Chapter 1--Nothing Goes Right
No battle plan survives contact with the enemy. -General Colin Powell
“Oh come on, Sarge, why am I on the Fifty?” John whined from the gunners seat. It was 110 Degrees outside, and I had put him on gunner duty; he didn't like it. Kristan snickered from his seat in the back of the Humvee.
“Because, John, you haven’t been on the gun for about 2 missions now, so it’s your turn,” I explained. John sighed and went silent. We were in the back of a convoy of three, heading to a village to clear it of enemy insurgents. It was early morning in Iraq and the sunrise over the mountains made for a beautiful sight, despite the occasional smoke plume. The bright light didn’t bother me because of my aviator sunglasses my grandfather had given to me to use.
We were all in our standard combat gear. Cami pants, Cami jacket, combat boots, and your standard issue IMTV(Improved Modular Tactical Vest). Kristan had his dead grandfathers favorite knife, it was a 16 inch Bowie knife that his grandfather had used during World War 2 and he had it out and was sharpening it. The driver was the rookie of the fire team, his name was Nathan. He had just got assigned to my team this morning.
“Nathan how far are we from the village?” I asked as I pulled out a map of the area. I had no idea where we were because of the convoy taking a supposedly “Safer” route.
“No more than 15 klicks,” Nathan said in an annoyed tone. I folded the map back up and climbed into the back seat. “Alright guys, our mission is to infiltrate the town and eliminate all enemy contacts, which we all know there will be a lot of. Stay sharp and don’t let the enemy get a bead on you, I don’t want to take any of you home in a body bag.” I instructed as I grabbed my M16 that I had laid in the back.
The First Humvee in the convoy exploded causing the second to crash into it. John opened fire with the fifty, I reached for Nathan only to find he had bit the bullet, Literally, a round had taken his jaw off. Kristan was already out of the Humvee and I scrambled to meet him on the other side of the Humvee.
“Their in the rocks Sarge!” I heard John yell over the explosion from the second Humvee in the convoy. Kristan was already laying suppressive fire with his M249 SAW. I aimed through the Acog scope on my M16 and fired at everything that moved in the rocks.
“Keep suppressing, we are not going to die here!” I yelled as I returned to the cover of the Humvee. When I popped out again I saw a rocket flying right towards us. “Oh shit RPG, take cover!” I yelled, right before the rocket hit the broad side of the Humvee. The explosion flung John from the gunners seat and onto the ground beside me, luckily, he wasn’t dead. I laid prone and aimed at one of the enemies heads and fired, direct hit! There was only one more insurgent left and Kristan got him with his M249.
“Scavenge the wrecks and grab anything of use.” I ordered as I opened the door of the Humvee I had just left, it was in bad shape. In the back I saw a M110 sniper and a few mags for it, so I grabbed the mags and placed them in my dump pouch and slung the rifle on my back, it might come in handy. I couldn't see anything else, except a few grenades that I threw in my grenade pouch. When I emerged from the wreck I noticed that Kristan had found a few more drum mags for his SAW. John found an AT4 which he placed on his back. John carried an M4 with suppressor and, like me, an M203 underbarrel grenade launcher.
“Grabbed everything you could find?” I asked looking over our supplies. John and Kristan both nodded. “OK good let’s keep moving,” I was cut off by a strange sound. “Anyone else hear that sound?” I asked as I scanned the area through my M16’s scope.
“Ya what is it?” Kristan asked from behind me. I was about half way through a complete 360 scan when I saw a blue dot hurling towards us. “Sarge what is that?!” Kristan asked in an anxious tone. The dot was almost right on top of us.
“I have no Idea.” I said plainly as the Blue ball Stopped in front of us and exploded, actually it didn't explode, it seems to have imploded and sucked us all in.
***
When I awoke my head was spinning and I felt like I had just been hit in the head by a baseball bat. When i opened my eyes it was dark, really dark, there seemed to be no moon or start which was really strange. I looked around my surroundings and notice John and Kristan lying not far from me, I also notice that instead of rocks and sand surrounding us, there was a bunch of unstable looking skyscrapers. As i went to stand up i noticed something on my left arm, under my sleeve. I pulled my sleeve back and stared at a device that was labeled “Pip-buck 3000”. I noticed a button that was labeled “on” and pressed it, the screen lit up and i was looking at a map of the area.
Then my vision went black and I frantically turned my head around trying to regain my sight, then i could see again and i had a compass in the corner of my eye. A retinal projection, how was this thing doing that. I looked back at my Pip-buck and read the big label on the map, “Hoofington” it read. Where was Hoofington. In my frantic examination of my new wrist worn device, I didn't notice that Kristan and John had activated theirs and were now panicking just like I had.
“Guy’s you’ll be fine, your vision will come back and you’ll have a HUD looking thing,” I said as I searched the ground around me and was pleased to find my Rifle next to me. I grabbed it and walked over to Kristan and John who were now checking out the map as well. “I have no idea where we are so don’t even ask,” I said with a laugh as I stood beside them. I lifted my pip-buck and flipped to a tab that said inventory, I was surprised to see that it listed everything i wore and it even listed the contents of my various pockets and pouches on my vest. Beside each item was their “Value” in caps, whatever those were.
“Sarge what the hell are we going to do, i don’t think we're in Afghanistan anymore.” Kristan said as he raised his M249 and scanned the area. I looked around formulating a plan, then a message popped up on my HUD
“New note: Welcome to Equestria” the message read, I flipped to the notes tab and pressed play on the file.
“Welcome To equestria stranger, I won’t bore you with detail like who I am right now, instead i’ll say that if your hearing this then that means that my special system has detected the presence of a human and has supplied you with a Stable-tech brand Pip-buck 3000. Now if you're wondering why you're here, I can’t answer that, but the history books have read that humans have helped equestria in the past, the books say that they came through blue portals that sucked them in and placed them here to help us, or destroy us but i hope you're in the first category. Anyways If the sky is covered in clouds and their seemed to be destroyed buildings around you, then that means you’re in the Equestrian wasteland and the blue portal put you here to restore peace. If you are than i wish you the best of luck and hope that you will do everything you can to restore Friendship and Magic back to this broken land. Oh and one last key bit of information, this land is filled with a race of anthropological ponies like me. Thank you for listening and i hope you get to work soon my friends."
The message cut out and i was left dumbfounded. My team was teleported here to help save a race of anthro ponies. I sighed and looked at Kristan and John, they were both awaiting my orders to move.
“Alright guy’s lets find a place to camp out and maybe meet some of the local population.” I said as I lifted my rifle, a nav point seemed to appear on my compass so I decided to follow it. We started to walked towards the marker in a strange land far away from home. Why were thing’s never easy?