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.