Salvation

Chapters

Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Chapter Thirty-Three
Chapter Thirty-Four
Chapter Thirty-Five
Epilogue
Chapter One
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Twenty-Four

Chapter Two

Opening my eyes, I was met with the view of a clear, blue sky. Not a cloud was present, which I found quite pleasing. I blinked a couple times as my head began to pound. Lifting I hand to my head, I frowned when it hit my helmet instead. Holding my eyes shut, I laid my hand back onto the grass and tried to content myself with looking at the-

Grass! My eyes snapped open, my head rolling to the side. As clear as the sky above, I saw grass beneath me with... apple trees on the edge of the clearing. Rolling my head the other way, I saw something that sent a shock through my veins. Jones was laying on the grass with Gonzales knelt over him. Blood stained both their uniforms and I was sure I could see it staining the grass beneath Jones.

Sitting up straight, I looked straight to see the Humvee. It was on it's right side, the front rammed into one of the beautiful apple trees. Of course, I also couldn't help but noticed that everything seemed... lighter in color. It was as if no “imperfect” coloring existed. The leaves were all green, the apples all bright red, the trunks a pleasing brown. Even the grass looked lush, every single blade of it.

Looking down at myself, I saw that I was still in full gear. The vest was still around my torso with everything still attached. My M4 was still clipped to the one-point sling hanging from the front of the vest and I still felt the weight my M9 sitting nicely in it's drop leg holster. A slight movement of my jaw indicated that my ACU mask was still over my lower face, nose included while I used my hand to see that my goggles were sitting on the brim of my helmet where I put them. Lastly, I looked to see that my right kneepad was over the kneecap while my left kneepad was around my ankle, like how it was.

As I looked, however, I couldn't help but notice the blood on my uniform. I couldn't find a wound, so I was relatively safe to assume that it must have been some of Jones' blood. Before I could delve into it any more, I heard someone walk up to me and stop. Looking up, I saw the tall, impassive form that I had grown familiar with. Without saying anything, Smiley lowered his hand to help me to my feet. Grasping the offered hand, I felt myself being yanked to my feet. Smiley, who didn't actually smile much, wore an ACU mask like I did but he also had tinted goggles over his eyes, making him seem non-human as none of his skin was showing. In his left hand, he held his M249 Squad Assault Weapon.

“Where the hell are we?” I asked once I was on my feet. All I got was a shrug to which I gave a shrug back, “Yeah, me neither. How's Jones?” Smiley looked over at Gonzales before looking back at me,

“Gonz says he'll make it,” Smiley answered with another shrug.

I was about to ask where the Sergeant was when I heard his voice echo from the Humvee,

“This is Sentinel Three. Anyone on this net, please respond!” A short pause where I could briefly hear static, “Damn it!”

A pair of hands then shot out of the driver said door, which was now the relative top of the Humvee, and grabbed the edge. Sarge hauled himself out of the vehicle to sit on the frame. When he was sitting, he looked over at Smiley and me. A small smile came to his face, which was uncovered,

“Glad to see you're up. I'm guessing Smiley filled you in?”

“That we know nothing?”

“Basically.”

A loud sigh made my head turn toward where Jones lay. Slowly, Gonzales got to his feet and turned toward the three of us. He gave a brief shrug,

“I was able to get the bullet out and it didn't seem to have done any harm so I just wrapped him up. We'll just have to wait and see.”

Silence fell upon us as we stood pondering the fate of our friend. It was broken by a snapping twig, which was like thunder in the silence. Within a second, our guns were pointing outward. Gonzales slowly knelt down in such a way that one leg went over Jones' unconscious form in a protective fashion.

A pair of eyes suddenly appeared from behind one of the trees.

“Contact. My twelve.” I reported in an almost calm voice while zeroing my rifle on the tree.

“Reference the Humvee.” replied the Sergeant. Glancing back, I saw how the Humvee was and where I was facing according to it.

“Four o'clock,” I amended, now facing the tree again. The eyes were gone. Now I was scanning the trees again.

“Six o'clock,” I heard Gonzales report. Looking, I saw eyes looking through a bush. They were... big. Too big for any being that I knew of. “And it's gone,” Gonzales added.

I heard Smiley give a low growl.

“Come on out!” shouted the Sergeant, his rifle still up and ready. That was when I heard the whispering. From the sudden commotion of movement, I could tell that my squadmates had heard it as well. Tired of the waiting, I took a step towards the whispering. With a flurry of... hooves, the whispering stopped and whoever was doing it started to make a hasty retreat.

I hesitated. Glancing back, I saw Sarge use his rifle to motion towards the noise, “You and Smiley go! Follow them!”

I nodded my head before breaking into a full sprint after whoever, or whatever, was spying on us. A quick glance back confirmed that Smiley was indeed following me. We ran fast and hard, the apple trees zipping by us as we tried to catch up to the people ahead of us. I only caught brief glimpses of hooves or a horse's ear. What I saw confused me as two of the horses, young horses by the look of things, were of unnatural colors.

A voice drifted back to Smiley and me. I assumed they were yelling since it reached us, “Scootaloo! Go get help and bring them to the clubhouse!”

I couldn't hear the answer, if there was one, but I did hear some of the hoof sounds break from the main source. Without saying anything, Smiley and me both decided that the bigger group would be better to follow. That meant, however, that soon we may have to deal with more of whoever these people were at this “clubhouse”. Are they kids? I thought to myself while jumping over a fallen branch.

Hearing hooves on wood, I wasn't all that surprised when we came into a small clearing. In the center was a large appletree, a clubhouse built in it with a ramp leading from the ground to the clubhouse and another leading to a little observatory at the top. Skidding to a stop, I looked at Smiley. With a quick nod, Smiley and I walked close to the clubhouse. I had lowered my rifle while Smiley stood ready, glancing behind us every couple of steps for whatever “help” the other one was bringing.

Motioning for Smiley to stop, I took a couple more steps to the clubhouse before raising my empty hands and standing still.

“Hello?” I called out, trying to calm my voice and make it sound gentle, “I'm not gonna hurt you. Neither is my friend. We are lost and just want to talk.”

A brief silence before, “Go away!”

Slowly lowering my mask, I tried again, “Please! My friends and I are lost and just need to talk.”

“Talk to us than.”

Turning around, I saw a sight that confounded me. Standing before me were two... ponies and the little pony. The little pony, who had an orange coat and purple mane and tail was hiding behind the pony that had a lighter orange coat with a yellow mane and tail and a cowboy hat on it's head. Standing to that pony's right was a pony that was bigger than the other adult that had a red coat and orange mane and tail with a work collar around his neck.

I glanced at Smiley and, even though his SAW was now aimed squarely at the bigger of the two ponies, he gave a small shake of his head. Looking back at the ponies, I saw the blonde maned one open it's mouth.

“Well, do you wanna talk or not?”

My mouth was agape. It just... spoke. It spoke like a human but, that shouldn't have been possible.

“You can talk?” I asked, my surprise evident.

“That's what you wanted ain't it?” it asked in frustration before turning toward the big, red pony, “Isn't that what this ugly Diamond Dog wanted Big Mac?”

“Eeyup,” was the reply from the big, red pony. Again, my mouth hung agape. My mind was also plunged into a sea of memories from when I was in High School. I remember being at my computer watching a show about ponies and friendship and... Holy shit.

“Ma'am,” I started cautiously, “My friend and I are not Diamond Dogs. We are humans who somehow ended up in your orchard of apple trees. While trying to-”

“What in tarnation are you babbling about?” the blonde maned pony, Applejack I now remembered, asked. To iterate her aggravation, she stomped her hoof against the ground and snorted. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Smiley tense. Realizing I was short on time, I tried to hurry up.

“We are not from anywhere near Equestria and yet, by some form of magic, have ended up crashed in your orchard. We heard voices and tried to call out whoever it was but, I'm afraid we ended up scaring them. Our training took over and we gave pursuit. If I had known they were little fillies, I wouldn't have chased them.”

I could feel Smiley's questioning stare boring into the back of my head. It didn't faze me though as I stared at Applejack, awaiting a response. As if by second thought I looked toward Smiley and said, “Lower your weapon.” the obvious look my way was enough to convey his feelings. “Now!” I repeated, almost shouting it. I watched as he bitterly, and slowly, lowered the powerful weapon until it was pointing at the ground.

Looking back at Applejack, I raised the corner of my lips up enough so that it could be considered as a smile without showing any of my teeth. Applejack glanced between Smiley and me while her brother just stared at Smiley with malice.

“Listen,” I started, “I know how hard this may be to believe.”

“You're darn right it is!”

“My friends and I-”

“'Friends'? There's more of you?” she asked, some more protective driven anger flashing.

“Yes,” I answered with a mental cringe at the response, “Three more with one of us being badly hurt. Listen we'll be in a clearing out in that direction,” I pointed, “I'm sure the three fillies will be able to tell the way. Now, if you would allow, my friend and I would like to head back to the clearing and make sure our hurt friend is still okay. If you wish to speak, which I hope you do, we will be waiting for you. And I promise, no weapons will be pointed at anypony else.”

Applejack looked me in the eye before looking to calm down slightly. “Go,” she ordered while pointing a hoof to the side. I nodded my head and bowed slightly before giving Smiley a light push away from the standoff. When we were about a quarter of the way to the clearing, he turned to me.

“What the hell happened back there?”

“Smiley. Have you ever heard of the show My Little Pony?”

A brief silence, “Yeah, one of my friends back home watched it. Called himself a 'Brony'. Even tried to get to watch it.”

“What if I told you that we somehow ended up inside that show?”

A longer silence, “So, what you're saying is that we are inside a kid's show? And you know this how?”

I sighed and chuckled, “Because I'm a Brony. Now come on, we need to hurry.”

The jog back to the clearing was... uneventful to say the least. Smiley became quiet as soon as we started to jog, probably contemplating what I had said. This didn't irritate me, however. I was used to his silence and it also gave me time to think on what I was going to say to Gonz and the Sarge. I sighed again. It was going to be a long day.

Chapter Three

“We're where?” shouted Gonz, throwing his hands into the air and pacing back and forth. “This is fucking perfect, you know that Tyler? You just made my fucking day! I hope you laugh yourself to death with this one!”

By this time, he had stopped pacing and was just glaring at me. All I did was remain silent and look back at him with an impassive face. His anger subsided slightly when I didn't reply.

“Smiley,” started the Sergeant, “is he telling the truth?”

I looked over at Smiley. The man was about six foot four and, contrary to his nickname, didn't smile much. He was actually one of the more serious men that I knew, always focusing on the task at hand. Without looking at me, he nodded his head,

“Yes sir. The three beings that I did see looked like ponies, talked, and definitely looked animated. From that, I'd have to say that we did get sucked into the show that Tyler described.”

The Sergeant, Kilborn was his last name, thought quietly for a couple moments before nodding his head, “That'd explain why the radio was out and how we ended up in an orchard.”

“Great!” Gonz yelled, “Well, while you guys act like this normal as can be, I'm gonna have myself some lunch because my stomach seems to be the only fucking thing that is acting normal around here.”

Even thought it was angrily said, I felt a small smile creeping to my face at what the Corporal had said. Kilborn was just shaking his head before nodding his head towards the Humvee. Nodding, I walked over to the Humvee with him.

“Might as well eat while we wait for them to come,” I heard Sergeant Kilborn say with an amused sigh. I chuckled a little myself. When I got to the Humvee, I reached into the back, which Gonz had opened, and grabbed my pack. It was identifiable by one of my nametapes being placed on it.

Setting the three-day assault pack on the ground, I opened it and pulled out one of the three MREs that was within. While there were plenty of apples around, the four soldiers knew they'd need more than one apple if they were going to get through the entire day. Zipping my pack closed, I leaned it against the sideways Humvee before walking near the edge of the clearing. I chose a tree that was close to the direction that the clubhouse was in, so that I would be the first to notice the ponies when they came.

I sat down against the tree before taking off my helmet and setting it aside. Ripping open the top of the MRE, I began to take everything out and set it on the ground. Looking at the front, I smiled. Hell yeah, Meatloaf. I thought to myself. While some of the other things weren't all that good, the meatloaf itself was awesome. The Tootsie Rolls that came with the meal just added to it all.

I had just finished pouring water from my canteen into the heater packet when I heard Gonz yelling again.

“Hey guys, look!” Looking up, I saw Gonz climb out of the turret hatch with the iPod in hand. A wide smile was on his face as he tapped the screen, “It still works!”

I shook my head at the medic as I continued to prepare the meal. When a very recognizable singing came through the music players speaker, I chuckled. With Eminem providing some background music, I dug my hand into my right thigh pocket to pull out a battered hardcover book. It had obviously seen better days as the covers were slightly scorched and the pages were frayed. However, even with the damage, the title was still visible. 1984 was a book that I had read in High School, causing me to buy it for my personal collection. When I left for this deployment, I resolved that I would read it again.

There wasn't much time for reading though. Between patrols, searches, PT, base security, and just plain surviving, I had little time to read. Now, however, I had quiet time to read as my meal was still heating up. Of course, I knew the quiet couldn't last for long.

“Shitshitshit!”

Looking up, I saw Gonz rushing over to Jones' laying form. The IV that was attached to his arm had been a shocker when I got back but I understood that Jones probably needed the nutrients it'd give him. Being closer to Jones and the now professional Gonz than Smiley and Kilborn, I dropped my book and scrambled over to my wounded friend.

Without even looking up, Gonz ordered me to put pressure against the wound. Pushing down where the hole was like he asked, I watched as Gonz started giving compressions. Every thirty compressions, he gave Jones two rescue breaths. A rescue breath was when you pushed some of your air down into the unconscious person's lungs. This did, of course, require mouth to mouth contact but when the life of your friend was at hand, you didn't exactly care. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Smiley and Kilborn rush over to us. All throughout the compressions, Gonz was whispering “Stay alive”, as if willing Jones to breath again.

After the third set, we saw Jones' chest rise and fall on it's own. Putting an ear to Jones' mouth, a smile grew on Gonzales's face. The smile spread across my face and a quick glance confirmed that Kilborn was smiling as well. I couldn't see Smiley's face because of the mask but I knew that he was at least happy with the outcome.

A clearing of a throat snapped us out of our merrymaking. Turning around, I saw a group of ponies standing near where I left my meal and my things. They were a mixture of different colors but I knew who they were. To my surprise, most of the of the Mane Six, Pinkie Pie being the one absent, stood at the edge of the clearing. With them was also Big Mac and the three fillies that Smiley and me had given chase to.

Rarity looked briefly at my food, helmet, and book with mild disgust before looking at us. Applejack, and her brother, stared at us with some aggression, the fillies hiding behind them. The fillies themselves had a mixture of fear and curiosity, peaking out from behind the older Apple siblings. Rainbow Dash was glancing between us and the Humvee before finally setting her sight on the Humvee. Fluttershy was peaking out from behind the purple unicorn that stood at the foreground, her face full of concern as she seemed to look straight at Jones. The unicorn, Twilight Sparkle, stared at us with pure curiosity.

I heard the clanking of guns being grasped and turned back to put my gloved hands, which now had even more blood on them, up. Looking at Gonz and Kilborn, I shook my head before lowering my hands. Following the motion, the two lowered their half-raised weapons. Looking over at Smiley, I saw him motion towards the ponies.

Sighing, I stood to my feet and turned to face the gathered group. Taking a step forward, I raised my hands up with my palms out.

“No weapons. See?” I started, directing it at Applejack and her brother, who didn't seem to simmer down at all. After a couple seconds, Twilight took a couple steps toward me.

“I'm Twilight Sparkle, who are you?” she asked, her words kind.

“My name is Tyler Odom. These are my... pals Gonzales, Kilborn, Smiley, and Jones,” I pointed them out when I said their names. Twilight frowned when I motioned to Jones.

“Is...is he... going to be... alright?”

I looked at Fluttershy, whose whisper was barely audible. She was motioning with her hoof towards Jones. I gave a quick glance to Gonzales before answering,

“He will be.”

With that seemingly taken care of, Twilight spoke again, “How did you end up here?”

I swallowed nervously. How could I possibly explain that almost dying brought us to their world? Besides that, how could I explain that the world we came from was a world where violence and death were common?

After a pause that was maybe too long, I answered, “We were driving through a desert when we were... attacked.” At this, I saw Twilight's eyes widen slightly and saw one of Rainbow's eyebrows shoot up. “Before we met our end, a bright light enveloped us. When we awoke, we found ourselves in this clearing. That's all that I know.”

After a couple seconds, Twilight sighed, “You're not from this world are you?”

I shook my head, “No ma'am.”

Twilight nodded and I heard her mutter an, “I thought so,” as she looked at my helmet and food. In the middle of the silence, my stomach decided to growl loudly. This caused Twilight to tilt her head at me with a small smirk.

“Smooth,” I heard Gonz mutter.

“Shut the hell up. I'm hungry,” I replied, glaring at the man. Gonzales laughed,

“Too bad your food is out of bounds than, huh.”

I opened my mouth to say a comeback but closed it just as quickly. He was right. Looking back, I saw the mess of MRE components that lay out orderly next to the group of ponies. I also noticed the confused looks on most of their faces.

“Uhm, this may seem weird, but can you give me that packet of water with the box in it and the spoon from that pile of stuff?” I asked, pointing at the necessary items that was near the tree. A soft purple glow surrounding the items before they were lifted from the ground.

“These?” Twilight asked incredulously, though I could tell she was slightly amused.

“Yes,” I answered. The two items then floated over to me before being deposited in my hands. Of course, that was probably a bad idea as the packet sent the heat through my glove.

“Shit. Hot,” I cursed. Letting go of the packet, I snagged the top of the box and let the packet and water fall to the grass. Ripping the spoon from it's plastic, I opened the top of the box. Digging out a spoonful of my meal, I stuck it in my mouth and smiled.

Of course, this elicited a laugh from my comrades, who were staring at me dumbfounded until that point.

“Hey,” I started through my mouthful of food as I looked back at them, “shut the hell up. It may be hotter than sin but it sure is good.”

I than heard a snicker from the group of ponies and remembered what was exactly happening. Swallowing the food, I smiled sheepishly as I looked back at the group,

“Sorry. Doesn't look like much but good food is good food,” I said with that same smile.

“Are you kidding?” asked Rarity in her high-class voice, “That... food looks downright inedible.”

I shrugged and shoved another spoonful into my mouth, “I think it's good.”

This caused Rainbow to laugh a little at Rarity's expense. I also noticed that Applejack was beginning to loosen up. Almost a minute went by in relative silence before I finally decided to break it,

“So Miss Sparkle. Now what?”

“I don't know,” she replied honestly, pawing a hoof at the ground, “I guess all I can do is send a letter to the Princess informing her of the situation and ask for her advice. Until than, I guess all we can do is-”

“Jones!”

Swinging my head around, I saw Gonzales looking down at Jones' face. His eyelids were opening and closing rapidly as his right arm moved to his head. With sluggish movements, he tried to hoist himself up but Gonzales gently pushed him back down.

“Whoa there bud. Had that bullet been an inch in any direction, you would be a dead man. Just lay still man.”

“Wh-where are we? Did we get away from the insurgents?” Jones asked as he opened his eyes and stared into the blue sky.

“Yeah man,” Gonzales chuckled a little, “we got away from them alright. You need to rest man, you got it? Just let yourself drift back to sleep.”

And like that, he was sound asleep again. Looking back at Twilight, I saw that they were all as enthralled on Jones' awakening as we were. The group had even taken a few, collective steps forward.

“You were saying Miss Sparkle?”

Twilight shook her head briefly before looking at me and giving a small smile, “I was saying that there isn't much we can do besides send Princess Celestia a letter describing this predicament and asking for her advice. Also, there is the order of finding you a place to sleep.”

At the last sentence, everyone looked up at the dimming sky, signaling the near end of the day. I gave a small chuckle though,

“A place to sleep will be no trouble at all Miss Sparkle. With your friend's permission,” I nodded towards Applejack, “my friends and I can simply sleep in this clearing. We've slept in worst conditions before.”

Twilight glanced back at Applejack, who shrugged her shoulders after a few seconds of thought.

“Ah can't honestly see why they can't stay in this clearing.”

“Perfect,” stated Twilight and me in unison. We both looked at each other for a brief moment before Twilight smiled.

“Right, well. Though I would appreciate it if you,” she pointed at me with her hoof, “would come with me to my library so that I can take a few samples to send with the letter.”

I looked at Kilborn, who nodded his head. Looking back at Twilight, I nodded.

“Sure. Just one second.”

Unclasping my rifle from chest, I handed the weapon over to Smiley, who silently took it. With that done, I cautiously walked over to the pony group. When they didn't try to trample an imprint of my face into the dirt, I approached my items near the tree. The box in my hand now empty, I placed it in the brown MRE bag.Picking up the book, I put it back in my thigh pocket before turning to Twilight.

“All set.”

She looked curiously at my thigh pocket before looking at my eyes and nodding.

“Let's go.”

Chapter Four

Leaving the clearing, I realized that the pony group was also dispersing. Surprisingly, Rainbow Dash had decided to stay at the clearing, much to the confusion of everyone present. That didn't stop the others from leaving, however.

Following Twilight, I looked around at the Orchard. Now that I wasn't rushing through it with an adrenaline spike, I could see it for the postercard of nature that it was. Looking down at my gloves, I saw how blood-stained they were. I also saw the blood still over my uniform.

“Umm, Twilight?”

“Hmm?” she replied, looking back at me. I could see her eyes look briefly at the blood before looking at my face. Proof enough

“Don't you think other ponies will react negatively if I come walking through covered in blood?” I asked. Twilight halted as she went into thought. As she did, I heard a rustle of some leaves behind me. Looking back, I barely caught sight of a purple and pink tail zipping behind one of the trees. Chuckling, I looked back at Twilight.

“Well,” Twilight started, smiling, “We'll just have to take a back route won't we?”

I nodded and shrugged. Taking a moment to remove my gloves, I stuffed them into my empty thigh pocket before flexing my hands. Looking at the purple pony, I motioned for her to continue. As we continued walking, I couldn't help but run one of my bare hands against one of the trees. While the colors looked fake, the tree itself felt very real.

“Been awhile since I saw a tree,” I muttered with a chuckle.

“Really?” I heard Twilight ask, looking back again as she walked.

“Yeah. Where we were, there was just sand as far as the eyes could see. The few trees we did see looked nothing like this and, when we did see them, our first thought was always, 'I wonder if anyone is hiding in there?'”

Looking back at Twilight, I could see that she was confused. I gave a small smile before explaining, “Our world is not as harmonious as yours. While you have peace, trust, and love, we have-”

“There are ponies here who hurt other ponies,” Twilight said, interrupting me.

“How common is that though?” I asked, looking her in the eyes. She looked away from me before muttering, “Not common.”

I nodded, “Right. Humans, my species, lie and steal from one another. The few good souls are taken advantage of as the rest send humanity further into the spiral of self-extinction.”

There was a slight pause before Twilight looked back at me and gave a small smile, “From what I've seen, you seem to have a good soul.”

“How so?” I asked, interested in what she had to say.

“Well,” she began, “when you chased the fillies, you could have hurt them but you didn't. You could have tried taking on Applejack and Big Mac when they threatened you but, again, you didn't. That and,” she paused, looking at the blood on my blouse, “I did see you taking care of your friend.”

“Ah,” I said, “so you did see that.”

The unicorn simply nodded, “We got there as soon as you scrambled over to them to help. I admit, I've never seen a wound that bled like that before. What caused it?”

I gave a small smile before opening a pouch on my vest. The ripping of velcro made Twilight flinch, to which a muttered an apology. Taking out a magazine, I used my thumb to push the top round into the palm of my hand before replacing the magazine. Holding up the bullet, I saw a soft glow envelop it and felt a small tug. Letting go of the metal, I watched as it floated until it was in front of Twilight's face.

“This was inside of him?” she asked, studying the bullet.

“Not the entire thing,” I replied with a chuckle, “Just the really shiny tip was.”

She looked back at me in confusion, “How could something so small cause so much damage?”

“When fired from a gun, the thing I handed to my friend back at the clearing, powder in the wider part gets ignited. This pushes that tip out of the barrel and, when it exits the barrel, the tip is traveling faster than the speed of sound.”

A short silence, “What happens to the rest of it?”

“It gets kicked out of an opening in the side to allow another to take it's place.”

A longer silence this time as Twilight continued to stare at the bullet. As she did, we exited the orchard and got onto a dirt road. Looking down the road, I could see the town in the distance. A smirk grew on my face as I looked at the town. Just like in the show, I thought to myself.

“Interesting,” Twilight finally said before floating the bullet back to me and dropping it into my hand. Taking out the magazine, I loaded the bullet back into place before putting the magazine back. We continued to walk in silence. As we walked, a song crept into my head and, before I could think about it, I began to sing it softly.

“Well I grew up down an old dirt road in a town you wouldn't know.
My pops picked the place up for fifteen-hundred bucks back in nineteen sixty-four.

My grandfather was a drinker back in the day he put 'em down.
But war is known to change and the whiskey is known to change a man.

But, that's not me.
I rarely drink from the bottle but I smoke a little weed.
I still live in the sticks where you wouldn't go,
In a town of twelve-hundred off an old dirt road
And a country boy is all I'll ever be.”

The rest of the words slipped my mind so I was content to hum more of the tune. That was until I opened my eyes and saw Twilight looking up at me with a smile on her face.

“Sorry,” I muttered, “the road reminded me of a song.”

“No, it's okay,” she said, the smile still there, “I kinda liked it.”

I smiled back and enjoyed the rest of the walk in actual silence. Well, it would've been silent had I not heard subtle hoofsteps following the two of us. I just gave a small smile and kept walking, mildly entertained that Twilight hadn't heard them yet.

Sneaking through town was actually easy to do as many ponies were getting ready for bed. Reaching the library door, I watched as Twilight opened it with her magic and stepped through. When I didn't immediately follow, she looked back at me, confused. I just gave put a finger to my lips before putting my hand a little off the ground and mouthing, 'Followers'.

She still looked confused for an instant but soon understood. With her playing along, closing the door and grabbing a book to read, I walked around the library. Almost at the back, I peaked around a branch to see the three fillies from before standing on top of each other to allow the orange coat one to look inside.

“Where is he?” she whispered.

The one at the bottom, who had a yellow coat and a red bow in her hair, was the one who answered, “How should we know? You're supposed to be the one looking.”

I cleared my throat and watched in amusement as their tower came crashing down. They lie in a heap before they finally caught sight of me. They jumped to their feet as their eyes traveled up to my face.

“Howdy,” I said, kneeling down in front of them. I kept my hands out, hoping to put them at ease.

“H-howdy,” replied the yellow one, her body shaking. It tore my heart to see that I had scared them so badly.

“Now,” I started in a soft voice, “I know how strange it must be, seeing me here. I also know how scary it must have been when my friend and I chased you. For that I deeply apologize. However, you should know that spying is wrong. Right?”

I looked up as Twilight stepped into view behind the three fillies.

“What do you say?” She asked of the fillies, who jumped in surprise at her appearance. The three soon collected themselves and hung their heads.

“Sorry mister,” they said simultaneously. I nodded my head and smiled at them.

“No worries,” I paused and opened a utility pouch on my vest, “in fact, I think I got something to apologize.”

Pulling my hand from the pocket, I looked at the three Tootsie Rolls that now sat in my palm. I had put them in that pouch when I first pulled them from the MRE. It was a habit for me to put any candy I got into my vest for when I went onto patrol. Old habits die hard I guess, I thought as I held the, thankfully blood-free, candy out to the girls.

“What is it?” asked the white coat one.

“It's chocolate. Y'all can have chocolate right?” I asked, looking up at Twilight for confirmation. She gave a curt nod. When I looked down at my hand, I realized that all three pieces were gone. Looking up, I saw the three fillies pop the chocolate into their mouths and begin chewing. They smiled wide and even made a 'MMM' sound. The wrappers ended up on the ground but I just smiled as the girls chewed and swallowed the chocolate.

“That was amazing!” shouted the orange coat one, causing me to chuckle.

“Now run along you three,” Twilight ordered. The three fillies grumbled but a look from Twilight caused them to start to head away from the Library. Picking up the wrappers, I followed Twilight inside the building. Pocketing the wrappers, I looked around the building in awe. My sight finally settled on an amused Twilight sitting next to the closed door.

“That was very kind of you,” she said. I just smiled and shrugged.

“I've learned that candy can get little ones over almost anything.”

“I'm sure,” mused Twilight before shaking her head, “Now, about those samples.”

“What do ya need?” I asked casually.

“Hair, skin, blood, urine, and stool,” Twilight quickly named off. She looked at me worriedly but I just nodded,

“Makes sense.”

“Well, it's to- wait, what?” she asked, looking at me.

“I said, 'Makes sense'. I know that my government would ask the same of you if you ended up in my world,” Of course... they wouldn't ask.

“Oh,” she replied, looking at the floor before looking back up at me, “Lets begin, shall we?”

I nodded, “Lets.”

Chapter Five

The night air made me shiver as I clutched my rifle in my hands. Looking over my shoulder, I saw the Humvee gently rolling along. While Gonzales drove, Jones manned the big gun on top. The rest of us walked alongside it. Well, Smiley and Kilborn did. I was ahead of the Humvee by a couple yards. The headlights were on low but, even with them, I couldn't see all that far in front of me.

Knew I should have brought my NVGs with me on that damned patrol, I thought to myself as I scanned the dark desert in front of me. That's when I saw something glint in the darkness. Throwing up a closed fist, I heard the brakes screech as they brought the Humvee to a halt.

“What is it?” shouted Kilborn, as he scanned his sector.

“I don't know!” I shouted back, “I saw something reflect the light though!”

“Jones! Send a flare up!” ordered Kilborn after a short silence. I didn't hear the response, if there was one, but soon I heard a soft thumping noise. After a couple seconds, which felt more like an eternity, a loud pop sounded above me and a greater expanse of land was revealed by the bright light as it slowly fell to the ground.

The sight in front of me made me freeze. There were hundreds of pony-like creatures. All were black as night but wore a sort of blue armor. They seemed to be staring right at me as their holey legs prepped for a charge.

“Open fire!” I heard Kilborn shout. As the Fifty began to roar, the creatures charged. I was caught off guard as one slammed into my chest and tackled me to the dirt. Putting my hands against it's shoulders, it took all my strength to hold it back. Even so, the thing snapped it's teeth at me, trying to tear me apart. Each snap of teeth brought forth a familiar voice,

“Get up Tyler! Get your lazy ass up and help out!”

Finally realizing it couldn't bite me, the thing reared back quickly. Losing grip of it's shoulders, I watched in horror as it brought up a hoof and sent it smashing down at my face.

My eyes snapped open and I found myself looking up at a clear, blue sky. That view was blocked as Gonzales' head appeared in my field of view.

“Wake up Princess. We need your help.”

A flapping of wings and a the sound of hooves landing on dirt sounded to my left.

“Princess? You guys are weird.”

“Yeah, yeah. You said that last night too when we started playing Blackjack,” Gonzales replied, looking over his shoulder at the cyan pegasus that I knew would be there. Lifting a hand, I pushed Gonzales back as I sat up and stretched. Looking over, I saw that Rainbow Dash was standing a couple feet behind Gonzales.

Last night, I had returned to the clearing to see the Kilborn and Gonzales playing Blackjack while Smiley just cleaned his gun. Rainbow had been watching both activities closely. She had given me a small smile when I showed up but went back to watching the two activities. Later on, she had left for her home, vowing she'd be back tomorrow morning.

Getting to my feet, I looked over as Gonz did the same.

“What the hell do you need my help for?” I asked, stretching some.

“We're gonna try to get Athena back on her feet. That's what we need your help for,” he replied with a smile. I saw Rainbow give a confused look from behind the medic, to which I gave a small chuckle at.

“Good. Hopefully she's still kicking.”

With that, I followed Gonzales over to the Humvee while scratching my bare forearm. I had taken off my vest and blouse the night before, opting to sleep without them. However, I ended up using the blouse as a blanket as it was cold.

Going to the side of the Humvee that was the actual top, I saw Kilborn and Smiley waiting for me. While Gonzales and Kilborn has also shed their vests, helmets, and blouses, Smiley only shed off his vest and helmet. As well, Smiley still wore his facemask but had his goggles resting on his forehead.

“Glad to see you're awake,” stated the Sergeant with a smirk.

“Let's just get her back on her feet, alright? Twilight's coming to bring me to town so that she can introduce our kind to the townsfolk and I'd like to have cleaned my uniform by than.”

“I'm sorry,” interrupted Rainbow Dash, stepping up behind us, “but who in the hay is this 'Athena' you're talking about?”

The other three looked towards me. Looking at the cyan mare, I smiled, “Athena is the name that we gave our Humvee.”

To reiterate what the Humvee was, I patted the metal skin of the vehicle softly. The pegasus looked at all of us, confused, before simply laughing and saying, “Ooookay.”

Shaking my head at her, I just turned to my squadmates and nodded. Without saying a word, the four of us put our hands against the top of the vehicle and pushed. The Humvee slowly began to sway as he pushed, stopped, and pushed again. We timed our pushes just right so that it went further and further toward the wheel-side. Finally, the great machine went past it's small balance point and began to fall over. With a loud 'THUD' the left wheels hit the ground and the vehicle bounced slightly from the impact. Behind the rear passenger door on the, now visible, right side was the word 'Athena' is black lettering.

“Hell yeah!” shouted Gonzales, I went up and through himself against the side of the vehicle, his arms outstretched as if trying to give it a hug. “I've missed you so much,” he said. Before he did anything in front of Rainbow that he'd regret, I gave the man a soft tap to the shin with my boot. He glared at me but I just nodded to where Dash stood, both amused and confused at the same time. When he saw her, a soft blush came to his cheeks before nodding to me.

“Right, well,” he began, coughing slightly, “Let's see if she wakes up or not, shall we?”

With that, Gonzales hurried around to the left side of the vehicle and climbed into the driver seat. A few hoofsteps and Rainbow Dash was right beside me.

“What was that all about?” she asked me.

I chuckled, “Gonzales there loves this Humvee more than most things. He's never truly happy unless he's behind the wheel of this thing.”

Before Rainbow could reply, the most ungodly grumbling started, causing the pegasus to shriek and take flight. The entire Humvee shook as the engine tried to start over. Looking at the tailpipe, I saw some smoke coming out and frowned. Using the Humvee will pollute the atmosphere around it, however, before restrictions could be placed we did need to know if it even worked.

Finally, the engine coughed and roared as it fully came to life. Gonzales pumped the accelerator a couple times, making it roar louder as more fuel entered the engine.

“We're back in business boys!” I heard Gonzales shout before Kilborn motioned for him to shut it down. Begrudgingly, the medic complied and, with some sputtering, the Humvee quieted down again. The medic stood on the lip of the Humvees floor to look over the roof at us, “Why'd you make me shut her down Sarge? She just got used to breathing again.”

Kilborn motioned around to the trees. I looked around myself and saw that even the widest path wasn't wide enough for the Humvee to fit through. Of course, coming down that one trail was Applejack and Big Mac.

“What in the hay was that?” Applejack asked as she came sliding to a halt.

“Ma'am,” I started, trying to suppress the smile on my face, “I apologize for scaring you. It's just that we got our Humvee here,” I pointed at the vehicle, “back on it's wheels and we wanted to see if it still ran. The noise you heard was the engine starting up.”

She looked at me, before looking at the Humvee with astonishment. “That thing works?” she asked incredulously.

“Of course!” shouted Gonzales, “My Athena here has taken worse before!”

Applejack looked confused, “Athena?”

I chuckled, “That's what we've taken to calling it-”

“Her,” Gonzales amended. I chuckled again and rolled my eyes.

“Right, you crazy bastard,” I said looking at him. I looked back at Applejack, who still looked confused, “See, miss...” it was than that I realized she hadn't yet told me her name, “I'm sorry but, what's your name again?”

“Applejack,” she said blankly.

“Well, Miss Applejack,” I started again, “us Humans sometimes personify our vehicles. We give them names and genders and treat them like another sentient being. We named our Humvee Athena, who was the goddess of knowledge and tactics in an old Human religion. So now instead of saying 'it', we say 'her' and 'she'. Makes sense?”

“Kinda,” was her reply as the confusion gave way to amusement. That was when a visibly shaken Rainbow Dash drifted down to a landing beside Applejack. After a moment, though, she shook herself out of it.

“Wait,” she started, putting a hoof to her chin in thought, “if your 'Humvee' is a she and you have to get inside it to use it, than-” A soft blush came to her cheeks as she finally drew up her conclusion. Applejack looked at her friend, confused, until realization came upon her face and, she too, blushed slightly.

I just laughed, “Sexual innuendos, gotta love 'em.”

This caused the other three to laugh, Smiley's low laugh echoing around the clearing.

“Of course,” began Kilborn, “Athena here is the only woman that will allow Gonzales inside her.”

This caused Smiley, Kilborn, and me to laugh harder as Gonzales just glared at us. Looking over, I saw the three ponies looked briefly at each other before joining in the laughter. Applejack and Rainbow fell to the ground, they were laughing so hard.

“Oh, hardy har har. Get a good laugh at Gonz's expense,” Gonzales said as he glared at everyone. After about a minute of laughter, I wiped the tears from my eyes and smiled at the medic.

“You have to admit, Sarge got you good with that one,” I said, trying to soothe things over. Finally, Gonzales smiled again and chuckled.

“I guess you're right there.”

After another minute, everyone had stopped laughing and were just sitting and smiling dumbly. Finally, I remembered my predicament and turned to Applejack.

“Miss Applejack, I-”

“Just Applejack, 'nough of this 'Miss' stuff.”

I smiled, “Right. Applejack. Is there anyway we can wash our clothes?”

She nodded, “I can get ya a tub or two and point you to the stream nearby.”

“That'll do,” I said with a smile. She nodded before her and her brother turned to head back down the trail. I followed close behind them, again viewing the orchard with awe. I smiled wider as I walked along.

“You look happier than Dash after she met the Wonderbolts, you know that?”

I broke out of my semi-trance state to look down at Applejack. “I'm just trying to wrap my head around where I am.”

“What ya mean, sugarcube? Hasn't Twilight told you?” she asked.

I shook my head, “No. I know where I am. It's just-” I stopped myself, sighing and looking down at the pistol still strapped to my thigh.

“Just what?” she asked, coming to a stop, which caused me to stop also.

“Just... I'm sure you've realized that my friends and I are soldiers, right?” a nod, “Well, in our world, soldiers aren't just known for guarding certain places. We humans fight amongst ourselves. Wars are a common part of human history. The area that my friends and I were, was an active warzone. Everyday, we would think to ourselves, 'Are they gonna hit us today?' 'When's the next mortar round coming down? Whose it gonna hit?' 'Will I be able to get home alive?'”

I paused as I looked at my hands, opening and closing them, as if making sure they still work, “I've seen more than a few good men die. Some I held in my hands as they breathed their final breath. I've also taken a few lives. Luckily, I don't know most that I've taken because it was in the midst of a chaotic firefight where a lot of guns were going off. However, I've dispatched a few that I do know about.” I could feel a few tears now but I still stood straight. “Have you ever had to comfort a kid who was crying because his dad died and yet knowing that you had been the one who killed the kid's father?”

I looked at her to see her slowly shake her head. A few tears had also come from her eyes and a hoof was to her mouth.

“Of course not,” I continued, “and I hope you never do. My world is hell, Applejack. A good quote that I have always remembered is, 'The strong take what they want. The weak suffer what they must.'”

There was silence as I wiped away my tears. Without looking up, I muttered, “Can we continue to the tubs please? I'd like to get this blood off of me.”

There was no reply, only hoofsteps. We continued along the path in silence, Big Mac not having said or really done anything but stare straight ahead. Unclenching my fists, I sighed deeply. I knew that saying any of that was probably the wrong thing to have done but the more I looked around at the perfection of this world, the more I knew that my friends and I did not belong.

Chapter Six

I had just gotten my, now dried, clothes off the tree branch when the sound of hoofsteps came from the trail leading to the clearing.

“Hey Twi!” I heard from the clearing.

“Oh, hey Rainbow Dash. What are you doing here?”

“Hanging out and being awesome.” I chuckled softly as I slipped on my trousers and shirt. Tucking my shirt into my pants, I put on the belt before slipping on my boots and beginning to tie them.

“Uh-huh. Do you know where Tyler is?”

“He's over there behind those trees. Washing his clothes.”

“I see.”

After that, there was some silence and I took that as my cue. With my uniform back on, minus the blouse that was still hanging on the branch, I stepped back into the clearing to see the two ponies standing near the trailhead. The hood of the Humvee was open and Smiley was bent over the engine, tools in hand. Looking up at me, he gave me a curt nod before going back to the engine.

Walking up to him, I looked at the engine myself and asked, “What's wrong with her?”

“Nothing,” he replied with a shrug, “just giving her a quick tune-up.”

“Ah. Where'd Sarge and Gonz go?”

“To help that Applejack around the farm. Since we're staying here and all.”

I nodded my head and, patting Smiley on the back, turned to walk towards my combat equipment. The vest had been the first thing I had cleaned but dark stains still clung to the fabric. Sighing, I picked the vest up and slid it down over my torso. As I was securing it, I heard hoofsteps come up behind me.

“You won't need that.”

Looking back, I saw the purple unicorn looking at me, a kind of determination in her eyes.

“I know I won't need it but,” I paused as I tightened one of the straps and knelt down to retrieve my rifle, “it'll make me feel better if I wore it.”

A short pause. During the pause, I heard the scratching of something against paper. Looking back, I saw Twilight writing something down on a piece of paper with a quill that she had produced from her saddlebag. I chuckled.

“What?” she asked.

“You remind me of a shrink.”

“Shrink?”

“Right. Sorry. A psychologist. Writing down everything I say as if my life may depend on it.”

“Oh,” she said, stopping, “I can... stop if it makes you uncomfortable.”

“Nah,” I replied, after clipping my rifle to my vest, “I don't mind.”

She nodded before going back to writing. Smiling, I just turned and walked over to where Jones laid. Kneeling next to him, my kneepad hitting the grass, I put two fingers to his throat to check his pulse. It was going strong and I could see his chest rising and falling at a normal rate.

Looking back towards Smiley, I saw him still bent over the engine but he now had a certain cyan pegasus looking down at him from her vantage point on the Humvee's roof.

“Well,” I stood up and faced Twilight, “I'm ready when you are.”

She nodded and started down the trail leading to the main road. Following her, I noticed that she was still writing on the paper.

“Is it okay if I ask you some questions?” she asked, not even looking back at me.

“Sure.”

“Okay,” she cleared her throat, “in your dimension, do you have a Princess?”

“Sure but my country doesn't have one. See. On Earth, us humans can't come under one single banner. Too many things separate us. Ideas, language, money, family. Because of this, many nations have sprouted across the face of the planet. Some have Kings and Queens, being a monarchy like your government. Others, have Dictators who are people who forcibly assert their rule over their populace. Still others, like mine, have elected officials who lead the nation.

“For example. My nation, America, has a President that has most of the powers that your Princess does but he has to be chosen by the people to lead the country. After four years in office, he has the chance of being replaced by someone else. Does this make sense?”

“Kinda. It is very different, that is for sure.”

“Exactly.”

“Next question. Do all humans wear clothes or only soldiers?”

I chuckled, “Yes, most humans wear clothes because it is a social norm. We consider certain regions of the body private and, as such, have taken to concealing them. Of course, clothes are also to keep away certain elements of nature and to avoid harm during work.”

“You said 'most'.”

“Well of course. There are those in my world, as I'm sure there are in your world, who do not follow the social norms. In this specific case, there are humans who do walk around without clothes. They call themselves 'nudists' and usually live together in what we end up calling 'nudist colonies'.”

“Oh,” Twilight murmured as she quickly wrote something down on the paper. By this time we had reached the road and turned towards the town. Opening a pouch, I pulled out a small notepad and a pen. Flipping open the notepad, I smiled and cleared my throat.

“Now Twilight. Can I ask you a few questions?”

The unicorn was visibly surprised at the turn of events as she stumbled slightly. Recomposing herself, she nodded,

“Okay.”

“How do you hold things?” I asked, ready to write down her answer.

“Ah,” she began, “well, us ponies all have magic in us. While unicorns have both active and passive magic, pegasi and earth ponies only have passive magic. This passive magic extends from our hooves, when needed, to form appendages that match your fingers. This allows us to pick up and manipulate items without the use of active magic. Understand?”

“Yep,” I said as I finished writing a short-handed version of what she had said, “got it. Another question: what's that mark on your flank?” I already knew the answer but if I didn't ask, she might've gotten suspicious as to why. Even though I planned on telling her and her friends that they were actually a TV show, I didn't want to cause Twilight to ask too early.

“It's my cutie mark. A cutie mark appears when a pony find his or her special talent in life. For example, mine represents that my talent is the study, and usage, of magic. Dash's mark represents her speed and place on the weather team. So on and so forth.”

“Interesting,” I replied as I wrote it down in my short-hand notes.

“My turn,” Twilight started, looking back at me with a smile. I gave a smile back and nodded for her to continue, “do humans have cutie marks?”

“No. Humans don't have cutie marks and we embrace that fact. Some humans, however, can go there whole lives without discovering what they are really good at. This doesn't exactly discourage them though as most humans are more concerned with getting through day-to-day experiences than trying to find out what their special talent might be. For example, I know that my 'special talent' isn't war and yet I serve my nation.”

“Than what's that mark near your hand?” she asked. Looking down at my hands, I saw what she meant. On the inside of my wrist, I had a small tattoo of a Greek omega letter with the number '57' inside it, all of it colored red.

“This is a tattoo,” I replied, holding it up so she could see it better, “it's artificially placed onto the skin via a needle and ink. Once it's on, though, it's permanent. Tattoos usually have a special meaning to them, considering their permanence.”

“What does that one mean?”

“Well, when I was younger, I used to play games with my friends. During those games, we used nicknames. My nickname was Omega Fifty-Seven. Omega, this outer shape here, is actually a letter in the alphabet of a language known as Greece in my world. The number is, of course, fifty-seven.”

“Oh, I see. It's like how a cutie mark causes some ponies to change their names to match the mark.”

“A little, yeah,” I replied.

By this time, we were beginning to enter the town so we both put our notes aside. Unlike the last time I had been here, the town was bustling with activity. I couldn't help but notice that many ponies stopped and stared at me. Some even began to follow Twilight and me as we walked through the town. Twilight didn't seem to notice as she gave me a tour of the town.

“Who let that hideous Diamond Dog into town?”

This caused me to stop and look over to the crowd of ponies. Twilight stopped a little after and looked back mumbling an, “Oh boy.”

“Yeah!” shouted another pony, “Go back to your hole you mutt!”

“Get! Be off with you!” shouted another.

More ponies joined in as I stood in mild shock. This didn't seem like the Ponyville from the show but I did see where the hatred came from. They weren't used to humans but they were used to the raiding, thieving Diamond Dogs.

Twilight stopped in front of me and shouted, “Enough!”

The crowd quieted down some, allowing her to speak, “This is not a Diamond Dog. This is a human and his friends and him have come to visit our nice town.”

“He looks like a Diamond Dog to me!” one of them shouted, causing them to grow louder again.

“Hey!” I shouted, my voice booming, “Like Miss Twilight here said, I am not a Diamond Dog. I am not here to steal anything. As she said, my friends and I are just visiting.”

The crowd quieted down some. Twilight stepped forward, “Does that sound like a Diamond Dog to you?”

A couple of ponies in the crowd shook their heads. “Exactly,” Twilight continued, “now get back to what you were doing.”

Slowly the crowd dispersed, though some heated looks were still thrown at me. Sighing, Twilight continued walking. Walking beside her, I stated, “They all look on edge.”

She nodded, “I understand how they can perceive you as a Diamond Dog. Uh, no offense.”

“None taken.”

“But the raids are no excuse to act that way to a new, peaceful visitor. I mean ser-”

“Wait. Did you say raids?”

Twilight stopped and looked back at me, “Why yes, a pack of Diamond Dogs have been bothering us for some time. They rush into town, steal what they can and then rush off. They hurt anypony that stand in their way. Because of that, we haven't really been able to fight back.”

I nodded before I heard screaming come from what I assumed was the southern edge of town.

“Oh, please no,” I heard Twilight murmur before ponies came running at us. They weren't running at us, actually, but were instead running from something. As a stallion passed, he yelled,

“Raiders!”

“Buck! Why now?” Twilight cursed before turning towards me and motioning in the direction the crowd was going with her hoof, “Come on.”

I shook my head as I flicked off the safety of my rifle.

“What? Come on! You can't possibly be thinking of going against that pack.”

Without saying anything else, I took off in a full sprint to where the commotion was coming from. I could feel the adrenaline being released into my veins as I pushed through the crowd. Finally, I was free of the crowd and continued running. Turning a corner, I was met with a scene that explained why most ponies ran in fear.

Standing in the street where about a dozen Diamond Dogs, wearing minimal armor in true Raider fashion. They were overturning stands, stealing food and bits, and causing general havoc. That was when I saw that they had Scootaloo by her mane, her feet dangling as she was held up by one of the Dogs. Tears ran down her cheeks as she tried to get free.

“What we have here? Little orange winged-pony. Why you no fly away?” taunted the dog holding her before laughing.

I raised my rifle and yelled out, “Put her down!”

All the dogs turned to face me, including the one holding Scootaloo. When they saw me, they looked confused but soon barked in laughter.

“You, strange creature. You are stupid. You cannot take us by yourself.”

“Watch me,” I whispered. Softly, I squeezed the trigger, making sure my sights were lined up. Finally, there was a small clap, like thunder, as the weapon bucked in my hands. With a spray of blood, bone, and brain, the Dog holding the orange filly dropped to the ground, releasing the pony.

The sudden death of their leader caused the others to hesitate. This hesitation cost them as I began putting round after round into the dogs. When they snapped out of it, they all snarled and charged at me. With a flick of my thumb, I depressed the trigger and felt the rifle buck repeatedly as the automatic function kicked in. Within moments, a handful more dogs lay on the ground, dead or dying. A loud clicking caused me to realize that I had run out of ammo. Taking a chance, one of the dogs jumped at me, his jaw open. Sidestepping the dog, I dropped my rifle and drew my pistol. Putting two rounds into the dog, I turned back around.

I was met with a dog tackling me to the ground, knocking my pistol from my hands. The dog was snarling and trying to bite me but my hands around his face prevented this. With a quick twist, the dog was no more. Kicking the corpse off of me, I jumped to kneeling position, drew my knife, and looked around at the surviving mutts. There were only three of them now, their eyes darting between me and their dead comrades. Finally, the three turned and began to run out of town, as fast as their legs could carry them.

Sheathing the knife, I walked over to my dropped pistol. Picking it up, I holstered the weapon before reloading my rifle. Switching the M4 back to semi-auto, I jogged over to where Scootaloo was laying. Keeping my head on the swivel for anymore dogs, I knelt next to the filly. Her entire body was shaking as she looked at the dog that had held her by the mane. His blood was now creating a pool under him.

“Hey. I need you to look at me,” I said softly, using one hand to force her eyes toward mine. When she did look at me, I gave a small smile, trying to comfort her, “It's okay, the bad dogs are gone. What's your name?”

“S-s-scootaloo,” she replied in a soft, shaken voice. Tears still rolled down her cheeks as she looked at me. Using my thumb, I wiped off the tears.

“Shhh. Stop crying. It's over. They won't hurt you or anypony else.”

“Are t-they... dead?” she asked, trying to look back but my hand stopped her. Without hesitation, I nodded,

“They are. They tried to hurt you.”

That was when her eyes drifted. Not toward the dead dog but toward my leg, “You're hurt.”

I looked at my thigh and saw a cut on my leg. It wasn't deep but it was bleeding. I frowned, “They got me after all.”

Shoving the thought, and the rising pain, aside, I looked back at Scootaloo, “I'll be fine. Let's get away from here, alright?”

She nodded so I moved and gently picked her up. She flinched slightly at my hands around her but soon settled when she realized that I wasn't trying to hurt her. Holding her in my arms like one might with a cat or a newborn baby, I held a hand over her eyes as I walked towards the end of the street, where I was at the beginning of the shootout. Twilight was standing there, her eyes wide as she looked at carnage. I hope she doesn't see me as a monster, I thought to myself. Seeing the damage that a gun could do was probably very eye-opening for the pony, let alone a filly like Scootaloo.

Walking around the corner of the street, I saw Smiley and Kilborn come running toward me with their weapons and vests on.

“What the hell happened here?” Kilborn asked after taking one look at me with Scootaloo in my arms.

“Raiders, Sarge. Around the corner,” I replied before kneeling down and loosening my hold around the filly. Instead of jumping to the ground, she instead grabbed onto me tighter, showing me first hand how strong those magical appendages can be. Accepting my fate, I continued to hold onto the filly as I sat against a building. My hand stroked her mane as she cried into my vest, “Everything's alright,” I whispered as I watched Kilborn and Smiley head around the corner with weapons at the ready.

I began to rock back and forth as Twilight, now out of her shock, walked to me and lied down beside me. Tears rolled down her cheeks as well. After a couple seconds, she looked up at me and all I could do was mutter,

“I'm sorry.”

Chapter Seven

It had been almost a week since the incident with the raiding Diamond Dogs. The corpses were moved and buried, the blood stains covered up, the brass casings picked up and given to us, and the street returned to normal. The day after the incident, Jones woke up and stayed awake. Within the day he was on his feet and walking around. Dash and him hit it off almost as soon as he awoke. Both of them were interested in the adventurous, so much so that they spent most of their time telling stories of the more crazier stuff they did while planning even crazier stuff to do together. A quick chat from Kilborn and I made sure the Private wouldn't say anything too graphic.

Kilborn and Gonz, now without a patient, began to help around the orchard a lot. A heated argument had broken out when Applejack tried to pay the two for their services. Kilborn made an argument that they were simply repaying her for letting us stay in her orchard while Applejack argued that they had repaid her when we had gotten rid of the raiders. She ended up winning the argument and now we had a bag of bits with nothing to really spend them on. We were still relying on MREs for nutrition but those would run out soon.

Smiley was still fussing over Athena, mumbling about how she wasn't yet “prepared for the worst”. This, of course, caused Gonz to almost go ballistic saying that his girl could “take on the whole of Al Qeada” and that he needed to “stop feeling up his girl”. We had calmed the man down, informing him that it was probably a good thing that Smiley was fussing over the Humvee because we didn't know when we would be forced into some scenario that would put the vehicle to it's test. The medic just shook his head and never spoke of it again.

Twilight and me were continuing our Q&A of our worlds. While I had informed her and her friends of the show, they were pleasantly surprised when they learned that the show didn't show everything and that we still had questions about their world. I had even taken to reading books in the library, sometimes falling asleep there instead of in the clearing.

After the incident, I had also gained a shadow in the form of Scootaloo. Besides going to school and being with her friends, she was always with me, even when I did nothing but read books in the library. Walking back to the clearing one night, she confessed that she really didn't know how to fly and how much it saddened her. After the crying, I promised her that no matter what, I would make sure she flew. The little pony was ecstatic when she heard that but soon calmed and had asked how. I just smiled and told her that I would find a way.

“Hey, Tyler. You with us man?”

Snapping out of my daze, I looked around to see my four squadmates looking at me expectantly.

“I'm sorry. Was just thinking about the past week,” I replied. Kilborn nodded,

“Yeah, a lot had happened but you need to pay attention.”

“Roger Sarge. Won't happen again.”

He nodded, “Alright. So the plan for today is that while Gonz and me work the fields for AJ, Jones is gonna go to town to see if there are any houses for sale that will house us. Tyler, you have that presentation at the school today about different cultures correct?” I nodded, “Alright so you'll do that and then rally with Jones. Smiley, you need to make sure Athena is ready to roll. Chances are we'll be able to get AJ to remove a row of trees so that we can get her out. So when we move those trees we need her to be ready, got it?”

Smiley nodded and muttered a, “Will do.”

Kilborn nodded before smiling, “Well, let's get to work boys!”

“Hooah!” we all shouted before splitting up and going our different ways. Smiley went straight towards the Humvee while Gonz and Kilborn went through the orchard on a direct path to the barn. Jones and me met each other at the trail head and started towards the road.

“So,” I started, “how's hanging out with Dash?”

Hoofsteps caused me to look down and to my left. Trotting beside me was none other than Scootaloo, smiling up at me. I smiled back as Jones gave his answer.

“It's amazing man! We got all these crazy plans and pranks in preparation. You just wait and see. We're gonna hit Ponyville like a storm!”

I chuckled as I looked at my excited squadmate, “So you like her, eh?”

I saw him open his mouth before looking at me and the large smile on my face. I laughed as he punched me in the shoulder but the slight blush on his cheeks confirmed it.

“Nice man. Can't say I blame ya, honestly.”

“Wait,” spoke up Scootaloo, looking at Jones, “you have a crush on Dash?”

Jones just broke out into a bigger blush, causing me to laugh even more. Scootaloo then made a 'Yuck' noise before saying, “I hate mushy stuff.”

With a large smile, I crouched down and swiped the orange filly off the ground held her against my chest with one arm while ruffling her mane with my free hand. Once I was done, she glared at me as I smiled back.

“Don't worry,” I began with a large smile, “you'll get to an age where 'mushy stuff' doesn't make you sick to your stomach.”

She just stuck out her tongue at me before trying to fix her mane.

“Hey,” said Jones, pointing at us both, “don't you dare tell the squad or Dash. Got it?”

“Tell me what?”

Jones froze as the aforementioned pegasus came to a hover in front of Jones, looking him in the eyes. I subtly, at least I think it was subtle, kicked Jones in the shin, snapping him out of his shock.

“T-that,” he stuttered before coughing and smiling wide, “you were the coolest flier in all of Equestria!”

Rainbow looked at him inquisitively before smiling, “Well, duh. I already knew that! So, Jones, what are we doing today?”

We started moving again as Dash moved to fly on Jones' right side. He frowned, “I have to go looking for a house to buy.”

“Lame!” Dash replied, rolling her eyes.

“I know right? But Sarge wanted me contribute and thought that this would be best,” he said, looking down trodden. Suddenly, he perked up and turned to me, “Hey Tyler. After your presentation, think you can get Sarge into letting me show Dash a Forty Mike-Mike in action?”

Forty Mike-Mike was military speak for the 40mm grenades that were launched out the M203 grenade launcher. Jones' rifle had a grenade launcher attached under the barrel.

“I don't know Jones-”

“Aw come on man! Just one.”

“I'll talk to him but I doubt it. We have a finite supply as it is, we don't need to make it more finite by trying to impress friends.”

Jones just sighed, “Yeah, I guess you're right.”

I saw that Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash were looking at each other with confused looks on their faces. They must have mentally resolved their questions as the looks of confusion disappeared with a shake of their heads. I had set Scootaloo down while talking to Jones so now she was again trotting alongside me. It always saddened me when I thought of how she had no parents and no big sibling to count on. I assumed, though, that, that was why she was able to cling onto me so easily. I didn't mind it though as it made me feel less like the monster I had felt like during that incident.

We had reached town and Scootaloo and I said our goodbyes to Jones and Dash as we went our separate ways. Jones and Dash started toward town hall while Scootaloo and me turned toward the school. Nearing the school, I saw all the little colts and fillies rushing toward the red building. I looked down to see Scootaloo looking toward her friends.

“Go on,” I said, startling her, “I'll be inside shortly.”

She gave me a brief smile before rushing off to be with Applebloom and Sweetie Bell. When she reached them, they started talking and laughing as they made their way inside.

“She really looks up to you, you know.”

I looked toward the voice to see Cheerilee standing next to me with a smile on her face, “Whenever I ask her who her biggest hero is or who she wants to be, she always says you.”

“Really?” I asked with a smirk, “Well, I hope she doesn't grow up to be anything like me.”

“Excuse me?” asked Cheerilee, dumbfounded.

“Do I hope that she's brave and caring to her friends? Of course. Who wouldn't? However, I've done a lot of horrible things in my life. Things that I'm not proud of. Things that most human gods, or goddesses for that matter, would forgive me of. That is why she shouldn't be anything like me. Hopefully, she can be better than me and I hope she, or anyone here, has to see the true horrors of war.”

Cheerilee looked at the ground, “I see,” after about a minute, she looked up at me and motioned toward the schoolhouse with a hoof, “Well, we better head on in.”

I nodded and followed the teacher into the schoolhouse. The little ponies were already sitting in there desks though they were still talking and playing.

“Listen up class!” Cheerilee called out, causing the ponies to immediately settle. I bet my teachers wished it was that easy, I thought with a smile.

“Today we are learning about different cultures and, to assist in that matter, Tyler here has volunteered his time to explain some of the culture of his home. So give him your undivided attention.”

I saw two fillies lean close to each other, whisper, and then snicker. One was wearing a diamond tiara so it wasn't hard for me to figure out who they were. I stepped forward and crossed my arms, resting them on the butt of my rifle as it hung from it's strap.

“Well, as Miss Cheerilee already pointed out, my name is Tyler. I am a human and, as you may have already figured or been told, I am not of this world.” This caused some excited whispering but it stopped when I continued, “My world is a lot different than yours. For one, humans are the only sentient beings in my world.”

Confused looks swept through the classroom. “Sentient?” asked Applebloom, her face moving as if she tasted a bad apple. I laughed,

“Sorry. Humans are the only things in my world capable of coherent thought. In other words, we are the only ones capable of building, speaking, using money, so on and so forth,” a look of understanding swept over the room, “Secondly, Gryphons, Hydras, and a lot of other creatures in your world don't exist in my world. Sure, we've heard of them but it's only been through myths and legends.”

I smiled when I noticed that I had their attention, “You,” I suddenly said, pointing at Diamond Tiara who looked surprised, “what does religion mean?”

“Religion?” she asked, face contorting much like Applebloom's had. After a couple seconds, I smiled and pointed to Cheerilee,

“Do you know Miss Cheerilee?”

The teacher thought for a moment before shaking her head, “Can't say I do.”

I nodded as I turned back to the class, “Exactly. See, religion is basically the belief of something that you have no proof that it actually exists.”

I watched as they looked at me, confused. Smiling, I pointed at Scootaloo, “You. If Celestia and Luna suddenly disappeared from the face of the world but the sun and the moon still moved normally, would you believe that they still existed?”

Scootaloo scrunched her face in concentration as she thought hard on the answer. After about a minute, she nodded, “Yes, I would.”

“Why?” I asked, “They've disappeared. Poof! Why would you believe they still existed?”

“Because of the sun and the moon?”

“Yes!” I answered excitedly, startling some of the students, “Religion is just like that. A long, long time ago in my world, a couple humans watched as the sun rose and set, followed by the moon. They thought to themselves, 'Well, since I have, nor any of my fellows, have any control over this, some powerful being must.' This idea spread and soon, BAM, religion was created. However, we didn't just use religion to explain the workings of the sun and moon. We used it to explain almost everything that happened. There was one religion that had almost twenty different gods, powerful beings, and goddesses, female powerful beings. Each one for a different occurrence in life.”

It continued like this for a couple hours as I moved from religion to economics to social norms and so on and so forth. Finally, after letting me finish my current telling of the use of “horseless-carriages”, Cheerilee dismissed the class for recess. The class filed out into the schoolyard, some actually grumbling about doing so.

When they were all gone, I allowed myself to sit down on a stool that had been placed near the desk and sigh, contented. During the presentation, I had stripped off my vest and placed it, and the rifle hanging off of it, against the front wall. Now in just my T-shirt, pants, and boots, I sat on the stool as I watched the little ponies play outside via the windows.

“I must say,” started Cheerilee, coming around the desk to stand in front of me, “That was quite the amount of information. It was also very... eye opening.”

I chuckled, “I'm surprised I remembered it all, honestly.”

She chuckled back, “I don't think I've seen them ever be so sluggish when going to recess.”

“I remember being in school, I always wanted to learn about the outside world. Every chance I had to imagine myself in some far off place, I took,” I looked at her, shrugging, “I guess it was my way of escaping the dullness of my life.”

She nodded her head, “I guess that makes sense, though your world doesn't sound dull to me. It actually sounds so alive.”

“I grew up in a small town. Not Ponyville small but small by human standards. There was nothing to do and I wasn't really a 'play outside' kid. I usually sat in my house playing games alone. So I when I went to bed, I would stay up for hours just staring at my ceiling and imagining myself as different people going on these daring adventures. I remember I would formulate entire leaves inside my imagination,” I chuckled, “Those were when I was the happiest. Hell, that's probably why I joined the Army in the first place. To seek out adventure,” another chuckle, “well, I got more than I had hoped for, that's for sure.”

I looked at Cheerilee to see her smiling at me, listening to every word I said. Behind her, I saw the students crowding around to door to hear what I was saying. I nodded to them, causing Cheerilee to turn around.

“Are you ponies done playing?”

“If we say yes do we get to listen to Tyler again?” asked Sweetie Bell from the front of the group.

“Of course!” I shouted before Cheerilee could answer, “Get in here! Take your seats!”

The class rushed inside and to their desks as I stood and got to the center of the classroom. I stood there, thinking before smiling.

“Why don't y'all ask me a couple questions?”

Hooves shot up all over the room, causing me to smile more. I pointed to a filly near the back, “You.”

“What's that mark on your foreleg?”

I thought for a second before looking at my wrists to, again, see the tattoo. I turned my hand so the class could see my tattoo and asked, “This?”

The little pony nodded her head.

“This is called a tattoo,” I started, “it is drawn into one's skin with the use of a needle and ink. Once it's drawn, it stays with you for life.”

“Did it hurt?”

“Oh yeah,” I replied, chuckling, “it hurt.”

“What does it mean?”

“It's my nickname from when I was a teenager. Omega Fifty-Seven. See this outer shape?” multiple nods, “It's a letter from a human language called Greek. It means Omega. The number inside is the Fifty-Seven part. When my friends and I played games, we used nicknames to identify each other because, to us, it made it more fun.”

The class was silent in understanding before the same filly spoke up again, “Do you have any more?”

I smiled as I lifted up my right sleeve to reveal another tattoo, “This is the emblem for my Army battalion. I got this one to remind of the people I served with. My other one is on my back so I have to take off my shirt to show it to you.” I looked at Cheerilee when I said this. She gave a nod,

“I don't see why not.”

Nodding back, I pulled my shirt over my head, revealing my torso and the hair that covered my chest. Turning around, I showed the tattoo to the close. It was just words in fancy script.

“What does it say?” Scootaloo asked. Turning back around, I smiled at her before putting my shirt back on and tucking it back into my pants.

“It says, 'Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.' Remember when I was talking about religion?” nodding of heads, “Well, this is the only prayer that I chose to remember from one of the more major religions. The 'for thou art with me' means that the religion's god will help protect me from harm. Though I don't believe in any god, or goddess, I remembered this prayer because it got me through so much when I was younger.”

I smiled as the class sat silently. “Anymore questions?” I asked. Again, almost every hoof was in the air. Oh boy, I thought as I looked out at the class, this may take awhile.

Chapter Eight

“WEEEEEEEEEEEE!”

I looked at the noise to, unbelievably, see a pink pony falling from the sky. The pony was too close to the ground for me to react in time to save her. I watched in dismay as she hit the ground and...

bounce?

The pink pony actually bounced back into the sky a little ways before coming down and landing, all kinetic energy disappearing instantly. B-but... physics... and... what? My mind began to hurt as I tried to grasp onto what I had just witnessed. It went against everything that I had learned about gravity and physics. Hell, it went against simple anatomy.

Before I could even begin to piece together my shattered thought processes, the pink pony's face suddenly appeared to be centimeters away from my own. While she was looking straight at me, I somehow found myself thinking that she wasn't looking at me.

“I know what you're up to,” she said in a very serious tone, her cotton candy hair deflating a bit.

“What?” that was all I could say as she stared into my soul. Finally, she smiled widely, her hair re-inflating.

“Oh, not you, silly-willy! I don't think we've met yet! I'm Pinkie Pie! Who are you?” she asked excitedly as she backed about two feet away from me.

“I'm Tyler. My squad and I-”

I was interrupted as the pink pony let out a huge gasp and actually floated in the air while doing so. PHYSICS, GODDAMN IT! When the pink pony hit the ground again, she tore off at high speed down the road in a seemingly random direction.

That was when the gears in my brain returned to normal capacity and the pony's name set off nuclear war inside my head. I looked around in dismay to see that she was, in fact, gone. This meant that she was most likely putting together a party for the squad and me. One that I, and my fellows, would be unknowingly lured to.

“Damn it,” I cursed under my breath. I was hoping to avoid the 'Welcome to Ponyville!' party but that seemed impossible. Though, I guess I should count myself lucky that I had avoided it for so long.

Shaking my head, I looked around the town square. I had left the schoolhouse ten minutes ago when the lunch bell had rang. Cheerilee had informed the students that I had more pressing matters to attend to, even though some still had questions. While I did have things to do, I found myself sluggish in leaving the place.

“Hey Tyler, what's up?”

Looking to the voice, I saw Jones standing to my right with Dash to his left. I smiled,

“Just got done with the presentation. You find a house yet?” I asked, looking between him and Dash. I was honestly surprised that Dash hadn't left him to go do something “cooler”.

“Yeah I did! We can afford it to,” he replied, his tone honest enough. I thought about making him take me to actually see the house but I decided against it. Instead, I nodded my head,

“Okay, go find the Sergeant and tell him of your find. Also, tell him that I went to the Library, okay?”

Jones smiled at me as his right eye winked, “Sure thing man.”

I groaned. I knew what he meant by that wink. It was payback for me poking at him about Dash. Surprisingly, I felt some heat start rushing to my face as I thought about it. I fought it down but I could tell that Jones had at least gotten a glimpse of it as his smile grew wider. Luckily, Dash had been looking away.

We said our goodbyes though and part ways. While Jones and Dash turned to head to the orchard, I continued through town until I arrived at the house-tree that was both the town Library and the home of Twilight Sparkle. Without knocking, knowing how much it bothered the purple unicorn, I pushed open the door and walked inside. A little green dragon was there to meet me.

“Hey Tyler, Twi's in the other room.”

“Thanks Spike,” I replied as I turned and head for the opening to one of the many rooms that branched, pun intended, from the central room. Spike and I had met a day after the Raider Incident and almost instantly became buds as we both discussed our dislikes of being in a world where mares outnumbered stallions almost four to one.

“No problem,” Spike then went back to cleaning the room, humming a tune to himself. I smirked as I reached the doorway and stepped through. When I finally looked fully at the interior of the room, I stopped and seemingly froze in place. Standing in the room, talking was Twilight Sparkle and the two Princesses. It took all my mental prowess to not drop to a knee and bow my head. I wasn't from this world, nor was I an Equestrian citizen. So I wouldn't act like I was. Instead, I simply cleared my throat to get their attention.

The three turned to face me, slightly startled by my sudden entrance.

“Tyler,” Twilight started, “I thought you were busy this afternoon?”

I shrugged, “I found time to waste and thought I'd come to see if you wanted to continue our Q and A, though I see that you have guests.”

Twilight turned to the two princesses, her eyes opening wider in sudden realization.

“Right! Tyler this,” she pointed a hoof at the white alicorn with a flowing, rainbow-like mane that seemed real and fake at the same time, “is Princess Celestia, ruler of the day and the sun. And this,” she pointed at the pitch black alicorn whose man looked like the night sky with stars sparkling in it, “is Princess Luna, ru-”

“Ruler of the night and commander of the moon,” I interrupted, smiling. Looking at Luna, I spoke, “You know, it's invigorating being in your presence, Princess.” I watched as she raised an eyebrow in confusion and threw the look at Twilight and Celestia, both of whom shrugged.

“Why is this?” she finally asked, looking back at me.

“See, in my world, the moon never set, per say. It was merely blocked by the shadow of the planet at times. When it wasn't blocked, it hung in the sky above us. Day or night, didn't matter, you could always see it there. Because of this, I found myself liking it to a guardian, sitting night and day at his post. When I got into near-death situations, which I did more than you may think, and lived, I found myself looking up at the moon afterward, wondering if anything may actually be watching from the chunk of rock. So,” I concluded, “being in your presence is like confronting a mysterious savior.”

They all looked at me with different expressions. Twilight looked confused and slightly dismayed, probably at how casually I spoke to the Princess. Celestia had a look of amusement on her face, though the reasons behind reach were unfathomable to me. Luna, though, had conflicting emotions. I saw a soft blush come to her cheeks as she looked happy but she also looked confused and worried.

“Tyler is it?” asked Celestia. I nodded my head, causing her to continue, “Twilight here has told me some of the things that she has learned about your world and, I must say, some of it is quite surprising. She has also told me of the... Raider Incident.”

My happy feeling washed away, filled with dread. Was she going to reprimand me? Ask that we turn over our weapons?

“I would like to personally thank you for stopping the threat to the town,” she said with a smile. My happy feeling returned with a large smile on my face.

“Just helping out the innocent, Princess, like I was trained to do.”

She chuckled, “Of course. I have heard that you and your... squad have been looking for a house to buy. With that, I offer a proposal. I wish to offer you and your squad Equestrian citizenship.”

I thought about it, “What's the catch?”

Celestia blinked in surprise before composing herself, “There is no catch.”

I now blinked in surprise before having my palm meet my face, “Sorry, Princess. Back in my world, this offer would likely require me to do something very dangerous in return. Old habits are hard to get rid of.”

She smiled sweetly at me, “Of course. I understand.” She chuckled, “Your response was much like a Gryphon's might be.”

I chuckled, “Really?” a nod, “Interesting.”

She looked to the outside and sighed, “Well, we better be getting back to Canterlot.” She turned to me, “It's been a pleasure to meet you Tyler.”

I smiled, “The pleasure is all mine.”

With a smile, Celestia disappeared in a flash of yellow and with a popping noise. Luna just smiled at me before disappearing in a black flash and with an identical pop.

Turning to Twilight, I saw her smiling at me as well.

“Surprising,” she said simply.

“What is?”

“How you behaved in front of the Princesses.”

“Indeed,” I replied with a smirk, to which she rolled her eyes. I was about to speak when the Library door burst open. Looking back, I saw an orange filly come running into the room. She smiled when she saw me. Coming up to me, she hugged my leg before looking up at me with puppy dog eyes,

“Tyler, can you come with me to Sugarcube Corner? I want to get some cupcakes.”

Looking into the eyes, I felt powerless as I smiled and nodded my head, “Of course, Scoots, let's go.” I looked back, “You wanna come too Twilight?”

She shook her head, smiling, “No, you go have fun.”

I nodded and followed the hyperactive orange filly out of the Library and started down the street. It wasn't long before we found ourselves in front of the cake looking store. In front of the door, I saw the rest of my squad waiting there with Applejack and Dash. I rose an eyebrow.

“Hey guys! What are y'all doing here?” I asked.

Kilborn shrugged and motioned to Dash and Applejack, “They dragged us here.”

It took only a second for the connection to be made. Pinkie!

“Guys, I don't know. Shouldn't we be back at the clearing worrying about getting ourselves settled before we start fattening ourselves?” I asked, hoping it made sense. Without Scoots' wide eyes, I could feel that I could avoid the surprise party for at least another day.

Kilborn nodded, “That we should. I'm sorry ladies but we must be going back.”

Before the two mares, or little filly, could argue, the five of us started back toward the clearing. Of course, this didn't stop them in trying.

Dash flew in front of Jones and smiled, “Come on J! It'll be awesome!”

While Dash tried to manipulate Jones, AJ tried to manipulate Kilborn,

“I really need your help with something in there,” she said. Kilborn raised an eyebrow,

“What is it?”

“Err... something important?” she smiled a cheesy smile as her eyes darted to the side as an obvious tell.

Of course, I wasn't left out of the manipulation as Scoots basically jumped into my arms and looked at me with those big eyes. I looked away from them and kept walking, as did the others. After awhile the three gave up and decided to walk with us, their heads hung slightly low.

Finally, we got back to the clearing but something felt... off. It felt as if I was being watched from everywhere. The synapses in my brain made the connection a second too late as Pinkie Pie jumped several feet out of a bush shouting,

“SURPRISE!”

Shit...

Chapter Nine

“SURPRISE!”

Time seemed to slow for me as I looked from the, still mid-air, Pinkie to my squadmates. They all had their guns with them, as we had decided never to leave our little camp without them because of the Incident. With the clicking of safeties, I saw the plastic-wrapped pipes of death begin to be raised at the hyperactive mare.

The first weapon up was Kilborn's. Using my left hand, I continued to push up the weapon, hoping beyond hope that he wouldn't squeeze the trigger. Miraculously, my hopes were answered as the Sergeant just threw a death glare at me and then at Pinkie. Time returned to normal speed as the three other soldiers brought their guns to bear on the pink mare.

No shots were fired but I felt the night still as I looked around to clearing to see so many astonished and scared pony faces.

“God. Damn. It!” I shouted as I removed my hand from Kilborn's rifle and turned to face the, now frightened, Pinkie Pie. Her mane had deflated some as she looked from one gun to the next. Slowly, the weapons were lowered as the sense of where they were returned to my squad.

“I know you were told about us by your friends, or at least by somepony here!” I swept an arm out at the mass of ponies that were now, cautiously, stepping into the clearing, “So I have to ask. What part of 'Soldiers from another world' did you not get? You're lucky you don't look like fucking swiss cheese right now because you were damn close! Back in the hellhole we came from, when someone jumped at us from out of a bush he usually had a bomb strapped to his chest or a gun in his fucking hands!”

Her hair had deflated even more as her lip began to quiver, “I-I just w-wanted to throw a p-p-party.”

I sighed as most of my anger dissipated from seeing her like this. Looking around, I saw that some of the ponies were now glaring at me while most looked cautious and surprised. I looked to my squad for support.

Kilborn just nodded before he stepped to the pink mare and got onto one knee so he could look her in the eyes, “Miss, I know that you were probably trying to be neighborly by throwing us this party but Tyler is right. You could have gotten hurt jumping out at us like that,” he then looked around, “All of you. You all must remember where we come from. It is not Equestria. We do not live in peace. Even if we weren't soldiers, we would have still tensed in anticipation of a fight.”

Jones then stepped forward and knelt by Kilborn, wiping a tear from Pinkie's face,

“Hey. Why don't we try this again? This time without the startling us part?”

A couple seconds of silence before, “Can I use my party cannon?”

Jones looked confused when he looked back at me. “Say yes”, I mouthed. Turning back to the mare, Jones replied, “Sure, I don't see why not.”

In almost a nanosecond, Pinkie's hair returned to normal poofiness as she smiled widely and bounced into the air. As she bounced, she reached under her and pulled a cannon from out of thin air. With my teeth grinding at the breakage of simple science, I watched as the pink mare slammed it into the dirt and pulled the string with her hoof.

BANG!

With a spray of confetti shrapnel, the clearing was decorated for a party. Impossible? Yes but the decoration was uplifting for everyone present. However, I felt my teeth begin to grind once more when I saw that a DJ stage, speakers, turntable, and the DJ herself had also been launched from the cannon.

As if nothing happened, the DJ, DJ Pon3 if I remembered correctly, spun a record on her hoof before placing it on the turntable and shouting, “Let's get this party started!”

As the needle hit the record, happy techno music blasted from the speakers. It took a little longer for everyone else but soon the entire town was dancing to the beat in the clearing. I smirked as I saw Jones get dragged into the dancing crowd by Dash. With the other ponies standing on their hind legs, Jones seemingly disappeared into the crowd.

Gonz found himself dancing with the re-energized Pinkie, both making complete fools of themselves but having fun while doing so. I looked some more to see Kilborn offer to dance with Applejack who, surprisingly enough, accepted and the two began to dance more like the main of the pony crowd.

With a smile now on my face, I shook my head before walking out of the clearing and into the orchard a bit before coming upon a hill. Climbing the hill, I sat beneath the tree with my back against the trunk. I could still hear the music and see the lights but I was effectively out of the party. Looking up at the darkening sky, I sighed before reaching into a pouch on my armor. What I pulled out looked to be a little slip of paper. I looked at the picture, the three familiar faces smiling back at me.

One was myself, dressed in clean ACUs. Standing to my left, with his arm over my shoulders, was a man of about twenty-seven wearing the digital blue camouflage of the United States Navy. Finally, standing in front of us was a kid of about thirteen wearing normal civilian clothing.

“What are you doing up here?”

I turned to find Twilight walking up the hill to me. Looking up, I realized that it had become night as I had looked at the picture.

“Just wanted to... relax after the whole commotion down there,” I replied, resting my head against the tree and closing my eyes with a sigh.

I heard Twilight clear her throat, “Yeah, your reactions were startling but we should have know. I should have known.”

Opening my eyes, I looked to her to see that her head was now hanging low, “No Twilight, it wasn't all your fault. I'm partially to blame as well. I knew that it would happen sooner or later and I didn't warn my squad beforehand on account that they would think I was crazy if I tried to explain how Pinkie does... what she does.”

Twilight chuckled but her head stayed low, “I guess but you told me about your world and-EEP!”

I had grabbed Twilight by her foreleg and dragged her to me before wrapping my arms around her in a hug,

“It's not your fault,” I repeated, putting some emphasis behind my words. I let Twilight go from the hug to see that she was now smiling and had a soft blush on her cheeks. Her eyes glanced over my picture and, as if trying to derail her own thoughts, asked,

“Who are they?”

I chuckled as I pointed at myself, “That's me. The guy in the blue is my older brother, he was in my nation's Naval Forces. The one in front of us is my little brother.”

“You all look so happy together,” she mused with a smile.

“Oh, we do in this picture but we argued a lot. Even under the arguing though, I always knew that when push came to shove that they'd have my back, as I would with them,” I saddened a bit when I looked back at the picture, “This was from the last time we were together. It was only a couple days. Trevor had just gotten back from deployment and I was heading out.”

I felt something go over my shoulders. Looking to Twilight, I saw that she looked sad and had put a foreleg over my shoulders in an attempt to comfort me. I smiled sadly, “Most likely, they'll be told that I'm just 'Missing In Action'. Though, in the sandbox, that's basically the same as dead. I hope they won't miss me too much.”

After about a minute of silence, DJ Pon3's voice boomed out from the clearing, “Come on little ponies! This party is just getting started!”

Twilight smiled at me before removing her foreleg and stepping towards the clearing, “Come on.”

I smiled back as I stored the picture and picked myself to my feet. Nodding to her, we made our way back to the clearing. We stepped through the bushes to a very peculiar sight. Fluttershy and Smiley were talking to each other by the Humvee. No. They weren't just talking they were... flirting?

I wasn't sure but I saw that Fluttershy had a deep blush on her face. Smiley well... I could actually see his face and he was smiling. Without much noise, Gonz appeared at my side with a perplexed look on his face.

“Does Smiley have his-”

“Yep.”

“And he's-”

“Yep.”

“With-”

“Yep.”

We stood in silence, sharing our shock before the pink mare responsible for the party appeared before us. She smiled at me before talking rapid fire, “There you are Gonz-y wonzy! I was wondering where you had gone so I started looking and looking and looking and then I saw you standing by Tyler here so I decided to come over and tell you that I found you by saying, 'There you are G-'”

Before she could continue, Gonz had thrown a hand over her mouth. Even with the mouth in her way, she continued talking. I smirked at Gonz, who threw me a short glare as he pulled Pinkie away from me.

“Well, back to the partying!” the medic exclaimed as he, and by attachment Pinkie, disappeared into the crowd.

“Ooookay...”

“You'll get used to her,” Twilight said from my side. I smiled as I turned to the scholarly unicorn,

“Care to dance?” I asked. She looked at me, surprised before smiling.

“Lead the way.”

Smiling, I walked into the crowd with Twilight beside me, letting ourselves get swallowed by the mass of pure energy. As the night darkened, the music beat loudly and I thought to myself,

This is going to be one long night.

Chapter Ten

I awoke to a hoof tapping against my cheek. Rolling my head to the left, I opened my eyes to see Scootaloo standing there, a smirk on her face. That was when I felt the pressure on my stomach. Raising an eyebrow, eliciting a giggle from Scootaloo, I rolled my head to allow me to look at my stomach. When I did, my eyes widened as I saw Twilight sleeping, her head resting on me.

We were in the clearing, the party decorations somehow picked up and packed away. I looked around some more to see my squadmates still sleeping. Looking back at the unicorn using my gut as a pillow, I sighed before smirking much the way Scootaloo did.

“Twilight. Time to get up,” I whispered, poking the unicorn's nose. Her reaction was to mumble and move her head to get away from the finger. That meant down.

“Woah now!” I exclaimed, my eyes wide as I used a hand to keep her head over my stomach. The sudden exclamation awoke the unicorn. Her eyes started at my hand and traveled up my arm until she was finally looking at my face. Her sleepy, half-opened eyes suddenly widened as her pupils dilated in shock.

“Oh!” she shouted, jumping to her hooves and blushing deeply. It was at that moment that she noticed my hand. She must have put two and two together as her blush became impossibly deeper and her pupils dilated a bit more. “Um...I-I...BYE!”

With a purple flash and popping noise, she disappeared, her teleportation spell taking her somewhere else. I sighed in relief and dismay as I sat up and looked around the clearing to see if the scene awoke anyone. My eyes made contact with Jones'. He was awake and propped up on his elbows, looking at me with a smirk. Giving a quick glance over everyone else, I felt relieved that they were still sleeping. Hopefully.

I pointed my finger at Jones, “Not a word.”

He raised one hand in defense, “Not a word,” he agreed. With that, he laid back down and placed his helmet back over his head. I doubted he actually planned to go back to sleep.

Turning to Scootaloo, I saw her snickering at me.

“Yeah, yeah Scoots, laugh it up,” I whispered, ruffling her mane. She stopped snickering and glowered at me. Smirking, I found my way to my feet and stretched briefly before turning to Scootaloo and kneeling.

“So,” I started, “I got a bit of time to burn. What d'ya want to do Scoots?”

She smiled before putting a hoof to her chin and making an 'I'm thinking' face. Finally, she put her hoof back on the ground and answered, “I want you to help me learn to fly.”

I cocked an eyebrow in surprise but I nodded nonetheless. I had promised her I'd help after all.

“Alright, let's go to a different clearing and see if any of my advice might help.”

The little filly nodded and started leading the way out of the clearing. I immediately noticed that she wasn't heading to the trail, which confused me until I remembered my first day here. The clubhouse. Of course. When she learned to fly, she wanted to remember the place where she first did it. What better place than the Crusader Clubhouse?

It didn't take us long to reach it, the walk being one made in silence. When we did reach the clearing with the big tree in it's center, Scootaloo spun around and looked up at me expectantly.

“Alright,” I started, “show me what you can do so far.”

She suddenly looked nervous as she swallowed. Despite her nervousness, she nodded and got in a takeoff position. Flapping her wings, she didn't move at first. Noticing this, sweat began to bead her forehead as she flapped harder. Finally, she lifted from the ground about two feet and began to hover. While she didn't seem to be exerting herself, sweat still formed on her forehead.

“T-this,” she began nervously, looked at the ground below her, disappointed, “is it.”

I nodded and patted the hovering filly on her head. Kneeling down to look her in the eye, I smiled,

“That's good. Now,” I put out my hand and made it flat, lining it up horizontally with the ground. I then titled it forward, “tilt yourself forward.”

Scootaloo looked at me skeptically but nodded and did as I said. Slowly, she tilted herself forward. Just as slowly, she began to move forward. Her eyes widened in delight before her pupils dilated in horror as she began to slowly approach the ground.

“Flap your wings a little harder,” I suggested.

Scoots immediately complied, flapping harder. She stopped dropping and continued moving forward but I could tell she was exerting herself to keep up with the flapping of her wings. Finally, having enough, she dropped to the ground, landing face-first. Helping her to a sitting position, I watched as she rubbed her chin.

“See? I'm no good at flying. I'll never be like Dash,” she said, saddened by the prospect. I put my hand under her chin and gently forced her to look at me,

“Don't say that, Scootaloo. Self-doubt is what takes out most people. It's nothing good. The first step in anything is to believe, in every fragment of your body, that you can do it. Understand?”

She nodded. Removing my hand, I scratched my chin in thought. I smiled wide as an idea struck me.

“Uh, why are you smiling like that?” Scoots asked, her head tilting to one side.

“Idea!” I exclaimed, “Come on!”

Without waiting for a reply, I scooped up Scootaloo and began to jog toward Ponyville.

“Where are we going?”

“You'll see,” I replied, still smiling. The filly didn't ask anything else as she just watched the trees go by. The run into town wasn't eventful and soon, I was in front of my destination, breathing just a bit heavier from the run.

“Carousel Boutique?” Scootaloo asked, “Where are we here?”

I just smiled wider as I set her down, “You'll see.”

I knocked on the door.

“Come in,” I heard in a sort of sing-song voice.

Opening the door, I stepped inside to see Rarity floating a multitude of things to the mannequin and then floating them away as soon as they touched it.

“No. No. No. No,” she repeated as each item touched the mannequin.

“Um, Rarity.”

She stopped and turned to me. She briefly looked startled before she smiled wide, “Tyler!” Her eyes glanced down to see the orange filly, “And Scootaloo! Please, please come in and close the door.”

Stepping farther inside, I waited for Scootaloo to follow before closing the door. While I did that, Rarity called up the stairs to Sweetie Bell announcing Scoots arrival. It wasn't long before the little white filly came trotting down. When the two fillies saw each other, they launched themselves away from the main room to go play.

“How may I help you?” Rarity asked as she returned to the mannequin.

“I need you to make me something.”

Her magic seemed to implode as everything dropped to the floor. I thought I had crossed some invisible line but that thought vanished as she smiled and looked at me.

“Why of course dear. Why else would see me?” she looked me over, “Something to replace that... 'uniform' of yours, I assume?” I could already see the measuring tape and silk moving toward me.

“Um, no,” the moving dressmaking equipment stopped, “I need you to make a human device.”

She looked shocked. When she recovered, she asked, “Why?”

I smiled, “Because I think it may boost Scootaloo's self-esteem.”

Rarity beamed, “Oh! Then I will do it for free. Just tell me what it is that you want Rarity to create and it shall be magnifique.”

/--\

After the visit with Rarity, Scootaloo and me were walking back to the clearing.

“So,” Scootaloo began, “What did you need to see Rarity for?”

I smirked, “Needed her to make a human thing.”

“What kind of human thing?”

“A working human thing.”

I heard her sigh in exasperation, “What kind of working human thing?”

“A reliable, working human thing.”

She threw her forehooves into the air, “Ah! Forget it!” she exclaimed. I chuckled at her reaction. She then looked up at me with a curious look on her face, “How did you know how Pegasi flew? Did you have pegasi in your world?”

I chuckled again, “No. No pegasi in my world.”

“Then how?”

“Humans craved to fly,” I began, looking up at the sky, “one of the things we made was something called a helicopter. It was this machine that worked by the spinning of giant blades called rotors. In order to go up, the rotors had to be moving at a certain speed. To go forward, they had to tilt the helicopter forward and put more power into the rotors.”

I shrugged, “Since pegasi aren't avian in their biology, I assumed that y'all flew more like helicopters.”

“Oh,” was her reply. There was a short silence before, “Why do you talk like that?”

I felt an eyebrow go up, “Like what?”

She smiled, “Well. Sometimes you have an accent like Applejack's and you'll even say some of the words that she uses. Yet, most of the time, you talk... normal.”

I chuckled, “Oh, that. I was born in the southwestern portion of the United States, my homeland. There, many people had accents like Applejack's, it was just a cultural thing. However, when I never had a real thick accent. So, when I moved away, most of the accent left and now it just slips out for certain words or when I use southern phrases like 'y'all'.”

Scootaloo laughed, “Oh, I see.”

The rest of the walk was silent. When we neared the clearing, I heard the sound of work. At the end of the trail, I spotted most of my squad, Applejack, and Big Mac. They seemed to be digging around an apple tree.

“There he is!” Gonz shouted as I approached. Grabbing a nearby shovel, he tossed it at me. I caught it easily.

“Where's Sarge?” I asked.

“Buying the house Jones found. Now help us dig up these trees,” he ordered with a smile on his face, “We're freeing Athena!”

Chapter Eleven

Sweat. It drenched my clothes by the time we had gotten out the last of the apple trees. As I had expected, Applejack had a name for each of them. The last to be pulled up was named Pieminie.

Setting Pieminie aside, we all rushed back to the clearing. Once there, Gonzales was quick to get into the Humvee.

“Everyone ready?” he asked as we all gathered near the driver side door. I looked amongst the assembled group, no one shook their head.

“We're good!” I stated. Nodding, Gonz started up the Humvee. Athena began breathing with a roar that startled the two farm ponies. Walking up to the window, I leaned against the door.

“Take it slow!” I shouted.

“Of course! Athena likes it slow!” was the response. Rolling my eyes, I stepped back as Gonzales shifted the vehicle into reverse. Looking over his shoulder, Gonzales began to back it up. He turned the wheel, causing the machine to turn as well. When he was about to hit some trees at the edge of the clearing, he stopped and spun the wheel around. I watched as the soldier shifted the vehicle to Drive and pulled forward into the widened trail. Slowly, the Humvee moved down the trail.

Following behind it, we began to replace the trees when it passed. It took about a hour before the Humvee was out and all of the trees were replaced. By that time, Kilborn had shown up and helped us finish up.

“Well, Applejack, it seems you can finally have your clearing back,” Kilborn remarked with a smirk once we were all done and standing around the now silent Humvee.

“You big lugs are allowed to stay on my prop'rty anytime. So long as y'all don't go chasing little fillies, that is,” Applejack replied, a smile spreading across her muzzle. We all laughed at that. Looking back, we had all found the misunderstanding to be pretty humorous. Even the Crusaders thought it was funny.

“We'll keep that in mind,” Kilborn replied before turning to address the squad, “Come on. We need to get settled before dinner.”

“Why? You got a date Sarge?” Jones joked.

“Only with my two favorite mistresses: food and bed. Now come on, let's get rolling.”

Chuckling, we all climbed into the Humvee, waving bye to the two farm ponies. Once we were all settled in, Smiley standing with the top portion of his body poking out the from the top of the Humvee, Gonzales started up the Humvee again. Shifting it into gear, he pressed the accelerator causing the Humvee to begin to rumble down the road.

I smiled as I felt the familiar vibrations of a moving vehicle. Laying my head against my seat, exhaustion was quick to catch up to me. With a yawn, I closed my eyes and welcomed the blackness of sleep.

“Tyler!” I heard someone shout. Looking up from my book, I saw that it was my friend, Featherston. The chubby teenager walked up to me with a smile on his face. “Why the hell are you reading? You need to be dumb, like everyone else here!”

I chuckled, rotating the book sideways, “What these black things mean?” I asked jokingly.

“There we go!” he replied, slapping a palm on my shoulder. Shaking my head in amusement at my friend's antics, I marked the page of my book before closing it. As I did, my friend sat down at the round, blue table that sat in the vast room known as the Commons Area. Looking around, I saw the stone pillars with metal supports at the top that held the roof up. A large ventilation duct snaked along one of the walls near the roof, huge vents facing out at the room. The concrete floor had a soft shine to it.

Other kids sat at other table spread throughout the room. There weren't many as it was still early in the morning. School started at eight thirty-five and many showed up to school with only two minutes to spare. Featherston and me always showed up early because we had nothing else to do.

“So,” my friend began, “did Laws tell you?”

“Tell me what?” I asked.

“Jamie screwed up so we kicked her off the team!” he exclaimed excitedly.

I smiled. Jamie was a freshman in our school. She had gotten me, a senior, to date her near the beginning of the year. Things were going alright until it got near Homecoming. Then she started to become... distant. It was hard to explain but it all just felt off. Finally, Homecoming came around and my parents and I met her and her cousin, who was taking care of her, at her house. After I put on the fancy flower bracelet and pictures were taken, Jamie and me left the house since I had driven separately.

We ended up at IHOP for dinner before the dance. It was there that I had finally had enough and asked her what was wrong. Her response was that she wanted to break up with me because I was 'distracting her from school'. That hit me harder than I could handle, thus forcing me to enter a state of semi-denial. I knew it was over but I still hoped that we could have at least an inkling of fun together at the dance. That proved to be wrong.

When we had arrived at the school, where the dance was being held, she immediately disappeared. I did catch her for one dance but beside that, she was lost in the crowd of moving bodies. My friends who had seen her said that she had been grinding against a guy while texting a different guy. That whittled away any denial that I had, turning it into hatred.

However, I was a kind person. Against the better judgment of my friends, and myself, I waited for her after the dance. What almost made me snap at her was that she had the gall to ask if I was taking her to the movies as well, the Homecoming tickets including a movie ticket for after the dance.

I had told her no. When she had asked why, I had replied with that I was tired. Satisfied, she let me take her home. The ride was silent, my music up loud enough to drown out any talking she might have done. When we arrived at her house, she got out and closed the door. No words, which suited me just fine.

After dropping her off, I sped to the movie theater and met with my friends. They all smiled when I showed up and smiled wider when I bought a large popcorn and drink with the explanation of “cause I fucking can”. With our snacks, we had gone into the theater and found our seats. When the movie started, Jamie decided to show up dressed in pajamas. She crossed the theater before looking around. Seeing me, she walked two rows up from where I was and sat down. After a minute of silence and a snide “Tired, huh?” remark, she left, my friends and I laughing at her antics.

Next day she called me rude, arrogant, selfish, blah, blah. After that, we had an unspoken agreement to not speak to each other. The one time I did speak to her was to tell her to shut up during a team meeting because she was talking while Laws, our team leader, was trying to talk.

“Good,” I finally replied to Featherston with a smile, “she didn't belong anyway.”

Featherston laughed, “I know right? She was horri-”

Pain erupted from the right side of my head, spurring vision into blurriness before fading all together.

Awaking, I rubbed my head, looking out my open door to see Gonz standing there with an impatient look on his face.

“Did you hit me?” I asked, noting the stupidity of the question after I had asked it.

“Well your dumb ass fell asleep. Now get out and bring your shit inside.”

Nodding, I waited for him to walk away before stepping out of the Humvee. My eyes widened as I noticed the crowd around the vehicle. The ponies were looking at it with pure curiosity. Smiling at them, I closed the door before moving around to the open back. Reaching in, I grabbed my gear. I had tossed it in the back before I joined the squad in removing the trees. The backpack I put on while holding everything else in my hands.

Turning from the back, I looked up at the two-story house that the Humvee was parked in front of. It was of the same feudal age design as the other houses of Ponyvile, the wooden walls and thatch roof, but it was a good deal wider. I couldn't help but to compare it to what I thought a mead-hall may look like. Stepping to the door, I noticed that it was actually a double door, the handles being rings attached to the door.

Pushing them open, I walked inside and about dropped my stuff in surprise.

“Welcome to Aries' Mead-Hall!” Jones shouted from the center of the wide, main room.

“We bought a bar?” I asked in disbelief. The main room had long, wooden tables spaced evenly in two rows. Across from me was a recessed room with a bar counter separating it from the main room. On the left end of the room sat a large fireplace, the inside blackened from past flames. On the right side of the room was a small stage, jutting from the wall, elevated by wooden supports. Two doors we placed beside each other on the left side of the room, near the fireplace. One had a picture of a stallion on it while the other had a picture of mare, with a dress, on it. Another door sat between the bar and the stage, this was with no sign.

“Hell yeah we did!” Gonzales shouted as he came out of a doorway I hadn't seen and stood behind the bar counter. He had a large smile on his face as he set his hands on the countertop and leaned on it. I noticed that the bar room was slightly lower than the main room. Assumption lead me to believe that it was to offset the height difference between humans and ponies.

“But why?” I found myself asking.

“Why not?” Jones replied.

“We need to bring in bits somehow!” Gonz exclaimed.

“I thought you and Kilborn were working at Sweet Apple Acres?”

“Smiley is gonna replace me since Athena's out from the clearing. Kilborn will still work there too. He left us three in charge of running this mead-hall!” Gonz explained.

“What?” I asked, astonished, “How did I get involved in this?”

“Cause you're gonna be our bard! I mean, hell, you even played a Lute back at base!” Jones exclaimed, his smiled about to crack his face in half. I sighed. They were right in a way, I did know how to play the Lute. The Lute was an instrument from the human medieval era. It had a similar shape to a guitar but the acoustic chamber was rounded in the back and the head was bent back.

“That and you can tell some mean tales when you put your mind to it,” Gonz added from behind the bar.

“What are you two gonna be doing?” I asked.

“Manning the bar!” Jones exclaimed.

“Serving the drinks and making sure people are happy!” Gonz said not seconds after Jones was done.

“There's no getting out of this is there?”

“Nope!” they both exclaimed simultaneously.

“Do either of you even know how to make Equestrian drinks?”

There was a pregnant pause as the two thought about that. They then lowered their heads,

“No,” Jones replied for the both of them.

“We'll just have to get someone to teach us.” Gonz answered, his smile returning.

I just smirked and shook my head, “Fine but under a few conditions.”

They silenced and looked at me intently, waiting for my conditions.

“One,” I started, clearing my throat, “we all leave each other to their jobs unless it threatens the smooth functioning of the hall. Second,” I smiled, “we make this the best mead-hall Equestria has ever seen!”

“Hoo-rah!” shouted the other two, there smiles returning full force.

“Now, if you'd excuse me, I got stuff to put away before I go hang out with Scootaloo some more. We'll work on this more tomorrow?”

“Sounds good to me,” Gonz said. I nodded, since he was still a higher rank than me, his wording still held value. With that taken care of, I walked to the unmarked door to the right of the bar area. Pushing through it, I noticed that the storeroom already had barrels and sacks in it. The sacks were empty and I assumed it was the same for the barrels. That'll all change soon, I thought with a smile.

To my left was the doorway that led into the bar area, I could hear Gonz and Jones discussing the training prospect. To the right, against the wall, were the stairs that led up. Walking up them, I came out into a sort of parlor, chairs spread around a rug with a fireplace. I had seen the stone column in the storeroom and now I felt it was safe to say that the column was holding up the fireplace.

Stepping out of the parlor, I entered a hallway with a multitude of doors. Passing by four rooms, all claimed by my squadmates, and two bathrooms, I finally reached the end room. Entering it, I saw the simple bed and nightstand against one corner. A trunk sat at the end of the bed with a closet built into the wall across from the bed. In the middle of the room, facing the back wall, was a desk with a chair tucked underneath it. A small bed took up the wall to the left of the door, another trunk at it's head. I smiled at the small bed. Of course they'd think of Scoots as well, I thought happily.

Tossing my gear onto the desk, I sat on my bed, staring at the smaller one.

This is it, I thought to myself, This is home.

Chapter Twelve

Stepping out of the bathtub, I looked at my only pair of clothes and sighed. I really need some new threads. I thought to myself, making a mental note to see ask Rarity about replicating my uniform. With some minor changes of course. Maybe a hood or some other additional thing.

Now dressed, I stepped out into the hall and turned to my room. Approaching my door, I heard the crying of a little kid. Worried, I opened the door and peeked my head in to see Scootaloo curled up on the smaller bed, shaking. Stepping inside, I closed the door and sat down on the bed next to the little filly. Feeling the bed shift, she lifted her head and turned to me, the tears rolling down her face. The small smile seemed out of place though.

“Scoots?” I asked, wiping away some of the tears with a thumb.

“Is it true? This isn't a dream?” Her voice was hopeful and timid.

“Is what true?”

“That I can stay here? With you?” she asked, looking down at her bed.

I smiled and patted her head before picking her up and holding her in my arms like she was a human infant.

“It's true. This is no dream. This is your home, just as much as mine.”

The effect was almost immediate. The tears suddenly stopped as the filly squealed in excitement and locked her forelegs around my neck in a hug. Chuckling, I hugged her back, happy that she wasn't crying anymore. Gasping, Scootaloo pushed back enough to look at me with an excited smile and wide eyes.

“Can I invite my friends to a sleepover?” she asked excitedly.

“Of course!” I answered with a laugh, wiping away some of the leftover tears off her cheeks, “But first, I got something to show you. Let me finished getting ready first though.”

“What is it?” she asked as I set her back onto the bed and stood. I already had my pants, shirt, belt, and boots on but this time I decided to throw on my blouse. After zipping it up and clasping the velcro, I grabbed my goggles and facemask off the bed.

“You're gonna have to wait,” I replied.

“Ugh!”

Chuckling, I turned and stepped out into the hall, letting the filly out before closing the door. After going down the hall, we went down the stairs and then into the main hall. Luckily, one of the ponies I needed to see was in the hall talking to Jones.

“Stay here while I talk to Dash, 'kay Scoots?”

“Why?”

“It's a secret,” I replied with a smile.

Scootaloo sat down with a “humph” and crossed her hooves. She didn't follow as I walked over to Dash and Jones. They were talking about the Humvee and taking it out for a ride.

“Hey Dash,” I started, leaning against the table the two sat at, “can you do me a favor?”

“Sure, uh, what is it?” she asked with a cock of her head.

“I need you to create a sort of cloud runway over the park about 15,000 feet above the ground. It needs to be about five yards long and two yards wide. Can you do that for me?” I asked with a smile. She took a heroic pose as she answered.

“Yeah I can!” she then blinked and looked at me with the cocked head look again, “But why?”

I gestured to where Scoots sat, “I got something planned to help raise her spirits 'bout the whole flying thing,” I paused and rubbed my chin (noting absently that I needed to shave), “At least I hope it will.”

“Oh, alright, I'll go get that set up than. See ya Jonesy!” With that, the blue pegasus zoomed out of the mead-hall with a 'whoosh' and a slight backblast of air. Chuckling, I gave Jones a pat on the shoulder before motioning Scootaloo along. Walking outside, we walked quietly to the library. Again, I told Scootaloo to wait while I talked to Twilight and, again, she sat down with a “humph” and crossed her hooves.

Walking inside, I found Twilight organizing her books.

“Hey Twi, what's up?”

She looked at me in slight surprise as she floated books into place, “Oh, hi Tyler. I'm just organizing the books.”

“For the third time today,” added Spike from atop a pile of books. A glare from the unicorn caused him to start working again. Once he disappeared in the books, she shook her head and looked at me with a confident smile.

“What's up?”

“I need you to do your spell thingy that lets me walk on clouds and I need to borrow your hot air balloon,” I stated as I picked up a book and looked at the cover. Laughing: The Fundamentals and The Meanings. I cocked my head at it before a purple glow surrounded it and yanked it from my hands, putting it up on a shelf.

“Why?” she asked, looking slightly embarrassed about the book.

“I got something cooked up to raise Scoots' spirits and to do that, I need to be able to get up to and walk on clouds. Can ya do it?”

“If it'll help Scootaloo...” she put a hoof to her chin in thought, “Sure, I don't see why not.”

I knelt down and pulled the unicorn mare into a hug, “Thanks Twi! You're amazing!”

I let her go, the purple mare backing away with a blush on her cheeks. She shook it off before muttering “Hold Still” as light built around her horn. It suddenly reached out and wrapped around me. It felt tingly but safe as I was lifted a couple inches from the floor. Finally, I felt a surge of... something rush through my body as the glow disappeared and I fell back to the floor.

“There,” she said with a smile.

“Cool! Thanks Twi!” I said excitedly as I wrapped her into another hug. Letting her go, I turned and jogged back outside to an impatient Scootaloo.

“Are you gonna tell me what this secret is yet?” she asked. I just smiled and shook my head. She sighed, “Of course not.”

I chuckled as I knelt and ruffled her mane, “Don't worry, the secretiveness is almost over. Go to the park and wait in the hot air balloon okay?”

She cocked her head at me but nodded, “Alright.”

As she trotted off in the direction of the park, I turned and started jogging to the last stop I needed to make. Carousel Boutique, the place this plan of mine first came to fruition. Reaching the fancy looking store, I slowed before stepping inside. I was almost immediately greeted by the white unicorn, her purple mane slightly disheveled.

“Hi!” she shouted, an eye twitching ever so slightly.

“Hey Rarity, you got the surprise ready?” I asked, shying away ever so slightly from the semi-crazy unicorn.

“Of course I do! It took all night to make and get working the way you said but it's done! Hang on!” she disappeared in a flash before reappearing not a second later with a pack looking thing in her mouth. Dropping it on the floor, she smiled widely. “There! Hehe!”

“Cool,” I said softly as I picked up the pack. Stepping through the leg straps, I pulled it up and put my arms through the shoulder straps. Clipping the chest piece, which also had a harness looking device, I tightened all the straps before giving the pack a testing tug. It held tight. “Thanks Rarity. Umm, can I borrow a pair of goggles for Scoots?”

“Sure!” Rarity yelled as her magic sent three such goggles flying into me. They didn't hit with much force but they caught me off guard. Picking one up I smiled at her while backing out of the shop.

“Okay... thanks Rarity.”

“Anytime!” she shouted, waving her hoof over-dramatically.

Finally getting out of the store, I sighed before turning in the direction of the park. As I jogged, I pulled on my facemask and put on my goggles so they rested on my forehead. I got more than a few looks as I ran through town with the black pack on but I didn't care as I was smiling like an idiot from under my mask.

Reaching the park, I saw Scootaloo in the balloon talking to Sweetie Bell and Applebloom as they stood beside the basket. They quieted as I neared but from the way they were looking at me and the pack, I assumed they were talking about the surprise I had planned for Scootaloo.

“Okay, well, we'll see ya tonight for the sleepover!” Applebloom shouted as Sweetie Bell and her took off.

I smiled at them before directing my smile at the orange pegasus filly tapping her hoof impatiently.

“Whats that?” she asked.

“Something.”

“Ugh!” she cried as she dropped into the basket.

Laughing, I looked up to see the clouds in position. Climbing in, I starting the burner and applied some flame to get the balloon rising. As we rose, I tossed the goggles to Scootaloo.

“Put those on please.”

The orange filly did so without argument, probably just wanting me to tell her what I was up to. It was a couple minutes before we reached the clouds. As if by magic, the balloon hovered perfectly by the clouds. I swung one leg out-

“What are you doing?” questioned Scootaloo loudly.

“Twilight did you cloud walking spell thingy, I'm good,” I stated as I swung my other leg out. My feet landed on the clouds and-

I yelled.

“No!” Scootaloo shouted as she jumped to look over the edge... to see me laying on the clouds laughing. “You... you...” she jumped out and onto me, jumping up and down, “meanie! I thought you fell through!”

Picking up the filly, I stood and looked at her goggled eyes with a smile. After a couple seconds, she smiled back and laughed, “Guess it was kinda funny.”

“That it was,” I replied. I then sighed, “Do you trust me?”

She cocked her head at me, “Yeah. Why else would I stay in the same room as you?”

I chuckled, “Fair enough.” I brushed my hand against the harness thing on my chest, “This is a harness to hold you. I'm gonna do something called parachuting that humans in my world do for fun-” And war “-I need to put you in the harness, okay?”

“...Okay” she said with a doubtful look. I brushed her mane before easing her into the harness. Once she was in, I tightened the straps until she winced.

“Why so tight?” she asked, shifting a little.

“Don't want you falling out, right?”

“Falling out?”

I didn't answer as I turned to the far end of the cloud runway and started running. Nearing the end, I pulled down the goggles and-

“GERONIMO!”

-jumped.

Twisting my body, I pointed myself straight down at the earth far below. Scootaloo screamed, the pitch of her voice allowing it to reach my ears as the air rushed past us. I was laughing as I tightened my body even more and felt a small push of extra acceleration. After a couple more seconds, I leveled out my body and spread my arms and legs in the spread eagle position. Finally, Scootaloo stopped screaming and put out her wings experimentally. After shying away once, she stuck them out and smiled wide as we slowed even more. She even flapped them a bit as we continued falling.

About half a minute later, I shouted,

“Hang on!”

Reaching with my right hand, I pulled the string. There was a seconds delay where doubt crept into my mind before there was a soft 'pop' and the black material came out to form the distinct wing shape. We suddenly slowed and started to drift to the ground. Grabbing the handles I made sure to guide us down safely. As we came in for a landing, Scootaloo still had her wings out.

Lifting my knees, I hit dirt and ran to a stop, the parachute dropping to the ground behind me. I was about to turn and start collecting it when there was a 'zing' and the parachute somehow folded itself and retracted into the pack, the handle going back up as if I never pulled the cord. Huh.

“That was awesome!” Scootaloo shouted as she squirmed happily in the harness. Chuckling, I loosened the harness and moved to lift her out. Suddenly, she kicked herself up, turned, and wrapped her hooves around my neck in a crushing hug. “Thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” she screamed, tightening her hug.

Choking a bit, I pried her off before holding her out and smiling at her. She looked at me sheepishly but was obviously still excited.

“Your welcome but now you see that even if you can't fly,” she looked a little saddened as she half-heartedly flapped her wings, “you can still enjoy the feeling of the sky.”

She smiled wide again as I brought her in for another hug. Finally, I set her onto the ground and said,

“Now come on, we got a sleepover to prepare for.”

Chapter Fourteen

After the bath, I toweled off and dressed myself in one of the uniforms Rarity had sewn. As I was leaving the top floor, I spotted a mirror against the wall. Not able to help myself, I stopped in front of the mirror to examine myself. The uniform fit just right but what caught my eye was the gold trim. It looked amazing and I couldn't help but smiling. Hell, she had even replicated our name and service tapes and rank tabs. Of course, they all of a gold thread instead of black but, eh, I wasn't one to complain.

Reaching in my thigh pocket, I pulled out my cover. It wasn't a hat, no, it was a beret that Rarity had made for all of us. It was gray with some golden thread laced through it in a sort of quilt fashion. Still smiling, I finally walked down to the main floor and out, putting on the beret. After making sure it was sitting properly, I started walking toward the Library. My hand brushed against my holster, the pistol sitting inside it. Even though we knew no pony would attack us, Sarge had told us to carry at least our pistols. “Just in case.”

I wasn't going to argue with him for what he said had some meaning to it. I still, sometimes, found myself thinking back to the Diamond Dog incident. If I hadn't had my weapons, what would have happened?

I derailed my own thoughts as I shook my head and decided to take in my surroundings. Even with the cold, there were still a lot of ponies traversing the streets and going to the market. I was approaching the market myself, having to walk through it to get to the library, and found myself smiling a little. It was an honest to god open market with stands for about every type of item. It was quite... exhilarating for the reason that I now had an idea what a Medieval market might have actually looked like.

I saw Applejack behind one of the stalls and my smile widened. I started walking to her, the orange mare spotting me as I did.

“Hey AJ!” I greeted happily as I reached her stall. She was, of course, displaying a multitude of different apple based foods and drinks.

“Heya Tyler. Ya seem mighty happy today. Even after the, uh... PT?” she replied, her head tilting at the initials. I chuckled,

“Physical Training. Basically just trying to work up our strength and endurance,” I explained as I grabbed a red apple and tossed a couple bits onto the counter of the stall. I was only mildly surprised when she pushed the currency back toward me.

“That's on tha house,” she said, her eyes showing that there would be no argument.

“You sure AJ?”

“I'm sure.”

“Alright,” I replied, scooping the bits back into my pocket, “Well, have a good one AJ.”

“You too sugarcube.”

Taking a bite out of the apple, I turned and continued on my trek to the Library. I ate fast so by the time I reached the, literal, tree house, only the core remained. Pushing open the door, I walked inside the library, tossing the core into a nearby trash can.

“Honey, I'm home!” I shouted, spreading out my arms some. A large, cheeky smile was on my face when Twilight's head poked out from behind one of her books. There was a slight blush on her cheeks.

“Um, Tyler. That's only said between married couples here and, um, we're not... married,” she explained, looking more and more embarrassed as she did. I stood still for a second before I started laughing.

“It was a joke Twi,” I said between laughs, taking off my beret as I did so (I was inside after all). Her cheeks turned a darker shade of red and it crept farther onto her face as she lowered her head behind the book some.

“Oh, um, okay,” she laughed timidly, “I see how that may be humorous between two friends.”

I stopped laughing and just smiled as I looked at her. I couldn't help but realize how cute she was when she was embarrassed. That thought got squashed by the back of my brain. No, no, no! You can't be attracted to her. You are a human. She is not of your species. What would your family think if they ever discovered that you were attracted to an animal?

Animal. That stopped everything in it's tracks. Did I just refer to Twilight as an animal? This filled me with anger and some regret. I was angry because I had thought it which meant that somewhere in me, I thought of these sentient beings as little more than stupid, simple-minded animals. Granted, both humans and ponies were animals in a way but they were also thinking, speaking sentients.

“Umm, Tyler? Are you okay?”

Twilight's voice snapped me from my thoughts. Blinking, I realized that I was now looking at my boots. Looking up, I saw that Twilight had set aside her book and had come a couple steps closer, a slight tilt to her head. Her purple eyes were full of concern. Her hair, due to the tilt of her head, fell slightly over her right eye.

“You're beautiful,” I finally whispered. What I said then struck me and I hoped beyond hope that she didn't hear. Luck wasn't with me, however, as I saw her mouth drop open and her eyes widen in surprise.

“Right!” I shouted, “Nice to see you Twilight but I should be off!”

I spun on my heels and all but dashed for the still open door. My escape was foiled as the door was enveloped in a magenta glow and... slammed shut. I tried to open it but the unicorn was holding it shut. I gulped and turned around to see the unicorn looking at me with those purple eyes of hers. She had a blush to her cheeks which cause my heart to flutter a little.

“What did you say?” she asked as she took a step toward me. She looked strung between excitement and disbelief, leaning more toward disbelief. However, I was more focused on finding a way out. Windows? Maybe I could make a mad dash for one but she would probably use her magic to stop me. Her magic. With it, I couldn't escape even if I tried.

She continued walking forward, “I mean. I heard what you said but I just want to make sure there's no chance that my ears may have deceived me.”

She was about halfway to me now. I sighed, there was no escape from this predicament that I put myself in.

“I said that you're beautiful,” I muttered.

“What was that?” she asked as she came closer, turned her head and cocking her ear to hear better. She was smiling now, probably enjoying this. Mentally, I was clawing at the walls to escape. This was not how I wanted this to go down, nor was it at this time. I imagined, oh I don't know, a romantic moment to say something like what I just said. I did not imagine me slipping up and saying it in her library.

“You're beautiful,” I muttered again, even quieter, as she was closer. A crazy, stupid plan had formed in his head. It would just worsen his... predicament but it would allow him to escape the library.

“You're getting quieter Tyler. You need to speak up.”

I murmured something that was incoherent, even to myself. Finally, she was in front of me, looking up expectantly. The disbelief was gone from her eyes, mixed with playfulness and excitement. The blush was fainter but still there. Faking defeat, I slid down the door until I was eye level with her.

“What did you say Ty-”

She was interrupted as my lips met hers. It was... different but also not different. Hard to explain. Only thing important to me at the time (besides that I was kissing someone I liked) was that the magenta glow faded. Pushing back, my weight pushed the door outward. Rolling backward, I ended up in a kneeling position looking at Twilight's furiously blushing face. She was obviously shocked, her body just frozen. Jumping to my feet, I smiled.

“FREEDOM!” I cried like a little kid as I turned and ran for the mead-hall, putting on my beret as I did. Did I receive some weird looks? Oh hells yeah. Did I care? Oh hells no.

Chapter Fifteen

With my encounter with Twilight temporarily avoided, I had rushed back to the mead-hall. Setting my beret on one of the tables, I looked around and sighed. Now I had nothing to do since Scoots wouldn't be back until later. I kicked the ground and watched as some dust came up from it.

“Well, better than being bored out of my skull,” I muttered to myself as I went to grab a bucket and a sponge. Filling the bucket with water, I added soap before going back into the main hall. Before I even got to work, I paused and went upstairs into Gonz's room. Sitting next to his solar charger (smart bastard) was his iPod. He had decided to leave it behind since he was, technically, going to a class. Also, having to explain the device to everyone in Canterlot would have been taxing.

Grabbing the device, I unplugged it from the solar charger and walked back downstairs. Placing the media player on a table, I scrolled through the song list before I found the one I was looking for. I hit play and immediately, a guitar started to strum. As I got down to start scrubbing, I also started singing along with the singer.

“American girls and American guys, we'll always stand up and salute.
We'll always recognize, when we see ol' glory flying,”

I heard the door creak open but didn't bother looking up to see who it was I continued singing and cleaning.

“There's a lot of men dead,
So we can sleep in peace at night when we lay down our heads.
My daddy served in the army, where he lost his right eye,
But he flew a flag out in our yard 'til the day that he died.
He wanted my mother, my brother, my sister, and me,
To grow up and live happy in the land of the free.

Now this nation that I loooove is fallin' under attack.
A might sucker-punch cam flying in from somewhere in the back.
Soon as we could see clearly through our big, black eye,
Man, we lit up your world like the 4th of Julyyyyyy!

Hey, Uncle Sam put your name at the top of his list,
And the Statue of Liberty starting shaking her fist.
And the Eagle will fly, man it's gonna be hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell.
And it'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on yooooouuuu.

Ah, brought to you courtesy of the Red, White, and Bluuuueeee!”

There was a slight instrumental break and I finally looked to see Applejack near me. She had grabbed a sponge and was now helping me clean the floors. She had a small smile on her face, which caused my smile to grow slightly.

“Oh, justice will be served and the battle will rage:
This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage.
An' you'll be sorry you messed with the U.S. of AAAAAAAAAA!
'Cos we'll put a boot in your ass, it's the American way!

As the ending vocals sounded, I heard Applejack chuckle and couldn't help but laugh as well. Standing up, I stretched out my back before walking over to the iPod and hitting pause. Seeing as how I was temporarily done, Applejack also stood and stretched before looking at the iPod.

“Ain't never seen a device that can play music without a band, before,” she said with a smile.

I shrugged, “It's called an iPod but, yeah, humans did a lot of things for efficiency sake. Imagine nothing but earth ponies in Equestria and you've got the same situation as Humans did. No magic, no flying, just good old ingenuity.”

She chuckled, “That sounds like a mighty difficult life. 'Specially with nopony to control the weather.”

“React, Adapt, and Overcome,” I replied simply before looking at her and crossing my arms with a smirk, “Now, I know you didn't come over here to see me make an ass of myself and help me clean.”

She shook her head, “Nope, that I didn't. I came to say that you don broke Twilight with whatever ya did before you came runnin' through the market, screaming like some crazy pony.”

I laughed loudly, holding my stomach as it began to hurt. Finally, I sat down and looked at her with tears in my eyes, “Broke?”

She had laughed with me, not as loudly, but with me. Nodding her head she replied, “Yep, when I found her, she was redder than an apple on harvest day. She kept mumbling your name and something 'bout a kiss.” She then raised one of her eyebrows at me, “I had to push her back inside so I could close her door 'nd keep her from making a fool of herself.”

I was on the floor now, the laughs barking out as tears ran from my eyes. I knew that I probably shouldn't be laughing but it was just so priceless!

“Tyler! Ya stop laughing right now!” I heard AJ yell.

Immediately, I stopped barking laughter but I was still chuckling under my breath and smiling as I looked over at the orange mare. “Yes?” I asked, trying to conceal my laughter.

“Y'all need to go and work things out with Twi, sugarcube. I can see what's happening 'tween ya two and I want to support it. I can't support it, tho' if somepony,” she glared at me, “keeps acting like a colt and if another keeps overreacting at ev'ry sign of affection.”

I sobered up and nodded, “Eh, good point. While we're on the subject. How are you and Kilborn?”

A blush came to her cheeks as she glanced away from me. I smirked at her.

“What ya mean?” she asked, scratching at the floor with a hoof.

“Oh, don't give me that. You two have been more connected than somepony's cutie mark and their special talent since he started working for ya,” I remarked, the accent from my home slipping out some, “I ain't seen him happier to be around anyone, or pony, than he is when he's around you. Likewise, I see how you act when he's around and when he isn't around. Y'all are just as guilty as Twi and me.”

“N-now hold on one applebucking second. Ah came here to tell ya to stop being a colt. Don't ya go turning this on me now. Your still at fault.”

I nodded and raised my hands in mock surrender, “That I am. How 'bout this. After I finish cleaning the floor, I'll go on over and talk to her about what happened. However, you need to talk to Kilborn 'bout your feelings about each other. Deal?”

She looked at the ground before looking up at me with determination in her eyes, “Deal.”

After we shook on it, AJ left me to finish cleaning. With the music playing, it didn't take too long and soon my joints were popping in protest as I stood up and surveyed the now clean floor. Though the work wasn't too physically exhausting, I opted to bathe again. When I was done, I got out and dressed in my ACU, now that they were actually clean.

After putting on my belt and thigh holster, I walked back downstairs and outside. Looking a little to my right, I saw Athena just sitting silently next to the building that her users called home. Wanting at least a little more free time before the possibility of being stuck in the Library with Twi until after dark, I began to walk over to the still machine.

BOOM!

I ducked slightly at the sound as I looked up in confusion. It sounded somewhat like thunder but the skies were clear. No clouds were even approaching the village. Something clicked in my mind and I rushed for the Humvee. Opening the passenger door, I leaned in and turned on the radio.

“-nix 1-1. We are in heavy engagement with OpFor foot mobiles. GPS is down. Blue Force Tracker appears to be offline. In need of assistance. Repeat, to any unit on this freq, this is Phoenix 1-1. We are in heavy engagement with OpFor foot mobiles. GPS is down. Blue Force Tracker appears to be offline. In need of assistance. Repeat-”

I felt my mouth go slack when the radio actually picked up something. As I listened though, only one word came to mind that put all my feelings to voice.

“Shit.”

Chapter Sixteen

“Shit, shit, shit,” I repeated frantically as I rushed into the mead hall. I still had the beret on my head but I couldn't care less about military regulations involving covers at this point. I was scrambling around like a thirty year-old virgin late for a job interview. Jumping up the steps, I barged into my room and quickly donned my vest (not bothering to buckle it) before grabbing my rifle. With those two items, I ran back downstairs to almost collide with a certain orange pegasus and her two friends.

Instead of stepping or going around, I jumped over the three and continued outside. Once outside, I climbed into the driver seat of the Humvee and briefly contemplated on getting Kilborn and Smiley.

“Hey Tyler, what's the hurry?” asked Scootaloo from outside the Humvee. The radio was still squawking, causing the three fillies to cock their heads.

“Who's that?” Sweetie Bell asked.

“Radio. Humans. Trouble. No time. Gotta go NOW!” I replied before turning on the IFV. Looking up from the ignition, I saw a recovered Twilight standing in front of the Humvee.

“Where are you-”

“NO TIME!” I yelled, startling the ponies. There was a flash and the purple unicorn appeared in the passenger seat.

“Well, I'm going to than.”

“B- I- AH! FINE!” I shouted before, being careful not to injure the fillies, slamming on the accelerator and sending the Humvee rocketing forward.

“To any unit on this freq, this is Phoenix 1-1. Requesting immediate assistance!”

As if to reiterate his message, a loud BOOM! sounded from the south. Turning Athena in that direction, I grabbed the microphone, and clicked the transmit button.

“Phoenix 1-1, this is Sentinel Three, got your approx location. Coming in from the North. Repeat, friendlies coming in from the North. Watch your fire, over.”

I got a confused, and slightly scared, look from Twilight. I imagined it was from the boom and how my whole demeanor had changed.

“Sentinel Three, Phoenix 1-1, it's good to hear some goddamn English. Roger your last. Be advised, about two dozen OpFor foot mobiles, some armed with RPGs, have us more or less surrounded. We're trying to maneuver out of the killzone but that's been proving difficult, over.”

“Sentinel Three copies, Phoenix. Out.”

With that done, I slammed the microphone back into place. A uncharacteristically timid voice came from the passenger seat, “What's happening Tyler?”

“Radio helps communicate at long ranges. Went outside to visit you to explain our... incident. Decided to check radio. Picked up signal. Now on rescue mission,” I explained quickly, swerving to avoid a couple trees.

“So there's more humans here now?”

“Yes and not all of them are friendly. Listen,” I now looked over at her. She was looking at me attentively, “you need to make yourself small. Climb down off the seat under the dash, curl up, and make yourself small. Got it?”

“But-”

“Got it?” I asked again, much more sternly. She just nodded and did as I said as the sounds of gunfire began to fill the air. It all appeared to be coming from the other side of a grassy hill. I pushed down on the accelerator even more as Athena started up the slope. The slope was no issue, it was what was after the slope that was the issue.

Nonetheless, the Humvee jumped over the slope into the edge of the battle. I didn't stop, however, in fact, I tried to push down more. The Humvee landed with a bang and started barreling down the other side of the hill... right at a group of insurgents.

The Humvee smashed through the insurgents, barely slowing. Yanking the wheel, the Humvee fish-tailed through the grass as it tried to comply with the command to turn. Hitting the brake, the machine skid to a halt. Before it was fully stopped, I was climbing between the two front seats and into the back. Standing up in the gun cupola, I flicked off the fifty's safety, aimed it at the largest group of insurgents and fired. Now that the surprise had worn off, some of the insurgents were now targeting the Humvee.

All I can say is thank whatever deity, or deities, exist that there were armored plates around the cupola. With the tank's guns and my own, the insurgents were gunned down. None escaped the two American vehicles. When the last insurgent fell, I had done a three-sixty in the cupola, trying to find a new target. I heard the turret of the tank do the same. Finally,

“Nice entrance Sentinel Three. I'm popping the hatch, why don't you come on over and explain to me what the hell is going on? Out.”

I sighed and climbed back into the Humvee.

“He doesn't sound very thankful,” I heard Twilight say. She looked a bit shaken but was otherwise okay. Though, even I knew that my driving would cause her to have some bruises later on.

“He's just confused, that's all. I need you to stay there a bit longer, okay?”

“Why?”

“Talking unicorn?”

“Oh, right.”

I just smiled at her before climbing out the back door and stepping onto the grass. The engines of both the Humvee and the Abrams made it hard to hear outside the confines of the IFV. However, I didn't need to hear as I watched the commander's hatch finish swinging open and a skinny man in a tan jumpsuit crawl out.

Walking over, I met him as he jumped to the ground. As I walked over, I saw that on the side of the tank's big gun, someone had painted the word “AXIOS”. When I looked at the tanker, though, I saw a silver bar rank tab staring back at me. Instantly, I walked straighter and held my head higher. The officer took one look at my beret and a slight frowned formed on his face.

“Sir,” I started, coming to a halt in front of him, “Lance Corporal Tyler Odom, reporting.”

“Most obvious question first. The beret?” he asked, motioning to said head wear.

“One of the locals made it for me, sir. Forgot I had it on as I rushed to your aid, sir,” I replied.

He nodded, “Right. Which, of course, brings me to the next question. Where the hell are we? One second, my tank platoon is fighting off an ambush, next second my tank and a bunch of insurgents are battling on a shitload of green. Not only that, but the BFT went offline, GPS is down, and the only assistance came from one lone Lance Corporal who plowed through some of said insurgents with a Humvee.”

“All due respect but are you okay with big words, sir?”

He looked at me, slightly confused, “Try me.”

“My squad, who were unavailable due to 'local support missions', and I have assumed that a near death scenario has somehow transported us across the dimensional plane, landing us in a world that is greatly unlike our own yet shares certain characteristics with our own. Breathable air, for example, is a shared concept between the two worlds. My guess as to this is, sir, is that our dimension and this one are currently intertwined in a strange way, causing certain humans to be transported to this dimension through near death scenarios.”

His looked of disbelief was priceless but I remained stoic. “Then where are we, Corporal?”

“Ever heard of the show My Little Pony, sir?”

“You're shitting me.”

“No sir. In fact, I have somepony with me who can solidify that fact. If you will follow me, sir.”

He looked suspicious but motioned me to lead the way. Nodding, I turned and walked back to the Humvee, going to the passenger side. I had the Lieutenant stand a couple feet away as I approached and opened the door. I looked at the purple unicorn and gave her a reassuring smile.

“Come on out. Someone would like to meet.”

She nodded and began to crawl out. I helped her out of the Humvee and into sight of the Lieutenant. His jaw immediately dropped as his eyes went wide in shock. As he recovered, the two of us walked over to him, Twilight looking from the officer to the tank in a mixture of awe and nervousness. Her ears were flattened against her head though.

“Can you turn the... things off?” she asked. The Lieutenant regained his composure and said the command into the mic on his helmet as I walked around to turn off the Humvee. The Abrams died down first, followed by the Humvee. As I walked back, I heard the popping of hatches and looked to see the tank crew climbing out to share their Lieutenant's shocked reaction at the purple unicorn.

“Much better,” Twilight said as she looked up at the officer and held out a hoof, “now, I'm Twilight Sparkle.”

The Lieutenant knelt down and tentatively took the hoof and shook it, “Lieutenant Victor Perez. It's a pleasure to meet you Miss Sparkle.”

“And it's a pleasure to meet you Mister Perez,” she replied as she withdrew her hoof and set it back onto the ground.

Perez just looked up at me with a smirk, “You weren't bullshitting, Corporal.”

“No sir, I-”

“By Celestia,” Twilight whispered as she finally saw the dismembered and bullet ridden bodies that surrounded us. She looked up at me with a sad expression, “Their all dead aren't they?”

I just nodded.

“They were your own species.”

Another nod.

“H-how can you act like this is normal?” she asked, her voice rising some. Seeing her getting angry, I knelt down in front of her to look her in the eye. I reached out to caress her mane but she swatted my hand away with her hoof.,

“Twi, I... I have no words that can fully explain the hatred in my world but, sometimes, it gets to a put where you have to fight to protect those you love. Our way of fighting leads to death. Do I like it? No, I don't. In fact, I sometimes have nightmares where I relive some of those killings. It isn't fun.”

“Them or us,” added the Lieutenant. This caused me to glare at the officer as Twilight looked at him in shock.

“How can you think like that? These are your fellow beings!” she shouted.

The officer shrugged with a ghost of a smile, “It's a lot easier when your within a box of metal.”

Twilight looked like she was about to explode, but, instead she just disappeared in a flash of purple light. The last I saw of her were tears streaming from her eyes.

Shaking, I stood and looked up at the hill that I had jumped the Humvee over.

“Well,” my teeth began to grate at his voice, “looks like some creatures can't stand a little blood.”

Before I knew it, I was standing over the officer with my left foot resting on his throat and my rifle pointed at his face. A light pain in my left knee explained his bleeding face.

“Sir! My squad and I have formed a good friendship with the locals of this world. They are not use to war. Bringing her out here was my mistake but you should have known to not talk of war like you loved it, sir. I will not let you ruin our relationship with the locals. Is that understood, sir?”

I heard him choke something out. Removing some of the pressure behind me boot, he began coughing before he finally spoke, “How dare you assault me, I'll-” I re-applied the pressure. I looked up to see that his crew were looking at me with indifferent faces. It seemed that even his crew, who were supposed to be like family, despised him.

I looked back at him to see his face turning blue. “Again, do you understand me, sir?”

I released some pressure. He started coughing and sucking in air. “I understand,” he choked out. When he said that, I stepped back from him. Shakily, he got to his feet, rubbing his throat. He looked back at his crew before motioning to me. “What are you waiting for? Kill this traitor!”

One of his crewmembers stepped up to me and looked me in the eyes. I could see what his choice would be.

“Axios!” he stated loudly before turning and clocking Perez. The Lieutenant fell to the ground, knocked cold. Shaking off his fist from the hit, the crewman looked back at me, “He was driving me nuts anyway. Sergeant Major Brad Thoreau. Nice to meet you Lance Corporal.”

I smiled at him and shook his extended hand, “You too Sergeant,” I looked down at the unconscious officer, “What are we going to do about him?”

The Sergeant looked down at him with a shrug, “Hog tie him, claim that he is 'unfit for duty' because he was 'reacting negatively with locals' under 'strenuous and unknown conditions'.”

I tilted my head with a smile before nodding, “Works for me Sergeant. As long as you don't need him to help operate the tank.”

Thoreau laughed, “Hell no. He's just decoration, even when he had a platoon to command.”

“Alright Sergeant,” I replied, “I got some zip-cuffs on me. Once we get him cuffed, I guess we can set him in the Humvee and then y'all can follow me to the village?”

He nodded, “Sounds good to me, Corporal.”

I chuckled, “If you don't mind my saying so, you and me are going to get along just fine Sergeant.”

He shrugged and smiled, “Bronies due tend to gravitate toward one another.”

Chapter Seventeen

The drive back to Ponyville was unexciting to say the least. The Lieutenant didn't wake from his forced sleep as the Humvee bounced along, the tank following close behind. Sooner or later, the vehicles would run out of fuel and then things would get real interesting. I couldn't help but wonder if Twilight knew a combustion spell that she could infuse into the vehicles.

I felt my mood drop as I thought of the purple unicorn. She was beyond upset with me when she had teleported away. Once I get the Phoenix guys settled, I'll go try to talk to her, I mentally promised myself. Coming upon the last hill before the village, I stopped at the bottom of it which caused the tank to stop as well.

Picking up the microphone, I clicked the send button before saying, “Phoenix 1-1, Sentinel Three.”

“This is Phoenix. Go Three.”

“1-1 Actual, I recommend that you dismount and leave the tank stationary while we go explain your appearance to my Sergeant, Over.”

There was a pause before, “Roger Three. 1-1 Actual dismounting. Out.”

I put the microphone back and waited for the Sergeant Major. It wasn't long before the tan jumpsuit clad tanker opened the passenger door and climbed into the Humvee. When the door was closed, I hit the gas and continued up the hill.

“Leaving it running?” I asked, as I could still hear the tank.

“He's thirsty enough as is. That off and on in the clearing sucked up most of his gas. Once he's off, he's staying off unless we somehow get fuel,” Brad explained as the Humvee crested the hill. When it did, I looked down at the village, the mead-hall the closest building. Outside of it stood Kilborn and Smiley in their green uniforms with armor and weapons. Standing next to them was Big Mac, the ever present hay stem sticking from his mouth.

Pulling up, I came to a stop, shut off the Humvee, and got out, the SM following. Upon seeing the tanker, Kilborn frowned.

“So that is a tank I hear,” Kilborn stated as I came to stand in front of the three males. About a second after, Brad appeared by my side. It was then that Kilborn saw his rank tab and nodded in respect, “Sergeant Major.”

“Sergeant,” Brad replied, “Please, just call me Brad when in a casual situation.”

“Kilborn,” Kilborn responded before motioning with his rifle to the hill we had come over, “and this is hardly a 'casual situation' Sergeant Major. Almost all the town is inside the mead-hall scared shitless about the thundering and the roaring.”

“Eeyup,” Big Mac threw in, looking over Brad.

“Sergeant,” I began, “I would like to report that the Sergeant Major's CO has been relieved of command for endangering the stable relationship between US Army personnel and the local population.”

“Sergeant Major?” Kilborn asked, looking at Brad with curiosity. Brad nodded,

“It's true, Sergeant. First Lieutenant Victor Perez has been relieved and subdued.”

Kilborn nodded before turning to look at me, “Where is he Corporal?”

“The trunk, Sergeant.”

“Why is he in the trunk, Corporal? He's still an officer.”

“Permission to speak freely?”

“Granted.”

“He pissed me off, Sergeant. Twilight-”

“You had Twilight with you? What the hell were you thinking?”

“I was thinking that wasting time arguing with her would be bad for Phoenix 1-1, Sergeant.”

“...Continue,” Kilborn said after a short pause.

“Twilight was greeting the Lieutenant when she finally realized what had just happened. She began to question our response to the violence and the Lieutenant made it worse but acting like he enjoyed it. That is why he is in the trunk.”

“I see,” Kilborn turned to Smiley, “Smiley, go retrieve the Corporal's baggage and take him inside.” He then turned to face Brad, “Sergeant Major? Please call your tank and have them pull up and power down. The sooner we can alleviate fears the better.”

When Brad nodded and turned to do so, Kilborn focused a now unreadable visage onto me, “I will be expecting a full debrief, Odom.”

“I'll be prepared to give it Sergeant.”

There was a brief silence as Smiley walked past us with the Lieutenant slung over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes. A couple seconds after he had entered, Applejack came out. She flattened her ears as the roar of the tank sounded off. With the clacking of treads, I turned to see the vehicle come over the hill and start to slowly come towards the hall. It's barrel was aimed high as it came down.

I turned to look at Big Mac and AJ. Big Mac's hay straw had fallen from his mouth, his eyes widened. AJ was stepping back towards the doors, her eyes widened. I saw you mutter, “By Celestia.”

Looking back at the tank, I watched as it came to a stop next to the Humvee. Slowly, it's turret rotated to where it was facing backwards, the gun lowering as far as it can before the machine finally died. When the roar of the engine ceased, I watched as the hatches popped open and the remaining two crewmen crawled out.

“What in the hay is that?” I heard AJ ask. Turning to look back, I saw that Smiley was standing beside the door. Said door was open with many ponies staring wide-eyed at the tank and it's crewmembers.

“That,” started Brad, “is a M1A2 Abrams Main Battle Tank.”

“Obviously one of your machines,” Rarity stated in a patronizing voice as she walked out, “Rugged, brutish and ever so loud. I see that this one is remarkably bigger than your precious 'Athena'.”

Brad nodded, chuckling, “That it is. Corbulo, the tank, is designed for more dangerous jobs than the Humvee.”

“That doesn't explain the noise,” Rarity countered.

“The engine, the thing that runs it, is large, miss. It's going to be loud,” Brad replied. He was met with a 'humph' before Rarity turned and walked away. All the other ponies began to file out as well, casting cautious glances at the tank and it's crewmembers. The last ponies, for some reason, were the kids. Most of them trotted over to the tank, and the driver who was still sitting on the front of it.

“Let's head on in Sergeant Major, maybe we can get things sorted out,” Kilborn said before turning and walking inside with Smiley following.

I saw Brad nod before looking over at the tank, “Yo! Malinowski! You good?”

The driver, who had removed his helmet and allowed Apple Bloom to try it on, looked up with a smile on his face and nodded, “I'm good Sarge!”

“Alright!” Brad called back before walking inside, the other crewman following. I then followed them inside, shutting the doors as I did. Once the doors were shut, we had gathered around a table, AJ and Big Mac included for some reason.

“Why don't I start with our story, eh SM?” Kilborn asked. Brad motioned for him to go ahead. Nodding, Kilborn cleared his throat, “Well, we were on patrol...”

For the next hour or so, Kilborn had recounted the events leading to us being here and the events after. After he had done so, Brad talked of how he had gotten here. Apparently, their platoon was heading to a a new Forward Operating Base. In an area once thought secure, they were ambushed. The Lieutenant in a moment of clarity (his only moment according to the Sergeant Major) knew that he had to lose one tank or lose them all. He ordered the platoon to fall back while he had his own tank take the brunt of the ambush. That was when they ended up in the grassland with the insurgents around them.

“I see. Well, Sergeant Major, you are welcome to our 'camp'. We will have to find you some place to stay while we're here.”

Brad looked around and chuckled, “Just don't give us a bar, Sergeant.”

Kilborn chuckled as well, “Never SM. I didn't rea-”

There was a loud 'pop' accompanied by two flashes of light. One was a dark blue-ish light while the other was yellow. When the light faded, I turned to see four beings standing on the hall's stage. They all had looks of urgency, however the two winged beings had some anger in their visage as well.

“Princesses? What are y'all doing here?” AJ asked.

Instead of one of the Regal Sisters, it was Gomez who stopped forward. “Sarge? We got a problem.”

As Gomez finished his sentence, the doors burst open, the tank's driver rushing inside. I could see the kids standing around the door looking confused and worried.

“Sergeant Major!” the driver started, “The radio's squawking!”

“Other units?” Brad asked the driver. The driver nodded. “How many?”

“Judging by the callsigns...” he trailed off.

“Well?”

“Lots, SM.”

There was a moment of silence before I heard Kilborn ask, “What's the problem Gomez?”

I turned back to see Celestia step forward, her wings spread in an Alpha-esque manner.

“That is the problem,” she stated.

Chapter Eighteen

“Alright, what do we have?” Kilborn asked as we all looked down on the map that Gonz had with him. It was rolled out on the table with different emblems drawn on the map with pen. One noticeable thing was that the emblems were mostly next to settlements. Only one marking wasn't over a settlement and that was 'OpFor?' that lay in the southern badlands.

“This is all by reports from locals,” Gonz started, “I'll start in the North-East and go West. Manehatten: Approximately one company of German Airborne. Contact with locals; sketchy. Only conversing for supplies and information. Hollow Shades: American Ranger Platoon. Contact with locals; same as us. Cloudsdale: One Blackhawk helicopter. Contact with locals; limited. Vanhoover: Approximately two platoons of Canadian Infantry.-”

The list went on and on. British Mechanized Infantry, French Tanks, American Marines, a fucking Destroyer off the coast of Baltimare! What the hell is going on? I thought to myself as the list continued. Most of the units had about the same 'contact with locals' as my squad. That being that they were on their way to living with and helping the locals. The only exceptions seemed to be the Germans. Finally, the list ended and we were all left in shocked silence. Well, the humans were. Celestia and Luna held their defensive manner while AJ looked scared and confused while Big Mac mostly looked confused.

“What's this in the Badlands?” Thoreau asked, his voice quiet.

“A report from the locals at Dodge City says that the Marines there have been fighting with another group of humans. Whether these are insurgents or not have yet to be discovered,” Gonz explained.

“Right, well. First order of business needs to be consolidation,” Thoreau began, “Malinowski, get on the horn and make contact with any willing units. Get the net quieted and figure out the situations of each unit. Also, tell the kids to disperse.”

“Roger Sarge,” replied the driver before jogging out of the building, closing the doors behind him. When he left, Kilborn spoke up.

“Second order of business needs to be a meeting of Commanding Officers and/or the highest ranking enlisted.”

“Agreed,” replied Thoreau, “we'll set the meeting point as this mead-hall. Get everyone here and then we can discuss housing and placement.”

“Excuse me! Just what in the hay is going on?” AJ asked, sounding irritated.

“We would like to know the same,” Celestia intoned, her tone one of malice.

“Ah, yes. Sorry Princesses,” Thoreau began, “but we have no idea ourselves. What we've been able to gather is that certain individuals seem to be being transported to Equestria through near-death experiences. All of these transported individuals appear to be military personnel at this time. The reason for this is currently unknown.”

I cleared my throat before speaking up, “I have a theory but it is just that.”

Luna looked over at me, “Please enlighten us.”

I nodded, “I think that this dimension and our dimension are currently intertwined because of an event that may be happening in either one of our worlds. Because of the transportation of human warriors to this dimension, I regrettably assume that this dimension is on the brink of war. Thus the... transference is targeting warriors who have 'died' while fighting.”

The tank gunner spoke up now, “Kind of like a program! If you look at this from a computer viewpoint, we are all lines of code. Think of war as a virus sweeping through the code. Certain anti-virus codes are going to try to stop the virus, which the virus is going to have to bypass or break through. Our dimension, our 'program', has too many of these anti-virus codes. This dimension has too few anti-virus codes. Therefore, we are being taken from our program and put here to defend the code.”

There was a silence before Celestia spoke, “While I do not know what a program or computer is, I think I understand what you two have theorized. I must ask, however, why (with no offense to your capability as warriors) would the... program choose warriors that have died in battle?”

“Second chances,” Smiley replied in his usual deep voice. All eyes were on him, causing the masked man to shift his weight from foot to foot, “It chooses the ones that have faced death and would do anything in their power to not have to face it again. However, we are soldiers. Our duty is to protect. Therefore, even though we have faced death, we would gladly fight again if innocents were endangered.”

“Of course we can't fight without fuel,” Thoreau pointed out. He looked up at the Princesses, “Princesses, if this theory proves to be true, we're going to need our machines. If you know any combustion magic, now would be the time.”

Luna looked over at Celestia, who had a thoughtful look on her face. Their wings had lowered from their dominant position, a sign of ease if there ever was one. After about a minute, she nodded, “Yes, I think I know where such a spell can be found. If you give me a detailed description or picture of the machine, I believe I can modify the spell accordingly.”

Thoreau nodded, “I'll get to work on that.”

“In the meantime,” Kilborn started, “I'll organize the scattered troops and see who's the highest rank out there. I don't want to hand it off but we need a chain of command.”

“Agreed,” Thoreau stated.

Kilborn continued, “Gonzales, I need you to get on our own radio and help Malinowski coordinate everything. Get two channels going. Everyone east of Ponyville of one channel, everyone west of Ponyville on another. Get to it.”

Gonz nodded and jogged out of the building.

“Jones and...” he stopped, pointing at the tank's gunner.

“Smith, Sergeant.”

“...Smith, find paper and pens and help Malinowski and Gonzales in taking down SitReps from each unit. I want everything from number of people to how much food they have to how many shits they've taken since they've got here. Got it?”

“Yes Sergeant,” they both replied simultaneously. A look of surprise was etched on all the pony's faces. Except for Celestia. She looked like she had actually found it to be humorous.

“Then get,” Kilborn ordered. The two jogged out as well. He turned now to Smiley and me, “You two. Go around town and try to alleviate any fears anypony may have. Even if it's a fear of the big blue sky, try to alleviate it. Explain the situation as best as you can if you must. Get to it.”

“Yes Sergeant!” we replied before turning and leaving the building. Once outside, we both put on our berets and turned toward the center of town. We could hear the Humvee's radio going and Gonz's voice as he tried to get things under control.

We walked in silence down the empty street. Everything seemed abandoned. At least, it would have if I couldn't see and hear ponies shutting windows and doors.

“I don't think we're all that welcome anymore,” I said as a smiling colt was roughly pulled inside by his mother, who then slammed the door shut.

“Nope,” was Smiley's reply as he adjusted his grip on the SAW in his hands. We drifted back into silence as we walked. My mind took this time to go into overdrive, What is causing all these deaths? How did a Destroyer get sucked through? What war is going to happen? One thought suddenly overcame all the rest, Will I survive this war?

That was the big question wasn't it? Will I survive? I looked over at Smiley. Will any of us survive? After the war is over, what will happen to us? Will we stay here or will we disappear?

My think was interrupted as something collided with, and wrapped around, my left leg. Looking down, all I saw was purple and orange.

“Scoots?”

Her shoulders were shaking and I could feel a wetness where her face was. Kneeling down, I set my rifle down as I brushed my hand through the filly's mane. She removed her face from my leg to look up at my face. Tears were running freely down her cheeks.

“Scoots, what's-”

“They're calling you monsters!” she blurted, “They say you're going to hurt us! I tried to argue but they glared at me. Th-th-they said I was...” a new wave of tears came out, “tainted. Then they kicked me out.”

I looked at Smiley in disbelief. His face was as hard as a stone, though his eyes contained fires. I looked back down at Scoots, who had buried her face back into my leg.

“Where are they, Scoots?” I asked. She looked up at me, fear in her eyes.

“You're not going to h-h-h-hurt them, are you?”

I physically recoiled at those words, “No. I want to explain to them what is actually happening. I give my word that we will hurt no pony.”

She looked at me for a couple seconds before saying through her tears, “T-their at C-c-city Hall.”

I nodded, “Alright. Go home and stay with Kilborn and them, okay?”

She nodded and, reluctantly, let go of my leg to start trotting towards the mead-hall. Once she was on her way, I grabbed my rifle,stood up and looked at Smiley. No words were said and yet an entire conversation passed between us.

We both nodded before turning and jogging toward the City Hall. When we got close to the building, we could hear yelling coming from inside. Angry, violent yelling. Coming up to the steps, I set my rifle against the fencing before turning to Smiley. He nodded. I would go in alone. If they turned violent, he would fire a burst into the air to disperse and/or confuse them. We would then retreat to the mead-hall. I hoped that we wouldn't have to do that.

Stepping up to the main door, I took a deep breath before pushing them open. The yelling became deafening. Now that I could clearly hear them, though, I realized that they were all saying the same thing.

“Gone with the humans! Gone with the humans!”

Again and again they chanted it. No pony noticed me standing there, frozen. I looked amongst the crowd. Almost everypony was present in the building. They all had their heads craned upward, looking at the balcony. Letting my gaze drift upwards, I focused on the balcony.

...and felt my heart crumble.

“Twilight...”

Chapter Nineteen

Here she was. The pony that had taken my heart since our arrival to this world. She was smart and understanding. Now, she was violent and stupefied by misplaced anger. She had seen the darker side of humanity and that vision consumed her. The doubt of the townsponies simply fed that vision.

As I stood frozen, Twilight's eyes swept over the crowd. When they came upon me there was a flicker of recognition before all was covered by hate. A flash of purple and she was in front of me, yelling. Her words sounded like I was underwater as I stared into those hateful eyes. Those eyes that use to be full of love and understanding.

The crowd turned and saw me and began to yell with the purple unicorn. Obscenities surely, added with general threats. No pony looked happy. No pony looked at all doubtful that their hatred might be misplaced. Their unity would've been envied by many human groups.

“...using Scootaloo as a shield!”

That brought me from my trance. I turned to where it was said but only saw angry ponies all around. Putting one hand behind my back, I held it palm out to signal Smiley to hold off on the burst fire.

“Please quiet down! I have been sent to help explain the current situation!”

The yelling increased.

“Invaders!”

“Killers!”

“Monsters!”

So the accusations went. Many were crying for the exile of all humans. Were it a different situation, that might have amused me. My face remained stoic, however as I signaled to Smiley. Not a second later, the barking of his machine gun deafened the crowd, startling them to silence. Many ducked down, eyes wide. Others just froze on the spot. Twilight only flinched but even she quieted down, staring me down as I stared back. Before they could regroup, I spoke:

“Ponies of Ponyville! You call us invaders and yet we have imposed no rule of ours! You call us killers and yet we have killed none of your kind! You call us monsters! That is the one true thing you have spoken!” Opening of mouths. I held up my hand, “I will be the first to admit that I am a monster. I have done things that many of humanity, even, would view to be monstrous. However, I stand before you now. Not as a monster or a soldier. No, I stand before you now as another sentient being.”

I held up my empty hands to the crowd, “I come wielding no weapon in my hands.”

“But your friend used his!” shouted some pony in the crowd.

I nodded, “That he did. Think of this, though. How else could I have calmed this crazed mass enough to speak and be heard?”

A few quiet murmurs spread through the crowd. I looked down at Twilight to see only her steely resolve. Why must you be so stubborn Twi?

“While you may think what you wish of us, I will tell you now that we shall do no harm to you. I am simply here now to explain the current situation to the best of my abilities.”

“And what is the 'current situation'?” somepony asked. This was followed by many agreements to the question.

“Other humans have appeared in your world,” I raised a hand to silence the murmuring that was quickly becoming yelling, “They are all soldiers like myself. They are not all Americans however all the humans who have appeared near settlements appear to be friends.”

“So there's some humans who are not friends?” this came from Twilight, her voice dripping with anger, confusion, and hurt.

I nodded, “Yes. A report indicates that some non-friendly humans have appeared in the southern Badlands. So far it appears that friendly soldiers have been keeping them at bay and have been protecting Dodge City.”

“'Keeping them at bay'? That's a euphemism for 'killing them', right?” asked the purple unicorn.

I looked her in the eyes, “Yes. The soldiers have undoubtedly shot at the Opposing Forces and may have killed a few. Likewise, the OpFor (Opposing Forces) have undoubtedly shot at the soldiers and may have wounded or killed a few.”

“That's your job, isn't it? To kill other beings because you were told to?” Twilight asked.

“I am a soldier. That question would've just been as suited to be asked to one of your Royal Guards,” I paused and narrowed my eyes at her, “or to you.”

She looked taken back, “I haven't killed anypony! Neither have the Guard!”

“Invasion of Canterlot by the Changeling Queen. The Royal Guard, you, and your friends fought against the Changeling forces. How can you be sure that the actions of you, your friends, or the Guard did not lead to a Changeling's death?” I asked. Twilight took a step back, her expression becoming overrun with confusion. The crowd in the city hall had quieted now, listening in with interest.

“That was different! They are not ponies! They-”

“Just because they are not your kind, you think them expendable? Are they not thinking beings? Do they not have a society?” I asked. Twilight's eyes were darting now. I could see her mind fuming as she tried to find a way to argue.

“They attacked the Princesses!” she yelled.

I widened my eyes and looked as if I had a revelation. “Ah! So they were threatening your way of life, yes? To protect it you decided to fight back and defeat them through any means necessary, correct?”

She nodded as she looked at the ground. I looked around at the crowd to see comprehension spreading through the group.

“That is humanity! Only on a wider scale! Humans are diverse. There are different religions, languages, governments, anything and everything that can be different, there is. These differences lead to disagreements. Disagreements lead to threats and threats lead to war.”

Another pony stepped forward, “Why can't you solve it with discussion?”

I looked at the pony and smirked, “When you can eat meat, you are biologically more aggressive than a being who can't eat meat.”

The pony shied back into the crowd. They all stood quietly, looking from one to the other, waiting to see who would try to challenge the human standing before them. In the silence, there was a pop and a purple flash. Twilight had teleported away.

An older looking mare with gray mane and reading glasses stepped forward to take the place where Twilight once stood. She looked up at me with a sad look on her face.

“On behalf of Ponyville, I apologize for our actions. I wish you the best of outcomes in your situation,” she said with a nod. I could tell that she didn't fully mean the apology and, looking around the room, some ponies didn't seem all that apologetic. However, I knew when to call the battle to an end.

I nodded my head to her, “Thank you, ma'am. My friend and I will be gone now.”

With that, I turned and walked from the building. Grabbing my rifle at the bottom of the steps, Smiley and me started back to the mead-hall.

“Good speech,” Smiley stated when we were a good deal away from the city hall.

I gave a dry chuckle, “It didn't seem to assuage all of them though.”

“Never does.”

I nodded at that. We both descended into silence as we walked through the empty streets of the village. I reached up with my left hand and touched the front of the beret that rested atop my head.

“Don't,” Smiley warned. I turned to him in surprise.

“What?”

“You were thinking. Don't.”

“I wasn't-”

“But you were going to. I saw it in your eyes.”

I sighed, “I don't know Smiley. It feels like we're going about this all wrong.”

“The only 'right way' to do this would be to do what is impossible for us.”

I paused and looked at Smiley in confusion. He looked back at me and I could see a scary understanding in his eyes.

“We'd have to hang up our rifles,” he finished. He went back to looking straight ahead. I looked down at the ground in silence. Finally:

“Smiley?”

“Hmm?”

“Why the hell are you an infantryman?”

A pause as he looked at me in mild surprise, “Because if I worked a desk job, I'd end up killing people anyway.”

I laughed. Boisterous, non-forced laughter. The laughing helped to bury my worries. I knew they would resurface (most likely when I tried to sleep) but for now they were gone from my mind. I looked around our surroundings.

Sighing I looked ahead and continued walking. It wasn't long before we got back to the mead-hall. Gonz was still working the radio, though with less panicked urgency than before. It appeared that they had come to some semblance of order. Nodding to the Corporal, and getting a nod back, Smiley and me turned toward the doors. Pushing them open, we stepped inside.

“Tyler!”

I smiled wide as I crouched down to receive the orange filly that charged at me. When she reached me, I picked her up and stood. I hugged her before just holding her in my arms, leaving my rifle to dangle from it's sling.

“Odom,” Kilborn spoke from the table where the map had been spread out. Looking at him I noticed that only Kilborn and Luna were standing by the table. In the corner, I saw Perez glaring at me with a gag over his mouth.

“I see he awoke,” I pointed out, nodding my head toward the Lieutenant.

“Yes,” replied Luna, “and his yelling made us very irritable.”

“Explains the gag,” I observed with a small smile.

“Report?” Kilborn asked, causing my attention to snap back to him.

“The populace is untrusting, Sergeant. When Smiley and me began to move down the street, we could both hear and see ponies shutting doors and windows at our approach. Kids were hidden by their parents, as well.”

“And of City Hall?” Luna asked.

I looked at Scootaloo, who was looking back at me with sad eyes. “I told them of the meeting,” she informed sadly, putting her face against my chest after she did. I rubbed her back comfortingly as I looked at Kilborn and Luna.

“Tricky, Princess. I went in, alone and unarmed, to see most of the town gathered and chanting one sentence. 'Gone with the humans'. They were looking up at the balcony. Looking up myself, I saw that the leader was none other than Twilight, m'Lady.”

“Twilight Sparkle?” she asked, her face contorted in confusion.

“The same. When she spotted me she teleported in front of me and began to... yell at me. The crowd joined in. A few carefully chosen words caused Miss Sparkle to cease. More words calmed most of the crowd. Upon leaving the building, the crowd had been... subdued. Some ponies still held outright anger but were not yelling. Most had underlying distrust for us,” I explained.

“You didn't threaten or hurt anypony?” Kilborn asked.

“No Sergeant. All was civil,” I replied.

Luna scoffed, “Yelling is not civil.”

“If you'd excuse my disagreeing, m'Lady. When you have access to firearms and come from a world such as our own, yelling is quite civil,” I argued.

She looked confused but understanding. Then, as if remembering something, she spoke quickly, “This 'm'Lady' you keep saying. It is another way to address nobility, is it not?”

“Of course, m'Lady. Understand that there are still monarchies in our world. I was simply trying to avoid from having to say 'Princess' over and over without straying from your liking of formality.”

She looked surprised before looking satisfied. A hint of something else came over her face but it was gone before I could register what it was. “We see.” Then she muttered, “Most interesting...”

Kilborn nodded to me, “Dismissed Odom. Smiley, I need you to go to the tank, Corbulo, and help describe combustion engines to Princess Celestia.”

Smiley nodded, turned, and left. I nodded to Kilborn and muttered, “Thanks,” before turning and walking to the stairs. On the second floor, I walked fast to my room and entered it. Once there, I set Scoots on my bed before stripping off my vest and gun. With those two things off, I sat down on the bed where Scootaloo was quick to rest her head on my lap. She had been crying softly during the exchange and now she was crying heavier.

Picking her up, I held her in a hug.

“Shhh. Don't cry. All will be well, I assure you. Shhh, Scootaloo,” I cooed as I rubbed her back. As I did, I looked at where my rifle lay. I remembered what Smiley had said: “We'd have to hang up our rifles.”

I frowned, Could I ever do that? Could I ever change myself that much? I am a killer. A trained killer; that's all I am. I will always have blood on my hands and death in my eyes. I thought a little longer before I finally decided: No. I would never be able to hang my rifle up.

A sob caused my attention to turn back to the orange filly in my arms. Continuing to rub her back, When had I stopped?, I whispered, “Shh. No need to cry. I'm here for you. ...I always will be.”

Chapter Twenty

Two days had passed since that chaotic day. Many things had happened since then though. We had discovered that the highest ranking person was the Commander aboard the Destroyer (the USS Kinkaid) that sat off the coast of Baltimare. He was quick to assume command of the scattered Coalition forces from what I was told. He had agreed that a meeting of the commanding personnel should be held. However, he had also ordered all units to move to Dodge City by a certain time-table.

Princess Celestia was able to fulfill her promise. After receiving diagrams and explanations of the engines, she was able to modify a combustion spell accordingly. I wasn't told how it worked but all I cared about was that it did work. The better thing was that it was cleaner and was an unlimited energy source. She, and some of the students from her magic school, went to each unit and did the same for their vehicles. They were even able to get it to work on the Blackhawk. When the Commander had heard news of the operational helicopter, he had it transport the Rangers from Hollow Shades to Dodge City to assist the Marines. While the 'copter had to make two trips, the pilots were happy to be back in the air. Likewise, the Marines were happy to get some help.

Movement was happening all across Equestria, actually. The Canadian troops at Vanhoover hooked up with the British Mechanized Infantry in Tall Tale and began to move south to Los Pegasus to hook up with the US Marines there. The French tank platoon in Appleloosa made tracks to Dodge City to further assist the Marines. The Germans near Manehatten started roughing it across the farmland to Fillydelphia to hook up with the American airborne there.

However, there was also movement of ponies. Many ponies began to shy away from the humans near their settlements. Whether this was because of the same feeling as the ponies in Ponyville or because of their sudden activity was unknown. There were also “displaced ponies” leaving Dodge City and appearing in Baltimare, Appleloosa, and Ponyville. They apparently spoke of differing views. Some spoke of the horrors they saw while others spoke of the heroic actions of the Marines. Still others spoke of humans with unconcealed hatred.

The feeling of hate toward us was still an underlying feeling in Ponyville. Though some showed it outright. Whether it be in the way they looked at us or what they said to us. They are not the ponies from the show. We have corrupted them, my brain concluded. I couldn't help but feel that, that was true. They were happy until we came with our machines of war. I knew that although we could never hang up our rifles, we would still have to live separated from these creatures or risk having them all turn against us.

Sitting on the edge of my bed, I looked across the darkened room where I knew Scootaloo lay. I could see her outline, black on black. I was in my boxers with a green undershirt on. Quietly I stood and first pulled on my ACU pants, making sure to tuck in my shirt. After buttoning them, I put on my boots. Blousing the bottom of the pants, I laced up the boots. I then put on my pants belt and thigh holster. Grabbing my jacket, I pulled it on and slowly zipped it up and secured the velcro.

With the uniform on, I grabbed my beret and slid it into my left thigh pocket. I then quietly tip-toed to Scootaloo's bed and looked down at the head poking out from the blanket. Bending down, I softly kissed the top of her head.

“Sleep well... my daughter.”

With tears welling in my eyes, I briefly looked at the note (I had written it last night after receiving the order and after Scoots had fallen asleep) that lay on my desk atop my book. Grabbing the rest of my gear, I slipped out from my room. Walking down the hallway, I noticed that the other doors were wide open, no one in the rooms they led to. As I walked down the steps, I thought of the note. It said:

Scootaloo,

By the time you read this note, I will be gone from Ponyville. Please realize that this was not my choice but the choice of my commander. Though I did not want to leave you, I am a soldier and a soldier obeys orders. Go to Twilight. Show her this note. She is bound to let you into her home as she is angered at me, not you.

I will try my hardest to come back home, Scoots. Know that I will always be with you, though, in heart.

-Tyler

Wet splotches dotted parts of the paper, I knew. I was barely able to finish it, each letter written taking out a piece of me. What a cruel life we soldiers live, I thought.

Reaching the bottom of the stairs, I walked into the main hall to see the rest of my squad standing there in full battle rattle. They noticed my expression and misty eyes and remained respectfully silent as I donned my gear. The tank had left last night. I found myself being grateful for this.

When I had fully dawned my gear (mask and helmet included) I nodded to Kilborn.

“Alright,” he whispered, “Let's get going.”

We all nodded and walked out of the hall that was our home. None of us were sure if we would ever see it again. Last night, Gonzales had pointed out that we had never opened it to the public. The world had swept that idea aside.

Outside, I walked to the Humvee before turning around and looking at the mead-hall. The first line of an Anglo-Saxon poem came to mind.

“Oft to the wanderer, weary of exile.”

“Cometh God's pity, compassionate love.”

I looked over to see Kilborn nod to me before climbing into the front passenger seat. Slowly exhaling, I gripped the door handle and pulled...

...it didn't budge. I pulled again and, again, it didn't budge. Looking closely at the door, I noticed some peculiar. It was surrounded by a light that was... Purple!

I wheeled around quickly to see a familiar face lit by the glow of her horn. Without letting go of her hold on the door, she walked up to me and looked at me with pleading eyes.

“You're leaving?”

“Yes. We're off to Dodge City.”

“To war?”

“...yes.”

“Tyler, I-I'm sorry. I shouldn't have-”

“Shhh,” I knelt down before her, a finger to her lips, “You are forgiven. You always were. Back home there are people who cheer when a soldier comes home dead. Your reaction was not the worst.”

She looked surprised but saddened again. When I removed my finger, she looked at the ground and spoke again, “Do come home, alright?”

Putting my hand under her chin, I raised her head. She allowed me to and looked at my eyes, illuminated by her horn. “I will do my best. You must take care of Scootaloo while I'm gone.”

She nodded, tears spilling from her eyes. I wiped away some of the tears, “I have to go now.”

Again, she nodded but her horn dulled until the light was fully gone. After wiping away some more of her tears, I stood and turned. Opening the door, I stepped in.

“Tyler!” Twilight called as I began to close the door. I looked at where she now sat. She was looking down at the ground, thinking. After a couple seconds, she looked up and said only three words, “I love you.”

It took a couple seconds for those words to process. Finally, “I love you too, Twi. I'll try my best to return, I promise.”

With that, I shut my door and Gonz started Athena. We began to roll away and all I could do was stare at the seat in front of me.

“And happy the man who seeketh for mercy from his heavenly Father, our fortress and strength,” Kilborn quoted as he looked back at me by using the mirror. Even though I wasn't religious, all I could do was nod in response to his words. My mind began to drift back to Scootaloo and Twilight. My adopted daughter and my lover. With my left hand, I reached back and rubbed the spot on my back where the tattoo was. I read it in my mind:

Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.

Chapter Twenty-One

The Humvee bounced about as we sped over the uneven terrain. We were traveling parallel to the railroad now, our tires kicking up dirt. I sat behind Kilborn while Gonz drove and Jones sat behind him. In the gun cupola stood Smiley, his eyes scanning the land around us.

“Look it. Right here,” Kilborn started as he angled the map, lit by his flashlight, so that Gonz could see it, “that train bridge is the only way across the Gorge.”

“'Less we follow it down and cross the river later on,” Gonz countered, glancing at the map. Curious, I looked around Kilborn's seat to see the map. Seeing Ghastly Gorge, I noticed that, yes, the only way across was a single train bridge.

“We don't know how deep the water is going to be. The Brits and Marines from the coast are planning to cross this bridge too,” Kilborn explained.

“So you want us to scout it out?” I asked, looking over at Jones with mild worry in my eyes. He just shrugged at me.

“Exactly. Might as well see if the Brits can cross the thing.”

“Wait,” Jones spoke up, “didn't the guys in Corbulo already head out? They were planning to use this bridge too, weren't they?”

“Yes, but they had called back in the night to report that they hadn't crossed the bridge,” Kilborn answered.

“Why?” Gonz asked.

“They wanted us to scout it out.”

“We're Infantry, not Recon,” I said as I sat back in my seat, looking out my window at the still dark world. Though it was dark, the first fingers of daybreak were reaching over the horizon.

“Doesn't matter, we got to cross that bridge so we are going to scout it,” stated Kilborn as he folded up the map.

“By 'we', you mean Tyler and me?” Jones asked sarcastically.

Kilborn turned to look at him, “Thanks for volunteering yourselves, Jones.”

I glared at Jones, who just looked at me and shrugged as if to say, 'Oops... sorry bro'

I flipped him the bird before turning to look back out the window. My mind began to drift to the CEFE (Coalition Expeditionary Force, Equestria), as the Commander started to call it. The force consisted of so many troops and materials. The thing that scared me the most was the 'how'. Apparently, a short while after we had disappeared, some Army SpecForce unit was discovered in Iran by Iranian forces. Needless to say, things disintegrated rather quickly.

Fighting broke out between the Middle Eastern based Coalition forces and Iran. The governments of the Coalition nations refused to call it a war. Instead they referred to it as a 'hotspot' in the Global War Against Terror. Stupid right? Well, the Iranians sure saw it as a war and threw everything they had at the Coalition forces. This caused the transfer of the units in Equestria, however I was now worried that it didn't just transfer Iraqi and Afghani insurgents. Something told me that Iranian troops had also been transported. Whether the two OpFors would work together was yet to be known but what was known was that the battle ahead was going to be tough.

The squealing of brakes brought me from my thoughts. Looking around, I saw Corbulo sitting silent with it's crew sitting atop it. Before the Humvee fully stopped, Kilborn had swung open his door and stepped out. When we had stopped, Jones and me followed suit.

“Thoreau!” Kilborn called out. Said Sergeant Major jumped from his tank with a smile on his face. The two men vigorously shook hands.

“Took ya long enough,” Thoreau joked. While they talked, I looked forward at the bridge that spanned the Gorge. It seemed to be a stone bridge with the track atop it. They're worried about a stone bridge? I thought to myself. I looked at Jones and rolled my eyes. He laughed in response.

“Jones, Odom. Get moving. Get across the bridge and set up somewhere to signal for any incoming trains to stop. Radio when in position,” Kilborn ordered.

“Roger that, Sergeant,” I replied before motioning Jones to follow me. We both began to jog toward the bridge. When we reached it, we jogged onto it and continued jogging. We both wanted to get this done so we could get back on the path to Dodge City.

“So,” I breathed while jogging, “how are you and Dash doing?”

“Good,” he replied, “I was going to ask her to go out with me for dinner but,” a shrug, “that plan's bust now.”

“Just have to wait 'til we get back,” I stated as I glanced over at him.

“Yeah. I guess,” he responded, his tone downtrodden.

“Hey,” he looked at me, “you will make it back. Even if I have to drag you all the way, you will see her again. Got it?”

He nodded, “Got it.”

“Good.”

We continued jogging in silence. That was until I heard a distant rumbling. What the...? Looking at the tracks, I felt worry begin to build. Stopping (Jones stopping a couple feet later), I reach out with a foot and placed it on one of the tracks.

It was shaking!

“Tyler?” Jones asked worriedly as I glanced to our target side of the Gorge. I glanced back to the Humvees and saw that we were a good way past the midway point.

“Shit! Move your ass Jones!” I shouted as I broke into a sprint, continuing in the same direction as our jog. Jones was quick to realize what was happening as he cursed and broke into a sprint as well. We were racing time and playing with death and we both knew.

Then came the whistle of the train, as if taunting us of our demise. I heard Kilborn over the radio,

“Train! Move, move, move!”

Yeah, no shit Sergeant I thought bitterly to myself as my feet pounded away at the stonework. The pounding of my heart became loud in my ears as the burning of lungs began. I noticed that Jones was slowing,

“Faster, Jones!” I shouted, burning my throat. The train was just now coming into view as we charged for safety. My vision begun to shrink as the pounding became louder. My breathing became more labored. It slowly became obvious that we couldn't make it to the other side.

My mind reeled for options as the train sped closer. I could see the engineer now. His face one of panic as he held down the horn. He couldn't stop for fear of the train bowing and going over the edge of the bridge. Finally, an idea came to my head,

“Jump for the cliff face!” I shouted. It was rocky enough and with enough roots sticking out that we should be able to find something to hold on to.

“What?” I heard shouted back.

“Do it or die!” I replied as we closed with our jump point. The engineer now had his eyes clenched shut, his face contorted.

“Jump now!” I shouted before jumping.

“Mother fu-!”

The wind from the train cut off Jones' scream as it zoomed on by. Before I descended beyond the cliff's edge, my brain registered that the sun was now cresting over the horizon. My attention focused on the cliff face. I noticed certain grab points and readied myself. If this didn't work (and there was great chance of that) then I would plummet to my death. Not a way of dying that I had ever envisioned and I briefly wondered what it would feel like.

The rocks were close now. Before my body hit, my eyes reflexively clenched shut in preparation for the pain.

/--\

I opened my eyes to the familiar wooden ceiling. Home, I thought as I smiled softly. That was until my ears picked up the sound of somepony crying. Rolling onto my side, I saw somepony sitting at the desk that was in the room, their shoulders shaking. I rubbed my eyes,

“Twilight?” I asked groggily, still trying to wake up. I sat up and looked around the room to see that it was only the two of us. She turned to me and I was shocked by her tear-stained face.

“Oh,” she started softly, wiping her nose, “you're awake.”

“Yeah,” I replied. I looked around again, noticing certain things missing. I scrunched up my face in confusion and asked, “Where's Tyler?”

Fresh tears fell from Twilight's eyes. “Scootaloo, h-he...”

I looked down at my covered hindlegs, “He's gone isn't he?”

Anger and confusion began to sweep through my brain. I knew it was all too good to be true! I thought angrily as I slammed a forehoof onto the bed. “I knew he'd leave me! Like all the others! I just knew it!” I shouted, pounding onto the bed more.

The beating of my bed was paused when a slip of paper inside a purple cloud appeared in front of me. Curiosity swept my anger aside as I examined the paper. It was splotched with drops of water, some old and some new. I assumed that the new splotches had come from Twilight. I grabbed the paper with my hooves.

“What's this?” I asked, looking over at Twilight, who was crying softly. She tried to speak but ended up choking on her words. Instead, she just waved a forehoof at the paper. Looking at the paper, I read it. As I did, I felt my emotions change from anger and confusion to despair. By the end, tears were now slowly falling from my eyes and creating new splotches on the paper.

A purple hoof wiped away some of the tears. This just caused more to come out as I dropped the note and wrapped my forelegs around Twilight's neck. Burying my head into her shoulder, I let the tears come. A part of me worried what others would think of me if they saw me. That part was quickly beaten by the rest of me.

“W-why?” I sobbed out. I felt a hoof rubbing the back of my neck.

“He's a soldier...” replied the unicorn in an unnaturally quiet voice.

“But they don't need him!” I cried, “H-he could have stay-yed!”

“We both know that even if he was told that he could stay, he would have left with his squad,” Twilight stated, her emotions somehow under control now. She still shed tears, as I could feel them landing on my back, but she no longer choked over words.

Her words. They swam through my head. Their was truth in them. The loyalty seen in him and his squad could put Dash to shame. When one of them got even a rumor that another was in danger, they would come to the other's aid.

We sat in this silent embrace for what felt like an eternity. I sobbed openly as I held onto Twilight as if I would disappear if I let go. As time went on, though, I felt control of my emotions returning.

“It's not fair,” I finally whispered, leaning back from Twilight and looking at her face. She smiled sadly at me and used her hoof to wipe away more of my tears.

“It never is...”

/--\

I opened my eyes to the sight of cut rock before me, above me, and under me. Looking to my right, I saw a large opening that let sunlight spill in. Pushing myself into a kneeling position, I looked left to see a tunnel going deeper into the rock. It was lit by flickering torches. Areas were still covered in black though.

Shakily, I got to my feet. Pain coursed through my body, causing me to clench my teeth.

“...dom...vis...st...train...ver.”

The transmission was garbled. It was either from damage to the radio or from the rock around me. Either was not good. The one word that got through reminded me of what had happened. I was almost hit by a fucking train! That thought was overloaded by the wanting of finding a way out.

I shuffled a foot forward. It was met with growling and the clanking of plates from farther in the tunnel. A being covered in what appeared to be iron armor stepped from one of the shadows with a spear in hand. In the flickering light of the torches, I could see more gathering behind the first one. I quickly raised my rifle, flicked off the safety, and pulled the trigger.

CLICK!

The sound echoed in the tunnels. I looked at my rifle and deduced only one thing,

“That's not fair!”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Looking at the armored being, the first thing I thought of was that this was no pony. It was bipedal, like me, but with a huge torso. The spear was gripped in what appeared to be a paw while two ears stuck out from the helmet it wore.

Diamond Dog, my mind labeled the being. I suddenly remembered the incident that happened about a day after arriving in Equestria. Surely this can't be the same pack, I reasoned. Same pack or not, I could see the dog foaming at the mouth as it looked at me. Bending my knees, I drew my knife in my left hand and my pistol in my right hand.

Just before the dog charged me, a bark echoed down the tunnels. The bark froze the spear wielding dog in front of me. A new form waded through the black shadows that were beyond the lit area. This new dog stepped into the light and I could see that it wore golden armor without a helm. It also wielded no visible weapon.

“You are not like the others who intruded here,” it spoke. It's baritone voice echoed repeatedly. I felt... fear at this dog. I hid it though as I held pistol and knife in a combat stance.

“My apologies for the intrusion but it was this or get hit by a train,” I stated. The dog looked at me blankly for a second before it threw it's head back and laughed. The laughter shook loose rock from the walls.

“Not like the others, indeed,” it spoke once it had finished laughing and was looking back at me.

“If I may, you are not like some of the Diamond Dogs-”

The thing barked loudly. I felt my ear drums ring in pain as I stood, shocked at the reaction. The speardog took a step towards me but the leader then growled at it, causing it to stop. The dog looked back at me, a hatred in it's eyes.

“Diamond Dogs! That pack of useless wretches. All they do is sniff and dig for jewels! What is the point of doing so?” asked the dog. I knew it was rhetorical question so I just remained silent as the dog angrily blew air out of it's nostrils, “We are the Cliff Dogs. Our tunnels encompass this cliff face. Up, Down, and some distance In, we live. Where the Diamond Dogs,” another angry exhale, “dig for their precious jewels, we mine for metals!”

“I see,” I said, “sorry for the mistake.”

It looked at me before chuckling, “It is a mistake that's often made by outsiders.”

I glanced back at the hole that I had caused when I had broken through the thin rock. Looking back at the golden armored dog, I relaxed my stance slightly before asking,

“Have you seen my partner? He had jumped off the other side of the bridge so I lost track of him.”

“Seen him? No,” my began to race. Did he not grab the rocks? Did he jump too late? “but we have felt him.”

I looked at the dog in confusion, “Felt?”

“Every time your feet touch the ground, you cause vibrations to spread through the rock and soil. If you know what you are looking for, you can feel movement that is happening above you or beside you,” the dog explained. I opened my mouth again but, as if sensing me do so, the dog raised a paw to stop me, “He is alright. A Feeler tracked his movements from the rock face to the surface.”

“I need to get to the surface than,” I stated. The dog stared at me for a couple seconds, as if in thought, before nodding and waving me to follow it. Without waiting for me to catch up, the dog turned and began to walk into the shadows. Great, I thought to myself as I hurried to catch up, putting away my weapons as I did.

/--\

“Come on, Scootaloo, you're late enough as it is.”

I looked up from my saddlebag to look out the door of my room, where I knew Twilight was standing.

“One second,” I called back as I gingerly took the note written by Tyler, my friend, my...

“Father,” I whispered, feeling the tears returning. I used to think that a father had to be related to you to be a father, therefore I knew I would never have a father. Now, I felt like a father didn't have to be related. A father just had to be a male who cared for you like you were related.

Looking at his bed, I saw his camouflaged hat hanging from a bedpost. Carefully folding the note, I put it in the saddlebag for walking to the hat and plucking it off the bedpost. On the front was what I remember him calling a ranktab. I couldn't remember what the symbol stood for though. Turning the hat around I saw a... nametape attached, by something he called velcro, to the back of the hat. I traced the letters with my other hoof. Odom. His last name. I thought sadly.

“Scootaloo. Please hurry,” I heard Twilight call. I looked at the hat before setting it atop my head. The hat was so big that I could fit both ears into it comfortably. With my ears holding it up, the hat sat nicely atop my head. Walking to the saddlebag, I closed it before tossing it on and walking out of the room.

In the hallway, I saw Twilight with her mouth open. She was probably about to call for me again. She closed her mouth when she saw me and I could see the sadness in her eyes as she took in the hat.

“It fits,” I don't know why I had said it. It was obvious that it did but it just... felt like it was the right thing to say. Twilight chuckled sadly before nodding,

“It does,” she replied before motioning down the hall with her head, “Come on.”

/--\

We had been walking for what felt like forever. Though, the walk did allow us to... converse. I had learned, through description, that their “intruders” were a group of insurgents that I had found the Cliff Dogs' tunnels and wanted to use them as their own. According to Yu'ak, the Cliff Dog Alpha I was currently following, they were not “able fighters”. This was intriguing as, in my dimension, the insurgents and their tunnels had been a bane to Coalition troops. Could this have been because of the defensive abilities of being in a cave and not from specialized combat skills? Looking back, that was surely the case.

Of course, the exchange of information wasn't all one-sided. When he asked, I had told Yu'ak of how I came to his world and what was currently happening. Was I scared of him telling our enemies? I just listened to him talk for about twenty minutes about how the insurgents were not “able fighters” and “died like Earth ponies who tried to tread cloud”. In other words: Hell no.

The walk through the tunnels, even without the information, had been enlightening. I had seen aspects of Dog life I had never thought I would see. I saw a mother tending to cubs, two dogs conversing casually about their daily lives, dogs working in an underground workshop. An entire city lay below ground. It was breathtaking to say the least. Though, one thing bugged me.

“Where do you get food from?” I asked Yu'ak, the Alpha walking ahead of me. Every dog quickly stepped aside when they saw him, making room for the two of us.

Yu'ak snorted, “The ground above provides for the ground below.”

What?

“We are nearing the surface, outsider,” Yu'ak continued. I looked ahead of us but all I could see was black, dotted with the flickering orange of lit torches. Turning, Yu'ak came to a stop at a dead end. He turned to me, silent.

“Did the tunnel cave in?” I asked.

Yu'ak laughed, “No, outsider.”

I tensed, my hand going for my knife. Again, there was laughter, “Relax, I do not plan to kill you. If I did, you would be dead at the hole you made in our Cave-Home, your meat used to feed our cubs. No, I do not plan for your death at our hands.”

I took my hand away from knife, “Then why are we at a dead end?” I asked, irritation slipping into my voice.

The dog laughed... again, “The eyes fool you, outsider,” he stated in that irritatingly calm voice. I saw as he put a paw on the rock and push.

The world was suddenly bathed in light.

Chapter Twenty-Three

I had closed my eyes to shield them from the blinding light. When I opened them again, I had to blink a few times before I could clearly see. When I could see, I saw that the rock had... disappeared for lack of another term and beyond where the rock was, was the plain of grass that I had seen from the other side of the bridge. I hesitantly stepped outside and looked around, noticing that I had just come out of a boulder that otherwise marked the landscape.

“May the shifting of the pebbles be in your favor outsider,” I heard Yu'ak say. Turning around, all I saw was the boulder. The doorway was sealed again. How the hell? I thought to myself.

“Tyler!”

Looking to where I heard my name, I saw Jones jogging towards me. I watched him jog and noticed something. He had a light limp when he moved as he seemed to be favoring his right leg. When he reached me, he gave me a quick look over before asking the million dollar question,

“Where the hell were you man?”

“I, uh,” I looked back at the boulder, “I was making some new friends.”

I looked back at Jones to see him looking at me in confusion. Trying to change the subject, I pointed at his left leg, “What happened?”

“Banged my knee, hard, against a rock when I hit the cliff face,” he replied before looking back towards the bridge. I looked as well and saw that the train wasn't stopped on the bridge.

“Come on,” I began, “let's get back to the bridge and signal the others over. It's time we got moving again.”

“Got that right,” Jones replied with a chuckle. Turning, he began to jog back to the bridge. I glanced back at the boulder one more time before joining and following my squadmate. While we were walking back, I heard my radio squawk,

“Tyler! Is that you?”

I smirked behind the mask before pressing the transmit button on my personal radio,

“Yeah, Sarge. It's me. It's safe to cross, by the way. Jones and me are moving to the bridge now. Just hurry the hell across.”

“Roger that, we're rolling now.” a pause, “Where were you? We couldn't get you on comm until now.”

I clicked the transmit button, “Long story Sarge. Probably won't believe it anyway. I'll tell you when we're all mounted up and making tracks to Dodge City.”

“Roger that.”

I just shook my head with a chuckle. Hearing the roaring of engines, I looked across the bridge to see the two vehicles begin to move with the tank going first. The tread clanked onto the bridge slowly. When the bridge held, the tank began to move faster across.

“If only we had a Wolverine,” Jones muttered. I looked to him as we came to a step next to the tracks.

“I don't think the bridge on one of those would be big enough for this,” I muttered. Jones had referred to an M104 Wolverine. It was an Abrams chassis that didn't have a turret. Instead, it had a bridge that could be deployed for crossings.

“Duh. I meant that we could have gone down to the river and deployed it there. Of course, the Wolverine would have to camp out and wait for the west coast troops before packing it up,” Jones explained.

“Of course,” I replied as the tank came roaring off the bridge and drove back to the side of the railroad tracks. I cringed inwardly. I hope that those treads didn't just make mince meal out of the tracks... If we got contact with any pony in authority, we were going to have to inform them about this so they could check the tracks.

The Humvee then came off the bridge and pulled off the tracks to come to a stop alongside the tank. Wordlessly (as if we would be able to hear each other anyway), Jones and me moved to the Humvee and piled in. Once we were in, Kilborn radioed to the tank and both tank and Humvee began to speed across the ground toward the rally point.

“So,” Kilborn started as he put up the Humvee's radio and turned to look back at me, “what the hell happened to you?”

I chuckled, “Well, I jumped off a fucking bridge for one.”

Kilborn chuckled, “Yeah. Sorry for making y'all do that. I thought it was a good idea to scout it out first. The SM thought the same too, though.”

I pulled down my mask to reveal my wide smile, “No worries Sarge. Anyways, I jumped off the bridge and was preparing myself for a desperate grabbing of the cliff-”

/--\

I stood quietly next to the door, feeling like the new filly in the class as everypony stared at me.

“I see...” I heard Cheerilee whisper sadly. I looked over at her to see her and Twilight talking softly behind the teacher's desk. I looked down at my forehooves as their voices drifted back out of hearing. I used my ear to feel the hat and sighed sadly. Hearing the clopping of hooves, I turned to see Twilight walking back to me. When she got close enough, she knelt down so her eyes were level with mine.

“You okay?”

I nodded my head but she stayed silent, her eyes seeming to study my face. The stare caused some of the emotions to start resurfacing but I buried them again. I didn't care about breaking down at home but I would not do so here.

“Alright,” she finally said, “come to my house after school, okay?”

I nodded again, “Alright.”

She stayed kneeling for a second, looking as if she was going to say something else before standing. I watched as she gave a curt nod to Cheerilee before walking out of the school house. Looking at Cheerilee, I saw her smiling sadly at me.

“Go ahead and take your seat, Scootaloo.”

Looking back at the desks, I began to walk without answering. I didn't want to be here but I found myself walking to my desk anyway. The desk near Applebloom and Sweetie Bell. The desk near the two ponies who wore the saddest and most confused of looks. Why must everypony hold sympathy for me? I thought to myself as I got my desk. Dropping my bag onto floor, I crawled onto the seat. Setting my forehooves on the top of the desk I sighed and... stared at my forehooves.

I could hear my two friends whispering to me and hear Cheerilee call them out for doing so but it all seemed so far away. As if they were at the end of a tunnel, speaking normally and hoping I'll hear. On and on, I heard Miss Cheerilee droned as I stared at my orange hooves.

I felt something touch my left shoulder. Looking over, I saw Applebloom giving me a worried look.

“It's recess. Ya comin'?” she asked as Sweetie Bell walked around me to stand beside Applebloom. I looked around the school house to see that it was empty. Even Cheerilee had gone outside today.

I shook my head, “Not today girls.”

“What's wrong? Why are you wearing that hat?” Sweetie Bell asked, looking at said hat. I saw it though, that flicker of distrust in her eyes. Does she not like them either? I thought to myself as I reached down and opened my saddlebag. Taking out the note, I handed it to Applebloom before looking back at my desk.

I heard her open it carefully. When she was done unfolding it, she began to read it aloud. As she read, I felt the feelings of sadness resurface with a vengeance. Why must she read it aloud? I thought to myself bitterly as she continued. I tried to fight it back but found that I couldn't. By the time she was done reading, tears had began to form small puddles on my desk.

“Scootaloo,” Applebloom began. I could feel her put a hoof to my back, “Ah'm so sorry.”

“Look, Silver Spoon. The great Scootaloo is actually crying!”

I recognized the voice and looked up to see Diamond Tiara and Silver Spoon standing at the door that led to the playground.

“Go away Diamond Tiara!” Sweetie Bell exclaimed, tears running from her own eyes from the note. She was always so sensitive.

“Why should we leave? I quite enjoy seeing you cry over those furless Diamond Dogs,” Diamond Tiara replied. I watched as Silver Spoon nodded in agreement.

“They're not Diamond Dogs,” I muttered.

“What was that?” Diamond Tiara asked teasingly. I stood up on my seat and slammed my forehooves against my desk.

“They aren't Diamond Dogs!” I shouted.

“Ah, yes. That's what they told us, wasn't it? However, they do smell like Diamond Dogs.”

“And dress like them,” Silver Spoon added.

“They walk the same,” Diamond Tiara continued.

“They do look the same.”

“Mostly,” Diamond Tiara said with an evil smile, “they eat like Diamond Dogs. Who knows when they'll try pony meat.”

That-

“-bucking, grass-munching, cutie mark flashing, pompous, worm!” I shouted. I found that I was now a foot away from Diamond Tiara. The surprise on her face would've caused me to smile if it was any other day. “If you don't shut that useless thing you call a mouth, right now, I'll-”

“You'll do what? Scootaloo?”

I looked up to see Cheerilee standing outside the doorway. She seemed very upset. My eyes lit with fire as I looked back down at Diamond Tiara, who had been smirking triumphantly.

“I'll stomp her face into the dirt,” I finished.

“Scootaloo!” Cheerilee cried as Diamond Tiara's smirk disappeared some. Silver Spoon, seeing her friend frozen, turned to Cheerliee.

“See Miss Cheerliee?” she asked, “The human's changed her. They-”

She didn't get to finish as I bucked her mouth as hard as I could.

/--\

“Sounds like you had an interesting adventure,” Gonz remarked as he steered around a cactus. A cactus. That brings back memories, I thought as I nodded before looking out at the passing sand. We had entered the desert some time during my story. The change was... insignificant to say the least. One minute it was green, the next minute it was tan.

Of course the implications of this change was extreme. The first being that we were nearing the rally point. The second being that this was environment was where we had died in our dimension.

In a twisted sort of way, we were driving into our own tombs. For the first time in years I felt true, raw fear at the idea of death.

I will not die here. I thought strongly to myself, I will not leave behind my new family.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Brief staccato of gunfire. Screaming. Crackling of a fire. All these sounds seem distant as I stare at the hilt poking out from my vest. That's all I could see: the hilt. The actual blade had been driven through my vest and into my skin. How deep is it? I mentally asked myself.

Shakily, I grab the hilt. Clenching my teeth, I pull and feel pain flare from my gut. I don't stop though, until the blade is free from my vest. I look at it, shocked. Only the tip (an inch, maybe?) of the surprisingly short blade was covered in my blood. The rest of it was blood-free.

I looked at the insurgent to see that he was now riddled with holes, a nice red pool forming underneath him. Looking to where Jones was standing I see that he's still there, looking at me with wide eyes.

“It barely went in,” I say with a laugh as I show him the blade, “It barely went in.”

I see him look toward the truck. The truck! my mind yelled as I turned and saw the flaming wreckage.

“Shit!” I shout as I scramble to my feet, ignoring the pain. With me up, Jones starts dashing to the truck and I follow. A Marine is writhing nearby. Jones practically throws himself at the man to try to help stabilize him. As he does that, I move around the truck to driver's side, where the other two were.

When I fully come around the wreckage, I feel my feet freeze in shock. One of the two Marines is slowly crawling away from the husk, his leg gone from mid-thigh down. The other, what is left of him, is riddled with shrapnel and burnt to a near crisp.

Pushing the image of the burnt Marine from my mind, I turn to the crawling one and rush to him. Kneeling at his side, I force him over onto his back.

“Hey, hey,” I say loudly as I notice that he's bleeding from his front. I take off his helmet and toss it aside before gripping both sides of his head and leaning forward to look down at him. His eyes are darting around and beginning to glaze over.

“Hey!” I say again, louder. His eyes focus on me, “Calm down. You need to calm down. You're going to be alright. Just hang on. Can you do that for me?”

He hesitates before nodding his head. This action seems to cause him to cough, blood coming out when he does. Pushing that issue aside until later, I grab the bottom of his blouse and rip off a long strip of it. With the strip, I then tie it around his upper thigh, above the stump. Tying the knot tight, I hear him hiss in pain.

“Just hold on,” I repeat as I finish tying the knot. When I do, I move to his chest, slowly opening his vest. He hisses in pain again before coughing but I continue to open it. Finally, the vest is open and I see that he's actually bleeding from multiple wounds in his chest.

“Holy fuck...” I whisper, flinching as I do. Looking back, I see more men coming down from the berm and moving towards us.

“Medic!” I scream at the top of my lungs, waving them to me, “Medic over here!”

Turning back to the Marine, I watch as he coughs up more blood. He's wheezing now, every time he breaths.

“Just hang on man. You're gonna be fine,” It's a lie. I know it and I'm sure he knows it but it was all I could say. No matter how much you see it, you never grow used to death.

“Thigh...p-pocket,” I hear him croak. I look at his legs and prey to whatever deity listens that he doesn't mean his left thigh pocket. Reaching over, I dig into his right thigh pocket and find a carton of smokes. Digging more, I find his lighter, a USMC Zippo. Knowing what he wants, I shakily take out one of the cigarettes and put it to his bloody mouth. Flicking the lighter open, I look at the flame for a millisecond before lighting the man's last smoke.

“T-thanks,” he says, his voice barely a whisper as he inhales the nicotine before blowing out smoke. I nod as I flick the lighter closed. Then I just sit there... and watch as he fades away to whatever afterlife, or lack thereof, he believes in.

When I don't hear him wheeze again for a few seconds, I reach over and put two fingers to his throat. Feeling no pulse, I then close his still open eyes before taking the cigarette from his mouth and extinguishing it against the dirt.

By the time I had finished doing that, someone slides to a stop next to me. I don't look at them but I know their looking at the Marine.

“Damn it,” I hear him mutter. I take this as my time to stand up. When I'm on my two feet again, I look around to see that a mixed squad of Marines and Army personnel were in covering positions. Walking to the front of the truck, I look to where I saw the Marine writhing on the ground.

Around him were two people who I could only assume were Corpsman. Both Corpsman were talking and trying their hardest to stabilize the Marine. Standing behind the scene is Jones, looking for all the world like a lost child. When he sees me, he walks over and stops in front of me.

He looks from me to where I was as if to ask: “How are they?”

I slowly shake my head and see a piece of himself crumble down. I nod to the Corpsmen, “How is he?”

Jones shrugs as he looks back, “The Docs say he'll be alright but I don't know. He had a big piece of shrapnel sticking from his gut and... and he just kept moving. I-I tried to calm him down but he just kept screaming and-d wiggling.”

“Jones,” he looks back to me and I see that a couple tears leaked from his eyes. I could see it in his eyes. The doubt. The guilt. “You did everything you could man.”

He shakes his head before looking back at me, “No. We knew something was off. If we told them, then... then maybe they wouldn't have been injured.”

“They would've still had to check the truck at some point. Even if we all discovered that sleeper and taken him down, we would've still had to check the truck. Then we would all be laying there in the dirt,” I explain.

He just shakes his head, “We would've seen it then, we-”

I grab both sides of his head and make him face me, “Jones, look at me. Look at me.”

He looks at me and I talk in as soft a voice as I could muster, “There was nothing we could do. No matter what, one or all of us would've still gotten injured. Maybe there was a better way but it's too late to take that road now. Understand? We have to keep focusing on the next second and the second after that.”

He nods and I moved my hands to his shoulders and gently push down, “Just sit here and try to calm yourself. We'll head back to the camp when they move, alright?”

He sits down in the dirt, just giving me another nod. I looked around at the security team and see some of them looking at me and Jones. Some give me a nod before looking back while others look at Jones with either sympathy or anger before looking back. As I did, I feel something against my leg and look down to see that Jones had leaned himself against me.

“I want to go home,” I hear him mutter through his tears.

I chuckle a mostly dry chuckle, “I do too, Jones.”

Believe me. I do too...

/--\

Twilight and me had separated about a minute ago. She had walked into the kitchen saying that she would make lunch. This left me in the main room with absolutely nothing to do.

“Oh, hey Scootaloo! Why are you here?” I turn to see Spike standing on the stairs, looking down at me.

“I got in trouble at school so they sent me... home,” I reply, stumbling on the word 'home'. Twilight's library was nice and so was she but this place wasn't my home. The large hall was my home but Tyler told me to stay with Twilight until his return so that is what I'll do.

“Bummer,” Spike replied as he started hopping down the stairs. He suddenly stopped and looked at me in excitement, “Hey! Think you could help with something?”

I raise an eyebrow at him, “What do you need help with?”

“I need to get something from one of the upper shelves. Usually I get the ladder or stack books but since Tyler has been helping you with flying, I though that maybe you could get it,” he explains in that fast voice of his.

“Okay,” I place Tyler's hat on my head and stand up, “I'll try. What do you need me to get?”

Spike walked over to one of the sections of shelf and looked up, “That quill up there.”

I look up the shelf and see, near the top, a quill sitting by itself.

“How did it get way up there?” I ask, looking back at Spike.

“I don't know,” he answers with a shrug, “but I'm trying to organize everything for Twilight and I need that quill to finish.”

“Spike? Doing something?” I ask jokingly as I trot over to him.

“Haha,” he mocks laugh, “you gonna help or not?”

I stick my tongue out at him before answering, “Sure, I'll try to help.”

I stop at the bottom of the shelf and look up. By Celestia, that's high. I think to myself as I see the top of the quill sticking over the edge of the shelf. I look at the ground, Alright. You can do this. Open your wings. With a 'whish' my wings open. I look at them and feel embarrassed by their size. Resisting the urge to clench them to my side, I look up at the quill.

Upward, wings folded. Downward, wings out. Fast though. Like a bee. I monologue inwardly, remembering what Tyler told me. I start to flap my wings. Slowly at first: fold...out...fold...out...fold...out. I then flap them a little faster: fold, out, fold, out, fold, out. I begin to gain altitude but I stop when I'm barely off the ground. Faster! I yell inwardly. I pump as much strength into my wings as I can: foldoutfoldoutfoldoutfoldoutfoldout.

I can hear the buzzing effect that the speed of my wings are creating as I begin to go higher into the air. A large smile comes to my face as I pass by the shelves, ascending farther. I'm doing it! All on my own!

It takes a while but soon I'm level with the shelf that holds the quill. I grab it with my hooves and let out a small cheer.

“You got it!” I hear Spike yell, “Come on down!”

The happiness flees my body as I look down. Down? Slowly, I begin to descend but I can already feel the tiredness in my wings. Just a little more, I demand of myself. There is no more though and soon I find myself plummeting back to the floor, screaming.

I close my eyes as I near the floor but I never do. Opening my eyes, I see the purple glow of Twilight's magic keeping me aloft. I look down expecting the floor, but instead I see a brown mane, white coat with a grayish brown spot, and a scrunched up face.

“Pipsqueak?”

Chapter Twenty-Six

“Pipsqueak?”

Said colt slowly opened his eyes to look up at me. Seeing that I was hovering above him, he gave a small smile and an equally small laugh.

“Hi Scootaloo.”

I felt myself be moved to the side before being set on the floor. I was still looking at the colt,

“What are you doing here?” I ask.

“Well,” he scuffs the floor with a forehoof, “I came here to see if you alright since Miss Cheerilee told you to go home and you were crying and stuff. Then, when I opened the door, I saw you begin to fall so I thought that I would break your fall.”

A soft blush came to his cheeks. Is he embarrassed that he tried to help me? I could feel a blush on my cheeks but that was because he had seen me crying and seen my failure with my wings.

“Hey Pip? Think you can not tell anypony about the falling thing?” I ask.

He looks surprised as he nods his head, “Yeah, no problem.”

A silence comes upon us. I see that Pipsqueak is just poking at the floor with a hoof. Looking around, I notice that Twilight went back into the kitchen and Spike went... somewhere.

“So,” Pip starts. I look at him and I see him stutter somewhat. What's up with him? “Are you okay?”

“I'm fine,” I answer, “Never could be better.”

It was a lie. A blatant, obvious lie. I watch as Pipsqueak takes a step towards me.

“You sure?”

I nod my head. I can feel the emotions welling up inside me again but I hold them back, “I'm sure.”

“Because,” he pauses again, taking another step towards me and sitting down. I look at him fully. His spots were unnatural but seemed to fit him perfectly. As did the red bandanna tied around his neck, “I can listen if you want. I'm really good at that.”

I feel the pressure of the emotions building and feel my eyes growing misty.

“Stop!” I shout, “I'm fine, alright?”

Stomping my hoof, I rush past him and to the stairs. I hear him calling out for me to wait but I'm up the stairs quickly. Rushing into Twilight's room, I toss myself onto her bed and curl up on it. Wrapping my tail around myself, I let the tears come again.

Why? I ask myself, Why is he acting like that? I was fine until he came and started trying to get me to talk about it!

Not able to think of an answer, I bury my face into my tail and let the tears wash over my face.

/--\

We had returned to the camp with the security team like I had promised. Instantly upon returning, one of the Corpsman requested I remove my vest so he could study the stab wound. No matter my protests, he persisted. So, now I was sitting on the berm with Jones sitting next to me, my vest laying beside me, and my blouse open.

“You're lucky. It didn't seem to go too deep. Just a little bandaging to keep it from getting infected and you'll be good to go,” the Corpsman explains as he stops probing the wound and starts to pull out said bandages.

“So,” I start, releasing my clenched teeth, “how long have they been attacking y'all here?”

“About two days after we showed up. We had made contact with the ponies here and were beginning to figure out long-term plans when the insurgents hit the town. We drove them back with one of ours wounded but, luckily, none of the ponies were hit. Shaken but not hit,” he explains as he proceeds to wrap my wound.

“And that's when you started building the berms?”

“Damn straight. We didn't like being out in the open so we started on the berms. Of course, the ponies didn't really like it all too much. That's when most started leaving. Only ones here now are the mayor and a few who would rather die than leave their homes.”

I nod my head as the Corpsman finishes wrapping the small stab wound. When he's done, he glances at Jones.

“Is he gonna be alright?”

“I'll be fine,” Jones replied with some irritation in his voice. I wouldn't want to be talked about like I wasn't there either.

“Alright,” the Corpsman replies, putting both hands up, palms out. He then lowered his hands, “Don't go getting hurt now,” he says before walking off.

“Jackass,” Jones mutters. I laugh and pat Jones on the shoulder before standing and fixing my uniform. Slipping back on my vest (and helmet), I look to Jones and motion farther into camp.

“Come on. Let's see if we can't find Sarge and them.”

Jones looks around before getting to his feet. Taking that as an 'Alright', I begin to walk into the actual camp. I suspected that the tents belonged to either the Marines or the French guys. Jones is quick to come alongside me and I see that he's already scanning the camp for the rest of our squad.

“Hey man?” I nudge him in the arm to make sure I'll get his attention.

“Yeah?” he looks over at me, generally confused.

“I know what you said to the Corpsman but,” I pause, “Are you alright?”

I watch as he looks at the ground, “I... I don't know, man. I've never really seen someone like that up close. It was always via video or from afar. That, and when the insurgent stabbed you, I started freaking out. My first though was: 'Holy shit, he's dead.'. Then the second thought came along: 'How will I tell Scoots and Twilight?'.”

That struck me hard. I haven't really thought about them since the firefight started and maybe not since arriving at camp even. That life, that... happiness just feels so far away now. Like a good dream lost in a nightmare.

“It kinda screwed me up, man. I think I'll be fine though. Just gotta... process it all I guess,” Jones finished. I look at him and nod,

“Alright man. Long as you don't go batshit, I'll leave ya be and make sure everyone else does the same.”

“Thanks,” he replies with a chuckle and a light punch to my shoulder.

I chuckle back before go back to looking around. Looking toward the vehicles, I see none other than Kilborn waving us to him.

“There they are,” I announce to Jones before jogging over to Kilborn, Jones trailing behind.

“There you two are,” he begins when we get to him, “Where have you been?”

“Sorry Sarge. We got stuck on the Truck Salvaging Detail,” I reply. A look of understanding crosses his face as he looks to the smoke cloud coming up from the other side of the berm.

“Oh. Well,” he faces us and nods, “glad you made it back.”

I nod back before looking around and noticing something, “Where's Smiley and Gonz?”

“Escorting our guest to the stockade,” Kilborn answers with a malicious grin.

Jones and me chuckle.

“What now Sarge?” Jones asks. Kilborn's grin disappears as he looks around at the camp. Finally, he shrugs,

“Find a place to dig a hole to call home, I guess.”

“Seems reasonable,” I reply sarcastically.

Kilborn rolls his eyes, “Just cause you grew soft sleeping in that bed doesn't mean you're not going to sleep on the dirt with the rest of us.”

“Understood Sergeant.”

“Right, well,” he looks up at the sky and the fast setting sun, “we better get started if we want to be set up before nightfall.”

I groan before moving to the Humvee to get our Entrenching Tools. I wonder what Scootaloo's doing right now.

/--\

Crying. I don't like it and I never have. Makes me look weak. I hate looking weak. A timid voice speaks from near the top of the stairs,

“Scootaloo?”

“Go away Pipsqueak!” I shout through my tears.

“I'm sorry Scootaloo,” I hear him say, “I shouldn't have kept asking.”

I remain silent, willing him to go away. After about half a minute, I finally hear receding hoofsteps. Another half a minute passes before I hear Twilight's voice at the bottom of the stairs,

“Pipsqueak? What's wrong?”

I can't hear Pip's answer but not for lack of trying. What's wrong with him?

“Oh, okay,” I hear Twilight answer to whatever Pip said, “well, I'm sure she'll be better tomorrow. Goodbye Pip.”

The door opens and closes. I let out a small sigh as the tears slow.

“I'm so confused,” I mumble quietly as I try to curl myself tighter. I must have reached my limit because my eyelids begin to feel heavy as I lay there. I'll just rest for a little bit, I tell myself as I close my eyes. Quickly, I feel myself being whisked away to the land of dreams.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Oh, holes, how confusing you are. Used to sleep and used to bury, I think to myself as I stick my E-Tool into the side of the hole that the squad and me were going to sleep in. Smiley and Gonz had joined us halfway in. With the four of us digging, it didn't take too long to make a five-man hole in the ground.

When we were finished, Kilborn appeared with some camouflaged netting to put over the top. Where he found it I'll never know but we had it and didn't wait to put it over the hole. Anything that might keep a mortar round from hitting us in our sleep was welcome.

When we were done with the hole, we noticed that some fires had been lit. With nothing else to do, the five of us stripped off our vests, rifles, and helmets before walking over to the closest fire. It was surrounded with French Armored guys. However, seeing as how we were on the same side, we politely made our way close to the fire.

“Stupide, les Americains Imperial,” I hear muttered from a small grouping of men.

“Whoa!” Gonz shouts. I turn to see him pointing at one of the French men. Likely the one who spoke.

“Did Frenchie just call us 'Stupid, Imperial Americans'?” He asks, almost rhetorically.

“I think he did,” Jones replies, glaring at said French tanker. I hear footsteps and turn to see that one had stepped froward, two men following him.

“If he did?” he asks with a thick accent.

“If he did,” Gonz starts, turning his glare to the new man, “I suggest you get your flags adjusted accordingly.”

The look of confusion on the man's face made me laugh, “What you mean?”

“I mean,” Gonz took a step towards the man and his cronies, Jones and Smiley following into step behind him, “you better rip off the red and blue and get ready to wave the white like you always do.”

“Hey!” Sarge barks, stepping between the two groups, “Everyone calm down! The real enemy is on the other side of the berm, not in here.”

Whatever response came was unheard by me as a sudden pain flares in the back of my head. Shaking it away, I turn around to see a tanker with his fist still raised and a look of anger on his face.

“Hell no!” I shout, jumping at the tanker and planting a fist into his face. It wasn't long before the entire fire-lit area turned into a brawl. Being outnumbered, the five of us quickly found ourselves in a pentagon shape with the French tankers around us. Punching, kicking, biting, all was fair and even Sarge wasn't exempt from the fight.

Two tankers decided to come at me at once, both punching at the same time. Blocking the punch to my face, I took the punch to the stomach. It knocked out some of my air but didn't do much else. However, the two were quick to do follow-up punches. Again, I blocked the face shot but took a gut shot.

“Fuck this,” I mutter before drawing my leg back and sending it up. I caught the gut puncher right in the family jewels. His eyes bulged as he curled up and fell to the ground. With him down, I focused on the face-puncher. When he threw another punch, I grabbed his arm and twisted it so he was spun around. With his arm now behind his back, I kick him away.

He is quick to return with another punch meant for my face. Rolling my eyes, I duck down and swipe his legs out from underneath him. When he hit the ground, I deliver a punch to his gut so he'd stay down for awhile.

Then I'm back on the defensive as three more charge at me. This time, there's no opening as they stagger their strikes. One punches, the next punches, the last punches and then the first punches again. The endless cycle begins to tire me out and when I'm on the verge of collapse, a new pair of voices ring through my ears. My ears only pick up the English voice,

“Ten-SHUN!”

In the background, I think I hear someone call the same in French. Nonetheless, all of the fighters suddenly freeze and come to attention. Well, the ones who were still on two feet did. The ones on the ground stayed on the ground.

“American Infantry, follow me,” the voice orders. I turn to see the others already walking away. Walking after them, I look around to survey the damage. All of the French tankers have some sort of injury and about a third of them were laying on the ground. Looking at my squad, I saw how they walked and realized that none of us got away unharmed either. The difference, though, was that we were all still on two feet.

Finally, the man leading us stops well away from the fire and turns to face us. We gather around him and, in the moonlight, I spy the rank tab of a First Lieutenant. I unconsciously stand a bit straighter as he looks over us with a disapproving stare.

“What the hell was that about?” he asks.

“Sir,” Kilborn begins, “we were just trying to be near the fire when one of the tankers made a remark that one of my squad found offending. The situation grew worse when three other tankers joined in. It entirely dissolved when a tanker took a swing at one of my men and connected. We were merely defending ourselves, sir.”

“I see Sergeant,” he replied slowly, as if chewing on the information, “return to your quarters for the night. From now on, you are not to be around the French tanker crews at night. Understood?”

“Yes sir.”

“Carry on then.”

Kilborn saluted the man, who saluted back, before watching the officer walk away.

“Ranger?” Jones asks suddenly.

“Definitely not a Marine,” I reply.

“Stuff it you two,” Kilborn orders, “let's get back to the hole and sleep off tonight. I'm sure we'll be doing a lot tomorrow as we get adjusted to this camp.”

Yeah, I think to myself as I turn and begin the trek back with the others, a whole lot of nothing.

/--\

I'm in a forest, I think to myself, looking around. A part of me realized this was a dream but the rest of me didn't exactly care.

“Scootaloo.”

I jump and turn around to see a large, dark blue pony looking down at me.

“Princess Luna?” I ask, seeing the wings and horn.

“Yes Scootaloo, it is I, Princess Luna.”

“Why are you in my dream?”

“You have much worry and sadness inside you,” she explains, “What is it that plagues you?”

I look down at the stone path and scratch a hoof against one of the rocks, “Tyler's off fighting. That's what the problem is.”

“Is this all that ails you?”

“No. I had gotten over it with Twilight but then Pipsqueak showed up. He was acting so weird and kept prying,” I explain, looking up at Luna to see that she had sat down. She was also smiling at me.

“Why do you think he was acting this way?”

“I don't know...”

“Then let me ask this. How did his actions make you feel?” she asked.

“It made me sad because I had to remember that Tyler could not return,” I reply, the emotions creeping back up on me. No, not in front of Luna.

“Is sadness all you felt?”

I look at Luna in surprise, tilting my head to the side as well. Then I look back at the ground as I ravage my head. Did I feel anything else? I think back to when he was questioning me and pushed aside the sadness. What else might I have felt? I keep searching until I finally have an answer.

“I... I felt... cared for,” I reply, unsure. 'Cared for' doesn't seem right.

“Ah. You felt... cared for and yet you pushed him away. Why is this?” she asks. What's with the questioning?

“Because I was mad and sad that he brought up the thing about Tyler,” I reply. I then look at Luna with a frown, “I feel kind of bad for pushing him away.”

“Why is this?”

I sit on the ground and look at my tail, which is curled in tight beside me, “Because I don't want to be alone right now.”

“But you are not alone. You have Twilight, Spike, and your friends Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle.”

“Twilight has her studies to do and Spike is... well, he's Spike. I don't think he knows the definition of 'serious conversation'. Apple Bloom has her farm work and Sweetie Belle, she...” I pause, thinking to the look in her eyes when she saw the hat, “I think she's grown to dislike humans.”

“Ah, yes. I know all about this growing feeling,” Luna says, more to herself than to me. She blinks and shakes her head before looking back at me, “This leaves only one pony, does it not?”

“Pipsqueak?” I look back at the ground, “But I yelled at him. How would he ever listen to a word I say now?”

I hear Luna stand and make her way to me. A crystal horseshoe enters my sight before being placed under my chin and raising my head to look Luna in the eyes. When I was looking at her face, I feel the hoof move from my chin to my chest.

“The answer to that, lies in here, Scootaloo,” she states, softly tapping my chest. With this, she smiles before bending down so her mouth was close to my ear.

“Awaken young Scootaloo.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Opening my eyes, I saw Twilight's bed underneath me and the rays of day seeping from the window. How long was I out? I think to myself as I stand and stretch. This was the sixth day of the week so that meant no school. Lucky me, I think sarcastically as I jump off the bed and begin to head to the main room.

Reaching the main room, I watched as Twilight's head poked out from the kitchen.

“Oh! You're awake. Do you want some breakfast?” she asks as she fully steps into the main room.

Shaking my head, I reply, “No thanks. I'm not hungry.”

“Okay. Well, Pip was looking for you earlier. I don't know where he went, though.”

“Thanks Twilight,” I reply with a smile before making for the door and walking outside. I let the door close behind me before taking in a deep breath of air.

“Scootaloo?”

Looking toward the voice, I see the pony that I was expecting to meet. When he noticed me looking at him, he turned his attention to the dirt.

“Hey Pipsqueak,” I greet, walking over to him. His look of surprise took me off guard as he looked up at me with a smile.

“You're not mad at me still?”

“Pip,” I start, using his common nickname, “I was never mad. I was just frustrated that the only dad I've ever could possibly never come back.”

“Oh. I see,” he replies, “How are you doing today?”

I smile at him before sitting down and looking up at the sky above, “I still miss him but... I know that nothing I can do will make him come back before he's done.”

I feel a hoof go over my shoulders. Looking down, I was surprised to see Pip now sitting beside me, his foreleg over my shoulders.

“It'll be alright,” he says with a genuine smile. I feel heat rush to my face as I look down at the dirt. Stupid reactions, I groan inwardly.

“Hey!” Pip exclaims, “Want to come play pirate with me?”

I look up at him and smile, “Sure.”

He smiles big, “Follow me then!”

With that, he removes his foreleg and starts running off. I sit there for a little while longer, wondering at the feeling of sadness I felt when he removed his leg from around my shoulders. What is this? I ask myself before galloping after Pipsqueak.

We ran through half the town before stopping in the school's playground.

“What... are we doing... here?” I ask, trying to catch my breath after all the running. Pipsqueak may be small but he was fast and had a lot of energy. I watched as said colt walked over to a bush and jumped in. Not a minute later, he jumped back out in his pirate costume.

“Arr! We are here to collect my valuables, m'lady,” he explains with a pirate accent. I find myself giggling at the act. I looked down at myself and then back up at Pip. He was looking at me as well. Again, I felt blood rush to my cheeks and shifted on my hooves.

“It seems that the fair maiden needs a costume of her own,” he says, not breaking character. He puts a hoof to his chin as he looks at the ground in front of him. Finally, he says, “Arr! I believe that Madame Rarity may have a costume for you. Let us be off!”

With that, he was running again and I was galloping after him, smiling all the way. I found my mind drifting to the colt I was following. His life seems so simple. Run, play, and run some more. I know it's not that simple though. Underneath, he probably has hardships like everypony else. I wonder what they are.

Arriving at the Carousel Boutique, I witnessed Pipsqueak the Pirate in full character. No knocking, no nothing. He just barged into the store shouting:

“Pipsqueak the Pirate has come asking for a favor or two!”

Giggling, I followed him in to see him standing in a pose. His chest was puffed out and his head held high. Rarity looked shocked, to put things simply.

“Have you not heard of knocking?” she exclaims, standing up from where one of her recent projects.

“Pirates don't knock!” Pip protested, “Now, Madame Rarity, I come seeking an outfit for my fellow pirate here.”

“Well, they should learn to,” I hear Rarity mumble as she looks at me. She then give a sweet smile, “Ah, Scootaloo. You're playing with Pip here?”

“Yep!” I reply happily.

“That's good. You needed some fun time,” she replies before pointing to a colorful chest off to the side, “There should be some costumes in there. Go ahead and take your pick.”

I nod before trotting over to the chest. Pip beats me to it though and begins digging with wild abandon, flinging clothes everywhere. He soon pulls out a costume that looks similar to his own except that the coat is brown and the bandanna is green. Unlike his, though, there is no eye-patch. Without even waiting for anypony to say anything, he pushes me and the costume into the changing room shouting:

“Stand fast, matey! We shove off in the hour!”

When I'm alone in the changing room, I look at the costume and smile. I realize then that I needed this. Some fun to overcome the sadness. Quickly, I put on the costume before walking out to see Pip standing before me with an extra wooden sword on the ground in front of him. I also spy a fuming Rarity glaring at us from the corner of the room.

“Quickly now! It seems the locals have turned against us!” Pip shouts, pushing the sword to me, “Grab your sabre and let us be off!”

Biting down on the handle of the wooden sword, I look back up to see that Pip was already heading out. While he went, he dodged bits of clothe that were tossed at him by Rarity.

“Out! Get out you beast! You destroyed my store!” she shouts. I look around and notice that we did cause a bit of a mess getting the costume. Without thinking about it any further, I gallop out after Pip with wooden sword still in mouth. Once we were outside, I found the loop in my coat's belt for the sword and sheathe it.

“Where to now Captain?” I ask, finding myself falling into the part now that I had a costume.

“To the water of course!” he replies before galloping off in the direction of the pond. I gallop after him, this time leaving about the same time as him so that I was running alongside him.

“Aye!” he continues, “Together we shall sail the waters of Ponyville!”

I find myself blushing again at his words. Together. Is that what's causing me to blush? The thought of being with him? These thoughts just cause my blush to deepen. I watch as Pipsqueak turns to me and looks at my cheeks. I smile at him, causing the colt to blush himself and look away.

If it is, then I guess he feels the same.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

The day went by faster than I expected it to. Through the entire day, we played Pirate. It was fun, even if I did get a bit embarrassed when Rainbow saw me acting like such a foal. Now we were laying in the park, watching the sun go down and moon begin to go up.

“That was a fun day,” I breath, looking over at Pip. His eyes seemed focus on the sky but I saw him nod.

“It was. I've never had somepony play pirate with me that long before,” he replies as he finally looks at me, smiling, “Thanks.”

I smile back, “No. Thank you Pip. I needed that. You have no idea how frustrating the past couple days have been.”

I feel a hoof touch my shoulder. Following it, I see Pip smiling at me. Saying nothing, he somehow comforted me before removing his hoof and turning back to the darkening sky. Again, I could feel the pang of sadness in me when he removed his hoof.

“You think Luna will ever visit Ponyville again?” Pip asks, surprising me. I look at the night sky and sigh.

“I don't know. I hope she does,” I reply.

“Me too.”

Silence draws on between us as we examine the stars. I wonder if Tyler is looking at the stars too, I find myself thinking. I shake my head, No. No more sad thoughts.

“What's wrong?” I hear the colt next to me ask.

“Nothing,” I reply, looking at him with a smile. He smiles back before looking back at the sky. Again, silence draws on between us but I could care less. This was such a great day that just a little silence wouldn't hurt it. Not like it could. Even if it was silence, it was silence in the presence of my new... friend. Is that right? Argh! Stupid brain. Stop confusing yourself!

“We should probably head home,” I hear the colt next to me mutter.

“Yeah...” I reply. Neither of us move though. We just continue to stare at the stars. They were so vibrant tonight. So visible. After another long moment of silence, I hear Pip begin to move. Looking over, I see him beginning to get to his hooves. Sighing, I follow this action and stand up as well. When we were both standing we began to walk back to Ponyville, side-by-side.

“So Captain Pipsqueak,” I start, smiling at him, “what adventures are planned for tomorrow?”

“Tomorrow?” he asks, sounding surprised, “Good question, matey. We'll just have to see what maiden nature throws at us in the morrow. But don't worry yourself lass. I promise adventure and adventure we shall have!”

I chuckle at his antics, feeling elated that I had something to do tomorrow besides sit around and gripe. I wonder what Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle are up to, though. I find myself thinking. I look at the pony walking next to me and smile, Probably not going adventuring.

Soon we were in town square. Stopping, I turned to Pip and wrapped him in a hug before he could say anything.

“Thanks for today,” I say, “I had a lot of fun.”

I hear muffled talking and look down to see that I had accidentally shoved Pip's face into my chest. Blushing, I release him and back away to see that he was also blushing.

“What was that?” I ask, rubbing my foreleg.

“I said: Me too,” he replies as he looks at the ground.

“Oh. Well... bye Pip.”

“See ya Scootaloo.”

“Pip?”

“Yeah?” he asks, turning his head around to look back at me.

“Just Scoots,” I state with a smile. I watch him blush, nod, and continue walking. Giggling, I turn and begin to walk to the Library. Reaching it, I pushed the door open to see Twilight sitting in the middle of the room.

“You're back kinda late,” she states, looking out a window at the night sky.

“Yeah,” I reply shyly, “we watched the stars for a little bit.”

I see Twilight give me a knowing smile as she nodded her head. She seemed to just notice the costume then,

“Play Pirate with Pip?” she asks.

I nod my head, “Yep. It was fun.”

“I'm sure. Do you want dinner?”

My stomach chose that time to pipe in with a growl. I smiled at Twilight and nodded, “Yes please.”

“Alright, let me make you a daisy sandwich real quick and then it's bedtime. Okay?”

“Okay.”

She stayed there for a second, looking like she was going to say something else. Finally, she stood and walked into the kitchen. With nothing to do, I found myself walking up the stairs to Twilight's room. Reaching the top, I looked around to see that there was now another bed. The new bed was smaller than Twilight's and had a orange and purple blanket. Set on the bedpost was none other than Tyler's hat. I noticed that something was carved into the headboard. Walking closer to the bed, I read the words.

“Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.”

Before I could realize what I was doing, I stood on the bed, on hoof tracing the carved words. A sad smile came to my face as I read the words again and again.

“Scootaloo! It's time to eat!”

I let my hoof rest on the last five words for a couple seconds before jumping down and rushing to the stairs. Going down, I came into the kitchen just as Twilight readied herself to shout for me again.

“Oh. There you are. I'm guessing you saw your bed?” she asks as she motions to the table and the plate that sat atop it. Climbing into the chair, I nod before picking up the sandwich and biting into it.

“Do you... do you like it?” I hear Twilight ask, uncertainty in her voice. I take another bite out of the sandwich, chew, and swallow before getting of my chair and walking over to Twilight. Looking up at her, I see her worry. Smiling, I stand on my hindlegs and throw my arms around her.

“I love it. Thank you.”

I feel Twilight wrap one foreleg around me, “You're welcome.”

After about a minute, we separate. I walk back to the table and continue eating my sandwich.

“I better go check on Spike in the basement,” I hear Twilight say before she walked out. Finishing the sandwich, I move the plate into the sink before going back upstairs. Once up there, I strip off the costume, fold it, and put it under the bed. Climbing on the bed, I lay down above the covers, facing the words.

“For thou art with me,” I mutter, my hoof tracing the words as I said them. I feel the smile on my face as I lay my head down and close my eyes. Before sleep claimed me, I found myself seeing Tyler wave at me before giving me a thumbs up in his 'battle rattle'. A very sleepy chuckle escapes my lips before I fall asleep.

/--\

I opened my eyes to see a forest around me and one trail. I immediately recognized it as the world that I usually visited during lucid dreams. Seeing nothing else to do, I began to walk down the trail, seeing where it may lead me.

Not much time seemed to pass before I could see somepony in the distance. As I got closer, I saw that the pony was standing on two legs. As I got even closer, the shadows surrounding the being lifted.

“Dad!” I shout, galloping at Tyler as he smiles and crouches down to receive my hug. I bowl into him, knocking him onto his rear, my forelegs wrapped around him and my head buried into his chest. I realize that he's wearing his vest and thigh holster. Raising my head, I look at him questioningly.

“Hey Scoots,” he replies before noticing my look. I watch him look down at his gear and sigh, “I guess this stuff follows me. Even in the land of dreams.”

“I don't care,” I reply, burying my head back into his chest, “I want you back.”

“I will return home, Scoots. To you and Twilight. You can count on that. The Commander already has a plan in the making to clear out the Badlands,” he explains as he holds me tight. As I hug him, I see somepony moving behind the bushes beside the trail. Looking hard, I see the dark flowing mane of Luna as she watches us with a smile.

“I understand,” I respond, hugging him tighter.

“I'm glad you do. Since we both appear to be in control of this dream, what's been going on while I've been gone?” he asks. I think about his inference and about the presence of Luna. Did she allow this for us?

“Well,” I began, “I've been a total wreck.”

“What do you mean?”

“I got in a fight at school because-”

“You got in a fight?” he exclaims, pushing me back enough to look down at my face. His face was stern.

“They were calling you names!”

“That's still no reason to get in a fight. You need to not let those things bother you, Scoots. Let them talk.”

“But-”

“No buts,” he interrupts, “Let talking slide. Should they take negative actions though,” he smiles at me, “that's when you show them what you're made of. Got it?”

I chuckle and smile back at him, “Got it.”

“That's my girl,” he replies as he pulls me back against him, “Anything else?”

“Pipsqueak and me played Pirate all day today.”

“Pipsqueak? The small colt?”

I rolled my eyes, “That is why he's called 'Pipsqueak'.”

“Hmm...” I hear him hum.

“What?” I ask, snapping him out of whatever thought he was having.

“Nothing, just thinking about what we're going to talk about when I get back.”

“What's that?”

“Something not meant for the dream world, little one,” he replies with a smirk.

I frown at him but then notice that he's beginning to fade. He notices as well and frowns, “It seems it's time for me to wake up.”

“Do you have to?” I ask as he fades more.

“Sadly. Yes,” he responds with a nod. He tightens his hug around me and I feel him kiss my head. About a minute later, he was gone, leaving me hugging air. As I let my forelegs touch the stone trail, I watch as a single tear falls to the stones. Reaching up with a hoof, I feel my cheek and notice that they're wet.

“Crying. Again,” I state, frustrated. I look over at where I spied Luna to see that she was gone. So, instead, I looked up at the moon that hovered over the forest. Though it was bright as day, the moon was there instead of the sign. A sign of her power over dreams? I thought to myself.

“Thanks Luna,” I whisper to the moon as I notice my own body fading.

Chapter Thirty

“It's the weekend again!” I shout as I run out of the schoolhouse with Pip beside me.

“Woohoo!” he adds as we gallop to the library to fetch our pirate outfits.

The week had gone by fast now that I was friends with Pipsqueak. Having him beside me helped me get through the school (and the bullying by Tiara and Spoon). He had even taken to joining the CMC since he didn't have his cutie mark either.

“What adventures are we going to have this weekend?” I ask as we weave between ponies in the marketplace.

“Good question,” he replies as he runs under a pony. I see him purse his lips, indicating that he has retracted into his thoughts. Giggling at his face, I continue to lead the way to the library.

Barging through the door, I come to a skidding halt with I see Twilight with the newspaper floating in front of her and a hoof to her mouth and water in her eyes.

“Twilight?” I ask, walking slowly to her. I hear Pip follow behind me.

“Oh, hi Scoots. Sorry. Just some disturbing news,” she says with a forced smile.

I walk over to her and give her a hug. Not a second later, I feel Pipsqueak join in. Looking over at Pip, I smile at him before looking up at Twilight.

“He'll be alright... mom. You'll see,” I say before letting go and continuing up the stairs to where our costumes lay. When we were both up there, I hear Pipsqueak ask:

“Did you just call her mom?”

I pause and think back to the hug before nodding, “I did. Tyler's my dad and if he-”

“You don't have to explain anything Scoots. I understand,” he interrupts, hugging me as he does.

/--\

Two Days Before

“Clear!”

“Move!”

Goddamn tunnels. Even here, the bastards find some to crawl into, I think to myself as I advance down the corridor behind a British Mechanized Infantry trooper. The way forward was lit only by the point guys' flashlights.

“Possible tunnel on the right,” I hear from the guy in front of me, who was the point guy of our column.

“Got it,” I reply, checking to make sure the safety was off on my M4.

Reaching the other tunnel, the MechInf guy briefly checked it before taking up a defensive position past it with his rifle pointed forward. That left me turning into the other tunnel with rifle raised and ready. A scan from the entrance showed that it went forward a little ways before turning to the right.

“What do you see?”

Turning to the voice, I see our useless attachment standing behind me. A tan mare with a stereotypical journalist fedora whose name was Ink Splatter. She had been attached to my specific squad yesterday and already she was a thorn in all our sides. Just trying to get her some protection was a hassle in itself. Finally, we got a hold of some Royal Guard armor, dulled it and forced her into it before writing 'PRESS' onto the side of the armor with a Sharpie. Needless to say, the first article wasn't flattering for our squad and she did not allow us to explain our actions.

“Dirt, dirt, and even more dirt,” I finally reply.

“By god, do you have to ask that every time we find another bloody tunnel?” pipes in the MechInf guy, the frustration evident.

“I am here to observe and report; or 'spy' as you say,” Ink responds, her tone indicating annoyance.

“Observing doesn't require talking,” rebukes the Brit.

“I think he got ya there,” adds a Ranger from the other column with a chuckle.

“Whatever. Can we please just finish up? Ponies were not meant to be in caves and the faster I can get away from you brutes the better.”

I roll my eyes before advancing to the turn, aware that Ink is right behind me the entire way. Switching my rifle to my left hand, I lean around the corner. Suddenly, the tunnel is lit up and my ears are ringing as booms echo down the tunnel. Jumping back around the corner, I slam into Ink, whose horn inadvertently digs into my thigh.

“Goddamn it!” I shout as I aim my flashlight at my thigh to, happily, see that it wasn't bleeding. I look at Ink, ready to swear and shout, but stop when I see her eyes clenched shut, her hooves to her ears, and tears leaking from her eyes.

After what felt like an eternity, the shooting finally stops. However, just as I'm about to round the corner, I hear a 'clunk' follow by another 'clunk' near my feet. Aiming down, a round metallic object stares up at me. Instinct takes over as I swing my foot at the object while screaming:

“Grenade!”

My foot connects with the pineapple grenade, sending it flying back down the tunnel. Then, remembering Ink, I turn, push her to the ground, and throw myself on top of her (careful not to stab myself on her horn of course).

When the grenade finally explodes, it causes the entire tunnel to shake. Dirt and loose rock falls from the ceiling onto us. Standing, I swing around the corner with rifle raised. Advancing forward, I step into the area where the attacker was. Scanning the dust filled room, I see the Iranian soldier that had almost taken me out. His entire torso was ripped apart by the grenade. Behind him was another human corpse in Afghani robes that had no holes. So I put one in his head, my gun booming in the enclosed space.

Looking at the room again, I feel my feet grow roots into the floor.

“By Celestia...” I hear Ink whisper, right before I hear the sound of puking and hooves on dirt.

Lining the edges of the room were cages made from scrap. Housed in each was a species of this world. Gryphons, Ponies, anything that wouldn't be on Earth, was locked away. Not only that, but they lay in pieces, they're bodies looked to have been dissected before just being ripped apart, the leftovers being thrown back into the cages.

Blood caked the ground and the metal table that lay in the middle of the room. Bloody tools lay on the table, awaiting use. Approaching the table, I look down at it's current occupant. Dull blue eyes look back up at me, as does the open chest cavity. The pony also had a stub where their horn apparently was. Said, small, horn was laying by their head. White ooze and red blood dripped from her private regions.

Walking back to the corpses, I put another bullet in both of their heads.

“Bastards,” I mutter before walking down the tunnel to the turn. Turning around it, I see the Ranger looking at me with a worried look as he's crouched beside an Ink Splatter that has curled up into a fetal position and leaking water like a fountain.

I motion him back, which he complies, before kneeling next to the journalist myself. I set a hand on her head. She jerks back as her eyes snap open. I watch as she looks up at my eyes before she closes her own again. I set my hand onto her head again and, when she doesn't jerk away this time, I begin to softly stroke her mane like a parent might do for their child.

“Ink? We need to keep moving.”

“W-wh-why?” I hear her stutter out, her eyes opening and glancing at the turn before clenching shut again.

“Because humans are evil-hearted jackasses,” I reply, continuing to pet her brown mane.

“B-but sh-sh-sh-she was just a-a-a filly!” she yells through her tears.

I close my eyes as I feel them begin to water. There it is. That moment of revelation.

“I know,” was all I could say.

Chapter Thirty-One

The helicopter touched down with a bounce on the flat clearing that had been turned into a pad for it. Before the craft had fully touched down though, I could see the other members of the clean-up squad disembark. Carried between them was a stretcher holding yet another member of our little clean-up squad. He had taken a round to the leg during the fighting in the caves. When we got outside and sealed off the cave with explosives, we had put him on a stretcher and carried him to the awaiting bird.

Climbing down myself, I realize that we were missing one member. Looking back into the troop compartment, I see Ink sitting near the front, her eyes fixed on the floor of the craft.

“Hey! Ink!” I call out as the rotors are still creating too much noise for me to speak at a normal tone. I watch as she looks my way with tear-stained cheeks and some dried vomit sitting at the edge of her mouth. Her mane was matted with sweat and her eyes look dull and almost empty. Shellshock, I think to myself as I climb back into the craft.

By now, the pilots were beginning to wind down the engines and the flight chiefs had already dismounted. Sitting next to the tan unicorn, I look at her dull eyes, noting how they were following my every move.

“Ink? We're back at base,” I say, as if stating the obvious will get her to move.

“E-every time I blink... I s-see those cages,” I hear her mutter, barely audible over the dying rotors, “I see the pieces within them. But, over it all, I see... I...”

She began to sob again, leaning herself against me as she did. Feeling awkward, but seeing no other way to calm her, I put an arm around her and whisper:

“Shh... it's alright. Seeing something like that is hard to deal with.”

“How... How l-l-long wil-l-l I keep seeing th-th-them?”

“For the rest of your life,” I reply gently as the memory of my first kill flowed in and then out of my mind, “but you have to continue living for their sake. The dead wish not for us to join them but for us to continue living.”

Ink didn't reply. Instead, she just continued to sob as she leaned into me. Awkwardly, I found myself staying next to her in the chopper, unable to bring myself to force this shellshocked pony up and out of the craft.

It was about a hour later when Ink finally separated herself from me. A slight coloring of her cheeks failed to allude my notice as she wiped away her tears.

“Thank you for... comforting me,” she says as she looks away.

“No problem. That's what squadmates are for... besides covering your ass that is,” I reply with a chuckle.

“Squadmate?” she asks, looking at me in confusion.

“Yeah. You're assigned to my squad and, besides what you were faced with, you didn't try to run away when we were in those tunnels. You may not be able to shoot but you're still a squadmate in my book.”

“Oh, um, thanks... I guess,” she replies as she looks away. Shit. Does she think I'm... flirting with her? I think to myself.

“You're welcome. Now come on. We shouldn't keep the rest of the squad waiting.”

“Alright,” she replies with a smile before hopping out of the craft before me. Climbing out myself, I made sure to stretch my limbs before beginning to walk back to my squad's comfortable hole in the ground. Removing my helmet and lowering my mask, both of which I forgot I still wore, I took a look around the base. All around, men were playing card games, chatting, cleaning weapons, or trying to sleep. When Ink was seen, though, a few eyed her with predatory stares or made cat calls. This, of course, caused the tan unicorn to walk a little closer to me.

“Even looking like a complete mess, I still get attention,” I hear Ink muse beside me, “I don't know whether to feel disgusted or complemented.”

“Probably the first,” I reply, “No offense to you, Ink, but most soldiers will chase just about anything that has a pulse and a hole between it's legs after so long.”

“That's...”

“Disgusting?”

“...I was gonna say revolting.”

I shrug, “Either one works I guess.”

“So, why do some soldiers don't turn out like... that?” she asks, pointing a hoof at a soldier who couldn't have made it more obvious that he was playing with himself if he just shouted it out loud. The utter revulsion on Ink's face brought a laugh from my lips.

“Dignity usually. They don't feel like making an ass of themselves and their country. Sometimes it's because they have someone special waiting for them back home.”

“Oh,” she replies, looking at the dirt, “do you have anyone waiting for you?”

“Back home? No. They've probably been told that I have died and that my body was not recoverable. But in Ponyville I do,” I reply.

“Oh?”

“Yeah. My squad and me were the first to be transported to this world and were here for a long while. I ended up adopting a little filly named Scootaloo while also meeting a special somepony,” I explain.

“Who... who is she?” she asks, the hurt barely hidden in her voice.

“Twilight Sparkle,” I answer while looking up at the blue sky, wondering what she was doing right about now.

“Ah. Her,” was the only reply I got before a young man (about twenty) came to a skidding halt in front of us. He wore just his uniform and pistol but I could recognize him as the Ranger that was on the tunnel clearing team.

“Hey Ink,” he says, waving to the tan unicorn, “How ya feeling?”

“Good actually,” replies the mare as she smiles at the Ranger.

“That's good,” he replies with a nod. I notice him kick the dirt nervously before asking, “I was wondering if you wanted to join the guys and me in a game of Blackjack tonight.”

“Umm...” she hummed, looking up at me. I nod to her, hoping she got the message that this kid looked like a good guy. When I did, she looked back at the Ranger (McCloed was his last name) and smiled brightly, “I'd love to.”

“Then it's a date?” he asks hopefully.

“That it is,” she replies, giggling at the man's antics.

“Awesome,” he breathes before turning and running toward a cluster of multi-national soldiers sitting around a table made of four ammo cans and a piece of flat metal, “She said yes, y'all owe me money!”

“Did ya mention you're a useless wanker?” called back a British soldier, earning some laughs from the rest of the group.

I was chuckling myself before looking down at Ink to see the confusion on her face.

“What'cha confused about?” I ask as we both continue our little stroll.

“He made bets on whether he could get a date with me?” she finally asks, looking disappointed.

I laugh loudly, “Don't think too hard about it. You'll just confuse yourself. Males, at least us human males, do stupid things without thinking of the consequences. Besides,” I continue, “what probably happened was he was talking about you to his friends. They saw you and bet him that he wouldn't be able to ask you out.”

“So... he did it for the money?” she asks, her tone one of hurt.

I shake my head, “There ya go, thinking too hard about it. He did it because he likes you.”

“Then why did he-?”

“Because that was how his friends pushed him to asking you. If they hadn't done it, he would have just sat there, talking about you for the rest of the night I'm sure.”

“I... think I see,” I hear her say as we finally approach the hole. Examining the hole, I gave a small smile. We had expanded it over the week and one of the British guys had offered us some tan camo netting that we put over the hole to hide ourselves better.

“Good,” I reply before sliding down the little ramp that led into the hole. Inside was the rest of the squad. I could see Smiley cleaning his LMG near the ramp while Gonz and Jones were playing chess at the other end of the hole. Kilborn was nowhere to be seen.

“Where's Sarge?” I ask as I step aside to allow Ink to slide down as well.

“Went off to some 'NCO Party' or some such. How was the mission?” Jones replies while he moves a pawn against Gonz.

“It went good. A Marine was injured but it went good nonetheless,” I answer while stripping off my equipment.

“Yes. 'Good'. If you count finding tortured beings 'good',” Ink adds as she moves to “her area” of the hole and begins to take off her armor.

“Tortured beings, eh?” Gonz asks offhandedly as he moves a bishop to capture Jones' pawn.

“Yeah,” I reply, shooting a look at Ink that hopefully said 'I thought you were over this?', “looks like they were studying them or something.”

“Makes sense,” Jones throws in as he moves a pawn to take the bishop.

I watch as Ink gives me a short glare before rolling her eyes and laying on the dirt. Using her magic (which was a beige color) she proceeded to float a notepad and pen in front of her and began to write. The pen had been a present from the squad since the quill looked to be just about useless out here.

“Report for the papers?” I ask as I sit down next to my gear and pull out my 1984 book.

“Yes. In fact, it is,” she replies, “I thought that I should write it up now so that I can get myself cleaned up before nightfall.”

“Why? What happens at nightfall?” Jones asks.

“Ink there has herself a date,” I answer with an amused smile as I see Ink turn crimson.

“Oh really now?” Gonz now asks. I look at the two to see that Ink now had their undivided attention.

“Who is he?” Jones asks, “Is he American?”

“Jones?” Gonz began, looking at his friend.

“What?”

“Your racism is showing.”

“Oh, right,” Jones replies as he makes the act of taking something from his mouth and pocketing it, “Sorry bout that.”

Ink let loose a loud burst of laughter.

“He is American actually... I think,” she replies while wiping tears of mirth from her eyes.

“He is,” I confirm, “A young Ranger actually.”

“So Miss Splatter likes the 'Hooah' types, huh?” Jones asks jokingly.

“Hooah type?” she asks, looking at me in confusion.

I shake my head, laughing, “Jones just went full retard is all.”

“Tsk, tsk. Never go full retard,” Gonz adds in while he and Jones turn back to their game.

I watch as Ink rolls her eyes at us before going back to her report, “Humans are weird.”

“Trust me,” I begin, opening the book and bringing it up so I can read it, “I know.”

Chapter Thirty-Two

Day quickly turned to night and soon we were using solar charged lamps to light up our little home away from home. Everyone was doing something as we sat in the dirt. Smiley was sleeping, Sarge (who had returned about half a hour before nightfall) was writing something, Jones and Gonz were now playing cards, I was reading still, and Ink...

Well, she was pacing back and forth in the middle of the pit.

“Geeze girl,” I begin, marking my page before closing my book and setting it aside, “you're gonna put in a new trench if you keep pacing like that.”

“I'm sorry,” Ink replies as she sits down, “It's just. Shouldn't he be here now? It's past nightfall. Maybe... maybe he didn't like me after all.”

I roll my eyes, “Ink?”

“Yeah?” she replies, her tone sad as she looks at me. She's wearing her journalist fedora over her, still kind of messy, mane. With the armor off, we could see the black glob on her flank that was supposed to represent an ink splatter.

“You're thinking too hard again. He might be running late.”

“Or he's nervous,” Sarge chimes in.

“Or he got stuck cleaning the latrines,” Jones adds. Gonz and him both chuckle before going on with their game. I watch as Ink gives a look of disgust at Jones' comment and can't help but chuckle myself.

“Don't listen to him Ink. Like Sarge said, he's probably nervous. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if he was standing outside right now, listening and looking in. Actually...” I turn myself to face the ramp, “come on down if you are out there. None of us will bite.”

To my utter surprise, someone actually slides down the ramp into the hole. When he stands, I see that it's the same Ranger that Ink set up a date with.

“How'd you know I was out there?” he asks, looking at me.

“I didn't,” I reply, laughing. He laughs too before looking at Ink. I watch as his smile grows.

“You clean up nicely,” he says with a chuckle.

Ink blushes, “Thanks. Should we go?”

“Yeah, the guys are waiting.”

“Have fun you two,” I say teasingly.

Jones then chimes in with: “Have her home by midnight.”

Which is followed by Gonz: “And use protection.”

Now blushing furiously, the two scramble out of the hole, our laughter following them out. Outside, I listen to their steps as they fast walk away. God, I hope they stay together throughout this. Not too many find happiness in the hell called war.

“You guys are assholes,” I hear Sarge say. I look at him to see him looking at where Gonz and Jones were sitting.

“We know,” Gonz replies before looking at his watch, “Shit Jones, we got to get going if we're to get to our post on time.”

“You two got sentry duty?” I ask.

“Yep,” Jones answers as he takes the cards and set them aside before grabbing his gear and beginning to slip it on.

“That sucks.”

“That it does,” Gonz responds as he finishes getting his vest on and clips his rifle to said vest before grabbing his helmet. “Ready?”

“Yeah. Let's go,” Jones says before the two say their good-byes and make their way out of the hole to go to their sentry post.

“I think humanity will be alright here,” Sarge suddenly states as he closes his journal.

“I think so too,” I agree, “I mean; we have exactly no females so when the last of us go, that's it. However, I do believe that we can make the most of it. We can teach them the sciences and lend them our tech. And, when the last of us do die, we can leave them our legacy.”

“You don't think that maybe we're compatible with their genes?” Sarge asks.

“They are different species,” I argue, shrugging my shoulders.

“Well, yes, but they are also beings of magic. You don't think that, somehow, they can make their DNA compatible with ours?”

“Well... I've never thought of that before. Of course, that'd mean that humans would only be able to mate with unicorns and, even then, I seriously doubt there would be any promise that the child comes out as human. If they did, they would also be of different measurements than us because of the small frame they were birthed from,” I theorize, my hand now under my chin in thought.

“Maybe... but still, there would be humans surviving in this world. Dwarvish humans, yes, but humans nonetheless.”

“So,” Smiley chimes in grumpily, “humans may be able to mate with unicorns due to the unicorns probable ability to manipulate the different chromosomes to make them match. This means that, out of the five of us, only Tyler can have children. However, there is no promise (as of yet) that the children will be human. If they are human, they will likely be smaller because of the pony's small frame. Did I miss anything?”

“Umm... no,” I reply, my face burning at the though of having children with Twilight. I look over at Sarge to see him giggling quietly to himself.

“Good, now shut the hell up and let me sleep,” he finishes before rolling over and trying to get comfortable again.

“Only time he talks is when it's philosophical or to tell someone they fucked up,” Sarge chimes in with a laugh. A growl, emanating from Smiley, silences Kilborn. The both of us look at each other before looking at Smiley. Shrugging, I go to the lamps and turn them down before finding my sleeping mat and curling up on it.

Closing my eyes, I listen to the sound of pen against paper. Kilborn is probably writing in that journal again. I think to myself as I drift off into the blissful state of consciousness known as sleep.

Chapter Thirty-Three

BOOM!

Snapping my eyes open, I catch the fading of the light from the recent explosion. Screaming and yelling seep into my ears as I sit up and look around in the dim light. Sarge and Smiley are both awake, looking just as shocked as I feel.

Another explosion brings us out of our shock and sends us scrambling. Tossing on my vest, I begin to hear gunfire outside. It sounds close... too close.

“Are they inside the fucking berm?” I ask while tossing on my helmet and grabbing my M4.

“Sounds like it,” Kilborn replies as Smiley starts to clamber up the ramp to the outside. Instantly, he's shoved back down by soldiers trying to get in. Without saying anything, the soldiers rush to the edges of the hole (where it's slightly elevated to allow us to see over the side) and point their guns outward.

“What's going on?” Kilborn asks, grabbing one of the soldiers. The soldier he grabbed was a German paratrooper.

“They got inside the berm!” he yells in a thick accent, “They're all over the base!”

“Hier kommen sie!” shouts one of the other soldiers. While I couldn't understand what he said, the barking of his G36 explained the situation perfectly well.

“Shit! Smiley, get to shooting!” Kilborn orders. I watch as Smiley goes to the edge, sets up, and starts blasting away with his M249, “And watch your fucking fire! There may still be friendlies running around!”

I begin to move to the edge as well, flipping off the safety of my M4 as I do. Instead, I feel Sarge's hand on my shoulder.

“No Tyler. Take Klaus here and find Ink. She's our charge. If anything happens to her, we answer for it. Understand?”

“Got it Sarge,” I reply before motioning for the German to follow me, “Come on. We're going on a rescue op.”

“Why me?” he asks, “I'm not American!”

“Because you jumped into our hole, now come the fuck on!” I shout at him before grabbing his sleeve and dragging him after me for a few steps.

“Okay! Let go!”

Letting go of his arm, I clamber out of the hole into the moonlit night. Coming to a kneel next to the ramp, I scan the area for any targets. All around me, the din of gunfire echos and the lights of explosion temporarily turn night into day.

Fanatic yelling makes me turn to my right to see a man running between two tent. The shadows of flapping robes and the obvious lack of military training causes me to depress the trigger once, twice, three times. The robed figure takes two more steps before falling face first into the dirt.

“Alright. Where are we going?” asks the paratrooper as he comes to a kneel next to me.

“This way. Cover my back,” I reply before moving off in the general direction of the helipad. They were set up between here and the helipad. Hopefully they're still somewhere around there. I think as I move down the rows of tents and shelters.

A yellow flash lighting up in front of us and the zinging of close passing bullets drove me onto the dirt, the German following close behind. Almost simultaneously, we open up on the unseen attacker. After five rounds each, we see the shadow figure fall to the dirt. Coming to a crouch, we move forward again, passing by the corpse without a second glance.

“So, what's your name?” I ask as an explosion from somewhere else in the camp lights up the night.

“Greve. Yours?”

“Odom.”

Silence began between us as we continued moving down the path. Checking, the area looked to be clear, causing me to become more paranoid. The entire base is under attack and yet, somehow, we aren't under constant fire.

As if on queue, a fist collides with my face, knocking me back a few steps. A bang sounding in the night found itself followed by the screaming of my companion through the ringing in my ears. Looking back at who punched me, I see what could only be an Iranian soldier smiling back at me, an AK aimed at my face.

Click...

The look of confusion on the Iranian's face... priceless.

Taking my chance, I smack away his gun before trying to get my own raised at his head. Two hands grab onto my gun and push back against it. Looking at the hands, I follow them up to the grim look of determination on the Iranian's face. Bringing my head back, I propel it forward into the Iranian. The hit causes him to stumble back. Lifting my foot, I smash my boot against his knee, hearing a satisfying 'pop!' as his knee bends backwards.

Now screaming, the Iranian is forced to an awkward kneeling position. Bringing up my rifle, I calmly aim it at his head before pulling the trigger. With a resounding, metallic 'clang!', the man's blood, bone, and brain become decoration for the dirt below. After watching his lifeless body fall over, I turn to my companion to see him holding his gut with his left hand.

Kneeling next to him, I grab his rifle and replace the magazine, fishing the new one from his vest.

“I'm not leaving you here, you understand that, right?”

I watch him nod before shoving the G36 back into his hands, “Good. We should be almost there. Cover my ass.”

He nods again. Standing, I face forward, reach back with my left hand, and grab his vest's drag handle before continuing the march forward. Seeing as how I couldn't use it, I let the M4 hang in such a way that it wouldn't interfere before drawing my pistol.

The report of a G36 from right behind was enough to bring a smirk to my face, eyes still scanning for hostiles. Getting closer to the helipad, I begin to see more and more yellow flashes and listen as the explosions sound closer. So, I found that I wasn't all that surprised when bullets suddenly filled the air around me.

“Shit!” I curse as I slam myself against the ground. Seeing the flashes, I fire my pistol in that general direction but to seemingly no avail.

“We have to find cover!” I hear Greve shout from behind me.

“No shit!” I shout back as I look around. That's when I see someone waving me towards them from a pillbox. “Alright, keep me covered Greve!”

Without waiting for a reply, I holster my pistol, get to a crouch and (with both hands) drag the German as fast as I can to the pillbox. The zinging, snapping, and pinging of close rounds kept my head tucked between my shoulders as I dug my feet for the pillbox. The shooting wasn't all from one side as I could see flashes erupting from the pillbox and the soldier who was waving me on.

“Almost there man!” I shout back as I continue moving.

“Drop the corpse you bloody idiot!” I hear from the pillbox. Huh?

Looking back at Greve, I see that he is limp in my hands. In the moonlight, I can see the hole in his head and the blood running from said hole.

“Motherfuck-!”

A plume of dust erupting near my feet gave me the only inspiration I needed to drop what was once my companion and make a dash for the pillbox. Reaching the fortification, I decide to pull a movie stunt and slide through one of the firing slits into the hole.

Inside the hole, I see two Brits, a German, a Canadian, three Americans, and...

“Ink!” I shout, causing the unicorn to open her eyes and look over at me.

“Tyler? What the hay are you doing here?” she asks, having to shout over the gunfire.

“To check on you of course!” I reply as if it was the most normal thing in the world. I see her open her mouth in the lamplight and hold up a hand, “Hold that thought! I got bastards to kill!”

Turning around, I aim my rifle out of the firing slit I had just slid through. Seeing the many shadows running around in my field of view and the yellow flashes, I jab the Brit next to me with my elbow.

“Any friendlies out there?”

“Hell if I know! Just fucking shoot!” is the reply I get.

“Works for me!” I shout back before aiming down my sights, picking out a target, and firing my rifle. When I see that target fall, I switch to next and fire at it until it falls or disappears from view before switching to the next.

This sequence takes me through the rest of my magazine. Pressing the eject button with my index finger, I let the magazine drop as I fish out an extra with my left hand. Grabbing the full magazine, I remove it, tap it once against my leg, slam it into the mag well, let the bolt slide forward, and continue on shooting.

When this magazine ran out, I fished for another. Only... my hand found nothing.

“Damn it!” I shout as I let my rifle drop and draw my pistol. I fire what's left of the near-empty clip before ejecting and replacing it with a new one. Letting the slide forward, I unclip my rifle from my vest and let it drop to the floor of the pillbox.

“What are you doing?” asks the Brit that I had earlier jabbed with my elbow.

“I need a gun!” I reply, looking at where Greve's corpse lay in the dirt.

“You've got to be joking!”

“Nope!”

There was no response from the Brit for a couple seconds. Then, finally: “Just don't get your ass shot. I'm not dragging ya back here.”

“Got it!” I reply with a chuckle before taking a deep breath. Closing my eyes, I take another deep breath. When I open my eyes, I jump forward and climb out of the pillbox. Running at a crouch with my pistol barking in front of me, I make tracks to Greve's corpse.

Bullets whiz overhead as both hostile and friendly fire zoom past me to try to hit their marks. I can see dust plumes occurring around me from where hostile bullets missed me. None of this deterred me from my goal.

Reaching the corpse, I slide next to him. Holstering my pistol, I begin to take the G36 magazines from Greve's vest and shove them in my own while keeping my head as low as possible. Once I took all the mags I could easily get to, I grab his rifle, turn and begin my sprint back to the pillbox.

Within spitting distance of the pillbox, I suddenly find myself hitting dirt, pain flaring in my back.

“Bloody fucking-!” I hear as knuckles dig into my back. I assume a hand had wrapped around my drag handle as I find myself yanked into the pillbox to land on my stomach.

“What did I tell you? I said not to get shot!” I hear as hands travel across my back, “I'll be. Looks like God has deemed you worthy to save, you lucky bastard.”

Not understanding what he meant, I reach back and feel my vest as best I can. Finally, I come upon a dent in my vest. Well. I'll be damned, I think to myself as I drag myself to my feet, chuckling.

Screaming of a charging insurgent was enough to snap me from my stupor. Grabbing the G36, which had luckily been dragged in with me, I aim it out the firing slit and down the assaulting insurgent with a burst of automatic fire. Looking at the rifle, I find the fire selection and flick it to semi-auto before aiming back out the slit.

“This is for Greve, you bastards!” I shout as I begin to put rounds down range again.

Chapter Thirty-Four

“Are they gone?” I hear Ink ask from the floor of the bunker.

“I don't know. Sure has been quiet though,” I hear McCloed state from the other side of the bunker. I watch him turn his head to give a worried glance in Ink's direction. I can see him do this because I am currently sitting on the floor of the bunker with my back to one of the walls, Greve's G36 in my lap. Looking down at the rifle, I run a hand over it. Don't worry. The bastards will get what's coming to them.

One of the other Americans begins to sing, causing my ears to tune in. I was always a sucker for song, after all.

“Here we stand, in a faraway land.
Enemies of the past, war staying fast.
While I don't know the people and sure can't see a nearby steeple,
I do know that my job is the same; aggressive hearts, I need to tame!

In case you haven't a clue, let me tell you.
I am a soldier!
Nothing but a soldier!

Blessed with the heart to stand and do my part,
to ensure that we are free to do as we please!

Let me tell you, so you may have a clue.
While I do fight, I only do so to make things right,
for we brought you this war, but we'll make it just another piece of lore!

And when it's all said and done,
when the enemy is destroyed or on the the run!
I will lower this blood-stained knife,
and join you all in the simple life!”

I clap along with some of the other soldiers in the bunker. I also hear the stomping of hooves and look over to see Ink doing what ponies do instead of clapping. Looking back at the soldier who sung, he was actually turning red from the praise he was receiving.

“Did you come up with that yourself?” Ink asks, her tone one of amazement.

“Yeah,” the soldier meekly replies.

“It was really good, you should become a singer,” Ink then pauses as she seems to remember what was currently happening around us, “After all this, of course.”

A chuckle sweeps through the bunker at that.

“For a pony, I think you adapted pretty well, lass,” remarks one of the British troops, though his accent was definitely Irish. Northern Ireland probably, I think to myself as I watch Ink shoot the soldier a glare.

“And what the hay does that mean?” she asks. Another chuckle sweeps through the bunker.

“She forgot her roots!” chimes in a German paratrooper, causing another wave of chuckling.

“Guess we've done too good a job of acclimating her then,” adds in the third American, who was a Marine. After wiping tears from my eyes, I look at Ink to see her looking at me. One half of her face was contorted in confusion while the other half was in understanding.

“I... what?” she asks.

“Y'all,” I begin, my voice slipping into my hometown accent, “are a peaceful race. Remember? Yet, here you are, talking about the whole thing like it's some dance. Like how most soldiers end up talking about it after awhile.”

“Oh...”

“Look alive!” shouts the Canadian soldier. I look at him to see him aiming down the sights of his rifle.

“Count?” questions the Irish/British soldier, all merriment gone from his voice.

Jumping to my feet, I turn around and aim the carbine at the world outside. Outside, I see the beginning of dawn on the horizon. Shit. How long was that battle? I mentally ask myself. It seemed like it only lasted a few minutes, not hours. Smoke curls into the air from many places in the base, signifying the extent of the attack.

“Four. Moving this way in formation,” reports the Canadian soldier, “Looks to be friendly camo. Call it?”

“Call it,” orders the Irish/British soldier.

“Wild West!” Cries out the Canadian soldier, his voice echoing around the bunker a bit, causing us to slightly cringe.

“Frontier!” comes the reply from an oddly familiar voice. I hear movement behind me and turn around to see the four soldiers come to a halt next to the bunker. I could see the face of one of the men as he was kneeling down to look in and address us. Since I could see him, he could see me... and Ink.

“Ink? Odom? Thank God you two are alive!” exclaims Kilborn, looking at us both. He takes a double take on my rifle and I watch as understanding briefly crosses his face, “All of y'all need to get topside. We've pushed them back and are getting ready to take the fight right to 'em! This is it!”

“Hoorah!” shouts the Marine as he quickly scrambles from the bunker.

Crawling from the bunker, I stand and look around at the camp. Bodies, shell casings, and blood decorate the ground. Tents and other structures lay broken or shot up. Fires burn in the distance. However, around all the destruction, the soldiers of the Coalition move with a purpose.

I turn to Sarge and walk over to him and Smiley, asking, “Have fun without me?”

“Loads,” Kilborn replies with a smirk. The smirk then lessens, “How's Ink?”

I look back to the bunker just in time to see Ink and McCloed hugging each other. I smile at this and point it out for Kilborn to see, “I think she's doing just fine, Sarge.”

“I see,” he says with a chuckle, “Ink!”

Said pony looks at us while still holding onto the Ranger, “What?”

“When your done crushing the poor kid, catch up with us, okay?”

Not waiting for a reply, I follow the Sergeant towards the motor pool. Surprisingly, there were only one or two smoke columns coming from that direction. Only one came from the town behind it.

“After you and the German left, we were pushed from our hole due to numbers. We fell back with some other troopers, fighting as we went. When we got near the motor pool, that's where we drew the line in the sand. Many other troopers had fallen back to there as well due to being driven back. Actually,” Kilborn pauses, “I think that y'all are the forward most position we've encountered.”

“Really?” I ask, to which his response is a nod, “Damn. Where's Gonz and Jones, by the way?”

Hooves on dirt cause me to look to my side in time to see Ink slow to a walking pace next to me.

“Getting Ink's armor and any of our gear that may have survived. Hopefully we won't be coming back,” Sarge replies.

“Won't be coming back?” Ink asks, some fear in her voice.

“This is the ending move,” Kilborn explains, “Either we defeat them at their main camp or we all die trying. Either way, we won't be coming back here.”

“I see...” she replies with some unsureness still in her voice.

Continuing the walk in silence, we soon end up passing by many on watch soldiers and entering the motor pool. The carpet of brass is thick around the motor pool, as is the amount of dead. Tanks sit in a circle around the motor pool, the whining of motors filling the air as the turrets scan for any potential hostiles. This really was where they drew the line, I think to myself as I examine the carnage in the growing light. Looking up, I see clouds being flown in by pegasus ponies who had stayed to do their job as weather ponies.

“Must the sky weep?” I whisper.

“What?” Ink asks. I curse myself for not saying it quieter.

“Nothing,” I reply as I look to her and giver her a reassuring smile.

“Alright,” she responds as our group comes to a stop before Athena. Littering the top of her roof is the casings of her .50 Cal.

“Looks like she got use,” I remark, plucking a fifty casing from the roof.

“Damn right she did. Only time Gonz let off the trigger is to reload,” Kilborn replies as he opens the driver door, leans in, and starts the Humvee up. With a grumbling roar, the Humvee shakes itself to life. With the clicking of ignitions, the air around me begins to shake as the engines of every surviving Coalition vehicle roars to life, as if the awakening of Athena was the cue.

“They're gonna regret attacking us!” Kilborn shouts with a smile.

“I'm sure everypony is going to regret the outcome of this,” I hear Ink say from beside me.

I think you're going to be right about that one. I think to myself with a frown as I watch the increase in scrambling in my fellow soldiers. I'm damn sure not all of us are coming back from this.

Chapter Thirty-Five

“Three-Two, ease back, you're getting out of formation.”

“Check your weapons. We don't need no jams when we get there.”

The radio was alive with this and much more as the mass of Coalition vehicles bounce across the desert terrain. I sit in my seat, fingering the safety on my G36 as I look out at the numerous vehicles to Athena's right. This is it... this is the end.

I remember hearing about the base when it was first discovered. Many soldiers, including myself, had questioned why we didn't just go in and blow it to bits. The Commander, however, overlaid those questions with one of his own. If we lose, who will defend the Equestrians?

So we had waited. But now, my brain continues, now we show those fuckers why they shouldn't have fucked with us in the first place.

“ETA to Objective Wholesale: Ninety Minutes.”

Hour and a half before we wipe them off the map. Then... then it's to home.

[LINE BREAK]

Boring...

Groaning, I let my head fall to my desk as I try to will Miss Cheerilee to hurry in her discussion about math. I didn't really care what five times six equaled. I just want to go outside and play with all three of my friends.

I raise my head and look to my left at Apple Bloom, who was looking at the board like it was a bar of chocolate. She always was an egghead, especially when it come to math. Rolling my eyes at the farm filly, I look to my right to see Sweetie Belle drawing random shapes on her desk with her hoof. Looking back, I see Pipsqueak sitting behind me. The board also has his rapt attention. However, when he notices me looking at him, he smiles at me and gives a small wave before looking back at the board.

“Scootaloo, pay attention please,” I hear Miss Cheerilee speak. Sighing, I turn around to face the board and rise my eyes in surprise as the single problem was now accompanied by at least seven others. How the?

Now that she had my attention, I watch as Miss Cheerilee turns back to the board to begin explaining the problems she had up there. Gah! I shout inwardly as I slam my head back down onto my desk.

After what felt like an eternity, Miss Cheerilee announces that it is time for recess.

“Yay!” I shout as I jump from my desk, grab Pip and drag him out of the schoolhouse. Once outside, I let go of the flustered colt and look back at him with a smile on my face.

“Why are you so happy?” he asks with a smile as he rubs the hoof I had grabbed.

“Because we're outside and not learning math, that's why,” I reply.

“Math is important, ya know,” intones Apple Bloom as her and Sweetie Belle join us.

“Maybe to you,” I respond while sticking my tongue out at the yellow filly.

“You should at least try to understand it,” Sweetie Belle says.

I look at her in disbelief, “You weren't even paying attention!”

She shakes her head, “Just because I'm drawing on my desk doesn't mean I'm not paying attention.”

“Whatever,” I quickly reply, “What are we going to do today?”

“Hide and seek?” Pip suggests.

“That sounds like fun,” Apple Bloom replies.

“Nose goes!” I shout, smashing my nose with my hoof. My friends do the same with Pip ending up as the last one to do so.

“Pip's it! Tag to catch! Ready? Go!” shouts Sweetie Belle in rapid fire. As soon as Pip closes his eyes, I am off. Running, I find a nice sized bush to hide inside. He'll never find me here, I think to myself with a devious smile I try to make myself more comfortable.

[LINE BREAK]

“Smiley, shift fire to the left!” I shout as I lean around our Humvee and fire a few more rounds at the enemy encampment. The encampment was big, that was obvious. However, it was also undermanned. The only thing keeping us from assaulting it full-on was the threat of explosives in the berm and no one really wanted to be the one to discover that there were explosives in the berm.

Which means...

“USS Kinkaid to all Coalition forces. Tomahawk is away. Repeat, Tomahawk Missile is away.”

...Kinkaid can bring out the big guns.

Smiling, I lean back around the Humvee and put even more rounds downrange. Bullets ping off the Humvee's armor, driving me back behind it. As I did, I ear the boom of a tank cannon to my right. Looking that way, I see Corbulo rocking forward from it's latest shot. It's coaxial machine-gun began to spit out rounds as the loader hurried to reload the beast.

“Tyler!”

Looking at where I heard my name, I see Kilborn looking at me.

“Get ready to move!” he shouts over the din of the gunfire, “We're gonna be the second ones through after Corbulo!”

“Got it Sarge!” I shout back before leaning around the Humvee to pop off a couple more shots. We're going to be the first ones into that shitstorm.

/--\

I had been hiding for what felt like a good couple minutes before I hear hoofsteps approaching my little hideout. I stifle a giggle as I hear them walk past my little hideaway. I knew he'd never find me in here, I think jovially to myself as I stifle another giggle.

Suddenly, I'm on my stomach on the ground with a weight on top of me. Wiggling, I flip myself over to find Pipsqueak standing over me rubbing an ear with his hoof.

“You scream loud, you know that?” he asks before smiling at me, “Found ya by the way.”

“How?” I ask.

“Your tail was sticking out,” he says with a chuckle.

I open my mouth to reply but just as quickly close it with a 'humph' as I cross my forelegs. He continues to stand there with a proud smile. Pushing him back, I get to a standing position myself before crawling from the bush. I listen as Pip follows me. Looking back, I see that the proud smile is still on his face.

Thinking about something I heard of Tyler doing, I smirk. I watch as Pip notices the smirk.

“Wha-”

Before he could finish, I plant a quick kiss on his cheek. Sitting back, I feel my cheeks turn a light red though I could see Pip's cheeks turning a dark red as he also seems to be frozen in place.

“Come on,” I say with a giggle and smirk, “we have to find the other two.”

Without waiting for him to reply, I turn and trot off to try to find my two other friends.

That should keep him lost in his mind for a little bit, I think with a smirk.

/--\

“Forward!” Kilborn shouts as we follow Athena into the dirt cloud that was thrown up by the Tomahawk cruise-missile. The berm had been dotted with explosives but the Tomahawk had taken them out.

Now it's up to us ground-pounders.

I charge after Kilborn and Athena through the hole in the berm. Already I hear Corbulo firing away at some unseen targets. Getting through the hole in the berm, though, I begin to see the targets. Raising my rifle, I fire away as I duck behind a stack of boxes. Letting my rifle drop to be held by it's sling, I pull out a grenade, pull the pin, let the spoon fly, and chuck it.

Ducking behind the boxes, I wait for it to blow before popping up and putting rounds at anyone still out in the open. With the zinging of rounds, I duck down back behind the boxes. Glancing at the berm, I look just in time to see a mass of infantry come storming from the hole, rifles blazing. While a few fall from incoming fire, the rest charge on as the French tanks and British vehicles follow close behind.

Now with some help behind me, I stand and join the surge into the enemy's camp. Tango behind some sandbags, down. Tango dashing from a tent, down. Reload. Tango, down. Tango, down. If I didn't get him, someone else did before he could get off more than a few rounds.

Looking back, I see the Equestrian banner flying from the top of one of the French tanks. Smiling, I turn back and shout,

“For Equestria!”

The shout found itself echoing down the line before it ended in one massive, primal yell.

We now know our home and nothing can stop us from protecting it.

Epilogue

The wind was strong as I look around at the clear blue sky. With the sun shining high above me, I feel like nothing really matters anymore. I also found myself marveling at the quietness that was around me. Well, it would be quiet if it wasn't for the clicking. I think to myself.

Using a gloved hand, I feel the mask, goggles, and helmet that fully covered my head.

If the ponies are one thing, it's productive, I chuckle as I make sure that the seals are all sealed and that my air tank is full. Feeling something tap my leg, I look over and down to see a orange filly smirking up at me.

“You ready old man?” she asks teasingly. In response, I nudge her with my boot before setting said boot back onto the fluffy white surface we stood on. I look at my daughter, my daughter... what a change from single soldier to engaged father. I look at my daughter to see that her modified chute is sitting on her back and that her goggles covered her eyes. The chute was small enough to fit comfortably between the wings, even when she extends them.

“Are you ready?” I ask, raising my voice to be heard over the wind and from behind the mask. I briefly find myself marveling at the magic that allows Pegasus to breathe at high-altitudes.

“Buck yeah, I'm ready!” Scootaloo yells, snapping me from my thoughts and causing me to look at the filly. Seeing me looking at her, she blushes and looks at the cloud in embarrassment. She then begins to stammer out an apology. It doesn't get far as I just burst out in laughter.

“It's alright Scoots. We'll blame this one on the adrenaline and excitement. Just don't say it again... especially around your mother,” I reply, chuckling as I see Scootaloo cringe at the thought of what Twilight would do is she caught the young filly using foul language.

Your mother... More words I never thought I would say anytime soon. I remember when I had proposed to Twilight. We were in the park at night, just going for a walk with Scootaloo. I found myself commenting on the stars and their beauty. After Twilight agreed, I was on my knee with a horn ring held out to her. Next thing I knew, I was on the ground with a sobbing Twilight over me just nodding her head and a crying Scootaloo next to me who tried her hardest to look disgusted.

“Hey!” I hear from the orange filly. Looking down, I see her looking up at me in worry, “You okay Dad?”

“Yeah,” I reply while bending down and ruffling her mane, causing a big smile to come to her face.

“Then let's do this!” she shouts before running and jumping from the edge of the cloud. Chuckling, I lift my wrist to my face to look at the watch that one of the other soldiers had let me borrow.

Three, two, one...

Feeling the cloud turn into vapor is a very unsettling feeling, especially when you know that the ground is a little over thirty-eight thousand feet below you. However, I fall through the cloud with a wide smile and push myself into a straight line before leaning forward. Once I was heading down head first, I straighten myself out and let myself dive after the orange and purple furball below me.

I watch as the ground below me begins to rush up to meet me head-on. In the perfect scenario, I would have an altimeter to watch but, this wasn't the perfect scenario. So, instead I found myself guesstimating the distance from myself and the ground. Looking to my “front”, I see the village of Ponyville going along with their day. Whether they could see the two of us falling or not, I could not tell.

I thought of the Badlands. Now that the enemy was gone, all of the troops were left without homes. Anti-human feelings were still rampant in the bigger cities (besides Baltimare) so they couldn't really move in anywhere. So, instead, the soldiers of the Coalition began to build with the resources they could get themselves or buy. What became known as Salvation soon began to take the shape of a desert village. While the village is still under construction, they have houses and two water collection towers. They also have greenhouses and other water collection towers (“Moisture Towers”) under construction.

In true human spirit, we try to inhabit the uninhabitable, I think to myself before turning my attention back to the fact that I'm falling through the sky at terminal velocity. Looking at the ground, I see that it's still approaching rather fast.

Were it not for the orange and purple blur she left behind, I would never have noticed Scootaloo opening her wings and coming to a glide. Going to the spread eagle position myself, I let the fabric between sewn between my arms and chest and between my legs spread out to give me “wings”.

Now gliding myself, I steer myself for the Ponyville park as a certain orange filly lowers herself to glide beside me. Looking over, I see a wide smile on her face as she looks at me with her wings outstretch. Giving her a thumbs up, I watch her do a barrel roll before looking back ahead.

I wait as the wind whips by me. As I wait, I find my mind drifting off again to what had become known as “Sacrifice Hill”. It turned out that the OpFor camp was positioned around a hill. Said hill was home of the OpFor command structure and three T-94 tanks. While taking the base wasn't all that difficult after we got past the berm, we now had bodies to bury. So for the rest of that day and well into the night we dug graves around the hill. When we were done, the three T-94 husks were overlooking rows and rows of graves, all marked by at least a rifle or boots.

Snapping myself from my thoughts, I notice how close I'm getting to the ground below. Looking over I see Scootaloo looking at me for confirmation. Nodding, I watch her yank the cord with her teeth, causing the purple parachute to unfurl from her pack and catch the wind, slowing her down considerably.

Satisfied that my daughter was now safely gliding to the ground below, I pull my own cord and feel as I suddenly decelerate. Grabbing the handles, I begin to guide myself for a landing in the park. Seeing the assembled ponies, I chuckle. It was always something to come into a landing with an audience. Especially when that audience contained one's fiancee.

Pulling the cords to slow myself, I lift my knees for the impact. As soon as my boots touch dirt, I slow myself down and look back to watch the enchanted parachute fold itself back into the pack. Ripping off my mask and helmet, I drop it as I watch Scootaloo coming in for her landing. I watch as she bends her knees and hit the floor to run to a stop next to me, her parachute also folding itself back.

The excited filly then runs over and tackles Twilight in a hug of doom.

“Did you see me Mom?” she yells, “Did you see me?”

“I saw you,” replies Twilight with a smile as I walk over. Lifting Scootaloo's goggles from her eyes, Twilight nuzzles the filly before looking up at me.

“Have fun defying nature?” she asks playfully, pointing out that I was born without wings.

“Always,” I reply as I kneel down and give her a quick kiss.

“Gross!”

Twilight and me both look at the orange filly who looks like she might be trying to gag.

“Umm, Scoots,” I begin slowly as I notice something on her coat.

“Yeah?” she asks just as slowly, worry evident.

“Can you turn a little more to the right?” I ask, motioning with my hand. Confused, the pegasus filly listens. When she does, I hear a gasp from Twilight as a large smile graces my face.

“What? What is it?” Scoots asks worriedly, trying to look back around the parachute rig.

“Take off the rig, dear,” Twilight suggests as I wrap my arms around the purple mare and she wraps her hooves around me. Hurriedly, the orange filly strips off the rig before looking back and emitting the loudest screech ever.

“I GOT A CUTIE MARK!” she yells as she begins to bounce around. Sure enough, for the world to see, there was a mark on her flank depicting a single orange wing, with purple outline, that looked to be hanging from a purple parachute by black thread.

I look at Twilight with a smile on my face. Looking back at me, I see my smile mirrored on her face before we both look at our daughter, who is still hopping around the park.

Home...

I'm finally... truly... home.

/--\

In case you haven't a clue, let me tell you.
I am a soldier!
Nothing but a soldier!

Blessed with the heart to stand and do my part,
to ensure that we are free to do as we please!

Let me tell you, so you may have a clue.
While I do fight, I only do so to make things right,
for we brought you this war, but we'll make it just another piece of lore!

And when it's all said and done,
when the enemy is destroyed or on the the run!
I will lower this blood-stained knife,
and join you all in the simple life!”

Chapter One

A soft guitar rhythm sounded through the Humvee as it bounced across the rough desert. I nodded my head to the music, smirking when I saw that everyone but Smiley, who was manning the Fifty, was doing the same. Soon, it built up and the singing began with a repeating, “Hey ey ey yeah.”

After doing that six times, the brunt of the song took place. The singing became fast-paced but, surprisingly, us four soldiers were able to keep up,

“Johnny Cash and PBR, Jack Daniels, Nascar,
Facebook, MySpace, iPod, Bill Gates,
Smith and Wesson, NRA, Firewater, Paleface,
Dimebag, Tupac, Heavy Metal, Hip Hop!”

The Sergeant and me hung back as Jones and Gonzales sang the next part. As they were singing, I decided to use my M4 as a pretend guitar while Sarge air drummed on the dashboard. When there part ended, we switched roles. Jones played guitar on his rifle while Gonzales, the driver, started drumming on the steering wheel. Sarge and me were now the ones singing with the song,

“I will not be forgotten, this is m time to shine,
I've got the scars to prove it, only the strong survive,
I'm not afraid of dying, everyone has their ti-”

“RPG! Three o'clock!”

It was mere milliseconds before Smiley, the one who had yelled the warning, had swung the Fifty ninety degrees to the right and depressed the trigger. The roar of the Fifty never seemed to be as loud when inside the Humvee. However, I had other things to worry about as I saw the projectile flying towards us. Actually, the shooter had aimed it ahead of us, at where we would be.

“Brake! Now!” I shouted. I gasped in surprise when my, luckily, helmeted head slammed into the seat in front of me.

“On it!” Gonzales shouted back. The Humvee skidded along the dirt, the tires struggling to find purchase. Again, dumb luck had it to where the Humvee was able to barely avoid smashing into the rocket as it passed in front of us.

“Foot mobiles! Left side!” shouted Jones, as he opened the little, reinforced window of his door and shoved the business end of his M4 through it. It didn't take long for him to begin shooting. I could see the muzzle flash, the rifle buck, the spent cartridge pop out of the chamber, making room for another round to enter.

Of course, that all left my mind as I heard my Sergeant yell,

“More on the right side!” with this, he stuck his M4 out and began to fire as well. Hurriedly, I unclasped the window and swung it out. Struggling with my rifle for a second, I finally shoved the end through the window. There were... lots of insurgents. They must have been expecting an entire convoy because I counted at least three to four squads worth, just on my side alone.

Shaking my head, I pulled the trigger. The rifle bucked and bucked again as I depressed the trigger again and again. While my shots were fast, I made sure they were also aimed. Of course, if an insurgent did fall, I couldn't tell if Sarge got him or if I did.

“Gonzalez!” began the Sergeant, yelling over the gunfire, “Floor it! Get us the fuck out of this killzone!”

“Right Sergeant!” replied the Corporal as he pushed the gas pedal against the floor. The Humvee growled and jumped forward, beginning to pick up speed. That was when I heard the shout of pain. Looking across the Humvee, I saw Jones, the new kid, holding a hand to his gut.

“Jones is hit!” I shouted as I clambered over, letting my sling keep my rifle close to me. Getting to Jones, and avoiding Smiley's legs as he swung the big gun to the left to provide cover, I ripped Jones' vest open. Seeing the wound, I placed both hands against the hole and pushed, hoping the pressure would give him until we got out of this mess.

“RPG! Eight o'clock!”

“RPG! Right side!”

“Fuck!” cursed Gonzales, “RPG to our front!”

I felt my jaw go slack. There was no way we would survive this kind of bombardment. If these shooters were anything like the first, they had us right where they wanted us. Any deviation meant slamming into any of the three projectiles. I looked down at Jones to see him crying and cursing under his breath. Smiley, from the sound had not let up on the trigger, probably hoping to take a few down with him. Sarge drew a cross over his chest before sitting stoically while Gonzales' head was moving back and forth, as if trying to find a way out that wasn't there. Finally, he hung his head and whispered,

“It's been a honor.”

That was when the missiles struck. In the flash of their explosion, I felt no pain, no hate, only a deep longing for home and peace.

Author's Note

This is a story that I had already posted on FanFiction and it was recommended to me to post here so... here it is.

Chapter Thirteen

It had been almost a week since I had taken Scootaloo parachuting. During the sleepover, she had told her friends all about the experience, even including sound effects and actions to her story. In typical kid fashion, she also stretched the story to make it sound more dangerous than it actually was. When she was done, the three had decided to brainstorm different ideas on how to get their cutie marks (which I watched with a smirk on my face).

The next day, after the girls left the hall to try out some of their ideas, I had gone to Rarity to see if she could make the squad and me some extra clothes. She agreed to it and, by the next day, had it ready. She had taken the design of our uniforms and made some like it. The ones she made, though, were plain green with a soft touch of a golden trim. It truly looked like something Rarity would make. The socks and underwear, however, were just of plain cloth (at my asking of course).

With new clothes, Jones and Gonz left for Canterlot the next day. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie had gone with them, which was no surprise to the rest of the squad (or the rest of the Mane Six). That left me in charge of the mead-hall. I really did nothing besides keep up with general maintenance around the hall and help Scoots with her flying.

“On your feet recruit!”

Before I was fully awake, I was on my feet at attention. When my mind caught up to my body, I found myself looking at the face of a smiling Kilborn with a snickering Scootaloo behind him. I gave a quick glare at the little filly before turning to the Sergeant.

“Yes Sarge?”

He shook his head with a chuckle, “Been trying to wake ya for a couple minutes. Anyway, we're gonna do PT. Get your rear in gear and get ready.”

I sighed. PT, Physical Training, meant push-ups, sit-ups, and all sorts of other exercises meant to make a soldier a lean, mean, killing machine. Of course, the actual PT wasn't that bad but the days were beginning to get colder and colder and running in the cold sucked.

Without waiting for an actual answer, Kilborn left the room, closing the door. This left me with Scootaloo, who was still smirking at me.

“I don't think I've ever seen anyone jump straight out of bed before,” she commented, chuckling. I did a mimic of her chuckle as I began to change into a plain white shirt and grey shorts that Rarity had also made.

“Well, if you were ever woken up at two in the morning by a guy banging trash can lids together and then yelling at you and making you clean latrines for moving too slow, you might wake up like that too.”

“Latrines?”

“Toilets.”

“Ewwww. Really?”

“Yep.”

Opening the door, I stepped out and held it open for Scootaloo before closing it. Going downstairs and outside, I shivered a little when the cold air hit my skin. Standing outside were Smiley and Kilborn, both wearing the same attire as me. However, they both were much more muscular than when we had first arrived and it was mostly to the farm work that they had been doing every day.

“Alright. Now that Sleeping Beauty is finally with us, we can begin with some stretches. Right arm. Ready? Begin.”

It went like that for every major muscle region that we could realistically stretch. Scootaloo just sat to the side silently, her head cocked to the side in curiosity. When we were done stretching (Thirty, three-count jumping jacks included), Kilborn got down in push-up position.

“Push-ups now,” he said simply as Smiley and me got in the same position in front of him, “Sixty. Sound off. Ready? Down! Up!”

“One!” Smiley and me shouted simultaneously.

“Down! Up!”

“Two!”

“Down! Up!”

“Three!”

On it went like that. The shouting and cold air stripped my throat quickly but I kept pushing and kept shouting because I didn't feel like doing them again. Our shouting however, attracted a small crowd as we did our push-ups, causing me some discomfort. Out of the corner of my eye, I spotted Twilight sitting next to Scootaloo with the same curious tilt of her head. That simple thing made me smile, which wasn't unseen by Kilborn.

“Down! Something funny there Corporal?”

“No Sergeant!” Talking while keeping your body mere inches off the ground was hard.

“Than why are you smiling?”

“Because I love PT, Sergeant!”

“Really now? Up!”

“Twenty-Seven!” came the simultaneous reply.

“Yes Sergeant!” I answered.

“Good! Then you won't mind the extra ten push-ups we're going to do!” he shouted back. Damn, I thought to myself as he again shouted, “Down!”

And so it continued. We pumped out push-ups until we finally reached eighty. When we were done, Kilborn flipped to his back shouting, “Sit-ups; thirty! Sound off! Begin! Up!”

“One!”

When we were finally done with the sit-up, I got to my feet. My arms felt like jelly and my abs hurt but I was to my feet in a flash. The crowd had only somewhat dispersed, the rest somehow intrigued with the sight of humans working out.

“Alright you whining, grass-munching sons of bitches, lets go for a little jog!” Kilborn shouted with a malicious smile, all of his teeth showing. With that, he turned in the direction of the trail to Sweet Apple Acres and started off at a good pace. Smiley and me fell in line beside him. When we were running, he began to sing a jodie. Jodies were used to help keep cadence while running and was usually sang by the Sergeant alone.

“C-130 rollin' down the strip
Airborne Rangers gonna take a little trip

Mission untold, destination unknown
Some don't know if they're ever comin' home

Jump up, buckle up, shuffle to the door
Jump right out and count to four

If my chute don't open wide
I got another one by my side

If that chute don't open too
Look out below, I'm coming through

If I die in ol' drop zone
Box me up and ship me home

If I die while I'm doin' my best
Then bury me at a leaning rest

But if I die while sippin' tea
Don't even bother buryin' me!”

We had reached the barn by the time the jodie was finished. Surprisingly, some of the crowd (Scootaloo and Twilight included) followed us on our jog. Turning around, we started back and Kilborn started another jodie.

“In fourteen hundred and ninety-two
a beggar bound for college
was roaming the streets of Spain
and selling hot tamales!

He said the world was round-oh
he said it could be found-of
the hypothetical navigating son-of-a-gun Colombo!

Said Isabel to Ferdinand
his plan sounds mighty hazy
Said Ferdinand to Isabel
I think the sucker's crazy!

He said the world was round-oh
he said it could be found-of
the hypothetical navigating son-of-a-gun Colombo!”

When he was finished with that jodie, we were just about back to the mead-hall. When we reached the hall, we came to a stop, Smile and me turning to face Kilborn. We were all breathing a bit heavier but besides that, all of us stood tall.

“Alright! Y'all are dismissed to go clean yourselves! You smell worse than Athena's exhaust pipe!”

I knew I was probably stinking up a storm but I found it funny that he said that when we was sweating just as bad as we were. Sighing in relief when he gave us leave, I interlaced my fingers behind my head and tried to calm my breathing. Smiley and Kilborn quickly made for the hall and the two bathtubs but I didn't mind. I needed a second or two to catch my breath anyway.

As I was catching my breath, I noticed that the crowd was dispersing.

“So...” someone began behind me. Turning around, I saw Twilight with Scootaloo at her side. It was Twilight who had spoken, “Colombo?”

I laughed, “In fourteen ninety-two, a man by the name of Christopher Columbus left his home of Spain to try to 'sail to the Far East' by going around the world. At this time, the big thought was that the Earth was flat. He thought, correctly, that it was round. So he set out on three ships to find this route to the Far East. What he found instead were too undiscovered continents. This led to them, and several others, settling there. The United States, my country, came to be when a group of colonies ruled by a country called Great Britain rebelled. Finally, we won and the United States came to be.” I shrugged, “I could go more in-depth but I'd need a map and other stuff to do so. However, first, I need to bathe.” I smirked at them.

“Yeah you do,” Scootaloo commented, waving a hoof in front of her nose. I chuckled and nodded.

“Alright then. I'll see you two later, okay?”

“Okay,” replied Twilight.

“I'll see you tonight, I'm going to be with the Crusaders,” Scootaloo replied before running off. I shook my head in amusement before waving at Twilight and walking into the hall. Out of sight, I lifted an arm and put my nose near my armpit and sniffed. My face immediately cringed as my nostrils were assaulted.

“Damn,” I muttered as I started toward the stairs, “I didn't think it was this bad.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

“Say hello to our new home boys,” Sarge remarked dryly as we entered the tiny frontier town of Dodge City. All around us, humans roamed. I spotted the camouflage patterns of the Army Rangers and the Marines and I further spied the French armored guys. All of them had set up camp at the southern side of town with a sand berm surrounding the entire town (it was that small of a settlement).

One of the interesting things I saw as we drove into the camp was that the French tanks were set up in defensive positions behind the southern berm. Smart. Might as well use them since we got them.

We came to a stop near an open area that held three other Humvees and two Stryker IFVs. Wordlessly, Kilborn opened his door and stepped out. I nodded at Jones and the two of us also disembarked the Humvee, Jones jogging around to join Sarge and me.

Walking towards us was a man in ACU battle rattle (minus the helmet that was clipped to his belt) and a forest green pony with a lighter green mane. When they got closer, I looked at the pony's facial structure and noticed that it was a stallion. The Ranger wore the rank of Specialist.

Behind our Humvee, the tank quieted with a couple growls and we heard the hatch clang open. Looking back, I saw Thoreau with his head out the hatch, waiting patiently for information on where to park Corbulo.

When the duo finally reached us, it was the pony that spoke first.

“Howdy. Ah'm Cherry Stem and, for what it's worth, welcome to our town.”

Kilborn nodded to the pony, “Thank you for the kind welcome, sir.”

The pony nodded before looking at the Ranger, nodding to him, and walking towards the actual town.

“Sergeant. You're the group from Ponyville, correct?” asked the Ranger as he looked our group over.

Kilborn nodded, “That we are. Any news on the other units, Specialist?”

“The Canadians and Brits on the West Coast are still moving down to pick up the Marines there. Our Blackhawk is currently doing Air Recon over the Badlands and a convoy is being prepared by the Marines to go pick up the Airborne guys,” he replied before motioning to the parked vehicles, “Sarge, you can park your Humvee and tank alongside those vehicles there. We may or may not need them to pick up the Airborne groups.”

Kilborn nodded, “If you do, I would like my men to man our Humvee.”

“Understood, Sergeant,” replied the Ranger after a second of hesitation.

“Also,” Kilborn continued, “we have a man for the stockade in the back of our Humvee.”

This brought a look of surprise to the Ranger's face, “Reasoning?”

“My full report has already been given to the Commander, Specialist,” Kilborn replied, putting emphasis on the man's rank.

“Understood Sergeant, I'll get someone to get him out. If you would-”

A whistling pierced the air before dirt was thrown up a couple yards away from the Humvee. A loud boom accompanied the dirt plume. More whistling filled the air.

“Mortars! Tell your men to de-ass and get to the berm, now! Bring that tank into a defensive position at the berm!” screamed the Specialist before taking off at a crouch towards the camp and the berm beyond.

“Gonz!” Kilborn yelled, “Shut her down and move!” He then clicked his radio, “SM, get Corbulo to the southern berm ASAP!”

“Roger that!”

“Move your ass people!” Kilborn shouted as another mortar round landed close by. They were coming down all around the camp like hellish rain. I started running for the southern berm, seeing other ahead of me scrambling for it as well. Were they attacking? The Specialist reacted like this had happened before.

As we were running, I heard the boom of a mortar round and the piercing screams of a man whose been wounded. Closely following that was the cry:

“Corpsman up!”

This is it, my mind reeled, This is the real shit. Back to that old grind.

Running through the rows of tents, I kept my head low and hoped that I didn't get hit. Dirt was thrown up directly in front of me but I kept running through it, the clods bouncing off my helmet. I looked up at the berm to see weapon flashes from the men already manning the fortification. The French tanks were firing their co-axials at a target that could not yet see.

Before I knew it though, I was scrambling to the top of the berm by instinct. When I could see over the dirt wall, I stopped. In front of me were at least two companies of foot mobiles and light vehicles moving towards the camp. The foot mobiles were darting from sparse cover to sparse cover, trying to stay alive as they took pot shots. The vehicles were charging straight ahead, seemingly having come after the infantry.

I looked to my right to see two Marines mounting a .50 Caliber Machine-gun that looked to have been taken off a Humvee. The weapon boomed and bucked as the Marine fired it in bursts at the hostiles. To my left, I watched as Corbulo came to a halt. The turret twitched left and right, as if sniffing out a target. Finally, there was a loud boom that made my ears ring and made the tank rock backwards. Looking forward, I watched as one of the vehicles exploded in a glorious fireball.

The pinging of a round flying by my head brought my mind to focus. Lifting my M4, I focused my sights on a group of OpFor.

Back to the same old grind, my mind repeated as I pulled the trigger.

/--\

I sat quietly as I listened to the clopping of hooves. They would go for a couple seconds, stop, go again, stop, go again. An endless cycle of noise penetrating my thoughts. Stupid Silver Spoon, I grumbled inwardly as I stared at the wooden floor.

The clopping stopped and I waited but they didn't begin again. Looking up, I saw Twilight looking at me, her pacing seemingly over. We were in the main room of her home. After the fight, Cheerilee had decided to send me home for the day saying that she was very disappointed in my behavior. They started it. Those stupid, good for nothing-

“Well?” Twilight asked, interrupting my thoughts, “What have you got to say for your actions?”

“They started it! They always pick on us!” I shouted.

“That may be so,” Twilight responded evenly, “but you tell Miss Cheerilee, You do not buck a fellow classmate.” I opened my mouth but a raised hoof from Twilight informed me that she wasn't finished yet, “You also shall refrain from yelling in my house. Understand?”

“Yes, but-”

“Understand?” she asked again, her tone lower.

I looked back at the floor, “I understand.”

I heard the clopping of hooves before I felt a hoof rest on my back and heard Twilight sit down next to me, “I miss him too Scootaloo and I don't like this feeling of hatred that's been spreading across Equestria. However, it doesn't help if you go around bucking everypony that says something about it. Especially when you are wearing his hat.”

I reached up and pulled the hat off, holding it in front of my face. I scooted closer to Twilight and leaned my head against her chest, “I just want him to come back okay. I can tell how bad his world is, even without him telling me some of the stories.”

“He told you about his world?” Twilight asked. I could hear the anger in her voice and dug my head farther into her chest.

“He censored out the bad stuff. I could tell when he did because he would pause,” I replied, looking down at the hat I now held in both hooves.

I felt Twilight wrap her forelegs around me, “I want him to come back too but, like I said, this is something he has to do. It's not just because he was told to but he wants us to be safe and these... insurgents are threatening our safety.”

I sat silently. Not crying or whimpering. Just silent. It was so hard to accept that he may get hurt.

“This sucks,” I finally whispered. I felt Twilight chuckle softly,

“That it does, Scoots.”

/--\

“All clear?”

“Section one. All clear.”

“Section two. Nothing but corpses.”

“Section three. Looks like a couple twitchers, wait one...” sporadic shots sounded in the still air, “they ain't twitching no more. All clear.”

“Section four. Got a couple trucks we could salvage. No movement though, all clear.”

“All clear, confirmed. Get the wounded to Medical. Send out the Salvage Trucks. Section Four, get a squad to hump it to the trucks and see if their operational. Good job gentlemen.”

I only half listened to the radio chatter after that. My eyes were glued to the view in front of me. Bodies and the bullet ridden husks of their light vehicles littered the desert. The shelling had stopped a little after I had joined in the firefight.

I looked behind me at the camp to see that the shelling didn't do much damage. One tent got hit and I only heard of a couple men who got wounded, none of them sounded severe. I watched as some of the men moved through the camp to the Humvees. Salvage Trucks, my mind newly identified them as. It was smart move. Our ammo wouldn't last forever. Though I wasn't canny on using an AK, I would if I had to.

I felt someone tap my shoulder. Turning to face my right, I saw a Marine crouching there.

“Come on, we're going to see if we can't get those trucks running,” he said, nodding to where the trucks were. I saw the rank on his arm and noticed that he was but a Private First Class. I looked around me and noticed that the only squadmate near me was Jones. He gave me a shrug.

Looking back at the Private, I pushed myself up to a crouch, “Alright, let's get it done with.”

The Marine looked to Jones before looking back at me and nodding. I saw two others behind him, another Private First Class and a bare sleeve Private. The PFC who talked to me waved them on and down the berm they went. Jones and me quickly followed.

Although we were different branches, we quickly got into a squad formation with one person covering every direction. We moved silently, of which I was thankful. I didn't feel like talking much after this welcome back to human destruction.

Passing the corpses of the attackers, I noticed that a few wore uniforms. The flag on their sleeve, I guessed, must have been the Iranian flag. Most, though, wore the simple rags of Afghani insurgents. So they are working together. Shit...

We got to the first truck rather quickly. There was no need to even pop open the hood as the front of the truck was completely ripped to shreds.

“Shit,” muttered one of the Marines.

“Yeah,” mumbled another one. This pointless conversation did hold meaning, though. Most soldiers were often struck stupid when they noticed, up close, the destructive power of the weapons at their disposal. It was a very eye-opening thing to see a .50 Cal rip a car to shreds.

Speaking of .50 Calibers, I noticed that at least the gun on this truck could be salvaged but I assumed that the Salvage Trucks would see to that. Without any other comments, we began to move to the next one. It was only a little ways away. When we approached the truck, I got the feeling that something was... wrong with the situation.

The truck was riddled with rounds and corpses littered the ground around it but there seemed to be less blood here then at the other truck. Curious, I motioned Jones to follow me and approached one of the corpses. Blood stained the dirt below him but he didn't seem as riddled as the others, though a hole could be seen in his gut.

I glanced back to see the Marines moving on the truck, which did show promise of starting up. Looking back at the corpse, I signaled for Jones to stand by before crouching next to it. I couldn't put a finger on it but something felt off about the corpse. The wind blowing the robes probably didn't-

Wait!

My eyes widened as the realization hit. There was no wind!

“Bomb!” I heard behind me. In front of me, the “corpse's” eyes snapped open. An explosion sounded behind me as the insurgent reacted, pulling a knife into the sunlight. Before I could defend myself, the insurgent stabbed at me and I felt pain explode in my gut.