Twilight woke up early the next morning and went downstairs. She still remember what she and her friends did last night and was still rather unnerved at how many scars that Garen had across his body. She even wondered what caused those scars, as some of them looked like slash marks that looked like they were from some sort of hot blade. She also hopped that he wouldn’t be too mad when she told him of what she and her friends did last night. She stopped in her train of thought as she heard her stomach growl.

“Well, I guess I better make breakfast.” Twilight giggled.

She went to the kitchen to make breakfast for her, Nyx, Spike, and Garen. As she was preparing the meal, Twilight could hear Spike and Nyx coming down the stairs.

“Morning Spike. Morning Nyx” Twilight said.

“Morning Twilight,” Spike yawned, still slightly sleepy but awake.

“Morning,” Nyx said, “What are you making Twilight?”

“Well, I thought about what Garen could eat, so I decided to make some pancakes.” Twilight replied.

Nyx and Spike both liked the idea and started to help. They had soon had a good stack of pancakes when they heard someone yell.

“Twilight!”

Twilight cringed as she heard her name being called out in such a way, and she also knew who it was. She looked over to see Nyx cowering in fear with Spike trying to comfort her.

“Um, Twilight,” Spike said, “What did you do to make Garen angry?”

“I-I’ll tell you later.” Twilight said as she hurried down the stairs while Spike got Nyx to calm down enough to help him set up the table.

I stood near the base of the stairs, with arms crossed, waiting for Twilight to come down. I didn’t bother to put on my armor as I figured that she had already seen me partially naked last night. It was not long until Twilight opened the door and came down. I glared at her once she made it to the basement and she did her best to look innocent, which wasn’t working with me.

“Twilight,” I said, “What were you doing last night?”

Twilight figured that she should tell me the entire truth. She told me that it was originally Rainbow’s idea to simply see what I looked like without any armor on. I was glad that was the only thing they did as I was worried that they would’ve done a bit more than just stare at me. Twilight then asked me about the various scars that she and her friends had seen all across my chest.

“Yeah, you may have noticed that they looked similar to the one on my face,” I said, rubbing my hand against the back of my head, “Most of those are from some really close calls. And some of the others, well, you don’t want to know. The Covenant sure have some creative ways to torture their victims.”

Twilight cringed as I told her this, “Well, I guess Rainbow was right about you being tortured. But what about the close calls you had.”

I thought for a moment before replying, “Well, the ones that look like slash marks are from the many times when I nearly escaped a fatal blow from an elite’s energy sword. I also managed to narrowly avoiding being killed by various weaponry used by the Covenant.”

“Well, I probably wouldn’t know what these weapons did or what they looked like.” Twilight said, “But how were you able to avoid getting seriously injured or even killed.”

I had to think for a moment again before answering, “I’m actually not sure. But some of my fellow ODST’s often called me the ‘blinker’ as well as the ‘Cobalt ODST.’”

“Now why is that? Never mind, there’s breakfast waiting upstairs if you’re hungry.” Twilight said as she went back up the stairs.

“Alright, I’ll come up just as soon as I…” I turned to where I had place my armor only to see a worrying sight.

“What wrong?” Twilight asked, worried as to why I suddenly stopped in the middle of my sentence.

“Twilight,” I said, “did you or your friends decided to take my armor?”

“No, why.”

Twilight came back downstairs to see what I was looking at.

“My armor has gone missing and I think one of you ponies took it.”

Twilight looked extremely worried, though I don’t think she even knew what she was worried about except for maybe having to see me with only my underwear.

“Who… who would want to take your armor?” She asked.

“I don’t know,” I replied, “But I think these hairs might tell us.”

I showed Twilight some of the hairs that I had found on my hand and on the sleeping bag I was in. They were teal in color. Twilight examined one of the strands before coming to a conclusion.

“I’m not sure whose hairs these belong to, but I know of a tracking spell that could find them.”

“Well then, I guess you’re going to have to get started after we eat,” I replied as I went upstairs.

“Wait, what is that supposed to mean?” Twilight asked, rushing up the stairs to catch up with me.

“Well, considering that that armor is the only thing that I can wear, I don’t think it would be a good idea for me to just walk around town while being almost completely naked,” I replied, and then added, “Besides, you and your friends did go ahead and invade my privacy.”

“Okay, after we eat I’ll get the girls and get the tracking spell set up so we could find the pony that took your stuff.” Twilight sighed.

We arrived at the dining table with Spike and Nyx giving confused stares in my direction.

“Um, Twilight, why isn’t Garen wearing his armor?” Spike asked.

“That’s because somepony took it during the night. And after we eat, I’m going to get the girls and have them help me find whoever took it.” Twilight replied.

“But who would want to have his armor?” Nyx asked, a puzzled look on her face.

“I think that would be Lyra.” Pinkie replied.

We were all startled by Pinkie’s sudden arrival and both Spike and Nyx both fell back on their chairs. And I think I might’ve had a heart attack.

“Darn it Pinkie, can’t you give us a warning before popping up out of nowhere,” I said, trying to keep my heart rate under control. “And did you say Lyra took my armor?” I asked.

“Yeparoni. And she and Bonbon were both hiding in the bushes while we were in the house wanting to see what you looked like without your armor on.” Pinkie replied.

“Oh great, so that’s the pony that took my armor,” I moaned, knowing full well what that crazy pony might be doing with my armor, “I just hope that It doesn’t get too messed up."

Meanwhile

Lyra couldn’t wait to see what the armor had in store for her, though she was pretty sure all she could get is what its inner working looked like. She also couldn’t help but play around with the suits hands.

“Oh this is so cool. Humans sure are an amazing species. I just wish that I could be like one of them, or at least have hands like they do.” Lyra said as she admired the suits hands and started rubbing them on her cheek.

“Lyra, I still think that we should return that suit,” Bonbon said, “And I don’t think that human’s going to be happy if he finds that you had messed with his armor.”

“Aw, c’mon, just a few more minutes.” Lyra complained. Bonbon sighed in defeat as her friend squealed like a little filly and continued with what she was doing.

“You do know that we’re going to be in so much trouble when he finds out.” Bonbon said, making one more effort to get her friend to return what was taken.

Unfortunately her word fell on death ears as Lyra continued to fiddle around with the armor. She noticed a weird glowing device attached to the back of the suit.

“Hey Bonbon, come take a look at this.”

Her friend came over to see what she wanted to show her.

“Okay, what is it?” Bonbon asked in annoyance.

“What do you think this is?” Lyra replied.

Bonbon looked over at the strange device that was attached to the suit and said, “I don’t know and I really think we shouldn’t mess with it.”

She expected her friend to argue and mess with the device anyway, but then she went on to the helmet instead. It was a pleasant surprise for her, except now Lyra was about to mess with another piece of equipment that is alien to them.

After having gotten something to eat, Twilight had left the library to get her friends to retrieve my armor while I stayed back since all I had to wear was underwear.

“Well, this is rather annoying.” I grumbled, still angry that one of these townsponies had gone ahead and stole my armor while I was asleep.

“At least they only took your armor and not anything else,” Spike said.

I found that he had a good point considering how dangerous my guns were, though I did end up taking one from another soldier. I still wondered who it belonged to and exactly what faction he/she is a part of.

“You might be right about that,” I replied, “But I’m still rather pissed that one of these townsponies had decided to take my armor just for curiosity.”

Spike looked down with a sad look trying to find something else to say when Nyx asked a question.

“So… do all humans look like you?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle as she asked me this. “No, no. Humans come in different varieties like you ponies. We come in many different shapes and sizes as well as different colors I guess you would say.”

This time it was Spike’s turn to ask a question, “So, do human also come in a variety of colors?”

“If you’re thinking if some humans are blue or other colors, then no,” I replied, “We mostly come in different skin tones, ranging from light skinned to dark skinned.”

Spike and Nyx both said “Oooooh” at the same time and then one of them asked.

“So, if this is what a male version of your species looks like, what do female humans look like?”

I tried to find a good explanation for that but found it rather difficult, considering that it was one subject that I’d rather leave to those who work with human anatomy.

“Umm, sorry, but that’s a subject that I’d rather not discuss.”

Nyx tried to asked why when Spike gave her a gesture that look like he was trying to tell her not to press me on the matter.

“Well, if you need me I’ll be back down in the basement,” I said to them as I went down the stairs to the basement.

Lyra was just about finished with putting the final panel back on the helmet when there was a knock on the door. Before she could stop her friend, Bonbon opened the door to reveal six all too familiar ponies. Both Lyra and Bonbon quickly knew that they were busted.

It was Twilight who was the first to speak, “I’m guessing by the looks on your faces that you two have done something you shouldn’t have.”

“It was all Lyra’s idea,” Bonbon said, “And it was originally for her to fell what it’s like to have that human’s hand going across her face.”

“But why in Equestria would ya’ll want to take the only thing he has to wear?” Applejack asked.

This time it was Lyra’s turn to answer, “Well, I just wanted to know how it worked and… wait… did you say that it’s the only thing he has to wear?”

Twilight nodded, as well as the other ponies.

“I guess I have no choice then.”

And so Lyra gave Twilight the armor suit and the helmet back.

“Could you tell him that I’m sorry?” She asked.

“Sorry dear, but I think you should tell him yourself.” Rarity said, the other mares agreeing with her.

And so Lyra and Bonbon followed Twilight and her friends as they went over to the library.

I came back upstairs as I heard the door open and several voices that I assumed were Twilight and her friends with my armor. When I reached the main floor of the library, I noticed two other ponies that I recognized from the party that Pinkie had given me.

“I see that you’ve gotten my armor back,” I said. I looked over at the two ponies, one was a teal colored unicorn with the same mane style as Rainbow and the other was an Earth pony with a half blue, half pink mane and tail that was done in curls at the end. “And you two are going to apologize for what you’ve done.”

“I’m sorry,” the unicorn named Lyra said, “I just really wanted to know how it works.”

Her friend then added, “I tried to get her to just leave it, but she insisted on learning more about how it was made.”

I looked over my suit to see if it was not too tampered with before asking, “You didn’t mess with the device attached to the back of the suit, right?”

The two mares shook their heads as the earth pony named Bonbon replied, “No, we didn’t. In fact, I suggested to my friend not to mess with it as I thought that we’d be in big trouble if we had caused something to go wrong with it.”

“Good,” I said, relieved that they hadn’t tampered with the device. I put my armor down and took my helmet, only to notice that it didn’t fare as much. “Please don’t tell me that you’ve messed with my helmet and took it apart.”

The two gave each other a nervous glance before Lyra responded, “Um, maybe a little.”

“Oh, well then great, I’m going to have to see if everything is in working order,” I said as I went back down to the basement with my armor and helmet in my arms.

Once I had gone back downstairs and put my armor on, I checked to see what was working and what wasn’t. Luckily most of the important functions of my armor were still working, however, the only ones that weren’t were the minimap on the HUD and the radio. This practically meant that if I were to be in a tough situation, I wouldn’t be able to tell where the hostiles were without it. I also wouldn’t be able to pick up any transmissions that might come up that could mean that help was on its way. I was more pissed that I wouldn’t be able to use the radio than I was with the minimap.

“Great. Of all the things to stop working, it had to be the radio.”

I slammed my head on the desk as I tried to figure out how to fix the problem. Unfortunately, I did not have any tech training, so there was no way that I could fix this without causing anymore problems. I decided to just leave it be and just go on with my day rather than try and fix the problem and run the risk of causing another.

Princess Celestia sat on her bed reading a letter that her pupil had recently written when her sister came in.

“Sister, is that another letter from thy student?” Princess Luna asked.

Celestia nodded, “It seems that last night she and her friends decided to go down to see what Garen looked like without his armor on. And not only that, but it seems that one of the residents of Ponyville decided to make off with his armor.”

Luna took the letter as her sister continued, “It would seem that he had a particularly rough day because of that. And he also found out what Twilight and her friends did as well.”

Luna looked through the letter when she found something peculiar.

“Sister,” she said, “It would seem that thy student Twilight has given a description of the various scars on the human’s body that could not be seen with his armor on.”

“Yes I know,” Celestia replied, “And I can understand why he would do that. With what he has been through, it would be safe to say that he doesn’t want to recount what had happened to him when he received those scars.”

Luna continued to read the letter with a sad expression on her face, “How can such a being have so much pain? And this war that his species are in, why can’t this Covenant just leave them in peace?”

“I do not know sister,” Celestia replied, “But I believe that his species will be able to find some way to make peace. I believe that they are capable of providing friendship as we ponies are.”

“Sister, would thoust mind if we go to PonyVille one night and converse with this human?” Luna asked.

Celestia thought for a moment before responding, “Well, I don’t think it would hurt, unless you want to do more than just talk with him.”

Luna’s cheeks turned a brighter hue as she tried to respond, “No! We were not thinking of doing that. We just wanted to learn more about him, that’s all.”

Celestia continued to tease her sister, “Ah, don’t worry Woona. I won’t tell anypony that you have a crush on him.”

Luna was absolutely flustered, “N-no! We don’t have a crush on him. We were just curious about how he had gotten those scars.”

“Sure you are,” Celestia teased, causing the lunar princess to leave the bedroom and eliciting another giggle from the sun princess.

Author's Note

And another chapter is finished. This one actually turned out to be an interesting chapter. Aside from that, I'm pretty sure that the ODST will now have to figure out a way to get his radio working again so he could catch any transmission that might come. Let me know of what you guys think of the chapter. Anyway I hope that you've enjoyed reading and have a merry christmas.

Nyx belongs to Penstroke