//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Reminiscence // Story: New World, New Rules // by Zilver5664 //------------------------------// (AN: this chapter is going to be using a bombardment of pictures, I strongly suggest that you do not be reading this in text document format. This will be the last chapter that uses pictures as far as I’m concerned.) Time: 2:48 P.M Location: Canterlot castle, Chris’s room Date: October 12, 2013 Smiling softly at my little charade I lock the door so that no one can enter without my consent. I look around the room once more and attempt to find something to do considering the fact that I have been spotted, so it’s only a matter of time before I will be confronted. Sighing in disappointment I walk over to bathroom to take a shower, because let’s face it. It’s been three days since my last shower and I've been exercising most of the time. Closing the door behind me and locking it so now I have two lines of defense, I make my way towards the shower door and slide the shower door to the right, showing the knob I grab onto it and after some millimeter adjustments I have it set to be warmed up to a tolerable level. (Which is about the same as sitting in a fire, force of habit, I guess.) After I do what needs to be done, I don’t want to get into too much detail, I was left in the shower thinking about the events that lead up to me being stuck here in this dimension…. ‘Screw It, I still need answers,’ I conceded. Washing my hair and rinsing, I sit in the shower for five more minutes before being certain that I am clean, turning off the water and exiting out the shower door I was greeted with a foggy room, not to be surprised, because I probably showering at 100`F for all I know. Exiting the swamp I call a bathroom refreshed, clean, and smelling like a man should be. Don’t forget the clothes; I decide that I’m too bored to stay in one area, so I decide to sharpen my sneaking skills throughout the castle. Another reason is because my visor picked up heartbeat and motion coming toward my door. According to the count there was an entire ‘squad’ coming, meaning there was about six. Instinctive calculations determined that I had about five minutes before they came to the door. Of course my playful nature (I would say sadistic but that’s under different circumstances) came out and I unlocked the door and made a dummy on the bed. Quickly checking the time it was about 4:30, so I had about a half hour for “playtime” before I would cut everything off and head to the throne room. Looking around for a good hiding spot I remember a little tidbit I learned from my step-father ‘People will look left, right, and even down, but they almost never look up’ Ever since then I would always find a way to get to the ceiling, and right now is when I would make it work. Looking at the doorway I take notice of the ½ inch ledge on the outline. So I grabbed my backpack and gun from under the bed, strapped them on, began sprinting and jumped up and tried to get a grip on the ledge. After that I used my feet as a makeshift thruster and pushed myself up on top of the ledge. Sadly my center of balance was off, but instinct took over and I twisted my feet sideways and tried to keep myself leaning onto the wall, luckily it worked. Right than the group came to the door and stood there for a few seconds before one of them came and knocks on the door. They didn’t receive a response for the obvious. After about a minute they attempt to knock on the door again, still no response for obvious reasons. Tired of waiting, someone else from the group walked over and opened the door, causing me to stumble a bit but keeping my balance. The entire group entered to my knowledge as I was facing the wall unable to see them looking, so as soon as they all entered and got a safe distance away from me I dropped down and grabbed the ledge with my hands and swung myself to the outside of my room without making a sound. Grabbing my bearing I began my quiet sprint toward the doorway, which was on the far side of the hallway. Luck was on my side however because it wasn't until I was at the doorway when my cover was blown, “Hey, there he is! Get him!” Judging by the tone of voice, I have no time to play around with them. ‘Shit, to the throne room it is then’ I was being attempted captured by who knows who, and I didn't want to fight. Slamming the door behind me, I turn left when I reached the main hallway and made a dead-on sprint toward the throne room, To avoid suspicion I slowed down to a walk when I came into view of the guards, when I came up to the door, they allowed me in. “Celestia has given permission to you to join her in the throne room; you may be allowed to enter,” said the guard. Giving a nod of acknowledgement, I opened the door and closed it…A bit faster and louder than usual. Granted this didn't get Celestia’s attention as she was busy with paperwork. “Is there a reason I’m being chased around about to get captured?” I asked Celestia in a dead panned voice, I normally use it when I suspect something. This got Celestia’s attention and she immediately dropped the paperwork she had in her magical grasp, I most likely startled her as her wings extended from behind her. ‘How did I not notice those wings?’ I thought. At this moment I realized that Celestia was wearing a sheepish grin, this immediately piqued my curiosity, and it also made me raise my brow, as a subconscious way saying I wanted an explanation. “I….May have let my student and her friends stay here in account of them seeing you head here in Luna’s chariot. However they must have not gotten a good look at you, so they probably thought you were an intruder,” Celestia explained. “That explains a lot, however that doesn’t change the fact that I’m being chased and I have no idea how to deal with it,” I continued to dead-pan. “No worries, I will solve it when they come, in the mean-time you can wait here.” I stand next to Celestia’s throne while she does paperwork; my guess is that the paperwork she has are complaints and what not. After a while I start to get bored and explore my visor. Turns out I can change the tint to all sorts of colors…. This is getting really boring. I drop my backpack from my shoulders to relieve the stress it was building up on my shoulders, unzipping it I bring out a bottle of Mountain dew and take a large sip, putting it away, I sit on the backpack until the guests come. It was only then Celestia gave me a VERY helpful tidbit about my visor. “Luna told me that the visor can act as a makeshift computer, all you need to do apparently is bring out your fist and expand it, as if you were zooming in on a….What was It called again? Ah yes, an iPod.” Trying out her advice I do what she said, a screen pixilated out from the center of my hand and I was greeted with a windows 7 computer desktop screen… The screen had a light tint of blue coming out of it and it was basically holographic, I could move it around and interact with it, but if I try hard enough my hand will go through it. “Celestia?” “Yes?” “You’re a bloody genius, thank you,” Celestia responded with a smile, and I immediately set to work on setting up the computer, bringing up the start menu, I take a look at the computer’s processing, memory, RAM, and what not. Turns out this thing had 3 Terabytes of space, this thing was a supercomputer in sunglasses, I smile and begin work on setting up the computer, wallpaper, files, wait, I thought this was a new computer. What are my photos of my family doing here? Closing the photo library before I start reminiscing I decide to look in on the internet. After loading the crappy internet explorer (it stinks even in supercomputers) it brings up Google as its homepage. Confused at the breakthrough I look at the bottom right of the screen and check the WIFI connection. It read: “WIFI, You can't explain it, so don't bother.” Chuckling at this I decide to leave it as it is, I was about to head back onto the internet when the door opened. “Finally,” I murmur, closing the screen by shrinking it down to non-existence. Unfortunately, my moment of relief was short lived when the same rainbow haired girl from before charged me with her wings. Instincts took over and I immediately side-stepped, barely missing her by a hair. She would have charged me again if she wasn’t stopped by a Lavender aura surrounding her body and got dragged back to the doorway. “Rainbow Dash! You just attacked someone in the presence of the princess!” I looked over to see who the voice belonged to. It was another girl, probably about eighteen years old to maybe a year over my age; she wore a dark purple checkered mini-skirt that is outlined with pink stripes. She is wearing a white blouse and over it, is a purple sweater-vest. She had a unicorn horn, and her hair and tail is a near black, with a tint of lavender, save for the purple and pink streaks. I would assume this is the ‘student’ Celestia was talking about; her name was Twilight Sparkle if I remember correctly. She immediately ran over to the princess and began apologizing. “Princess Celestia! I’m so very sorry; I don’t know what came over her I-“She silenced herself when Celestia raised her hand. “There is no need. Now how about we discuss everything over dinner? I’m sure someone is starving,” Celestia looked over to me, and at that moment my stomach growled like a tiger. ‘Traitor’ I mentally glared at the stomach. “Sorry, that was me, I could go for some Teriyaki right about now,” I said. Celestia chuckled at my little charade and we began to walk out to the dining hall, as we were walking I was receiving looks from the other girls and in response I activated my visor, they took it as a sign of ‘I don’t like being stared at’ and they looked away. Eventually, we entered the main dining hall, and let me tell you, it’s huge. There is a table for about thirty people if necessary, and the architecture is great like the rest of the castle, there were about three chandeliers at the table, and each tiny little detail would make you mind say ‘Fancy’ Celestia took her seat at the edge of the table, and Twilight sat on the seat next to Celestia on the left side of the table. After everyone settled down I was sitting near the edge of the group next to a girl with a orange shirt with yellow highlights, tied up into a knot so her belly was exposed, she was wearing tan jeans with a belt that had a buckle engraved ‘AJ’, she had brown leather gloves on that a an emblem of three plump red apples on it. She was also wearing a Stetson hat that she never bothered to take off when she came inside, and she had blonde hair and a blonde tail both tied up into a knot at the end. It stands to reason that she was one of the girls in the group who was staring at me. The other one was more…Unique, so to speak, unlike everyone else who was normally wearing casual clothing, this one was wearing clothes as if she was going to a fancy gathering at every moment of her time, her hair and tail, where both a shining purple put up into a curl at the end. She had a unicorn horn poking through the center of her hair, leading me to believe she is a unicorn like Twilight. She had a white dress shirt that was trimmed purple and it was tucked into a dark skirt, she was wearing panty-hose that stretched down to her fancy black boots. She sort of reminded me of my mother, when It came to the clothes. She was located at the seat next to Twilight, and also next to another one. This one seemed like the shy part, somewhere like me, except I’m working on getting out of my shell, she was wearing what seems to be a yellow knit sweater, with buttons going down the entire length; she has it down so you can see her shoulders. She is also wearing a green skirt, nothing old, and nothing new. Her pink hair and tail however look like it could be trimmed at least. I’m surprised she is able to fly with her Pegasus wings. “Pinkie, it would be wise to not startle our guest,” Celestia advised. “You do realize I picked up your motions a while ago, get out from behind me,” I said. “Aww… You’re a party pooper,” came out a pink girl. She was wearing a pink long sleeve shirt that had an emblem on the front, the sleeves were candy cane striped, she was wearing a pink skirt and underneath it a candy cane striped leggings, her mane and tail, were unnaturally poofy and curly. “I give you props for disappearing without my notice,” I say. At this she smiles at me and heads back to her seat. “Now that everyone is situated, I believe introductions are in order,” Celestia speaks. A collective bunch of 'yes' echo throughout the dining hall Celestia giggles a bit and then begins “Well then, everyone this is Christopher, Christopher this is Twilight Sparkle” Celestia brings a hand over to each person as they introduce each other. “Hello” “Applejack” “Howdy” “Rarity” “Good evening” “Fluttershy” “Umm…hi” “Rainbow Dash” “Hey” “And Pinkie Pie” “Hi! Nice to meet ‘cha! Do you like parties? ‘Cause I like parties, do you like cupcake or muffins, betterthanyethowaboutmuffcakes?Butthatwouldstillbeacupcakes,whatabout-“ At this she gets silenced by Applejack, who just smiles apologetically at me, pinkie however is still talking as if there is no hand muffling her sentences. “Sorry ‘bout that, Pinkie ‘ere can git a ‘bit random at times,” she apologized. Just as I was about to respond, the door behind me opened again, and inwards came Princess Luna. (AN: sorry about no visual in text, but unfortunately I most likely have no idea what she is wearing based on visuals, so you will need to make do with the photo.) Like Celestia, Luna radiates a sense of authority and wisdom, however she might not have much experience past Celestia, but she knows how to get around. When I turn around I happen to catch her yawning, I would assume she had a rough night. Even more so when she barely notices me, or any of the girls, except for Celestia. “Evening, sister,” Luna says tiredly, as she walks over to sit in her seat next to Celestia. “Evening, Luna,” The sun goddess replies. “When will our guest arrive? I would think he would be here sooner,” At this I wonder what happened during her sleep to make her all oblivious. “Did you have a rough night Luna?”, in the middle of the sentence Celestia glances over to me and gives me a wink practically saying ‘Let’s do something funny’, “Because he is right behind you,” Right when Luna turns around to look behind her, I silently moved besides twilight and gave her a face saying ‘Don’t say anything’ and continued moving, right when Luna turned face forward I had snuck up right behind her without her knowing. All the while a smile creeping up my face, “Sister I do not see anything, is this, another one of your jokes?” Luna asks questioningly. At the end of her sentence I stick my head right next to her face, and while looking straight ahead, I spoke right beside her ear and go with my killer one-worder. “Hai” “Pfftt, HAHAHAHA!” Everyone continues to laugh at the little prank me and Celestia did, while I just sit there smiling smugly, while Luna is sitting there blushing like mad from embarrassment. What happened is that when I spoke she screamed from shock and fell out of her chair, the best part is that I was back on my seat when she came back up, so she still had no idea what happened. At least until I broke the ice. “Consider that payback for making me sneak out of the hospital and run across the town for two hours,” I say while still smiling. “Consider us, even.” When Luna noticed me her face turned from one of embarrassment to surprise. Eventually we all calmed down so we could get straight to business, and when I mean business I mean- “FOOOOD!!” Pinkie, Dash, and I, exclaim. Celestia rings a bell and then servants go around the table bringing out menus, well except for me. When I shoot her a questioning look, she tapped on the side of her head. I realized she was talking about my visor. Activating it, the visor immediately brings up the dinner menu, Burgers, Hot dogs, Steak, Fettuccini, and the one I picked, Teriyaki Beef, along with a side of white rice and vegetables, oh and extra Teriyaki sauce, Gotta love Teriyaki sauce. While I was taking my order I noticed a group of murmuring, quickly finishing my order, I turn off the menu so I can look at what’s going on. Turns out everyone was talking about my device. This brought me to the question: “Luna, where did you get this device, and why?” I ask. Without hesitating Luna replied, “I got it from an alternate universe close to yours, the reason why is mainly because it was meant for communication, however I noticed your love for technology is astounding, so I had it changed to reflect your needs” “I see, thank you, Luna,” I say. “It was a pleasure” Celestia gets everyone’s attention, “Now I know you have been patient Chris, and I thank you for that, I think it’s time we answer your questions,” ‘Finally!’ I thought. I begin with the most important question of all, “Why am I here? When I should be dead?” When I mentioned the death part, a collective gasps and shocked murmurs spread between the girls. Celestia holds up a hand for silence, than speaks, “Your question is expected, however it is hard to answer,” Celestia stops for a moment to collect her thoughts, “…You see, Equestria, is not how you expect it to be, there are wars, extremely rare, but the more common problem is bandits and groups, although we send out troops to stop them from growing, they have been increasing lately, some have even started their own private military groups.” “Why?” I ask. “Each group has different plans, but one goal… They want to overthrow me and Luna.” Celestia finishes, another collective shocked gasp echo throughout the dining hall. In the back of my mind, I pray to whoever is controlling this universe that Celestia is not leading to where I think she is leading. God knows how much I put that behind. “All right, where do I come in with this?” I continue asking albeit nervously, ‘Please don’t say it please don’t say it,’ “…Your Military experience…” The sun goddess answers… I drop my head on the table comically and start banging it to everyone's confusion, I raise my head again to reply, only to be interrupted by rarity. “Not to be rude Princess, but how is a child experienced in the art of war? He seems more like an out-going kind of boy rather than a stoic serious one.” Before Celestia answers I intercept first, “Ever hear the expression, ‘The ones who laugh the most, share the worst pain?”” I ask her, when I say this I notice Pinkie’s hair deflate slightly. "Chris, be careful on what you're going to say next, I know how much emotions your bottling up all these years," Luna advises. I just put on my best poker face and clear my mind except for my explanation before giving Luna a nod. “When I was nine, five years after my real parents’ divorce, I was riding in a motorized vehicle in layman’s terms, with my mother and my step-father, I had a little sister…Her name was Monica Comstock, about three years old, the most adorable thing you can imagine, full of joy, and carefree. We were driving in a country called Iraq which was supposed to be a dead war area, my step-father was called by a photographer to do a photo-shoot with us for a military magazine, he said that we would be a safe distance from any hazardous things so there would be no need to worry about any battles, he brought us with him because it was a four day trip from Panama city beach, and he didn't want to leave us behind, that and the photographer wanted to take photos of dale's family…. how wrong were we…” (AN: I forgot to mention.. This story is realistically illogical. In the real world, Chris wouldn't have been able to join the military because of age requirement. However In a universe where humanized ponies exist, the rules of the world barely applies. Therefore this story takes place In a separate universe where the military age requirement doesn't exist. But that doesn't mean that he can JUST join the delta force (at least without good reason)) We had pulled into a garage which was the designated location for the photo-shoot to commence, after five minutes of waiting my step-father: Dale Comstock, retired military delta force Green Beret, the best of the best. Decided we will leave and stay in a hotel, however as soon as we began moving, cars began swarming and surrounded us in a circle, I was holding my little sister close to me as I saw armed men exit out and began making their way towards us. What I remembered last was that I was knocked out with Monica crying in my arms. When I came to I was in a dark room with Monica in my lap sleeping, however she was beaten by the men, and so was I. Bruises covering our bodies screaming out in pain every time I moved an inch, it felt like being put in a meat grinder and getting put back together piece by piece. After an hour or so, the men returned and stood by the doorway speaking in Arabic, after a while they came over and took Monica, I tried to stop them but instead I took a stock to the face, dazed I tried to regain my bearing only to realize that they set up a camera and had tied up Monica to a chair. She was crying, crying for help, crying for mom, for dale, all the while the Iraq terrorists speaking to the camera, ready to send it out to America. “You invade our homes, deem us enemies, and you think you can just go back home to your family when you've destroyed ours? Who is the real enemy America?” the Iraq soldier says. Now before I continue, I was to make it clear that these men were the one who started the war in the first place, they sent a Weapon of Mass Destruction to Colorado and killed Millions of innocent people, it was then the president of the United States declared war and sent our soldiers to fight, to prevent them from destroying our country. After the Iraq soldier finished his speech, he pulled out a pistol and charged it; all the while Monica still crying and struggling screaming out my name and my family, I couldn’t do anything as I was being held down by two other soldiers. “Chwis!” Monica would scream out, “Mommy! Daddy!” The Iraq soldier loaded the bullet and pointed at Monica, all the while me and her keeping eye contact, I was crying silently, knowing that my little sister would die before she could even live her life. Monica was still crying but more silently now, keeping eye contact with me sent her a calming message. The last words I said to her was: “It will all be over soon, everything will be better, I promise,” *BANG!* As I watched Monica fall down I noticed everything was going in slow motion, I saw the bullet exit out of her head leaving a trail of blood, the soldier grinning maliciously as he killed her, the recording finishing up and being sent to the president, everything. But as I saw Monica’s life being torn away I heard her say one last word before she died… "Chwis..." Then…Everything just….Snapped… In a fit of adrenaline and rage, I tore away from the two soldiers and grab one of their guns, I kicked the soldier in the crotch before getting behind him and used him as a meat shield, holding the soldier in one arm steady and the gun in the other, I release a barrage of bullets from left to right killing everyone in the room, before shoving down the soldier I was using as a meat shield and sending a bullet straight through his skull. After the entire adrenaline rush was over I dropped the gun and slowly make my way to Monica. Blood was beginning to pool around her head as it continued bleeding, I picked her up not caring if I was getting dirty or not and hug her, feeling her warmth sap away from her body, I let loose the dam of tears, Crying my eyes out and hiccupping once in a while, all the while blaming myself for not being able to stop them from killing her, while still keeping silent to respect her death. After a while her warmth was gone and her body was cold setting her down on the ground I notice her eyes were open, glazed, blurry…Lifeless… I drop one last tear before closing her eyes, wishing her eternal rest. Grabbing an assault rifle and pistol, I hook them up to my belt and shoulder before opening the door and make my escape, after a while of searching I come across another door, except this one was emitting sound, slowly opening it I come across a familiar scene from not too long ago. Mom was on the chair this time, while dale is tied up and being subdued by three soldiers. It didn’t take long for me to realize that he wouldn’t be able to stop them from killing her like Monica, so I did the first thing that came to my mind, I shot the executioner and the camera man, before taking out the three soldiers holding Dale down. While mom and Dale were looking at me in astonishment I took the knife from the cameraman and start cutting mom and dale loose. “Chris? How did you escape? Where’s Monica?” Mom asks. I look at her for a moment before looking away; mom gets the picture and holds a hand over her mouth in shock. “Did they..?” “I COULDN’T STOP THEM!" I scream out, making Dale and Mom flinch,"IT’S ALL MY FAULT…!" I collapse onto my knees and start sobbing,"It’s my fault she’s dead! I was too weak…It took her to die for me to escape..." In a emotional breakdown i scream,"WHAT KIND OF BIG BROTHER AM I?!?” I start crying again while plopping down on the stone cold floor, awaiting my punishment for not protecting Monica. Mom and Dale are only looking at me and each other in sorrow; it wasn’t for awhile ‘till they came over to me….And gave me a hug. “Son, it wasn’t your fault, you couldn’t stop them, if it wasn’t for you barging in, I would have been gone and Dale wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it,” Mom said. “I don’t deserve forgiveness...” I say. “Then what do you deserve? I think you deserve to live, to keep Monica’s memory alive by doing the one thing to honor her: to fight for our country.” Dale replies. From then on, we escaped and got back to our Humvee, however during the escape we went back to the room me and Monica were in and collected her body to bury. After her funeral, Dale and I were confronted by an old friend of Dale who is a general and recruiter of the United States Army. The general offered Dale...and I after a hour of 'Persuasion', an offer to fight for our country against the Iraqi terrorists, we accepted without hesitation. I had a terrible time in the selection, but apparently I somehow exceeded a lot of the operators expectations, so they immediately placed me in selection for the Delta Force. The Delta Force is a sub-branch in the Army, it focuses more on rapid deployment against counter-terrorism, done with surgical precision. It is one of the 3 anti-terrorist groups i am aware of, the others being FBI HRT; which is domestic, Delta Force is foreign, and ST6 is maritime. from there, the delta force is separated into three 'troops' A,B, and C. A is for HALO jumps, B is for Scuba...And i can't remember what C was for...But i was assigned to A. we got transported to a base near the Iraqi area in order to accommodate training for Dale and I. We stayed there for about a month or so, every day being a training session between me and dale. When we were assigned to our squadron, we got mixed expressions; surprise was the first, then laughter, then fear. Because those sons of bitches were face to face with a master sergeant and a born killer, since then all missions were a success and without casualty besides the occasional gunshot wound. I noticed Applejack's face scrunch up and Celestia's face twitch...Did they pick up on my bluff? After three years of serving, I was ranked up to a Master Sergeant while dale became a First lieutenant. Normally, we would have to serve a required 20 years before we can retire, but the general and the president said that in order to keep my position classified, I had to retire now. But when I get older, they would reserve a position for me so I can continue my active duty. So, we were unofficially retired and headed home to our friends and families and everybody lived their life on peacefully from there…Except for me, while everyone is happy I still carried the burden of Monica’s death, even though I was forgiven by my family I could never forgive myself for letting them take her life. Every night was a nightmare and I rarely could ever get a good’s night sleep, I took therapy classes and they thought it was Post traumatic Stress Disorder. From then on I lived a disturbed life, at least, until I got sick and became overwhelmed with diseases and was killed by septic shock. -And that brings us to now” I finish, Throughout the entire story my voice turned monotonous, I was holding my face up with one of my hands, trying not to remember the day of her death in too much depth. I noticed everyone’s reactions all within a degree of sadness and sorrow. Pinkie’s hair deflated all the way and she was bawling. Applejack had her hat tipped over her eyes to prevent anyone from seeing her, even though I could clearly see the tear rolling down her cheeks. Rarity was blowing into a tissue while crying in a dramatic way. Rainbow dash was looking away from everybody, but even from body movements and jerks I notice that she too was crying. Twilight was crying openly. Celestia and Luna were both looking at me in degrees of sorrow and pity. However they managed to keep their composure. And Fluttershy is looking down, her hair covering her face, however body movement says she crying a lot. Taking a silence for respect between me and the death of Monica, eventually everyone calmed down. “Chris, we are deeply sorry for your loss. This brings us to the second reason you are here.” Celestia begins, “You are different, you lead a unique life, one of pain and misery, disturbance, and corruption, when Luna was in your dimension, she came across you and learned of your life, although you were happy on the outside, spending time with your friends, we were able to see the turmoil going on within you. When you became sick with the diseases that took your life, Luna and I came up with a decision, we would take you here to live a second life, to get a fresh start from the previous one. However if only that were to be so easy, If it weren’t for the Private terrorist groups threatening to overthrow this country, you could live a peaceful life, but this is all I’m asking, can you protect another country? For the sake of Equestria and the countries beside it can I ask you to stop this terrorist menace from disturbing the peace that has lasted countless years without problem? This is all I’m asking, if you do not want to do it, I understand,” Celestia finished. ‘Do I want to start a new life repeating the same thing I did since I was eight? Although the circumstances were justified, it was still inappropriate for someone of my age to learn about killing real people. However this country is facing a possible war on terror, do I really want to subjugate them to what my world has been through? No I don’t, I don’t want to have them lose their innocence and lives because of a selfish choice, even if I will be fighting for a country I’m unfamiliar with, no one else should have to go through the same pain and suffering I have been through, I’ve been through hell and back multiple times, I can do it again.’ The tension in the air has risen to uncomfortable levels as everyone is fidgeting in their seat, waiting for my answer. I look up towards Celestia and slowly deactivate my visor, letting it rest on the sides of my head, with determination in my eyes I give them the answer they all wanted to hear. “….I’ll do it…” Everyone in the dining hall had mixed expressions; Celestia and Luna were showing signs of relief but uncertainty for my well-being. The girls were in shock, at my willingness to fight for a country I have no idea about. The guards at the sides of the room were either cheering, or astonished, that a child, who has military experience, is taking on the war on terror from now on. After everyone has calmed down I take the spotlight once more, “On one condition,” Aaanddd the tension is back. “I want to be trained separately and alone, no one besides me should have to deal with this burden…..I don’t want anyone else to go through what I’ve been through…This place is too innocent.” ...Eh, When I look back, that little add-on was both my stupidest mistake and the smartest. Celestia facial expression is returned with a look of concern, before returning to her signature poker face. “Very well, we will begin preparing for your training which will begin in the future of six months to a year. Until then I will assign you to live in Ponyville under the care of my student until further notice.” The spotlight switches from Celestia to Luna for a moment, “Also, we encourage you to look in your guest room before you leave, make sure you don’t miss anything.” Luna finishes with a smile. The tension leaves and with that, our food arrives, we eat in relative silence. Enjoying the taste of the food in our mouths, after we finish, we excused ourselves and head to our respective rooms to turn in for the night. When I reached my room I was greeted with two cases, picking up the relatively familiar weight of one of the boxes I place it on the desk, I look around for a latch to open it, and when I do I was greeted with a VERY familiar object. It was the Heckler and Koch HK416, my weapon of choice during my tour of duty. Next to the standard issue M4A1 the HK416 is the second in line in the line of duty. I had is fit with a small red dot sight rather than the usual iron sights because it just fit with me in the looks and functionality, I picked the weapon because of its design mostly until afterwards I realized just how functional it was in the battlefield, the small recoil and moderate rate of fire it had made picking off targets from a distance easy. Not to mention the forty round magazines its made with, allowing less space to be taken up from magazines. It did me good during the short time I used it, before I was using a M4A1 carbine. I was modifying it with other items, however I got sent here to my "project" is on hold. The most recent attachment that was added to it was most likely done by the princesses, they painted the gun darker than normal and added blue lighting starting from the stock and spreads out throughout the gun, although it wouldn't give me a tactical advantage, it still looks nice. with it I had accumulated 50+ KIAs. (What? It's just my normal assault weapon, most of my confirmed kills are on my sniper and SMG's) I Field strip the gun down to it's most basic components, checking to make sure it would even fire. 'Something isn't right...' I move my hand around the gun's parts, trying to find the source of my unease, i look at the upper and lower receiver and tap my finger on it. *Doonk* *Doonk* 'Strange, it looks and feels like metal, even holds like metal, but sounds like ABS plastic...' My last source of unease were the bullets, they were the blue-tipped rounds on my pistol from before, 'Is it just me or does the bullets themselves seem a bit thicker? Like a 7.62 round than a 5.56...' I question myself. 'Probably just me...' ... I'll regret that later... ‘I’ll have to ask the princess about why the rounds are blue-tipped in the first place tomorrow’ Placing everything back into its respectful places I close the case and move onto the next one. This case was longer than the Assault rifle case, but way lighter than then the former. Setting it down on the desk with the 416 case, I open it to be greeted with a pleasant surprise. It was a sword, unsheathing it carefully and slowly, I took in the many details it had, it had a carbon texture on the parts without the blade and handle, the hilt had a carrying strap at the end, and the blade was recently sharpened. The sheath was a mixture of metal and plastic, fitted to accommodate the sword, it had a futuristic feel to it, even more so with the note that was left in the case “Just another item from the alternate universe close to yours, I’m sure you will like it.” Placing everything next to the bag, ready for leave tomorrow, I take off my shoes and plop down on the bed preparing for another disturbed night. ‘Well, at least I can live peacefully now’ Clearing my mind I slowly drift off to sleep, welcoming darkness. Next chapter: “And you are?” “I am MC prototype, SQ-74I" "MC prototype?" "Magical Construct prototype, all high level magical constructs and fitted with high level artificial intelligence, an additional intelligence grants verbal communication." "..." "I posses a intellect far beyond human reckoning," “Why are you here?” “I am here to kill you…”