//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: running through mud and blood. // Story: The war between Man and Pony // by Glitched Grim //------------------------------// I like rain, don’t you? Back before the war I used to live in Idaho and it would always rain up there, so you could imagine that whenever I find myself in the middle of a rainy day, I have a bit of a nostalgia trip, that and the fact the rainy days are just fun regardless. While I was driving, Gary was sitting next to me on the front passenger seat, Martin was sitting behind me, while Henry was in charge of the turret, that meant whenever we would be attacked by enemy forces Henry would be the first to go guns blazing. We were absolutely prepared for what was to come our way! no your not.. It felt like we drove for hours but we finally made it, we were told that enemy forces would arrive at the east coast and we would be transported there by flight in two days, I was expecting another day of relaxing but our captain had other plans……wait captain? I don’t remember a captain being there with us…..whatever, he told me that me and my friends need to head out into the forest for a reason he did not identify, told me to get my best gear and weapons for a reason he also didn’t identify, strange…..but even if it was I still went to my friends, told them everything, and they were (what a surprise) as confused as I was but still took the offer, which is strange cause I don’t remember telling them that it was an offer…. We got our gear and weapons and made sure to let the captain know that we were heading out, when we got into the forest we didn’t hear anything but rain, no distant gunshots, no distant explosions, no nothing, just us walking through the forest along with the sound of rain and the occasional sound of thunder going off above us, so you could say we were on edge almost the entire time walking, we were about to let our guard down until we heard a distant *SNAP* on our right, we quickly look to our right and we see….nothing, I try to look a little closer with my binoculars and I finally saw something, something that would creep me out on the spot. A single figure of another soldier, all alone, just…standing there, he had no weapons, no gear, just a simple uniform with just a helmet…..standing there, I then saw him look to his left a little and walk towards that direction, I felt myself paralyze in a sense, I didn’t hear a thing from my friends so I figured that they must of seen whatever THAT was, but when I looked…..holy hell….I have never felt this much fear build up inside of me so damn quickly…they were…….GONE, like they just vanished! I quickly looked around at every spot around me but I couldn’t see them! They were just gone, just like that, so I quickly grabbed my walkie-talkie more out of instinct then anything, I turn it on and began speaking, I tried contacting Gary first, “Gary this is John, are you there? Over” five seconds, no response, I tried repeating what I said, “Gary this is John, are you there? over” five more seconds, still no response, it struck me that it was being a bit to impatient so I waited more, ten seconds no response, 5 minutes no response, 16 minutes still no response, when realizing the Gary wouldn’t respond anytime soon I decided to try to contact Henry after hoping that Gary wasn’t in any danger, after receiving no response from Henry I tried Martin and guess what….cmon just guess! Yeah no response either, I was beginning to get creeped out beyond what I could handle, so I did what any other person would do, go back to safety. Ok it’s been two fucking hours and I can’t seem to reach back to base, It feels like 20 things are watching me all at once right now, I can’t seem to contact anyone, and for GOODNESS SAKE I KEEP SEEING THAT LONE SOLDIER IN THE CORNER OF MY EYES……I’m sorry about that, I seem to be in a state of paranoia, I keep walking in the direction the SHOULD have taken me to base 2 hours ago but I still don’t seem to be going anywhere, but that’s when I hear………dear god, I suddenly hear the LOUDEST EAR PIERCING SCREAM I’ve ever heard, it sounded like a women in trouble so I sprinted towards the scream, praying to God that it was a women and that I wasn’t about to run into some freak show, I finally went to where the scream originated from and if you want to know how, well let’s just say that there wasn’t just one scream. I look around frantically, my M4 aiming at every turn, that was until I saw something, something cowering in one of the bushes, I aim my M4 at the bush waiting for something ANYTHING to just come out and lunge at me…but nothing did, instead what I saw was something quivering and silently sobbing, I look a little closer and saw…a mare! “Hey you!” I shout easily getting the mare’s attention, she quickly looked at me and if the face of instant horror wasn’t enough, I guessed that she recognized me as the “human menace” as they probably call us, she then looked at me with pleading eyes. “P-please…..d-don’t kill me…..please….s-something is chasing me..” the mare said through quick sobs, something struck me like a tank hitting me at full force, she was defenseless, the enemy was defenseless! I can just shoot her right here right now! Then why do I have the sudden need to….comfort her, to help her….I looked back at her and those pleading eyes, ‘fuck it’ I say to myself, making the final decision I put my gun away and opened my arms, she quickly and I mean QUICKLY ran into my arms sobbing a little less quieter then before, “thankyouthankyouthankyouthankyou!” She said at a fast pace, but then a thought hit me, a terrifying one. “Ma’am I’m only gonna ask this once so answer me when I say it alright?” I tell her, she nods affirmatively, “alright, what is chasing you?” I asked, she seemed to think for a moment before finally speaking. “I don’t know what it was, but it looked like you, but not you specifically, but rather one of your soldiers” that statement shook me to my core in an instant, ‘she saw it to’ I thought, she started to continue, “when I saw it I walked towards it cause it was just standing there, but when I t-tapped on its side it…..it” she started to break down, tears started to form and she started sobbing again, I hugged her closer to me trying to calm her down, she did in a few seconds, “it….it turned its head towards me in a split second and it…..” she tried to catch her breath for a moment, I stroked her mane gently, “it…it….it smiled at me!” She said a bit louder, “but not just any smile, the smile it..it was distorted, it kept growing bigger and bigger!” When she said that I went from ‘what the hell?’ To ‘WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!’ In a matter of seconds, but before we could say anything me and the mare suddenly heard something that I will NEVER forget. EEEAAAAAOOOOEEEAAAAAAAAAAA A loud high pitched SCREETCH, I hear the mare quiver in my arms and I didn’t think twice, I grabbed her tightly in one arm and my desert eagle in my other and sprinted in the opposite direction, I was so focused that I didn’t notice the mare desperately trying to get my attention, but I finally looked down at her and she quickly pointed a hoof behind me, I look behind my while running and I saw IT sprinting towards me and the mare! It got closer and close and CLOSER and HOLY SHI- Tick. Tick. Tick. Tick. Ti-