The bird in the crow family

by InedibleBeef

Discoveries

Jay met with Will back in front of the guard camp after setting up the last of the targets. They had a big first surprise for them. Celestia, Luna and the other seven were waiting from the balcony on Twilights library. Jay checked his watch (which he had been sure to set to equestrian time), 05:00 hours.

Jay aimed high and fired thrice. “WAKE THE FUCK UP! WERE UNDER ATTACK!” They both ran and tent by tent they scared the hell out of every pony with their gunfire.

“C’MON! GRAB YOUR CROSSBOWS!” Will shouted. Jay started a timer on his watch.

The guards hurried outside to no real threat, but to the sacks of white powder painted red.

Jay shot at one, exploding its insides. “Alright you get the idea! Get behind cover and shoot them down!” The guards obeyed, using the logs of wood they had built as a makeshift cover and began shooting at the sacks.

Jay noticed shadows on the poorly lit ground, circling the entire area. A team of pegasi, it seemed were observing the event unfold. They wore a dark purple and blue armor and their solid colors were similar to each other and to the armor. Maybe they’re the lunar militia. He looked up to Luna for her consent, she nodded.

“Hold your fire! Friendlies!” He shouted much to their confusion. He looked back up to the militia and tried the hand signal for attack, hoping they would understand it. Thankfully, since the signal used only a fist, three of them swooped down and impaled as many red bags on their spears. Two more came down to finish the rest. The celestial guards gave a synchronized huff at the sight of them.

“One hell of an entrance!” Will shouted to the five dark pegasi. The last two came and landed near Jay.

“We heard those noises, but it was only a drill. As we can now see.” A female guard said, taking her helmet off, revealing a light purple mane and large hazel reptilian eyes.

“What time were you all up?” Jay asked.

“04:00 hours sir.”

Jay stopped instantly, none of the celestials ever spoke to him like that. “Okay everyone stop!” all froze, lunar and celestial alike. “Say that again please so everyone can hear you.” He said to the lunar in front of him.

“We were up at 04:00 hours sir!” she repeated. A short pause came between the guards.

“Hooves up if you know what that means.” Jay asked the celestial guards behind the covers. No hooves went up other than the lunars.

“Okay you all need to learn from these guys, darker armor and can talk like real militants. Plus you all took,” Jay checked the timer, “three minutes to take out eleven targets. That’s fair, but improvable.”

Celestia’s face flushed red as Luna smiled and chuckled at her.

“Formations! Were gonna go wake up the town!” Will shouted out to the celestials.

“You all want to join us? Were going to run a cadence.” Jay asked the Lunar militant.

“Do I?” She turned to her squadmates. “Who wants to go on an early morning cadence?” She asked. A simultaneous shout of approval came from the lunars.

Jay smiled, she reminded him of Rainbow Dash the first time he challenged her. “Alright lets go! Lunars and Celestials alternate in your lines! Highest ranking in front!” They all obeyed, creating a pattern in the Cadence formation of Gold and purple. Both the humans led them into a jog heading straight to town chanting old marines songs. The voice of all the ponies combined could make the weakest of souls stand up to a hydra.

Celestia decided it to be an appropriate time to begin rising the sun, before the soldiers wake them all up. She lit her horn with her magic and steadily lifted the star above Equestria. The roosters call accompanied its arise, although the shouts from the cadence were more than enough noise to wake everypony up.

~~

“Okay, I will ask you some questions, and you, will answer them.”

The creature stirred uncomfortably in his shackles.

“What are you?” Huey asked, leaning into its face. It only hissed in return, which really pissed Huey off.

“I heard you talk to me!” He punched it in its stomach “Speak in a real language!”

“A changeling!” It said in its scratchy voice.

“Good you can talk” Huey spat. “Now where is the vehicle and its two operators?”

“In Equestria” It said through its teeth.

Huey frowned. “Where the fuck is Equestria?!”

“Not in this planet, we have created portals between worlds, and we teleported the vehicle to Equestria.”

Nobody in the interrogation room liked what they were hearing. “Do you know if they’re safe?”

“Yess, we believe they have befriended the poniesss.”

“Ponies?”

“Oh, yess, Equestria, hence the name, is inhabited by many equines. Most famously the ponies, allied earth, pegasi and unicorn races.” It said.

Huey punched it hard again in the stomach, “Don’t bullshit me”

“Huey wait! Its telling the truth!” The operators distorted voice came over the loudspeaker.

“You expect me to believe this?” He said, turning to the mirrored glass.

“Well, no. But the polygraph reads positive. Plus he’s under sodium thiopental.”

Huey grunted. He didn’t believe this, of course he didn’t. A world with talking ponies, and Jay and Will are now friends with them. But this thing was obviously from another planet, no way the radiation could have made this serious of a mutation.

“Okay, how do I get to one of these portals?” Huey asked.

“I’m not telling you,” It said in its scratched voice. At this, Huey smashed his fish into his rib cage, cracking one of them. “WHERE IS IT?” The changeling cringed, grunting from his pain. “Never” It muttered weakly.

Huey’s face twisted into a scowl, “shock it,” he said. The changeling’s body shook and tensed up as the electricity coursed through it. The electricity cut and the changeling’s muscles loosened, his breathing short and fast. “The-h-hi-vv-e” he sputtered. It took Huey a few seconds to realize what the changeling had just said. “What hive?”

A few seconds of heavy breathing and Huey nearly snapped. “WHAT FUCKING HIVE?!” He screamed, startling the creature.

“The earth hive! We-we have access to Ponyville, Canterlot, everything!” The changeling was crying now, all hardcore aspects to him had now rotted into mold. “We believe your friends are in ponyville, but they might go with the princesses to Canterlot!”

Princesses, fucking pony names for places, it was too much to take in. “Okay, can you give me a map of… pony world, whatever.”

The changeling sobbed, “Yess, they are all at the earth hive.”

“Where is the earth hive?” Huey asked in what he hoped would be the last question.

“East” the changeling said in a less desperate tone.

~~

“Holy dumb fuck”

The sea of pony reporters and journalists had surrounded the library and were trying to get a talk with the humans. Ever since the report of an alien species in ponyville, the numbers of travel writers and journalists in ponyville had been soaring up.

“Are they here for us or for you?” Will asked Celestia who was also staring at the crowd but with a look of pure amusement on her face. “I think they’re here for you. I haven’t seen ponyville produce this much journalism for a long time.”

“Great, I guess we have to open the door then” Will said, his hand on the doorknob.

“Wait” Jay said. “They might trample you”

Will really wanted to say that he really didn’t give a shit from the bottom of his heart, and he didn’t. He also knew Jay didn’t either, as he never really gave a shit about anything but his family and friends. “Might” He swung open the door and almost immediately regretted his decision. The ponies didn’t do much as trample him but to surround him from all sides and assault him with a barrage of questions.

“Are you truly carnivorous?”

“Have you ever eaten the flesh of a pony before?”

“Are you aware that the board of magical education is refusing to believe you exist?”

“Are the rumours true that you are having an affair with the princesses?” Celestia shuddered at that.

Will turned to where Jay was standing for help, but he was nowhere to be seen.

“Damn your stealthy tricks Jay!” As for Jay, he was just watching the entire scene unfold, biting his tongue to stop himself from bursting out in laughter. It was almost no use as the sight of Will being attacked by ponies was hilarious to him.

“We demand that we can see your memories Will!”

Well, so much for hilarity.

“Who said that!?” Jay shouted, emerging from his hiding spot. None of the ponies dared to make a sound. Will however, his cord had been struck, his eyes were as wide as discs, and he was twitching in several… familiar spots.

“Nobody, huh?” No response. “Alright, I will answer the questions of ONE journalist, but for now you all need to go away.” Jay didn’t need to say it twice, all of the journalists cleared out as fast as they came, door slamming behind them. Will was left in the same position he was a second ago, the ponies almost supporting his weight that were now no longer there, thus he was collapsing. Just as he began his plummet, a bright yellow aurora surrounded him and he was brought back to an upright position, Jay had already rushed to support him to the nearest chair.

“Well, that was interesting” A voice belonging to a certain lavender unicorn said. All three turned to Twilight and Luna in the doorway to the living room. Luna however, was not amused especially because of that wonderful journalist who just had that wonderful question. “Yes, most interesting.” The other five ponies followed them out of the living room. Silence dawned over the group, which was broken by Will.

“Do you want to know what happened?”

Of course they did, “Of course, but what about you both? Won’t you suffer from it?” Celestia asked, concerned for their reactions.

“I think you should know what happened. Don’t worry about us.”

Jay was immediately alerted by this, “Are you sure?”

“Yes, they need to know before it gets out of hand” Will looked certain.

Jay gave a very short lived but deep thought. Thank god for CNGs. “You can look into my memories again, Will doesn’t need to see that again.”

“Neither do you” Will countered.

Jay sighed, “I know, but what they did to you was so fucked up, I only…” he lowered his head, “…watched” Jay exhaled heavily. Once again, silence cursed the room, only to be broken by Celestia.

“Are you sure? It wont harm you too much?”

“I dreamed about it almost every night back on earth, I’ll manage.” Jay paused. “Do it”

Celestia hesitated, but quickly lit her horn and had Jay’s memories project only in the other ponies.

---

Jay was being dragged through a dark hallway by two armed guards, he was struggling to get out of their grasp, but they were both twice as bulky as he was. Before long they reached a large metal door, upon entering, 51st squad was all seated around a poker table, a snub nosed revolver in the very center.

“Oh shit” Jay said, realizing what this was. The two guards forced him into a chair in between Will and Kyro.

“Oh god man” A large, bald man emerged from the dark and leaned against the dealers space on the table and picked up the revolver, he pulled out four bullets from his coat pocket and slid them into a random slot. He finished and slammed the revolver on the table, sliding it to his right, Yuri.

“NO! YURI DON’T DO IT!” Axe shouted. The stock of a guards gun came seemingly out of nowhere and shut him up with a smack on his head.

“SHUT UP!” The man screamed at him and then turned to Yuri, “PLAY!”

Yuri only looked down at the gun in horror. Yuri, the toughest man of them all, scared.

“I SAID FUCKING PLAY!”

Yuri took a quick deep breath and grabbed the gun, he aimed at his head and pulled the trigger, click.

Yuri exploded into a huge panting mess, and shoved the gun out of sight. Everyone else let go of a breath they were not aware they were holding at that moment too.

The man took the revolver, pulled the hammer back, and slid it right in from of Johnny. “Play” He growled.

Johnny slowly picked it up, shaking everywhere. Jay closed his eyes, blacking the projection out and a gunshot penetrated his ears. He opened his eyes again to a limp body on the table, a pool of blood already formed around him.

“NO!”

The projection flashed, and Jay was in another room, chained to the wall. A rather large window displayed Will’s body strapped down to a table, a doctor stood nearby with a power drill, ready to operate.

“Okay, Jay. We will ask you questions, and you will answer them. If you refuse, your friend here will suffer from immense pain.”

Jay saw Will screaming at him to not tell them anything, but he could only see his mouth moving.

“Where is the rebel base located?”

Will screamed louder, but it was no use.

“You dont scare me.” Jay answered.

“Unwise”

The doctor powered his drill and drove it straight into Will’s hand. He immediately screamed in pain and tensed in his restraining table. Jay winced and tensed himself, the doctor held the drill in for a good ten seconds until he pulled it out and cut the power.

“I’ll ask you again, where is the rebel base located?”

“FUCK YOU SICK FUCK!”

“You just don’t get it, you watch your friends die because you refuse to tell me a simple thing, it is you who is sick.” The voice said.

“WE WOULD RATHER DIE THAN HAVE YOU KILL EVERYONE WE LOVE!”

“How noble” The doctor drilled again in Will’s other hand.

The projection flashed again, the same man from the poker table stood mere inches away from his face. A curved metal blade pressing against Jay’s cheek.

“Where are they?” He asked in his low deep voice.

“Away from you”

The man pulled the blade towards him, slicing Jay’s cheek.

“Alright! I give up! You win!” He shouted. “I’ve killed all your friends, your brother” he motioned to Jay. “But you still WONT FUCKING TELL ME!” He whipped around to face Jay again. “So I will give all of you a deal, I kill you” He said, pointing his handgun at Jay. “I kill him.” He moved out of Jay’s way so he could see Will in a heap, bones all the wrong way, “Or I kill the boy” He motioned to Will’s brother, passed out and leaning against the wall.

Jay made no second thought of his decision, “ME!” The man stared at him, not doing anything.

“Do it.” Again, nothing.

“DO IT!” The man approached slowly, drawing his gun, leaning it against his kneecap and fired.

“Agh!”

There was a pause, where yet again nothing was happening, then the distant sound of gunfire came to the rescue.

“You all never do give up do you eh?” The man asked through gritted teeth. “But I have to give you credit, you are very brave. If you didn’t answer the way you did, I would’ve killed you because you were a coward.” An air raid alarm sounded throughout the entire base. The man pressed his gun onto the fresh bullet wound, shooting pain through all of Jay’s nerves, he only grunted in return.

“SO! Since it is policy to make the subjects suffer at maximum!” He turned at aimed at the boy and fired.

Jay fast forwarded about an hour in time, to see the same room, but filled with a team of rebels. Two were under each of Jay’s shoulders, to support his weight. Everyone was crowded around Will, clutching his brother in his arms, sobbing uncontrollably.

--

Jay cut the memories there, and was met by eight faces staring at him with watered eyes. A couple of things became apparent to them, the scar on Jay’s cheek and one large mark on each of Will’s hands.

“I’m so sorry, I shouldn’t have shown you all of that” Jay was instantly shot down from the looks of their faces. He looked down and rested his head on his hands and sighed deeply. It was before long Jay felt something wrap around him and nearly squeeze all the air out of him. He looked back up to Fluttershy, crying on his shoulder. At first, he had no idea what to do, but eventually returned the hug softly.

“It’s okay, I’m okay now.” He whispered in her ear. “He’s in a better place…” He paused and looked up, “…they all are” Soon, emotions took over all the ponies and joined in the tight embrace. They all gave Will one too, each personally saying sorry.

“I cant believe it, that was so...” Celestia was at a loss of words, she had never see something so terrible done to somepony, or someone. “Ending a child’s life… That’s just so awful. I’m so sorry for you”

“It should have been me,” Jay said.

“Don’t say that,” Luna snapped. Jay just sighed.

Will got on his feet and made his way to his backpack, he unhooked a long dogtag chain with seven dogtags on them. He also took Toby’s veil face scarf. He held the two items in each hand and stared directly at them.

“To 51st” He said.

“To 51st” Jay repeated.

The ponies watched the miniature reminisce that the two humans shared.

Just at that moment a timid knock sounded at the door, as if Fluttershy had done it.

“I’ll... go get that” Twilight walked off to the front door.

Celestia turned back to the humans and said nothing, she didn’t know anything that could possibly make them feel better now.

“I… I’m sorry you had to see that” Will said.

Nobody said anything until Twilight returned with their visitor, a foal with a tan coat and a brown mane. His body was smaller than his head, though his head was still small. Both humans noticed that he didn’t have a tattoo on his flank like all the other ponies, they would have to ask one of the ponies later.

“Um, Jay, Will, I know this might be a bad time but Featherweight here would like to interview you.” Twilight said uneasily.

“Uhh, yeah t-that’s no problem.” Will said.

Featherweight approached, his pupils almost the size of his eyes themselves. “…Woow” He breathed. Suddenly, he shook his head and turned to the two princesses. “Oh! Um, princess Celestia! Princess Luna! Featherweight at your service.” He bowed his head.

Celestia chuckled, Luna smiled and nodded at him.

“You at my service too?” Jay asked. Featherweight again was struck by fear, he stuttered and shuffled his feet.

“I’m just joking with ya” he bent down and ruffled his mane. “So you can start whenever you’re ready.”

“Right- uh, first question, have you ever eaten a pony before?” He asked, quivering.

“No, eating horse or pony is frowned upon, horses were very important to our way of life a long time ago.”

Featherweight scribbled down everything he said in exact detail before moving on.

“So hearts and hooves day is coming up, do you have a special somepony back at home?”

“Um, like someone you love?” Will asked.

“Well, yeah”

Will and Jay looked at each other for a moment before they realized he wasn’t kidding.

“No” Will answered.

“Nope”

Featherweight looked at them oddly. “Really? Not even a crush?”

Will and Jay looked at each other again, smiles creeping on their faces. “I like this kid” Will said, chuckling.

“We’ve seen some pretty flowers.” Jay said. “But, we don’t really have time for a serious relationship, nor do we really deserve one.”

Featherweight looked at them again.

“You know, all the war fighting.” Will said.

Featherweight nodded and continued writing.

“So that cancels a lot of questions out.” Featherweight lined through some things on his paper. “What do you do for fun? Or in your free time.”

“Hmm” Will thought.

“I like to have good friends, good music playing and a good brew in your hand, but not too much, don’t want to ruin your next morning.” Jay said.

“The civvies are a lot more festive than we are, they have like instruments, and dances around fires and all that stuff. Sometimes soldiers would get pulled in and not have the slightest clue what to do, pretty fun to watch.” Will added.

“Okay...Okay” Featherweight mumbled as he wrote everything down.

“Ah’m sorry to interrupt but I’ve got to go get some things together for Canterlot.” Applejack said.

“Oh, that’s quite alright” Celestia said.

Four others piped up with their own similar reason to leave, and soon it was only Luna, Celestia, Twilight, Featherweight and the humans in the room.

“Okay so I only have a couple more questions, do you humans really not have magic? If so, how have you made it through?”

At that point, both humans decided if this foal went to Earth, he wouldn’t make it that long. “No, we don’t have magic, we rely on technology that we invent ourselves or just survival techniques.” Will said.

“Yeah, technology here is primitive to us. I haven’t seen anything that runs on electricity other than life support at your hospitals.” Jay added.

“Okay…” Featherweight mumbled again. “How long do humans live?”

“At maximum around 110 years, but most of the time we die at around 80 to 90 years.”

Featherweight gasped as he wrote it all down.

They continued on asking and answering for about another thirty minutes, until Featherweight did the impossible and ran out of questions.

“Thank you so much for this again, it was a school project so I think I’m gonna do well!”

“Hey don’t sweat it little man, I’m sure you’re going to ace this one.” Will said about to open the door before a loud knock was heard. “Well, gotta get that” He opened the door to another journalist, this one was almost like Featherweight in the future. He had all the same accessories and the same colors on his coat.

“Hello Will,” He extended his hoof, which Will shook. “I am Aperture, the best journalist in ponyville at the moment. I have been collectively chosen to be the one to interview you and Jay.” A crowd of other journalists in wait stood a good distance away from the library.

“Sorry pal, we’ve already been interviewed.” Will said.

Aperture was shocked, “I…was not aware. Who interviewed you, may I ask?”

Will smiled, “This guy here” He pointed down to Featherweight, who smiled sheepishly. At that moment, there was a small flash on Featherweight’s flank, and an image of a notepad and a journalist’s hat appeared.

A sound left Will’s lips that would accurately transcribe as ‘dafuq’.

Featherweight looked ecstatic, his eyes were larger than anything on his body, even his ears.

“Wh-wha?” Aperture stuttered.

Celestia bent over to Featherweight’s ear level “Run”. And he ran Pinkie Pie fast, chased by the mob of journalists.

Will shut the door, laughing in confusion and at the journalist’s thirst for information.

“What-how did he get a tattoo that fast?” He asked Celestia, she just laughed at him. “What?”

She stopped laughing, seeing he was serious.

“Oh, but you have a cutie mark on your arm there.” Luna said, noticing the dragon tattoo that covered his arm.

“No, that’s a tattoo, ink that is permanently, erm, painted on your skin. Well, mine isn’t really painted but Jay’s is more painted since he got them from island tribes.” Will explained.

Celestia peered in for a closer look on Will’s shoulder, the tattoo was small, it only covered his shoulder bone. She definitely thought it wasn’t natural.

“Jay! Can I see your tattoos for a moment?” she asked.

“Sure” Came his voice from the living room, not before long he emerged and rolled up his sleeve, revealing several different tribal designs all in ink on his arm. He also had a dragon on his shoulder identical to Will’s.

“They look like the zebras cutie marks” Twilight remarked.

“I got these in a place called Jamaica, one of captain Monty’s contacts was a tribe leader, which he welcomed me into.”

There were many different snake-like creatures and what looked like to be a phoenix in ink. Though most of the tattoo was just different tribal artwork.

“Wow this Monty guy is something else huh?”

“Well, that was no tattoo. That was called a cutie mark, ponies get them when they discover their special talent. For Featherweight’s case, it was his specialty in journalism.” Celestia explained.

Both Will and Jay’s eyes widened at the realization, “OH! Everything makes so much sense now!” Jay said.

“Well your tattoos are very interesting, we will have to look into this ‘Jamaica’” Twilight said.

“That will have to come later, we don’t have much more than forty minutes until the train leaves.” Luna said, checking the clock mounted on the wall.

“Yes we have to gather everypony up and be on our way soon.” Celestia said. “Your car has been loaded onto the train and will be on the same train as we will be.”

“Great! I’ll get my stuff.” Will said running off, Jay behind him.

~~

After a short run through town rounding up all the elements and (without much consent) carrying their bags to the train car for them. Everyone was finally settled in their own train car and on their way to Canterlot. Jay told his stories of his travels with Monty in the Caribbean, from Cuba, to Jamaica, to some of the Virgin Islands. Monty, being a sailboat courier lived in no place other than his boat and the sea. While the life of a sailor like Monty may have been completely alien to most of the ponies, it interested them nevertheless. Even Rarity took a bit of interest in the stories, the bar hopping, sailing through storms and Jay’s first Cuban cigar she didn’t exactly enjoy hearing about but the native tribes in Jamaica and their sense of artistic abilities (portrayed by the tattoos) caught her eye.

Eventually Jay noticed Twilight and Luna were fighting to stay awake and decided to save them. He quickly thought of people yawning and soon did the same.

“Man I’m pretty tired. I think I’m ready for bed.” He faked after his self inflicted yawn.

“Yes me too, that early morning training really tired me out.” Shining armor added.

“Oh that was tiring? Now were going to have a whole city to wake up!” Will said laughing.

“Yeah just wait until you’re on earth and mortar fire is your alarm clock.” Jay said. “We should start camouflaging our flour bags."

Shining armor grunted. Once again he was being doubted.

“Well anyway we should all get some rest. It is getting late.” Celestia said. Everybody nodded in agreement and lay back on their pillows. Celestia reached for the button to turn off all the lamps in the room and pressed it, closing her eyes.

Comments

[poisedanimeBloke]

Amazing chapter! The only nitpick I have is that they arnt being writen fast enough to quinche my thirst for beutiful literature such as this.

[InedibleBeef]

2110303
Yes, I know this chapter was slow because of some school problems and it would take me the same amount of time to write one of these chapters to explain the whole thing. But anyways sorry for the late chpter