Always Vigilant

by TheScotsman

Chapter 14 - Adapt - Unedited

White Tail Woods
Equstria, San Prancisolt
August 2nd 1000
1000

We'd been walking for what felt like hours, the pain on my feet reminded me of our Afghan patrol routes, albeit without the searing hot desert air penetrating your face. No, no this was much better, except for the fact that I'd rather be doing anything but this.

However cruel fate had cast this situation upon me and so I found myself trudging through the thick foliage along with two ponies in armour and one unconscious pegasus.

'Fuck you fate' I thought to myself as I manoeuvred my way around a particularly thick log that had fallen across our path.

"How much further are we taking here corporal? I'm not sure about yourself but having the shit beat out of me has severely drained my motivation for an afternoon hike," I commented my eyes trying to follow the ranger as we moved through the foliage.

Looking back Astra stopped for a moment as if contemplating her answer before looking back to face me. "Were already off the track, its doubtful well run into anyone out here, not many ponies dare to stray this far into the White Tail Woods these days,".

"Pray tell, why would that be? Is the forest full of bad scary monsters that eat up little ponies?" I asked putting on a mocking voice.

The corporal didn't seem fazed at all by my comment as she turned back around and started walking again. "Yes,".

I paused for a moment "seriously?" I asked as I climbed over another tree.

My question remained unanswered before a subtle snort behind me broke the silence. Looking behind me I saw Vesper with his face contorted into a smirk a style unfamiliar to me. 'I didn't think that had another face other than his pissed off divorced dad face'.

Keeping my thoughts to myself I simple cleared my voice before asking. "Something funny, Seargent?"

Still carrying the unconscious Golden on his back he simply scoffed. "Of course there are no beasts around here, this is the White Tail Woods, not the Everfree Forest!" He exclaimed almost dropping Golden in the process gaining a sharp glare from me.

"Technically that's incorrect, there have been rumours that the White Tail Woods has one of the largest Timberwolf Dens this side of Equestria," Astra interjected.

Not being one to easily back down from an argument Vesper quickly retorted. "Exactly corporal rumours the local city officials in San Prancisolt kick up a fuss in court about it nearly every moon, trust me its a load of horse apples,".

Stopping on the spot I quickly pulled a 180 to face the grumpy night guard my face contorting into one of confusion then cringe. "San Prancisolt?" I asked putting an emphasis on the obvious pun.

"Is there a problem with the names of our cities now?" Vesper asked clearly becoming tired of my constant nitpicks of their country.

Honestly, fuck em. It's hardly my fault that their planets one massive pub ball of annoying.

Trying to quickly move on I returned to the question at hand.

"So are there or aren't there wolfs around here?" I asked quickly growing tired of the conversations.

Sensing my impatience Astra quickly cut to the chase. "Officially no, there's been rumours, the occasional 'sighting' and sometimes people go missing but they've never been officially spotted this far North of the Everfree,".

"I take it some ponies just wander off the trail and starve?" I asked, my cynical nature taking over. Perhaps this place wasn't full of sunshine and rainbows after all.

Astras face fluttered before returning to trekking. "Yeah, in a nutshell. Anyway, the point is this woods been given a reputation, it's unlikely that anyone will have the guts to wander of the trail this far into the woods so we should be safe, all we need to do now is find someplace to camp out until we receive word from Princess Luna,".

"And how long will that take?" I asked specifically.

"Honestly sir?" Vesper replied from behind. "We have no idea,".

---

White Tail Woods
Equstria, San Prancisolt
August 2nd 1000
1823

By now the sun had begun to lower itself from the sky its the final concentrated beams of sunlight showered down from the burning ball of gas breaching the canopy of the thick forest in small concentrated beams give a scattering affect to the ground below.

We had made a quick base camp in a small clearing deep within the forest. The camp was in a good defensive position with trees surrounding most of the camp with our flank being protected by a small cave that had been implanted into the foot of a large rocky hill.

Vesper was currently out foraging for some food. Given our location, I was hardly optimistic but I was hoping that he could at least salvage some edible berries for us to eat. In the short term, I still had an MRE in my pack, I had planned on eating it before my last deployment however I had never gotten the chance and so it had sat there uneaten, my last peace of Earth food.

The MRE would do me for about 24 hours but after that, I was pretty much fucked when it came to food so I was hoping that the foraging quest would yield some promising results.

In the present, however, I found myself resting against the entrance to the cave. The cave only went a few meters inside the rock. Enough for us to flee from the rain should it come but hardly large enough for us to fit our entire camp inside. Currently, I was watching over a still unconscious Golden Archer who was lying passed out on top of my roll mat that I had prepared for her.

The air was still warm enough for her to do without a fire but I knew that our stint in the sun wouldn't last forever.

I was currently debating in my head on what to do with Golden. On the one hand, I didn't really have much in the way of proof, my body cam hadn't recorded anything that had happened once she had left the room so I had no tangible proof to give her other than the testimony of myself and the rangers. However, it was doubtful she would take our word as gospel.

On the other hand though, Golden had been relatively nice to me since I had arrived in Equestria, she had been polite and hadn't been little arseholes like the other guards around the palace. If we could get her on side it could go a long way in getting me some real help.

However, this would clearly require some mature CO tact the type of which I hadn't been able to use properly since I ended up here.

I was broken out of my train of thought by the sound of several logs impacting the ground at different times as they rolled slowly towards me being spurred on only by the momentum of the fall.

Looking up I saw Astra who now had her helmet off allowing her purple mane to fall through covering the back of her neck. She strode over to where I was sitting before plopping herself down on the opposite side of Golden.

"Okay, there's enough logs there for a good fire tonight and tomorrow if we're conservative, hopefully, Vesper can bring something edible back for us to consume," Astra said as she pulled here wing blades off one by one allowing her to stretch her wings in the open air.

"That's good to hear, I've got enough rations to do me for 24 hours 48 if I push it, mainly human food I'm afraid not much here to suit a pony,". I replied showing her my MRE bag.

"What's the difference between Human food and Pony food?" She asked as she examined the bag I had placed onto the ground.

'Well I knew this conversation would've happened sooner or later, might as well get it over and done with'.

"Sir?" Astra asked again clearly seeing my distracted state.

I turned to her with an almost sheepish look. "Well Humans, unlike ponies, are omnivores, so whilst we do eat a lot of the same food like eggs we also require a substantial amount of meat products,". I said finishing my brief explanation. I thought I had done a pretty good job of explaining it to her.

To Astra's credit, she didn't leap up and run for the hills like I was excepting initially. "So, you have a similar diet to a Griffion then?" She asked.

"Uh, I guess if they're omnivores too, I'm honestly quite surprised you're not warier of me knowing I'm a meat-eater," I commented.

Astra simply chuckled. "With respect, your not the only species on the planet that eats meat, I've been on deployments across the Celestial Sea before and the Griffons there had no problem in chomping down on meat,".

I was still getting used to the multiple sentient species thing on this planet but nevertheless I was glad that Astra wouldn't be cowering in fear each night that I might suddenly turn around and decide to have pony steak. "I'm glad you understand,".

Astra nodded with a small smile on her face. "Most ponies in the guard that have been on deployment to other lands will understand you, however, I can't speak for the entire pony Populus, many here see our way as the purest way to live so maybe dont bring it up everywhere you go, although some Pegasi do eat fish as a delicacy sometimes, however, restaurants like that can only be found in the cloud cities,".

Not having the strength to challenge her on the topic of 'cloud cities' I simply nodded in return.

After a while of sitting I got up to stretch my legs, I walked around the small clearing that we had established ourselves in. The trees would be a disadvantage if Celestia deployed their forces into the woods to find us. Luckily Celestia wasn't the only one in possession of a bit of magic.

As I walked around the tree line I started to drop small metal triangles onto the forest floor, they impacted with a light thud before beeping slightly.

Curious to what I was doing Astra floated over to investigate for herself. “What are you doing?” She asked peering down at the small objects.

“I’m trying to give us a fighting chance if Celestia and her goons come chasing after us,” I replied setting another one of the objects down. I only had four in total so they had to be used sparingly.

“And these little... things are going to help us?” Astra asked looking unconvinced.

“These little things are proximity darts, they’ll let us know if anyone comes near our camp, at the very least it gives us a chance to prepare,” I replied. Taking the last two sensors I lobbed both of them in different directions into the forest in front of us. Their impact was accompanied by the sound of leaves being brushed aside and one very loud yelp.

“What in Tartarus!” A voice yelled.

The voice. Which was instantly recognisable made me smile to no end as a very annoyed Vesper came trailing out of the foliage rubbing his helmet with his hoof.

“My bad,” I said nonchalantly.

“What did you do?!” He demanded stomping his hoof on the hard surface causing an audible thump.

“Well I was trying to set up a sensor net before you got in the way of my throw,” I told him though I’m not sure my answer satisfied him in the slightest.

“Whatever, anyway I've got bad news for all of us, I couldn’t find any food other than some berries but they’re hardly what I’d call a sustainable food source,” he explained as he trotted into the clearing setting down his gear next to mine.

“What’s the closest settlement to our camp?” I asked moving to follow him.

“There’s a small village called Cherrie Cross a couple of hours walking distance from here, we could probably buy some produce there but we don't exactly have much in the way of bits,”.

I sighed moving back over to sit down next to Golden. “Well it's better than being stranded in the desert, we’ll just need to find a way to get a steady amount of supplies but for now were going to have to rely on our rations and stretch them if possible,”.

“That gives us 48 hours at most, how exactly do suppose we get bits Human? Are we just going to waltz in and take some without paying?” Vespers condescending attitude was really starting to piss me off, as of yet we hadn't exactly formed any sort of command structure other than they were supposed to protect me, but something had to change.

“I dont know!” I yelled. “If I was in this situation on Earth it would be a million times easier! But I’m not, I’m here in a place I know literally nothing about, we’re all in deep shit and whether you like it or not we're all in this shit storm together so maybe you could start brainstorming with me here ranger!”

Vesper scoffed “You think I wanted to be in this situation? We’re only helping you because the Princess commanded it not because we willed it, we hardly know whats going on ourselves and yet we’re still sticking our necks out for you, potentially against our own forces so maybe a little gratitude would be nice!”

I paused as I buried my hands into my head. Arguing was clearly getting us nowhere. We had to focus on working as a team whether I or he liked that prospect.

“Look, I appreciate you guys helping even if you haven’t had much say in the matter, but the fact of the matter is that right now I need both of you to help me, if we work together we can get through this, but we can't do that if we keep arguing over what our course of action should be,”.

Several moments of tense silence followed before eventually, Vesper bowed his head slightly much to the relief of myself and Astra. “Okay, Captain, I’m not immature enough to deny the fact that working together is our best course of action and if our Princess believes your important then I do too,”. The statement, whilst short was a breakthrough in this brief Cold War but nevertheless it was a relief.

“Alright then,” I said outstretching my arm for a handshake, both ponies eyed me curiously as I mentally slapped myself in the head for being an idiot. “Oh, yeah your suppose to shake it,”.

“Like a hoofbump or hoofshake?” Astra asked.

“Uh yeah I suppose,” I replied awkwardly. Thankfully Vesper placed his armoured hoof in my hand as I clasped it before giving him a firm shake.

---

White Tail Woods
Equstria, San Prancisolt
August 2nd 1000
2000

The fire slowly crackled as the moonlight began to shine onto the clearing of our basecamp.

I was currently tucking into my chicken and veg whilst my guards were left with just a few scavenged berries and a ration cube for their meal.

It hadn’t been fun explaining the whole meat-eating thing over again to Vesper but like Astra, he was understanding of the situation, however, neither of them seemed to appreciate the smell of the cooked chicken. In reality, I couldn’t really blame them as the meal in question smelled like shit. Although the taste wasn't bad.

“Well it's good at least one of us is eating like a king,” I said in my first real attempt of humour.

“I’d rather be a Peasant than a king if it meant I didn’t have to sit here and smell that horrible thing,” Vesper replied eliciting a small laugh from myself and Astra.

“Fair enough mate, fair enough,” I admitted.

However, the brief dinner time conversation was soon interrupted by a groaning sound behind me. As I turned around I could see Golden slowly regaining consciousness from her hour-long slumber in our camp.

Sitting my meal down I quickly moved over to her side along with Astra we kept her in place as her eyes slowly opened. “Hey Goldy, its okay, dont panic, I need you to stay calm for me okay?”

Goldens eyes were now wide and full of terror and fear. She tried to move but immediately winced in pain as her injuries from the fight hit her like a truck.

“Don’t move soldier, we’ve restrained you for your own safety so you don't do anything stupid to hurt yourself or us,” Astra interjected hoping to calm her down.

“Wha... What's going on, wh... where am I?!” Goldens voice was rough and laced with pain and fear but she was in no position to put up a meaningful fight against us.

Before we had started prepping dinner Vesper had cast a ‘ward’ as he called it which would prevent Golden from moving, similar to zip ties I suppose.

I was about to try to explain what was happening when a small beeping started sounding off on my chest. The sharp hearing of the ponies picked up on the noise instantly as they all turned to me looked to me in visible confusion.

However, unlike them I wasn't feeling confusion at all rather concern and worry was now starting to set in.

The feeling of dread slowly began to surface inside me as I pulled my PDA out of my vest to get a proper look for myself.

“Captain, what is it?” Vesper asked moving over to me to see for himself.

”Shit,” I whispered.

“Sir?” Astra asked confused as she looked up to meet my gaze.

“Grab your weapons!” I shouted as I reached out for rifle.

“What?!” Vesper shouted back.

“The perimeter has been tripped!”

Author's Note:

Sorry this update took so long, originally I was going to have the rangers backstory here but I decided they should each probably have their own chapter later on in the story.
This might be why this chapter seems a little out of place as it was heavily adjusted throughout the past two weeks.

As always comments are appreciated.

Stay at home everypony!

Comments

[Xblaster]

Good chapter, look forward to next chapter to find out who is sneaking up to them

[Coranth]

A Soilder Torn Away From Combat Duty Is Forced To Adpat

How I read it: "A soiled-err is forced to add pat..."

Please rewrite your short summary and correct the spelling; also, remove capitol letters.