First Lieutenant John "Aquila" Killinger was on a less than routine patrol flight, when he was somehow teleported to a different planet. Little does he know, he is the last hope for the inhabitants of this strange world.
After 9/11, rumors of another terrorist attack are going around and First Lieutenant John "Aquila" Killinger and his wingman, James "Scorpius" Stratford, are sent to patrol a coastline. However, John is teleported to a different planet, leaving behind everything except the clothes on his back and the aircraft he was flying. Little does he know, he is the last hope for the inhabitants of this strange world.
A storm is brewing, and war is coming.
Warning: Strong language used. Edit: Changed rating to "M" because language. Better safe than sorry.
John Killinger was only close to a handful of people in his life. In fact, he could count them all on only one hand: his wife, his daughter, and his wingman. His parents had died in a car crash when he was in fifth grade, and his grandparents despised him. As a result, John had become emotionally unattached from life.
John was a First Lieutenant in the Air Force, and he currently lived in a house on-base with his wife Angela and seven year old daughter Amy. How he ever found a girl that would marry him, he would never know. He didn't really care though, he was happy. He had his dream job as an A-10 pilot, and a loving family to come home to. The work hours were hell, and the deployments were worse, but he had his wingman, Second Lieutenant James Stratford, to keep him company when he was away from home. He met James back in middle school and they had been nearly inseparable since.
"Ok you guys, ready to go?" John called out to his family. His wife and daughter were visiting relatives for the week. He was unable to go with them because he couldn’t secure leave in time for the trip. Instead, he was going to drive them to the airport, which he found rather ironic since they were living on an Air Force base. Amy looked at him with a pouty face and crossed her arms, "But daddy, I don't wanna visit nana! I want to stay with you!” John put on a smile, "I thought that you wanted to ride on the big airplane? If you stay here, you won't get to." Amy gasped and turned around, rocketing down the hall to grab her My Little Pony suitcase. She loved airplanes almost as much as she loved My Little Pony, and judging from the amount of MLP paraphernalia in her room, it probably rivaled Derpy's love of muffins.
John would watch the show with Amy whenever he wasn't busy. He enjoyed the show, but he went to great lengths to keep it a secret. The only people that knew were his wife and daughter. Amy had even gotten him a small Rainbow Dash figurine that he kept on his desk.
The drive to the airport was rather uneventful. There wasn’t very much traffic and the airport parking lot wasn’t very full. John found a spot close to the bus stop and parked. He grabbed the luggage and they waited for the bus to arrive, which didn’t take very long. They arrived at the terminal after a few minutes and stepped off the bus, almost getting run over by a few children running around on the sidewalk. The children stopped and stared when they noticed John’s flight suit and squadron patch. John smiled at them, that reaction never got old.
After the bags were checked in, John kissed Angela and hugged Amy, telling them to have a good time. He bade them farewell and they turned to get in the line at the security checkpoint. He laughed as he saw Amy jumping for joy when she looked out the window and spotted the planes lined up at the gates. When the pair passed through security, John turned around and returned to the car and drove back home.
A few hours had passed since he had dropped his family off at the airport, and John was sitting in the squad room reading the paper and sipping a cup of coffee. He scoffed at the front page headline of ‘Hollywood Star Accused of Money Laundering’. How this shit got on the front page was a mystery. Don’t people have anything better to do than gossip about Hollywood stars and political big-wigs? He took another sip of coffee and almost spilled it down his front when his phone went off. He pulled the phone from his pocket and looked at the screen to see who was calling, which caused him to pause when he saw that it was his wife. Shouldn’t they still be on the plane? Cell phones aren’t allowed to be used during flight, so why was she calling him?
He answered, “Hey hon, wh-“ He heard frantic voices in the background and he thought he recognized Amy’s voice, but she was crying.
“-thing’s going to be alright Amy, don’t cry. Oh, hello John…” John knew something was terribly wrong.
“Is everything alright, what’s wrong?” He noticed that a few of the others in the room were looking at him.
“… They’ve hijacked the plane John”
“They WHAT!? WHO!?” He yelled. At this point, everyone in the room was silently watching him.
“I don’t know, men with guns... I love you honey, I just wanted you to know that”
“… I know, I love you too… C-can I talk to Amy?” He heard the sounds of the phone being passed as he fumbled with the remote to the television mounted on the wall, switching it to the news channel.
“*sniff* D-daddy? Is *sniff* th-that y-you?”
John could barely hold back the tears, “Yes baby, I’m here, everything is going to be okay” He lied, not wanting to upset Amy anymore than she already was.
“… I love you daddy, I want to come ho-“ The phone cut off.
John looked to the television screen in time to see a plane slam into the second tower. The phone clattered to the floor. Everyone’s eyes were glued to the television, but a moment later the base’s sirens started blaring.
A few years had passed. John had been emotionally distant and an overall hard ass before the attack, but now… He made the Terminator look like a joke. Everyone had learned early on to give him space, especially after the incident with the new guy. John had walked away with two broken fingers. The other guy wasn’t so lucky. He had a broken arm and face when he had been punched through the squad room’s wall. John had been reprimanded and grounded for two weeks after the incident, but he had gotten his point across.
John’s base had gotten a rumor of another hijacking, and the base commander wasn’t going to take any chances. He had ordered all his planes capable of carrying ordinance into the air.
John was walking around his aircraft performing his preflight checks. His squadron had transferred over to the new “C” model of the A-10 a few years ago. Many of the pilots were thrilled, but John was indifferent. As long as he had a means to fight the enemy, he didn’t care.
He noticed that James was giving him a worried look. “What?”
James walked over to him, having completed his own preflight checks. “You sure you’re alright?”
“I’m fine James. I know you’re worried, but I really am fine. Now get your aircraft started up, we’ve got shit to do.” He got a curt ‘yes sir’ in response. John wasn’t in the mood to talk about anything right now, especially when there was a threat of another hijacking. He finished his preflight checks and climbed in the cockpit. After obtaining taxi and take-off clearance from the control tower, they taxied onto the runway, spun their engines up, and took off, banking in the direction of their patrol zone.
The flight was uneventful. They had gotten to their patrol zone, which was over a giant swath of ocean within visual range of the coast, and were currently flying around in a loose rectangle pattern while watching their radars for contacts. They would occasionally check in with the E-3 “Sentry”, Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft that was also monitoring the airspace and keeping tabs on all the other aircraft.
About two hours into the flight, John checked his radar for about the millionth time. He jumped a little when he noticed a small green dot on the screen. That shouldn’t be there. His heart started racing and he keyed his radio, contacting James.
“Hey Scorp, I’ve got a contact, bearing 094 for 33, you see anything?” John asked, knowing that his wingman would automatically decipher the information. The radar contact was at bearing 094 from their current position, 33 kilometers away.
“That’s a negative ‘Quila, I’m not reading any contacts.”
John and James had gotten their nicknames during their last deployment when they were sent to provide close air support to a squad of marines that were surrounded in a village. James had gotten hit by a few stray rounds from some insurgents taking pot shots at them when they flew by. A one-in-a-million shot had hit the lens on James’ targeting pod, which meant that he couldn’t locate any of the targets. Instead of returning to base, and leaving the marines, they decided to push on. When they got to the area that the marines were in, John took up a holding pattern and used his targeting pod to locate the marines, and, by extension, the insurgents that were closing in on them. He then relayed their position to James, and after a few passes with his aircraft’s guns, all the insurgents had been killed. Later, back at base, John and James met up with the squad of marines, who insisted on buying them beers when they all got home. At one point, one of the marines was retelling the story from their perspective. He said that he saw John flying high above the battle, circling like an eagle, and when James would line up for an attack run, it was like a scorpion getting ready to strike. For awhile, the two pilots had been referred to as the ‘Eagle’ and ‘Scorpion’, but at some point, the names had been translated into their Latin counterparts, ‘Aquila’ and ‘Scorpius’, which stuck.
John was confused by James’ answer. If his aircraft’s radar could pick up the target, then James should be able to see it too. He took a second to remember his flight’s callsign, Hunter, then contacted the AWACS, callsign Magic, just to make sure.
“Magic, Hunter 1-1, I’ve got a radar contact at bearing 094 for 33 from our position, how copy?”
“Hunter 1-1, Magic, that’s a negative, I’m reading a clear scope” No contact. “Hunter 1-1, Roger”
This is exceedingly odd. He had a contact on his radar, that neither his wingman nor the AWACS could see, yet it was showing up clear as day on his screen. They were also over the ocean, so there couldn’t be any interference. After a moment of thought, John decided to disregard the contact and continue on with his patrol.
After fifteen minutes of flying, he noticed that the contact was still showing up on his radar. Thoroughly puzzled, he contacted James again. “Scorp, that contact is still there, you sure you’re not seeing it?” John waited for a response, and after about a minute, he got the same response as before. Nothing. He decided that it was too much of a risk to let a possible contact slip by.
“Ok, we’re going to go check this thing out.” He received a click from James’ radio, signaling that he understood. John contacted the AWACS to let them know of the situation.
“Magic, Hunter 1-1, I still have that contact on my radar. We’re going to break pattern and investigate.”
“Hunter 1-1, Magic, Roger, Hunter flight is leaving its flight pattern to investigate possible contact.” Why do those guys always sound so bored?
John and James banked their aircraft onto an intercept course with the strange contact, which hasn’t moved. What the hell? How could it be in the same spot? It could be a helicopter, but why would a helicopter be all the way out here? Could it be the Coast Guard? No, he would’ve been notified. Something’s not right here. John looked down at his radar, checking the distance to the contact. 10 kilometers.
“Ok, Scorp, we’re coming within visual range, keep your eyes peeled. Target should be at our twelve o-clock.” He signaled James, and received another click in response.
He looked around in the direction of the contact, but he didn’t see anything, so he checked the radar again. 5 kilometers.
He continued to scan the horizon.
4 kilometers. Nothing.
3 kilometers. Nothing.
2 kilometers. Still nothing.
1 kilometer. Something?...... What the hell?
“Scorp… does the air look like it’s shimmering to you?”
“Uhhhh… No? You ok?”
“Yeah, I’m fine… This is strange. Let’s get back to-“
James couldn’t believe what he just saw. The airspace in front of John’s aircraft lit up in a bright, vibrant array of colors, then the unthinkable happened… John’s aircraft vanished.
“WHAT THE FUCK!?”
“Hunter 1-2, Magic. What happened to Hunter 1-1? He is no longer visible on radar.”
“I DON’T KNOW! HE JUST VANISHED!”
“… 1-2, can you elaborate?”
“HE’S GONE! POOF! ONE SECOND HE WAS HERE, NOW HE’S GONE!”
“…… Okay, you’ve been ordered to RTB for debrief. A rescue chopper is being sent to your location to-“
“HE ISN’T HERE! THERE IS NO WRECKAGE, NO SPLASH, NOT EVEN A CHUTE! HIS ENTIRE FUCKING AIRCRAFT JUST DISAPPEARED!”
Twilight and all her friends were sitting on a blanket in the park having a picnic and enjoying each other's company. Normally, they would see each other on an almost daily basis, but current events had them all extremely busy. Today, however, they had decided to take a break and do something together.
"It's nice to see you guys for a change," Twilight said, while pulling sandwiches out of the picnic basket and distributing them. “It feels like it's been AGES since I've seen you guys. I've just been so busy with this project Princess Celestia gave me that I haven't had any time to get out of the library."
Applejack was the first to respond, "It's nice to see ya too, Twi. Ah know how ya feel, what with th’ harvest comin' an all. It's nice to just relax for a change, ya know?"
The girls went around telling each other about what they had been up to the past couple of days. Applejack was getting ready for the apple harvest by clearing out the barn and making sure that all the bushel baskets were stacked and ready to be filled with apples. Rarity had received a massive order from Canterlot that had to be filled by the end of the week, so she had worked day and night with little to no sleep in order to get it completed on time. Pinkie Pie had been helping the Cakes get ready for a baking competition that was being held in Manehattan. Rainbow Dash was putting her weather team through a rigorous training regimen in preparation for a large storm that had been scheduled for Ponyville. Fluttershy had stumbled across a bird's nest that had fallen out of a tree, injuring the baby birds in the fall, so she had been nursing them back to health.
"So, Twilight, what kind of project has the Princess given you this time? I-If you don't mind me asking, that is." Fluttershy asked sheepishly while admiring a butterfly that had landed on the blanket next to her.
"Well, as you all know, some very strange things have been appearing all over the place, so the Princess has asked me to look into the matter. From what I can tell, these objects aren't from this world. In fact, they aren't even from this dimension." This brought out a gasp from all the ponies. "Also, when I was investigating the area around where one of the objects appeared, I noticed that there was a massive amount of residual magic. However, when I was examining the magic to try and figure out where it came from, it kept altering itself and I couldn't get a good reading from it. It- it almost seemed... alive. I've never seen or heard about something like this before."
"But Twi, you're Ponyville's resident egghead. You're supposed to know about this kind of stuff. After all, magic IS your special talent. How could you not know about something like this?"
"I don't know, Rainbow. I just-"
KRA-BOOOOM!!!!
All the ponies jumped at the deafening noise. "What was THAT!?" exclaimed Rainbow, "That sounded a lot like a sonic rainboom, except that I'm the ONLY pony in Equestria that can pull one off!" She was now scanning the skies to try and spot the pony that could have caused the boom.
Twilight had uncovered her ears and was looking rather concerned, "I don't know, but it sounded like it came from Sweet Apple Acres." Upon hearing this, Applejack stomped her hoof and put on a scowl.
"If Applebloom blew up th’ barn again, Ahm gonna KILL her!" She then started sprinting in the direction of the farm, closely followed by the rest of her friends, with Fluttershy bringing up the rear.
John slowly regained consciousness. The first thing he noticed was that his entire body hurt like hell and he was having a hard time breathing. The second thing he noticed was that he was no longer flying, and he was in the middle of what looked like an... apple orchard? He remembered that he was investigating a contact on his radar, that apparently only he could see, when he had passed out. The only problem was that he was flying over the ocean when it happened. So, how, in all things holy, did he end up here?
Wincing through the pain, he pushed up his helmet's visor so that he could get a better look at his surroundings. He was indeed in the middle of an apple orchard, but something seemed... different. The colors seemed too vibrant, almost to the point where nothing looked real.
It was getting very hard for him to breathe now, and the cockpit was becoming stuffy, so John reached over, grunting from the increasing amounts of pain, and flipped the switch that raised the canopy. He heard the telltale whirring sound and saw the canopy start lifting. He was surprised that it still worked after the crash, but he would dwell on that later. The cool air helped him gather his thoughts, but it also caused him to cough slightly, which propelled a small mist of blood into the air. That couldn't possibly be good.
That small cough quickly turned into a long string of much larger coughs that soon covered the instrument panel in front of John with blood. Every time he coughed, he could feel his entire body throb with pain and it was becoming increasingly harder to breathe. His vision was becoming fuzzy and he could feel his consciousness start to fade. It was at this point that he noticed six colorful blobs walking towards the crash site. As they got closer, he unclasped his restraints, which caused him to slump forward, further cutting off his air supply. As his vision began to fade, he reached his arm out to the blobs.
"...Help.. *cough*..Me."
His arm went limp and the world went black.
They had gotten a few worried glances as they were sprinting through town, but Applejack didn’t care. She just wanted to get to her farm as fast as she could.
“Ah hope that everything’s alright.”
“I hope so too, AJ. I just hope the Crusaders didn’t have anything to do with it…”
This caused everyone to run even faster, fearing the worst. The last time the Cutie Mark Crusaders were involved with something like this, Town Hall almost burned down when they were trying to get their cutie marks in garbage incineration.
The girls were running down the dirt road just outside the farm when Applejack looked up and saw a large cloud of dust rising from the edge of one of the fields.
“What in tarnation!? RAINBOW! Ah want you to fly me to th’ farmhouse, NOW!”
“You want me to WHAT!?”
“JUS’ DO IT!!” AJ yelled, accompanied by a horn from a fire truck.
“Y-yes ma’am .”
Rainbow used her front hooves to pick Applejack up and rocketed to the farmhouse, placing her on the front porch. As soon as Applejack’s hooves touched the wood, she bolted over to the door, bucked it off its hinges, and yelled… “APPLEBLOOOOOM!!!”
Applebloom walked into the room, holding a hoof over one of her ears. “Jeez, sis. Why’d ya have ta be so loud?”
Applejack ran over to her sister and crushed her in a bear hug. “Oh thank Celestia, yer alright! Were you th’ one that caused that explosion?
“…S-sis… can’t… breathe…”
“Oops, sorry” Applejack put her sister down and took a step back.
“Ta, answer yer question, no. Ah don’t know what that was. Me an’ th’ Crusaders were jus’ about ta go check it out.”
“Y’all will do no such thing! Now, ah want ya to stay here until ah get back.” Applejack turned and headed toward the door, stepping over the splinters of wood that used to be a door
“But, sis?” Applebloom put on one of her puppy dog faces and looked up at her sister.
Applejack turned and gave her a scowl, “No buts! Now, stay here.”
Applebloom sat on her haunches and crossed her front hooves, “Ugh, fine.”
Applejack walked outside just as the rest of her friends arrived at the house, and they all started toward the dissipating dust cloud, albeit at a slower pace. As they neared the source of the cloud, Twilight gasped at what she saw. “GIRLS! This looks like another one of those objects, but this one is a LOT bigger than all the others!”
They slowly approached the strange grey object, now noticing that it was sitting in a large rut between rows of trees with smaller bits and pieces scattered all around. Fluttershy let out a small ‘eep’ and hid behind a tree when she noticed that the object had large pointed white teeth and mean looking eyes on the front of it. After a minute, she realized that the strange object wasn’t alive. “Oh my. It looks very scary.” It was at this point that she noticed another strange object… but this one was moving. “G-girls? Wh-what is t-that?”
Twilight looked at Fluttershy with a confused face, “I don’t know what this thing is, Fluttershy.”
“N-no, not that, the thing sitting underneath that bubble.” She pointed a hoof at the moving object and all her friends gasped.
Twilight took a few steps forward to get a better look. “Sweet Celestia, what is THAT!?”
Twilight decided to get a closer look at the thing and started slowly walking up to the large grey object, her friends following closely behind. As she neared it, she saw the creature turn and look at her, reaching out with what looked like an… arm? She stopped dead in her tracks. What in Equestria is this thing?
"...Help.. *cough*..Me."
Twilight quickly backpedaled, almost running into Fluttershy. “Did it just talk?” She watched as the creature slumped forward and stopped moving.
Everyone’s jaw hit the ground as Fluttershy shot forward, running up to the strange contraption, making sure to stay away from the large teeth in the front. “Oh, you poor thing. Hurry, Girls! We need to help him!” Fluttershy let out an ‘eep’ when she spotted the blood inside of the strange object. Twilight ran up, gasping at the blood as well.
“Applejack! Go get a cart! We need to get him to the hospital, and he’s too big to carry!” Applejack ran off towards the barn.
Fluttershy had propped the creature up, keeping its head upright and its back pressed against the strange chair it was sitting in. “Twilight, I need you to levitate him out of here so I can help him!”
Twilight was shocked, she rarely saw Fluttershy act like this. It was almost as if she was replaced by a completely different pony. Regardless, she flared her magic and began to lift the creature out of the chair, setting it down on the ground next to the metal contraption. Fluttershy then began to poke and prod the creature, gasping every time she found an injury, and there were a lot.
“Oh dear, I hope Applejack gets here soon.” As if on cue, Applejack returned, leading a confused Big Mac pulling a large wagon.
Big Mac looked at the battered and bloody thing on the ground in front of him. “Uhhh… Wh-“
“There’s no time! He needs to get to the hospital!” Fluttershy interrupted as Twilight levitated the creature into the wagon. Fluttershy and Twilight climbed into the wagon as well, and Fluttershy began to set some of the broken bones she found.
As Big Mac raced toward town, wagon following closely, Twilight began to examine the creature that Fluttershy was slaving over. She thought it looked very strange. It had a large, grey head with a pale face, which confused her because the rest of its skin was a foresty green color except for the parts stained red from blood. It also had big black ‘L’ shaped feet, and small green appendages sprouting from the base of each arm. The strangest part, she thought, was that it was wearing an odd looking vest-like thing that had various pockets, straps, and metal clips all over it. She was so engrossed in the creature that she didn’t even notice when the wagon stopped in front of the hospital.
“Twilight! Please hurry! We need to get him inside!” Twilight was shaken from her stupor, quite literally, by Fluttershy. Twilight shook her head to clear her thoughts, then levitated the creature out of the wagon and through the hospital doors.
When the receptionist saw what came through the door in front of her, she almost fell out of her chair. “If I may ask, what is THAT!?”
Fluttershy ran up to the receptionist, “Oh thank goodness! He needs help, right away!” The receptionist looked over at the creature again and noticed all the blood, as well as a few splints that Fluttershy had expertly put in place. The gravity of the situation hit her like a ton of bricks and she slammed her hoof down on a large red button on her desk. Immediately, a loud buzzing noise was heard from another room and a door burst open as hospital staff started spilling into the room.
In a matter of seconds, the creature was put onto a hospital bed, hooked up to various medical equipment, and whisked away, leaving a stunned group of ponies standing, mouths agape, in the hospital foyer. Twilight quickly turned around and started to head towards the door.
“Where are you going, Twilight? I-if you don’t mind me asking.” Fluttershy asked, having reverted to her normal self. Twilight was confused by this; she would have to ask her about it later.
“I need to write a letter to the princess”
… Beep…… Beep…… Beep…… Beep……
John was awoken by a slightly familiar beeping noise. This wasn’t the first time he had woken up in the hospital. However, he was confused by the fact that he was still wearing his flight suit, boots, gloves, and helmet. What was stranger still, was that he had bandages and casts over top of his flight suit. That, and his arms and legs were restrained.
“… What the fuck?” He looked around the room, spotting his survival vest and G-suit neatly stacked on a chair. This was just getting weird. If his equipment had been removed, then why was he still wearing his clothes and helmet? He continued looking around the room, but his eyes latched onto a figure by the door to his room. He blinked his eyes a few times, to make sure the image was real. Was he hallucinating? He took a moment to stare at the figure, which looked a lot like a…
“Oh… My... God…”
It was then that the figure, with an obvious scowl on his face, reached over and hit his leg against the door, creating a solid ‘thunk’. After a moment, the door opened and three more figures walked in.
“What the hell is going on!?” John frantically yelled, all color had drained from his face and his eyes were darting between the now four figures that were in his room. He was gripping the sides of the bed with white knuckles, oblivious to any pain that his injuries were causing.
It had been years since John had watched the show, because it reminded him too much of his daughter. In fact, the last time he had seen it was with Amy, the day before they left to go to the airport. He had since boxed up all the DVDs and shut the door to Amy’s room. The only thing that he kept as a reminder was the small Rainbow Dash figurine that he had put into a pocket on his vest the day after the… incident… that tore his family apart.
Yet, as if it was some sick joke, here he was, tied to a hospital bed, in the same room as four ponies. One of them was wearing a white lab coat with a stethoscope draped around its neck, busy scribbling something on a clip board. Another, as well as the one by the door, was wearing shiny silver armor. Both had scowls on their faces and were watching him intently. The fourth, however, caught John’s attention the most.
It was a lot taller than the others , was wearing a golden crown and necklace-like thing, and was frowning at him. John’s blood went cold when he recognized the Sun Goddess standing in front of him. She slowly walked toward the bed, closely followed by her guard, and looked down at him.
John looked up at the Princess. She didn't seem very happy with his appearance in her country. John’s brain was processing information at a rate that would make Stephen Hawking proud. Trying to think as rationally as possible, which he found rather difficult. since he had just woken up to find himself in a land full of talking, multi-colored ponies that could fly and use magic, he wanted to defuse the situation as quickly and as smoothly as possible.
Bowing his head as much as he could, which wasn't easy due to fact that he was still wearing his helmet and his neck was sore from the crash, John responded to the Princess, trying to sound as calm as possible. "What would you like to know, ma'am?" He wasn’t sure if this was real, or if it was just a dream, but he really didn’t want to get on Celestia’s bad side.
A flash of surprise appeared on Celestia's face, but after thousands of years governing, she easily hid the expression. "Hmmm... My student told me that you could talk, but I did not expect you to be so polite or verbose, especially for a spy. Tell me, what are you? And where are you from?"
That would explain all the frowning faces, John thought. "Ma'am, I assure you that I am not a spy. My name is John Killinger, and I am a human from a planet called Earth."
This time, Celestia couldn't hide the surprised look on her face. "A human!? I thought they were just a myth, legends of a lost age." Celestia thought for a moment, recalling a few memories from when she had just started to rule. She had been fascinated with humans at the time, and had read almost every book that even mentioned them. At one point, she had stumbled across a hastily drawn diagram of the human body. Looking at the man tied to the bed in front of her, she immediately realized that something was amiss. "If you are a human, then why is your skin made up of so many colors? Humans are only supposed to have one skin color. Also, your head and feet are much larger than they are depicted in the diagrams that I have seen. Do you care to explain? And may I remind you that lying to a ruler of Equestria is a punishable offense."
Now knowing that he could be in some serious hot water if he didn't tell the truth, John picked his words carefully. "With all due respect, ma'am, I am indeed a human. Right now, I am just wearing clothing and a helmet. If you will allow these restraints to be removed for a moment, and if the doctor would please remove these casts and bandages, I will be happy to show you that I am not lying."
Celestia raised an eyebrow, her face having returned to its normal, stoic self. "And how do I know that you are not just trying to get out of your restraints so that you can attack me or try to escape?"
"I would never lie to you, ma'am. Besides, I'm sure that one broken and bloody human is no match for two royal guards and the Sun Goddess herself."
The Princess thought for a moment, then accepted, nodding at the doctor while both guards took up positions on either side of the bed in case John tried anything.
John's restraints were surrounded by a light blue aura, then, with an audible click, unlocked and opened. Then, the doctor removed all of the casts and bandages on John's chest, legs, and arms.
As he pulled his arms and legs out of their restraints, lances of pain shot up each limb. This had a sobering effect on him, for it made him realize that this was not a dream. He was really in Equestria, talking to Princess Celestia from a hospital bed.
With exaggerated slowness, because of the pain and so he wouldn't provoke the guards, John reached up and removed his helmet, revealing his brown, military cropped hair. His arms felt like they were on fire as he dropped his helmet off the side of the bed, where it bounced a few times. The next things to come off were the gloves, which were also deposited onto the floor. After unzipping his flight suit and pulling his arms out, he was preparing himself to sit up when he realized that it was going to hurt like hell.
"Ma'am, I'm going to sit up now, so that I can continue. Just as a warning, this is probably going to hurt like hell, and I'm probably going to make some noise." Celestia nodded, and, before the doctor could intervene, John sat up.
Celestia looked on in horror and admiration as John let out an excruciating yell and sat up as fast as he could. She would ask the doctor about his injuries as soon as he was finished.
John waited for a moment to catch his breath and let his vision steady. With shaking hands, he untied his boots, completely removing the laces, in order to make it easier on himself. He pulled the boots off, removed his socks, and dropped them onto the floor next to his gloves and helmet. When he tried removing his undershirt, he noticed that it was stuck to his shoulders and chest. So, he pulled the back of the shirt over his head and removed his arms from the sleeves, leaving the shirt to hang off his front.
"This is going to be fun... Ma'am, you might want to plug your ears."
The Princess realized what he had meant a moment too late, and she jumped when John grabbed a fistful of the shirt clinging to his chest and pulled, letting out a yell almost on par with the previous one. She let out a gasp when she saw his chest. The impact of the crash was so great that John's shoulder straps has gouged into his shoulders, leaving large, bloody gashes, as well as long red stripes edged by large bruises, down his chest. Not to mention, John looked like he could pull the head off a Timber Wolf with his bare hands... if they weren't shaking like the tail of a pissed off rattlesnake.
John wasn't as muscular as a hardcore body builder, but he could give any special forces operator a run for his money. His reasoning behind this was that if he was ever shot down, or had to eject over enemy territory, he wanted the extra muscle and endurance so that surviving would be that much easier if he found himself in a sticky situation.
When blood started pouring down from John's shoulders, he realized that his wounds must have partially healed with the shirt inside them. With ragged breaths, he told the doctor that he could put the bandages and casts back on. As soon as the medical supplies contacted his skin, cool relief spread throughout John's body and the majority of the pain disappeared.
"Hey doc, is there any reason that the pain just vanished?" John asked as the doctor finished wrapping him up.
The doctor let out a nervous chuckle. "Well, um, all m-medical supplies in this h-hospital are, um, e-enchanted to relieve pain a-and heal injuries f-faster. H-however, um, they require d-direct skin contact for o-optimal results." The doctor was now visibly shaking.
John raised an eyebrow and looked at the doctor, while putting his arms and legs back into their restraints, the unicorn guard promptly securing them in place. "Doctor, there is no need to be nervous. I was just trying to prove a point, I mean no harm to anybod- er- pony, in this room." The doctor relaxed a little, but not very much.
Celestia glanced between the amount of medical paraphernalia covering John's body and the doctor, who was still shaking. Then, things started clicking into place. "Doctor," Her voice had a hint of urgency to it. "What, exactly, is the extent of this man's injuries?"
The doctor walked to the wall by the door and retrieved the clipboard that was hanging there, then handed it to Celestia. She took the board and flipped a few pages, then her jaw hit the floor.
While Celestia looked at the board in disbelief, the doctor, having somewhat regained his composure, cleared his throat. "Well, for starters, you have several broken ribs, your left arm is fractured in multiple places, you have hairline fractures in both of your femurs, your left lung was punctured, your right shoulder was almost shattered, you had heavy internal bleeding, and you also have a very severe case of whiplash. Oh, and you have a few broken, what are they called? Fingers? We've managed to heal the major injuries, but you still have a lot of broken bones, not to mention the damage to your shoulders and chest."
John let out a whistle of appreciation. "So, what you're saying is that what I just did should've been pretty much impossible?"
"Maybe not impossible, but you should've, at the very least, lost consciousness when you attempted to sit up like that.”
John let out a pained chuckle. “Well, sorry to disappoint you, doctor. Man, that was about as bad as SERE school.”
Celestia, who had picked her jaw up off the floor, gave John a quizzical look. “I’m sorry, but what is this ‘seer’ school you are referring to?”
John sighed. He had hoped to keep his being a soldier a secret until the time was right, but he had let the cat out of the bag early. “Ma’am, before I answer that question, would you be able to answer a question or two of mine?”
Celestia nodded. “You have gone out of your way, causing great harm to yourself, just to prove who you are. I respect your actions, and I will answer what questions I can, if you promise to answer mine when you are finished.”
“I promise.”
“Very well, ask what you wish to know.”
John only had two questions, as he already new most everything else from the show. “Ok, first, where am I right now?”
“You are currently in Ponyville General Hospital, in the town of Ponyville.”
The gears started turning in John’s head. If he was in Ponyville, then that would mean the apple orchard he crashed in would be none other than Sweet Apple Acres, and if he crashed in Sweet Apple Acres then he would’ve been, most likely, found by…
“Who were the ponies that found me?”
Celestia had a small smile on her face. “You were found, and brought here, by my faithful student Twilight Sparkle and her friends.”
John thought to himself for a moment. Could he really be that lucky? Ripped from his world by some sort of inter-dimensional worm hole, deposited in, of all places, Ponyville, and found by none other than the Mane Six. They would no doubt have questions as well.
“Thank you, ma’am, for answering my questions. However, before I answer yours, I would ask that Twilight and her friends be present for this. I know that they will have questions as well, and I only want to explain this once.”
Celestia nodded, then, with a flash of magic, disappeared.
A few minutes later, the door opened and Celestia walked in, closely followed by Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Applejack, Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy, who let out an ‘eep’ when she saw John.
Celestia resumed her previous position off to the side of the bed, with Twilight by her side. Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy took up positions at the end of the bed, and Pinkie, Rarity, and Applejack went over to sit on the small couch underneath the window.
The Princess cleared her throat. “I have explained the situation to the girls during the walk here. They know that you are a human, and they also know of your injuries.” They all looked expectantly at John. “Now that we are all here, would you please continue your tale?”
John nodded and let out a mighty sigh. “Yes ma’am. I am going to ask all of you hold your questions until I ask for them. I would like to keep the interruptions to a minimum, if possible. Also, you may want to get comfortable, this is going to take a while.” John shuffled his body into a more comfortable position, as did everyone else in the room with the exception of the guards and doctor, who left the room.
“Now, I’m going to try to keep this short, for the sake of time. The world I come from is a very dangerous place, filled with people that want nothing more than to hurt other people for their own personal gain. If any of you were to randomly appear in my world, like I did here, then you would most likely be either shot on sight or sent to a lab for experimentation.” All the girls gasped, and Celestia had a worried expression.
John wasn’t sure how everyone would react to his next revelation, so he asked a question to try to ease into the subject. “Celestia, does your country have a military?”
The Princess cocked her head in confusion. “We have royal guards, but they mainly keep the peace and guard the palace. We have had no need for an army for over one-thousand years.”
John nodded, expecting as much. “In my world, almost every country has some form of military to protect itself from other countries. My country, the United States of America, has one of the largest, most advanced militaries on our planet.”
Celestia held up a hoof, causing John to pause. “Why are you telling us this? I do not see how this pertains to you.”
John looked up at her, then down at Twilight, whose eyes had become as large as dinner plates. “I believe that Twilight understands.” Twilight slowly nodded, then her eyes became even larger.
“H-how do you know who I am? I know that Celestia told you my name, but she didn’t say what I looked like.”
John let out another sigh. “I will get to that, but for now, know that I know all of your names. Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, and Rarity.” He rattled off all their names, pointing at their respective owners, causing them all to gasp.
John then turned to Celestia. “Now, I’m rather surprised that you didn’t make the connection sooner. The reason I’m telling you about our military is because I am a part of it. More specifically, I am a First Lieutenant in the Air Force, which is a branch of the military.” He then went on to explain the various jobs and specialties of each branch. After explaining that the Air Force fought in the air, Rainbow Dash jumped up and started hovering over the bed.
“Hold on! If you are a part of this so-called ‘Air Force’, then how are you able to fly!? You don’t have any wings!” She then began giving him the evil eye.
“Well, not all Air Force personnel fly. In fact, only a handful of us actually fly, the rest take care of logistics, repairs, security, and a few other things.” Dash gave him a smug look. “However, I am one of the few that do actually fly.” He simply smiled back at Dash, whose face was that of complete and utter shock, as was every other face in the room.
John chuckled. “You see, humans don't have wings, and are also incapable of using magic. So, we use our minds, and science, to create machines that are capable of doing things for us. One such device allows us to fly.” He could see the gears in Twilight’s head turning again. “And before you ask, yes, Twilight, the thing that you found me in is one of the flying machines, or aircraft, I’m talking about.”
This time, it was Fluttershy that spoke. “Oh my. I thought that it was a horrible monster that tried to eat you.”
John was confused. “Eat me? Why would you think that?”
“Because it has some very large teeth, and very scary eyes, and you were covered in blood.”
John thought for a moment, trying to figure out what she meant. Then he chuckled. “Oh, what you saw, Miss Fluttershy, was just paint. It was put onto my aircraft in order to scare my enemies. I did not mean for it to frighten you.”
Fluttershy sighed and relaxed. “That’s good.... I guess.”
Celestia, however, had narrowed her eyes and was looking at John with a suspicion. “What, pray tell, is the exact function of this aircraft? Why would you need to scare somepony?”
John looked at her, utter seriousness on his face. “Ma’am, my aircraft was designed with one purpose in mind. War.” He let that sink in for a moment. “When I am deployed onto the battlefield, my task is to eliminate any enemies that pose a threat to our ground forces, and my aircraft’s design is the most effective at accomplishing this task. It has the capability to strike targets from the face of the planet from kilometers away, with pinpoint accuracy, and can carry enough firepower to level this entire town.…. Which reminds me, my aircraft was fully armed when I left base. Ma’am, if you have not done so already, I would highly suggest sending a detachment of guards to go secure my crash site. I’m sure Applejack wouldn’t like it if I accidentally blew up her orchard” Applejack looked like she was about to faint after he had said this, and everyone else, including the guards, were wide-eyed.
The implications of this hit Celestia like a freight train. “You!” She pointed a hoof at the pegasus guard beside the bed. “I want you to go to the castle and notify the Captain of the Guard, immediately! Tell him to send a platoon to Sweet Apple Acres. I don’t want anypony to even get near that place!” The guard almost smashed through the door on his way out. Celestia was now scowling at John. “I thank you for telling me about this, but I wish you had mentioned it sooner.”
“My apologies, ma’am, it won’t happen again.” He said, bowing his head as he did so.
Celestia nodded, and Twilight cleared her throat. “Mr. John? How is your aircraft able to fly? It’s so heavy, it just doesn’t seem possible.”
“Please, just call me John.” He then tried to explain, as best he could, the various principals and laws that allowed his aircraft to fly. “If you really want to know, I’m sure that Miss Dash could explain a lot better than I ever could.” He then explained what types of training he had to go through in order to learn how to fly. When he began to explain SERE school, Rarity turned a pale shade of green.
“So you’re saying that they tortured you, just so you could learn about what to do?”
“Well, not exactly, but that’s pretty close. That’s part of the reason, Princess, that I was able to do the things I did earlier. I have been trained to evade capture, and, failing that, resist torture as much as possible. Survive, Evade, Resist, Escape. Although, you have no need to worry about me attempting to escape. I wouldn't even know where to go if I did."
Celestia was shocked. "Why would you want to do that to your own troops? I can understand having to get them ready for battle, but there is simply no need to perform such atrocities."
John looked at her and raised an eyebrow. "I would have to disagree with you there, ma'am. They train us like that so that we are somewhat prepared in case we are shot down over enemy territory. Compared to what the enemy would do, what our instructors did to us would be a cake walk. It was also a test to see how much pain we could take before breaking."
Rainbow Dash piped up. "And did you?"
"Did I what?"
"Break."
"No, Miss Dash, I did not. I will not betray my country, or my friends. I would sooner die."
John didn't see it, but a small smile spread across Celestia's face.
"Now, time for me to finish my story. I believe you still need to know how I got here, and how I know all your names." The first would be easy, but John dreaded the second. He knew, however, that it would be wrong to keep the truth from them.
He proceeded to tell them about how he had been on patrol when he flew through the wormhole thing. This elicited a few gasps from the girls, and even a 'wow' from Twilight. He chuckled, but instantly sobered up when he began to tell them about the TV show.
"Ok, you may not believe me, or even understand for that matter, but there is a reason I know you all. You see, back home, we have this thing called a television, which allows us to watch shows, news, and recordings of things. Believe it or not, but there was a show called My Little Pony, and it was basically about you and your friends, Twilight."
Everyone gaped at John.
Rainbow Dash shot forward, until she was inches away from John's face. "He's a SPY! I know it! There's no way that any of that is possible!"
John thought for a moment, until a brilliant idea popped into his head. "Miss Dash, could you please get me my vest? it's over there on that chair." He pointed with a finger at the pile of stuff sitting on the chair. "Princess, would you be so kind as to release my right arm for just a moment? I can show you that I'm not lying." Celestia nodded, and the restraint around his arm opened as Rainbow Dash dropped his vest onto his chest, which caused him to grunt.
It took him a few moments, but, after rummaging around in the pockets for awhile, he found what he was looking for. "Now, I'm going to pull my hand out and show you that I'm not lying, BUT, what's in my hand is very important to me, so PLEASE don't break it." As he said this, he pulled his hand out and opened it, palm upwards, revealing the small Rainbow Dash figurine.
For what seemed like the hundredth time that day, everyone's jaw hit the floor. They all stared at the figurine for a few minutes, until Pinkie broke the silence. "WOW! Hey Dashie, look! He copied you, then shrunk you down until you were teeny weeny, then put you in his pocket! OOH! Can I have one too? CanIcanIcanIcanIcanIca-" Rainbow walked over and put her hoof into Pinkie's mouth.
"Wh-where did you get this?"
John took a moment before answering, never taking his eyes from the figurine. "It was a gift.... from my daughter." He felt a lone tear slide down his cheek.
Rarity walked over to the bed and placed a hoof on his shoulder. "Darling, I'm terribly sorry that this has happened to you. You miss her don't you?"
"I do, but I've gotten used to her and my wife not being around anymore."
Rarity scrunched up her nose and tilted her head. "Whatever do you mean, darling? You've only been here for two days?"
John hoped that the subject wouldn't come up, but fate has a twisted sense of humor. He looked up, with tears in his eyes. "They're dead. It happened a few years ago, at the beginning of our stupid, fucking war. They were on their way to visit family, when their plane was hijacked by terrorists. They called me from the plane, telling me what had happened." Tears were now freely flowing down his face. "I had turned the television on to see if it was on the news. The last thing I heard, was my daughter, crying, telling me that she wanted to come home, when I watched their plane slam into a building, killing them, the rest of the people in the plane, and a lot of the people in the building. A few days later, we declared war." At that last statement, John's tears instantly dried up, and his fists balled up.
All the others, however, had tears in their eyes, except Rarity who was bawling onto the couch. Pinkie's mane was even flat, which rarely happened. Celestia was the first to break the silence. "I am terribly sorry for your loss, Mr. Killinger." She got up and motioned for the others to do the same. "I think we've learned enough for today, we'll leave you to your thoughts." She motioned at her remaining guard. "I shall leave one of my guards here to watch over you. He is to escort you to Canterlot as soon as you recover, as there are matters that need to be discussed." They all turned and filed through the doorway, the last to leave being Rainbow dash, who glanced back at him with tears in her eyes before closing the door.
John placed the figurine back into its pocket on the vest, then asked the guard to place it back onto the chair. The guard did so, giving him a look of sympathy, then returned to his position by the door. John put his head on his pillow, noticing for the first time that he was absolutely exhausted, and fell asleep.
John had been in the hospital for almost two weeks now. Even with the magical bandages, the healing process was slow going, and John found himself in a routine of eat, sleep, wake, repeat.
The hospital food was pretty bad, no surprise there, but John still ate it. There was no meat, usually only lettuce and applesauce, but he didn't mind. His wife had been a vegetarian, so he only ever ate meat on deployments. The company was better than usual though. He had quickly become friends with the two guards, Star Streak and Lightning Flash, who took turns guarding his door, not to mention Twilight and her friends dropped by from time to time.
He always enjoyed answering their questions, as long as they weren't about his family. They had stayed away from the topic, and he was glad they did. Twilight usually asked about what life was like on Earth, and Rainbow practically ordered him to tell here more about aircraft. Rarity had offered to make him some new clothes, but since she couldn't take measurements while he was in the hospital, she used his flight suit as a template instead. Pinkie, being her usual self, insisted on throwing him a 'Welcome-to-Ponyville-and-Congratulations-for-not-Dying-after-the-Plane-Crash' party. John politely declined, since he had to go to Canterlot after he got out of the hospital, but he promised that she could have the party when he got back. He also promised to help Applejack around the farm, since he found out that his plane had destroyed a few trees and the guards wouldn't let her buck the trees close to the crash site. He didn't see very much of Fluttershy, but that was because she had stumbled across a nest of baby birds that had fallen out of a tree, and she was nursing them back to health.
"So let me get this straight, helicopters are the ones that take off and land vertically and can hover, planes take off and land horizontally and can't hover, and jets are just really fast versions of planes?" Rainbow gave John a hopeful look as he listened to her while cleaning his sidearm. After the first week, Celestia had sent a letter saying that the restraints were no longer necessary.
"Precisely." John smiled and nodded to her.
"Ok, well if your aircraft is a plane, then why is it so special? It can't go very fast, and it can't take off vertically, so what can it do that makes it different than the others?"
John chuckled. "Remember when I told you about all the weapons that it could carry?"
Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "Yeah, but you said that there are others that can do that too."
"Well, I left one out." This caused Dash to edge closer to the bed, listening intently. "My plane is the only plane to be designed around it's gun."
Rainbow scoffed. "Pssh, that's it? You're cleaning a gun right now, so how can this big, bad aircraft be designed around one of those?" She poked the weapon's slide, which was resting on the bedside table.
John looked at her for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Dash, this is a 9mm, Beretta M9, standard issue sidearm that fires at a semi-automatic rate. The gun on my plane is a 30mm, GAU-8 Avenger, seven barreled Gatling gun that is twenty feet long, weighs six hundred-twenty pounds, and fires at a rate of 4,200 rounds per minute. The recoil is so great that it is actually able to push the aircraft off-course when fired, which is why they designed the plane around it."
Dash just stared at him, mouth agape and Lightning Flash chuckled.
"Man, I hope they're able to fix that thing up. With all the hype you've been giving that hunk of metal, I can't wait to see it in action."
"Me too, Lightning. It'll be great to get back into the saddle again and take her for a spin. Maybe if we're lucky, some more will come through the Gate." John had taken to calling the wormhole that he flew through, the 'Gate'.
At this point, the doctor, Red Cross, came into the room, levitating a clipboard and balancing a tray of food on his back.
"Hey doc, gimme a second, then I'll take that tray off your hooves." John picked up the weapon's slide and secured it back in place, racking it to make sure that the weapon was properly reassembled. He then placed the pistol back in its holster on his vest, put the vest on the floor, then grabbed the tray.
"Aaw, come on, doc. Lettuce and applesauce again?"
Dr. Cross rolled his eyes. "For the fifth time, you can't digest hay, straw, or grass, so this is all I have to give you."
"I know, just teasing, doc. So, how am I doing?"
The doctor flared his horn and tapped John's foot with it, sending a wave of magic throughout John's body. He then projected an x-ray onto the wall. "Hmmm... Well, almost everything has healed. Your left arm still has remnants of a fracture, but other than that, you're good to go. I'll go get your discharge papers, then you can be on your way."
John let out an elated yell and pumped his fist. "WOOHOO!! No offense, doc, but this place is absolutely horrible."
The doctor chuckled. "None taken. Now, sit tight, I'll be right back." Dr. Cross left to go get the papers and John was beaming.
"Oh man, I cannot wait to get out of here."
Rainbow laughed at the childish man in front of her. "Tell me about it. I one was stuck here for a few days when I broke my wing. Worst few days, ever!"
The doctor returned after a few minutes with the papers and a sling for John's arm. John quickly signed the documents and handed them back.
"Now, your muscles will have atrophied while you were in bed, so you will most likely be quite sore and may need to remember how to walk, but that's about it. Oh, and don't use that arm for at least another three days."
"Ok, will do, thanks doc!"
"Don't mention it, it's my job." With that, the doctor left.
John stumbled around the room for a few minutes, gathering his things and getting used to his legs. He then got dressed, putting on his flight suit, which Rarity had washed and pressed for him, and lacing up his boots. He then put on his sling and grabbed his equipment, throwing his vest and life preserver over his right shoulder and carrying his helmet in his hand. He then opened the door, looking back over the room to make sure he didn't forget anything, and left the room, followed by Rainbow and Lightning.
Twilight had been spreading the news about John since she had left the first night. The townspeople all knew who and what he was, but he still got strange looks as Rainbow lead him to the library.
"I guess it's going to take some time for everyone to warm up to me."
Rainbow looked back at him. "Ha, you think this is bad? You should've seen it when Zecora came to town for the first time."
John smiled as he remembered the episode where all the townspeople were deathly afraid of Zecora and all the businesses closed and everyone hid whenever she came into town.
The only pony that didn’t look at him funny was an aquamarine colored unicorn with a lyre as a cutie mark. She smiled and frantically waved at him. John waved back, but a cream colored mare started growling at him and pulled the aquamarine mare away.
“Wonder what that was all about.” John mused as they approached the library.
“Oh, that was just Lyra and Bon Bon. Lyra is obsessed with humans, and Bon Bon is really overprotective. They’re cool though, once you get to know them.” Rainbow said as she pushed open the library door. “Hey Twi! Somepony’s here to see you!”
Twilight poked her head out of her room. “Oh, hello John.” She walked down the stairs leading up to her room.”I’m surprised that you’re out of the hospital so early. What can I do for you?”
“Hey, Twilight. Would you be able to send a letter to the Princess, telling her that I’m out of the hospital? She said that she wanted to meet with me as soon as I got out.” John put his stuff on the floor. “And is there any place that I could put this stuff?” He gestured at the pile on the floor. “I don’t want to have to carry it all over the place with me.”
Twilight thought for a moment after sending a letter to Celestia. “Hmm, well, you could leave it here if you want. I’ll make sure that nopony messes with it.” She gave a disapproving glance at Rainbow, who had put on John’s helmet. John and Lightning chuckled, and Rainbow blushed and removed the helmed from her head.
“Thanks, Twilight.”
Seconds later, John heard a belch from another room, followed by Spike walking into the room. “Hey, Twi. Message for ya. Looks like it’s from the Princess.” He handed Twilight the letter, then noticed John standing in the room. “Whoa! You must be the human that Twi told me about. You’re a lot bigger than I thought you’d be.” Spike stared at John while Twilight read the letter.
To my Faithful Student, Twilight Sparkle
I am glad to hear that Mr. Killinger has been released from the hospital. I have sent a chariot to Ponyville to retrieve him, and it should arrive within the half-hour. Corporals Lightning Flash and Star Streak are to accompany him as well.
Please tell Mr. Killinger that I am looking forward to speaking with him.
Your Teacher and Mentor, Princess Celestia
“Wow, that was fast.” John knew that the Princess wanted to talk with him, but he didn’t know that she was going to send a chariot for him. He thought she would just tell him to ride the train.
Lightning nodded. “Yeah. I’ll go tell Star.” He then left the library and headed toward the guard station.
Rainbow frowned. “Aaw, why do you have to go so soon? You said that you’d show me your airplane!” She crossed her front hooves over her chest.
John sighed. “The Princess wanted to see me, so I’m going. Besides, I probably won’t be gone for very long, and I can show you when you get back.”
“Ugh, fine.”
Rather than walking around town some more, John opted to browse through the library while waiting for the chariot to arrive. Soon enough, the door opened and Lightning stuck his head in.
“Hey, John, chariot’s here. Time to go.”
John looked up from the book he was reading and nodded. He walked over to Twilight and handed her the book, thanking her for her hospitality. He then turned to leave, but before he walked out the door, he turned to Dash.
“Wish me luck.” He said, with a wink, as he walked out and shut the door. He was quickly joined by Lightning and Star as he boarded the chariot waiting in front of the library.
The flight to Canterlot was rather uneventful. There were no restraints on the chariot, which made John a little nervous, and the ride wasn’t as smooth as his aircraft, but he got over it soon enough. He was just glad to be back in the air.
The pegasi pulling the chariot landed at a small strip outside the castle, where some guards were waiting for them with suspicious looks on their faces. John dismounted, followed by Star and Lightning, and was escorted into the castle.
As John walked through the castle, he couldn’t help but admire all the stained glass windows adorning the walls. There must’ve been close to a hundred of them, many depicting the Elements of Harmony defeating some foe or performing some deed. Soon, however, they arrived at the throne room.
One of the guards, who John guessed was in charge based on the others’ reactions and the blue-feathered helmet he was wearing, turned to face John. “The Princess is waiting for you inside.” He then turned to Lighting and Star. “You two are to report to the Captain for debrief. He’s expecting you.” With that, the two corporals saluted and headed off down the hall.
John took a deep breath and let it out. “Here we go.” He pushed open the large double-doors and walked into the large room. The first things he saw were the two large thrones sitting on a dais at the end of the room, with a long red carpet leading up to them. The second thing he noticed was that both of the thrones were occupied.
John walked down the carpet until he was only a few paces away from the edge of the platform, where he stopped and bowed rather awkwardly due to the sling on his arm. “Ma’am, present as requested.”
Celestia rose from her throne, closely followed by her sister, and walked towards John. “Rise, Mr. Killinger, there is no need for such pleasantries.”
John did as he was told. “Of course, ma’am.”
Luna gave him a curious look. “From what our sister has told us of thine injuries, we did not think that thou would recover so soon. Thou will indeed be useful to us.”
John tried to figure out what she meant by that, but Celestia interrupted his train of thought.
“Mr. Killinger, I have asked you here because I would like to talk with you about your future, here in Equestria.” John nodded, he had expected as much. “Given your occupation as a soldier, my sister, Luna, and I were hoping that you would continue your service, and join the Equestrian Royal Guard.”
John was taken aback. He didn’t think that she would give him an offer like that. What would his remaining family think about this? What would James think about this? He didn’t think that he could just abandon his home like that. Was there even a way to get back home?
“Ma’am, with all due respect, I don’t know if I can accept this. I have an obligation to the people of my country back home. I can’t just abandon them.”
Celestia looked at him for a moment. “Rest assured, our best and brightest magicians and scientists are trying to figure out what kind of forces brought you here, and if there is even a way to send you back. You are probably unaware, but strange objects have been appearing for quite some time now, but you are the first living being to come through. Unfortunately, very little progress has been made, regarding the subject.”
John felt like the words had punched him in the gut. He was stuck here. John’s expression had turned into one of shock and disbelief as he thought to himself. Ok, let’s see, teleported to a magical land of talking ponies from a television show, survived a plane crash, recovered from said crash in a matter of weeks, offered a position as a Royal Guard, found out that there’s no way to get back home..... He then thought about the hospitality and kindness that Twilight and her friends had shown him. Without them, he would probably have died, sitting in the cockpit of his aircraft.....NO!.... This is my home now.... And I’ll be damned if I don’t do what I can to protect it. With that, an almost unsettling calmness spread throughout his body and he looked at the Princess, who had an expectant expression.
“Ma’am, it would be my honor to serve and protect the ponies of this land.” He said matter-of-factly, and both Princesses smiled.
“Excellent. If you would just follow me, we shall get your citizenship papers taken care of. After that, you shall be escorted to the Captain of the Guard to sign your enlistment papers.” John followed Celestia, who walked into a side room that had a large table with a folder full of papers on it.
John spent the next twenty minutes filling out various forms and documents. When he was finished, his hand felt like it was going to fall off.
Celestia smiled. “Congratulations, Mr. Killinger, you are now an Equestrian Citizen. You now have the same rights and privileges as any and every one of my little ponies.”
“Thank you, ma’am. It truly is an honor.”
Celestia let out a small, yet no less royal, giggle. “Now, there are guards waiting for you outside. They will take you to Captain Armor.” John thanked the Princess again and bowed, then turned and walked out of the room.
As soon as he left, he was greeted by Lighting and Star. “We were told to take you to the Captain. Follow us.” John nodded. The walk wasn’t very long, and John occupied himself by admiring more stained glass windows. Before he knew it, they were standing in front of a door with a silver shield on it. “The Captain is waiting for you. Good luck.” John cocked an eyebrow, then opened the door and walked in.
He was greeted by a large white stallion sitting at a desk, who motioned for him to stand in front of the desk. Neither of them said anything. John felt like the stallion’s eyes were piercing right into his soul. Finally, the stallion cleared his throat.
“I am Captain Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard.” He paused for a moment. “You must be the transferee that I was told to expect.” He opened a drawer and pulled out a few papers and placed them on his desk.
John was confused. “Transferee? Sir, I was told to report for enlistment, not a transfer.”
The Captain regarded him with a curious expression. “The Princess told me that you were already a part of your country’s, what did she call it? ‘Air Force’, whatever the hay that is. So, since you should already have the proper training, you will simply be transferred. Of course, you will still need to undergo a physical aptitude test to determine whether or not you are fit enough to serve.” He said the last part with a wicked smile on his face. “Now, I am going to need some information from you.” The Captain then proceeded to ask John what his name, rank and occupation were, the latter utterly confusing the stallion.
“A what?”
“A pilot, sir. I fly aircraft.” John could see a light bulb turn on in the Captain’s head.
“Ah, this must have something to do with that thing that is being guarded in Ponyville. I still can’t believe that thing is capable of what you told the Princess it could do. As soon as it’s fixed, you’re going to have to give us a little demonstration.”
John gaped at Shining. “You’re actually going to fix it!?... erm… Sir?”
Shining didn't look very amused. “Yes. As soon as we’re finished here, you are to return to Ponyville and assist the Royal Engineer Corps in transporting the wreckage to the train station, where it will be loaded onto a train and brought here, to Canterlot. From here, it will be air lifted to the nearby air base, where the R.E.C. and a team of mechanics will begin reassembling and repairing that hunk of metal. Until then, you'll have to get used to keeping your hooves on the ground.”
John didn’t think that it was even possible, but he figured it was worth a shot. "Not a problem, sir. I was security forces before I got pulled for OCS, so I know how to guard a door." Shining grunted.
John quickly filled out the remaining medical forms, and signed his name at the bottom of the last sheet of paper in the stack. He handed the papers back to the stallion, who took them and put them inside a folder, which he put in a filing cabinet beside his desk.
“Anything else, Captain?”
John didn’t see it, but Shining had a smirk on his face. He whipped around and slammed a hoof down on his desk. “YOU WILL STAND AT ATTENTION AND ADDRESS ME AS SIR WHILE IN MY OFFICE!”
John immediately snapped to attention. “SIR, YES SIR!”
The Captain smiled and sat back down at his desk. “Good. Now, GET YOUR SORRY FLANK OUT OF HERE BEFORE I KICK IT TO THE MOON!”
John saluted, then turned on his heel and strode out of the office, closing the door behind him. He then spotted Lightning and Star, who were rolling on the floor laughing.
“Bwahahaha! Oh man! I love it when he does that!”
John raised an eyebrow at Lightning. “When he does what?”
Lightning got up off the floor. “When he goes off on the new guys. Don’t let it get to you though, he’s a nice guy. Just give him some time.” Lightning was joined by Star, who was still chuckling to himself. “C’mon, let’s get the new LT geared up and ready to go. Oh, and before I forget, after we hit up the armory, the Princess is waiting by the vault for you. Something about identifying strange objects.” With that, the two guards motioned for John to follow them.
When they arrived at the armory, John looked at the racks of weapon and armor. Most of the armor was for ponies and griffons, so he didn’t bother with it. The only thing he chose was a sword, since he already had his sidearm back in Ponyville. He would talk to a blacksmith about creating more ammunition for it when he got back.
The next stop was the vault. The walk was much longer, winding through corridors and passages, eventually coming to a large spiral staircase with guards on either side of it. He nodded at the guards when he passed, but they didn’t move.
As the trio descended into the bowels of the castle, the lights quickly dimmed, and the only light sources were the magical orbs suspended near the ceiling. Eventually, they reached the bottom and walked to the end of a hallway, where the Princesses were waiting for him.
Luna stepped forward, and John snapped off a crisp salute. “Greetings, Lieutenant. As thou may know, thou has been asked to identify some of the objects that have come through the Gate, as thou calls it.”
John lowered his arm and nodded. “Yes, ma’am.”
Luna turned to Celestia, who placed her horn into a hole in the wall, which caused the massive vault door to slowly creak open.
When the door was fully opened, Celestia removed her horn and walked into the room, followed by Luna and John while Lightning and Star stayed by the entrance.
John’s eyes grew wide and his sword fell from his hand, clattering to the floor. “My God...”
The Princesses looked worried. “Lieutenant?” Celestia walked over to him as he examined a table full of black, strangely shaped objects. There were tables full of different objects, some larger or smaller than others, all lined up in a neat row against one of the room’s walls. Under the tables sat boxes of various sizes and colors, but the majority were the color of John’s flight suit, an olive green color, and made of metal.
John turned to the Princess, his face sorrowful. “Ma’am, these objects... are instruments of war.”
“Do you mean to tell me that all of these things are weapons!?”
“Not all of them, but all the items on the tables are, as well as some of the items over here.” John walked over to a spot in the middle of the room that had a large number of tubular looking devices, some large boxes, and a few bombs and missiles. Surprisingly, all the missiles and bombs were still on their storage pallets.
Celestia backpedaled towards the door.
“It’s alright, ma’am. The majority of this stuff is harmless. The only things that worry me are those.” He pointed at the bombs.
Celestia shakily turned towards her sister. “L-Luna? I’m going back upstairs. These items are not under my jurisdiction, so I’m leaving you in charge here. Please keep me informed.” Luna nodded and the Celestia promptly teleported out of the room.
John cast a questioning look at Luna, who was walking over to join him. “What our sister meant was that anything pertaining to the Guard, or is militaristic in nature, falls under our rule. She can still give orders if she needs to, but we are ultimately responsible for the defense of Equestria.”
John thought he understood. “So, basically, ma’am, you’re Captain Armor’s boss?”
“That is a correct assumption.”
“Well, with you’re permission, I would like to ask you a few questions and perform an inventory of everything here.” Luna nodded. “Right then… CORPORAL STAR!” Star ran into the room and saluted.
“Sir?”
John turned to the Corporal. “I need a clipboard, some paper, and something to write with.”
“Yes, sir!” Star ran from the room.
John turned to Luna. “Ok, when was the first time something appeared?”
The Princess thought for a moment, then walked over to the first table. “They started appearing a few months ago, starting with these items here.” She pointed at the items on the table, which john noticed was an assortment of pistols. “They were frequent, at first, but as the objects became larger, there was more time between appearances.” She gestured down the row of tables, and John saw that the weapons became larger the farther down the row he went, eventually ending with a pair of M134 miniguns and a 40mm grenade launcher.
“The last objects to appear before thou arrived were these.” She walked over to a pair of 2,000 pound JDAMs and John's eyebrows rose a few inches.
“Ok, and how much time did it take for me to get here, after those showed up?”
Luna thought for a moment. “We would say, about three weeks.”
John relaxed a bit. If it took three weeks for John to arrive, and things took longer to appear after larger objects, then, theoretically, nothing should pop up for awhile. But there was one more thing that was bothering him.
“Princess? Are you sure that this is everything?”
Luna put on a confident smile. “We are quite certain. The magic used to bring these items here is very powerful and also unknown to us, so, it was rather easy to set up a warning system that alerts us when new objects appear. The only reason we refrained from sending a search party when you appeared was because our sister received a letter from her student, telling her what she had found.”
John sighed. If any of these weapons got into the wrong hooves, bad things would almost certainly follow.
Star soon returned with the clipboard, paper, and a pencil, then resumed his position by the door.
John spent the next few hours taking inventory of everything in the room. By the time he was finished, he looked over the sheet of paper and whistled appreciatively.
Vault Inventory
Weapons 3 x Beretta M9 9mm 1 x Glock 18 9mm 1 x USP .45 2 x Desert Eagle .50AE
2 x MP5 9mm 2 x P90 5.7×28mm 1 x UMP .45
2 x SPAS 12 12ga. 2 x Remington 870 12ga.
4 x M4A1 5.56x45 2 x SCAR H 7.62x51
2 x SR25 7.62x51 1 x L96 .338 Lapua 1 x Barrett M82 .50
1 x M249 SAW 5.56x45 1 x M240B 7.62x51
2 x M134 7.62x51 1 x M32 MGL 40mm
1 x FGM-148 Javelin (Command Launch Unit)
4 x AGM-65D Maverick 2 x GBU-31 JDAM
Ammunition 20 x 50 9x19mm 40 x 50 .45 20 x 30 .50AE 20 x 25 12ga. 20 x 100 5.7×28mm 60 x 200 5.56x45mm 80 x 200 7.62x51mm 20 x 30 .338 Lapua 10 x 200 .50BMG 20 x 15 40mm 6 x FGM-148 Javelin (Missile) 100 x 200 30x173mm
Magazines 15 x M9 5 x G18 4 x USP 10 x Desert Eagle 10 x MP5 8 x P90 4 x UMP 32 x M4A1 12 x SCAR H 10 x SR25 6 x L96 5 x M82 3 x M249 3 x M240B
Misc. 2 x 20 MRE 3 BDU Pants (Woodland) 2 BDU Jackets (Woodland) 3 x AN/PRC-148 Radio 2 x Kneepads (Woodland) 2 x Boonie Hat (Woodland) 3 x Duty Cap (Woodland) 2 x Tac Vest 2 x Thigh Holster (Right Hand) 1 x Hip Holster + Belt (Right Hand) 1 x Camelbak (3L, Olive Drab) 4 x Rolls: Duct Tape (Olive Drab) 2 x Duffel Bag
It looked as if a Gate had gone rampaging around inside an Army armory, and dumped all the contents in front of John, who was smiling like a kid in a candy store.
“With your permission, ma’am, I would like to arm myself, and bring some of this stuff with me. Also, there are a few objects that I would like to try and duplicate, if possible.”
Luna thought for a moment. “We don’t see why not. After all, thou art trained in the use of these weapons, correct?”
“For the most part, ma’am. I am familiar with the majority of the weapons here, but there are a few that I have no knowledge of, namely the Javelin. Rest assured, ma’am, I will only take weapons that I have been trained with.”
The Princess nodded. “Very well, arm thyself, and let us leave this place.”
John walked along the row and picked up a duffel bag and began filling it up with stuff. He grabbed the pairs of pants, the jackets, a boonie hat, a duty cap, a pair of kneepads, a hip and thigh holster, the Camelbak, nine mags for an M4, three mags for his M9, the radios, three boxes of 9mm ammo, a can of 5.56 ammo, a few MREs, and a roll of duct tape. He also grabbed a vest, which he draped over his shoulder, and one of the M4s. He still had all of his equipment in his survival vest back in Twilight’s library, but it was more suited for surviving in the wilderness, not fighting.
With his rifle in his good hand, and duffel bag and vest over his shoulder, he exited the vault with Luna, who shut and locked the door. Then, accompanied by Lightning and Star, they began the arduous task of climbing the stairs.
When they reached the top, John was gasping for breath. “Ma’am,*gasp* one question *gasp*. How *gasp* the Hell *gasp* did you*gasp*get that stuff*gasp* down there!? *gasp*”
Luna looked at him and giggled, pointing a hoof at a large sliding door. “We used the elevator.” John facepalmed.
"Oh, you've got *gasp* to be *gasp*kidding."
Star laughed. "Even I could've told you that, LT."
John leaned against the wall to catch his breath. "You know what, *gasp* screw you."
After a minute or two, John regained control of his breathing, and they continued on their way. Soon, they found themselves standing before the castle gates
Luna broke the silence. "Here are three tickets for the 6:30 train to Ponyville." She levitated three tickets to John from out of nowhere. "We have spoken to Captain Armor, and he has agreed to place Corporals Lightning Flash and Star Streak under thine command for the time being. Thou are to report to Sweet Apple Acres tomorrow to oversee the safe removal and transportation of thy aircraft."
John transferred his rifle to the crook of his left arm, then saluted the Princess. "Yes, ma'am." John lowered his arm and took the rifle back into his right hand. "Is there anything else that we can do for you, ma'am?"
"Not at the moment, Lieutenant. We bid thee farewell, and we hope you have safe travels. Keep us informed of thy progress" The Princess then turned around and walked back down the hall.
John looked at Star and Lightning, a mischievous grin on his face. “Looks like you two are stuck with me.”
The trio made it to the train station without incident, but John received even more strange looks than he did in Ponyville, as well as a few scared shrieks. Maybe that was a good thing though. If he was going to be put on guard duty, he didn’t want anyone to get any funny ideas.
They were a bit early, and the train hadn’t arrived yet, so John dropped the duffel bag next to a bench and sat down, rolling his sore shoulder. Usually, he wouldn’t be so tired, but after spending almost two weeks in bed and having to climb what felt like ten thousand steps with about a hundred pounds of gear and only one arm, he was exhausted. Which was the reason he didn’t notice the two stallions that walked up beside him.
“We don’t like your kind. Why don’t you go crawl back down your hole, hairless mutt.” The two stallions glared at John. They seemed not to notice the two guards on either side of him.
Lightning and Star glared back and went to escort the two away, but John held out his hand, stopping them. He stood up and, not wanting to cause a scene, responded as politely as possible. “Is there anything that I can do for you, gentlemen?”
The stallions glanced at each other. “Yeah, get lost.” With that, one of the stallions tried to punch John in the stomach, but John saw it coming and caught the hoof. The other stallion, seeing that his friend’s attack had been stopped, turned around and bucked John in his bad arm. John grunted in pain and released his grip on the first stallion’s leg, stumbling backwards into the bench. Lightning and Star immediately pounced on the two troublemakers, tackling them to the ground.
“STAND DOWN!” John roared, and the two guards got off the stallions. By now, everyone on the train platform was looking at him, but he didn’t care. His attention was on the two stallions on the ground in front of him.
John took a step forward. “Now, because you obviously don’t know who or what I am, I’m going to let this slide.” He glared at the stallions, who reciprocated the gaze. “However, if this happens again, you two aren’t getting off so easily.” John stepped back and waved his hand. “Get out of here, before I change my mind.”
The stallions turned and walked away, grumbling to themselves while they went.
“You sure that was a good idea, sir?” John turned to Star, who looked concerned.
“It’ll be fine.” John rubbed his throbbing arm. “Everyone will learn soon enough.” He sat back down right as the train arrived. He let out an exasperated groan and stood back up, shooting a disapproving glance at Lightning, who was trying not to laugh.
John grabbed his bag and rifle and boarded the train, handing the conductor their tickets and finding a seat near the back of the train.
“So, sir, what are we going to do when we get back?” Lightning said as he sat across from John.
“When it’s just us, you can cut the ‘sir’ crap. As for what we’ll do, I was thinking of getting the rest of my stuff from Twilight’s, then finding a place to stay.”
“You can stay at the guard station until we get that big, ugly hunk of metal out of Sweet Apple Acres.”
John feigned an angry expression. “Hey, I do not appreciate you talking about my baby like that.”
Star started cracking up, and the train began to move.
John awoke to the sound of the train’s brakes screeching and the feeling of the train slowly decelerating. John grunted and sat up. Soon, he saw the platform, and the town of Ponyville, slide into view. It didn’t take long for the train to stop and the conductor to open the door.
John grabbed his gear and exited the train, where he was greeted by Twilight.
“So, how did your meeting go?”
John sighed and looked up at the sky. It was starting to get dark, so he guessed the time to be somewhere around 7:30. “It went well. Talked to the Princesses for a bit, became a citizen, got transferred into the guard… found out that you have a giant stash of weapons in the castle basement…” Twilight’s eyes went wide.
“Oh, that’s go-.. WHAT!?”
“Long story short, pretty much everything that has come through the Gates has been either a weapon, or equipment for a weapon, from my world. Don’t worry though, as far as I know, I’m the only one here that knows how to use the stuff.” John’s stomach growled, which made him realize that he hadn’t eaten since he was released from the hospital. “Hey, Twilight, do you mind if I eat at the library before I head to the guard station? I have my own food, so you won’t have to worry about cooking anything, and I need to pick up my stuff anyway.”
Twilight turned and started walking into town. “Sure, I don’t mind, as long as you don’t make a mess.”
Upon arriving at the library, John dropped the duffel bag and vest onto the floor and leaned the rifle against the wall. Opening the bag, he fished around until he found one of the MREs, then pulled it out and opened it, spreading the contents in a semicircle around him as he sat on the floor.
“What’s that?” Twilight asked when she noticed what he was doing. Lightning and Star also had interested looks on their faces.
John chuckled. “This,” he gestured at the various items around him, “is what soldiers eat, back on earth.” He picked up one of the pouches and put it into a bag with a small, white pad in it, then poured a small packet of water into the bag and folded the end over. “The food is in these bags,” He pointed at different sized packets with labels on them, “and this,” He then pointed at the small white pad, which had begun to sizzle, “is what heats the food up.” He put the bag down and proceeded to open two packets labeled ‘Crackers’ and ‘Peanut Butter’, while everyone watched.
He went on to explain each element of the MRE, and why everything was packaged the way it was. After a few moments, he pulled the, now hot, packet of food out of the heating bag and opened it.
Twilight looked disgusted. “Eew, you eat that? It looks like dog food.”
John laughed. “Tastes like it too, but it keeps me going.”
He quickly finished the meal and put all the, now empty, packets back into the duffel bag. He would throw the trash out when he got to the guard station. He turned to Lightning and Star, who were busy reading books.
“Alright guys, time to go. Might need some help with some of this stuff.” The two re-shelved their books and walked over to him.
“Sure thing, boss. What do you need help with?”
John handed them his flight gear, with the exception of his helmet, which he put on his head, then picked up the duffel bag and rifle. He then thanked Twilight for watching his gear and letting him eat at the library.
“Oh, it wasn’t any trouble. In fact, I rather enjoyed learning about what humans ate. You have a rather broad definition of food.”
John chuckled, then bade Twilight a goodnight.
When he stepped outside, the sun had already set. There weren’t any street lights, but most of the houses and businesses had lanterns out front, so the streets weren’t too dark. It didn’t take them very long to find the guard station. It wasn’t a very large building, but it had a large, silver shield above the door and a flagpole out front.
They walked through the front door and were greeted by a rather stout brown stallion sitting at a desk.
“Good evening, boys, what can I do fer ya?”
Star walked forward. “Evening, sarge. Do we still have an extra bed?”
“Yeah, why?” Star pointed a hoof at John.
The stallion gave him a disapproving look. “And jus who might you be?”
John rolled his eyes. “My name is John, and I-.”
The stallion laughed, interrupting John. “Well that’s a funny name ya got there, John. Tell me, why should I give you-“
“That’s enough, sergeant!” They all turned towards the source of the voice as a dark red Pegasus walked into the room. “The guy's had a long day. Besides, interrupting a superior officer like that is a good way to get your flank chalked up for a week of latrine duty.”
The stallion at the desk looked from the Pegasus to John, shock on his face, then stood at attention. “Yes, sir! I’m terribly sorry, sir.”
John held up an arm. “It’s fine, you didn’t know.”
The Pegasus walked over to John and offered a hoof, which John shook. “I only just found out myself, for that matter. Mail mare got distracted again. Name’s Lieutenant Crimson, parents had a strange sense of humor." John chuckled. "You can just call me Red, everyone does."
"Will do. I'm John, but I guess you already knew that."
Red nodded. "Anyway, enough of this welcome mess, you're probably ready to hit the hay. Racks are up the stairs, second door on the left, the loo is the first on the left, and my office is right over there if you need anything." He pointed a hoof at a door on the far side of the room. "The engineers will be expecting you at your crash site at around 0900. Businesses and shops around town usually open around 0800, so you'll have a little time to look around before you show up, if you want."
"Alright, thanks."
Red turned and walked back to his office, and John, Lightning, and Star headed up the stairs. John wasn't sure what he expected, but he wasn't surprised when he opened the door, labeled 'Bunk Room'. It was a rather large room with about fifteen beds lined up against the walls, with a chest at the end of each. There were only three occupied beds, but Lightning and Star walked to a bed on the opposite side of the room and dropped his gear onto it. John followed and dropped the rest of his stuff onto the bed next to his flight gear.
Lightning turned to John. "This one's yours. The chest is empty, so you can put your stuff in it if you want." He then pulled an alarm clock off a shelf above the headboard and put it on the bed. "Here's an alarm clock. It's enchanted so that only the pony in this bed can hear it."
"Cool. One question though. If there are so many vacant beds, why didn't the sarge want to give me one?"
Star answered while Lightning was taking off his armor. "There are fifteen beds here, and there are fifteen of us stationed here in Ponyville. Unfortunately, we had to send one of the guys to Canterlot the other day because he got jumped by a few Timberwolves out by the Everfree."
John winced. "Ouch. Hope the poor guy's alright."
Lightning was now out of his armor and was about to put it in his chest when John stopped him.
"Mind if I borrow this for a sec?" He picked up a piece of the armor. "Wait, didn't you used to be white?" Lightning's coat had turned from being white to dark blue in color.
Lightning shrugged. "Knock yourself out. Yeah, it's an enchantment placed on the armor, turns everypony's coat white when they put it on."
John looked over at Star, who was still white but wasn't wearing his armor. "Huh. That's interesting." He then pulled out the clipboard and pencil that he had put in his duffel bag and began to sketch something.
When he was done, he handed the armor piece back to Lightning, who put it in the chest at the end of his bed.
"Thanks. I'm going to hit the hay. Wake me if you need anything."
John nodded and opened his own chest, putting his flight gear into it. He then opened the duffel bag and pulled out the contents.
After the finger-numbing task of hand loading all of the magazines for his rifle and pistol, he put the ammunition in the chest. He then put all the magazines into their respective pouches on the vest (except for one that he put into the M4), as well as a radio and the roll of duct tape. The remaining items were put into the chest, which he shut and locked with a padlock he found on the shelf that the alarm clock was on. He propped the rifle up against the wall beside the headboard, set the alarm clock, and climbed into the bed, not even bothering to undress.
The alarm clock blaring in his ear woke John, which he promptly silenced. He sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, checking to make sure that his rifle was still beside the bed. Rolling out of the bed, he unlocked the chest with his gear in it and retrieved the empty duffel bag.
He put the bag on the bed and dug through the chest to find what he thought he would need for the day. He figured he’d bring the kneepads and his nomex flight gloves in case the engineers needed help. He also grabbed a radio, the clipboard and pencil, an MRE, and the three pairs of BDU pants and accompanying jackets. They were a bit too big for him, so he planned on stopping by Rarity’s on the way to Sweet Apple Acres to see if she could fix them for him.
Pausing for a moment, he also grabbed the hip holster, which he clipped around his waist (which was pretty awkward since he was still wearing the sling), and his sidearm, as well as two spare mags. He figured that it was better to have the weapon and not need it, than to need it and not have it.
Grabbing the rifle from against the wall, John laid it in the chest, which he shut and locked. He then picked up his bag and glanced around the room. There were a few more sleeping guards, but the room was still pretty empty. He exited the room as quietly as he could, not wanting to wake anyone. As he walked toward the stairs, he almost ran into Lightning as he came out of the bathroom.
“Whoa, sorry ‘bout that, sir.”
“It’s fine. Hey, if you and Star aren’t busy today, drop by the crash site at some point. Oh, and bring Dash and Twilight if you can find them.”
“Sure thing, boss. We were put under your command anyway, so we don’t really have anything to do, unless you assign something.”
John frowned. That wasn’t usually how things worked back home. He’d have to ask Shining for a crash course in guard procedures. “Ok, well, check with Lieutenant Crimson before you leave, and if he doesn’t have anything for you, go ahead and come over.”
Lightning saluted. “Will do.”
John continued downstairs and nodded to the stallion at the desk, who was different from the pony from last night, before walking out the front door.
He had set the alarm clock for 7:30, and he guessed that it had taken him about fifteen minutes to get ready and talk with Lightning, so he figured he had about another fifteen minutes to find Carousel Boutique. Piece of cake.
Forty-five minutes later, and after stopping for directions twice, he finally found the boutique and knocked on the door.
“Cooooomiiiiing!” John heard footsteps – hoofsteps? – and the door opened, revealing a rather surprised Rarity. “Oh, hello John, darling. I wasn’t expecting to see you out of the hospital so soon! Please, do come in.”
John remembered that this was only his second day out of the hospital as he entered the boutique.
“I haven’t quite finished with your garments yet, as they have been quite a challenge to put together, but they should be finished by tomorrow. Is there anything that I can do for you in the meantime?”
John shrugged off the duffel bag and unzipped it, pulling out the pairs of pants, the jackets, and clipboard. “Yes, actually. I was wondering if it would be possible for you to resize these for me. They’re a bit too big.” He handed the garments to Rarity, who looked at them with disgust.
“Oh, heavens! Why would you ever want to wear something that looks so hideous!?”
John chuckled. “Can you do it?”
Rarity took the clothes with her magic and placed them on a work bench. “Certainly, dear. They should be finished by the end of the day.”
John then pulled out the clipboard and flipped to the sketch he had drawn the previous night. “One more thing, would you be able to take this drawing and turn it into something like this?” He reached over to his left shoulder and pulled his squadron patch off his flight suit, the Velcro making a ripping sound as it came off, and handed the patch and drawing to Rarity.
She took the two items and examined them. “Hmmm, I think something can be arranged.”
John thanked her and put the clipboard back into the bag, shouldering it. He jumped when he looked at the clock on the wall. “I hope you don’t mind, but I really have to get going. It’s been a pleasure seeing you again, Miss Rarity.”
Rarity blushed. “Oh, the pleasure was all mine.” She then glanced at the camouflage garments sitting on the work bench. “Even if your taste in fashion is rather peculiar.”
John laughed and waved as he left. He would have to hurry if he was going to get to Sweet Apple Acres on time.
John slowed to a walk as he passed the entrance to Sweet Apple Acres. After leaving the Carousel Boutique he had asked for directions to the farm, then took off at a fast jog in the direction he was pointed. It felt good to run after so long stuck in the hospital bed. He probably could've gone faster if he wanted, but, with his arm in a sling and a duffel bag on his back, running was a bit awkward. Regardless, he made the trip in about ten minutes.
Unfortunately, John had no clue where to go from there, so he decided to stop by the farmhouse to ask for directions. As he approached the farmhouse, he spotted a red stallion, who he assumed was Big Mac, pulling a cart out of the barn next to the house, so he altered his course to intercept the pony.
"Excuse me, do you think you could point me in the direction of-"
"Eeyup" Big Mac pointed his hoof out toward one of the fields.
John raised an eyebrow. "Um... Thanks." He began walking in the direction the pony pointed. "That was weird..."
He had never seen so many apple trees in his entire life. John had been walking for about five minutes through nothing but rows upon rows of apple trees. He was starting to think that Big Mac had pointed him in the wrong direction, but then he heard the sound of ponies arguing and veered toward the noise.
"What the buck do you mean, 'Not Authorized'!?"
"I meant precisely what I said. This is a restricted area, and you and your platoon aren't authorized to enter."
As John got closer, he could see that there was a rather red-in-the-face construction pony arguing with a royal guard. He also saw a group of bored looking ponies, dressed in construction attire, sitting under an apple tree, and also a ring of guards surrounding what looked like the crash site. He couldn't quite make out the crash through all the trees, but he knew it was close.
"What the hay! I was sent, by Celestia herself, to remove this, thing, and take it to Buckland Air Base."
"Well, I am under orders, from Celestia herself, to keep this area under lockdown. Only she, or somepony called John, whoever the buck that is, can lift it. Until then, nopony is allowed in."
By now, the workers had noticed John approaching, and they began to whisper to each other and point hooves at him. He paid them no mind and went straight to the two arguing earth ponies.
John cleared his throat and walked up to the construction pony. "I assume you're with the Engineer Corps?"
The pony looked over him for a moment, a rather sour look on his face. "Yeah, and who are you?"
John ignored the question and turned to the guard. "And you're here to guard the crash site?"
The guard nodded. "Yes, and I'm going to have to ask both of you to leave. This is a restricted area."
John rolled his eyes, having heard the argument. "Not anymore. Name's Lieutenant John Killinger. This is my crash site, and these ponies," He gestured at the engineers, "are with me."
The guard looked surprised, and snapped off a salute.. "Y-yes sir, sorry sir. I'm Sergeant Ironhoof. Me and my guards will remain here until you no longer require us, or the wreck is removed. We currently have a perimeter set up around the crash with a radius of one hundred meters and guards are stationed at thirty meter intervals."
John was intrigued by the name and the fact that the ponies used the same units of measurements as humans, and when he checked, the sergeant had what looked like an iron gauntlet encasing the lower half of his right foreleg. He was also impressed with the security that the sergeant had in place. He quickly did the math and figured that there were around twenty guards present. "Outstanding. With any luck, we'll be able to get this thing out of here within the next couple of days. Now, does Ponyville have a Fire Department?"
"Yes sir, it does. It's volunteer based, though, and not very big."
"Alright, I want you to send someone notify them of the situation here and, if they can spare it, have them send something out here in case we need it. Also, I want a few doctors on hand, just in case. After you've sent someone, come join me with the others." He pointed at the tree with all the engineers under it. "Oh, and I'm expecting a visit from a few ponies: corporals Lightning Flash and Star Streak, and civilians Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. Also, if Applejack comes by, she's allowed in as well. I want everyone else kept out for now."
"Y-yes, sir!" Ironhoof looked a little shaken at the mention of possibly needing the fire department, but he kept his concerns to himself as he cantered over to a nearby pegasus guard.
John began walking toward the group of engineers.
"Well, lieutenant, it was nice of you to drop by. You're late, by the way."
"Sorry about that. Had some things I needed to take care of in town, and I got a little lost."
The pony chuckled. "It's fine. We were gonna start without you, but Iron-head over there wouldn't let us." John chuckled at the joke. "After hearing that we might need the fire brigade, I'm kinda glad he stopped us." They arrived at the tree and all the engineers, about ten in total, looked quizzically at John. "Anyways, I'm Ratchet, and these are my ponies. We've got ranks, if you want them, but we never use them."
"As long as they all pay attention and can follow my orders to the letter, I don't really care about rank. Now, do you have anyone that specializes in electronics?"
Ratchet thought for a moment. "Yeah, I do. Sparks! Front and center!" The pony in question, a yellow unicorn mare with an electric blue mane, stepped forward.
"Yeah, boss?"
John dropped his duffel bag, unzipped it, and pulled out the radio "I have a special job for you." He tossed the radio to the mare, who caught it with magic. "I want you to try to duplicate this. It's called a radio, and it's used for long-distance communication. Try to be careful with it, I only have three of them." The pony nodded and examined the device. "If you have any questions, feel free to ask. Take all the time you need."
John heard the sound of hooves behind him and turned around to see Ironhoof, followed by Lightning, Star, Rainbow, Twilight, and Applejack.
"Hey guys, glad you could make it. Didn't think you'd be here this early though."
Lightning shrugged. The LT didn't have anything for us, so we got something to eat, found Miss Dash and Miss Sparkle, and came over. We picked up Miss Applejack when we passed the farmhouse."
"Well, you're just in time for the safety brief." John looked at Ironhoof. "What's the word?"
"I sent out a messenger, and he should be back in a few minutes."
"Ok, good." John motioned for the five ponies to stand with the others. "Now, I want you all to pay attention to every word I say with no interruptions." Every pony nodded. "The crash site is currently very dangerous, and I don't want anyone to get hurt. In the event that something does happen, I have requested the presence of medical and, if they can spare it, fire fighting personnel." Applejack raised her hoof. "Yes, Applejack?"
"Ah can understand th paramedics, but why would y'all need fireponies?"
"My aircraft is powered by something called fuel, which is a highly flammable liquid, and it is stored in large tanks on and in the aircraft."
"Oh, so it's like the oil we use in lanterns, right?"
"Yes, except more flammable. During the crash, those tanks probably ruptured, spilling the fuel onto the ground. If that fuel were to catch fire, then it would set fire to the aircraft, the orchard, and it would also cook off any ordinance after a given amount of time. If any ordinance goes off, depending on the size and type, it would destroy the aircraft, a good portion of this field, and could very well kill everyone here." All the ponies looked nervous. "That brings me to my next point. All of the aircraft's ordinance is a different color than the plane itself. If you see anything, that doesn't look natural, that is green or white in color, and is not attached to the plane, you are to notify me immediately and, under no circumstances, is anyone allowed to touch said object until I deem it safe. I will go over proper ordinance transport procedures when the time comes." John took a moment to survey the group in front of him. "Does everyone understand?" All the ponies nodded. "Are there any questions?" One hoof raised, and John pointed at the pony.
"What exactly will we be doing?"
"Well, as soon as the doctors get here, I'll take a team to go assess the damage and determine how safe the area is. After that, we'll begin to gather up any and all loose pieces and take them to the edge of the field for transport. Once that's done, we'll move the aircraft itself. It may still me somewhat intact, so we may need to partially dismantle it in order to get it out of here. Everything will then be put on a train and shipped to Canterlot, where it will be air-lifted to some Air Base. If everything is done correctly and according to plan, no one will get hurt, and we should be out of here in a few days. Any more questions?" This time, no one raised their hoof. "Outstanding."
John heard hoofsteps behind him, and he turned to see a pegasus guard walk up to him. Apparently, he had landed in the middle of the brief and had waited until John was finished to approach.
"Sir, doctors are on their way, as well as a fire wagon. The doctors will meet you here, and I have instructed the fireponies to park their wagon at the edge of the field closest to the crash. They'll meet you here as well.
"Great. Thank you." The guard saluted, then trotted off to return to his post.
Applejack, who was followed by Twilight and Rainbow Dash, walked up to John. The trio, including Rainbow, looked extremely nervous. "Are ya sure nopony is gonna get hurt?"
John sighed. "If I do my job right, everyone will be fine, AJ... I can call you that, right?" She nodded and relaxed a little. Rainbow wasn't too convinced though.
"If everypony will be alright, then why would you need doctors and firponies?"
"They're just precautionary measures, in case, heaven forbid, something does happen. I want to be prepared in the event of a worst case scenario. There's a little phrase that I like to keep close to my heart: It's better to have, and not need, than to need, and not have." John paused for a moment. "As far as I know, there were no fires when I crashed, which was a miracle, and the engines have had plenty of time to cool down. Therefore, the only way for the fuel to ignite would be from electrical shock or carelessness. I'll make sure to turn off the batteries when I get there, which will rule out electrical shock. That only leaves carelessness, and if I see anyone being careless or clumsy, I will ask them to leave for everyone's safety. As for the ordinance... We'll cross that bridge when we get there."
While waiting for the doctors and fireponies to arrive, John talked with Ironhoof about the crash site and various emergency procedures. He had found out that he had actually crashed outside of the field, but the aircraft's forward momentum brought him into the orchard. He had also unconsciously threaded a needle, crashing in such a way that his aircraft had skidded in between two rows of trees. This gave john a bit of hope, but an equal amount of dread. The main body of his aircraft would hopefully be relatively intact, however, there was only about fifteen feet in between rows of trees. His aircraft had a wingspan of about 17.5 meters, almost sixty feet... There were going to be big things turned into small things, whether it be trees or his aircraft. Stuff would be broken.
It didn't take too long for the emergency services to arrive. When they did, John briefed them on the situation, and what was expected of them if something happened. When he finished, he checked the position of the sun and judged the time to be around noon. He walked over to the group of engineers, Twilight, Rainbow, and Applejack.
They were all talking with each other and didn't notice him. "Okay!" Everyone grew silent. "I need a group of three volunteers to help me scope out the crash site." Ratchet and two other engineers stepped forward. "Alright, you're with me. Everyone else is to remain here until either we come back, or I send someone to get you." Everyone nodded and John grabbed his clipboard and started walking towards the crash site with the volunteers in tow.
It only took them a few minutes to reach the crash site. They would've been there sooner, but John had stopped every few steps to smell the air and scan his surroundings. When the wreck came into view, John felt his heart drop.
When the aircraft had gone between the rows of trees, it had stayed toward the right of the gap, so the entire right wing, engine, and tail section had been ripped off. The left side of the aircraft had fared a little better. The wing had still been sheared off, but there was a small stump jutting out from the side of the fuselage where it had been. Also, the left engine and tail section were still relatively intact. To their credit, both wings had completely smashed through the first trees in each row before being ripped off. The main body of the aircraft, however, had been bent upon impact. The front half was sitting in a rut a few feet deep, whereas the back half was jutting slightly into the air.
John motioned for the three ponies to stay put as he proceeded ahead. He could smell the faint, pungent smell of jet fuel in the air as he walked up to the cockpit. He flipped a few switches, turning off the batteries and any electrical devices. After two weeks, the batteries were probably dead, but he didn't want to take any chances.
He gestured at the ponies, and they walked up to him. "Ok, it looks pretty safe, but I want to make sure. Spread out and look for anything smoking, sparking, wobbling, tipping, turning, or doing anything you don't like." They three ponies split off into different directions while John stayed with the aircraft. He looked back down the rows of trees, past the tail of the aircraft, and examined the rut. Ruts would be a better term. Out past the edge of the field was the first one, but it ended a few feet before the start of the field and began anew a few feet inside the perimeter of the field. John figured that the aircraft had "hopped" after impact.
After deciding that the site was safe, John sent Ratchet back to retrieve everyone else. Even though the wreck looked pretty bad, Most of the pieces were still relatively intact. Hopefully, with enough elbow grease, and a ton of magic, the plane would be able to fly again. In short order, all the ponies had gathered around John by the main body of the aircraft, and were waiting for instructions.
“Alright, first order of business. I want ten ponies to go collect the wings over there,” John pointed at the two large objects near the edge of the orchard, “and take them out into the field. There will be ordinance attached to the underside, so be carful, and call me over if anything falls off, or has already fallen off. Be sure to lay the wings upside-down so that the ordinance is on top. They may be difficult to flip, so if you need help, ask for it. The rest of you are to grab any smaller pieces and take them into the field as well. Dash, Twilight, Applejack, Lightning, and Star are with me. Everyone clear on what needs to be done?” Everyone nodded. “Great, and remember, if you see any ordinance on the ground, call me immediately and don’t touch it.”
With that, Ratchet started dividing the engineers into different groups, and Twilight, AJ, Rainbow, Lightning and Star walked over to John. Twilight and her friends had seen the aircraft when they first found John, but Lightning and Star hadn’t. They were wide-eyed as they looked over the wreck.
“So, you’re telling me, that this thing can fly?” Lightning tapped the side of the fuselage, making a low ‘thunk’ sound.
“Yeah, but it’s not supposed to look like this.”He gestured at the wreck, then pulled out the clipboard and flipped to a clean sheet of paper. He roughly sketched two outline of an A-10, one from the top and one from the side. “This is what it’s supposed to look like. These are the wings, which are over there.” He pointed at the wings on the diagram, then at the bent, broken pieces of metal that the engineers were busy trying to dislodge from the trunks of a few trees. “They provide the lift so that I can get off the ground. The engines,” He pointed at the diagram, then at the two engines, one of which was still attached but the other was a crumpled mess next to a smashed tree. “make the plane go fast, as well as provide the power to keep everything running. The tail helps keep the aircraft stable.”
Twilight was, of course, intrigued. “How exactly do these ‘engines’ work?”
John spent the next few minutes explaining how the engines used fuel and air to provide thrust and power. Rainbow had gotten bored by all the technical talk, and had wandered off. Lightning and Star were staring in awe at all the switches, buttons, and knobs in the cockpit. Applejack simply stood in place and gaped at all her destroyed trees.
“Hey John!” Rainbow came running up to him. “I think I found one of those ordinance things you were talking about.”
“Show me.” Rainbow led him past the nose of the aircraft. After a few steps, she pointed her hoof at a tree. John turned to the group, who were looking at him with concern. “Alright, everyone wait here.” John walked toward the tree that Rainbow had pointed at. When he got close, he saw a 2,000 pound Mk-84 bomb, stuck in the side of the tree. On the ground, he saw several small ruts in the ground, leading back towards the crash. The Mk-84s were stored on the bottom of the main body of the aircraft, so this one must have come loose when the aircraft had hopped, sending the bomb skipping down the row. Upon closer inspection, he could see that the bomb was bent slightly, and the outer casing was cracked. There was no way that he was going to arm his aircraft with structurally unsound ordinance,
Seeing enough, John turned around and headed back toward the waiting ponies. “Lightning, does the royal guard have an explosive disposal team?”
Lightning looked confused. “Yeah, why?” John smiled.
“Twilight, can you send a letter for me?”
“Hey LT, they’re here!”
“Alright, thanks Star!” John walked out into the field where the engineers had just placed one of the wings, and were currently working on moving the second one. The fireponies’ wagon wasn’t too far away, and John noticed that it had been joined by two chariots pulled by royal guards.
As John, exited the orchard, he saw Princess Luna, followed by Princess Celestia and Shining Armor, walk towards him.
“Greetings, Lieutenant. Why hast thou requested our presence, as well as our sister and Captain Armor?”
John saluted. “Ma’am, before we began the process of removing my aircraft from the orchard, I issued a safety brief to everyone that would be near the wreck. I told everyone about the ordinance that my aircraft carries, and everyone here has standing orders to report any loose ordinance. Due to my injuries, I am currently unable to help with the removal process, so I have been telling Miss Sparkle about how my aircraft functions.” Celestia and Shining Armor didn’t look to happy about this.
“You brought my student here!?”
“Ma’am, I requested her presence because I thought she would be interested in the aircraft. Rest assured, she, as well as Miss Dash and Miss Applejack, were present at the safety brief. I also took a team and ensured that the crash site was safe, before allowing anyone to approach. Also, as you can see, I have requested the presence of firefighters and medical personnel in case of an emergency.” Celestia seemed to relax, but Shining Armor still looked rather irked.
“Anyways, while speaking with Miss Sparkle, I was informed by Miss Dash that she had found something that had matched the description I gave of any suspected ordinance. Upon closer inspection, I determined that the object in question was indeed ordinance, to be more specific, a 2,000 pound bomb. Unfortunately, the bomb’s structure has been compromised, and I am not going to risk the safety of anyone by attempting to reuse structurally unsound ordinance. In this situation, standard operating procedure is to dispose of the ordinance, and the most effective way of doing this is to detonate it.”
Applejack overheard the last few words and galloped over. “Ya want ta WHAT!? No. No no no no no NO! Y’all are NOT blowin’ up mah farm!”
John chuckled. “I’m not going to blow up the orchard. I’m going to have the ordinance removed, and detonated at a safe location.” John looked around, then pointed at a small hill about a mile away. “Do you mind if we use that hill?”
“As long as it’s not in mah farm, it’s fine by me.”
John nodded, then Shining Armor spoke up.
“So I assume that’s the reason why one of my ERD teams is here?” Shining Armor pointed a hoof at the second chariot. It looked like a large box on wheels, as opposed to the open-air chariot sitting next to it, and was painted black and had a ramp in back.
“ERD, sir?”
Shining deadpanned. “Explosive Removal and Disposal”
“Ah, then yes.”
Princess Luna looked confused. “Why are the three of us here, then?”
“I wanted the three of you to be here because the Mk-84 is the one of largest weapons that I have at my disposal. I wanted you to witness part of what I am capable of, once my aircraft is repaired. A sort of sneak peek, if you will.” John thought for a moment. “It’s probably going to take some time to get everything set up, so you’re welcome to examine the crash site if you wish. Just don’t touch anything in the small pit with the chair in it. You’ll know when you see it.”
Luna’s eyes brightened, and she nodded. “We think we will. We are quite curious about your flying machine.” She trotted into the orchard, followed by Celestia.
John looked at Shining Armor. “With your permission, sir, I would like to speak with the ERD team.”
The captain began walking towards the black wagon, and gestured at John for him to follow.
“Sergeant! Specialist! Front and Center!”
Two ponies walked out of the back of the wagon, dressed in black, full-body armor that looked like it belonged to a medieval knight but looked beefier and sturdier. They wore accompanying helmets, but the visors were raised.
“Sir!” Both ponies saluted as best they could in the bulky armor.
Shining pointed a hoof at John. “The lieutenant, here, is going to brief you on the situation.”
John took a step forward. “Before we get started, do you have the ability to detonate things remotely, and do you have any explosives in that wagon of yours?”
One of the ponies nodded. “Yes sir. We have several blocks of P4, as well as other charges, detonators, and safety equipment.”
“Excellent. Now, you’re going to be dealing with a 2,000 pound, Mk-84, General-Purpose bomb. It has been structurally compromised and needs to be disposed of, so, we’ll move it to that hill over there,” John pointed at the hill, “and detonate it up remotely. The bomb is perfectly safe, so I’ll have the engineers transport it, but I’ll need you two to rig it up and push the button after I give the all clear. Questions?”
The same pony from before shook his head. “None, sir.”
“Excellent, now grab a few blocks of that P4, a detonator, and sit tight while we move this thing.”
It had taken them the better part of an hour to move the bomb, due to the sheer mass of it. After dislodging it from the tree, it took several of the unicorn engineers to levitate the bomb out of the orchard and into the back of the chariot that the Princesses and Shining Armor had ridden over in. They had then pulled the thing across the mile of open ground and up to the top of the hill, where the ERD ponies had rigged up a few blocks of explosives along the crack in the bomb’s casing while everyone else returned to the impromptu staging area.
While waiting for the explosives experts to return, John spoke to the fireponies, who were gathered around their wagon. When the bomb was detonated, they would make their way to ground zero and put out any fires started by the explosion
When the ERD ponies had walked about halfway back, John sent the chariot to retrieve them, which only took a few minutes. Not long after they landed, everyone was gathered in the staging area, the engineers having stopped work to watch.
John glanced at the ERD pony holding the detonator. "Are we good to go?"
"Yes sir, just waiting on your signal."
"Outstanding." He turned to the rest of the ponies. "You all may want to cover your ears." He then gave a thumbs up to the pony with the detonator, who nodded to his partner.
"FIRE IN THE HOLE! FIRE IN THE HOLE! FIRE IN THE HOLE!"
*beep*
There was a small flash at the top of the hill...
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMmmmmm!!!!!!!
The fireponies boarded their wagon and proceeded to where the hill was..... or used to be.
Every pony that was present now had to pick their jaw up off the ground. As the dust cloud rose and began to dissipate, Rainbow Dash broke the silence.
"That. Was. AWESOME!!!!!"
John laughed. "I'm glad you enjoyed it. Heh, you all should see your faces."
Shining Armor stared at John, mouth agape. "And you can drop those!? From your plane!? While flying!?"
"Yes sir. I am able to deploy bombs of that size and caliber from as high as 45,000 feet above sea level, and can place said bomb with extreme precision and accuracy."
The captain sat down, a dumbfounded look on his face. Twilight, however looked unconvinced. "At that altitude, you can't possibly be that accurate."
John chuckled. "Twilight, from that altitude, I can drop the bomb, guide it down the chimney of Princess Celestia's bed chamber, and leave before the bomb even hit. By the time you figured out what happened, I would already be miles away." Twilight mirrored her brother's expression.
Of course, John knew that performing such a feat with a Mk-84 would be almost impossible, since they weren't guided. The JDAMs in the castle basement, however, were another story.
"Alright, everyone, that's enough gawking, let's get back to work!"
“Careful, just a few more inches… Watch yer hooves.”
Whump
The engineers had just finished laying the second wing in the field, next to the first. At some point, a few of the other engineers, not working on the wings, had moved the smashed engine and tail pieces into the field as well.
Noticing that they were finished, John walked over from where he was speaking with Shining Armor. After making sure that none of the other ordinance was compromised, John had dismissed the ERD ponies
“Alright, good job everyone. I think that’s a good stopping place for today. At the rate we’re going, we’ll be out of here in no time.”
There were a few sighs of relief from the engineers, and John didn’t blame them. They hadn’t exactly been moving around feather pillows. In fact, he was surprised that the ponies were even able to move the wings in the first place, especially with most of the ordinance still attached. A few rockets had come out of their tubes, and a cluster bomb had sheared off its mounts. To be safe, John made an inventory of all the weapons. The only things he couldn’t find were two Mk-84s, but, to be fair, he had just blown one up, so that left only one weapon unaccounted for. John wasn’t too worried though, since the massive bombs were stored on the mounts directly under the main body. The other bomb was most likely wedged between the fuselage and the ground, at the bottom of the rut the plane had made.
As if on cue, Ratchet walked up, looking exhausted. “I still think there’s no way in Tartarus that this thing can fly. It’s too damned heavy”
John smiled. “Keep telling yourself that. Anyways, same time tomorrow?”
“Sure thing.”
“Alright, see you then.” They parted and John returned to Shining and the girls.
Shortly after the detonation of the bomb, John had checked over the rest of the ordinance to check for faults, and, finding none (other than some bent fins on a few bombs and some smashed seeker heads on some missiles), he dismissed the ERD team. The Princesses departed as well, but Shining Armor asked if he could remain behind.
John was worried at first, but he was surprised when Shining began questioning him about all the weapons that his aircraft could carry. He spent the next hour or so explaining the different types of ordinance and what their purposes were.
“Alright guys, it’s been a long day, I’m tired, let’s get out of here.”
Rainbow looked at him with a funny expression. “Tired!? How can you possibly be tired? You haven’t done anything all day, except talk about boring stuff.”
“I can’t exactly do anything other than talk.” John gestured at his sling. “Besides, you didn’t seem all that bored when I was talking about my weapons.”
Rainbow flustered. “Well… Yeah… Because they all explode!” She then acted out the events that had occurred earlier, including hoof gestures and sound effects, causing everyone to laugh. After a few minutes, they all made their way back to where John had given the safety brief earlier that morning.
John saw his duffel bag sitting where he had left it, and placed his clipboard inside, zipping it up. He shouldered the bag, then looked around and spotted the pony he wanted to talk with.
“Hey Sergeant! Can you come here for a sec?”
Ironhoof trotted over and saluted. “Sir?”
“We’ve moved several pieces of the aircraft into the field west of here to facilitate transportation. I want you to station a few guards over there as well. You can also decrease the radius of the perimeter if you want, the area is safe. Same rules apply though, no one gets in without my say-so.”
“Yes sir!” The stallion ran off to relay the orders to his men.
John looked up and determined that it was only about four in the afternoon. Rarity probably wouldn’t have his stuff finished yet, and his arm was still in the sling so he couldn’t help Applejack, so he didn’t really have anything to do. He didn’t feel like carrying the duffel bag around all day, and he was rather tired, so John decided that he would go back to the guard station and take a nap. John voiced his opinions to everyone.
“A NAP!? You can’t take a nap!” Twilight didn’t approve.
Rainbow yawned. “Actually, a nap sounds pretty awesome right now.”
Twilight glared at the rainbow maned Pegasus. “No! Nopony is taking a nap. We’re going to take John… on a… uh… tour of Ponyville! Yeah.”
Everyone looked at the lavender mare with suspicious looks, but John shrugged and decided to go with it. He had nothing better to do, and a tour would give him a chance to learn the layout of the town.
"Uhhh... Sure, why not. But first can I-" John saw that Twilight wasn't paying attention, but instead was making odd faces at her brother. The weird part was that he was making faces right back at her. John assumed that the two were having some sort of wordless conversation, which ended with a Pinkie Pie sized grin on Twilight's face and an exasperated sigh and roll-of-the-eyes from her brother.
Shining pointed a hoof at Lightning. "Corporal, can you please take the Lieutenant's bag back to his bunk, then come find us."
The Pegasus raised an eyebrow and took the bag from John. "Uh, certainly, sir." With a puff of dust, Lightning took off and headed toward the guard station.
“Alright, Ponyville is pretty big, so we should probably get started.”
“That’s it?” Twilight nodded. John was utterly confused. Ponyville was so small that the group had walked from one side to the other in a little under fifteen minutes. “How on earth did I get lost for forty-five minutes!?”
Rainbow Dash almost died of laughter. “BWAHAHAHA!!! YOU GOT LOST!?”
“Yeah.”
“But…. Hehe… How? Ponyville is, like, one of the smallest towns in Equestria.”
John rolled his eyes. “I have no clue. Everything is so close together, it’s like a miniature city.”
He wasn’t kidding. Ponyville had everything that a small city would have; Houses, stores, vendors, businesses, a night club, taverns, a hospital, fire department, guard station, weather service, movie theater, town hall, and even a small outdoor amphitheater. The only downside was that everything was crammed into about one square mile of terrain, and since there weren’t any apartment complexes, malls, or office buildings, there were buildings everywhere. The only exceptions were Applejack’s farm, Fluttershy’s cottage, and the library, which were all on the outskirts.
"Besides, nobody told me that Rarity's place actually looked like a carousel. Now that I think about it, I'm not surprised. I probably walked past the place ten times this morning."
Rainbow's laughter suddenly stopped. "Y-you went to Rarity's this morning?"
John raised an eyebrow, curious at the mare's reaction. "Yeah, I brought some clothes back from the castle that were a bit too big for me, so she's resizing them for me. That's all." John glanced at Rainbow as she let out an almost imperceptible sigh. "Something you want to tell me?"
Rainbow's cheeks turned as red as Big Mac as she stumbled a few steps before recovering and stuttering a few words in response. "N-n-no, n-nothing! I-it's nothing."
John was unconvinced, but decided not to press the matter. He was somewhat relieved when Twilight cleared her throat and announced their next destination. "Alright then! Now, we've seen almost the entire town, but you still haven't been to Sugarcube Corner. Seeing as you skipped lunch, John, I vote that we stop there and get something to eat." There was a chorus of yeah's and ok's.
John shrugged. "Why not." As if to punctuate his words, his stomach growled loudly, followed by chuckles from everyone.
Everyone was happily chatting as they walked to the bakery, but as they approached, John's gut told him that something was wrong. All the lights were off, window blinds closed, and the door was shut. Add Twilight's earlier behavior, and John felt like something just didn't add up.
Twilight glanced at everyone, which made John pause. "Oh, look, there's Sugarcube Corner! I'll just... go... getatablereadyandtellPinkiewe'recoming!" The Lavender mare rocketed forward, closely followed by Rainbow, Applejack, and Shining Armor. They made it to the door, opened it, filed in, then slammed it shut again all in the span of about 0.023 seconds, leaving a stunned Lightning, Star, and John standing in a dissipating dust cloud.
"Um... What in Tartarus just happened?" Star was shaking his head in disbelief.
John approached the door. "I have no idea, but I have a feeling that it won't end well." He grabbed the handle and cautiously opened the door, revealing a darkened room full of tables and chairs with a counter and display case on the far side of the room.
John didn't like it. It was too quiet, and there was nobody in the room, the same room that four ponies had entered not fifteen seconds ago.
He backed out of the doorway and stacked up on the door, pressing his back to the wall. After a few quick hand signals to Lightning and Star, the trio swiftly entered the building and split up, Star following the left wall, Lightning took the right wall, and John went straight up the middle. He was almost to the when the door slammed shut and plunged the room into complete darkness.
"What the fu-"
BOOM!!!!!!
John's instincts took over as he dove over the counter and drew his sidearm, ignoring a slight twinge coming from his left arm.
“What the hell is going on?” John’s heart was beating a mile a minute as he tried to figure out what was going on. All of a sudden, a pink blur shot around the end of the counter and stopped in front of him, materializing into Pinkie Pie holding a small cannon.
“SURPRISE!”
John whipped up his sidearm and aimed it at the mare, but lowered it once he recognized who it was. “Holy hell, Pinkie. You scared the shit out of me.”
Pinkie giggled. “Oh, silly, it wouldn’t be a surprise party if you knew about it! Then, it would be an un-surprise party!”
“So… if this is a party, then why are you holding a cannon?”
More giggles. “This is my Party Cannon! I use it to set up parties in a jiffy, see!” She stood on her hind legs and pointed a hoof at the interior of the room.
Peeking over the top of the counter, John’s mouth hit the floor. The room, which had been completely empty (with the exception of the tables and chairs), was now fully decorated with balloons, streamers, confetti, a table full of food and a few gifts, and even a banner that read ‘Congratulations for not Dying, Get Well Soon, Thank You for not Blowing Up Ponyville, and Welcome to Ponyville John’. The room was also full of ponies, who all yelled ‘Surprise’ when they saw him peek over the counter.
He slowly stood up and holstered his weapon when he noticed Twilight walking up to him. “I assume you’re to blame for all this?”
She laughed. “Oh, I had some help.”
John walked out from behind the counter and surveyed the crowd in the room. He saw a few familiar faces, like Twilight, all of her friends, Lightning and Star, Shining Armor, and Lieutenant Crimson; but there were also a few unfamiliar ones A grey Pegasus with googly eyes, an aquamarine mare who was staring at him with wide eyes, a beige mare with a curly blue and pink mane, and a white mare wearing a pair of purple glasses and standing behind some turntables.
“How could you have possibly had help?”
“Oh, Pinkie has wanted to throw you a party since you arrived,” John glanced at the pink mare, who was nodding furiously, “but you were in the hospital. We were going to have the party yesterday, but you had to go to Canterlot, so, after you stopped the work at Sweet Apple Acres, I sent a message to Pinkie and made up an excuse to bring you here.”
Something didn’t add up. “Wait, if you were with me all day, how did you send Pinkie a message? The only perso- er, pony, that left was……....” John’s eyes narrowed as realization slapped him across the face. “Oh, I’m gonna kill him.”
\\\
Big Mac was pulling a cart full of apples to the family stall in the market. Today had been a pretty eventful day, to say the least. First, the human that his sis had talked about had showed up, then, the Princesses arrived and the hill out past the south field blew up. He didn’t know what all that was about, but he didn’t really care, so long as his work got done.
He was coming up to Sugarcube Corner when he heard a muffled ‘Bang’ and the door flew open.
“GYAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!!!”
He stopped chewing on the piece of straw in his mouth to watch a dark blue Pegasus shoot out of the building and fly past him, landing in a heap on the other side of the road.
Clearly dazed, the Pegasus got up and stumbled back into the building.
Big Mac just shook his head and continued pulling the cart. “Eeyup.”
\\\
“Hey, Pinkie, do you mind if I borrow your cannon for a second?”
A large grin slowly spread across Pinkie’s face. “Of course, Johnny-wonny! Just push the big red button.” She handed John the cannon, which was surprisingly light.
John walked over to Lightning and Star, who were busy flipping up the table that Star had kicked over to take cover behind when the cannon went off. He put the cannon on the ground behind the unsuspecting pair and took aim.
“Hey, Lightning!”
“Yeah?” The Pegasus turned around, eyed growing wide when he saw the cannon pointed at him with the human standing behind it, a sinister grin on his face.
“Surprise.” John kicked the big red button on the back of the cannon.
BOOM!!!!!!
Lightning was hit full on in the chest by a supersonic bundle of confetti, sending him flying out the front door.
Picking up the cannon, John returned it to Pinkie, who was rolling around on the floor in a fit of laughter. In fact, the only ones NOT laughing were Star and Twilight, but Star didn’t really count since he looked like he had just seen his life flash before his eyes.
Twilight, on the other hand… hoof?... was not amused.
“Why the hay did you do that!?”
John shrugged, placing the cannon on the floor. "I don't like surprises."
Pinkie immediately stopped laughing and gasped, sucking in all the air within a ten foot radius. "Why not!?"
"Because I'm a Pilot. When you're flying at 350 miles-per-hour, thousands of feet in the air, inside a giant metal death-machine, surprises are generally VERY bad. Plus, I almost shot you."
"Oh! OK!" She smiled and happily bounced away.
Twilight seemed to calm down when she saw Lightning stumble through the door as soon as John stopped talking. "Wait, what kinds of surprises could possibly be that bad?"
John thought for a moment. "Let's see... I could have an engine failure, hydraulics failure, oxygen system failure, ejection seat failure, GPS failure, radar failure, electrical failure, fuel leak, fire, I could get hit by a missile or anti-aircraft fire, stumble across enemy aircraft, get hit by a rogue artillery shell, the list goes on... and on... and-"
Twilight rolled her eyes. "Ok, I get it. Has any of that stuff happened to you?"
John chuckled. "Yes, actually, but that's a story for another time. Suffice it to say, I needed a new flight suit and I had to clean the seat out."
The unicorn stared at him for a moment, confused, but then grimaced as she realized what he was talking about. "Sounds..... Interesting..."
"That's not even the half of it. Anyways, we should probably get back to the party.”
“Oooh, my head…”
John rubbed his forehead as he walked back to the guard station with Lightning and Star.
\\\
The party had gone off without a hitch… for the most part.
Due to the fact that John didn’t know very many ponies in town, Pinkie hadn’t invited very many. In fact, she had really only invited the DJ, Vinyl Scratch. Derpy was there because she wanted to pick up an order of muffins, and Lyra found out (somehow) that John would be at Sugarcube Corner and she didn’t want to pass up a chance to meet a human, and Bon Bon tagged along to make sure that she didn’t get into trouble. John didn’t mind though, he liked meeting new faces, and Lyra had some very interesting questions for him. At one point, she had tried to lick his ear. At that point, he decided to go get a piece of cake.
All of the food and refreshments were supplied by Pinkie (duh), and were absolutely amazing. John had surprised himself by eating almost half the cake singlehandedly, causing Pinkie to break the fabric of time and space by pulling another cake out of thin air. He decided not to question it, he didn’t want to hurt his brain. Instead, he brought his attention to a pile of packages at the end of the table.
John hadn’t expected any gifts, nor did he really want them. After a rather large fuss with Rarity (who was the one that had brought them), he consented and opened them. After a few minutes of opening packages, John ended up with a sizable pile of clothing that Rarity had been working on for the past week and a half. The garments ranged from multi-colored t-shirts, to jeans, to button up dress shirts. She had even finished refitting the BDUs and completed the patch that John had her make. Since he still had only one arm, as further punishment for surprising him, John sent Lightning back to the guard station to retrieve his bag.
There had been entertainment, such as a DJ and various games, but John had opted to just sit and observe everyone. Occasionally, someone would approach him with a question, which he would happily answer. It’s not that he didn’t like parties, he just wasn’t social enough to participate in the same ways as everyone else, so he always found somewhere to sit and observe. At one point, Rainbow came over to him after finishing a hoof wrestling match with Applejack (that ended in a draw) and asked him why he was just sitting there. He tried explaining that he had fun by being around other people having fun (if that makes sense), which only ended up with him getting called a changeling and receiving a hoof to the forehead. The situation was easily defused by Twilight, who said something along the lines of “Changelings can’t turn into humans”.
At some point during the party, Pinkie had started spiking the punch bowl, and, by the end of the night, almost everyone was stumbling and falling over. John wasn’t a big fan of punch, so he was the only one that was unaffected. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop everyone from running into him, which was how he ended up tripping over Rarity and smacking his forehead (which was already bruised from Rainbow’s punch) on a table.
He left shortly after the incident, on account of the headache and because it had gotten dark and he needed to be up in the morning.
\\\
The trio made it to the guard station without incident, although John almost had to carry the two ponies to keep them from falling over every few steps.
When they opened the door, they were met by the Sergeant from the night before, sitting at the front desk. He noticed the human first. “Good evening, sir. Hope you had a good day.” He then looked at the two ponies by John’s side. “If I may ask, what happened to those two?... and the Lieutenant, for that matter. He said something about a party?” The Sergeant pointed a hoof at the LT’s door, which was ajar and had a pair of red legs sticking out of it.
Lieutenant Crimson had left the party shortly after he, and everyone else, had become tipsy. Apparently, he had made it back to the station alright, but had passed out in the doorway of his office.
John rolled his eyes. “Pinkie spiked the punch.”
The Sergeant looked at John, then at the two ponies attempting to climb the stairs, and started cracking up. “That’d do it. Anyways, The LT mumbled something about you being in charge until he recovered, before he fell on his face.”
John let out a sigh. “Alright. I assume everyone already knows what they’re supposed to do tomorrow?”
The stallion nodded. “The shift schedule was posted yesterday, so there shouldn’t be any problems.”
“Good. I’ve got to head down to Sweet Apple Acres tomorrow morning, so, assuming Red takes the day off tomorrow, that’s where I’ll be.” John looked over to Star, who had just tripped and fell down the stairs, blabbering something about escalators and dragging Lightning down with him. “I’d better go make sure those two don’t kill themselves. Come get me if you need anything or if something comes up.”
The Sergeant saluted. “Will do, sir.”
With that, John walked to the bottom of the stairs and picked up Star, since he was on top, and carried him up the stairs. John returned to Lightning, who had already fallen asleep, and carried him up as well.
After getting both ponies into their respective beds, John walked to his own and shrugged off his duffel bag and opened it. He then opened the chest and pulled out his rifle and pushed all his gear to one side of the chest. Reaching into the duffel bag, he pulled out the clothes that Rarity had made for him, as well as two of the BDU sets, and put them in the now empty side of the chest.
Shutting the chest, he placed the third BDU set on top of it, kicked the duffel bag under the bed, propped the rifle against the wall, and unclipped his sidearm from around his waist. He took his sling off and quickly disrobed and climbed into bed, setting the alarm clock as he did so.
---
John was jolted awake when the door to the room burst open.
“Lieutenant! Get yer gear! We’ve got a BIG problem!”
A/N Sorry it took so long. Be sure to read the author's note at the bottom. Just as a warning, there will be a lot of perspective switching throughout this chapter. Hopefully y'all can follow.
“Oh, you’ve got to be shitting me!” John groaned, quickly rolling out of bed. He jogged across the room and hit the light switch, causing magical balls of light to appear near the ceiling. “EVERYONE UP!” He yelled, wanting to wake the other four guards that had been sleeping. Anything that required him to gear up couldn’t possibly be good. He wanted as much help as he could get.
Two of the guards immediately jumped up and started donning their armor, but, unfortunately, Lightning and Star were completely dead to the world, which meant Crimson was probably out too. He would have to have a chat with Pinkie later.
“Give me a SITREP!” John walked back to his chest and put on the fatigues sitting on top of it, completely ignoring his sling lying next to them. It would only slow him down.
The stallion in the doorway cautiously stepped into the room. “About ten minutes ago, three Manticores came running out of the Everfree and started rampaging through town, destroying anything and everything in their way. We’re doing everything we can, but we can’t hold them for much longer. I got here as fast as I could.”
John finished tying his boots and opened the chest, pulling out the tactical vest. “Alright, where are they now? And how many casualties are there?” He contemplated trying to wake Lightning and Star, but, even if he did, he had been through enough hangovers to know that they would be in no condition to fight a Manticore, let alone three.
“Right now, they’re in the market district, but they’ve somehow set fire to a few of the stalls. The fire brigade can’t get in there to put it out, and it’s starting to spread. As for casualties, most of the townsponies were already inside, so there are very few civilian injuries. However, we’ve already lost one guard, and three others are injured... but that was before I left”
John quickly did the math. Of the fifteen guards in town’s garrison, one was dead, three were injured, and three were incapacitated. That left himself, the three other guards in the room, and four others in good condition.
“Shit. Ok,” John grabbed his sidearm and clipped it around his waist, below the vest. He then pointed at the Pegasus guard that had just finished putting his armor on. “I want you to go to the crash site at Sweet Apple Acres and get Sergeant Ironhoof. Have him rendezvous with us in the market, but make sure he leaves a few guards at the crash site. If he gives you any shit, tell him I’ll kick his ass if he doesn’t get it over here.”
“Yes sir!” The guard ran out the door.
John grabbed his rifle and walked over to the second guard. “I want you to go to the Library and wake up Twilight. Inform her of the situation. If things go south, we’ll need reinforcements. Tell her to send a letter to the Princess, Luna if possible, and have her put together a response team, but keep them on standby until we need them.” The guard turned to leave, but John held up his hand causing him to pause. “Stay with Twilight until this thing’s over. She’s our link to the Princesses, and we can’t lose her. Keep her safe.”
The guard saluted and left. John checked the magazine in the rifle, making sure it was full. He pulled the charging handle, chambering a round with a *cli-clack*. He turned to the stallion that had woken him. “Take me to them.”
The streets were practically deserted. Every so often, John would see the figure of a pony dart across the street or look out a window, but nobody stuck around.
As the two got close to the market, John could hear shouting and roaring. He picked up his pace, but kept his rifle raised just in case. Soon, the smell of smoke permeated the air and the roaring intensified, accompanied by the crackling of fire.
John turned the final corner to the marketplace and took a moment to look over the situation. He knew the layout of the market from Twilight’s tour earlier; it was basically a giant circle in the middle of town, with various stalls lined up around the edge. However, he wasn’t particularly prepared for what he saw.
The marketplace looked like Hell.
There were broken and shattered stalls scattered throughout the marketplace. Toward the far side, a few of the stalls were on fire, but the fire had spread to the nearby houses. John had to squint to see them, but he could see the figures of a few guards and fire ponies taking cover behind various buildings and stalls that were still standing.
A loud roar derailed John’s train of thought.
“Sweet Celestia! Here it comes!”
Two guards taking cover behind one of the few intact stalls barely had time to move before a giant creature ran out of the smoke and began pummeling the stand into toothpicks.
John couldn’t help but admire the guards’ bravery as they quickly recovered from the assault and began jabbing at the beast with their spears.
Their offensive was short lived, however, as the Manticore swatted one of the guards away with its massive paw. The second guard hesitated for a split second, but that was all the beast needed.
John watched as the Manticore raised a paw to squish the pony like a bug.
////
"You okay?"
"Hurtin', but good."
Rumbler and Thunderclap were two of the lucky ones that weren't too terribly injured. When the attack had started, it was through sheer dumb luck that they were towards the rear of the formation when they were ambushed.
They had received an anonymous tip that a Manticore had wandered into town and was currently occupying itself by throwing a tantrum in the market.
This kind of thing had happened before, so they all had a general idea of what to do. You get a group of about ten guards, form a semicircle around the Manticore, then herd the animal in the direction you want. So, the Sergeant in command gathered the nine guards out on patrol, and they all headed toward the market.
It would've worked fine... if there had been only one Manticore.
The moment they entered the market, they were almost immediately charged by three Manticores, instead of only one.
Within the first few seconds, one guard was dead and at least three others were seriously injured. That was when the Sergeant realized that the excrement had hit the air circulation device, so he had his ponies take cover where they could and sent a flier back to the guard station. Soon, fire ponies arrived to put out the fire that had sprung up on the far side of the market, but they weren't fighters. So, they just tried their best to collect the wounded, suffering some casualties themselves as they were harassed by the three beasts.
The remaining guards did their best to stay alive long enough for reinforcements to arrive. They were somewhat successful. Most were still alive, but Thunderclap and Rumbler were the only two left standing.
“Sweet Celestia! Here it comes!”
Rumbler's eyes went wide. "Oh shit."
They could feel the ground start to shake as the Manticore descended upon the stall they were using as cover. Being a Pegasus, Thunderclap's reflexes were a bit faster than Rumbler's, so he practically crash tackled the earth pony away from the stall.
As soon as they hit the dirt, the only sounds they could hear were the sounds of splintering wood and a grumbling Manticore.
Seeing that the beast was preoccupied, the two ponies stood and exchanged glances. As one, they charged the Manticore and started jabbing it with their spears... which only seemed to make it angry.
*WHUMP*
"AHHHH!"
Rumbler looked over to see Thunderclap sailing through the air, landing in a heap a few meters away
Unfortunately, now there was nothing to distract the Manticore from Rumbler, who looked on in horror as the Manticore raised a massive paw over his head.
"...Horseapples."
He closed his eyes and thought about how he had failed everyone.
*BANG-BANG-BANG!......BA-BA-BA-BA-BA-BANG!*
"........"
////
John couldn't stand by any longer. Much to the dismay of the guard next to him, he stepped out from behind the corner of the building.
"What the HAY are you doing!?"
He ignored the stallion, took aim, and pulled the trigger.
*BANG-BANG-BANG!*
He fired off three rounds, semi-auto, aiming for center mass. The rounds hit their mark, right in the Manticore's chest. Unfortunately, they didn't seem to have much effect, other than causing the thing to stop and look up at him.
It looked angry.
John mumbled a curse and switched to full auto... aiming for the face.
*BA-BA-BA-BA-BA-BANG!*
...
ROOOOOOAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!
"... Fuck me..."
John was preparing for the thing to flat out charge him and drill his ass into the dirt, but instead, the Manticore looked as if it was swatting at a swarm of hornets buzzing around its head.
He shrugged... and continued pumping rounds into the thing, advancing on it as he did so.
Round after round was sent careening into the Manticore, which was staggering backwards, still swatting around its face.
John's temper was starting to flare as he slowly walked through the carnage. He had burned through almost four magazines, and was just about to slap the fifth in when the Manticore fell, unceremoniously, into the dirt.
Swapping out for a fresh magazine, John slowly walked up to the large animal and fired a few rounds into its head, for good measure. He paused for a moment and looked over the creature. Its face was a bloody, almost unrecognizable mess. Apparently, Manticore skulls were practically bulletproof.
The crash of a falling timber brought John back to reality.
He looked around and surveyed the battlefield. There were very few stalls still standing, a few bodies were scattered around the edge of the circle, and the fire was quickly getting out of control.
It took him a second to find his voice. After all his years of combat flying, he was used to seeing carnage, but it looked completely different when you were a few thousand feet in the air and watching through a TV screen.
He jogged over to the stallion that almost got turned into a pony pancake. "You alright?"
"Y-yeah, thanks, sir. Name's Rumbler."
John sighed. One small victory. He then switched into command mode and began issuing rapid-fire orders to anyone within earshot. "Alright, we need to get that fire put out before it spreads any further! Get into those houses and make sure nobody's in there! If you have to, knock on a few doors and get help!" The fire ponies immediately sprang into action, a few going to pull their wagon out of an alley, the rest running towards the burning buildings. He pointed at the guard that he had left behind when he began firing on the Manticore. "I need you to double-time it to the hospital and get as many doctors as they can spare! The rest of you..." He looked around. The only ones standing were himself and Rumbler. "Shit... Alright, let's see to the wounded as best we can. Reinforcements should be here soon."
"*sigh* I hope you weren't expecting much."
John turned around and saw a battered and bloody group of guards, numbering five in total. It took him a second to recognize sergeant Ironhoof through the gore. "Holy shit, what happened to you?"
"We ran into one of your friends. The only problem was that, for some reason, normal tactics don't work against these motherbuckers. I lost one of my ponies when that thing steamrolled us, three more were critically injured before we finally managed to drive it off. I left two guys back there to take care of the poor bastards... Looks like you've had some fun too."
John looked around. "Yeah. I was still back at the station when I got the news. Anonymous tip said there was only one of them, but these guys got hit by three. Killed that one," John gestured over his shoulder at the massive body. "so that means two more are still out there." He looked over the group of ponies in front of him and checked his ammo supply. "And from the looks of it, we've got a snowball's chance in hell of getting rid of them without help."
"You could say that again."
John hung his head and placed a hand on his forehead. "I really hoped it wouldn't have come to this." He looked up at Ironhoof. "It’s safe here, for now. I need you and your men to stay here and do what you can to help. I've got doctors on the way. If you can, get all the wounded back to the guard station, it's safer than out here." Ironhoof nodded, and john turned toward Rumbler. "Take me to the library."
////
////
"Twilight. Hey Twilight..... TWILIGHT!!"
Twilight cracked her eyes open, wincing from her splitting headache. "Oooh, my head. Not so loud Spike."
The small dragon rolled his eyes. "Don't you have some sort of anti-headache spell or something?" Twilight stared at the dragon for a few seconds, then flared her magic. Spike faceclawed. "Anyways, there's a pony here to see you. He says it's urgent."
Twilight screwed up her face in confusion, then looked at her clock. "Who would need to talk to me at this hour?"
Spike shrugged. "Looked like a guard. Must be important."
"What do you mean, 'looked like a guard'?"
Spike deadpanned. "It was dark. Didn't want to turn the lights on and wake everyone."
"Oh, right." Twilight remembered that all her friends had decided to sleep over at the library after the party, seeing as they all could barely walk in a moderately straight line.
Twilight opened her door and walked down the stairs into the dimly lit library. When she reached the bottom, she noticed the silhouette of a pony that appeared to be wearing armor standing by the front door. Man, Spike wasn’t kidding. I can barely see a thing in here. She turned around and flipped a light switch at the bottom of the stairs, bathing the library’s interior in a warm glow of light, and eliciting a few groans from the sleeping ponies sprawled out on the floor.
The guard blinked a few times, letting his eyes adjust to the light, then walked across the room, carefully avoiding the sleeping ponies. “I’m sorry to bother you at this time of night, Miss, but there’s a… situation… in town.”
Twilight narrowed her eyes. “What kind of situation?”
“Three Manticores have attacked the town. They are currently in the market district, and I have orders to inform Canterlot of the situation”
Twilight’s jaw dropped. ”WHAT!!!” More groans were heard from the floor. “Not good. This is NOT GOOD! SPIIIIIIIKE!!!!!!”
A grumbling baby dragon walked out of Twilight’s room and began descending the stairs, ears covered. “Sheesh, Twi, you don’t have to be so loud all the time. Wha’dya want?”
“I need you to send a letter to the Princess. Manticores are attacking Ponyville!”
“……” Spike stared at Twilight for a moment, then proceeded to roll around on the floor laughing. “BWAHAHAHAHA! Oh man! Good one Twi!”
Twilight looked as if she was about to brain aneurism, but the guard simply cleared his throat and gave the baby dragon the typical ‘Royal Guard Stare’. “She’s not lying.”
Spike blinked as realization slapped him across the face. It took him all of half a second to pull out a piece of parchment and quill.
The guard walked over and stood next to Spike. "Alright, listen closely, and write down everything I say exactly as I say it."
////
Luna was sitting on her throne, and there was only one word that would describe how she felt. Bored. She had never liked listening to pompous nobles prattle on about whatever the 'lowly peasants' were doing wrong or why they should be entitled to things. She had stopped listening to the stallion in front of her almost immediately after he began speaking. In fact, she was almost ready to take a nap, which was surprising since she had slept almost the entire day before and she had only been awake for a few hours.
"-and so that is why his house should be demolished and a decorative fountain be built in its pla-"
*POOF*
Luna's eyes shot open as a scroll appeared in front of her. The noble didn't look too amused.
"Why, the AUDACITY!" The noble spat, "I have been waiting two days for this audience, and it is interrupted by a floating piece of... of, PAPER."
The Princess ignored the flustered pony and grabbed the scroll with her magic, opening it.
REQUEST FOR REINFORCEMENTS
Recipient: Princess Luna Sender: PVT Shimmering Stars (U-1602-6)
Under Orders From: 1st LT John Killinger
Reason for Request: Ponyville under attack from three (3) Manticores originating from Everfree Forest. Situation deemed as CAT=ALPHA/X-RAY. Local guard contingent ineffective. Heavy casualties sustained. Possibility of harm to ELEMENTS. Possibility of loss of Ponyville.
Action Taken: Request for reinforcements sent by 1st LT Killinger to forces stationed at SITE D04. Forces sent to location of ELEMENTS to ascertain status (All six (6) ASSETS deemed safe at this time). 1st LT Killinger departed to aid forces in defense of Ponyville.
Action Requested: Assembly of Strike Team for aid of Ponyville. To be placed on STANDBY until deemed required by 1st LT Killinger. Size of force required, unknown.
Notes: Further Intel/Status Updates will be sent when information received.
"-bsolutely PREPOSTEROUS!"
Luna had had enough. "SILENCE!!!!"
At the use of the Royal Canterlot Voice, the noble practically back flipped through the throne room doors. Normally, this would have put a smile on the Princess' face, but not now.
"SERGEANT!"
One of the guards standing at attention along the walls came running to the throne, giving the Princess a precise salute. "Yes, Milady?"
Luna levitated the scroll to the guard. "Take this to Captain Armor. Have him ready an airship." She stood from her place at the throne and descended from the dais.
"Right away, Ma-am! If I may ask, where are you going?"
Luna turned toward the guard, fire in her eyes. "To rouse our Knights."
////
"Yes."
"No."
"Yes!"
"No."
"YES!"
"No."
"YES!!!"
"For the last time, No. I'm sorry, Ms. Sparkle, but I am under direct orders from the Lieutenant. I cannot permit you to leave the premises."
Twilight huffed. She had been arguing with the guard for over ten minutes.
After Spike had sent the letter, she had woken up all her friends (who were none too happy about it). A quick spell to relieve the effects of their hangovers, and an explanation to inform everyone of the current situation, caused the inhabitants of the library to turn into something akin to a bunch of zombie apocalypse survivors.
The guard was standing in front of the door making sure nothing got in or out, Twilight was arguing with the guard about leaving to help other ponies, Fluttershy was quivering beneath the table she was hiding under, Rainbow Dash was going on about how she was going to 'kick some Manticore flank', Rarity and Applejack were worrying about their siblings, and Pinkie Pie was bouncing around on the ceiling. Spike was just standing at the foot of the stairs, watching the mayhem.
Twilight thought for a moment. "The Lieutenant? The last time I saw him, he could barely stand... because somepony spiked the punch... again."
The guard rolled his eyes. "Not that lieutenant, the other one."
Twilight's brow furrowed in confusion. "But he's the only..... oh, that lieutenant."
"Yeah, that one. And seeing as Crimson left him in charge, he has full command over any and all royal guard in town. He only wants to keep everyone safe, and I'm not about to break orders."
Both Twilight and the guard jumped when they heard a voice on the other side of the door.
"Damn straight you're not, now open the door."
The guard unlocked and opened the door, revealing a stressed looking human in full battle gear and a guard that looked beat to hell. "Sweet Celestia! What happened to you, Rumbler?"
Rumbler huffed. "Good to see you too, Shimmer."
John walked into the library, closely followed by Rumbler. When they were both inside, the door was shut and locked again.
////
Upon entering the library, John unslung his rifle and propped it up against the wall. "Alright, Shimmer was it?"
The guard at the door saluted. "Private Shimmering Stars, sir."
John nodded. "I assume you sent the letter?"
"Correct, sir. I received confirmation a few minutes ago that an airship and a contingent of reinforcements has been placed on standby, awaiting your orders."
John paused and surveyed the room. Every single set of eyes was directed at him. "Send it."
////
*POOF*
Luna was standing in front of the awaiting airship, a contingent of Lunar Knights behind her and Shining Armor next to her, when the letter appeared.
REQUEST FOR REINFORCEMENTS
Recipient: Princess Luna Sender: PVT Shimmering Stars (U-1602-6)
Under Orders From: 1st LT John Killinger
Reason for Request: Reinforcements deemed required by 1st LT Killinger. Forces from SITE D04 suffered heavy losses en-route to aid local forces.
Action Taken: Attempting relocation of casualties to local HQ; medical staff en-route, under escort. Attempting relocation of ELEMENTS to local HQ; under escort.
Action Requested: Reinforcements sent ASAP
Notes: If possible, reinforcements are to help extinguish fires in market district after threat has been neutralized. One (1) Manticore dispatched by 1st LT Killinger. Lethal force has been used and is authorized.
"It is time. Captain Sanguine, ready thy troops."
"Yes, Milady." The Captain turned to face the rest of the Knights. "YOU HEARD YOUR PRINCESS! MOUNT UP! MOVE! MOVE! MOVE!"
With practiced movements, all the Knights, as well as the Princess, the Lunar Knight Captain, and Shining Armor, were onboard the airship in a matter of seconds. A few minutes later, the airship was zooming towards Ponyville.
////
The guard station was utter chaos. Wounded ponies were everywhere, doctors and nurses were running around trying to help everyone, and ponies were showing up seeking refuge. It was so bad that John and the rest of his group could barely get through the door. Apparently, the Manticores weren't distinguishing between guards and civilians.
"Jesus Christ, it's a mess in here." John had to literally step over ponies in order to get to the stairs. Ascending them and opening the door to the guards' quarters, he saw that Lightning and Star were still sleeping. Gesturing at the two ponies, John walked across the room to his chest and pulled out the can of 5.56 ammunition. "Twilight, is there anything that you can do about those two?"
"Of course." John watched as twilight levitated the two guards a few inches into the air, then dropped them on the floor, waking them instantly. She then cast another spell, but John didn't know what that one was for.
John began refilling his spent magazines. "What was that last spell for?"
"Oh, that was just to relieve the effects of the hangover."
"Ah." John cleared his throat, getting the attention of Lightning and Star, who were rubbing their heads and looking at all the ponies in the room with confused expressions. "You two better get your gear on. Ponyville is under attack and we need all the help we can get." John then turned to the girls and two other guards. "Girls, I need you to stay here and do what you can to help. Same for you Rumbler, you're in no condition to fight." There was some grumbling from Rainbow Dash, but it was quickly quelled by a raised hand. " Twilight, if you could, can you go wake up the Lieutenant if he's not already up?" Twilight nodded then left. "Fluttershy, I'm sure the doctors could use a hand downstairs. If there's not enough room down there, bring some ponies up here. Pinkie Pie, if you could, go outside and try to cheer everyone up. Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow, try to help out wherever you can, but do NOT leave this station." A few nods and grumbles later, the only ponies left in the room were Rumbler, Shimmer, Lightning, and Star. "Rumbler and Shimmer, stay here and try to keep everyone calm and as organized as possible. I'm sure the Lieutenant will help."
"Yes, sir!"
John finished reloading all of his magazines.
"What are we going to do?" Lightning asked.
John smiled. "Well, you two drew the short straw. I'm going out to do some damage control until reinforcements get here... and you're watching my back."
The two guards' eyes shrunk to the size of pinpricks and they exchanged glances. "Y-you're kidding. Right?"
"Nope. The way I see it, Lightning will be up in the air providing recon, while you and me, Star, are on the ground. I'll be doing most of the heavy lifting anyway." John slapped a fresh magazine into his rifle and cycled the bolt. "Now come on, we're burning moonlight."
"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!"
John and Star had been walking around Ponyville for the past fifteen minutes with no sign of the two remaining Manticores... until about ten seconds ago.
"LIGHTNING! IF WE GET OUT OF THIS ALIVE, I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!!"
They were now sprinting for their lives, away from the Manticore that had jumped out of an alleyway.
"But this isn't MY fault!"
John and the unicorn sped around a corner, causing the Manticore to slip and fall.
"NO, BUT YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE WATCHING TO MAKE SURE THINGS LIKE THIS DON'T HAPPEN!"
John quickly spun around fired at the Manticore. Unfortunately, the beast raised its arm at the last second, protecting its head. He was about to fire again when the sound of screams permeated the air.
"Second Manticore located! Two blocks east! Just smashed through the front of a house!"
John cursed and started running again, the Manticore in hot pursuit. "Alright, Star?"
The unicorn was right on the heels of the human. "Sir?"
"You're not going to like this, but we're going to have to split up."
"..."
"We can't stop running, or else that bastard," John gestured over his shoulder at the Manticore, "is going to catch us. And taking on two of them at the same time would be just plain stupid."
There was silence between the two for a few moments as they kept running.
"...Understood, sir. I've got big boy here, you go save the day."
John nodded. "Don't do anything stupid. I need you in one piece."
With that, John and Star split up, Star leading the Manticore on a wild goose chase, and John running toward the ever increasing screams.
He skidded to a halt at the corner of a building. Across the street, there was an average looking, single-story house, its only demeaning feature, a massive hole where the front door used to be.
Against his better judgment, John quickly crossed the street, rifle raised, and entered the house.
It was quiet.
Too quiet.
Quietly stepping into what looked like a living room that had been hit by a tornado, John had to repress a gag as the smell of death assaulted his nose. In the middle of the floor, was a stallion. That had been ripped in half.
This time, he couldn't suppress the feeling as he keeled over and retched into a corner of the room. Once his stomach contents had been emptied onto the floor, he left the room and began to search the rest of the house.
The hallway and bathroom were clear, but the kitchen contained another casualty, this time a mare lying in a large pool of blood, large gashes on its sides and face. A quick check of the pulse confirmed that the pony had died.
John had almost finished clearing the house. He was pretty sure that the Manticore had already left, seeing as there was another huge-ass hole where the back door used to be.
He made his way to the first bedroom and checked the doorknob. Unlocked. Opening the door with one hand and leading with his rifle (couldn't be too careful) John quickly determined that the room was unoccupied.
Exiting the room and moving to the second bedroom, and final room of the house, John checked the doorknob. This time, it was locked.
Seeing no other alternative, he clutched his rifle with both hands, reared back, and planted a boot next to the offending doorknob. The door smashed open and John quickly entered and cleared the room.
Nothing.
He was about to leave to see if he could track down the Manticore, but a quiet noise stopped him. It sounded almost like... crying?
Surveying the room again, he still didn't see anything, until he heard a rustle from underneath the bed. Unslinging his rifle and dropping to his knees, John steeled himself and slowly looked under the bed.
Curled up in a corner, underneath the bed, was a sky blue, Pegasus colt with a black mane and tail. From the puffy, red eyes and overall terrified expression, John could tell that the colt had been crying.
It was bad enough that two more ponies had lost their lives, but now add a foal into the mix…
The distant sounds of growling and yelling brought John back into reality. He had a job to do, and it was too dangerous for the colt to stay here.
Slowly, John reached under the bed toward the foal, who tried backing up further into the corner he was hiding in.
“It’s alright little guy, I’m not going to hurt you. I’m going to take you somewhere safe.”
The colt looked at John with fearful eyes, so John pulled his arm out.
“The Manticore is gone. You can come out now.”
The colt slowly crawled out from under the bed as John picked up his rifle and slung it across his shoulders. Trembling, the colt looked up at John with wide eyes. "*sniff* W-who a-a-re y-you?"
John softened his expression as much as he could. "My name is John, and I'm with the Royal Guard. What's your name?" At the mention of the guard, the colt seemed to perk up a little.
"M-my name is C-cloudburst. *sniff* It's n-nice to meet y-you."
CRASH
John snapped his head up at the sound of a trash can falling over down the street. "Alright, Cloudburst, I'm going to get you out of here, but in order to do that, I'll have to pick you up. Ok?"
The colt slowly nodded his head. John shifted his rifle around so that it was slung across his back, then picked up the colt, who wrapped his forelegs around John's neck.
“W-where are we *sniff* g-going?”
John stood up and drew his sidearm. “We’re going to the guard station,” Now comes the awkward part… “but, I’m going to need your help, because I’m a little lost and I don’t know how to get back from here.”
This drew a small giggle from Cloudburst, but the foal nodded.
John cautiously made his way back through the house, making sure to take a route that avoided the bodies so the colt wouldn't see them. Glancing down the street to verify the coast was clear, he stepped out into the darkness and started walking in the direction of the guard station, with some help from the small colt.
However, he was unaware of the two large eyes watching him from the shadows.
“Oh, thank Celestia!” As John approached the guard station, he was greeted by a frantic looking Lightning Flash. "I was looking everywhere for you."
John rolled his eyes. "Yeah, ok. Where's Star, and what's the situation here?"
"He's fine, a little winded, but fine. The Manticore stopped chasing us a few minutes after you peeled off. I tried to keep an eye on it, but it lost me in some alleyways." The duo started walking toward the station. "So far, we've got most of the mares, foals, and wounded inside. The rest are being evacuated to Sweet Apple Acres, but a few stallions volunteered to stay and help."
John sighed. The orchard was out past the outskirts of the town, so there wasn't any chance of running into a Manticore out there.
"Good, but there's one small snag that I've encountered..." John nodded to the colt in his arms, who was starting to nod off. "Is there anywhere I can put him?"
Lightning thought for a moment. "Well, we've packed the place pretty tight, but I told them to keep your bed and the area around it clear, in case you needed to get anything."
"That'll work for now." As they neared the station, John noticed a multitude of guards and civilians standing guard around the perimeter of the building. From where he was standing, he thought he saw Big Mac, but it was dark and he wasn't sure.
When the door opened, they were met by a veritable sea of ponies, mostly mares and foals. As the two entered the building, the occupants slowly took notice of them and began clearing a path.
John couldn't help but look at all the faces. There was a multitude of emotions woven about the room. Sadness, anger, anxiousness, worry, awe, and an overwhelming amount of fear. However, there was one emotion that caused him to pause.
Every single face that looked at him, standing in the middle of the room holding a sleeping colt, whether it be crying, pouting, unbelieving, or fuming, had a glimmer of hope.
A hope that the attacks would end. That the sun would rise soon and end this dreadful night. That the pain and suffering would cease.
A hope that the human in front of them would pull through, and save them.
With renewed determination, John made his way up the stairs to the sleeping quarters. Quietly pushing the door open, he saw that the majority of the room was filled, with the exception being around his bed. Like before, all the ponies moved to make a path for him as he strode to his bed, gently laying the colt down and covering him with the blankets. Moving to the end of the bed, he opened the chest and pulled out the ammo can.
As quietly as he could, John began to refill all of his magazines again, many of the ponies curiously watching him as he did so.
The sound of hooves alerted him to the presence of another pony, but John paid it no mind. He had a job to do, and he'd be damned if he let any more harm come to these ponies.
"What do we do now, sir?"
He glanced up from his work, seeing Lightning and Star standing beside him.
"....... Whatever we have to..."
"I greatly appreciate your help, with it, we'll be able to hold out until reinforcements get here."
John stood in front of the building, addressing all of the volunteers that stayed behind to help.
"And when they do get here, you can be damn sure that we'll catch those flea-bitten Manticore sons-of-bitches and kick their asses into orbit!" He thought he heard a 'HOO-AH!' (or something similar) from one of the guards a few meters away, but he wasn't paying attention to it. "Now, you all know the drill, report any movement, whatsoever, and stay with the guard I've assigned you to and follow his orders. Do NOT wander off. Understood?" A myriad of 'Yes sir's and nodding heads were directed at him. "Outstanding. You're dismissed."
John reached down to pick up his helmet, and noticed Lieutenant Crimson walking up to him. On impulse, he had grabbed his flight helmet from his chest before leaving the sleeping quarters. It wasn't exactly designed for ground combat, but it would protect his head a lot better than anything else he had.
"You're quite the speaker. And I pray to Celestia you're right."
"About what?" John cocked an eyebrow.
"Holding out. If the reinforcements don't get here soon, we might lose the town."
John didn't like the sound of that. "Why's that?"
The stallion let out a sigh. "You did some damn fine work in the market district. Saved my guards, killed a Manticore, and got that fire put out. However, of the fifteen guards originally stationed here, and eleven from the crash site, only thirteen are left, and only six of those, including you and me, are uninjured."
John cursed under his breath. He knew it was bad, but he didn't think it was this bad.
"With those numbers, there's no way we can take back this town. To make matters worse, Lightning has informed me that two more fires have started. He also saw a Manticore remodeling the library, so good thinking getting the Elements out of there."
Another curse. If these Manticores weren't dealt with soon, the town would be a big pile of rubble and ash come morning.
John snapped his head around as he heard a yell (not unlike a Wilhelm) come from the other side of the building.
"CONTACT REAR!"
John slammed his helmet onto his head and began running, muttering profanities the entire time. He reached the far corner of the building, closely followed by half the ponies that had been on his side of the building. John steeled himself and turned the corner...
Only to get bitch slapped by a very large and pissed off Manticore.
His world was a mixture of dizziness, pain, and 'What-the-Fuck-Just-Happened?'. Unfortunately, his mind didn't magically clear when his face broke his fall.... twenty feet away.
It took John a few moments to recover, but once he did, his blood ran cold.
Ponies were flying everywhere. Some broken and bloody, others just trying to avoid their brethren-turned-projectiles.
He was about to raise his rifle and start unloading on the rampaging beast, but another frantic cry was heard...
"CONTACT FRONT!"
John's rifle almost fell from his grasp as he scrambled to get up. He needed to get to the front of the building. He would NOT allow that THING to get inside the station. He started running, and he was almost to the front of the building, but that was when he saw movement in his peripheral vision.
When he turned his head, he did not like what he saw...
Which was a charging Manticore, ready to turn him into paste.
THWAANG-WHUMP!
John almost had a heart attack when a Javelin came out of nowhere and impaled one of the Manticore's legs, causing it to fall and roar in pain.
Overcoming the initial shock, John rushed around the corner, sighted on the second Manticore, and began firing.
John looked up, only to see a massive.... thing... zoom overhead. It looked like someone had taken a medieval-era ship, chopped off the masts and sails, and replaced them with a massive balloon. On each side, there were at least three large ballistae, and the entire vessel was armored.
A series of muffled 'Whump's brought John's attention back to the ground.
Standing in front of him were a multitude of dark grey pegasi, wearing varying shades of dark purple plate armor, and armed with to the teeth. They all carried either a spear or halberd, had some type of sword across their backs, and razor sharp talons protruding from their front hoofguards.
John couldn’t help but watch in admiration as they began to converge on the Manticore. With reflexes almost too fast for him to follow, they dodged every single swipe or attack from the beast, all the while stabbing away with their weapons.
“HEADS DOWN! CLEAR OUT!”
Almost as soon as the order was finished, the ponies dove out of the way and hit the deck. John saw a pegasus, or at least he thought that’s what it was, swoop by on silent wings with a massive two-handed claymore.
SHHHHIIIIIIIINNNKKK
A second later, the Manticore’s head fell from its shoulders, and landed on the ground with a plop.
John then realized that he had been holding his breath, and exhaled explosively. He was about to go greet the new arrivals when he felt something strong grab hold of one of his legs. Wheeling around with a yelp, he cane face to face (or face to large-pointy-teeth) with the first Manticore, the one that had been struck by the javelin. Apparently, during the short battle after getting hit, the beast had crawled up behind him while he was watching, and was now about to take a bite out of him.
With a curse loud enough to wake the dead (and turn the heads of the ponies behind him), John began firing wildly at point blank, right into the Manticore’s open mouth.
Unfortunately for the Manticore, the inside of its mouth wasn’t as bulletproof as the outside.
With a loud thud, the Manticore fell face-first into the dirt, with the roof of its mouth looking like swiss cheese and a brain that probably resembled scrambled eggs. None of the rounds were able to punch through the thick skull though, so the exterior looked normal.
Heart racing, John extricated himself from the Manticore’s now-limp grasp, hands shaking from the adrenaline and shock. He didn’t even hear the zeppelin-thing land, or see two ponies walk up to him.
“Well, Lieutenant, I guess we can skip the evaluations.”
“Huh?” John turned and noticed a white unicorn, followed by a dark blue one, examining the Manticore. Both were wearing armor, but the white one’s armor was light purple, trimmed with gold…. Wait a second… the only pony that wears armor like that is…
“Whoa shit!” John stood as straight as an arrow and smashed his hand against the brim of his helmet in a salute. “I’m sorry Captain, I didn’t realize it was you.” He then stood straighter when it clicked in his mind that the other dark blue pony was Princess Luna.
“At ease, Lieutenant. What’s the situation here? Is everything under control?”
John glanced up and surveyed the area. Both Manticores were dead, the majority of the guards and volunteers were injured, but they all seemed to be alive. Smoke could just barely be seen against the night sky, and the muffled sounds of crying ponies came from inside the guard station.
The fight was over, but there was still a lot of work to be done.
“Honestly, sir, the situation is far from being under control. The majority of our forces are wounded, some critically, and they need medical attention ASAP. Most of the refugees have been evacuated to Sweet Apple Acres, but there are still some inside the station. As far as a casualty count is concerned, I have absolutely no idea.”
Shining Armor frowned. “That is grave news indeed. What about that fire in the markets?”
John’s stomach dropped, and he sprung into action. He had forgotten about the fires. “Dammit! The fires in the marketplace have been extinguished, but two more have sprung up elsewhere, but I don’t know where. LIGHTNING! GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!”
Immediately, the Pegasus flew over and landed next to him, but kept one of his hind legs raised off the ground. John noticed a trail of blood flowing down the limb.
“The Lieutenant said you saw two fires. Where were they?”
“Uh, one was in the commercial district, the other in residential. I told the fire ponies about them, so I’m assuming they’re trying to put them out now. That was a while ago, though, and I haven’t seen or heard from them since."
That wasn't good. "Shit. I hope they're just busy, and nothing's happened to them." John turned to Shining and the Princess. "If you can spare it, I need a few runners."
Shining nodded. "What do you need?"
"First, I need someone to find out what happened to the fire department, and where they are. It's dark, so the fires should be pretty visible. Second, we need more medical staff here. There are too many wounded and not enough doctors. Third, if you can spare some men to help with the fires, and cleanup afterwards, it would be much appreciated."
"Alright, we've got twenty knights with us, so I'll leave five to help out here, I'll send one to the hospital, one to find the fire ponies, eight will come help with the fires, and the rest will be on patrol. Sound good?"
John smiled for the first time that night. It wasn't a big one, but it was still a smile. "Sounds great, sir."
The orders were more or less shouted out moments later, and within a minute, all the knights were either busy with their assigned tasks, or busy preparing for it. Not a single soul was standing around.
John was confused by one thing though, and he turned to Shining Armor. "Sir, if I may ask, what's a knight?"
The Captain smirked. The Lunar Knights, or Knights for short, are Princess Luna's personal guard. However, she doesn't exactly use them as such."
This confused John even more. "What, then, are they used for?"
Shining thought for a moment. "Remember when Princess Celestia told you that the royal guard mainly keeps the peace, and that we don't have a military?"
John remembered that night in the hospital as if it happened the night before. "Yeah, why?"
"Well think of the knights as our, what did you call them, Special Forces? They're all bat ponies from the far east. They have exceptional hearing and reflexes, and can see perfectly in pitch black darkness. So, the Princess has put them through additional combat training, as well as more in-depth tactical, survival, and medical training."
"Wow." John was stunned. "So the Princess pulled out all the stops."
"Oh, you have no idea, Lieutenant."
John continued checking his gear. After getting tossed like a ragdoll by the Manticore, he wanted to make sure that nothing was broken. He was in the middle of field stripping his pistol when one of the knights returned.
"Captain Armor."
Shining looked up from the report that Lieutenant Crimson had given him. "Yes?"
"I have located the fire ponies. They are currently fighting the fire in the commercial district. No casualties reported, although one was knocked unconscious by a falling timber. The fire has been brought under control and should be extinguished within the hour. However, the residential fire is currently unattended. I did see the local REC detachment headed toward the blaze, but they do not have the proper equipment to handle it."
Shining folded up the report and stuffed it into his armor as John reassembled his pistol, determining that it was still in working order. "Alright, mount up. We can handle it."
"Sir!" The knight saluted, then ran over and boarded the airship.
"Mind if I tag along, sir?" John asked as he holstered his pistol.
Shining Armor nodded. "I'm sure another set of hooves couldn't hurt."
John was seated on one of the benches in the belly of the airship. The inside was full of racks of weapons and armor, as well as an assortment of firefighting equipment. At the prospect of possibly having to help the local fire department, the airship had been outfitted and stocked with the necessary gear and equipment.
At the moment, John watched as the knights donned what looked like the pony equivalent of turnout gear. All John did was unsling his rifle, take off his vest, and unclip his sidearm from around his waist. The thought of entering a burning building with live ammunition strapped to his person wasn't a very good one.
"30 SECONDS!"
John stood and made his way to the open door in the side of the hull as the knights put on what looked like modified gas masks.
He felt the vessel begin to descend, and it wasn't long before it landed in a small clearing about a hundred yards away from the burning building.
The first thing John noticed was that the building wasn't small... and it was almost completely engulfed in flames. It was a rather large, two story building, that resembled something like a hotel. As he, and the rest of the ponies grew closer, he could see a rather large group of ponies standing outside the building, many of which he recognized as members of the REC that were helping with his aircraft.
He jogged ahead of the group to see what he could find out, when he spotted a familiar face.
"Hey Ratchet!"
"Ah, it's good to see you Lieutenant, we need your help somethin' fierce."
That didn't sound good. "What's wrong, other than a building on fire?"
The stallion gestured at the group of ponies behind them. "Most of them got out in time, but when the Caretaker took roll call, one was missing."
John looked at the group of ponies. Other than the REC ponies and an older looking mare, the rest of the group was entirely made up of fillies and colts of varying ages. Children.
"Ratchet... What is this place?"
"It's an orphanage."
John coughed and wheezed as he made his way down the burning hallway, narrowly avoiding a falling beam.
Moments before, John had asked the Caretaker where the missing foal was, to which she responded room number 230. Second floor, fifteenth door on the right. All the way at the end of the hallway. A hallway that was now almost completely engulfed in flames.
Saying it was hot would be putting it lightly. The only reason John hadn't caught fire yet was because he had jumped into the small fountain outside the front door, soaking himself. He knew it wouldn't last though, as the water had almost evaporated and the fabric of his clothes was starting to become charred.
He couldn't stop though. He wouldn't.
Finally reaching the end of the hallway, John swiftly kicked in the door. Immediately, smoke started billowing out of the room. Coughing with renewed vigor, John fell onto his stomach and began crawling under the smoke.
Over the roaring of the fire behind him, he could just barely make out the faint noise of coughing coming from the corner of the room by the window.
Slowly, John crawled over and soon spotted a small bundle of fur huddled underneath a desk. Taking off his BDU jacket, he wrapped it around the foal. Grabbing the bundle and standing up, eyes watering from the smoke, John quickly punched out the window, further venting the room of smoke but earning himself a large gash on his arm in the process.
A crash thundered through the room and John looked behind him to see the floor in the hallway give out and collapse, trapping him in the room.
He tried to curse, but instead brought on another fit of coughing. The building was on fire, the floor was collapsing, and there was only one way out now.
Walking over to the window, John carefully cleared the edges of the window of broken glass, then swung his leg over the edge. Keeping one arm firmly around the foal, and the other attached to the window sill with a grip of steel, John edged himself outside, clinging to the bottom of the window.
This is gonna Suuuuck!
John brought his legs up and placed them against the side of the building. With a mighty kick, he let go of the window sill and propelled himself away from the wall, foal clutched against his abdomen.
THUD
John's back hit the ground, foal on top of him. He gasped for breath, as the air had been driven from his lungs on impact.
His vision failing, he could feel himself being dragged away from the inferno.
He felt a great tremor through the ground and watched as the building collapsed in on itself.
Unable to draw a much needed breath, John slowly faded into unconsciousness.
“-eutenant! C’mon, don’t you quit on me! Get this crate in the air, NOW! I don’t care if you have to get out and push, get us to a doct-“
”-ssible spinal injuries, as well as severe burns across most of his body.”
“Sweet Celestia, what in Tartarus happened!?”
“He jumped. Saved the foal over there. Building came down a few seconds lat-.”
“-oming to! Quick, ‘old ‘im down!”
WHUMP
”Ah, dammit!”
“Tranquilizer! Get th’ tranquilizer!”
“Got it! Hold him down!”
POP
”Alright, keep holding! Shouldn’t take too lo-“
John woke to the sounds of whispering and ponies shuffling around. Cracking his eyes open, he found that he was in his bed back at the guard station. There were still refugees inhabiting the room, but they were fewer in number than before he left. He assumed that most had been cleared out so that the doctors and medics attending to the injured ponies in the other beds could move about easier.
"By Luna's moon! How in Tartarus are you up already!? That tranq' should've had you out cold for at least four more hours."
He directed his attention to the side of his bed, where a brown stallion in a lab coat stood. He also noticed that most of the heads in the room had turned in his direction.
“Hey *cough* Doc, what's up? How’s the foal?”
Red Cross smiled. “Oh, just fixing your broken flank... Again. The foal's fine, by the way. She suffered no injuries, other than minor smoke inhalation and a few bruises, thanks to you.”
John sighed. “Thank God.” He then took a closer look at the doctor. His mane was unkempt and he had bags under his bloodshot eyes. The lab coat he was wearing was covered in blood and filth. "Jesus, Doc. You look like hell."
The stallion deadpanned. “I was getting ready to head home from a twenty hour shift when one of your boys showed up and whisked me here. I have been awake and tending to ponies for-” He looked up and checked the clock on the wall, “- oh, about thirty hours now.”
John gave the doctor an understanding look. “I know the feeling. My old base commander had a hard-on for putting flight crews on twenty-four hour watches with minimal sleep. As it is, I barely got in an hour before all this shit started. How long have I been out?” He tried sitting up, only to find that his arms and legs were restrained and bandaged up to look like a mummy. “And why am I tied up again?”
The doctor scrunched up his nose in thought. “Only about forty minutes, which is why I am so surprised you’re up. When you were brought in, you weren’t exactly.... cooperative. You slugged your Pegasus friend pretty hard, gave her a good shiner. We ended up having to sedate you. We tied your arms down for good measure.” The doctor then flared his magic and undid the knots around John’s wrists.
“Makes sense.”
...
...
“Wait... Her?"
“Yeah, seems you have an admirer. She refused to go to the Acres with everypony else. She was downstairs with the colt you brought in earlier when they pulled your crispy butt in. Started freaking out when she saw you.” The doctor let out a small chuckle. “Then again, I almost started freaking out. You looked like you had been pulled out of an Ursa turd.” A few giggles were heard throughout the room. “Anyways, you were flailing around and she went to help hold you. Got a hoo- er, fist?- to the face for her trouble.”
John raised an eyebrow. “Jesus, Doc. What’re the damages this time?” Nice way of telling me I looked like shit though.
The stallion waved a hoof, as if dismissing the question. “Nothing I couldn’t fix. First degree burns across sixty percent of your body, second to third degree burns on the other forty, a dislocated shoulder, a gash on your arm, and a few scrapes and bruises. It’s mostly superficial, so everything should heal relatively quickly.” The stallion thought for a moment. “As for the flailing, maybe your subconscious thought you were on fire? I really have no clue.”
John whistled in appreciation. “Well, you’ve saved my ass twice now, so I guess that means drinks are on me.”
Red Cross laughed, then yawned. “Sleep first, drinks later.”
“Yeah, that’s probably a good idea.” John sat up and stretched. “Well, I guess it’s time for me to get up and do stuff.”
The stallion rolled his eyes. “Normally, I’d tell you to stay in bed for at least another day or two, but I’d be lying if I said we didn’t need the help. You should be fine to move around, just nothing too strenuous.”
With that, John stood up...
...Then immediately sat back down and pulled the bed sheets around him. Cheeks burning, he looked around the room and saw that most of the mares in the room were grinning. Directing a seething glare at the doctor, John raised an eyebrow.
“...Why the hell am I naked?”
John descended the stairs to the main foyer of the station. He had decided to wear his flight suit since the material wasn’t as rough as that of the BDUs. Plus, it was relatively easy to put on without hands. Since he was more concerned about getting out the door earlier that night, he had forgotten to put on his flame-retardant flight gloves. As a result, his hands were uncovered when he entered the burning building, so they had received the worst burns and were currently wrapped up like mittens.
Like the sleeping quarters, there were still a few ponies scattered throughout the room waiting for treatment or consoling loved ones.
“JOHN!”
“OOF!”
Before he could take more than a few steps toward the door, he was glomped by a blur of rainbow and camouflage.
John clapped a hand over each of the ponies’ mouths and proceeded to lie still until his mind caught up and his torso stopped throbbing.
Gingerly, he pushed the two ponies off him and sat up, mind still reeling from being utterly flattened moments earlier. “Ugh, for cute little ponies, you guys sure do pack a punch.”
“Hey! Who’re you callin’ cute?”
Sitting next to him was a small orange filly with a purple mane and tail. Oddly enough, she was attempting to wear a large mass of charred camouflage fabric that John recognized as is BDU jacket, which caused him to chuckle slightly. “Ah, you must be Scootaloo. I'm John”
The filly eagerly nodded. “Nice to meet you! But... how did you know who I am? I’ve never met you before.”
“Oh, uh...” John thought for a moment. “Rainbow here has told me a lot about you.”
Scootaloo’s face lit up. “She has!?”
“I have?” Rainbow scrunched up her face in confusion.
John nodded. “Yep! She’s always telling me about how awesome you are and about the amazing stuff you can do with your scooter.”
Scootaloo’s grin widened until it literally reached from ear to ear.
But as soon as it appeared, it was gone, replaced by a saddened frown.
“What’s wrong, kiddo?”
The filly ears drooped and she let out a heavy sigh. “I was going to ask if you wanted to watch me do some tricks, but then I remembered that my scooter was under my bed.”
The same bed that was currently in the middle of a large pile of smoldering rubble.
Rainbow walked around John and sat next to the filly, wrapping a wing around her as John reached over and wiped away a tear. “Hey, chin up.” Scootaloo lifted her head until she was looking at John instead of the floor. “A scooter can be replaced,” John poked her in the chest, “you can’t be. Once things are cleaned up around town, I’ll take you to get a new one. How does that sound?”
Her ears perked up and a smile spread across her face. “R-really?”
“You betcha."
"Awesome!... Hey, wait a second. What happened to your hooves? I don't remember them being wrapped up like that."
John held up his arm. "Well, first, they're called hands. Second, they're just bandaged up right now. It was a little toasty when I was coming up the stairs to get you, and I got a little burned. Dr. Cross wrapped them up for me so they would get better faster." He left out the part where a lot of the skin had gotten seared off. No need to give the kid nightmares.
"Oh, I'm sorry. I hope it doesn't hurt too bad."
John chuckled and waved his hand in a dismissing fashion. "This little thing? It's no biggie. What I want to know is are you ok?”
“Um, the doctor said that I had a few bruises from the fall, but nothing else.”
“That’s good. Alright, maybe we can talk some more later, but right now I’d like to talk to Rainbow for a few minutes, and if you're up to it, I have a mission for you.”
Scootaloo stood up and gave a mock salute. “Ooh, what is it?”
“Do you now a colt named Cloudburst?” She nodded rather violently. “Ok, the next time you see him, tell him that I’d like to talk with him. Think you can do that?”
“Of course I can!” With that, the filly sped off, camouflage jacket flapping in the breeze.”
John chuckled and went to get up off the floor, at which point he found himself flat on his back with a rainbow maned Pegasus standing over him.
“Oh no! Don’t think you’re off the hook!”
John cocked an eyebrow. “What are you talking about?”
“What. The HAY. Were you thinking!?” She punctuated each word with a hoof-tap to his chest.
All the heads in the room were now turned in their direction.
“Running off like that! You didn’t know how dangerous Manticores are! You could’ve been hurt! You DID get hurt! Hay, you could’ve DIED! And don’t even get me started on running into a burning building!”
He softened his gaze, and prepared a talk that he’d had a few times before. “Dash, what is my occupation?”
The question caught her off guard. “You’re in the Royal Guard.”
He nodded. “I am, but that’s not my occupation.”
“Well, what is it then!”
“I’m a soldier. Do you know what that means?”
Rainbow shrugged. “You fight bad guys. I don’t see the point of this.”
John held up a hand. “Just hear me out.”
The Pegasus snorted, but otherwise remained silent.
“Yes, I fight bad guys, but that’s still not my job. What I do is protect. I am a barrier between the innocent and the evil of the world. If someone is in need, I help; if someone is in danger, I save; if someone is threatening, I protect. If that means I have to put my life on the line, I will gladly, without hesitation, give my life to ensure safety for others.”
Rainbow’s eyes started watering.
“I did get hurt tonight, but I don’t care. I went out there tonight to save lives, and I’ll be damned if I didn’t try my hardest to save everyone. Unfortunately, ponies still died, but life goes on. The only thing we can do now is remember those we lost and live our lives as best we can.”
As he had done with Scootaloo, he reached up and wiped away Rainbow’s tears, gently caressing her black eye.
“I realize you care, I really do, but I want you to know that as long as there is evil in the world, I won’t stop doing my job, no matter what.”
Rainbow slowly nodded.
“Now, as reimbursement for your eye, how about dinner?”
Her head snapped up, eyes wide in disbelief.
“I’ll probably be busy today though, so perhaps in two days if that’s ok with you?”
“U-um, yeah, sure, two days works for me.” The mare moved aside, then helped John stand up.
“Great.”
Rainbow turned to leave. “Well, I guess I’ll let you get back to whatever it was you were doing.”
John sighed. “Actually, we still need to talk about something.”
The Pegasus turned back around and faced the human. “Oh?”
“Like I asked Scoots earlier, do you know Cloudburst?”
She thought for a moment. “I’m gonna go out on a limb and guess that he was that colt in your bed earlier?” John nodded. “Ok, what about him?”
“I hope it’s not too much to ask. I know you said that you’ll be taking care of Scoots, and I don’t want to make it any harder on you. It’ll just be temporary, until I can find some relatives or a proper home for him.”
Rainbow thought hard for a few moments. “It shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve taken care of Scoots before, so both of them will be a piece of cake... as long as the other Crusaders aren’t involved.” This caused John to chuckle.
“Alright, well, if you run into any trouble, and I mean anything, you come find me. If it becomes too much, let me know and I’ll find somewhere else. I’ll also be coming by to check on him every so often to make sure he’s doing ok.”
“Geez, lighten up a bit. It’ll be fine.”
John sighed and rubbed his forehead. “I’m just trying to do what’s best for the kid. I’ll speak with the Princess about it later... Are you sure you’re up to it?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes, then moved behind John and started pushing him towards the door of the station. “Of course I’m up to it. I’m awesome, remember? Now, enough lollygaggin’, you’ve got ponies to help.”
John tried to brace himself, but ultimately failed. “Rainbow, I’m being serious.”
“Me too, now get out of here ya big lug.”
“Ugh, fine. Come find me if you need anything.” With that, John strode out of the station.
Taking a moment to look around and get his bearings, he spotted Shining Armor standing next to the airship conversing with some other ponies. Figuring it was a good enough place to start, he walked over to them.
The sun was just barely peeking over the horizon, so the sky was beginning to brighten, revealing a flurry of activity around the station. Despite the exhausted looks from many of the ponies, everyone was helping with something.
Noticing that John was approaching, Shining stopped talking. “Lieutenant, what on Equis are you doing out here? In fact, you should still be knocked out.”
John walked up to the group, which consisted of Ratchet, Lightning, Star, Lieutenant Crimson, and one of the knights, and proceeded to snap off a crisp salute. “Sir, I just wanted to know what our current situation is, and if there is anything I can do to help.”
“Hmm. Well, other than a few ponies in the station, all the wounded have been moved to the hospital. Right now, we’re just focusing on getting things cleaned up. The ponies at Sweet Apple Acres have been cleared to come back, and I’ve got the some of the knights on patrol throughout town to make sure we haven’t missed anything. As for what you can do, go get some rest, you’ve earned it.”
“With all due respect, I just woke up. I’m good to go.”
Shining just stared at the human. “Let me get this straight, ran around town all night fighting Manticores, ran into a burning building and jumped out of a second-story window to save a filly, got your flank burned to Tartarus and had to be tranquilized, only to wake up less than an hour later and say that you’re fine and ready for more?”
John shrugged. “Pretty much. I’m used to not sleeping.”
The stallion shook his head in disbelief. “You are one crazy motherbucker. I wish I had more like you.”
“Well, I can think of at least four others. I’ll have a full report on your desk tomorrow.”
“Sounds good. In the meantime, I was just about to send some teams into town to begin the cleanup. If you’re up to it, do you mind leading one of them?”
“Sure.”
“Great.” Shining turned towards the rest of the group. “Alright, I want Ratchet and Star to take the market district, Crimson and Lightning have commercial, and John and Blackout have Residential. Questions?”
John raised a hand. “What do we do with the debris? And what about casualties?”
“Just pile the debris up on the side of the road, somepony will come by later to pick it up. As for casualties,” Shining sighed, “We’ve got a wagon on standby. Anypony else?” Everyone remained silent. “Ok, get to it. Oh, and before I forget, John, your gear is still on the airship.”
“Alright, thanks.”
The group split apart and John walked over to the airship to retrieve his gear. Sitting down on one of the benches inside the ship, he made sure that everything was in working order before he departed. Upon exiting the aircraft, he was joined by the knight that was part of the group that Shining was talking with.
“So, you are one they call John, it is pleasure to meet you. I’m Lieutenant Blackout.”
The bat pony held out a hoof, which John shook. “Nice to meet you. Gotta say, if you guys hadn’t shown up when you did, we probably wouldn’t be talking right now.”
Blackout smiled, revealing a pair of large, pointy incisors. “And if you not here, town would be flaming pile of rubble.”
John began walking toward the station. He was starting to get hungry, and there wasn’t time to find somewhere to eat, so he was going to get an MRE from his chest and put away some of his gear. “Yeah, well, I’m here, and it’s not. Once all the cleanup is done, lemme buy you a beer, as a thanks for saving my ass.”
The stallion chuckled. “I look forward to it.”
“Tell me if I’m wrong. You are trained to fight in air, yet you fight on ground because your flying machine is broken?”
“Yep.”
“You are very strange man.”
The pair were working to clean up bits and pieces of a former shed that had the misfortune of being in the path of a berserk Manticore. The rest of their work team, a mismatched group of engineers, fire ponies, and guards, were busy picking up all the splintered planks from the fences separating each backyard of the row of houses.
“Says the pony wearing the cloak. Think about it, what would you do if your wings fell off?”
Before the sun had fully risen, Blackout had stopped working to go put on a pair of sunglasses and a large black cloak, complete with hood. When John asked about it, he had said that bat ponies were extremely susceptible to sunburn and their eyes were very sensitive.
“Mmm. You make valid point.”
“Oh! Oh dear!”
The two stopped working and turned toward the elderly mare that had walked out onto her back porch to enjoy a cup of tea.
John looked to his counterpart and shrugged. “I guess that means everyone’s back from the orchard.”
“Da.”
“Well, I’ll go talk to her, be right back.” Blackout nodded as John walked up to the railing of the porch. “Good morning, ma-am. I hope we didn’t startle you.”
She shook her head. “No, I just wasn’t expecting my shed to be gone. When I left last night, everything was perfectly fine, not a penny out of place.”
“Well, we’re trying to clean up the mess as best we can. I did notice that there are a lot of gardening tools in there, and we’ve been putting aside everything that is still usable.” He pointed at a small pile of tools off to the side of the yard.”
The mare smiled. “Oh good. Ever since my husband passed, I’ve been keeping the garden nice and tidy for him. He always loved spending time with his flowers.”
John noticed the small garden of expertly trimmed shrubs and flowers off to the side of the porch. “Well, you have a very beautiful garden, if I do say so myself. It reminds me of the one I had before I came here.”
“Why thank you. Would you boys like a cup of tea?”
John chuckled. “No thank you. I should probably get back to work, though. It was nice talking with you, ma-am.”
“Ok dearie. You just holler if you change your mind.”
John went back to helping Blackout, and in short order the work was finished and all the debris had been moved to a pile out by the road. As the two walked down the path of destruction to find a place that wasn’t currently being worked on, they came to a group of ponies standing by the last hole in the line of fences.
“Ugh, what the hell is that smell?” John covered his nose with a bandaged hand as they made their way past the group and into the backyard.
Blackout’s voice grew somber. “That, my friend, is the smell of death.”
John looked around the yard. “But I don’t see any-” He stopped when his eyes fell upon a large hole in the wall of the house. Wordlessly, he walked through the debris and into the house. He found himself standing in a kitchen, blood running cold. Slowly peering over the counter separating the room, he laid eyes upon a mare, lying in an all too familiar pool of blood.
“That look.” John jumped as Blackout appeared next to him. “You were here last night, yes?”
John nodded, unable to take his eyes off the mare.
“Come, let us get you out of here.” Blackout led him back out the hole in the wall and sat the human down under a small tree in the backyard.
“You ok LT?”
John paid no attention to the ponies looking at him, worried expressions across their faces. When a few of them went to ask him what they should do, Blackout intercepted them.
“The lieutenant needs some time to himself. He will be fine in couple of minutes.”
“Ok, but what should we do now?”
“Go back to station and get wagon. This place needs to be cleansed of death before work begins.”
“He doesn’t know, does he?”
John shook his head. He was standing in the middle of a colt’s bedroom, looking at the wonderbolt plushie in his hand when Blackout walked up beside him, glasses off and hood lowered.
“When will he know?”
He sighed. “I’ll tell him when we get back. I’ve already made arrangements for him to stay with someone. I just hope he can get through this.”
“He will, in time. Come, work is finished. It is time for food and rest.”
The pair left the house and joined up with the rest of their group heading back toward the guard station. Judging from the position of the sun, John figured that it was about 2:00 in the afternoon, so they had made decent time.
John slowly ascended the stairs to the bunk room, the previous night having caught up with him. With a mighty yawn, he pushed open the door to the room and made his way to his bed, only to find a small sky-blue colt sitting at the end of his bed.
“Um, h-hello Mr. John. Um, Scootaloo said that you wanted to talk to me. I didn’t know where you were, so I asked the pony at the front desk if I could come up here and wait for you. I-is that ok?”
John put on his best smile and tried not to show how exhausted he was. “That was very smart of you, and yes, it’s perfectly fine.” John opened his chest and threw in his vest and sidearm. “Ok, sit tight for a second, I’ll be right back. I just need to go find someone.” Cloudburst nodded and John quickly left the room, almost bowling over Lightning in the process.
“Wow, someone’s in a hurry. What’s the occasion?”
“Sorry. Do you happen to know where Rainbow Dash is?”
The Pegasus thought for a moment. “Um, I’m pretty sure she’s with the rest of her friends helping Twilight clean up the library.”
“Would you be able to go get her for me real quick?”
“Uh, sure.”
Lightning turned around and left the station, returning a few minutes later with the rainbow maned Pegasus in tow.
“What’s up John?”
“I was about to have a chat with Cloudburst, and I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind sitting in on it.”
She pursed her lips and nodded her head, mood becoming somber. “Alright.”
Without further ado, John opened the door and followed her in, leaving Lightning outside to make sure they weren’t disturbed.
Crossing the room in a few strides, John sat on the edge of his bed and pulled the wonderbolt plushie out of one of his pockets and handed it to the colt, causing his face to light up.
“You brought Soarin’! Did you go to my house to get him?”
John sighed as Rainbow took a seat in front of the chest at the end of the bed. “I did. I was helping clean up the mess when I found him. I thought you might like to have him with you.”
The colt looked confused. “Have him with me? For what? Did you see my mommy and daddy there? I haven’t seen them since they told me to go to my room last night.”
John’s breath caught in his chest. How was he going to explain that he would never get to see his parents again; that in one night, his entire life had changed and his family torn apart.
He let out another sigh. “I’m very sorry...”
Cloudburst took the news hard, but after a while he recovered somewhat. When John told him that he would be staying with Rainbow for awhile, the colt just stared at him in disbelief. Scootaloo had forgotten to mention that he was part of the Rainbow Dash Fanclub.
“I can’t believe that I’m going to be staying with Rainbow Dash. The Rainbow Dash.”
Rainbow wrapped a wing around the colt. “You bet! We’re gonna have a great time.”
BOOOOOMMMMMMM
Rainbow’s ear’s perked up and John cocked an eyebrow. “There isn’t a storm scheduled is there?”
Rainbow shook her head. “No, and nothing has blown over from the Everfree, I checked.”
“Hmm, I wonder what tha-“
”Cobra-Ops, Cobra-Ops, this is Actual, over.”
John jumped up, flung his chest open, and pulled the radio out of his tac-vest. Somehow, the thing had gotten turned on... and was now receiving a radio signal.
”Cobra-Ops, Cobra-Ops, this is Cobra-Actual, radio check, over.”
John heard the front doors of the station fly open downstairs, but all his attention was directed to the small black box in his hand.
”Cobra-Actual to any friendly forces, respond.”
“Lieutenant Killinger.” John looked up and saw Princess Luna, flanked by Shining Armor and a bat pony, standing in front of him. “Another item has come through the Gates. We wish for you to come with us to investigate.”
”Any non-hostile forces in the area, please respond.”
The Princess gasped and took a step back. Ignoring her, John slowly brought the radio up to his mouth and pressed the transmit button.
“Cobra-Actual, this is Hunter 1-1. Authenticate, Steel.”
”Hunter 1-1, Cobra-Actual. Authentication is, Beast.”
“Copy, Actual. Hold position, recovery team en route.”
”Wilco.”
John put the radio back into the pouch on his vest and slung it over his shoulder. Grabbing his sidearm and rifle, he turned to the Princess. “Take me to them.”
Upon hearing that John was about to leave, Rainbow took it upon herself to crash-tackle him, gear and all, to the floor.
“And why not?”
“You are NOT going to go get hurt again just so you can go find some thing that magically appeared out of thin air!”
John sighed. “Okay, a couple of things. One, how, pray tell, am I going to get hurt again? Two, it’s a person, or people; not a thing. Three, NEVER tackle me when I am holding a loaded weapon.”
Shining Armor spoke up from across the room. I would also appreciate it if you didn’t break my guards. Especially that one,” he jabbed a hoof in John’s direction, “because it’d be pretty hard to replace him. Even though he’s doing a pretty good job of it himself.” Shining muttered under his breath, drawing a quick chuckle from the bat pony.
Rainbow pouted and crossed her fetlocks across her chest. “Well, you could get attacked by the ‘person’ and/or ‘people’ you’re so intent on going to find.” She then poked and scoffed at the rifle in John’s hand. “You call this thing a weapon? It looks like a fancy club! I bet that thing coul-“ her words fell short as John clapped his free hand over her muzzle.
John glared at the mare sitting on his chest. “I’m being dead serious, Rainbow! It’s a gun, remember? I told you about them while I was in the hospital. If you still don’t believe me, go find Rumbler and ask him about it. He’s one of the guards that was in the market when I got there.”
Rainbow tried to push his hand off her mouth, but he held firm. “Furthermore, they won’t attack me, they’re friendlies.”
This time, Luna spoke up, a hint of skepticism in her voice. “How do you know?”
John patted the pocket on his vest containing the radio. “That little box you saw me talking on is called a radio. It let’s me communicate with people far away.”
Luna cocked an eyebrow. “So, thou art saying, you just held a conversation… With another being of your species… That has just come through a Gate? Surely you jest.”
“Nope, not joking, and you would be correct.” John turned his head to a better angle and threw the Princess a quizzical look. “Are you ok, ma-am? You’re speech seems to be a bit… off.”
Luna huffed and rolled her eyes. “We- I, have been taking speech lessons as of late. With everything that is occurring, it is difficult to remember our lessons.” John tried to remove Rainbow from his abdomen, but she wouldn’t budge. “Miss Dash?”
“Mrfh-” The rainbow-maned Pegasus shot a glare at John, who removed his hand from her muzzle. “Yes, Princess?”
“If you wish, you may accompany us on our endeavor, if it is agreeable with the Lieutenant.”
Rainbow thought hard for a moment. “...... Fine.” With that, she jumped off of John’s chest and trotted out of the room.
John rubbed his chest. “Don’t I get a say in this? The Princess said-“
He was cut off as a “Nope” was heard from out in the hallway.
He sighed and got up, retrieving his rifle from the floor, and sat on the edge of the bed next to Cloudburst, who had remained silent throughout the entire ordeal.
“Alright, I’m gonna be gone for a bit. Do you think you can find something to do until I get back?”
The colt nodded. “I-is it ok if I stay here for a little bit?”
“Sure, stay as long as you want. If you need anything, you have my full permission to bug Corporals Lightning or Star until they get it for you.”
“Ok.” Cloudburst giggled as John ruffled his mane and stood up.
He was about to leave, but instead turned around and grabbed the second radio out of the chest before walking out the door.
John was sitting on a bench inside the airship as it rumbled its way toward the Whitetail Woods, where the Gate had opened.
He wasn’t alone though. Across from him sat a rather disgruntled Rainbow Dash (who hadn’t let him leave her sight after they left the station), and Captain Armor, as well as a small squad of Lunar Knights, were all seated on the other side of the small dividing wall that ran down the middle of the main cabin. He didn't know why they were all staying away, but he figured it had something to do with the mare that was with him.
Other than the low droning of the propellers, the flight had been rather quiet. So, naturally, everyone's head turned when Luna stepped out of the cockpit where she had been helping navigate.
"We have come to inform you that we shall arrive at our destination within the next quarter-hour."
Upon hearing the ETA, John stood and made his way to the front of the cabin, where he could be seen by the ponies on both sides of the wall. "If the Princess has no objections, I will be assuming command of this operation."
The Princess cocked an eyebrow, but relented. "By your assertiveness to take command, I assume that you have already concocted a plan-of-action?"
"Yes ma-am, I have. But before we do anything, I'm going to contact Cobra and let them know we're coming." He pulled the two radios out of his vest and held one out to Luna, who grabbed it with her magic and proceeded to examine it. Making sure he was on the right channel, he pressed the transmit button. "Cobra-Actual, Hunter 1-1."
"Send it, Hunter. Good to hear from you again."
"Likewise, Actual. ETA is one-five mikes. Airship is friendly, Do-Not fire on the airship."
"Uhhh, copy, ETA fifteen minutes... Can you define 'airship'?"
John chuckled to himself. "A pirate ship hooked up to a huge-ass balloon." There was a long pause before the radio crackled to life again.
"... If we hadn't popped up next to a damned forest after flying over the sandbox, I'd be inclined to turn this radio off... We're not in Kansas anymore, are we?"
"That's a Negative." Another pause.
"... Alright, well, I hope you have some answers."
"I do. I'll explain when I get there."
"*sigh* Copy, Actual Out."
Looking up, John noticed that most of the ponies in the cabin were giving him curious looks. "Alright, here's the plan: We'll land this thing and I'll go out and make contact, alone," he shot a glance at Rainbow Dash, who reciprocated with a fierce glare, "and explain the situation. They're already under a lot of stress, no need to add to it until they're ready for it. Once that's done, I'll persuade them to relinquish their weapons, and Princess Luna will come out to prove that I'm not crazy and answer any questions." He gestured at the radio that Luna was holding. "I will keep in contact through this radio. Do NOT do anything until I say so. Questions?"
Shining Armor raised a hoof. "I got one. What happens if things go south?"
John sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "If the shit hits the fan, You are to get the Princess out of here, no matter what. I'll do what I can from the ground, but don't wait around for me. And, for the love of God, under no circumstances are you to engage any threats, unless you want to be full of holes. Anything else?"
One of the knights spoke up. “Do we know how many there are? And what kind of weaponry they have?”
“Unfortunately, no, we don’t. I’m going to assume it’s a small squad of around thirteen men, maybe more. As for weapons… You all saw my M4, right?” Most of the ponies in the cabin nodded. “Well, imagine thirteen of those, all handled by men trained to use them.” John thought it would be a good idea to leave out the fact that there would probably be at least one light machine gunner and marksman thrown in there as well. Regardless, a few of the knights visibly paled.
When a call from the cockpit notified everyone that they were only a few minutes away from landing, John went to direct the pilot to a good place to land when they got close.
The cockpit was rather spacious and resembled that of an old-timey steam ship with a large panoramic window in the front. There were stations for a helmsman, navigator, spotter, and weapons officer scattered throughout the room, as well as a captain’s chair right smack-dab in the middle.
After a quick word with the Captain, he made his way to the helmsman and waited for their destination to come into view.
It didn’t take long for the vast expanse of trees to dwindle down into a large empty field, where John clapped eyes onto something that definitely didn’t belong. Sitting just outside the edge of the forest was a steel-grey MH-60M Blackhawk helicopter, complete with its very own contingent of heavily armed guards forming a perimeter around it.
“Hunter, this is Cobra-Actual. We, uh, have a visual on the, um... airship. Jesus, you weren’t kidding about that thing.”
Pointing to a spot about fifty meters away from the helicopter, John motioned for the helmsman to land. “Copy, Actual. I have a visual on your bird as well. I’ll be with you as soon as we touch down.”
Making his way to the main cabin, he checked his gear and then stood by one of the sliding doors on the side of the airship, where he was met by Rainbow Dash.
After a moment of silence, Rainbow spoke up, a hint of worry in her voice. “Just... Be careful, will ya?”
John looked down at the Pegasus and smiled. “I’ll be fine Dash. I’m just going to go say hi to some friends. Nothing to worry about.”
“Yeah, well, the Doc will have my flank if you break something.”
With a resounding thud, the ship touched down and John threw open the door, turning around and shutting it again as soon as he stepped out. As he walked toward the Blackhawk, he could see three of the men standing around the helicopter break their formation and make their way to intercept him.
From the color and pattern of their uniform, a digital mix of browns and tans, John could tell that they were Marines... and they were on edge.
When they were only a few paces away from each other, the Marines stopped and raised their rifles.
“STEEL!” One of the Marines shouted at John, who had tightened his grip on his own rifle.
“BEAST!” He returned the counter-phrase and the soldiers lowered their weapons and continued forward.
Upon meeting, one of the Marines stepped forward and held out a hand. “2nd Lieutenant Phillips. USMC. Cobra-Actual.”
John let his rifle hang from its sling as he returned the handshake. “1st Lieutenant Killinger. Air Force. Hunter 1-1.”
The two other Marines looked at each other in astonishment. “Aquila!? Well shit, never thought I’d see you again.” The one that spoke quickly stepped up and shook John’s hand rather vigorously.
John raised an eyebrow. “Um, have we met?”
The Marine shaking his hand looked crestfallen. “Damn. Man, I told you he wouldn’t remember us.”
“Yeah, well, he’s probably got more important shit to worry about than remembering our sorry asses.” The remaining Marine, who looked a lot older than the other two, strode over and pushed the younger one away. “Sorry about Rockstar, sir. His pants are on too tight.”
“Are not.” The younger Marine pouted.
“Sergeant Major Fredricks, but you can just call me ‘Pops’. A lot of the men have rotated out, but we’re the guys you and your buddy pulled out of the fire awhile back. I believe we still owe you that beer.”
In an instant, everything clicked into place in John’s memory. The squad of Marines that he and James had rescued, the same ones that gave them their callsigns, had somehow managed to find their way into a Gate. It had been over a year ago, but he still remembered that day as if it were yesterday... after being reminded, of course.
A large smile spread across his face. “My God, it is you guys. Jesus, as if the first time wasn’t enough, now I gotta save your asses again.” This brought a hearty chuckle from Pops, whereas Rockstar pumped a fist into the air.
“YES! He remembers!”
“Shut it, Marine.” The Marine Lieutenant barked. “You can catch up later, but right now, I believe we were promised some answers.”
John nodded. “And you’ll get them, but I’d rather only explain everything once.”
The Lieutenant grunted, and gestured for John to follow him back to the helicopter.
The walk was short, and soon John was standing alongside the Lieutenant and Sergeant Major in front of a large group of men (and one woman), consisting of Marines, a Naval Corpsman, two Marine pilots, and an Air Force Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC for short).
In short order, Pops introduced him to the squad. “You’ll remember the Boss and Doc.” One of the older Marines, a Gunnery Sergeant, nodded at John and the Corpsman, Petty Officer 3rd Class, waved. “That’s Annie, DJ, and Shadow.” The Sergeant Major pointed at the female Staff Sergeant, a Private First Class with an iPod clipped to his arm, and a Corporal wearing sunglasses. “You already met Rockstar. Sparky, Thing 1, and Thing 2 are in the back.” A finger was pointed at the Air Force JTAC, a Staff Sergeant, and the two pilots, both 2nd Lieutenants. “I’m Pops, and this is Snake.” A thumb jab at himself and at the Lieutenant standing next to him. “Any questions?”
John looked over the group in front of him, as well as the helicopter behind them. “Yeah, I got two. First, is that bird functional?” He gestured at the Blackhawk.
“One of the wheels is flat, and the landing gear are a bit bent, but she’s good to go.” One of the pilots spoke up.
“Excellent! You guys did better than me. I landed in an apple orchard. Smashed my plane to bits and put me in the hospital because I broke my everything." This brought out a few laughs.
"Second question, and I mean no disrespect, but I thought females weren’t allowed in combat?”
This time, Annie spoke up. “It’s a recent change, sir. Something about ‘squad morale’ or some bullshit. All I know is that I get to shoot stuff.” A chorus of Oohrah’s was heard.
John shrugged. “Fine by me.”
Pops took this as his cue to continue on. “Alright, ladies! Three of you should remember the man standing in front of you!” Pops yelled, while gesturing at John. “For the rest of you, this here is 1st Lieutenant John Killinger of our beloved Air Force!” John smirked and slowly shook his head. “He is here to brief us on our current predicament!”
John took a step forward and addressed the group. “Alright, I’m going to be blunt and cut straight to the point. You are no longer on the planet Earth, nor are you even in the same dimension.” As expected, he was met with looks of disbelief.
“Bullshit!” Rockstar yelled, causing everybody assembled to wince.
John frowned. “I shit you not.” Now for the question. “By a show of hands, who here has heard of the TV show, ‘My Little Pony’?”
Tentatively, all but a few raised their hands.
"Well-"
“BULL! SHIT!”
Unfortunately for him, Rockstar’s outburst brought him into the sights of the Gunnery Sergeant, Boss, who grabbed the young Marine’s collar and pulled him into the main cabin of the helicopter, promptly slamming the sliding doors shut.
Regardless, John continued addressing the soldiers.
(Meanwhile, inside the Blackhawk)
“LANCE CORPORAL MERRICK! WHAT IS YOUR MAJOR MALFUNCTION!”
“I- uh-“
“UM! UH! UM! SPEAK!!!”
“Sir, I am just... trying to figure out what is going on.”
“BY YELLING 'BULLSHIT' WHILE A SUPERIOR OFFICER IS SPEAKING!? YOU MUST BE OUT OF YOUR GOD-DAMNED MIND! YOU NEVER INTERRUPT A SUPERIOR OFFICER WHEN HE IS SPEAKING! I DON’T CARE IF A BUS FULL OF BABIES IS ABOUT TO FALL OFF A MOUNTAIN! YOU WAIT UNTIL HE IS FINISHED!”
“YES, GUNNERY SERGEANT.”
"THAT MAN SAVED YOUR WORTHLESS ASS, AS WELL AS MINE! THE LEAST YOU COULD DO WOULD BE TO GIVE THAT MAN ENOUGH RESPECT TO NOT INTERRUPT HIM WHEN HE IS TALKING! YOU ARE NOW ON MY SHIT-LIST LANCE CORPORAL! DO YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!?"
"Y-YES, GUNNERY SERGEANT."
"I DON'T CARE, I'M GOING TO TELL YOU ANYWAY! IT MEANS YOU GET TO TRY OUT MY NEW PT SCHEDULE! STARTING AT THE END OF THE LIEUTENANT'S BRIEF! DO YOU GET ME!?"
"YES, GUNNERY SERGEANT!"
“OUT-FUCKING-STANDING! NOW GET YOUR SORRY ASS OUT OF THIS HELICOPTER AND BACK IN LINE!”
“AYE, GUNNERY SERGEANT!”
“So, if I understand you correctly, sir, we flew through a worm-hole that shit us out into a children’s television show?”
The side door of the Blackhawk slid open and a visibly paled Rockstar stumbled out, closely followed by an extremely pissed off Gunnery Sergeant. John raised an eyebrow at the Sergeant, who merely shook his head. The helicopter wasn't exactly soundproof.
"Yeah, that about sums it up."
There was a long pause before anyone spoke.
"How do we know that you're not lying?"
There it was. The question that he'd been waiting for since he stepped off the airship. "Well, in order to answer that, I'm going to have ask you all to remove your weapons and place them in the Blackhawk."
Snake stepped forward. "Belay that! I don't care if your pay-grade is higher than mine, my Marines are not relinquishing their weapons."
John sighed. He'd hoped that there wouldn't be any issues, but lady luck, it seemed, wasn't shining in his favor in that regard. "I was not asking because I felt like it. I was asking for your own safety, and the safety of who I'm going to bring out of that airship. However, I'm not asking anymore, I'm telling. All weapons, in the helicopter, now. Everything from knives to hand grenades."
Many of the soldiers present were starting to shift nervously as the two Lieutenants argued.
"I WILL NOT-"
Snake was cut off by the sound of metal clattering on the floor of the helicopter.
Everyone looked over to see Pops, Boss, Rockstar, and Doc divulging themselves of weaponry.
After seeing their fellow Marines relinquishing their arms, the rest of the soldiers began following suit. In short order, everyone was weapon-less... except one.
"You cannot make me give up my weapons!"
John gripped his own rifle tighter. "If you will not give them up, then I will have them forcibly removed."
"You have no righ-"
John was tired of the games, so he raised his weapon and sighted the Lieutenant's chest. "By the order of the Equestrian Royal Guard, if you do not comply, you will be placed under arrest!"
A tense silence filled the air, only to be broken after a few moments by the Sergeant Major.
"You'd best do what he says."
If expressions could kill, the Lieutenant's glare would have just melted the Sergeant's face off.
However, after a moment, the Lieutenant very slowly, and reluctantly, dropped his gear, which was collected and placed in the Blackhawk.
Without taking his sights off the Lieutenant, John pulled out his radio.
"Ma-am, it's time. If you could, can you bring a few knights with you? I have an uncooperative subject that needs to be restrained."
There was a short pause before the radio crackled to life.
"Very well. Miss Dash would like us to ask you if she could come along as well. She is becoming restless."
John rolled his eyes. Typical Rainbow Dash. "... Fine. But make sure she’s prepared to answer any questions."
Within seconds, he heard the doors to the airship slide open, and every single person in front of him, with the exception of one or two, gawked at what came running up behind him.
"Is this the one?"
John glanced down and saw Shining Armor, flanked by two knights, standing next to him. "Yes, sir."
The knights split away and cut off any escape routes while Shining cautiously approached the Marine.
"You are to cease and desist all hostilities immediately!"
"Or what!? You'll bite my ass? Fuck you!"
Shining took a step back and charged his magic. "Get on the ground and place your hooves behind your head!"
The Marine let out a bark of laughter. "Hooves!? I don't have hooves, dumb-shit! I ought to pound your puny ass into glue!" He took a step forward and balled his fists.
Needless to say, Shining wasn't impressed. "BOLTER! BOLTER! BOLTER!" He let loose the magic he had been charging and struck the Lieutenant square in the chest, causing him to drop to the ground and shake violently like he was struck by a Taser. The knights quickly pounced on him, securing his limbs with rope.
After making sure that the Marine was restrained, Shining Armor called an all-clear and John lowered his rifle.
"Lieutenant Adam Phillips, you are relieved of command, effective immediately. Sergeant Major Fredericks, you are now in charge." Turning to the rest of the soldiers standing in front of him, John let out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry you all had to see that."
Dumbstruck would be an accurate term to describe the expressions on everyone’s face. The real damage was done, however, when Princess Luna and Rainbow Dash trotted up to the group and stood beside Shining Armor
“Gentlemen, I would like to introduce you to Princess Luna, Co-Ruler of Equestria; Captain Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard and my Commanding Officer; and Miss Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty and, as of right now, impromptu Ambassador for the Equestrian people.”
The jaws hit the floor.
“.......” “But... that’s not-“ “Probably shouldn’t have eaten that MRE.” “Uhhhhh-“ “There isn’t even wind!” “What the hell?” “Yep, I’m dead.”
Of course, Rainbow had to add her two cents as well.
“Yeah, it’s hard not to gawk at my awesomeness!”
John’s hand said hello to his face.
“Alright! Quiet down!” John raised his voice, silencing everyone present. “Now, if anyone has any questions for the Princess, now’s the time to ask, but, for the sake of time, let’s stick to general topics. We can get into the smaller stuff later.”
Pops stepped forward. “Ma-am, Sergeant Major Fredericks, I have two questions.”
Luna nodded. “We will answer to the best of our abilities.”
The Sergeant Major raised an eyebrow, but continued. “First, is there any way to get us back home?”
Luna surveyed the group of soldiers standing in front of her, all giving her their rapt attention. She slowly shook her head. “Alas, we have, so far, found no way of returning you back to your home planet. However, our best scientists have been working on a solution, but little progress has been made.”
Pops removed his helmet and ran a hand through his slightly balding hair. “So we’re stuck here.” The Princess nodded. “Well, then, what happens now?”
“For now, you all shall return to Ponyville with us, where we will procure lodging for you and so my sister’s student can answer any further questions you have. When you have deemed yourselves ready, you shall be summoned to Canterlot to determine your future in this land.”
The Marine cast a questioning glance at John, who understood what the Princess meant.
“She just wants to ask everyone a question.”
“Well, why not ask it right now?” Rockstar piped up from the back of the group.
Luna looked over the young Marine. “Because you are not yet ready for it.”
“Well, that’s bull-“
The Gunnery Sergeant seemed to materialize out of thin air.
“PT STARTS NOW!” Boss roared. “BRING ME A LEAF FROM THAT TREE!” He pointed at a lone oak tree about a half mile away. “YOU HAVE THREE MINUTES! MOVE YOUR ASS!”
The Lance Corporal uttered an exasperated expletive before sprinting off toward the tree.
Boss turned to the Princess. “My apologies, ma-am. Gunnery Sergeant Johnson.”
Luna regarded the Marine with an amused expression. “It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. We assume it was you that we heard earlier?”
“That is a correct assumption, your highness.”
“It would seem that Captain Spitfire may have some competition. Our ears are still ringing from our last visit to the Academy.” This brought a small chuckle from the two knights.
The Gunnery Sergeant noticed that his charge was rapidly approaching.
“If you’ll excuse me for one moment, ma-am.” Luna nodded as Rockstar came running up, panting heavily and holding up a leaf to the Sergeant. “THAT’S A NICE LEAF, LANCE CORPORAL!”
“Thank you, *pant* sir!”
“IN FACT, IT’S SO NICE, I WANT ANOTHER ONE! YOU HAVE TWO MINUTES!”
The young Marine swore again as he peeled out toward the tree, stumbling and almost falling flat on his face.
Luna barely contained a squeal of glee. “Oh most wondrous! We can’t wait to take you to the Academy. The cadets shall be in for a surprise, don’t you agree Captain?”
Shining Armor chuckled. “I’m actually supposed to head over there next week for an inspection. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little curious to see how they’d react.”
“Indeed. We will be sure to-“ The Princess was cutoff as a letter appeared in front of her in a poof of green smoke, much to the surprise of the gathered Marines. Plucking the letter out of the air and scanning through it, her grin slowly turned into a frown. “Hmm... It seems that Ponyville is having a rather unfortunate string of bad luck, as of late.”
Rainbow, who had been examining the Blackhawk since she clapped eyes on it, spoke up, sounding worried. “What is it, Princess? What happened?”
“Another bucking Manticore has stumbled across the poor town.” The knight’s, Shining Armor, and Rainbow stared slack-jawed at the Princess’ use of profanity.
“Aw shit, another one?” John couldn’t believe what he was hearing.
“Sorry to intrude, but mind filling us in, sir?” Pops asked John.
“Well, the town I’m living in was attacked last night by three Manticore, which are big, have the body of a lion, tail of a scorpion, and small wing things but they can’t fly. Short version, they killed or injured a lot of ponies, guards and civvies alike, set some buildings on fire, and, for lack of a better term, fucked shit up. We’re still in the process of cleaning up, so an attack now is just a kick to the balls while we’re down.”
Boss raised an eyebrow and glanced at Pops, who wordlessly nodded at the Gunnery Sergeant.
“Marines! Gear up and mount up! Things, get that bird in the air! LANCE CORPORAL, GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!” The Gunny's voice boomed out, causing the Marines to jump into action.
The Sergeant Major turned to John. “It seems like you could use some help.”
Note: This chapter may have a few issues, but I'll come back and edit it later. I wanted to get the chapter out because you people deserve an update after waiting so long... again... sorry.
"Message away, sir!"
Blackout nodded an approval at the bandaged Pegasus guard in front of him. "Very good. Now, all we can do is wait, and pray to Luna they arrive soon."
Donning his sunglasses and exiting the library, he took flight and headed towards the guard station where a rag-tag group of defenders were, yet again, marshalling the civilians to safety while the remaining knights kept the Manticore at bay.
Princess Luna had apparently decided that securing whatever came through the Gate was more important than the town's safety, since she had taken all but three knights (himself included) with her. He would have to have a chat with Shining Armor about that later.
When he was about halfway to the station, he was intercepted by Lightning, who had somehow managed to remain mostly injury-free throughout the entire ordeal.
"Sir! The knights won't be able to hold for much longer! They're slowly getting pushed back, and soon we won't have time to evacuate everypony!"
He was about to reply when the Pegasus from the library caught up with him, carrying a small black box and looking rather winded from his flight.
"Sir, *pant* this just arrived *pant* for you. It's from *pant* Lieutenant Killinger."
Blackout took the small box and looked at it, confused. "... And this is?"
"He said something about a 'Radio' *pant*, and pushing the big button on *pant* the side while talking to it."
He raised an eyebrow and examined the device, quickly finding the button, but hesitating before pressing the button. "Uh, hello?"
He nearly dropped the thing when it responded.
"Blackout, is that you? It's John."
"It is, but what-"
John cut him off. "I'll explain later. Gimme a SITREP."
He could hear faint sounds of yelling and a strange, high-pitched whining coming over the radio. "Uhm, we are evacuating fast as possible, but we are running out of time. My knights are being pushed back at this very moment, and I fear we will not be able to get everyone to safety."
The radio was quiet for a moment. "Ok, I want you to get all the civilians off the streets and indoors. Get every able-bodied guard or volunteer you can and hold that thing back as long as possible. It's risky, but you have to keep that thing under control until we get there in about... twenty minutes. Can you do it?"
"We will do our best."
"Good, that's all I ask. Just hang in there... The cavalry is on its way."
Blackout could barely hear John over the loud whomping sound coming through the radio as it went silent. Turning to the two Pegasi, he began issuing orders.
"Lightning, you're with me. We're going to help with Manticore." He turned to the other Pegasus, who had caught his breath. "Go back to station and start spreading word. All guards able to fight are to help with beast, while all civilians get inside. Also, hold onto the radio, and come find me if the Lieutenant speaks again." He held out the radio and the Pegasus took it and sped off.
As he started descending towards the faint sounds of fighting with a dark blue Pegasus in tow, he could only hope that John knew what he was doing, and that he would get there soon.
"... The cavalry is on its way."
John put his radio back in his vest and put on a borrowed helmet as the helicopter took off and headed towards Ponyville.
He had only ridden in a Blackhawk once or twice, so this was still a new experience for him, but he could tell that this was no ordinary helicopter, even by Military standards. The first thing that stood out was that there was only one row of canvas seats (two of which he and Rainbow were currently using); all the other seats had been taken out, leaving the Marines sitting rather uncomfortably on the floor. The second thing, or things, while not visible unless viewing the vehicle from the outside, was the long refueling boom and avionics dome on the nose of the aircraft and the rescue hoist above the sliding cabin door on the right side.
Speaking over the intercom, he contacted the Pops. "Sergeant Major, if I remember correctly, you and the guys are regular Marines, right? So why the special bird?"
He saw a few of the Marines tense up.
"Well, sir, on our last OP, our bird took fire and went down. One of the men got ejected after the hit, and Thing 2's co-pilot took some shrapnel to the face when we hit. Classic 'Blackhawk Down' shit. Tail got hit by an RPG and the bird went down in a small town a few miles from base."
John shook his head in disbelief. "And there were only two casualties?"
"Yeah, we got real lucky. Anyways, since our chopper got trashed, we were told to use the one the Force Recon guys were using."
"Spec-ops guys get all the cool shit." Rockstar quipped.
John grinned, deciding to lighten the mood a little. "Well, as far as I'm concerned Lance Corporal, it's our 'cool shit' now." This brought a few chuckles. "Alright, just one more question, then I'll quit bugging you for now."
"Shoot."
"You said Things 1 and 2 are twins?"
Pops nodded. "Yes sir, they are."
"Having family members on the same aircrew is against regs, so why are they flying this bird?"
This time, Thing 1 spoke up from the pilot seat. "Because my dumb-shit of a co-pilot fell down a flight of stairs and broke his arm. He just got out of training and it was his first OP, so when we got the call he was a bit too excited, decided to take the stairs four-at-a-time. They would've given me my bro's number two, but he was put in triage after they got back. All the other air crews were busy at the time, so the brass said 'what the hell' and I got stuck with this joker." He took his hand off the collective and gave a light punch to his brother in the left-hand seat, causing the aircraft to waver slightly.
Thing 2 wasn't paying attention, but was instead looking at the instruments, mainly the GPS. "Sir, the Sergeant Major said that you fly an A-10. Were your instruments acting up at all when you got here?"
John cocked an eyebrow. "I don't know, my girl got smashed to bits before I came-to, why?"
Rainbow looked nervously at John, who put a calming hand on her back. She wasn't exactly used to flying in cramped, steel deathtraps.
The pilot didn't answer, still keeping his eyes riveted to the GPS screen. "And you said we're headed to somewhere called 'Ponyville'?"
"Yes we are. Is something up?"
There was a moment of silence before he spoke again. "Either I'm going crazy, or that 'Gate' thing did more than bring us here. According to the GPS, we're thirteen minutes out."
The implications of what the pilot said hit John like a slap to the face as he jumped up and began stepping over Marines to get to the cockpit. Grabbing the seatbacks to keep himself stable, he looked over the pilot's shoulder at the screen currently showing the GPS.
Sure enough, there was a small dot labeled "Ponyville" slowly creeping across the screen with coordinates, an ETA, and other technical information in the corners of the screen.
John yelled into the pilot's ear so he could be heard over the sound of the aircraft since he had unplugged his microphone when he got out of his seat. "Did you set that!" Referring to the current flight plan set for the town.
"Yes sir! I just set it! I'm still trying to figure out how the hell it knows where we are!"
He took a moment and watched the dot continue its journey across the screen, growing ever-closer to the aircraft. "We'll figure that out later!" Giving a quick pat to the pilot's shoulder, he carefully made his way back to his seat and plugged his microphone back in, getting a nervous look from Rainbow, who looked a little ridiculous with the large helmet on her head.
"Is everything ok? This thing's not gonna crash, is it? Because that would totally NOT be awesome."
John gave a reassuring pat on the Pegasus' back. "Don't worry, everything's perfectly fine, and no, we're not going to crash." He thought for a moment. "Basically, the magic that brought us here changed a few things on our..." he paused to think of the right word, "electrical map. Nothing to worry about."
Rainbow scrunched up her nose. "Electrical map? How does that work?"
He thought for a moment "Well-"
"ETA Ten Minutes!"
He was cut off by the call from the cockpit. "That's gonna have to be a story for another time." He gave another pat to the disappointed Pegasus. "Alright Marines! Who here has fought a Manticore before?"
"Ach!" Blackout recoiled from the Manticore's swipe, barely skimming the side of his head, but sending him reeling nevertheless. "Alright, сука. You want to play rough?" He spat out a globule of blood as the two other knights moved to cover him. "Let us play rough." With a stamp of his fetlocks, two sets of razor sharp claws swiveled down and clicked into place on each of his hoofguards.
“Sir! How much longer do we have?” Star stepped out from behind a wagon and renewed his magical assault, slinging bolts of energy.
Lightning swooped down and attempted to slash at the Manticore’s tail, but missed, narrowly avoiding the appendage when it flailed as an energy bolt struck the beast in the face. “He’ll get here when he gets here! Just keep-“
He was cut off by a guttural yell from Blackout as he sprung at the Manticore. Still disoriented from Star’s shot to the face, the Manticore couldn’t get out of the way fast enough. Using his momentum, Blackout hooked a hoof around the Manticore’s neck and swung onto its back, just out of reach of its swiping paws.
Just as he was about to plunge a clawed hoof into the beast’s spinal cord, he realized his folly.
Yes, he was away from the deadly teeth and claws...
But not the tail.
Star watched in horror as Blackout was sent careening through the window of a nearby house. “Oh buck! The Lieutenant’s-”
“RAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHH!!! I WILL BEAT YOUR FACE IN!!!”
“... Perfectly fine?...”
From his vantage point by the wagon, Star watched as a dark grey streak shot through the smashed window, right into the side of the Manticore. A moment later, the Manticore started yowling and bucking around frantically, trying to shake Blackout off, but the knight’s claws held firm.
“C’mon LT! Kick its flank!” Lightning was watching the scuffle from above and was getting ready to come around for another pass at the flailing tail when he almost ran into a rather winded Pegasus guard.
“Message *pant* for *pant* the *pant* Lieutenant.”
“Sir, the Lieutenant is two minutes out. *pant* Closing fast.”
Blackout muttered an expletive as he deftly dodged a swipe from the Manticore’s tail. “EXCELLENT! TIME TO DIE, YOU OVERGROWN PILE OF DRAGON SHIT!”
Emphasizing his point, Blackout began using his claws to climb up onto the Manticore’s back again.
As if sensing what would happen next, one of the knights yelled out. “Watch the tail!”
When the tail inevitably came around and swiped at Blackout, he was ready.
With a muffled oof from the pony, and a roar from the Manticore, Blackout pulled his claws out of the Manticore's back and latched onto the tail, holding on tightly as he was flung around like a rag doll.
"WELL DON'T JUST STAND AROUND LIKE LITTLE FOALS!"
Snapped out of their awe-induced stupor, the two knights jumped into the action, deploying their claws and latching onto the sides of the Manticore, pinning its wings to its sides.
Unable to effectively help, Lightning landed next to Star, who couldn't fire his bolts for fear of striking the knights on accident.
"Remind me to never piss him off." Lightning gestured at Blackout, who was repeatedly stabbing the tail while being whipped around at speeds that would give a lesser pony a severe case of whiplash.
"Yeah, 'Breaking News: Pegasus found missing limbs and stuffed into cider barrel'." Star sniggered.
"Geez, I'd rather not- Hey, do you hear something?" Lightning's ears started swiveling around as he slowly took flight and ascended above the rooftops.
Star cocked an eyebrow and looked at Lightning. "I can't hear anything over that. He pointed a hoof at the Manticore turned bucking bronco.
"Just listen, you'll hear it."
"Hear what! I don't know what you're talking abou-..." Star's face paled as he looked at Lightning. "W-what is that?"
"I don't know dude, but it's getting louder!" Lightning frantically looked around to try to identify the low whomping noise.
"I've got a bad feeling ab-"
"Hey, you still there?"
Star jumped and Lightning flew over to the other Pegasus guard, who was just staring dumbstruck at the current brawl below him. Pressing the button on the side of the radio, the Pegasus responded. "Um, y-yes sir."
"Good. We have Ponyville in sight. We're going to drop some guys off at the station, and then make our way to your location. If you can, signal your position so we know where you are."
"Ok, standby." The Pegasus turned to Star. "Hey Star, can you do that firework thing?"
The Unicorn pointed his horn at the sky and shot a red bolt into the air. When he thought the bolt was high enough, he flared his horn and the bolt exploded in a shower of red sparkles.
"Ok, we have your location. If there are any Pegasi in the air, I want them on the ground now. Ponyville is now a no-fly zone."
"Yes sir, no-fly zone in effect." He turned to Lightning. "You heard the Lieutenant, hooves on the ground."
Lightning shrugged and glided down to land next to Star, closely followed by the radio-wielding Pegasus.
"Alright, sit tight. Be there soon. Out."
The radio cut off and the two Pegasi shared a glance.
"Why do you think he wants us on the ground?"
"No idea."
They continued to watch the knights, who were slowly making some headway. The Manticore's tail was now a gory pile of mush, due to Blackout's incessant pounding, and there were long bloody gashes all along the Manticore's back and sides.
Although, just as it seemed the knights were gaining the upper hand, one was sent flying when one of the Manticore's wings swiftly unfolded with a muffled pomf.
Sensing that it was free of one of its assailants, the Manticore took the opportunity to plow through the wall of a house, ridding itself of another. Using its tail as a wrecking ball, the Manticore swung the appendage at a wall, dislodging the remaining knight and sending him flying further into the house.
Emerging from the house knight-free, the Manticore charged at the three ponies standing by a wagon further down the street.
Seeing that Blackout and his knights had been defeated, or at least dazed and scattered, the three ponies did the only thing that made sense.
"Oh BUUUUUUCK!!!"
They ran for their lives as the whomping noise grew to a deafening level.
"Alright, remember, as soon as the wheels touch the ground, Sierra disembarks and takes up defensive positions around the station. The quicker you get off, the quicker we get back in the air." A wave of OORAHs filled the cabin. "After we get airborne, we'll locate the Manticore and Bravo will fast-rope in while the Staff Sergeant provides cover fire." Another round of OORAHs and a drowned-out "Get Some".
"Fifteen seconds!"
The Marines racked the charging handles of their weapons and opened the sliding doors on either side of the cabin.
John, who was crouching behind the cockpit, turned and pointed to a clear spot just behind the guard station. "Put down right there." The pilots nodded in acknowledgement.
"Five seconds! Four! Three! Two! Brace!"
Everyone onboard tensed as the helicopter touched down.
As soon as the helicopter stopped moving, the Sergeant Major, JTAC, Rockstar, and DJ jumped out, leaving the Gunnery Sergeant, Annie, Doc, and Shadow onboard
"CLEAR!"
The helicopter began lifting off again and John could see the men on the ground make their way to the station, weapons raised.
"-UCK! LIEUTENANT! THE KNIGHTS ARE DOWN! THE MANTICORE IS GAINING ON US! WE'RE HEADED TOWARD TOWN HALL, BUT WE MIGHT NOT MAKE IT!"
John cursed, then pointed in the direction of Town Hall. "Get us there as fast as you can!" The pilots nodded and John turned to the Marines behind him. "Get the rope ready! Staff Sergeant, get on that weapon!" He pointed at a small sliding between the cockpit and the main cabin door.
A chorus of "Yes Sir"s was heard as the Marines jumped into action. A large bag was retrieved from beneath Rainbow Dash's seat as Annie slid open the small sliding door, revealing an M134 minigun mounted on the side of the helicopter and causing Dash's eyes to widen at the sight of the weapon being readied.
Looking out the window, John spotted the three guards running down one of the main roads, the Manticore close on their heels as the Blackhawk swooped into a hover at the end of the road, just before reaching Town Hall.
"GO! GO! GO!"
John turned around just as the rope was clipped onto the hook of the rescue hoist and then tossed out the door, quickly followed by the Marines one-by-one until they were all safely on the ground. Reaching over, John pulled the quick-release, causing the rope to detach and fall to the ground.
Seeing that the Manticore was almost upon the guards, John grabbed his radio.
"WHAT THE BUCK IS THAT THING!"
"I DON'T CARE! JUST KEEP RUNNING!"
The three guards ran as fast as they could towards the giant grey object hovering at the end of the road they were on. They couldn't help but watch as a rope fell out of one of the doors and three men slid down the rope, each pointing what Lightning and Star recognized as rifles in their direction as soon as their feet hit the ground.
As soon as the rope detached from the flying object, the radio they had crackled to life.
"GUARDS, HIT THE DECK! OPEN FIRE! OPEN FIRE!!"
The guards' eyes widened. They had all seen what John's rifle could do...
And there were three of them pointed right at them.
"OH SHIT!" Lightning, being the quickest of the three, hooked a hoof around the necks of the guards running on either side of him and fell to the ground, pulling the other two with him.
The Marines opened fire.
And everyone in town knew it.
BRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!!
John watched as the minigun spewed forth fire and lead at an unholy rate, utterly destroying anything and everything unlucky enough to be on the receiving end. He just hoped that the Marines' aim stayed true and that the guards below would come out unscathed, but the borderline maniacal laughter coming from the female behind the minigun wasn't helping.
When the dust cloud around the Manticore engulfed the prone forms of the guards, John called a cease fire, and the firing quickly stopped, leaving everyone with ringing ears.
Keeping his eyes on the dust cloud, he tried contacting the guards. "Guards, is everyone alright?"
Silence.
"Bravo, is there any movement down there?"
"Negative, no movement."
John cursed. "Guards, if you can hear this, try making your way out of the dust. Bravo, move up, try to get eyes-on."
He could only watch as the Marines slowly advanced down the street, weapons still raised. His concentration was broken by a call from the cockpit.
"Do you want to check the FLIR?"
John had to restrain himself from punching something. In all the chaos, he had forgotten about the heat-sensing camera attached to the front of the aircraft. "Do it."
"Roger, standby..."
John held his breath.
"Manticore appears to be down..."
He caught a nervous glance from Rainbow in his peripheral vision.
"... I'm seeing slight movement from three small heat signatures, I believe those are your guards. They may be wounded but I'm not positive."
John cursed again. "Alright, set the bird down. Bravo, get them onboard. Sierra, I need medical personnel outside the station, there should be some doctors inside."
The Blackhawk touched down as the three Marines reached the dissipating dust cloud. Letting their rifles hang, they each grabbed a pony and jogged back to the waiting helicopter.
Once onboard, Doc began assessing the ponies' vitals to the best of his abilities.
Even though he wasn't medically inclined, John could tell that something was wrong. All three guards had their eyes glued shut, were drawing quick, ragged breaths, and were shaking violently. Lightning appeared to be having trouble breathing, and Star smelled like he had pissed himself.
John reached over and placed a hand on Annie's shoulder, causing her to glance at him. He pointed at the body of the Manticore. "Make sure that thing stays down."
She grinned. "Yes sir!"
The Sergeant Major was standing outside the guard station scanning the road in front of him. After he had received John's call, he had sent Sparky inside to retrieve the doctors.
"Sounds like things went FUBAR, eh sarge?"
He glanced at DJ, who had walked up next to him. "Son, compared to the OP where I met the Lieutenant, this doesn't even rate a 1 on a scale to 100."
"That bad, huh?"
He put a hand on the Private's shoulder. "You have no idea. Ask Rockstar sometime. He was there."
"Will do, sarge."
The sound of the helicopter began growing louder.
"Sierra, are the medical personnel there?" John's voice came through his headset. And he sounded pissed.
He turned his head as the station's doors opened and two ponies, a brown Unicorn in a lab coat and a white one wearing a nurse's hat, walked out. "Just got here."
He beckoned the ponies over. One looked as if it was about to speak, but he held up a finger and silenced it.
"Good, make sure they can hear this."
He took a moment to pull the radio out of its pouch and unplug his headset. "Good to go." He saw the Blackhawk ascend above the rooftops and bank in their direction.
The ponies sere startled as the radio crackled to life, but this time Doc was the one speaking.
"Ok, I've got three ponies; all male, two with wings, one with a horn. All three appear to be in various stages of shock and are suffering from mild exhaustion. The white one with the horn and the brown one with wings have some minor cuts and bruising. The blue one with wings has received a GSW to the chest. The bullet has pierced its armor and appears to have lodged in one of his lungs. He's having severe trouble breathing and appears to be having trouble remaining conscious. I'm stabilizing the best I can, but he needs to get to a hospital ASAP."
The Sergeant Major turned to the doctors. "You get all that?"
The white one looked a little confused, but the brown one nodded.
He brought the radio to his mouth. "Roger. Medical personnel standing by."
In a billowing cloud of dust, the Blackhawk touched down in front of the station, causing the two doctors to take a step back. In a flash, the side door opened and three Marines jumped out, followed by John and the Rainbow maned Pegasus.
Quickly leading the two doctors to the helicopter, he helped them up into the cabin, where he saw the Corpsman tending to a blue Pegasus with a blood-stained bandage across it's chest. Upon seeing the injured ponies, the doctors overcame whatever fears they had of the helicopter and began helping.
Shutting the cabin door and shielding his eyes from the rotorwash as the helicopter took-off, he glanced at John as he stormed into the guard station, closely followed by the Pegasus.
"Do you think someone should talk to him?" DJ asked him.
The Sergeant Major shook his head. "No, the best thing to do right now is to leave him be."
Rainbow Dash was worried. She had never seen John act like this.
She followed closely as the human burst through the doors to the station and headed towards the stairs. Seeing a small orange filly making her way towards him, she quickly intercepted her.
"Hey Rainbow Dash! Can I go talk t-"
"FUCK!"
Scootaloo was cut off as John wheeled around and punched the wall before stomping up the stairs, leaving a hole in the wall and causing the ponies in the room grow silent.
Rainbow turned to the wide-eyed filly. "Not right now Squirt. He needs some time to himself for a bit." She flinched as the door to the sleeping quarters upstairs slammed shut.
John pushed through the front doors to the hospital and walked into the lobby. The waiting room off to the side wasn't full, which was a good sign, but it wasn't completely empty either. A family with a sick foal, a stallion with some cuts and bruises, and a trio of nurses watching over a group of bandaged guards who were conversing merrily with a pair of knights, completely oblivious to everyone else in the room.
He made his way to the receptionist's desk, who looked up, eyes widening at the sight of the large human.
"Good evening, sir. How may I help you?"
He pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it, looking over the names he had written down. "Can you tell me where I can find Corporal Lightning Flash, Corporal Star Streak, Lieutenant Blackout, Private Swift Strike, Private Quick Quill, and Sergeant Nightly Haze?"
The receptionist's smile turned into a small frown. "Are you related to any of them?"
John deadpanned. "Does it look like I'm related to anyone?"
A loud cry of laughter from the guards caused the receptionist to jump a little. "I'm sorry to say that only family and relatives are allowed to visit at this time."
"Ma'am, in the past forty-eight hours, I've been chased by a pissed off Manticore, bitch slapped by a pissed off Manticore, nearly eaten by a pissed off Manticore, burnt to a crisp, fell from a second story window, had to explain to a kid why he can't see his parents anymore, had to explain to a group of Marines where the fuck they are, got mindfucked by a GPS, and to top it off, had to deal with another pissed off Manticore. All on two hours of sleep. So I'm not in the best of moods right now" He paused to let that sink in, and to take a breath. He also thought he heard a door open and close, but he paid it no mind "Now, I've got three guards and three knights in the hospital. One of the knights is a friend, and two of the guards are under my direct command, one of which is in critical condition. As their Commanding Officer, I need to know-"
"OFFICER ON DECK!"
Upon hearing the word 'Officer', one of the knights in the waiting area looked up and immediately recognized him. Said knight decided it would be best to let everyone in the room know about his discovery in the loudest voice he could muster.
The effect was instantaneous. All the guards and knights in the room stood, if able, and saluted, startling the room's other occupants and causing everyone to become silent.
John whirled around and eyed the guards, not pleased at how he was interrupted. Even though they weren't technically required to salute, as they were off duty and patients at the hospital, but they did so anyway. If he didn't have more pressing matters, he probably would've marched over and chewed up the stallion that interrupted him. However, deciding that it wasn't worth the time and effort, he reciprocated the salute, wanting to return to what he was doing. "As you were."
It was then that he noticed the rather imposing figure that was now standing a few feet away from the front door, having just entered. The expression on his face let John know that the Gunnery Sergeant had been present for the knight's outburst.
And he wasn't happy about it.
The Gunnery Sergeant pointed at the offending stallion and made a "come here" gesture with a finger. Not knowing what to do, the knight cast a nervous glance at John, who nodded in response. Pupils dilating, he slowly crossed the room and followed the Sergeant as he exited the building.
The guards slowly returned to their conversation, one stallion short and more reserved in their reverie than before, and John turned back to the receptionist.
"Who-*ahem* Um... Who did you need to see again?"
"Ugh... This sucks."
"Tell me about it."
"Oi, quit yer bickerin'. 'Taint gonna make it any better."
John approached the first room and checked his paper.
"That's easy for you to say, this is the second time I've been here in the past week, and last time, it was for a month."
With a slight smirk, John recognized Star's voice as he grabbed the door handle and pushed the door open. "Yeah, but you got to leave whenever. I was the one stuck in bed."
The room was long and had three beds spaced evenly with curtains separating them. Star was in the middle bed, a brown Pegasus, who John assumed was Quick Quill, was in the bed on the left, and a batpony, who John assumed to be Nightly Haze, was occupying the bed on the right.
Upon seeing him, Quick and Haze attempted to sit up and salute, but John held up a hand halting them. "You're in the hospital, knock off the formal crap."
"Yes, sir."
"Now," he walked into the room and pulled up a chair that was resting by the doorway. "how is everyone holding up?"
Star opened his mouth to speak, but he was cut off by Sergeant Haze.
"Oh, I'm bloody peachy. Got thrown through a wall, only t' wake up in the hospital with these two panzies. One measly Manticore makes 'em piss themselves."
John was slightly taken aback by the stallion's forwardness. "Well, to be honest, I'd probably be scared shitless too if I was in their position." He turned toward Star and Quick Quill. "It looked like that Manticore almost had you three."
Star and Quick exchanged glances. "That wasn't it."
John raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "Oh? What was it then?"
"We've seen what your rifle can do, and staring at the business end of three of them..." Star slowly shook his head.
"And don't forget about the big one." Quick piped up.
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure I heard evil laughter over the sound of the world exploding around me, right before my brain decided to shit itself."
John was surprised. "You actually heard that?"
"You mean..." Star's eyes dilated to pinpricks and he started hyperventilating.
"I think ye broke 'im."
From spending close to a month in the hospital himself, having nothing better to do than examine his surroundings. As a result, John was acutely aware of the layout and positioning of every object in his room. Even though his room and the room he was currently in weren't exactly identical, he did remember one particular object on the wall of his room that, he was told, was on the wall of every room in the hospital.
Quickly rising from the chair, he walked over and slapped a large red button on the wall. Almost immediately after he hit the button, a pair of nurses swiftly entered the room and made their way to Star's bed.
"It looks like a panic attack, get the bag." One of the nurses said while checking the Unicorn's blood pressure. The other nurse ran out of the room, only to return a few moments later holding a brown paper bag in her teeth. Taking the bag and inflating it, the first nurse placed it over the stallion's muzzle.
The bag immediately began rapidly expanding and contracting with each breath, and soon, Star was back to normal.
"I'm going to leave this with you." The nurse handed Star the rather crumpled paper bag. "If that starts happening again, just breathe into it and you should be fine after awhile."
"Ok." Star croaked.
"Alright," John returned the chair he had used back to its place by the door. "I'll get out of your hair, before I break Star again. I've got to check up on the others. Come find me when they let you leave. We'll have a drink or something."
Star and Quick nodded. "Of course, sir."
Opening the door and turning to leave, John paused.
"And you." He pointed a finger at the Sergeant. "Don't be a stranger, you're invited too."
The batpony smiled. "Aye, that sounds mighty fine, sir."
Without further prompting, John exited the room, shutting the door to the room and pulling the paper from his pocket.
One hallway and a flight of stairs later, he was standing in front of the next room. Opening the door and walking in, he noticed that this room, unlike the one downstairs, only had two beds. Both were occupied; one by a tired looking Private, the other by a grumpy looking Lieutenant.
"Well, it is about time! Nurses here are bad company, and all he wants to do is sleep!"
Both knights were wrapped in bandages and had various limbs in casts. However, Blackout was the worst, by far, causing John to whistle in appreciation.
"Jesus, Blackout, what'd you do? Take out a house with your face?"
"... Da."
He facepalmed. "Well, I guess it could be worse."
"Yeah, he could be the Manticore." Swift spoke up from the other bed, causing Blackout to start laughing. "They took us past that mess on our way here. The cleanup crew had to use shovels to pick everything up."
"Yeah, apparently my Staff Sergeant, Annie, doesn't like cats." John had spoken with her earlier, when she had told him that she was, in fact, a dog person, and had three German Shepherds.
Blackout's laughter stopped rather suddenly. "You mean... A GIRL did that!?"
"Yeah. A girl. With a really big gun."
"... But... But... But..."
"I think you broke him."
John threw up his hands. "First Star, then you!" He smiled and shook his head. "Alright, well, I still owe Blackout, so when you two get out of this joint, beers- or whatever you all drink- are on me."
Swift gave a mock salute. "Will do, sir."
"... But... But..."
Sighing, John turned around and left the room. Pulling the paper out of his pocket again, he looked at the last name on the list.
Cpl. Lightning Strike - 220, ICU ...
He slowly walked down the hall, reading the room numbers as he went.
205...
...
209...
....
214...
...
218...
219...
...
220
Slowly, he reached out and grabbed the door handle. He wasn't a very religious man, but he said a silent prayer regardless.
Without any pomp or flair, he eased the door open and stepped inside.
One bed.
One occupant.
The dark blue Pegasus was quietly slumbering, completely oblivious to the world around him. A nurse, who was silently watching the monitors, looked up when John walked in.
"Can I help you?" She asked in a whisper, so she wouldn't disturb Lightning's rest.
Without taking his eyes off the Pegasus, John replied. "How's he doing?"
The nurse picked up a clipboard and skimmed through it. "He's stable, for now. They managed to remove the "bullet", as your medic called it." She gestured at a small glass jar on the bed-side table. "His armor took most of the brunt, but it smooshed it up, causing it to effectively shred anything in its path, including part of his left lung. The surgeons fixed it as best they could, but he'll still have trouble breathing for a while."
John walked over and picked up the small jar. Inside was a mashed-up blob of copper resting on a small wad of cotton. Sighing, he placed the jar back on the table. "Let me know if anything happens."
The nurse nodded, and John left.
He took a few steps then leaned against the wall, closing his eyes and running a hand through his hair.
The sound of footsteps caused him to look up. He was surprised to see the Gunnery Sergeant standing in front of him.
"Sir, Princess Luna wants to talk with you at the library."
Wondering what the Princess could possibly need, he nodded at the man. "Alright, thanks."
John made his way through the hospital and back to the lobby. Returning a wave from the receptionist, he pushed his way through the double doors and stepped outside, followed by the Gunnery Sergeant.
"Lean at rest."
Confused, John turned to see the Gunnery Sergeant standing over the prone, sweaty form of a batpony.
"Y-yes, *pant* sir." The knight ceased his push-ups and locked his elbows, keeping his body locked in the upright position.
"Now, what have we learned?"
"N-never *pant* interrupt *pant* a superior *pant* officer *pant* while *pant* he's *pant* speaking, *pant* sir."
"Good. Will it happen again?"
"No, *pant* sir."
"Outstanding. You are free to go."
THUD
The stallion's elbows buckled and he fell face-first into the dirt.
John was standing in the library across from Princess Luna. "So, tell me if I'm understanding this correctly... You want my aircraft, on the next train to Canterlot?" The Princess nodded. "Which leaves at seventeen thirty hours, today?" Another nod. "Ma'am, it took us two full days just to get the wings, engine, and other pieces into the field, which is only a few meters away. We haven't even started on the main fuselage yet, but you want everything moved at least two, if not more, kilometers away, onto a train that gets here in..." He glanced at the clock on the wall. "Two hours? It's not going to happen."
The Princess merely smirked, causing John to give her an incredulous look. "Which is why we have sent a message to our sister. It is also why the train will be accompanied by two contingents of guards, four squads of engineers, and the heavy-lift detachment of the Royal Engineer Corps."
John shook his head in disbelief. The Princess was putting some serious action behind getting his aircraft operational. And that made him a bit nervous. "Ma'am, is there any particular reason you want to get my aircraft out of here so quickly? Also, even with all the help, how will we get everything on the train before it leaves?"
The Princess' smirk turned into a small frown. "We are sorry to say, but that information is... classified. Even if we could tell you, we would not do it here." She gestured at the library they were currently standing in. John opened his mouth to protest, but she stalled him. "However, if we believe that your knowledge and skills are beneficial to our predicament, you shall be summoned to discuss the matter. In regards to the train, it shall not be leaving without your aircraft aboard. It shall remain at the station for as long as need be."
John thought for awhile. He was rather loath to leave the town in its current state so soon after the attacks. A lot of the rubble had been piled up, but there were still areas that looked like a warzone. To make matters worse, the vast majority of the town's guards were in the hospital. There were a few knights wandering around, the rest having been sent back to Canterlot, but they were only there until proper replacements could arrive.
"How many guards will be arriving on the train?"
"Two full contingents. About thirty guards total. Fifteen are to remain in town while the remaining fifteen are to provide security during the trip."
John shook his head. "The Marines can handle security. I want all the guards to stay here. If this town is attacked again, there's nothing stopping them from getting completely rolled over."
Luna's brow furrowed. "I do not think this is a good idea, but I will defer to your judgment on the matter. If you believe your handful of Marines is more capable that fifteen Royal Guards, then so be it. I leave you to sort out the details." With that, the Lunar Princess stormed out, slamming the door behind her.
John couldn't help but think that if the Gunny were there, he'd catch flak about the way he spoke to his Commander-in-Chief. It would probably come back to bite him in the ass later, but he didn't have time to dwell on it now. He had just two hours to prepare for one of the largest moving operations in Ponyville history.
After leaving the library, John had gone to the hotel where the engineers were staying and arranged for every pony that had helped with his aircraft, as well as the Marines, meet at the small amphitheatre next to Town Hall.
Needless to say, the turnout wasn't too great, but John had expected as much. Many of the ponies standing in front of him were bandaged and bruised, but offered to help nonetheless. After waiting a few minutes for stragglers to arrive, he began to speak.
"Alright, I bet you all are wondering why I've called you here?" Nods and murmurs of agreement trickled throughout the group. "Well, I've been informed by Princess Luna that, in roughly one hour, a train will be arriving to transport my aircraft to Canterlot." He could see a few of the engineers go bugeyed, and decided to nip that in the bud. "Before everyone starts freaking out, no, we're not moving everything by ourselves. There are several squads of engineers accompanying the train, and they'll be able to assist." The assembled ponies visibly relaxed. "However, I'm going to assume that they think they're just moving a large chunk of metal, and not a multi-million dollar death machine. I do not have the time to give them the same safety brief that I gave everyone here, so, you will be divided up and assigned to a group to ensure that everything is handled correctly." One of the engineers raised a hoof. "Yes?"
The stallion gestured at the group of Marines lounging around toward the back of the group of ponies. "Why are they here? Are they helping with the move too?"
"In a matter of speaking, yes. The Sergeant Major and his Marines will be in charge of security. At least one Marine will be accompanying each major piece of aircraft, as well as any ordinance, at all times. In addition to the Marines on the ground, the helicopter will be providing air cover once the move actually starts, providing they have the fuel for it?" John raised an eyebrow at the two helicopter pilots. After a quick discussion, they nodded at him. "Great. Now, is everyone following me so far?" Another round of nods and affirmations came from the group. "Are there any questions?"
"After everything is loaded onto the train, what do you want us to do?" Ratchet spoke up from the front of the group.
John leaned against the podium. "Well, you were sent here to help move my mess, so I guess you and your engineers will be free to go."
"Actually, sir, we've been reassigned to you."
"Same for me and my boys, sir." Sergeant Ironhoof spoke up.
His eyebrows rose. "Really? Huh. In that case, Ratchet, I want you and your guys to pack whatever stuff you have. You'll be accompanying the wreckage to Canterlot, along with myself and the Marines. Ironhoof, I know you've got guys in the hospital from the attack, so as of now, you and your guards are on leave. Stay here, make sure everyone's alright. Oh, and keep an eye on Star and Lightning for me."
Ironhoof smiled. "Thank you, sir."
John scanned the crowd. "Are there any more questions?" Nobody spoke up. "Alright, I need one volunteer, but other than that, you're all free to go. Engineers and Marines, be sure to be at the crash site in an hour." He left the podium and was about to descend from the small stage when he realized that not a single being, person or pony, had moved. "Erm, free to go means you're allowed to leave and go do stuff."
Everyone was quiet for a few moments until one of Ironhoof's guards spoke up.
"We know, sir, but you asked for a volunteer."
John facepalmed.
The guard station was eerily quiet... and empty.
Other than the pony at the front desk, there wasn't another soul in the entire building. The majority of the knights, as well as Princess Luna and Shining Armor, had returned to Canterlot with the airship. The rest were to leave with the train.
John was in the process of packing his gear into his duffle bag and pulling together everything that couldn't fit and placing it on his bed.
He was slightly startled when the door burst open and a rainbow-maned pegasus flew in, but he recovered quickly.
"Hey, whatcha doin'? Some guard came by and said you needed me for something."
John sighed. "Hey, Dash. I'm just packing up, but I wanted to talk to you before I headed out."
Rainbow's attitude took a nosedive. "Y-you're leaving? Why?"
"There's a train coming in about half-an-hour, and the Princess wants my aircraft on it. She's pulled out all the stops to make it happen."
The Pegasus' head fell and her ears drooped. "Oh..."
John pulled the last item out of his chest and put it in the bag. He then closed the lid and sat on it, facing Rainbow and leaning forward, resting his elbows on his knees. "Unfortunately, this means I can't make up for that black eye." He pointed at the slight discoloration around her eye. "And helping out with Cloud and Scoots is gonna be a bit difficult."
"They really like you, ya know."
He smiled. "Yeah."
They were silent for awhile.
Rainbow looked up at him with sad eyes. "Do you know when you'll be back?"
"No." John shook his head. "But I can write to you, if you want."
She perked up a little. "Sure, that'd be cool."
He smiled. "Alright." He checked the small alarm clock on the shelf above the head of his bed and frowned. "Well, I've got to be at the train station soon. Are you going to watch us move the wreck?"
"I might."
He nodded. "Ok."
Not sure of what else to say, he stood. Picking up the duffel bag and placing it on top of the chest, he turned and started walking toward the door.
As he passed Rainbow, he paused and looked down at the somber Pegasus. He knelt beside her and threw an arm around her in a friendly hug, startling her.
John was sitting on a bench at the train station waiting for the train to arrive. With the exception of a single family of three, the platform was empty.
To pass the time, he reviewed the plans for the next few hours. If everything went accordingly, the mangled pieces of his aircraft would be picked up and hauled to the train station, where the waiting train would take it to the distant city of Canterlot. After that, he was told that everything would be airlifted to a nearby air base, but a lack of sleep, followed by a lack of coffee, left his mind a bit fuzzy.
As the minutes ticked by, he started to nod off, only to be startled awake by the blast of a whistle. Standing and stretching, he checked the nearby clock, and with timing that would make any conductor smile, the train pulled into the station just as the clock struck 5:30.
The train itself wasn't very long, and only consisted of eight train cars total. Two passenger cars, and six flatbed cars. John's eyes lingered on the flatbed cars, more specifically, the large canvas-covered shapes on the flatbed cars. He figured that it was just specialty moving equipment that the engineers brought with them.
Tearing his gaze from the train, he focused his attention on the yellow unicorn walking up to him.
"Howdy, y' must be the feller that ah wus told wus meetin' us. Name's Terex, but y'all can just call me Terry. Ahm in charge of the Heavy Lifters, an' Ah wus told ya had some work for us."
John extended his arm and shook the pony's hoof. "Nice to meet you, I'm Lieutenant Killinger, and you would be correct. I've made a mess, and you get to pick it up."
"Heh, well, Ah guess we'd better get unpacked then."
The pony turned to head back to the train, but John stopped him. "While you do that, I'd like to meet with all the squad leaders, for both guards and engineers. I want to set a few ground rules and get an idea of how things are going to happen."
"Sure thing. Ah assume ya want me here too?"
John nodded an affirmative and Terex disappeared inside the train, only to reappear a moment later with a small group of ponies following him. Taking a moment, he surveyed the group standing in front of him before speaking.
"Alright, all of you are responsible for making sure this information gets to your subordinates, so listen up, this is how things are gonna go down..."
After making sure the engineers and guards were up to speed on everything, he left the train station and made his way to Sweet Apple Acres. He stood beside the cockpit of his downed aircraft, quietly looking at the smashed gauges and blood-stained panels.
It had been a miracle that he had survived.
The amount of things that could've gone wrong were practically endless. The fuel onboard could've ignited on impact, effectively cooking him and anything else that got close enough. The weight of his helmet, combined with the immense G-forces of the impact, could have snapped his neck like a twig. The aircraft could've rolled over, smearing him across the ground as it careened through the orchard.
But none of those things happened.
Either he was unbelievably lucky, or he had a guardian angel watching over him.
"Sir? They're almost here."
He turned around and eyed the pony that spoke up. He was pretty sure that he was one of Ratchet's engineers, but he couldn't quite remember. He'd have to try and find some coffee, or a good substitute, before he got on the train. He still owed Shining a report of the events in town, and he didn't want to nod off in the middle of writing it.
Rubbing his eyes and double checking the switches to make sure everything was off and safe, he began walking to the field where the majority of the ponies and marines were waiting.
"Is everything ready?" he asked the engineer.
"Yes sir. Everyone here knows what they're supposed to do, and we've removed all the ordinance and moved it out of the way like you asked."
When he arrived at the crash site earlier, he was flagged down by the Sergeant Major, who asked to consolidate all the ordinance. This would make it easier to keep track of and, more importantly, keep an eye on. It wouldn't be good if something was misplaced mid-move.
"Good. Very good." He nodded his approval. "Hopefully, things will go reasonably well."
A low rumbling noise caused everyone's head to turn.
Slowly making its way down the edge of the orchard were two massive, six-wheeled carts, pulled by some of the largest ponies John had ever seen. In the beds of the wagons were an assortment of large poles, straps, and cables.
"Alright, gents! Let's get to it!"
All the smaller pieces of John's aircraft were loaded onto the two carts in short order and hauled to the train station, where they were loaded onto the waiting train with relative ease. This left just the main fuselage and the pile of stripped ordinance left to load.
John watched as the engineers assembled what looked to be a gantry crane around the main body of the A-10 as one of the large wagons was positioned next to the wreck.
"What the- HEY! DROP IT! GET ON THE DAMN GROUND!"
His head snapped towards the small pile of ordinance where he saw two Marines with their weapons raised and a quickly fleeing unicorn in their sights.
"STOP! OR WE WILL OPEN FIRE!"
The declaration of impending doom only caused the pony to run faster.
"DROP HIM!"
A pair of gunshots silenced any remaining conversations and caused all work to come to a screeching halt as the fleeing pony dropped to the ground with a scream.
The Marines quickly made their way to the unicorn as John jogged over.
"What the hell is going on-" John cut himself off as one of the Marines picked up a Hydra-70 Rocket that was laying only a few feet away from the pony. "Please tell me this pony wasn't trying to steal my rocket…"
The Marine holding the rocket spoke up. "I'm afraid so, sir. Bastard was invisible. I almost tripped over him."
"Shit. Is he still alive?"
The Marine not holding the rocket crouched down and placed a hand on the pony's neck, feeling for a pulse. "Barely. Orders?"
John's mind went into overdrive as he began rapidly issuing commands. "Get him stabilized if you can, and find out who he is." He pointed at the rocket. "Get that thing back with the others and inventory everything, down to the last bolt. Get on the horn to the guys at the station and let them know what happened. Recall Sergeant Ironhoof and notify Lieutenant Crimson, I want this place locked down. I want eyes on every single piece of that aircraft, no matter how small. Nothing moves until we get this sorted." He turned on his heel and walked towards the main fuselage. "And someone send a letter to the Princess… And pray that she doesn't drop the moon on us."
A lone figure pushed through the underbrush, slowly making his way towards a small clearing nestled deep within a stretch of woods. As he approached the clearing, he knocked twice on an otherwise inconspicuous old, gnarled tree.
...
"Password" A voice sounded from the hollowed out trunk.
Without missing a beat, the figure replied. "Without a head, the snake dies."
...
"Welcome back, brother"
In the center of the clearing, a small trapdoor covered in a patch of grass opened, revealing a dusty wooden staircase.
The figure descended the stairs and stepped into a small room containing a single pony in armor guarding a small gem set atop a pedestal. Ignoring the armored guard, the figure walked to the gem and tapped it twice, causing it to glow brightly.
"You're late"
The figure bowed its head. "Apologies, your Eminence. There were... Complications."
"Explain."
"They found more of them."
"I see. Were you successful?"
"... No. Brass was spotted. They have him and will surely question him."
John sat at a small desk aboard the train, a cup of coffee in one hand and a pen in the other, slowly scratching away at the report he was writing for Shining.
It had taken several hours to clean up the mess that was caused at the crash site, and the final piece of the aircraft hadn't been loaded onto the train until well after the sun had set. The majority of that time had been spent making sure that none of the other pieces had been stolen, which was rather hard to do if you didn't have a list of all the items to begin with. The ordeal was made even more stressful when Princess Luna herself decided to make an appearance to "oversee" the remainder of the move. She wasn't very happy when she found out about the stallion that tried to steal the rocket, but she appeared to be more angry with the thief than the Marines.
As he finished the final line of the report, his attention was drawn to a knock at the door to the compartment he was in.
"Enter."
The door slid open and a guard stuck his head into the small room. "Sir, we'll be arriving in the freight yard in about ten minutes."
Due to being on the side of a mountain, real estate in Canterlot was expensive, and there wasn't a whole lot of room. It was also a heavy tourist location, so the train tracks going up the mountain were used almost exclusively for passenger trains. As a result, there was a small freight yard at the base of the mountain where freight trains would unload and store their cargo, which would later be brought up to the city via airship. It was easier to manage and more space efficient that way, and came with the added bonus of less grumbling from the "nobles" about industrial eyesores.
"Alright. Is that all?" John asked.
The stallion shook his head. "No sir. I've been told to inform you that Captain Armor will be there to oversee the transfer to the airship, and Commander Spitfire will be providing escort once you're under way."
"Any particular reason we need an escort?"
The guard's brow furrowed. "I don't really know. All I know is that the airspace around the Wonderbolt HQ is heavily restricted."
"Huh. Anything else?"
"No sir, that's all."
"Ok, thanks for the info."
The stallion saluted and left.
John stood and stretched, as much as he could in the small cabin. Spending almost the entirety of a two hour train ride hunched over a desk writing a report probably isn't the best for one's back. Exiting the compartment, he made his way toward the back of the train until he reached the last passenger car before the flatcars carrying the wreckage. The car was relatively empty, only containing a few Marines and a handful of guards.
"Any change?" He asked one of the Marines looking out a window toward the flatcars.
"No sir, everything's strapped down tight. It's a shame to see her like this though."
"...Yeah." He sighed and looked out at the smashed up pieces of his aircraft. "She's a tough girl though, she'll pull through."
"Damn straight, sir." The gravelly voice of the Gunnery Sergeant sounded out from behind him. "If she can make it out of the Diamond Valley, she can make it back from this."
"I really don't see what the big deal is." A voice sounded out from the direction of the seated guards. "I mean, it's just a giant hunk of metal."
All the eyes in the car instantly snapped to the poor soul that had opened his mouth.
"Care to repeat that, boy?" The Gunnery Sergeant growled.
Sweat began dripping down the stallion's face. "U-um... I just d-don't see wh-"
The Gunny marched forward until their faces were almost touching each other, sending the guards sitting near the doomed stallion scrambling for cover. "Shut your mouth! Open it again and I'll shove my fist so far down your throat that I'll be able to use your asshole as a fucked up sock puppet." The stallion's pupils shrank in fear as the Sergeant's gaze shifted to all the other guards in the car. "If I ever hear of anyone else disrespecting that aircraft, or her pilot, I will personally make that sorry sack of shit wish they had never been born. Understood?"
A round of trembling "Yes, sir"'s were heard throughout the car.
The flight from Canterlot to the Wonderbolt's headquarters was rather short, being only about twenty minutes, and the transfer from the train to the airship went without a hitch.
There was only one small problem. Emphasis on small.
“That has got to be, without a doubt, the smallest runway I have ever seen.”
The reason that they needed an escort from Commander Spitfire was due to the massive “privacy barrier” of clouds surrounding the plateau that the airbase was on. If the airship didn't enter the base at the proper altitude, or from the correct angle, it could've smashed into the side of the plateau or through one of the many cloud buildings surrounding it.
Although from John's point of view looking out one of the small windows in the cargo hold of the airship, calling it an airbase would be like calling his smashed up aircraft perfectly flyable.
It looked as if someone had chopped the top off the world's smallest mountain and paved a half-assed, two-lane road on top of it.
“Oh, It can't be that bad, sir.”
He looked over at the Sergeant Major, then stepped back and gestured at the window. “See for yourself.” The Sergeant Major stood up from the small canvas seat he was sitting in and walked to the window. “Well?”
“Jesus...” The Sergeant was quiet for a moment. “I've been stationed on aircraft carriers bigger than that.”
“Yeah. Even if I'm able to somehow take off from that, there's no way in hell that I'll be able to land again.” He sighed and ran a hand through his short hair. “I guess we'll have to deal with it when the time comes.”
“Not much else we can do, I guess.” The Sergeant Major said as he returned to where he was sitting.
“Alright gents, prepare for landing!” A voice sounded out from a hatch leading to the deck above.
The landing procedure was… slow.
It took somewhere around ten minutes to land the rather cumbersome aircraft. It was almost akin to docking a large boat, except done vertically. As the airship neared the ground, lines were tossed from the deck to waiting ponies on the ground, who then tied them off onto cleats anchored into the ground.
Eventually, the doors were opened, the cargo ramp was lowered, and the unloading process began.
It didn't take nearly as long to unload the airship as it did to load it, as the pieces were just placed off to the side in the grass instead of being wedged and fit into the small cargo hold like pieces to a puzzle.
After awhile, he could hear the telltale sound of the whomping of rotors from the blackhawk.
Apparently, Spitfire wasn't informed that a second aircraft would be coming with them, so the blackhawk had to remain behind until a second escort could be found.
“Sir,” John turned to see the Air Force JTAC jogging up to him. “Blackhawk's running on fumes, they want to know where to land it.”
Crap.
He looked around, trying to find the yellow form of Spitfire. Spotting her talking to a few of the ponies moving parts around, he quickly made his way over, the JTAC close on his heels.
“- and try not to drop it this time.”
Wait, what?
“Drop what, exactly?” He asked, slightly startling the Commander.
“Oh, didn't see you there Lieutenant. That bozo over there dropped my coffee.” She pointed at a quickly fleeing stallion. “So, what can I do for ya?”
John took a moment to regain his train of thought. “My helicopter is almost out of fuel.” He pointed at the Blackhawk slowly orbiting the plateau. “I need to know where I can land it.”
Spitfire thought for a moment. “I guess you can stick it down there somewhere.” She waved a hoof towards the opposite end of the runway. “Wherever you can get it to fit.”
“Ok, thank you ma-am.” He turned to the JTAC. “You hear that?” the Controller nodded his head. “Make it happen.”
“You've certainly got some interesting stuff here.”
He turned back to Spitfire, who was currently poking at a bent and twisted up piece of sheet metal. “You should see her when she gets put back together again.”
“I'm looking forward to it. Anyways, let me show you where you'll be bunking.” She turned and gestured for him to follow her. She led him over to a small path winding through a copse of trees and bushes. Pushing his way past the foliage, he saw a set of stairs leading down into the ground. “We've hollowed out part of the plateau and turned it into barracks and a mess hall for any ground-pounders that come to visit, as well as any overflow from Academy classes.”
John was surprised as he was lead down the stairs. “Honestly, I thought you'd make us camp out.”
Spitfire let out a chuckle. “I mean, if you really want to, I'm sure I've got a few tents around here somewhere.” She pushed open a heavy metal door that opened up into a rather spacious mess hall. “Welcome to 'The Cave'.” The room was rather well lit by artificial light-crystals embedded into the ceiling. There were several tables spread throughout the room, and on the far side was a cafeteria-style serving line leading into a kitchen. “As you can see, here's the Mess. Kinda sparse at the moment, but we're between Academy cycles at the moment and our cooks are rather bored, so I'll have them move some stuff down here.” She turned and led him to a staircase leading further down. “Living quarters are down here. There are a total of three floors with ten rooms on each. First floor has the Officer and Senior Enlisted quarters, second and third are Enlisted. Each room can sleep a total of four, so there should be plenty of room for everyone.” She opened the door to one of the first Officer rooms. “It ain’t exactly five stars, but it could definitely be worse.”
John eyed the room. It was rather sparse, only containing a bed, desk, and dresser, with a small bathroom just inside the door. “I'm sure I'll make due.”
Spitfire closed the door and reached into the pocket of her dress shirt, pulling out a small pin and sticking it to the door. “To let the janitorial staff know this room's taken.” She explained when she saw John's confused expression. “They'll get you sorted with some linens and toiletries and stuff.” She walked back up the stairs into the mess hall. “All the other rooms are pretty much the same as that one, just with more beds. Any questions?”
John thought for a moment. “Yeah. Are there any places you want us to stay out of?”
“Nah, not really. At least, nowhere that you guys will actually be able to get into.” Spitfire pulled a manila folder out of her shirt and gave it a pat. “I've got a brief planned that's got all the details and what not, but it can wait until everyone's settled in.”
“Sounds good.”
“Ok, I'll leave you to it then.”
“Ma-am.” John snapped off a salute, which Spitfire returned before heading back outside.
Looking around the vacant room, John could only wonder how long he would spend here.
John glanced over his shoulder to see the Gunnery Sergeant approaching.
"Yeah. It took them a bit to get started, but they're rolling pretty good now."
He was standing in front of a set of large tents off to the side of the runway where the Blackhawk was parked and where the wreck of the A-10 was being worked on. They weren't much, just a large sheet of canvas draped over some poles, but they kept the weather off the precious flying machines housed inside. They even had some flaps that could be rolled down the sides to completely enclose the aircraft if needed, but they were currently rolled up to allow easy access. This also allowed John to see the progress that the mechanics had made.
Having never seen, let alone worked on, anything remotely similar to the aircraft before, the engineers took longer than expected to actually get started. The hardest parts for them to wrap their heads around were the complex electronics in the cockpit, and the engines. The first whole week was spent listening to John explain how the aircraft functioned and what each of the different systems did. The next two weeks were spent disassembling things and taking copious notes on everything. Just about every pony working on the aircraft had another pony following them around with a notepad, taking notes. Nothing was left unrecorded.
Despite the slow start, the repairs were being performed faster than what John thought was possible. What took hours to accomplish by normal means, took mere minutes with magic. As a result, after only three weeks, the main body, tail, and wings of the Warthog were almost fully repaired. The only things that weren't close to completion were the systems in the cockpit, the engines, and the main cannon.
"YEAHHH!!!"
John was brought out of his stupor by a group of engineers near the cockpit, cheering and clapping each other on the backs. Looking around, he couldn't figure out what all the fuss was about, until he saw that the navigation and collision lights spread across the aircraft were all on.
"Well would you look at that. The old girl's starting to wake up." The Gunnery Sergeant said. "It'll be nice to hear her purr again."
John was about to ask what he meant, but before he could, the sergeant turned and walked away.
"Excuse me, Sir?"
He turned toward one of the engineers walking towards him from the aircraft. "Yes?"
"We were able to work out the kinks with the electrical system, so, with you permission, we were hoping to move on to the computer systems tomorrow."
John thought for a moment. "The voltage isn't fluctuating anymore?"
"No, sir."
"Then I don't see any harm in it. Do you need me to be here?"
"We'd need you to test the systems for us so we know what's broken, but other than that, I don't think so."
"Ok, I'll be here." He would be lying if he said that he wasn't a little bit excited. This would be a chance to see just how much the engineers were able to fix. Of course, with the engines still being out of commission, he wouldn't be able to do a full systems test, just the electrical systems, but it was a start. "Have you guys heard anything back about the fuel situation?"
"Wait one, sir." The engineer turned toward the ponies working on one of the engines. "Hey Axel! Heard anything about the fuel?"
"Nope!" A pony with his head shoved inside one of the turbines yelled back.
"Hmm. Well, keep me posted." John said with a slight frown.
"Will do, sir." The engineer said, before trotting back to the A-10.
Early on in the repairs, a sample of the jet fuel was taken from the fuel lines inside the surviving engine and sent off to Canterlot for analysis. The ponies, not having technology advanced enough, were still using coal as a fuel source, so there weren't any suitable fuel sources to power the A-10's engines. The closest thing available was the crude oil that the Saddle Arabians had, but there were no methods to refine it yet. So, with no fuel source, it wouldn't matter if the aircraft was restored to pristine condition, it still wouldn't be able to get off the ground.
Rubbing his temples to try to relieve the small headache he got from thinking about his fuel problem, John decided to go see if he could scrounge up something to eat in the mess hall. The walk to "The Cave" wasn't far, and when he pushed open the door to the mess hall, he was met with the soft glow of artificial lighting and the quiet murmurs of a few groups of Marines and ponies sitting at the tables around the room.
Proceeding to the kitchen, he grabbed a tray, selected a few food items that looked edible, then went to sit at an unoccupied table. Just as he was sitting down, a shout was heard across the room.
"COMMANDER ON DECK!"
As one, the entire mess hall stood at attention.
Spitfire stood at the door to the mess hall with a rather disgruntled expression on her face. "At ease." She said, with no small amount of annoyance in her voice. As the occupants of the hall returned to what they were doing, the mare made her way over to where John was sitting and sat down with a sigh. "How's life, Lieutenant?"
"Could be worse, ma'am." The yellow mare gave him a small glare. That's when he noticed that she had some rather large bags under her eyes and looked slightly more unkempt than usual. "Everything ok? The Lance Corporal hasn't been getting 'bored' again, has he?"
After the second week at the airbase, a certain loud-mouthed Marine was having trouble occupying himself during his downtime, so he started pranking people. The pranks started out small and relatively harmless (a whoopie cushion here, a thumb-tack there, etc.), but after the latest incident (which involved a sleeping pegasus, a roll of duct tape, and the Dizz-O-Tron), John stepped in and put a stop to it.
"Oh, nah, he's fine." Spitfire let out a huff of annoyance. "We're getting a new class of cadets tomorrow."
John's eyebrows raised in surprise, as he picked at what looked like applesauce on his tray. "I don't know how that sort of thing is usually handled around here, but that seems like rather short notice to me."
The mare rolled her eyes. "Yeah, tell me about it. Apparently, the dunderheads in Canterlot mixed up some dates, so I didn't get the paperwork until last night."
"That sucks."
"Meh, it's not the first time it's happened. However, that's not the problem."
He cocked an eyebrow. "Really? What's the issue then?"
"... I just got word that Princess Luna will be coming too."
John didn't understand why the mare was troubled. Sure, having your boss come to visit could be stressful, but Princess Luna seemed pretty down-to-earth. However, she didn't take crap from anybody, and she was known to have a short fuse when it came to stupidity.... Which a particular Marine seemed to have an abundance of. He'd have to make sure tha-
"And she's not leaving until that flying machine of yours get's off the ground."
John stared at the mare, trying to grasp the gravity of the situation. "Ok, so the Princess is coming for an extended visit in order to monitor the engineers' progress?"
Spitfire shook her head. "That's the thing, she said that she's only staying for a maximum of one week."
In his shock, John accidentally dropped the spoon he was using to eat his applesauce. "WHAT!? She expects us to finish in a WEEK!?"
Spitfire sighed. "I'm afraid so."
"You've got to be joking!" John was now on his feet leaning over the table, balled fists firmly planted on the tabletop. "We're nowhere near finished! The engines are still in pieces, the hydraulics are shot, the electrical systems are just now being finished, the cannon is beyond fucked, and I don't even want to think about the computers and avionics right now! There is no way in hell that we'll be done in a week, even if the engineers worked around the clock with no sleep at all!"
"Hey, I'm just the messenger." The yellow mare shrugged. "Besides, knowing her, she's already got a plan worked out."
"I hope to hell she does." John sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "If you don't mind, ma'am, I'd like to go break the news to my men." Spitfire nodded, but when John turned to leave the mess hall, he stopped and looked across the sea of people that had crowded into the room, all of whom were watching the pair of officers with rapt attention. "On second thought..." He looked through the crowd until he found who he was looking for "Staff Sergeant Roberts!"
"Sir!" The female Marine responded and pushed her way through the crowd.
"I need every Marine and Engineer not already here, in this room, now!"
"Aye aye, sir!" The Marine gave off a crisp salute, then began yelling "Make a hole!" while shoving anyone and everyone out of her way as she exited the mess hall to fulfill her task.
After a few moments, Spitfire pointed at where the Marine used to be, a large smile spread across her face. "I like her."
John stood next to Spitfire out on the runway, waiting for the Princess' carriage to arrive.
"I gotta say, Lieutenant, this place looks pretty damn good." Spitfire said, as she admired her freshly cleaned base. "If your guys ever want a career change, I think I might be able to use some more janitors and grounds keepers."
After his impromptu meeting the previous day, John had given the engineers the rest of the day off to relax and get some rest. The Marines, on the other-hand, weren't so lucky. The base was clean for the most part, and any clutter that was around wouldn't have drawn any attention, but John wanted the place spotless, and Spitfire certainly wasn't going to argue with free labor. So, any Marine that wasn't doing anything important, was out and about doing details. The floors inside the living quarters were mopped and waxed until you could see your reflection, every single weed was picked and all the leaves were collected, and a few of the Engineers even tidied up their makeshift workshop out by the aircraft shelters. Not wanting to be outdone by the "ground-pounders", Spitfire tasked a few pegasi to spruce up the areas that the Marines couldn't reach, mainly the cloud-buildings. After all the work was done, the base looked immaculate.
John chuckled. "Don't hold your breath, ma'am. Oh, before I forget, my Gunny came up to me last night and told me he would be busy today. Know anything about that?"
The yellow mare gave a wry smile and adjusted her Aviator sunglasses. "I heard some rumors and wanted to see if they were true or not. He said he wouldn't disappoint, so I asked if he wouldn't mind helping me out with a few things today."
"Rumors?" The man's eyebrow quirked up. "What kind of rumors?"
The grin on the Commander's face stretched from ear to ear. "I'm not gonna ruin the surprise, but I'll be sure to invite you to the show. The Princess too. She likes that sort of thing."
John recalled something the Princess had said back in Ponyville. "Show, huh? Might have to find some popcorn."
With that, the two once again descended into a comfortable silence. They didn't have to wait long for the Princess, sans chariot, to suddenly burst through the privacy clouds and begin rapidly approaching the plateau, a noticeably exhausted Wonderbolt escort trying to keep up with her.
As she touched down in front of them, the pair snapped to attention and saluted. The escort landed with a thud moments later and immediately collapsed to the ground, gasping for air.
Princess Luna examined the prone pegasus with a mischievous smile. "It appears thine Wonderbolts need more training, Commander, if they art exhausted after such a leisurely flight."
"I think your definition of 'leisurely' is a bit different than mine, ma'am." Spitfire chuckled. "But I'll be sure to add a few extra laps to the schedule. It's great to have you back Princess."
The Princess let out a great sigh, a merry smile plastered on her face "We art glad to be back. Tell us, how goes the work, Lieutenant?"
John gestured toward the canvas housings where the aircraft were kept, and the small group began walking toward them. "It's going amazingly, ma'am. Magic has made things go a lot faster than expected, however, I still have doubts that we'll finish in a week."
"Fear not, the deadline will be met, and thou shalt be airborne once more." As they approached the aircraft, many of the engineers stopped and bowed. "Rise, subjects. Henceforth, there is no need for such behavior. There is work to be done, after all."
One of the engineers approached and saluted John. "Sir, we're ready for the electronic systems test whenever you are."
"And that's my cue." Spitfire spoke up. "Lieutenant, it's been a pleasure, as always. Princess, by your leave?"
Luna nodded. "Dismissed, Commander. Inform us when thine Cadets arrive?"
"Sure thing, ma'am." Spitfire gave off a quick salute, then headed off towards the cloud buildings.
"Now, Lieutenant, what art these tests yon engineer spoke of?"
John was pleased. The tests went relatively well and nothing exploded or caught on fire, which he considered a win. They were able to cannibalize some of the fuel from the Blackhawk so that he was able to run the Auxiliary Power Unit. The only glaring issue that was found was that as soon as the APU was turned on, every pony anywhere near the aircraft was immediately deafened by the loud, high-pitched whining. Communication became difficult, but it wasn't anything that couldn't be overcome with the use of a checklist, thumbs-up and thumbs-down signals, and lots of yelling. Afterwards, John apologized for the noise, as well as his lack of foresight, then showed them a small panel on the side of the fuselage where ground crew could plug in a headset. He let them borrow his helmet and oxygen mask so that they could duplicate the speakers and microphone contained within to create such a device.
"Ma'am. I've been asked to inform you and Lieutenant Killinger that the recruits should be arriving in the next ten to fifteen minutes."
John looked up from the clipboard in his hand and saw a mustached Wonderbolt standing a few feet away.
"Ah, we thank thee. Come, Lieutenant! Let us go find the Commander." Princess Luna happily pranced out of the makeshift hangar.
John put the clipboard down on a nearby toolbox. "Actually, ma'am, if it's alright with you, I'd like to go change into a fresh set of clothes. These have gotten a bit dirty." He said.
"Hmmm..." Luna regarded the various grease and dirt stains covering the front of the man's pants and t-shirt. "Very well. After all, one wouldn't want to give a bad first impression to the young recruits."
John nodded, then set off for the underground barracks. Pushing open the door, he made his way to his room and changed into a clean set of clothes. As he pulled on his blouse and exited the room, he was met by the Gunnery Sergeant coming down the hall.
"Sir."
"Gunny." John noticed something nestled into the crook of the sergeant's left arm. "Where on earth did you get that?" He asked, pointing at the offending object.
The sergeant smiled. "Had it made special this morning."
"I assume it ties into what you're helping the Commander with?" John questioned.
"Yes, sir."
"Well, don't scare them too bad."
The Gunny gave John a wicked looking smile. "I was given free reign, sir. No promises."
John chuckled and headed toward the exit, the Sergeant following behind him. Exiting the barracks and climbing the stairs up to ground level, he looked around and quickly spotted the dark blue form of Princess Luna standing next to Spitfire about halfway down the runway.
"Nice of you to join us, Lieutenant." Spitfire greeted him as he approached the pair. "Your timing couldn't be better." She pointed a hoof out towards the horizon. "The first ones are about to arrive." John looked out through a section of the privacy barrier that had been removed and, sure enough, he spotted a pair of pegasi rapidly approaching the base. "There'll be fifteen total. Not the biggest class ever, but also not the smallest we've had. As soon as the last one lands, the fun part begins."
The two pegasi landed, dropped their bags off to the side, then began conversing with each other, completely oblivious to the four figures standing not far from them. Not long after, they were joined by another pegasus, then another, and another, until, after about twenty minutes, all fifteen recruits were standing around in a large group in the middle of the runway.
"Sergeant? You're up." Spitfire said.
In a singular, fluid motion, the Gunnery Sergeant pulled a dark green campaign hat out from under his arm, planted it on top of his head, and marched over to the mass of unsuspecting ponies.
"ATTEEEEN-SHUN!!!"
The ponies closest to the outburst folded their ears back at the sheer volume of the man's voice.
"I SAID...ATTEEEEEEEEN-SHUN!!!! GET YOUR SORRY ASSES IN FORMATION OR SO HELP ME, I WILL PT YOU UNTIL YOU ALL FUCKING DIE!"
The recruits quickly scrambled around and formed one long line of ponies on the center-line of the runway. Many of them held their heads high and puffed out their chests, hoping to impress the strange being yelling at them. It didn't work.
"IF YOU THINK I'M IMPRESSED, YOU'RE SORELY MISTAKEN! I'VE SEEN BETTER LOOKING TURDS ON THE FLOOR OF A PUBLIC RESTROOM!" A few of the recruits visibly angered, but they wisely held their tongues. "MY NAME IS GUNNERY SERGEANT JOHNSON, AND I WILL BE ONE OF YOUR DRILL INSTRUCTORS FOR THE DURATION OF YOUR STAY HERE! BEHIND ME, YOU WILL NOTICE THREE INDIVIDUALS! ON THE RIGHT IS COMMANDER SPITFIRE! ON THIS BASE, HER WORD IS LAW! YOU WILL DO WHAT SHE SAYS, WHEN SHE SAYS IT, HOWEVER SHE WANTS IT DONE! FAILURE TO DO SO WILL BE MET WITH PAIN AND SUFFERING AWARDED BY YOURS TRULY! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?"
The formation of ponies gave out a rather halfhearted "Yes, sir."
"I CAN'T FUCKING HEAR YOU! SOUND OFF LIKE YOU'RE NOT A BUNCH OF RETARDED FIVE-YEAR-OLDS!"
"YES, SIR!"
"THAT'S BETTER! ON THE LEFT, THAT IS FIRST LIEUTENANT KILLINGER! IN THE AIR, HE IS THE HAND OF GOD, BUT ON THIS BASE, HE IS IN CHARGE OF THOSE TWO TENTS OVER THERE, AND THE BARRACKS UNDERNEATH THIS AIRSTRIP!" The sergeant pointed at the two makeshift hangars housing the aircraft. "THOSE TENTS ARE OFF-LIMITS! YOU WILL MAINTAIN A FIFTY-FOOT RADIUS AROUND THOSE TENTS, AT ALL TIMES! FAILURE TO DO SO WILL RESULT IN YOUR IMMEDIATE REMOVAL FROM THIS INSTALLATION! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?"
"YES, SIR!"
"OUTSTANDING! NOW, IN THE CENTER, YOU SORRY SACKS OF SHIT HAVE THE GREAT PRIVILEGE OF BEING IN THE PRESENCE OF THE KEEPER OF THE NIGHT AND WARDEN OF DREAMS, HER MAJESTY, PRINCESS LUNA! SHE IS HERE TO ASSIST THE LIEUTENANT, BUT WILL ALSO BE OBSERVING YOUR TRAINING! EVERY TIME YOU MAGGOTS FUCK SOMETHING UP, SHE WILL SEE, AND SHE WILL NOT BE HAPPY! IF SHE IS NOT HAPPY, I AM NOT HAPPY! IF I AM NOT HAPPY, I AM ANGRY! YOU DO NOT WANT ME ANGRY! DO YOU UNDERSTAND ME!?"
"YES, SIR"
"OUTSTANDING! NOW-"*achoo* John could almost feel the air temperature drop, and the way the Gunnery Sergeant's head snapped towards the sound of the sneeze sent a small shiver up his spine. "WHO DID THAT!? WHO'S THE CUM-GUZZLING SHITSTAIN THAT DID THAT!?"
"M-m-me, s-s-s-sir." A visibly terrified, orange pegasus replied, as the sergeant marched up to him.
"DID I GIVE YOU PERMISSION TO SNEEZE IN MY FORMATION CADET!?" The Gunny yelled, bending over so his face was inches away from the recruit's.
"N-no, s-sir."
"THEN WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DO IT!?"
"Umm, w-well I, uh-"
"UM! UR! UH! SPEAK WORDS, SHIT-FOR-BRAINS!" The recruit's eyes turned to pinpricks and he shrank away from the screaming demon in front of him. "DON'T YOU FUCKING MOVE AWAY FROM ME! YOU ARE AT THE POSITION OF ATTENTION! I DON'T CARE IF A MOTHERFUCKING PORCUPINE IS TRYING TO CRAWL UP YOUR ASSHOLE, YOU DON'T MOVE A FUCKING MILLIMETER!"
"Geez, man. Calm down, it was just a sneeze." "Yeah, lighten up."
The hunched-over marine shot bolt upright and he all but sprinted down the line of recruits, looking for the poor souls that drew his ire. "OH FUCK ME SIDEWAYS! WE GOT SOME TOUGH GUYS IN THE GROUP! WELL, STEP FORWARD TOUGH GUYS! LET THE OTHER FAILED ABORTIONS KNOW WHO THEIR SAVIORS ARE!" A tan and a light blue pegasus both took a step forward, and the Gunny capitalized on their mistake. "CONGRATULATIONS FUCK-NUGGETS! YOU TWO HANGER-DODGERS JUST SAVED EVERYONE FROM A MOST HORRIBLE FATE! WANNA KNOW WHAT IT WAS!?"
The two pegasi nervously glanced at each other. "Um... What?"
The sergeant smiled a wicked smile. "DINNER! INSTEAD OF EATING CHOW TONIGHT, I'VE DECIDED THAT WE'RE GONNA HAVE SOME NICE, WHOLESOME PT!" The sergeant turned around and addressed Spitfire. "COMMANDER! PERMISSION TO FEED THE CADETS!"
Spitfire smiled. "Give them a three-course meal, Gunnery Sergeant."
"AYE-AYE, MA'AM!" The sergeant turned back to the recruits, who were all now pondering their life choices. "YOU HEARD THE COMMANDER! MOVE YOUR ASSES! RUN MOTHERFUCKERS, RUN!!!" Each pony shot off like their tails were on fire, with the pissed off Gunny following closely behind offering words of encouragement. "RUN! RUNRUNRUNRUNRUN!!!! RUN LIKE THE DEVIL IS CHASING YOU! BECAUSE IF I CATCH YOU, YOU'LL WISH HE WAS!"
The sergeant's voice slowly faded as the group of terrified ponies got farther away.
"Lieutenant?" John turned to a wide-eyed Luna. "Can I keep him?
Priority Message 2-8-3-0-6, Class 2 security clearance required. To: First Lieutenant John "Aquila" Killinger. From: Research and Development station Echo. Location: Classified. We hope you receive this message soon Mr. Killinger. We do not know how long the peace talks with the Griffon Kingdom will hold but time is running out and Equestria is in no shape to fight a war. The griffons are a fighting nation with numbers ten to one to our sparse Royal Guard. We need your help but you need ours as well. Your "Warthog" is in shambles and you need what you call fuel. Our division can help with the fuel. We have been looking for a substance that can work with your machine and we may have found the ponies that can help. After being driven out of Ponyville, sales ponies Flim and Flam have been trying to invent a new cider drink that holds more alcohol than usual. The end result was a very flammable liquid that nearly destroyed their Super Cider Squeezy 6000. We will be sending you some of this liquid for you to confirm if this can be used on your machine. We hope that it does. If so, we will discuss with Flim and Flam as to how they managed this feat, and we will work on production and delivery as soon as possible. With the best of luck to you,
Professor, Tony Spark.
John reread the letter for the third time. How the two brothers managed to turn an enjoyable apple-based drink into something akin to jet fuel completely escaped him, but that wasn't what he was focused on. "So, what do the griffons want exactly? I thought you were on good terms with them?"
"Well, thou art mistaken." The Princess replied. Earlier that day, she had received a pair of letters. One detailing the current situation involving the Griffon Empire, and the letter meant for John. After he had read the letter the first time, she summoned Spitfire and the three of them retreated to John's quarters for some privacy. "Shortly after your spectacular arrival, around the time of the first attack on Ponyville if We recall correctly, our sister received a missive from the griffon king, King Triton, demanding that We turn over everything acquired from the Gates for research purposes."
"I'm guessing you said 'No'?" Spitfire chimed in from her position sprawled across John's bed. Her reasoning behind the rather unbecoming behavior was something along the lines of "It's my base, I do what I want".
"Correct." Luna nodded. "The cur then had the audacity to threaten to invade and take the items by force. We have been attempting negotiations ever since. Needless to say, they haven't been going too well."
"I guess that explains why you want the repairs finished so soon." John said.
The Princess nodded again. "Among other things. Morale around the country has become poor, and many are questioning our ability to repel any invaders. So, my sister and I have decided to kill two birds with one stone, as the saying goes."
Spitfire excitedly sat up, a large grin plastered across her face. "Airshow?"
Luna smiled at the mare. "Better. There shalt be a Guard Expo held in the fields below Canterlot in the coming weeks. Each branch of the Guard will be asked to showcase their unique talents. It would also be the perfect place to test John's aircraft, to make sure the repairs will hold under stress."
"No." John frowned and shook his head. "No offence to the engineers, but I'm not flying that aircraft anywhere near large groups of people until I know that it can handle it. I want to do all the tests beforehand."
Luna seemed to think things over and Spitfire nodded in agreement. "Very well." The princess replied. "We will have to move our schedule forward then." Her horn flared to life and a quill and roll of parchment appeared. The quill scribbled some things onto the paper and with another flare of her horn, the quill and parchment disappeared. "Now, We believe that there is no other business to discuss, so-"
The door to John's room abruptly flew open, very nearly slamming into the man's arm.
"I DID IT! I DID IT! I DI- eep!"
A clattering noise was heard from just outside the door as the yellow unicorn mare standing in the doorway shrank under the withering glare from the three occupants of the room she just barged into.
"What exactly did you do that required you to kick my door in, Sparks?" John asked the mare, admiring the dent in the wall where the doorknob had embedded itself.
"Um, w-well, I was finally able to figure out this radio thing you gave me." Her horn glowed and the aforementioned object, along with a slightly larger boxy looking thing were levitated into the room. "I was talking with Jack, and he mentioned something about a crystal radio he built when he was a kid." She guided the boxy object over to him, and he grabbed it out of her magic.
"Jack?" John asked as he examined the object. It looked somewhat similar to the handheld radio, except there was no screen to display the frequency and instead of buttons there was a large dial in the center of the box.
"Oh, sorry." The mare apologized sheepishly. "Um, Lance Corporal Merrick, sir."
"Ah." The man nodded in recognition, then gestured for her to continue.
"When I heard about the crystal radio, I guess you could say I had an epiphany. I was able to use a ruby as a focusing matrix, and by varying the energy input I was able to receive a signal from the other radio!"
John stared at the mare for a moment. "That's... not how crystal radios work."
Sparks rolled her eyes. "I know that. I just took inspiration from the communication gems the Guard sometimes uses."
"Communication gems?" John eyed Luna. "Those sound useful."
The princess shook her head. "Nay. The gems are expensive to make, and require a complex spell matrix to function. They are only used for urgent long-range contact between major cities."
John shrugged and turned back to Sparks. "Well, in any event, good work."
"It's just the prototype, sir. It still needs a lot of work." The mare pouted.
"Best hop to it then." John handed the device back to her.
"Yes sir!" The mare grabbed the object in her magic and practically sprinted out of the room, slamming the door closed on her way out.
"Enthusiastic girl, ain't she?" Spitfire mused, eyeing the new hole in the wall.
"Make sure those barrels are straight." John told one of the engineers tasked with repairing the warthog's Avenger cannon. "If the nose of my plane is blown off because of a bent barrel, I will haunt your ass until the end of time."
He was anxious. The engines were finally rebuilt and reinstalled, and the first shipment of "fuel" was supposed to arrive at any moment. Most of the repairs had been completed, and the Princess was scheduled to leave the following day, so everything was coming down to the wire.
Not to mention the fact that he, along with the rest of the ground-bound occupants of the base, were becoming stir crazy. With the Blackhawk being out of fuel, and no other form of air transport available, there was no way for them to leave the base. As you can imagine, being stuck somewhere with very little to do other than sleep, work, and exercise isn't exactly great on morale. As a result, there were some creative forms of entertainment that were spawned, some of the favorite creations being "kick the pinecone" and a variation of ping-pong involving a set of marshalling paddles and a bouncy ball someone found.
As long as the activities were fairly harmless, John had no problem with the entertainment. However, he eventually had to put his foot down when he stumbled across one of the Marines, in full combat gear, surrounded by pegasi, getting ready to launch himself onto a nearby cloud. The reasoning behind the attempt being that he had seen the pegasi walking on the clouds, and he wanted to know what it felt like. Immediately following the incident, a safety briefing was held, and anyone that didn't have wings was to keep at least twenty feet between themselves and the edge of the plateau.
"Sir!" One of the Wonderbolts quickly flew up and hovered in front of him. "The transport bringing the fuel is about to arrive." Sure enough, John quickly scanned the skies and found the airship approaching the base. "The Commander wants everyone not helping with the drop-off to be down in the Cave for safety reasons."
That made sense. A giant, flying wooden ship carrying a bunch of highly flammable liquid. Best to not have too many people standing around in case something goes wrong. "Fair enough. I'll make it happen."
The Wonderbolt saluted. "Thank you, sir."
John returned the salute and the pegasus flew off. Raising his voice, he addressed everyone within earshot. "Alright, you heard the man! The Commander wants all non-essential personnel downstairs, so stop what you're doing and get there!"
A few unhappy grumbles were heard from the engineers, but they all began making their way towards the door leading to the living quarters dug into the plateau. As soon as the makeshift workshop/hangar was empty, John walked off to spread the word to anyone else that was still topside.
John stood in awe. Sitting on the wheeled cart in front of him was the biggest barrel he had ever seen. He guessed that it had to be around twenty to twenty-five feet long and about ten feet tall. It even had a moderately sized spigot hammered into one of the ends.
"Anyone got a cup or a jar or something?" He asked, looking around at everyone gathered around the marvel of barrel engineering.
"Yeah, hold on." One of the engineers quickly trotted off towards some toolboxes. A clattering sound was heard, and the pony came back with a somewhat dirty mason jar.
Taking the jar, John went over to the spigot and emptied a small amount of the amber colored mystery liquid into the jar. He swirled it around a bit, then placed the jar under his nose and took a whiff.
"Sweet mother of God!" He almost dropped the jar as his free hand shot up and clamped his burning nose shut. "That shit's awful." If he had to describe the smell to anyone, he'd say it was like someone had taken some spiced apple cider, mixed it with gasoline, and threw in a bit of whiskey for good measure.
His attention was grabbed by a certain princess that was trying to contain her laughter.
"Are you sure this stuff will work?" He asked the princess. "I really don't feel like magically transforming into a giant fireball today."
Luna nodded. "It was tested against the sample that was provided. It should perform suitably."
John sighed, swirling the amber liquid around some more as he gathered his thoughts.
Either the fuel worked, or it didn't. There was no grey area.
Once the aircraft was airborne, there was no turning around and landing again. The runway was simply too short. The princess assured him that a suitable landing strip had been created in the fields next to Ponyville, but that was a forty five minute flight away. Any number of things could go wrong in that time.
He set the jar of fuel down on the ground, and walked over to the nose of the Warthog, the gathered engineers parting around him. Reaching up, he rubbed his hand across the side of the nose.
At least he had an ejection seat.
"Alright people, let's get her fueled up and ready to go."
A rousing cheer rang across the base as ponies sprang into action.
John walked down the hallway into the mess hall, his helmet nestled into the crook of his arm. Everyone in the mess hall stopped and stared at the man. This was the first time any of them had seen him wearing all of his gear. Usually he wore either a set of BDUs or just his flight suit. However, now that he had added his G-suit and survival vest into the mix, he struck a rather imposing figure. Pushing the door open, he headed outside and climbed the steps up to the surface. Pausing for a moment, he admired the view. Spitfire had the cloud barrier surrounding the base removed for the occasion.
A gleam caught his eye.
While he was changing into his flight suit and putting on his gear, the engineers had dismantled the canvas covering over the aircraft. Now, the A-10 sat proudly, canopy raised, waiting.
Making his way over, he admired the engineers' work. The aircraft looked brand new, as if nothing had ever happened to it.
Walking around the frame, he inspected every inch, making sure everything was squared away. With nothing amiss, he made his way to the extended boarding ladder. Handing his helmet over to one of the Blackhawk pilots, he climbed the ladder. Bracing himself, he swung his leg over the side, making sure not to accidentally hit any of the switches. As he settled into the seat and strapped himself in, the other pilot followed him up the ladder and handed him his helmet.
"Feel good, sir?"
John glanced over at the smirking pilot. "Oh, you have no idea."
He put on the helmet, then plugged in the oxygen hose and radio cables.
"Alright sir, you're good to go." The pilot have him a quick salute, which he reciprocated. "See you up there."
As the other pilot descended the ladder, John double checked all the switches, making sure they were all in their proper positions. When he was ready, he stuck his arm outside the cockpit and signaled the Blackhawk pilot. The pilot looked around, making sure the area around the aircraft was empty, then signaled back, letting John know he was clear.
"Here we go."
John began flipping switches, slowly bringing the aircraft to life.
In moments, the power was on and the auxiliary power unit was running, filling the surrounding area with a high-pitched whine.
He took a moment to make sure all the gauges were in their proper positions. Satisfied, he placed his hand on the throttle throttle lever for the left engine and began slowly advancing it from the "Off" position to "Idle".
VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Slowly, the engine began spinning up, and John watched the gauges like a hawk. As soon as the needles stabilized in their proper positions, he repeated the process with the right engine.
VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR
Both engines were running smoothly, so he turned off the APU, as it was no longer needed.
Sitting for a moment, John let the engines run for a few moments, making sure the fuel wasn't misbehaving in any way.
Satisfied, he closed the canopy, retracted the boarding ladder, and began starting up the rest of the aircraft's systems, as well as tuning his radio to the previously agreed upon frequency.
"Ground, Hunter 1-1."
"Hunter 1-1, this is Ground. You're sounding good over there."
John glanced over to the parked Blackhawk, namely the other pilot sitting in the cockpit with his helmet on.
Earlier, seeing as the ponies had no real reliable way to communicate with him while he was in his aircraft, they had decided to use the Blackhawk's radio to stay in contact.
"When ready, you are clear to taxi to the runway."
"Copy, Ground. Clear to taxi at my discretion."
Checking the gauges one last time, he signaled the pilot on the ground in front of him, who then began directing him forward.
Releasing the brakes, John began slowly advancing the throttles until the aircraft lurched forward. Making sure not to go too fast, he slowly made his way onto the runway and applied the brakes, bringing the Warthog to a stop. Looking over, he saw two earth ponies run over with some sort of metal bar. Hearing a clunking noise, he felt the aircraft slowly moving backwards.
Since the base was so small, there was no room for him to turn around, so they had to back the aircraft into position. This meant that John had to pay close attention to his impromptu ground crew, otherwise he would end up rolling backwards off the end of the runway.
Receiving the signal, John stepped on the brakes, bringing the aircraft to a stop with the rear wheels only a few feet away from the edge of the plateau, the tail of the aircraft hanging out over the edge.
"Hunter 1-1, Ground. I'm in position on runway-" He quickly checked his compass. "30. Requesting takeoff clearance."
"Ground, Hunter 1-1. Standby."
John double-checked all of his gauges again. Everything seemed to be operating fine.
"Ground, Hunter 1-1. The airspace has been cleared. Rescue teams are on standby. You are cleared for takeoff. Godspeed, sir."
"Hunter 1-1, cleared for takeoff."
Looking over, John gave off a quick salute to the Princess and onlookers situated off to the side of the runway.
Keeping the brakes pressed, he advanced the throttles to full power. The aircraft nosed forward a little under the power of the engines, as if it was a snarling beast being held back by its master.
Releasing the brakes, the Warthog quickly began rolling down the runway, gaining speed with every inch.
"Come on."
John had the throttles pressed to the stops, urging every ounce of power he could out of the twin engines.
However, the end of the runway was rapidly approaching.
He began pulling back on the stick, trying to coax the nose of the plane up and into the air.
"COME ON!"
He was still too slow.
The feeling of weightlessness overcame him as the wheels of the aircraft passed the end of the runway.
*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*
Alarms began blaring and caution lights were flashing throughout the cockpit as the plane nosed over until it was pointed straight at the ground.
With a flick of his wrist, John slapped the gear lever, retracting the landing gear with a mechanical whirring.
Holding the nose down, he allowed the Warthog to gain speed, the ground rapidly rising up to meet him.
Slowly, he pulled back on the stick.
The nose of the aircraft began to rise.
The ground was rising faster now.
"Come on girl, you can do it."
John's free hand hovered over the ejection handle.
The nose continued to rise as the ground grew ever closer.
*ALTITUDE*ALTITUDE* *PULL UP*
John watched the needle on the altimeter spin ever closer to zero.
300
*ALTITUDE*ALTITUDE* *PULL UP*
200
100
*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*BEEP*
50
25
20
15
He gripped the ejection handle and prepared to pull.
14
13
12
11
10
John could see the individual blades of grass streaming by below.
11
12
13
John released the breath he was holding and relaxed his grip on the ejection handle as the aircraft began gaining altitude.
Banking the aircraft, he turned back towards the plateau that the airbase was on.
"Ground, Hunter 1-1. I'm up." He leaned his head back against the headrest and unclipped his oxygen mask, letting it hang freely next to his face.
"Ground copies, Hunter is airborne. You had us worried there."
John chuckled. "You're telling me. I'm gonna need a new suit when I land." He orbited the base and watched as the engineers celebrated their success.
"Heh. Well, in any event, Hunter, you are cleared to depart the airspace. Proceed on heading 010 for Ponyville. Wonderbolt escorts are on their way up to meet you, and we won't be too far behind."
He checked the heading against the notes clipped to his kneeboard and lined himself up with the heading. "Roger, cleared to depart, heading 010. Escorts on the way." Curious, he pulled up his GPS on one of the screens in front of him. Sure enough, just like in the Blackhawk, the GPS showed a map of the surrounding area. Zooming out, he was able to find Ponyville on the map and promptly set a waypoint for the town.
Settling into his seat and flipping on the autopilot and formation lights, he saw two Wonderbolts in their signature blue and yellow jumpsuits take up positions just off his wingtips and gave them a friendly wave.
John looked down at the dark area in his lap and toggled his radio again.
Rainbow Dash had heard of the saying “go pound sand”, but this was getting to be ridiculous.
For the past two weeks, every time she went out to the fields where she practiced her flying, she could see a group of guards off in the distance relentlessly pounding the earth with their hooves.
Normally, she wouldn’t care what ponies did in their spare time, but a group of guards beating the ground like it owed them money will grab anyone’s interest. When she saw Sergeant Ironhoof in the town market one day, she asked him about it. His response was a casual "Don't know. Don't care. I'm still on leave 'til the LT get's back.", as he purchased a bundle of carrots from Carrot Top's stall.
As it was, she had forgone today's practice in favor of lounging on a small cloud to watch the guards beat the ground into submission.
However, the peace and quiet that she was enjoying was shattered by a peculiar sound.
It was a strange high-pitched whine, combined with a deep thrumming that she could feel within her chest.
As she turned toward the noise, she failed to notice the guards in the field below her scrambling to place orange cones around the perimeter of their plot of compacted earth.
John checked his instruments for probably the hundredth time during the flight. Everything seemed to be working correctly, and he hadn't fallen out of the sky or spontaneously exploded... yet. However, it didn't hurt to check. So he did... again.
Keeping an eye on the GPS, he adjusted his flight path towards the eastern side of the town. No need to fly directly over a town with an aircraft that could possibly blow up at any moment.
... Better check the instruments again... Nope, still fine.
Huh.
He mentally shrugged. He could see the town off in the distance, so he pushed the thoughts of explosions and fiery death out of his mind and focused on the task at hand. Princess Luna was rather cryptic with her directions. All she had told him was to "Fly to Ponyville. Look for the cones".
He thought about pulling up his targeting pod to begin searching, but everything had been removed from the aircraft to make it as light as possible for take-off.
Stupid short runway.
Reluctantly, John lowered his altitude and prepared to begin a search pattern around the town. Hopefully the Princess' mysterious cones wouldn't be too hard to find.
If he had to guess, the cones had something to do with some sort of landing strip, and, between the Everfree forest and the Apples' orchard, there weren't too many places around the town where a strip could be placed. The only feasible place for one would be the open fields to the south-east...
Making a quick adjustment, he angled his flight towards the fields, the Wonderbolts still flying off his wingtips. There were a few small hills scattered around, but the area looked flat enough. In a particularly flat area, the sun must have caught something metallic just right, because an intense glint of light caught his attention.
Gotcha.
Pulling the throttles back a bit, he lowered the aircraft's speed. Sure enough, as he passed over the area where the shine was, he spotted several guards running around putting down what looked to be orange traffic cones along the edges of a large, flattened area of packed dirt.
The length of the improvised runway wasn't that much longer than the one at the academy, but at least there wasn't a cliff at the end of this one.
After landing, he really had to talk to someone about the proper length of a runway.
Before bringing the aircraft around for landing, he signaled the Wonderbolts, who then peeled off and headed down to the strip to make sure it was clear.
Checking the instruments again, John nudged the aircraft into a lazy left turn to give himself more than enough room for the final approach.
Movement in his peripheral vision caught his attention and he looked up. One of the Wonderbolts was on his wing again, waving at him.
The strip was clear and he was cleared to land.
Giving a quick thumbs up to the pegasus, he angled the aircraft toward the strip and went through a quick mental checklist.
Heading: A little off Altitude: Good Speed: Good Flaps: Set Gear: Down ... Here we go.
Because of the short runway, he would have to land at a very slow speed, and even then, there was a high probability that he would shoot off the end of it.
Oh well. There wasn't anything that could be done about it now, although he wished that Luna had consulted with him before creating the runway.
With a mental shrug, John cleared his mind and focused on landing the Warthog.... preferably in one piece this time.
Lining up with the runway, John checked his instruments one last time, then began his descent.
"Not too fast, easy does it."
Keeping his eyes on the velocity indicator on his heads up display, he maneuvered the aircraft so that it would touch down right at the end of the makeshift runway, giving him the most room to slow down.
"Alright, nice and easy girl. You know the drill."
John was jostled as the Warthog's wheels hit the compacted dirt, and he was thrown forward into his harness as he quickly pulled the throttles back and applied the brakes. A loud wooshing sound was heard as he opened up the air brakes all the way, slowing the aircraft down even faster.
Still, the end of the runway was coming up fast, and John's left hand unconsciously moved towards the eject handle between his legs.
"Cmon... Slooow down. You can do it."
He stomped on the brakes even harder, causing the wheels to lock up.
John swore as the aircraft still shot off the end of the strip, and he prayed that the ground held up.
After an agonizing few seconds, the A-10 finally slowed to a stop, leaving behind a rapidly dispersing dust cloud and three strips of flattened grass where the wheels had traveled.
Breathing a sigh of relief, John unclasped his oxygen mask, rolled his shoulders to relieve some tension, and began the shutdown process.
He also hoped somebody remembered to bring that extra flight suit, because he was beginning to chafe.
As he climbed out of the cockpit and down the extended boarding ladder, John was practically assaulted by a wildly gesturing, polychromatic pegasus.
"You were all 'WOOSH, NYOOM'-" There was a pause as John removed his helmet. "Did... Did you really..."
"Did I what?" He glanced at Rainbow, who was now firmly on the ground and pointing at the dark spot below his waistline. "Ugh. Yes, yes I did."
John saw Rainbow's eyes begin to water, and her lips quivered like she was about to-
"BWAHAHAHA!!" The pegasus flopped over and began rolling on the ground. "OH CELESTIA! HE PEED HIMSELF!"
John rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up fuzzball. Let's stuff you into a metal box and throw you off a cliff. See how well you do."
As Rainbow continued to laugh, John checked the A-10 for any damage suffered during the landing. Other than the landing gear being covered in dirt and grass, there was nothing to indicate anything was wrong. He contemplated examining the engines, but thought better of it. There was no easy way to climb up to them without a ladder, and, if he did somehow manage it, he wouldn't really be able to do anything. He was just the pilot after all, not a mechanic. Regardless, he gave the turbines a cursory glance to make sure the fan blades weren't visibly damaged.
It didn't take long until the Blackhawk could be heard in the distance, and within moments, John was able to pick out the dark speck on the horizon. As he walked back towards the landing strip, the helicopter came in to land, billowing dust and debris everywhere. The cabin doors opened and a handful of ponies and marines hopped out onto the grass.
"It's about time you guys showed up." John smiled and gave a quick wave. "I was beginning to get worried."
A bundle was tossed at him by a familiar, fiery-maned pegasus. "We would've been here sooner, but somebody wanted some spare clothes." Spitfire then walked up to the human and proceeded to slug him in the thigh.
"OOF!" John, not suspecting the hit, almost dropped the bundle and began nursing his bruised leg. "Dammit woman! What was that for!?"
"YOU don't get to be worried." The Captain glared at him. "I could've sworn you were gonna buy the farm, and half the base personnel were biting their hooves. I think the Princess was the only one that wasn't worried."
"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence." John deadpanned.
After answering a few questions from some of the engineers that arrived on the helicopter, he changed into his clean change of clothes. Seeing as it was the only remotely private spot in the immediate vicinity, he commandeered the cabin of the Blackhawk for the task. Once finished, he bundled up the soiled flight suit and made his way over to a rather annoyed looking Spitfire.
"Ma-am."
"Lieutenant." The Commander nodded in greeting. "I trust you have everything here under control, so I'm gonna head on out. Just got word that one of the cadets back at the farm decided to play with one of the cloud generators... Inside the barracks."
"Ooh." John winced. "Have fun with that."
"Yeah... I'm sure the Gunny is having a field day right now." Spitfire shook her head and sighed. "Anyways, Princess said she had to go back to Canterlot to do some paperwork, but said she'd be down to help tomorrow."
"Sounds good." John looked out across the field at the assembled ponies. Most were either just standing around chatting, or examining the two parked aircraft. There wasn't much of anything being done... not that there was really anything that could be done right then. "Not really sure what she's got planned though."
The pegasus gave John a large grin. "Oh, I'm sure you'll like it. In the mean time, I gotta jet. See ya around." She spread her wings, and with a powerful flap, catapulted herself into the air.
"Where's she goin'?" Rainbow asked as she trotted up next to the pilot.
John chuckled. "Some poor cadet is about to have a very bad day."
"Ouch." Rainbow winced. "So... Are you gonna be busy today?"
There wasn't really much that needed to be done, other than give the engineers a debrief of the flight, have them give the aircraft a once-over, and setup guard shifts. "Not really, why?"
"Just wondering if you wanted to hang out. Oh, and Cloud and Scoots wanted to see you."
"Hmmm." John thought for a moment. "Tell you what, head into town, find Sergeant Ironhoof, and send him my way. After that, go ahead and grab the kids and come back. I should be just about done by then."
"YESSS!" Rainbow thrust a hoof in the air in celebration. "Be back in a jiffy." With that, she flew off in the direction of Ponyville, leaving a cloud of dust in her wake.
After watching her go, John went in search of the few engineers that came with the helicopter.
"Good afternoon, sir. I assume the flight went well?" One of the engineers asked when he saw the Lieutenant approaching.
"The takeoff was a bit rough, but it was smooth sailing for the duration afterwards." John replied. "All the gauges stayed in the green, both the startup and shutdown went smoothly, and nothing seemed strange. I'd call it a complete success."
All the engineers were elated at the news. "That's fantastic, sir!"
"Yeah, you guys did good." John smiled at their excitement. "However..." The ponies smiles waned. "That was the easy part. We've still got a long way to go before I'll be comfortable doing anything too crazy with her."
"Don't worry, sir. We'll make sure it's ready for anything!" The engineers nodded in affirmation. "In the mean time, is there anything you want us to do?"
John nodded. "Yeah. One sec." He took a step back, put his pointer fingers in his mouth, and blew.
PHBTHBTH
He glanced over at the engineers, who were snickering, and his face reddened. "...of all the times."
"That was silly!"
"AHHH!" John jumped, startled by the voice, and nearly tripped over the pink pony that was standing between his legs. "PINKIE!"
"That's me!" She exclaimed. "Here, try this!" She flipped over a nearby rock, grabbed a silver whistle from beneath it, and gave it to the baffled human.
"Um..." John stared Pinkie for a moment, trying to figure out what just happened. "Thanks." Feeling a headache coming on, he shook his head in defeat and brought the whistle to his lips and blew. At the shrill tone, every head in the area turned towards him. "Bring it in! School circle, on me!"
"School circle, sir?" One of the engineers asked.
"Semi-circle. Like school kids around a teacher." In short order, everyone was gathered in front of the Lieutenant. "Alright, seeing as it's basically a waiting game at this point, I'm going to go ahead and call it for the day." The group cheered at the prospect of going into town for some free time. Raising his hand to calm the troops, he pointed at the engineers. "Engineers, you guys have your orders. When you're done, you're free to go." The appointed ponies nodded, and John pointed at the JTAC that arrived with the marines. "Staff Sergeant Daniels, Sergeant Ironhoof is on his way here. I want you to coordinate with him and setup a watch schedule. It doesn't have to be anything fancy, just make sure nobody comes poking their noses where they shouldn't."
"Yes, sir." The Sergeant replied, then raised his hand. "Question?"
John nodded. "Shoot."
"Where is the manpower for the watch coming from?" The JTAC asked.
"Ironhoof's boys have been here on leave while we were off at the Academy." John replied. "Now that we're back, they're gonna step up and take the load off, so to speak. You all have worked your asses off the past few weeks, so now you get to have a break. I'll be rotating out everyone I can to make that happen. Any other questions?" Everyone present either replied with a "No, sir." or shook their heads. "Alright then. I don't know when the Princess is coming tomorrow, so be back here tomorrow by 0800 for morning briefing. Dismissed."
With that, the majority of the assembled individuals left and headed off in the direction of Ponyville.
It didn't take long for John to spot four ponies trotting towards him, one of which put a large smile on his face. "Well would ya look at that. Last time I saw you, you were laid up in the hospital."
"Normally, I'd say something along the lines of 'It'll take more than that to keep me down', but I'd rather not tempt fate." Lightning Flash retorted. "I'd also like to admit that getting shot suuuuucks."
"Indeed it does." John nodded. "You look on the up and up though."
"I guess. Therapy's a bitc- OW!" Lightning winced when a cyan wing thumped him on the back of the head. He looked over to see a rainbow-maned pegasus giving him the stink eye.
"Not in front of the kids."
John chuckled at the rather amusing sight, then looked over to the two foals that were currently staring wide-eyed at the two aircraft sitting behind him. "Speaking of, how have you two been?" The sudden question caused them to shift their gazes from the metal beasts to the human, large smiles on their faces. He pointed at the nearby Blackhawk. "Tell you what, let's catch up inside the helicopter."
"YEAH!" "SWEET!"
The two foals glanced at each other for a moment. "Race you there!" They both shouted.
John and Rainbow chuckled as the two foals galloped off towards the aircraft.
