//------------------------------//
// Welcome To Bunker 34, Will. 
// Story: The Guardian From Afar 3: Return to Earth 
// by LukeTheMercenary 
//------------------------------//

What happened next was rather hazy for me, but here's what I recall: I was being carried by my underarms through a bright hallway. By both of my sides, I saw men wearing some kind of combat gear facing foreword. I couldn't see many features due to their yellow visors, but I could barely make out a pair of eyes from behind. I couldn't move, and all noises echoed in my head. 

"Put him in cell 12," a voice said.

I was then dragged to a door, and the men who were carrying me threw me inside. The metal door closed and locked, and everything fell silent. When I could finally see and think clearly, I took in my surroundings. I was in a white room with cracked tiles, a bed, table, and a steel toilet with sink. It looked like a jail cell! Minus the bars. I tried pounding on the steel door, to no avail. I had a freak-out for a while, trying to comprehend my situation. At some point, I just calmed down and sat in the middle of the floor. I felt like I ran out of energy, so all I could do was sit. 

About two hours after this, I heard the slot on the door open. A packet of five hundred sheets of paper and some permanent markers got chucked through, and it closed. I don't know why, but I opened them without hesitation. I then started doodling. I didn't draw anything in particular, just patterns that interested me. I then started drawing other things. I drew a few pictures of Scootaloo's cutie mark, then a few other cutie marks I've seen. For the next few days, I would draw pictures of things from Equestria. Places, animals, and ponies were drawn and scattered all over the floor. 

Over the next few months, the same things happened every day. When I woke up in the morning, I would exercise or draw a little until my meals arrived. The only food they gave me was this weird pink paste. It had no flavor, smell, or stability. It was like eating toothpaste. However, it must've been PACKED with protein...because combined with my exercise sessions, I ended up getting some rather large muscles. After meals, I would either exercise or sleep. I never knew when it was night or day, but they still sent food in occasionally. However, I still marked down the days I've been in the cell. What I would do was I would stay up for as long as I could, and then go to sleep. When I woke up, I'd put down a tally mark next to my bed. 

Good, now we're all caught up. Finally, there was the day that I learned about where I was. Like I mentioned earlier, I was just staring at the floor...not thinking of anything, when the door suddenly opened. I whipped my head up to see. I saw three men, one of them was wearing a significantly less amount of combat gear than the men next to him. They stared back at me, and I waited for them to say something.

"Jesus! Is this the place you guys have been holding him?! I'm no expert, but this is unacceptable! Take him into the interrogation room. It's about time this poor fellow gets some human interaction." The man with less gear said. 

Without another word, the two armed men walked in and grabbed me from under my arms. I didn't struggle, and let them guide me through the hall. The hall was brightly lit, and there were people walking around. Some were wearing lab coats, and others were heavily armed and armored. Various doors lined the walls in the hall, but they were unlabeled. We stopped at a room and they opened the door. The guards released me and told me to walk inside. I did, and I sat down in a chair. The man with less gear walked in and sat in the chair across me. 

"Hello, Will." he said, "I'm James White. Your personal guard. It's good to see you."

"You...know who I am..?" I asked. 

"Yes. For a long time, you and your family have lived above us."

"Above you? Huh?"

James leaned back in his chair, "For the longest time, this organization stayed in secret in this bunker...twenty feet directly below your house. Command...bribed some government officials to make your mortgage bills go sky-high...and-"

"Wait...it was YOU who made me lose my forest?"

James looked anxious, "W-well....it's was this organization's fault...I-"

I got up from my chair and grabbed him by the shirt collar, "I should kick your ass right here!"

James was shaking, "I tried telling them it was a bad idea! Honest! I was telling them you were under enough grief! But they didn't listen!"

I looked at him. He looked at me with fear in his eyes. I released his shirt, and sat back down. "I'm sorry...I don't know what came over me."

"It's alright. I'm sure that being in that world had affected your life?"

I looked at him, "You have NO idea."

"I would like to. Could you tell me what you've seen?"

"Jesus, where do I begin?"

For the next hour, I told James EVERYTHING I went through in Equestria. Protecting Scootaloo, killing Spoiled Rich, seeing the man in the gas mask, and everything in-between. By the time I finished, James was looking at me with a shocked expression. 

"A world inhabited by ponies, magic, and magical creatures! DAMN!" James finally said.

"Yep. That's the whole story for you." I said.

"You...got yourself a daughter...and a chick?" 

"Well, both ponies...but that matters not. I still love them both dearly."

"That was a...very touching story. However...I will say something."

"Hm?"

"You SHOT at one of your black-ops agents!"

"Hey, he was peeking into my marefriend's sister's room. I had a right to. Not to mention, he did that multiple times...so uh...creepy..."

"Huh...that's not like them. Those units are supposed to take photos of anything interesting to bring back."

"Doesn't make a difference. Still creepy."

"Well. I think we're done talking about your experience. Want to see the rest of the bunker?"

I laughed a little, "It's much better than being in that cell."

"Come on, I'll take you to the lunchroom. I'll get you something to eat."

"No pink paste, right?"

"Of course not. How does a cheeseburger sound?"

"Epic."

"Let's go." 

We get up from our chairs and exit the room. After walking down the halls, we find the cafeteria. It's a rather nice-looking lunchroom. There were many benches and tables with scientists and guards alike eating their meals. On the far side of the room, there was a clear glass window where chefs could be seen preparing various types of food. My stomach growled when the pleasant aroma entered my nostrils. 

"It's...very nice." I said.

"Indeed. Command spent a lot of money improving this old bunker. There's an interesting tale behind this place, you know." James replied.

"Really?"

"Yeah, but I'll tell you at the table. Go have a seat at an empty table, I'll get the food."

"Cool."

James left to go get the food, and I went to an empty table. I sat down, and thought about the events that have been happening. Let's see...I've been taken away from my daughter and marefriend, I was held prisoner inside a cell for ten months, and now I'm inside a bunker that existed under my house IN MY FOREST for as long as I've lived. Could this get any weirder? I thought. 

After five minutes, James came back with a cheeseburger and a small bowl of pasta in his hands. He set the burger in front of me and the pasta in front of himself. I thanked him and tore into it like a wolf. To start, it was AMAZING to eat something that wasn't pink and pasty. Also, it was a LONG time since I ate beef. Back in Ponyville, there was a cow that lived there. I forgot her name, but I thought I should mention that. Anyways, as I was eating...I heard some commotion going on a few tables away.

"Bruh, you don't say that." One voice said.

"Buddy, I say what I want. This is AMERICA. I have a right of free speech." A deeper voice said.

I looked to see two guys standing up at the tables. One was muscular, and another was skinny...but taller than the muscular one. The muscular one went around the table to get up close to the skinny one, and they continued to argue.

"Oh no," James said, "Luke is at it again."

"Luke?" I asked, "Who's Luke?"

"The muscular guy. Luke's an odd guy. He signed up to be a combat unit, and worked hard to deserve his rank. However, he has some serious anger issues. He has to take some kind of medicine to calm his nerves. Looks like his meds are wearing off, because he looks like he's about to release his stress on Finn."

"What did Finn do?"

"Luke and Finn hate each other. Finn hates Luke because Luke says whatever he thinks about people, good or bad. Luke hates Finn because he's annoying."

"So..?"

"You'll like this. Watch."

Luke and Finn began yelling at each other, and things were getting tense. Suddenly, Finn punched Luke right in his face! Luke touched his lip, which was busted. He looked right at Finn, and said five words.

"You done fucked-up now." Luke said.

Luke pounced on Finn, tackling him to the floor. Luke released a large amount of punches to Finn's face and chest. Finn was thrashing to try and block Luke's assault, but it was no use. After three minutes of nonstop beating, Luke got up, dusted himself off, and approached OUR TABLE. I shivered a little as he sat down across from me and right next to James. Luke looked at me, and waited for me to say something. Before I could choke out a response, he spoke.

"Welcome to Bunker 34! I'm Luke, member of elite security." Luke said in a friendly tone, as if he didn't just pulp Finn's face.

"Uh...hi. I'm William." I said.

"William, eh? That's a nice name. I take it you're new here, huh? You're also likely wondering what's the plan for this organization, right?"

"Woah woah, slow down. First, tell me what this place is."

"This is Bunker 34. While we're not exactly sure what this place was for, we do know that it held some interesting things. To start, there were crates FULL of old weapons dating back all the way from WW2."

"Like?"

"Like this one," Luke said as he pulled a Thompson SMG out from behind him and set it on the table. 

"Woah!"

"Yeah. Lots of cool guns from the Axis and Allied sides, but you're probably not interested in hearing me talk about that."

"Maybe we can talk about guns later."

"Right. Anyways, the second interesting thing we found was the portal machine. At first, we didn't know what it was. We had scientists reverse-engineer the machine and we eventually had it working. However, we didn't know what would happen when its activated. Now, the room with the portal device had puddles in it due to being underground. Why do I mention this? Well, the device creates portals that behave similarly to electricity: Requires a conductor to travel and expand. The only conductor to this portal was water...so when we turned the device on, one of our scientists almost fell in. Luckily, we pulled him back up and turned off the device. We re-tested the machine about a year-and-a-half ago, and it transformed all water within a one-hundred foot radius to temporarily become portals."

I suddenly came to realization, "So THAT'S how I ended up in Equestria."

"Equestria? That's the name of the colorful horsey world?"

"You know?"

"The black-ops units bring back pictures and footage all the time. Ever since we've found a way to control the portal, we've been sending them on missions every day."

"Can I...see some?"

"I got some pictures right here. Take a look."

Luke placed some photos on the table, and I took a look. I saw some familiar places. Sugarcube corner, Twilight's castle, Carousel Boutique, and...then I saw Sweet Apple Acres. In the picture, I could see an unhappy Applejack and a crying Scootaloo. My sadness returned, and I saw my own tears falling onto the photo.

"Scootaloo...my little Scootaloo..." I said, choking on my own sobs.

"Woah, what's going on?" Luke asked.

James explained the story to Luke while I tried to contain my tears. 





In Equestria, the sky was gray. It was about to rain, and the last bell rang at Ponyville Elementary. All the foals yelled and cheered as they ran off with their loving family members. As they ran off, one foal walked sadly out the door behind them. Scootaloo looked up, hoping to see her daddy standing there...but just like it was for the past ten months, he was not. Applejack was waiting to pick her up, a few raindrops falling on her hat. Scootaloo slowly approached her, and they walked to Scootaloo's house. Applejack had been living with Scootaloo in her home for a while now, just to make sure she's okay. 

Scootaloo made it up to her room and sat on her bed. She looked up at the sky through the window, and stared at the clouds.

"Hi, Dad," Scootaloo said, "I heard that whatever happened to you, you're safe now. I heard that you can now see your parents and brother again. Ponies in town have told me that you're up there...reeeeaaaaalllly high in the sky. I've been practicing my flying, and I can hover for a full minute now. Maybe...if I keep practicing...I can go up there and see you."

Scootaloo felt a sick feeling in her stomach, "I remember how you used to hug me after school. I wish you could do it again. Applejack has been taking care of me. She misses you just as much as I do."

Scootaloo's lip quivered, "I carry a picture of us wherever I go. It's of you and me at the park...I can move myself on the swings...but I miss you pushing me."

Scootaloo's eyes began to water, "I know you don't like it when I'm sad...I try not to cry, Daddy...but it hurts too much." A single tear drips down her face. "Is...what they say true? Are...y-you not c-coming back?"

Scootaloo climbed under the covers and lights the candle next to her bed, "I always sleep with the light on in my room, just in case you come home so you can kiss me goodnight...I love you so much, Dad. There's nopony I'd rather have as my Daddy than you."

Scootaloo closes her eyes and falls asleep...holding William's sniper scope close to her body as she lets sleep overtake her.