No Better Friend, No Worse Enemy

by Green Hills


Chapter 8: Interrogation

Private First Class Michaels slowly open his eyes. The first thing he sees is darkness, and feels nothing but numbness in his right leg, his chest and his neck. When he adjusts his eyes, he notices he is in a prison cell, and lying on something soft. Soreness builds up throughout his body, from what he recalls was probably one of the most exciting and frightening day he had ever experienced. The marine wonders how long he was out. He turns his head to see sunlight breaching through an open window behind.

Michaels starts looking around his cell. Three sides are made of solid stone, and one side is barred up of rusty metal, probably easy enough for one pack of C4 explosives to blast a hole in it for him to escape. There is nothing but himself and something soft he is lying on, so he decides to get up and look at his surroundings.

Pain slowly increases in almost every fiber in his body as the marine slowly sits up, and leans over on the side after several grunts and attempts. He looks down to check himself, and sure enough, he has his gear full tact. The only thing he lacks is his enhanced battle rifle, Kayla as he calls it, and his M9 Beretta. He pulls off his MOLLE backpack and checks inside for anything he lost, or taken. Luckily, none is taken. Michaels takes off his helmet, letting his shaved hair finally breathe, and checks the helmet camera mounted on the right side. The battery is half full, and is still recording. He turns it off the camera for it to rest, returns back to his backpack, and pulls out his iPhone.

Before listening to his music, Michaels looks around the prison. He slowly stands up, and does a small set of stretches, catching the attention of other prisoned animals in smaller cells. The cell he is in has just enough height to for him to fully stand up straight with a few inches to spare. His bed is nothing more than a wooden frame with a cloth sheet tied to each side, makes the marine wish he is back in his bunk. As he looks out to have a look at the other prisoners, who all stare back at him with enormous eyes. He certainly is in a prison, due to the amount of cages and a closed door at the end of the hallway. Almost all the prisoners are all colorful horses; some have wings, others have a horn, and the rest are just regular-type. However, Michaels spot what appears to be a large dark grey bulldog almost the size of him. Its slouches like a gorilla, has large arms, and stubby legs. The dog turns its head to the marine, giving him an almost surprised look. Michaels just waves.
“You fellas speak?” he pronounces.
“Yeah,” the bulldog answers in a grouchy voice. “What are ya’?”
“Your worst nightmare.” The dog flinches a little. “You a dog on steroids?”
“What?” Michaels leans closer against the rusty bars.
“What type of dog are you?”
“I’m a diamond dog. Flip is the name. You?”
“Call me marine.” Michaels smiles at that point, knowing that this will be fun if those horses call him by that, or the diamond dog. He has no clue what that name means, probably a dog that loves diamonds?
“Now that’s a strange name,” Flip replies while sniffling.
“Not as strange when you miss leg day, boy.”
“Wha—?”

The whole prison stays silent for a while. Michaels just stares at the colorful horses, most of them in different shackles attached to certain parts of their bodies. Pegasi have their wings clamped, while the unicorns have a ring on their horns. The marine just leans against the bars, listening to a song that keeps his motives up about being rescued or getting out alive, while tapping on to the bars lightly syncing to the beat. He looks down the hallway to Flip’s cage, who is waving his hand. Michaels pauses the song and removes an ear bud.
“Hey, marine,” Flip calls. “What are you tapping to?”
“Ever heard of Nightcore?” Michaels asks, waving his phone.
“What is that?”
“Just listening to a song that’ll help motivate me to get out of here.” The diamond snorts.
“This is the Canterlot Castle prison. Nopony gets out of here alive.”
“Maybe this’ll enlighten you.” Michaels unplugs his device, turns the volume up to max, and replays the song.

The song echoes throughout the prison, while Michaels lies on the makeshift bed next to the bars, holding his iPhone out through the bars while having a lit up cigarette in his mouth. Already, the song has been playing almost five times, and most of the creatures started tearing up the moment it ended the first time. Michaels pauses the song the moment it ends, and removes his finished cigarette from his mouth. He lets out the smoke through his nose and mouth, watching it rise to the ceiling without being disturbed.
“D-do you have any more of this Nightcore?” an orange unicorn asks from a cage right next to Michaels’.
“I have like over fifty on this baby, right here,” the marine answers, waving his iPhone at the unicorn.
“What is that, anyway?”
“It’s an iPhone. Sixty-four gigabyte.”
“What?” Michaels waves his hand to forget it, leaving the unicorn with a puzzled and curious look on his face.

The whole room freezes when they hear some chattering from the other side of the door. Michaels gets back up, tying his woodland-colored shemagh over his nose and mouth, turns on his helmet cam, and clips it back on. The door opens up with a loud creak when the chatting increases the moment the marine just finished up readying himself up. Eight guards, four regular horses and four unicorns, all dressed up in golden Roman-style armor, march inside towards Michaels’ cell, only to see the marine laying the makeshift bed.
“Hey, scumbag!” a unicorn guard shouts. “Get up!” The marine raises himself up, showing the guards his height, which is almost about twice the size of them.
“You called?” Michaels replies calmly, trying to mess around with the guards. Apparently, he’s not doing a good job.
“We’re ordered to release you for questioning. We have orders to use lethal force if you give us any bright ideas.”
“Aw, now that’s no fun. Dragging my corpse up for questioning? That means you disobeyed an order.”
“Silence!” Two regular guards aim their spears at the marine who is leaning against the wall, while a unicorn unlocks the door. Two more unicorns rush in and aim their horns at Michaels. The last walks casually inside, and stops just a foot away from him.
“Remember me?” he says in a dark voice.
“You all look the same,” Michaels replies, keeping himself together. He suddenly feels a blow to his abdomen, knocking him back on the bed.
“That’s for killing all of my mates! All seventeen of them! Including Thunder Bolt!” the unicorn shouts walking up to the marine, and gives him two more fierce punches to the covered face.

The next thing Michaels knows, is that he is heavily chained up, and dragged out of his cell. Two more regular guards force him up with spears poking his uniform.
“Get up!” one of them orders, kicking the marine on his limp leg, which Michaels grunts.
“Y-you’re… lu-lucky I d-don’t have my stuff. Otherwise… I’ll m-mow you all down.”
“Silence, you cretin!” another unicorn shouts, bashing him to the side of Flip’s cage. “Every word you say, we will use force against you! Now move it!” The marine smiles beneath his shemagh, and obediently walks along. He feels every cell in his body yearn to rip apart every single one of these horses, but since he is surrounded by already pissed off guards, it’s best if he complies and just mess around with them while it lasts.
“Remember the song, fellas!” Michaels calls to the rest of the prisoners, before a guard shoves him out, and the door slams behind.
“Keep yourself safe, marine!” Flip shouts back.

The guards drag the marine through a wide hallway made of marble, giving Michaels a good look around at the design. They pass by several other guards who were standing by certain doors, all giving him a look of disgust. As they pass by another intersection of the hallway, Michaels turns his head left, noticing an orange pony wearing a cowboy’s hat being escorted by a guard. He notices the pony making eye contact with him before he disappears behind the corner.

The guards approach a large iron door; possibly at the far end of what Michaels thinks and figures out is a castle. Two guards with spears step to the side.
“This is the prisoner the princesses asked for,” one of the unicorns steps up. The marine coughs on purpose, covering up his laugh, until he receives several death glares from the other guards. The two other guards nod, and open the door with a glow of their horns. After several clicks and turns, the iron door opens up, and the four guards shove the marine inside, his head almost hitting the doorframe. He stumbles inside what appears to be the interrogation room, and fancy one to his eyes. The walls are still bright white colored marble except for the floor, which is hardwood. To his left is another door and a one-way window, with a vent going across above the window. A small chandelier sits above a marble table and two wooden chairs, which look cheaply made compared to the room itself.
“Is this a hotel room?” Michaels asks sarcastically.
“Silence!” The unicorn guard who attacked him earlier in the cell shoves him in the seat, nearly toppling the marine over. Two other guards lift up his cuffed hands and feet each with their magic. They attach his chain to a spot in the center of the table, and the other on the floor beneath the table. Michaels just watches the two unicorns finish up, and walk out the door. Then, the unicorn steps up to him, both of them make eye contact.
“Just to make sure you won’t play tricks on us,” the stallion begins, then throws a punch at the marine’s face. Two more land on his stomach, barely making a mark on Michaels thanks to his tactical vest. Another punch greets the side of his face for the grand finale. Michaels lifts his head back up enduring the pain on his cheek. Thankfully he is wearing his shemagh to hide away his expressions. The marine turns again to see the unicorn breathing heavily.
“I hope the princess banishes you to the most burden and unforgiving place for all eternity,” he threatens. “And every single one of your disgusting species after that. Worthless monsters like you don’t even deserve to live.” He spits on the floor.
“Yeah? Well, be prepared,” Michaels mutters under his cloth. “You won’t last a second when you see my brother come in.”
“I’ll make sure he won’t see you until the end of days.” The two were interrupted by a cough from behind. When the unicorn turns around, he sees another guard motioning his head outside. The unicorn backs away from the marine and heads towards the door.
“Oh, and one more thing” Michaels calls before the stallion takes a step out. “If I were you, I would keep an eye on ‘such things’. They do tend to get lost easily.” The unicorn gives him another death glare, and slams the heavy door shut. With silence filling the room, Michaels looks down at his chained hands.

*****

“Where is it, now?” Princess Celestia asks to one of her guards, both of them and Luna walk down the hallway to meet up with Twilight and her friends.
“It’s in the Royal Interrogation Room, Your Highness,” the guard replies. “It comprehended rather well. Though, it did make some threats.”
“I see. What about Applejack?”
“She’s already with her friends, ma’am.”
“Good. Let’s not keep this creature waiting.” The sun princess turns to her sister, her face full of nervousness. “Is something the matter, Luna?”
“O-oh, no. I was just… thinking.”
“I’m sure everything will go fine with the questioning.”
“It’s not that. I have a feeling that it may not turn out well.” The two princesses and guard stop, Celestia placing her wing over her sister.
“If they do come, we’ll find a way.”
“I just hope so it won’t end badly.” Celestia silences herself, and lets go of her sister.
“Come, then. We must hurry.” The guard once again leads the sisters down the hallway to the room where Twilight and her friends are staying.

“I’m telling you! I saw it!” Applejack exclaims raising her hooves in the air to imitate as the creature she saw passing down the hallway earlier today.
“Okay, what did it look like?” Rainbow Dash asks crossing her hooves and eyeing on the orange earth pony.
“What do you mean, ‘what did it look like’?! You said you guys saw it as well! So you know what it looks like!”
“Was it escorted by a bunch of guards?” Rarity asks levitating a cup of tea while lying on the couch.
“I counted at least eight,” Applejack answers. Twilight finishes up her cup of tea while setting up several sheets of paper and a quill, and packs them in her sack.
“Twilight, what’re you doing?” Pinkie asks in her usual cheerful voice, tossing her fifth cupcake into her mouth and swallowing it whole.
“Oh, I’m just packing in some paper to take notes,” she answers levitating the sack over the desk chair. “It’s the first time we’ll be questioning something we’ve never seen, and I want to make notes to see what they are.”
“Wow, Twi, you seem excited for it,” Rainbow says in a bored tone.
“What?! I’m not ‘that’ excited! It’s just that we’ve never seen a creature like this before! And I want to put it in our species book!”
“Creature? Creature?! That monster nearly killed your brother and killed almost all of Luna’s guards, nearly herself!”
“W-well, wh-what if the creature is, you know—” Fluttershy tries to reason, but Rainbow cuts her off.
“No! That monster wasn’t scared! If it was, you know what it would do! It wouldn’t point something that makes a loud noise at Twi’s brother!”
“Rainbow! Calm down!” Applejack shouts. “We understand what it did! We just probably didn’t approach on the right path!”
“Right path?! What the hay are you even talking about?! It attacked us first!”
“There’s a difference between attacking, and spotting us Rainbow!” Twilight intervenes.
“Oh, shut up with you and your ethics, egghead!” Twilight stumbles back a little, completely shocked by the cyan mare’s harsh voice.
“Hey! Don’t you ever say that to Twilight!” Rarity defends. “She’s our friend!”
“More like a friend defending a monster that nearly killed her brother! Do you even care about your brother?!”
“Of course I do!” Twilight shouts back, almost on the verge of tears. The argument suddenly ceases when they hear several knocks from the door. With none of the mares offering, Twilight instead approaches the door and opens it.
“Hello, Twilight,” Princess Celestia greets, along with Luna and a guard standing beside her. “Is everything alright?”
“Y-yes, princess,” Twilight bows her head, then turns to her friends.
“Greetings everypony. Did you all sleep well?” Pinkie nods her head with a mouthful of cupcakes, along with the rest a second later. “Good. As of now, we will make our way to the Royal Interrogation Room. However, you must pledge yourself to never speak of this to anypony about me giving you special access to witness questioning being provided on something we don’t know.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” the six ponies and dragon reply at once.
“Good. Let us set off.”

The guard leads the group to their destination, with Princess Luna being in front, and the rest trailing behind.
“I hope that monster deserves what it gets,” Rainbow Dash mumbles, getting a glare from Rarity and Twilight. “What? You’re probably thinking the same thing.”
“Rainbow Dash,” the sun princess says. “I understand your hatred towards the creature. For now, keep it to yourself, and give it another chance.” Rainbow wants to mumble back something else, but hesitates to do so. Instead, she gives in.

As the group finally approaches the hallway to their needed destination, the guard leads them to a different door. Waiting beside it is Wind Strike.
“Wind Strike,” Celestia says, catching the lieutenant’s attention. “I am glad you could join us.”
“Yes,” Wind Strike bows. “I am grateful here too. I am eager to wait what this monster might say.”
“Please, let’s not get into that. You know the rules.” The door opens, leading down to a hallway and a heavy door. The guard leads them in, with Wind Strike and two other guards entering last. When they approach the metal door, the guard opens it up, and the group steps in.
“It’s a bit cramped in here, don’t you think, Your Highness?” Rarity says, looking around the small viewing room. There is a large window in front of them, with a metal door on the far right side that leads to the interrogation room, a small desk that expands across the window with several stools beneath, and a bench to their left beside a wall.
“The viewing room is able to hold twelve ponies at once,” Princess Celestia explains. Just sitting on the other side of the large window, they spot the creature. Somehow, there are chains lying on the desk and floor, and the creature has its legs up on the desk and seems to be relaxing.
“What is that monster doing without its restraints?!” Wind Strike suddenly explodes, sending Fluttershy yelping and hiding behind Princess Luna. The lieutenant grabs hold to one of the guards and points to the creature. “Why isn’t it in its restraints?!”
“I-I… I don’t know, sir!” the guard stutters, still processing in his mind of what just happened. “W-we left it i-in with what you requested!”
“Maybe I should’ve left you along wi—!” Princess Celestia clears her throat loudly, stopping Wind Strike midsentence. He turns around to see both princesses glaring back at him, and he lets go of the startled guard. “F-forgive me, Your Highness.”
“I will not allow such violence be permitted in this room,” the sun princess says sternly. “In fact, I will not allow you to speak to the press about your mission with my sister. She will, instead.” The lieutenant raises his head, shocked at her order. “Understand, lieutenant?”
“Y-yes, Your Highness.”
“Good.”

The door behind them suddenly opens once more, and a familiar grey unicorn stallion enters the room. His mane is a short brown cut, has circular glasses, and is holding a sack filled with files and papers over his back.
“Good afternoon, princess,” the grey stallion greets catching his breath. “My deepest apologies for running late.”
“That is okay,” Celestia replies with a smile. “Enchanter, these are the Elements of Harmony. Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Rarity Belle, Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash. And this is Lieutenant Wind Strike.”
“A pleasure to meet you all. And to you too, Princess Luna.”
"Thank you,” Luna replies back softly.
“So, uh, I am guessing you called me here to interrogate a creature?”
“Not ‘interrogate’. Just ask some questions.” Enchanter takes a look through the one-way window, spotting the creature waving one of its limbs back and forth, and the other holding something close to its mouth.
“Hmm, it looks rather strange. I do remember reading the papers about it almost killing the Captain of the Royal Guard, correct?”
“Heh, you don’t know the half of it,” Rainbow scoffs, before receiving a slap to the back of the head by Pinkie.
“Anyway, yes it is true. However, I would like to ask this creature a few questions. Like, what it is, do they have a purpose here, and some other questions if you were to ask an alien.”
“Wouldn’t that creature count as an alien?” Enchanter asks fixing his glasses, and the princess nods. The stallion takes a deep breath and heads towards the metal door leading into the interrogation room. “Well, here goes nothing.”
“Don’t worry, Enchanter. We’ll be keeping a close eye on you.” Enchanter takes one more breath, the door opens, and the unicorn enters.
“He won’t make it,” Rainbow mutters, and Pinkie slaps her head harder again.

*****

Private First Class Michaels leans back in his seat after easily pulling off those chains like untying a double-knotted shoelace. He has his feet propped up on the table, relaxing himself with his second cigarette while listening to a song playing on his iPhone, tapping in the air to the beat with his free hand. Though he doesn’t notice it, his mouth starts moving on its own, syncing to the lyrics.

The door next to the one-way window creaks open, drawing the marine’s attention. He pauses his song on his device, but keeps the ear buds in and his cigarette close to his mouth as he breathes out another batch of smoke. A grey unicorn with dark brown hair and a sack over its back, trots over to the table opposite from the marine. Michaels gets a quick glance of a tattoo of a pencil and paper surrounded by white sparkles on its flank, before the horse props itself up on the chair and settles its bag on the table. Both of them now exchange stares at each other for what seems like an hour.
“So,” the unicorn breaks the silence. “You’re the creature I heard about from Wind Strike’s report.” Michaels guesses in his head the unicorn maybe a male, due to his slight cracked voice. His horn lights up in a white aurora, and out comes several pieces of paper and a file in the same glow. They settle down in front of the stallion, along with a pencil. The marine is amazed at how the unicorn is able to do that, but doesn’t show any expression.
“Creature? Now that's cute,” the marine answers sarcastically, and takes another puff at his cigarette. The stallion’s eyes widen in shock that the marine is able to talk their language. He glances down at the chain coiled up in the center of the table, then back at the marine.
“How did you manage to free yourself without a key?”
“It’s called having wrists.” Michaels rolls back his sleeves, and moves his wrists around with a bit of crackling following later. “And on my feet? It’s called having skill.” The stallion adjusts his glasses once more, and looks down at the file.
“It says here in this report that seventeen Royal Guards were killed from unknown creatures that attacked them first, and retaliated—”

*****

“Seventeen?!” Rainbow Dash yells with her wings flaring up. “Why that little—!” The cyan mare receives another smack to the back of the head, this time, by Rarity.
“Quiet!” Pinkie Pie shushes to Rainbow while holding a bag of popcorn. “This is the best part!” The whole group stares through the window, when they notice the creature holding up its five-appendage hoof in front of Enchanter, then turns its head to face them.
“D-do you think it sees us?” Twilight leans to Princess Celestia.
“This room is protected by a sound barrier. Not even the creature will be able to hear Rainbow scream like that. Only we will hear them speak.” They fall silent again as the creature turns back to face Enchanter.
“Hold on there,” it says. “You said what?”
“Well, it says here in Wind Strike’s report that seventeen royal guards were killed from unknown creatures that attacked them first,” Enchanter repeats.
“Now all I can say to that is bullshit.”
“It did not just say what I think it said!” Rarity jumps, her hoof over her chest like she is about to faint.
“I think it did, sugarcube,” Applejack nods.

*****

Michaels drops his feet to the ground, and leans forward to the stallion, who leans back sweating up.
“First of all, I have proof that this report is bullshit. Second, one of your guards hit my buddy first. And you don’t want to see how pissed I get if anyone hurts my brother. Third, we have rules of engagement. So even if we do see a bunch of talking horses prancing around dressed in purple armor, we do not engage unless they attack first.” Michaels leans back and places his boots back on the table, feeling pleased about his explanation, and resumes his smoking. This gives the grey unicorn a chance to get a good look at the marine’s woodland MARPAT combat uniform, then over to his light brown IMTV fitted with dozens of pouches and pockets of different sizes that actually makes him look more bulky when sitting.

The stallion pushes back his glasses once more, takes out a piece of paper, and writes down several notes with his pencil being held by his magic grip. Michaels takes another look at it, not showing his amazed look.
“Okay,” the unicorn begins. “I’m going to ask you a series of questions, and you will answer then truthfully.” The stallion looks back up to see if Michaels complies, only to find the marine gesturing his hand into a mouth, motioning it to mimic the stallion’s chatting. Michaels turns back to see the stallion glaring at him, and quickly puts his hand down.
“I’m sorry, what?” The unicorn grumbles a little before repeating.
“I’ll be asking you a series of questions. And you will answer them truthfully.”
“Oorah.” The unicorn stares at the marine with a confused look after his answer, but push it to the side and resumes to his list of questions.
“Question one: What are you?” Michaels looks at the horse with an eyebrow raised. In his mind, he thinks it would be fun just to mess around with the unicorn since he’s been stuck in this room for almost an hour.
“What’d you mean? Like, species, or what I look like?”
“Let’s say both.” Michaels had a feeling that might happen.
“I’m a human. And I’m a marine.”
“Okay.” The stallion jots down several notes. “Question two: Why are you here?”
“No reason.” The unicorn looks back up to the marine with a confused look again.
“You must have a reason if you’re here.”
“Nope. We just popped down here where your boys found us while going on a walk and ambushed us.” Michaels takes another puff from his cigarette, while the stallion jots down more notes.
“Question three: Do you have a name?”
“Michaels.”
“Question four: What are you wearing?”
“Standard shit.” The unicorn raises his head, taken back by the sudden word gesture from the marine.
“I’ll repeat. What are you wearing?”
“I’ll repeat. Standard shit.”
“Is that really what it stands for?”
“Nah, not really. It’s classified.” The stallion grumbles again.
“Question five: Are you alone?”
“Of course I’m alone. I don’t see any of my guys around here.” The unicorn squints his eyes and rubs his forehead.
“Question Six: Do you know why you are here?”
“I’ve been accused of engaging at colorful horses first when at truth they attacked us first and kidnapped three of my men.”
“That does not say at Wind Strike’s report.”
“Well then, he’s a lying sonuvabitch.”
“Question Seven: Where are you from?”
“Far away.”
“Explain.”
“Classified.” The unicorn raises his head.
“You have to give me more than that.”
“This is an interrogation, right? I’m not giving you anything.” The room fills with silence. The unicorn gives Michaels another glare.
“You do realize you’re not leaving this place until you answer everything I ask truthfully.”
“Are you done, then? Because I answered them.”
“No you have not. All you said is worthless information and classified stuff. Now you will answer these questions or else you will stay in this room until you decide to comply.” Michaels takes in his last breath of his cigarette, and slowly lets out the smoke in, causing the unicorn to cough a little.
“Like I said, I’m not giving you anything. Why?” The marine drops his legs down and leans over the table. “Because I was trained to be like that. Besides, if my brother comes in here to rescue me, you better pray to your God that he’s in a fuckin’ good mood.” The stallion takes a gulp as Michaels leans back.

*****

Princess Celestia and the rest of the group watch idly as Enchanter packs up his stuff and makes his way back to the metal door with haste. The door opens up, and the unicorn steps inside.
“Hey, buddy!” the creature calls from his seat, and the unicorn turns around. “Tell your friends watching me to watch themselves while they’re here!” Enchanter quickly hops through the door, and is closed shut.
“How are you feeling?” the sun princess turns to the unicorn rubbing his temples.
“It’s harder than I thought it would be. Its like it’s evading every question I’m giving.” Celestia turns her head to Twilight finishing writing her notes and her younger sister having a nervous look on her face. The rest of Twilight’s friends are sitting on the bench bored of what to do.
“This really sucks,” Rainbow complains. “We only got what it is and its name.”
“Um, I think it’s a he,” Fluttershy corrects.
“Whatever.” Rainbow hops up to the stool and stares at the creature back to its original position. “It seems chill, like it knows how to handle this.”
“The only thing I got down is its species, its name, and what it is. Other than that, it just keeps saying stuff that is secret and classified,” Twilight explains looking at her paper half filled with notes. “It also mentioned he was trained to handle ‘questioning’ like this.”
“Well then, let’s rough it up a bit,” Rainbow replies punching her two hooves together.
“There will be no violence, Miss Rainbow Dash. And you know that,” Celestia sternly orders, glaring at the Pegasus. The princess turns back to Wind Strike, noticing him grinding his teeth at the frustration of this interrogation and the annoyance of the human’s blame at him for attacking first.
“Uh, princess?” Pinkie Pie calls raising her hoof. “I’m a bit hungry.”
“What?” Rarity exclaims. “But you ate two batches of cupcakes for breakfast and three bags of popcorn during the questioning.”
“I know. I’m always hungry.” Pinkie smiles to the white unicorn, who in return gives her a puzzled look.
“I believe we’re all hungry,” Celestia agrees. “It has been a long and stressful day. Let’s take a break.” The rest all nod in agreement, except for Luna and Wind Strike, both are distracted at the human doing his usual weird motions with his limbs. “Wind Strike.” The lieutenant turns his head to see the princess with an unpleasant look on her face. “I feel better if you come with us instead of staying here and taunt the human.”
“V-very well, Your Highness.” Twilight and her friends head out the door with the lieutenant following behind, but the two princesses stay behind.
“Luna?”
“I’m alright, sister,” Luna immediately replies with making eye contact to her sister. Celestia notices the nervousness and fear in her sister’s eyes.
“No, you’re not. I can see something you’re hiding.” Luna sighs and turns to her sister, already defeated.
“I was thinking… that uh… I should talk to him.”
“Luna, I think that would not be a good—”
“Then what else are we going to do? We barely scratched the surface of what this creature is and what are its true intentions! Let alone where it comes from!”
“Until the break is over, let Enchanter ask other questions. If it still refuses to answer, I’ll let you go.”

*****

The questioning goes on for another several hours, up until almost nine in the evening after a couple more breaks. Since then, the human has barely given the princesses and the rest any valuable information.

Enchanter exits the interrogation room; his mane now a mess from the amounts of stress and frustration the human has given him.
“I… I don’t think I’ll last another minute with that thing, Your Highness,” he says controlling his breathing. “He’s worse than a diamond dog giving up his diamonds.” Princess Celestia turns around to Twilight’s friends, all fast asleep on the bench. The only ponies still awake are her, her sister, Twilight and Wind Strike.
“Okay, you have done a valuable job today,” the sun princess nods. “You may leave. But, may I have you bag?”
“You Highness?!” Wind Strike shouts. Enchanter bows his head, levitating his bag to Celestia, and exits the room escorted by a guard. The princess then turns to Luna.
“Luna, do you think you are ready?” Luna takes another glance at the human, and takes a deep breath.
“Uh, princess,” Twilight offers. “Is it alright if I can join Luna?”
“No!” Wind Strike intervenes. “You saw what that monster did to your brother!”
“Wind Strike, only you will not be allowed in the room!” Celestia raises her voice. “You will stay put and keep an eye on Twilight’s friends. I shall be guarding my sister and my student instead. Understood?” The lieutenant stutters for a moment, and bows his head, feeling humiliated and defeated.
“Y-yes, Your Highness.”
“Now, it has been a long day. Let’s see if our human is hungry.”

*****

Boredom and hunger fills Michaels’ mind. The last thing he remembers eating something was his MRE back on the USS Anchorage, and since then, nothing. Still, he keeps his hopes up that someone will come and save him. He knows his best friend will do anything to get him back. Brooke is the only guy he too considers a family member.

The door once again opens up, but Michaels ignores the sound as he listens to his music while having his eighth cigarette. He expects to see the same boring grey unicorn to appear more stressed than usual. As the marine turns his head, he is taken by surprise to see three horses instead. One is the largest out of all, having a white coat, a rainbow ethereal mane, and both a horn and wings. Somehow, Michaels recognizes seeing it before but cannot recall when. The second has the same features as the first, but its coat is dark blue as well as its flowing mane filled with small sparkles, and is a little smaller. The third however, is almost the size of the grey unicorn, if not smaller, having a lavender body and a purple mane with a pink stripe running down the center. He doesn’t see a set of wings like the other two horses, but does have a horn.
“Greetings,” the white horse says in a royal-type female voice. The marine remains quiet, and instead waves lazily. The three horses walk over to the spot where the grey unicorn once sat. They all remain silent afterwards. Michaels looks down at the small purple unicorn, which seems to be nonstop shaking.
“You do understand us, right?” the white horse speaks again. Michaels nods and takes another huff of his cigarette while pausing his song, but doesn’t take out his earphones.
“I guess your little friend rage quitted,” Michaels teases while blowing out the smoke, causing the three horses to cough.
“W-well, um, aren’t you going to introduce yourself to us?”
“Why would I? You’re an enemy to me.”
“I, think you are mistaken. There has been a lot of confusion going around.”
“Oh yeah? Then why was I locked up in a cell then beaten the crap out of when I got out? Most of all, why was I kidnapped?” The three horses eyes widen a bit in shock.
“L-like I said; there has been a lot of confusion going on.”
“Oh, I believe you. I truly do.” The marine looks back at the dark blue horse. “You look familiar.” The horse’s eyes widen again, and take a step back.
“W-well, I uh—” she begins, but Michaels cuts her off.
“Oh yeah, I remember. You shot me while we were out in the middle of the night. Just to let you know, you’re lucky I woke up in a carriage all tied up.” A silence creeps into the room, as the blue horse closes her eyes and takes a deep breath.
“Please, allow me to explain,” she says.
“I’m all ears.”
“W-well, the reason why I accidentally attacked your kind is because I thought one of them was threatening this young one’s friends.” The blue horse points to the lavender unicorn.
“And what made one of my friends threaten a small horse like that?”
“Um, let me explain,” the lavender unicorn speaks up, an almost child-like voice, but still a female. “Well, first off, we were hiding behind this boulder. And then, my friend Fluttershy, screamed at the sight of a spider, even though she uh, love critters. We kept telling her to be quiet, but uh, well, your buddy jumped on us.” The unicorn gives away a nervous smile, not surprising enough to the marine.
“Can I tell you something about us marines, little fella?” Michaels asks.
“Uh, sure?”
“We take things ‘real’ seriously. Especially at things like that.”
“B-but why?”
“It’s how we’re trained.” Michaels veers his eyes to the dark blue horse. “Continue.”
“W-well,” she begins, looking like she is clearing her mind. “First off, it is my fault I attacked first because I had to protect her and her friends. Eventually more of your kind attacked us, but my guards retaliated. Until then, probably you and more of yours came over the hill, and one of my guards again attacked at you first.”
“Well, that explains how my brother got hit.”
“Y-you have a brother?” the lavender unicorn asks, almost excitedly.
“Reality, we’re not. But we are called that way because we always help each other out; like brothers and sisters.”
“Hmm, interesting.” The room falls silent once more, as the lavender unicorn takes out several sheets of paper in a purple aurora and starts writing down notes.
“Oh, forgive me!” the white horse says, rubbing her hoof on her head. “How rude we are for not introducing ourselves. My name is Celestia. Princess Celestia, co-ruler of our land, Equestria.”
“Eq- what?” Michaels asks removing his ear buds.
“Equestria. That’s the name of our land.” Michaels could give no answer but shrug, baffled at the name, though he could have sworn he heard about it from somewhere.
“M-my name is Luna,” the dark blue horse introduces. “Younger sibling of Celestia and co-ruler of Equestria.”
“Twilight Sparkle,” the small unicorn says almost cheerfully. “Soon to be ruler of Equestria, and uh, I don’t know what else to say really, heh.” Twilight blushes a little, partially embarrassed from what she had just said and gives away a nervous smile. Michaels just stares at the three horses, waiting for him to give his name. He goes over in his head of what to say, and what not.
“Michaels. Eric Michaels. Private First Class of the USMC.” Twilight’s face brightens up and quickly jots down notes.
“Well, that’s, interesting,” Celestia says. “Mind if I ask what does USMC stand for?”
“Uncomplicated Shit Made Complicated.” As if it were normal to the marine, the three horses jump back in complete shock.
“Uh, is that wh-what it really means?” Twilight asks, her words almost falling apart from the surprise. Michaels instead just laughs.
“No, no. I’m kidding. I’m kidding. But, we do have a lot of other acronyms for that. Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children. Under Seabee Management Constantly, that’s my favorite. U Suckers Missed Christmas, also my favorite. All that lovely jazz.”
“B-but what does it really stand for?”
“Classified.” Twilight lets out a sigh. “Hey, if you were caught and questioned like me, you would do the same.”
“W-well, I suppose so.”

The room once again remains silent, the marine staring at the three horses who are doing the same back. Then, a low grumbling sound fills the room.
“Sorry,” Michaels says grabbing his vest above his stomach. “Haven’t eaten anything.”
“I’ll be right back,” Celestia says. “Twilight, can you come with me?”
“Uh, okay.” Celestia turns to Luna and gives her a wink, making the marine ponder. The door closes shut as the two horses exit out, leaving Luna and the marine alone.
“Can I ask you something?” Michaels asks, forcing Luna to turn and face him with a startled look. “How do you levitate all that stuff?”
“I-it’s called magic. I suppose you don’t have that where you’re from?” Michaels shakes his head.
“We run on electricity, fossil fuels, and technology.” Luna suddenly feels a shiver running down her spine. The thought of using fossils as fuel, and a country, or possibly a world where this human is from without any magic. “If you wanna know…” Luna jets herself out of her imagination again, staring back at Michaels. Then, something smacks her in the head. Not physically, but mentally.
“Wait! Before you say anything!” Michaels leans back again, taken by surprise by the princess slight outburst. “Let me first say something.”
“I’m listening.”

Luna takes a deep breath. She mentally prepares herself once more, this time, against something she has never met before.
“I… I am very sorry,” she says, and pauses for a moment. “Twilight was the one who decided we should have gone out and made a peaceful introduction like my sister would like. Instead, because of my reckless actions… I did what was needed to protect Twilight and her friends.” Michaels stares at the princess, for once, speechless and shocked. To his ears, she does sound like she means it, and she takes responsibility.
“I, uh,” he stutters, figuring out the perfect words to say. “I understand what you mean.” Luna lifts her head up. “You had no choice. You do what you think is right to protect those you love, right? That goes for us grunts as well. Even if it’s against the books, we do what we think is right.” He notices the princess perking up a small smile.
“So, if it’s alright, can we start over?”
“On one condition.” Michaels raises his hand.

*****

Princess Celestia, along with five other guards, all stare in complete shock at a giant hole created in the prison hallway, all cages completely empty.
“Who could’ve done this?” she mutters.
“No idea, ma’am,” one of the guards responds. “We heard no explosion, or rumbling from below. The only thing we heard was one of ours screaming for help. When we went downstairs, well, this is what you see.” The sun princess gazes out of the hole that leads to the outside.
“Is this where you kept the human?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“I knew there was something that monster was hiding!” Wind Strike grinds his teeth.
“There must be an explanation,” Celestia turns to the lieutenant.
“There is no explanation! This is it! It was planning on using something to help the prisoners escape!”
“We’ll just have to ask.”

*****

Twilight and the rest of her friends watch Luna and Michaels having what appears to be a normal conversation just like any other conversation they would have. Michaels shows her something the unicorn cannot see of what he is holding, and the princess bursts out laughing.
“They seem to be having a great time,” Rarity says.
“Oh! Oh, here’s one picture of Kanye and Carter. Both passed out drunk while we were at Hawaii!”
“What's it showing her, anyway?” Rainbow asks, her face still has an expression of distrust.
“Well, it is pictures,” Twilight explains while writing down notes. “I think he calls it an iPhone.”
“That’s a stupid name!” The mares are interrupted by a loud burst of laughter as the night princess nearly falls back.
“Oh my! What are they doing?! That is hilarious!”
“Since when was the last time we seen the princess having this much fun?” Rainbow asks.
“I think probably during Nightmare Night,” Applejack answers from behind. “I just wanna know what he’s talking about.”
“What’d you mean?”
“All he’s talkin’ ‘bout is Hawaii, and San Francisco, and Cali-um-Calo… something. I’ve never heard of those things.”
“Who knows,” Twilight shrugs. “Maybe we’ll find out.”
“I just wanna see what he is showing the princess!” Pinkie calls with a mouthful of popcorn. “It seems rather hilarious if the princess is laughing that loud.”
“Um Twilight?” Fluttershy timidly calls next to the pink mare. “Did he ever tell you, um, more about itself?”
“Well, he said he is a Private First Class of the USMC. And… that’s about it.”
“What does that mean?” Applejack asks.
“He won’t tell us.”
“Typical!” Rainbow shouts, before Rarity slaps the back of her head. “Ow! Will you stop doing that?!”
“I’ll stop when you stop criticizing the poor fella!”
“Criticizing?! Poor fella?! Have you forgotten that thing killed seventeen guards and nearly killed Twi’s brother?!”
“Yes! But, haven’t you heard Luna’s conversation with him when Celestia and Twilight left?!”
“I was napping!”

The door opens up, stopping the argument once more, and in steps Princess Luna.
“Seeya’ Luna!” Michaels calls.
“Goodbye, Michaels. I’ll see what I can do to get you something to eat.” The heavy door closes behind, and the mares step up to the princess.
“And?” Spike asks rather urgently. “Anything else it told you?”
“We did come to an agreement. However, it maybe difficult to convince to Wind Strike and to you girls as well.” The group is interrupted by a loud smash when the door behind opens, and Wind Strike and Princess Celestia rush inside.

*****

Michaels finally manages to settle himself after an intense laughing contest with the night princess by showing her the pictures on his phone of his team and him having a fun time in Hawaii. Though he hates to admit it, he had a swell time having a conversation with the princess and hopes he could again.

He snaps out of his thoughts when the door opens again, except a Pegasus guard steps in with Princess Celestia. Somehow, the guard does not look pleased at all.
“Remember me?” he asks threateningly. Michaels takes a good look at the Pegasus, and notices a bruise just above his right eye.
“Oh yeah, you’re the fella I knocked out because you pissed me off.” In a split second, the guard flares up his wings and dashes towards the marine, only to be stopped by a green force field between them. The guard repeatedly smashes his hooves at the force field in a fit of rage.
“Why’d you do it?! Huh?! Why did you release them?! You menacing beast! I’ll have you banished to the darkest depths of Tartarus for all eternity!”
“Wind Strike! Enough!” Princess Celestia bellows out. Her horn glows and drags the Pegasus back to the open door. “Lieutenant, you will stand down!”
“It’s up to something! That vulgar monster deserves to be executed for letting them escape!” The princess chucks the guard back inside and slams the door shut, leaving Michaels with a shocked look.
“My apologies,” the princess says catching her breath. “My lieutenant still holds a grudge against you for killing his stallions.”
“Don’t worry. I still hate him too.”
“But, we do must discuss on something.” The princess walks over and stands across the table from the marine. “Down in the prison cellar, where you were held, there is a big hole, and all the occupants in their cages escaped. What can you explain about that?” Michaels jolts back a bit.
“W-what’d you mean?”
“Must I repeat myself? We believe you are held responsible for helping the occupants escape as there is a hole in the cell where you were held in.” The whole room once again stays silent. Michaels thinks back to where he was in the cell, the guards dragging him out. He then searches around his vest, quickly noticing an empty pouch where his frag grenade was once.
“Oh boy,” he mutters.
“What is your explanation?”
“Okay, remember when I told you when I was dragged out I was beaten?” Celestia nods her head. “Apparently, I hate to tell you this, but one of my grenades slipped out probably while I was being beaten.”
“And what is this grenade?” Michaels reaches into one of his pouches, and pulls out his last remaining M67 frag grenade.
“This.”
“How can something this small cause a big hole in a wall?”
“Do not let its size fool you. My guess, one of your prisoners got hold of it and used it.” The princess puts on a concerned look on her face, staring at the small frag, then at the marine.

Before Celestia could speak, the door bursts open once more.
“Wind Strike! How many times—!” the princess shouts as she turns around, only to find a grey unicorn guard panting heavily like he just ran a five-mile run.
“Y-Your Highness! W-we have a situation!”
“We’ll discuss more about this later,” the princess says to Michaels, and heads towards the door.
“Oh! One more thing, princess!” the marine shouts, stopping Celestia in her path and forcing her to turn around. “If you see my buddy, Brooke, don’t tempt him. You don’t wanna see him pissed off.” Celestia gives him a somewhat suspicious look with a mix of fear in it, then heads out the door, leaving the marine once again all alone. To him, he likes it. It gives him a moment of peace and tranquility, even though it’s an interrogation room.

Michaels plugs in his earphones again, and turns back on his music with a smirk on his face, remembering him passing down notes, his frag, and a block of C4 down to Flip, explaining on the notes their escape plan. He lights up another cigarette, digs into his MOLLE, pulls out an emergency tracker beacon and activates it.

*****

“What do you mean there are more of them?!” Rainbow Dash shouts, almost to the point of having a heart attack. Twilight and her friends, along with the two princesses and Wind Strike hurry themselves down the hallway after being informed by the guards that two creatures have entered the castle, and are waiting for them.
“I don’t know how, but this is too sudden!” the sun princess announces.
“You think what the human said is, you know, true? About his, well, friends coming in to rescue him?” Fluttershy says trying to keep up with the group.
“I don’t know. But right now, I want you girls to stay behind while my sister and I try to reason with these humans.”
“Your Highness, I strongly disagree!” Wind Strike tries to reason, but is instead receives a glare from the sun princess.
“You will do no unnecessary acts that will only worsen a misunderstanding relationship between us! You will instead stay beside us so I will keep an eye on you, understand?!”
“Y-yes, ma’am.”
“But, princess, what if it doesn’t work?” Twilight intervenes.
“Pray it does.”

The group approaches a large door ajar that leads into the main hall.
“In here, ma’am,” the guard says, opening the door more.
“Girls, you are to stay here, understand?” Princess Celestia turns to the Elements of Harmony, who all nod. The two princesses and Wind Strike enter the hallway, leaving the mares and dragon behind. They are able to see them through when the door doesn’t completely close. They stack up on each other like a tower, wanting to get a view.
“Woah,” Rainbow softly exclaims. “You see that?” Surrounded by at least ten guards armed with spears, are two humans just like the one back in the interrogation room, except their clothing, to what they think it is, is organized a bit differently, and they wield long black sticks.

Luna and Celestia walk to their proper thrones, Luna already starting to panic the moment her eyes lay on the humans surrounded by the ten guards. Her thoughts ride around different schemes and predictions of what might happen next. The human, Michaels, knew that more of his other kind would come. The night princess quickly realizes she is already standing beside her sister, just in front of their throne.
“Stand down, guards,” the sun princess orders. The guards did what they are ordered, and raise their spears and take a step back. “I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of the land Equestria. And this is my sister, Princess Luna, also co-ruler of Equestria. What brings you and your kind here?” A silence fills the large hallway, none of the other two humans speaking out. After what feels like an eternity of silence, one of them steps up, and speaks in an almost dark devilish voice.
“Where is he?”