//------------------------------// // Prologue: Troubled Past // Story: Gears of Friendship // by PhoenixRising //------------------------------// Prologue: Troubled Past “It was always his work my father cared about… his research. He tried to save his work; and I tried to save him. I disobeyed orders to do it, and it cost us the battle. Couldn’t blame them for court martialing me… or for the life sentence. So the war went on while I was rotting in prison. And I still couldn’t save my father.” The nightmare consumed him, the vivid image of the Raven catching fire as it spiraled towards the mansion wall as it crashed and sent slabs of wall down on his father below. “But you can’t save them all.” Marcus felt the effects of his drowsiness fading away. His body could feel the cool touch of summer grass, gliding against the breeze of the wind as it brushed against his body. He started to move his right hand, and then his left. Yep, he most certainly was touching grass. Marcus begun to take in the world around him, hearing what sounded like birds chirping away in the distance as he lay somewhere in a… forest? He opened his eyes and found himself in an open clearing where he was surrounded by trees spreading everywhere. The scenery though was somewhat eerie, as if this forest he was in had a sinister tone to it. Then Marcus began to realize something and started to think. How did he get here? Why was it getting so hard to remember what happened before? He thought hard, grabbing his head with his left hand as he realized something; he wasn’t wearing his armor. Just a basic olive sleeveless shirt and simple grey jeans, clothes he wore during the days he was just a civilian. “What the fuck is going on?” He stated aloud, hoping that someone he knew was around to hear it . But no one replied. He had hoped maybe Baird would have been nearby to give a sarcastic remark, or Cole who would have said something… something the Cole Train would say. Anya would’ve been as confused as he was, and his father… Of course, his father! He remembered now, the fight with the tempest on the rooftops, his father’s machine, and the last he remembered was himself falling asleep as the machine seemed to explode into an array of blue light. What did it do? So many questions, yet Marcus doubted there was anyone around to give any answers. Marcus sighed as he sat up from the forest floor, groaning as he felt the affect it had on his back. He must have been lying there for a while. He brought his hand to his head again and began to run his palm over his hair, feeling the soft and spiky textures of his short hair. “No point just sitting around, I need to find the rest of Delta and my father.” Marcus told himself as he stood up on his feet. It was then he noticed a new problem; he didn’t have any weapons. His lancer was gone, so was the Hammer of Dawn, though he would really doubt it to be useful against whatever he found in these woods, since it wouldn’t have even worked. Not even the Snub pistol remained in his holster, which he added was gone as well. Great, he was unarmed. If there was any locust where he was, he would most likely get killed. Then he heard a slight shuffling in some bushes behind him, to which Marcus turned towards as soon as he heard it. He saw the green leafs of the bush rustle away as whoever hid within them had entered the area. He didn’t waste any time, making it clear in his voice as he shouted out in the direction of the intruder. “Who’s there?” If it were a locust, the beast would have most likely jumped out and shot at him. But, instead he only heard a weak whimper come from the bush as it started shaking again. Then came the task of finding out what it was. Probably just a forest animal Marcus thought to himself as he approached the bushel of leafs. As he got nearer the bush began to shake even more. Whoever was hiding in it did not know anything about stealth Marcus could plainly see. He stood right in front of the bush before he quickly grabbed into it and felt something that was soft. The creature within gave a small squeak as Marcus felt the softness of the creature on his hands. It was smooth, very smooth. From what he was grabbing it felt like legs, but he honestly wasn’t sure. Then he quickly decided to pull the creature up out of the bush, causing a little bit of strain to hold the creature up. He looked at what he was holding, stunned with disbelief as the creature began pleading for him to let it go. Two blue eyes stared directly into his as they seemed watery from the sight of him. The creature had hair atop its head that ran a light shade of pink in a particular style that would befit a human. Its body was soft and smooth to the touch with a yellow color, and its figure resembled that of a miniature horse. But then he saw the two wings on the horse, one on each side as they were ruffled with what seemed to be feathers. Marcus couldn’t find words to say as he store directly at a yellow colored, blue eyed, pink mane, winged miniature horse that looked back at him in such a manner as if it was trying to coax him into releasing it. He laughed hysterically, getting a whimper from the yellow Pegasus he held in his hands. Soon he began to feel light-headed, swearing that his mind was playing tricks on him before he fell backwards and was soon unconscious. The pony dropped from his hands, yelping as she crashed onto the forest floor in front of the strange alien. She gently brought herself up, looking towards the human as she began to curiously examine the creature, backing away as it abruptly moaned rather loudly. She looked to her left, then to her right, wondering if there was any other of the same creatures around to help to this poor animal who was hurt. Sadly, there was none to be found. Though she was scared of it, she couldn’t leave this poor thing in the middle of the forest like this. The yellow winged pony decided to take care of the human, calling out for some animal’s aid as she would not be able to carry him back to her cottage all by herself. “Don’t you worry whatever you are… I’ll nurse you back to health.” Today was a special day for a certain pony. Twilight was busy all week reading a book for birthdays and working hard to find a gift that would fit the pony she intended to give it too. Just yesterday, she managed to finally find the gift she thought would be perfect for the filly she no doubt thought would be overjoyed at it. It was Scootaloo’s birthday. Spike was just finishing placing books in their proper places when a cyan colored Pegasus with a rainbow mane flew straight in through the open library window and crashed into the floor, causing all the books in the room to tumble off their shelves. “Aw great, it took me all morning to shelf all those books!” Spike complained, the baby dragon sighing as he climbed down from the top shelf as he turned towards the Pegasus formally known as Rainbow Dash. “You should try using the door sometimes, Rainbow.” “I could, but it wouldn’t be as such of an awesome entrance if I did, would it?” She replied, confidence replacing the awkward grin she had when she’d crashed into the floor. “Well, what brings you here, Rainbow Dash?” asked Twilight Sparkle, the purple unicorn with a darker shade purple for her mane with a streak of pink. “Don’t tell me you forgot whose birthday is today…” “Me? Forget my biggest fans birthday?” She held her right hoof to her chest in a way as if she were offended. “Never.” “Then why are you here? Wanting to get a good read of Daring Do before the party?” “Nah, just thought I’d drop in and see how you were doing, maybe even get you to show me your gift you intend to give Scootaloo and then I can rant about how much more awesome mine will be.” The Pegasus bragged. “How thoughtful of you.” Twilight replied with sarcasm. “I’m just joking with you, Twilight. Scoots will love whatever you give her. She has to of course, with me around.” “I feel better already.” “You sound like your trying to get a point across.” “Do I?” “Yeah, you sorta do.” “Well, as much as I appreciate you coming over to brag and tell me that Scootaloo will love my gift with you around, I believe I did get her a gift she will like regardless of such implications.” Twilight said to her cyan friend. “I may actually like reading, but even I don’t want a-“ “It’s not a book.” Twilight cut her off. “How come you don’t get Scootaloo a book, yet you always give me one for my birthday?” Spike asked as he was working on cleaning up the mess Rainbow made. “You love the books I give you!” Twilight stated to him. “Well, I kind of have to.” The dragon replied. “Spike!” “Alright, well I’m going to go help Pinkie Pie set up the rest of the party.” Rainbow Dash said sheepishly, not getting a reply from the unicorn or dragon as Twilight nagged to Spike something about being grateful or such. The Pegasus shrugged as she showed herself the way out as she opened the library door and walked outside. “Now, I just need to grab my gift first before helping Pinkie Pie.” She spoke to herself, flapping her wings and heading off in the direction of her cloud home. “Dom, what the fuck are you doing!?” He questioned his friend’s actions, aware of what he was planning, yet denying it all the same. “Pulling the plug on them, Marcus!” Dom replied, pressing down on the gas pedal even harder as the tanker accelerated in speed. “Dom, no!” He pleaded to his friend. Yet Dom did not stop, the vehicle only mere inches away before he jumped off the platform as the collision was made. “Never thought it would end like this, huh Maria?” A man he would easily call his brother crashed into the fuel tank as the flames immediately bursted outwards, consuming nearly if not all the Locust and Lambent within the area. Marcus only jumped a few seconds after the impact, the flames nearly scorching him as he rolled off the top of a container and landed behind it, protecting him from the flames. After attempting to crawl towards the burning vehicle after the explosion died down, he was held back by Anya as she only pleaded for him to understand. The wreckage seemed to give another burst of flame to signify what Marcus didn’t want to accept. Dominic Santiago had died here today, the loss of his children, his wife, and pretty much everything that honestly mattered to him had finally pushed his emotional side over the edge. Marcus couldn’t blame him for what he’d done, he just wished there was another way. “Dom…” He was at peace now. Marcus groaned as he put his hand up to feel something wet covering his forehead. He opened his eyes as he grabbed the object and looked at it, seeing that it was a wet cloth. He sat up and noticed he was on a bed. The bed was probably the smallest he’d ever seen, his feet went over the edge as they dangled at the point where his knee was. Marcus looked around. By the looks of it, he was in someone’s house. It was a small cottage, with mostly floral decorations and some recreational furniture. Good he thought to himself. That whole winged horse thing was just a hallucination, a figment of my imagination. There was no way something like that could possibly- “Um… a-are you… are you okay?” The voice was soft and quiet, more so of a whisper. Yet the sound of the person talking was soothing to Marcus’s ears. It sounded cute. Crap he thought once more to himself. It did sound cute. And as he turned to right, where he heard the voice come from, he saw what he hoped he wasn’t going to see. “Do you feel any better? I was so scared when you fainted and dropped me, I couldn’t just leave you there.” The yellow Pegasus spoke to him, though it appeared to still be afraid of him. “Did you… just talk?” Marcus asked, the awkwardness of the situation droning on him. “Yes, I did…” She answered quietly again. The Pegasus’s blue eyes were scanning him visibly; she was looking at his body in an investigative way. “Are you a monkey?” “What?” Marcus said, not fully grasping what the yellow horse with wings was asking him. It’s just that your body and muscle build kind of looks like a monkeys, but I’ve never seen a monkey that looks anything quite like what you look like.” The Pegasus said. “Are you a different kind of species? Oh, are there more of you? How come you wear clothing? Do you like bananas?” How did this thing suddenly become so chatty? It was so quiet before and easily scared, but now it’s all crazy trying to talk to him. “How about this;” Marcus began with the yellow horse. “You answer me some questions and I’ll answer some of your questions. Okay?” “Okay. I’ll go first, what are your species called?” The Pegasus asked him. “We’re called humans. Most people when referring to our populace in general say humanity.” Marcus answered as he prepared his question. “So what are you exactly?” “I’m a Pegasus pony, but I live on the ground and not the sky.” The now confirmed Pegasus said. “There’s more than just Pegasus ponies though, there’s Unicorns who have the ability to use magic and the Earth ponies that are built more naturally strong and mostly have talents that deal with earthly stuff.” “That’s interesting…” Marcus said; taking in the information of what he could only guess was the population of this crazy place he was in. “Before you ask me another question, is it okay if we tell each other our name?” The Pegasus asked with pleading eyes. “That is, if you don’t mind…” “I’m Marcus. Marcus Fenix.” He answered, awaiting the Pegasus to tell him her name. “Phoenix? I thought you were a human… is it common for Phoenix’s to be jokers?” The Pegasus asked, to which Marcus was confused at. “I’ve met two phoenixes before actually. One was a bird like in legends, and the other was this monkey like creature with a porcupine on his head. He was also a defense attorney.” What the fuck is she talking about? “Oh, I’m so sorry! My name is Fluttershy by the way.” She quickly stated as she couldn’t help but blush at her clumsiness. “Anyway… how did I get here? Ending up in the forest, I mean.” “I… I-I have no idea how you got there; I was just looking for some berries when I found you in the clearing. If you don’t know how you got into the Everfree forest, I really don’t have an idea to help out.” Fluttershy replied. “So, that place was the Everfree forest? I never heard of such a place on Sera.” Marcus stated, to which the yellow Pegasus looked confused at. “Sera? What is Sera, if you don’t mind me asking…” “The name of the land, the planet, how could you possibly not know that?” Marcus asked back. “Well, you see… the land we live in… I-it’s called Equestria.” She responded weakly, looking at Marcus with her head lowered. Marcus stood up abruptly, getting a squeak from the pony as he rested his right arm on the nearest wall close to the bed, sighing as he rested his head on his elbow. “I should have guessed… I’m in another world.” He grumbled angrily, his eyebrows stiffening and his face tensing up as he couldn’t keep the anger out of his voice. “Listen Fluttershy, I don’t know how the hell I entered your crazy fucked up world of talking ponies, but I need a way to get back to my world.” He explained. “But before I do that, I need to find my father and the rest of my squad.” “I could help you with that…” “Why are you so willing to help me? Don’t you find me threatening?” Marcus couldn’t help but ask. “Everyone deserves to be shown a little bit of kindness once in a while…” She spoke in a more modest tone. “And everyone needs a helping hand now and then, so why not now?” All Marcus could think about at that moment was how this pony would never be able to survive the war with the locust. She hardly looked to be one able to kill; least of all she was unable to use any effective weapon since she had hooves. This world couldn’t survive neither the locust, nor the Lambent. Thank god that for now to his knowledge, those threats were not present in this world. “For finding your… squad and father, I’d bet they would stand out quite a bit being human. We could go into Ponyville and ask around to see if anyone else has spotted your friends.” Fluttershy suggested, flapping her wings so that she was in front of Marcus’s face. “My friends would be eager to help as well, actually maybe they will be a little skeptical at first, but…” Marcus watched as the Pegasus’s face suddenly shot up in panic. She began to drip beads of sweat as she started to hyperventilate while talking. “Oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no! How could I forget about Scootaloo’s birthday?” She grabbed her face with her hooves. “I was so busy helping you that I… what time is it? Oh my gosh, if I don’t hurry, I’ll be late! I’ll be late for a very important date!” Really? Marcus thought to himself. Did she just quote from Alice in Wonderland? I shouldn’t even ask her, probably doesn’t know what it is anyway. “Alright, I’ll accept your help.” Marcus said to the troubled pony, who was rummaging through some drawers and dressers until she pulled out a neatly wrapped gift. “Okay… it’s just that it’s someone’s birthday today, and I really need to be there or she’ll never forgive me!” she said, whistling in the direction of the nearest door. “Oh Angel bunny, could you show Mr. Marcus around Ponyville while I go to the party? I would be very grateful if you did.” There standing at the door was a pure white bunny with beady little black eyes staring at Fluttershy, and then at Marcus. It tilted its head, sticking a finger in its mouth as it imitated a gag reflex towards both Marcus and the Pegasus. “Please don’t be rude, Angel, he’s not a bad guy. He needs our help, and I’m counting on you be very nice to him, won’t you?” She said with a strange look in her eyes. The bunny store deep into her pupils, expanding his iris as he did so. Soon the bunny shook his head, sighing as it seemingly mumbled before walking up to Marcus and grabbing onto his hand. “You may be small and harmless rabbit, but you better not think you have authority over me.” The veteran gear sternly spoke to the bunny. “Okay, please follow me Mr. Marcus. I’ll find you after the party and help you then, okay?” The timid Fluttershy spoke. Meanwhile in Canterlot… “What is that… thing?” “Why is there so many of them?” “Where did they come from?” “They’re heading to the castle… should we do something?” “They look scary…” The royal guards didn’t know how to react when the strange aliens requested an audience with their monarch. They didn’t wish to seek a fight with unknown creatures such as this, so a messenger was sent to inform the princess of this matter. They aliens waited for roughly an hour at the front gate leading to the Canterlot castle, earning many odd looks of confusion and both fear from those of the pony residents who passed the street. Truthfully, there were about five hundred of them occupying this part of the city as they did their best not to disturb any residents. “Um… the princess will speak to whoever is the leader of your group.” A golden armored guard spoke to the gathered aliens, many clad in intimidating armor that shone a moderate blue. “That would be me.” One of the aliens spoke, stepping up as he stood respectfully to the message delivering pony. “I am anxious to meet with your leader; there is much we need to discuss.” Back to Ponyville “Huh, I didn’t expect this place to be so...” Marcus began as they walked into the streets of Ponyville, going through the center path into the heart of the town. “So what, Mr. Marcus?” The shy Pegasus asked, curious as to his opinion on the quaint little town. “Never mind, it’s just that it’s been a long time since I’ve been someplace that’s so… peaceful.” “Why is that? Is there something wrong with where you came from?” “You could say that. You’re lucky your world doesn’t have the same problems as mine, or else…” He took a moment to think on it, wondering how the war would tear apart this peaceful looking town. “I don’t dare to think about it.” “Me neither.” Fluttershy responded to his surprise. “Do you even know what I’m talking about?” Marcus asked,either oblivious to the odd stares from many mares and stallions within the town as they passed by or not caring. “Fighting is never a good thing… it never leads to a happy ending.” She stated in a sad tone. “Why some ponies seem to think otherwise is beyond me.” “Sometimes you don’t have a choice but to fight.” Marcus replied, hushing the Pegasus as she tried to converse more on the topic, dropping it as he intended at this point. He didn’t need to discuss his war with this pony. He just needed to get back and win it. Angel walked besides the towering human, clearly looking uninterested in whatever conversation they were having as they finally came within reach of Sugarcube Corner, home of the Cakes and that of also their hyperactive employee, Pinkie Pie. “Do you all have stupid names like that?” Marcus directed towards the shy pony. “They’re not stupid… besides; your name is Marcus Phoenix. You aren’t even a Phoenix, so that’s pretty hypocritical of you, isn’t it?” She responded in her friends defence. “My last name is Fenix, not Phoenix.” The Pegasus stopped right outside the front door into Surgarcube corner, turning to the human as she explained to both angel and Marcus what to do. “Okay… so there are not many places you might be able to go to without somepony staring at you awkwardly and such, so the best place to go is the library.” Fluttershy explained. “Angel can take you there, and since Twilight is here, Spike will be watching it. When you get there, tell him I sent you and that you mean no harm.” “Kind of cliché, isn’t it?” Marcus remarked, Angel tapping his foot impatiently as he waited to get this over with. “I’ll see you there after the party. I’ll bring my friends to see if they want to help too, so things are looking up for you, Marcus.” The yellow Pegasus said one last time before opening up the door and stepping inside the bakery, leaving the human and rabbit standing outside. “Just you and me, Angel. You do know the way to the library, right?” The bunny gave an annoyed look, hopping away in the direction Marcus could assume was their determined destination. “I hope this is over soon…” Marcus muttered under his breath, actually relieved at the tranquility of this world. It all seemed too perfect.