It was dark out now. Yon-Soo had no idea how long (both in terms of time and distance) he and Porter had been walking, but he knew it had been for quite a long while now. It was dark out now, and Yon-Soo had to admit, the night sky was quite beautiful. Without the lights of Seoul or any pollution, the stars were allowed to shine in the dark blue sky that was faintly illuminated by the near full moon. But he could barely savor it right now. Porter was determined to get as far away from that battlefield as possible and get to a safer location.

He really didn’t like this nonstop walking, as his feet were getting very tired. Sure, he was pretty athletic, did some good work at the gym and with his personal trainer, but Yon-Soo could definitely see what the difference between exercising to look good and being genuinely athletic was. Porter only took a rest break occasionally, and he wasn’t very tired from this constant movement, all the while staying calm, alert and focused on their surroundings.

Yon-Soo held his tongue the best he could, and really did not want to aggravate Porter by complaining about how tired he was. But finally, he couldn’t take it anymore.

“Porter, could we please just rest now? It’s dark out and we’ve been moving for hours! I’m just exhausted and I’ve been trying to keep up with you as best as I could, but I can’t take another step. My legs feel like they’re going to fall off any second now!”

Porter just looked at Yon-Soo, and despite his hard expression, he did look understanding. Yon-Soo wasn’t a soldier, and he was right. It was dark out and they had been walking for a long time. By now they should be more than far enough from that scene to not be tracked down, unless the PER and Royal Guards were being really diligent. Plus, under the cover of the woods and forest, they should be safe from pegasi, and PER agents.

“Alright,” said Porter, “we can set up a camp here for a few hours. Rest up and recuperate. We can’t afford to stay still for very long though. Time isn’t on our side, that’s for certain.”

“Thank God,” Yon-Soo sighed, as he took his backpack off and set down his heavy weapons. Meanwhile Porter scouted the area to make sure they would be out of harm’s way for the time being. As soon as he was about to declare they were safe enough, he saw Yon-Soo do something that made him want to smack his forehead against one of the trees.

“What are you doing Yon-Soo?” he asked.

Yon-Soo simply replied, “Um, I was going to gather some sticks for firewood.”

Porter groaned and hissed, “Are you trying to get us ponified, you idiot?! Starting a fire in the dark when the enemy’s probably still looking for any holdouts or survivors is the most reckless kind of thing to do in this situation. We might as well shine a spotlight on ourselves and hold a sign saying ‘hey, ponify us’ while we’re at it!”

Yon-Soo stepped back, throwing the sticks away as he said, “Okay, okay, I won’t make a fire then.”

“Good.”

With that, the two sat down, took out their rations and began eating. They both had to be careful though. Neither had much food in either of their backpacks and had to ration it very carefully, at least before considering hunting and fishing a viable enough option.

Porter decided to try starting up a small conversation, “So what was it you said you did for work before everything went to hell?”

“Well,” said Yon-Soo, “I was an actor for a show being broadcast on KBS, and I did some modeling and singing on the side.”

Porter raised an eyebrow at that, replying, “Yeah, I remember you telling me about that earlier. Said you knew Eun-Hee and all.”

Porter looked into Yon-Soo’s face, trying to bring himself to remember what show he saw Yon-Soo in. He was shaken out of his musing when he heard a crunchy sound, like leaves or twigs snapping. He and Yon-Soo quickly picked up their rifles, surveying the area.

As they took cover in some bushes, Yon-Soo could hear the crackling sound and some footsteps nearby. He quickly ran towards a tree, hoping to get some cover.

As soon as he felt something hard and metallic touch the back of his neck, he cursed to himself that he just seemed to have bad luck following him everywhere nowadays.

“Move and I will shoot you,” the unknown assailant said in Korean. Yon-Soo noted that it was a male voice, and it had a strange kind of accent to it.

“What do you want?” Yon-Soo asked carefully, putting his hands up.

“Did I say you could move?!” the assailant asked, a frantic tone rising in his voice.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Porter suddenly said from behind, pointing his gun at the other man’s head.

“If you try to shoot me, I’ll kill him too!”

Porter chucked and replied, “I’d like to see you try, rookie. You don’t even have the safety turned off.”

That was enough of an opening. Yon-Soo quickly ducked for cover as Porter grabbed the other man by the arms, roughly throwing him on the ground, causing his rifle to fall out of his hands. As Porter kept his foot down on the man’s chest and Yon-Soo pointed his own rifle at the man’s head, he started crying and screaming.

“No, please, don’t kill me!! I don’t have anything for you, but I’ll do anything you ask! Please just let me go!” he cried.

Yon-Soo wasn’t a soldier, but even he knew noise could attract the enemy, as he covered the man’s mouth so that he could stay quiet while Porter could get some information out of him.

Porter growled, “Then answer me this – who are you, where are you from, are there more of you and why are you here?”

The man tried to get some of himself together, trying to act dignified as he asked back, “Why should I answer anything you ask me, you filthy American dog?!”

Porter put on a face of mock pain as he sarcastically replied, “Oh come on; I know I haven’t taken a shower in a couple of days, but is my body odor really that horrendous? And to be clear, I prefer cats.”

Yon-Soo was starting to get impatient. If that man was from where he suspected, there could be more of them, and though he didn’t like being paranoid, he really didn’t want to get surrounded. So he decided to take the initiative.

“Answer the question!” Yon-Soo snarled at him, pushing the barrel against the man’s forehead roughly.

The man panicked and said, “Okay, okay!! My name is Hyong-Jin Kang, I’m from Tanchon and I’m here because I was on a mission! We were trying to help the Dear Leader get to safety away from the invaders, but when they showed up, we tried to shoot at them. I got separated from them when there were more Newfoals than we thought, and I didn’t want to get turned, so I just started running from it as fast as I could! Please, don’t shoot me! I just wanted to take the job so I could get some special medicine and food for my family! Please just let me go…”

As the man whimpered and cried, Porter and Yon-Soo, though they didn’t lower their rifles, couldn’t help but feel a twinge of pity for this sad, pathetic little man. He was clearly someone thrust into a situation far out of his element and comprehension. And though neither was willing to make nice with a North Korean that still thought his leader was a good man, they looked at each other, and without even verbalizing it, agreed that maybe keeping him around would prove useful.

“We’ll give you a deal here, Hyong-Jin,” Porter said firmly. “Yon-Soo and I are going to Seoul, and you can come with us. But you need to pull your own weight here. So stay quiet, shoot the enemy if they appear, and don’t try to shoot us, or we’ll kill you ourselves. Understand?”

Hyong-Jin still tried to act defiant however, retorting, “Why should I follow you? The Leader needs my help and my family needs me!”

Yon-Soo rolled his eyes and replied, “Because we’re the only ones that are willing to take you in and let you live. Not to mention, I’m more than a hundred percent certain all of North Korea is flooded with PER agents and Newfoals, making going back there downright suicidal for us. And besides, Kim Jong-Un’s probably either dead or ponified, and your family’s probably suffered the same fate.”

Hyong-Jin’s eyes widened and he shook his head frantically, screaming, “No, you’re lying!”

Porter angrily slapped Hyong-Jin across the face, viciously hissing, “Stay quiet! Are you trying to draw attention to us?! Do you want to be ponified? Because Yon-Soo and I can leave you here for the PER to find you if you’d like that. I doubt living under the Solar Tyrant is going to be any different for you anyway; you’re already used to being a brainwashed slave of an insane dictator. Only difference is that you’ll at least get a decent meal three times a day.”

“You don’t know what my life is like,” Hyong-Jin countered angrily.

Porter and Yon-Soo both had to roll their eyes at that. Apparently denial wasn’t just a river in Egypt.

Porter sighed, “Look, we can’t stay here any longer. If Hyong-Jin’s yelling was loud enough, which I’m sure it was, it could attract attention, and not of the good kind. We need to start moving again. We’ll know we’re close to being out of the DMZ once we’ve seen some buildings with patrols.”

Hyong-Jin groaned and angrily picked his rifle up, and it wasn’t lost on Porter and Yon-Soo that he seemed to be having a harder time lifting and carrying it. Even through his uniform, he was clearly rather skinny looking and it seemed like his uniform hung a bit loosely around his frame. They stayed quiet and decided to just keep moving.

“Steady, steady…”

With a quick splash and a thrust, Porter had successfully speared a fish with a stick he had sharpened. As it flopped helplessly on the spear, Yon-Soo had placed the fish onto a makeshift plate. They had a decent catch today. The sun was actually shining quite well, and the river was full of fish. In fact, the whole scenery was beautiful. Since the DMZ was largely untouched and undisturbed by human interference, the region had turned into an unlikely refuge for numerous endangered animals. Eventually, it became an official national treasure, and small numbers of scientists and biologists were allowed in to study the wildlife on the very rare occasions when relations between the north and south were decently steady enough.

“Well, boys, here’s our lunch,” said Porter as he set the spear aside, and took his pocket knife out, ready to gut and clean the fish.

“Are we just eating it raw?” Hyong-Jin asked incredulously. Earlier he had wanted to set up a fire, but Yon-Soo and Porter both said no, and Yon-Soo even nearly punched him for trying to make them visible to potential enemies by way of the smoke the fire could cause.

Porter had to smile at that; Yon-Soo was learning quickly. Now if Hyong-Jin could do the same…

Yon-Soo replied, “Yes, just like sushi. You know what sushi is, right?”

“Don’t talk down on me. Just because we don’t have fancy food like you capitalist pigs do doesn’t mean we’re stupid.”

Porter quipped, “Then answer me this – if your leader said that two plus two equals five, would you believe him?”

Hyong-Jin just glared at Porter and ignored him, simply sitting down to eat his fish.

The three soldiers sat and ate quietly. Yon-Soo couldn’t help but think again just how his life, everyone’s lives really, took a sudden sharp turn for something so different. All of humanity was under attack, and had to put their differences aside in order to survive. All fighting one common enemy.

The Equestrians.

Damn them all. Who gave them the power to decide where the human race’s future as a species should go? What gave them the idea the only way to help humanity was to assimilate them and destroy their history? Why did they want to essentially wipe out mankind and erase all evidence of humanity’s existence from earth?

Yon-Soo did not buy into their frankly stupid excuse that it was to save them from their history of conflict. Sure, even he wasn’t about to gloss over the fact that people could be cruel, but he knew humans were capable of great kindness too. Those ponies were for lack of a better word, complete and utter hypocrites.

And Yon-Soo found himself hating them. Their Queen especially. She was a mad despot that would make Kim Jong-Un look like a cuddly little teddy bear; that was for certain.

And he wanted to wipe them all out. If they thought of all humans as war-mongering, bloodthirsty monsters, then maybe it was time to show those egotistical phonies what happens when the sleeping beast awakens.

“Porter, can I ask one thing from you?” Yon-Soo asked.

“Ask ahead.”

“When you first met me, I was not a fighter at all. I only survived by sheer dumb luck. I don’t want to be dead weight in all of this. I want to fight. I want to show those monsters that I’m not a weakling. Would you be willing to help me get better?”

Porter smiled and replied, “I’d be more than happy to, Yon-Soo. And I have one favor to ask from you.”

“What is it?”

“If I ever get doused with the potion, I want you to shoot me. I want to die as myself, and not have to be one more among many of the Sun Tyrant’s drones. Would you do that for me?”

Yon-Soo’s eyes widened at this. On one hand, he could understand where Porter was coming from with this, but at the same time, the thought of shooting his friend sounded downright brutal. But then again, he could see Porter do the same to him, or Hyong-Jin, or even others.

Reluctantly, he nodded yes.

Hyong-Jin piped up, “Actually, I want that too. I like being a human; I don’t want to get turned into one of them.”

Yon-Soo said, “Me too. I’ve seen what ponification does to a person. I never want to live like that.”

The three resumed eating, a mutual feeling among them having developed and making things a lot less tense. But they knew this was only the beginning.

It had taken them almost four days of nonstop walking, minimal sleep and rest, but finally it seemed like the trio had reached their destination. But at this point they knew better than to be complete optimists.

“What do you see?” Hyong-Jin asked as Yon-Soo and Porter surveyed the area ahead with their binoculars. He had to keep watch from behind and above. Although they hadn’t encountered any PER agents, Royal Guards, or Newfoals, they could never be too cautious during this war.

Yon-Soo replied, “Definitely some patrol towers. A lot of soldiers, too. Everyone looks like they’re on high alert.”

“Not shocking,” said Porter.

“So how do we get through?” asked Hyong-Jin.

“Simple – we just tell them we aren’t hostile, and explain ourselves. Anyone not PER or pony will be able to get through easily.”

“I hope so.”

And with that, they set their rifles at their sides, locked and good, and began walking towards the checkpoint.

“Halt! Who goes there?” a guard yelled out in English. He was definitely an American officer, fully armed and loaded, and ready to shoot if it came down to that.

“My name is Lieutenant Porter Stanley, USMC! This is Yon-Soo Park and Hyong-Jin Kang!” Porter yelled back. “We were sent out on a mission to evacuate people out of the north. Yon-Soo and Hyong-Jin here are the last of their squadrons, and I saved them from getting ponified. We shot every PER agent and Newfoal there, and haven’t encountered any hostiles. We all just want to get to Seoul where it’s safer!”

The guards, still a bit skeptical, began inspecting them. As soon as he saw Hyong-Jin, he immediately pointed his gun at the man.

“Whoa, hey, what are you doing?!” Porter asked angrily.

“This is a North Korean!” the guard said angrily. “He can’t be trusted, and could be a spy.”

“No!” Yon-Soo jumped in. “He came with us because he wanted to! What could he possibly do? The leader’s probably been ponified and right now, we can’t care about where someone came from when the Equestrians don’t care as long as all of humanity is ponified! Would killing him or imprisoning him really solve anything? We need all the help we can get at this point. Please, let him through. Trust us.”

The guard growled and said, “I’ll have to report to the CO for this. But know this, if he tries anything on anyone here, no one will hesitate to kill him, got it?”

“We understand,” Porter replied. “I’ll tell you this here though – in the short time that I’ve known Hyong-Jin, I know he’s a guy that likes being a human, and will fight tooth and nail for our survival. I won’t say that I trust him with my life, but he is a good man.”

The guard nodded, and ran off to a corner to call his CO. Now Hyong-Jin was very nervous.

“What if they just leave me behind?” he asked frantically. “I don’t want to be left alone to fend for myself. I can barely really fight and those newfoals would ponify me as soon as they see me! I want to help out! Why won’t they see that?”

“Calm down, Hyong-Jin. They’ll let you in,” Porter said as reassuringly as he could, but Yon-Soo could sense even he was nervous.

Yon-Soo sure hoped so too. He wouldn’t say that he completely trusted Hyong-Jin with his own life, but he knew the way the soldiers were treating him as an enemy when he wasn’t the one going around ponifying everyone was rather unfair and cruel. Hopefully they would listen to reason.

The guard came back and said, “The CO says that your northern friend is clear, but he will be kept under watch. And you two keep a close eye on him as well. At this point, old enmities don’t matter, but trust issues from decades of fighting won’t be swept under the rug just like that, and we’re not taking any chances. Go on in.”

Hyong-Jin sighed with utter relief as the trio walked through the gate. It was a fortress on the other side to put it simply. Several soldiers, male and female, looked over at the trio coming in before getting back to work. Others were tending to soldiers’ wounds and doing basic health check-ups. Personnel were constantly on the move, trading information and intel, trying to see what was going on around the rest of the world.

The atmosphere was filled with tension and alertness. The people here looked like they were subsisting on a diet made of purely coffee.

“Is this all people are doing here?” Hyong-Jin asked, shocked.

“What?” asked Porter, “They don’t have any high tech intel bases where you’re from?”

Hyong-Jin only looked more confused, until someone yelled out from the corner of the room.

“Guys, check this out! This came from England!”

“Wait,” another officer piped up, “England? I thought the Bureau over there closed, and Ambassador Heartstrings and her staff turned themselves in to Her Majesty's military, right? They announced they were defecting from Equestria and destroyed all the potion they had there.”

“Yeah, but here’s this clip. The PER is still active there and tried to stream their attack on the royal family online, but they got their asses handed to them by Granny herself. Watch!”

Yon-Soo, Porter and Hyong-Jin all watched at the large screen showing the Youtube clip. The camera shook as the PER and royal guards stormed Balmoral Castle, only to find Queen Elizabeth the Second sitting on a single chair in the center of the throne room. She looked quite threatening and tough for a woman of her age, as she glared down her attackers.

“You think you can come into my palace, my country, and destroy the will of my people?! I may be old and decrepit, but I. Will. Not. Stand. For this insult!!”

“Potion the bitch!” a PER agent yelled. As they were about to, the Queen revealed something in her hand.

A black stick with a red button. Everyone recognized this was a bomb charge.

“I think not,” the Queen said smugly. “Say goodbye to the world, and may God Almighty show you the mercy I withhold.”

She pressed the button, and right before the screen went to static, fire and explosions were heard, mixed with the screams of horror from the PER and royal guards as the Queen took her attackers with her.

Everyone stared slack jawed at what just happened on screen before them. Finally, a Marshall came up and yelled at everyone.

“Now that we’ve just seen this, I think the Queen of England ought to be an inspiration. She may have been over ninety years old, but had more than enough fighting spirit to be strong and defiant to the end. We have to follow her example, and show those ponies we will not go down easily, that we’d rather die than accept their false gift. Now get back to work!”

“Yes sir!” everyone yelled in unison, as they got back to their jobs.

Yon-Soo breathed in wonder, “Wow, the Queen of England is just… damn.”

“That’s nothing,” a random female officer chirped. “Rumor has it that Prime Minister Rokubungi took on a whole squadron of royal guards himself to buy the Emperor and his family time to evacuate to America. He supposedly committed seppuku to stop them from ponifying him.”

“Do you really think he killed himself?”

“I don’t know. Of course there are the crazier rumors that claim he tore out a unicorn horn and killed himself while half-ponfied. Of course, no one can verify that now.”

Porter couldn’t help but chuckle at that. Admittedly, that did sound like an epic way to go out. But they hardly had the time to ponder rumors in Japan.

“Do you know how to get to Seoul from here, by any chance?” he asked the officer.

“Yeah, if you go to the transportation division, you’ll find trucks and buses everywhere. Many are going to Seoul and other safe areas.”

“Alright, thanks ma’am,” said Porter as the trio began moving again.

“Wait!” Hyong-Jin exclaimed. “Do you know what happened to the citizens of North Korea? Did you manage to get any information from there?”

The officer, as soon as she saw Hyong-Jin’s uniform, stepped back in surprise, but she seemed to be far more relaxed than the other soldier from earlier. She looked rather hesitant to say anything.

“Tell me, please!” Hyong-Jin pleaded with her. “I need to know! What if my family and friends are still alive, waiting for me? I can’t go on not knowing.”

The officer looked at the floor sadly and said, “I’m very sorry, but all of our intel has said that the PER were more or less, completely successful with converting most of the population in North Korea. While some were able to escape to China and Russia, or by boat to Japan or some islands via the Yellow Sea, the overwhelming majority wasn’t able to leave, and were likely ponified. And if they weren’t, they may have decided to do what the Queen and the Prime Minister did, and committed suicide. I’m very sorry, but the chances that your family and friends are still alive and human are incredibly slim.”

The look on Hyong-Jin’s face as he listened to this was heartbreaking. He had taken a risky job with the military and went through all of this, only for it all to be for nothing and his family and friends lost to him, possibly forever.

“They’re gone…” he murmured, tears flowing freely down his face. “I couldn’t help them and protect them. Mother, my little sister… I promised Father before he died that I would protect and take care of them. And I couldn’t. I failed them all…”

Porter sympathetically touched Hyong-Jin’s shoulder and said, “We’ve all lost someone thanks to the Equestrians, Hyong-Jin. All we can do now is make them pay for what they’ve done. You can avenge them and still make your father proud.”

Hearing this seemed to lift Hyong-Jin’s spirits up a little as he wiped his face off and looked on with anger and determination. He then declared, “Then I’ll make them all pay. For my family and friends! I swear, by the honor of my ancestors, will avenge them!”

Yon-Soo nodded and said, “But we can’t today. We still can’t go to North Korea anytime soon. For now, we have to go to Seoul and get to the main headquarters. We need to rest and get stronger. You especially Hyong-Jin, if you want to avenge your family and friends.”

“Yes, I understand,” he replied, and with that, the trio began walking to the transport area.

The transportation division was no less busy than the rest of the base. Supply trucks were being emptied out as workers frantically tried to make sure they had enough inventories on hand. Food, weapons, and medical supplies were the most common items coming into the military base it seemed. There were also a few buses too. Those coming in were scientists, engineers, soldiers and doctors; those exiting from the base were very few – mostly civilians, refugees and some soldiers that were being sent to guard the cities.

“There it is,” Yon-Soo said, as he pointed out a bus full of people that was marked to depart for Seoul. As they got on, the other passengers looked up, rather despondent.

As the bus began to leave, Yon-Soo let his thoughts drift again. He thought about a lot of things. How was his family doing now? How did Hyong-Jin’s father die? What would they do once they were in Seoul? What was going on in the rest of the world?

He decided he would think about those things later. Right now, the lack of sleep and rest finally caught up to him, and Yon-Soo let himself sleep.

Author's Notes:

So here it is, some guy bonding, friendship and the North Korean soldier character I promised from the last chapter Author Notes. Next up will be the guys arriving in Seoul, Porter training Yon-Soo and Hyong-Jin and meeting a couple other people to round out our heroes, along with maybe a few pony refugees and some Lyra.

Poor Hyong-Jin. I'm thinking of setting him up as the story's biggest woobie. Sad backstory (which I will expand on more as this goes on) and things won't be much easier for him as time progresses.

I'd like to take the opportunity to thank Redskin immensely for helping me with this chapter. I almost had Porter set up a fire, but his helpful hint that it would blow their cover was a good one, as well as help for future chapters. You're a dear!