I was hunting for a squirrel because I forgot to bring enough meat supplies and I didn't get any...BUT I found something that might be traded for a nice amount of caps with the New York Laboratories and... Wait did it just gasped?
''You know....staring at people is considered rude''
''Why do you wear a mask in the first place?''
Everybody who I had met said that a mask is for hide something about us, but for me is to show who really I am, little matters to me what they think. I wear this mask for almost 10 years and nobody, even my remaining family, had managed to make me to remove it. And I’m pretty sure that this little alicorn-pony or whatever thing she is called… Yeah she, because she hates to be referred as an animal and technically she is a pony, in other words an animal.
Logic people.
She is a burden to me and also she is my unwanted responsibility until she finds a way to return to her girly land, and how the things are going this will be a long wait enduring her complains about my attitude and particularly my mask.
This mask is my face and nothing will change it.
*30/11/14 Made it to the popular stories!! Thanks guys!!!*
Today is a beautiful day that should be enjoyed by every living being on Equus, the birds sing their symphonies and chirp with joy, Celestia’s sun is in the perfect condition for make this a perfect day also the Pegasus weather team programmed winds to accompany the environment, this is the perfect day to get out and enjoy the nature; everypony is happy about this.
But Discord is not everypony, and he is not happy about this day.
The draconnequs doesn’t have the opportunity to get out and enjoy the day; instead he is in utter boredom as he sits on carpet inside the crystal castle of the Princess Twilight Sparkle who is giving him a long lesson about friendship, starting from the basis.
After the whole fiasco with the centaur called Tirek, Princess Celestia had to deal with a lot of complain about the betrayal of Discord in her Day Court, and the same fate was for the Night Princess. With the amount of work the Solar Princess assigned Discord’s punishment to her student turned into a princess Twilight Sparkle who saw fit the perfect punishment for him.
A whole month of Friendship lessons with her as the teacher, Discord must assist those lessons every day, but the worst part is that they are 12 hour lessons!
Could you imagine have to go school every day(including sundays) and stay there for twelve hours without stop?!!
She don't give him a break for lunch or recess.
Discord must be pretty bored right now, and he is.
Discord was on the secon week of his punishment and he felt that it was a millennium; Twilight surely knew that this is killing him from the inside to outside slowly.
‘Such a day and the old dear Discord cannot enjoy it’ The draconnequs thinks as he watch the landscape where he can taste his freedom, and is far-far away from the little annoying purple alicorn. ‘So close, yet so far’
‘Maybe I should have given Celestia a bigger bouquet with more exotic flowers’ Discord recalled the past events after Tirek’s defeat ‘Her face was just so priceless..and cu-'
‘’DISCORD!!!’’ I powerful shout made him to return his attention to the class
‘’Are you even listening to me?!’’ Twilight was angry by the lack of attention of his not so wanted student, still she had a task and she would achieve it.
‘’Nope…’’ Discord’s blank reply irritated twilight even more but she let out everything with the relaxation technique which was learned from her old foalsitter and now sister-in-law Candance.
‘’Discord you should listen this lesson because is as much important like the others’’ Despite she had used Candance’s technique Twilight was still angry at him. ‘’But is reaaaaaaaaallyyyyyy boring hereeeeeeeee’’ Discord said as he threw his head backwards
Twilight frowned at that statement ‘’If you hadn’t helped Tirek on his goal then you wouldn’t be here in the first place’’
Discard passed his lion paw over his face as he complained ‘’How many times have I to say that I’m sorry?’’
‘’A ’sorry’ is not enough to repair the damage done, Discord’’ Twilight answered with the frown never leaving her face
Discord knew that he will never win the argument so he only let his head fall to his desk with a thud. He complained silently as Twilight resumed her class about friendship. Today class is about; don’t over exceed the prank on a friend, of course Discord would have complained about this sooner or later.
As the princess explained the basis Discord found incredible comfortable the desk where his head was resting so slowly his eyelids started to close with a series of blinks until he found himself in the dream world.
His dream was expected to be, chaos everywhere. Cotton candy clouds everywhere, no strict schedule for the time of the day, parasprites eating without control, the roads were made of water and soup; a situation which the spirit of chaos couldn’t waste. Immediately he descended until he touched the ground and started to skiing on the road with long movement. The feeling of freedom was a bliss to him, he didn’t care if he was on a dream; freedom is freedom even if it is an illusion.
But his freedom was abruptly cut away from him.
Discord darted away from the desk with tired eyes, which returned to its normal state aftermath. In front of him was a blank scroll and blue quill, those items have an only meaning.
An ESSAY.
‘’I want you to summarize today’s lesson in 1200 words minimal’’ Twilight looked directly at his eyes ‘’Of course it wouldn’t be a problem IF you had paid attention in classes’’ Discord could only blink in surprise
‘’Start with your work, NOW!’’ The last word was said in the Royal Canterlot voice which made Discord react.
‘’Bu-‘’ His attempt to complain was futile, Twilight have already put her position.
‘’No buts mister, you are going to write that summary or I will add a day more of lessons’’ At the mention of a day more, the spirit of chaos immediately started to ‘work’ on the essay, little did Twilight know that Discord was pseudo-writting. With a satisfied look Twilight made her way out of the room ‘’I will be back in 20 minutes, no more no less’’
Only after he was sure that Twilight left the room did he stop his supposed writing and started to regrets his past actions with all his might. He obviously wouldn’t have helped Tirek if he had known about Tirek’s betrayal and most important his punishment.
For the embodiment of chaos this was far worse that being imprisoned in stone or inside of the gates of Tartarus.
Discord passed his paw over his face annoyed gurgling curses and planning how he will get Celestia back after this. But then and idea popped up accompanied with a light bulb on. ‘’Wait’’ Discord grabbed the light bulb from above his head which turned off after was removed from its position. ‘’The light bulbs haven’t been invented in Equestria yet’’ With a snap of his fingers the time mistake was gone only to be replaced with lit candle over his horns. ‘’That’s much better’’ He playfully smiled.
With the correction done, Discord started to develop further the idea. Such idea was about to get rid of Twilight for a while but don’t causing her any type of damage or the consequences would be severe.
Again Discorded snapped his fingers and a pot of special ink appeared on the desk, the quill was submerged in the special ink and started to make a list on the scroll where was supposed to be used to write an essay.
The list was about places where he could send Twilight, but not places there in Equus no. He has better plans for her, besides he is the God of chaos for crying out loud! Of course he wouldn’t have limited himself. He opened a small rift which was used as a window for give a quick peck to other dimensions and when he finds a good possibility he writes its name on the scroll below him.
As the time passed Discord found a lot of dimensions which could do perfectly for the little egghead. But at the same time he found a lot of others dimension that were terrifying for him although that he watched mere seconds, he is going to ask for Luna’s help later because probably he will never be able to sleep well again. The God of chaos after minutes of thinking and pondering he chose the dimension where he is going to send the princess of friendship.
The Multiverse Library
It was perfect, that place have infinite amount of knowledge and every passing second more books are added to the shelves. Twilight’s lust of knowledge would keep her there for a long time; time which Discord would use for have his proper fun.
Smirking, the chaos magic was starting to gather around his fingers preparing themselves to give the snap that will send Twilight away and give him the freedom which was craving for a long while.
‘Oh this is going to be fun!’ He though meanwhile the chaotic magic was in its final steps.
But his concentration was shattered when the door was violently opened.
‘’Discord!!! You were supposed to write, not play with magic!!!’’ With the sudden action the spell was casted by accident and without the proper focus the spell picked a random dimension as final destination.
Twilight tried to shield herself with her magical barrier but it was too late, the spell reached her.
Everything passed too fast even for Discord; he shook his head a few times trying to understand the situation.
Now in the crystal floor where Twilight Sparkle is supposed to be is a smoking black spot.
The spirit chaos stared the spot for a couple of seconds until he come with a realization.
‘’Celestia is soooo going to turn me into stone for this’’
Twilight Sparkle opened her eyelids allowing her eyes to see her new surroundings, but she wasn’t aware of that fact yet. An irritated groan of frustration escaped from her mouth as she remembered exactly what happened before she was teleported to somewhere in Equus, little did she know that she wasn’t in her home world anymore, much less her own dimension.
‘Discord, you’re so dead when Celestia hears of this’
But the worst of all was one single thing, a thing that should have been done and nothing of this would have happened.
Discord never wrote the essay about friendship.
‘‘I will deal with him when I’m there, I just need to find the nearest town and ask where I’m right know’’
With that said Twilight extended both of her wings and prepared them to take flight to her new task, find a town or a city.
‘’…’’
‘’…uh?’’
Twilight was confused, also dumbfounded to the fact that she didn’t move an inch after she gave a powerful flap that should have lifted her from the ground, instead her action only created wind around her. The Princess checked both of her wings if something was wrong with them only to find that they were perfectly normal, all the feathers in its place and no signal of any kind of wound in her wings, so the fact of don’t be able to take flight idn’t make any sense to her.
‘Maybe I didn’t flap them with the enough strength…’ She pondered as she brought her right hoof to her chin ‘but I am pretty sure that used the same amount of strength I like always do…’
‘it must have been an accident then…’ she finally concluded, but still she didn’t feel right that she miscalculated something because she’s always organized with everything so a miscalculation is nearly impossible for her.
To be sure this time Twilight opted to do a series of powerful flaps, and each one with more strength than the last one. Again the alicorn got ready to take flight into the sky and made several flaps hoping for the best, but again her body stayed in its place. She is only making dust around her; the feeling of the grass under her hooves is incredibly worrisome.
Twilight Sparkle couldn’t be more shocked in her life; not only did she hear something approaching to her position; her wings didn’t work how they were supposed to do.
Before she could have enter into a state of panic, she heard a faint sound from afar then something pinched her right flank in the place where is her cutie mark. The pinch was so suddenly that she only flinched to the unwanted feeling in her flank. Immediately she turned her head to focus on what could have caused her that faint pain in her body. The eyes of the princess saw focused in the attacked area and were able to notice a small dart injected exactly in the middle of her cutie mark, the realization was like a cold shower to Twilight.
Everything around her started to spin in circles, her eyelids felt a lot heavier than usual and the balance of her body was dropping quickly, Twilight started to lose control in her legs and wings making her to wobble a lot as her eyes were closing slowly; at the end she feel on the ground.
A lot of pain was felt on her left wing when her body reach the ground, but she wasn’t able to make the slightest sound, the tranquilizer was so advanced that she couldn’t perform the easiest things.
‘Please… somepony… help me…’
That was the only thing that passed Twilight’s mind before she entered into the world of dreams.
‘Ugh, I shouldn’t have eaten my meat ration that fast’ Christopher is walking towards a trap that he placed hours ago in hope that it did its job correctly and hopefully caught a squirrel and in the best of scenarios a bunny, but luck couldn’t be worse for him; the trap hadn’t been activated and it was without the bait.
Christopher could only clench his gloved hands in fury ‘’Oooh that little smart fucker… you stole the nut, now I am going to steal your wife’’ He didn’t care about what just said, his mind is focused in one and sole thing; find the rodent that stole his bait, kill it and then taste the victory. He feels so sure about it that he can almost feel the taste of the roasted squirrel or bunny in his mouth.
‘‘Tonight I promised that I will be sitting in front of my fireplace eating roasted meat, so whatever rodent you are say your last prayers ‘cause I’m not going to give up in your search!!!’’
With a promised done Christopher ventures more into the forest, always marking a tree with his Combat knife every 10 meters meters so he wouldn’t get lost into the woods in a future, he repeated the process for hours or it was he believed.
Each step was noise enough to scare the animals around him thanks to all the gear he is wearingand the only way to do not make any noise is by giving slow steps, obviously it would take him time; time that he don’t want to waste because the sun seems closer to the horizon and being at night inside the woods is dangerous.
‘Dammit! Please Mother Nature, give me some animal that can be consumable’ He passed his protected hands through all over his black plain mask with frustration and with a bit of annoyance. The mask was completely black and covered from chin to the forehead, leaving place to his tanned blonde hair to grow without any obstruction. His mask only has four small holes; two for the nostrils and the remaining two for his eyes, but those particular holes have thin layer of obscured glass, enough to hide the color of his pupils to the world.
‘VROOOOOOOOM’
As instinct Christopher pull off his M4A1 and with its aim he starts to check all his surrounding forgetting about his search, for him duty is always first. His index finger was on the trigger until he lowered the gun, knowing that didn’t follow more explosions. The forest isn’t very dense for his luck, but that caused in him confusion because there is no trace of smoke anywhere on the blue sky.
‘That’s strange, even the smallest of the explosions leave any place smoky’
However, since that event wasn’t the beginning of an attack then he needs to check the place where the explosion came and he could tell where exactly the detonation has occurred.
This time he walks towards the sounds’ source but in a slow pace, being careful about the noise this time. He couldn’t be sure if that could have been a bandits/terrorist attack or a method of distraction, either way he needs to be quiet as possible.
The approaching took him just a few minutes and his protected eyes never catch a flaming crater or burned ground, instead meters away from him was a…
Pony…
A bloody pony…
A bloody pastel colored pony…
‘The hell?’ he thought when he saw another strange features in the new animal.
A bloody pastel colored pony with wings and a horn…
‘Okay it’s settled…I never going to burn marijuana with a pinch of gunpowder ever again in the chimney… is really fucking up my brain’
But then he saw how the strange purple pony started to flap its wings making dust around it, still he isn’t quite sure if what he is looking right now is real but what happens if IT is real at the end?
Considering that is completely new specie and the fact that the Science department of New York are craving for learn something new helped in the decision.
‘If it is real then those nerds will pay me a nice sum of caps, or even gold!’ The realization made him ponder ‘but I will need to take care of it until my takeover arrives, and that happens in 1 week and a half… Meh I’m taking the chance’
Christopher went to a crouching stance as he placed his gun to its place on the back and pulled off a small pistol designed only to fire darts, tranquilizer darts to be exactly. Why does he have one of these guns with himself? Well the answer is easy, because in his job sometimes he stumbles with strange animals which require further research (how is in this case); also they pay much more for an alive specimen. Another reason is rarely unarmed prisoners tries to prove their luck in his perimeter so he put them to sleep and drag them to the jail where they belong.
From one of his chest pockets he searches the adequate dart for this new creature; he gave a few glances and estimated the amount of anesthesia. When the dart was found he loads his gun and aims to his new target with both of his hands holding the hand for better aim.
Christopher inhaled and exhaled couples of times before he pulled the trigger to take down in no lethal way the purple pony.
The future specimen looked surprised when the dart gun shot, even more when the ammunition hit on its flank.
‘Now I have to wait’
The masked man put back the dart gun in its sheath and sits on the grassy ground watching amused the spectacle of the strange pony wobbling as its senses fade away quickly, after a few seconds more it falls to the ground on death weight. Christopher stands up from his new improved places to seat and cleans his customized military pants and started his approaching towards the new specie.
But something was completely wrong when he was bedsides it.
Christopher is one of the few Sentinels which have the good luck to share the watch post with an intellectual and also technician Sentinel, he really never cared about learn the name of the Sentinel who was working for the last 2 years so he called him with a nickname; Ghost. Ghost always bring something new for the watch post either bought or invented, the last thing Ghost brought was a broken Jukebox which Ghost repaired after he patrolled the area. Now Chris takes full advantage of that old music player, because now he has background music as he relaxes on a hammock.
‘’The Beatles… I should search more of their albums when my shift is over… I bet Ghost would pay well for one them’’
But he knows better, Ghost explained to him that the Jukebox is the old version that works with CDs and nowadays getting a functional CD is like travel to the other side of the world. ‘’Meh, he will pay me even more if I manage to get one’’ he mutters as he moves his body for a more comfortable position.
When the finds the perfect position his eyes started to feel tired, it should be uncomfortable to everybody to sleep with a mask on, but he grew accustomed, the only moments when he takes off his mask is when he needs to eat and sometimes for smoke the good stuff; although he prefers to mix everything and then burn it in a small pot to acclimate the place despite Ghost constant complains about the smell.
Yes, he also takes a bath with the mask on… though there is times that he takes it off for clean give his face a proper cleaning.
When he was about to reach the dreamland his brain sent a command to his eyelids to shoot open for a simple reason, he needed to check on the winged purple unicorn. His hand passed through his hair in annoyance, as he got up from the hammock.
Christopher remembers that is the fault of the small equine the fact that he had to follow his best friend’s advice in give up all of the Good Stuff, and he means ALL the Good Stuff. Besides Chris is pretty sure that it was thanks to the drugs effect of why he supposedly heard the animal mutter. But he is completely ignorant to the truth.
The Sentinel searched around the small room where he sleeps for any kind of blanket to protect the new specimen from the cold, after all his watch post is near the country that used to be Canada. But to be honest Christopher is a bit greedy, he doesn’t want a sick animal because those nerds from New York would pay him less for it and also he would need to take care of it in a whole new level.
The frustration was growing as he searched for the blanket, he sighed trying to calm himself. ‘Wow it seems that I was really dependant of that Stuff’ He opted to stretch his arms as a relaxation technique until he heard the satisfactory pops from his joints ‘Well that’s better, maybe this is the start of a new chapter of my life’ The final part made him ponder for while
Being calm helps people to complete with ease what he or she was doing because if they are angry or frustrated the things will get worse that’s why Chris managed to find a blanket for the winged unicorn… just a little horse. Although the blanket is poor maintained and dirty it can do its work rather well.
With the blanket on his hands he went outside in direction toward where he left the pony sleeping. Outside he heard the faint sound of a waterfall, that sound made him give a slight smile behind his mask, it also made him remember those happy moments when all of his family was with him. They used to live happily in The Colony 24 or also called Duluth, his father was a Sentinel like he is now, his mother was a Tailor and his older sister was a former Ranger. Everything was happy, until The Insurgents came….
Christopher shook his head dispersing his past; it seems that those memories don’t want to leave him alone even if it had been a decade. It wasn’t a long walk before he his eyes caught the sleeping form of the little purple pony. There he gets closer and put the blanket around covering all of its body including its wings, which he noticed that one of them was in strange shape.
‘’It seems that I need to read one of those books about birds anatomy that Ghost always bring with him’’
It’s true, the favorite hobby of the Sentinel named Ghost is watch birds but how this zone lack of them, he always travel to the Colony 7 where there are a lot of different kind of birds.
When he was about to leave an almost evil idea popped up, and he couldn’t wait to turn that idea in reality.
It took him more time that he expected to take but at the end it was worth the wait.
‘’If this was consumable I would have eaten it right away’’
He wrapped the new animal in such form to recreate a Taco.
He is so proud of himself right now that wanted to celebrate with a good meal for dinner now that the sun is setting, but before he needs to activate the device that keep the wolves away though there haven’t been a sight of a pack for a long while, still better safe than sorry.
Despite that he didn’t want leave purple thing alone for other reasons for example; he needs to be there in case that the animal panicked, albeit that situation would be his fault because he made the taco after all.
At least there are a lot of leaves scattered on the ground to make an improved blanket and also a pillow that accompanied with the warmth of his gear the cold wouldn’t be problem for him. Walking a few feet away he finds a nice spot to sleep and immediately the gathering of the leaves begin. But it stopped when he recalled something of utter importance.
‘’That rodent is fucking dead tomorrow morning’’ Then he went to sleep, despite moon haven't replaced the sun yet.
‘‘AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!’’
The sudden scream of help made Chris eyes shoot open, without hesitation he propelled his body with the aid of both of his arms scattering all the leaves that were working as a provisional mattress. How he left his primary weapon in the watch post the only weapon available at the moment was his combat knife which he have already unsheathed. With a firm grip on the knife he rushes to the scream’s source and judging for its tone the owner is a girl.
But when he arrived to the source he is left bewildered.
The girl that screamed was in fact the pony who right now is struggling free from the dirty blanket.
The wind went across the forest through the regular dense vegetation that it has to offer, the leaves whistled as some of them accompanied the wind in its course. The symphony of Mother Nature never changed despite the Great Collapse, moreover the natural music got better every year until the present time and it had been far too long since the Great Collapse. A bird was heard chirping aloud trying to contact another bird which was responded a time after, despite the fact that Colony 24 lacks of birds they still appear often around the area. Chris was in utter concentration; his eyes were straightly looking to the small equine through his darkened lens of the mask. His breaths were slow but inside him he was completely confused and ignorant to the situation which he just got into, he still didn’t believe that the animal in front of him wrapped into a taco could be intelligent, let alone talk. But the scream couldn’t have come from nowhere somebody must have done it and there wasn’t anybody around except for him and the winged unicorn.
He allowed his legs to rest as he sit on the ground cross-legged near the position of the taco, the other being in front of him glared at him but didn’t say a thing; also its struggles to break free from the blanket ceased. Chris observed the purple pony a bit closer noticing that its eyes were a bigger than a normal equine and the color of its irises matched its coat of fur and there was a pink streak on its mane but those were the only things which he was able to see with more details because the rest of its body was covered by the old blanket.
‘Probably my mind is really fucked up for doing this’
Chris returned to his original position on the ground with his back upright like a proper Sentinel.
‘’Are you a talking animal?’’
He knew before thinking the question that it was a shoot in the darkness without any probability to succeed, animals couldn’t and would never be able to talk. Well except for a parrot, those feathered friends can pronounce a few sentences. He laughed internally when his mind recalled the events from a year ago when Ghost brought a parrot to keep him company and he taught the parrot to insult without stop a-
‘’Excuse me?! I’m a sentient being just like you!’’
‘‘OH SWEET LORD FUCKING JESUS YOU CAN FUCKING TALK?!!!’’
Chris stumbled back trying to get away from it; he was shocked despite his mind told him several times that the small horse could talk. Those warnings meant so little to him. Though he was shocked his hand instinctively went to get a grip on his gun and then aim to the animal directly to the head between its eyes and his index finger was right on the trigger, a weak pull would be enough to blow up its head.
Twilight was angry but at the same time there were other to emotions passing her still weakened body; confusion and curiosity. Confusion for the object that has been pointed at her and the sudden change of attitude from the newcomer, also Twilight was confused for the appearance. After hearing the tone she knew in a instant that is a he, but she couldn’t tell the real image of him because he was wearing a different kind set of armor. Curiosity because she was accidentally transported to a whole new world with new knowledge, she couldn’t imagine new discoveries she could make, the research, the notes and the best of the best; the books.
However Twilight was angry at the unknown male for calling her an animal, doubting of her intelligence. What he did is considered the biggest disrespect; she knew that if he would have said that to Rainbow Dash or Rarity, he would be 7 hooves underground.
‘’HORSES CAN’T TALK!!’’ He was adding more logs to the fire inside her, she may be the Princess of Friendship but an insult can hurt far worse that an actual wound.
‘’Hey! I am not a HORSE!!’’ Her voice was getting a bit out of hoof but she doesn’t notice it, being enveloped in something that doesn’t let you move a thing can get anypony frustrated and irritated. She hoped that he just stop shouting so they could engage a civilized conversation between two sentient beings.
But he never shut.
‘’EVEN LES THEY HAVE A HORN AND WINGS!!’’
She watched him get up and walk around in an erratic pace in circular laps; at least he stopped pointing at her that strange object which probably was a weapon of defense in her opinion. Twilight then noticed that the effects of the analgesic were wearing off quickly on her system which was a good sign but she was still in the problem in being trapped completely at the mercy of a strange sentient being that showed clearly sign of aggressions. In that moment the deepest part of her mind started to play with her, recreating all kind of possible scenarios.
Even naughty ones.
‘’ALRIGHT! Probably the drugs Chris, YEAH! That must be… I’ve just left the drugs so they are still in my system doing shitty things to my brain’’
The princess of Friendship Twilight Sparkle decided that it was enough of this situation
‘‘ENOUGH!’’
Much to her embarrassment she used the Royal Canterlot Voice which she never have used before, it would be intimidating if she only wasn’t on the ground wrapped in some kind of fabric and her head the only body part be able to move of her whole body. At least her yell worked quite well because Chris, name which she assumed after hearing it coming from him, stopped his denial and stared. It was needless to say that he was on the sat on ground thanks to the expansive wave that she did with her own Royal Canterlot Voice. From the sky she was able to see a few silhouettes of birds flying away into the security of the blue sky. Several seconds of tense silence did Chris speak ‘’So you have a name?’’
*An explanation and the process of unwrapping a taco later*
‘’And with this you are…free!’’ Chris voice sound cheery despite the last events of senseless occurrence. But deep inside him he perfectly knew that this will bring him troubles in a future.
‘’Thanks, is really appreciated’’ Twilight Sparkle was her name and by Discord’s fault she is stuck in the perimeter of the Colony 24. She made him understood his mistake of calling her a horse instead of a pony, still he can only look at her as some kind of animal . ‘Though animals can’t talk, let alone think’ If he continues with these ideas he might get a migraine, and of course he didn’t want that in the slightest.
Christopher looked at Twilight stretching her limbs one by one and felt a bit of guilt for doing that cruel joke to her, even if it was a dumb animal he shouldn’t have done it in the first place. Suddenly she yelped in pain, which Chris as instinct kneeled near her ready to offer any kind of aid possible.
‘’Is something wrong?’’ His eyes scanning the source of the pain which was quickly discovered after he remembered that one of her wing got injured. Twilight carefully brought moved her injured wing and such action was greeted by another surge of pain.
‘’My wing, I think it is dislocated’’
Chris glanced for a moment to her eyes and noticed her saddened expression, as he examined the wing he debated with himself about selling her or not. He could get a lot of money for this discovery but he perfectly what fate lays for her if he dares to do that. Countless surgeries and heartless experimentations completely ignoring her pleads to stop.
He wouldn’t have cared if it was an animal but doing that to her would be beyond cruel, he imagined hearing her scream of pain as the Scientifics injected her a several syringes and then note every single reaction to the substance, then dissecting her without using any kind of analgesic.
No he couldn’t and wouldn’t do that or all what his father had taught him about morality would be in vain. Forgetting all about those problems Twilight said that her friends would come and pick her up eventually because travel between dimensions isn’t all complicated. She even went to the human world, fact that surprised him a lot. And surprised Twilight too because Chris didn’t have any resemblance to a human she had seen in her travel through the mirror. (But she could understand that because Chris was using clothes that covered almost everything of him except of his hair) But both of them came to the conclusion that it must have been another dimension where she met for the first time the humans.
‘’So to sum up everything told, are you stuck up here?’’
Twilight’s ears folded back, despite knowing that her friends would come to save her eventually she couldn’t tell the time such task would take even less when they notice that she is gone. She isn’t powerful like Princess Celestia or Luna, so casting the dimensional travel was out of the options, so that left wait for a rescue. And in the time of wait she will be alone in an unknown territory; those thoughts caused her to let a small tear touch the ground.
Probably It wasn’t even day and she already misses her friends.
Christopher in the other hand had a hand over his chin. ‘I might have struck a nerve’
Christopher was, to say at least, exhausted; the day for him was filled with the most improbably occurrence in the entire world and probably the entire existence. He had been dealing for years with the Insurgents, the Wings of Heaven and his fellow Sentinels including some Rangers who only wanted to prove their strength. But the small equine princess of another dimension in a whole new thing to him, he could compare his current situation when he was just a rookie back then though is entirely different but at the same time similar for the reason that he will have to start from zero. Nobody start as a master anyways…
He couldn’t say the same for the small population of the Wings of Heaven; the perfection is what guides them, and any kind of imperfection even the slightest is quickly eliminated.
Again the topic was being displaced by over thinking about the factions which rule the entire land once the proud country of United States. His hair was being caressed by his own hand while his lips opened to allow the small sigh leave him with the hopes to ease the tension and stress which were coaxing inside him with the only purpose to become his situation harder for him. Yet he was glad that the silence was the only sound accompanying him, the cries from his unwanted guest were only adding log to the fire; there was a lot to think and he believed that the time was not enough and never will be.
He just didn’t know what to do.
But he firmly though that after having a small rest his mind would get clearly enough to attempt to take the whole situation again and as any other situation move on, the background of his room was not silent thanks for the same disc making itself notice by repeating the same song over and over again; it created the perfect environment for Chris to get comfortable enough on his hammock and stare on the monochrome roof ahead of his position. The same question from earlier still plagued and annoyed his mind, but he tried to shove them off and put his mind in a blank stance but at the end a question persisted to stay and never leave him.
‘What is going to happen next?’
He still could keep his original plan and sell her to the scientist of New York research department and forget about her completely but that would go completely against his morals and his father would be ashamed of him from the afterlife. But there was one thing for sure, Twilight Sparkle, if it’s spelled correct, is a complete bother to him now because thanks to her mere presence his life has already became more complicated and it had only passed a day!
‘’Please whatever or whoever I don’t care honestly, who brought her here, please but please take her back soon’’
His wish was only audible for him and for him alone, relaxing was the top priority for him not only because the previously told reason, also that he would start to sweat and get an erratic rhythm of breaths which will result to get highly uncomfortable for him to maintain his mask on. Yes he could easily took off the mask but he already made his decision years ago to maintain the mask on and never remove unless is highly necessary or his life is in stake.
*knockknock*
‘The hell? But the watch post is off limits…’
Chris heard a faint sound of shattering glass inside his head when he realized who was knocking the door. By instinct his hand grabbed one of his handguns and went to greet his unwanted guest, as he gave the step which drew him closer he muttered curses after curses but then he stopped and his mind wandered and pondered about his recent behavior, it was nothing like him and was acting like somebody who he hates. His grip on the handgun slowly loosened and the weapon fell to the floor; the impact echoed through the walls. He wasn’t like that and never will be, what happened to him must have been the natural reaction to complex situations and other stressful shit.
‘’Please let me in!’’ The princess half shouted from outside
‘’I already gave a blanket to deal with the cold, don’t bother me’’ Chris replied, he didn’t want her in for the sole reason that it was dangerous to be inside of a room with a lot of objects that will definitely harm her.
The knocks never ceased, furthermore they intensified and were getting into his nerves to the point that he almost snapped but what Twilight said stopped him from doing so.
‘’Please!! There are eyes between the woods watching me” Her voice sounded more desperate rather than hopeful.
From outside Twilight fell inside the building because the door opened too quickly for her to react in time and stop knocking as being too close to the door. From below she lifted her gaze to connect the black lens where should be the eyes of her host, who was not nice if she might add.
‘’Those eyes between the woods are wolves by the way” Christopher waited for her to stood up and get inside, then he gave a last glance outside; howls were heard making her to shiver in fright but Chris didn’t show any kind of reaction; he just closed the door aftermath. Despite he left her outside for a considerable amount of time she was still a princess with manners “Thank you” was what she said to him. Chris from his part only stared at her “Just don’t become a bother to me” Then he walked away in direction to an open door. Hmf!
‘That was plainly rude’ She was offended to say at least, it wasn’t necessary to be an intelligent being to understand that her temporal ‘host’ didn’t want her around. Hopefully she wouldn’t stay long in the dimension because sure that the Princesses are doing their best to find her, despite she doesn’t know how much time will be, one thing is for sure. It will happen.
That way of thinking was not normal for her but it was the best she could hope for meanwhile, until then she needed to do something to keep her mind occupied so the time would pass faster. So she did then, she started by again testing her ability to cast magic again, not that she hasn’t tried is more she had been trying since she calmed down. She couldn’t cast magic yet and was a disappointing discovery but it wasn’t disappointing as it was earlier, so she needed to do another activity.
‘Reading would be a good idea but I don’t see any books around here’
The place was dread the surroundings didn’t make her feel welcome, to sum everything the only thing that the buildings did well was to give a roof over your head nothing more nothing less. There was no order, much less organization by Celestia even Discord would consider the place wrong!
‘Thought rethinking the last statement Discord might love to live inside rather than consider it wrong, yeah that would be more likes him’
There were several objects scattered around the floor, most of the objects seemed really old and decayed including the floor itself, the sofa or what attempted to be a sofa had several holes as the amount of dust, the wall had several cracks and the paint was almost no-existing but the it was at least enough to say that the room sued to be painted with a tone of yellow. As Twilight kept looking her surroundings her eyes fell into one specifically object that was one which her host had when they had their ‘meeting’ if the term is used appropriately, with both of her hooves she took a look closer to the metallic object, its shape had resemblance to a cylindrical object, there was a hole on the edge and it had a strange small curve below the cylinder. She didn’t understand a thing and the shape was too strange for her but that was no excuse for her to investigate more and understand it.
But her small improved research came to a stop when she heard steps coming where the human left.
“Well to your luck I have another blanket to spare so-“
The two of them stood frozen in the place as they stared each other eyes, but in Twilight case when only saw those dark lens, they could even heard each other breaths rhythm.
“Get away from the gun, now”
He didn’t shout but his voice was threatening nothing less, Twilight complied as her ears went backwards in fear; Christopher walked closer as she stepped away she would be lying that she wasn’t scared; is more she was terrified; no magic no means to defend herself if he decides to harm her. Twilight’s back touched the wall and stood there with eyes closed expecting something that never came, instead she heard a lone sigh.
The human had the metallic object on his hand making circles as his back rested on the poor maintained sofa, which would be uncomfortable rather than relaxing.
“I want to apo-“ Twilight knew what she did was wrong and as she was taught an apology was in order, but she never was able to finish her apology before Christopher halted her with his other hand as he stared down to the floor.
“Look ‘Princess’ I have to deal with the Insurgents and rarely with the Wings of Heaven I don’t want more trouble in book alright?”
Twilight was about to reassure that she would try her best to don’t bother him, despite in her opinion she didn’t do anything wrong but it was better to agreed with him rather to start a unjustified fight
“Wait, let me correct that, you are not trouble, you are a bother”
Twilight frowned at his ‘correction’ like Pinkie would say he was really a Meany pants, however she was in no position to argue like she always do but maybe in the future she will argue back, only that if she isn’t rescued before.
“However I brought you a blanket” He handed a ‘blanket’ it was also tidy like the one which she had but at least this one was a bit better than the other, in she was optimistic she could say that she has two blankets to keep her warm now.
Christopher stood up with the help of both of his arms and handed her the blanket which was mentioned earlier. “Thanks” She received it with one of her right hoof
The masked man didn’t say anything as his sight went to another direction; his head moved to all directions. “How you are here you will be sleeping on the sofa”
Twilight wasn’t smiling that was for sure but the mentioning of the word ‘sleep’ and ‘sofa’ caused here to look at him with a face filled disgust as pleading; she defiantly didn’t want to sleep somewhere is terrible maintained. Despite she slept in a pile of books; those books were by far a lot better that the sofa could ever hope to be, she defiantly would chose to sleep on the floor but comparing the floor with the sofa; she would rather go to the sofa. Still that didn’t prevent her to silently ask him for a better place.
Chris stared her again “Look if you haven’t noticed this not a place to live and get comfy”
The princess sighed because what he said was true, who would live in a place like that anyways.
‘Tomorrow will be different’ Twilight reassured herself, the next day for sure she will have her magic back but a small movement from her wing made her recall that one of her wings was hurt; not like she couldn’t fix it after all her friend Rainbow taught her how to heal her wings in case of accident happened like a sprain or a dislocation, yet worse injuries must be treated with a doctor and judging by the pain that she suffered her wing was dislocated.
Then the unexpected happened much to her embarrassment.
Her stomach rumbled expressing its discomfort for hasn’t received proper food. Her muzzle became flushed even more that her host turned to her.
In the other hand Chris thought of something that might become true.
‘God, my reserves are not going to last until the end of my shift’
The sun rose from the horizon, the rays from the sun made their way to reach Twilights face causing her to frown in her sleep while one of her ears tried to give her cover instinctively but as expected her ear was giving a joke of a cover so as a response to her small problem her head subconsciously searched for a place away from the cursed light. To one side and to the other side did her head move in search of peace but every time it failed in its quest; the sun’s ray never give up and achieved its goal in awake the new princess of Equestria.
Her eyes slowly opened to the world and the ray quickly gave the morning greeting to Twilight sparkle as a small pain in the eye which Twilight averted her gaze as brought one hoof to cover herself. Her back ached, it wasn’t a great pain but it made it notice which was no surprise to her considering where she had slept the last night. Slowly she let her hooves the floor and began her morning routine of waking up, starting with cute yawn then she stretched her four limps and without thinking twice she stretched both of her wings; she immediately regretted her last action.
Her wing had remained dislocated.
She whimpered but remained strong, she needed to fix her wing if she wanted to go somewhere by herself.
‘I need my magic’
Her eyes widened at the realization
‘Of course! The effect of that thing must have subsided on me!’
She felt her magic gather around her horn without effort but it felt different in a way; she wasn’t implying that she wasn’t happy furthermore she was overjoyed by the fact that she was able to use her magic again, but celebrations aside she needed to repair her wing thought it might cause her small glimpse of pain relocating the joint in its place.
*Pop*
And by small pain the real meaning was an incredible amount of pain but Twilight keep her screams to herself, now she can understand why Rainbow doesn’t feel all that affected after she came out of an accident or a crash being more specific. She bit her lower lip and slowly moved her recently relocated wing, it just felt too strange for Twilight; she never had to deal with that kind of things because she never was a Pegasus before ever less an alicorn, but as somepony said there is always a first of everypony.
*Moments later*
Twilight had several objects in her magic grasp, she had the feeling of ‘abuse’ a bit her magic just because she recovered it; besides her special talent is magic. Blankets, cans, wood, papers, rocks, etc were being lift off the floor by her magic and danced around Twilight’s position. She felt ready to face the new world, she felt ready to venture the forest alone without the help of Christopher besides she never wanted it in the first place because he was too rude to her for no reason.
“WHAT THE FUCK?!”
And her confidence vanished.
Twilight’s grip on every single object dissipated, several thuds were heard around her as her eyes focused to the responsible of her sudden abrupt; but her sight was greeted with a metallic cylinder directed just between her eyes.
“EXPLAIN OR I PULL THE FUCKING TRIGGER!”
Twilight blood ran cold, her body froze the same could be said for her eyes that only were able to stare in pure fright at the weapon aimed at her. The breathes were only coming from her mouth and were cold, she felt a big knot form in her throat making her feel even more terrified of her current situation because such thing wouldn’t let her answer his demands.
“WELL?!”
Her mind was blank, she couldn’t move neither think; she simply was there on the spot in utter shock. She was going to die alone, she will not be able to see her friends and family ever again she even cared for Discord in some way.
“1!”
“2 and…!”
Chris’s grip became tighter than before but before he could think in the number three his hand became numb, the grip he was putting on his gun was gone and the time seemed to go slow as the his weapon fell to collide with the floor.
His once menacing hand began to uncontrollably tremble, through his lens he stared at his trembling hand and how his left hand tried to stop it somehow everything that happened in that fateful day rushed into his mind and made itself repeat over and over especially the last moment which he had with his father.
It became a fist moments after.
Yet his clenched hand still trembled but with a bit of control.
*sigh*
‘I was a fucking asshole’
Twilight from her part after she felt that her life wasn’t at risk anymore she began to weep on the floor using her forelegs to give her some kind of comfort. She never was so scared before, sure she was scared in the Everfree when she and her friends had to fight Nightmare Moon, she felt scared when she had to fight Tirek by herself; but this time was different. It was one hundred percent different. Even the word scared wouldn’t suffice to describe what she felt; terrifying may work.
“Look I’m so-“
“GET AWAY ME FROM ME!”
Her voice raised once again, but in fright and despair clearly on her tone.
Instinctively she attempted to back away from his approaching form but her wings met a wall, cornered against somebody that tried to hurt before, he was so sadistic that wanted to finish her with his own hands. Through her mind never occurred to her use her magic because she has never deal with a situation such as this.
With teary eyes she made another demand “DON’T COME ANY CLOSER!” Yet he kept coming closer with those expressionless blackened eyes.
‘Please somepony help me’
Her eyelids closed not facing the fake fate that waited her, as her spread wings hugged her.
Finally he lunged at her, but she was surprised that he wasn’t choking her to death how she had been expecting; instead his hand was slowly caressing her long mane as the other carefully wiped her tears that were staining her coat.
“Shh, is okay; I was an asshole”
She didn’t reply
“I was scared alright? What you did back there had a lot of resemblance with one project from the Wings of heavens and I assumed quickly so please forgive me”
Twilight ears perked up the moment he asked for forgiveness, he was finally apologizing after being so rude to her he was finally doing it! But could she?
After he attempted against her very life?
‘He was under the wrong presumption ‘ An internal debate began ‘But he wanted to take your life’
‘But he stopped!’
‘What is keeping from doing it again?’
‘How can you be sure that he will do it again?’
“I-I don’t know, what you did just…”
She was lost of words saying what she was about to experience for the first and last time was a whole new sentiment but also the fact that the hands that were caressing where touching spots that didn’t know could feel that nice, causing her to nuzzle him as reaction. “Meh, I knew it” Christopher replied making Twilight to stop accepting the petting and look at him directly with a surprised glare, with her bloodshot eyes which the red color was fading away into their natural one.
“How can you say something so careless?”
“Is just the real me, besides I have to gain your trust right?”
“I guess so…” Twilight was confused but didn’t mean that she didn’t prefer him in this way, he seemed cheerful and silly.
He broke away from her allowing her to fully stand on her own, then his arm extended so his hand was in front of her “Hello, my name is Christopher and is a pleasure to meet you”
Twilight couldn’t see his face but it didn’t matter because she knew that behind that mask he was smiling, action which he also did “My name is Twilight Sparkle and the pleasure is mine” Her right hoof connected with his hand and together made the gesture in synchronization. But the moment was short lived when the strenuous sound came from one side of his head.
Immediately Christopher brought two fingers and placed them on his ear.
“What’s the problem?....” “Are you serious?....” “I can open fire if they do?...” “Very well”
“I’m sorry Twilight but duty calls so now you have permission to wander around here but don’t touch anything that has similarity to this” He pointed at his pistol “We can have a proper introduction later”
Chris walked in fast pace as he grabbed one by one his gear so he could face the problem that has raised and needed immediately back-up. When everything was ready he was about to open the door but this time turned back and gave a quick glance to the purple pony inside his watch post, with a shook from his head he opened the door and closed it afterwards.
The forest wasn’t dense but the amount of tree that were all around his surroundings made him stay always ready to pull the trigger of his gun, he only needed a target to aim. The paranoia was constant, many trees means many spots where he could be ambushed either be by melee attack or ranged attacks. His combat boots were the only thing that made noise besides the passing wind which always take with itself some leaves from the top of the trees; his head always was looking to each side left and right something that he learned after serving his city and also the faction was that he must never lower his guard in hostile territory or neutral territory. In this case was the later.
It was a normal day for him to say at least, is common the appearance of members of Wings of Heavens around the frontier. Though this time was an unexpected meeting that the current Archangel asked to his faction, so the president sent a small delegation of 5 members conformed by two officers and 3 rangers; however he was called with other 9 sentinels to hide around the perimeter and act as backup if things turn for the worst.
Christopher was a bit nervous about the safety of one officer, because said officer accept his misconducts, sometimes allow him to break a few laws, he also handed him his good stuff for relaxation. In other words he was like some kind of friend for him, through his earpad he began to call for him.
“Soos, Do you copy?”
“Chris? Why do you call?
“Where are you?”
“Well, we are already at the meeting point, however follow the orders and hide behind the woods”
“Any idea why they asked for this meeting?”
“The Archangel said that something happened around here which picked up their curiosity and want to do a full scale research”
“Will you accept?”
“Depends in which area and how much they are up to offer as exchange”
“Good luck then”
The call was over and Chris’ worries were in vain so kept walking through the forest wondering which rangers could have been assigned this time, obviously his big sister was not there; she most of time stay at the frontier with the insurgents from the south, he wondered if she could make it so they could spend Christmas together rather than be alone despite he passed it with his friends it just wasn’t the same; Christmas with family is a lot better than a Christmas with friends, though the two of them combined would be awesome. Anyways is still too early for thinking about Christmas when is 5 months away besides his sister told him that this year she would spend it with him, and if they are lucky their mother would assist too.
Finally he reached at the meeting point and as he was ordered he took cover behind the thickest tree he found near him, from his position he could see the entire delegation waiting for the Wings of Heaven’s arrival. And he didn’t have to wait much; their delegation began to arrive, starting with the officer who was easily to notice with his white combat gear, which they feel so proud of. Then the rest of the team arrived and walked next to their respective officer, but how they were only soldiers they combat suit was different from their superiors, instead of being whole with it had blue streaks as golden. Christopher always made him frown the arrogance that they showed off, they believed themselves so perfect that they think they can only take an entire enemy squad with melee weaponry and sadly it was true; their claim were true when they wiped out a small camp from the Insurgents with only melee combat.
He doesn’t know much from them, he only hear rumors like the combat suit which they wear is directly connected to the vertebral spine allowing them to control the amount of adrenaline in their systems, making them extremely dangerous to face alone. He also heard that they developed a new combat that could resist any kind of damage from bullets to explosions; but that was it, rumors. The session started and he saw how those arrogant began to walk in circles around his superiors, he didn’t anything from what they were discussing but something was for sure they were mocking them as expected.
“You aren’t supposed to be here, are you?”
Before he could think of a counter attack an arm was around his neck and put firm grip on him, all the important veins and arteries slowly started to fail delivering the necessary blood to keep his brain functioning, breaths were not allowed only asphyxiation. He almost succumbed to despair but he was trained to don’t let the emotions take control of you so with what was left of oxygen in his lungs he delivered a powerful blow with his elbow directly where he supposed was the stomach of his assailant; causing the grip to falter a bit it wasn’t enough to break free but enough to breathe again and let some blood reach his brain so it could keep giving commands to his body which was in deep trouble. However his assailant didn’t like what he just did and increased the strength on the deadly lock making feel that his neck would be snapped. His pupils were panicking traveling to every place possible within his eyes trying to search for anything that would help him as his hands tried to remove the lock that he was in, Christopher knew that it was futile trying to best him on strength no matter how much he tried to pull the arm it just not ceased any inch from his neck.
His vision began to fade away into the darkness despite his lens of his mask were black there was clear difference between the two, his arms were the first to give in; they stopped applying force to pull away his assailant arm from his neck and like dead body both arms fell to his sides. His head stopped struggling for freedom or attempting to strike the face of his aggressor, but something within the grasp of his right hand gave him new found strength to fight back before the darkness took him.
“YOU SON OF A BITCH!” Shouted in pain his enemy as all applied strength which he was using to knock out Christopher stopped, so he could remove the knife that was recently stabbed into his arm, only the shaft was out.
Christopher fell to the ground trying to recover his air as fast as possible before his enemy could recover from the stab. He never thought that oxygen would be something so beautiful to breath and feel pass through his nostrils; he needed to escape and inform about this aggression from the Wings of Heaven. He knew that he was attacked by one of the members of the hostile faction; because the Insurgents would never go hand to hand combat unless they outnumber the target, he was proven true when his head turned and the see the three colored uniform. Also he saw the oncoming boot directly to his face.
“YOU BASTARD!”
Christopher felt thankful that he always wears a mask or that kick would have defiantly broken his nose or an eye; it doesn’t mean that the kick doesn’t hurt. After receiving the blow he tried to escape but it he perfectly that was possible to achieve now.
“I WILL NOT PASS THIS INSULT!”
And the beat down began, from the ground Chris had to protect himself from the hell of kicks that he kept receiving without any hint to come to a stop, his arms became sore for the barrage of kick he received. The pain, he could pass it but that his body began to feel numb was a bad sign about his body was reaching to the breaking point of pain endurance.
“STOP THIS IMPERFECTION CORPORAL!”
Christopher after don’t feeling more kicks coming to his way he let his arms drop to the ground and began to breath with effort trying to ease up the pain which he was in, in a way he felt relieved that that guy stopped kicking him to dead but at the same time he was scared of what his superior was going to do with him; he also heard rumors about what they do with the prisoners. Yet the two factions weren’t at war, it was more like neutrality between the two but once in a while one will attack to the other for something in specifically.
“Corporal you allowed your emotions to get the best of you, you will be punished for this imperfection. Dismissed!”
He was only able to hear the short conversation between the two.
“Yes, sir”
Christopher believed that he could escape or that maybe his fellow sentinels would come from somewhere and help him but those thoughts were for naught; this was real life and those things never happen. With his sore limbs he tried to get up from the ground so he could disappear between the dense woods which he knew very well so he could miss him with ease, however his hopes were crushed when another kick collided directly on his diaphragm making him gasp for air as he fell completely defeated on the ground.
“Your kind makes me sick, peering in the business from others” He felt a weight on the back of his head applying more pressure as the time passed. And then there was only darkness.
It was blurry, his vision slowly returned to him but his head was killing him as the light touched his eyes, he wanted to throw up as he wanted to remove his brain so somehow the pain would subside.
“You really took a good beat down there kid.”
“Soos?” Chris asked with a groan.
“In the flesh kiddo” Soos replied with a smug grin, as he patted Chris’ chest.
“What the fuck happened?” Chris brought a hand to his head as he slowly began to massage his forehead and temples believing that somehow it will help him, foregetting the fact about him wearing a mask.
“Well, we came to an agreement with those arrogant people, they will give us the new med kit specialized to heal injuries almost instantly and in exchange they will have free access to the zones J and H but with the conditions of constant surveillance from our Rangers.”
“Not that Soos, I meant me.”
Soos chuckled “Always to the point I see…” Clearing his throat he began “Well after the meeting ended the officer Gabriel said that the next time they will not show mercy to intruders, then from the trees various soldiers appeared dragging the your unconscious and the other sentinels. And I wanted to say that I’m sorry for getting you into this”
Soos’ eyes were genuine expressing the sadness that he felt despite he seemed a bit happy, Christopher glanced at him then at the roof of the infirmary, he assumed that he was in an infirmary for how poor maintained was the roof because if it was a hospital the roof wouldn’t have two or three fissures where drops of water passed through it.
“Soos, it wasn’t your fault”
“Look if I’ve known in the first-“
“But you didn’t so please stop beating yourself” The injured sentinel reassured to his superior trying to give him comfort and succeed. “All the injured sentinels will return to their homes and their belongings will be deliver soonm, in other words your shift will end soon you lazy bastard” And the Soos he knew returned.
But something hit him, others were going to deliver his belongings; they were going to find about Twilight and sure as hell that they will not be understanding like he was when they catch the sight of her.
“Umm Soos ... I believe that will not be necessary, I will do it by myself”
Christopher rejecting such offer so he could be lazy around was not normal for Soos.
“That’s strange coming from you son”
“Look I have things there which I prefer to stay secret”
“Son...”Soos’ eyes became suspicious as serious “What the fuck do you have there?”
‘Shit!’ Christopher was a complete idiot believing that he could somehow fool his superior, he knew him for years and also being slightly corrupted gave him the advantage to detect halfs-truths between the words of somebody.
“I have porn there alright?” Chris quickly blurted out.
“Don’t bullshit me son, I know that you have a friend with benefits so porn is not necessary when you have a pussy” ‘Goddamit, why you have to be so blunt?!' He tried to figure out a response quickly or Soos might get angry, he needed an excuse and a fucking good one like right now.
“Besides son, you know the rule number 7, all porn must be approved by me first” Soos pointed his serious face with his index finger. Embarrassment was an understanding right now, and he hated it with all his might.
However he didn’t expected Soos to explode in a chorus of laughter, causing Christopher to cover his face or in this case mask in embarrassment and frustration.
“FUCK YOU SOOS JUST FUCK YOU!”
“I will never forget about this Chris, I will make sure that the other officer know about this as well” And another fit of laughter came from his mouth.
“Just kidding son”
If he wasn’t wearing his mask he could have been punished for killing his superior with his incredible pissed glare. “You have permission to retrieve you things by yourself after you leave the medic post meanwhile I hope that shame of yours taste well because the food here is shit”
And like that he left Christopher on the bed embarrassment and humiliated.
“Very well son, if that’s your wish then I will respect it.”
Soos was Christopher’s superior and also a friend. Their story begins when Chris was at the second year of the Sentinel’s training and Soos had to train him so Chris would become a respectable sentinel; at the end he resulted to be a sentinel slightly above from the average with the difference that through the time they spend together Soos picked interest in him; is no secret that between all the defense forces of USA II there are agents who are corrupt and obviously abuse their power, Christopher and Soos are no exception. However they aren’t bad people; they do their job at protecting the frontier and the civilians as try to maintain the order. Soos is technically the head of all the commercialization of the illegal drugs which circulates between the army.
Christopher most of the time used to consume marijuana and extremely rarely the infamous cocaine mixed with a bit of gunpowder; beside the fact of his addiction occasionally in his time off he abuses of his power to get free drinks and food; civilians are forced to comply without any kind of complain because depending on who is the assailant they might get shot; however Chris is not like those assholes; the fact that he abuses of his power is undeniable but one time in a while he actually pays for the meal or drinks, though he steals when the opportunity arises. For his luck he has somebody out there who has him controlled, so he doesn’t get overboard.
In other words both of them are criminals who should face justice immediately; however in their current society justice is only applied when the crime is really severe like betrayal, murder, rape and insubordination.
At least they are nice criminals.
Chatting or discussing was a great way to spend the time when you are on a road trip, but since they already arrived to the destiny they were just passing the time like friends do, they gave each other a reassuring warm hug; honestly it should be strange or awkward for man or woman to hug another fellow human who wears a morbid mask all the time, but Soos knows Chris very well and the reason behind the mask and gave his word to keep the secret until he dies from old age or K.I.A.
“Well, home sweet home son.” Soos said when he caught the sight of the watch post getting bigger as the car kept going.
“Yeah, live years in this shithole and you get fond of it.” Chris replied in his classical mocking tone as his hands found comfort behind his neck. “At least you have a roof over your head, unlike other sentinels.” The officer added the remark when he saw Christopher trying to relax on the co-pilot seat.
“Mmhhmm… still is a shithole.” Once again he showed that his opinion will not change.
Aftermath there wasn’t much to keep talking about since both of they were out of ideas… actually that would be a total lie since Christopher had a lot to tell his superior, of course it was everything about Twilight but he would be taken as crazy at the instant and maybe shot on the head, so he was alone with his thoughts.
And worry was the primal thought.
The jeep was has finally arrived at the watch post, and it remained as Chris left it before he went to the mission which was a failure; the building of only one floor, a terrible made fence, a shameful crafted roof made with metal, wood and clothes, the walls filled with graffiti’s or burn marks and finally the very old and rusty jeep which Chris could only afford.
Alright that last one was a lie, it was actually lend from the army.
Chris got out of the jeep and stretched all his limbs since the ride took hours; Soos is really a good friend because probably any other one would have kicked him out of the jeep after the second hour and would leave him the rest of the road to walk. By car it takes around 4 hours, so you can get the idea of how much it can take to walk to there.
“Thanks Soos, I really appreciate it.” He said as he closed the door, since the jeep didn’t have a roof or windows they could still talk without interference.
“No problem kiddo, just remember that my shop is always open when you regain your interest.” He grinned knowingly that his favorite costumer will return to keep buying from him, when the time comes.
“You know it.”
“I will take my leave then… take care son.” After that said, Soos pushed the pedal and the car began to advance forward only to do a turn to the left until he did the U shape and finally return to the conlony.
From his position Chris saw how the form of the jeep became smaller as the seconds passed until it was a dot and finally disappeared completely between the trees.
Chris sighed in relief.
He was alone.
Well, technically he isn’t alone anymore since he has brought a pony princess to his watch post; and pretty much left her alone for a while. It was a very worrisome thought; since his work post has weapons stored and few minor explosives; fireworks and grenades to be exactly. And finally there are his hand-made traps for small animals that most of the time don’t work and don’t bring any food to his mouth. Getting meat nowadays is troublesome and quite expensive, those farmers are really annoying and if they didn’t have any hired rangers he would have punched them on the face long ago and force them to give him a good beef and probably pork. USA II is such a nice place to live.
No sarcasm intended.
Sarcasm intended with the last sentence, meaning that the other one was also sarcastic.
And this was on purpose.
ANYWAYS!
He gave a last look to his surroundings before heading back to his watch post so he could prepare all his stuff and leave the place ready for Ghost. Then he will have a month with a week extra of free time or also called the time of slacking off. Maybe slacking off is a bit hard, because he has to keep his shape as a sentinel or two things might happen to him if he lose his body shape; he get a nice shot on the head or he is kicked out of his job…
Yes the first option actually happened but only to the unlucky ones who were discovered by the generals or commanders, the others got caught by officers so they only get fired.
After his free month is over he will have to go and take a test to check his health and if he can remain as a sentinel, fat or weak sentinels are useless and are only a deadweight to the rest of the team; is harsh and maybe even cruel but the military forces must maintain a status and always be prepared to face the Insurgents.
And if it happens, the Wings of Heaven.
There were many things to sit and ponder but with the situation at hand, first of all Christopher needed to enter the building and check if Twilight was fine all that time that he was out.
He didn’t bother in knock the door; his hand just twisted the doorknob and went inside the building only to notice the first thing that caught his eyes behind the lenses of his mask.
Books.
A considerable amount of books piled one above the other creating a small mountain of pure knowledge…
About birds…
And…
“PLAYBOY!?”
He lied about the porn excuse; Soos was right because there is no need or reason to have porn when you have a friend with benefits.
But…
The cover page was blurry so….
“I need to be sure.”
Checking his surrounding once again and forgetting his primary objective in find Twilight he went to the magazine and began to read the ‘articles’.
“Damn… I thought that these were lost forever, and this one is so very well maintained.” Despite his lenses shaded his vision, the pages were very so well maintained that he could see all the details of the ‘articles.’ As he kept reading he knew who was the owner of the magazine, this can be used to his advantage.
“Yes, this article is very good; a good one indeed.”
“Just look at the curves of that B and the P, they are just so perfect.”
Sure is boy, sure is.
But the reading must wait! Since his ear caught a thud sound from the storage room.
He placed the magazine between the books and walked in direction to the door where he heard the strange noise, as he stepped closer he unsheathed his knife and put a good grip on its handle preparing it for the worst case of scenarios. Despite is a big possibility that Twilight is behind that door he can’t be all that careless or trusty about the things, a mistake can take his life away.
He was in front of the wooden door, with his free hand he knocked it thrice and called for for the little princess.
“Twilight, are you there?”
“Christopher?”
It was a false alarm then.
The tension of the environment was gone as the same with his combat knife, he got rid of it like he always do, threw it away and search for it later wherever it fell and hope that it didn’t get lost.
The door was wide open and behind it were boxes and many other things and between all of it was a pastel colored pony with wings and horn.
He didn’t have time to act before she quickly went to his side.
“Are they gone?” her voice was trembling.
“What?”
That was the most confusing question he had been asked according with the situation. Twilight was cowering near his legs probably searching for protection as she asked if they’ve left, first it didn’t make sense to him that she was searching protection from him, and second; what she is talking about.
Chris kneeled next to her so he could hear well.
“What are you talking about?”
“Some strangers were near the house and looked through the windows, they looked really scary.”
Twilight Sparkle, the one who faced many threats; Nightmare Moon, Discord, Tirek, the Changelings, an Ursa Minor, etc… had felt scared. The response came quickly to his mind, but he needed more proof to accept the answer.
“Twilight this is serious, tell me how they looked.” His demeanor changed drastically, this act could be taken as an act of hostility meaning that the recent treaty would turn obsolete.
“Ummm…”
“Yes?”
“Could you please stop grabbing me?”
He finally realized that without him noticing he placed both of his hands on her shoulders and brought her closer to him.
“Oh…sorry.”
They parted away, and the feeling in the environment changed.
“Alright, describe me their appearance.”
“Well I didn’t see much but when they tried to look inside I noticed that their main color was white.”
That was it.
Those were from the Wings of Heaven.
They violated the temporally law by approaching a military facility, even if it was a very small one.
He needed to report the incident to Soos now, but…
There is no proof or witness for confirm the accusation, and Twilight is out of question since she is a pony. This was a complicate situation for him, his duty was to report this act of hostility but if he does it, they will mark him as insane and maybe be shot in the head or just discharged without any honorifics.
But if he keeps his mouth shut, he might be risking the safety of Colony 24; because they might be planning a full scale attack on the colony despite is a paranoid thought it was necessary since they cannot be trusted.
‘But why?’
Christopher didn’t know what to do.
And his frustration needed to be released in some way, without saying any word he got up and made his way to the nearest wall ignoring everything what Twilight was directing at him.
“FUCK!”
He sent barrages of fist against the old wall of the building, however he wasn’t doing any damage to it instead he was only hurting himself. Meanwhile Twilight saw him how he sends blow after blow to the wall, and worry began to wax inside her. If he continues doing that he might get hurt badly because his gloves don’t seem to give any kind of protection; she needed to do something, but what?
However to her relief she didn’t have to do anything to stop him since he did it by himself.
Christopher looked at his hands and clenched them and unclenched them several times attempting to recover, his hands were sore and repeating the action over and over again helped him then he removed his gloves and did the same as he looked for any bruise that could be of importance but there was none.
“That’s better.”
Sentinels or Rangers are forced to hit tress with all their strength in every single hit they deliver before they start their hand-combat training, hitting a tree is painful; however when the process repeat over and over the bones of the hand become stronger and give more powerful blows the next time.
So he was accustomed to hit hard objects and hitting a wall was the best way to relieve the pressure or the stress when it became too much for him to handle.
But Twilight is completely unaware of that.
Later…
“So I was out a day and a half?”
“Yes.”
“That’s less than I expected.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well normally when a member from the Wings of Heaven knocks you out, you will awake after two or three, so probably they should have missed the spot.”
“Wings of Heaven?”
“Oh, right…”
In the time Christopher was out Twilight explained how she spend her time with reading, so she learned more about birds since all the books that she gathered were about birds and the anatomy, she already knew about them but the content of those books were even more detailed that fascinated her a lot. Though she found a very thin book; but the word book is used wrong there the best word would be magazine because the texture and the amount of pages were different and the images… well they weren’t very informative. It was obvious that Ghost was the owner of the Playboy number, but that fact raises the question of how he managed to get his hands on a discontinued and very old magazine which is incredible well maintained; it can be questioned later since that has no importance for the situation at hand. Twilight needed to learn about the place where she was in, the only thing she knows so far is that she is in the human world but different from which she has gone, very but very different.
“You don’t know what I’m talking about, right?”
Twilight looked to the left, then to him as she rubbed the back of her head in embarrassment as she confirmed the doubt, causing Chris to sigh. It was obvious that she wouldn’t know a thing yet he still asked it.
Moving that aside he got in a better position since this explanation was going to take a while. Of course the sofa was out of the question since the floor was more comfortable than that shit.
“Look I don’t have any idea of where you come from, and you also don’t have any idea of where are you so let’s begin with the basis.” As expected from a top student, Twilight sat near to him with her ears perked up and her attention focused on the oncoming story, the sentinel didn’t mind it and he began.
“Around one hundred years ago this territory used to be part from one of the most powerful countries in the world; and the best one if I might add, the complete name was The United States of America, and however it just collapsed. Nobody knows the exact reason since it just collapsed.”
It was the true he didn’t know much about the fall, however what his grandparents told him is that the economy collapsed but that reason didn’t make sense at all. If she wanted to research more she will need to ask to the correct people who know more about the topic. “Now this country is divided in three factions, The Insurgents, the Wings of Heaven and USA II.”
“Right now we are in USA II territory, the frontier to be exact. Our territory is almost the half of the entire country and is divided by several colonies, if we only had a map I could have explained it to you better.”
“The other half is owned by the other two factions, with The Insurgents possessing almost all of it, and other countries as well.”
“Are they an Empire?” Typical from Twilight, asking question when she has a doubt.
“No, I don’t think so.”
“Alright.” Then she resumed her student pose.
“Anyways, The Insurgents is the most numerous factions since most of the countries from the South support them or joined them. We also had few countries that supported us but it was a year without any news about them so the president assumed the worst and leave like that. But this is important to hear and get it memorized, they are hostile and had been declared to kill on sight.”
“Kill?!” Twilight was alarmed now, she knew about the word kill and its meaning but just hearing another being saying it so casual sends creeps to her back.
“Yes, they will not hesitate to take you down when they spot you.”
“Now is the turn of the Wings of Heaven, they are the smallest faction and their entire population would be no more than six hundred thousand I presume, if we send a full scale attack on them we would surely win but the cost would be very high. The reason that their numbers are small is because their society is based on the perfection, any imperfection will be eradicated. They always try to improve and when they achieve it they just want more, their technology is superior to ours and their military forces are far better. They have no morals since they take it as a step back to achieve progress and perfection, also the belief which they experiment on humans is no secret, they are bad people Twilight; never trust them. However they are considered neutral and we will only take action against them if they start.” “Are they as bad as you say?” Twilight didn’t like the truth; this world was horrible to live in.
“Well, years ago a watch post received a fleeing man and protected him from Wings of Heavens, since that man wasn’t from much importance they allowed him to stay, the man thanked them crying his eyes out saying that the things they do in their laboratories are nightmares and they only see anybody who is not from their faction as animals. He explained that once a scientist removed the brain of unfortunate guy without doing much damage to head and that was kept alive as long as it possible.”
By that explanation Twilight was beyond horrified, that was a sin against nature, a perversion that nopony in Equestria would ever dare to think or much less do.
“They do that to their own kind!!??”
“We aren’t sure because a testimony of a single person is not enough, but we can expect a lot of things from them; that’s why you really need to stay away from them, they will not hesitate to do anything possible to learn about you.”
Days ago he wanted to sell her to scientist to do exactly that. But since she proved her intelligence he just couldn’t do that to her, and that’s a secret that he will never tell to her.
“But changing the topic, we are at the Colony 24 or also called Duluth, but it doesn’t have any economical value, the colony only serves as a line of defense mostly and in really rare occasions serves as a place where politics are done with representatives from Canada.”
“Any questions?”
“Umm, do you have any currency?”
“Yes, it was established the bottle caps as our currency; however gold can be also used but we also do exchanges.”
Twilight didn’t know if she should be fascinated or terrified with the little information she was given, she was always eager to learn more and when something was completely new to her she would research more until there was nothing new to discover; but this world sounded so violent and cruel, the difference between the other that she visited was an incredibly big gap. Yet, she is stuck there for an unknown amount of time so learining more about this world despite she didn’t like it was the best option.
“What are you?” Leaving an unfinished question or a question of double meaning sometimes can get you in trouble or indirectly making you look kind of dumb, so getting a flushed face aftermath can be understandable.
“I’m a…human?” Such question is also the ones which can catch people off the guard.
“I didn’t mean it like that!” Realizing of her second mistake Twilight brought a hoof close her throat and cleared it before speaking with a calmer and adequate tone. “I tried to say that you look like some kind of soldier, so are you some kind of guard?”
“Oh… well I’m a Sentinel so you can say that I’m somewhat like a guard. “
There was more explaining to do but he was short of time, he needed to begin with the packing. Twilight just sat there taking in everything that was told to her pondering a analyzing it meanwhile Christopher just stood up and began to grab his stuff, and with great care his weapons.
But the moment he stepped closer to the door a very import fact assaulted his train of thoughts. Immediately he turned and saw Twilight in the same position as before, Twilight Sparkle the pony princess.
Normally it should have been a good day for Christopher since he will end his shift early and he will be paid the same amount and probably more for partaking part of an operation. Time will be spent lazing around until the real month of rest comes so he can resume his normal life. But he was currently in the same problem from before but now with little twist.
He couldn’t return with her next to him because there would be two possibilities and worse than the other; first option would be that they shot her on sight and sell her to the Wings of Heavens, second option they capture her and sell her alive to the Wings of Heaven. And for him or he is shot or awarded; yeah knowing that his life is at risk is really discouraging besides his morals telling him how wrong is to experiment in somebody who is alive and think.
So he had been trying to solve his problems by thinking, with his brain.
And he wasn’t high anymore.
Drugs are bad.
Also walking in circles, you can get tired after a while.
Until that moment he had come with ideas but his unwanted partner in crime rejected them one by one with the excuse that those were silly (stupid) or that she didn’t like at all; for example to pretend to be a dog.
Another was to extreme that it made her ran away but Christopher caught her in time and made her see reason, or probably she would have lost herself in the woods and encounter to another sentinel or in the worst of scenarios the Wings of Heaven.
What he suggested to cause that outcome was if he could remove her wings.
Pretty idiotic suggestion doesn’t it? However as the time kept passing his ideas became less stupid and more logically but as he found alternate solutions he also found the problems and why it wouldn’t work.
He thought in hide her in the trunk and say that he killed a wolf or deer. And if they wanted to check he would only give a pouch of money and pass without problem.
Corruption is high in U.S.A II he cannot argue against that. But as long as it doesn’t affect him directly he doesn’t care or pay attention to it.
But the problem is that the car isn’t his property, is the governments. And he can’t mess with their property at all, he is forced to take it back to the nearest military outpost in the colony and walk to his house. And he wouldn’t be able to bribe the guards there not because they were pure or anti corruption, there was always a high rank officer stationed who are known to been pure from any kind of crime and radical in punishment to members who breaks the rules.
So it wasn’t worth risking his life or position.
And probably, but probably his man pride if the officer is a woman.
What makes him cringe is that those officers do it in public without shame or remorse, those poor bastards.
Military is extreme sometimes.
Anyways after all the time he spent thinking a simple thought crossed his mind.
He tapped his head for thinking it sooner.
Twilight has magic!
She could do her magic thingy to help him!
Though… it was outright stupid to depend on something that wasn’t supposed to exist in the first place.
“Hey, Twilight.”
“Yes?” Twilight pretty much stopped paying to him and read a book that was near her position, another books related to birds. “Can’t you do something with your magic to get out of this situation?”
In response Twilight left the book on the ground and brought a hoof under her chin so she could be in the perfect position to think better. It took a while and Chris decided to take a seat on the nearest couch and wait for her answer and his patience was rewarded.
“I thought in many ways but…” The dramatically silence is such a bother sometimes.
“But?”
“But my magic has been weakened for some reason and that leaves me with fewer options.” What the pony princess said was discouraging but she said that there were other options so he was still anxious to hear what’s next.
“Right know the best I could do is transform into one of your species but I didn’t do any research on the subject and that magazine didn’t help much. “
Oh, right…
Those articles lack of advanced information.
The material has good visuals anyways.
“But the problem is the amount of magic that will cost to maintain the transformation; do you have an idea how much time it will take us to reach your house?”
“I think one hour more or less.”
Twilight sighed in defeat. “Well I suppose I will cast a magic boost when is the moment.”
“Magic boost?” Magic thingy is like Chinese thingy for the human.
The princess was about to give a full explanation quoting researchers and books but she stopped herself from doing so, her friends didn’t like when she did that. And Christopher probably would be the same. “To be exact, it will increase your power but when the effects wears down you will be too exhausted to move.”
“Oh…”
“Yeah.”
“So that shit is real…”
“Hey! Magic is a serious matter!” Twilight defended.
“Oh, hush you!” Christopher crossed both arms.
“WHAT?!? Twilight fed up thanks to that.
“Shhhh”
“You can’t shh-“ But never got the chance to finish.
“SHHH!”
Twilight’s turn.“SHHH!”
“SHHH!” Chris responded.
“SSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” The longevity increased on Twilight’s side. “SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH” Chris didn’t stay behind.
Then both them laughed without a hint to stop any time soon, it was just so silly what both of them did back there. It felt like all the tension and problems just faded leaving them with the good waves.
It was refreshing.
However Twilight was the first to speak. “I’m going to admit, that was fun.”
“Good grief.” Chris snorted and laughed a bit more while Twilight giggled.
What a change of event.
From scared, angry, hostile to friendly, funny, happy.
That’s life.
“So care to help me with moving my shit?”
And Twilight jaw and smile dropped almost instantly, her ears didn’t betray her; it was exactly what she heard coming from him a bad word. Meanwhile Christopher tilted his head in confusion not understanding why the sudden change of attitude.
“You said a bad word.” Twilight told him in a low tone.
“You mean ‘shit’?” The human still didn’t understand the reason of her reaction he was pretty sure that he had said those kinds of words before and she seemed fine.
“You said it again!” This time Twilight covered her ears attempting to do not hear the bad words.
“Are you serious?”
Twilight nodded.
“I have been saying them before, you seemed fine.” He was wondering what was wrong with her, being totally okay with him saying bad words occasionally; not intentionally, and now she freaked out.
“I didn’t hear them.” She specified, but still wasn’t a good excuse to get all that riled up.
“Look, all the people back in the city speak like that so you need to get accustomed.” Christopher was right in his statement, Twilight needed to change her ways or she will create a scene every single time she hears a bad word.
The alicorn tried to say something in her defense but nothing came, if what he is saying is true then she couldn’t help it. Still she could try because doing nothing would be bad; however just because everybody speaks like that doesn’t mean that she will start to talk like that too.
“So, care to help me to move my stuff?” The human asked again but this time withut using bad language.
A genuine smile adorned her face as she stood up from the floor.
“The concept of a personal transport is just so fascinating. I mean we have trains and balloons but this ‘car’ would make things more easily and traveling faster and cheaper.”
“Yeah sure is.”
“But still you didn’t answer my question about this machine.”
“Is a machine that works with fuel.”
“But, what kind of fuel?”
“It’s not exactly a derivate from petrol but close enough.”
“What’s petrol?”
“It’s an old type of fuel.”
“How old?”
“Like really old.”
“But-“
“LOOK! I don’t know a thing about this alright?!” I was about time to snap after being asked several question, over and over again is like the princess has some kind of lust towards new knowledge. “I just know how to drive this thing nothing more nothing less, so please stop!”
“If you wanted me to stop you could have said, there was no need to raise your voice.” Twilight despite not knowing she was getting into his nerves.
“Don’t pull that move on me.”
“What?”
“About being the victim.”
“I’m not the victim.”
“Yes, you are.”
“No I’m not”
“Hush you.”
“No.”
“Are we really going to repeat what we did back in my place?”
Twilight wanted to argue back but then realized that she was acting childish again, of course he wasn’t innocent but it was better to do not discuss about unnecessary things.
“You want my apology then you are out of luck on this one girl.”
The princess just scowled like she was severely offended, thing that didn’t happen but sometimes people or ponies can get stubborn in an aspect. However she dropped the supposed stance of being angry at somepony allowing a sigh to take all those negatives feelings away; it seems that she might have gotten carried away with the questions but still he shouldn’t have raised his voice like that. “Well what happens if your car stops working?”
That totally got his attention again.
“I mean sometimes like every machine, it breaks or stop working so you should at least know the basis to attempt to fix it.”
“…”
“…”
Staring at that expressionless mask, trying to look something through those lenses was starting to send shiver to her spine. It was awkward and also spooky; she really wanted him to say something rather than just stare her directly at her eyes.
“No, the chances to that to happen are slim; before I take a car from the HQ they give it a proper maintenance and if that actually were to happen, then I will call for help and wait until they arrive.”
“That’s not very efficiently if you ask.”
“Really?”
“Of course, I mean if you knew the basis then you wouldn’t lose time in waiting.”
“Well there is also the possibility that I screw up the car, and I don’t receive my pay for the month or I lose my job.”
Both pair of eyes went back to the road.
Christopher was strange to her, at first he was shocked and seemed somewhat friendly, then he changed to hostile against her and now he is neutral but a bit inclined to bad neutral. The best course of action for both of them was to remain silent letting the things cool down.
But that would make the whole travel a bit bored, Twilight have traveled through train and waited several hours but unlike the train there was no magazines or books since Christopher didn’t allow them with the excuse that she could get sick and he didn’t have any intentions to clean the car.
There should be something to keep her occupied, whatever would be enough. And that whatever would turn into a something that is front of her that didn’t notice it at first since it was small.
Immediately she gave a quick glance over the human direction and he was focused on the road ahead to actually notice her so slowly but surely she moved her right hoof toward the buttons to see what happen.
Normally it would be considered unwise; even stupid to press a button of something that is completely unknown to you but Twilight has intelligence, for instance a button that would be dangerous wouldn’t be in the open for anybody to get near; also Christopher would have warned her about it so there were no worries at all.
And she finally pressed one.
Or well…
Attempted to press one.
The button didn’t bulge at all, it was rigid as a stone.
Confusion was first to come.
In order to counter that she went for the other but she obtained the same results.
In her mind she began with many theories about those two buttons but that had to wait for a simple reason.
“If you wanted to hear music then you should have said so, I really don’t mind.”
The young princess was frozen in place, nothing bad was going to happen to her and that was for sure but just get caught in something that you weren’t supposed to get caught is such a terrifying experience for any who goes through the same.
“Actually it would be very nice to have music but they never care about fixing that part since is considered as a waste of resources, but it could be used for a radio if this was actually a military type which goes to the battlefield but as you see this is a mere car so nothing that I can do to help it.”
At least Twilight’s question about those buttons were answered but also leave the doubt of the military transport, she thought that the car which she is currently in was militaristic judging for the type of armor since several metal pieces attached to each other and bars didn’t shout elegance or normal at all.
“But! We can always sing something to keep us entertained.”
The offer was a bit tempting honestly speaking, but she just didn’t feel like singing at all. Is not that she is bad at singing since she sang at her brother wedding; the reason was different to say at least, so her answer was a shook of her head. “Well that’s a shame, I was curious if you could sing at all.”
“I can sing, but I need to learn the lyrics of the song first, because I don’t know any.”
“Well I can ask somebody to get me some if you want to sing.”
“I really don’t know.”
“I give you something in exchange.”
“And that would be?”
“…A hug?”
“…”
“Are you serious?”
“Maybe?”
“…”
“Alright what do you want?”
“Well, just take to the library and I will see.”
“Wow, you surely are an egghead.”
“Shut it.”
“Awww, you are cute when you get mad.”
“That’s not true!”
“Of course it is.”
“GAAAAH!”
He was frustrating her, again.
At least the road doesn’t talk or do silly commentaries.
So she opted to stare at it, looking how they moved forward and how the tress passed and the clouds too.
It reminded her a lot when she was traveling with her friends, and that stung her a bit right on the heart; she really misses them. “Hey would you mind to explain me about your world?”
Twilight’s raises an eyebrow while a stare reached him.
“I know you already told me but I wasn’t that focused at all, and it will help us to kill the time.”
The alicorn could only roll her eyes.
And like that half an hour was spend, it was very informative and interesting, the human now with full attention found her world nice compared to him but he sticks with his home because home is home.
“You know is kind of strange, and difficult to believe at first but you are a talking mini horse for crying out loud so anything is a possibility.” The princess didn’t take well that last part at all. “I really don’t like to be referred like that.”
“Look, I will say it again.” His index finger points his head. “Is difficult for me to take everything inside here.”
“Well viewing it from your point of view, a world with only a dominant species and meeting another can be very shocking.”
“Now that you mention it, I remember that you said that you visited the human world once.”
“About that, it was a time ago. I used a portal in a shape of a mirror that only opens every 30 moons.”
And that finally struck something inside her head like a bag of bricks.
If she was in the human world.
Why she didn’t change like before?
Why everything changed so drastically?
And more importantly.
Where were her friends?
It was the same world in the first place?
The same dimension?
The same timeline?
She needed answer NOW.
“What year it is?”
The question was spoken at such low tone that hearing it was a difficult task for the sentinel.“Excuse me?”
“Tell me what year it is!” No matter is if everything was different, if it was the same year when she left then there was always the possibility, there was always the hope.
“Is 2123.”
That simple answer was soul crushing.
The moment she heard those number her heart sank to the depths of despair, the faint hope that she held on so tightly vanished in an instant causing her to fell into the abyss which she really wanted to about.
The depression.
And it reached her too fast.
And what she feared most was that she didn’t know if she could get out of it.
And her current situation was much of supportive either.
“Twilight?” That came with a hint of worry, thing that happened rarely.
“Stop the car.”
“But what ar-“ He never had a chance to finish that sentence.
“STOP THE FUCKING CAR!”
And the car stopped dead.
Only after the car was fully stopped, did she open the door.
Her hooves touched the ground.
Steps were given until she decided to suddenly stop.
Only to fell to the ground and cry her eyes out.
From behind Christopher witnessed the whole thing, he knew it was going to take a while so he did what he should do.
He shifted for a comfortable position on the seat.
What happened just happened there is no way to help it, only accept and move on like it should. However that was not the case of Twilight, no sir, she is stuck in that thing that happened moments ago and it seems she doesn’t want to move on at all. And being curled up on the backseat caressing her tail is not helping at all.
Of course that is from Twilight’s side, but to our human’s side it wasn’t like that; he allowed her to have her moment but only for a while until he really got tired of her stupid behaviour and much to her protest he dragged her to the car because he needed to return to the HQ. The rest of the travel they didn’t say a single word not because they hate each other, but because sometimes silence is the best thing to do at the moment. But the silence will not last since they were nearing to the entrance of the Colony.
“Alright princess, we are getting near so do your magic thingy.” He said as the distance was getting closer.
But there was no response.
“Hey, I’m talking to you.”
The reply was the same than before.
“You must do it or both of us will get in real deep shit.” He wasn’t kidding on that part.
But as it was mentioned before, Twilight is stuck in her sorrows and doesn’t want to move on or let it go.
“FUCK!” And the car stopped dead in tracks.
He turns to face the unresponsive pony, he is getting pissed and probably will get more for what response he will receive in return. “Stop acting like an stupid spoiled brat and snap out it for god’s sake!!”
And Twilight only stares at him with his red eyes for the incessant amount of crying he did a while ago. Then she returned to her original position pissing him off even more to the point that he punched the co-pilot seat to help him to relief the anger that was coaxing inside of him.
It is a good thing that he planned for a plan B, it consist on covering Twilight with anything hooping for the best. Not the best of plans but hopefully it will do the job just fine.
Putting in action the plan B he leaves the car and opens its trunk only to reveal a lot of his stuff which is organized, such a thing should be thanked to Twilight Sparkle and her skills on organizing things; but her efforts were for naught thanks for her own doing. Straps, clothes, leftovers, boxes, guns, in summary anything that helps to make a small mountain of stuff.
Buried in a lot of things Twilight couldn’t care less, she remained like a statue. Sighing in complete annoyance he returns to the car and turns it on, the he drives to the entrance where nobody was waiting there until he stopped right at the entrance. A sentinel comes out of his cabin yawing, showing that he was sleeping at work but who cares? After all there is no officer around to straighten him up. “As you know I have to check so make it quick.” It’s obvious that he doesn’t like very much his job. “I don’t see any officers around, do you’” Chris says preparing a pouch of caps.
And as expected the sentinel laughed. “Just hand it and you are free to go asshole.”
He throws the small pouch, and the other man do his jobs by opening the gate.
Corruption...corruption sometimes is loved and other times is hated but for now is loved and respected as an attribute that everybody should have.
“That was easy.”
Now to face the real problem, get Twilight snap out of it.
Somehow.
When they were a decent distance from the entrance he stopped the car again.
Once there he get off the car and open the passenger seat were Twilight was buried and removes all his stuff from her, and with no surprise she is in the same position. He want to do many things to her, but again he realizes how wrong he was. She is going through a phase and fragile one and he is only making it worse for her.
Shouting or hitting her will not do anything, so he opts for the only thing that occurred to him; talk.
Before he begins with his speech he takes seat on the ground using the car to support his back.
But when he opens his mouth nothings comes out, leading him to think that giving a speech to cheer her up is going to be more difficult than imagined. So he stares the blue sky, watching clouds move thanks for the natural force of the wind;fills him with inspiration. “Look I know that you are probably sad...well really but really sad about your friends and the fact that you can’t see them anymore, but there is a thing that I’m really sure is that they wouldn’t want you stay and cry. Friends wouldn’t like to see their friend in that position; they probably expect you to be how you are supposed to be, but since I don’t know much you I believe that the way you are supposed to be is to read books and think about solutions or anything that requires intelligence or good organization.” It is time to take a small break to recover the lost air and then continue his inspirational speech.”Another thing I’m really sure is that your friends are doing their best to find you a way to get you back where you belong and you will be happy at the end of the story.”
“I know I have my moments, but you must understand that my situation is tight that’s why sometimes I snap and I end up hurting you, I was taught to be better and all but it seems I am failing at it. I don’t know how many times I have say this but, I’m sorry.”
“Actually you have only said that sentence two or three times including this one.” And that’s the Twilight we know and love.
“Since when you were a smartass?”
“Don’t know, you tell me.”
The laughs of the human could be heard by anybody who passes close to them.“I prefer you this way, you are funnier than before.”
“Well is a fair deal, you cheered me up and I should repay the favour somehow.”
“I have an idea…”
“Don’t dare to suggest it.”
“But I wouldn’t suggest such a thing, your words hurts me.”
“Hush you, I’m an adult and as one I can tell what you can say judging by your attitude.”
Both of them share a friendly laugh, one that is need. One that will help them to forget about their problems, one that happens to be there but is important to be there.
“I’m really sorry, you are right. I shouldn’t have acted like that and my friends wouldn’t like to see me like that.” Her ears fold back. “Is just that I miss them and the possibility to don’t see them ever again is just too scary to think about.”
“Hey, no hard feelings. I’m sure that with their magic thingy they will get you back; is just matter of time.”
“You are right again.”
Together they look up to the blue sky and watch the clouds move silently playing the game of guess what form the cloud has.
“I really don’t want to ruin the moment but we need to go and I need you to do your magic or both of us will be doomed.”
“Don’t worry, I’m on it.” There was a bright light behind and after it died down, Christopher turned to see what Twilight turned into.
“Seriously?”
“Don’t judge me, this was the only thing I could study until the moment so is the easier to maintain.”
Where a winged pony with a horn used to be know there was a small purple bird, which he doesn’t know which species is; a bird is a bird after all.
“Fine, just let me to turn this thing so we can leave.”
After a couple of minutes they arrive to the HQ, the place which he needs to leave the car and call it a day so he can return to his house and relax. For him it was normal the sight of the HQ but for Twilight it was a whole new thing that needed to be appreciated. The first thing to notice is the amount of tents, cars in differents shapes and forms, metal fences, that behind of them is a solid wall which leads to a big metallic gate with many guards stationed there unlike the main entrance of the colony. This time there is no need to stop, the gate is wide open waiting for him to pass and do what he must do.
“The military here seems very active.” Twilight commented.
“Like I said before, this is a frontier colony and the first line of defense because of that we must be always ready for anything.” He looked back at the road and noticed where they were.”It seems we have arrived, now I only need to park this”
“Okay”
“Twilight, the moment we leave the car you must act as a bird no matter what you must keep the appearances at least until we totally leave this place.”
Twilight the bird nodded.
“Alright here we go.”
To start a journey you only need to give the first step, and for Christopher and Twilight that was the first step to a journey that they will not forget. The journey of a normal life on USA II, in other words not that normal.
The trip took a lot of time just as he said, but nothing happened; people there and there minding their own business and few sentinels and cops around in case that something happened so nothing out of the ordinary. His house was only one floor but it was a decent place considering that everything was bought by himself with no outside help, except for the permission which Soos got it for him with few bribes and blackmail.
The roof was square though, it was kinda monotonous but the inside is what mattered. Thing that soon enough was going to happen when he turned the doorknob of the main door and pushed it and then he was greeted by his house.
The place was trashed.
Just as he left it before he went to work.
But the positive side of that was that everything that was laying around was his stuff, there was no garbage around so it was something.
But that wasn’t the state which he was expecting his house to be when he arrived after doing his shift.
“I’m not going to pay her.”
“Pay who?” Suddenly a voice finally came to scene, the owner after being hidden between many thing inside the shopping cart she came out though only her head.
“It doesn’t doesn’t concern you,” The answer was quick and it wasn't’ intended to be rude, but the princess took it all the same.
So she was offended and turned her head away as Rarity does.
The sentinel ignored her though, then he pointed at her. “Stay here, I will be back.” Then proceeded to go further inside because something was amiss, something wasn’t right.
The first room was a common living room, it had the necessary things to be called such but nothing was luxurious to show off; the two sofas were old but at least could support the weight of a person or two; but before that happens it needed a proper cleaning and maintenance of the legs or they might break, then at the middle was a metallic table; an improvised one mind you.
But nothing was there, so he proceeded to the next area which was the kitchen.
Again nobody was found there, but something was there.
That happened to be the kettle which was about to finish. Meaning that somebody had been in his place for a while, He had his guesses of who that person might be but he really didn’t to take the risk, it wasn’t worth. So he just took out his handgun and loaded and released the safety, it was ready to shot whenever he saw fit.
With careful and slow steps he advanced towards the next door which was closed adding more uncertainty to the environment, and he swered by his life that he heard a sound coming from that door. Hopefully it was only his mind playing tricks.
The drugs already left his system so that wasn’t for sure.
Moments later he opened the door and was greeted with nothing more than the sight of a toilet and a washbasin.His bathroom didn’t have a shower, since he mostly bathed on the lake or he just asked his best friend to borrow him the shower of course he paid the correct amount aftermath, but if neither of the mentioned before were an option then he just filled pots and bathed himself with that anyways the bathroom itself was simple to say at least with no decorations like the rest.
So the final part was his bedroom.
There was nowhere left to hide, but it added a powerful sense of danger to the environment since he recalled that his bedroom also had some spare guns, melee weapons and explosives leading to the conclusion that he needed to proceed with extreme care until could neutralize the objective or said objective resulted to be person who he expected to be..
With gun at front and loaded he slowly made his way to the door, the doorknob twisted to the side in a very slow pace that it didn’t make a sound at all, the door creaked open and his weapon was ready to fire at any threat but not until he could get a clear view inside.
With no response from the inside Christopher passed the door with both hands wielding his pistol as he quickly checked his surroundings for any kind of signal, but he couldn’t get any because his room was also trashed and nothing could make a difference.
He lowered his pistol and gave a long sigh through his mouth which was the perfect excuse for all his worries to leave because that was enough proof to know who was the person who entered his house.
In that moment two hands snaked around his waist and playfully went upwards until both reached his chest where he was pulled slightly back..
However he didn’t mind at all, even less try to get away from those gentle hands which he perfectly knew.
“Alice, what were you doing?” After all it was false alarm everything could go back to normal, or what is considered normal by the current world standards.
“I didn’t have enough time, but at least I got all the shit out.” The sweet voice coming from behind, the owner deserved the nickname sugar lips.
“It was almost a fucking month.”
“I have to work asshole.” That could have been a good answer if he didn’t know better.
“You only assist your mother.”
“You know how she is, don’t you?”
“But you give a fuck.”
The girl behind couldn’t hold her own amusement at the remark, the innocent giggle was enough.“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t.”
But something needed to be said and he said it before he encountered her. “I’ not going to pay you.”
“WHAT?!” The arms hugging him tightly around his chest but it didn’t bother him at all, is more he found it amusing. But he need to prove his point right.
“Oh don’t try to be bitch”
“I took out the trash asshole.”
“Yet my place is trashed.”
“With your shit!”
“Still!”
“You came earlier than expected!”
“A fucking month Alice!”
“Fuck you!” And finally taking a lot of his accusation she pushed him away with all the force she could muster, yet it wasn’t strong enough to made him fall to the floor he only was forced to give a few steps before he regained his composure.
It was time to finally turn around and give the proper greeting that should have happened.
In front of him stood a young woman a bit smaller than him, she was wearing a knowingly smile on her thin lips, those were accompanied with a pair of soft brown eyes which perfectly matched with her long brown hair. But that was only the head, because something the Chris could shamelessly watch was downwards were a pair of soft pillows rested though they weren’t big but neither small just enough to be squishable, the remark was from experience mind you. For the moment she was wearing the casual clothes which she always used, a pair of loosely jeans with a common shirt that her mother made. It even has her name knitted. Kind amusing but cute.
“Is good to see you Alice.”
“I missed you jerk.”
Without a second to lose both walked closer and hugged each other not wanting to break the embrace until they have felt satisfied with it.
“Okay, tell me the real reason Alice.”
She looked at him but then her gaze went downwards and her cheery mood dropped significantly saying without words that something terrible happened. “Another riot went out of control.” Soon after the words left her mouth did Chris pulled her closer showing how much he cared for her.
“Is your mother okay?”
“Yes, but our shop suffered some damage.” She was sad but nothing that a small moment of comfort or a drink could fix.
“Don’t worry we will fix it in no time.” He rested his chin on the top of her head while she just shifted for a more comfortable position.
“Soooooo……” It was obvious what she was going to say next “Are you up for a quickie? Because I am.” Both hand traced all of her body hoping to entice him to accept her.
“You are such a slut.”
Alice replied with a weak hit on his chest as her grin became wider showing her white teeth which she always brushed after every meal. “Hush you, you like it.”
“Maybe I do.”
“Is that a yes or a no?”
He couldn't deny that it was long while and he really wanted to but somebody was near and he didn’t want a pony to find him having healthy fun with his best friend. Though that leads to many possibilities that he really didn’t want to find or think about.
“As much as I want to accept your offer; it has to wait because I have to care of a certain things first, but it will be definitely this week.” Saying that hurt him so much that if he wasn't stronger then maybe a tear would have fallen.
Alice just smiled at him and traced her hands across her body. “I will wait.” Then she walked past him but she wasn’t directing towards the door; her objective was to sit on the bed that also was a mess but that didn’t prevent her from finding a good spot was comfortable.
“So why did you come earlier than expected?” Both rested on the edge of the bed since she was putting all the weight on both arms. “I mean Soos told me that you were out of commision for a while but never gave the details.”
“Well, Soos wanted us to guard the meeting with the archangel in case that something bad happened but we never expected that they also had their own agents there.” There was no reason to lie her, despite knowing that she would get mad.
“Why Soos didn’t tell me about this?” She clearly frowned as both arms crossed under her chest.
“Don’t ask me, better ask him.”
“You know how difficult is to get to him.” Being one of the most important drug dealers of the city and also a high ranking officer was something to do not joke around.
“Not my problem.” A simple response but also a powerful one stating his position on the matter.
“You are an idiot.” Her gaze went anywhere but his, even if it appeared that the environment changed between the two the true was it didn’t changed a bit.
“Hey, hey relax I’m fine look. “ Both hands pointed his body.
“You are my best friend, I must worry about you.”
“You sound more like a wife.”
“I can be if you want.” A grin replaced her frown.
“Hush you, you are my bitch.” After those words left his mouth he found himself kneeling on the floor struggling for air since the hit he suddenly received did a number on him. “Okay, I deserved that.”
Alice looked at him with her soft eyes that now were piercing his very soul, even if it was a joke she wasn’t going to be insulted like that, she can many things slip but that was not on the list. She didn’t say anything just her standing in front of him with both arms crossed and her glare was enough to send a clear message.
But for Christopher his current position was an opportunity to make things better, mostly for him.
He shifted his weight as his feet got in position giving the necessary support for the jump he was going to do. Moments later of silent recovery without any notice he pounced at Alice causing her to fall as she screamed, it was a good think that his bed was behind her. The soft spot where she landed was the perfect place where he could start the next phase of his plan.
He tickled her, changing between her tummy and neck.
Every single negative thought that she felt vanished in an instant the moment she laughed, but she wasn’t going to be an easy prey. She fought back but poorly after all he was stronger than her.
It was a nice moment that both shared and didn’t want to end, moment like that reminded both of them when they used to be kids and loved to play together with the company of other kids in the school; those were nice time when they ignored the world and just cared for their own little world.
Finally he ended in top her, his face or better said his mask right at front of her; inches away of her small nose. They could hear each other breaths as they stared at each other eyes, only being very close to him one was able to tell the color of Christopher eyes, those appealing blue eyes that she only knew about and loved to be lost in them.
“Boop.”
Suddenly without any warning something struck the tip of her nose leaving her dumbfounded for a little while, but she recovered and pushed him away with a grin on her face.
“Anyway here you go.” Christopher throw a small pouch to her which she grabbed with both hands and looked at him a bit surprised.
“Really?”
“Yep, at least you got the trash.”
Alice looked at the pouch one more time before smiling at him, money was always well received especially for her since keeping the shop afloat was very difficult thing to do, with the constant riots or robberies or corrupts.
Christopher usually works for them as a bodyguard but he only is available for a week, then Alice and her mother didn’t have the money to afford a full-time bodyguard much less a ranger.
“I will go tomorrow and see if I can help you in something.”
“I wouldn’t mind an extra hand.” Without previous warning she lunged at him and gave the best hug she could give with all her strength before telling him something very heartwarming in a soft tone. “Welcome back Christopher.” Time later…
Christopher saw Alice disappearing from his sight of view, definitely going to her house where she can safely save the money, he prayed that nothing happened to her on the way, but it gave him a bit of relief that she knew how to defend herself and that she always carry a hidden knife under her pants.
“Who was her?” The little voice finally revealed itself ruining slightly the good mood he was in after seeing his best friend. Twilight however at seeing that the man didn’t paid attention to her at all so she decided to fly in front of his face and repeat the question.
He just shooed her away and kept looking to the street.
“Hey!” And that was the last straw, she acted as an angry bird.
It hurt but it mostly annoyed him to no end.
“Alright!” Christopher snapped but before he closed the door shut and faced his assailant. “Look I told you she doesn't concern you.”
“I thought we were going to start on the right direction!”
“You are making it difficult!”
“ME?!”
“YES!”
“HOW?!”
“My business is my business, you shouldn’t get involved in them!”
Silence followed between the two, Twilight still didn’t feel comfortable despite what they said before but she also accepted that some ponies just don’t want to tell everypony their business unlike Pinkie Pie, so she needed to respect his privacy.
Moving on, after finally arriving to Christopher house she could undo her magic and return to her original form though she would have gladly done but it just did it by itself.
Her magic reserves just depleted.
It was a good thing that she was indoors so nobody would see her and panic, according to Christopher explanations.
“Well, I don’t really know what to do now.” An honest true was spoken, but for Twilight’s case she needed to disagree after checking her surroundings.
“First we are going to organize this entire place!”
“We?”
“Yes!”
Christopher looked at her with the same eyes she saw before, or better said the same lens that prevented her from looking the real eyes and judging from the last time a certain action was going to follow for sure.
