"All Aboard!"
The soldier stepped onto the train and gave the conductor his ticket, waiting as it was inspected. The conductor looked at him and said, "Finally head home?" "Eeyup," replied the soldier. "Well then, thank you for your service," the conductor said and offered him a salute. The soldier wordlessly returned his salute, then went to find his seat
With only a couple other ponies in his car, the soldier had his choice of seats, so he picked one in the middle of the car, with line of sight and easy access to both doors. The train was mostly empty, which suited the soldier fine. He knew that, although there was still fighting in other places, he was among the last to come back from his theatre in the Badlands, and the only one in his unit headed back to Ponyville by train. His sergeant had taken a pegasus chariot to Canterlot to debrief, and most of the squad had already left for Manehatten or Fillydelphia.
The soldier unstrapped his bag from his back and slid it under his seat, making sure that his combat knife was where he could get at it in a hurry. He didn't know how many times that knife had saved his life, but he wasn't about to be taken by surprise without it. As he sat down, his left shoulder twinged, a reminder of the shallow but frequent wounds that had been left there.
It was still early, barely after sunrise, but the day was already heating up. The soldier didn't care. He'd been out in the badlands on the hottest days of summer. He'd felt the heat of the cannons blasting behind him. He'd seen the...
The soldier took a deep breath, then let it out. All that was over, and he didn't need to think about it anymore. There was nothing he could do to change anything that had happened, and thinking about it too much wouldn't be good for him.
He thought instead about his sister. They'd always been close, but the war came Celestia had asked for one volunteer from each family. He'd gone boot camp while she'd stayed behind to run things on the farm. It had torn both of them up, but they both knew it had been the right choice. He was good for lifting and moving and pulling, but she'd always had a better head for the business of things. She also knew that he'd never let her go if he could go himself. The soldier knew that he'd make the same choice again in a heartbeat.
He thought too about his youngest sister. He barely knew her. She must be old enough to be in school by now. Had she gotten her cutie mark while he was away? It might be selfish, but he hoped that she hadn't. He wanted to be there to help her celebrate. With their parents gone, he hoped that he might become something of a father figure to her. How would life be for them now that the war was finally over? Had the rationing already stopped? Or would it continue until the last remnants of the war were cleaned up?
The soldier looked out his window to see that they'd long since passed out of the desert and the only thing he could see now was the dark form of the Everfree Forest. It reminded him of those dark days when he'd been captured. Four months he had been held, the longest four months he had ever gone through. His captors had assumed the forms of various nightmarish creatures in their attempts to break him. Their twisted forms still haunted his dreams. But that hadn't been the worst part. No, the worst part hadn't even when they began to look like his squad mates in order to trick him. The worst part had been waking up to see his own face looking back at him, and hear his own voice mocking him.
"You're not Big Macintosh, I'm Big Macintosh. Wake up. You are a changeling like us. Wake up. The real Big Mac died long ago. Please, wake up. CELESTIA HAS ABANDONED YOU! Mac. Echo Oak Damsel Oh Five Two Three Dash One Two."
Towards the end he had been so delirious that he couldn't tell anymore if he was awake or dreaming. His nightmares blended into the real world and the changeling's voices had been all he heard, waking or sleeping. He couldn't even be sure that his thoughts were his own. Only one thing had gotten him through, one solitary thing. The changelings guarding him had been called away to help with an engagement, and he was left on his own with a few precious hours of silence. He had drifted into a fitful sleep, his head still filled with the voices of the changelings. But then a voice unlike any he had ever heard rang out. "DON'T GIVE UP SOLDIER! YOUR LIBERATION IS AT HAND!" and he awoke.
It turned out that he had been held for another two weeks after that, but the voice had spoken true. He was no longer plagued by the endless waking nightmare, and his thoughts were his own once more. But he was no longer Big Macintosh. He was the soldier. When a team of rangers had found him, he had was ready to join them in their mission, sabotaging enemy supply lines. Even when they returned to their own army, the soldier stayed with the ranger squad, becoming their demolitions expert. Even now that the war was over he would try to keep in touch with them, ready for the day that they might be needed again.
The conductor announced that Ponyville was coming up, so the soldier grabbed his pack and joined the other passengers at the door. He saw Applejack standing with Applebloom on the platform, waiting for their big brother. Their Big Mac. The conductor smiled at the soldier as the door opened. "Glad to be home?" he asked. The soldier smiled back as he saw Applebloom running toward him. "Eeyup," he said, and stepped off of the train.
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic and all related materials and characters are © Hasbro, Inc. More info about this story is available here.
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