He scratched his head. Where was he? There were trees all around him, but last thing he remembered was the concrete jungle he called home. He heard various animals yelping, calling, and singing, but last thing he remembered was the sight of humans and ponies running and screaming. He smelled the pleasant fragrance of flowers and decaying leaves, but the last thing he remembered was the smell of gunpowder and blood...
“What the Hell!?”
He was in a fight a minute before, fighting those ponies shoving that damn potion down everyone’s throat, and traitorous humans who had struck a deal with their pony masters. The sight of gurgling men in front of him, choking on the purple slop and changing anatomies came to the front of his mind, and he could again feel the recoil of his rifle as he ended their suffering.
His eyes watered and his throat choked, reducing his breath to a choking sob. Rob, his friend since middle school...
“Reminiscing about your past, I see?”
He whipped around to the sight of his greatest enemy, the Sun Princess herself. What a pretentious bitch, he had always thought. She didn’t even control the sun, or have any influence on it at all really, or anything else for that matter. Despite that, she titled herself as though she were a god who moved the stars on a whim.
“Nothing to say to me, Matthew?”
How did she know that? he thought, panicking. He scowled at her and cursed her know-it-all attitude. He reached for his sidearm and pulled it out, aiming right for the head. But when he pulled the trigger, a couple of bubbles gently floated out as though there was a gentle breeze and they were blown by a six year old, non-murderous girl who would not qualify as a textbook psychopath.
Celestia bowed her head, as though she were disappointed. “You should know better by now, young one.”
His other hand went for his knife but instead found a rather obscene rubber toy in its place.
“OK, I may be in control if this dream, but it’s still yours,” Celestia said, barely containing her disgust. “Perhaps you should be checked-”
“Fuck you!” he snarled as he launched himself at the figure in front of him only to pass through and land harshly on the ground.
“This is usele-”
He threw a log at her only to watch it bounce harmlessly off her image.
“Would you stop already!?” she bellowed, and Matt froze, soon dropping a fifty pound rock he had found. She cleared her throat and regained her composure. “Matthew, I am not here to conquer you. I am here only as a guide.”
“What do you mean?”
“Change is coming, young one, and for you it is quite literal.” She gently walked closer to the human, whose face was falling with the realization of his situation. “I did not want it to happen this way. I would have preferred you come to a bureau yourself, but it seems my overager subjects got a little jumpy.”
She was right, he decided. Change was coming, and he had failed to stop it. The only thing he had succeeded in doing was killing a bunch of humans and ponies alike. Some of them thugs, but others just doing what they thought was right. Now that he thought about it deeply, they had been doing the same to him. He had thought the right thing to do was to kill ponies instead of prepare human civilization for the unstopping barrier. He had done nothing, and if anything made things worse.
“All I’ve done...”
“I’m sorry, Matthew.”
“All the ponies I’ve killed.” There it was again. The choking sensation returned, and he became so dizzy he had to go to all fours to keep himself from vomiting. “All for nothing. Their deaths didn’t do anything.”
Celestia bowed her head knowingly. “At least you see it now.”
“Oh God, I just murdered a bunch of ponies, didn’t I?” he yelled at the sky, rolling onto his back as the lightheadedness overtook him. “Would be the same with them alive or dead. No more humanity.”
“But there is one way you can salvage this.”
He perked up. As his vision cleared, he saw Celestia slowly come closer and closer.
“They died trying to save you. Surely you don’t want them to die in vain...”
Matt shook his head. No, he didn’t want that. He had seen far too many good men and women throw away their lives needlessly. He had seen too many die for pointless objectives. He had seen too many die for those who did not even acknowledge their sacrifice. “No, I don’t want that.”
Celestia sadly smiled. “So you see-”
“But I also don’t want what they represent,” he interjected.
Celestia blinked. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve seen your society. I’ve seen your perfection. I’ve seen your pervasive censorship and restrictions of your subjects in the name of peace, I’ve seen the control you have over everyone and the stagnant utopia they enjoy.”
“Surely you can agree it’s more comfortable than the conditions for the majority of your kind,” she offered.
“But I don't want comfort,” he quoted, “I want God, I want poetry, I want real danger, I want freedom, I want goodness. I want sin.”
Celestia sighed. “Aldous Huxley, in his book Brave New World.” She glanced quizzically at Matt. “Surprised? Yes, I am quite the fan of human literature.”
“Then you know what I want.”
She sighed again. “It is true that ponification biologically limits your more aggressive and harmful attributes, Matthew. But I believe we can come to a compromise.”
“And that would be?”
“Seek what you want. They died to give you the chance,” she said, as her image slowly began to fade, along with the rest of the scenery. “Earn it.”
He awoke, but this time as glorious Nagant rifle of 7.62 millimeter caliber. An HLF soldier wearing a very masculine plaid shirt scooped him up and began firing at the pony enemies. Secure in two burly arms, one with a tattoo saying “Freedom” and the other saying “Liberty” he let loose an intimidating war cry.
“AHHH MOTHERLAND!“ he screamed. “Remove pony!”
“Matt?” his carrier asked, “Is that you?”
“No,” the rifle replied. “Call me Ivan.”
Celestia rubbed her snout with her forehoof in frustration. “This... is not what I had in mind.”
“Quite the spiteful bastard, isn’t he?” Luna commented.