'Who's it from?' Apple asked, perching herself onto my shoulder.

"It doesn't say..." I muttered, before looking at the courier. "Did you get a name from whoever gave this to you?"

"Odd name, but yes." He answered, letting me help him to his feet. "Fellow named Time Turner. Must've had original parents, at least." I smiled inwardly and let him get back to his motorcycle.

"You'll have to push that outside, but don't freak out when you see the townsfolk." I told him, pulling the twine apart.

"Are they like that bug thing on your shoulder?" He asked, pushing it onto its wheels and inspecting it for damage.

"More colorful and less fang filled." I answered as he started leaving, followed by Church. "Let's see what our time traveling friend gave us..." Ripping open the package, I stared at the contents for a moment before letting out a laugh.

"Me thinks I'm getting a little overpowered, don'tcha?" I asked as I flipped one of the Doctor's sonic screwdrivers before slipping it into my super pocket. Pulling out a sheet of paper, I read the scribble out loud, since Apple can't read too well.

I'm doing my best to teach her, goddammit!

'Mark,
Hello from France, 1918! Because he was about to get mortar'd, I sent you a courier with a little package that I was meaning to give you anyway. This note is pretty much to warn you about your second trip to the bunker we visited before. I'm sorry to tell you this but you NEED to destroy it. Even though I'm usually against this, I advise you to override the nuclear reactor. The screwdriver has a remote detonation feature, so you can do it safely from where you're standing in your little armory if you wanted to. You don't have to worry about how the courier's going to react, since he worked on a farm when he was younger.

I'll see you at the bunker!

Your time traveling friend,
Time Turner'

"Well, that's not good." I frowned.

'What is it?' Apple asked as I folded up the note and stuck it into a pocket on my armor.

"Time Turner says that the bunker we're going to visit has to be destroyed..." I told her as we walked towards the door. "I don't want to see what Chrysalis has to say about that."

'Then don't tell her.' Apple simply said.

"Even if she wasn't my friend, I would still have to tell her, since it's in her land." I sighed. "God, this is why I hate politics."

"MARK DURNKINSCOFF!" A familiar voice shouted before I took a rope to the torso.

"Whelp, run along now, Apple." I said as I was pulled off of my feet and onto my chest. AJ glared at me for a moment before taking the other end of the rope into her mouth and started dragging me towards the farm. "I'll see you when AJ finishes ravishing me."

'Don't hurt yourself too much, dad!' Apple said before looking around and bounding towards Gallan, who was too busy laughing at me to help.

"AJ, you know I can walk, right?" I questioned as I was dragged behind the mare.

(Translated from ropespeak)

"Ah know, but if Ah let go of ya, somepony else'll come over an' ask ya to do sumthin' fer them." She responded, not letting up on the dragging. "Yer mine fer the rest of the day, an' nopony's gonna say different!"

"Then can you at least let me see something other than the ground?" I asked. She paused for a moment, giving me enough time to roll onto my back (and tie myself up more) to where I wasn't staring at dirt and the occasional ant.

---

The next morning, I had Apple standing outside the tub while I washed the essence of sex off of my body and complained briefly about how numb my pelvis was.

And no; I'm not creeped out by the fact that the shower had no curtain, and Apple was perched on the toilet holding the recorder out to me as close as possible without getting it wet. Hell, I've taken showers with her and Applebloom, sometimes at the same time goddammit!

I'm just not turned on by ponies in general, I go for brains and heart (and sometimes voices, Chrysalis is a HUGE example), not looks.

"Hey Mark." Judy said, leaning on the doorway while looking at me. At the moment, she was just wearing undergarments, indicating that she woke up a few minutes ago. "A few new people arrived; both in weird looking armor. I don't mean the armor that the knight dude has, I'm talking about futuristic armor."

"Kinda like my ODST armor?" I asked while shaving. Yea, I use a razor while in the shower. Saves a few minutes and with the way the water hits me I don't spend money on shaving cream. And no, I'm not uncomfortable with Judy looking at me while I'm buck-ass naked; she allows me to do the same, the seldom times I do. Same with Schmidt, who's a bit more gentlemanish than I.

I still think he's my grandfather, but meh. Won't bother him about it until I have further proof.

"Think Crysis for one of 'em." She answered, waving an arm around. I nodded and got rid of a stubborn piece of stubble.

"Anything else?" I asked. "If not, what's for breakfast?"

"Grits, hash browns, and hay bacon." She answered. "Want me to go get some meat from an MRE and share it with you and Schmidt?"

"Fine by me." I answered, and she took the moment to get back to her bedroom to finish getting dressed. After a few moments, I turned the shower off and dried myself off, beginning with my face.

I was pleased that no blood came with the water, a sign that showed that my straight razor didn't slice me to ribbons like the first time I used one.

"So, what are they like?" I asked Judy as we sat around the food table. In case anybody ever finds this important, I ate in between Apple and AJ, Judy ate in between Big Mac and Applebloom, and Schmidt ate across from Scootaloo, who sat to the right of Granny Smith, who sat at the head of the table. AJ was across from Big Mac, Applebloom was across from Apple, and I am in an obvious seating arrangement; across from Judy.

We could kick each other under the table and the only way the ponies would know is from our wincing.

"One's from 2012 and the other's from 2020, I think." She answered.

"What type of stuff did they do?" I asked, chewing on a bit of gubberment issued rubber meat.

"One was Black Ops, the other was Spec Ops." She answered, and I sighed.

"What's that mean, Sugarcube?" AJ asked in confusion. I took a moment to reply.

"Black Ops soldiers did stuff that was almost entirely inked out on paper in the final reports." I answered. Before she could ask, I explained. "When something is 'inked out', a certain area of words/numbers have a black line completely covering them. Sometimes, a B.O. soldier has entire paragraphs or reports inked out. Highly classified, and are on a need to know basis."

"Since Mark is a General, he's always on a need to know basis." Judy added. "Especially when it comes to how a soldier dies."

"And considering that orders only come from me, they're already known by me." I said. "We may be part of the Equestrian military, but my fellow generals cannot order my men around. That came directly from Dawn, the only pony that my team will listen to when it comes to orders."

"What about Max or Williams?" AJ asked, who only knew them because I kept a roster of my men in our room.

"Williams didn't resign, so he's under my command. He'll take an order from Luna if he feels it's necessary, while Max is kinda like a reserve; we only use him when we have to." I answered. "So both of them are allowed to tell Celestia, Luna, and Cadence to 'kindly shove off', in any words they may choose." Judy let out a chuckle before returning the assault on her hash browns, while I drowned mine in ketchup. All Apple had was a bowl of salt water and a bendy straw.

The first time Pinks saw her with one she yelled something about sucking brains out. It didn't help that the container rests in between my shoulder blades and my backpack.

"Well, that was a good way to wake up." I said as I finished, burping into my fist before muttering an 'excuse me'.

"Fer those of us who were able to sleep." Granny jabbed with a grin. AJ blushed while I chuckled and rubbed her head, before picking my helmet off of my lap and putting it on, but depolarizing the visor. As Apple, Applebloom, Scootaloo, Schmidt and I got up, so did Granny. We took our time to get outside, and watched the young'uns leave, Granny turned to me.

"Ah hope AJ don't get depressed when ya'll die, Mark." She said, looking out over the apple orchard. "This ol' bird ain't goin' down with a fight, but mah fight ain't gonna last much longer..."

'What does she mean, daddy?' Apple asked me in confusion.

"She'll have another forty to sixty years with me, Granny." I said as I leaned against a railing on the porch. Even after five years, there was still a tinge of red on the post. "How long do ya'll live, exactly?"

"Ah'm a hundr'd and thirty." She answered, going over to one of her rocking chairs. "We earth ponies live a little longer than the others."

"We never even reached close to that yet." I told her, frowning. "The oldest was a hundred ten, I think. It's a feat to reach one hundred, and even then we probably couldn't move more than a foot a day. Seventy is the usual for humans, even less for soldiers."

"How old were you when you died?" Schmidt asked me after a moment of silence, technically. I was talking to Apple in my head.

"Thirty. Was going to have a birthday in a few months when I kicked the bucket." I answered, slowly standing up. "I'm thirty-five, now. How old's AJ?" I asked, looking over at the lime-green mare.

"Fourty two." She answered. "Ah think that's about eighteen in human years."

"Barely legal in my state." I muttered. "Five years ago I was technically a pedophile, if we're going by human years."

'What's a pedophile?' Apple asked.

"Somebody who has sex or is in a relationship with somebody else under the age of sixteen to eighteen, depending on the state or country." I answered her, cracking my back.

"Shall we get to work, Schmidt?" I asked him. "I gotta interview the new people and put together an expedition. You're already on the team."

"Roger that, sir." He said with a nod, following me towards town.

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