everyone in the room gave her a puzzled look, making her recoil slightly. "Er-I mean, pr-probably..." She murmured. Being all Marcus needed to hear, he went to work on his data pad and deployed a MQ-27 Dragonfire just to be on the safe side. "What are you doing?" Asked Rainbow Dash as she stepped over to him. "Just taking precautionary measures." Said Marcus as the small view window popped up on his H.U.D. There was an unsettling silence in the air before Twilight broke it. "Well we should get going to the acres." She said as she picked up the picnic basket and settled it on her back. "Okay, but I'm gonna have to take my route through the forest again to avoid being spotted by your populace." Informed Marcus as he slung his rifle over his shoulder. "Oh that won't be necessary, darling." Said Rarity as she walked through the door. After she was greeted by a few, Marcus asked a question instead of a greeting. "Why not?" "Well you see, I know a spell that will allow the sun's light to go through you, making you completely invisible as long as you stay out of the shadows." Replied the stylist proudly. Marcus was a little dumbstruck, he had seen the prototypes for the optical camouflage suites, but those were canceled. "Ar-are you serious?" He asked with wide eyes. Rainbow Dash snickered at Marcus's brainlessness. "Oh sure! Just hold still for a moment." Rarity chimed as her horn glowed pointed it at Marcus. He closed his eyes, half expecting it to hurt for no reason, and suddenly felt like his who body was asleep. As the tingling sensation washed over him, he almost dropped his SCAR-L but was able to keep a firm grip on it. "Woah..." Marcus groaned as his non-stone leg buckled for a moment, making him stagger. "You okay?" Asked Twilight. "I can't see you at all." Marcus let his gun rest against his chest by the sling and looked at his hands, which he could see, but felt asleep. "I can still see me..." Marcus said annoyingly. "Yeah, you can see yourself, but we can't." Replied Twilight. "Holy flying fuck, this is insane!!" Marcus cheered in his mind. Marcus clanked to the door while the others looked in the wrong direction, and waited for the right moment. "Soo... Let's go." Said Rainbow Dash as she made for the door. Marcus slammed the door open as fast as he could and yelled, "Okaylet'sgo!" Everyone but Rainbow Dash jumped about six inches off the ground (Fluttershy about two feet), while the Rainbow pegasus nearly had a heart attack and fell over. While Rainbow Dash clutched her heaving chest, and the other five made there way to the door--some chuckling--, while Marcus was doubled over in laughter. "By Celestia, Marcus!! Damnit!" Yelled Rainbow Dash as she picked herself up and glared in every direction. Marcus finally stopped laughing and got up. "Oh, oh man! I'm sorry, I just had to do that!" "Whatever, can we go now?" Demanded the pegasus. As the seven walked through the bustling town of Ponyville, Marcus didn't say a word, while the others got waves and talked among each other and citizens on the sides of the street. But the town was the least of Marcus' attention. He kept his eyes locked on the left side of his visor, and his data pad controller for the drone that was monitoring the now skeptical looking unicorn on his jet. The mint green pony slowly sat up and locked eyes with the hovering machine. When she slowly tried to get off of the metal surface, Marcus made the Dragonfire zoom in front of her, making her stagger backwards and fall of the other side of the hull. The drone flew down her her level while she scrambled to her hooves and backed up against a tree. Marcus smirked as he had the intruder cornered. He and the six were almost at the barn and Marcus was more than ready to confront the pony. But while the standoff between flying metal and cornered equine, it escalated quickly. The unicorn's horn lit up and zapped the Dragonfire with some kind of E.M.P., making it crash. Marcus inhaled sharply and stopped walking as he deployed the two other drones to pursue the fleeing pony. As they gained on the surprisingly fast pony, Marcus thought drastic times call for drastic measures and had each drone fire one bullet at each of her back legs. Bulls eye. Marcus took of in a hulky sprint in the direction of the poor being he had just immobilized. While the two Dragonfires hovered around there take down, the pony screamed and withered in pain. It took a moment for the six to realize Marcus wasn't with them, and they would've turned around to look for him if they didn't hear the scream of agony come from Sweet Apple Acres. Back to Marcus. By the time Marcus reached the green, bleeding pony, she wasn't screaming anymore. As he knelt by her back legs, he lifted one and noticed two things. One, she didn't scream in pain which wasn't good, and the bullets had gone through which was good. "Shit!!" Marcus cursed himself. He swiftly scooped up the unconscious pony and rushed to his jet. "C'mon, stay with me here!" Marcus hissed to himself as he set her back-down on the wing of his jet. As he was about to open the compartment on his jet, he heard a heavy southern voice behind him. "Hey!" Marcus payed no heed as he opened the door and grabbed the medical kit and almost threw it down. "Hey!!" Came the voice, closer and louder. Marcus looked up and saw the red stallion he recognized as Big Mac running towards him. "Little busy here!" Marcus shouted back. Marcus opened up the med kit and took out four clean rags. He lifted up the unicorn's legs and put one rag over each bullet hole. He then took the other two and pressed them over the holes on the front to stop the bleeding as much as he could. "What the hey's goin' on here?! What happened?!" Demanded the large stallion as he saw the unconscious Lyra on the wing of the jet. "My patient here is in shock, but nevermind that, I need you to give me that black case!" Yelled Marcus as he pointed at the case in the med kit. Big Mac tried to remove the case from its groove, but without fingers, it was rather difficult. "Hurry!" Marcus demanded. "Ah'm tryin'!" Shouted Big Mac. Finally, he grabbed the handle with his teeth and with a strong flick of his head, tossed the case onto the wing beside Marcus. Marcus took it and placed it over the unicorn's legs to keep at least a little preasure on the rags while he dug into the med kit. He pulled out a large roll of gauze and went to work on her legs. Marcus felt like he was going to have a heart attack. It was one thing doing something like this to another human, but would it work on another species? Just when Marcus thought the stress couldn't escalate anymore, he spotted six brightly colored ponies running towards him. "You've got to be kidding me..." "Big Mac!" Marcus said to the stalion, causing him to look in his direction. "Go keep the guests ocupied! I need some space here!" With the legs treated for the time being, Marcus put two fingers to the pony's neck to check for a pulse. There was one, but it was high. He then quickly put a hand over her chest for signs of breathing. She was but very quickly. Marcus took the case and carfully put it under the mare's legs to elevate them. It wasn't twelve inches but it would do. The shouting from the group behind him didn't help ease stress. Marcus had done everything he could remember for treating shock, so he commanded the two Dragonfires, which were still idling in place, to return to the bays. He then yelled to Big Mac, who was trying and slowly failing to shove back the forceful group, and beconed for them to come over. As soon as the stallion moved, Marcus was surrounded by the six and bombarded with questions & demands. "How did this happen?!" "Is she going to be okay?!" "Did you do this, Marcus?!" "Is she dead?!" "Why isn't she moving?!" "Marcus, what happened?!" "Should I go get help?" This went on for at least half a minute of him trying to tell them to be quiet and explain himself, before Marcus finally cracked from the stress. Without thinking, he tugged out his B23R and fired a burst into the air. Everyone shut up instantly, and Fluttershy ran behind a tree. "Everyone shut up and listen!" Screamed the extreamly anoyed pilot. "I have a lot to explain, but for right now, don't touch or get close to this unicorn!" He said pointing at Lyra. After a minute, Marcus assumed they got the message and closed up the med kit and slowly put it in the plane. "Before you start asking questions, she's in shock from her wounds. I did all I could do to treat it, and she should make a full recovery. But until she's awake, no one will lay a hoof on her or anywhere near her. Understood?" They all nodded, and Marcus looked down at Big Mac. "Could you go get a blanket, or bedsheet, or something to cover her with please?" He asked calmly. Big Mac nodded once and bolted off to the barn, leaving the lone pilot to deal with some very curious ponies. A silence fell over them before Marcus sighed and rubbed his forehead. "You guys can go ahead and have your picnic, I just need some solitude..." He said. "What? But Marcus-" Rainbow Dash began but Marcus waved her off. "Tell me when the unicorn's awake, and don't try to feed her until she is awake." Marcus said as he climbed into the now open cabin of his F/A-38 and closed the hatch. The hiss of hydraulics and presurized air relaxed marcus a tad. After a few minutes of staring out into the horizon, he looked over and watched as Twilight levitated the blanket that Big Mac brought over Lyra, while the others set up the picnic. Relizing how much saving a life can make you hungry, Marcus unzipped a flat pouch on his side and took out a silver package. Tearing open the top, he proceeded to eat the butter and rice contained inside the M.R.E. (Meal Ready to Eat). Before long, Big Mac had returned to other duties as needed, and the six were talking and having a quality time while they ate sandwiches. With a somewhat satisfied stomach, and nothing else to do, Marcus turned on the F/A-38 computer and checked the repair stats. The computer voice spoke to him shortly afterwards. "All damaged assets have been successfuly repaired." Marcus mentaly did a fist pump. "New data recieved." Marcus pressed view. "Water intrusion detected in payload storage, backup generator block, and rear engine turbines. Manual removal required." Marcus mentaly gouged out his eyes. "Of fucking course..." Me mumbled to himself. Trying to think of something to cheer him up a bit, Marcus opened up his photo/video database on the jets computer and starting going through them. A lot of the photos were taken from Marcus's phone and had simply been uploaded, but a select few were captured from his helmet camera. As he went through the only four pics he had taken from his helmet, he came across two that he enjoyed. One was Marcus' point of view in the cockpit of a F-15E Strike Eagle, giving Michael a thumbs up while he did the same back from another F-15E Strike Eagle. Marcus smiled as he went to the next one. This one was taken later on during the same mission, so Marcus was looking over to his left, where a F-15E Strike Eagle was banking. This was Michael as well. As he thought about Michael, a thought that hadn't occured to him since he had arived here surfaced. "I wonder if the mission was succesful with one less pilot... If Veronica did her job like she always does..." Before Marcus could think much more on the idea, he heard a knock on the left side of the cabin. He looked over to see Applejack peering at him through the glass. When she beconed towards the left wing, the one with Lyra, Marcus got the message and opened the cockpit. He looked out to see the mint green pony sitting up and rubbing her head. As Marcus stepped out seemingly unnoticed by the unicorn, he walked up to her and slowly pushed her back down. "Easy now, you need to rest." He said quietly. As she layed back down, she looked at him and did a double take. "Ugh... Wh-what happened to--Oh. My. Gosh." She said as she looked at him like she had just won the lottery. When Marcus didn't respond, but only gave her a puzzled look, Lyra raised a hoof up and prodded Marcus in the chest with it. "You... you're r-real..." Said the mare who was visibly shaking now. Marcus was about to ask if she was okay, when he was faced with the largest smile he had ever seen. It was such a happy, toothy smile that Marcus started to feel the sides of his own mouth tugging upwards. "OHMYGOSH YOU DON'T KNOW HOW HAPPY I AM RIGHT NOW YOU'RE A REAL HUMAN OH BON BON WILL BE SO JELOUS JUST THINK OF--" Lyra's happy rant was halted by Marcus' hand over her muzzle. "Shhh... Be quiet." Marcus ordered in a low voice. "I've had a really long day today... And you need to rest... Now, can you tell me your name, so I can adress you properly?" He asked as he removed his hand from her muzzle. Marcus noticed that her eyes followed his gloved hand all the way until it was back at his side before looking up at the human. "Lyra... M-my name is Lyra." She said in a shaky voice. "Lyra, hm...?" An audiable purr escaped Lyra'a lips as the human mentioned her name, making Marcus chuckle lightly. "Do you play the lyre, Lyra?" Marcus asked quietly. She nodded. "Sometimes." "Well, Lyra..." He said slowly as he unbuckled and took of his helmet for the first time since he was here, exposing his jet black, mid length mane. "My name is Marcus Ivan. You had a bit of an accedent, so to speak, and I'm gonna be aiding you while you heal up." "Heal up? What happened?" Asked the unicorn. "It's a long story..." He replied while pointing at her bottom legs with his free hand, while he dropped his helmet by his feet. Lyra gasped as she looked at the now bloody rags attached to her calfs. "One sec, I just need to check you're pulse." Said Marcus as he reached forward and pressed two fingers to the side of her neck, making her shiver in joy. After a few quiet seconds Marcus removed his carefully watched hand. "Your heart rate is a bit high. Tell me, are you feeling any weird symptoms? Nausea, sweating, pain? Other than your legs?" Asked Marcus, a tad concerned.. "Well my heart is high because I'm staring at the one thing everypony's called me a freak for believing in!! You!" Shrieked Lyra. Marcus laughed lightly. "Really now? Here, I think you can sit up now." As Lyra sat up and scooted to the back of the wing, Marcus walked over to a nearby tree--the one with his foot dent in it--and plucked one of the few apples still on it. He walked back and offered the fruit to Lyra who took it with her magic and started eating. Marcus looked back at the six, who were talking among themselves but occasionally looked in their direction. "Yeah! I've known you existed all my life, but nopony ever believed me!" Replied Lyra between bites. "Well, sometime soon we can prove them wrong, huh? Now if you need me for anything, just find me. Okay?" Assured Marcus. "Cool!!!" She chirped in response. Marcus, having only eaten about a fourth of the M.R.E., realized he was still hungry. He looked over at the six who were all talking, and walked over. "Hey, Marcus. Care to join us?" Asked Rainbow Dash as he walked over and kneeled down on his good leg. "Probably not, I'm just gonna be hangin' with Lyra. I'm gonna kind of be her servant at least until tomorrow, so she can heal up." Marcus replied dryly. "Okay... Hey, you hungry?" Asked Twilight as she opened up the lid of the picnic basket. Marcus smiled and nodded. "What do ya want on your sandwich?" Marcus took a moment to remember what he had gotten the last time he had a Subway sandwich. "Lettuce, tomato, hm... jalapenos, ham..." Marcus read off what was on his mind as twilight assembled the sandwich, but imedeatly regretted the ingredient "ham" when various reactions occurred at once. Rarity, who was unfortunately sipping a drink, emptied her mouths contents on Twilight, who was already frozen and had dropped the unfinished sandwich. Applejack started choking on her sandwich, Fluttershy whined loudly and hid behind Rarity, and Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash just sat motionless with dinner plate sized eyes watching him. "What?!" Defended Marcus as he stood up. "What'd I--" He was about to continue when he realized his mistake. With a loud groan he put his face in his hand. "Don't... tell me you all are herbivores..." A super unsettling (for Marcus at least) silence fell, drenching Marcus in cold, bitter guilt. So he stood up, wishing the invisibility spell hadn't worn off like he new it did. "Yeah, we ponies are all herbivores. Except for those super crazy ones..." Piped up Lyra from the wing, catching everyone's attention and saving Marcus from wanting to shoot himself. To everyone's suprize, it was Fluttershy who spoke next. "D-d-do you mean y-you're... a c-c-c-carnivore...?" Marcus sighed in defeat, knowing he was in a rut. "Okay... I probably sould've told you this earlier... I'm not a herbivore like all you..." "You're omnivores, right?" Asked Lyra before Marcus could continue. "Yeah." He replied in her direction. "But don't worry, I'm not, repeat not, going to eat any of you. Horse meat isn't necessarily a delicacy back on Earth anyways... Probably doesn't taste very good..." Informed the omnivore as his voice faded to a mumble. Really wanting to evade the subject now, he went for plan: B. "Okay! So scratch the sandwich. Just make one for Lyra, and I'll have my other meal." Everypony quickly nodded in agreement as Marcus stood up and looked at his stone leg. "Hey Marcus!" He turned and faced Lyra. "What happened there? See a cockatrice?" She asked while staring casualy at his leg. "Yeah..." "You know, there's a kind of potion that--" Lyra was cut of by Rarity. "I have already. Here Marcus, I forgot to give it to you. Drink it all or it won't work." Rarity instructed as she floated the bottle into Marcus' hand. He popped the cork out of the bottle and a sweet scent flooded his nose. "It smells like vanilla." He chuckled, unable to suppress it for some reason. He put his lips to the bottle and started to chug it. He scrunched up his face tightly while his eyes bugged out, but continued to drink until it was gone. He quickly removed the bottle from his mouth and coughed violently. He walked over to Rarity, who was trying not to laugh--as well as everypony else--, and slapped the bottle down in front of her. "That shit better work..." He rasped between coughs. "Because I am not drinking that again..." He knelt down and fell back into a sitting position in his spot by the picnic. He sighed and looked over at Twilight, who was failing to suppress her laughter. As well as Pinkie, who looked like her face would explode. Marcus just chuckled and rolled his eyes at the two mares. "Oh yeah, that's just hilarious isn't it?" Marcus deadpanned as he nudged Pinkie, who was sitting next to him. The hot pink party mare couldn't hold it in any longer as she fell backwards, clutching her sides in laughter, as well as Twilight, who fell forward and buried her face in her hooves as muffled laughter flooded out. Marcus, who honestly forgot how ticklish his nerves were, was on his back laughing before he even knew it. In the next few seconds, all seven were laughing harder than ever. After a heart warming two minutes of laughing, they all slowly sat up, their sides hurting. "Oh man... I needed that so much." Gasped Marcus as he wiped a tear from his eye. He slowly tried to stand, but between his cramping sides and his seventy-pound leg, it took a few minutes. ~~~~~~~~~~ Eight hours later It was almost nine o' clock at night and the six had long since packed up and left the apple orchard, leaving Marcus and his admirer alone in the darkening field by the F/A-38. Lyra had agreed to go to sleep while Marcus kept watch next to her, just in case. Marcus leaned up against the side of the cabin with his arms crossed next to Lyra as she slept soundly. The crickets He heard her murmur something under her breath and looked over. She was wiggling and smiling pleasantly in her slumber, which Made Marcus smile and wonder what she was dreaming about. As he thought about dreams, he thought about sleep, when he thought about sleep, he felt his eyelids fall down slightly as he hung his head. "No, not yet, you've got a job to do!" Marcus's thoughts yelled at him. "Ugh, oh fine." His other thoughts groaned in response. As he started thinking about other things he realized how awake he felt, since he wasn't thinking about... His eyes fell down again. "Hey! Don't make me get physical!! I saw you thinking about sleep!" "Alright! Alright!" Not wanting a mental street fight to break out, Marcus just took out his iPhone 8 and tapped the home button. Nothing happened. "God damnit." Marcus swore under his breath at the dead battery. With a irritated sigh, he stuffed the phone back into his pocket. Before he could do anything else, he heard some dead leafs crunching in the distance. As muscle reflex kicked in, his right hand grazed his B23R holster. He couldn't see anything even with the night vision he had enabled about an hour ago. Assuming it was just a critter, he leaned back onto the hull and relaxed. "Snap!!" Now Marcus new someone was here. As he whipped out his trusty sidearm, he slowly began to inch forward towards the sound. As he got closer, he heard a loud hiss in front of him. Taking another step forward, his trigger finger started to twitch against the trigger. He heard the hiss again, but realized this time that it was a whisper. At this realization, Marcus silently kneeled down behind a nearby tree and waited. "Lyra! Where are you?!" The unknown whispered again, very close this time. Marcus took a moment to peek around behind the tree, and saw a pony shaped figure outlined in his night vision creeping closer. Since there was no horn, there was no magic that could smash him against a tree, unlike his first encounter... As she (judging from the voice, it was a she) slowly walked right past the kneeling human, who took this opportunity to strike. He lashed forward and wrapped his left hand around her muzzle and pressed the tip of his gun to her temple and pulled her into his chest to secure her. "Mmf! Mmmph!!" She said, muffled by the gloved hand over her mouth. As the pony tried to escape, Marcus kept her on lock down. But he had to admit, she had quite some strength, so he had to put a lot of effort into the hold. "Who are you and what is your business here?" Marcus whispered in her ear. When she only thrashed and 'mmph'ed more, he tightened his grip. "Hey, hey hey hey, shush. I suggest you start talking before I'm forced to use other means." He hissed as he pushed the pistol up next to her right eye. Apparently moving the pistol next to her eye did the trick, as she began to calm down but was still breathing rapidly as she still had no idea who--or what, for that matter--had taken her. Marcus waited a few seconds before slowly removing his hand from her mouth, still pressing the pistol firmly by her eye. "I-I-I'm B-Bon Bon." Said the terrified pony, still facing forward. "Lyra's roomate." "Ah Jeezus..." Chapter Six: Marcus Vs. the Everfree ForestChapter Six Earth June 21, 2023 Final adjustments had been made to the satellite and it was being transported to the space station launch site for deployment. Because the satellite and the loadstar being carried in the satellite were both unmanned, it was a lot lighter so it was being transported by an air convoy. Two chinook helicopters carrying the satellite escorted by four VTOL warships made up the large convoy as they moved to the launch site. The whole operation was being disguised to the public as just another shuttle launch due to a malfunction on one of the space stations, to keep any unwanted suspicions from perking up. “Transport squad One-Six, we have you on the short-range radar. Prepare for a quick security check as you make your approach." The operator spoke through the lead VTOL warship's pilot comms. "Rock Star One-One, copy all. Be advised, we have the satellite en-route via two chinook helicopters we are escorting. Code-names are Heavy Five-Niner and Heavy Six-Niner. How copy?" Two escort drones could be spotted taking off from two different helipads on the massive launch station. A smaller-scale, unmanned space shuttle carrier could also be spotted mounted vertically on the main launch tower in the middle of the facility. "Flight command copies all. Two escort drones are en-route for further escort, your squad may return to other duties as needed." "Roger that, Rock Star squad is status R.T.B." The four VTOL warships all banked in the opposite direction of the large base and soon disappeared from sight, leaving the two chinooks and the two escort drones for the rest of the way. “Heavy squadron, do you copy?” “Heavy leader here, go ahead.” The two chinooks flew side-by-side with the two escort drones on the outsides as they thundered towards the large, unmanned shuttle carrier. “We are assuming manual control over the drones, follow them to the area where you’ll set down the satellite.” “Roger that. Be advised, we’re going to need to refuel here after we drop this thing. The trip hauling this thing here sucked us dry.” “Sure thing, I’ll see if I can free up a couple of helipads while you make the delivery. Stand by.” The two escort drones positioned themselves on either side of a large courtyard where there was a huge flatbed platform with numerous sets of wheels for carrying large packs of supplies to a rocket being launched. Or in this case, for carrying the satellite loaded with the U.A.V. to the shuttle carrier. Heavy Five-Niner and Six-Niner both made their way side-by-side to the courtyard, afterwards they positioned themselves over the large platform with the satellite over it. “Easy...easy now......release cables.” Both the helicopters dropped their cables simultaneously and the satellite rested on the platform. “The satellite is on the platform, I say again the package has arrived. Now we need those helipads, over.” The V.S.A.T. satellite loaded with the loadstar U.A.V. slowly rolled towards the awaiting shuttle carrier. When it finally got there, a huge, shipyard-like crane rolled over the satellite and picked it up to mount it to the shuttle carrier’s specialized mount. “Keep it steady now, no need to rush.” “Don’t worry, I got it covered. Hey, why isn't that bay door open! I can’t strap this thing to the top ya know!” Yelled an agitated crane operator. A few moments passed before the massive bay door on the top of the shuttle slowly broke open to reveal the large spot for the satellite to be stored until ready to deploy over OBJECTIVE DEEP SPACE. “That’s better.” The crane set the satellite on a big rail connected to the storage bay in the shuttle carrier and it slowly moved along the rail until it was fully set inside the bay. The rail retracted and the bay door closed shut as jets of pressurized air shot out of it, sealing it air-tight. “Attention all units, please pull away from the launch site immediately, we are now preparing to launch. I repeat, we are preparing to launch, get clear now.” The voice boomed over the intercom throughout the base as vehicles and people all moved away from the tower. “Final preparations will be completed in about two minutes. Start the countdown at T-minus three.” “Copy that, T-minus three minutes and counting to launch.” “T-minus thirty seconds and counting.” The various service rails and platforms connected to the main tower started folding up and moving away as smoke billowed from the base of the rocket. “T-minus ten...nine...eight...seven...six...” Bright flames started shooting out the sides of the base of the tower. “...five...four...three...two...one...LAUNCH!!” The main clamp holding the rocket to the tower released as huge amounts of flame and smoke erupted from the rocket as it gradually gained altitude. Everyone on the ground applauded as the rocket disappeared into the clouds. The rocket, codename “Odyssey”, soon penetrated Earth’s atmosphere and the afterburner thrusters engaged, propelling Odyssey at just over mach 38 or 38 times the speed of sound. "All is good, Odyssey is currently on course for OBJECTIVE DEEP SPACE. At current rate and trajectory, we will exceed our solar system in just over a day, and we will make contact with the planet in an additional half day. This operation is underway." ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus and Rainbow Dash were at the barn when Marcus stopped. "Hold up a second Rainbow, I have an idea." Rainbow Dash stopped and looked at him. "Oh yeah? What's that?" Marcus got a very happy grin on his face. "Okay, so I can see the top of Twilight's house from here." He pointed to the large tree top in the distance. "Now do you see how the forest curves around behind it about eighty meters?" Rainbow Dash gave him a blank stare in return but smirked afterwards. "You sound like an egghead... But yeah. Why?" After 'egghead she realized her mistake when Marcus gave her a 'really...?' Kind of look, but perked back up afterwards as Rainbow Dash blushed slightly. "Okay, so to avoid being spotted by your town’s population, cause’ who knows what will happen, I'm just going to sneak around the edge of the forest until I'm right behind Twilight's house. Got it?" Rainbow Dash had to process her first military briefing before replying with an assuring nod. "Good, now come back here with me. I need to give you something to help us communicate." Rainbow Dash gave him a curious look before following him back to his jet. When they got there, Marcus walked up to the large compartment panel he'd used yesterday and pressed an unlock code while Rainbow Dash watched. The panel opened with a hiss and Marcus reached inside. When he pulled his arms and head out, he had some kind of card in his right hand. He looked over at a large compartment that took up about half of the left of the inside of the main compartment, and swiped the card in a small slit that jutted out from the side. The door to the smaller compartment then beeped and cracked open slightly. “What’s in there?” Asked a curious Rainbow Dash as she craned her neck to get a look. “I wanna see!” Without turning around Rainbow Dash could tell something in that compartment was greatly exciting Marcus. “My second favorite part of the plane.” Marcus replied with a wide grin. He pushed the door open the rest of the way and revealed a FN SCAR-L with a laser, M.M.S. (millimeter scanner), suppresor, and foregrip mounted to the back wall with the stock folded in, a TITUS-6 mounted to the left wall, and ammunition for the two guns and Marcus’s B23R all in separate strapped to the right wall. A control tablet linked to the three MQ-27 Dragonfires also rested in a groove in the base of the compartment. “Uh... what is all that stuff?” Rainbow Dash looked jaw-dropped at the contents that rest in the container before her and Marcus. Marcus reached in and pulled out the FN SCAR-L and unfolded the collapsed stock with a ‘click’, then he pulled out the mag to see the large F.M.J. armor-piercing bullets inside. Then he put the mag back in the gun and pulled the charging handle. Marcus adored the sound of a rifle charging handle being pulled and he looked at Rainbow Dash, who had a slightly fearful look on her face. “What da’ ya think?” He asked with a smirk. Rainbow Dash found herself staring at the large metal object in Marcus hands. “W-what is that thing?” She finally asked. Marcus rested the gun on his right shoulder. “Well, this is an FN SCAR-L. But don’t be fooled by the name, I assure you; this will leave more than a ‘scar’.” He said, proud of his own terrible pun. Rainbow Dash was as a loss for words, both in amazement and fear. Before she could operate her brain again, Marcus walked over to her. “Here, let me show you how it works. So, you you remember when I showed you my pistol? This thing?” He pulled out his B23R and Rainbow Dash nodded slightly. “Oh don’t be so scared, I won’t even think about hurting you.” He kneeled down next to Rainbow Dash and pulled her into a quick one-hand hug with his left hand, while his right rested the SCAR on his right shoulder. Rainbow Dash blushed heavily but calmed down afterwards. “I’m sorry Rainbow, I won’t show you this is you if I’m freaking you out.” He said as he got up and walked back to the jet. Rainbow Dash immediately got up and gave Marcus a firm look. “What? The mighty Rainbow Dash does not get scared! But I really want to see that, SCAR though!” She begged. Marcus stopped and gave Rainbow Dash a questioning smile. “You sure?” Rainbow Dash nodded quickly. “Okay.” Marcus walked back to her and knelt down. “Well, as I was saying before, do you remember the bullets my pistol shot?” “The little thing, right?” “Yeah, well this thing shoots the same thing as my pistol, only these are bigger, they do more damage, and have greater range.” He said as he pulled out the mag and showed it to Rainbow Dash. “There’s another variant that shoots a even bigger round, but I don’t have that one.” “That’s really cool! So basically this is the same thing as your, um pistol, but it just is bigger and better?” Marcus got up and walked back to the jet with Rainbow Dash. “In a nutshell.” He said with a soft smile. “Now for that idea I had earlier.” Marcus reached into the other side of the whole compartment and pulled out a small, black case. “What’s in there?” “Well, for my plan on getting to Twilight’s house, we’ll need to keep in touch so you’ll know when I’m behind Twilight’s house.” Rainbow Dash pondered what Marcus just told her. “What does ‘keep in touch’ mean?” Marcus undid the single latch on the case and opened it to reveal six compact comm. earpieces, the kinds that clip to your ear and the microphone bends down in front of your mouth. “Keeping in touch basically means being able to talk to one-another, and these devices will help us do just that.” Marcus said with a smile as he took one out and pared it to his helmet radio. “Those little things? How?” Asked a baffled Rainbow Dash. Marcus shrugged as he turned the earpiece on. “I wish I knew, all they really taught me was if you talk into this end,” He pointed to the microphone end. “I can hear you from anywhere. And vise versa.” Rainbow Dash smiled in excitement as Marcus moved to put it on her right ear. “That’s so cool!” She exclaimed. Marcus had to fiddle for about twenty seconds before he finally got the comm in the best place. He then bent the microphone down so it was by Rainbow Dash’s right cheek and pushed the button on the side to set it to Marcus’s channel. It beeped and Marcus did the same. “Alright, let’s go. I getting hungry!” Marcus said as he and Rainbow Dash made their way back to the barn, but not before Marcus grabbed six extra SCAR-L mags and put them in the pouches he had flattened against his abdomen armor. He then closed the compartment on the side of the jet and sealed it. As the two got to the barn, Marcus heard a low, southern voice call to him. “Hey there, Marcus!” Called Big Mac as he trotted towards the two. Marcus stopped and looked at the large red stallion. “Hey, that’s the one I saw when I first arrived here.” “Hey there partner, mah name’s Big Macintosh.” He said calmly as he stuck out a hoof. Marcus looked at the outstretched hoof before taking it in his hand. “Pleasure to meet you Mister Macintosh. Say, are you the stallion I saw when I first arrived here?” “Ah sure am. Now listen here, I’m okay with ya romin’ around here because of your contraption landin’ here, but I’ll have my eye on ya whenever you’re around mah friends. Know that.” Said Big Mac as he gave Marcus a very serious look. Marcus smiled, he admired the care this stallion was showing for his friends and he respected that. “Very well, I promise you I will not even attempt to harm any of your friends when I am around them. I very much respect your care and therefore I respect you.” Marcus replied with a smile. Big Mac smiled too for a second before speaking. “That’s good, now I have to get back to bucking some apples.” He said as he walked off. Marcus and Rainbow Dash then walked through the barn and stopped at the front entrance, where Marcus did one final arsenal check. He had his six extra mags for the SCAR-L, the three extra mags for his B23R, his attachments on his SCAR-L as well as the laser for his B23R, his ballistic armor plating covering many parts on his body, and finally, his trusty helmet with heads-up-display, the radar--which didn’t work because there were no U.A.V.’s or areal units on this planet--, and built-in thermal/night-vision. Needles to say; he was ready for anything that damned forest had to throw at him. He looked at Rainbow Dash with a confident smile. “You look like you’re ready!” She said with a smirk. “Damn right! Okay, so once I’m behind the house, I’ll contact you on your radio.” Replied Marcus. “Got it.” Marcus walked out of the barn and immediately turned and jogged into the thick forest, head held high, while Rainbow Dash started on her way through town to Twilight’s house. ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus was still a bit skeptical about going into the forest that almost ate him for brunch, but he had only had his B23R. Now, he was ready to take it by the horns--er branches...oh whatever! As he walked, Marcus did some serious thinking along the way. “I still can’t believe I’m in another world. I wonder if I’m missed at all back on earth. If they know I’m actually gone... I’ve really warmed up to these ponies that live here, but I still can’t wrap my mind around why they could warm up to me. Well, considering there was a fucking manticore in this god-forsaken forest, I’m probably not the worst or strangest thing they’ve come across here... I’ll have to ask them.” Marcus did a quick surrounding check with his M.M.S. to make sure he wasn’t being stalked. “I wonder if Twilight would be able to tell me why I’m here, or better yet; how I can leave...” Marcus smiled at the thought of surprising everyone at base upon his return, even though it was probably a bit far-fetched. He glanced at the top of Twilight’s house, which was closer. He suspected he was about half-way there. He also looked at the digital clock on his data gove. 12:03 P.M. It had already been fifteen minutes? Jeez! Marcus then went from a walk to a slow run to close the gap. “Hm, I’m surprised I haven’t come across any obstructions...” Marcus thought as he ran. Not bothering to look another two inches downward, Marcus didn’t see the giant root jutting out of the ground. Before his eyes even caught sight of it, Marcus was laying face down on the dirt floor of the forest, his SCAR laying next to him. “I had to think so!” Marcus mumbled as he pushed himself up and grabbed his fallen rifle. He looked back and was tempted to census himself with his hand at the sight of the root. “Think what Marcus?” Asked Rainbow Dash through the radio on his helmet. Marcus jumped slightly, forgetting about the radio he had given Rainbow Dash. “Nothing, I just... tripped...” He deadpanned, wanting to kill himself again from the humiliation. “Oh, heh heh... If you say so!” She chortled back. “Shut up!” Marcus joked. Marcus was about to continue when he heard a female voice in the background. “What’s that Rainbow?” “Oh this? I can talk to Marcus with this, it’s really cool!” Responded Rainbow Dash to the unknown accomplice. “Who’s there with you?” Asked Marcus as he got up and grabbed his rifle. He resumed his trek, this time keeping a lookout on the ground and more so on his surroundings. As he jogged/ran through the forest edge, he thought he saw something white jump behind a nearby shrub. Marcus shrugged and kept going. “It’s Twilight, I’m outside her house right now with her. We’re just waiting for you to show up.” Marcus grinned. “Oh cool, how bout’ you let her give the mic a try?” He asked. “Oh sure! Hey Egghead!” “For the third time today, don’t call me that!” “Whatever, you want to talk to Marcus?” Marcus chuckled a little at the ‘nickname’, and mentally bookmarked it. After a few seconds of fuzziness through the mic from it being handed over, he spoke. “Hello? Anyone there?” He waited a few seconds before an unexpected response came. “HELLO? CAN YOU HEAR ME?” Marcus cringed a little at the sudden outburst while he could faintly hear Rainbow Dash cracking up in the background. “Hey! Twilight, I can hear you just fine, you don’t have to blow out my ears.” Marcus responded, still a little shell-shocked. He checked how close he was to Twilight’s house and saw he had about 100 yards left until he turned. “Oh... heh heh, sorry...” Twilight meekly responded. “It’s okay, hey did you figure out how to put the microphone on?” Marcus responded as he stopped walking for a bit. “No, I’m just holding it in front of me with my magic. It’s easier.” “Cool. Did you figure out how to send me back yet? Or at least how I got here?” “I’m afraid I don’t know how I can send you back to your world, but I think I do know how you got here. It’s a long story, so I’ll wait until you get here.” Twilight stated. Marcus sighed. “Okay, I’m about one minute away right now. I’ll be-” Marcus was cut off by a loud rustling in the bushes to his right. “One sec, I gotta go.” Marcus said quickly as he turned off his comm. Rifle at the ready, he slowly approached the bush as the rustling stopped, and looked at his M.M.S. Some kind of Avian being was knelt behind the bush. He was able to guess it was a wild chicken or turkey due to it’s posture. He tried shooing it away, but instead of squawking and fleeing like a normal bird, it jumped on top of the shrub and glared at him. Marcus would’ve never thought a bird could glare, but this one was somehow giving him the same wide-but-narrow eyed stare that he got during Jones’s birthday party. But this one had glowing red eyes. With his sights still fixed on the bird, he was about to walk away when he felt his right leg going numb when he tried to lift it. He looked down and almost had a heart attack. His right leg--including the clothing and armor-- from right below the knee down, was pure, dark grey stone. And it was creeping slowly to his kneecap. For the first time in at least four years, Marcus panicked. On instinct, his trigger finger jolted inward, and with a quiet sphew, the odd chicken fell off the bush and Marcus half ran, half limped out of the forest. His statue-leg easily left deep footprints in the dirt and crumbled twigs that would only snap under a normal foot. As he got into more open ground in plane sight of any citizen in the small town of Ponyville, he slightly crouched down to at least lower his chance of detection, and made his way to the back door of Twilight’s house. ~~~~~~~~~~ “One sec, I gotta go.” Marcus said quickly before a small sputter of static emitted from Twilight’s comm and was silent after. “Hm, what was that about?” Asked Rainbow Dash. Twilight lowered the microphone and shrugged. “Dunno, hey do you want me to put this thing back on your ear?” She asked as she examined the ear clip. Rainbow Dash brightened up and nodded. “Yeah, sure. I like wearing it because I can always talk to Marcus. Here, just put that little clip over the top of my right ear so the little rod is by my cheek.” She said as Twilight fumbled with the comm. for a minute. After the comm. was put back on, Twilight went into the living room where the other four--plus Spike--were to finish up making the group lunch, while Rainbow Dash went to the back door to wait for Marcus. Rainbow Dash stepped outside and looked towards the thick treeline of the Everfree forest, and saw a short figure lumbering towards the house. As it came into better view, Rainbow Dash brightened up more as she recognized the figure as Marcus, and ran towards him. However, concern overtook her happy mood as she noticed he was limping. “Oh my god, Marcus! Are you okay?” She asked quite loudly. Marcus looked around before standing up tall with his rifle in hand. “I...I’m fine... But we should get inside, like now...” He said quietly. Rainbow Dash, not being able to see his half statue-ified leg due to the tall grass, ran to his side and escorted him to the house. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Rainbow Dash frantically asked. Marcus stopped next to the door and pointed to his leg. “You tell me.” Rainbow Dash gasped at the sight of the stone appendage. She looked back up a Marcus with a more curious look. “You didn’t happen to have a staring contest with a red-eyed chicken, did you...?” She slowly asked. Marcus nodded slowly. “That was a cockatrice.” Rainbow Dash responded flatly. Marcus looked at the pegasus like she had an extra wing sprouting out of her back. “A cocka-what?” He asked with a slightly tilted head. Rainbow Dash opened the door and stepped inside. “I’ll tell you later, but for the matter at hand, Twilight knows how to fix this. C’mon.” She said as she beckoned for Marcus to come inside. He obliged and stepped into the small doorway. ~~~~~~~~~~ “What the fuckis a cockatrice?!” Marcus pushed the pointless question out of his mind as he walked through the room, Rainbow Dash at his side. As he stepped onto the first of the three stairs leading into another room, something, that Marcus can’t say he was surprised about, happened. As his right foot came down on the second step, the entire three-step staircase collapsed under the immense weight of Marcus’s stone leg, making him fall forwards like a 6’9” wood plank. Luckily, the front of his helmet took the jist of the impact as he hit the floor. “Damnit...” Mumbled Marcus as he rolled over on his back. “Oh shut up.” He said jokingly as he saw Rainbow Dash’s face scrunched up from holding back laughter. “Pssst...Pffffft... BWAHAHAHAHA!!!” Rainbow Dash fell onto her back as she couldn’t hold it back any longer. “You...Just, BANG!... And...!” She sputtered through bursts of laughter. Marcus sat up to asses the damage, and saw the whole three-stair staircase was gone, and was now a pile of splintered wood, as well as a small dent in the wood floor where his cranium had connected with it. His rifle had somehow managed to impale itself into the wood, and was jutting upward with the stock facing up. “Oops...” Marcus said meekly as he looked up to Rainbow Dash. She had stopped laughing and was giving him a fake worried look and pointing slowly with her hoof behind Marcus. Knowing what she was pointing at, Marcus looked behind him and saw Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy--who was cowering behind Twilight--, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie--who was bobbing up and down slightly--. They all had shocked looks on their faces. “Look, before you yell or get angry towards me, I think, this may answer your questions.” He said as he got up and showed them his leg. He was relieved to see them all soften up a bit at the sight (Excluding Fluttershy), which Marcus assumed meant they’ve had this problem before. Still none of them spoke. “So, is there any way you can fix this?” He asked, a hint of annoyance in his voice. Finally, Applejack walked over and examined his leg. She raided her foreleg and tapped the surface a few times, which emitted a few clinks from it. “Well, now I know how people with prosthetic legs feel...” Marcus thought bitterly. The rest (yes, even Fluttershy) slowly walked up beside Applejack to take a look. “Do you have any feeling where the stone is?” Asked Rarity. “Not at all. It’s completely numb.” Marcus replied flatly. Twilight turned to Rarity and whispered something in her ear. Rarity nodded and turned to the door and walked out. She then turned back to Marcus. “Rarity went back to her place to get something that will get rid of your ‘problem’.” She said as she gestured towards Marcus’s stone leg. Marcus sighed, and remembered why he and Rainbow Dash had come here in the first place. “So, Rainbow here tells me Spike,” Marcus put his hands at his hips and gestured towards the miniature dragon. “can make some decent grub. And I can safely say I’m famished.” Spike obviously didn’t know how to respond, so Twilight saved him. “Uh, yeah. We were actually going to go to the farm for a picnic we have ready. We really planned on visiting you so, you can just walk down with us if you want.” She said. Marcus nodded in approval and looked over at his rifle, which was still stabbed into the floor. He gave a “how the hell?” gesture with his hands to no one specifically and turned back to the group, who were also giving questioning looks at the weapon. “Sorry bout’ that.” Marcus said uneasily as he pulled it out of the wood. Twilight sighed. “Don’t worry about it. Now, you gonna join us?” She asked as she and the rest walked back into the kitchen. Marcus shrugged and followed them. Marcus walked into the room to see all of the group gathering the picnic supplies, and a question that had been itching at him surfaced. “Hey um, I was meaning to ask you all something.” He said, which made all of them look at him casually. “And what might that be?” Asked Applejack. Marcus tried to piece the right words together. “Why... does your town look like a Halloween party for a seven year old?” He asked as he gestured outside. Pinkie Pie stepped forward at the question. “Oh that’s because the town’s getting ready for--” She was cut off when Marcus waved her off. “Hold that thought.” He said sternly while he press a couple of things on his data glove, making the security warning that flashed across the right side of his H.U.D. disappear. His face shaped into a slightly concerned look, and he looked up at Pinkie Pie. “Hey Pinkie, uh, do you recognize this particular citizen of your town?” He asked slowly as he activated camera footage, forwarded it to his data glove, and showed the small screen to the pony. The streaming video showed a camera view of the inside of Marcus’s F/A-38 cockpit from the top of the dashboard. Because of the thirty-degree angle on the camera because it is meant for facial I.D. scans, Pinkie Pie and Marcus were able to see a mint green unicorn sprawled out and drooling over the top of the hull behind the glass. "Oh boy..." She said as she got a very 'oh boy' look on her face and her eyes widened. “Well...?” Marcus asked with a raised eyebrow. “That’s Lyra...”
ProloguePrologue “Ladies and gentlemen, we are all gathered here today on this fine evening to pay tribute, to a soldier known as Michael Ivan, also known as Goliath 2 of the Goliath squadron” Said Lt. Colonel James Watson. He and the other U.S.A.F. pilots stood tall in place on one side of the massive and decorative coffin, the evening sun’s rays turning their black uniforms a light shade of grey. None of them moved a muscle, even though the sun shined right in their eyes, but looks of sorrow were easily visible on their faces. “Michael was not only a friend, but a hero. He lived as a hero, and he died as one too.” the Colonel continued, “Michael has achieved an incredible feet bringing our country to where it is today. His heroic final action in battle, left us all something to learn from, but mainly to be thankful for. And with that said, let us all salute to him once more, and let him know that wherever he may be, he’ll know that we all honor him greatly. Amen.” As James stepped aside, his place was taken by former U.S. Army veteran, Sgt. Major Carson Brownway. “ATTEN-TION!” He shouted. As he did so, he and all the other pilots raised their hands to their foreheads in a salute. And another group on the other side of the coffin, a firing-squad, did the same. “HUT!” He shouted. The firing squad each raised their rifles upward. “HUT!” He shouted again. The firing squad each fired a single round into the evening sky, this was repeated until the firing squad had all fired three rounds each. The pilots kept their salute throughout the rest of the ceremony until they were dismissed by the Colonel. Everyone, including some of the pilots, went home somberly and teary-eyed. Some of the pilots hugged loved ones, while others just got into their cars and headed for home. That is, everyone except for Sgt. Marcus Ivan, he just stood there above the buried coffin while his eyes welled up with tears. After he was sure almost everyone had left, he got down on his knees, put his face in his hands, and began to cry softly. Shortly after, Marcus felt a hand on his left shoulder, he turned to see Major Veronica Stellic, a bomber pilot for the Special Deployment Unit, standing behind him. He looked closely and saw some tears in her eyes also. “God, she has the most beautiful eyes...” Marcus had to force that thought aside. “I’m, so sorry Marcus. I really am...” “Thanks.” Marcus said as he got up and wiped some tears from his cheeks and sniffled. “Life hasn’t been the nicest to me lately so, it’s been tough for me.” “Hey, you wanna join me and Jones (a retired U.S. Marine who served in Afghanistan for three years) at the bar? Maybe some friends time will help cheer ya up a bit!" Veronica said as she nudged Marcus with her elbow. Marcus sighed deeply. “Sure. Got nothin else to do so, why not? Heh heh.” “Great!” she turned to Jones, who was on the other side of the field, and gave him a thumbs up. “And I’m driving!” she shouted to Jones . “Oh hell no!” He replied playfully and sprinted to the car. “Oh hell yes!” Veronica shouted after him as she too ran to the car. Marcus simply jogged to the car as they all headed to find the best bottle of Sam Atam’s they could get their hands on. ~~~~~~~~~~ The next day, Marcus headed over to the airbase on the outskirts of town. When he got there, a few minutes after he stepped inside and was headed to his part of the camp, he was stopped by Colonel James. “Woah James, easy does it!” Marcus said as James almost knocked him over. “Sorry man, hey, I’ve been lookin’ all over for ya! The commander wants you to have this. James handed over a small piece of paper with the Commanders’ handwriting on it. It read: REPORT TO RUNWAY 4 A.S.A.P. THERE’S SOMEONE I WANT YOU TO MEET. Marcus read the note, and looked up at James nodded, and took off in the direction of the runways. But before he could get far, James stopped him. “And Marcus,” he said in a calm voice, “sorry about yesterday.” And with that, James pulled him into a quick hug, and Marcus took off running. Marcus, jogging now after the long run, finally got to runway-he checked the note- 4 was it, and sure enough, the heads-up advisor and commander in chief was waiting for him. Standing next to him was a, teenager? Marcus slowed to a walk as he approached the commander. “Commander, good to see you.” Marcus said with a quick salute. “You to Sergeant.” He responded with a handshake. “So, your note said you wanted me to meet someone? Marcus stated holding out the note. “Indeed I do,” he said, and beckoned the teenager over. “this is Natov Vladimir. He’s an ex-Russian pilot, and he is one of the best. I’ve chosen him to be your new wingman.” The Russian stepped forward and extended a hand. “It’s an honor sir.” Marcus was a little shocked at how Russian this guy sounded, but he still shook his hand with a smile. “Likewise.” “I’ll leave you two to talk things out.” the Commander said as he walked away. “So, what’s my new code-name sir?” Natov asked. “Well because you’re my wingman now, your new code-name is Goliath 2. And please, call me Marcus.” He replied with a smile “Yes sir!-Uh, I mean Marcus!” Natov said with a little laugh at the end. “Heh heh, it’s fine, now c’mon, I’ll show ya where you’ll be staying.” Marcus said as he wrapped an arm around Natovs’ shoulder. “If the chief says he’s the best, I guess he is...” Marcus thought as he and Natov headed back to the camp sites. It was then that Marcus noticed the large backpack that was slung over Natovs’ right shoulder. “Whatcha’ got in there?” Marcus asked as they stepped inside the huge main building. “Oh, this is just everything I need to get set up at the camp” Just then, Raptor squadron, another group of trained pilots each flying an A-10B Thunderbolts IV, was seen approaching the runway. Marcus chuckled. “I’ll have to introduce you to those guys, they’re a friendly bunch.” That night was much more relaxing for Marcus, he was able to get some reading done on his book, and let himself really unwind as he sat on the sofa in his TV room. Marcus scanned the room for a moment. “Damn it, did I really just loose the remote again? Fuck... Oh wait, here it is! Yay!” Marcus sighed with relief as he pulled the remote out by the corner he saw from under the sofa. He clicked on the TV and watched some Hardcore Pawn. He laughed a little when some black girl trying to sell an old XBox 360 went totally ballistic when they wouldn’t pay her for it. He checked the time on the cable box, 10:27 p.m., it had been about an hour since he had gotten home. Marcus turned off his TV and went to the bathroom to get ready for bed, as 10:30 p.m. was normally the time he went to bed. He climbed into bed under the soft blankets, turned off the lights, and drifted slowly off to sleep. “That Natov guy seems pretty nice... I wonder how many other planes he’s flown before... I just hope he doesn’t end up like...... He did......” Marcus started to dream , but those thoughts dwelled in his head. ~~~~~~~~~ One week before funeral “Goliath flight, you are cleared to take off, go NOW!!” Shouted Lt. Colonel James Watson. About 30 second after his order James watched as four F-35B Lightning II’s, also known as Goliath Flight, propelled themselves down the snow covered runway as a wave of bombers overhead were destroying the airfield. It was too risky taking off vertically as a plane could easily get hit by a bomb. “Alright team, you know what to do.” Marcus assured the team . “Right, kill bombers first, and escorts after.” Said Goliath 3 “That would be correct.” Stated Goliath 2 in a joking voice. “Focus guys! If the bombers manage to destroy this base, than we lose our foothold here.” Marcus made sure of the two. “Alright guys, we discussed how to deal with the Lancers right?” “Yup, follow me 3! I see a good group!” Said Goliath 4 as he and 3 closed in on a passing bomber squad approaching the base undefended. “2, follow my lead. Let’s take out that last group, you and me pal!” Said Goliath 1 happily.” “Alright, let’s have some FUN!” Replied Goliath 2. After a few minutes, Marcus got a message saying that the group 3 and 4 were pursuing was destroyed. After that, 2 pointed out something to Marcus that made his blood go cold. “Marcus look, the bombers... They’re flying away... But why?” Just then, a cold and deep Russian voice spoke through their radio frequency. “Ah, good to be back, isn’t it?” Said the voice in a devious tone. “Menshikov. What are you doing here?” Marcus demanded. “You haven’t changed a bit, have you Ivan? Heh heh heh.” That laugh made the hairs on the back of Marcus’s neck stand up. Then Marcus got a missile warning on his H.U.D. (heads-up-display). “Enough chit-chat, you die today!” Menshikov said evilly. He turned and banked the plane but by then Menshikov was right behind him in his legendary PAK-FA. They were both flying at top speed, when Menshikov started to use his cannon, he managed to hit one of his rear flaps and another part of his right wing: the parts that, when hit, would keep the plane from being able to turn for a short time. Then Menshikov just disappeared, and before Marcus knew it there was a missile headed straight for his cabin. Then he saw Menshikov bank and leave the battle zone in front of him. Marcus could only watch as the missile got closer, and when he just about knew that he would die, time seemed to slow down. Michael’s plane came from Marcus’s right and the missile struck him instead of Marcus. “MICHAEL!!!” Marcus yelled. Marcus could hear struggling. “I’m-I’m okay, I think... but, my plane’s not responding...” Michael said in a panicked voice. “Bail the hell out!!” Marcus ordered. “I just told you my plane’s not responding, AT ALL! Oh shit... I-I’m, losing oil pressure... I can’t keep her nose up...” Marcus watched in horror as Michael’s plane suddenly dipped downward. “No, Michael, don’t worry! I need a rescue crew at his expected crash sight, NOW!! “No... No, don’t... Everything’s gonna be fine, just...” Marcus heard a sniffle come through the radio. “Look... I can already see unidentified armored trucks moving on the desert, two of them are towing A.A. batteries. They’re russian. If they get there and I’m alive they’ll unlock every secret and tactic that I know of in the Air Force.” Said Michael slowly, his plane only gliding after shutting down his engine. “What are you planning on doing Michael?” Asked Marcus. Michael hesitated, knowing that Marcus wasn’t going to like it. “Marcus... I need you to shoot me down...” Marcus couldn’t believe his ears. “What? Michael, what are you thinking?!” “Think about it! I'm cornered now, what choice is there?! If they capture and interrogate me and I break it’s over for the Air Force! We can not risk an entire branch of the U.S. Military for one life!” Shouted Michael. “No Michael, I won’t do this!” Marcus replied as his eyes started to blur with tears. “Just do it, please... for the future...” “But... but Michael... No, I can’t... Please...” Marcus felt a tear run down his left cheek. “Marcus... for the United States, for our pride and freedom... Do it...” Marcus looked at the right joystick, the one with the button for launching sabre-class A.A. missiles. He looked back to the rear of Michael’s aircraft which was slowly descending. As he flipped up the cover for the button, all his favorite times with his favorite wingman flashed in his mind. The time Marcus gave Michael a fake lottery ticket and he thought he won $40,000, Marcus and Veronica both rolling on the floor laughing at the angry look on his face. The time Marcus had to leave the bar due to drinking three too many bottles of vodka, and how he threw up on Jones’s new jacket afterwards. The time Jones got a blindfolded lap-dance from Michael instead of a real girl on Jones’s birthday, man the look on his face when the blindfold was removed... The world around him and Michael faded from existence, leaving only them in a black void. Marcus put a lock crossair on Michael’s aircraft before saying his last words to his best friend. “Goodbye Michael...” Marcus said with a sniff. “Farwell Marcus...” Michael replied softly. Marcus’s hand trembled slightly as he put his thumb over the small, red button. “Forgive me Brother.” Marcus whispered to himself. He closed his eyes, and pressed the button with a *click*. ~~~~~~~~~~ That was all Marcus saw in his dream before his eyes snapped open and he quickly sat up in bed, breathing heavily. He scanned the room for a second before putting his face in his hands. That was when he realized that there were tears streaming out of his eyes and his whole body, from the waist up, was beaded with sweat. The *click* echoing in his brain like someone was right next to him. “Am I ever going to get over this?” Was the one question he asked himself, that he couldn’t answer... ever...
Chapter One: Blue-On-BlueChapter One Earth June 18th, 2023 Along a one-way dirt road, a gentle breeze shifted the trees slowly. There was not a single sound except the sound of rustling leaves and birds chirping their daily song. “Come on the risin’ wind, we’re goin’ up around the bend. Ooh! Bring a song and a smile for the bango, better get while the gettin’s good!” The extremely loud music easily drained away the surrounding noise as Marcus happily sang along to the males southern like voice over the radio. “Hitch a ride to the end of the highway, where the neons turn to wood! Come on the risin wind, we’re goin’ up around the bend. Ooh!" Marcus decided to turn down the radio a bit and just hum to it instead as he spotted the area where the dirt road turned into paved asphalt. Plus his ears were starting to hurt from the song volume. Marcus could hear the dirt churning under the large 12’’ tires of his Ford Excursion. There were no authorities on the road so Marcus gave the massive V12 engine one last rev before he turned onto the calm street. The revving sound of his beloved truck always made Marcus get that “oh hell yeah!” sensation. Just when Marcus was pulling onto the road, he felt (and heard) his stomach grumble uncomfortably. Marcus groaned as he finally realized that it was from hunger. “Wow I must be hungry, I wonder if that local Subway is still open...” He pondered that thought for a moment and looked at the digital clock on the trucks dashboard, 5:54 p.m. The Subway closed at six. “Yeah, I think I can make it...” Marcus said out loud to himself. Just then, his iphone 8 rang a little loudly then he would’ve liked, but it was from when he was blasting the music earlier. He looked to see who it was; UNKNOWN CALLER flashed across the clear screen. Curious, Marcus picked up the phone and pressed ignore. He parked in front of the small Subway restaurant and got out of his car. He spotted another person leaving and headed inside. The employee was washing the counter when he heard the bell above the door ring as Marcus stepped inside. The man looked up and greeted Marcus as he approached the food area. “What can I get for you sir?” The man asked kindly, but Marcus could tell that this guy wanted to go home, so Marcus didn’t hesitate with his order. “I’ll get a...” After Marcus had left with a satisfied stomach, his phone rang again. He looked at who was calling him and saw this: UNKNOWN CALLER. Now Marcus was a little annoyed but a bit creeped out too... Who was this? Marcus decided that nothing good would come out of ignoring it again, so he answered it. “Who is this?” Marcus demanded instantly. “Nevermind that, the chief wants to see you first thing tomorrow in the briefing room.” Marcus heard a very Russian like accent in this mans’ voice. “Natov, is that you?” “Look, just be there tomorrow morning okay?” “Answer my question, that’s an order damn it!” Marcus heard a sigh before the answer came. “Yes, it is. The Chief told me to just keep this between you, Veronica (and her co-pilots obviously), me, and him. He said he wanted to keep the mission tomorrow a secret, that it’ll draw too much negative attention...” “Keep what mission a secret!?” Barked Marcus. “Whoa man, chill!” Natov replied, “The attack, remember? The bomber escort?” Natov stated calmly. “Oh OOHHH! Okay, sorry man, you caught me kinda off guard their. Yeah don’t worry, I haven’t told anyone yet so you’re good. I really hope you can handle aiding the Russians again after... you know.” Marcus said coldly. Natov sighed sadly into his cell phone. “Maybe not, but it’ll be worth it getting’ to go on my first flight as an American wingman!” Natov said excitedly. “I hope so, hey man I’ll see you in the morning’ okay?” “Alright, see ya.” “Later.” Marcus pressed the end call button on his phone and started off for home. He checked the clock again, 6:32 p.m. As he was driving home, he came across a familiar intersection on his town's Main Street and saw a pair of headlights coming from the right. Marcus looked more closely and saw that the car that the headlights belonged too was headed right for him at an alarming rate. Marcus stepped on the gas to try to avoid but it was too late, his truck and the other drivers brakes could be heard clearly before the unknown driver struck the side of Marcus’s Ford and everything went black. ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus woke up in, a hospital bed? Marcus was about to sit up when he heard a familiar voice speak, “Hey bud, easy does it.” The voice said as he was gently pushed back into the bed pillow. Marcus grunted before responding. “Hey Jones. What happened to me?” He heard another familiar voice, this one female. “You got t-boned by some dumbass driving a Blazer, he claims he didn’t see you until it was too late, but I punched him anyway...” Jones put his face in his hand and chuckled. “Oh, Veronica, when will you get over that punching people doesn’t solve problems?” Marcus asked jokingly with a little laugh at the end. Veronica shrugged with a laugh. Marcus tried to sit up again and could, after a few minutes, he was able to stand and walk again. “I feel like I’m gonna throw up...” “Whew, good thing I can walk for now, big day tomorrow!” That was when he realized he didn’t know how long he was out for, he frantically searched the small room until he saw that it was almost exactly twelve o'clock at night. So Marcus decided to get to his place and sleep. “Hey guys, I’m gonna go get some sleep, see you two in the morning!” Even though he ended up having to get driven home by Jones, before Marcus knew it, he was in his own comfy bed, sleeping like a log. ~~~~~~~~~~ June 19, 2023 Marcus was on his way to the airfield in a car that was lent to him until his Excursion was repaired. He decided it was time for some tunes and with that, he turned on the radio and started listening to Smoke on The Water. Marcus came across that same intersection that he had his little doozie on and grimaced, he could’ve sworn that he even saw that same Chevrolet Blazer on the opposite road. When he came to a familiar small street, he turned onto the dirt path that led to the airbase a little quicker. Marcus wanted to make sure he got all the details before he embarked on this mission later today (he was always like that). Just as he did, his favorite guitar and drum duo from the song started and he turned up the speakers in the car. Marcus drove down the dirt path in the oversized field towards the base, when he noticed a small group of three Black-Hawks and Apaches flying away from the runway. “Why do they always get the ‘blowin shit up’ missions?” Marcus returned his attention to the road where he saw the right turn that lead to the side entrance of the base. He turned off the music and picked up his phone. He peeked up at the road occasionally while he searched the ‘recent callers’ list until he found the number that Natov had called him with and pressed ‘redial’. He heard it ring a few times before that same Russian voice, which made the sides of Marcus mouth creep upwards, answered. “This is Natov.” He said flatly. “Hey Natov, good to hear your voice.” Marcus responded cheerfully. Natov’s serious voice turned friendly when he realized who it was. “Ay, Marcus! How’s it goin’? “Good! Hey, I’m about five minutes away. See me at the west enterance so we can get ready.” Marcus & Natov both made their way to the aircrafts, of the F/A-38 VTOLs while the commander made his way to the Heads Up Advisory Center. Marcus climbed into the snug cabin and eyed the helmet sitting on the seat, he sat down and put on the helmet. He then touched the screen in front of him and the cabin automatically closed, while a computer voice spoke from the plane. “Identify: Ivan, Marcus. Flight authorization: accepted. Startup sequence: initiated. Controls, Navigation, Communication, and leventry systems are now online. Takeoff when ready.” “Okay, you ready?.” Marcus asked as he gave Marcus a thumbs up. Marcus nodded back to him as he grasped one handle in each hand, the left one for throttle, and the right one for movement. “Alright Natov, let’s see if we can suprize the folks at the other base!” Marcus said, as he slowly pulled back on the throttle and felt himself and the plane rising in perfect harmony. He looked over to his right and saw Natov rising too. “Alright 2, follow my lead.” “Roger that.” Natov replied. “Command this is Goliath 1, everything is checking out.” Marcus said. “Goliath 2 here, all systems green. We are ready to proceed with the mission.” “Copy that, move on to mission area. I’ve marked it on your tactical situation maps, I’ll update you once you’ve reached your destination where you’ll rendezvous with Veronica and her unit.” Informed the commander. Almost simultaneously, Marcus and Ivan started moving in one direction, the thrusters all moving forwards at the same time to propel the jets forward. After a minute of continuous flying in one direction, Marcus contacted command, “Command, we are preparing to make the transition to supersonic.” “Copy that, Mach 1, Mach 1.” Replied the Chief. Marcus could literally feel the sound leaving him as the plane sliced through the sound barier with ease. A few minutes later, Marcus heard Natov say, “Command, we are approaching hypersonic, clearance to proceed? “Granted” “Alright bud, time for the big one!” Marcus excitedly said. Marcus began to actually see the pure oxygen get pushed around the plane in a white cone starting at the nose of the jet. “Whew! This is quite the first-time experience!” Just then Marcus got the last news he was expecting. “Uh, Goliath Flight, do you copy?” Asked the Commander in a concerned tone, which also concerned Marcus and Natov. “Goliath Flight, go ahead.” Replied Marcus. “One of our guided missile batteries is targeting you from the base, we’re trying to regain control but--oh fuck, Marcus!! MISSILE INBOUND!!!!” Screamed the Commander. Marcus suddenly got a missile warning on his H.U.D. The H.U.D. showed the direction the missile was coming from and the distance, and it was coming fast. “Natov! Evasive maneuvers!” Shouted Marcus as he banked hard to the right. The missile followed his movement and continued approaching. 1,000m...500m...200m... Marcus deployed flares and banked again. The missile turned off course and momentarily disappeared from view. Marcus’s H.U.D. no longer showed the missile warning as he and Natov returned to their previous heading. “What the hell was that?!” Yelled Marcus angrily. “I don’t know, we’re trying to figure it out now but--” “Marcus! Look out!!” Interrupted Natov. Marcus got another missile warning but this time his heart almost stopped. This time the distance read: 100m...60m... Marcus’s plane automatically deployed flares due to the missile’s close proximity but too late. As the missile was headed towards the left side of the cockpit of the plane, the flares only diverted it to the back of the plane so it struck his left engine. “Ahh! I’m hit!! I’m going down!!” Marcus shouted as his plane wobbled and billowed smoke from the back. As Marcus fell out of the sky, he noticed he was heading straight for a large lake he saw earlier. “At least it’ll be soft landing...” The thought calmed Marcus slightly and he decided not to eject. Marcus was able to angle the flaps to let him glide onto the surface of the lake. Unfortunately, the turbulence rammed into his plane and caused it to endo into the water, knocking Marcus out cold. “Marcus!” Called Natov. “Marcus, are you okay!? A Pause. “Goliath One, do you copy!? Command, blue-on-blue! I repeat, blue-on-blue, Goliath One is down!!” Underwater, Marcus and his F/A-38 drifted slowly to the bottom of the massive body of water. In the dark water a sort of light began to grow and brighten at the bottom. With Marcus still out cold, the jet sank undisturbed closer to the strange light. Marcus finally regained consciousness and flipped up the tinted visor that covered his eyes. As his eyes adjusted to the murky surrounding, he caught sight of the light that was becoming brighter and closer with every passing second. His eyes widened in shock and he eventually covered them due to the brightness. “Oh shit... This can’t be good... he thought as he sank into the light. ~~~~~~~~~~ Ponyville, Equestria A large apple tree shook as all of its apples fell neatly into the awaiting apple cart that was positioned below. In the distance, a (very) young and high-pitched voice with a very southern like accent called out. “Big Mac! Applejack! Time for lunch!” “Be right their Sis!” Called back the orange mare known as Applejack. Big Mac, Applejack’s brother, started to head back to the farm when he stopped and turned around. “You comin’?” Asked Big Mac. Applejack just stood in place watching the horizon. “Wha?-Oh, yeah. Go ahead, I’ll catch up with ya.” Big Mac just nodded and started off for the barn again. Applejack watched the afternoon sky for a few minutes, admiring the beautiful afternoon, a gentle breeze added some calming sound to the surroundings, before turning to head back. She had taken a few steps when she heard a loud crack in the distance, like a gunshot would sound like in real life, Applejack turned to look and spotted a distant white orb hovering in the sky. It grew slowly but steadily brighter until Applejack, who thought she would go blind if she staired too long, was forced to turn her head away. She looked back in time to hear yet another crack emit from the same spot, but this one was followed by a strange... thing flying out of the circle, which disappeared immediately afterwards. “What in the name of-” That was before the poor pony realized that it was headed straight for her. It approached at an extremely fast speed before Applejack, so stunned to move, saw two little things deploy on the front-sides and start shooting what looked like a blue and seethrough cone from each one. The same happened to the larger back ones as the entire flying machine angled itself backwards. Then it hit Applejack like a brick to the head; this thing was crashing, not landing, she was able to figure that out when she saw that the thing was very wobbly as it descended, and thick, black smoke billowed from the back tube. Now Applejack was running in the opposite direction as fast as she could... ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus uncovered his eyes and looked forward. “What the fuck was THAT?!” Marcus wondered. That was before he heard the sound of beeping and the plane’s voice saying, “Emergency shutdown, initiated. Emergency shutdown, initiated. Emergency shutdown, initiated.” Marcus by now was frantically jerking the joystick in all directions, hoping to get the planes nose upward. No luck. Then Marcus noticed the small red switch located to the right of the dashboard: the priority override. Using the priority override was a risky maneuver because it would shut down all the flight computers, stabilizers, and sensors/monitors momentarily, allowing the pilot to regain control from any situation with no assistance whatsoever. But Marcus had no choice, he flipped up the cover and flicked the switch, immediately after, the plane spoke. “Emergen-priority override: Delta, Foxtrot, Tango, Zulu. Startup sequence, initiated. As the last coordinates were being mentioned, the dashboard started to come back online before Marcus’s eyes and he felt pressure on the sticks again (which was good). Without hesitation, he enabled the jump-jets (the forward placed mini-thrusters) and angled the rear thrusters downward to try and slow his descent. His tactic kind of worked except for three things: the dashboard was telling him that his back left engine was badly damaged, which meant that the amount of thrust produced by the rear engines was not stable, so the plane was very ungainly as it descended. Two, there were no stabilizers or anything like that to try and keep the plane from crashing, so he had to do that all himself. And three, there was what looked like a small horse running away from him. “Oh no, I’m about to kill an innocent animal for nothing!” Marcus said to himself sadly. “Wait, where the hell did it come from?!” Marcus thought to himself. But due to his skill & experience, Marcus was able to do this just before he landed: he waited for the ground to be what he was going for as 40 meters above it, before going full throttle. This allowed him to barely hover above the ground while still trying to tilt backwards. Then he evened out the throttle to glide above the ground before Marcus did a very risky move. He completely cut power to the thrusters and folded them in just fast enough and at the right height so that he hit the dirt ground with no damage done to anything under the plane, and he knew that the landing gear would break if it took that much pressure. Marcus was jerked around inside the cockpit, with the seatbelt holding him in place, from the sudden impact. Ultimately, knocking him out cold... Again... ~~~~~~~~~~ Applejack sprinted as fast as she could away from the object grinding through the dirt towards her. As she ran she got backed up against a massive apple tree with nowhere to go, the poor mare could only close her eyes, and wait to get flattened. She waited and listened for the sound of soil getting pushed out of the way of the thing that was going to kill her, until she finally opened her eyes only to almost have a heart attack. This mysterious... thing, had stopped with its point only mere inches from her neck. “HO-LY. SHIT!!!!” She thought to herself. Applejack breathed a hefty sigh of relief as she slowly moved away to the side, where she had to duck under the point to get away. This thing could not be from this world. She looked back a few times before she ran back to the barn. Before she did anything else involving this... UFO, she had to have somepony at her side just incase and she knew that. She decided that it would be best if only Big Mac and herself knew about this until further notice, so she just acted like there was nothing up throughout lunch (which in this situation, was kind of hard). Applejack was shot some curious looks and questions during the timespan, but she just answered them with “Yes!” or “No”. After lunchtime was over, Applejack pulled Big Mac aside. “Big Mac, I need ya to come with me!” “Wha- why?” Asked Big Mac. “I’ll explain later, just c’mon!” Big Mac thought it would only make things harder if he resisted any further, so he ran along side his sister to the spot where they had left off apple bucking earlier. As the large unknown object came into view, Big Mac put a hoof in front of Applejack to stop her. “Whoa sis, what do you think you’re doin’? Do you even know what that is?!” “No, but whatever it is, it wasn’t planin’ on landin’ here, somepony maybe hurt inside it!” Applejack exclaimed as she pointed out the sparks and smoke coming from the back. “But where would that somepony be is such a contraption? I ain't seein’ a place for guards to pull it, I also don’t see anyplace for a passenger...” But applejack slowly walked up to the side of it anyways and asked in a shaky voice, “Is-is there somepony in there?”
Chapter Two: Hunting the HunterChapter Two Equestria June 19th, 2023 “Is-is there somepony in there?” The orange mare, Applejack, stood to the left of the strange aircraft that had crash-landed in the far side of Sweet Apple Acres. When no response came, she and her brother both hesitantly made their way in a full circle around the machine, trying to inspect every inch of it. “I still think we should either leave this thang alone, or get some friends over here at least...” Applejack groaned, finally giving in to her sibling’s idea. “Alright, fine. I’ll go and get the other five, you stay here and keep a keen eye on this thing...” Before Big Mac could protest, Applejack was already in a full-on sprint towards the companion that lived the closest; Rainbow Dash. It took a few minutes, but she finally found the pegasus she was looking for. ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus awoke from a blank sleep inside the snug, but surprisingly comfortable cabin of his F/A-38 VTOL. He pressed a button on the side of his helmet and the tinted visor flipped up into the helmet slot, as he began to look at his surroundings. He could not remember anything except for a white light and about a minute before that. When he was looking, something caught him off guard... “When did all these trees get here? Last time I checked, I was flying above a desert and sinking in-oh shit, everyone probably thinks I'm dead...” As soon as his brain started to (try to) work, the whiplash of the crash hit him like a Smart Car colliding with a semi-truck as his head started to throb violently. Marcus rubbed his forehead when something else caught him off guard. A voice could be heard faintly through the cabin of the jet. “Is-is there somepony in there?” It sounded female, and Southern, but the throbbing of his head and the semi-noise-canceling glass made it too hard to tell. That’s when the thing that caught him off guard the most registered in his mind. “Pony? What the fuck does this person mean by that?! Maybe it’s a metaphor?” Marcus just pushed that thought out of his head and tried to contact command. “Ug, this is Goliath 1. I’ve crashed in-arg-an unidentified field about-hello? Command, do you copy? Damnit!” After his failed attempt to get help, he just decided to open up the cabin to see if he could get help the old-fashioned way. The sound of the cabin depressurization tended to sooth Marcus a little, he just loved that hiss. As the glass paneling moved forward towards the nose of the plane, he began to stand up to get out. When took a step onto the first stair, he stumbled and fell the rest of the way out of the plane. “Ow...” He thought as he lay face-up on the dirt staring up at the blue sky. When he finally was able to stand up, he turned to find something that caught him off guard even more so than the use of ‘pony’ in the person’s speech. He turned and had a staring contest with a... horse? This horse wasn’t like any other he had ever seen. This one had a fire engine-red coat, with a orange mane and tale, and it was... tiny compared to the horses he had seen before. Plus this figure in particular seemed to be giving Marcus not a plane look that most normal horses do, but this one giving him a look of... horror... That was the last thing Marcus registered before he buckled down to his right knee and face planted in the dirt. ~~~~~~~~~~ Big Mac watched in curiosity as the unknown being climbed out of the front of the machine, and had to push down laughing at the creature as it took a step onto the stair and fell out onto his back. Big Mac started to slowly approach the fallen critter, when he heard it let out a faint grunt and backed away as the thing stumbled to its feet. When there eyes met they seemed to stare at eachother for an eternity, before the biped buckled down on its right knee... and collapsed. Big Mac cautiously walked over to the fallen being, and nudged its side with a hoof. No response. He tried it again and gave up. “Welp, I guess I’ll just wait for Applejack to get back...” ~~~~~~~~~~ “Okay, do we have to do this right now? Just c’mon! I’ll tell ya when we get there!” Applejack tried explaining to Rainbow Dash. “Alright fine, where did you say it crashed again? I can meet you there.” Rainbow Dash responded. “On the far side of Sweet Apple Acres, but-” But Rainbow Dash was already out of sight, on her way to Sweet Apple Acres. Big Mac sat next to the being just staring into the sky, when he noticed a rainbow blur over head and got up. As Rainbow Dash landed about ten meters from the crash sight, Big Mac walked up to her. “Hey! I heard that a UFO landed here. So where is-WOAH!!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed as she flew up to the side of the massive machine. She just hovered in-place and gawked at the thing, then she noticed the biped laying face-down in the dirt and landed behind it. She then flew up a few feet and settled down on top of the UFO and laid down. “Well whaddaya know! I guess I’m braver than I thought!” Rainbow Dash said as she settled on the hard metal surface. “Yeup.” Big Mac calmly responded. Another voice made Rainbow Dash jump a little. “Rainbow Dash! What do you think you’re doin’!” Shouted Applejack as she trotted down the field. “Oh give me a break! You don’t see it trying to kill me do you? Oh, and watch out for-” But Applejack had already tripped over the fallen creature. “Ow! Wh- what the hey is thi-” She was cut short when she saw what she had tripped over. “Whoa!” She said as she jumped back. “What do you think we should do with this thing?” Asked Rainbow Dash, still perched on top of the metal surface. “We should get Twilight, she’ll know what to do!” ~~~~~~~~~~ “I still can’t believe this is happening! A real alien!” Announced Twilight as she was levitating Marcus to her library and bounced with joy every so often. “I know, I know. Let’s just get this thang back to yer place before it wakes up again.” Said Applejack as Twilights home came into view. “But where are you gonna keep this alien when we get there?” Asked Rainbow Dash. “Maybe the basement? Just for now.” Twilight happily responded as she trotted towards her home. ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus shakily sat up after another blank slumber. His vision was blurry, but he could make out the books that lined the walls of the room. “Great, it had to be a library didn’t it?” Marcus rubbed his eyes and got to his feet, he wasn’t very steady but he could at least stand. That was when he heard shouting from an upstairs level of the building. He pulled out his B23R and slowly proceeded to walk up the stairs on the far side of the room. when he was up the stairs, he looked around, still undetected, and spotted a door. As he proceeded to open it, two things were detected in his mind: the door was locked (not a big surprise...) and it was really short. He never minded the second thought and went with the only way to get out of this locked place that he could think of. He took a few steps back and charged at the door. The door snapped into three pieces and flew off its hinges. He stopped as his eyes adjusted to the blinding sunlight and pressed the button on his helmet as the dark visor covered his eyes. “Ah, that’s better...” His thought was cut short when he heard footsteps rushing from the inside of the house. As his gut took over, he ran as fast as he could into the nearby forest. He glanced back to see probably the most bizarre thing he’d ever seen: a orange pony with a yellow mane wearing a cowboy hat, a cyan blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail, and a purple unicorn(?) all watching him with intense focus. Marcus decided not to process what he had just seen and kept running into the forest. ~~~~~~~~~~ “No! I don’t want it in our house!” Shouted an angry Spike. “Don’t worry, we’re only keeping it for right now!” Replied Twilight, “But why can’t we move it into, gah-I don’t know, Applejacks barn?!” Yelled Spike. “Because, Spike, I have a business to run, and a family to take care of!” Retorted Applejack. “Ug! Can we please figure this out another time?! And Spike, for Celestia’s sake, suck it up! Shouted Twilight which made Spike recoil a little. “Hmf! Fine!” As spike was walking away, there was a loud crash emitted from the doorway. Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack all went to see what happened. They looked to see a gaping hole where the front door used to be and pieces of it littered the ground outside. Then they all gasped (yes, even Rainbow Dash) when they saw the strange biped kneeling outside while one of its arms was shielding its eyes. Then it quickly got up and sprinted in the direction of the Everfree Forest. “C’mon! We can’t let it get away!” Shouted Rainbow Dash as the three of them (hesitantly) followed the creature into the forest. ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus didn’t stop running until he was out of breath. He stopped and leaned against a thick tree to catch his breath. Then he took notice that it had gotten really dark. “Odd... It was daytime a few minutes ago...” Marcus didn’t mind though, he pressed a few things on his data glove and his visor suddenly showed everything in a green and white view of the night vision/thermal imaging. He slumped against a tree and thought about what he should do next. “Okay, everyone thinks I drowned or died in that crash, which is okay! Wait, that not okay... Gah! Think Marcus, THINK! First things first; I need to get back to my jet, all of the tactical and survival gear is in the compartments. As well as the-” Marcus did a facepalm to his helmet that would've made Twilight jealous.. “The Dragonfires! I totally forgot!” Marcus said out loud. Marcus checked his data gloves touch-pad to see if it was still paired with the two things he needed. This is what he saw: F/A-38 VTOL signal strength: 94% MQ-27 Dragonfire(s) signal strength: 93% Remoteflight available He tapped the Dragonfire icon and waited about 15 seconds before the camera view for the three of them, placed in a side compartment on the jet, opened up each a separate window on his H.U.D. The three were waiting for orders as they flew out of the side of the compartment and just hovered in place. Marcus pressed another icon that told the Dragonfires to return to the source of the control signal, and watched the three camera views start to move all in one direction towards the forest. Marcus got a notification on his HUD of the orders given to the drones: Orders set: I.D., Monitor, Eliminate threats, link with transmission source Marcus smiled as he watched the signal strength slowly increase, but was cut off when he heard a roar close by. He quickly got to his feet and was confronted by one of the scariest thing he’d ever seen. A massive 13-foot tall lion with bat wings and a scorpion tail was slowly approaching him. Marcus pulled out his B23R and shot one three-round burst at its leg, which made it bucle over and roar but get back up and start limping at him. Marcus emptied his whole clip on the thing to no avail. He then pushed a icon on his data glove and pointed a crossair shown on his H.U.D. at the beast and tapped engage. Just when he thought he was gonna get eaten, three rockets came from the top of a nearby tree and struck the monster simultaneously. Marcus smiled and breathed a heavy sigh of relief as the monster fell in a mangled and bloody mess, and the three dragonfires came over a tree and hovered in defensive positions around Marcus. Target Eliminated ~~~~~~~~~~ “Tell me again why we’re doing this?” Asked Applejack. “Oh don’t be like that! C’mon, this is fun!” Responded a obviously very excited Rainbow Dash. “Yeah, walking around searching for a possibly deadly alien in the Everfree is a whole lot of fun...” Twilight said sarcastically. “But I thought you were the one that was all excited about studying this alien?” Said Applejack. Twilight sighed in defeat. “How long have we been walking anyway?” “I don’t know, 15 minutes?” Replied Applejack. “Aw, guys! You’re giving up alre-” Rainbow Dash was cut off by some distant bangs in the distance, followed by what sounded like three more powerful bangs all from one direction, which caused all of them to jump. “W-w-wh-wh-what was that? Asked Twilight in a shaky tone. “It s-sounded like it came from over there!” Responded Applejack. “Well what are we waiting for, invitations?! Let’s go!” Said Rainbow Dash as she sprinted off in the direction of the noise. The other two looked at each other and shrugged before following. When the two of them were just about out of breath, they came into a small clearing where Rainbow Dash was staring at what looked like a red mound of fur. When the two of them got closer, they realized it was a huge and bloody manticore body. The reactions can be deascribed in this analysis: Rainbow Dash was literally frozen in place, Twilight's face turned a strong shade of green, and Applejack ran over to a nearby bush and threw up. After Applejack had returned to the two, Rainbow Dash spoke up. “What...what could have done this?” She turned to the other two, “You don’t think... it, did this... do you?” “I think we should split up to find this thing. If one of us finds it, it’ll think of us as less of a threat. I’ll bet it only...hurt...this manticore because it attacked first...” Suggested Applejack as she gagged a little. The other two hesitated before nodding and heading off in different directions. “Well that went easier than expected...” ~~~~~~~~~~ Rainbow Dash walked along her invisible trail in search of the strange alien that killed the manticore they encountered earlier. Not a fear in the world, she proudly trotted along the thick vegetation for what seemed like hours. “Ug, this is hopeless!” “No it’s not! Just keep looking! You’ll find something!” Her thoughts battled it out in her head until she spotted something shiny on the ground in another small clearing, like a blackish-silver. She knelt down to get a better look. It almost looked like some kind of cartridge. Maybe it was from the alien? It was an idea. “Hmm, I must be on the right track, the alien can’t be fa-” Rainbow Dash couldn’t even finish her thought as an irritating crack could be heard from above her. She looked up to see a massive rock that was wedged in a tree fall. To scared to move, she watched as the large stone fell and, with her wings outstretched to fly, crushed her right wing. She screamed as she heard the bones in her wings get crushed with a chilling ‘crunch’. She lay there helpless as tears began to stream out of her eyes. For the first time in a long time, she felt... scared... genuinely scared... She tried to pull out from the rocks grip, but a sharp pain shot through her wing. She lay there for what must’ve been an eternity until, when she thought she was about to pass out from the pain, when she heard a deep growl that made her entire coat stand on edge. She was able to look up to see a small pack of three timber wolves slowly creeping around some trees, and Rainbow Dash knew that they were getting ready to tear her to shreds... “Well... I guess this is it...” The wolves took a step closer... “I’m going to die out here...” The pack took one more step... “I’ll never see my friends again...” The pack got even closer... “Or be in the Wonderbolts...” The lead wolf was getting ready to pounce... “Goodby life, I’ll miss you...” At the last thought she let out a small sob as the wolves were about to make their move. She closed her eyes as the first wolf lunged, as it did, a loud noise that made Rainbow Dash's ears ring, echoed through the area. And the first wolf fell dead, she managed to look at the corpse to see three holes in the side of its head and blood was pouring out. Before she knew it, the same loud noise played her eardrums twice and the other two wolves dropped to the ground. The same effect on them as well: three holes and blood. At that moment, Rainbow Dash did the only thing she saw suitable for this situation... she opened her muzzle and screamed. ~~~~~~~~~~ Twilight calmly trudged along the forest, not a thing on her mind but finding the strange creature. “Ug, I feel like it’s been hours since we started this... Maybe I should just turn around and-” Twilight’s thought was short-circuited as she noticed something in the dirt. She knelt down for a better look and noticed that it was a... footprint. And not the kind that anypony would leave behind. Then something ‘clicked’ in Twilight’s head, this print looked a lot like the footwear that the alien was wearing. “Sweet! Looks like I’m on the right track. Now I just have to follow these prints!” Twilight was slowly following the constant trail of prints when she heard a familiar voice from behind her. “Twilight! Hey, wait up!” Yelled Applejack as she ran towards Twilight. “Applejack! Hi! What are you doing here?” Asked Twilight. “Oh, I was just following these footprints I found! Pretty amazin’!” “Hey, I was just following these footprints too-” Twilight was cut off by a distant scream coming from the same direction as the footprints. As if on cue, Twilight and Applejack both shouted, “RAINBOW DASH!!!”
Chapter Three: An Odd IntroductionChapter Three Equestria June 19th 2023 Marcus winced as the blood-curdling shriek played his eardrums like a bongo. As he slowly made his way to the source of the noise, he realized that some sunlight was leaking into the small clearing and disabled his night-vision. As he got closer to the large rock, he noticed a couple of blue feather tips poking out from the side he was on. Maybe it was some kind of bird? But birds don’t scream, at least not like this one did... He looked at his surroundings and noticed one of his gun magazines laying on the forest floor. He walked over to it, picked it up, and put it in a utility pouch on his vest. He then turned around and was presented with the third most ‘WHAT THE FUCK’ moment since he crashed. Trapped under the rock,was the right wing of a small cyan blue pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail. “I’m not sure whether I should question this, or just help the poor thing. Considering it was probably what those wolves were about to make an appetizer out of...” But Marcus’s care for other living things kicked in and he moved to the other side of the creature. When he was in the line of sight, the pony weakly looked up. As said pony did so, three things happened at once: it gasped, then started hyperventilating, and Marcus got a serious deer-in-the-headlights look at soon as it happened... Even though Marcus knew the poor being couldn’t understand him, he started to say to it in a calm voice, “Hey, hey! It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to help you. Okay?” To Marcus’s great surprise, the pegasus actually started to breath more steadily, as if it could understand him. “Okay, so I’m gonna lift this rock off of your...wing... and then you’ll be free! Okay?” Without waiting for a response (as if it could give one), Marcus moved over to the side of the huge rock, put himself in a almost hugging position, and started to lift with all his might. After a few seconds, Marcus could feel the rock getting lifted up. He moaned and groaned as he fought to lift the large stone. After a few agonizing seconds, he completely picked up the rock until he was on one knee and the rock was resting on his chest. He then turned about 45 degrees to the left and set the rock down with a loud “thump”. Afterwards, he turned his attention to the blue pegasus who was looking somberly at its right wing, which was halfway extended but was bent at a bad angle. He slowly approached the creature which staggered away. Then something caught Marcus off-guard again. This pony, like the slightly larger red one he had seen earlier, was giving him a look of sheer horror. As if it was knowing it was going to die. Then, just as he was about to tell the being that he wanted to help it, a series of footsteps was heard from the left. On instinct, he whipped his B23R from its holster and trained it in the direction of the noise. He enabled his night-vision to see if there was anything in the dark forest, and he saw something that gave him another “WHAT THE FUCK” moment. Two more things of the same shape and size at the pony standing by him were sprinting towards the clearing they were in. ”Shit, they must’ve heard that scream before...” Marcus disabled his night-vision, but moments after, he felt himself being risen up into the air. He squirmed to get out of the purple aura that was encasing him, but soon felt himself being shot back into a thick tree. He hit the tree so hard that the whole thing shook slightly as he fell to the ground. As he did, his six years of ground experience kicked into gear as he got up and sprinted at a breakneck speed at the two ponies standing at the edge of the clearing. He saw the unicorn and figured that the color must’ve been related to the aura that had shot him at the tree, so he want after that one. ~~~~~~~~~~ “RAINBOW DASH!!!” The purple unicorn and orange earth-pony both ran as fast as they could in the direction of the scream, hoping that their friend was okay. After a few horribly long minutes, they saw a small lighted clearing and stopped. They both watched in amazement as the biped they had in Twilight’s library was holding a huge rock over what looked like... Rainbow Dash! “Twi, look! It’s her! And that thang looks like it’s going to hurt her!” Whispered applejack. “But we can’t just charge in there and confront that thing! Who knows what it can do?! Plus it just put down the rock, see? Maybe it’s nice.” Said Twilight as the rock hit the ground away from their friend. “Uh. look again there...” Said Applejack nervously as the biped took a small step towards Rainbow Dash. “Ah think it’s gonna eat her!” On that note, both of them charged towards the field. Twilight saw the creature pull something out of a pouch and aim it towards them, but Twilight's horn glowed and the thing was lifted into the air and smashed into a thick tree. Afterwards, the creature got up surprisingly quickly and charged at full speed towards Twilight. Twilight stood dumbstruck as the creature tackled her with the force of a buffalo and before she knew it, she was pinned down by the creature's left arm across her chest and the device the creature was wielding in it's right arm before was pointed at her head. She struggled to get free to no avail, she was firmly pinned to the cold forest floor. As tears started to well up in her eyes from the force of the attack, the fierce look on the creatures face started to soften into a frown. But it was hard to tell because a dark black visor covered its eyes. As a tear flowed down her eye, she heard Applejack from behind her. "Twilight, look out!" Marcus didn't even have time to register a horse had just talked before he was knocked off of the lavender unicorn by a powerful ram from the one with the stetson. "Arng!" Marcus grunted at he got to his feet. He went to raise his gun to give the orange pony what was coming for it, only to realize it was on the ground four feet away from him. When the orange pony started running at him again, Marcus was ready. Right before it could spin around for a hard kick, he delivered a hefty drop-shot punch to her abdomen. After the pony was down, clutching her abdomen in pain, Marcus wasted no time in his next offensive. He ripped out the seven-inch blade holstered on his left hip and pinned down the pony with his right arm. As he was about to bring down the blade, a voice came from the direction of the Rainbow one behind him. “Wait please! Don’t hurt her! She's friend of mine!” Suddenly Marcus's face softened he released her and backed away, he flipped the knife so he could throw it at a moments notice. “W-w-wait... You can, t-talk?” Asked Marcus, still keeping his attention on the orange pony, whose hat was gone. “Why sure we can!” Said Applejack assertively. “Now I think ya owe Twilight here an apology fer tacklin’ her like that! And me for almost killin' me!” With his free hand Marcus rubbed his temples. “Look, I don’t know who you are or why you can talk, but I was just saving your friend here from being eaten by a pack of wolves!” It said as it jabbed a thumb at the three dead wolves. Twilight’s and Applejack’s face both turned a pale green as they saw the wounds in the heads of each one, and Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement. “And you know what? You neither of you deserve an apology! You threw me into a fucking tree, and you were the one who picked a fight with me!" “Oh it’s alright, I understand...” Said the unicorn bitterly while Applejack snorted. When no one said anything afterwards, Rainbow Dash spoke up. “Maybe you three should start over, that was kinda’ a rough meeting there.” Said the pegasus with a little chuckle at the end. Twilight then cleared her throat and said in a calm but slightly shaky tone, “Hi, I’m Twilight Sparkle. And this is Applejack, and that’s Rainbow Dash. She said as she pointed with her hoof to the two ponies. “It is an honor to meet you mister-” “Marcus Ivan.” Marcus finished with a smile. “But you can call me Marcus.” He then stretched his right hand out and gave her hoof a quick shake. She looked at her hoof for a moment before realizing that it must’ve been a greeting of some sort from wherever Marcus comes from. Than Applejack, not wanting to leave a hoof unshook,--even in this case-- walked over to Marcus and gave his hand a shake. “Pleasure to meet ya partner.” She said half happily. "Ya can put up quite a fight." Soon after, Rainbow Dash went up to Marcus and shook his hand. “It’s nice to meet you Marcus.” She said as she released. “And thank you for, you know, saving my life...” She said sheepishly. “It was my pleasure.” Replied Marcus. ~~~~~~~~~~ “Are you sure you know where we’re going?” Asked Rainbow Dash with a hint of concern in her voice. Every once in a few minutes her hurt wing would throb due to it being broken, but Marcus had wrapped a first-aid cloth he kept in a small med-pouch around it. It hurt when he was putting it on, but he knew it would do the trick. “I’m pretty sure, I placed a magic trace from Ponyville to here. All I have to do to get back is follow the trail.” Responded Twilight proudly. Her horn glowed to make a faint light as they walked. Marcus looked at Twilight with a very confused look. “Um, I’m sorry,” Marcus said as he waved his hand. “but did you just say magic? And what the hell is Ponyville?” “Why, Ponyville is where we live.” Said Applejack. “And yes, Twilight did just say magic.” “Why? Haven’t you heard of it?” Asked twilight as she looked up at Marcus. Marcus looked back into the large eyes of the unicorn staring curiously at him. “Well yeah I’ve heard of it, but in my world it doesn’t exist beyond the pages of books. It’s just a legend...” He replied with a shrug. At the mention of no magic, Twilight stopped dead in her tracks and stared at Marcus in awe. “Wait, you mean magic doesn’t exist in your world?! Bu-but how can you live without magic?!” Twilight almost shouted. “Hey there, calm down Twilight.” Said Rainbow Dash calmly. She leaned in close to Marcus who listened. “She’s really into magic, it’s like her life er something so...” Marcus replied with a mouthed “oh”. “Well... We just do, I guess...” Said Marcus as they continued to walk on through the dense forest. “How could anypony live without magic?” Twilight wondered. ~~~~~~~~~~ As the four of them were walking, they saw a faint light in the distance. “Is that this Ponyville you were talking about?” Asked a slightly tired Marcus. “Yup, that’s it alright. C’mon, you’ll love it there!” Said an excited Twilight. “Hey there partner, what are ya thinkin’? We can't just stomp on in there, the town will have a heart-attack!” Pointed out applejack. Twilight pouted slightly and Rainbow Dash nodded in agreement. “How about you show me where my jet is first, and we’ll go from there?” Suggested Marcus. “Jet? You mean that thang you almost ran me over in?” Asked Applejack accusingly. “Yeah... and sorry about that...” Said Marcus as he slowly shrugged his shoulders. “Your, jet, is this way.” Said Twilight as she and the others walked around the outskirts of the village towards Applejacks barn. As the four of them came over a small hill, Marcus stopped dead in his tracks with his mouth hanging open. In front of him was an apple orchard that seemed to stretch on forever, as far as the eye could see was apple trees. Just...apple trees “Holy shit!” Marcus said to himself. He had never seen an apple orchard this big in his life. As he gawked at the mass of apple trees, he noticed a large grey mound at the top of a hill in the orchard which he recognized as his jet. Marcus walked up to his jet and climbed into the snug cabin to see if anything was working right while the other three and Big Mac watched in curiosity. Marcus touched the screen and the main dashboard flickered on while a few beeps sounded as well. He pressed a few things on the dashboard and the window with any damage reports was enlarged. Marcus looked at the following stats which were connected by a line to certain parts of a 3D display of his jet. Right main thruster DMG level:: 71% Left main thruster DMG level:: 93% [Moderate-heavy damage to left turbine sustained] Right jump-jet thruster DMG level:: 0% Left jump-jet thruster DMG level:: 0% Frontal hull/canopy DMG level:: 11% [Substantal amount of water detected in lower canopy--Eject system in jepardy--May requier manual water extraction] Primary/secondary intakes DMG level:: 0% Armament DMG level:: 1.7% [Internal payload is undamaged, repairs will be directed to frontal vulcan cannons] Then the same computer voice spoke from the plane. “Sustained flight is not achievable in current aircraft condition, estimated auto repair time completion for all damaged areas--96 minutes.” Marcus also noticed that the three Dragonfires were in their bays in the side of the jet from a different window on the screen. He sighed and climbed out of the aircraft to face the four ponies facing him. “Well, the auto repair isn’t gonna be done for about another two hours.” Said Marcus in a slightly annoyed tone. “Hmm, maybe we should introduce you to the other three?” Suggested Twilight. “I think so too, I’ll go get them and bring them here.” Said Rainbow Dash. But before she could get far Marcus stopped her. “Hey Rainbow, uh, are you sure they’ll be fine with, you know, meeting an alien?” He whispered to her. Rainbow Dash shrugged. “I guess we'll find out.” And with that, she was off. ~~~~~~~~~~ Rainbow Dash ran along to the closest one of the three which was Pinkie Pie, at Sugarcube Corner. She stopped in front of the small bakery and walked inside. She wasn’t there. She checked the upstairs room. No Pinkie. Curious, Rainbow Dash walked back outside to see the mare she was looking for walking by. “Hey, Pinkie Pie! Wait up!” Yelled Rainbow Dash. Pinkie Pie turned to see who was looking for her and a huge smile spread across her face as Rainbow Dash approached. “Hi Rainbow Dash! How’s it going?” Asked Pinkie in her usual happy and high pitched voice. “Hey Pinks, I need a favor. Can you go and get Fluttershy and Rarity and get them to come to the barn as soon as possible? I’ll explain why later.” “Sure thing Rainbow!” Pinkie said as she bounced off in the direction of Rarity’s house, as she was closer. ~~~~~~~~~~ After Rainbow Dash was out of sight, Applejack and Big Mac decided to continue with their apple bucking, and Twilight decided this would be an excellent time to find out at least a little about Marcus. So she turned to him, who was leaning up against the side of his jet, and started to ask away. “So, Marcus...” She said, Marcus looked down at her large eyes. “If you don’t mind me asking, why are you here?” The question caught Marcus off guard (again!) and he looked back up into the darkening sky. “Well, I honestly wish I could say... I was preparing to disembark on a mission to escort a bomber that was going to destroy some ICBM silos being held in a Russian FOB, or foward-operating-base. Me and my wingman, Natov Vladimir, each flying one of these,” Marcus tapped the F/A-38’s hull. “were flying to the other base where the bomber and its pilot were waiting when I was targeted by my own base defenses..." Twilight gasped as Marcus slowly shook his head. "I tried to avoid it but those warheads were top-tech, they're called havoc-class missiles for a reason, I was hit..." Marcus sighed and looked down at Twilight, who was staring at him with her mouth agape. "I crash-landed in a big lake and sunk to the bottom where this big light pulled me in... then I crashed here.” He concluded as he looked back to the unfamiliar star pattern. Twilight pondered the news she’d just gotten and looked back up to Marcus. “Wow, that's... unbelievable... But, another question, if you don’t mind.” Marcus nodded in approval. “What did you use to kill those timber wolves back in the forest? I’ve never seen a wound like that.” Marcus pulled out his B23R and examined it before presenting it to Twilight, who took it with her magic and gave it a thorough examination. "Huh... so *that's how I was flung ten feet into a tree...*" “Very interesting. How did it make those holes in the heads of the timber wolves?” “Yeah, is it like a laser or something?” Asked Rainbow Dash. Marcus and Twilight both jumped at least six inches and glared at the pegasus who was standing by an apple tree. “Well you see,” Marcus took the gun and flicked off the safety “When I pull this trigger here,” Marcus pointed at the trigger. “three bullets, which are small but extreamly fast moving pieces of metal, fire at a time and the shells are ejected from the side here.” He pulled back the uper-reciever and locked it to show the hole where the shells fly out of. Twilight got a glimps of a gold and bronse thing just below the opening. "Are those gold things the bullets?" Marcus looked to confirm what she saw and nodded. "Yes, but they're not real gold though, and I'm afraid that me telling you the technology of bullets will have to wait for a while." He then extracted the magazine, clicked the uper-reciever forward, and pulled the trigger to put the hammer forward, after which he slid in the magazine. "You may want to cover your ears" Marcus siad as he cocked the pistol. "This is what firing a pistol is like." Before the two girls could protest, they covered up there ears in instinct and Marcus pulled the trigger and fired one three-round burst at the ground. He was used to it but the two ponies covered their ears as the three loud cracks echoed through the landscape. “Sorry...” Marcus reached down to the ground and picked up the smoking bullet casing. The two uncovered their ears and glared at Marcus. "Was that really nessesary?!" Snaped twilight. "Probably not." Marcus replied flatly with a 'straight' face. "I acually thought it was kinda cool, aside from it being so loud." Said Rainbow Dash. "Ugh..." Twilight groaned. "Whatever." She then turned to Rainbow Dash. “Are the others on their way?” “Yeah, they should be here in a moment.” Replied the pegasus. A few moments after, three pairs of foot (or hoof) steps could be heard from the other side of the barn. “Come on, that should be them.” Said Rainbow Dash The three of them turned and walked to the barn. But Marcus had a strangely bad feeling about this and for a good reason. “How are these other ponies going to react to meeting an alien? This is going to be interesting...”
Chapter Four: Meeting New People... or PoniesChapter Four Earth June 19, 2023 The massive aircraft carrier known as the USS Barack Obama, the headquarters for the special U.S. military force JSOC, slowly floated across the Pacific Ocean without a disturbance in the world. The crew of the ship was on extremely high alert due to a small helicopter attack that had occurred the previous day. One of the transport VTOLs had been damaged during the attack but it was being repaired at the moment. Admiral Briggs stood in the top floor of the main tower keeping a watchful eye on the deck. He was tired of the threat from Memendez and the fact that one of his best Air Force pilots had just disappeared and he didn’t need any more things to sidetrack him now. Down a few levels, was the transmission room. Where all the information sent from other ships, air forces, ground forces, and satellites is received, and vice versa. One of the operators in the room, the one running the satellite's network, was routing a trans solar system satellite or an orbital V.S.A.T. to try and get another image or something from outside of the solar system as the U.S. has been trying to get something interesting for over 15 years. The last ‘something worth talking about’ moment was in early 2018, when an entire alien colony was thought to be seen on the surface of Neptune. That was kept a secret from then on by Area 51. “Alright, let’s see if we can get one last looksy here...” The operator said to himself as the view of the orbital V.S.A.T. started to look beyond the edges of the solar system. One of the V.S.A.T.’s cameras came across the colorful and undiscovered planet they were classifying as OBJECTIVE DEEP SPACE. After a couple of minutes of watching the planet, something of the unthinkable happened. The V.S.A.T. picked up an extremely faint distress signal that was of the same frequency as a F/A-38’s crash call (is what it’s called) coming from the planet. Not believing what he saw, he did a quick reset of the sensors to see if it was an error which happens often. After trying and still getting the signal, he gave another satellite operator a tap on the shoulder. “Hey, dude! Are you getting this signal that I’m getting from DEEP SPACE?” “Yeah man, I don’t know what it could be. I just did a sensor reset but it’s still there...” Replied the operator with a little concern in his voice. “I’m gonna go tell Briggs, he needs to hear about this...” Said the other operator as he got up and headed to the staircase of the tower, but the other grabbed his arm. “Do you have any idea what this could be about?. “I have no idea...” The man almost mumbled as he walked off. ~~~~~~~~~~ Equestria June 19, 2023 The three ponies, Pinkie Pie, Rarity, and Fluttershy, walked calmly through the middle of Ponyville to Applejack’s barn on the other side of town. “Did Rainbow Dash tell you why we need to go to Applejack’s barn?” Asked Fluttershy in her usual quiet voice. “Nope! She just wanted me to get you two and head to the barn!” Replied Pinkie Pie as she hopped along the two. “Hmm, I do wonder what she requires...” Rarity said to no pony in particular. Once they had arrived at the front of the large barn, they could hear numerous pairs of hoof steps from the other side of the building and Twilight emerged from the front door. “Oh good, you’re here! Come on, there’s someone I want you three to meet.” At the mention of meeting someone, Pinkie’s mind started racing with party ideas as she started bouncing violently, Fluttershy hid behind Rarity, and Rarity was wondering what clothing fashion this newcomer could be into. As they all walked (Fluttershy had to be pushed by Rarity...) to the barn to greet their new arrival, they came to face the craziest being they had ever seen. ~~~~~~~~~~ “How are these other ponies going to react to meeting an alien? This is going to be interesting...” Marcus slowly walked to the back of the barn with Twilight and Rainbow Dash at his sides. When he entered the barn, Twilight walked to the front of the barn. Marcus could hear her talking but couldn’t make out what she was saying. A moment later, three ponies walked into the barn. He couldn’t even get a good look at the trio before he heard the white one shout, “Twilight, look out!!!” Marcus was encased in a whitish sphere and bolts of electricity were striking him from the inside of the orb. He yelled in pain as he withered up at the bottom of the sphere getting jolted by bolts every second. “Rarity, stop!! STOP!!!!” Shouted Twilight as Applejack tackled Rarity. As she did so, the orb surrounding Marcus disappeared and he fell to the ground, twitching violently from all the electricity that was just passing through his body. Marcus’s mind was flashing insanely as he could barely make out Twilight standing over him with an ear to his chest, that was all he remembered before he passed out. ~~~~~~~~~~ “Twilight, look out!” Shouted Rarity as she encased the strange being using an offensive spell she hadn’t used in ages. The Sphere of Eternal Suffering shot bolts of electricity at the creature for a few seconds before she was tackled by Applejack. She yelled in protest but she was no match for the strength of the earth pony's pin. After Applejack had let up, Rarity shot up and began to brush her mane and tail furiously with a brush that came seemingly out of nowhere. Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and looked over to Twilight who had a ear to Marcus’s chest. “Is he okay?” Asked Applejack who was standing on the other side of the unconscious biped. “Yes, his heart rate is really high but he’s still breathing.” She turned to Rarity, whose face was plastered with confusion. “Why did you do that Rarity?!” “I...But...Who?” Rarity sputtered. “This was that someone that I wanted you to meet!” Rarity looked like she had just seen the apocolypse, she just stood there dumbstruck trying to process what was happening. “I... I’m so sorry... I thought it was a Diamond Dog and I...” Rarity said as tears started to blur her vision. Then Rainbow Dash put a hoof around Rarity’s back to comfort her as she remembered the last Diamond Dog capture, where they had taken Rarity underground against her will to dig for diamonds and gems for them. “It’s okay Rarity, you didn’t know.” She said in a calm voice. Applejack then walked up to Rarity and said in a calm voice, “Ah think it would be best if you left before Marcus here wakes up again, I doubt he’ll be very happy...” Twilight turned to Applejack to protest but Rarity put up a hoof to silence her, she then turned and left the barn. Twilight looked at Applejack. “Why did you do that?” “Think about sugarcube, if Marcus here remembers this when he wakes up, he’ll go berserk!” Replied Applejack. Twilight wanted to argue, but the pony had a point. She then noticed Fluttershy staring ahead with shock on her face from the scene that had just unfolded in front of her, and Pinkie Pie was waving a hoof in front of her. “Well you two, this is Marcus.” She said sheepishly as she pointed a hoof at the biped laying face-up in the hey. ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus squinted into a bright white light in the distance. Was he dead? Was that Heaven he was looking at? Huh, happened a little sooner than he expected. He turned his head ever so slightly and saw a familiar face smiling down at him. “Ma...Michael...?” Marcus said at almost a mumble. The face smiling down at him then turned to a face of confusion as the light vanished to be replaced by a red wood roof. He then realized that he was laying on hay and dirt ground. “Michael? Uh-oh, I think you got his head there Rarity...” Said the cyan blue pegasus to herself. “Ug, Rainbow Dash?” He said as he sat up and rubbed his temples. “Hey there partner, you alright?” Asked Applejack. Marcus turned his head to see Applejack and her brother standing to his left. “I don’t know... All I remember is that white unicorn and-the unicorn!!” Marcus fought the urge to throw up and got to his feet as he scanned the room intently to make the pony foolish enough to do this to him regret it. That was when he smelled scorched metal and looked down to see some of the chest plating, his arm plating, and his back plating was streaked with black burn lines from the electricity. “WHERE IS THAT HORSE?!” Marcus bellowed so loudly that everyone in the barn with him cringed up. Marcus heard the back barn door open and snapped around, ready to unload his feelings at the unicorn, but was instead looking at a small yellow filly with a red mane and bow looking at him with curiosity and fear. Marcus eased up a little realizing that he would probably scare the little thing shitless by even moving. Applejack turned and saw her little sister. “Applebloom, what are ya doin’ here?” “I was just looking to see what all the commotion were about.” Replied the filly. “And what’s that thang?” “I’ll tell you later, now please go.” Said Applejack. After the filly had left the room, Applejack turned to Marcus who was still ready to explode. “Now Marcus, ya need to calm down okay? You’ve been through a rough one there so-” Applejack was cut off by Marcus. “A rough one? A rough one!?” Marcus did a sarcastic laugh that made the hair on Applejack’s neck stand on edge. “A rough one, yeah, in less than twenty-four hours I’ve almost been killed three fucking times while I'm not even in a war zone and you’re calling that a rough one?!?!” Marcus screamed. He felt all his anger endlessly building up and getting vented only verbally. He stood there while all the ponies stood in the room dumbstruck at the enraged being. Marcus had never been this angry in his life with the exception of one other time. The yellow pegasus with the pink mane was cowering in fear from the force of Marcus’s assault. Upon seeing said pony, Marcus started to ease up a little finally as his breathing became steady. Marcus just stared at the ground until the bright pink pony slowly walked up to Marcus. “Um, excuse me Mr.-um Sir...” The pony said with a little giggle at the end. “But if it makes you feel any better, I brought you a cupcake.” Marcus looked at the pony and sure enough, there was a chocolate cupcake with orange frosting on it perched on the top of the pony's head. Marcus’s flat face turned into a gentle smile as he took the sugary treat. He could only stare at it for what seemed like an eternity, not even knowing how it got on her head, before replying. “Th-thank you very much, Mrs.-” “Pinkie Pie.” Said the pony happily. Marcus took a bite into the cupcake and felt one of the best sweet tasting sensations he’d ever felt in a long time wash over his taste buds. He closed his eyes to savor the deliciousness that the bite gave him and Pinkie Pie smiled from ear to ear. Then without warning, the pony moved in and gave Marcus a hug. He recoiled for a few seconds before wrapping his free arm around the pony and pulling her in. Marcus had never felt a genuine hug in what seemed like decades so he enjoyed it while it was to be. “Aww, isn’t that sweet!” Chortled Rainbow Dash. Marcus and Pinkie Pie stopped hugging and looked at the pegasus before Marcus started chuckling. He sighed afterwards and looked around at the ponies surrounding him. “Well, this is an of-first answer for me even, I guess all I needed was some love. It was really something new to me after a while.” Marcus said with a smile. “At least since...” Marcus’s frowned but brightened up again when he eyed the yellow pegasus in the back of the barn. He walked over to the cowering pony and knelt down next to it, he then spoke in the softest voice he could muster, “Hi there.” The pony looked up and quickly looked away. “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you. Can you tell me your name?” He said in his softest voice. The pony looked up slowly again but didn’t look away. Then without making eye contact, she said in a voice softer than Marcus's, “I’m Flu-Fluttershy...” Marcus smiled. “Well Fluttershy, it is nice to meet you. My name is Marcus Jay Ivan, but you can call me Marcus.” Marcus said as he knelt for a few more seconds before standinf and facing the others. “Goodness it’s getting late!” Pointed out Applejack. “You’re right!” Said Twilight. Then she was struck with a problem. “Hey Marcus,” She said as she turned to him. “where are you going to sleep?” “Oh oh oh, I know! He can stay with me!” Chanted Pinkie Pie. “But he’s too big to fit in your room.” Said Rainbow Dash. “Yall can sleep here in the barn.” Said Applejack. Marcus held up his hand to stop their ranting. “Hey, hey... None of you need to reserve space for me. I can just sleep my jet. All the comfort I need is there.” “Are yall sure? Cus I can just-” Started Applejack. “Please, I insist.” Said Marcus calmly as he started to walk outside with the cupcake still in his hand. “What’s a jet?” Asked Pinkie Pie. “I’ll tell you later.” Replied Marcus as he exited the barn and walked towards his awaiting 'bed' so to speak. Marcus climbed into the cabin and closed the glass hatch, and he put his visor in front of his eyes too as a sort of seethough sleep mask. His last thoughts before he fell to sleep were: “This is really something new...” “That Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy bunch are so nice...” “I’m going to fucking kill that unicorn...” and “I’m going to fucking kill that unicorn...” ~~~~~~~~~~ June 20, 2023 Marcus slept a bit worse than he would’ve liked, but he still got some quality sleep which was all he needed. When he woke up, he was still ¾ of the way asleep but he was in a good mood. The sun was shining its morning rays on the small town of Ponyville. His mood dampened a few notches when he remembered he wasn’t on his own world, but he pushed it aside as his eyes adjusted to the light. Just as he was about to start getting out, he heard what sounded like a trio of ponies headed for the jet. He didn’t move and listened closely. A few moments later, he was able to make out three voices bickering at each other quietly from outside. He heard one voice that was very high pitched, another that had a very yonge kind of southern voice, and another that was a tad lower than the other two. These three ponies were most likely fillies so Marcus ignored them and tried to fall back to sleep. Just as he was lowering his visor over his eyes, the loudest chant he had ever heard in his life could be heard. “CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS, ALIEN INVESTIGATION TEAM GO!!!!!” Even through the semi noise-canceling glass, Marcus’s eardrums felt like they had imploded as he groaned in protest. After the pain in his ears had subsided, he pressed a button on the dashboard and the cabin hissed and opened. Without even looking, he said, “Hey! Would you mind not exploding my eardrums please!? I’m trying to slee-” Marcus cut himself off as he looked out and stared at the three fillies staring at him with mouths agape. As he scanned the group, he noticed the same yellow filly that he saw yesterday. He slowly pressed the button on the side of his helmet and the visor flipped into the slot on the front. After a few moments of staring, the three screamed simultaneously and Marcus just did the same for a reason he didn't even know. “AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... Why are we screaming?” The three stopped and the dark orange one with the purple mane shrugged and looked at the others. “Uh, I don’t know...” Replied the orange one. Then Applejack came running up the hill. “What the hey is goin on here? Hey, what are you three doin here?” Said Applejack. Applebloom sudently got a look of guilt and shifted uneasily. “Well... Ah may have, um... told these two about the alien yesterday...” Responded the yellow one slowly as it tapped it's front hooves together, which Marcus found a bit cute. “Applebloom! Ah told you not to tell anypony else!” Said Applejack. “I know, I’m sorry.” Marcus decided it wasn’t necessary for this, Applebloom, to get in trouble because she was excited about him, so he cut in. “No, Applejack. It’s alright.” He looked down at Applebloom. “You know Applebloom,” Marcus said as he climbed out of the jet and knelt down in front of the filly. “I appreciate your interest in me. So I’ll make you and your friends here a deal.” Marcus picked her up with ease and set her on the wing of his jet. He did the same with the other two so they were all perched on the left wing of his jet. They all stood for a few before settling. “You three can ask me anything you want the answer to.” The three fillies faces lit up like light bulbs at this news. “Really?! Wow, you’re the best!” Said the orange one joyfully. Marcus nodded. “But before we start, I’ll have some questions for each of you. First, what are your names?” “I’m Applebloom!” “I’m Scootaloo!” “I’m Sweetie Belle!” “And we’re the Cutie Mark Crusaders!” The three of them chanted together. Marcus smiled and leaned up against the side of the cabin exterior, this was really cute to him. He was going to enjoy this. He looked to see Applejack and gave her a thumbs up, she returned it by nodding and went to continue with her daily business. “Well you three I must warn you, I may not answer some questions that are secret or private. Understand?” The three fillies nodded vigorously. “Okay, you go first.” He said as he pointed at Sweetie Belle. “ What would you like to ask me?” She put her hoof up to her chin for a second. “How old are you?” She asked excitedly. “I am 36 years of age.” Marcus pointed at Scootaloo. “You next.” “Hmm... Oh! Can this thing fly as fast as Rainbow Dash?” She asked as she tapped a hoof on the wing of the jet. Marcus had to avoid laughing right in the filly’s face at the ridiculous question. “Heh heh, I’m pretty sure it could.” All three of them started mumbling back and forth at the news that something was actually faster then Rainbow Dash. Marcus pointed at Applebloom. “Now your turn.” The filly had the question already in her head. “How strong are you? Do you think you can you buck an apple tree?” Marcus had to ponder the second part of the question but he responded to the first part. “Well, let’s see...” He picked up Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo under their chests with one arm each. They both squealed with joy as Marcus began curling with them. Marcus grunted a few times due to them being some pretty heavy 'weights'. After a few seconds, he set down the two giggling fillies next to Applebloom who was looking at him with her mouth hanging open. “How’s that for an answer, huh? Marcus said with a little snicker at the end. Marcus turned to face the closest apple tree and approached it. He then looked back at Applebloom. “By ‘bucking’ do you mean just kick it?” “And make the apples in it fall out!” Replied Applebloom. Marcus faced the tree as the three fillies watched with hard focus. He waited a few seconds before raising his right leg and front-kicking the body of the tree as hard as he could. The whole three swayed voilently and apples poured out of the vegetation at the treetop. Marcus grunted as a few hit his head ad noticed he left a small dent in the wood where his foot had connected with the tree. "Hm, the trees must be less tough here than Earth, I don't think I could acually dent a tree there..." He turned around to face the three and laughed a little at the look they were giving him. Shock. Wide eyes, mouths agar, speechless. Shock. Marcus clapped his gloved hands to snap them out of their trans. “Hello?” The three fillies then started assaulting him with compliments and cheers. After the bombardment, Marcus walked over to the cabin of the jet and leaned up against the hull. “I’ll be damned! This is the most fun I’ve had in a really long time!”
Chapter Five: Clearing Things UpChapter Five Earth June 20, 2023 Admiral Briggs was caught in a frantic web of chatter coming and going from the Barack Obama, the air force base in Marcus’s hometown, Area 51, and the President to see if anyone could’ve had a hand in Goliath One’s death. And the strange distress call coming from OBJECTIVE DEEP SPACE was also drawing some attention from the military. The best source of info right now was Natov Vladimir, Marcus’s wingman. He was on board the Obama at the moment as he was needed for critical info. When he was questioned, he gave up every detail about the incident. One detail in particular raised some eyebrows: the fact that it was a full moon on June 19, the day of the occurrence. Appointment after appointment went by before the three military bases involved came to a conclusion. Area 51 was going to launch a prototype satellite to OBJECTIVE DEEP SPACE loaded with a loadstar U.A.V./radar provider. The U.A.V., as well as being loaded with hellstorm missiles, was also going to have a comm. channel linked to it so that if Marcus was somehow on the planet along with the F/A-38 emitting the crash call, they would be able to give radar coverage as well as a way for him to talk to the Obama and vise versa. In other words, the U.A.V. is going to act as an extension cord for the comms. reach so that it can get to Marcus, assuming he’s there... Area 51 was currently modifying a trans-orbital satellite to be able to exceed the limits of our solar system to travel into the other one, and to carry the loadstar on it while staying attached and intact until ready to deploy it over the planet. Admiral Briggs had his priority set, and that priority was finding out what happened to Marcus and... Possibly looking for a new Goliath One. ~~~~~~~~~~ Equestria June 20, 2023 Twilight walked down the countless rows of trees to the crash site of Marcus’s plane to see if he was awake yet. When she got there, she saw the CMC and Marcus talking to each other. What was wierd (and funny) about the situation, was that the CMC were sitting on a wing of the contraption and seemed to be having a good time. Marcus saw her coming and told the three to wait while he talked to Twilight. “Hey Twilight, how’s it going?” He asked as he walked closer to her. “Good, great actually. Come on, there’s something I want to show you.” Replied Twilight. The two of them walked back to Twilight’s house silently. “Um, is that your house?” Asked Marcus as they approached the massive tree that was Twilight’s house. “Yep, the entire inside was hollowed out to make a house from it. It’s also the town library. “Library? Is that where I woke up after I had landed here?” Asked Marcus. “Yes, you were in the basement when you woke up.” She replied as they came around the side of the tree to go through the front door... which wasn’t there... Marcus remembered when he had smashed through the door when he was escaping yesterday. “Um... sorry about yesterday... you know, destroying your front door...” Marcus said as he rubbed his head. He honestly felt a little bad about it and he wanted to do something about it. “Is there any way I can make it up to you?” Twilight gave Marcus a friendly smile. “You’ll see when you get inside.” Marcus got a slightly uneasy feeling about this, but he continued on anyway. “You know that white unicorn you 'encountered' yesterday?” Asked Twilight. Marcus’s face darkened. “Yeah... What about it?” He replied slowly. Twilight opened the door and walked inside, Marcus followed. Twilight went into the main room while Marcus stood at the entrance to the house. Moments later, he heard Twilight say his name and he walked over. Before he was in the same room, Twilight looked to the part of the room Marcus couldn’t see yet. “Rarity, this is Marcus.” “Rarity...” “Rarity stop, STOP!” Marcus stepped into the room as the memory rang through his head, saw the unicorn, and everything went south. ~~~~~~~~~~ “Okay, you can make yourself comfortable and I’ll go and get him okay?” Asked Twilight. “Oh okay, I still think this is a bad idea. Who knows how he will react?” Said a nervous Rarity as she sat at table in the living room. “Oh don’t worry, I’m sure he’s over it by now. You two will just sit down and talk things out.” Replied Twilight happily. Rarity sighed before replying. “Okay darling, run along now!” And with that, Twilight was out the door headed for Sweet Apple Acres. Eleven minutes later Rarity was reading one of Twilight’s books and eating a pancake Spike had brought her when she heard the front door open. She put down the book and waited for Twilight and the ‘visitor’ to walk in. Rarity had been rehearsing what to say as an apology and she was ready. She heard Twilight call her name and she stood up, Twilight then walked in. “Rarity, this is Marcus.” She said happily. Rarity looked at the door as Marcus walked in. As soon as she saw the being, she almost passed out from fear. This was the same being that she’d almost killed and she knew it was pissed. Rarity had never been more right about anything in her life... Before Rarity could even begin to react, the biped, Marcus, raised its right hand and pointed at her. “YOU!!!!” It bellowed. Rarity stood with her eyes wide from fear as Marcus charged at her faster than his first encounter with twilight. After three strides, the biped leaned forward and dove into a tackle/lunge. Rarity got the wind knocked out of her as the two rolled for a split second before she was pinned down by the throat, Marcus’s left hand around her neck pinning her to the ground while the right was holding an ‘L’ shaped device at her head so the point of it was touching the side of her forehead. "Marcus!" Shouted Twilight, hoping to break up the tussle, but Marcus didn't seem to notice as he screamed into the horrified face of Rarity. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA WHAT KIND OF SICK, TWISTED MEMORIES WHAT YOU DID YESTERDAY PUT INTO MY HEAD!?!? HUH?!?! DO YOU?!?!?!" He screamed at the top of his voice, his face only inches from hers. "I... Um..." Rarity muttered in a small voice. She could barely say anything due to the hand that was tightening around her throat. She recoiled into the wood floor even more when Marcus's death-glare intensified somehow even more. "MY DAD!!! THATS RIGHT, HOW MY FUCKING FATHER WAS BRUTALLY KILLED!!!!!" Marcus yelled, as magma coursed through his viens at the mention of his dad, even from himself. Marcus was then surrounded by a transparent, purple shield and lifted away from the shell-shocked Rarity, who laid there with tears flowing down her cheeks. Marcus looked around for a second before his gaze fell upon Twilight, who was slowly walking over to Rarity. Marcus also saw a sight that was cute, but didn't make him feel better the slightest: a small purple and green baby dragon was standing at the entrance to another room and staring with dinner plate-sized eyes at the scene in front of him. Marcus looked back at the unicorn who was shakily standing up with Twilight next to her, to continue unloading his feeling. "DO YOU WANT ME TO TELL YOU HOW HE WAS MURDERED?!?! CONSIDERING YOU USED THE SAME THING ON ME THAT WAS USED ON HIM, YOU MUST REALLY WANT TO KNOW!!!!" Marcus bellowed from the inside of the sphere. He also drew Back his right hand and punched, with a armored and gloved fist, the inside of the sphere. It didn't do anything visible, but Twilight felt a student jolt of weakness shoot through her. "SO HOW ABOUT YOU AND I CAN SIT DOWN WITH A CUP OF TEA, AND HAVE A GOOD LAUGH AS I TELL YOU THE STORY OF HOW I LOST A PART OF MY LIFE?!?!?!" Marcus shouted. He drew back his left hand this time and thrust it at the sphere. To everyone's (including Marcus) surprize, a large spider-crack made itself visible as Twilight was weakened significantly again. "How is he breaking through my magic? That's the strongest restraining spell I know!" This thought worried her greatly, she knew that if Marcus got out, there was no telling what he could do to Rarity... ~~~~~~~~~~ "Marcus, please stop!" Twilight shouted. "I can't say I know what it's like to lose a father, but give Rarity a chance!" Marcus softened a bit and backed away from the edge of the sphere. "I'm going to drop this spell, and you and Rarity are going to talk this out. Okay?" She said. From inside the sphere, Marcus hesitated before he gave a small nod as he began to breath normally. Twilight disabled the spell and Marcus landed on his feet. He glared at Rarity before slowly walking up to her with a deep frown plastered on his face. After four steps, the little dragon raced in front of Rarity, putting himself between the towering Marcus and Rarity. "Stop where you are or you'll r-regret it!" Said the dragon in a slightly shaky voice. Marcus almost cracked a small smile but marched past him. "That thing's got balls..." Marcus thought as he walked. As Marcus got closer to Rarity, the pony took a few small steps back so Marcus slowed his pace. He got to the table he'd first seen Rarity at and sat on one of the chairs. "Please, sit Rarity." He said in a calm voice. Rarity slowly made her way to a chair at the opposite side of the table and sat down. Marcus looked at Twilight and the dragon. "Would you two mind if we talked alone?" He asked. "Sure, come on Spike." Replied Twilight. "No! I'm staying here to make sure this beast doesn't hurt Rarity!" Demanded spike who folded his arms. Marcus shrugged. "Suit yourself." Marcus turned to Rarity. "Rarity... I am so sorry about what has happened here today... I just saw you and-mmph." Rarity put a hoof to his mouth to silence him. "No no dear, you had every right to be as mad as you were here. It is okay." She said quietly with a smile. Marcus sighed after the hoof was removed from his mouth. "But still... Well, I'm glad we have come to an agreement. Is there any way at all that I can make up for what I did?" Marcus asked softly. "Oh not at all dear, it is me that should me making up for you!" She suddenly got a twinkle in her eyes as she looked at Marcus. "I know what I can do to show you how sorry I am!" Marcus shook his head. "Please dear, I insist!" She pleaded. Marcus stared as all sorts of measuring tools, pins, and cloths appeared out of thin air with a 'pop'. "Oh no. Thank you very much, but these are the only clothes I need." Marcus insisted. "However..." Marcus leaned in close to Rarity and leaned her head back slightly. "I see I left quite a mark with that choke-hold earlier." Rarity looked at Marcus. "Oh don't worry about that-" She started. "No no, I think I have something that will ease the pain there and anywhere else I may have hit you in my jet." Rarity looked at Marcus curiously. "Excuse me, but what may a 'jet' be?" She asked. Marcus stood up. "Come with me and I'll show you." He looked at Spike. "You can come too if you want." ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus walked between the rows of apple trees to his plane with only Rarity behind him. As the jet came into view, Rarity was both amazed at the amazing machine and disgusted at the hideous shade of grey the jet was colored. "Ug! What a absolutely hideous color that is!" She complained. "Oh quit your whining!" Said Rainbow Dash. Marcus spun around and trained his B23R in the direction of the voice, but holstered it after he saw it was Rainbow Dash. "Oh my god, Rainbow Dash! You can't sneak up on me like that!" Said Marcus playfully. "Hey. I see you got your wing fixed." He said as he noticed the white cast over Rainbow Dash's outstretched right wing. "Yeah..." She said with a sigh. "Doctor says I won't be able to fly for about a week so..." "Bummer..." Replied Marcus as he walked over to the side of the jet to where there was a large panel. He held up his left arm (the one with the data glove) and punched in a override code. The panel hissed and opened up to reveal a large storage space. The two ponies watched as Marcus reached in and pulled out a medium sized, metal case and set it on the ground in front of them. He undid two latches and the case popped open to show an assortment of medical supplies. He took out one of three small containers containing powerful pain-killers. "Here, it'll taste bad but you'll feel a lot better." He said as he held the pill to Rarity who took it with her magic and popped it in her mouth. She cringed at the bitter tasted as she swallowed. "It'll take a minute for the painkiller to work." Said Marcus as he packed up the case and put it in the plane. "Thank you very much." Said Rarity. Marcus just put his hand up and nodded. "In return, I think I know a spell that can fix the damage done to your armor yesterday." "Really? How?" Asked a baffled Marcus. "Just take it off and I'll do the rest." Replied Rarity. Marcus did as he was told and removed his heavy, grey, balistic jacket, which was attached to the armor and few pouches to uncover his upper body which had a thin, sleevles shirt over it. His body color, as well as his face, was a light brown-ish color. After, he looked at Rainbow Dash who was staring at his muscular upper body. "See anything you like?" Marcus asked playfully. Rainbow Dash quickly looked away as her cheeks and the bridge of her nose turned red. "What?! No no no no no! It's just that you remeind me of a minotour sort of... She stated. "Are you kidding me?!" He almost shouted. "First a manticore, than wolves made out of wood, then pegasi, than unicorns, than a dragon, now freaking minotours?! This world is just full of suprizes, isn't it?" He chuckled. "Wait, how do you know what these things are? You aren't from here!" Asked Rainbow Dash firmly. "Again, more myths and legends on my world. It's all in the books..." Marcus replied slowly. A silence fell over the three until Rarity called 'done' and Marcus put on his jacket and zipped it up. He looked down at the plating and nodded in approval. "Impressive!" He said happily. ~~~~~~~~~~ Inside the cockpit of the F/A-38, Marcus dreamt of the first time he'd been inside of an actual Air Force base. He and Michael were getting a private tour of the Air Force base from their dad, Jack Ivan. He could remember every single detail from the trip on that day, April 22, 1998. April 22, 1998 “Are you sure this is a good idea, Dad? What if we get caught?” Asked Marcus nervously. Jack chuckled lightly. “Don’t worry you two, I’ll be the one getting in trouble if we get caught, not you two. So don’t get us caught okay boys?” He said playfully. “Okay.” “Okay, Dad.” The two, including Michael, replied The three walked along the rim of the inside of the large Air Force base for a few minutes before arriving at one of the hangars. This group of hangers in particular, housed a small collection of MIG-31 Foxhound Interceptor fighters. “Whoa!” Michael shouted excitedly. “That’s so cool! What kind of plane is that, Dad?” Asked Marcus. Jack stared at the parked plane for a moment before replying. “This...” He said as he walked up to it and rubbed the side of the hull. “is a MIG-31 Foxhound Interceptor. This is the exact plane I used when I was on my last mission.” He finished softly, a gentle smile on his face. The two boys stared at him in astonishment, before Jack started to walk to the next hangar. Present time Marcus shifted in his seat as his dream fast-forwarded to when Michael had gotten his first aerial kill as a pilot. February 4, 2015 At Kop'ung in North Korea, a huge battle was taking place between the U.S. and North Korean forces. The conflict had begun when North Korea finally worked up the balls to launch a long-range nuclear warhead as the U.S. We had destroyed the missile before it could even get halfway to the country and we, as well as South Korea and China, immediately lashed out with heavy ground and air assaults against North Korea. Marcus and Michael were both flying F-35B Lightning IIs with two other flights: Raptor squadron and Warlock squadron. “Raptor, this is Goliath. We’ll provide aerial overwatch while you give some cover to our guys on the ground. How copy?” Said Marcus. “Raptor flight copies all. Let’s go boys!” Said Alex Brighner, the leader of Raptor squad. Marcus and Michael both watched as the four A-10A Thunderbolts banked and disappeared in the direction of the city. “Marcus, I’m picking up a small group of North Korean fighters. Most likely after us.” Said Michael. “You got a plan?” Marcus waited a few seconds before replying. “Roger that, Warlock, follow me and Goliath Two and give us additional fire support while we take out those fighters.” Replied Marcus firmly. “Okay.” As the two squads of fighters flew at the approaching group of enemy fighters, Michael said the five words he’d wanted to say his whole life, “I have a lock, firing!” He shouted as a sidewinder class A.A. missile flew from the bottom of his plane and hit one of the MIGs head-on. “Alright Michael! Your first kill!!” Said Marcus happily. “WOOO!!!! YEAH BITCH!!!” Michael cheered. Present time--June 21, 2023 Marcus stirred uneasily in his seat as his dream fast-forwarded again, this time, back to the death of Michael. The entire image played itself from beginning to end, as if it was a tape he had restarted. Marcus jolted upright after the nightmare had finished at the same exact spot it did last time. “Michael?!” He shouted from inside the cockpit as he quickly opened it up and climbed out. “Michael, where are you?!” He shouted again. “Michael...” He said as he got to his hands and knees and started to cry into his hands. Soon after, he felt an arm--or foreleg--around his shoulder. He looked up slowly to find himself staring into the eyes of Rainbow Dash, who had a somber look on her face. “That Michael guy sounds really special to you...” She said. “Is he a friend of yours back on your world?” Marcus looked at the ground. “He was...” He grumbled. Rainbow Dash’s ears folded back at ‘was’. a moment of silence came before she replied. “Did he... die?” She asked slowly. Marcus waited before nodding very slightly, still staring at the ground. “Did you get who killed him?” She asked quietly. “Did you seek justice on the terrible thing that did... it?” Marcus’s mood somehow dampened even more as the question pounded his brain. “No...” He replied quietly. Rainbow Dash looked stunned. “Bu-but how? Surely with that thing you-” She started but was cut off by Marcus. “I didn’t...” He looked at Rainbow Dash with teary eyes. “because it was me, who killed him...” Rainbow Dash stared at him with a dumbstruck expression, and Marcus was on the verge of crying. “But... but you didn’t mean to... Right?” She asked, almost afraid to go further. Marcus’s lower lip started to quiver slightly. “Oh Rainbow...” He said as he pulled her into a tight hug. “I did mean to...But I didn’t want to at all... Please, please understand!” He sobbed uncontrollably. Rainbow Dash’s heart started racing as she returned the comforting embrace, knowing she'd just hit a major fault-line. “Woah!!” She thought as she blushed heavily. “Uh... um, it’s okay Marcus! I understand, really I do.” She said as the hug ended. “I can’t say I know what that could feel like, but I’m so so sorry about it...” Marcus sniffled and wiped his eyes before replying. “Thank you Rainbow Dash, very much. It means a lot to know you’re by my side.” He said, finally cracking a smile. “Sure thing... Hey, you hungry for some breakfast? I’m sure Twilight wouldn’t mind if we stopped by her place!” She said excitedly as her ears perked up, trying to change the subject as well. “Breakfast?” Marcus thought for a moment before replying. “What kind of things do you eat for breakfast?” He asked with a curious look on his face. “Well, I hear Spike can make some mean pancakes. Do you like those?” She replied. “Heck yeah, I like pancakes!” Marcus immediately responded loudly. Rainbow Dash giggled at the reply as she started to walk towards the barn with Marcus at her side. “Pancakes? Damn... I could maybe get used to this......Maybe...” Marcus smiled at the thought as the two proceeded to the outskirts of Ponyville from Applejack’s barn. He looked at his data glove, not knowing why he hadn't checked the time earlier, it read: 11:43 A.M.: lunchtime. "Oh well, maybe the pancakes will wait... He wished he could have pancakes but just smiled instead.
Chapter Seven: A Normal PicnicChapter Seven Earth June 22, 2023 The Odyssey had made faster progress then expected, pushing it ahead of schedule. The Afterburners had been long since been offline, as no tech can (currently) prevent high gas consumption, unfortunately... Lt. Colonel James Watson took a bite out of his peanut butter & jelly sandwich as he sat down in his newly assigned command post, upon the U.S.S. Barack Obama aircraft carrier. Just over a week before the discovery of the rogue crash call, and the report of Goliath One being killed in action, James had been resigned to a position he very much appreciated. "Jeezus, I know I'm a good commander..." He thought slowly. "But this is insane!" He exclaimed to the Green Bay Packers bobble head on his desk. "I mean getting-" James was about to begin another pointless rant when the door behind him swung open. "It's almost show time lieutenant. The Odyssey is a half-hour away from DEEP SPACE." Ordered Admiral Briggs as he quickly left the small room. James imedeatly put down his half-eaten sandwich and marched behind brigs to the tower elevator. The ride up the narrow elevator was quiet, but adrenalin was thick in the air. Mainly from the Colonel. "Noah gave me the details on my way here in the VTOL." Stated James. "So, talking to a signal that's on another planet to see what talks to us?" "That's about right, we've gone through a lot of confused senators, and surprisingly, even other militarys that didn't like us before have come to our side due to this case." Said Briggs proudly as he and James walked into the central communication center. Everyone in the various rows of computers stood and saluted to the Admiral as he and James walked between them to the main console. "At ease, gentlemen." Briggs said to the room. James sat in the left seat of the computer desk while Briggs took the right and enabled the system. "You'll need to scan your retina I.D. for it to let you in." Said Briggs as he scanned his own. After James had scanned the small bracelet, the Barack Obamas' A.I. spoke crisply. "Primary system operator confirmed: U.S.S. Barack Obama commander, Admiral Tommy Briggs. Secondary system operator confirmed: First operation commander, Lieutenant Colonel James Watson. Log in accepted." James knew what to do already and began syncing his unit to the Odyssey, while Briggs contacted the operations command room. "Obama command, give me some good news, we're burning daylight." Ordered the Admiral. A second passed before a response came. "We're enabling the extension now, James should be able to connect now. However, I have good news & bad news." "I'm in." Updated James. Briggs nodded and replied to command. "Give it to me." "The Odyssey has reached it's destination, and we are awaiting the order to detach the Loadstar." At this news everyone in the room cheered and clapped, as they had been listening too. But they all shut up as the op. commander went on. "However, there appears to be some kind of kinetic energy that's preventing us from getting in range. And from our sensors, it seems to be reacting with the hull of the Odyssey like two repelling magnets." Briggs took a moment to search for a response, while James sat dumbstruck at the news. "So what are you telling me? The planet's atmosphere is keeping our shuttle from going forward?" Briggs slowly asked. A pause came before an odd answer followed. "Not the atmosphere, a solid kinetic force that's only focused on where the Odyssey is, like some kind of planetary defense. And the more power we put into the engines, the weaker it gets..." Replied the operator. Briggs took a moment to devise a short but effective plan, while James just sat next to him with his hands on his lap. "What's our fuel level at?" "At 72% capacity, no worries." "Okay, enable afterburners and push through that shield. Disable only when the barrier is down. I made a promise to some important people I'd get that shuttle down there, and I'm not ready to give up just yet!" Ordered the Admiral. ~~~~~~~~~~ Equestria One day prior "Who's Lyra...?" Asked Marcus, a bit of concern in his tone. "Uh... She's a bit, 'funny'..." Pinkie Pie slowly replied with a giggle. When Marcus cocked his head slightly, Twilight stepped in. "Lyra supposedly has this crazy belief in the existence of Humans, she's a little weird to be around sometimes, and I think your flying machine may have peaked her interests..." Marcus sighed heavily before doing a double take. "Well alri-wait. How does Lyra know about the human race in the first place?!" Demanded the pilot as he stood up. When everyone in the room shrugged, Marcus decided to just vault the situation for later. "Okay whatever, but should I worry about her? Like, being on my jet in all?" Before anyone could respond, Applejack, as if on instinct, blurted out. "Yep." Everyone in the room gave her a puzzled look, making her recoil slightly. "Er-I mean, pr-probably..." She murmured. Being all Marcus needed to hear, he went to work on his data pad and deployed a MQ-27 Dragonfire just to be on the safe side. "What are you doing?" Asked Rainbow Dash as she stepped over to him. "Just taking precautionary measures." Said Marcus as the small view window popped up on his H.U.D. There was an unsettling silence in the air before Twilight broke it. "Well we should get going to the acres." She said as she picked up the picnic basket and settled it on her back. "Okay, but I'm gonna have to take my route through the forest again to avoid being spotted by your populace." Informed Marcus as he slung his rifle over his shoulder. "Oh that won't be necessary, darling." Said Rarity as she walked through the door. After she was greeted by a few, Marcus asked a question instead of a greeting. "Why not?" "Well you see, I know a spell that will allow the sun's light to go through you, making you completely invisible as long as you stay out of the shadows." Replied the stylist proudly. Marcus was a little dumbstruck, he had seen the prototypes for the optical camouflage suites, but those were canceled. "Ar-are you serious?" He asked with wide eyes. Rainbow Dash snickered at Marcus's brainlessness. "Oh sure! Just hold still for a moment." Rarity chimed as her horn glowed pointed it at Marcus. He closed his eyes, half expecting it to hurt for no reason, and suddenly felt like his who body was asleep. As the tingling sensation washed over him, he almost dropped his SCAR-L but was able to keep a firm grip on it. "Woah..." Marcus groaned as his non-stone leg buckled for a moment, making him stagger. "You okay?" Asked Twilight. "I can't see you at all." Marcus let his gun rest against his chest by the sling and looked at his hands, which he could see, but felt asleep. "I can still see me..." Marcus said annoyingly. "Yeah, you can see yourself, but we can't." Replied Twilight. "Holy flying fuck, this is insane!!" Marcus cheered in his mind. Marcus clanked to the door while the others looked in the wrong direction, and waited for the right moment. "Soo... Let's go." Said Rainbow Dash as she made for the door. Marcus slammed the door open as fast as he could and yelled, "Okaylet'sgo!" Everyone but Rainbow Dash jumped about six inches off the ground (Fluttershy about two feet), while the Rainbow pegasus nearly had a heart attack and fell over. While Rainbow Dash clutched her heaving chest, and the other five made there way to the door--some chuckling--, while Marcus was doubled over in laughter. "By Celestia, Marcus!! Damnit!" Yelled Rainbow Dash as she picked herself up and glared in every direction. Marcus finally stopped laughing and got up. "Oh, oh man! I'm sorry, I just had to do that!" "Whatever, can we go now?" Demanded the pegasus. As the seven walked through the bustling town of Ponyville, Marcus didn't say a word, while the others got waves and talked among each other and citizens on the sides of the street. But the town was the least of Marcus' attention. He kept his eyes locked on the left side of his visor, and his data pad controller for the drone that was monitoring the now skeptical looking unicorn on his jet. The mint green pony slowly sat up and locked eyes with the hovering machine. When she slowly tried to get off of the metal surface, Marcus made the Dragonfire zoom in front of her, making her stagger backwards and fall of the other side of the hull. The drone flew down her her level while she scrambled to her hooves and backed up against a tree. Marcus smirked as he had the intruder cornered. He and the six were almost at the barn and Marcus was more than ready to confront the pony. But while the standoff between flying metal and cornered equine, it escalated quickly. The unicorn's horn lit up and zapped the Dragonfire with some kind of E.M.P., making it crash. Marcus inhaled sharply and stopped walking as he deployed the two other drones to pursue the fleeing pony. As they gained on the surprisingly fast pony, Marcus thought drastic times call for drastic measures and had each drone fire one bullet at each of her back legs. Bulls eye. Marcus took of in a hulky sprint in the direction of the poor being he had just immobilized. While the two Dragonfires hovered around there take down, the pony screamed and withered in pain. It took a moment for the six to realize Marcus wasn't with them, and they would've turned around to look for him if they didn't hear the scream of agony come from Sweet Apple Acres. Back to Marcus. By the time Marcus reached the green, bleeding pony, she wasn't screaming anymore. As he knelt by her back legs, he lifted one and noticed two things. One, she didn't scream in pain which wasn't good, and the bullets had gone through which was good. "Shit!!" Marcus cursed himself. He swiftly scooped up the unconscious pony and rushed to his jet. "C'mon, stay with me here!" Marcus hissed to himself as he set her back-down on the wing of his jet. As he was about to open the compartment on his jet, he heard a heavy southern voice behind him. "Hey!" Marcus payed no heed as he opened the door and grabbed the medical kit and almost threw it down. "Hey!!" Came the voice, closer and louder. Marcus looked up and saw the red stallion he recognized as Big Mac running towards him. "Little busy here!" Marcus shouted back. Marcus opened up the med kit and took out four clean rags. He lifted up the unicorn's legs and put one rag over each bullet hole. He then took the other two and pressed them over the holes on the front to stop the bleeding as much as he could. "What the hey's goin' on here?! What happened?!" Demanded the large stallion as he saw the unconscious Lyra on the wing of the jet. "My patient here is in shock, but nevermind that, I need you to give me that black case!" Yelled Marcus as he pointed at the case in the med kit. Big Mac tried to remove the case from its groove, but without fingers, it was rather difficult. "Hurry!" Marcus demanded. "Ah'm tryin'!" Shouted Big Mac. Finally, he grabbed the handle with his teeth and with a strong flick of his head, tossed the case onto the wing beside Marcus. Marcus took it and placed it over the unicorn's legs to keep at least a little preasure on the rags while he dug into the med kit. He pulled out a large roll of gauze and went to work on her legs. Marcus felt like he was going to have a heart attack. It was one thing doing something like this to another human, but would it work on another species? Just when Marcus thought the stress couldn't escalate anymore, he spotted six brightly colored ponies running towards him. "You've got to be kidding me..." "Big Mac!" Marcus said to the stalion, causing him to look in his direction. "Go keep the guests ocupied! I need some space here!" With the legs treated for the time being, Marcus put two fingers to the pony's neck to check for a pulse. There was one, but it was high. He then quickly put a hand over her chest for signs of breathing. She was but very quickly. Marcus took the case and carfully put it under the mare's legs to elevate them. It wasn't twelve inches but it would do. The shouting from the group behind him didn't help ease stress. Marcus had done everything he could remember for treating shock, so he commanded the two Dragonfires, which were still idling in place, to return to the bays. He then yelled to Big Mac, who was trying and slowly failing to shove back the forceful group, and beconed for them to come over. As soon as the stallion moved, Marcus was surrounded by the six and bombarded with questions & demands. "How did this happen?!" "Is she going to be okay?!" "Did you do this, Marcus?!" "Is she dead?!" "Why isn't she moving?!" "Marcus, what happened?!" "Should I go get help?" This went on for at least half a minute of him trying to tell them to be quiet and explain himself, before Marcus finally cracked from the stress. Without thinking, he tugged out his B23R and fired a burst into the air. Everyone shut up instantly, and Fluttershy ran behind a tree. "Everyone shut up and listen!" Screamed the extreamly anoyed pilot. "I have a lot to explain, but for right now, don't touch or get close to this unicorn!" He said pointing at Lyra. After a minute, Marcus assumed they got the message and closed up the med kit and slowly put it in the plane. "Before you start asking questions, she's in shock from her wounds. I did all I could do to treat it, and she should make a full recovery. But until she's awake, no one will lay a hoof on her or anywhere near her. Understood?" They all nodded, and Marcus looked down at Big Mac. "Could you go get a blanket, or bedsheet, or something to cover her with please?" He asked calmly. Big Mac nodded once and bolted off to the barn, leaving the lone pilot to deal with some very curious ponies. A silence fell over them before Marcus sighed and rubbed his forehead. "You guys can go ahead and have your picnic, I just need some solitude..." He said. "What? But Marcus-" Rainbow Dash began but Marcus waved her off. "Tell me when the unicorn's awake, and don't try to feed her until she is awake." Marcus said as he climbed into the now open cabin of his F/A-38 and closed the hatch. The hiss of hydraulics and presurized air relaxed marcus a tad. After a few minutes of staring out into the horizon, he looked over and watched as Twilight levitated the blanket that Big Mac brought over Lyra, while the others set up the picnic. Relizing how much saving a life can make you hungry, Marcus unzipped a flat pouch on his side and took out a silver package. Tearing open the top, he proceeded to eat the butter and rice contained inside the M.R.E. (Meal Ready to Eat). Before long, Big Mac had returned to other duties as needed, and the six were talking and having a quality time while they ate sandwiches. With a somewhat satisfied stomach, and nothing else to do, Marcus turned on the F/A-38 computer and checked the repair stats. The computer voice spoke to him shortly afterwards. "All damaged assets have been successfuly repaired." Marcus mentaly did a fist pump. "New data recieved." Marcus pressed view. "Water intrusion detected in payload storage, backup generator block, and rear engine turbines. Manual removal required." Marcus mentaly gouged out his eyes. "Of fucking course..." Me mumbled to himself. Trying to think of something to cheer him up a bit, Marcus opened up his photo/video database on the jets computer and starting going through them. A lot of the photos were taken from Marcus's phone and had simply been uploaded, but a select few were captured from his helmet camera. As he went through the only four pics he had taken from his helmet, he came across two that he enjoyed. One was Marcus' point of view in the cockpit of a F-15E Strike Eagle, giving Michael a thumbs up while he did the same back from another F-15E Strike Eagle. Marcus smiled as he went to the next one. This one was taken later on during the same mission, so Marcus was looking over to his left, where a F-15E Strike Eagle was banking. This was Michael as well. As he thought about Michael, a thought that hadn't occured to him since he had arived here surfaced. "I wonder if the mission was succesful with one less pilot... If Veronica did her job like she always does..." Before Marcus could think much more on the idea, he heard a knock on the left side of the cabin. He looked over to see Applejack peering at him through the glass. When she beconed towards the left wing, the one with Lyra, Marcus got the message and opened the cockpit. He looked out to see the mint green pony sitting up and rubbing her head. As Marcus stepped out seemingly unnoticed by the unicorn, he walked up to her and slowly pushed her back down. "Easy now, you need to rest." He said quietly. As she layed back down, she looked at him and did a double take. "Ugh... Wh-what happened to--Oh. My. Gosh." She said as she looked at him like she had just won the lottery. When Marcus didn't respond, but only gave her a puzzled look, Lyra raised a hoof up and prodded Marcus in the chest with it. "You... you're r-real..." Said the mare who was visibly shaking now. Marcus was about to ask if she was okay, when he was faced with the largest smile he had ever seen. It was such a happy, toothy smile that Marcus started to feel the sides of his own mouth tugging upwards. "OHMYGOSH YOU DON'T KNOW HOW HAPPY I AM RIGHT NOW YOU'RE A REAL HUMAN OH BON BON WILL BE SO JELOUS JUST THINK OF--" Lyra's happy rant was halted by Marcus' hand over her muzzle. "Shhh... Be quiet." Marcus ordered in a low voice. "I've had a really long day today... And you need to rest... Now, can you tell me your name, so I can adress you properly?" He asked as he removed his hand from her muzzle. Marcus noticed that her eyes followed his gloved hand all the way until it was back at his side before looking up at the human. "Lyra... M-my name is Lyra." She said in a shaky voice. "Lyra, hm...?" An audiable purr escaped Lyra'a lips as the human mentioned her name, making Marcus chuckle lightly. "Do you play the lyre, Lyra?" Marcus asked quietly. She nodded. "Sometimes." "Well, Lyra..." He said slowly as he unbuckled and took of his helmet for the first time since he was here, exposing his jet black, mid length mane. "My name is Marcus Ivan. You had a bit of an accedent, so to speak, and I'm gonna be aiding you while you heal up." "Heal up? What happened?" Asked the unicorn. "It's a long story..." He replied while pointing at her bottom legs with his free hand, while he dropped his helmet by his feet. Lyra gasped as she looked at the now bloody rags attached to her calfs. "One sec, I just need to check you're pulse." Said Marcus as he reached forward and pressed two fingers to the side of her neck, making her shiver in joy. After a few quiet seconds Marcus removed his carefully watched hand. "Your heart rate is a bit high. Tell me, are you feeling any weird symptoms? Nausea, sweating, pain? Other than your legs?" Asked Marcus, a tad concerned.. "Well my heart is high because I'm staring at the one thing everypony's called me a freak for believing in!! You!" Shrieked Lyra. Marcus laughed lightly. "Really now? Here, I think you can sit up now." As Lyra sat up and scooted to the back of the wing, Marcus walked over to a nearby tree--the one with his foot dent in it--and plucked one of the few apples still on it. He walked back and offered the fruit to Lyra who took it with her magic and started eating. Marcus looked back at the six, who were talking among themselves but occasionally looked in their direction. "Yeah! I've known you existed all my life, but nopony ever believed me!" Replied Lyra between bites. "Well, sometime soon we can prove them wrong, huh? Now if you need me for anything, just find me. Okay?" Assured Marcus. "Cool!!!" She chirped in response. Marcus, having only eaten about a fourth of the M.R.E., realized he was still hungry. He looked over at the six who were all talking, and walked over. "Hey, Marcus. Care to join us?" Asked Rainbow Dash as he walked over and kneeled down on his good leg. "Probably not, I'm just gonna be hangin' with Lyra. I'm gonna kind of be her servant at least until tomorrow, so she can heal up." Marcus replied dryly. "Okay... Hey, you hungry?" Asked Twilight as she opened up the lid of the picnic basket. Marcus smiled and nodded. "What do ya want on your sandwich?" Marcus took a moment to remember what he had gotten the last time he had a Subway sandwich. "Lettuce, tomato, hm... jalapenos, ham..." Marcus read off what was on his mind as twilight assembled the sandwich, but imedeatly regretted the ingredient "ham" when various reactions occurred at once. Rarity, who was unfortunately sipping a drink, emptied her mouths contents on Twilight, who was already frozen and had dropped the unfinished sandwich. Applejack started choking on her sandwich, Fluttershy whined loudly and hid behind Rarity, and Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash just sat motionless with dinner plate sized eyes watching him. "What?!" Defended Marcus as he stood up. "What'd I--" He was about to continue when he realized his mistake. With a loud groan he put his face in his hand. "Don't... tell me you all are herbivores..." A super unsettling (for Marcus at least) silence fell, drenching Marcus in cold, bitter guilt. So he stood up, wishing the invisibility spell hadn't worn off like he new it did. "Yeah, we ponies are all herbivores. Except for those super crazy ones..." Piped up Lyra from the wing, catching everyone's attention and saving Marcus from wanting to shoot himself. To everyone's suprize, it was Fluttershy who spoke next. "D-d-do you mean y-you're... a c-c-c-carnivore...?" Marcus sighed in defeat, knowing he was in a rut. "Okay... I probably sould've told you this earlier... I'm not a herbivore like all you..." "You're omnivores, right?" Asked Lyra before Marcus could continue. "Yeah." He replied in her direction. "But don't worry, I'm not, repeat not, going to eat any of you. Horse meat isn't necessarily a delicacy back on Earth anyways... Probably doesn't taste very good..." Informed the omnivore as his voice faded to a mumble. Really wanting to evade the subject now, he went for plan: B. "Okay! So scratch the sandwich. Just make one for Lyra, and I'll have my other meal." Everypony quickly nodded in agreement as Marcus stood up and looked at his stone leg. "Hey Marcus!" He turned and faced Lyra. "What happened there? See a cockatrice?" She asked while staring casualy at his leg. "Yeah..." "You know, there's a kind of potion that--" Lyra was cut of by Rarity. "I have already. Here Marcus, I forgot to give it to you. Drink it all or it won't work." Rarity instructed as she floated the bottle into Marcus' hand. He popped the cork out of the bottle and a sweet scent flooded his nose. "It smells like vanilla." He chuckled, unable to suppress it for some reason. He put his lips to the bottle and started to chug it. He scrunched up his face tightly while his eyes bugged out, but continued to drink until it was gone. He quickly removed the bottle from his mouth and coughed violently. He walked over to Rarity, who was trying not to laugh--as well as everypony else--, and slapped the bottle down in front of her. "That shit better work..." He rasped between coughs. "Because I am not drinking that again..." He knelt down and fell back into a sitting position in his spot by the picnic. He sighed and looked over at Twilight, who was failing to suppress her laughter. As well as Pinkie, who looked like her face would explode. Marcus just chuckled and rolled his eyes at the two mares. "Oh yeah, that's just hilarious isn't it?" Marcus deadpanned as he nudged Pinkie, who was sitting next to him. The hot pink party mare couldn't hold it in any longer as she fell backwards, clutching her sides in laughter, as well as Twilight, who fell forward and buried her face in her hooves as muffled laughter flooded out. Marcus, who honestly forgot how ticklish his nerves were, was on his back laughing before he even knew it. In the next few seconds, all seven were laughing harder than ever. After a heart warming two minutes of laughing, they all slowly sat up, their sides hurting. "Oh man... I needed that so much." Gasped Marcus as he wiped a tear from his eye. He slowly tried to stand, but between his cramping sides and his seventy-pound leg, it took a few minutes. ~~~~~~~~~~ Eight hours later It was almost nine o' clock at night and the six had long since packed up and left the apple orchard, leaving Marcus and his admirer alone in the darkening field by the F/A-38. Lyra had agreed to go to sleep while Marcus kept watch next to her, just in case. Marcus leaned up against the side of the cabin with his arms crossed next to Lyra as she slept soundly. The crickets He heard her murmur something under her breath and looked over. She was wiggling and smiling pleasantly in her slumber, which Made Marcus smile and wonder what she was dreaming about. As he thought about dreams, he thought about sleep, when he thought about sleep, he felt his eyelids fall down slightly as he hung his head. "No, not yet, you've got a job to do!" Marcus's thoughts yelled at him. "Ugh, oh fine." His other thoughts groaned in response. As he started thinking about other things he realized how awake he felt, since he wasn't thinking about... His eyes fell down again. "Hey! Don't make me get physical!! I saw you thinking about sleep!" "Alright! Alright!" Not wanting a mental street fight to break out, Marcus just took out his iPhone 8 and tapped the home button. Nothing happened. "God damnit." Marcus swore under his breath at the dead battery. With a irritated sigh, he stuffed the phone back into his pocket. Before he could do anything else, he heard some dead leafs crunching in the distance. As muscle reflex kicked in, his right hand grazed his B23R holster. He couldn't see anything even with the night vision he had enabled about an hour ago. Assuming it was just a critter, he leaned back onto the hull and relaxed. "Snap!!" Now Marcus new someone was here. As he whipped out his trusty sidearm, he slowly began to inch forward towards the sound. As he got closer, he heard a loud hiss in front of him. Taking another step forward, his trigger finger started to twitch against the trigger. He heard the hiss again, but realized this time that it was a whisper. At this realization, Marcus silently kneeled down behind a nearby tree and waited. "Lyra! Where are you?!" The unknown whispered again, very close this time. Marcus took a moment to peek around behind the tree, and saw a pony shaped figure outlined in his night vision creeping closer. Since there was no horn, there was no magic that could smash him against a tree, unlike his first encounter... As she (judging from the voice, it was a she) slowly walked right past the kneeling human, who took this opportunity to strike. He lashed forward and wrapped his left hand around her muzzle and pressed the tip of his gun to her temple and pulled her into his chest to secure her. "Mmf! Mmmph!!" She said, muffled by the gloved hand over her mouth. As the pony tried to escape, Marcus kept her on lock down. But he had to admit, she had quite some strength, so he had to put a lot of effort into the hold. "Who are you and what is your business here?" Marcus whispered in her ear. When she only thrashed and 'mmph'ed more, he tightened his grip. "Hey, hey hey hey, shush. I suggest you start talking before I'm forced to use other means." He hissed as he pushed the pistol up next to her right eye. Apparently moving the pistol next to her eye did the trick, as she began to calm down but was still breathing rapidly as she still had no idea who--or what, for that matter--had taken her. Marcus waited a few seconds before slowly removing his hand from her mouth, still pressing the pistol firmly by her eye. "I-I-I'm B-Bon Bon." Said the terrified pony, still facing forward. "Lyra's roomate." "Ah Jeezus..."
Chapter Six: Marcus Vs. the Everfree ForestChapter Six Earth June 21, 2023 Final adjustments had been made to the satellite and it was being transported to the space station launch site for deployment. Because the satellite and the loadstar being carried in the satellite were both unmanned, it was a lot lighter so it was being transported by an air convoy. Two chinook helicopters carrying the satellite escorted by four VTOL warships made up the large convoy as they moved to the launch site. The whole operation was being disguised to the public as just another shuttle launch due to a malfunction on one of the space stations, to keep any unwanted suspicions from perking up. “Transport squad One-Six, we have you on the short-range radar. Prepare for a quick security check as you make your approach." The operator spoke through the lead VTOL warship's pilot comms. "Rock Star One-One, copy all. Be advised, we have the satellite en-route via two chinook helicopters we are escorting. Code-names are Heavy Five-Niner and Heavy Six-Niner. How copy?" Two escort drones could be spotted taking off from two different helipads on the massive launch station. A smaller-scale, unmanned space shuttle carrier could also be spotted mounted vertically on the main launch tower in the middle of the facility. "Flight command copies all. Two escort drones are en-route for further escort, your squad may return to other duties as needed." "Roger that, Rock Star squad is status R.T.B." The four VTOL warships all banked in the opposite direction of the large base and soon disappeared from sight, leaving the two chinooks and the two escort drones for the rest of the way. “Heavy squadron, do you copy?” “Heavy leader here, go ahead.” The two chinooks flew side-by-side with the two escort drones on the outsides as they thundered towards the large, unmanned shuttle carrier. “We are assuming manual control over the drones, follow them to the area where you’ll set down the satellite.” “Roger that. Be advised, we’re going to need to refuel here after we drop this thing. The trip hauling this thing here sucked us dry.” “Sure thing, I’ll see if I can free up a couple of helipads while you make the delivery. Stand by.” The two escort drones positioned themselves on either side of a large courtyard where there was a huge flatbed platform with numerous sets of wheels for carrying large packs of supplies to a rocket being launched. Or in this case, for carrying the satellite loaded with the U.A.V. to the shuttle carrier. Heavy Five-Niner and Six-Niner both made their way side-by-side to the courtyard, afterwards they positioned themselves over the large platform with the satellite over it. “Easy...easy now......release cables.” Both the helicopters dropped their cables simultaneously and the satellite rested on the platform. “The satellite is on the platform, I say again the package has arrived. Now we need those helipads, over.” The V.S.A.T. satellite loaded with the loadstar U.A.V. slowly rolled towards the awaiting shuttle carrier. When it finally got there, a huge, shipyard-like crane rolled over the satellite and picked it up to mount it to the shuttle carrier’s specialized mount. “Keep it steady now, no need to rush.” “Don’t worry, I got it covered. Hey, why isn't that bay door open! I can’t strap this thing to the top ya know!” Yelled an agitated crane operator. A few moments passed before the massive bay door on the top of the shuttle slowly broke open to reveal the large spot for the satellite to be stored until ready to deploy over OBJECTIVE DEEP SPACE. “That’s better.” The crane set the satellite on a big rail connected to the storage bay in the shuttle carrier and it slowly moved along the rail until it was fully set inside the bay. The rail retracted and the bay door closed shut as jets of pressurized air shot out of it, sealing it air-tight. “Attention all units, please pull away from the launch site immediately, we are now preparing to launch. I repeat, we are preparing to launch, get clear now.” The voice boomed over the intercom throughout the base as vehicles and people all moved away from the tower. “Final preparations will be completed in about two minutes. Start the countdown at T-minus three.” “Copy that, T-minus three minutes and counting to launch.” “T-minus thirty seconds and counting.” The various service rails and platforms connected to the main tower started folding up and moving away as smoke billowed from the base of the rocket. “T-minus ten...nine...eight...seven...six...” Bright flames started shooting out the sides of the base of the tower. “...five...four...three...two...one...LAUNCH!!” The main clamp holding the rocket to the tower released as huge amounts of flame and smoke erupted from the rocket as it gradually gained altitude. Everyone on the ground applauded as the rocket disappeared into the clouds. The rocket, codename “Odyssey”, soon penetrated Earth’s atmosphere and the afterburner thrusters engaged, propelling Odyssey at just over mach 38 or 38 times the speed of sound. "All is good, Odyssey is currently on course for OBJECTIVE DEEP SPACE. At current rate and trajectory, we will exceed our solar system in just over a day, and we will make contact with the planet in an additional half day. This operation is underway." ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus and Rainbow Dash were at the barn when Marcus stopped. "Hold up a second Rainbow, I have an idea." Rainbow Dash stopped and looked at him. "Oh yeah? What's that?" Marcus got a very happy grin on his face. "Okay, so I can see the top of Twilight's house from here." He pointed to the large tree top in the distance. "Now do you see how the forest curves around behind it about eighty meters?" Rainbow Dash gave him a blank stare in return but smirked afterwards. "You sound like an egghead... But yeah. Why?" After 'egghead she realized her mistake when Marcus gave her a 'really...?' Kind of look, but perked back up afterwards as Rainbow Dash blushed slightly. "Okay, so to avoid being spotted by your town’s population, cause’ who knows what will happen, I'm just going to sneak around the edge of the forest until I'm right behind Twilight's house. Got it?" Rainbow Dash had to process her first military briefing before replying with an assuring nod. "Good, now come back here with me. I need to give you something to help us communicate." Rainbow Dash gave him a curious look before following him back to his jet. When they got there, Marcus walked up to the large compartment panel he'd used yesterday and pressed an unlock code while Rainbow Dash watched. The panel opened with a hiss and Marcus reached inside. When he pulled his arms and head out, he had some kind of card in his right hand. He looked over at a large compartment that took up about half of the left of the inside of the main compartment, and swiped the card in a small slit that jutted out from the side. The door to the smaller compartment then beeped and cracked open slightly. “What’s in there?” Asked a curious Rainbow Dash as she craned her neck to get a look. “I wanna see!” Without turning around Rainbow Dash could tell something in that compartment was greatly exciting Marcus. “My second favorite part of the plane.” Marcus replied with a wide grin. He pushed the door open the rest of the way and revealed a FN SCAR-L with a laser, M.M.S. (millimeter scanner), suppresor, and foregrip mounted to the back wall with the stock folded in, a TITUS-6 mounted to the left wall, and ammunition for the two guns and Marcus’s B23R all in separate strapped to the right wall. A control tablet linked to the three MQ-27 Dragonfires also rested in a groove in the base of the compartment. “Uh... what is all that stuff?” Rainbow Dash looked jaw-dropped at the contents that rest in the container before her and Marcus. Marcus reached in and pulled out the FN SCAR-L and unfolded the collapsed stock with a ‘click’, then he pulled out the mag to see the large F.M.J. armor-piercing bullets inside. Then he put the mag back in the gun and pulled the charging handle. Marcus adored the sound of a rifle charging handle being pulled and he looked at Rainbow Dash, who had a slightly fearful look on her face. “What da’ ya think?” He asked with a smirk. Rainbow Dash found herself staring at the large metal object in Marcus hands. “W-what is that thing?” She finally asked. Marcus rested the gun on his right shoulder. “Well, this is an FN SCAR-L. But don’t be fooled by the name, I assure you; this will leave more than a ‘scar’.” He said, proud of his own terrible pun. Rainbow Dash was as a loss for words, both in amazement and fear. Before she could operate her brain again, Marcus walked over to her. “Here, let me show you how it works. So, you you remember when I showed you my pistol? This thing?” He pulled out his B23R and Rainbow Dash nodded slightly. “Oh don’t be so scared, I won’t even think about hurting you.” He kneeled down next to Rainbow Dash and pulled her into a quick one-hand hug with his left hand, while his right rested the SCAR on his right shoulder. Rainbow Dash blushed heavily but calmed down afterwards. “I’m sorry Rainbow, I won’t show you this is you if I’m freaking you out.” He said as he got up and walked back to the jet. Rainbow Dash immediately got up and gave Marcus a firm look. “What? The mighty Rainbow Dash does not get scared! But I really want to see that, SCAR though!” She begged. Marcus stopped and gave Rainbow Dash a questioning smile. “You sure?” Rainbow Dash nodded quickly. “Okay.” Marcus walked back to her and knelt down. “Well, as I was saying before, do you remember the bullets my pistol shot?” “The little thing, right?” “Yeah, well this thing shoots the same thing as my pistol, only these are bigger, they do more damage, and have greater range.” He said as he pulled out the mag and showed it to Rainbow Dash. “There’s another variant that shoots a even bigger round, but I don’t have that one.” “That’s really cool! So basically this is the same thing as your, um pistol, but it just is bigger and better?” Marcus got up and walked back to the jet with Rainbow Dash. “In a nutshell.” He said with a soft smile. “Now for that idea I had earlier.” Marcus reached into the other side of the whole compartment and pulled out a small, black case. “What’s in there?” “Well, for my plan on getting to Twilight’s house, we’ll need to keep in touch so you’ll know when I’m behind Twilight’s house.” Rainbow Dash pondered what Marcus just told her. “What does ‘keep in touch’ mean?” Marcus undid the single latch on the case and opened it to reveal six compact comm. earpieces, the kinds that clip to your ear and the microphone bends down in front of your mouth. “Keeping in touch basically means being able to talk to one-another, and these devices will help us do just that.” Marcus said with a smile as he took one out and pared it to his helmet radio. “Those little things? How?” Asked a baffled Rainbow Dash. Marcus shrugged as he turned the earpiece on. “I wish I knew, all they really taught me was if you talk into this end,” He pointed to the microphone end. “I can hear you from anywhere. And vise versa.” Rainbow Dash smiled in excitement as Marcus moved to put it on her right ear. “That’s so cool!” She exclaimed. Marcus had to fiddle for about twenty seconds before he finally got the comm in the best place. He then bent the microphone down so it was by Rainbow Dash’s right cheek and pushed the button on the side to set it to Marcus’s channel. It beeped and Marcus did the same. “Alright, let’s go. I getting hungry!” Marcus said as he and Rainbow Dash made their way back to the barn, but not before Marcus grabbed six extra SCAR-L mags and put them in the pouches he had flattened against his abdomen armor. He then closed the compartment on the side of the jet and sealed it. As the two got to the barn, Marcus heard a low, southern voice call to him. “Hey there, Marcus!” Called Big Mac as he trotted towards the two. Marcus stopped and looked at the large red stallion. “Hey, that’s the one I saw when I first arrived here.” “Hey there partner, mah name’s Big Macintosh.” He said calmly as he stuck out a hoof. Marcus looked at the outstretched hoof before taking it in his hand. “Pleasure to meet you Mister Macintosh. Say, are you the stallion I saw when I first arrived here?” “Ah sure am. Now listen here, I’m okay with ya romin’ around here because of your contraption landin’ here, but I’ll have my eye on ya whenever you’re around mah friends. Know that.” Said Big Mac as he gave Marcus a very serious look. Marcus smiled, he admired the care this stallion was showing for his friends and he respected that. “Very well, I promise you I will not even attempt to harm any of your friends when I am around them. I very much respect your care and therefore I respect you.” Marcus replied with a smile. Big Mac smiled too for a second before speaking. “That’s good, now I have to get back to bucking some apples.” He said as he walked off. Marcus and Rainbow Dash then walked through the barn and stopped at the front entrance, where Marcus did one final arsenal check. He had his six extra mags for the SCAR-L, the three extra mags for his B23R, his attachments on his SCAR-L as well as the laser for his B23R, his ballistic armor plating covering many parts on his body, and finally, his trusty helmet with heads-up-display, the radar--which didn’t work because there were no U.A.V.’s or areal units on this planet--, and built-in thermal/night-vision. Needles to say; he was ready for anything that damned forest had to throw at him. He looked at Rainbow Dash with a confident smile. “You look like you’re ready!” She said with a smirk. “Damn right! Okay, so once I’m behind the house, I’ll contact you on your radio.” Replied Marcus. “Got it.” Marcus walked out of the barn and immediately turned and jogged into the thick forest, head held high, while Rainbow Dash started on her way through town to Twilight’s house. ~~~~~~~~~~ Marcus was still a bit skeptical about going into the forest that almost ate him for brunch, but he had only had his B23R. Now, he was ready to take it by the horns--er branches...oh whatever! As he walked, Marcus did some serious thinking along the way. “I still can’t believe I’m in another world. I wonder if I’m missed at all back on earth. If they know I’m actually gone... I’ve really warmed up to these ponies that live here, but I still can’t wrap my mind around why they could warm up to me. Well, considering there was a fucking manticore in this god-forsaken forest, I’m probably not the worst or strangest thing they’ve come across here... I’ll have to ask them.” Marcus did a quick surrounding check with his M.M.S. to make sure he wasn’t being stalked. “I wonder if Twilight would be able to tell me why I’m here, or better yet; how I can leave...” Marcus smiled at the thought of surprising everyone at base upon his return, even though it was probably a bit far-fetched. He glanced at the top of Twilight’s house, which was closer. He suspected he was about half-way there. He also looked at the digital clock on his data gove. 12:03 P.M. It had already been fifteen minutes? Jeez! Marcus then went from a walk to a slow run to close the gap. “Hm, I’m surprised I haven’t come across any obstructions...” Marcus thought as he ran. Not bothering to look another two inches downward, Marcus didn’t see the giant root jutting out of the ground. Before his eyes even caught sight of it, Marcus was laying face down on the dirt floor of the forest, his SCAR laying next to him. “I had to think so!” Marcus mumbled as he pushed himself up and grabbed his fallen rifle. He looked back and was tempted to census himself with his hand at the sight of the root. “Think what Marcus?” Asked Rainbow Dash through the radio on his helmet. Marcus jumped slightly, forgetting about the radio he had given Rainbow Dash. “Nothing, I just... tripped...” He deadpanned, wanting to kill himself again from the humiliation. “Oh, heh heh... If you say so!” She chortled back. “Shut up!” Marcus joked. Marcus was about to continue when he heard a female voice in the background. “What’s that Rainbow?” “Oh this? I can talk to Marcus with this, it’s really cool!” Responded Rainbow Dash to the unknown accomplice. “Who’s there with you?” Asked Marcus as he got up and grabbed his rifle. He resumed his trek, this time keeping a lookout on the ground and more so on his surroundings. As he jogged/ran through the forest edge, he thought he saw something white jump behind a nearby shrub. Marcus shrugged and kept going. “It’s Twilight, I’m outside her house right now with her. We’re just waiting for you to show up.” Marcus grinned. “Oh cool, how bout’ you let her give the mic a try?” He asked. “Oh sure! Hey Egghead!” “For the third time today, don’t call me that!” “Whatever, you want to talk to Marcus?” Marcus chuckled a little at the ‘nickname’, and mentally bookmarked it. After a few seconds of fuzziness through the mic from it being handed over, he spoke. “Hello? Anyone there?” He waited a few seconds before an unexpected response came. “HELLO? CAN YOU HEAR ME?” Marcus cringed a little at the sudden outburst while he could faintly hear Rainbow Dash cracking up in the background. “Hey! Twilight, I can hear you just fine, you don’t have to blow out my ears.” Marcus responded, still a little shell-shocked. He checked how close he was to Twilight’s house and saw he had about 100 yards left until he turned. “Oh... heh heh, sorry...” Twilight meekly responded. “It’s okay, hey did you figure out how to put the microphone on?” Marcus responded as he stopped walking for a bit. “No, I’m just holding it in front of me with my magic. It’s easier.” “Cool. Did you figure out how to send me back yet? Or at least how I got here?” “I’m afraid I don’t know how I can send you back to your world, but I think I do know how you got here. It’s a long story, so I’ll wait until you get here.” Twilight stated. Marcus sighed. “Okay, I’m about one minute away right now. I’ll be-” Marcus was cut off by a loud rustling in the bushes to his right. “One sec, I gotta go.” Marcus said quickly as he turned off his comm. Rifle at the ready, he slowly approached the bush as the rustling stopped, and looked at his M.M.S. Some kind of Avian being was knelt behind the bush. He was able to guess it was a wild chicken or turkey due to it’s posture. He tried shooing it away, but instead of squawking and fleeing like a normal bird, it jumped on top of the shrub and glared at him. Marcus would’ve never thought a bird could glare, but this one was somehow giving him the same wide-but-narrow eyed stare that he got during Jones’s birthday party. But this one had glowing red eyes. With his sights still fixed on the bird, he was about to walk away when he felt his right leg going numb when he tried to lift it. He looked down and almost had a heart attack. His right leg--including the clothing and armor-- from right below the knee down, was pure, dark grey stone. And it was creeping slowly to his kneecap. For the first time in at least four years, Marcus panicked. On instinct, his trigger finger jolted inward, and with a quiet sphew, the odd chicken fell off the bush and Marcus half ran, half limped out of the forest. His statue-leg easily left deep footprints in the dirt and crumbled twigs that would only snap under a normal foot. As he got into more open ground in plane sight of any citizen in the small town of Ponyville, he slightly crouched down to at least lower his chance of detection, and made his way to the back door of Twilight’s house. ~~~~~~~~~~ “One sec, I gotta go.” Marcus said quickly before a small sputter of static emitted from Twilight’s comm and was silent after. “Hm, what was that about?” Asked Rainbow Dash. Twilight lowered the microphone and shrugged. “Dunno, hey do you want me to put this thing back on your ear?” She asked as she examined the ear clip. Rainbow Dash brightened up and nodded. “Yeah, sure. I like wearing it because I can always talk to Marcus. Here, just put that little clip over the top of my right ear so the little rod is by my cheek.” She said as Twilight fumbled with the comm. for a minute. After the comm. was put back on, Twilight went into the living room where the other four--plus Spike--were to finish up making the group lunch, while Rainbow Dash went to the back door to wait for Marcus. Rainbow Dash stepped outside and looked towards the thick treeline of the Everfree forest, and saw a short figure lumbering towards the house. As it came into better view, Rainbow Dash brightened up more as she recognized the figure as Marcus, and ran towards him. However, concern overtook her happy mood as she noticed he was limping. “Oh my god, Marcus! Are you okay?” She asked quite loudly. Marcus looked around before standing up tall with his rifle in hand. “I...I’m fine... But we should get inside, like now...” He said quietly. Rainbow Dash, not being able to see his half statue-ified leg due to the tall grass, ran to his side and escorted him to the house. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?” Rainbow Dash frantically asked. Marcus stopped next to the door and pointed to his leg. “You tell me.” Rainbow Dash gasped at the sight of the stone appendage. She looked back up a Marcus with a more curious look. “You didn’t happen to have a staring contest with a red-eyed chicken, did you...?” She slowly asked. Marcus nodded slowly. “That was a cockatrice.” Rainbow Dash responded flatly. Marcus looked at the pegasus like she had an extra wing sprouting out of her back. “A cocka-what?” He asked with a slightly tilted head. Rainbow Dash opened the door and stepped inside. “I’ll tell you later, but for the matter at hand, Twilight knows how to fix this. C’mon.” She said as she beckoned for Marcus to come inside. He obliged and stepped into the small doorway. ~~~~~~~~~~ “What the fuckis a cockatrice?!” Marcus pushed the pointless question out of his mind as he walked through the room, Rainbow Dash at his side. As he stepped onto the first of the three stairs leading into another room, something, that Marcus can’t say he was surprised about, happened. As his right foot came down on the second step, the entire three-step staircase collapsed under the immense weight of Marcus’s stone leg, making him fall forwards like a 6’9” wood plank. Luckily, the front of his helmet took the jist of the impact as he hit the floor. “Damnit...” Mumbled Marcus as he rolled over on his back. “Oh shut up.” He said jokingly as he saw Rainbow Dash’s face scrunched up from holding back laughter. “Pssst...Pffffft... BWAHAHAHAHA!!!” Rainbow Dash fell onto her back as she couldn’t hold it back any longer. “You...Just, BANG!... And...!” She sputtered through bursts of laughter. Marcus sat up to asses the damage, and saw the whole three-stair staircase was gone, and was now a pile of splintered wood, as well as a small dent in the wood floor where his cranium had connected with it. His rifle had somehow managed to impale itself into the wood, and was jutting upward with the stock facing up. “Oops...” Marcus said meekly as he looked up to Rainbow Dash. She had stopped laughing and was giving him a fake worried look and pointing slowly with her hoof behind Marcus. Knowing what she was pointing at, Marcus looked behind him and saw Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy--who was cowering behind Twilight--, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie--who was bobbing up and down slightly--. They all had shocked looks on their faces. “Look, before you yell or get angry towards me, I think, this may answer your questions.” He said as he got up and showed them his leg. He was relieved to see them all soften up a bit at the sight (Excluding Fluttershy), which Marcus assumed meant they’ve had this problem before. Still none of them spoke. “So, is there any way you can fix this?” He asked, a hint of annoyance in his voice. Finally, Applejack walked over and examined his leg. She raided her foreleg and tapped the surface a few times, which emitted a few clinks from it. “Well, now I know how people with prosthetic legs feel...” Marcus thought bitterly. The rest (yes, even Fluttershy) slowly walked up beside Applejack to take a look. “Do you have any feeling where the stone is?” Asked Rarity. “Not at all. It’s completely numb.” Marcus replied flatly. Twilight turned to Rarity and whispered something in her ear. Rarity nodded and turned to the door and walked out. She then turned back to Marcus. “Rarity went back to her place to get something that will get rid of your ‘problem’.” She said as she gestured towards Marcus’s stone leg. Marcus sighed, and remembered why he and Rainbow Dash had come here in the first place. “So, Rainbow here tells me Spike,” Marcus put his hands at his hips and gestured towards the miniature dragon. “can make some decent grub. And I can safely say I’m famished.” Spike obviously didn’t know how to respond, so Twilight saved him. “Uh, yeah. We were actually going to go to the farm for a picnic we have ready. We really planned on visiting you so, you can just walk down with us if you want.” She said. Marcus nodded in approval and looked over at his rifle, which was still stabbed into the floor. He gave a “how the hell?” gesture with his hands to no one specifically and turned back to the group, who were also giving questioning looks at the weapon. “Sorry bout’ that.” Marcus said uneasily as he pulled it out of the wood. Twilight sighed. “Don’t worry about it. Now, you gonna join us?” She asked as she and the rest walked back into the kitchen. Marcus shrugged and followed them. Marcus walked into the room to see all of the group gathering the picnic supplies, and a question that had been itching at him surfaced. “Hey um, I was meaning to ask you all something.” He said, which made all of them look at him casually. “And what might that be?” Asked Applejack. Marcus tried to piece the right words together. “Why... does your town look like a Halloween party for a seven year old?” He asked as he gestured outside. Pinkie Pie stepped forward at the question. “Oh that’s because the town’s getting ready for--” She was cut off when Marcus waved her off. “Hold that thought.” He said sternly while he press a couple of things on his data glove, making the security warning that flashed across the right side of his H.U.D. disappear. His face shaped into a slightly concerned look, and he looked up at Pinkie Pie. “Hey Pinkie, uh, do you recognize this particular citizen of your town?” He asked slowly as he activated camera footage, forwarded it to his data glove, and showed the small screen to the pony. The streaming video showed a camera view of the inside of Marcus’s F/A-38 cockpit from the top of the dashboard. Because of the thirty-degree angle on the camera because it is meant for facial I.D. scans, Pinkie Pie and Marcus were able to see a mint green unicorn sprawled out and drooling over the top of the hull behind the glass. "Oh boy..." She said as she got a very 'oh boy' look on her face and her eyes widened. “Well...?” Marcus asked with a raised eyebrow. “That’s Lyra...”
