A lone space Marine is left stranded on Equestria. His mission was to attempt to colonize, but has been changed to 'survive.' As he helps the citizens of Equestria defend against invasions, he starts to realizes how much his new life means
A prodigy from a young age, Sgt. Xavier Arcuz was the perfect solder for the job of investigating a new planet that seems to have intelligent life for possible future settlement. But when catastrophe ensues, he will have to make a choice between his loyalty to the core, and his new home.
My personal terminal said to me as I turned it on, it was probable that this was the last time I was going to see it, so wanted to take some personal data. After transferring some mission logs, team data, and some more personal files, I began my decent to the upper deck of the Phantom Train. I sat down at the table in the great hall that had the rest of my platoon. Cpl. James Lance was our medic, he was an immigrant from Austria. He had long, light brown hair, green eyes, and a thick accent. His build was skinny, but he was a great doctor. Pvt. Jericho Grissam knew everything about any kind of weapon you can imagine and is one of the most loyal solders iv'e ever seen. He stands at six feet and ten inches tall and weighs in at 315.67 pounds. He looks almost exactly like the overly manly man meme. Cpl. Lucas Richards is a fantastic recon guy. He can run, jump, climb, and is silent as a shadow. He was about 5' 6" and only 182 pounds, but he is very tough despite his stature. He is Scottish and proud. And finally, the old man, master sergeant Benjamin Wallace. He joined the service at 19, and is now 39. He is 6' even and 240 pounds, and the toughest guy I know. His grey hair is almost buzz cut, and his olive-grey eyes are intimidating to directly look at, even some of the higher ranking officers are scared of him.
When I sat down at the table with my meal of 2 eggs, 2 slices of bacon, and orange juice, I saw my team had already finished eating. "What kept you?" Sgt. Wallace asked me "just some last minute business, sir" I said with respect. "No need for the formality's, you are the squad leader" he said, and it was true, though he was of a higher rank, I was the squad leader. After finishing my meal, we all proceeded into the control deck of the ship to receive our mission Lt. Noah Moar greeted us. "Gentlemen" he began "your mission is Operation: Frontier Purge, as the name states, you will be purging the frontier of this new planet. Eliminate any threat you can, and if its to tough, just get back alive with intel." "Yes, sir" my squad and I said in unison as we saluted, then exited the room to get geared up.
As we entered the supply hub, we saw our power-suits waiting. they were basic mark III nero-interface suits with a class 6 H.U.D. and an infinite-mass storage unit (witch was poorly named since they can only store 200 pounds of equipment, fortunately ammo was practically weightless.) The suits themselves were similar to the Chinese stealth armor from the game Fallout 3, and had a similar stealth function. After getting outfitted, we moved on to the weapons room. Despite having laser technology, and an abundance of it, I prefered a traditional marksman-style firearm, and I had just the one in mind. I opened up a desk drawer containing my trusty 44. magnum revolver, Ace. After holstering my favorite pistol, and grabbing about 200 rounds of ammunition, the quartermaster assigned me a standard-issue rechargeable laser rifle. "I got you a high powered scope, I know how you like to snipe" the quartermaster said with a smile as he handed me the gun, "thanks" I replied with a nod. After registering the device in my inventory, I tucked it away and went to find a mele weapon. After some debating, I settled on a simple butterfly knife, a deadly weapon, and a good survivalist tool. I also picked up 2 plasma grenades, a frag mine, an emergency flare, a casual pair of jeans, a T-shirt, a coil of rope, and a first aid kit, now I was ready. I saw Jericho standing outside the room, clutching a shotgun, he prefered guns to, especially scatterguns. Lance came out of the room a moment later with a solar-powered device that could heal wounds, something of his own design. "Your new toy, I presume" I said after laying eyes on the device "ja" he replied "zis vill be interesting to say ze least." Wallace was next to exit, a sniper rifle mounted on his back, that was his style. After him came Richards, a plasma pistol at his side, he was very enthusiastic "lets go!" he shouted as he exited. We made our way to the hanger bay ware a shuttle was waiting to take us to the planets surface. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Meanwhile in Equestria.
Twilight Sparkle was enjoying her day off, the library was closed, Spike was taking an afternoon nap, no one needed help around Ponyvile, and she was happy for every second of it. She was outside of Sugarcube Corner, eating a cupcake, when a thought came to her. "I still need to test that new lens on my telescope" she remembered "this one should let me see into space!" She quickly finished her treat and ran to the library. Once she arrived, she immediately headed to the top floor ware she was eagerly waiting to test the new lens. After a few adjustments, it was ready, but a thought popped into her head, "I guess I better wait until night to get a better view" she said sadly. She shrugged "it will be a great ending to a great day" she quickly said, a smile crossing her face. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
About an hour later, Phantom Train launching bay.
Is this recording? It is? Oh shit, uh, oh yeah. My squad and I were all geared up and ready to begin our mission. As we approached our ship, a Neptune-class platoon transport witch was hardly a fighter, but it had good shields and a cloaking device, so not much to complain about. We all took our positions. Sgt. Wallace and I piloted the craft, Jericho took a nap, and so did Richards, Lance just sat in silence for the whole ride. "Look sharp!" Wallace snapped at the sleeping solders. Jericho and Lance snapped to attention and saluted, Richards fell out of his seat, but quickly snapped to attention as well. I facepalmed, and Wallace simply sighed and said "at ease" the three men dropped their salutes and put their hands at their sides. "Now, onto business" Wallace began "Sgt. Arcuz" he gestured to me, I cleared my throat and began the mission review. "Now, our mission is to touch down on the planet and discover if it has intelligent life, if so, we scout for a few days, and report back. Do nothing to agitate the locals, do not let any outside substance touch you, if the mission is endangered in any way, we shall report back immediately, is this understood?" I sternly said to my troops. "Sir, yes sir!" they all said, even Wallace, who looked at me with a proud look in his eye.
After crossing into the atmosphere, we saw what looked like a castle sitting on a mountain. Scanning the outlying towns revealed a place for us to land, We located a forest near a small town that we thought would be great for our mission. After finding a clearing, we landed, and reported in with our superiors. About 5 minutes later, we sent Richards to scout ahead, he gave us a comunication 10 minutes later. "Uh, guys" he began nervously "report" I said "three things" Richards continued "one, this place does have intelligent life, two, I don't think they speak english" he then stopped. "Well" Jericho said after a minute of silence passed "whats the third thing?" Richards took a deep breath, preparing himself "they're, well, pony's." We all froze at this news, Lance seemed to be doing calculations in his head, as if to determine the possibility of this, Wallace just nodded, and Jericho was forcing back a laugh. "I'm dead serious" Richards assured us "they are pony's, technicolor pony's, and one almost saw me." We all pondered this, Richards had not been caught once in his carrier. "Well," I said "we need as much info as possible on these pony's, tell us all you know." Richards nodded "were about a half mile away from a settlement, from what we've seen from the overhead view, it's a small town." He then pulled out a map that he had stolen. "We are here" he said, pointing to a small location south of the biggest city. "From what I've seen, there are three types of pony's, normal, unicorn, and pegasus, I know it's strange, but this is another world." We all nodded in agreement, after all, he was right, this wasn't earth, and we needed to expect anything but the ordinary. "Well, we know for sure that this planet is habitable, but unfortunately we might have to deal with a form of government" I said to my squad "ve need to conduct some tests" Lance added. After determining that the atmosphere was breathable, and the soil could grow crops, we figured a colony could be established here, little did I know that the trouble hadn't even started.
After spending a few hours on planet X, my crew and I have learned much of the locals, who are pony's, strangely enough. And after testing several factors, we concluded that this planet could also support human life, our mission was almost finished, all we had left to do was convince the government to establish a human colony (like that's going to be easy.) We noticed that the sun was beginning to set. "Looks like the time is about 4 hours ahead of us" Sgt. Wallace said with a chuckle "well, we can figure this out tomorrow, 2 hours until curfew, boys." "Yes, sir" we all said in unison. We all headed back into our transport and ate some dinner, dehydrated steak isn't half bad, and we took turns throughout the night keeping watch for locals for the rest of the night. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ponyville, 6:00 pm.
Twilight was growing more excited with every minute that passed, she had planned out everything that she was going to do tonight. She had a slow day tomorrow as well, so she could stay up late tonight stargazing. She aimed her telescope near the spot the moon would be in in mere minutes. Spike came upstairs to check up on Twilight, he saw the excited look on her face and curiosity got the better of him. "Hey, Twilight?" Spike asked, the unicorn then snapped out of her joyful trance and stared at the dragon for a few seconds before he continued "why are you so happy all of a sudden?" he asked. Twilight gave a small giggle of joy and replied "my new telescope lens is here, I'm going to see what outer space looks like tonight" Spike stared in awe at this. "Wow" he said "can I look too?" "not tonight, Spike" Twilight replied. Spike just shrugged and went to get a snack. After about half an hour, the moon was finally out, the night had begun. Twilight was so excited, and she had already planned out her night. "Okay" she said, pulling up her checklist "first, a look at the surface of the moon." She gave a slight giggle before gazing through her telescope. She gazed in awe as she took in the sight of the moons very surface, but something disturbed her. "Hoofprints" she muttered to herself, writing down this find, but the fact that nightmare moon's hoofprints were still on the surface of the moon disturbed her. She continued following the trail until something obscured her vision. A large, tan object blocked her view of the moon. She looked away from her telescope at the moon, but could not see the object. She looked back into the telescope and slightly retracted the zoom. Before her was a strange object that looked nothing like she had ever seen. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Canterlot Castle, observatory, 7:30 pm.
Princess Luna had one again raised the moon, bid her sister a good night, and made her way to the telescope of the great observatory. Stargazing had been one of her hobby's, witch is why she sent Twilight Sparkle one of the most powerful telescope lenses in Equestria. "If anypony shall benefit from the mystery's the stars hold, it is her" Luna repeated to herself with a grin. It was a perfectly clear night, perfect for maybe finding a new planet. Luna looked out at her moon first, beautiful, bright, and, obstructed? Luna took her gaze out of the telescope to find the strange, tan object that was blocking the view of her precious moon, but could not find it. She looked through the telescope again, and there it was. "Strange" she said to herself, this required further investigation. Looking through the telescope once again, she zoomed out and saw the object in full view, a strange ship maybe? She saw what looked like letters on the side of it. She zoomed in slightly and read the letters "Phantom Train." Was this some sort of trick? Ever since discord was reformed, he hadn't been much trouble (besides playing some practical jokes on the guards, but he is the god of chaos after all.) Speaking of Discord, he was standing right behind her. Luna looked up at him, he was starring in the same direction as the object. "Your stumped too, huh?" he asked Luna, who just looked baffled. "You can see it without any magic help?" Luna asked, Discord laughed a bit before answering "no, but my magic senses are more honed than yours." He saw that Luna looked confused again "whatever that thing is" Discord continued "it's under some kind of cloaking spell, you would be able to see it if it were closer." Luna understood now. "I think a letter to the elements of harmony is in order" Luna said, Discord nodded and coughed up a perfectly dry piece of paper. Luna didn't question this, but instead took a quill from a nearby ink pot and began to write. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Neptune shuttle, 10:00 AM
I awoke to go on watch with Cpl. Lance, we decided to give the others another hour of sleep before attempting to fulfill our mission. I decided to check out the village for myself. I climbed a tree and turned on my armor's stealth function. After about a mile of forest, I happened upon a small cottage. I opened up the map I got from Richards and saw that it was marked. "Zecora's hut" I read to myself "and Richards said they couldn't speak English" I chuckled. I leaped down from my tree and looked at the map. "I'm not far from the settlement" I said, continuing down what seemed to be a path. I was stopped by an odd smell, I turned to see what looked like a zebra with a mohawk brewing a potion. I just shrugged and continued on, and about ten minutes of sneaking around, I saw it. The sign that marked the town gate read "Ponyville," well, I came here to do some scouting, and I think I did. I turned around to find another tree to climb, when a small pony ran into me. I did not make a sound, but rather moved behind the group of three small pony's. The one that ran into me, a pale yellow pony with a bow in her red hair, was rubbing her head. then the orange one began to speek. "Era uoy yako elppa moolb?" It seemed to ask "haey, I kniht os" the pale pony replied. I slowly climbed the tree that I found and proceeded to head back to the camp. 'I'm never going to hear the end of this from Richards' I thought. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ponyville, 10:20 AM
The Cutie-Mark Crusaders were headed to Zecora's for a visit. "Okay, what are we going to do today?" Scootaloo asked "ah don't know, maybe Zecora will have an idea" Apple Bloom replied. As they reached the city entrance, Apple Bloom suddenly collided with something. She rubbed her head with her hoof. "Are you okay Apple bloom?" Scootaloo asked "yeah, I think so" she replied. Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle just looked in confusion at their friend. They started to feel the air around them, then Scootaloo sighed. "Well" she said "I guess it was no-" she was about to dismiss her suspicions when they all heard a nearby tree branch snap. "What was that?" Sweetie Belle asked, they then looked up at the trees lining the entrance to the everfree forest and saw another tree lose a branch, then a branch move, then another. "There's something in the trees!" Sweetie Belle exclaimed. "Follow it!" Scootaloo shouted, and just like that, they were chasing Arcuz through the woods. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
A moment earlier.
I had just climbed a nearby tree, and I was about to head back to base camp, but I stepped on a week branch. "Shit" I said to myself, I then looked at the three small pony's, who were looking right at me. "They can't see me, can they?" I asked myself, but I wasn't about to take the chance. "Sereht gnihtemos ni eht seert!" one of them shouted. That's when fear overcame reason, and I bolted. I hopped tree after tree, but they were in hot pursuit, and refused to give up. so I decided to try something, I pulled out my silenced revolver and shot a branch on another tree, they took the bait and turned another direction. I used the chance to escape. When I got back to the ship, Richards was awake. "How'd it go?" he asked "I need another hour of rest" I replied. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ponyville, 12:00 PM
Twilight and Spike were eating a nice \lunch Twilight had a flower sandwich, and Spike had emeralds, he was happy about the emeralds that Rarity had recently given him, Twilight was lost in thought about the strange object she had seen the other night. Spike had just taken a swig of his juice when he began to violently cough, "are you okay?" Twilight asked, Spike nodded and coughed up a letter in a puff of green fire. "I'm fine" he said, grabbing the letter "I just got a taste of the paper, and it is NASTY." Twilight levitated the letter over to her and began to read. "Dear Twilight Sparkle, if you have indeed aquired the telescope lens that I have sent you, then you may know of the mysterious object looming in the presence of the moon. Discord has informed me of a possible cloaking spell it uses to hide itself. We may be on the verge of an extraterrestrial encounter. I wish for you and the other elements of harmony to be on the lookout for anything suspicious. We do not know if this is a threat or not, but if so, we need all the help we can get. Be safe. Signed, Princess Luna." Twilight looked in confusion at the letter for a moment, then nodded and set off to find the others. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Froggybottom Bog, 12:00 PM
"I told you this was the wrong way" I said to Richards as we found ourselves in what appeared to be a swamp. "Ze magnetic polarity of zis vurld is different zan zat of ours" Lance confirmed, looking at his compass "not my fault" Richards said with a shrug. "Regardless" I interrupted "we need to head back and try again tomorrow." As we turned to go back, we felt the ground shake. "What the hell was that?" Jericho asked, his question was answered when a giant snake-like head came out of the mud, and opened it's green eyes to look right at us. Jericho prepared his gatling laser, when 4 more heads came out of the mud. We all stared in amazement for a moment before anyone could speak, and Richards was the first to say what everyone was thinking "RUN!" We all turned off our stealth and ran for it, we needed to get back to the ship. Jericho turned around and began to fire his gatling laser, but the blasts to one of the beasts heads just seemed to piss it off, Jericho just kept running after that. We got to the stealthed ship with the beast in hot pursuit, it could see through the cloaking, apparently, because it attempted to bite through the ship. As we began to take off, the creature used two of its heads to hold down the ships wings, we couldn't get a clear shot at it with the ships cannons, so we were stuck. Sgt. Wallace try'd to escape, but we were going no ware. "Five heads" I said to myself, then I turned to Wallace and said "open the cargo doors, I have an Idea!" he nodded and pressed the release button. Everyone was holding onto a rail, trying not to fall out. I let go of my rail and turned to Jericho. "Give the others my regards" I said before taking the two plasma grenades from his belt. I also took out the two plasma grenades from my inventory, and pulled the pins on all of them. I jumped out of the ship, and threw all of the grenades, the hydra let go of the ship, witch took off at half the speed of light, and it grabbed each one of the grenades in one of its mouths, and I was next. I quickly pulled out my mine and tossed it at the beasts last open mouth. I heard 5 deafening explosions before I passed out, what a way to die.
'I should be dead' I thought to myself, but the sharp pain spreading through my body told me otherwise. I attempted to do something, anything, even open my eyes, but I was hurting to much. I hard a voice that was close, very close "is it awake, sister?" the voice was feminine, no doubt to that. A moment later, I heard another female voice "no, but I can see that it is finally receptive" this voice was slightly deeper than the other, and had a tone of authority to it, but also sounded caring. "Alert Discord" said the first voice "we need to see into it's mind again, learning it's language was just the beginning." What seemed like hours later, I heard another voice, this one was male. "So, it's finally not dead, always good" the sarcasm was unmistakeable. They obviously called this guy Discord for a reason, and I guessed that I was about to find out why. I felt something similar to a paw touch my head, then the weirdest feeling settled in, I opened my eyes, the pain was gone, I could move, I was... home? "What the hell?" I asked myself "is this a dream?" "of course it is" came the voice of the one they called Discord, I turned to see what he looked like, and found myself staring at the oddest creature that I had ever seen (and I'm a vet. of the war against the aliens of planet Zeta.) I reflexively went to reach for a gun that wasn't there, Discord just looked at me with a confused expression. "Hello" he said very calm "hi" I replied "ware am I?" I asked, Discord just laughed. "The question is" he said between fits of laughter "ware am I?" I looked around at the city before me, Detroit, my hometown. "This is planet Earth" I said, shrugging "or at least how I remember it, I haven't been there in years." Discord looked confused "I know about your military carrier, Sargent" he said "and I'm impressed at how much chaos you humans have caused." I looked at him as seriously as I could and said "i'm not here to bring chaos." "I know why your here" he said bluntly, I nodded "so, are you who I need to speak to? or the sisters?" Discord looked surprised "how did you figure that out so fast?" he asked me. "You have my memory's, iv'e always been observant" Discord smirked at this, "sarcasm, I like that in people " he said. "How am I?" I asked Discord. "The worst part is over, but your going to be under for a couple more days to make sure your okay" he shrugged as he said this, and I let out a sigh of relief. "Well, anyways, i'm Arcuz" I said, extending a hand. Discord shook it with his lion paw. "Good to meet you, but I must go now, see you in two days" he said, vanishing. I was just left with my thoughts. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ponyville hospital, a moment later.
Discord opened his eyes and removed his paw from Sgt. Arcuz's head. 9 pairs of concerned eyes were watching. Surprisingly, Fluttershy was the first to speak up "how is it?" she asked. "He" Discord corrected "he" Fluttershy said, finishing her question. "He'll be fine in a few days" Discord assured, everyone let out a sigh of relief, even the two princess's. They all directed their gaze at the still figure of the Sargent laying on the hospital bed, who let out a breath. "I wonder what he'll be like" Fluttershy said. Everyone pondered this momentarily. "Maybe he'll be great at sports!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed "or an intellectual" Twilight Sparkle added, "I hope he likes party's!" Pinkie Pie shouted "or animals" Fluttershy said. "I could design a line of clothing for humans!" Rarity squealed, excited at a new business opportunity "well ah' hope that he's a worker." Applejack said. "You forget, my little pony's" Princess Celestia began "Luna and I must observe him first, to ensure that he poses no threat." The elements of harmony nodded, as much as they wanted to help, they were not yet sure if he was dangerous or not. Celestia, Luna, and Discord all took a royal chariot back to Canterlot, and the elements of harmony left shortly after. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
9/3/78, Ponyville hospital, 3:00 AM
I slowly opened my eyes when the sunlight hit them, and the pain set in moments later. "OW!" I shouted when I became fully aware of the pain. After surviving the shockwaves of 4 plasma grenades and a frag mine, you would be hurting to. The nurse that was in my room immediately rushed over to me "are you okay?" she asked in a concerned tone. I calmed down a bit after hearing her voice, I took a deep breath, and the pain began to die down. "Yes" I finally answered "I guess it all just hit me at once" then I paused, a thought coming into my head. "Are you speaking English?" I asked the nurse, who gave me a confused look. "English?" she asked me, then I noticed that my helmet was still on. "Nevermind" I said, I then scanned through my language filters, I saw an unknown language that was set to 'active.' "Set title" I said to my helmet "Equestrian" I said, a small memory coming into my thoughts, and that was that, I could now speak Equestrian. I slowly began to rise from my bed, and turned to the nurse "all my vital signs seem to be in order, I would like to check out" I said as calmly as I could, the nurse nodded and showed me out. As I exited the building, I was immediately confronted by a pink, curly haired pony with a large grin. "Can I help you?" I asked her, she let out a large gasp and bolted away. "Well, that was interesting" I said to myself "it usually is" said a voice from behind me. I turned to see a lavender unicorn with a deep purple mane looking at me "uh, hello" I said "greetings" said the unicorn "my name is Twilight Sparkle, and I am pleased to meet you" she said with a bow. "Hello, miss Sparkle, my name is Xavier Arcuz" I said, returning the same politeness. She grinned and said "it's so nice to see you awake, we thought you would never snap out of that coma, but princess Celestia had faith in you." 'She said the words "Princess Celestia" with enthusiasm' I thought, then I remembered something "who found me and how?" I asked with a little more concern than I wanted to show. Twilight blinked, then shrugged and said "you can thank Rainbow Dash for that, she heard the explosion and rushed in to try and investigate, she ended up saving you." Okay, now I knew who to thank for my life, "thank you" I said "but what am I going to do now?" I asked. Twilight seemed to have a plan already, and she wasted no time in telling me. "First" she began "we need to get you to Canterlot, our capital city" lol, pony pun "and have an audience with the princess, and what happens from there is anyone's guess." I nodded "got it, meet the princess and determine my fate." The royalty of this planet had saved my life, the least I could do is have an audience with them. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Ponyville Library, moments later.
I was sitting on a chair at the library, waiting for a response from the princess. Twilight's assistant, a purple dragon named Spike, was eyeing me carefully, as if he felt he needed to protect something. After about 10 minutes, I decided to try and talk to him. "Hey" I said as casually as I could, he just kept his gaze right on me, so I decided to try a more frontal approach. "I'm Xavier" I said, extending a hand for him to shake, he did so without shifting his focus. "Spike" he said in an overly-cautious tone. Just then, Twilight came into the room with a platter of snacks and tea. "Would you like some?" she asked me. I nodded and removed my helmet, detaching my headset in order to continue being able to understand her. Twilight seemed happy to see my face, and Spike just looked stunned. I remembered Lance confirming that the food here was edible for humans, so I took what seemed to be an apple tart. As I was eating, Spike seemed to relax, and Twilight was writing something down. After a few minutes of silence, Twilight was levitating a wrapped piece of parchment that she had been writing on and handed it to Spike. Spike exhaled a puff of green fire that dissolved the letter and vanished. Spike then gave me a 'top that' look, and I just smirked. "Okay" Twilight said "I have sent the letter and the princess will be here soon" Spike gave Twilight an odd look, and she replied with "remember what we talked about last night" Spike nodded, I guess that cleared things up. In a few minutes, Spike coughed up a letter in a similar green flame, he must have seen the look on my face, because he gave me his most cocky look yet. Twilight read the letter over before saying "Spike, pack my bags, I need to get the girls for a trip to Canterlot." Spike stood up and gave a salute before heading upstairs, and Twilight rolled the letter up and placed it on the table. "You can come too, if you want" she said "you might as well, the princess wants you to come with us to the palace" I just shrugged and said "okay." _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Sugarcube Corner, moments earlier.
"Are you sure?!" asked an excited Lyra "absitivliy posolutely!" replied Pinkie Pie, who had just informed her friend of a humans existence in Equestria. Lyra squealed in delight at the news "ware is he?" she asked Pinkie, who had to think about this. "I don't know" she said, getting a sad look from Lyra "but Twilight might!" she exclaimed, and her friend perked right up. "C'mon!" Pinkie said, grabbing Lyra by the hoof, and the two mares were running to the library. _________________________________________________________________________________________________
Fluttershy's cottage, 3:50 AM.
"Are you sure about this?" I asked Twilight, who nodded. "Fluttershy is a very nice person, she's just very timid." Twilight knocked on the door of the house, and a butter-yellow pony with a long, pink mane opened it. "Oh, hello Twilight" she said in a very calm voice, then she saw me. I was expecting her to cringe, or retreat, but I was instead greeted with a large smile, and though it was unexpected, it was welcome. "And hello to you to, Xavier" she said in a bit of a perky tone, I was confused by this point, how did they know who I was? Regardless, I returned a greeting. "Fluttershy, we need you to go get Rainbow and meet us by Sweet Apple Acres" Twilight said "okay, i'll see you later" she said with a grin that just looked to cute. 'Well' I thought 'they're cute, but I guess it's just something I need to deal with.' Fluttershy had flown off to what looked like a huge cloud, and Twilight took some time to show me around town as we made our way to the local sweets shop to find one of her friends. About half way there, we encountered the pink pony that I had seen outside the hospital, she was in the company of a mint colored pony this time. "Pinkie Pie!" Twilight shouted at the two, they both looked over and ran at us. The pink one bounced around excitedly, and the mint one just starred at me like I was a divine being. Twilight noticed this and tried to talk to her "uh, Lyra, are you okay?" Lyra just said one word "human" and practically fainted. "Uh, is she okay?" I asked "yep!" Pinkie Pie replied "she just got a little to excited is all" wow, this was strange. Pinkie then looked at me and shook my hand (or rather I shook her hoof) and said "I'm Pinkie Pie, the towns party pony!" that explained a lot "I'm Xavier" I said "well, nice to meet you when your awake, Xavier" Pinkie said with a huge grin "is she always this optimistic?" I whispered to Twilight "most of the time, but take cover when shes not" she warned me, I wasn't afraid, but I didn't want to take any risk either, so it was probably best to heed her advice. All four of us (Lyra snapped back fairly quickly) made our way to another part of town. All the way there, Lyra bombarded me with questions about Earth, and my time in the core (not something I like talking about) and fortunately, she didn't wish to go to far into it. We soon arrived at our destination, a shop called "the Carousel Boutique" (lol, more pony puns) to retrieve another one of Twilight's comrades. Pinkie opened up the door and the only one in the store was a white unicorn with a styled purple mane. She looked up from the counter at us, or more specifically at me. She gave me a handshake and an introduction "hello darling, welcome to the Carousel Boutique, ware everything is-" she was cut off by Twilight placing a hoof in her mouth "we don't have time for that, we need to get Applejack and the others." Rarity nodded her head, and went up her stairs, she came back down with a suitcase. I facepalmed, and Twilight just sighed. We all made our way to the apple orchards of the town (minus Lyra, who needed to return to her shop) to get someone named Applejack. As we arrived at our destination, Fluttershy landed in front of us with a cyan colored pegesus with a rainbow mane, she directed her gaze at me and smirked. "Rainbow Dash, I presume" I said "depends," she replied "who's asking?" I couldn't help but chuckle at this "depends" I said with just as much attitude "who wants to know?" The silence was intense after that, but it was broken when Rainbow Dash started laughing. I winced an eyebrow at this "whats so funny?" I asked, she just slugged me on the shoulder and said "I like you, I'm glad I saved you." "Thanks for that" I said, she shrugged "no problem" she said, giving me another tap in the shoulder. Twilight opened the gate to the orchard and we began our search for the last of the group. We made our way to the south orchard, ware we ran into our target. She was an orange mare with a long blonde mane and a cowboy hat. She was busy kicking trees when we arrived, I was about to ask what the point of that was until I saw several apples from the trees fall into carefully placed baskets. "Applejack!" Twilight called out to the mare, who trotted over almost immediately. "Howdy y'all, what can I do for ya'?" she asked in a heavy southern accent that befitted the hat. "Princess Celestia needs us to bring Xavier to Canterlot, and attend a private meeting" Twilight explained, Applejack nodded "ah just need ta finish this part of the orchard up, then i'll be right with ya." "Okay" Twilight said "please don't take to long" Applejack winked at us before trotting off. "Now what?" I asked "just chill for a sec while AJ finishes" Rainbow Dash said "it usually don't take long." We made our way to the farmhouse ware we waited for Applejack, and after a few moments, she arrived. "Okay" Twilight began the next train to Canterlot leaves in about half an hour, so we should be able to get there by tonight if we hurry." The rest of the pony's nodded in agreement, and we began to make our way to the station.
The six pony's and I had purchased our tickets and boarded the train. I was the center of attention for the entire way to the station (I expected no less) and we were on our way to the castle. I accessed my inventory for the change of clothing that I had brought, and went into the restroom to change. My combat armor is incredibly difficult to get off, but I manage. After changing and packing away my armor in my infinite-mass storage module, I notice for the first time today that Ace is still at my side. I pull out my trusty 44. magnum and flip the safety on, I then twirl it on my finger cowboy-style for a bit before re-holstering it. I then practice my quick-draw for a while before heading back out to sit with the others. Twilight has her nose in a book, Rarity is sketching something, Applejack is just relaxing, Fluttershy is looking out the window, and Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash look miserable. 'ADHD' I thought to myself, watching Pinkie attempting to sit still. Applejack turned her attention to me after a few moments. "So" she began "whats your name?" "Xavier" I replied, she nodded "mighty fine to meet ya" she said, I nodded. We began talking about farming back on earth, and here in Equestria, it must have been a good 2 hours before we were interrupted by Pinkie, who caught everyone's attention by practically shouting "i'm so bored!" Everyone looked at her for a few minutes before Twilight broke the silence. "Why don't you try reading something, Pinkie?" Twilight asked she then pulled a dufflebag from the luggage in the racks. "I brought plenty for everyone" she said with a confident smile. Rainbow Dash was the first one to get a book, witch surprised me. She got a book titled "Daring Do" and the cover depicted a pegesus mare swinging on a rope holding an artifact of some sort. 'Indiana Jones' was the first thought that came to mind. Rarity picked out a book on dressmaking, Fluttershy got a book on gardening, and Twilight pulled out what seemed to be a book about magic, and Applejack and Pinkie just stayed ware they were. I looked in the bag briefly and asked "do you have anything on the history of this place?" Twilight beamed, and in no less than ten seconds, she had put together a stack of about twenty books on the history of Equestria. "Wow" I said, looking at the stack "that;s a lot of books." Twilight chuckled to herself and blushed a little "sorry" she said "I guess I overdid it a little" I shrugged "it's fine" I replied "in fact, I'm going to get started" I said, grabbing the top book from the stack. The rest of the train ride was almost completely silent, save for Pinkie trying to get me to play a board game, she decided to take a nap after I brushed her aside, and when I was about to open the second book in the stack, we arrived, _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Canterlot castle, 6:13 pm.
It was nighttime when we arrived, but just barely. As we neared the castle gate, I found myself being followed by an armored guard on each side, then one came up behind me. 'I know this strategy' I thought 'they act normal, but once they have you surrounded, it's out with the weapons and on with the chains' I smirked. As another guard began walking in front of me, I saw my chance to ruin their plan. We passed under a low archway, I jumped onto one of the walls as the guards drew their spears, I ran up to the top of the inside of the arch, and dropped. The four guards were instantly knocked out by the impact of my body forcing them to hit the ground. Twilight and the others just stared at me in shock. "To easy" I muttered to myself, cracking my knuckles, I then looked at the group "sorry about that" I said very calm "but I saw that one coming." I saw Twilight and the others trading uneasy looks, "part of my training" I said "need to be ready for anything." I noticed that they didn't seem to calm down any, in fact, Rainbow Dash was glaring at me and Fluttershy was hiding behind the others. After a few seconds of awkward silence, I found myself surrounded again by about 10 guards this time. I sighed and gave myself up, after all, I wanted to stay on good terms with these people, er, pony's. I soon found myself in what seemed to be the throne room of the castle, still surrounded, and waiting to talk with the princess. She arrived in a matter of minutes, a tall, white unicorn with wings and a mane that had more color to it than Rainbow Dash's, I could tell that she was in charge because Everyone in the room (with the exception of me) bowed the moment she entered. I was expecting to be chewed out or punished, but strangely enough, the first thing she did was dismiss the guards. 'This is odd' I thought to myself, there was a silence for a few seconds before the princess spoke "good to see you again" she said warmly. I looked around to see who she was talking to before she spoke again "Xavier" she said "whats wrong?" I thought for a second 'well, lets see, I'm trapped on an alien planet with no backup, no communication, and a mission to fulfill' but I said "nothing." "Yer lying, sugarcube" Applejack said from across the room 'the fuck?' I thought 'how did she know that?' I took a deep breath and said "no, I'm fine" then I turned to the princess "you wanted to see me?" I asked as politely as I could "yes" she replied "I wanted to have an audience with you." So far so good "from what I understand" she continued "you and your crew came to Equestria on a mission, correct?" I nodded "what was your mission?" she asked. 'Ah' I thought 'the fun part' "you see" I began "I am a negotiator, I am to be the first to speak with you on the behalf of the Earth government about possibly starting a human settlement on this planet." We all sat in silence for a few moments before Celestia spoke again "I know almost nothing about your race, and you expect me to grant you permission to settle here?" she asked me like I was insane. "No" I said after a few seconds "personally, I don't, however I am following orders, and my orders were to present the case, but since I'm marooned here, I have no further orders." Celestia seemed to be lost in thought momentarily, but it didn't last "does your race have any hostile intention to us?" she asked, I replied by shaking my head "can you make contact with them?" she asked, another no. She pondered this briefly, and seemed to make a decision "you will stay in the castle until such time as I see that you can be trusted" fair enough "since you are unable to establish contact with your fellow humans, I trust you to abide by Equestrian government standards until such time as you are able to rejoin your own government" I nodded "we won't have any issues" I said 'I hope I made a good decision' I thought. "In one weeks time, you will be brought to a royal court to decide your place, until then I trust you to not draw unwanted attention" she finished "I understand" I said with a half-bow. 'It could be worse' I said to myself as I was dismissed and shown to my room. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Washington D.C., 4/21/2123
The castle of Canterlot and it's inhabitants began to fade around me as I exited the simulation pod. "Well?" asked the captain before me "how was our first trip to Equestria, mister O'Neil?" I gave him a smirk and replied "you should know chief, you were there before me." Captain Richard returned the smirk. "We will continue tomorrow, Alex, with any luck we can have you in Equestria for real within a week." He saw the worried look on my face and put an arm around my shoulder. "I understand that moving to a new planet can worry someone, trust me, I know, but you don't need to worry" he assured me."after all, their as peaceful as you can get."
