Once Logan had recovered from his flashback attack, he found himself in what seemed to be a guest bedroom.

“Huh… must’ve passed out somewhere…” he said to himself. Under closer examination, he found his gear had been taken off. Looking around, he found only his boots, vest, and .357 Magnum revolver sitting across the room. Sliding a hand under the pillow on his left, sure enough, there was his trusted pistol. An M1911, in .45 ACP. Fully loaded, and ready.

Looking at the night stand, he saw a small folded note.

‘You had fallen asleep during your flashbacks. We are sure you will be hungry when you wake. So, Once you see this, we suggest that you ask a passing guard to escort you directly to Princess Twilight. All the guards in the castle have this order so you need to only ask the first you see.

Signed,

Princess Luna’

Next to the note, was a folded set of casual clothes. ‘Savannah must’ve gotten into my foot locker and dug out my casual stuff.’ he thought to himself. Upon closer investigation, he found an almost skin tight under shirt, followed by a casual shirt, with the Gadsden on it no less. A wool over shirt, and his favorite dark fog grey pea coat.

Next to those was a set of fresh under shorts, and an insulated set of blue jeans. Hanging on the door knob, his favorite, grey scarf.

Giving a quiet chuckle, he got up, got dressed, and after strapping his two weapons to various points on his body, he exited his room.

____________________

10:00 Hours

Canterlot Market District

Canterlot, Equestria.

Princess Twilight and Princess Cadence talking at a small Diner

“So Cadence, How’s everything going at the Crystal Empire?” Twilight asked taking a careful sip of her tea.

Cadence gave a happy smile. “It’s been doing well actually. A lot of ponies from Equestria are visiting more and more. So the Crystal ponies these days don’t feel as isolated as they were 1500 years ago.”

“That’s great.” she said as a chuckle escaped her. “You should’ve seen what happened in the Castle of the Royal Sisters last month.” she laughed. “Woo, that was fun!”

So Twilight began telling Cadence about the party at the castle. Cadence all the while, couldn’t help but laugh.

“Even princesses need to get out and have fun.” she chuckled, then suddenly shivered. “Burr. When did it suddenly get cold?”

“Well it is almost Nightmare Night.” Twilight replied wrapping a scarf around her neck. Both alicorns completely unaware of the third joining them at the table.

“Am I to assume ‘Nightmare Night’ is a holiday of spooks and frights?” came a third, male voice that turned out to be Logan.

“GWAH!” they both screamed, Twilight even falling out of her seat. Startled by his sudden appearance.

“When did you get here?!” Twilight barked.

“Just as you were telling Princess… uh… sorry. I never got your name.” he said holding out his hand politely.

Cadence then held out her hoof and proceeded to shake Logan’s hand. “Cadence.”

“I’ve been here since you were telling Princess Cadence about your EverFree castle party. Sounds like fun.” he said with a smile.

“It’s good to see you smiling. Especially after what your family says you and your militia have been through.” Cadence said as she waved a waiter over. “you want anything? I’ll buy.”

Logan was quietly debating in his mind whether or not he should accept. But a grumble in his stomach quickly put an end to the mental debate.

Giving a sigh, he asked if they had Cinnamon Rolls and Hot Chocolate.

“I honestly thought you’d be more of a Donut and Coffee type.” Cadence chided with a gentle smile.

“I used to be. But coffee does… weird things to me. Aside from the whole, ‘instant awake’ thing from the caffeine. I’d rather not explain.” he said waving it off as the waiter returned with a cinnamon roll and hot chocolate. “Besides, when you’ve lived through a war, just trying to survive day by day… simple things like this pastry, or cocoa, become almost orgasmic luxuries that you’d be lucky to get once a year at best.” he explained as he took a bite. The taste of the cinnamon and sugar on the baked dough brought a happy tear to his eye.

The two princesses smiled at the look of pure bliss on the human’s face as he savored the sugar coated pastry.

Finally, Twilight spoke up. “Welcome to Equestria, Logan. I’m sure you’d be happy to hear that we haven’t had a war since the Griffon Rebellion 1200 years ago.”

Logan nodded happily as he enjoyed his breakfast. “If you’d like, we can take you for a tour of Canterlot.” Cadence offered. “We already showed your father and sister around. They should be talking with Celestia and Luna right now. They said something about you needing, as they said ‘One hell of a break’”

Sighing, he agreed, and took the remainder of his cocoa with him.

The time seemingly flew by as Logan followed Twilight and Cadence through Canterlot. Carefully he observed and made mental notes about their culture, while subconsciously looking for places to hide and fight should the ‘1%‘ arise. They continued on until the reached the housing district. Logan however didn’t notice Twilight or Cadence stop in front of one house in particular.

“Hey, Logan!” Twilight called.

Looking back, he wondered what was wrong. “Yes?”

“I was wondering, since were in the area, Why don’t I show you a Canterlotian’s household? Learn a bit more about our culture so to speak.” Twilight offered with a gentle smile.

“Am I to assume this house was once yours?” he asked with a sly smile.

“At one point yes. Its my parent’s house. Come on.” she continued

It didn’t take Logan long to agree.

“Twilight! Cadence! How have you two been? Velvet dear! Twilight and Cadence have stopped by for a visit!” the dark blue unicorn stallion smiled.

“Twilight dear? Oh my word you two are here! How’s my favorite daughter and daughter-in-law?” chided an older mare.

“Oh, mom, dad, I hope its okay but I kind of brought a new friend over. He’s not from our world and cant go back to his so he’s learning about our culture. I thought it might be okay if he saw what an average Canterlotian household was like.” Twilight explained motioning Logan to step forward.

As he stepped up, Nightlight then spoke up. “I don’t see why not. If I remember right, you wrote a letter to us explaining about that incident where some pony stole your crown and tried to take to another world.”

“Yeah that’s true. Logan looks amazingly like the descriptions you gave us.” Cadence observed.

“Oh my gosh how did I not notice! Were you from that same world? I don’t think I saw you in Canterlot High. Were you there?” Twilight asked, her mind suddenly spewing question after question.

“Twilight, hunny, calm down. We all know how you get when stuff like this happens.” Twilight Velvet chirped.

Sporting a now decent sized blush, Twilight stopped her rant.

“Logan Mason. Pleasure.” he said holding out a hand.

“Nightlight. Pleasure is ours. And this is my wife, Twilight Velvet.” her father stated, allowing Logan to shake his hoof.

“Indeed it is a pleasure dear.” Velvet smiled shaking his hand. “In all honesty though, did you come from that world Twilight mentioned? On the other side of a Mirror?”

“No. The portal I came through was down in the ‘EverFree Forest’ as I keep hearing it be called.” Logan explained.

“So… why cant you go back? Did the portal close on you?” Nightlight asked as he ushered every pony and one human into the living room, where a warm fire burned.

“It’s not a matter of whether we can or cant. Its more of a matter of do we want to abandon our second chance, to blow it off and try to survive with nothing but the clothes on our backs. Or to survive and live as we once did, happily and in peace.” Logan stated matter of factly.

“Yeah. His family told us what happened after he suffered a series of ‘flashback attacks’ as they called them. First came the war, then the super volcanoes and nukes, whatever those are.” Twilight said.

Eyeballing the four of them, Logan looked around trying to distract himself. It didn’t last long as Nightlight’s voice shook him back to reality.

“Logan, would you mind explaining what a ‘Nuke’ is?”

Sighing, Logan sipped the last of his cocoa, and proceeded to explain. “A Nuke is short for Nuclear Bomb. They came in two types. Atomic, and Hydrogen. Atomic weapons were measured in yield by Kilotons, where Hydrogen were measured in Megatons. Take that taxi/chariot thing outside. A nuke of that size would be about… 30 to 40 Kilotons. Or maybe even 20 to 25 megatons.”

“The flash from the blast alone will be enough to destroy the cornea of your eyes. Seeing it for a split second will be enough to blind you from several hours to a day at best. Or permanent blindness if your un lucky. Anything caught in the epicenter will be instantly vaporized. Buildings, plants, metals, all will be destroyed. Magic shield or no, and I promise they will be the lucky ones. Depending on the size of the warhead, the blast radius can be at minimal, half a mile, to upwards of ten miles.”

“About several thousand will die in the blink of an eye. Another tens of thousands will die in the following weeks to months. Depending on how much radioactivity they’ve been exposed to. Take Canterlot itself. I’ve seen the maps. A single warhead at a 35 Kilotons, will level Canterlot Castle, as well as annihilate about a fifth of the market district. Afterwards, the stability of the shelf holding this city on the mountain will be compromised. Whatever remains of the city will pummel towards the bottom of the mountain.”

“Afterwards, depending on wind direction, say it heads south. The radioactive cloud of what we call ‘Fallout’ will blow towards Ponyville. Anything caught in the fallout depending on exposure time, will either, only be mildly ill, to dead. It’s far from a pretty sight. And that’s just 1 bomb. Imagine hundreds to thousands.”

Every pony in the room was gob smacked. Unable to wrap their heads around such destruction and death.

Logan figured this would be their reaction. So he waved it off.

“I don’t really feel up to telling the whole story yet. It’s way too soon still.”

Logan felt a gentle wing wrap around him. Looking over to his right, there was Twilight. Sporting a comforting smile. “You can talk about it when your ready.” she said gently.

“You know, I’ve been wondering something. We spoke with your dad and sister, but not your mother. Did she..?” Cadence asked gently, trying not to push him too much.

Logan’s only response was to pull out his M1911, unload it and place it on the coffee table.

“Was… that weapon in your hands as…” Nightlight asked. Logan’s only answer was to nod.

“So… you took a trophy for getting whoever…?” Velvet asked. This time, Logan shook his head. Tears beginning to fall as the memory resurfaced again.

~~~~~

Flashback

~~~~~

The winds gust through the desert like a bat out of hell, adding a nice breeze to the sweltering desert heat. Logan reveled in the cool breeze, as his recently watered down Remington ball cap had just warmed up. Taking a sip of water from his canteen, he eyed the crowds below. They seemed to be getting more agitated.

Reaching down to pick up his custom AR, he flipped the scope half of its hybrid sight into view, allowing him to take a slightly closer look at the crowd below. Within moments, he found two civilians he had been looking for. His mother, Svedka, and his sister Savannah.

By the looks of things, their mother had just shooed Savannah to their car, parked near the bridge where Logan and his father were perched.

Clicking the talk button on his radio he called “Savannah, what’s going on down their?”

“The crowd’s getting hella antsy. I told mom to get back up here the moment something even feels off.” she said as she waved.

Within minutes, she was sitting on their trucks tailgate, nursing a grape soda, next to their father who was happily munching down on his home made sub sandwich. Logan however, while hungry, decided to stay at his spot.

Within moments of a particularly large yawn, a burst of automatic fire rang out along with the screams of women and children. Flicking the safety off, he was the first to return fire. Others on the bridge however had hesitated. Logan was instantly both curious, and scared as to how he could so easily pull the trigger against another human.

Quickly pushing the thought from his mind, he continued to fire. Screams permeated the air, the smell of blood, concrete dust, and burned cordite flooded his nose. Carefully, he aimed…

TABOOM…

    TABOOM!

Logan continued his actions well until he ran out of ammunition. Even so, he continued to pull the trigger, to no effect. Finally, the enemy turned tail and ran. Logan stood, watching as the dust settled, revealing a score of scattered bodies, blood stained the desert sands.

Taking his time, he walked down the hill to look for survivors. Coming up to one of the bloodied bodies, he rolled the cadaver over. Right in front of him, a pair of familiar eyes, while lifeless, stared in panic. Underneath her body lay another, younger body. A child, probably only 11 at best, shot, her face frozen in agony and fear.

~~~~~

End flashback

~~~~~

“So, she was one of the first to die during those protests?” Cadence asked, suddenly fearful.

Logan nodded as tears began to streak his face.

“If you don’t want to talk about it that’s fine Logan. I understand that it hurts.” Velvet offered.

“Please… you don’t know true pain until you’ve loved, lost, and watched a bunch of close friends and neighbors get massacred. After that take that person’s life. Then kill, and kill and kill. With each life you end, a little bit more of you dies.” Logan hissed somewhat unintentionally.

“Sorry… I didn’t mean to snap like that.” he said quietly in a demure voice almost like that of Fluttershy.

“It’s okay Logan. You had to do what you had to do. Whilst I don’t know what you did, or why, I’m sure it was for a good reason.” Nightlight said offering a cookie to which Logan took with a gentle smile.

“Thanks for listening. And tolerating my outburst.” he said. Looking up at the clock, he saw how late it was getting. “Oh dear. I hate to say this but I must return to the castle. I’m probably expected.” he said as he got up.

“So are we. Sorry to cut this so short mom n dad.” Twilight added.

“Its okay sweetie. You’re a princess and thus have royal duties. But do try to write us some more.” Velvet said with a playful wink.

“Of course mom.”

The family then hugged and bade each other goodbye.

“Your lucky to have such a family Twilight.” Logan chided as they walked to the castle. “I’d write them a letter tonight if I were you.”

As Logan entered the castle, a thought bubbled up. ‘If this is peace… I like it.’

__________________________

16:00 hours

Ponyville, Equestria

Children from Earth begin feeling very strange.

“Mom, my tummy hurts…” children began to complain. Slowly the feeling started. First their eyes and hair would change in color. Parents of human born children began to grow very worried.

Trips to the local doctor showed that a change in hair and eye color, while peculiar, was not dangerous in any way. But tonight was different.

The Ponyville hospital was overwhelmed by human children. All complaining about aches and pains in their organs. Normally it would be a simple fix. Take this pill or drink this medicine. But nothing they did helped.

The doctors in Ponyville all examined each of the children. Their symptoms all remarkably similar. Churning and upset stomachs, most up to the point of vomiting. Parents of these children began to worry that they may have caught some illness from the locals. They each were rather surprised when a human doctor then walked in offering his advice on how a human system worked.

That was when the connection was made. These children, the younger they were the sooner the onset of symptoms. These children weren’t experiencing a new illness. It was a metamorphosis. The doctors would have to ask Princess Twilight to run some non invasive tests to prove their theory.

“And what theory would that be Dr. Stable!?” one outraged mother cried.

“The ambient magic in our world, is affecting your species. Your kind, being magic-less, no offence meant by the by, is absorbing the ambient magic from our world. But, your human bodies, no offence, cant handle this type of magical energy. Now, this is just a theory ma’am, so if I’m wrong, don’t rip my horn off. But it seems, your people, no offence, are slowly turning into ponies. I’ll ask the Princess what she thinks when she returns from Canterlot. But its not just your children. You are being affected as well. Given that your eyes just went from green-ish blue to a vibrant pink.” Doctor Stable explained.

Parents began to pace. “So how do we ease the pain?” on father asked.

“The most we can do is sedate them, or put them on strong painkillers. Beyond that there is little I can do. But at this rate of metamorphosis, they could be fillies and colts by Nightmare Night. Or by month’s end.”