//------------------------------// // Going to Church // Story: AJ and Me // by hawkeye35 //------------------------------// Alright here we go, fourth chapter. Again I apologize for any errors, I have done research but I am not in the military so some stuff may be wrong. I woke up to that damn alarm clock. Irritated that it had ruined my sleep, I pounded down my fist as hard as I could. It stopped ringing but it was probably because I broke it. I got up to examine and saw that my hit had indeed damaged it. I sighed and threw in an increasing pile of broken alarm clocks in the corner of my room. At this rate, that pile would be taller than me by Christmas which was four days away. I walked over to my laptop to check my email as I did every morning. I noticed an unread message from my CO, Captain Drake. Dear Tom It's been a while since we talked son, We need to get together sometime outside of work but thats not the point of this message. Im sending this to grant you leave through Christmas. Everyone knows you had to make some tough decisions on your last tour and we feel you deserve some long R&R. We all wish the squad made it back home but you all did your country proud. Merry Christmas -Captain Milo Drake USMC. P.S. You might want to get that eye of yours checked out, heard you took a knife pretty close to it. My breathing increased as I read the message. The tough decision he was referring to, I don't like to talk about it. Long story short I had two men in life threatening situations and I could only save one. After I saved one of them my entire squad got killed by a suicide attack. It was a huge bloodbath and I try to forget about it. I was happy to hear I had a nice long leave. Now I didn't have to worry about AJ burning the house down. Speakin of which I wonder if she was up. I closed my email and headed downstairs. She was already up and she was cooking! Damn I didn't see that coming, I was worried at first that she might burn my house down but she seemed to know what she was doing. I continued to look at her, she just looked so calm and seeing her made me forget about all my worries. I suddenly remembered it was the last sunday before Christmas meaning I had to go to church. I was a raised as a catholic when I was a child. You know how they say there are no athiests in the foxhole? Well, I've been in a lot of foxholes. I always wore my cross on deployments and it always brought me a sense of comfort. I was debating in my head whether I should take AJ to church. Sure I couldn't leave her alone but she might accidently offend someone at church. I eventually decided to bring her, if she did say something offensive, well catholics are supposed to be the forgiving type. "AJ!" I called. She turned and smiled at me. "G'mornin Tommy!" She said happily. "Ah made breakfast." "I can see." I said intrigued to try her cooking. She made toast, pancakes, and waffles. There was no bacon, eggs, or sausage but I knew she was a vegetarian so I didn't complain. I took a bite of the pancake and felt like I was in heaven! It was fluffy and had a hint of apples in it. I looked out the window and saw that it had snowed a good several inches. "Damn this is good!" I exclaimed earning a smile from AJ. "Hell if I had known you were a good cook I'd have you cook all the time!" "Aw it was nuthin." AJ said blushing. She was the humble type, I liked that. "AJ today I am going to Church and I would like to know if you want to go?" I asked. "Church?" She ask confused. "Weekend worship? Praise God?" I asked. "God?" She asked. The catholic in me made me almost brown my pants because I thought she didn't believe. "You believe in her to?" "Whew, she believes in God, WAIT! Did she say 'her'?" I thought to myself. "AJ did you call God a her?" "Eeyup!" AJ said. "She created the whole universe and when ponies die, they go to be with her forever." Alright, sounds enough like Christian belief to me. "Well God is a 'He' here." I said. Technically, God was genderless but they called him God the Father so the 'He' kinda stuck with it. "Tell me about God here!" AJ said. I explained the creation of the universe and how Satan decieved Mankind into disobeying God thus bringing sin into the world. Then I explained about how God sent his son, Jesus Christ, to redeem us so we could enter Heaven. "The holiday coming up is called Christmas, this is when we celebrate the birth of Jesus." I said. "Y'know beside this Jesus fellar, the same exact thing happened to Equestria!" AJ said. Shit, not this pony crap again! "In the beginning she created the universe and then the spirit of chaos, Discord, brought chaos onto Equestria and Princess Celestia and Luna were sent by her to stop him!" AJ explained. "I see, so do you want to go?" I asked. "Sure!" She said. "Well you have to dress nicely." I said as I pulled out one of the dresses I bought her. It was a simple sunday dress that was not to revealing. I threw on a shirt and tie and we headed out. I pulled up to my local church, St Michaels and parked my truck. I could hear the choir and organs playing music. We entered and it was quite crowded. I led AJ to an empty pew in the back and we sat there in silence till the service began. Once the priest started the mass I found myself zoning out. Alright I love Jesus and everything but man was church boring sometimes. I looked over at AJ who seemed to be interested. "Please turn to page 234 in your worship book, page 234." The music director said. I pulled out a book for me and AJ. I opened to page 234 and saw 'Hark the Herald Angels Sing' YES! This was my favorite hymn. "Hark the Herald Angels sing! Glory to the newborn King! Peace on Earth and mercy mild, God and sinners reconciled! Adams likeness now efface! Stamp Thine image in its place! Second Adam from above, Reinstate us in Thy love! Hark the Herald Angels sing, Glory to the newborn King!" "Ah really like that song." AJ said. I was impressed with her singing, it had that nice southern twang to it. The service continued on till it finally ended. I was impressed that she behaved the whole time. As we were leaving, I saw a familiar face come up. "TOMMY!" I heard a voice call. I turned to see my neighbor, Mrs Docherty, running up to me. "Michelle!" I said as I hugged her. "How have you been?" I asked. "Wonderful! Who is this?" She asked pointing to AJ. "A close friend." I replied. "Oh Tom, I didn't know you found yourself a girl!" She said causing me to burn up. "Well I have shopping to do, I'll see you later!" "Bye Michelle!" I said. "Come on AJ lets get goin." We headed back to my truck and we began driving home. I wondered what we should do tonight. Dinner? Maybe. I should take around DC, the city was very beautiful at night. I remember when I found her which speaking of. "Hey AJ? How did you get here?" I asked. "Ah don't remember very good, ah remember mah friend Twilight doin some sort of spell an the next thing ah knew ah was here!" AJ explained. "Tell me about this Twilight." I said attempting to carry on for conversations sake. "She's the personal student of Princess Celestia, shes a smart one and she good at magic! Magic is her element." AJ said. "Element?" I asked as some doucher cut me off. "FUCK YOU ASSHOLE!" I screamed giving my middle finger. I looked at AJ who was startled by my outburst. "Sorry, I have bad road rage." "Oookay, anyways. There are six elements of harmony and each of my friends represents an element." AJ said. "Do you have one?" I asked. "Mine is the element of honesty." She said. I found it ironic that she claims to be honest when her whole pony story sounds like BS. "What about your other friends?" I asked. "Well theres Rainbow Dash, shes kinda arrogant at times but she is a sweet girl. Pinkie Pie who is the happiest and goofiest pony around. Rarity who can be a little stuck up sometimes cuz she likes all that fancy society stuff but she very generous. And finally Fluttershy who is the cutest lil thing you'll ever meet, shes really shy but she is a kind one." AJ said. "How bout yer friends?" I froze when she asked me that. All of my closest friends had been killed on my last tour right before my eyes. My oldest and dearest friend, Marcus Walker, had been my friend since Kindergarden. We both went through Officer Candidate School and were commisioned officers in the Marine Corps. He was the leader of the second team moving in on the comopund that was housing a high ranking Taliban leader. His bird was shot down and he died on impact. Not to mention all my other squad members who were killed. I stopped my truck as the red light came on at the intersection. "They're not here anymore." I said grimly. AJ must have knowm by the tone of my voice what I meant because the next thing I knew, she placed her small hand on my larger one and rubbed. "Ah'm sorry, ah didn't mean to-" She began to say. "Its alright, they're in a better place now." I said putting my head down. I had it down for so long that I hadn't seen the light turn green and I was met with honking and curses as people yelled at me to move. I hit the gas pedal and got back to my house in ten minutes. I stepped out of the car as my boots crunched in the snow. I was walking towards the front door when I saw AJ lying in the snow making a snow angel. I felt a devious smile crawl on my face as an idea entered my mind. I crouched down and grabbed a handful of snow and rolled it into a ball. When I got back up to throw it, I saw she had disappeared. "Where did she-" I began to say as I was met with a mouthful of snow and ice. I turned around to see AJ giggling and hiding behind a tree. So thats how it was gonna be. I dropped the small snowball I had and picked up a large clump the size of a bowling ball. As I lifted it over my head to throw it, I was met with another snowball which made me drop the mass of snow I was holding on my head. AJ's giggling had gone to full out laughing. Damn she was good. "Now your gonna get it!" I said in a playful voice as I chased her. While I was running after her we slipped on a patch of ice and oth of us face planted onto the ice. Well atleast I did, AJ landed right on top of me-WAIT! She was on top of me? I looked up and saw her green eyes looking down on me. I wanted to move but for some reason I couldn't. We sorta just stared at each other for a while before AJ finally got up burning red. How cliche, the retty girl falls on top of me. "Uh-" I said awkwardly. "How bout we go inside?" I asked. "Yeah sure." She replied as we went in. I thought about it and I finally decided I would take her to downtown DC and for a nice fancy dinner. First I just had to find her a dress to wear. Well looks like I better hit up the dress shop! Oh boy.