Forgotten past, brighter future.

by Steelhooves

2

Chapter Two: First Impressions

I continued down that path till I was standing about ten meters away from that lavender coloured pony...Wait pony's don't have horns do they? What has a the body of a horse and the ho- "Your a unicorn!" I blurted out. To which the pony replied "Yes, hello my name is Twilight Sparkle and I would like to welcome you to Ponyville." She said with a large smile. I actually went light headed, thinking to myself OK, ok calm down just try and figure whats going on.
"He-hello..." It was all I could think of to say!

The purple pony then said to me "Hello, now if you don't mind me asking I was curious as to what your business might be in our town?" her smile never wavered. I was still stunned, I was talking to a unicorn!
"I'm ah I mean, ahh I'm lost." She cautiously looked over me for a moment before asking,
"Where are you from?" wracking my brain in an attempt to remember something, ANYTHING I ended up only remaining quiet before answering.
"I don't know..." She continued her chain by asking,
"What is your name?"

I lightly kicked my foot at the ground, while staring off into the sky before answering, I then returned my gaze to her saying "I don't know." At this she seemed to be confused, before asking more questions which all arrived at the same conclusion. I.Don't.Know.

Twilight thought to herself while looking over the strange two legged creature and was becoming increasingly frustrated, it appeared this thing knew less about itself than she did. She carefully thought before asking her next question
"What are you? I mean no offense but I have never seen something like you before" this wasn't exactly true, he did resemble an ape, but at this the creature seemed to finally brighten up, answering one of her questions at last! Saying
"I'm a human being." This also relieved Twilight a small amount, now she had somewhere to start from on her research.

Before she could ask anymore questions the sound of distant galloping could be heard and only a moment later her friends came into view. Each pony slid to stop beside Twilight and though she was relieved to see them the creature took a few steps back raising the "Weapon" that Rainbow had described earlier.

As if things weren't crazy enough! I thought as five more ponies came into view sliding to a stop beside the purple unicorn, for some reason I took a step back and raised my rifle defensively, I had no idea what to expect from these new arrivals.

"Are you OK?" Twilight asked the human as he stepped back.
"Eh, yes I'm fine." I said lowering my weapon then looking back over the assembled group, I spotted a familiar colour in the group, a rainbow coloured pony with wings. I pointed at the pony before quizically asking,
"Have I seen you before?" to which the pegasus responded
"I doubt it but I've seen you!" thinking back I remembered the blur from the other night.
"Wait I did see you just after I was attacked by a...ahem lion thing."

"You mean after you killed the manticore?" She said glaring at me for some reason.
"Its not my fault it attacked me!" I retorted.
"Everypony calm down!" Twilight said standing in front of a still glaring Rainbow Dash "We don't need to be fighting, and from what I have gathered thats not why your here is it?" She said pointing a hoof at me. I shook my head before saying "No, thats not why I'm here, I was just looking for somewhere that was safer than that forest I was in."

**************

Everyone/pony went silent before a light orange colour coated pony said "I dunno 'bout this Twi he seems might suspicious..." I felt my blood run cold, if I couldn't enter the town I'd shortly be killed wandering through that forest. Before I could say anything a yellow coated pegasus with a pink mane mumbled something causing everyone to turn toward her and listened intently, though I couldn't hear what she said at this distance, it appeared to be more positive.They then turned their backs to me having a hushed discussion before turning back to me and smiling in unison, except for the rainbow maned pegasus who, grudgingly, seemed to go along with the others.

"We've come to an agreement." Twilight said gesturing towards the assembled ponies. "You can stay so long as you agree to disarm yourself while in town." I gave a sigh of relief, at least the conditions were reasonable! I nodded towards them smiling before saying,
"OK, that seems fair enough." I quickly unloaded my weapons and then layed my rifle along with my handgun on the ground, I then returned my attention to the group before me. I began to walk towards them, when I noticed my weapons floating along beside me, I jumped a little at seeing this before they flew by me over to where Twilight stood.

I began to walk into the town at the center of my "Escort" and had little trouble as we entered, it was still very early morning and the sun wasn't even visible, but and it appeared as though no other members of the community were awake yet. As we continued through the town we came across no other ponies, after about five minutes of walking we came to a large tree near the center of the town and the lavender pony entered while gesturing for us to wait. "Spike will want to know before he comes in or else he might panic." She entered, leaving me with the other five ponies.

"Ah, nice town you have here." I said with the hopes that I could get off on the right foot. They were silent for a moment before the orange pony said,
"Thank ya kindly, mister?" flinching I quickly said,
"I don't know." soon regretting speaking at all. The ponies around me all gave me confused looks except for one, a bright pink coloured pony who's hair very closely resembled cotton candy, who never seemed to stop smiling. A few moments later Twilight reappeared telling us to come in.

As I entered the building I was fascinated, it appeared to be a house comepletely carved out of the inside of a tree but the tree itself was blooming and had leaves. But this didn't last long as when I entered the room, a strange looking purple lizard with green spines gave me a unimpressed look "So this is the mighty manticore slayer, eh? You don't look so tough." I really didn't know how to respond, so I simply said
"Who are you?" to which he responded,
"The names Spike." I don't know why but the name echoed inside my head for a few moments.
"Pleasure to meet you." He shrugged before going over to the stairs and dissapearing up them.

Soon enough we were all seated on the living area, which was just pillows on the main floor. "So do you remember anything?" Twilight asked me.
"Not yet...but I'd like to thank you, all of you for helping me." Everyone seemed to ease up at this. I silently observed my hosts. From what I had gathered Twilight was the leader of the group and possibly the most intelligent, the rainbow maned pony never took her eyes off me though, which made me incredibly uncomfortable, the orange coated pony with a hat and golden mane from earlier was now quietly talking to a snow white coated unicorn with a mane of deep rich purple hair, done up in an extravegant curl giving her a sense of elegance, after that only the bright pink pony with the puffed up mane (Who was still smiling) and a yellowish cream coloured pegasus with a light pink mane, who was hiding behind her remained.

As I began to think of what to say next, the snow white pony turned to me and cautiously ask "So where will you be staying while in town?" she sounded very posh but not in a snooty way.
"I didn't actually think that far ahead. I was just hoping that I could find somewhere safe sleep." and it was at this I realised just how tired I was, having not slept nor stopped moving since yesterday morning,
"Honestly anywhere outside where I wouldn't be in the way would be fine." at this the pony raised her hoof to her forehead theatrically, "Darling that simply won't do! You must have proper lodgings while you are staying in town."
At this the orange coated pony from before said "Ya could stay'n mah barn if that would be alright wit' you?"

I smiled "Thats very generous of you-" I stopped with the realisation that I only knew Twilight and Spikes name, I glanced around awkwardly before saying "Ah, sorry I think I forgot to ask your names back on the road." I said looking at each of them in turn.
The first to answer was the up until now silent pink pony "Hi I'm Pinkie Pie!" Followed quickly by the hospitable orange mare "And I'm Applejack pleasure to make your acquaintance."
"And I am miss Rarity." Said the snow white unicorn. The yellow pegasus behind Pinky gave out a squeak but I just assumed she was too shy to talk to me.
Applejack then said "And thats Rainbow Dash." pointing a hoof at the rainbow maned pegasus she simply shrugged before saying, "Well I gotta go clear the skies, bye guys." She said before flying out the door.
"Whats wrong with her?" Applejack asked.

"I think its because of me..." I said without really talking to anyone, again noticing my fatigue, I asked "So would you mind showing me where this barn is? I haven't slept in...ah I don't know, two days?"
"Sure thing sugarcube, just grab your gear and lets hustle." I picked back up my backpack and slid it onto my back then looked around for my weapon, before remembering I had given up my rifle and pistol to Twilight,
"Hey um, Miss Sparkle, could I ask where you put my weapon?" She simply nodded before saying,
"I'll keep them here with me until your ready to leave town."
"OK I guess, just be careful with them." I was silently grateful I unloaded them before handing them over, at least now if she studied them they wouldn't kill something.

Applejack was waiting by the door, so I quickly said goodbye to everyone and followed her out, we walked on the outskirts of town to avoid the chance that my presence would cause a panic, but even when moving out of sight we made good time and were strolling up the dirt path to her orchard less than fifteen minutes later. As we passed rows of apple tree's that led to the barn, I saw a large maroon coloured pony casually bucking apple tree's, causing every apple on the tree to fall down into waiting baskets, safe to say I was impressed, albeit slightly intimidated.

As we drew closer the red buck glanced at us and for a moment looked fine, before quickly frowning having spotted me. "Mornin' sis, who's this following ya?" he said eyeing me curiously, Applejack then said,
"He's just someone who needs a place ta stay for a while." he seemed even more confused at this,
"Pardon?"
"I offered to let him stay in the barn till he can figure out what he's doin' with himself." I gave the colt a smile,
"Pleased to meet you, sir." I said, and at this he chuckled a bit and gave me a friendly smile
"No need tah call me sir, just Macintosh or big Mac will do."
"Pleased to meet you, Mac." I said, while silently thinking This at least appeared to be going well.

Soon after this we arrived at a large, rust coloured barn that had obviously seen better days, but was much more preferable to a manticore infested forest. "Sorry 'bout the mess, we don't really use it much now, 'cept for storage." As we entered I noticed that there was virtually nothing inside,
"Storage?" I asked in a questioning tone.
"Well not right now, we're still filling the cellar, if it wasn't fer that dang swarm of parasprites, this would be full right now." she looked sad as she glanced around the barn.
"Sorry to hear that." I said, even though I didn't know what a parasprite was.

I went in and quickly unpacked my sleeping bag, (Finally it has a purpose) then turning to Applejack and saying "I really do appreciate this, thank you." She just gave a friendly smile, saying
"No problem, we've got lotsa room here, may as well use it, just holler when your ready I'll be out helping my big bro." at this she turned and went out of the room, I stared at the door for a moment before dropping on top of my sleeping bag, and quickly falling asleep, my last thought being, Well this ain't so bad...

Comments

[Steelhooves]

Chapter 2 guys sorry for the delay, but I have to study and that on the weekends and I don't have alot of time durring the week.

Oh and please feel free to tell me how I can improve it

[Ghost-091]

One piece of critical gear I just remembered that is missing, which can easily be explained in the MC's back story, dog tags. I honestly can't believe I forgot about the dog tags, especially since I never take mine off (And just to pass along information to those who don't know, dog tags are a pair of thin, metal tags that have information on them to help identify a body of a fallen soldier if the body is damaged beyond recognition, and the info is listed in this order: Last name on the first line, First name and middle initial on the second line, social security number on the third, blood type on the forth, and religion on the fifth.)

[Skabrony]

It's important to remember that you can't have the dialogs of two different characters in one paragraph. It makes it a little difficult to follow. Other than that, your doing great and this story has quite a bit of potential! Keep it up!

[Steelhooves]

36281 In the first chapter my guy searched himslef for ID remember he found nothing

[Steelhooves]

36282 Thanks for the tip, live and learn

[Ghost-091]

36292 I remember, it's just you never take the dog tags off, unless you're dead, and then you only take one and leave the other on the corpse. The question is, why did they get removed... (BTW: operating off less than an hour of sleep, excuse the rambling and discombobulated thoughts. College life plus Army life equals h*** on sleep schedule...Or lack thereof)

I'm going to try and catch about ten minutes of sleep before I have to get back to work... I might be able to keep coherent thoughts together then... Maybe...

[SureFreeD]

So, recruited by the US Corps, or the British Royal Marines?
Or the International Forces?
Curious.

[Meta Knight]

interesting

[Ghost-091]

36846 Thanks for the compliment, and I have to say I've only met one other person who has (and still does) make medieval-style melee weapons. It's really impressive, while the only ability I have is just the ability to question why the US government is willing trust me with a multimillion dollar M1A2 tank, but not a civilian pistol...

[Steelhooves]

41490 Thanks man I appreciate it, but I think I may end it here.
I feel like all at once for the past week, losing my notes on chapter 3 didn't help me either.

[Ghost-091]

41511 It happens to all of us. Last week I just couldn't get back to work in my college courses all week. Take some time off. It'll all come back to you. This supposed to be fun for all involved, not work.