New Land Old Enemies

Chapters

Prologue: Contact
Chapter 1: Strange Lands
Chapter 2: Forward March
Chapter 3: Eternal Rest
Chapter 4: Meeting New People... Ponies
Chapter 5: Follow the Pink Pony
Chapter 6: Bishop Takes Queen
Chapter 7: Head in the Clouds
Chapter 8: Stop... Party Time
Chapter 9: Royal Meetings
Chapter 10: Catch Me If You Can
Chapter 11: Continuing the Fight
Chapter 12: New Work
Chapter 13: Return Flight
Chapter 14: First Watch
Chapter 15: Training Day

Prologue: Contact

Name: MSG. Adam “Shifty” Smith
Date: August 16, 2015
Location: Afghanistan
Time: 1630

Another day another convoy to look after, man this is boring. I mean its not like they are stupid enough to attack our supply convoys when they are this close to our military base, right? Then again after what happened on that day I wouldn’t put it past them to take any chances they can at getting their revenge. Providing overwatch for a convoy isn’t a bad job for a sniper but it can get pretty boring when the only things you see are just different shades of brown because of all the sand. I’m just glad I can do this while being indoors at a table with, an old friend of mine from when we were kids, 1SG Steve “Joker” Whitmore spotting for me.

Why they gave me a .50 cal to do this though I don’t know nor do I care because there isn’t anything that can get away from me when I have this monster of a rifle and for my secondary I opted for a suppressed socom pistol just in case they got a little close or if we needed to find a new location. Steve on the other hand had his Chey Tac Intervention and a M16 with an ACOG scope and forward grip for his secondary. I peek over at Steve, who is just carelessly looking through the spotter’s scope, and ask “How the hell do you plan on sneaking around without at least one suppressed weapon if shit goes south?” Bringing his head away from the scope he gives me a wide grin and pulls out his combat knife and says “Well thats what this baby here is for,” then points it at me “and you’re going to be taking the lead anyways if it does. I don’t want to be stuck with snipers and pistols if for any reason the enemy decides to storm the building we are in, even if we have a few guys watching the floors below us.”

A tap on my shoulder brought me back out of my thoughts as I heard Steve say, “Look alive the convoy will be here in ten minutes and we need to be extra cautious right about now.” I gave him a quick nod as I then looked back down my scope to look at the surrounding buildings for possible contacts that might want to harm the convoy. Sure enough sitting in an alley facing down the road out of sight of the approaching convoy is a small four door car with what appears to be two people inside. Upon seeing this possibly threat I point it out to Steve to see if he could possibly make out what the two people in the car were doing but he couldn’t quite tell either. Not wanting to take any chances that they could be up to no good I took aim at where the engine would be and made said a quick message to the convoy. Placing my hand on my throat so as to make myself easier to hear I said “Thumper this is overwatch do you read? I have possible contacts sitting in an idle vehicle, be on the lookout for possible ambush over.” To which I heard the quick reply of “I read you loud and clear thanks for the heads up we’ll keep our eyes and ears open.”

After the conversation I steadied my aim and slowly pulled the trigger firing a round straight into the car’s engine, effectively destroying the car, and thats when it happened. The two in the car flung the doors open and bolted for the nearest build carrying AK-47s in their arms while other doors and windows started opening up. Only one word came to mind, FUCK. I call back over the mic, “contacts on route I suggest taking another path to base” and got the immediate reply of “Negative can’t make it around the blocked off paths, they knew we were coming.” Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit, thats not good. I look over to Steve who I see quickly setting up his rifle and taking aim along side me and start firing into the building with the known contacts lying in wait. Ripping my eyes back to the scope of my rifle I begin taking aim at one target who thought he was being clever by hiding partially behind a wall, but what does that matter to a .50 cal round, I tell you nothing. I quickly let loose a round that destroys his cover and paints the opposite wall red with his blood and quickly change targets quickly adding more and more kills to the numbers.

Out of the corner of my eye I see the flash of a muzzle then the loud report of a sniper being fired forcing me to quickly duck for cover hoping that I wasn’t the one being shot at. I grab the mic again and yell “Enemy sniper is hiding in the buildings, look out. We will locate and remove the threat.” At this point I can hear the convoy open up on some of the waiting enemies in the buildings, but what I wasn’t expecting was there to be a tank leading the convoy shooting its main weapon. Whatever was in that convoy must be really important but that wasn’t something for me to be thinking about at this time as I quickly got back to my rifle to begin my search for the other sniper.

It doesn’t take me long to locate the sniper and just before I take the shot I hear Steve’s rifle fire as I then see the target drop like a sack of potatoes. I look back over to Steve to see him staring back at me with a smug grin on his face as he says “Well looks like I get to collect my eighth “boars tooth” and add it to my collection.” No sooner had he said this when all of a sudden, the scope to his rifle shattered: everything seemed to slow down as I saw him fall back away from the table. Shortly afterwards hear the loud report of a second sniper rifle going off. I sat there frozen where I was looking at Steve hoping that he will just sit back up laughing like nothing happened, but nothing happened. Slowly I inch my way to him, making sure that I stay out of windows, my blood turned to ice as I am then able to see that right where Steve’s right eye should be was a dark hole with blood flowing out.

Looking back over to his rifle I see that the sniper round, which due to the extra glass added to the inside of the scope for a better magnification, had busted out the top side of the scope and would have only given Steve a black eye, but only if he was looking through the scope at the time but he wasn’t. Instead because he had taken his head away from the scope to look over at me, was the only reason he was now lying here with his lifeless eye looking back at me. I force myself to look away and yell over the mic, “Jokers been hit, overwatch is changing location.” Quickly grabbing our gear while keeping my head down so as not to be shot by the second sniper, it takes me no time at all due to all the adrenaline pumping through my system. No sooner had I collected all the gear and was beginning to pick up Steve did I hear someone yell over the mic “RPG!” I spun around just in time to see a white hot blinding explosion engulf me and the room then nothing, an impenetrable darkness.

Chapter 1: Strange Lands

Name: MSG. Adam “Shifty” Smith
Date: August 17, 2015
Location: Afghanistan?
Time: 0500

OH GOD, someone make it stop, my head. Why does my head hurt so much, did Steve get me to drink to the point of not remembering? Slowly opening his eyes, he began to see his surroundings and get a picture as to where he was. What he saw confused him, it looked like someone ripped out a section of a room and smashed everything to pieces and what looked like bits of metal sticking out randomly out of the walls and ceiling as if there was some sort of explosion. Looking out what might have been a window at one point he saw nothing but... trees? Now that can’t be right, I don’t remember there being any trees near the base at all. And where the hell is that beeping coming from... Oh right, that would be my watch.

Without caring to look, since he already knew that his watch was set to go off at five in the morning, he quickly pulled back his sleeve and used his fingers to pushed the two buttons that would turn the damn thing off and allow him to think in quiet. While doing so things immediately didn’t feel right. Why don’t I feel my fingers? Looking down at where his hand should be, was a stump as well as on his other arm there was a stump.... “WHAT THE FFFFF----!”

Location: Random ass cloud over ponyville

“-----UUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCKKKKKKK!!!!” Sleeping in the clouds a rainbow maned cyan color fur pegasus pony slept, or at least would still be sleeping if it wasn’t for all the SCREAMING. “What in the hay is going on down there? Do they know what time it is for Celestia’s sake, the sun isn’t even up yet,” she growled while getting to a sitting position on what was her comfy bed. Leaning over her cloud she glared down at the land below trying to find who it was that was making all that noise. She did however notice the lights at the library flick on from the screams as well as one of the windows open up in order for the occupant to stick her head out and look around.

With nothing better to do, and still pretty pissed about being woken up at this time of the day when she normally wouldn't be getting up until closer to about ten, she flew down to the lavender unicorn to discuss what to do.

Quickly pulling up to the unicorn within seconds she was greeted by the confused and sleep Twilight Sparkle as she tried and failed to stifle a yawn, “Hey Rainbow Dash. Do you know what is causing all that noise this early in the morning?”
“I was hoping you could tell me since I couldn’t see who it was from where I was sleeping,” groaned Rainbow Dash in her frustration.

Rainbow Dash looked to the general direction of where she thought she heard the screaming coming from before turning back to Twilight to ask, “What do you think we should, I for one want to go find who it is making all that noise and kick his sorry flank for waking everpony up.”

Shaking her head at Rainbow’s statement Twilight replied, “As far as going to find out what all the screaming is about I’m fine with but going there just to beat them up probably isn’t the best idea and I don’t think Fluttershy would like the idea either. You go ahead and get Fluttershy while I go and get Applejack and tell her what we are planning to do since she should be up at about this time of day.”

Rainbow Dash then grumbled, “Why do we need to bring Fluttershy into the Everfree forest? You know she is just going to get scared by everything we see while there.”

Twilight just rolled her eyes at Dash’s claims and stated, “She might not be the bravest pony but if she finds out that we went into the forest and discover an injured animal, you know she will be mad at us for sure.”

“Wait, what about Rarity and Pinkie, shouldn’t we get them as well,” Rainbow Dash asked with a confused look on her face.

Twilight shook her head again before saying, “We all know that Rarity doesn’t like going anywhere near the Everfree forest because of how dirty it is and all the wild animals too. And as far as Pinkie Pie well... It would just be faster if we went without her. I don’t want to spend more time there than what I have to spend in there.”

Rainbow Dash just hovered there for a moment tapping her chin then nodding and giving Twilight a quick salute before jetting off in the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage screaming “See you at AJ’s.”

Location: Somewhere in the forest

“Ok, calm down everything is fine... sort of. I am now covered in a brown fur and what looks to be hooves. It could be NOPE, not going to say it.” Looking around the room seeing his gear as well as Steve’s gear which is good at least he is prepared for whatever. Continuing to look around he finally comes across what he was dreading to find. Lying feet from him just like before was Steve, but unlike before now he had the body of a small horse with a dark green fur coat, a jet black mane and a horn. “Wait, what are you serious a horn?! What does that make him a unicorn? What ever it doesn’t matter, I need to get out of here.” Upon closer inspection he noticed that his helmet that he was wearing had been altered to allow his horn to poke through the top of it which wouldn’t normally be there. Another weird thing to add to the list I guess.

Getting to his feet or hooves then quickly falling hard on his nose, he snorted in frustration. Great, not only do I have a horrible migraine but now my nose is bleeding. Slowly getting back up to his feet again he worked his way over to Steve’s body and looking him up and down before sighing. Grabbing some bandages from Steve’s bag he then began to wrap it around Steve’s eye so as not to look at it anymore. Once finishing what he was doing he looked back outside into the forest before he got a shiver down his spine. Something wasn’t right about this place, it was way too quiet for what a forest should be. “I need to get out of here, and there is no way in hell that I will be leaving Steve here either.” Quickly grabbing their gear and securing their weapons to the bags as well as moving his combat knife and Steve’s combat knife to the top section of his vest for easy access, he then swung the bags onto his back before going over to Steve and began picking him up. “God damn this shit is heavy.” Signing again he slowly made his way out of the building through one of the holes in the wall before heading off into the woods. Hope I’m going the right way or this is just going to suck even worse than it already is.

35 Minutes Later

Trying his best to keep going at a good pace he had to eventually take a break due to the fatigue from carrying all everything. Gently lowering Steve against a tree, and turning his head to the right so as not to see the blood drenched bandage over his eye, and placing the gear around him, he stepped back and began looking around the small clearing that he had found to make sure it was actually safe to stay in. He might have to use this as a base camp if need be, the last thing he would want were some sort of predator to try and take back it’s territory.

After finally looking around the clearing he let out a deep sigh before he heard the sound of a twig snapping right behind him causing his heart to jump up into his throat and for him to be rooted to where he stood. How the hell did something sneak up behind me?! I could have sworn I checked everywhere for possible predators? Slowly, so as not to cause whatever it was to attack him, he bit down on one of the handles of the combat knives and slid it out of its sheath. Once he had it secure in his mouth he quickly spun around while jumping and rolling to his side so as not to be in it’s path and quickly recover his footing. What he found however surprised him the most, because what he saw was instead of a predatory animal was a cyan colored fur, rainbow maned pony like creature standing there staring at him with a confused look on it’s face. It was standing between him and Steve, but didn’t seem to notice that Steve was even there. How did it get there without me noticing ANYTHING?!

15 Minutes Earlier

“Come on guys hurry up. Which way did it go Twilight?”

Twilight only huffed in irritation at her impatient rainbow maned friend before say, “Well according to the tracking spell that I used off of the fresh blood on the ground over in that weird structure it seems to be heading in that direction farther into the woods.”

“Well, whatever it is put up one hay of a figh’ from wha’ Ah could see. Ifn any of that blood and broken furniture means anythin,” stated their stetson wearing orange farmpony friend with a look of concern.

“I agree with Rainbow Dash, we need to find the poor creature quickly since it could be really hurt. If you don’t mind that is.” Though it was said in practically a whisper everyone knew that their yellow colored pegasus friend Fluttershy was extremely worried for the creature and if it wasn’t for her timid and meek nature she would probably be pushing them forward as fast as she could.

Twilight, after looking over the room again and seeing all the bits of sharp metal sticking out of the walls in odd angles and weird cylindrical metal casings lying on the ground she sighed and said, “Dash I need you to fly ahead and see if you can find what it is that was here from above while we follow you from below.” The only reaction she got out of her friend was a small smirk and a nod of her head before she took off again in the direction she had indicated a moment ago. After watching her friend take off Twilight looked back at her remaining friends and said, “Come on girls I have a bad feeling about this.”

Rainbow Dash was excited to see what it was that had left such a scene in that building and didn’t care if it was dangerous or not, nothing could scare her. It didn’t take long for Rainbow Dash to come across a clearing, which wouldn’t normally make much of a difference but she could see some movement down there. She quietly glided down so as not to make any noise from her wings, she landed in a tree just outside of the clearing and watched. What she saw in the clearing was confusing to her though, from what she could see was a oddly fully dressed pony looking around the clearing with some sort of helmet on his head while acting like it was ready for a fight.

From what she could see of him he looked like he had a light brown fur coat with a dark blonde mane with streaks of lighter blonde mixed in, while a scar ran under his left eye up to where his ear would be but she couldn’t tell with the helmet in the way. From her angle she would have been easily able to see his cutie mark but he seemed to be wearing some sort of clothes that covered his legs and a strange “L” shaped metal thing strapped to his right leg. Over his shirt, it looked like he was wearing some sort of armor with weird designs that matched the rest of his clothes and was a light tan color with a mix of brown as well. What also surprised her was that on his sides were wings but when he turned to the right allowing her to see his left side she could see that there was blood all over his left wing. Without thinking she took off out of the tree and flew over to the clearing and landed behind him. He didn’t seem to notice her at all until she took a step towards him and stepped on a twig causing it to snap. He seemed to freeze in place by the sound while his ears swiveled around towards her but nothing else until there was a sudden burst of action as he jumped then rolled on his side to her right and quickly getting to his feet facing her with a knife in his teeth glaring at her with hate filled eyes. Now that he was facing her she could see that his right eye was an ocean blue color while his left was only half blue while the other half was green but still filled with hate and anger though after a moment they seemed to lesson after he seemed to realise that she wasn’t armed or trying to threaten him. Now that she was this close to him she could also see that he had been bleed from his nose as well but it seemed to have already stopped.

After a few moments past she finally shook herself out of her confused daze to ask, “Hey dude are you alright?” He didn’t respond to her question but instead began to circle her without turning his body away from her as if ready for her to attack him until he was standing between her and a tree that had two bags and what looked like another pony who was sleeping. After another moment she slowly took a step towards him and asked again, “Hey, are you ok, you have quite a lot of blood on yourself?” Shortly after repeating her question he seemed to loosen his stance slightly as if he determined that she wasn’t a threat and was about to say something when out of nowhere a yellow blur shot out of the treelines and tackled him to the ground causing the knife to go flying into the air then land on the ground burying the blade up to the hilt.

SHIT, what the hell just hit me, was this a trap? Trying to get back to his hooves he was the forced back down to the ground yet again but this time he heard what sounded just barely over a whisper in his ear say, “Oh no no no no no, you shouldn’t be moving around like this after losing so much blood. Stay still while I take a look at your injuries.” Not caring what was being said he still struggled to get back up but when he turned his head to look at his attacker he was met by a stare that made him stop all movement entirely as well as even hold his breath for a moment. What was now easily putting the stare of every drill sergeant he ever met to shame was a yellow furred pink maned pony that had her forehooves pushing down on him keeping him in place.

The pony then repeated it’s statement again saying, “You need to lay still so I can take a look at your injure and not make it any worse than what it is.” This statement forced him to look at his left side to see what it was that these two keep on talking about.

What he saw when he turned his head to see the damage was what looked like a crimson wing but he knew immediately what the crimson was, it was blood. This was then followed by a curious look from the yellow pony after she had looked it over again and again. She then huffed in irritation, which he found a little bit cute but weird as well at the amount of emotions that could be displayed on their faces, before she said, “I can’t seem to find any sort of injury anywhere but that doesn’t make sense for the amount of blood that is all over your wing.”

It then dawned on him where all that blood was from but only depressed him even more with the knowledge that it was Steve’s blood covering his wing because that is where his head was when being carried, his blood must have seeped through the bandages. Without thinking he muttered in a whisper to himself, “Because its not my blood but Steve’s,” to which he instantly regretted as the yellow pegasus looked into his eyes with in surprise and concern in her own.

Quietly but sternly she asked him, “Where is Steve? He must be really hurt to have bleed this much and needs immediate medical attention.”

Ya’ll don’t know the half of it.

From behind him he could someone yelled “Wha’ in tarnations is goin’--” But before she could finish her statement the yellow pony flew off him and started heading towards the tree, the very tree that Steve was lying against.

Quickly recovering the ability to speak and get himself off the ground finally he bark in the most commanding voice he could muster in order for her to stop “STAY AWAY FROM HIM!” The suddenness of the shout caused the yellow Pegasus to then lock up all her legs and wings and then begin tumbling on the ground to be stopped by a lavender color form around her.

This only seemed to infuriate the cyan pegasus because her response was to storm right up to his face at speeds he didn’t even catch and yell, “What the buck was that for, she was only trying to help!”

“There is nothing that any of ya’ll can do that can help him now no matter how hard you try and if there was I would have already have tried it if I could,” he snarled back at her causing her to flinch back before coming right back at him.

“What is that suppose to mean! With Twilight and Fluttershy there is nothing that they can’t fix together,” she spat back at him only getting angrier by the minute with this guy.

“You can’t fix-,” but he couldn't finish his statement not without admitting that Steve was actually dead. By say that Steve was actually dead would be for him to have to come to terms with the fact that his friend for about twenty years now was gone.

“Can’t fix what huh,” she growled at him wanting to kick his sorry flank so much.

“Ya’ll are going to make me say it aren’t you?” Feeling his heart beginning to sink further and further down into his stomach with each passing second.

“Say what?” Turning his head he could see that is was a lavender colored unicorn that had just asked the question.

“Yeah, what,” insisted the rainbow pegasus again, who he was really not liking at the moment and who he so want to slam a fist in her face, guessing that it was a girl from the sound of its voice anyways.

“YA’LL CAN’T FIX DEAD, ALRIGHT,” he screamed in her face causing her to stumble backwards with her ears back and flat against her head stammering in shock while causing the others to do the same. He didn’t think that the forest could get anymore quieter, but it did and with it came the awkwardness too. No one moved or said anything except for him who went and collect the knife out of the ground and proceeded to wipe the dirt off it before shoving it back into its sheath. He then went over to where Steve and the gear was and began putting things on his back to start walking some more.

Hauling back Steve onto his back he heard a voice ask, “Where are ya’ll going?”

Turning his head over to the sound of the voice he saw that this time it was a orange pony wearing a stetson of all things looking at him with worry and concern all over her face. His only reply was “Anywhere that gets me the fuck out of this forest, and if you don’t mind you could point me in the direction that would be, because the quicker I get out of here the better.”

“We can do better than that, we can lead you there,” said the lavender unicorn though now she seemed to be holding her head lower and her ears were flat against her head.

“Then lets get out of here, I don’t want to be standing in this forest anymore than I need to be.”

Chapter 2: Forward March

Name: MSG. Adam “Shifty” Smith
Date: August 17, 2015
Location: Everfree Forest
Time: 0725

After the whole awkward silence was over in the clearing, Twilight had offered to show him the way out of the forest, the introductions of everyone was made.

When it came time for him to introduce himself to the other ponies he simply said, “I am Master Sergeant Adam “Shifty” Smith of the United States Army.”

The confused looks that he received after that did not help improve his mood at all especially when the unicorn asked, “Where on Equis is that country?”

He just gave a deep sigh and said, “Far away from here, lets just get moving ok.”

Because of Adam spending over a decade in the army he had been a part of many hiking trips and many things that were similar to them and he had to admit that under different circumstances, and with a lot less equipment on his back, he would have enjoyed this little walk in the woods. Sure the forest was a little creepy and a little quiet for what he was used to, it was probably just his brain messing with him anyways. But now that the adrenaline from earlier had past through his system he was feeling very tired and it was only getting worse. No matter how hard he pushed himself he was slowly falling behind the four mares, to which they took notice after nearly losing him through some thick shrubs and trees. This slower pace seemed to only irritate the cyan pegasus, which amused him greatly after her comments back in the clearing even if they weren’t entirely uncalled for.

After looking at her friends the orange one, which he had learned was named Applejack, slowed her trot down to match his own and said to him, “Ah can help ya’ll carry some of that there stuff so ya’ll don’ plum tucker yourself out now. Us earth ponies are on average stronger than most pegasus ponies anyhow.”

“Challenge accepted,” was all he said with a large smirk on his face, drawing out a chuckle from the orange pony trotting next to him.

She then fixed him with a more serious face before saying, “Ya’ll don’ need to be doin all this, ya’ll don’ have to be afraid to ask for some help. Trust me, Ah learned tha the hard way.”

He just ignored her and slipped the blue tube that connected to the camel pack under his gear, which held some of his water, and bit down on the end to let it flow out into his mouth. What he was expecting was the water to just slowly come out, not the jet stream that shot down his throat causing him to sputter and cough up the water again. He saw the orange one try and fail to suppress a laugh before donning an expression of concern at his sudden fit of coughing.

Before she could begin to ask her question the same yellow blur came shooting to his side with the same look of worry she had earlier asking, “Oh dear, are you alright?”

Waiting for the coughing to stop he was finally able to say, “Yeah, yeah I’m fine just choking on water is all.”

“What is that thing that you stuck in your mouth anyways?”

Turning his head towards the lavender unicorn who he had learned was Twilight Sparkle he didn’t see a look of concern but one of curiosity and excitement at the thought of learning about the thing.

“This is what we call a “Camel Pack” which is just a pouch filled with water that this tube connects to instead of having to open my canteen. The problem was that I had forgotten about the weight that is being pressed down on it causing the water to spray down my throat. I’m not used to being this way so I wasn’t expecting it to happen.” While explaining what it was, he brought the tube back in his mouth so that he bit the end again but this time pointed at the inside of his cheek, so as not to choke.

The lavender unicorn looked like she was going to burst with glee at this new knowledge and expressed it by asking, mere inches from the blue tube, “Can I see this “Camel Pack” I have never seen one before nor have I ever heard of one anywhere?”

Amused at the pony’s energy and readiness to learn about him made him chuckle, but before he could even say his reply to her, he was cut off by Rainbow Dash asking with confused look on her face, “What do you mean “this way”?”

“Hm, oh I was just meaning that walking on four legs is different from when I used to walk on two and didn’t take this into account. Boy, do I miss having hands, everything became a lot harder to do without them.” He waited to see which of the ponies would react first to his statement and to his pleasure it didn’t take long to get what he wanted.

“Wha’ in the name o’ Celestia are hands and wha’ do ya’ll mean it became harder without them,” cried Applejack in her irritation.

“Hands are what all normal Humans are born with, which would attach at the end of our arms. We would then use these to grip things or do whatever we wanted instead of our mouths, which I find annoying to do. It took so much longer than it should have to get everything together and tied down to carry.” He swore he could see the light bulbs light up in each of their heads as they realized at what he was saying.

“So you’re saying that you were not always a pony and what are humans?” The fact that Twilight was beginning to talk louder and louder in her excitement started to make him nervous because of the potential to draw predators to them.

“Hmmm, I don’t know a good way to really describe what I used to look like, but I do have a picture with me. Can one of you grab my helmet, it’s in there for safekeeping and I don’t want to stop our walk.”

At his request, he noticed a lavender glow come from Twilight’s horn which he could also see covering his helmet as well. He felt the helmet lift off his head slowly as they continued their walk through the forest. Once the helmet had cleared his head, he flipped it over and pulled out a picture from within it. Now that the helmet was off his head this allowed the ponies watching him to see that the scar that ran up from under his left eye up his cheek lead all the way to a notch missing in his left ear, as well as his short cropped mane that they normally saw the royal guards have.

The picture that he showed them had two things, that they guessed were the humans that he was talking about. Both of them looked similar to each other in facial appearance meaning that they were probably related somehow. The older of the two figures had the same eye color of one being blue the and the other being half blue half green and the same dark blonde mane color as Adam, so they could tell that was him but they couldn’t figure out who the second figure might be and from the looks of the picture there once was a third figure but was torn off. The younger figure looked to be a foal’s age, or a human’s equivalent in the photo and while he looked similar to Adam, this one had a mane that was a lighter shade of blonde and both of his eyes were a light blue and a few freckles on his young round cheeks.

Rainbow looked up from the photo and asked, “who is the younger person in the picture with you and why is there a piece torn off?”

“The answer to your first question is that the boy in the picture with me is my son, Michael, and the second question’s answer is that is where my ex-wife would be in the photo if I hadn’t torn it off and burned it to a crisp.” The last part he knew he could have said with less anger in his voice, because it caused the already timid yellow pegasus, Fluttershy, to shrink away from him, but he didn’t care.

“Why did you two break up when you had a foal together,” Twilight asked as she tilted her head to the side in curiousity. Though the use of the word foal instead of child was strange to him but he figured thats just how they said things around here.

“Lets just say we had some very strong and different points of view on what I do for a living and leave it at that. This isn’t a subject I like talking about very much and I don’t know ya’ll well enough to feel comfortable about talking about it.”

After a brief pause Rainbow Dash looked back up from the photo before asking, “So does that make you an alien?”

“Well, uh, I guess in the sense that I am from a foreign land and planet I guess ya’ll would be right in that regard.”

“So that means I get to throw my very first “Welcome to Equestria Mr. Alien Party”!”

This sudden high pitched fast speaking voice, that didn’t match any of the ponies that were with him, forced him to stop where he was and begin hunting down where it had come from. This new voice seemed to also get the attention of the other ponies but didn’t seem to get the same response out of them as it did him, in fact they just sighed and shook their heads as if they were waiting for this to eventually happen. Even with looking everywhere around him he just couldn’t find the source of that voice and for some strange reason he could smell cotton candy.

This only proved to infuriate him more as he yelled, “Show yourself!”

“Okie dokie lokie.”

After the voice responded again he heard a faint popping sound and what felt like something nuzzling the side of his head. When he turned his head to investigate what it was he was met by a pink head with two bright blue eyes and a unnaturally large smile but the stranger thing still was that the head was coming out of one of his backpacks. He stood there frozen in place as he watched the head go back into his bag and disappear from sight. Quickly he set Steve’s body on the ground along with both his bags before opening the one that the pink head had popped out of, only to find that it was not in there with his gear.

“Looking for me?”

Spinning around again he watched the pink pony step out from behind a tree that by the laws of physics should not have been able to hide her for it was too thin to do so. The light bulb in his head shattered to pieces as the gears ground to a halt from the impossibilities that had just occurred before his very eyes. He tried to speak but all he said was incoherent gibberish that amounted to nothing and his left eye began to twitch.

The only words that were coherent enough to be understood and heard were , “Law-Physics-Broke-How.”

Twilight knew exactly what was going through his head at that moment, because she too had gone through the exact same thing, and he didn’t even know about the Pinkie Sense yet either. Walking up to him before he could begin to really freak out and possibly hurt somepony she slapped him across the face to bring him back to his senses.

She waited for him to shake his head roughly and rub his cheek where he was slapped before stating, “Don’t think about it just know that it is Pinkie being Pinkie or you will drive yourself crazy trying to figure it out. Trust me I have tried.”

This explanation calmed him down slightly knowing that it wasn’t just him that was thinking the same thing but it still confused the hell out of him. He didn’t want to think about what he just saw any more because the only reward he was getting out of it was a worsening of his current migraine and no answers, but more questions instead repeating the process. He took in a deep breath before letting it out real slow to help calm himself down even further.

“This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder by the second.”

Twilight looked back at him and said, “Well we are almost to the edge of the forest, most of the predators tend to stay further and avoid civilization, so at least it won’t get any worse.”

He facehoofed hard before asking, “Ya’ll didn’t just say what I think ya’ll just said, did ya’ll?”

“Why what’s wrong with what I said?”

Her question was followed by a series of howls not too far away from their current location.

“Because Murphy is just as big of an asshole here as it is in my world,” was all he said before he placed the helmet back on his head and began moving his backpacks into the shape of a ‘V’ pointing towards the sound.

Once he had finished making the little wall, he placed Steve’s body in the center of it and began placing a rifle on each side of it. He placed the .50 cal on the left side, the Intervention on the right and M16 at the point. When placing the the M16 he made sure to put the forward grip in the space between the two bags as a way to stabilize it while firing and to act a a swivel when aiming. To finish off his preparations for the fight he knew was coming he grabbed a stick for each rifle that could fit between the trigger and the guard since he no longer had fingers to do that himself anymore.

Turning around he was greeted with a mixture of confused, worried and curious faces, he had a feeling it was about what he was doing, but that wasn’t important at the moment. He looked at the five ponies with him and said, “Now I need ya’ll to stay behind me and let me know if any of the things that are coming this way try to get around me. From the what I heard it sounded like wolves so at the least I expect two and at the most maybe five or six. In my current state I am unsure how this will go, so I need ya’ll to follow my orders to the letter. If I say run, then ya’ll run and don’t stop running until ya’ll reach someplace safe. Is that understood?”

Not really having the time to wait for a response he turned back around to the rifles making sure the safeties were off before laying behind the M16 and aiming it in the general direction of the sound of the howls. He was really hoping for them not to think there plan of attack through and not flank him, because then he would just be all kinds of fucked and he knew it. He didn’t have to wait too long before he started hearing a growl coming not only from in front of him but also to his sides, this was followed by the sight of yellow eye being visible in the darkness of the trees around them. He counted a total of three of the, which he was at least thankful for the fact that they didn’t come in a larger pack than this or if they did that they didn’t join in.

He swiveled around and located the other two wolves that were staying in the trees waiting for whichever one decided to come out first. The one on the right side made the first move as it slowly came out into the open, not know that it had just signed its death warrant, Adam fired a three rounds at the creature and saw them connect with the wolf. Two of the rounds hit it square in the chest while the third struck it in the head, killing it instantly. Spinning around he fired another three rounds at the next wolf before being slammed in the side by the third, the impact sent him flying from his cover and into a tree.

Before he could recover from the impact the wolf pounced on him again going in for the kill. Adrenaline pumping through his system removing the fatigue he was suffering from his army close quarters combat training kicked in as he fought off the wolf’s vicious attacks. He was able to dodge a good portion of the attacks as well as land a few of his own but the wolf still managed to claw his left foreleg. The claws sliced through his sleeve like it wasn’t even there, and cut deep gouges into his flesh. He screamed through gritted teeth as he then pulled out one of the combat knives he had with him and struck back. His slash managed to make contact with the creatures hide but did little damage due to the fact that the animal seemed to be covered in what looked like bark from a tree.

What the FUCK is this thing!

Rolling to the left to avoid another attack from the wolf he scraped his already wounded leg on a bunch of rocks eliciting a sharp stabbing pain up through his leg. He forced himself to keep moving and jumped on the back of the creature, wrapping his hooves around his neck in the process. To try and prevent the wolf from throwing him off he slid his forelegs up closer to the head in order to get a better purchase. Once he had it he gave a sudden twist putting all his remaining strength into his effort.

The sound that followed was that similar to a branch snapping in half before he came toppling to the ground in a heap with the now dead wolf. Slowly getting back to his feet, he worked his way towards his bags and then pulled out a first-aid kit from one of the bags. The ponies only stood there in shock at what had just happened in a matter of minutes as he began removing his helmet and his combat vest. As he removed the vest it brushed up against the wound causing him to give a painful grunt before he began to remove the upper half of his Army Combat Uniform. The upper portion of the sleeve was now in ribbons and was soaked through in his own blood. He carefully prodded the wound with a hoof to check the extent of the damages cause by the claws.

As he was examining his leg, when he heard Fluttershy come up to him and began to do the same, with tears streaming down her face she asked, “Did you really have to kill them all?”

Without drawing his eyes away from his leg, he responded, “It was either kill them or let them kill me, and I’m not sure if ya’ll are aware of this or not but I like living thank ya’ll very much.”

After finishing his examination he pulled out a syringe from the kit and began filling it with a strange substance they had never seen before and watched as he then stuck it in his leg. He then sighed and with the help of Fluttershy he began to dress the wound with a fresh bandage from the kit. Now that his leg was taken care of he began to put all his clothes back on like they were before, but while he was about to slip his injured leg back through the sleeve the ponies caught a glimpse of circular scar on his left shoulder underneath his second shirt that he was wearing as well.

This made one question come to all of them, What has been through if he can just kill something without feeling remorse for it.

Standing up checking his injured leg, he still felt pain from it but it wasn’t nearly as harsh and severe as it was earlier. He wouldn’t however be able to carry all his gear with this kind of injury no matter how much of a strong face he put on in front of them, he was going to need their help.

Looking to Applejack he asked, “Does your offer of help still stand? I don’t think I can carry everything in my current state and I can’t afford to leave things behind to be found by others.”

She looked back at him and gave a nod of her head before say, “Sure thing sugarcube, Ah always help a pony in need.”

He thanked her and began packing his gear back up and tie down the rifles again, but before he could grab one of the straps for a bag Applejack scooped them up and hauled them onto her own back and refused to allow him to carry any of it, even with all of his protests. Deep down he felt thankful for the fact that she was willing to help him out this much by carrying all that weight by herself. Now that he only had to carry Steve, they continued their trot towards the edge of the woods.

Author's Notes:
I would like to thank Wubwave and MasterBrony2012 for their help with editing and proofreading the chapters with me.
If your interested they are also working on their own stories that you can read as well.

Chapter 3: Eternal Rest

Name: MSG. Adam “Shifty” Smith
Date: August 17, 2015
Location: Everfree Forest Tree Line
Time: 1125

After finally reaching the tree line of the forest Adam took in a deep breath of the cool air before turning to face the mares that were around him.

Looking at the group as a whole, he asked “Is there a place just outside of town that isn’t owned by anyone but still has a nice view of the area?”

Applejack looked back at him with a slightly confused face and replied, “Sure there is pardner but wha’ would you be needen to go there for?”

“Well, I would like to lay Steve here to rest someplace that had a good view rather than the middle of a forest. It would make me feel better and I think he would have appreciated it if he were here to say something about it.”

He was trying his hardest not to let any of his emotions that he was feeling about his upcoming task, but he knew he couldn’t mask it all in his tone. By the look on all of their faces and by the drooping of their ears and sagging of their heads, death in this manner and then burying them like this was not common around here. He could see that they could understand his thoughts, though if not completely, and his need to do this.

Applejack picked her head back up and look him straight in the eyes before saying, “Ah know the perfect spot for your pall. Just follow me an Ah’ll show ya’ll.”

Swiftly turning away from the town, she started heading to what looked like a lake while still carrying his two backpacks full of gear. He had to give her credit for being able to carry all of his crap without complaint and do so well, though he could tell it was taxing her endurance a bit. He could tell that her breathing was a little more labored and he could see the sweet on her forehead but beyond that she seemed perfectly fine.

During the walk Twilight decided to take advantage of the time to ask some questions about this strange stallion that they found in the forest.

“I noticed that your accent is similar to Applejack's and her family. Why is that?”

Glancing over to the inquisitive mare he smirked before saying, “The country I come from is split into fifty different states, and a couple of territories of different sizes and of those states, the I was born and raised in is known as Texas. Now Texas is on the southern portion of the country and in that area this accent is common, but compared to others mine isn’t as thick. My father lived in different places and most of his side of the family lived in the northern half of the country, so they didn’t have the same accent as those in the south. This mix, from both sides of my family, has caused my accent to be less pronounced as others, but its still there nonetheless and my mannerisms are of the southern variety too.”

He could see the gears in her head spinning at full capacity, thinking of more and more questions for him to answer by the second. He didn't mind it in the least, because it would at least distract him for a bit from the fact that he was sore everywhere.

“What did you say the name of your country was called again? How big is your country and what kind of government does your country have? How many ponies live in your country?” She was starting to pick up speed with each question she was asking in her excitement that caused him to chuckle.

“To answer ya’lls first question the name of the country I am from is called the United States of America and it is a Democratic Republic, when it comes to government. The size of the country itself is about Two point three billion acres total or roughly three point seven square miles. As far as ponies go I’m not sure but people wise we number at about three hundred million in our country alone but on the earth in total there is about seven billion of us. Anything else?” he grinned even wider at the questions because of how effective of a distraction it was proving to be, the look on her face was also amusing as he could see the disbelief all over it, before turning his head back.

Twilight looked at him in shock as she tried to rap her head around the number but just couldn’t seem to be able to imagine that many beings at once. She knew that there was roughly one point five million ponies in Equestria right now, but from what he said his country would dwarf her own in shear size and more than double it in population. She just shook her head and brought out a quill and paper to take notes on what he said. She knew that Celestia would find what she sent her in the next report very interesting and was looking forward to showing the princess something she didn’t already know.

She smirked at Adam before saying, “Oh I have a lot more questions to ask, this is just barely scratching the surface.”

At this statement he saw Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes and chuckle and he could have sworn he heard her say “egghead” in between chuckles.

“Ok then what next do you want to ask me?”

Turning his head again towards Twilight he now saw a sheet of paper and a quill floating with a purple glow around them similar to what he saw earlier in the forest.

Before she could ask her next question however he interrupted, “How are you doing that?”

“Doing what?” she looked back at him with a somewhat confused face while still grinning at the knowledge she would soon get out of him.

Rolling his eyes at what he thought was obvious, before repeating in more detail, “How are you making the quill and paper float in the air like that? I don’t see it connected to anything and it is glowing like Fluttershy was glowing in the forest earlier when she fell.”

“What my magic?”

That statement only made him stop in his tracks and burst into fits of laughter, along with Pinkie Pie, before he said, “Good joke. Now seriously how are you doing that?”

“Is there no magic where you are from?”

“That depends on ya’lls definition of magic, because to us magic is just a bunch of smoke n’ mirrors as a form of entertainment.”

His reply seemed to unsettle Twilight a little as she took another note on what he said before asking, “Then how do you get around not having magic?”

“Well since we don’t use magic we rely on science and our ability to create in order to overcome that sort of thing. Humans have gotten to the point that we can fly with the use of airplanes, that we can then use to not only transport ourselves but whatever we want. Hell we even sent a group of astronauts to the moon for research and we have some that live in orbiting space stations as well.”

The look of amazement on Twilight’s face was priceless, if her jaw wasn’t attached it would be dragging on the ground. The mention of humans flying around had caught the attention of Rainbow Dash as well.

Before Rainbow Dash could ask a question about the airplanes though the discussion was interrupted by Applejack yelling, “How does this spot look to ya’ll Adam?”

Taking a second to look around he saw that Applejack had taken them over near a tree on a hill that overlooked a clear water lake. The only thing he could think of was how perfect a spot she had found for Steve and how thankful he was to her. Walking over to the tree he gently set Steve up against it before turning to Applejack to give his thanks. He then told her to set the bags down while he walked up to one of the bags and pulled out a collapsible shovel. Taking the shovel he marked out a general shape of the grave before he started digging for the next fifty minutes. He declined the help that the others offered him saying that he wished to do this part on his own and with his own strength.

After finishing his work on the grave he walked over to Steve to begin stripping him of his gear so that it could be used later, though he really didn’t want to and he knew it would be stupid not to. Taking off Steve’s helmet, he removed the picture that was inside his helmet and set it to the side to be buried with him. Working his way down he then removed the throat mic that he had and placed it with his gear, but when it came to the dog tags he hit a little snag. Normally he would be able to unclip the smaller chain in order to remove one of the tags but without fingers it became much more of a challenge that quickly frustrated him. Though it took a lot of effort, not helping that his vision kept on getting blurry with held back tears, he finally managed to remove the tag and place it in his own vest pocket.

Having reached the body he began to remove the vest, not even bothering to remove and empty all the pockets that were full of ammo and other gear strapped to it, he found it easier than he expected. He slid it off and tossed it over to the rest of the gear to be sorted later and then proceeded to remove what little leg and arm protection he had on. When he was done all Steve had on him was his own ACU just short of the hat that went along with it.

Going back to where Applejack set the bags down, he grabbed the rope from one of them and then proceeded to tie on each end of Steve’s body to be lowered down into the grave. After the ropes were tied, he then began the slow process of lowering Steve into the ground and nearly falling in a few times while doing so.

The five mares just watched, since he wouldn’t accept their help no matter how much they offered, as he went and did everything. As he was lowering the body though Twilight saw the photo on the ground about to be blown away by a gust of wind. Quickly she grabbed a hold of it with her magic and brought it over to them in order to take a look and see what was on it. It was similar to the picture that Adam carried, there being three humans that is, but while they could see Adam on the far right wrapping an arm around the figure in the middle and another wrapping its arm around the middle figure as well but from the other side. The three individuals were all wearing the same clothing that Adam was wearing now, minus the armor, and all smiling into the camera. The figure in the center had a jet black shortly cut mane with green eyes that they guessed was Steve, because of the similar base features, while the third individual had its mane longer and was brown and had a set of brown eyes. They all knew from Adam’s photo how he looked as a human, so they recognized him in the photo amongst the three, happy to be together.

Adam approached them when he realised that they were looking at the photo and carefully grabbed it in his teeth before going back over to the hole and jumping down into it. He didn’t come back up for a few moments but when he did he came shooting out of it wings stretched out. He seemed to hover in the air for a moment before gravity took control and he came crashing down through the tree branches. They could easily hear the sounds of swearing and branches snapping from impact as he came down before hitting the ground with a thud. They heard him groan before getting back up and walking back over to the hole with the shovel back in his mouth. He looked into the grave one last time and they could see tears start streaming down his face as he then began to bury his friend.

Once they saw the hole was filled, he walked over to a large stone near by and rolled it over to the head of the grave placing it as a makeshift marker. He then sat down on his haunches and stared down at the dirt. They each made their way over to where he sat and as they got closer they could hear that he was saying something under his breath, though they could not make out what it was that he was saying, they could hear that it was some kind of song. By the time they were all sitting by his side he had finished his song and was just staring at the grave lost in thought.

They sat there for another thirty minutes before Adam’s stomach growled loudly in protest from the skipped meals and hard workout which caused him to laugh. This was soon followed by five more growls from the others and a few chuckles.

Rainbow Dash looked over to Adam and asked, “Hey ya wanna come with us to get something to eat, because I’m starving and from the sound of things so are you.”

Adam didn’t even turn his head towards Rainbow Dash but replied, “I would if I could Dash, but I can’t move.”

Fluttershy worked up the courage and trotted over to him gently nuzzling him saying, “Its ok, we understand if you want to stay here a little longer.”

“Thats not quite what I meant.”

“Wha’ was it ya’ll were tryin’ to say then sugarcube?”

Suddenly a pair of pink hooves held him in a warm embrace around his neck while a pink mane blocked part of his vision and he could smell cotton candy.

In his left ear he could hear, too close for his liking, Pinkie Pie say, “I know what can put a- WOAH.”

His left foreleg, having enough with the days abuse, decided to buckle from the added weight, forced Pinkie and him to the ground with an audible thud. Now lying on the ground, in all his life he could never recall the ground feeling so inviting before, but lying there he felt his eyelids begin their descent. No matter how hard he tried he couldn’t fight the sleep that was quickly overtaking him.

Now realising what he meant Applejack went over to where he was lying, while Pinkie got off of him still laughing from the tumble, and noticed he was out cold, Fluttershy coming to the same conclusion gave a sigh of relief. Applejack turned around and trotted over to his belongings and took the rope he had been using to tie everything together so as not to lose anything before placing them on her back.

Fluttershy on the other hoof without turning away from Adam to face the others she squeaked, “Poor dear must have really forced himself today, seeing as he could fall asleep so fast from just lying on the ground. He really needs to be taken somewhere to rest and heal.”

Applejack looked to Twilight and asked, “Where should we take him sugarcube? He ain’t in the position to be movin’ about too much now with his injuries.”

Twilight tapped her chin in thought before replying, “We can take him to the library, since I do have a spare bed he can use until he can settle in or until we can find a way to send him back home. This will also allow me to ask him some more questions when he wakes up, so that I can finish a report for the princesses.”

They all agreed and headed towards Twilight’s place with Applejack carrying the gear and Twilight levitating Adam’s unconscious body along with them. It didn’t take long before they found themselves outside the library and opened the door. Once inside Applejack and Twilight went upstairs to the guest room to place Adam and his things up there, while everyone else remained downstairs giggling as they could hear Spike in the kitchen singing to himself, still believing he was home alone. It only took a moment before Applejack and Twilight returned, from the guest room upstairs, to meet back up with the others.

“Spike can you come in here for a moment?” Twilight called out towards the kitchen.

They all heard something fall to the ground with a clatter while the singing came to an abrupt halt as the dragon realised he was not in fact home alone anymore. This caused Rainbow Dash to burst into fits of laughter at the dragon’s embarrassment. He came walking into the room a moment later, his cheeks red from the the blood rushing to his face and an embarrassed grin from being overheard singing in his boredom.

“What do you need Twilight?”

Giggling herself at her little dragon before clearing her throat and saying, “We have a guest who will be staying with us for a while. He is not from Equestria and does not know anything about our culture. He will be staying with us until we can either find a way to send him back home or for him to settle down here if we can’t. He is currently sleeping upstairs in the guest bed, so be careful of how loud you are until he wakes up, he has had a very rough day and needs his rest so he can recover.”

Spike stood there nodding his head in understanding then stopped with an intrigued look on his face before asking, “What’s his name?” It wasn’t often that he got to hangout with another guy, other than Big Mac and he wasn’t much good when it came to having a conversation with, and that Twilight has never brought home another stallion before.

“He said his name is Adam Smith and he even told us that he is a Master Sergeant in the military where he is from. Now Spike I need you to listen and follow what I have to say here. Do not, I repeat do not mess with his things. From what we have seen today so far, they are extremely dangerous and I don’t want you getting hurt or somepony else for that matter. Do you understand?”

Spike just nodded his head again to confirm that he understood what she said.

“Good now me and the girls are going to go see Rarity, then we are going to get something to eat. Would you like to come with us?”

“You could even help me plan his “Welcome to Equestria” party while we are out,” cheered the pink pony in her excitement from the fun she was going to have with, whom she believed was her new friend.

It only took Spike a split second to decide to go along with them after hearing Rarity’s name. The girls behind Twilight snickered with barely restrained laughter at Spike, before they headed off to get Rarity.

Chapter 4: Meeting New People... Ponies

Name: Adam Smith
Date: July 24, 2000
Location: Fort Worth, Texas
Time: 1715

“All recruits off the bus, now!”

Slowly all the fresh recruits worked their way off the bus to the sound of screaming drill sergeants. Some of the guys around him he could hear grown at what they expected to be six weeks of hell on earth. Unlike the rest of the group, he didn’t come here alone and standing behind him was Steve. He had convinced Steve to enlist with him since neither one of them had any idea what they were going to do with themselves outside of highschool and college was not something they wanted to deal with.

“Recruits form a line in front of me for your instructions!”

Once everyone had formed a line shoulder to shoulder with each other, the drill sergeant gave them all a quick look over to see what he would be having to work with before giving a slight nod.

“Welcome to basic training, my name is Drill Sergeant Paick and this here,” he pointed over to his left, “is Drill Sergeant Reynolds. Now the only thing we want to hear from you all is only two things. They are either ‘Yes sir’ or ‘No sir,’ is that understood?”

The mumbled ‘yes sirs’ that he received were obviously to his irritation as he then screamed again, “Is that understood!”

The second reply was more uniform and much louder than it was previously and seemed to calm the drill sergeant down a tad but not much.

“Now everyone here to each side of you is going to be your squad while you are here. Now I want everyone to look to the man on his left then his right.”

Following the man’s orders Adam looked to his left, seeing all the new recruits still dressed in their civilian clothing then looked to his right expecting to see the same. What he didn’t expect was for everyone to glaring at him in pure rage and beginning to surround him. Another thing that stood out about these recruits was the fact that they were not recruits but other soldiers wearing tattered and bloodstained ACUs, some even missing limbs. Steve was standing in the front glaring at him too with his one eye, the other a black hole flowing with blood. Adam began to panic at the sight of the dead around him and tried to run but couldn’t force his limbs to move an inch leaving him rooted to the spot. He could feel nothing but horror and the need to vomit from what he was seeing.

Steve slowly approached him before speaking in a hollow flat voice, “Look at what you have down. You’ve killed me and are responsible for the deaths of others. Your time has come to pay for these sins and joins us.”

Adam could only weakly say the two words he had been wanting to say to Steve, “I’m sorry.” He could feel the warm tears flow down his cheeks and cold hands grab his own tattered ACU.

Steve’s eye brows only lowered and met as his glare intensified, “Sorry does not bring us back, it does not undo your wrongs and sins.”

He felt the hands spin him around forcibly so that he faced a new person, but unlike the others, this person was not injured in any way but was well dressed with a look of glee on his face. Upon closer inspection though he could see the fury that the eyes were holding back. It only took him a second to realize who it was that he was looking at. The man before him was none other than Abbud Adar, right hand man to Jabaar Jared.

“Hello again my little American friend, I see you are doing well. It has been awhile since we last saw each other. I see that the cuts I gave you have scarred nicely but that is not why you are here before me again. Like your dear friend over there said, your time has come and you will pay for your crimes.”

Abbud Adar pulled out a pistol from his coat and pointed it at his forehead and smiled.

“You will not be going to your ‘heaven’ but to your ‘hell’ while I will live on and kill many more of your friends.”

As he finished his speech he pulled the trigger and ended it.

Adam’s eyes snapped open as he gasped for air looking around at his new environment in confusion. He was in a cold sweet with warm tears on his cheeks but he was lying in a warm bed, which was not where he last remembered being. Looking over the side of the bed he saw a frightened Twilight standing there talking to him trying to calm him back down.

He inspected his surroundings again noticing that he was in someones, probably Twilight’s since she was right there, bedroom. His gear was in a corner away from everything else along with his Army Combat Uniform jacket and the shirt he had been wearing. Looking at his own body he noticed that he wasn’t wearing the shirt but still had his pants on at least. His bandaged leg looked like someone had changed it recently with fresh ones. He could see the circular scar on his left shoulder as well as the scar that went across his chest bringing back unwanted memories. He took a moment to shake his head to change his train of thought before looking back at his bandaged leg and went ahead to checked the time. Upon looking at his watch he saw that it was only 0458 and that he had apparently slept through most of the previous day.

He made an attempt to get up, but felt a pair of hooves grab him and force him back down into the bed.

Twilight, in a more worried voice now, said, “You need to stay in bed a little longer. You can’t being running around after what you have been through. We heard you screaming in your sleep a while ago and came in to see if you were alright. Would you like to talk about it, it might help make you feel better?”

He took a deep breath and let it out slowly before he responded after a few moments, “No, no I do not want to talk about it, in fact I want to forget about it.”

This time he did not let her hold him down and pushed past her. The alarm on his watch went off at this point and he shut it off, already knowing what time it was. He went straight to his things pulling on his shirt and jacket, then secured his pistol to his right leg again. When he had those on he grabbed the vest, with the knives still attached, for good measure and put it on too before heading to the door.

Better to have it and not need it, than to need it and not have it.

Behind him he heard Twilight call out, “Where are you going at this time in the morning?”

“Out.” Was the only reply he gave before departing for the outside.

She knew she couldn’t force him to talk about what he dreamt about, after reading all the books downstairs about the subject, she understood that she could cause more damage than good. He needed to go out and think over what it was he saw and when he was ready he would talk about it. Though she thought this was the best course of action she still was going to go see Fluttershy about it. She would probably be able to help when the time came and possibly speed up the process a little. The sooner he was able to talk about it the sooner she would be able to learn about him and where he came from. Twilight went downstairs and grabbed a bite to eat before heading in the direction of Fluttershy’s cottage, she should be up about now to take care of her animals anyways and would probably enjoy the early company.

Adam couldn’t believe it, he had been staying inside a giant tree and it was still alive too. He only let himself stare in awe of it for a moment before forcing himself to turn away. He needed to find an open field, like a park, so he could do some physical training. With this new body he would have to reteach himself everything from basic training and he wasn’t looking forward to it. He was even going to have to adapt his CQC for his hooves, since he no longer had hands.

God, how I miss my hands. Using my mouth for everything is so damn annoying and inconvenient and I can live without having to taste everything.

It took him about thirty minutes to find a park near the library, all the while getting strange looks from the few citizens of Ponyville for his odd choice in clothes. He didn’t dwell on the fact that he stood out so much, but only concentrated on what he had planned for that morning’s PT. He couldn’t go overboard with it, because of his leg, he really didn’t want to get stitches and he knew if he opened it again he would probably have to. The extra weight from the gear he had on him would hopefully compensate for the lighter training.

He stretched his limbs before going through a normal routine ending it with a jog around the park. When he was done he looked down at his watch again to see how much time this had taken out of his day. It had only taken up two hours of the morning leaving him time to do as he pleased. The workout and the good weather had put him back into better spirits and cleared his head a bit from earlier that morning.

Finding his way back to the main entrance to the park, the only thing though he could think of, to pass the time, was to do maintenance on his weapons. On the other hand he didn’t want to be indoors on such a good looking day as today. He decided he would walk around the town some more before heading back and maybe stop by a tailor or something to get his ACU repaired. Money was going to be a problem that he was going to need to find a way around and soon, he couldn’t let himself rely on others the entire time he is here.

While enjoy the outdoors he came across a mint-green pony playing what looked like a lyre, though this wouldn’t be all that strange from what he had seen so far but the pony was sitting differently. Instead of sitting like the other ponies, this one was sorta slouched over in a human-like fashion on a bench. He walked over to where the pony sat and watched, obviously being ignored by the other pony, but didn’t care.

After a few moments had passed by and he had listened to his fill of music he asked, “Is it comfortable to sit like that for a pony?”

The pony looked up and he saw that this one had golden-yellow eyes and as it looked at him with a similar look of interest it said, “You have no idea how comfy it is to sit like this compared to how everypony else sits.”

Oh, I have a better understanding than you think.

Realizing from the pitch and tone of the voice that this pony was a mare and decided to try sitting like her as well. As he sat down next to her in a similar fashion, he thought he heard her giggle a little at his awkward movements before he was able to finally match her posture.

While he was settling onto the bench she gave him a quick look over, seeing all the different things he was wearing. This pony seemed friendly enough to her, especially since most just get onto her about all the ‘weird’ things she does. None ever even tried to sit like her before, but would merely scoff at her.

After finishing her inspection of him she asked, “I have never seen you around Ponyville before, are you new in town.”

He nodded his head saying, “Yeah, I’m new to the area and was just doing some training over in the park since it was wide open.”

She gave a quiet “Ah,” of understanding before saying, “So thats what you were doing earlier. It’s nice to meet you my name is Lyra, what is yours? If you don’t mind me asking, what brings you to Ponyville?”

He thought for a moment whether or not to tell her and decided it didn’t really matter to the ponies here, “Its nice to meet you too Lyra, my name is Adam. As for what brought me to Ponyville, nothing really my work forces me to travel a lot and I somehow found myself here. Ya’ll could say I’m lost and I’m tryin’ to get home. Whether or not I can, is yet to be seen.”

His statement both intrigued her and confused her at what he was implying.

“What is it that you do for a living and why do you think you won’t be able to go back home?”

“Well, I’m a soldier in my country’s army and the reason I don’t know if I can go back is because I don’t know exactly how I got here in the first place. If I knew how I got here I would just try it again to get back.”

“Wait, are you saying you are not from Equestria?”

“Eyup, I’m from a country called the United States of America.”

“Is that why you’re wearing all those clothes?”

“What I am wearing is my military combat uniform. By the way, speaking of clothes, do you know where I could go to see about getting the sleeve repaired?”

“I sure do, she is really good at her work and I think she would be interested in seeing your uniform. What exactly did you do to it, it looks like somepony sliced it up?”

“Oh, I was in an accident in the woods over there,” point off into the direction of the Everfree Forest, he made it a point not to go into details as to what happened. “Could ya’ll show me to the place? I don’t exactly know my way around town yet.”

“I would be happy to show you around. Follow me and you won’t get lost.”

He followed behind her as they left the bench behind, her lyre floating next to her as they walked. Now that it was later into the morning, he saw that there were a lot more ponies out doing various things. He saw some working at different types of stands while others were busy building new structures in town, while even more were in groups talking about different things. The ponies in town though seemed to be giving Lyra and himself a wide berth though and giving even more weird looks.

Lyra didn’t seem to be paying them any mind as she showed him the town. She showed him the town hall, which he made a mental note to visit sometime soon, as well as the market where he saw a familiar orange pony wearing a stetson hat selling apples. Everything was peaceful until the faint sound of yelling could be heard. Catching his interest he started going off into that direction followed shortly behind by Lyra. What he saw only infuriated him, bringing all his anger back to the surface and boiling over. A red unicorn and two normal looking, as normal as one being blue the other green, ponies were standing around a grey pegasus pony. The pegasus seemed to be holding her head down and cowering from them, the other ponies yelling at her and from this distance he could make out bits of what was being said.

“You mixed up my mail again, you idiot. You are the worst mailmare I have ever seen. By Celestia, I am surprised you even know how to fly, you are so stupid.”

The yelling and the insults were minor, or at least they seemed that way to him, it was the fact that all the ponies around were not even giving it a second glance and just continued to wherever it is they were going. No one was even trying to help her, even if she was at fault, the yelling was over the top. It was as if the floodgates in his mind were breached and his anger flew through him. He couldn’t have stopped himself even if he wanted too, but he didn’t.

“Hey assholes, leave her alone or else!”

“Or else wh-,” the unicorn in the center of the group, who was doing most of the yelling, never had the chance to finish his reply as Adam slammed a hoof in his face sending him into one of the others.

“Or else I’m goin’ to beat the living shit out of ya’ll, that’s what!”

Getting back up onto his hooves, the unicorn wiped his muzzle not holding back the look of rage that was clear on his face, while his two companions looked shocked and confused as to what had just transpired.

“You’re going to pay for that, you freak,” screamed the unicorn which pulled his friends out of their stupor beginning to separate to each side of Adam now.

In mock hurt, holding a hoof to his chest, he replied, “Ah, ya’lls insults wound me so. However shall I live this down.”

With his reply he got just the response he was hoping for, an even more infuriated pony. The passing ponies had now stopped to see what was going on, now that there was something different and possibly exciting about to happen.

“I have just the thing for you freak.”

The unicorn’s horn began to glow a faint red as he pulled out a knife hidden in his mane, that he then tried to intimidate Adam with.

Wow, this escalated quickly. Didn’t think he would pull out a knife. Oh well, makes things more interesting that way.

Adam could still see the other two ponies out of the corners of his eyes as they all got into a charging stance, waiting.

Now which one of ya’ll is goin’ to be the dumb one to charge first?

His thoughts were soon answered as the unicorn was the first to attack. Adam quickly flared his wings in preparation of the assault thinking to himself:

Ok, just like in the hole yesterday, but with less force so as not to go too high up this time. That hurt enough the first time ‘round.

At the last second Adam gave a mighty flap of his wings to suspend him just over the unicorn’s head before slamming his hooves into the back of its head and forcing the unicorn into the ground, face first. He saw the reaction of his friends, as they charged him at the exact same time, in the attempt to pin him between them. Adam only gave another quick flap of his wings again but this time in an attempt to send him back away from the group. His efforts were met with the sight as the two earth ponies slammed into each other with a loud crack, which instantly knocked them both out.

Though he was successful at avoiding the charges he neglected the fact that the knife was being held not by a hand, but by magic and could move freely. While still in the air he was caught off guard and unable to react in time as the knife went straight into his chest. His initial reaction to the knife in his chest was to stare in shock and stumble backwards as he landed, but soon realized that he felt no pain. It only took another second for him to notice that the knife had, in fact, been caught by the kevlar weave and had not even made it to the plate underneath.

Stupid, stupid, stupid. I should have taken that into consideration and now I have a knife sticking out of my vest. Great.

He pulled out the knife and gave it a quick look over, it was about half the size of his combat knife with nothing special about it. He tossed it to the side without a second thought as the unicorn got back to his hooves again. If he wasn’t mad earlier he sure was now. Back in a charging stance again, he grew the most evilest of grins.

“You think you’re so tough? Well lets see you dodge me this time.”

This guy is a fucking moron if he thinks I can’t even evade his attacks.

The unicorn’s horn glowed again as he picked up the knife, this time however his horn glowed much brighter than it did the first time. Adam began to get into his own stance but found he couldn’t move his hooves. Looking down he saw that his hooves were encased in a similar red glow as the horn.

Sonovabitch! This is going to complicate things a little. Well if he wants to use a weapon I might as well too, at least to defend myself with. The pistol is out of the question seeing as how, without hands, I had a good chance of missing and hitting someone else. I need to try firing the pistol and test my skills with it some time soon. That only leaves me my two knives on my vest, which will have to do.

Adam bit down on his right knife and pulled it out making sure that the blade faced the unicorn and waited. It was a short wait as the unicorn began his charge again, knife pointed right at Adam. Before the unicorn could get within ten feet of Adam, however a purple glow quickly spread across his body and knife, forcing him to stop. Adam was met by a sudden impact on the left side of his body eliciting a fiery pain from his injured leg as he slammed into the ground himself. His knife left his grip and sailed through the air and landed in the dirt several feet away.

“What the hay do you think you were doing!”

Looking at his aggressor, he saw it was none other than Rainbow Dash, who was now standing over him. Using his left foreleg he shoved her off of him, which elicited another spike of pain causing him to growl in irritation.

“What am I doing?! What are you doing?! Do you know how dangerous it is to tackle someone who has a weapon? I could have stabbed you by accident and not only that but since I lost my grip on it, it could have hit someone else too!”

His outburst caused the cyan pegasus to recoil and flatten her ears to her head while he huffed in frustration. He limped over to where his knife lay and resheathed it, then made his way over to the grey pegasus. He stopped in front of her offering a hoof to help her back up and noticed that her eyes didn’t look at him at the same time.

“Are ya’ll ok ma’am, they didn’t hurt ya’ll or anything?”

The grey pony just smiled and shook her head, taking his hoof in the process so she could stand up. Rainbow Dash was still yelling at him all this time, but he didn’t listen nor did he even cared what she had to say to him. He had done what he thought was right and there was nothing anyone could say that would make him think otherwise. He then walked over to Lyra and stopped in front of her giving her a small smile.

“Thank you for showing me around town. I think I can find my way from here.”

Turning away, he started limping off towards the direction he had been told that the tailor lived. The crowd parted for him and he was shocked to see that there was a rather large crowd formed around them.

Best. First. Impression. Ever. Of all time.

He finally found the building that was described to him as Carousel Boutique and that if anyone could help him with his clothes it was her. He just hoped that he could work out a way for him to pay this pony back since he didn’t have any money. At least not the money they would possibly accept, he did have some money from the U.S.

On the door was a small sign that read OPEN, in a cursive fashion, which made him think of the similarities they had in both speech and writing. He shook his head and pushed open the door causing the little bell hanging from it to chime and he was greeted with the smell of a rather strong perfume.

Barely holding back a sneeze he heard a female voice over to his right call out, “Welcome to Carousel Boutique. Where everything is - What in the name of Celestia are you wearing!? Its absolutely dreadful, and its very existence is crime that cannot be allowed. Its a good thing you came to me dear, so that I could do something about this atrocity.”

Walking towards him was a pearly white unicorn, who was floating a variety of sewing and cutting tools with a look of determination in her eyes that startled him.

“Woah, woah. No, I don’t need ya’ll to change my uniform ma’am. I need you to fix my sleeve though if you wouldn’t mind. I do have one small problem though. I don’t have any money to pay ya’ll with, but I will be happy to pay for it in another way such as manual labor or something.”

“I sure we can figure something out dear. By the way, what is your name, I have never seen a stallion such as yourself in ponyville before?”

“Oh, sorry ma’am. My name is Adam Smith, its a pleasure to meet you.”

“My name is Rarity and the pleasure is all mine. So you’re the stallion that Twilight was talking about yesterday. I wish to thank you for protecting them from those dreadful timberwolves while out in the forest. As thanks for helping them I’ll gladly repair you clothes, I will even throw in a new pair free of charge.”

“Well that is mighty generous of ya’ll ma’am.”

“Think nothing of it. Now as for the jacket, what exactly needs to be fixed?”

Adam gently began to undo the vest and slide it off, making sure not to cause any further pain in his leg. Once he had removed that he then began to remove the jacket, then proceeded to examine the injury on his leg. The wound was going to require stitches now that he didn’t let it heal before getting into another fight. The cloth for the bandage was turning red from the blood seeping through underneath it.

Looking over at Rarity, who was also looking at his leg with a look of concern on her face, he asked, “Is there a free clinic in town that I could go to? I believe my injury may require stitches because of my foolishness.”

“Why yes there is darling. Are you alright, that looks painful?”

“I’ll be fine once I get it checked out at the clinic. Do ya’ll by any chance have a few bandages that I could use in the meantime?”

“Just give me a moment and I will be right back.”

And with a flick of her styled tail she was rushing to the stairs to get the bandages for his leg. This gave him a moment to think about what he had just done in the past thirty minutes or so. Things weren’t going according to how he originally planned for the day but he was at least busy. While lost in thought, his awareness of his surroundings practically nonexistent, and was brought back as the front door burst open by a group of mares. The sound of the door opening sent unwanted memories to the front of his mind. Thinking he was back on his world he flung himself to a nearby table flipping it over, as he would for cover.

From the other side table he heard someone call out, “There you are! We have been looking for you, and so have the royal guards. They want to talk to you about the incident with those other ponies.”

Slowly poking his head up from his defensive position, he scanned the five mares in the room as well as heard Rarity come back downstairs. He let out the pent up breath, he didn’t know he was holding, as he recognized the mares standing in the room with him now. He limped out from behind the table and began righting it again, the blood soaked bandage catching the attention of Fluttershy in an instant as she bolted over to him.

“Oh dear, are you ok, does it hurt at all? Let me take a look and see what I can do to make it better. You shouldn’t have been so active with such an injury and in such a short amount of time too.”

She was going on and on, while prodding and examining the wound being as gentle as she could. Rarity trotting over with the bandages, that he gladly took and began to rebandage his leg. He looked towards Twilight now, who had an expression on her face that was a mix of both worry and anger at his actions that day and his condition. Adam had no intention of getting a lecture from a pony over what was right and wrong.

To try and stop any sort of lecture from taking place he spoke first, “You said the royal guards are looking for me?”

“Yes, they wish to speak with you about what happened and lucky for you both Lyra and Derpy were both there to vouch for you.”

“Ok, I understand. Now would ya’ll please inform the guard that I will be going to the clinic and will be more than willing to answer any questions they may have for me. It would allow me to take care of two things at once.”

Twilight nodded and turned to go but not before adding, “And don’t think this will be the end of things. When I get the chance you are going to get one hay of a lecture.”

When she left, Applejack followed close behind her leaving him with Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity and Rainbow Dash, who was giving him curious looks. Now that he was not going to be yelled at from Twilight anymore he was able to continue what he was doing with Rarity.

“Ma’am, thank you again for offering to do this for free, I’ll return for it after I have been to the clinic and have spoken to the guards.”

Rarity stood there eyeing the bloodstained and shredded sleeve of his ACU jacket before remarking, “You might want to come back tomorrow to get it darling. It’s going to take me awhile to remove the dirt and blood that the fibers have absorbed. Now is there anything in particular you wanted as far as new clothes go?”

“Nothing really ma’am but if you could make me another ACU like this one, but instead of desert camo, could you make it with a forest camo. It would make me stand out less in wooded environments.”

His reply seemed to cause her to deflate a little and pout, as she was hoping to make something much more different and elaborate.

“Sure darling, but I will need to take your measurements as well as examine you clothes to make copies. We can do all of that tomorrow when you return for your jacket.”

“That sounds good to me ma’am. Ya’ll have a good day.”

Spinning around he made his way towards the door, hoping to finish what he had planned for the day, followed by the other three mares.

Chapter 5: Follow the Pink Pony

A/N

Once again a shout out to Wubwave and MasterBrony2012 for proofreading the chapter!

Name: MSG. Adam “Shifty” Smith
Date: August 18, 2015
Location: Outside Carousel Boutique
Time: 0926

Adam looked from side to side at the different ponies trotting around minding their own business, the bright colors still uncomfortable to look at, seeing if his earlier engagement had caused any further trouble to follow him. Satisfied that nothing was currently looking for him, he looked back at the three other ponies following him. Pinkie Pie was sporting her famous ear to ear grin while bouncing around, Fluttershy seemed to be trying to hide herself behind her mane while still keeping an eye on his bandaged leg, and lastly Rainbow Dash who was still giving him funny looks that he couldn’t quite make heads or tails of.

Well I never was much for my people skills anyways.

“Well, though I said I would be going to the clinic to get my leg taken care of, I do not actually know where that is. Would any of ya’ll be so kind as to show me, please?”

Rainbow Dash looked like she was about to say something again before being quickly cut off again but this time by Pinkie screaming, “Ooh oh me me me, I’ll show you, pick me!”

Rainbow Dash just huffed and crossed her forelegs in irritation at being ignored again that day. Adam just let out a sigh which was then followed by the sound of the pink pony’s springy steps taking the lead. He followed close behind her limping as he did so, the pain wasn’t bad but it still was not fun to walk with. Rainbow Dash on the other hand took to the sky and hovered right above them never going to far away and Fluttershy followed next him on his left.

With Pinkie Pie showing him the way there it didn’t take them to long but still longer than he would have liked since she would stop every once and awhile to show him something. When they finally got there he noticed that the clinic was not all that big, but then again neither was the town. He pushed open the doors and went to the front counter where he saw a pony dressed in a nurse’s uniform and appeared to be filing some paperwork.

No matter where you go there is always paperwork to be done. Fun.

As they approached the nurse picked her head up from the papers and gave them a warm greeting.

“Hello my name is nurse Redheart. How can I be of assistance to you today?”

“Yes, sorry to interrupt but I need to have my leg looked at and possibly stitched.”

The nurse gave him a look over before settling on the mentioned leg, her eyes widened at the sight of the reddening bandage. “I see, follow me to an empty room and we will have that fixed up in no time at all.”

“Thank ya’ll ma’am.”

She quickly guided them to a room down the hall on the right and past several doors before coming to a halt in front of an open door.

“If you would wait in here for a moment the doctor will see you shortly.”

Without waiting for a reply she turned and walked down a different hall to find the doctor in question. Adam went into the rather large room and found the examination table for him to sit on and a few cushions for the others. Working his way onto the bed he sat there in the manner that he saw Lyra sitting getting a curious look from Rainbow Dash while Pinkie just sat down in a fit of giggles and Fluttershy went around the room looking for some new bandages to replace the ones he was already bleeding through.

Shortly after the shy little pegasus had managed to replace the bandages on his leg again, a bright orange colored unicorn doctor walked in.“Hello, my name is Doctor Medicine. I hear that you have an injury that needs to be looked at. If you would, please place your leg over here,” he indicated by patting a spot closer to himself, “and I’ll see what needs to be done.”

I swear some of these pony names have no imagination or their parents were really good at guessing their children’s choice in occupation.

Following the directions of the doctor he placed his leg down near the doctor, who then began to unbandage it carefully.

While examining the wound the doctor asked, “How did you manage to receive such an injury?”

Watching the doctor for his reaction Adam replied, “I got into a little fight with some of the animals in the woods over there. One of them just so happened to get me with it’s claws in the end.”

The doctor raised an eyebrow at his remarks and said, “You’re saying that you went into the Everfree Forest and picked a fight with the dangerous animals that it inhabits and all you got were these cuts. What did you fight in there?”

Adam shrugged his shoulders, “I don’t know it was sort of wolf like thing made of wood. And to be fair two of them I put down as soon as they stepped out into the open.”

The doctor just stared at him now baffled at what he just said before looking at the other three mares in the room for confirmation. They shook their heads and gave Adam a sideways glance out of fear as they remembered the events.

“W-well after looking over your injury I have to say, this will require a few stitches.”

Fantastic.

“I’ll be right back with the needed supplies.”

Adam watched as the doctor went out the door calling for the nurse again for assistance. He let out a soft sigh and scratched the side of his head anxiously, this wasn’t going to be fun at all. Pinkie noticed this and began hopping over to, smile still ever present.

“Don’t worry Shifty it won’t be bad and when he is done you’ll be good as new!” A gasp escaped her lips as a light bulb could be seen going off inside her head which only made her impossibly large smile all the larger. “When we leave I can then throw you a Glad-Your-Leg-Is- All-Better party along with your Welcome-To-Equestria party! Its going to be so much fun!”

He had to lean away from the overly excited pink ball of energy as she had come within inches of his face now, all thoughts of personal space never seeming to cross her mind.Glancing over to Rainbow Dash, who was trying to suppress a bout of laughter, he asked, “Hey Rainbow Dash can ya’ll do me a small favor?”

Rainbow Dash was finally able to control her laughter and reply, “Huh oh ya sure what is it?”

“Can ya’ll go and see if the guards have arrived yet, I doubt it would take them too long to get here.”

Rainbow Dash gave him a quick nod and started heading towards the door, but once her head was out she stopped and turned back. “I don’t think that is going to be necessary. I just saw them heading this way as well as the doctor and nurse.”

“Ok then nevermind. Now the real fun begins.”

Nurse Redheart and Doctor Medicine were the first to walk in, giving worried glances to each other as he could guess they knew something was wrong but not what. Adam could see three guards at the door and saw as one motioned for the other two to stay outside as he went in. Adam made a mental note that all three guards looked the exact same with white coats of fur, he would ask Twilight about that later.

The pegasus guard that walked in looked at all the ponies present before he settled on Adam and asked, “Are you the pony that caused the incident over in the market?”

“Yes, I am the one who was in the fight earlier.”

“My name is Lieutenant Light Blade, and I have some questions for you.

At the mention of his rank Adam unconsciously stiffened and had to stop himself from saluting the pony in front of him. This didn’t escape the Lieutenant’s eye as he raised an eyebrow at the action.

“Lets begin shall we, why were you fighting those three ponies earlier?”

“I only fought them because no one else seemed willing to take the time and help, so I did what I thought was right.”

The guard gave him a stern gaze before stating, “If you thought that the mare being harassed needed help then you should have retrieved the local guards. We do not take kindly to vigilante justice and the only reason we haven’t arrested you as it is is because you were doing it in the defense of somepony else. Your luck that a Miss Lyra Heartstring and a Miss Ditzy Doo were there to defend you since you left the scene and why did you leave the scene anyways?” Adam huffed in irritation at the statement, he just couldn’t seem to get away from the lectures.

“I left so that I could calm myself and still take care of the few things that I had wanted to take care of today.”

The guard gave a nod of understanding never taking his eyes off Adam before asking, “From your earlier reaction I take it you are or were a guard pony?”

“Yes and no, sir.”

Old habits die hard.

“Yes and no?”

“I have never been a guard in the sense that ya’ll are thinking. Where I am from, I server in my country’s military.”

“So you are not from Equestria, then where are you from?”

“I am from a country known as the United States of America, which before you ask is quite far away from here and I don’t think ya’ll have heard of it.”

“What brings a foreign military pony to our country?”

“I wish I could tell you, but even I don’t know. I just woke up and found myself here, when I should be dead.”

This last statement made the Lieutenant pause for a second as the gears in his head spun in order to understand. “What do you mean you should be dead?”

“Before coming here I was engaged with enemy units while providing overwatch for a convoy. We were taking fire when I was forced to relocate but was hit by an RPG before I could do so.”

His story seemed to get the attention of all those present, even that of the nurse and doctor who were almost finished with their work on sewing up his leg. This slight pause allowed him to notice that Twilight, Applejack, Lyra, and the grey pony, he now knew was Ditzy, had made it into the room now and Twilight had started taking more notes on what he was saying.

“What is an RPG?”

“RPG stands for Rocket Propelled Grenade, they are an explosive that is normally used to take out armored units such as tanks and other transport vehicles. They are cheap to make and easy to mass produce and the enemy uses it to great effect, for themselves anyway not so much for us. That is why I said I should be dead.”

The guard looked him up and down as if trying to see any evidence of his claim, but found nothing.

“Well you look perfectly fine from what I can see, except for the leg. Did you get that injury from the fight you were in, eyewitnesses say that you were stabbed in the chest by the knife used by the unicorn, but you don’t seem to have been stabbed.”

“This injury was sustained while in the forest yesterday and my vest was able to catch the blade of the knife before any damage could be done.”

Light Blade trotted over to Adam in order to examine the vest and see what exactly it was made of. He saw that the vest, which was made up of some sort of fabric, covered his chest and other vital areas while allowing him most of his range of motion. There were pockets and areas to clip things onto it and two holes for his wings to poke through. The colors on both the vest and the clothes were the same but they had a strange blocky pattern that he didn’t recognize.

“You said you received that injury in the forest? Why were you in there?” Light Blade pointed at the leg while it was being stitched, raising an eye brow.

“That is where I woke up and was found by these ponies here.”

“Do you know what it was that attacked you?”

“All I know is that it was some wolf like things, but they’re nothing to worry about anymore.”

“And why is that?”

“While defending myself and others I fought and killed them.”

Light Blade closed his eyes and let out a sigh before saying, “That was very dangerous but from what you have said, there was no other option. I will have to inform my superiors of this and you. You are to refrain from any vigilante actions, otherwise you will be arrested. This is your only warning.”

If Adam knew what the title ‘Royal Guard’ meant, then his superiors would be that of royalty. This was not how he wished to be known by the government, but maybe he could contact them before they could be alerted by the report.

“I understand and will follow the laws of this kingdom.”

The pegasus guard gave a nod before departing, taking the other two guards with him. With their departure Adam was able to take a sigh of relief and look down at his leg again. He had been reluctant from looking at, not wanting to acknowledge the damage he had done to it. He would have to take things slow with it and knew that even though it was now stitched up it would still hurt. Doctor Medicine on the other hand was making his way to the door as well, finding himself no longer needed, while Nurse Redheart was watching him closely.

When Adam looked at her, she took on a tone that broached no argument, ”Now you must take things easy until your leg has the chance to heal fully. Don’t do anything that will overexert it or you have the possibility of rupturing the stitches.”

“I understand ma’am. I’ll hold off on anything that will cause it to reopen.”

Redheart’s eyes narrowed as she stared at him. “Honest, I swear,” he held up his forelegs in the air for emphasis.

He could hear the giggles and laughter from the mares in the room as the nurse turned and left. It took a few moments for the mares to control their laughter before Ditzy walked over to him with a small grin on her face and looked him in the eyes, he could only guess as her eyes didn’t both seem to do so.

“I just wanted to thank you for helping me before, even when it got you into trouble. Nopony else would help me like you did, so I brought you something.”

This caught him off guard as he didn’t expect for her to even be here let alone give him something. He would have been lying if he said that he wasn’t looking forward to his reward, the little kid inside him jumping up and down. What he also didn’t expect was for her to bring out a container that was filled to the brim with muffins out of her mailbags.

“Muffins,” exclaimed the grey pegasus with a foolish grin on her face. “I didn’t know what kind you liked so I brought as many different kinds as I could! There is a blueberry, a banana, a strawberry-”

Her list of the different muffins went on for several minutes before he stopped her with a hoof.

“Thank ya’ll for your gift, ya’ll didn’t have to bring me anythin’ as thanks, your words alone would have been enough.”

“I was more than happy to give you something for the trouble I put you through.”

His stomach growled loudly as he eyed the food, he hadn’t eaten that morning or the previous day for that matter.

“Well I will gladly accept ya’lls gift.”

He took one of the muffins from the top and took a bite then quickly consumed the rest of the muffin enjoying the taste and texture, it was perfect.

“These are really good, thank ya’ll again.”

He hopped off the examination table looking towards Twilight and asked, “Is it alright if we head back to ya’lls place? I need to perform some maintenance on my gear and there are somethings I would like to ask while there.”

“Sure, we can go back right now, there are some questions I would like to ask you too.”

“Can I come along too?”

Adam and Twilight turned to see that it was Lyra who had asked the question.

“As long as it is alright with Twilight I have no problems with ya’ll coming along to learn about where I am from.” He looked over to Twilight whose eyes had lit up like a little kids on christmas morning. “Something tells me she doesn’t mind if you come along.”

“Thank you, I watched how you fought those ponies and after hearing what you have been through I just wanted to know more.”

“Then off we go, the sooner we get there the sooner we can begin asking questions.”

With that they all began walking out the door with Pinkie Pie taking the lead again bouncing all the way there. He still had a slight limp in his walk but he was still able to move around without a problem. The walk back was uneventful except for the glances he was getting from the passing ponies. He could hear some faint whispering from them as well and he had a good feeling he knew what they were talking about. Something would have to be done to make his appearance, he was representing his people to them and he wasn’t trained to be a diplomat. There were a lot of things wrong with the situation he found himself in and he knew that if his government found out that he had gotten into a fight with the local civilians of an unknown country, or where ever it was he had ended up in, he would never see the light of day again.

Upon entering the library again Adam went up stairs and grabbed his gear bringing it back downstairs. He knew he could do this in his room, but he wanted to get some of the questions done while he went over his weapons. Twilight looked over his gear as he began unloading the bags on a table, making notes of everything she saw so she could ask about them. The others sat down on various cushions in the room making themselves comfortable, expecting to be there for a while, they knew how Twilight could get with her search for knowledge.

It didn’t take Adam long to find the cleaning supplies he needed for the rifles and was even surprised to find his and Steve’s Ipod in one of the pockets on Steve’s bag. He was reluctant about playing it since he had no way of recharging it, and after checking the battery he had a few hours worth of power in it. He laid it back down as he grabbed the Chey Tac Intervention and began disassembling it. He examined each part making sure they weren’t damaged from their rough treatment and oiled the moving parts that need it. Removing the destroyed scope he watched as pulverised glass pour out of the holes, it was beyond repair and he would have to find something to replace it. He went at a slower pace than he would normally do this but without fingers it was harder. He then reassembled the rifle and again disassembled repeatedly until he was able to do it much faster. This process was repeated for each of the rifles and his pistol, he even sharpened the knives.

Twilight was standing over his shoulder watching his every movement asking questions along the way about each piece he removed and examined. By the time he had finished with his maintanance she had enough notes to fill a book. She had seen him earlier set a rectangular object down after he did something to it. Walking over to it she could see that on one side it was white and on the other was a reflective surface that read Ipod on it. She picked it up with her magic and found a small button on the edge and pushed it. She was surprised to find that a small window lit up and she could see a bunch of words scroll across it.

She looked over to Adam and asked, “What is this ‘Ipod’ thing do?”

Adam gently took it out of her magical grasp and said, “This allows me to play music that I have stored in it. Me and Steve bought it so we could listen to something while being transported or if we were having to sit around for long periods of time.”

“How does this little thing work? What kinds of songs do you like? Why...”

He put a hoof up to silence her, “Why don’t I just explain the whole thing to ya’ll? Instead of answering one question at.”

“That would be great,” Twilight exclaimed clopping her hooves together.

He went through the bags again finding just what he was looking for. Grabbing two rectangular objects from the bag and plugged them into the Ipod. He spun the wheel on the front before stopping on a song he liked and smiled.

“Who here likes rock music?”

Out of the corner of his eye he saw a cyan pegasus perk her ears up. The smile on his face only growing.

“well I hope ya’ll enjoy.”

He hit the play button and sat back and enjoyed.

“What kind of instruments were those, I recognize the drums but not the others?” Rainbow Dash’s face had a large grin, nodding her head in excitement.

“Well in the song they used an instrument called a guitar, which I’m not surprised ya’ll don’t have. Without fingers it would be very hard to strum and pick at the strings.”

“Wait wait wait. What do you mean fingers?!”

For a quiet pony she could be quite loud when she wanted to as well as fast. Practically yelling she rushed up to him, with the same excitement he had seen in Twilight’s eyes when she was questioning him in Lyra’s.

“Uh, well for humans it is common for us to have fingers.”

“But you a pony not a human and I have seen pictures of them in old myth books.”

Now isn’t that ironic, they’re a myth to us and us to them.

“Well I wasn’t always a pony, that didn’t happen until I somehow got here.”

“Oh oh oh oh oh, I need to introduce you to a friend of mine! Her name is Bon Bon and she has never believed me when I said humans existed!”

Lyra could give Pinkie Pie a run for her money when it came to violating his personal space with their excitement. She had shoved her head even closer to his, than what Pinkie had done in the hospital and this forced him to stumble back a bit just to get some distance.

“Sure, sure I’ll meet ya’lls friend, but that will have to be sometime later. Now that ya’ll got to ask a few questions, let me ask a few of my own. From the title of the guards in the town I take it ya’lls government is a monarchy, correct?”

Rainbow Dash was quick to answer, not wanting to be interrupted for once, “Ya, both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna rule over Equestria together. Celestia raises the sun to start the day while Luna raises the moon start the night.”

“Ya’ll are just tryin’ to fuck with me now aren’t ya? That is not physically possible.”

“Fuck? What does that mean, its fun to say. Fuck fuck fuck fuck,” the pink party pony sang as she bounced around the room.

“Um you might not want to go around yelling that,” said Adam his ears flattened against his head cringing at what he had just caused.

“Oh yeah and why is that Shifty?”

“Well, where I am from that isn’t a word that is publicly used due to it being, well, vulgar.”

Beside him he heard the purple unicorn next to him ask, “What does it mean?”

“Well, uhh, it, uhh, means...” his eyes shot back and forth as sweat formed on his forehead.

Well this is awkward, at least for me. These ponies don’t even know.

Trying again he said, “Well it is another word for sex but is also another way to show emphasis of agitation, anger and disbelief.”

“Oh,” was the only word that left Twilight’s mouth and Pinkie began laughing while the others didn’t find it quite as amusing.

“Well anyways, lets get back on topic here. You can’t be serious about the abilities of ya’lls princesses.”

Twilight nodded her head and said, “She is telling the truth Celestia does raise the sun and Luna does raise the moon. How do you people raise and lower the sun and moon?”

“Gravity, gravity does that for us. The earth revolves around the sun and the moon revolves around the earth.”

“How do you take care of the weather? From what you have said, it sounds like humans don’t have wings like us pegasi,” inquired the cyan pegasus.

“Wait ya’ll control ya’lls weather too?! We can’t even do that, nature just takes care of itself, but as I said earlier we made machines to allow us to fly. We’re goin’ on another tangent though, so let me get to the point of my original question. How would I best get in contact with ya’lls leaders to explain my presence here and make a good impression before the report works its way up the ranks to them?”

“Oh, me and Twilight can help you with that.”

Adam spun around at this new voice he hadn’t heard before and didn’t know there was another person in the library. What he saw only confused him, standing at the entrance to the kitchen was a rather large purple lizard with green spikes running down its back.

“Who and what are you exactly?” Adam asked it the least insulting or intimidating voice he could muster.

“Oh, let me introduce you. This here is my number one assistant Spike and he is a dragon. This, here Spike, is Sergeant Adam Smith from the United States of America.”

Spike walked up to him and held out a claw saying, “Its nice to finally meet you Adam. How did you sleep last night, there was quite a bit of yelling?”

Twilight gave Adam a concerned look as she remembered that morning’s event while he scratched the back of his head, looking everywhere but at the girls in the room, before replying, “It’s nice to meet you too and I slept just fine.”

“What’s he talkin’ about sugarcube,” the orange cowpony asked after her period of silence.

“Its nothin’, just a little nightmare, I’m fine.”

Try as he might, he could see that Applejack didn’t completely believe his claim of being fine and he had a feeling that she wasn’t going to let that topic sit for long.

Looking back at Spike he asked, “Ya’ll said that ya’ll and Twilight could help me get in contact with ya’lls leaders?”

“Spike smiled and said, “Twilight is Princess Celestia’s protege and has to send regular reports to her about what she learns. We could send her a message for you?”

“Thank you, I would very much appreciate that.”

Spike looked over to Twilight while holding a scroll in his other claw and said, “Speaking of letters, Twilight, you have one from the princess.”

Twilight took hold of it using her magic and opened it up. Her eyes scanning over the contents of it and was finished in a matter of seconds, then set it down on the table with his rifles.

Applejack walked over to Twilight and asked, “What does the letter say, sugarcube?”

Twilight looked over to Adam before saying, “She wants me to investigate the magical surge that she felt, yesterday, over in the Everfree Forest.”

“Well I would have to say, ya’ll are one step ahead. Ya’ll found me out there and have brought me back to town.”

Twilight grinned, clopping her hooves in even more excitement, saying, “I guess I get to surprise Celestia with an early report. Spike take a letter.”

Spike gave a mock salute running over to the desk and grabbing a sheet of paper and quill, then stood there waiting for Twilight to begin.

“Hey Twilight, is it alright if I dictate a letter to the princesses, so that I could introduce myself?”

“I don’t see why not, I can always send two letters,” she shrugged as she said this but there was the ever present disappointment at not being the one to send the first letter.

He cleared his throat in preparation for the letter, chuckling at how unnecessary that action was but did it all the same. He turned back to the dragon smiling and said, “You ready Spike?”

Spike gave him a quick nod, and held the letter higher in the air waiting.

Dear Princess Celestia and Princess Luna,

Hello my name is Master Sergeant Adam Smith of the United States Army. I am contacting you two in order to request an audience in order to both explain my presence in your land and for help in acquiring safe transportation back to my country. I am willing to answer any questions that the two of you may have, as long as it does not jeopardize the safety of my country. I would also like to explain my actions in the incident, that you will no doubt be hearing about, that occurred here in ponyville.

Sincerely,

Master Sergeant Adam Smith

P.S. Expect a hefty report from Miss Twilight Sparkle on her findings so far.

“That sounded much better in my head,” said Adam as he cringed inwardly at is informal and unprofessionally spoken letter.

Across the room just barely above a whisper he heard, “Oh I’m sure it will be fine. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are both very kind and understanding.”

“I’ll have to take ya’lls word for it because I was never trained on how to interact with foreign leaders other than some basic things let alone write a letter to them. Well there is only one way to find out how they will take my letter, go ahead and send it I guess.”

Adam raised an eyebrow as he watched Spike take in a deep breath and blow out a blast of green flame that incinerated the letter. The ashes from the letter, which would normally just fall to the ground, flew out the window in the direction of the castle on the mountain.

“Ummm... I thought we were sending her the letter not incinerating them, because if not I could have just used the lighter in my bag?”

Spike responded, “I did dude, thats how we send her the letters, by dragon magic. We should expect a reply soon from Princess Celestia.”

Twilight also made a letter and attached a copy of her research on some of his gear while Rainbow Dash spoke with Adam.

“So Adam, sorry about tackling you earlier in the market. I thought you were the one causing trouble, but Derpy said you were actually helping her.”

“Its alright I understand why you did it. Wait I thought her name was Ditzy but you just called her Derpy?”

“It is, but she took a liking to the nickname Derpy, so everyone calls her by it.”

Hearing her name Ditzy walked over smiling eyes unaligned asking, “How are you liking your muffins?”

He chuckled then said, “The muffins are really good, I haven’t had any this good in years.”

“What no muffins in years!? Thats horrible!”

“No no no no, I have eaten some but just not of this quality.”

“Alright, come on Derpy you have a mail to deliver and I have weather duties to do as well.”

With that Rainbow Dash left with Derpy close behind her taking one last look back before taking off.

“Well Ah have ta go too. Ah have apples tha need ta be sold. Ah’ll talk to ya’ll later,” announced Applejack as she headed towards the door tipping her hat to everyone.

“Oh if you thought those muffins were good, just wait until you’ve had some of my cupcakes. I’ll be right back,” As she said that she bolted out the door.

“I-I-I should probably go to, I need to feed the animals and Angel will be mad if he doesn’t get fed soon.” The yellow pegasus slowly worked her way out the door and headed for home leaving Twilight, Adam and Spike alone waiting for the reply from the princess.

“How long do ya’ll think it will take for them to respond to our letters? We did send them quite a bit of information, and when I mean we I mean you. You practically sent her a book to read through.”

Twilight’s face reddened as she shrugged her shoulders and said, “I’m not entirely sure, it could take minutes or hours, but I’m going to get something to eat. Do you want something, you haven’t eaten anything besides those muffins?”

“Yes, I would very much like that.”

And so the waiting begins.

Chapter 6: Bishop Takes Queen

Name: MSG. Adam “Shifty” Smith
Date: August 18, 2015
Location: The Library
Time: 1336

Saying Adam was a little reluctant to eat his daisy sandwich that Twilight gave him would have been an understatement. He might have been a herbivore now, but that didn’t mean that he instantly had the craving to eat grass and flowers. He eventually finished his sandwich, not giving the taste any thought as he had a few questions he wanted to ask, like why the dragon was eating valuable gems, when a sudden urge to use the bathroom struck.

He Looked over to Twilight and asked, “Um Twilight, do you have a bathroom here?”

Twilight looked up from her own meal and replied, “Yeah, its upstairs at the end of the hall.”

“Thank you,” was all he said before making a run up the stairs for the bathroom.

Twilight giggled as she watched him go before finishing up her own sandwich and cleaned the dishes. When she had finished and was back in the main portion of the library Adam’s gear caught her eye. Walking over to it she saw a rectangular box poking out of one of the bags, drawing her attention. Using her magic she pulled it out and brought it over to a table before opening it up.

What she found inside the box puzzled her, all she saw was a bunch of little figures in two different colors and a folded up checkerboard. The little figures looked like the humans general shape, that she saw in the photos, while wearing what looked like the same armor that Adam was wearing. To top it all off, they were in different poses and were painted in either green or tan and split into equal amounts for both.

“I see you found my chess set.”

The sudden sound of someone talking behind her caused Twilight to jump into the air and spin around only to Adam standing just a few feet away, shaking his head in irritation. She never even heard him come down the steps let alone get behind her that close.

“Sorry,” Twilight said while scratching the back of her head with a sheepish grin on her face, “I saw this sticking out of your bags and it caught my interest. What was it that you called it, a chess set?”

“Yes, and this particular one me and Steve made ourselves. We played it all the time and it doesn’t surprise me that it was in his bag because I didn’t pack it in mine.”

“What makes this one different from other chess sets?” Twilight asked giving him a confused look before looking over the little figures again.

“Well for starters each piece has a little magnet in the bottom so that they don’t fall off the board and these pieces are not what are used in the game.”

He then took the board and started setting the pieces on each side separated by their color.

“These here pieces,” he pointed to the ones lined up front, “are ya’lls pawns and are represented with normal soldiers.” He then pointed to the piece that was on the back row on the end saying, “This piece is what we call a rook and is represented by a Special Forces figure. The one next to it,” he shifted his hoof over to the figure next to it “is a knight which we used an Artillery Operator to represent it.”

Twilight was nodding her head the entire time while levitating over a quill and roll of paper to take detailed notes on his explanation on the game.

“As you can see this next piece has more details than the others since it is something that we knew a lot more about and it is a sniper. We chose it to represent the piece known as a bishop in this game. Now these last two are some of the two more important pieces out of all of them, though one is more important than the other.” He removed the two pieces from the board and held them in each hoof. “This one is known as the queen,” he said this as he held his right hoof slightly higher “and we used a general to represent her.”

“Now this last piece is the most important because if you lose this piece then you lose the game.” Holding up the last piece he said, “The is the king and since we wanted it to match with the theme of everything we chose the president to represent this piece. The reason we chose him is because in our country the president is not only the chief diplomat for our country but also he is the commander and chief of all our branches of military. Now then, since I have told ya’ll what this is, would ya’ll like me to teach how to play?”

At his last question a wide smile spread across her face and she began to vigorously nod head. Ten minutes passed before she fully understood the rules and the movements of each piece. It took even less time for her to quickly begin thwarting all of his strategies leaving the their current score at thirty-one wins and eighteen loses for Twilight.

“You know I won this round, right?” Twilight commented with a smirk plastered on her face.

“You know you can SHUT UP,” Adam jokingly replied as he searched and failed to find a game changing move before looking past Twilight. He then pointed a hoof towards something behind her and shouted, “WHAT’S THAT!”

His outburst caught Twilight off guard; as she turned around to see what was there. Within the few seconds that her back was turn Adam swiftly spun the board around and acted like nothing had changed.

After a few moments had passed and Twilight was turning back around to face him he said, “Guess it was just my imagination, I better just make my move then.”

Twilight examined the board again then narrowed her eyes at him as she realized what he had done before saying, “You know this just counts as my thirty second win right?”

He sighed, placing his hooves on his head and replied, “Yeah. I’m going to stop playing while I still have a little dignity left.”

Twilight nodded and packed up the game before sliding it over to Adam. He looked at it for a second then slid it back to her and said, “Ya’ll keep it. I have had all the use out of it that I will ever want. Ya know ya’ll would make a good strategist if ya ever wanted to be one.”

“Are you sure? You even said yourself that you made it with your friend, wouldn’t you want to keep it for the memories?” She looked between him and the small box the game was in quizzically.

He chuckled before he replied, “I don’t need that to remember the things we did together. Besides I’m sure ya going to have more fun with it than I will.”

It was at that moment that there was a knock at the door that grabbed their attention. Twilight set down the game on a shelf, then trotted over to the door, listening to the sound of more knocking. When she finally opened the door and was about to say something, she was surprised to see that there was no one there to greet.

Adam on the other hand could suddenly smell cotton candy but couldn’t place the source of the smell anywhere. He watched as Twilight poked her head out the door to look around, then shrug her shoulders and close the door turning back to face him. When she was looking back at him again, her eyes widened followed by her hoof going up to her face with an aggravated sigh.

He raised an eyebrow at her strange behavior and was about to say something when she asked, “Pinkie what do you think you are doing?”

“What are ya-”

“Oh just having a little fun here with Shifty.”

The sound of Pinkie Pie’s voice brought his attention away from Twilight as he began scanning the room, not seeing any of the pink pony anywhere. This was seeming to be a repeat of the forest and upon realizing this he looked at his back to find no one there but he could still hear giggling that seemed to be coming from everywhere. Looking at Twilight with a look of agitation from not being able to locate the pony he saw her point to the top of his head. Taking the hint, without looking, he wrapped his right foreleg around anything above him. He came into contact with a fluffy but firm mass that he then quickly pulled off the top of his head and placed on the floor. He was going to stick to the advice Twilight had given him in the forest and not question how she yet again broke all forms of physics while standing on his head without alerting him.

“Ah, darn Twilight, you cheated. You weren’t suppose to tell him silly, wheres the fun in that? Oh, speaking of fun, I brought you something Shifty.” She was saying this in between fits of laughter that would leave anyone gasping for air but not apparently Pinkie.

“And what would that be exactly?”

“This!” Twisting around she pulled out a platter piled high with cupcakes that would give a person diabetes just from glancing at it.

“Um, thanks. What made ya decide to bring me some cupcakes?”

“Wweeeelllllll, when we first met you had been down and acting all Mr. Grumpy-Pants, so I thought I would come and bring you something to cheer you up while we tell you about some of the adventures we have been on, and we could learn more about you too. Also there are two ponies that would be happy to meet you after I told them about that iPod of yours.”

Whatever she had said was lost to him, as she seemed to speak faster than what could be understood and in a single breath too. Rubbing his temples to lessen the migraine that had been brought upon by this pink fluffy hericane, he looked to Twilight hoping for a translation.

Twilight sighed understanding the effects Pinkie could have on ponies who were not used to her antics before saying “She wants to tell you of our adventures and she wants to introduce you to two other ponies that are interested in your music.”

“Ok, I’m fine with the first part but the iPod does not have much of a charge left and I don’t have a way to change that anytime soon.”

Twilight began tapping her chin with a hoof in thought before asking, “Is it alright if I take a look at it? I might be able to find a way to power it or recharge it so it can be used more.”

“Ok, just be careful its the only one I got and I don’t think I’ll be able to buy a new one anytime soon.” He said with a chuckle at his own joke.

Twilight proceeded to float the Ipod over to the desk nearby and began to examine the power source as Adam grabbed one of the cupcakes with his hoof. The ability to hold objects in his hooves was still not something he was used to doing without fingers. He took his first bite just like he did with the sandwich, slow and uncertain. What came as a surprise was the fact that the cupcake was not overly sweet and that the bread was nice and fluffy too, nothing like the cupcakes he was used to eating at base. Giving his approval of the cupcakes he began to listen to the adventures the girls had participated in over the past two years since Twilight moved into the library in Ponyville.

It was towards the beginning of the conflict that occurred at Canterlot, during a wedding, a few months back that Rainbow Dash showed up again for her weather duties. She added her own flare to the story on how much ‘flank’ she was kicking and was more than willing to show off her moves while describing it. This obvious over exaggeration caused Adam to laugh then choke on some of his cupcake, which in turn got him laughed at by Rainbow Dash.

After the stories of their adventures had been told Rainbow Dash asked, “So Adam, do you have any stories that you would like to tell?”

“Yes, tell us one of your stories, I bet it will be so much fun!” exclaimed the ever energetic pink pony.

“Sure I have a story that I am willing to share with ya’ll. Its actually after I had served a few years with Steve and Sarah had just made it through boot to become an Apache pilot. To celebrate her new promotion to lieutenant, out of boot, because she wanted to be Ms. Smarty-Pants decided to go off to college first, so now she outranked us.”

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie giggled while we could practically hear Twilight roll her eyes at them. Rainbow then asked, “Who is Sarah?”

“Sarah was a friend of ours since way back when we were little and later married Steve. She was the third person in that photo that ya’ll saw with Steve’s gear. Well anyways I was looking around the bar that we were at and found some girl that I thought looked pretty good. I walked over to her and started hitting on her-”

“WHAT!” the three ponies screamed, “You starting hitting her?!”

“Wha-,” then it dawned on him what had just happened before he could stop himself he was on the floor laughing, at the misunderstanding, for a few minutes before getting back up. He could see that the three were changing their opinions of him and Rainbow Dash was not even bothering to hide her disapproval with an intense glare.

“No no no no, not that kind of hitting. What I mean is that I was flirting with her, ya know showing my moves, what I said was just another way of saying it. I don’t go around fighting women nor would I normal lift a hand towards one, call me old fashioned.”

The girls’ looks softened and Pinkie even started laughing along too now that he was sure he wasn’t going to be interrupted again he continued.

“I thought I was doing pretty good from the reactions I was getting from her, that is until her boyfriend showed up. I didn’t even get a warning from her(I think she got off on this sort of thing) before I felt myself being picked up off the ground and hurled into the table that Steve and Sarah were sitting in, breaking the table and scattering the beer in the process. Now my friends at the time only just stood there and laughed until they realized that not only was the table gone but their beers along with it. It was once they came to this realization that they then jumped in to woop this guys ass. Lets just say the fight didn’t end there and soon everyone was fighting each other, we were later banned from that bar because of the damages and were fined. It was still one hell of a night though.”

At the end of his story there was the sound of a burp that came from the floor above followed by the sounds of dragon running to the stairs yelling, “Twi a letter came for you from the princess.”

Everyone watched as the scroll in the dragon’s hand was covered in a purple glow and floated over to Twilight as she then began scanning it.

“What does it say Twi?” Rainbow asked as she flew over and hovered right over Twilight’s shoulder.

Twilight cleared her throat before reading:

Dear Twilight Sparkle,

I would like you and your friends plus Master Sergeant Adam Smith to come to Canterlot in three days time. My sister, Princess Celestia, will be back from her diplomatic visit with another country by then as well as give me time to tell her of these events. I am sure that with her we will be able to help the Sergeant with his needs and I am quite interested in learning about him and how he came to Equestria. In the meantime show him around and help him get situated and educate him on our customs so he does not cause a commotion.

Sincerely,

Princess Luna

The room was silent for a moment before Adam spoke, “At least we now know when I get to meet your leaders. And from the sounds of things, she hasn’t received a report about me and what I did earlier today.”

“Hey Twi, I thought you said that previous letter was from Celestia, but if she is away, how would she know of the magical surge in the forest?” The group glanced over to Rainbow Dash before coming to understand what she was asking.

“Well the letter was not actually signed, but it still had the seal of the princesses so I had just assumed it was from Princess Celestia, since I rarely receive a letter from Princess Luna.”

“Well either way, we at least now have a fixed date on when the meeting will be taking place and I can start preparing what I need to say. That and learn a little about etiquette when dealing with your rulers. No need making myself and my country look like a bunch of idiots.”

Rainbow Dash interrupted the conversation with a loud yawn before announcing, “Well since its getting late I need to head home and get some sleep, I have weather duty tomorrow morning and I can’t sleep in.” She then quickly took off through an open window over by the balcony. Her little take off gave Adam an idea.

If I can’t push myself like I would normally do in my PT, why not add something different. Flight practice.

A wide smirk grew across his face at the thought.

Tomorrow is going to be a fun day.

Chapter 7: Head in the Clouds

Name: MSG. Adam “Shifty” Smith
Date: August 19, 2015
Location: The Library
Time: 0326

His eyes shot open as he laid there gasping for breath, shivering from the cold sweat he once again found himself in. He laid there for a few moments using his breathing techniques he had learned over the years to slow his heart rate and calm him down before sitting up. He rubbed his temples in agitation as he recalled the dream, it was the same as the night before, but what really frustrated him was that it had been months since he had any sort of nightmare like this. From his past experience he knew there was no way in hell he would be able to go back to sleep, after a dream like this, so he got up and made his way to the bathroom. He hadn’t bathed in days and still had to remove some of the blood that had dried on his feathers and after doing PT the other day he was pretty sure he smelled foul to those around him.

He turned on the water for the shower and waited for the water to reach the temperature that he wanted before jumping in. For the most part he just stood beneath the water, letting it run down his length to reduce the tension that had built up in his body and let out a sigh. While letting the water run he watched as it turned a light pink color before going down the drain, not wanting to think of how much of Steve’s blood he had on him he looked away. After a while he began the process of scrubbing his wings and fur to get the blood and grime that had formed a layer over his body.

Finished with his shower, he jumped out and grabbed the towel hanging nearby to dry himself off knowing full well that he would be back in a few hours to wash up again after his PT. He fully intended to also wash his clothes afterwards, it wasn’t like he had any spares at the moment. Getting dressed and donning his vest he made his way to the door for the park, but not after grabbing his boonie hat to keep the sun out of his eyes.

Now that he knew how to get to the park it only took him a good fifteen minutes to walk there and begin stretching out his muscles. Once he had finished that he began his reduced run so as not to tear his stitches from the day before. As his physical training was coming to an end the light from the sun had risen into the sky and was warming his fur against the cold that was still lingering in the air. From the weather he would have to guess that it was getting closer to winter here and would need to ask someone to verify.

Shoving those thoughts to the back of his mind he began to look around for any civilians that may be watching, but found not a single pony.

It must still be too early in the day for most ponies to be up.

Grinning, he spread his wings as wide as he could, in preparation for taking off, he thought of how a bird would normally flap it’s wings to gain lift and how they would tilt them in order to maneuver while in the air. He gave a mighty flap of his wings and in his excitement nearly forgot to repeat the process to stay in the air as he looked around at the ground, now ten feet below him. From his position he performed a variety of maneuvers he had seen jets do while training and the occasional combat mission, when they flew over head.

Looking up he saw that there was a large cloud floating right above his head and decided that it would be his first objective.

I’ve always wanted to fly through a cloud, might as well do it now that I can.

His grin only widened as he began flapping even harder to gain more and more altitude at faster and faster speeds. He wanted to see how fast he could accelerate while gaining altitude towards the large cluster of clouds.

When he came into contact with the cloud he had been expecting to pass right through them, what he didn’t expect was to come to a crashing halt and staring into what appeared to be its hollow center. As he tried to move he found that he had wedged himself in the cloud. No matter how much he squirmed he couldn’t seem to move out of its grasp, much to his frustration. When he looked around he found that he was looking into a very wide room that looked like it was well furnished, though everything was also made of clouds.

As he examined the room he saw on a nearby wall what looked to be a newspaper clipping that read:

WONDERBOLTS COME TO PONYVILLE

In the picture stood a line of ponies wearing matching blue uniforms with a yellow trimming.

Now why does that color scheme look familiar?

After looking around the room again he decided he had had enough of being trapped in, what he guessed was the floor and chose to call out for help.

“Hey is there anyone here? I could use some help right about now.”

The room remained silent, not even the sound of a groan from waking someone up early in the morning. This didn’t stop him from trying again.

“Excuse me but I could REALLY use a hand...er... hoof here. Don’t make me beg, because I’m not into that but I will sing a little. Trust me when I say this though, I suck at singing.”

There was still no response to which he let out a sigh.

“I warned ya.” He cleared his throat in preparation for the song then began.

“Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall

Ninety-nine bottles of beer

Take one down

Pass it around

Ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall”

------ Thirty minutes later ------

“Zero bottles of beer on the wall”

He lifted his forehead off the floor where he had been resting it and began to look around the room again praying to god that there would be someone or somepony to respond to his singing. There was not a single person there except for the turtle slowly making his way over to him.

“Well at least I’m not alone anymore. I don’t suppose ya’ll can help me somehow?”

The turtle looked at him, now a foot away and at eye level with him and blinked. Adam watching the turtle and blinked back before the turtle walked up behind him, where he couldn’t see him, and felt a tug on the back of his vest.

“While I appreciate the effort in tryin’ to pull me out of the floor, I was more hoping that ya would get ya’lls owner.”

The turtle walked around him again before settling down on the floor next to him.

“I take that as a ‘no’ then.”

Another ten minutes elapsed before he heard the sound of a muffled voice coming from directly below him followed by a sudden tug on his hind hooves. When there was no change to his condition he heard the sound of more muffled sounds below him, then nothing. He had hoped that however that was pulling on him would have been able to get him out of this situation but was sadly disappointed.

Another ten minutes seemed to slowly crawl by in his boredom. There was nothing he could do to pass the time other than think and he had already done a lot of that lately. Though he was wedged in the cloud, he wasn’t at all uncomfortable due to how fluffy it was.

I can understand why someone would want to make a house out of this stuff.

His train of thought was shortly interrupted as he heard the sound of muffled talking coming from behind him. Twisting his head to get a better look to see, he became very much aware that there was a door right next to him.

Oh please open up the other way.

Not wanting to find out the hard way he called out hoping to get their attention saying, “Hey when ya’ll open the door be careful, I’m right on the other side.”

His efforts were for not, as he quickly was met with a door swinging open slamming him in the face.

“OW, sonofabitch!”

He heard the sound of the familiar scratchy voice that belonged to the rainbow pegasus, “Woops, sorry about that. Didn’t see you there. What are you doing here anyways?”

In the most sarcastic of tones he could muster he replied, “Oh ya know, I thought I would stop by say hello, talk to ya’lls turtle and hangout in ya’lls floor.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes, smirking, before squeezing through the door so as not to hit Adam again. Much to his further annoyance and discomfort Derpy followed shortly after opening the door again and smacking him in the face once again.

“OH! Sorry Adam, I didn’t know you were there,” she said with a concerned look on her face. “ I brought Rainbow Dash to help when I couldn’t pull you out myself, since this is her house.”

Adam looked over to Rainbow Dash and said, “So I guessed correctly about this being your place. By the way, since we are all here, can we get this over with. I am starting to lose feeling in my lower legs.”

Laughing Rainbow Dash said, “Ok ok just hold still while I move the clouds around for you.”

In seconds Adam was standing alongside the two mares shaking his hind legs to get blood flow running again. “God, I hate that feeling of needles sticking me when my leg’s asleep.”

“Since I just had to pull your sorry flank out of my floor, do you mind telling me how you got there in the first place?”

“Nothing much, just adding in a little flight practice to my normal PT. Lets just say it didn’t go as planned.”

“What’s PT?” asked the now confused grey pegasus.

“Well Ditsy-”

“You can call me Derpy, all my friends do. We are friends right?”

Adam paused for a moment and shrugged before replying, “I don’t see why not. Alright, Derpy, PT stands for physical training and I do it so that I can stay in top physical form. Its something that all recruits have to do in basic.”

At the use of her other name, Derpy had the look of the joy and happiness on her face and began to dance in place a little.

“By the way, what’s the name of ya turtle? He kept me company while I was stuck. And another thing, how is he even up here?” he said this as he pointed down at the turtle still standing next to him.

While Dash was looking at the turtle she said the a proud smile, “That turtle is my awesome little friend Tank. When I was choosing my pet he won the race.”

“What was he racing against?” Was it a snail.

“He was racing against an eagle, a hawk and a bat.”

Even though he wasn’t drinking anything at the time his body provided the spit that he now found stuck in his throat as he began to cough.

“Well damn, nice going Mr. Abrams.”

“What did you just call him?” Rainbow Dash looked at him quizzically unable to decide if that was suppose to be an insult or not.

Adam chuckled saying, “My country currently uses the M1A2 Abrams as its main battle tank. It is a beast of a machine that can both take a beating and give an even more severe one back. One of their nicknames is even ‘Tank Killer’ because of how effective they are and some reports even claim that a single round from it passing through multiple enemy tanks destroying them. I was just making a little joke while complimenting him.”

“Ok I see what you mean now. The answer to your second question is that, unlike pegasi other ponies need to use a spell to walk on clouds and it so happens that Twilight has perfected a spell that will allow Tank here to do so as well.”“Well now that I am unstuck from ya’lls floor I need to go shower then got to Rarity’s for my jacket.”

As he walked out the door and onto the small landing outside a sudden realization came to him:

I haven’t practiced landing yet. Well I guess this is my chance.

“One for the money. Two for the show. Three to get ready and AH fuck it.”

On the last line he jumped off the edge and spread his wings to slow his descent. He angled himself towards Twilight’s library, making small adjustments and flaps along the way to keep from crashing into something while en route. If anyone of the ponies was to watch his progress they would have thought he was drunk, as he wobbled in the sky, threatening to fall out at any moment.

Now then all most there just a little further and then I can shower wash these clothes and go to Rarity’s. Lets see if I can’t make this a smooth landing.

As he approached, not used to flying, he didn’t realize until the last second that he was going too fast and ended up hitting the ground and tumbling into the door with a thud. He found himself upside down with his butt in the air. When the door opened, he flopped inside and was soon laying on his back with Spike looking down at him shaking her head, laughing at his predicament.

“Well howdy there Spike, I’m back.”

“I see that.”

“If ya don’t mind, I need to jump in the shower again before I go see Rarity about my jacket and clothes.”

At the mention of Rarity’s name, Spike’s eyes widened as he asked, “If you're going to see Rarity, can I come with you?!”

“Um sure just give me a sec.”

Trotting up the stairs he made his way to his room to grab his towel and leaving his vest behind before going straight to the bathroom again to wash the new layer of sweat from his body. He had the feeling that Rarity would not appreciate him coming to her place of business smelling like crap and leaving dirt everywhere. Unlike his morning shower, this one was quick giving him time to then try to wash the dirt out of his pants and shirt.

After hanging his now wet clothes up to dry and cleaning up his mess, the sudden cool air on his fur made him very much aware now that he was naked in someone elses house and he didn’t have another pair of clothes.

I really didn’t think that through all the way.

Opening the door just a crack he poked his head out to make sure the coast was clear before he made his mad dash to the guest room. Not seeing anyone he opened the door and started making his move when he heard the sound of someone clearing their throat. He froze where he stood, turning his head to the right see Twilight watching him with a curious look on her face.

Twilight watched as he opened the door to the bathroom and began trotting to the guest room, now that she could finally see Adam without his clothes and armor, she saw that he was quite muscular and toned. Looking at him, she saw he was covered in a light brown coat and could also see the scar on his left shoulder as well as a long scar that crossed his chest from the right shoulder down and to the left. As her eyes followed his form she also noticed a similar scar like the one on his shoulder only this one was on his right hind leg just below his cutie mark. The cutie mark was also of a strange design but yet similar to that of her brother’s. She decided to clear her throat and get his attention, to which he promptly froze and looked over to her, his face turning redder by the second. She was about to say something when he bolted for the door closing it behind him. Now she was just even more confused by this strange behavior and decided to get answers to her questions.

Adam could feel all the blood rushing to his head while he bolted to the door of his room, trying to break the line of sight of the unicorn host that was stand just feet away from him. Not only was he naked in her home but she had also seen him and examined him. Grabbing his vest off the bed and forcing himself into it. He didn’t feel completely clothed but it was a start, all he had to do now was find some pants.

I just hope to God that Steve packed a pair on the off chance something was to happen.

He heard a knocking on the door causing him to jump at the sound. He then heard the sound of Twilight calling for him on the other side of the door.

“Adam, are you ok in there? Why did you run away like that?” The sound of concern evident in her voice.

“Where I am from its not polite, nor is it acceptable, to go walking around naked outside of ya own home and just because I’m a pony now doesn’t change how I was brought up.” He was still rummaging through the bags looking for pants but apparently God was not smiling on him today.

“Well you don’t have to worry about that, ponies don’t wear clothes except for special occasions, nopony will judge you for not wearing your normal clothes.”

“I think ya still missing the point. I don’t feel comfortable walkin’ around with my ass out for all to see and my only clothes are currently drying in the bathroom.”

“Ok then is it alright if I ask you a few questions while we wait?”

He rolled his eyes, “I thought that’s what ya already were doing.”

“Uh, well then I’ll go ahead and ask then. How did you get all those scars?”

“Those are from a mission going very wrong and I will not be going into any further details about it.” He made sure to use a tone that would indicate through the door that he was not going to argue about it and change his mind anytime soon.

“Fine then what does your cutie mark mean then?”

“My cutie what?”

“Your cutie mark. Your mark that you get after discovering your special talent, all ponies have them.”

“Wait, so ya’ll have all of ya children tattooed when they find something they like to do and are good at it?” He was quite shocked at hearing this new bit of information.

“What’s a ‘tattoo’?”

“Ya know, using a needle to put ink in the skin for the design, hell I even have one on my arm,” he looked down at his left leg, where his tattoo was but found nothing there, “or at least I used too.”

“Thats sounds painful, ours appear magically, we don’t do anything like that.” He could hear her disgust in his people’s methods of using themselves as art.

Adam looked down at his flank and saw a picture on both sides. The symbol he recognised as the American flag shield with the red and white stripes running down the length and a blue bar on top with three white stars in it.

So thats what those are called, I thought they were some sort of tattoo and because of where they are placed I could only think of Tramp Stamps. I should probably keep that thought to myself though.

“My ‘cutie mark’,” I hope they have another name for that, “is my country’s flag on a shield. What it means I have no idea and it is not really something that I care to think about at the moment. Now I don’t want to be rude or anything, this being ya home and everything but I would like to check on my clothes.”

“Ok, I’m not stopping you.”

“Um, Twilight if ya don’t mind turning around or something it would be much appreciated.”

Twilight giggled but complied turning her back towards the door and listened to it slowly open followed by the sound of hurried hoof steps and the bathroom door closing. Now that he was back in the bathroom Adam saw that his pants were still wet but not something a little sunlight wouldn’t fix. Quickly donning his pants he checked his shirt and did the same, now that he was fully clothed again he felt less exposed and secure. While leaving the bathroom he found Twilight outside the door still giggling at him.

He rolled his eyes and walked past her, so that she couldn’t see his face turn red, he yelled back to her, “So are you coming with me and Spike to Rarity’s or what?”

While trotting to her room she replied, “Just give me a moment to grab a few things, then we can head out.”

As Adam and Spike waited by the door they saw Twilight come down the stairs with her saddlebags filled with what looked like quills and paper, along with the occasional book.

“Um, are ya expecting this to take a while?”

“Well I thought, while we are at Rarity’s, that I would ask you some more questions and teach you a few things of our culture as well.”

Adam gave a little nod then turned out the door with Spike and Twilight close behind. The walk to Rarity’s was uneventful and quiet, which pleased Adam greatly as it gave him time to plan and think. It wasn’t long before they found themselves standing outside her business and home, opening the door. As they entered they heard the sound of the bell ring above the door and Rarity standing by expecting them.

“I see you made it. I had been expecting you to come by sooner than this. Is everything alright darling?”

“Yes, everything is fine, I just found myself stuck for a while.”

At his statement Rarity raised an eyebrow but said nothing before turning to a table where his newly repaired jacket laid.

“It took a little time to scrub out that dirt and grime from the jacket and repair the sleeve but it should be fine now. One thing I can’t understand is why would anypony wear such a ghastly thing?”

“Well its not something worn for its looks, well I mean visual appeal. I wear it so people don’t see me that well in the desert environment that I was in. As a sniper, I can’t afford to be seen or else I can’t do my job.”

From behind him, he heard Twilight ask, “And what exactly does a sniper do? I have never heard of that kind of job before.”

“Well we do a lot of things such as scouting, overwatch or even removing high valued targets, but those are just a few things we can do.”

“Removing high valued targets, what does that mean,” asked the inquisitive unicorn behind him again.

“Snipers specialize in long range combat. I use my rifle to eliminate any hostiles that mean to do harm to me, civilians or to my team.”

This new information didn’t seem to sit too well with Rarity and Twilight as their ears folded back flat against their heads with a look of horror on their faces.

“Why would anypony do that for a living? That is just so horrid,” exclaimed the fashionista.

“I do it so that no one else has to and so that my son can live in a more peaceful world without havin’ to deal with what I have to deal with. Now, I don’t want to be rude but can we start what we originally came here for, we are getting a little sidetracked again.”

Shaking her head Rarity replied, “Sure thing dear, just step over here so that I can take your measurements and examine your uniform. You said you wanted me to make another version of the one you are currently wearing but slightly different, correct? How would you like the other one to look exactly?”

Doing as she asked he stepped onto a raised platform as she went around him with a floating measuring tape.

“Well seeing as I am no longer in a desert but in a more wooded area, I need something to match. I need the clothes to have a forest camo scheme similar to this current pattern I am wearing but instead of the tan colors it needs to be green and brown like the forest.”

Twilight examined the uniform jacket while Rarity examined the clothes he was wearing to get a better understanding of the blocky pattern that covered him. To her it just seemed like a bunch of blocks that were randomly placed all over while the same color did not touch each other. Rarity seemed to be put off that she wasn’t going to be making anything that would be in anyway fashionable but loved the challenge the pattern would give her to reproduce as she wrote down her own notes about his clothes.

“Ok dear, this should not take me long to make, in fact I should be able to get a lot of it done within the next day or so. Now then since you are here and everything, I would like to ask you for a favor if thats alright with you.”

“Just name it, I owe ya’ll for all the trouble ya went through for me.”

“Well I have an order that I have been working on but I need somepony to model in it for me. You have a similar build as the stallion and I was wondering if you wouldn’t mind helping me a little.”

“I would be happy to help ya ma’am, it’s the least I could do.”

She giggled a little at his manners before directing him over to where the clothes he would need to put on were hanging. He noticed one thing before going to a changing room, there were no pants.

“Uh, Rarity are there suppose to be pants to go along with this?”

“No, its rare, even at social occasions to find somepony wearing pants.”

He looked back at the suit, then trotted into the other room changing his shirt but leaving his pants on. He found a mirror that sat on the wall and looked at himself but had to fight a fit of laughter. The pants with the shirt clashed so horribly that it was comical to say the least, which would cause anyone in the area to stay a good distance away so as not to be seen with him in public. Upon leaving the room he found that the two mares and dragon had been joined by Pinkie Pie in his absence and was now on he floor laughing at his new look, while Twilight and Rarity fought to suppress their own laughter.

Between fits of giggles Rarity managed to say, “Adam, I am going to need you to remove your pants so that I may have a better understanding of how my design looks. The pants are very distracting.”

Adam’s face reddened again and Twilight could see the look of distress all over. After their talk earlier she understood that he was too uncomfortable to remove his pants and walk around, but Rarity did not know this.

“Rarity, don’t force him to remove his pants. He is extremely uncomfortable doing so because of how he was brought up.”

“What do you mean Twilight,” asked the now curious fashionista who was still looking over Adam.

“Well earlier he told me that where he is from it is not acceptable to walk around nude outside of their homes.”

Rarity’s eyes lit up at this and said, “So you humans always wear clothes? There must be so many different styles where you are from.”

This went on for a few hours as Twilight took the opportunity to ask him all manner of questions on human culture, filling multiple pages again, while Rarity had him try on several other suits for her and asked him on his limited(nonexistent) knowledge on fashion. Once Rarity no longer needed Adam’s assistance he was reminded of his hunger when his stomach growled. Twilight, Adam and Spike promptly said their goodbyes to Rarity and Pinkie Pie, and Adam made sure to grab his newly repaired jacket, then left for the library to eat.

After finishing their meals, Twilight looked at the clock that was on the wall and announced that she was going to bed while taking Spike with her. Spike was more than happy to go to bed at that moment and so didn’t protest in the slightest. Adam on the other hand was not in the mood to sleep and decided to walk back into the main area of the library and read the first book that caught his interest off the shelf. There were two books that he grabbed that did the trick, one being of Equestria’s history and the other of it’s myths. He was interested to see what a land filled with mythical ponies had as their own myths. With these books he stayed up late into the night.

Chapter 8: Stop... Party Time

Name: MSG. Adam “Shifty” Smith
Date: August 20, 2015
Location: The Library
Time: 0530

Adam had finally had a peaceful sleep since coming to this land, although it was only two or so hours of sleep. He had elected to stay up and read most of the night until he had a good wall of books that he had skimmed through to get the important bits of information from. Turning off his watch’s alarm he gave in to his body’s desire for more sleep and decided that today would be a day of rest for him. Not even a second after his head was back down on the arm of the sofa, the one he fell asleep on earlier, was he once again dead to the world.

Twilight awoke with the sun in her eyes, like it always does at the usual time of seven thirty in the morning. Yawning she made her way down stairs only to stop half way down after hearing the faint sounds of snoring. Entering the main area of the library she saw Adam asleep on the sofa with drool flowing from his muzzle. She shook her head, understanding what its like to stay up late until she sees the wall of books he left beside him. The fact that they were no longer organized really got to her but let it slide since he probably didn’t know enough about her to understand.

Using her magic, she lifted the books and examined what he had been reading throughout the night and was surprised with what she saw. There were books on Equestria’s history and myths along with books with maps on cities and terrain. She also saw a book that she didn’t even know she had here, about war in Equestria.

While Twilight was busy replacing the books on the shelf, she was unprepared for the kick to her flank she soon received from Adam in his sleep. The sudden kick elicited a yelp from Twilight that made him begin the slow process of waking up. As he opened his eyes he saw Twilight sitting on her haunches rubbing the spot he had unknowingly kicked her before he looked down where his head was. On the arm of the sofa he could still see the pool of drool that had accumulated and was connected to him by a thin string.

“God damn it,” he said as he began to mop it up with his sleeve. “Sorry Twilight I didn’t mean to drool all over the place.”

Twilight looked back up at him and laughed at his attempts to clean the sofa before saying, “Its ok. There is a rag under the sink that you can use to clean that up. It will probably work better than your sleeve.”

Jumping off the sofa he made his way to the sink, finding the rag right where she said it would be. It took him only a few seconds to clean up his mess while Twilight put away the last of the books. Looking down at his watch he saw that it was only seven forty-two in the morning, he had only gotten roughly four hours of sleep last night and he felt it.

Well at least I can have breakfast for once.

Making his way back to the kitchen he looked over his shoulder and said, “Hey I’ll make breakfast today. I feel like having some pancakes today, what about ya’ll?”

Spike could be heard fumbling around upstairs followed by him asking, “Did somepony say they were making pancakes?”

“Yes I did, would ya like some,” Adam asked as he collected what he needed to make them as well as a bowl of small berries to add into the pancakes.

“I sure would,” exclaimed Spike as he ran to the table and sat down, Twilight shortly sat down next to him.

It wasn’t long before each one of them had a stack of pancakes sitting in front of them, Adam making sure to lather his up with syrup. The room was quickly filled with the sounds of ponies and a dragon happily chewing on their morning meal. With their meal done and dishes taken care of Adam went upstairs to check his bag in the hopes that he had his toothbrush with him and once he found his toothbrush he went to the bathroom.

As Twilight started to make her way to her own bathroom she heard Adam call out to her. “Hey Twilight, is it common for ponies to have canine teeth and other carnivore like teeth?”

Twilight stopped for a moment puzzled as to what he just asked. “No, not normally... Why?”

“No reason, just wondering.”

While looking at his sharp human teeth in the mirror the thought struck him:

Huh, wonder what that means about my diet? Can I still eat meat, because I would really like to eat some chicken.

While making his way down the stairs he saw Twilight sitting on the sofa he slept on looking over her notes that she had made while Spike was busily dusting everything. Once she heard his steps on the stairs she looked at him and smiled before turning back to her notes.

As she read over her notes she said, “I was surprised to see you were still asleep, you are normally out by the time any of us are even awake.”

Adam shrugged then replied, “I’m just going to rest today so I don’t over work my muscles. Too much exercise can be harmful to ya.”

“Well then, if you are going to use this day to relax, how do plan on spending the day doing so?”

“To be honest I have no idea. For starters I was going to go outside and go for a walk and see where that leads me.”

“Mind if I join you, we might run into a few of my friends.”

“If you want. I can’t very well stop you, now can I?”

She chuckled at his response before setting her notes on the table next to her and made her way to the door with him. It was a nice sunny day outside like the day before but with a slight chill in the air.

“What time of the year is it? It seems to be cooling off here compared to where I was last.”

“Well today is December fifth and we are entering winter at the moment.”

“Huh, I don’t believe I have my winter gear packed,” he said with a laugh while shaking his head.

“I’m sure Rarity can help you if you need her to.”

“Before I do anything like that though I need the money to pay here because I refuse to take anything else from her without paying her for her efforts. So one of the things I will be doing while we walk around is look for possible jobs, though with my skill set that might be a little hard. Being a career soldier does have its drawbacks when it comes to things like that.”

“Well I’m sure we can find something that you’re good at.” Even though she said this there was the ever lingering doubt that could be heard in her voice.

They soon found themselves in the middle of the market with many different ponies moving around doing their daily business. It wasn’t hard to spot the orange pony selling her apples to those passing by with a large red stallion Adam hadn’t met before. Twilight directed him over to the stand to say hello to her friend, seeing as he had nothing better to do he followed. Upon closer examination he noticed that the red pony was much larger than most ponies he had yet to see and stood over a head taller than Adam in his current state.

Once Applejack caught sight of her friends she called out, “Well howdy Twilight and Adam. What brings ya’ll here to the market?”

Twilight replied, “Hello Applejack, we were just going out for a walk and found ourselves here is all. Have you seen the others while you’ve been here?”

Applejack tapped her chin in thought before replying, “Well Ah did see Rainbow Dash flyin’ around doin’ one o’ her routines, but I haven’ seen any o’ the others.”

As if on cue the sound of flapping wings could be heard above them followed by that scratchy voice saying, “Hey guys. Whatcha all up to today?”

Adam replied this time saying, “Hey Rainbow Dash, we were just going out for a walk, using today to relax a bit. What about yourself?”

“Oh nothing, just got my own practice in for the day. I half expected you to be in my floor this morning like yesterday.”

Adam gave an irritated huff, “Ya not going to let one go are ya?”

Rainbow Dash scratched her chin as if in thought but then gave a devilish smirk and replied, “Nope. But hey if you need any help with your flying, just let me know and I’ll give ya a hoof.”

“Well I’ll have to take you up on your offer sometime I could always use the help.”

Their conversation was shortly interrupted by a voice coming from the other side of the stall, “Hey mister what’s yer name? Ah’ve never seen ya around here before.”

Leaning over to the side Adam could see a small yellow filly with a large bow in her mane looking at him with a curious look in her eyes.

“Um, my name is Adam what is your’s?”

Before the little filly could reply Applejack said, “Ah shoot where are my manners, let me introduce you to my family. This here is Apple Bloom,” she pointed at the small filly, “and this here is our brother Big Macintosh,” she finished by pointing at the large red pony behind her.

Adam nodded his head to each and said, “Its nice to meet ya’ll.”

Apple Bloom just said “Howdy,” and Big Mac said, “Likewise.”

“So why is it that ya are wearin’ all that stuff,” asked the inquisitive filly.

“Well this here stuff is my gear for my job helps keep me alive.”

“What is it that ya do?”

“I’m a soldier.”

“Whatsa soldier?”

“Umm, I guess they would be somethin’ like ya’lls royal guard.”

After his explanation something lit up in her eyes and she quickly ran off muttering something about Cutie Mark Crusaders.

“Cute kid, wish my son got to meet her, they would have gotten along well. Anyways Twilight is there anythin’ else you want to do, because I got nothin’.”

“We could go visit Fluttershy, she doesn’t get many visitors. I’m sure she’ll be happy to see everypony and it will allow you to see more of the town.”

“Alright then I guess I’ll just follow you then.”

“I guess I’ll join you two as well, now that I have finished my practice and don’t have any weather duties to take care of today,” announced the cyan pegasus.

The walk across the town only took them thirty minutes and another five minutes from there to get to Fluttershy’s cottage. Twilight used that period of time to show the remaining buildings that Adam didn’t know about from his previous tour of town. Beyond the mixture of looks he was receiving along the way, nothing out of the ordinary happened, it was obvious not all the ponies trusted him or liked him for that matter. He did have the oddest sensation that they were being followed about half way there and he didn’t like it, he had learned to listen to his gut so he stayed on guard the remainder of the trip. When the group had finally made it to Fluttershy’s he could see animals everywhere and of all different kinds.

“Hey, why does FLuttershy have all these animals?”

Twilight responded as she knocked on the door, “She is the local vet, so she takes care of all creatures that are hurt.”

While the group was talking the door slowly opened just enough for them to see a tuft of pink mane and a single eye through the crack. A few of the smaller animals used that moment to push their way through the door to go outside, forcing the door to open even more, much to the discomfort of the shy yellow pegasus.

“H-h-h-hello everypony.”

Seeing her opportunity Rainbow Dash shot forward and pulled the yellow pegasus outside saying, “Hey Fluttershy, why don’t you come outside the weather is great. You don’t need to stay inside all say, even Twilight is outside for once.” Rainbow Dash then turned to Adam and asked, “You need to tell me how you did that by the way.”

He just shrugged, he had been doing that a lot over the past couple of days, and replied, “All I said was that I was going for a walk, nothing special.”

Rainbow Dash just hovered there giving Twilight interesting looks nodding her head, seemingly forgetting about Fluttershy. Adam was starting to look inside now that the door had been opened further and saw a small white rabbit standing in the doorway. The thing that made this rabbit stand out from any other rabbit that he had seen was the fact that this rabbit was giving him a death glare for some reason. Against his better judgement he decided to approach the strange rabbit to get a better look.

“Hey there little guy, what's wrong.”

The rabbit continued to glare at him then threw a half eaten carrot into his face, then he kicked him in the shin before running off.

“Sonava- I swear I am going to turn you into rabbit stew. Did ya’ll see that,” he turned back around to see the three mares in the middle of a conversation.

The three of them glanced over at him with quizzical looks and Twilight replied, “See what?”

His pride caught up to him and he quickly stammered, “Nothing, nothing at all,” then turned back to give the doorway his own death glare.

“Well anyways, me and the girls have decided to take you to Sugarcube Corner for lunch.”

“Alright, I could go for some lunch, but I don’t have any money to pay for it.”

“Its alright I’ll pay for this one, you can just buy me lunch when you get a job as payment. Oh, but before we go I have something that belongs to you.” Her horn began to glow and opened up a saddlebag, he hadn’t noticed she was carrying, and levitated over to him his Ipod and speakers. “I used a simple spell after studying its power source so now it will use the magic that all ponies emit from their bodies at power.”

Adams eyes widened as he unconsciously rubbed the back of his head with a hoof feeling around for anything out of place, “So I’m a battery.”

“Well if you want to look at it that way, then yes I guess you would be considered a battery, but you can just charge the battery inside of it.”

Taking the Ipod and speakers he placed them in his pockets and pouches on his vest and pants. After he had everything put away they headed off towards Sugarcube Corner. The trip to the store was similar to the trip to Fluttershy’s except that Adam noticed there were a lot less ponies out and about and that same feeling of being watched was still there, he didn’t like it. Letting his experience kick into action he took the lead of the group and began scouting out the area to find who was following them without alerting anyone. It wasn’t long before they were in front of the store and from what he could see it would have made any child want to eat it on the spot.

Hansel and Gretel can bite my ponified ass.

Slowly opening the door, he came face to face to a barrel of a canon, all his training kicked into play as he quickly shoved the mares behind him to safety and out of the way of the canon before he spun around forcing his back against the wall outside. There was an explosion of confetti came shooting out of the door with a loud shout of “Surprise” following it.

Realizing he wasn’t in any immediate danger he poked his head into the room to see a bunch of ponies throughout the room smiling at him and a few laughing at his reaction. He could hear laughter coming from behind him that he recognised as belonging to Rainbow Dash and the sounds of apology coming from Fluttershy. Behind the canon he saw none other than Pinkie Pie with her trademark smile covering the majority of her face bouncing in place.

“What the hell is going on here,” he exclaimed, extremely agitated at the surprise and ashamed at his own initial reaction, he had nearly attacked one of the ponies thinking there was a threat.

“Its your surprise party silly, I told you I would make you a party and here it is.”

Sure enough hanging from the ceiling was a banner that read ‘Welcome to Equestria/Ponyville’ in large letters. There was a table set up along the wall with snacks and punch while there was even a DJ playing over near a dance floor. Everywhere else was an assortment of games set up with ponies playing and having a good time.

“Now that the main guest of the party is here lets get this started! Shifty follow me I have a couple of ponies that would like to meet you.”

He watched as she bounced over to the DJ and a grey earth pony, and started talking to them, who in turn smiled at her and glanced over at him when he saw Pinkie Pie finish talking to her. He couldn’t make out what was said, due to the loud music that was playing that reminded him of the music back home, but continued watching them in interest to see what was going to happen. The DJ was a white unicorn with electric blue mane and a large pair of sunglasses, while the grey earth pony was wearing a bow-tie and seem to have the air of high class about her.

The three mares walked back to him, as they got closer he began by introducing himself then held out a hoof to shake. The grey pony shook hooves with him then said that her name was Octavia and that it was a pleasure to meet him. When it came time to do the same with the white pony, she didn’t shake his hoof but instead gave it a bump.

This unexpected difference caused him to burst into laughter and say, “Well I wasn’t quite expectin’ a fist bump but I’m cool with that.”

“The names Vinyl Scratch, its nice to meet ya. I’ve heard that you have a magic box that plays some pretty rad music. Care to show us?”

Octavia didn’t seem to care for the way that Vinyl went about introducing herself but was still very much interested in the device that was mentioned.

“I don’t see why not,” he pulled out the rectangular device from his pocket, “do ya’ll think ya could hook this up to your setup?”

Vinyl examined the box for a moment before replying, “I think I can manage something just give me a moment and I’ll need you to work it.”

A few seconds later Vinyl was able to connect the Ipod to her sound system with the use of her magic before nodding towards Adam to choose the song.

“Now Vinyl, I think you will like this song quite a bit, and Octavia you might enjoy it more than Vinyl's...”

“Wubs,” Vinyl answered his unasked question.

“This song was done by an orchestra for a game that I like to play back home.”

At the very word orchestra Octavia lit up while Vinyl gave him odd looks, as if he was mad.

“I think you might have us backwards here.”

“You will see or hear soon enough.”

Vinyl had a dumbfounded expression on her face while Octavia seemed to have a smug grin on her own. She seemed to take pleasure in the fact that an orchestra could play something that could get everyone’s attention as the room had quieted down considerably to listen to the music as it played. Most had been jamming to the music as it played while others just listened, but still seemed to enjoy it.

“You're saying an orchestra played that,” was all that Vinyl could say.

“I have another song that you would probably enjoy more, Octavia. Its by the same orchestra but something more traditional, so to speak.”

Taking the Ipod again he thumbed through the songs but this time without it being connected to the speakers he let it play from its built in speakers so that only those nearby could hear. The music he was going to play, he knew wasn’t really party music so he let Vinyl begin one of her songs for the rest of the crowd to listen to and continue the party festivals.

Octavia’s smug grin turned to that of true joy after hearing the song and said, “This is much better. You can feel the emotion in the music as its playing that, unlike other genres of music, words are not required in the piece to express them.”

A crowd had started to form around them in order to listen in on what was being played, to the point that Adam started feeling uncomfortable. The party continued on like that for the rest of the day and went a little into the night. Many songs and games were played along with large amounts of food consumed. Octavia and Vinyl seemed to enjoy the songs that were played throughout the night, while Vinyl showed him some of her own works. During one of the songs Derpy approached him, he took notice of the nervous glances the other two mares in his company were giving her and fully intended to ask about it later.

When Derpy came up to him she came carrying a tray full of muffins that she had made, and shortly there after spilled on him and followed it with a stream of apologies. He found her company enjoyable nonetheless and even saw her bouts of clumsiness as cute in there own way. As the party started to die down later into the evening Derpy, Vinyl and Octavia were some of the last ponies to head to their respective homes, each one wishing him a good day and trying to plan future meets with him.

To Adam, today was a great day that he fully enjoyed and the next day he knew he would be ready for. Tomorrow he would be meeting the princesses for the first time.

Author's Note

Just like always I would like to thank my editors for taking the time to read through my chapters for me, even though they have there own to worry about.

Wubwave
Masterbrony2012

And like always leave me a comment on what ya'll think and what ya'll didn't like.

Chapter 9: Royal Meetings

Name: MSG. Adam “Shifty” Smith
Date: August 21, 2015 (December 6, Equestria)
Location: The Library
Time: 0530

Why can’t my dreams just leave me alone!

Rubbing his eyes, to get the gunk out of them, he then turned off the alarm on his watch and got up out of bed. His dream was more of a memory and one that he thought he had gotten over years ago. The dream was about when he first saw a civilian used as a bomb and kill five of his friends from basic in the blast, as he observed through his scope. All he could do was lay there and watch as the two that survived the initial blast, screaming, died shortly afterwards from the severe blood loss and loss of limbs. If he closed his eyes he could still see the carnage before him, burned into his retinas.

Now that he was awake he had things that needed to be done. He had to pack up his gear in preparation for the trip to see the princesses and he had no intentions of leaving anything behind even if he wasn’t going to be there for very long. He began by removing his rifle maintenances kit and went to work on the sniper rifle and the anti material rifle that he had. He planned on breaking them down to store them in the bags for easier travel, but he first needed to work on them a bit. According to the letter Twilight received last night, they were to expect a chariot to come pick them up a little after one o’clock.

Normally he would have used this time to still get in some training, he wanted to test something out that he came up with after hearing about the fighting with the changelings. In the meantime until Twilight woke up he was going to perform a quick inventory check of what he had left. He emptied the two bags and began to organize them into separate groups to see what he now had and to see if Steve had packed any more surprises in there besides the Ipod.

Now that he had finally removed everything from his bags and looked at it all, he realized that he had effectively double the standard combat load with him. He had all this gear in front of him but nothing to use it for at the moment. While going through Steve’s old bag he found nothing else that was different from his own supplies. The time it took for him to actually clean and break down the two rifles as well as unpack then re pack his bags, with the additions of the two rifles, the sun had made its way into the sky and found a way to shoot glares into his eyes.

He could hear the faint sounds of hoof steps coming from down the hall and the sounds of yawns from the ever sleepy dragon close behind them. Looking at his watch again he saw that it was now seven forty-five in the morning. Well now that he was done with this he could now go join Twilight and Spike for breakfast and finally ask Twilight about something.

When he made it down the stairs he found the two making themselves bowls of cereal and from his angel he could see the title of the box, “Hay-O’s.”

Yeah, I think I’ll make myself some eggs.

Walking over to the refrigerator he said his hellos to Spike and Twilight who returned his greetings before he pulled out the eggs sitting inside and the pan hanging from the ceiling. He wasn’t the best of cooks but he managed to make a few simple things here and there. How he hadn’t given himself food poisoning was anyone's guess and for that reason he was never the one cooking.

Halfway through his cooking, the scrambled eggs he was going to make ended up becoming an omelette which left him pleasantly surprised at his own mistake and just went along with it. Sitting back at the table with his plate now in front of him he began the awkward task of using a fork and knife. He was starting to get the hang of using the utensils here but he still had a long ways to go.

After finishing his meal he followed Twilight back into the main area of the library, the time had come.

“Hey Twilight can I ask you for a favor?”

“Sure you can Adam. What is it that you need,” she asked as she tilted her head in curiousity.

“Ya remember that spell ya’ll used on the changeling so that you could see their true form?”

“Yes, I remember that spell. Why, what is it that you need it for? Are there changelings here?!” Twilight’s interest had just peaked and she now really wanted to know what he would want with this spell.

“No no no no, there are no changelings that I am aware of. I want ya to use that spell on me.”

This caught Twilight completely off guard to say the least. “But you are not a changeling, why would you want me to cast the spell on you?”

“Well I was thinkin’ that like a changeling I am not really a pony and even though it is a stretch I was hopin’ that maybe that spell could show my true form.

“There is no telling if the spell will even work let alone for how long. IF it works, it could last a few seconds or it could last all day or even forever there is just no information out there that can help.”

His ears lowered and his head dropped down a bit as he said, “I know but I still want ya to cast the spell on me. I just want to be my actual self for a while at least.”

Twilight gave him a thoughtful look before finally giving in and agree to cast the spell for him. They started the preparations by first clearing out a small area so as not to break anything then had him stand in the middle of it.

“Now I think if I alter the spell just a I might give you a better chance of this actually working. Now are you ready?”

Adam gave a quick glance around the room before responding, “As ready as I’ll ever be.”

Twilight gave him a little nod and he began watching as her horn lit up a bright lavender color which was then a bright white. He had to look away so as not to blind himself in the process and was not ready for the beam to shot out and hit him square in the chest sending him flying into the wall on the other side of the room. He collapsed into a heap on the floor and waited to get the air back into his lungs. He didn’t feel any different besides the bruise that was sure to form on his chest now and the throb in his head from slamming it into the wall.

He let out a defeated sigh before looking at Twilight and saying, “Well it was a nice try, but I guess it didn’t work. Thank you for trying Twilight, we should probably ARGH!”

He was interrupted by a searing pain that was consuming his very being, forcing him back to the ground screaming the entire time. Twilight on the other hand could only look on in horror at what she had just done to her friend and not knowing any way to make it stop. All she could do was stand there eyes the size of pin pricks and with her ears plastered to her head as she listened to his screaming pleas to make the pain stop.

To Adam it felt like every second was its own eternity as someone poured molten lead into his veins and set his flesh on fire. Just as quickly as it came, it was over. He was lying in the fetal position shaking uncontrollably, but like before he didn’t feel any different other than the pain from earlier. He decided to make an effort to stand back up, but unlike earlier he felt uncomfortable on all fours like he had been. Looking down to investigate why he saw something that put a smile on his face. He saw a set of gloved hands planted on the ground holding him up and these weren’t just any hands these were his hands.

He made another attempt to stand but this time he rose up on his hind legs to find that they too had been turned back to their original form as well as the rest of hi for that matter. He could feel the smile spread wider on his face as he began to stretch out his limbs and listened to the joints pop. Twilight’s look of horror changed to that of awe at seeing her friends true form as he now towered over everything in the room.

Throwing a couple of punches in front of himself he hollered, “I’m back baby!” He then straightened back up and turned to Twilight before saying, “Now I would like to thank you again Twilight for casting the spell for me, though I didn’t expect the pain and being thrown into the wall but I can’t complain about the end results. If you would excuse me I believe there is a certain mint green pony that would like to see me in my current form.”

Walking in town, while uneventful, was very unsettling. Everywhere he went he could not find anyone outside and it was a very nice day out. All the shops were closed and the windows had their shutters drawn.

A little distance ahead he heard the some one rhyme, “What is the matter little pony folk, is this some new brand of joke?”

Rounding the corner he saw who had been speaking and duly surprised to see a zebra standing there in front of a shop door glaring at it. The zebra must have heard him approach because it then turned and faced him and gave him a curious look.

“What is this that I see, a new and strange creature stands before me .”

“Well hello to you too, I’m not too surprised to see that there are also talking zebras here too. Anyways I meant to ask Twilight before I left but do you know where I could find Lyra’s home?”

“The pony that you seek lives just down at the end of this here street.”

That rhyming must get really annoying.

Saying a quick thank you he made his way down the street to the house with a sign out front stating that the residents were Bon Bon and Lyra. He walked up to the door and gave it a few quick knocks and waited for a response. He waited a couple of minutes but heard no response before he repeated the process again.

He knocked again but this time he called out, “Lyra are you home? Its me Adam, I just wanted to talk for a bit before I go to Canterlot.”

This time he could hear faint sounds coming from inside. From what it sounded like, it seemed like there was an argument going on inside over something.

A sudden thought came to him and he decided to go with it. Taking a step back as if he was leaving he said, “Oh well, I just thought Lyra would have liked to see the hands I just got back. But since she isn’t here I guess I might as well leave. We don’t know how long the spell will last and it could end at any moment.”

He was rewarded with the sounds of even louder talking and the sounds of scuffling and then scraping at the door. Having had a bad time with the doors around here he took another step back away from the door as it swung outwards toward him just as he did so.

Now standing before him was none other than the mint green unicorn he had been looking for, though she was slightly out of breath at the moment. Upon seeing him her eyes widened and her grin grew to a size that would even give Pinkie a run for her money.

“Something told me that would get you to come out. Why were you locked inside anyways?”

“Oh that,” Lyra shot a look back at the cream colored pony behind her, “well Bon Bon here wouldn’t let me out because, like most ponies here, she does not trust strange and new ponies that come into town. But hey Bon Bon guess what.” She then broke out into a dance chanting, “I’m right, I’m right, you’re wrong, you’re wrong, humans, exist.”

He couldn’t help himself but to laugh at her little antics at the expense of her friend, who was currently face hoofing.

“So now that I have shown you what I really look like, do you have any questions that you might want answered?”

Lyra gave her chin a gentle tap in thought then looked up at him, “How is it now that you have lived without hands for a while?”

“Well I can say this, I REALLY missed not having to put every damn thing in my mouth to pick things up. That and hands are just so useful, but it was extremely painful getting them back and I don’t even know for how long.”

Adam looked down at his hands and started flexing his fingers with a faint smile on his face. Lyra began to stare at his hands while her mind wandered, thinking of what it would be like to have a set of her own hands.

Coming out of her mental wanderings she looked up into his face and asked, “Is it alright if I ask you something?”

“Ya just did,” he laughed, “but go ahead.”

She chuckled at his joke and asked, “Can I draw you? All the books I have read give a brief description and even have rough sketches, but nothing really detailed. It will be really quick, I swear.”

“Um uh sure, you can draw me I still have a few hours before I have to go.”

The “quick” drawing took three hours as she questioned him on different parts of his body and labeling them on her sketch. The amount of detail she put into the drawing would make a textbook be ashamed of itself for its own lack of detail in comparison. He had to force her to stop when he realized how much time had passed He had to make his way back to Twilight’s and if he let Lyra have her way he would be late getting back. Saying his goodbyes he started his march back to the library.

As he walked he could feel a new tingling sensation in his legs that had been ever so slowly creeping its way up. This new feeling had started about half way through Lyra’s questioning and sketching and was now about to his knee. Adam did not have a clue what was causing it but if he had to take a guess, he was running out of time.

----- The Library -----

Twilight stood in front of her friends, who had shown up early for the trip, looking at the luggage that each one had brought with them. She noticed that Rainbow and Applejack hadn’t brought anything with them like usual, while Fluttershy had a small saddle bag on her back same as Pinkie. When it came to Rarity however, she had packed enough for each one of them three times over. Twilight could only shake her head, know that there was no way she could convince the fashionista to reduce the amount of luggage she would be bringing.

She looked back at her collected friends before saying, “Now girls before Adam gets back I need to tell you all something.”

Applejack raised an eyebrow asking, “What is it sugarcube?”

“Well you see before Adam left this morning he asked me to cast a spell on him.”

She was quickly interrupted by her hyperactive pink friend’s stream of questions, “What kind of spell?! Did it make him super strong or super fast?! Did it give him the ability to jump over building in a single bound or x-ray vision?! Can he fly?!”

Rainbow Dash spoke up, “Pinkie, Adam already knew how to fly, if you want to even call that flying.”

Twilight gave a huff of irritation, “If you would just let me finish I would tell you. Now then as I was saying, I cast a spell on Adam that would-”

She was interrupted again but this time by the door behind her opening and a tall figure ducking into the room so that it wouldn’t hit its head on the doorframe. The expressions on her friends faces and their responses varied on each one.

Fluttershy quickly, “Eeped,” and fell over; stunned by the new creature.

Applejack seeing something possibly dangerous cried, “What in tarnation,” as she took an aggressive stance alongside Rainbow Dash who was glaring at the creature standing before them getting ready for a fight.

Rarity looked at it with wide eyes, frozen stiff into place.

Pinkie just waved yelling, “Hey Shifty, bring me anything?”

Twilight jumped into action before things could get any worse and shouted, “Wait girls, stop, its Adam. Remember from the photo? I cast a spell on him so that he could be in his human form.”

The look of recognition soon spread on each of the faces of her friends as the information sank in. The creature, that they now knew was Adam, shifted uneasily in place waiting.

He finally spoke, “Is everything alright, I’m not going to be jumped now am I?”

After watching all the ponies relax their posture around, did he finally ease his own stance. Looking around the room he soon came across the different piles of luggage that each pony was or wasn’t taking with them.

Adam glanced over to Rarity before asking, “Ever hear of packing light?”

“What do you mean darling, this is packing light.”

Adam pinched the bridge of his nose, he had the feeling that the rest of the day was going to be very long indeed.

“How did you say we were going to be getting to Canterlot again?”

Twilight brought the letter back up to her face, once again, replying, “It says that they will be coming to pick us up in cherriots. I just hope they brought enough for all of Rarity’s luggage, unlike last time.”

Rarity scoffed, “One must be ready for any occasion.”

“Annnyyyways, when are they suppose to be here? I want to get this over with, I don’t want to miss any chances that I might get to meet the Wonderbolts,” said Rainbow Dash as she went to the window, excitement evident in her body language.

Adam looked down at his watch and announced, “Well it is almost time so they should be here shortly.”

“Wait I see them flying over Ponyville now.”

Or they could be here now, I guess. Wasn’t much point in me checking the time.

Adam grabbed his gear and slung the bags onto his back, while he saw the others grab their things or help others with theirs. Adam, being the first to step outside, was met by a collection of pegasi guards in different stages of surprise at his appearance. Like the girls inside a few of them took offensive stances brandishing their spears, while some stood there wide-eyed and the last of them looked towards their superiors for guidance.

Adam shot them all a glare and yelled, “ OK, seriously I haven’t even done a damn thing and this is the second time a group of ponies have started acting aggressive towards me. Its really starting to piss me off.”

One of the pegasi stepped forward, Adam assumed he was in charge, and demanded, “Who and what are you and why are you here in Ponyville?”

“Well if ya’ll wish to know your going to have to ask nicely.” Adam could hear the door open behind him during the confrontation, but wasn’t going to react to the ponies joining in.

The pegasus snorted in rage and raised his spear, “You will tell us or we will force you to.”

Adam took a defensive stance and replied, “I would like to see ya try.”

From behind him he heard Twilight shout, “Enough, stop it all of you. Adam we have a schedule to keep up with and the princesses want to see you.”

The pegasus’ eyes widened at the mention of the creatures name and looked back at him. He then took a step back and stammered, “My apologies ambassador, I didn’t mean to be rude.”

“Yeah ya better be... Wait what did you just call me?”

“Princess Celestia has hereby granted Master Sergeant Adam Smith the title and privileges of ambassador of the United States of America.”

“Well fuck.”

“What is the matter darling,” asked Rarity walkin up to his side from the left while looking at him with concern.

Turning around he could see the different levels of concern and worry across all their faces, minus Pinkie of course. “From everything I have told ya’ll, when ya’ll look at me what do ya see?”

Twilight took a few steps forward saying, “Well from what you have told us about yourself and a little of your past, I would say a guard or in your case a soldier.”

“Exactly a soldier, NOT an ambassador or any other kind of representative. Talking to foreign dignitaries was never part of my job description and to top it off I was never a real big people person or in this case a pony person.”

“Don’t ya worry that sugarcube we’re here with ya.”

Thats really reassuring, he sarcastically thought.

Picking up his bags he turned back around and saw the collection of guards start heading towards the mountain that Rarity’s bags have formed and he could see the look of understanding in some of the older guard’s eyes as they passed him. The lead guard points them to the first cart while a second guard tries to take his bags.

“Sorry but I’m going to hang onto these, if you don’t mind,” Adam says to the guard as he jumps into the chariot before the guard can say anything.

The girls are not far behind as they each climb into the chariot too, Twilight sitting next to him followed by Applejack, Rainbow Dash, and Rarity. While Fluttershy positioned herself on the opposite end of the chariot farthest away from him. The guards quickly filled the second chariot with the luggage before getting into formation and putting on their harnesses. Shortly after they were set they took to the skies, the only thing Adam could think of that was anything like it was riding in a helicopter but without the sounds of the rotor blades spinning in the air above him. Looking ahead he began to study the castle and the lands that surrounded it, trying to gain as much intel with his eyes as he could, he never did like going on a mission with little intel.

The fact that the tingling sensation had made its way up to his neck didn’t help with his discomfort and only made him dread even more of what was to come. He finally decided to pull out his Ipod and use the earbuds as he continued his scan of the area ahead, tapping his fingers to the beat the entire time. The girls beside him were talking but he didn’t care to take out the earbuds to find out, they seemed to be enjoying themselves so he continued examining the layout of the city the closer they got to it. It wasn’t long until he felt a tap on his shoulder getting his attention.

Pulling out his earbuds he sees all the girls look at him, before he can say anything Twilight asks, “What are you listening to?”

“Music,” is all he replies getting a laugh from Rainbow Dash and just an eye roll from Twilight.

“Ok ,what kind of music?”

“Here, why don’t ya see for yourselves,” as he began to dig around in his bag for the speakers, only taking him a couple of seconds to hook everything up and hitting the replay button.

“Hay yeah, now that is more what I’m talking about,” exclaimed Rainbow Dash as she pumped a hoof in the air.

The others besides Pinkie seemed less as thrilled about the music but kept their opinions to themselves, except Fluttershy who was now hiding behind her own mane. He just shrugged and went back to his observations, from what he could see everything lead up to the castle, which sat behind high walls and guard towers. The buildings farther away from the castle were smaller but the closer you got the taller they became. There was even a river of water that ran alongside the walls that ended in a waterfall.

He was interrupted again but this time by one of the pegasi pulling them saying, “We will be landing just inside the castle walls. From there you will be escorted to the throne room to meet the princesses.” Sure enough they began to descend into a courtyard just inside, where a collection of guards stood at the ready to accept them.

Once they touched down and came to a stop the girls were the first to jump out and head for the doors, waiting only long enough for him to get out and catch up with them. He could see the excitement in the group, but from what he could see, none of them were anywhere near as excited as Twilight.

When they made it to the doors the guards took up formation around them causing the sense of unease to increase even more for Adam. He never took his eyes off them as they went, making a mental map of the turns they were taking so he could navigate better if he ever found himself alone.

Leaning over to Twilight he asked, “Why are you so excited?”

She looks up to him, a large smile spread across her face and says, “Well because of the duties the princesses have I am not always able to see them for my studies, being her student and all, but I also get to see my BBBFF.”

He raised an eyebrow and asked, “Uh, and what the hell is a BBBFF exactly?”

“Oh, sorry it stands for Big Brother Best Friends Forever. You see like the princesses, because of Shining Armor’s duties as the captain of the royal guard, I don’t get to see him that much either.”

“Woah woah woah, back up a moment. Your brother is the captain of the princesses’ royal guard?”

“Yes he is, he has been for the past two years and eleven months.”

“Your family is either very lucky or very talented, my guess is maybe a little of both.”

“Well either way we are here,” Twilight says as she lifts a hoof in the direction of the large wooden doors standing before them.

He took a deep breath as the guards began to open the doors giving him his first look into the throne room. From the first glance he saw that it was rather long with a red carpet leading all the way to the thrones where he can see two ponies sitting taller than any other ponies he had seen. The tallest of the two ponies was white with a mane that flowed with a combination of blues and pinks in some unknown wind while the other was slightly shorter and was a dark blue with a mane that reminded him of the night sky that too waved in an unknown wind. Along the walls were pillars holding up the roof that stood three stories above them and at every other pillar stood a guard in their golden armor and spear, standing at attention.

They started walking forward along the carpet at a reasonable pace, not that it felt that way to Adam but his nerves were shot as it was.

Thats probably why they made the room so long, for that bit of intimidation.

As they got closer to the two on the thrones he could make out the motherly smile that the taller one had, who he guessed was Celestia since it matched the description Twilight gave him. The smaller one, process of elimination making that one Luna, looked excited and having a little trouble staying still. He spots another guard, but unlike the others this one is wearing a purple armor that makes him stand out more than the others and on his flank is a shield with stars that are similar to that of Twilight’s.

It isn’t long before he finds himself at the base of the uprise that leads to the thrones, where they come to a stop. The girls each begin to bow while he does something different, he stands at attention, salutes and holds it. This seems to offend a few guards due to the fact that one begins to walk up to him with a leveled spear.

“You will show our princesses some respect.”

Before he could get too close however Celestia speaks, “It is alright, he is doing what he has been trained to do when in the presence of foreign dignitaries. Now please return to your station.”

The guard reluctantly backs away and returns to his post along the wall with a stoic expression like the others. Adam remained still, not responding to the advances of the guard beyond the slight twitch his hand made towards his sidearm.

Celestia looked back at the group and in a gentle voice said, “Rise my little ponies, and at ease Ambassador Smith.”

Twilight uses this opportunity to run up to the princess and nuzzle her leg in greeting, then waving to her brother as well.

“Ma’am I’m not an ambassador, I’m just a soldier,” he replies as he stands at ease but never letting his posture drop.

Celestia just seemed to smile even more at this, never taking his eyes off of him before asking, “Is it alright if I call you Adam?”

“Thats fine ma’am.”

“Adam from what I have read from the letters Twilight has sent, I was expecting you to be a pony. Do you care to explain?”

He felt his lip twitch slightly as he tried not to smile and said, “I got better.”

The ponies gave him confused looks while Pinkie fell to the ground in a fit of laughter.

“Well at least some one here gets my joke,” he looked down at her as she beat the ground with a hoof, “I think.”

Adam glanced back over to the second alicorn, from what he could remember from the books, was sitting there biting her lip. He could see the questions she had ready for him just wanting to pour out at any second.

Well isn’t she acting all cute.

What he didn’t expect was for her face to begin reddening and her to ask, “You really think so,” quickly wiping any trace of a smile that was beginning to appear on his face. If any of the ponies thought his back couldn’t get any straighter, they were dead wrong, as he shot to his fullest height and began to glare.

GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY HEAD! He used the most threatening voice he could possibly think of in his anger.

He saw as she recoiled a bit from his mental shout, any thought not related to what was going on he quickly pushed away so as not to be seen.

“Now Adam,” Celestia said as she glanced over to her sister, who had now dropped her head down a bit with a sad look in her eyes, “before we start, I would like you to surrender all weapons you may have on your person at this time.”

“No, ma’am.”

His response was followed by a gasp and a large number of surprised and angered looks at his denial of the princess’ demand. In his anger he couldn’t care less about anyone there, they had just broke into his mind without him knowing like it was nothing, invading his most private of thoughts. He was beyond pissed.

“No,” asked Celestia with a raised brow, “what do you mean no.”

“I will not willingly hand over property of the United States government to a foreign power, especially one that I can’t trust and one that can pose a threat to my country’s security, that is what I fucking mean.” He wasn’t even going to try and hide his outrage, his last sanctity was just broken into without him even being aware, his anger wanted out and he would let it.

The room became deathly quiet as a group of guards began to advance on him, while he rested his right hand on the pistol on his thigh, ready to draw it out and fire if any came too close. Seeing that the situation had quickly come crashing down Celestia began to speak again, to calm everyone down again, but was interrupted before she could even utter the first syllable. The throne room was filled with the sounds of a blood curdling scream from Adam as he dropped to the floor pain evident on his face. Seeing an opening she used her magic and removed the rifle off his back, the knives off his chest along with the magazines and finally the pistol from his thigh and placed them all in a chest behind her.

Adam on the other hand continued to scream, feeling the pain from earlier come back. The pain was making him deaf to his surroundings and to the horror that covered the faces of every pony in the room. Twilight felt the worst of all the ponies knowing that this was her doing, it was her spell from that morning that was causing him all this pain. But just like last time, it ended just moments later with the pony version of himself laying on the ground in the fetal position, shaking uncontrollably.

Now that the pain has ended, his anger had returned but this time sadness followed as he looked at his forelegs. He made an effort to stand and found it difficult from the injury in his left leg from the wolves. The shape shifting had further aggravated the wound, letting him know he was on the verge of tearing his stitches.

The sound of talking brought Adam back to his current setting to see Celestia talking to him, “Now Adam we only wish to help you and I’m sorry that my sister offended you, though I don’t think she meant to do so. The only way we can help you though is if you cooperate with us. If you don’t mind, it would help us if you would show us what brought you here in the first place.”

Looking back at her with the anger and sadness still present he said, “THATS the problem, I don’t know what brought me here. There was an explosion and I woke up in the forest.”

“Then let us view the events that lead up to your appearance here and we can work from there,” as she spoke she kept her motherly smile to mask her emotions from him.

“And how do ya plan on doing that,” he asked in an irritated tone.

“It is a simple spell that we cast on you that shows us a memory of your choosing, and projects it onto a surface, like on a mirror.”

“Fine, if it will will speed things up and get me home I’ll show ya’ll what happened.”

Better than having to say it all out loud.

Celestia’s horn flared with her magic again as a full body mirror appeared between the two groups while Luna’s horn soon flared as well causing it to turn white.

Luna turned her attention away from the mirror and back to him and with a look of apology said, “I will cast a spell on you that will allow you to show everypony here the memory of your choosing. It is entirely up to you how much you would like to show us, but it would benefit you the most if you show us the entire memory to when you arrived.”

“Can someone else perform the spell, like Twilight?”

This seemed to hurt Luna as it showed on her face but it was Celestia who replied, “Luna is the best when it comes to a pony’s or in this case person’s mind and memories.”

Adam grumbled a little before he saw Luna’s horn flare again and her eyes close. The glow on her horn could also be seen covering him before fading to a point on his forehead.

“Now you just simply think of the memory and it will show and if you wouldn’t mind explaining what is going on would help too.”

Giving a deep sigh, he closed his eyes and thought of what lead up to everything. Opening his eyes slowly he saw five figures that he knew, all lined up alongside a door in a standard breaching formation.

“I was part of a six man sniper team that was to provide overwatch for a convoy heading back to base. We were to station ourselves in that building for the duration of the mission, while this is not something new to us, what made it different from a normal day was the suddenness of it all. We normally have would have some warning about these sort of things but not this one. The higher ups only gave us thirty minutes to suit up and be ready to move out and to top it off they allowed for more heavier equipment than what we usually take for these sort of things.”

In retrospect those should have tipped me off sooner that something was wrong.

He remained silent as he watched his memory unfold in front of him, it was different and felt odd seeing everything through his own eyes like a movie.

“In position,” said the man in the lead.

A voice out of view could be heard, “Flash and clear on my mark... Mark.”

The one in the lead cracked open the door and flung in a cylindrical device, whose meaning escaped the ponies until they saw a white flash and a loud bang. As soon as the device went off each person charged the room, starting with the first man, then Steve and then Adam, performing a sweeping motion as they entered.

The group remained quiet except for the occasional “clear” as they went from room to room of the five story building. Once the building had been secured a few of them went to the entrances and set up a few traps for any intruders that might try to sneak in on them. Everyone watched as they saw Steve and Adam walk up to the third floor and begin setting up their weapons and chat a little, mostly Steve. What was being discussed was of no importance, but just jokes and daily life stuff. Not seeing any of this being relevant to finding out how he got there, he decided to fast forward to him talking to Steve about his concerns.

Leaning over Adam says to Rainbow Dash, “Remember what I said about Abrams, well you're going to see one soon enough. They had one of them leading the convoy, don’t ask me why because I don’t know.”

The room was filled with the sound of a loud crack of a thunder like noise as the first round was fired by Adam in the memory, disabling the car. There was a sudden explosion of activity over the radio as enemies were being called out to both the snipers and the convoy nearing their position. His own voice could be heard now and again between shots as he spoke to the others and calling out his own targets.

A low rumble could soon be heard as the lead vehicle in the convoy came into view the tanks primary and secondary weapons firing into the enemy to clear a path for the rest. Its primary weapon tearing gaping holes in buildings as it goes, exposing or killing all those in its path. Something wasn’t right, there was something they weren’t telling him and lucky for him Luna didn’t have as good of a poker face as her sister.

He would regret looking back at the mirror, because at that moment was when the sniper round killed Steve. There was a collection of gasps from the girls and the sound of Fluttershy breaking down into hysterics from all the violence and death, it was taking every bit of his willpower to not have his own mental breakdown right there in that room.

What finally pushed him over the edge was the sound of his own screaming in the memory when he awoke in the Everfree. Images flashed across his vision of older memories resurfacing, each one being played on the mirror as well. The sounds of another foreign language being shouted as a knife is dragged across his chest, the images of a squad of his friends being blown away. Nothing he could do would make the thoughts and images stop.

“Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop,” he repeated at faster and faster speeds until it started to slurred into one, a cold sweat forming over his body and severe shaking.

“Luna,” Celestia cried out causing her to stop her spell.

He felt arms wrap around him and was about to fight them off until he heard the sounds of reassuring voices telling him that everything was going to be ok and tears soaking into his clothes from those grabbing him. Several minutes passed as he tried to calm down before any of the ponies spoke.

“I believe we will end this meeting for today, as my sister and I have many things that we need to think and discuss about now. Rooms have been set aside for each of you to stay in while you are here. We will see you all again at dinner.”

With that a pair of guards walked up and started escorting them to their respective rooms to rest, Adam followed with a slight limp due to the irritation to his wounded leg. When everyone was in brought to their rooms the guards took position outside Adam’s door ready to be called on for any reason.

Once inside Adam looked around the furnished room that would put a five star hotel to shame. There was a four poster bed two dressers a cabinet , a desk in front of the window and its very own bathroom. He set his bags next to the bed and went to the window to look out to find that he was in one of the towers, and a pretty high one too. As he stood in the window he thought about princess Luna’s behavior when watching his memories, there was something they weren’t telling him and he was going to get to the bottom of it but first he had something that needed to be taken care of.

He limped back over to the door and poked his head out to speak to the guards outside.

“Hey, I’m going to be listening to some music while I rest and its going to be very loud. I do not wish to be disturbed.”

“Yes sir,” was the only response that followed.

Closing the door and locking it he turned back to his bags and pulled out the to rifles and his maintenance kit. Before he even began to reassemble them though he pulled out his Ipod and attached the speakers to it, he planned on using them to cover up any noise he might make while working on them. Once he had finished setting up the Ipod and started up a song, he turned back to his rifles and got to work. It wasn’t long till he had completed his work and was now going to finish setting up the rest of his plan.

Opening the bag that contained the spare vest and helmet, he placed those around the bed as if they were removed and tossed aside. He then took a pillow and stuck it under the covers to look like someone was sleeping before heading back over to the bags. From there he removed the grenades, a couple of claymores and magazines that were inside and placed them in his vest pockets. After removing those items he then slung the two rifles across his back, forming an ‘X’ in between his wings, making sure they remained out of the way when he flapped.

I said I wasn’t going to let them take all my weapons and I plan on sticking to it. I just need to find a safe place for them until I can collect them again.

He couldn’t exit out through the doors, so that just left him the windows. Opening the window he looked out and down, it was quite a ways down but he was confident in his gliding abilities at least to make it down, the only problem was the landing. He was going to have to get to the ground quickly so as not to be spotted, he stuck out too much with his gear.

With one final breath he jumped out the open windows and started the descent back down. When he was only a few feet above ground he leveled off so he wouldn’t crash and looked back up at the window he just left, a smirk creeping along his face. He turned his head back forward, when he came face to face with a garden full of trees. Only one thing went through his mind before impact and loss of consciousness.

Fuck trees.

Author's Note

Well I said I would have the chapter up either on Monday or Tuesday and that was the plan but then my laptop died. So here it is. The wait for the next chapter will be much shorter than this one(it is already being edited as I speak). Give me a shout on what ya'll think and any problems that there are. I have even more good news, I have finished the chapter after next too so there will be quick updates.

And like always I would like to give a shout out to my editors:
Masterbrony2012
Wubwave

Chapter 10: Catch Me If You Can

Name: Twilight Sparkle
Date: December 6 (August 21, 2015)
Location: Canterlot Castle
Time: 2200

The girls had decided to spend their afternoon down in the city looking around, doing what they could to keep what they saw out of their heads. They had tried to bring Adam along with them but when they arrived at his door the guards had told them that he didn't wish to be disturbed. From how loud the music was coming through the door, Twilight doubted that he would have even heard them even if they had shouted for him. She didn't like the idea of leaving him there to dwell on what had happened but there wasn't really anything any of them could do beyond comfort him and she didn't know how well they would be able to do that either.

Fluttershy seemed to be taking it the hardest out them all and required for them to practically drag her out of her room and then to drag her away from Adam's door since she then tried to force her way in to help comfort him. The time away from the castle and in the city seemed to help the group as a whole and soon enough everyone was wearing a smile on their face again. But even though they had only been in the city for two hours, because of earlier meeting with the princesses, it was beginning to become dark out and they needed to return for the dinner they were to have with the princesses.

Finding their way back to the castle was simple enough, all they had to do was head in the direction that they could visibly see the sitting on the mountain and sure enough they were back at the gates. The guards wasted no time as the quickly opened the gates to allow them entrance. Making their way back inside they came across Celestia walking down the halls in the direction of Adam's room. Each of them bowed, not knowing if she would actually see them performing the gesture or not.

Spotting the mares Celestia turned to them saying, "Hello my little ponies. Did you all enjoy yourselves in the city?"

After rising back up Rarity was the first to speak, "The city was simply marvelous, I just didn't want to leave."

A smile came to Celestia's face and she said, "I'm glad that you all were able to find something to do before dinner."

Twilight took a step forward and asked, "Um, Princess Celestia, where are you going?"

Celestia turned her head towards the stairs leading to Adam's room and said, "I didn't know when you girls would be back and instead of using the guards to get our guest, I decided, that I would instead."

Applejack came up alongside Twilight and said, "Well we can take care of that for ya, yer highness. We have to go that way anyhow because somepony decided to buy up one of the stores." She shot Rarity a look as she stood in front of a stack of boxes and bags, only responding with a humf.

Celestia chuckled before replying, "Very well, I will let you all handle getting Adam and I'll be awaiting your presence at the table."

Making their way up the stairs they decided to first stop and get Adam before going further up and putting Rarity's purchases away. It only took them ten minutes of walking before they finally reached the floor Adam's room was on, greeted once again by the loud music bleeding through the door. When they reached the landing they saw one of the two guards gently tapping his hoof with the beat while the other just shook his head in disapproval, but once the guards saw them they resumed their stoic expressions.

"Ha caught ya," shouted Rainbow Dash as she zoomed up in front of the younger guards face, a smirk ever present on her face.

"May we help you," asked the older guard.

Twilight smiled saying, "Yes, we are here for Adam, the princesses are expecting him."

"Very well, just give me a moment to get his attention." He turned and began to knock loudly as he announced, "Sir, the princesses are waiting to see you." He was met with only more music, forcing him to repeat himself but knocking even louder this time.

The younger guard turned to him and said, "I guess the music is too loud."

The other guard rolled his eyes and sarcastically replied, "You don't say. Now if you wouldn't mind and use your magic to unlock the door."

"I got it, I got it," he said as his horn began to glow a shade of blue that also appeared on the door handle.

"Now then," he opened the door, "sorry for intru-" he was promptly shoved aside by Pinkie Pie as she ran into the room looked around and then began jumping on the bed.

As she jumped on the bed she was calling out, "Wakey, wakey Adam. It's not time to sleep yet, we still have to eat with the princesses."

The others followed in shortly after her entrance, Fluttershy making her way over to the bed while Twilight went and turned off the Ipod. "Sorry for waking you Adam, but the princesses want to eat with us, if that alright with you that is," Fluttershy apologized.

Pinkie having stopped and promptly shoved her head underneath the blankets then pulling it back out, glaring at the lump and said, "Oh, he's good."

Rainbow Dash flew over to the bed and looked between Pinkie and the lump asking, "What do you mean 'he's good,' Pinkie?"

Pinkie grabbed the blankets with her teeth saying, "This," as she then yanked on them causing the blankets and herself to fall to the floor revealing the pillow that lay beneath.

"Buck," shouted the older guard, "private go inform the princesses that the ambassador is missing. I'll look around to see if there is anything that might tell us where he is."

"Understood sir," the other guard replied as he galloped as fast as he could out the door and down the steps skipping some as he went.

The group scattered around the room looking until Pinkie pulled out a metal box that had a cord that connected it to another smaller box. She then began to play with the knobs that were attached to the bigger box while she held the smaller one in her hoof.

Twilight didn't think it was a good idea to be messing with Adam's things especially when none of them knew what they did and decided to voice her concern, "Pinkie I don't think it's a good idea to be playing with that."

"Ahhh, but it is so much fun, see," Pinkie whined as she pressed the small button on the side of the smaller box.

Rainbow hovered behind her and asked, "What does it even do?"

Twilight looked over at her and with a sigh said, "That’s the thing, I don't know what it does and so it would be best if we didn't accidently break it." After saying this though she noticed that her voice seemed to be coming from one of Adam's bags like an echo. Her curiosity peaked, she opened the bag and looked at Pinkie saying, "Do what you just did again, I heard something."

Pinkie pressed the button again and started to giggle into the box and this time they all heard the giggles coming from the bag as well. Finding the source Twilight lifted up a collection of wires that were connected to a curved piece of plastic.

Rarity was the first pony to recognize it and asked, "Isn't that what Adam is always wearing around his neck?"

Upon closer inspection Twilight realized that it was in fact similar to the one she saw Adam wear but if she remembered correctly he also removed one from his friend's body before he buried him. "Your right Rarity, he also removed one from his friend and this must be it. I wonder if they work in reverse too."

Putting the device around her own neck like Adam she placed the ear bud into her right ear as she then began to look for a way to activate it. A few moments later she found what she suspected to be the button on the plastic band on her neck and pressed it. While she held down the button she said the only thing she could think of, "Hello?" She was rewarded with her own voice coming from the box next to Pinkie repeating what she said.

Clearing her throat Twilight began to talk into the receiver, "Adam. Adam can you hear me? If you can hear me, please respond."

"Oh oh oh, let me try," Pinkie asked as she gripped her mic in her hooves and took a deep breath. Instead of actually saying anything much to Twilights discomfort and annoyance she said, "WOOOOoooOOOOOooooooOOOOoooOOOOoooOOOOOOo," forcing Twilight to remove the earpiece before she lost her hearing.

There was an instant reply to her method though as they then heard, "GOD FUCKING DAMN IT MY EAR," followed by a click.

Rarity looked over to Pinkie with the look of distaste on her face and asked, "Was that truly necessary darling?"

Twilight tried again to get Adam to answer but received no response again, only stopping when she heard the guard ask, "What in Tartarus is all this?"

Standing over by the desk and open window was the guard and Applejack looking at a set of tools lying there as if they had recently been used. A sense of horror enveloped her as she recognized those tools from earlier that week when Adam had used them to clean his weapons. With that recognition came the knowledge that there were two other weapons that were not taken while they were in the throne room.

"Are you ok Twi, you don't look so good," asked her rainbow maned friend causing Fluttershy to rush over and examine her for any symptoms.

"Stupid, stupid, stupid, how could I have been so stupid," raged Twilight at herself, causing the others to take a step back, Fluttershy started to cower.

"Twilight dear, what's the matter, you can tell us," the concern could be seen on everyone's face there as Rarity asked.

Twilight spun around facing everyone a desperate look in her eyes and shouted, "Remember Adam's memory?"

"Darling there is no possible way we could forget that horror."

"Well remember the weapons he and his friend were using at the time, the same weapons he was carrying with him when we found him. He wasn't holding them when we met the princesses, so I thought that he might have left them back at the library. Now, I think he had them in his bags," she continued shouting while pointing at the two bags.

"But Twilight, we all saw how big those things are, they would have been sticking straight out of them," Rainbow Dash countered.

"I once watched him use those very tools to take apart each of his weapons to do what he called 'maintenance' on them and now that I see the tools again, there is no other explanation for it. Adam must have disassembled the two rifles and then reassembled them here and now he has his most powerful weapons, known in Equestria with him and he himself is gone. I just hope he just went to go hide them and that nopony decides to fight him for both their sakes. We need to find him before something goes horribly wrong. I'll cast a tracking spell so we can find him faster, give me his music player."

After hearing about the other weapons he didn't need to hear anymore, the guard had been in the room when they viewed the memory and he understood the power of the weapons he carried. He was out the door and heading down the stairs before Twilight had even finished her statement. He needed to tell the princesses what he just heard.

----- Adam -----

He awoke in pain. Everywhere he hurt, but nothing seemed to be broken from what he could see. He could also hear voices talking:

"Adam. Adam can you hear me? If you can hear me, please respond." It sounded like Twilight but he only heard her in his right ear, he was having trouble as to why only his right ear was working until he heard another voice.

"WOOOOoooOOOOOooooooOOOOoooOOOOoooOOOOOOo."

Taking his right foreleg he swatted at his ear knocking the ear bud out as he screamed, "GOD FUCKING DAMN IT MY EAR!" He understood now why he heard her only in his right ear and shut off his throat mic and began to rub his ear to try and reduce the amount of ringing, to no effect.

Looking around he saw that he was hanging in one of the trees of the garden by the straps of his rifles crossing his back. He must have been out for a while because the sun was starting to set and everything was cooling off. Looking back down he determined he could safely drop from this height and land without a problem, so he shook the branch until it snapped. As he landed his left foreleg gave out on him and his face immediately came to the ground making his head ache even worse than it already was.

After examining his leg he saw that he had torn the stitches and was now bleeding pretty badly, on top of that he had a gash on his forehead that kept bleeding into his right eye, blinding him. Not bringing his first aid kit proved to be another error in his plan so far. Taking off his vest and jacket he tore his grey shirt into strips and tied them to his head and leg to stop the bleeding. Once he finished dressing his injuries the best he could, he quickly put his jacket and gear back on and started heading towards the wall with a more pronounced limp than he had had previously.

OK, I just need to get over this wall and then I can figure out where I can hide these from the ponies. I need to hurry, they probably know something is wrong by now because of how late it is. I need to find some mud, I stand out too much in my desert camo. THERE.

A few feet away a large size puddle of mud, just what he was looking for. Going over to it he did a quick roll in it, making sure to get a good coating of it all over, before continuing on. Now that he had the mud on him he could now blend into the forest surroundings with more ease and wouldn't be seen unless they got close to him.

The limp had slowed his progress but he could see that he was getting close to the walls, and from there it shouldn't be too hard for him to fly over them. The only problem was that there had been an increase in the number of guards out flying around and on the walls. He could have sworn that he heard faint talking coming from somewhere behind him too, forcing him to move faster than what his leg was willing.

He finally reached the wall when he heard someone shout, "Stop right there!"

Adam slowly turned to face whoever it was that had just caught him and found that there were four guards, three earth ponies and one unicorn. The unicorn that was standing in the lead was also the same unicorn that had been standing guard outside his door.

"Relinquish your weapons and come with us."

Adam looked at him then back at the wall before he replied, "Yeah, not happening." Shooting his wings open, he used as much force as he possibly could from his legs and wings to launch himself into the air. He quickly made it above the wall and was about to go across when he heard two separate voices. The first voice he heard was of the guard as he called his shot followed by another pony screaming to stop. Looking over he saw that it had been Twilight screaming as she and the other mares came out of the tree line, looking up at him.

The screaming that he heard was shortly followed by something colliding with his wing and then a sudden lack of feeling in the wing, except for a numbness that told him he was in trouble. His momentum carried him the rest of the way over the wall but without his right wing he couldn't control his flight at all. He looked down, once he was over, and saw that he was heading for the river that ran alongside the castle. It was then that it dawned on him:

I don't know how to swim as a pony!

These thoughts went through his head as he slammed into the water, knocking any air from his lungs out. The water was freezing cold and was quickly sapping him of the strength he had and was pulling him under. He fought as hard as he could to keep his head above the water, as the river dragged him further and further downstream, but it was a losing battle. He feared that this would be how he would die again, drowning while running from a group of ponies. His lungs were burning, screaming for him to take a deep breath. He was fighting every instinct to do what his lungs wanted and inhale water.

It was while he was underwater did he hear the sound of rumbling coming from a little further ahead, and when he was finally able to get above water for air did his eyes widened with complete fear and horror at his fate. He had forgotten about the waterfall at the end and he was about to plunge over the edge of it. Giving his final push, he tried to swim for one of the sides to get out but was quickly sucked in by the water current and sent over the edge, from there did the water finally let go of him and fling him from its grip. Not being able to fly due to the spell that hit him, all he could do was watch as the ground came flying up to meet him.

As he fell he suddenly heard the sound of a loud explosion coming from somewhere behind him, but he cared little of what was taking place behind him as the front was more important. Before he was any closer than two hundred yards away from his death he felt something grab him from behind and felt a sudden pull that lifted him up higher and higher. Looking to see what held him, he saw a pair of familiar cyan furred hooves gripping him tightly around his chest. He could feel the blood drain from his face from the amount of g-forces that the maneuver had caused on his body and was slowly blacking out.

By the time they had returned to the castle there was a crowd of guards waiting along with the princesses and the five other girls. Rainbow Dash was panting heavily when they reached the group and let go of him, allowing him to come crashing to the ground, not having the energy to stand on his own let alone lift his head. Falling on his right side he could see the guard in purple walk up to him and flare his horn with his magic that engulfed his weapons, ammo, and anything else that was on his person. When the rifles were being removed, one of the straps caught on his arm and lifted him up slightly from the pull. The guard simply shook his head as he spread his magic to lift Adam off the straps and set him down.

Adam refused to be separated without a fight and used every ounce of his willpower to force his left foreleg to swing around to try and hook the strap again. The movement caused the guard to lose his grip on Adam's right leg but Adam missed the strap and fell hard on his injury. Even with the pain he couldn't even manage a groan and could feel the effects of the ice cold water and his drenched clothes begin to take hold of his limbs. Hypothermia was taking over and quickly, if he didn't receive medical treatment he would die as soon as the ground would have. He lost consciousness from blood loss and severe hypothermia, the last things he saw were the looks of concern and pity in the eyes of some of those watching while some others had anger.

There were two things that came back to him before he became fully awake, one of those being that he was warm compared to his previous condition and second there was the steady sound of a beeping noise coming from his left. Slowly opening his eyes he found that he was lying in a bed that had white sheets that matched the walls and connecting him to a machine by a bunch of wires that was keeping track of his heart rate.

I have really got to be careful, it's probably not good for my body or my head to keep passing out like that.

His continued examination showed him that there was a window to his right that was covered with curtains as well as a nightstand that had a few get well cards, a couple of books and a basket of apples. The sight of the apples made his stomach growl loudly and he took one of them up taking a very greedy bite before inhaling the rest of the apple. This process was repeated until he had finish six of the twelve apples there. He had to admit, those were probably the best apples he had ever had the pleasure of eating in his life.

Stretching his legs he wasn't surprised to find that his right hind leg was clamped in a manacle above the knee to the bedpost while his left foreleg was wrapped heavily in bandages, the bandages didn't restrict all of his movements but they did make things awkward.

Not wanting to set off any alarms, but not wanting to listen to any more beeping sounds, he unplugged the machine and turned it off before removing the wires from his chest. He did a double take when it struck him that he wasn't wearing any clothes under the blankets and a quick look around the room showed that there was nothing else there. The fact that he wasn't covered in mud either proved that they had also cleaned him while he was out. Though he was glad they didn't just leave him covered like that, it did unnerve him to think of how vulnerable he had been during that period of time.

The manacle around his leg quickly proved to be annoying so he decided to fix that little problem. Leaning over the foot of the bed he found just what he was looking for, his charts. He took a quick peek at his injuries and saw that he had a concussion, a laceration on his forehead, slight bruising along his sides, he had torn all the stitches in his leg which then got infected due to the water in the river and had been unconscious for the past two days with a high fever.

I've been asleep for two days... fuck.

Having finished perusing his medical chart, he plucked the paper clip from it and began to unbend it until it was just how he needed it to be. Turning his attention back to the lock on his leg he went to work of removing the offending contraption from his person. Twenty minutes later and after nearly jamming the lock he was finally able to rid himself on the manacle.

Slowly getting up he got his bearings before heading over to the door and poking his head out, thinking he was in a hospital he was surprised to find that he was in fact still in the castle, just not a part he had seen yet. He didn't see any other ponies walking around but he hadn't taken more than two steps when he heard someone shout, "Hey, you shouldn't be up walking around. Get back in there and put on... your... cuff...."

Spinning around he saw a dark brown earth pony with a snow white mane standing there wide eyed staring at him. The pony seemed to be wearing a white lab coat with a stethoscope around his neck, matching the typical stereotype of the average doctor. With the constant quivering of his mouth it looked like he was on the verge of saying something but couldn't quite say it out loud.

Adam tried to take charge of the situation before the doctor could snap out of his stupor and calm him down. "Hey everything will be fine, I'm not going to hurt ya or anyone else. There is no need to try and call for guards or anything crazy like that."

The word 'guard' turned out to be the wrong word to say as it brought the pony back to his senses and he shouted, "GUARDS," starting to turn.

Adam wasn't going to let him say anything else as he pounced on the doctor forcing him to the ground. He was too slow though and the damage had been done. Adam could hear the sounds of hooves hitting the stone floor and deciding quickly, he went the opposite direction going away from the approaching sound as fast as he could. Not knowing where he was going he took turns at random to at least lose any possible pursuers that might have followed him. After losing count of the number of turns he had made, he came to a stop to catch his breath, only to be interrupted by a loud cracking sound and a bright flash as Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Pinkie Pie appeared before him.

The bright flash had temporarily blinded him, so he stood there rubbing his eyes to get the afterimages out of his field of vision. Soon after clearing his vision and seeing the glares he was getting from the mares in front of him he slowly started to back away from them and towards where he had just came from, only for it to fill up with guards.

Well I believe it's safe to say that I'm fucked.

"How dare you," said a menacing voice that caught everyone off guard when it turned out to be Fluttershy who had spoken. "Do you know how worried we were for you," with each word she took a step until she was right in his face, forcing him to take several back, closer to the guards. "And not only did you make everypony worry about you, but you also got yourself seriously hurt and nearly died. If it wasn't for Rainbow Dash catching you, nopony else would have made it in time. Now what do you have to say for yourself?" Fluttershy was now towering over him staring down at him, making him feel like a little kid who just got caught doing something bad.

"Um, uh, I-I'm sorry."

"Oh, ok then, just don't let it happen again," her voice returning to its usual meek tone.

Fluttershy's statement was followed by a collection of hooves hitting faces and as Adam looked around sure enough Twilight, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack had all face hoofed while Rarity just shook her head. Looking back over his shoulder he could see that multiple of the guards behind him had joined in and also had their hooves to their faces.

"Now then," said a pegasus guard from behind, "if you're done running now, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna are wanting to speak with you in the throne room. If you would follow us, we will take you there without delay."

Giving a slight nod, the guards took up positions around him to prevent any further escape attempts, there pace was slightly slower than that of their normal march due to Adam's limp. Though he had been off his injury for the past couple of days, he had made the injury worse before doing so and caused him a moderate amount of pain to walk. He was either very lucky or unlucky due to the fact that from the path he was taking they only had to backtrack down one hallway and take a different turn to find themselves back at the main entrance to the castle. From there it only took a matter of minutes to reach the throne room again.

Unlike last time however, the guards that were escorting him remained with him all the way up to the throne where they bowed and split into a row of three on each side of the carpet facing Adam. Adam gave a halfhearted salute that brought him more angry glares from the guards on duty around him, while the mares that were with them each bowed before the princesses.

The warm welcoming expressions that were once adorned on Princess Celestia's face and the over excited look on princess Luna's were gone and replaced by a more serious expression.

"Well Master Sergeant Smith, is there anything you would like to say before we begin this meeting," asked Celestia using his formal title to show the seriousness of the situation he was in.

"Well Princess Celestia, if ya'll are expecting an apology for not giving you my weapons just because you asked...don't... because there ain't one coming. I don't trust ya nor yer sister and on top of that I know ya have been hiding something from me that is related to this whole thing." He made sure to stand as tall as he could when speaking and appear fiercer than he actually felt, injured and surrounded by guards, he knew he could be stupid at times but there was a limit.

Celestia raised an eyebrow at his arrogance and rude behavior and asked, "Why do you believe that we would be holding back information?"

"Well ma'am, ya might have one hell of a poker face but," he took a moment to point with his right foreleg at Luna but wasn't able to go on as one of the pegasi guards had enough and leapt at him.

Adam caught this in the corner of his eye and slipped into his training. The guard went in for a jab with his right, but Adam simply ducked and rolled out of the way, not wanting to counter until he knew what he was getting into. The guard went at him again but this time aiming for the injured leg forcing Adam to go on the defensive with his right. The guard, seeing that Adam wasn’t getting anywhere from the ground, chose to then take to the air. This proved to be a mistake as Adam shot forward and grabbed the guard's tail and swung him onto his back straight into the wall. Two guards saw the opening and tackled Adam to the floor and pinned him there to prevent him from possibly continuing his attack.

Celestia had enough of the violent display in front of her and grabbed them all with her magic before shooting a stern look to both her guard that attacked first and Adam. The guard seemed to melt under her eyes while Adam just stood there and rolled his eyes as if to imply, 'well he started it.'

Luna was the first to speak, "What was it that I could have done to make you think that we knew more than what we would tell?"

"Well as I was saying your sister, Princess Celestia, might have a good poker face but you, Princess Luna, do not. While we were watching one of my more recent memories, you kept on giving your sister concerned looks, that in their own right wouldn't cause me much alarm. It was the fact that you became more distraught when the convoy showed up later and you would look only between the mirror and Celestia. Mix in a little of my gut instincts and there you have it. OH, and by the way, even though I know your species does not mind being nude, mine does not and I would really appreciate my clothes back."

The two princesses look at each other before Luna shrugged and flared her horn a dark blue. A few seconds later his clothes appeared before him folded up neatly sans his vest. Not wanting to argue about the lack of armor, he slipped the jacket on then the pants, having a slight difficulty with his tail.

The girls behind him seemed to be interested in whether or not their princesses actually knew anything about his situation that they weren't letting them know about. Pinkie had stopped hopping in place and had the look of rapt attention, while Rainbow Dash, who was no longer bored because of the fight, and the others were looking between the two groups.

Luna looked to her sister and said, "Tia, if we tell him now we can more easily explain things to him. The more we make him wait the more he will only resent us and possibly cause harm to our little ponies."

Celestia gave a loud sigh and looked to her guards in the room, "I need all the guards to exit the throne room except for Captain Armor." Looking over to the side of the throne he saw the guard in purple armor again standing next to a pink pony similar to that of the princesses but slightly smaller.

I made another great first impression there with Twilight's brother.

The guards obediently filed out of the room giving nods to the captain as they went, believing that he could handle any situation that their 'guest' may cause.

It was after the last guard had left the room and the doors had closed did Celestia speak again, "There is a spell that allows beings to travel from this world to your world Adam. I, myself, have used this very spell just recently and had just returned from the trip and there are side effects to the spell that have yet to be resolved. One of these side effects is that some objects will sometimes be pulled in and taken to the other world, which I believe is what brought you here.” Celestia's demeanor softened as she spoke and a warm smile returned to her face, "Before I say anything more about the spell, I must say one other thing. Though my guards and nopony else beyond this room know, we owe a debt of gratitude to you and the other soldiers who fought and died to protect that convoy in your memory."

"And why would that be ma'am," his voice had lost its edge at the mention of a spell to bring him home, he could feel his chest swell up with happiness and hope as if it were a dream come true.

"In that convoy were myself and my chief diplomat that has been acting as my ambassador in between my visits. He has taken up residence in your country to fill this roll for me and my sister. It was thanks to every one of your sacrifices that we made it to the base with no harm coming to us." Just as sudden as the smile had spread across her face did it change to a saddened look as well as her voice, "Thus it brings me much sadness to inform you, and also the chief reason as to why we did not say this sooner, is that though the spell no longer requires twenty-eight to thirty years to gather the energy to cast it, thanks to my sister's return. The spell still requires a tremendous amount of energy that requires at least twenty to twenty-five years before it can be cast again."

If he was to look down at his stomach he would expect to find a knife sticking out and being twisted around inside of him. All his happiness that he had felt just moments ago were obliterated by the wave of depression that followed. He fell onto his haunches unable to think of anything to say, he could feel the tears spill over and run down his cheeks. The fact that hit him the hardest of all was that he would not be able to see his son again until he had become fully grown, while Adam would have only fade to a distant memory if he was lucky. He would miss all the major events of his son's life and everything else that would make up his identity.

He could hear the voices of the friends he had made, talking to him, trying to reassure him that everything would be alright, but they all seemed distant to him as if spoken through a dense fog.

He just wanted to be alone, so after standing back up and looking to the princesses giving them a slight bow he said, "If you would excuse me," then turned and walked out a broken man.

Author's Note

Hey everyone, here it is, I originally planned on posting this chapter on Wednesday but thought why the hell not post it now.

On another note I made a blog entry (that not a lot of people read) that was about adding a new tag to the story. The thing is, I will be leaving the choice to my readers. The tag in question is the romance tag. Besides letting ya'll choose if I add it or not I will even leave it up to everyone as to with who. I will not use any of the mane six though unless given a good reason why I should use them (they are used too often).

A) Derpy
B) Lyra
C) Another Pony (be reasonable)

Leave a comment or send me a message and I'll read it.

Chapter 11: Continuing the Fight

Name: Princess Celestia
Date: December 10 (August 23 2015)
Location: Canterlot Castle Dining Room
Time: 0800

It had been two days since she had last spoken to Adam. After she had told him about the spell and how long it takes to cast she saw him lose all hope in his eyes. She had feared something like that would happen which was what made her so hesitant in the first place. He hadn't left his room in the past two days according to her guards who periodically check up on him, they didn't have to worry about him trying to escape to hide more of his belongings because they had already taken everything. All his food is brought up to him, but he hardly even touches it besides the water.

From what Luna had told her, he hadn't been sleeping either because Luna could not sense his dreams like she would be any other pony. Celestia felt a mental link connect with her from her sister sitting next to her. She understood why Luna would choose to talk with her mentally and not out in the open. Sitting at the table with them were the six bearers and what they might talk about might worsen their moods, each of them had taken the situation hard in their own way.

Tia, we need to find a way to fix this. He has lost his spirit and I fear if he continues on like this he will slowly kill himself.

I know Lulu, I might have an idea as to how to fix this, but its going to require Twilight and her friends help. They know him the best out of everypony, though I doubt they will be able to relate to his problems, they could at least distract him from them for a while.

Looking at the mares at the table with them, Luna agreed. Celestia then spoke to the others, "Twilight, I would like to ask a favor of you and your friends, if you wouldn't mind."

Twilight looked to her friends, who all nodded in approval before replying, "Anything Princess Celestia, what do you need us to do."

A warm motherly smile formed on Celestia's mouth at the willingness of these six mares to help even without knowing what is being asked of them.

"I require your assistance with Adam. After what transpired a couple of days ago, he has not left his room. Luna and I fear for his health and since his arrival to our country, you six have gotten to know him the best. We ask that you all try to improve his mood and, if possible, help him regain the spirit he has lost, since there is much he can do to help others now that he is here."

"Of course Princess, we would gladly help, especially if it means helping Adam."

With that the six of them stood and left to go and attempt their own plans to help out Adam and get him out of his depression.

There was a knock on Adam's door, there had been a few the past couple of days, though he never answered them. He knew it wasn't the maid bringing his food because that was already sitting in the corner of the room, where it would remain besides the water. He hadn't felt like eating in days but he knew better than to not have something so he always drank the water even if he didn't want to. The knocking continued.

Maybe if I ignore them they will just go away like the rest.

This didn't appear to be working, because it only seemed to continue but steadily at a faster pace than the last set before long it just became a steady stream of knocks. Finally forcing him out of the chair that was facing the window, the one he had been sitting in for the past few days, and went to go tell off the person at the door. Opening the door he found none other than the pink menace that was top on his list of ponies he did not want to see that day. Knowing exactly what to do he slammed the door in her face, then opened it again, see that she wasn't there anymore and stepped out and closed the door behind himself. When the door had closed he heard the sound of something slamming into it and falling to the floor from the other side followed by an "Ouch" from Pinkie Pie.

Not wanting to stand around just for her to open the door and begin her never ending hyperactive speech, he started walking down a random hall that lead away from his room and more importantly her. He didn't make it far from his room before he came across another mare he didn't want to see that day, Rarity. When she saw him come around a corner she let out a loud gasp.

"Darling you look absolutely dreadful."

He really didn't need her to tell him that, he knew that already. His eyes were horribly bloodshot with dark bags under them, from lack of sleep, while his mane was messy and unkempt. His uniform looked as if he had tried to put it on in the dark with only one hoof, and could use some cleaning.

"Come with me, we must fix this at once."

Before he could protest she started to drag him down the hall with her magic, leading them straight to her room.

"I was waiting to give this to you but now is just as good as later," she said as she levitated a parcel over to him.

Opening it up he found the new uniform he had asked her to make for him to wear. Feeling the material, he found that it matched the one he was currently wearing and the camo design matched the description he had given to her.

"Thank you Rarity, I know ya went out of your way to make this for me especially when we have only known each other for about a week now. There are not a lot of people I know that would do this for another, it means a lot to me that ya would do this for me." A faint smile formed on his face as he examined the work up close, seeing where the patches go and where the pockets were located, like on the one he was wearing. She had even made him another shirt to wear underneath the jacket similar to the one he tore and used for bandages.

He wanted to change into it but he did not feel comfortable do that there in Rarity's room. Unlike most high end hotel rooms, ponies didn't worry about changing clothes so it was really just one giant room with both the bed and sofas and chairs. Convincing Rarity to let him return to his room to change proved to be easier than he expected, for a pony who was more assertive and demanding acting more docile would normally set off some sort of mental alarm that something was up but in his sleep deprived state he wasn't thinking clearly.

While they walked down the hall the two of them could hear the sounds of someone shouting and a faint sob from someone else. With their interest peeked they made a slight detour down another hall. When they arrived at the source of the sobs and shouting they found a white unicorn with a blonde mane standing over an earth pony maid who was cowering away from him.

Rarity glanced over towards Adam, knowing full well who that stallion was and was about to inform him when she saw a spark in his eye, though not as strong as it once was but it was there nonetheless. She decided to hold her tongue and see how he would react to Prince Blueblood's views on nobility and others. She stood there as Adam handed over the clothes she had made for him and walk up behind Blueblood, staring daggers into the back of his head. From their close proximity they could hear that the mare was being yelled at for knocking over his glass of wine while she was cleaning and that a few drops of the liquid had landed on his coat.

Adam spoke from behind Blueblood, in a threatening voice, "Apologize."

"Yes, apologize," repeated Blueblood.

"Not her asswipe, YOU."

Blueblood spun around as if a bee had stung him on the flank, to see who would dare speak to him like that. He found himself face-to-face with a pissed off Adam only inches away from him, causing him to jump back a foot.

"How dare you speak to me in such a way! Do you know who I am, and why should I apologize for her mistake," asked the irate unicorn.

"Because," Adam responded taking a few steps closer to make Blueblood as uncomfortable and himself more menacing as possible, "from what I heard from your screaming, you are taking a small accident way out of proportion. Those two drops on your coat will washout with only a few seconds of warm water. To answer the other question, I don't give a fuck who ya'll are and even if you tell me I still won't. Now are ya going to apologize to her or am I going to have to shove my fist so far up your ass that I can use you as a puppet?"

"I will not stand to be spoken to this way!"

"Then sit down, ya don't have to stand to apologize."

There was a brief pause as the two parties stared each other down neither willing to show weakness until Blueblood turned and began to walk away muttering a half hearted apology and said to Adam, "The princesses will be hearing about this, you scum of the streets." He then gave a huff and stomped away down the hallway.

Once Blueblood was gone the maid took a look at Adam and said in between hiccups, "Thank you for helping me, but you shouldn't have done that. Now you are going to get into trouble for yelling and threatening him like that."

"Oh yeah, and why should I fear what he might do?"

It was Rarity who responded to his inquiry, "That sorry excuse for a stallion, was none other than Prince Blueblood. He is the Princess Celestia and Luna’s nephew."

"Wonder how long that's going to take to come back to bite me."

"I'm not sure darling, but until that time comes I need to get you looking like your old self again."

The maid waved them goodbye as they turned back to head down the correct hall to his room. It took them a moment to get to the room, to find a bush with a mustache and glasses sitting opposite the door.

Eyeing the bush Adam asked, "Should I even bother asking how she thinks she is being clever?"

"Just play along dear, it will be over soon."

Coming towards them from the other end of the hall was Fluttershy, she seemed to shrink a little as soon as she saw the two of them. It looked like it was taking a lot of courage from her to take each step towards him but after glancing at the bulge under his left sleeve, where the bandages were, she picked up her pace.

"H-h-hello Adam, hello Rarity. How is your leg feeling today, does it hurt at all?" Fluttershy's eyes never left Adam and it kinda unnerved him a bit at what he had experienced before with those eyes. The thought caused an involuntary shiver to run down his spine.

He sighed and said, "I've been-"

"SURPRISE," shouted the pink pony as she leapt out from behind the bush in the strangest getup he had ever seen before in his life. She was wearing a snorkel a float and a flipper on only two of her hooves but she also had balloons and confetti and streamers fly out from behind her too.

Fluttershy "Eeeped," then flipped over onto her back, legs sticking straight up as if she was playing dead.

"SO did I surprise you, did I, did I, did I?"

"Sure did, now are you done," Adam asked as he pushed Pinkie Pie out of his face.

"Nope."

"Well, what else do you plan on doing?"

"Well it wouldn't be much of a surprise if I told you, now would it?"

As Adam went to open the door he said, "Pinkie, while I appreciate what ya are trying to do, I am really not in the mood."

"But making ponies smile is what I love to do, and you could use one right about now."

Gah, can't these ponies just leave me alone.

Opening the door fully he saw Twilight, Applejack and Rainbow Dash all waiting for him in his room. The room was filled with even more streamers and balloons, with cake, punch and other snacks on the table in the corner of the room.

Apparently not.

"Ladies, like I just said to Pinkie, I really appreciate what ya'll are doing but I would really like to be alone right now."

"Sorry dear but we just simply cannot do that, especially when you are in the state you are in."

"I insist."

"Well I insist that we stay. You are in no state to be left by yourself and we would just be meeting up again in a few minutes anyway."

With Rainbow Dash's interest peeked she walked over to Rarity and asked, "What's up, what makes you say that?"

"It just so happens that Adam here-"

"So I yelled at some prick to get him to apologize, big deal."

"Do you not care that he was Prince Blueblood, that you threatened to ruff up," exclaimed Rarity now with irritation in her voice at Adam's behavior towards his current standing, though she couldn't say she didn't like seeing the Prince run off with his tail between his legs.

"Woah," said Dash, a grin spreading across her muzzle.

"Oh my," gasped Fluttershy.

"You didn't," Twilight asked as she facehoofed.

"What in tarnation were ya thinkin," asked Applejack, worry in her voice at what this would cause.

"Eh, could have been worse," Pinkie replied brushing off the problem as nothing.

"What do you mean "could be worse", what could possibly be worse," Twilight asked beginning to panic and thinking of all the different punishments that the princesses might put on Adam.

"Well," Pinkie began smiling the entire time, "he could have actually done it."

Twilight could not think of a possible way to respond, Pinkie was right in that regard. The situation could have been worse as Pinkie had said if Adam had actually followed through with his threat, just maybe he could get out of this with a lighter punishment.

The doors behind Pinkie, Fluttershy, Rarity and Adam flew open as a group of guards marched in forming a perimeter around him.

"You are under arrest for threatening the life of Prince Blueblood and are to be brought in front of the princesses for punishment."

Adam blinked then responded, "OK."

"If you do not quite resi-, oh then" the guard cleared his throat, "come with us then."

When the guards left the room, leaving the mares by themselves, Twilight said, "This is becoming a thing for him isn't it, being escorted around by a collection of guards. Well we better follow them and see how this goes, you were there Rarity maybe you can help him."

As Adam found himself before the thrones again, only Celestia sitting before them, he realised that he didn't really care much. It wasn't since last time he was in there, that had he really cared for what was going on. Everything seemed to have lost much meaning to him, maybe now that he was in trouble with threatening Blueblood he would be put in a room and left alone. He understood that there was a spell to take him back but the damage had been done, for all intents and purposes he was effectively dead in the other world and his return would only cause more problems than it would solve.

Looking at the princess again he could see the anger from what she had been told he had done, but he could see that there was more sadness than anything else. Blueblood on the other hand had the most triumphant smirk on his face at the victory that he saw coming his way.

"Adam it has been brought to our attention that you have threatened Prince Blueblood, our nephew, here. How do you plea?"

"Guilty."

"Wait, Princess Celestia," Rarity shouted to get Celestia's attention, "allow me to explain."

"Explain what exactly? He has admitted guilty to threatening the life of a prince."

Adam looked towards Celestia, then to Blueblood, then back to Celestia and asked, "Ma'am I am confused, when did the ass of a pony become a necessity to their survival."

Celestia gave him a blank look before looking between him and Blueblood. Turning her full attention to Rarity she said, "Please explain."

"Well your highness, Adam and I were walking along the halls when we heard what sounded like shouting. Him and I went to see what was all the commotion when we found Prince Blueblood screaming at a maid to the point that she was crying. Adam was gallant enough to go to her aid and demand that the prince apologies. When he refused Adam, encouraged him, but he did not at any point threaten Prince Blueblood's life."

"Blueblood," at the mention of his name everyone present saw the smirk fade from his face.

"Yes, your highness?"

"You came to me saying that Adam had come threatening to end your life for no reason, but now I have been told otherwise by an eye witness. If I were to find the mare, that has been mentioned, would her testimony match with Rarity's?"

"L-l-lies its all lies. They are trying to trick you. He-"

"Enough, Blueblood. I will not hear of this anymore and I shall deal with you in a moment, now leave."

Blueblood's face soured at being denied his victory when it was right there, but he complied with Celestia's order and left.

"Now then, just because you did not threaten his life does not get you off the hook. I hereby confine you to your room until I have deemed it acceptable to let you leave. Guards see that Adam makes it there without delay." As the guards once again escorted Adam back to his room, Celestia called out, "Girls, I need you all to stay for a moment. I know that my sister and I asked you six to help with getting Adam's spirit back but for now Luna wishes to try something. Until tomorrow please relax, enjoy yourselves and have a good night's sleep."

-----Adam's Room-----

Luna stood waiting in a dark corner of the room. Adam would return shortly and she was needing to speak with him, she had not seen him in two days and wished to help him and to do that she needed to try something.

The sound of the door opening could be heard in the quiet room and she watched from her corner as Adam came into view. He turned around and watched the door close behind him and he sighed before walking over towards the bed to toss the clothes, that had been lying across his back, onto the bed. He didn't stop at the bed but continued to the chair that sat by the window and resumed his watch. From her location she could see the poor condition he was in and could understand how he must feel, alone and far away from everything he understood for a long length of time.

Walking out of the shadows, she made her way over to the chair to speak with him. As she neared the chair however he spoke, "And how did I earn the pleasure of your visit this fine evening?"

She was surprised that he had spotted her though he did not indicate it when he had been walking around. She had to find out how, "What was it that gave me away?"

"Well if you're going to hide in a dark corner, it would be best to get your mane to not sparkle like a bunch of stars in the night sky. That sort of thing tends to give ya away."

"I'll keep that in mind for next time. In the meantime I am here to help you Adam."

"Oh yeah, and how do ya plan on doing that?"

"To begin with I need you to sleep, from there I can help."

"Well it looks like we are going to have a problem then. I can't sleep."

"That is not a problem that I cannot fix. Just hold still and I will cast a simple spell that will allow you to get a good nights sleep."

His eyes opened in panic as he tried to get out of the chair shouting for her to stop but was too late as her horn touched his head. He felt his eyelids turn to lead weights and close no matter how hard he tried to keep them open. His reaction to her offer confused Luna but she did not dwell on it as she lifted up his sleeping form from the chair, with her magic, and place him on the bed. When she was sure he would not fall from the bed she inserted a piece of torn paper between his hooves, for when he wakes.

Adam knew where he was, he was in another of his older memories that he didn't wish to be in. He was out on a mission to eliminate a known leader of the "freedom fighters," as they liked to call themselves. The two of them had been lying in wait for the past three days, in an old abandoned building for this moment.

The shot itself would not be difficult, it was doing it while going undetected, was where the challenge came in. They were only about a football field's length away and there were men everywhere. Adam was to take the shot and to cover up the sound, he was going to use the noise from one of their louder trucks to make it harder to find their location. Lady luck was not smiling on them that day. As he took the shot, the truck's engine cut off so that everyone could hear the shot. The target dropped from the hole in his chest while his men either went to his aid or charged the building.

"SHIT, they going to be here in a few second and we do not want to be here when they do," screamed Steve.

They quickly gathered up their gear and were about to head to another room when they heard the sound of the door downstairs burst open. Their exit was across the hall where a rope was tied to a support beam. Steve was the first to run across to the next room but when it came time for Adam, his path was blocked by a wall of lead being fired at him. The enemy had already made it up the stairs and had a clean line of sight down the hall.

Steve stood waiting in the next room ready to go for when Adam made it across. Adam un holstered his pistol and fired a few rounds down the hall before making a dash for it. He felt the first round slam into his shoulder and tear into his flesh causing him to spin slightly. The second round he felt caught him in the thigh making him fall into the door frame before hitting the floor. He had made it but he was not going to be able to escape with a hole in his leg. He was in a tremendous amount of pain and could hardly move his left arm without causing even more pain.

Looking over to Steve he saw that he was trying to help him to the rope but he shoved him away.

"I'm not going anywhere with this hole in my leg, get out of here while I slow them down."

"Bullshit I'm leaving you."

One of the pursuers entered the room and was met with two rounds in the chest from Adam.

"I won't be able to get very far with my leg fucked up as it is. There is no point if we both die here when one of us could get away, besides Samantha is waiting for you. Now go before I shoot you myself."

Steve gave a pained look, he didn't want to leave his best friend behind but he knew Adam would be happy in knowing that one of them escaped. With all the enemies thinking they were trapped inside, no one was outside, making for an easy getaway for anyone not injured.

Adam watched out of the corner of his eye, as his friend of twenty-six years repelled out the window. He fired a few more rounds into the next two people before his magazine ran dry. Try as he might, he couldn't keep his left hand steady enough to insert the next mag into the receiver. The next man charged through the door after blind firing his weapon, rounds punching small holes in the walls around Adam. His response was to throw the empty pistol, hitting the man in the face, and lunged himself into the assailant's midsection, combat knife in hand. The two of them fell back into the hallway in a struggle for dominance.

The fight only lasted a few seconds until he was able to plunge the knife into his attackers chest, ending his life. Rolling off the body he felt a boot connect with his face, forcing him back to the ground. Another boot stepped on his wrist holding the knife preventing him from fighting further.

This new attacker glared down at him with venom in his eyes as he brought the butt of his rifle down on Adam. Not feeling anything he opened his eyes again, finding the stock of the rifle just inches away from his face but on top of that everything was still. Feeling no more pain, he worked his way back then stood up. Everything looked as if someone had taken a photo of what was happening at that moment. None of the enemy guards reacted to his movements in the slightest.

"How did you get away?"

Hearing a new yet familiar voice startled Adam and found that standing next to him was Princess Luna. After he composed himself he replied, "I didn't, they thought it would be better to capture and interrogate me rather than put a bullet in my head."

"And this is how you got those two scars, the one on your leg and shoulder I mean?"

"Yes, it was during the interrogations that I aquired the other two and lost a piece of my ear."

"I saw in the mirror them cutting your chest with a knife but I didn't know what was behind the reasoning behind it. Did you tell them anything?"

"No and that is why they had their fun beating me and cutting me, nothing lethal but would hurt all the same."

"Are these the reasons you cannot sleep at night, because your memories haunt you?"

"Yes and I am well aware that it is something that I will have to live with."

"Do you regret any of it?"

The question made him think for a moment before he replied, "No, I don't regret what I have done. It was simply something that had to be done and I could do it."

"Then why do you let it cause you so much pain?"

"Just because I said I do not regret what I had to do, doesn't mean I enjoyed it either. In some cases what I regret is that I couldn't do more, something more to help, something to stop my friends from dieing before me."

"I am truly sorry for your loss, but you must now continue living for their sake if not your own. Would they approve of you giving up when there is the chance of returning home, would your son be proud to know that his father gave up on trying to return to him."

"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK ABOUT MY SON AS IF YOU KNOW HIM. Do you think I don't want to return, that I just want to roll over and die. If I was to return home after being gone for about twenty-five years there would be no end to the problems that would pop up. In my world I would be listed as Killed In Action and would have a nice empty coffin in the ground since they couldn't find my body. The will I left behind listed my son as the sole inheritor of all my belongings, I might not have had much but what I did I gave to him."

"Adam, those may be true but it is something, that with the help of Celestia and myself, we could easily repair. No, there is something else that worries you, something else that you fear beyond anything else."

Everything in the room turned hazy and unfocused until they found themselves in a white void. Standing in front of them was eight year old John, smiling up at his father. John walked up to his father grabbing onto his hand with his own smaller one and said "Hey dad, lets go play."

Adam knelt down to his son wrapping him in a hug as tears flowed down his face. He leaned back and turned his head towards Luna and said, "You want to know what I really fear. I fear that when I go back that my son won't even recognize me, that he won't even be able to picture my face in his head. I fear that I was not a good father. When I return I will have missed most of his life. I would have missed all of his achievements that he will have made and possibly even his marriage. I fear that he will come to hate me if I was to return and deep down I know that I probably deserve it."

Luna walked over to the man and wrapped a wing around him as he cried hugging his son. The silence that followed stretched on and wasn't broken until Luna said in a soft voice, "You must still not give up. There is still hope that me and my sister may find a way to send you home sooner than what we originally estimated. In my absence my sister had been forced to find the way on her own but now, with my return, I too can help think of a way. There is always hope. When you wake up in the morning come speak with me and my sister, the guards have their orders to let you leave, we wish to speak with you about something."

When Adam awoke the next morning, he found that someone had placed him in his bed and in his hooves was his picture. He held it close to him before he placed it in one of the breast pockets of his jacket. Getting out of bed he looked over to the other pair of clothes Rarity had made for him. Taking the photo out of his pocket again he slipped it into the other jacket's breast pocket and changed clothes. It felt refreshing being in a new clean uniform.

Grabbing a comb he fixed his mane to make himself look presentable again. The bags under his eyes were gone and he looked good as new.

Walking over to the door he opened it.

I'm back in the saddle.

Author's Note

Well, here it is, I know you have all been waiting for this since the last one and am happy to say that I am about half way done with the next one.
As always I would like to thank my editors:
Wubwave
MasterBrony2012

Give me your thoughts on what ya'll think of the story so far and I am still taking ideas for the relationship side of the story so don't forget to leave a comment below. Keep reading and I hope ya'll enjoy what I have to write in the future chapters.

Chapter 12: New Work

Name: MSG. Adam “Shifty” Smith
Date: August 24, 2015 (December 11, Equestria)
Location: Canterlot Castle
Time: 0829

Stepping out the doors, he found the two guards that had been stationed outside his door waiting for him. He told them he was wishing to meet the princesses to which they both gave a firm nod and took up position on either side of him. Adam had expected for them to take him to the throne room like they had the past few times he had gone to speak with them but they were taking a route he was not used to. When they arrived at a set of doors, these doors were not as decorated as those seen at the throne room and he could hear a group of people talking on the other side.

The guards stood on each side of the door, along with the other guards already there, and gestured for him to go through. After proceeding through the doors he saw that he was now in a well decorated dining hall. There was a large oak table that stretched from one side of the room to the other and could easily seat at least thirty ponies along it but only currently seated ten. Sitting at the table from his angle he could see were Twilight with her friends along with both the princesses and Captain Shining Armor. A pink alicorn, that matched the description given to him in the story Twilight and Pinkie told him about the wedding, sat next to Shining. His entry into the room caught the attention of everyone in the room causing smiles and grins to form on their faces at his new appearance.

Celestia was the first to speak, “Welcome Adam, I am glad to see that you are feeling better. Come and sit, I will have a servant bring you something to eat.”

“Thank ya ma’am.”

A servant made her way over to him and gave him a menu to look over. He looked through the list of things but he couldn’t find what he really wanted, meat. Celestia seemed to pick up on his disappointment.

“Is there something wrong with the menu?”

“Well no ma’am there is nothing wrong, I was just wondering if there was by any chance any meat. I should have known better that there wouldn’t be.”

His response was accompanied by a raised eyebrow from Celestia, a curious look from Luna and a mixture of disgust and horror on everyone else. Rarity was the one to ask out loud what everyone there was thinking.

“Why in the heavens would you want to eat,” she swallowed back a blanch, “meat?”

“Well, humans are omnivores so my diet consist of vegetables, fruits and meats. Twilight if you remember I had asked if it was common for a pony to have canine teeth, well I in fact still have my human teeth. Lately I have noticed that I haven’t taken a liking to hay but still find myself craving meat, mostly grilled chicken, it was always my favorite.”

Celestia gave what he said some thought before saying what she thought, “The spell that brought you to this world will change your physical form but there are somethings that it will leave alone. Your teeth and diet are probably one of these aspects of your person that were left alone.”

Luna spoke next, “If that is the case I am sure we can use the supplies that we would normally save for the gryphon diplomats to supplement your diet while you stay here in the castle.”

The servant came back into the room but was stopped by Luna who told her to grab a menu used for the gryphons. The servant bowed and left, coming back moments later with another menu and giving it to Adam. Opening it up he quickly found what he was looking for, bacon. She stood nearby waiting to take his order and after finally getting his order, giving him a funny look, she went into the kitchen. He bet there were going to be a few rumors spreading about him soon enough, if there weren’t some already.

While they waited Rarity, who was sitting to his left, was inspecting the clothes. After a few moments she asked, “How does the uniform fit, is it like your other one?”

“Yes, it feels exactly like my old uniform, thank you again for making it for me.”

Shining Armor seemed to perk up at the sound of uniforms. Adam caught Shining looking over the uniform as well, he seemed to approve of it, though he did look a little confused as to the design. “What does the design of your uniform mean, it seems a little odd?”

“Well, my uniform is design to prevent me from being seen right away and so I can blend in. The other uniform you first saw me in was so that I could blend into a desert environment and this one is for a forest.”

“Ah, that would be very useful. I notice that unlike your other uniform, this one does not have the same patches on it, why is that?”

“Oh, when I was in Ponyville, I had asked Rarity to make me another one since the only clothes I had were the ones that I had on my back.”

The conversation was interrupted as Adam’s food was brought to him. Once his eyes made contact with the plate and the aroma wafted over his nose, he began to drool slightly. Everyone watched him as he grabbed a strip of bacon and savor his first bite. He welcomed the familiar explosion of taste on his pallet.

“Is everything to your liking?”

The question snapped Adam out of his pleasure, he looked at Celestia and gave an energetic nod before swallowing.

“I’m glad to hear it. There is something that me and my sister would like to ask of you.”

He took a couple hasty bites of the eggs and toast he had on his plate before he asked, slightly uneasy about what she was going to ask of him, “What do ya’ll need ma’am?”

“My sister and I believe that there is still a lot of good you can do during your stay here in Equestria. We would like it if you would use your experience from your service, here. Would you be willing to join the Lunar guard stationed in Ponyville?”

“What does that exactly entail?”

“Well, first we, due to the years of experience that you have, would make you first lieutenant making you the ranking officer of the lunar guard stationed there. Unlike normal lunar guards though you will not just report to Luna but to myself as well. We will also have you not just work during the night, like that of the average lunar guard, but also during the day alongside the solar guard. You will be sharing command of the entire guard with the solar guard lieutenant there who, from what we have read from a report that was brought to us a few days ago, you have already met. Though I say that you share command, you will still be in control of the lunar guard and you can give a command to any of the solar guards there unless their lieutenant says otherwise. This also goes for him as well.”

“If I agree, will I receive ALL my gear back?”

Luna responded this time, “Along with making you a citizen of Equestria, you will be given all your belongings that you had with you. With your position in the guard you will receive a weekly salary of five hundred gold bits.”

Adam leaned over to Twilight on his right and whispered, “Is that a lot?”

Twilight replied, “For your rank that is above average of the above average. I will have to teach you about our currency later.”

“Ma’am, while I like the idea of being able to serve again, I have to ask. Why do you want me to be stationed in a small town like Ponyville, when I am armed and ready for war not only for myself but for another person or in this case pony? It seems like overkill to me ma’am.”

“The reason that we wish for you to be in Ponyville is because one of your other duties will be to act as the personal bodyguard to the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony.”

“OK, who are these bearers and what are the Elements of Harmony?”

“To answer your first question Adam, Twilight, Applejack, Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie Pie are the Bearers you will be protecting. The answer to your second question is that the elements are ancient and powerful magical objects that can only be used by the bearers.”

“That still seems like a little overkill ma’am. I mean there wasn’t anyone that I would say would cause that kind of trouble in Ponyville, don’t get me wrong there are jerks there but nothing more than that from what I’ve seen.”

“There are some things that will require me to send them into a possibly dangerous areas. When I do, they will need protection from what is out there.”

Rainbow Dash shot into the air and shouted, “We don’t need protection, we know how to take care of ourselves.”

“Ma’am that sounds like something your guards would be able to handle, not something you would need a soldier to do.”

“While my guards could watch over them, they are not trained in the manner that you have been. They do not know how to fight to kill like I have seen your kind, they may hesitate at an inopportune moment.”

Shining Armor adopted a frown at hearing Celestia talk poorly of his guards. No matter how much he would like to disagree with her though, he had to admit that during training, the guards were trained to subdue not kill. He saw how big of an asset a trained soldier could be in times of conflict, when they would not be able to subdue and capture all of their enemies.

“When would I start?”

“Well as far as guarding the girls and returning to active duty you will have to go through some flight training first. We cannot have you falling out of the sky everywhere you go.” Her last statement caused Rainbow Dash to stop glaring and start laughing.

“Yea I can’t go around catching you every time.”

“OH Ha Ha. I think you’re forgetting that I have only been a pony for about a week now and most of it was unconscious. I’m happy to at least get into the air at the moment.”

“Nonetheless you will be trained on how to properly fly and Miss Rainbow Dash will be one of your instructors.”

Rainbow stopped her laughing and stammered, “W-w-what do you mean? Me teach him how to fly, your joking right?”

Celestia knew Rainbow Dash would be surprised at being told this but had a plan to lessen this unease, “You will be one of his instructors Rainbow Dash. I will be sending a letter to the other pony that will help teach him proper technique while you help build up his wing power.”

“Oh, if its just wingpower I can do that in ten seconds flat.”

“Very good, tomorrow you will head back to ponyville where you will be given a new home to call your own while here and then begin training in three days from now. Until then, you will be allowed to do as you please and I would advise to meet with both the guard branches stationed there before you begin active duty. This is only if you agree though, I will not force you to do this.”

Not much of a choice really. Either accept and work for them or decline and possibly upset or anger the two beings that know how to send me back. To top things off, if what Twilight says is true, I will be being paid quite generously.

Making up his mind he said, “OK, I will work for you ma’am. I do have a question that will determine what I will be doing and how.”

“What is your question Adam,” Luna asked tilting her head slightly.

“How far have your people come along in firearms?”

“Well in comparison with humanities progress, we would be at the point of flintlock rifles. Why do you wish to know?”

“As ya’ll are aware, I came here with those two bags and will not be able to get resupplied from my other superiors. I will need to speak with your weapon smiths to have new ammunitions crafted from the samples I will leave them.”

Celestia nodded in understanding, “Very well. I will have a guard show you to the armory and will have you fitted for your new armor as well.”

“Thank you ma’am but I will have to decline the new armor. I do not mean any insult when I say that your armor is too flashy for what I do and is ineffective in comparison with what I currently have. If you wish for me to be able to do what I have been trained to do, then I will have to insist on keeping my old armor.”

Rarity cried out, “But darling their armor is simply fabulous why would not want it? Besides the armor is a symbol of your position.”

“If its an issue of identification then a simple patch on my left sleeve will due.”

Rarity huffed in irritation, “How would a patch do that?”

He ignored the first question, he had already answered, “Well where I am from, we use the patches to identify which unit other soldiers are part of. Some are more known than others. Simply have one designed for me to wear to symbolize my new position and it won’t compromise my stealth training.”

Rarity eyes began to sparkle at the thought of designing a royal patch that would recognised by everyone.

“Now that we have settled this, and you have finished your breakfast Adam, I shall escort you myself to the armory,” Luna announced surprising Celestia but she didn’t say anything against it.

Shining Armor spoke next, “I’ll go along too, I wish to see these weapons in great detail and learn more about them. We stored all of your gear in the armory to prevent anypony from getting hurt by accident.”

“That will save me some time then. I’m ready whenever ya’ll are.”

Leaving the table Luna, Shining Armor and Adam left the table for the armory. From the dining hall it was a twenty minute walk there but it was not a quiet walk.

Luna was the one to start the conversation, surprising Adam, “Adam before we arrive there I wish to ask for your forgiveness?”

“And what are you asking to be apologized for,” he could easily figure it out but he might learn something if he just let her fill in the blanks.

“Earlier, when you first arrived here, I did something that I shouldn’t have. It was rude of myself to look into your mind and read your thoughts without your consent. Even though I have not been around for a long time it is still no excuse to forget myself. Do you think you could forgive me for my thoughtlessness?”

“Not right away, no. In time I believe I will, but this will be the starting point.”

“I understand.”

Seeing that the conversation wasn’t going to pick itself back up, it was Shining’s turn to ask, “I’ve heard that you have several years of service in your countries military, how many exactly?”

“Well I spent about fifteen years in the Army as a sniper.”

“And what exactly is a ‘sniper,’ I have never heard of such a thing?”

“Well snipers are specialized in mid to long range engagement of enemy units, but we can be used for a variety of things.”

“Would you care to elaborate on what those things are?”

“Sure, why not. For starters we can of course engage enemies as needed, provide recon or act as a forward observer for artillery. As you saw from my memory, we do provide overwatch for convoys, it can be more effective than placing a squad of soldiers in an area. There is the occasion where we are used to remove high valued targets or watch them for information. Our stealth training comes in handy for those last two things, I would have a lot more holes in me otherwise.”

“How many times have you ‘removed’ these targets?” Shining was interested in hearing about the human’s fighting abilities, he needed to know how to command such units if the use ever came, he wished against the day that such a thing would ever be needed though.

“Only a few times not a whole lot, there are enough of us that we don’t rely on just one sniper team to do things. I have been stuck doing observations many times though, and believe me when I tell ya that those are not usually the most exciting things to do for days on end. By the way when we get to ya’lls armory I will need to take one of ya’lls rifles.”

Shining was confused with what Adam said and voiced his confusion, “Why do you want one of our rifles when you have the ones you brought with you?”

“Well until I can have more rounds made that can be used by my rifles, I will have a limited supply. I do not know how to make the ammunition myself, I just know what goes into making them. Thats the whole reason why I wish to speak with your weapon smiths, I am hoping they can make more for me.”

“How good are you with a flintlock?”

“Never fired one before, so while I’m in Ponyville I’m going to learn from one of the guards there.”

When they reached the armory Shining guided Adam over to his gear and allowed him to suit up, then took him to an adjoining room that the weapon smiths worked in. Standing over by a weapons rack stood a dark grey unicorn with a green mane, who seemed to be inspecting a recently finished rifle. Removing a round from each of his magazines Adam placed them in front of the smith who eyed them curiously.

“And what the hell are these,” asked the smith after he stood from bowing to the princes.

“These,” Adam pointed to the different rounds, “are a gift so to speak. A step forward in your weapons development. My weapons do not fire the same ammunition that ya’ll currently produce, so I am giving these to ya to copy and then reproduce.”

“Seems like an interesting enough challenge, I’ll probably be able to adapt our rifles to eventually fire them too. Of course that would be only after we have learned how to mass produce them otherwise where would be the point.”

“Thank you, before I go are you finished with that rifle?”

The smith looked over to the rifle that was lying across the table and replied, “Yeah just finished her assembly just a few moments ago. She’s the first one to have a barrel this long, all the others tend to be shorter in comparison. With the extra length, she will hopefully be more accurate than my previous works.”

“Do you mind if I take her off your hands, er hooves. She looks to be just what I was looking for.”

“And why should I give you this rifle and not any of my other rifles?”

“I’ll give you a quick demonstration of one of my rifles and what those bullets can do.”

“Sounds like a fair deal, but only if you can impress me.”

“Oh, I have a feeling you will be very much impressed with them. Princess Luna do you mind if I take two watermelon from your kitchens?”

“Um, sure. Why do you need those?”

“Gives me something to shoot at and it’s fun to see what happens to them.”

It took about an hour before Adam had set up his Anti material rifle on one of the towers with everyone present. Princess Celestia and the girls had heard about what he was doing and came to watch, Pinkie had a bag of popcorn and was happily eating her fill. There was a bright flash as Luna returned from placing the watermelon.

“The melons have been placed just as you asked.”

“Thank you Princess, now then, everyone who has decided to join us today let me explain. Princess Luna has, at my request, placed two watermelon a little over a mile out on the mountain behind me. They are placed one in front of the other and will act as my targets for me to shoot at. I will only take one shot at them and ya’ll will be able to watch them from some of my gear,” Adam indicated by pointing at the binoculars and spotter scopes.

The smith laughed, “If you can hit those I’ll personally deliver the first batch of rounds to your house.”

Adam took his position behind the scope and began to calculate the wind speed and cross breeze along with the bullet drop. Everyone else looked through his scopes at the melons. When he had finished his calculations he slowed his breathing and held it. Pulling on the stick for the trigger he waited until he was absolutely sure before he fired the round at the watermelons. The sudden and loud noise that was coming from the weapon forced everyone present to clamp their ears flat against their heads in discomfort. They could all see the air displacement of the round as it traveled the distance and strike the two melons. When the girls saw it make contact, Fluttershy was the one to jump back in fear as the melons were replaced by nothing but tiny chunks of the fruity flesh.

“So then I’ll make sure to send ya’ll my mailing address, for ya to find me at, when you’re done with them,” a victorious smirk forming along his muzzle.

The smith on the other hand had to pick up his chin from the ground so he could speak. “Do you mind if I take a look at your rifle. I’ve never seen anything that comes close to that in all my years. The name is Strong Steel by the way its a pleasure to make your acquaintance.”

An idea sparked into being in Adam’s mind and he was going to jump on it. “Nice to meet you Strong Steel, my name is Adam and I wouldn’t mind letting you examine my tools, that is if you are willing to move down to Ponyville for a while.”

The requirement for the weapon smith to examine the his rifle caught everyone off guard and confused them, it was Steel who was the one to voice their confusion. “Why would you want me to move down to Ponyville for, when all my equipment is here?”

“The answer to that is quite simple actually, I need ammunition for my dwindling supply and you can make it for me. Rather than it having to be shipped over to me, the only person with the weapons to use it, it would just be faster and more efficient for you to move to where I will be staying. On top of that if I need special parts or if I have any ideas for different types of rounds it would be faster to visit you then send a letter. Your equipment can be moved or new equipment can be installed there. Of course this will all have to be approved by the princesses of course.”

The group looked over to the two princesses standing off to the side, waiting for their decision on the matter.

Luna tapped her chin in thought before saying, “I do not see anything wrong with that and it would be better in this case. What do you think Tia?”

Celestia took a little longer to respond than her sister, she wouldn’t agree to it unless she had a very serious question answered. “When you say special ammunitions made, is there something in mind that you are thinking about? From what I have seen, your weapons will not be needed due to their lethality.”

“You are very much right Princess Celestia, my weapons are very much over the top in regards to what I will be doing as one of the guards, which is why I will require special ammunition for them. I will need non lethal rounds made, such as rubber bullets and tranquilizer darts. With Strong Steel building them nearby, he will have me to ask any questions he may have while working, which will lessen the amount of time of their construction.”

Celestia nodded her head in understanding and said, “Very well, Strong Steel, if you have no objections I would like you to transfer to Ponyville as soon as possible. You will be compensated for your equipment and travel expenses.”

Strong Steel did not hesitate with his response and quickly agreed to leaving, running off to gather his belongings for travel.

Adam couldn’t help but laugh, “That was easier to do than I thought, I honestly believed it would take a little more convincing but this is better.”

“Adam,” at the mention of his name he turned to Celestia who had been watching him, “I will have transportation ready for you and the girls by tomorrow for departure back to Ponyville. As for the rest of the day you may enjoy yourself and have a look around, but you must first swear an oath.”

An alarm went off in Adam at the word, “Oath, what kind of oath?”

Luna was next to answer, “It is the oath that all guards take when they begin serving and what binds them until they retire.”

He was not liking where this was heading, “What exactly is part of the oath?”

“The oath simply states that you will enforce the laws while protecting the citizens by any means. We will make sure that the oath does not conflict with your duties with the United States, so there will be nothing to worry about in that regard. If you would follow us back to the throne room we can quickly take care of the oath and you can be sworn in as a member of the guard officially.”

Adam sighed, “Well alright then lets get this over with, I’m starving.”

Luna rolled her eyes before leading the group to the throne room for the ceremony. A collection of guards were waiting in the hall for the ceremony. Once they had entered the room the guards made two rows on either side of the red carpet that lead to the throne while the girls stood off to the side watching. The princesses stood in front of the throne facing the group, smiling the entire time, leaving Adam to stand alone on the carpet. Kneeling he waited for one of them to speak.

Clearing her throat Celestia began, “Adam, do you hereby swear to protect and uphold the laws set forth by the crown and protect Equestria’s citizens from those who would wish to do them harm?”

“I, Adam, swear to uphold the laws of the throne and protect Equestria’s citizens.”

“Do you swear to protect the throne from outside forces that would wish to see it’s downfall?”

“I swear.”

“Then I, Princess Celestia,”

“And I Princess Luna,”

Celestia’s and Luna’s horns began to glow brightly as they used their magic, “Bestow upon you, Adam, the rank of First Lieutenant of the night guard and entitle you to the rights and privileges that come with the position. Now rise Lieutenant and welcome to ranks of the night guard.”

When Celestia had finished her speech the guards on both sides of him began stomping their hooves in rhythm of one another, showing their approval.

“You are all dismissed and may visit the city if you so wish. I would like for you all to join Luna and I for dinner later tonight to celebrate.”

Soon after the guards had left the hall Rarity’s eyes lit up, “I know just where we should go first, follow me.”

Not even waiting for a response Adam felt himself being lifted up into the air by Rarity’s magic and carried off after her, the others trotting close behind giggling and laughing. No matter how much he protested, Rarity refused to put him back on the ground until they reached their destination. Seeing where it was she wanted to go he understood why, he would have bolted otherwise. She had brought him to a fashion store and was now pulling him through the door while he screamed for help.

Dressing up in the different suites did not bother him in the slightest, it was what he feared would happen if they went overboard. His fears were shortly realised after thirty minutes of changing in and out of suites. A mischievous grin had formed on the girl’s faces, minus Fluttershy, while he was in the stall changing and when he came out, instead of more suites, he found an assortment of dresses and wedding gowns waiting for him.

Ears flat against his head he started to back his way towards the doors, he didn’t care if he was still in one of the suites he was getting out of there.

“N-n-now girls I am not putting any of that on so you can just forget it.”

The grins only seemed to widen as Twilight said, “Then I guess we will have to do it the hard way then.”

Really not liking the sound of that Adam made a dash for the door but found himself running in place while a lavender glow surrounded his body. He was then slowly pulled back to the others still trying to run away. When he was within their reach Rainbow Dash and Applejack grabbed him while Pinkie, Twilight and Rarity picked out a dress for him to wear along with makeup to go with it.

Fluttershy could be heard faintly in the background whispering, “Girls, I don’t think he wants you doing that.”

By the time Fluttershy was able to get them to stop, they had already squeezed him into the dress and applied several pounds of makeup on him. They all were crying from laughing at his appearance and took them several moments for them to stop and apologize for their actions. Adam took the moment to change back into his uniform and slip back into his vest, he was done with the city and was going to make a beeline for the castle.

The girls tried to convince him to stay and look around the city some more but he wasn’t having any of it and made his way back to his room. His gear was stored in the same spot as he had it last, giving it a second glance he decided to check his stuff to make sure it was all there. Twilight did what she had done the last several times he checked and cleaned his gear, and that was to watch and ask him about the various tools and weapons, while she took notes. The others sat around talking with one another about various things that did not catch Adam’s attention.

When the time came, they all started making their way to the dining hall and found that it had been lavishly decorated and an assortment of pastries could be found along the table. Sitting at the table waiting were Celestia, Luna, and Cadence who each warmly welcomed the group. Shortly after they arrived a large mass of off duty guards came in to greet their newest addition. If Adam weren’t painfully aware of where he was he would have sworn he was back graduating from his sniper training school all over again. The familiar feeling allowed for him to relax and finally truly enjoy himself. Celestia had left early during the festivities, claiming royal duties needing her attention, while Luna stayed behind. Shining Armor later arrived himself having finished his own duties.

The party brought to mind many old but happy memories that he had growing up.

If I could create memories like those here, maybe, just maybe I could call this place home for a while.

Author's Note

Once again thanks to my editors:
MasterBrony2012
Wubwave

To those who like Fallout Crossovers, I will be posting a new story. It is not going to get the same amount of attention as this one though, I'll be working on that one off and on.

Chapter 13: Return Flight

Name: MSG. Adam “Shifty” Smith
Date: August 25, 2015 (December 12, Equestria)
Location: Canterlot Castle
Time: 0900

If there was anything that Adam could feel for the guards in charge of transporting the baggage the girls had, it would be pity. Not only did the guards have to deal with the mountain of luggage that they had brought with them, but they now also had the pleasure of having to include the second, smaller, mountain of supplies Rarity had purchased while she was there. Adam had to suppress the fit of laughter at seeing the looks they were making at seeing their responsibility in front of them, it was not a look of happiness. He was doing the exact opposite however, he was going to be leaving something behind for the princesses to use, something he knew would prove to be useful.

Grabbing one of his bags he brought it to the princesses, who had been standing of to the side while the others prepared for departure.

Celestia smiled at him as he approached and said, “Ah, Adam, I have something to tell you. While you have been staying here, I had contracted some construction ponies to begin work on your new home for you to stay in. From their last report, they have stated that they should be finished within the week. All costs for its constructions have been taken care of and it will be furnished with a few things that you will need.”

Adam was taken aback at hearing that not only would he have a place to call his own but that they had taken the liberty of paying for the costs and furnishings.

“I am truly thankful for ya’lls thoughtfulness of my living situation and I have something to give in return.” Digging through his bag, he removed the rectangular block that Twilight recognized as the device she had used to contact Adam when he had gone missing. “Having seen how you communicate with Twilight using scrolls and fire, consider it a jumpstart to ya’lls communication package by about one hundred years. This will allow the two of ya to talk with me instantly as long as I am within range with either this,” he pointed to the throat mic he was wearing again, “or with the other communication gear that I have in my other bag. Unlike my throat mic, this allows for long range communication and will be able to reach the one I will be holding on to. With these ya’ll will be able to speak with me whenever ya need to and I can even give you a verbal report or update on things going on in Ponyville. The same can be said the other way around, but there is a drawback and that is that I will need to be nearby to hear it.”

After seeing the communication radio being given to them Luna said, “This is a truly valuable piece of equipment that you are giving us, which we gladly accept. Though my sister and I would love to ask you many more questions about it, we must return to our duties to the country and you too must return to Ponyville with the others. But before you go take this,” she levitated over a small bag, ”in there is one hundred gold bits so that you may buy what you need until starting your duties. Farewell Adam we will see you again and we expect a weekly report from you.”

Fucking fantastic.

After the princesses had taken their leave Adam looked into the bag, having never actually seen the currency before and was surprised to find that they were in fact made of gold and mixed in was a ticket. He couldn’t recall either of the princesses ever mentioning there being a ticket in the bag but since they were no longer there he couldn’t ask them.

I guess I’ll just have to ask one of the girls about it, one of them might know something.

Finding a loop connected to the bag he was able to tie it to the base of his wing and keep it tucked underneath and out of view of others. Collecting his other belongings he made his way over to the second carriage and fastened them down so that they wouldn’t move during the journey before making his way to the first carriage. Seeing that the girls had already made themselves comfortable inside, he took his place against the side like last time.

Once the last of them were seated the guards took to the skies and aimed for Ponyville in their standard formation.

Canterlot Castle Throne Room

Celestia and Luna stood at their thrones with the radio sitting in between them, happy with how things had transpired. Celestia took this moment to sit down in preparation for the courts to open for the day, even if it was later than normal. Luna on the other hoof was doing some sort of victory dance that forced Celestia to ask, “And what pray tell has you in such a fine mood this morning Lulu?”

Luna stopped her dance to look at her older sister and excitedly respond, “Did thou not listen to us? We did not speak as we did in times past. Thy lessons have been working wonderfully and they now bare fruit.” She continued where she left off in her little dance without a care in the world.

Luna’s slip back into the old speech without realizing it caused a fit of laughter to take Celestia. It took several minutes before she was finally able to regain control again and speak, “Lulu you’re doing it again.”

Luna stopped her victory dance and blinked a few time, the smile leaving her muzzle. The room went silent before she finally spoke, “BU-”

Being up in the air and having nowhere to be at the moment Adam thought that that would be the perfect opportunity for him so he asked, “Hey girls I was talking to the princesses and they gave me some bits, but when I opened the bag I also found this,” as he pulled out the ticket he could see their reactions. Twilight’s was the look of shock while Applejack and Rainbow Dash gave soft groans. Rarity had a look of excitement and said something about things being more interesting than last time, Pinkie was acting just how Pinkie always acted which made it difficult for Adam to glean any information from her. Lastly, Fluttershy hid further into her mane and mumbled how wonderful that was for him to get a ticket.

“So anyone going to tell me or am I just going to have to guess?”

It was Twilight who finally answered Adam saying, “That is a ticket for the Grand Galloping Gala and it is the most prestigious event in all of Equestria for a pony to attend. I had received our tickets and was waiting to give them to everypony, but I guess I can just do that when we land again.” There were more groans that followed Twilight’s statement from Rainbow Dash and Applejack.

Placing the ticket back into the pouch and tieing it to the base of his wing again, he quickly lost any interest in the conversation the girls had gotten into about fashion, parties and farm work. Not wanting to sit in boredom, he pulled out his Ipod again and plugged in his ear buds. Finding the song he wanted to listen to he hit the play button and started humming along.

Halfway through the song he didn’t notice that he had gotten lost in the song and was out right singing and banging along with the beat.

With the last notes fading, Adam was made painfully aware of how quiet the girls had become next to him. He could feel his cheeks begin to redden from embarrassment while his eyes darted around looking for some sort of distraction but found nothing.

“Uh well... Nothing to do here,” quickly standing up he lept over the side. Backflip for style.

The air tore at his clothes as he plummeted away from the carriage, the thrill of it sent spikes of adrenaline through his system as he gained more and more speed. A short glance over his shoulder however told him he wasn’t alone as he saw a rainbow maned pegasus rocket towards him with a determined look on her face.

Oh, I’m not going to make it that easy.

To reduce his air resistance, he straightened his body out with his face towards the ground. He could feel the intensity of the wind on his face increase as he sped faster and faster to the ground. As the ground became closer and closer it was soon time for him to pull out of the dive and gain altitude.

This will either be really fun or I’ll become a pancake. I really hope its option A.

Opening his wings he could immediately feel the tug of the air on his wings and the strain on the muscles as they screamed in protest and lifted him away. Every fiber and muscle burned from the exertion required and nearly caused him to scream. The airspeed gained from the dive, along side his added flaps, allowed for him to quickly increase the distance once again between himself and the hard ground. Just as he was beginning to level off his flight the amount of effort increased dramatically. Looking back he saw the culprit being none other than Rainbow Dash pulling on his hind legs with a mischievous grin on her face.

“I’m not letting you get away that easily. Since we have you up here and flying already, why not get started on your training.”

“Let go damn it,” Adam grunted from the strain. With Rainbow Dash pulling on his leg he had to increase the amount of effort he was already having to deal with. “Seriously let go.”

“Not going to happen. Princess Celestia wanted me to train you and thats what I am going to do,” the grin never leaving her muzzle.

“Would you please let me go?”

“Weeeellllll, since you asked nicely,” the grin widening further, she let go of his leg which sent him rocketing forward from the sudden lack of resistance. She followed him a few feet away just incase, laughing the entire time.

Recovering as quickly as he could he went straight for the second carriage with all the luggage, having had enough of flying for one day. As he approached the carriage he yelled over his shoulder to Rainbow Dash, “So how do I land, ya know, without crashing?”

“Well for starters you should probably slow down and prepare you legs to absorb the impact.”

Adam nodded his head as he followed her instructions and made his descent towards the luggage, the guards pulling it however had worried looks after they heard him ask how to land. The two guards closed their eyes in anticipation of Adam’s collision with the cart and were rewarded with the sound of Adam slamming into the luggage.

Rainbow Dash flew up alongside the carriage tapping her chin with her hoof, “Hmm, maybe we should have started with a nonmoving landing platform for you to try on first. Its kinda harder to land on something that is also moving especially for a beginner.”

Adam shot Rainbow Dash a look before saying, “You could have said that before I smashed my face into a bunch of Rarity’s suitcases.”

“How else are you going to learn these things if you don’t try, that and its funny to watch you crash into everything.”

He just rolled his eyes at her, he wasn’t going to stoop down to her level, not yet anyways, he was going to wait for when she least expected it. In the meantime he just wanted to rest for the remainder of the trip back, even if it was with the luggage. He waved Rainbow Dash away and laid back down, he was too tired to attempt to crossover to the other carriage. He made himself as comfortable as possible before he closed his eyes. Before sleep could take him though he called up to the guards pulling and said, “Give me a shout when we are five minutes out from Ponyville, OK.”

The guards replied with, “Yes sir,” tensing up slightly from talking with him.

“Hey none of that ‘yes sir’ stuff, I’m not on duty.” Not really caring to hear their reply he finally fell asleep for the rest of the flight.

“So,” Twilight began as Rainbow Dash landed amongst them again, “how do you think he will do once you really start training him?”

Rainbow Dash shifted her wings into a more comfortable position before replying, “Well from what I saw, he should do fine and shouldn’t take too long. He does need to learn the proper technique though if he wants to stay in the air longer, I mean did you see how worn out he was just from that little stunt.”

“Speaking of teachers, I wonder who Princess Celestia hired to train Adam, other than Rainbow Dash that is,” asked Rarity.

Hopping up and down in her excitement, Pinkie Pie exclaimed, “Oh oh oh, maybe she is getting one of the wonderbolts to teach him the techniques.”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes at the idea, “Ha, as if. I don’t think its so important for him to fly that she would need to hire one of them to teach him. She probably got one of the weather team ponies to teach him.”

“Well either way I’m sure we'll be findin’ out soon enough once he starts,” stated Applejack not wanting the conversation to get out of hoof now that it was on the topic of the wonderbolts.

Adam’s dreamless sleep was interrupted by one of the guards, that pulled the carriage he was on, calling his name. He slowly opened his eyes and stretched his limbs feeling his joints crack and pop before he let out a tired sigh. Finally awake to his fullest he grabbed his bags and began to fully suit up in his gear like he had been the last time he was in town.

Not knowing of any place else to land the guards went straight to the library where they originally picked up everyone from. The two guards that had to pull the luggage carriage had the, once again, unfortunate responsibility of unloading all of Rarity’s new and old luggage. Adam on the on hand grabbed his own gear and set it towards the side, away from everyone else. Once everything had been removed a few of the guards gave Adam a quick nod before taking off and start their journey back to the capital.

“OK girls we’re finally back, I’m sure everypony wants to go home and see their families, so I will see you all later,” announced Twilight.

The others gave their nods of approval and started saying their goodbyes before taking their belongings and heading home, Rarity lifting her’s with her magic. After everyone had finally left for their homes, did Twilight turn and open the door to the library. She didn’t make it far before realizing that Adam wasn’t following behind her and turned to face him in confusion.

“Are you coming in or are you going to stand out here?”

“Actually I was going to go and find the local guard barracks. I need to go meet the men and- I mean stallions and mares that I’ll be workin’ with from now on. The best way to do that is to stay in the barracks until my new home is finished sometime next week.”

“Are you sure, that doesn’t sound like a very comfortable place to stay from what Shining has told me.”

“And you would be right but its not for very long, that and I don’t feel right stayin’ at the library. I just feel like I’m takin’ advantage of ya and Spike. Anyways I’ll see ya tomorrow,” with that he turned around with his bags and made his way towards the guard’s headquarters in town.

It was getting late into the evening before he finally actually found the building he had been on the hunt for. He wanted to quickly find a bunk somewhere inside and sleep until the shift change. The sooner he learned how the guard operated during the night the faster he could start working again and give him something to distract himself. The time he had spent relaxing in the capital gave him too much time to think about things he would rather not.

Opening the doors he saw a few solar guards walking to the barracks, none paying him the slightest bit of attention. Not really worried he started for one of the halls that had been labeled for the lunar guard barracks. In the barracks there was more activity going on as the guards were preparing to change shift for the night. As he entered a few looked at him with puzzled looks on their faces, not understanding why a civilian would wander into there of all places. Spotting an open bunk Adam tossed his bags next to it, not even bothering to unpack as he prepared to get some sleep.

“Um, excuse me, mind tell me what you are doing here in the guards barracks civilian.”

Adam turned to face the lunar guard that had approached him, raising an eyebrow at him before he responded, “Well I guess the princesses haven’t sent the letter yet or it just haven’t gotten here yet, either way it doesn’t matter.” Bringing a hoof to his chest he said, “I am the newly instated First Lieutenant Adam Smith that is to be stationed here until further notice.”

The reaction to his statement was immediate as several of the awake guards stopped what they were doing, many of them in different stages of assembling their armor, and saluted him. Adam just shook his head and chuckled, he was not used to that sort of reaction and it made him feel slightly uncomfortable.

“Sorry sir, none of us were aware that the capital would be sending somepony. Would you like me to introduce you to everypony?”

“That can wait until later tonight, I do need you to wake me when the shift changes though. Until then ya’ll can continue doing what ya’ll were doing.”

He began to unstrap his own armor and helmet, seeing as it would be rather uncomfortable to try and sleep in them even though he had done it several times before. Once he had finished taking everything off he grabbed the blankets and he pulled them back to allow him entrance beneath their warm layers. Beneath the blanket at last he let out a sigh and let his eyes slowly close and sleep take him.

Author's Note

OK first things first, sorry for the long wait for this chapter and don't forget to leave a comment on anything that you didn't like about the chapter or errors. My editors couldn't get around to reading over it this time around, since they too have their own stories to write, so the editing is all me on this one.

There was something else I was going to say but fuck it I forgot and I'll make a blog about it if was important when I remember.

Chapter 14: First Watch

Name: MSG. Adam “Shifty” Smith
Date: August 25, 2015 (December 12, Equestria)
Location: ????
Time: ????

Adam found himself standing in the empty space as before, the weight of his back on his back, the vest on his chest and the weight of a rifle in his hands. Taking a look at what his mind had given him, he was surprised to find Steve’s rifle with the shattered scope. Looking back up he examined the vast expanses of nothing, quickly becoming bored. “I didn’t think I would be back here so soon and I don’t mind really but it is a little dull.”

He heard a giggle come from behind him, so turning around he saw Luna standing there next to him looking up at him. “We are sorry for the sudden meeting but there is some things that we would like to discuss with the. As for the surroundings, it is you to chose where we shall be as this is your own mind.”

“Nothings wrong with that ma’am, but I do have one question.”

With her curiosity peaked she tilted her head to the side allowing him to continue.

“Sorry if this sounds rude or anything but why are you speaking like that, you didn’t sound like that at the castle?”

Huffing in irritation she replied, “We- I mean, I tend to fall back into the old habits if I am not paying attention to it. I have been away for a while and I have been getting some help to speak like everypony else.”

Not really understanding how old of a habit it could be for her to speak like that, he had to ask, she couldn’t be much older than Twilight and the others.

When he asked Luna raised an eyebrow, “Is it normal where you are from to ask a mare their age?”

Sputtering, as he realized his error in asking, he tried to formulate a response never actually getting anything coherent out of his mouth.

Luna had trouble holding back a fit of giggles at Adam’s embarrassment and his failing attempts to fix it. Having seen him struggle long enough she interrupted him saying, “1,678 years.”

“Oh O- wait what?”

“I am 1,678 years old while my sister, Princess Celestia, just recently celebrated her 1,954 birthday. Is it that strange for somepony to live that long in your world?”

“Um yeah, I’m not aware of any human ever living that long. Ever. We generally live around 100 years or so, closer to 80 really. Do all ponies live for that long?”

A sad smile formed on her face, “No, most ponies live roughly as long as you humans. It is only us alicorns that have been granted the gift of immortality.”

“Not to be rude or anything, but that doesn’t sound like much of a gift as much as it is a curse. Seeing everything you know come and go for that long must be a rather large strain.”

“Yes, when you put it like that it can be rather trying at times. My sister and myself have both learned to deal with it in our own ways and soon Cadence will too have to learn the same lesson as us.”

“Alright lets change the subject away from this very uncomfortable topic. Here’s another question, why am I in this form rather than my pony form, not that I mind? Its nice being in my true form without the extreme pain when Twilight did it.”

“Ah, that is a rather easy question to answer. It is due to the fact that inside this is who you are and who you feel yourself to be. In your heart you are the human soldier that you have been for many years.”

“OK now what about what I’m wearing all this gear, I know from experience that this stuff is fucking uncomfortable. Sorry for the language, ma’am.”

“It is quite alright, I very much like it when ponies or in this case people act like their normal selves around me and not scared, running away in fear. As for why you would imagine yourself wearing something that is uncomfortable, I would have to guess that it is from the feeling of safety your mind has given the gear. You feel protected and in control while wearing it so you mind has grown attached to that mental comfort.”

“Well that makes sense, I guess. Alright since you seem to have all the answers, I have one last question for you.”

“I will answer to the best of my abilities Adam, I have not once claimed to hold the answers but have only been able to tell you what I have determined from studying ponies throughout my life as a princess of the night.”

“Why do I have this,” Adam raised the weapon up for Luna to closely scrutinize. Her face spoke of untold curiosity for the device and what secretes it could possibly tell her about him. He watched as her eyes ran along the rifle, taking in every detail that she could. Once her eyes came to the scope however, she stopped. It became the focus of her attention and had even gone as far as tracing a hoof along its edge until it came in contact with the exit hole on the side.

After a few minutes passed before she stepped back a few paces and sighed. Her curiosity did not seemed to be quenched as a saddened expression took its place for just a moment. It too was shortly replaced with the same smiling calm expression that her sister always showed towards everyone.

“I’m sorry Adam, but I do not know the answer to that question. I do have some theories but I do not wish to voice them until I am sure of whether they are accurate or not.”

Understanding her position, he merely nodded his head and asked, "Very well, now that that is out of the way, how may I help princess?"

"Yes, well the reason for this visit," she paused as a familiar box like object appeared before Adam. "When you left my sister and myself this gift, you didn't exactly explain to us on how to use the communication device. I was hoping that you would show me here so that I may teach my sister at a later time."

Adam could only face palm at himself for forgetting something so simple. He had been treating them as if they were as technologically advanced as humans and had neglected on how to use his equipment. “Sorry about that, I’ll show you how that works.” Kneeling over the equipment he started going step by step on how to operate the radio and cycle through the different frequencies, he also told her which frequencies that he most often used if she needed him. The process only took a few minutes until he found himself staring at an awkwardly standing alicorn.

This wasn’t the only thing she wanted.

Slowly rubbing his palms together he waited as he watched as Luna seemed to have been suffering from some sort of inner conflict. He didn’t like what could possibly be causing such an old being hesitated with make a decision, though it was kinda cute in a way.

“From the looks of things ma’am, this was not the only thing you wanted. Go ahead and ask ma’am, and I’ll see if I can help.”

Seeming to have come to a decision she locked eyes with Adam and asked, “What is it like in your world?”

Her question was not what he had been expecting, which left him without a clue on how to answer her. He stood there scratching his chin in thought before he finally came up with something to say, “Has Princess Celestia ever spoken about what she has seen in my world?”

Luna gave an affirmative nod saying, “She has discussed with me many of the things that she has seen on her trips and has even gone as far as to show me by using the same spell we used on you. However its not the same as actually going or speaking with another being. All she sees are what she wants to see or what the rulers of your world want her to see. Its too filtered.” Her last statement coming out more as a huff of annoyance than an actual comment to him.

“Well, I could talk to you about some of the things I’ve done, but the thing is,” he paused for a moment making sure to look her in the eyes to get his point across. “I have spent almost half my life serving in my country’s military. It is by far not what the average person lives like that is a civilian. For us military guys however, its pretty average, I guess. But that being the case, there isn’t a whole lot of things that I could tell you in order to give you a better description on how things are.”

Luna stood in silence until she finally responded, “We- I mean, I understand and appreciate the warning but I would still very much like to learn what life there is like from at least your memories.”

With a sad smile on his face Adam asked, “Very well ma’am what would you like me to tell you about?”

A smile of her own formed on her lips as she looked up to Adam and said, “Ah, but thats just it Adam. Why tell me, when you can simply imagine it. This is your mind, you can think of anything or remember anything that you wish for me to see, all you must do is just think of it.”

“Alright, I have something that comes to mind. Its from before my military career started. Keep in mind though I was in high school, so I wasn’t the most mature person at my age.” As the last word left his lips the white room changed to a near empty parking lot in the middle of a heavy rain in the middle of the night. There was not a person in sight, none daring to be out in the downpour of rain.

"So Adam, where have you taken us this fine night?". Curiosity and wonder could be seen as clear as day on her face. She examined everything close enough to her, never going too far so that she may hear what had to say.

"This my dear princess," he said as he swept his arm across in front of himself, "is the parking lot of my old high school."

"And what, may I ask, do you park here?"

"Cars."

"Cars?"

"Yes, cars. Here think of it as a carriage that is self propelled... if properly fueled of course. In fact there's the one we're looking for." Pointing in the direction ahead of them, the faint outline of a small pickup truck could be seen.

"I recall seeing some of these in some of my sister's memories too as well as in the other memory that you showed us. I just didn't know what they were called."

Taking a few steps ahead Adam stopped and turned to face Luna. "If you would follow me, I can show you a memory I have before I joined."

Together the two worked their way to the truck, the rain passing through them as if they were not even there. As they approached the sounds of muffled laughter could be heard coming from inside the vehicle. The closer they got the better they could see three people crammed inside the truck like sardine, but none of them caring.

“Now Adam, what is it that you wish to show me?”

“Just an old memory, I’ll just make it so that we can actually hear them. I can do that right?”

Luna failed to suppress the giggles from his question, “Yes Adam, it is your memory after all.”

A moment later the sounds of rain stopped, but the rain itself continued to fall, and the sound was replaced by what Adam knew was the punchline to a joke he hadn’t heard in a long time. With the two of them now next to the truck, they were now able to see who was inside. It took only a moment to recognize the younger Adam sitting behind the driver’s wheel while another boy and a girl sat further down the bench seating. The boy in the middle had black hair with brown eyes, it saddened Luna to know what the boy’s fate would be, she wished to see Steve’s grave one day. The red-headed-green-eyed-freckled girl however she didn’t recognize, Luna had never heard Adam mention any females since they met.

Luna looked over to Adam as he watched the three with an expression of longing, she hadn’t realized how painful it would be for him to show her something from his past. Wanting to know more however she went forward with her question, “I recognize the person in the middle but the girl I have not heard any mentioning. Who is she?”

A few moments passed until he finally replied his eyes never leaving the three friends, “That is Sarah. We were kinda set, if you saw one of us, it was always a safe bet that the other two were nearby. We were practically inseparable, which is understandable since we knew each other since we were six.”

He didn’t say anymore as he just stood there and listened to the laughter, he was in obvious pain for him to relive this memory, but he refused to say it.

It was young Adam who next to speak once the laughter had finally died down enough to be heard, “So whose idea again was it to buy spray paint for the senior prank and do it in the middle of a storm?”

“That would be this genius right here,” Sarah snarkily said at Steve’s expense.

“How was I suppose to know that it was going to rain today, I can’t see the future,” Steve exclaimed in an attempt to defend himself.

“Yeah, if only there was a magical box that played moving pictures and if you put it to certain channels would show you weather forecasts for the week,” sarcasm dripped off of everyone of young Adam’s words.

Steve remained silent as the other two stared at him expectantly before bursting into laughter and slugging him on both arms.

“Its fine, its fine,” young Adam said as he wiped the tears that had formed in his eyes from all the laughing. “Welp, what now? I’m up for anything.”

Sarah tapped her chin with a finger looking at the others, “I never asked you guys this before, but what are you two going to do after high school?”

The two of them looked at each other then back to her confused by her random question. It was Steve who voiced what was on their minds, “What made you think of life beyond high school?”

“Well, I mean, the school year is almost over and everyone else I spoke to said they were going to various colleges, even I got accepted into Texas Tech. Are either one of you going anywhere?”

Steve shrugged, “I don’t know, I’ll might go to a community college and get some basic stuff done before going to anywhere major. Saves me money that way. What about you Adam?”

Young Adam was slow to answer, “I don’t know, I was never very studious in class, ya’ll have seen my grades. Don’t get me wrong though, I have been thinking about it, I just not entirely sure. I might join the army.”

“Shit really man, the army?” Steve let out a sigh, his face in a hand until he startled the other two by exclaiming, “Fuck it, if you join I’ll be right there with you. Someone has to have your back after all.”

His mouth continued but anything else was muffled as the rain once again resumed making sound again. Luna decided to break the silence between the two, “I’m sorry for making you show me one of your memories, but I think I now know for sure as to why you carry that rifle and I suspect you know as well. Guilt. You blame yourself for your friend’s death, don’t you?” From her lowered position she could see straight into his eyes and see the pain and sorrow that filled them, a shadow of a smile fading.

“You don’t need to apologise, I chose the memory not you. Princess, I must call this meeting to an end, I suspect my watch is about to start. We can continue this conversation another time.”

The surrounding slowly changed back to the familiar white room. Adam stepped away from Luna, his head turning from side to side as if looking but from his eyes said otherwise.

“Very well Adam, we shall talk another time. Be safe and be vigilant,” shortly after speaking Luna faded out of existence as his dream came to an end.

“Now girls, Ah know Ah told ya’ll that ya could have this here sleepover but I’m afraid Ah can’t watch ya’ll tonight. That trip from Canterlot took a lot out of me and Ah need to get some rest for work tomorrow. Ya’ll will just have to do this another night.”

The three fillies responded with gasps of shock and disappointment but they weren’t going down without a fight.

“But they’re here and everythin’ Applejack. We’ll be very very quiet, Ah promise. We could even stay in the clubhouse and everything just in case,” Apple Bloom made it a point to use her best puppy dog eyes. She knew very few ponies that could resist the look and her sister was not one of them.

Applejack let out a sigh of defeat, looking at the the three fillies, “Well alrigh, ya’ll can stay out in the clubhouse tonight fer yer little sleepover. Just don’t make too much noise, Ah still need to get my sleep tonight.”

The fillies were out the door before she had even finished her statement, having heard what they wanted. She could only laugh at their energy.

At the clubhouse Apple Bloom bounced with overflowing energy, “SO what do you guys want to do tonight?”

Sweetie Belle sat amongst her bags rummaging through them, her muffled voice could just barely be heard, “Well we could tell scary stories or have a pillow fight. I have some games we could play in one of these bags.”

“Oh oh oh, I know. My dad came home earlier before his shift to talk to my mom, saying something about a new boss. From what I heard, the pony wasn’t like any other guards pony he has seen before and had all this weird stuff with him. We could try to get our cutie marks as detectives by finding out who this pony is.”

“Uh, Scoots, Ah don’t think we should go and get ourselves in trouble. You heard my sis, she needs her sleep and waking her up just so we can find out who yer dad’s new boss is doesn’ sound like a good idea.”

Scootaloo just rolled her eyes at Apple Bloom, shaking her head saying, “Who said anything about waking up Applejack, let her get her sleep and besides how would we get our cutie marks if we just let her take us to meet him anyways. No, we should go and find him ourselves, like real detectives.”

“Well alrigh’ as long as we don’ go waken up my sis, I don’t have any problems with the idea.”

“I’m in too,” squeaked Sweetie Belle, “being a detective sounds like it would be a lot of fun.”

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS DETECTIVES YAY!”

Adam awoke to the sound of someone trying to wake him but wishing they weren’t the one having to do so. “Sir. Um, sir its time to get up, its our turn to do the rounds.”

He slowly opened his eyes and saw the grey furred bat winged armor clad pony next to him with an anxious look on his face. He felt rested, not one hundred percent but he had been through worse during his sniper training.

"How long was I asleep for?"

"About four hours sir. Our shift begins in about thirty minutes but I thought it would be a good idea to give you time to get ready."

"Why thank you... Er. What's your name?"

"My name is Corporal Shadow Wing, sir."

Groggily getting off the bunk, cracking his back as he did he glanced over at the pony again saying, "Stop with the sirs already, you're going to give me a headache. Besides I haven't even started active duty yet, so stow it until then."

"Then sir, if you don't mind me asking, then why are you going out on patrol?"

"Easy, to learn how ya'll do things here."

“I don’t follow, didn’t you learn this at the academy?”

Adam couldn’t suppress the snort as he replied, “I never went to any of ya’lls academies. I'm not exactly from around here."

"True enough, but you still had to be trained like the rest of us, I mean you are a guard pony after all."

Slipping his protective vest back onto his shoulders, he felt the familiar weight settle back down. Grabbing the helmet in his teeth he flipped it too where it belonged and with a little adjusting had it right where he wanted it. "Wrong again actually."

Taken aback Shadow stuttered, "Wh-what do you mean, are you saying you weren't trained as a guard, there is nothing else out there?"

"Well I was trained as a soldier not a guard. While you are trained to hold and incapacitate wrong doers, I am trained to eliminate them if I have to. I don't always have to though, sometimes just severely injuring them suffices and on the other hand dead prisoners don't give very reliable intel."

What Shadow heard horrified him to his core, "What in the name of Celestial would force a pony to kill another pony?" He spoke more to himself but Adam had the answer.

"War."

"That's not possible, there hasn't been a war in Equestria in over a thousand years. There is no need for such violence and I'm sure as tartarus that Princess Celestia would not train the ponies under her command to use such extreme measures." The more Shadow spoke the more aggressive he became and Adam didn't like it.

Best I change this topic soon.

"Before I end this topic of discussion I would like to point out that I never said that it was Princess Celestia that had me trained and neither for that matter Princess Luna either."

"If not them then who, who else other then them has the authority to have such ponies trained to do such things?"

"When I said earlier that I wasn't from around here I wasn't just talking about Ponyville, I was talking about Equestria in general."

"Alright then, then where ARE you from?"

"And that, Corporal, I’ll tell you another time because as you said we don't have a lot of time. Its our turn to go out on patrol and the quicker I learn how you do things here the better prepared I’ll be when I start actually working."

Obviously not like being ignored like that, the only option he had was to wait until Adam decided to explain further. He was sure of one thing though, he was going to keep a close eye on this possibly dangerous pony.

Grabbing the remainder of his gear Adam made his way to the door with Shadow right behind him. Making their way through the halls, Shadow stopped in front of a door that had a clear window that allowed people to see into an empty office.

Tapping a hoof on the door Shadow said, “As our new commanding officer, this will be your office for when you are not out doing patrols or other tasks. For the past few months the sergeant has been handling the reports and other paperwork.”

Adam’s ears flattened against his head at the word paperwork, “Thats a word I never liked.”

Shadow chuckled saying, “The sergeant said the same thing, I think she’ll be happy to be done with it.”

“Where is this Sergeant...” Adam let his sentence die hoping the pony would fill in the rest for him.

“Oh sorry, Staff Sergeant Sure Shot. I would introduce you to her but she has been on vacation and isn’t due back for another few days.”

“Alright, what she like, I take it you’ve worked with her for a while?”

“Well, she is an Earth pony that is the only Lunar guard in our area that uses the new rifles that just came out of Canterlot. It's odd seeing an earth pony use them, you would normally only see unicorns use them, account of their magic, but then again she can use just about anything and hit a target with it. It’s her special talent.”

“Sounds interesting, I’ll have to make sure to meet her as soon as she gets back. As for now, lets just start this patrol.”

Stepping outside he could see his breath form small clouds in front of him as he exhaled, the chilled air caused an involuntary shiver to run down his spine as it passed by him. He didn’t remember it being so cold before leaving for Canterlot.

“Hey, what’s up with this weather? When I left for Canterlot a few days ago it wasn’t this cold.”

“Oh just a cold front passing through, we are going to have snow in a couple of days from now, its a little overdue.”

“I never thought to ask this, but what is the date?”

Raising an eyebrow Shadow replied, “Um, well the date is December 12, 1002. Why do you ask?”

“Oh, well where I’m from it was the middle of August, just not used to the sudden change in temperature is all. I might need to see Rarity again.”

Taking the lead on the patrol, Shadow was confused by Adam’s statement and asked, “Why do you need to go see her for? Its not that cold yet.”

Adam only laughed saying, “Its not for the cold. If its about to snow here, then I’m going to need the proper attire. This uniform won’t help me much if my environment is covered in snow. I would stand out like a sore thumb.”

“Uh, what’s a thumb?”

“Sorry, I keep using bad expressions when I’m talking to everyone. Just forget it.”

The discussion died down and was quickly replaced by silence as they walked through the emptying town square of Ponyville.

Everyone must be going to their homes now. Not much of a night life around here I take it.

“So how do ya’ll do your patrols around here?”

“Well there are sixteen Lunar guards stationed here and we have that split into two different rotations. First patrol, this patrol, starts at seven and we split up to cover each area of town. We have it spit so that each of us are keeping watch over a sector of town and able to respond to any civilian.”

There was a shift in the foliage behind them as they turned a corner. The sound of another bush being disturbed came again, after they turned the corner heading down another street. Whispering and the sound of hooves could be heard in between.

“Hmm, OK. How do ya’ll keep in contact with each other if ya’ll are scattered like that?”

“That is the only problem that we do not have a solution to other than running to find the others. For us pegasi it is easy, all we have to do is fly up to find anypony. I do have an idea for the others to use but I’m just not sure if it will work or not.”

“After the patrol, give me a description of what you have in mind and I’ll see if I can get it put together.”

“Sure thing, I’ll introduce you to the others while we’re back at the barracks. I’m pretty sure they--”

“You noticed that we’re being followed too, I take it.”

“How long?”

“Oh, not that long, just a few blocks back. They aren’t very good.”

The two turned back, Adam yelling, "You can come out now, we know you're there."

Loud whispering could be heard from the bush before three small fillies jumped out. Adam recognised the red maned bowed filly, the other two he was at a complete loss for.

"SCOOTALOO."

While the orange one shrank back, Adam jumped up in surprise from Shadow's outburst.

Vigorously rubbing his right ear to reduce the ringing, Adam asked "Hey Shadow, I don't think I heard you properly. Could you by any chance scream in my other ear, I would so much like to add 'hard of hearing' to my resume."

"Sorry sir, its just I see a little filly who is in a lot of trouble."

Scootaloo gave a weak laugh, "Hey dad, how you doing?"

"Don't you 'Hey dad' me. What are you doing out this late, you're suppose to be behaving yourself with your friends... who are also with you. Why are you all here?"

Scootaloo was the one to step forward and answer her father, "Well we thought we would try and get our cutie marks as detectives by trying to find out who your new boss was. Since we didn't have anything to go by, we had the idea to follow you and see where you might lead us." Shrinking back from the angry look her father was giving her, she glanced around trying to find anything that might change the subject away from her. Her eyes came to rest on Adam was stood back with an amused smug expression on his face as he watched Shadow try to discipline his daughter. “Hey dad, why are you walking around town with this pony?”

It was obvious to everyone present what she was trying to do. Sighing, Shadow pointed to Scootaloo and said, “Lieutenant, this is my daughter Scootaloo. Scootaloo, this is Lieutenant Adam Smith, my boss.”

Scootaloo scrutinized him from head to hoof, examining each thing he carried with him, the hint of curiosity and recognition in her eyes. “You’re the pony that beat up those ponies that were picking on Derpy. You don’t look like any guard pony I’ve ever seen.” Shadow’s head whipped over to Adam at his daughter’s words, this was something he wanted to hear about. If he didn’t hear it from him, Shadow would just have to ask the others if they had heard anything.

Not wanting to talk about his choice in career with little kids, Adam chose to give the simplest of answers that came to mind, “I am newly appointed by the princesses. Corporal, why don’t you walk them back home, I don’t like the idea of them out by themselves. I’ll continue walking the town and when you’re done we can meet back up at the guard station, you can show me what you usually do on patrol next time.”

Giving a quick salute, Shadow began to herd the girls back the way they had come, back towards Sweet Apple Acres. Adam stood and observed him lecture them as they went, an empty feeling forming in the pit of his stomach while the smug smile faded away.

Yet another thing I will not be able to do with my son. Then again when was it ever fun to lecture your kid? Bah either way I still can’t do what every other parent has the right to do.

With the four now out of sight, Adam turned back to continue on alone. With everyone having gone home and no one to talk to, the quiet caused shivers to run down his spine. It was odd to him not hearing at least some sort of sound, the lack of it made him very uncomfortable and the lack of a distraction allowed him to think but on things he would rather not. Adam hadn’t been by himself in years, there had always been a friend or family nearby to be with and now that there wasn’t anyone he felt that empty feeling spread. He knew that if he dwelled on his memories and thoughts any longer his mood would only get worse and so tried his best to push them to the back of his mind.

Adam wandered the town looking from darkened window to darkened window, the only lights he saw were from the bar that he saw and even from looking inside he saw only a few ponies still there. A quick glance at his watch told him why such few numbers as it was already past one in the morning and was time for him to start making his way back for the shift change.

As he got closer to the station he saw five other guards come down different streets, each catching sight of him and head towards him.

Welp, time for more introductions... Great. Why the fuck does everyone of these ponies look the same. This is going to be a pain telling them apart.

Looking over the five as the approached him, he noticed that among the stallion was a mare, but like the stallions, she too had the same features as them. It was this mare that spoke first in a perky tone, “Hey boss, you like your tour of town? Huh, where's Shadow, didn’t he go out with you?”

“Hm, oh he is taking his daughter and her friends back. Apparently they wanted to meet me, he should be back shortly.”

As if on cue Shadow came gliding in, touching down just next to him. “OK, now that most of us are here we can get some of the introductions out of the way. I would introduce the others as well but, like always there just isn't time at the moment.”

In total Adam counted three of the guards were mares while the rest consisted of stallions. The only difference that he could tell was that they ranged in height and voice. If he wasn’t able to find a way to identify them in some other way, he was fucked.

I really hope its just some sort of spell.

The group lined up before him, Shadow stood next to him and went down the line telling him each of their names.

“Lieutenant let me introduce you to Ponyville’s Lunar guard, each of our files are in your office if you want to read more about us later. OK lets get started, first off are Private Stormy Night and Private Rose Garden,” Shadow pointed first to the pegasus mare and then to an earth pony stallion. The mare seemed to have an energy radiating off of her that reminded him of Pinkie Pie but not at her level. Shadow continued on with the next two, “Next we have Private Morning Sparkle and Private Quick Note.” These two were both unicorn female, the first one held her head up high while the other was wearing thin rimmed glasses and rolling up a scroll and placing it into her saddle bags.

The last name of Private Morning Sparkle made Adam’s ears swivel, “Private Morning Sparkle, you by any chance related to Twilight Sparkle?”

The mare in question had a proud smile form on her muzzle as she answered, “Yes sir, she is my bookworm of a cousin.”

Shadow gave coughed loudly to get everyones attention again before continuing on, “And last up we have Soft Hoof and Heavy Shield." As Shadow pointed at each pony, Adam made note of them being both stallions and though one was an earth pony, Heavy Shield was a unicorn that sported what appeared to be much thicker armor than the rest.

"Lieutenant?"

Hearing his rank Adam turned his attention back to one of the unicorn mares that had been identified as Quick Note. From the way that she spoke he had to guess that she was a well read pony like Twilight. "Yes Private?"

"Um sir, sorry if I'm speaking out of turn but do you know anything about that weird-monkey-thing that passed through town a few days back? It was seen leaving Miss Twilight Sparkle's home before later leaving with her to Canterlot."

Adam felt slightly offended at hear her description of him and said the first thing that came to mind, "I am not a weird-monkey-thing."

The group before him froze at his defensive remark each one of them giving him looks of confusion. It was Heavy Shield who was the one to give voice to their confusion, "Sir, that doesn't make any sense though. I mean you're a pony, not whatever it was that ran through town."

With all their eyes all trained on him in waiting, Adam was beginning to feel more and more uncomfortable, it wasn't like he planned on withholding any information about himself it was just a matter of when. "If you want to know about me then ya'll might as well go inside, because that's where I'm heading."

Wasting no time, the group went into the warm building. Adam looked from one sign on the wall to the next in hopes of find what he thought he had seen the first time he came through here.

"Is there some sort of mess hall open this late here?"

Adam was quickly answered by the stallion introduced to him as Soft Hoof, "Hay yeah, and I so happen to be the best chef around. Just follow me and you won't be disappointed. While you eat we can listen to what you have to say."

A few moments later they made their way into a well furnished dining area that looked like it was also doubled as the recreational facility. In one corner of the room sat a round poker table with a pool table and even a folded up tennis table not far away. In the back of the room was an open kitchen area with what appeared to be a projector pointed at a screen on the opposite wall. The dinning tables were in the center of the room so that those eating could watch whatever was playing while they ate. Adam could think of another use for the projector, if needed. Taking a seat at one of the well polished wooden tables, the feeling soft texture of the seat adjust to his weight was oh so relaxing. He had to get himself one of these chairs.

Trotting over the the kitchen Soft Hoof said, "Alright, while I cook something you go ahead and explain what it is you said back there, because I don't think I'm the only one confused here."

"OK I can do that. Let's start with the obvious misunderstanding, I wasn't born a pony." Quickly speaking up before any of the others could say anything he continued, "I was what ya'll have liked to call that monkey thing and it was only once I came here that I became a pony. And before you ask, no I cannot change between the two, that was only because of Twilight's spell and it hurt like hell. By the way its called a human, not weird monkey thing."

Each guard took a turn at saying the unfamiliar word, and each one butchering it in their own way.

"Yeah, close enough. Anyways to make a long story short I was brought here due to a side effect of Princess Celestia's visit to my world using her little spell. So, I am going to be stationed here until the princesses are able to send me back home.

Shouting across the room Soft Hoof asked "Can I get the long version, because then short one didn't really explain shit sir?"

Rolling his eyes he gave in"Fine, I'll tell ya'll the long version. But first.". Turn in his seat so that his head faced the kitchen he called back, "How's that food coming along?"

"Just... About... There. Heavy, get your flank over here and give me a hoof. I can't carry all of this myself."

Not batting an eye Heavy Shield gathered the energy into his horn and with it brought over all of the food. He even levitated Soft Hoof over, although upside down and dropping him into a chair head first. What was laid out before Adam amazed him.

He had never actually see someone make a mountain of pancakes before other than the cartoons he had watched when he was little. There was even syrup to lather them up with and milk to wash it down. The smell of the melted butter on the lightly browned fluffy pancakes made Adam want to eat them all the more. It wasn't until food was laid out before him did he realise how long it had been since he last ate.

The sounds of everyone around him grabbing a plate of their own, each one eager to get their own helping from the mountain. Once he saw that all the guards had a plate full, as well as his own, did he let out a sigh. He was about to do something he didn't generally like to do with people he didn't know so well, talk about himself.

Using his previous experience with Twilight and her game of a million questions, he knew what to expect. Many of the questions he answered to his relief were the same, so they proved him right and were easy to answer.

Adam abbreviated his visit to Canterlot, leaving out his little chase around the castle garden, near drowning and brief depression or anything that had to deal with his personal life. He didn't think that would sit too well with them and the last thing he wanted was for them to pity his situation.

Finally having a chance Shadow could get some answers to his earlier questions. He wanted to ask them right then and there but he held his tongue. Shadow had become well known amongst the others for being able to read ponies. A pony's body always spoke louder to him than any words, when he wanted to know if somepony was lying to him. The lieutenant may not have been lying, but from his body language Shadow knew that something about the topic Adam didn't wish to talk about. No, he would wait until after Adam had settled in before asking any more on the topic.

“OK, I will answer one last question before I go to my office, I thought I saw some,” he shuddered slightly at the next few words, “paperwork that seems to have been neglected.”

Many of the ponies looked away at the mentioning of the neglected paperwork while Quick Note held her hoof in the air expectantly.

“Looks like we have our winner. What do you want to ask?”

“Well sir, this might seem a little random but I saw you messing with a strange rectangular box thing earlier and I wanted to know. What is it?”

“Strange rectangular box thing? Could you describe for me? I own a lot of box like things.”

“Well it was black, rather thin and had a silvery apple on the back that looked like it had a piece bitten out of it.”

“OH,” Adam reached into his front pocket and pulled out the small device in question, “you mean my Ipod.”

“Uh, if that’s what is called sir, then yes. What does this Ipod do?”

Sliding the device over to her he stated, “It’s used for entertainment like movies and music.”

“Ah so that little thing made that music play at Pinkie Pie’s party,” Morning Sparkle shouted while pointing at it. “When I was there I couldn’t figure out where the sound was coming from. Can we see one of those movies?”

“I don’t see why not, you would just have to come bring it to me when you're done. It won’t be very fun to watch it as a group though, since the screen is a bit small.”

Quick Note tapped her chin in thought before replying, “I think I can perform a small spell that can project the image on the wall there for us to watch. It shouldn’t be too hard to do.”

“Thats pretty handy to do. If you have any sorta genre ya’ll want to watch, I’m pretty sure I can find something on here, just let me know.”

The group discussed for a moment before coming to the conclusion that they would let Adam select something for them.

“If that's what ya’ll want then alright then. I have something in mind too that is an old favorite of mine.” Scrolling through the list of names, he came to a stop once he found the one he was looking for and tapped it. Sliding the device back over to Quick Note he said, “Even though this is the fourth one in the series, it was actually the first one to be made and published. It wasn’t until the other two were made did they go back and make its prequels. I thought it would only be appropriate for ya’ll to see them as how I saw them growing up. There, now to view it just tap the filled in arrow in the middle of the screen.”

With that done he left the room to the sound of tables and chairs being shifted around to make things more comfortable as well as shouts for Soft Hoof to pop some popcorn. The walk to his new office was short and uneventful as he quickly made his way down the corridors. When he finally opened the door the first thing that greeted him was the stack of papers that sat on the desk on the far side of the room. Looking around the room he saw that it was well furnished for whoever was to use the office. Against the wall on his left was a bookshelf that held several books that Adam would have to take a look at later while the desk in front of him had three chairs surrounding it. One was obviously there for him to sit in, as it faced the door, while the other two sat across from it and were probably meant for those he wished to have meetings with. Behind his chair sat what looked like an armor rack and a weapons rack for him to keep his things for when they weren’t needed.

Taking advantage of the armor rack, Adam slipped the vest off and tossed it right on top of it. With the weight now off his shoulders, he stretched out his back and was rewarded with the satisfying cracking of his spine. Last thing in the room was a folded up cot that was resting against the wall, waiting to be used.

Guess that is for the long nights. Hope I don’t need that.

Taking a seat behind the desk, he pulled the first few sheets towards him and let out a loud sigh. From a quick glance over them, they appeared to be reports that he would have to read over and sign before they could be sent off to the princesses and with his lack of experience writing with his new hooves he could come up with one conclusion. This was going to be one long night.

A few hours passed until it actually Adam actually felt like he was making any headway into the reports and memos before him. The sound of a loud crash caused him to jerk his head up from his readings and bolt for the door and open it. Peering outside nothing seemed to be wrong until he heard the sound again. Sprinting down the hall he thought he heard the sound originate from he came to a stop before the open doors of the dining hall. Looking inside he froze where he stood at the absurdity before him. Two of the larger tables had been turned up on their sides as mock forts facing each other while the two teams of ponies threw food at each other. In between the two were Heavy Shield and Morning Sparkle using spoons to have a pretend sword fight while making what sounded like light saber noises when they clashed.

The two pegasi, Shadow Wing and Stormy Night, he watched as they had their own fight up in the air above everyone else. He heard shout of “You rebel scum” as it dawn on Adam.

I’m in charge of a bunch of grown children.

Author's Note

Hey everyone its the long awaited for chapter. Thanks can be given to the winners of my little game, JakeTheBrony and Knotwist. for prereading this chapter so you all could enjoy it. Since it was a while since my last chapter I made sure to make it my largest one yet.

Hope you all enjoy reading it and like always like, fav and comment.

Chapter 15: Training Day

Name: MSG. Adam “Shifty” Smith
Date: August 26, 2015 (December 13, Equestria)
Location: Lunar Guard Lieutenant's Office
Time: 0943

The sudden sound of knocking brought Adam back to the waking world. His attempt to stand sent him crashing from his chair to the floor, in his sleep deprived state, he had forgotten that he was in a pony body rather than his human one. Lifting his left forehoof to his face he looked at his watch and groaned, he hadn’t fallen asleep until about 7:30 that morning, having to babysit the others on top of all the reports that had been neglected had kept him busy.

Sitting up again, he felt a drool ruined report peal from his face and land on the floor with many of other ruined reports. The ink on the paper left a smeared blotch on his fur, that he was unaware of. Adam had ruined many reports trying different methods of writing with a quill. He had seen some improvement after tossing a dozen reports to the ground in frustration, the same reports he now sat on. Another knock reminded him, why he was awake again.

A familiar male voice called out through the door to him, “Lieutenant Smith are you in there?”

Groggily Adam replied, “Yeah, I’m here just give me a moment.”

I swear whatever asshole that is on the other side of that door is going to get a piece of my mind.

Stumbling to his hooves, Adam cast one last glance at the pile on the floor before making his way to the door. His trip was short lived as his left leg clipped the corner of his decks just above his stitches. The now irritated area sent a shock of pain lancing up his leg, causing him to yelp in pain and glare at his unmoving desk.

The voice called out to him again, “Is everything alright in there?”

Adam didn’t answer as he limped over to the door and flung it open, scowling at the two that stood on the other side giving him confused and worried looks. The mental fog brought on by his lack of sleep prevented him from recognizing the dark blue alicorn that stood in front of him and the Solar guard that escorted her.

Continuing to scowl at the two, Adam growled, “Can I help y’all?”

Luna stood there baffled at how Adam was speaking to her, no one had ever spoken to her in such a way other than her sister. She didn’t know what to say, while Lieutenant Light Blade looked over Adam’s shoulder into the room. It took little effort to spot the papers on the floor that was

then added to as the new air current caused the stack on the desk to fall as well.

Adam’s face darkened as he said, “Please tell me that wasn’t what I think it was.”

Light Blade understood what was going on now as he replied, “I’m afraid it was.”

Adam plopped down on his flank as he vigorously rubbed his temples, he just wanted to go back to sleep. With the mental fog slowly leaving him, the two that watched him saw as his eyes shot fully open and his pupils shrank to mere pinpricks. The color of his coat faded slightly in his horror at what he had just done, Light Blade felt sorry for him. His spine straightened as if it had been replaced with a steel rod, his right forehoof snapped up to his forehead in a salute and stayed there.

Adam fumbled with his words as he said, “Sorry ma’am, I didn’t mean any disrespect to you.”

The two of them waited to see how Luna would respond, she seemed to be lost in thought as her gaze shifted from him to his office and then back to him. The seconds ticked by with nothing being said, neither one of them wanting to break the princess’s train of thought. When she finally did speak, both were surprised by her statement. There were a mixture of emotions in her voice as she spoke, out of all of them Adam could sense a feeling of longing for what he could only guess.

“It is rather late for us, who work through the night. I remember many years ago when night court used to be far more active than it is now. Several times they would last so long that they would eventually extend into the day court. It was those times that I would wish for nothing more than to sleep my sister’s days away until the next I had to raise my moon. But while I understand your need for sleep Adam, there are still things that need to be done today. As I am aware you have already met with Lieutenant Light Blade of the Solar guard.”

Bringing her attention to Light Blade she spoke again, “Lieutenant if you would lead us, we shall begin immediately. The sooner his training is completed the better.”

With that the two turned and started their walk down the hall. Adam felt relief at narrowly avoiding a very severe ass chewing, but was unable to fully bask in the feeling as he had to scramble to scoop up his vest and slip it over his head. Not bothering to firmly secure it he was just able to see the last of Luna’s tail pass around the corner and out of sight. Hurrying down the hall he caught up with the two and fell into step on the other side of the princess. Their walk in silence last for several minutes, the only sound coming from Adam’s occasional yawn, before they came to a stop in a large open field. There was very little of interest out on the field except for the four flags set up in a rough rectangle about one hundred yards in length.

Confused as to what Luna was planning on having him doing he asked, “When you say my training, what exactly do you have in mind?”

It was Light Blade who answered Adam to his surprise saying, “I received a letter from Princess Celestia stating that she wished that I train you in how to properly fly. It stated that you haven’t had any formal training and because of that you to exhaust yourself faster than the effort should. It also stated that I am to teach you the proper technique while Miss Rainbow Dash helped increase your endurance, so I’ll just focus on your method of flight. Today I have an exercise ready to see for myself how you currently fly and see what improvements need to be made.”

During the pause Luna commented, “I came to Ponyville to see the start of your training for myself, saves time from waiting for you to come to me.

Its also nice to leave the castle every once and a while.”

Adam nodded and looked out to the field again, but seeing nothing he asked, “What’s the plan? I only see flags placed.”

“Simple enough really,” Light Blade announced, “all you have to do is fly around these four flags in a large oval. I’ll be flying with you to better view you in flight.”

“Sounds easy enough. How many times do I have to go around the flags?”

Light Blade tapped his chin giving it some thought before coming up with a good number, “I think seventy-five laps around should be a good start and allow me get the best understanding of how you fly.”

Adam’s confidence in his abilities wilted at the sheer number of laps that were waiting for him. He may have gotten better since the first time he ever flew, but he was pretty positive that this would be his new hell for the next hour.

Light Blade caught on to his uneasiness, “We’ll take breaks here and there, we don’t need to do it all in one go. We can start whenever you are ready.”

Securing his vest to keep it snug against himself, Adam looked to the sky seeing nothing to get in their way. Wanting to get this over with so he could get back to sleep, Adam launched himself into the air with a great thrust of his wings. Light Blade followed after him getting the same effect with less of the effort, his eyes never left Adam’s movement.

They went around and around, Adam pushing himself as hard as he could go without stopping. By the end of his seventy-fifth lap, Adam was gasping for air, his lungs burned from the stress. In the end he had taken seven breaks and well past an hour before he did finish. The muscles around his wings ached and he wanted to nothing more than sleep, he would even sleep in the middle of the field if he thought no one would disturb him.

When the two of them had touched down again, Adam more or less collapsing to the ground, while Luna approached them a concerned look on her face. Hours had passed since they had started and it was now well into the afternoon, leaving Adam absolutely exhausted. Light Blade stood nodding to himself in thought before bringing his attention to the others.

“I think I have an understanding of how to train you. I’ll come find you in a couple of days and we can then really start. In the mean time rest up.”

With a quick bow to Luna he left for the guard station. Adam was finding it harder and harder to stay awake, and lying on the ground gasping for air wasn’t helping him much. Forcing himself to his hooves, he stood up ready to find a tree to lay under. He wasn’t going to even bother heading back to the barracks just to go back to sleep.

Luna stood just behind him and spoke, “While I wish to stay and speak with you more Adam, I must return to Canterlot as well. There are things that must be done and I need to speak with my sister. I look forward to seeing you again on my next visit.”

Not really paying attention to what was being said, he merely grunted as he shuffled across the clearing to the nearest tree. Giving the ground a quick scan for ants, he settled down at the roots of the tree and passed out.

Adam wasn’t sure how long he had slept under the tree until he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder. He ignored it the first few times, only giving a groan of annoyance in reply, but when the culprit continued he was finally forced to acknowledge the person. Slowly opening his eyes, he was greeted by three little fillies, their innocent expressions of joy was something he had not seen in a while. Each of them were making an effort to hide their laughter, each having different levels of success at it.

The girls took notice of his eye movement too and saw that as their opportunity to talk to him, the only other time they had seen him was the night before and that was just before they were sent home.

It was Scootaloo who started, "Hey Mr. Adam. Whatcha doing?"

"Sleeping, you should try it sometime.”

“You should be careful Mr. Adam,” Sweetie Belle snickered, “Somepony might mistake you for Rainbow Dash.”

“I heard that,” shouted someone out of Adam view.

Tilting his head back, so that the top of his head rested on the ground, Adam could see Rainbow Dash grumbling to herself, tail flicking in annoyance while her friends stood around her laughing at her expense. Twilight trotted over to him, the light of the sun behind her caused a glare to flash across his vision. When the glare had gone a strange sight laid out before him. Standing over him Twilight stood crying out his name in between sobs, her wings extended out. Her forehooves were stained with blood that didn’t seem to belong to her, while her face openly displayed a scared panic that he had never seen any of these ponies show anyone before.

The grey cloudy sky parted to let a ray of light through causing another flash of light to blind him again. When it too had ended did everything go back to normal once more. A wingless Twilight stood over him waving a hoof in his face while talking to him.

“Adam. Adam? Hellllloooo, Equis to Adam. Are you alright?”

Clearing his eyes Adam quickly replied, “Yeah, yeah, I’m fine. Just didn’t get a whole lot of sleep last night is all.”

Twilight slowly shook her head, “You should really get a good nights sleep, Adam. You won’t be able to function properly if you don’t.”

“Now if only she would just follow her own advice,” Applejack quipped bringing Rainbow Dash from her brooding to snicker.

Twilight merely ignored her friend’s comment to focus on the matter at hand.

“As I was saying, you should come join us for dinner. We were going out to go get something to eat when we saw you sleeping over here. The girls and I thought you might want to come join us.”

“Food sounds good. Have any particular place in mind?”

Twilight shook her head saying, "Not really but there was a new restaurant that opened up not too long ago. Would anypony like to go there?"

All present agreed that they had all been interested in trying the food. It was only Scootaloo who had backed out of the idea.

Putting on her helmet and grabbing her scooter she said, "Sorry guys but I promised my mom that I would have dinner with her and my dad. They both don't have guard duty tonight so we were going to do something together. Hit me up when you guys are free again so we can do some more crusading."

With an agreement from Applebloom and Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo raced off in the direction of her home.

Rolling off his back, Adam stood up and rubbed the last bits of sleep from his eyes. Stretching out his sore wings, he felt as the joints popped causing a sigh of satisfaction to escape his lips. He may not have gotten all the sleep he had wanted but a little grub wouldn’t hurt.

Ready to go eat Adam let the girls take the lead as he followed behind them, there were still many streets he was going to need to orient himself with but that would be for another time.

The girls seemed to know where they were going as it only took them roughly ten minutes to get to the restaurant, the two remaining crusaders chattering away next to him, giving him the occasional glance. When they stood out front, there wasn’t anything that made it stand out in comparison with its counterparts across the street. It was a simple rustic theme, its very lack of bright colors was a relief to his eyes however, and he greatly appreciated that. The place reminded him of the steak houses that he would see in back home, but knowing these ponies he doubted that there would be anything having to do with meat here.

The group went in and were surprised to see the amount of ponies sitting around at the different tables eating. They weren’t the only ones who wanted to try out the new restaurant that day. A hostess stood behind a stand and counted them out before taking them to an open table, it may have been busy but it seemed like they were prepared for it. The hostess took them to a corner booth and gave each of them a menu before heading back up to the front.

Opening the menu proved Adam to be correct in his assumption of there being no meat on the menu. While there were many things that would be tasty, he would have preferred a good steak. His stay at the castle might not have been all that great but at least they had meat.

If they don’t eat meat, how did their chiefs know how to cook it?

That sudden thought puzzled Adam for a moment until he pushed it from his mind. His breakfast had tasted just fine and that was good enough for him.

Not being very impressed with the vegetarian menu, Adam ordered a baked potatoes with everything on it... minus the dandelions. After placing his order with the waitress that came by he found it difficult to remain awake. The two remaining crusaders tried to keep him awake but found little success in their efforts. By the time their food had finally arrived Adam was face down on the table with a new puddle forming.

Frowning at Adam's lack of manners, Sweetie Belle gently shook him in attempt to wake him.

"Mr. Adam, you need to wake, its not very polite to sleep at the table."

Rarity quickly stopped her from trying any further and possibly more drastic methods of waking him saying, "While you are correct Sweetie, why don't we just let him rest this time. We can have them package his meal to go so he can enjoy it later. Poor dear looked absolutely ragged today."

Agreeing to let Adam sleep everyone else ate their own meals while his was packed up. When it finally came to leaving they found a new dilemma.

“So, uh, where are we goin’ to take Mr. sleepy head ‘ere anyway,” asked Applejack, who had been tasked with carrying Adam around on her back.

“I guess back to the guard station barracks, I mean all his stuff is there and everything,” Twilight stated.

Luckily it was only a short trek through town until they reached the guard station that housed both the Solar and Lunar guards when they were on duty. When they made it to the barracks itself they found another problem.

Waving her hoof in the air at the rows of identical bunks that lined the room, Rainbow Dash exclaimed, “Now how are we suppose to figure out which one of these stupid bunks is his.”

A bright orange pegasus glided past them and landed next to an empty bunk, giving it a gentle pat saying, “You can just put him here for now, nopony is going to mind.”

Encasing Adam in her magic, Twilight lifted him from Applejack’s back and placed him down on the bed. “Thank you Stormy, we didn’t know which bed was his, though you look like you could use some sleep yourself.”

Letting loose a yawn, Stormy Night’s head and tail sagged down, “Yeah, its a lot of work flying to Canterlot and back. I had to deliver the reports that the Lieutenant filled out, and he had a lot too. You should have seen the mess in his office, there were papers everywhere. Though it wasn’t anywhere near the size of the mess that we made in the rec room.”

Pinkie jumped up at the sound of a missed party, “WHAT, you all through a party and didn’t invite ME of all ponies.”

Stormy Night scratched the back of her head giving Pinkie Pie an apologetic smile, “Sorry Pinkie but it wasn’t so much a party as an out of control food fight. The Lieutenant wasn’t too happy when he found us making the mess, but he was kind enough to help clean it up, especially after we had borrowed his little movie watcher machine.”

“Movie watcher machine,” Rainbow asked, her interest in the conversation having reached an all new level.

“Yeah,” Stormy Night replied, “it was this little small device, with a screen on it, that just fit into his pocket.”

“Oh you mean his Ipod,” Twilight chimed in, “he never said it could do that.” She was going to ask to see what movies he had on it next time they met.

Yawning again Stormy Night walked over to her bunk saying, “I don’t want to seem rude but I’m going to have to call it a night for myself. You all can stay here and chat if you want but please keep it down so I can sleep.”

Shaking her head Applejack said, “Ya don’t have to worry we’ll be headin’ out, I’ve got to get back to the farm with Applebloom anyway.”

Saying their goodbyes to each other, the group left the guard barracks and went to their homes for the night.

Celestia watched as the last rays of her sun lowered over the horizon, telling her that her time for the day court was coming to an end. The ponies had learned long ago that when the sun had set that their problems would have to wait until tomorrow if they didn’t demand immediate attention. With Luna’s return however the night courts were once again open to the public, though many still waited for the day court.

Sitting on her throne, Celestia could only wait for the arrival of her sister, to begin her nightly duties. Luna had always proven to be punctual when it came to her nightly duties, and tonight was no different. The doors on the opposite end of the room opened and closed behind her sister as she made her way to her own throne. As Luna walked, Celestia noticed the two stacks of papers that were floating just behind her and a look of concern on the younger princess’s face.

“What seems to be the matter Lu?”

Several moments passed as Luna walked over to her seat and placed the papers down next to her. Luna’s response was not what she had expected.

“I think we may need to get Adam a tutor.”

Celestia’s ever present smile only widened at the thought as she asked, “And why would a grown stallion such as Adam need to be tutored?”

Grabbing several different pages from her stack Luna explained, “As we, I mean I, was reading through the reports from the lunar guard of Ponyville, there was something that I have noticed on all the pages.”

Levitating several of the offending pages over to her sister she continued, “As you can see from his hoof-writing, that he is having some difficulty adapting to his new form. It has also come to my attention after reading more and more of these, that it is frustrating him.”

Celestia examined the pages before her and sure enough, each page looked as if they had been written by a foal. Luna’s statement of it being a frustration to Adam proved to be true as well as each following page given to her looked like more and more force had been applied to the quill being used, in several occasions punching through the pages here and there. On one of the pages it appeared that he had decided to not use ink at all but instead use the tip of the quill to cut his name into the page. The last page Luna gave her made her giggle at the silliness of what she was reading. On the page he had replaced his name with different swears.

“If its any consolation Luna, I don’t believe this last page was meant for our eyes. It may have been mixed in with the others by mistake.”

“I am thinking the same thing,” Luna agreed, “but it doesn’t change how difficult this is being for him. I even received this one mixed in with the others as well.”

Another page was levitated over to Celestia and it was a curious sight. The page seemed to have suffered some sort of water damage which had smeared much of the ink on the page.

Raising an eyebrow Celestia gave up and had to ask, “What happened to this one?”

Tapping the page with a hoof Luna spoke, “Well when I went to visit him this morning, he had ink smeared all over the side of his muzzle . What I think happened was that he had fallen asleep while writing this one out and... drooled on it.”

“D-did you tell him he had ink on his face?”

Luna just shook her head, “I did not. I thought that if I was to tell him, it might stress him out even more.”

“So instead of informing him that he had something on his face and worrying him, you instead just let him walk around all day with it.”

The two guards just outside the throne room could hear laughter from within for several minutes before it finally died down. The two Lunar guards, who had just started their shift gave each other a sideways glance.

“Well at least they’re happy.”

“Should I wake him?”

Each member of the Lunar guard looked at Adam’s sleeping form, each of them in different moments of removing their armor.

It was Heavy Shield that spoke up, “I think you should probably let him be, Quick.”

“B-b-but that's my bunk, you wouldn’t be saying that if it was your bunk,” she groaned.

“Yeah, you’re probably right,” laughed Soft Hoof as he jumped onto his own bunk, “but guess what. He’s not so good night.”

“Sorry Quick, I forgot that you don’t like anypony touching your stuff. I should have told Twilight and her friends to lay him down on another bed, I was just too tired.” Stormy Night was truly sorry, she just hoped that it came across that way to Quick Note. “Why don’t you take his bunk in the time being. One night won't hurt anypony, right?”

Quick Note could only sigh and bow her head in defeat at her predicament. Flicking her maroon tail in annoyance she trotted over to Adam’s bed and pulled on the sheets. She would just have to talk with the Lieutenant in the morning.

Today was going to be a good day, Adam could just feel it, as long as he didn’t move his wings much he wouldn’t feel much pain. The laps that he flew yesterday left the muscles around his wings aching from the slightest movement but he could live with that, it was a good sign after all, it proved that he was only getting stronger. He wasn’t going to bother questioning why he woke up in the barracks, he was just happy that he did. There are far worse places to find yourself after falling asleep, like a holding cell, now that was a memory.

First things first though, he needed a shower... Badly.

Not really knowing the layout of the building too well caused him to waste time searching for the barrack’s showers. He was hoping that there was some soap in there otherwise he wouldn’t be getting too clean.

Just another thing I need to do today. Get soap at the market.

With a little searching he found the showers with ease and upon inspection he saw that they split into two different rooms. One for the males and the other for the females, and dead center was a small closet full of towels and other toiletries. Balancing what he needed on his back, with a little discomfort due to his wings, he stepped into the male’s side. Careful so as not to drop his stuff on the ground, Adam set them on a near by bench, he undressed. Once he was done he trotted over to the showers and stood under a shower head, turning the water to a nice warm temperature.

Closing his eyes he turned his head up into the falling water and let it fall down his face for several seconds before looking back down and watched the water flow down the drain. A dark grey stream of liquid caught his attention as it too joined the water on the floor and curious as to where it came from, he traced it back to its source. Surprised he traced the stream up his own body until he couldn’t physically follow it with his eyes. Placing a hoof to his cheek and removing it, he found it covered with a layer of ink that had to have been there for a while as it was clumped together in places as if having hardened.

“What the- Has this been on my face since yesterday? Why the fuck didn’t anyone tell me, I must have looked like a real idiot.”

Sighing in aggravation, there was nothing he could do about yesterday but he could at least wipe off the ink that was still stuck to his fur. Grabbing the bottle of shampoo, Adam sat on the shower floor as he slowly squeezed the bottle between his two hooves.

Maybe if I just gently and slowly squeeze it I can just dab it on the spot and rub it in.

His efforts seemed to be paying off as he watched the level of liquid inside the container begin to rise at a crawl. Just as it was reaching the top of the bottle however, his hoof slipped and caused him to apply too much pressure and shot the shampoo out the top of the bottle and up his nose and left eye. Jerking his head back in shock, he yelped in pain as his wings flapped open and the cleaner burned his eye and nose, his muscles letting their displeasure known.

“GOD DAMN IT, FUCK HOOVES.”

With his little scene in the showers behind him, Adam stood trying to dry himself off with the towel, with greater success than his time with the bottle. He did have to admit though, the shower did feel nice on his aching muscles and he even felt refreshed. Setting his used towel down on the bench next to his clothes, Adam made an attempt to put them on like he always did but stopped. Now that he was all clean he realized something, his clothes absolutely reeked and he didn’t have another set beyond the ones he came here with, but he never actually got around to actually cleaning them either.

Item number two on my list, get more clothes.

Slipping into his clothes, he collected his toiletries and trotted out the doors to the hall, tossing the used towel into the dirty hamper next to the exit. He needed to go to the bunks again and grab his untouched dinner from last night and store it somewhere, if this place was anything like base could get, he would need to hide it or he would find only scraps of it later. Back in the barracks Adam found that most of the guards were still sleeping in their bunks, he didn’t see the ponies he had been introduced to before but instead the colorful variety that he had grown accustomed to seeing around town.

I’ll have to ask them how they do that, but thats for another time.

Grabbing the little bag by the bunk he slept in, with his teeth, he made his way out the door again and back to his office. Adam froze after entering his office, none of the papers were where they needed to be. All the papers he had knocked to the floor, were no longer on the floor or even on the desk. The only paper sitting on his desk had a little note written on it.

Dear Lieutenant,

I saw all the filled out reports all over the floor and thought since you helped us last night cleaning up, the least I could do was help you. I have taken the reports and flown them to Princess Luna, she is probably a little upset that we haven’t been sending them in. There is no need for thanks.

Sincerely,

Private Stormy Night

The Lunar Guard courier

Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck. I’m so fucked.

He had intended to sort those out and throw out the bad ones but it looks like that is no longer an option. Tossing the bag of food onto the desk, he plopped down onto the chair behind his desk, and stared at it.

“Well I guess there is nothing I can do about that now. I just hope she doesn’t take those reports too serious.”

Sliding the wrapped potato onto his desk, Adam slowly opened up the wrappings until he saw the food that laid within. He still had other things to do but he could at least enjoy an early lunch before he left. It was good, even though it was cold, but he would have liked some meat on it. Finished with his meal, he slid the trash into the bin that sat next to his desk, the rest that he didn't finish he put back in the bag, and jumped out of his chair. Even though he had a couple of things he needed, he hoped he could buy the rest of what he didn't have at one place. Other than that all he had to do was speak with Rarity.

Walking over to the weapon rack, he slung his multiple rifles over his shoulder and made sure that his pistol was in its holster. There wasn’t a need for his helmet but he grabbed his old boonie and tossed it on his head, it didn’t match with the forest pattern camo ACU Rarity had made for him but it didn’t bother him. With the last item he needed with him and his coin purse secure beneath his wing, Adam opened the office door and made it to the front lobby. The receptionist behind the counter gave him a slight nod as he walked on past her and out the doors, her eyes tracked him out of boredom and a bit of interest.

Happy to actually having brought his hat with him, there wasn’t really any sun for it to block as dark clouds had formed, but what sun did manage to break through was at least blocked from his eyes. He could have sworn someone mentioning that there was going to be a storm coming and from the sound of things it was going to be a nasty one at that. Something about a blizzard. Either way he needed clothes if its going to be getting colder and he only knew one clothing designer.

It was difficult to walk around with his rifles, and a bit more tiring than usual, but he was making it there if not a little slower than he would have liked. He saw many ponies walking the streets each with their own responsibilities but among the many colorful ponies he spotted one coming towards him. Twilight had appeared to have been looking for him with Spike comfortably relaxing on her back.

Waving him over, Twilight and Spike greeted Adam before she asked, “Hey Adam do you have a moment?”

Glancing over to where he was heading he replied, “Uhhh, sure I was just heading to Rarity’s. You can come along if you want.”

“Great, and if you have the time would you mind coming over to the library. I have a few theories that I want to see if I’m right about and I need your help, both of these theories will benefit you greatly if I’m right.”

Hearing that he might be the center of some experiments didn’t sit well in his gut but he doubt it was anything dangerous. “T-thats fine. I don’t exactly find the idea of you testing different theories out on me very appealing, but if you say it can help me I’ll do it.”

Clopping her hooves together in glee, Twilight cheered, “I knew you would say yes. We should hurry, the sooner you get what you need to do with Rarity the sooner I can do some tests. You’re going to be thrilled if I’m right.”

"Or in a lot of pain," muttered Spike.

"What did he say," Adam asked in alarm from the baby drakes comment.

"Oh just ignore him, he is just a little cranky since I woke him earlier than he would have liked. There is nothing to be worried about," Twlight reassured as she pinched Spike on the rear with her magic while Adam wasn't looking.

Rarity’s store was just around the corner from where Twilight had found him, much to Adam’s relief, and only took a moment to get inside. The bell above the door announced their presence to the busy fashionista in another room. Upon hearing the bell though Rarity dropped the work she had on hand and warmly greeted them.

“Darlings, welcome, what ever could I do for either of you today.”

Not wanting to use up all of the pony’s time, Adam unslung the rifles that lay across his back and presented them to her.

“If you could ma’am, I need a harness that I can use with these while standing if needed. And,” unholstering his pistol he placed it in line with it’s larger counterparts, “I also need something that I can strap onto my right hoof that will allow me to handle this firearm. Something that can hold it steady without breaking or falling off easily.”

Scrunching her muzzle at the weapons in front of her, Rarity examined and made mental measurements as to what would be needed for such a project. It helped that she knew a lot of Adam’s measurements from making some clothes but those were more rough estimates from past clients. For something like this she would have to be very precise.

“I am confident that I can make something that can meet your requirements but this is very much out of my field of work. When would the deadline be exactly?”

“Well the sooner the better, but since in the off chance that I may have to actually use them, I would prefer it if you took your time with their construction so that the harness is reliable. So just get it to me whenever you can.”

Seeing no real problem with the demands and requirements, Rarity didn’t see why she couldn’t get the job done for him.

“Alright I will see what I can do, though I do have to say that this may become quite costly. There will be materials that I will have to order for and some outside help that I may have to contact, so that it can handle whatever it is you need them to withstand.”

Nodding in understanding Adam removed his coin purse saying, “Thats perfectly fine ma’am, just tell me how much and I’ll pay you.”

If it comes down to it and it gets too expensive, I could possibly write it off as a work expense in another of my reports... If Luna doesn’t get pissed about the reports that were just sent to her.

“Very well then, I estimate the total will come out to be thirty-eight gold bits, seventy-three silver bits and nine copper bits. Will there be anything else while we are at it darling?”

Getting another whiff of the smell that was coming off his uniform was a firm reminder of what else he needed to buy while he was there.

“Yes, actually there is. I also need several more sets of uniforms like this one for myself. Same design, possibly different thicknesses for colder weather, some for each season seeing that I will be here for a while.”

“Are you sure you want it the exact same or not something else entirely.” Rarity was being obvious in her distaste for the uniform’s style but it was made for functionality not fashion, and that function was much more useful at keeping him alive as is, so he could care less about fashion.

“Yes ma’am, the exact same way and if you would take a look at my vest and see if there is anyway to repair the area that the knife cut into it. I need this thing to last for as long as possible.”

Giving up in her attempts to change Adam’s mind on fashion at the present Rarity replied, “Very well then, I will throw those in for free as a bonus with the previous order and as for the vest I will see what I can do.”

Rarity took another step forward and took a closer look at the area he had mentioned. The fabric was beginning to fray along the edges from being neglected for so long but it wasn’t anything she needed to worry about, it was just a simple spell and it would be good as new. Collecting the energy into her horn, Rarity formed the spell in her mind before unleashing the power before her and repaired Adam’s armor. With another inspection, Rarity could find nothing else wrong with the spell affected area and was proud of her work.

“There, good as new and I will even throw that one in free as well. It was a simple fix really, since nothing was needing to be replaced.”

Turning her attention back to the original request, she levitated over a tape measure and went to work. It only took a few minutes for her to take all the measurements she needed of the weapons before turning to Adam and taking his measurements. With is measurements though she seemed to be going into far more detail than he thought was needed. She measured each of his legs, multiple different measurements for his torso and waist, ending it with his shoulder width.

“Was all of those really necessary, the last set you made me fit just fine as they are?”

Rarity continued her work as she made her way over to a table covered in papers and lifted up some other pages from the stack. From that distance it looked like a rough sketch of his current uniform, the numbers on it she erased and replaced with the new corrections. There was another page underneath but Adam couldn’t see what it could be from his angle, but it wasn’t his business so he paid it no mind.

“Yes and no dear. While yes I could use the guess work from last time but with these I can make more fitting clothes for you, like for the tuxedo you're going to wear for the galla.”

“I don’t think I heard everything ya’ll said, would ya please repeat that ma’am?”

“Oh, I just said it makes it easier for myself to make your clothes better and faster.”

Adam raised an eyebrow at her statement, not convinced by her attempt to trick him, but she was being generous enough to make some of these for free for him so he wasn’t going to press the obvious dodge. Stretching out his right wing, he untied the knot that held his coin purse in place and picked it up off the floor after hearing the loud thud that followed. Opening it up he counted out the amount needed for his purchases, not having anything but gold bits he instead grabbed an extra gold one before placing them on the nearest table.

“Will this do, ma'am, I still am not sure about your currency here?”

Looking over the bits, Rarity gave a curt nod, “This is more than enough, just give me a moment while I get you your change.”

As Rarity turned and left the room, Twilight stared at Adam with a questioning look. Noticing her confusion he asked, “What?”

“Are you walking around town with all your bits?”

Blinking at her he didn’t really know what to say to her question.

“Umm, yeah. Is there something wrong with that?”

“Well most ponies don’t walk around with all of their earnings. We have a bank for a reason.”

Snorting in irritation Adam growled, “Why didn’t anyone tell me there was a bank, I feel stupid walking around with this much money... Or at least I think its a lot of money.”

“No your right to think thats a lot of bits, because it is. We need to get you set up with a bank account after we go to the library. Let me give you a quick run through of how our currencies work, for every one hundred copper bits equal one silver bit. Every one hundred silver bits equal one gold bit and lastly it takes one thousand gold bits to equal one platinum bit. Its a rather simple money system when you think about it and you won’t be spending too much each day, today being the only exception with this order.”

It was then, that Rarity returned with his change, once reaching the three of them she levitated them over to Adam’s bag and placed them inside.

“There we go. Just so you know the clothes should be easy to take care of, but as I said earlier the harness will take more time. On another topic I overheard you talking about going to the bank after going to Twilight’s. I would suggest that you go by there beforehoof, as they will be closing early today and I fear that if you go after your visit at Twilight’s you won’t be able to get to the bank before it closes.”

Twilight sagged slightly at the news when she spoke her tone sounded deflated, “Well I guess we will have to go there first. I hate going to the bank. Come on Adam we better hurry, I expect we’ll be in there for a while.”

She wasn’t wrong.

--2 Hours Later--

Trotting out the doors Adam was very much relieved to be outside again. The papers he had to sign seemed to grow tenfold after they were told that he would be depositing four hundred gold bits. He had hoped to just go in and get a normal bank account, but much to his annoyance they had in the end forced him to create a premium account with them. What a premium account actually meant escaped him, but what he did know was that he would be able to have an account with a large amount of bits.

“I don’t like that banker,” Adam grumbled, more to himself than to anyone near by.

“Who, Filthy Rich? He’s actually a very nice pony once you get to know him, he just takes his work very seriously is all,” Twilight replied. She had practically forced him out the door after the account was made in order to get them back to the library.

“What ever, lets just get to the library,” Adam said curtly. His patience was waning and it was only getting worse, he had more things to do but was running really short on time.

"Hey Adam, can I ask you something?"

Spikes sudden question reminded Adam that the little drake had been with them the entire time. The baby dragon had said only a few words since they met up earlier that he was surprised Spike wasn't just sleeping on Twilight's back.

Spike waited a moment for Adam to nod before he continued, “Why do you talk to ponies differently?”

Adam paused, not quite understanding what he meant, “What do you mean ‘differently’?”

Spike hopped off of Twilight’s back to walk in front of the duo saying, “Like earlier, you were all polite to Rarity, saying ‘ma’am’ a lot but when you talk to Twi or myself you don’t.”

“I was just being polite is all.”

“But why not with us?”

Adam contemplated over the best possible way to answer the dragon question, “Well aren’t you a little detective," he mocked. "Alright, well each person, in my experience, is each comfortable when spoken to in different ways. Like when you said I said a lot of ‘ma’ams’ earlier well that was me talking to her in the way I thought she would have preferred. It makes things easier to do when you want something or when someone is doing something for you.”

“You mean you’re just using Rarity,” Spike exclaimed a hint of an edge was starting to color his voice at hearing what Adam had to say.

“I would be lying if I said I wasn’t and if you remember I was more than willing to pay her for the help she was giving me. It was her idea to offer some of the services for free anyways and I wasn’t going to turn that down.”

Spike had met very few ponies who would take advantage of another, but he did know that there were ponies out there that would. When he did think back though he did recall Adam pay for everything that he was charged and not once did he really ever ask for any sort of discount, Rarity had offered that out of her generosity.

“Still doesn’t seem right,” he huffed as he kicked a pebble from his path.

“Hey if you want to know, it doesn’t always work, I mean just look at my marriage. No amount of pretty words was going to save that train-wreck of a relationship. Now is there anything else you wish to ask me?”

Setting aside that issue for now Spike went on to ask his second question, “Actually I was wondering about your weapons.”

Adam arched an eyebrow at the dragon. The little guy had been present when Twilight had run down an entire list of questions about his gear, a literal list, so anything else would have to be something she would have had to have forgotten. He hoped.

“What do you want to know?”

“Well there has been something that has bugged me about them.”

“Yeah and what might that be?”

“They all look weird, and when I mean 'look weird' I mean that they look so different from each other but yet they all do pretty much the same thing. Is that what everypony else uses?”

Not exactly what he was expecting for Spike to ask but Adam was pleasantly surprised.

“That is a good observation and to answer your question, no these are not standard issue. Short of the M16 and maybe the M82, but only if they believe I’ll need it. The only reason why I have these weapons is actually thanks to your Princess. Because of the sudden need to be sent out to protect her, the higher ups gave us open access to the armory on base. Steve had taken it upon himself to try and use what ever weapon we have at some point, so he grabbed the only Chey Tac there. He was lucky to even find this damn thing since we don’t even use them normally. But, hey, video games so...”

"Uh, ok."

It was obvious that the Spike didn't have a clue as to what Adam was talking about, but he had made it a point to shrug his shoulder, shaking each rifle in turn as he listed them off to help the dragon identify each one.

“Videogames,” Spike asked, cocking his head to the side.

“Yeah, for the past several years there have been a large number of games that had themed around some sort of conflict or another. I’ve played my fair share of them along with Steve and he thought it would be a fun thing to do. I mean we’ve both served for some time now, and over the years we've had the opportunity to use some fun things here and there.

“Oh, but what about that one,” Spike asked pointing to the holstered pistol on Adam’s hip, “You didn’t say anything about that one.”

“That is a special case, but no it too is not standard.”

Spike waited expectantly for Adam to elaborate a few minutes but was in the end forced to ask when he wasn’t forthcoming with any information.

“Soooo, why do you have that one?”

“It has a story, but I would rather not get into it, maybe another time.”

Spike groaned at the the refusal but said nothing more, if Adam didn’t want to say anything there wasn’t much the he could do to force him. All he could do was pray that it was sooner rather than later.

From there the three continued in silence, Twilight lost in thought, while Spike didn’t have any more questions that he knew Adam would answer. It wasn’t long before they finally reached the library but not before Adam found himself breathing heavier than he would normally. His collection of rifles laying across his back was lighter than his normal gear load but for some reason he felt drained.

Lighting her horn in a purple glow, that Adam had learned meant that magic was being used, Twilight opened the door and let everyone enter. Nothing seemed to have changed since last Adam had stepped foot inside.

"Alright Adam, if you would be so kind as to step over here," Twilight said as she pointed to a cleared corner of the room.

"Ok, but you still haven't told me what exactly we are doing.

"Oh well after writing back and forth between the princesses, we think there might be a way to turn you human for longer stretches of time."

Adam gulped at what that meant for his own body. The idea of feeling that kind of pain again wasn't rating very high on his list of things he wished to do again.

"Is it going to hurt like last time, because if it is then we can just stop right here."

Twilight was quick to respond, "Oh you don't need to worry about that. I believe I have figured out how to do it without causing you any pain... I hope."

"What was that?"

"Nothing, nothing at all, just stand right over there please."

Sliding his gear off his back Adam slowly made his way to the indicated clearing.

"Good now that you are in position we can begin. Just a warning, you will experience some drowsiness and maybe some dizziness but that should pass."

"Wait what are you doing?" Adam was growing more and more uneasy by the second with whatever Twilight planned on doing to turn him human again.

"Oh as I said there is nothing to worry about, I'm just going to drain the magic out of you and transfer it into a crystal. By doing this there won't be any resistance to the spell that I will be casting after that. Princess Celestia believes that, since your human body has never been in contact with magic before, the magic that was absorbed into your body turned you into a pony to protect it from harm. She also believes that the pain, from the last time you were transformed, was caused by my spell being resisted by the magic already there. So thats why I have to drain you of that magic."

Now knowing what was to come, Adam felt a little better, but only a slightly. Similar to if he was hanging off the side of the building by slender piece of rope. Sure he was safe, but for how long.

"What kind of side effects should I expect from you taking away the magic inside of me?"

"Oh nothing major," Twilight replied as she placed a small blue crystal on the table next to herself, "just what I said earlier. Oh and if you have a sudden feeling of nausea, let me know. I have a bucket on standby just in case. All side effects should pass after a short period of time, unlike us ponies."

Adam was confused by Twilight's last comment.

"What do you mean, what happens if you drain a normal pony?"

"Well magic is an integral part of the pony body just as is breathing is to you, but if you were to drain somepony then it can have some severe negative effects on them. Which is why it is normally forbid to us this sort of spell on anypony, but I have the princess's permission so its ok."

That slender piece of rope turned into a thin string, causing Adam's sense of worry to increase the more Twilight spoke. It made him question the idea of going through with this unicorn's plan.

He wasn't able to voice his new concerns however as he saw Twilight shut her eyes and stick out her tongue in concentration before hitting him square in the chest with her new spell. He had to admit... she had good aim.

He stood there stunned at the sudden impact expecting, anything, to happen but he felt no change. He wasn't feeling any more tired than he was getting there nor was there any dizziness or nausea. Minutes passed with still no change to himself, however Twilight looked rather strained by the effort. Beads of sweat had formed on her brow while her eyes were shut tight.

Twilight wasn't the only one changing as a faint glow slowly began to emit from the crystal. It was after Adam noticed the small gem, did he finally feel his strength gradually fade.

Several minutes passed until he found it difficult to stand and his breathing became ragged. Just before he thought his legs would give out on him, Twilight stopped. She didn't seem to be doing very good herself.

"Ok," Adam gasped, "what now?"

Collecting herself Twilight said, "Now all that is left is to actually cast the transformation spell. The magic pulled into the crystal should be more than enough to cast this spell several times, I cast a spell on it prior to allow you to use it, if you ever decide you want to do this yourself. Whenever you are ready, just let me know."

Nodding his head, Twilight lit her horn once again and shot another blast into his chest. Unlike the previous shot however, Twilight's horn after firing did not remain glowing and he felt something immediately. A numbness spread across his body, starting from his chest until it extended to each part of his body.

Adam watched as each of his limbs elongated and the fur retract back into his body. Fingers formed along the edge of his hooves until they were recognizable hands and the digits on his hind hooves formed his normal feet. He felt no pain during the entire change and was even pleased to find that as each limb finished with it's change back to its original form, so did his clothes. The cloth on his, what was hooves, turned back into the gloves that he had been wearing before and his boots once again formed back over his reformed feet. The familiar snugness of his boots was a welcome sensation to experience once again.

Taking a chance Adam made the effort to stand on his feet once more and heard each of his joints crack as if they had been merely cramped and not completely altered. The sudden vertical movement caused the room to spin for a moment as the blood left his head. He was whole and he couldn't be happier with his current situation.

The sound of his cracking joints seemed to disturb Twilight and Spike slightly but Adam could care less at the moment. He felt great, the tiredness he had felt earlier had passed just as Twilight had said.

Levitating the small gem into Adam's open palm, a look of relief was on her face as if she expected something bad to happen.

"Its a good thing we did this when we did," sighed Twilight getting curious looks from both Adam and Spike.

"Uh, why is that," Adam having decided to voice their shared question.

"Well while everything went according to plan, I did not expect so much magic to be stored inside your body. In fact your body had so much magic stored inside that I'm surprised there haven't been any problems with the magic trying to get out. If this had been ignored, it could have caused your health to decline at a rapid rate as the magic would have done some serious damage.

We call this magical poisoning and while it is rare for anypony to be afflicted by this, it does still happen. While you seem fine to me, I don't think you got away unscathed from this. You could have just gotten very minor symptoms that were mistaken for something else."

“I think I would notice, it is my body after all.”

Twilight shook her head, “If you hadn’t been over exerting yourself ever since you arrived here in Equestria, I might have agreed with you but that is not the case. The only time that I think you have actually sat still for more than a few seconds was when we were in Canterlot and you were confined to your room. That is besides the point though, now that you don’t have any magic in your body, you should naturally absorb it from your surroundings. Its not healthy to have your body pumped full like you were, other than magical poisoning there can be other things that could have gone wrong.”

Adam raised an eyebrow at the now small pony standing next to him, “What do you mean, ‘other things?’”

“Well did you ever take a chemistry class growing up in your world?”

“Yes, why?”

“Well lets just imagine that your body was a heated glass of water and while at room temperature you could hold only so much minerals. Lets say sugar. But now that the water has been heated up, it can now hold much more sugar, effectively over saturating the water. Now what do you think would happen if something were to agitate the water after it had cooled back down to room temperature?”

Chewing on the inside of his cheek trying to remember, the room was silent for a few minutes until he spoke, “Well its been a while since I took high school chemistry, but wouldn’t it cause the water molecules and sugar molecules to separate?”

Nodding her head in confirmation Twilight continued, “Yes, while for a unicorn this wouldn’t be so much a problem, we can just discharge the excess magic through our horns. Other ponies don’t have the luxury, though pegasi do have the ability to use there buildup of magic by either flying or manipulate clouds. The danger for you is the fact that you can’t willingly control the magic inside yourself yet and by removing it from your body now, we can start with the basics when your body has absorbed a normal amount of the surrounding magic.

We don’t want the magic to try and find its own way out.”

Adam’s stomach twisted at the thought of his body just bursting because of the something his body wasn’t adapted to handle. That still left one unanswered question though.

“If its not common for people to suffer from magical poisoning, then why was my body so full of magic to begin with?”

The question seemed to make Twilight fidget on her hooves as she tried to come up with a way that would not possibly anger him.

“Well, Celestia told me that her spell that allows her to travel between this world and yours requires a lot of magical energy and when it pulled you through to our side, the energy was transferred into you.”

An exasperated sigh escaped his lips at hearing that the princess’s actions had once again nearly caused his unknowing death.

As calmly as he could manage without letting his frustration get the better of him, Adam asked, “Anything else I should be aware of, like anything else that could possibly be deadly to me? I don’t want to find out at the last minute that there is something else, caused by your princesses, trying to kill me again.”

Twilight could see his obvious mistrust towards the princesses and hoped that over time it would change the longer he worked with them. Tapping her chin, trying to think of anything that she might have forgotten, she eventually shook her head.

"No that should pretty much cover it, but if you feel sick and dizzy at any point let me know."

"Good." A quick glance at his watch reminded him that he was still in the middle of getting a few things before Twilight had asked for him. "While I have to say this was a welcomed gift, that I greatly appreciate by the way, I must go and buy a few more things before the markets close for the day."

Collecting his gear again from where he had placed them and slinging them once more onto his back Adam stepped outside. He was surprised to hear the door open and close behind him again, Twilight now standing right behind him.

"I was just wanting to follow you. I've only seen you like this once and I was mostly preoccupied with our trip to Canterlot to really get a look at you. It's interesting to see another being other than the minotaurs and adolescent dragons, stand and walk around on two legs."

Adam shrugged indifferent to the idea, "It's fine you could even help me find a few things too. Not sure exactly who sells what other than the obvious."

With Twilight's assistance, they made short work of his list of necessities. He now found his arms and pockets full of various items, balancing a few so he could carry them all.

Giggling at Adam's antics she had to ask, "Why didn't you just bring your bag if you knew you were going to be carrying so many items?"

"Well, those bags weren't designed for ponies so it is very awkward to carry and I didn't know you were going to turn me human again."

"Hmm, in that case you know tomorrow-"

A loud cry interrupting Twilight before a large fuzzy object crashed into Adam's chest. The sudden impact caused him to stumble backwards and trip over Twilight, the items that were in his arms were now replaced with a grey derpy-eyed pegasus.

The seconds passed until grey mass opened her eyes, confused by the warmth that she was feeling from what ever it was that she had collided with. When she finally looked down at what she was on top of she yelped in surprise.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to crash into you like that, please don't be mad."

Trying to recover from have the wind knocked out of him, he could only give out a coughed acceptance.

Crawling out from under Adam's legs Twilight Helped the Pegasus off of him asking, "Why are you in such a hurry Derpy?"

"Oh I was just making my way to Sugar Cube Corner for one of Pinkie Pie's parties. Silver Bit got a promotion as branch manager in Appaloosa, so he is going to be moving with his family. Pinkie wanted to throw them one last party before they left."

Having worked herself out from beneath Adam's legs Twilight spoke, "I didn't know anypony was leaving Ponyville, give them my regards for me please."

"Sure thing, I better hurry or I'm going to be late. I'll make it up to you for running into you like that, I swear."

With her final goodbyes she took off in the direction of the bakery. Adam checked his dropped purchases and was happy to find none of the broken. Once he had determined that nothing was wrong the two of them continued their way to the guard station, Twilight left after they made it to his office.

Now that he had finally finished all his shopping for the day he grabbed the cleaners that he purchased, his dirty back up uniform, and a towel before heading to the showers. It had taken him a while to find these cleaners, he had to find some that wouldn't damage his uniform. The next problem that had presented itself was that they didn't have electricity and without that he doubted they would have any sort of washing machine. The showers would have to serve as his temporary laundry room until any real solution was found.

Stripping down for the second time that day, it became painfully obvious that the showers were not designed for people his size to bathe comfortably in. Grabbing a stool, he placed it in front of one of the showers and turned it on, waiting to the side while the water got to the right temperature. With the water set, Adam got to work on his clothes. He made sure to go over every inch of the uniform so as to wash out as much of the dirt as he could.

He had special plans for tomorrow and he wanted to look his best for the occasion.

The process of cleaning both uniforms took him the better part of two hours to do, but once he was finished he was more than pleased with the results. Drying them to the best of his abilities there, he wrapped himself in a towel and went back to his office, making sure to grab a few extra towels on his way out.

The air felt cold as he quickly made his way to his office, getting the occasional double take from some of the other ponies walking to their own destinations. Shivers ran down his spine from the sudden change and only encouraged him to speed up his pace. With wet clothes in hand he stepped into his office and locked the door behind himself.

Careful in placing his now clean clothes down, Adam went about setting up a clothes line across his office to dry the clothes overnight for tomorrow. With the rope up and ready he then placed the spare towels underneath them and then proceeded to hang his uniform. Another chill ran down his spine convincing him to grab the blanket that rested on top of the folded cot in the corner. Since his clothes would have to hanging over night, he was going to have to sleep in the nude so that they could dry. Never really being the kind of person to find that to be a very exciting idea, he could live with it for at least one night.

The blanket brought him some warmth but he was going to have to find something else if he was going to sleep at least somewhat comfortably that night. With little effort he found a small wood burning heater in another corner of the room. It would work perfectly for him, so he quickly start the small fire and was rewarded with the additional warmth that it provided.

His stomach chose to make its presence none to him with a loud growl, now that he wasn't occupied with other things. Walking over to his desk he pulled out what was left of his potato and wolfed it down, it wasn't really filling and cold but all he wanted to do now was unfold the cot and go to sleep. Liking the idea more and more, he stood from his chair and went about setting the cot up near the heater.

Happy to see the cot erected, Adam wasted no time climbing onto it and making himself cozy. Due to his size however not all of him was able to fit. His feet hung inches from the floor as they stretched out over the other end. Grumbling in slight agitation from this new issue, he tucked in his legs so as to keep them warm for the night.

It wasn't long before his eyes closed and he was sound asleep.

Pinkie Pie had thrown another wonderful party and Silver Bit was both happy and sad for having attended. While there wasn't a single pony in town that could say they didn't enjoy themselves at one of her parties, it was also a reminder to him that her was leaving the town he had spent his entire life. He had never been to Appaloosa but from what he had been told, it was comprised of only earth ponies and to a unicorn like himself and his family it was a bit unsettling being the only ones.

It was late by the time he finally left Sugar Cube Corner, his wife and daughter had chosen to head home before him so as to finish packing for the trip tomorrow, Silver Bit wanted to say goodbye to all his friends and coworkers so he chose to stay until the very end. After the last pony had left and he had decided to finally leave as well, Pinkie trotted up to him and gave him a box of cupcakes for his family to eat on the trip.

With the box in his magical grip, he said his goodbyes to the hyperactive pink pony and started his walk home. More of the dark clouds had been placed over Ponyville that night and from what the weatherponies had told everypony that morning, they were to expect a lot of snow tonight. Not wanting to be caught out in it, Silver doubled his pace and was home by the time the first flecks of snow started to fall. He bet there would be a good hoof or two of snow on the ground tomorrow.

Quietly he opened the door as he saw no lights on inside and didn't wish to wake anyone, it would be an early morning tomorrow and everypony would need their rest. Once the door closed and the locks clicked in place did two pairs of paws gab him from each side and force him to the ground with a shout of surprise from him.

Across the room several candles were magically lit to illuminate the room and to his horror he saw roughly seven diamond dogs each clad in their roughly made armor. But what terrified him the most was the sight of his wife and daughter bound and gagged at the hooves of two other ponies. His wife seemed to have tried to protect their daughter as she had a bloodied nose and her eye had become swollen. Their daughter on the other hoof was perfectly fine though she had streaks of tears flowing down her face.

"Ah, welcome back. We have been waiting for your arrival."

The oddly accented pony standing over his daughter brought his attention back to the bigger problem. The pony speaking spoke fluent eques but it sounded like it was not his native tongue, but he could not decipher where he could have originated from. Having worked in the banks for so long he had learned to identify the different types of speech that could be found across equestria, it had become something of a game for him.

The stallion talking was a unicorn that had a white fur coat with a dark brown, almost black, mane with a well trimmed beard on his face. He wore clothes that appeared to have been made of some of the finest materials but had been recently torn up from rough use. It looked like something that a pony would wear if they were from a noble family or some pony with a lot of bits to throw around.

The stallion looked normal in most regards except for one thing, his eyes. His left eye was a hazel color but his right eye was something completely different and wrong. It was the eye of the pony that was only remembered of in nightmares and old stories. The eye was a shade of turquoise but instead of a normal pupil of any regular pony this one was similar to that of a snake.

This pony had an eye like that of Nightmare Moon.

"I'm sorry for the treatment of your wife, my men had been told to politely gather them but it seems it got a little out of hand for them. Rest assured the one responsible will be thoroughly punished."

With the utterance of the last word, one of the large diamond dogs visibly recoiled, shrunk into the wall as far as he could go, whimpering, and his tail tucked between his legs in fear. Silver had never seen or heard of a pony being able to scare a diamond dog to that degree before other than the princesses. If this strange pony could command such fear from them, then it only made him all the more terrifying to be in front of.

"Now then, if you would please come with me, I need your help with something."

Trembling where he was, all Silver could ask was, "W-w-w-what do you need help with?"

The stallion laughed as if the question was some sort of joke that only he seemed to get. His laughter caused the light from the candles to reveal his sharpened teeth similar to that of a wolf, his right in incisor however was longer than the other, further signs of the influence of the nightmare. The unicorn stallion that stood to his right just stared at him with cold eyes that no pony should have.

It took a moment until the laughing pony wiped a tear from his nightmare eye before he finally replied, "Easy. Revenge."

Author's Note

A shout out to my friend MasterBrony Forever for the partial editing. (If any of you spot issues with anything, please let me know in the comments below.)

So I'm just going to place this right here. Well after many chapters the villain finally steps onto the stage. I hoped you all liked it, I plan on writing more. Sorry for the absence for the past few months, I 've been both busy and when I'm not then I've been procrastinating. Let me know what you think about length wise, like if you prefer the 5000-8000 words or if this one is good. If you have any questions you can either leave me a comment below or send me a message, if it doesn't go into spoiler territory then I'll do my best to answer.