Soldier and Derpy

Day 469
Things had been quiet around P0nyville for a while now. You daily job consisted of going into town, helping out with some odds and ends with the various p0nies. It bored you, the idleness numbed your mind. As Luna rose the moon and arranged the stars in the sky, you grabbed your bags and headed back home. You still couldn’t bring yourself to gaze at them like you used to. You missed staying up late at night just to talk, gaze up to the stars as she moved them around with her horn.
Damnit Brain, what did I say about bringing up these memories?
“Sorry man.”
Don’t worry about it Brain. Those were good times. And this was for the better. She would have been miserable later on. Oh look, you were already home. You unlocked the door and dropped your gear in the living room. Something stirred in your peripheral vision. You spun toward it, aiming down the sights of your rifle.
A somewhat distinguished voice spoke from the shadows. “Oh there won’t be a need for that. Anonymous, is it?” What in the jimmie rustling fuck were you looking at? Half goat, half dragon, half lion, half eagle, half bat, half deer… was this the bastard offspring of the biggest interspecies pornflick of all time?
“You have 5 seconds to identify yourself, and tell me how you got inside my house. And why you’re here before I blow your head off.” This thing gave you a small grin, as if you had just aimed a squirt gun at him. Chambering the round to show him you meant business, he waved his hand casually, as if dismissing you. As he did, your M4 went limp, turning into a giant pile of slag. “What the buck?!”
“Now was that anyway to treat a guest? Perhaps I should introduce myself though. Ah but my name is not important. I have a gift for you Anonymous. Something I think you will recognize.” This… thing, levitated your old sidearm and knife over to you, both in seemingly perfect condition, and with several extra magazines all fully loaded.
“I lost these over a year ago. How did you get them?” you eyed the creature, then turning your attention to the weapons. The blade was freshly sharpened, and the pistol looked like it had never even been fired.
“I can do anything Anonymous. Everything I do is simply for the laughs. Like now, handing you two things that were forever lost to you, and making you wonder. Such interesting weapons, these… I never quite seen anything like them. Imagine what you could do if you simply went into town and attacked them. You wouldn’t even have to hurt them, the noise these things make scare them senseless. Wouldn’t that be funny?”
You pulled the slide back. “Why would I do that? These p0nies are my friends.”
“They are your friends because they are afraid of you. You are superior to them and they know it. It would only take the smallest confrontation between you and some unlucky p0ny for you to snap, wouldn’t it?” something stated to feel very wrong about this.
“You seem like a pretty smart guy, Mr…?” he offered no answer. “Whoever you are, you made one important mistake.” Now you seemed to have his undivided attention. “Never come into a human’s house uninvited and give him a loaded gun.” With that you release the slide, and quickly fired 3 shots. Each one struck the back of the chair. Whatever it was, it was gone.
Or not. The slight breath on the side of your neck gave it away, sending your jimmies packing and a chill up your spine. “I’ll be in touch” whipping around you tried to shoot again, but this time the bullet sailed through the front door.
“EEP!” oh god, what did your dumb ass do now.
You opened the door to find Derpy lying on the ground. “Oh Celestia, Derpy are you ok?” you dumb ass, you just shot Derpy, of course she’s not ok.  You bundled her up in your arms and laid her down on the table, quickly grabbing your medkit. It hit her flank, but bleeding didn’t seem too bad, but you needed to get that bullet out.
“Derpy, this is going to hurt a little. Bite down on this.” You gave her your belt, and she obeyed without anything more than a whimper. Shit, this was real, and you had never done something like this before. Sure there was training, but that was dummies. With fake blood. And this was real blood, and a p0ny.
Stay calm, you can do this Anon. just don’t show any fear and try to keep her calm. You reached in the wound with the tweezers, digging out the bullet. It looked to be in one piece luckily and it wasn’t too deep, meaning the damage shouldn’t be too bad either. Wrapping the wound up in gauze, you couldn’t help but feel Derpy looking up at you, tears filling her eyes.
“Anon… I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bother you…” she pulled away from you as you tried to hug her.
“Derpy I didn’t mean to hit you!” Fuck, now tears were starting to flow from your own eyes. She was so afraid of you now. Maybe that thing was right. Maybe you were a monster to these p0nies. Maybe they just befriended you so you wouldn’t attack them. Derpy tried to get up, only to fall off the table. Luckily you caught her. “You’re in no condition to go home, stay here for the night.”
After a brief moment, she nodded, realizing you weren’t going to hurt her again. You wiped the tears from her eyes and carried her to the bed room,  making sure she was comfortable. “I need to get Dinky  though Anon… Shes just a filly.”
“I’ll go get her Derpy, stay here and rest. Do you need anything?” She shook her head.
“Hurry up and get Dinky please…” She didn’t need to tell you again. You ran as quick as you good to Derpy’s. You knocked on the door, hoping the little filly wouldn’t be asleep yet. She poked her head out the window to see who was knocking so late at night, and rushed out to hug you.
“Anon! have you seen my mom? She usually gets home before now…” she looked up at you, still clutching your leg.
“She’s over at my place, and wanted you to come over and stay with us. Doesn’t that sound fun Dinky?” you gave her a little pat on the head and picked her up. She squealed as she was lifted into the air and set on your shoulder. Walking back, she talked your ear off. You prayed she wouldn’t have to see Derpy in her hurt condition, you wondered how the poor thing would take it
Sure enough, Derpy had passes out by the time you got back. “Come on Dinky, you can sleep in my room. I’ll sleep on the couch.”  You tuck in the little grey and yellow blob of adorableness and kiss her goodnight. Well that made her give you an unusual, look, though you couldn’t help but d’aw a little. “Good night Dinky, see you in the morning.” With that, you walked back downstairs, popping your head in on Derpy to make sure she was still ok.
Sleep didn’t come easy, with your mind wandering so much. Who was that mysterious intruder? Was he telling the truth about everyp0ny secretly being afraid of you? After what you did last night, Derpy must be terrified. Though she did agree to stay with you for the night… What would the town say when they found out you hurt her? Damnit… you knew better than to shoot without verifying a target. Such a stupid move.
Time to close the eyes and get some sleep. You’re going to have a shit ton of things to do tomorrow. You can just feel it in your jimmies. You woke with a tight feeling in your chest. That was weird, you never had that sensation before… you woke up and found Dinky sitting on your chest, staring at you. Seeing your sleepy ass wake up, she gave a little wave. “Good morning! Mom said you were taking me to school. I‘m ready when you are!” She bounced up and down, with cute smile on her face.
You grabbed her, hoisting her up on to your shoulder like last night, you walk her to school, while she continues to talk you ear off again. What a little ball of energy. The school house came into sight. “Do you need me to come by later and walk you home?”
She paused a moment to think about it. “If ya want! It’s always fun hanging out with you Anon! See ya!” and with that she leaped off your shoulder and bolted toward the school. If there was one thing about kids you liked, it was you knew they told the truth about whether or not they liked you. It put a smile on your face the rest of the way home. Maybe to day wouldn’t be so bad.
Back at the house, Derpy was floating around, making breakfast. As much as you appreciated the gesture, you really didn’t feel right having her do such a thing after you hurt her, accident or not. “Derpy , as much as I appreciate this, you should be resting.” You rubbed her mane as she floated next to you.
“It’s fine Anon, I like baking muffins. Besides I gotta get to work” She said as she set the tray of muffins on the counter.
You grabbed one, nearly burning your hand off. “Ow!”
She couldn’t help but laugh. “That’s something I  would expect me to do Anon.”
You blushed, glancing at the muffin. “Anyways, I want you to rest up for the day. I’ll go to the post office and deliver the mail today. And I ain’t taking no for an answer” With that, she nuzzled your cheek and dug into a muffin. She flew lazily to the bedroom and curled back up under the covers. After last night, this was the least you feel you could do. Grabbing your gear and her mail bag, you were out the door and off to work.
Keeping your promise to Dinky, you met her after school let out and let her ride home on your shoulder. Random question out of fucking nowhere, “Anon, do you have a mom?”
You couldn’t help but be shocked by the question Dinky asked. “Yes Dinky, I do…”
“And do you have a Dad?”
“I do. What’s this about Dinky?” What in Equestria did she learn at school today?
“I don’t have a dad, but everyp0ny else does…” the once hyperactive ball of pure p0ny energy seemed down. Oh man, what were you going to do about this? Wait… yes you do you glorious bastard. You decide to take Dinky to the lake nearby your house. You skip a few rocks across the pond, while Dinky watches in amazement.
“Well Dinky, everyp0ny has a mom and dad. But the parents we grow up with aren’t always the ones that gave birth to us… sometimes our parents are strangers, that choose us when we aren’t wanted by our original parents.”
“Why wouldn’t my dad want me?” she asked, looking up with a tear rolling down her cheek.
“I don’t know Dinky, I wish I could ask my real dad the same question.” She looked up curiously. You took the responsibility of wiping that tear from her face before continuing. “I was adopted when I was only a little guy, about a year old. I was lucky to have a very nice family that took me in as their own. Even though they weren’t my real parents, they still loved me like they were. I guess what I’m getting at Dinky, is that just because you don’t have a dad right now, doesn’t mean you won’t someday. And that day you do find a dad that will take care of you and Derpy, you won’t have to wonder if he loves you or not, because he wouldn’t be there if he didn’t.” you paused for a moment. You just told the lil filly a lot of stuff, you hoped it wasn’t too much for her to take in.
Silence came between the two of you for a few minutes. “How do I know I’ll ever find a dad?” Fuck.
Brain, any ideas?
Chill bro I got this.
“You are an extraordinary little filly Dinky. And you mom is too. I’m sure that one day someone will be lucky enough to catch your mom’s eye. I think whoever she does pick will be an extremely lucky guy”
Hey brain, that actually wasn’t so bad.
Thanks bro.
Another few minutes of silence. You could tell she wanted to say something, but she kept quiet, watching you continue to skip rocks. Then without warning she snuggled up next to you, gave a small yawn and muttered “I hope you catch her eye. I like you.” You smiled, looking back out across the lake. There was that, thing. Just floating there in the middle of the lake. You drew your sidearm, using your free hand to shelter Dinky’s ears.
No, stop. The last time you shot at this thing you hurt Derpy, you weren’t going to risk some freak accident right now, not with Dinky cuddled up to you. You lowered it slowly, staring at this… thing. Fuck, you still didn’t know what to call it. Closing your eyes and shaking your head was all it took to make the thing disappear. Was this world finally making you go crazy?
You decide to head home before something bad happened. Derpy was up and about again, smiling when you walked in the door with Dinky in your arms. Without any noise you set her back in bed. The two of you had talked for hours, the sun was going down already. Outside you spoke to Derpy. “Sorry we’re so late, we spent the day by the lake talking. She’s a curious little filly.”
She hugged you. “It’s ok Anon! I trust my muffin with you.” You giggled, hugging her back. Maybe you could try being a father figure to Dinky. Of course that would be up to Derpy, and quite honestly, you didn’t feel like bringing the subject up. Suddenly Derpy grabbed the collar of your shirt in her mouth and carried you to your room. With you on the bed, you began to have flashbacks to that night with Luna. But Derpy didn’t do that, instead, she crawled up next to you and snuggled, a big smile on her face.
This wasn’t so bad. Sure Derpy was a strange and clumsy p0ny, but you didn’t mind she was a sweet girl. You paid no mind to the creature lurking just outside your window, sipping on it drink like always.
“It appears making this human cause some chaos will be a bit harder than I anticipated…” he took a sip of his drink “Well then, tomorrow, let the games begin…”