Angel of War

by Commander Ry

Understanding

‘Reality. “The state or quality of being real.” But what was real? Everyone has their own perception of reality, their own interpretation of their environment. It is common knowledge that each individual has a slightly different reaction to the same event, because every individual has their own personality. Everyone has different means by which they measure said event: ergo, no one was the same. Even with this understanding, almost all individual realities shared relatively exact features. Take the color black for instance; black is black to everyone.’

‘But, when does one reality differ so greatly as compared to what is normal that it is no longer real? What is the line, that once crossed, means everything you think and feel is fake?’

Casey pondered these questions as he sat at attention on the edge of his bed. He stared intently at the whitewashed wall, as if its features held the answer to his predicament.

Twilight never answered his question. She just stared at him in complete bafflement. Once the pilot had realized that she wasn’t going to answer his question, he made an offer to come back inside from the ledge. The unicorn practically jumped at the suggestion, desperately using it as a means to distract her from the rather uncomfortable situation.

So, Casey climbed back through the window, sat himself down on the bed, and proceeded to engage the wall in a staring match. Twilight continued to stare at him in worry and confusion.

After a rather awkward staring contest between Casey, the wall and Twilight, Twilight broke the silence.

“Jonathan, I’ll be… right back. Please just stay there.”

The unicorn quickly trotted out of his room, not giving him the opportunity to respond. So, Casey did as he was told. While sitting on his bed, he stared at his wall and tried to answer the more convoluted questions of his existence.

His soul searching lasted for about ten minutes when it was interrupted by the sound of hooves entering his room.

Looking to his left, Casey saw that Twilight had returned with Applejack and Rainbow Dash. No closer to answering his mental question of ‘why the fuck doesn’t this make any sense,’ the officer reaffirmed his decision to be cooperative. He responded to their intrusion with a simple hello. The ponies responded by mimicking the look of confusion and worry Twilight had adopted. They were seemingly taken aback by the fact that the pilot spoke in a conversational tone to them.

Rainbow Dash was the first to overcome her confusion.

“Is that it? Days of saying nothing and now you greet us with ‘hello?’ What gives!?”

Completely ignoring her, Casey turned to the purple unicorn.

“Miss Sparkle,” he said, “you failed to answer my previous question… Is this real?”

“Sugarcube,” Applejack exclaimed, “what does it mean by that?” She had traded her worry for complete confusion as she waited for Twilight’s response.

The lieutenant restated himself.

“Am I talking to a purple unicorn?”

Twilight quickly glanced between AJ and the young man, looking for answers within their faces.

“Y-yes? Yes Jonathan.” The purple pony raised her eyebrows, not understanding the significance of the question.

“With all due respect, ma’am, I don’t believe you,” and Casey didn’t believe her. Unicorns don’t exist and they sure as hell don’t talk. Yet, there she was talking and telling him she did exist. He had no evidence to prove otherwise, so didn’t that mean she was right? The amount of circular logic the airman was experiencing was beginning to give him a headache.

“However,” Casey said with a resigned sigh, “seeing as I have not been provided with any other viable explanation, I am forced to take your words at face value. Now, I do believe you have some questions for me?”

The orange pony was the first to respond.

“Now hold on a second. Not a hoof-full of hours ago, your lips were sealed tighter than Big Macintosh's lips after Hearts and Hooves Day. What’s makin’ you so willing to cooperate now?”

Casey smiled. He found her suspicion to be refreshingly “normal.”

“I understand Miss- your name is Applejack correct? Miss Jack, that for the past few days I have been under the impression that I have been hallucinating and actually captured by enemy forces. A few hours ago I discovered a sort of… revelation, that proved my initial thoughts may not be as accurate as I had first believed. At this point, I am extremely unsure of my own reality, but because I no longer have a definite reason to believe you are hostile, it seems to me that cooperating with you will hopefully provide me with more information to understand where I actually am. You will have to excuse me though, as I am still unsure if you and what I am seeing is actually real, if I am crazy, or if I am in fact experiencing an induced hallucination.”

Applejack processed the officers words with a glazed over expression of confusion. Casey determined she was definitely not a well-educated individual.

“Twi…” she said, “what is this thing tellin’ me?”

“Um, I think Jonathan is saying that he thought we were his enemies and now he isn’t so sure.” Twilight’s answer was reaffirmed with a nod from the young man.

“Wait...” Rainbow interjected, “why would you think we were your enemies? And if you’re answering our questions, then what the hay are you!?”

“Rainbow Dash, that’s extremely-” The purple mare’s attempt to curb the blunt nature of her friend was cut short by Casey’s response.

“It’s fine Miss Sparkle. It would be easiest if I answered your second question first Miss Dash, the only problem being your intended meaning of ‘what.’ To be extremely general, I am a male human being. More specifically, I am a citizen of the United States of America and an officer in the United States Air Force. To answer your first question, five days ago I was engaged in combat over a country formerly known as Korea when I was shot down. Right after that, I somehow found myself here and being interrogated by mythical creatures. So my response was rather hostile as I was, and still am, rather confused and scared.”

“Wait, hold on a second, Air Force? You can fly? You have no wings!”

“Well… I personally don’t fly. I…I’m a pilot. Where I come from, pilots operate a machine known as an airplane. The machine is what flies.” Casey struggled to come to grips with the seeming ignorance of the ponies that surrounded him. They weren’t stupid, he knew that; he would actually rate their intelligence on par with an average person. Their lack of understanding basic technology, however, was rather confusing. If this was a hallucination, his brain was doing an outstanding job of making it feel real.

“You mean like Pinkie Pie’s flying gyzmo? I think she called it a… gyro… gyrocopter one time.” The cyan Pegasus was beginning to show genuine interest in what Casey had to say.

“Well, what I fly is similar to a gyrocopter in that it flies, but an airplane is a more stable platform and lacks the ability to hover-“

Much to Rainbow Dash’s chagrin, the lieutenant was cut short by Twilight Sparkle.

“Excuse me, but you said you were from the United States of… Amaraca? I have never heard of such a place, or seen a creature like yourself before. Where in relation to Equestria are you from?” The unicorn stared into the pilot’s features with curiosity seeping from her pores. Casey got the feeling he was being scrutinized not by an individual looking for specific information for specific reasons, but by an individual wishing to know everything simply for the sake of knowledge. He found the quality quite reassuring. However, before he could respond in kind he discovered that the brightly colored flier did not find this quality as endearing.

“Hey Twilight, this thing was answering my question first. You can wait your turn.”

“This “thing” has a name Dash, and it is Jonathan. You can ask him about your flying fetish later, but we need to understand where he came from and who he is.” She raised a dismissive hoof to her pegasus friend, a gesture that seemed to escalate the dispute even further.

“We know who he is! You just said he is Jonathan, and who says my questions aren’t as relevant as yours?!”

The officer watched in awe as the two continued their argument. Somewhere in the back of his mind his sentimental side was overcome by the adorableness of two brightly colored horses arguing while the little airman in his head facepalmed from the sheer incompetence of the “enemy.”

“I never said your questions weren’t relevant, just that they would best be saved for later!” Casey observed that Twilights irritation level was climbing steadily, and again his subconscious crossed its fingers in hope for more pyrotechnic ponies.

“Oh yeah-” Rainbow’s rebuttal was cut off as Applejack made herself known.

“Whoa nelly. Both of you need to get back on track. Rainbow, I think Twilight is right on this one. The princess did put her in charge of this whole thing. Also, I think we are confusing it.”

The pilot made a mental note of the uneducated one appearing to be the most competent, which made him rather concerned. He would have continued making mental critiques of his ‘no longer captures.’ However, he realized that all three of them had stopped talking and instead were staring at his slack jaw expression.

“Oh, umm… ahem, are you two finished?” Casey attempted to regain his composure.

Those six words caused a very unique response from each of them. Twilight turned the most becoming shade of scarlet and began analyzing the floor, the blue Pegasus snorted and glared, and Applejack responded with a half-lidded expression and a nod.

Still looking at the floor, the purple unicorn responded, “I’m… I’m sorry Jonathan, that was very childish of me. Can we continue where we left off?”

She looked back up at the officer, embarrassment quickly being replaced with curiosity. “Where are you from?”

For the next two hours Casey fruitlessly attempted to quench Twilight’s insatiable thirst for knowledge. She wanted to know everything. Quite literally everything. There was a ten minute segment of where the officer tried to explain how boots were made, only to discover that leather was a cultural taboo to these creatures and quickly backed away from the more carnivorous nature of the human species. He determined that he was either in a very elaborate hallucination or he was literally in another world. Casey wasn’t able to ask many questions in between the purple one’s verbal assault, but he did manage to understand that this world had no humans on it, was ruled by a monarchy, and resembled many characteristics found in children’s fairy tales. He still had no idea where he was or what he was experiencing, but these creatures did appear to be harmless. None of their questions seemed to have any intent other than understanding who and what he was on a fundamental level.

As for each of them, Rainbow Dash seemed to only concern herself with what the officer had to say about human technology and anything flight related. Applejack was solely focused on determining whether he was a threat or not. Twilight was a small child in a candy shop, enthralled by every word the young man spoke. That was, until Twilight brought up one question in particular.

“Jonathan, you said earlier that before you found yourself here that you were in ‘combat’ over a country you called ‘Careea’ and that was why you were so harsh with us before. What did you mean by ‘combat’?” She asked this with a confused expression on her face, apparently hoping for an answer to come.

“Umm, well my country is at war with North Korea. With me being a member of the United States Air Force, I was sent to go fight the military of North Korea, eliminate any threats and protect my nation and our allies.”

“Eliminate threats?” Twilight said the words in almost a hushed tone.

“Yes ma’am. My mission, specifically, is to provide air support to our ground troops, provide surveillance, and destroy any significant military air presence or ground installation.”

"So you’re like part of your nation's royal guard?” Rainbow Dash interrupted, her eyes wide with hope and anticipation. “Like a member of the Wonderbolts?"

With that interruption, Casey realized that all three of them were staring at him, each with their own mixture of hesitation; he realized that violence may also be another taboo and he should avoid further elaboration on war.

"In more ways than one I would say you are correct Miss Dash. While I am unsure of what specifically these 'Wonderbolts' are, you could easily equate my role and responsibility to that of an air guard, just without the royal aspect."

"That's so awesome."

Everyone but Applejack seemed to relax entirely with that explanation, with Twilight now going back to her inquisitive nature.

"Wait,” Twilight commented, “without the 'royal' aspect?"

"Well the country I come from is a democratic republic, not a monarchy. Our leaders are elected by the people."

"The people choose their leaders? You don't have a princess, or one supreme ruler?"

This basic concept seemed to baffle the poor unicorn. The officer guessed that their society must be well regulated and controlled to keep their people this ignorant. The little freedom loving airman in his head was not pleased with this revelation. Not one bit.

"No, we elect a president and our other leaders on a rotating basis. Our history has found that one 'supreme' leader often leads to corruption and abuse of a nation's citizens." Casey spoke that last part with a bit more venom than was necessary.

"Really? But who raises your sun and moon? Who controls your cycle of day and night?"

The little airman in the young man’s head stopped waving its American Flag long enough to give a confused expression. Casey tried to come to terms with what Twilight had just said.

“Ah... say again?”

“Your celestial and lunar cycles, who controls them?”

Again, Casey was absolutely confused in what the pony was asking him. Much like trying to put a square peg in a round hole, his brain just wasn’t connecting the words to the meaning.

“Well... Physics...”

~(Commander RY: ello, so Im not dead, and Im really really sorry. Im a bad Brony. For those of you who follow my story, or for any one left reading this I really do apologize for the delay. Between starting college, doing AFROTC, and generally being awesome I sorta forgot about it. Not that you guys aren't important, but I don't rate writing fanfic high on my priorities. Like I said... Im a bad Brony. But, I still hold true to my early affirmation that I will continue and finish this story. I just can't hold fast to any dead lines. To make a long story short, you will get new chapters when you get them, but you WILL get new chapters. This chapter specifically was tricky, hopefully it turned out ok enough. Like always I feed off of comments and opinions, so hit up that "neeto" comment section below. And of course, give all the praise and thanks to my super awesome editors shadowdemon137, Bass, & "She-who-prefers-not-to-be-named". Those of you still with me, Thanks)~