“Are you really sure about this?”
“Honestly, honestly no…”
“But you are a loyal costumer.”
“I believe is for the best.”
“Very well son, if that’s your wish then I will respect it.”
Soos was Christopher’s superior and also a friend. Their story begins when Chris was at the second year of the Sentinel’s training and Soos had to train him so Chris would become a respectable sentinel; at the end he resulted to be a sentinel slightly above from the average with the difference that through the time they spend together Soos picked interest in him; is no secret that between all the defense forces of USA II there are agents who are corrupt and obviously abuse their power, Christopher and Soos are no exception. However they aren’t bad people; they do their job at protecting the frontier and the civilians as try to maintain the order. Soos is technically the head of all the commercialization of the illegal drugs which circulates between the army.
Christopher most of the time used to consume marijuana and extremely rarely the infamous cocaine mixed with a bit of gunpowder; beside the fact of his addiction occasionally in his time off he abuses of his power to get free drinks and food; civilians are forced to comply without any kind of complain because depending on who is the assailant they might get shot; however Chris is not like those assholes; the fact that he abuses of his power is undeniable but one time in a while he actually pays for the meal or drinks, though he steals when the opportunity arises. For his luck he has somebody out there who has him controlled, so he doesn’t get overboard.
In other words both of them are criminals who should face justice immediately; however in their current society justice is only applied when the crime is really severe like betrayal, murder, rape and insubordination.
At least they are nice criminals.
Chatting or discussing was a great way to spend the time when you are on a road trip, but since they already arrived to the destiny they were just passing the time like friends do, they gave each other a reassuring warm hug; honestly it should be strange or awkward for man or woman to hug another fellow human who wears a morbid mask all the time, but Soos knows Chris very well and the reason behind the mask and gave his word to keep the secret until he dies from old age or K.I.A.
“Well, home sweet home son.” Soos said when he caught the sight of the watch post getting bigger as the car kept going.
“Yeah, live years in this shithole and you get fond of it.” Chris replied in his classical mocking tone as his hands found comfort behind his neck.
“At least you have a roof over your head, unlike other sentinels.” The officer added the remark when he saw Christopher trying to relax on the co-pilot seat.
“Mmhhmm… still is a shithole.” Once again he showed that his opinion will not change.
Aftermath there wasn’t much to keep talking about since both of they were out of ideas… actually that would be a total lie since Christopher had a lot to tell his superior, of course it was everything about Twilight but he would be taken as crazy at the instant and maybe shot on the head, so he was alone with his thoughts.
And worry was the primal thought.
The jeep was has finally arrived at the watch post, and it remained as Chris left it before he went to the mission which was a failure; the building of only one floor, a terrible made fence, a shameful crafted roof made with metal, wood and clothes, the walls filled with graffiti’s or burn marks and finally the very old and rusty jeep which Chris could only afford.
Alright that last one was a lie, it was actually lend from the army.
Chris got out of the jeep and stretched all his limbs since the ride took hours; Soos is really a good friend because probably any other one would have kicked him out of the jeep after the second hour and would leave him the rest of the road to walk. By car it takes around 4 hours, so you can get the idea of how much it can take to walk to there.
“Thanks Soos, I really appreciate it.” He said as he closed the door, since the jeep didn’t have a roof or windows they could still talk without interference.
“No problem kiddo, just remember that my shop is always open when you regain your interest.” He grinned knowingly that his favorite costumer will return to keep buying from him, when the time comes.
“You know it.”
“I will take my leave then… take care son.” After that said, Soos pushed the pedal and the car began to advance forward only to do a turn to the left until he did the U shape and finally return to the conlony.
From his position Chris saw how the form of the jeep became smaller as the seconds passed until it was a dot and finally disappeared completely between the trees.
Chris sighed in relief.
He was alone.
Well, technically he isn’t alone anymore since he has brought a pony princess to his watch post; and pretty much left her alone for a while.
It was a very worrisome thought; since his work post has weapons stored and few minor explosives; fireworks and grenades to be exactly. And finally there are his hand-made traps for small animals that most of the time don’t work and don’t bring any food to his mouth.
Getting meat nowadays is troublesome and quite expensive, those farmers are really annoying and if they didn’t have any hired rangers he would have punched them on the face long ago and force them to give him a good beef and probably pork.
USA II is such a nice place to live.
No sarcasm intended.
Sarcasm intended with the last sentence, meaning that the other one was also sarcastic.
And this was on purpose.
ANYWAYS!
He gave a last look to his surroundings before heading back to his watch post so he could prepare all his stuff and leave the place ready for Ghost. Then he will have a month with a week extra of free time or also called the time of slacking off.
Maybe slacking off is a bit hard, because he has to keep his shape as a sentinel or two things might happen to him if he lose his body shape; he get a nice shot on the head or he is kicked out of his job…
Yes the first option actually happened but only to the unlucky ones who were discovered by the generals or commanders, the others got caught by officers so they only get fired.
After his free month is over he will have to go and take a test to check his health and if he can remain as a sentinel, fat or weak sentinels are useless and are only a deadweight to the rest of the team; is harsh and maybe even cruel but the military forces must maintain a status and always be prepared to face the Insurgents.
And if it happens, the Wings of Heaven.
There were many things to sit and ponder but with the situation at hand, first of all Christopher needed to enter the building and check if Twilight was fine all that time that he was out.
He didn’t bother in knock the door; his hand just twisted the doorknob and went inside the building only to notice the first thing that caught his eyes behind the lenses of his mask.
Books.
A considerable amount of books piled one above the other creating a small mountain of pure knowledge…
About birds…
And…
“PLAYBOY!?”
He lied about the porn excuse; Soos was right because there is no need or reason to have porn when you have a friend with benefits.
But…
The cover page was blurry so….
“I need to be sure.”
Checking his surrounding once again and forgetting his primary objective in find Twilight he went to the magazine and began to read the ‘articles’.
“Damn… I thought that these were lost forever, and this one is so very well maintained.” Despite his lenses shaded his vision, the pages were very so well maintained that he could see all the details of the ‘articles.’ As he kept reading he knew who was the owner of the magazine, this can be used to his advantage.
“Yes, this article is very good; a good one indeed.”
“Just look at the curves of that B and the P, they are just so perfect.”
Sure is boy, sure is.
But the reading must wait! Since his ear caught a thud sound from the storage room.
He placed the magazine between the books and walked in direction to the door where he heard the strange noise, as he stepped closer he unsheathed his knife and put a good grip on its handle preparing it for the worst case of scenarios. Despite is a big possibility that Twilight is behind that door he can’t be all that careless or trusty about the things, a mistake can take his life away.
He was in front of the wooden door, with his free hand he knocked it thrice and called for for the little princess.
“Twilight, are you there?”
“Christopher?”
It was a false alarm then.
The tension of the environment was gone as the same with his combat knife, he got rid of it like he always do, threw it away and search for it later wherever it fell and hope that it didn’t get lost.
The door was wide open and behind it were boxes and many other things and between all of it was a pastel colored pony with wings and horn.
He didn’t have time to act before she quickly went to his side.
“Are they gone?” her voice was trembling.
“What?”
That was the most confusing question he had been asked according with the situation. Twilight was cowering near his legs probably searching for protection as she asked if they’ve left, first it didn’t make sense to him that she was searching protection from him, and second; what she is talking about.
Chris kneeled next to her so he could hear well.
“What are you talking about?”
“Some strangers were near the house and looked through the windows, they looked really scary.”
Twilight Sparkle, the one who faced many threats; Nightmare Moon, Discord, Tirek, the Changelings, an Ursa Minor, etc… had felt scared.
The response came quickly to his mind, but he needed more proof to accept the answer.
“Twilight this is serious, tell me how they looked.” His demeanor changed drastically, this act could be taken as an act of hostility meaning that the recent treaty would turn obsolete.
“Ummm…”
“Yes?”
“Could you please stop grabbing me?”
He finally realized that without him noticing he placed both of his hands on her shoulders and brought her closer to him.
“Oh…sorry.”
They parted away, and the feeling in the environment changed.
“Alright, describe me their appearance.”
“Well I didn’t see much but when they tried to look inside I noticed that their main color was white.”
That was it.
Those were from the Wings of Heaven.
They violated the temporally law by approaching a military facility, even if it was a very small one.
He needed to report the incident to Soos now, but…
There is no proof or witness for confirm the accusation, and Twilight is out of question since she is a pony. This was a complicate situation for him, his duty was to report this act of hostility but if he does it, they will mark him as insane and maybe be shot in the head or just discharged without any honorifics.
But if he keeps his mouth shut, he might be risking the safety of Colony 24; because they might be planning a full scale attack on the colony despite is a paranoid thought it was necessary since they cannot be trusted.
‘But why?’
Christopher didn’t know what to do.
And his frustration needed to be released in some way, without saying any word he got up and made his way to the nearest wall ignoring everything what Twilight was directing at him.
“FUCK!”
He sent barrages of fist against the old wall of the building, however he wasn’t doing any damage to it instead he was only hurting himself.
Meanwhile Twilight saw him how he sends blow after blow to the wall, and worry began to wax inside her. If he continues doing that he might get hurt badly because his gloves don’t seem to give any kind of protection; she needed to do something, but what?
However to her relief she didn’t have to do anything to stop him since he did it by himself.
Christopher looked at his hands and clenched them and unclenched them several times attempting to recover, his hands were sore and repeating the action over and over again helped him then he removed his gloves and did the same as he looked for any bruise that could be of importance but there was none.
“That’s better.”
Sentinels or Rangers are forced to hit tress with all their strength in every single hit they deliver before they start their hand-combat training, hitting a tree is painful; however when the process repeat over and over the bones of the hand become stronger and give more powerful blows the next time.
So he was accustomed to hit hard objects and hitting a wall was the best way to relieve the pressure or the stress when it became too much for him to handle.
But Twilight is completely unaware of that.
Later…
“So I was out a day and a half?”
“Yes.”
“That’s less than I expected.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well normally when a member from the Wings of Heaven knocks you out, you will awake after two or three, so probably they should have missed the spot.”
“Wings of Heaven?”
“Oh, right…”
In the time Christopher was out Twilight explained how she spend her time with reading, so she learned more about birds since all the books that she gathered were about birds and the anatomy, she already knew about them but the content of those books were even more detailed that fascinated her a lot. Though she found a very thin book; but the word book is used wrong there the best word would be magazine because the texture and the amount of pages were different and the images… well they weren’t very informative. It was obvious that Ghost was the owner of the Playboy number, but that fact raises the question of how he managed to get his hands on a discontinued and very old magazine which is incredible well maintained; it can be questioned later since that has no importance for the situation at hand.
Twilight needed to learn about the place where she was in, the only thing she knows so far is that she is in the human world but different from which she has gone, very but very different.
“You don’t know what I’m talking about, right?”
Twilight looked to the left, then to him as she rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment as she confirmed the doubt, causing Chris to sigh. It was obvious that she wouldn’t know a thing yet he still asked it.
Moving that aside he got in a better position since this explanation was going to take a while. Of course the sofa was out of the question since the floor was more comfortable than that shit.
“Look I don’t have any idea of where you come from, and you also don’t have any idea of where are you so let’s begin with the basis.”
As expected from a top student, Twilight sat near to him with her ears perked up and her attention focused on the oncoming story, the sentinel didn’t mind it and he began.
“Around one hundred years ago this territory used to be part from one of the most powerful countries in the world; and the best one if I might add, the complete name was The United States of America, and however it just collapsed. Nobody knows the exact reason since it just collapsed.”
It was the true he didn’t know much about the fall, however what his grandparents told him is that the economy collapsed but that reason didn’t make sense at all. If she wanted to research more she will need to ask to the correct people who know more about the topic.
“Now this country is divided in three factions, The Insurgents, the Wings of Heaven and USA II.”
“Right now we are in USA II territory, the frontier to be exact. Our territory is almost the half of the entire country and is divided by several colonies, if we only had a map I could have explained it to you better.”
“The other half is owned by the other two factions, with The Insurgents possessing almost all of it, and other countries as well.”
“Are they an Empire?” Typical from Twilight, asking question when she has a doubt.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Alright.” Then she resumed her student pose.
“Anyways, The Insurgents is the most numerous factions since most of the countries from the South support them or joined them. We also had few countries that supported us but it was a year without any news about them so the president assumed the worst and leave like that. But this is important to hear and get it memorized, they are hostile and had been declared to kill on sight.”
“Kill?!” Twilight was alarmed now, she knew about the word kill and its meaning but just hearing another being saying it so casual sends creeps to her back.
“Yes, they will not hesitate to take you down when they spot you.”
“Now is the turn of the Wings of Heaven, they are the smallest faction and their entire population would be no more than six hundred thousand I presume, if we send a full scale attack on them we would surely win but the cost would be very high. The reason that their numbers are small is because their society is based on the perfection, any imperfection will be eradicated. They always try to improve and when they achieve it they just want more, their technology is superior to ours and their military forces are far better. They have no morals since they take it as a step back to achieve progress and perfection, also the belief which they experiment on humans is no secret, they are bad people Twilight; never trust them. However they are considered neutral and we will only take action against them if they start.”
“Are they as bad as you say?” Twilight didn’t like the truth; this world was horrible to live in.
“Well, years ago a watch post received a fleeing man and protected him from Wings of Heavens, since that man wasn’t from much importance they allowed him to stay, the man thanked them crying his eyes out saying that the things they do in their laboratories are nightmares and they only see anybody who is not from their faction as animals. He explained that once a scientist removed the brain of unfortunate guy without doing much damage to head and that was kept alive as long as it possible.”
By that explanation Twilight was beyond horrified, that was a sin against nature, a perversion that nopony in Equestria would ever dare to think or much less do.
“They do that to their own kind!!??”
“We aren’t sure because a testimony of a single person is not enough, but we can expect a lot of things from them; that’s why you really need to stay away from them, they will not hesitate to do anything possible to learn about you.”
Days ago he wanted to sell her to scientist to do exactly that. But since she proved her intelligence he just couldn’t do that to her, and that’s a secret that he will never tell to her.
“But changing the topic, we are at the Colony 24 or also called Duluth, but it doesn’t have any economical value, the colony only serves as a line of defense mostly and in really rare occasions serves as a place where politics are done with representatives from Canada.”
“Any questions?”
“Umm, do you have any currency?”
“Yes, it was established the bottle caps as our currency; however gold can be also used but we also do exchanges.”
Twilight didn’t know if she should be fascinated or terrified with the little information she was given, she was always eager to learn more and when something was completely new to her she would research more until there was nothing new to discover; but this world sounded so violent and cruel, the difference between the other that she visited was an incredibly big gap. Yet, she is stuck there for an unknown amount of time so learining more about this world despite she didn’t like it was the best option.
“What are you?” Leaving an unfinished question or a question of double meaning sometimes can get you in trouble or indirectly making you look kind of dumb, so getting a flushed face aftermath can be understandable.
“I’m a…human?” Such question is also the ones which can catch people off the guard.
“I didn’t mean it like that!” Realizing of her second mistake Twilight brought a hoof close her throat and cleared it before speaking with a calmer and adequate tone. “I tried to say that you look like some kind of soldier, so are you some kind of guard?”
“Oh… well I’m a Sentinel so you can say that I’m somewhat like a guard. “
There was more explaining to do but he was short of time, he needed to begin with the packing. Twilight just sat there taking in everything that was told to her pondering a analyzing it meanwhile Christopher just stood up and began to grab his stuff, and with great care his weapons.
But the moment he stepped closer to the door a very import fact assaulted his train of thoughts. Immediately he turned and saw Twilight in the same position as before, Twilight Sparkle the pony princess.
She is a bloody pony who will go to the city.
“Fuck…”