//------------------------------// // My Fair Planet and An Unresolved Problem // Story: The Unlikley Sanctuary // by Tie RoamingHooves //------------------------------// I retyped this chapter because I decide the story needed something. I still have writers block LIKE A BOSS. They're all here. Waiting intently for a story I'd rather not tell them... but it needs to be done. It has to to be done. Looking at their faces I see they are expecting my planet is a whimsical fantasy world full of peace and harmony just like it is here. These faces will either change to expressions of disgust or empathy. A fifty-fifty chance, I don't like my odds but I need to do this. "Twilight before I begin I have a question." I say sounding a bit more pained than I wanted to sound. "How much did the princess tell you about my world?" "Nothing at all. Why do you ask?" "Well, no reason at all. It just means this story got harder to tell." I say looking up at the night sky. I then look at Ponyville in the distance with lights flickering off as ponies go to sleep for the night. "Girls I wish I could tell you that my world was as cut and dry as your world. I wish I could tell you that my world was a peaceful place where the people cared for each other and lived comfortable lives and never had a care in the world such as this places inhabitants do. I wish I could... but this is simply not the case." I say as I let the pain in my voice play more audibly now. I look at them all. I can see in their eyes that they have never had to struggle at any point in their lives. Sure maybe with social drama but never with anything that could uproot their lives. "My world used to be like this one to some degree but about four months prior to my arrival everything changed." I say with a hint of anger in my voice. "What happened to ya world that coulda changed everything?" asked Applejack who leaned in closer as did everypony else eager for an explanation. "War." I say taking my combat knife and driving it into the wooden part of a crate to punctuate my point. "World War III to exact." "World War? I don't think that is possible... is it?" Twilight asked with a hoof on her chin thinking about the answer. "Yes it is. Where I'm from it has happened twice before. So your right Twilight, it couldn't happen. Not here at least." I say still looking at the quaint town of Ponyville. "It is highly unlikely that your kind will ever see conflict on the scale it is in my world here in Equestria. That is if your kind sees any conflict at all." "What could cause your kind to hate each other so much?" "Well I can't really say that I know. Russia is at war with the United States and thats all I know. I treat it as given information and I work with forward with what I know. I didn't have time to question why. I just had to act on what is. I'm not a soldier. I don't get that luxury." "Wait, you told me you were soldier and now you say you aren't? Would you care to explain?" Rarity asked. "Well Rarity like I said I am essentially a soldier but not officially. Hell, technically I'm not even an adult yet." "Wait what?!" Twilight exclaimed. "You seem like an adult. Exactly how old are you?" "I'm sixteen. Humans don't hit adulthood until eighteen. I'm not sure if its the same for ponies. Anyways like I said, I am nor are Tyler and Jake, soldiers. We are a resistance cell. Our country is being attacked by a foreign power and its our job to help slow them them down. Every inch of land we help get back is a victory to us worth celebrating." The ponies looked at me with shock and pity. "Look, it isn't all that bad. At least the Russians didn't use nukes." "Nukes?" "Imagine a weaponized firework with the power to level a large city. Then the after effect would instead of pretty lights would be a flash more brilliant then the sun. It would get so hot someones shadow would be burnt into the wall while they would be turned into ash. After all that was said and done any survivors would have to deal with the nuclear fallout. A nuke is the most powerful weapon on the our planet and I consider myself lucky the Russians nor the Americans used them." "T-that is just ghastly. How can you be so calm about something as terrible as that?! Don't take offense to this but your world sounds simply barbaric." Rarity sputtered. "That it is Rarity but in all fairness my world was much like yours before the war. I can stay calm because I grew up knowing the dangers of my world which are way to numerous to list. It isn't as bad as you think." "It isn't that bad?! ITS HORRID IS WHAT IT IS." "It may be horrid but its home nonetheless." I say flatly which came out as an expression of annoyance. "Look here sugarcube, Rarity may have been a bit harsh but shes right. Ah don't even know how ah could handle myself in a world like that." Applejack said in agreement. Looking out into the distance I saw a familiar sight. A flare was fired out of the Everfree Forest. "Um... girls? I think this story will have to wait." I say with worry and urgency in my voice. "Whatcha mean sugarcube, we got all the time in the... oh." she said seeing the red flare shoot intp the night sky. "What in Celestia's name is that?" Twilight said with a bit of fear. "Its nothing but a flare. It means were not alone on this rock." I say getting my rifle and putting on my helmet. "Girls I'm only going to ask you once to stay here while we take care of this. I'm gonna be frank here; assuming that flare was man-made, if they are they aren't American we will likely see a firefight." The ponies were about to protest but before they got the chance I turned around grabbed some ammo and walked away with my gun in hand. "Tyler, Jake, saddle up were movin' out we got some company!" I yell into the farm house. "Dafuq do you want man?" Tyler yelled rushing out the door with Jake close behind to see the flare falling below the tree line. Jake looked at it and had a smile on his face for some reason. "We got company guys. We need to find out if they are friendly or not. We are heading into the Everfree Forest without the ponies so weapons free if we get engaged. Lets go." I say to them as they grab there respective weapons and we run through the orchard towards where the flare was spotted leaving be hind a group of confused ponies. When we got to the edge of the forest I stopped hearing the distinct sound of gunfire in the air. "I missed that sound." Jake said to himself. "That sound only means we need to hurry up. We don't know what kind of trouble these people are in." I ay resuming the journey. We trekked through the dense forest and I forgot to pick up a lantern before we left. It wasn't completely dark due to the fact that some of the plants here glow. I was a little nervous that maybe Russian's were here fighting of some Americans. Here we definitely didn't need that. After thirty or so minutes of walking in this dense foliage we started to near the source of the gunfire. We reached the edge of the clearing when I noticed it was the same clearing that we crash landed in. Then I heard the distinctive BOOM of a tank firing its main gun. To my surprise, its was an American made M1A2 Abarms tank. Not only was there a tank but there were five humvee's and about fifty or so men. They were all fighting a hydra which wasn't fairing to well. It was missing one of its four heads (probably because of the tank) and was riddled with bullet holes that were bleeding profusely. The beast was swaying back and forth and then fell smashing a humvee and about five men. Its great to see some other faces. But I needed to let them know whats up so I walked over to the tank. "Excuse me but who is in charge here?" I yell at the gunner. "Who the hell are you?" the gunner yelled back. "A friend now tell me who is in charge here." "That would be Sergeant Major Richardson. Tell me kid, what the hell are you wearing that for? Your not a damn soldier." "I'm the leader of a small resistance cell based out of Topeka. I picked this up so I could distinguish myself from civilians. Sit tight though because that hydra isn't going to be the only shock for you guys tonight." I say gesturing over to the dead hydra. "Is that what that thing was? Hot damn. By the way kid could I get a name? My name is Jackson but I go by Jack." he told me. What the hell, he just went from suspicious to friendly in ten seconds flat. "The names Tyrin. Nice to meet you. But with all seriousness I have some important information for you commanding officer. Can you please get him over here." "Sure thing kid. Hey Sarge, you got a visitor!" yelled Jack. Running over was a tall and skinny white guy with a cut on his face. "Tyrin?" "Daniel? What the hell man! Good to see you! Your face looks like its gonna have a badass scar on it when it heals." Daniel was a good friend of mine back before the war. I routinely was around people older than me instead of people my age because I found a lot of them to be immature and annoying. Daniel was always there when I needed something too. My family wasn't exactly your average one to say the least but thats a story for another time. "Yeah I know. Anyways, why don't you tell me about why you are wearing that because your not a soldier." "I'm part of the resistance. I'll save that story for later becuase I have important information for you. I'm going to have to ask you to stay calm when I tell you this." "Well we just teleported to god knows wear and fought off a giant four-headed monster.Nothing you say will surprise me now." he deadpanned. "Yeah good point." I say turning and signaling my men to come over. "Look, you teleported to another planet entirely. This one is full of colorful sentient ponies." I told him. He raised his brow at this. "I know its unbelievable but its the truth. Me and my men have already met with them and made peace with the locals and I can't have you men sully that. This land is called Equestria and we are guests here." "I'm having a hard time believing that, even from you." "Its true. Why would I lie about something this big to you?" "I guess but I need to see this for myself." "About that, it is the middle of the night so a lot will be asleep. Some ill be out and- oh wait. That tank will probably wake them up so they are in for a show." "Um seeing that we are in the middle of the woods I don't think we can take it any where anyways. The humvee's are small enough to fit between the trees but the tank might get stuck." "Actually, Fluttershy's cottage isn't that far from here. We could blow down the tree's and drive the tank through. After that we could just ride into Ponyville and head to Sweet Apple Acres from there." Tyler piped in. "Great idea. I did notice the trees here aren't exactly the biggest ones I've seen so we should have no problem blowing them down." he said rubbing his chin. "Also we just so happen to have a load of C4 on us." "Good but you need to know a few more thing so you can make sure we don't start a war." I say to him before giving him a complete rundown of Ponyville, its inhabitants and the story of how we got here. He then turned to his men who were running about performing various tasks and treating their wounded. Out of nowhere he summoned a voice I've never heard him use. "MEN GATHER 'ROUND." he said with a commanding voice that would give Celestia a run for her money. "As you all know weird shit has been happening since we ended up in this godforsaken place. Men I was just informed that were not in Kansas anymore. In fact were not on Earth." he told them and they fell deathly silent. "Hear are your orders. I need the explosives unloaded from the humvees and the wounded placed inside. We will be blowing down the trees to get the tank out of the woods. As soon as we do so, we will ride into a settlement. The inhabitants are not human from what I am told. I'm having a hard time believing this myself but we'll find out soon enough. I'm going to say this once: if they aren't human, DO NOT FIRE. They are peaceful with these three already. I don't want to anger the townsfolk." he said ending his short speech and the men went to fulfill their orders. I see Tyler directing them to the direction of Fluttershy's cottage. Fluttershy's gonna either be pissed or sad about her trees. I'll apologize later.