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// The Start 
// Story: The Wise Soldier 
// by Justasimplename 
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	Throughout our lives, we see members of the military that are deployed overseas as a bastion of pure evil or a paragon of heroism. These soldiers are too often labeled with simple adjectives.

Evil. Soldiers are sometimes seen as quite possibly one of the worst beings to ever have existed. They might be called names of varying degrees of disrespect, such as baby killer or a reaper of innocent lives. In modern society, some may even brand a soldier as nothing more than a trained killing machine. No matter what actions the soldier may or may have done, they are often misunderstood. Either way, some members of developed societies can not and will not accept a participant of war. This is further worsened by actions throughout history, such as the My Lai incident in the Vietnam War or the Nazi’s actions during WWII.

Heroism. Some are seen as heroes in society. Willing to sacrifice their lives for their country, some are believed to be part of the higher echelons of people. They are often respected with the highest regard and some will sometimes go to the extreme to show gratitude to a soldier. Even children see a soldier as someone who should be looked up upon. In a handful of cases through history, large amounts of heroism is documented and used as inspiration. Sometimes, the citation to a medal of honor is enough to captivate a person to respect a soldier.

Then there’s the wise. The wise are simply misunderstood but two things are present, they are smart and they fight for their country with heart. Always rare in a soldier is the soul of a wise man. A normal soldier simply follows an order due to fear of ridicule or punishment while a wise one thinks before following an order, not fearing the ridicule or punishment. These men are, in simple terms, effective.  

Never can one predict the thoughts or actions of a wise soldier as they are too unpredictable. While normal soldiers immediately act with the intent of securing victory, the wise think and ask  themselves what to do and how to do it. This also makes the wise the most dangerous of the three.

And this brings us to where we are.





Somewhere in Equestria, a single soldier regained consciousness. He didn’t know where he was but he did know where he was meant to be. He immediately felt around for his weapon, quickly finding it within seconds. The well-used and aging rifle gave the lone man a sense of safety but it wasn’t enough to completely put him at peace.

Standing up, the man now took noticed his surroundings. He was standing in a large field that bordered what seemed to be a forest. As opposed to where the soldier was meant to be, the green meadow was a nightmare for him. Only thoughts of worry crossed the soldier’s mind. 

Checking himself, he found that everything was how it was supposed to be before being deployed for a mission. His uniform, jungle camouflaged the moment, was in check, gear was present, the pouches strapped to his chest were full of full magazines, live frag grenades, water canteens, and other supplies, and the backpack on his back was full with what it was meant to hold(basic first aid, some demolition charges, binoculars, rope, and amounts of other supplies). 

More importantly, his weapons were intact. In the soldier’s arms was an M4a1 rifle attached with an acog, foregrip, collapsible stock, and a short barrel that was threaded for a suppressor which at the moment, was in a pouch on his vest. Strapped to a thigh holster was his sidearm, a HK45C pistol that was also threaded for suppressor which was in the same pouch that held his rifle’s suppressor. In addition to his two firearms, he also carried a knife. It was a simple fixed bladed weapon but simple was still dangerous in his hands. He felt better with the weapons but still felt unease without his squad mates. Where was his squad?

Pulling out a radio, he attempted to hail a friendly but only succeeded in static. He checked his GPS only to learn that the GPS was somehow out of range and not connected to a satellite.

Defeated, the lone soldier thought about his next actions. No communications and GPS didn’t mean good things but it didn’t mean anything bad either.

The soldier could only do one thing, travel. Pulling out a compass, the lone soldier traveled north. He did not have to fear the enemy as there was a high chance that this was a training scenario. He had done something like this before, being placed in a jungle environment without communications or GPS. Really, the only thing he thought that he had to worry about was animals.

Getting a better gauge at the situation, he brushed his hand under the left side of his uniform, touching one specific patch. On the patch was an eagle clutching a trident, anchor, and flintlock pistol. 

Ever since he became a US Navy SEAL, he did things like this. Why? For his country. It was a dangerous profession but it was for the good of the US.





After a good amount of walking, the SEAL found his first sign of civilization. Now what he found was a town. Not just any town but a town that was occupied by horses. Lots and lots of tiny, cartoonish horses that, for some unknown reason, had images tattoed on their asses.

Careful not to be seen, he lied down in some grass and surveyed the area with a pair of binoculars from his backpack. Now the SEAL thought of two things, that he had gone insane from the intense training exercises that he constantly had to go through with or that he was in a coma. Of course, neither had made sense. 

Insane people only created delusions and hallucinations out of things that he had seen before or imagined in the past. People in comas or in states of unconsciousness would only dream about things they know about or wish to experience. Not once had the SEAL thought about cartoonish mini horse creatures with such features.

Then, another thought crossed his mind. To a normal person, it was completely unbelievable. To the SEAL, it was completely plausible. He was quite possibly in another universe that was occupied by small cartoonish horse creatures. 
Not knowing what to do, the SEAL took his eyes off of his binoculars. 

The SEAL could only think about what to do next? He was human and was currently hidden from small cartoonish mini-horses in a large gathering of grass. This was not anywhere near a normal situation for him. The rules of engagement that he had to painfully memorize wouldn't work here. He simply can’t go down and attempt to establish contact.

Then again, he was in a foreign world and the capabilities of these ponies are unknown. If he did anything wrong, xenophobia may cause a massive problem for each side. What would you do if an unknown creature appeared out of the ordinary carrying devices and equipment of unknown purpose? 

If something did happen, it looked like he had the upper hand as the survey from earlier gave him the knowledge that these horse creatures was not that technologically advanced due to the makeup of the buildings. Then again, he didn’t know what the full capabilities of these creatures were. For all he knew, these mini-horse creatures were omnipotent. 

Then there was the option of hiding out but that was only a short term solution. Even worse, what would happen if they found out he was spying on them? Again, he didn’t know what these creatures capable of.

Looking through the binoculars again, he tried to obtain as much useful information as possible. After an hour or so, it yielded a good result. He knew there were three types of these things. They had wings, a horn, or none of each.

However, none of this was useful though he now knew what to call some of them, pegasi or unicorns. The ones without either feature, he could call them mini-horses. Standing back up, he returned his binoculars back to his backpack and took the rifle off of his back, once again holding the weapon in his hands.

Standing back up, he walked over to a public bench and sat down on it. All he had to do now was to wait and hope that nothing would happen with his soon to be public sighting. If worse comes to worse, he could always try to fight his way out or use a grenade as a suicide device.