-----Crash Site, location unknown-----
Did that seriously just happen? Did a flying pony just ask me a question? I looked at it dead in the eyes and tried to struggle out words but I could find none to justify the situation. I sat there for a minute and closed my eyes and drifted off into sleep.
-----Ryan’s Dreamscape----
As I opened my eyes I could see just white emptiness and a screen in the distance. As I seemed to float in the vast emptiness, I could feel a timid presence in my mind. I tried to walk over to the screen and touch it but something was preventing me. I felt a voice come into my head, one that wasn’t mine.
“Just will yourself over there.” It said, calming my nerves
I tried to swim my way over there like I was in a pool but to no success. ‘Will myself?’ I thought. I closed my eyes and thought hard about getting closer to the screen. When I opened my eyes the screen closer to me and began to show a film. Then the title came up on the screen
‘Ryan Fighting in Iraq, 2009’
This was going to be good. As I floated there, the memory started to play.
“This is Delta team! We need fire support on the building in sector 7, over!” A voice yelled through the radio while gunfire was in the background.
“This is Echo 1-3 inbound to your position.” I said on the screen
This was exactly what had happened! I remember it so clearly now. The helicopter I was piloting was an old Huey form Vietnam with m134 miniguns on each side. I watched the screen as the presence in my head became curious. The helicopter took a sharp right over a mid-day desert town in the Middle East, the kind with mud hut construction. As the helicopter turned left with furious thuds from the helicopter blades, the barrels started to turn on the miniguns.
“This is Delta, happy hunting.”
“The party has arrived.” I said as the helicopter turned to the designated building. It was an old two story mud hut home, probably abandoned and repurposed. I dropped my altitude to that of the second story and opened up fire from the m134s. The building was being torn apart by the miniguns’ relatively small caliber rounds.
As the screen showed me manically laughing as the thunderous roar of the miniguns continued, I could feel the presence in my head becoming steadily more and more afraid of me. I shot a sharp mental grin as the fighting on screen continued.
As the miniguns stopped firing, revealing glowing red hot barrels and smoke, my voice started up on the radio “This is Echo 1-3 to Delta, have fun trying to find out what piece belongs to who. This is Echo 1-3 returning to base, over.”
I watched the screen as the huey rose in altitude and banked left and the voice in my head was truly petrified. I started to clap as the screen was covered by red curtains that came out of nowhere. I then began to fell light headed and closed my eyes.
----Crash Site, Location unknown----
“That was fuckin’ awesome” I said rubbing my head as I awoke.
“You’re a monster.” Said an unknown female voice
I looked up and could see the night skybox above me with some of the brightest stars I’ve ever seen. I tried to sit up when what felt like a pole slammed into my chest and held me down. I lifted my head to see a pony’s orange-ish hoof on my chest.
“What the fuck did I do?!” I said grimacing in pain
“What’d ya see Twi?” A feminine Texan accent said
“Nice to see you too.” I said with a thick coating of sarcastic anger
“H-he… I don’t know what he did.” I heard another scared voice say.
“What did I do?!” I said still under the orange hoof.
“What did you do to those ponies?” She said still with a tone of sorrow
‘Ponies?’ Surely she meant people right? Was she the presence in my dream? She had to be and if her friend doesn’t get off of me, there will be hell to pay.
“Was that you in my dream?” I said
“Yes, now what did you do?!” she said
“My mission goddammit! I’m a soldier if you couldn’t tell.” I said like it was matter-of-fact
“What’s a soldier?” I hear another voice pipe up
“Military? Guards of a country?” I said as if asking.
“Like Celestia’s guards?” the frightened voice asked
“Who the hell is that, and if whoever is on me doesn’t take their foot off me, I can promise I’ll make it so they can never walk again!” I shouted at the top of my lungs
I immediately felt the hoof retracted and gasps erupt in the crowd that had gathered. I sat up and was met with several
brightly colored eyes, one of which I was familiar with already. I could see the blue pony from earlier and two others that I had yet to meet. One was purple with a horn, just like the unicorns of legend. The other was the orange one that was holding me down. It had a long golden mane and a cowboy hat, so I guess that was the one with the Texan accent.
As I got to my feet I realized I towered over these creatures. I wasn’t a beast at 5’11 and 200 pounds but they couldn’t be more that 4’ and 125 pounds. I reach up and removed my helmet revealing my scarred face and black hair. I could see my helicopter in the distance and some ponies in heavy armor behind me. I wasn’t going to escape without a fight.
I looked back down at the terrified creatures and said “My name is Ryan Laney and I am a United States marine pilot. You are?”
The ponies seemed too terrified to answer me.
“I don’t bite.” I said jokingly.
The one with the Stetson hat stepped forward “Ma name’s Applejack.”
This pony seemed to set the stage for the others as the purple one stepped forward too “My name is Twilight.”
Then the blue, rainbow maned one stepped forward and said “I’m Rainbow dash.”
I turned to the right and began to walk around the ponies when the one named Dash stepped in front of me “Where do you
think you’re going” She said in an angry voice.
I dropped my eyes to hers and said “To bury my friend.” I walked past her and the guards continued to follow me. I jumped into the cabin of the helicopter and grabbed an entrenching tool from the hull. I then grabbed Ivan’s collar and dragged him out of the cabin.
Was I dragged Ivan’s body to the middle of the field I could feel prying eyes digging into the back of my head. ‘I don’t need their fucking sympathy.’ I thought to myself as I began to dig a hole. As I took the tiny shovel and continued to dig, could sense something walking up behind me.
“It’s not your fault.” I heard Dash say behind me, trying to show some empathy.
This only made me dig even harder in anger. I continued to dig until I had dug about 3ft deep. I reach over and dragged Ivan’s body into the crude grave and walked back to the helicopter, leaving Dash and the others as the grave site. I retrieved a small flag from the passenger cabin and walked back to the grave.
As I returned to the grave, the prying eyes were starting to unravel me. I started to shovel the dirt back onto Ivan’s grave, muttering comments of anger to myself. After Ivan was covered up I took the small 8x6 inch flag and planted it on to the center of the grave.