Twilight locked up the library for the night. Luna's moon was well above the horizon by that point, and Twilight thought that it was time to be able to occupy her tree home in peace with her assistant Spike, her "pet" dragon. Spike was more of a little brother or son to Twilight, though, because she had hatched him and raised him. The two had already eaten, with Spike munching on a few amethysts and garnets while Twilight chewed over a daisy sandwich.
Twilight had already put Spike to bed, but as she was not tired, she lay on her stomach downstairs beside a few candles reading an Equestrian history book. Ever the academic, Twilight had never taken up reading fiction, though she, through owning the Ponyville library, owned the entire Daring Do series. That series was really the only fiction she had liked, with several other books in her "dislike" pile.
Twilight turned the page to read the next chapter, "Early Equestria." She read,
"No pony truly knows how Equestria came to be. Some historians suspect that ponies sailed across the ocean in search of land. Others speculate that ponies discovered Equestria as a preexisting nation, while still others think that the goddesses of Equestria, Princesses Celestia and Luna, created ponies and Equestria to ease their loneliness."
Twilight's eyes drooped, and she took that as her cue to get some sleep. She placed her bookmark on the page she was on and closed the book. Blowing out all but one of the candles, she took up the last one and used it to light her path upstairs to her bed. She got into her bed, blew out the candle, and closed her eyes. She almost got to sleep.
She was awoken by a loud burp. She knew who had made it, and she turned over to look at Spike, who now sat awake in his bed holding a scroll in his claws. "What could Princess Celestia want to talk about at this late hour?" Twilight asked rhetorically.
As he was a child in both pony's and dragon's standards, Spike did not understand the concept of "rhetorical questions," and as such, he answered, "I dunno, Twilight. Must be important, though."
"You're right, Spike," Twilight told him, stroking his ego. Inside, she was just a tad bit... annoyed. She wasn't irritated, but the fact that Spike had a tendency to point out the glaringly obvious just pushed the wrong buttons. She took hold of the scroll with her magic, and lit a candle to have some light to read by. Aloud, she read,
"Dear student Twilight Sparkle,
First of all, I want to apologize for writing to you so late. It's just that what I have to tell you is very important and I just received it today. I could not get it to you earlier because I was meeting with the mayors of a few towns, namely Manehattan and Prance, concerning a dispute over water.
Moving on, I have word from our archeologists announcing that they have discovered ancient ruins! The report tells me that what they have found is not very big, only about the size of a house in Ponyville. The report asked if I wanted anything done first, and I told them that I had an idea but that it would take some time.
My request is, would you like to be the first to enter these ruins? I know how much you love to learn, and I can think of almost nothing to learn from more than ruins from an ancient time.
- Princess Celestia"
Twilight nearly jumped for joy and bounced around in circles, but because it was nighttime, she restrained herself. "Spike," she said, trying to contain the excitement in her voice... she was losing. "Take a letter, please." And so, Twilight responded to her mentor's letter, responding that she would, indeed, like to be the first inside the ruins. She narrated to Spike that, though it would be her honour to leave that very moment, she would like to sleep the night and leave the following day. When Spike sent the letter, they both went to their respective beds and went to sleep.
The night just could not pass fast enough for Twilight. When she woke up in the morning, she hurried to have a quick breakfast of oats. As speedily as she could, she gathered together everything she would need for a long trip and placed it all into her saddlebags. She sat Spike on her back and left the library, locking up and placing the "Closed" sign on the door. After that, she quickly went about saying goodbye to her friends, and was off to Canterlot to meet the Princess.
A golden chariot intercepted her before she got outside Ponyville's borders, though. It was piloted by Royal Guards and commanding it was none other than Princess Celestia herself. Twilight hopped onto the back of the chariot and bade her mentor hello. The two conversed about the archeological find, with Celestia notifying Twilight that their destination was, in fact, the site.
The reached their destination in short order, as the Guard ponies piloting the chariot were ordered to get the Princess and her student there with expediency. They disembarked the chariot, and met with the head of the archeological team, Indiana Pones. "We haven't gone inside yet," he said. "We figured that when you'd told us that you were bringing your star pupil, you'd want her to go in first."
Celestia nodded and thanked Pones, who went off to converse and discuss his find with his fellow team members. She turned to Twilight and asked, "Well, Twilight? Would you like to go in?"
Twilight did her best to withhold her enthusiasm and reply calmly to her teacher, "Yes, I would very much like to go inside and look around."
"Very well. Go on in. Take your time, but try not to disturb anything if you can help it. Indiana Pones isn't very patient and I'd have him complaining to me if he found out his precious find was "contaminated," i believe is the word he'd use." Celestia smiled at Twilight and urged her to go on in. "When you're ready to go home, just have Spike send a letter. I'm afraid I can't stay; being a Princess is busy work."
Twilight thanked the Princess and said her farewells. Turning to the ruins, she found that Celestia's letter was accurate. The ruins were not all that big; in fact, in total it appeared to be the size of her tree home. It was made of brick, something she had seen only a few times. She dropped Spike off with some archeologists in an attempt to get him interested in ruins and history, and was about to enter through the opening in the front before she heard Pones call out, "Try not to mess with anything, dear! Anything you find must be preserved!" She then knew what Celestia meant about Pones' behaviour.
As soon as she passed the threshold, a shiver went down her spine. This place felt... wrong to her somehow. It felt as if there were a presence, an old presence, that inhabited these ruins. Recalling her confrontation with Nightmare Moon in the Moon Castle ruins, she remembered that she had felt similarly there. The only difference was that now, her feelings were less dark, less evil, and more... mysterious, simply unknown. And the next thing she heard proved it. It also frightened her.
"Hello?" A male voice called out. At first, Twilight did not know how to respond. The voice did not sound familiar; indeed, she was sure that she had never heard it before. "I can feel you there. Please come farther back."
The voice sounded polite enough, but Twilight was not about to let her guard down. She thanked herself that she had seen to leave Spike outside; she was sure he would be freaking out by this point. She cautiously made her way deeper into the building. She noticed that in several places the surfaces of the walls and any furniture were covered with overgrown vines and weeds. She also noticed that the growths seemed to stop and start in odd places.
For example, what was clearly a fountain of some sort with its spout facing downward into a bowl shaped piece of metal was clear of vines and weeds. However, all around it, even crawling over what Twilight could barely make out as a mirror, the greenery was rampant. Turning her attention to another opening, this one containing a door, she crept through, looking around for the source of the voice as she went. It was not long before she found it, and when she saw it, she immediately became scared.
Sitting beside some strange piece of furniture that emitted light, much like a candle, though much more bright, was an odd creature. It was obviously bipedal with two arms, like Spike. It was adorned with what appeared to be clothing, as she saw that the skin of its face was a stark difference to the colour of the clothing it wore on its body. On that note, Twilight noted that it was fully clothed, even down to boots. What appeared to be a cape or cloak, grey in colour, was draped over an arm of the chair the creature sat in.
When Twilight entered, the creature lifted its face, which Twilight found was looking at a book. She could not read the title of the book; the light did not illuminated the cover very well. "Hello, there," it spoke in a gentle voice. "I'm sure you have questions, but I also have a few, chief among them: who are you, what are you, and would you be so kind as to tell me why you've come here?" Twilight stood there dumbstruck, not believing what she was hearing. This strange creature could talk, and it was asking her who and what she was!
"Uh," she said after a second. She did not want to offend this thing, whatever it was. "My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I am a pony. Unicorn, to be exact. I'm here because archeologists found this place and I wanted the first look. I can see they'll have their hooves full with everything that's in here." Despite not naming the creature specifically, Twilight had meant that the archeologists would have their hooves full with the creature. She believed the creature had caught her slight.
"Ponies? Unicorns? Hmm. Strange, strange indeed," it murmured. It had set the book down and begun stroking the small amount of hair on what Twilight suspected was its chin. When the sleeve on the arm that had raised to scratch had slipped down a bit, Twilight made a shocking discovery. The creature had no hair or fur, except for a small patch on the top of its head and the aforementioned stubble on its chin. "I assume you are wondering who and what I am."
Twilight simply nodded. In response, the creature did so as well. "Well, to start it off, my name is Adam Ultimum. I am a human. It appears that, judging that you apparently have not seen anything like me, I am one of a kind?"
Twilight said cautiously, "Perhaps."
The "human" nodded. "That is... rather frightening. Knowing that you are the last of your kind. I suppose I should have expected it, really. We humans were never a docile or, frankly, friendly race."
"Does that mean," Twilight asked nervously. "That you're going to hurt me?"
"Oh good heavens, no," the human responded with evident surprise. "I spoke of humans as a race, not in its entirety. There were wonderful people to be around. My brother, for one. I simply meant that many humans were greedy and evil." He shook his head. "I've been alone for a while now. Frankly, miss... Sparkle, you said? I would rather enjoy your company than despoil it." He held up a hand. "I know you have questions, but I would like to ask mine first. As you can see, I have a lot of catching up to do."
Twilight nodded, and prepared to answer the human's questions as best she could. She realized with some shock that she had not once called him by name, even though he himself freely gave it to her. She decided to correct this, to build or start building a bond of trust between them. "Ask away, Adam."
"You spoke of ponies and unicorns. Elaborate, please."
"Well, you're in Equestria, land of the ponies. There are earth ponies, with great strength; unicorns, with horns for magic; and pegasi, with wings for flight. We are ruled by two Princesses, who are sisters, and anatomically are a combination of pegasi and unicorns, known as alicorns."
"Interesting. How large is Equestria?"
"Well, our largest city is Canterlot, our capital. There's also Prance and Manehattan; those are fairly large themselves, not to mention Stalliongrad. There's also the floating cloud city of Cloudsdale. Appleoosa is one of our smaller towns. My town, Ponyville, is small, but isn't the smallest."
"Sic dicitis esse equis centeni?" The human asked. At her puzzled expression, Adam realized his mistake. "Sorry," he apologized. "I have a habit of speaking in Latin. You're saying there are hundreds of ponies?"
"Thousands, if not tens of thousands, actually."
"Incredible," Adam whispered, amazed. "Hoc est tantum incredibilem. Alright then, Miss Sparkle, you may ask your questions now. Slowly, if you would."
"Where are you from?"
Adam looked at Twilight as if she were slow. "I'm from here. Though it wasn't called Equestria back then. It was called Earth. Back then, humans were the main population."
"Well, if they were the largest, or at least the top, species, why aren't there anymore?"
A sad look appeared in Adam's eyes, and he said softly, "It's a long story."
"I've got time," Twilight responded, not picking up on the body clues.
"Well, I don't," he snapped.
"You're not going anywhere, are you?"
"I think you've overstayed your welcome, Miss Sparkle."
She looked crossly at him. "I'm not leaving until you tell me."
"And why is that?" Adam asked. "Do tell."
"I'm here to learn. I will have left without learning anything if I simply trotted out right now. So I'll sit right here," she sat down by the door facing the human. "And wait until you tell me."
Adam dismissed her with, "Well, I guess you'll be waiting forever." He picked up his book and resumed reading.
Several minutes passed by in silence, before Twilight asked, "What are you reading?"
"A book called 'The Hobbit.'"
"Does it have to do with the history of humans?" Twilight asked, unintentionally blowing another chance to learn of this human's past. Adam pointedly shifted in his chair, turning away from Twilight. At least an hour passed by before the human did anything else. Setting down the book, Adam got up and moved towards Twilight. "Where are you going?" She asked.
"To fix my dinner. Now if you'll excuse me," he stepped over Twilight and asked, "What do you ponies eat? Hay? Leaves? Flowers?"
"Not leaves. We do like grass, though."
"So you're herbivores."
Twilight had heard and read that term before. It meant that you only ate plants, not animals. "Correct. Are you also an herbivore?"
"I'm an omnivore; humans are... were omnivores."
Twilight also recalled that term. It meant that you not only ate plants, but you also ate meat. The other extreme, eating only meat, was called a carnivore. "You aren't going to eat me, are you?" Twilight asked, slight fear creeping into her voice.
Adam chuckled. "No. I have some stuff stockpiled. Besides," he added, with a trace of longing. "I haven't had meat in a while. Not since those ponies showed up outside."
"What's keeping you from going outside?"
"They are. If they knew I was in here, I would never survive. All the questions... present company excluded... all the inquiries, publicity... I'm not a social person, Miss Sparkle." He reached into a cabinet that was only slightly overgrown. He pulled out two cans, one containing carrots, and the other containing peas. He reached into a white box that stood taller than him and pulled out a bowl.
"What's in there?" Twilight asked him.
"Corn, rice, black beans, red beans." Came the response.
"How do you get all this food?"
"You mean how could I get it without being seen? It's rather simple. When the war was going on, food was scarce. So I drilled and dug my way below my house and set up a little farm there. It has pea plants, carrots, black and red beans, corn, even potatoes. And wheat, can't forget wheat." He pulled out a loaf of bread. "I'm afraid I can't exactly grow cows or pigs from seeds," he said pointedly. "Otherwise I'd have a balanced meal."
"What do you mean?"
"Well," he answered. "Meat is full of protein, a mineral humans need. A few plants contain good amounts of protein, like red beans, black beans, and soybeans. I mostly grow soybeans downstairs, but on their own they are rather bland, so I have a few red and black bean plants to add flavour to my meals. They still aren't any real substitute for meat, though."
Adam put together his meal, simply dumping the ingredients into a pot of boiling water for twenty minutes. After roughly twenty minutes, as no one was counting, as far as Twilight could tell, Adam cooled the soup mixture he'd made. After letting it sit for a few more minutes, he took it back to his sitting room and placed it on a table he'd put in there. He sat down to eat. He ate with manners, Twilight saw, as he chewed with his mouth closed and kept his elbows off of the table.
After ten minutes of watching the human eat, Twilight coughed politely. Adam noticed her, and exclaimed, "Oh my, I am terribly sorry! I assume you would be hungry, yes? here, let me get you something." Twilight followed him back into the kitchen. "Any requests?"
"I saw you had bread. I could also eat some beans, uncooked."
"I can do that," he said, nodding. He picked up the loaf of bread and tore off a hunk. He opened the white box and pulled out a smaller container filled with what Twilight could tell were pale green coloured beans. "These are the soybeans I told you about. I'm afraid I'm saving up my other beans."
"It's fine," she told him. "I understand."
Within thirty seconds, Adam had prepared her a bean sandwich. Twilight followed him back into the sitting room and sat across from him at the table. She noticed him cast a sad glance towards her as she did, and she filed it away to ask later. She finished her sandwich in short order, at about the same time he finished his soup. He leaned back in the chair and sighed contentedly. "Can I ask you a question, Adam?" She asked him, deciding to try again.
"Hmm?"
She asked innocently, "Who sat here in this chair?"
Adam sighed, for a different reason this time. "You really are going to keep asking, aren't you?" Before Twilight could answer his rhetorical question, he continued. "Well... you might as well make yourself comfortable. I wasn't lying when I said it was a long story."
Twilight shifted in the chair and rested her head oh her hooves, their joints resting on the table. Her eyes were fixed attentively on Adam as he prepared to speak.
Adam sat across from Twilight quietly for a few moments, his eyes closed and his breathing slow and rhythmic. Twilight waited patiently; she had pushed this human to tell her his past, and she thought it best not to push him further. Finally, Adam spoke, though his voice at first was soft. As he went on, his voice grew in strength. "Feel free to take notes, Miss Sparkle," he said to his guest. "It all started..."
I gripped my Mk14 Enhanced Battle Rifle tightly. Attached to the top rail was a holographic sight; it provided little magnification, but I could pinpoint my shots a bit easier with it than without. Under the barrel I had a forward grip and a bipod for stable firing. I had opted out of an M203 under barrel grenade launcher, mostly because our unit's mission area was mostly indoors, and I had also turned down an M26 Masterkey shotgun attachment, mostly because it was a beacon that shouted "Shoot me! I have the big scary gun!" That's also the reason I had made sure some other guy, Jackson, got volunteered for LAW duty.
Currently, our objective was a discrete hut in the center of desert town I'd forgotten the name of somewhere in Nowhere County, Afghanistan. I didn't envy our buddies in the Sandbox, in Iraq. Word from on high was that even though the official ground war took less than three days, our guys were facing serious hell with kamikazes and guerrillas. Here, at least, the fighting was pretty much over but the screaming. Sure, there were still some straggling groups that hadn't gotten the memo, but for the most part, it was downhill.
It was almost showtime. The pilot of our MH-60A Blackhawk helicopter spoke up over the local frequency. "Alright, boys, we are almost at our destination. Remember to keep all hands and feet inside the vehicle until we come to a full and complete stop. Thank you for flying U.S.A.F."
"Jensen, Manning," my CO, Captain Cole Harris, called out to the M134 door gunners. "Ready on the pigs. May have to come in hot."
"But sir," Private Lars objected. "Army Intel says there's nobody home!"
"Private," Harris scolded. "When Army Intel gets something right, you'll be the first person I tell."
"Wait, wait, wait," Twilight interrupted Adam's narrative. "What's an Em-Kay-Fourteen Enhanced Battle Rifle? What's special about law duty? Who or what is Afghanistan? What are kam-uh-kah-zee's? What's so scary about gorillas?"
Adam sighed. The fact that he hadn't seen this coming was a failure on his part; it was an ever-growing sign of his aging. "The mark 14 Enhanced Battle Rifle, known simply as the "M14 EBR," is a short rifle. It acts as both close quarters combat and as long range detail."
"But what is a rifle?"
"A weapon. It's a weapon humans invented."
"To hunt gorillas?"
"No... other people."
"You mean-"
"May I answer your previous questions before you start asking more? Thank you. The M72 LAW, that's Light Assault Weapon, is a disposable anti-tank weapon. And before you ask, a tank is another large weapon humans built. Afghanistan is a country... was a country on former Earth. Kamikazes are suicide bombers, they strap explosive weapons to themselves in order to kill other people, mostly innocent civilians. Guerrillas," he said, pronouncing it slowly for Twilight. "Are people who aren't an official military group but harass others by using hit-and-run tactics."
Twilight produced a pad and quill, and an ink well, from her saddlebags and began writing down everything she was hearing.
"Alright Arrow, we're goin' to town!" The pilot shouted over the frequency.
"Alright, let's move it, men!" Harris responded. Two privates broke out rappelling ropes to hook up to either opening of the Blackhawk. "Thanks for the ride, Charon," he added to the pilot, using his codename. He was the third one out of the chopper on the right side, and because I sat across from him, I was third out on the left. As my feet hit the roof, I dashed off to one side and knelt, taking a position facing outwards. I'd been in the Army for a while -- long enough to reach Second Lieutenant -- and had learned the hard way that roof access doors were not the only place enemies could be hiding.
Specialist Kyle Carpenter called out, "I've got something!" He was equipped with an H&K 416 with four sided Integrated Rail System (IRS). On the top mount sat an AN/PVQ-31 ACOG scope. He had a forward grip installed under the barrel. On the left rail, he had equipped his piece with a motion detector. It wasn't an official attachment, and as such was crudely taped to the side of the gun, but it worked all the same.
"Charon," Harris called over the radio. "Think you could inch forward a bit? Confirm sighting of potential tango."
"Roger that, Arrow," the pilot's voice sounded back. I looked up to watch the Blackhawk move forward slowly. It cleared the side of the building, and the pilot reported, "Got two personnel down there; woman and child. Least, looks like a woman and child. I suggest extreme caution. Remember 'Nam."
I knew what the pilot meant by "remember 'Nam." The Vietnam War was one of the biggest screw ups in US military history, if not globally. It was run by politicians, whose only experience in combat was from debating speeches. The commanders in charge of the Army were out for fame instead of out for blood. Hamburger Hill is one of those examples. The war was mainly a peacekeeping war, much like here and now, and the soldiers then would welcome seemingly harmless families, sans male over seven years of age, only to have the mother throw her baby at a soldier and have it explode. I expected nothing less from the locals here. They seemed to resent our presence as much as we did.
"Hold on a minute," Twilight said. "You've mentioned the word "army" several times now, what is that?"
"You don't know what an army is?" Twilight shook her head, which caused Adam to sigh. "Does Equestria even have an army?"
"Not that I know of, why?"
'Hell,' Adam thought in his head. 'I can imagine some human armies being presented with a situation like this... defenseless ponies, let's take over!' "An army is a fighting force that fights for a cause or country."
"So... protesters?"
"No, no, no. I'm talking real violence. Hits, kicks, stabs, bites, shots, slashes, the whole nine yards."
Twilight looked taken aback by this. "Why would humans do such a thing?!"
Adam didn't answer at first, and he looked away before answering, "Because humans are greedy, selfish, senseless, irrational, brutish, perverse, arrogant, savage, self-righteous, perverted monsters!" With each adjective he forced out, his voice grew in both volume and rage. He turned back to Twilight to find her expression one of fear and horror. Immediately, his demeanor changed back to its usual calm state. "I'm sorry," he said apologetically. "I didn't mean to yell or anything. I'm not mad at you."
"Then," Twilight asked hesitantly, afraid of what the answer would be. "Who are you mad at?"
Adam sighed. "Someone I'll get to later, if you'll let me finish the story?"
"Just one more question," Twilight said. "Why are you so bent on telling me this story uncut and uncensored?"
"First off, you wanted to hear it. I'll explain the rest at the end."
"Johnson," I said to the man next to me. Sergeant Steve Johnson was our recon guy. Equipped with the PP-19 Bizon submachine gun, he would have been mistaken for a Ruskie were it not for the uniform.
"Ruskee?" Twilight asked, interrupting Adam once again. Quickly, before he could respond in annoyance, she said, "Sorry, I'm just trying to make it clear in my notes."
Adam sighed. If he sighed any more they'd be breathing pure CO2 gas unless he opened a window, something he didn't want to do. "'Ruskie' was the nickname we'd given the Russians, another large nation indirectly competing with the United States, the nation of my origin. Anything else?"
"Should I assume this... 'pee-pee nineteen' was used by the Russian people?"
"Hell, they made the darn things. To be honest, I dunno how old Stevie got one."
"Johnson, swing left, get a visual on them from a distance, don't let 'em get too close."
"Yes, sir." Johnson told us his fourth day with my unit that he'd been transferred from the Navy's Sea, Air, And Land program, or SEAL. He told us it was because of insubordination, but to a letter he'd followed our orders. Harris and I checked up on him; no easy feat, as the SEALs aren't exactly an open book. We did dig up his record, though. He'd been an E-3, a Seaman, going in, but was transferred as an E-5, Petty Officer Second Class. That was roughly the same pay scale as a Sergeant. He was transferred out because he had had too many failures in the field: failed captures, rescues, the like.
Harris and I had looked at each other. This guy had been hand picked for the SEAL program; you can't walk into a recruiting office and say "I wanna join the SEALs." He'd been promoted twice. Assuming he wasn't passed up for promotion at any point in time during his career, he was a good soldier, a good SEAL. That the Navy would suddenly oust a good operator, into a completely different branch no less, didn't make sense to us at the time. But we found out the truth, Harris and I. And it nearly cost us our lives as free men.
"How was that?" Twilight asked innocently, no mischief in her voice. She honestly wanted to know.
"I'll tell you," Adam said. "I won't even have to kill you; back in the day, that stuff was considered Top Secret, Eyes Only, Slit-Your-Throat-After-I-Tell-You." Twilight winced at the "slit your throat part," not one for violence. "Of course, that was before humans screwed themselves over and killed themselves off."
"You mean they would actually kill you if you saw it?"
"Sure, if you weren't the person it was meant for. Trust me, they did everything they could to make sure the recipient got their letter, and ONLY the recipient. If anyone else so much as looked at the title, they had to be taken away."
"Why?"
"To protect NATSEC... national security. Stuff classified that highly had to do with the inner workings of national security."
"So... you and that Harris found out why Johnson was given to you, and it was classified that highly?"
Adam nodded grimly. "Sure was."
