All Along The Watchtower

The Marine and The Ponies

A castle on the side of a mountain, a little black thing that looks like a cross between a mini-horse and a bug, and let's not forget about the big lion thing with bat wings and a fucking scorpion tail. Yep, i'm 90 percent sure that this isn't Vietnam.

The rest of his walk had been uneventful, except for some howling, but it was pretty far away. It almost felt as if the rest of the creatures living in this forest were trying to avoid him

As Alex walked, he began to think back to that white place: why did it happen? Why was he there, but most of all; why was Sergent Ramirez there?

Thoughts of Sergent Ramirez began to enter his mind, and he began to think back. Back to when he was a New Blood.

Somewhere over South Vietnam

January 8. 1967

0730 hours

(A little something to set the mood if you want.)

The helicopters were flying over the jungle; carrying fresh, new troops. On one of those choppers, were three men, where one of them was looking down at the jungle as they flew by.

"If you keep leaning like that, you're gonna fall out,"

The man leaned back in his seat and looked at the man to his left. He pointed a finger at the jungle as he spoke.

"Those Vietcong guys, they could be down there right now watching us, and we wouldn't know."

"Relax, they don't have the balls to fire at us, and besides, i got this," he lifted up an M-40 sniper rifle. "I'm gonna pop 'em before they get the chance, right Alex?" He looked back at the man next to him.

"Right, Carl." Alex responded.

"So y'all think ya can just go in, guns blazin', and kick some ass?" The helicopter was filled with laughter. "Let me tell ya, if you do that, then y'all are gonna get shot quicker then a coyote trespassing on mah farm,"

Both Alex and Carl looked at the man sitting in front of them.

"Oh yeah?" Alex said, "And what do you know about 'Nam?"

The man shifted a little. "Well, ah don't now anythin' 'bout it personally, but mah brother was in Vietnam back in '65."

This caught Alex and Carl's attention. "Your brother was in 'Nam?" Alex asked.

The man nodded.

"So, what, was he at La Drang, or something?" Carl asked.

"Actually, he was," the man responded.

Now he definitely had their attention. "So, what did he tell you?" Alex asked.

"Well," the man began, "He told me that if ah ever were to get drafted, that i should be extremely carefull about everythin', and that anything could be booby trapped,"

Carl snickered a little.

"What's so funny?" the man asked

"I just can't get over that name." Carl said, still snickering.

"Right. Mah brother also said that the Vietcong could pretend to be civilians, and that you should always keep your finger on the trigger, both in the jungle, and the villages." the man spoke.

"Alright boys, we're going to reach the base in five, so get your shit together." the pilot said.

"Looks like we're about to reach our destination," the man said, "y'all ready for this?"

"I hope so, Applejack. I hope so." Alex said to the man.

Equestria

The Everfree Forest

Present time

Alex train of thought was interrupted, as he began to her the loud chirping of birds, next to his head. He looked at the birds, and they looked back at him, probably confused and cautious, but also curious about him.

Alex looked forward, and saw that he had gotten to the edge of the forest, and was near what looked like an orchard of somekind. He walked to the orchard and saw that it was apples that grew on the trees.

He walked over to one of the trees, slung his rifle over his back, and he reached up and picked one. He just looked at it.

It's been way too long since i last had an apple.

He turned it around in his hand, taking in how red and delicious it looked. He just wanted to take a big bite out of it.

*Gasp*

He heard a gasp and looked to his left and saw something that made him go wide eyed. It looked like a mini-horse, kinda like the black creature from the forest. It had orange looking fur, a blonde mane and tail that was done up in a ponytail, and it had green eyes, and was wearing a stetson. And it was looking at him, as if he were Godzilla.

They both stared at each other like that, for several seconds, before the mini-horse turned tail and ran away. Alex stared after it for awhile.

First a bug-horse, then a lion fuck, and now a mini-horse wearing a cowboy hat? What's next? A dragon? he thought.

He looked at where it ran a little more, before a thought hit him. Maybe it's running back to its owners, might as well go after it. He then began to walk in the direction that the mini-horse went; taking off his bandana as he did, and took a bite of the apple. Oh my god, this is delicious. he thought.

unbeknownst to him, a pair of blue eyes were looking at him from behind one of the trees.

* * *

Applejack had never run as fast in her life as she did now. She needed to tell her friends about what she just saw, about that thing. What was that thing anyway, she had never seen anything like it. It was so big and the way it looked at her.

Applejack sped through the streets of Ponyville, avoiding obstacles and ponies, as she ran for the library. When she reached the library, she burst through the door, startling Twilight, who was reading a book.

"Twilight *gasp* big *inhale* green," Applejack tried to talk but she was to exhausted.

"Applejack! Calm down," Twilight said, as she put a hoof on her friends shoulder.

Applejack began to get her breath back, and started to relax.

"You okay, Applejack?" Twilight asked her friend.

Applejack nodded. "Okay, now tell me what's wrong." Twilight said.

Applejack took a deep breath. "Okay, ah was walking through the orchard to get some fresh air, when ah saw this thing.

Twilight gave Applejack a confused look. "What do you mean? What thing?"

Applejack looked Twilight in the eyes. "A-ah don't know Twilight, it was big, really big, and it stood up on its hind legs like a diamond dog, but it didn't have a tail for support, and it was wearing all this green clothin'," Applejack shivered a little. "And those eyes, Twi, there were somethin' about its eyes. As if it could kill me by just looking at me. Twilight?"

"Yes Applejack?" Twilight asked, eager to her more.

"Do you-do you think that thing might have been brought here by that storm?" Applejack asked her friend.

Twilight was processing the information she was just given. Could it be? A being was brought here with that storm? She looked at her friend. Applejack's all shaken up, maybe we should look into this.

"Okay Applejack let's go get the others, and see what we can do," Twilight said, as she headed for the door.

"What if it's dangerous?" Applejack asked, walking after Twilight out of the library.

"Don't worry, Applejack, let's first get the others, then we'll come up with something." Twilight said.

"Okay, alright." Applejack said uneasily.

Twilight looked worried at her friend to see her looking at the ground as they walked, occasionally giving a little shiver.

"Applejack? Is something wrong?" Twilight asked. She was worried about her friend.

"Huh? Wha? Oh, it's nothin." Applejack went back to staring at the ground.

Twilight stopped dead in her tracks; Applejack looked back at her, confused.

"Applejack, tell me what's wrong," she walked up, and put a hoof on her friend. "Please."

Applejack looked at her, opening her mouth, before closing it again. She finally found her voise. "It was those eyes Twi', ah don't know what it was, but those eyes had somethin' in 'em. Somethin' horrible,"

Applejack looked at the ground, before looking back at Twilight. "What should we do Twi'?"

"Like i said, we need to get the other girls, so let's hurry up," Twilight then began to gallop to her destination, Applejack running close behind, as a thought came to Twilight. Let's just hope this thing isn't dangerous. Whatever it is.

* * *

Whoever planted these trees needs to die. Alex thought as he walked past tree after tree. The orchard was huge, and he had picked another apple to munch on.

I hope the owner won't be too pissed about me, eating their apples. Maybe i could pay them back somehow. He walked past a tree, and then he tripped, and got a face full of dirt. He lifted his head, spitting out dirt as he looked at his feet to see that he tripped over a stump. I take it back, fuck the owner.

He stood up, dusted himself off and picked up his apple, only find that it was covered in dirt. He sighed as he dropped the apple on the ground, and put his bandana back on his face.

When he looked up, he saw that he had reached the exit of the tree labyrinth. "About fucking time." He said to himself, as he walked out of the orchard and looked around.

Some distance away from him, was a red barn, and behind that, a field of carrots. He walked to a door on the side of the barn, and gave it three knocks. He waited for an answer, but nothing came.

Fucking great, now what do i do?

"There it is!" He whipped around to see who shouted, and found more of the mini-horses standing at the entrence to the farm. There were six in total, he couldn't make out their features from this distance, but he did see their colors: one was purple, another one was white; a third was yellow, and a fourth was pink; a fifth was cyan blue, and he recognized the orange one. They began running towards him, so he ran aswell; he ran for the orchard, and in between the trees.

"Hey! Get back here!" He heard someone shout, and then he was tackled to the ground.

"I got you now!" He was laying on his stomach, and was about to turn and punch whoever tackled him, when he saw a green glint from in between the trees, and suddenly, the one who had held him down was thrown off. He got up and began running until he reached the forest again. He entered and began running in a random dirrection. He then jumped behind a few bushes, took out his rifle, and waited.

He didn't have to wait long before he could hear them closing in, and he began to hear voices.

"Dang it, where could it have run off to!" He heard a womans voice speak. "How could i have lost it? I had it pinned for Celestia's sake!" The voice sounded very pissed.

"Relax, Rainbow, it couldn't have gotten far, we just need to keep looking," He heard another womans voice speak up.

"What if it was just scared?" He heard a quiet voice speak up.

"I doubt that Fluttershy," He heard the pissed voice say. "when i get my hooves on that thing, i'm really gonna let i have it,"

Fluttershy? Rainbow? The hell kind of names are those? And did she say hooves? Those horses cam't be talking, can they? he thought I better get out of here, pronto. He quietly sneaked away from the voices.

*Snap*

Oh no. He looked down and saw that he stepped on a branch.

"Hey, did you guys hear that? Sounds like it came from over there," The pissed voice spoke.

Oh hell no. He got into a full on sprint, but didn't get very far before he was tackled from the side into some bushes. He was about to struggle when he saw who tackled him; it was the little black creature from the clearing. He heard the mini-horses run past the bush.

"Come on! This way! It won't get away this time!" He heard them shout,

When it sounded like they were gone, the black creature looked down from on top of him, and he pointed a finger at it.

"You pussied out on me."

End of Chapter