Hi everyone! Sorry for the slightly longer delay than usual (for those of you at FIMfiction) as I've been prepping for tests and have had very little time to write. Also, I'm getting comments on more details so I'll try my best because before I was afraid of going overload on details. Thanks for the critiquing!
Ray took a swig of water from his canteen. It had been two whole days since he had entered the Everfree Forest searching for some lost ponies.
"I thought they were too scared to even get close to this place," Ray thought to himself. "How did ten ponies manage to disappear near here in just a single day?"
Two Days Earlier
"HELP! HELP!" a voice cried out.
"Really? Another one?" Ray asked, peeking out the window of Twilight's library. These cries for help had been occurring regularly today.
"That's the tenth one today!" exclaimed Rainbow Dash. "What in the hay is going on out there?"
"You six really are the go-to girls when there's a problem," Ray continued.
"Well, we have saved Equestria two times," Twilight replied, proudly.
"And we've helped a lot of other ponies with their problems!" Pinkie said cheerfully.
Just then the library door burst open and a mint green unicorn burst through the library door. She looked like she had seen a ghost and had run from it. Far.
"What is it hun?" Applejack asked.
"It's Bon Bon!" the distraught unicorn cried. "She's gone! We were at the edge of the Everfree Forest and I turned my back for just a few seconds. When I turned back, she was gone!" The unicorn then fell to the floor and began to cry.
"It's ok Lyra. We'll be able to find her" Fluttershy said, trying to sooth the unicorn. Ray walked over to Twilight's desk and took a blank scroll.
"You don't mind, do you?" he asked Twilight.
"Of course not," Twilight replied, giving a warm smile.
Ray then reached for a pencil in his pocket.
"Could I get a description of your friend?" Ray asked Lyra. She sniffled a bit and slowly rose.
"She's about my height," she started as Ray was already at work, making a quick sketch. "She has a very pale-colored yellow coat, almost white. She also has a blue and pink mane, light blue eyes, and her tail is usually in three curls at the end"
"Like this?" Ray asked a few moments later, turning the scroll and showing Lyra a light sketch. It wasn't perfect, but it was enough to get Bon-Bon's "general shape".
"Yes! Wow, how did you do that?" Lyra asked.
"On the job experience," Ray merely replied.
Spike added the sketch to a group of papers that had been steadily growing since that morning.
"We will do our best to find her. The best thing you can do is stay away from that forest and warn anypony you see by it," Twilight advised. Lyra just nodded.
"Uhm, hey. Come with me. W-We can talk about it!" Fluttershy said, motioning the upset pony forward. Only a few steps out the door and Lyra was already pouring her heart out about her friend. When the door closed, Ray stood up.
"That's it, I'm going in there."
The five remaining ponies gasped when they heard this. Going into the Everfree Forest wasn't something they were accustomed to.
"Ah wouldn' do that if ah were you. The Everfree Forest is filled with all sorts 'a weird monsters and animals in there!" Applejack warned with caution.
"And it's just so dirty," Rarity added. The other four ponies turned their heads towards her. "What?
Ray dismissed their protests and asked, "Rarity, can you make me a dark green cloth suit? I also need several sheets of light green, dark green, and brown burlap, a needle and thread."
"Sure, but why?" she asked, a bit puzzled.
"I'll explain later," Ray said, pacing around. "How long will it take to finish?"
"Not long. I expect half an hour, an hour at the very most. It's a very simple job really," Rarity replied
"Great thanks" Ray said as he opened the door to his "room". The ponies all looked at each other and began to chat amongst themselves.
Ray walked down the stairs and over to his dresser. He retrieved both of his rifles, his sidearm, knife, some camouflaged face paint, and his rifle bag. He walked back up to the main room and pushed all of his equipment onto a table. He turned his rifle bag inside out, which changed the pattern from desert yellow and brown to the green and brown swirls of forest camouflage. Grinning at his own creation, Ray sat down and began to inspect his equipment. The already dark colors of the weapons would be fine for the dark Everfree Forest, but he worried about what he would find in it. Or more importantly, who.
"Does anypony know what is in the forest exactly?" Ray inquired, pulling the bolt on his carbine.
"I have a book written on the forest," Twilight said "Spike, can you-?"
"Found it!" Pinkie Pie shouted quickly as a book landed in Ray's lap. Ray looked over towards Pinkie Pie and shook his head.
"I'm not even gonna ask," Ray said, opening the book.
He read through the book quickly, trying to gather as much information on the forest as he could. The ponies eventually left except for Twilight considering this was her house. She started pacing around, thinking intently about something.
"How recent is this book?" Ray asked after some time, searching the cover pages for a date.
"Oh!" Twilight said, snapping out of her thinking process. "I'd say a year or two."
"So it's pretty up to date?"
"Well, there's no way to be sure seeing as the forest is not watched carefully by ponies. Everypony is usually too afraid to venture into the Everfree Forest alone. The book should be fine however."
Ray nodded and turned back to the book. Twilight went back to pacing. He wasn't sure what was on her mind, but he had to focus on the task at hand. He spent more time reading up on the forest until Rarity returned with the cloth suit and sheets of burlap. Ray stood, closing the book.
"Thanks Rarity," he said as he took the floating items from Rarity's magic grip.
"Oh, it's no trouble at all darling! If it will help get our friends back, I'm more than eager to help."
Ray brought the items down to his room and began to meticulously assemble a new ghillie suit for the forest. It took some time, about an hour, as he needed to figure out how to place the dark green burlap on the suit. When he did eventually finish, he sat back, satisfied with his work.
Ray returned upstairs, now wearing the ghillie suit. Twilight was now seen by one of the many bookshelves, browsing for something. She pulled a book out with her magic and turned around, facing Ray. She looked at him for a moment, then held a hoof to her mouth, trying not to laugh.
"What's so funny?" Ray asked.
"You're costume. It looks so…" She pauses to giggle. "Ridiculous. I mean, you'd probably blend in to the environment, but still."
Ray rolls his eyes. "Well as long it isn't obvious that I'm there, then the suit is doing its job. Here." He pulls a radio from his bag. "I'll talk to you through this when I've found the missing ponies."
"Are you sure you want to go?" Twilight asked one final time.
"My mind's made up. I have to do this. For the ponies' sake."
Twilight sighed. "Well I guess I can't stop you then.
Ray applied paint to his face. "You're right."
He stepped out of the library and Twilight resumed what she was doing. He walked towards the edge of the Everfree Forest, looking back. He was hoping to spend the day hanging out with the ponies, but he had this more important task now.
"Oh well, operations come first," Ray thought to himself.
Ray stepped into the forest, darkness almost immediately setting in as he set off to look for the ten missing ponies.
Present Day
Ray screwed the cap back onto his canteen and stowed it away. He started to stand up, but heard something. More accurately, he heard nothing. Ray raised the M4 and slowly stood up. The past two days had been filled with the sounds of birds and other creatures that roamed the forest, but now there was absolute silence. Ray walked forward with an equal silence until he came close to a clearing. He paused for a moment as the familiar crackle of fire filled his hearing and soon quiet whispers were present as well. He went to step out into the clearing, but stopped dead in his tracks. What he saw chilled him to the bone.
"No way, I know nowhere is perfect, but I didn't know they had problems like this here too."
Ray saw three unicorns sitting around a small fire and to his left Ray spotted a crudely constructed cage containing ten ponies.
"No, no, no, this can't be right."
Ray got down, blending in with a nearby bush to observe the three unicorns. He waited for a little while to make sure that no other pony joined them. After ten minutes passed, Ray got up and took out his compass, which thankfully still worked in Equestria, and headed towards the east, down the single trail the forest contained. When he made some distance between the camp and himself, he set his bag down under a medium-sized tree.
He searched his pack for a moment and pulled out what appeared to be a yellow box with spikes sticking out from the bottom. The "box" was actually a claymore mine, known for its anti-infantry capabilities. It was usually set up as either a tripwire or fired through detonating it manually. Ray set the mine down, jamming the spikes into the ground and facing it towards the tree, beginning to arm it. Ray hoped to detonate the mine and cause the tree to collapse and make noise, possibly making one or more of the unicorns come out to investigate. This would give him time to get to the camp, knock out any remaining unicorn there, and get the captured ponies out. Ray picked up his bag again and left the tree, heading back for the clearing with the detonator in hand. He had to hope the group of unicorns didn't search the trail when the mine went off. It was a risk, but a risk Ray was ready to take.
When Ray arrived back at the small camp, the three unicorns were still quietly chatting. This pretty much confirmed that the three were the only ones in the camp. Ray pressed down on the detonator. The sound of an explosion and a tree falling down filled the quiet setting of the forest. He strained to listen to the hushed voices, but was too far away to hear clearly. After a moment, two of the three unicorns got up and started to make their way towards the source of the sound.
Ray slowly got onto his feet and crept forward into the clearing. Holding a finger up to his lips, he hoped the ponies in the cage would understand the message. Thankfully, they did. Ray stopped directly behind the pony sitting near the fire and lifted the carbine up over his head. The backend of the weapon came down and connected with the unfortunate pony's head, knocking him out. Ray pulled out a roll of green duct tape and taped his four legs together, then proceeded over to the cage.
"It's ok, I'm here to rescue you," Ray told the ponies in the cage.
The cage itself was made of flimsy material and probably could have been broken by the trapped ponies, but they probably were too afraid of their captors to try. Ray cut the ropes that held the cage together with his knife. The door fell apart, allowing the prisoners to exit.
"I'm going to need you all to listen to what I say so I can get you out of here," Ray continued. "The other two will be back any minute now and I'm going to need you to stay calm. I'll take care of them when they get here. Just stand out here for a moment."
The sound of twigs snapping came from the direction of the trail and Ray quickly melted back into the forest. The group of ponies started to panic as the unicorns came back.
"Hey, how'd you get out?" He heard a rough, but slightly startled voice say.
The other two unicorns entered the clearing and their horns started to glow as they approached the formerly captive group of ponies. Ray quickly walked around the clearly and stepped out behind one of the ponies. While he was distracted with his magic, Ray drove the butt of the carbine into his head. Upon hearing his partner collapse, the other unicorn pivoted and stared at what appeared to be some swamp monster. Ray turned to the last unicorn and smashed the carbine into the unicorn's face. That unicorn fell over as well.
Ray secured the unicorns and returned to the group.
"Alright every pony. Follow me and stay close. Wandering off could get you lost.
Ray held his carbine up and led the group onto the trail of the forest, being wary of any other dangers of the forest. Remembering what he told Twilight, Ray took out his radio.
"Twilight, if you can hear me, I have the missing ponies. I'll be back in town in a half hour. See you then."
There was no response, but Ray figured it was because Twilight didn't know how to respond with the radio.
The walk through the forest was tiring, especially for Ray as he had been walking for almost two days. Brighter light became visible ahead. The group of ponies rushed towards it, ahead of Ray. Something seemed off to Ray though as they rushed ahead. He shook his head and dismissed the feeling as he took off the hood of his ghillie suit. He stepped out of the forest to be met with loud cheering. The ponies he saved were all hugging their friends that they didn't see. Twilight approached Ray.
"I was getting a little worried. Two days in the forest is a long time.
"You're telling me. I'm really tired from that." He took a sighing pause. "I'm going to head back to the library. Just make sure these ponies aren't injured and use the radio if you need anything." He pointed to the button on the radio.
"I was wondering how to use this thing… Alright, will do!"
Ray began to walk towards the library, but Twilight spoke again.
"And Ray?" she said, making him turn his head. "Thank you. I'm sure these ponies are forever grateful."
Ray just nodded before he continued on to the library. That feeling he had though was now really strong. Something… Wasn't right. He had learned to trust his instincts before. He walked into the library and slowly went up the stairs to the second floor, reviewing the scene in his mind.
"Neutralized the unicorns… freed the ponies… They ran ahead…"
Ray walked up to a window near Twilight's room with a range card he had sketched when he had nothing to do. An old habit, or an instinct perhaps. He placed his bag of equipment on the floor and flipped the card between his fingers as he looked down on the crowd that was still gathered. He started counting the ponies he had seen get ahead in the forest.
"Seven… Eight…"
Ray's eyes landed on Rainbow Dash treating the back of a pony's head.
"Wait a second…" Ray picked up the radio from his bag. "Twilight, what's Rainbow Dash doing?"
From the window, he saw Twilight turn towards Rainbow Dash. "Seems like she's just treating the last pony."
"I don't think that's one of the ponies I saved…"
"What are you saying Ray?" Twilight asked.
"Walk calmly over to Rainbow Dash and get her away from that unicorn."
Twilight started walking towards Rainbow Dash as calmly as she could. The button on her radio was pushed down.
"Uhm, Rainbow? C-Can I speak with you for a moment?"
"Yeah, sure Twilight. Just after I- HEY!"
From the window, the unicorn took down Rainbow Dash and stood on her back pointing his horn at her. Twilight jumped backwards.
"Get back, all of you! Get back or this pegasus gets it!" he yelled.
Twilight took several more steps back. The crowd of ponies had fanned away from the unicorn and watched from a safe distance. Rainbow Dash tried fighting, but the unicorn's horn began to glow and she stopped.
"No, no, no, this can't be happening…" Ray said to himself. He held up the range card he made towards the unicorn. Just over 500 yards. "Twilight, I need to know what's going on down there."
"The unicorn is yelling at the crowd to stay away," she said in a panic-stricken tone. "He's saying he'll kill Rainbow Dash! Ray, what do we do?"
"Calm down Twilight. Panicking isn't an option now. Try to calm him down and maybe we can get him to just walk away."
"How do we do that?"
"Ask him what he wants first," Ray told Twilight as he unzipped his rifle bag. He pulled out his sniper rifle, still loaded, but he hoped he wouldn't have to use it. He knelt down, placing the barrel of the rifle down on the window sill.
"He says he wants everypony to leave and that he's going to take Rainbow Dash into the forest," Twilight said over the radio.
"That can't happen, but tell him that he can just let her go and we won't hold this against him," Ray said, adjusting his scope. His breathes became slower, allowing him to aim more accurately. The unicorn shook his head angrily after Twilight relayed the message.
"He's not-"
"Yeah, I can see that."
"Wait, Ray? What are you going to do?"
"What I have to."
Twilight quickly spun towards the library and looked up towards the windows. "Ray, no! You can't- Oh no, he said if we're not gone in thirty seconds, he's killing Rainbow Dash. He's counting down!"
"I'm sorry Twilight," Ray said coldly. "I have to." He placed the radio down and adjusted his scope. "Slight wind out of the south." 500 yards isn't a bad distance for a sniper, but any small wind gust or miscalculation could mean the death of an innocent pony. He didn't want to do this, but it seemed there was no other way.
Meanwhile, Twilight had turned away from the unicorn and started galloping towards the library. Ray's finger was just against the trigger as he began to hold his breath. With the crosshairs over the unicorn, Ray could see his features. A messy red mane and desperate blue eyes were obvious. So was his anger.
Ray pulled the trigger of the rifle, firing a round down towards the hostage-taker. Displaced air was visible through the scope as the bullet cut through the air. Rainbow Dash's hooves were over her eyes as the high caliber round pierced the unicorn's skull, scattering blood and brain matter. The unicorn fell off of the turquoise pegasus. The crowd yelled in surprise at the scene which just unfolded. Rainbow Dash slowly got up, not daring to look back as she knew what had happened.
Ray stood up and grumbled angrily. He put the rifle on his bag and slumped against the wall, his hands over his face. "There should've been another way…" he said to himself aloud. The front door of the library burst open.
"Ray!" Twilight called. He didn't respond. Twilight climbed up the stairs. "Ray… Are you okay?"
Ray sighed. "My instructor once told me snipers have the most emotionally draining job in the military. We get to see the damage dealt as opposed to a pilot or frontline infantry who doesn't get to see what they've done. We all cope in our own way too. Me, I just go over it in my head until I can accept what I've done. So to answer that question, I'll be okay. I just need to collect myself."
Twilight just sighed, turning to leave. "I guess I'll just go make sure Rainbow Dash is okay."
Ray's mind raced over possible scenarios about the unicorn's background. He obviously had someone who loved him once in his life. What if he had a family? What if he was just trying to get money for them through a ransom? These thoughts kept running through Ray's head for some time. It took him believing that he had to do it to save his friend to calm him down.
He took in a shaky breath as he stood up. He pulled off the ghillie suit, which now had the stench of the forest, and stuffed it in his bag. He took his range card, placing it in his pocket, and walked down the stairs with his bag over his shoulder. He got to the first floor, then placed his bag down again. He made his way towards the door, but then it opened by itself, revealing Rainbow Dash.
"Ray…" she flew into the library and wrapped her hooves around him. "You saved my life... Again… Thank you."
Ray returned the hug, wrapping his arms around her. "You're welcome…" There will still some blood spattered on the back of her coat.
"I just wish… There was another way…" Rainbow Dash said softly.
"Me too Rainbow Dash… Me too…"
Twilight and the rest of their friends walked into the library and stopped in their tracks. They were used to seeing Rainbow Dash being so… affectionate. They took notice and quickly separated, clearly embarrassed.
"So why-" Applejack started, but a bright white light suddenly filled the library. Ray expected it to be Princess Celestia, and he was correct.
"Ray, we need to talk. Now."
Editor's Note: As you may have noticed with this chapter, I have revised it greatly so that the grammar and spelling is correct. I have also added more details to make the story easier to understand. The story isn't changed much, Akkura still wrote it. I've just hoped aboard on improving it, so I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Be sure to leave criticism in the comments section. Thanks. – Jd896
Authors note: Hey all, I want to announce the Jb896 is now going to be the official prereader of The Lost Soldier, written by yours truly, as he stated he did revise the chapter and made it at least 20% better! Thanks man!