> Guns Ponies and Equality
>  by CroakyEngine
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Prologue
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Travelling at sundown wasn’t the wisest idea, especially in the decay filled suburbs of Jason’s home. The setting sun cast wonderfully creepy shadows from the old, industrial plants that stood in disrepair. The barely functional lamps were only turned on two hours before midnight in order to save power, making most streets completely dark after the sun disappeared.

Amongst this utterly depressing scene walked a young man in his early twenties, hands in his pockets as he strode through the streets, cars occasionally illuminating his back brightly as they passed him.

Jason wasn’t outstanding, and the only thing that stood out about him was his beard that finished off in a little twisted braid. That, and the piercing blue eyes that his associates said he had, though it always eluded him when he glanced into a mirror. He had a simple leather jacket and jeans that kept him warm from the harsh winds that came in with the first month of winter.

The most out of place thing, though, was definitely the huge grin he had upon his face, even as his right hand patted his black sidearm holster in a celebratory manner. A newly purchased Beretta ninety-six lay within, along with two magazines of ammunition strapped beside it. For once, Jason didn’t feel a rush to get to his small, claustrophobic apartment and instead just enjoy the night air.

After wandering for nearly an hour, his stomach rumbled loudly and he was reminded that his lunch wasn’t very substantial; a small bowl of watery noodles with packet of ‘curry’ sauce squeezed on top and a single boiled egg. Still, it was better than breakfast, which was a bowl of stale vegetables squished together into an unholy orgy with some mayonnaise sauce.

The street wasn’t very well clean or sanitized, and the trash littered everywhere that it could physically get into. Nearby, a small fenced off area represented what was once supposed to be a s small playground. He hesitated, as for a moment some ominous feeling overcame him. Perhaps over confident, Jason walked down the street as it was a shortcut to his home, if he remembered correctly.

As soon as he walked through, a trash bin fell over behind him, causing some cats that must’ve been living there to scramble away. Jason tensed slightly, his hand shifting towards his holstered gun. A slight scrap and shuffle to his right redirected his attention.

“Who’s there?” asked Jason with a frown. Relax Jason, it’s probably just cats and rats scuttering about. Forcing himself to take a deep breath, he let the smile come back to his face. He turned around and-

A terrifying, monstrous face grinned at him. Jason let out an admittedly girlish scream, backpedalling backwards so fast that he fell over onto the ground, before getting up and running away. His breathing was fast and rapid, trying to draw in as much oxygen as possible.

What the fuck was that?!

The FUCK was that?!

FUCK!

The last thought came when he came around a corner to face a dead end in a street. What was worse was that he couldn’t remember any other openings on his way here… or much of anything else really. He looked up and gulped when he saw the smooth concrete wall of the eight-storied building at the end of the alley way tower over him. Slow footsteps, came from behind him and Jason shakily turned around.

The monster, because that’s all it could be, was a mismatch of a dozen different animals. It was standing upright on mismatched feet with a goat’s head, mismatched horns, a chicken’s claw and lion’s paw for hands and lastly had what looked like bat wings on its back. Perhaps what scared Jason the most was the joy in its uneven pupils and its leering smile, with one of its two front teeth broken.

“Hello there, human,” it whispered in a light, masculine voice, and Jason jumped. It can speak?! Almost as if reading his mind, the creature scoffed and continued. “Yes, of course I can speak. I’m not some illiterate imbecile, you know.”

Jason’s mouth dropped open in pure shock, but he was knocked out of his reverie when the creature took a step closer in his direction. Jason’s mind immediately noped out and his right hand went straight to his handgun.

Let’s see how you like the taste of brass!

In a practiced motion, he pulled out his handgun from its holster and took aim at the impossible abomination. However, the creature snapped its fingers - in an extremely human like manner – and the barrel of the gun twisted into itself, aiming at Jason himself instead of the creature.

With a sharp yelp, he scrambled back from the gun, only to stare at in disbelief again when the gun stayed in its same position in the air despite there being nothing to support its weight.

“T-That’s impossible! What the hell are you?!” exclaimed Jason, taking steps away from the smirking monster. What is going on, no this is all a dream, it has to be. Let’s go through a checklist. A giant freak that can somehow talk to me- check. Yep, I’m in a dream. While Jason panicked within his own mind, Discord spoke in a satisfied tone.

“Ah, finally we can get to introductions. Monsieur, I am le dieu de la discorde, king of chaos, entertainment extraordinaire, or Discord,” announced the creature, who identified himself as Discord, before turning to face again with a leering smile. “And of course, you are Jason, the most insignificant example of your species. Loved by no one and missed by no one.”

Fear temporarily forgotten, Jason’s face lit up bright red in anger at the insult as he glared angrily at Discord. The fucking chimera just dissed me!

“And who are you to talk? You looked like the offspring of your mother after she banged everything in the animal kingdom!” countered Jason, though he immediately regretted the decision when he saw a dangerous glint glimmer in the mad creature’s eyes.

And so this is how I die, after offending a demon with bad humour, thought Jason sullenly, waiting for his death to come and hoping it would be swift. A second passed, and he raised his head in confusion to see Discord chuckling.

“Ha, you humans and your sub-par comedy. It was a good try on your behalf, and for your attempt I’ll even consider not turning your legs to Jell-O for my humour is bad!” Without any warning, Discord appeared behind him and placed a bird’s claw on his shoulders.

“That’s enough chit-chat for now. Time to zip you up since I’m a little short on time!”

Suddenly, Jason was unable to move, even as he watched Discord turn his mouth into a zipper and pulled it across to sewn his mouth shut. He screamed in fear, but it didn’t have any effect on the zipper beyond causing it to twitch a little.

HOW IS THIS EVEN POSSIBLE?! Jason screamed within the confines of his own mind

“Ah, much better. Now you see, Jason, or Mr Faust, if you prefer, I have a special offer for you; to travel to a far-away land and cause as much delicious chaos as- hmm, what’s the term? Oh yes, as much chaos as humanely possible. Do you agree to this?” Jason, beyond his own accord, started to move up and down. He tried as hard as he could to resist and speak, but the effort was clearly in vain.

The damned bastard… just wait until I can get my hands on him without getting ripped apart.

“Ah brilliant, and here I thought you didn’t want to go. Glad we cleared that up!” Discord smirked and leant in close, with his disproportional pupils staring at him with maniac intensity. “Now you see, I understand that going to a completely new world is tough, so I have given you a few ‘tools’ to help you, per se. The first is the ability to understand, speak and write any language you encounter, because it would be far too boring to watch you learn everything. The second is that I made you slightly tougher to kill, since I went through all this trouble. Lastly… well, I’m just going to keep a secret for now. It’ll be fun seeing you figure it out. Any questions?”

Discord waited with faux anticipation, only to be met with Jason’s glare, no longer bothering to futilely resist or speak up.

“Guess you really don’t like Q&As. No problemo, my friend! Now you see, you’re not going to be stuck there forever. In fact, when you have created enough chaos for me, I will send you home, with all your ‘gifts’ as well,” said Discord, smiling smugly as Jason scowled. Several moments of silence later, and hostile awkward silence filled in the vacuum before Discord slapped his forehead. “Oh right, you’re still mute.”

In an almost comical fashion, Discord reached behind his back and pulled out a TV remote control, pressing an obscenely big button labelled ‘unmute’. The zipper on his mouth at once disappeared and Jason could move again. He gasped in a huge breath, and felt around his mouth, opening and closing it like a goldfish. When he was self-assured enough, he spoke what was on his mind for the last minute.

“Go suck a piece of shit,” swore Jason, his imagination overworking as he imagined yanking the creature’s testicles up his intestines and yanking it out of his throat.

“How creative,” commented Discord. An alarm suddenly started ringing, and Discord checked his pocket watch, which had appeared out of nowhere and threw it away afterwards. “Well, Jason, it’s been very fun talking with you, but I’m afraid I have places to be, as do you.”

“No wait-” A giant, swirling vortex appeared in front of him, not at all like the slow, dramatic version displayed in movies. A sudden sound, though, pierced the quiet night. The sound of police siren getting increasingly louder. With a hopeful gaze, Jason sucked in a breath and screamed as loud as he can.

“HELP-” And he was bodily kicked into the vortex hole. As he tumbled through darkness, he could hear Discord saying “Toodles! And have fun!”

Instead of making some vow to take revenge, the last thought that passed through Jason’s head was a lot hastier and profanity filled.

SON OF A BIT–





The next thing Jason knew, he was lying face first on the ground, with soft grass brushing up against him. His body felt immensely sore, and it felt like his limbs have been detached, put in a washing machine and then slapped onto his body again. For what felt like an eternity, all he could manage was a muffled groan.

Let’s run some damage control, he thought sullenly. My name: Jason. Sex life: negative if that was possible. Possibility of sex life improving: zero percent. Reason: some freak zapped me to another world.

Jason sighed, but the noise came out sounding like he was noisily making love with the ground.

With some effort, he finally hoisted himself up. Firstly, he noticed that it was the middle of the day, and when Jason looked around him, he felt weak at the knees. He was in the middle of a small clearing with countless trees surrounding him, along with exotic greenery of every kind. It almost seemed like something out of a Disney fairy tale, of a wild, yet peaceful forest. Birds chirped in the air, along with the buzzes and clicks of other animals that joined to make a relaxing ambience that soothed Jason’s stressed mind.

“The bastard wasn’t kidding after all,” said Jason. He waited for a few seconds, almost wishing someone would suddenly jump out and exclaim ‘you got pranked, bro!’. He gave up after it was clear that wasn’t going to happen, and took a deep breath.

“Alright, Jason. You are alone, in a forest, with likely no other humans nearby. It’s just like all those movies,” Jason said to himself, thought it didn’t sound at all convincing. He knew nothing about forests beyond common sense, and the closest thing to it he had back at home was a small park filled doggie landmines. He looked up at the sky, and there was… the sun. Just a normal sun that he saw every day on Earth, albeit perhaps a little larger.

A slight jingle in his pocket reminded Jason that he had stuff in them before, and he carefully emptied them out onto a patch of grass.

All in all, the entire didn’t include much; a cell phone with medium battery and no way to charge it, a small solar powered torch, a wallet full of useless cards and money as well as the keys to his apartment. That, and of course the handgun he acquired along with its ammunition.

He toyed with his cell phone, and sighed upon starting it.

“No signal, figures,” muttered Jason, slumping down against a nearby tree. The air was a little chilly, and Jason was quite glad that he had been wearing one of his warmer clothes when all this had happened.

He touched the bark of the tree behind him, feeling its texture when an idea struck. He stood up and looked at the tree he had sat against. The tree wasn’t extremely tall, and Jason felt he could survive if he fell. After several awkward attempts, he managed to wrangle himself up onto a decent sized tree with its thick branches. When he broke over the treetops, though, he had to take a small moment of silence.

Whoa.

“Whoa,” he agreed with his mind, afraid to break the awe of the moment. It was definitely a full-on forest, and it extended for as far as his eyes could see, with its edge on his far right, at least miles away. Mountain ranges with snow-capped tips decorated the distance, some even touching the clouds itself. Jason frowned slightly, squinting closer at the clouds. After blinking several times, he was sure that the clouds were way lower than they were supposed to be, and looked much more solid as well.

Shrugging at the weird sight, he cautiously climbed down from the tree and started towards the direction of the forest edge. If there is any sort of civilization here, it must be beyond there.

They say the first stretch of a journey was the trickiest, but they often forget to mention the number of times you accidentally faceplant into barbed vines. It did, however, make him glad that his strong and durable boots kept his feet safe from the thick barbs and the tough undergrowth. If not for it, there was no doubt that his feet would have become a pincushion for everything sharp you can find in a forest.

He brushed aside some leaves, and jumped back when he saw what looked like a giant Venus fly trap with lethally sharp teeth. Wisely turning around, he hauled ass and got the hell out of there.

DEAR GOD. I came so close to dying there.

Several times, curious earth-like birds that he couldn’t recognize perched on tree branches, watching him curiously. Once Jason was almost tempted to shoot one down for food, but decided against it for preserving his bullets, the only protection he had.

Once, he even came across a small stream, and he gratefully drank his fill, though he did a double spit take when he saw a small family of frogs silently watching him no further than an inch from his face. Almost as if acknowledging his attention, the largest one of them croaked loudly.

Jason blinked.

The frogs blinked back.

Ooooookay, no creepy frogs thank you very much.

No longer feeling comfortable to drink at the stream, Jason hurried up on his way.

Though his thirst was quenched, the problem of food still persisted. After several long moments of spectating wild mushrooms with utter disdain, he decided not to risk the chance. Luckily, later he found some berries not utterly vomited over by bright, lethal colours. He picked a few to eat, and it didn’t seem to have any adverse effects besides being impossibly addictive. On top of that, it seemed to be rather fulfilling, though it came nowhere near replacing real food. Eating as much as he could without getting sick, he stuffed the rest into his pockets and hoped it wouldn’t all get mashed.

While he ate, a silly thought came to his mind. He remembered his boss earlier, yelling at him for mistakes that weren’t made by him and set impossible deadlines for him. Such was the life of a programmer, and it was the one thing he was glad to be rid of. However, without computers or any sustainable digital device, his skills were completely useless, and he could only rely on the little knowledge he knew about surviving in the wild.

The rest of the day went by fast as Jason turned his mind to focus on clearing a path for himself. When night had finally fallen, Jason felt dead on his feet, but trudged onwards anyways. Unlike walking on the flat, paved roads of cities, trekking through a wild forest felt much more exhausting. He was glad that he regularly exercised, because that was likely the only reason he was still able to move.

Luckily, nearby was a convenient cave that he cold shelter inside. It went only about a dozen metres inside, and came to a rocky stone wall. After a closer inspection that showed no recent signs of animal presence, he gathered some moss that had been growing on the ground to form a makeshift mattress.

For ‘dinner’, he voraciously consumed half of the berries he had collected and it took all of his willpower to not eat the other half. He chewed enthusiastically on the delicacies and savoured their almost unnaturally sweet taste.

It’s not so bad after all…

Perhaps I can survive for a while like, no work, no bills to pay.

Feeling rather up beat for the first time since he arrived, he walked outside the cave and laid down on the grass to twiddle with his phone. The lack of any internet connection, though, meant that he couldn’t really do much. After a few minutes of playing various mobile games, he stopped and instead gazed at the night-time sky.

Even with his limited knowledge, Jason knew immediately that it was not the right sky. Neither Ursa Major nor the Big Dipper were present, and closer inspection found that even the moon was different, too big and too low. It did nothing but hammer in the fact that he was, in fact, not on Earth anymore.

Suddenly not feeling as keen to star gaze, he slinked back into the small cave and laid down on some moss, and slept. Within moments, his sluggish and exhausted mind drifted off into the abyss and his body received its much-needed rest.

Maybe this is all a dream, and I would soon wake up…





Distant shouts and commotions awoke Jason from his slumber.

The hell is that…

At first, he groggily rose up, long since being familiar with his rowdy neighbours that liked to get smashed at ridiculous hours, but it turned into increasing confusion as he noted that his environment was too dark, too dank and too cold.

Shit, how smashed did I get last night-

The memories flooded back into him, the creature called Discord, and how he ended up here in this new world. The confusion and horror of the memory was quickly followed by the crushing disappointment that he was still here, and not in a hospital bed after falling and hitting his head. Suddenly, he just wanted to curl up and cry. Now that all the leftover rage from yesterday was gone, he realized how little chance he has of returning to his home.

What sounded like the sound of a building collapsing echoed to within the cave and interrupted his self-pity session. In fact… the sounds he heard before were not dying down, and instead growing louder.

As the sounds continued on, and Jason’s eyes flashed alight with an idea. Those were definitely not natural sounds, so it must be some sort of civilization, maybe even a city! With adrenaline suddenly rushing through his body, Jason strapped on his holsters again and checked that the little number of items he had were secured before setting off.

His movements faltered, though, when he realized that the civilization might not even be human, or worse completely hostile. He remembered Discord mention about a function that allows him to understand other languages, so that was definitely possible…

His hands tightened on his belt and he gave a scowl as he shook him head to shake off any thoughts of doubt. What was else was he going to do anyways? Foraging and surviving in a forest until the last of his days?

And what the hell did the freaky chimera bastard even meant by ‘causing chaos’ anyways?

Upon reaching outside, the sun was alright bright and high in the sky. In the distance, he could see a small column of smoke rise up, exactly where the sound was emanating from.

Civilization…

A bright and hopeful smile on his face, Jason started to run towards the direction with a new vigour, ignoring cuts of branches and brambles of vegetation that he zipped by. A few times he tripped over, staining his trousers and sleeves with mud and dirt, but he got up and continued onwards.

Slowly, but steadily, the number of trees began to decrease, and the land became flatter. Signs of civilization started to appear; tree stumps, cut vegetation, and even a rough dirt trail with what looked like wheel tracks ingrained into it.

I’m going to make it to a civilization…

I’m going to get out of here!

WOOO-HOOO!

Finally, he broke through the tree lines and into the open, and he immediately flattened himself to the ground when he saw something fly past him. A second later, he recognized it as a crossbow bolt, and he pressed himself further into the ground.

Shit, SHIT! Stupid! Now I’m going to die because I was too impatient to scout out the place first. DAMN IT JASON!

Jason’s heart thundered in his ears as he waited for something to happen, with death and pain at the forefront of his mind. When nothing did happen, he cautiously crawled towards the nearest bush, careful to not elevate any part of his body above the tall grass.

Okay, slowly. Maybe they haven’t seen where I dropped down. Or maybe they have the memory of a goldfish, and completely forgot I existed. Yes, I like that last idea very much.

Once he was safely hidden behind the bush, he rose up into a crouched position and peaked out at the village. Paddocks and farmland ringed the outside of the village, growing what appeared to be apples and wheat, though Jason couldn’t be sure. Old fashioned stone houses with thatched roofs dominated the village, and fractured cobblestone roads were laid in between them. Several houses had completely collapsed, with others caught alight with fire.

However, it was the inhabitants that drew Jason’s attention.

The only way he could describe it, at the risk of sounding like a complete and utter madman, was multicoloured ponies armed with medieval era weapons fighting each other.

Just where the fuck am I?

Jason stared in further disbelief when he saw more ponies with wings flying about in the air, fighting ponies on the ground. At first, he didn’t recognize them, but then he remembered something he learned in high school.

Are those- Are those FREAKING PEGASI?!

Pretty soon, it became obvious that the fight was between the winged variant of ponies – pegasi, if his rusty memory of Greek mythology was correct – and the non-winged type, with the latter losing badly.

Okay, I am definitely not on Earth. There is no way these creatures can exist without humans knowing about it. WAIT! What if it was all a government conspiracy. Yes, the government fed me drugs and offered me up to these ‘ponies’ as sacrifice…

The increasingly hysterical part of his brain rambled while his remaining and undeniably shrinking sanity was relieved to note that they haven’t seemed to notice him. The bolt ‘fired’ at him before was likely by accident as the ponies seemed far more interested in fighting each other. He glanced around, but there was no doubt that the smoke and sounds originated from the village, for there was nothing else he could see.

Okay, no matter what, I need to get out of here. Maybe I can travel further along the forest and skirt around the fighting. Yes…

Subconsciously, he patted the bulky handgun in his holster, an action that made him feel a little bit saner and safer. He watched the colourful furry creatures battling each other for a minute longer, before preparing to sneak away in the undergrowth. Just before he did, though, a scream tore out from the village, sounding exactly like that of a young girl’s.

His eyes narrowed as he swiftly turned back to the village. The chances of another human – a human child at that – was incredibly low, but if there was…

This is dumb, and you know it. This is really DUMB! Stop!

The sane part of his mind kept screaming at him, but regardless he pushed himself up from the ground and started to jog towards where the fighting was the strongest.

“Damn me and my bloody conscience.”
> Chapter 1 - Big Iron on His Hip
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The rebellion was falling apart right before Tenacity’s eyes.

She picked up a crossbow she had pried from the hooves of a dead pony and clutched it tightly to her chest. She peeked out from her position behind an upturned cart, but immediately ducked down when she thought she saw the bright red cape of a Pegasus raider.

It had been a week after they had refused the expensive ‘protection’ that Pegasopolis offered. Her village simply didn’t have enough food stores to last them through the upcoming winter, especially with the approaching Unicornia army that will surely demand ‘tribute’ as they pass through.

They had trained, and made crude spears out of farm tools and whatever else they can scrape together. The only Earth Pony who had any combat experience, a veteran of Unicornia’s war with the griffons, named Solitude had trained everypony to the best of his abilities. In hindsight, it was never enough, and stupid to think it was.

The retribution from Pegasopolis came swiftly and without warning.

What at first appeared to be a small raiding party of five or six ponies turned out to be a whole cohort of no less than thirty brutally trained and armed warriors. They swarmed over the village and took the Meeting Hall within minutes, suffering only three casualties to a dozen of the villagers. There was never really any doubt that poorly equipped villagers would suffer against Pegasopolisan legionnaires, but even they didn’t imagine how hopeless the odds were.

The building was ransacked after its defenders were killed, and the Pegasi set fire to its roof, burning any injured earth ponies within alive. Coldly, Tenacity acknowledged the cruel efficiency of it all, and she shivered when she remembered the terror the action had inspired..

Fighting from there onwards were spread across remaining pockets of resistance. In fact, it was less of a fight and became more of a deadly struggle to survive against the onslaught of the trained formations of pegasi. Tenacity felt tempted to sneer as she remembered a Pegasopolis representative telling them that the raiders had nothing to do with Pegasopolis’ legionnaires. It was a laughable lie, especially now, but there was still nothing they could do about it. They could be told that the heavens were pitch black and they would have to believe it.

Tenacity, being the curious mare she was, had heard stories of what happened to other villages who dared to rise up against the Pegasi. All the able stallions would be killed, with only a few left to work the farmlands. The mares that could work the fields would remain with them, but the rest would be taken to Pegasopolis, to be sold to rich families or even Unicornia nobility.

Those villages usually didn’t survive the next winter.

Tenacity don’t want her village to become one of them.

She didn’t want to be sold into slavery.

It was during this increasingly depressing line of thought that Tenacity saw something large and bipedal break through the tree lines beyond the village, and for a second her childhood stories of monsters came rushing through her mind.

Panicking and without taking a good look, she hastily loaded in one of her only two crossbow bolts and fired it at the monster that skulked out of the forest. The bolt flew off sharply towards its direction, but Tenacity didn’t prepare for the recoil and fell backwards from the unturned cart. When she got up again, the creature she had seen had disappeared. Sitting back down, she silently berated herself.

Stupid mare, and you just lost one bolt! And what if a pegasus saw that-

“Yaaarghhh!” Tenacity instinctively flinched as she heard the pegasus war cry, and reloaded the last bolt she had into her crossbow as fast as her hooves could work. When loaded, she held it in front of her, ready to fire if somepony charged at her. When no raider did, she realized that the sound had come from behind the cart. Slowly, she attempted a small peek over her hiding position.

A stallion – no more than a colt really – armed with what looked like a pitchfork stood against a maliciously grinning marauder. Standing behind him was another filly with a pale cyan coat and red mane, though Tenacity could not see much more than that from her positions.

“Don’t you dare lay a single hoof on her, pegasus!” shouted the colt courageously. The pegasus replied something in kind in Pegasopolisan and unsheathed his own blade, a pegasus shortsword. With a cry, the colt charged forward straight for the warrior, but was easily parried and knocked to the ground. He got up again, but the pegasus was already within attacking range.

The colt looked down vacantly, almost in slow motion, as the pegasus’ shortsword entered and left his abdomen, before collapsing onto the ground, dead.

The filly beside him rose up, who Tenacity recognized as Rose Scent now that she can see her face, and ran over to the fallen colt screaming and crying. The pegasus legionnaire snorted at the sight as he turned his focus elsewhere. Rose Scent, with tear stained face, glared at the back of the soldier’s helmet. She galloped over to one of the semi-collapsed houses, and picked up a heavy-looking wooden plank. Then, she used all her strength to slam the wooden plank against the Pegasopolisan raider’s back.

Tenacity gasped in horror as the raider stumbled forward, but didn’t seem to suffer any more than that, and turned around with his sword unsheathed. With one flying leap, the soldier knocked the filly down painfully, followed by a sickening crack and her agonized screaming. The pegasus raised his shortsword and prepared to swipe it downwards for the final blow.

Tenacity looked at the scene with a horrified expression.

He’s going to kill her! I need to something NOW!

She glanced at her crossbow, and remembered the bolt still loaded within it. Taking a deep breath, she propped it onto the sideways cart and took aim at the pegasus, adjusting herself better this time so that she won’t be knocked over when she fired. Suddenly, she remembered a piece of advice that Solitude had told her:

Don’t aim for their heads. It’s far too small of a target to hit consistently. Instead, aim for their chest, or even better, their backs and wings.

With a sharp twang, the bolt flew across the air and buried itself into the pegasus’ chest straight through the leather armour just before he lowered his blade on Rose Scent. Gurgling slightly, the raider dropped dead on the spot. Tenacity felt sudden overwhelming sense of relief and elation that she had succeeded. Then, the implication of she did rammed into her like an earth pony cart at full speed.

Holy crap, I just killed somepony. I JUST KILLED SOMEPONY! I’m going to Tartarus forever, I mean sure it was a murderous pegasus, but I just… I just killed him!

In her hyperventilative state, she didn’t notice another pegasus approaching her now compromised position until it was far too late. With a sudden gasp, she realized that another pegasus had almost reached her. This one, though, was different from the others. He was dressed in actual metal armour with red insignias imprinted upon them and helmet with a bright, crimson crest.

Before she could react, the pegasus leaped forward and grappled her through the air, before slamming her into the ground. She wheezed as the air was suddenly knocked out of her, and she could taste blood in her mouth. At such a close range, the coldness in the pegasus’ eyes was as apparent as the bright untainted day. With a chill, she further realized that she wasn’t just dealing with a normal warrior, but one of the officers of the pegasus Legion – a Centurion.

Then, surprisingly, the pegasus centurion spoke in her native language.

“That was one of my better legionnaires. You’ll suffer for this, girl,” he said calmly, as if discussing something as casual as the weather. Then he grinned and said something completely different, though this time she didn’t understand him.

So my death isn’t going to be quick, then, thought Tenacity sullenly.

She accepted her death with a grimace, because she knew that this uprising, like so many others across the land, had failed. The pegasus raider, though, wasn’t entirely content on just killing her, and battered into her already bruised sides again and again, sneering at her in Pegasopolisan while he did so. A particularly hard kick caused her to cry out in agonizing pain, and tears finally broke the dam, dripping down the sides of her face. A single, tragic thought ran through her mind.

I’m going to die here, beaten to death on the streets of my village.

It was then that the giant, bipedal creature she shot at before lumbered into view and smashed a rock across the back of the pegasus centurion's head.





“This is stupid, Jason. How do you even tell who’s the bad guys, and who’s not?” muttered Jason to himself with a frown. “What if all of them are the bloody bad guys.”

As he approached closer to the village, he unholstered his handgun and clicked on a twelve-rounds magazine. His hand was trebling slightly, and he swallowed thickly as he gripped the other hand on the pistol for support. However, he noticed that his hand was shaking violently, and he was tempted to put the gun away in fear of accidentally shooting himself in the foot. Sure, he had taken gun lessons, but he felt way too jumpy. That never goes well with guns.

Then, a sudden, terrifying thought came to his mind.

I really hope these guys doesn’t have bullet proof armour.

He sucked in a deep breath, and let it out slowly, letting go of the anxious thoughts.

“You can do this, Jason. Just get the girl, in and out. Simple as that,” he said to himself.

The first thing he noticed when he entered the proximity of the village, was the smell. Never before was there such a revolting stench. It was a burnt coppery scent that wafted everywhere he went, and as he started to traverse empty streets, its cause became pretty obvious.

Bodies of ponies, maybe up to dozens of them, lay on the cobblestone roads. There was no one there to move them, and it was clear that whatever fighting there was here had already concluded. Jason also noted that the bodies mostly belonged to the non-winged ponies, and that he only came across four or five pegasus, maybe even less than that. As he saw more and more bodies, his pace quickened.

This is fucked up. Why the hell did I even come here in the first place? Oh, that’s right. The girl.

He jogged further, heading towards what seems to be the centre of the town, and where the smoke stack he saw before had come from. On his way, he finally came into contact with a living pony.

This was one of the armoured pegasus in front of him, chasing what looked like a harmless civilian. As Jason got closer, he could see that the pony was completely unarmed, and it was clear that the pegasus was going to kill the pony.

“Hey stop!” called out Jason instinctively at the pegasus. The pegasus turned around and upon seeing him immediately rushed towards him with a weirdly shaped dagger (or was it a sword?) gripped within his mouth.

Great, at least I’ve found the bad guy.

The added adrenaline forced Jason into action. He raised his pistol and pulled the trigger, but nothing came out of the gun. It took a fraction of a second for him to realize that the safety was still on, and in his panicked and rather sweaty state, he dropped the gun. With the pony almost within range, he divided to the side, and a moment later a blade cut through where he was.

He stumbled over, and his hand felt something long on the ground. Desperate for anything to defend himself with, raised it up in front of him just in time to block the hostile pony’s sword. It was a spear that he had picked up, and he thanked whatever mysterious force out there that was helping him. Jason raised the spear horizontally to block the second hit, but the warrior pony had learned and went low to slash at him. Jason backpedalled quickly, holding his spear in front of him in a somewhat defensive style.

Shit, I can’t last long in a fight with a trained fighter, pony or not. I need to end it as soon as I can.

The pony stepped back as well, as if to assess Jason’s threat level. They began a circulatory rotation, keeping each other at the same distance. Jason tried to feint, but the pegasus saw through it and lunged towards him at the direction he wanted to go. The two clashed into one another, with Jason trying to keep the sharp looking sword as far away from him as possible.

Eventually, Jason managed to kick the pony away with his superior strength, and he took the temporary advantage he had. With as much strength as he could muster, Jason smashed the blunt end of the spear, into the back of the pegasus’ head. The pony slumped onto the ground, unconscious. The sword clattered harmlessly to the ground.

He panted heavily, trying to regain his breath as his heart performed a circus act within him. He knelt down and retrieved to his handgun, and clicked off the safety. He checked the magazine loaded within and made sure that everything was in working condition.

Fuck me, I almost got myself killed by this.

Calming down slightly, he studied the pegasus he had knocked unconscious. Curiously, he saw that the pony was dressed in leather armour with small plates of metal that protected their legs along with a metal helmet. He poked at them and made certain that they were, in fact, made out of those materials.

Hell, these guys almost look like the Roman Legion.

Shaking his head at the thought, Jason left him for the other non-winged ponies to deal with, and hurried on his way to find where the scream had come from before.

Come on, come on. Where is she?

As Jason found more and more villagers, a sneaking suspicion began to worm into his mind. It was clear that there were two distinct genders of ponies just like the ones of Earth; mares and stallions. What if the scream he had heard before had, in fact, come from a pony?

He tried to approach one of the villagers, a mare (he could tell from the features of her face and body build), but it, or she Jason supposed, backed away quickly looking rather terrified. Jason sighed as he trudged onwards. Soon, though, he came across another scene, one that made him feel sick in the stomach.

A young mare was sobbing and crying while a pegasus, this one whose armour was distinctly styled like the Roman Legion, was beating the life out of her. Even at his distance, Jason could hear the meaty slams of hooves on flesh.

“…suffer for this. Or maybe I’ll keep you alive, so my boys can use you to their liking after they raze the village and kill every, single, bloody earth pony.”

The words had a weird accent to them, but Jason completely understood what he meant. His eyes narrowed and fists tightened in anger, and he regretted not grabbing the dropped sword from the other pegasus, though it was too late now to do anything about that.

The god damned bastard. Shit eating people like him exists everywhere, it seems. Except this time, I can actually do something about it. He glanced at the helmet and armour, before glancing to his pistol. The bullet might not penetrate deep enough unless I shoot him from the front. Unless…

Jason quietly ran over to a big rock he saw at a nearby rubble and lifted it up. After making sure there were no other pegasi nearby, Jason sneaked up on the pegasus stallion – based on build and voice – and slammed the heavy rock into the back of its – or his, as Jason kept reminding himself – head.

To his surprise he didn’t crumple to the ground. Instead, he stumbled forward and shook his head dizzily before gripping his sword in his mouth and faced Jason. Jason himself had opted to stand over the beaten mare, who no looked up at him with surprise and astonishment. The pegasus scowled and ran forward at him.

With no other choice, and adrenaline pumping through his veins, Jason pulled out his pistol and aimed with both hands at the charging pony. He lined the sight with the forehead of the pony and pulled the trigger.

Die in hell, motherfucker.

The muzzle of the gun flashed brightly and a loud, thunderous clap rang out. For a moment, all sounds of activities within his hearing range stopped and was instead replaced by an odd silence. The abused mare lying near him looked at him with fear, shock and awe? Even the pegasus leader himself looked in bewilderment, before glancing down to see the new hole adorning his chest. He took one more step forward, before stumbling and face planted into the ground, unmoving.

It was then that a trio of pegasi saw him and the dead pegasus, who all must have followed the sound. The lead pegasus of the three shouted at him in rage.

“You’ll pay for this, vile beast! You two, get reinforcements and tell them that the centurion has been defeated!” The two pegasus nodded and flew off, with the one who spoke shooting up high into the sky. Then came a loud shout.

“AD HONOREM!”

And out of nowhere, the pegasus appeared and struck Jason with the full force of his body.

Oh crap, I forgot these guys can fly.

Jason whirled around as the pegasus thrust forward with his sword. They met in a clash, and several times Jason felt a glancing cut on his cheek or arms. Luckily all of them were flesh damage, and he chalked it up to his ridiculously good luck that he hadn’t been disembowelled. He landed hits himself as well, with his fists, elbows and knees pummelling his opponent furiously while keeping the lethal weapon away from him at all times.

When he knocked away the pegasus soldier again, he felt a sharp, stinging pain in his sides. He briefly glanced downwards and saw a cut that ripped his jacket and shirt, biting into his flesh. He grimaced as he turned his attention back to his attacker.

That’s going to leave a nasty scar… and hurt like a bitch soon.

He was surprised, though, to see that he did more damage to the pony than he had thought. What happened next, though, was completely unexpected. When Jason advanced on him, the pegasus retreated and flew over to the mare Jason had saved, pointing his blade at her.

“Move and she dies,” declared the pegasus, miming the blade against the cress of her neck in a slicing motion. The mare had tears running freely, and she gasped in pain when he pressed against her harder. She clearly thought that she was going to die, then and there.

Looking at the sobbing mare, something snapped within Jason.

Not today.

Moving like lightning, he leapt at the pegasus with a snarl. The pegasus, too surprised to anticipate the move, went along with Jason’s momentum as he took him to the ground, far away from the injured pony. A hard elbow across the face abruptly stopped the pegasus from rising up. Pinning the pegasus with his knees, he cocked the pistol and fired two consecutive rounds into the creature’s head, splattering blood onto his clothes.

The bloodlust still roared in Jason’s ears, and when he stood up he saw that what looks like the remaining pegasus were all collected some distance away, completely stock still in disbelief. If he had a mirror at that moment in time, he would see wild, hungry eyes staring straight back at him.

Standing over the dead body of the shot pegasus, Jason raised the gun into the air and fired one last time into the air at the pegasi. The shot went wide, but served its purpose in intimidating the pegasi, who scrambling moved away from where he was aiming at. He sucked in a huge breath, and shouted at the top of his lungs.

“My name is Jason Faust, and this village is now under my protection! YOU, AND YOUR KIND WILL LEARN TO FEAR ME!”

Holy shit, that was way louder than I thought it would be.

The voice literally sounded as if it could bring down the very heavens themselves, and the pegasi collectively lost any and all motivation to keep attacking. Without fanfare, they fled with their tails between their legs. He took a few seconds of silence to rebalance his heavy breathing, before he turned back to the frozen non-winged pony onlookers with a triumphant grin.

Well, that turned out better than I- Ow, ow ow ow OUCH!

The adrenaline that had kept Jason going had finally stopped flowing through him, and immediately he felt the pain flow over his body like a tidal wave. His chest wheezed as he felt the pain of what was likely a broken rib or two, as well as numerous cuts and bruises he had.

Ah fuck, that hurts like a bitch!

“That cut looks deep. Are you okay?” asked the mare that he had saved earlier as she limped towards him, wetness still on her face. Now that he had time to observe her, he saw that she had a clear with a sky-blue coat and charcoal and ruby coloured mane, definitely not staple colours for horses or ponies back on earth. Compared to the pegasus soldier he had knocked out, her figure was much slimmer and curved, with her facial features softer and gentler as well.

However, the question caused Jason raised an eyebrow. Shouldn’t you be more worried about yourself? However, the sharp red-hot pain that shot up from his sides suggested that she might have a point. Still, though, he shook his head and he replied to her.

“Yes, I’m fine. Just some bruises and cuts is all.” The mare frowned, and then shook her head and pointed to her ears to signal that she didn’t understand him. Jason frowned as well as he thought what he did wrong.

Huh, damn. Alright, let’s try again. I sure hope that Discord didn’t fuck up one of his ‘gifts’.

This time, he recalled the sound of her talking, and tried to imagine him doing the same, using her dialect. Instantly, he felt some sort of understanding between English and the new language, the name of which roughly translated to ‘Common Earth Speech’, or just Common Speak. Clearing his throat, he drew the attention of the mare and tried again.

“Thank you, but I’m fine,” said Jason smoothly in a completely and utterly foreign dialect, with only slight stutters due to his current condition. He imagined this was what it felt like to be one of the ‘bullshit pros’ you see on comedy skits. The mare gasped in surprise and then words came rambling out of her.

“You can speak common?! Stars, I have so many questions! What are you? How come I’ve never heard of you before? Where do you come from? Oh, oh! What are those strange clothes on you? Why do you have so little fur? What was that thing you did before and how did you use it to defeat the pegasus centurion?”

Suddenly feeling overwhelmed, Jason took a step back while making what he hoped was a placating gesture with his hands. After he was sure she wouldn’t bombard him with any more questions, he looked at all the destruction in the village, and the dead ponies that were being carted off by solemn looking ponies. Those who weren’t solemnly mourning were looking at him, some with fear and trepidation while others with awe and gratitude.

“Why did all this happen?” asked Jason, though he regretted the question a little when he saw the slightly pained look on the mare’s face. Jason quickly apologized. “I’m sorry for bringing it up, it must be painful.”

“No, no, it’s fine. After all, the worst of it is over for now. Those who attacked the village were part of Pegasopolis’ army – The Pegasi Legion-”

Aha! I knew these guys looked like ancient Romans, thought Jason, though he didn’t say it out loud.

“-and they raided us because we refused to pay the remains of our food stock to Pegasopolis for protection. Not that it had stopped the raids even when we had it before.” The last part the mare had said with acid and bitterness, and Jason could understand grimly. It was extortion and murder on a massive scale.

“Well, I’m glad I was here to help,” said Jason with a smile, prompting the pony to look up. “Name’s Jason. Jason Faust.”

The mare brightened and extended her hoof.

“My name is Tenacity Blues.”

Jason hesitated at the outstretched hoof for a slight moment, before shrugging and balling his hand up into a fist and bumped it as if giving her a knuckle. Tenacity looked slightly confused for a split second, and then retracted her hoof, giggling. Jason almost felt a little light-headed at the sight.

These ponies are strangely adorable, despite the horrible bloodshed.

“Come on, let’s get out of the open. You can come to my house, and I’ll make sure we don’t get an infection,” said Tenacity, motioning for Jason to follow her.

“Sounds like a plan to me,” he said, though frowned worriedly when he saw that she still had a slight limp and wheezed slightly when she walked too fast.

I sure hope she hadn’t been hurt too seriously. I like her, thought Jason.

Soon, they stopped at a small cottage not far from where they were before. Tenacity opened the door casually and stepped through, motioning him to do the same. Once inside, it was quite packed, with shelves of weird objects and in some cases, glasses of dubious liquids.

They settled down in the living area, and almost as if sensing Jason’s unspoken question, she explained the multitude of bizarre objects.

“Years ago, when a Zebra shaman passed through our village, I studied under her for a while in medicine and herbs. Many of these were left by him as a souvenir, or were made by myself,” she said matter-of-factly and went to retrieve a bowl of water along with a small, white cloth. “Here, if you want wash the blood off yourself.”

Jason accepted them gratefully and dabbed the cloth in water before slowly wiping off blood from his face and as much of it from his clothes as well. He watched with interest as the mare took a bottle of pale green cream and tipped some onto her hoof. Then, she began to ease it into her coat, over where her injuries were. She gave a slight hiss of pain, but it was so brief that Jason almost thought it was his imagination. For the seriousness of her bruises, it was quite impressive.

She definitely isn’t some delicate flower, that’s for sure.

“Come near me so I can dress your wounds,” she instructed, and Jason complied. He took out an offered stool that was a little too small for him, and sat down heavily. He took off his jacked and shirt, drawing a curious glance from Tenacity. When he looked at his bare torso though, Jason started in surprise. The muscles on him were way more pronounced than they ever were no matter how hard he worked out.

I wasn’t exactly unfit but when did I get this muscular? Maybe Discord did something to make me buff? Or maybe those berries I ate had steroids in them?

“Wow, um, is your species always so muscular? And furless?” asked Tenacity. Jason felt his face heat up a bit and he shook his head no. A small ‘Oh’ was her reply. Jason couldn’t tell whether that was a good thing or bad thing. He chose to believe it was the former.

For a hooved creature, Tenacity worked with surprising dexterity, cleaning the cut carefully before applying the mixed cream she had used on herself. Almost instantly, a coolness settled over the pain and Jason let out a sigh of relief. She took some bandage like materials and wrapped it around his wound, further pressing the soothing cream into his skin.

His tranquillity, however, did not last long as the door to the cottage burst open and a olive coloured pony stumbled inside.

“Tenacity! Are you in here? I heard from ponies that-” The olive mare coloured mare stopped and stood stock still in the open doorway, gawking at Jason, who suddenly had the strongest urge to dress himself (and he did). Luckily, though, the mare continued what she was about to say, albeit a little shakier. “T-The new village elder has an announcement to make.”

Tenacity stood up immediately.

“Amber, what do you mean the new elder? What happened to Anvil Horseshoe?” The downcast look on the mare named Amber was clear enough for even Jason to understand.

“Alright, let’s go,” said Tenacity, and she beckoned for me to follow her as well. The other mare, though, looked confused.

“You’re taking…uh, i- I mean, um…” Jason was extremely amused by the mare’s efforts to call him something without offending him, and at last he ended her awkward suffering.

“Him. I’m a he,” said Jason as he pulled his shirt over his head.

“You can speak- I mean right, uh, thank you, I suppose? Tenacity, you’re taking him to the announcement? You might start a panic if other ponies saw him!” Tenacity shrugged in response and packed up her medical tools.

“So what? Enough ponies had seen him during the fight anyways, especially when he drove off the pegasi.”

“Oh! You’re the one who saved the village! I’ve heard about you, but I… well, I didn’t realize! It’s such an honour to meet you!” Jason nodded, a little flattered as well as confused. He held out his fist to bump her bump her hoof like he did with Tenacity, but the mare instead wrapped him in an embrace. When she parted, she timidly said “Thank you.”

Oookay, that’s sort of weird. Do heroes around here get a free-hugs status or something?

Jason followed the two mares, and saw that many others were also heading towards what he assumed was the village centre. When they arrived, a big crowd of perhaps up to a hundred ponies were already there. At the very front was a small elevated wooden stage, with a raised podium upon which stood a mare with a silver coat and hazel-coloured mane.

“Ponies of Spring Edge, I have an announcement to make!” she called out.

The crowd became silent as all eyes fell upon her, who Jason assumed must be their town mayor or something equivalent to that.

“The late Elder Seed had unfortunately passed away during the intense fighting at the Meeting Hall, along with many other senior councillors. Therefore, the handle of responsibility for this town now falls to me, Hearty Spirit. Today, we were too close to the precipice of destruction under the cruel hooves of the pegasi, but no more! From now on, I’m taking a stand, and we will stand against the oppressions of both the unicorns and pegasi!”

At this sudden announcement, both excited and concerned murmurs started to spread on like wildfire. When they were all gently shushed, the pony Elder went on to list the feats of heroism (that more often than not sounded like pure luck or desperation to Jason) that defeated a few pegasi. During the speech, many eyes had also fallen on Jason, as no doubt rumours had begun to circulate about who he was and what he did. Some fell upon Tenacity as well, who had opted to sit next to him through the entire thing. At last, the mare’s speech began to wind down, and Jason regained his focus.

“And finally, when we were beaten down and at our weakest, the gods themselves sent us a saviour that drove away the pegasi. His name, is Jason Faust!” exclaimed Hearty, pointing a silver hoof straight at Jason. He froze at the mention of his name, but was even more shocked by what followed.

A loud applause and cheer went out, from ponies hollering excitedly and stomping their hooves on the ground. Even Tenacity was joining in, looking absolutely elated all the while. Several ponies had started to chant ‘Jason’, and others quickly joined in.

How the hell did she even know my name? I wasn’t exactly spouting it around before-






“My name is Jason Faust, and YOU, AND YOUR KIND WILL LEARN TO FEAR ME!”






Ok, so that’s not exactly true, but still…

Before he knew it, Jason was bodily lifted by several earth ponies as he essentially crowd surfed to where the new Elder was standing at. He looked back at Tenacity with pleading face, but the traitorous mare just stuck her tongue out at him.

“And now, he will give us some words.”

Hearty Spirit swung around, and gave him what he swore was a flirtatious wink before she hopped off the makeshift stage and mingled in with the crowd.

Suddenly in the spotlight, Jason froze. He looked over the crowds at all their expectant faces, and paled even further when he saw that Tenacity’s was among them, if not the leading force. He struggled to resist the temptation to find Hearty and glare at her.

Screw you woman, what the hell am I supposed to say? They’re all expecting me to say something profound, aren’t they? Then another thought interrupted rudely. Am I going to say anything profound?

Once again, Jason looked over the mass of ponies with hopeful smiles on their face. He swallowed thickly. How was he going to tell them that he only happened by due to pure chance and a certain bastard? That he was not their godsend and only salvation?

Do you have to escape from everything, Jason? These ponies, no, these people need hope after being denied it for so long. Hope that you can provide them!

Sighing a little on the inside, he cleared his throat and closed his eyes. When he opened them again, they shimmered intensely, bright enough to pierce the hearts and minds of all the ponies watching. He strained to remember the Declaration of Independence he had studied during high school, and when the first trickling of his memories started to flow, he silently smiled.

Alright, I think I can work with this.

Turning his attention back to the ponies, he started to speak with as much clarity and confidence as he could, with the only sign of nervousness being a small, almost unnoticeable quiver in his voice.

“Where I come from, we have a saying: That all beings are created equal. They are bestowed upon by their Creator with a certain set of inalienable rights; among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness…”
> Chapter 2 - Coming to Terms
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There came a knock at the door.

Jason jolted awake in semi-darkness, the only source of light being the faintly lit candle beside him. He blearily looked around him as he realized that he had fallen asleep. A slow examination of himself revealed his holstered firearm and his other belongings bulging slightly in his pocket. Straightening up in his somewhat undersized chair, he rubbed his face and called out. “Come in!”

The door creaked open to reveal Tenacity carrying what looks like a small, old-fashioned lamp in her mouth. On her back was a wooden tray containing some sort of bread, two apples, something that looks like hay as well as those delicious berries Jason had encountered in the forest. The mare flashed him a small smile as she walked in.

“Sorry to bother you, but I thought maybe you want some food,” she said after depositing both the tray and the lamp on Jason’s small table.

“That’s okay, thanks,” mumbled Jason, before taking a glance at the window. It was then that he realized it was utterly pitch-black outside. He blinked owlishly before turning back to Tenacity. “Uh, what time is it?”

I didn’t doze off too long, did I?

“It’s um, it’s just midnight,” said the mare sheepishly. Jason groaned as he rubbed the last sleepiness from his eyes. As he did so, the tray of food caught his attention. He grabbed for it and gulped down the bread and berries, munching on one of the apples afterward.

“Taste good?” asked Tenacity grinning.

A muffled ‘mhm’ was Jason’s response, causing Tenacity to giggle slightly. And it was good, especially after two days of nothing but berries. The apple tasted succulent, unlike anything he had back home, though that might have been influenced by his hunger.

To Tenacity’s credit, she waited patiently until he wolfed down everything except for the hay, which Jason chalked up as a similarity between the horse-like beings here and the horses back on Earth. When he was done, he was suddenly aware of the intense and inquisitive gaze upon him. His face reddened when he realized that he probably looked like a complete idiot while eating.

“So, uh…” trailed off Jason awkwardly.

“Where do you come from, Jason?” asked Tenacity suddenly. “I’ve never heard of anything like you before, or even remotely similar. The closest are probably the minotaurs, but they live on the other side of the great sea.”

Minotaur?! Okay, breath, Jason, breath! Just ignore it and answer her question. One thing at a time.

“Well, I’m a human. And…you see, I’m not sure where my home is, but it’s… definitely not here,” said Jason.

“Like, not on this continent?”

“No, as in. Really, really far away. Further away than you or I can imagine. I lived on a planet called Earth, and it was divided into many nations – or kingdoms if you will. I personally come from a place called the United States, it’s great if you know where to look…”

“What was that last part?” asked Tenacity.

“Oh, uh… it’s nothing. Just politics, I suppose,” covered Jason quickly. Damn, that bit came out with a little too much honesty. “I’m sure you don’t want to hear about that. Now, what really sets us humans apart from the rest of our world is that we’re the only species that are intelligent enough to develop a society, languages, etc.”

“Oh, you mean everypony-uh, I mean everyhuman-”

“Everyone,” corrected Jason with an amused tone.

“Right. So is everyone basically the same as each other? There isn’t any other species on your ‘planet’?”

“Well, basically. Of course, you have small variations like skin colour, eye colour, hair colour, small details like that. But, yeah, we’re all humans,” explained Jason. Perhaps it’s best not to tell her about all the racial prejudices and wars in human history. Yeesh, I can’t even imagine her reaction to that.

“So there isn’t a type of human that have wings or horns?”

“Uh… not that I know of,” admitted Jason.

“Who controls your weather, then?” she questioned.

That’s an oddly specific and bizarre question to ask.

“Uh, no one. The weather runs by itself through the ocean currents and the movement of a thick layer of air called the atmosphere. We humans invented machines to predict the patterns, and planned accordingly,” explained Jason. Tenacity looked with a contemplative look before she asked another even more bizarre question.

“Do you have magic?”

Jason chuckled at that.

“Beyond the imagination of a few nerds with too much time on their hands? No, none whatsoever.” Tenacity’s eyes glazed over, and she mumbled underneath her breath what sounded like “no pegasi, no unicorns…”

“So, you mentioned pegasi and unicorns, but what do I call you guys?” asked Jason.

“Well, ponies cover just about everything you mentioned, me included. Or sometimes, we call ourselves earth ponies, since the earth is where our roots are.”

“And these other ‘ponies’ you speak of. I’m guess earth ponies aren’t all too friendly with them?” Jason immediately winced at his insensitive choice of language, but Tenacity replied before he could utter an apology.

“More like oppression and in some cases… slavery,” she replied with a sigh. Jason furrowed his brows as he considered what she said.

Well, I had my suspicions but this pretty much confirms it. It’s basically a racial conflict ramped up all the way to eleven. Looks like I was pretty on point with my Independence speech.

Tenacity looked as if she was falling back into a sombre state – one that Jason felt partly responsible for – when a sudden bout of inspiration struck him. He reached into his pocket and took out his cell phone. The cool, black device felt familiar, comfortable even in the grasp of his hand, like a child’s favourite doll. When it settled in his hand, he could almost imagine that he was back in his apartment, sitting on his bed and ready to turn in. He shook his head and focused his attention back to Tenacity.

“What’s that?” asked Tenacity, a glint of interest crawling back into her eyes.

Curiosity engaged – Check. Operation Make Cute Earth Pony feel better is a go.

“You’ll see,” said Jason with a smirk.

After fumbling a little bit, he found the tiny power button and pressed it. A second later, the screen flickered on with a simplified logo of a type writer appearing in the centre, the screen shining brightly. Tenacity’s eyes somehow became even larger than they already were, her mouth falling open.

Mentally, Jason counted down the seconds until the logo was replaced by the lock screen he’d grown used to with a picture of the Statue of Liberty in the background. It took a while for Tenacity’s mouth to stop making gold-fish imitations and allowed her to speak.

“I-bu-huh-how-wha-?” she blubbered. Then, in a shaky voice, she asked, “What sort of magicks is this? I thought you said humans don’t have magic? And how are you doing it without a horn?”

Jason laughed out loud, startling Tenacity.

“This isn’t magic, at least none that I know of. Nope, this just uses plain old technology.”

“But that’s impossible! It’s just a little piece of metal- Not even- how?” exclaimed the mare, her voice rising with franticness. Once she got herself under control again, she asked “What does it do?”

Jason grinned.

“Many things. It was a gateway to the world,” he said mystically, though quickly added, “That is, back where I come from. We call them smart phones, and this specific one BrainDocks.”

He proceeded to hold the phone in a way that Tenacity could see everything on the screen. With a flick of his index finger, he pushed the little glowing bar across the screen and unlocked the phone. The lock screen was quickly replaced with a dozen icons, each one of a variety of colours.

“Ooh, that’s pretty!” said Tenacity. “You still haven’t answered my question, though. What exactly does it do?”

“Well, to be honest it’s a little complicated-”

“Tell me,” interrupted Tenacity, the determination of her tone surprising Jason.

“Alright, then. But you have to let me finish, okay?” said Jason.

“Mhm,” hummed the earth pony mare.

“You see, on Earth, everything is part of a network – an information network. This system allows everything to function in an orderly manner and allows people to talk to another person if they have a problem. This device allows access to one major access point of that information network, something called a Telecommunication network,” said Jason. He stopped when he saw the sky-blue mare next to him giving him a puzzling look.

“I have no idea what any of that meant,” said Tenacity bluntly. Jason face palmed internally. Of course she doesn’t get any of that technical jumbo mumbo. I doubt many people back on Earth would get it without a degree in IT.

“Okay, my bad. What I’m saying is that you can essentially talk with many people using this phone, no matter where they are or what time. On our world, this matters a lot and everything relies on it. On top of that, there is something called the Internet that this BrainDock is connected to that allows you to find information on anything, anytime and anywhere.”

“Wait…so you’re saying that- that I can talk to my friend Amber even if she was say… on the other side of the Unicornia?”

“I don’t know where that is but I think you’ve got the gist of it. I know that may not sound like much-”

“That’s amazing! I-I can coordinate different preparations with other ponies anywhere else! Like, if I need any ingredients, I can just talk with the picker and get him to deliver it to me anytime! Oh! I can even talk with my zebra master!” exclaimed Tenacity.

“Yeah, that’s basically what we humans use it for most of the time,” said Jason.

“Well, can you do that now?” she asked with an exuberant grin.

“Sadly, no. Right now, this smart phone can’t do any of that. All of them needs these things called satellites that help carry these information from one place to another. Besides, to talk with another person, they need to have another phone as well. There are some features that still works, though. Like uh… here, I’ll show you.”

Jason flicked his thumb across the screen, the icons quickly replaced by a new set, some of them markedly more colourful. He tapped against a small rectangular icon of a pixelated picture of a cityscape. The screen turned black momentarily as the game started up.

“Um, is it broken?” asked Tenacity worriedly.

“Nah, just wait,” replied Jason, grinning with anticipation. Before long, colour seeped back into the screen. A small splash animation played, which caused Tenacity to giggle even though Jason was sure she didn’t know what it was she saw. The main menu soon appeared, and along with it a catchy tune started playing in the background.

“This can play music?! That’s amazing! I’ve never even heard this type of music before! Is there a tiny band in there? How could it fit? It’s so small!” exclaimed Tenacity. “And what are those wiggly lines?”

“It’s not just for playing music, though my BrainDock can do that as well. This is a game which we basically play whenever we are bored. The lines are English writing – my native language. It spells Citizen, which is the name of the game,” explained Jason, chuckling at Tenacity’s flagger basted expression.

“Huh, that’s weird. All the games I know are played with cards or boards,” she said. “And they usually don’t have a band playing in the background.”

“Oh, we humans have those as well, but digital games are slowly replacing them.” Not all of them, though, thought Jason. “This specific game lets you control a fictional human who lives in a city. The goal is trying to make mad amounts of money, avoid corrupt officials and survive the multiple disasters that will strike the city.”

“Who are you playing against?” questioned Tenacity.

“No one, actually. You play this game all by yourself, though technically I’m playing against the phone,” clarified Jason.

He quickly entered the game, playing through the free-to-roam world as a short, stubby and pixelated man, beating against zombies, haggling against shop-keepers and helping old ladies during his travel through the city. The colours were bright and bombastic, occasionally making the mare next to him gasp even as she started to bob her head to the rhythm of the background music.

Jason even gave it to Tenacity to have a few tries, though she had to use the tip of hoof very gently to do anything. Eventually, after an unlucky encounter with a Super Evil Pizza BoyTM, the character died and the last save was reloaded.

“Wow, is this what you have to go through just to live in your human cities?” remarked Tenacity as she relinquished the smart phone back to Jason, her cheeks slightly flushed with excitement.

“Pfft- No way. This is just for silly fun and most of the stuff in it aren’t even real,” said Jason. He was about to say more when he was cut short by a small notification that popped up on the screen. He almost choked when he saw that the power had gone down to the yellow bar already. “Ah, crap. Time to turn it off.”

“Can we please see more?” begged Tenacity with puppy eyes and pouted lips, causing Jason to choke a little. With some effort, he shook his head regrettably, and turned off the phone before any temptation to oblige the adorable mare became too much to bear.

“Sorry, the phone’s got limited power. I need to save as much of it as I can in case…” trailed off Jason, not exactly sure how he could finish in a way that would make sense to Tenacity – and to himself. However, Tenacity seemed to understand and gave a nod.

“What about your… weapon. Did humans invent that as well?”

“Yes, unfortunately,” said Jason somewhat reluctantly. “It’s called a gun, and it works by making a small piece of metal travel very fast in a very short amount of time.”

“Why is a ‘gun’ a bad thing? Wouldn’t it be much easier for humans to defeat the bad guys?”

“Not when the bad guys also have them. When both sides have guns, it becomes a bloodbath. Even so, guns aren’t the most dangerous thing we humans have invented by far. During what we call the Second World War, humans developed a device so powerful it can destroy our entire world.”

“Why would anyone make such a thing?” said Tenacity with a horrified gasp.

“When a war has worn on for so long, you start to lose touch with your conscience and you do whatever it takes to end it, even when there are no winners.” Jason paused. “Sorry, I think I’m preaching to the choir a little. You probably know far more about this than I do.”

Tenacity’s gaze lowered, and her next sentence came out as a mumble.

“It’s not so much a war, as it is a slaughter.” She turned her head sideways and her look turned into a thousand-mile-stare. Jason opened his mouth before quickly closing it, clenching his jaws.

Damn, what can I say to that? Stupid, stupid brain!

“Sorry, I got a little melancholic there, didn’t I?” she said, interrupting Jason’s mental berate. Her usual smile came back to her face, though this time it was a lot more subdued.

“I’m sorry I brought it up,” said Jason quietly.

“It’s okay, you didn’t know. And, you deserve to know after risking your life yesterday to save my village, and to save me.” Jason’s chest warmed at that, but it was tainted with a bittersweet feeling.

It was then that Tenacity gave a small – and to be honest, petrifyingly cute – yawn as she rubbed her eyes. Jason glanced over her with a concerned gaze nonetheless.

“Are you okay, Tenacity? It’s really late, and we can continue this tomorrow.” The mare’s eyes widened and she quickly waved her hooves.

“Oh no, no, I’m completely fine,” she reassured, though it was obvious that drowsiness was beginning to get to her. “Let’s talk about something other than weapons. There must be something else that humans made.”

Jason smiled as he began to speak. They talked a long time into the wane hours of the morning, before eventually Tenacity gave in to her exhaustion and fell dead asleep. With a small chuckle, Jason gently lifted her and carried her to her own room (at least he thought it was her room, being the only other chamber with a bed) and placed her onto the bed, draping a blanket over her sleeping form.

He went back to his own guest room and crept onto the cot, thinking about the conversation they had. Throughout it all, Jason felt something strange, almost like pride, as he saw the look of awe of Tenacity’s face when he mentioned the skyscrapers that touched the clouds, microscopes that can see the building blocks of life and cities that sprawled over hundreds of miles.

But even more, he did not expect that she, unlike many others humans, had understood the implications of many things he said, such as the internet. It was then that he saw something else in the mare that was a trait embedded in the spirit of humanity.

The desire to learn and discover.

Finally, after what felt like a small eternity, he felt his eyelids grow heavier and he slowly drifted off to sleep.





Jason’s handgun boomed as each pegasus that tried to attack him were met with solid lead. Finally, the last one toppled over, eyes opens in a last, unbelieving expression. Jason blew the smoke away from his gun and turned around to smile at Tenacity and the earth ponies, preparing to proclaim that they had nothing to fear under his protection. He stopped abruptly as he saw the bodies all around him, many of which contained the telltale sign of bullet holes.

“H-How could you murder them all… y-you monster!” Jason’s eyes snapped to Tenacity as she shouted and he felt a sudden burst of nausea. His hands shook, and he realized they were drenched in blood.

“I-I tried to save you all!” called out Jason desperately, but Tenacity and the earth ponies were already backing away into the shadows, blending in with the environment until somehow their forms could no longer be distinguished. “Wait!”

A small chuckle behind Jason froze him. He turned around slowly and saw the pegasus leader he had killed first slowly rising up. His armour plating was stained crimson from the still dripping blood of the gaping hole in his head. A crooked, bloodied grin found its way onto the pony’s face as he stared at Jason. The sky became overcast and ominous thunder reverberated from far away.

“You didn’t think that was enough to kill me, did you?” sneered the pegasus, completely ignoring another gush of blood that that came from his gruesome gun wound. Jason backed away, and shakily raised the gun to aim once again. He pulled the trigger and saw the pony jerk backwards. However, he couldn’t hear anything except for an inferno

The sound grew louder and louder until it reached a deafening crescendo and he doubled down in pain, clasping his two hands over his ears and dropping the handgun in the process. He raised his head and made out the vague outlines of Discord in front of him, posturing in some perverted version of an angel, extending a claw toward him.

“You didn’t think that was enough to kill him, did you?” asked Discord, his voice somehow piercing and clear even as the agonizing noise terrorized Jason. He felt something wet and viscous gurgle up in his throat.

“S-Stop it, just stop i-it,” stammered out Jason, finding it harder and harder to speak.

“Let me tell you a secret, little human,” said Discord, still grinning exuberantly, but this time his eyes were glowing with a demonic blood red. Jason coughed, and felt something wet and sickening leave his throat Discord leaned forward and whispered into Jason’s ear. Once again, the voice had perfect clarity, but this time accompanied by a hiss that chilled Jason to the bones.

“I let you kill him.”





Jason’s eyes snapped open and he retched violently, turning over frantically as he choked on his short, erratic gasps of air. He thrashed, frantically clutching his head with his hands as he tried to get away from Discord. He shouted and screamed again and again, expecting something, anything to happen to him.

Slowly, he came to his senses and lowered his arms to reveal the small, sunlit bedroom that Tenacity had provided for him. No undead pegasus, no hellish ringing in his ear and no Discord. He looked to his right, and saw that he had placed his holster and Berretta on the small dressing table adjacent to the cot. He slumped back to his bed, groaning.

Fuck, it was just a nightmare. Jason let out a shaky breath. That has got to be a world record on the shittiest way to wake up.

He laid there, blinking up into the stone ceiling. His heart was still hammering in his chest, but the desperate adrenaline that had flooded veins began to die down. Instead, in its wake it carried a tide of painful aches that he had acquired the day before.

Jason released a shuddering sigh as he inspected the spartan room he was in. A wooden table with a small chair beside it, and a window lighting up the room, covered by a layer of plain, greyish cloth and finally a small dressing table alongside his cot. It was remarkably similar to furniture on earth, despite a few adjustments that were clearly made to suit ponies better.

Another day still trapped within crazy land. He pulled a hand over his messy hair, and reminisced the events of the two days before. As he went over the already fading memories of the disturbing nightmare, a sudden, jarring thought struck his mind. Why do I even expect to be sent home? That Discord creature was probably lying. Hell, I don’t even know what else he did to me beside giving me those ‘gifts’. I wouldn’t know if he planted some sort of cancer into my body.

He let the depressing thought wash over him. It was likely possibility that he will remain here for the rest of his life, and upon further considering his recent conflict with the pegasi, it might be a short one at that.

The thought should’ve brought him to panic, to hyperventilate, or anything, really. And he did, kind of. But it felt isolated from the rest of his emotions and thoughts, as if something was blocking it from overwhelming him. Jason didn’t know whether or not he should be thankful.

Instead, he just gave a grunt. It was a sad situation he was in. A land with murderous pegasi and talking ponies with medieval and Roman era technology, with him extremely out of place among them. And then, there was his family… Jason’s face paled.

Oh shit, I forgot all about them. Ma, probably still living alone since I last saw her…

For some reason, that did it. Not the close death experience, or the shock of having sapient ponies. It was thoughts of his mum. It was almost as if whatever force that was keeping him calm and collected forgot about this detail, or just skimmed over it. Tears welled up in his eyes as he remembered the last time he had talked to her.

I told her I had to go, because I had a new deadline at my job. Fucking dammit! Why was I so rude and careless? I even promised her that I would call again soon, but we both know that I just wanted to say it to shut her up…

As if a dam had been broken, the first tears crept down his face. The sobbing quickly turned to bawling, as he shed tears for everything. His family, his life, his sanity… everything. And of course, there was also that thing. The monster that did this to him. Through his tear-filled eyes, a sudden streak of bitterness and spite flowed through his being.

The journey he had taken in the last few days were all sort of dream like quality. Everything he did was like playing a video game, he didn’t feel the true impact of all those things happening.

This is real. This is fucking real. I’m stuck, in a land of PONIES. AND I’M GOING TO DIE ALONE! BECAUSE OF THAT FUCKING DEMON!

At some point, he remembered someone talking to him. Then, a pair of soft hooves wrapped around him, and embraced him. He hugged back, and sobbed into the soft, blue fur. A voice cooed gently, and Jason thought he recognized the tune of a familiar yet different lullaby.

Slowly, Jason stopped, only sniffling once in a little while as the tears dried on his face. During the duration, he realized that it was Tenacity who came in but he didn’t feel he had enough strength to part from her. Instead, he closed his eyes and just enjoyed the moment.

I wonder what my past self would say if I told him that I would be crying into a talking multi-coloured pony on a planet far away from Earth. The thought drew a sad, silent chuckle from him.

After a long silence, it was Jason who spoke first.

“Thank you, Tenacity, I really needed that,” he said, before giving a sad little chuckle. “You must think I’m pretty pathetic. A strange bawling in front of another.”

Tenacity leaned back, and after a little effort placed both hooves on Jason’s slumped shoulders. She gave a smile and shook her head.

“No, I don’t. The ponies are happy and relieved that you saved them. But, they are afraid of you, even though many do not show it. They pretend to ignore you for who you are, if only to have a moment of peace and tranquillity. Seeing you like this, though, I know that you are genuine in your actions, and not some mysterious stranger from the woods. After all, you are only a pony- er, I mean human,” said Tenacity, with a small tint of a sheepish blush. Jason gave a weak smile.

“I don’t think that I have ever met someone who is as kind as you, human or pony,” said Jason.

“Glad I can help,” she replied, before standing up and heading towards the door. “Now come on, I can show you around the village a bit.”





After Jason had gotten over his episode of pent up emotions, he made himself presentable and followed Tenacity into the village. Apparently, she doubled as an alchemist and manager whenever, and are usually required to make sure everypony was alright and report back to Elder Hearty Spirit. While she went about checking up on many of the places in town, he used the opportunity to familiarize himself with the place and its inhabitants.

Jason was walking with Tenacity down one of the town’s numerous cobblestone roads when he saw a series of wrecked and collapsed homes. However, what surprised him was that he saw new and sturdy looking foundations already built, and occasionally stopping to let a few ponies pass, usually carrying heavy planks of wood carried between them.

“How are these ponies rebuilding so fast?” remarked Jason. It was true. Already, he could see the foundations of new houses, and he was quite sure that they weren’t there yesterday.

“Our houses are designed to be quite easily assembled and built, as raids are unfortunately not too rare. Anything we can salvage are reused, and we can often build the frame of a new house pretty quickly from just raw materials,” said Tenacity. “We all have to work together to make sure stuff doesn’t get used up too poorly, though. That’s why I’m here to check up on everypony.”

Hmm, raw materials-

As if a comical lightbulb just ignited above his head, an idea struck Jason. It was crazy, but in a world of pastel coloured ponies and magic, it might just be possible. Without warning, he turned to Tenacity.

“Say, Tenacity, is there a blacksmith around here?”





They had almost travelled across half the village – with Tenacity making pitstops here and there – before they finally reached the blacksmith. The building itself was made completely out of stone; grey and weathered yet still looking firm and ready to withstand anything. A small sign hanging outside the main entrance proclaimed it was the Blacksmith, though that was mostly unnecessary due to the metal forge on the side as well as several stands of numerous metallic merchandises. In fact, the whole scene was almost akin to something out of a traditional fantasy setting.

“Alright, since we’re here, I’m going to check on a few things for Elder Seed. I’ll still be around the blacksmith somewhere, so you go do what you wanted to,” said Tenacity. Jason nodded and she wandered off, presumably to the back of the blacksmith.

Jason stepped up to the front door and rapped against it three times. Then, he waited. The wind that whistled in his ears provided a calming backdrop as his mind wandered. A few throwbacks to Dungeons and Dragons sessions back in college came to his thoughts, and he realized that if it were at all similar, he didn’t really have any currency to buy with. He was tempted to ask Tenacity, but she was probably preoccupied with her job.

Eh, I’ll cross the bridge when I get to it.

After a few more seconds, Jason was beginning to grow slightly agitated and raised his hand knock against the door again. However, his ambitions were dashed when a voice shouted from within, whom Jason figured must be the blacksmith.

“I’ll be right there! Feel free to take a look around!”

Jason shrugged and looked around the stands, trying to find something that may be of use to him. He quickly skipped past the armour section as most were logically fitted to that of ponies. Unfortunately, most weapons, while bearing some familiarity with human medieval weapons, were more suited for ponies with mouth grips and more hoof-friendly handles. He walked amongst the stands, peering in and shaking his head every so often at some other interesting but ultimately useless item.

Just as he was about to give up, he spotted a beautiful slightly curved edged dagger with what looked like a picture of a dragon imprinted on its golden scabbard seemingly abandoned in an obscure corner. Jason leaned in closer and placed a hand on the handle, feeling a slight chill ran down his spine. He had never before seen something so beautiful and elegant yet deadly. Engrossed as he was, Jason didn’t notice Tenacity approach him until she spoke.

“Found something you like?” she asked.

“Maybe,” he mumbled. Before he could inspect the dagger further, a beige coated stallion with shaggy brown hair stumbled from within the blacksmith building.

“Can I-uh, can I help you two?” he asked before squinting at Jason. “Hey, you’re that uh-whatever you are- that saved the village! Welcome, welcome to my humble abode! Feel free to choose anything, it’s free, on the house!”

“Actually, I have something a specific order in mind. I want something made, well… a lot of somethings, I suppose.”

Jason spent the next little while explaining that he wanted bullet heads, how they were made and vaguely hinted at their usage. He ejected his current pistol magazine discretely and took out a single bullet, showing the blacksmith its dimensions and shape. During the explanation, Brass Hoof took out a chalk board and weirdly enough – and also a little disgusting – used his mouth to sketch what Jason had wanted. Afterwards, the blacksmith took a long time to think through what Jason requested.

“I cannot guarantee anything, but I think I can make what you’re asking for. The problem is materials. Tin and copper is doable, but lead is painfully rare. Normally, I would be more than happy to make your demands after you saved our humble village. But… the quantities you’re asking for is not cheap,” said Brass Hoof regrettably. Beside Jason, Tenacity frowned as she spoke up.

“Really, Brass? You’re going to haggle with the one who saved our village?” she asked incredulously

“Sorry, Miss Tenacity, but wares are wares,” said Brass. “What your friend here is asking – that’s my livelihood.”

Tenacity looked ready to start an argument, and Jason quickly stepped in before the inevitable clash.

“What if I propose to you a deal?”

“Like a trade?” asked Brass Hoof sceptically.

“Yes, have you heard of steel? You know, extra strong iron and lighter?” asked Jason.

“Course I know of it. The unicorns boast about it whenever they can, what with their diviners being the only ones that can make it. Yeah, I’ve heard of it,” said the stallion.

“I can tell you a cheap and efficient way of making steel, in exchange for… for as much lead-cast bullets as you can make,” said Jason. The blacksmith looked thoughtful for a moment before clicking his tongue.

“Deal, I can make you forty-eight of your ‘bullet heads’ with the materials I currently have. Anything you want to add to the deal? I’ll consider it a thank you gift for saving the town.”

Jason looked surprise momentarily before quickly scanning the stands. When he had inspected the items for sale earlier, most of them were useless to him. However, there was the one weapon that had caught his attention…

“The forty-eight bullet heads and that dagger over there,” said Jason, pointing to the dagger he had briefly inspected before.

“The Minotaurian blade? A very fine choice. A traveller once passed through our village and traded it for coin with much hesitation. Anyways, you have your deal! Now, tell me this method of making steel,” said the Blacksmith eagerly. Jason swallowed lightly as he stared into the maniac eyes of the earth pony.

Damn, don’t fail me now memory.

Vaguely, Jason recalled the Bessemer Process to Brass Hoof, whom had an awestruck expression semi-permanently imprinted across his face throughout the recount. When Jason finally finished, the beige stallion struggled to lift his jaw off the ground.

“Fella, are you sure you’re not some blacksmith genius? With that method, I can make steel just like that! All the things I can make! I need to start working on this right away- right after I finish making these ‘bullets’ of yours! Come back in two days’ time and I’ll have ‘em read for you” Before Jason could reply, the pony was already gone, dust slowly resting on the ground where he had been moments ago.

Jason blinked.

“Well he was sure excited,” commented Tenacity mirthfully. “I’ve never seen the grouse move half as fast in my entire life, not even that time when his house was on fire.”

Jason glanced at the stone and wood house in concern.

I probably need to teach these guys proper workplace health and safety. At this thought, he couldn’t help but guffaw a bit, drawing a curious look from Tenacity. Me, teaching people- ponies about workplace health.

Grabbing the dagger Jason had ‘bought’, he hefted it within his hands, feeling the weight against his palm as he performed a few pseudo swings at mid-air. An amused snort from next to him quickly reminded Jason that he wasn’t alone. He strapped the scabbard onto his belt and left the blacksmith with Tenacity, a faint blush on his face.





“Wow, all of these suggestions are amazing! I can’t believe nopony thought of them before!” said the mare as she marvelled at the sketch of the greenhouse. Jason gave a tired but content smile. He had just spent the whole day describing several inventions that revolutionized human civilization to various ponies in the village.

“Thank you, so so so much! I think you just solved our food situation this coming winter in one swoop! And the next one, and the next and the next winter after that!” continued the farm mare, still singing praises of him. In fact, it was becoming quite embarrassing, especially in front of an equally amazed and humoured mare called Tenacity.

“Really, I haven’t done anything special. It’s just a friendly tip,” said Jason humbly, his cheeks glowing. “Really, it was just something I learnt… a while ago. I wasn’t the one to invent it or anything like that.

“I don’t care, since you actually bothered to tell us about it. Stars above, can you imagine how much food we can grow…” rambled on the mare as she bulldozed through Jason’s attempt at modesty and humbleness.

Eventually, Tenacity gave a small none-too-subtle cough, prompting the excited mare to hurry along. She proceeded to give the mare a meaningful glance, though Jason couldn’t guess what it could’ve meant.

“Oh, right! We still have to… I mean, uh, I won’t bother you anymore, good sir,” said the mare. She flashed one last grateful smile before trotting away, mumbling excitedly to herself all the way. “A glass house, can you believe it…”

Jason walked out of the farm house and into the open fields, enjoying the gentle breeze that ran through his hair. Tenacity trailed slightly behind him, though still more than within speaking range.

“It’s funny, you know,” started Jason, eyes going skyward.

“Hmm?” hummed Tenacity.

“We humans always thought that out there, above the skies, there are some other intelligent life, so much more advanced than our measly own little world. We thought that they would give us unimaginable technology, so fantastical that it would be indistinguishable from magic,” mused Jason. “Today, the exact opposite is happening.”

“Huh, were you a scholar back on your human world? I know there are some unicorn scholars who live in academies in the far north.”

“Nothing like that. I’m just a guy who went through school just like everyone else, and picked up a thing or two along the way.”

“Everyone else? You mean every human on your world went to school?” asked Tenacity.

“Well, not everyone…. There were some who are too poor and others who don’t care and dropped out early. Those who can, though, usually went through at least high school. The people who controls our country also tries to make it affordable for most people. When you graduate from high school, you are usually considered an adult and ready to take care of yourself.”

“Fascinating,” Tenacity mumbled to herself. “It’s like the academy system, but one for everypony instead of only for scholars, though then again this might turn everypony into scholars. Hmm…”

The two settled into a comfortable silence as they walked amongst the slowly emptying streets. Jason found it incredibly soothing as it lacked all the sounds of the cities on Earth. It felt fresh and rejuvenating now that he was not in any immediate danger, lost, angry or depressed.

“Alright,” said Tenacity suddenly, breaking the silence. “I’ve got a few more rounds to make, if you still want to follow me around.”

“Lead the way,” said Jason, making a little flourish with his arms.





“Well, it’s getting rather late… Huh, where are all the ponies?” asked Jason. He looked around with a worried frown before glancing back at the mare by his side. “Tenacity?”

“Yes?” hummed Tenacity.

“Are you okay, Tenacity? Where are all the other ponies?” asked Jason, a note of anxiousness entering his tone. This time, Tenacity finally tilted her head sideways to him, though a telling little smirk was upon her lips.

“Oh, you will see in a moment,” she said mystically.

Well, she looks happy, so it’s probably nothing, right?

Jason jumped as a whoop suddenly went out.

“What was that-” started Jason but he was immediately cut off by a huge, thunderous shout.

“EVERYPONY, LET’S PART-TAY!” Without warning, ponies wear festive colours jumped out onto the street all around Jason. Really, they were usually nothing more than strips of coloured ribbons crossed over their body, but combined together it was amazing to watch nonetheless. A few ponies carrying what seemed to be lutes, harps and lyres jumped out onto the road, setting up an impromptu band. Lanterns were placed on doorsteps, pushing away the approaching darkness.

More ponies than Jason would’ve thought there’d be streamed out of their dwellings. Most of them must’ve still been hiding when the town elder made her announcement, understandably. Banners were pulled up, hanging off the huts and houses along the streets. Somewhere further down the cobblestone road, a group of stallions started chanting, flowing along with the music.

With an awed and a little bewildered expression, he looked for Tenacity, whom had somehow obtained a pink ribbon tied in her mane without him noticing.

“What is this?” asked Jason.

“Celebration for the victory against Pegasopolis!” said Tenacity, but then suddenly stopped in front of Jason awkwardly. “Wait, uh, I never asked you this. Do humans have parties?”

With a smile, Jason nodded but raised his own question.

“Why didn’t you tell me earlier?” he asked.

“I wanted it to be a surprise,” said Tenacity shyly, blushing a little. “I wanted another first impression for you. To see who we Earth Ponies really are.”

Jason’s smile widened at that.

She truly has a heart of gold.

Despite the festive chaos – one that was increasing in volume – it felt strangely harmonic, as if everything was coming together into a beautiful puzzle. He looked up in time to see a trio of fireworks roar upwards into the sky. A small, curious part of his mind noted that the ponies must’ve had some sort of explosive powder in order to do so. The thought was quickly stowed away when they erupted into multihued explosions.

“This is amazing!” shouted Jason, straining to be heard over the rising din. Despite the fact that he stood twice the height of a pony, it certainly felt very crowded, what with street banners and festive streamers hanging everywhere. A few ponies even tried to copy his pose, standing up on two hooves with a few who surprisingly managed the feat.

“Glad you’re liking it!” Tenacity shouted back, laughing as the ponies around them moved with the insanely addicting music. However, she surprised him by closing in and grasping his hands in her hooves. “Come on, let’s dance!”

Jason smiled as he was half dragged out into the open.

Maybe this wasn’t so bad after all.