Goliath One-Status: K.I.A.

Chapter 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..."