"Alright, so!" Sujer began, arms held up as he nervously glanced at the guns. "I know that you all want to kill us, and you probably have good reason to, but what if I said we can make all of this not worth your time and instead set you all up for life? Eh? Any takers?"

The gunmen still held up their rifles.

"Well I tried."

"Angel..." a voice echoed in the room. From within the riflemen's ranks, a tall figure strode out to meet his sudden prisoners. Like a man lost from 1944, he wore a black buttoned up coat that reminded Kaz and Sujer of an SS officer. "How nice to finally meet you again."

"Vikander..." Angel spat. "What are you doing here?"

"I should ask you the same. You said you would only stay in Las Rosas, and wouldn't dare to come back home. And yet," Vikander held up his arms in a mocking showmen fashion, "here you are. Back home to me."

"We just wanted to visit a friend's mother, nothing more, nothing less. Now let us go. We don't have any fight with you."

"Maybe you don't," Vikander said, turning his head towards Kaz. "But he does. I am not sure how you survived, captain Kaznudo, but you have very much become a thorn in my side with your activities."

"Vete a la mierda," Kaz replied.

"Oh, so testy. Rebellious, even. A true veteran of the Sandinistas, I'm sure. But tell me, captain, why would you fake your death from us and then come to the one place we would have kept eyes on to make sure you wouldn't come back? A survivor of wars would have known it was a trap."

Kaz spat to the ground, keeping his eyes on the closest rifle that he could conceivably grab and take to protect himself. "I owed a debt to her to make sure my mother was safe. I didn't know you would stoop so low to stalk an older woman—"

Angel, ignoring the conversation, was also looking for a way out. He had the easy way out of Transporting back to Equestria, but he wasn't going to leave all his friends behind. Yet as much as he could look at the gunmen and around the living room of the house that suddenly was shot up by the riflemen before they stormed the room, he couldn't figure any way out that didn't involve someone on his side dying.

"And that is why I am still surprised that you are so weak minded even as a veteran. All these men here? They were once rebels too. They believed in a cause once. Then that cause betrayed them. And now, I have taken them, I help them look towards a new cause, one that can stand as a united peoples against the nation bullies of the world. Did you know Angel believed that cause once?"

Kaz looked to see Angel hang his head low, hearing his sins be put to words. Vikander kept speaking, "Absolutely hated anyone related to the Americans or the Soviets. Capitalists and communists alike were felled by his hand. I honestly seemed to think he had a thing against white skinned people in general, but when he one day left us saying he didn't agree to our cause anymore, we were heartbroken. He was the best of us, you know."

"You had me kill every last cartel boss that stood in your way. You had me kill their families, so their wives or their children wouldn't come seeking revenge. YOU MADE ME KILL KIDS!" Angel yelled, leaving his sins bare for all in the room. "What unification is there in killing the innocent? I left because you changed, Vikander. Look at yourself now, especially with that Nazi coat! You've become your father!"

Before he could react, Angel felt a fist connect to his right jaw, sending him down to the ground. His head swam in semi-conciousness, his brain fighting to stay awake.

"DO NOT COMPARE ME TO PAPA!" Vikander screamed, holding his hand up for another punch. "I WILL BURY YOU SO FAR UNDERGROUND YOUR BONES WILL BE MADE INTO DIAMONDS BEFORE THEY WILL EVER DIG YOU BACK UP!"

"Kaz, now!" a voice yelled, Vikander turning to see Sujer utilizing the commotion to attack a soldier and commandeer his rifle. He ducked down just in time for the rifle to fire off an automatic hail of bullets and spray the other soldiers, looking away for a brief moment while Kaz kneeled down to grab Angel. Before Vikander could get back up to control the situation, Kaz grabbed Angel and his mother, with Sujer diving down to grab Kaz's ankle.

And before Vikander could look back, the three men and one woman he had been tracking simply blinked out of existence.

"OK. That. Was. Too close," Sujer said, readjusting to having to walk on 4 legs so quick after standing on 2 legs and raising his arms up high in the air. He could feel his blood pumping down into his arm again after holding it up for so long.

"You're telling, argh, me," Angel agreed, still feeling his jaw ache from Vikander's fist. They Transported back into Equestria, dropping into the backup room in the castle. Angel was splayed out on the floor, Kaz dropping his hoof right after Transporting to tend to his mother, who knelt down on her front legs.

"Mama? Mama, ¿estás bien?" Kaz asked, looking over his mother and frightened for her.

She stared into the ground, visibly shaking more and more as her legs buckled underneath her. "Los solderas. El jefe. Esas armas..."

She fell down onto the floor, causing Kaz to scream in fear. Angel and Sujer quickly got up to check on the poor woman.

As was usual with the human transformations, there wasn't a varied colored difference between humans like there was between ponies, so Kaz's mother had much the same coat and mane color as the rest of the humans. Oddly, she already had a cutie mark on her, a strange cactus flower bloom adorning her flanks as she fell on her side. She didn't look that old compared to Kaz himself, and Angel briefly wondered how old the woman was. They didn't exactly have much time to even say hello before the Sujer suddenly noticed the guns outside and told everyone to get down from the hailstorm of bullets that followed.

"She's still breathing, look at her barrel," Kaz explained, pointing his hoof towards where her stomach would be. "She just fainted, thank God. We have to get her to a hospital."

"We got one here in the castle. Kaz, Sujer, wait here. I'll go grab the Royal Guard to take her."

"And that's how we ended up here, Celestia. I don't know if Vikander will realize what happened, I don't think he saw us Transport, but he's almost certainly going to track down Alicia so he can get to me. I need to go back to get her."

"But, Angel," Celestia sighed, shaking her head at the rashness of her longtime human friend. "You could get hurt again. Are you sure you want to go back now?"

"I need to, Celestia. For Alicia's sake. No doubts about it. Tell Kaz and Sujer I'll be back soon."

Before the princess could voice any more concerns, Angel blinked out of her reality. She heard a small pop when Angel Transported, and she could only help but blink again at the strange dimension hopping power that Angel wielded.

Taking a few breaths to calm her nerves after being de-briefed about Kaz, Sujer, and Angel's harrowing trip to Puerto Estigroza, she walked back into the infirmary that held Kaz's mother, who she found out was named Arely. It was ironically enough the same room that had held Kaz when he was recovering from the worst of his injuries.

"Hey, you're back. Where's Angel?" Sujer asked. He stood next to Kaz, who was holding the hoof of his mother as she layed on the infirmary bed, taking shallow breaths as the IV system next to her worked their magic to heal whatever ailment Arely had.

"Angel debriefed me on your trip, and he seems to have the idea that Alicia might be in danger after he became involved in stopping one of the Dead Kings' attacks by escaping with you all. I tried to persuade him to wait a bit before he went gallivanting off to be a hero again, but he is both stubborn and impatient these days."

"Seriously? And he didn't think to bring me so at least I could go home? That bastard..." Sujer seethed. "Welp, guess I'm stuck here then. I'm gonna go help myself to whatever desserts you guys got in the kitchen."

Before Celestia could voice more concerns, Sujer trotted out into the hallway away from the infirmary, leaving the Princess and Kaz a bit flabbergasted. Kaz sighed, "That kid can be real selfish, huh?"

"It is an unwelcome example of your species, I'm afraid to say, Kaznudo," Celestia replied. "Your mother, is she okay?"

"Yeah, she'll be fine, her nerves just got to her during that whole ordeal. I mean, home shot up, bunch of men with guns holding her up, some random kids alongside the son she believed was dead, and now this world? She was just a simple woman, even a handgun would get her anxious. She never liked me being in the FSLN back in the day."

"You've told me that the other night. That you were with this 'FSLN'. Who are they, if I may ask?"

Kaz sighed and looked down, seemingly thinking on where to begin. "Do you know of communism, princess?" he asked.

"I know of the term, yes, though it has been literal lifetimes since I've seen such a government in action. Stalliongrad, before it swore fealty to Canterlot, was a communist city-state. In recent times it has turned into a more socialist political climate, but the true communists are few and considered essential traitors in all but law to the crown. Some towns in my kingdom are decidedly socialist, while others are more libertarian or even meritocratic in principle. I have worked more than a thousand years to bring my ponies into a state of harmony, not just with each other but in the whole world, even with other pony-run countries, if not countries ruled by different species. Back in the olden times, however, much of Equestria was highly politicized, on both ends of the spectrum."

Kaz could only whistle in sympathy. "Whew. Got it a lot better than on Earth. Our species is so highly politicized we have two nations who have agreed in unspoken terms to destroy the whole world if one doesn't get what they want from the other. And we've gotten close to annihilation before. Well, as I was saying, you know communism. The FSLN aren't exactly communists, but they were sympathetic to them, especially with a country called Cuba, who is a thorn in the side of one of the two big countries I mentioned before. The FSLN were also not happy with that same big country practically controlling their country's government like a puppet, and wanted to establish independence for themselves. I joined up because when my mother and I fled America after an incident, we had landed in the country and I was desperate to find some sort of cause to believe in. The FSLN were also fighting America, the same as I was just by my existence there, so to me it felt like just revenge for how they treated my family. I ended up being a successful captain, and by all odds a small jungle group of rebels actually won the war. It wasn't long though before the idealistic nature of the FSLN gave way to other humans simply wanting power and wealth all over again, so my family and I had to flee yet again. I married a woman and just had a son before we fled, but you know how that ended once we landed in Las Rosas..."

Celestia nodded, bowing her head in respectful mourning. "I am aware, and I am sorry for your loss."

"Yeah... Do you mind if I can be left here alone? I'd like to collect my thoughts a bit about the whole situation before heading to my bed. The doctor said Mama would wake up early tomorrow after the calming anesthetics they gave her wore off."

"Of course," Celestia answered. "I shall be in my quarters, teaching Luna more of the common vernacular and some of the new history of Equestria since her absence, if you need me."

Celestia bowed her head, before turning around and walking out of the room. The sterile floors and bleak lights did not do much to calm Kaznudo's nerves on their own, so he continued to kneed his hooves around his mother's leg, as she laid in bed sleeping off her own nerves.

"What am I going to do now, with you here and the Dead Kings out there?" he wondered out loud...

The door violently swinging open woke Kaz up from his nap on top of his mother's bed, and he looked with bleary eyes to see a bunch of nurses and doctors filling up an empty bed with a red body.

Rubbing his eyes to wake himself up better, he flinched when he recognized the red body as a bloodied Angel, his eyes closed and his barrel barely showing any signs of breathing. A mask was hooked up to his muzzle to fill up with oxygen, as the nurses quickly bandaged and wrapped up some parts of Angel as two surgeons worked to pick out some things out of the colt. Kaz could only blinked as he looked at the objects they were pulling out of Angel.

Are those... bullets?

Before he could stand up to investigate the commotion himself, Sujer suddenly appeared in his vision. He flinched back in surprise, eyes wide open as he exclaimed a little.

"Kaz!" Sujer practically shouted. "They shot up Angel! Alicia's dead!"

Author's Notes:

So, apparently, I had this saved as a chapter of this old story far in the archives of my Google Drive. I've already re-done the characters in this story into a different one of mine (Romance, Mortality, and Cyborgs), but I decided to touch up the old chapter I had and post this as a sort of nostalgic trip of my own through old ideas.

Who knows. Maybe I'll come back to this story one day. I'll bring it back into On Hiatus instead of cancelled for now.