For the record: 1. This story WILL tie in to Reaper's story 2. The sequel to Reaper will be the one to tie into this story, so the ending to this one may give a hint of what happens at the end of the sequel. 3. There will be a story for Reaper/John after this one and the sequel to end them both off. (Just giving a little more info on the tie-in). Anyway, please review with any criticisms and no trolling, and enjoy! :D

II

"FUCK!" I yelled, falling backwards and trying to crawl away from the white guard horses. I slowly got up as I thought to myself "this must have been what Jason was blabbering about. I don't blame him for thinking he was crazy." I approached the guards once again and asked as politely as I could "Could I please enter the station?"

The guards simply stepped to the side without a word and I walked inside. It was empty of any people or horses except for a horse standing behind a glass pane. He looked like the ticket seller, so I walked on over to him. "Hey, uh…" I hesitated at my question as I thought it might have been a little offensive. I finally sucked it up and asked "since when can horses talk?"

"I'm not a horse" he replied.

"What?"

"I'm not a horse" he repeated. "I'm a pony."

"Okay…" I said awkwardly. "Since when can PONIES talk?"

"Uh…" he stuttered, looking at me as if I were crazy. "Always?"

"Okay, okay" I nodded. "Anyway, where does this train go?"

"Canterlot Station" he replied.

"Okay, where is that?"

"Equestria"

"Equestria, huh? Clever; very clever" I mumbled. "How much is a ticket?"

"50 Bits" he said.

I figured that Bits were the currency in Equestria so I asked what the exchange rate was… 10 Bits to a Dollar! I had 4,000 bits! "Alright! I'll get a ticket then" I said, handing the pony 5$. I grabbed the ticket and got on the train. As soon as I arrived in this "Canterlot" I noticed that I was LITERALY the only human there. Everyone was whispering and pointing as I walked towards what looked like a castle. In my mind, I was hoping that Equestria's ruler lived in that castle and I also hoped that they weren't an asshole.

I kept walking, people (or ponies, in this case) still whispering and pointing the entire time. I finally found the front gate of the castle and the guards let me inside. I climbed my way up to the entrance to the throne room, where their leader most likely was. As I attempted to open the door, a guard stopped me and said "Princess Celestia is in a conference. You may not enter until it has been adjourned and everypony has left. Feel free to wait if you like."

I sat down in a corner and sat there silently thinking about all the shit that has been going down. Firstly, ponies can talk here. Second, it appeared randomly in the middle of the fucking ocean. Third, it's a monarchy, which is not good. And fourth, this "Princess Celestia" might not take too kindly to me, and that would cause a lot of problems. I continued to think about everything until I heard the huge door open and I saw several ponies that looked like they all came from different cultures walk out. Finally, a tall white pony with a heavily-tinted, multi-colored mane and tail stepped out and waved goodbye to the ponies that were leaving. As she waved, she noticed me sitting in the corner and asked "can I help you?"

"Are you Princess Celestia?" I asked. She nodded. "I have some questions to ask."

"Okay, come in." I followed her into the throne room, which was huge. It had a large table on one side of the room, which I assumed was for meetings. She, however, walked over to a window and simply looked out.

"I would like to know a few things about Equestria." I said very nervously. "Namely, how it got in the middle of the ocean."

"What do you mean?" she asked, looking back my way.

"Never mind" I sighed. "Also, why am I the only human here?"

"Well, your country, this "United States of America" isn't exactly happy about Equestria connecting our borders without their government's consent."

"Then how was I let on the train?" I asked.

"I never said we shut down the train station" she said. "Your government has made announcements all over to make sure nopony came here." There was a fairly long silence between us until she decided to ask a question of her own. "What brings you here in the first place?"

"My friend kinda…" I was hesitant to remember the events that had happened only a few hours ago. "Killed himself. I decided to just pack up and leave and now I'm here."

"You have a home though?"

"Actually, no" I said sadly, looking down. "I don't have the money to keep living there anymore, so I had to leave."

"Well, what's your cutie mark?" She asked.

"What the Sam hell's a cutie mark?" I asked confusedly.

"It's the mark you get on your flank that indicates what your good at" she stated, as if she had awnsered that question millions of times.

"Humans don't get cutie marks."

"Interesting" she said. "Anyway, what are good at?"

"I'm a gunsmith" I said.

"A what?"

"I make ranged weaponry. It's a job that requires a lot of skill and precision. If I mess up one tiny thing, I could accidentally kill someb- er… I mean… somepony" I explained. "It's been in my family since the 1600s. My family's business just got shut down, so now I have no way to get any money."

"Equestria's never had a gunsmith before" said Celestia, deep in thought. "We might be able to use some of these weapons for our guards."

"Sure, but these things cost money."

"But of course" she said. "If I could get you a workspace set up somewhere, maybe you could make us some of these weapons in exchange for money for food and a place to live."

"That's how it normally works" I said.

"But where? Canterlot is too populated for anything that could be that dangerous" she thought out loud. "It needs to be somewhere where there is plenty of open space… Aha!"

"Oh!" I shouted. I just remembered something important. "I could get my old co-worker Connor O'Drake to come in and help! He can be a pain in the ass sometimes, but he's really a nice guy."

"Fantastic" she said in a not-so-excited tone, as if she didn't give a shit. "I'll get him a house in Ponyville as well."

"Okay, and one last thing" I said. "What about my stuff? I left all my tools, clothes, other stuff in my car back on U.S. land."

"I'll just have somepony send it to you. You should get it within a couple of days."

"Works for me" I sighed.

"Alright! So it's settled!" She nodded, smiling.

"Oh, and by the way," I turned to face the Princess. "My name is John; John Jack." She gave a slight not to indicate she understood.

Now, I just had to get Connor. I guessed that he was where he almost always was: his old apartment playing Team Fortress 2 and watching Tosh.0 while drinking tons of Coca-Cola. Hell, you could almost always find him there if he wasn't at the old work building. I was betting he wouldn't be too happy to hear he had to work again, but at least he would have some new peop- I mean ponies to fuck with.

Connor was Scottish, and he absolutely loved causing mischief. He was the kinda guy that would mess with people just for a laugh. In fact, one time he had pissed off a hair-dresser so much, that she permanently dyed his hair blue. He didn't care, though. He thought it looked cool.

I got to him over the phone and told him about what was gonna happen, and to my surprise, he sounded happy about it. I met him at the train station and we talked a little bit before we got on the train to Ponyville. We were told we were going to be shown around by somepony who knew the town very well. As soon as the train left, Connor fell asleep. I decided to doze off myself…

Maybe things weren't gonna turn out so badly after all!

Chapter name comes from the song "Gunslinger" by Avenged Sevenfold