A group of war weary Terrans find themselves thrust into an alien environment where good is good and bad is bad. Or is it? These brave men will discover a world very alien but also very familiar.
The arrival of humans from Terra will spark many changes across the political, moral, and ethical landscape of Equus for ages to come, or will it? Will Equestria be able to cope with the changing landscape or are the "Sins of the Father" inescapable.
Are things in Equestria as black and white as the ponies think they are? How will Terran soldiers with deep-seeded PTSD, and emotional and physical scars of a war for survival cope with a planet where the inhabitants espouse love and tolerance yet have very volatile skeletons in their closet? And why are humans already on this planet?
Humanity. The hot shit of the galaxy, or so we thought. We were a warrior race, always fighting, always killing. We had some pretty high tech stuff: giant ships that could link two stars gravitational fields to create channels for FTL travel, the ability to terraform habitable planets, colonize star systems, store and transfer terabytes of data with devices that fit in our palms and develop Virtual Intelligences that were almost human like.
But you know how we killed each other still? We launched chunks of metal at high velocities. And we were damned good at it. And I was one of the best, a Ranger. A guerrilla hit-and-run demon. Masters of disappearing after fucking shit up.
I wish we could've said the same about our Naval Corps. Dont get me wrong, we thought they were hot shit too. Especially the Marines, crazy bastards with big brass balls that would have the Navy launch them from orbit to establish a planetary beachhead. But the Navy realized they were a small fish in a REALLY big pond during the Contact War.
Let me give you a brief history of the Contact War: humanity thinks it's all alone in the galaxy, a small Periphery planet has a small Army Guard and Naval Reserve force garrisoning it, the planet is relatively low on the totem pole of importance since it's a low population agricultural planet. Some alien force calling themselves the Conglomerate shows up with tech about 150 years more advanced than us and rocks the few Naval vessels in orbit in mere minutes, makes planetfall and chases the Guard elements out of their facilities, and occupies the cities.
Well, the 1-302 Rangers didn't like that too much. So upon realization it'd take a good, long minute for the rest of the Republic to realize what was going on, the Rangers began doing what they do best: sneaking in, killing a bunch of bastards, tearing shit up, then leaving as suddenly as showing up.
The aliens didn't know how to handle that apparently as the rest of the Conglomerate decided to call a truce and begin peace negotiations. The Contact War was a "mistake" as the race of Aurelians the Conglomerate's self appointed enforcers, "jumped the gun," as they said. Well, we figured out the Conglomerate's military has sweet tech and archaic tactics such as having a FLOT and utilizing massive units. Whereas our military utilized primitive tech (hell, we still used gunpowder for everything) but cutting edge tactics, like taking out logistical targets and letting the combat units starve, dehydrate, and run out munitions before dropping the hammer on them. So in agreement, we got the Conglomerate Security Forces up to speed for some sweet tech. All in all, a fair trade. We got better ship tech like magnetically accelerated cannons, true Artificial Intelligence, some crazy translation software, and energy shielding as well the little convenient items that jumped our military ahead 50 years, such as optical and cochlear implants. The Dresari took to our methods like stink to fecal matter, and the Kruzans integrated some units with those tactics, and the Aurelians thought our war fighting method was dishonorable. However, I've learned that honor does the dead nothing.
Again, humanity thought it was hot shit, especially during the Colonial Insurrection. Rebel forces using older tech were swamped, with the main portion of fighting beginning and ending in 2248 and all hostilities ceasing with the Colonial Treatise of 2251. All in all, humanity was chugging along pretty well.
Then in 2254, we lost contact with Eisenwuld. An entire military garrison of close to three million troops wiped out entirely. The 3rd Battlegroup stationed there lost all five dreadnoughts and over fifty smaller vessels, the 5th Battlegroup sent to reinforce lost three of theirs and took 70% materiel losses and 35% personnel losses. Only one week of fighting and the unknown force took the planet with only small pockets of resistance futilely holding on for Dustoff, it took the 5th BG two weeks to arrive in system for Dustoff. By then the Army only had 29,000 personnel to evacuate. Most of the units were 100% losses as they sacrificed themselves to evacuate civilians. After the Fall of the Iron World, 13 million civilians and a total of 148,000 military personnel escaped the wrath of the Coventry out 57 million inhabiting the planet.
I was 19, fresh out of Basic Soldier Training and Advanced Military Occupational Training, and I still vividly remember everything. I was Airborne Artillery, a Gun Bunny. We tried to provide fires but were overwhelmed and forced to abandon our guns. We linked up with, correction, saved by the 34th Marine Lightning Infantry. And we headed to the city Littzenpanner to help the 2-501st and 1-103rd Rangers evac civilians. As we dusted off the last civilian, they opted to stay behind and cover the remaining 2-114FA and 34th MLI retreat.
That was their last heroic act as the Coventry eventually just glassed the majority of the planet a few weeks later.
It's now 2260, humanity has lost 22 worlds and roughly 12 billion lives. The Conglomerate refuses to come to our aid with anything more supplies for relief efforts. And I'm no longer a fresh faced Private in an artillery section. I've since fought in dozens of battles. I'm now an NCO of the venerable and infamous Rangers. The Notziy Achat (the 'feathered ones') call us "Spectres," the Urchins call us "Demons," and the Jormungandri call us "Death's Touch." We are A Co 3-503rd Rangers, the Interlopers.
I am part of humanity's hope in this dark time, a beacon of courage and character. The War of the Tears, a vicious Jihad committed by a hierarchical group of alien religious zealots. We are their infidels, demons of their gods, an affront to their very existence. And they mean to wipe us from the history books in the name of their gods, the Precursors.
I am Sergeant Dietrich Steiner and this is my story.
Planet: Turkina Date: 24JUN2260 Local Time: 1330 MT-6
Yep, I lived through another battle. Humanity managed to evacuate another planet this time with "minimal losses." We lost the Titan shipyards but we only lost a dozen ships and about 20,000 personnel while evacuating the 137 million civilians. My Ranger battalion volunteered to stay behind and screen the retreat after the ground pounders got the civilians out of harm’s way. We were dirt side for close to three weeks before some Naval Blockade Runners snuck in to get us out. This time I only have to commemorate the loss of five of my squad. But it's not their loss that grieves me, kids they may be but privates come and go and I can't get caught up on that. What's broken me today is the loss of SGT Dominic Tomlinson. He's the Alpha Team leader and my best friend. He was always there for me, through life and death. If I had to shit, he'd cover me and I'd cover him when he had to shit. It's a bond that can be understood by those who place their lives totally in the hands of their brothers in arms. It is time to hold the Remembrance of the Fallen.
"Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to propose a toast."
----------
Planet: Equus, Locale: Canterlot Date: Junius 24, 1001 AB Local Time: 5:15 PM
"Dearest sister, why art thou so sullen still?" Luna asks with genuine concern for her sister's wellbeing.
"I'm just not sure what to do at the moment. A week ago, humans all over have the planet had a surge of violent behavior throwing certain regions of the planet into veritable chaos. The Griffon Fiefdoms were hit the hardest as the human population there was quite possibly the largest, outnumbering the griffons. Thankfully, other than some minor incidents here, the humans didn't seem to misbehave. But it's what I discovered this morning that has me on edge."
"And what might that be?"
"Oh... Discord's sudden disappearance this morning." Celestia said.
"What? Surely thou art pranking us." Luna responded, dropping her face to a deadpan.
"I wish I was, you may take a look for yourself if you'd like. He's not in the gardens anymore."
"Then why has nothing changed? Discord lacks the self-control to not whimsically wreak chaos." Luna said with a gesture of her hooves.
"Come dear Luna, you have a moon to raise. We can continue to converse while we walk." Turning back, Celestia makes sure the throne room is no longer in ear shot for fear of a lingering noble overhearing her next words. "The nobles are furious about what I wish to do with the humans."
"What do you mean? What are you planning?" Luna gasped, caught completely unawares.
"I'm surprised you haven't noticed. Humans aren't the simple animals we thought they were when we first domesticated them. They clearly have higher intelligence. Over a thousand years ago they were used as mere beasts of burden. Now some of them have shown marked increases in intelligence."
"What art thou implying?" Luna questioned, unsure of where her sister was going with her current train of thought.
"They're evolving. They didn't evolve at all during the time of our awakening and the banishment of Nightmare Moon. They've advanced exponentially more in the last thousand years than they did in the previous 4,000. The ruins on the other continent suggest they were this planet's original inhabitants." Celestia said, as the two sisters continued down the halls.
"Tia, the seas are nigh cross-able. Even the two of us have great difficulty in crossing the Sea of Anguish." Luna countered, greatly unnerved as the gears in her mind began to turn.
----------
Planet: Turkina Date: 29JUN2260 Local Time: 2117 MT-6
"Come on Dietrich, the bottom of that bottle is not your only friend. You've been drunk since the Remembrance Ceremony."
"Your point is Malarkey?" I said between upchucks.
"Well... you've been drunk for five days now. Oh, and we got march orders to raid a planet that the Coventry have started setting camp up on. So..... I gotta get yer ass on the goddamn ship." Corporal Malarkey said as he slipped into his affable drawl.
Malarkey, Timothy. Type one each. Third squad's momma. A young knucklehead from Cotton Bowl. He enlisted to get away from the farm. A good natured guy, able to keep us all in high spirits, mine and Dominic's best friend. The three of us were the original 3rd Squad assholes, now it's just me and him.
"Alright, here cumdumpster..." I chuckled, passing him the bottle of liquor, "I know how you like dumping my alcohol and sparing my liver."
"Heh, if makes ya feel better, it's only pleasurable because it's small payment for having to carry yo heavy ass to the ship."
"I ain't heavy, you little shit ass." I fired back in my own drawl, "you sir, are just a scrawny fuck." Which was true, I'm only 6'1 at 175lbs, which I guess is big compared to his small 5'6 140lb frame.
"Keep talking SGT, you know that hangover's five days comin'." Timmy laughed as he hefted me off my porcelain pillow. Yeah, he's right. This hangover is going to be a doozy. "Off we go!"
----------
Planet: Equus, Locale: Canterlot Date: Junius 24, 1001 AB Local Time: 7:37 PM
The royal sisters contemplated, debated, and discussed the recent events over dinner. Celestia was retiring after dinner due to a long day of hearing nobles complain about their slew of problems. And Luna was getting ready for her night courts so she could then listen to nobles complain. At first, the trickle of ponies coming to see her, to see her, was titillating at first, now it's just tiresome.
" They aren't even coming to see me out of love, they merely wish to abuse my 'naivety' in hopes I can persuade my sister to soften up and give in to their demands. My sister and I shall remain stalwart in our decisions pertaining to humanity, and their recent... circumstances." Luna thought to herself as she attempted to steel herself before night court, drawing in a deep breath.
"Luna, what's troubling you? And do not say ‘nothing’; I can see you staring intently at your pudding." Celestia observantly chimed.
Drooping down, almost from fatigue, "it would be thy nobility. They pester me incessantly with attempts to pay them reparations. But alas, as bothersome as that is; the disappearance of Discord is what I find most alarming. Is it true you can't detect his presence?"
"Tis true Luna... tis true." Celestia sighs while stirring her tea.
Suddenly, a letter materialized and landed on the table. Oddly though, the paper is not from Twilight's personal parchment. With her curiosity peaked, Celestia picked it up with her magic, unfurled it and looked it over.
"Oh my.... I do believe I've solved the question of Discord."
Exasperated and enthused, Luna blurts almost launching her pudding across the table, "What doth it say, Tia?"
"Well,
Dearest Celestia,
I know what you're wondering, how I got out of the stone you encased me in. Well, I don't know either. But something, some kind of other power, is requesting my audience. So don't bother trying to track me down. I'll be busy. Toodles!
Your favorite trickster, Discord
What do you think, Luna?"
"I doth not know, I must contemplate this. But alas, I must prepare myself for Night Court. I shall see thee in the morning, Tia."
"Yes, goodnight Luna. I'll see you in the morning."
Planet: Vale, in orbit Date: 30JUN2260 Zulu Time: 0530
"Hey, Steiner, how you feeling bro? You look like shit."
"And you look like the piss boy, turn the lights out, I've been run over by a Mack truck." I croaked as I rolled over to go back to sleep. Timmy had other ideas.
"What the-?!" *WHAM*. Yep, I'm going to kill that boy after I get off the floor. "You do know, even hung over, I can still beat yo scrawny ass?"
"You gotta catch me first, Ditter. And I can run faster scared than you can angry. Besides, Top wants everyone in the cargo bay for a quick WARNO. So throw yo boots on and let's go."
After putting on my britches, boots, and an undershirt I took some meds, guzzled some water, and headed out the door of the Sleeping Quarters. "So Tim, what system we in? I know we ain't there yet. Avalon is a two jump journey."
"We're waiting on the Dread, TRS Trepidation, she supposed to screen for us while the Lady Antebellum and the Mad Dawg enter atmosphere and drop us and the Jarheads off."
"So, standard insertion for us?" I pondered.
"Yup. Anyways, we're here Ditter. Top'll fill you in."
-----
3 hours later, 0830 Zulu
"WARNO my ass. That was a full blown OPORD. And a jungle planet, woot. I just fucking love jungle planets. Did I mention I fucking love jungle planets?"
"Yep" Timmy said while cleaning his rifle and looking over his kit.
"And full rattle, too. It's gonna be 110-goddamn-degrees and this new cherry LT wants us all in full Chicken suits. I'm gonna frag his ass the moment he goes full retard. Damn, I'm a peach when I'm sober, aint I?"
"Yep" Ladies and gentlemen, I present the nonchalant Timmy.
"Meh, I'm outta steam."
"Yep. What? Oh, you're done. I'll be back in a minute, I gotta make a Boom-boom. I'll let you monologue to yerself for a bit. M-kay?" Gotta love that boy, he knows to just sit their and listen while I vent. Hell, I don't even care if he listens, just him being there and not interrupting me when I'm on a roll works fine for me.
But yeah, this mission is going to suck. The Marines are hot dropping in via Individual Orbital Delivery System, otherwise called Drop Pods, or Satellite Coffins. They call themselves Hell Divers, we call them fucking crazy. Us Rangers use a far more sane method of entry, we load up on Pegasus VTOLs and HALO jump. And they call us fucking crazy for using parachutes. But hey, tomato/tomahto. Right? Right.
Anyways, the Marines are diving straight into the Coventry's muff to get their attention so the Rangers can insert stealthily and maintain a typical three week guerrilla presence to kill, steal, pillage, destroy, and rape. (Ok, I jest on the rape part, I'm messed up. But not THAT messed up.) Then after three weeks of being yard apes, we get evacuated out by Naval Blockade Runners.
It's time to hibernate before going in since the Trepidation will be another 36 hours before arrival and their Jumpdrives are charged for the second jump.
-----
28 hours later, 1246 Zulu 01JUL2260
Warning: all hands to battlestations. Warning: all hands to battlestations. IOD Marines: report to Orbital Insertion Bay. Assigned Marines: report to Armory for additional orders.
"The fuck was that? Oh shit! Malarkey! Get up! Wake the fuck up!"
"Way ahead of ya, boss!" Good, Malarkey is already halfway buttoned up. Time for me to don my own shit on and grab my rifle and to go to Loading Bay 1-Alpha to link up with the rest of the Platoon and load up in the Pegasi.
*WHAM
"Malarkey! Let's go before we get rocked like that again!"
"You ain't gotta tell me twice!"
Attention: this is the Lt. Commander speaking. All IOD Marines prepare to board Delivery System; all assigned Marines to guard stations, any Rangers still on board make your way to the Orbital Insertion Bay and prepare for emergency jump.
"Nononono.... the fuck is going on?!"
"Hey Ditter, man, I'm scared... I don't wanna die up here..." Tim managed to choke out, tears in his eyes as he realized most of the Platoon, hell, probably the entire Company, was probably floating through space now. I closed his visor; it was easier to look at the infamous red monocle of the Ranger helmet than my friends teary eyes. I also want to keep him safe, he's only 21. But that fear in his eyes, it's the same fear I had in my own eyes as well as every other ranger still on board had. A Ranger's worst nightmare was never making it dirt side, we were helpless in space.
"Hey," I said trying calm the young Ranger, "follow me. I'll get us outta here."
-----
"Yo! Rangers! In here!" A Marine shouted as he waved us down. "I'm going to get you two saddled up, there any more of you guys?"
"I was... I was hoping you could tell me, Gunny." I gotta keep it together, for the kid at least.
"Negative, you're the only Rangers to make it to this side. I'm not sure about the other launch racks. Now get in a coffin. The moment we come out of Jump the Antebellum is going to bee line to the nearest habitable planet and launch us and jettison all munitions and sustainment for us. It's a total of two months supplies if we get it all, but those pods should land not far from the troop pods. There are MREs, weapons, and ammo in each coffin too. So get cozy, we got an ETA of 180 seconds til Diving. And don't worry, you're just along for the ride!"
"Well Tommy," I said, man hugging the boy, "I better see your ass dirt side, you still owe me. Heh."
"Don't worry boss, I ain't gonna miss seein' you piss yerself. As they say back home, 'hold ma beer-' "
" '-an watch this."
Attention: Marines, Rangers, and all hands abandon ship and make course for the current planet. Sadly our blind jump took us to an unknown system and the Coventry destroyer In Angst has jumped with us. I will stay aboard with the automated weaponry and fight to allow as many life craft and Hell Divers to reach the planet. Godspeed and good luck.
Planet: Equus, Locale: Canterlot Date: Quintilis 1, 1001 AB Local Time: 12:46 PM
"Well, well, well... I appear to be more powerful than Celestia herself!" A certain changeling queen cackled at her defeat of the goddess of the sun. "It appears lover boy's misplaced love has made ME the strongest being on the planet! And as soon as lover boy's shield fails, which it will soon, my changeling army will invade Canterlot shall and soon all of Equestria will be mine!"
Chrysalis, queen of the changelings, had overpowered Celestia, chased the Elements of Harmony from the palace, stuck the newly freed Cadance to front seats of the destruction of a nation, and had her army just outside the city ready to pounce as soon as the shield that runt Shining Armor had put up. A shield that was faltering quickly as his energy drained, even though it should have faltered by now. Nevertheless, her plan of conquest was right on track.
Unbeknownst to however, she had Death knocking on her doorstep. An entity that was about to become very familiar with this planet.
-----
Planet: unknown Date: 01JUL2260 Time: 1251 Zulu
Suddenly coming out of jump, the Lady Antebellum appeared over an unknown planet. It would only be a matter of time before the Coventry cruisers that ambushed her and Mad Dawg would arrive in system. The Commander had the crew of the ship alter course for the planet. The small human warship had no chance at combat against a Coventry cruiser once it had been engaged. The jet black corvette had an incredibly powerful main gun, but weak shielding and thin armor, relying solely on surprise to take down enemy warships. But this ship's commander had one purpose: unload her precious contents and fire a distress beacon towards a traveled jump point.
And shortly after the ship had begun it's course for the planet a Coventry cruiser erupted from slip space hot on the Lady Antebellum’s tail. "Just a bit closer" Lt. Commander Harrison said to his crew."
"Shifting energy shields aft, sir!"
"Scramble the fighter contingent to screen for us, they'll have their interceptors all over us in no time." Harrison said coolly, knowing this was probably his last battle. And the fighter contingent of three AF-199 Raptors launched from their bays, knowing it was their last hurrah as well, determined to kill as many Coventry possible.
"Sir, T-minus 90 seconds until we are close enough to discharge the IODCs and the Pegasi." A crewmember said, which the Commander acknowledged with, "Roger."
Taking a deep breath, he keyed a button on the Command Console and solemnly spoke, "Crew, soldiers, pilots, Marines. Lend me your ears in this dire time. We are in an unknown system over an unknown planet that appears habitable. In less than a minute you will all be sent towards the surface in life boats, Pegasi, and drop pods. I and any volunteers will stay aboard and go down with the ship. I wish you all good luck, and God speed. Lt. Commander Harrison, out."
Looking up from his console as he placed both hands on the side and shifted his weight forward; he locked eyes with each and every sailor on the bridge. Seeing the desperation, the fear, the anger, the sadness, and the hope in each of their eyes.
All feelings he was succumbing to himself.
Quickly pushing those thoughts aside he said one thing, "The Sky is falling as the Devil plays his fiddle."
And with that, the Lady Antebellum pulled up her nose up in a somersault, stalled, and launched multiple volleys of IODCs followed by the life boats and Pegasi VTOLs as the crew of the ship, the Rangers, and Marines made their way towards the planet.
The ship finished out her somersault as her cargo was released and the moment she leveled out her bow gun, a Gauss Rifle capable of firing a 100k Ferro Tungsten slug at 15000m/s, she fired one straight at the pursuing cruiser, slamming into the energy shield.
And she fired another. And another. And another.
After the first two impacted the shield, the third and fourth found their marks. Punching twin jagged holes into the nose of the alien ship, causing the ship to change course.
However, the Cruiser retaliated by firing plasma at the small nimble corvette. Eating away shielding, armor, and structure. The human fighters, while managing to earn their Aces, were slowly picked off by the numbers of Coventry fighters, which were now swarming the human corvette.
The commander had his ship begin rolling after firing a few more Gauss slugs at the Coventry cruiser's underbelly causing it to list to the sides to escape any further structural damage from the compact warship that was more of gun with an engine attached to it.
The Coventry captain decided to allow his fighters and interceptors to swarm the point defense of the human vessel.
The Vulcan cannons roared to life as the AI controlled guns began to track and shred any fighter that came too close, and to add in to the withering fire of the Vulcans it released volley after volley of anti-ship Aegis missiles as it barrel rolled through space.
Even through the rolling, Vulcans, and missile swarms the small Coventry craft managed to get shots in on the ship, and the thin skinned warship was slowly dying.
And then bad went to worse.
-----
In burn towards the planet
"Why didn't we just go to the hangar like we were supposed to?" I thought to myself as I looked about in the IODC, or Coffin. I noted that I had my M88A1 rifle, about 2000 rounds of ammo in the two cans beneath my seat, eight grenades in cans on the left, two disposable rocket launchers on my right, and my pack above me in the pod with all my shit. Oh, and six days’ worth of MREs in here too. Somewhere. I don't know how they figured this thing out, the engineers.
I looked on the small screen in front of me as I toggled through the different cameras to see different views. I briefly looked at the planet below, the one that was probably going to be home for a while. I then toggled to another view and all I saw was the blackness of space, and shuddered as I saw no stars. Quickly changing views, I noticed the Lady Antebellum giving it her all.
Suddenly alarms started to scream inside my drop pod.
Clicking the "Caution" button on the touch pad, the display flickered to another external camera as another Coventry cruiser came into view.
"Shit..." I muttered, as its point defense started to attempt to shoot down lifeboats and drop pods.
-----
"Sir! Another Cruiser just exited slip space!"
"It's attempting to get between the evacuants and the planet, Sir!"
The commander spoke up, "Engage the new ship, set course straight for it. Override the cool down of the Gauss rifle. I want as much damage done to that ship as humanly possible. Do it NOW!"
"Aye, aye!"
"Maestro!" The commander bellowed, with a wicked grin on his face, "Entertain us in our final hour!" No sooner had the commander finished his sentence, the shipboard AI began to broadcast classical music on all channels. It decided Undefeated by Two Steps From Hell would suffice.
The wounded ship spun port side and began to focus all its fire on the new threat.
Firing round after round into the top of the cruiser, the first round impacted shield and caused it to flicker, the second breaking it and creating a deep dent in the top of the hull.
The third round hit in the crater and punched clean through the ship. Followed by the fourth. And the fifth.
And since the cool down was overridden, the Gauss rifle belched death continually as warning klaxons came to life.
But the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth round stitched themselves along the spine causing the cruiser to shudder as internal explosions took her and tongues of flame erupted from the jagged wounds caused by the honey badger of a human warship.
All is not as it seems though, as the capacitors were taxed and catastrophically failed. Violently wrenching the spine of the now frail ship.
"Sir, the Gauss rifle is offline. W-"
"Abandon ship." The commander interrupted, "it was an honor."
And with that, the remaining crew all abandoned their stations. All except the Captain of this Mighty Vessel of War. "Maestro, close on this bastard. I want to rake the sides of him with the remaining Aegis missiles and Vulcans. Today they shall know the tenacity of humanity even better."
"As you wish, Sir." The electronic voice of the ship's AI responded. And in turn the Lady Antebellum closed in for a suicide run.
As missiles peppered the hull of the alien warship, and its shiny blue hull charred and dented from impacts, it began to list into the atmosphere of the planet as it was no longer able to fight against the gravitational pull of the planet.
However the Lady Antebellum was succumbing to the pull of the planet as well.
-----
I witnessed the final charge of the warship Lady Antebellum. Captained by Lt.Commander Allen R. Harrison.
I bore witness to an act of bravery that was all but a drop of bravery that was being exhibited by humanity in its darkest hour.
I watched as the Coventry warship was burning though the atmosphere headed into the huge ocean on the planet. I also watched as our own hero and savior began to burn into the atmosphere to bury her into the huge continent opposite the one we were vectored for.
Then that warning klaxon started to chime in, as I noticed a chunk of debris collide with my drop pod altering my course for the opposite continent. I muttered curses to myself under my breath.
I noticed I wasn't the only one however, and used the short wave radio to get in touch with the three other unlucky pods.
"This is Sergeant Steiner, radio check, over." A few seconds later, "This is Corporal Malarkey, roger on the radio check, over."
"PFC Hughes, roger, over."
"Land Corporal Matherson, roger, over."
I was happy; I managed to get in touch with someone! And especially Malarkey! I was happy, no ecstatic. I spoke over the comms one last time before he approached the atmosphere, "I'll see you all dirt side, I'll launch a flare on my position that should register on your BLUFORCE so you can find me for link up. How copy, over."
"Rog."
"Roger."
"Rog, boss."
-----
"It seems your pet Captain of the Guard is stronger than I thought, I surely thought his shield would have collapsed by now, but no fear. It's only a matter of time, and with your ‘prize’ student having run off, and with Cadance and you... is a sticky situation..." Chrysalis trailed off as she turned away from the window overlooking Canterlot and turned towards Celestia.
"You ponies are full of love, it tastes soooo sweet. It's almost perfect. The only thing souring this moment is the hatred on the air." She said as she circled Celestia before continuing, "Don't tell me you couldn't sense it. Your slaves hate you. They revile you. They want nothing more than to be rid of you."
"They are not slaves and they do not hate!" Cadance chimed in.
"Silence! You know nothing of hatred!" Chrysalis screamed at the top of her lungs before continuing more calmly, "You may be the Element of Love, but you don't rely on it from day to day as sustenance. Changelings rely on emotions for life, and as such are for more in tune with emotions than you'll ever be."
Celestia could hear her, but was unable to respond. She couldn't believe the Changeling Queen. Surely, this was just torture; some ploy to undermine her more than she had already. She was snapped from her train of thought by Chrysalis.
"First thing I think I'll do is to free the humans, send them on their way."
"Do you even have any idea where they came from? Of course you don't. You didn't care about the state of Equus 12,000 years ago. You only cared about your 'precious little ponies.' And after humanity spread itself enough to come into contact with your fledgling country, your 'innocent' and 'precious' ponies went on a genocidal spree killing them." She spat.
Breathing deep, she continued, "They were harmless, they were intelligent too. Not as civilized, but you wouldn't know that. Your kind killed their budding civilization. They had language, music, art, and love... so much love. They freely shared that love with us too."
"We didn't have to take it. Your kind erased their civilization. And made humanity and the Changelings what they are today."
"You're lying!" Cadance again interrupted, "Just wait until Twilight and Elements return!"
"Silence you impudent foal! I was there; I witnessed the atrocities that ponies inflicted on humanity!"
She's lying; Celestia saved humanity from the harshness of the Everfree. Her ponies only fought back when the humans resisted their help. The humans turned violent because they saw ponies as another predator, like the Changelings. But what if Chrysalis was right? What if Celestia's ponies snuffed out another culture entirely?
And she endorsed it under the noble's intentions of 'domestication.' But that would mean...
"On the outside you call them pets, labor, helping hands. On the inside, they're pets, slaves, cattle." She started to prattle on, breaking Celestia's train of thought.
But something drew Chrysalis' attention away to the windows.
Celestia could hear Chrysalis and one of her captains discuss some things. She couldn't make out much. Just the words and phrases: 'falling from the sky,' 'Canterlot,' and 'what are they.' Apparently this had the Changeling on edge as she started to bark orders.
"Finally! That shield is gone! Welcome to the new Changeling Empire, Princesses!" Chrysalis cackled as Shining Armor could no longer keep the shield up under his circumstances. It was only a matter of time before the Royal Guard were overwhelmed by the raw numbers of changelings spilling into Canterlot.
Cadance began to whisper sweet nothings to Shining Armor as he was unconscious; with a sliver of hope he would awaken and help rally Canterlot's forces.
The Royal Guard and Canterlot Militia were going to need a miracle. In the streets of Canterlot they were being slaughtered, while each individual pony was taking dozens of Changelings with them, there were just too many. The ponies were unable to consolidate forces to mount an effective defensive.
They did notice that the changelings were leaving the non-combatant ponies alone besides just herding them indoors off the streets. And many Royal Guard and Militiapony were laying down their arms in defeat, and as such were allowed to live and simply tell to go indoors.
-----
"Twilight! What do we do? The changelings are filling the streets?! How are we going to get back to the Royal Palace? We all need to get there, and five of you can't fly."
"We ain't gonna stand a chance against this many of the buggers, Twilight."
"I'm scared... I don't want to leave here. It's safe."
"We gotta do something about those meanies! Why don't we just make a run for it?"
"Alright! Alright! Alright! Stop and let me think!" Twilight said, "We're just going to have to take to the streets in the mass confusion and hope we all make it. We need to do this for the Princesses and Canterlot or the rest of Equestria will fall!"
And with that, the Elements of Harmony burst out into the streets on their way back to the Royal Palace.
-----
"Alright, Lance Corporal Matherson, these things can be steered once we've finished burning through the atmosphere, correct? Over."
"Roger that SGT, the pods all have both an autopilot and manual steering mode. Here though, you'll need to steer manually. Are you tracking so far? Over."
"Yes. How do I take manual control?"
"Simple, grab that stick on your right and you will notice the display in front of you will change. Go ahead and do it now, we still got about 2 minutes til impact. Over"
"Alright, now what?" I again responded, eschewing proper radio etiquette for speed of transmission. I needed a crash course in how to operate these things so I wouldn't crash. I noticed the display lit up and I saw a HUD.
"Well, you'll see it has a marker indicating the touchdown zone of your current trajectory. Moving the stick will steer your pod and the impact zone will move accordingly." He responded.
"Aight, I got this. See that city below? I'm marking it as our LZed. It's energy shield just dissipated and it looks like there is some plasma and pulse fire going on in the city back and forth. How copy?" I said, noticing about 45 seconds until impact.
"Rog, boss."
"Roger, SGT."
"Roger, SGT."
30 Seconds to impact flashed across my HUD. I hope this doesn't hurt.
-----
Twilight and her friends were making good progress towards the palace, meeting little resistance from the changeling army. What little resistance they met was easily bucked away or blasted away with a bit of magic. It looks like they will make it after all.
"Twilight? What's that?" Rainbow Dash said, pointing at the sky; causing the whole group coming to a stop to look up.
"I-I don't know. But it looks like they're going to land in the palace." Twilight stammered out. "We need to hurry up and get to the palace! That might be another trick of Chrysalis'!" She managed to get out more coherently before the Elements continued on their path towards the palace as three unknown objects hurled overhead, slamming into unknown places within the palace.
They made it all the way to the main entrance but it was locked and barred. The group turned around to find another way in.
"Uh oh..." Twilight muttered under her breath as her eyes went wide at the spectacle before her.
A very large group of Changelings had surrounded them.
Before the Changelings could make any move a loud roar was heard overhead and every changeling and pony looked skyward to see a fourth unknown object belched fire just before it impacted the ground, separating the Elements and the changelings.
-----
The other three managed to hit their targets, the two Marines landed in a clearing behind the palace, and Malarkey managed to land not too far off from that, even though he did smash through a window. Me? I was way off, I managed to stall my pod out and was going to land way short. In fact, I looked like I at least might land on that palace doorstep and in a crowd of weird black, winged creatures.
Just before impacting the ground, I felt the final thruster kick to life as it roared alive to slow my descent and keep me from digging my own grave, coffin and all.
Slamming into the ground still jarred me silly, "Shit... fuck me sideways..." I muttered under my breath.
Flipping through the displays, I noticed all the cameras were out. This thing needed windows. I had no idea what was just outside my metal trooper delivery device. So I did what all good soldiers do when presented the unknown. I removed my rifle from its locking clamp and chambered a round.
Reaching up with my non-firing hand I smacked the two door releases and watched the door blow itself off the pod and immediately raised my rifle and stood up out of my pod.
What I saw left little gears turning in my head.
Brain.exe has failed to respond. Attempting to restart.
-----
Twilight and the girls managed to get back on their hooves, and coughed as the dust settled. She spotted a large grey metallic device with scorch marks on it. Suddenly a small explosion came from it and a portion of it on the other side flew off into the changelings, knocking a few out.
The girls formed a small V formation preparing for the changelings. But the changelings just stayed there, fixated on the device. Something the girls couldn't see had the changelings’ undivided attention.
And that's when Tartarus seemingly broke loose, a single changeling fired it's horn at whatever the girls couldn't see and loud banging noises erupted as multiple changelings erupted in sprays of ichor and chitin, scattering the ones that weren't ripped apart by the otherworldly sound.
The girls used this as an opportunity to run off and find another way in, they had no desire to be near anything that could deal out that level of the death that quickly.
The sight of the lives of the changelings being violently ripped apart sickened them, and would be a sight that would haunt them for a time to come.
These ponies had never seen the levels of violence that just arrived to their planet.
-----
As soon as I stood up and raised my rifle, my brain.exe failed.
Then one of the things shot me with what looked like plasma. That force restarted my brain and I went into the drone zone, flicking my safety from semi to auto and began to hose the crowd of insect-like creatures, scattering them. Using that moment of chaos I slipped around to the other side of the pod to reload and inspect my chest.
This was a nice black scorch march. But that was it. My armor was just dirtied.
I pulled a frag from my fighting load, pulled the pin, and lobbed it around the corner and waited for the dull thud.
Once I heard the thud, I rose to one knee and sliced the corner to shoot anything still left after the frag detonated.
Nothing left but a bunch greenish-blue blood and body parts. The rest of the creatures had completely left.
"Where the fuck are all the humans at. This is a nice ass city." I thought aloud. I needed to get in contact with the other three.
"This is Banshee-Tree-Tree, radio check over!" I yelled into comms, waiting for a reply which came pretty quickly.
"This is Banshee-Tree-Tree-Alpha, roger on the radio check. Over." Good, that meant Malarkey was still alive. "SitRep?"
"Me and the two Marines are pinned down in a hallway on both sides by these ugly bug critters. The hell you at? Over." Came his response. At least the three were together. I couldn't pick them up on the BLUFORCE.
"Listen up; I need you three to change your BLUFORCE system from passive to active so I can pick up your distance and direction. I'm just outside what appear to be the main gate. Once I receive the Nav beacon to your locations I'll make my way from there. Over."
"WILCO, BLUFORCE set to active. Over."
"Good copy, I see your positions. Making my way there now. Out" I closed out the transmission. "I need to get past this big ass door." I said to myself. I walked over to the pad, making sure to continually scan the area for anymore hostiles. I grabbed one of the 105mm disposable rocket launchers, and primed it. Taking aim at the door I checked over my shoulder for a clear back blast, "Back blast area clear!" and fired into the massive door.
While not blown completely asunder, I knocked a massive hole into right where the locking mechanism was.
Discarding the empty launcher, I reached for my rifle and cautiously headed towards the door. Peering into the hole I noticed a few dead critters kicked by the blast. "Damn, shaped charges really fuck up shit on the other side..." I whispered to myself, as I noticed one of the creatures still smoking, completely shattered.
I carefully pushed in with my rifle high and ready, and proceeded up the stairs dropping two more unsuspecting hostiles with a controlled pair each. "I guess they were checking out what caused the explosion." I said as I bent over to get a closer look. These things looked like insect-like horses, which was creepy. Because I noticed a dead horse wearing bronze armor in the corner with scorch marks.
It was a small white horse at that and it was wearing armor.
"The fuck?" was all I could say.
This place was weird as fuck. I mean, who the fuck armors their pet ponies? And why do people like ponies, the little Shetland fuckers are mean. I loved my quarter horses growing up, but shit son, I didn't strap armor to them and prance about like a knight.
Anyways, time to link up with the rest of Bravo-3-3. So I continued down the hallway unimpeded until I got to a stairwell, where they set up and ambush. Thankfully they can't hurt my armor because I got nailed in the chest by about five bolts this time. I managed to drop two in return but I was not getting up that stairwell. They couldn't harm me when they hit my armor, but seeing that I'm not covered head to toe and seeing their blasts effects on bronze and flesh, it's a risk I'm not taking.
So I threw a flash bang up into the platform they were on, waited for it to go off and peeked out. Noticing they were dazed, I started to move up the stairs at a deliberate pace and once they came into sight still stumbling about I put a controlled pair into the final three. Now that I'm on the same floor as my boys I can hear intermittent gunfire, some scratchy shouting, and what sounds like the bugs firing the energy blasts from their horns.
"That way." I said to myself as I slunk down the hallway in the drone zone. About 20 meters down the hall I had a visual on about 10 hostiles firing randomly down another hallway that had the three BLUFORCE markers in it.
I pulled another frag from my FLC, pulled the pin, rolled it down the hallway and yelled, "FRAG OUT!"
Waiting for the resounding thud, I whipped around the pillar I was using for cover and closed in on the downed hostiles, double tapping any still left alive after getting blasted from the fragmentation grenade.
When I yelled frag out, I heard the other three pouring fire down the opposite direction.
Once their firing died down, I called out, "Peanut butter!"
"Jelly time!" was Malarkey's response, knowing I was occupying the junction that was giving them a bit of trouble beforehand.
"All clear down here." I called out. "I'm moving to your position."
"Got you covered, but I think it's clear up ahead, I heard them say 'regroup at the throne room.'" Malarkey said as I was making my way to their position.
"Gimme a LACE and SitRep."
"We're red on ammo. I think we maybe got about 200 rounds 'tween the three of us. We used all our frags just gettin' inside. Once we touched down we got surrounded and had to fight our way inside. It was a bloody mess. We got pinned down here because we were low on ammo and outta frags. That's when you called in."
"Aight, here, take these." I said as I passed each one another mag and handed off my second to last frag to Malarkey. "We're gonna track them to the throne room, maybe get some answers. Let's get a move on, y'all."
-----
The Elements stopped when the heard a distant 'fwoosh' followed by a bellowing boom.
"Maybe we should go back, it sounds like whatever murdered those changelings just forced it's way into the palace." Rarity said to her friends. "Besides, it'll be easier than finding another way in, because I am not entering that sewer. That is if we stay hidden from that unknown creature."
"Did anyone get a look at it?" Rainbow asked, "Because I think it's an alien, like, you know, from space."
"Nonsense, Dash. I've told you those comics are rotting your brain." Twilight retorted.
"I think she's right, Twilight. As we were runnin' off I turned about to get a look back and caught a glimpse of some weird alien lookin' thang with single red eye covered in a weird suit jump around the corner of its space craft." Applejack said, with a look of worry over her face.
"What if it's as scared as we are?" The most timid of the group, Fluttershy, said. "I mean, what if it only defended itself. The changelings did attack it first you know." The distant prattle of weapons fire could be hear emanating from the palace, even though the mares had no idea what it's cause and effect is.
"Ok," Twilight relented, "We'll back track in behind this 'alien' and get to the Princesses and then figure out what this creature wants." Something in her gut, however, told her not to go. And they all had this instinct within them, nagging them to stay outside.
But they backtracked anyways.
-----
I took point on the right and scanned the left, and Malarkey took the left and scanned the right as the two marines mirrored us but had the six. We met no resistance as we approached another large set of doors with red carpeting leading in.
"Any of y'all got breaching charges?" I asked. They shook their heads no.
"Dammit. I got a rocket launcher, but I don't know what's on the other side, they may have hostages."
"Maybe we can peak under the door." One of the Marines said as he went to his hands and knees.
"That's a natural position for you Matherson." The other Marine chimed in.
"Shut the fuck up." as he peered under the door. "I see no hostages, but a about a dozen and a half tangos in a really long room. There are some horses in the back with a really big bug creature." He stood back up, "I think we should rocket the door."
I backed up to the edge of the stairs about 20 meters away and blasted the door; doing the same thing to it that I did to the main gate outside. I discarded the empty launcher and we stacked up. I motioned for Malarkey to hand me his frag, held them both out, "Pull the pins. And take my last flash bang and toss it in on three."
He pulled the two pins as I double fisted the shit out of these frags, "Ready?"
"Yeah" was his response. I could see us all tense as shit.
"One. Two. Three." And he threw the flash bang in and the moment he stepped back I threw the frags at the same time into the melon sized opening.
The moment the frags detonated, Malarkey kicked in the door, and I went straight in breaking left; firing on the first hostile to come into sight, cutting it and another down in a burst. Then shifting right I cut down another three in a long burst.
"Right side clear."
"Left side clear" I returned.
Noticing my rifle was empty; I dropped it and let the sling take it to my side as I drew my sidearm. Almost with perfect choreography the four of us stepped forth from the shadows into the main area of this room. All that was left was the big one and a small one that looked like the rest, only with armor.
He stepped in front of the big and hissed, "Who are you to approach Queen Chrysalis?!" as we closed in, weapons at the low ready.
About 10 meters away, he hissed again, "Die you monsters!" before lunging at us.
I jumped as I watched him explode in a spray of ichor, startled at the burst of fire that came from PFC Hughes.
"Okay, so he was a foal." The big on sounded off with, "I am Queen Chrysalis, Queen of the Changeling Empire. And I demand to know who you are!"
"We don't give in to demands, and since we seem to be the ones with the upper hand. You answer our questions. Einverstanden?" I asked.
"So before me, stand humans that have relearned language and arts, specifically the art of warfare?" She cooed. "How tasteful, did the big white bitch train you to do her bidding as little lap dogs?" That she spat with some venom, both the metaphor and what I'm guess some actual venom as some green liquid was spat onto the floor.
"Wut?" was my only response. "I don't even...how do you even know what we are?"
"Oh?" she responded, raising an eyebrow. "So I'm going to guess you aren't from around here?"
I know she couldn't see my face underneath my red monocle, but I had the 'really?' face plastered to it, "No shit Sherlock... what the fuck gave it away?"
"Everything about you, you have the full spectrum of emotions in your hearts, same as the humans here. But I can taste the difference in them. The love is far more... bitter, jaded almost. While the rage inside you... it's not sour. It's... I can't tell, it feels mixed with anguish. Almost despondent..." her voice trailed off to a low husk as she eyed me, seeing right into the glowing red Cyclops in from of her.
I shifted uneasily, "Ok, what was that? What you just said?"
"I'm a changeling; we find life force feeding off positive emotions."
"So you're taking over this country to force feed like a vampire, is that it?"
"Sadly, it has come to that. Over the years what was once freely given us, was taken away." She said at a low volume as she turned away. "It was given to us by our friend, by your kind."
-----
As these weird creatures and Chrysalis had their discussion, Cadance and Shining Armor began to charge a love spell as they embraced. The love spell should dispel all the changelings from Canterlot. If these weird creatures just keep Chrysalis' attention for just a bit longer.
Almost. There.
And that's when her's and Shining's spell peaked, bursting forth with energy.
-----
The girls were following the trail of dead changelings to the throne room. All had the same cause of dead: either a pair or trio of holes on the body or head or completely ripped apart. It made their stomachs turn. They knew how loathsome changelings could be, but whatever did this... atrocity. Those were real monsters.
They finally arrived just outside the throne room.
"Pinkie, are you okay?" Rarity called over to her visibly distressed friend. Who was clearly in a state of shock as her normally poofy mane was lying flat.
"It's just sad to see this, is all."
"We'll get back to Ponyville soon enough, after we take care of this changelin' business." Applejack said to her friend as she hugged her and nuzzled her.
Rainbow poked the still smoking rocket launcher, "What's this thing? M107A1 HESH, disposable rocket launcher." She read the words slowly as the other girls began to gather near.
The massive spell discharge washed over them and left them warm and fuzzy.
-----
Okay, so one moment I'm having an out of world conversation with an intelligent bug-pony-alien-hybrid-thingy. The next I'm being hurtled backwards quite forcefully with my left side slamming into one of the pillars in the room causing me to pirouette and land on my chest. And then I see blackness.
I come to hearing some voices, but still seeing darkness. "Fucking helmet must be fried..." I mutter to myself drunkenly as I attempt to get up with a severe case of vertigo. I snap open the visor and pull the respirator off only to see... reddened vision. I try to blink it away as I hear bells ringing and muffled voices, but it persists and I feel a warm liquid running from my eyes, nose, and mouth as taste copper. I reach up and wipe my face to examine my hand, and through the red haze I see my gloved hand covered in blood. "Fuck."
At that moment, I distinctly hear, "Princess! That one is conscious!"
Immediately in my daze I rise to a knee and attempt to level my rifle with my right hand at what appears to be a large white horse walking towards me followed by a small... purple horse?
"Stop! Stop right there!" I shouted, blood frothing from my mouth as I try to blink away the blood from my eyes.
I start teetering to my right, losing my balance.
"We mean you no harm."
"I don't fuckin'... I don'... jus... stop... I'll shoot..."I manage to get out as I fell back over, keeping my weapon trained on them.
They continue their walk towards me, “Please, just listen." I feel something tug at my weapon. I can barely see at this point and can't stand as I'm yanked forward onto the ground with a splat as my face hits the marble, smearing blood on it. I attempt to push myself back up, but my hand slips and I bust my fast on my rifle.
The further concussion sends my head spiraling into the blackness of unconsciousness as I hear the voices and footsteps closing in on me.
-----
After the spell discharge, the girls made their way into the throne room, seeing that carnage that lay about as well as four human looking bodies on the floor dressed up in some form of advanced armor; two of them appearing to be cycloptic while the other two had solid face plates.
All were very clearly knocked out. And completely unnoticed by the mares, whose only concern was running to their deity and their mentor.
"Princess Celestia! Princess Cadance! Shiney! Are you all okay?!" Twilight called out, frantically running up to them.
"Yes, Twilight, we are fine." Celestia responded. "I see you brought the Elements, but it appears we have no need of them after all." she chuckled.
"It appears that love conquers all." Cadance chimed in, nuzzling a wearied Shining Armor.
Hugs went around, ponies were cheerfully checking on each other for injuries, mentally, emotionally, and physically. " I hope you girls are okay." Celestia posed, expecting Twilight to answer. But she pleasantly surprised with who answered, "Oh yes your Highness. We are doing quite well. But, I think there may be an alien loose in the castle that may be hurt, afraid, and alone."
"Oh, dear Fluttershy." Celestia responded. "They are in this very room. And may very well be thanked for helping save Canterlot."
At that moment, "Fucking helmet must be fried..." was slurred from the four corner pillars in the room, as one of the unnoticed bodies began to stir.
Immediately all the girls stepped back as this strange alien removed it's facial covering, revealing a very bloody... human.
The girls were aghast. A human that spoke?
"Princess! That one is conscious!" Twilight announced, oddly giddy.
Rarity fainted.
Fluttershy pulled a first aid kit from nothingness, but was stopped by Applejack, "Fluttershy, these here creatures are dangerous. Why you saw the hurtin' they dealt in the halls."
Rainbow Dash fluttered up into the air, craning her neck to get a better look. But she kept her distance, very wary of seeing her 'aliens' were actually just very dangerous humans; humans that could speak, leaving her speechless.
Pinkie was in a catatonic shock, almost like a statue.
But Twilight was intrigued, talking humans? Imagine all the answers they contained! Answers she didn't even have questions for yet! Her thoughts were interrupted by Celestia approaching it and cooing ever so gently, "It's okay, you are safe here."
It rose to a knee and started attempting to crawl away, pointing something at them while shouting at them to stay away.
"We mean you know harm." Celestia again said gingerly, trying to calm the man down.
"I don't fuckin'... I don'... jus... stop... I'll shoot..."
A snap came from the object the human was holding, it was loud enough to make Celestia flinch. She'd seen what that object was capable off. So did Princess Cadance, and by how Twilight also jumped. She had figured that was the object causing such calamity in the hallways the girls were talking about initially.
At that moment, Celestia surrounded the weapon with her magic and pleaded with the panicked human. She didn't count on the weapon being strapped to it's owner, because once she pulled forward, she pulled him off balance causing him to fall on his face and smear the floor with his blood, blood that was everywhere. A sight which made the goddess frown.
Frown because it was sad to see such a sight, and because she was partly the reason for him falling forward.
She smiled slightly at his resilience and willpower to get back up. But that was quickly extinguished as he slipped on his ample blood and cracked his face on the weapon causing him to slip back into unconsciousness.
"Oh my, Twilight, help me get them to the Hospital." Celestia frowned.
"Shouldn't we take them to the vet?" the student posed.
"No, the hospital has far better equipment and staff. I can have a vet come in to overlook the entire procedure. And these humans are just any human, there is something about them..." Celestia worriedly trailed off, overlooking the four unconscious humans.
Planet: Equus Locale: Canterlot Hospital Date: Quintilis 2, 1001 AB Local Time: 12:06 AM
The new arrivals have been in the hospital for close to ten hours now and in care for just short of nine hours. The hospital staff and the Royal sisters had difficulty in figuring out how to remove the clothing, equipment, and armor these peculiar humans had on. Something else they noticed was the actual physical differences. Celestia, however, had a country to run and couldn't be present for the examination on them. So she left her sister Luna with the hospital staff and took herself and the Elements into Canterlot to ease tensions of her citizenry.
Afterwards she returned to the hospital.
"Luna, how are things going?" Celestia asked as she entered the wing her sister had cordoned off.
"They are not doing so well. I cordoned off this wing of the hospital so as to attract far less attention, however..." Luna sighed before continuing, "I've had to have the Royal Guard arrest multiple ponies attempting to get a look at our guests. I have all the staff working on this case under a non-disclosure agreement under penalty of imprisonment."
"And how are the humans?"
"The veterinarians have been in there for quite some time now, close to four hours. The medical staff said they were in no immediate harm, they were simply in a comatose state at the moment."
At that moment, a veterinarian walked out of the room one of one of the humans. "Well, these specimens stump me your highnesses." He said as he removed his mask. "These aren't like our humans at all. I dare say they are feral and should be put down."
Celestia's smile turned to a frown before she spoke up. "I would be inclined to agree with you good doctor, exception on the notion of the one that spoke and their technology is quite advanced."
"I meant no disrespect, but their 'technology' is simply magically infused objects with a griffon aesthetic. If I may speak me mind, your highness?"
"You may speak freely, good doctor."
"I dare say this is a griffon attempt on your life. Today was the perfect day for an assassination attempt. I-"
Celestia held up her hoof to interrupt the veterinarian before speaking, "I highly doubt that. You may leave. And do not forget the non-disclosure agreement you signed. You are dismissed."
The embarrassed veterinarian could be heard grumbling under his breath as he left the ward the Rangers and Marines were kept in. His colleague, Tender Hooves, was of much more use.
"Dr. Tender Hooves?" Luna called out as she and her sister entered the room looking for her.
"Yes your highness's?" as she replied with a bow.
"What do you make of these humans? Your colleague was quite the conspiracy theorist." Luna asked, deadpanning the last part making her ears droop down in annoyance at the previous vet's actions.
"Well, where to start? They're unlike any human I've ever seen..." Tender said. "They are magnificent! To put it shortly." she and the Princesses chuckled at her little outburst. "Come look, I feel I can better show you." She said as she led them Royal sisters to the bedside of one, "This one is the smallest of the four and is the same size as our humans. His height is 66 inches and weight is 142 lbs. Our average male human is 66 inches and 145 pounds. One of the others is humongous specimen; he's 75 inches and 220 pounds!"
"And the other two?" Celestia posed.
"And why do you refer to them as 'he' instead of 'it' that is quite an uncharacteristic referral to humans." Luna interjected as well.
"If you must know, I refer to them as their sex because I feel it's the right thing to do. I became a vet solely because I feel pity for humans, how poorly they are treated. As for the other two, one is 73 inches and 172 pounds and the other is 69 inches and 177 pounds. Meaning the average size of male human, based off these four, is 70 3/4 inches in height and weigh in at177 3/4 pounds."
Luna was shocked, "That is quite large!" Celestia's eyes were also wide at the revelation.
"Thankfully their sizes are all different enough that I managed to get their clothing matched with the owner. This is important, mind you." Tender said indicating towards a neatly folded drab blouse on the chair next to its owner. "Using their uniform I managed to get much more information about them. For now, I'd like to focus on this particular man."
"Why this one?" Luna asked, seeing nothing remarkable about this human. Except upon closer inspection, there were subtle differences in the facial structure of this one from the Equestrian human. "Actually... continue... please." She said as she kept her focus on that face.
"To answer your question, he's the outlier from the other three. At first I didn't know what to make of it. But now I have some ideas." She said as she pulled the sheet off his body with her teeth to fully expose his form. "Meet Dietrich J. Steiner, at least according to his ID tags that were supposed to be hanging around his neck. It's actually very good I found them too, as his tags indicate that he allergic to penicillin."
The royal sisters were shocked at what they saw. On his left leg, below the knee was a false leg, an advanced prosthesis to replace the missing one. But what shocked them more was the presence of his left arm, or lack thereof, actually.
"Wh-where is his left arm?" Celestia muttered, taken aback by the sight of just an empty socket that was clearly not natural.
"Right here, your highness." Tender said as she brought it over to the bed. "I accidentally removed it earlier and can't get it back in. It's also a prosthetic limb, although FAR more advanced. In fact, I dare say this replacement arm is far more advanced than anything we've even dreamed up. It appears to be a magically infused muscle-like material."
"He has cutie marks!" Luna said excitedly, then lightly blushing at her outburst.
"They appear to be, but on closer inspection they are just ink under the skin. See how THIS one matches the art on his armor? And I assume THIS one has a personal meaning to him."
Pulling the sheet back over his lower half, she drew attention to his face. "I can tell you've been scrutinizing his face, Princess Luna. His face is indeed different. He has a softer brow line, less prominent forehead, a sharper and thinner yet longer nose, a more angular jawline, and larger, softer eyes." Upon hearing Tender point all the details out, it clicked with Luna.
"He matches an anatomical drawing by Clover the Clever based on the sketches by Winged Persheron! I've seen a drawing of ancient humans that match his physique astoundingly well!" She giddily shouted almost at the volume of the Royal Canterlot voice just before teleporting away.
"Well, she seems excited." Celestia mused. "What else is there to show me?"
Tender pulled up a clipboard and passed it to Celestia who took it up in her magic. "Their vitals. They're... unique."
"That's a way of putting it." The princess replied with an eyebrow arched as she looked over the data.
"Dietrich's resting heart rate is 48 beats per minute. His blood pressure is 118 over 68. His core temperature is 98.6 degrees Fahrenhoof. The other three are similar." Tender said, nervously chewing on her hoof.
"So what does this mean?"
"I'm in the dark on them medically, your highness. I'm familiar with Equestrian humans, but not these. I've gone through many of their belongings that were on them when they were brought here. I've gleaned a voluminous amount of information from those items, such as data that saved him from a potentially fatal allergic reaction."
"What else have you learned?"
"Well, according to their uniforms, two belong to the ROT Army and the other two belong to the ROT Marines. What ROT means, I'm not entirely sure, but flipping through some of the paper work on them, I think they come from a planet called Terra."
"Terra? That's an ancient equestrian language, long since dead. It means 'earth.'" Celestia said. Perhaps they speak this language still?"
"Doubtful, Princess, I believe they speak perfect Equestrian. This one has a letter on his person that details what he wishes if he is killed. It's in perfect equestrian, although in writing I find elegant and hard to read; while the one name Malarkey had a similar letter in a much easier to read writing. Although I feel terrible for having read them, as I invaded their privacy." Tender said, as she gingerly set the letter down, blushing with a glint of water in her eyes.
"Is there anything else Tender?" Celestia said, setting the clipboard down and taking the doctor in her wing, attempting to comfort the earth pony.
"Yes, their armor was made at a facility called Hephaestus Metal Works, presumably on a planet they call Hephaestus. That means these Terra humans are capable of traveling in space and live on multiple planets. We're dealing with the find of the millennium Princess."
"It seems that way. I'll leave you to your expertise, Dr. Tender. I must retire for the night; it has been an exhausting day. I bid you adieu." And with that, Celestia left the hospital and the Terrans in the care of Tender Hooves.
-----
Planet: Equus Locale: Royal Canterlot Archives Date: Quintilis 2, 1001 AB Local Time: 04:11 AM
Maius 5th, 10th Year of Our Mare of the Sun
From my observance of these creatures, they are bipedal omnivores and hunter-gatherers. Capable of swimming and speech, although I do not know what they say. They have basic metallurgical skills as they hunt with copper tipped spears and arrows. Their tools for the construction of their abodes are also made of copper.
Their houses are wooden boxes with logs stacked upon another and clay plastered on the sides and into the cracks before being left to harden creating rather durable structures. Their ingenuity is rather astounding for such a young race.
Luna flipped to another part of the book, The Human Predicament by Winged Persheron, and began reading.
October 24th, 13 Year of Our Mare of the Sun
The humans have settled into a more agrarian culture, although they do still hunt for their meat. They have domesticated cows and chickens as well, as they can be seen consuming the milk of the cows and excess eggs of the chickens.
They also make their own fabrics in which to clothe themselves. It has been just over two years and they are already clothing themselves in linens as opposed to the animal hides. They now also appear to have some form of a standing military as their cities can be seen with guards along the walls, which were not there three years ago.
How they have managed to advance so spectacularly fast puzzles me greatly as it appears they are on the verge of entering their own Bronze Age in a matter of a few years. It took ponykind three centuries to enter their Bronze age.
Luna sighed then flipped a page, "Where is this drawing?"
What caught her attention though was far more intriguing than a simple drawing.
December 13th, 13th Year of Our Mare of the Sun
Changelings. Changelings and humans more specifically. They appear to be symbiotic as changelings can be seen entering and leaving the human cities freely. It is a most curious relationship as most creatures regard the changeling race to be devious, vile, and despicable. Most races regard the changelings with outward disgust if not outright violence.
This changes many, many things. My ability to fly and hide in the clouds as I observe has allowed me to observe this fledgling race without being noticed, however the appearance of changelings changes that.
Luna was most perturbed by this discovery. But she noticed the drawing she was looking for on the opposite page with a block of text above it.
December 14th, 13th Year of Our Mare of the Sun
After packing up camp, my protege and I were flying home when we spotted a dead human in a field. He appeared rather young and had a bronze spear imbedded in his chest. Clearly spears of Pegasus make. As morbid as is seems however, my student and I decided to partake in an anatomical study by first observing their range of motion in their extremities before dissecting this particular specimen.
As I have cataloged more details further in another book, Human Anatomy and Physiology . But for simplicities sake, I will only leave the base set of sketches in this book.
"I need to find the other book and take these to Celestia." Luna said as she got up to look for the other book by Winged Persheron.
After a few more hours of searching she managed to find the one she was looking for, as well as another book by him that caught her attention, titled The Giant's Fall. Not entirely sure what it was about, but it wasn't printed, the entire book was unpublished and this was the only one in existence as it was Persheron's own handwriting.
After bookmarking the parts she sought after in the human anatomy book, she sat down to read some of his other work to get an idea of what it was about.
Let me preface this by saying, I may be a Pegasus, and much decorated Pegasus of the 1st Alarum Legionem, but I do not and will not condone the efforts of ponykind. We had a homeland in the hinterlands to the north of here. We ruined it by petty squabbling which in turn fuels the rage of the windigos.
I am writing this so that others may know the atrocities of our species.
Upon the desolation of our home, Alagosia, our loose 'confederation' fell apart with each pony kind making an exodus. All sought greener pastures, and all headed south to the region known as the Everfree Plains. What the history books will not say, is that the region was already inhabited. It has been 20 years since I was last here, and what I see is appalling. The humans were entering a Bronze Age when the Alarum Legionem arrived.
The history books will say ponies conquered the windigos who followed them here by becoming an embodiment of love and tolerance. This could not be farther from the truth. We wanted a land that was already inhabited. And we did not want to share.
On Martius 5th, 3rd Year of the Windigos, humanity marched to its doom.
The humans were no match. We had numbers and weaponry on our side. The human city-states banded together for a final stand, and fought valiantly. For that I commit their once noble legacy to writing in remembrance of a race that welcomed us with open arms. They embodied the true meaning of 'love and tolerance.'
And what did they receive? Their fathers and husbands were killed at spear point, and their wives, mothers, sons, and daughters led away in shackles to live a life of servitude. It is now the 48th Year of Equestria. The Battle of the Plain of Tears was 50 years ago. The humans we now use as slave labor no longer have the fire in them they once did.
Luna was disgusted as she read this book, "What barbaric creatures." She flipped later on to a chapter titled Reign of Princess Platinum II, the 'Bloody Queen' and began reading.
Today, Aprilis 1st, the 52nd Year of Equestria, a new monarch succeeded Princess Platinum, her daughter the blood thirsty Platinum the Second. On her coronation, she sentenced by teacher to execution on Aprilis 1st, a day now officially called "Fool's Day." My teacher left copious notes that I, Fleeting Truth, plan to continue in my mentor's legacy.
Luna continued to read on, not stopping with just that chapter, but finishing the book. The book ended on the 77th Year of Equestria with Platinum line being broken.
The breaking of the Platinum line of nobility was a blessing and curse. For the atrocities committed by that royal family on humanity and any ponies sympathetic to humanities plight. Humans that attempted to speak were beaten, often to death. If they tried to run away, they were magically lobotomized by the Magistrate. Over the years, the Order of Lineage has bred docility into humans. I fear another century of such treatment may render this once magnificent species irreparable.
The blessing was that the entire line of nobility belonging to the Platinum family was killed today. However, what killed them is far worse. In all the subterfuge, and abuse by the Royalty chaos was the rule of the day and the God of Chaos, Discord showed up to claim the Throne. Tomorrow, Martius 1st, marks the 1st Year of Discord. May the Sorores Caeli save us all.
Luna's eyes went wide as dinner plates. "Tia should be awake by now, it is nearly time to raise the sun. I must show her what I hath found." She mumbled to herself before standing up an tucking the books under her wings. She then bolted out of the archives in search of her sister.
-----
Planet: Equus Locale: Royal Dining Hall Date: Quintilis 2, 1001 AB Local Time: 6:51 AM
Celestia was happily humming to herself as she buttered her toast. She had quite the spread for breakfast, her favorite meal of the day after raising the sun. As she set the toast on her plate she was startled by the sudden entrance of her sister.
"Tia, thank the heavens I found you!"
"Oh, dear sister... I'm always here in the mornings." Celestia chuckled, before noticing her sister's disheveled mane and bloodshot eyes. "Lulu, what have you been doing?" She continued with a slight frown at her sister's appearance.
"We hath... I have been in the Royal Archives doing some research." With that she slammed the books onto the table causing Celestia to jump slightly.
"And what did you find?"
"Very interesting stuff. What do you know of the history of Equestria before us, during Discord's reign and before?" Luna said with a wild look in her eyes, like she was about to have an aneurism.
"We were given physical forms on the hundredth year of Discord's reign to put an end to his madness. Which we did, and upon encasing him in stone and freeing the ponies, were asked to guide the ponies of Equestria into a new Golden Age. Why do you ask?"
"Yes, but what about before his reign, the reign of the Platinum line?" Luna posed to her sister. "You know, the Hearth's Warming Eve story that we hath been telling annually for the last 4,000 years."
Celestia, now somewhat annoyed responded, "Well, after not showing each other love and tolerance, the three tribes were forced out of their previous homeland by the windigos and founded Equestria on the basis of Love and Harmony."
"But what was Equestria known as before?"
"The Everfree Plains, Lulu, you need sleep."
"Not before we hath gotten answers." Luna started to flip open the various books to pages she marked off as she crammed the open books into Celestia's face.
Celestia grasped one book in her magic, The Human Predicament, and read the passages on the pages Luna marked. Her face grew more and more perplexed until her eyes laid them on the passage telling about the dead youth, the one killed by Pegasi.
Upon reading that, her face turned to a frown and she scrunched her eyebrows.
She set that book down and picked up the rather peculiar one, the one in hoofwriting, and began to read passages that her sister had marked. She muttered to herself inaudibly before setting the book down and calling for her Captain, "Shining Armor, I am cancelling Day Court for the day, I have pressing matters to attend to." And with that, Armor was gone.
After reading the parts from The Giant's Fall that Luna wanted her to read, Celestia now had questions of her own. The only two beings on the planet that have been around long enough to answer some of those questions were missing. And she didn't want to have to ask Chrysalis or Discord.
"So, the nobility's story of wanting to 'domesticate' humanity was actually a half truth. Humanity needed salvation because the ponies caused that necessity." Celestia was livid. She and her sister were used.
A single line of thought was racing through their heads. The same line of thought, for their sins of genocide, Discord was sent as a punishment. After 100 years of pure chaos, the Alicorn sisters were given physical forms to offer salvation to ponykind. And they ruled for 3,000 years as a Diarchy in the Everfree, before Nightmare Moon.
A Diarchy that was lied to about the sins that led about to Discord was again being committed, only this time under the protection of the Diarchy.
And this train of thought made the Alicorn sisters livid.
For over 4,000 years the ponies were living on stolen land paid for by the blood of it's original inhabitants.
"Luna, what question's do you seek answers for?" Celestia said with tears in her eyes. She realized what Chrysalis told the Terrans was truth, nothing more, nothing less.
"The only question left unanswered, dearest Tia, is what shall we do with this knowledge we hath obtained." Luna managed to choke out as she moved to hug her sister.
"I don't know yet, but I think the right thing to do is to right past wrongs." After a few minutes passed of the two consoling each other, Celestia spoke again, "Luna, try to get some sleep, if you need me I'll be in the Royal Archives."
After Luna left to head to her bedchambers, Celestia finished her breakfast and made her way to the Archives, upon reaching them she told the guard at the entrance to find Twilight Sparkle. She was going to need a lot of help in her endeavor and her first step was to research as much of the pre-Alicorn era as possible.
Planet: Equus Locale: Royal Archives Date: Quintilis 7, 1001 AB Local Time: 12:01 PM
"I can't believe it! There is not one single book on what partook during Discord's reign!"
A book covered in a lavender aura was tossed across the aisle.
"We have ONE book. One book that can't even be backed up anywhere else." An exasperated Twilight said, sitting back on her haunches. She and Princess Celestia had scoured the archives searching for something, anything, concrete on what happened during the reign of Discord. Much of what they found was obscure legend or myth about how Discord was the Spirit of Vengeance of some human sorcerers or some penultimate evil released by humanity and their evilness, and the harmonious ponies sought to bring the humans to harmony by ‘domesticating’ them.”
"It's okay Twilight. We have other things to worry about for now." Celestia said. "Let's get lunch then you may return to Ponyville."
It was true; Celestia had other things to worry about. The Changelings had gone completely off the grid and then there was still Discord on the loose. So far Discord has caused no harm. But that was what worried Celestia, after he got out the first time he immediately started to cause havoc, but this time I he just left, gone into thin air.
Then she got a letter from him. 'Something' else had requested his audience. Was he being cryptic or was there another deity that needed or wanted to discuss some things with him. If so, did she need to worry?
She tried to suppress those thoughts. She'll cross that bridge when she gets to it.
-----
After their meal, Twilight went to her room to pack her belonging before heading to the train station. This time, Celestia was going to walk with her to the station, which Twilight thought odd. Usually Celestia would simply meet her there or say her goodbyes from the palace.
"So, Princess, if I may... why are you walking me to the train station?"
"Well, I haven't gotten to spend any time outside the palace in the last week. I also thought I might give our guests a stopping by. I haven't heard from Dr. Hooves in close to week, so I'm guessing their condition hasn't changed much. But I figure it can't hurt." The regal pony responded.
"Will I get the chance to examine them?" Twilight said a slight blushing coming to her cheeks.
"Perhaps another time. They are remarkable though."
"What have you found out about them?!" a sparkle in her eyes, as per usual for Twilight.
"I'll send you a copy of everything that Dr. Hooves has so far." Celestia chuckled at her student's enthusiasm for knowledge. Maybe her star student will pick up on somethings she, her sister, and the doctor missed. It couldn't hurt either; Twilight already has knowledge of these exceptional humans. Perhaps they can learn something from these 'terrans.' It wasn't long before she was snapped from her thoughts.
"Goodbye Princess!" Twilight said as she bowed.
"Goodbye, Twilight. I shall correspond with you soon." She returned to her student, acknowledging the bow.
-----
Planet: Equus Locale: Canterlot Hospital Date: Quintilis 7, 1001 AB Local Time: 2:10 PM
Celestia was musing in her mind as she walked the halls of the hospital, heading to the ward that housed her human guests. The guise to the public was that there was a remodeling of the old wing and so far none questioned the official story. She approached the doors leading to the ward and the guards there opened the doors for her as she walked inside.
She was greeted by Tender Hooves, "Your Majesty! I wasn't expecting you." As the mare bowed, "Is there something I can help with?"
"Actually I was just stopping by to check on things and to see if you had any new revelations. I was also in the area."
"Well, I haven't found out much more. But what puzzles me is why they were affected so greatly when our humans were hardly affected at all. The ones in the castle suffered from mild headaches and dizziness, but nothing remotely on the scale of a coma. What made them so susceptible to the magic of love? They were almost as susceptible as the Changelings." said the doctor, with a hint of unease in her voice.
"I'm not entirely sure, to be truthful." Celestia responded with a tone of voice more like a question than an answer, that bit of information never occurred to her until it was just brought up. Love magic wasn't supposed to harm those without evil in their hearts, and these humans were affected quite negatively. "Anything else to report on?"
Tender Hooves chewed the inside of her cheek in thought for a moment before answering. "I'm not entirely positive, but I think one may be coming out of his coma. His heart rates and breathing rates have changed, as well as his eyes responding to light."
This was good, Celestia thought to herself. Hopefully a conscious human could dispel much of the 'fog' surrounding the mysterious visitors. And hopefully, they were peaceful. But Celestia wasn't going to be an optimist in this regard and will order a doubling of the guard upon return to the palace.
"So you think he's coming out of his coma?"
"Yes." was the answer from the doctor.
"Good, if he's entirely coming out of his coma there will be a chance he will have dreams."
"How do we know if humans can even dream?" asked the doctor.
"Let's just say that dreams are common in sentient creatures, and these humans are capable of conversing. This is a sign of both sentience and intelligence. And if they dream, Luna might be able to acquire some insight into them." Celestia said as she made her way towards the door. "I'll let Princess Luna know when she's awake. I'm returning to the palace, notify me of any changes. Have a nice day doctor."
Tender Hooves bowed and acknowledged her liege before returning to her study.
-----
Planet: Equus Locale: Royal Palace Date: Quintilis 7, 1001 AB Local Time: 6:00 PM
"Ah, you're awake!" Celestia said as her sister entered the dining room.
Luna sat down at the table, eyes half lidded and mane disheveled, before looking over at her sister, "Why art thou in such a chipper mood?" She then proceeded to use her magic to grab an assortment of pastries from the serving trays.
Celestia set her tea cup down before clearing her throat. "You'll be excited at the news I have."
"Do tell, Tia."
"One of the humans is coming out of his coma." The alabaster alicorn said rather gleefully.
Luna paused the buttering of her toast and stared at her sister before blinking a few times to make sure her ears were functioning properly. "Wait... so they shall be awake?"
"Maybe, if not they should have dreams that you may be able to observe."
Luna continued the buttering of her toast while she contemplated this news. "This is joyous news!" was all she managed to exclaim after a few moments of silence. Her rather bleary attitude she entered the room with changed rather suddenly at this revelation as her sister could hear her quietly humming to herself as the midnight blue alicorn ate her breakfast.
Celestia finished her meal and stood up from the table. "Lulu, I'm going to be in my study. I'm sure Twilight Sparkle has written me and I'd like to respond in turn. I also have some other correspondence from some of the other nations that I should stop procrastinating on. Have a good time with your Night Court."
Luna hated Night Court. All the few nobles that did come in merely complained to her about Celestia not bowing to their every whim. And even then, the throngs, or lack thereof, meant Luna spent much of her time reading books than being a 'guiding light' to troubled ponies seeking guidance or arbiter in disputes. Thankfully it was considerably shorter than her sister's Day Court. Luna closed her night court at 9 PM every night to assume the mantle of Princess of the Night and Guardian of Dreams.
Tonight was going to be different.
"Captain Night Stalker?" No sooner had Luna called out than her Captain of the Noctem Custodi as she knew it 1,000 years ago arrived, seemingly anticipating her beckoning.
"Yes, your highness?" He asked after bowing.
"I shall visit the hospital tonight. I wish to cancel Night Court." She said as she stood up to go make herself presentable to the public.
"Is there anything else you may need assistance with?"
"Nay, I wish to take a break from the boredom of Night Court is all, Captain. You are dismissed." And with that her Captain of the now named Lunar Guard was off to ensure the cancellation of Princess Luna's rarely used Night Court.
As she trotted back towards her bad chambers a hundred thoughts were racing through her mind. Humans native to Equus didn't dream, how could they be sure these were any different? If they do dream, can she even view them? If she can view them, can she alter their course?
So many questions were now tumbling through her mind that her joyful trot turned into a nervous gait.
-----
Planet: Equus Locale: Canterlot Hospital Date: Quintilis 7, 1001 AB Local Time: 8:00 PM
Dr. Hooves was closely monitoring the human known as Dietrich. Since the ponies didn't have EKGs or other modern medical technology, the staff on hand to monitor the patients was considerably larger; with nurses coming in every half hour to monitor the human's vitals. And this time, during the periodic checkup, she noticed something.
His pulse had grown stronger and increased slightly in tempo, he was no longer comatose.
Quickly she checked for more signs of him coming out of his coma when she heard a soft knocking on the door. A nurse intern had opened the door and stuck her head in, "Princess Luna is here to see you, doctor."
"Can you send her in? She will want to be here for this." She quipped back before using her hoof to open the soldier's left eye to see if he had any rapid eye movement or dilation in the pupils.
And his pupils reacted to the light, shrinking down. He wasn't comatose anymore.
Doctor Hooves was inwardly jumping, barely containing herself when the Diarch of the Night walked in. Tender promptly bowed and came up to say something, but was beat to the punch, so to say, by the Lunar princess.
"Judging by how you appear to be on the verge of exploding with joy, I can only surmise he is in deep sleep instead of a dreamless coma?"
"Yes!" The doctor blurted excitedly before covering her mouth with her hoof and giggling, "I mean, yes your highness. He might awaken any day now."
"Do you think humans dream" Luna asked.
"W-what do you mean, princess?" The doctor was caught off guard by the sudden question.
"Do you think these humans are capable of dreaming?" Luna asked once more.
"I... I suppose so... I mean, I'm not entirely sure. I think you'd be the best at finding out, however, your highness."
Luna chewed the inside of her lip in deep thought. She went from staring off into the distance to focusing on the face of this one human, Dietrich Steiner. She wondered who this man was and what brought him here. Deep down she was afraid. So far these four humans had almost entirely shattered everything the ponies thought they knew.
Perhaps, humans weren't the dumb animals ponies treated them as. Clearly ponies weren't alone in this universe. And the technological level of these humans had shown how backwards ponykind was, having stagnated in 4,000 years with little to no technological breakthroughs and only a few magical ones.
In 2,000 years, the Griffins had caught up and passed the ponies in technology; utilizing an invention they called a 'steam engine.' While the minotaurs have almost caught up with the nation of Equestria in terms of technology as well, and they did it in just under a millennium. The Saddle Arabians had mathematics and medicine far beyond that of Equestria. Only the Afrikaans, the Zebra, Gazelle, and Antelope nations were still lacking in technology compared to Equestria. If wouldn't be long before that changed though at the rate they were making breakthroughs.
"Um... princess?"
Luna was snapped out of her train of thought.
"Are... are you okay?"
"Sorry, yes. I was just in deep thought. I wish to attempt to view his dreams if he is having any." Luna responded as she slowly approached the unconscious human, never once averting her gaze from his face.
Unlike with ponies where she could feel the ebb and flow of dreams just by being in their vicinity, she could tell this human was dreaming. But it wasn't a gentle ebb and flow like a ponies dream; it was a raging swirling river, a hurricane of emotions and thoughts.
Luna wasn't going to be able to simply ease into the dreamscape with him. She was going to need to take a more direct approach. So she closed her eyes, charged her horn, and touched the tip to his forehead.
She wasn't prepared for what would happen.
"Why are we out here? It's our weekend off... the fuck. I goddamn hate the Army..." A younger looking human complained, looking like a younger Steiner.
"You didn't hear? Planet is supposedly under attack by some unknown 'alien' force." another young looking human said while rolling his eyes with sarcasm.
"This is fucking bullshit, this my recovery day..." The younger Steiner said, rubbing his temples before putting his helmet back on.
"Recovery day from what?! All you do is viciously attack your liver." The other young human, whose uniform read 'Bannon' snarked.
"IT MUST BE PUNISHED!" Steiner yelled enthusiastically before changing subject. "Anyways, you know who we're 'providing fires' for?" He finished the last part off raising his hands and bending his fingers downwards in quoting fashion, voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Nope, not a clue..." Bannon said, while performing a task on some rather odd object; putting small bags into large brass cylinders before closing them off with a large green cone.
"Welp then..." Steiner said stacking the completed objects.
Luna had no clue what the objects were, but the soldiers were preparing rounds for a hot fire mission.
With the last of the objects assembled Bannon and Steiner sat down to rest on the struts of a large drab metallic object with one end being a long tube ending in a knob with holes.
"Fire mission! Fire mission!" An older looking human soldier yelled as he ran up the hill. "Charge Number Three, impact fuse!"
"Fire mission! Fire mission!" Bannon and Steiner replied in unison while another human called out in reply, "Charge Number Three, impact fuse!"
Steiner grabbed a round and announced "Number One ready!" Sergeant Vargas, the older man, looked into what appeared to be a small telescope on the side of the cannon before stepping back and yelling, "Fire for effect!"
The cannon belched an earth shattering roar, as Luna covered her ears. She was in the middle of it all and the humans couldn't see her. She also noticed the more time she spent in his dream; the more she came to understand the odd objects and what was going on. The object with two struts and a tube was called a ‘cannon.’
But she could tell she was viewing a nightmare from his past.
She could almost taste the fear coming off the young soldiers. They just came to the realization they were at war and were fighting it radically different than what she could have ever even imagined. They fought using guns, tanks, cannons, and aircraft. War was also no stranger to this race.
She counted out thirty shots fired in two minutes before the guns went quiet. Allowing her to soak up and understand more of what was occurring.
"You hear that?" asked Private Bannon.
"Hear what? All I hear are bells..." Private Steiner replied, looking at Private Bannon who grabbed his rifle and pointed off in the distance.
"Shit...SCATTER!!!" was what came out of everyone's mouth at the sight.
Luna's ears lay down and her eyes filled with worry as she looked around her with panic. All the human soldiers had dove into small holes.
She looked up to see a strange craft approaching from on high as it launched a large green projectile straight at her. She was frozen in that spot as the object neared her.
Luna was jolted out of the dream by the blinding explosion. The dream felt so real to her. She could smell the gunpowder. She could feel the dry, dusty wind. The planet's sun was beating down on her. The dirt was soft under her hooves. What was more worrying was the lack of explanation needed to convey meaning and description.
The human’s dreams were teaching her.
The longer she was there, the more knowledge she seemed to absorb from her surroundings. She just understood that the large green object was a M252, 105mm pack howitzer that fired a high explosive shell with a range of 16 kilometers. It worked utilizing a chemical propellant called 'gunpowder' in a similar fashion to Griffin 'firepowder' used by the Griffin Firelances.
She exhaled slowly and clenched her eyes trying to calm herself back down. She was tired, so very tired.
Luna had never been so exhausted from walking one's dreams. Even active participation in a dream such as banishing a nightmare in a foal's dream wasn't nearly this taxing. And all she did was view a past experience he was reliving.
"Oh, I apologize, your highness. I didn't realize you were awake." An orderly said as she was coming in to get the periodic pulse on the human.
"What time doth thou have, nurse?"
"It is four in the morning your majesty." She said as she took the temperature and pulse of the sleeping soldier, leaving shortly after.
"Thank you." Luna responded as she noticed that Doctor Tender Hooves never left the room and was curled up in a small ball on the empty hospital bed with her tail obscuring half her face.
She walked over to the doctor and gently nudged her, awakening her. "Dear doctor. I have some news."
Tender sat up, rubbing the sleep from her eyes, "Yes princess?"
"I could view his dreams."
The doctor was suddenly jolted awake upon hearing this. "Please tell me everything!" She excitedly exclaimed.
"I will, but I am going to retire early. It was... an exhausting experience to say lightly. It was also an experience unlike any other. I would like to invite you to the palace later in the day for dinner. I shall enlighten both you and my sister at the same time over a meal at 6PM. Have a good day, dear doctor."
Tender Hooves bowed and Luna nodded in return and with that, she walked out of the room to return to the palace. The moment the princess of the night left, Tender Hooves crawled back on the bed to resume her sleeping.
Princess Luna's flight back to the palace was spent in contemplation of the events occurring in the dreams and how such a transfer of knowledge was capable. She had never experienced such an occurrence any other time. Dream walking also never exhausted her so much, either. But deep down, she couldn't wait to tell her sister, after many hours of sleep, that is.
Planet: Equus Locale: Canterlot Hospital Date: Quintilis 8, 1001 AB Local Time: 0433
After the dust settled and the strange craft flew on by, turning around to make another strafe, I stood up and started firing at the craft wildly. After exhausting that magazine I got out of my foxhole to get moving towards the bottom of the hill.
"Sargent! What's going on?!" I called out, trying to find some soldiers from my section still alive. I saw Private Bannon was dead as he was completely engulfed by the blast, leaving behind a femur and his helmet.
I couldn’t focus on that right now though.
"Steiner! Over here!" I heard my Sargent shouting as I saw him waving me down motioning me to come to him.
I made my way to him, low and slow. I wasn't sure what just happened, but multiple unknown craft it turns out, clearly alien, just fucked our battery up. The guns were offline and multiple crews dead. "Alright, here's the SITREP boys." SGT said as he pulled out a map motioning for the rest of our section to gather around. "Bannon is our only casualty, but our guns are offline. Higher ups want us to displace to RP Sally about 2 klicks east of here, we're in deep. Whoever these fucks are blew through our orbital defenses and made landfall and smashed up an entire armored brigade in moments. We get to RP Sally and from there we move to the Littzenpanner Spaceport and got off this rock. Questions?"
The Sargent looked around making eye contact with each of us after finishing his FRAGO. I could see some worry in his eyes; he wasn't much older than us and just as green. No one could have seen this coming.
The Sargent flipped out his compass and got an azimuth for us to move along, "Aight Steddman, you're on point bearing 89 degrees. Wedge up everyone."
And just like that, the seven of us created the squad column/fireteam wedge, four in the front wedge and three in the second with all of our heads on a swivel.
We got to Rally Point Sally without a hitch. Apparently the Marines were using it too as a famous Lightning Marine Division was packing up shop here.
"Yo, soldier boys! Y'all what's left of Bravo 2-111 FA?" A Marine on guard called out from his Check Point.
"Yeah, we're Bravo 2-111, what do you mean by 'what's left'?" Sargent Vargas asked.
I turned around to watch our six, not bothering to listen to the rest of the conversation. I was still pretty rattled. I was supposed to be going home and in a few weeks starting my senior year of University. And what did that Marine mean by 'what's left?'
"Yo, Dietrich, did you see that?" A hushed whisper from Kadeem broke me from my thoughts.
"No, what was it?"
"I could've sworn I just saw movement in the rocks about 400 meters out." Kadeem returned.
I lifted up my rifle with its 4x scope and took to inspecting the rocks and crags at about our four O'clock, where Kadeem pointed out where he saw movement. This was setting me on edge.
"I don't see shit..." I get out right before a green beam lanced out at the CP, nearly striking the pillbox.
"CONTACT! Four O'clock! 400 meters!" Kadeem and I called our simultaneously as small targets firing small bolts of energy at us erupted from their hiding spots.
We started to engage the targets, picking them off. But we were artillery, so we missing with our rifles more than hitting, but what we lacked in accuracy, we made up for in volume. With many thanks coming from the Marines on the MG in the pillbox.
"Get in the gates! Go now! Go, go!"
"Moving"
Being the rear security, Kadeem and I were the last to get up. The moment we stood up, a bolt of blue energy struck Kadeem in the back and we went down with a blood curdling scream. Some of the fuckers managed to make it to cover no more than 50 meters away and now where firing at us.
I stopped running and turned around and began firing madly as I tried to retrieve Kadeem, who was sprawled face down with his back smoking.
A nearby explosion to my left threw me to the ground as my world went black.
I tried to open my eyes. I couldn't feel my left arm and left leg. I finally forced my eyes open.
I was dreaming of the first contact we had with the races that called themselves the Coventry. When my vision finally came into focus I noticed I was in a dimly lit hospital room.
The truth was after that happened I awoke in a field hospital, but here I am in another hospital that looks rather rudimentary.
I sat up, or tried to at least. "Where the fuck is my arm?" I creaked out due to a dry throat. I was missing my leg too. Someone removed them. I scanned the room for a few second before spotting them sitting on the floor next to some other belongings of mine piled neatly on the floor.
Then it rushed back to me: the atmospheric entry, the shootout in the palace, the conversation with the Madame Bug, and pink explosion.
I reattached my prosthesis and put my uniform back on. "Maybe it was all a weird dream from severe head trauma." I said aloud to myself. So I didn't bother putting the armor back on, just the olive gray utilities, my handgun and holster, and finally stuffing my patrol cap into my cargo pocket.
I reached for the clipboard at the foot of my bed to see the date as I absentmindedly scratched my chin.
I need to shave.
I looked at my watch, which read 0457 July 8 2260. I looked at the clipboard, "Last checkup was at 4:29 Quintilus 8th?"
I set the clipboard down on my lap and looked up, face scrunched. Quintilus? "The fuck is Quintilus? Sounds fuckin' Latin..." I mused to myself.
The doorknob clicked and I snapped my attention to it. Answers are about to walk through the door.
A small pony walked in staring at a clipboard with a white caduceus framed by a blue shield on its ass and looked up to make eye contact with me. "Uhhhh.... y-you're awake..."
It speaks.
I reacted instinctively and cold clocked it, striking it on the side of its head, just below the skull.
I snapped into survival mode and grabbed my chest rig and rifle and peeked into the hallway. Noticing the coast was clear I bolted off the direction of the 'Exit' sign. My boots made an odd squeaky sound that echoed.
"I gotta get outta here and find out what happened to the rest of the boys." I mused, peeking into a few empty rooms attempting to find the other three.
Hearing the snapping of multiple hooves on the hard floor made me stop my search and double time it to the exit and down the fire escape. Hearing voices call out from some masculine voices, "It escaped! Notify the Princesses immediately!"
I made it down to ground floor and out the side door into the dark alleyway.
-----
Planet: Equus Locale: Royal Palace Date: Quintilis 8, 1001 AB Local Time: 05:01 AM
"Tia! You're awake early!" Luna said with smile as she noticed her sister walk into the dining room.
"Indeed, 'early to be, early to rise.' And I need to raise the sun earlier in the summer time." She returned as she ladled some oatmeal into a bowl. She continued, "You seem rather... bouncy. Was your night good, Lulu?"
"We made a breakthrough last night!"
Celestia's ears perked up, her eyes snapped over to her sister's bouncy form, and she stopped the spoon just before her open mouth.
"We were able to observe his dreams, and they were spectacular!" Luna continued before her sister had a chance to say anything. "Unlike pony dreams, his dreams conveyed so much knowledge."
"Well, what did he dream about?" Celestia asked as she resumed eating her breakfast.
"I observed a possible nightmare of this, one of his past." Luna suddenly went solemn.
"A nightmare?"
"Yes, we do believe so. It was a battle he partook in. But that was not the interesting part." Luna paused to take a bite from her waffles. "What was incredible was the conveyance of knowledge. Just by being there I learned much of the the technical knowledge involving their weaponry and some other bits of their technology."
"Just how much knowledge, Lulu?"
"They have a radio, called the MIIDARS. It's a frequency hopping radio with a variable power setting that impacts it's range allowing it to broadcast to any radio on the same frequency pattern at a range anywhere from a few hundred 'meters' to a few 'kilometers'."
"Your Highness!" A guard burst in, interrupting Luna and panting heavily. He hastily bowed before continuing, "The human! It's escaped!"
Celestia and Luna both shot to their hooves and asked, "Was anypony hurt and where was it last seen?"
"We believe he slipped out the fire escape and into the alleys. He knocked Doctor Hooves unconscious. Should I get the Royal Guard mobilized?" He asked, having finally caught his breath.
Celestia started towards the balcony, "I need to raise the sun. Lieutenant, mobilize the Guard, inform them of the presence of a human. Consider it dangerous and unpredictable and not to approach it without aid. In fact, only track it and notify me or my sister immediately so that we may handle it."
"And what should we, I, do sister?" Luna asked, having to correct herself.
"Go to the hospital and see if you can track it down from there. It can't get too far because it will try and stay out of sight. I will meet you there after the sun is up. Hurry."
"Yes, sister." Luna acknowledged before taking off into flight from the balcony.
-----
Planet: Equus Locale: Canterlot Hospital Date: Quintilis 8, 1001 AB Local Time: 5:44 AM
Luna lands at the front of the hospital under the observance of a human, unbeknownst to her.
As she makes her way inside, she whisks straight past the front desk into the wing where the humans were interred. As soon as she gets there, she notices some Guards helping the doctor to her hooves.
"Doctor, art thou alright?"
"I'll be fine, princess. I walked in to check on him and he was awake. I spoke and it reflexively reached out and hit me. I believe he's in shock."
"So you believe there was no malicious intent?"
"None, princess. Had the position been reversed, I would have done the same. His survival instinct took over."
Luna contemplated what the doctor said as well as what she observed in his dreams. It is true, this human has shown that he has been attacked by the unknown before and likely took preemptive action to insure his survival. She was still irked that he attacked one of her subjects though, whether it was fight-or-fight instinct or not.
"He took his weapons too, princess. He is dangerous and I doubt if he gets cornered he won't hesitate to kill one of us. Please take that into account too." The doctor said. That part definitely didn't sit well; she'd seen the aftermath of what these humans were capable of. In fact, why did they even keep the weapons anywhere near the humans, unconscious or not, Luna inwardly mused to herself.
"I shall." Luna said to the doctor after a few quiet seconds, before turning her attention to a guard, "Guard, which fire escape did he use?"
"Follow me, your highness." She said as she started off down the hallway. "Some of the doors were open, so it was clear he was looking for the others. However, he being the closest to the fire escape meant he started in the wrong direction, which might be a bad thing, Princess."
"Why do you say that, Sergeant?" Luna looked at her guard quizzically.
"He's a soldier. If I got captured with my buddies I'd be on the search for them if I got out. And I'd be pissed to Tartarus and back if couldn't find them, Princess."
"Hope for the best and assume the worst." Luna said as she started through the fire escape, charging her horn. She was hoping she might be able to use magic to track the human, but made no headway. This was not going to be easy.
Meanwhile, Celestia was gliding over her city on the way to the hospital with hundreds of thoughts barreling through her mind.
I hope no one was injured and I hope it stays that way. But why would he attempt to break out of a hospital, we didn't even bind them. Since they're clearly from another planet, are they part of an invading army? Did they notice that we had humans as pets and were unhappy about their own species being used in such a way? I knew I should have acted on my hunches far sooner, damn my deliberateness of action. I envy Luna's ability to make calls seemingly on the fly.
In her flight to the hospital not once did she look down. Her gaze was fixated on the hospital and getting there post haste. Had she looked down, she may have spotted her quarry.
-----
Planet: Equus Locale: Canterlot Alleyways Date: Quintilis 8, 1001 AB Local Time: 6:07 AM
Fuck, the sun is coming up. I need to get out of this city right now. The darkness is my friend that is leaving me high and dry at the moment.
I was creeping along pretty quickly, sticking to the shadows and back streets and alleyways. Thankfully the inhabitants weren't of the morning variety. I guess things don't change from race to race. Taking a left here and a right there occasionally I made sure I was still headed in the same direction, at least according to my compass.
I dropped to a knee behind some trashcans in the shadows and pulled my compass out to check my bearing again to hear wings flapping overhead.
My gaze snapped up and I only caught a glimpse of something large and white.
I started moving again making sure I now stayed underneath overhangs as much as possible too. If the critters here can fly as well that makes everything THAT much more complicated. I don't need more complicated, but at least they don't have gun right? I mean, that one dead pony guard was wearing bronze armor and had a short spear. Now the scary part is if the unicorns can cast magic like the bugs did. Which would be less of an issue had I the time to don my rattle, but at least I'm far less hindered and quiet in just my fatigues and chest rig.
I dropped to a knee and peered out from my alleyway at what looked like a large gate partially open. The problem? It was on the other side of large boulevard and guarded by two armor clad ponies: one with a spear and the other a unicorn.
"Fuck," I muttered to myself, at least the shadows cast by the buildings stretch all the way across the street, even if it's a good twenty meters wide. But the shadows were quickly receding. I'll need to find another way out.
I heard a gasp from behind. I immediately wheeled about on my heels to come face to face with a human, another human; albeit, a smallish human that had a trash bag in its hands. Instinctively I put a finger to my mouth and made an audible 'shhhhh' sound.
It quickly darted inside where I heard a commotion. I took the opportunity to un-ass that hiding spot and start heading parallel to this large boulevard using back alleys.
After a bit more movement I could tell the city was waking up as the sun had eliminated my shadowy friend almost completely. I glanced at my watch which read 0717. "Fuck me running, it's been over an hour and I still haven't made it out of this city. I should've just barged the gate." I audibly chastised myself. That noise discipline error cost me.
A shrill scream caused me to wince suddenly as a small beige pony with another human on a leash saw me.
I bolted like a startled rabbit, my element of surprise being totally gone as I could hear her calling for guards.
-----
Planet: Equus Locale: Canterlot Hospital Date: Quintilis 8, 1001 AB Local Time: 6:21 AM
Celestia landed at the front of the Canterlot Hospital and was greeted by a pair of guards that informed her of the current status of the doctor. She was relieved that the good doctor was unhurt and trotted in to see the doctor herself as well as talk to the guards. Luna had already started tracking from the point of origin with one of the guards in an attempt to trace his steps.
Celestia assembled some more guards that were on duty at the hospital to inform them of what was going on. "I want each of you to make your way to each guard garrison and inform them of an escalation of events. We have a very welled trained and dangerous human wandering the streets of Canterlot trying to get outside the city. Judging by his actions here, and from Luna's observances of his dreams, he took this hostile intent on our parts, a flight-or-fight reaction."
She eyed the guards, some of them nervous, before continuing. "He doesn't want a fight, that much is obvious, so we will track him and let him run himself out. Do not; under any circumstance confront him directly. Your presence will be enough of a deterrent. If you locate him, have the Pegasi track him from above and have a unicorn launch a magical flare and me and sister will be there post haste. Am I clear?"
The guards all nodded before heading off to each of the small posts dotting the city. She was worried that one of her guards would try to be a hero after the all too recent Changeling invasion. The Royal Guard took a serious blow to their morale from that and may try to make it up by using too much bravado.
It was only a single human after all.
But unlike her, they did not fully understand the gravity of the situation. This was not JUST a human. This was a professionally trained and battle hardened soldier from another planet with weaponry the likes never before even conjured up in the dreams of ponies.
Her guard instead heard 'human' and bolted off thinking they were dealing with one of the local humans with intelligence slightly above that of a dog. The local humans were also rather frail compared to a pony; even a unicorn or pegasus could overpower a fully matured male.
This 'Steiner' was one of the bigger ones that arrived. So alien, yet so familiar.
How did they come about to speak Equestrian? Did they observe us from space and decide to intervene after thoroughly studying us?
It was warm, even while aloft. Hundreds to thousands of these humans seeking retribution? she shuddered at that thought. 'Sky Soldiers' she started to think of them as. Falling from the skies into the midst of her principality would cause enough chaos to make even Discord envious.
She inwardly chuckled at the next thought; her inner conspiracy theorist surmised these humans might even be agents of Discord. Her cold, calculating, logical part stuffed that into the part of her mind labelled 'Foalhood Fantasies.'
She saw her sister in the distance. "Looks like she gave up attempting to track Steiner." She said to no one in particular. Upon closing the distance to her sister, "How goes the search, Lulu?"
"Poorly, I was unable to magically track him and while I managed to get an idea of his direction by a few footprints left behind by the nightly shower, his pattern was erratic and unpredictable. So I took to the sky in hopes to have better luck. Have thou had luck, Tia?"
"Nay, I haven't. But I did brief the Guard on actions to take in this search. Hopefully they are disciplined enough to follow my instructions to the T."
"I somehow doubt that. Their pride was hurt recently and as such they have doubled their efforts in attempts to appease us." Luna contemplated
"I'm glad you're starting to adopt modern vernacular, Lulu." Celestia teased and giggled as her sister's face went a lush pink.
"We- I... I can nary believe... Oh forget it." Luna said with no amount of fluster in her voice. "We hath adapted to these times quite well, thank you." She said as she 'harrumphed' and held her snout high.
They both spotted a unicorn flare near the south entrance bolted that direction.
-----
Planet: Equus Locale: Canterlot Market District Date: Quintilis 8, 1001 AB Local Time: 7:19 AM
Okay, so here I am running like a hare through the now busy streets and alleys. Thankfully when the now fully populated streets see me, the ponies get out of the way. I guess something twice their size clad in combat gear barreling at them is as good a reason as any.
I slowed down slightly to get my bearings.
I heard the rattle and clink of armor and horseshoes on stone amidst the hustle and bustle of a busy city. I was being tracked by guards.
It is time to get legging it.
I took off around a corner and shot to the other side of a busy street. "On second thought..." I trailed off as I locked eyes with an airborne pegasus. I practically gave myself away by running out into the open. Time to double back to the gate and hope it's still open; it's only a matter of time before my tail catches back up to me. You know wings and all.
I knew I couldn't outrun quadrupeds in straights, so I stuck to smaller more congested areas where I could keep a reasonable speed but still corner without needing to slow down.
My heart is thudding, I'm running off pure adrenaline now. Thne it hit me. "The fuck am I gonna do once I hit the open air outside the city?" I said, out loud as I gasped for air between breaths, slowing down enough to catch my wind when something bright and colorful caught my attention.
"Fuck, they got flares?!" I chided. I knew what flares meant. They were calling reinforcements. But I thought I lost them?
Then I got an odd feeling in my gut and decided to slowly look up. Sure enough, it was that pegasus guard from earlier.
-----
Private Wind Runner was lazily flapping about searching the streets from above after the received news of a dangerous human on the loose. She had no idea what to look for except that she'd "notice it the moment she laid eyes on it."
Her Sergeant wasn't kidding. The moment she saw the drably dressed and armed human she knew that was the one. She was moving her way towards him as he ran into the open to cross the street only to look up at her and double his efforts as he seemed even more determined to escape when he slipped into an alleyway.
She was flying above him, tailing him. If she had been on the ground she'd never be able to catch him. "While not as fast as a pony, he sure can corner and leap." She said to herself, amazed at his display of athleticism. A level she believed until now to be unachievable in humans.
"He's out of this world!"
Her prey finally came to a stop and slowly looked up, that's when she spotted him looking up at her and she decided to shout and get the other guard's attention, "Hey, he's over here!"
When she looked back down he was already out of sight again.
"How does he do it..." she muttered to herself.
-----
Celestia and Luna both spotted the flare. "He's over there!" Celestia shouted with a mixture of glee and anxiety.
"Oh, that is the market district, this does not bode well, dear sister." Luna stated, her words laced with worry.
A crowded market place full of ponies that were very on edge because of the recent events, and the rumors of dangerous humans thrashing quite a few Changelings didn't sit well with the populace. Especially since the Royal Sisters kept very hush about the visitors, neither confirming nor denying.
Nonetheless, they both swooped downwards in a spiraling dive towards the market district.
"Perhaps we can talk some sense into it?!" Luna was shouting to be heard over the wind.
"I will try, if it's intelligent it may try to reason with us! Especially if it can feel that it's in no harm!"
Almost there.
They both landed in the market place beside a unicorn officer. "We saw the flare, what's the situation?" Celestia serenely asked.
"A pegasus managed to spot him and was silently tailing him until he noticed her. She looked up and over to shout his position at us, but he took the opportunity to slip away and she's still searching for him. But I've had a cordon and search set up. He won't be able to cross the streets separating this block from the three adjacent ones." He said proudly, "And with his 'back to the wall' so say, as this block rests against the outer Canterlot wall, he's effectively trapped."
"Trapped is a bad thing, Lieutenant. He is a natural predator still." Luna chided.
"It's still just a human, just a dumb animal."
"No, Lieutenant, this is anything but a 'dumb animal'." Celestia decided to join in on the warnings. "I'm going to join in the search myself; there aren't too many places to hide now that his running grounds have been reduced." She finished before taking off into the air.
"I shall assist as well!" Luna responded in part before enthusiastically taking up with powerful wing beats.
They didn't need to search long though, as suddenly as they took to the skies, a human clad in drab fatigues with his weapon strapped tightly to his back clambered atop the roofs and started running along them with excellent skill and balance.
What happened next both shocked and horrified the two sisters.
He jumped.
I landed on a low hanging roof across the street. Sliding down the ceramic tiles, they thought he was going to fall two stories into the cobblestone road below, only to catch the edge and pull himself back up. And he immediately got to running and jumping along the rooftops.
The sight left them pause for a moment.
"He's smart. He knows the only things that can keep up with him now are the pegasi. None of the other species of guard have that level of acrobatics." Celestia stated in amazement. These new humans were a marvelous sight to behold. Luna snapped her from her daze though.
"Sister?"
"Yes?" Celestia said, now coming back to the real world.
"What if these are the first signs of conquerors?"
"I don't know Luna, I don't know..." she trailed off as she observed the human.
-----
What the actual fuck was I thinking!?
I'm scared to death of heights! And I knew I was in good shape, but this level of gymnastics?! I didn't know I had it in me. Or anything left in me really. I guess I'm just high as a kite on adrenaline. I decided to strap my rifle tightly to my back so I could have both hands free for this.
I'm just running now. I have no more plans. Just run.
But at least the non-winged variety can't catch me up here, so that effectively thirded the amount of pursuers I had. "No bad."
"My luck will run out soon. I smell Murphy."
And what happens? I summoned Big Murph. How do I know? A shingle broke loose and I went for a tumble with I, slid off that roof, bounced off the adjacent wall and landed on my ass in alleyway. I didn't stay down for long though, I could hear the hoof steps on stone.
I was at the big gate though, which was closed. And now I'm surrounded by a lot of armed ponies. And by 'a lot' I can see at the very least a platoon had me cornered like a thievious raccoonus.
Damn. End of the road?
Nope.
I have one detonation charge.
Then Big Blue landed and composed herself, I'm guessing a she. It looks comically feminine.
"Sergeant Dietrich Steiner of the Republic of Terra. I ask that you calm yourself. I am Princess Luna and we mean you no harm."
Yup, a she. I eyeballed the growing crowd, then looked ole' Moonbutt right in the eyes.
"Fat Chance."
What happened next left even my ears ringing as I was wearing my patrol cap. I set off the det charge on the locking mechanism to the door. I may have also been just a wee bit too close as I felt the heat wave. But fuck it, the sudden explosion caused many to throw themselves to the ground.
And I used this opportunity like a champ as I rushed through the now ajar gate.
And I ran smack into another damned pony: a full size, although comically proportioned horse, with wings, horn, crown, gold peytral, giant ethereal mane and tail. She had the whole works really.
And her face looked like it had concern on it for the briefest of seconds before going stoic.
"Please. We implore you to calm down." She spoke serenely, her voice smooth as honey.
I hopped back to my feet to notice a pretty good number of spear wielding pegasi. My rifle was still on my back, so I laid my hand to rest on the grip of my pistol. An eight shot revolver. I fingered the lock and pulled it up slightly so I could draw it quickly if need be.
My eyes darted about; I swallowed, shifted my feet slightly for a better shooting stance, and licked my lips. I thought for a moment on what to say. She outsmarted me. She anticipated my Ace of Hearts up my sleeves and countered it with an Ace of Spades.
Clever girl.
I drew a long inhale and locked eyes with her magenta orbs.
"What's the catch?" I finally spoke. They had me and my buddies. I'm just hoping SERE school pays off; those douche-fags broke my nose.
Many of the guard seemed unnerved at my speaking, so I pressed the issue, "What? Cat got y'alls tongue?" One seemed to wince at that. Even Great White Sunbutt here shifted uneasily.
"Just so you know, I have trouble believin' a word any of y'all say. I saw that one scrawny fuck on a leash. I see what you see people as."
"That is not what it seems like!" I heard from behind, sounded like Moonbutt recovered.
"Sure, whatever Moonbutt," I retorted.
"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME!?" was what blasted my already ringing ears.
"Luna! Quiet down! This is a very delicate situation!" As what I at least thought Sunbutt said.
"Yeah, listen to Sunbutt." I said, noticing her cock an eyebrow at me. I guess she isn't as easily insulted.
"I'm glad to know you were admiring my posterior. But anyways, I digress, back to the situation at hand. We'd like you to not resist. We mean you no harm, none of you. Your three friends are in the hospital right now. You simply missed their rooms. After the invasion, a magical blast knocked the four of you unconscious and we took you to the hospital. Will you please come with us?" She pleaded. Part of me wanted to, because no Ranger leaves a fallen comrade. The other part of me wanted to run, also... that jab right back at me.
The part that didn't trust them won
"Nope," I said, drawing my handgun from its holster and attempting to dart to my right.
Before I could even get my second step I felt something solid smash into my back, causing me to eat dirt and sending my beloved flying.
I rolled over to attempt to get back up only to be pinned by Princess Luna.
"Now will thee come with us?" She asked, well more like commanded with no lack of venom in her words.
"Looks like I ain't gotta a choice in the matter now, do I Moonbutt?" I said with a smirk.
Wrong thing to say as she quickly wiped that smirk off my face with a hoof to the face, breaking my nose... again.
"Oi..." was all I managed as my vision went black.
Just a bit more searching, his dreams have a unique signature; there is nothing magical about his dreams at all. He shouldn't be able to dream without magic. My sister even says he has no traces of magic, not even the core magic that all living creatures of this planet have. They truly are out of this world.
"Luna?" Celestia called out, snapping Luna out of her train of thought
"Yes? I'm in here, searching the dreamscape." Luna called out with hints of frustration seeping out. Her sister picked up on it too.
"What's bothering you?" She said as she wrapped a wing around her sister, who was seated facing the moon on her balcony.
"We are unable to find this human's dreams. We can feel it's presence within the dreamscape, but we cannot pinpoint its whereabouts. Tis frustrating to no end."
"its okay, Lulu."
"Nay, they should not even be able to dream. They have not a trace of magic. We are unable to fathom how they can do anything at all without." Luna drooped, clearly upset that the Guardian of Dreams was being guarded against. "But here, we have a creature that can dream but it behaves as if it is actively keeping me out."
"I doubt that's the case Luna." Celestia said in an attempt to cheer her sister up. "You did hit him in the face, and he has been out for hours." She teased her younger sister.
Looking away, Luna huffed before responding, "We may have overreacted..."
"That's an understatement. You broke his nose! Simple magic would have detained him easily enough. Silly sister, I'll be in my chambers looking over some of the boring bureaucratic work the nobles keep pressing upon us. Goodnight Lulu." Celestia pecked her sister on the forehead before heading out.
"Goodnight, Tia."
After several moments of staring at her moon in frustration she could feel something that felt like a dream, but it wasn't in the dreamscape. Odd, a dream not fully in the dreamscape? It must be him. And Luna powered up her horn to force her way into the dream.
"Hey Jasmine, smile." a young human male said to a girl in the boat with him. And after the flash she lowered the bass into the water and released it before preparing her rod for another cast.
"That's the biggest one today, it was about four pounds." She said to the man. "It also means I'm winning." She teased at him.
He chuckled before responding, "Yeah, I need to step my game up. I'm gettin' whooped."
Luna smiled at the scene unraveling before her. She finally found his dream and the part that excites Luna the most is the vision into his home life. She inwardly squeed until the dream panned out to the photo that was taken.
The photo was seen in the void of blackness before the scene surrounding it slowly faded into view.
And what she saw made her feel queasy, but she was unable to put her hoof on just why.
Before her stood an obviously happy soldier in a dress uniform holding the photo and a large green bag. "Hey, Deitrich, where you headed for your R and R?" another similarly dressed soldier asked.
"I'm headed home to Baumwolle in the Lyran Pact. You?"
"I'm going to back home to Earth, Chicago to be exact. Who's the chick in the picture?"
"Jasmine, my wife," He handed the photo to the other soldier, "I can't wait to see her. She sent so many care packages while I was in the hospital, even visited while I was doing rehab. She also wrote a hundred damn letters while we were in the Asymmetric Warfare Course."
"Hey, that's Baumwolle, your home planet, on the TV isn't it?" The other soldier, Ian, asked while returning the photo. Both of the soldiers were entranced by the images and text flashing across screen. Not able to see the screen they were staring at, she could only deduce from the shock on Dietrich's face that it couldn't have been good.
As soon as that thought crossed her mind the scene fell apart as the building started to fall apart, blow apart, and burn down around him and her.
They were now standing in a destroyed city on his home planet.
He started to slowly walk through the city staring straight ahead a thousand yards off into the distance.
After what felt like an hour of walking, they arrived at a farm that was destroyed, damaged equipment strewn about.
He collapsed to his knees and stared straight ahead into the smoldering ruins. Luna decided to approach Dietrich. She got about five feet from him before he spoke up without turning around.
"Why?"
She wasn't sure if he was questioning her or the situation. His next statement clarified it for her.
"I'm talkin' to you. Why are you here?"
Before she could respond she realized she was staring at the horizon on her balcony again.
"I was just trying to get to know you..." she whispered into the open air.
-----
Planet: Equus Locale: Royal Dungeons Date: Quintilis 10, 1001 AB Local Time:
"Hey, so I heard through the grapevine this human can talk."
"Dude, it's just barracks rumors. Everypony knows humans can't talk."
"Nah, I'm telling you. This one is different. Have you seen how much bigger he is?"
"No, I haven't. I suppose that's why you wanted me to follow you."
I could hear the voices and hoof steps of the guards as they conversed and cantered down the hallway leading to my cell. I spent most of the night drifting in and out of sleep. The cell I was in had a cot far too small for me, so I slept on the cold stone floor. Of which I'm glad for. It's hot outside and it's hot in here and the stone feels good on my bare skin.
You heard me.
They took my blouse, my socks, my boots, my undershirt, and my patrol cap. They would have probably taken my britches too had I worn skivvies. I was more or less naked. The bastards didn't even have the decency to wipe off the blood, instead leaving it to cake to my skin. I'm guessing they couldn't figure out how to remove my prosthesis either, because I still had it too.
Regardless, I was being approached by guards that happened to wake me up from my nightmare. I was having a good dream about my wife, about memories with her I cherished. Ones I had before this mess with the Coventry.
However, the dreams slowly turned sour and by the end of it, I was wandering my hometown before finally arriving at the family farm.
The scene still burned into my memory in the same way the farm was scorched into the ground.
The only difference was that instead of the aid force sent to relieve the planet, I was with an entity the entire time. It felt familiar, like it had been present in other dreams of mine. Either way, each time I could feel it, I could also feel the dream being forced into a nightmare.
Just before I was awakened by the guards I could feel its very presence just behind me. All I had to do was turn around.
But I was jolted awake be the guards entering the block earlier.
"Buck, he is big," one of the indiscernible guards said to the other,
"I told you so. You reckon we could get it to talk?" The other guard replied.
"No, I'm telling you it's stupid and can't talk. Only sentient creatures can talk."
I could just lay here and play stupid and get left alone or I could mess with them. I took a deep breath before I felt it hit me. I reached my hand up to neck where I felt something hit me.
One of them spit on me.
"Besides, humans aren't good for anything anyways." Pretty sure that was the one that just hocked a loogie on me.
I just need to stay calm, I can explain things when the eventual interrogation rolls around. Maybe I can reason with them, get them to give me stuff, my friends, and be on my merry way to do God knows what with ourselves until a Navy ship comes and gets us and we get back to fighting the enemy so keen on making humanity extinct.
"And since humans can't talk, I wouldn't mind going in there and showing him ponies are still the boss."
"Iron, I wouldn't do that if I were you. You see how huge he is, right?"
"Humans are weak and pathetic."
Ha, these goons are laughable. They're roughly the size of German Shepherd, smaller even than Shetland ponies. In a physical fight, they wouldn't stand a chance. Hell, even attack dogs aren't much of a threat if you know how to handle them. The only concerning feature is that horn. It could be used to quite a bloody effect.
"I'm going in, stay out here and keep an eye out," said the hotshot guard.
Then I heard it, the little fuckstick actually has the cajones to try and start shit. So I decide to sit up and face him in a guarded position, the "Warrior seat," as the instructors called it in Combatives.
"Alright hero," I spoke, "don't start nuthin', won't be nuthin'," and I punctuated the sentence with a mischievous grin.
He was visibly taken aback by my ability to formulate words into sentences that were coherent because he stopped in his tracks before stammering out "W-what d-d-did you j-just say?"
"You fuck with me, I fuck with you. I suggest you keep them steel bars 'tween us brother." I piped up, moving to a standing position so he could see my full height; which clearly intimidated him because he immediately backed out of my cell while the other guard closed and locked it back up.
"I told you he could talk," the smart guard chided in an even tone.
"I. You. He... L-let's just go."
And off they went.
-----
Now that the human was out of his coma, she could finally get some questions answered. But first she needed to make sure that he and his kind posed no threat to the security of her kingdom. She had Shining Armor move their gear and what they assumed were the weapons away from the soldiers and into the armory for later evaluation. And the others were put under constant guard in case they woke up too.
She was on her way down when she noticed two guards, one visibly shaken, coming up from the dungeons.
"Guard, what seems to be the issue?" She inquired.
"He... he talks..." the shocked guard replied.
"Hmmm, I suppose I shall have to see this myself. Fetch Shining Armor and have him meet me down here."
"At once, your highness," they replied with a bow before setting off with task in hoof.
Celestia couldn't tell if she was excited or nervous, possibly a bit of both even. Here was a human that could talk. Everything that ponies thought they knew about humans was just flipped on it's head.
Oh the questions she had.
Like: where is he from, what he knew, and how he got here. Twilight's natural curiosity seemed to have rubbed off on her mentor.
"Princess Celestia, you requested me?"
Shining Armor arrived with a contingent of guards. "I brought additional guards as well, I heard the trouble he caused you and Luna and the bulk of the guard in just trying to track him down and capture him."
"Oh, I doubt that will be necessary this time. Come; let us meet our new guest on better terms than a chase about town."
-----
After the two guards left, I immediately started to look for methods of escape. But first, I need to interrogate my captors by being interrogated. Sounds stupid right? Truth be told, your captors can let slip many details through answering seemingly harmless questions and through a bit of small talk as well.
And then I heard the clopping of hooves on stone. A lot of hooves actually, almost like a herd of horses.
Then they rounded the corner with a winged unicorn at the front of an entire herd of armor clad ponies. I outwardly grinned and inwardly chuckled at being held captive by these adorable little ponies. They felt like they belonged on a little girls television show.
The large winged unicorn is a bit larger than the others, but if we're not counting the horn is probably just a hair below my height. And unlike earthen equines, these equines are startlingly dimorphic. The females are much lither with softer, more rounded facial features while the males are a tad bigger with more chiseled faces and more muscular frames. And their faces are almost as expressive as a human’s.
Did I mention they speak English?
Anyways, back to Great White. She has a flowing mane of many colors, even though there is no wind. And she has a sun tattooed on her buttocks. And let's not forget the gold crown, peytral, and horseshoes she has on. I can basically infer from this that she's in charge.
And I watch her closely the entire time she is walking down the hallway and stops right in front of my cell before turning to face it, and me in it.
Making eye contact with her, I was about to open my mouth to speak but she got the first words in.
"I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria. And who might you be?"
"First" holding up three fingers; the pinky, ring, and middle fingers, "You'll return to me my clothing," lowering the pinky, "The small silver band that was on this finger," indicating my ring finger before lowering it, "And the small metallic can," waggling my middle finger at her before lowering it as well. It's a shame she won't get the meaning.
"And just why should we give in to these demands?" An exasperated Guard, looks like the Officer in Charge, a unicorn with a blue mane.
"If your boss wants answers, you'll get me my shit. No personal artifacts. No answers." I fired right back at him before leaning back against the wall and crossing my arms and looking back at the Great White.
Something about her makes me really uncomfortable. Her mane is not normal; it's a pastel hued rainbow that moves listlessly in the wind; except there is no wind. Hell, it doesn't even look like normal hair. Then she has wings like Pegasus from Greek mythology and a horn like a unicorn. She's also a LOT bigger than the rest of ponies here. Not quite as big as a normal horse, but not small either. And she's more slender than a Terran equine.
But what unnerves me the most is that face, the eyes especially. That shit ain't natural.
"So, if we meet your requests, will you answer my questions?" She spoke up in a flat, yet motherly tone. She never broke eye contact with me and even cocked an inquisitive eyebrow.
I need to tread carefully or might let important information slip, "Yeah, sure, why the hell not?"
"Captain Shining Armor, retrieve all his belongings but the weaponry. And bring a bucket of water, a rag, and a towel. I thought I ordered you to have him cleaned up before put in here." Celestia reprimanded her guards for their negligence, her voice never reaching angry levels but it did harden enough to show she was displeased.
After a long minute of silence, Celestia broke the silence, "Is there something you'd like to talk about while we wait?"
That question caught me unawares.
"Yeah, where y'all keeping my buddies?"
"They are being kept at the hospital from which you ran from; still comatose, sadly."
"So I'm the only one that came out of coma. Great." Inhaling deeply while staring at my feet, I looked back at her, "I'm guessing I should'a kept my ass put."
She chuckled lightly, "Yes, it would have saved us much trouble had you stayed in the hospital, and you might not be covered in your own blood from a broken nose. My sister happens to still have quite the short temper." Yeah, Little Blue has a temper for sure. But how did she disarm me so easily?
"I gotta know, how the hell'd she rip my sidearm from my hands without actually gripping it?" I asked, furrowing my brows. She better not say magic.
"Magic."
Fuck me. "I call horseshit. Ain't no such thing as magic." She cocked an eyebrow at this.
"I do believe that is where you would be wrong. Let me show you." Celestia looked at a cup of water on a nearby table, enveloping it in the same glow that was emanating from her horn and levitated it off the table towards me and I reached out and grabbed it. Once I had a grip on it, it and her horn ceased glowing. I looked down at the cup, then back up at her, then looking back at the cup.
"Holy shitballs...."
Magic. Motherfucking magic.
Now I know why she scares me. I felt my stomach drop and my skin electrify as my hairs stood on end. She scares the living shit out of me and here I am cornered in a cage without any way to defend myself.
-----
Celestia had just demonstrated her magical ability to the human, who visible paled. She looked closely and noticed his skin had grown pale and prickly with his hair standing on end. He also started to slightly shake, which she found odd, it was warm in the dungeons. Why would he be cold?
Then it occurred to her, he was frightened.
He was deathly afraid, she'd seen similar reactions when humans local to Equus had done something to earn the ire of their masters. She wanted to comfort him and let him know he was safe and not to be threatened, however she knew how humans that were scared were. They had a 'flight or fight' response. And he was cornered, meaning 'flight' was not an option for him. She had seen how physically capable he was, he was far more nimble than almost any pony, and if his displays of acrobatics and musculature were indicative of anything, he was also strong.
"Are you okay? You appear ill."
He snapped his eyes to me. "I'm just a bit cold."
Shining Armor and a few of his guards had returned with the human's belongs, all of them packed away neatly in the large green pack. Another guard carried the rags, towels, and water bucket in his mouth following along behind the Guard Captain.
Celestia noticed the human look at the water bucket and green pack as he stood up in preparation.
"Bout time, I'm tired of being covered in my blood." He said, seemingly gathering some fortitude. Celestia admired his ability to push his fears behind him. The guards set the bucket and towels just inside the cell and Shining used his magic to levitate the pack to the foot of the cot.
"May we have your name at the very least?" Celestia inquired, trying to say it in as innocent a way to keep from startling him and scaring him any further.
"You can call me Steiner." he curtly replied glancing at me, then back at the bucket. Not making a move for it all.
Celestia stepped back a few steps to try and coax him to retrieve the bucket. Which he finally did, never moving his eyes from the crowd of ponies. His eyes darted back and forth, stopping on the unicorns eying them like they were predators waiting to pounce on him. He sat down on the cot and proceeded to wash himself off entirely, stripping down to the nude to clean his entire frame.
As he was washing himself off, she observed him. She noted the various scares across his body. Taking a special account of the loss of his lower left leg and what appeared to be a highly advanced form of prosthesis of his left arm from his upper arm down. She secretly wondered what could have caused the unique scarring across his body, they resemble burn scars, but covered much of his left shoulder and left thigh.
She also took a look at the tattoos on his chest and right arm. The one on his right shoulder resembled the insignia on his armor pauldron, and the one on his chest resembled an ancient rune that the latest scholars said belonged to ancient pony kind. The presence of the same rune on this human told her the scholars are probably wrong.
After drying himself off, he opened his pack and put on a fresh uniform. Celestia was wondering what was going through his mind at the moment. He seemed to totally ignore the presence of all the ponies just outside his cell as he rummaged through his stuff.
Celestia glanced at her guards, some of them seemingly perplexed at the actions of the human. Some of them tense, anticipating something dangerous from the human. And then a few of the pegasus mares were fidgeting their wings while they were staring at his naked frame.
That display of the mares unnerved her. She had heard that mares would 'utilize' male humans for personal pleasure. To force themselves on another creature was something that disgusted Celestia and Luna, and was one of the reasons why Celestia wanted to force the release of humans. The hitch in her plan was where to release them? They've become so reliant on ponies or the centuries.
When she looked back, Steiner was pulling a shirt over his head to cover his upper body. We reached into the pack and pulled out a pair of boots and put them on and laced them up. He exhaled sharply and slapped his hands on his thighs, getting the attention of the guards that had started to whisper amongst themselves. "Where my personal shit at? It ain't in here."
Shining answered, "It should all be there. Are you sure you checked all the pockets?"
"Yeah, I did, I'm missing the silver band, my ring." Steiner responded as he returned to rummaging through his pack, pulling out all the contents and dumping them on his cot.
"Why is that ring so important to you?" Shining retorted with some ice. It was enough to make the human stop and lick his lips.
"Find. That. Ring." was what came from him, each word drawled out for emphasis. After he said that, he shifted his weight to one side and reached behind him, presumably retrieving something from one of the pockets on the back of his trousers.
After he found what he was searching for, he proffered a small, brown metallic can that he shook while smacking the top of it with his finger.
"Excuse me, but what is that?" Celestia asked, genuinely curious to the contents of the can. When he popped the lid off, he pinched some between a finger and thumb and put the wad of it in a pocket behind his lips. The sweet smell hit her nose, and she wasn't entirely sure what it was. It had a mildly sweet and minty smell to it.
She became alarmed when his eyes rolled into the back of his head, he moaned, and started to slowly lean back against the wall.
"He poisoned himself!" She shouted as she rushed into his cell towards him.
-----
Old Virginia Wintergreen.
I found my log of dip.
I put a pinch in as the nicotine kicked in and I closed my eyes to savor this euphoric state as the drugs calmed my nerves.
Then I heard some yelling that snapped me from my trance as I saw Big White barreling at me with a look of intense worry in her eyes. I damn near jumped out of my skin and yelled "WHAT THE FUCK?!" as I attempted to scramble the wall behind me to get away from her.
"You are attempting to poison yourself! I refuse to let you die!" She yelled as she gripped me her magic bringing me near to her. "Spit it out! Spit the poison out!"
Knowing she could manipulate me and throw me around like a ragdoll really scared me. Scared me even more, but hearing her yell about my tobacco as poison was humorous. I mean, yeah, my wife would've agreed, but still. I don't know whether to laugh or piss myself.
"Um... no? A dip can cost four TBills, and I'm sure y'all ain't got none to replenish my stock when this log is used up." I said, with my eyes darting back and forth.
She cocked her head back and to the side and furrowed her brows, "What?"
"It's tobacco, a recreational drug. Can ya put me down? I really don't like this... ah... situation."
"Oh yes, I apologize." She returned, setting me down. "I did not mean to act so rashly. I assumed you were attempting to poison yourself. I know you are your races military and in ancient times, captured soldiers would attempt to kill themselves to prevent their enemy from extracting information. Again, I apologize." She finished as she backed up and regretfully looked at the ground.
Did she blush? Can she blush? She has fur on her cheeks? I'm pretty sure she can't, but I'm pretty sure I just saw blushing.
I'll just chalk that up to magic.
"So... ring? Yes?"
"What?" Shining Armor responded. They have funny names. And not like names that the Conglomerate races use, those make sense when you put it in the context of their languages and cultures. These ponies speak English and have names that a combination of adjectives and nouns. Like this guy, a soldier with the name Shining Armor.
Just an observation.
"Have you found my ring?" I asked again.
"No, we haven't even gon-"
"Don't care. No ring, no answers." I interrupted.
"Shining Armor, find this man his ring." Celestia reprimanded her guard captain. She obviously wanted answers. I glanced at the Captain and saw he had bowed down and trotted off. I really do want my ring back.
"So, can you tell me the significance of this ring?" She asked, I wasn't expecting that question.
"Yeah, it... uh ... it represents something that was near and dear to me." I replied, feeling the thousand yard stare kick in. "I just want it back, it's about all I have left to remind me of home." And it was, I had a picture of me and my parents, a picture of me and my wife, and a naughty picture of my wife. I lost the rest.
-----
Celestia could see him attempting to focus on something as if it were on the horizon when he half choked out his answer. When she focused on his eyes, she could see a shine in them that wasn't there before. Was he crying?
"What time is it?" he asked, looking at a small device on his wrist.
"It's nearing noon. Why?"
"How close to noon? Like, the exact time."
Looking out the window at the sun, Celestia replied with, "Just about noon. Is that some sort of device to measure time?"
"Yes, I'm gonna set it to 1130. Close enough?"
Celestia was dumbstruck. He speaks Equestrian flawlessly and used the same method of time measurement. What else do they have in common? For a race that is not of this planet, they sure do have much in common. "H-how do you measure time?"
"In seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, and years? Sixty seconds to a minute, sixty minutes to an hour, twenty four hours to a day, seven days to a week, thirty to thirty one days to a month, twelve months to a year. How do y'all measure time?"
"Almost the same exact way, except all our months have only twenty eight days." She was surprised at the similarities.
"Makes sense, our planetary orbits are different; resulting in differing year lengths." He responded nonchalantly while folding his clothing and packing it up with the rest of his things before closing up his pack.
Shining Armor finally returned with a small envelope in his magical grasp. "I found it finally. It had fallen on the floor." And he proceeded to levitate it over to the man who cautiously took it from the magical grip and open it. He held the ring up and inspected it closely in the light before putting it on a finger on his right hand.
And then Luna teleported into the dungeon with a loud 'pop.'
"I heard he was awake!" she exclaimed, garnering the attention of everyone in the dungeons.
"Dear human! Tell us what thou know!" She exclaimed with massive enthusiasm and a large grin plastered to her face.
Celestia looked at her sister before slowly turning her gaze towards the human. She could see Steiner slowly backing away from Luna as she approached him slowly. She could almost taste the fear and loathing from him.
But why loathing?
"Who are you?" He snapped. Well this might go badly.
Luna stopped in her tracks, ears flattening, and grin fading as she responded, "We are Princess Luna of the Moon and Guardian of Dreams. And whom might thou be?"
"Guardian of Dreams? What," was his response.
"Yes, it is my duty to guard and protect our subjects whilst they sleep." She responded with an air of pride in her work.
"So, you can see people's dreams?"
"Yes, I banish the nightmares that ponies have at night."
"If that's the case, then you can see my dreams. And if you can, then I presume you already have. And if you can banish the nightmares I presume you can also cause them. Am I correct thus far?" Celestia could hear the venom in his voice, something about her sister really riled him up. She could see the hairs on his neck standing up and his skin reddening slightly.
"Yes, I have seen the dreams thou hath dreamt. But we were but a mere spectator at their unfolding." Luna responded, her eyes betraying her nervousness. Celestia could see her sister growing very worried. What has she done?
"I disagree that you had a passive effect. Pretty sure my shit went to hell in a hand basket 'cause of your meddlin'."
He was shaking in a mixture of anger and fear. That much Celestia could tell. Her sister scared him far more than she did, and that actually worried her. It appeared that Luna wasn't aware that she was frighting the human as badly as she was. She needed to intervene quickly.
"Luna, I need to speak with you quickly." And with that Celestia walked down the hall and Luna followed.
-----
So Little Blue just teleported into the room with me, scared me shitless, then started to bombard me with questions before Big White wanted to talk to her in private.
Her ability to teleport scared me. Her ability to toss me about like a rag doll like her sister scared me. Her ability to see into and manipulate me dreams? Yeah, that actually had me chilled to the bones. I've never been so scared in my entire life. Nothing the Snakes have thrown at me have scared me this much. This broad could literally brain melt. Just pop my brain with a thought.
Her physical presence felt wicked familiar, and if what she said was true about the dreamwalking bit, then she was in my dreams.
I physically shuddered at the thought. I could potentially retreat into the sanctity of my mind if the beatings got too bad to bear. But if she can go there, no place is safe. I had no safe place to be anymore. And that put the fear of God into me.
-----
"Okay Luna, what did you do to put the fear of Faust into him?" Celestia scolded her sister.
"We merely observed his dreams. We did not intervene at all." Luna retorted, not sure why her sister was being so belligerent all of a sudden. "Surely thou doth not think our mere presence had an impact on him, doth thee?" Luna started to get mildly worried.
"Luna, he is already very wary of the unicorns. He doesn't understand us. In fact, I do not even think he believes in the existence of magic. Which I believe scares him to the core. All the creatures of Equus have a magical footprint, even if they cannot directly manipulate magic themselves. I can detect no magic in him. He is almost like a shade, he is there but unless directly observed, he is not there." Celestia attempted to explain to her sister.
"So you believe he has no magic where he hails from?" Luna asked, starting to put the puzzle together.
"No, I had to show him the existence of magic and even then he seemed to question it." The white alicorn said. "Looking at his belongings, I think they are so technologically advanced because they have no magic. Similar to the inventions the Gryphons have created to compensate for their lack of magic."
Then it clicked for Luna. "Not even his dreams are safe from us" She said ominously as her ears laid flat and she deflated slightly.
"To him they are not. He is deathly afraid and may act in manner to preserve his life that we may deem irrational. I do not want him no any ponies getting hurt. We must tread carefully."
"How much damage hath we done with our impatience?" Luna inquired.
"Much it seems, however I believe we may be able to smooth some of this over and make amends." Celestia countered, she had formulated the plan to allow the human full diplomatic benefits. She wanted to learn from him and of him.
But more importantly, she just wanted to make sure her ponies would be safe.
And he safe from her ponies, especially after the recent events regarding a Changeling Queen.
So, Sun Booty and Moon Booty decided they needed to talk in private, presumably about Ink Butt jumping into and hijacking my dreams. I'm guessing with how hard Celestia has been trying to convince me that she won't vaporize me on the spot, Luna's mental meddling could kick the legs out from under that table.
And let's be honest. I don't want Little Blue anywhere fucking near me.
"So, what's up?" I directed at Shining Armor, trying to get some small talk started.
"What's up? The sky, the ceiling, the sun. What kind of question is that?" Was his response, his face was pretty funny. He crinkled his nose and furrowed his brows. I honestly wasn't too surprised. Although we speak the same language I can bet our vernacular is radically different.
"Well, where I'm from it's a way of asking 'how are you doing?'. So I ain't surprised at your answer, we may speak the same language, but we ain't got the same vernacular."
"What do you mean by that?" He asked, he's starting to soften up a bit. Good, good.
"Slang terms or idiomatic phrasing mostly." I explained, hoping he was tracking that at the least.
"Okay, I think I'm following. Well, to give you a better answer. You're in a cell until we figure out what to do with you and your comrades." And there is that venom again.
Going to need to use a different approach.
"So, you think I'm a threat?"
"Yes, I do. I think you're here with ulterior motives. I've seen the mess you and your three friends made. We've seen what your weapons are capable of, and frankly it's barbaric. It shows us that humanity, while capable of speech is still just a bunch of uncivilized animals."
I just looked at him then spit the used up dip into the cup from earlier. I stood up and walked over to the bars of the cell and noticed how they backed up from the bars. I guess I scare them, even if there are iron bars separating us. Even then, I'm much less of a threat than they are. They have magic.
"I got an idea." I propose.
"Oh, yeah? I bet it involves a way to kill the Princesses."
"Yeah, whatever. You're a soldier; I'm a soldier, so let's have a talk. Soldier to soldier," I elaborate, hoping this piques his interest and gets him to drop the tough guy act.
He looks around warily, first at his guards then up at me. I can see the musculature of his jaw tensing up slightly as he wages an internal war with himself. After a few moments of silence that felt like an eternity, he finally spoke up, "Okay. So, start talking."
Hook, line, and sinker.
I sat down and put my back against the wall with my feet out in front of me and leaned against the bars of my cell. Where to start?
"So..." inhaling deeply "what would you do if I told you the very way y'all are acting is how I'd handle the situation?"
"We're both professional soldiers. Regardless of levels of culture and intelligence, some things soldiers share in common."
"Yeah, I know. You and your Princesses are also tense because of a recent invasion by another race. Then suddenly, me and my boys show up and waste a bunch of the bugs that were giving you and your boys heapin's of trouble. Y'all are scared me and my boys are here as conquerors."
"Yeah, I'm following...." he said, indicating he hasn't fallen asleep on me just yet, he also indicated with his hoof for me to continue.
"As I was saying, the small devices we arrived in. We used them as methods of escape. Think of them as lifeboats." I lied to him, partly. We did use them as lifeboats, but they're really assault devices used in planetary invasions. They don't need to know that.
"Lifeboats for what? There no seas for miles. Your story is coming up short, human." That's what I was afraid of. Judging by what I've seen, they probably don't even have the steam engine or any analog thereof.
"Look, do I look like I'm from here? Even you're precious princesses have acknowledged that I'm an alien to your world. My species is capable of space flight, and our ship had some... problems... and needed to be abandoned."
"This discussion is over. You're obviously trying to make fun of us with your childish stories." He spat out.
"Whatever Sandy, I should've known you lacked the mental faculties to look past your own fucking nose." I shot back while rolling my eyes and crossing my arms. He stomped out rather angrily with his entourage following him with the exception of one small pegasus mare. She didn't leave with the rest.
I closed my eyes to take a nap, I was tired, my face hurt, and I was alone.
"E-excuse me?" a soft feminine voice asked I'm guessing me. I just want to nap.
"Fuck." I exhaled. "What is it?"
"Are you really from another planet?"
"What's it matter? It ain't like I'm gettin' back anytime soon if ever." That thought was hella depressing. Holy shit, I'm in deep.
I'm guessing she winced at that. At least from what I could tell, she picked up one hoof and brought the back of it to her mouth. I wasn't too focused on her, "Standard Operating Procedure for bailing out of a ship is for the Captain to order all hands to abandon ship and then send a distress signal to the nearest colonized planet. The distress pulse contains the time and date the ship was abandoned as well as the location it went down so the Navy could attempt to recover the crew." The next part was going to hurt as I've been forced to give up the search for a missing Ranger company before because the ship carrying them went down and by the time we got the distress signal it had already been over six months.
I exhaled, "I'm considered MIA, and if they can't get HERE in 120 days they list us as MIA, presumed KIA. And this is uncharted space. So I'm not going home." My heart dropped. Other than my brothers elsewhere on this planet, and the three in a hospital who are comatose, I'm alone.
I pinched my eyes closed to fight back the tears. Now is no time to be weak.
"I... I'm sorry, for what it's worth. Even though I hardly understand what much of that meant. I'm really sorry." Was her response before walking away. Was she trying to comfort me?
Anyways, after her exit I was finally alone. Nap time.
-----
"Mr. Steiner? Mr. Steiner..."
I was jolted awake when I felt myself falling over after having been pushed. When I finally forced my eyes open my vision was filled with large, white, winged unicorn. And I promptly flipped my shit.
"HOLY FUCKING SHIT!!!" was my automatic response as I scrambled to my feet and attempted to put some space between me and her. After the initial shock wore off and I calmed down, "Holy shit... fuck me sideways..." I clenched at my chest and bent over some to catch my breath.
"I apologize for scaring you. My sister has somethings on her mind she wishes to say." Celestia said, as she sidestepped to reveal her sister with her head hung low and a forlorn look on her face.
"Mr. Steiner..."
"SGT Steiner, please. Calling me Mister makes me feel old." I interrupted with chuckle, hoping to lighten the mood some. She was adorable, and she scared me. But if I'm going to get out of this cage I need to be nice. I can be a jackass later.
"SGT Steiner," she corrected and continued, "We would like to apologize to you from the depths of our heart for the invasion of privacy we hath wrought. Tis a misunderstanding on our part, but also a judgement failure that we as a leader made, that should not have happened. And we beg of your forgiveness." She finished, laying her ears back and looking towards the floor shuffling her front hooves.
Well, I didn't see that coming. And her speech mannerisms are weirding me out. "Um... apology accepted. Just don't do it again, mmkay?"
"Well SGT Steiner, would you like to leave this cell for better accommodations?"
"Hell no, I fucking love this dingy ass dungeon!" I retorted. The look on their face was classic, they have no idea what sarcasm is.
"Are... are you sure?" Luna asked, definitely the more shocked of the two. I think Big White caught on after a few.
"Sarcasm sweet cheeks," I picked up my ruck and threw it over one shoulder, "After you ladies." Gesturing towards the door, indicating that I'll follow their lead.
"Thou had us puzzled for the moment."
"Just a moment? Pretty sure you thought I was being serious. Anyways..." I followed them out of the dungeons and into the rest of the palace. "Y'all cleaned it up pretty good." I commented. "Last time I was here I remember shooting up the place at some weird ass bug shits."
"Ah, yes. The Changelings. They used to keep to themselves and have never launched an attack on even a tiny village. They're actually so elusive and rare we thought they may have been extinct." Celestia lectured. I remember some of what Chrysalis, I think, said.
Now to try and get the other half of the story.
"Sooo.... what do they do?"
"They feed off the love that creatures have for one another."
I made a face like that made sense to me, because it didn't. But whatever, "So what made them just invade? I mean, it don't add up if their creatures of subterfuge."
"An astute observation. We aren't entirely sure ourselves." Big White side as she looked over her shoulder back at me, "This way," taking a left up a flight of stairs.
"Well, I'm sort of an agent of subterfuge. I'm a Ranger. Asymmetrical warfare specialist," I bragged. I'm proud of it.
"We hath never heard of Rangers or Asymmetrical warfare. Pray-tell, what is it?" I forgot Little Blue was behind me, she still looks adorably guilty.
"Eh... it's kinda how it sounds, ya know? It usually involves a disparity between two opposing forces such as size or technological advantage. Kinda like if your forces are outnumbered, using hit-n-run tactics. We fight in a way to minimize our weaknesses while emphasizing our strengths. And Rangers are just a type of soldier trained to specialize in the usage of such tactics."
"So you utilize dishonorable tactics to defeat your opponent?" She questioned.
"Negative. Dishonorable is using noncombatants as leverage. Rangers pride themselves on minimizing the losses incurred by noncombatants."
"Noncombatants?"
"Those not taking part in the conflict such as civilians," I retorted. I'm guessing they still line up and march towards each other en masse. "I got a question, what is your level of martial technology?"
Luna stopped and scrunched up one side of her muzzle and cocked an inquisitive eyebrow, even Celestia stopped, "Our what?"
I should've known, "What kinda shit y'all use to fight with?"
"We use swords, spears, and our unicorns cast magic. Why does that matter?"
"Oh it matters. Weapons dictate tactics used. The last time humans relied on swords, bows, and spears to wage war were close to seven centuries ago. The tactics you utilize are well over a millennia old by Terran standards." Their jaws hit the floor.
"But how," Big White finally spoke up.
"We can travel MASSIVE distances in space. What makes you think we haven't found a more efficient weapon than the sword or spear?" I asked, somewhat rhetorically.
"Art thy sure thou species lacks magic?" Luna asked, quite flabbergasted.
"Uh, yeah... as an old quote went that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." I replied. I don't remember who said it though; I wish I had access to the data banks in the ship.
"So you're saying your technology is magical? That would make more sense if you have found out a way to harness thaumaturgy by way of technology since you lack the ability to manipulate is organically." Celestia said.
"Thauma-what," I asked cocked my head back.
"Thaumaturgy is the science of magic. I'll have someone teach you in it should you wish to know more. I can only postulate that your lack of knowledge regarding thaumaturgy means that isn't how your technology works. Is it?"
"Nope."
"This excites us! Just how does it work?" Luna damn near yelled into my ear, making me wince.
"Physics, chemistry, mathematics; smart people shit. Stuff I only understand on an entry level." I reply.
"What are these things thou speaketh of?" Luna looked perplexed, this can't be good.
"Um.... what do you mean?" I asked as we continued walking, I need to ask where they plan on taking me. "So where are going?"
They stopped for a second so Celestia could answer my question, "I figured we could house you in the rarely used Minotaur Ambassador suites, the furniture and fixtures in those suites are proportioned in a way that is most beneficial to your biology." And then they continued with me in tow. "As for Luna's question, what are chemistry and physics? I too, am curious. Is chemistry similar to alchemy?"
"Chemistry came from alchemy. On ancient Terra, our primitive science revolved around alchemy, which was based on trying to change one type of material to another. When we got a better understanding of the elements, it changed to Chemistry, the study of material composition.
“Physics is the attempt at study of how the universe behaves, or less generally studying how forces such as motion operate." I finished rather proudly, that I remembered that from University astounded even me. Hell, I'm not a smart kid. I went to college for the history, and because mom and dad made me.
That thought made me frown long enough for them to pick up.
"Is there something wrong?" Celestia asked in that soothing voice of hers. It was incredibly soothing, but she still could probably vaporize me.
"Nah, just an old thought; anyways, did any of that make sense to y'all?" I said, quickly wiping the frown off my face and replacing it with a neutral gaze. I can't believe I'm trying to explain how chemistry and physics works to a couple of magical horses. God I hope they don't ask me about horses.
"I think I understand, but can you give an example of each?"
"Yeah, do you know what chlorine and sodium are?" I asked, looking at them waiting for answer. When they nodded they did I continued, "Chlorine is a deadly gas in its most base form and Sodium is a very volatile metal in its most base form. Both deadly to organic creatures on their own, but combined together they make common table salt. Something the body needs."
Looking at them to make sure their eyes didn't glaze over, I noticed they might actually be able to understand. I thought I also heard some gears turning before they turned and looked at each other, before asking "And what of physics?"
"In layman's terms, how much energy do I need to exert to throw a ball a certain distance. Or how fast will I fall to the ground if I trip?"
"Tis interesting. We wonder how the Academia would take to the introduction of such theories."
"Okay, I just gotta know. Why are your speech mannerisms in 'Ye Olde English'?" I asked, trying to make my best Briton impression.
"We shall explain it to you in further detail at a later date. But I," Luna pointed toward herself with a hoof, "insist on using the royal 'We' as is tradition as well as using Royal Equestrian."
And with that they continued in silence for the next few minutes before opening their mouths again. Predictable, their curiosity knows few bounds apparently. "So, Sergeant Steiner, how old are you?"
"Twenty five Terran standard years. Why?"
"From your earlier explanation, you have 365 days to a year? With each day lasting 24 hours?" Where is she going with this? "While our years are only 336 days long. So you would be twenty six years old in Equestrian years by my calculations. How long do Terrrans live?"
Damn, she did that math in her head? "Eh, the average lifespan is 126 years for men and 131 for women. Why?"
"So you're impressively young still!"
Okay, that was a weird question. "So, I've had something on the back of my mind for a hot minute now. In my ill-fated escape attempt, I saw what looked like a human. And you knew I was human, without having to ask me. The hell is going on?"
She stopped and hung her head low and turned around to face me. When she brought her eyes up she had a very visible sadness and regret in them. "Ponies keep humans as pets and a source of labor."
I froze.
I didn't know how to think of that so I just closed my eyes and started to breathe really slowly.
I'm not sure why I was bothered by it. Humanity domesticated horses and used them in numerous ways, sometimes even as food.
But our horses weren't intelligent, they were just beasts. Weren't they?
"Sergeant Steiner, I don't know how to explain it to you. But humans here aren't the same as you, at least... not anymore."
That explanation wasn't helping. Especially with the 'not anymore' tacked on at the end.
After a few more moments of silence I opened my eyes and looked Celestia dead on in her magenta eyes. "So am I just the Royal Pet now?"
Her eyes widened in shock and her wings flared, making me jump back. "Absolutely not!" she spat out in insult, "how could you think so negatively?!"
"Easily when we get to my room I'll explain. Some silence to digest this tidbit of info may be beneficial to my health." Because this tobacco I'm about to put in my mouth sure as hell ain't.
-----
Celestia mentally reprimanded herself for her outburst at that last question of his. He had genuine fear of her and Luna and had seen that ponies had indeed domesticated, or enslaved, humanity depending on who you asked. His want for silence was expected, and as a wish she would grant.
He looked tense, like he was about to confess to a brutal murder he committed. His eyes just glazed over and he just followed them. The human clearly has retreated into the depths of his mind to wrestle with his thoughts.
Celestia looked over at Luna and could see some unease in her sister as well. Luna knew something Celestia didn't, she knew the bomb that the human was about to drop on Celestia. Luna didn't know all the details, but she did see some of the effects of what was to be dropped on her sister were. Namely the destruction of a human city. A level of destruction she had never seen before and didn't even know was possible.
And Luna felt sick to her stomach at the thoughts. The same thing he was going to drop on her sister was the same reason he was heavily scarred and missing limbs, as well as an emotionally hollow creature.
The regal sisters continued to attempt to communicate with each other with nonverbal cues and the sisterly empathy they had built over the course of thousands of years. But all it did was serve to deepen the anxiety that was already eating at the two.
"Alright SGT Steiner," Celestia spoke up, breaking the silence, "Here are the suites we'd like to house you in."
"Good deal, now, “he exhaled deeply, "First things first, there somewhere I can puke? I been swallowin' my dip spit and I think I've gotten a tad sick from it." He was starting to look green, so it must not have been something they do often, which would explain why he was spitting in the cup earlier.
"That way, past those double doors," Celestia pointed as the human bolted through the doors after dropping his ruck with a 'thud.' After a few audible heaves, he flushed the toilet and spit a few times, turned on the water faucet an gargled some water before spitting a few more times and returning to the main foyer.
"Now... where were we?" He asked.
"You were going to explain why you easily came to the conclusion we were going to keep you as a pet." Celestia responded, shuffling her wings in unease.
"Ah." He stated, taking a seat on one of the couches in the main room. "I'll start with Terra and lead up from there. You might wanna take a seat, this'll be a while..."
He leaned forward, putting his elbows on his knees and clasped his hands together and opened his mouth. What came out floored the jaws of both royal sisters.
"Humanity is going extinct."
He looked at both sisters maintaining his stoic facade. Any moment, he would say 'just kidding,' as the sisters began to contribute to his more morbid sense of humor that he has displayed.
But he didn't he just concluded with, "That's the end of the story that's coming. Let me start far earlier."
"Written history on Terra started somewhere around 7000 years ago. And the entire time humanity was the sole intelligent creature on the planet that we knew of. We had our mythologies about regarding that. But that aside, humanity had hundreds of cultures and races. All were very different; some of the more pivotal ones were the Greeks, Arabs, Chinese, and Egyptians, at least early on. After a while, the Romans were power players on the world stage.
"And many of the cultures were radically different. Such as the Greeks and Persians, they were diametrically opposed in their beliefs. The Persians were a monotheistic culture of hegemony, while the Greeks were democratic, putting the freedoms of the individual on a pedestal. So our history was wrought with warfare. One of the few things all the races and cultures had in common. So our history is almost marked by warfare instead of anything else.
The sisters were sitting there with rapt attention. Awed by this aspect of another race and the openness an ambassador, unwilling as he was, was sharing.
"Humanity is great at fighting. Most of our advances came from martial inventions, our search for a better way to kill our fellow man. We're a warrior culture. And many credit that to our evolutionary upbringing."
That puzzled the sisters "Evolutionary upbringing? What could push a race to be so violent?"
"You see, humans were never the strongest or the fastest. We don't have sharp claws, long teeth, or horns to fight of predators. We ain't fast enough to out run them and we can't simply fly away. We have no scales, thick hide, or heavy fur to protect us from the elements. And Mother Nature herself claimed more human lives than humanity did. And humans have killed millions of their own kind throughout history.
"Terra tested us. But one thing we did have was intelligence. Were we had no claws, we made spears. We're we had no scales, we made armor. We built houses to shield us from the elements. We built ships to traverse the seas. We domesticated certain animals to help us.
"But even with all our technological advances, Mother Nature would still lay us low. She still claimed her sacrifices using earthquakes, hurricanes, sandstorms, tornadoes, floods, wild fires. So many dead humans. But our technology did allow us to kill more of our fellow men than her."
His raspy laughter and shaking of his head was mildly disturbing.
After a few seconds of laughing he continued, looking back up at them, "But we've had so many good things as well, the art, the music. The medical advances, so many diseases that claimed millions of lives are all but footnotes in human history. Human life expectancy tripled. The comfort of living sky rocketed.
"We still had our conflicts though. We even enslaved other men throughout our history. We still have instances in the Republic today of slavery, although it's far different than it once was, it's still just as vial." He punctuated that final sentence with outward disgust that radiated from him.
"2260 years ago was what we called 'The Year of Our Lord' and it's used as a marker for our history. To give you an idea of how often we fought as a species. In 1914, we had the first of what we called the World Wars. In it's four years of fighting, over 16 million were killed. Then not too long after in 1939, World War Two started and ended in 1945 with the loss of estimates ranging from 40 million to 85 million."
The sisters were almost catatonic at the revelation that humans were killing each other in numbers so great they dwarfed the populations of all the nations of Equus combined. They wanted to ask him more questions, but they figured that his continued talking would answer those questions.
"Then we had World War Three that was the longest and bloodiest war in human history. It started in 2036 and wasn't over until 2053. No one knows how many died exactly, but the estimate is 360 million."
He paused, swallowing audibly. In which Luna interjected, "It is no wonder thy species is going extinct... ye are driving yourselves to it."
He just laughed, and Luna glanced worriedly at her sister who just returned her gaze with the same look of incredulity. After he finished laughing, "Oh you... I haven't even gotten there yet. Humans are like roaches, no matter how many are killed, there are just so many more. To give you an idea what I mean..."
He readjusted himself on the couch and unclasped his hands, the human was becoming quite enthused with recanting the history of his species, however abridged it was.
"In 1969, we traveled into space and landed some men on our moon." Celestia's and Luna's jaws dropped, to which he laughed. "So outer space was not impossible for us by any stretch. But we didn't have any real significant breakthroughs in space until 2093 with the invention of the Royce-Karlsson Drive that allowed us to travel to other planets, which we did.
"And as of six years ago, in 2254, humanity under one central authority, the Republic of Terra, had sixty-two planet-states, twenty-three Republican colonies, eighteen corporate owned colonies, and an estimated thirty to fifty colonies that govern themselves independently of Terra.
"In all the Terran planet-states and colonies there were 54 billion inhabitants." He paused before looking down. "And in 2254, we made first contact with an alien race far above and beyond us technologically. I was on the planet Eisenwuld when they attacked.
"We weren't ready at all, and back then I wasn't a Ranger. I was just a part time soldier doing my annual training there before returning to my home planet and continuing my education. When they hit us, they hit us hard. Wiping out an entire armored battalion in minutes, and they cut through our navy in just under an hour. After the five day battle, we lost 44 million people.
"That was also the day I lost my left leg and left arm. Which the Army replaced, and put me through physical rehab so I could get used to them. I saw you looking at the scars on my body earlier, Celestia, and that's what they're from."
Celestia was downcast on hearing that, laying her ears down, "I... I am sorry to hear that."
"Don't be." Was Steiner's response, "After a year of rehab, the Army gave me a choice: I could get out and go home or I could go through some additional training and get back in the fight. The entire year I was in rehab I remember seeing the news of planet after planet, colony after colony, and battle after battle... we were gettin' our asses kicked. For every battle we won, we'd lose five. And we often gave better than we got. If we lost five ships, we'd destroyed at least thirteen of theirs. If we lost a company of soldiers, we'd killed more than a thousand of their soldiers."
"How are you losing then? It sounds like you're winning the war,” Celestia asked astutely for someone not well versed in warfare. However, warriors know the difference.
"Because you don't win wars just buy killing the enemy. The winner is merely the one who forces his opponent to stop fighting. We've lost twenty-two planet-states and 12 billion lives. Many of those planets were important because they were agrarian planets that helped to feed our vast population. Others were factory planets, like Hephastus, which made many of our weapons. Or in the case of Eisenwuld, they were a massive fortress world that served to train many Terran soldiers, marines, sailors, and aerospacers.
"And their technology makes ours look primitive in comparison. They have directed energy weapons, far superior energy shielding, their ships are larger and faster. And they drown us in their numbers. Only our tactical prowess has kept humanity from being eradicated in a single year.
"Anyways, seeing us losing in the news, if I didn't try to help in some capacity to do something for my species in one of its darkest hours, then I was coward. So I opted to continue my military service and went through training to get me back up to par. And I partook in the Battle of Antapolis, where one of our few victories was. And that's when I remember fighting with the Rangers.
"Seeing their inhuman fighting ability and their selflessness, I knew I wanted to be one. We regular grunts called them the 'Angels of Death.' And it was a well-deserved name, there were many ground battles won because of their presence. And often the Rangers would stay behind or go to Snake occupied worlds just to mess things up.
"In fact, I ended up here because we were ambushed on our way to a world they had occupied and were starting to use as a staging ground for other attacks. We were supposed to disrupt their operations, but shit went south and we got fucked up and abandoned ship on this planet."
The SGT stood up briefly to stretch and get himself some water from the cart a maid cautiously wheeled in. He looked over the assortment, ignoring the vegetables and hay for the fruit and water. Grabbing an apple and a cup of water he asked, "Y'all want anything while I'm over here?" Celestia and Luna shook their heads indicating they didn't.
Before he could take a bite of the apple after he sat down, a low moan turned into a growl and he nonchalantly said, "Sounds like my stomach is practicing it's whale mating calls." After swallowing a few hungrily snapped bites, he continued, "Now where was I? Oh yeah...
"After the Battle of Antapolis I volunteered for the Rangers. And after the 210 day grueling training I finished in the top twenty percent of my class. I ecstatic, that was until I found out about the attack on my home world of Baumwolle."
He glanced at Luna, who tried to shrink into the sofa cushions. She knew of the attack on Baumwolle and seen some of his memories of it. Celestia looked concerned at her sister's reactions and had a feeling she knew what was coming next as his gaze hardened.
But he instead was now looking through her as he continued, "My home world was responsible for growing produce. We were an agrarian planet that grew large amounts of cotton for clothing and corn and soybean for food. Losing it and the sister world of Yazoo meant that humanity had a potential food crisis on its hands."
He took another drag of water from the cup and finished the rest of the apple, setting the core down on the table beside his couch.
"The Army Guard stationed there were overwhelmed in hours and resorted to waging guerrilla war with the Snakes to try and keep as much of the civilian populace alive as possible until the Navy and Army sent relief.
"And it was heroic of them, but they weren't trained nor prepared for it at all, even if they performed admirably. Regardless, when we arrived we could replace the regulars on the planet to allow them to focus on evacuating the planet. After two weeks, we finally got all the refugees evacuated so we could focus on fighting.
"We fought for another two months in vicious hit-and-run attacks, ambushes, and sabotage that cost them a cruiser and eight corvettes as well as close to sixty thousand ground troops. In return we had 261 KIA of the 550 or so that stayed. So our title as Angels of Death was well deserved.
"After the fuckers packed bags and left, we began searching through the ruins of some of the cities for any survivors we may have missed. And the commander let me go to my old house." Tears started welling up in both his and Luna's eyes. "I got there to see it in shambles, it was utterly destroyed. I didn't find any bodies anywhere on the farm in my hours of searching."
Luna got up from her seat and went and sat down by him while he continued, "Even my entire platoon helped me search the whole farm. We didn't find anything, so I was hopeful that they got off the planet and checked into a refugee housing facility on one of the other worlds set up." He blinked the tears away, but talking had become strained for him to maintain his composure.
"However, they never checked in. I refused to accept that my parents and spouse are dead... " he started to fidget with the ring on his hand, then it clicked in both Luna's and Celestia's minds. That ring is significant to him in that it represents his wife or parents.
"But it's been three years now..." He said in a low whisper as a shiver racked his body. Luna sympathetically wrapped a wing around the soldier, who seemed to not even notice the gesture. His eyes were filling up again, and a single tear broke free and ran down his cheek and dripped onto Luna's wing.
"So much death...
So much destruction..."
And with that, he stood up and clapped his hands together and said in a cheery manner, "And I give humanity ten more years at it's current rate before it's extinct."
The sister's looked at each other, then back at him, who looked like he was hardly phased at all. In fact, he had a small smile on his face as his hands clasped together in front of him as he casually shifted his glaze between the two alicorns.
He finally broke the silence with a question, "So does that answer your question about why I can easily assume the worst?"
After he asked his question, the sisters just looked at him with tears on the edge of their eyes. They felt genuine remorse for him. They just didn't know he didn't want their remorse.
He really just wanted to go home.
"So what will you do now?" Luna asked after several quiet minutes.
"Well, the standard procedure for a ship that gets shot down is to launch a distress pulse indicating where it went down. Then the Navy will dispatch a search party. The downside though, is if they don't locate the downed crew within 120 days, they list the crew and passengers as MIA presumed KIA."
"MIA? KIA?" Celestia asked with a look of concern, stepping back slightly.
"Missing in action and killed in action. They have a list of everyone on that ship at the time, so they'll know exactly who to notify, however, I have no next of kin so my name will be put on the Beacon of Hope."
"That is quite the depressing thought SGT, We art sure thy people will find thee," Luna interjected in an attempt to cheer the human up, "And what is this 'Beacon of Hope'?"
"It's a huge monument on Terra for all the soldiers, marines, sailors, and areospacemen whose bodies have never been recovered. It's a massive stone tower with their names carved in it and a lit fire on top. It's meant to light the way home for the lost."
"And what of the dead," Celestia asked, getting uncomfortably close to the human.
Stepping back the SGT answered, "They are given a military funeral and interred in the Elysian Fields, a cemetery named after the ancient Greek realm of the dead reserved for the children of the gods and the heroic. Also, how long ago was the day I arrived?"
The sisters stayed near him for a few more moments, they were close enough he could feel their breath on him. Their proximity gave him a good look at them. Celestia was just a mite shorter than he, she had to look up ever so slightly to look into the eyes of the soldier. While Luna was almost two heads shorter than he. However, if they both stood on their hind legs, Celestia would be taller by at least two heads and Luna would be taller by just a mite.
He cocked an eyebrow and finally spoke up, "So, is there a reason y'all are so close?"
Both alicorns blushed and backed up, giving the human some breathing room. "I apologize, ponies being at their basest herd animals, we tend to be more touchy-feely than some of the other races such as the Gryphons and Minotaurs. It didn't even occur to us that you may have more in common with the Gryphons than ponies. And to answer your question, you've been here eleven days."
"Gryphons? Like half eagle, half lion?"
"Yes, how did you know?"
"Well, in human mythology, not sure in which specific culture, but we have Gryphons and unicorns. We also have pegasi and minotaurs in Greek mythology. Although I’m sure we don’t have anything on winged unicorns." He answered. His knowledge was concerning, Celestia and Luna considered for a moment that many of the races of this planet were mythology on Terra. While on Equus, intelligent humans were mythology.
"Well, my sister and I are called Alicorns. And we have the traits of all three races of ponykind."
"So then... what, wait... three? I've only seen pegasus ponies and unicorns. There is a third?" He asked sitting back down putting his arm on the backrest of the couch and crossing a leg over on top of his knee.
"Indeed, there are the unicorns that are capable of manipulating magic, the pegasi who are obviously capable of flight, and the race you have yet to meet are the earth ponies, who are by far the strongest and have a oneness with the earth that they use to grow plants with an unmatched ability."
"So what do they look like?"
"We don't know how to describe them; I guess imagine a unicorn without her horn or a pegasus without her wings."
"So... they look normal then?"
"We... we suppose..." Luna slowly acknowledged, "What doth thou mean by normal?"
"Well, on Terra and other planets, we raised horses. They are only vaguely like you ponies, but similar enough that I can somewhat relate. However, other than some similarities such as hind legs, forelegs, hooves, manes, tails, and diets.... well, the similarities end there." He uneasily explained, shifting in his seat.
"So, our kind is beasts of burden on your planet?"
He sucked his lips in, and then inhaled through his teeth sharply, "They were, but they also weren't all that similar. I can draw what they look like if you'd like. I have paper and pencils in my rucksack. And we haven't used horses as beast of burden in over 300 years."
"So are they freed?"
"On some planets, yes. There are entire planets full of wild horses. However, certain breeds are still kept as pets, not unlike dogs or cats. Although, I do believe they are cherished FAR more than dogs are cats by their owners." He explained as he got up to rifle through his ruck.
"Hell, I used to joke that my wife loved her horses more than she loved me." He said after he proffered a notebook and a few pencils. Instead of sitting back down on the couch, he set the materials down on the coffee table and sat down at it with his legs crossed and flipped open to a blank page.
The sisters crowded around him; while he was sitting they weren't too much taller, so they had to crane their necks to see as they nudged in close to him out of curiosity. He ignored that they were literally had him sandwiched between them as he was focused on drawing, and the sisters were enamored by the level dexterity his hands were displaying.
They knew Gyphons and Minotaurs had high levels of dexterity with their claws and hands respectively, and Spike, Twilight's assistance, had also shown well developed dexterity. But this human? His levels of dexterity were above and beyond what they had seen in any creature that lacked magic.
The human's quick short strokes with his pencil this way and that had the sister's rapt attention. They were amazed at how deftly it moved, not pressing too hard or too light as he proceeded to shade in the final details.
Both sisters whispered under their breath simultaneously, "Amazing..."
Then he set the pencil down and held up the picture of a Terran Quarter Horse partially facing the viewer and a woman leaning against it, brushing the mane. The picture gave Celestia and Luna a good idea of what Terran horse looked like, as well as the size comparison between humans and horses.
"That human female is dwarfed by the horse, are they truly that size?" Celestia asked, and once Steiner's attention was no longer on the drawing he realized how close they were to him. He was practically swimming in feathers and fur.
Regardless, he might as well get used to it. He had least four more months of it. "Yeah, that's a Quarter Horse; some breeds are significantly bigger while some are much smaller. I spent many years around Quarter horses, so that's the breed I'm most familiar with. Although I have been around enough Draft horses to know they are good deal larger than that."
After realizing they were more or less snuggling him, they promptly scooted away and flashed a blush before standing up, "As much as we'd like to stay around and talk some more, we are rulers and we do need to get back to ruling our country before it accidentally burns itself to the ground." Celestia said, punctuating the sentence with a light giggle.
"Aight... anyways, it's getting near supper time too..." He said glancing at his wrist. "When do y'all eat supper around here?"
"We usually eat our dinner at seven in the evening. Why? When do you normally take your dinner?" Celestia said, making her way to the exit of the suite.
"Like, five in the afternoon..." as his stomach made the earlier whale sounds. "...which is kinda around the corner if my watch is right."
"May we see this device?" Luna asked, craning her neck to look at the small device on his wrist.
He held his wrist out and took a step closer so that the blue alicorn could get a better look at the device, which had a small face with two 'hands' as the human described. The short 'hand' representing the hour of the day, while the long 'hand' represents the minute. "Y'all got sundials I'm sure," to which Luna nodded yes, "well, it's just the technological evolution of the sundial, not needing the sun at all."
"Can thou teach us how to make this technology of yours?" Luna asked, pleading with her large cyan eyes.
"Nope."
"Why?!" Luna exasperated.
"I dunno how to make it, I just have a rudimentary understanding of how most of it works."
Luna's head hung low at that answer. Here was a wealth of knowledge that landed literally on their doorstep and the wealth of knowledge doesn't even understand his knowledge. Why couldn't he have been a scientist or an inventor? Luna thought to herself, instead we get a soldier.
"Well, SGT, I must get to my office and make sure I don't get drowned by paperwork. And Luna probably needs to rest up before she starts her Night Court. I'll have a maid or butler prepare you some food at once. I never thought to ask what your diet was, I'm sure it's different than the humans we have here." Celestia said, stopping just at the exit and turning to face him. Luna kept walking by and out of sight.
"Terrans are omnivores. So we eat anything ranging from oats, fruits, and veggies to red meat, fish, and eggs. I hope that doesn't upset y'all too much, since I'm sure y'all are herbivores." He responded, unlacing his boots.
"It does not, we are host to Gryphons who are also omnivores, while we do not have red meat, I can send up some cooked fish if that would be pleasing."
"Absolutely, I ain't the type to complain about food." He said, kicking back and placing his socked feet on the table.
Celestia observed the socks for a brief moment, I hope socks have a different purpose to Terrans than they do to us ponies, she thought before speaking up, "I'll be sure that you get fed, I'll be in my office. Should you need anything just find a guard or maid and notify them." She smiled softly at Steiner, who simply nodded, and then she turned to make her way to her office.
"Hey! Before you go... When can I get the rest of my shit back?" He called out from the sofa. Celestia stopped to ask, "Which items do you want?"
"Well, my weapons and armor. And also the rest of the stuff that was in the pods, I'll need access to that equipment too."
"We can discuss this in the morning. But as a token of good faith, I'll return the smaller weapon to you tonight. I understand my ability to cast magic strikes some level of fear into you, and that any unicorn can potentially cast magic to harm you must also worry you. If having a weapon will help keep you calm, if you make a promise to not betray my trust then I see no reason why I should keep it from you."
"Well bargained and done."
-----
Once Celestia got to her office, she noticed the massive pile of paperwork and letters waiting on her. She sighed because she knew she was going to be up very late making sure she didn't fall far behind in her work. She opened up a letter from Twilight Sparkle sending her weekly friendship report.
After reading it, she pulled out a quill and inkwell and some parchment to reply. Just before sending the reply though, she obtained some more parchment and wrote:
Twilight, I also would like you to come to Canterlot with your friends. One of the humans has awoken and I have something I believe you can help with. I will be busy over the course of this next week, and while I would love to help him acclimate to Equestria, I simply will be unable to due my responsibilities. However, I know you and your friends would love this opportunity to teach and to learn.
I have already reserved some rooms in the palace for you and your friends and will make sure your travel fare is paid in the morning. You are all welcome to stay as long as you would all like.
Your teacher and mentor,
Princess Celestia
After signing the bottom, Celestia rolled up the two pages and wrapped them in ribbon and sent the letter to Twilight via Dragons Fire.
She had but a few more things to attend to, namely ensuring the soldier would receive his weapon as promised, but also his armor as well. She knew Shining Armor will object to the decision citing matters of safety, but she could also sense his distaste for the human. Something she knew she'd need to look into at a later date.
"Guards, can you come in for a second?" She called out, and was immediately answered by the two guards outside the office stepping inside and bowing. "I'd like for you to find Shining Armor and send him here, that's all I need. Thank you."
They simultaneously bowed again, with the senior guard saying, "At once your highness." And away the guards went on their mission to track down their Captain.
After half an hour later, Shining Armor and the two guards returned to Celestia's office where all three bowed before their princess and Shining asking, "What is it that you need, your highness?"
"I need you to open the armory, gather up the human's smaller weapon and the items that go along with it, collect his armor and take it to him personally."
"What? We have him locked up for a reason! And now you want to arm him?!" Shining responded clearly taken aback by the sudden shock, but before he could continue the princess spoke up.
"He is staying in the Minotaur Suites for the next few months. He is to be treated as a diplomat, Luna and I deemed him as a non-threat to Equestria. He has shown that he merely wants to return to his kind, which their military has a Standard Procedure to attempt to find him within 120 days.
"He is being hopeful, but I could tell by his body language that he doesn't believe they will arrive. But I will hope that they do find their lost soldiers. And what I do NOT want, is for them to arrive asking the whereabouts of their soldiers and I have to respond by telling them we kept them locked up in a dungeon the entire time.
"Luna had a talk about how truly dangerous this breed of humans is. They call themselves Terrans and they have conquered the stars. They number in the billions and they live on dozens of planets. He made some comments that gave us an idea of where we stood on a technological level, and suffice to say, we are centuries behind them.
"Not even mine, Luna's, and the Elements magic combined could hold their military power at bay." Celestia shuddered at the thought. She could move the sun, but if they could travel the stars? She didn't even want to imagine some of their more powerful weaponry.
She made a mental note to ask about that later.
Shining however much he disliked his order, would follow it by the numbers. So he bowed without objection or really even saying a word to carry out the task given to him.
"Oh, and before you go…" Celestia said, levitating a small piece of paper over to her Guard Captain, "Can you drop this by the kitchens as well?"
He plucked it from her magical grip and looked it over, noticing that it was a dinner order to be taken to the Minotaur Suites.
-----
Ponyville Library Quintilis 11, 1001 AB
Twilight had sent her weekly friendship report and was reading while waiting for the response from her mentor. It hadn't been long when Spike belched the rolled up letter. Before he had a chance to unfurl the ribbon, Twilight eagerly snatched it up in her magic and promptly read through the letter responding to her friendship report.
Then the other letter fell to the ground.
She eyed it curiously. It wasn't common to receive two letters from Celestia in a single day unless it was important. Then when the importance finally hit Twilight, she snatched it up and read it aloud to Spike.
After a few moments of silence as Twilight digested the information she spoke up, "Spike! You know what this means!?"
"No Twilight, why are you yelling?" The baby dragon returned covering his ears.
"An alien race is in Canterlot and Celestia wants me to study it! This is going to be so exciting!" She began to bounce around the room enthusiastically as she started to gather up some books to pack away for the trip to Canterlot. "I'll need to tell the girls, Rainbow Dash is going to love this! She's always reading stories about aliens from outer space.
"I wonder what they look like without all that armor." She stopped bouncing as she said that and made her way downstairs. "Come Spike, we need to go tell all the girls before the sun goes down."
------
Shining Armor was muttering under his breathe, "I'll assign some personal guards to him to keep an eye on him, that way should be start to do anything dangerous they can notify me and the princesses and we can put a stop to him. Can't be a unicorn though, he seems skittish around them."
He wasn't happy about task, but his loyalties were to the one giving the orders, so he had to obey.
Once he got to the armory after stopping by the kitchen, he had the guards unlock it and open it for him and once inside he ordered one of the guards following him to grab the heavy armor of one of the work benches as he went to the weapon locker and opened it up with a key.
This particular locker had but four keys to it. Each of the two princesses had one, the Primus had one, and the Captain of the Guard had one. The Primus, the leader in charge of the Battlemage Corps, was out in Stalliongrad, so only Shining and the Princesses could access this locker. And in it they kept powerful magically imbued weaponry.
All of the weaponry that was in it had beautiful craftsmanship and were made by master artisans. The utilitarian human weaponry, on the other hand, was very streamlined and carried a startling contrast to the other weaponry kept in that locker. Shining reached in and grabbed the smaller weapon located in its protective holster on a woven belt.
The handgun had markings stamped into its side that read:
Revolver, P44A1
11.5mm, Peretti e Figli AZ
14S19891024
And a picture of an eagle set in a circle.
He did admire the human made weapon. It had its own elegance, a weapon made with function over form. A weapon whose single purpose was to end lives as quickly and efficiently as possible.
And Shining still couldn't get the memories out of his head at how easily these weapons dispatched the Changelings. Unlike the Changelings that attacked the city, the ones that invade the Palace proper were all soldiers, who had far better natural armor that was further augmented with metallic armor. Killing a Changeling soldier with a sword or spear was a feat in and of itself, even magic was taxing.
But these weapons not only ignored the black metallic armor they wore, it ravaged the Changelings. Shining Armor genuinely felt sorry for the Changelings that were viciously ravaged by the human weapons.
Rotating the revolver over in his magic as he gazed at its impeccable craftsmanship, he muttered to himself, "Maybe the princess is right, if they're handheld weaponry, as small as it is, can allow it's user to kill as effectively as these four then I fear what their larger weapons are capable of."
He had half a mind to try and do something to try and sabotage the weapon, to attempt to render it useless. But if the soldier is as elite as he claims, he'll notice the tampering the moment he were to lay his hands on it. So Shining quickly filed that thought under 'Bad Ideas' and walked out of the armory after locking everything back up.
On his way to the kitchen he came across a new guard, a light tan pegasus by the name of May Weather. And an idea popped into his head. New pegasi are usually very gung-ho and follow their orders by the numbers. Something Shining liked in his guards.
"Private May Weather, I have a task for you." He called out.
Immediately, May Weather stopped and went to attention, an action that brought a smile to Shining's lips. "I want you to be the personal guard of the human soldier. The Princesses saw fit to house him in the Minotaur Suites for the time being. I want you to report any trouble that may arise to either princesses or I. Do you understand?"
"Yes sir!"
"Good, now follow me to the kitchen, I want you to take the food cart and bring it with us as we return the soldiers armor and one of his weapons."
"Why are we giving him a weapon, sir?"
"Princess Celestia has deemed him as a non-threat to the crown and requested that I return at least one of his weapons alongside his armor. Hurry up, get that food cart, we don't have all day."
"Yes sir."
-----
The human had rocked back in the sofa with his unbooted feet on the coffee table and had fallen asleep on the soft cushions. He had taken off his boots and blouse and had them set off to the side, as well as having untucked his brown undershirt.
He was roused from his rest by a knocking on the door, with which he snapped to an upright position and blinked the sleep from his eyes and glanced at his watch, "Damn, I've been out for an hour."
Further knocking prompted him to action, "I'm coming, hold your horses."
Upon opening the door and seeing Shining Armor, his heart rate sped up slightly and some adrenaline hit his system. "The fuck you want?"
"I'm here at the request of Celestia to return to you one of your weapons." Shining explained as he levitated the sidearm towards the human who eagerly took it. Clasping the belt around his waist, Steiner drew the pistol causing the guards to flinch.
The human deftly cracked the weapon, having it hinge open. He pulled out the small cylinder and peered down the barrel checking for obstructions. Closing the revolver shut with a snap and no cylinder he proceeded to perform a function check on the weapon looking for any signs of tampering. He checked the firing pin and the rotation arm to ensure proper functioning.
Once he was satisfied with the condition of his weapon, he hinged it back open and returned the cylinder to its housing before closing the revolver shut again giving the cylinder a quick poke to ensure the cylinder was locked in place before returning it to the holster.
Once the weapon was put away, the five guards visibly relaxed and Shining Armor was very glad he decided against tampering with the weapon.
"We've also brought your armor and your dinner." And as if on cue, May Weather pushed the cart past the human into the main room and stood at rapt attention.
Steiner gave her a passing glance, the mare looked familiar to him but he couldn't put his finger on it. "You can just toss that armor anywhere, I'll get it later." So following guidance, the unicorn carrying the heavy armor set it just inside the door in a corner out of the way.
"Alright, are you all set?" Shining asked, hoping the human would be.
"Yeah, I'm good. Y'all need anything from me?"
"Negative, we'll come get you should anything change though. Enjoy the meal and the rest of your evening SGT." The guard Captain said as he and the two of the other guards walked off as SGT Steiner closed the door.
-----
Shining is up to something, I just know it. He was oddly civil just then yet this morning he looked as if he’d like to kill me.
I went and picked up my helmet and as I did so, I was looking it over as I was making my way to the food cart when I nearly tripped over something. Stumbling and flailing about to regain my balance I heard, "I'm sorry...are you okay?"
Looking down I saw the small pegasus mare I recognized her from earlier, "I know you... you're that mare from the dungeons. What're you still doing in here?"
"Oh, yeah. I've been assigned as your personal guard." Hah, how cute.
I tapped on my holstered revolver, "I got my personal guard right here sweetheart."
"I'm not just a guard though, if you need something I can go get it as well." She responded. That was actually kinda cool.
"Aight, I'm fixin' to eat. You ate yet?" I asked as I uncovered the food cart, grabbing my plate of baked fish, some steamed potatoes, some bread, and the pitcher of water. I plopped the helmet on my head so I could carry the pitcher and plate to the table.
I could hear her giggling at the sight. "I've already eaten." she responded.
"You got a name?" I asked between mouthfuls of divine fish and potatoes.
"May Weather. Most ponies just call me May though."
"Alright May, how old are you?"
"I'm eighteen, how old are you?" She answered then responded in part with her own question.
"I'm twenty-seven. I'm sure you have a million questions don't you?" I asked as I finished scarfing my food down, wiping off my face with one of the provided napkins before taking a long drag from the water pitcher.
She blushed slightly, then smiled coyly and responded with a "I do, actually..."
I looked at her, and got up to put my empty plate and used napkin on the cart before returning to my seat. "Alright, for starters: you’re gonna take that goofy ass looking helmet, then you're gonna sit over there. You standing at the position of attention constantly screams all sorts of wrong at me."
She responded by taking her helmet off as her incredibly long chestnut and white striped mane fell out of it. She set it down on the table and hopped up on the sofa opposite the table from my couch. “Okay, was that it?" She asked.
"Yeah, I'll give you the same spill I gave the princesses which'll be a decently long bedtime story." I said, as I propped my feet up on the table to get comfy again.
I noticed her look at my socked feet and her wings started to rise and fidget slightly. This was odd, but then again the other guards and Shining kept staring at my feet as well. So I'll pass it off as them never seeing socks before. When she finally looked back up I started to tell her the same stuff about Terrans that I told the princesses.
Only with more cool shit we do and less of the 'humans are getting the collective shit kicked out us by some fucking aliens' part.
So this little guard was just awestruck at the stories, I covered more of the wars with her than I did with the princesses. She especially enjoyed the part about the Renaissance, which I do need to admit is my favorite part of history until the 20th century.
All the little political maneuvering and scheming is like whipped cream and a cherry on top of an already delectable sundae of military arms, armor, and tactics. I remember getting to do some historical fencing in some of my free time during my freshman year of university. I particularly enjoyed the halberd the most.
She was particularly amused at how cavalry was integral to human history. I figured she might have taken offense to that, being we rode them into battle. But to put it in her words:
“Holy bucking shit! Offense?! Hay no! That’s bucking amazing! Whole formations of cavalry charging into battle, slamming into the enemies lines like a tidal wave? That’s the coolest shit ever!”
And her little display was amusing too; the little pegasus literally flew out of her seat. If only Terrans had this level of interest in our own history.
During the lecturing I was also fidgeting with my helmet to see if it still worked. Much to my happiness, it did. It still had a glorious amount of battery life left. How humans figured out how to make some of the shit they did amazed me.
“These ultra-advanced helmets were the neatest pieces of shit the Army has ever issued me.” I said as I flipped it on. “And the bitch still works like a champ.”
“What’s so special about it?” May Weather asked as she flapped over and sat down beside me as I fidgeted with it and put it on my head.
“Well, besides giving me access to the BATTLENET and BLUFORCE, it helps me aim my weapons, helps me see, helps me hear, keeps what’s left of my brains safe, and it acts as a personal computer.”
“Okay…. So…. All those words that made no sense to me, what do they mean?” She asked as she scratched her nape with a hoof.
“Like BATTLENET, BLUFORCE, and computer?” I inquired as I cocked an eyebrow.
“Yeah, those.”
“Well BATTLENET is a program that allows me to instantaneously sift through intelligence and the flow of battle, like if a company near me is having to retreat or needs reinforcements. So it’s incredibly useful to commanders. “BLUFORCE is a heads up display showing me the location of friendly troops within 300 meters and it tags enemy troops, which highlights their locations making it easier for me to see them. But it also allows any friendly troops within 300 meters of me to see the outlines of the enemy as well. So we love BLUFORCE, it has saved my ass plenty of times. “And the personal computer…” I scratched the back of my head trying to think of a way to describe it. This is difficult, like explaining how awesome sex is to a virgin. The damnable things have become so ingrained in Terrans that it’s stupefying at how difficult describing them is.
Holy shit.
“Well, they are small devices that do many things, like play music, let me talk to people over long distances, watch movies, play games… stuff… you know…”
Her eyes just glazed over. So I did some thinking. ‘Play music’ came up in that description.
“You know what? Hold on.” I said, as I scrolled through the UI with my eyes searching for my music. After I found my unholy collection of music, I set it to play through the external speakers in shuffle.
And as the music began to emanate from the helmet, I took it off to listen to it.
The first song was a contemporary rock song from a band named “Der Banshees.” It was good, but it was still rather generic. The greatest era of rock was from the 1960’s to about the 2040’s. I’m as happy as a fat kid in a candy store that humanity kept astounding digital records of literally everything.
My helmet has close to a terabyte of music on it. This isn’t much in comparison to how much memory it can hold, which is twenty terabytes.
I looked over at my little furry friend. Her eyes were glazed over and she was staring agape at the helmet sitting on the coffee table.
“Uh… you okay there?” I asked as I cautiously poked her, which snapped her attention to me.
“I thought you said your species lacked magic?!”
“We do, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. And I really need to remember who the fuck said that.” I answered as one [url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QxHkLdQy5f0]Tchaikovsky’s mellower compositions started up after the rock song finally ended. “Anyways, how do ya like our music so far?”
“Those last songs made me want to fly as fast as I could, and this one makes me want to just close my eyes and sway with it.”
After that song was coming to a close I decided to mix it up with what some music aficionados declare as one of the greatest lyricists of all time, “Betty, play [url= https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbGs_qK2PQA]Rap God by Eminem.”
And thus began the rap. I don’t agree that he was the greatest at lyrics, but some of his works are pretty good, especially the funny ones. But I digress…
“Terran music is weird. But I love it!” She exclaimed. Then she suddenly she turned towards me and put her front hooves in my lap and got right in my face, which I surprisingly jerked my head back as she thrust her face into near proximity with mine before asking, “Is there a way we can get all of it?”
Her eyes twinkling were adorable, as was that cheesy grin.
“Do y’all even have a way to play recorded music?” I asked with curiosity. If their marshal technology is anything to go by, they probably don’t.
“We have phonographs.”
Punkt genommen, klienes pony. Punkt genommen.
“I suppose we can arrange something then. This helmet contains over 20,000 songs though.”
Her face was priceless.
Then she realized how close our faces were. “Oh…. Um… uh… “ she sputtered out as she hopped off my lap, “I’m sorry… I didn’t realize I may have crossed a line. I’m… I’m not sure how your culture takes proximity.”
“Depends on which Terran culture you’re talking about.” I replied. These ponies are adorable when flustered. I’ll have to fluster more for maximum ‘D’awwww’ sometime later. “Some cultures regard personal space almost religiously and take great offense to others even being near them. Others are incredibly touchy feely.”
“What about yours?” she asked, cocking her head to the side and picking up a front hoof.
“Well, kinda in between. We generally don’t touch strangers, but we do hug and embrace friends and family. And close proximity ain’t usually an issue. “Besides, I joined the Army; they kinda cram us all together into small areas all the time, so personal bubbles were discarded pretty quick.” I said as I stood up and stretched. “I still remember the first shower in Basic Training. It was a tiny room with shower heads lining the walls for up to twenty trainees at a time. Being that close to that many naked dudes kinda did away with the whole issue.” I got up to find the bathroom. I haven’t eaten in a week. It also means I haven’t pooped in a week. “What are you looking for?” May Weather asked. “I gotta drop the kids off at the pool.” I said. “You need to do what?” “I have to use the little boy’s room.” “It’s in the main bedroom!” She yelled from the main living room, so I promptly ran towards the bathroom and slammed the door behind me.
After taking care of business I stepped out, “I feel like I’m ten kilos lighter.”
“What are kilos?” she looked up at me and asked.
Fuck. Why am I not surprised?
“They’re a measurement of weight. What do you use?”
“Oh, we use pounds!” She said with some chipper. “Do you use pounds as well?”
I just looked at her for a moment, thinking about all the shit I’m going to have to convert. I sighed, “Yeah, there are still a few places that use the imperial system, but most of the places use the metric system.”
“What’s the metric system?”
“Instead of like the old imperial system where there are sixteen ounce to a pound, twelve inches to a foot, or three feet to a yard…”
“We use hooves instead of feet.” She interrupted as she held up a hoof. “I’ll shut up now.” She chuckled as I gave her the eyebrow.
“As I was saying, instead of random numbers like that. It uses powers of ten. So there are a hundred centimeters to a meter, a thousand meters to a kilometer, a thousand milliliters to a liter and so on.
“Some things still use the imperial system like cooking, so I am familiar with conversion rates. We just don’t use them all that often. So ten kilos would be like 22 pounds, give or take a few ounces.”
“What about distances?” She asked. Damn, these ponies are curious enough to give Kruzans a run for their money. Fucking felines, the few Kruzans I met were just sapient, two meter tall bipedal house cats. A furry’s wet dream.
I shuddered at the thought of that one Kruzan female literally rubbing herself all over me like our household cat used to do. Anyways, back to May’s question. “Well a yard is more or less a meter. It’s like a three inch difference. So if I use meter, just think yard. Kay?”
“Yeah, that’s not hard.”
I walked over to my ruck and grabbed some fresh skivvies. I saw the huge shower tub combo in that bathroom. I was about to take an amazing shower. That sponge bath earlier was nice, but this shower was going to be bomb.
May walked over and asked, “What’cha going to do?”
As I was beginning to strip down, I replied, “I’m about to take the shower of showers. Why?”
“Well, I’m also supposed to keep tabs on you to make sure you don’t do anything fishy. I’m also not supposed to let you leave the suite.” She looked down and kicked a hoof at the floor. “I probably wasn’t supposed to tell you that either.”
I chuckled at her OPSEC slip up. “I had that figured out when you said you were my personal guard. Don’t be hard on yourself kiddo. Your idiot CO should’ve known better than put a new kid on the job, he set you up for failure.”
She kind of looked a bit better after hearing that. “Well, I still have my orders.” She beamed at she puffed her chest out and marched over to the couch and sat down with her chin still up proudly. Adorable, she reminds me of my kid sister.
My little sister, that thought hit me in the feels as my smile quickly faded and shoulders sagged. I robotically turned on the water and finished stripping down.
The shower was far less enjoyable.
After a quick shower, I stepped out to dry off and threw on my clean skivvies and grabbed my uniform trousers. I stepped into the main bedroom and put my boots at the side of the bed and positioned my trousers in such a way that if I needed to, I could wake up, slip my feet into my boots and pull up my pants. That way I could have footwear and pants on in a matter of seconds.
I took the revolver, holster, and pistol belt and draped it over one of the corners to the headboard so I could get to my sidearm quickly. “Hey, May Weather? You still awake? You’re oddly quiet…” I called out.
Not hearing a reply, I poked my head out the door into the main living room. The little tan Pegasus was zonked on the couch. So I walked over to her and poked her, “Hey, knucklehead, go get you some sleep.”
She groggily woke up, “Huh? Oh… I’m supposed to stay with you at all hours of the day. Captain’s orders.”
“When and where the fuck are you supposed to sleep?” I asked, concluding that their officers were even bigger fuckwits than Terran Army officers. I was actually pissed, because as an NCO it’s my job to take care of my soldiers, so I always hated it when some dickfuck LT came snooping around fucking with MY soldiers.
“I-I’m not sure.” She said sadly, looking around.
“What about one of the other suites? They connect to the main foyer. I mean, you’d only be on the other side of the hallway.” I replied.
“He said specifically not to even leave the room you’re in. Even if you go to take a shower I’m supposed to be in the bathroom watching you.” She said sheepishly, a mixture of the thought of her already messing that order up and then being in the room with a naked alien.
“Oh really.” I dead panned.
Yup, Sally Mae is one of ‘those’ officers.
I’m going to enjoy fucking with his shit.
“I got an idea.” I said as I walked across the foyer with her in tow.
“What are you doing?” She asked as she sat back on her haunches.
“Just sit there and watch, this is what real leaders do for their soldiers.” I replied as I pulled the mattress off one of the other beds and began to drag it back across to my bedroom, pillows, blankets, sheets, and all.
Once I had it positioned in a way that would obstruct access to either the bathroom or the exit, I was happy and turned to her and pointed at the mattress and asked, “How you like me now?”
She didn’t answer. She just smiled and hugged my chest. Which kind of tickled my bare chest.
So I tousled her mane and said, “Now get yo ass in bed, I’m tired as fuck. How much you weigh by the way? You’re like super fucking light.”
She blushed, “Well, I actually weigh close to a hundred pounds, but pegasi have an internal magic that makes us feel half as light to make flight easier.”
She pried her armor off as it made a loud clank on the stone floor, and she looked relieved.
“So… May… y’all don’t have electricity, so how are these lights lit?” I asked as I stared at the chandelier. “It looks like they’re candles, but there ain’t no wax and they been burning all night.” She giggled and replied, “They’re magic flames, just blow at them and they’ll go out.”
“Fucking magic...” I muttered as I blew out the ‘flames.’
I laid down in bed and shimmied between the sheets and reached out to ensure I could reach my revolver in case shit had to go down.
Luna had just ended Night Court and was taking a flight around the palace to relieve some of the stress of all the nobles petitioning her to side with their selfish ideals. It was rather taxing on the night princess, so she enjoyed a night flight in the cool air to unwind.
What was particularly upsetting tonight, though, was that many nobles were having the same complaints. They were all accusing each of other of stealing property from each other.
In this case, all of the nobles were reporting their human children and some of the mothers as stolen from them.
So Luna did what any authority figure would do and dispatched an officer to look into the disappearances.
“Surely they have simply not found their property from the ensuing chaos from the aftermath of the Changeling invasion,” Luna mused to herself, wondering where the humans could have gotten off to and why no pony had reported any sightings of wandering humans.
As she was unwinding during her flight, she noticed the ambassadorial wing with a single light on. I wonder what the human is doing up at this hour. He does not strike me as being nocturnal , she thought to herself as she landed on the balcony before entering the main room.
Before her was the human sergeant clad in just his undergarments doing what appeared to be callisthenic exercises.
She just stared at his scarred yet toned body, a far cry from the physical condition of humans native to Equus. Luna was enamored at the musculature moving underneath the skin covering as he carried out his exercises, she realized she was gawking when she heard something.
-----
“Can I help you princess?” he asked as he realized he had an audience
Luna recomposed herself before responding, “I was merely curious why the lights where aflame. Now I see why thou art awake at this hour.”
“I think you just wanted to see me in my skivvies,” he snarkily replied as he finished up his round of exercises.
“Your… what?” Luna said perplexed, not understanding Terran slang before Dietrich clarified that ‘skivvies’ was slang in certain Terran space for underwear. “So you wear clothes under your clothes? I understand why humans need clothing as they lack of fur to protect them from the elements, but forgive my lack of understanding for the necessity of clothes under clothes.”
As the Terran was gathering up what appeared to be parts of his uniform, he answered, “The underwear is intended to keep our skin from being rubbed raw by certain styles of clothing. And before you ask, the clothing in question here is purpose built to be tough and protective. It chafes like a motherfucker when it’s wet too.”
Luna watched as Dietrich finished gathering his belongings as he made his way to the bathroom to presumably wash up. Just before he entered she called out, “My sister would like to meet with you early this morning over breakfast, and she has things she wouldst very much like to discuss with thee. I’ll have one of my guards escort you there in due time.”
The sergeant made an affirmative nod before turning back around and closing the door to begin cleaning himself. Upon looking at the shower he thought to himself, “well fuck, that’s a short ass shower.”
After a few minutes of stepping out of the shower while in the process of putting his uniform back on he heard three rapid knocks on the door.
“Must be the guard,” he muttered to himself before calling out, “I’ll be there in just a sec.” Upon finishing up the lacing on his boots he stood up and walked to the door and cracked it open while having a hand resting on his revolver and opened the door the rest of the way when the guard introduced himself as Night Watch.
-----
“So… you have bat wings, the fuck is up with that?” the sergeant said while poking and prodding at the wings while the guard was escorting him to one of Celestia’s small private dining halls.
“You’re a quiet fucker, you know that?” the human said, trying to get a rise out of the stoic Lunar guard.
“Y’all are far better disciplined than them day guard bitches, I’ll give you that one for sure.” And Dietrich briefly saw a slight hint of smile on the muzzle of Night Watch before something caught his attention.
Out of the corner of his eye, Dietrich noticed one of the maids had stopped cleaning, her mouth was ajar, and her face was warming with a blush. He’d have to ask Celestia about that later.
Suddenly the guard stopped and snapped his wing back to his side, “We are here, and you may enter.” And he thusly trotted off leaving the Terran staring at the door.
“Well then,” he said before barging in and seeing Celestia sitting on the far end of a long table with a large spread of fruit and pastries in front of her. “I heard you wanted to discuss some things with me. And pray tell what would those things be?” he said as he sat down looking over the pastries before grabbing what appeared to be a Danish with cream cheese filling.
Celestia set the pastry she was currently munching on and wiped her muzzle before answering, “That is indeed correct, I am to assume Luna has not yet told you any details of what I would like to discuss?”
“That would be correct, I wasn’t told shit.”
“Well then, I suppose you would like your belongings back?”
“No shit.” Dietrich snarked while looking over some strawberries.
“I will Captain Shining Armor escort you to the arms room they are locked away in and he will assign some guards to help you carry the items to your suite.” Celestia politely said while magicking a banana towards her plate and pouring herself some more water. “I don’t suppose you would allow an exchange perhaps?”
Dietrich cocked an eyebrow at this proposition. “I’d like to think you’re joking, but I can see that you ain’t. I shouldn’t need to tell you, but the governing body who has willfully employed me would be none too happy that I freely gave an unallied race unfettered access to its tech.”
Celestia hid her emotions well since she was highly interesting in the possibilities that the tech represents and the ideas that could be gleaned from it. While not having the tech base to replicate the technology on an industrial level, she was sure she could manage a cottage industry that substituted the high level tech with magic.
She was beginning to grow concerned with the state of defense of her nation. She had been receiving reports of unrest and violence along the border to the north and not even a month has passed since the Changelings nearly usurped her throne.
Celestia was snapped out of her internal musings by the Terran sitting across from her, “Surely this ain’t all you wanted to talk about.”
“Indeed it is not. I seem to recall you claiming to have been aboard what you called a ‘spaceship’ before finding yourself on our beloved planet.”
“This is correct,” he stated without looking up from his breakfast.
“Then I would assume you would be excited to know I have reports of what appears to be a giant metallic object that appears to have crashed in one of my northern provinces. They claim is has what appears to be ‘RTS Lady Antebellum’ scrolled on the side.”
“Well fuck…”
Celestia was surprised at his outburst, “why, is there a problem? The letters even detail the ship is in surprisingly good condition for having fallen from the skies.”
“Yeah, well that’s the fucking problem. That means I have to go there and do things with and to it. How far is the nearest settlement to it?”
“Oh, I’d say no more than a hundred miles. Why do you ask?” Celestia said after wiping her muzzle off and setting her silverware down before moving empty dishes to a cart on the side wall. She noticed Dietrich was looking in the air and mouthing, ‘divide one hundred by five, now multiply that by eight, and we get 160…’
“Shit, 160 klicks… that’s cutting it fucking close…” he said as he exhaled.
“I’m assuming that is a relief?” the princess asked.
“Yeah, y’all are far enough from it to keep from getting hurt. Annnnnnywaaays… you got anything else or can I go hunt down the Captain to get the rest of my shit?” he asked.
“Actually there is one more thing, sergeant. I’d like you to know the other three Terrans are conscious and undergoing some basic tests to make sure they are alright.” She began giggling before continuing, “They were far less anxious to leave than you were.”
Dietrich looked at her like he wanted to say something but then shook his head and asked, “Well, when they’re good to go, can you send them to me? I need to debrief them.”
“I will, Dietrich.”
At that, the human got up and left following a guard Celestia had set aside to take the Terran to the Captain. But Celestia had a sinking feeling that he wasn’t forthcoming with all his information on that ship judging by the vast amount of body signals he was sending that he was nervous about that ship.
She decided she would consult her sister about it and called for the maids to finish cleaning the dining hall before getting up to head to her Day Court.
-----
“Shoot. I forgot to ask Celestia about that maid…” Dietrich said to his guard, which happened to be May Weather.
“About what maid?”
“This morning I was greeted by some dude with bat wings, and I was pestering him trying to get him to crack and was fucking with his wings like this,” he said while grabbing May’s wing and mimicking what he did earlier that morning with the stallion’s bat wings.
May sighed, “Oh boy… you are pretty clueless…”
Dietrich blanched upon realization of what he did and was currently doing to May and promptly released her wing, “So I molested that guy this morning. Awkward.”
May began giggling nearly uncontrollably before a voice cut across her, “Private! Care to explain why you are currently acting unprofessional?”
“N-no sir!” she belted out as she snapped to attention.
The Captain exited the arms room and began to size the young private up. “Do I need to assign you additional drills for you lack of discipline and professionalism?”
“No sir!”
“Looks like Captain Dick-in-his-Ass is on deck now.” The Terran said to no one in particular as he rolled his eyes.
Shining bristled at this, “Is there something you want to say to me sergeant!”
“I don’t know how your planet does shit, but I ain’t in your chain of command. As per Paragraph 32, Article 8 of Army Regulation 500-9 I am under no circumstances to take orders from foreign leadership unless told to do so explicitly by my own command. And since Captain Musgrove ain’t here to tell me to listen to your ass, I ain’t gonna listen to your ass.”
Shining began to grind his teeth at the impudence on display from a lowly sergeant. To make matters worse the human began to rub it in, “I’m just following orders, I’m sure you can relate to that.”
The human promptly winked, clicked his tongue, snapped his fingers and pointed them at the Captain before brushing past the infuriated officer on his way into the arms room.
“So where all my shit at, Cap?” Dietrich called out from inside the arms room snapping Shining Armor out of his enraged stupor.
“It’s in the room on the right.” He called out, turning to May Weather and two adjacent guards he then commanded, “You three will help him move his things. Sergeant Caper, you’re responsible for carrying anything the human is incapable of moving himself, you’re in charge until I come back.”
When Private May Weather, Private Oakenshod, and Sergeant Caper entered the arms room they saw the Terran was crawling inside one of the items he referred to an ‘orbital entry pod’ or ‘rocket coffin’ pulling items out of compartments that Caper never even knew were there when he inspected the pods earlier in the week after they were recovered.
They noticed the human was separating things into multiple piles. Caper decided to speak up, “Excuse me sergeant. But may I ask what it is that you are doing exactly?”
“Oh, I’m separating things out: one pile for the shit I’m keeping, one pile for the shit that’s broke, and one pile for the shit I ain’t keeping.” He said, making a motion with his hands towards each pile. “Once I get everything sorted into one of those three piles, I’m going to go through the broken shit and see what I can fix that’s worth keeping.”
“What do you plan to do with the stuff you’re not keeping?” May Weather asked, taking a look inside one the gutted pods.
“Dispose of it” Dietrich said while fidgeting with something he pulled out of box from inside the last pod before tossing it into the discard pile.
“How do you plan to do that?” she said as she picked up the small item he just discarded. “And what is this thing?”
“Oh, that’s gonna be the fun part! I’ll show y’all! But we’re going to need to take it outside the city or at least somewhere with a lot of space. And that thing is just a busted radio handset.”
-----
After hours of watching the Terran sort items and repair broken items, all the items were sorted into two piles finally. “Alright boys and girls, let’s get the keepers to my suite then we can come back to take out the trash.”
“Can we not dispose of the items for you?” the guard sergeant asked.
“Nope. SOP, bro.”
The guards all cocked and eyebrow and looked at each other quizzically before looking at the Terran and asking in unison, “SOP?”
“Standard operating procedures, the rules dictating the things that tells us to do the things.” Dietrich said nonchalantly.
“Alright, we’re here we can just dump this shit in the main bedroom and go back to get the rest and junk it. Oh, you think Celestia might want to see this?”
“Private Weather.”
“Yes, Sergeant?”
“Go notify the princess that we are taking the Terran to the drill field outside the castle proper to dispose of his items.”
“Yes Sergeant.” And away May went.
-----
Celestia was lazily flying towards the drill field with Private Weather in tow enjoying the day before she needed to set the sun, she also sent a letter to Luna in hopes Luna would meet them there at the field to help try to convince the human to let them keep the items he does not want.
On approach she noticed her sister was already there and standing beside the Terran as he was fidgeting with what appeared to be wires of some kind. She could overhear her sister pleading with Dietrich to let the nation of Equestria keep the items. Eventually he capitulated, reached inside one of the pods, pulled out a small metallic dome in painted in green, and tossed it to the Princess of the night before also tossing what appeared to be a tripod to her as well.
“Fucking A, it should be illegal to use those eyes and pout of yours.” Dietrich said off-handed while fiddling with the wiring from earlier and a small device in his hand. “Alright y’all, follow me.”
“Ah, Dietrich, I was wondering if perchance I could possibly convince you to no dispose of these items.” Celestia said, making a gesture toward the objects in question.
“Too late for that now, princess, but I’ll make sure to give you something” he said, digging another item out of a pile and tossing it to her.
Celestia rolled the object over in her magic and viewed the small green and black box from all angles before tucking it under a wing. “So, Luna, has he explained exactly how he plans to dispose of his unwanted objects? I feel it would be easier to let a unicorn simply crush it.”
Luna spoke up, “Nay dear sister, he keeps simply saying ‘y’all gon see’.”
Celestia chuckled at her sister’s mockery of Dietrich’s drawl.
Dietrich had laid down on his belly and was wearing some of his armor and his helmet without the red eye that gave the helmet an ominous appearance, he looked at them and said, “Y’all might wanna mimic me and get down. This is gonna be a doozy…”
With that, Luna, Celestia, and the three guards all got beside the Terran soldier on their bellies and looked towards the human as he flipped a red cover up on the small device he was holding to reveal a small button as he simultaneously yelled at the top of his lungs, “FIRE IN THE HOLE!”
Suddenly the ground shook as a shockwave was generated by the deep, thunderous explosion of large amounts of high explosives detonating. Everyone present could feel the concussive forces in their chest as the air was sucked out of their lungs.
The ponies’ hair along their back was standing erect, their wings were in full display if they had them, and their eyes were as large as dinner plates. The Terran was laughing his ass off at them as dirt, debris, and smoke began to settle and everyone’s hearing began to come back after the ear ringing blast that just demolished loads of human tech, sending it into the sky in small, burnt, twisted pieces.
“Holy shit! You should see yourselves! Oh man… that was great…”
“Sergeant Steiner, some form of warning would have been appreciated.” Luna chastised.
Once the human was done catching his breath from laughter, he spoke up, “I’ll show you two how to work those devices I gave you as a form of recompense. Come now, I’ll show you first Celestia so you can ‘go lower the sun’.” Dietrich postulated, using his fingers as air quotes.
Celestia promptly proffered the item and passed it towards Dietrich, who began to esplain what it was, “Okay, Celestia, this is a strobe. It’s a distress marker essentially and has three modes of operation: visible light spectrum, infrared light spectrum, and high frequency radio wave pulses. There is a switch on the side to select each method of operation.” He rolled it over in his hands to indicate the switch. “If you pop this over, you’ll reveal the LED for the visible light.” As he demonstrated, a bright light began to pulse, “And if you pull this up, you can direct who sees the pulse.” Again, demonstrating the device by sliding a tube up over the light limiting who can see the strobe.
He then flipped the switch to the IR setting, and began to explain it further, “The infrared setting, or IR setting, is pretty worthless to y’all since you lack the equipment to see into the IR light spectrum.” Before he could continue, Luna interrupted him.
“Please turn this IR setting off; it gives me a blinding headache. I can see it very well thank you.” Dietrich simply whistled, turned it off, and stated, “Well I’ll be damned… Celestia, can you also see it?”
“I cannot, it seems my sister possess better vision than I.”
“Well, anyways, I know the third setting is worthless because it pulses a radio wave that is picked up by Terran equipment and then used to triangulate the location of the device and I doubt you’d have need of that.” Dietrich handed the device back over to Celestia who then took it from him using her magic, “Oh, and it has batteries that need to be recharged after a few hours of use, so to do that just let it sit in the sun a for a bit.”
Celestia took the device and tucked it under her wing, “I thank you for this, and it is a neat device nonetheless. But alas, I must get going, I have a sun to lower.” And with that, she took up with a powerful flap of her wings.
Dietrich looked over to the Lunar Princess who was looking over her gift, so to say, attempting to make heads or tails of it. She eyed the few dents in the metallic dome with a forlorn look and Dietrich saw this.
“Don’t worry princess, I gave you something I’ve always enjoyed playing with and was mine personally.” He took the device from her and set it on the ground and took the tripod from beside her and opened it and set it up.
“This device is an aiming circle. It acts as a far more precise compass and is used in my military for very precise applications regarding azimuths.” He said as he unlatched the dome from the base after attaching the dome from the tripod, revealing a very intricate device with various knobs, dials, and eyepieces.
He began to go into explanation of what the device was, how to set it up, and how to use it. He had Luna set it up herself from start to finish a few times before he was satisfied she had a full grasp of how to do it herself.
From there, it was time for her to depart to raise the moon. She gave her goodbyes before following her sister’s example and taking off with a powerful flap of her wings.
Once she was gone, Dietrich looked over to the three guards and said, “Y’all hungry? Let’s go get some dinner.”
