Prelude
It was a simple mission with a simple plan. Get close, see what they have and who they are, and get out; too bad that plans have a knack for going horribly awry when in the military.
I had only been in the unit for a few months. Long enough to have grown attached to, and become one of the group. I was the thin guy, built like a runner, a hair taller than average, weaker in terms of brute strength than the rest of the unit… oh yeah, and I wore glasses. A real “ladies man” *snort*.
We were at war with… oh it’s been so long I can hardly remember anymore. I was twenty-one at the time and we were fighting in the forests. We had to scope out what was reported to be a small enemy camp just a few miles off of our forward camp. Little did we know the whole thing was a trap…
***
“Lance Corporal Connors, you still listening? Repeat back to me what I just told you.”
Shaking my head to get my mind back on track I took a deep breath and began relaying the orders back to Sergeant Neil.
“You and Johnson will head down the middle while West and Smith flank right. Marcus and Terry will flank left while I hold position here to cover our escape.”
Connors grunted an affirmative and the mission began. Five minutes in Terry broke radio silence.
“Sir; I’m a hell of a bad feeling about this. The place seems empty.”
West was the next to chime in.
“You sure that ain’t just your time o’ the month?”
“Its woman’s intuition you southern reject.”
“Can it all of you. Place is deserted so lets see what Intel we can get from here. Regroup in the middle of the camp, we will go from there. Connors, hold position till further notice.”
Five minutes later they had regrouped. Ten minutes after that I pulled out my binoculars to get a good look past the camp.
“Sir, we have incoming on the base opposite your retreat. It looks like they’re holding position watching you.
Turned out they were watching them and holding a detonator. A few moments later there was a loud – WHOOSH – and the camp went up in flames. The camp was a trap filled with Napalm. My squad was cooked and tangos were on their way. I panicked and ran.
I ran as fast and as hard as I could. I ran as long as I could. I knew there wasn’t anything I could have done, but I still felt bitter guilt gnawing at me. When I was nearing the end of my strength I turned back to make sure I wasn’t being followed. Funny thing about looking back when you sprint, you can’t see where you’re going. My foot caught on something and just before I hit my head on what I assume was a tree I saw a strange creature. Yes I know. Weird thing to notice when being chased by bad guys in a forest and falling to a concussion, but what are you going to do?
Is that a dragon… Horse… Griffin?
That was my last thought before the world went black.
Chapter 1 Adaptation
When I came to the forest looked different. It felt hostile, yet with the prospect of bad guys being behind every tree, why wouldn’t it? I had to get up and start moving again.
I got up onto my feet and fell backwards.
I must have gotten a concussion from hitting that tree.
I reached my hand up to feel the back of my head noticed that something didn’t feel quite right. My hair went right down the middle of my head and way down my neck. My hand felt even weirder, almost as though my hand was one giant thumb. I moved my hand into view to see a hoof.
Correction, I have gotten a concussion…and I must still be asleep.
I looked for a source of water and found a brown stagnant pool of what looked like brown water.
Wait… is that… it can’t be…
I took a sniff. It smelled like chocolate milk. I took a taste. It tasted like chocolate milk too.
Why the hell is there a pool of chocolate milk in the middle of a forest?
Focusing on the problem at hand… hoof again, I looked at my reflection in the pool of chocolate milk. I was a freaking pony. My mane was cut short and a brown color. My coat was a uniform grey underneath my camouflage jacket. My glasses thankfully weren’t broken by the fall and seemed to have reshaped themselves to fit my new face which seemed to have a plate of bone in the middle of my forehead, not like a unicorns. It was strange, just a flat piece of bone. I hope I didn’t scrape the skin off of there. My camouflage jacket also seemed to have reshaped to fit my new body, but felt strangely tight. I pulled it off and found that I had wings. They were leathery, much like bat wings, as opposed to bird wings.
Alright then; concussion check, illogical chocolate milk check, me having been somehow turned into a Pegasus check.
***
What remained of my gear after the change was: my glasses, canteen, and my K-bar. My M-1 rifle was nowhere to be found. If people were looking for me they would find me easy enough and the best hope for rescue would be to wait here; not that I expected to be found. I had set up a camp in a place not far from where I woke up. The place I made wasn’t much more than a small shallow cave I had found. A door I had made covered the entrance and was built from wood and some saplings in place of rope, it wasn’t the best door but it kept the elements out; and the wolves. I had learned, through trial and error, what was safe to eat for my new body. I could gnaw on bark (from certain trees), eat grass, and any fruits or berries I could locate. I didn’t dare try any mushrooms.
***
I had been foraging farther from my campsite than I normally did when I had heard a distressed voice off in the distance. I galloped in that direction as fast as I could; desertion and betrayal to my team still fresh in my mind. I refused to let that happen again.
When I reached the place the voice had come from I didn’t see any humans; a purple unicorn pony with a blue mane, pink and purple highlights within it, and a matching tail backing away from a manticore.
Okay, that’s new, but who was yelling for help?
“You don’t want to eat me Mr. Manticore, I’d taste terrible, and I really don’t want to hurt you.”
I stared at the purple pony dumbstruck.
SHE CAN TALK? Of course she can, she has highlights. I thought as though the highlights made everything make sense. I charged to get between the pony and the manticore making as loud and threatening a sound as I could, while pulling my K-bar out. Manticores scared the hell out of me and I had hoped they would react like a lone wolf, loud noises startling it off.
Sadly this one didn’t scare, it looked right at me. My coat stood on end; I bared my teeth and growled as threateningly as I could. The manticore, having never seen a pony act this way, probably thought I was mental and was unsure how to act. It decided to look elsewhere for an easier meal.
“Thank you for helping me. My name is Twilight Sparkle. What are you doing all the way out here in the Everfree Forest?”
She really was talking…How hard did I hit my head? Pony talk now, figure that out later. I shook my head to bring me out of my thoughts. “I’ve been lost out here for over a month now and have no idea where civilization is.”
“Well Ponyville isn’t that far from here, I could take you there.”
She winced at the bone plate on my forehead.
“And maybe get Doctor Stable to take a look at your head.”
“I’m fine, it happened… a while ago. If it was going to get infected or anything, it would have by now. I just wish I could get this jacket off, it’s sweltering out here.” Not having I calendar I could only assume it was late summer, based on when I left where I came from, it seemed about right. I tugged at the buttons managing to pull one off. Most I’d been able to do since I wasn’t trusting of my knife skills in my new form. The coat started to shimmer shortly after. The remaining buttons un-did themselves and the coat pulled itself off of me. I jumped backwards as it was pulling off my front hooves and saw that Twilight’s horn was glowing the same color and brightness as my coat. My mind was reeling as I stared slack jawed at said unicorn who proceeded to fold the coat with what I could only assume to be magic. The now folded coat was placed on my back between my wings.
“You look like you’ve never seen magic before”. Twilight giggled at the dumbstruck look on my face.
Magic… I’m so not in Kansas anymore.
“Let’s save that for later and just head to that town you were talking about earlier.”