//------------------------------//
// Happenings 
// Story: Horizon 
// by Nagmeister 
//------------------------------//

	Silence. That was all Hanald felt. The silence that preludes death. He saw the ponies before him brandishing their weapons. They all had looks of fear on their faces, but also of determination. They eyed him cautiously, not letting him escape. Not like he would; if these were anything like the ponies Jeb had mentioned in his captain's log, then he would be perfectly safe. However, the swords and axes visible to him weren't very comforting. In fact, they looked downright menacing. The spaceplane had already been surrounded by 'Pegasi' as he had heard them called, and they appeared to be trying to take it apart. He heard the sound of a sonic boom and stared in disbelief at the source of the sound.
What was visible was a rainbow trail emanating from behind the shock cone. “What in Kerbol's name is that?!” asked Hanald, before being cut off by a guard who yelled at him to shut up back there. The trail turned and pointed directly towards the spaceplane. “No!” he yelled. To his surprise, the trail stopped and something cyan hung in the air. It started coming towards him. “Wait, no! Don't hit the plane, but don't come here either!” he yelled futiley. The cyan thing landed in front of him, and he could see it was a pegasus. This one was different, however. It didn't have a weapon, or armor. In fact, it appeared to be a civilian.
“Rainbow Dash, what are you doing here?” asked one of the guards before getting a hoof in his face. She walked up to the cage and inspected it before speaking.
“Jebediah? I thought the princess said you were at the castle!”
“I'm not Jebed–Princess? Castle? What? Am I going insane? I thought I was crazy when these pony things came up to me, but now I'm convinced I'm absolutely loony.”
“Well... anyway, come with me. You there,” she pointed to a group of guards,” take that with us. And don't drop it; the Princess says it's important.”

Hanald had ridden a horse before, but never like this. The pony he'd heard named Rainbow Dash had gestured for him to get on his back, and he did, as well as assuming proper riding posture. However, this was rather uncomfortable in a suit. He removed the helmet, and was surprised how pure and clean the air was. He slowly felt the wind pick up in his face, and then they were airborne. This was a feeling that Hanald had never experienced in even the smallest, lightest planes. This was flying truly open-cockpit; actually, it was like flying no-cockpit. The ground shrank beneath the two as the pegasus climbed higher, finally levelling out at an altitude of about a kilometer. Looking behind him, he could see easily thirty pegasi struggling to keep the plane aloft, even banging its landing gear on the ground a bit. “That can't be good for it,” he thought aloud.
“What can't?”
“It's nothing, nevermind.”
The pegasus looked ahead and continued flying forward. The fields raced by below them, and Hanald swore he could see some sort of New Kerlington-style city off in the distance. In the opposite direction, a massive forest stretched beyond the horizon. He noticed a small village below, and swore for a second he could see what looked like the rover on the ground outside of a farm. Looking to his right, he could see a mountain range with what looked like a city jutting out of the side. He shifted his weight slightly and the pony slowly began to turn towards it. “Hey!” she shouted as she was forced to bank. “Don't do that!” Hanald scorned himself for letting his pilot instinct kick in, and returned his balance to normal.
The pegasus came to a surprisingly smooth landing on a balcony of the castle. She dropped him off, said something along the lines of “Not happening again”, and flew away. Hanald decided it would be a good idea to knock on the door to the room, so he did. Unfortunately, the cyan pegasus had managed to drop him off on the wrong floor, and so he knocked on the wrong room.
Luna was awoken from her sleep for the second time in two days. Grumbling, she walked towards the balcony door and asked, “Who's there?” As she opened the door, her look of tiredness turned into one of annoyance. “What are you doing here? Get out,” she stated. 
“Erm, I was just dropped off on this floor by a cyan pegasus,” stated the slightly surprised kerbal.
“Well, get back to your room!” she said as Hanald was enveloped in a flash of light. Next thing he knew, he was lying on the floor of Jebediah's room while Jebediah paused mid-sip. Jeb put his beer down and walked over.
“Hanald, what the hell?”
“I don't even– wait, what's that?”
There was a buzzing sound outside. Jebediah opened the curtains and looked outside, and was greeted by a horrible freak of nature. It looked like an overgrown bug; it had scales of chitin covering its body, neck and head, it had buglike wings, and it had a horn full of holes. Speaking of holes, its legs also appeared to be full of holes. Hanald let out a small scream as Jeb wondered if they were bullet holes. Without saying a word, he went into the kitchen, opened a cabinet, and took out the rifle. He opened the windowpane and without saying a word, leveled the rifle and pulled the trigger.
“What was that?” asked Hanald. “You just murdered it!”
“It made me feel strange, like something was trying to get inside my head. Ah well, it's dead now, so it won't be causing anymore problems.” There was a knocking at the door as Jebediah hid the weapon under the rug and Hanald went over to the door.
“Sir!” said one of the guards as he saluted to Jeb. “We heard reports of a changeling circling the castle, and when we heard a bang coming from your room we thought it might have attacked you. Where is it, by the way? I'm assuming you saw it since the window and curtains are open.”
Jebediah solemnly walked over to the window and pointed down. One of the pegasus guards flew out and down towards the changeling. He returned a few seconds later, carrying the body in his body. It looked like something gone straight through its side. Before Jeb could verify if it was dead, one of the guards spoke up. “Celestia's sake, what did you do to it?” asked one of the guards, wide-eyed. “I'm calling the princess right away!” said another, scared for his life. The rest of the guards backed up and stared at him. One of them raised his weapon, but lowered it at another voice's command.
“WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS INTERRUPTION?” boomed a voice. All the guardsponies bowed at the speaker, and not wanting to be disrespectful, Hanald and Jeb followed the example. They kneeled, and didn't even think to look who was the speaker. “You two,” said a feminine voice, “come with me. Guards, stay here and make sure that nopony  and nothing can get in.” They looked up for the first time, and noticed who was speaking.
She was a deep blue, with a mane and tail that looked somewhat like the stars. She had a smaller horn than Princess Celestia, but sported the same horn and wing configuration. She had a tired but stern look in her eyes, and she looked somewhat angry. Jebediah and Hanald looked at each other for a second, shrugged, and followed the princess.
She trotted down the halls at a brisk pace, instinctively turning right and left as she walked towards the throne room. She stopped for a second to check a clock posted in a hallway, then continued on her way. She reached a staircase, but teleported herself and the two Kerbs to the bottom. She walked over into the throne room. “Luna? What are you doing up so early?” asked Celestia, obviously concerned.
Luna replied flatly,“These two spotted a changeling invader a few minutes ago.”
“Where is it now?”
“Most likely dead.”
All the ponies in the room adopted shocked looks attention slowly turned to Jeb. “Jeb,” said Hanald, “I think you have a minor problem.”
What happened next was rather confusing. A series of questions were asked, and were answered in ways that sprouted only more questions, and those questions sprouted more, but eventually Jebediah cut off the conversation. “It was trying to get into my head,” Jebediah stated. “I did only what I had been instructed to do in dangerous situations. I defended myself.” The looks of shock turned to looks of fear as the ponies thought that this creature would willingly kill anything.
“Commander Jebediah Kerman,” stated the two princesses at once, “you do know that Changelings are, like us ponies, sentient creatures. You do realize you just admitted to murder?”
“Is it murder to defend myself and my crewmember from something that is trying to get into our heads and possibly destroy our minds, or discover sensitive information about our homeworld?”
“He was only trying to feed on your emotions,” said a new voice.
“Fluttershy? What are you doing here?” asked Celestia, confused.
Twilight, who had just teleported into the room, tried to say something but was cut off.
“You should be very ashamed of yourself, mister. You nearly killed that innocent little changeling just because he did what was in his nature!”
Oh hell, Jeb thought to himself. As if there weren't enough animal rights activists on Kerbin, now I have to deal with them here, too.
The yellow pony continued its rant. “Mister, come and look at what you've done.” She led him into a room on the side of the throne room.
There sat the changeling. It wasn't quite dead yet. It looked as if it was trying to speak. He walked up to it, and saw the look of utter hopelessness and despair in its eyes, one of fear of the unknown.
He was familiar with that look. He had seen it once before.
***37 YEARS AGO***
Jeb was in a trench, at the Siege of Kerlington that would end the Unity War. “Hold the line!” he heard one soldier shout. As soon as that soldier peeked up to shoot, he lost the top half of his head and fell backwards to the ground. Jeb hid in the trench, clutching his rifle. Suddenly, his friend Billy-Bobford perked up and motioned for Jeb to do the same. He managed to level his rifle unnoticed and fired. Jeb was about to do the same when he saw the Rebel soldier charging. Jebediah raised his rifle and looked up.
He could see the fear in his eyes, the longing to just go home. He could see how he had been drafted into the war, how he was afraid that he wouldn't see his family again. Then, someone behind him shouted, and he pulled the trigger. He then proceeded to fall back into the trench, and had to be carried off the field by his comrades.
He hadn't gotten over that until a few years ago, and seeing this vivid replay reminded him of the horrible deed he'd done all those years ago. He watched himself be carried off the field, and saw the charge of the rebels, and how they were mowed down. He watched and reminded himself of the horrors of war.
Suddenly, the scene around him changed. He was back on board his first command, in orbit over Duna. He watched as the lander with one of his crewmen onboard pancaked into the surface of the planet. “No!” he yelled as he watched the lander and kerbal inside turn into a bit of dust on the surface of the alien planet.
Once again, it changed to the Eve Direct III spacecraft. His crewman had just returned to the ship with a punctured suit. He watched as the pulse monitor beeped steadily, slower and slower, until it flatlined.
This trip continued through all the past missions where he lost crew, through all the missions from the Kerbin Explorer to the Grand Tour. Each one, he watched the deaths that had happened – that he believed he had caused. His face took on a stoic expression, and his demeanor suddenly changed. He whipped around to face the stunned ponies and people in the room. They backed off as he stomped over to the table.

“Jeb? You okay?” Jeb heard Hanald ask distantly. He surprised himself with how he yelled.
“Hanald! Go to the lander and get the field surgery kit!” he shouted. “You there!” He pointed to a surprised stallion guard. “Get me a map of changeling anatomy. You!” he shouted at another guard. “Get me a roll of gauze. And you!” he said, pointing to Princess Celestia. “Get me your most experienced doctor or mage or whatever you have here!”
He walked over to the table and looked at the dying changeling. “You won't die. You can't die. Too many already have because of me.” he said to both it and himself.