The Soldier and the Princess

by ACW

1

THE SOLDIER AND THE PRINCESS- CHAPTER 1

The human and the pony princess were walking in the night. To where, neither of them knew. They just walked. Of how the human got into Equestria, neither of them knew. But the human knew that he was lucky to be whisked away from Earth into a virtual Utopia full of colour and life. Although there was a little bit of a scuffle when he suddenly landed in front of the Canterlot Castle out of nowhere, he was welcomed with open… hooves. Still, when he was invited to join the Princess on one of her nightly runs, he did not leave his belongings in the Canterlot Castle where he was given temporal residence; trust did not come easily for him.

The princess gazed at the human. He was still clad in what he called his ‘battle harness’, and it was laden with his possessions that he last had before he appeared in Equestria. A helmet bounced in synchrony with each step he took. His load was heavy, yet the human had no trouble keeping pace with her.

What caught her attention when he first appeared, and now, was the pole-like object slung across his back.

“What is that thing you’re carrying on your back?”

The human remembered using the ‘thing’. It was heavy, considering it had many metal components surrounded by thick carbon-fibre. It was long and was almost two-thirds his total height. It certainly looked intimidating and curious to the pony princess.

“It’s a large calibre Trabete Precision Sniper Rifle. It has enough firepower to not only kill enemy soliders in one shot, but also to destroy small vehicles. And boy would you like to see the holes it leaves.”

The princess eyes’ widened. So much power in a small ‘rod’…

“Why’s there such a need for such a terrible weapon on earth?”

The human reminisced how Earth was like before. Wars had broken out on a global scale over precious fuel sources. Countries turned against each other, and spread lies to everyone else. Blood had been shed. His face darkened upon remembering the lives he had taken. He looked at the princess.

“If you’re calling this terrible, then I’d enjoy the look on your face when you see the bombs. There’s a massive global war back on earth, and I’m one of the so called ‘elite soldiers’ who specialise in demolition and sabotage.”

The princess visibly shuddered. This was unlike anything she had expected. Despite being Nightmare Moon before, she could not imagine such atrocities in great magnitudes.

“That is… terrible. Pray tell, what was the war about? What could have been so horrible a reason for your people to turn on each other?”

The deep purple pony was asking too many questions. It was unsettling. But as the princess looked into his eyes, the human relented and replied.

“I dunno ‘bout this place, but resources were kinda scrawny back on earth. Humans have long always relied on somethin’ called fossil fuels for their day to day stuff.”

“But the bad thing ‘bout using these stuff was that, it causes the climate to go shit on us. Global warming and all that crap.”

The princess flinched a little at the coarse language, but she pressed on.

“So turns out that we were reaching the last of our stock of fossil fuels. At the same time, the weather’s gone crazy. So the big guys’ were looking for people to blame and well, ‘course people got angry.”

“Some guys tried to stop them, they were talkin’ stuff like save the world ‘fore it’s too late. Stop using those fossil fuels. ‘cos they knew that shit’s gonna rain on our heads if we keep doing that.”

“Truth is, many people in my world couldn’t really give two shits about what happened if they did what they did. Then people started pulling wars on each other, trying to claim each other’s land and stuff, and well, I’m stuck in all this as a soldier, doing my job, until…well you know what happened.”

The human took a drink out of his canteen. It tasted stale. It was one of the few times he had spoken so much and it had dried his throat. The princess frowned; it was a little too much to take in one go. Curious about what this human thought of this, she asked again.

“If you knew that what you were fighting for was bad, why didn’t you stop it?”

“I couldn’t. Even if I did have an opportunity to do so, I still wouldn’t. The majority always wins, and I had to take up the job to help my family. What choice did I have anyway? I don't wanna throw away my life campaigning for the environment when I can use it to do something slightly more useful.”

The human sighed. The governments on Earth either had no guts to turn down propositions from the general public, or had beaten them into submission. It was either a weak government, or a total dictatorship. People either ran around doing whatever they wanted, or they were restrained and kept in line. Meritocracy in one, classes in the other. He was too dumb to be a real academic, so he had joined the military. So he didn’t really have much choice when he was deployed.

“Everyone has a choice, it’s only whether you choose to recognise or not.”

The human felt a twinge of irritation. His time spent serving the military was less complicated- he ordered people and they would not question him. Yet this pony was throwing him question after question, something he was not used to.

“Let me tell you something’ that I actually remember from school… Somethin’ called opportunity costs. I find that forgoing the welfare of my family is more demanding than forgoing the welfare of the world. So I made my choice, didn't I? Just felt my family was more important.”

The human rolled his eyes as he recited the economic text. He smirked a little, and continued.

“Besides, it’s not my problem. Those who started it should be the ones sorting it out.”

"That doesn't seem fair. You share your world with them! Why shouldn't you be responsible for it? Yes, it's their fault that this problem happened, but how can you choose to be ignorant about what happens to your world?"

The princess was mildly shocked that he had said that. The human released another sigh.

“And why can’t your rulers share the resources with everyone else? Surely they must understand everyone else is in need of these treasures and would benefit most if they just shared…”
God, these ponies…

“I dunno ‘bout you guys, but we humans have ‘basic nature’ or so it’s called; self-preservation is sure as hell important. And to get that, in a world of supplies getting’ smaller and smaller, would be to secure them at the expense of others. Then others get too tacky and start hoarding cos’ they think it’s something good to show their power.”

Talking about other people and himself was frustrating. The human grit his teeth and started ahead. When he thought about it, the rest of the guys back on Earth all seemed like selfish bastards. And he knew that he may as well be another one.

“But surely there are good humans on Earth? You’ve mentioned them before; those who sought to correct the rest of the world even though they turned a deaf ear on them. Certainly these are exceptions? “

The human stopped walking.

“…”

The princess trotted ahead of him and looked him in the eyes. They bore a cold steely gaze. But the princess knew that the human mildly surprised. And behind those eyes, she knew was some shred of goodness.

“Wouldn’t it be strange to say that normal people, or ponies, were evil at their very core? If that were so, society wouldn’t exist because people wouldn’t trust each other. If everyone was truly selfish, then no one would look out for anybody. Everyone would be out to get everyone’s necks just to satisfy themselves.”

It was a foreign idea to the human. He absent-mindedly scratched the back of his neck.

“I don’t think I follow.”

“Why did you join the ranks of soldiers in your home?”

“Pay’s good. Get to do something I may actually have been good at.”

“What do you do with your pay?”

His father, mother and younger sister, they needed the money. They had barely enough to scrape by. But he knew that he owed them something. And he had to give it back to them.

“Send it to the bank, if it even exists, where my family can get it?”

He never trusted banks, but he didn’t have much of a choice, did he?

“So even though you do these horrendous deeds during your war, you still have a sense of obligation to your family. That is a sign of goodness you don't seem to recognise. Human, it's only a matter if you choose to recognise it. I don’t think it’s true that everyone in your world is evil at their inner core. Certainly there are bad people, and Equestrian society is no different. But there are still good ones around, because they have dedicated themselves to honourable behaviour. Like I've mentioned before, all have a choice in what they want; but it's only a matter of whether they recognise it or not.”

The human stroked his chin in thought.

“…Maybe.”

It was a good point to consider, after all. It was slightly comforting to the human. He smiled a little bit at the princess, and they continued forward, neck-to-shoulder.

The night sky was clear and the air was clean, which was unlike Earth, the human thought. He still needed to adjust to the locals though; it’s not every time he got to see Technicolor ponies everywhere. The path led to a lake, and the pony princess took a seat by a group of reeds next to the water. The human sat next to her, jingling as he went. He took another drink from his canteen.

“Princess, I admire how your home is very peaceful. How do you manage to keep it down around here?”

A/N: This is my first MLP fiction. Characters who appear here who are ponies do not belong to me, but to HASBRO and all the whatnot. Please rate and review =)

Comments

[EyGuyDude]

Well its.... meh. It would have been better if you wrote about the human coming to equestria instead of starting later. But this is your first, and I love these types of stories so please continue!
Also I liked :)

[Mr Foster]

Well, I must say. Well written.

Few tips:

-Seeing as how most of the story was written in italics, yet the dialogue was in regular font, I figured that it was written like that. While it's fine and all, you would probably do better to switch the two around.
-Some grammar errors, yet easily fixable with some editing.
-Instead of putting a period at the end of a Dialogue sentence (ex: She ate the apple.) add a comma, unless it was originally part of another sentence.

Well written for a first timer, and with a little practice and an editor, you can have a tip top shape story in no time. If you don't have an editor (most of us don't) I suggest you visit a group like Freezecast Reviewers. They always give editing help to newcomers to the site.

Besides that, looking good! I'll have to watch where this goes, so have my favorite and like!

[MoonriseUnicorn]

It's not bad. But there are a couple of problems.

First, the fact that the human has his rifle with him is a really big plot hole for me. You say "trust didn't come easy for the human." Well, I seriously doubt the ponies trust him either, at least not completely. And given that, unless the castle Royal Guard is unbelievably incompetent, I just don't see them letting him walk with one of the princesses alone and armed to the teeth like that. There's no way they'd let him near her with weapons, or even anything they suspected might be a weapon.

That plot problem aside, the other major problem is the head-hopping. You switch between Princess Luna's viewpoint and the human's viewpoint way too often. That's fairly distracting to readers. Generally, it's best to stick to one viewpoint unless there's a scene change.

Those are the two main issues I see right now with the story.

[TheScribbler]

Excellent. I enjoyed this little piece of nothing.
Moar? Maybe?

[Strat]

I'll keep my eye on this.

[cameron1898]

interesting... there where plot holes but it was not about the plot really. i would like to she more of lunas opinion though but its just shows the corruption of the world and i like that so 2 out of 5

ps: the scale is and u got

[Pony Bones]

Hmmmm, mixed feelings about this one, it brings up some good points and the simplicity adds to send the points home. I have two criticisms, the first would be grammar, not really a big deal since it didn't detract from the story. But the second is very personal to me, the mindset of the soldier is close but not quite there, good try though.

[ACW]

1317227Oh dear, I hope I didn't offend you. I guess my powers of imagination wasn't up to scratch :/

[Pony Bones]

1317929 Not in the least, as they say MLP is all about love and tolerance. The story has potential, keep it up and it will get better.

[damnaion]

mmmm