Nightmares

I leaped over some corpses of the P.P.R and began shooting in every direction. Pegasus were coming from everywhere, the sky the back alleys and over the north east wall which was swarmed by the P.P.R. The large wall which had been built last minute out of rubble and other items not three days ago had unsurprisingly crumbled and more than a hundred peagasi were storming the place.

We ran behind what might have once been a recruiting office for the U.E.R and Bill started to tell me and the others what to do. "Ok, they're pretty much outnumbering and outgunning us but if we can somehow get behind them to that abandoned and smouldering tank I bet the turret still works and we can blow them back to Cloudsdale 14"!

I looked at Bill and said "you crazy fool is this another one of your suicidal plans"? "Eeyup" he said grinning as if this was a joke. "Unless you want to disobey your Captain?" he prompted. I looked at him crossly but couldn't help break into a small grin as he laid out the plans details.

"Maverick you're going to stay here and play the distraction, when we start sneaking across your start shooting and in general hold them all off until we get to that tank, got it" said Jet's. "Got it Captain" he said before checking on the other ponies.

"Ok then let's do this" I said as we started quickly but quietly moving between cover and downed buildings, going away from the main area where everyone was massing to. A minute after we left the shooting started and we picked up the pace, knowing Maverick wouldn't last long alone.

"Ok now we just shoot down this alley and we'll be there" said Bill, although I somehow doubted that since he aced everything at training except how to navigate. "If we go down there we're going to run into a patrol" I told him, resting my hooves of my gun. "Look just because every time we go down a damn alley doesn't mean". He stopped as a sic pony patrol came strolling through the alley and spotted us.

"Kill them" shouted the leader and chaos was unleashed. We all dove for cover and started shooting each other with me taking out two ponies in the head and Bill...l being Bill. He leaped over the rubble cover and charged right into a peagasi pony.

At point blank range he blasted right through his armour with his shotgun and kept going. He shot the leader in the head, spraying blood into the eyes of the pony next to him and blinding him. "The only pony still able to do anything flicked his gun round but Bill brought his down on his head hard and knocked his helmet off and began slamming the butt of the rifle into the ponies head until he was clearly dead.

I strode up to the last pony and shot him through the head with my rifle before he could recover and began walking down the alley. "Told you we'd run into a patrol" I said to him. "Technically we didn't go down the alley so the patrol ran into us" he said, reloading his shotgun.

We ran down the alley until we came to a half collapsed building with the tank wedged into it. Even though it was out of sight we'd have to make a three metre dash across to get to it and in that time we'd be exposed to a hundred ponies or so.

"You go, you were the agile one in training I was the strong one" said Bill, moving to just across from the tank and getting ready for anything.

I shouldered my rifle across my back and rubbed my hooves together, getting ready to make the dash. I half sprinted half jumped across, landing behind the tank and checking for any enemies around it.

Finding none I raised my hoof to Bill, stating it was okay and he nodded and resumed his cautious look.

I clambered up onto the tank and slid across until I was at the semi-opened hatch which I pried open and quickly slipped inside. It was rank and the smell of recently dead was strong in the air. I saw two tank operators slumped in their chairs with broken necks and their tongues sticking out.

I took one of their helmets off and replaced mine with it, and then I pushed one to the side and looked at the tank. Despite my over ten years of service I had never been in one of these rolling thunders as my Unit liked to call them. The buttons all looked complicated but I knew where the power switches were and quickly flicked them all upright.

The tank came to life and two screens either side activated, on with the tanks status and the other with four cameras detailing each side of the tank. The two side and the rear tank cameras were down but the front one remained intact, if not slightly binky. The tank status showed that its wheels were out and the main gun's charge was low but I only needed one power shot.

I grabbed the tanks positioning system and tried locking the cannon into place; it slowly brought itself round to the battlefield which I could now see clearly since I'd moved the cannon. Not good, two of Maverick's men were down and the P.P.R soldiers were all taking cover behind the old wall.

I would change that. I began flicking loads of switches and brought the tank's cannon charge to its maximum. By this time peagasi had noticed what I was doing and began to shoot the tank Bill quickly stepped out and began to shoot back making the ponies dive back for cover by which time I fired.

The energy blast ripped through the lines and the rubble, turning everything into tiny bits but blowing everything in a hundred metre radius back. Maverick and his ponies were blown against a nearby bank on the other side of the street and the majority of P.P.R soldiers were completely totalled whilst others ran around on fire, screaming for help.

The building in which the tank occupied was also groaning and shaking and I didn't need to be given any more telling and immidielty made to get out when a large piece of rubble fell on the hatch of the tank and all the light's inside started flickering.

I quickly made to push the hatch open but I just wasn't strong enough, I could boast being stronger than any normal soldier any day but I just couldn't get the hatch open. As the sound of my impending doom quaked and shook around me all I could do was sit there and wait for the end.

But it turned out that was not life's plan and the hatch suddenly got ripped from its hinges and two strong hooves pulled me out. "You ain't going anywhere" shouted Bill, putting me down and then making a break for it with me as the entire building collapsed and we dived into the alley we'd come out of.

"Shit, Bill I thought I was a goner" I said finally regaining my composure. "Yeah well I would've been there sooner had that power blast not taken me off my hooves and barrelled me into a set of barrels" he said giving me the largest slap on my back ever and knocking what little wind I had in me from my lungs.

"Our job isn't done though, we need to make sure the north-east stays defended" I reminded him and he nodded picking up his fallen shotgun. "Let's go to work brother" he said and we charged through the alleyways until we came to the smaller battle that was still raging from the aftermath of the large explosion.

Sergeant Maverick and the remaining two ponies behind him were fighting for their lives and pinned down behind the bank. We dodged and dived over to them eventually me making my way behind an abandoned stall which had been thrown into the bank and Bill taking cover behind a pillar.

So we continued the fight with reinforcement trickling in on our side from other units and lost ponies until we were eventually thinning out the enemy and making small pushes.

Suddenly a pony with similar helmet to the one I was still wearing form the tank ran over from a small group that were too injured to fight and said "message coming in, just trying to adjust the frequency". He twiddled a few buttons and made a few changes until his eyes finally widened.

"Captain Jet's the command is telling us to pull back!" shouted a radio operative from the cover of a nearby pillar. Bill leaped across to a nearby downed stall which I was taking cover and shouted back to the radio guy "tell them why the fuck they want us to pull back when I'm defending the damn north-east"!?

The radio operative repeated what Bill had just said and after a few seconds the radio operative dropped his gear and took off his operating helmet. He stared at us shaking and declared "there's an airstrike coming-in in five minutes and if we aren't a kilometre away by then we get fried by the ultra violet pulses" he said now dropping all his gear and beginning to move back.

I looked at Bill and Bill looked at me, both wearing the same expressions of absolute horror "shit!" we said simultaneously.

I opened my eyes and gasped loudly, sweating all over and feeling terrible from my realistic memory dream. It felt so damn real, the battle and Bill... I didn't really want to wake up since it was still early but I restrained myself from going back to a dream I knew the ending to and got up.

I yawned inaudibly and checked the surrounding area for any disturbances. It wasn't so cold anymore and light began to peak above the hills so I presumed Celestia would raise the sun soon.

I went to my pack and sat down, just staring blankly around the cave when my eye fell on something shiny lodged between a small crack in the rock.

Curious and having not much else to do I went over to it and pried it free from the rocks, it was a small ruby which made me wonder as to why and how it had gotten into the cave all the way up here.

I shrugged and put it in one of my Armour's pockets. It was just a ruby and a pretty small one at that, somepony could have just dropped it a long time ago.

I decided to go outside and onto the large circular flat peak of the mountain. I grabbed my binoculars and zoomed in on the wreck of the tank down by the foot of the mountain I was absolutely correct and nothing that would cause suspicion remained except a few large bits of metal and a huge crater.

Hopefully they'd deduce it as an asteroid and refrain from coming up the mountain.

"Morning Captain" came a sudden voice from behind and I spun round to see Chad, dressed in his uniform and eating some vegetable I had never seen before. "Chad, what the hay is that" I asked him as he took another bite of the weird food. He laughed slightly interpreting it as a joke but seeing my stern face he answered plainly "err it's just a carrot".

"Well I don't care where did you get it from" I asked him. He took another bite, munching slowly as his brain processed my question. He looked suspicious at me and thought visibly for a moment before answering "I don't really know" he said finishing his damn carrot.

I knew he was lying and decided it was time for another lesson in soldiering "Right, well since you don't know where you got this from can you go pick up that loose slab" I told him, pointing to a piece of stone about the same size as a rifle.

He went over and picked it up, and then he brought it back to me straining under the weight. "This here is part of a training exercise they used on me in my training days but I'm going to amp up your training unless you told me where you got that carrot from" I warned him.

"I swear I just woke up with it in my hooves" Said Chad, really trying not to drop the stone. "You better start answering truthfully or you're going to have to hold that thing up for another half an hour" I told him, looking at my watch.

To give him credit he held up the stone for another ten minutes before he dropped it on his feet and howled in pain.

"Ten minutes, impressive, too bad it wasn't half an you but I guess you can give me four hundred press ups unless you tell me where you got that damn carrot" I said moving the new word around in my tongue.

Chad tried to act confidently for a moment when he gave up and pleaded "ok just stop, I swiped some from Canterlot and hid them all for me".

I walked in circles around him scolding him "you have breached many regulations of my code but thankfully you aren't in my time to get your punishment".

"What punishment" he asked fearfully. "Death" I told him sternly and he quaked in fear.

"Will you answer my question to the letter and follow my orders implicitly" I asked him. "Yes" he said. "I don't want to hear yes, my name is not yes I want to hear Sir Yes sir!" I shouted at him. "Sir Yes sir" he said half heartedly to which I rolled my eyes at the pathetic attempt.

"Ok, now pick up that smaller rock over there" I told him. "His tired legs went walked over and he picked up another rock. "How long do you think you can hold this smaller one" I asked him. He thought a moment and tested the weight before answering "fifteen minutes sir". "Good then I want you to hold it for twenty" I said with mock enthusiasm.

He groaned and began to focus on holding the rock for that long. I went over to the side of the mountain and leaned over it, scanning the horizon for anything threatening. I looked through my binoculars down at Ponyville and saw nothing extra special except for nopony in the entire town at all which seemed odd since the small things I remembered from Ponyville was loads of happy insane ponies and large bits of glass sticking out of my back.

I mean the one place I get injured that badly is in a town that has absolutely no threats to me except insane pink ponies and the possibility of having an epileptic fit from bright houses of every colour.

I paused as I zoomed in on one particular street with a cloaked pony that seemed to be digging or something in the main street. "Empty streets, nopony in sight except for a cloaked figure digging in a street as if looking for tracks or something.

"I'm going to have to keep an eye on that one" I murmured under my breath. I checked my watch and saw it was about time for Chad to quit holding his rock and take a break. "Chad you can stop" I told him after a few minutes.

He practically collapsed where he stood and puffed considerably fast. "Why in Equestria did I deserve that" he asked, still breathing heavily. "You deserved it because you have received second to no training in the Royal Guard, your weapon skills are pathetic, agility, speed and stamina atrocious but here is something you can be happy about" I told him offering a hoof up.

"It's not your fault" I told him cheerily. "What" he asked. "You may have been weak before but if this level of training is received in the Guard I don't blame you which is why I am going to give you the secrets of my time" I told him getting once more into the roll as mentor.

"Secrets?" he asked questioningly. "Think about it Chad my world is filled with war and horror but with these things has brought new technology, weapons and techniques specifically designed to kill and protect by the end of my lessons which I started teaching you the first time I met you, you'll be the most feared warrior in Equestria... besides me" I told him with an attempt at a large smile that ended in a mismatched look.

"Are you not overjoyed?" I asked him. "Oh totally over the moon" he said not trying to hide sarcasm.

"Chad just shut up and listen to what I tell you and you'll be fine" I told him. Deciding that he wouldn't get another word in Chad fell in line and started listening to me lecturing about the history of war weapons.

"For thousands of years, ponies have used blades to fight their battles" I began, drawing my combat knife. "These began with simple bronze metals and then iron and steel-always advancing through each era and getting sharper and more deadly". "However blades quail at projectile weapons that have dominance from afar, the first of these being a simple slingshot but then as you may be familiar with the crossbow, which enabled ponies a better aim and far more power". "Finally the gun which started as a small weapon based on gunpowder until it became based on gas and then finally energy crystals" I told him, showing the red ruby I'd taken from the cave.

Chad seemed to be hanging on to every word I said which spurred me on as I started explaining the short version of how energy crystals did this. "I know the watered down version which is some machine so tiny is inside all energy based weapons and it takes the magic or zero energy as ponies from my time prefer to call it and convert it into a small beam of energy or a pulse which it simply pure magic that is fired at a high speed."This energy is deadly and smashed into a body with extreme force and instantly burns the flesh in a split second after impact, kind of a mercy".

Chad kept looking at my rifle and it prompted me to ask "where's your rifle Chad"? "Oh I left it behind in the cave" he said quietly. "Here's a lesson and kind of a rule never leave your gun behind, now go get it" I told him, pointing off into the cave.

He quickly trotted away into the cave and returned a moment later with the rifle in his mouth. "Yes, that's another thing we need to discuss, you see even if you don't
know it the world is filled with bacteria's which in laymen terms are tiny monsters which try and get in brought the air, contact with the skin anyway they can". "You picking and carrying stuff with your mouth like that dirty old rifle is basically you having a death wish" I told him.

He looked at me as If was insane before dropping the rifle to the ground and picking I up.

"Good, now I will teach you how to hold your gun since your technique is still quite poor". "Now unlike a pistol which is the small gun on my belt the rifle requires two hooves to operate or something to lean on due to the blowback that comes with it". "This means you cannot move and fire efficiently whilst holding in since you need to be In an upright position, so keep that in mind before you go off thinking you can run around guns blazing" I said trying to inject some humour into the lecture.

Chad didn't get it and I sighed saying "you basically can't run and shoot this type of gun ok"! He nodded so hard I thought his head would fly off.

I continued for quite a while to instruct him on how to hold the gun and what each part was used for, the fore lesson I wanted him to learn was to not look down the barrel every five minutes.

"Ok Chad we're done for now, practice with the rock and the ways in which to hold the gun and remember, don't use your mouth for anything".

He nodded and I asked him "I didn't hear you"? "Sir Yes sir!" he shouted and began to practice holding the rifle.

I wiped my brow not knowing until now how hard it was to be a teacher. The sun had risen quite high into the sky and I checked my watch and saw it was almost three o'clock to my great surprise.

I hadn't checked on Luna since the early morning and I couldn't help but feel guilty because of it. I entered into the room and looked at where she was still sleeping with my cloak still over her.

I walked over to her and looked down at her. She was sleeping quite peacefully, probably tired of the daytimes which age had spent walking and the fact that she had to raise the moon which still went over my head as to how exactly she achieved it.

I walked over to my pack and took out the engineering tools I had found on the dead engineering ponies. I then took out the dead scientist ponies gun I had taken a while back and Red suddenly came on "Asimov, since you refuse to listen to me or U.E.R policies I just want to be destroyed " she said dramatically.

"Red stop being a drama queen and tell me what you want?" I asked her, getting to be point as quickly as possible. "Well that vial you took from that pony's blood still needs to be analysed as you won't do it and the U.A AI still needs to be hacked fully and am I the only one here thinking about the fact that you are clearly mentally unstable or have you not told Princess Luna about that yet!" she asked me furiously.

"Told me what" asked Luna, startling me and Red at her sudden question. "Luna!" I yelled "you scared me, I thought you were asleep" I lied quickly.

She seemed to buy the excuse and said "I was asleep but I heard you talking and decided to intrude into the conversation if you don't mind" she asked us both.

"Of course your majesty, in fact I think I should..."."Analyse these samples" I interjected quickly, pulling out the blood vials and scanner from my bag and quickly connecting them up to Red. "Ok Red good luck" I said quickly getting up and shuffling Luna out of the cave before Red could get a word in. "Asimov you can't hold out forever" she yelled before going out of earshot.

"What was that about?" asked Luna. "Oh just me and Red having a bit of an argument" I told her "she's just annoyed at my choice in location" I once more lied. "Oh, we'll I'm sure she will come to except you judgement in time" said Luna.

"Yes, I'm sure" I said rubbing my eyes. "Are you ok Asimov?"Luna asked me. "Your eyes are looking tired and you have visible bags under them" she told me, pointing to my face.

"Ah yes, well I didn't get that good a sleep last night what with everything that's been going on recently" I told her, telling the truth partly.

"Well anyway on to more important things-like the reason for Chad miming funny poses" said Luna staring around me at Chad who was furiously concentrating on his exercises that I'd taught him.

"Yes well I've taken it upon myself to train him how to become a better guard by using certain techniques from my time" I explained. "So far it's gone reasonably on, apart from his secret carrot stash that he'd refused to tell me about at first he has followed my orders and techniques to the letter".

Luna seemed visibly impressed at Chad's performance and she asked me "but he was a nobody and now he holds himself high and acts with such a discipline, how did you do it"?

"Oh, well I guess everyone has a little bit of soldier in them just waiting to come out and…um" I struggled to find a suitable word but Luna helped me by suggesting "shine"? "Exactly" I said to her.

"Well I'm glad someone found his potential" she said. "Yes I'm glad too, the first time I saw him it was the night I rescued you, and I hit him with a chair after the U.A assassins knocked me out". "Why did they not just kill you?" asked Luna.

"What the assassins or Chad?" I asked. "The assassins tied you up, but why could they not have just shot you with their fire st… I mean gun"? "Well I suppose they wanted to follow the order of time by having you assassinated without any changes made along the way, however now time is clearly messing with me because since I saved you it should have changed already unless something else is going to cause the world to go to hell" I said.

"Well, let us look to the present instead of all this past and future nonsense" said Luna, sitting down and looking over the valley.

"Well history is also important, but this time seems so clean I mean no smoke or rubble" I said. "Or mud and plague" added Luna. "You really are a thousand years out of it" I blurted out before I could help myself.

I thought she'd be angry but she simply nodded and started to tell me of her life "being on the moon for so long was lonesome, even though my rage controlled me it was probably the only thing that kept me sane whilst instated into the black space and every single day Equestria". "Truthfully, I came from a time where friendship had barely emerged and re-entered into a world of happiness and love, it was of no consequence to Nightmare Moon but I feel like my life was taken from me".

"By your sister?" I asked. She looked at me and shook her head, "by the stars Tia only did what was right the real fault lies with Nightmare Moon, kind of a twin personality of me" explained Luna. The side that saw Tia become the lead ruler and the way ponies praised her during the day and slept through the night, ultimately ignoring it" she said with a small strain of resentment now.

"But you stopped her" I said. "No that wasn't me, that was the Elements of Harmony, without the magic of friendship that they used on me they could never have removed the darkness from my soul" said Luna.

I thought a moment before asking "so they remove the darkness and bad things from you and what, destroy it"? "Well yes, in fact before the mane six I and my sister wielded the elements to defeat the tyrant ruler of Equestria Discord" she said.

"Who is Discord?" I asked. "Oh I thought the legends would carry on for eternity but I guess two thousand years is a long time to lose a heroic story like that" said Luna. "Ok well before me and my sister came to power there was the divide in races as you may already know and Discord came along right after the land united into one and declared himself ruler of Equestria and began making weird chaos happen".

"He'd never completely overrun Equestria with Chaos but he'd keep a firm level of chaos around all the time, and if anyone rose up against him or directly opposed him then he would make the chaos so bad that it practically destroyed what little harmony was left in Equestria" said Luna her voice rising as she progressed through the tale.

"So..." I prompted being very curious about the story now. "So me and my sister came along and wielded the elements of Harmony which banished him to a stone prison where he is still held to this day, in fact I should really tell Tia to check the spell that is holding him there sometime" said Luna shaking her head.

"Sounds like it were quite the times but one thing still gets me" I said confusedly. "What's that then" Luna asked me. "Well you said you and your sister came along but where from, I mean where did the race of Alicorns come from"?

Now it was Luna's turn to look puzzled and she said "I-I don't know... I know me and Tia must have been around the first but there were others that I know of, even as I try to remember it's like remembering a dream I can't, I don't know" she finally said.

"This made me really suspicious and I asked "you can remember so much and yet not where you came into the equation"? "What's and equation?" asked Luna. "Never mind Luna, you've been around for a while you probably don't remember" I told her, reassuring myself as well as Luna.

"Yes, you are probably correct, I have probably forgotten it has been so long-I think I'll just go and go and see Red" she said but I stopped her "no I don't really think you should talk to her right now" I said in a panicked tone. "Why ever not?" she asked "we got on so well when you were in that hospital bed she told me quite a lot about your world".

I looked at Luna now and asked "what things did she tell you"? "Oh well, besides the reasons why you were here some general knowledge about your world and some more things nothing directly important... why are you so uptight about this you were fine with it before? She asked me making to move around me.

"Look Luna it's nothing like that it's just that, she's doing some updates... these things help make sure she stays alive and if you go in and disturb her then she may deactivate" I lied once more.

Luna however bought my story probably from the steely look on my face and stepped back apologising "I'm sorry Asimov I thought it was because you didn't trust me but...". "Hey it's not like that, it's just I want to be sure she is safe is all, you too" I told her.

Suddenly Chad stepped over and asked respectfully "when night falls it is going to be very cold, should we not work on the heat problem"?

I smacked my head with my right fore hoof and said "hay I nearly completely forgot, well done for reminding me Chad, since you are the only pony who is not recognised my Ponyville you are going to have to go in and get blankets and anything that can keep us warm at night" I told him.

Chad looked at me puzzled and asked "but how, I'd have to go down the mountain and up again and I don't have any bits to pay for the materials". I sighed and looked at him now with a pained expression "please use your brain, these are desperate times and you have no money so you are going to go to that boutique over there and" I prompted him to reply.

"Err ask to borrow some blankets and such" he responded losing his cool expression a little. "No- you are going to enter the boutique and steal what we need and make it out again undetected, in fact his is a perfect stealth exercise for you to perform so we kill two birds with one stone" imitating glee.

Luna and Chad looked at me with horrified expressions. "Why would you want to kill two birds with a stone?" asked Luna in a shocked tone. "No it's just a... Chad move out and go get the stuff, use the forest for cover until you come across the boutique, check if it's open if not break a window or something, take saddle bags which I'm sure they'll have and get as many blankets as you can and should I need to remind you that if your caught then you don't know us" I told him in the space of a couple of seconds.

"Anything else?" I asked him. "Well just... umm what was that first one again" he asked meekly. "Get out of here" I said pointing my hoof to the track leading down from the mountain.

"So Chad went down the mountain and I called out as he began to descend "also stay away from the pink pony, she may be slightly insane". I couldn't really hear from this distance but I felt positive that he let out a small whimper.

"Are you sure Chad is up to this, I mean he may have improved drastically in terms of confidence with me and you but if he runs into ponies or trouble down there then he won't last long under pressure" said Luna as she followed my gaze and watched him go.

"He's a good soldier...I mean a good guard, he'll be fine I know it" I said wiping my face with my hoof.

Luna looked at me and asked "are you ok, because you look a little pale and your tired eyes seem to look even more tiered". "I fine" I lied, just got a lot on my mind is all and from what I can see of Ponyville it's completely deserted" I told Luna.

"How can you see for such humongous distance, even my eyesight cannot see Ponyville in such clarity" exclaimed Luna. I smiled and showed her my binoculars, well as glasses work with increasing the user's sight, these work in a similar way but with much smaller and powerful lenses" I explained.

"Ah so they work much like a telescope, but it's tiny barely the size of a book" she said touching them. "Well modern technology likes to make things both compact and useful so a lot of normal devices in this time are still used in my time but simply improved a hundred times over" I told her. "You can use them if you want" I said offering them to her "these things are not dangerous unless you look at the sun (not Celestia by the way).

Luna took them and looked them over curiously. "Amazing" she said, looking through them the wrong way round. "Hmm they appear to be broken" she said. "Did I break them?" "I'm so sorry I...". "No Luna you didn't break them" I said chuckling. "Your simply looking at them the wrong way round" I told her, flipping them I her hooves.

"Oh" was all she said as she tried to look through them again and gasped in amazement. "These are a hundred times more powerful than even my finest astronomy telescope, how on earth do they make everything so clear"?

"Oh don't ask me I just use them as a tool but I guess you could look at the stars with them too" I guessed not knowing if you needed a telescope since it was never really something that came to my mind. "Well they are simply fantastic, do you mind if I hang onto them?" she asked me.

I thought for a moment considering that they were an important part of my equipment itinerary but then again this was Luna and she would probably look after them well.

"I'm not really so sure, I..."

And we'll just stop you there. So once again hooray for the new episode hope I get loads of reviews to keep my enthusiasm up and I hope you enjoyed this mega Chapter. Oh did I forget to mention Choice time!

Should Asimov:

Give Binoculars

Deny Luna