Alex was back inside his cell. Tied to a small folding chair, and very weak. No matter how much Alex struggled and pulled against his chains, he wasn't able to break free.

Distracted by his attempt at escape, he did not notice the cell door slowly creak open, or the silhouette that entered the room. Said cell door slammed shut, fully gaining Alex's attention.

"Hello again, traitor." The shadow coldly greeted as it bashed something against Alex's head. The shockwave of pain knocked him against the cold, stone floor.

The shadow turned on the one incandescent light hanging loosely above Alex, now he was able to clearly see the gun being pointed at his chest.

The dark figure stepped closer, revealing the identity of his captor.

Agent Winchester.

Alex stared in horror, what was he doing here?

"Where is the Militia, answer me, now!" Winchester threatened.

Alex tried to speak, to tell him where he had last seen them, so he could beat up some other poor sap besides him. But he couldn't.

"Typical martyrs." The Agent scoffed, placing the barrel firmly against Alex's rib cage, he fired one shot, the sound booming into his ears.

"Are you okay, wake up!"

Alex bolted up from his hospital bed, frazzled and breathing wildly. It didn't take him long to realize what just happened.

He was having a nightmare, in full view of a pony. Alex somehow figured that didn't bode well for him.

"What happened, are you okay?" The lavender pony in front of him anxiously inquired.

"I'm fine, it was just a dream." Alex reassured, more for himself than her.

"I don't think you're fine, should I come back later?" She asked.

"Now is fine, don't worry about it." He said, regaining his composure.

"Oh...okay then, Mr. Walker, if you say so.." She obviously didn't fully believe him, not that Alex particularly cared.

Alex remembered Cloudchaser mentioning someone named 'Princess Twilight', and that only the staff, Cloudchaser and Flitter, and this Princess knew about him. Oh, crap. He just had a full blown nightmare in front of royalty.

"Aren't you this 'Princess Twilight' that Cloudchaser mentioned?" He asked, from what the staff told him, the Princess was an Alicorn, a pony with both wings an a horn, noticing said appendages, this had to be her.

"Yes I am, Cloudchaser and Flitter told me about you earlier this morning. I just had to come over and meet you!" She beamed excitedly. Oh great, questions.

"Cloudchaser also said something about you wanting to study my equipment." Alex said, remembering what the Pegasus had told him in her visit yesterday.

"Oh, yeah, can I? Please?" She pleaded. Damn, she is really into this whole 'alien tech' thing.

"Why not? Better yet, I can tell you a bit about it, I only ask that you not-" Alex could hardly finish talking until the Alicorn levitated the SCAR into the air above him and dissected the thing, leaving each individual part suspended in the air, some flew over to Twilight for closer inspection.

"What is this called?" Twilight asked, levitating a Magazine towards Alex's direction.

"This is a Magazine, mag for short, people have also called them 'clips'." Alex stated, revealing what he knew on the subject.

"So which is it?" Twilight asked.

"Technically, it's a mag, but I can't tell you how many times I called it a clip by accident, it's a pretty common mistake." He answered.

"What exactly is the difference?" Twilight inquired again, at least these questions weren't about his past.

"A clip is when the ammunition is exposed, held together by a small metal band, a mag is basically a box where you put the ammunition inside yourself." Alex told her.

"...what's ammunition?" She asked, yet again.

"We'll discuss that later, just tell me the important stuff, deal?" He was getting a little tired of the 'Firearms 101' thing.

"Deal." Twilight agreed as she reassembled the gun right in front of him. Wow, it took her four seconds to do what he would in a half-hour, give or take a long ass time.

"I know you're here for some other reason then to learn about my armaments, so...what is it?" Alex asked.

Twilight cleared her throat, oh boy, this was going to be long.

"Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle, former protégée of Princess Celestia and The Princess of Friendship, and I would like to formally welcome you to Equestria!" Damn, she seems to have done that same speech a million times! How often did alternate dimensional creatures just drop in here?

"Thank you for the introduction, Princess. I just have a couple of questions." Alex said.

"Shoot." Twilight seemed ready for a barrage of questions.

"Is there a forge near here?"

"Yes, the Ponyville forgery is about 2 miles north of here."

"Do you have any access to gunpowder?" Alex asked, for safety's sake, it would probably be best to reload, which is hard when you only have what you took with you.

"My friend Pinkie might know, she does have a party cannon, so she might know someone." Twilight answered.

"Is there much I need to worry about?" Alex inquired, he didn't want another Bohemian Grove to ruin his life here like it did back there.

Uh, oh, Twilight seemed a bit nervous about answering this one...

"Ponyville has more than it's fair share of monster attacks, and our friendship problems usually cause some type of collateral damage, plus, there's usually some threat to Equestria about once or twice a year. Sorry." She finished.

Alex was baffled that all of that could be condensed into one place. Holy hell.

"Also, where am I going to live once I'm released from the hospital?" Alex asked one last time, he was an alien, after all, he couldn't be a homeless alien.

"There should be a few places, a couple of ponies moved away after that whole 'Tirek' situation." Well, at least He had options.

Alex and Twilight continued talking for a while, until Twilight finally had to leave because of some diplomatic talks at her castle... Something like that, leaving Alex alone with some time to think.

Alex still felt a sickening sense of fear since his arrest, that only amplified after joining the militia, and more so once he discovered Silas' true colors. He still remembered what happened between him and Jäger on their way to the Militia HQ...

-Aircraft Refuelling Station, 63 miles south of Portland, OR, September 11, 2016-

"Team, we're stopping here to refuel the helicopter, we have a 10 minute break." Jäger announced. The chopper landed onto the pad with ease, Alex felt the bump that accompanied a landing.

That being said, The pilot, Kat, Mordecai, and the other personnel went into a small convenience store inside, leaving Alex and Jäger alone.

"So, now that I'm in the militia, what exactly is my job?" Alex asked.

"It's simple enough," Jäger stated, "You're going to act as infantry on our missions, the ops are usually simple, kill High Value Targets, gather intel on anything the Government has to even the odds, and weaken their military. Simple."

Alex was not entirely okay with this.

"I was just blamed for being in the damn militia and tortured for a month! Do you expect me to confirm their suspicions? I don't want to spend the rest of my life in prison or with you murderers!" Alex affirmed. Being accused of being part of a group of killers was bad enough, actually being in the group was a whole other level.

Jäger pulled a pistol out of his holster, shoved Alex against a wall, and held it in his face, switching the safety to the 'off' position.

"You listen here, you are getting a gun, some ammo, and a uniform. You want revenge on these pricks for what they did to you, don't you?" Jäger threatened, this was serious, Alex wouldn't get a say in whatever happened to him.

"Uh... Yes sir." Alex nodded, scared out of his mind.

"Good, if we get captured, they'll finish what they started, if you're even alive by then, so show some respect when someone offers you a job!" Jäger shoved the barrel into Alex's forehead, his head hitting the wall. Jäger clicked the safety back on and put it back in his holster.

"Our ten minutes is up, regroup at the helicopter." Jäger said, the pilot ran out the door with a soda bottle. Mordecai, Kat, and the other guy falling in behind him.

"Don't ever let me hear any of that again, you hear me?!" Jäger yelled.

"Yes sir!" Alex said, still fearful of what he would do if he disagreed.

"Good! Now get to the chopper, we've got places to be!" Jäger screamed again.

Alex, still stunned at what transpired, ran back to the chopper. Getting back into his seat, Alex sat down, fear encompassing his mind.

- September 13, 2016, Ponyville hospital, present day-

Alex let the events of that day play again in his mind, as he finished the small meal.

'The past is the past, it's probably a bad idea to let anyone know about that, if I do, I'll be in a crap ton of trouble.' Alex decided. Who knows what would happen to him if they found out he fought against his government, that he killed people. No matter what, this was a new world, it would be best if Cloudchaser, Flitter, Twilight, or anyone else didn't know what he's been through, they might try to help, but he considered that a very unlikely outcome.

Author's Notes:

Boom, chapter.
I know I promised a chapter dedicated around the Mag vs. clip thing, this wasn't it, but it will come up soon enough.