//------------------------------//
// Reunion  
// Story: A New Field 
// by Battlefield3vet 
//------------------------------//

	"Grayson..." The voice was one I had not heard for some time. The last time I heard it I was fourteen...

"DAD?!" It had to be him, no one else had such a strong and reassuring voice. It had to be may father.

"Son, you have done well. Brevinski can not control the majority of his forces in his current state, but he is far from dead..."

"Wha-But how?" That couldn't be right. I know for a fact that I shot him in the face, with a .45 no less. He had to be dead. Right?

"He is weak, but commands a small force, a force large enough to cause trouble for your new friends." My father knew about my situation? I didn't question how, the majority of his methods still confuse me to this day. But my greatest enemy was still alive, according to my deceased father. "He is making friends of his own. They are arrogant, yet deadly. However if you and your friends are prepared, I am confident that they won't be worse than anything you have faced in the past."

"How do you know all of this, Where is Brevinski?" 

"He is closer than you realize..."

"Grayson?..." A new familiar, feminine voice, Mom?

"Grayson, wake up, there is work to be done today. You need to learn at least a few basic spells." Nope just Celestia, they sound just about the same though.

I opened my eyes and sluggishly climbed out of bed, best night sleep in my entire life. Trumping even the previous night in Twilight's basement. Good thing I didn't say that last sentence out loud to anypony, that would have been awkward.

I looked at myself in the mirror again. I was about as tall, if not slightly taller than Shining Armor. I had about the same muscle build as him. I thought back to the dream and what my dad predicted. I didn't know if it was just a dream or if my late father was trying to warn me from beyond the grave about something. If it was true, there was no way that the Royal guard could defend Equestria, let alone the castle. 

That could wait until later. Now I had to learn basic spells with the princess. Never thought that would be a true statement. 

"Grayson, are you up yet?" The Solar Princess gracefully entered my room to see me observing my new form in the mirror. "You seem to be adjusting to your new form quite well."

"Yeah, I'm a bit of a fast learner. Adjusting to new things comes quite easily, or maybe it's due to the fact that for the past three years I've been constantly moving and changing environments."

"Adaptability is a good skill to have, Grayson. Speaking of you, do you think you should change your name to something more, pony-like?"

I hadn't thought about that at all. But when she mentioned it, a name popped in to my mind right away, "Shadowstorm"

The princess looked at me for a second, then smiled and said, "It fits you well, Storm, How did you come up with that name?"

"It was the first thing that came to mind when you mentioned a pony name."

"Interesting, we will start with your lessons now. Starting with making sure you can change between your human and pony forms. Focus intensely on a feature that you only had as a human and the rest will follow."

That was easy enough I just focused on my hands and fingers, and suddenly, I had them again! It was pretty easy, or maybe Celestia is a good teacher, or both. "Now to change back, just focus on a feature you have in your pony form."

This was slightly more challenging. I decided to focus on my horn, I imagined it protruding off of my head and proudly into the air. I closed my eyes, felt a sensation of warmth spread throughout my body and I was back on four hooves once more.

In a span of a few hours we covered most basic forms of magic, everything from telekinesis to teleportation. The princess was impressed, "Storm, you are a very fast learner! Where Twilight Sparkle had raw power in her magic, you have control. I am sure that with time, the strength of your magic will improve."

"So you're saying that I could be as strong as Twilight?"

"In time, it is a possibility. Don't count on it however. Speaking of which I will send you back to Ponyville now. You have shown proficiency in enough magic to perform most tasks and jobs. When you discover your special talent, you should study magic that relates to that."

"Alright Princess, and thank you once more."

"You're welcome, Storm." and with that, Celestia's horn glowed a magnificent yellow, and she teleported me to the outskirts of Ponyville. 

The first thing I noticed was that the town, while normally not a bustling city to begin with, was abnormally tranquil. Nopony was out walking through the streets or browsing the businesses and shops of the town. The second thing I noticed was the Humvee parked outside town hall. After thinking for approximately one second, I changed back into a human to greet the new human, or possibly humans, in Equestria. I had a hunch as to just who they might be, the Humvee's licence plate read, "IPTBAW", an acronym used by a good friend of mine for the phrase, "It Pays to be a Winner" which is a motto of the U.S. Navy Seals. I could think of only one person who owned a Humvee and was a Seal. I broke into a sprint to see if my theory was right.

As I got closer to town hall I looked through the window and saw my Ponyville friends from the previous day. They were all standing around two humans, that's all I could see because they were moving around a bit. They were familiar figures to say the least. I came to a stop outside town hall, took a quick breath and stepped inside.

(Music, Hint, open in new tab)

I stepped inside and the two humans turned to face me. I was right.

"Grayson?!" they both said in unison.

"Yeah, it's me." I said, my lips forming a grin.

"R-really?" said the smaller of the two. He ran up to me and pulled me into the biggest bear hug he possibly could.

"It's great to see you too, Alex." I said, my eyes began to tear up. It had been years since I had last seen my step-brother. I didn't know what he was doing in Equestria, or how he got here. It was a relief to know that he was safe.

I turned to the other human with Alex still hugging me, "Hey Bruce, how have you been for the past 4 years?"

"Not too bad, I've been watching over your step-brother, that's about it." Bruce replied calmly. He was the same as ever, just a tad bit less full of himself. Well, the more things change, the more they stay the same.

I looked around at all of my pony friends, they all had tears in their eyes. Surprisingly even Rainbow Dash, but she looked like she was desperately trying to hold back some tears, and her personality was a lot like Bruce's, who also was tearing up a bit.

"Now that introductions are over with, I'm assuming you've introduced yourselves, I want to know how you got here." I said, my face taking a more serious tone and Alex pulled away from me.

"Well," Bruce started, scratching the back of his head, "We're here most likely because, he attacked, Brevinski attacked."

"What?" I said, this was impossible! Was he giving orders from beyond the grave somehow? Or was he still alive?

"Not him, his forces. He disappeared in what was apparently an old WMD manufacturing plant."

"Yeah, you're welcome." 

Bruce stared at me for a second before asking, "Wait, you did that?, We thought it was an accident."

"It was, kind of. You see, when I was there, I was about to disable the weapon then, he showed up. Almost had me, I turned it around, had my gun at his head. Then one of his lackeys failed to disable the EMP. It went off and here I am, two days later." 

"After that his forces went crazy. Invaded the US, started droppin' ordnance all over. They wanted payback for their boss going MIA."

"Well, I guess we just leave it up to everyone back home, but how did you get here?"

"I was driving with your brother, trying to get away from the heavy fighting, but my timing was horrible. We drove right past an EMP just as it went off."

"Wait, so if an EMP brought me and you here, I hope i'm wrong but, Brevinski and his forces might be here as well."    

I finished explaining when Twilight spoke up,

"Excuse me but, What are you talking about?" the lavender unicorn exclaimed, followed by nods of approval from her friends.

"He's talking about a war which, I swear I had finally gotten away from. Nikola Brevinski, a mercenary leader with cold blood flowing through his veins. He hungers for power, control and he has the resources to get it, an army of men fighting for nothing more than money. His vision is one where he is supreme above all others, he has no conscience, or regard for other life. He lets nothing stand in his way. He betrayed and killed my father in front of me. Until then I thought he was just my father's partner in business, I soon found out he was playing my father for a fool. Using him to get his hands on a WMD he was creating. This weapon was made to restore order, not plunge our race into chaos. Brevinski kidnapped me in an attempt to exchange my life for the weapon, my father died rather than give up the weapon. Brevinski got what he wanted anyways. I thought I smoked him at the facility where he was attempting to replicate the weapon, a device that would fry every electric circuit in it's ridiculous blast radius. I barely got a shot on him as the weapon went off, sending me here. I guess he somehow survived, and is raising an army here, somewhere."

"H-how could one..." Twilight was at a loss for words, she had never heard of such acts even considered by any power-hungry organization. "The only thing I could think to compare that too would be when the Changelings attacked my brother's wedding and they did that out of desperation. Just to survive." 

"I don't understand it either Twilight, I just know I need to stop him and his madness."

"So that's why you've been fighting, all these years I thought you just wanted revenge." Bruce said.

"That's part of it, but not all of it."

A scroll materialized in front of Twilight. She picked it up with her magic, read it quickly then said, "Oh my gosh! The princess wants to see us in Canterlot right away!"

"Should we come too?" Bruce asked.

"We should, you need to meet the princesses and see if we can help with what's going on, I have a feeling we will be of use." I said to Bruce. Alex on the other hand was being quiet. That was just him though, he's shy around strangers.

With that we set out for Canterlot, our group consisting of six ponies and three humans.