The Lone Survivor

by JTHailstorm

Mulligan

Author's Note:

Okay so this is forever known as my "Mulligan" chapter. Forget everything you saw if you saw the other one...that information is not important at all. Also that other one was super boring and I hated myself for putting up such a horrible thing. For those that read it, I'm sorry. Those who didn't read it, good for you.
I decided to skip a lot of stuff with military training, cause honestly do you want me to go over how boring and homesick AJ is? I know I didn't want to do that. Here in this chapter is a little action for you. Just so you know, if you are expecting the RvB thing...well it's much later. While writing this I was brainstorming possible first missions and that's when it came to me. I built it partially off of different first missions...one of which being the first mission on Halo Reach, though not exactly based entirely on that mission. The last part will be resolved in the next chapter.
Rate, comment and other stuff if you'd like. Like I said before this is my first fanfic and of course I have room for improvement. If you have questions please ask, I'll try to answer without giving much away.
So enjoy!

Well after gettin’ on that train we were taken to the recruit depot where we went through basic military trainin’. My friends an’ I were separated at that time. They got us accustomed to the various sounds of the invader’s weaponry, as well as trained us how to use the equipment we’re going to use on the field.

Afterwards I learned of how my friends did. They all passed an’ anypony could guess who would be the top of their classes. Twi, was different…she passed her training but it was in an isolated group. I tried to ask her what they did but she said she couldn’t tell me.

After basic everypony went into training for their jobs. Apparently they selected about 589 ponies to go through the Special Forces school, I was one of them. The others were there so I guess it was the plan the whole time. Trainin’ wasn’t that easy an’ I think a few, come to think of it, most of the ponies decided to try somethin’ else. At the end of the Special Forces school there were only 232 ponies who passed the course.

Being fresh out of training, we weren’t as war hardened as some of the other ponies. We had our simulations but they were only simulations, we have yet to encounter real combat. I knew eventually that will change.
Sitting on a helicopter with my friends, we patiently waited to be dropped off at the drop zone. I sat there checking my weapon and making sure every part was in working order.

“How many times are you going to check that?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Jus’ this last time.” I said. I finished my check of my weapon. “Ah was jus’ followin’ protocol.”

“We’ve only used them for training.” Rainbow Dash said.

“It doesn’t matter, we’ve got to ensure our weapons are in working order to avoid any problems.” Twilight Sparkle said.

“She's right, nothing is more embarrassing than having your gun malfunction at a crucial time.” Rarity said.

“Just cause that happened to you.” Rainbow Dash said.

“It was just that one time.” Rarity said.

“Enough…I mean…it can happen to anypony.” Fluttershy said.

“Didn’t it happen to you that one time when we were doing that simulation and that’s when you were hit by that electric shock thingy that made your armor lock up? Then Twilight had to go in and pull you to the safety, and then you got pushed back in the rankings and then you spent the whole day in recovery one complaining about being shocked.” Pinkie Pie said.

“That’s not the point.” Rainbow Dash said.

“It is though. Now I’m going to make it an order to check your weapons. I’ll even do my own check to ensure you didn’t skip anything.” Twilight Sparkle said.

“Oh come on.” Rainbow Dash said. She checked her weapon and Twilight double-checked it. Everypony else did as they were ordered. Twi, checked all weapons before the helicopter landed. When it landed all of us got out and awaited orders.

“Alright girls, a few hours ago there was a distress signal from the ponies in this area. We need to locate the distressed ponies, provide assistance to them if necessary, and finally locate the enemy encampment then report all findings to command. After that we will await orders.” Twilight Sparkle said. All the orders appeared on my activity hub. “Everypony have the orders? Sync.”

“Sync.” The rest of us said.

“Let’s get started.” Twilight Sparkle said. We followed the point on the GPS to the distress signal. The area had been ravaged by the war, the greenery was almost nonexistent at this point, the signs of marchin’ were obvious, but one thing stuck out from the rest and that was one lonely wildflower.

“Hey AJ, what do you think happened to the soldiers?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“What d’ya think? They may have encountered a mishap in stayin’ unnoticed. Mah guess is that they were observin’ the enemy movement, when somepony did somethin’ to make the enemy notice them. We’re close to the point.” I said. There was a difference in the tracks, instead of continuin’ on they seemed to go towards the edge. The rocks showed some signs of being hit, and closer to a line of trees there were entry holes. As I looked on I noticed a few spatters of blood.

“AJ, you are the better tracker. So you take point.” Twilight Sparkle said.

“Yes’m” I said. She stepped aside and let me lead. This was the point, I took the point off of my HUD. I looked at the ground then around the surrounding area. There was a blood trail so I followed it. A big fight must’ve happened, because the damage to the trees was extensive.

“A big fight?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“Yup.” I said. I would’ve given a longer answer but I was busy trackin’. A blip came up on my motion tracker so I stopped. “Quiet.” Cautiously I made my way toward the blip. Then I could see the rugged lookin’ pony soldier. He staggered over to us before falling to the ground.

“Soldier what happened?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“Cover blown…too many of them…we ran as fast as we could. They took several hostage…most were killed. I managed to escape…” The soldier said. His wounds were evident; his armor was fractured by entry holes, and he was bleeding profusely.

“Fluttershy, administer some aid to this soldier. I’ll call for extraction for this soldier. The rest of you keep watch. If he escaped I’m sure the enemy would be looking for him.” Twilight Sparkle said. We did as ordered and I continued to observe the area. Blood stained the area nearby so I went to go check it out. Near the area I noticed we weren’t too far from the enemy encampment. I got on the radio.

“Hey Ah think y’all should see this.” I said. Twi finished up her transmission and she walked over with Rainbow Dash.

“You said we needed to find the encampment. Well there it is.” Rainbow Dash said.

“I’ll contact command again…” Twilight Sparkle sighed. She went somewhere quieter as Rainbow and I looked out towards the encampment.

“Somethin’ ain’t right. I mean, ain’t it funny we stumble upon this soldier then I stumble upon the enemy encampment.” I said.

“Yeah, in a way it feels like they wanted us to…” Rainbow Dash said. A bullet wizzed past her head and she ducked for cover. “Yikes.”

“Uh Twi, Ah think we have company.” I yelled out. Rainbow returned fire in the direction the bullet came from. A series of blips appear on the tracker. I looked right at an enemy soldier and they were wielding one of them electrical weapons. Quickly I ducked but Rainbow was too busy shooting at the enemy she didn’t see the charge coming at her. She fell to the ground cursing and screaming in pain.

“Dammit! MULLIGAN! I say mulligan!” Rainbow Dash yelled.

“If ya were to have paid attention, ya wouldn’t have to call mulligan.” I said. Jus’ like durin’ the simulator mission, she got all locked up. Only this time she’s conscious and very annoyin’.

“AJ, unlock my armor.” Rainbow Dash said. With the enemy closing in I grabbed her tail and started dragging her to a safer area. The other rushed over to give us some cover fire. “I hate being conscious.”

“Well Ah coulda jus’ left ya over there.” I said.

“I meant unconscious, not dead.” Rainbow Dash said. At that moment she hit her head on a pretty good-sized rock.

“Uh RD?” I said. She didn’t answer so I assumed she got her wish. We got into a better cover and I worked to get her armor unlocked.

“Hey, extraction is here. Did you get Dash’s armor unlocked?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“Jus’ ‘bout done here.” I said. I finished up and then I threw Rainbow on my back. Cautiously I walked out and saw our ride. “Is it all clear out there?”

“Pinkie set up a distraction some ways away.” Twilight Sparkle said.

“Here we come.” I said. As I made my way out of cover with Rainbow Dash I could see Twilight standing by the ship. Her reaction was just as I expected, she had a hoof to face reaction.

“What did you do to her?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“Well ya see…she hit her head on a rock an’…” I explained.

“Never mind, just get over here I can see Pinkie in the distance.” Twilight Sparkle said. I started running and as we got to the ship Pinkie was back.

“We better get going…I don’t think those guys like parties.” Pinkie Pie said.

“Let’s get out of here then.” Twilight Sparkle said. We got in the ship. I secured Rainbow Dash in a seat then took my seat across from her.

“I don’t think that we’ll be able to save the others.” Rarity said.

“Ah don’t think there was a way.” I said. Rainbow Dash started to regain consciousness. She looked around then took her helmet off.

“What happened?” Rainbow Dash asked. Pinkie took of her helmet; it took a second for her mane to regain its puffiness.

“You were knocked out as AJ dragged you off to safety so she could unlock your armor.” Pinkie Pie said.

“I remember being dragged off but what happened?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Ya hit yer head on a rock. Got ya to shut up.” I said.

“No, what happened with the rest of the mission?” Rainbow Dash asked

“Well after your little incident Pinkie went off and distracted the enemy. The ship arrived, Rarity provided cover fire while Fluttershy and I got the soldier in the ship. The enemy soldiers near us were taken out. Pinkie’s distraction worked. AJ unlocked your armor, and then carried you to the ship. Now we are going back to base.” Twilight Sparkle said.

“So was it a success? Or was it a failure?” Rainbow Dash asked.

“Well we did complete all of the objectives. We found where the other soldiers were, provided assistance to the ones we could get to, found the enemy encampment. Command didn’t give us more objectives. So if were up to me I’d say the mission was a success.” Twilight Sparkle said.

“We’ll have to wait to see what command thinks.” Fluttershy said. I took my helmet off and examined it. Of course nothin’ was wrong with it, I just do this to calm myself down. Sometimes it’s to remind me I’m okay and that for a while longer I get to continue breathin’. Doesn’t matter if it’s after a mission or not, I still do it.

“AJ are you okay?” Fluttershy asked. I looked at her and smiled.

“Ah’m okay.” I said. Nothing is wrong with me, it’s not like I’m wounded.

“Have you received any letters from home?” Twilight Sparkle asked.

“Yeah, everythin’s okay back home.” I said. The others started to talk about somethin’ else but I couldn’t focus. I guess I was a bit shook up, comin’ close to death ain’t that settlin’ but its nothin’ to be worryin’ about. Slowly I fell asleep, the ride was so soothing. What seemed like a few seconds later I could hear somepony sayin’ my name.

“Hey AJ…AJ. Hey AJ wake up.” Rainbow Dash said. Rainbow shook me.

“Huh?” I said. I looked around dazed.

“We’re here, let’s go cause I’m pretty sure command wants to hear all about the mishaps.” Rainbow Dash said.

“Okay.” I said. I got up and put my helmet back on. “Let’s go.” We walked into the debriefing room, where we reported to command how our mission went. They displayed the leaderboard for our squad on the wall and updated the data. Afterwards I walked into the locker rooms with Rainbow.

“I can’t believe it.” Rainbow Dash said. We made our way to our lockers. I took my helmet off and placed it in the locker first. As I took my armor off I carefully placed each piece in my locker.

“Ah can, yer performance wasn’t the best.” I said. I looked back at her, and she was taking her armor off. She didn’t even bother to look at me.

“I hate to admit it…you’re right.” Rainbow Dash said. She finally looked back at me. “I guess I’ll have to try a little harder next time.”

“That’s the spirit.” I said.

“Someday I’ll be on top of that leaderboard.” Rainbow Dash said. She’ll have to calm down and remember protocol first. There are a bunch of things she’d have to do in order to be on top. Plenty of things I have to do, but I’m not too concerned with the top. I’m more concerned with livin’ to see another day.

“You’ll make it. Ya have room ta grow like all of us.” I said.

“True.” Rainbow Dash said. She finished puttin’ her armor away. “Hey ya want to grab something to eat?”

“Naw, Ah have a letter to write.” I said.

“Okay then…we’ll catch you later.” Rainbow Dash said. She walked away and I started back to my room. As I walked to my room, I noticed one of the prototype rooms was opened. Twi, was in there looking at somethin’. Somethin’ in me wanted to find out what she was doin’ but I feel as though if she wanted me to know she’d tell me. When I got back to my room I started writing my letter to Apple Bloom. When I was done I sealed it in an envelope and sat it on the desk. There was a knock at my door and Fluttershy walked in.

“I’m sorry, am I interrupting anything?” Fluttershy asked.

“Naw, Ah jus’ finished up mah letter to Apple Bloom.” I answered.

“Okay, I just needed to know if you really are alright.” Fluttershy said.

“Ah’m alright.” I said.

“Back on the ship you didn’t seem okay.” Fluttershy said.

“Ah was jus’ a lil shook up. That’s all.” I said.

“Applejack, it’s okay to admit you’re scared.” Fluttershy said.

“Ah wasn’t scared…Ah was jus’ shook up.” I said.

“I won’t push anymore, but Applejack remember this…even heroes know when to be scared.” Fluttershy said.

“Okay.” I said. After she left I went to mail the letter off. As I walked I noticed that room Twi was in was still opened. Out of curiosity I decided to take a peek inside.