A little 'warmer' reception than I was hoping for

Chapters

Getting the answers to some important questions
A royal visit.
Getting properly acquainted.
Even more introductions. Seriously?
A colony, a portal and a...dragon.

Getting the answers to some important questions

Meeting the locals

Sam and Ember had been walking for at least a couple of hours. And in those hours, he started to ask himself question after question.

"Where did that portal come from?"

"What happened to Burns and the marines?"

"Will I ever be able to get back?"

Hopefully, he'd be able to get some information about this place from the locals when he reached their destination.

It was weird enough that he'd got sucked into a strange portal, but having a talking dragon asking you nonstop questions wasn't any more normal. He expected to see some strange things on providence, but never did he expect anything like this. Then again, who expects to get sucked in to a portal and sent to a strange world?

He'd been answering Ember's questions to the best of his ability for the entire walk and he had to admit, even though he'd only known her for a few hours, he was quite interested in her. She seemed intelligent, friendly and overall nice to chat with. However, there was still that knawing feeling in the back of his head that he should keep his guard up. He didn't expect her to try anything, but she was an alien that he'd only known for an incredibly short time. But he had decided to give her the benefit of the doubt. At least for now.

Anyway, if anything did turn nasty, he had the means to easily defend himself.

"Sam? Are you alright?"

He snapped himself out of his thoughts and looked towards her. "Oh. Yeah, sorry. I was just thinking about this whole situation." Unknowingly to him, he'd been quiet for quite a bit.

"Understandable that she'd be concerned. I did kinda zone out there for a bit."

He noticed that she was now adorning...a smile on her face?

"What are you happy about?"

She giggled and looked at him. Goddamn, if anything was managing to lift his spirits, it was that giggle. He'd heard it quite a lot in the past few hours.

"Nothing. Just find the whole situation funny. In a strange way. I get a wing cramp, fall and get my wing trapped under a branch and then a random alien comes in and absolutely breaks my assailant. I just didn't expect anything like this to happen."

He chucked to himself. Yeah, she was indeed correct about that.

"That's quite true. But then again, who does expect anything like this to happen?"

She nodded. "Yeah, that's true."

There was a dead silence between the two for quite a short time. He started to wonder if he'd said anything wrong, but he put that thought to rest as they closed on their destination. At least, he presumed it was their destination. In the distance, he could see that the forest cleared and beyond that, there was a small town. He looked at Ember and pointed towards the town with a bemused look.

"That's where we headed?"

She nodded and cocked her head to the side. "Yeah, but what's so funny?"

He chuckled and threw his cigarette on the ground, making sure to step on it to douse the remaining flame. The last thing that he needed was a forest fire.

"Well, it's just that it looks like something that you'd see in a kids show. Colourful and stuff."

Ember didn't know what a "kids show" was, but she chose to just shrug in response and continuing walking. There was more dead silence, until she spoke up.

"So, why did you save me? You never said."

He shrugged and turned to her. "To be honest, I have no idea. I thought at the time that this was all a dream and that doing that might snap me out of it. It was just a way of trying to reassure myself that it was all just a dream, I guess. But, it was a dumb thing to think. Now that I really think about it, I just had this feeling that I should. I'm glad that I did, though. I can see now that it was the right thing to do."

She seemed content with that answer. She smiled.

He smiled in return. "God, why does she have to look so adorable when she does that? Why am I even thinking that a dragon is adorable?"

He was about to say something in return when Ember started running in front of him. He looked in confusion and then saw why she was running. The forest clearing was directly in front of them. He looked around and nodded to himself.

"I can see why she wants to get out of here as fast as possible. Obviously because of the Manticore that attacked her, but this forest is also creepy as fuck. I better hurry too, in case anything else decides to jump out at the last moment."

He started to catch up to her in a few seconds and managed to make it out of the forest. He returned to a walking pace when he realised that he was out of the forest and continued walking beside her. She pointed towards a large castle in the town ahead of them.

"See that castle? That's where I was supposed to attend the meeting. I would have had guards with me, but I refused. I didn't want the ponies to feel threatened."

He looked at her with a confused look. "I'm going to assume that most dragons aren't like you with that statement?"

She nodded. "I'm one of the very few that don't instantly want to gobble up a pony when I see one. There's always been animosity between dragons and the ponies. Mainly because a lot of dragons are brutes who just think about fighting each other and keeping their hoards safe. I admit that I'm not all flowers and roses, I am still a dragon after all. But I personally don't have an issue with ponies as of recent."

Sam pulled out a cigarette and his lighter. He put it in his mouth and lit it, relishing at the great taste. He looked towards her in interest.

"As of recent? Something happen that changed your opinion on them?"

She smelt the fumes from the cigarette and pulled her head back a bit. He chucked. "With her being a dragon, I thought that she'd like smoke or at least be used to it. Then again, this could smell totally different to any smoke that she's been in contact with."

She wafted the smoke away from her face and looked towards the town. "A dragon named Spike who had been raised by ponies since birth and two of his pony friends, one being Princess Twilight, showed me what friendship was like. I never believed in it before. Dragons don't really do friendship. I ditched him at one point during a competition that I talked about earlier, the Gauntlet of Fire. But then I remembered that he'd saved me. If it wasn't for him, I would have drowned due to being bumped into by another dragon. A dragon that...I hold a lot of hate towards. I won't go into it too much but to sum it up for you, he showed me what I'd been missing out on when it came to friendship. After he gave me the scepter, even though he had won, I commanded as the new dragon lord that ponies and dragons would get on in peace from then on out. Of course, some dragons still show a lot of hate towards them, but I've tried to make sure that dragons can have safe travels to their homeland and vice versa."

Sam nodded. "Huh. Sounds quite interesting. I'm going to assume that I'll meet him if I'm going to meet this "princess Twilight"?"

She nodded. "Probably, yeah. He's a good dragon. He's actually smaller than me, believe it or not. But then again, he is a lot younger."

He chuckled. "A dragon smaller than you? I gotta see this."

She stuck her tongue out at him and put a mock insulted look on her face. She looked towards the town and beckoned for him to follow. He stamped out his cigarette and put his lighter away, following behind her.

As soon as they had reached and entered the town, he'd seen a bunch of multicolored, talking ponies. When they had seen him and Ember walking through town, they instantly ran into their houses and closed their windows. He chuckled.

"Yup, that was the response that I was expecting."

She looked towards him and giggled slightly. "Indeed. Anyway, don't worry. It's not too far away now."

He nodded and followed. After a few more minutes of walking, they finally reached their destination. He looked up and blew a whistle sound.

"Phew. That is one tall fucking castle."

The castle shimmered in a bath of glorious light. He took every detail in. From its staircase leading to a big, wooden door with two hearts on it, to a giant crystal star at the very top of the castle.

Ember noticed that he was staring and giggled softly. "Impressed?"

He chuckled in response. "Damn straight I am. This castle looks amazing."

She put her claws on her sides and smiled. "I thought the same when I first saw it. It is quite beautiful."

He looked towards her for a second and smiled. "You know, I appreciate how nice you've been to me, considering everything. If it wasn't for you, I'd have probably still been wondering the forest, having no idea where to go."

She gave him a warm smile in return. "I appreciate you saying that. Even if I've only known you for a few hours, I'm glad that you came along. If it wasn't for you, I'd be dead anyway, so I practically owe you my life."

He smiled and nodded.

"Glad that I could help. Anyway, shouldn't we be knocking and seeing if this princess is home?"

Ember blushed in embarrassment and nodded.

"Yeah, sorry. I was taking in the castle, same as you. No matter how many times I see it, it never gets old." She proceeded to knock and stood back, waiting for the door to be opened.

Sam just stood there beside her, not knowing what to say if the door actually opened. He waited there for felt like ages until he noticed that the door was slowly opening. He looked at Ember and she turned to him, giving him a reassuring smile.

"Don't worry. She's a very understanding pony."

He nodded and put his attention back to the now open door. What walked out was a purple colored pony. He took in its features, noticing that it had a horn and wings. Some of the ponies that he'd seen while he was walking through town either had wings, a horn or none, so it was strange to see one with both. "I'll have to ask about that later."

Twilight looked at him in shock and interest. It turned to Ember and started to speak. "Hello, Ember. May I ask...who...or what is that?"

Ember looked towards him and nodded. He coughed slightly, attempting to clear out his throat.

"Hello. You can call me Sam. As to what I am, I'm a human being. Human for short. As to what I'm doing here, it's a long story. Mind if we come in and explain?"

Twilight looked shocked as he responded. "Oh. Well, at least you can talk. At first, I thought Ember had gotten a new pet."

He felt a bit of annoyance from thinking that he was a pet, but he let it slide and waited for her to continue.

"Well, considering Ember was supposed to be here anyway for a meeting and the fact that you can at least talk, I guess so. Oh, my name is Twilight, by the way. If you didn't know, I'm the..."

Sam put his hand up and continued for her. "Not meaning to be rude here by interrupting you, but Ember has already told me who you are and what you are."

Ember nudged him and gave him a slightly annoyed look. "Sam! Let her finish."

He rolled his eyes and sighed. "I'm sorry about that. Just had a long day is all." He looked toward Ember, who now had a more neutral expression. "We both have."

Ember nodded and looked towards Twilight. "He is right, Twilight. We have indeed had a long day. We will explain what happened when we get inside and then we can start the meeting if you want?"

She looked at Sam again and then back at Ember. She nodded.

"Sure thing, Ember. Just follow me you two."

Sam nodded, following Ember and Twilight into the castle. He sighed and shook his head slightly. "This is going to take forever to explain."

A royal visit.

Explaining things

"Jesus. This place is something else."

Sam, along with Ember, had been following Twilight until they got to her meeting room, which was a lot larger than what he was expecting. He couldn't wait to just sit down for a few minutes after all the walking that he'd done so far.

He heard a soft giggle beside him, to which he found out was Ember. She was now holding a coy smirk on her face. "You remind me of how I was when I stepped in here for the very first time."

"Yeah...I can see why. Place is huge."

The familar sound of a door closing echoed across the room, catching Sam's attention. He turned around to see Twilight staring at him with a confused look on her face.

"What's wrong? Did the noise scare you or something?"

He shook his head. "Na. Sorry. Just a bit on edge after today's events."

She nodded in understanding and came over to him and Ember, sitting across from them. She put a hoof to her face and cleared her throat. "Speaking of which, could you two explain to me what exactly did happen today?"

Ember and Sam both looked at each other and nodded.

He was the first to speak up.

"You go first."

"No, you take the honours."

"Seriously, you can tell her your side first. I don't mind."

"Honestly, go ahead."

"But..."

They stopped when they heard a cough. They both turned to see Twilight now giggling quitely to herself. The alicorn regained herself and motioned towards Sam to start.

"I think that you should start....what was your name again, may I ask?"

He looked towards her with a neutral expression. "Sam"

She nodded in appreciation. "That was it...thank you for reminding me. Now, go ahead. Tell me your story first and then, if Ember wants to of course, she can share her side."

He looked over to Ember, who was now smiling towards him. "Go ahead. Don't worry. She won't bite your head off."

He scoffed at her. "Not really the best choice of words considering what has happened today."

She blushed slightly and looked away. "Just shut up and get on with it."

Twilight was about to interupt again but just as she was about to, she heard Sam chuckle.

"She's so easy to wind up. It's already priceless."

He coughed to clear his throat and looked towards the alicorn princess. "Sorry about that. Anyway, I'll try to explain it as well as I can. Basically, I was sent by the organisation that I work for, DARPA..."

A laugh came from beside him. He turned around to see Ember giggling at him. "DARPA? What kind of a name is that?"

He rolled his eyes. "It stands for Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. Anyway..."

He turned back around to face Twilight.

"As I was saying, I was sent by them to a colony that my country, America, had made. A space colony named Providence."

The alicorn leaned over the table slightly, clearly already intrigued. "Your species made a colony what was able to stay in space?"

He nodded. "Yup. It was made because our planet, Earth, was becoming overpopulated. Some countries more than others. Ours was pretty bad. A country known as Russia had it the worst, though. The number of deaths in Russia that were caused by starvation had gotten absurd. So, because of the country's weakened state, a terroist group known as the Order of the Russian star took control of their military force and became the only authority in their country. They got ahold of their robotics, their weapons, everything that their military had before they had taken control. They raided and took over Providence, killing as many civilians, security officers and police as they could. Eventually, when all of the remaining survivors of the attack had made back down to Earth using the colony's escape pods, the Order of the Russian star had managed to get complete control of the colony. Their plan was to use Providence's power source as a weapon of mass destruction. My superior over at DARPA...my friend...professor Francois Candide tried to get up there himself to stop them succeding in their plan. Unfortunately, he was captured by their R.I's."

Twilight put up her hoof to stop him for a second. All of this was too much for her mind to take in one go.

"Hold on, hold on....so what are R.I's?"

He sighed and put his hands on his knees. "Robotic infantry. Machines made to...imitate human military. Basically, mechanical soldiers."

She looked at him in amazement. "That sounds awful. I mean, the technology to make them must be astonishing, but..."

He shook his head and forced himself to continue. "Yeah. They succeeded in their plan, managing to activate the power source and kill thousands of people in San Francisco, a city back in my country."

She gasped in horror and shot a sympathetic look his way. "Oh...I am so sorry, Sam..."

He shook his head and sighed. "Nothing could be done. It'd already happened by the time that I'd even realised that it was really happening. I wasn't there at the time as my organisation isn't stationed there."

He felt something touch his suit. He turned to the side to see that Ember had put a claw on his shoulder and that she was now sporting a sympathetic smile his way. She turned to Twilight, her claw still on his shoulder. "Twilight, if I may interrupt for a moment, sharing this with us is clearly hurting him. I know that you need to know, but couldn't it wait until he's ready?"

Twilight looked towards Ember and was about to say something before Sam butted in.

"Na. It's fine, Ember. Honestly. She needs to know if I'm ever going to be able to get any help or anything like that. I'd rather get it out of the way now. But..thank you, anyway."

Ember looked towards him with a neutral expression before it turned into a warm smile. "Alright, Sam. As long as you're sure?"

He nodded. "I'm sure."

She nodded and turned back to Twilight, making sure to keep her claw there in case he felt like he was getting overwhelmed by sharing his story.

Sam turned back to Twilight and nodded. "Right...where was I? Ah...yeah, I remember. Anyway, after the attack on San Francisco, the president had ordered the military to send up a batch of veteran marines known as Bravo team to intercept the Order of the Russian star and take back the colony. As I said earlier, I was sent up by DARPA. I had orders to rescue my superior, test out my new battle suit..."

He tapped on his chest to signify what he was talking about. The alicorn nodded and waited for him to continue.

"And to accompy the marines. We were taking a position what was fortified by the R.I's when...some weird portal appeared out of nowhere and sucked everything in, including me. I don't know what happened to the marines and to their superior officer, lieutenant colonel Burns. Boy, was he a tough son of a bitch...he had a giant metal arm with a plasma cannon in it. Oh....and also a giant minigun. He had lost his arm in a previous battle, so he had to have it replaced with an advanced prosthetic limb."

All of this was starting to get too much for Twilight to take. She stopped staring and shook her head, apparently having been in a state of amazement throughout his story. She put her hoof to her chin in thought.

"Right...that was a much bigger story than I was actually expecting. Ember, did you know all of this?"

She nodded. "He has told me a bit of it already, yes, but not all of it."

Twilight nodded in response. "Okay. I guess it was an interesting story for both of us then. I do have quite a few questions that I'd like to ask you though, Sam. If that's alright with you?"

He nodded in agreement. "I expected you to say that. Ask away."

She smiled in appreciation. "Thank you. I know that it must be hard for you to talk about, but if I'm ever going to be able to know you, I do need to ask these questions. You said that you were wearing a 'battle suit'? Is it similar to armour?"

He corrected his chair a tad bit, leaned over and put his elbows on the table, holding his head up with his hands. "Yeah. It's basically a suit what is made for battle, hence the name. It is my idea, but it was funded and made into a real thing by DARPA. It's actual full name is the ARS suit, which stands for Augmented Reaction Suit. As you can guess by the name, it augments the user's reactions beyond normal human levels. Human being my species if I didn't mention it before. It also augments the users physical strength and agility, allowing them to become a sort of super soldier, per say. It has thrusters in the sides of the legs of the suit, allowing the user to slide around and boost upwards slightly at fast speeds. It also comes with an inbuilt visor and helmet what activates whenever the user wants it to. For example..."

He activated his visor and felt it coming down on face, smirking a bit at Twilight's amazement what was currently on her face. She shook her head once again and just stared in astonishment. After a few seconds, he deactivated his visor, revealing his face again.

"That is....brilliant. And you came up with that?"

He nodded. "Yup. I came up with the idea. If it wasn't for DARPA though, it wouldn't have become a reality."

She nodded back. "That is simply amazing. I can't even begin to imagine what technology is in that thing. Do you have anything else?"

He considered whether he should show the princess the BLADE system or not. "How would she react? Would she respond in an aggressive way, thinking that I'm a danger to her people? Eh well...only one way to find out, I guess."

He turned around to see Ember looking at him with concern. "Sam? Are you alright?"

He nodded at her and turned back to Twilight. "I do have something else. But can you promise not to freak out?"

That question concerned Twilight a bit. But she nodded in agreement none the less.

Sam then let the BLADE system come out of his suit, forming its assault rifle mode in his hands. The alicorn gasped and stared at it.

"Did that just form....what is that thing?"

He smirked at her interest and put it over his shoulder, holding it with one hand. "It's called the BLADE system, which stands for Battlefield Logic Adaptable Electronic weapons system. It's basically an advanced weapons platform what can change weapon configurations based on what the user currently needs. Let me show you."

He changed it into its shotgun mode and then its heavy machine gun mode. Twilight kept on staring, not taking her eyes off of the device for a second.

All she could do was let out a gasp.

"Just...wow. All of this technology....but, if this is a weapon...can you please make sure to keep it hidden when you walk among the ponies? I'm not going to confiscate it as I don't think you'd hurt anyone unless you had to....but can you at least not have it out when you're in public?"

He nodded. He let it flatten and slide back into his suit.

She smiled. "Thank you. Anyway, now onto the last question for today...how did you two meet?"

Ember and Sam looked at each other and smiled. He decided to speak up first. "When I was sucked into the portal what I talked about earlier, I ended up landing in a forest."

Twilight nodded. "That'll no doubt be the Everfree Forest. It's a dangerous place."

He chuckled. "That would explain why I found what I found, which I'll get to in a minute. I awoke in a clearing and not long after I'd gotten my bearings a tad bit, I heard a scream. I ran over in the direction of the scream as fast as I could to find Ember here trapped under a giant branch that had fallen on her. It had crushed her wing so she couldn't move. She was apparently heading to a meeting with you when she got a cramp in her wing, which then made her fall into the tree and get her wing trapped under a falling branch. There was a thing apparently known as a Manticore trying to get at her."

Twilight gasped and shot a worried look towards Ember. "A Manticore? Oh Celestia...Ember, are you okay?"

Ember nodded and smiled at her. "Don't worry Twilight, I am now. Thanks to Mr Alien here." She shot a smirk at Sam, which made him smirk back a second later. She looked back towards the alicorn. "He saved me. I still hate to admit it, but if it wasn't for him, I would have been dead. Which is pathetic for my species as you know...but, I owe him my life. And for that, I will always be grateful to him."

Sam turned to her and smiled at her, getting a warm smile from her in return.

Twilight looked at the two and smiled. "I see. Well, that is enough questions for today, I think. It sounds like you two could do with the rest. You can stay here for as long as you want."

They both shot a smile towards her and said their thanks.

"Alright then. I have a spare room with a couple of beds, in case my friends ever want to stop over here for a bit in the castle. You two can take that room."

Ember looked towards Sam with a smirk. "I don't usually like sharing a space with anyone, whether it be a room or a cave, but if it's with you, I think I can put up with that."

He chuckled and smirked back in response. "I have to put up with you even more than I already have? Shit."

They both laughed, which Twilight smiled at. "Seems like they're getting on quite well...and in such a short time, too." She rose from her seat and guided them towards the spare room. It was getting dark anyway and with what Sam and Ember had explained, she imagined that they could do with some good rest right now.

She showed them the room, said her goodbyes and went to her room to get some sleep herself.

Meanwhile, Sam and Ember got ready to rest, Ember sleeping on her side in her bed to stop her from laying on her tail. She looked up towards him with a quizzical look. "So...can you take that thing off by yourself?"

He chuckled and gave a smirk. "Originally, they weren't able to do that. But, they eventually managed to implement a feature that allows me to be able to release myself from it whenever I need. Usually, I'd have to go to the DARPA facility where a machine would take it off for me, but I was glad that they added this feature. Otherwise, I would have been screwed if I needed to go to the toilet or bathe."

Ember laughed and sat up, waiting for him to do so, wanting to know what he looked like underneath the suit. "Go on then. I want to see."

He smirked and waited for the back to open up. It did so and within a few seconds, he jumped out of his suit, letting it stand there in front of him. Ember looked and was intrigued with what she saw. He was quite toned, not massively, but certainly not incredible skinny. She could see the muscle definition under his clothing. She smirked.

"My my. Look at you."

He chuckled and put his suit on the floor. He got into bed and turned to face her, giving her another smirk.

"Welp, thank the training that I had in the suit for that. I'm not big, but I'm certainly not weak by any means. Without that suit though, I'd no doubt be dead by now."

She looked in concern and then put a smile on her face. "Well, I'm glad that you're not."

He smiled back. "Thanks. I am, too."

She chuckled and put her head down onto the pillow, giving him another smile. "Goodnight, Sam."

He smiled again and also put his head down on his pillow. "Night, Ember."

He closed his eyes and sighed.

"I wonder if Burns and the marines managed to make it to the control panel...I hope so."

He then felt his mind drift as sleep slowly overcame him.

Getting properly acquainted.

Taking a tour

"Hey, quit it already!"

"Quit what?"

"You know what!"

"What? You mean this?"

Ember felt him prod her skin again.

"Sam, I swear to..."

This isn't exactly what Sam expected to happen in the morning, but he was currently prodding a very embarrassed and angry blue dragon.

"What? It's not my fault that you're so easy to wind up."

She blushed and turned around, mumbling something as she did so. "You're a dork..."

He smirked. "What was that?"

Ember thanked everything that was holy that he couldn't see her blush right now.

"You're a dork..."

"You're going to have to be louder than that."

Before he could even let his smirk get any bigger, he gulped.

"Oh shit."

Now, one thing Sam should have learned by this point is that you don't piss off a dragon. Ever.

If he would have learned that, he probably wouldn't be seeing Ember with smoke coming out of her nostrils, with her now staring directly at him. She was that close to his face that he could have touched her head with his own.

"I SAID THAT YOU'RE A DORK! JUST THINK YOURSELF LUCKY THAT YOU HAVE THAT SUIT ON RIGHT NOW, MISTER!"

To be honest, he probably would have been even more terrified than he already was if he hadn't had seen the massive red blush across her face. He quickly got over the surge of fear that had entered his system and gained the most shit eating grin that he'd ever put on his face.

"You know, you scared me there for a second. The smoke and all. But that went away as soon as I saw how red your face is."

Ember quickly turned around and covered her face with her claws. "Ugh..."

Then, the door slowly opened. They both turned around, now both trying to put on a serious face, to see that it was Twilight.

Sam was the first one to speak up. "Hey, Twilight. Sleep well?"

Twilight looked in his direction, giving him a warm smile. "Yes, Sam. I did, thank you. How about you?"

He nodded in response. "Yeah, I slept alright. Well...considering everything, anyway."

She giggled and nodded. She looked over to Ember. But...something wasn't right.

"Ember...are you alright? You look...red. Very red."

After hearing this, Ember quickly hid her face and mumbled again. She gained the courage to reveal her face once more, still as red as a tomato.

"Yes...I am fine, Twilight. Don't worry abo...."

Sam quickly put his hand on her shoulder, eliciting a glare from the dragon.

"Yeah, don't worry about her. She's just being a mardy ass because she can't take a joke."

Twilight looked at him in confusion and then noticed that Ember had started to produce smoke out of her nostrils. The now steaming dragon turned to Sam and grabbed his arm, making sure to get in his face.

"IF YOU DON'T STOP BEING A DICK RIGHT NOW, I WILL MAKE SURE THAT YOU DON'T HAVE ONE ANYMORE!"

Twilight pulled herself back at the sudden outburst, but started turning her attention to the now recoiling human.

"Alright, alright. Jeez. Don't have to get so antsy."

It looked like Ember was about to explode, but she put her head in her claws again, trying not to totally lose it. She took a deep breath and looked over to Twilight, who was now chuckling at the display. "Yes, I am fine. Ignore him. What have you got planned for today?"

She smiled and walked over to them, sitting down on the opposite side of the meeting table. "Well, I was thinking that I should give Sam a small tour around the town. Get him familiar with the place, considering that he might be staying here for a while. And also maybe pay a visit to all of my friends, letting them know what he is and why he's here. Don't need anypony freaking out because there's an unknown creature clad in an advanced suit roaming about the place."

Sam looked over at her with a fake expression of hurt spread across his face. "Wow, Twilight. Bit harsh. Unknown creature? I feel offended."

Twilight gasped and started to stutter, looking at him in horror. "No no! I didn't mean it like that! I'm so sor..."

Before she could finish her ramble, she heard laughter. She looked over to him to see that he was now laughing to himself.

"Don't worry about it, Twilight. I'm only fucking with you. Jesus...you guys are so easy to wind up around here. It's priceless."

Twilight sighed and cleared her throat, trying to hide her embarassment. "Well...now THAT is over with, we can get back to business. So, Sam, do you feel ready to meet some of the locals, including my friends?"

He looked at Ember, getting a smile in return. "Go on. Won't do you any harm to mingle."

And that smile then turned into a smirk.

"Or are you that much of a wimp, huh?"

That snarky comment elicted a chuckle from him as he took out a cigarette and his lighter.

"Do I have to start prodding you again, missy?"

He lit the cigarette and put it into his mouth, blowing his own smoke at her. She deadpanned at him and grabbed his face with both of her claws.

"If you ever do that again, I'll ram that thing right down your throat."

He gulped and pulled back, getting an incredibly creepy smile from her in return.

"Right...well, in that case, I think we better be off Twilight."

She looked at him and chuckled. "You want to go no..."

And with that, the human had bolted outside of the room, making Ember and Twilight laugh.

The pony princess then stood up and looked towards Ember, now adorning a warm smile on her face. "You want to come to, Ember? You two seem to get on well...I think, considering you've only known each other for a day or so."

She smirked and stood up, stretching her back. "I guess that I should, for his sake. I admit, even though he's been incredibly annoying this morning...I've come to like him incredibly fast. Which is strange for me and my species in general as we don't usually take a liking to someone this fast. Especially another species."

Twilight smiled and giggled. "I'm glad to see that you two are already bonding in such a short amount of time. Anyway, we better catch up to him so he doesn't get lost."

She motioned for the dragon to follow and she did so, walking slowly behind her with a blush on her face. "I should be mad at him for earlier...but I'm not...I've only known him a damn day. What's going on with me?" She shook her head and kept following the princess, making sure to close the door on her way out.

"Right, where are we going first?"

Twilight looked up at Sam with a smile. Thankfully, when he had bolted out a few minutes ago, he hadn't run very far. He was waiting outside the castle for her and Ember, so she was glad that he hadn't gotten himself lost. She was also happy that the ponies hadn't run away from him yet. Well, the ones that they'd seen so far. Probably only because her and Ember were with him.

"Well, I'm thinking that instead of you meeting all of my friends individually, we can get one of my friends to organise a welcome party for you. Parties are her speciality. However, I must warn you...she's a bit...different."

He diverted his attention from the buildings to her, giving her a concerned, confused look. "What do you mean, different?"

Ember nudged him, getting his attention, only for him to receive a smirk from her. "She means that she's going to jump you and keep you tied up in her basement."

Twilight shook her head at Ember's antics and chuckled, knowing what was coming by this point.

He looked at her with clearly fake disgust and rolled his eyes. "Yeah, you'd like that wouldn't you, you sick fuck?"

She laughed out loud and continued walking next to him. "Maybe. What's your point?"

"That you're a sick fuck."

"And?"

"And that you need to stop trying to get to me because it doesn't work, mrs I blush every 5 seconds"

"Oh yeah? Well..."

A rather loud giggle cut them off, making them turn their heads towards Twilight, who was now chuckling louder than before.

"You two are already like an old married couple and you've only known each other for a day."

The two looked at each other and looked away, mumbling to themselves.

She giggled again, watching the two with interest. "They really are like a couple...it's so strange what with the amount of time that they've known each other." She let the thought go as she remembered the task on hand. She turned her attention towards the upcoming building, sugarcube corner. She smiled and motioned for the two to follow her in.

It wasn't a very eventful day at sugarcube corner. Pinkie was at her usual station, manning the register. She held her head in her hooves, sighing to herself. "Nopony has been here today. It's so borrringggggg.....maybe I should go and surprise Gummy?" She doubted anypony was going to turn up now, considering nopony had since yesterday. So it wouldn't hurt to go up and check on Gummy.

As she was about to walk to her room to surpise her pet alligator, a familiar sound suddenly echoed across the room.

It was the sound of the bell whenever the door opened.

She smiled, finally, she'd be able to serve somepony.

She turned around to the door, to see Twilight and Ember with some weird...creature standing next to them.

A look of horror struck across her face. "Oh no...it's going right for her. I need to do something!"

The pink pony looked around her, trying to find a weapon to scare the beast off. She saw something in her peripheral vision what made her smirk.

She grabbed the weapon and rushed towards the creature, screaming as she did so.

Sam was confused. When he saw the outside of this building, he thought that it was made of ginger bread. Basically, diabetes in building form. "How does it even stay up if it's really made of ginger bread?"

Did it really matter in the long run?

Probably not. He just didn't want to drown in ginger bread anytime soon.

He sighed to himself and turned to look at Twilight. "Well, hopefully, this friend of yours isn't too..."

He heard something screaming in front of him. He turned to look and felt a very soft impact on his chest area. He looked down to see that he'd been attacked by...

"Is this...?"

Cake.

He put a finger in the now splodgy mess, putting it to his mouth and taking a quick lick. His face lit up and he grinned. "Hey, that ain't half bad. But...where did it even come from?"

Sam hadn't been paying attention to his surrondings after he noticed the mess of a cake what had been thrown at him, so he didn't even realise until now that Twilight was raising her voice at someone. He looked in front of him and saw a pink, chubby'ish pony arguing with her. He looked to his side to see Ember chuckling to herself. She looked towards him, now full on laughing at him.

"I can't believe that just happened...but it was priceless. The confusion on your face..."

He mumbled and looked away from her, elicting a giggle from her in response. "Aww, what's the matter? Did I embarass little Sammy wammy?"

Ember suddenly felt a cold sensation on her shoulder. She stopped laughing and looked at the now annoyed human.

"Listen to me you lil shit, I don't care if you're cute as hell. If you so much as..."

She blushed and turned around, earning a confused stare from him. "What's the matter? I wasn't being serious you know."

The blue dragon turned back to him, a deep red blush on her face. "I'm not cute..."

He smirked, knowing instantly where this was going.

"What was that?"

She looked at him and smirked. "Not this time, dork."

He rolled his eyes and stuck his tongue out at her. "You're no fun."

She smirked and pointed behind him. "They're looking at us, you know."

His face now had a look of horror plastered all over it. He spun around as fast as he could, nervously chuckling, to see Twilight and the pink pony giggling at him. "Sorry about that..."

He cleared his throat and collected himself. He turned his attention towards the pink pony. "Anyway, can I ask, why did you throw a cake at me?"

The pink pony just giggled and snorted. "Cause silly, I thought that you were a monster what was trying to get Twilight and Ember so I grabbed the nearest weapon near me and I lunged at you and threw it at your chest but Twilight just told me that you weren't a monster and that you seemed nice so that's my bad also did it taste any good because I just made that this morning and if it was good then I might make another one with the same flavours and frosting but I don't know because I have so many other..."

Twilight coughed and put her hoof on the pony's shoulder. "Pinkie, this is Sam. Sam, this is Pinkie Pie. Now, Pinkie, I want you to listen very carefully and I want you to promise that you won't freak out at what I'm about to say. Okay?"

Pinkie nodded.

"Okay. His species is not from this planet. He's an alien."

Pinkie looked at him with a deadpan stare, then back at Twilight, then at Ember, then back to Twilight. She giggled, which got a confused stare from Twilight. "Pinkie, what's so funny?"

She put her hoof on Twilight's shoulder and kept giggling. "It's funny that you thought that I'd freak out when you told me that he was an alien. I've met aliens before, Twi. Don't worry."

Twilight looked at her in confusion. "Wait...what?"

The pink pony returned the confusion. "What?"

She shook her head and looked towards Sam and Ember, the latter of which was giggling to herself. "Never mind...anyway, Pinkie, could you throw a welcome party for Sam here? Get him introduced to the town so everypony can get to know him?"

Pinkie's face lit up at this and she jumped into the air, confetti forming around her. "A PARTY?!"

Twilight shook her head. "Pinkie really does concern me sometimes..." She looked up at her, now being back on the ground with the confetti gone. "Yes. A party. Make sure to invite everyone in ponyville. Say...later this evening?"

She saluted and nodded. "Sure thing, Twi." She looked over to Sam and Ember, waving at Ember. "Hey, Ember. We should catch up at the party later."

The now giggling dragon nodded and smiled at her. "Sure thing, Pinkie."

Sam turned to Twilight and whispered to her. "Where did that confetti come from and where did it go?"

Twilight looked at him and shrugged. "Don't ask. It's Pinkie Pie. Let's just leave it at that."

He nodded slowly. "Okayyyy then..." He turned around to see the weird, pink pony now standing in front of him, staring at him with a really creepy, wide smile.

"I'll see you at your party, Sammy!"

He deadpanned at her. "It's Sam."

She chuckled. "Whatever, Sammy. See you all later!"

Then, before he could correct her again, she'd bolted out of the door as fast as he did earlier back at the castle. He looked towards Ember, who was now chuckling at his confusion. He shrugged and looked at Twilight. "You certainly have an...'interesting' friend there."

She chuckled and motioned for the two to follow. "Sure do...anyway, let's get back to the castle and grab something to eat before the party."

That reminded her of something. She gasped.

"Oh my...I'm so sorry, Sam. How rude of me. I forgot to ask what type of food you eat..."

Sam chuckled and waved his hand. "It's fine, don't worry bout it. I'm an omnivore, so I can eat veg and meat. I need both to have a decent diet, though."

She nodded and smiled. "Well, Ember here is a carnivore, as you could probably already tell..."

Ember looked towards him and showed him her fangs, even though he'd no doubt seen them already.

"And the ponies are herbivores. But, I can have meat ordered for you from the Griffon kingdom if you'd like?"

He nodded and smiled. "Yeah, thanks. That'd be great."

Only seconds after did it hit him what she just said.

"Wait...Griffon empire? You have Griffons here too? If I remember my myths correctly, aren't Griffons those creatures what look like a lion and an eagle?"

She nodded. "Yes. We made peace with them quite a while ago now, thankfully. So, say if a meat eater ever comes here to visit or to see me, for example..."

She pointed her hoof towards Ember, who in return smiled.

"Then I can order meat from the kingdom."

He nodded and smiled. "I see. Well, thank you, anyway. I appreciate it."

She smiled and opened the door, motioning for them to follow. "It's no problem. Anyway, we better be getting back now."

Ember and Sam nodded, following behind her. He looked towards Ember and smirked.

"Should be fun tonight, eh? I hope that you're tagging along? I could use someone fun to keep me company."

She smirked in response and stuck her forked tongue out at him. "Of course I'll come. I need to make sure that you don't end up freaking out and making a fool of yourself."

He rolled his eyes and smirked. "Yeah, in your dreams."

He pulled his 2nd cigarette of the day out of his suit, along with his lighter and lit it. He took in the smell of it before sighing.

"I hate parties."

Even more introductions. Seriously?

A party? Really?

"Ugh...I can't believe that I actually have to go to a party. Parties suck."

You know that feeling that you get when you REALLY can't be bothered to do anything what so ever? Well, that's what Sam was feeling like currently. He was also feeling like he might murder a very annoying (and cute) small, blue dragon if she didn't stop her teasing.

"Awh....is the little human scared to have some fun?"

He slapped her claw away from his shoulder like a child having a tantrum.

"Piss off. I absolutely despise parties. The only reason I didn't go on about it before is because I actually sorta want to make a good impression to these equines. I might be stuck here for a while before I can get back home."

He got up and walked to the castle window, sitting on the ledge and peering outside. Ember noticed his change in attutide and grew slightly worried. Had she actually pissed him off this time?

"Come on Sam, you know that I was only teasing, right?"

She flinched a tad bit when he looked towards her and activated his helmet.

Yep. He wasn't in a great mood.

"I know. It's not you. Don't worry about me. Just starting to become a bit homesick, I guess. Hah. It's funny. Never thought that I'd miss dodging death."

She sighed and walked up to him. He felt something touch the back of his shoulder. He turned around, his eyebrows slightly raising behind his helmet, to see that Ember had got her claw on his shoulder. For a second, he expected to turn round to a shit eating grin.

When in actual fact, he was met with a sincere smile.

"Look, I know that you must be missing your world. Trust me, I'd be the same if I got transported to dragon knows where..."

He cringed. "Really, Ember? Dragon knows where?"

"But, listen and listen very closely. Even if I tease you constantly, I've come to...care about you quite fast. And so has Twilight. As long as you're with us, we'll make sure that you're safe. We know that you're perfectly capable of handling yourself. I've seen it first hand. But, it still helps to have someone care about you. I've come to learn that since making peace with the ponies."

He sighed and rubbed her head with his hand, which elicted a surprised look and blush from the dragoness.

"I know. I appreciate that. I really do. And even if I can be an ass to you sometimes, I know that you know that I'm only dicking with you. You've come to mean something to me too...even in this incredibly short amount of time."

Ember looked up at him as he got off of the ledge, got down on one knee and de-activated his helmet, looking straight in her eyes with his own.

"And I also know that you can handle yourself just fine. I assume that Twilight can as well. But trust me, if ANYBODY ever touches you or her, they'll regret it pretty fast. I'm not the soppy or sincere type, so enjoy it while you can."

He smirked and re-activated his helmet, once again covering his face from view.

Ember blushed heavily and smirked. "Heh...I'd certainly like to see that side of you again. It was...nice."

She heard a chuckle from behind his helmet and saw that he was clicking his fingers. "I'm sure you will. Just don't expect it often."

Suddenly, another being walked into the room.

"Hey, guys. You both ready to go? The party starts in 5 minutes."

Twilight walked over to them with a big smile on her face. Sam stood up straight and nodded towards her. "Yes. Ma'am. You ready, Ember?"

Ember nodded towards him and smiled at Twilight. "Sure. Thank you for letting me come, Twilight. Someone needs to watch this one. Otherwise, he might go sit in a corner and cry until the party stops."

She turned to see Sam staring at her. It was actually sorta creepy, considering she couldn't see his face at all. He just turned back to Twilight after a few moments of staring and pointed towards the door.

"Let's go then, you two. I want to get this over with as fast as I can."

Twilight looked at Sam and then towards Ember with worry on her face. "Is he okay? He seemed a lot more...cold. He didn't even reply to your teasing."

Ember shook her head and sighed. "We had a quick...heart to heart. He'll be fine. He just needs some time to think. But thank you for the concern, Twilight."

She smiled and motioned with her hoof for Ember to follow. "Of course. Let's go."

Ember nodded in response and followed behind, sighing to herself quietly.

Sam, Twilight and Ember made it to sugar cube corner quite fast and were currently waiting outside the door. Twilight smiled at them both and opened the door, motioning for them to follow. "Now, you two. Behave yourselves and more importantly, enjoy yourselves, okay? Sam, you sure you're up for this?"

He sighed and walked past her into the sugary building. "Not really, but we might as well get this done."

She nodded and walked closely behind him, having Ember follow behind her. Everything was quiet. Where was everypony?

Then, out of nowhere, confetti and balloons came popping out from behind the tables, along with tons of ponies. Twilight jolted back slightly and then smiled to herself.

"Pinkie really knows how to set up a party."

She looked towards Sam to see him staring at all the ponies, clearly making them slightly nervous. Pinkie Pie jumped out from the back and landed just in front of his face.

"Happy party Sammy! Do you like it? Do you, huh huh huh? It took a lot of setting up because I had to get the balloons and then the confetti and then make sure that everypony wasn't going to be terrified of you and then..."

He clamped her mouth shut with his hand and then looked at her with his helmet still activated. "Look, Pinkie, I'm not really in the mood for a party. However, I will stay and I still highly appreciate you going to all of this trouble to set up one for me. I'm going to let go of your mouth now and I want you to promise me that you WON'T talk as fast for a few seconds. Okay?"

She nodded and smiled.

He let go of her mouth and patted her on the head, getting a warm smile from her in return. "I'm glad that you like it. Now, go and mingle. It's your party."

Sam smiled behind his helmet, even if she couldn't see it. "Thank you once again." He looked towards the ponies in the room, especially 4 particular ones. A cyan one with a rainbow like mane with wings, a white one with a purple, curly mane with a horn, a yellow one with a pink mane who was currently hiding under the table in front of him and an orange one with a blonde mane and a....stetson hat?

Before he could start a conversation any of them, he saw Twilight walk past him, gathering the 4 previously mentioned ponies and walking them towards him. They all came up to him and stared in slight awe.

The cyan coloured one was the first to speak up. "When Pinkie mentioned that we were having a party for an alien...I didn't think that she was actually telling the truth. But wow...you look...awesome! The name's Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in Equestria!"

He sighed and de-activated his helmet, causing them all to gasp. The orange one now spoke up. "How did you do that?"

He looked towards the orange coloured one. "It's a helmet. I activate it with my mind. None of this is my skin. It's a suit. I would fully explain it, but to be honest, it will have to wait for another time as I am quite exhausted."

The orange one nodded and put out its hoof. He assumed that it was a friendly gesture, so he grasped her hoof and shook it. She smiled in response. "Thank god that I got the gesture right. Wouldn't want to screw up before I've even started."

"Well, nice to meet ya. Mah name's Applejack."

She started pointing to the other ones and started to name them individually.

"Over there is Rainbow Dash"

Rainbow saluted.

"Over there is Rarity."

Rarity bowed. "Charmed."

"And over there is...hey ya'll...where's Fluttershy?"

They all looked around them and heard a timid squeak from behind a table to behind them. They looked under it and saw that she was hiding. Applejack shook her head and sighed. "Fluttershy, darlin'....he's...wait, are you a he?"

Sam nodded.

"Right then...he's not goin' to hurt ya. Come on out and introduce yourself."

Fluttershy came out and looked away from everyone, hiding her face. "Nice to meet you..."

Sam raised his eyebrows. "What was that? You'll have to speak up."

Before she could repeat what she said, a laugh echoed from behind them. They all turned around to see Ember laughing to herself. "Let's not start that again, eh?"

They were all confused about what she meant. All except Sam. Now that made him smirk. She smiled when she saw that she had cheered him up, even if for only a second.

"Ignore her. What did you say?"

Fluttershy walked up to him slowly and smiled at him, apparently regaining some of her confidence. "I said that it's nice to meet you."

He smiled in response and nodded. "Nice to meet you too. All of you. Now..."

He looked around the room, looking at all the ponies who were still staring at him in awe.

"Who else is going to introduce themselves?"

Sam had spent about 2 hours meeting all of the ponies that had turned up to his party and now...he was absolutely shattered. He was currently sitting down with his hand holding up his head. He heard someone sit down next to him and turned his head to the right.

Ember was currently sat down, looking at him with a grin. "Had enough for today, super star?"

He smirked and sighed. "Yup. I was never one for parties anyway as I've said about 10 times today. But at least it's nearly over."

She chuckled and nudged his arm with her elbow. "And you didn't scare anyone, which is a plus."

Now it was his turn to chuckle. He re-activated his helmet. "Yeah, I guess so. They all warmed up to me pretty quickly, especially Twi's friends." He looked towards the ponies and saw them all dancing and chatting away.

Ember smiled. "Yeah, it's one of the few things that I envy about the ponies. They're incredibly accepting with nearly anyone. I sometimes wish all of my race were more like that." She sighed and leaned her head to rest it against his shoulder, slowly closing her eyes. He turned his head and looked at her, his helmet still activated.

"Erm...what are you doing?"

She snapped open her eyes and realised what she was doing. She quickly jolted back to sitting up and coughed to clear her throat. "Er...nothing! Nothing."

He looked at her for a few more moments before chuckling to himself. "You're extremely cute when you're flustered, you know."

She knocked his arm with her claw and he smirked behind his helmet. "D-don't try and embarrass me! It was nothing!"

He grabbed her head and got her in a noogie, scratching her head quickly. She squirmed until she eventually set herself free. She looked at him with an incredibly annoyed expression. "HEY! What was that for?!"

He laughed and patted her on the back. "Nothing. Just wanted to see you blush again. It's adorable."

She started to produce smoke out of her nostrils as she stood up, turned around and walked off, mumbling to herself. He laughed and looked towards Twilight, who was looking at them in amusement. "Hey, Twi, mind if we go now? I'm quite tired and to be honest, I just want to have time to think."

She nodded and smiled sincerly. "Of course, Sam. Let me just say goodbye to everyone and we can head off."

He nodded and watched as she walked towards her friends. He went to say his own goodbyes to all of the ponies before he walked outside to get some fresh air and to wait for her to finish.

Smoke was still coming out of Ember's nostrils when Sam got outside and sat down next to her.

"Bet no one would ever think that a dragon of all things is one of the most adorable things ever."

They both heard the door behind them open. He expected it to be Twilight, but instead, he saw the cyan coloured pony from before.

"Oh, this one. What was her name again? Rainbow something?"

He stood up and motioned towards Ember to stay. She nodded and he walked over to the pony to see what she wanted. He looked at her and stook out his hand. She looked at him in a cautious way for a few seconds before she accepted and shook his hand.

She was the first one to speak up. "I just wanted to get another look at you. You look so cool in that suit. Can you fly?"

He chuckled. "Sadly, no. I wish I could. I can jump quite high with the thrusters in my suit, but I can't fly."

She smirked and knocked him with her hoof. "That's too bad. Guess you'll never be as fast as me then."

He raised his eyebrows towards her, which elicted a giggle from her.

"Only messing with ya. Say, you want to have a race, one time? No flying. Just straight up running."

Sam rubbed his chin with his fingers in thought until finally, he nodded.

"Sure. Should be fun."

The sound of the door opening reached his ears once again. He looked towards it to see that Twilight was there with a bright smile on her face.

"Sam, Ember, you two ready to go?"

Ember got up from behind him and nodded. He gave Rainbow's hoof one last shake and nodded at her before also nodding at Twilight.

"Sure. Let's go."

He looked towards Rainbow and smiled. "Was nice to meet you, Rainbow?..."

She looked at him in annoyance. "You really forgot my name already?! How can you forget the name of the fastest flier in Equestria?!"

He chuckled and waved it off. "Sorry. I'm terrible with names. In anycase, we better be going. See ya, Rainbow."

She smirked and saluted. "See ya when we race, Sam. And don't think that I'll go easy on you just because you're new around here!"

She got a smirk from him in response. "I'm sure that you won't." He looked at Twi and Ember and waved. "Come on. Let's go."

Twilight and Ember both nodded, both of them saying their goodbyes to Rainbow as she walked back into sugar cube corner. As they were walking back, the sky now nearly pitch black, Sam pulled out a cigarette and lit it, feeling the comfort of the smoke in his mouth.

Ember and Twi were both looking at him now. Twilight was the one to speak up after a few moments of silence. "Was what that thing again? I can't remember if I asked..."

He chuckled and kept smoking. "Eh, I'll tell you some other time. I just need some rest now to be honest."

They both nodded. Ember walked up next to him and tapped him on the arm. "I might join you. I'm quite tired myself."

He laughed and threw his cigarette on the ground, making sure to stomp the flame out. He looked towards Twilight's castle what was slowly coming closer and smirked. "Don't blame you."

A colony, a portal and a...dragon.

Bullets, magical portals and strange creatures

The providence colony. This place was once home to thousands upon thousands of people. It was designed to combat the ever increasing population count and to give the Earth resources that had run dry. America had it bad, but Russia had it worse. The people of the country were starving, barely able to even keep themselves alive. The death count rose to ridiculous amounts. And because of this, a terrorist organisation known as the Russian star, decided to take over Russia's military. They now had an army of robots at their disposal and what did they decide to do with their new fond power? Take control of the providence colony, essentially killing anyone who didn't manage to get to the escape pods in time. They used robots, energy weapons, anything that they could use to cause destruction. One of their head guys, Victor Zaitsev, used the providence's energy based generator as a makeshift WMD. They used it on San Fransisco and the results were horrifying. Thousands of people lost their lives that day and Zaitsev threatened the president of the United States and the rest of the country that if they didn't surrender, he would use it on New York. To combat this, the president sent the marines to recapture the colony. DARPA had also sent one of their researchers, Sam Gideon, to test out the new battle suit known as the ARS (Augmented Reality suit) and to rescue his superior, Professor Francois Candide as he had been captured when he attempted to stop Zaitsev utilising the makeshift energy WMD once again on New York. . They had also sent his colleague, known as Elena Ivanova, to help him out via reconnaissance by using the spaceship that she was piloting what would orbit just outside of the colony. The marines, along with Sam, had arrived at the colony via a platoon of marine spaceships. They had gotten past the main defenses of the R.I's (robotic infantry).

Now, it was time for Sam to go to work.

Providence colony, 1800 hours

"Sam, watch out!"

A barrage of bullets barely missed Sam as he used the thrusters in his suit, effectively dodging the bullets by a mere second.

"Fuck! I can't get close to the gate. Elena, hack it!"

She sighed and shook her head, even though she knew that Sam couldn't see the expression. "I can't, Sam. It doesn't support remote operation. You need to use the control panel in the building to the right of the gate."

Sam grunted in annoyance. "You'd think that she'd be able to remote hack anything, considering the technology on that ship of hers."

He came out of his thoughts and hesitantly replied. "Okay, I'll see what I can do."

Burns, a LT colonel in the marines, was also there with him and was now hiding behind cover an inch away from him. He was the leader of bravo team, the ones who Sam was supposed to be assisting. They had come to a bit of a...'disagreement' at the beginning due to Sam not being aloud to smoke on Burns's ship. He came out of his thoughts for a second to see Burns transform his bionic arm into a plasma cannon and shoot one of the R.I's operating a turret up the hill. Sam recalled the events of their disagreement and chuckled to himself slightly. "Thank god that I had this suit on, otherwise his arm could have ripped me in two. Crazy bastard."

Burns transformed his arm back into its normal form and turned his head to Sam, a determined look on his face. "We've gotta push up this hill. Can you use that augmented reaction speed of yours and some cover to get past that turret so we can move up?"

Sam slowly peeked his head out of cover to see what Burns meant. There we two pieces of rubble just in front of the turret. Because of the height of the turret, it wouldn't be able to hit him if he was behind the rubble. He swiftly put his head back into cover as a few bullets missed him by a few centimeters. He looked over to Burns and nodded. "Alright. You got it."

Burns nodded in response and Sam waited for an opening. Albeit, before he could even think of using his thrusters to get behind the rubble, he heard a loud bang in front of him. He looked forwards and saw what looked to be like some sort of portal. He raised an eyebrow behind his helmet and nudged Burns. Burns looked at him in annoyance. "What? Why aren't you rushing that turret yet?"

Sam pointed in the direction of the portal. "That's why."

Burns looked to where he was pointing and saw what he meant. He looked in confusion at the strange thing. "What the hell is that thing?"

Sam shrugged. "Beats me. Looks like some sort of portal. It can't be good though." He then noticed something that sent a shiver down his spine.

It was getting bigger.

He felt himself suddenly being pulled towards it and before he could react, he got snatched from his piece of cover and was getting dragged into the portal at a fast speed. He tried to grab onto something but he couldn't get a grip of anything.

Burns tried to grab him, but he couldn't get to him in time. "Sam!"

Sam braced himself for the impact and went straight through the portal, it closing after it sucked him in.

He had vanished into thin air, along with the portal.

Burns looked in shock and said what usually comes to his mind in these types of situations.

"Fuck."

Sam couldn't feel anything. He started to come to and open his eyes. As soon as he managed to do so, he was able to feel his body again.

Not in a good way, either.

He moaned and groaned in pain as he sat up, wiping his eyes in the process.

"Ugh.....I'm never going to drink that much agai.....wait....I remember. I was on the providence colony with Burns and then...."

Then it suddenly hit him.

The portal. He'd left Burns alone with the marines on the colony.

His eyes widened in shock as he near instantly got to his feet and looked around him. He noticed that he was in some type of large forest. Although, the trees didn't look like the trees back on Earth. They looked...darker. More sinister. How trees could even look sinister, he didn't know. All he knew is that he had to find Burns and the marines. And fast. He looked around for the BLADE weapons system and noticed that it was on the floor. He picked it up and transformed it into its shotgun mode.

"Don't want anything jumping me in this forest. It's too closed in."

He activated his visor and felt the chunk of metal form around his face. He started scouting the surrounding area, trying to look for any signs of the marines and Burns. "Burns? BURNS?! ANYONE?!" He shouted at the top of his lungs. Surely he can't have been teleported that far away? What was this place anyway? There was no residential area on the colony that was this big and this wide, he knew that for sure. He'd done his research on the colony and it's features before he went on his mission. He should be seeing buildings. But he didn't. All he saw was trees, trees and more trees.

He screamed in frustration. "Gah, where the fuck am I?! Hello?! Can anyone here me?!" Then, something happened that he didn't expect.

He heard a female like voice crying out for help.

He let the BLADE system merge into his armour as he started to sprint as fast as his the suit would let him. Each few steps that he took, the screams were getting closer and closer. It sounded like it was coming from right in front of him.

He kept running for what felt like hours until he came across a sight that made him question his sanity. On the floor quite a ways in front of him was some sort of strange, blue creature. It resembled some sort of reptile. It was stuck under quite a large tree branch. It was chucking stones at something to its right. He turned to his right and saw what looked like a lion crossed with a bat, a scorpion, and god knows what else. He retracted his visor, revealing his face as he rubbed his eyes once more. He closed his eyes for a second and chanted to himself. "This is not real. I must have been knocked out by an explosion or something and I'm just dreaming. I will wake up. I must wake up. The Professor and Burns need me." He slowly opened his eyes and he looked back. He looked in horror.

It hadn't changed back. He wasn't back on the colony. He was still in the forest, watching that blue, small reptile like thing try to break free from the massive branch that was still on top of it. The lion like creature was still backing off ever so slightly every time a rock hit its face.

He looked down and sighed.

"Either this is a very lucid dream that I'm having trouble waking up from or somehow, this is real."

He looked towards the reptile like creature and the lion creature once more. The trapped creature had now ran out of rocks to throw and twigs. It looked like it was trying to...breath out forcefully? A tiny flame came out and went away pretty quickly. The attacking creature looked like it gained a massive grin on its face as it started its slow march towards the other creature. Sam nodded to himself. "I need to help it. If it's a dream, it might jolt me up somehow." Even he had to admit, he was now grasping at straws, just still hoping that this was just a weird dream. It was a dumb idea that didn't make any sense. But he couldn't just sit here and do nothing, waiting to hopefully wake up. He sighed. "If it somehow turns out not to be a dream...I'll cross that bridge when I come to it." He activated his visor once more. He readied his weapon and ran.

"Stupid wing! Why do you hate me so much?!" Ember cursed at herself as she watched the Manticore slowly walk up to her, clearly eyeing her as its prey.

"This is embarrassing. A dragon killed by a Manticore? I hope my dad doesn't find out about this...or Spike..or Twilight...or anyone back home!"

She tried to get her wing out from under the giant tree branch, but it still wouldn't budge. She was starting to accept her fate, as pathetic as that was. She was literally stuck. She couldn't defend herself like this and her flames weren't big enough to harm the beast. She tried to grab her bloodstone scepter, but it was out of her reach. She saw that the Manticore was basically in her face now. She could feel its warm breath on her face. She closed her eyes and quietly wept.

"Goodbye dad...goodbye Dragon lands....goodbye Spike..."

....Nothing happened. Where was the final strike that would finish her and put her in a book honouring the lamest dragons of all time if anyone found out?

She carefully opened her eyes and saw something that made her wonder if she was dead already.

The lion like creature was about to deliver the finishing blow to the trapped creature as Sam darted at it at full speed.

"Here goes nothing!"

The lion creature then went flying into a nearby tree, producing sounds of various bones breaking. It wailed as it tried to get up, but ultimately failed. It looked up at its assailant and growled in anger.

"What the fuck are you?"

Sam looked down at the creature, waiting for his suit to cool down after the impact of his foot flying into its face. It was a strange mixture of animals as he saw before. It growled at him as he brought up his weapon and pointed it towards its face. "I hope that you're the bad guy, buddy." He pulled the trigger and filled the creature with several shotgun shells. Its head instantly dropped in a pool of blood. He looked down and sighed. "I hope that I did the right thing...if this is even real, that is. It's starting to feel too real to be a dream."

He heard a whine behind him. Sounded like...a woman crying? He turned around to see that the trapped lizard like creature was crying softly. It tried to back off, but still couldn't remove the tree from its form. He started to walk towards it.

Ember had never been so frightened in her life.

Just as she was expecting the Manticore to kill her, she saw something come in at lightning fast speed. It launched itself forward and propelled itself into the Manticore, delivering a strong kick to its face. The Manticore then went flying into a nearby tree, breaking several bones. Quite loudly, she might add, which added to her shock.

She then got a good luck at the thing that had just single-handedly broke a Manticore in half. It was a tall creature, taller than her by quite a bit. It had what appeared to be some sort of armour on. She couldn't tell if that was the case, though. It was bipedal, had appendages what strangely resembled her own albeit less sharp looking and had some sort of tool in its hand. Was that a weapon? Its head was also covered by the same type of material that was on the rest of its body, with a blue tinted glass looking thing in front of where its face should be. It went over to the Manticore and surprised her even more than it already had.

It spoke.

Not in some foreign garble. A language that she could fully understand perfectly.

"I hope that you're the bad guy, buddy"

It had a deep, gruff voice. Probably a male.

It then pointed the object in its hand towards the now bleeding Manticore's face and pulled one of its appendages down on something on the object. Ember shrieked in horror and turned away as the object emitted a loud bang. After her ears had calmed down, she turned back around to see the Manticore now dead on the floor, its face planted in a pool of blood. She heard the creature say something again.

"I hope that I did the right thing...if this is even real, that is. It's starting to feel too real to be a dream."

She looked at the Manticore in horror. This creature was extremely dangerous. More dangerous than most creatures that she'd come across in her life.

And it could do the same to her next.

She didn't know if she could defend herself against this unknown creature even if she wasn't stuck under the accursed branch that had her currently nailed to the floor.

She started to do something that she hated. She started sobbing. The realisation hit her even more than before. She wouldn't be able to see her friends or her family anymore. She didn't even want to know what this thing was going to do to her. She noticed that soon as she started sobbing, the creature's head moved slightly. It then turned around to look at her and stared at her. She tried to back off, but the branch was still crushing her wing. She couldn't get away from this thing. She looked in horror as it started to walk towards her, carrying the lethal object that it had used on the Manticore with it.

The only thought what crossed her mind was that it would hopefully at least make her death quick.

Sam walked towards the trapped creature. He sorta felt bad for it. It was obviously terrified of him. He couldn't blame it to be honest. A weird creature shows up and brutally murders the creature that was trying to rip its face off.

Yeah, he'd be shit scared too.

He finally reached the creature and let his weapon merge back into his armour. The creature looked in confusion as he did so. He deactivated his visor to reveal his face. The creature stared at him in shock and started to panic even more.

He mentally shrugged. "I should have expected that."

He got down to one knee and grabbed the tree. As he did so, the creature started swatting at him with its claws. He backed off slightly and raised his arms up slightly. "I wonder if this thing, by some miracle, can understand me. I fucking hope so."

"Hey, hey. Calm down. I'm not going to hurt you. I promise."

It looked up to him and stopped swatting at him. It puts its arms down and kept staring at him. It then did what he least expected.

It replied.

"...How do I know that you're not going to do to me what you just did to that Manticore?"

He looked in confusion. "Manticore? Isn't that some greek myth from hundreds of years ago?" He decided that he'd ask later. The current task was to calm this thing down the best that he could.

"I won't. I know that you're no doubt terrified. I mean, a weird creature appearing out of nowhere and beating the shit out of your assailant? Trust me, I'd be shit scared too if that was me. But all I can do is promise you that I won't hurt you as long as you don't try and hurt me. Alright?"

The creature looked at him in a skeptic manner. It then sighed and slowly nodded.

"I don't know what you are, where you came from and if I can trust you, but...thank you. If it wasn't for you, I'd be dead already."

He nodded and smiled at the creature. He pointed towards the giant branch. He saw now that it was crushing what he presumed to be a wing.

"Can I get back to helping get this off of you now?"

The creature slowly nodded and he knelt down once more. He picked up the branch and lobbed it to the left of him, freeing the creature. It put a hand to its wing and cried out in pain. He looked at its wing and noticed that it was badly crushed.

"Seems like your wing is in pretty bad shape."

It gave him a deadpan stare and snorted. It whispered something under its breath. "Well, yeah. It was crushed by a giant branch, you know."

He heard what it said. He chuckled to himself. "Least it has a sense of humour." He offered it his hand. It looked at him in confusion. He sighed.

"Here. Take my hand. I'll help you up."

The creature looked frightened and skeptic at first, but it eventually sighed and took his hand, letting him help it up to its feet. It instantly cried out in pain and held its wing with one of its...claws?

It started to cry softly again. "Stupid wing...I shouldn't be crying like this..."

He looked at it sympathetically and put a hand on its shoulder. It looked up to him and instantly recoiled back.

"What do you think you're doing?!"

Sam looked at the creature and sighed once more. "I was putting my hand on your shoulder as a sign of respect. It's what us humans do when we sympathise with someone."

The creature slowly calmed down and broke from its defensive stance. It looked at him in interest. "So, your appendages are known as hands and your species is referred to as humans? How come I've never heard of your species before?"

Sam smiled and chuckled. "You've never heard of my species because I'm obviously not in the same place as I was before I got sucked into a portal. I was on a space colony, trying to take it back from evil people. Terrorists. A war, basically."

The creature looked at him in confusion. "Wait, so you're saying that you're an alien?"

He nodded. "It seems so, yeah. And you're an alien to me."

The creature chuckled. It's laugh was softer than he'd expected. "That explains why you look so alien. I'd call you crazy if you didn't look as weird as you do." Sam looked at her and snorted. The creature panicked and waved its arms. "No no! Not in a bad way! You look sort of....cool."

He felt a bit of pride well up inside him from the creature's compliment. "Now now Sam, don't let your ego get boosted that much by an alien that doesn't even really know you yet." He chuckled. "Well, you look pretty cool yourself. What are you, anyway?."

He looked at its wing. Damn, it was in bad shape. If it wasn't mended by someone soon, it'd probably get infected. He could use his adrenaline syringe, but what if it had some adverse negative effects on it? It was an alien, after all. "Better not try and use it in that case. This thing does need to get help soon by the looks of it, though."

He snapped himself out of his thoughts and waited for its answer to his question.

"I'm a dragon. And...thanks."

He hummed in interest while looking her over to get all of her details once more. "Ah. Well, that explains why you have wings, reptilian like eyes and scales. Dragons used to be a myth hundreds of years ago on my planet."

It looked at him and chuckled. "Well, as you can see, we are very real. I am...admittedly a lot smaller than most other dragons."

He nodded. It made sense, considering how the dragons in myths hundreds of years ago were supposed to be large, fierce creatures. This dragon was small, skinny and strangely...adorable. He mentally slapped himself. "Did I just call an alien adorable?"

The dragon walked up to him, still holding its wing. He looked at the injured wing and looked at the creature in concern. "No, I should ask it if I can help in anyway. It's only fair."

"What can I do to help you? Do you need help with your wing?"

It looked at him and gave a soft smile, if only for a second, before returning to its stoic stare. "No, but....I appreciate your concern."

He looked at it in confusion. "What was that last part?"

It turned its face away from him. "I said I appreciate your concern."

He looked at it again with confusion. "Speak up a bit louder?"

It turned to look at him with a blush on its face. "I said that I appreciate...your...concern. Just ignore what I said, alright?"

He chuckled to himself. Was it blushing? Damn. He never thought he'd see a dragon what was so bashful. Well, he never thought that he'd see a real live dragon anyway, but that was beyond the point. "Well, I appreciate that you appreciate me showing concern."

It chucked softly. "You're an idiot."

He grinned. "I try." His grin vanished as soon as he remembered the creature's injured wing. "Are you sure that I can't do anything to help you? I can't just leave you out here by yourself with what shape your wing is in."

The dragon sighed and then nodded. "Okay...okay. You can help if you really want to. Could you come with me to the nearest town to get some aid for this wing and so that I can get to my meeting?"

Sam looked in confusion. "Meeting?"

It nodded in response. "Yes. I was heading to a meeting with one of the pony rulers, Princess Twilight Sparkle. We were going to talk about our races relations to one another. While I was on the way there, my wing gave way mid flight and I fell onto a branch, knocked it off, fell to the ground and the branch pinned me down via my wing."

He face lit up in realisastion. "So that's how you got pinned down there."

It nodded. "Yeah. Then, the Manticore jumped out at me and I couldn't get free as you saw."

He nodded. Then, he realised what she had just said. He sighed. He put his hands up to his face and held it. "There's talking ponies too?"

It nodded back. "Yup. I presume with your reaction and the fact that you're an alien, that you don't have talking ponies either on your world?"

"No, we don't. We have horses and ponies, but they don't talk. They're just animals."

He noticed that it had a look of interest on its face.

"I see. How very strange. In anycase, we better get going. The sun is going to set soon and that means more Manticores."

He looked up to the sky and saw that it was indeed getting dark. He nodded once more. "Yeah, I can see that it's getting dark and I can see why you don't want any more of those things popping out at you. I'll do my best to protect you....what's your name?

It looked at him with a small smile. "I'm Princess Ember, but just call me Ember. I'm the daughter of the ex dragon lord. That reminds me..."

Sam looked as it went to pick up a weird looking stick that he somehow didn't notice before. It had a red, glowing crystal at the top. He pointed towards it. "What's that thing?"

Ember looked at him and smiled. "This is a bloodstone scepter. It's what you have to acquire to win the Gauntlet of Fire competition, in which the winner gets crowned as the new dragon lord."

He looked at it in slight interest and nodded. "Interesting. I'll ask more about that competition later. As you correctly stated, we should be going. I'll tag alongside you as you know where to go."

She nodded and carried her scepter. However, before she could even start walking, she dropped the scepter due to the pain in her wing. Sam put his hand on her shoulder and looked at her in concern. "Hey Ember, you alright?"

She weakly nodded in response. "Yeah...yeah. It's just this damn wing. I'll be fine when we get to the nearest town, Ponyville."

She picked up the scepter once more and beckoned for him to follow. "This way. Oh, that reminds me, you got my name...but I didn't get yours?"

He smiled. "Sam."

She smiled softly in return. "Alright, Sam. Follow me."

He nodded, activated his visor and made his weapon appear in his hands from his suit. He walked alongside her and looked at her, noticing that she was staring at him. "What's up?"

She jumped out of her trance. "Oh! Sorry. It's just that I have a ton of questions. What is that on your skin? Armour?

"Well, ye...."

"What's that weapon in your hand?"

"It's th...."

"What's that what keeps going on and off of your face? It looks like its connected to your amour? Is it?"

He chuckled and held up his hand. "Hold your horses. Let me answer one question at a time, alright?"

She blushed and looked away. "Sorry...yeah. Take as much time as you need."

He smiled and remembered that he hadn't had a cigarette in a while. Luckily, he stored quite a few packs in his suit before he went on his mission. "Hope that they're still here..." He reached in one of the open spaces in his suit. He managed to find his lighter and all of his packs of cigarettes, all still in one piece. He sighed in relief. "Oh thank Christ. I certainly need these after today's events."

He pulled out a cigarette and used his lighter to spark it up, sighing in relief at the familiar smell of cigarette fumes.

Ember looked at him with confusion. He laughed softly.

"Another question to add to the list, eh?"

She chuckled slightly, holding her mouth with her palm. "Yep."

He smiled in return. "Alright. Here goes."