James Crossland awoke with a sudden, violent jerk upwards. He gasped for breath as the moments of what had just happened played into his mind. He laid on his back for a while until he sat up half way and looked around. "What!? Where am I?" he shouted to himself panicked. He shot up onto his feet and took in his surroundings more. He was no longer in the sandy terrain of Afghanistan, but was surrounded by tall trees on all sides. Struck with fear, he reached for his rifle but didn't find it and began to panic. He frantically looked all around himself but still did not prevail in his efforts. He looked down at himself; he still had all of his combat gear and ammunition, but no rifle which made him worry a great deal. He did however have his side arm which was a .45 Colt Marine Corps model 1911. He quickly pulled it out and racked a round into the chamber. He looked around for a few more minutes trying to figure out what to do as he had no idea where he was.
He pulled out a compass from his ruck sack to try and get some sort of a bearing to which way he was facing. He found the direction north and started heading that way to try and find some sort of establishment. He walked for about half an hour; staying on the highest alert level, checking out every sound.
Taking a small rest he sat on a fallen down tree, and looked once more at his compass. He looked around for a few more minutes wondering how he had gotten there, in a forest, with no people or buildings around. "Wait a minute, my radio!" He shouted to himself hoping that the operator was still on the line.
"Ghost Rider, this is Ghost Rider One! Do you copy!?" James quietly yelled into his headset.
Silence
"Ghost Rider, this is Captain James Crossland, do you copy!?"
Silence
"Damn it Ghost Rider! Do you read me at all!?" He shouted to no one through his radio. He left it on for another minute or two before shutting it off giving up hope of reaching his base.
"Well James, looks like we have to make it on our own; but that's okay, we've been through worse, right? Right," he said to himself accepting that he was the only person around. CRACK He shot up and spun around with his pistol raised at half ready. He looked into the forest and examined everything, but came up with nothing that pointed to what made the noise.
Just a second after he deemed the area to be clear for the moment, the bushes started to rustle. What came out of the bushes he was not prepared for. At first it looked like a chicken, but when it stepped out of the bush completely, he saw it was not so.
"GAH! What are you!?" James yelled at the beast knowing full well it wouldn't respond. The creature just stared at him with angry, blood red eyes. James then started feeling his right leg become heavy and immobile. When he looked down he couldn't see anything because his uniform was in the way; but when he pulled up his pant leg, he went into shock as it turned from his normal tan skin color to a concrete grey. He looked back up at the beast, his eyes wide with terror. The creature was going to turn him into stone like the Greek goddess Medusa! Not knowing what to do, he did the only thing he knew he could... pull the trigger. He took aim. Bang The creature was blown back a few feet due to the immense power of the weapon.
"What the hell is going on!?" He shouted to no one trying to get an answer. Still there was no response from anyone. His leg did not return to normal after killing the animal... whatever it was, and had to hobble along as best he could. He moved along in the northern direction his compass pointed him in. He approached a clearing and sat down at the edge of it. Slinging off his ruck sack, James pulled out a pair of binoculars and drank some of his water that he had been lucky enough to end up with. Looking through the binoculars he found another clearing about one hundred and fifty yards away. This was different though, he could see smoke coming from somewhere out in the open. He put his pack back on and moved forward quietly so he had the jump on anyone who might show up.
After moving through the first clearing he slung his pack off once more and went into a prone position and looked out through some bushes with his binoculars. Even though he had camouflage, the type he had did not make him blend in well with the environment so he had to stay very concealed. What he saw next he could not even begin to fathom as what looked like a sky blue horse with a bright, vibrant mane holding the colors of the rainbow, come flying by at fast speed. He stared at it with his mouth and eyes wide open and his hair standing up, as he tried to piece together what he was seeing. The only thing that left his mouth was, "what... the... hell?"
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Rainbow Dash was flying fast over Ponyville as she tried out a new trick she called the "Show Stopper de Rainbow". It consisted of three things: the super strut; creating a tornado of clouds high in the air, and through the center of the twister she would dive from high above and do a sonic rainboom as she hit the very center of it; sending the clouds and the visible light spectrum flying out in all directions. This was sure to get the attention of the Wonderbolts, and they would sign her on to the team in ten seconds flat, she thought to herself. However she made the tornado too big and got thrown out of it, but being in the air it did no damage and soon spun its self out. Rainbow Dash was still spinning though, and she crashed into the ground. When she got up she shook her head quickly then brushed herself off.
"Wow, didn't think that would happen." She said to herself as she took to the air again,flying off before any pony could see her failed stunt. She did not have to worry about any pony seeing her, but some one did.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
James kept staring at the creature in front of him, absolutely baffled that this thing whatever it was had just spoken plain and clear English that he could understand. He didn't move for a long time as he tried to think through logically what had happened just a few hours earlier. He was on a mission to kill a high ranking al-Qaeda official, his team had been overrun by enemy forces and were all killed; the last thing he remembered of Afghanistan was explosions and then nothing. After that he had woken up in a forest with no contact to his commander or team and a Medusa chicken had tried to kill him, and now a bright blue horse with wings had just flew by him; and on top of all of that, it had spoken in clear English! James got back on his radio to see if he could just maybe get in contact with his commander.
"Ghost Rider, this is Captain James Crossland, I have eyes on what appears to be a village or town in some wooded area. Sir, I don't even think I'm in Afghanistan anymore, scratch that I don't even think I am on... earth anymore, how copy my last?" James said into his microphone, hoping that anyone would answer. Once again though, he got nothing more than silence. A sudden wash of loneliness and despair poured over him and did not leave for several minutes.
"Well I guess that confirms it then; I'm not even on my planet," He said staring blankly where the blue creature had just been. He soon gathered himself and prepared himself to fight anything he may encounter. He turned back and looked through his binoculars to where the town was at. Most of the houses were painted pink or a creamy white color. There was one house that stood in the middle of town that looked like a tree and had a picture of a book on a sign hanging from it. There was one more house that was a tree and sat just a hundred or so yards away. He put away his binoculars and formulated a plan. He decided to go to the house that was close by and try to interrogate the occupants for any useful information.
He slung his pack onto his shoulders took a step down the small hill he was on, stumbling for a foot hold most of the way down due to his immobile leg. When he reached the bottom of the hill he moved as fast and silently as he could to the back of the tree house. He looked around and saw what looked like chicken coups. "Oh sweet, it looks like they keep those chicken things as pets." He thought to himself. He looked in through the back window and found another horse inside that looked very much like the one he had just seen, except it was a butter yellow with a long, pink mane. He quietly went through the back door and crept up on the unsuspecting creature. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fluttershy was tending to her pet rabbit named Angel; he was being stubborn as he usually was and gave her the hardest of times trying to feed him. He was picky about every little thing, but she was not irritated by it, it just wasn't in her nature. She was trying to make him his special salad that he wanted, and would only eat. She could slightly hear her back door opening and thought it was one of her little critter friends just coming in for lunch.
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James was just a few feet away from the horse-looking animal that he could have just tapped it on the back. He ever so quietly snuck up and put his hand over its muzzle. The animal let out a quiet scream and began to kick as he put his weapon up to its head.
"I want you to listen very closely to me who- whatever you are. I know you can understand me because I could hear the blue one speak my language. Nod your head if you understand," He said quietly to it.
It nodded.
"I'm going to take my hand off of your mouth after I ask you a few questions, understand?"
Another nod was felt.
"I am a Marine from the United States of America, I do not wish to harm you, but if you make any sound I will." A small peep was heard. "Where am I; what are you; how did I get here?" He asked the trembling animal, as he he let go the creature dropped down immediately, and put its face into its legs trembling violently. He looked down at it with his weapon raised.
"What is your name?" James asked irritated that he was not getting a response.
"F-Fluttershy." She said being just barely audible.
"Okay Flutter-shy? Where am I?" He asked quietly hoping it would make her put her head up. She only whimpered.
"If I put away my weapon will you answer me?" James asked very hesitantly.
"O-okay." She said just as quiet as before.
Shh-ckck
"There, it's away," He said calmly hoping that she wouldn't scream out. She lifted her head and spoke. When she looked up she did not known what would be standing in front of her, she had though it was just some pony from some weird place judging by the fact that he said the United States of America, or one just high on hay seed and was going to try and rob her. When she saw this she put her head right back where it had just been.
"Damn it... please, I won't hurt you. Can you just tell me where I am?" He pleaded with her. This time she looked up and muttered...
"P-Ponyville."
"What country are we in Fluttershy?" He asked hoping the she might just say the U.S.
"Equestria," She answered.
"What did you just say?" He asked in absolute confusion.
"Equestria," She said even quieter, but still audible. James hadn't asked another question and just ran out the way he had come in. Once outside he dropped to his knees and tried to collect himself. A single tear had escaped his eye. His team was gone, he was in a different world and he had no way of knowing how he got there or if he could get back home. He heard the door open he had just come through and snapped up quickly, drawing his pistol again and aiming at the creature called 'Fluttershy'.
"Stay back!" He yelled at her. She stopped and hovered with her wings for a second and then touched down. Slowly she stepped back inside not wanting to get hurt, and out of absolute fear. James stood looking at the door for a minute longer while Fluttershy stared at him through a window in the upstairs part of her house. After a few more minutes of staring in disbelief, confusion and terror he turned away and ran as fast as he could with his bum leg back toward the forest where he had just come from.
Sitting on a log just a few yards away from the edge of the forest he slumped his head down into his arms, his pistol still clenched in his hand. He sobbed for a few minutes still trying to figure out what to do, where to go, how to get home. After thinking for a while he decided to sink back deeper into the forest, knowing full well he could survive there. He got out his compass again and got a general direction of where to go, this time south west. He decided going back about a mile or so into the dense woods would be perfect, far enough for no body to find him and just close enough for him to get to civilization in the very slim case he might need to.-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Twilight! Twilight!" Fluttershy shouted in a quiet voice as she practically knocked down the door to Twilight Sparkle's house. Spike had been stacking books and trying to organize the place after another one of Twilight's up-all-night reading habits.
"What is it Fluttershy?" Twilight asked with little concern in her tone of voice.
"Darn it Fluttershy now I have to reorganize all of this again!" Spike complained as books lay strewn about and papers floated around him.
"Oh, sorry I'll just go, I d-din't mean to bother you." She said back slightly cowering.
"Well you're already here Fluttershy, so you might as well tell me what is so important!" Twilight exclaimed knowing that any pony such as Fluttershy wouldn't even knock on a door without a good reason let alone break the door down.
"There was some pony, er some thing that was just at my house. It came in through the back door and put something hard up against my head, oh Twilight I was so scared." Fluttershy said quivering in fear from remembering it.
"Did it say anything to you?"
"Yes it did, it told me that if I made any noise it would hurt me." She answered, Twilight's face had gone from intrigued to scared in less than a second.
"We need to send a letter to the Princess right away! Spike take a letter, this is important!" She barked at spike.
"No!" Fluttershy shouted in refusal.
"Why not, somepony said they would kill you, we can't just let a murderer run around in Ponyville!" She shouted in protest.
"No Twilight, let me tell you what else it said. It asked me where it was, and I told it Ponyville; then it asked what country it was in and I said Equestria. After that it just ran out of my house but stopped at my chicken coups." She continued the story.
"It asked where it was at, everypony knows that this is Equestria so clearly it's not from here," Twilight deduced.
"It told me where it was from too,".
"Where?" Twilight demanded.
"It said it was a Marine from the United States of America," She answered.
"A what from where?" Twilight asked confused.
"I don't know, but I can say that one thing is for sure, it doesn't know where it's at, or how it got here. It looked so scared and just ran away into the Everfree forest!"
"Well if you don't want to tell the Princess then what do you think we should do?" She asked somewhat annoyed that they wouldn't inform any authorities about the subject.
"I think that we should try and help it, I could see just by look in its eye it was absolutely terrified. I mean just think, wouldn't you be if you were out of place in a different world?" Fluttershy said back feeling empathy for the creature that had just threatened to end her life.
"Okay, but we should at least tell the girls about this," Twilight said hoping at least she would agree to that.
"No Twilight we can't, an unstable creature such as that might do something drastic to save itself if it were surrounded by two of us that it didn't even know existed until just a bit ago, let alone six of us!" Fluttershy said shooting down her idea.
"Fluttershy this is very dangerous, we need to tell somepony!" Twilight argued.
"Twilight we can't tell anypony at all; the reason why I came here was because I thought you would understand this whole thing the most,".
"UGHH! Fine Fluttershy, but can we at least go in the morning, then we can have a little more time to prepare for this, I would like to do a report on what we find and send it to Celestia." Twilight said hoping that Fluttershy would this.
"Okay, but please don't send it; we can't let anypony know about it!".
"Fine,".-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was getting dark, almost pitch black in the Everfree forest as James set up a small camp. He made a small fire and roasted a few critters he had hunted over it. It provided warmth, along with the dense forest was surprisingly warm at night. He sat with his back turned to the fire so he could see if anything tried to sneak up on him. He had taken off all of his bulky equipment and left himself in his fatigues, but not without his weapon. He had set up a bed between four trees about six feet off the ground so no creatures could get at him easily. After eating and cleaning up he crawled into his makeshift bed and stared up at the barely visible sky for an hour or so. He looked down at his watch and it read 21:00 hours; he made sure a round was loaded in case something tried to get him. After stowing it with the safety on, he drifted off to sleep, but his dreams were unpleasant to say the least. He was plagued with images of the past day playing over and over in his mind, not knowing when it would end. When the dreams did, it was morning, but it was not a natural waking up moment, rather some rustling and quiet voices were heard a few yards away that snapped him out of it.