Ne-gok-sa wasn't as lucky as Drake. And that's saying something. When Ne-gok-sa came through the void, he appeared high in the sky. He fell, cursing his luck as well as Deathwalker for injuring him and tossing him through the portal. He fell down through the sky, falling to what he noticed as a small house on the outskirts of some town. Ne-gok-sa didn't have time to think about that though, because he crashed onto the roof of the house, bounced off of it, hit a tree, hung limply on a branch for a moment, fell to the ground, and rolled down a little hill. He then, with what energy he had left, lifted his head to see an angry looking rabbit frowning down on him. Ne-gok-sa tried to get up, move, anything. But it was no use. most of the bones in his body were broken. He was also bleeding out from that damned grenade. Ne-gok-sa closed his eyes and waited for death.

****************************

Sgt. Drake Alexander woke in a dark room. He was strapped down onto a chair, unable to move. His katana and pistol were gone, but he still had his grapple arm attached. (Did I mention he had one?) He struggled to break free of his bondings, all the while his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness of the room. Just then, a large lamp in front of him flashed on, blinding him once again.

"Now what were y'all doin' stealing from my apple orchard?" A voice said to him from the darkness.

Drake, being honorable and such, decided that no harm could come to him if he told the truth. "I had no idea that the apples belonged to you. I apologise for my theft, but I am very hungry." As if on cue, Drake's stomach growled.

"Well." The voice said. Why didn't you just say so?" The voice said again. The room was flooded with light when a few windows were opened, and Drake got a good look around.

He was in a large barn. it was very clean, the hay on the ground was flattened and somehow fluffy and more yellow than usual. He was sitting in the far back of the barn, with the door on the other side. his weapons were propped up against the wall, beside the door. It was only then that Drake noticed the...... thing. It was smaller than he was, although it was on four legs. It had brownish fur, long, yellowish hair and tail, and wore a cowb....

"You sacked me!!!" Drake yelled at it. It turned to face him now.

"I did say you were stealing from my apple orchard." The thing replied calmly. "I'd say we got off on the wrong hoof. I'm Applejack. I run this apple orchard."

"Applejack? Ok, then. I just have to ask. I've seen a lot of strange creatures in my day, but..... what are you? A horse?

Applejack looked confused. "What's a horse? I'm a pony." She then undid the ropes holding Drake in place.

Drake calmed down a little after that. This.... pony, wouldn't be much of a threat to him now that he was ok. He checked his wound. It was bandaged and seemed to be healing well. Drake stood up.

"Thank you for your, um, hospitality, but I'm here by accident, and I need to finish what I started."

"What did you start?" Applejack asked.

"I need to kill someone." Drake said, heading for the door. He never made it far, because he took another kick in the back. The kick launched Drake forward, and he hit the ground hard.

"I'm afraid I can't just let you go waltzing around killing everypony." Applejack said, moving towards Drake.

"Not a pony, a Marro!" Drake coughed, standing again.

Applejack was confused. "What's a Marro?"

"It's like skin melted over a skeleton!" Drake said impatiently. "And if you hit me again, I'll be forced to hit back!"

"There's no Marro here." Applejack answered. "And if there was one, what kind of skeleton are we talkin' about? A human one, or a pony one?"

Drake smiled. "A human one, of course. And how do you know what a human is?"

"Twilight told me horror stories about humans once."

"Who is this Twilight? Where is she?" Drake asked, moving to the door again, with Applejack close beside him.

"Prob'ly the smartest one of all of us! She lives in the library in the centre of Ponyville."

"All of you? There are more of you?"

"Sure is! Ponyville, just down the road."

They reached the door, and Drake grabbed  his weapons, putting them back in their places. "Then that's where I need to be." He said.

"I'll join ya!" Applejack piped in, imagining the face of Twilight when this guy came through her door.

***********************************

Ne-gok-sa woke, still in too much pain to do anything. But he did feel better, and he felt his Marro bones slowly knitting themselves back together again. He looked around. he was in a well lit room, with the window open, a nice breeze came through, the smell of some kind of food cooking from downstairs came to him, birds chirped from outside, and someone was humming downstairs. He was lying on a well made bed, with his wounds bandaged, and his head was propped up against a pillow that was fluffed just right.

It was revolting. If he could move, he'd trash the place. He tried to get up, but couldn't. He was stuck here, in this place. He had no choice but to wait until the thing downstairs came up, then he would have to kill it somehow, and find the artifact. some great weapon that could be used to win the war. His thoughts were interupted by a small, yellow thing with pink hair and a pink tail.

The thing flew over to him with it's small wings. It looked scared of him, as all smart creatures should be, but it was holding a bowl of steaming soup in her front..... hooves? Oh, these must be the legendary ponies, said to be the guardians of the artifact. It looked down at him for a moment, then spoke.

"Oh, you poor thing! You showed up outside this morning so hurt! I had no choice but to nurse you back to health! Didn't I? Yes I did!' This pony seemed to be trying to be nice to Ne-gok-sa, but he saw through the witches plot: She had poisoned the soup. She was planning to kill him from the inside. This bitch must die.

Fluttershy leaned in to feed the poor creature the soup she had made, but it seemed to be trying to squirm away from her.

"Oh, no, you have to eat it all up! It'll fix you in no time!" She said, but this made it seem to squirm even more. She didn't even know what it was, but it was hurt, so she had to make it better. But what was wrong? She leaned in again, this time determined to force feed it if she had to.

"Get back you crazy Bi..." he stopped, staring into her eyes. She had widened them, and she was staring at him now. Ne-gok-sa wanted to run, get out, kill her, destroy all of these damned ponies, find the artifact, drink the soup. What? He drank the soup.

"What? Why? When? How?" Ne-gok-sa thought, swallowing. "How did she do that? She IS a witch! She...... mind shackled........ me?" That's when a plan formed in Ne-gok-sa's evil mind.

Fluttershy looked down at the creature, who was now staring back at her, It's one, cycloptic eye staring into hers.

"Oh, you must want more soup!" Fluttershy said, and quickly flew back downstairs, humming once again.

"Unbeleivable!" Ne-gok-sa thought."She must be a master witch of all the magical arts! She is even immune to my mind shackle abilities! How am I suppost to get out of here anytime soon?" Ne-gok-sa lay still once again, more sinister and violent plans forming in his mind.