//------------------------------//
// First Encounters 
// Story: Gray's Gone 
// by ArmOfSorrow 
//------------------------------//

“Wake”
“Ugh… What’s happened?” I awoke to find myself suspended in darkness. It felt like I was floating in nothing. 
A face appeared before me. Forcing away my grogginess, I realized that the face belonged to the very same specter that I had seen before passing out. “Where am I? What… how is this possible?” I yelled, disbelieve coursing through me.
“Oh, welcome to my humble abode.”
I stared at the face, wondering if it was simply being a smartass. “There’s nothing here,” I stated, annoyed.
“Well, there’s you, and there’s me. Besides, I prefer my domain to appear this way. “
“Your domain?” I asked, “What are you?”
“I am nothing, I am everything, I am the being that chose to transport you to your new home. I only chose to wake you so you’d be prepared for your fall.”
“What?” I asked, as the darkness faded into light, then scenery, until I was in a forest. Well, above it actually. Matt appeared next to me, suspended upright and still unconscious, and the specter gave a demonic laugh as we began to fall. Matt plunged directly through the trees, and luckily landed in a bush, unharmed aside from the gaping wound in his thigh. I wasn’t so lucky, I slammed into branch after branch as I pinballed through the tree. Landing on a particularly pointy rock, I exclaimed a loud stream of curses before crawling over to Matt to check to see if he was alright. Thankfully, he was.
After I dragged Matt out of the bush and propped him against a tree, I decided to take a look around. We were in yet another forest, but this one seemed different. And there was certainly no sound of enemy helicopters in the distance, no snow, no cold, and no cliff. I was even getting hot in my camouflage jacket and ghillie suit, so I stripped those off and left myself in my dark green camouflage BDUs and black combat boots. Thinking that Matt could also use the relief, I walked over and stripped him of his excess gear. Then, I decided to check all of my gear to see if anything had gone missing in our… journey of some sort. I still found it hard to believe that we had actually gone anywhere. Laying my gear out on the grass, I double checked to make sure all my supplies were still in my bag. There was my thermal blanket, my goggles, four ten-round magazines for my Barrett, combat knife, my lucky Kukri machete, three MRE’s  (enough for about three days, in my situation), matches, radio, my secondary M9 with three magazines, a boot knife, a compact shovel, and, probably most important of all, my MP3 player, sealed in a waterproof bag with plenty of extra batteries. 
Once my gear was all in order, I proceeded to begin to build a shelter for Matt and I. It seemed to be early; before noon at most. I had plenty of time to get everything ready. As I worked, I checked on Matt every five minutes or so. The third or fourth time I went to check on him, I noticed that something was off about him. Something… that I couldn’t quite place. Closely examining him, my heart jumped into my throat as I realized what was wrong. He was shaking, barely noticeable, but enough to make me very, very worried. I hurriedly checked the bandage on his leg, cursing when I saw that it had been ripped off. Crap. It probably happened while he fell through the tree. Subsequently, he had been bleeding, and I thought that he was going into shock from blood loss. I hurriedly applied another bandage from his medical bag and gave him a small shot of morphine from a disposable syringe. I probably didn’t need to give him a shot of morphine, just some water, but I panicked and gave him whatever I found. I wasn’t trained extensively in first aid, only enough to be able to patch myself up from a bullet graze or a cut, so this was far out of my league.
I sat back and put my head into my hands. The stress of worrying for my friend was killing me. Out of frustration, I screamed into the air, as loud as I could, “FUCK this, FUCK you Russia, FUCK you Marine Corps, somebody just FUCKING HELP US PLEASE!” 
Eager to get my mind off the stress and worry, I decided to have one of the MRE’s that was packed into my bag. I wasn’t even particularly hungry, but anything was better than just sitting around. I dug through my pack, trying to find the clam chowder meal that I had stashed two days ago. Once I found it, I ripped it open and prepared it, suddenly finding myself to be absolutely starving. Once I had finished the main course, I ripped open my package of raspberry jelly and started to spoon it into my mouth, eating slower since I had mostly sated my hunger. Finishing the meal, I stored the Snickers bar and the chewing gum for later in my BDU chest pocket. Once again checking on Matt, I heard a slight rustle in the bushes and froze. Listening intently, I heard what sounded like footsteps, made by a small person, or another soldier trying to be stealthy. I dove over to Matt, ripping his suppressed SCAR-L off of his vest clip and training it in the direction of the rustling. Sensing the offender nearing our position, I announced “This is Corporal Mason Gray of Sniper Team Five. Identify yourself or I will fire in three seconds.”
I silently counted the three seconds as no reply came. Once I finished, I let loose a small spray of fire into the bushes in front of me, hearing a yelp and more rustling as whatever it was ran off. I silently waited for more rustling, more noise, but none came. After a minute or two, I lowered my weapon, still intently scanning the area. 
Since whatever it was ran off, I went back to preparing a shelter for Matt and I. I kept the SCAR close by in case another animal came by.
After about two more hours of work, I had a nice little shelter big enough for Matt and I to both lay down and sleep in. Matt’s prolonged unconsciousness bugged me, but there was nothing could really do for him until I figured out where I was. Feeling lazy, I crawled into our makeshift shelter (nothing more than a slanted hole with some tree branches draped over it) and took a nap, making sure I had both Matt’s SCAR and my sidearm close by in case another intrusion occurred. Not my best idea, to take a nap in an unknown place, but I was tired, and not thinking straight.
“Are ya sure something was here, sugarcube?” 
I jolted awake when I heard a set of voices approaching. Still groggy from my nap, I simply stayed laying down, trying to form a coherent thought about what I should do.
“AJ, if Fluttershy said something was here, then something was here. It’s probably still here! We should kick it’s flank for attacking her.”
Right as I heard that last statement, a small group of horses walked into our clearing. Some very strangely colored TALKING horses. There was an orange one with a blonde mane, wearing a cowboy hat, a light yellow one with a pink mane standing to the back of the group, looking like it wanted to hide, a purple one with a darker purple mane and… a horn. Like a unicorn. Lastly, there was a light blue one with wings, hovering over the rest and looking around for something to hit, I’d assume.  I gave a cough of disbelief, and all four of their heads snapped to look straight at me. I stared back, completely shocked, and dove for the SCAR. I whipped it around to point at them, where I saw that they had seemingly formed into a “combat formation.”  The purple one had crouched down to aim it’s horn at me (which was now glowing a light purple), the blue one was hovering over the group, giving me the evil eye as it pounded it’s hooves together, and the yellow one was hiding behind the orange one, both staring at me with intense curiosity.
“Who the hell are you?” I shouted, flicking off the safety and preparing to open fire if necessary. 
“Ah’d say tha’s a better question to ask you,” stated the orange one.
“Fine, I’m Corporal Mason Grey of the United States Marine Core, sniper team one-one. Who. Are. You?”
The purple one’s horn stopped glowing, and she stood upright again. “We’re four out of the six Elements of Harmony. I’m Twilight Sparkle.” 
“Ah’m Applejack,” said the orange one. Breakfast cereal, suddenly I felt hungry. 
“I’m Rainbow Dash, and you’d better hope that Fluttershy forgives you, or you’re toast.”
“I don’t know or care what the Elements of Harmony are right now. I’m stuck in the middle of fuck knows where, with a badly injured team-mate, little food or water, and four talking horses threatening to attack me and my friend. Wait, who the fuck is she?”
The yellow one seemed to shrink down even further as she stammered to introduce herself. “I’m.. I’m.. Fluttershy...”
“What?” 
“I’m… Fluttershy..” She said, even quieter. “… Never mind,” I said. Just then, Matt started to cough. Violently.