Chapter 5: A Pleasant Surprise

Say what you will about Earth ponies, those motherfuckers are fast. We only started construction on the base about two and a half weeks ago, and now they already have the entire structure built, we just need to put all the furnishings in, as well as the blast-proof doors, and the whole thing's done.

"God damn. Those little horses are efficient." Colonel Locke said.

"I'd say. Hell, they even got the electrics in." I said, looking around the brightly lit room with no windows

"I even looked at the air control tower, they built everything except for the technology they don't have. Like how the fuck do you do that with hooves." he said.

"Not a clue." I said.

"Either way, we're forgetting our purpose for being here, we need to mark where we will put equipment on the blueprints and relay that to the guys." Colonel Locke said.

"Right, Let's get back to-" I stopped. "The hell?"

"Um." Colonel Locke was confused by the sight.

In front of us, in the largest room on site, was Pinkie Pie.

I facepalmed. "Pinkie, what the hell are you doing?"

"Oh! Hey Shawn! I'm memorizing this place. I like to know my way around everywhere I go." Pinkie responded.

"Miss Pie, when everything's said and done, this base will be restricted access. Civilians won't be allowed on site, in fact, you shouldn't even be here now." Colonel Locke said.

Pinkie looked confused. "But, why?"

"Pinkie, It's a military base. Restricted access for security and safety reasons." I explained.

"But, then how are the girls and I supposed to make friends with all of you if we're not allowed to be here." Pinkie said.

"She has a point." I said, turning to Colonel Locke after pausing to think for a moment. "She, and the other Elements of Harmony, are meant to be with me quite often so that we can learn more about each other."

"Alright, alright." Colonel Locke said before I could say any more. He turned to Pinkie, "Miss Pie, you and the other foreign relations officers are allowed on site, but no one else. Also, two things. One, we need to know when any of you are coming a few hours in advance at least. Two, I need to mark out some areas that you are not allowed to go in. Do you have a map or something I can mark on?"

"Yep, I got one of the construction ponies to give me a copy of the blueprints for all the buildings." Pinkie said, enthusiastically.

"Well then it's a good thing the buildings aren't labeled for their intended purpose on the blueprints." Colonel Locke said, then took out a pen and marked a few places. "Alright, so this building and everything about it is off limits, so I'm just gonna take that." he took the blueprints for the armory out of the stack. "And most of this building is off limits for reasons that Major Foote will explain when he gives you guys the proper tour, right Major?" he said, pointing at the blueprints for the administration building.

"Yes, I'm going to give you girls the a tour of the areas that you will be allowed later." I said.

"Good. You'll be allowed to go anywhere in here," he said, pointing to the blueprints for the barracks, "And here." he pointed to the blueprints for the infirmary building. "This is the canteen," he pointed to the blueprints for the mentioned building, "The kitchen attached to it is off limits, unless your with someone, for understandable reasons, but I'm pretty sure you wouldn't want to go into that building at all anyway."

"Yeah, I still feel a bit icky when I think about what you guys eat." Pinkie said.

"Right, anyway, the control tower is much the same as the kitchen, you guys can go up there, but only if someone escorts you there. That measure is mostly to keep you guys out of the way, because things can get pretty frantic up there if something happens." Colonel Locke said. "That's about it. I think that Major Foote will be able to explain everything in more detail when he gives you girls the tour."

"Okey dokey lokey!" Pinkie said happily.

"One more thing." Colonel Locke said.

"Hmm." Pinkie hummed.

"How did you get in here?" Colonel Locke asked.

"Sir, I wouldn't-" I began.

"There's no doors on the buildings yet, silly." Pinkie said.

"I know that, I mean how did you get into the compound in the first place?" Colonel Locke elaborated.

"Sir, you really shouldn't-" I started.

"I just, walked in." Pinkie shrugged.

"But, how? There are only two ways to get in here, and one of them involves going over a ten foot perimeter wall. The only way you could get in is to walk past two armed guards." Colonel Locke said.

"Colonel Locke, if there's anything I have learned about Pinkie Pie from the Elements, it's that you should never question anything she does that seems impossible. With Pinkie, nothing is impossible." I said.

Colonel Locke hesitated, trying to make reason of what I said. "Alright then." He said, shaking his head.

"Pinkie, get out of here, you shouldn't be here right now regardless." I said.

"Okey dokey lokey!" Pinkie said, turning and walking towards the doorway "See ya later, Shawn."

"See ya, Pinkie. Show those maps to the girls," I said, "I know at least Twilight would read them, if only for the knowledge."

Two days later

We had finished getting most things set up. Mostly just a few accomidations. The Elements, namely Twilight, were extremely interested in our technology. Well, except for Rainbow Dash. The only thing that really piqued Rainbow's interest at all was when Twilight asked about one of the helicopters that we have from supply delivery, and I told her it was 'A machine that lets us fly.' It took me a half hour to explain to Rainbow why we can't just start up an V-280 Valor and race her around town.

But that was this morning. Two and a half hours ago to be precise. Now, Mess Call had just sounded over the PA system, and we were all heading to the canteen.

I arrived first, which is not that much of a surprise, and as everyone started to file towards the building, I noticed that the blinds on the windows were shut. 'Strange, those were open at breakfast, who would go in and close them?' I thought to myself.

By now most everyone was standing outside the canteen. I opened the door slightly, and saw that, not only were the blinds closed, but the lights were also off. I opened the doors the rest of the way, but as it was high noon, not much light went into the room. I shrugged and motioned for the soldiers outside to follow.

As we entered the room, I reached for the light switch, and flicked it up. The moment the room was fully illuminated, seven figures jumped out from behind various objects and yelled "Surprise!". Every human in the room flinched, before realizing that it was  the Elements of Harmony and Spike.

"Jesus Christus ficken! You guys scared the crap out of us!" I said in an irritated tone.

All of their ears fell, as well as Spike's tail, and Pinkie's mane deflated slightly. "Sorry, Shawn. We just wanted to surprise you." Pinkie said, disheartened.

"It's okay, I'm not mad. You guys just need to know that we are trained to always be alert. If you come into our base, invade the canteen, and jump out of nowhere while shouting at us, we're going to react. Had we been armed, I'm certain we would have casualties." I said in a cautious tone, "Like I said, I'm not mad, I'm just trying to protect you guys, from us."

"From, you?" Rarity inquired.

I sighed, and moved in front of the ponies and dragon, "Human beings are scary when they are determined. Once we set our minds to something, we are unstoppable. A perfect example of this was our preferred method of hunting, when we were nomads. Our preferred method of hunting was persistence hunting, where we would chase an animal until their body simply give up and died." I added extra emphasis to the last word, causing the ponies and dragon to recoil slightly. "We were created to be unstoppable brutes. Even if the animal fought back, we are able to take massive damage to our extremities and lose half our blood and still live. Once we set our minds to a task, it gets done. Period. And anyone or anything that stands in our way will be eliminated one way or another."

The ponies stared blankly at me, it was two minutes until Rainbow Dash finally spoke up.

"Wow. You really need to chill out." she said.

"I suppose I did go a bit overboard there. Sorry." I said, rubbing the back of my head with my hand. "Anyway, no sense in letting all this preparation go to waste" I clapped my hands together. "By the way, are the kitchen staff in on this? It seems unlikely that they would let you do this otherwise."

"Yeah, they let us in and told us they'd let us know when you guys were coming." Spike said.

"Alright. Now, Pinkie, would you like to do the honors." I said, turning to Pinkie.

"Would I!" she shouted. I nodded, and she inhaled deeply, then I realized something.

"Wait. Something's missing. Something important." I said.

"What is it, um, if you don't mind me asking, that is." Fluttershy squeaked, lowering her head.

"And they say I have to chill out." I said, quiet enough that no one could hear me, "Music. We're missing music."

"Well, we would have Vinyl Scratch, the local DJ, come, but you said we can come in 'But no one else'" Twilight said, mimicking my voice in the end (that is, as best as she could, what with my voice being the same as the announcer from Halo) and giggling.

"Not a problem." I pulled my short range radio off my belt and pressed the button on the side, "Major Foote to Colonel Locke."

"What is it, Major?" replied the voice of Colonel Locke.

"Where are you right now, I suppose would be a good thing to ask first." I said.

"In the barracks. I needed to grab something from my personal quarters to bring back to the administration building. Why do you ask?" he responded.

"Okay, that's perfect. I need you to grab my MP3 player from my trunk, plug it into the PA system, then route the PA system to my PDA." I said.

There was a pause on his end, "Mind me asking why?" Colonel Locke finally responded.

"Either look at the CCTV feed from the canteen or come to the canteen yourself and you'll see." I said.

Once again, Colonel Locke hesitated to respond, "Alright, Should be done in about three minutes."

"Thank you, sir." I responded.

And so we waited. And sure enough, three minutes later, my PDA was connected to the base's PA system, and the first thing a on the list of songs was Let's Get It Started by The Black Eyed Peas.

"Pinkie, you may resume." I said, turning to Pinkie.

"Yes sir!" she said, giving a mock salute and inhaling deeply. "Let's party!" she shouted.

I rolled my eyes, and pressed the play button.

And so began what I will always view as the furthest anyone has ever gone to make sure I was enjoying myself.

The party started about an hour ago, and isn't showing any signs of stopping anytime soon, especially since we added a few things that we find enjoyable to the already extensive list of very enjoyable party games. We even started exo-football, an armed forces classic at this point. Someone even managed to get Colonel Locke to let us do target practice with Simunition. Both of which Rarity reacted to with disgust. Spike was entertaining everyone with his fire breath.

I was standing near the outdoor firing range attached to the armory, when Twilight approached me.

"So." she began, seeming to have something on her mind.

"So... what?" I responded, confused.

"I... have something I want to ask you." she said, folding her ears back and looking away from me.

"Well, whatever it is it can't be that embarrassing, can it?" I said, rolling my eyes.

"Well, it may or may not be, considering what I've heard of your sense of humor." Twilight began hesitantly, lowering her head in the process. "I have a question about your, reprod-"

"It's what you'd expect from a mammal." I interrupted in a very stern tone.

Twilight blushed lightly, "Okay, I've had that question on my mind for weeks and-"

"Can we get off the topic, please." I interrupted, again.

"Sorry. Not something you generally like to talk about?" she said, in a slightly inquiring tone.

"While I must admit, it is funny at times to joke about it, no. And it just makes it worse that all parents know that at some point, they will have to discuss this topic with their kids. I will forever dread that day when it comes." I said.

"Nopony wants to talk about it here, an no one makes jokes about it. I wouldn't know about the parenting thing though, most likely never will. My parents are the ones that gave 'the talk' to Spike" she said, shrugging.

"Don't be so sure, everyone feels that way when they are young, but once you reach a certain age, you start to ponder the possibilities. That's how it was for me and that's how it was and will be for many more in the past and future." I said. "How old are you anyway?"

"Oh, I thought I'd told you. I'm eighteen, as are all the other girls except Fluttershy, she's 19." Twilight said.

I hummed, "Eighteen seems a bit young for having already been running your own business for some time like Rarity."

"Not at all. In fact, most ponies set out on their own at fifteen." she explained.

"Wow, I guess that minimum age wouldn't be limited by schooling, what with the fact that you only know your special talent if you're good at what you do, and when you do get it you pretty much know how your life is going to go." I reasoned.

"Something like that." Twilight shrugged. "I have a few more things I want to ask, but they're a bit personal."

"As long as nothing goes too deep, I'm okay with it." I said.

"Okay, first thing I have, I see that you have a lot to lose back home, so why did you join the elite division of your army?" she asked.

I sighed, "There's an old speech I heard, about the Marines. It goes like this. 'The eagle, born to those who gave their lives, and sacred honor, was smiled upon by God, and freed from chains and iron collar. He was held aloft on unity, and by history, revered, for preserving peace through strength, his wings now reach across two hundred years. But for each of those, and one year more, God has smiled upon the Corps. From the Barbary coast, to the eastern sand. By sword, by gun, or by bare hand. And so, it has, and shall be, weighed; though many or born, few are made. Faithful, always they shall remain. Dogs to loose when war is waged.' You see, while the National Guard, Coast Guard, and Navy's purpose is to protect America and it's people, very successfully at that, the only way to truly stop a threat, is to destroy it at it's source. And that's where the Marine Corps comes in. We are trained and equipped to destroy our enemies in any environment, whether it be the frozen tundras of northern Russia, the sweltering deserts of the Middle East, or the swamplands of Vietnam. We are always the first to strike. That, is why I joined the Marines, to protect the people I love from those with ill intent, in the most effective way possible. I will win for my country," I paused and leaned down so that I was looking Twilight dead in the eyes, "Or I will die trying."

Twilight stared wide eyed at me, not knowing how to respond. After about a minute, she finally managed to regain enough of her composure to speak.

"Wow. You did all that to protect the ponies you love." she said, incredulously.

"That is the Marine Corps in general, I myself have accomplished much in my time of service, Accomplishments that you will learn about in the months to come." I said.

"I'll be looking forward to it." Twilight said.

I let out a short chuckle. "Indeed." I lowered my voice so to not be heard. "Indeed."