//------------------------------//
// Chapter 5: Aftermath 
// Story: The Melding of Two Worlds Pt. 2: Home and the Battlefield 
// by Luckless 
//------------------------------//

Zlat
The fight had been exhausting, and we had all experienced close calls.  Mac and I had our helmets shot off, though I wasn't bleeding like Mac I did have a headache.  Rainbow had some bullet holes in her uniform, a round had bounced off Applejacks' helmet leaving a small dent, Spike had harmlessly absorbed a few rounds, Rarity had a near miss from a bullet that had passed mere inches away from her face, Ace's rifle had been shot out his hands, and a bullet had gone through Arid's backpack.  Then of course there was Bouncer.  We rushed him as soon as we could to the field hospital, and as far as we knew, he was going to be fine, but he wouldn't be returning to combat ever again.
When the rest of the army showed up the next day, we were relieved to learn that the rest of the city had been swept clean with little resistance, and only a few casualties.  When I found our Lieutenant, he was very displeased with the Equestrians, and further agitated with our reactions to him.
"If you ever pull off a stunt like that again, I'll see you in the stockade."  And he stormed off.
Now, we waited.  It was honestly depressing sitting around in Canterlot.  I still remembered when I'd first come to the city for the award ceremony.  Back then, the city had been so beautiful, but now everything was in ruin.  Not even the castle had been spared from the ravages.  The legendary stained glass that had stood for centuries had been blown out, and several towers and walls had collapsed from shelling and bombings.  Some areas looked scorched, a sign that there had been many fires that resided from inside.  The local guards had spread rumors that the princesses had decided that they would wait until the war was over to begin repairs to the castle, as most of the treasury would go to repairs to the city.  
It all got worse when the Canterlot citizens came back from hiding.  Their faces... I had mixed feelings about.  I felt bad for them, because their homes were wrecked, and the despair I saw and felt hurt me inside, but then I also felt a bit of disdain for them.  I'd watched my friends allies get wounded or die and come close to death.  The dead would never come back, the wounded would likely be crippled for the rest of their life, and many more would be scarred for life.  They just had to rebuild.   
When they looked at us, there were dozens of different emotions spread about them.  Some looked upon us with sorrow for our suffering, others looked horrified, some looked too numbed to the area around them to make an expression, and some (although rare) looked at us with anger or hate.  One of them had stomped over to us when we were talking with the Canterlot guard to yell at us for not providing adequate protection to the city.  Even though they didn't know what it meant, most of us still flipped them off and told them to start doing something productive instead of placing blame on those who had sacrificed themselves for her, and everyone else's, wellbeing.  
The worst by far, was when we were traveling inside of the castle to get to the mess hall.
"You lousy guards!  First you let those awful humans get into Equestria, then you let them into Canterlot!  They could've hurt me!  ME!  If that wasn't enough, you needed more humans to get them out of here!  Humans!  Of all creatures.  You're lucky that auntie Celestia is so gracious and forgiving.  If I was King, I would have you all dishonorably discharged in a heartbeat, then banished!"
I looked back and forth.  There weren't any guards here.  Just New York Militia, "You do realize that we're Chestian Militia, right?  Besides, you pompous ass, I don't see you in the military.  If you don't bother helping with the war effort, then you're in no position to criticize your countries troops. Oh, who am I kidding, you'd more likely shoot yourself then be an actual help."
Rarity giggled behind me while the arrogant white pony in front of me blustered, "Do you know who I am?!"
"Yeah, a douchebag."
He gasped, "I am prince Blueblood!  I'll have you court martialed for that!"
"Wrong army dipshit, you can't touch me unless I hit you."  And with that I spat at his hooves, and walked right on by with my unit, leaving him fuming and making angry sounds.
Everypony was laughing their hearts out, especially Rarity and Rainbow, "Oh Celestia Zlat!  You absolutely owned him!" Rainbow laughed.
Rarity composed herself (slightly) before adding in, "I must agree, that, ahem, snob was certainly put in his place.  He needed it."
I nudged her in the shoulder with a smile, "You really need to learn to swear."
She snorted, "A lady doesn't curse, no matter how much she desires to."
My smile only widened, "There are no ladies or gentlemen in the military.  That's for civilians, and last I checked, you're carrying a rifle."
She smiles back, "That doesn't mean I can't try."
I shrugged, surrendering victory of the argument.  We arrived in the mess hall in time to see one of the oddest things I'd ever seen.
A soldier, one of the Equestrians, stepped up the serving counter, where a server was dishing out food.
"Second hash doc?"
"Yes please."  Some white creamy substance plopped on his tray.
"Potata's?"
"Fine."  The "doc" offered up a sarcastic smile as the cook dropped what was presumably potatoes to *sploch* onto the tray.
"Cream corn?"
"Thank you." he strained to sound polite.  Some "corn" his the plate with a thud.
"And for the entree today-" he paused dramatically.
"Here it comes."
His buddy next in line told him, "Steady."
"We have liver or fish."  Even I cringed at that.  Military fish, and heaven forbid, liver, tasted awful.  
"I didn't hear you say that, cause it isn't possible.  It's inpony to serve the same food day after day.  The Genhooven Convention prohibits the killing of our taste buds."
His buddy tried to save the cook, and calm down the quickly angering doc, "Easy-"
The doc continued, "I simply cannot eat the same food every day.  Fish, liver, day after day!  I've eaten a river of liver and an ocean of fish!  I've eaten so much fish I'm ready to grow gills!"  The cook was staring dumbly back at the doc, "I've eaten so much liver I can only make love if I'm smothered in bacon and onions!"  He steps back to address the other soldiers in the mess hall who'd stopped what they were doing to watch and listen to the angry doctor.
"Are we gonna stand for this!  We gonna let them do this to us!??!  No I say, no!  We're not going to eat this dreg anymore!"  And with that he tossed his tray over the heads of some soldiers at a table, and splash onto the wall.
"WE WANT SOMETHING ELSE!"  He slapped a table, "We want something else!"  He kept slapping the table, and as the soldiers started going along with it, slapping their tables, he kept up his chant of wanting something else.  
He stood on top of an empty bench seat, yelling something unknowable into, "-the world at our eyes!  We have nothing to lose but our cookies!  We want something else!"  Out of nowhere, I noticed a pole, and only because the doctor started bashing his tray against it.
One of the smaller soldiers, I noticed, was bobbing his head up and down while shoveling the poor excuse for food into his mouth, while the doctor got off of his impromptu stage, and did a weird little dance, and the guy beside the soldier was doing a weird gesture with his arms.  Wait, is he...?  Yes, he's wearing woman's clothing.  He's trying to get a section 8!  I laughed a little inside.
The doctor proceeded to give a weird, high pitched cry as he jumped onto the pole, and started climbing.  The cook was now banging the food bin lids against their containers while we got our food.  
Finally, before we left, the doctor grabbed a cloth napkin, and ripped it apart with his teeth.  
Ponies.

Wolfgang
I couldn't for the life of me move myself in my wheelchair, and I hated letting Wrought wheel me back to the apartment.  But aside from that little sentence from when I first left, I barely had the energy to do more than make a displeased face, which I didn't want to make either.  
The ride back was a blur.  I was just too tired to really care about what happened around me.  My eyes lost focus, and nothing would have made sense either.  I know Wrought was saying things to me in a kind voice, but I couldn't make sense of it.  All I could think about was sleep, and I found myself occasionally drifting off only for my head to bob down and to jolt awake.  
All of a sudden, I was home, and being lowered into my recliner.  I sighed heavily as I entered the familiar warmth and comfort that was my chair, and a pleased smile enwrapped my face.  
Home, I love you.

Next day
Ugh, my leg hurt awfully.  Each beat of my heart sent waves of pain wracking through my leg, and moving it felt like I was ripping the new prosthetic out of my bone.  I reached into my pocket, took out a bottle of painkillers the doctor had given me, and swallowed a couple pills.  I moaned to myself as I waited for the pain to fall away.  
It was a few minutes of suffering, but it finally died into a dull throb.  I groaned a little as I pulled myself out of my recliner, and eased myself into my wheelchair.  My stomach growled, and I made my way over to the kitchen.  I rummaged through the cupboards in search of coffee and something to eat.  The coffee was still there, and surprisingly still good enough to use, but there was little in the way of good food.  Any food that I liked had spoiled long ago, and the only thing that my Equestrian roommates had stocked were vegetables and broth.  I settled for some stale wheat cereal and bread to eat while I waited for the coffee to brew.  
Apparently, they didn't like milk, so I had to settle for water with the cereal, which in turn, made it kinda bland borderline distasteful.  But if I'd learned anything from my stint at Ponyville, it was to never complain about the food you're given.  Especially if you're hungry.  The bread, which if my tongue wasn't lying was Italian bread, was a little better, and cleaned out the water cereal taste.  
Having finished, I poured myself some coffee as Steel came out of what used to be the guest room, yawning.  Damn, I could practically look down his throat he was yawning so widely.  As soon as he finished his yawn, he sniffed the air.
"What's that smell?"  He asked.
"Coffee.  Want some?"  I monotoned.  
"What's in it?"  He was getting curious, looking at my coffee cup interested.
"Ground coffee beans and some sugar.  No creamer though, wasn't any in the fridge."
"Uuh, sure.  Why not?"
I wheeled around the kitchen to get another cup and poured him some coffee with some sugar.  I handed it over to him, and he grabbed it with a hoof.  I'm never going to get used to how they use their hooves to grab things.
He tentatively took a sip, and his eyes lit up, "Hmm, not bad.  Could be a little sweeter, but it is very good.  I'll be sure to ask Lucky to get more."
I didn't comment in favor to drink more coffee.  Ok, what do I need to do today?  Well, I should probably see about going back to school.  It's not like I'm able bodied to go back into active service, and I do need to finish school.
"Hey Steel, I'mma goin' to head over to the school, see 'bout getting back in."
He looked at me with a raised eyebrow, "Why would you need to be going to school?  I thought you were a soldier?"
I nodded, "I am, but I 'ad to leave for the war 'fore I could finish.  See, the militia 're kinda like a better equipped police force, but we don' write tickets.  We still 'ave jobs an' go tuh school, but we 'ave to be on guard all the time."
He gave me a real weird look, "You humans are strange indeed."
"No objection there.  But I got a question fer you.  Why don' ya 'ave milk?  How do you cook?"
"Well, it's not really polite to drink somepony's... eh, milk.  We make just fine without it."
It was my turn to look at him weirdly, with a good deal of added confusion, "The 'ell 're you talkin' about?  I'm talkin' 'bout cow milk."
"I know, that's what I'm talking about as well.  They don't really mind on occasion, but they're still a bit uncomfortable with it."
I stared at him a little longer until I realized that he was talking about Equestrian cows.  I pinched my nose, "Steel, you do realize that cows anywhere's else on this world aren't intelligent, right?  They don' care one way 'r another so long as they're warm, full, 'nd comfortable.  Yer cows are leagues smarter than ours.  It's okay to drink milk 'ere."
"You're bluffing.  All animals are somewhat intelligent!"
"How could you not know that Equestria is the exception, not the standard?  Steel, I want you tuh understand this.  Equestrian animals are the only ones that 'ave some semblance of intellect.  Everywhere else, they're slightly smarter than a rock.  That's the reason why most people eat meat.  Otherwise, it would be wrong of us to eat 'em.  The only time that it's wrong to drink milk is when it comes from an anthro cow.  Regular old run o' duh mill cows 're fine."
I could see the gears turning in his head, "That is... confusing and strange."
I shrugged, "You'll get used to it in time."  and drank the last of my coffee, "Alright, I'm headin' out.  See ya later, good luck on yer project."
"Thanks."  I wheeled myself out the door, called the elevator, and left the building.  I rolled my way down the near empty sidewalk.  It was strange, seeing the streets so empty.  Even in the darkest, rainiest of nights, people would still be walking down the streets. Must be that everyone's already working or fighting in the war.
I made my way through the empty streets until I reached the school.  I struggled with the door, trying to get it open wide enough to enter and not get stuck.  Inside, the school was just how I remembered it.  Musty and old.  I rolled down the empty halls, the only sound being my breathing and distant footfalls.  I found the district attorney's office, and knocked.  
The door opened up to reveal the same 80 year, thin old Marcus Wild, who's been working here for nearly 30 years, "Yes?  How can I help you?"
I stretched out my hand to him, "Wolfgang Piatek, Mr. Wild.  I was a student 'ere when I got called to serve.  I was lookin' to get back in."
"Ooh, I remember you!  You were the one in the combat trench coat.  What happened to you young man?  I don't remember you being in a wheelchair."
I rolled up my pant leg to expose my new prosthetic, "Got my leg shot off.  I've got a while until I can walk again."
"I'm sorry to hear that.  It's a shame, really.  Sending out the young to fight the wars that the politicians start."
I shrug, "Thanks for the sympathies, but I would gladly die fer the people over ther an' my comrades.  I may be a cripple now, but I'm still gonna do all I can to help."
He gives me a warm smile, "Ah, the fire of youth.  It's commendable, you're loyalty and spirit, but ultimately foolish."
"Ain't foolish if it's fer a good cause.  Now, about enrolling."
"Ooh, yes.  You young folks are always in such a hurry.  If you're that anxious, we can get to it."  I wheeled into the office, filled out some paperwork, and was told to show up the next day.  
Well, back into the gauntlet of fire I guess.  I thought as I wheeled myself home.  Tomorrow was going to be fun.