”Man I hate guard duty. Did you bring the new magazine?”

Lieutenant Barnes was a never ending source of energy. He was a short and slim man well into his thirties, with a warm smile always on his bearded face. Having just recently been promoted to lieutenant he was still very inexperienced, often just treating us in 1st squad as the old friends we were. That didn’t make him a bad leader though, but much more the opposite. When all hope would seem to be lost we could always rely on Barnes being there and cheering us up, no matter how hopeless the situation was. Everyone in the squad respected him and High Command saw the efficiency in this and often letting him go with his unusual ways, like how he always wore his brown tassel hat instead of a helmet, even if it were against regulations.

This night like all others he wore that cap, and it was a welcoming sight as he climbed up into the high observation point where I already had set up shop. He smiled as I gave a nod to my backpack which had a “Guns & Ammo” sticking out.

“Aw yeah… you can always count on Sergeant Northie to have your favorite literature for you.”  

I chuckled some in response and shook my head before turning my focus back to the scope, sweeping over the terrain outside. The lieutenant crawled over to my side and brought his binoculars out, observing the open fields that stretched out beneath our hideout. We were quite high up and had a clear view of the surrounding area. Down behind us the camp was slowly going to sleep, but the sounds of people talking or laughing could still be heard. Tonight was Friday so many of the men had been drinking, a fact that made guard duty even duller.

I felt lucky for having the Lieutenant with me on the night shift though; he would certainly make it more interesting than it otherwise would be.

“Nothing of interest to report, Lieutenant.” I was quite bored and it could be heard on my voice.

“Sounds good to me. So let’s see what we got here…” He gave up a big smile and put away his binocular, starting to flip through the pages of the magazine instead.

This was the third week that we were stationed here, a place High Command called ‘Outpost 46-5’. 46 stood for the planet we were on, and the five was to identify our camp. Planet 46 was deemed to be fit for colonization because of its rich amount of rare minerals.  This was one differed from most planets though, in that it had a lively flora and fauna. The first colonists had come here alone, without any military protection. When reports came back about how weird creatures had attacked the miners our PMC, Nightwatch, was called in. It was decided that 240 soldiers would be stationed at the mining sites on P46 in order to secure them from the outside.

It felt good to finally earn those paychecks.

I kept my focus on the fields that lay before us while Barnes read out loud from the magazine for me. I hadn’t asked him too, but at least it made the time pass.

“Barnes, quiet! Look over there, in the edge of the forest.” Barnes looked like I had hurt him, being a drama queen as usual, but looked through his binoculars to where I had my aim. Something was moving inside the forest, but there was no way of saying what it was.

“Should we sound the alarm?” the question felt stupid as I already knew what the answer would be.

“Heck no, the guys are drunk, if you sound the alarm they would kill you.” He made a good argument. I flipped the scope over to infrared and took another look at what it could be. The outline of the creature reminded of a lion, but this creature had a thicker tail and a pair of wings as well.

“It’s that manticore again.” I loaded the sniper and took of the safety, steadying my aim.

“Hold your fire until it’s over the safety line.” Barnes seemed to be disappointed that it was no more than the manticore again and went back to his magazine. This was the third time this week that we had seen the manticore walk around the camp. No one knew why a creature from ancient myths where here, or where it came from. Much of this planet reminded of earth actually, with forests, lakes and animals that could be found at home. This was strange indeed, but finding out why or how it could be so wasn’t what we were paid for. My breath slowed down as it stepped out onto the open field from the forest, and I took a firmer grip of the rifle.

“Hey, it’s out in the open for once.” I had to poke Barnes in the side to actually get his attention.

“Huh, it is?” He reached down and took up his binoculars again.

“Eh… do I really have to shoot it if it crosses the line? It has never done anything.” I had my finger ready on the trigger, but this was just some innocent animal, I didn’t want to kill it or wake the whole camp.

“By regulations you have to, I’m afraid. Let’s see what it does though, maybe it won’t cross.”

We both watched it intensively, following its every move. It walked slowly towards us, but stopped right in front of the line. Not that it could have seen the line, as it was a dug down cable which could be seen on the IR with the scope. I let out a sigh of happiness as the manticore turned and went back into the forest.

“Well, I guess he got to his senses.” Barnes yawned and rolled over to his back, pulling his cap down over his eyes.

“Wake me up if something fun happens.”  He fell asleep before I even got to answer him.

The hours went by one by one, and soon the camp was all asleep, except for us on guard duty that was. Once again I saw something move far away in the forest, and quickly zoomed in on it with the sniper. This time it wasn’t the manticore fooling with us. The shapes of three small creatures were all I could see this far away. I woke Barnes with a few pokes.

“I got something in the forest; I can’t identify what it is though. It could be people.” Barnes didn’t even care to take a look at what it was.

“Are they getting closer?” is all he said.

“No... I’m not sure what they are up to. We should che-“ Barnes stared at me as if I was insane.

“YOU should check it out. Its cozy here and I’m not going to give that up just for some stupid deer. If you want to go you can go, but I’m staying.” This was typical behavior from Barnes when he was tired. It would most probably just be some deer out there but I felt the need to stretch my legs, and much to Barnes surprise, climbed down.

“Suit yourself, it’s just going to be some stupid deer anyways” he shouted down to me.

The guard at the gate was a familiar face to me. He was a private in 2nd squad that didn’t drink alcohol. That fact made sure that he often could be seen on guard duty on Fridays.

“Freddy, open the gate for me, will you?” I shouted to him as I approached the gate. He jumped up from his chair and fumbled to get his assault rifle ready before he saw that it was me.

“Did I scare you?” I grinned to him and knocked on the metal gate. He mumbled something while pressing some buttons but the sound of his voice was drowned away as the gate woke up, sliding open for me.

With my flashlight to lead me I stepped out into the open, crossing over the 800 meters of clear field we had made to create a buffer zone.  The flashlight would make my approach too obvious, so I turned it off and took a lower profile as the forest grew closer. Just in case if it would be any dangerous I withdrew my sidearm, a trusty old pistol I had been given upon my promotion to sergeant.  Slowly I made my way to the forest, looking for where the three creatures should be. Reaching for my radio I got surprised to not feel it where it should be. Most probably it was back in the OP, together with my rifle. With a heavy sigh I looked around to get my bearings right and from what I could tell I was close.

It came from somewhere close, the sound. It didn’t sound like a deer or any other wild animal actually. No, the sound was more like laughter. The kind of soft laughter a woman would have.

Thinking it was some of the miners staying outside the camp past curfew I decided to sneak closer, maybe even put on a good scare for them. My pistol would be unnecessary now so I put it back in its holster.

In the clearing which I had seen them with the scope was now a tent. A light was lit inside it and I could clearly see the shapes of three persons inside it. I snuck up to it and waited. It didn’t seem like they had heard me. Three girls were having a conversation inside. Something about how no one else earlier had been this deep into the forest. It confused me, because we daily had expeditions that went far deeper into the forest than this. Besides, they were just in the outskirts of it. I decided to make them aware of me instead of scaring them.

“Ehum, excuse me misses.” I said to the tent. It got dead silent inside it. The light from inside died.

“wh…who’s there?” a shaky voice said from inside.

“Sergeant Northwood. Would you three mind coming out and explaining what you are doing out past curfew?”

It got quiet again, but soon after three shapes got out from the tent. There was something that didn’t seem to be correct though, but I couldn’t see it in the dark. I procured my flashlight and took a better look at the three in front of me.

In front of the tent stood nothing less than three small colorful horses. One of them had a horn, much like a unicorn, and the second seemed to be winged like a Pegasus. They screamed as they saw me, with the same voices I’d heard from inside the tent earlier. Their sudden outburst shocked me and I fell to my back while trying to draw my pistol. The flashlight broke in the fall, and everything turned dark again. The three ponies were running away deeper into the forest, still screaming for full lungs and in a matter of seconds I was alone again.

I slowly got back up, now with my trusty old gun ready. Did I just meet three talking ponies? I remembered that I couldn’t see anything and then thought of the tent. There had been a light from inside it earlier, so I slowly made my way in, not really seeing anything at all. Feeling around inside I found a lantern and put it on. Three saddlebags were lying in a corner of the tent, otherwise it was empty. I got out of the tent, pistol in one hand and lantern in the other. Surely they wouldn’t just abandon their things like that so I ran back to camp.

“Freddy, for god’s sake, open up the damn gate!” I was shouting and pounding on the gate before it opened. Freddy gave me a doubtful glare as I entered.

“Sergeant, what is it?” He seemed to be newly awake, and most probably had he fallen asleep after I had left again.

“It’s… it’s nothing really. Just making sure you are up and running.” It was a lie, but the more I thought of it the less the truth made sense. The ponies had been talking to each other, and in English. I decided that I should keep it a secret for now. No one would believe me if I said I found talking ponies in a tent. Freddy wasn’t the person to put his nose in others business anyways. I climbed back up into the OP to find Barnes sleeping there. I thought of waking him and telling what I saw, but I realized quickly that was not the best of plans. Instead I laid down and took aim to the forest with my IR-scope. There was nothing at the tent. Back up in the safety of the camp I felt I could relax some more. Maybe there had been someone else there who had hidden themselves?  I took another look with my scope and felt how my whole body tensed when I saw the three ponies being back. At this distance I couldn’t tell what they were doing, but they were moving back and forth a lot. After a short while they all left, going back into the forest they had come from.

I took a glance at the time. My shift wouldn’t end until some more hours, but then I would be free to investigate this thing closer.