General 'Ando' walks out of the conference room baffled by what he just witnessed, "I still don't understand how that man puts up with that mare," he says as he walks down a hall way with a human soldier carrying an Tibris Stock-7 assault rifle and a unicorn wearing identical tacti armor [Like the Kevlar but stronger and lighter, more durable, and infused with magic to make the weak points harder, followed up with a tactical helmet with verse tech visor (like infrared but better) ] following him. As he's walking he thinks back to when the rift was finally secured, about twelve years ago the Fist of the Legions reported disturbances to their radios and satellites. Who knew we lost a squad years before to that thing. Either way we sent multiple squads with techs to go figure it out, when none came back we got suspicious, that's how it began. The building of the Rift Bridge only came into effect two years later, but boy when we finished were we surprised. An entire squad of Marines had toughed it out for fourteen years, FOURTEEN FUCKING YEARS!! No supplies or anything to help them live, battled with an entire nation of bug creatures, fought against mythical beasts that wanted to eat the precocious 'ponies' that they come to love, and a corrupt king who tried to steal everyponies love and use it for power. All in the day's work for this group of Marines, they are definitely due for more than just a vacation, but a long happy life without the military influence.
The General stops and look up at the door to his office, there was still a few hours to write down what he has learned before calling it a day. "You two," he says to the soldier and unicorn, "are dismissed, go home and relax boys."
"Yes Sir!" the both say simultaneously and walk out. Neither one of those recruits knows just how important all of this is, only those few that have been there and back can really know how important the beginning is when it comes to the end. General Ando walks over to his desk and sits down, takes out a pen, and starts writing.
----------
General Ando gets up and stretches, it's like Five in the morning now and he needs to call it a night, At least i got most of this report done," he sighed as he flexed his cramped hand and walked out of his office, a few privates walking by sending a quick salute while walking past. He returns the salute but doesn't pay much attention as he is lost in his own thoughts and walks out of the building.
The building itself was made before the war in Iraq and is now the headquarters for the Rift Bridge, and he is in charge of all of it. He personally took the dirty work of tracking the original squad down and questioning each and every one of them, Lance Cpl Leavitt is the last one to do and he is the longest so far, the others just giving small short stories, but this guy, this Marine. He's seen it all hell and back, and is willing to share nit all to the world.
Ando starts up his car, an old Mustang G.T., that he won in a bet against another collector. Driving to the gate he gets waved into a lane at a checkpoint, "Good day General,"
"Good day soldier, had a good night?" Ando replies cheerfully. He always had a level of respect for those who are in charge of his protection and those who would follow his orders to the grave. True soldiers if there ever was any.
"Nothing very interesting sir, we did have a little run in with a drunk trying to ram his way in, but we took care of it, either way have a nice morning General." The soldier replies waving to another guard to have the gate opened.
"You too," Ando says as he drive off of base to his house a few blocks away. His thoughts of the beginning don't come back until he pulls into the drive and parks. "Home Sweet Home, i guess," he walks up to the door and look for the key in his pocket. But as he's looking he ponders on what it would be like if the Rift Gate was never constructed, life would still be in war against the insurrectionists to this day. But with the finding of the peaceful country of Equestria and it's two co-rulers and Princesses, war has been reduced to the small little outbursts here and there around the globe.
The mixing between species seemed to not make a difference, as the mares continued making baby foals and the human women continued making human babies no matter the rumors of mutation between species mingling. He finally find the key and opens the door, "Honey! I'm home!" he calls out as he hangs his jacket up on the coat rack. A slightly aged Woman walks out of the kitchen with oven mitts on her hands.
"Welcome back, did the conference go well?" she says in an experienced and caring tone, one you would find with a married couple.
"Yeah, it went pretty much as planned, stayed up late though i see," Ando says as he walks up to her and gives her a kiss on the lips, "Either way it was tiring none-the-less,"
"Okay, well your dinner is done you just have to warm it up, i was baking cookies when i noticed you'd be late coming home again, so we have desert as well." Ando's eyes lit up with excitement at the sound of cookies.
"You spoil me too much dear,"
"I just love you that much"
----------
General Ando looks at the paper he just printed, it tells of all the events that happened while the Marines were stuck in Equestria, not as much detail as he would like but it will serve it's purpose while he waits till the net meeting with the Cpl. Because next time he'll have Twilight and Sgt Crawford over here to help put the story together, whether they like it or not. Ando looks around and puts the papers into a vanilla folder and locks them inside of a safe for tomorrow. He gets up and walks out of his study, belly full and ready for a good night of sleep with his wife Saphire Smith (Anderson), and walks into their bedroom turning out the lights and finally going to bed.
[---] Chapter Four: End [---]