‘Oh shit,’ I thought, as I turned around and examined this new pony. She was nearly as tall as me without her horn, and white with a sun design on her flank. Her mane was multicolored, like Rainbow’s, but was more pastel colored and had the occasional sparkle. Unlike all of the other ponies I had seen here, this pony's coat was strangely dull. I was used to vibrant blues, pinks, greens, etc., but her coat seemed to be a dull white, like it hadn't been washed in several days. There were what appeared to be faint dark spots on her skin, underneath her fur, that had become dark and irritated. Ignoring her immediate appearance, her body-language was also quite intimidating. She angled her head down low, gazing at me as if she hadn't slept in a long time; her eyes were bloodshot (it could've been either tears, anger, or fatigue) and she wore a highly displeased frown.
And she was staring me in the eye.
Going through boot camp had been tough, yet this pony’s icy glare was nearly making me shake in my boots.
“Hello. I’m Corporal Mason G-“
“I am quite aware of who you are, Twilight has sent me plenty of letters.” Boy, she REALLY wasn’t happy right now. What did I do? “Corporal Mason Gray, I understand your confusion, but I will need you and Rainbow Dash to leave for now. I must talk with your… superior.”
I could audibly hear Matt gulp as Celestia walked past me and sat down beside Matt’s bed. Without turning, she cleared her throat and waited for me to leave.
“Uh... Alright then,” I walked out of the hospital room, where Rainbow was waiting for me in the hallway. “Hey, Rainbow, what’s her problem? I haven’t done anything to her.”
“Well, it’s probably because your response to every situation is violence.” She laughed before realizing the implications of Celestia’s anger. “Well, actually, for the last couple of years, we’ve had a few problems with non-ponies. Before that, it was Nightmare Moon. Discord, changelings, and King Sombra have probably forced her to be wary of outsiders. Then some weird two legged creature appears that we’ve never seen before, wearing weird clothes and carrying two sticks that can kill dragons instantly.” Rainbow Dash began to look worried. “Oh, ponyfeathers… We rarely have situations when somepony is hurt or killed, but when that happens… the punishment is harsh.”
‘Uh oh,’ I thought. ‘If we needed to… I wonder if Matt and I would be able to escape?’ Celestia would no doubt be quizzing Matt on what humans were like, which would mean we were definitely going to be in some sort of trouble.
“Corporal Mason Gray, you may come in now. Rainbow Dash, please stay outside.”
Her voice was still cold and hard, which meant I wasn’t getting any free stuff for saving this town.
“Yes… Princess?” A quick glance at Matt told me he had no idea what she was going to do.
“You are new creatures here, something nopony has ever come across before. As much as I’d like to welcome and study you, I’m afraid I cannot. The stories I’ve been told about your arrival have indicated that your race resorts to violence for far too many situations. You attacked the Elements of Harmony, used your weapon in a crowded room, and then MURDURED a dragon.”
“Ma’am, the dragon was attacking the town! It almost ate Fluttershy!” This is the princess of a “harmonious” country and she’s accusing me of murder?
“Fluttershy is still an Element of Harmony. She would not have been injured by the dragon, her instincts would have forced her to act. Besides, the dragon was infected with parasites which I could have disposed of fairly easily within minutes. His judgment was off, and he was just as sentient as you and I. You, essentially, murdered a sick pony.”
Ah, crap. That dragon didn’t seem sick though. He looked me in the eyes, and actually contemplated what he was saying. Anything sick shouldn’t be thinking too hard about what they’re doing.
“As such, Staff Sergeant Matthew Barker and any others of your kind that may be hiding or may come, will be isolated until we can send them back. It has been proven to me that Humans are too violent for Equestria. Mason Gray, you shall be put to death. I apologize, but these events cannot be forgiven so easily. GUARDS!”
‘Put to death? I’m being executed?’ All I could think was how my life would very well end abruptly in this world, without ever getting the chance to see my family again. That fucking ghost, he made this all happen.
I was dazed and speechless as three white unicorn guards burst in the door. Reacting on instinct, I spun around and grabbed one of the guards by the arm, flipping him onto his back. Before the other two could do anything, I drew my knife from its sheath and sliced the metal of another guard’s helmet, leaving a sizeable scratch and a small cut on the pony’s forehead. Kicking him away from me, I prepared to stab the final guard through his cuirass when a soft blue glow enveloped me and forced me to drop my knife.
Two of the guards managed to throw me to the ground and began to drag me away. Matt was thrashing around on the bed, magically being pushed down by the third guard. He was frantic; screaming about how all the ponies were bastards and how he would end them all.
Rainbow Dash had tears in her eyes as she watched the guards drag me away. She even tried to stop them, but Celestia walked out of the room and restrained her. Going down the stairs was rough, they really just pushed me down instead of simply letting me walk. Once we were on the ground floor and out the door, the guards threw me into a white chariot, holding me down while the two pegasi pilots took off.
I had been picking moments carefully, waiting for a guard to stumble or look away before trying to push my way free, to no avail, of course.
Once we were in the air, I resigned myself to sitting still and, ironically, enjoying the ride that was taking me to my death.
****
It was about twenty minutes later when I decided to strike up a conversation with my guard.
“Hey, uh… what’s up?”
From my position, it probably came out muffled. I was laying face-down in the chariot, with my head over the back edge. Didn’t really matter, though, because the guard dug his hoof into my lower back and said, “Shut up.”
Eh, fuck it then. Craning my head around, I examined the pony that was serving as my temporary captor. I noticed that this was the pony whose helmet I damaged. He was dull, grey-white, like all the other guard ponies, with a grimy blue mane and a blue crest on his tarnished golden armor, which was wilting slightly due to the damage to his helmet. His butt mark was covered by the armor, which to be honest, I didn’t mind. It weirded me out that I had to ass-gaze in order to get an idea as to what a pony’s talents were. In addition, his eyes seemed off. He stared off into space, muttering to himself and occasionally began to absentmindedly scratch at some eerily familiar dark spots underneath his coat.
Shrugging off the oddity, I decided to observe the scenery before we arrived to our destination. I watched the clouds, taking in the green fields below me, the trees, and the five grey ponies in dark purple armor speeding towards us. They even had bat wings, sweet.
I watched as they flew closer and closer, staying in the shadows of the clouds until they were right below us, then looked on in amazement as they assaulted the white guard ponies.
The lead demon pony shouted a command and his four comrades split up and ascended to us. Two demon ponies assaulted the pegasi flying the chariot, while the leader and the two remaining demon ponies landed in the chariot and bucked my “friend”, who was too busy holding me to do anything about them.
I was about to thank them when, of course, my luck turned sour again and one of my rescuers bit down on my uniform’s collar. Then, he threw my off of the chariot.
I screamed and thrashed as I fell, horrified as the ground rushed up at me. I was having trouble breathing from how quickly the air moved around me, and my vision began to get hazy.
‘Well, maybe I’ll get lucky and pass out before hitting the ground,’ I frantically thought. I was close to landing now. Deciding that I’d rather not watch myself turn to a broken heap, I shut my eyes and let loose one last, defiant scream. I put all my emotion into this shout. All of my anger, my sadness, my confusion, everything I had, but abruptly stopped screaming when I gently dropped into a bush.
I layed there for a second, confused and wondering what exactly was going on. Had to have been magic. Damn pony magic, it does nothing but disorient me. I crawled my way out of the bush and took a look around me. I seemed to be in a large field, dotted with trees and bushes similar to the one I was laying in. Standing before me, smiling slightly, was a midnight blue pony. She was tall, like Celestia, and had a dark blue mane, covered in sparkles. She wore silver horseshoes, and bore a moon mark on her flank, along with a dark purple patch of fur. I could only guess that she was another princess.