“Hey Twilight, I’m going to get some shut eye,” I called out as I headed down the stairs.

I had just returned from Sweet Apple Acres to help Big Macintosh (I guess I should’ve known that that everypony in Applejack’s family would have ‘apple’ related names) move some heavy equipment around. Now I've gotten back completely exhausted.

“Alright,” Came Twilight’s reply from upstairs, “I've still got some reading to do so I won’t bother you.”

And so I went down into the basement where my temporary living quarters where, which was mostly just a sleeping bag. I was still surprised that pony sleeping bags could fit a human being, despite the fact that these ponies never encountered one until now. I’ve also kept my magnum and the strange red Desert Eagle in a dresser that Twilight had allowed me to use, though I’m pretty sure that it was meant to hold clothing and not weapons, along with the ammo that I still had on me.

I started the tricky process of removing my armor, which was difficult as I had to do it by hand and not with the assistance of a machine or another person to make the process go faster. After a few minutes had passed I was finally able to get my armor off. Thankfully I had underwear underneath my armor so I wouldn’t be completely naked whenever I took off the armor. As soon as I had gotten my armor off I placed on the shelf where I had placed my helmet.

“Well, time to get some shuteye.” And so I gotten myself into the sleeping bag and fell asleep.

It was dark out and two ponies were outside the library tree hiding in the bushes. One of the two was looking out into the window, watching the ODST as he went down into the basement.

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” Her friend asked.

“Come on, I want to know more about that human. I’ve always wanted to meet one. And I told you they existed.” She replied.

“Okay I’ll admit you’re right. But shouldn’t we at least talk with him and not try and sneak in just to see him while he’s sleeping? I’m pretty sure this could be considered stalking.”

“Hey come on, I want to know what he looks like without his armor on. I mean, it’s not like he would be wearing it whenever he goes to bed. And I also want to know what his skin feels like. Don’t you want to know too?”

“No I don’t, and this is crazy. We should be back home getting some sleep. But noooooo, you just had to take me with you just to see this human.”

The pony at the window quickly placed her hoof to her friend’s mouth. “Quiet, I hear somepony coming.”

The two quickly hid in the bushes as a group of ponies came to the library.

Twilight was still up in her room when she heard a knock on the door.

“Now who could that be this late at night?” Twilight asked herself as she placed her book down and headed down to the main floor of her library.

She opened the door to find that her friends were waiting outside. With Pinkie Pie hopping up and down with a smile across her face.

“Hey girls, what brings you here?” Twilight asked.

Her friends started to give some strange looks as Fluttershy answered, “W-well, we were just wondering if… if Garen was still awake.”

Twilight’s friends started nodding in agreement as she contemplated what Fluttershy just said.

“Well, he’s currently asleep right now. And he doesn’t want anypony to disturb him while he’s asleep.”

That’s when Rainbow Dash came up to complain, “Aw come on, we just want to see what he looks like without his armor on.”

Twilight gave her friend an awkward look. “Now why do you want to do that? It’s obvious that he wants privacy so why can’t we just give him that?”

Rainbow Dash gave a determined look. “Look Twilight, I’m just saying that we want to see what he looks like without his armor on. I mean, he’s always worn it during the day. And I’m pretty sure that he wouldn’t just let us see him without his armor on.”

“And which of you wanted to see him?” As soon as Twilight asked, her friends all pointed at Rainbow Dash.

“Well… we’re all very curious what he looks like without his armor on, right guys?” Rainbow Dash asked, trying not to get embarrassed.

“You know, she is right sugar cube.” Applejack replied, “Ah’m just as curious to find out what our rather tall friend looks like when he doesn’t have his armor on.”

“Yeah, and I would love to see if he has a cutie mark as well.” Pinkie Pie added, though she was given strange looks from her friends. “What?”

“Ah don’t think that he would have a cutie mark.” Applejack told Pinkie Pie. “Remember that not all equestrians have a cutie mark, such as dragons and griffins. Ah’m pretty sure Garen doesn’t have one either.”

Pinkie Pie had stopped hopping to contemplate about what Applejack said as Fluttershy spoke up. “W-well, Rainbow had given a good point about our friend. We have seen what his face looks like… but we still don’t know what the rest of him looks like.”

“I must agree, I’m rather curious about what our friend really looks like without any of that dirty armor of his.” Rarity added. “And I would love to make him some clothes to wear so he doesn’t have to wear that armor all day.”

“Well I want to know why he even bothers to wear it. It’s not like he needs to wear it since there’s nothing that could harm him.” Rainbow Dash said.

Twilight replied, “I don’t think it’s the fact that he wears it to defend himself as it is simply to have something to wear.”

“And how do ya know that Twi?” Applejack asked.

“I don’t know,” Twilight replied, “But he obviously has something that he doesn’t want any of us to see. So I’m going to respect that, even if it means to stay out of the basement whenever he’s asleep.

That’s when Rainbow Dash moaned, “Aw c’mon, aren’t you at least a little curious about what he looks like without his armor on?”

Twilight tried to find a reasonable answer to give Garen some privacy, but the pleading looks that her friends were giving her were too much.

“Alright, let’s go see him,” Twilight finally said, getting cheers from her friends, “But we need to be quiet. I don’t think he’ll like it when he wakes up to find six of his first pony friends staring at him while he was asleep.”

Her friends nodded in agreement as they quietly made their way down into the basement. As they went down the stairs, they could hear loud snoring coming from further down.

“Jeez, he sure snores very loud,” Rainbow Dash commented.

“Well, least this means that he won’t be easy to wake up accidentally.” Applejack said.

Soon they were in the basement looking at their human friend sleeping in the sleeping bag, with one of his arms sticking out. The girls noticed that like his face, his arm had very little hair showing his light colored skin.

“Whoa, I never expected him to look like this.” Rainbow Dash whispered.

“Well, maybe this is why he needs to wear his armor.” Fluttershy said as she took a closer look at his arm.

“Well I don’t think that’s just reason enough to wear his armor all day,” Rarity pointed out, “Twilight dear, do you mind unzipping the bag so we could see more of him?”

“I-I don’t think that’s necessary.” Twilight nervously said. “I think we should just leave him be.”

“Oh come on, I didn’t just come to your house just to see his arm.” Rainbow Dash complained.

“C’mon, you can do better than that…” Garen said, startling the six mares. They sighed with relief as he continued to snore.

“Well that was a close one,” Applejack said, “Now could ya please just keep your voice down. Ya almost woke him up.”

“Sorry, I just want to see what the rest of him looks like.” Rainbow Dash whispered.

“Still, I think we’ve seen enough.” Twilight replied.

“Aw c’mon Twilight,” Pinkie Pie interjected, “Can’t we at least get a sneaky peek at him. It will only be for a few seconds. It’s not like he’s going to know that we looked at him while he was asleep.”

After finally relenting to their pleas again, Twilight used her magic to open up the sleeping bag. When the bag was opened, the mares were not prepared for what they were about to see.

Despite the fact that he had no armor on, the ponies noticed that their human friend had an article of clothing covering only a portion of his body. But they mostly focused on the various scars across his chest. They also took note at how closely the scars on his chest seemed eerily similar to the one that marrs his face.

Rarity was first to speak, “Oh my, look at all those horrible scars. What do you think happened to him?”

Twilight thought for a moment before replying, “I don’t think he told us everything when we first asked him about the scar on his face. Whatever these Covenant are, they’ve obviously done some terrible things to him.”

“I bet they tortured him,” Rainbow Dash added, “I mean, all those scars couldn’t just be from just him being in battle. I bet that he knew something that they wanted, and they went ahead and tortured him to make him talk.”

“B-b-but why would they do that?” Fluttershy whimpered, “I mean, couldn’t they have asked nicely instead of harming him?”

“Ah don’t think they woulda cared one bit,” Applejack replied, a sad look on her face.

Even Pinkie Pie was saddened at the sight of the various scars on the human’s chest. “Maybe we shouldn’t have done this.”

Twilight agreed and covered the sleeping soldier as he continued to snore. She zipped up the sleeping bag to where the zipper was originally when they first came down. She didn’t bother moving his arm that was still sticking out. Soon the mares quietly made their way back upstairs.

“I still can’t believe it, he had all those scars and we didn’t even know.” Twilight closed the door to the basement, making sure that she doesn’t accidentally wake Garen up.

“What do you guys think that one bit of clothing that he was wearing was for?” Rainbow Dash asked.

The mares looked at each other with puzzled looks when Fluttershy spoke up, “M-maybe he was just covering his private regions.”

As soon as she said that the ponies all began to blush as Rainbow Dash’s wings flared up.

“Y-you mean that his… that he…” Rarity fainted on the floor as the other mares gave alarmed looks at each other.

Pinkie Pie was the only one who didn’t show any surprise as she hopped her way out the door. “Well that was fun. See you girls tomorrow.”

Her friends just stared at her as she left the library.

“Well, seems she wasn’t bothered by what we just found out.” Twilight said as she yawned. “I think we should all go and get some sleep.”

The rest of her friend agreed and they left to their separate homes, with Applejack carrying Rarity to her home, and Twilight went back up to her room.

“I just hope he doesn’t find out what we were doing.” Twilight said to herself as she went up the stairs.

When she arrived in her room she saw Spike and Nyx sleeping in their respective beds. “I guess I better get some sleep as well.”

She then went to her bed and tucked herself in. She turned off the lights and proceeded to go to sleep.

Once they were certain that all of the occupants in the house were fast asleep, the two ponies quietly made their way inside.

“Come on, you can’t still be wanting to go down to see that human.” One of the ponies said, “You heard what they had said. Isn’t that enough to just leave him be?”

Her friend shook her head. “No. I want to know what he feels like.”

“You know you’re being creepy right?” The other mare said.

“Not like that,” her friend tried to correct herself, “I mean, I want to know what it feels like to have his hand feels like.” She stared off at the mention of the word hand.

“Um, hello.”

The mare snapped back to reality as she blushed, “Sorry, but I still want to feel his skin. I bet it feels really nice.

The two quietly walked up to the basement door.

“This is where he’s sleeping, so be very quiet.”

The pony used her magic to quietly open the door. Once the door was fully open the two mares proceeded to go down the stairs.

It didn’t take them very long to get to the bottom as they looked at the sleeping human.

“Aww, he looks so peaceful,” one of the mares said.

That was when he made a loud snore, startling the mares as they hid behind a piece of furniture.

“W-what was that?” One of them nervously asked.

“I-I think that was him snoring.” The other replied.

The sleeping human gave another snore, which made the two mares relax a bit.

“Okay could we go now please?”

“No, I want to feel his hand against my face.”

The mare carefully made her way to the sleeping soldier. She then carefully brought his hand to her face and had it stroke her. She was starting to like the feeling when the sleeping human suddenly brought his other arm out of the sleeping bag and hugged the startled mare. Her friend jumped back in surprise.

The mare was now realizing her mistake as she was now stuck in the human’s arms. She tried to get him to let go but to no avail. Soon he was stroking her fur again and started to scratch the back of her ear. She couldn’t find the strength to get him to let go as she was enjoying what the sleeping soldier was doing.

“Are… are you okay?” Her friend asked, worried about what the human was doing to her friend.

“Yeeeeaaaaaah.” She answered, still enjoying the scratching that she was being given. “Ooooooo, that feels sooooooooo gooooood.”

Her friend came closer while she was still stuck in the soldier’s arms. “Okay, I think you’ve had enough fun with him now let’s go.”

Once the mare finally gotten herself out of the sleeping human’s grip she walked up to where he had put his armor.

“Do you think he would mind if I borrowed his armor for a bit.” She asked, getting a shocked response from her friend.

Her friend interjected, “Oh no, the deal was that you would get a chance to feel his hand stroking your face. You got that and a bit more, we are not going to take his armor.”

“But I want to know how this works too.” The mare complained.

Her friend finally relented, “Fine, but don’t blame me if he finds out that you took his stuff from him.”

“Hey, it’s not like I’m taking all of it. I’m just going to borrow his armor for a little bit.” The mare picked up the ODST’s armor and helmet as the two made their way back upstairs.

“You know that we’re both going to be in trouble for this, right?”

“Yeah, but it’s going to be worth it.”

Author's Note

And another chapter finally done. I was actually thinking of having it where Garen goes back to the old castle to see if anything unusual was going on. But then this popped up in my head. Then again, something like this was bound to happen sooner or later. I just wonder how well I did it. Hopefully you guys can guess who the two ponies were that had made off with his armor and helmet. The next chapter is going to be rather interesting as it's going to be where he has Twilight and her friends going out to retrieve his belongings before something bad happens to them. Let me know what you guys think of this chapter, it actually took me quite a while to think of this while also doing school work.

By the way, Nyx belongs to Pen Stroke.