Today I had questions to ask and answer. I had new faces to meet. I wanted it done quickly.
"Grayson?"
"Yes Twilight?"
"Good you're awake, I want to introduce you to my other friends before the Princess and her guests arrive."
I had just woken up from the best sleep i'd had in years. No joke. I slept on something designed for cushioning, without having to worry about the enemy finding and killing me in my sleep. I'd explain more when the time was right. I wasn't opposed to meeting more ponies either, so I was in a particularly good mood.
I was walking up the stairs from the basement that Twilight had so generously offered me for the night. She said she needed to repay me in some fashion for saving her life and tending to her wound. I accepted, only because I had grown sick of sleeping in mediocre outdoor shelters and living of stolen rations and ramen noodles, but told her she really didn't need to repay me. Technically, I was just doing my job. I reached the top of the stairs and saw five other ponies, one had an orange coat, blond mane and wore a cowboy(cowgirl?) hat. Another was levitating with it's wings a few feet of the ground and had a light blue coat with a rainbow mane(I swore I had started tripping acid when I saw her mane). Cowering behind her was a cream colored pegasus with a light pink mane. Another unicorn had a dark purple mane with a white coat. The last one had a pink mane with a pink coat. Twilight finished talking to them then turned to me and said, "I would like you to meet the rest of my friends." then gestured for them to introduce themselves. They exchanged awkward glances between each other then the rainbow one said, "Alright, seeing as the rest of my friends are too chicken, I'm Rainbow Dash. Fastest flyer in all of Equestria!"
She did a small flip when she said that last bit, then the pink one bounded over to me, getting uncomfortably close before saying, "Hi I'm Pinkie Pie, nice too meet you!"
"Hmm, that was a little lacking in energy, considering it's Pinkie..." commented Twilight.
"Ah'm Applejack, nice ta meet ya sugarcube." The orange one said through a thick southern accent.
"You may call me Rarity." I found it interesting that the one with a classy accent is white. Hmm.
"Nice to meet all of you-" I started, but was cut off by Pinkie.
"WAIT, you haven't met Fluttershy yet!"
"Oh, where is she?"
"Hiding in that plant." Based on the other's reactions, Pinkie was the only one who could see that. Seemingly breaking the laws of physics and every other imaginable science, Pinkie disappeared, then materialized holding the yellow pegasus that was cowering behind Rainbow Dash.
"You must be Fluttershy, It's nice to meet you." I said in my politest voice possible. Despite that, she let out what sounded like a small squeal and retreated into her mane, leaving me staring at a wall of pink.
"Is she always like this?"
"Only around new or scary things." Pinkie answered.
"Oh, sorry, I'm not going to hurt you, Promise."
She peeked out, then backed in shaking like a leaf.
"It's alright. I know who she is now, so I've met her."
"Well then, I'll get my supplies and wait for the Princess and her guests to arrive." said Twilight walking up to the second floor.
"So, did you really save Twilight's life yesterday?" asked Rainbow once she was sure Twilight was out of an earshot.
"I guess so, wasn't too much trouble anyway."
"Why'd ya do it?, ya know, save our friend?" Applejack spoke up this time.
"I don't completely know myself, I guess I saw her in danger, helpless and I knew I could help easily."
"What I'm getting out of this was it was easy for you, would you have done it if it was more challenging?" Rarity asked.
"Probably, I hate to see the innocent suffer." There it was, the second time i have said that. Maybe I should take it as a catch phrase.
"Twilight said that three of them just dropped dead, did you have anything to do with that?" Pinkie asked this question, I had to think of a response for this one. The others gave her a nervous look, realizing what she had asked.
"Well..."
I was interrupted by the sound of wheels skidding to a halt just outside the library, followed by the sound of doors opening and ponies getting out of vehicles. I looked outside and saw chariots being pulled by pegasi guards, or what looked like guards, they wore bulky suits of metal armor. I assumed it wasn't bullet resistant.
"They're here! Oh, I can't wait!" Twilight exclaimed, nearly tripping down the stairs with writing utensils in telekinetic grip.
Twilight opened the door with her magic(I still needed to ask how that worked) and greeted the guests, "Princess, I see everypony made it."
"Indeed we did Twilight." said the tallest of the three ponies with both wings and a horn. She spoke in a familiar sounding voice, but I didn't know where I knew it from.
She turned to me with a smile and said, "So you're the being my student mentioned in her letter. What is your name?"
She was the only one on the room who was at eye-level with me, everybody else was at least 6-12 inches lower than me.
"My name is Grayson, Nice to meet you Princess..."
"Celestia, It is very nice to meet you, Grayson. I would like to introduce my sister Luna-" She gestured to a navy blue pony with a wings, a horn and a mane that seemed to flow in a nonexistent breeze, sparkling with what appeared to be stars.
"-my niece, Cadance and her husband Shining Armor." she finished, gesturing to the last two members of the party. A pink pony with the wing+horn combination and a tri color mane, standing next to her husband, a white unicorn stallion with a blue and white mane.
"It's nice to meet all of you, really. Now that the formalities are out of the way, should we get to the questions?"
As if on cue, Twilight jumped in between her brother and his wife with inked quill, a blank parchment and a huge smile on her face. The sight was enough to gain a slight grin from me, but there were more pressing items on the agenda.
"So, Grayson, What is your species called?"
"We call ourselves humans."
At this Celestia's expression became a bit nervous. But regained its regularly cheerful composure shortly afterwords. No one seemed to notice, however.
"What does the diet of thine species consist of?" asked Luna.
Oh boy, this again. I was prepared here, "Our species in omnivorous, we consume both plants and meat. And no I don't eat pony."
Everyone cringed, then relaxed as I made the last statement. Reassured that they would not be passed through my digestive system.
This went on for a little while, then we got into the events of yesterday.
"What made you come to the aid of my sister." asked Shining Armor.
I didn't feel like giving the same answer twice, so I had to tell the truth. I sighed, and told the true reason, "Well to put it simply, I am a soldier, and they were my enemy. I believe you know what that means, Shining Armor."
"I do know..." he replied glancing nervously at Celestia.
Celestia thought for a moment and asked, "I had been considering granting you refuge in our world, but this information makes me a bit, hesitant to do so. I will look to your past to see if your previous actions deem you deserving of housing and assistance."
She might as well killed me right then and there. I knew my past would get me thrown out of this beautiful world, one way or another.
"I will cast a spell that allows all of us here here to see key events in your past. Is everypony ready?"
Everyone nodded their heads, still smiling kindly at me.
"Wait." I said, "I want to tell you about something you won't see much of while looking through my past. I want to tell you about my mother."
Everyone glanced around at each other, then at Celestia, " Alright but try to make it fairly quick."
(Music)
"Okay. My mother was special, she was always smiling. She had that kind of smile when that you saw it, no matter what kind of mood you were in, you couldn't help but smile back. No matter what, she was always smiling. She died when I was young. I was three years old. She was fighting on and off against cancer. Giving birth to me left her very weak, that's when the cancer came back, only this time it would eventually win. I wasn't in the room when she passed on, but my father told me that she went out with the smile everyone knew her for."
I looked up, not a dry eye in the library. "We can dive deep into the dark abyss that is my past whenever you are ready."
Celestia closed her eyes and her horn began to glow, then I blacked out
I woke up in a hospital, not just any hospital, the hospital my mom spent her last few weeks in.
"Grayson, I just want you to know, no matter how far away I am from you, or what separates us, I'll always love you."
I was then carried out of the room by my father, managing only to choke out the words, "Goodbye mommy, I love you."
I stared at the scene for as long as I could. My mother laying in the bed, surrounded by machines and doctors. I blacked out again, coming to in a different scene. This was my first day of school, nothing notable. Just stereotypical first day of school.
My next memory was in middle school, standing up to a bully.
"You stupid, creepy, ginger, get out of here before I throw up all over your dumbass cheap clothes."
This was Lance, resident douchebag and head jock. What happened next got me detention, but was worth it.
"Hey, come on man, no need to result to petty name calling." I said, tears forming in my eyes.
"Oh look, ginger over here is about to cry, need your mommy to hug you and tell you it's alright?"
My head snapped upright, the tears flowing now. I walked up to Lance, who was laughing his ass off at this point, and drove my fist into his face, sending him on to the ground.
"MY MOTHER DIED WHEN I WAS THREE, JACKASS!" I screamed into his face, shortly before curb stomping him, leaving a nice shoe print on his face.
I blacked out again, waking up this time at my father's work. Oh no not this again...
My father walked in to the room arguing with his partner, Nikola Brevinski.
"For the last time, I don't care if the government won't buy the weapon, we wont sell it on the black market."
"I have spent weeks of sleepless nights, perfecting this weapon, I will gain something from it, legally or not."
"Nikola, I told you no."
"I will profit off this weapon, with or with out you at my side."
He then drew his MP-443 and shot my father in the chest. I was still hiding in my father's locker, waiting to congratulate him in completing the weapon, which Brevinski had stolen, along with the plans and specifications. I waited until the door was shut and the last footsteps had faded.
"DAD!"
I burst out of the locker and ran to my mortally wounded father, "Dad, please, pull through this for me, for your wife, for my step-brother."
My father remarried when I was ten. My step-mom had just given birth to my step-brother, Alex.
My father reached into his jacket and pulled something to give to me, a handgun, a nickel-plated M1911.
"Find your grandfather, my father, he can give you the knowledge to defeat Brevinski."
There were tears streaming from my eyes at this point, I couldn't argue with him. I was fourteen
I blacked out again, waking up with my grandfather telling me about his involvement with a secret US Army project.
"You know I served in the second world war and earned the Medal of Honor."
"Yes sir."
"What you don't know is that after the war, I was selected to have my genes tested and possibly mutated in an attempt to create the perfect soldier."
"What!? That's insane! Genes don't work that way-"
"At the time they didn't know that. It seems that my genes were mutated, but I didn't change and the project was deemed a failure."
I was pacing around the room, not believing what I was hearing.
"When your father was young, he showed characteristics of a veteran soldier, he was disciplined and calm in any situation and his marksmanship was unrivaled."
"So what you're saying is that you passed on your mutated genes to my father, and he passed on those same genes to me?"
"Yes, he knew this as well, that's why you are here training with me. In my old age, I can only teach you the basics. That's why I've made arrangements for you to train with the US. Navy SEALs."
I stared him straight in the face, "WHAT!"
"Don't worry, you can do it."
I blacked out. I saw my days in boot camp flash before me. I was eighteen. I hadn't seen my step-brother since my father died. He was about eight years old.
I came to in front of my grandfather.
"I'm proud of you. You're officially a US. Navy SEAL and ready to take on Brevinski and his mercenary army. Right after you complete training with the Russian Spetsnaz. You need to be the most lethal soldier you can be. They'll make you into that."
Then flashed in front of me the brutal Spetsnaz training, followed by the Friday night drinking games. I blacked out once more, not due to alcohol, but due to moving on to the last memory.
I came to with my step-brother, Alex, by my side as he said goodbye to me. He was staying with Bruce, a good friend of mine I met in the SEALs.
"Be good, Alex."
"You know that won't be a problem, and here your grandfather wanted you to have this." He pulled out a USB drive and handed it to me
"What do I need this for?"
"He said you might need it. He didn't say anything other than that."
"Hmm... Ok, I'm sorry it has to be like this, Alex."
"It's ok Grayson, I may only be ten, but I understand."
I blacked out again. Only this time finding myself back at the facility where I was sent to Equestria in the first place.
After the events in the facility I blacked out again, only to find myself in the Ponyville library, with ten ponies staring at me with mixed expressions.
"So, when are you going to send me away."
"I won't. You've demonstrated that you are capable of love and friendship, even in through the darkest of times." said Celestia, only now I recognized the voice. She sounded just like my mother.