Gray's Gone

by ArmOfSorrow

Gray's ReIntroduction

As Twilight and I walked to the Sugarcube Corner, Matt’s condition continuously ran through my mind. The doctor had said that he would (thankfully) be alright, but would most likely remain unconscious for another day or so. I had been surprised to hear that the shrapnel in his leg had missed his femoral artery, but had still lodged itself in bone, making it extra dangerous. As to why he had been coughing up blood, it appeared that he had broken his shoulder blade, sending a small shard of bone into his left lung. The doctor had questioned me as to how he sustained his injuries, but I figured that I should keep the details of how I got here (the specter, falling from the sky, etc…) a secret from everybody but Matt, so I simply said that I was away from Matt when he was injured. It had probably happened when he fell into that bush, so his fall must not have been as soft as I thought.

“So, I never had a chance to ask your name,” said Twilight.

‘Crap,’ I thought. ‘So much for my manners.’ “Well, my full name is Mason Gray, but it’d be easier to just call me Gray. Most of my friends do, and it’s something I’ve grown used to from being in the military.”

“Alrighty then.” Twilight went quiet for the last few minutes of our trip.

Once we arrived, I took a good look at the place I was going to meet new ponies in. It was shaped vaguely like... a cake, I assumed, with a cupcake shaped tower on top. Through the window, I could see a group of four ponies and Spike sitting at a big table. Soon, a pink, fifth pony with very frilly pink hair came through a door holding a tray full of cupcakes and sat with the others, immediately digging into the food on the tray.

Twilight walked through the door without waiting for me, eager to see her friends. I hesitated at the door, because I kind of didn’t want to meet Twilight’s friends. At the hospital and on the walk here, I had gotten plenty of looks and questioning glances from ponies, a few even coming from Twilight as she walked with me. Being a sniper, I was used to being with no one but my partner, usually sitting still for hours in either an excruciatingly hot place or a mind-numbingly cold one. Attention wasn’t really my thing, never mind the fact that I didn’t belong in this world. Nevertheless, I forced myself to walk through the front door and be polite. I had already been obnoxious and dangerous, and I didn’t want these other ponies to think that I was some sort of monster.

When I walked in, I was relieved to find that the ponies were preoccupied with talking to each other. ‘Awesome.’ I thought. ‘Maybe I won’t have to do much talking.’

For a second, it was like I had shot their dog and punched their grandmother.

The second I was in view, all of their heads simultaneously snapped in my direction. Twilight was standing beside me, and I found myself trying to shuffle over to hide behind her, failing because she was just over half my height.

After a second, the orange pony I had met before spoke up and said “Well howdy there Twi, nice to see you? I see that ya brought the feller we met today.”

“I sure did. I thought that it would be good for him to meet some new people, since he’s new in Equestria.” Twilight looked at me and smiled, and gestured for me to introduce myself.

“Well… My name is Mason Gray, but I’d rather you just call me Gray. Nice to meet you girls.” God I hope my face wasn’t as red as it felt. I hated meeting new people.

“Well Gray, it’s nice to meet’cha,” said the orange pony. “My names Applejack, we met in the Everfree Forest.”

I nodded and gave her a quick smile.

“My name is Rarity, dear, and I really would like to say that those clothes you’re wearing are absolutely atrocious. Green camouflage honestly does not suit you.”

“I’m… sorry? It’s kind of mandatory where I came from.” Was this pony some sort of fashionista? Talk about a verbal bitch slap, I had always thought that I looked good in camo.

“My names Rainbow Dash.” This light blue pony simply glared at me. Goddamn, what did I do to her?

“What’s your problem?” I asked. Mistake. She shot out of her chair and got right in my face.

“I’m not the one with the problem! What the hay is wrong with you, waving your… thing around and scaring Fluttershy half to death! You even threw stuff at her before I got there! I should kick your flank so hard, Princess Luna would be picking you out of the surface of the moon!”

I had to hold in a childish giggle when she referenced my gun as being my ‘thing’, then forced myself to remain serious and give her an explanation. “I’m sorry. I was really freaked out at the time, my closest friend was injured and bleeding, and I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know if I could trust you guys.” I frowned at Rainbow Dash, still in my face, but softening after hearing my explanation.

Everybody else in the room was silent. They must have either been in shock at Rainbow Dash’s outburst, or thinking about what I had just said. I turned to the yellow and pink pony from before and asked “Your name is Fluttershy, right?”

She seemed to visibly slink down in her chair before answering, and when she did, it was unintelligible. “Was… that a yes?” Twilight got my attention with a wave of her hoof and quietly nodded yes. “Well Ms. Fluttershy, I’m sorry that I was yelling and shooting at you.”

She sheepishly looked back at me from behind her mane, and mumbled “It’s okay… I understand why you did it. You were scared… right?”

I smiled back at her and nodded, feeling really bad that I had scared such an innocent pony. Once I was confident that these ponies accepted me (just barely, in Rainbow Dash’s case) I reached over to help myself to a cupcake. Once I grabbed one, I said hi to Spike before turning around to grab another chair for myself. Thankfully, chairs here were still chairs that I was used to, even if they were almost half the size. Without warning, I was hit in the chest by what I thought was a baseball bat. Fortunately, it was just the pink pony from before, giving me a flying tackle hug for some unknown reason.

“Hi!”

“Hello to you too,” I said, massaging my chest where her snout had hit my sternum.

“MynameisPinkiePieandyoumightbewonderingwhyIjusthuggedyoubutit’sbecauseyou’renewhereandmeetingnewpeoplemakesmesohappythatIjustwanttorunoverandhugthem!”

She was speaking so fast that she was turning blue. Out of desperation, I reached up and clamped her snout shut, giving her time to breathe before saying “It’s nice to meet you. My name’s Mason Gray, but you can just call me Gray.”

Her mane slightly deflated a little, and for a second I thought I had offended her by grabbing her snout. I quickly let go, and she said “Gray is such a dull name! Like the rock farm I used to live at, and I hated it! Can I call you by your first name instead?”

“Sure, if you really want to,” I said. “ I guess that goes for you guys too.” I said, gesturing towards the group of ponies sitting at the table. “You can ultimately call me whatever you want, I’m just used to Gray.

Before I could say anything else, Twilight cleared her throat and said “Uh, Gray? We wanna ask you some questions about where you came from, who you are, that kind of thing, if you don’t mind? You are our new friend, after all.”

“Sure thing,” I said. “I guess it’s only fair, since I did yell and threaten you.”

“Okay, so first, how old are you?” This came from Rainbow Dash, who piped up right as Twilight was about to ask her first question.

“I’m twenty-three.” I said

“Do you have any family, dear?” Said Rarity.

“Back home in New York City, yes. I have a brother that’s seventeen right now, and a sister that’s nineteen, both of whom I miss very much.”

“That’s so sweet!” Spouted Rarity, who was apparently the more gushy one of the group.

Twilight interrupted Rarity with a look, and spoke. “Ok, well I’d like to ask some more important things right now. First of all, you said you were a soldier. I assume you meant a guard, right? Like the royal guard?”

“Well, to be honest, my job and a guard’s are completely different. I'm a Marine Scout Sniper, a special type of soldier. In our world, soldiers fight in wars.”

The ponies looked confused, and Pinkie Pie loudly said “What’s a war? It is like a giant doughnut eating contest? Or like a really serious foodfight? Or was it HMPGH”

Rainbow Dash put her hoof to Pinkie Pie’s mouth, silencing her. “A war is a fight between two groups of ponies right?”

I replied “Yes, but in our situation, it’s usually over land or religion or assets. Unfortunately, people die too often because of it, but it can’t be helped. Conflict and killing are two of the biggest parts of human nature. Soldiers are the main fighting force, the ones who go and do all of the killing, so they can protect the ones they love and so that others won’t have to witness the horrors of war.”

I was met with shocked silence. They all stared at me, looking at me with disbelief.

“So…” began Twilight. “You’ve… killed other humans?”

“Unfortunately, yes. It’s my job, but I only kill humans that are trying to hurt innocent people. Ultimately, it isn’t my decision. I only joined because my father and grandfather joined, so I wanted to keep the military in the family.” Flashes of the fight in Ukraine came to my mind, watching Matt’s knife glint in the low light, and my Barrett’s muzzle flashing, the bullets ripping apart the enemy soldiers standing no more than ten feet away.

Fluttershy had started to cry, hiding behind her mane and sinking down low in her chair. Watching, my gut went up into my throat, repulsed at hurting Fluttershy and wanting to throw up from the images I had remembered.

“Well, as horrible as it is.. ah’d say it’s noble enough that we shouldn’t think any less of ya. As long as you ain’t the person who decided to do the killing, you were just doing what yer told.” Applejack was surprisingly understanding. My pain must’ve shown on my face, because Applejack spoke again. “Now, I know ya feel horrible for what you’ve done, but I think that you’re honestly a pretty nice person. You’ve proven it to me, defending yer friend like that.”

When I looked up, the mares were giving my small smiles, and Fluttershy had even stopped crying.

Twilight patted me on the back before saying “Girls, it’s starting to get dark, so I think we should meet up later on.” It made sense, the sun was setting when Twilight and I had left the hospital. “We can show Gray around another time, but for now, we need to decide where he’s gonna stay.”

I gave her a pointed stare, but she ignored me and pressed on. “Applejack, do you have any room in your barn for Gray?”

I quickly spoke up, trying to spare my having to intrude on anybody. “Oh no Twilight, I was going to stay in the clearing where you found me. I had already dug out a small shelter for Matt and I, and I’ve got a thermal blanket and some fire making supplies.”

Applejack looked slightly concerned and said “Are ya sure, sugarcube? We’ve got plenty a’ room back at Sweet Apple Acres.”

“Nah, don’t worry about me, I’ve slept in much worse conditions before.” I gave my best, most convincing grin and got up. “I think I know my way back to Twilight’s library, but from there, which direction do I go to find the clearing? I’m tired, and really need to sleep.”

“Oh, well, go the same route we took to get to the hospital, but instead, keep walking straight, and you’ll come across it,” said Twilight.

“Thanks!”

About a half hour later, I was sitting inside the Shelter that I had dug out early this morning. I was still very disoriented, and I didn’t know if a full day had passed since Matt and I had come here, or if it was just this morning. I assumed it had happened this morning, since it didn’t feel like long at all.

I built a fire, a small one, in the deep end of the shelter, taking care not to let it ignite my blanket. My mind had been wandering for quite a while now, and I had started to miss home and the comforts it gave. Suddenly, my mind clicked on the Christmas present that I had received from my younger brother. It was the MP3-Player that I had brought along, a cheap, battery powered one, but a nice one nonetheless. My brother and sister had even recorded their own greeting into it, for me to listen to when I got homesick.

I put in the ear buds, and clicked on the device, going through my lists of music until I had found what I was looking for. I hit play, and my siblings’ voices began.

“Hey Mason! We hope you’re doing okay,” said my siblings in unison.

“Don’t get hurt or sick, and make sure to bring home some fuckin’ MREs!” My brother; he loved MREs, even though I had grown tired of them. I always snuck three or four into my bag for him whenever I could.

“Don’t worry about stupid Casey,” said my sister, Renee, to a slur of muffled curses from my brother. “If you get a chance, bring home some metal CD’s! European metal is supposed to be, like, the shit.” Oh, my sister. She was the typical metal-head Goth, dressed in all black, black lipstick, lip piercing, dyed black hair, the works. Thankfully, she was still nice and fun to hang around.

As the recording kept playing, I couldn’t help but laugh. Even though I had already heard it, it was always going to be funny to hear my siblings argue at home. My parents weren’t around anymore, so I had custody of my brother, and my sister stayed with him at my house while I was deployed. Hell, even when I was home, she lived with me and my brother. All three of us were metal-heads, which made it so much easier to get along.

Once the recording ended, I sat back and let the MP3 device play. After a few minutes, I selected a song that really reflected how I was feeling right now. As the guitar’s chords played, I played air guitar, already knowing what the chords were and wishing that I had brought my acoustic guitar with me. As the words came up, I sang along, knowing that there was no one close enough to hear.

A lonely road, crossed another cold state line

Miles away from those I love

Purpose hard to find

While I recall all the words you spoke to me

Can't help but wish that I was there

Back where I'd love to be, oh yeah

Dear God the only thing I ask of you

Is to hold her when I'm not around

When I'm much too far away

We all need that person who can be true to you

But I left her when I found her

And now I wish I'd stayed

'Cause I'm lonely and I'm tired

I'm missing you again, oh no

Once again

I continued with the song, “playing” and singing as I went. It felt good to relax, because the last forty-eight hours had been nothing but frantic. Not many people knew it, but being a sniper really took its toll on your nerves.

As the song faded away, I let my arms drop down to the floor and leaned back against a tree.

“That was pretty good.”

I jumped at the voice, and looked up to see Rainbow Dash sitting in the tree above me.

“What the hell are you doing? You scared the shit out of me.” I was only mildly irritated, more embarrassed by the fact that she had heard me singing.

“Haha, well I really only came to see what was up.” She looked at me, smirking, and it kind of annoyed me.

“Rainbow, you only saw me, like, an hour ago. What’s the deal? Miss me?” I chuckled at the thought, it was pretty clear that she didn’t like me. So why’d she come visit?

“Shut up. Look, uh… the real reason I came was to apologize for acting like a filly back in the Sugarcube Corner. I didn’t know why you acted like that, and it wasn’t fair that I got mad at you. So, are we cool?” Man, the look on her face was priceless. She must not do this sort of thing very often.

“Yea, Rainbow, we’re cool.” She flew down and offered a fistbump (or hoofbump?). Bumping her hoof with my fist, I offered her a seat at the fire, but she declined.

“I only came out here to make sure that you didn’t hate me. I really need to get back, Pinkie Pie needed my help for something.” She let out a small laugh at that, looked at me, and muttered under her breath “Sucker. She’s gonna get you good.”

I acted like I hadn’t heard her muttering, and continued with our previous conversation. “Nah, I don’t hate people. Except for Communists, I’ve decided I don’t like Communists.”

She gave me a questioning glance, then shook her head and flew away. Chuckling, I rolled over and began to drift to sleep, leaving the fire going because it didn’t have much wood left to burn anyway.

Comments

[totallynotabrony]

Most Marines would take offense to being called a soldier, and wouldn't refer to themselves that way.

Yeah, I don't like Communists either.