I Have Returned Chapter 14:
New Friends
Six years ago...
Twilight slept surprisingly well that night. It had seemed that the exhaustion from the days events was enough to put her to sleep, rather than the fear from the days events keeping her up.
She was now at the bases mess hall grabbing some breakfast. Twilight decided to get up early that day to get there first, leaving her almost alone at the moment, save for the workers, and a few others soldiers who also got up early.
The mess hall was a sight she soon got bored off. It just reeked of gray. Gray tables, gray chairs, and gray walls. All of them, just different shades of gray. It also didn’t help that the seats were plastic, and uncomfortable. The worst thing though, was the food. In short, it was shit. Even through basic training all the way up to now, Twilight still gaged at the taste of military food.
In the end though, it was just another thing that she missed from home, the taste of food with a lot of love put in it.. Twilight couldn’t even imagine Pinkie Pie trying to eat this food. She would probably starve to death here.
Twilight wondered for a moment what her friends would think of her, if they saw her like this. As a soldier she meant. It was not something any of them would expect of her, but Twilight’s main focus was on how they would view Twilight knowing that she had taken a life. Most of them were disgusted at the very thought of killing. But Twilight was doing it for a good cause, and her first kill was in self-defence. They would certainly understand that, right?
Without her noticing, Jones took a seat right next to her, with Anthony, and Terresia sitting down at their usual spots. It was always like this. Jones was on the right to Jane, Terresia was across from her, and Anthony was on her left. Brennan on the other hand would sit with the soldiers from his room on the other side of the room.
It only made sense though, Twilight, and the others were only fresh out of training, and Brennan had already been in the military for a few years prior, plus he had already been stationed here for a while before Twilight came along. It only made sense that he would sit with the people he knew longer, although he would always stop by before meals ended to chat for a bit.
Twilight took a sip of her coffee as the others started to dig into their food. Ever since she started having to wake up at six am every morning, she learned to love the stuff despite how bad it tasted. She had Equestria coffee before on occasions, which was far better, but Twilight guessed that was more due to the fact that she payed a lot of money for it, and that this was just military brand coffee.
The food was just a pile of mush. It was supposedly good for you, but it tasted like a skunk got ran over, crapped itself, and was left out in the sun for several weeks. She actually puked the first time she had the stuff.
“I don’t think we’ll ever get used to this stuff.” Anthony said, taking a bite out of his food.
“You can say that again.” Twilight replied, using her fork to move around her food a bit.
Jones on the other hand never seemed to get bothered by the food. A good trait that Jane wished she had. He swallowed a bite of his food, washing it down with water. “So Jane.” He said as he finished his water. “Any regrets yet on the tattoo?”
Twilight looked down onto her tattoo again. She couldn’t deny his amazing artistic skills when it came to it. It was perfectly coloured exactly as it had been when she had it back in Equestria. Besides, she was prepared to live with it for the rest of her life long ago.
“None so far.” Twilight said, giving Jones a smile.
“Well, you certainly have a strange taste in tattoo’s Jane.” Said Terresia.
“Ya, but it works on me.” Twilight said pulling up her sleeve to reveal the cutie mark.
Anthony eyed it for a second, admiring Jones’s work “I guess you could say so. I don’t why, but it works with your personality.”
“More than you know.” She said under her breath.
Jane pulled her sleeve back down, and took another sip of her Coffee, the jolt of caffeine further waking her up.
The morning fell into their usual routine. The same conversations that they’ve had over and over again that strangely never got old. It felt weird for Twilight, she had just killed the other day, and yet this was such a normal morning.
She glanced over at the table in which Brennan usually sat to see that he wasn’t there. That was strange, he would normally be over here by now.
“Hey, have anyone of you seen Brennan around?” She asked her friends, receiving a collective head shake from all of them.
“Can’t say that we have.” Said Anthony.
Curious Twilight got up, and walked over to Brennans table to ask his roommates. Each of them looked up at her seemingly knowing why she was there. “He’s in our room.” One of them said.
Twilight gave him a quick thanks and proceeded out of the mess hall. Luckily for her, his room just so happened to be right across from the mess hall.
Cautiously she knocked on the door. There was no response. Twilight in response placed her ear on the door. At first she heard nothing, but after about fifteen seconds she was able to make out faint crying.
Confusion washed over Twilight. Was that Brennan? Without thinking she opened up the door to find Brennan sobbing on his bed, over a data pad.
He didn’t seem to take notice of her, until she sat on his bed next to him.
“Oh, hey Jane.” he said. Wiping the tears away from his eyes.
Jane put her hands on his shoulders for comfort. “What’s wrong Brennan?”
Brennan didn’t respond at first. He just sat there trying not to sob while Twilight had her arm around her hoping that it would help him feel better. After all, he had helped her the previous day.
Despite his silence Twilight decided not to push further, it was better for him to tell her when he was ready to. And so, they just sat alone together in silence, until Brennan managed to pull his head up.
“She’s… She’s dead.” He said.
“Who’s dead?” Jane asked.
“That girl from home. I loved her so much…” Brennan burst in tears again causing Jane to put her arms around him.
There was a lot of things Twilight learned about friendship. One of those things was that you should always had to be there for you friends, and they should always be there for you. He was there for her, and she was going to return the favour.
“There there.” Twilight said. “How did you find out?”
“I just got a message from her parents. They were vacationing in New Mombasa when it was hit.” He barely managed to get out before tears started to run down his face again.
Twilight ran her hand through his short brown hair. She had never fallen in love with someone before. She had a few crushes, but nothing else. There was no way Twilight could understand what he was going through.
“I wish I could understand how you feel right now Brennan.”
“It’s alright, I know you mean well.”
“Well you have me hear. I’m not exactly interested in you, so I can’t be a girlfriend, but I will always be there for you as a friend.”
Brennan sat up, and looked Twilight in the eyes. “I’m afraid that that can’t happen.”
“What do you mean?”
Brennan grabbed his datapad, selected a message on it, and handed it to Twilight.
What she saw on there, she couldn’t believe. “You’re being redeployed?”
Brennan gave her a nod. “I got the message last night, I’m leaving in a few hours.” He said wiping the last of his tears.
Twilight hadn’t noticed it until now, but she could see that his bag on the other side of the room was out.
“No, this can’t be happening. What am I going to do without you around. I’ll be scared.”
“You have Jones, Anthony, and Terresia. They are all your friends Jane.”
As much as she didn’t want him to go, he was right. As long as she had them around she would be fine. She was more concerned about him though.
“What about you though? After losing your girlfriend, how will you handle things without any friends by your side.”
He looked down at the floor in despair. “I’ll just have to manage.”
“What time are you leaving exactly?”
“At 12 pm.”
Twilight looked at her watch to discover that it was only 7 am.
“Do you need any help packing?” She asked.
“That would be nice thank you.”
Twilight started shifting through his stuff that he already had out. Folding up what little clothes he had, and placing them in his bag. Until she opened up his locker. In there was his armour which was to be expected. On the inside of the door though, was a photo of a very young looking Brennan, and a girl. The girl was very short, maybe 5’4, and had black hair.
That must of been her. She quickly stashed it in his bag, hoping that seeing that picture wouldn’t upset Brennan.
________________________________________________________________
A few hours later…
A pelicans engines roared to life as all of the Soldiers who were being redeployed boarded it single file. All were carrying bags of various sizes, and most of them looked depressed that they were leaving.
Twilight reluctantly handed Brennan his bag. “Am I ever going to see you again?” She asked.
“I don’t know. Probably not though.”
“I’ll miss you. After all, you’ve always been there for me throughout all of this.”
“I know. Jane, can you promise me something.”
“Of Course, what is it.”
“If we ever meet again, promise me, you’ll still me the Jane I know. Like I said, what you did the other day will change you, but you don’t have to change who you are.”
Twilight threw her arms around Crimson, who returned her hug. “Yes, I will be me. I Pinkie Pie promise you.”
“Pinkie Pie?”
Twilight chuckled at his confusion. “You wouldn’t understand.” She said. “But I will say something though, you can never break a Pinkie Pie promise.”
Brennan couldn’t help but be confused by this. He had heard of a pinkie swear before, but not a Pinkie Pie promise, but he went along with it. “Well, then you better not break it.”
“Don’t worry, I won’t.” She said, ending their hug.
A soldier from the pelican yelled out at Brennan, causing his attention to turn towards it. “Come on Brennan, get on! This thing is about to leave!”
He turned his head back to Twilight. “I guess it’s time.”
“Ok then. Goodbye Brennan.”
A tear formed in Jane’s eye as he boarded the pelican. He was a good friend, and one day before she would go back to equestria, she knew that they would meet again.
The pelican took off, the gust of wind blowing Jane’s hair back.
“Goodbye indeed Brennan. And we will see eachother again, after all I have a Pinkie Pie promise to keep.”
____________________________________________________________
UNSC INFINITY Present day.
Palmer stood in front of the doors to where the aliens were supposedly held.
She was under orders from Captain Arimondo herself to guard them.
The very fact that Jane Arimondo was captain pissed her off. It went against UNSC regulations, but Sarah couldn’t do anything about it as long as Jane had the support of the Crew. It was true that a Captains power was only as strong as the loyalty of his or her soldiers.
She pressed the button on the door opening it up to reveal five pastel coloured Ponies. Was this what Jane once was?
Palmer stood there for a moment motionless as the Ponies gawked at her. She shook herself out of that state and entered the room, closing the door behind her.
“Umm… I’m commander Sarah Palmer.” She said, but the ponies gave no response. “I’m under orders from Captain Jane Arimondo to guard the five of you.”
The mere mention of Jane’s name put a scowl on most of their faces. Touchy subject she guessed. Having an old friend come back after god knows how many years as an alien must be rough, and judging from Crimson’s and Jane’s argument earlier, it wasn’t a happy reunion.
It was a military dorm room that they were in. It consisted of four sets of bunk beds with very little room in between for the soldiers to move. And of course everything was in INFINITY’s usual blue colour palette.
Cautiously Palmer sat down on the nearest empty bed. She didn’t feel the need to stand, after all she was in armour, and she had lightning fast reflexes, so she didn’t need to stand to guard them.
Silence reigned over the room for what felt like hours. The ponies themselves didn’t even chat with each other, which was probably because Palmer was there. The situation couldn’t feel more awkward for Sarah. Most of them refused to even look at her save for a few glares, all except for one. A small yellow pegasus Pony with a pink mane who had been staring at her the whole time.
Quietly the pegasus stood up catching the attention of the rest of the ponies, and Palmer herself. She slowly, but surely trotted over to Sarah looking almost scared to death, yet brave.
“Umm yes?” Palmer asked. It felt so strange for her to be having a talk with a small horse.
The pony gulped down and spoke to her in a very hushed, and timid voice, very reminiscent of Spartan Terresia. “You said you name was Sarah Palmer right?” It asked almost cowering before Palmer.
“Yes, that’s my name.” Palmer responded whilst trying to keep her voice low to not frighten the pony. “Do you need anything?”
“No, it’s just our previous guards said some mean things about you.”
“Oh I see.” Palmer had guessed that the crew would be talking behind her back. In all honesty she wasn’t surprised at all.
Rainbow Dash scoffed. “Who cares Fluttershy, from what we heard, she’s just like Twilight.”
“Don’t be like that Rainbow.” Fluttershy said. “We don’t know that.”
Palmer knelt down beside Fluttershy so she could get at eye level with her. “Thanks, but I’ll be fine. I don’t your help.”
Sadly for Palmer though, Fluttershy wasn’t going to take no for an answer.“It’s ok, you don’t have to be like that.”
“I’m fine. I don’t like it, but I’ve grown used to my reputation around here.” The little yellow pony who she now knew as Fluttershy was really starting to bug Sarah now.
“Well, you must have some friends though. I’m sure of it.”
Fluttershy was really starting to prod at areas Palmer didn’t like.“My only friend here just died.”
Fluttershy almost went into shock at that moment clasping her hooves against her mouth. Palmer had no idea how much death and pain was a touchy subject to the little pony.
“Oh my, I’m so sorry.” Fluttershy said slumping down a bit.
“It’s fine.” Palmer said. She hadn’t really thought about it until now, but Lasky truly was her only friend on the ship, and now he was gone. They had been through so much together, and she had barely any time to mourn his passing. Sarah didn’t notice it, but she was beginning to sniffle up.
“You don’t look fine at all.” Fluttershy asserted. Palmer didn’t know, but the shy pony was all of a sudden stern, like a mother giving tough love. Even the rest of the ponies looked somewhat shocked “You can’t hide your feeling about things. You can try to be strong, but all that will happen is that they will bottle up in you.”
“I….I….” Palmer tried to form a sentence, but all that she could feel was sadness starting to swell up in her heart.
Without notice, Fluttershy lept at Sarah giving her a big hug. “It’s ok, just let it all out. About everything, the mean things others say about you, and your lost friend. Just let everything out.”
Sarah didn’t know why this Pony was forcing so many feeling up inside of her. It didn’t matter though, because at that moment Sarah could no longer hold back her emotions any longer as she put her arms around Fluttershy and burst into tears. Throughout the tears Palmer was able to blurt out. “Everyone hates me, and my only friend is gone.”
Even the remaining Mane 5 was stunned. It seemed that Fluttershy’s kindness could get to anyone.
“It’s ok Sarah. I’ll be your friend.”
Hearing that Sarah tightened their hug. “You really mean that?” She said.
“Of Course, after all friendship is magic.”
In any normal circumstance those words would have made Palmer cringe, but she didn’t care right now. “Thank you.”
Even the other Ponies started to ease up, some of them joining their hug. All except for Rainbow who was still pissed at everything human.
Just having all of them surrounding her in a tight embrace started to make the pain go away. The pain from Lasky’s death, and the pain from her reputation throughout the ship. It felt nice to be like this.
Fluttershy, and the rest of the mane five released their hug with Sarah, already feeling better.
“Now, tell me about yourself.” Fluttershy asked.
And that Palmer did. Because for the first time in a long time Palmer felt accepted.