It's been a full year since I was sent here with no way back.

Hi, my names Gray Karmen, I'm from Northern Ireland in the United Kingdom. I lived in a small town called Antrim for a few years before getting sent here, but I'm not the only one that was dragged here. There were six others, Carl, Jason, Kate, Josh, Molly and Brian. Three of them I could stand, but the others were just unbearable. When we all met for the first time Carl decided that we should stick together on this foreign world, we all agreed but he proclaimed himself as our leader and expected us to follow his orders. Kate didn't care about anything but her looks, and by God she was ugly. Brian was as dumb as a brick and couldn't even understand what the word omnivore meant.

Josh was only 13 when he got sent here so he still had the necessary childhood innocence to not freak out when he found out he was in a land of magical talking ponies, and besides, the kid was smart for his age. Molly was a likeable person, very independent and not bad to look at, she was the one keeping me sane during the first month. Jason was an engineer on earth, he introduced Equestria to the telephone which is now a part of daily life for the ponies. He was a nice guy and told someone great jokes to lighten the mood around the camp.

Yes, things were balanced out at the camp but there was an incident that caused me to leave the group, or as Carl put it, Going rogue. It was another crappy day at the camp and Carl was being even more of a douchebag than usual. He ordered me to open a can of beer for him.

"Why should I, aren't you supposed to be our big strong leader?" I said sarcastically, he snorted in rage and tried to throw the can at me but I grabbed his arm and threw him over my shoulder into his tent. "You know, if you had just asked nicely I might have opened it for you, but you just had to play soldier didn't you." He was about to charge me but Molly and Josh held him back.

"I want you out of my camp you freeloader!" He snarled at me while struggling to get lose from Molly's death grip.

"Your camp?" I burst out laughing. "Oh my God are you that dense? This isn't your camp, and you are NOT the boss of me." I walked over to my tent and grabbed a bag that contained my personal belongings.

"You dare defy me?" I walked up to him and knocked him under the jaw.

"Who do you think you are, JESUS!? You won't need to worry about me defying you anymore, I'm leaving the group."

"Gray no!" Molly let go of Carl and hugged me. "We can sort this out!"

"I'm sorry Molly, but I can't put up with this anymore, I've got a friend in Canterlot that I'm going to stay with." I looked to Jason and Josh. "Take care of yourselves guys." I turned to Molly and she planted a kiss on my cheek.

"Stay safe." With that I walked off, it took me a two day walk to get to Canterlot but my friend let me stay with him.

He was a unicorn with grey fur and an orange mane, his name was Pyro Flare, his cutie mark was a three layered flame, one layer red, then orange, then yellow. If you haven't guessed already, his special talent is anything to do with fire. He used to be in the royal guard but was kicked out for burning down the barracks. He's learned to control his destructive tendencies so he doesn't burn his house down. We met a few weeks back, I helped him learn how to control his anger and he became my first pony friend.

I tried looking for work but no one wanted to hire me, eventually I met a griffin named Clawback. He was a large griffin and was in a similar situation. I took him back to Pyro's place and we all talked about what to do, we needed money somehow. Eventually we figured out what to do, since we didn't have any other options other than begging we became a mercenary group, we were all quite skilled in combat and none of us were afraid to take a life if needed.

Six months later our group became known all over Equestria and we began accepting jobs from the princess herself. We eventually scrapped together enough cash to buy a building in Canterlot, which would be used as our groups new home, Pyro sold his home as he no longer needed it. We named our group the Lone Wolf Mercenary Services and started holding auditions for a fourth member. After the auditions we found out that none of the candidates were willing to kill, we weren't to keen on killing ponies either but we don't just take random assassination orders, we look into the pony first then decide wether or not they have to die. Princess Celestia was glad that we didn't just kill ponies just because some rich guy slams a bag of bits on my desk. No, we have standards. Most of our requests are escort missions or guard duty, we get a few assassination requests but like I said, we only kill if it is necessary. Any time we have to kill for a client we try to get the target to go into hiding. We may be mercenaries but we still have hearts.

Getting back on track, none of the candidates were up for the job, so we told them to try the royal guard. We went back to our groups building which we now have called The Wolf Den, I decided to go for a walk to clear my head. On the way I stumbled upon a hidden area of the Canterlot gardens where I met a peculiar creature, he looked like a cross between a pony and an inscect. He didn't notice me so I hid behind a tree.

"What was I thinking, there was no way the ponies would accept me, they think I'm a monster." That sparked my interest.

"Y'know, if you were trying to get ponies to accept you, Canterlot isn't the best place for that." I stepped out from behind the tree. "This city's filled with stuck ups and nobles, you'd have been better off in ponyville." He started shivering in fear.

"What are you?"

"I'm a human, or as the snobs around here call me the ape." I stepped closer. "Names Gray by the way, who are you?"

"Oh um, my names Mothball." He started to calm down a bit.

"I don't mean to be rude but...what exactly are you, I've never seen a pony like you before?" He sighed and turned away.

"I'm a changeling, a race of shape shifters that feed off of love, we are also heartless so we can't feel love but on feed off it." I took a cautious step back. "But...I'm an exception, you know the way a bee hive is ruled by a queen?" I nodded. "Well, our species works similar to hives, we have a queen that produces changelings asexually, the queen must be one of the rarest types of changeling, a royal. A royal requires two ponies to create, each royal is born with a heart so that we can survive without feeding."

"So it's like the changeling to equivalent to an Alicorn?"

"In a way, yes. I was born a royal, an heir to the changeling throne. But what my mother, the queen, didn't take into account was that I had gained my fathers personality and free will. I left the hive, hoping to be accepted by the ponies of Equestria, but I guess that's never going to happen." I got a good look at him and noticed some key features. He had blue web like hair, a green beetle like back, a blue stripe running across his stomach, he had holes in his hooves and horn and had emerald eyes with slits for pupils. He was also very tall, not Celestia tall but still tall. "I've got nowhere to go." I started feeling bad for the guy, I started to see myself in him. An idea crept up on me.

"Mothball, how skilled are you in combat?"

"Royals are born with great magical potential and I can also transform into beings like manticores and timberwolves, why?" I smirked.

"I think I know a place where you would be accepted."

"Really?"

"Kid, you're looking at the leader of the Lone Wolf Mercenary Services, if you join us, you'll get a place in our group, a home and you'll be able to choose your own path, what do you say kid, feel like becoming a mercenary?" He looked unsure. "Don't worry kid, we don't really accept assassinations just because we get paid, we have standards." This calmed his nerves a little. I reached out my hand in offering. He stood up straight and placed his hoof in my palm and shook.

"You've got yourself a deal." I smiled and gestured for him to follow me.

"Hey Mothball, might wanna put on a disguise until we get to the Wolf Den."

"You call your home the Wolf Den?"

"You're forgetting what our group is called." He nodded and transformed into a green unicorn with blue hair. "I Should probably tell you what the others are like."

It took awhile to convince Pyro to not torch Mothball but he eventually warmed up to him (pun not intended). Clawback was accepting of him for unknown reasons. Word spread quickly that a changeling had joined our group, and when I say quickly, I mean REALLY quickly. It even reached the camp. Here's what happened when they first found out about Lone Wolf.

"Guys, Gray's in the newspaper!" Yelled Jason.

"Give me that!" Carl snatched the paper right out of his hands. "What the, that freeloader became a mercenary!" Everyone in the camp crowded round to see the article. "Lone Wolf Mercenary Services accept changeling into their group. Leader of the group Gray assures public that the changeling means no harm to the citizens of Equestria." Molly then snatched the paper and began reading it very carefully as to not miss any details.

"Gray's really made a name for himself, huh Josh?"

"Yeah, look at his friends, there's a unicorn and griffin, how'd he find a griffin?"

"I don't know, but at least he's doing well." Carl was cursing over in his tent while Jason was trying to figure out how I was able to start a mercenary group in the first place. Kate was jealous that I was getting so much attention and Brian was busy trying to understand some of the words used in the article, at least he's trying.

A few months have passed and today marked my first full year in Equestria, I hadn't seen any of the other humans for about ten months. I was sitting at my desk in my office reading a newspaper when Clawback burst through the door,

"Hey boss, I'm back from my last assignment!" He tossed a bag of bits on my desk, his payment for the job. I lifted the bag and let the bits spill onto the table, there was easily five hundred bits there.

"Great work Clawback." I lifted one hundred bits out of the pile and handed him back the rest. "Enjoy your payment." Here at Lone wolf we have a rule, 20% of our rewards go to our company vault to pay bills or buy food. We keep the rest to ourselves.

"I'm thinking of taking the rest of the week off, I got any more requests?"

"Nah, there was only one job that came in yesterday and Mothballs taking care of that, should be back any minute now." As soon as I said that Mothball walked through the door. "Hey Mothy, how'd the job go?" He tossed his twenty percent onto the table and sat down on my couch.

"Went off without a hitch boss, just had to take out a few timberwolves."

"Good to here."

"Hey, where's Pyro?" Clawback asked with curiosity.

"He's doing a food run, he'll be back later." The griffin nodded and headed to his room. "Hey Mothy, how'd your date go?" I asked with a smirk. He blushed and turned away.

"You heard about that huh?"

"Come on man, it's good that you're getting out there, at least tell me her name." He sighed in defeat.

"Her names Screwball, and the date went great."

"Good on ya dude, glad it went well."

"You know, I should be thanking you."

"Hmmm?"

"If it weren't for you, I'd never have met her, you took me in and encouraged me to get out there."

"Don't get sappy on me Mothy." I said with a slight laugh. He chuckled and left the room, but stopped in the doorway.

"By the way, happy anniversary Gray." He walked off without letting me say anything. I shook my head and went back to reading.

Later on in the day Pyro had returned from the food run and was stocking the fridge.

"Ok, we got my spicy foods, Clawbacks chicken, Mothballs chocolate stuff and Gray's red meat and vegetables. Also we got two six packs, a few bags of potato chips and chocolate cake, as well as the two 2liter sodas. Did I miss anything?" I was looking over over the list as he stocked up.

"Nope, it's all here. We've still got plenty of milk and cereal so we can last a while." He smirked and walked off. "Oh, and could you guys meet me in my Office, I've got something important to tell you all." He nodded and shot off towards the living area. A few minutes later we were all in my office.

"What's this about boss?" Clawback asked. I chuckled and pulled out four bottles of beer.

"Oh nothing, I just wanted to celebrate my one year anniversary of being in Equestria." They all gasped, the exclusion of Mothball of course. I tossed them their drinks and held mine high. "A toast, to the best year of my life! Cheers!"

"Cheers!" We all bashed our drinks together and started downing the contents. We all burst out laughing and sat down on the two couches in the room. Just then the phone rang on my desk, I picked it up and held it to my ear.

"Lone Wolf Mercenary Services, what can we do for you?"

"Gray, it's me, Celestia."

"Oh, what's up Tia?"

"I need you to do a job for me, the reward is two thousand bits."

"Two thousand bits!?" I gaged for a moment, even with the 20% donation it was still 1600 bits. "Must be a big job."

"It is, I need you to escort princess Cadance from Manehattan to Canterlot."

"Sounds easy enough."

"It won't be as simple as make sure she's safe on a train, you'll have to escort her on foot."

"Alright, now I understand the huge payment, who do you need?"

"I will need you and Mothball, meet me in Manehattan tomorrow at sundown at the train station. I will fill you in more then, and I will supply you on your journey."

"You got it." She hung up and I faced the group. "Mothball, you and I just got a co-op job."

"Really, if it pays two thousand then it must be important."

"It is, I'll fill you in on the train ride, pack your bags, it's a long job." He nodded and headed to the living area. "Clawback, you're in charge until I get back, should be a week or so."

"You got it boss." He saluted and sat in my chair. I shook my head and went to gather my things. I entered my room and collected my equipment. I threw on my cloak which draped down past my knees with a strap on the back, the cloak had our emblem on the right shoulder. I picked up my sword and placed it in the strap on my back. I picked up my throwing knives. I also picked up my magic gauntlet that aloud me to use magic, I mainly use it with my throwing knives, increasing their efficiency. I put on my scarf that covered my mouth when I wore it around my neck and headed to the front of the building.

Never had to escort royalty before, if she can't take the train that means there's someone after her. If not then I'm sure Tia has here reasons. She has faith that we will get Cadance to where she needs to go safely and I won't let her down. I exited the building and waited for Mothball. He was probably telling his marefriend that he'd be away for a few days, can't say I blame him.

This job could be risky, but we've faced dangers like hydras and even a dragon, I think we can take on a few thugs.

Lone Wolf Mercenary Services theme song

Author's Notes:

Mothball is in this story as a tribute to DisenyFanatic23, who you should check out if you have the chance.

Here's some pics of the Lone Wolf group.